10 1556@AEthn 54 2009 2 12

Acta Ethnographica Hungarica, 54 (2), pp.
411–451 (2009)
DOI: 10.1556/AEthn.54.2009.2.12
OBJECTS, WORMS, DEMONS.

THE NATURAL AND MAGICAL MIRACLE
AS MATERIAL PROOF
IN THE DEMONOLOGICAL LITERATURE
OF EARLY MODERN HUNGARY
Péter TÓTH G.
Laczkó Dezső Museum
Erzsébet sétány 1, H-8201 Veszprém, Hungary
E-mail: tothgp@chello.hu
Abstract: Both demonology and medical learning wanted to define what material proofs they were
to use in order to alleviate the politically rooted disease symptoms of the early modern period. Finding the
proper therapeutic treatment required the appropriate description of the pathology, revealing the causes and
consequences and making the right diagnosis. Several key questions were formulated concerning these
requirements. Most of the questions formulated in this way are based on a formal syllogism that meets the
normative requirements of disciplines that include law, theology and medicine and whose formal elements
became valid within the systems of fulfilment of these disciplines themselves. In this paper I shall attempt to
introduce the scholarly literature based on these formal logical criteria that address material proofs, omens,
prophecies, oracles and miracles. I shall then outline how this debate in European secondary literature has
been received in Hungarian scholarship.
Keywords: law, theology, medicine, disease symptom, material proof, miracle, omen, prophecy
1. Identifying the problem

Both demonology and medical learning wanted to define what material proofs they
were to use in order to alleviate the politically rooted disease symptoms of the early modern
period. Finding the proper therapeutic treatment required the appropriate description of the
pathology, revealing the causes and consequences and making the right diagnosis. Several
key questions were formulated concerning these requirements.
Is it possible to deduce the existence of demons from the fact that everyday objects
(pots and dishes) start to shake? And vice versa, can the inexplicable “behaviour” of these
objects indicate the existence of demons, devils or Satan himself and their temptations?
Is it possible to explain the strange illnesses that bear peculiar characteristics with the
operation of witches or, on the contrary, are the odd and “miraculous” symptoms proofs of
the witches’ activity? Are demons capable of establishing physical, sexual relations with
human beings, especially with women and of begetting children as a tangible result of
such relations? If such children, that is, monstrous or deformed beings are born, are they
indicators of Satan’s involvement in their conception? Can ghosts returning from Purgatory,
1216–9803/$ 20.00 © 2009 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest
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412 Péter TÓTH G.
or the living dead attest with material proofs their temptations or their presence in this
world? Or should we better interpret these phenomena on the contrary, as meaning that
the material objects concerning the temptations of this world may indicate the existence of
Purgatory or the activity of the living dead? Are there any prophetical signs that imply the
end of the world or are they known only from the biblical traditions and prophecies? Or is
the opposite true: if eschatological signs appear, are they to be interpreted as proofs of the
impending end of the world?
Most of the questions formulated in this way are based on a formal syllogism that
meets the normative requirements of disciplines that include law, theology and medicine
and whose formal elements became valid within the systems of fulfilment these disciplines
themselves have. In this paper I shall attempt to introduce the scholarly literature based on
these formal logical criteria that address material proofs, omens, prophecies, oracles and
miracles. Having done this, I shall outline how this debate in European secondary literature
has been received in Hungarian scholarship.
2. Case studies: analysing particular miraculous events

The events that contemporaries interpreted as miraculous could belong to various
miracle types, categories that were labelled as “true” or “false”, a prophecy, an oracle, or a
miracle. These could be, for example, apparitions of comets, manifestations of solar activity,
earthquakes, thunderbolts, devastating hurricanes, storms, meteorological anomalies; rains
of blood, milk, stones, frogs or serpents, fish miraculously flying in the air, or human limbs,
severed heads and body parts falling from the sky; the birth of monstrous offspring to humans
or to animals; mass apparition of terrifying monsters. One could deduce the activity of the
Evil One and his representatives (demons, devils, witches, evil persons) also from such events
when pestilence was raging or drought and famine decimated the people, but demonic activity
could be suspected also in the cruelties of savage tribes or in the plundering by rebellious
peasants. This logic could be valid only in a society which drew its conclusions from these
deductions and interpreted the damages afflicting the community or its individual members by
the presence of Evil. It is obvious that the active participants of such a society took two further
steps. First, they accused somebody of witchcraft and second, they took harsh measures
against the accused persons. In certain societies these led to systematic witch hunts.1
Our case study in this relation will be an event from Körmöcbánya (Kremnitz, today’s
Kremnica, Slovakia). During the plague raging in the area, David Reuss, the curate of the
town, delivered a series of fifteen sermons, between September 1580 and January 3, 1581. In
these sermons he addressed the signs of the plague; in 1581 he published these sermons in a
medically oriented but still theological work.2 Reuss amalgamated in his personality the role
that a priest and a physician had in society, labelling himself – as we so often find in practice
of the period3 – a spiritual physician / physician of the soul. Besides their theological content,
his sermons transmitted to his audience a great deal of the scientific discoveries of his time.
1
For examples of syllogisms related to witchcraft see Paul Bohannan’s work Social Anthropology (New
York, 1963) as summarised by Gustav JAHODA (1975) and quoted by PÓCS 1983: 136.
2
REUSS 1581/1582. Summary is given in: RÁKÓCZI 2004: 63–67; RÁKÓCZI 1987. Reuss later repeated his
sermons in 1586 in Nagybánya, cf.: BORSA 1965: 349.
3
Cf. the examples of Gergely FRANKOVITH, Péter MÉLIUS or Gergely VÁSÁRHELYI.
Book 1.indb 412 2009.10.20. 20:39:30

Objects, Worms, Demons 413
In his work Reuss identified six names for the plague on the basis of his reading and
the observed symptoms of the 1577 epidemic. Hence we learn that the plague was called
1) the hunter’s trap (laquem venantis vel venatoris), because the Devil is a kind of hunter,
who afflicts the human body, while the human being is the chased animal, whose limbs
are consumed by the disease. On the eve of Ascension Day in 1571 a group of cavalrymen
clad in black had ridden across the Schülerberg. This was the moment when the plague had
broken out. 2) The plague is also a noxious, devastating pestilence (pestis calamitatis vel
perditionis), as it is the “glutinous and purulent deterioration or destruction of the body,
which migrates from town to town, from household to household, infecting everybody”.
Because of its devastating effects, schools have to be closed, the good relationship between
neighbours deteriorates, trading stops, the mines no longer produce anything. 3) The
plague is a nocturnal terror (timor nocturnus) because, according to the physicians, many
people became infected precisely from the fear of catching it. Reuss writes that this fear of
contagion is to do with the nocturnal activities of witches, the “brides of the devil”, who
ride on broomsticks and forks and harm innocent people. But they can harm only until
midnight and the only remedy against them is true faith, the Word of God, “the eternal and
unmitigated heavenly truth”. The plague is also called 4) a midday demon (daemonium
meridianum), who kills as fast as an arrow and having entered into the body, afflicts the
most noble organs. If the buboes appear behind the ears, in this case the plague destroys the
brain, if they show in the armpits, the plague poisons the heart and when the spots swell on
the thighs, the disease is attacking the liver. If the plague affects the brain only, then there
is hope for recovery; if it gets to the heart, the end is near; if it attacks the liver, then there
is no hope whatsoever. Another name for the plague is 5) restlessness walking in the dark
(negotium perambulans in tenebris), because the buboes are disturbing the soul and this
is why it should not be kept in secret. Finally 6), the plague is a mass destruction, because
more people may die within a day, than otherwise within a month and it takes away old
families as well as new ones, the poor and the rich together.4
After he had defined the symptoms of the plague, Reuss came to the conclusion that the
wrath of the Lord is rightful, because of the heresies which were sprouting and spreading,
blood feuds within families, the starving of the poor, the plunder and murders that were
present in everyday life and because many people found pleasure in cruelties, all in all,
because the Devil broke loose. This is why there are earthquakes, wars and epidemics.
Diseases cover mankind with fistula, swellings and all other sorts of skin diseases (rachitis,
abcessus). An exception is made, however, for the inhabitants of the mining towns, as
they, facing the opposition of militant Catholicism, remained true to the purity of Lutheran
doctrines and for their sake the imminent danger was averted.5
In her analysis of Reuss’s work, Katalin Rákóczi underlined that the Protestant
ministers knew how “to communicate the precepts of medicine in a way that they would be
at the same time a weapon and shield in the battle against Catholicism” (Wehr und Waffe).6
Reuss exploited the success in escaping the plague on the one hand to urge his own church
4
RÁKÓCZI 2004: 63–67.
5
Ibid.
6
Ibid.
Book 1.indb 413 2009.10.20. 20:39:31

414 Péter TÓTH G.
to counterattack Catholicism, and on the other hand to purify his flock spiritually, to chase
out witches and make the errant heretics return to the true faith.
3. The diagnostic literature on miraculous and natural events

There are texts of various genres that recorded miraculous signs in accordance with
the target audiences. Humanist authors categorized the miraculous experiences of the
early modern period on the basis of Cicero’s De divinatione: it established the categories
of supernatural revelations (ostenta), portent (portenta), manifestations (monstra) and
miracles (prodigia).7 The authors of portent and miracle anthologies, however, which first
appeared at the end of the 1520s, and became numerous between 1550–1590, formulated
more sophisticated categories. Partly they aimed to distinguish miracles of a theological
character from medical experiences and observations in natural sciences and partly they
wanted to separate the theological and medical examples transmitted as part of a historical
tradition from the observations of their own time.8 The most noteworthy of these authors
include the German Lutheran Conrad (Wolffhart) Lycosthenes (1518–1561) who referred
to miraculous examples observed or heard about in Hungary as well and Jobus Fincelius
(1526/30–1589), the French Catholic expert of the field, Pierre (Launay) Boaistuau (1500–
1566)9 and the works of the Italian physician Ulysses Aldrovandi (1522–1605).10
7
Cicero, De divinatione, Liber prior XLII. 93. Saint Augustine had this passage in mind when he wrote:
“Nobis tamen ista, quae [...] monstra, ostenta, portenta, prodigia nuncupantur, hoc monstrare debent, hoc osten-
dere vel praeostendere, hoc praedicere, quod facturus sit Deus, quae de corporibus hominum se praenuntiavit
esse facturum, nulla impediente difficultate, nulla praescribente lege naturae.” De Civ. Dei, XXI. 9. Following
Augustine later Saint Isidore of Seville: “Monstra vero a monitu dicta, quod aliquid significandum demon-
strent, sive quod statim monstrent quid appareat, et hoc proprietatis est; abusione tamen scriptorum plerumque
corrumpitur. Quaedam autem portentorum creationes, in significationibus futuris constitutae videntur. Vult
enim Deus interdum ventura significare per aliqua nascentium noxia, sicut per somnos, et per oracula, quibus
praemoneat et significet quibusdam vel gentibus, vel hominibus futuram cladem, quod plurimis etiam experi-
mentis probatum est.” Etymologiae XI. 3. Cf. VEGA RAMOS 1995: 226–227.
8
Premonition anthologies written between 1531 and 1600: 1531: P. Vergilius, De prodigiis; 1532: Cam-
erarius, De Ostentis; 1532: F. Nausea, Liber Mirabilium; 1552: Obsequens-Lycosthenes, Prodigiorum Liber;
1553: Peucerus, Teratoscopia; 1555: Frytschius, Catalogus Prodigiorum (I); 1556: Fincelius, Wunderzeichen
(I); 1557: Lycosthenes, prodigiorum ac ostentorum Chronicon; 1557: Goltwurm, Wunderzeichen; 1559:
Fincelius, Wunderzeichen (II); 1560: Boaistuau, Histoires Prodigieuses; 1561: A. Paré, Des Monstres et Pro-
diges; 1562: Fincelius, Wunderzeichen (III); 1563: Frytschius, Catalogus Prodigiorum (II); 1570: Sorbinus,
Tractatus de mostris; 1575: C. Gemma, Cosmocritica; 1585: M. C. Irenaeus, De monstris; 1591: A. Dubenus,
Catalogus Prodigiorum; 1595: Weinrichius, De ortu monstrorum; 1595: J. Colerus, Wunderwercken; 1597: A.
Angelus, Wunderbuch. Observers of miracles whose activity failed between 1600 and 1662: C. Bauhinus, J.
Landray, J–G Schenccius, J. Riolan, F. Licetus, J. Jonstonius, U. Aldrovandus, Stengelius, C. Schottus. On all
these works see in detail: VEGA RAMOS 1995: 228–229.
9
Pierre Boaistuau published in 1560 his records of miracles under the title Histoires prodogieuses. He collected
his cases between 1556 and 1560; for annotations and comments he relied on the works of Greek and Roman authors
and Church fathers who wrote on demons, he used the commentaries of Humanist scholars and Scholastic writers
as well as the demon theories of his own time. The work of Lycosthenes in particular made a great impact on him;
he took many of that author’s examples and rewrote them. His work is an anthology of human cruelty (cannibalism,
vivisection, murders) and a collection of horrendous celestial premonitions announcing the end of the world. He was
convinced that his observations clearly showed that the power of Satan was increasing. Cf. VEGA RAMOS 1995: 233.
10
From a textological point of view there are three categories of premonition anthologies: 1. Teratoscopia
2. Catalogum 3. Thaumatographia; cf. VEGA RAMOS 1995: 228–233.
Book 1.indb 414 2009.10.20. 20:39:31

Taking as a starting point the summary work of Aldrovandi11 we can speak about
the following classification: miracles that transmit the dogmatic teaching of the Church
(miracula), the significantly different natural phenomena (mirabilia), the miraculous
signs (prodigia), the portentous signs (praesagus) and the mysteries based on legends
(mystica).
The observations of the present time (observationes) differ from the historical
collections of examples from the past (historica) also on the basis of literary genres.
Besides the anthologies that collected exclusively miraculous signs, there were other
sources that recorded – even on a daily basis – miraculous phenomena known from the
past, heard through hearsay or experienced personally. In the 16th–17th centuries literary
works addressing devilish apparitions, ghosts, spirits or the activities of witches in this
world multiplied on both the Catholic and Protestant sides.12 We find such miracle stories
in the regional and local (for example town) chronicles that were written for a wider
public, but also in personal diaries recording memorable events, in the modern genre of
monthly and weekly journals, pamphlets, in ecclesiastical propaganda literature and in the
Catholic–Protestant debates, in the contemporary literature on visions, in sermons, in the
examinations of priests who were using material proofs and counterproofs for issues of
faith, in books that aimed to cure the soul and in the records of medical observations.
The common denominator in these variegated literary genres is that each of them
attempted to describe the miraculous signs in a symptomatic way, while a few of them
went further to investigate the causes and tried to give explanations for the miracles
they described.13 Learned scholars, demonologists, physicians, and natural historians
collected, described and categorized these macrocosmic signs. But the individual episodes,
the microcosmic “miracles” of personal lives had gone through the same process. The
authors of such catalogues described the “degenerated” countersigns of such events as the
Annunciation, the Immaculate Conception or the star that indicated the birth of Christ.
They outlined the occasions of visits from the Devil, the demons’ relationships with men
and women, the examples of monstrous children that were the results of such unions and
the apparition of comets that foretold their birth. These cases can be grouped together with
the Apocalyptic vision-literature and with those orally transmitted tales that announced
the coming of the Antichrist.14 But besides the medieval anthologies that list the activity
of demons, the authors of the early modern period tended to focus on the human activity
that led to the outbreak of these evil forces. This was the time when major roles were given
to witches and magicians, and the diabolised formulations of the witches’ Sabbath gained
expression. Accordingly, it became necessary to record the traces and pieces of evidence
that might refer to the presence of evil forces and at the same time, the elaboration of
efficacious counter-measures.15
11
For an analysis of Aldrovandi’s works see: CZEIZEL–SIBELKA PERLEBERG 1986.
12
About the upheavals in Europe between 1560 and 1630 and about Urbain Grandier’s Loudon case as a
turning point see: CLARK 1997: 401–422; on the same issue cf. PÓCS 2001: 142–144.
13
Hans Halter described and analysed the entire story of the haunting spirit in 1533 using sources from
practically all the genres listed here as well as the works of the above-mentioned authors. Cf. HARTER 2005.
14
VEGA RAMOS 1995: 239–241.
15
CLARK 1997: 371.
Book 1.indb 415 2009.10.20. 20:39:32

416 Péter TÓTH G.
The presence of the Devil was described in the Catholic (mostly Jesuit or Franciscan)
and Protestant (mainly Lutheran) exempla literature where the authors often went further
than plain description and were deeply involved in providing possible solutions, addressing
the “right” and “wrong”, “true” and “false”, “good” and “bad” ways of fighting against evil
forces. They also treated other subjects as propagating true prophecies and condemning the
false prophets. By discovering the presence of the Devil and by exploiting exorcism for
propaganda purposes, both the Catholic and the Protestant Churches wanted to strengthen
their own charismatic power, at the same time destroying the other party’s credibility and
reputation.16
This special field of literature that analysed and classified the presence of evil forces
made separate collections for the demonic dangers menacing the microcosm of personal
life (e.g. the household, the human body), differentiating them from the indicators that
posed a threat for a macrocosmic community, for masses or the entire humankind. In what
follows, I shall outline primarily the material proofs that concerned individual episodes,
mostly the activities of spirits, ghosts, demons and witches.
4. Case studies of objects thrown in the air

If we are to rely on our syllogistic premissa and examine the odd “behaviour” of
objects as a miraculous sign that refers to the microcosm (household, close surroundings)
as being infested or possessed, then it is in the documentation of witch trials that we can
find registered occurrences and material proofs of such events.
In 1629 in Kolozsvár (Klausenburg, today’s Cluj, Romania), in the trial documents of
András Szabó’s widow, Sara (née Kerekes) we can find the testimony of Margit, the wife of
Bálint Szász, who reported having experienced the presence of the witch in this way:
Throwing objects in the air around our house was an obvious sight, because they
were throwing stones, plough-share and knives, they were throwing and stabbing it
once at me, at other times at the others.17
In 1685 Mihály Buday and György Pásztohi were conducting an investigation at

Szamosújvár (Neuschloss, today’s Gherla, Romania) into the spell cast on Anna Bornemisza.
During the trial they found the following testimony, which they also sent to the Prince of
Transylvania, Mihály Apafi, to be convincing proof of the presence of the Devil and of
witches. A noblewoman from Szamosújvár, the wife of János Bolgár, née Anna Csizmadia
had heard from the wife of Márton Szabó, who recalled the words of Zacharias Kerner,
saying that:
... one day he himself had almost been scared, because his wife was not at home
and then some dead pieces of coal were thrown at him.18
16
For how the Churches had demonstrated their charismatic power by practising exorcism as well as for
the legal and political aspects of this issue see: CLARK 1997: 579–581; on the importance of charismatic power
see further: CLARK 1997: 582–601.
17
KOMÁROMY 1910: 93–99, No. 43. (My emphasis, T.G.P.)
18
HERNER 1988:158. (My emphasis, T.G.P.)
Book 1.indb 416 2009.10.20. 20:39:33

In 1694 in Debrecen György Seres gave evidence against Anna Gyarmathi, the wife of
István Horváth with these words:
By the candlelight – that the maidservant remembered to bring – we could see

with our eyes that on the cushion under our head there was human excrement. When
my wife pushed it into the fire, an empty pot was thrown at her, then candlesticks,
pitchers were thrown at myself.19
Most such material proofs were recorded in the deposition of witnesses but occasionally
they can occur also in the text of the sentence as well, as a separate legal category, part of
the charge itself. In 1720 in Debrecen an accusation was made against Judit Sarkadi, in
which it was stated that after her threats objects were thrown in the threatened houses:
Soon after a great throwing happened in their house, all the dishes and pots were
tossed about. As soon as she was caught, the throwing stopped in the house.20
Because of this obvious proof that was accepted as authentic, the prosecutor asked for
the death sentence and the woman was burnt alive. We can observe that almost all of our
examples had been recorded in a Protestant (Calvinist and Unitarian) urban environment
and the trial documents are permeated with theological learning, acquired through teaching
or preaching. Just as the inkwell thrown at the Devil had left a visible stain (a proof) on the
wall of Luther’s study, in the same way his followers discovered with increasing frequency
the presence of evil forces in their own surroundings on the basis of objects thrown in the
air.21 This miraculous story, that belongs, however, to the realia, illustrated with the strange
“behaviour” of objects, with their supernatural movements that a place was possessed
by the Devil, and that Satan was actually present.22 The story that came to full bloom
in connection with Luther but which was known in its primary form also independently
from him, occurs in Hungary as well, both in the literature addressing demonology and
in the documents of witch trials. Moreover – as we shall see later – it became one of the
key elements of the theological debates between Catholics and Protestants. One of the
first stories that were regarded as realia, that is, a true story, about a noise-making dead
person returning from the underworld, was recorded by the Hungarian priest from the
Upper Balkan region, György Szerémi. The revenant, Pál Kinizsi – who was one of the
most famous figures of his time in the struggles against the Turks, the best known military
commander of János Hunyadi – came back to scare the Pauline monks in Nagyvázsony
(Hungary), in the cloister he himself had built and where he was buried. Szerémi explained
the reasons for Kinizsi’s haunting as a kind of penitence because, according to him
19
KOMÁROMY 1910: 173–175, No. 141. (My emphasis, T.G.P.)
20
(My emphasis, T.G.P.)
21
Luther described how the local priest in the village of Stüptz near Torgau was tormented by a spirit
throwing objects (Poltergeist) in: LUTHER 1983: 78. On his personal struggle with the devil throwing objects in
the castle of Wartburg see: LUTHER 1983: 78–79.
22
HUNTER 2005: 311–353.
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418 Péter TÓTH G.
Pál Kinizsi […] did not care a thing about his being excommunicated from the
Church. For this reason, after his death his soul was suspended for an entire year.
During this period he made a lot of noise day and night, he smashed pots and shook a
rattle. This is what the monks in the cloister saw. The parson, Demeter by name, famous
in Temesvár [today’s e priest who had baptised his son. He conducted a commemorative
ceremony for Timişoara, Romania] for his righteousness, took pity on Pál Kinizsi, for
he was thKinizsi’s soul, he sacrificed calves and goats and poultry for the salvation of
his soul. And from the sacrificial meal he gave abundantly to the priests, the monks and
the poor. Because Kinizsi was a great defender against the pagans and supporter of the
Church, this was mentioned by the men praying to Almighty God and as a result, the
ghost never appeared again.”23
Szerémi, around 1543, used this story to illustrate how the various phases of
ecclesiastical anathema functioned. A man who was guilty (cruel) in his lifetime, was to
do penance even after his death, his soul became “suspended” and he could be helped
only through the prayers and sacrifices of the living. Szerémi’s story did not really have a
propaganda force, the manuscript that contained it together with other miraculous visions
was discovered only in the 19th century. The Catholic Church made an attempt to revive the
story that served as its starting point but only during the period of the Counter-Reformation,
as part of the Church propaganda about Purgatory. But before going that far, first we should
turn our attention to the cases described by Luther’s Hungarian followers.
The Lutheran minister Péter Bornemisza had demonstrated the presence of the Devil
and the charismatic force of the true Lutheran faith on the basis of his own observations
and examples. Prompted by such a charismatic force he attributed to himself (without
obtaining the authorization of the protagonists of the stories in question), he published
his observations in a printed version in order to point out the “sinful” habits of his time
and to call the attention of his public to God’s punishing hand and the presence of evil
forces. When he was staying in the house of a nobleman from Nyitra county (today’s Nitra,
Slovakia), Gergely Babindali, around 1577, Bornemisza, just as Luther did, interpreted the
ghostly movements of objects as signs of the Devil’s presence:
I was called to Babindali’s house, to Nyitra county: and there the evil spirits were
throwing objects. In the evening when we were sitting over dinner, a deputy sheriff
sitting next to me was hit with such force that his head was smashed. Other objects
were also thrown, one was smashed against the wall next to me but it only touched
my clothes. While I was there, I pronounced the most beautiful praises and prayers to
God and I left a written prayer with them so that they could call for the Lord’s help
according to that and correct their life. Afterwards it soon left the house.24
The Protestant inhabitants of the town of Füzes in Szolnok-Doboka county (today’s

Fizeşu Gherlii, Romania) interpreted the following event as God’s punishing hand: in 1587
23
SZERÉMI 1961: 58. (My emphasis, T.G.P.)
24
BORNEMISZA 1578/1955: 130, 254. (My emphasis, T.G.P.)
Book 1.indb 418 2009.10.20. 20:39:33

they established that the house of the local priest was possessed by Satan.25 Sándor Takács
has found in the archive of the Zay-Ugróc families a note which recounted that for twenty
weeks day and night a ghost troubled the family of the local priest, Bálint Bonczhiday and
a certain János Sajka. Eventually, in desperation they asked for the intervention of Mihály
Dobokay, a priest from Szamosújvár.
Dobokay answered their request, went to the house indicated and himself also became
witness to the temptations of “Satan”. As it turns out from Dobokay’s report, the “Satan”
that infested the house, throwing apples, plums and the fire poker was in fact a damned soul,
who was condemned by God to “test” other people with his temptations. In a fit resembling
the symptoms of epilepsy the ghost with his mouth foaming spat saliva at the priests who
came to exorcise him. In spite of his spiritual nature, he emitted a physically tangible
materialistic humour. We can almost “feel” in the description that a strong foul smell lingers
in the room in his presence. His speech is at first confused and it became more ordered only
as a result of the “therapeutic” dialogue conducted by the priests. He looks like a drunkard,
singing dance-songs and swearing profusely. Eventually the revenant also relates that his
body was not buried at that place, at Füzes, but in the neighbouring Alőr and he also places
his soul into a dimension he thought real, that is, in Purgatory. The exorcist is trying to
convince the revenant to leave with prayers and by beating with a wooden spear. Then he
rolls “Satan” into a sheet and beats it as long as it moves, but when the package is opened,
he finds nothing but splinters of the bed. It seems that nothing but prayer alone could help.26
The Füzes story must have had two authorial levels. In the first level – which is probably
the core of the story – the ways of temptations were described together with their material
signs and the first diagnosis was set up: the house was possessed by Satan himself, thus
exorcism was considered necessary. The second narrative level of the story – which came
from Mihály Dobokay, the German preacher called in to help – is extremely problematic, at
least in a Protestant reading. This story is not about Satan but a revenant depicted as a sort of
messenger, which is to warn humankind of its sins. As a result of systematic investigation the
“Satan” first became a jolly devil who is dancing and spitting at the priest, then it turned into
a sinful dead person, who is forced to come back as a revenant because of his sins. In the end
it also turns out that the man “spitting” obscene expressions and foaming with saliva is still
alive and his body is not buried at all. After all, this being is a transitory figure existing at the
frontiers of devilish souls, the revenants, the possessed sick, and the sinner. Its activities are
first interpreted as the signs of the Devil, then they are considered as the message of God. All
this fits very well to the exempla that Luther and his followers used.27 But the problem arises
with the fact that this revenant, in accordance with medieval tradition and newly formulated
Catholic ideas, is suffering the pains of Purgatory. Nevertheless, the mixture of Catholic and
Protestant ideas was not exceptional at the end of the 1580s. It would be much more surprising
to find clear conceptions on these issues in such a confused and turbulent period.
25
The town of Füzes became Calvinist in 1556. The expression “Devilish Füzes” for the town appeared
in the 17th century, and the “devilish” adjective could be most probably connected to the story which the priest
Mihály Dobokay described on November 14, 1587.
26
TAKÁTS 1921: 230–239; DÉZSI 1928: 212–220.
27
According to Ákos Dömötör the stories about dead men appearing in the form of the Devil reflect
Luther’s influence, cf. DÖMÖTÖR 1992: 159.
Book 1.indb 419 2009.10.20. 20:39:34

420 Péter TÓTH G.
On the other hand, the poltergeist motif in Protestant stories could never ever be
understood as the presence of the Catholic Purgatory idea but only and exclusively as the
capability of Satan and the demons to be present in this world and to tempt or possess their
human victims. The material proofs verified solely the existence of Satan and/or his servants.
From this point of view the funeral oration by István Magyari, a Calvinist preacher, at the
catafalque of Ferenc Nádasdy at Sárvár in 1604 has special significance. In this sermon
Magyari emphasised that the existence of spirits haunting in the likeness of a dead person
was impossible and he spoke about the treacherousness of the devil, and also of Satan, who
takes the bodily form of a revenant. For Magyari, the funeral served as a perfect occasion to
argue against the “Papist” teachings and deny the existence of Purgatory.28 While Protestant
interpretation focused on the transmission of a divine message, the existence of Purgatory
seemed to be the most important fact for the Catholics. The mediators could either be
revenants, or resurrected (living) dead, but also Satan himself who used the soul or body
of the dead to bring about fear.
An example of the living dead as mediator comes from a story known internationally,
a case that happened in Nagyszeben (Hermannstadt, today’s Sibiu, Romania). According
to the Hungarian cases listed in Jobus Fincelius’ anthology on portents (Wunderzeichen) it
happened in 1554. A girl rose from the dead and after that she warned the city to be faithful
and foretold that within three days she would die again, and in fact she did so. A message
appeared in the sky, written in golden letters.29 The story is based on local legends, because
certain motifs of it had been mentioned in the chronicles of Nagyszeben. According to
these records the miraculous signs were interpreted as the heralds of plague.
In the autumn of 1553 the serpents, rat snakes and tortoises did not become dormant
“contrary to their nature”, but waited until winter arrived and they froze to death and
rotted away. This caused a foul smell and bad air when spring came and for this reason
a pestilence broke out among the livestock as well. A further bad portent was that trees
blossomed twice and brought only immature fruits. On August 21, 1554 an earthquake
shook the surrounding mountains and the sky became dark as if “the Sun was alarmed
by the future calamities of humankind”. During the autumn thick and foul-smelling fog
covered the town and many people thought they had seen ghosts during funerals and in the
church-yard where the unusual barking of dogs and the fearful cries of owls caused terror
in the population. In November the plague broke out.30
The revenants and the resurrected or living dead are present again in the medical
writings and chronicles written at the end of the 18th century, usually in the form of stories
about vampires and witches. In the examples from the 16th century it is unusual that the
28
The work is quoted by KECSKEMÉTI 1988: 63–67; KECSKEMÉTI 1998: 148.
29
Job Fincel still considered worth mentioning in his collection of observations, the Rosetum Histori-
arum written in 1654, the case recorded by Matthäus Hammer (1600–1665) that happened in Nagyszeben
in 1554: “Anno Christi 1554. erschien über dem Schlosse Almosten am Himmel dieses / I.N.R.I. (Iesus
Nazarenus Rex Iudaorum) starb zu Hermbsstadt eine Jungfer / als man sie begraben wolt / schwitzet sie
Blut / ward wieder lebendig / ermahnet jederman zur Busse / und starb hernach am dritten Tag wieder / fol
gete hierauff ein groß sterben. Immundus mundus mundatur sangvine Christi. Fincelius.” HAMMER 1654:
494–495.
30
The case is recorded on the basis of the local Saxon chronicles of Transylvania by RÉTHLY 1962: 80.
Book 1.indb 420 2009.10.20. 20:39:35

preliminary signs were connected also to the activity of witches. They were interpreted
instead as manifestations of the devils and Satan.
A further example of the aforementioned poltergeist occurrences cited by Péter
Bornemisza and Mihály Dobokay is the case of Georg Buchholtz, a Lutheran minister,
performing exorcism in Késmárk (Käsmark, today’s Kežmarok, Slovakia). On January 22,
1693 at seven o’clock in the evening Buchholtz was called to the house of a certain Gáspár
Schwalm where the devil had been raging for eight days. Witnessed by several lay persons
and clerics the supposed devil was throwing plates and pots in the room. What is more,
when Buchholtz entered, a large stone fell on the foot of the hostess. After performing the
exorcism rituals the ghost became more tranquil.31
The appearance of the belief in vampires in medical and scientific writings as well
as in the new media forming public opinion in the 18th century enriched the stories about
revenants, noise-making ghosts and devils throwing objects with a new colour. A good
example of how much this new motif captured public attention is the Lutheran synod at
Rózsahegy in April 3–7, 1707. The synod was presided over by the ruling prince, Ferenc
Rákóczi II, and among several other issues it also addressed the question of how one could
protect oneself against ghosts. According to the participants’ opinion, it was not the right
approach to decapitate or mutilate the buried corpse of the returning dead who bothered the
living. Instead, helping the living with prayers in order to encourage them was considered
a better solution, for all these events are nothing else than “trickery of the devil”.32 Finally,
another internationally well known story, the legend of the Lubló (Lublau, today’s Stará
Ľubovňa, Slovakia) ghost, written down by Kasparek in 1716 belongs to this series of
experiences.33
On the basis of Luther’s story the poltergeist motif enjoyed high popularity, thus such
legends were spread uncritically, without anyone actually questioning if it was possible
that objects started moving or whether spirits, ghosts or demons could remove them. The
question was not raised until a century later, when an all-encompassing debate emerged
– especially in the wake of the work of Joseph Glanvill (1636–1680), Sadducismus
Triumphatus (1662/1663) – which focused on a scientifically interpreted demonology, and
particularly on objects “moved” by demons or spirits and “immoveable” objects as well as
the existence of ghosts.34
Besides the Protestant stories, the theme of observing ghosts, and all sorts of material
proofs of their presence (noises, rattling objects, etc.) became a means for Catholic
propaganda as well. In a certain sense the Catholic Church was in a better position than
the Protestant ones, since Catholics could exploit these miraculous stories in the Counter-
Reformation movement, interpreting them on the basis of the existing traditions of the
cult of relics. In this process the material proofs of miracles played an important role: in
31
WÉBER 1893: 879–884.
32
Ibid.
33
For a detailed description of Kasparek’s story see: MATIRKO 1890.
34
In the time of Charles II, Joseph Glanvill wrote about the cases of haunting by a spirit from Tedworth,
who went around with a drum and terrorized a family (by playing the drum at night, beating on the furniture
and once he even broke a bed into pieces). Eventually a priest came to see the family and expelled the spirit
from there. Cf. CLARK 1997: 296–297.
Book 1.indb 421 2009.10.20. 20:39:35

422 Péter TÓTH G.
spite of the Lutheran view of seeing these objects as Satan’s manifestation, the Catholics
interpreted them as a good chance for divine communication with the souls suffering in
Purgatory. Certain cases were highly favoured because of their supposed propagandistic
values, like the 1643 ghost story of Pozsony (Bratislava/Pressburg). The verification of
this case was supported even by the two subsequent archbishops of Esztergom, Imre Lósy
and György Lippay. The archbishops spared no expense to sponsor the printed editions of
the story in Hungarian, Latin, German, Czech, Polish and Italian. Drawings of the material
proof were also included and these pamphlets circulated all over Europe.35
The ghost in question turned out to be the soul of the late Johann Clemens, the former
magistrate, who communicated through a medium, a servant maid called Regina Fischer. She
claimed that the soul of Clemens had to come back from Purgatory in order to distribute his
considerable wealth (mostly the head money he had never paid in his lifetime) among the
poor. The ghost also asked Regina to go to his widow and make her promise that she would
fulfil the vow Clemens did not keep. He should have had a statue of the Virgin Mary erected
in the Pozsony Cathedral, depicting the Pieta scene (Mary holding in her lap the body of
Jesus taken down from the Cross). According to his message, Clemens’s soul could not leave
Purgatory until his money had been dedicated to pious purposes and the sculpture was made.
Regina wanted proofs that she was actually conversing with the soul of the real Johann
Clemens and that it was not a mere illusion. In the maid’s room there was a small chest,
covered with a spread. The spirit put his hand on the spread and as if it were burned
with a branding iron, the imprint of his right hand remained on the textile and was even
burnt into the wood itself. Next to the imprint of the hand, the sign of the cross was also
burnt, showing that he did not come with evil intentions. The pious event, having been
interpreted as a special message from the afterlife verified with material proof, was highly
evaluated by Catholic religious propaganda. Thus it soon found a zealous supporter in
Mihály Kopchanyi, Bishop of Sirmiensis and provost of Pozsony who eventually asked for
the help of the archbishop of Esztergom. Between 12 and 24 July, 1642 a special court was
established for this issue and its members heard 32 witnesses in order to authenticate the
miraculous phenomena with the depositions of the eye-witnesses. The witnesses examined
the imprint on the wooden chest and on the spread and claimed that it was, beyond doubt,
from Johann Clemens’s right hand. The definite proof was that the imprint had the terminal
phalanx of the index finger missing, and it was known that Clemens had an infection on
this phalanx while alive and a surgeon had amputated it.
As a second proof, Bishop Kopchanyi wrote a letter to the ghost and handed it in a
sealed envelop to the servant maid so that she could forward it to Clemens. In this the bishop
entreated him to reply to some questions. At the very moment when the ghost touched the
letter with three fingers, the paper caught fire. Then he said that the money he had obtained
in a sinful way would be found in his house and his heirs would be willing to hand it over.
Regina, however, was still sceptical and she asked the spirit to make another burnt imprint
of his hand on a piece of log, which the spirit indeed angrily did. Then he snatched Regina’s
handkerchief from her hand, put it on the log and brought his hand down on it with such
force that the handkerchief caught fire in the same instant and the log flew into the air.
35
KOPCHANI 1643. For the list of the titles in various languages see: KULCSÁR 2003/2004.
Book 1.indb 422 2009.10.20. 20:39:36

At this point in the course of events the local authorities intervened and ordered
supervision. At nights 18–20 clerics lined up outside Regina’s room waiting for Johann
Clemens. The ghost did not allow anyone to catch sight of him, except for Regina. He
was generous, however, in giving indications and signs that attested to his presence. For
example, at the moment of his arrival a loud bang resembling a gunshot was heard by all the
witnesses. There was another extremely curious phenomenon: the sound of the splashing
of water coming from an invisible hand. There was a clay pot used as a holy water font
in Regina’s room. Suddenly, water started to flow from the pot and at the same time the
witnesses were sprinkled with water by an invisible hand. Then the same hand lifted the
pot and threw it to the ground so hard that it broke into countless fragments. Finally, the
witnesses could hear the voice of Johann Clemens: he answered their questions and they
held a conversation for about half an hour. Another manifestation of the ghost’s invisible
presence was that he picked up a purse, which he had given previously to Regina with 200
forints in it, he knocked it on the table three times, and finally he flung it at Regina’s feet
causing her to faint on the spot. At the end of the list of miracles compiled by the authorities
stood the descriptions of Regina’s vision: Clemens’s soul was purified and left in the form
of a white dove and never appeared again to the girl.36
Interpreted as definitive evidence for the existence of Purgatory, Bishop Kopchanyi
deposited the interrogation reports together with the relics of the miracle and the
authentication document from the archbishop of Esztergom at the Pozsony chapter. The
documents of the hearing of the witnesses supplemented with illustrations of the above
mentioned relics were published by the bishop in print in 1643.37 Due to the multilingual
printed versions, the fame of the story spread rapidly all over Europe. The Latin translation
reached Gisbertus Voetius, the famous Calvinist professor in Utrecht who had it republished
twice, in 1648 and 1655 and in doing so he provoked a new debate from the opponents of
Catholicism.38 The ex voto sculpture of the Virgin Mary was completed and placed in 1647
in the Pozsony Coronation Cathedral under the auspices of Emperor Ferdinand III, King of
Hungary and Bohemia. György Lippay wrote a little pamphlet in honour of the sculpture,
which was printed in the press of the Jesuits in Pozsony, under the following title: Mary,
mother of the dead ... who is venerated ... for the liberation of the souls in Purgatory. 39 The
altar and its history still had a cult in the 18th century.40
But neither the material proofs, nor the authentication document from the archbishop
of Esztergom and not even the support of Ferdinand III had convinced the ecclesiastical
leaders of the Lutheran Church in Pozsony and Trencsény. Superintendent Zachariáš Láni
had written already in 1644 a counter-argument, attacking the authenticity of the miraculous
event taken up by the Catholic Bishop Kopchanyi. Láni declared that the returning soul of
citizen Clemens, who died in Pozsony, was a pseudo-spirit, a deceiving soul and he called
36
The case is described, together with its sources by GAIBL 1910: 85–129.
37
KOPCHANI 1643. This Hungarian printed version came down to us in only one copy and it bears the
title: “The Listing, or Description of some extraordinary cases of apparition, that happened in Pressburg”
(Előszámlálása azaz Beszámoló néhány megjelenés rendkívüli eseményeiről, amelyek Pozsonyban történtek).
38
VOETIUS 1655: 1141–1163.
39
Mária halalra valtaknak 1647.
40
Kerezt Fára 1706.
Book 1.indb 423 2009.10.20. 20:39:36

424 Péter TÓTH G.
the papist priests who supported this cause the servants of Lucifer and declared the whole
issue to be Satan’s misleading deception.41
Some similar cases – that is, of positive outcome from the Catholic point of view –
occurred in Dalmatia, in the town of Buccari, on May 15, 1699. Here two canons were
investigating in the matter of the supposed return of the soul of Jačint Dimitri, former
bishop of Zeng (Senjia, Croatia). The hearing of the witnesses and the documentations
were in Croatian and they included the testimony of Agata Pavlačić, the housekeeper in the
episcopal palace. She swore under oath that during Holy Week the bishop’s soul returned
home and pulled the doors with such force that the locks broke. The ghost confessed guilt,
urged that the restoration works in the church be carried out and asked those to whom
he appeared to offer masses for his soul. The housekeeper also gave a proof received
from the ghost, namely she showed the black sign of the cross, which the bishop drew
on her forehead with the cross that he was holding in his hand and the mark of which
was impossible to wash away. In order to test the veracity of the story, the maior domus
of the palace ordered that every night two soldiers should sleep in the room next to the
housekeeper’s room to catch the ghost in action. But these soldiers slept so soundly that
only the screams of the woman woke them up and they were so scared that could hardly
find the door itself. On another occasion, when a twelve-year-old girl was sleeping in the
same room as the housekeeper, the girl too was so frightened that she ran away. During
the interrogations the soldiers declared that the ghost actually did resemble a human being
but not so much the bishop, rather a certain priest called András. The investigation records
confirmed what the witnesses reported but they did not voice any opinion about the events.
Because the case never reached the printed media, it did not have any particular effect on
Catholic or Protestant contemporaries.42
5. Objects within the body as proofs for magic

Besides the anomalies and signs observed in the surrounding world, the experts on
demons as well as physicians had another area to observe and to debate over: the human
body. The human body had some parts that were considered more likely to be assailed by
demons. In addition, bodies infested by worms or objects were also considered to be more
exposed to demonic attacks. On the basis of contemporary medical and demonological
literature there were three types of diseases that put the body at high risk. The infesting
objects, worms and demons as causes of the disease can be distinguished by ideas and
concepts that interpret or explain their manifestations on the body and the way they
arrived into the body. On the basis of such viewpoints, we can speak about the following
categories: 1. Foreign objects shot or put into the body (projectiles);43 2. worm or worms
41
LÁNI 1643.
42
KUKULJEVIĆ SAKCINSKI 1852: 320–324.
43
The direct cause of the disease is either an animal or a particular object that enters the sick person’s
body, which was shot into the body by some sort of living creature (a mythical being, a creature in the shape of
an animal, an animal itself, a disease demon, a bewitched person or a man of transcendent knowledge, witch
or magician), cf. HONKO 1959: 32–33. An overview on the secondary literature of Hexenschuss is found in
WEISER–AALL 1936/1937: 1576–1578.
Book 1.indb 424 2009.10.20. 20:39:37

and similar parasites actually gnawing inside the body;44 and finally 3. possession of the
body by demons, the Devil, God or by spirits (spirit intrusion).45 This simple tripartite
classification was elaborated in the study by Lauri HONKO (1959), who examined the lay
and folkloristic interpretations of diseases (Krankheitserklärungen).46
In what follows, I shall describe and quote in detail some observations of miraculous
events, the main points of which I first summarise in an inventory form. In the explanations
about the observed phenomena the miraculous signs could arise spontaneously, by chance
or as a punishment of God, or as signs of the activity of Satan, the devils or demons and
their servants, the witches. Such signs could enter the body as: being swallowed, eaten,
shot into the body, injected, or entered through the body orifices, through the mouth, nose,
ears, eyes, skin, via the anus or the vulva. Within the body the objects, worms or demons
can cause diseases, upset the balance of bodily humours, can lead to problems in the
circulatory system and can call forth inclusions in the body. The bodily manifestations
of diseases caused in this way include red spots, ulcers and abscesses on the skin, and
strong pain in the various parts of the body (in the head, heart, digestive system, teeth, on
the skin, within the skin or in the limbs). Inside the body some of these intruders live in a
symbiosis with the person’s body or, on the contrary, they become its parasites, piercing,
pinching, lacerating and gnawing the vital organs. The objects that were diagnosed as the
cause of such demonic disease included: needles, arrowheads, nails, thorns but also all
sort of body hairs, nails, bones, teeth, accumulated pus, coagulated blood; glass-splinters,
piece of wood, wood chips, straw, hemp, tow, coal or stones. The types of worm-like
animals that cause such illness are serpents, leeches, worms, flies, caterpillars, various
larvae of insects and also frogs, newt, mice or dogs and the skin, eggs, grubs, excrement,
bones, or hair of all the above-mentioned beings. All of these intruders could leave the
body through vomiting, urinating, excreting, or while giving birth. They can emerge from
the body through the skin, from the eyes, either as a result of healing or at the moment
of death, spontaneously leaving the corpse. The demonologists, physicians and judges
treated the signs that could be visible and experienced in these ways, either as symptoms
characterising and identifying a disease or as theological or juridical proofs and corpus
delicti.
44
For the kind of worm which eats itself into the flesh and causes pain within the body or even death by
its movements or by gnawing see: HONKO 1959: 33–34.
45
HONKO 1959: 29–32.
46
HONKO differentiated five types of explanations (1, Breach of taboo; 2, Soul loss, losing the life-soul; 3,
Spirit intrusion; 4, Projectiles; 5, Presence of a worm or worms). Here I consider three of them, as the two oth-
ers are only loosely connected to our subject. Besides the European and Scandinavian cases, Honko’s conclu-
sions are the results of his research on Egyptian, Indian, North and Central Asian and Near Eastern cases but
his examples also come from North and Central America, from Eskimo, Inca, Aztec and Polynesian cultures:
HONKO 1959: 22–34. Honko borrowed the classification of five types (1, Sorcery; 2, Breach of taboo; 3, Disease
object intrusion; 4, Spirit intrusion; 5, Soul loss) from an article by E. Clements (CLEMENTS 1932: 185–252),
while Clements established his typology on the basis of Max Bartels’ categorisation from 1893, who defi ned
in eleven disease groups the forms of “Primitive Concepts of Disease” (Clement). From Bartels’ categories the
following are relevant for our discussion: 1, demons; 2, ghosts of the dead; 3, animals or ghosts of animals; 4,
sucking or consuming by a demon; 5, a foreign substance, visible or invisible, in the body; 6, poisons; 7, dis-
placement or loss of principal parts of the body; 8, bewitching or cursing; 9, the will or the benevolent gift of the
gods; 10, ill winds; 11, the evil eye. See: BARTELS 1893/2004: 9–44; see further: ROGERS 1944: 559–564.
Book 1.indb 425 2009.10.20. 20:39:37

426 Péter TÓTH G.
Such stories with the above-mentioned elements summarised here can be found in both
Catholic and Protestant sermon literature, and in professional medical writings. The “true”
or “false” miracle stories about swallowing and letting out objects were popular in early
modern Hungary. There are many illustrious figures of contemporary religious literature
among the authors, such as Pelbárt Temesvári and Gergely Vásárhelyi on the Catholic side
and Péter Bornemisza, Péter Alvinczi, János C. Kecskeméti or Mihály Tofeus among the
Protestants. From the examples described by Pelbárt Temesvári it is worth mentioning the
story of a woman who suffered from an eye-complaint and bought a card against it from a
fortune-teller. On the card it was written: “Should the demon gouge your eyes out and fill
their sockets with dung!” And the card proved to be useful, since the woman’s eyes healed.
But when she heard that the priest condemned such cards, she did penance and no longer
believed in these superstitions and her health improved even further.47
One generation later the Lutheran Péter Bornemisza recorded for his readers the story
of a pious peasant who, according to the diagnosis, was possessed by the devil. His body
shrank, and
... while crying inconsolably he shouted that the devils had come to take him
away to suffer forever. He asked for something to eat and drink, but when the meal
was taken to him he said: his stomach was full of hemp and so was his throat and he
was unable to swallow anything and because he did not eat or drink for a few days, he
suffered greatly from hunger and thirst.48
Besides the cases of people who became victims of their own sins or the trickery of the
devil, the more colourful and most hotly debated stories were those that narrated the curses
and bewitchments related to the activity of witches and magical experts. We know from the
Malleus Maleficarum the basic stories about midwife-witches who had shot objects into
the body and these had a great impact on later literature as well.49
47
TEMESVÁRI 1499/1982: 319–320.
48
BORNEMISZA 1578/1955: 213.
49
Lib. II. I. Cap. XIII. “In diocesi nam[que] Argentinensi & oppido Zabernio mulier quædam honesta,
ac Beatißimæ virgini Mariæ plurimùm deuota, hunccasum referre sibi accidisse, singulis eius bospitium quod
publicè tenet nigram habens aliquam pro intersigno frequentantibus commemorat. Aviro inquit legitimo, se-
diam defuncto imprægnata, vbi dies pariendi appropinquarent, mulier quædã obstetrix, vtipsam ad obstetri-
candum puerum acceptarem, importunè instabat. At ego couscia de eius infamia, licet aliam mihi assumere
decreuissem, verbis tamen pacificis quasi suis annuere vellem petitionibus me simulabam. Adueniente autem
tempore partus, cùm aliam obstetricem conduxissem, illa prior indignata, quadam nocte cameram meam euo-
lutis vix octo diebus, cum duabus alijs mulieribus ingreditur, & lecto appropin quantes in quo iacebam, eùm
maritum meum, qui in altera dormiebat camera vocare voluissem, singulis membris, & lingua ita remansi
viribus destituta, quòd dempto visu cum auditu, nec pedicam mouere potuissem. In medio ergoillaru duarum
stans Malesica, hæc verba protulit: Ecce, hæc peßima mulierum, quia in obstetricem me recipere noluit, im-
punè nõ transibit. Et cùm aliæ duæ à latere stantes, pro ea supplicarent, dicentes, tamen nunquam alicui ex
nostris nocuit. Malefica subiunxit: Hanc mihi quia displicentiam fecit, suis intestinis aliqua immittere velo, sic
tamen, quòd infra dimidium annum nullos propter vos dolores sentiet, sed illo tuoluto satiscruciabitur: Acceßit
ergo & ventrem cum manu tetigit, mihi[que] videbatur, quasi intestinis extract is, aliqua tamen quæ videre non
potui intromittens. Illis ergo abeuntibus, cùm vires ad clamandum recuperassem, maritum quantocius vocaui,
& rem gestam denudaui. Cùm autem ille causam puerperio aßignare vellet, dicens: Vos puerperæ plurimis il-
Book 1.indb 426 2009.10.20. 20:39:38

Georg Stengel (1584–1651), for example, a priest widely known all over Europe, in
his work called Mundus theoreticus divinorum iudiciorum (in short Iudicia Divina, 1651)
gave an account (inspired by the Malleus Maleficarum) of a woman in whose body hairs,
chopped fingers, wool, walnuts, fingernails, glass, stones, pieces of wood and eggshells
were found.50 Vásárhelyi, in his already quoted work that was published in Kassa in 1623,
described a similar case as follows:
In another town there lived a similarly famous witch, who commended her services
as a midwife to the pregnant wife of an illustrious and rich man. The lady dismissed
her with gentle words, but sent a message to her that her services were indeed valuable,
because she was afraid that the midwife would do something evil. But when the time
of her labour arrived, they called for another midwife. This came to the ears of the evil
woman and eight days after the woman gave birth, she went to her bedroom, together
with two other women and approached the bed. The sick woman was frightened and
she wanted to scream to call her husband but she started to feel that her tongue and her
limbs were becoming paralysed. She [the witch] told her [the sick woman]: this wicked
woman did not want me to be her midwife but I would not leave her side. The woman
who was standing next to her said: She did no harm to us, this is why I ask you to leave
her in peace. The witch said: because she had troubled me inside, I also corrupt her in her
intestines. After that the witch touched the sick woman’s belly, the latter started to feel
great pains in her intestines. These women then left, and the sick woman slowly regained
her power of speech and her strength, she called for her husband and told him what
happened. She told him that for seven months she did not feel any pain, so her husband
consoled her with gentle words, attributing what she said to some bad dream. Six months
later, she started to feel unremitting pains and could not find peace day or night because
of the pain. In the midst of her sufferings she prayed to God and recommended herself
to Him and asked Him to free her from her pains. Her prayers were answered, because
after defecating so much foul things left her body that even she herself felt disgusted. She
summoned her husband and her son and told them: only now the meaning of my dream
is revealed. Who saw such a thing that thorny rose twig, wood, bones and similar foul
things would grow in a human being, and who saw me ever eating these things?51
lusionibus & fantasijs laboratis, nec quoquo modo dictis meis fidem adhibere volebat, adiunxi, Ecce spacium
pro anno dimidio mihi donauit, quo elapso, si nulli cruciatus superuenient, dictis tuis fidem adbibebo: consi-
milia deni[que] verba filio clerico, qui & protunc Archidiaconus ruralis erat, protulit, cùm & ipse visitàtionis
gratia illo die eam frequentasset. Quid plura? sex mensibus ad punctum euolutis, internorum viscerum tortura
subitò ipsam tam dirè inuasit, vt nec diebus nec noctibus à clamoribus omnes inquietãdo abstinere potuisset.
Et quia (vt præmissum est) deuotißima virgini & Reginæ misericordiæ extitit, in pane & aqua, singulis sab-
batinis diebus ieiunando, ideó & per ipsius suffragia credidit se liberari. Vnde & quadam die vbi opus naturæ
perficere volebat. tunc omnis illa immundicia à corpore prorupit, & aduocans maritum cum filio dixit: Sunt ne
resistæ fantasticæ? nónne dixi post dimidij anni spacium Veritas cognoscetur? Aut quis vidit vnquam spiritas,
ossa, simul etiam ligna me comedisse? Erant enim spinæ rosarum, in logitudine vnius palmæ, cum alijs varijs
innumero rebus immissæ.” SPRENGER–K RÄMER 1580: 340–342. [My emphasis, T. G. P.]
50
SCHNEIDER 1982: 1290, quoted by DÖMÖTÖR 1992: 358, 195; Stengel’s exempla were used also by János
Taxonyi, a Jesuit from Győr.
51
VÁSÁRHELYI 1623: 376–377. (My emphasis, T.G.P.)
Book 1.indb 427 2009.10.20. 20:39:38

428 Péter TÓTH G.
The story was taken up and re-elaborated by the Puritanist Péter Alvinczi as well
(1570–1634), a priest from Kassa, (a key figure of the Reformation and the arch-enemy of
the Counter-Reformer Péter Pázmány) in his work called Postillae (1633):
With God’s permission, this noxious animal has the power to flog people’s body
with various diseases, to mortify women in childbirth, to harm newly married couples
and little children not yet baptised, as the numerous stories well illustrate.52 Among
others, there is a story that runs like this: Once in the region of Argentina, in the
town called Zaberin,53 a noble woman was approaching her date of delivery and a
midwife went to her and recommended herself to serve when the hour of birth came.
The woman spoke kind words to this midwife but because that one was considered to
be a witch, when the birth started another midwife was called for. On the eighth day
after giving birth, at night, that witch–midwife, in the company of two other female
witches had stepped up to the bed of the sick woman and said: This evil woman
has made a fool of me, but I shall also make a fool of her. The two other women
begged her not to do any harm, but she replied: I cannot suffer her, but because of
your request I grant the punishment half a year delay. While saying this, she pushed
the belly of the sick woman with her hand, which was as painful as if she had been
pulling out her intestines but in a minute the pain passed. On the next morning she
told her husband and the whole household what happened but they did not believe
her and said that she must have seen this because of the pains she suffered. But as the
half year passed, the woman started to feel excruciating pains in her intestines, which
could not be alleviated by any sort of medicine but after a long time and after she said
many prayers to God, she was freed from the pains as is she had been purged in the
inside, when a rose thorn the size of a handspan, little chips of wood and splinters
and numerous little dead animals had left her body. Here is the force of the devil, the
way it could hurt in her inner parts with all this ugliness, attacking her belly. But there
is another example, when the shin-bone of a small child was taken out and its place
was filled with dead coal and on the spot there was no trace left, no scar at all. In this
way the devil can mortify the human body with ulcers, as it is shown in the story of
Saint Job.”54
In addition to the miracles that presented a theological problem the same sort of stories
appear also in the diagnostic reports of physicians about persons who swallow or discharge
objects. A physician from the Spanish Netherlands, Jean Baptiste van Helmont (1579–
1644) in his monumental and most popular work Ortus Medicinae (Amsterdam, 1648),55
dealing with the dead and the causes of death, dedicated a separate chapter (Tractatus
de injectis materialibus) to the scientific explanations for the presence of alien objects
52
Insertion in the margin of the page: Malle[us] Venefic[a].
53
Insertion in the margin of the page: Lonicerus.
54
ALVINCZI 1633: 474–475, see the parts that follow the ones dealing with exorcism and the power of Sa-
tan in his work called Oculi vasarnapra tartozo praedikátiú, Ex. Lnc. 11. A. vers. 14. Ad. 29. (My emphasis,
T.G.P.)
55
VAN HELMONT 1648: 596–603.
Book 1.indb 428 2009.10.20. 20:39:39

in the body. In this chapter he collected notorious stories about objects that fell out from
the patients’ body or were taken out by an operation or were ejected while giving birth or
simply pushed out. Van Helmont also listed the physicians since the time of Paracelsus who
observed these phenomena with scientific tools, with a mind independent from theological
teachings, including those who nevertheless believed in the possibility that these objects
were shot by witches into their victims’ body.56
The scientific paradigm of the mid-eighteenth century did not bring a significant change
to this picture. The work of the Bavarian Johann Martin Maximilian Einzinger von Einzing
(1725–1798), under the title Dämonologie oder systematische Abhandlung von der Natur
Macht des Teufels (Leipzig, 1775) contained a legal treatise in which the author argued with
Christian Thomasius and which enumerated the cases recorded in contemporary scholarly
literature about objects injected into the body, in the tone of “natural sciences” of that time.
He mentioned the swallowing or vomiting of the following objects: iron nails, hair, pieces
of wood, pieces of wax, glass, thorn, threads, pebbles, needles, sniffing tobacco, tobacco
bars (cigarettes), paper, pens, metal coins, fish-bones, small iron balls, knitting wool, egg-
shell, human and animal teeth. In his opinion, this phenomenon was based on the belief
that the witches made their victims believe that these objects had been previously put into
their body through magic or shot into it. Some of the witches concealed the bewitching
stating that they perform healing and in this way, with the help of magic, they took out
the demonic objects hidden in the patients’ body.57 Contrary to the theological ideas about
possession – according to which the occurrence of alien objects in the body could be a sign
of this phenomenon – the medical description of such pathologies explain the presence of
these objects as being swallowed while the persons were drunk, unconscious, in delirium
or acting under some fixed ideas.
6. Worms in the body as material evidence

Besides the objects that entered the body, the most heated debate between physicians
and theologians at the end of the 17th and in the 18th centuries concerned the parasitic
animals feeding inside the human body, as a result of the curse of witches who injected
worms, caterpillars or other sorts of reptiles. The names of illness that include rat snakes,
frogs, mice, lizards, spiders, worms or wolves (Lupus as Lupus erythematosus) or the
word cancer still used today refer to such explanations with the animals as causes, often
interpreted also as the animal forms of illness-causing demons. Entering the body through
the mouth, ears, nose, anus or vulva these creatures were nesting and developing there by
gnawing and consuming the vital organs.58
Infection caused by swallowing something was present even earlier, especially
in miracle accounts and in the saints’ legends. We know from the letters of Saint John
Capistran a miracle narrative, told by Balázs Kürty’s noble retainer, who asked for the
saint’s intervention after having swallowed a frog.59 Pelbárt Temesvári’s similar story is
on the borderline between a real miracle and a wondrous medical cure: it tells the case of
56
CLARK 1997: 236–237.
57
DÖMÖTÖR 1992: 195.
58
MAGYARY–KOSSA 1929: II. 284.
59
PETTKÓ 1901: 222; MAGYARY–KOSSA 1929: II. 285.
Book 1.indb 429 2009.10.20. 20:39:39

430 Péter TÓTH G.
a man, who – because of his sins, particularly for gossiping – had a living frog attached to
his mouth, which lived there as a parasite for thirteen years.60
Involuntary infection caused by swallowing something is not limited to the theological
and literary examples but the medical versions of such stories are also known. For example,
the German army physician Tobias Cober (1570 circa –1625), who stayed in Hungary
during the Fifteen-Year War, recorded his observations and the special treatments, among
them the case of a man, a certain István Georgevith, who swallowed a lizard.61 Similar
medical explanations can be found concerning the symptoms Countess Dorottya Zrínyi,
the wife of Boldizsár Batthyány had in 1576; pressing pains around her heart, attributed to
a leech swallowed involuntarily. This caused pain in its victim’s body where it was literally
biting her heart from the inside.62
Besides the diagnostic statements, it is worth examining the explanations that
accompanied them. First of all those cases where the symptoms (swallowing of objects
or worms) were not regarded as an involuntary act but, for example, as a punishment
from God. In the 1530s pamphlets informed the reading public of the Holy Roman Empire
that in Hungary miraculous signs warned of the spread of sins and foretold the victory of
the pagan Turks over the Christians. According to the report on the miracle, a horde of
snakes had invaded Hungary and they were entering people’s bodies in large numbers in
order to gnaw them as a punishment sent by God. The news about the “snake epidemic”
still terrified the German public more than two generations later.63 The chronicler Miklós
Istvánffy also interpreted as a punishment of God the family history of the nobleman
Péter Kórógyi, who died on the battlefield in Mohács in 1526. Kórógyi, whose nickname
was “Iron stomach”, suffered for the sins committed by his predecessors, who were the
murderers of the bishop Saint Gerard in 1046, and for this reason Kórógyi had to live with
his capacity of swallowing alive mice, cat-tails and the flesh of dogs, already rotting and
full of worms. What is more, he did all this without the slightest feeling of repulsion. In the
royal court of Louis II of Hungary he was often encouraged to perform such a feat in order
to generate laughter, but a sure sign arrived that his faculty was a God-sent punishment:
when he was about to go to church, his stomach “was moved” and he had to excrete on the
spot.64
Swallowing a snake, however, could mean not only God’s punishment, but also
temptation or even possession by the Devil. A certain Gergely Frankovith who attributed
his healing knowledge to the Holy Spirit, wrote a book on the healing of the soul, enriched
60
TEMESVÁRI P. 1499/1982: 330.
61
In the military report on the battles fought in the Transdanubian region in 1606 we can read: “Con-
querebatur Georgvvith Istvvan, nobilis Ungarus: se ex cado ferociam imputare: cui eo facilius astipulabar,
quod [...] totum defuncti cadaver maculas lacertam aemulantes ostenderet.” Coberus 1685: III. 23. Quoted by
MAGYARY-KOSSA 1929: II. 104.
62
MAGYARY–KOSSA 1929, II. 104.
63
Gáspár Miskolczi in his work called Jeles vadkert (1702) published Franczius’ description about the
plague of snakes that was reported in the 1530s. In this event a number of people “became infected” with
snakes that invaded the world as a punishment of God. In all likelihood Franczius used that pamphlet, which
was later included in Hollander’s collection of prints (1905: 141) and quoted by Gyula MAGYARY-KOSSA (1929:
II. 107–110).
64
TÁLLYAI 2001: 228–229. The data had been mentioned already by Arnold IPOLYI: (1854/1987: 364).
Book 1.indb 430 2009.10.20. 20:39:40

with autobiographical elements (Sopron, 1588). In his work he mentioned that magical
learning might be obtained also by swallowing a snake. But before acquiring knowledge,
Frankovith had to fight first with the temptations of the Devil who attempted to enter his
body through his mouth, in the form of a snake.65 The witch-trial documents recorded in
1565 in Kolozsvár (Cluj, Romania) refer to the magical (diabolical) meaning of swallowing
a snake. According to the witnesses, the accused Klára Botzi had been boasting that she
obtained her knowledge of magical crafts from her previous master. This man caught a
snake, then cooked it while murmuring magical formulas, and he ate part of it himself,
the other part he handed to Klára. Right after she had eaten the snake, “suddenly her eyes
became unveiled and her ears became sensitive” and she could understand the speech of
snakes, frogs and all kinds of animals as well as of trees and plants.66
Swallowing a fly/incubus together with a lettuce-leaf is a story of medieval origins.
It was described – among many others – in the work used by Johann Weyer (1563) as an
example of the treachery of the Devil. In Hungary we know this story from the sermons of
János C. Kecskeméti (1615). The fly, as an illness-demon that can be swallowed, was an
important element also in the witch-trial investigations conducted in connection with the
bewitchment of the Transylvanian ruler’s wife, Anna Bornemisza. The princess’s illness
had been studied for a long time by various doctors and theologians; some of them saw the
cause of the illness in the malevolent charms of witches, others diagnosed it as melancholy.
The behaviour of the sick princess (in others’ opinions she was possessed by the witches),
as it was described by those near her, was characterised by fixed ideas and by her own
beliefs concerning her condition. She was convinced that she was bewitched, and in her
confusion she saw a witch in each fly. Whenever she was to enter a room in the palace,
the court servants first had to catch or chase away all flies from the room. If by chance a
fly had touched any of her belongings, she immediately felt the smell of the fly and the
whole interior of the room had to be changed, new pieces of furniture, new tables, table-
cloths, plates and cutlery had to be brought in, including spoons rolled in white cloth.67
The princess died on August 5, 1688; she was remembered in the chronicles of Andreas
Gunesch, a Lutheran priest, as follows:
Flies annoyed her a great deal. They flocked around the princess and followed her
with miraculous tenacity and zeal. She was more afraid of flies than of dogs or snakes.
She was so terrified that if she noticed a fly on any of her servants, they were regarded
65
FRANKOVITH 1588/1983: 99–100.
66
For the testimonies of Orbán Eötvös and Péter Asztalos concerning the boasts of Klára Botzi: KOMÁRO -
MY 1901: 190; KOMÁROMY 1910: 1–6, No. 3.
67
Martin Schmeitzel (1679–1747), a professor of history in Halle, of Transylvanian origin wrote about
the princess on the basis of the contemporary chronicles: “Interim Principis uxor, ea. auam diximus, phan-
taisae turbela, omnes muscas pro sagis intuabatu, quas prinde nulla ratione pati potul. Quasquque igitur aedes
ingredi velllet Principissa ab alulicis summa cum cura muscae abigi deburunt, imno si in utensilubus musca
consesisset, ipsa Principissa statim subolfacere potuit, hinc semper novae mensae, novae mappae, orbes, cultri,
cochlearia, linteis albis involuta ad manus aulicis esse debuerunt, de cetero et relatum habeo, foemina hanc
impotenit animi fuisse, superbam, imperiosam et mirum in modum prodigam.” MTA, Kézirattár, Tört. 4. 134.
and OSzK, Kézirattára, Quart. Lat. 2822. 190–191. Quoted by HERNER 1988: 43; compare it with MÜLLER 1854:
30; and IPOLYI 1854/1987: 428; on the symptoms see: HERNER 1988, No. 145 and 157.
Book 1.indb 431 2009.10.20. 20:39:40

432 Péter TÓTH G.
as unclean for 10–14 days and they could not appear in her sight during this period.
For the servants this ordeal was quite convenient, thus whenever they wanted some
peace, they cunningly pretended that flies were polluting them.68
Daniel Fischer (1695–1746), a physician in Késmárk and Zemplén county wrote a

treatise in 1716 while the witch-trials were in course in the counties of Upper Hungary,69
in which he listed the physical conditions that could be caused by the servants of the devil
(mancipiis diaboli) or by witches (sagis). Fischer used two categories (psychological =
pneumatologico and natural/bodily = physicum) and within these categories he analysed
illnesses such as mania, furor, spasms, epilepsy, “melancholy”, dumbness, deafness,
blindness, headaches, contracturae, infertility, impotence, malevolent ulcers and all sorts
of diseases (morbi magici). These illnesses were caused by the witches, by putting either
poison or larvae or eggs of insects into the fruits they harvested (apples, pears, plums,
walnuts) that the victims involuntarily eat.70 Fischer also reproduced a case study, taken
from the Mád priest János Kecskeméti, a testimony of women accused of witchcraft. In
the trials the wife of a certain Jankó Nyitrai was regarded as a witch-master, a captain of
other witches and she was reported to have filled a child’s head with chopped pig’s bristles,
pushing it through his ear and at the same time pulling out the sinews of his neck. The witch
then ordered that the child take a bath that eliminates head lice but as the bath failed, and
the child died, she was burnt at the stake on August 17, 1715.71
Besides the interest in swallowing objects, the signs of ejecting them also claimed
the attention of theologians and physicians alike. In 1686 in Nürnberg the book of Georg
Abraham Mercklin (1644–1702) was published, called Lindenius renovatus. In this book
Mercklin edited and reprinted the medical writings and observations of Johann Anton
Van der Linden (1609–1664), which had been first published in 1637, then in 1642, 1648,
1651 and 1662.72 Mercklin dedicated ample space to the theories of Weyer, Bekker, Bodin,
Praetorius and others concerning bewitchment and its signs from the legal and medical
aspects. He compared the characteristic features of magically caused illnesses with the
symptoms listed by physicians and with the signs of possession as defined by theological
criteria. On the basis of the similitude between these features he addressed also the presence
of alien objects, worms, and animals in the human body.
68
“A muscis valde exagitabatur, quas cane pejus et angve metuebat, quae tamen eam avidissime et cum
admiratione insequebatur. Unde, si animadvertit, super aliquem ex ephebis suis muscam, ubicunque corporis
parte, consedere, impurus erat ad 10. 14. dies, quibus non licebat ipsi ante faciem comparere, quod ipsis utique
gratum erat, unde etiam falso saepe, ubi requiem otabant, prae se ferebant, se a muscis conquinatos esse.”
TRAUSCH 1847: II. 238–239; the Hungarian translation is in: HERNER 1988: 53.
69
Fischer 1716. The related trial was conducted in 1715 in Sárospatak at the manor court, in which the
accusation was that the wife of János Tóth poisoned her victims with scones baked with blood in them. See:
SCHRAM 1982: III. 296–297, No. 562.
70
The work is reviewed in: WESPREMI 1774/1960: I. 88–89; and MAGYARY–KOSSA 1940: IV. 48–49, No. 125.
71
About the witches of Mád and Tállya see: SCHRAM 1982: III. 297–301, No. 563; HODOSSY 1902: 221–222.
72
The volume was already in 1688 in the library of the Lutheran theologian Johann Heinrich Bisterfeld’s
heir, Peter Wiederstein, in Sibiu: VISKOLC 2003, appendix. It was also in the library of István Weszprémi in
Debrecen, who often made reference to the Lindenius renovatus in his biographies of Hungarian physicians:
WESPREMI 1774/1960; 1787/1970 index.
Book 1.indb 432 2009.10.20. 20:39:41

According to Mercklin an illness can be attributed to bewitchment when natural causes

are excluded and the patient cannot be cured by medical treatment. But in order to reach
such a conclusion, one needs to apply first the customary tests of medical diagnostics, like
analysing the urine flask and determine whether the concentration of stools is high or low
or if there are foreign objects visible in the urine or not. A similar customary test was to
bathe the patient in a concoction made of verbena and if the sick person had some object
inside, after the bath his complexion became visibly different or foreign objects appeared
underneath his skin.73
(A similar diagnostic method, which was at the same time the cure itself, was suggested
by Andreas Dudith in 1580 and – relying on his opinion, by Ferenc Pápai Páriz in 1690 for
the identification and the subsequent removal of the head lice of a child.)74
Mercklin had made a survey of the secondary literature and in addition he listed some
case studies as well, more precisely, sixteen stories, including, for example, the diagnosis
of a priest’s twelve-year-old son, that was reconstructed from the oral sources. Mercklin
published his scientific observations for the scholarly audience in the journal Ephemerides
medico-physicae Germanicae curiosae, which he edited later in 1698 in the form of
collected writings.75 The above-mentioned son of the priest had suffered from epileptic
symptoms, he often fainted and his stomach rejected everything but milk. When he was
vomiting, small creatures left his body, and the same happened with urine and stools.
Occasionally there were butterflies, flies, caterpillars, black and white worms emitted and
these creatures often lived quite long afterwards. According to the statement of the boy’s
relatives, there was a big worm that was gnawing him from the inside and only milk could
calm this beast a little. As in the meanwhile another child found a strange white egg in
the garden with some red patterns on it and also because the livestock started to die, the
priest’s family suspected witchcraft. For this reason they consulted the doctors again. Their
suspicion seemed to be confirmed by the fact that by now not only worms were coming out
of the child’s body but four frogs as well, which had inside them other worms and insects
and even human sperm.76 The smaller frogs were followed by big toads and snakes, coming
out of the anus and what is more, one of the ejected vipers had even bitten its victim. As
several months had passed, broken pots, hairs, red and white egg-shells, knives, medicine
flasks and keys were falling out of the child. Mercklin used an antidote for bewitchment,
he applied amulets in order to keep worms away, ointments and blessed candles against
“magic”.77
Such odd stories had their Hungarian examples as well. We can read the following story
among the shocking cases of the Jesuit priest Gergely Vásárhelyi (1623), a miracle narrative
about bewitchment caused by foreign objects and worms in the body. Vásárhelyi connected
73
T HORNDIKE 1958: VIII. 531.
74
The letter of András Dudith is quoted in: MAGYARY–KOSSA 1929: I. 356–357; PÁPAI PÁRIZ 1984: 414–415.
For more details on the subject see: DEÁKY–K RÁSZ 2005: 232–243.
75
MERCKLIN 1698, which was reprinted in 1715.
76
One of the authors Mercklin relied on was Willis, who classified sexual problems among magically
caused illnesses and one of the signs of possession (especially the binding of virile powers, that is if the man
was unable to ejaculate). Cf. T HORNDIKE 1958: VIII. 531.
77
T HORNDIKE 1958: VIII. 531–533.
Book 1.indb 433 2009.10.20. 20:39:42

434 Péter TÓTH G.
this case to the events in relation with the mass witch-hunt in 1618 at Hanyvár [what he
called Hamburg, a town in Lower Austria (Hainburg), near the Hungarian border]:
Close to the Danube, near Hamburg, at that time a woman was burnt to death,
because she mixed the bran for her chickens with some food that made the hens
produce much more eggs. But once the butcher’s dog went into her courtyard and ate
the bran. After the dog went home to his master, in the midst of suffering great pains he
[the dog] delivered an egg and not much later ejected several other eggs in front of the
astonished butcher. The butcher took the dog and they went together to the judges of
the village to make a complaint that some great devilish act was done to his dog. The
dog started to yawn and pushed out eggs in front of the judge as well. They captured
the suspected woman and she confessed that she made the fodder for her hens, not for
the dog who was not supposed to eat from it.78
Cases that resemble the story of the dog which – as a result of witchcraft – defecated
eggs, are not limited to the theological repertoires but can also be found in the collections
of medical examples, in anthologies of observations. The disparagement and denial
of miracles warning of the coming of the last judgement was an important motive of
religious propaganda in the literature of theological debates. Some “independent”
miracles, however, still needed explanation. In the 16th and 17th centuries the appearance
of monstrous and deformed creatures as eschatological messengers was a significant
social experience. But on the other hand, the scientific studies of these creatures and the
natural and medical explanations of their appearance and origins generated scepticism
in face of oracles and premonitions. Ulysses Aldrovandi (1522–1605), the physician and
natural scientist of the University of Bologna, chose as his main research interest the
close analysis of minerals, plants as well as – and this is what interests us the most –
of monstrous beings (deformed human and animal foetuses, newborns and corpses of
adult examples) and made his scientific collection out of his objects of study. For his
monumental collection he had the scientific proofs of his observations professionally
stuffed and conserved. In his famous work on monstrous beings he called the readers’
special attention “to the deformed newborns delivered by unhappy maternal wombs”,
which he labelled as “the sins of the elements” and “the mistake of blind fate”. Ambroise
Paré came to the same conclusion in his work called Des Monstres et prodiges (1573),
in which he richly illustrated the Siamese twins and newborns born with “wolf’s teeth”
and “wolf’s throat”, examples that he interpreted as monsters. Similarly to Aldrovandi
and Paré, the Italian physician Fortunio Liceti (1577–1657) also criticised those voices
which claimed a connection between the appearance of monstrous creatures and the
punishment of God and the spread of sin in the world. He underlined that the Latin word
for these beings means nothing else than to show, to point out (monstrare). His work, the
De Monstrorum Natura Causses was one of the most popular readings in 17th century
Europe.79
78
VÁSÁRHELYI 1623: 379. (My emphasis, T.G.P.)
79
HUET 1983: 73–87; FOUCAULT 1966; DASTON–PARK 1998; FINDLEN 1990: 292–331.
Book 1.indb 434 2009.10.20. 20:39:42

The same urge made Paul Spindler, the Pozsony physician, collect his own case studies
(observationes) into a volume where he mentioned, for example, a child who defecated a
puppy or a woman who gave birth to a dog. Spindler kept his notes between 1630 and
1664, partly based on his own experiences, partly relying on the stories mentioned in his
colleagues’ letters – Doctor Rumbaum from Pozsony (Pressburg/Bratislava, Slovakia)
and Doctor Jeremias Scholz from Sopron (Ödenburg, Hungary). Spindler’s observations
were edited and published in print by Carl Rayger, a physician from Pozsony, in 1691. In
these case studies there are several descriptions of birth rituals and practices performed
by women in labour.80 Rayger’s own examples and the notes of Spindler, both written in
Latin, were translated into German and they were published again in 1760 in the official
journal of the Leopoldina, the Holy Roman Imperial Academy, (Nürnberg, Abhandlungen,
Vol. VIII. Art. LVIII.). Among the descriptions there is a story about a woman from Vas
county (Hungary), said to have taken place in 1638: after she had been bitten by rabid dogs,
she gave birth to a whitish, thick bundle that resembled a puppy.81 As a material proof of
this medical observation, Rayger even attached a sketch of the puppy.82 This story, along
80
RAYGER 1691: 175. Rayger relied on Spindler’s descriptions when he wrote about the practice that moth-
ers giving birth in Pozsony carefully preserved the amniotic sac that covered the newborn and they held it as
a precious sign if the child is born still within the caul. If the amniotic sac covered the entire head of the child
when he was born, it was called a “royal cap” (pileus regius) and was held in high esteem as a good omen for
the child’s future. If the whole body of the newborn was covered by the amniotic sac, that was also a great
luck for the child (“es ist mi dem gantzen kleid gekommen”). The preserved amniotic sac was pulled over the
father’s hat and was dried and later was put around the child’s neck. It was believed that this apotropaic object
protected the child from all evils. Cf. RAYGER 1691: 122, quoted by MAGYARY-KOSSA 1931: III. 353–354, No.
1283.
81
On molar pregnancy and molar foetus or as István Weszprémi called it “a miraculously accreted form-
less thing”, this lifeless knot, in medical terms: mola hydatiosa see in general: DEÁKY – K RÁSZ 2005: 74. Math-
ias Cornax, the rector of the Faculty of Medicine in Vienna wrote in 1549 about a case of a dead foetus, which
after some months miraculously emerged from the mother’s belly, see the story in VIDA 1994: 130. In another
context, mainly on the basis of oral traditions in literature, we can group here a sermon that Pál Medgyesi,
a Calvinist minister wrote in 1636. In this he described the case of a woman who gave birth to a dog-headed
monster. The alleged cause of this monstrous birth was that the father of the child worked on a feast-day, thus
violated the Ten Commandments. In its typology Medgyesi’s story is similar to the case reported by Georg
Stengel, a Jesuit preacher, in which a dog-headed child was born to a sinful nobleman. For both cases see:
DÖMÖTÖR 1992: 199.
82
LVIII. Wahrnemung. D. Carl Raygers. “Von einem Knaben, der einen jungen Hund durch den Stul von
sich gabe. D[octo]r Rumbaum gedenket eines achtzigjährigen Mannes, welcher zweien junge Hunde durch
Erbrechen von sich gegeben, und die Gräfi n Bathiani erzählte dem D[octo]r Spindler, sie habe selbst gesehen,
das eine durch den Bis eines tollen Hundes rasend gewordene Frau über achtzen weisliche und jungen und erst
frisch geworffenen Hunden vollkommen gleiche Stüke weggebrochen habe. Eine ähnliche Begebenheit truge
sich im vergangenen Oktober in dem zwo Meilen von hier gelegenen Dorfe Raikendorff zu, da ein fünfjäh-
riger Knab, nach vorhergegangenen Grimmen im Leibe ein weisliches und häutiches Stük Fleisch durch den
Hintern von sich gabe, worinnen die Mutter des Kindes, als sie es zerschnitte, einen wolgebildeten jungen
Hund fande. Sie brachte solchen alsbald zu dem Herrn des ortes, dem Herrn Grafen von Forgatsch, welcher ihn
dem D[octo]r Schilpacher überschikte. Dieser wollte den Hund auch mir zeigen, ich ware aber nicht zu Hause;
inzwischen erzählte er mir doch nach einigen Tagen die ganze Begebenheit, und gabe mir die nach dem Leben
gemachte Abbildung, welche ich hier beyfüge. Der Knab, der sich noch gegenwärtig gesund befi ndet, fühlte
zwar nachgehends noch Grimmen in Leibe und muste öfters zu Stul gehen, es kame aber kein Hund mehr zun
Vorschein.” RAYGER 1760: 87 [-RAYGER 1691: 58]. Quoted by MAGYARY-KOSSA 1931: III. 353, No. 1283.
Book 1.indb 435 2009.10.20. 20:39:43

436 Péter TÓTH G.
with the explanations of the disease must have reached Spindler through the wife of Count
Ferenc Batthyány, Éva Lobkowitz Poppel, who herself was involved in healing on a daily
basis and maintained a vast correspondence with physicians, Spindler included. Spindler
went to see Éva Poppel in 1638 and he probably heard the story on that occasion.83
The explanations given for this case must have been deeply influenced by the theory
developed by the second half of the 16th century, which stated that imagination (imaginationis)
could evoke numerous bodily phenomena. This was said to be especially true for causing
development disorders in newborn babies. The imagination – the “astonishment” – of
pregnant women was believed to have an impact on premature labour, deformations (club-
feet) and changes of the skin (moles). Imagination works with the help of a deepening,
strengthening force (potentia conformatrix), the effect of which can be multiplied by the
pregnant woman’s fears and lustful desires. Hence those women, for example, who had
been scared by a wolf during their pregnancy, gave birth to children resembling wolves;
the same happens in the case of a frightening encounter with other animals, frogs or cats.
In the 16th and 17th centuries a great number of illustrious physicians believed in the theory
of “astonishment” of pregnant women.84
Besides Spindler’s observations, Carl Rayger reported his own cases as well, together
with those of Martin Ruland in the journal in which Mercklin too communicated his
findings, the Ephemerides medico-physicae Germanicae curiosae. In 1677 he told the
story of a shoemaker from Szentgyörgy (Sankt Georgen, today’s Svätý Jur, Slovakia), who
could no longer endure the pains that had been tormenting his abdomen for years; thus
he cut his own belly open, and when he was already lying in the coffin, a two-finger-
thick snake left his body.85 In 1678 he reported about a boy who defecated a creature
similar to a puppy.86 Stories about men and women delivering / ejecting animals, dogs or
snakes ran parallel in demonological literature with those cases where demons leave their
possessed victims’ bodies in the form of animals, especially dogs or snakes. Whether they
were considered animals or demons depended on the different viewpoints of demonology
and medical literature.87
83
K INCSES 1993: 37–38, 190, 247.
84
The book of a professor of medicine in Leuven, Thomas Fienus (Feyens) (1567–1631) about the faculty
of imagination (De viribus imaginationis) was published in 1635. In this work he described imagination as
a primary force. This phenomenon had been fi rst described by Paracelsus (1525–1526), then Ambroise Paré
(1552) and the Italian physician Donatello (1556). Several prosecutors make references to the faculty of im-
agination (imaginatio) in a number of witch trials, including the one in 1742 in Fejér county (SCHNEIDER 1934:
19–20; K LANICZAY–K RISTÓF–PÓCS 1989: I. 231–232); also in 1744 at the manor court of the bishopric of Vác
(SCHRAM 1970: I. 466–471, No. 193). In 1768 Panna Németh, a herdswoman from Sorkitótfalu was acquitted
of charges against her on the basis of the reference made to imagination. (SCHRAM 1970: II. 534–543, No. 400).
William Hogarth (1697–1764) drew a caricature in 1726 on the forces of imagination and on the superstitious
fanaticism of “astonishment”, which bears the title Cunicularit or the Wise men of Godliman in Consultation.
The scene showed a famous case of his time, a fraud Maria Troft giving birth to rabbits.
85
RAYGER 1677. Quoted by MAGYARY-KOSSA 1929: I. 103–110.
86
RAYGER 1678: 98. Quoted by MAGYARY–KOSSA 1931: III. 353, No. 1283.
87
Carl Rayger described syphilis as a disease that almost “gnaws” inside the bone of the skull. On the basis of
Paul Spindler’s observation in 1630 he described the case of a dumb beggar from Pozsony, underlining the effect the
“gnawing” made on the skull, where an open wound was made, through which – it was said – even the gangrenous
“brain” could be seen, covered with pus. R AYGER 1691: 1; quoted by MAGYARY-KOSSA 1931: III. 341, No. 1235.
Book 1.indb 436 2009.10.20. 20:39:44

7. From purging objects from the body to expelling worms and demons
The obsession, the fear of being infected by worms, snakes, flies or demons was
regarded by contemporary experts either as a normal sign of a person’s losing his wits or
as an unhealthy result caused by excessive belief in witchcraft. Some experts considered it
as an actual devilish trick by the witches on the sick persons in order to deceive them, or
these were all regarded as facts, as cases of actual bewitchment. Everybody, from priests to
physicians could find his own position in this range of theoretical explanations, regardless
of what he was supposed to claim on the basis of his social position. It was still, at least
until the mid-18th century, a common enterprise for physicians and priests alike to purify
bodies actually infected by real creatures (flies, frogs, lizards, snakes, etc), just as to treat
bodies that were “only” victims of harmful ideas and beliefs.88
That the objects seen or used during exorcism had magical powers was taken for granted
by Lutherans and Catholics alike. Luther – in a story told not without irony – had hit the devil
with an inkwell. His followers, like the previously mentioned Péter Bornemisza, Mihály
Dobokay or Georg Buchholtz, complemented the power of the Scriptures with the force
of wooden clubs. The Franciscan friars in the following story also equipped themselves
with a wide range of writing instruments before they attempted exorcism. Lajos Katona
published (1902) a little book, an exorcist’s manual, which circulated in manuscript form
in the second half of the 18th century. It recounted a case that occurred in 1665 in Bavaria.
This booklet described in great detail the procedure of an exorcist ritual. The uniqueness
of this work consisted in the fact that it significantly enlarged the modus operandi defined
by the Catholic ritual. As Katona formulated it: “this book does not content itself with the
customary ways but outlines sophisticated and very detailed methods.” In order to enhance
the power of prayers, “objects with miraculous powers or what is the same, magical
powers” were also applied. Not only the “usual” materials (incense or holy water) but also
all sorts of blessed objects that the Church prescribed for rather different occasions, with
rather different meaning. The procedure that the booklet recommended and described, was
– in Katona’s rendering – the following:
First of all one should make a piece of paper with magical powers, which, due
to the words written on it and the stamp it bears, would drive the devil (or devils)
out of the possessed person or thing. The very material of this piece of paper should
be exorcised beforehand, for which there is a separate formula. In the same way one
should make appropriate the other objects that serve for the writing, the ink and the
pen. Afterwards comes the blessing of the stamp. After describing the origin of this
process, on the last pages the ingredients of the stamp-wax are enumerated in a long
list that includes almost all the sacred objects of the Church. On page 19 there is an
88
The objectification of the melancholic imagination was reported in the journal Magyar Hírmondó in its
issue of March 22, 1784. The wife of József Lakatos, a gypsy woman from Komárom, when she was pregnant,
around the days of Carnival, wished to eat some fish sold at the market. She wanted to make a soup but at the
end she could not buy any of the fish she saw. As a result, so the journal says, she gave birth to two monsters,
one with the head of a herring, the other with the head of a carp. The author of the news interpreted the event
on the basis of natural science, namely, that the sight of the fish-heads and the force of imagination caused the
formation of fish-heads in the uterus.
Book 1.indb 437 2009.10.20. 20:39:44

438 Péter TÓTH G.
instruction about how to use the piece of paper prepared in this way: anyone who wears
it on his body as a talisman or amulet will remain free from all kinds of devilish harm.
But anyone who is already under such a harmful spell should even eat the magical
writing. It should be administered in the same way to cattle bewitched by witches or
any other sort of devilish trickery (maleficium), or if they have horns, the paper should
be at least put into a hole made in the horn.89
The booklet lists other ways in which the piece of paper prepared in this way can be
useful. If buried in the garden or hidden in the house it protects against natural calamities
such as tempests caused by witches, or worms. Similarly it can provide protection for
agricultural buildings, the mill, the cellar, and the storehouse and they are excellent
remedies in case of difficult labour or illnesses. In short, they are efficacious for everything
the medieval Church protected with its beneficia, its “white magic” but what the Protestant
Churches and the official line of the Catholic Church dismissed from the 16th – 17th centuries
as superstitious acts.90 Perhaps only the Franciscans were in a privileged position to revive
and transmit this tradition into the folk culture of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Besides purifying the surroundings and the household by means of the magia naturalis,
or influencing the weather with the help of the beneficia, a similarly important task was to
find, transfer, expel and destroy the objects, worms and demons which possessed the body.
Several writers contributed to this topic in Hungary as well, among them Máté János Samorjai
(1585–1652), a Calvinist minister, who wrote about the “phenomena of devilish temptations”
with the aim of creating a Protestant manual of exorcism for his fellow believers:
We live then by reading this and that parts of the Holy Scriptures and above all, by
praying and fasting, so that we could receive God’s help in driving away Satan.91
Purifying the “infected” body was equally important for the Catholics of the period as
well, all the more, because propagating the authentic ways of exorcism strengthened the
authority of the Church. The Eger province for example published a separate book (Rituale
Agriensis, 1666), providing a simplified exorcist ritual for the use of the priest:
The exorcist should avoid to administer or advise any sort of medicine to the
patient or the possessed; this treatment is to be left to the physician. […] While he is
performing exorcism, he should use the words of the Holy Scriptures rather than his
own or those of others. And he should command the devil to tell him if he keeps some
magical thing or evil sign or tool within the possessed person’s body and to vomit
it out. Or if there are such objects outside of the body, he should reveal where. The
exorcist must burn the “found object”.92
89
KATONA 1902: 60–70, 105–107.
90
T HOMAS 1970: 570–583, 591; CLARK 1997: 294–311. For the opinion of Pelbárt Temesvári on this issue
see: TEMESVÁRI 1499/1982: 319–320.
91
SAMORJAI 1636: 213.
92
Rituale Agriense 1666: 288–319. (The quotation here is from István Sugár’s Hungarian translation
(1987: 267–280).
Book 1.indb 438 2009.10.20. 20:39:45

8. Summary
The tasks of physicians and priests in expelling demons were divided according to
whether they applied medicines or worked with the power of words. Both parties (doctor
and priest, Catholic and Protestant alike) agreed that the person who performed magic,
“infected” by the evil spirit, could be saved from damnation only through the “cure”
provided by the executioner. In such cases only the harshest methods were thought to
be efficacious, but they could help only the corrupted victims not the magic-making
persons themselves. From the Catholic and Protestant point of view “correct” exorcism
and spiritual healing had a lot at stake. It was not by chance that the issue was addressed
on both sides with great attention and with the involvement of the wider public. At the
end of the 16th century the Catholic and Protestant Churches in Hungary had been fighting
as if in a duel for the spiritually sick patients and for their successful cure. Right after its
establishment in Transylvania in 1584, the Order of the Jesuits announced their effective
methods of exorcism in competition with the Protestant denominations, which became
famous for their potent activity in 1587 in the neighbourhood of Kolozsvár. Mihály Tofeus
(1624–1684), the Transylvanian Calvinist bishop fought a battle with the Catholic priests
of Gyulafehérvár over a brusque peasant who declared and felt himself to be “demoniac”.
After the Papist priests did not succeed in expelling the demon from the man, the Calvinist
bishop dragged out a snake from the man, severely commanding the creature to leave and
relying also on medical assistance. With this he pointed out on the one hand the impotence
of the Catholics’ healing powers, while on the other hand he undermined the credibility of
their diagnosis, since it was not the devil but only a worm that he expelled from the pseudo-
possessed man.93
We can bring a counter-example as well of discrediting the other party. In 1730 Antal
Városi, the dean of the Jesuit College in Trencsén (Trentschin, today’s Trenčín, Slovakia)
wrote a letter to certify that after some testing, they dismissed a certain Vencel Mlinarik,
a supposedly possessed man, saying that he was not possessed but at worst a foolish
“hypochondriac”. This statement was confirmed by two other priests, György Palkovics
from Illava and Márton Halacz from Kohanócz (today’s Ilava and Kohanovce, Slovakia).
However, these clerical statements were not made to illustrate the progressive knowledge
of the Jesuits but only for the sake of discrediting the Lutheran minister Daniel Kermann
(1663–1740) at the court of justice. Because Kermann, after the Jesuits had let the sick
man go, accepted to cure him of his “melancholy”, his depressed frame of mind and his
possession and at the same time he also converted his patient to Luther’s teachings. This
conversion, however, was contrary not only to ecclesiastical laws but to secular laws as
well, a fact the Catholic Church used to have Kermann arrested and demanded the death
penalty for him as a result of a juridical process. According to the accusations, as a result of
Kermann’s deception there were no demons who left the sick man but “only” mice. 94
93
The story was recorded by Mihály Cserei (1668–1756), the steward (dapifer) of the ruler Mihály Apafi I,
in his chronicle (published in 1852) written in Hungarian. This is quoted by MAGYARY-KOSSA 1908: 276; 1929:
II. 104–105.
94
R. K ISS 1905: 210–219; K LANICZAY–K RISTÓF–PÓCS 1989: II. 864–865. For the trial of Daniel Kermann
see: ZSILINSZKY 1889; 1899. In 1732 Kermann, with the consent of King Charles III, was sentenced to life im-
prisonment. He died in prison in 1740 after being forced to convert on his deathbed (the host was put into the
Book 1.indb 439 2009.10.20. 20:39:45

440 Péter TÓTH G.
Fig. 1. Cunicular or the Wise men of Godliman in Consultation. The scene showed a famous case of his time,
a fraud Maria Troft giving birth to rabbits. / by William Hogarth (1697–1764) – 1726
The common denominator of these two stories is that both sides degraded a
demonological problem into a medical issue. Hence they deprived the practice of exorcism
of all its mysticism and charismatic power, regardless of the fact that this was what both of
them wanted to avoid, on their own side.
We could see in the above examples how much the social roles of the involved
figures were interwoven in the 17th century and at the beginning of the 18th century: that
of the exorcist priest who forced the sick soul to confess, the physician who purified
the body with purges, and the witch-hunter who applied physical torture (the judges,
the inquisitor, the executioner). A sharp dividing line among these professions emerged
only in the period of the Enlightenment, when it was no longer the representatives of the
Catholic and Protestant Churches who fought over the authenticity of their own methods
of exorcism but religion faced physicians in the debate between ‘exorcism versus healing
with scientific methods’. In 1735 Johann Georg Heinrich Krämer (1684–1742), an Austrian
military physician in service in the Temes region reported in the international journal
called Commercium Litterarum Noricum that he managed to cure a man “pretending”
devilish possession with the correct use of medicines. This event was significant because
the sick man had turned previously to the Jesuits who tried unsuccessfully to expel the
devil from him.95
mouth of the dead man). William Hogarth (1697–1764) ridiculed the “mice-chasing” stories similar to this one
in his drawings made in 1761 showing the hypocritical preachers.
95
WESPREMI 1787/1970: 402–403.
Book 1.indb 440 2009.10.20. 20:39:46

Fig. 2. Creddulity, Superstition and Fanaticism / by William Hogarth – 1761, a
From the 17th century it was the physician’s task to cure the patient who was infected
inside by a certain object or worms, it was the doctor who had to remove and destroy the
objects and to re-establish the balance of the bodily humours, to purge the worms hiding
in the intestines of the patient. Expelling a demon or the devil, however, was assigned
since the Middle Ages to priests, Catholics and Protestants alike. With the Enlightment the
ecclesiastical character of this purging–exorcising activity was questioned and pushed to the
periphery of society. At the same time the medical aspects of such issues were strengthened
and soon became the focus of public attention. While a physician in the Middle Ages and
in the Early Modern period was depicted analysing a medical flask filled with urine (that
is, as a passive diagnostic figure), in the 18th and 19th centuries the favourite object used in
representing doctors (especially in caricatures) was the clyster syringe used for enemas, an
active and universal tool of healing.96
96
HELFAND –JULIEN 1976: 1145–1170; VIDA 1994: 21–22.
Book 1.indb 441 2009.10.20. 20:39:50

442 Péter TÓTH G.
Fig. 3. Der Enthusiasmus / by William Hogarth – 1761, b
Book 1.indb 442 2009.10.20. 20:39:56

Fig. 4. Carl Rayger attached the sketch of the puppy

(Nürnberg, Abhandlungen, Vol. VIII. Art. LVIII.) Rayger 1760, 87.
Book 1.indb 443 2009.10.20. 20:40:02

444 Péter TÓTH G.
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1654: Rosetum Historiarum. Das ist: Historischer Rosengarten. Darinen aus vielen bewehrten
Historicis kurtze und denckwürdige Historien / als liebliche Rosen /abgebrochen / mit
füglichen Sententien teutsch und lateinisch gezieret / aus welchen man den guten Geruch
allerley Tugenden kan nehmen / hingegen die Laster als spitzige Stacheln fliehen und
meiden. Gedruckt zu Zwickau, bey und in Verlegung Melchior Göpners und Andreæ
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HELFAND, William. H. – JULIEN, Pierre
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HERNER, János
1988: Bornemisza Anna megbűvöltetése. Boszorkányok Erdély politikai küzdelmeiben, 1678–
1688 [The bewitchment of Anna Bornemisza. Witches in the political struggles in
Transylvania, 1678–1688. (Study written and documents published by H. J.) Magyar
Tudományos Akadémia Könyvtára: Budapest–Szeged.
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HODOSSY, Imre
1902: Feltételes ítéletek boszorkányperekben [Conditional judgements in witchcraft trials].
Jogtudományi Közlöny XXXVII: 221–222.
HOLLANDER, Eugen
1905: Die Karikatur und Satire in der Medizin. Ferdinand Enke: Stuttgart.
HONKO, Lauri
1959: Krankheitsprojektile: Untersuchung über eine urtümliche Krankheitserklärung. (Folklore
Fellows’ Communications, 178.) Academia Scientiarum Fennica: Helsinki.
HUET, Marie-Helene
1983: Living Images: Monstrosity and Representation. Representations, No. 4. (Autumn): 73–87
HUNTER, Michael
2005: New Light on the ‘Drummer of Tedworth’: Conflicting Narratives of Witchcraft in Restora-
tion England. Historical Research, Vol. 78, Issue 201: 311–353.
IPOLYI, Arnold
1854: Magyar Mythologia [Hungarian Mythology]. Heckenast Gusztáv: Pest. [Reprint, Európa:
Budapest, 1987]
KATONA, Lajos
1902: XVII. századbeli ördögűző könyvecske [17th-century exorcism booklet]. Ethnographia
XIII: 60–70, 105–107.
KECSKEMÉTI, Gábor
1988: Magyar nyelvű halotti beszédek a XVII. századból [17th-century Hungarian-language
funeral orations]. MTA Irodalomtudományi Intézete: Budapest.
1998: Prédikáció, retorika, irodalomtörténet. A magyar nyelvű halotti beszéd a 17. században
[Sermon, rhetoric, literary history. The Hungarian funeral oration in the 17th century].
(Historia Litteraria 5.) Universitas: Budapest.
KEREZT FÁRA Fel-feszéttetett,
1706: Kerezt Fára Fel-feszéttetett, avagy Kereszten meg-haló Jesus Férjfiakbúl, és Azszony
állatokbúl álló Congregatioójának, Mely A’ szeréncsés e’ Világbúl való ki mulásnak, és
a’ Purgatoriumban gyoetroedoe Lelkek meg-szabadulásának el-nyerésére rendeltetett,
Méltóságos Esztergami Ersektoel Lippai Gyoergytoel, A’ Jesus Társaságának Nagy-
Szombati Templomában, 1660. Esztendoeben, Es az x. Innocentius Romai Pápátúl meg-
eroessittetett, Regulái, Búcsúi, és némely bizonyos Ajtatossági. Nyomtattatott. Nagy-
Szombatban. 1706. Esztendoeben [For the congregation of men and women of the Jesus
who was crucified and died on the crosss, sent to free the fortunate souls departed from
this world and suffering in Purgatory, by György Lippai, Archbishop of Esztergom, in the
Church of the Society of Jesus in Nagyszombat, 1660. And the Rules, Indulgences and
some reliable prayers reinforced by Pope Innocent X. Printed in Nagyszombat in the year
1706.]. = RMK I., 1719.
KINCSES, Katalin
1993: „Im küttem én orvosságot”. Lobkowitz Poppel Éva levelezése 1622–1640 [“I have sent
you medicine.” Correspondence of Éva Lobkowitz Poppel 1622–1640]. (Régi magyar
történelmi források 3.) ELTE Középkori és Kora Újkori Magyar Történeti Tanszék –
Koraújkori Társaság: Budapest.
KLANICZAY, Gábor – KRISTÓF, Ildikó – PÓCS, Éva (eds.)
1989: Magyarországi boszorkányperek. Kisebb forráskiadványok gyűjteménye 1–2. [Witchcraft
trials in Hungary. Collection of shorter source publications 1–2]. MTA Néprajzi Kutató
Csoport: Budapest.
KOMÁROMY, András
1901: A kolozsvári boszorkányperekről [The witchcraft trials in Kolozsvár]. Erdélyi Múzeum
XVIII: 185–201.
KOMÁROMY, Andor (ed.)
1910: Magyarországi boszorkányperek oklevéltára [Select documents on witchcraft trials in
Hungary]. Magyar Tudományos Akadémia: Budapest.
Book 1.indb 446 2009.10.20. 20:40:04

KOPCHANI, Michael
1643: Narratio Rei Admirabilis ab Posonium gestæ, De Spiritu quodam, à 24. Julii, Anni M.DC.
XLI. usque ad 29. Junii, Anni M.DC.XLII. ex Purgatorio cuidam Virgini apparente, loquente,
auxilium petente, ac tandem liberato. Decerpta ex Juratis Testibus & Actis publicis, quæ
asservantur in Tabulario, seu Archivo Ven. Capituli Posoniensis. Evulgata Auctoritate &
Jussu Ill.mi ac Rev. mi Domini Georgii Lippai, Electi Archiepiscopi Strigoniensis. Impressa
Posonii, Anno Domini M.DC.XLIII. = RMK II 629 = RMNY III 2019
KUKULJEVIĆ SAKCINSKI, Ivan
1852: Razvidjenje vrhu ukazanja duše pokojnoga biskupa senjskoga Jačinta Dimitra, godine
1699. [The false apparition of Hyacint Dimitr’s soul (the bishop of Zengg/Senj) in 1699].
Arkiv za povjestnicu jugoslavensku II: 320–324.
KULCSÁR, Péter
2003/2004: Inventarium de operibus litterariis ad res Hungaricas pertinentibus ab initiis usque
ad annum 1700 / A magyar történeti irodalom lelőhelyjegyzéke a kezdetektől 1700-ig.
Balassi: Budapest. [http://www.bkiado.hu/netre/]
LÁNI, Zachariáš
1643: Pseudo–spiritus Posoniensis [The false apparition of Pressburg], a neb saud o falessném
duchu presspurském … k tomu přičiněná gest (Luciferi papistici) Dennice papeženské
od Thomásse Belawia kanonyka presspurského, rodjče njžnoslačského znowu rozžaté
rozptylens[!] ... Včinene od mágistra Zacharyásse Lany, zpráwce cýrkwe trenčanské
a cýrkwj ewangelických w kragjch trenčanském, liptowském a orawském zřjzeného
superintendenta. [Trenčín] léta Páně 1643 [Dorota Vokálová]. = RMK II 634 = RMNY
III 2034
LUTHER, Márton
1983: Asztali beszélgetések. [Tischreden, Wittenberg, 1566] Helikon: Budapest.
MAGYARY-KOSSA, Gyula
1908: Kígyó az emberben [Snakes in humans]. Ethnographia XIX: 274–281.
1929: Magyar orvosi emlékek. Értekezések a magyar orvostörténelem köréből I–II. [From the
past of Hungarian medicine. Essays on Hungarian medical history I–II] Magyar Orvosi
Könyvkiadó Társulat: Budapest.
1931: Magyar orvosi emlékek. Értekezések a magyar orvostörténelem köréből III. [From the
past of Hungarian medicine. Essays on Hungarian medical history III] Magyar Orvosi
1940: Magyar orvosi emlékek. Értekezések a magyar orvostörténelem köréből IV [From the
past of Hungarian medicine. Essays on Hungarian medical history IV]. Magyar Orvosi
MARIA halalra valtaknak
1647: MARIA halalra valtaknak es meg-holtaknak annya uj gyölekezetinek rend-tartasa
Posomban, Sz(ent) Márton egy-házában helyheztetett Bóldog Aszszonyunk képe-elött,
mely a’ purgatorium-béli lelkek meg-szabadulásokért... tiszteltetik. Kezdetett felseges III.
Ferdinand chászár, magyar és cheh-országi király kegyelmes jovallásából. Alkottatott...
Lippai György esztergami ersek és magyar-országi primas-által, mind ö felsége uduari sok
tekéntetes és nagyságos urak, s-mind más fejedelmi méltosag-béliek s-nemzetes szémelyek
[!] aítatos ohaitásokra. Posomban 1647 [Before the image of Our Blessed Lady revered …
for the liberation of souls from purgatory, placed in Saint Martin’s Church of the order of
the new congregation of Mary, Mother of the dead, in Pozsony. At the gracious command of
Emperor Ferdinand III, King of Hungary and the Czech Lands. Created… by György Lippai,
Bishop of Esztergom and Primate of Hungary, at the pious wish of many respected and great
lords of his majesty’s court, and of dignitaries and nobles of other principalities. Pozsony,
1647]. [typ. Societatis Jesu] Aksamitek Zacharias. = RMK I 797 = RMNY III 2188
MATIRKÓ, Bertalan
1890: Egy szepességi népmondáról [A folk legend from the Szepesség region]. Ethnographia
I: 261–273.
Book 1.indb 447 2009.10.20. 20:40:05

448 Péter TÓTH G.
MERCKLIN, Georg Abraham

1698: Sylloge physico-medicinalium casuum incantationi vulgo adscribi solitorum. Sexaginta
casus, maxime prae caeteris memorabiles, complectens; cum sebnexis eorundem judiciis
et curationibus. Johann Friedrich Rüdigeri: Norimbergae.
MÜLLER, Friedrich
1854: Beiträge zur Geschichte des Hexenglaubens und des Hexenprozesses in Siebenbürgen.
Braunschweig.
PÁPAI PÁRIZ, Ferenc
1984: Pax corporis (Szablyár Ferenc szerk.) [Edited by Ferenc Szablyár]. Magyar Hírmondó 9.
Magvető Kiadó: Budapest. [Kolozsvár, 1695]
PETTKÓ, Béla
1901: Kapisztrán János levelezése a magyarokkal [The correspondence of John of Capistrano
with the Hungarians]. Történelmi Tár 24: 161–223.
PÓCS, Éva
1983: Gondolatok a magyarországi boszorkányperek néprajzi vizsgálatához [Thoughts for the
ethnological investigation of witchcraft trials in Hungary]. Ethnographia XCIV: 134–
146.
2001: Démoni megszállottság és ördögűzés a közép-kelet-európai népi hiedelemrendszerekben
[Demonic possession and exorcism in the folk beliefs of Central Eastern Europe. In Pócs,
Éva (ed.): Demonológia és boszorkányság Európában [Demonology and witchcraft in
Europe]. (Studia Ethnologia Hungarica 1.) L’Harmattan: Budapest: 137–198.
R. KISS, István
1905: Történeti adalékok a boszorkányság és ördöngősség hiedelméhez [Historical data on belief
in witchcraft and diabolical arts]. Ethnographia XVI: 210–219.
RÁKÓCZI, Katalin:
1987: Medizinisches im Predigt-Büchlein des Querfurters David Reuss – verfasst in der
ungarischen Bergstadt Kremnitz. In Wolfram Kaiser–Arina Völker (Hg.): Montanmedizin
und Bergbauwissenschaften. Hallesches Symposium, 1986. (Wissenschaftliche Beiträge
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Martin-Luther-Universität: Halle/Saale, 77–84.
2004: Tizenöt prédikáció a pestisről. David Reuss prédikációs könyve [Fifteen sermons on the
plague. Book of sermons of David Reuss]. Orvostörténeti Közlemények 186–187: 63–76.
RAYGER, Karl D. Ä.
1677: De serpente ex homine post mortem prorepente. In: Miscellanea curiosa medico-physica seu
Ephemerides medico-physicae Germanicae curiosae. Decuriae I. Annus VI–VII. Obs. 215.
1678: De foetu canino a puero per aluum excreto. In: Miscellanea curiosa medico-physica seu
Ephemerides medico-physicae Germanicae curiosae. Decuriae I. Annus VIII. Obs. 58.
1691: Observationum medicinalium Centuria A. D. Paulo Spindlero Posonii consignata, studio
et opera Caroli Raygeri collecta, in ordinem redacta, scholiis propiisque observationibus
aucta. Accessit D. Mart. Rulandi Sen. thesaurus medicus, continens aurea medicamenta,
omni aetate et sexu, contra omnes morbos [Paulo Spindlero hic Posonii potissimum
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propriisque observationibus aucta] Francofurti ad Moenum.
1760: LVIII. Wahrnemung. D. Carl Raygers. In: Der Römisch-Kaiserlichen Akademie der
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Abhandlungen, Nürnberg, VIII. (1760) 87.
RÉTHLY, Antal
1962: Időjárási események és elemi csapások Magyarországon a kezdetektől 1700-ig [Weather
events and natural catastrophes in Hungary from the beginnings to 1700]. Akadémiai
Kiadó: Budapest.
REUSS, David
1581: Fünfzehn kurtze Predigten über den 91. Psalm Davids. Leipzig, 1581–1582. = RMK III
708
Book 1.indb 448 2009.10.20. 20:40:06

RITUALE AGRIENSE
1666: Rituale Agriense, seu formula agendorum in administratione sacramentorum, ac coeteris
Ecclesiae publicis functionibus. Pottendorf, Hieronymus Verdussen, 288–319.
ROGERS, Spencer L.
1944: Disease Concepts in North America. American Anthropologist, N. S. 46: 559–564.
SAMORJAI, János
1636: Az Helvetiai vallason levoe Ecclesiaknak egyhazi ceremoniajokrol, es rend tartasokrol
valo koenyvetske. Az egyuegyueveknek roevid tanétásokra koez akaratbol irattatott.
SAMORJAI JANOS Halászi Predicátor által. Lőcsén nyomtatta Brever Loerintz. [Little
book on the church ceremonies and orders of churches following the Swiss religion. Written
at common request for the brief instruction of the simple-minded by JÁNOS SAMORJAI
Preacher from Halász. Printed in Lőcse by Brever Loerintz.] = RMK I 662 = RMNY III
1654
SCHNEIDER, Alois
1982: Exempelkatalog zu den „Iudicia Divina” des Jesuiten Georg Stengel von 1651. 2 Tle.
Würzburg. (Veröffentlichungen zur Volkskunde und Kulturgeschichte 12.)
SCHNEIDER, Miklós
1934: Fejérmegyei boszorkányperek [Witchcraft trials in Fejér County]. Vörösmarty Nyomda:
Székesfehérvár.
SCHRAM, Ferenc (ed.)
1970: Magyarországi boszorkányperek I–II [Witchcraft trials in Hungary I–II]. Akadémiai
Kiadó: Budapest.
1982: Magyarországi boszorkányperek III [Witchcraft trials in Hungary III]. Akadémiai Kiadó:
Budapest.
SIGERIST, Henry Ernest
1963: Anfänge der Medizin. Von der primitiven und archaischen Medizin bis zum Goldenen
Zeitalter in Griechenland. Europa: Zürich.
SPRENGER, Jacob – KRÄMER, Heinrich
1580: Malleus maleficarum in tres Divisvs partes. Concurrentia ad maleficia, In quibus
Maleficiorum effectus, Remedia aduersus maleficia, Et modus deniq; procedendi, ac
puniendi Maleficos abunde continetur, pracipue autem omnibus Inquisitoribus, & diuini
verbi Concionatoribus vtilis, ac necessarius. Francofurti: apud Nicolaum Basseum [http://
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SZERÉMI, György
1961: Magyarország romlásáról [The decay of Hungary]. Monumenta Hungarica V. Budapest:
Magyar Helikon. [The Hungarian text is based on: Emlékirata Magyarország romlásáról,
1484–1534 [Memorandum on the decay of Hungary, 1484–1534]. Pest, Akadémia, Magyar
Történelmi Emlékek 1., 1857.] Translated by: Erdélyi, László and Juhász, László.
TAKÁTS, Sándor
1921: Lélekjárás [Revenants]. In T. S.: A régi Magyarország jókedve [The good cheer of old
Hungary]. Athenaeum: Budapest, 230–239.
TÁLLYAI, Pál
2001: Istvánffy Miklós magyarokról írt históriája. Tállyai Pál XVII. századi fordításában.
Sajtó alá rendezte Benits Péter [History of the Hungarians by Miklós Istvánffy. In the
17th-century translation by Pál Tállyai. Edited by Benits, Péter]. (Történelmi források I.)
Balassi Kiadó: Budapest.
TAXONYI, Joann
1743: Az emberek erköltsei és az Isten igazsága tükreinek az-az: némelly ritka és válogatott
történeteknek II. könyve, a mellyet, a mint az első könyvét, azon kegyes pátronusának, Biró
Istvánnak … bő-kezű költségével ki-botsátott. (k. 8-r. 521 és 16 l.) [Mirror of human morals
and the truth of God, or: Book II of rare and selected histories which, like the first book, have
been printed at the generous expense of … István Biró.] Streibig Gergely János: Győr.
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450 Péter TÓTH G.
TEMESVÁRI, Pelbárt
1499/1982: Sermones Pomerij de sanctis comportati per fratrem Pelbartum de Themeswar
professum diui ordinis sancti Francisci: impressi ac diligenter reuisi per industrium
Henricum Gran in imperiali oppido Hagenaw: expensis ac sumptibus prouidi Johannis
rymman Finiunt feliciter: Anno ab incarnatione domini millesimo quaterque centesimo
nonagesimonono: vigesima die Februarij. Hagenaw, Henricus Gran & Johannis Rymman,
1499. [= RMK III 49. = Temesvári Pelbárt válogatott írásai (Selected writings of Pelbárt
Temesvári). V. Kovács, Sándor ed. Európa: Budapest.]
THOMAS, Keith
1970: Religion and the Decline of Magic. Weidenfeld & Nicolson: London.
THORNDIKE, Lynn
1958: A History of Magic and Experimental Science. Vol. 1–8. Columbia University Press: New
York.
TRAUSCH, Josephus (ed.)
1847: Chronicon Fuchsio [Marc Fuchs] Lupino [Christian Wolfgang Lupinus] Oltardinum
[Johan Oltard] sive Annales Hungarici et Transsilvanici. (1568–1618, 1618–1630) II.
Coronae.
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1901: Adatok a gyógyászat történetéhez Pozsonyban. [On the history of medicine in Pozsony].
Pozsony.
VAN HELMONT, Jean Baptiste
1648: Ortus Medicinae, id est Initia Physica Inaudita Progressus medicinae novus, in morborum
ultionem ad Vitam longam. Elzevir: Amsterdam.
VÁSÁRHELYI, Gergely
1623: Vilag kezdetitöl fogva iosagos es gonosz czelekedeteknek példáinak summái. Szent Irasnak
O és Uy Testamentomabol, szent atyaknak es pogán bölczeknek irásibol. Marosvasarhelyi
Gergely által fordittattak és irattattak. [Examples of good and evil deeds from the beginning
of the world. From the Old and New Testaments, the writings of holy fathers and pagan
philosophers. Translated and written by Gergely Marosvasarhelyi] Kassa [Kolozsvár
1622] = RMK I 528 = RMNY II 1289
VEGA RAMOS, María José
1995: La monstruosidad y el signo: formas de la presignificación en el renacimiento y la reforma.
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– Scriptum: Szeged.
VOETIUS, Gisbertus
1655: Selectarum disputationum theologicarum pars secunda. Dissertatio Theologicarum Pars
II. Ultrajecti, apud Johannem Waesberge. Anno M D C LV. = RMK III 6345
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1893: A boszorkányságról, különös tekintettel a Szepességre [On witchcraft, with special regard
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1774/1960: Succinta Medicorum Hungariae et Transilvaniae Biographia. Centuria tertia, Decas
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Dániel Kermann, Lutheran bishop (1663–1740). Müller: Budapest.
Book 1.indb 451 2009.10.20. 20:40:07

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Acta Ethnographica Hungarica, 54 (2), pp.

OBJECTS, WORMS, DEMONS.

1. Identifying the problem

1216–9803/$ 20.00 © 2009 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest

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2. Case studies: analysing particular miraculous events

Book 1.indb 412 2009.10.20. 20:39:30

Book 1.indb 413 2009.10.20. 20:39:31

3. The diagnostic literature on miraculous and natural events

Book 1.indb 414 2009.10.20. 20:39:31

Book 1.indb 415 2009.10.20. 20:39:32

4. Case studies of objects thrown in the air

In 1685 Mihály Buday and György Pásztohi were conducting an investigation at

Book 1.indb 416 2009.10.20. 20:39:33

By the candlelight – that the maidservant remembered to bring – we could see

Book 1.indb 417 2009.10.20. 20:39:33

The Protestant inhabitants of the town of Füzes in Szolnok-Doboka county (today’s

Book 1.indb 418 2009.10.20. 20:39:33

Book 1.indb 419 2009.10.20. 20:39:34

Book 1.indb 420 2009.10.20. 20:39:35

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Book 1.indb 423 2009.10.20. 20:39:36

5. Objects within the body as proofs for magic

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6. Worms in the body as material evidence

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Daniel Fischer (1695–1746), a physician in Késmárk and Zemplén county wrote a

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According to Mercklin an illness can be attributed to bewitchment when natural causes

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Fig. 2. Creddulity, Superstition and Fanaticism / by William Hogarth – 1761, a

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Fig. 3. Der Enthusiasmus / by William Hogarth – 1761, b

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Fig. 4. Carl Rayger attached the sketch of the puppy

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MERCKLIN, Georg Abraham

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