Herbal Cunning as an Indicium of Witchcraft

by Daniel A. Schulke

The legal term indicium was employed in sorcery and witchcraft trials of the Middle Ages through the early modern era, used to denote an "indication" or evidence, of the crime. Indicia of witchcraft could number in the scores or even hundreds, some of the better known among them were marks on the body and the presence in the home of such animals as toads. Not all were equal in gravity; certain of the indicia were, for example, considered sufficient for torture (indicium ad torturam), while others were given considerably less standing. Among these evidences, which for centuries filled inquisitors' manuals and judicial tractates, were a number of curious indicia involving the magical use of plants and herbs. Though ascribed to the power of the Devil, such magical herbal practices do not conform to the better-known indicia characterised by inversion of Christian ritual, such as profanation of the host, and in many cases likely represent traditional folk-systems of occult herbalism.

Though this phenomenon is of interest to researchers of such diverse disciplines as inquisition studies, plant and drug prohibition, and legal history, my investigation falls within the realm of the History of Magic. My aims are to document several such plant-related indicia, to briefly examine the diversity of their scope, and to highlight certain exemplars showing that, regardless of its relation to the inquisitorial witch-construct, the herbal folk-knowledge proscribed by authorities was valued not only by those charged of the crime of witchcraft, but also by those who persecuted them.

Because what constituted indicia of witchcraft or sorcery was the subject of vigorous debate in differing legal circles, both according to secular or religious authority, and over the course of time, I have used the term herein to refer to a set of evidences of the crimes of witchcraft and sorcery within the inquisitorial mind. While this usage is general and does not strictly conform to specific legal parameters of any given trial or clerical circle, it does serve to identify the 'evidences' as belonging to the legal armament of the persecutors. Where inquisitional tracts are cited herein I have relied mostly upon Henry Charles Lea's Materials Toward a History of Witchcraft, which surveys a great number of texts, both well-known and obscure.

Inquisitorial Condemnation of Plant Knowledge and Ritual

While plant-related indicia were rarely sufficient, on their own, to secure conviction, they formed an important component of the corpus of charges against the accused. One such indicium, though variable in its parameters, was typified by the act of ritually gathering herbs. Among the many charges brought against one Jubertus of Bavaria in the Dauphine witchcraft trials of 1428-47 was the gathering, on the feast of St. John, "certain herbs for medicine, as specified in the proceedings, and on bended knees he first adored them, then extracting them in the name of his devils, and in despite of Almighty God, creator of all."1 An anonymous inquisitional document circa 1460, La Vauderye de Lyonois en brief, includes a list of some of the diabolic acts of witches, including "gathering herbs at certain times and with certain conjurations, with which they work evil…" The same source claims that witches pay tribute to the Devil with some kind of grain, on pain of a beating. Another fascinating instance can be gleaned from the pages of Commentarius en Titulum Codices lib. IX de Maleficis Mathematicis Et Cetera, written by Peter Binsfield in 1622. In his list of indicia, or indications proof of sorcery and witchcraft he includes:

8. Finding in his possession a book on magic, or things instrumental in sorcery, as a jar full of ointments or magical things. This is so vehement that I deem it sufficient for torture if there is the slightest additional support… A most urgent indicium which suffices for torture is two persons seeing a woman standing in water and throwing it back into the air, or a man in summer striking a stone when a tempest is threatened, or a woman gathering flowers from various trees and putting them into a pot. [emphasis mine]

Bernard Gui's 1315 Inquisitorial handbook Practica oficii Inquistiones condemns magics using fruits and herbs, as well as collecting herbs on bended knee while facing the East and praying the Lord's Prayer, but earlier clerical works long predating the witch trials reflect similar concerns, and are indicative of some level of magical tradition with regard to herb-gathering. The 8th-century text Indiculus Superstitionum et Paganarium, emerging from the circle of Boniface, was a list of condemned religious practices, mostly pagan, excluded as anti-Christian. Among them were various animistic magical praxes involving plants, such as tree worship, and long before this, St. Martin of Tours had explicitly condemned those who muttered incantations over herbs. Such magical practices, despite their anti-pagan gloss, were well in accord with the herb magic of late antiquity, in which incanting the virtues into plants before they were ritually harvested was a widespread feature2; and many of the plant-related indicium reflect the outlines of such practices. Despite the passage of nearly two millennia, numerous traditional European herb-gathering charms of almost identical structure have been documented as surviving up to the present day, as with the Romanian rituals of gathering Mandrake and Belladonna.3Given the prevalence of such practices in antiquity, as well as their survival into the modern era, one may reasonably posit pagan herb-magic survivals during witch-persecutions.

Sometimes simply the knowledge of herbs was sufficient to be considered an indicium. Among the mass of initial evidence brought against the infamous Mathias Perger in the Tyrol in 1645 was being 'skilled in herbs and roots' and having 'an herb against worms', both qualities certainly the innocuous marks of a folk-healer. Describing in 1557 the characteristics of witches, Jerome Cardan writes in De Rerum Varietate that "these uncultured women are wise in the virtues of herbs and cure the most difficult diseases, and some even predict the future."

Going beyond the notion of herbal knowledge as evil, or at least suspect, is the idea that Nature herself is the source of the forbidden power. Francisco de Toledo, Cardinal of Cordova, writes in the mid-1500's in his Instructio Sacerdotum:

Demons work by a number of ways including by applying natural causes and hastening action, for they know the nature and qualities of all things. They will often make a tree grow by planting the seed…"

In essence, the good cardinal attributes the powers of Nature, specifically the generative force of vegetal reproduction, to demons. In De Agnoscendis Assertionibus Catholicis et Haereticis Tractatus, written in 1572, Arnaldo Albertini, the Inquisitor of Sicily remarks that "these maleficia and incantations may be worked by natural objects—poisonous herbs, roots, stones et cetera, whose secret properties the demons know…" This attitude was not confined to the realm of witch–persecution, nor even geographically to England and the Continent. Nicholas Monardes' well-known 1577 work on the early exploration of North America Joyfull Newes out of the Newe Founde Worlde, relates the following with regard to Tobacco and its use:

In like sort the rest of the Indians for their pastime, do take the smoke of the Tobacco, for to make them selves drunk withal, and to see the visions... And as the Devil is a deceiver, and has the knowledge of the virtue of Herbs, he did show them the virtue of this Herb, that by the means thereof, they might see their Imaginations, and visions, that he has represented to them, and by that means does deceive them…

Among herbal indicia, the concern of poisoning was also present, though often conveniently assimilated to the witch-construct. One example occurs in Paullus Grillandus' Tractatus de Sortilegiis, of 1592, where we read of severe penalties for persons accused of brewing abortifacient potions, as well as love potions prepared from natural drugs. In Responsum Juris of the early 1600s, Ernst Cothman, Professor of Law at Rostock, made a systematic legal argument against a number of indicium, which had the result of absolving the accused; among these was the preparation of venomous pears and apples, the other was the purchase and possession of poison. These indicia, despite their seriousness, fell at the end of the list, behind more grave offenses such as Flight and keeping company with sorcerers.

While such indicia do not of themselves reveal the presence of the practice of herbal magic, the poisonous properties of plants, as well as their healing potentials, were usually part of the folk-herbalist's knowledge. In addition, in the context of European witchcraft persecution, the figure of the poisoner (veneficus) is often conflated with the witch. From the standpoint of the greater concerns of the witch-hunt, this association may be attributed to mere criminality the two figures shared, or to the great medieval preoccupation with poison. However, among herbalists and folk healers, knowledge of poisons is present even among the most ethical of practitioners, in order to ensure the safe use of medicines. Knowledge of dose and overdose, where any potentially toxic plant is concerned, is common. Beyond this, the dual archetype of poisoner-witch was known from pagan times, as with Circe and Erichtho.

Assorted other plant-related indicia are also of interest. Nicholas Remy's Daemonolatreia of 1595 cites malefic spells effected either by uprooting plants or casting them against trees. Johan Caspar Westphal, in his Pathologia Daemoniaca of 1707 cites a case of 1657 in which two accused witches confessed to sprinkling a powder of Henbane and other seeds in a field, while calling upon the Devil. The result was the killing of a cow of a hated neighbour. Though indicia extracted under confession are suspect, this charm bears close resemblance to the great corpus of European seed-scattering charms, used mostly to bring confusion or ruin upon their intended victims.

Plant-Magic in Use by the Church

Condemnation of the occult use of plants becomes even more curious when we note that similar practices were common among the clergy. The inquisitorial tract Fustis Daemonum of 1626, penned by Girolamo Menghi, one of the foremost authorities on exorcism at the time, states:

A good preventative of demon possession is to take gold, frankincense, myrrh, exorcised salt, olives, blessed wax and rue, all severally blessed and put in papers marked with three crosses, and placed at each corner of the bed.

Valerio Polidori's book Practica Exorcistarum ad Daemones et Maleficia de Christi Fidelibus Pellendum of 1626 gives three incenses ('Profumigatio Horribilis') for driving away devils:

I. 6 drachms each of seed of Hypericum, Rue and Frankincense.

II. 1 drachm each of Frankincense, Storax, Galbanum, Laudanum, and Garyophyllum.1

III. 1 drachm each of Galbanum Sulfur, Asafoetida, Aristolochia, and Rue.

The composition of these churchly suffumigants differs little from those appearing in contemporary demon-conjuring grimoria such as The Sworn Book of Honorius, or in authoritative works on the Art of Magic, such as Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy. Secular authorities too embraced the domain of herbal cunning: Johann Christoph Frömlich, a professor of law in the late 17th century, advised that the torture chamber for extracting confession from witches be "constantly sprinkled with holy water and a smoke be made with blessed herbs."4 Sylvester Prierias' De Strigimagarum Daemonumque Mirandis (Rome, 1575) another inquisitional document, informs judges and assessors how to properly torture witches: "they should arm themselves with the sign of the cross, and carry a parcel containing exorcised salt, blessed palms and herbs, and consecrated wax." This Church-sanctioned formula may best be described as exorcism via use of a talisman, a purifying salt, and herbal magic, a combination of practices familiar to most practitioners of folk magic and sorcery. The same would be true of the use of prayers to accompany the gathering of medicinal herbs, recommended by the Church in sixteenth-century England.5 While such practices were in some cases largely stripped of their folk-elements, other exemplars of herbal ritual within the Church resembled more closely their 'heathen' forebears, as with processions around the fields to bless grapes, grain, and hay.6

Legal persecution of magical practitioners was not a new feature of Christianity, but was present even in classical pagan societies; ancient Greek and Roman attitudes toward magic and those who practised it has been characterized as generally hostile.7 Yet with the anti-witchcraft indicia, specifically the condemnation of occult herbalism, we see religious authority used to proscribe a practice, but also to legitimise that same practice. That the same authorities who ascribe herbal power to the Devil would then employ such power for their own sanctified ends is indicative of a deeper truth underlying the ritual, namely that it is a true power which may be put to diverse spiritual uses. This dual ethos of a singular power employed both to heal and harm is a common feature of folk magic, as with an eighteenth century Norwegian spell invoking the powers of the Holy Cross alongside Asmodeus, Belial, Beelzebub, and seven other demons to force a thief to return stolen goods.8

Notes

1 Kiekhefer, Richard. Forbidden Rites, pp. 30-32. The trial in question was held in 1437 at Briançon.
2 As in the Greek Magical Papyri, see PGM IV.2967-3006, and IV.1496-1595.
3 Eliade, Mircea. Zalmoxis: The Vanishing God, pp. 204-225.
4 Lea, Henry Charles. Materials Toward a History of Witchcraft, p. 1095.
5 Thomas, Keith. Religion and the Decline of Magic, p. 41.
6 Ginzburg, Carlo. The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the 16th and 17th Centuries, p. 23.
7Peters, Edward. The Magician, the Witch, and the Law, p.2.
8 Rustad, Mary The Black Books of Elverum, pp. 9-10.