On the Demonomania of the Sorcerers

What it is

On the Demonomania of the Sorcerers is a French book about witchcraft and demons, written by Jean Bodin, a jurist and political philosopher. It first appeared in 1580 and is arranged in four books. It belongs to the demonological writing of its day: part legal argument, part survey of spirits and forbidden arts. Inside it Bodin tries to say what a witch is, what magic can do, how harmful magic might be prevented, and how courts should deal with the people accused. The book is a record of prosecution as much as of belief, since it treats witchcraft as a crime to be defined, judged and punished.

Where it comes from

The work was first printed in French in 1580, in France. It found readers quickly: ten editions had appeared by 1604. Johann Fischart brought out a German version in 1581 as De Daemonomania magorum, and in that same year François Du Jon produced a Latin one, De magorum dæmonomania libri IV. Those translations carried the argument past a French-speaking public. Of the books on witches from those years, few are thought to have travelled as far, and it is described as a much-consulted guide for the hunting and trying of witches.

How it is done

Bodin lays the work out in four books. The first sets out definitions, saying what a witch and witchcraft are held to be; it also lists spirits, divided into kindly and harmful kinds, and the powers said to come from calling on demons, foretelling and prophecy among them. The second book turns to magic, naming its varieties, white and black among them, and discussing demons being summoned and pacts made with them, as well as the idea that a person can turn into a werewolf. The third offers preventions and remedies for the harm witches are said to cause, exorcism included. The fourth concerns courts and punishment.

What it is for

The book was written to serve judges and magistrates as much as scholars. Its readers are offered a working definition of the witch, a map of what demons are believed to do, and arguments about how accusations should be handled in court. Bodin writes to oppose magic, not merely to describe it: certain practices are treated as crimes, the harm they are said to cause is to be blocked or undone, and severe penalties are pressed for. Because it joined legal reasoning to demonology, the book came to be used by people engaged in prosecuting witches.

Who does it

The author was Jean Bodin, a French jurist and political philosopher, not a churchman or a magician. He writes as a legal expert, and the book carries that stamp: definitions, distinctions and arguments about penalties. His position on punishment is severe. In the fourth book he argues for torture and for execution carried out in painful forms. Coming from a recognised legal scholar, the reasoning on witches was taken up by others who judged such cases.

Peoples and places

This is a French book: written in French, printed in France, first issued in 1580. It reached other readerships through translation, since Johann Fischart's German text and François Du Jon's Latin one both appeared in 1581. Its reach beyond France came by that route. The people who fill its pages are witches, demons and the judges who handle such cases, rather than any named community or locality.

What people believe

Behind the argument sits a world full of spirits. Bodin sorts them into two camps, the benevolent and the malevolent, and he sets out the powers said to be gained by turning to demons. Foretelling the future and prophesying are named among those powers. Magic itself is divided into kinds, white and black, and the making of pacts with demons is treated as a real exchange. The book also takes up the claim that a human being can become a werewolf, and it discusses exorcism, the driving out of a spirit that has taken hold of a person.

How scholars and sceptics see it

The book is described as coming to serve as a standard guide for the hunting and trial of witches, and its circulation is thought likely to have exceeded that of any other book on witches of the period. It also carries what is counted among the earliest legal definitions of the witch. Those two features give it its place in histories of witchcraft: a learned text that shaped how accusations were handled and how courts treated the people brought before them.

Law and persecution

Bodin writes as a jurist, and law runs through the whole work. The opening book offers what is described as one of the earliest legal definitions of a witch: someone who knowingly sets out to accomplish something through devilish means. The closing book turns to how courts should treat such people, and there Bodin takes a hard line, urging torture during proceedings and painful forms of execution at the end. The book therefore sits where demonology meets criminal procedure.

Today

By 1604 the book had reached ten editions, and the German and Latin versions of 1581 had already carried it beyond French readers. It is now read as a historical record: a document for the study of demonology and of the reasoning that lay behind witch prosecutions. The 1580 printing is available in digital form through Gallica, the online library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Questions people ask about On the Demonomania of the Sorcerers

Good reading and sources

• Witch Trials and the Haunting of Jean BodinLibrary of Congress, Article

• On the Demonomania of the Sorcerers on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data