Customer Reviews

The History of Witchcraft and Demonology (Dover Occult)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is a lengthy and exhaustive history of witchcraft and the occult written by the eccentric occult historian Montague Summers in 1927. Summers was well known for his many books on witchcraft, vampires, werewolves, and the history of the occult in general. He was generally considered The Expert on the history of witchcraft in the early 20th century and was filled with little-known anecdotal tales of witches, warlocks and dark devilish conspiracies as is evidenced by the many long dry examples in this book. This work is, however, a thorough reference on a arcane subject and is valuable for its many historical accounts of witch trials and other tales of witches, devils, and their arts. Summers is often criticized for his lack of skepticism, as noted below, as well as the heaps of praise he showers on the works of the Inquisition and its supposed war on witchcraft during the height of witch hysteria. His translations of notorious books like the Malleus Maleficarum and the Compendium Maleficarum, both witch hunting manuals used for centuries to detect, judge, and execute suspected witches, are his best-knwn works. Summers appears to revel in the age-old war against witches and often seemed a man born into the wrong time. He seems to wax nostalgic on the "Burning Times" and its blatant mysoginistic undertones, and this was in our "modern" age. In fact, he seems almost like a magistrate plucked from a 17th century witch burning and transplanted into the 20th century to write about his esteemed accomplishments! Yet, all this comes from a man who went to great lengths to transcribe and republish Reginald Scots' "Discoverie of Witchcraft", a 16th century treatise DISCOUNTING the existence of witches and demons and which was banned by the Holy Office and ordered burned by King James I of England! Very interesting stuff indeed.

One of the first, and still the best, scholarly studies of witchcraft, which deals in general terms with its history and practices (the companion volume The Geography of Witchcraft describes specific cases of witchcraft from around the world). Summers's baroque language is ideally suited to his subject, which is treated seriously, but with considerable wit. His inclination to believe too much rather than too little has not always found favour, but he wrote from the viewpoint of a Catholic priest who, though he relished describing the ways of the witch, also roundly condemned them.

_The History of Witchcraft and Demonology_ by Roman Catholic priest Montague Summers provides a fascinating account of the influence of Satan on the development of witchcraft and heresy. Montague Summers, a convert to Catholicism, was an eccentric character - a priest who operated independently in England and wrote much on the occult and folklore from the perspective of a medieval traditionalist Roman Catholic. Summers argues against the so-called rationalists and skeptics who refuse to recognize the existence of the supernatural or the role of evil and of Satan in the world. Against these and other modernists, Summers provides the traditional Roman Catholic view regarding the demonic nature of heresy and the role of Satan in its proliferation.

According to Summers, the witch is at once "heretic and anarchist". He seeks to show how all heresy, beginning with the dualistic Gnostic heresy including Manicheeism, is rooted in satanism and attempts to supplant the godly order of society and makes war against Christ and his Catholic Church. Among other heresies mentioned by Summers are those of the Waldensians, the Adamites, and the Cainites - Gnostics who spurned Christ and opted instead for the worship of Satan making an effort to identify with the sources of evil in Holy Scripture such as Cain and Judas Iscariot. Summers also mentions the Templars who became corrupted and engaged in vile acts including the worship of a human head known as the Baphomet. The witch, a devotee of Satan, may be understood as a revival of these most ancient and heinous heresies. Summers argues for the reality of witchcraft, claiming that there really existed a conspiracy against medieval society represented in witchcraft and that that conspiracy involved the worship of Satan, against the rationalists who attempt to explain it away through other means. Summers also argues against the theories of Margaret Murray, an anthropologist and Egyptologist who in her (in)famous book _The Witch-Cult in Western Europe_ argued that witchcraft represented a surviving pre-Christian pagan religion of Dianic worship which underlay medieval Christian society. Summers attempts to outline various features of the witch including the role of various demons and familiars, the witch's mark (believed to be an imprint left from the claw of Satan, and explaining the role of the "witch pricker"), the presence of a tiny nipple on the witch's body through which the familiar often in the form of a cat was nourished, and the role of the witch's sabbat. Summers also shows how the witch as Satanist sought to ape the Church of Christ, desecrate the host and religious objects, and engage in the black mass. Among others, Summers makes reference to such notorious criminals as Gilles de Rais (who engaged in the murder of children - another frequent accusation made against the witch) and the author J. K. Huysmans (whose novels feature Satanism and the black mass). Summers also turns his attention to the witch in Holy Writ. Here, he mentions the witch of Endor as well as bringing up such infamous injunctions against witchcraft as that in the Old Testament Exodus 22:18 "Wizards thou shalt not suffer to live." In addition, Summers attempts to fully explain the phenomenon of diabolical possession. First, he notes the reality of diabolical possession and then he presents a discussion of the exorcism. Throughout he makes reference to Scripture, noting the exorcisms done by Christ himself and the apostles as well as from the history of the church and the lives of the saints. While the reality of the diabolical possession among those exorcised by Christ is de fide, some have argued that other exorcisms are more suspect (and others outside of the Catholic faith including Anglicans and other Protestants have rejected the practice entirely). Summers shows the errors in these rationalist and modernist explanations, and although it is possible that many were not in fact possessed, it is certainly the case that a great many were. In addition, Summers presents the entire Roman Ritual for exorcism. Summers also shows the use of exorcism among the Puritans, who often amateurishly attempted to copy the attempts of various Jesuits. Summers also explains spiritism (or spiritualism) in which a medium attempts to make contact with the dead or other discarnate spirits through various means. Summers shows the dangers of this and other occult beliefs presenting official documents from various church councils and popes. The church (and Summers) believe that much in spiritism can be explained as simply fraudulent practice; however, the fact remains that there is something diabolical at root behind spiritism and that often the spirits encountered in fact represent demons. Finally, Summers ends with a discussion of the witch in dramatic literature. Here, he presents details from various plays involving witchcraft including such famous examples as that of the Faust legend (presented in Goethe's _Faust_ and Marlowe's _Dr. Faustus_, for example) and in Shakespeare (especially the witches in _Macbeth_), etc.

This book represents one of the best available on the history of witchcraft. Summers is obviously very learned and presents many obscure references, often in their original form (archaic English, French, Latin, or Greek), as well as stories from the lives of the saints, the history of the church, and Holy Scripture. Summers is unequivocally unapologetic for his rejection of modernism and thoroughly embraces the medieval viewpoint. He remains a fascinating and eccentric character whose books provide details on the occult of an encyclopedic scope.

This is a textbook of witchcraft and demonology written by the Catholic priest that found the need to translate the "Malleus Maleficarum" (the professional manual for witch hunters for nearly three centuries) into modern English. This was written prior to the modern Wiccan movement and discusses the horrors of sorcery and pacts with the devil. If you are looking for the definitive non-fiction work on the evils of witchcraft and demonology then, you have found it. If you are looking for a book promoting bunny-fluff Wiccan friendship magic, you're in over your head here.

Well I didn't paticularly like the way it was written (obviously because of when it was written) but I did find the accounts of exorcism, "fake" exorcism's, diabolic/demonic possesion, etc.. interesting in most cases. However, I didn't agree with his rather intense view (compared to the rest of the book) on spirtism. Also, the chapters' "The witch in holy writ" and "The witch in dramatic literature" were not chapters I found of great interest. This book is best for being a collection of examples of accounts with devils and demons.

I stumbled over this book purely by accident. I had no idea that Summers is still in print. It is like finding a long-lost childhood friend!

Back in the 1950s I used to hang with ceremonial sorcerers and the occasional black magician in my old home town of San Francisco. I was an avid collector of old coinage, you see, and my main source for Indian head pennies and Liberty dimes was a strange little shop in the Mission District run by an old geezer who was also a taxidermist. He claimed to be over 200 years old, his life preserved and extended by ingesting certain Lovecraftian "essences" from his stock in trade. Frankly, I didn't believe him; I'm sure he wasn't a day over 150.

Anyway, the shop was the local gathering place for the questing brotherhood. After all, if you lived in San Francisco and your grimoire called for, say, a tablespoon of bat's blood, where on earth were you going to get it but from your friendly and slightly weird local taxidermist? Let me make it clear that I never met a sorcerer who was anything but respectable. The black magicians in particular were the most law-abiding of people. One would-be necromancer spent his days visiting and cheering up elderly residents in hospitals. The story that he was sizing up future clients was a vile canard. These were not the social misfits who took up Satanism as peddled by Anton LaVey and all his charlatan successors; they came much later. Really, the only questionable thing about the sorcerers I knew was a deplorable tendency of some to walk about the streets in cloaks.

From time to time, one sorcerer or another would take the plunge and attempt to conjure up a demon. (The more namby-pamby among them would say "daimon," but it was a distinction without a difference.) Real ceremonial magic is not for the unindustrious or slothful. There are robes to be embroidered, wands to be cut, blades to be forged, sigils to be drawn, flames to be lit, smokes to be inhaled and, believe it or not, prayers to be uttered. It is a long, intense, fatiguing process and, what the heck, it sometimes worked. It worked, that is, to the extent that an exhausted and half wigged-out sorcerer would convince himself that he had indeed called up a spirit from the vasty deep. And it would scare him silly. (In one of his books, Aleister Crowley gives a lengthy description of his shot at demon-raising and the absolutely predictable result.)

After a bout of demonism, sorcerers would check in for short stays at convenient psychiatric facilities or, perhaps more likely, go on long benders. Then it was back to the taxidermy shop for sorcerous bull sessions about the esoteric literature then in print. (Grimoires, of course, were only valid in manuscript form and copies were held secret and unique to each individual sorcerer.) Eliphas Levi, the consensus held, was instructive but unsound in detail. Aleister Crowley was suggestive but ultimately incomprehensible--a delusion and a snare. Montague Summers was regarded as sound as to historical facts and crazy as a bedbug with regard to conclusions. The sorcerers of San Francisco, by and large, subscribed to the often quoted opinion that Summers' learning was as vast as his stupidity.

Although Summers was a very educated man, he appeared to hold little skepticism for the alleged crimes of accused witches. This is not a good introduction to the history of witchcraft, but does contain many intriguing descriptions of witchcraft. Be prepared to do a lot of rereading. The meaning of passages is sometimes quite elusive.

I am a historian who a focuses on Reformation issues, and I wrote many papers over the last three years on the history of witchcraft from an anthropological point of view. There are several wonderful studies of witches and witchcraft, mainly by Protestants during the time of the religious upheavals and the witch hunts (Cotton Mather has some interesting ideas). Montague Summers' writings were trying to revive a dying belief, and he was a complete crackpot (no, not a professional term, of course). He believed in witches entirely, though felt that there were very few true witches left. The only value that this book or any other that Summers wrote has is to show how people once believed.

This work about witchcraft, sorcery, black magic, neuromancy, damnation, Satanism and every kind of magic and occult is written by the undisputed scholar in the field and is a work of unprecedented authority, of interest to all who are connected with the subject.

5 stars if you're planning to make a hollywood horror movie; you'll be swarming in dubious info, perfect for any imaginary work. -1 star for taking every thrown-at anecdote as proof enough, as if the phobia of all (so-called) secular beliefs after the beginning of the world's christianising would not result in as many fictional beliefs and false histories as that which secular cultures heathenishly accept. -1 more stars because 4 points is too high a grade.

However, there may be some truth to what he says. How widespread these practices were, and whether they were at all related to a diabolic entity from Christiandom is another matter.

It must also be noted that present-day Witchcraft (Wicca) and Satanism (Church of Satan) are mostly harmless institutions: they do not eat pies made from human babies and exhumed corpses. There are practically no police records of any virgins being napped off for sacrifice at some altar or other. None to worry there. Nor prejudice.