STORY OF LOUIS GAUFREDI AND MAGDALEN DE LA PALUD, OWNED BY THEMSELVES
TO BE A SORCERER AND SORCERESS.
This is an unheard-of example; a man and woman who declared themselves
to be a sorcerer and sorceress. Louis Gaufredi, Cure of the parish of
Accouls, at Marseilles,[218] was accused of magic, and arrested at the
beginning of the year 1611. Christopher Gaufredi, his uncle, of
Pourrieres, in the neighborhood of Beauversas, sent him, six months
before he (Christopher) died, a little paper book, in 16mo., with six
leaves written upon; at the bottom of every leaf were two verses in
French, and in the other parts were characters or ciphers, which
contained magical mysteries. Louis Gaufredi at first thought very
little of this book, and kept it for five years.
At the end of that time, having read the French verses, the devil
presented himself under a human shape, and by no means deformed, and
told him that he was come to fulfil all his wishes, if he would give
_him_ credit for all his good works. Gaufredi agreed to the condition.
He asked of the demon that he might enjoy a great reputation for
wisdom and virtue among persons of probity, and that he might inspire
with love all the women and young girls he pleased, by simply
breathing upon them.
Lucifer promised him all this in writing, and Gaufredi very soon saw
the perfect accomplishment of his designs. He inspired with love a
young lady named Magdalen, the daughter of a gentleman whose name was
Mandole de la Palud. This girl was only nine years old, when Gaufredi,
on pretence of devotion and spirituality, gave her to understand that,
as her spiritual father, he had a right to dispose of her, and
persuaded her to give herself to the devil; and some years afterwards,
he obliged her to give a schedule, signed with her own blood, to the
devil, to deliver herself up to him still more. It is even said that
he made her give from that time seven or eight other schedules.
After that, he breathed upon her, inspired her with a violent passion
for himself, and took advantage of her; he gave her a familiar demon,
who served her and followed her everywhere. One day he transported her
to the witches' sabbath, held on a high mountain near Marseilles; she
saw there people of all nations, and in particular Gaufredi, who held
there a distinguished rank, and who caused characters to be impressed
or stamped on her head and in several other parts of her body. This girl
afterwards became a nun of the order of St. Ursula, and passed for being
possessed by the devil.
Gaufredi also inspired several other women with an irregular passion,
by breathing on them; and this diabolical power lasted for six years.
For at last they found out that he was a sorcerer and magician; and
Mademoiselle de Mandole having been arrested by the Inquisition, and
interrogated by father Michael Jacobin, owned a great part of what we
have just told, and during the exorcisms discovered several other
things. She was then nineteen years of age.
All this made Gaufredi known to the Parliament of Provence. They
arrested him; and proceedings against him commenced February, 1611.
They heard in particular the deposition of Magdalen de la Palud, who
gave a complete history of the magic of Gaufredi, and the abominations
he had committed with her. That for the last fourteen years he had
been a magician, and head of the magicians; and if he had been taken
by the justiciary power, the devil would have carried him body and
soul to hell.
Gaufredi had voluntarily gone to prison; and from the first
examination which he underwent, he denied everything and represented
himself as an upright man. But from the depositions made against him,
it was shown that his heart was very corrupted, and that he had
seduced Mademoiselle de Mandole, and other women whom he confessed.
This young lady was heard juridically the 21st of February, and gave
the history of her seduction, of Gaufredi's magic, and of the sabbath
whither he had caused her to be transported several times.
Some time after this, being confronted with Gaufredi, she owned that
he was a worthy man, and that all which had been reported against him
was imaginary, and retracted all she herself had avowed. Gaufredi on
his part acknowledged his illicit connection with her, denied all the
rest, and maintained that it was the devil, by whom she was possessed,
that had suggested to her all she had said. He owned that, having
resolved to reform his life, Lucifer had appeared to him, and
threatened him with many misfortunes; that in fact he had experienced
several; that he had burnt the magic book in which he had placed the
schedules of Mademoiselle de la Palud and his own, which he had made
with the devil; but that when he afterwards looked for them, he was
much astonished not to find them. He spoke at length concerning the
sabbath, and said there was, near the town of Nice, a magician, who
had all sorts of garments ready for the use of the sorcerers; that on
the day of the sabbath, there is a bell weighing a hundred pounds,
four ells in width, and with a clapper of wood, which made the sound
dull and lugubrious. He related several horrors, impieties, and
abominations which were committed at the sabbath. He repeated the
schedule which Lucifer had given him, by which he bound himself to
cast a spell on those women who should be to his taste.
After this exposition of the things related above, the
attorney-general drew his conclusions: As the said Gaufredi had been
convicted of having divers marks in several parts of his body, where
if pricked he has felt no pain, neither has any blood come; that he
has been illicitly connected with Magdalen de la Palud, both at church
and in her own house, both by day and by night, by letters in which
were amorous or love characters, invisible to any other but herself;
that he had induced her to renounce her God and her Church--and that
she had received on her body several diabolical characters; that he
has owned himself to be a sorcerer and a magician; that he had kept by
him a book of magic, and had made use of it to conjure and invoke the
evil spirit; that he has been with the said Magdalen to the sabbath,
where he had committed an infinite number of scandalous, impious and
abominable actions, such as having worshiped Lucifer:--for these
causes, the said attorney-general requires that the said Gaufredi be
declared attainted and convicted of the circumstances imputed to him,
and as reparation of them, that he be previously degraded from sacred
orders by the Lord Bishop of Marseilles, his diocesan, and afterwards
condemned to make honorable amends one audience day, having his head
and feet bare, a cord about his neck, and holding a lighted taper in
his hands--to ask pardon of God, the king, and the court of
justice--then, to be delivered into the hands of the executioner of
the high court of law, to be taken to all the chief places and
cross-roads of this city of Aix, and torn with red-hot pincers in all
parts of his body; and after that, in the _Place des Jacobins_, burned
alive, and his ashes scattered to the wind; and before being executed,
let the question be applied to him, and let him be tormented as
grievously as can be devised, in order to extract from him the names
of his other accomplices. Deliberated the 18th of April, 1611, and the
decree in conformity given the 29th of April, 1611.
The same Gaufredi having undergone the question ordinary and
extraordinary, declared that he had seen at the sabbath no person of
his acquaintance except Mademoiselle de Mandole; that he had seen
there also certain monks of certain orders, which he did not name,
neither did he know the names of the monks. That the devil anointed
the heads of the sorcerers with certain unguents, which quite effaced
every thing from their memory.
Notwithstanding this decree of the Parliament of Provence, many people
believed that Gaufredi was a sorcerer only in imagination; and the
author from whom we derive this history says, that there are some
parliaments, amongst others the Parliament of Paris, which do not
punish sorcerers when no other crimes are combined with magic; and
that experience has proved that, in not punishing sorcerers, but
simply treating them as madmen, it has been seen in time that they
were no longer sorcerers, because they no longer fed their imagination
with these ideas; while in those places where sorcerers were burnt,
they saw nothing else, because everybody was strengthened in this
prejudice. That is what this writer says.
But we cannot conclude from thence that God does not sometimes permit
the demon to exercise his power over men, and lead them to the excess
of malice and impiety, and shed darkness over their minds and
corruption in their hearts, which hurry them into an abyss of disorder
and misfortune. The demon tempted Job[219] by the permission of God.
The messenger of Satan and the thorn in the flesh wearied St.
Paul;[220] he asked to be delivered from them; but he was told that
the grace of God would enable him to resist his enemies, and that
virtue was strengthened by infirmities and trials. Satan took
possession of the heart of Judas, and led him to betray Jesus Christ
his Master to the Jews his enemies.[221] The Lord wishing to warn his
disciples against the impostors who would appear after his ascension,
says that, by God's permission, these impostors would work such
miracles as might mislead the very elect themselves,[222] were it
possible. He tells them elsewhere,[223] that Satan has asked
permission of God to sift them as wheat, but that He has prayed for
them that their faith may be steadfast.
Thus then with permission from God, the devil can lead men to commit
such excesses as we have just seen in Mademoiselle de la Palud and in
the priest Louis Gaufredi, perhaps even so far as really to take them
through the air to unknown spots, and to what is called the witches'
sabbath; or, without really conducting them thither, so strike their
imagination and mislead their senses, that they think they move, see,
and hear, when they do not stir from their places, see no object and
hear no sound.
Observe, also, that the Parliament of Aix did not pass any sentence
against even that young girl, it being their custom to inflict no
other punishment on those who suffered themselves to be seduced and
dishonored than the shame with which they were loaded ever after. In
regard to the cure Gaufredi, in the account which they render to the
chancellor of the sentence given by them, they say that this cure was
in truth accused of sorcery; but that he had been condemned to the
flames, as being arraigned and convicted of spiritual incest with
Magdalen de la Palud, his penitent.[224]
Footnotes:
[218] Causes Celebres, tom. vi. p. 192.
[219] Job i. 12, 13, 22.
[220] 2 Cor. xii. 7, 8.
[221] John xiii. 2.
[222] Matt. xxiv. 5.
[223] Luke xxi.
[224] The attentive reader of this horrible narrative will hardly fail
to conclude that Gaufredi's fault was chiefly his seduction of
Mademoiselle de la Palud, and that the rest was the effect of a heated
imagination. The absurd proportions of the "_Sabbath_" bell will be
sufficient to show this. If the bell were metallic, it would have
weighed many tons, and a _wooden_ bell of such dimensions, even were
it capable of sounding, would weigh many hundred weight.