Magic and the Supernatural - Lancaster University

Vrajabhūmi Vanderheyden
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youngest child. Simon’s suggested remedy of taking consecrated oil, salt, bread
and wine for several days did not alter her condition. 7
The position of the priest in a community as it was intended by the Church, was
one of authority, advisor and confidant. As much as these two examples illustrate
this aspect of priestly duty, they also show how the actions of the cleric involved
were the result of a request for assistance coming from laypeople. Hence, priests
did not only have to deal with the demands of their superiors, they were confronted
with considerable popular expectations as well. These demands often contradicted
their religious mission but were not easy to disregard. 8 In searching for
compromise between religious regulations and the reality of everyday life, priests
took up the position of a cultural mediator. This concept indicates persons that
make a connection between several cultures, thus channelling the processes of
negotiation and appropriation that occur between them. 9
The role priests had as an intermediary was ambiguous: it was a prerogative to
the implementation of the clerical program at a local level, but at the same time it
posed a threat to their connection with the Church. The tie between the Church and
its clerics was in many cases drowned out by the bond a priest shared with his
community. A well-integrated priest could therefore favour the demands of his
parishioners over his clerical duty, or, as an Antwerp dean once remarked ‘like
people, like priest, and vice versa’. 10
3. The Notorious Reputation of Peeter Gijsbrechts: The Boundaries of
Orthodoxy Crossed
The lay requests for clerical assistance that I found in the trials were no random
appeals for help but concerned a limited range of problems in which common
methods and natural means were found to fail, or where an influence of the
supernatural was suspected. More precisely, priests were mainly asked to heal
people and animals, and to protect them from future mishaps. Practices of healing
and protecting did indeed traditionally belong to the tasks of priests. Blessings,
prayer and consecrated substances formed key elements in these rites. 11 As such
the exorcising of animals and the administration of consecrated substances can be
considered regular priestly duty. But these practices were easily elaborated with
more dubious elements. What to think for instance of the fact that Digne’s cow was
treated to an ear full of consecrated salt?
Yet Simon’s actions disappear into nothingness when compared to the activities
of Peeter Gijsbrechts, sexton of the village of Westerlo. Although it is not known
whether this man was ever ordained, his clerical affiliation obliged him to the same
exemplary religious conduct that priests had to commit themselves to. Nonetheless
he had successfully built himself a flourishing magical career that carried his fame
as supernatural specialist through the entire diocese of Antwerp and beyond. Peeter
Gijsbrechts was, for instance, called to help by Lysken Baeck from Lier. This
woman had lost several of her children to an unknown disease that brought forth
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