Magic and the Supernatural - Lancaster University

Vrajabhūmi Vanderheyden
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from neighbours. To counter the enchantment, the girl had to be rubbed with
consecrated oil and balm. 14 Jan van Heerle was another person who unsuspectedly
came to hear that he was a victim of bewitchment. Joannes told him that sorcery
had caused the death of his animals and that this same magic would soon affect
him too. Without his interference, he would die within twelve days, he claimed.
The person responsible for the enchantment was a woman, who would pass by
Jan’s house soon after he would have arrived home. 15
Apart from the dubious practices themselves, there was another aspect in the
dealings of figures like Peeter Gijsbrechts and Joannes Baptista Massias that
worried clerical authorities. By identifying certain mishaps as the results of
enchantments and by occupying themselves with finding the culpable witch, these
persons propagated belief in sorcery. This, in turn, encouraged people to perform
counter-magical practices and brought about witchcraft accusations. By diagnosing
that Digne vanden Perre’s cow was enchanted, for instance, Simon Van de Poel
prompted her to formulate suspicions towards Engelberte Hechts, who had stroked
and admired the animal shortly before. It was in these specific aspects that the
post-reformation Church tried to introduce an increased critical attitude. As a
consequence, Simon Van de Poel was carpeted by the bishop of Antwerp in the
1590s. Simon had diagnosed the disease of an Antwerp woman as witchcraft,
declaring that the culpable witch was an old widow living in the neighbourhood.
When the bishop confronted him with his allegation, Simon admitted that he had
said so only to give the impression that he was knowing. 16
In some cases, the interference of clerics like Simon Van de Poel and Joannes
Baptista Massias indeed introduced the idea of enchantment. Yet in many other
examples a suspicion of magic was already present beforehand. That partly
explains why these people turned to priests for help. As experts in the supernatural,
they had the right skills to solve a problem that rooted in the supernatural. 17
5. Conclusion
So far, we have seen how in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, at the
background of a religious landslide, local priests made their way through different
fields of tensions. The Lier witch trials furnish ample evidence that in doing so,
they often trespassed the borders of what the Church considered proper religious
behaviour, performing acts that could be labelled as ‘magical’. They did so in
different degrees, ranging from small elaborations of traditional clerical rituals to
highly superstitious practices. The factors that prompted clerics to these
infringements were manifold. Personal initiative and an eagerness to be considered
as knowing could be at play. But equally important factors were the clerics’
mediating position between Church and laypeople, or the close bond with the
people they served. The popular expectations that are featured in the witch trials I
explored, cover a limited range of situations that were often associated with magic
and traditionally were included in priestly duty. Up to 1605 a standardised clerical
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