Asceticism and libertinism always go hand in hand. They are convertible
principles rending their victim. _Temptation_ is the fundamental motif
of this condition. The devil was believed to send out his servants to
win new souls; monks were visited by demons in the shape of a voluptuous
woman, the _succubus_; Satan himself, or one of his emissaries,
disguised as a fashionable gentleman, the _incubus_, appeared to the
nuns. Undoubtedly the dreams of over-excited men and women played a very
important part in this connection; many hysterical women felt the
devil's kiss and embrace. All these women were themselves convinced of
the truth of their hallucinations and imaginings, and once the belief in
witchcraft was firmly established (in the thirteenth century) the
obvious atonement for their hysteria was the stake.
The fear of witches, which existed parallel with the love of the
Madonna, was typical of the declining Middle Ages. The first Christian
centuries knew neither the Lady of Heaven in the later meaning of the
word, nor did they know anything of witches.
Pages:
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473