Bodin, Jean

An Encyclopaedia of Occultism (1920)

a jurisconsult and student of demonology, who died of the plague in 1596. An Angevin by birth, he studied law in youth and published his Republique, which La Harpe calls "the rerm of the spirit of law," but it is his Demonomanie des Sorciers by which he is known to occultists. In this work he defended sorcery, but propagated numerous errors. By his Colloquium heptaplomeron de abdites rerum sublimium varcanus he aroused very unfavourable opinions regarding his religious views. In it he discusses in the form of dialogue the theological opinions of Jews, Mussulmans, and deists to the disadvantage of the Christian faith, and although he died a Catholic he professed in his time the tenets of Protestantism, Judaism, sorcery, atheism and deism. The Demonomanie was published in Paris, in 1581, and again under the title of Flèau des demons et des sorciers at Wiort, in 1616. In its first and second books Bodin demonstrates that spirits have communication with mankind, and traces the various characteristics and forms which distinguish good spirits from evil. He unfolds the methods of diabolic prophecy and communication, and those of evocation of evil existences of pacts with the Devil , of journeys through the air to the sorcerers' Sabbath, of infernal ecstasies, of spells by which one may change himself into a werewolf, and of carnal communion with incubi and succubi. The third book speaks of the manner of preventing the work of sorcerers and obviating their charms and enchantments, and the fourth of the manner in which sorcerers may be known. He concludes his study by refuting the work of John Wier or Wierius (q.v.) who, he asserts, was in error in believing sorcerers to be fools and people of unsound mind, and states that the books of that author should be burned "for the honour of God." Sir Walter Scott says: "Bodin, a lively Frenchman, explained the zeal of Wierius to protect the tribe of sorcerers from punishment, by stating that he himself was a conjurer and the scholar of Cornelius Agrippa, and might therefore well desire to save the lives of those accused of the same league with Satan. Hence they threw on their antagonists the offensive names of witch-patrons and witch-advocates, as if it were impossible for any to hold the opinion of Naudæus, Wierius, Scot, etc., without patronizing the devil and the witches against their brethren of mortality. Assailed by such heavy charges, the philosophers themselves lost patience, and retorted abuse in their turn, calling Bodin, Delrio, and others who used their arguments, witch-advocates, and the like, as the affirming and defending the existence of the crime seemed to increase the number of witches, and assuredly augmented the list of executions. But for a certain time the preponderance of the argument lay on the side of the Demonologists.