‘Species’, ‘Phantasia’, ‘Raison’: Werewolves and Shape-Shifters in Demonological Literature

Abstract

This chapter discusses various concepts of animal transformation in the demonological literature of the late Middle Ages and the early modern period. It focuses on five most prolific advocates of witch-hunting: Heinrich Kramer, inquisitor and author of the Malleus maleficarum; Jean Bodin, celebrated jurist, intellectual founding father of the modern state and ardent propagandist of witch hunting; Nicholas Rémy, a career administrator de facto in charge of law enforcement in the duchy of Lorraine for several years; Martin Delrio, a theologian and jurist who wrote an almost encyclopaedic treatise on magic; and Pierre de Lancre, a judge with extensive experience with concrete witch trials and a marked interest in werewolfery.¹ Other authors will only briefly be dealt with. As this chapter concentrates on authors who contributed to the witchcraft doctrine the medicinal debate about lycanthropy as a mental condition is largely left out.² Firstly, the text will briefly sketch the conditions of the debate on the werewolf: It will review fundamental theological statements concerning animal transformation and early demonological writings provoked by the nascent witch-hunts of early fifteenth-century Switzerland. After that, the chapter will deal with each demonologist in turn in chronological order, giving the main arguments of each and exploring the interrelations between authors. The chapter focuses narrowly on animal transformation, especially werewolves, but tries to integrate the discussion of shape-shifting in the wider context of concepts of reality and plausibility in the witchcraft doctrine.