Francesco Maria Guazzo
Francesco Maria Guazzo, aka Guaccio, aka Guaccius (1570[1]–16??) was an Italian priest. He is most well known for authoring the Compendium Maleficarum.
Life and work
He was a member of one of the oldest of the Catholic Ambrosian orders. These religious brotherhoods had appeared at various times since the 14th Century in and around the city of Milan and were quite plentiful, but the only one to attain more than simply local importance was the ‘Fratres Sancti Ambrosii ad Nemus’ sometimes known as 'The Brethren of the Grove'.
Before 1441 there were various monasteries that were canonically recognized under the name ‘Fratres Sancti Ambrosii ad Nemus’ but there was little link between them. However, in 1441 Pope Eugene IV merged them into one congregation called ‘Congregatio Sancti Ambrosii ad Nemus’ of which Francesco Maria Guazzo was a member under the papacy of Pope Sixtus V and Pope Paul V.
Guazzo was highly regarded in the field of possessions and demonology and the cures thereof.
During his life he is credited with performing several exorcisms including to members of several ducal and princely families, notably the bewitched Cardinal Charles of Lorraine and his relative, Eric, Bishop of Verdun.
On another occasion Guazzo was called to Düsseldorf in order to exorcise the mad John William, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg (1562–1609). Guazzo first diagnosed possession, but after five months of unsuccessful attempts at spiritual healing and in the summer of 1604, the diagnosis was changed to bewitchment as the cause of the poor Duke’s mental illness. Guazzo had been sent to Düsseldorf by Duke Charles III of Lorraine (a family with which he had a long running association, having exorcised the Cardinal, Charles of Lorraine) on behalf of his daughter Antoinette (1569–1610), Duke Johann Wilhelm’s wife.
It was these direct experiences that inspired Guazzo to write his Compendium Maleficarum which was published in 1608 and was widely regarded among his contemporaries as the authoritative manuscript on Witchcraft. Within his text, Guazzo discusses witches’ pacts with the devil, detailed descriptions of witches’ powers and poisons and also prepared his classification of the demons based on a previous work by Michael Psellus.
In this work, Guazzo was greatly influenced by Duke Charles III of Lorraine’s leading lawyer and demonologist, Nicholas Remy (Remy produced one of the most important early works on demonology and witchcraft in 1595, Daemonolatreiae libri tres, and claimed to have sentenced to death over 900 people during witch trials between 1582–1592).
Major works
- Compendium Maleficarum (1628; new edition London 1929, republished 2004 by Book Tree), limited preview online
References
- ^ "GUAZZO, Francesco Maria in "Dizionario Biografico"". www.treccani.it.
Bibliography
- Guazzo, Francesco Maria; Compendium Maleficarum; 1608
- Behringer, Wolfgang; Witches & Witchhunts. A Global History (Themes in History)); Polity; 2004
- Lindemann, Mary; Medicine & Society in Early Modern Europe; Cambridge University Press; 2010 (2nd edition);
- Samuel Macauley Jackson, Schaff-Herzog, Lefferts Augustine Loetscher; The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Volume 1; Baker Book House; 1984
See also
- Daemonolatreiae libri tres
- Guazzo's classification of demons
- Witchcraft and children
External links
- Compendium Maleficarum, complete original Latin source online
- v
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- Witchcraft in early modern Britain
- Channel Islands Witch Trials
- Witch trials in England
- Witchcraft in Orkney
- Witch trials in early modern Scotland
- Witchcraft in early modern Wales
- Windsor Witches (1579)
- St Osyth Witches (1582)
- Witches of Warboys (1589–1593)
- North Berwick witch trials (1590)
- Great Scottish Witch Hunt of 1597
- Pendle witches (1612)
- Northamptonshire witch trials (1612)
- Samlesbury witches (1612)
- Witches of Belvoir (1619)
- Bury St Edmunds witch trials (1645, 1662, 1655, 1694)
- Great Scottish witch hunt of 1649–50
- Alloa witch trials (1658)
- Great Scottish Witch Hunt of 1661–62
- Bute witches (1662)
- Bideford witch trial (1682)
- Paisley witches (1696)
- Pittenweem witches (1704)
- Islandmagee witch trial (1711)
- Witch trials in Hungary
- Witch trials in Poland
- Kasina Wielka witch trial (1634)
- Northern Moravia witch trials (1678)
- Szeged witch trials (1728–29)
- Doruchowo witch trial (1783)
- Witch trials in France
- Labourd witch-hunt of 1609
- Aix-en-Provence possessions (1611)
- Loudun possessions (1633–34)
- Louviers possessions (1647)
- Normandy witch trials (1669–70)
- Affair of the Poisons (1679–1682)
- Trial of the Wizards of Lyon (1742–1745)
- Witch trials in the Holy Roman Empire
- Rottweil Witch Trials
- Derenburg witch trials (1555)
- Wiesensteig witch trial (1562–1563)
- Rottenburg witch trials (1578–1613)
- Trier witch trials (1581–1593)
- Pappenheimer family witch trial (1600)
- Fulda witch trials (1603–1606)
- Ellwangen witch trial (1611–1618)
- Eichstätt witch trials (1617–1630)
- Würzburg witch trials (1626–1631)
- Bamberg witch trials (1626–1631)
- Baden-Baden witch trials (1627–1631)
- Mergentheim witch trials (1628–1631)
- Esslingen witch trials (1662–1666)
- Witch trial of Fuersteneck (1703)
- Witch trials in Denmark
- Witch trials in Estonia and Latvia
- Witch trials in Finland
- Witch trials in Iceland
- Witch trials in Norway
- Witch trials in Sweden
- Põlula witch trials (1542)
- Copenhagen witch trials (1590)
- Gyldenstierne-sagen (1596)
- Køge Huskors (1608–1615)
- Finspång witch trial (1617)
- Vardø witch trials (1621)
- Akershus witch trials (1624)
- Ramsele witch trial (1634)
- Rosborg witch trials (1639–1642)
- Vardø witch trials (1651–1653)
- Kirkjuból witch trial (1656)
- Vardø witch trials (1662–63)
- Kastelholm witch trials (1665–1668)
- Mora witch trial (1669)
- Torsåker witch trials (1675)
- Katarina witch trials (1676)
- Rugård witch trials (1685–86)
- Thisted witch trial (1696–1698)
- Witch trials in Italy
- Witch trials in Catalonia
- Witch trials in Portugal
- Witch trials in Sicily
- Witch trials in Spain
- Val Camonica witch trials (1505, 1518)
- Mirandola witch trials (1522–1525)
- Navarre witch trials (1525–26)
- Lisbon witch trial (1559–60)
- Benandanti (1575–1650)
- Witches of Laspaúles (1593)
- Basque witch trials (1609)
- Terrassa witch trials (1615–1619)
- Witch trial of Nogaredo (1646–47)
in Europe
- Witch trials in the Netherlands
- Witch trials in the Spanish Netherlands
- Stedelen witch trial (1397–1407)
- Valais witch trials (1428–1447)
- Geneva witch trials (1571)
- Amersfoort and Utrecht witch trials (1591–1595)
- Bredevoort witch trials (1610)
- Roermond witch trial (1613)
- Spa witch trial (1616)
- Lukh witch trials (1656–1660)
- Salzburg witch trials (1675–1681)
- Liechtenstein witch trials (1679–1682)
- Witch trials in Virginia (1626–1730)
- Connecticut Witch Trials (1647–1663)
- Maryland Witch Trials (1654–1712)
- Witch trials in New York (1642–1790)
- Salem witch trials (1692–1693)
- Witchcraft and divination in the Old Testament (8th–2nd centuries BC)
- Directorium Inquisitorum (1376)
- De maleficis mulieribus (1440)
- Formicarius (1475)
- Summis desiderantes affectibus (1484)
- Malleus Maleficarum (1487)
- De Lamiis et Pythonicis Mulieribus (1489)
- Laienspiegel (1509)
- De praestigiis daemonum (1563)
- The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584)
- Newes from Scotland (1591)
- A Dialogue Concerning Witches and Witchcrafts (1593)
- Daemonolatreiae libri tres (1595)
- Daemonologie (1597)
- Magical Investigations (1599)
- Compendium Maleficarum (1608)
- A Guide to Grand-Jury Men (1627)
- The Discovery of Witches (1647)
- Treatises on the Apparitions of Spirits and on Vampires or Revenants (1751)