Del Rio's Investigations: The Last Word on Witchcraft

Martin Del Rio's investigations into magic provide the most comprehensive analysis of witchcraft and its judicial processes in early modern Europe.

### The Scholarly Legacy of Martin Del Rio: A Comprehensive Study of Witchcraft and Magic
* 📚 Martin Del Rio aimed to create an **authoritative textbook on the occult**, addressing the prosecution of illicit occultism, which he accomplished with **significant scholarship and depth**.
* 🔍 It's crucial to distinguish between **historical witchcraft** as perceived during Del Rio's time and the **modern concept of witchcraft** embraced by contemporary practitioners, as they represent **entirely different phenomena**.
* ⚖ Del Rio's work is characterized by an **elaborate theory of witchcraft**, detailing the judicial processes for investigating witchcraft, including the **controversial use of torture to extract confessions**.
* 📖 His investigations into magic, published in the late 16th century, are regarded as a **monumental expression of the witch trials** that plagued Europe, ultimately leading to the **execution of thousands, mostly women**.
* 💀 Del Rio criticized the existing literature on witchcraft for being **poorly researched and lacking in historical and theological rigor**, believing it failed to **accurately represent the supernatural crisis of his era**.
* 🧙 He provided a detailed analysis of various forms of magic, including necromancy and alchemy, while also addressing the **societal fears surrounding witchcraft**, which he linked to the **rise of Protestantism and superstition**.
* 📜 The text is not merely a historical account but serves as a **comprehensive manual on the prosecution of witchcraft**, reflecting the **complexities of the judicial system** and the **societal mindset of the time**.
* 📅 Del Rio's investigations remain a **critical resource for understanding the historical context of witchcraft and magic**, as they encapsulate the **intellectual, theological, and judicial narratives** that shaped the witch hunts of early modern Europe.

On the 9th of February 1782, the Swiss newspaper Zuker Zong issued an award advertisement for the arrest of the maid Anna Guli. She was accused of supernatural poisoning by her employer. Following her arrest and subsequent torture, she was among the last women in Europe to confess to having entered into a pact with Satan, who had appeared to her apparently as a black dog. She would later withdraw her confession. She would be subjected to a humiliating and terrifying trial, and upon conviction, she was executed by beheading. Though the law did not strictly allow for capital punishment in non-lethal poisoning cases, thus while talk of witchcraft was officially absent from her trial, it haunted and possessed the proceedings. It tainted them with a horrible medieval character well into the days of the so-called enlightenment, and condemnations rolled in following her execution from jurists all over Europe. This was not justice; this was simply judicial murder. Just a quarter-century prior to her killing at Cologne, the final edition of the vast literature

of witch hunting manuals had just come to an end with the 1755 of Martin Del Rio's investigations into magic. The horrid malus malarum, or the hammer of witches, had long since gone silent in 1669. Nicolas Remes de Onat Tra, where he boasted of sending not less than 800 people to the flames, similarly fell silent in 1698. Thus, Del Rio's investigations into magic, while far less known than the malas malarum, would prove to be the last true testament to the witch trials that ravaged Europe, finally resulting in their horrifying coda with the execution of Anna Goldi in 1782. However, Martin Del Rio's investigations into magic are without any doubt not only a truly monumental expression of the great witch trials of the early modern period but also the greatest analysis of magic and the occult produced in the entirety of the early modern world. From detailed analysis of alchemy and astrology, learned discussions of necromancy and demonic conjurations, to dozens of examples of folk

magic and anecdotal accounts of magical practices, along with extraordinarily deep discussions of the exact juridical processes by which to investigate, including the application of torture to prosecute and to convict those illicitly enjoining the dark arts. Their investigations are a monumental work of erudition and scholarship, as learned as it is terrifying. Let's explore this final Titanic Manual of the witch Hunters and the demonologists. Make sure to subscribe here to esoterica for weekly explorations and topics in esoteric history. And if you'd like to support the work of providing evidence-backed, free, and accessible content like this here on YouTube, I hope you consider taking a look at my Patreon page or some of the cool merch that we offer on the channel. If you're new to the study of esoterism and you want to get the lay of the land, make sure to check out my study guide on specific topics in esotericism. And also, if you're interested in historical books.

on topics in the occult and the mystical. Make sure to check out esoteric rare books. It's my bookstore full of antique cool old books. You can find all those links in the description and in the pinned comment. But now let's turn to Martin Del Rio's investigations into magic, the greatest single analysis of Witchcraft magic in the early modern period. I'm Dr. Justin Sledge and welcome to esoterica, where we explore the Arcane in history, philosophy, and religion. [Music] [Music] The early modern European Witch Trials produced four fundamental textbooks for understanding that terrifying period: the 1486-87 Malas Malarum of Springer and Insor, the 1580 Deom Mani of Jean Boden, the 1595 L trei of Nicola RI, followed quickly thereafter by the Monumental 1599-1600 Investigations of Magic by Martin del R in three volumes. Over the course of six huge books, of course, dozens of other such texts were composed during the

period of the witch hunts, but these four in some ways represent the height of the intellectual, theological, and judicial engines that fundamentally drove the trials. The depraved, conspiratorial thinking of someone like Insor that saw a woman, heretical witch, army threatening all of Christendom drove Insor to compose the extended rant basically of the Malas Bodan and Remes, stoke the fire by building upon the witch conspiracy by adding a level of verisimilitude to it through a litany of confession after confession after confession, all arrived at through horrifying manipulation and torture. Their textbooks read like a grim chorus, but Del Rio's investigations into magic is above the den and fry. In some ways, Del Rio himself was never a witch hunter. He presided over no trials, and he may have never even met an accused witch, so far as we know. His work is that of an academic, preferring careful citation of academic, theological, historical, and judicial texts over the kind of rabid screeds or lurid accounts of confessions.

the malus reads like a fevered raving a text frankly that the church was never totally comfortable with and in fact evened intermittent interdiction insor himself the guy who composed this was actually under Exile by a local Bishop who thought him sexually obsessed with a local woman and generally demented he was thought of as crazy by his contemporaries Boden and Ramy is that of a jurist and judge Gathering into single theological and judicial narratives that were frankly extracted through the imposition of Agony before their victims were sent to the fiery stake but what we finally have in Del Rio's investigations into Magic by contrast can lure us into sounding like the voice of reason frankly now it isn't the voice of reason to be sure but what it surely is is the greatest analysis of magic and the Occult and the mechanism of the witch trials from the entirety of the early modern period in fact if we just compare physically compare the two volumes here is my copy of malas malarum from 1574.

printed in Venice. This is the last time the Malas would actually appear in print by itself. After this, it would tend to travel with other such books, like the Formicarius of Johannes Neider. But this is the last edition of the Malus Malefic printed in Venice again, printed in 1574, and the last time I could say it was printed by itself. You get some sense of the relative size of the Malas when you see it actually in a contemporary printing of the 16th century. This book was probably owned by a witch hunter. The notes inside really make that relatively clear, but it's not a huge hulking volume in the way that you might imagine a copy of a book so lurid and a book of such a terrifying representation. In fact, it looks positively modest when you take a look at it in one of these kinds of bindings. But this is the Malas with everything that you've heard of that is horrifying about the Malas. So when you compare the Malas to a text like Del

Rio's investigations into magic. You get some sense of what you're dealing with in Del Rio. So, this is Del Rio here, and this is Malas. You get some sense when I say gargantuan Titanic. This is like a baby book compared to what Del Rio has presented. And to be clear, this is not like it's printed in some enormous font or giant margins. It's actually printed in a similar size 12-point font, double columns, with a bit more margin space. But this is an absolutely massive textbook of the occult and magic. And when you get some sense of just how much goes into a book like this, when I tell you that this book is overshadowed, unjustly overshadowed in its importance, in its scholarship, and its learning by this horrid little volume, you'll see what I mean when I say that this thing, Del Rio's investigations into magic, is truly a Titanic piece of scholarship. And it is a pity that most people don't know it, even though it is, I said, you know.

horrifying in its own way, but it is the case that for sure the fact that most people have never heard of this book, but they have heard of this one, is a bit of a pity in so many ways. When it comes to an analysis of the history of witchcraft and magic, in case you're wondering, the investigation to magic was last edited in 16008. That edition is from 1612, just a few years after the death of Del Rio. Now, of course, I have an entire episode on the Malia smif forarm if you want to check that out, and I'll be coming back, of course, to do episodes on Boden's Demo Man and Remy's de tra again, perhaps maybe in upcoming years around this spooky time of year. It's an appropriate time to cover witchcraft manuals, but Del Rio wasn't exactly what you'd expect to have composed a textbook on the occult and witch hunting. He was, in fact, born in an upwardly mobile mercantile Spanish family in ANP, and he

was actually destined for politics more than anything else at a young age. However, it became clear that he was a complete genius. He was a child prodigy, and he graduated early at basically everything that he did. He advanced quickly through every academic rank he could. He composed works ranging from first editions of manuscripts from the Roman writer Selenas, the tragedies of Cnicas, biblical commentaries, judicial works, treaties on the Virgin Mary, and the role of classical education on the religious life, specifically the Jesuit life. His works are consistently marked by just a positively shocking profusion of sources at his command, often exceeding a thousand such sources in a single work, all very carefully noted in the margins. The margins on that copy are filled with his sources. Further, his linguistic command is humbling, to say the least. He worked easily in about nine different languages, including Greek, Latin, Aramaic, and Hebrew, along with a variety of vernaculars. But the vicissitudes of rebellion, war, and the shifting sands of politics ultimately foreclosed upon the possibility of the

Del Rio family and political ambitions. His father would ultimately die penniless and in exile, having once commanded a castle as a newly made lord. As his place in the political world collapsed around him, Martin increasingly sought refuge in the religious world and would join the Jesuits in 1600. Again, not who you'd expect to produce one of the largest works on the occult; it's more of a Dominican thing. But it would be the 1597 sorcery trial of the Benedictine monk Jean De Vu that would actually inspire his sustained interest in the occult, turning that tremendous erudition onto the topic of magic and its prosecution more generally. The result would be six books in three volumes of the investigations into magic that he would republish over a couple of years, editing what would become the final version in 1608. He would then promptly die that year at the age of 57. Though to be clear, the investigations into magic is not a singular work, especially given the context of the latter 16th century.

indeed, that whole period saw an explosion of publications on everything from witchcraft, alchemy, sorcery, ghosts, werewolves, and just the occult generally. Now, what explains such a surge is actually debated by scholars, but outbreaks of plague, famine, and war are typically historically good predictors of that kind of interest, and there was a lot of that in the last two decades of the 16th century. Think of the massive uptick in interest in the occult and witchcraft beginning in the early 2020s, but beginning with Jambo Dan's really important demo Mani in 1580. The period to 1600 would see no less than 30 such volumes published, including the 1597 demonology published by none less than King James I, 6, and 1st. Even monarchs were entering into the publishing business about witchcraft. Now, I've done a whole episode about that. You can also check out a sh film's amazing rendition of most of that text in

original pronunciation. In fact, just those two decades from 1580 to 1600 are enough to keep this channel going busy for years. From the production of supernatural poisons, werewolves, witchcraft, analysis tracks on demons and ghosts, debates on just how the evil eye works, or how judicial prosecution for sorcery should even happen. There are dozens of these volumes produced at this time. Sometimes people ask me if I ever worry about running out of content. The only people that would ever ask me if I'm ever going to run out of content are people who don't know much history about just these two decades, frankly. But Del Rio opted to research and publish this volume because, frankly, to his mind, this was a vast literature, but it did actually not do well to actually represent the supernatural crisis of his era. For him, it was all too intellectually thin, poorly researched, and unrooted in solid history, theology, and jurisprudence. Del Rio thought it was all demonological weak sauce. So he Pro

he sought to produce the textbook on the occult and how to correctly prosecute illicit occultism and um well to my mind he did it he did just that but finally just as a bit of more context it's worth mentioning that just what witchcraft means malium meant in Del Rio's time and it's worth making an important distinction between the people mostly women prosecuted for witchcraft in the late medieval and early modern period and the notion of the witch as it developed in the minds of people like inquisitors and witch hunters and the contemporary people the people nowadays who identify as witches as part of their religious and spiritual vocations these are historically totally distinct phenomena and it's very important to separate them dramatically for the purposes of this episode I'm going to reserve the term witch and witchcraft for what scholars now refer to as the elaborated theory of witchcraft this is the mature notion of witchcraft as it developed in the minds of people like inquisitors and jurists theologians and

philosophers primarily in the very late medieval period, but also really into the early modern period, that held - and here we go - that a new woman, Le heretical sorcery sect, had appeared in Europe, marked by entering into a pact or Covenant with the devil, and thus apostasis or herica from Christianity. This would include things like sexual relations with the devil and demons, aerial flight for the purposes of attending a Sabbath or kind of a conf flager, sometimes a synagogue of witches, which was of course presided over by Satan himself, at which iniates were entered into said pact, followed by all kinds of cesis and promiscuous sex, sometimes with animals, but certainly with each other, and the general practice of Maleficent magic, malium, hence the term witchcraft. This would include also things like the slaughter of fuses and babies, and various means for preventing human procreation, all of this whose aim was to undermine Christendom as part of the devil's ongoing war with God, which by this time was reaching an a.

positively apocalyptic proportions, and the argument basically was that this new witch heresy was the final attempt on the part of the devil and his forces to forestall his impending doom by sending human beings down a horrifying spiral of sin and crime as final outrages against God. Basically, if he could just keep getting people to damn themselves, he could delay being damned himself. Regardless, the elaborated theory of witchcraft, while it varied from region to region or writer to writer, had basically coalesced around the time of 1500, and thus it set the stage for the frenzy prosecutions which would follow, resulting in the death of about 40 to 60,000 people, overwhelmingly women. This would last from roughly about 1450 to about 1750, and thus Del Rio inherited a version of the elaborated theory of witchcraft which he deepened and expanded and gave all kinds of justification for. Despite some skepticism about it arising in the 16th century, notably in Johan V's 1563 de

stonum on the trickery of demons, a text that actually Del Rio sought to refute in his book. He more or less accepts the foundations, though with a bit less credulity than Boden and Remy, and certainly less credulity than the malas. But to be clear, Del Rio is on team Prosecuting witches. But more to the point, Del Rio thought this whole issue was compounded by a far more heretical force and far more dangerous force than any witches and ERS combined: Protestants. Indeed, Del Rio even contended that the sudden rise in witchcraft, necromancy, plagues, war, and death can just be laid right at the feet of the new Protestant heresy, with Martin Luther and especially John Calvin having done more for the devil than any women prancing about by night with demons. But as he points out in book one of The investigations, it's all basically connected to a singular sin, that of supersti supersti. For Del Rio, Superstition was a forms of worship which were generally Superfluous.

to genuine religious piety, but really when those forms employ idolatry explicitly or implicitly in the absence of true piety. And of course, Protestant regions had been racked with the worst form of superstition because God had abandoned them because they were all Heretics. That worst form of superstition was magic. Providing detailed linguistic theologies, Del Rio provides a genealogy of magic. There's natural magic, which are wonders accomplished given the natural, though hidden properties of substances in the world. There is artificial magic, which are effects accomplished through human ingenuity and trickery. And there was, of course, demonic magic, satanic marvels accomplished through the making of a pact, an implicit or explicit pact with demons. Natural magic, he thought of, is mostly lit and it can include both operative magic, the use of specific occult forces to some specific end, and divination, which also admits of some lit modes like chiromancy, divining people's personality from their hands, and illicit modes like judicial astrology. Demonic magic, of course, was most often take the forms of

illicit operations like finding buried treasure that us welcome to esoterica and divination harmful magic or malif and general Superstition which we would now consider something like folk magic. Del Rio quickly dispenses with natural magic which employs sigils signs and numbers which are all basically amulets. They either work through what we would Now call something maybe like the placebo effect thus making them Superstition though demonic intercession making them all forbidden or just they don't work at all. Further the church has a tradition of nonpersuasion saint for basically everything and that the P should turn to those in time of need and not magical trickery. It's possible that astrological talismans can have some effect but these are almost always for Delio tied up with demonic influence or mediated through demonic influence and they should basically all be avoided what the medievals actually termed astral necromancy. Finally in the end of book one there's a discussion of alchemy.

because, of course, there is a discussion of alchemy because it's a big ass book. Alchemy is mostly fraud, and alchemical gold is either produced accidentally or with demonic help. And while it's possible to create Gold by Art, something that he points out has never fully been demonstrated in public. Alchemy should basically only be practiced by the well-established and the wealthy, the wealthy because they actually don't need gold, lest you know poor people or middle-class people let their greed lead them into demonic Temptation and their thirst to create gold and thus packed with the devil. This is going to be a repeating theme, and in general, this sets the pattern, as I said, for everything that Dar Rio will follow, attempting to thread the needle between when a practice becomes Superstition at best or involves idolatrous demonic pack-making at worst. And finally then, of course, how to investigate, prosecute, convict, and punish such offenses. So the answer for this entire episode is it's making a pack with the devil, or it doesn't work.

be a good Catholic. Book two is the longest of the six by far, and it deals with magic accomplished through packs with evil spirits. In 30 detailed questions, along with the rigor of the argumentations, to be honest, these sections are also invaluable, and they provide a corpus of copious examples of historical instances of magical practice. We just learned a ton about magical practices from Del Rio, kind of on accident. He would hate that, but sorry. In this way, this volume is a vast compendium of anecdotes about magical practices, from ceremonial necromancy to dozens of examples of folk magic. Some of these also include Del Rio's own experience, such as the time that he met a water dowser in Spain or the time he was shown a vast bricked-up structure that was once an entire Academy of magic in formerly Islamic Spain. Which we got to find that. That's like a for real esoteric filter of the Hidden School of magic. And but what stands out is the sense that

Del Rio is stating the facts frankly as far as he has them, and that he's treating them with a sense of critical appreciation overall. His position seems often unsatisfactorily equivocal in some sense, yes, in some sense no. He'll often detail, but he's never trying to find the devil everywhere he looks like some of these guys, and he's also not a skeptic dismissing evidence as just fabrication under torture or the raving of demented scen or insane people. He's a truly careful thinker. I mean, he is a Jesuit, and whether you agree with him or not, he is careful, and rarely, basically never, do you see him twisting the facts to come to a conclusion that he wants or twisting his criteria investigation to capture more data than is warranted. I mean, this is the kind of scholarship that you can find yourself kind of agreeing with and then realize, I'm agreeing with a demonologist and a witch. His discussion in book two is proof for this method. Packs with demons can be explicit or implicit. They can be

written or oral, but once they're made, they convert the believer into a heretical personal confession. Penance and repentance, of course, no evil spirits or any form of derivative magic is operative without the consent of God, and no spirits can contravene the laws of nature without Divine approval. Thus, the vast majority, almost all of what all these evil spirits do, is basically born out of illusions, tricks, and deceptions from the fact that demons are frankly real, old, real knowledgeable. Their memory never fades, they can fly, they can travel very quickly, and they can impress our ideas directly upon our fantasia and upon our imaginations, and they can interact and manipulate how we see them and perceive them. Only rarely does God allow spirit to actually perform supernatural feats. Now, the big question, of course, is why does God allow this to happen at all, and Del Rio comes back to that in a bit, and so will I. So, how do evil spirits know things like the future? No, they don't, but they've been around long enough in history to see patterns.

In nature, they can fly up real high and see weather that's coming from afar. They can tell a person to do so and so, a ritual on so and so a day, thus making the person think that they've caused magical hail. The necromant ritual merely correlating, not causing, to when the storm would actually blow in. They, of course, know the locations of vast sums of buried treasure, but they mostly perform illusions. The gold that they give people actually turns into dung almost all the time once the sorcerer is arrested. Why is that? Why do they actually never give the sorcerer the goods? Del Rio tells us because the demons are actually keeping all that treasure that they found buried for the eventual coming of the Antichrist. It's just a vast demonic Antichrist Credit Union buried treasure. Yes, evil spirits can copulate with human beings, but any such built children who are born from those unions are actually from the result of Sean that's been stolen by demons. Stolen demon seen from

Sorcerers or executed criminals, and it's possible that women do fly to the Sabbath, but Del Rio thinks much of this is simply demonically induced delusion. But the demons could whisk them over there, ye them over to the Sabbath, and ye them back, often in a sad state of affairs. Demons can change anything from one species. Demons cannot change anything from one species of another; that would be a violation of Nature, and thus their shape-shifting is again more trickery and illusion. Again, non-physical evil spirits can directly affect our sense impressions and thus alter what we see and hear. And while evil spirits can transport physical objects, they cannot cause animals to speak or bring the dead back to life without divine intervention. Demons, however, can harness the air around them and the elements around them to forge really impressive illusions of specters and monsters and tempests and other further spectacles. In general, evil spirits can cause impressive illusions; they can cause sight and can pretend to supernatural powers, but it's

ultimately, it's ultimately all tricks. Desperate people, greedy people, lustful people, and otherwise sinful people will make pacts with such beings to satisfy some base desire, get that treasure, or cause harm because they're full of hate. Aid and this pact hurt and damn that person, of course, barring confession and repentance, of course. And the spirits can't and won't be able to supply the promised deliverables. Thus, the necromancers and the witches are simply doubly duped. They damn themselves and they get nothing out of the deal. Such pacts are simply scams. Demons are just scammers. Further, evil spirits can and want to do little in the way of good in the world, but they do delight in causing suffering and chaos. Regrettably, many people are more than willing to be partners in crime with demons and that they too wish harm upon their fellow man. Thus, book three centers in upon malif, harmful magic, typically historically translated as witchcraft, along with superti, which we'll come back to, which is mostly just

folk magic generally some malif is merely the accomplish of bad acts. Things like I don't know using the hand of an executed person to make one invisible and light the way during a burglary as one does. This is the famous hand of Glory found in so many Grim Wars. We could have mention of it in of course in other cases. The harm is more direct. Various forms of Supernatural poisoning, the evil eye, enchanted weapons plus one against lawful good characters, harming children, preventing sexual reproduction, especially making dude's penises as invisible. That really worried these guys invisib vising their penises, drawing up a mother's milk, harming farm animals, the pretense of weather magic, the induction of Supernatural illnesses, caus people to become insane or just INF flaring their sense of jealousy, rage, and lust. And people live fragile precarious existences and evil people in League with evil spirits could easily bring great and terrible amounts of harms to others simply out of petty hatred, jealousy, and spite. Further, people also just want to unduly reward.

themselves and will seek out supernatural means by which to obtain more out of life. I deserve more. I'm entitled. Millennial and I deserve all kinds of things. These extra techniques they try to get from reality are superstitions. These are rituals by which to hack reality to get something from apparently nothing, and they're often just implicit pacts with the devil. For Del Rio, these involve outrages against God because in many cases they are. They involve the illicit use of otherwise sacred objects like saints' pictures and relics or holy salt or using holy water to hack reality. Del Rio encounters that course. God alone grants good to us poor sinners and that prayer is really the true recourse that we have. It's the only recourse we have. It hardly works. That's why people turn to necromancy, and he details a fascinating list of folk remedies, customs, and general hacks. These are like cheat codes for existent superstitions by which he accuses people of trying to obtain a bounty from superstition are all.

basically foolish at best and heretical at worst were cursed by Adam to we're doomed to earn our bread by the sweat of our brow, and superstitious cheat codes are of no avail. Generational wealth notwithstanding, if you're born with money, that's a pretty good hack. Compound interest is truly necromancy, so far as I can tell. In book four, Del Rio tackles the question of divination, which can include several aspects from predictions about the future, literal prophecy, speaking on behalf of God, foreknowledge about the future, and even knowledge about the distant past. We never think about prophecy as telling us stuff about the distant past, although that's a big deal in Judaism, not so much Christianity, of course. Divinely inspired prophecy is possible; there are prophets in the Hebrew Bible, in the New Testament, but also there's even divinatory prophecies like the consulting of the Urim and the Thummim. This is the divinatory device on the breastplate of the Israelite high priest, so you can do it licitly.

apparently, but illicit prophecy also seems possible as well. Famously, the SU in of the soul of the prophet Samuel by the bat o or the so-called Witch of indor in Star Wars part three. I don't know, so the question is how to vet a prophet, a topic already under discussion in the composition of what became the New Testament. Paul's already talking about who's a good Prophet, how he tests the spirits and stuff for Del Rio. The central questions on the moral, physical, and psychological characters of the alleged prophet in question are: Are they a righteous person? Are they a one-person? I mean a propagate person. Are they sober or intoxicated? Are they sane or are they a raving lunatic? Further, are they a woman? Because misogyny, while not dripping with the constant hatred of women of virtually all other demonological manuals, I mean Del Rio's got its share. The investigation is actually not without its own share of misogyny here. The text notes that women are simply more prone to demonic attack and deception. Therefore, if it's a woman

talking you should be cautious. However, Del Rio does admit that there have been a great many holy lady prophets, such as Hildegard, so all the prophet ladies. So, are they Catholics in good standing? Are they chased? And most of all, are they virgins? Because that's a good indicator of whether or not God's talking to them. Next comes analysis of Prophecy itself. Does it align with known Orthodoxy? And does it lead to deeper piety? If you tell a bunch of people that God told you to do bad stuff, then your prophecy is probably not coming from God. It's coming from, I don't know, paymon or something. Del Rio then dives into a detailed, exhaustive description of various forms of divination, showing how evil spirits can inspire, manipulate, intrude upon each and every one of them, thus ruining them all, at least liable to superstition, if not, you guessed it, bonds for demonic packs also. Well, simply put, the future is the unique prerogative of God, and no demon, no

matter how powerful can no it to a certainty. If they did, then we wouldn't have free will, and we couldn't choose to be Christians, and then God could not Damn us. But demons are smart, efficient. Causation is relatively predictable by the grace of God. The cosmos is intelligible as such, and because of the rapidity of the movements of the Demons, they can know what's coming before people do. Thus, and again, it's just trickery made to look like divination, like the demons know what's going on in the future. Further, when pressed, the demons are false prophets, rely on vagaries and equivocations and ausc to hide their ignorance. It all turns into the Great Bear will fight the eagle on the Third River of the eighth star. And of course, people are happy to rely on such false divination given what we are naturally fearful of the future because we have no idea what's going to happen half the time, so we're more than happy to listen to Psycho tell us stuff about it. Thus

reading lots of dreams or bolts of lightning for information about the future tells us more about our own fears and hopes more than anything about the future itself. Dario points out in a moment of surprisingly wonderful insight about human nature. Further trials by ordeal are rejected as superstition, including the famous swimming of witches, you know, dunking them in the water to see if they float and that they're a witch. This is all meant to basically induce a miracle. You're basically forcing God to do a miracle or divine action, and that's an example of heinous hubris for Del Rio. Indeed, such trials by ordeal had already been officially forbidden by the church way back in the 13th century, Fourth Lad and Council. So, get with the program, people. Quit dunking witches. One even gets the sense that Del Rio finds systematically going through virtually each and every example of divination as an entirely tiresome exercise. He basically admits as much at the end of book four, but yet for anyone interested in the

history of magic in the occult. These extremely detailed discussions, anecdotes, and examples are an absolute treasure trove for understanding historical magic and theory and practice. Again, I don't recommend going to Del Rio just to get out those little cool nuggets of magic, but nuggets they are. With book four concluded, some 680 pages in, the final two books cover the judicial procedures for investigating, prosecuting, and adjudicating the especially difficult of bringing heretical superstition, especially demonic magic, to justice. Del Rio likens the whole business to a vast infection, with the judges acting as doctors. Now, doctors, of course, there need to be treatments, and those treatments need to do more to actually cure and not worsen the condition in the patient Christendom. And these sections represent the most modern, at least for that time, analysis of how to conduct a witch trial, or rather a trial involving the heretical use of magic born from satanic packs. Now, this is a fascinating, very involved section spanning over 200 pages in 41 questions for originating an

investigation evidential requirements, including yes, yes, yes, the use of torture. He does discuss it, uh, the adjudication of this penance and relaxing of relapsed heretic as a secular arm for future punishment, which necessarily means they're going to be, yeah, it's not going to go well for them. All in all, it's the most detailed how-to guide for conducting a witch trial ever composed in many ways, and for that reason, I'm going to be making an ex a whole episode. There going to be a whole upcoming episode basically on this chapter called how to conduct a witch trial, where I'll be comparing Del Ria with previous such textbooks on witch hunting. So, a future episode on the exact mechanisms of investigating, prosecuting, and adjudicating heretical sorcery trials. So, hopefully, that won't be used by project 2025 in the future. Yeah, we're all going to be living in a handmaid's tale soon under his eye. The final book details the complicated role of the

Confessor in these proceedings recall that the sacrament of confession is sealed, and the priest who hears the confession generally cannot pass on the details of that confession to others. Fact Del Rio says that a priest who does that has to be defro and subject to life and imprisonment, which is no joke in 1600. However, Penance and Reconciliation is not possible without a full confession, and so discussions follow about again how to thread the needle of the role of the Confessor with the necessary prosecution of heretical sorcery. Finally, what role should the Confessor play in assisting those victims of malevolent sorcery? What about the victims here of importance here is that the Confessor not play into the desire of the victim for further superstitious cures for their malif evil spirits may appear to be working from I don't know cursed dolls typically called puppets, amulets, evil books, or any form of other magical devices, but these magical devices are mere tokens of demonic Affliction. They actually have no

real power in themselves, despite what the Necromancer or so-called witch may have thought, and further descent into superstition. Fighting Superstition with Superstition only opens the door to further potential heresy. Thus, confessors can compel Heretics; they can compel Heretics to destroy so-called magical objects to provide peace of mind to their victims, even compelling them through a moderate form of torture to do so. Of course, redirection is what's in order here; rather than indulging in the victim's desire for further Superstition, the Confessor should point them in the direction of prayer, the sacraments, exorcisms, even ringing church bells. I can like break the back of the Demons, just other legitimate and moreover effective means to combat Supernatural evil. Again, you can't fight Superstition with Superstition because the Superstition it heretic hates you, and we don't want, we want to avoid that. And with that, this text comes to an end. At the end of book six, this massive volume comes to an end, and trust me, my summary.

here has done no justice to this amazing text, but it ends with a summation of the whole work and 12 points. Among them, evil spirits are real, and if you're going to be a Christian, you got to believe in them. Pacts with those evil spirits are illicit, and such packs should be punished. They must be punished as heresy. The dangers of superstition, discernment for supernatural phenomena, legitimate remedies against Supernatural evil, the dangers or Curiosities about sorcery, guilty of that one, distancing oneself from masteral magical practitioner, is advice for exorcists, and how to avoid Superstition in one's own ritual life. In effect, evil spirits are real, and they are running a vast fishing scam for your soul. But to go back to an earlier Point, why does God allow all this stuff to happen? Why does God allow these demons to do all this? Well, of course, to some level, it's just a mystery. You know, why does God do anything? The Lord works in mysterious ways, mysterious murderous

ways, but Del Rio hazards some traditional answers here. One, of course, to test and show human beings that they can overcome demonic powers through faith and through faith alone. Faith in big books like this and to allow human beings to improve their virtue and deepen their faith. And finally, God allows demons to destroy people and preserve free will and punish evildoers for their sins in this lifetime. It's what you get for studying all that evil magic; you get punished for Del Rio, to be sure. The human soul is the great battleground between good and evil, and heretical superstitious magic was the greatest weapon of the forces of darkness in these final years before the rise of the Antichrist and his vast amount of underground treasure that I want, and the apocalyptic conclusion, of course, to the cosmos where God in Jesus will win, apparently, according to this. Following the first edition of the 1599-1600 Del Rio's investigation into magic, it would see a half a dozen editions before his death in 1600. 8 more

than a dozen more editions, summaries, and translations would appear before that final modern edition, final printing in Cologne in 1755. Nearly the Koda of The Nightmare of the early modern witch hunts coming to an end, his book landed in the midst of the worst period of the witch hunts, the murders reaching their apex around 1650 before sharply dropping off into the 18th century. By then, older manuals such as the Malas Malarum or Boden were seen as a bit old-fashioned and, in the case of the Malist, theologically questionable at best. Del Rio and Nicolah Ry were even discussed together; they called together to publicly discuss the state of witchcraft in Europe during their own lifetimes. And yet, Del Rio's text represents the shift toward moderation and careful consideration in the diagnosis and persecution of heretical sorcery trials. But we have to be honest; we have to admit that it was at the forefront of urging on those VAR trials, especially in the low countries at their

Apex while the while skeptical voices like that of Yannes V were drowned out in these very pages. The 16008 compendium, Miley Fakar, most famous for its woodcuts, would pillage from Del Rio's text widely along with many important textbooks of witchcraft in English. The guide to Grand Jurman, the most famous and influential text in the Witch Trials at Salem, was directly influenced by Del Rio, including dozens of others. Frankly, the text was also used by lawyers defending so-called witches, using Del Rio's careful judicial procedures as a means to pump the brakes on shoddy and rushed jurisprudence. Even the odd necromancer was sometimes found from time to time with their own copy, apparently using it for much the opposite reasons intended by Del Rio. Vol for his part would find the textbook a horror of medieval superstition itself, and the Enlightenment would heap together such manuals from Nicholas Immer Malice Malarum and finally to Del Rio. They would heap them all together as

one massive heap of horror testifying to the long nightmare of the irrational Middle Ages and its extreme horrifying religious violence. Of course, Del Rio and most of the other texts of this time period would come to be forgotten as malas malarum came to represent the whole literature as a kind of maab matomy. But of course, the entire genre of demonological literature from Johan neer's 1430s for macarius to Del Rio's 1600 and investigations is a rather internally diverse. Works witnessed to shifts, changes, mutations, and dynamisms all its own. Malus malarum was neither the first nor was it the last word on heretical sorcery, witches, and the Occult. If any text was the last word on those topics, it was Del Rio's investigations into magic, and for that reason, it's well worth the study. The definitive study of De Rio's life is Yan mikkelson's magisterial but unfortunately rather expensive study. It's probably worth it if you're going

to get it into Del Rio. It's fantastic. You have two options for studying Del Rio's investigations. Well, I think you have three options. The first and easiest is the prees text by Peter Maxwell Stewart. Here, the edition alternates between translations of the books along with some sections that are merely summarized. It's pretty handy and frankly pretty inexpensive, giving you access to at least the gist of the text. But to be honest, it's falsely advertised on sites like Amazon as a full translation. It absolutely is not a full translation. Now, if you do want to read the entire six volumes, one full wonderful text with a Latin facing and lots of footnotes, you can consult the new six-volume edition by the same author and vality and all of its glory for only $1,200 for the whole set. Because Brill, yep, $1,200 for six volumes. Speak of the devil, as they say. So you can check those out from a university library because you know everyone has access to university libraries and you know $1,200 to

buy books regardless. I'm not quite done with Del Rio. As I mentioned, I'm going to eventually make that how to conduct a witch trial episode at some point in the future, so you can actually see how witch trials really work, conducted at least based on the investigations. And uh, we'll come back to it. Oh yeah, I mentioned the third option. If you want to read Del R, you can pick up a copy, an early modern copy of text like this one. You can get these at auction for sometimes nearly the price of those Brill editions. So you can literally get a 300-year-old copy sometimes for the same price as you can pick up books from Brill. Until next time, I'm Dr. Justin Sledge, and thank you for watching Esoterica, where we explore the arcane in history, philosophy, and religion. [Music] [Music]

The Greatest Book on Magic, Witchcraft & the Occult - Martin Del Rio - Disquisitionum Magicarum

ESOTERICA

Martin Del Rio's Investigations into Magic

Martin Del Rio's "Investigations of Magic" is a crucial text for understanding the early modern European witch trials, composed of three volumes and published between 1599-1600.

The book played a significant role in urging the persecution of witchcraft, while also providing careful judicial procedures that were used to defend accused witches.

Del Rio's work, along with other demonological literature from the period, reflects the diverse and dynamic nature of the genre, ultimately leaving a lasting impact on the study of heretical sorcery and the occult.

The Malus Malefic was last printed by itself in Venice in 1574, after which it traveled with other books.

The book's modest size contrasts with its terrifying reputation, and it was likely owned by a witch hunter.

Del Rio's critical and careful approach to the subject of witchcraft and magic stands in stark contrast to the more extreme and conspiratorial thinkers of the time.

Del Rio's textbook on magic and the occult is a massive and overlooked piece of scholarship, unjustly overshadowed by smaller works.

His investigations into magic provide a comprehensive analysis of witchcraft and the mechanisms behind the witch trials during the early modern period.

Del Rio's unique perspective links the rise of witchcraft and other societal issues to the Protestant heresy, particularly blaming figures like Martin Luther and John Calvin for the turmoil.

Del Rio's Journey and Influence on the Occult

Martin Del Rio, after a tumultuous family background and personal failures, joined the Jesuits in 1600 and became deeply interested in the occult, inspired by a sorcery trial.

He produced a comprehensive work on magic and its prosecution, republishing it over the years and offering a modern analysis of witch trials.

Del Rio's writings explored the deceptive nature of demons, the role of superstition, and the impact of evil spirits, providing valuable insights into the historical understanding of magic and its practices.

Martin Del Rio's Impact on the Study of Witchcraft

Martin Del Rio aimed to produce a comprehensive textbook on occultism and the prosecution of witchcraft, distinguishing between historical witch hunts and contemporary practitioners.

His work provided a detailed theory of witchcraft, exploring the juridical processes and the use of torture in investigations.

Del Rio's investigations are considered a monumental expression of the early modern witch trials, offering a thorough analysis of magic and the occult.

The Heretical Sorcery Sect and Its Impact

Philosophers in the late medieval to early modern period believed a new women-led heretical sorcery sect had emerged in Europe, marked by pacts with the devil and apostasy from Christianity.

This sect engaged in sexual relations with demons, aerial flights to witch Sabbaths, and practiced maleficent magic, aiming to undermine Christendom.

The discussion also includes alchemy, which was seen as fraudulent and potentially demonic, with a focus on the dangers of greed and the temptation to make a pact with the devil.

Vetting a prophet involves assessing their moral, physical, and psychological characteristics, with a focus on their righteousness, sanity, and gender.

Misogyny plays a role in the investigation, with women being seen as more prone to demonic attack and deception.

The text offers three options for studying Del Rio's investigations, ranging from a summarized edition to a costly six-volume set, while also discussing the role of evil spirits and the importance of combating superstition with legitimate means.

Del Rio's Investigation into Magic and Witch Trials

Del Rio's investigation into magic aimed to show that humans can overcome demonic powers through faith and to punish evildoers for their sins.

His work became a detailed guide for conducting witch trials, leading to multiple editions before his death in 1600.

The book also explored the complex role of the Confessor in these proceedings and rejected trials by ordeal as superstitious, while providing a vast compendium of historical magical practices.