The titlecanonEpiscopi (orcapitulum Episcopi) is conventionally given to a certain passage found in medievalcanon law. The text possibly originates in an early 10th-centurypenitential, recorded byRegino of Prüm; it was included inGratian's authoritativeCorpus juris canonici of c. 1140 (Decretum Gratiani, causa 26, quaestio 5, canon 12) and as such became part ofcanon law during theHigh Middle Ages.
It is an important source on folk belief and surviving pagan customs inFrancia on the eve of the formation of theHoly Roman Empire. The folk beliefs described in the text reflect the residue of pre-Christian beliefs about one century after theCarolingian Empire had beenChristianized. It does not believewitchcraft to be a real physical manifestation; this was an important argument used by the opponents of thewitch trials during the 16th century, such asJohann Weyer.
The conventional title "canonEpiscopi" is based on the text'sincipit, and was current from at least the 17th century.[1]
It is perhaps first attested in theLibri de synodalibus causis et disciplinis ecclesiasticis composed byRegino of Prüm around 906.[2] It was included inBurchard of Worms'Decretum (compiled between 1008 and 1012), an early attempt at collecting all ofcanon law.
The text was adopted in theDecretum ofIvo of Chartres and eventually inGratian's authoritativeCorpus juris canonici of c. 1140 (causa 26, quaestio 5, canon 12). Because it was included in Gratian's compilation, the text was treated as canon law for the remaining part of theHigh Middle Ages, untilRoman Catholic views onEuropean witchcraft began to change dramatically in thelate medieval period.[3]The text of Gratian is not the same as the one used by Burchard, and the distinctive features of theCorrector text were thus not transmitted to later times.
The text of Regino of Prüm was edited inPatrologia Latina, volume 132; theDecretum of Burchard of Worms in volume 140.The text of Burchard'sCorrector has been separately edited by Wasserschleben (1851),[4]and again by Schmitz (1898).[5]
The incipit of Gratian's text, which gave rise to the title of "canonEpiscopi" reads:
This condemnation the "pernicious art of divination and magic" (magicam being changed by Gratian frommaleficam) is justified by a reference toTitus 3:10-11 onheresy.Then follows a description of the errors of "certain wicked women" (quaedamsceleratae mulieres), who deceived bySatan believe themselves to join the train of the pagan goddessDiana (to which Burchardus added:vel cum Herodiade "or withHerodias") during the hours of the night, and to cover great distances within a multitude of women riding on beasts, and during certain nights to be called to the service of their mistress. Those holding such beliefs are then condemned by the text in no uncertain terms ("that they would only perish in their perfidy without drawing others with them"), deploring the great number of people who "relapse into pagan error" by holding such beliefs. Because of this, the text instructs that all priests should teach at every possible instant that such beliefs are phantasms inspired by an evil spirit.
The following paragraph presents an account of the means by which Satan takes possession of the minds of these women by appearing to them in numerous forms, and how once he holds captive their minds, deludes them by means ofdreams (transformat se in diversarum personarum species atque similitudines, et mentem quam captivam tenet in somnis deludens, modo laeta, modo tristia, modo cognitas, modo incognitas personas, ostendens, per devia quaeque deducit).
The text emphasizes that the heretical belief is to hold that these transformations occur in the body, while they are in reality dream visions inspired in the mind (Et cum solus spiritus hoc patitur, infidelis mens haec non in animo, sed in corpore evenire opinatur).The text proposes that it is perfectly normal to have nightly visions in which one sees things that are never seen while awake, but that it is a great stupidity to believe that the events experienced in the dream vision have taken place in the body.Examples are adduced, ofEzechiel having his prophetic visions in spirit, not in body, of theApocalypse of John which was seen in spirit, not in body, and ofPaul of Tarsus, who describes the events at Damascus as a vision, not as a bodily encounter.
The text concludes by repeating that it should be publicly preached that all those holding such beliefs have lost their faith, believing not in God but in the devil, and whosoever believes that it is possible totransform themselves into a different kind of creature, is far more wavering (in his faith) than an infidel (procul dubio infidelis; to which Burchard added: "and worse than a pagan",et pagano deterior).
The Canon Episcopi has received a great deal of attention from historians of thewitch craze period as early documentation of theCatholic church'stheological position on the question of witchcraft.
The position taken by the author is that these "rides of Diana" did not actually exist, that they are deceptions, dreams or phantasms.It is the belief in the reality of such deceptions which is considered a heresy worthy of excommunication.[6]
The position here is that the devil is real, creating delusions in the mind, but that the delusions do not have bodily reality.This skeptical treatment ofmagic sharply contrasts with the sanction ofwitch trials by the church in later centuries, beginning with the bullSummis desiderantes affectibus (1484).[7][page needed]
The proponents of these trials were aware of this problem, and the authors of theMalleus Maleficarum, a witch-hunter's manual from 1487 that played a key role in the witch craze, were forced to argue for a reinterpretation of the Canon Episcopi in order to reconcile their beliefs that witchcraft was both real and effective as with those expressed in the Canon.[8]Their detractors in the 16th and 17th century also made reference to the canon, e.g.Johann Weyer in hisDe praestigiis daemonum (1563).[page needed]
Burchard of Worms added theNew Testament figureHerodias to his copy of the document in one passage, and theTeutonic goddessHolda in another.[dubious –discuss] In the 12th century,Hugues de Saint-Victor quoted the Canon Episcopi as reading "DianaMinerva".[citation needed]Later collections included the names "Benzozia" and "Bizazia".[9]In modern times, the text's description of "Witches' Sabbaths" dedicated toDiana has given rise to a hypothesis concerning a supposedmedieval witch religion,[10] a theory mostly associated withMargaret Murray, and later adopted byGerald Gardner andhis followers. Burchard's mention of Herodias is relevant especially the theories ofCharles Godfrey Leland presented inAradia, or the Gospel of the Witches (1899), and taken up in theStregheria ofRaven Grimassi.
