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| ‘‘Magia Posthuma’’ |
‘‘Magia Posthuma’’ (of C. F. de Schertz)
A short treatise on the vampire published at Olmutz (now in the Czech Republic) in 1706 and written by Charles Ferdinand de Schertz. Reviewing it, Dom Antoine Augustin Calmet stated in his Dissertation sur les apparitions, des anges . . . et sur les revenaus et vampires (1746; trans. The Phantom World, 2. vols., 1850) that the author related a story of a woman that died in a certain village, after having received all the sacraments, and was buried with the usual ceremonies in the churchyard. About four days after her death and for several months, the inhabitants of the village were frightened by unusual noises and many saw a specter, sometimes shaped like a dog and sometimes like a man, who tried to choke or suffocate them. Several were bruised all over and utterly weak, pale, lean, and disfigured.
The specter took his fury out even on the beasts: cows were frequently found beaten to the earth, half dead, at other times with their tails tied to one another, lowing hideously. Horses were found foaming with sweat and out of breath, as if they had been running a long and tiresome race.
Schertz examined the subject in the capacity of a lawyer and was clearly of the opinion that if the suspected person were really the source of these noises, disturbances, and acts of cruelty, the law would justify the burning of the body, as is practiced in the case of other specters that come again and molest the living.
He related several stories of apparitions of this sort and the mischief done by them. One was of a herdsman of the village of Blow near the town of Kadam in Bohemia, who appeared for a considerable time and called upon several persons, who all died within eight days. The inhabitants of Blow dug up the herdsman’s body and fixed it in the ground with a stake driven through it. The man, even in this condition, laughed at the people that were employed about him, and told them they were very obliging to furnish him with a stick to defend himself from the dogs.
The same night, he extricated himself from the stake, frightened several persons by appearing to them, and occasioned the death of many more than he had hitherto done. He was then delivered into the hands of the hangman, who put him into a cart in order to burn him outside the town. As they went along, the carcass shrieked in the most hideous manner and threw its arms and legs about as if it had been alive. Upon being again run through with a stake, it gave a loud cry, and a great quantity of fresh, florid blood issued from the wound. At last the body was burnt to ashes, and this execution put a final stop to the specter’s appearing and infesting the village.
The same method was practiced in other places where these apparitions were seen, and upon taking them out of the ground, their bodies seemed fresh and florid, their limbs pliant and flexible, without any worms or putrefaction, but not without a great stench.
The author quoted several other writers, who attested to what he related concerning these specters, which, he stated, still appeared in the mountains of Silesia and Moravia. They were seen, it seems, both by day and night, and the things that formerly belonged to them were observed to stir and change their place without any person being seen to touch them. And the only remedy in these cases, he claimed, was to cut off the head and burn the body of the persons supposed to appear.
A short treatise on the vampire published at Olmutz (now in the Czech Republic) in 1706 and written by Charles Ferdinand de Schertz. Reviewing it, Dom Antoine Augustin Calmet stated in his Dissertation sur les apparitions, des anges . . . et sur les revenaus et vampires (1746; trans. The Phantom World, 2. vols., 1850) that the author related a story of a woman that died in a certain village, after having received all the sacraments, and was buried with the usual ceremonies in the churchyard. About four days after her death and for several months, the inhabitants of the village were frightened by unusual noises and many saw a specter, sometimes shaped like a dog and sometimes like a man, who tried to choke or suffocate them. Several were bruised all over and utterly weak, pale, lean, and disfigured.
The specter took his fury out even on the beasts: cows were frequently found beaten to the earth, half dead, at other times with their tails tied to one another, lowing hideously. Horses were found foaming with sweat and out of breath, as if they had been running a long and tiresome race.
Schertz examined the subject in the capacity of a lawyer and was clearly of the opinion that if the suspected person were really the source of these noises, disturbances, and acts of cruelty, the law would justify the burning of the body, as is practiced in the case of other specters that come again and molest the living.
He related several stories of apparitions of this sort and the mischief done by them. One was of a herdsman of the village of Blow near the town of Kadam in Bohemia, who appeared for a considerable time and called upon several persons, who all died within eight days. The inhabitants of Blow dug up the herdsman’s body and fixed it in the ground with a stake driven through it. The man, even in this condition, laughed at the people that were employed about him, and told them they were very obliging to furnish him with a stick to defend himself from the dogs.
The same night, he extricated himself from the stake, frightened several persons by appearing to them, and occasioned the death of many more than he had hitherto done. He was then delivered into the hands of the hangman, who put him into a cart in order to burn him outside the town. As they went along, the carcass shrieked in the most hideous manner and threw its arms and legs about as if it had been alive. Upon being again run through with a stake, it gave a loud cry, and a great quantity of fresh, florid blood issued from the wound. At last the body was burnt to ashes, and this execution put a final stop to the specter’s appearing and infesting the village.
The same method was practiced in other places where these apparitions were seen, and upon taking them out of the ground, their bodies seemed fresh and florid, their limbs pliant and flexible, without any worms or putrefaction, but not without a great stench.
The author quoted several other writers, who attested to what he related concerning these specters, which, he stated, still appeared in the mountains of Silesia and Moravia. They were seen, it seems, both by day and night, and the things that formerly belonged to them were observed to stir and change their place without any person being seen to touch them. And the only remedy in these cases, he claimed, was to cut off the head and burn the body of the persons supposed to appear.
Sources:
Calmet, Augustine. The Phantom World. 2 vols. London: Richard Bentley, 1850.and flexible, without any worms or putrefaction, but not without a great stench.
