IMPOTENCE AS A RESULT OF WITCHCRAFT 



IN THE MAJORITY of all cascs impotcnce is due to nervous causes. It is a phobia. 

 The fear of being impotent prevents individuals from having normal erec- 

 tions.^ It is not astonishing that in the Middle Ages such a condition was fre- 

 quently attributed to witchcraft. The question was important because it had 

 legal consequences. Inability to ccjnsummate marriage was a reason for declar- 

 ing it null and void ab initio. 



The first who brought up the question of witchcraft in this connection was 

 Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims, who lived in the ninth century. In discussing 

 a definite case he came to the following conclusion:" if a marriage has been 

 annulled on account of the impotence of the husband, he cannot marry again 

 if his impotence was due to natural (physical) causes. If his condition, how- 

 ever, was the result of witchcraft and the marriage had been declared void 

 after the customary treatments had failed, he was permitted to marry again. 



Gratian, who in the twelfth century codified canon law, accepted Hincmar's 

 view and so did Peter the Lombard in the same century in his Liber Senten- 

 tiarum where he has a special chapter: "De his qui maleficiis impediti coire 

 non possunt."" Peter's book was commented upon by the leading scholastic 

 theologians.* 



Since impotence resulting from witchcraft was to be treated, not only was 

 the Church interested in the question but the physicians also. In the eleventh 

 century Constantine of Africa devoted a chapter of his Pantechne to it, "De 

 his qui coire non possunt."" The same text with additions was wrongly at- 

 tributed to Arnald of Villanova and was published in his Opera Omnia.'' Con- 

 stantine's text with or without additions is frequently found in medical 

 manuscripts as an independent anonymous treatise. It has been published and 

 discussed by Gerda Hoffmann in an excellent dissertation.^ 



In my studies on the medieval medical manuscripts of Montpellier^ I found 



in the fifteenth century manuscript H 277, fol. 60"', a version that is mentioned 



but was not used by Gerda Hoffmann. This may justify its publication here, 



although it follows rather closely the text of other manuscripts. I am adding 



an English translation and a few remarks on its content in relation to the 



Malleus Maleficarum. 



Text 



Incipit libellus de hiis qui maleficiis impediti cum uxoribus suis cohire non 

 possunt. 



Sunt quidam qui maleficiis diabolicis impediti, cum uxoribus suis cohire 

 non possunt, de quorum sufragio nolumus nostrum librum enudare, quod 

 medicamentum ni fallor est sanctissimum. 



Igitur si hoc alicui contigerit, speret in domino et ipse dabit benignitatem. 

 Sed quia maleficia sunt multimoda, oportet ut de hiis disputemus. Malefi- 

 ciorum enim quedam de animatis fiunt, ut testiculi galli si sint suppositi lecto 

 cum ipsius sanguine, efficiunt ne concumbant in lecto iacentes. Quedam kar- 



C54O 



