La importancia del aprendizaje del léxico en la enseñanza de lenguas

tioned the repetition of torture. He maintained that the DEVIL could not appear in the form of an innocent per- son, but he did not believe in the DEVIL’SMARK and the shape-shifting ability of witches. He allowed the trials of children under certain conditions.

In the Treves trials, even leading citizens were not immune. The chief judge, Dietrich Flade, was himself ac- cused and burned at the stake, as were two burgomasters and several councilors and associate judges. Numerous clerics were ruined, and the children of the condemned were stripped of all their belongings and sent into exile.

Binsfeld’s treatise included a classifi cation of DEMONs and their sins; he was the fi rst person to pair demons with the SEVEN DEADLY SINS: LUCIFER (pride), MAMMON

(avarice), ASMODEUS (lechery), SATAN (anger), BEELZEBUB

(gluttony), LEVIATHAN (envy), and BELPHEGOR (sloth). Binsfeld died in Treves of the bubonic plague around 1603.

black book A magical handbook that provides instruc-

tions for traffi cking with spirits, including DEMONs and

ANGELs; divination; and acquisition and use of supernat-

ural powers. In some cases, possession of the black book itself bestows supernatural powers, wealth, or luck upon its owner. However, use of a black book usually backfi res with serious consequences. Some black books are said to be written in BLOOD as a PACT with the DEVIL.

According to a German tale, a black book of unknown origin was passed down through inheritance and came into the possession of some peasants. Its magical pow- ers were released by reading it forward and backward. If anyone failed to read the book backward, the Devil was able to take control of him or her. Once activated, the book enabled people to acquire great wealth and do terrible things to others without punishment. However, there were consequences to using the black book that caused its owners grief. They tried to get rid of the book but could not do so. They sought help from a minister, who successfully nailed the book into a drawer. Such a tale serves to demonstrate the power of Christianity over both occult powers and pagan folk magic.

Black books are more than mysteriously empowered items of folklore, however. In practice, many people and families kept black books as guides for living. They in- cluded magical cures and healing recipes, prayers, CHARMs, incantations, blessings, rituals for burial, seasonal and agricultural rites, techniques for divination, and ways to ward off evil and bad luck and attract good luck. The mate- rial is a mixture of old folkways and lore and Christian ele- ments. Some black books credit their origins to Cyprianus of Antioch (St. Cyprian), who lived in the fourth century

C.E. in Turkey. According to lore, Cyprian was a sorcerer who escaped the domination of DEMONs and the Devil by making the sign of the cross. He converted to Christianity and became a bishop. He ended his life as a martyr.

See GRIMOIRES.

FURTHERREADING:

Butler, E. M. Ritual Magic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1949.

Rustad, Mary S., ed. and trans. The Black Books of Elverum. Lakeville, Minn.: Galde Press, 1999.

black dogs Spectral animals associated with demonic

powers, death, and disaster. Phantom black dogs are widespread in folklore. They are said to be DEMONs or

the DEVIL in shape-shifted form or a demonic animal companion of demons.

Spectral black dogs are often unusually large and have glowing red or yellow eyes. They give out an unearthly, bone-chilling howl. They like to roam remote areas of the countryside. The sight of one is a harbinger of death or disaster.

Sometimes spectral black dogs appear in the middle of lonely roads. If they are struck by a car, they disappear and the vehicle is not damaged.

One famous black dog in English folklore is Black Shuck. Shuck derives from an old Anglo-Saxon term,

scucca or sceocca, meaning “demon” or “Satan.”

During the European witch hunts, witches were often said to have FAMILIARs in the form of black dogs, or to be visited by their master, the Devil, in the shape of a black dog.

In Arabian lore, black dogs are a favorite form taken by the DJINN. If a djinn becomes attached to a human, it may assume the shape of a black dog in order to get close to that person.

See ABELDE LARUE; CERBERUS.

Black Mass An obscene parody of the Catholic Holy

Mass at which the DEVIL is worshipped. During the Inquisition, witch hunters and demonologists claimed that witches—or any heretics—frequently performed Black Masses as part of their infernal SABBATs with

DEMONs and the Devil. Black Masses have been per-

formed for centuries and occur in contemporary times, but it is doubtful that they have been as prevalent—or as outrageous—as often claimed.

Characteristics

There is no single defi nitive Black Mass ritual. The purpose is to parody the Catholic Holy Mass by per- forming it or parts of it backward, inverting the cross, stepping or spitting on the cross, stabbing the host, and performing other sacrilegious acts. Urine is sometimes substituted for the holy water used to sprinkle the at- tendees, urine or water is substituted for the wine, and rotted turnip slices, pieces of black leather, or black tri- angles are substituted for the host. Black candles are substituted for white ones. The service is performed by a defrocked or renegade priest, who wears vestments that are black or the color of dried blood and embroi- dered with an inverted cross, a goat’s head, or magical symbols.

One famous form of the Black Mass was the Mass of St. Secaire, said to have originated in the Middle Ages in Gascony for the purpose of cursing an enemy to death by a slow, wasting illness. Montague Summers pro- vides a description of it in The History of Witchcraft and

Demonology:

The mass is said upon a broken and desecrated altar in some ruined or deserted church where owls hoot and mope and bats fl it through the crumbling windows, where toads spit their venom upon the sacred stone. The priest must make his way thither late attended only by an acolyte of impure and evil life. At the fi rst stroke of eleven he begins; the liturgy of hell is mumbled back- ward, the canon said with a mow and a sneer; he ends just as midnight tolls.

The Mass of St. Secaire requires a triangular black host and brackish water drawn from a well in which the corpse of an unbaptized baby has been tossed.

History

Magical uses of the Mass and alleged perversions of the Mass are almost as old as Christianity itself. In the sec- ond century, St. Irenaeus accused the Gnostic teacher Marcus of perverting the Mass. The Gelasian Sacramen- tary (ca. sixth century) documents masses to be said for a variety of magical purposes, including weather con- trol, fertility, protection, and love divination. Masses also were said with the intent to kill people; these were offi cially condemned as early as 694 by the Council of Toledo.

The magical signifi cance of the Black Mass lies in the belief that the Holy Mass involves a miracle: the transub- stantiation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. If the priest, as magician, can effect a miracle in a Holy Mass, then he surely can effect magic in a mass used for other purposes. Priests who attempted to subvert the Holy Mass for evil purposes, such as cursing a per- son to death, were condemned by the Catholic Church as early as the seventh century.

Magical uses of the Mass increased in the Middle Ages. The beginnings of the organized Black Mass as part of Devil worship coincides with the expansion of the In- quisition and rising public fears about the evil powers of witches. The fi rst witch trials to feature accusations of sabbats, Devil’s PACTs, and Black Masses all occurred in the 14th century.

In 1307, the powerful and wealthy Order of the Knights Templar was destroyed on accusations of conducting blasphemous rites in which Christ was renounced and idols made of stuffed human heads were worshipped. The Knights Templar also were accused of spitting and tram- pling upon the cross and worshipping the Devil in the shape of a black cat. Members of the order were arrested, tortured, and executed.

In 1440, GILLESDE RAIS, a French baron, was arrested and accused of conducting Black Masses in the cellar

of his castle in order to gain riches and power. He was charged with kidnapping, torturing, and murdering more than 140 children as sacrifi ces. He was convicted and executed.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, priests in France were arrested and executed for conducting Black Masses. Many of the masses were theatrical events intended for social shock and protest against the church; the seriousness of the actual “Devil worship” was dubious. For example, in 1500, the cathedral chapter of Cambrai held Black Masses in protest against their bishop. A priest in Orléans, Gen- tien le Clerc, tried in 1614–15, confessed to performing a “Devil’s mass,” which was followed by drinking and a wild sexual orgy.

Black Masses fi gured in high-profi le POSSESSION cases, such as the LOUVIERS POSSESSIONS in 1647. Ursuline nuns said they had been bewitched and possessed and were forced by chaplains—led by Abbé Thomas Boulle—to participate nude in Black Masses, defi ling the cross, tram- pling upon the host, and having sex with demons.

The height of the theatrical, anti-Catholic Black Mass was reached in the late 17th century, during the reign of Louis XIV, who was criticized for his tolerance of witches and sorcerers. It became fashionable among nobility to hire priests to perform erotic Black Masses in dark cel- lars. The chief organizer of these rites was Catherine Deshayes, known as “La Voisin,” a witch who told for- tunes and sold love philters. La Voisin employed a cadre of priests who performed the masses, including the ugly and evil Abbé Guiborg, who were gold-trimmed and lace- lined vestments and scarlet shoes.

The mistress of Louis XIV, the marquise de Montespan, sought out the services of La Voisin because she feared the king was becoming interested in another woman. Us- ing Montespan as a naked altar, Guiborg said three Black Masses over her, invoking Satan and his demons of lust and deceit, BEELZEBUB, ASMODEUS, and ASTAROTH, to grant whatever Montespan desired. While incense burned, the throats of children were slit and their blood poured into chalices and mixed with fl our to make the host. When- ever the mass called for kissing the altar, Guiborg kissed Montespan. He consecrated the host over her genitals and inserted pieces in her vagina. The ritual was followed by an orgy. The bodies of the children were later burned in a furnace in La Voisin’s house.

When the scandal of the Black Masses broke, Louis arrested 246 men and women, many of them some of France’s highest-ranking nobles, and put them on trial. Confessions were made under torture. Most of the nobility received only jail sentences and exile in the countryside. Thirty-six of the commoners were executed, including La Voisin, who was burned alive in 1680.

Louis kept Montespan out of the trials, but she suf- fered great humiliation and disgrace. When Louis’ queen, Maria Theresa, died in 1683, he married another woman, Madame de Maintenon.