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016 - Chapter Xvia Sermon On Were-wolves · Book of Werewolves

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  Speaker 1: Chapter sixteen of the Book of Werewolves. This is a
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by Karen Spence. The Book of Werewolves by Sabing
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  Speaker 1: Bearing Gould, Chapter sixteen, a sermon on werewolves. The following
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  Speaker 1: curious specimen of a late medieval sermon is taken from
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  Speaker 1: the Old German edition of the discourses of doctor Johann
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  Speaker 1: Geiler von Kaisersberg, a famous preacher in Strasburg. The volume
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  Speaker 1: is entitled d emeis tsistasbuk von der Omeissen unduicht erdr
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  Speaker 1: kunig igteenth gern ensochtovon Eigenschaft der ermeisen ungibt under weissing
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  Speaker 1: from the unholden erde Hechxen und vungushbenzt Deirgeist when vondem
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  Speaker 1: vuten didn't hear vun der barlich. This strange series of
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  Speaker 1: sermons was preached at Strasbourg in the year fifteen o
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  Speaker 1: eight and was taken down and written out by barefooted
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  Speaker 1: friar Johann Pauley and by him published in fifteen seventeen.
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  Speaker 1: The doctor died on Midland Sunday fifteen ten. There is
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  Speaker 1: a Latin edition of his sermons, but whether of the
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  Speaker 1: same series or not, I cannot tell, as I have
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  Speaker 1: been unable to obtain a sight of the volume. The
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  Speaker 1: German edition is illustrated with bold and clever wood cuts.
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  Speaker 1: Among other there are representations of the witch's Sabbath, the
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  Speaker 1: wild huntsman, and a werewolf attacking a man. The sermon
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  Speaker 1: was preached on the third Sunday in Lynt. No text
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  Speaker 1: is given, but there is a general reference to the
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  Speaker 1: Gospel for the day. This is the discourse What shall
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  Speaker 1: we say about were wolves? For there are were wolves
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  Speaker 1: which run about the villages, devouring men and children. As
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  Speaker 1: men say about them, they run about a full gallop
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  Speaker 1: injuring men, and are called bere wulf or werewulf. Do
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  Speaker 1: you ask me if I know aught of them? I
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  Speaker 1: answer yes. They are apparently wolves which eat men and children.
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  Speaker 1: And that happens on seven accounts assurium, hunger, rabium, savageness, senectum,
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  Speaker 1: old age, experientium, experience, insanium, madness, Diablo, the devil, and
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  Speaker 1: daum God. The first happens through hunger, when the wolves
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  Speaker 1: find nothing to eat in the woods. They must come
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  Speaker 1: to peace people and deep men when hunger drives them
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  Speaker 1: to it. You see well, when it is very cold,
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  Speaker 1: that the stags come in search of food up to
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  Speaker 1: the villages, and the birds actually into the dining room
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  Speaker 1: in search of victals. Under the second head, wolves eat
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  Speaker 1: children through their innate savageness, because they are savage, and
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  Speaker 1: that is propter locum quaitumphium. Their savageness arises first from
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  Speaker 1: their condition. Wolves which live in cold places are smaller
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  Speaker 1: on that account and more savage than other wolves. Secondly,
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  Speaker 1: their savageness depends on the season. They are more savage
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  Speaker 1: about candleness than at any other time of the year,
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  Speaker 1: and men must be more on their guard against them
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  Speaker 1: then than at other times. It is a proverb he
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  Speaker 1: who seeks a wolf of candlemess a peasant on trove Tuesday,
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  Speaker 1: and a parson in lint is a man of plock. Thirdly,
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  Speaker 1: their savageness depends on their having young. When the wolves
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  Speaker 1: have young, they are more savage than when they have not.
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  Speaker 1: You see it in all beasts. A wild duck when
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  Speaker 1: it has young poults. You see what an uproar it makes.
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  Speaker 1: A cat fights for its young. Kittens and wolves do ditto.
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  Speaker 1: Under the third head, the wolves do injury on account
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  Speaker 1: of their age. When a wolf is old, it is
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  Speaker 1: weak and feeble in its legs, so it can't run
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  Speaker 1: fast enough to catch stags, and therefore it rends a man,
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  Speaker 1: whom it can catch easier than a wild animal. It
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  Speaker 1: also tears children and men easier than wild animals because
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  Speaker 1: of its teeth, for its teeth break off when they
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  Speaker 1: are very old. You see it well in old women,
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  Speaker 1: how the last teeth wobble, and they have scarcely a
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  Speaker 1: tooth left in their heads, and they open their mouths
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  Speaker 1: for men to feed them with mash and stewed substances.
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  Speaker 1: Under the fourth head, the injury the where wolves do
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  Speaker 1: arises from experience. It is said that human flesh is
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  Speaker 1: far sweeter than other flesh, So when a wolf has
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  Speaker 1: once tasted human flesh, he desires to taste it again.
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  Speaker 1: So he acts like old toppers, who, when they know
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  Speaker 1: the best wine, will not be put off with inferior quality.
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  Speaker 1: Under the fifth head, the injury arises from ignorance. A dog,
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  Speaker 1: when it is mad is also inconsiderate, and it bites
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  Speaker 1: any man it does not recognize its own lord. And
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  Speaker 1: what is a wolf but a wild dog, which is
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  Speaker 1: mad and inconsiderate, so that it regards no man. Under
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  Speaker 1: the sixth head, the injury comes of the devil who
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  Speaker 1: transforms himself and takes on him the form of a wolf,
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  Speaker 1: so writes Vincentus in his Speculum Historial, And he has
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  Speaker 1: taken it from Valerius Maximus. In the Punic War, when
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  Speaker 1: the Romans fought against the men of Africa, when the
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  Speaker 1: captain lay asleep, there came a wolf and drew his
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  Speaker 1: sword and carried it off. That was the devil in
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  Speaker 1: a wolf's form. The like, writes William of Paris, that
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  Speaker 1: a wolf will kill and of our children, and do
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  Speaker 1: the greatest mischief. There was a man who had the
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  Speaker 1: fantasy that he himself was a wolf, And afterwards he
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  Speaker 1: was found lying in the wood, and he was dead
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  Speaker 1: out of sheer hunger. Under the seventh head, the injury
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  Speaker 1: comes of God's ordinance. For God will sometimes punish certain
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  Speaker 1: lands and villages with wolves. So we read of Elijah
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  Speaker 1: that when Elijah wanted to go up a mountain and
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  Speaker 1: out of Jericho, so naughty boys made a mock of
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  Speaker 1: him and said Oh bald head, step up, Oh glossy pate,
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  Speaker 1: step up? What happened? He cursed them? Then came two
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  Speaker 1: bears out of the desert and tore about forty two
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  Speaker 1: of the children. That was God's ordinance. The like we
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  Speaker 1: read of a prophet who had said it not the
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  Speaker 1: commands he had received of God, and he was persuaded
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  Speaker 1: to eat bread at the house of another. As he
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  Speaker 1: went home, he rode upon his ass. Then came a lion,
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  Speaker 1: which slew him and left the ass alone. That was
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  Speaker 1: God's ordinance. Therefore, must a man turn to God when
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  Speaker 1: he brings wild beasts to do him a mischief, which
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  Speaker 1: same brutes may he not bring now or evermore. Amen,
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  Speaker 1: It will be seen from this extraordinary sermon that doctor
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  Speaker 1: Johann Geiler van Kustersburg did not regard werewolves with any
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  Speaker 1: other light than natural wolves filled with the lust for
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  Speaker 1: human flesh. And he puts aside altogether the view that
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  Speaker 1: they are men in a state of metamorphosis. However, he
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  Speaker 1: alludes to this superstition and his sermon on the wild
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  Speaker 1: men of the woods, but translates his lycanthropist to Spain.
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  Speaker 1: End of chapter sixteen, recording by Karen Spence end of
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  Speaker 1: the Book of Werewolves by saving Bearing Gould,