Read On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears Online
Authors: Stephen T. Asma
On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears (56 page)
24
. While the
Malleus Maleficarum
offers little clue to the antimidwife campaign, some social scientists in Germany have recently suggested that midwives represented a threat to procreation because they knew the herbal arts of contraception and abortion. In a time when European populations had been decimated by plagues, the Church sought to rebuild its people. Disease, schism, Muslims, and infidels of all stripe seemed to be at the door of Catholicism. Midwives, with their contraceptive “magic,” seemed to the Inquisition to exacerbate the problems, and this may be why they became prime suspects in the witch trials. See Gunnar Heinsohn and Otto Steiger, “Witchcraft, Population Catastrophe and Economic Crisis in Renaissance Europe: An Alternative Macroeconomic Explanation,” University of Bremen, 2004, IKSF Discussion Paper 31.
25
. See Institoris,
Malleus Maleficarum
,
part I
, question 4;
part II
,
chapter 4
for discussions of incubi and succubi.
26
. For all the Inquisition’s convictions about the threat of succubi and incubi monsters, they were still plagued with the philosophical problem of an immaterial spiritual substance (having no spatial magnitude) actually moving a material substance (which has spatial magnitude). Because every action occurs from some sort of contact, we are left wondering where the contact point would be between a bodiless spirit and a physical body. The two different metaphysical substances can’t find any meeting ground. Asking a spirit to move a human is like asking the abstract number 4 to move a rock. One half-hearted attempt to broach the problem is to make the demon a
carrier
of earthly semen rather than a
producer
of spirit semen. In this way, we don’t have the impossibly difficult job of explaining how immaterial spirit seed enters a human womb to produce an actual metaphysical hybrid. Aware of the conundrum, Institoris says that contact between an evil spirit and a human body is not really physical, but only
virtualis
. But then he seems to gloss over the problem by reminding us that spirits are always running around gathering material seeds of every kind in order to cause unpredictable mayhem. In effect, he simply chooses to press ahead and leave the vexed question behind. Apart from this issue of demon-human interaction, the whole issue of how a spirit substance interacts with a material substance is at the core of Catholic dogma itself. The Savior, after all, is himself a metaphysical hybrid. All the same questions can be asked about how Mary immaculately conceived and how the Christ became a carpenter’s son. And, just so I don’t leave the impression that it’s a strictly religious puzzle, one has to add the continuing scientific problem of mind-body interaction.
28
. The werewolf discussion occurs in ibid.,
part I
, question 10.
29
. He marshals scriptural precedence for this view: Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 32.
30
. The
Canon Episcopi
is probably a ninth-century Frankish document (sometimes thought to originate in the fourth century), and its short text on witches had become canon law by the time of the
Malleus
. It characterizes the psychological theory that I’ve been sketching and that Institoris was reacting against. Roughly speaking, witches are just very confused about their own powers and experiences (delusions), but this still makes them dangerous heretics because they tend to infect other
innocents with their promises of satanic power, and that betrayal is still real even if the magical powers are imaginary. The
Canon Episcopi
famously formulated the scenario of groups of women (hallucinating themselves to be) riding through the air for great distances.
31
. Alchemy was a positive practice in Islamic
scientia
for centuries, but when the texts and ideas flowed into Europe after the expulsion of the Moors it came to be seen as a threatening alternative knowledge base with infidel origins. Alchemy became associated with the black arts and heresy, but ironically many of the research programs of alchemy (e.g., the transformation of natural substances) became the foundations of later chemistry. The Dominicans Aquinas and Albertus Magnus and the Franciscan Roger Bacon originally tolerated alchemy, trying to submit its claims to rational criteria. But by the fourteenth century alchemy was outlawed in many places. See Roslynn D. Haynes,
From Faust to Strangelove
(Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994),
chapter 1
.
32
. The idea that nature is filled with invisible seeds of transformation (
rationes seminales
) was very useful to theologians like Augustine, who used the concept whenever he needed to explain natural growth, development, or evolution in a monotheistic paradigm of “fiat creationism” that precluded such transformation. Ecclesiastes 18:1 states that all things were created by God simultaneously (
qui vivit in aeternum creavit omnia simul
), but Genesis gives us a staggered creation over time. Augustine’s idea of germs of forms existing within other forms helped to make consistent the
unrolling
of creation and the simultaneous
miracle
of creation. Institoris seems to be drawing on this tradition to help him explain demon creative power.
33
. Institoris points out that such demonic alterations of nature can never violate the ways of nature (e.g., bring a dead man to life), but only speed up, slow down, or mix or otherwise mutate changes that could happen anyway (theoretically).
34
. For detailed discussion of women’s susceptibility to evil, see Institoris,
Malleus Maleficarum
,
part I
, question 6.
CHAPTER
9
1
. For a more detailed version of the story of Linnaeus’s hydra, see Wilfrid Blunt and William T. Stearn,
Linnaeus: The Compleat Naturalist
(Princeton University Press, 2002).
2
. See Harriet Ritvo,
The Platypus and the Mermaid
(Harvard University Press, 1997),
chapter 1
.
3
. See Andy Orchard’s fine translation of
Liber Monstrorum
in the appendix to
Pride and Prodigies
.
4
. The
Liber Monstrorum
is a strange Latin text that boldly criticizes many specific beliefs in monsters, but then undercuts its own skeptical posturing by relishing the detailed descriptions of these creatures. It officially takes the epistemic high ground of incredulity, but then can’t seem to get enough of its own taboo subject. The classicist Andy Orchard offers a more compelling interpretation of this monster critique, suggesting that close attention to the text reveals that the greatest criticism is always leveled against non-Christian legends, not monsters per se. It is “the pagans” with “their rumor-filled talk,” according to the author of the
Liber Monstrorum
, that fill our heads with hydras, gorgons, headless men (Epifugi or Blemmyae), and harpies.
5
. See Aleks Pluskowski, “Apocalyptic Monsters: Animal Inspirations for the Iconography of Medieval North European Devourers,” in
The Monstrous Middle Ages
, edited by Bettina Bildauer and Robert Mills (University of Toronto Press, 2004). For more
discussion of the relationship between the bestiary tradition and the rise of natural history, see Stephen Asma,
Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads
(Oxford University Press, 2001), chapters 3, 4. Local animals were given symbolic Christian interpretations in these influential texts, creating layers of metaphysical and moral meaning on top of the observable natural world. Edward Topsell’s (1572–1625) bestiary, for example, explicitly states the purpose of studying animals: “For the knowledge of man, many and most excellent rules for public and private affairs, both for preserving a good conscience and avoiding the evil danger, are gathered from beasts.”
6
. L. Jardine and M. Silverthorne, eds.,
Francis Bacon: The New Organon
(Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, 2000), book II.
7
. Francis Bacon,
The New Atlantis and The Great Instauration
(Harlan Davidson, 1989).
8
. For a nuanced treatment of Browne’s place in the development of critical natural history, see Kevin Killeen, “ ‘The Doctor Quarrels with Some Pictures’: Exegesis and Animals in Thomas Browne’s
Pseudodoxia epidemica,” Early Science and Medicine
12, no. 1 (2007).
9
. Sir Thomas Browne,
Pseudodoxia Epidemica
, book III,
chapter 11
. In book II, chapter 20 of Alexander Ross’s 1652
Arcana Microcosmi
, the more credulous Scottish author tries to undo Browne’s skepticism and reinstall some integrity to the griffin legend. He argues that many other hard-to-believe hybrid creatures exist, so why not the griffin? “Many other sorts of mixt animals we read of, as flying Cats, and flying fishes; and some kinds of Apes with Dogges heads, therefore called Cynocephali.” He makes the classic pro-cryptid move, arguing that there are many unexplored regions in this vast world, and perhaps the griffin lives in these remote lands. But as empiricism grew, Ross became part of the losing side in the battle between credulity and skepticism.
11
. Madeleine Doran, “On Elizabethan ‘Credulity,’ ”
Journal of the History of Ideas
1, no. 2 (1940).
12
. See Mark Burnett,
Constructing Monsters in Shakespearean Drama and Early Modern Culture
(Palgrave, 2002) for a cultural studies analysis of specific plays and characters. The study is notable for its interesting discussion of the relationship between traditional fairground theater and nearby monster booths.
13
. Charles Waterton,
Wanderings in South America
(Century Publishing, 1984), first journey,
chapter 1
. All quotes from Waterton are from this source.
15
. See the Reverend J. G. Wood’s biographical essay on Waterton in
Wanderings in South America
.
17
. Selections from Sidney Smith’s review can be found in the explanatory index of Waterton,
Wanderings in South America
.
18
. See James W. Cook, “Introduction,”
The Colossal P. T. Barnum Reader
(University of Illinois Press, 2005).
19
. Quoted in James W. Cook, introduction to gallery 1, “Barnum’s Serialized Writings,” in
The Colossal P. T. Barnum Reader
.
20
. For more detailed information about the Feejee Mermaid, see Jan Bondeson,
The Feejee Mermaid and Other Essays in Natural and Unnatural History
(Cornell University Press, 1999), and A. H. Saxon,
P. T. Barnum: The Legend and the Man
(Columbia University Press, 1989).
21
. Gallery 4,
Colossal P. T. Barnum Reader
.
22
. The Feejee Mermaid was an old taxidermy hybrid (possibly of Japanese origin) that first made its way to the United States in the possession of a sea captain, Samuel
Barrett Eades, in the 1820s. Captain Eades’s son sold the creature to Moses Kimball, who proved to be Barnum’s great friend and co-conspirator for many years. Kimball leased the monster to Barnum in 1842, and the rest, as they say, is history.
23
. For example, a few days after the effusive
Philadelphia Public Ledger
story, the
Philadelphia Spirit of the Times
decried the Mermaid as a hoax and lambasted the
Ledger
for being suckered. But at the same time, the
New York Tribune
wrote:
That Mermaid. Has arrived in this city on its way to the British Museum, and we were yesterday gratified with a private view of it. We tried hard to determine where or how some cute Yankee had joined a monkey’s head to a fish’s body, but had to give it up, though our incredulity still lingers. If such an animal ever
did
exist, it is surely the most extraordinary fact in Natural History. Believe it we can hardly; but how to account otherwise for what our eyes have seen staggers us. We should like to hear the opinion of better judges, after a rigid scrutiny.
See gallery 4,
Colossal P. T. Barnum Reader
.
24
. A. H. Saxon, ed.,
Selected Letters of P. T. Barnum
(Columbia University Press, 1983), letter 8.
25
. Ibid., letter 24.
26
. Gallery 2,
Colossal P. T. Barnum Reader
.
27
. For an interesting discussion of Barnum’s views on slavery and the “What Is It?” display, see Benjamin Reiss,
The Showman and the Slave
(Harvard University Press, 2001).
