Pope Innocent VIII issued a papal bull in 1484, entitled ‘Summis desiderantes affectibus’ (desiring with supreme ardour). In this bull, the pope responded to Heinrich Kramer – a deranged misogynist who would soon be expelled from Innsbrook by Bishop Golser for his distasteful behaviour in persecuting women. The bull acknowledges the existence of witchcraft, and authorises inquisition in northern Germany which allows Kramer to pursue his madness with fervour. Golser ordered Kramer out of the diocese on 1486, prompting the inquisitor to pen the now famous Malleus treatise, to which the bull is printed at the forefront of the book, assuming papal authority and permissions.
Pope Innocent VIII, on his deathbed, tried to cheat death by nourishing his diminished flesh on women’s breast milk and drinking the blood of two ten year old boys. The boys, and the pope, died in 1492.
That’s right: The man who authorised the ardent pursuit of women, fanning the flames of witch hunts, was himself given the drink of children’s blood by his physicians to attempt to sidestep his mortality. Just like the satanic panic of the eighties, it transpires that many of the charges levelled against the persecuted were, in fact, being undertaken at the time by those pointing the finger.
Often regarded as the first successful non-direct blood transfusion, the doctors of the time were not aware of intravenous methods. Needless to say, to call it a success is a stretch, considering all parties died shortly thereafter, and ‘transfusion’ might be ambitious when the contents were delivered to the stomach for digestion.
The modern conspiracy that has (insert person or group) accused of sacrificing babies and consuming their flesh, is as old as the hills – early Christian’s received this very charge during their own persecution. In the case of the above pope, whilst authorising blood-thirsty maniacs to torture innocent women, pope Innocent was trying to live on a different kind of claret himself!
My new book, The Witch Compass, along with details of what I’ve been up to, is available at: surreycunning.co.uk
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