Johann Weyer, aka Wier, Wierus, Piscinarius, first name also Johannes (born between February 24, 1515 and February 24, 1516 — died February 24, 1588) was a Dutch physician, occultist and demonologist, disciple and follower of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa. He was among the first to publish against the persecution of witches. His most influential work is De Praestigiis Daemonum et Incantatiponibus ac Venificiis (On the Illusions of the Demons and on Spells and Poisons, 1563). Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1035x1526, 591 KB) Johannes Weyer (Wier) Kupferstich von Pieter Holsteyn aus der Gesamtausgabe 1660 (nach dem Holzschnittporträt der Ausgabe Basel 1576) - nach Zwei Jahrtausende Geschichte der Kirche am Niederrhein, 1998, S. 269 File links The following pages link to this... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1035x1526, 591 KB) Johannes Weyer (Wier) Kupferstich von Pieter Holsteyn aus der Gesamtausgabe 1660 (nach dem Holzschnittporträt der Ausgabe Basel 1576) - nach Zwei Jahrtausende Geschichte der Kirche am Niederrhein, 1998, S. 269 File links The following pages link to this... February 24 is the 55th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... // Events June - Invasion of Persia by Sultan Selim I of the Ottoman Empire. ... Events March - With the death of Ferdinand II of Aragon, his grandson Charles of Ghent becomes King of Spain as Carlos I. July - Selim I of the Ottoman Empire declares war on the Mameluks and invades Syria. ... Events May 12 - Day of the Barricades in Paris. ... A physician is a person who practices medicine. ... For other uses of this term, see occult (disambiguation). ... Demonology is the systematic study of demons. ... Cornelius Agrippa, as portrayed in Libri tres de occulta philosophia Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (born of noble birth in Cologne September 14, 1486, died in Grenoble February 18, 1535) was a magician and occult writer, astrologer, and alchemist. ... This article is part of the Witchcraft series. ... Events February 1 - Sarsa Dengel succeeds his father Menas as Emperor of Ethiopia February 18 - The Duke of Guise is assassinated while besieging Orléans March - Peace of Amboise. ...

Biography

Weyer was born in Grave. His father was a merchant in hop. He attended the Latin schools in 's-Hertogenbosch and Leuven and when he was about 14 years of age, he became a live-in student of Agrippa, in Antwerp. Agrippa had to leave Antwerp in 1532 and he and his student then settled in Bonn, under the protection of prince-bishop Hermann von Wied. After completing a work on demons in 1533, Agrippa died in 1535, during a trip to France. From 1534, Weyer studied medicine in Paris and later in Orleans (It appears unlikely that he obtained the title of Doctor through these studies). Subsequently, he practiced as a physician in his native Grave. In 1545, he was appointed town physician of Arnhem. In this capacity, he was asked for advice on witchcraft in a 1548 court case involving a fortune teller. In spite of a subsidy from emperor Charles V, Arnhem was no longer able to pay Weyer's salary in 1550 and Weyer moved to Cleves, where he became court doctor to duke Wilhelm V von Jülich-Kleve-Berg, through mediation by humanist Konrad Heresbach. Here he published his major works on demons. He retired from his post in 1578 and was succeeded by his son, Galenus Wier. After retirement he completed another work on a subject unrelated to witchcraft. He died on February 24, 1588 in Tecklenburg, while visiting somebody who had fallen ill. He was buried in the local church, a fortified church which was later destroyed. Grave is a municipality and a city in the southern Netherlands. ... Species Humulus lupulus L. Humulus japonicus Siebold & Zucc. ... s-Hertogenbosch (literally Dukes Woods in Dutch; translated in French as Bois-le-Duc), unofficially also called Den Bosch, is a municipality in the Netherlands, the capital of the province of North Brabant. ... Leuven in 2004 Leuven (Louvain in French, Löwen in German) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Flemish Brabant, of which it is the capital. ... The Cathedral of our Lady (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal, Antwerp) in the Handschoenmarkt, in the old quarter of Antwerp is the largest cathedral in the Low Countries and home to a number of triptychs by Renaissance Belgian painter Rubens. ... Events May 16 - Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England. ... Bonn is a city in Germany (Population (2004 est): 313,605 ; the 19th largest city in Germany), in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia, located about 20 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine. ... Events January 25 - King Henry VIII of England marries Anne Boleyn, his second Queen consort. ... Events January 18 - Lima, Peru founded by Francisco Pizarro April - Jacques Cartier discovers the Iroquois city of Stadacona, Canada (now Quebec) and in May, the even greater Huron city of Hochelaga (now Montreal) June 24 - The Anabaptist state of Münster (see Münster Rebellion) is conquered and disbanded. ... Events May 10 - Jacques Cartier explores Newfoundland while searching for the Northwest Passage. ... Medicine on the Web NLM (National Library of Medicine, contains resources for patients and healthcare professionals) Virtual Hospital (digital health sciences library by the University of Iowa) Online Medical Dictionary Collection of links to free medical resources Categories: Medicine | Health ... The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris throughout the world. ... This article is about Orléans, France; for other meanings see Orleans (disambiguation). ... Events February 27 - Battle of Ancrum Moor - Scots victory over superior English forces December 13 - Official opening of the Council of Trent (closed 1563) Births April 2 - Elizabeth of Valois, Queen of Philip II of Spain (d. ... Arnhem is a municipality and a city in the east of the Netherlands, located on the Lower Rhine, and the capital of the Gelderland province. ... The term witchcraft (and witch) is a controversial one with a complicated history. ... Events Mary I of Scotland sent to France Births September 2 - Vincenzo Scamozzi, Italian architect (died 1616) September 29 - William V, Duke of Bavaria (died 1626) Francesco Andreini, Italian actor (died 1624) Giordano Bruno, Italian philosopher, astronomer, and occultist (burned at the stake) 1600 (died 1600) Honda Tadakatsu, Japanese general... Categories: Stub ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... 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Events January 31 - Battle of Gemblours - Spanish forces under Don John of Austria and Alexander Farnese defeat the Dutch. ... Tecklenburg is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. ...

Work and Critical Reception

Weyer's works include

• De Praestigiis Daemonum et Incantatiponibus ac Venificiis (On the Illusions of the Demons and on Spells and Poisons), 1563.
• De Lamiis Liber (Book on Witches), 1577
• Pseudomonarchia Daemonum (The Pseudo-monarchy of the Daemons), an appendix to De Pretigiis Daemonum, 1583.

Weyer criticised the Malleus Maleficarum and the witch hunting by the Christian authorities; he was said to have been the first person that used the term "mentally ill" to designate those women accused of practising witchcraft. In a time of great number of witch trials and executions, he sought to derogate the law concerning witchcraft prosecution. Events February 1 - Sarsa Dengel succeeds his father Menas as Emperor of Ethiopia February 18 - The Duke of Guise is assassinated while besieging Orléans March - Peace of Amboise. ... Events March 17 - formation of the Cathay Company to send Martin Frobisher back to the New World for more gold May 29 - Publication of the Bergen Book which is better known as the Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord, one of the Lutheran confessional writings, later condensed into an... The Temptation of St. ... Events August 5 - Sir Humphrey Gilbert establishes first English colony in North America, at what is now St Johns, Newfoundland. ... The Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches or the Hexenhammer) is considered by many to be the classic Roman Catholic text on witchcraft, although it was in fact condemned by the Inquisition in 1490, and never officially used by the Catholic Church. ... A witch-hunt is a search for suspected witches; it is a type of moral panic. ... Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament writings of his early followers. ... There is a disputed proposal that this article should be merged with witch-hunt. ...

Some scholars have said that Weyer intended to mock the concept of the hellish hierarchy that previous grimoires had established by writing those two books and entitling his catalogue of demons Pseudomonarchia Daemonum (The Pseudo-monarchy of the Demons). Medieval illustration of the Mouth of Hell Hell is, according to many beliefs, a place or a state of painful suffering. ... This article is on medieval books of magic; for information on the term grimoire as used in the Source Mage GNU/Linux operating system, see the Source Mage article. ... The Temptation of St. ...

Nevertheless, meanwhile in De Prestigiis Daemonum (The Illusions of the Demons) he defended the idea that the Devil's power was not so strong as it was said by the Christian church, he defended also the idea that demons had power and could appear before people who called upon them, creating illusions; but he commonly referred to magicians and not to witches when speaking about people who could create illusions, saying they were heretics, using the Devil's power to do it, and when speaking on witches, he used the term mentally ill. Devil - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...

More, Weyer did not only write the catalogue of demons Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, but also gave their description and the conjurations to invoke them in the appropriate hour and in the name of God and the Trinity, not to create illusions but to oblige them to do the conjurer's will, given advice on how to avoid certain perils and tricks if the demon was reluctant to do what he was commanded or a liar; this, together with the fact that he wanted to abolish the prosecution of witches, and that when speaking on those who invoke demons, which he called spirits, he carefully used the word exorcist, suggests the idea that the title Pseudomarchia Daemonum was an attempt to disguise the reality that he could have been not only an investigator on the subject but also a practitioner. The term God (capitalized in English language as a proper noun) is often used to refer to a Supreme Being. ... This article concerns the Holy Trinity of Christianity and related religious denominations. ...

Weyer never denied the existence of the Devil and a huge number of other demons, of high and low hierarchy.

Having been a follower of a renowned occultist like Agrippa, having criticised the Malleus Maleficarum and the witch prosecution, having written two books on demonology, and having been credited as a pioneer in Psychiatry just for using the term mentally ill, Weyer is considered a contradictory character by many authors, but they could never make clear the reason for his alleged contradictions. Perhaps the answer to his contradictions is on the same Malleus Maleficarum: To invoke a demon and oblige him to serve a person in the name of God is not a sin, the sin and heresy consist in asking him.

However it is, he had to read previous grimoires and compilations to write his two works, and books on magic were not at hand to every people. His work was an inspiration for other occultists and demonologists, including an anonymous author who wrote the Lemegeton (The Lesser Key of Solomon). There were many editions of his books (written in Latin), especially Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, and several translations into English, the first by Reginald Scot. The ancient symbol of the pentagram is often used as a symbol for magic. ... The Lesser Key of Solomon or Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis (the Clavicula Salomonis, or Key of Solomon is an earlier book on the subject), is an anonymous 17th century grimoire, and one of the most popular books of demonology. ... Latin is the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ...

Tributes

The Wier tower in Tecklenburg

The church of Tecklenburg displays a plaque in memory of Weyer and the town has also erected a tower in his honour, in 1884. Also, the Johannes Wier Foundation, the Dutch human rights organisation for health workers, is named after him. Image File history File links Please see the file description page for further information. ... Image File history File links Please see the file description page for further information. ... 1884 is a leap year starting on Tuesday (click on link to calendar). ... Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ...

External links

• To Prevent a "Shipwreck of Souls": Johann Weyer and "De Praestigiis Daemonum", an essay by Elisa Slattery
• the Johannes Wier Foundation