More about Bernardino's Sermon

I really liked reading the sermon by Bernardino; and didn’t really get a chance to expand upon this particular section in class so I figured here was the next best place.

Just in case people have forgotten Bernardino was a preacher who liked to preach about sins that would affect communities as a whole. Obviously in this sermon he was talking about the repercussions of letting a witch continue to practice.

One of the consequences that Bernardino mentioned was that the area that you lived in would be ravaged by enemies, deserted, and severely damaged and disgraced. He goes on to further state that: “Wild beasts dwelled there as is there had always been a forest there. Where once lived so many men of high estate, now there lived wild beasts. (134)” In this section Bernardino suggests that if the people of Siena don’t act on the knowledge that there are witches in your town then it will not only be reduced but it will return to the wild.

This poses interesting concepts; because witch craft is already closely linked with mysticism and the unknown and the uncontrollable the idea that Witchcraft perpetuates that throughout an entire area is no doubt scary. The comparison of “men of high estate” and “wild beasts” also paints a rather vivid picture. I might suggest that these people were run out by wild beasts, eaten by wild beats or that they turned into wild beast. I think that this really drives home the idea that magic and those who wield it are wild, untamable beasts.  This is furthered by the idea that witches can turn themselves (and potentially others) into animals. Later in his sermon Bernardino talks about creams that he found that made the women think that they were cats which I think helped fuel the fire that witches and magic were primal and uncivilized.  The fact that magic is uncivilized also makes it easier to fear and dismiss as turning to the devil. The foul stench he speaks about may also promote the idea that magic was evil and a terrible, wild thing, as it seems to him just as repulsive as the idea of Siena becoming wild again.

One last thing that I think really solidifies the idea that witchcraft and magic where considered wild and animalistic; even though all the preachers were saying that even if they only do “good magic” they are still in league with demons we’ve rarely read about a witch being burned at the stake for making a potion that actually cured someone. I think that this had a lot to do with the fact that they didnt understand how these plants were helping them get better so there must be something helping them. Since God hadnt done anything it must be demons or Satan working in some unknown way.