Johann Weyer or Johannes Wier ( la, Ioannes Wierus or '; 1515 – 24 February 1588) was a Dutch

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

, 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 ('On the Illusions of the Demons and on Spells and Poisons'; 1563).

Biography

Weyer was born in

Grave A grave is a location where a dead body (typically that of a human, although sometimes that of an animal) is buried or interred after a funeral. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as grav ...

, a small town in the

Duchy of Brabant The Duchy of Brabant was a State of the Holy Roman Empire established in 1183. It developed from the Landgraviate of Brabant and formed the heart of the historic Low Countries, part of the Burgundian Netherlands from 1430 and of the Habsburg ...

in the Habsburg Netherlands. He attended the Latin schools in

's-Hertogenbosch s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a city and municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 157,486. It is the capital of the province of North Brabant and its fourth largest by population. The city is south of ...

and Leuven and when he was about 14 years of age, he became a live-in student of Agrippa, in

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

. Agrippa had to leave Antwerp in 1532 and he and Weyer settled in

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

, under the protection of prince-bishop

Hermann von Wied Hermann of Wied ( German: ''Hermann von Wied'') (14 January 1477 – 15 August 1552) was the Archbishop-Elector of Cologne from 1515 to 1546. In 1521, he supported a punishment for German reformer Martin Luther, but later opened up one of the ...

. (Agrippa completed a work on demons in 1533 and perished two years later while on a trip to France). From 1534, Weyer studied

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...

in Paris and later in

Orléans Orléans (;"Orleans"
(US) and Doctor through these studies. Eventually, he practiced as a physician in his native Grave. Weyer was appointed city physician of Arnhem in 1545. In this capacity, he was asked for advice on

witchcraft Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have ...

in a 1548 court case involving a fortune teller. In spite of a

subsidy A subsidy or government incentive is a form of financial aid or support extended to an economic sector (business, or individual) generally with the aim of promoting economic and social policy. Although commonly extended from the government, the ter ...

from

emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother ( ...

Charles V, the town of Arnhem was no longer able to pay Weyer's salary. Weyer moved to

Cleves Kleve (; traditional en, Cleves ; nl, Kleef; french: Clèves; es, Cléveris; la, Clivia; Low Rhenish: ''Kleff'') is a town in the Lower Rhine region of northwestern Germany near the Dutch border and the River Rhine. From the 11th century ...

in 1550, where he became court doctor to duke William the Rich, through mediation by humanist Konrad Heresbach. Weyer published his major works on demons, magic, and witchcraft, in which he applied a skeptical medical view to reported wonders and supposed examples of magic or witchcraft. He retired from his post in 1578 and was succeeded by his son, Galenus Wier (1547-1619). After retirement he completed a medical work on a subject unrelated to witchcraft. He died on 24 February 1588 at the age of 73 in Tecklenburg, while visiting an individual who had fallen ill. He was buried in the local churchyard, which no longer exists.

Work and critical reception

Weyer's works include medical and moral works as well as his more famous critiques of magic and witchcraft: * ('On the Illusions of the Demons and on Spells and Poisons'), 1563. ** ('The False Kingdom of the Demons'), an appendix to , 1577. * , 1567, translated into German as: ** , 1580, ('A book of medical observations on rare, hitherto undescribed diseases') * 1577, (A book on witches together with a treatise on false fasting), translated into German as: ** ... 1586 * 1577, ('On the disease of anger'), translated into German as: ** 1585 * , 1564 ('On scurvy') * , 1579. 1885 translation printed , Paris France. Two volume set. Weyer criticised the and the

witch hunting A witch-hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. The classical period of witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America took place in the Early Modern perio ...

by the Christian and Civil authorities; he is said to have been the first person that used the term ''mentally ill'' or ''melancholy'' to designate those women accused of practicing witchcraft. In a time when witch trials and executions were just beginning to be common, he sought to derogate the law concerning witchcraft prosecution. He claimed that not only were examples of magic largely incredible but that the crime of witchcraft was literally impossible, so that anyone who confessed to the crime was likely to be suffering some mental disturbance (mainly melancholy, a very flexible category with many different symptoms). Some scholars have said that Weyer intended to mock the concept of the

hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...

ish hierarchy that previous grimoires had established by writing those two books and entitling his catalogue of demons ('The False Kingdom of the Demons'). Nevertheless, while he defended the idea that the

Devil A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of ...

's power was not as strong as claimed by the orthodox Christian churches in , he defended also the idea that demons did have 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 who were using the Devil's power to do it, and when speaking on witches, he used the term ''mentally ill''. Moreover, Weyer did not only write the catalogue of demons , but also gave their description and the conjurations to invoke them in the appropriate hour and in the name of God and the

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God th ...

, not to create illusions but to oblige them to do the conjurer's will, as well as advice on how to avoid certain perils and tricks if the demon was reluctant to do what he was commanded or a liar. In addition, he wanted to abolish the prosecution of witches, and when speaking on those who invoke demons (which he called ''spirits'') he carefully used the word ''exorcist''. Weyer never denied the existence of the Devil and a huge number of other demons of high and low order. His work was an inspiration for other occultists and demonologists, including an anonymous author who wrote the (The Lesser Key of Solomon). There were many editions of his books (written in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

), especially , and several adaptations in English, including Reginald Scot's "Discoverie of Witchcraft" (1584). Weyer's appeal for clemency for those accused of the crime of witchcraft was opposed later in the sixteenth century by the Swiss physician

Thomas Erastus Thomas Erastus (original surname Lüber, Lieber, or Liebler; 7 September 152431 December 1583) was a Swiss physician and Calvinist theologian. He wrote 100 theses (later reduced to 75) in which he argued that the sins committed by Christians sh ...

, the French legal theorist

Jean Bodin Jean Bodin (; c. 1530 – 1596) was a French jurist and political philosopher, member of the Parlement of Paris and professor of law in Toulouse. He is known for his theory of sovereignty. He was also an influential writer on demonology. Bo ...

and King James VI of Scotland.

Tributes

The church of Tecklenburg displays a plaque in memory of Weyer and in 1884 the town erected a tower in his honor, the . The Dutch

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

organization for

health worker A health professional, healthcare professional, or healthcare worker (sometimes abbreviated HCW) is a provider of health care treatment and advice based on formal training and experience. The field includes those who work as a nurse, physician (suc ...

s is named the Johannes Wier Foundation after him. Alongside his tutor, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, he appears as a character in the

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedba ...

'' Amnesia: The Dark Descent''.

Kurt Baschwitz Siegfried Kurt Baschwitz (2 February 1886, Offenburg – 6 January 1968 Amsterdam), was a journalist, a professor of press, propaganda and public opinion, scholar on newspapers, and crowd psychology. Baschwitz, who, as was customary in German ...

, a pioneer in communication studies and mass psychology, dedicated most of the content of his first Dutch monography on witchcraft and witch trials (1948) to the merits of Weyer. Later he extended this work to his German magnum opus, which discussed methods of fighting attempts at mass delusion (1963).

Family

Johan was the son of Agnes Rhordam and Theodorus (Dirk) Wier, a merchant of

hops Hops are the flowers (also called seed cones or strobiles) of the hop plant '' Humulus lupulus'', a member of the Cannabaceae family of flowering plants. They are used primarily as a bittering, flavouring, and stability agent in beer, to w ...

, coal and slate, who was a of

in the 1520s. Dirk and Agnes Wier came from Zeeland and were closely acquainted with

Maximiliaan van Egmond Maximiliaan of Egmont (1509–1548) was Count of Buren and Leerdam, and Stadtholder of Friesland (succeeding George Schenck) from 1540 until 1548. He was the son of Floris van Egmont whom he succeeded as count after his father's death in 1539. B ...

and Françoise de Lannoy, the future in-laws of William the Silent. Johan had two known siblings, Arnold Wier and the mystic Mathijs Wier (c.1520–c.1560). In Arnhem, he married Judith Wintgens, with whom he had at least five children. After Judith's death he married Henriette Holst. Johan's oldest son, Diederik Wier, became a jurist and diplomat, who in 1566-7, while employed by

Willem IV van den Bergh Willem IV, Count van den Bergh (1537-1586) was the Dutch Stadtholder of Guelders and Zutphen from 1581 until his arrest for treason in 1583. Biography Early Years Willem was the son of Count Oswald II van den BerghThe name "Van den Bergh" is ...

, was involved in the "petitions of grievances about the suppression of heresy" by the Dutch nobility to

Philip II of Spain Philip II) in Spain, while in Portugal and his Italian kingdoms he ruled as Philip I ( pt, Filipe I). (21 May 152713 September 1598), also known as Philip the Prudent ( es, Felipe el Prudente), was King of Spain from 1556, King of Portugal from ...

, the rejection of which led to the

Eighty Years' War The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt ( nl, Nederlandse Opstand) ( c.1566/1568–1648) was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and the Spanish government. The causes of the war included the Ref ...

Name

Weyer signed all his correspondence with "Johannes Wier" or occasionally with "Piscinarius". His parents and children carried the name "Wier" as well, and in 1884 his memorial in Germany was still named "" rather than "". Nevertheless, since the 20th century the name "Johann Weyer" has become standard in German and English-language scholarship. The use of "Weyer" may stem from Carl Binz's 1896 monograph "", who in 1885 had already given a lecture "", in which he, apparently unaware of Weyer's Zeeland origin, claimed that and ''Wier'' was merely a dialect pronunciation of Weyer.Carl Binz
">
Harvard University Press, 1885.

Notes

Editions

''De praestigiis Daemonum ... Libri V.'' Basel: Oporinus, 1563.
* ttp://www.mdz-nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn=urn:nbn:de:bvb:12-bsb10192571-9 ''De praestigiis Daemonum ... Libri V.'' Basel: Oporinus, 1566.br>''Medicarum observationum rararum Liber I.'' Basel: Oporinus, 1567''De lamiis liber.'' Basel: Oporinus, 1577.''De praestigiis Daemonum ... Libri 6.'' Basel: Ex Officina Oporiniana, 1577.''De Praestigiis Daemonum, & incantationibus ac veneficiis Libri sex, postrema editione sexta aucti & recogniti.'' Basel: Oporinus, 1583.''Opera Omnia.'' Amsterdam: Peter Vanden Berge, 1660.

External links

To Prevent a "Shipwreck of Souls": Johann Weyer and "De Praestigiis Daemonum"
an essay by Elisa Slattery *th
Johannes Wier Foundation''Witches, devils, and doctors in the Renaissance: Johann Weyer, `De praestigiis daemonum, Review by Peter Elmer, Medical History, 1992 July; 36(3): p. 351
*Vera Hooren
Intro to her "Biography Jan Wier"
Groningen University, 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:Weyer, Johann 1515 births 1588 deaths People from Grave, North Brabant Dutch occultists Demonologists 16th-century Dutch physicians 16th-century Dutch writers 16th-century occultists