O poder dos demônios: uma comparação das práticas de Jean Bodin e Jean de Nynauld acerca da atuação demoníaca na metamorfose em lobo

Abstract

The belief in metamorphosis into a wolf was a recurring theme in sagas, tales and legends, frightening and piquing the curiosity of many people throughout history. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the transformation of men and women into wolves was present in countless treatises written by the most varied professionals, including doctors and jurists who sought, from their disciplines, to explain and categorize what lycanthropy was and how demons acted in this environment. As examples of writers we find the jurist Jean Bodin, with the treatise De la demonomanie des sorciers (1580) and the doctor of medicine Jean de Nynauld, who produced the work De la lycanthropie, transformation et extase des sorciers (1615). The first sought, through his writing, to explain the possibility of transforming into a beast through the use of the most varied sources and ancient and contemporary cases of its production. According to the jurist, the world was permeated by good and bad spirits who, having received different orders from the Creator, acted to punish and reward individuals. In this case, lycanthropy was treated as a divine punishment designed and ordered by God, who, due to his omnipotence and omnipresence, judged subjects according to their actions. Jean de Nynauld, in opposition and criticizing Bodin, argued that metamorphosis was not possible, that the Creator would not allow such an atrocity to happen to his own work and that those who claimed to be werewolves were affected by the disease called Natural Lycanthropy. To do this, the doctor used mainly works by Aristotle and theological and philosophical maxims, pointing out that the transformation went against the precepts of law and reason. From the works of the authors mentioned above, we can see interactions and disputes between different areas and the interpellation of Bodin and Nynauld by different philosophical and magical currents of the period, in addition to important influences from the Catholic Church. From the sources and through Cultural History, mainly from Roger Chartier's postulations about the practices, representations and discourses forged by the subjects, we seek to understand the way in which writers sought to impose their authority during the categorization of lycanthropy and demonology, as well as promoting views about who lycanthropes were and how they should be treated.