For a long time magic, witchcraft, sorcery, sorcery remained, so to speak, "oral" creativity - occult secrets were passed on to each other from mouth to mouth. But gradually the picture changed.
WRITTEN MAGIC
If magic and sorcery is a science, albeit not entirely intelligible and understandable, then it simply must be issued in printed form. So by the end of the 13th century, there were already quite a few books about magic and sorcery in different languages: Arabic, Latin, Italian, French, German, Dutch. Most of them are said to have been in Holland and Germany. These books - in fact, manuals on witchcraft - were called "black", and those who dealt with them and studied magic were called "warlocks", that is, sorcerers and sorcerers.
The reading of such books soon became so widespread that it became a kind of mania, especially in Western Europe. These books mainly set out magic rules, recommendations, advice on how to summon spirits and subdue them to your will.
The passion for the "warlock" has developed to the point that it has become a favorite pastime of such viceroys of Christ, the sworn enemy of the Devil on earth, like the popes Sylvester II, Leo III, Honorius III.
The German emperors, kings, princes, famous scientists did not lag behind them. All of them dreamed of one thing: how, with the help of various tricks, to put demons at their service, to make them obey themselves.
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The warlock is closely related to the devil
In Western Europe, there was an opinion that every sorcerer is closely associated with the Devil and swore to him to do evil to people. And in return for his mischief, he can use all earthly blessings, power and wealth, and Satan guaranteed such a comfortable life. In support of this conspiracy, under his dictation, under his dictation, he wrote a contract on a piece of parchment made from the skin of a strangled dead man in his own blood.
In addition to this treaty, the DEVIL, for greater importance, imposed his seal on the body of a new ally. Such devilish seals, according to the Inquisition, did not cause any physical pain to a person.
It is difficult, of course, to believe in direct communication of a person with the Devil, clothed with flesh, or an incorporeal spirit. Meanwhile, both in Western Europe and in Russia, and in other Slavic countries, such agreements were drawn up for a certain fee to sorcerers, who in this case acted on behalf of their customer.
They practiced magic, read "black books" and entered into agreements with the Devil and the reigning persons. The famous Byzantine church leader, talented preacher John Chrysostom (c. 350-407), Patriarch of Constantinople (since 398), openly called more than once "to execute these drunken and convulsive old wizards." He more than once reproached the Empress Eudochia for the fact that “witchcraft abominations are happening under her very nose”. But the queen herself was not averse to doing magic, she had a lot of "black books" in her library.
The entire Byzantine palace, in fact, was infected with black magic and witchcraft, and this situation did not change under other empresses. Procopius of Caesarea (500-565), an outstanding writer and historian, adviser to the commander Belisarius, in his book "The Secret History" attacked Empress Antonina because she "used various witchcraft" filters "for her own purposes and, in fact, turned his Byzantine dynasty into a dynasty of witches and sorcerers."
Queen Theodora more than once entered into shameful agreements with Satan. Her library was full of "black" tomes.
Several centuries later, another Byzantine historian Nikita Zomiata told about the witchcraft of the Empress Efrosinya, the mother of the future emperor Alexei Angel, who, having read "black books" to predict the future, resorted to rather strange actions. Once she ordered to flog a statue of Hercules by the famous Greek sculptor Lysimachus with a whip, and on another occasion she ordered to disfigure a Calydonian boar and tear his lips.
BLACKLOOKS IN THE ROYAL FAMILY
Other royal and royal courts, not as opulent as the Byzantine, also practiced magic and were fond of reading "black books".
So, the Swedish king Eric, imitating the supreme god and magician of Scandinavia, Odin, never took off his wide-brimmed black hat and blue spacious cloak. In this form he read in his library the collection of "black" books he had collected.
In the French court, the center of witchcraft, divination and astrology was Queen Catherine de 'Medici (1519-1589). She had a large office filled with "black" books, she constantly wore a golden dagger with an amulet on her belt, fingered the rosary and was friends with the famous magician and soothsayer Michel Nostradamus, who often visited her in the yard and even once received her in the cabin.
They say that she, too, entered into an agreement with the Devil, and her court astrologer-countryman Ruggieri allegedly personally saw him on his desk. She ordered a high tower to be erected next to the palace, to which she climbed every night and through a telescope observed the stars. Then, by her order, a huge "magic mirror" was placed in one large palace hall without windows, in which she observed the souls of the dead, evoked images of the future monarchs of France. So, once, standing in the middle of the magic circle drawn for her by Nostradamus, she wanted to be convinced of the validity of the magician's prophecy that all three of her sons would sit on the French throne. And in fact, her three sons passed in the mirror in front of her - the future kings of France: Frinzis II, Henry III and Charles IX.
When the bloodthirsty mistress of King Henry II, the legitimate spouse of Catherine de Medici, Diane Poitier bewitched the monarch with her love, she decided to force the king to put an end to religious tolerance. Diane de Poitiers gives the order to ruthlessly burn Protestant heretics on a par with witches and sorcerers at the stake. But Catherine de Medici, in order to annoy her, doubles the retinue of her court astrologers, magicians, soothsayers and patronizes them in every possible way.
Meanwhile, the number of witches and sorcerers has grown dramatically. When the famous magician Troy-Lebelle was executed in Paris in 1671, he shouted on the scaffold: “You don’t hang everyone, now there are only one hundred thousand of us in Paris!”.
Charles IX, son of Catherine de Medici, the main organizer of the famous bloody St. Bartholomew's Night in 1572, claimed that there were not a hundred, but hundreds of thousands. "All France is one huge witch!" yelled the young monarch.
The second son of Catherine de Medici, the French king Henry III (1554-1589), apparently inherited a special interest in magic and witchcraft; he secretly read them in his study.
After the death of his mother, her study and a room with a large "magic mirror" were transferred to him, but he did not use either one for long, since he was stabbed to death by a monk during the siege of Paris. Although bonfires were burning everywhere in the country, on which witches and sorcerers were burned, and excommunication from the Church was required for reading "black" books, such strict laws, as we see, did not apply to royal persons.
BLACK LIBRARY
The "black books" included ancient Jewish collections containing a guide to witchcraft, summoning the devil, making amulets and talismans, as well as collections of fortune-telling, dream books, medicine books and spell books.
In the Middle Ages, it was believed that the Devil has his own books, just like God has his own, say, "Holy Scripture." The Black Books are the writings of medieval mystics who collected information about the superstitions common among sorcerers and witches.
In Western Europe, such books as "The Key of Solomon", "The Big Gremuar", "The Sixth Book of Moses", "The Seventh Book of Moses" and others had the greatest circulation.