Throughout the incidents surrounding the alleged possessions at Thisted, Ole Bjørn continued to refer to
Køge Huskors; it seems he was unable to relinquish the cultural script he had found in it, and the influence of it was so powerful that at least three statements in the witness reports seem to be direct quotations from the book. The first of these references occurred when, on multiple occasions, the demons said that they were not allowed to leave the bodies of their victims, according to ‘the big man’, by which they meant God.
1 National Archives, Copenhagen, Bilag til jysk missive af 7. november 1696 ang. Kommissionen i den thistedske besættelsessag, pp. 434–8, 544–52, 847–9, 999. They apparently had to use this expression, as they could not utter holy words. One of the witnesses, Bishop Bircherod’s assistant Christoffer Mumme, explained to the court that it meant ‘God’.
2 Ibid., pp. 434–8. This phrase was used in
Køge Huskors in exactly the same manner, and the exact same explanation was given by its author, Johan Brunsmand, who in a note added that it referred to God.
3 J. Brunsmand, Et forfærdeligt Huus-Kaars (1674), p. 30. As both Mumme and Brunsmand found it necessary to explain the expression, it is highly unlikely that it was in common usage. Instead, it was probably borrowed directly from the book.
The second textual reference to
Køge Huskors occurred when the audience who witnessed the women acting as though they were possessed decided to sing the Danish translation of the Martin Luther psalm, ‘A Mighty Fortress is Our God’.
4 ‘Vor Gud hand er saa fast en borg’. Brunsmand, Et forfærdeligt Huus-Kaars (1674), pp. 46–7. National Archives, Copenhagen, Bilag til jysk missive af 7. november 1696 ang. Kommissionen i den thistedske besættelsessag, pp. 847–9. In
Køge Huskors people are mentioned as having sung the same psalm to battle the Devil and deliver the demoniacs from possession. The psalm mentions the Devil as an active figure, which may explain why they sang it, but the fact that they chose this specific psalm from the many available may indicate that they were inspired by the events in the book.
The third textual reference is found in the name by which one of the devils identified himself in Thisted. It is very similar to one noted in the appendices of
Køge Huskors where, through his victim’s mouth, the demon reveals his name as ‘Lucifer’.
5 J. Brunsmand, Et forfærdeligt Huus-Kaars (1674), p. 83. In Thisted the devil possessing Maren Spillemands was identified as ‘Luser’ – a popular version of the same name.
6 National Archives, Copenhagen, Bilag til jysk missive af 7. november 1696 ang. Kommissionen i den thistedske besættelsessag, pp. 994–7; Ch. Appel and M. Fink-Jensen, ‘Præsten og de besatte’, p. 203. Alternate spellings in the court documents include ‘Ludtzer’, ‘Lutz’ and ‘Luts’. The demoniacs were probably inspired by
Køge Huskors when uttering this name and when referring to the accused witches as their mothers – another similarity between the Thisted case and the book, although this is also seen in other witchcraft trials.
7 The idea of witches’ lads [drenge], meaning assistant devils, who did a witch’s bidding and helped her to carry out her witchcraft-related activities was common in Danish witchcraft trials. However, their names were usually based on an attribute, an animal or a thing, for instance ‘Raven’ or ‘Spot’, rather than ‘Lucifer’. See J. C. V. Johansen, ‘Denmark: The Sociology of Accusations’, in B. Ankerloo and G. Henningsen (eds), Early Modern European Witchcraft. Centres and Peripheries (Oxford, 1990), pp. 358–64; L. N. Kallestrup, ‘Women, Witches, and the Town Courts of Ribe: Ideas of the Gendered Witch in Early Modern Denmark’, in M. G. Muravyeva and R. M. Toivo (eds), Gender in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe (New York, London, 2013), pp. 130–5; L. N. Kallestrup, Agents of Witchcraft in Early Modern Italy and Denmark (Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, 2015). The phrase ‘the big man’, the choice of the psalm, ‘A Mighty Fortress is Our God’ and the name ‘Luser’ appear to be textual references to
Køge Huskors made by the demoniacs and their witnesses – consciously or otherwise. Given how the possession in Thisted began to mirror the possession depicted in
Køge Huskors and how direct references were made to the book, I contend that this book served as a recipe for demonic possession. By providing a useful cultural script and a vocabulary for the Thisted case, the book had a direct influence on how the demoniacs acted, how the local congregation became convinced of its reality, and on the initiation of witchcraft trials as a solution to the demonic possession.