Devil or werewolf? The motif of lycanthropy in French demonology of the 15th–16th centuries

Abstract

The article analyzes the features of the treatise “Justification of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy” by Jean Petit (1408), which argued for the right of John the Fearless to murder his cousin Louis of Orleans. The author of the article pays special attention to the accusation of practicing witchcraft, which, according to Petit, turned the Duke of Orleans into a tyrant and a devil and was based, apparently, on the text of the “Policraticus” of John of Salisbury (1159). Analysis of the content and the iconographic program of the “Justification” also allows the author to hypothesize that this treatise marked the beginning of a completely new perception of the lycanthrope in French, and perhaps in all European demonological literature of the 15th–16th centuries: as a dangerous werewolf, that is, as a person whose penchant for practicing witchcraft did not simply lead him into the clutches of the devil, but turned him into a beast that posed a threat to the entire community of true Christians. Thus, the political and legal treatise of Jean Petit, as it has always been considered in historiography, acquired at the same time the features of a demonological text.