Daemonlatreia

in English, written Nicholas Remy (Remigus) in 1592

Nicholas Remy was a French Lawyer turned witch hunter who boasted that he had consigned nine hundred witches to the flame during the decade 1582-1592. Remy wrote his book in retirement, and it became an important handbook for witch hunters, second only to the Malleus Maleficarum. The proceedings of over a hundred witch trials and examinations are described in detail, with commentary by Remy summarizing the black magic employed by witches, as well as their blasphemous conduct (dancing and sexual orgies, often with the beings they summon from beyond). The witches' use of poison and drugs against their enemies is also enumerated. Remy goes on to describe the identities and powers of various infernal spirits. The author links these demons to the Nephilim and giants mentioned in the biblical books Genesis and Numbers. These giants, who are compared to the titans of Greek myth and the legends of of Lilith and Samael in Hebrew mythology, are described as pre-Adamic (therefore pre-human) entities who apparently survived some great cataclysm prior to the creation of the world. Fallen angels, incubi, and succubae are believed to have engaged in sin with human women, spawning the giants and all manner of abominations. The final section on infernal magi contains an entire chapter on ciphers and arcane alphabets that proved crucial in Henry Armitage's translation of Wilbur Whateley's diary. Daemonolatreia was part of the original library at the Salem Academy, and the copy at Orne Library came to reside there when that school (then named the Elder Faith Seminary) merged with Miskatonic College in 1861. (Johnson, Sam, and Sandy Antunes. "Miskatonic University: A Handbook to the Pride of Arkham." Chaosium, Oct. 2005. )