Here's an Italian take on werewolves, in G. Finamore,
Tradizioni popolari abruzzesi, 1884:
The people born on Christmas night are werewolves (if men) or witches (if women). Though, if the father wants to have a normal child, he has an easy way: for three years in a row, always on Christmas night, he has to engrave a little cross under the big toe of the left foot of the baby. If he doesn't do so, when he or she will turn 20, they will become werewolf or witch.
Here's a passage from
Summis Desiderantes Affectibus, the Papal Bull promulgated by Innocenzio VIII in 1484:
[...] In Magonza, Colonia, Treves, Salisburgo and Brema, a lot of people of both sexes have resigned their souls to demons, incubi and succubi, e with their jinxes and hexes, and other despicable witchcrafts, they destroy babies and livestock's offspring [...] They prevent the human procreation and, foremost, they renounce the faith they received with baptism and - on the pay of Satan - they perpetrate the most evil abominations and they spread them like a plague.
Innocenzio is referring to increasing number of processes on the behalf of supposed vampires and werewolves in Germany and in the Rhine Valley. The bull was supposed to give the Inquisitors some fine elements to work with during the suspects' questioning.
This passage is from the interrogatory of Jacques Roulet (Angers, 1598):
[...]
Judge: Your hands and feet actually became wolf's paws?
Roulet: Yes!
J: Did your head become wolf-like? And did your mouth become bigger?
R: I don't know how my head is, in those moments. I used the teeth. I wounded and devoured kids, and I was even present at the Sabbath.
I hope it was interesting
I have a lot of similar documents and, if it may interest, I can write an article for the Campaign about the Inquisitorial Trials of Supposed Vampires and Werewolves.
PS: Sorry for some translations, but translation fro Latin to English isn't exactly my field
Brad Pitt - terrible!). I'm also a player of the RPG Vampire: The Masquerade.
