ABSTRACT
‘She heard him say that, if he wanted to, he would put the best Christian in the whole world to the flames.’ These unholy words were attributed to the Catalan inquisitor Nicolau Eymeric by a Dominican nun during a 1388 trial in Valencia, following the city’s rejection of the inquisitor over his controversial anti-heretical activities. Eymeric was then acting as Inquisitor General of the Crown of Aragon, with a jurisdiction that included the principality of Catalonia and the kingdoms of Aragon and Valencia. Demonological features are prominent in many of the accusations Eymeric put forth against his victims from the very beginning of his inquisitorial career. In that regard, the friar’s reflections on demonology did not focus so much on its doctrinal definition but rather on the role assigned to church authorities in its repression and the judicial procedure against alleged invokers of demons.
