The Origins and Causes of Vampirism
Originally posted to the VAMPYRES list by Dragon (UNCLRP@UNC.BITNET) in July 1991

This is a brief essay on the origins and causes of vampirism based on my reading in European folklore. I ask in advance that those on the list who identify themselves as witches please not take offense at anything stated below. The information given below is based on common European belief concerning the nature and causes of vampirism. In that culture the witch was an agent of the devil and a being much feared. Many misfortunes and calamities were blamed on witches during the period when much of the vampire mythology developed and it was only natural for the peasantry to link witches and vampires. This is not intended to be a scholarly essay so I have not included footnotes. I have included references to the three sources from which most of this information is drawn. Other information is based on general reading spread over several years and I have no real way of referencing sources. I hope this is sufficient disclaimer to satisfy the members of this list.

 Please feel free to mention any errors or misconceptions and to add anything I may have omitted. It is my hope that this essay will spark a little discussion on the list which seems to have been unusually quiet recently. 

== IDENTIFYING THE VAMPIRE CORPSE ==

Throughout Europe there was one generally acknowledged method of identifying the suspected vampire. The natural decomposition of the body after death was assumed to be due to the departure of the soul from the body. In most cases if, after exhumation, a body was found to be uncorrupted (i.e., not naturally decayed) it was usually assumed that the soul remained with the body or that a demonic spirit had taken possession of the body. The exception to this belief was found in the case of saints, martyrs and other especially godly individuals. In these cases the failure of the body to decompose naturally was believed to be a divine blessing rather than a demonic curse. In most cases, such corpses were likely to be summarily cremated by the peasants who exhumed the corpse.

 The vampire corpse was sometimes described as seeming to merely sleep, its limbs as pliable as in life. Often the complexion was described as ruddy from the ingestion of fresh blood. Sometimes the corpses were described as being so replete with the blood of victims that the skin was stretched tight like the surface of a drum. In fact, one of the common Greek names for the vampire, vyrkolakas, originally meant drum-like.

== I. INFECTION BY AN EXISTING VAMPIRE ==

This is the most commonly known of the methods of creating a vampire, though not the most common method in the folklore. Generally, a victim who dies from a vampiric attack is assumed to rise again as a vampire. It is unclear whether every victim of a vampire will, in turn, become a vampire. There is some indication that an act of will on the part of the older vampire was required to create a new vampire; or that the victim was tainted in some way that made it likely that the victim would rise again. Something like the 'baptism of blood' used by Stoker in _Dracula_ may be hypothesized but I have yet to find any such reference in the literature. Suffice to say that, if conditions are right, a victim who dies from a vampire attack may rise from the dead as a vampire.

 The possibility that the victim of a vampire might, in turn, become a vampire was one of the most frightening aspects of vampirism to the European peasantry. To be unable to rest in the grave, to be denied eternity was the most horrible aspect of vampirism to the devoutly religious peasant. That the vampire could possibly spread this curse made vampirism more feared than any merely physical plague that ravaged old Europe. There is small wonder that the simple villagers usually reacted swiftly to any suspicion of vampirism, quickly exhuming the suspected corpse, and if it was undecayed or unusually well preserved, often dismembering and cremating it on the spot. 

 This method of creating a vampire is the method with which most people will be familiar due to its use in movies and books. However, this is the least mentioned source of vampirism in any of the literature I've read. 

== II. SUICIDE ==

Most Christian sects have long considered suicide one of the unforgivable sins. Suicide was considered an act of murder, albeit self-murder. A murderer who slays others can perhaps repent and achieve salvation. However, he who murders himself can no longer repent of his action and is consequently denied the chance of salvation. It was commonly believed in Christian Europe (and to a certain extent in Islamic countries) that such souls were unable to rest in the grave, especially in hallowed ground. Their bodies could not decay and return to their original dust (the most commonly accepted proof of vampiric infection) and they left their graves at night to prey upon the living who were granted the chance of salvation that they were denied.

== III. LIVING A PARTICULARLY CRUEL OR EVIL LIFE ==

Those who were particularly cruel or violent in life were believed to be prime candidates to return from the grave as vampires. Those who led dissolute or debauched lives were also likely to return as vampires. This, of course, was only the case for those individuals who did not repent and receive absolution before death. Again, the soul was believed to be bound to the body, preventing the natural decomposition of the body. And while the soul was bound to the body it was also bound in servitude to Satan. An alternate view was that the individual's sinful life made him especially subject to demonic possession. After death a demonic force entered the body of the sinner and animated that body in its hunt for the blood of the living. 

==IV. EXCOMMUNICATION ==

The act of excommunication prohibited one from receiving the sacraments of the church. This case is similar to that of the suicide. He who died excommunicant was believed to be unable to return to dust or to find release from the body. Consequently, these cursed individuals were forced to rise from their graves nightly and seek the blood of the living. This belief was particularly prevalent in those countries that formed the boundary between the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches. The followers of each church believed that the followers of the schismatic church would be unable to rest in ground consecrated to the opposing church. 

 At least one author (Ronay) argued that the schism between the Catholic and Orthodox faiths was the main cause of the epidemic of vampirism that swept across eastern and central Europe between the 15th and 18th centuries. Again, the prime test of vampirism was whether or not the body had decayed. Heretics, schismatics and excommunicants were bound to their bodies, unable to pass beyond the confines of the world, and consequently their bodies were not subject to natural decay. It was often reported that once the ban of excommunication was lifted, the suspected vampire corpse would crumble to dust, immediately achieving its natural state of decomposition. If it was impossible for some reason to lift the excommunication the villagers would resort to the time honored method of cremating or occasionally dismembering then cremating the suspected corpse.

== V. WITCHCRAFT OR THE PRACTICE OF BLACK MAGIC ==

This was one of the most common assumed causes of vampirism and to a certain extent subsumed several other categories. Those who practiced black magic or summoned spirits were believed to be in league with the devil and particularly subject to the taint of vampirism. If a witch or a black sorcerer died unrepentant he, like the suicide or the excommunicant, was bound to the earth and unable to pass into the next world. Also, the witch or sorcerer was more subject to demonic infestation. That is, the corpse was very likely to be possessed by demonic spirits after death. Another interpretation was that the evil soul of the witch remained evil in death and continued its service to Satan as one of the undead.

 However, the link between vampirism and black magic went beyond the supposed witch. The offspring of a witch or a sorcerer were also subject to becoming a vampire upon death. This was especially true if there was reason to suspect that the child might be the result of a union between a witch and an incubus or a sorcerer and a succubus. There were a number of signs that people watched for at birth in order to detect children who might be potential vampires. Among these signs were being born with a caul covering the head or being born with teeth. Note that Stoker implies that this is the cause of Dracula's vampirism when he has van Helsing discuss Dracula's involvement with the arcane arts in the mountains near his home. 

== VI. LYCANTHROPY ==

There was a strong link between the werewolf and the vampire. Unlike the vampire, the werewolf was not generally believed to be immortal. It was commonly held that when a werewolf died he was most likely to return as a vampire. Also, those who were killed by a werewolf were thought to be prime candidates for resurrection as a vampire. Often the two curses were to be found in the same geographic regions. It was natural that the simple peasants of that time would link these two manifestations of the devil's power. The werewolf, whether the voluntary shape shifter or the cursed individual, was believed to be due to demonic infection. Naturally, as with the witch or sorcerer, those already in league with demonic forces were very likely to continue their evil activities after death in the form of vampires.

== VII. REVENGE ==

In some areas of Europe it was believed that those individuals who died with an unsettled grievance or need for revenge were very likely to return as a vampire. These were particularly strong-willed and vengeful individuals who, in life, had always made a point of settling feuds. It was sometimes believed that this type of revenant would only prey upon those against whom it sought revenge. However, it was not uncommon for these vengeful vampires to turn their attention to other prey once old scores had been settled. 

Hoyt, Olga, _The Lust for Blood, The Consuming Story of Vampires_,
    Stein and Day/Publishers/New York, Scarborough House, Briarcliff
    Manor, New York 10510, 1984.  

Ronay, Gabriel, _The Truth About Dracula_, (c) 1972 by Ronay Gabriel  
   as _The Dracula Myth_, Stein and Day/Publishers, Scarborough  
   House, Briarcliff Manor, New York 10510, 1974.

Summers, Montague. The vampire, his kith and kin.
   New Hyde Park, N.Y. : University Books 1960