The main reason why vampires cause so much fear and horror is both their attributed ability to infect their victims ‘with an unquenchable thirst for blood’, and the rumor that every victim of a vampire comes back as a vampire after his or her natural death .
The method
According to some traditions, only those people who die of blood loss after being repeatedly attacked by a vampire become vampires. Other stories indicate that one or two attacks from a vampire are enough. In this version, every victim of a vampire returns as a vampire after his natural death. The vampire hypnotizes his victims before his meal, so that no one can remember anything of the gruesome experience. However, the victims complain of a disturbed night’s sleep and a strange lethargic feeling. In this way the vampire can safely return to the same victim night after night, until he suffers more and more from the loss of blood and finally dies.
New vampires all the time
In 1730 it was reported to the Ministry of War in Vienna that a vampire was constantly creating new vampires. That also happened to Arnold Paole. After this Hungarian soldier died after falling under a car, the story goes that he returned from the dead after 30 days. Arnold was held responsible for the deaths of four people. These four died of debilitation due to blood loss and that ‘in a manner attributed to vampires’. When asked, friends recalled that Arnold had once told of being attacked by a vampire. He thought he had saved himself from contamination ‘by eating dirt from the vampire’s grave and smearing himself with his blood’. Arnold had apparently been unable to shake off the evil, because when his body was exhumed, it showed all the signs of a vampire: his hair, nails and beard had grown. He had a blush on his cheeks and blood rushing through his veins. The mayor who was present at the exhumation ordered Arnold’s heart to be pierced and the vampire gave the famous scream. Then his corpse was burned. Arnold’s four victims received the same treatment to prevent them from also acting as vampires.
New wave of vampirism
However, the precautions that had been taken around Arnold Paole were not sufficient. Vampirism broke out again in the same region 5 years later. 17 people died. A woman said her son, who died 9 weeks earlier, had tried to strangle her in her sleep. Three days later this mother was dead.
Renewed research
The mayor ordered another investigation and concluded that Arnold Paole had attacked not only people, but also animals. Eating meat from these attacked animals led to a resurgence of vampires. All the supposed new vampires were dug up, skewered, beheaded, burned and their ashes thrown into the river. This turned out to lead to results: the terror was over.
The Church and Vampirism
Local bishops regularly asked the Pope for advice on the vampire problem. However, they received little response. The church assumed that there were errors. Yet the Vatican once cautiously recommended that suspicious bodies be exhumed and burned.
Dom Calmet
One of the few church authorities who put his doubts aside was Dom Calmet. However, he also showed a rare form of compassion for vampires. He especially stood up for the innocent victims who were wrongly suspected of vampirism. These victims were killed by decapitation, piercing or burning and that was a great injustice. Dom Calmet stated that the suspicion that they returned to persecute and destroy the living was never sufficiently proven to justify such inhumane treatment. No solid evidence had been found for what was said about these apparitions and the suffering that these alleged vampires were said to have caused, Dom Calmet argued. However, he wisely concluded that ‘this is a mysterious and difficult problem, the solution of which he left to more competent people’.
Note
Dom Calmet rightly used the word ‘mysterious’. Secrecy will therefore be the main reason that the vampire story will always continue to fascinate.