“The difficulty was to know whether it was the soul or the body of the dead which ate. It was decided that it was both. Delicate and unsubstantial things, as sweetmeats, whipped cream, and melting fruits, were for the soul, and roast beef and the like were for the body.

“The kings of Persia were, said they, the first who caused themselves to be served with viands after their death. Almost all the kings of the present day imitate them; but they are the monks who eat their dinner and supper, and drink their wine. Thus, properly speaking, kings are not vampires; the true vampires are the monks, who eat at the expense of both kings and people.

“It is very true that St. Stanislaus, who had bought a considerable estate from a Polish gentleman, and not paid him for it, being brought before King Boleslaus by his heirs, raised up the gentleman; but this was solely to get quittance. It is not said that he gave a single glass of wine to the seller, who returned to the other world without having eaten or drunk. They afterwards treated of the grand question, whether a vampire could be absolved who died excommunicated, which comes more to the point.

“I am not profound enough in theology to give my opinion on this subject; but I would willingly be for absolution, because in all doubtful affairs we should take the mildest part. ‘Odia restringenda, favores ampliandi.’

“The result of all this is that a great part of Europe has been infested with vampires for five or six years, and that there are now no more; that we have had Convulsionaries in France for twenty years, and that we have them no longer; that we have had demoniacs for seventeen hundred years, but have them no longer; that the dead have been raised ever since the days of Hippolytus, but that they are raised no longer; and, lastly, that we have had Jesuits in Spain, Portugal, France, and the two Sicilies, but that we have them no longer.”⁴⁶

Voltaire was never one to accept without questioning, and he is swift to use the image of the vampire in a metaphorical sense. His undoubted wit caused many a stir as one of the leading figures of the Enlightenment.

The Poetic German Vampire

The concept of the vampire – and the name – had been known in Germany well before the appearance in England of the Flückinger report – to the extent that Philip Rohr organised a meeting in Leipzig whose purpose was to rationally account for the vampire as rumoured and reported. The writings from this meeting were published in the treaty De masticatione mortuorum (Leipzig, 1679), the main concern being: do the dead eat in their graves?