complete and fearful conviction of her being 'grievously vexed[III]
with a Devil,' she found herself capable to command the implicit assent
of the spectators, in matters that were repugnant to the evidence of
their own senses. For this purpose, she fell upon the device of seeming
to possess the faculties of seeing and hearing, in a manner opposite to
that of the rest of mankind. She would address some invisible beings
as if actually present; at other times, in her conversations with
those invisible beings, she would rail at them for telling her that
persons actually present were in the room; protesting that she did not
see them, yet at the same time minutely describing their dress. For
instance, she spake as follows to the chief of her alledged tormentors,
Catherine Campbell, with whom she had the quarrel, and who, to use the
language of those times, was not _discernibly_ present: 'Thou sittest
with a stick in thy hand to put into my mouth, but thorough God's
strength thou shalt not get leave: Thou art permitted to torment me,
but I trust in God thou shalt never get my life. I'll let thee see,
_Kattie_, there is no repentance in hell. O what ailed thee to be a
witch! Thou sayest it is but three nights since thou wast a witch. O,
if thou would'st repent, it may be God might give thee repentance,
if thou would'st seek it, and _confess_; if thou would desire me, I
would do what I could; for the Devil is an ill master to serve,' &c.
&c. After that, she took up her Bible, read passages, and expounded
them; and, upon one's offering to take it from her, she shrieked
horribly, exclaiming, 'She would keep her Bible in spite of all the
Devils in hell!' Then she fought, and kicked, and writhed herself, as
if struggling with some invisible tormentor. When the sheriff-depute
of the county, accompanied by a macer of Justiciary, came to apprehend
some of the persons whom her diabolical malice had accused, and were
actually in her presence, she addressed an imaginary and invisible
correspondent thus: 'Is the sheriff come? Is he near me?' (Then
stretching forth her hand, as if to grope, and the sheriff putting his
hand into hers, she proceeded:) '_I cannot feel the sheriff._ How can
he be present here? or how can I have him by the hand, as thou sayest,
seeing I feel it not? Thou sayest he has brown coloured cloaths, red
plush breeches, with black stripes, flowered muslin cravat, and an
embroidered sword-belt: Thou sayest there is an old gray haired man
with him, having a ring upon his hand; but I can neither see nor feel
any of them. What, _are they come to apprehend the gentlewoman_? Is
this their errand indeed?'
"These reiterated and aweful exercises of the dominion of Satan (for
such they were universally deemed), impressed all ranks with amazement
and terror. The clergy, as was their duty, were the foremost to embrace
the cause of a disciple that was engaged _in more than spiritual_
warfare with the grand enemy. Clergymen, by rotation, attended the
afflicted damsel, to assist the minister of the parish, the family
of Bargarran, and other pious Christians, in the expiatory offices
of fasting and prayer. A publick fast was ordained by authority of
the presbytery. Three popular clergymen successively harangued the
trembling audience; and one of them chose for his theme this awful
text, "Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea, for the
Devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth
that he hath but a short time. _And when the dragon saw that he was
cast down unto the earth, he persecuted the woman._"[IV] And the
prayers and exhortations of the church were speedily seconded with the
weight of the secular arm.
"On the 19th of January, a warrant of Privy Council was issued,[V]
which set forth, that there were pregnant grounds of suspicion of
witchcraft in the shire of Renfrew, especially from the afflicted and
extraordinary condition of Christian Shaw, daughter of John Shaw of
Bargarran. It therefore granted commission to Alexander Lord Blantyre,
Sir John Maxwell of Pollock, Sir John Shaw of Greenock, William
Cunnyngham of Craigens, Alexander Porterfield of Duchall, ---- Caldwall
of Glanderstoun, Gavin Cochrane of Thornlymuir, Alexander Porterfield
of Fullwood, and Robert Semple sheriff-depute of Renfrew, or any five
of them, to interrogate and imprison persons suspected of witchcraft,
to examine witnesses, &c. but not upon oath, and to transmit their
report before the 10th of March. The act of Privy Council is subscribed
thus, 'Polwarth _Cancellar_, Argyle, Leven, Forfar, Raith, Belhaven,
Ja. Steuart, J. Hope, W. Anstruther, J. Maxwell, Ro. Sinclair.'
"In the report which was presented on the 9th of March, the
commissioners represented that there were 'twenty-four persons male
and female suspected and accused of witchcraft,' and that further
inquiry ought to be made into this crime. Among these unhappy objects
of suspicion, it is to be remarked, that there was 'a girl of fourteen,
and a boy not twelve years of age.' Agreeable to this report, a new
warrant was issued by the Privy Council to most of the commissioners
formerly named, with the addition of Lord Hallcraig, Mr. Francis
Montgomery of Giffin, Sir John Houston of that Ilk, Mr John Kincaid
of Corsbasket, Advocate, and Mr John Stewart younger of Blackhall,
Advocate, or any five of them, to meet at Renfrew, Paisley, or Glasgow,
to take trial of judge, and do justice upon the foresaid persons;
and to sentence the guilty 'to be burned or otherwise executed to
death,' as the commissioners should incline. It further ordained the
commissioners to transmit to the Court of Justiciary an authentick
extract of their proceedings, to be entered upon its records; and
contained a recommendation to the Lords of the Treasury to defray the
expences of the trial. The act is subscribed, 'Polwarth _Cancellar_,
Douglass, Lauderdale, Annandale, Yester, Kintore, Carmichael, W.
Anstruther, Arch. Mure.'
"The commissioners, thus empowered, were not remiss in acting under
the authority delegated to them. After twenty hours were spent in the
examination of witnesses, who _gave testimony_ that the _malefices_[VI]
libelled could not have proceeded from natural causes, and that the
prisoners were the authors of these malefices.--After five of the
unhappy prisoners confessed their own guilt, and criminated their
alledged associates--after counsel had been heard on both sides, and
the counsel for the prosecution had declared, that 'he would not
press the jury with the _ordinary severity_ of threatening an _assize
of error_:'[VII] But recommended to them to proceed according to
the evidence; and loudly declared to them, that although they ought
to beware of condemning the innocent, yet if they should acquit the
prisoners, in opposition to legal evidence, 'they would be accessory
to all the blasphemies, apostacies, murders, tortures, and seductions,
whereof these enemies of heaven and earth should hereafter be guilty.'
After the jury had spent six hours in deliberation, seven of those
miserable persons were condemned to the flames.[VIII]
"The time however fast approached, when these human sacrifices were to
be abolished. The last person who was prosecuted before the Lords of
Justiciary for witchcraft was Elspeth Rule, who was tried before Lord
Anstruther at the Dumfries circuit, on the 3d of May, 1709.[IX] No
special act of witchcraft was charged against her; the indictment was
of a very general nature, that the prisoner was 'habit and repute'[X]
(that is, generally holden and deemed) a witch; and that she had used
threatening expressions against persons at enmity with her, who were
afterwards visited with the loss of cattle, or the death of friends,
and one of whom run mad. The jury, by a majority of voices, found these
articles proved, and the Judge ordained the prisoner to be burned on
the cheek, and to be banished Scotland for life. The last person who
was brought to the stake in Scotland for the crime of witchcraft was
condemned by Captain David Ross of Little Daan[XI] sheriff-depute of
Sutherland, A.D. 1722.
"Besides in the sufferings, and tragical end of the persons already
specified, human ingenuity seems to have been exhausted in devising
variety of torment, against other persons who lay under the suspicion
of witchcraft, and who persisted, with astonishing fortitude, in
denying the absurd imputation, even when urged with the sharpest
tortures."
From the universal and excessive abhorrence entertained at a witch, a
suspicion of that crime, independent of judicial severities,[XII] was
sufficient to render the unhappy object anxious for death.--Thrusting
of pins into the flesh, and keeping the accused from sleep, were the
ordinary treatment of a witch. But if the prisoner was endued with
uncommon fortitude, other methods were used to extort confession.
The 'boots,' the 'caspie-claws,' and the 'pilniewinks,' engines for
torturing the legs, the arms, and the fingers, were applied to either
sex; and that with such violence, that sometimes the blood would have
spouted from the limbs. Loading with heavy irons, and whipping with
cords, till the skin and flesh were torn from the bones, have also been
the adopted methods of torment.
The bloody zeal of those inquisitors attained to a refinement in
cruelty so shocking to humanity,[XIII] and so repugnant to justice,
as to be almost incredible. Not satisfied with torturing _the person_
of the accused, their ingenious malice assailed the more delicate
feelings, and ardent affections of the _mind_. An aged husband, an
infant daughter, would have been tortured in presence of the accused,
in order to subdue her resolution.--Nay, death itself[XIV] did not
screen the remains of those miserable persons from the malice of their
prosecutors. If an unfortunate woman, trembling at a citation for
witchcraft, ended her sufferings by her own hands, she was dragged from
her house at a horse's tail, and buried under the gallows.
[I] This is the Act on which Sir Walter Scott founded his story of the
"Heart of Mid-Lothian."
[II] True narrative of the sufferings and relief of a young girl.
Edinburgh, printed by James Watson, 1698.
[III] St. Matthew, c. 15, v. 22.
[IV] Revelations, chap. 12.
[V] Records of Privy Council, January 19. March 9. April 5. 1697.
[VI] "Malefice" in the Scots law signifies an act or effect of
witchcraft.
[VII] This was an oblique and most scandalous menace. "Assizes of
Error" were declared a grievance by the Estates of Parliament at the
Revolution.
[VIII] The order of Privy Council for recording the Commissioners'
proceedings in the books of Justiciary was not complied with. I am
therefore unable to give any further particulars of the catastrophe
of these miserable persons, or of the criminal absurdity of those who
committed them to the flames.
[IX] Records of Circuit Court of Justiciary, holden at Dumfries May 3,
1709.
[X] "Habit and repute" is a very dangerous doctrine of the law of
Scotland, at that time in full force, by which a man might be hanged
altho' hardly any charge were exhibited against him, but that he had
a bad character. For instance, if a man was charged with stealing a
pair of old shoes, value threepence, and with being "habit and repute"
a thief, if the jury found such indictment proved, or such prisoner
guilty, the Court would by law be bound to sentence the prisoner to be
hanged; if my temerity may be pardoned, for supposing that any such
thing exists as a precise established rule of criminal law in Scotland.
[XI] It is no small disappointment to me that I cannot lay this trial
before the reader. The Sheriff Court books of the county of Sutherland
were carried off by the Sheriff Clerk about 1735. I am somewhat however
consoled for my disappointment, by the politeness shown me by James
Traill, Esq. of Hobbister, Advocate, Sheriff-depute of Caithness and
Sutherland, who was so obliging as to make a laborious but ineffectual
search to recover the books.
[XII] Mackenzie's Criminal Trials, tit. _Witchcraft_.
[XIII] Records of Justiciary, June 24. 1596. When Alison Balfour was
accused of witchcraft, she was put in the caspie-claws, where she was
kept forty-eight hours; her husband was put in heavy irons, _her son
put in the boots, where he suffered fifty-seven strokes_, and her
little daughter, of about seven years of age, put in the pilniewinks,
in her presence, in order to make her confess.--She did confess.--She
retracted her confession in the course of the trial; and publickly, at
her execution, declared that the confession was extorted from her by
the torments.--The mode of tormenting and executing those miserable
women is further illustrated by the authentic account of the expence of
burning a witch at Burncastle, near Lauder, A.D. 1649.
[XIV] Fountainhall's Decisions, vol. 1. p. 60. October 9. 1679.
END OF VOL. II.
THE DEVILS OF LOUDUN.
[COLLECTANEA ADAMANTÆA. XXI.]
THE HISTORY OF THE
Devils of Loudun,
_The Alleged Possession of the Ursuline Nuns, and the Trial and
Execution of Urbain Grandier_,
TOLD BY AN EYE-WITNESS.
TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL FRENCH,
AND
Edited by
EDMUND GOLDSMID, F.R.H.S.,
F.S.A. (Scot.)
VOL. III.
PRIVATELY PRINTED.
EDINBURGH.
1888.
_This Edition is limited to 275 small-paper and 75 large-paper copies._
[Illustration]
The Devils of Loudun.
_PART III._
ON Friday the 23rd of June, 1634, about three o'clock in the afternoon,
the Bishop of Poitiers and M. de Laubardemont being present, Grandier
was brought from his prison to the Church of Ste. Croix in his parish,
to be present at the exorcisms. All the possessed were there likewise.
And as the accused and his partisans declared that the possessions were
mere impostures, he was ordered to be himself the exorcist, and the
stole was presented to him. He could not refuse, and therefore, taking
the stole and the ritual, he received the pastoral benediction, and
after the _Veni Creator_ had been sung, commenced the exorcism in the
usual form. But where he should haughtily have given commands to the
demon, instead of saying _Impero_, I command, he said, _Cogor vos_,
that is, I am constrained by you. The Bishop sharply reprimanded him,
and as he had said that some of the possessed understood Latin, he was
allowed to interrogate in Greek. At the same time, the demon cried out
by the mouth of Sister Clara: "Eh! speak Greek, or any language you
like; I will answer." At these words, he became confused, and could not
say anything more.
To behave thus, or to acknowledge the truth of the accusation, is one
and the same thing, but other circumstances strengthened this certainty.
Any man whose own writing testifies against him is lost. Now this is
what Grandier experienced. The devils, in several instances, confessed
four pacts he had entered into.
This word, Pact, is somewhat equivocal. It may mean either the document
by which a man gives himself to the devil, or the physical symbols,
whose application will produce some particular effects in consequence
of the pact. Here is an example of each case. Grandier's pact, or
magical characters, whereby he gave himself to Beelzebub, was as
follows:--"My Lord and Master, Lucifer, I recognise you as my God,
and promise to serve you all my life. I renounce every other God,
Jesus Christ, and all other Saints; the Catholic, Apostolic and Roman
Church, its Sacraments, with all prayers that may be said for me; and
I promise to do all the evil I can. I renounce the holy oil and the
water of baptism, together with all the merits of Jesus Christ and his
Saints; and should I fail to serve and adore you, and do homage to you
thrice daily, I abandon to you my life as your due."
These characters were recognised as being in Grandier's own hand.
Now here is a specimen of the other kind of pact or magical charm. It
was composed of the flesh of a child's heart, extracted in an assembly
of magicians held at Orleans in 1631, of the ashes of a holy wafer that
had been burnt, and of something else which the least straight-laced
decency forbids me to name.
A most convincing proof of Grandier's guilt is that one of the devils
declared he had marked him in two parts of his body. His eyes were
bandaged and he was examined by eight doctors, who reported they had
found two marks in each place; that they had inserted a needle to the
depth of an inch without the criminal having felt it, and that no blood
had been drawn. Now this is a most decisive test. For however deeply a
needle be buried in such marks no pain is caused, and no blood can be
extracted when they are magical signs.
But if the devils, overcome by the exorcisms, at times gave evidence
against the criminal, at others they seemed to conspire to blacken
him still more under the semblance of an apparent justification. Thus
several of the possessed spoke in his favour: and some even went so
far as to confess that they had calumniated him. Indeed, the Mother
Superior herself, one day when M. de Laubardemont was in the convent,
stripped herself to her shift, and, with a rope round her neck and a
candle in her hand, stood for two hours in the middle of the yard,
although it was raining heavily; and when the door of the room in which
M. de Laubardemont was seated, was opened, she threw herself on her
knees before him, declaring she repented of the crime she had committed
in accusing Grandier, who was innocent. She then withdrew and fastened
the rope to a tree in the garden, attempting to hang herself, but was
prevented by the other nuns.
When the devil played these kind of tricks they forced him to retract,
by calling on him to take Jesus Christ present in the Eucharist as
witness of the truth of his statement, which he never dared to do.
What criminals could ever be condemned if such proofs were not deemed
sufficient? The certainty of the possessions; the depositions of two
priests who accused him of sacrilege; those of the nuns, declaring
that they saw him day and night for four months, though the gates of
the convent were kept locked; the two women who bore witness that he
offered to make one of them Princess of the Magicians; the evidence
of sixty other witnesses; his own embarrassment and confusion on so
many occasions; the disappearance of his three brothers, who had fled
and were never seen again; his pact and the magic characters that were
afterwards burnt with him: all these placed his guilt beyond doubt.
The trial being completed, and the magician duly convicted, there only
remained to sentence the evil doer. The Commissioners assembled at the
Carmelite Convent, and it was noticed that there was not the slightest
difference of opinion among all the fourteen judges, though they had
never seen or known one another. They were all agreed as to the penalty
to be inflicted, and having pronounced their sentence, they were filled
with joy and their conscience was perfectly at rest. It was as if God,
whose honour was so interested in this affair, had intended to give
them this consolation.
No one among the Catholics, or, indeed, among all honest men, failed to
applaud the sentence on Grandier. It was as follows:--
"We have declared, and declare the said Urbain Grandier attainted
and convicted of the crimes of magic, maleficence and possession
occurring through his act, in the persons of certain Ursuline Nuns
of this town of Loudun, and other women; together with other crimes
resulting therefrom. For reparation whereof we have condemned,
and do condemn, the said Grandier to make 'amende honorable'
bareheaded, a rope round his neck, holding in his hand a burning
torch of the weight of two pounds, before the principal gate of
Saint Pierre du Marché, and before that of Saint Ursula of the said
town; and there, on his knees, to ask pardon of God, the King, and
Justice, and that done, to be led to the public square of Sainte
Croix, to be there tied to a stake, which for that purpose shall
be erected in the said square, and his body to be there burnt with
the pacts and magical inscriptions now in custody of the Court,
together with the manuscript book written by him against the
celibacy of priests, and his ashes to be scattered to the wind. We
have declared all his property forfeited and confiscated to the
Crown, less a sum of 150 livres, which shall be expended in the
purchase of a copper plate, on which shall be engraved the present
sentence, and the same shall be placed in a prominent position in
the said Church of St. Ursula, there to be preserved for ever.
And before this present sentence shall be carried out, we order
that the said Grandier shall be put to the question ordinary and
extraordinary, to discover his accomplices.--Pronounced at Loudun
on the said Grandier, and executed the 18th of August, 1634."
In execution of this sentence, he was taken to the Court of Justice
of Loudun. His sentence having been read to him, he earnestly begged
M. de Laubardemont and the other Commissioners to mitigate the rigour
of their sentence. M. de Laubardemont replied that the only means of
inducing the judges to moderate the penalties was to declare at once
his accomplices, and by some act of repentance for his past crimes to
implore Divine mercy. The only answer he gave was, that he had no
accomplices, which was false; for there is no magician but must be
accompanied by others.
For the last forty days the Commissioner had placed at his side
two monks to convert him. But all was in vain. Nothing could touch
this hardened sinner. It is true, however, that the conversion of a
magician is so rare an occurrence that it must be placed in the rank
of miracles. "I am not astonished," says one who was present, "at his
impenitence, nor at his refusing to acknowledge himself guilty of
magic, both under torture and at his execution, for it is known that
magicians promise the devil never to confess this crime, and he in
return hardens their heart, so that they go to their death stupid and
altogether insensible to their misfortunes." Before being put to the
torture, the prisoner was addressed by Father Lactance, a man of great
faith, chosen by the Bishop of Poitiers to exorcise the instruments
of torture, as is always done in the case of magicians, in order
to induce him to repent. Every one shed tears except the prisoner.
M. de Laubardemont also spoke to him, together with the Lieutenant
Criminel of Orleans, but, notwithstanding their efforts, they made
no impression. This determined M. de Laubardemont to try the effects
of torture. The boots[12] were applied, and the judge repeated his
questions as to his accomplices. He always replied that he was no
magician; though he had committed greater crimes than that. Questioned
as to what crimes, he replied, crimes of human frailty, and added, that
were he guilty of magic, he would be less ashamed of that than of his
other crimes. This speech was ridiculous, especially in the mouth of
a priest, who must know better than a layman that of all crimes the
greatest is that of sorcery.
Torture drew from him nothing but cries, or rather sighs from the depth
of his bosom, unaccompanied by tears, though the exorcist had abjured
him, according to the ritual, to weep if he were innocent, but if
guilty to remain tearless. Though he was very thirsty, he several times
refused to drink holy water when presented to him. At length, pressed
to drink, he took a few drops, with glaring eyes and a horrible look
on his face. Never in the greatest agony of torture did he mention
the name of Jesus Christ or of the Holy Virgin, save when repeating
words he was ordered to speak, and then only in so cold a manner, and
with such constraint, that he horrified the assistants. He never cast
his eyes on the image of Christ, nor on that of the Virgin, which
were opposite to him, and they were offered to him in vain: whereupon
the judges remonstrated with him. They were still more scandalised
when they tried to make him say the prayer which every good Christian
addresses to his guardian angel, especially in great extremities, and
he said he did not know it. Such was his conduct under torture: in such
a crisis every feeling of religion would be awakened in an ordinary man.
His legs were then washed and placed near the fire to restore
circulation; he then began to talk to the guards, joking and laughing,
and would have gone on had they allowed him. He spoke neither of
receiving the sacrament of penitence nor of imploring God's pardon.
They had given him for a confessor Father Archangel, who asked him if
he did not wish to confess. He replied that he had done so the previous
Tuesday, after which he sat down and dined with the same appetite as
usual, drank three or four glasses of wine, and spoke of all kinds of
things except of God. Instead of listening to what was said to him for
the good of his soul, he made speeches he had prepared beforehand as
if he were preaching. They consisted in complaints as to the pain in
his legs, and of a feeling of chilliness about his head, in asking for
something to drink or to eat, and in begging that he might not be burnt
alive.