conviction took place, the property of the witch and her family was
confiscated to that body. The clergy fattened upon the torture and
burning of women. Books giving directions for the punishment to be
inflicted upon them bore the significant titles of _Scourge_, _Hammer_,
_Ant Hills_, _Floggings_, etc. During the middle ages the devil was a
personal being to the church with power about equal to that of God,
his kingdom maintaining its equilibrium with the Father, Son and Holy
Ghost of Heaven, by means of three persons in Hell; Lucifer, Beelzebub
and Leviathan. In this era of christian devil-worship the three in hell
equipoised the three in the Godhead. Marriage with devils was one of
the most ordinary accusations in witch trials. Such connections were
sometimes regarded with pride; the celebrated marshall de Bassompierre
boasting that the founder of his family was engendered from communion
with a spirit. It was reported of the mother of Luther that she was
familiar with an Incubus. During this period many nuns and married
women confessed to having been visited by Incubi of whose visits no
spiritual efforts could rid them. Church history also proves that young
girls and boys, many under ten years of age were tried for intercourse
with such spirits. Those infesting men were known as Succubi. Lady
Frances Howard, daughter of the Earl of Suffolk, obtained a divorce
from her husband because of his connection with a Succubus.
One of the most notable things connected with such accusation was the
frequent confession of its truthfulness. In 1459, a great number of
witches and wizards were burned,[45] who publicly confessed to their
use of unguents, to their dances, feasts, and their consort with
devils. A Vicar General[46] among the Laodunenses, at his death left
confession of his witch-rides, his copulation with devils, etc. Nor
is the present age free from similar confessions. Tales of marriage
with spirits; of dead lovers paying nightly visits to the living
betrothed—of Incubi consorting with willing or unwilling victims;—all
those mediaeval statements regarding the intercourse of spirits of the
dead with the living, all the customs of witchcraft and sorcery are
paralleled in our midst today; and such statements do not come from
the ignorant and superstitious, but are made by persons of intelligence
as within their own personal experience. During the witchcraft period
familiarity of this nature with Incubi or Succubi was punished with
death. Occasionally a person was found of sufficient saintliness to
exorcise them as Elementals are said to have been exorcised during the
last half of the present century.[47] Devils were said to be very fond
of women with beautiful hair and the direction of St. Paul in regard to
woman’s keeping her head covered, was not always regarded as a sign of
inferiority, but sometimes believed to be a precautionary admonition
intended for the safety of christian women.[48] To this day the people
of some eastern countries, men and women alike, will not expose the
head uncovered, because of the danger of thus giving entrance to
certain invisible beings of an injurious character; the Persians in
particular, wearing a turban or cloth of peculiar appearance called
Mathoomba. Confessions of magical and witchcraft practices were by no
means rare even among the highest church dignitaries who implicated
themselves by such avowals. It was customary to attribute the practice
of magic to the most holy fathers of the church. The popes from
Sylvester II to Gregory VII were all believed to have been magicians.
Benedict IX was also thus accused. The difference between the practices
of men and of women existed only in name. What was termed magic, among
men, was called witchcraft in woman. The one was rarely, the other
invariably, punished.
The practice of magic by the holy fathers was in furtherance of private
or ecclesiastical advancement and therefore legitimate in the eye
of the church. Yet, death-bed repentance was by no means infrequent.
Of Pope Sylvester, it is said, that convinced of his sinfulness in
having practiced magic, upon his death-bed he ordered his tongue to
be torn out and his hands cut off because he had sacrificed to the
devil; having learned the art when Bishop of Rheims. The significant
question as to whether magnetism or hypnotism was not a custom of the
church during the middle ages, as part of the “magic” practiced by
illustrious ecclesiastical dignitaries, is one of importance in view
of recent hypnotic experiments. The fact that by means of “suggestion”
the responsibility for crime and the perpetration of overt criminal
acts, can be made to fall upon persons entirely innocent of criminal
intention, who, at the time are in a condition of irresponsibility,
while the actual felon, the person who incited the act remains unknown
and unsuspected, exceeds in malign power all that christendom has
taught regarding the evil one. Science trembles on the verge of
important discoveries which may open the door for a full understanding
of mediaeval witchcraft. The Scotch woman who asked if a person could
not be a witch without knowing it, had intuitive perception that by
the action of one person upon another, consequences could be induced
of which the perpetrator was entirely guiltless.[49] Doubtless the
strange power which certain persons are capable of wielding over
others, at present calling the attention of scientific investigators,
was very common during the witchcraft period. Of this power the church
as self-constituted guardian of the esoteric sciences was fully aware,
frequently making it the method through which envy, greed and revenge,
satisfied themselves while throwing the external appearance of guilt
upon others. The most complete protection against such powers,—a strong
will,—it has ever been the aim of the church to destroy. Freedom of the
will has ever held place in clerical denunciation by side of “original
sin,” and punished as sorcery.[50]
A reminiscence of olden magic—far older than the witchcraft period
is found in the Masonic lamentation over the “lost word.” This “lost
word,” the “supreme word,” by whose use all things can be subdued,
is still the quest of a certain portion of the world; and sorcerers
are still mentioned, who cannot die until a certain mysterious word
is passed from “mouth to ear.” One of the latest occult societies
extant, its membership widely extended, claims its origin from a
mysterious word similarly passed. The Lord’s Prayer demands the making
whole (hallowed), of the Father’s name, evidently in the esoteric
sense referring to that loss which dwells in the minds of men through
tradition, a species of unwritten history. With the restoration of the
feminine in all its attributes to its rightful place everywhere, in
realms seen and unseen, the lost power will have been restored, the
“lost name” have been found. Numbers are closely connected with names,
their early knowledge not only having preceded letters, but having
been of much greater value, although after a time, letters and numbers
became interchangeable. Certain persons devoted to the consideration
of occult subjects therefore claim the lost power to abide in a number
rather than in a word; sounds possessing great and peculiar influence
in all magical formulas, their power largely depending upon inflection
and tone or vibration; color and light are also called in aid during
magical formulas.[51]
The three most distinguishing features of the history of witchcraft
were its use for the enrichment of the church; for the advancement of
political schemes; and for the gratification of private malice. Among
these the most influential reason was the emolument it brought to
the church. Although inquisitors and the clergy were the principal
prosecutors, this period gave opportunity for the gratification of
private malice, and persons imbued with secret enmity towards others,
or who coveted their property, found ready occasion for the indulgence
of that malice of covetousness; while the church always claimed
one-half, it divided the remainder of the accused’s possessions between
the judge and the prosecutor. Under these circumstances accusation
and conviction became convertible terms. The pretense under which
the church confiscated to itself all property of the accused was in
line with its other sophistical teaching. It declared that the taint
of witchcraft hung to all that had belonged to the condemned, whose
friends were not safe with such property in their possession. To make
this claim more effective, it was also asserted that the very fact of
one member of a family having fallen into the practice of this sin was
virtual proof that all were likewise attainted. Under this allegation
of the church, a protest against such robbery was held as proof of the
witchcraft in the person so protesting. For the purpose of getting
the property of the accused admission of the crime was strenuously
pressed. In some countries the property was not forfeited unless such
confession took place. Persecution for witchcraft was if possible more
violent in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries than at any previous
date. By this period it had been introduced into America through the
instrumentality of the Puritan Fathers. It was no less wide-spread
in Calvinistic Scotland, while it re-appeared with renewed vigor in
Catholic countries. In the State of Venice it caused open rebellion
against church authority, the Council forbidding the sentence of the
Inquisition to be carried out.[52]
While only Venice in the whole of Europe defied the church upon this
point, emphatically protesting against such robbery of her citizens,
she ultimately succeeded in establishing a treaty with the pope whereby
the inheritance of the condemned was retained in the family. The
rebellion of Venice against the church upon the question of property
belonging to its subjects, a question upon which the state held itself
pre-eminent, soon effected a radical change and had remarkable effect
in lessening the number of accusations in that state.[53] Theft by the
church in that direction, no longer possible, accusations of witchcraft
soon ceased; being no longer recognized as sin, after ceasing to bring
money into the coffers of the church.
It is a fact noted by very many authorities that when witchcraft fell
under control of the state, its penalties were greatly lessened while
accusations grew fewer. Yet for a period, even the civil power aided
in spreading this belief, offering rewards for conviction; and as the
church had grown immensely rich by means of witch persecution, so the
state increased its own power and wealth through similar means. The
theory of Bishop Butler that whole communities at times become mad,
seems proven by the experience of this period. Upon no other ground but
that of universal insanity can excusable explanation be offered. But
for the church no such exculpation is possible, her teachings and her
acts having created this wholesale madness of communities. Experience
of her course during preceding centuries shows us that the persecution
of the witchcraft period was but a continuation of her policy from the
moment of her existence—that of universal dominion over the lives, the
property, and the thoughts of mankind. Neither rank, nor learning,
age, nor goodness freed a woman from accusation.[54] The mother of
the great astronomer, Kepler, a woman of noble family, died in chains
having been accused of witchcraft.[55] The council of Bourges tortured
a reputed witch who was only known for her good works. A determined
effort for the destruction of every virtue among women seemed made at
this period. In the middle of the XIII century, the Emperor Theodore
Lascarius caused a noble lady of his court to be entirely stripped of
her clothing, and placed thus nude in a sack with cats, but even this
torture failed to extort a confession from her innocent lips. Even in
America, women of the purest lives, all of whose years had been given
to good works, met with death from like accusation.
Soon after the confirmation of celibacy as a dogma of the church, at
the time when the persecution for witchcraft so rapidly increased,
which was also the period of the greatest oppression under feudalism—a
peculiar and silent rebellion against both church and state took place
among the peasantry of Europe, who assembled in the seclusion of night
and the forest, their only place of safety in which to speak of their
wrongs. Freedom for the peasant was found only at night. Known as
“Birds of the Night,” “Foxes,” “Birds of Prey,” it was only at night
assemblages that they enjoyed the least happiness or freedom. Here
with wives and daughters, they met to talk over the gross outrages
perpetrated upon them. Out of their foul wrongs grew the sacrifice of
the “Black Mass” with women as officiating priestess, in which the
rites of the church were travestied in solemn mockery, and defiance
cast at that heaven which permitted the priest and the lord alike
to trample upon all the sacred rights of womanhood, in the name of
religion and law. During this mocking service a true sacrifice of
wheat was offered to the “Spirit of the Earth” who made wheat to grow,
and loosened birds bore aloft to the “God of Freedom” the sighs and
prayers of the serfs asking that their descendants might be free. We
can but regard this sacrifice as the most acceptable offering made in
that day of moral degradation; a sacrifice and a prayer more holy than
all the ceremonials of the church. This service where woman by virtue
of her greater despair acted both as altar and priest, opened with
the following address and prayer. “I will come before Thine altar,
but save me, O, Lord, from the faithless and violent man!” (from the
priest and the baron).[56] From these assemblages known as “Sabbat” or
“the Sabbath” from the old Pagan mid-summer-day sacrifice to “Bacchus
Sabiesa” rose the belief in the “Witches Sabbath,” which for several
hundred years formed a source of accusation against women, sending
tens of thousands to most horrible deaths. The thirteenth century was
about the central period of this rebellion of the serfs against God and
the church when they drank each other’s blood as a sacrament, while
secretly speaking of their oppression.[57] The officiating priestess
was usually about thirty years old, having experienced all the wrongs
that woman suffered under church and state. She was entitled “The
Elder” yet in defiance of that God to whom the serfs under church
teaching ascribed all their wrongs, she was also called “The Devil’s
bride.” This period was especially that of woman’s rebellion against
the existing order of religion and government in both church and
state. While man was connected with her in these ceremonies as father,
husband, brother, yet all accounts show that to woman as the most
deeply wronged, was accorded all authority. Without her, no man was
admitted to this celebration, which took place in the seclusion of the
forest and under the utmost secrecy. Offerings were made to the latest
dead and the most newly born of the district, and defiance hurled
against that God to whose injustice the church had taught woman that
all her wrongs were due.
Women’s knowledge of herbs was made use of in a preparation of Solanae
which mixed with mead, beer, cider, or farcy—the strong drink of
the west—disposed the oppressed serfs to joyous dancing and partial
forgetfulness of their wrongs during these popular night gatherings of
the Sabbath.[58] It became “the comforter” throwing the friendly mantle
of partial oblivion over the mental suffering of “him who had been so
wronged” as it had done for the mother’s physical pain. “The Sabbath”
was evidently the secret protest of men and women whom church and state
in combination had utterly oppressed and degraded. For centuries there
seemed no hope for this class of humanity—for this degraded portion of
christendom—yet, even then women held position of superiority in these
night assemblages. Among the “Papers of the Bastile,” a more extended
account of woman officiating as her own altar, is to be found.[59]
The injustice of man towards woman under the laws of both Church and
State engrafted upon society, have resulted in many evils unsuspected
by the world, which if known would strike it with amazement and terror.
Even Louis Lingg, one of the condemned Chicago anarchists, young,
handsome, of vigorous intellect, who uncomplainingly accepted for
himself that death he had decreed to the representatives to law; even
he, who neither asked mercy nor accepted the death decreed him, was
the outgrowth of woman’s wrongs. His mother with whom his fate was
thrown, a woman of the people in Hungary, belonging to a powerless
class crushed for centuries, the plaything of those above them;—his
father, a representative of the aristocracy descended from a long line
of military ancestors, leaving him, as the church had taught him, to
the sole care of the mother he had betrayed, it was impossible for this
boy not to find in his breast a turmoil of conflicting emotions, but
above all, ruling all, a hatred of entrenched oppression; nor did his
father’s military blood fail to play its part, leading to the final
result which affrighted a city and closed his young life.
In looking at the history of witchcraft we see three striking points
for consideration:
First: That women were chiefly accused.
Second: That men believing in woman’s inherent wickedness, and
understanding neither the mental nor the physical peculiarities of her
being, ascribed all her idiosyncrasies to witchcraft.
Third: That the clergy inculcated the idea that woman was in league
with the devil, and that strong intellect, remarkable beauty, or
unusual sickness were in themselves proof of this league.
Catholics and protestants yet agree in holding women as the chief
accessory of the devil.[60]
The belief in witches indeed seemed intensified after the reformation.
Luther said: “I would have no compassion for a witch, I would burn them
all.” He looked upon those who were afflicted with blindness, lameness,
or idiocy from birth,[61] as possessed of demons and there is record
of his attempt to drown an afflicted child in whom he declared no soul
existed, its body being animated by the devil alone. But a magistrate
more enlightened or more humane than the great reformer, interfered
to save the child’s life. Were Luther on earth again today with the
sentiments of his lifetime, he would regard the whole community as
mad. Asylums for the blind, the dumb and idiots, curative treatment
for cripples and all persons naturally deformed, would be to him a
direct intervention with the ways of providence. The belief of this
great reformer proves the folly of considering a man wise, because
he is pious. Religion and humanity were as far apart with him after
the reformation as while he was yet a monk. The fruits of monasticism
continued their effects, and his latter life showed slight intellectual
or spiritual advancement. As late as 1768 John Wesley declared the
giving up of witchcraft to be in effect giving up the Bible. Such
was his low estimate of woman that he regarded his own wife as too
sinful to conduct family prayers, although to Susannah, equally with
John, is Methodism indebted for its existence. In Great Britain, the
rapid increase of belief in witchcraft after the reformation was
especially noticeable. The act of Parliament which declared witchcraft
to be felony, confirmed under Henry VIII, was again confirmed under
Elizabeth. In England the reformation brought with it great increase
of tyranny both civil and ecclesiastical. Under Henry VIII many new
treasons were created. This king who sent the largest proportion
of his six wives to the headsman’s block, who neither hesitated at
incest or at casting the taint of illegitimacy upon the daughter who
succeeded him upon the throne, could not be expected to show justice
or mercy to subject women. The penal laws of even celibate Elizabeth
were largely the result of the change in religion of the realm.[62] The
queen, absolute in Church as in State, who “bent priest and prelate
to her fiery will,” caused the laws to bear with equal severity upon
protestant and catholic. Under her “A Statute of Uniformity for
Abolishing Diversity of Opinions,” was enacted, and the clergy were
continued in the enjoyment of secular power. Women received no favor.
The restrictions of the catholic church in regard to the residence
of a priest’s mother or sister in his house were now extended to the
laity. No man was permitted to give his widowed mother or orphan sister
a home in his house without permission from the authorities, and then
but for a limited time. Single women were allowed no control over their
own actions. Twelve years was the legal marriageable age for a girl,
after which period if still unmarried she could be bound out at the
option of the court.[63] Nor did the Cromwellian period lessen woman’s
persecution. The number of witches executed under the Presbyterian
domination of the Long Parliament according to a list[64] that has
been preserved, amounted to between three and four thousand persons.
The legal profession no less than the clerical asserted its belief in
witchcraft, referring to the Bible in confirmation. Blackstone said:
To deny the possibility, nay the actual existence of
witchcraft and sorcery is at once flatly to contradict the
revealed word of God, in various passages of the Old and New
Testament and the thing itself is a truth to which every
nation in the world hath in its turn borne testimony, either
by examples seemingly well attested, or by prohibiting laws.
The protestant clergy equally with the catholic priesthood, were
charged with fostering a belief in witchcraft for the purpose of gain.
At no period of the world has a more diabolical system of robbery
existed. For the sake of a few pounds or pence, the most helpless
of human beings, made helpless through church teaching as to their
unworthiness, were by the church daily brought under accusation,
exposing them to a cruel death at the hand of irresponsible tyranny.
The system of thuggery in India, shines white by side of this christian
system of robbery, inaugurated by the church and sustained by the
state. In the name of religion, the worst crimes against humanity have
ever been perpetrated. On the accession of James I he ordered the
learned work of Reginald Scott against witchcraft, to be burned.[65]
This was in accordance with the act of Parliament 1605-9 which ratified
a belief in witchcraft in the three kingdoms. At this date the tragedy
of Macbeth appeared, deeply tinged with the belief of the times. A
few persons maintaining possession of their senses, recognized the
fact that fear, apprehension and melancholy gave birth to the wildest
self-delusions; medical experience recording many instances of this
character. In an age when ignorance and superstition prevailed among
the people at large, while vice, ignorance, and cupidity were in equal
force among those in power, the strangest beliefs became prevalent.
Sir George Mackenzie, the eminent king’s advocate of Scotland,
conducting many trials for witchcraft, became convinced it was largely
a subject of fear and delusion. He said: