Note: Images of the original pages are available through
Internet Archive. See
http://archive.org/details/irishwitchcraftd00seymrich
Transcriber's note:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
IRISH WITCHCRAFT AND DEMONOLOGY
by
ST. JOHN D. SEYMOUR, B.D.
Author of "The Diocese of Emly," etc.
Dublin
Hodges, Figgis & Co. Ltd.
104 Grafton Street
London
Humphrey Milford
Amen Corner, E.C.
1913
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I
SOME REMARKS ON WITCHCRAFT IN IRELAND 1
CHAPTER II
A.D. 1324
DAME ALICE KYTELER, THE SORCERESS OF KILKENNY 25
CHAPTER III
A.D. 1223-1583
THE KYTELER CASE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS OF SORCERY AND
HERESY--MICHAEL SCOT--THE FOURTH EARL OF DESMOND--JAMES I
AND THE IRISH PROPHETESS--A SORCERY ACCUSATION OF 1447--
WITCHCRAFT TRIALS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY--STATUTES
DEALING WITH THE SUBJECT--EYE-BITERS--THE ENCHANTED EARL
OF DESMOND 46
CHAPTER IV
A.D. 1606-1656
A CLERICAL WIZARD--WITCHCRAFT CURED BY A RELIC--RAISING
THE DEVIL IN IRELAND--HOW HE WAS CHEATED BY A DOCTOR OF
DIVINITY--STEWART AND THE FAIRIES--REV. ROBERT BLAIR AND
THE MAN POSSESSED WITH A DEVIL--STRANGE OCCURRENCES NEAR
LIMERICK--APPARITIONS OF MURDERED PEOPLE AT PORTADOWN--
CHARMED LIVES--VISIONS AND PORTENTS--PETITION OF A
BEWITCHED ANTRIM MAN IN ENGLAND--ARCHBISHOP USSHER'S
PROPHECIES--MR. BROWNE AND THE LOCKED CHEST 77
CHAPTER V
A.D. 1661
FLORENCE NEWTON, THE WITCH OF YOUGHAL 105
CHAPTER VI
A.D. 1662-1686
THE DEVIL AT DAMERVILLE--AND AT BALLINAGARDE--TAVERNER
AND HADDOCK'S GHOST--HUNTER AND THE GHOSTLY OLD WOMAN--A
WITCH RESCUED BY THE DEVIL--DR. WILLIAMS AND THE HAUNTED
HOUSE IN DUBLIN--APPARITIONS SEEN IN THE AIR IN CO.
TIPPERARY--A CLERGYMAN AND HIS WIFE BEWITCHED TO DEATH--
BEWITCHING OF MR. MOOR--THE FAIRY-POSSESSED BUTLER--A
GHOST INSTIGATES A PROSECUTION--SUPPOSED WITCHCRAFT IN
CO. CORK--THE DEVIL AMONG THE QUAKERS 132
CHAPTER VII
A.D. 1688
AN IRISH-AMERICAN WITCH 176
CHAPTER VIII
A.D. 1689-1720
PORTENT ON ENTRY OF JAMES II--WITCHCRAFT IN CO. ANTRIM--
TRADITIONAL VERSION OF SAME--EVENTS PRECEDING THE
ISLAND-MAGEE WITCH-TRIAL--THE TRIAL ITSELF--DR. FRANCIS
HUTCHINSON 194
CHAPTER IX
A.D. 1807 TO PRESENT DAY
MARY BUTTERS, THE CARNMONEY WITCH--BALLAD ON HER--THE
HAND OF GLORY--A JOURNEY THROUGH THE AIR--A "WITCH" IN
1911--SOME MODERN ILLUSTRATIONS OF CATTLE- AND
MILK-MAGIC--TRANSFERENCE OF DISEASE BY A _cailleach_--
BURYING THE SHEAF--J.P.'S COMMISSION--CONCLUSION 224
IRISH WITCHCRAFT AND DEMONOLOGY
CHAPTER I
SOME REMARKS ON WITCHCRAFT IN IRELAND
It is said, though we cannot vouch for the accuracy of the statement, that
in a certain book on the natural history of Ireland there occurs a
remarkable and oft-quoted chapter on Snakes--the said chapter consisting
of the words, "There are no snakes in Ireland." In the opinion of most
people at the present day a book on Witchcraft in Ireland would be of
equal length and similarly worded, except for the inclusion of the Kyteler
case in the town of Kilkenny in the first half of the fourteenth century.
For, with the exception of that classic incident, modern writers seem to
hold that the witch-cult never found a home in Ireland as it did
elsewhere. For example, the article on "Witchcraft" in the latest edition
of the _Encyclopædia Britannica_ mentions England and Scotland, then
passes on to the Continent, and altogether ignores this country; and this
is, in general, the attitude adopted by writers on the subject. In view of
this it seems very strange that no one has attempted to show why the Green
Isle was so especially favoured above the rest of the civilised world, or
how it was that it alone escaped the contracting of a disease that not for
years but for centuries had infected Europe to the core. As it happens
they may spare themselves the labour of seeking for an explanation of
Ireland's exemption, for we hope to show that the belief in witchcraft
reached the country, and took a fairly firm hold there, though by no means
to the extent that it did in Scotland and England. The subject has never
been treated of fully before, though isolated notices may be found here
and there; this book, however imperfect it may be, can fairly claim to be
the first attempt to collect the scattered stories and records of
witchcraft in Ireland from many out-of-the-way sources, and to present
them when collected in a concise and palatable form. Although the volume
may furnish little or nothing new to the history or psychology of
witchcraft in general, yet it may also claim to be an unwritten chapter in
Irish history, and to show that in this respect a considerable portion of
our country fell into line with the rest of Europe.
At the outset the plan and scope of this book must be made clear. It will
be noticed that the belief in fairies and suchlike beings is hardly
touched upon at all, except in those instances where fairy lore and
witchcraft become inextricably blended.
The reason for this method of treatment is not hard to find. From the
Anglo-Norman invasion down the country has been divided into two opposing
elements, the Celtic and the English. It is true that on many occasions
these coalesced in peace and war, in religion and politics, but as a rule
they were distinct, and this became even more marked after the spread of
the Reformation. It was therefore in the Anglo-Norman (and subsequently in
the Protestant) portion of the country that we find the development of
witchcraft along similar lines to those in England or the Continent, and
it is with this that we are dealing in this book; the Celtic element had
its own superstitious beliefs, but these never developed in this
direction. In England and Scotland during the mediæval and later periods
of its existence witchcraft was an offence against the laws of God and
man; in Celtic Ireland dealings with the unseen were not regarded with
such abhorrence, and indeed had the sanction of custom and antiquity. In
England after the Reformation we seldom find members of the Roman Catholic
Church taking any prominent part in witch cases, and this is equally true
of Ireland from the same date. Witchcraft seems to have been confined to
the Protestant party, as far as we can judge from the material at our
disposal, while it is probable that the existence of the penal laws
(active or quiescent) would deter the Roman Catholics from coming into any
prominence in a matter which would be likely to attract public attention
to itself in such a marked degree. A certain amount of capital has been
made by some partisan writers out of this, but to imagine that the
ordinary Roman Catholic of, let us say, the seventeenth century, was one
whit less credulous or superstitious than Protestant peers, bishops, or
judges, would indeed be to form a conception directly at variance with
experience and common sense. Both parties had their beliefs, but they
followed different channels, and affected public life in different ways.
Another point with reference to the plan of this work as indicated by the
title needs a few words of explanation. It will be seen by the reader that
the volume does not deal solely with the question of witchcraft, though
that we have endeavoured to bring into prominence as much as possible, but
that tales of the supernatural, of the appearance of ghosts, and of the
Devil, are also included, especially in chapters IV and VI. If we have
erred in inserting these, we have at least erred in the respectable
company of Sir Walter Scott, C. K. Sharpe, and other writers of note. We
have included them, partly because they afford interesting reading, and
are culled from sources with which the average reader is unacquainted,
but principally because they reflect as in a mirror the temper of the age,
and show the degree to which every class of Society was permeated with the
belief in the grosser forms of the supernatural, and the blind readiness
with which it accepted what would at the present day be tossed aside as
unworthy of even a cursory examination. This is forcibly brought out in
the instance of a lawsuit being undertaken at the instigation of a
ghost--a quaint item of legal lore. The judge who adjudicated, or the jury
and lawyers who took their respective parts in such a case, would with
equal readiness have tried and found guilty a person on the charge of
witchcraft; and probably did so far oftener than we are aware of.
The question will naturally be asked by the reader--what reason can be
offered for Ireland's comparative freedom from the scourge, when the whole
of Europe was so sorely lashed for centuries? It is difficult fully to
account for it, but the consideration of the following points affords a
partial explanation.
In the first place Ireland's aloofness may be alleged as a reason. The
"Emerald Gem of the Western World" lies far away on the verge of Ocean,
remote from those influences which so profoundly affected popular thought
in other countries. It is a truism to say that it has been separated from
England and the Continent by more than geographical features, or that in
many respects, in its ecclesiastical organisation, its literature, and so
on, it has developed along semi-independent lines. And so, on account of
this remoteness, it would seem to have been prevented from acquiring and
assimilating the varying and complex features which went to make up the
witchcraft conception. Or, to put it in other words, mediæval witchcraft
was a byproduct of the civilisation of the Roman Empire. Ireland's
civilisation developed along other and more barbaric lines, and so had no
opportunity of assimilating the particular phases of that belief which
obtained elsewhere in Europe.
Consequently, when the Anglo-Normans came over, they found that the native
Celts had no predisposition towards accepting the view of the witch as an
emissary of Satan and an enemy of the Church, though they fully believed
in supernatural influences of both good and evil, and credited their Bards
and Druids with the possession of powers beyond the ordinary. Had this
country never suffered a cross-channel invasion, had she been left to work
out her destiny unaided and uninfluenced by her neighbours, it is quite
conceivable that at some period in her history she would have imbibed the
witchcraft spirit, and, with the genius characteristic of her, would have
blended it with her own older beliefs, and so would have ultimately
evolved a form of that creed which would have differed in many points from
what was held elsewhere. As it happens, the English and their successors
had the monopoly, and retained it in their own hands; thus the
Anglo-Norman invaders may be given the credit of having been the principal
means of preventing the growth and spread of witchcraft in Celtic Ireland.
Another point arises in connection with the advance of the Reformation in
Ireland. Unfortunately the persecution of witches did not cease in the
countries where that movement made headway--far from it; on the contrary
it was kept up with unabated vigour. Infallibility was transferred from
the Church to the Bible; the Roman Catholic persecuted the witch because
Supreme Pontiffs had stigmatised her as a heretic and an associate of
Satan, while the Protestant acted similarly because Holy Writ contained
the grim command "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." Thus persecution
flourished equally in Protestant and Roman Catholic kingdoms. But in
Ireland the conditions were different. We find there a Roman Catholic
majority, not racially predisposed towards such a belief, debarred by
their religious and political opinions from taking their full share in
public affairs, and opposed in every way to the Protestant minority. The
consequent turmoil and clash of war gave no opportunity for the witchcraft
idea to come to maturity and cast its seeds broadcast; it was trampled
into the earth by the feet of the combatants, and, though the minority
believed firmly in witchcraft and kindred subjects, it had not sufficient
strength to make the belief general throughout the country.
A third reason that may be brought forward to account for the comparative
immunity of Ireland was the total absence of literature on the subject.
The diffusion of books and pamphlets throughout a country or district is
one of the recognised ways of propagating any particular creed; the
friends and opponents of Christianity have equally recognised the truth of
this, and have always utilised it to the fullest extent. Now in England
from the sixteenth century we find an enormous literary output relative to
witchcraft, the majority of the works being in support of that belief.
Many of these were small pamphlets, which served as the "yellow press" of
the day; they were well calculated to arouse the superstitious feelings of
their readers, as they were written from a sensational standpoint--indeed
it seems very probable that the compilers, in their desire to produce a
startling catch-penny which would be sure to have a wide circulation,
occasionally drew upon their imaginations for their facts. The evil that
was wrought by such amongst an ignorant and superstitious people can well
be imagined; unbelievers would be converted, while the credulous would be
rendered more secure in their credulity.
At a later date, when men had become practical enough to question the
reality of such things, a literary war took place, and in this "battle of
the books" we find such well-known names as Richard Baxter, John Locke,
Meric Casaubon, Joseph Glanvil, and Francis Hutchinson, ranged on one side
or the other. Thus the ordinary Englishman would have no reasonable
grounds for being ignorant of the power of witches, or of the various
opinions held relative to them. In Ireland, on the other hand (with the
solitary exception of a pamphlet of 1699, which may or may not have been
locally printed), there is not the slightest trace of any witchcraft
literature being published in the country until we reach the opening years
of the nineteenth century. All our information therefore with respect to
Ireland comes from incidental notices in books and from sources across the
water. We might with reason expect that the important trial of Florence
Newton at Youghal in 1661, concerning the historical reality of which
there can be no possible doubt, would be immortalised by Irish writers
and publishers, but as a matter of fact it is only preserved for us in two
London printed books. There is no confusion between cause and effect;
books on witchcraft would, naturally, be the result of witch-trials, but
in their turn they would be the means of spreading the idea and of
introducing it to the notice of people who otherwise might never have
shown the least interest in the matter. Thus the absence of this form of
literature in Ireland seriously hindered the advance of the belief in (and
consequent practice of) witchcraft.
When did witchcraft make its appearance in Ireland, and what was its
progress therein? It seems probable that this belief, together with
certain aspects of fairy lore hitherto unknown to the Irish, and ideas
relative to milk and butter magic, may in the main be counted as results
of the Anglo-Norman invasion, though it is possible that an earlier
instalment of these came in with the Scandinavians. With our present
knowledge we cannot trace its active existence in Ireland further back
than the Kyteler case of 1324; and this, though it was almost certainly
the first occasion on which the evil made itself apparent to the general
public, yet seems to have been only the culmination of events that had
been quietly and unobtrusively happening for some little time previously.
The language used by the Parliament with reference to the case of 1447
would lead us to infer that nothing remarkable or worthy of note in the
way of witchcraft or sorcery had occurred in the country during the
intervening century and a quarter. For another hundred years nothing is
recorded, while the second half of the sixteenth century furnishes us with
two cases and a suggestion of several others.
It is stated by some writers (on the authority, we believe, of an early
editor of _Hudibras_) that during the rule of the Commonwealth Parliament
_thirty thousand_ witches were put to death in England. Others, possessing
a little common sense, place the number at three thousand, but even this
is far too high. Yet it seems to be beyond all doubt that more witches
were sent to the gallows at that particular period than at any other in
English history. Ireland seems to have escaped scot-free--at least we
have not been able to find any instances recorded of witch trials at that
time. Probably the terribly disturbed state of the country, the tremendous
upheaval of the Cromwellian confiscations, and the various difficulties
and dangers experienced by the new settlers would largely account for this
immunity.
Dr. Notestein[1] shows that the tales of apparitions and devils, of
knockings and strange noises, with which English popular literature of the
period is filled, are indications of a very overwrought public mind; of
similar stories in Ireland, also indicative of a similar state of tension,
some examples are given in chapter IV. Though the first half of the
seventeenth century is so barren with respect to _witchcraft_, yet it
should be noticed that during that period we come across frequent notices
of ghosts, apparitions, devils, &c., which forces us to the conclusion
that the increase of the belief in such subjects at that time was almost
entirely due to the advent of the Cromwellian settlers and the Scotch
colonists in Ulster; indeed the beliefs of the latter made the Northern
Province a miniature Scotland in this respect. We cannot blame them for
this; could anything else be expected from men who, clergy and laity
alike, were saturated with the superstitions that were then so prominent
in the two countries from which their ranks had been recruited?
Thus the seventeenth century was the period _par excellence_ of
witchcraft, demonology, and the supernatural in Ireland. The most
remarkable witch case of that time, the trial of Florence Newton in 1661,
to which allusion has already been made, seems to have been largely
influenced by what occurred in England, while the various methods
suggested or employed as a test of that old woman's culpability are quite
in accordance with the procedure adopted a few years previously by the
English witch-finder general, the infamous Matthew Hopkins. After 1711 the
period of decadence is reached, while between that date and 1808 nothing
has been found, though it may be safely inferred that that blank was
filled by incidents similar to the case of Mary Butters and others, as
described in the final chapter; and possibly too, as in England, by
savage outbursts on the part of the ignorant and credulous multitude.
Witchcraft never flourished to any great extent in Ireland, nor did
anything ever occur which was worthy of the name of persecution--except
perhaps as a sequel to the Kyteler case, and the details of which we fear
will never be recovered. The first part of this statement must be taken
generally and not pressed too closely, as it is based almost entirely on
negative evidence, _i.e._ the absence of information on the subject.
England has a lengthy list of books and pamphlets, while Scotland's share
in the business may be learnt from the fine series of criminal trials
edited by Pitcairn in the Miscellanies of the Abbotsford Club, not to
speak of other works; notwithstanding these, many cases in both England
and Scotland must have been unrecorded. Ireland can produce nothing like
this, for, as we have already shown, all _printed_ notices of Irish
witchcraft, with one possible exception, are recorded in books published
outside the country. Nevertheless, if all likely sources, both in MS. and
print, could be searched, it is highly probable that a much fuller volume
than the present one could be written on the subject. The Elizabethan Act
was passed on account of cases (recorded and unrecorded) that had arisen
in the country; while, human nature being what it is, it seems likely that
the very passing of that Statute by the Irish Parliament was in itself a
sufficient incentive to the witches to practise their art. No belief
really gains ground until it is forbidden; then the martyrs play their
part, and there is a consequent increase in the number of the followers.
The Act of 1634 shows the opinion that was entertained in the highest
circles relative to the baneful influence of witches and the menace their
presence was to the safety of the community at large; in this no doubt the
effect of the "evil eye," or of the satirical verses of Bards, would be
equally classed with witchcraft proper.
From various hints and incidental notices, such as in the account of the
bewitching of Sir George Pollock, or in Law's statement relative to the
case of Mr. Moor, as well as from a consideration of the prevalence of the
belief amongst all classes of society, it may be inferred that far more
cases of witchcraft occurred in Ireland during the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries than one imagines, though in comparison with other
countries their numbers would be but small. Future students of old
documents may be able to bear out this statement, and to supply
information at present unavailable.
To deal with the subject of witchcraft in general, with its psychology or
with the many strange items which it included, would be out of place in a
work exclusively devoted to one particular country, nor indeed could it be
adequately dealt with in the space at our disposal; it is necessary,
however, to say a few words on the matter in order to show by comparison
how much pain and unhappiness the people of Ireland escaped through the
non-prevalence of this terrible cult amongst them.
In the first place, to judge from the few witch-trials recorded, it may be
claimed that torture as a means of extracting evidence was never used upon
witches in Ireland (excepting the treatment of Petronilla of Meath by
Bishop de Ledrede, which seems to have been carried out in what may be
termed a purely unofficial manner). It would be interesting indeed to work
through the extant Records for the purpose of seeing how often torture was
judicially used on criminals in Ireland, and probably the student who
undertakes the investigation will find that this terrible and illogical
method of extracting the truth (!) was very seldom utilised. Nor is it at
all clear that torture was employed in England in similar trials. Dr.
Notestein[2] thinks that there are some traces of it, which cannot however
be certainly proved, except in one particular instance towards the end of
the reign of James I, though this was for the exceptional crime of
practising sorcery (and therefore high treason) against that too credulous
king. Was its use ever legalised by Act of Parliament in either country?
In Scotland, on the other hand, it was employed with terrible frequency;
there was hardly a trial for witchcraft or sorcery but some of the
unfortunates incriminated were subjected to this terrible ordeal. Even as
late as 1690 torture was judicially applied to extract evidence, for in
that year a Jacobite gentleman was questioned by the boots. But Scotland,
even at its worst, fades into insignificance before certain parts of the
Continent, where torture was used to an extent and degree that can only be
termed hellish; the appalling ingenuity displayed in the various methods
of applying the "question extraordinary" seems the work of demons rather
than of Christians, and makes one blush for humanity. The _repetition_ of
torture was forbidden, indeed, but the infamous Inquisitor, James
Sprenger, imagined a subtle distinction by which each fresh application
was a _continuation_ and not a repetition of the first; one sorceress in
Germany suffered this continuation no less than _fifty-six_ times.
Nor was the punishment of death by fire for witchcraft or sorcery employed
to any extent in Ireland. We have one undoubted instance, and a general
hint of some others as a sequel to this. How the two witches were put to
death in 1578 we are not told, but probably it was by hanging. Subsequent
to the passing of the Act of 1586 the method of execution would have been
that for felony. On the Continent the stake was in continual request. In
1514 three hundred persons were burnt alive for this crime at Como.
Between 1615 and 1635 more than six thousand sorcerers were burnt in the
diocese of Strasburg, while, if we can credit the figures of Bartholomew
de Spina, in Lombardy a thousand sorcerers a year were put to death _for
the space of twenty-five years_.[3] The total number of persons executed
in various ways for this crime has, according to the _Encyclopædia
Britannica_, been variously estimated at from one hundred thousand to
several millions; if the latter figure be too high undoubtedly the former
is far too low.
In the persecution of those who practised magical arts no rank or class in
society was spared; the noble equally with the peasant was liable to
torture and death. This was especially true of the earlier stages of the
movement when _sorcery_ rather than _witchcraft_ was the crime committed.
For there is a general distinction between the two, though in many
instances they are confounded. Sorcery was, so to speak, more of an
aristocratic pursuit; the sorcerer was the master of the Devil (until his
allotted time expired), and compelled him to do his bidding: the witch
generally belonged to the lower classes, embodied in her art many
practices which lay on the borderland between good and evil, and was
rather the slave of Satan, who almost invariably proved to be a most
faithless and unreliable employer. For an illustration from this country
of the broad distinction between the two the reader may compare Dame Alice
Kyteler with Florence Newton. Anybody might become a victim of the witch
epidemic; noblemen, scholars, monks, nuns, titled ladies, bishops,
clergy--none were immune from accusation and condemnation. Nay, even a
saint once fell under suspicion; in 1595 S. Francis de Sales was accused
of having been present at a sorcerers' sabbath, and narrowly escaped being
burnt by the populace.[4] Much more might be written in the same strain,
but sufficient illustrations have been brought forward to show the reader
that in its comparative immunity from witchcraft and its terrible
consequences Ireland, generally deemed so unhappy, may be counted the most
fortunate country in Europe.
In conclusion, we have not considered it necessary to append a
bibliography. The books that have been consulted and which have contained
no information relative to Ireland are, unfortunately, all too numerous,
while those that have proved of use are fully referred to in the text or
footnotes of the present volume. We should like however to acknowledge our
indebtedness to such general works on the subject as Sir Walter Scott's
_Demonology and Witchcraft_, C. K. Sharpe's _History of Witchcraft in
Scotland_, John Ashton's _The Devil in Britain and America_, and Professor
Wallace Notestein's _History of Witchcraft in England, 1558-1718_
(Washington, 1911); the last three contain most useful bibliographical
notices. Much valuable information with respect to the traditional
versions of certain incidents which occurred in Ulster has been gleaned
from Classon Porter's pamphlet, _Witches, Warlocks, and Ghosts_
(reprinted from _The Northern Whig_ of 1885). For a good bird's-eye view
of witchcraft on the Continent from the earliest times we can recommend J.
Français' _L'église et la Sorcellerie_ (Paris: Nourry, 1910).