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THE WITCH-CULT IN WESTERN EUROPE
_A Study in Anthropology_
BY
MARGARET ALICE MURRAY
OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1921
Oxford University Press
_London Edinburgh Glasgow Copenhagen
New York Toronto Melbourne Cape Town
Bombay Calcutta Madras Shanghai_
Humphrey Milford Publisher to the UNIVERSITY
PREFACE
The mass of existing material on this subject is so great that I have not
attempted to make a survey of the whole of European 'Witchcraft', but have
confined myself to an intensive study of the cult in Great Britain. In
order, however, to obtain a clearer understanding of the ritual and beliefs
I have had recourse to French and Flemish sources, as the cult appears to
have been the same throughout Western Europe. The New England records are
unfortunately not published _in extenso_; this is the more unfortunate as
the extracts already given to the public occasionally throw light on some
of the English practices. It is more difficult to trace the English
practices than the Scotch or French, for in England the cult was already in
a decadent condition when the records were made; therefore records in a
purely English colony would probably contain much of interest.
The sources from which the information is taken are the judicial records
and contemporary chroniclers. In the case of the chroniclers I have studied
their facts and not their opinions. I have also had access to some
unpublished trials among the Edinburgh Justiciary Records and also in the
Guernsey Greffe.
The following articles have already appeared in various journals, to whose
editors I am indebted for kind permission to republish: 'Organization of
Witch Societies' and 'Witches and the number Thirteen' in _Folk Lore_; 'The
God of the Witches' in the _Journal of the Manchester Oriental Society_;
'Child Sacrifice', 'Witches' Familiars', 'The Devil's Mark', 'The Devil's
Officers', 'Witches' Fertility Rites', 'Witches Transformations', in
_Man_; and 'The Devil of North Berwick' in the _Scottish Historical
Review_.
My thanks are due to Georgiana Aitken, W. Bonser, and Mary Slater for much
kind help, also to Prof. C. G. Seligman for valuable suggestions and advice
as to lines of research.
M. A. MURRAY.
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE,
LONDON.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE 5
INTRODUCTION 9
I. CONTINUITY OF THE RELIGION 19
II. THE GOD 28
1. As God 28
2. As a Human Being 31
3. Identification 47
4. As an Animal 60
III. ADMISSION CEREMONIES 71
1. General 71
2. The Introduction 76
3. The Renunciation and Vows 77
4. The Covenant 79
5. The Baptism 82
6. The Mark 86
IV. THE ASSEMBLIES 97
1. The Sabbath. Method of going.
The site. The date. The hour 97
2. The Esbat. Business.
The site. The time. 112
V. THE RITES 124
1. General 124
2. Homage 126
3. The Dances 130
4. The Music 135
5. The Feast 138
6. Candles 144
7. The Sacrament 148
8. Sacrifices: Of animals.
Of children. Of the God 152
9 Magic Words 162
VI. THE RITES, _continued_ 169
1. General 169
2. Rain-making 172
3. Fertility 173
VII. THE ORGANIZATION 186
1. The Officer 186
2. The Covens 190
3. Duties 194
4. Discipline 197
VIII. THE FAMILIARS AND TRANSFORMATIONS 205
1. The Divining Familiar 205
2. The Domestic Familiar 208
3. Methods of obtaining Familiars 222
4. Transformations into Animals 230
APPENDIX I.
Fairies and Witches 238
APPENDIX II.
Trial of Silvain Nevillon. Taken from De
Lancre's _L'Incredulite et
Mescreance_ 246
APPENDIX III.
A. Covens and Names of Members 249
B. Index of Witches' Names, with Notes 255
APPENDIX IV.
Notes on the Trials of Joan
of Arc and Gilles de Rais 270
APPENDIX V.
Some Notes on 'Flying' Ointments.
By Prof. A. J. Clark 279
BIBLIOGRAPHY 281
GENERAL INDEX 286
INTRODUCTION
The subject of Witches and Witchcraft has always suffered from the biassed
opinions of the commentators, both contemporary and of later date. On the
one hand are the writers who, having heard the evidence at first hand,
believe implicitly in the facts and place upon them the unwarranted
construction that those facts were due to supernatural power; on the other
hand are the writers who, taking the evidence on hearsay and disbelieving
the conclusions drawn by their opponents, deny the facts _in toto_. Both
parties believed with equal firmness in a personal Devil, and both
supported their arguments with quotations from the Bible. But as the
believers were able to bring forward more texts than the unbelievers and
had in their hands an unanswerable argument in the Witch of Endor, the
unbelievers, who dared not contradict the Word of God, were forced to fall
back on the theory that the witches suffered from hallucination, hysteria,
and, to use the modern word, 'auto-suggestion'. These two classes still
persist, the sceptic predominating. Between the believer who believed
everything and the unbeliever who disbelieved everything there has been no
critical examination of the evidence, which presents a new and untouched
field of research to the student of comparative religion.
Among the believers in witchcraft everything which could not be explained
by the knowledge at their disposal was laid to the credit of supernatural
powers; and as everything incomprehensible is usually supposed to emanate
from evil, the witches were believed to be possessed of devilish arts. As
also every non-Christian God was, in the eyes of the Christian, the
opponent of the Christian God, the witches were considered to worship the
Enemy of Salvation, in other words, the Devil. The greater number of these
writers, however, obtained the evidence at first hand, and it must
therefore be accepted although the statements do not bear the construction
put upon them. It is only by a careful comparison with the evidence of
anthropology that the facts fall into their proper places and an organized
religion stands revealed.
The common beliefs as to the powers of the witches are largely due to the
credulous contemporary commentators, who misunderstood the evidence and
then exaggerated some of the facts to suit their preconceived ideas of the
supernatural powers of the witches; thereby laying themselves open to the
ridicule of all their opponents, past and present. Yet the ridicule is not
fully deserved, for the facts are there, though the explanation is wrong;
for even the two points, which are usually considered the ultimate proof of
the absurdity and incredibility of the whole system--the flying on a
broomstick through the window or up the chimney, and the transformation
into animals--are capable of explanation. The first can be accounted for
when the form of early mound-dwellings is taken into consideration, and
when it is remembered that among savage tribes there are often taboos
connected with the door, the two-faced god being essentially a deity of the
door. Besides this the fertility rites connected with the broom should be
taken into account. The second should be compared with similar accounts of
transformation into animals among the cults of other nations. Mr. A. B.
Cook's comment on the Greek ritual applies quite as well to Western as to
Eastern Europe: 'We may venture on the general statement that within the
bounds of Hellenic mythology _animal-metamorphosis commonly points to a
preceding animal cult_.'[1]
It is interesting to note the class of mind among those contemporary
writers who believed in the reality of the facts confessed at the trials as
compared with those who disbelieved. It will be seen that the most
brilliant minds, the keenest intellects, the greatest investigators, were
among the believers: Bodin, Lord Bacon, Raleigh, Boyle, Cudworth, Selden,
Henry More, Sir Thomas Browne, Matthew Hale, Sir George Mackenzie, and many
others, most of whom had heard the evidence at first hand. The sceptics
were Weyer, pupil of the occultist Cornelius Agrippa; Reginald Scot, a
Kentish country squire; Filmer, whose name was a byword for political
bigotry; Wagstaffe, who went mad from drink; and Webster, a fanatical
preacher.[2] The sceptics, with the exception of Weyer, appear to have had
little or no first-hand evidence; their only weapon was an appeal to common
sense and sentiment combined; their only method was a flat denial of every
statement which appeared to point to supernatural powers. They could not
disprove the statements; they could not explain them without opposing the
accepted religious beliefs of their time, and so weakening their cause by
exposing themselves to the serious charge of atheism; therefore they denied
evidence which in the case of any other accusation would have been accepted
as proof.
The evidence which I now bring forward is taken entirely from contemporary
sources, i.e. the legal records of the trials, pamphlets giving accounts of
individual witches, and the works of Inquisitors and other writers. I have
omitted the opinions of the authors, and have examined only the recorded
facts, without however including the stories of ghosts and other 'occult'
phenomena with which all the commentators confuse the subject. I have also,
for the reason given below, omitted all reference to charms and spells when
performed by one witch alone, and have confined myself to those statements
only which show the beliefs, organization, and ritual of a hitherto
unrecognized cult.
In order to clear the ground I make a sharp distinction between Operative
Witchcraft and Ritual Witchcraft. Under Operative Witchcraft I class all
charms and spells, whether used by a professed witch or by a professed
Christian, whether intended for good or for evil, for killing or for
curing. Such charms and spells are common to every nation and country, and
are practised by the priests and people of every religion. They are part of
the common heritage of the human race and are therefore of no practical
value in the study of any one particular cult.
Ritual Witchcraft--or, as I propose to call it, the Dianic cult--embraces
the religious beliefs and ritual of the people known in late mediaeval
times as 'Witches'. The evidence proves that underlying the Christian
religion was a cult practised by many classes of the community, chiefly,
however, by the more ignorant or those in the less thickly inhabited parts
of the country. It can be traced back to pre-Christian times, and appears
to be the ancient religion of Western Europe. The god, anthropomorphic or
theriomorphic, was worshipped in well-defined rites; the organization was
highly developed; and the ritual is analogous to many other ancient
rituals. The dates of the chief festivals suggest that the religion
belonged to a race which had not reached the agricultural stage; and the
evidence shows that various modifications were introduced, probably by
invading peoples who brought in their own beliefs. I have not attempted to
disentangle the various cults; I am content merely to point out that it was
a definite religion with beliefs, ritual, and organization as highly
developed as that of any other cult in the world.
The deity of this cult was incarnate in a man, a woman, or an animal; the
animal form being apparently earlier than the human, for the god was often
spoken of as wearing the skin or attributes of an animal. At the same time,
however, there was another form of the god in the shape of a man with two
faces. Such a god is found in Italy (where he was called Janus or Dianus),
in Southern France (see pp. 62, 129), and in the English Midlands. The
feminine form of the name, Diana, is found throughout Western Europe as the
name of the female deity or leader of the so-called Witches, and it is for
this reason that I have called this ancient religion the Dianic cult. The
geographical distribution of the two-faced god suggests that the race or
races, who carried the cult, either did not remain in every country which
they entered, or that in many places they and their religion were
overwhelmed by subsequent invaders.
The dates of the two chief festivals, May Eve and November Eve, indicate
the use of a calendar which is generally acknowledged to be
pre-agricultural and earlier than the solstitial division of the year. The
fertility rites of the cult bear out this indication, as they were for
promoting the increase of animals and only rarely for the benefit of the
crops. The cross-quarter-days, February 2 and August 1, which were also
kept as festivals, were probably of later date, as, though classed among
the great festivals, they were not of so high an importance as the May and
November Eves. To February 2, Candlemas Day, probably belongs the sun-charm
of the burning wheel, formed by the whirling dancers, each carrying a
blazing torch; but no special ceremony seems to be assigned to August 1,
Lammas Day, a fact suggestive of a later introduction of this festival.
The organization of the hierarchy was the same throughout Western Europe,
with the slight local differences which always occur in any organization.
The same organization, when carried to America, caused Cotton Mather to
say, 'The witches are organized like Congregational Churches.' This gives
the clue at once. In each Congregational Church there is a body of elders
who manage the affairs of the Church, and the minister who conducts the
religious services and is the chief person in religious matters; and there
may also be a specially appointed person to conduct the services in the
minister's absence; each Church is an independent entity and not
necessarily connected with any other. In the same way there was among the
witches a body of elders--the Coven--which managed the local affairs of the
cult, and a man who, like the minister, held the chief place, though as God
that place was infinitely higher in the eyes of the congregation than any
held by a mere human being. In some of the larger congregations there was a
person, inferior to the Chief, who took charge in the Chief's absence. In
Southern France, however, there seems to have been a Grand Master who was
supreme over several districts.
The position of the chief woman in the cult is still somewhat obscure.
Professor Pearson sees in her the Mother-Goddess worshipped chiefly by
women. This is very probable, but at the time when the cult is recorded the
worship of the male deity appears to have superseded that of the female,
and it is only on rare occasions that the God appears in female form to
receive the homage of the worshippers. As a general rule the woman's
position, when divine, is that of the familiar or substitute for the male
god. There remains, however, the curious fact that the chief woman was
often identified with the Queen of Faerie, or the Elfin Queen as she is
sometimes called.
This connexion of the witches and fairies opens up a very wide field; at
present it is little more than speculation that the two are identical, but
there is promise that the theory may be proved at some later date when the
subject is more fully worked out. It is now a commonplace of anthropology
that the tales of fairies and elves preserve the tradition of a dwarf race
which once inhabited Northern and Western Europe. Successive invasions
drove them to the less fertile parts of each country which they inhabited,
some betook themselves to the inhospitable north or the equally
inhospitable mountains; some, however, remained in the open heaths and
moors, living as mound-dwellers, venturing out chiefly at night and coming
in contact with the ruling races only on rare occasions. As the conqueror
always regards the religion of the conquered as superior to his own in the
arts of evil magic, the dwarf race obtained the reputation of wizards and
magicians, and their god was identified by the conquerors with the
Principle of Evil. The identification of the witches with the dwarf or
fairy race would give us a clear insight into much of the civilization of
the early European peoples, especially as regards their religious ideas.
The religious rites varied according to circumstances and the requirements
of the people. The greater number of the ceremonies appear to have been
practised for the purpose of securing fertility. Of these the sexual ritual
has been given an overwhelming and quite unwarranted importance in the
trials, for it became an obsession with the Christian judges and recorders
to investigate the smallest and most minute details of the rite. Though in
late examples the ceremony had possibly degenerated into a Bacchanalian
orgy, there is evidence to prove that, like the same rite in other
countries, it was originally a ceremonial magic to ensure fertility. There
is at present nothing to show how much of the Witches' Mass (in which the
bread, the wine, and the candles were black) derived from the Christian
ritual and how much belonged to the Dianic cult; it is, however, possible
that the witches' service was the earlier form and influenced the
Christian. The admission ceremonies were often elaborate, and it is here
that the changes in the religion are most clearly marked; certain
ceremonies must have been introduced when another cult was superimposed and
became paramount, such as the specific renunciation of a previous religion
which was obligatory on all new candidates, and the payment to the member
who brought a new recruit into the fold. The other rites--the feasts and
dances--show that it was a joyous religion; and as such it must have been
quite incomprehensible to the gloomy Inquisitors and Reformers who
suppressed it.
Much stress has always been laid by the sceptical writers on the undoubted
fact that in many cases the witch confused dreams with reality and believed
that she had visited the Sabbath when credible witnesses could prove that
she had slept in her bed all the time. Yet such visions are known in other
religions; Christians have met their Lord in dreams of the night and have
been accounted saints for that very reason; Mahomed, though not released
from the body, had interviews with Allah; Moses talked with God; the
Egyptian Pharaohs record similar experiences. To the devotee of a certain
temperament such visions occur, and it is only to be expected that in every
case the vision should take the form required by the religion of the
worshipper. Hence the Christian sees Christ and enters heaven; Mahomed was
caught up to the Paradise of the true believers; the anthropomorphic
Jehovah permitted only a back view to His votary; the Egyptian Pharaohs
beheld their gods alive and moving on the earth. The witch also met her god
at the actual Sabbath and again in her dreams, for that earthly Sabbath was
to her the true Paradise, where there was more pleasure than she could
express, and she believed also that the joy which she took in it was but
the prelude to a much greater glory, for her god so held her heart that no
other desire could enter in. Thus the witches often went to the gibbet and
the stake, glorifying their god and committing their souls into his
keeping, with a firm belief that death was but the entrance to an eternal
life in which they would never be parted from him. Fanatics and
visionaries as many of them were, they resemble those Christian martyrs
whom the witch-persecutors often held in the highest honour.
Another objection is that, as the evidence of the witches at the trials is
more or less uniform in character, it must be attributed to the publication
by the Inquisitors of a questionary for the use of all judges concerned in
such trials; in short, that the evidence is valueless, as it was given in
answer to leading questions. No explanation is offered by the objectors as
to how the Inquisitors arrived at the form of questionary, nor is any
regard given to the injunction to all Inquisitors to acquaint themselves
with all the details of any heresy which they were commissioned to root
out; they were to obtain the information from those who would recant and
use it against the accused; and to instruct other judges in the belief and
ritual of the heresy, so that they also might recognize it and act
accordingly. The objectors also overlook the fact that the believers in any
given religion, when tried for their faith, exhibit a sameness in their
accounts of the cult, usually with slight local differences. Had the
testimony of the witches as to their beliefs varied widely, it would be
_prima facie_ evidence that there was no well-defined religion underlying
their ritual; but the very uniformity of their confessions points to the
reality of the occurrence.
Still another objection is that the evidence was always given under
torture, and that the wretched victims consequently made reckless
assertions and accusations. In most of the English and many of the Scotch
trials legal torture was not applied; and it was only in the seventeenth
century that pricking for the mark, starvation, and prevention of sleep
were used. Even then there were many voluntary confessions given by those
who, like the early Christian martyrs, rushed headlong on their fate,
determined to die for their faith and their god.
Yet even if some of the evidence were given under torture and in answer to
leading questions, there still remains a mass of details which cannot be
explained away. Among others there are the close connexions of the witches
with the fairies, the persistence of the number thirteen in the Covens,
the narrow geographical range of the domestic familiar, the avoidance of
certain forms in the animal transformations, the limited number of personal
names among the women-witches, and the survival of the names of some of the
early gods.
In England the legal method of executing a witch was by hanging; after
death the body was burnt and the ashes scattered. In Scotland, as a rule,
the witch was strangled at the stake and the body burned, but there are
several records of the culprit being sentenced to burning alive. In France
burning alive was the invariable punishment.
In cases where popular fury, unrestrained by the law, worked its own
vengeance on individuals, horrible scenes occurred; but these were the
exception, and, examining only the legal aspect of the subject, it will be
found that witches had a fair trial according to the methods of the period,
and that their punishment was according to the law. There was, however, one
popular method of dealing with a person accused of witchcraft which is
interesting as showing the survival of a legal process, obsolete as regards
the law itself, but remaining in full force among the people. This is the
ordeal by water. In the Laws of Athelstan the full detail of this ordeal is
given: after the person who was to undergo the ordeal had been prepared by
prayer and fasting, he was tied, the right thumb to the right big toe, the
left thumb to the left big toe, and was then cast into the water with
suitable prayers to the Almighty to declare the right; if he sank he was
considered innocent, if he floated he was guilty. The witch was 'tried' in
the same way, except that she was tied 'crossways', i.e. the right thumb to
the left big toe, and the left thumb to the right big toe. So great was the
belief in this test that many women accused of witchcraft insisted on
undergoing this ordeal, which was often conducted with solemnity and
decency under the auspices of the minister of the parish and other grave
persons. Unless there was strong feeling against the woman for other
reasons, the mere fact of her floating did not rouse the populace against
her, and she merely returned home; Widow Coman, for instance, was 'ducked'
on three separate occasions at her own request.
The theologians of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were greatly
exercised by the conclusive evidence which proved that people known to be
devout and professing Christians had been present at the Sabbath, joined in
the ceremonies, and worshipped the witches' god. The Inquisitors recognized
the fact, and devote many pages of their books to the discussion of the
course to be followed in the case of Christian priests, coming finally to
the conclusion that if a priest merely went to the Sabbath but was not in
any way in an official position there his sacred character preserved him
from evil. The theologians of the Reformed Churches, who could not accept
the sanctity of the priesthood with the same ease and were also desirous of
finding some means of accounting for the presence of the devout laity,
boldly evolved the theory that the Devil could for his own purposes assume
the shape of good Christians in order to mislead the witches. By this plea
the accused often succeeded in escaping when the examiners were religious
ministers, but it was of no value to them when the trial was in a court of
law, and the fact of their presence at an illegal assembly was proved. Lord
Coke's definition of a witch summed up the law on the subject: 'A witch is
a person who hath conference with the Devil, to consult with him or to do
some act', and any person proved to have had such conference was thus
convicted of a capital offence and sentenced accordingly. This accounts for
the fact, commented on by all students of witch-trials, that a witch was
often condemned even though she had invariably used her skill for good and
not for evil; for healing the sick, not for casting sickness. If it were
proved that she had obtained her knowledge from the 'Devil' she had broken
the law and must die.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, 1894, p. 160. The italics are
in the original.]
[Footnote 2: See James Crossley's Introduction to Potts's _Discoverie of
Witchcraft_, Chetham Society, pp. v-xii.]
I. CONTINUITY OF THE RELIGION
Of the ancient religion of pre-Christian Britain there are few written
records, but it is contrary to all experience that a cult should die out
and leave no trace immediately on the introduction of a new religion. The
so-called conversion of Britain meant the conversion of the rulers only;
the mass of the people continued to follow their ancient customs and
beliefs with a veneer of Christian rites. The centuries brought a deepening
of Christianity which, introduced from above, gradually penetrated
downwards through one class after another. During this process the laws
against the practice of certain heathen rites became more strict as
Christianity grew in power, the Church tried her strength against 'witches'
in high places and was victorious, and in the fifteenth century open war
was declared against the last remains of heathenism in the famous Bull of
Innocent VIII.
This heathenism was practised only in certain places and among certain
classes of the community. In other places the ancient ritual was either
adopted into, or tolerated by, the Church; and the Maypole dances and other
rustic festivities remained as survivals of the rites of the early cult.
Whether the religion which survived as the witch cult was the same as the
religion of the Druids, or whether it belonged to a still earlier stratum,
is not clear. Though the descriptions of classical authors are rather too
vague and scanty to settle such a point, sufficient remains to show that a
fertility cult did once exist in these islands, akin to similar cults in
the ancient world. Such rites would not be suppressed by the tribes who
entered Great Britain after the withdrawal of the Romans; a continuance of
the cult may therefore be expected among the people whom the Christian
missionaries laboured to convert.
As the early historical records of these islands were made by Christian
ecclesiastics, allowance must be made for the religious bias of the
writers, which caused them to make Christianity appear as the only religion
existing at the time. But though the historical records are silent on the
subject the laws and enactments of the different communities, whether lay
or ecclesiastical, retain very definite evidence of the continuance of the
ancient cults.
In this connexion the dates of the conversion of England are instructive.
The following table gives the principal dates:
597-604. Augustine's mission. London still heathen.
Conversion of AEthelbert, King of Kent. After AEthelbert's
death Christianity suffered a reverse.
604. Conversion of the King of the East Saxons, whose
successor lapsed.
627. Conversion of the King of Northumbria.
628. Conversion of the King of East Anglia.
631-651. Aidan's missions.
635. Conversion of the King of Wessex.
653. Conversion of the King of Mercia.
654. Re-conversion of the King of the East Saxons.
681. Conversion of the King of the South Saxons.
An influx of heathenism occurred on two later occasions: in the ninth
century there was an invasion by the heathen Danes under Guthrum; and in
the eleventh century the heathen king Cnut led his hordes to victory. As in
the case of the Saxon kings of the seventh century, Guthrum and Cnut were
converted and the tribes followed their leaders' example, professed
Christianity, and were baptized.
But it cannot be imagined that these wholesale conversions were more than
nominal in most cases, though the king's religion was outwardly the tribe's
religion. If, as happened among the East Saxons, the king forsook his old
gods, returned to them again, and finally forsook them altogether, the
tribe followed his lead, and, in public at least, worshipped Christ, Odin,
or any other deity whom the king favoured for the moment; but there can be
hardly any doubt that in private the mass of the people adhered to the old
religion to which they were accustomed. This tribal conversion is clearly
marked when a heathen king married a Christian queen, or vice versa; and it
must also be noted that a king never changed his religion without careful
consultation with his chief men.[3] An example of the two religions
existing side by side is found in the account of Redwald, King of the East
Saxons, who 'in the same temple had an altar to sacrifice to Christ, and
another small one to offer victims to devils'.[4]
The continuity of the ancient religion is proved by the references to it in
the classical authors, the ecclesiastical laws, and other legal and
historical records.
1st cent. Strabo, 63 B.C.-A.D. 23.
'In an island close to Britain, Demeter and Persephone are venerated
with rites similar to the orgies of Samothrace.'[5]
4th cent. Dionysius says that in islands near Jersey and Guernsey the rites
of Bacchus were performed by the women, crowned with leaves; they danced
and made an even greater shouting than the Thracians.[6]
7th cent. Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, 668-690.
The _Liber Poenitentialis_[7] of Theodore contains the earliest
ecclesiastical laws of England. It consists of a list of offences and the
penance due for each offence; one whole section is occupied with details of
the ancient religion and of its rites. Such are:
Sacrifice to devils.
Eating and drinking in a heathen temple, (_a_) in ignorance, (_b_) after
being told by the [Christian] priest that it is sacrilege and the table of
devils, (_c_) as a cult of idols and in honour of idols.
'Not only celebrating feasts in the abominable places of the heathen
and offering food there, but also consuming it. Serving this hidden
idolatry, having relinquished Christ. If anyone at the kalends of
January goes about as a stag or a bull; that is, making himself into a
wild animal and dressing in the skin of a herd animal, and putting on
the heads of beasts; those who in such wise transform themselves into
the appearance of a wild animal, penance for three years because this
is devilish.'
_The Laws of Wihtraed_, King of Kent,[8] 690.
Fines inflicted on those who offer to devils.
8th cent. _The Confessionale and Poenitentiale of Ecgberht_, first
Archbishop of York,[9] 734-766.
Prohibition of offerings to devils; of witchcraft; of auguries according to
the methods of the heathen; of vows paid, loosed, or confirmed at wells,
stones, or trees; of the gathering of herbs with any incantation except
Christian prayers.
_The Law of the Northumbrian priests._[10]
'If then anyone be found that shall henceforth practise any
heathenship, either by sacrifice or by "fyrt", or in any way love
witchcraft, or worship idols, if he be a king's thane, let him pay X
half-marks; half to Christ, half to the king. We are all to love and
worship one God, and strictly hold one Christianity, and totally
renounce all heathenship.'
9th cent. _Decree attributed to a General Council of Ancyra._[11]
'Certain wicked women, reverting to Satan, and seduced by the
illusions and phantasms of demons, believe and profess that they ride
at night with Diana on certain beasts, with an innumerable multitude
of women, passing over immense distances, obeying her commands as
their mistress, and evoked by her on certain nights.'
10th cent. _Laws of Edward and Guthrum._[12] After 901.
'If anyone violate christianity, or reverence heathenism, by word or
by work, let him pay as well _wer_, as _wite_ or _lah-slit_, according
as the deed may be.'
_Laws of King Athelstan_,[13] 924-940.
'We have ordained respecting witchcrafts, and _lyblacs_, and
_morthdaeds_: if anyone should be thereby killed, and he could not
deny it, that he be liable in his life. But if he will deny it, and at
the threefold ordeal shall be guilty; that he be cxx days in prison.'
_Ecclesiastical canons of King Edgar_,[14] 959.
'We enjoin, that every priest zealously promote Christianity, and
totally extinguish every heathenism; and forbid well worshipings, and
necromancies, and divinations, and enchantments, and man worshipings,
and the vain practices which are carried on with various spells, and
with "frithsplots",[15] and with elders, and also with various other
trees, and with stones, and with many various delusions, with which
men do much of what they should not.--And we enjoin, that every
Christian man zealously accustom his children to Christianity, and
teach them the Paternoster and the Creed. And we enjoin, that on feast
days heathen songs and devil's games be abstained from.'
_Laws of King Ethelred_,[16] 978-1016.
'Let every Christian man do as is needful to him; let him strictly
keep his Christianity.... Let us zealously venerate right
Christianity, and totally despise every heathenism.'
11th cent. _Laws of King Cnut_,[17] 1017-1035.
'We earnestly forbid every heathenism: heathenism is, that men worship
idols; that is, that they worship heathen gods, and the sun or the
moon, fire or rivers, water-wells or stones, or forest trees of any
kind; or love witchcraft, or promote _morth-work_ in any wise.'
13th cent. Witchcraft made into a sect and heresy by the Church. The priest
of Inverkeithing presented before the bishop in 1282 for leading a
fertility dance at Easter round the phallic figure of a god; he was allowed
to retain his benefice.[18]
14th cent. In 1303 the Bishop of Coventry was accused before the Pope for
doing homage to the Devil.[19]
_Trial of Dame Alice Kyteler_, 1324.
Tried for both operative and ritual witchcraft, and found guilty.
_Nider's Formicarius_, 1337.
A detailed account of witches and their proceedings in Berne, which had
been infested by them for more than sixty years.
15th cent. Joan of Arc burnt as a witch, 1431. Gilles de Rais executed as a
witch, 1440.
_Bernardo di Bosco_, 1457.
Sent by Pope Calixtus III to suppress the witches in Brescia and its
neighbourhood.
_Bull of Pope Innocent VIII_, 1484.
'It has come to our ears that numbers of both sexes do not avoid to
have intercourse with demons, Incubi and Succubi; and that by their
sorceries, and by their incantations, charms, and conjurations, they
suffocate, extinguish, and cause to perish the births of women, the
increase of animals, the corn of the ground, the grapes of the
vineyard and the fruit of the trees, as well as men, women, flocks,
herds, and other various kinds of animals, vines and apple trees,
grass, corn and other fruits of the earth; making and procuring that
men and women, flocks and herds and other animals shall suffer and be
tormented both from within and without, so that men beget not, nor
women conceive; and they impede the conjugal action of men and women.'
It will be seen by the foregoing that so far from the Bull of Pope Innocent
VIII being the beginning of the 'outbreak of witchcraft', as so many modern
writers consider, it is only one of many ordinances against the practices
of an earlier cult. It takes no account of the effect of these practices on
the morals of the people who believed in them, but lays stress only on
their power over fertility; the fertility of human beings, animals, and
crops. In short it is exactly the pronouncement which one would expect from
a Christian against a heathen form of religion in which the worship of a
god of fertility was the central idea. It shows therefore that the witches
were considered to deal with fertility only.
Looked upon in the light of a fertility cult, the ritual of the witches
becomes comprehensible. Originally for the promotion of fertility, it
became gradually degraded into a method for blasting fertility, and thus
the witches who had been once the means of bringing prosperity to the
people and the land by driving out all evil influences, in process of time
were looked upon as being themselves the evil influences, and were held in
horror accordingly.
The actual feelings of the witches towards their religion have been
recorded in very few cases, but they can be inferred from the few records
which remain. The earliest example is from Lorraine in 1408, 'lequel mefait
les susdites dames disoient et confessoient avoir endure a leur
contentement et saoulement de plaisir que n'avoient eu onc de leur vie en
tel pourchas'.[20] De Lancre took a certain amount of trouble to obtain the
opinions of the witches, whereby he was obviously scandalized.
'Vne sorciere entre autres fort insigne nous dict qu'elle auoit
tousiours creu, que la sorcelerie estoit la meilleure
religion.--Ieanne Dibasson aagee de vingt neuf ans nous dict que le
sabbat estoit le vray Paradis, ou il y a beaucoup plus de plaisir
qu'on ne peut exprimer. Que ceux qui y vont trouuent le temps si court
a force de plaisir & de contentem[~e]t, qu'ils n'en peuuent sortir
sans vn merveilleux regret, de maniere qu'il leur tarde infiniment
qu'ils n'y reuiennent.--Marie de la Ralde, aagee de vingt huict ans,
tres belle femme, depose qu'elle auoit vn singulier plaisir d'aller au
sabbat, si bien que quand on la venoit semondre d'y aller elle y
alloit comme a nopces: non pas tant pour la liberte & licence qu'on a
de s'accointer ensemble (ce que par modestie elle dict n'auoir iamais
faict ny veu faire) mais parce que le Diable tenoit tellement lies
leurs coeurs & leurs volontez qu'a peine y laissoit il entrer nul
autre desir.... Au reste elle dict qu'elle ne croyoit faire aucun mal
d'aller au sabbat, & qu'elle y auoit beaucoup plus de plaisir &
contentement que d'aller a la Messe, parce que le Diable leur faisoit
a croire qu'il estoit le vray Dieu, & que la ioye que les sorciers
prenoyent au sabbat n'estoit qu'vn commencement d'vne beaucoup plus
grande gloire.--Elles disoyent franchement, qu'elles y alloyent &
voyoient toutes ces execrations auec vne volupte admirable, & vn desir
enrager d'y aller & d'y estre, trouuat les iours trop reculez de la
nuict pour faire le voyage si desire, & le poinct ou les heures pour y
aller trop lentes, & y estant, trop courtes pour vn si agreable seiour
& delicieux amusement.--En fin il a le faux martyre: & se trouue des
Sorciers si acharnez a son seruice endiable, qu'il n'y a torture ny
supplice qui les estonne, & diriez qu'ils vont au vray martyre & a la
mort pour l'amour de luy, aussi gayement que s'ils alloient a vn
festin de plaisir & reioueyssance publique.--Quand elles sont preuenues
de la Iustice, elles ne pleurent & ne iettent vne seule larme, voire
leur faux martyre soit de la torture, soit du gibet leur est si
plaisant, qu'il tarde a plusieurs qu'elles ne soi[~e]t executees a
mort, & souffr[~e]t fort ioyeusement qu'on leur face le procez, tant
il leur tarde qu'elles ne soient auec le Diable. Et ne s'impatientent
de rien tant en leur prison, que de ce qu'elles ne lui peuuent
tesmoigner c[=o]bi[~e] elles souffrent & desirent souffrir pour
luy.'[21]
Bodin says, 'Il y en a d'autres, ausquelles Satan promet qu'elles seront
bien heureuses apres cette vie, qui empesche qu'elles ne se repentent, &
meurent obstinees en leur mechancete'.[22]
Madame de Bourignon's girls at Lille (1661) 'had not the least design of
changing, to quit these abominable Pleasures, as one of them of Twenty-two
Years old one day told me. _No_, said she, _I will not be other than I am;
I find too much content in my Condition_.'[23] Though the English and
Scotch witches' opinions are not reported, it is clear from the evidence
that they were the same as those of the Basses-Pyrenees, for not only did
they join of their own free will but in many cases there seems to have been
no need of persuasion. In a great number of trials, when the witches
acknowledged that they had been asked to become members of the society,
there follows an expression of this sort, 'ye freely and willingly accepted
and granted thereto'. And that they held to their god as firmly as those de
Lancre put to death is equally evident in view of the North Berwick
witches, of Rebecca West and Rose Hallybread, who 'dyed very Stuburn, and
Refractory without any Remorss, or seeming Terror of Conscience for their
abominable Witch-craft';[24] Major Weir, who perished as a witch,
renouncing all hope of heaven;[25] and the Northampton witches, Agnes
Browne and her daughter, who 'were never heard to pray, or to call vppon
God, never asking pardon for their offences either of God or the world in
this their dangerous, and desperate Resolution, dyed'; Elinor Shaw and Mary
Phillips, at their execution 'being desired to say their Prayers, they both
set up a very loud Laughter, calling for the Devil to come and help them
in such a Blasphemous manner, as is not fit to Mention; so that the Sherif
seeing their presumptious Impenitence, caused them to be Executed with all
the Expedition possible; even while they were Cursing and raving, and as
they liv'd the Devils true Factors, so they resolutely Dyed in his
Service': the rest of the Coven also died 'without any confession or
contrition'.[26]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 3: Hunt, vol. i]
[Footnote 4: Bede, Bk. II, ch. xv.]
[Footnote 5: Strabo, _Geography_, Bk. IV, c. iv, 6.]
[Footnote 6: Dionysius, _Periegetes_, ll. 1120-5.]
[Footnote 7: Thorpe, ii, pp. 32-4.]
[Footnote 8: Thorpe, i, p. 41.]
[Footnote 9: Id., ii, p. 157 seq.]
[Footnote 10: Id., ii, pp. 299, 303.]
[Footnote 11: Scot, p. 66.--Lea, iii, p. 493.]
[Footnote 12: Thorpe, i, p. 169.]
[Footnote 13: Id., i, p. 203.]
[Footnote 14: Id., ii, p. 249.]
[Footnote 15: Frith = brushwood, splot = plot of ground; sometimes used for
'splotch, splash'.]
[Footnote 16: Thorpe, i, pp. 311, 323, 351.]
[Footnote 17: Id., i, p. 379.]
[Footnote 18: _Chronicles of Lanercost_, p. 109, ed. Stevenson.]
[Footnote 19: Rymer, ii, 934.]
[Footnote 20: Bournon, p. 23.]
[Footnote 21: De Lancre, _Tableau_, pp. 124, 125, 126, 135, 208, 458.]
[Footnote 22: Bodin, _Fleau_, p. 373.]
[Footnote 23: Bourignon, _Parole_, p. 87.--Hale, p. 27.]
[Footnote 24: _Full Tryals of Notorious Witches_, p. 8.]
[Footnote 25: _Records of the Justiciary Court of Edinburgh_, ii, p.
14.--Arnot, p. 359.]
[Footnote 26: _Witches of Northamptonshire_, p. 8.]
II. THE GOD
1. _As God_
It is impossible to understand the witch-cult without first understanding
the position of the chief personage of that cult. He was known to the
contemporary Christian judges and recorders as the Devil, and was called by
them Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub, the Foul Fiend, the Enemy of Salvation, and
similar names appropriate to the Principle of Evil, the Devil of the
Scriptures, with whom they identified him.
This was far from the view of the witches themselves. To them this
so-called Devil was God, manifest and incarnate; they adored him on their
knees, they addressed their prayers to him, they offered thanks to him as
the giver of food and the necessities of life, they dedicated their
children to him, and there are indications that, like many another god, he
was sacrificed for the good of his people.
The contemporary writers state in so many words that the witches believed
in the divinity of their Master. Danaeus, writing in 1575, says, 'The
Diuell co[~m]aundeth them that they shall acknowledge him for their god,
cal vp[~o] him, pray to him, and trust in him.--Then doe they all repeate
the othe which they haue geuen vnto him; in acknowledging him to be their
God.'[27] Gaule, in 1646, nearly a century later, says that the witches vow
'to take him [the Devil] for their God, worship, invoke, obey him'.[28]
The witches are even more explicit, and their evidence proves the belief
that their Master was to them their God. The accusation against Elisabeth
Vlamyncx of Alost, 1595, was that 'vous n'avez pas eu honte de vous
agenouiller devant votre Belzebuth, que vous avez adore'.[29] The same
accusation was made against Marion Grant of Aberdeen, 1596, that 'the
Deuill quhome thow callis thy god ... causit the worship him on thy kneis
as thy lord'.[30] De Lancre (1609) records, as did all the Inquisitors,
the actual words of the witches; when they presented a young child, they
fell on their knees and said, 'Grand Seigneur, lequel i'adore', and when
the child was old enough to join the society she made her vow in these
words: 'Ie me remets de tout poinct en ton pouuoir & entre tes mains, ne
recognois autre Dieu: si bien que tu es mon Dieu'.[31] Silvain Nevillon,
tried at Orleans in 1614, said, 'On dit au Diable nous vous recognoissons
pour nostre maistre, nostre Dieu, nostre Createur'.[32] The Lancashire
witch, Margaret Johnson, 1633, said: 'There appeared vnto her a spirit or
divell in the similitude and proportion of a man. And the said divell or
spirit bidd her call him by the name of Mamillion. And saith, that in all
her talke and conferense shee calleth her said Divell Mamillion, my
god.'[33] According to Madame Bourignon, 1661, 'Persons who were thus
engaged to the Devil by a precise Contract, will allow no other God but
him'.[34] Isobel Gowdie confessed that 'he maid vs beliew that ther wes no
God besyd him.--We get all this power from the Divell, and when ve seik it
from him, ve call him "owr Lord".--At each tyme, quhan ve wold meitt with
him, we behoowit to ryse and mak our curtesie; and we wold say, "Ye ar
welcom, owr Lord," and "How doe ye, my Lord."'[35] The Yorkshire witch,
Alice Huson, 1664, stated that the Devil 'appeared like a _Black Man_ upon
a Black Horse, with Cloven Feet; and then I fell down, and did Worship him
upon my Knees'.[36] Ann Armstrong in Northumberland, 1673, gave a good deal
of information about her fellow witches: 'The said Ann Baites hath severall
times danced with the divell att the places aforesaid, calling him,
sometimes, her protector, and, other sometimes, her blessed saviour.--She
saw Forster, Dryden, and Thompson, and the rest, and theire protector,
which they call'd their god, sitting at the head of the table.--When this
informer used meanes to avoyd theire company, they threatned her, if she
would not turne to theire god, the last shift should be the worst.'[37] At
Crighton, 1678, the Devil himself preached to the witches, 'and most
blasphemously mocked them, if they offered to trust in God who left them
miserable in the world, and neither he nor his Son Jesus Christ ever
appeared to them when they called on them, as he had, who would not cheat
them'.[38] Even in America, 1692, Mary Osgood, the wife of Capt. Osgood,
declared that 'the devil told her he was her God, and that she should serve
and worship him'.[39]