the ceremonies of the Sabbath; after the sermon the worshippers 'vont a
l'offerte, tenant en leurs mains des chandelles de poix noire qui leur sont
donnees par le Diable'.[575] In 1646 Elizabeth Weed of Great Catworth,
Hunts, confessed that the Devil came to her at night, 'and being demanded
what light was there, she answered, none but the light of the Spirit.'[576]
In 1652 a French witch stated that at the Sabbath 'on dansait sans musique,
aux chansons. Toutes les femmes y etoient tenues par les diables par lors
il y avoit de la lumiere une chandelle tenue au millieu par une femme que
ne connoit.... Au milieux il y auoit une feme masquee tenant une
chandelle.'[577] Barton's wife was at a witch meeting in the Pentland
Hills, 'and coming down the hill when we had done, which was the best
sport, he [the Devil] carried the candle in his bottom under his tail,
which played ey wig wag wig wag.'[578] Helen Guthrie in 1661 does not
expressly mention candles or torches, but her description of the flickering
light on the ground suggests their use. She 'was at a meiting in the
churchyeard of Forfar in the Holfe therof, and they daunced togither, and
the ground under them wes all fyre flauchter'.[579] The Somerset witches
stated that, when they met, 'the Man in Black bids them welcome, and they
all make low obeysance to him, and he delivers some Wax Candles like little
Torches, which they give back again at parting.'[580] The light seems to
have been sometimes so arranged, probably in a lantern, as to be diffused.
This was the case at Torryburn, where the assembly was lit by a light
'which came from darkness', it was sufficiently strong for the dancers to
see one another's faces, and to show the Devil wearing a cap or hood which
covered his neck and ears.[581] The latest account of a witch-meeting in
the eighteenth century describes how the witches of Strathdown went to
Pol-nain and there were 'steering themselves to and fro in their riddles,
by means of their oars the brooms, hallooing and skirling worse than the
bogles, and each holding in her left hand a torch of fir'.[582]
There is one account where the candle was for use and not for ritual. John
Stuart of Paisley, in 1678, admitted the Devil and some witches into his
room one night in order to make a clay image of an enemy. 'Declares, that
the black man did make the figure of the Head and Face and two Arms to the
said Effigies. Declares, that the Devil set three Pins in the same, one in
each side, and one in the Breast: And that the Declarant did hold the
Candle to them all the time the Picture was making.'[583] John Stuart was
the principal person on this occasion, and therefore had the honour of
holding the light. The description of the event suggests that the saying
'To hold a candle to the Devil' took its rise in actual fact.
The material of which the candles or torches were made was pitch, according
to de Lancre, and at North Berwick the lights were 'like lighted candles'
burning with a blue flame. The white candle seems to have been essentially
the attribute of the devil, the black candles or torches being distinctive
of the witches. That the lights burned blue is due to the material of which
the torches were made. The evanescent character of the light, when a wisp
of straw was used, is noted in the evidence of Antide Colas.
7. _The Sacrament_
The earliest example of the religious services occurs in 1324 in the trial
of Lady Alice Kyteler: 'In rifeling the closet of the ladie, they found a
Wafer of sacramentall bread, hauing the diuels name stamped thereon in
stead of Jesus Christ.'[584] According to Boguet (1589) the Devil did not
always perform the religious service himself, but mass was celebrated by a
priest among his followers; this custom is found in all countries and seems
to have been as common as that the Devil himself should perform the
service.
'Celuy, qui est commis a faire l'office, est reuestu d'vne chappe
noire sans croix, & apres auoir mis de l'eau dans le calice, il tourne
le doz a l'autel, & puis esleue vn rond de raue teinte en noir, au
lieu de l'hostie, & lors tous les Sorciers crient a haute voix,
_Maistre, aide nous_. Le Diable en mesme temps pisse dans vn trou a
terre, & fait de l'eau beniste de son vrine, de laquelle celuy, qui
dit la messe, arrouse tous les assistans auec vn asperges noir.'[585]
The Devil of the Basses Pyrenees (1609) performed the religious ceremony
himself:
'Il s'habille en Prestre pour dire Messe, laquelle il fait semblant de
celebrer auec mille fourbes & souplesses, aupres d'vn arbre, ou
parfois aupres d'vn rocher, dressant quelque forme d'autel sur des
colones infernales, & sur iceluy sans dire le _Confiteor_, ny
l'_Alleluya_, tournant les feuillets d'vn certain liure qu'il a en
main, il commence a marmoter quelques mots de la Messe, & arriuant a
l'offertoire il s'assiet, & toute l'assemblee le vient adorer le
baisant sous la queue, & allumant des chandelles noires: Puis luy
baisent la main gauche, tremblans auec mille angoisses, & luy offrent
du pain, des [oe]ufs, & de l'argent: & la Royne du Sabbat les recoit,
laquelle est assise a son coste gauche, & en sa main gauche elle tient
vne paix ou platine, dans laquelle est grauee l'effigie de Lucifer,
laquelle on ne baise qu'apres l'auoir premierement baisee a elle. Puis
il se met a prescher, son subiect est communement de la vaine
gloire.... Il finit son sermon, & continue ses autres ceremonies,
leuant vne certaine Hostie laquelle est noire & ronde, auec sa figure
imprimee au dessus: & disant ces paroles, _Cecy est mon corps_, il
leue l'Hostie sur ses cornes: & a cette esleuatio tous ceux de
l'assemblee l'ador[~e]t en disant ces mots, _Aquerra Goity, Aquerra
Beyty, Aquerra Goity, Aquerra Beyty_, qui veut dire, _Cabron arriba,
Cabron abaro_, de mesme en font ils au Calice repetant ces mots,
iusqu'a ce qu'il a vuide tout ce qui est dans iceluy. Puis toute
l'assemblee enuironnant l'autel en forme de croissant ou demy-lune,
prosternez par terre, il leur fait vn autre sermon, puis leur baille a
communier par ordre, donnant a chacun vn petit morceau de l'hostie, &
pour leur donner moyen de l'aualer aisement, il leur donne deux
gorgees de quelque medicine infernale, & certain breuuage de si
mauuais goust & odeur, que l'aualant ils suent, & neantmoins il est si
froid, qu'il leur gele le corps, les nerfs, & les moueelles. Puis il
s'accouple auec elles, & leur commande d'en faire de mesme, si bien
qu'ils commettent mille incestes & autres pechez contre nature. Puis
il les inuite a se mettre a table.'[586]
At Aix in 1610 Magdalene de Demandouls 'said that that accursed Magician
Lewes [Gaufredy] did first inuent the saying of Masse at the Sabbaths, and
did really consecrate and present the sacrifice to Lucifer.... She also
related, that the said Magician did sprinkle the consecrated wine vpon all
the company, at which time euery one cryeth, _Sanguis eius super nos &
filios nostros_.'[587]
Lord Fountainhall remarks, 'In 1670 we heard that the Devil appeared in the
shape of a Minister, in the copper mines of Sweden, and attempted the same
villainous apery.'[588] The Scotch witches, like the Swedish, performed the
rite after the manner of the Reformed Churches. In 1678--
'the devill had a great meeting of witches in Loudian, where, among
others, was a warlock who formerly had been admitted to the ministrie
in the presbyterian tymes, and when the bishops came in, conformed
with them. But being found flagitious and wicked, was deposed by them,
and now he turnes a preacher under the devill of hellish doctrine; for
the devill at this tyme preaches to his witches really (if I may so
term it) the doctrine of the infernall pitt, viz. blasphemies against
God and his son Christ. Among other things, he told them that they
were more happy in him than they could be in God; him they saw, but
God they could not see; and in mockrie of Christ and his holy
ordinance of the sacrament of his supper, he gives the sacrament to
them, bidding them eat it and to drink it in remembrance of himself.
This villan was assisting to Sathan in this action, and in
preaching.'[589]
Fountainhall in writing of the same convention of witches says that the
Devil 'adventured to give them the communion or holy sacrament, the bread
was like wafers, the drink was sometimes blood sometimes black moss-water.
He preached 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.'[590]
The Abbe Guibourg (1679), head of the Paris witches, 'a fait chez la
Voisin, revetu d'aube, d'etole et de manipule, une conjuration.'[591] The
same Abbe celebrated mass more than once over the body of a woman and with
the blood of a child, sacrificed for the occasion, in the chalice (see
section on Sacrifice). The woman, who served as the altar for these masses,
was always nude, and was the person for whose benefit the ceremony was
performed. Marguerite Montvoisin makes this clear:
'Il est vrai aussi qu'une sage-femme qui demeurait au coin de la rue
des Deux-Portes, distilla aussi les entrailles d'un enfant dont la
mere y avait accouche.... Avant la distillation, les entrailles de
l'enfant et l'arriere-faix de la mere avaient ete portes a
Saint-Denis, a Guibourg, par sa mere, la sage-femme et la mere de
l'enfant, sur le ventre de laquelle sa mere, a son retour, lui dit que
Guibourg avait dit la messe.'[592]
Guibourg acknowledged that, besides the one just quoted, he celebrated
three masses in this way. At the first he used a conjuration. 'Il dit la
deuxieme messe dans une masure sur les remparts de Saint-Denis, sur la meme
femme, avec les memes ceremonies.... Dit la troisieme a Paris chez la
Voisin sur la meme femme.'[593] The woman mentioned in Guibourg's
confession was Madame de Montespan herself. The following conjuration was
used at the first mass:
'sur le ventre d'une femme': 'Astaroth, Asmodee, princes d'amitie, je
vous conjure d'accepter le sacrifice que je vous presente de cet
enfant pour les choses que je vous demande, qui sont l'amitie du Roi,
de Mgr le Dauphin me soit continuee et etre honoree des princes et
princesses de la cour, que rien ne me soit denie de tout ce que je
demanderai au Roi, tant pour mes parents que serviteurs.'[594]
A very interesting case is that of the Rev. George Burroughs in New England
(1692):
'He was Accused by Eight of the Confessing Witches, as being an Head
Actor at some of their Hellish Randezvouses, and one who had the
promise of being a King in Satan's kingdom, now going to be
Erected.... One _Lacy_ testify'd that she and the prisoner [Martha
Carrier] were once Bodily present at a _Witch-meeting_ in _Salem
Village_; and that she knew the prisoner to be a Witch, and to have
been at a Diabolical sacrament.... Another _Lacy_ testify'd that the
prisoner was at the _Witch-meeting_, in _Salem Village_, where they
had Bread and Wine Administred unto them.... Deliverance Hobbs
affirmed that this [Bridget] _Bishop_ was at a General Meeting of the
Witches, in a Field at _Salem_-Village, and there partook of a
Diabolical Sacrament in Bread and Wine then administred.'[595]
Hutchinson had access to the same records and gives the same evidence,
though even more strongly: 'Richard Carrier affirmed to the jury that he
saw Mr. George Burroughs at the witch meeting at the village and saw him
administer the sacrament. Mary Lacy, sen^r. and her daughter Mary affirmed
that Mr. George Burroughs was at the witch meetings with witch sacrements,
and that she knows Mr. Burroughs to be of the company of witches.'[596]
John Hale has a similar record: 'This D. H. [Deliverance Hobbs] confessed
she was at a Witch Meeting at Salem Village.... And the said G. B. preached
to them, and such a Woman was their Deacon, and there they had a
Sacrament.'[597] Abigail Williams said 'that the Witches had a _Sacrament_
that day at an house in the Village, and that they had _Red Bread_ and _Red
Drink_'.[598] With the evidence before him Mather seems justified in saying
that the witches had 'their Diabolical Sacraments, imitating the _Baptism_
and the _Supper_ of our Lord'.[599]
8. _Sacrifices_
There are four forms of sacrifice: (1) the blood sacrifice, which was
performed by making an offering of the witch's own blood; (2) the sacrifice
of an animal; (3) the sacrifice of a human being, usually a child; (4) the
sacrifice of the god.
1. The _blood-sacrifice_ took place first at the admission of the neophyte.
Originally a sacrifice, it was afterwards joined to the other ceremony of
signing the contract, the blood serving as the writing fluid; it also seems
to be confused in the seventeenth century with the pricking for the Mark,
but the earlier evidence is clear. A writer who generalizes on the
witchcraft religion and who recognizes the sacrificial nature of the act is
Cooper; as he wrote in 1617 his evidence belongs practically to the
sixteenth century. He says:
'In further _token_ of their subiection unto Satan in yeelding vp
themselues wholy vnto his deuotion, behold yet _another ceremony_
heere vsually is performed: namely, _to let themselues bloud_ in some
apparant place of the body, yeelding the same to be _sucked by Satan_,
as a _sacrifice_ vnto him, and testifying thereby the full
_subiection_ of their _liues_ and _soules_ to his deuotion.'[600]
The earliest account of the ceremony is at Chelmsford in 1556. Elizabeth
Francis 'learned this arte of witchcraft from her grandmother. When shee
taughte it her, she counseiled her to geue of her bloudde to Sathan (as she
termed it) whyche she delyuered to her in the lykenesse of a whyte spotted
Catte. Euery time that he [the cat] did any thynge for her, she sayde that
he required a drop of bloude, which she gaue him by prycking herselfe.'
Some time after, Elizabeth Francis presented the Satan-cat to Mother
Waterhouse, passing on to her the instructions received from Elizabeth's
grandmother. Mother Waterhouse 'gaue him for his labour a chicken, which he
fyrste required of her and a drop of her blod. And thys she gaue him at all
times when he dyd any thynge for her, by pricking her hand or face and
puttinge the bloud to hys mouth whyche he sucked.'[601] In 1566 John
Walsh, a Dorset witch, confessed that 'at the first time when he had the
Spirite, hys sayd maister did cause him to deliuer one drop of his blud,
whych bloud the Spirite did take away vpon hys paw'.[602] In Belgium in
1603 Claire Goessen, 'apres avoir donne a boire de son sang a Satan, et
avoir bu du sien, a fait avec lui un pacte.[603]
In the case of the Lancashire witch, Margaret Johnson, in 1633, it is
difficult to say whether the pricking was for the purpose of marking or for
a blood sacrifice; the slight verbal alterations in the two MS. accounts of
her confession suggest a confusion between the two ideas; the one appears
to refer to the mark, the other (quoted here) to the sacrifice: 'Such
witches as have sharp bones given them by the devill to pricke them, have
no pappes or dugges whereon theire devil may sucke; but theire devill
receiveth bloud from the place, pricked with the bone; and they are more
grand witches than any y^t have marks.'[604] In Suffolk in 1645 'one Bush
of Barton widdow confessed that the Deuill appeared to her in the shape of
a young black man ... and asked her for bloud, which he drew out of her
mouth, and it dropped on a paper'.[605] At Auldearne, in 1662, the blood
was drawn for baptizing the witch; Isobel Gowdie said, 'The Divell marked
me in the showlder, and suked owt my blood at that mark, and spowted it in
his hand, and, sprinkling it on my head, said, "I baptise the, Janet, in my
awin name."' Janet Breadheid's evidence is practically the same: 'The
Divell marked me in the shoulder, and suked out my blood with his mowth at
that place; he spowted it in his hand, and sprinkled it on my head. He
baptised me thairvith, in his awin nam, Christian.'[606]
2. The _sacrifice of animals_ was general, and the accounts give a certain
amount of detail, but the ceremony was not as a rule sufficiently dramatic
to be considered worth recording. The actual method of killing the animal
is hardly ever given. The rite was usually performed privately by an
individual; on rare occasions it was celebrated by a whole Coven, but it
does not occur at the Great Assembly, for there the sacrifice was of the
God himself. The animals offered were generally a dog, a cat, or a fowl,
and it is noteworthy that these were forms in which the Devil often
appeared to his worshippers.
The chief authorities all agree as to the fact of animal sacrifices. Cotta
compares it with the sacrifices offered by the heathen:
'Some bring their cursed Sorcery vnto their wished end, by sacrificing
vnto the Diuell some liuing creatures, as _Serres_ likewise
witnesseth, from the confession of Witches in _Henry_ the fourth of
_France_ deprehended, among whom, one confessed to haue offered vnto
his Deuill or Spirit a Beetle. This seemeth not improbable, by the
Diabolicall litations (_sic_) and bloudy sacrifices, not onely of
other creatures, but euen of men, wherewith in ancient time the
heathen pleased their gods, which were no other then Diuels.'[607]
The number of sacrifices in the year is exaggerated by the writers on the
subject, but the witches themselves are often quite definite in their
information when it happens to be recorded. It appears from their
statements that the rite was performed only on certain occasions, either to
obtain help or as a thank-offering. Danaeus, speaking of the newly admitted
witch, says, 'Then this vngracious and new servant of satan, euery day
afterward offreth something of his goods to his patrone, some his dogge,
some his hen, and some his cat.'[608] Scot, who always improves on his
original, states that the witches depart after the Sabbath, 'not forgetting
euery daie afterwards to offer to him, dogs, cats, hens, or bloud of their
owne.'[609]
The earliest witch-trial in the British Isles shows animal sacrifice. In
1324 in Ireland Lady Alice Kyteler 'was charged to haue nightlie conference
with a spirit called Robin Artisson, to whom she sacrificed in the high
waie .ix. red cocks'.[610] In 1566 at Chelmsford Mother Waterhouse 'gaue
him [i.e. the Satan-cat] for his labour a chicken, which he fyrste required
of her, and a drop of her blod.... Another tyme she rewarded hym as before,
wyth a chicken and a droppe of her bloud, which chicken he eate vp cleane
as he didde al the rest, and she cold fynde remaining neyther bones nor
fethers.'[611] Joan Waterhouse, daughter of Mother Waterhouse, a girl of
eighteen, said that the Deuil came in the likeness of a great dog, 'then
asked hee her what she wolde geue hym, and she saide a red kocke.'[612]
John Walsh of Dorset, in 1566, confessed that 'when he would call him [the
Spirit], hee sayth hee must geue hym some lyuing thing, as a Chicken, a
Cat, or a Dog. And further he sayth he must geue hym twoo lyuing thynges
once a yeare.'[613] In Lorraine in 1589 Beatrix Baonensis said, 'Etliche
geben junge Huener, oder wohl alte Huener, wie Desideria Pari iensis, und
Cathelonia Vincentia gethan hatten: Etliche schneiden ihre Haar ab und
lieffern dieselbe dahin, etliche geben Spaeher, etliche Voegel oder sonst
nicht viel besonders, als da sein moechte gemuentzt Geld aus Rindern Ledder,
und wenn sie dergleichen nichts haben, so verschafft es ihnen ihr Geist,
auff dass sie staffirt seyn.'[614] In Aberdeen in 1597 Andro Man gave
evidence that 'the Devill thy maister, whom thow termis Christsunday ... is
rasit be the speking of the word _Benedicite_, and is laid agane be tacking
of a dog vnder thy left oxster in thi richt hand, and casting the same in
his mouth, and speking the word _Maikpeblis_.'[615] At Lang Niddry in 1608
the whole Coven performed a rite, beginning at the 'irne zet of Seatoun',
where they christened a cat by the name of Margaret, 'and thaireftir come
all bak agane to the Deane-fute, quhair first thai convenit, and cuist the
kat to the Devill.'[616] In 1630 Alexander Hamilton had consultations with
the Devil near Edinburgh, 'and afoir the devill his away passing the said
Alexr was in use to cast to him ather ane kat or ane laif or ane dog or any
uther sic beast he come be.'[617] In Bute in 1622 Margaret NcWilliam
'renounced her baptisme and he baptised her and she gave him as a gift a
hen or cock'.[618] In modern France the sacrifice of a fowl to the Devil
still holds good: 'Celui qui veut devenir sorcier doit aller a un _quatre
chemins_ avec une _poule noire_, ou bien encore au _cimetiere_, sur une
_tombe_ et toujours a _minuit_. Il vient alors quelqu'un qui demande: "Que
venez vous faire ici?" "J'ai une poule a vendre," repond-on. Ce quelqu'un
[est] le Mechant.'[619]
It is possible that the custom of burying a live animal to cure disease
among farm animals, as well as the charm of casting a live cat into the sea
to raise a storm, are forms of the animal sacrifice.
3. _Child Sacrifice._--The child-victim was usually a young infant, either
a witch's child or unbaptized; in other words, it did not belong to the
Christian community. This last is an important point, and was the reason
why unbaptized children were considered to be in greater danger from
witches than the baptized. 'If there be anie children vnbaptised, or not
garded with the signe of the crosse, or orizons; then the witches may or
doo catch them from their mothers sides in the night, or out of their
cradles, or otherwise kill them with their ceremonies.'[620] The same
author quotes from the French authorities the crimes laid to the charge of
witches, among which are the following: 'They sacrifice their owne children
to the diuell before baptisme, holding them vp in the aire vnto him, and
then thrust a needle into their braines'; and 'they burne their children
when they haue sacrificed them'.[621] Boguet says, 'Les Matrones, & sages
femmes sont accoustume d'offrir a Satan les petits enfans qu'elles
recoiuent, & puis les faire mourir auant qu'ils soient baptizez, par le
moy[~e] d'vne grosse espingle qu'elles leur enfoncent dans le
cerueau.'[622] Boguet's words imply that this was done at every birth at
which a witch officiated; but it is impossible that this should be the
case; the sacrifice was probably made for some special purpose, for which a
new-born child was the appropriate victim.
The most detailed account of such sacrifices is given in the trial of the
Paris witches (1679-81), whom Madame de Montespan consulted. The whole
ceremony was performed to the end that the love of Louis XIV should return
to Madame de Montespan, at that time his discarded mistress; it seems to be
a kind of fertility rite, hence its use on this occasion. The Abbe Guibourg
was the sacrificing priest, and from this and other indications he appears
to have been the Chief or Grand-master who, before a less educated
tribunal, would have been called the Devil. Both he and the girl Montvoisin
were practically agreed as to the rite; though from the girl's words it
would appear that the child was already dead, while Guibourg's evidence
implies that it was alive. Both witnesses gave their evidence soberly and
gravely and without torture. Montvoisin, who was eighteen years old, stated
that she had presented 'a la messe de Madame de Montespan, par l'ordre de
sa mere, un enfant paraissant ne avant terme, le mit dans un bassin,
Guibourg l'egorgea, versa dans le calice, et consacra le sang avec hostie'.
Guibourg's evidence shows that the sacrifice was so far from being uncommon
that the assistants were well used to the work, and did all that was
required with the utmost celerity:
'Il avait achete un ecu l'enfant qui fut sacrifie a cette messe qui
lui fut presente par une grande fille et ayant tire du sang de
l'enfant qu'il piqua a la gorge avec un canif, il en versa dans le
calice, apres quoi l'enfant fut retire et emporte dans un autre lieu,
dont ensuite on lui rapporta le c[oe]ur et les entrailles pour en
faire une deuxieme [oblation].'[623]