[Footnote 485: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 131.]
[Footnote 486: Michaelis, _Historie_, pp. 334-5.]
[Footnote 487: Pitcairn, iii, p. 613.]
[Footnote 488: De Lancre, _Tableau_, pp. 68, 126, 128.]
[Footnote 489: Id. ib., p. 148.]
[Footnote 490: _Spalding Club Misc._, i, p. 171.]
[Footnote 491: Boguet, p. 131.]
[Footnote 492: De Lancre, _Tableau_, pp. 72, 131.]
[Footnote 493: Doughty, _Travels in Arabia Deserta_, i, 89.]
[Footnote 494: Moret, _Mysteres Egyptiens_, pp. 247 seq.]
[Footnote 495: _Spalding Club Misc._, i, pp. 97-8. Spelling modernized.]
[Footnote 496: Ib., i, p. 144. Spelling modernized.]
[Footnote 497: Ib., p. 149.]
[Footnote 498: Ib., p. 153. Spelling modernized.]
[Footnote 499: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 123.]
[Footnote 500: F. Hutchinson, _Historical Essay_, p. 43.]
[Footnote 501: Compare the account of the Forfar witch-dance. Kinloch, p.
120.]
[Footnote 502: Boguet, pp. 131-2.]
[Footnote 503: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 210.]
[Footnote 504: Compare the dittay against Bessie Thom, who danced round the
Fish Cross of Aberdeen with other witches 'in the lyknes of kattis and
haris'. _Spalding Club Misc._, i, 167.]
[Footnote 505: Boguet, p. 127.]
[Footnote 506: Horneck, pt. ii, p. 316.]
[Footnote 507: More, p. 232.]
[Footnote 508: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, pp. 245-6. Spelling modernized.]
[Footnote 509: Id., iii, p. 606. Spelling modernized.]
[Footnote 510: Fountainhall, i, p. 14.]
[Footnote 511: Sinclair, p. 163.]
[Footnote 512: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 210.]
[Footnote 513: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 212.]
[Footnote 514: _Surtees Soc._, xl, pp. 195, 197.]
[Footnote 515: Danaeus, ch. iv.]
[Footnote 516: De Lancre, op. cit., p. 211.]
[Footnote 517: _Spalding Club Misc._, i, pp. 165, 167. Spelling modernized.
The account of the Arab witches should be compared with this. 'In the time
of Ibn Munkidh the witches rode about naked on a stick between the graves
of the cemetery of Shaizar.' Wellhausen, p. 159.]
[Footnote 518: _Pleasant Treatise of Witches_, p. 6.]
[Footnote 519: Reg. Scot, Bk. iii, p. 42. La volta is said to be the origin
of the waltz.]
[Footnote 520: Lea, iii, p. 501.]
[Footnote 521: Remigius, p. 82.]
[Footnote 522: E. Monseur, p. 102.]
[Footnote 523: Glanvil, pt. ii, p. 141.]
[Footnote 524: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, pp. 239, 246.]
[Footnote 525: _Spalding Club Misc._, i, pp. 114-15. Spelling modernized.]
[Footnote 526: Id., i, p. 149. Spelling modernized.]
[Footnote 527: _Spottiswoode Miscellany_, ii, p. 68.]
[Footnote 528: Kinloch, p. 129. Spelling modernized.]
[Footnote 529: Sinclair, p. 163.]
[Footnote 530: Burns Begg, pp. 234, 235.]
[Footnote 531: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 127.]
[Footnote 532: Id. ib., p. 150.]
[Footnote 533: Id. ib., p. 211.]
[Footnote 534: Danaeus, ch. iv.]
[Footnote 535: Sinclair, p. 219.]
[Footnote 536: Kinloch, p. 120.]
[Footnote 537: Sharpe, p. 131.]
[Footnote 538: Boguet, p. 132.]
[Footnote 539: Michaelis, _Hist._, p. 336.]
[Footnote 540: Van Elven, v (1891), p. 215.]
[Footnote 541: _Pleasant Treatise of Witches_, p. 5.]
[Footnote 542: Potts, G 3, I 3, P 3.]
[Footnote 543: _Examination of Joan Williford_, p. 6.]
[Footnote 544: Glanvil, pt. ii, pp. 139-40.]
[Footnote 545: Id., p. 138.]
[Footnote 546: Id., p. 149.]
[Footnote 547: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 163.]
[Footnote 548: _Spottiswoode Misc._, ii, p. 67.]
[Footnote 549: Kinloch, p. 121.]
[Footnote 550: Id., p. 124.]
[Footnote 551: Id., p. 126.]
[Footnote 552: Id., p. 127.]
[Footnote 553: Id., p. 133. Dated = caressed.]
[Footnote 554: Burns Begg, p. 227.]
[Footnote 555: Id., p. 238.]
[Footnote 556: Sharpe, p. 131.]
[Footnote 557: The complete grace is given on p. 167. It will be seen that
it is a corrupt version of some ancient form of words.]
[Footnote 558: Pitcairn, iii, pp. 612, 613. Spelling modernized.]
[Footnote 559: _Scots Magazine_, 1814, p. 200. Spelling modernized.]
[Footnote 560: Burr, p. 418.]
[Footnote 561: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 197.]
[Footnote 562: Id. ib., p. 148.]
[Footnote 563: Michaelis, _Historie_, pp. 335-6.]
[Footnote 564: Boguet, pp. 135-9.]
[Footnote 565: Cannaert, p. 45.]
[Footnote 566: Horneck, pp. 321-2, 327.]
[Footnote 567: Bodin, _Fleau_, p. 187.]
[Footnote 568: Melville, p. 395.]
[Footnote 569: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 246. The ploughman, Gray Meal, who
took a large part in the ceremonies, was an old man.]
[Footnote 570: Id., i, pt. ii, p. 210.]
[Footnote 571: F. Hutchinson, _Hist. Essay_, p. 42.]
[Footnote 572: _Spalding Club Misc._, i, p. 172.]
[Footnote 573: Boguet, p. 131.]
[Footnote 574: De Lancre, _Tableau_, pp. 68, 401.]
[Footnote 575: Id., _L'Incredulite_, p. 805.]
[Footnote 576: Davenport, p. 2.]
[Footnote 577: Van Elven, _La Tradition_, v (1891), p. 215.]
[Footnote 578: Sinclair, p. 163. The account given by Barton's wife of the
position of the candle on the Devil's person is paralleled by the
peculiarly coarse description of the Light-bearers at the witch-sabbaths at
Muenster. Humborg, p. 120.]
[Footnote 579: Kinloch, p. 120.]
[Footnote 580: Glanvil, pt. ii, p. 139.]
[Footnote 581: Chambers, iii, p. 298.]
[Footnote 582: Stewart, p. 175.]
[Footnote 583: Glanvil, pt. ii, p. 294.]
[Footnote 584: Holinshed, _Ireland_, p. 58.]
[Footnote 585: Boguet, p. 141.]
[Footnote 586: De Lancre, _Tableau_, pp. 401-2.]
[Footnote 587: Michaelis, _Hist._, p. 337. The use of this phrase suggests
that the sprinkling was a fertility rite.]
[Footnote 588: Fountainhall, i, pp. 14, 15.]
[Footnote 589: Law, p. 145.]
[Footnote 590: Fountainhall, i, p. 14.]
[Footnote 591: Ravaisson, 1679-81, p. 336.]
[Footnote 592: Id., p. 333.]
[Footnote 593: Id., p. 335.]
[Footnote 594: Ravaisson, p. 335.]
[Footnote 595: Cotton Mather, pp. 120, 131, 158.]
[Footnote 596: J. Hutchinson, _Hist. of Massachusetts Bay_, ii, p. 55.]
[Footnote 597: Burr, p. 417.]
[Footnote 598: Increase Mather, p. 210.]
[Footnote 599: Cotton Mather, p. 81.]
[Footnote 600: Cooper, p. 91.]
[Footnote 601: _Chelmsford Witches_, pp. 24, 26, 29, 30. Philobiblon
Society, viii.]
[Footnote 602: _Examination of John Walsh._]
[Footnote 603: Cannaert, p. 48.]
[Footnote 604: Whitaker, p. 216.]
[Footnote 605: Stearne, p. 29.]
[Footnote 606: Pitcairn, iii, pp. 603, 617.]
[Footnote 607: Cotta, p. 114.]
[Footnote 608: Danaeus, ch. iv.]
[Footnote 609: R. Scot, Bk. III, p. 44.]
[Footnote 610: Holinshed, _Ireland_, p. 58.]
[Footnote 611: Philobiblon Society, viii, _Chelmsford Witches_, pp. 29,
30.]
[Footnote 612: Id. ib., viii, p. 34.]
[Footnote 613: _Examination of John Walsh._]
[Footnote 614: Remigius, pt. i, p. 54.]
[Footnote 615: _Spalding Club Misc._, i, p. 120; Burton, i, p. 252.]
[Footnote 616: Pitcairn, ii, pp. 542-3.]
[Footnote 617: From an unpublished trial in the Justiciary Court at
Edinburgh. The meaning of the word _laif_ is not clear. The Oxford
dictionary gives _lop-eared_, the Scotch dictionary gives _loaf_. By
analogy with the other accounts one would expect here a word meaning a
hen.]
[Footnote 618: _Highland Papers_, iii, p. 18.]
[Footnote 619: Lemoine, vi, p. 109.]
[Footnote 620: Reg. Scot, Bk. III, p. 41.]
[Footnote 621: Id., Bk. II, p. 32.]
[Footnote 622: Boguet, p. 205.]
[Footnote 623: Ravaisson, p. 334, 335.]
[Footnote 624: Sharpe, p. 147.]
[Footnote 625: Chambers, iii, p. 450.]
[Footnote 626: Scot, Bk. III, p. 42.]
[Footnote 627: Sinistrari de Ameno, p. 27.]
[Footnote 628: See, amongst others, the account of Mary Johnson (Essex,
1645), who was accused of poisoning two children; the symptoms suggest
belladonna. Howell, iv, 844, 846.]
[Footnote 629: Scot, Bk. III, p. 41.]
[Footnote 630: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 128.]
[Footnote 631: Kinloch, p. 121.]
[Footnote 632: Bodin, _Fleau_, pp. 187-8.]
[Footnote 633: Boguet, p. 141.]
[Footnote 634: Cannaert, p. 50.]
[Footnote 635: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 133.]
[Footnote 636: _La Tradition_, 1891, v, p. 215. Neither name nor place are
given.]
[Footnote 637: Bourignon, _Parole_, p. 87.]
[Footnote 638: _Scot. Hist. Soc._, xxv, p. 348. _See also_ Ross, _Aberdour
and Inchcolme_, p. 339.]
[Footnote 639: _Prod. and Trag. History_, p. 7.]
[Footnote 640: _Tryall of Ann Foster_, p. 8.]
[Footnote 641: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, pp. 211, 235, 238.]
[Footnote 642: De Lancre, _L'Incredulite_, p. 772.]
[Footnote 643: _Spalding Club Misc._, i, pp. 120, 124.]
[Footnote 644: From the record of the trial in the Justiciary Court of
Edinburgh.]
[Footnote 645: Sharpe, p. 132.]
[Footnote 646: Glanvil, pt. ii, pp. 137, 164.]
[Footnote 647: Horneck, pt. ii, p. 316.]
[Footnote 648: From the record of the trial in the Guernsey Greffe.]
[Footnote 649: De Lancre, _Tableau_, pp. 123, 400.]
[Footnote 650: Pitcairn, iii, pp. 604, 608.]
[Footnote 651: Glanvil, pt. ii, pp. 139, 141. I have pointed out that the
cry of 'A Boy' is possibly the Christian recorder's method of expressing
the Bacchic shout 'Evoe'. See _Jour. Man. Or. Soc._, 1916-17, p. 65.]
[Footnote 652: De Lancre, _Tableau_, pp. 401, 461, 462, 464.]
[Footnote 653: Bodin, p. 190.]
[Footnote 654: The names of the smaller islands are often compounded with
the name of this deity, e.g. Li-hou, Brecq-hou, &c.]
[Footnote 655: Law, p. 27 note.]
[Footnote 656: From a trial in the Guernsey Greffe.]
[Footnote 657: Pitcairn, iii, pp. 607-8, 611.]
[Footnote 658: Glanvil, pt. ii, pp. 137, 139, 148, 149.]
[Footnote 659: Pitcairn, iii, p. 612. Sych = sighing, lamentation.]
[Footnote 660: Id., i, pt. ii, p. 212.]
[Footnote 661: _Newes from Scotland_, see Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 218.]
[Footnote 662: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 237.]
[Footnote 663: Id., ii, p. 542.]
VI. THE RITES (_continued_)
WITCHES' RAIN-MAKING AND FERTILITY RITES
1. _General_
In common with many other religions of the Lower Culture, the witch-cult of
Western Europe observed certain rites for rain-making and for causing or
blasting fertility. This fact was recognized in the papal Bulls formulated
against the witches who were denounced, not for moral offences, but for the
destruction of fertility. The celebrated Decree of Innocent VIII, which in
1488 let loose the full force of the Church against the witches, says that
'they blight the marriage bed, destroy the births of women and the increase
of cattle; they blast the corn on the ground, the grapes of the vineyard,
the fruits of the trees, the grass and herbs of the field'. Adrian VI
followed this up in 1521 with a Decretal Epistle, denouncing the witches
'as a Sect deviating from the Catholic Faith, denying their Baptism, and
showing Contempt of the Ecclesiastical Sacraments, treading Crosses under
their Feet, and, taking the Devil for their Lord, destroyed the Fruits of
the Earth by their Enchantments, Sorceries, and Superstitions'.
The charms used by the witches, the dances, the burning of the god and the
broadcast scattering of his ashes, all point to the fact that this was a
fertility cult; and this is the view taken also by those contemporary
writers who give a more or less comprehensive account of the religion and
ritual. Though most of the fertility or anti-fertility charms remaining to
us were used by the witches either for their own benefit or to injure their
enemies, enough remains to show that originally all these charms were to
promote fertility in general and in particular. When the charm was for
fertility in general, it was performed by the whole congregation together;
but for the fertility of any particular woman, animal, or field, the
ceremony was performed by one witch alone or by two at most.
The power which the witches claimed to possess over human fertility is
shown in many of the trials. Jonet Clark was tried in Edinburgh in 1590
'for giving and taking away power from sundry men's Genital-members';[664]
and in the same year and place Bessie Roy was accused of causing women's
milk to dry up.[665] The number of midwives who practised witchcraft points
also to this fact; they claimed to be able to cause and to prevent
pregnancy, to cause and to prevent an easy delivery, to cast the
labour-pains, on an animal or a human being (husbands who were the victims
are peculiarly incensed against these witches), and in every way to have
power over the generative organs of both sexes. In short, it is possible to
say that, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the better the
midwife the better the witch.
The Red Book of Appin,[666] which was obtained from the Devil by a trick,
is of great interest in this connexion. It was said to contain charms for
the curing of diseases of cattle; among them must certainly have been some
for promoting the fertility of the herds in general, and individual animals
in particular. It is not unlikely that the charms as noted in the book were
the result of many experiments, for we know that the witches were bound to
give account to the Devil of all the magic they performed in the intervals
between the Sabbaths, and he or his clerk recorded their doings. From this
record the Devil instructed the witches. It is evident from the confessions
and the evidence at the trials that the help of the witches was often
required to promote fertility among human beings as well as among animals.
The number of midwives who were also witches was very great, and the fact
can hardly be accidental.
Witches were called in to perform incantations during the various events of
a farm-yard. Margrat Og of Aberdeen, 1597, was 'indyttit as a manifest
witche, in that, be the space of a yeirsyn or theirby, thy kow being in
bulling, and James Farquhar, thy awin gude son haulding the kow, thow
stuid on the ane syd of the kow, and thy dochter, Batrix Robbie, on the
vther syd, and quhen the bull was lowping the kow, thow tuik a knyff and
keist ower the kow, and thy dochter keapit the sam, and keist it over to
the agane, and this ye did thryiss, quhilk thou can nocht deny.'[667] At
Auldearne the Coven, to which Isobel Gowdie belonged, performed a ceremony
to obtain for themselves the benefit of a neighbour's crop. 'Befor
Candlemas, we went be-east Kinlosse, and ther we yoaked an plewghe of
paddokis. The Divell held the plewgh, and Johne Yownge in Mebestowne, our
Officer, did drywe the plewghe. Paddokis did draw the plewgh as oxen;
quickens wer sowmes, a riglen's horne was a cowter, and an piece of an
riglen's horne was an sok. We went two seueral tymes abowt; and all we of
the Coeven went still wp and downe with the plewghe, prayeing to the Divell
for the fruit of that land, and that thistles and brieris might grow
ther'.[668] Here the ploughing-ceremony was to induce fertility for the
benefit of the witches, while the draught animals and all the parts of the
plough connoted barrenness for the owner of the soil.
The most detailed account of a charm for human fertility is given in the
confession of the Abbe Guibourg, who appears to have been the Devil of the
Paris witches. The ceremony took place at the house of a witch-midwife
named Voisin or Montvoisin, and according to the editor was for the benefit
of Louis XIV or Charles II, two of the most notorious libertines of their
age.
'Il a fait chez la Voisin, revetu d'aube, d'etole et de manipule, une
conjuration en presence de la Des Oeillets [attendant of Madame de
Montespan], qui pretendait faire un charme pour le (Roi) et qui etait
accompagnee d'un homme qui lui donna la conjuration, et comme il etait
necessaire d'avoir du sperme des deux sexes, Des Oeillets ayant ses
mois n'en put donner mais versa dans le calice de ses menstrues et
l'homme qui l'accompagnait, ayant passe dans la ruelle du lit avec lui
Guibourg, versa de son sperme dans le calice. Sur le tout, la Des
Oeillets et l'homme mirent chacun d'une poudre de sang de
chauve-souris et de la farine pour donner un corps plus ferme a toute
la composition et apres qu'il eut recite la conjuration il tira le
tout du calice qui fut mis dans un petit vaisseau que la Des Oeillets
ou l'homme emporta.'[669]
The ecclesiastical robes and the use of the chalice point to this being a
ceremony of a religious character, and should be compared with the
child-sacrifices performed by the same priest or Devil (see pp. 150, 157).
An anti-fertility rite, which in its simplicity hardly deserves the name of
a ceremony, took place at Crook of Devon in Kinross-shire. Bessie Henderson
'lykeways confessed and declared that Janet Paton was with you at ane
meeting when they trampit down Thos. White's rie in the beginning of
harvest, 1661, and that she had broad soals and trampit down more nor any
of the rest'.[670]
2. _Rain-making_
The rain-making powers of the witches have hardly been noted by writers on
the subject, for by the time the records were made the witches were
credited with the blasting of fertility rather than its increase. Yet from
what remains it is evident that the original meaning of much of the ritual
was for the production of fertilizing rain, though both judges and
witnesses believed that it was for storms and hail.
One of the earliest accounts of such powers is given in the story quoted by
Reginald Scot from the _Malleus Maleficarum_, written in 1487, a century
before Scot's own book:
'A little girle walking abroad with hir father in his land, heard him
complaine of drought, wishing for raine, etc. Whie father (quoth the
child) I can make it raine or haile, when and where I list: He asked
where she learned it. She said, of hir mother, who forbad hir to tell
anie bodie thereof. He asked hir how hir mother taught hir? She
answered, that hir mother committed hir to a maister, who would at
anie time doo anie thing for hir. Whie then (said he) make it raine
but onlie in my field. And so she went to the streame, and threw vp
water in hir maisters name, and made it raine presentlie. And
proceeding further with hir father, she made it haile in another
field, at hir father's request. Herevpon he accused his wife, and
caused hir to be burned; and then he new christened his child
againe.'[671]
Scot also gives 'certaine impossible actions' of witches when he ridicules
the belief
'that the elements are obedient to witches, and at their commandement;
or that they may at their pleasure send raine, haile, tempests,
thunder, lightening; when she being but an old doting woman, casteth a
flint stone ouer hir left shoulder, towards the west, or hurleth a
little sea sand vp into the element, or wetteth a broome sprig in
water, and sprinkleth the same in the aire; or diggeth a pit in the
earth, and putting water therein, stirreth it about with hir finger;
or boileth hogs bristles; or laieth sticks acrosse vpon a banke, where
neuer a drop of water is; or burieth sage till it be rotten; all which
things are confessed by witches, and affirmed by writers to be the
meanes that witches vse to mooue extraordinarie tempests and
raine'.[672]
More quotes Wierus to the same effect: 'Casting of Flint-Stones behind
their backs towards the West, or flinging a little Sand in the Air, or
striking a River with a Broom, and so sprinkling the Wet of it toward
Heaven, the stirring of Urine or Water with their finger in a Hole in the
ground, or boyling of Hogs Bristles in a Pot.'[673]
The throwing of stones as a fertility rite is found in the trial of Jonet
Wischert, one of the chief witches at Aberdeen, and is there combined with
a nudity rite. 'In hervest last bypast, Mr. William Rayes huikes [saw thee
at] the heid of thi awin gudmannis croft, and saw the tak all thi claiss
about thi heid, and thow beand naikit from the middill down, tuik ane gryte
number of steynis, and thi self gangand baklenis, keist ane pairt behind
the our thi heid, and ane wther pairt fordward.'[674]
3. _Fertility_
Every contemporary writer who gives a general view of the religion and
ritual observes the witches' powers over human fertility. Boguet says, 'Ils
font encor cacher & retirer les parties viriles, et puis les font
ressortir quand il leur plait. Ils empeschent aussi tantost la copulation
charnelle de l'ho[~m]e & de la femme, en retirant les nerfs, & ostant la
roideur du membre; et tantost la procreation en destournant ou bouchant les
conduicts de la semence, pour empescher qu'elle ne descende aux vases de la
generation.'[675] Scot, who quotes generally without any acknowledgement
and often inaccurately, translates this statement, 'They also affirme that
the vertue of generation is impeached by witches, both inwardlie, and
outwardlie: for intrinsecallie they represse the courage, and they stop the
passage of the mans seed, so as it may not descend to the vessels of
generation: also they hurt extrinsecallie, with images, hearbs, &c.'[676]
Bodin also remarks that witches, whether male or female, can affect only
the generative organs.[677] Madame Bourignon says that the girls, whom she
befriended,
'told me, that Persons who were thus engaged to the Devil by a precise
Contract, will allow no other God but him, and therefore offer him
whatsoever is dearest to them; nay, are constrained to offer him their
Children, or else the Devil would Beat them, and contrive that they
should never arrive to the State of Marriage, and so should have no
Children, by reason that the Devil hath power by his Adherents, to
hinder both the one and the other.... So soon as they come to be able
to beget Children, the Devil makes them offer the desire which they
have of Marrying, to his Honor: And with this all the Fruit that may
proceed from their Marriage. This they promise voluntarily, to the end
that they may accomplish their Designs: For otherwise the Devil
threatens to hinder them by all manner of means, that they shall not
Marry, nor have Children.'[678]
Glanvil, writing on the Scotch trials of 1590, speaks of 'some Effects,
Kinds, or Circumstances of Witchcraft, such as the giving and taking away
power from sundry men's Genital-members. For which Jannet Clark was
accused.'[679] In the official record Jonet Clark was tried and condemned
for 'gewing of ane secreit member to Iohnne Coutis; and gewing and taking
of power fra sindrie mennis memberis. Item, fylit of taking Iohnne Wattis
secreit member fra him.'[680]
Sexual ritual occurs in many religions of the Lower Culture and has always
horrified members of the higher religions both in ancient and modern times.
In fertility cults it is one of the chief features, not only symbolizing
the fertilizing power in the whole animate world, but, in the belief of the
actors, actually assisting it and promoting its effects.
Such fertility rites are governed by certain rules, which vary in different
countries, particularly as to the age of girls, i.e. whether they are over
or under puberty. Among the witches there appears to have been a definite
rule that no girl under puberty had sexual intercourse with the Devil. This
is even stated as a fact by so great an authority as Bodin: 'Les diables ne
font point de paction expresse auec les enfans, qui leurs sont vouez, s'ils
n'ont attaint l'aage de puberte.'[681] The details of the trials show that
this statement is accurate. 'Magdalene de la Croix, Abbesse des Moniales de
Cordouee en Espaigne, confessa que Satan n'eust point copulation, ny
cognoissance d'elle, qu'elle n'eust douze ans.'[682] Bodin and De Lancre
both cite the case of Jeanne Hervillier of Verbery in Compiegne; she was a
woman of fifty-two at the time of her trial in 1578. She 'confessa qu'a
l'aage de douze ans sa mere la presenta au diable, en forme d'vn grand
homme noir, & vestu de noir, botte, esperonne, auec vne espee au coste, et
vn cheual noir a la porte, auquel la mere dit: Voicy ma fille que ie vous
ay promise: Et a la fille, Voicy vostre amy, qui vous fera bien heureuse,
et deslors qu'elle renonca a Dieu, & a la religion, & puis coucha auec elle
charnellement, en la mesme sorte & maniere que font les hommes auec les
femmes.'[683] De Lancre also emphasizes the age: 'Ieanne Haruillier depose
qu'encore sa mere l'eust voueee a Satan des sa naissance, neantmoins qu'il
ne la cognut charnellement qu'elle n'eust attainct l'aage de douze
ans.'[684] De Lancre's own experience points in the same direction; he
found that the children were not treated in the same way as adults, nor
were they permitted to join in all the ceremonies until after they had
passed childhood.[685]