not suffer a witch to live," no doubt led many conscientious men
astray, whose superstition, warm enough before, wanted but a little
corroboration to blaze out with desolating fury. In all ages of the
world men have tried to hold converse with superior beings; and to
pierce, by their means, the secrets of futurity. In the time of Moses,
it is evident that there were impostors, who trafficked upon the
credulity of mankind, and insulted the supreme majesty of the true God
by pretending to the power of divination. Hence the law which Moses, by
Divine command, promulgated against these criminals; but it did not
follow, as the superstitious monomaniacs of the middle ages imagined,
that the Bible established the existence of the power of divination by
its edicts against those who pretended to it. From the best
authorities, it appears that the Hebrew word, which has been rendered,
venefica, and witch, means a poisoner and divineress--a dabbler in
spells, or fortune-teller. The modern witch was a very different
character, and joined to her pretended power of foretelling future
events that of working evil upon the life, limbs, and possessions of
mankind. This power was only to be acquired by an express compact,
signed in blood, with the devil himself, by which the wizard or witch
renounced baptism, and sold his or her immortal soul to the evil one,
without any saving clause of redemption.
There are so many wondrous appearances in nature, for which science and
philosophy cannot, even now, account, that it is not surprising that,
when natural laws were still less understood, men should have
attributed to supernatural agency every appearance which they could not
otherwise explain. The merest tyro now understands various phenomena
which the wisest of old could not fathom. The schoolboy knows why, upon
high mountains, there should, on certain occasions, appear three or
four suns in the firmament at once; and why the figure of a traveller
upon one eminence should be reproduced, inverted, and of a gigantic
stature, upon another. We all know the strange pranks which imagination
can play in certain diseases--that the hypochondriac can see visions
and spectres, and that there have been cases in which men were
perfectly persuaded that they were teapots. Science has lifted up the
veil, and rolled away all the fantastic horrors in which our
forefathers shrouded these and similar cases. The man who now imagines
himself a wolf, is sent to the hospital, instead of to the stake, as in
the days of the witch mania; and earth, air, and sea are unpeopled of
the grotesque spirits that were once believed to haunt them.
Before entering further into the history of Witchcraft, it may be as
well if we consider the absurd impersonation of the evil principle
formed by the monks in their legends. We must make acquaintance with
the primum mobile, and understand what sort of a personage it was, who
gave the witches, in exchange for their souls, the power to torment
their fellow-creatures. The popular notion of the devil was, that he
was a large, ill-formed, hairy sprite, with horns, a long tail, cloven
feet, and dragon's wings. In this shape he was constantly brought on
the stage by the monks in their early "miracles" and "mysteries." In
these representations he was an important personage, and answered the
purpose of the clown in the modern pantomime. The great fun for the
people was to see him well belaboured by the saints with clubs or
cudgels, and to hear him howl with pain as he limped off, maimed by the
blow of some vigorous anchorite. St. Dunstan generally served him the
glorious trick for which he is renowned--catching hold of his nose with
a pair of red-hot pincers, till
"Rocks and distant dells resounded with his cries."
Some of the saints spat in his face, to his very great annoyance; and
others chopped pieces off his tail, which, however, always grew on
again. This was paying him in his own coin, and amused the populace
mightily; for they all remembered the scurvy tricks he had played them
and their forefathers. It was believed that he endeavoured to trip
people up, by laying his long invisible tail in their way, and giving
it a sudden whisk when their legs were over it;--that he used to get
drunk, and swear like a trooper, and be so mischievous in his cups as
to raise tempests and earthquakes, to destroy the fruits of the earth
and the barns and homesteads of true believers;--that he used to run
invisible spits into people by way of amusing himself in the long
winter evenings, and to proceed to taverns and regale himself with the
best, offering in payment pieces of gold which, on the dawn of the
following morning, invariably turned into slates. Sometimes, disguised
as a large drake, he used to lurk among the bulrushes, and frighten the
weary traveller out of his wits by his awful quack. The reader will
remember the lines of Burns in his address to the "De'il," which so
well express the popular notion on this point--
"Ae dreary, windy, winter night,
The stars shot down wi' sklentin light,
Wi' you, mysel, I got a fright
Ayont the lough;
Ye, like a rash-bush, stood in sight
Wi' waving sough.
"The cudgel in my nieve did shake,
Each bristled hair stood like a stake,
When wi' an eldritch stour, 'quaick! quaick!'
Among the springs
Awa ye squatter'd, like a drake,
On whistling wings."
In all the stories circulated and believed about him, he was
represented as an ugly, petty, mischievous spirit, who rejoiced in
playing off all manner of fantastic tricks upon poor humanity. Milton
seems to have been the first who succeeded in giving any but a
ludicrous description of him. The sublime pride which is the
quintessence of evil, was unconceived before his time. All other
limners made him merely grotesque, but Milton made him awful. In this
the monks showed themselves but miserable romancers; for their object
undoubtedly was to represent the fiend as terrible as possible: but
there was nothing grand about their Satan; on the contrary, he was a
low mean devil, whom it was easy to circumvent and fine fun to play
tricks with. But, as is well and eloquently remarked by a modern
writer, [See article on Demonology, in the sixth volume of the "Foreign
Quarterly Review."] the subject has also its serious side. An Indian
deity, with its wild distorted shape and grotesque attitude, appears
merely ridiculous when separated from its accessories and viewed by
daylight in a museum; but restore it to the darkness of its own hideous
temple, bring back to our recollection the victims that have bled upon
its altar, or been crushed beneath its ear, and our sense of the
ridiculous subsides into aversion and horror. So, while the
superstitious dreams of former times are regarded as mere speculative
insanities, we may be for a moment amused with the wild incoherences of
the patients; but, when we reflect, that out of these hideous
misconceptions of the principle of evil arose the belief in
witchcraft--that this was no dead faith, but one operating on the whole
being of society, urging on the wisest and the mildest to deeds of
murder, or cruelties scarcely less than murder--that the learned and
the beautiful, young and old, male and female, were devoted by its
influence to the stake and the scaffold--every feeling disappears,
except that of astonishment that such things could be, and humiliation
at the thought that the delusion was as lasting as it was universal.
Besides this chief personage, there was an infinite number of inferior
demons, who played conspicuous parts in the creed of witchcraft. The
pages of Bekker, Leloyer, Bodin, Delrio, and De Lancre abound with
descriptions of the qualities of these imps and the functions which
were assigned them. From these authors, three of whom were
commissioners for the trial of witches, and who wrote from the
confessions made by the supposed criminals and the evidence delivered
against them, and from the more recent work of M. Jules Garinet, the
following summary of the creed has been, with great pains, extracted.
The student who is desirous of knowing more, is referred to the works
in question; he will find enough in every leaf to make his blood curdle
with shame and horror: but the purity of these pages shall not be
soiled by anything so ineffably humiliating and disgusting as a
complete exposition of them; what is here culled will be a sufficient
sample of the popular belief, and the reader would but lose time who
should seek in the writings of the Demonologists for more ample
details. He will gain nothing by lifting the veil which covers their
unutterable obscenities, unless, like Sterne, he wishes to gather fresh
evidence of "what a beast man is." In that case, he will find plenty
there to convince him that the beast would be libelled by the
comparison.
It was thought that the earth swarmed with millions of demons of both
sexes, many of whom, like the human race, traced their lineage up to
Adam, who, after the fall, was led astray by devils, assuming the forms
of beautiful women to deceive him. These demons "increased and
multiplied," among themselves, with the most extraordinary rapidity.
Their bodies were of the thin air, and they could pass though the
hardest substances with the greatest ease. They had no fixed residence
or abiding place, but were tossed to and fro in the immensity of space.
When thrown together in great multitudes, they excited whirlwinds in
the air and tempests in the waters, and took delight in destroying the
beauty of nature and the monuments of the industry of man. Although
they increased among themselves like ordinary creatures, their numbers
were daily augmented by the souls of wicked men--of children
still-born--of women who died in childbed, and of persons killed in
duels. The whole air was supposed to be full of them, and many
unfortunate men and women drew them by thousands into their mouths and
nostrils at every inspiration; and the demons, lodging in their bowels
or other parts of their bodies, tormented them with pains and diseases
of every kind, and sent them frightful dreams. St. Gregory of Nice
relates a story of a nun who forgot to say her benedicite, and make the
sign of the cross, before she sat down to supper, and who, in
consequence, swallowed a demon concealed among the leaves of a lettuce.
Most persons said the number of these demons was so great that they
could not be counted, but Wierus asserted that they amounted to no more
than seven millions, four hundred and five thousand, nine hundred, and
twenty-six; and that they were divided into seventy-two companies or
battalions, to each of which there was a prince or captain. They could
assume any shape they pleased. When they were male, they were called
incubi; and when female, succubi. They sometimes made themselves
hideous; and at other times, they assumed shapes of such transcendant
loveliness, that mortal eyes never saw beauty to compete with theirs.
Although the devil and his legions could appear to mankind at any time,
it was generally understood that he preferred the night between Friday
and Saturday. If Satan himself appeared in human shape, he was never
perfectly, and in all respects, like a man. He was either too black or
too white--too large or too small, or some of his limbs were out of
proportion to the rest of his body. Most commonly his feet were
deformed; and he was obliged to curl up and conceal his tall in some
part of his habiliments; for, take what shape he would, he could not
get rid of that encumbrance. He sometimes changed himself into a tree
or a river; and upon one occasion he transformed himself into a
barrister, as we learn from Wierus, book iv, chapter ix. In the reign
of Philippe le Bel, he appeared to a monk in the shape of a dark man,
riding a tall black horse--then as a friar--afterwards as an ass, and
finally as a coach-wheel. Instances are not rare in which both he and
his inferior demons have taken the form of handsome young men; and,
successfully concealing their tails, have married beautiful young
women, who have had children by them. Such children were easily
recognizable by their continual shrieking--by their requiring five
nurses to suckle them, and by their never growing fat.
All these demons were at the command of any individual, who would give
up his immortal soul to the prince of evil for the privilege of
enjoying their services for a stated period. The wizard or witch could
send them to execute the most difficult missions: whatever the witch
commanded was performed, except it was a good action, in which case the
order was disobeyed, and evil worked upon herself instead.
At intervals, according to the pleasure of Satan, there was a general
meeting of the demons and all the witches. This meeting was called the
Sabbath, from its taking place on the Saturday or immediately after
midnight on Fridays. These Sabbaths were sometimes held for one
district, sometimes for another, and once at least, every year, it was
held on the Brocken, or among other high mountains, as a general
sabbath of the fiends for the whole of Christendom.
The devil generally chose a place where four roads met, as the scene of
this assembly, or if that was not convenient, the neighbourhood of a
lake. Upon this spot nothing would ever afterwards grow, as the hot
feet of the demons and witches burnt the principle of fecundity from
the earth, and rendered it barren for ever. When orders had been once
issued for the meeting of the Sabbath, all the wizards and witches who
failed to attend it were lashed by demons with a rod made of serpents
or scorpions, as a punishment for their inattention or want of
punctuality.
In France and England, the witches were supposed to ride uniformly upon
broomsticks; but in Italy and Spain, the devil himself, in the shape of
a goat, used to transport them on his back, which lengthened or
shortened according to the number of witches he was desirous of
accommodating. No witch, when proceeding to the Sabbath, could get out
by a door or window, were she to try ever so much. Their general mode
of ingress was by the keyhole, and of egress, by the chimney, up which
they flew, broom and all, with the greatest ease. To prevent the
absence of the witches from being noticed by their neighbours, some
inferior demon was commanded to assume their shapes and lie in their
beds, feigning illness, until the Sabbath was over.
When all the wizards and witches had arrived at the place of
rendezvous, the infernal ceremonies of the Sabbath began. Satan, having
assumed his favourite shape of a large he-goat, with a face in front
and another in his haunches, took his seat upon a throne; and all
present, in succession, paid their respects to him, and kissed him in
his face behind. This done, he appointed a master of the ceremonies, in
company with whom he made a personal examination of all the wizards and
witches, to see whether they had the secret mark about them by which
they were stamped as the devil's own. This mark was always insensible
to pain. Those who had not yet been marked, received the mark from the
master of the ceremonies; the devil at the same time bestowing
nicknames upon them. This done, they all began to sing and dance in the
most furious manner, until some one arrived who was anxious to be
admitted into their society. They were then silent for a while, until
the new-comer had denied his salvation, kissed the devil, spat upon the
Bible, and sworn obedience to him in all things. They then began
dancing again with all their might, and singing these words,
"Alegremos, Alegremos!
Que gente va tenemos!"
In the course of an hour or two, they generally became wearied of this
violent exercise, and then they all sat down and recounted the evil
deeds they had done since their last meeting. Those who had not been
malicious and mischievous enough towards their fellow-creatures,
received personal chastisement from Satan himself, who flogged them
with thorns or scorpions till they were covered with blood, and unable
to sit or stand.
When this ceremony was concluded, they were all amused by a dance of
toads. Thousands of these creatures sprang out of the earth; and
standing on their hind-legs, danced, while the devil played the
bagpipes or the trumpet. These toads were all endowed with the faculty
of speech, and entreated the witches to reward them with the flesh of
unbaptized babes for their exertions to give them pleasure. The witches
promised compliance. The devil bade them remember to keep their word;
and then stamping his foot, caused all the toads to sink into the earth
in an instant. The place being thus cleared, preparation was made for
the banquet, where all manner of disgusting things were served up and
greedily devoured by the demons and witches; although the latter were
sometimes regaled with choice meats and expensive wines from golden
plates and crystal goblets; but they were never thus favoured unless
they had done an extraordinary number of evil deeds since the last
period of meeting.
After the feast, they began dancing again; but such as had no relish
for any more exercise in that way, amused themselves by mocking the
holy sacrament of baptism. For this purpose, the toads were again
called up, and sprinkled with filthy water; the devil making the sign
of the cross, and all the witches calling out, "In nomine Patrica,
Aragueaco Petrica, agora! agora! Valentia, jouando goure gaits
goustia!" which meant, "In the name of Patrick, Petrick of
Aragon,--now, now, all our ills are over!"
When the devil wished to be particularly amused, he made the witches
strip off their clothes and dance before him, each with a cat tied
round her neck, and another dangling from her body in form of a tail.
When the cock crew, they all disappeared, and the Sabbath was ended.
This is a summary of the belief which prevailed for many centuries
nearly all over Europe, and which is far from eradicated even at this
day. It was varied in some respects in several countries, but the main
points were the same in France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Spain,
and the far North of Europe.
The early annals of France abound with stories of supposed sorcery, but
it was not until the time of Charlemagne that the crime acquired any
great importance. "This monarch," says M. Jules Garinet, ["Histoire de
la Magie en France. Rois de la seconde race," page 29.] "had several
times given orders that all necromancers, astrologers, and witches
should be driven from his states; but as the number of criminals
augmented daily, he found it necessary at last to resort to severer
measures. In consequence, he published several edicts, which may be
found at length in the 'Capitulaire de Baluse.' By these, every sort of
magic, enchantment, and witchcraft was forbidden; and the punishment of
death decreed against those who in any way evoked the devil--compounded
love-philters--afflicted either man or woman with barrenness--troubled
the atmosphere--excited tempests--destroyed the fruits of the
earth--dried up the milk of cows, or tormented their fellow-creatures
with sores and diseases. All persons found guilty of exercising these
execrable arts, were to be executed immediately upon conviction, that
the earth might be rid of the burthen and curse of their presence; and
those even who consulted them might also be punished with death." [M.
Michaud, in his "History of the Crusades," M. Guinguene, in his
"Literary History of Italy," and some other critics, have objected to
Tasso's poem, that he has attributed to the Crusaders a belief in
magic, which did not exist at that time. If these critics had referred
to the Edicts of Charlemagne, they would have seen that Tasso was
right, and that a disposition too eager to spy out imperfections in a
great work was leading themselves into error.]
After this time, prosecutions for witchcraft are continually mentioned,
especially by the French historians. It was a crime imputed with so
much ease, and repelled with so much difficulty, that the powerful,
whenever they wanted to ruin the weak, and could fix no other
imputation upon them, had only to accuse them of witchcraft to ensure
their destruction. Instances, in which this crime was made the pretext
for the most violent persecution, both of individuals and of
communities, whose real offences were purely political or religious,
must be familiar to every reader. The extermination of the Stedinger,
in 1234; of the Templars, from 1307 to 1313; the execution of Joan of
Arc, in 1429; and the unhappy scenes of Arras, in 1459; are the most
prominent. The first of these is perhaps the least known, but is not
among the least remarkable. The following account, from Dr. Kortum's
interesting history ["Entstehungsgeschichte der freistadlischen Bunde
im Mittelalter, von Dr. F. Kortum." 1827.] of the republican
confederacies of the Middle Ages, will show the horrible convenience of
imputations of witchcraft, when royal or priestly wolves wanted a
pretext for a quarrel with the sheep.
The Frieslanders, inhabiting the district from the Weser to the
Zuydersee, had long been celebrated for their attachment to freedom,
and their successful struggles in its defence. As early as the eleventh
century, they had formed a general confederacy against the
encroachments of the Normans and the Saxons, which was divided into
seven seelands, holding annually a diet under a large oaktree at
Aurich, near the Upstalboom. Here they managed their own affairs,
without the control of the clergy and ambitious nobles who surrounded
them, to the great scandal of the latter. They already had true notions
of a representative government. The deputies of the people levied the
necessary taxes, deliberated on the affairs of the community, and
performed, in their simple and patriarchal manner; nearly all the
functions of the representative assemblies of the present day. Finally,
the Archbishop of Bremen, together with the Count of Oldenburg and
other neighbouring potentates, formed a league against that section of
the Frieslanders, known by the name of the Stedinger, and succeeded,
after harassing them, and sowing dissensions among them for many years,
in bringing them under the yoke. But the Stedinger, devotedly attached
to their ancient laws, by which they had attained a degree of civil and
religious liberty very uncommon in that age, did not submit without a
violent struggle. They arose in insurrection, in the year 1204, in
defence of the ancient customs of their country--refused to pay taxes
to the feudal chiefs, or tithes to the clergy, who had forced
themselves into their peaceful retreats, and drove out many of their
oppressors. For a period of eight-and-twenty years the brave Stedinger
continued the struggle single-handed against the forces of the
Archbishops of Bremen and the Counts of Oldenburg, and destroyed, in
the year 1232, the strong castle of Slutterberg, near Delmenhorst,
built by the latter nobleman as a position from which he could send out
his marauders to plunder and destroy the possessions of the peasantry.
The invincible courage of these poor people proving too strong for
their oppressors to cope with by the ordinary means of warfare, the
Archbishop of Bremen applied to Pope Gregory IX. for his spiritual aid
against them. That prelate entered cordially into the cause, and
launching forth his anathema against the Stedinger as heretics and
witches, encouraged all true believers to assist in their
extermination. A large body of thieves and fanatics broke into their
country in the year 1233, killing and burning wherever they went, and
not sparing either women or children, the sick or the aged, in their
rage. The Stedinger, however, rallied in great force, routed their
invaders, and killed in battle their leader, Count Burckhardt of
Oldenburg, with many inferior chieftains.