|
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 com{m}aundeth them that they
shall acknowledge him for their god, cal vpo{n} 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.'[1] Gaule, in 1646, nearly
a century later, says that the witches vow 'to take him [the Devil] for
their God, worship, invoke, obey him'.[2]
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 adoré'.[3] 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'.[4] De Lancre
(1609) records, as
[1. Danaeus, E 1, ch. iv.
2 Gaule, p. 62.
3. Cannaert, p. 45.
4. Spalding Club Miscellany, i,
pp. 171, 172.]
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'.[1] Silvain Nevillon,
tried at Orleans in 1614, said, 'On dit au Diable nous vous recognoissons
pour nostre maistre, nostre Dieu, nostre Createur'.[2] 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.'[3] According to Madame Bourignon, 1661, 'Persons who were thus
engaged to the Devil by a precise Contract, will allow no other God but
him'.[4] 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."'[5] 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'.[6] 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
[1. De Lancre, Tableau, pp.
398, 399.
2 Id., L'Incredulité, p.
80.
3. Baines, i, p. 607 note. For the
name Mamillion see Layamon's Brut, p. 155, Everyman Library.
4. Bourignon, Vie, p.
222.——Hale, p. 37.
5. Pitcairn, iii, pp. 605, 607,
613.
6. Hale, p. 58.]
turne to theire god, the last
shift should be the worst.'[1] 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'.[2] 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'.[3]
Prayers were addressed to the
Master by his followers, and in some instances the prayer was taught by
him. Alice Gooderidge of Stapenhill in Derbyshire, 1597, herself a witch
and the daughter of a witch, was charged by Sir Humphrey Ferrers 'with
witchcraft about one Michael's Cow: which Cow when shee brake all thinges
that they tied her in, ranne to this Alice Gooderige her house, scraping
at the walls and windowes to haue come in: her olde mother Elizabeth
Wright, tooke vpon her to help; vpon condition that she might haue a peny
to bestow vpon her god, and so she came to the mans house kneeled downe
before the Cow, crossed her with a sticke in the forehead, and prayed to
her god, since which time the Cow continued wel'.[4] Antide Colas, 1598,
confessed that 'Satan luy comma{n}da de le prier soir & matin, auant
qu'elle s'addonnat à faire autre oeuure'.[5] Elizabeth Sawyer, the witch
of Edmonton, 1621, was taught by the Devil; 'He asked of me to whom I
prayed, and I answered him to lesus Christ, and he charged me then to pray
no more to lesus Christ, but to him the Diuell, and he the Diuell taught
me this prayer, Sanctibecetur nomen tuum, Amen'., Part of the
dittay against Jonet Rendall, an Orkney witch, 1629, was that I the devill
appeirit to you, Quhom ye called Walliman.——Indyttit and accusit for yt
of your awne confessioune efter ye met your Walliman upoun the hill ye
earn to Williame Rendalls hous quha haid ane seik hors and promeised to
haill him if he could geve yow tua penneys for everie foot, And haveing
gottin the
[1. Surtees Soc., xl, pp.
191-193.
2. Fountainhall, i. 15.
3. Howell, vi, 660.——J.
Hutchinson, ii, p. 31.
4. Alse Gooderidge, pp. 9,
10.
5. Boguet, p. 54.
6. Wonderfull Discouerie of
Elizabeth Sawyer, C 4, rev.]
silver ye hailled the hors be
praying to your Walliman, Lykeas ye have confest that thair is nather man
nor beast sick that is not tane away be the hand of God bot for almis ye
ar able to cur it be praying to your Walliman, and yt thair is nane yt
geves yow almis bot they will thryve ather be sea or land it ye pray to
yor Walliman'.[1] The witches of East Anglia, 1645, also prayed; 'Ellen
the wife of Nicholas Greenleife of Barton in Sufolke,
confessed, that when she prayed she prayed to the Devill and not to God.——
Rebecca West confessed that her mother prayed constantly (and, as the
world thought, very seriously), but she said it was to the devil, using
these words, Oh my God, my God, meaning him and not the LORD.'[2]
A good example of the change of
the word 'God', when used by the witch, into the word 'devil' when
recorded by the Christian writer, is found at Bute in 1662: 'Jonet Stewart
declares that quhen Alester McNivan was lying sick that Jonet Morisone and
NcWilliam being in her house the said Jonet desyred NcWilliam to goe see
the said Allester the said NcWilliam lifting up her curcheffe said "devill
let him never be seene till I see him and devill let him never ryse ". . .
[NcWilliam was asked] if she lifted up her curcheffe quhen Jonet Morisone
desyred her to goe see Alester McNivan, saying "god let him never ryse
till I goe see him."'[3]
(a) Man
The evidence of the witches makes
it abundantly clear that the so-called Devil was a human being, generally
a man, occasionally a woman. At the great Sabbaths, where he appeared in
his grand array, he was disguised out of recognition; at the small
meetings, in visiting his votaries, or when inducing a possible convert to
join the ranks of the witch-society, he came in his own person, usually
dressed plainly in the costume of the period. When in ordinary clothes he
was indistinguishable from any other man of his own rank or age, but the
evidence suggests that he made himself known by
[1. County Folklore, iii, Orkney,
pp. 103,107-8.
2. Stearne, pp. 28, 38
3. Highland Papers, iii, pp. 16,
17.]
some manual gesture, by a
password, or by some token carried on his person. The token seems to have
been carried on the foot, and was perhaps a specially formed boot or shoe,
or a foot-covering worn under the shoe.[1]
Besides the Grand Master himself
there was often a second 'Devil', younger than the Chief. There is no
indication whatsoever as to the method of appointing the head of the
witch-community, but it seems probable that on the death of the principal
'Devil' the junior succeeded, and that the junior was appointed from among
the officers (see chap. vii). This suggestion, however, does not appear to
hold good where a woman was the Chief, for her second in command was
always a man and often one well advanced in years. The elderly men always
seem to have had grey beards.
Danaeus in 1575 summarizes the
evidence and says of the Devil, 'he appeareth vnto them in likenesse of a
man, insomuch that it hapneth many tymes, that among a great company of
men, the Sorcerer only knoweth Satan, that is present, when other doo not
know him, although they see another man, but who or what he is they know
not'.[2] De Lancre says, 'On a obserué de tout temps que lors qu'il veut
receuoir quelcun à faire pacte auec luy, il se presente tousiours en homme'.[3]
Cooper states that 'the Wizards and Witches being met in a place and time
appointed, the devil appears to them in humane shape'.[4] Even a modern
writer, after studying the evidence, acknowledges that the, witches 'seem
to have been undoubtedly the victims of unscrupulous and designing knaves,
who personated Satan '.[5]
The witches not only described the
personal appearance of the Devil, but often gave careful details as to his
clothes; such details are naturally fuller when given by the women than by
the men.
[1. It is possible that the shoe
was cleft like the modern 'hygienic' shoe. Such a shoe is described in the
ballad of the Cobler of Canterbury, date 1608, as part of a woman's
costume:
'Her sleevës
blue, her traine behind,
With silver hookes was tucked, I find;
Her shoës broad, and forked before.'
2. Danaeus, ch. iv.
3. De Lancre, Tableau, p.
69.
4. Cooper, Pleasant Treatise,
p. 2.
5. Burns Begg, p. 217.]
England.——John Walsh of
Dorsetshire, 1566, described the Devil, whom he called his Familiar, as 'sometymes
like a man in all proportions, sauing that he had clouen feete'.[1] The
Lancashire witch, Anne Chattox, 1613, said, 'A thing like a Christian man
did sundry times come to this Examinate, and requested this Examinate to
giue him her Soule: And in the end, this Examinate was contented to giue
him her sayd Soule, shee being then in her owne house, in the Forrest of
Pendle; wherevpon the Deuill then in the shape of a Man, sayd to this
Examinate: Thou shalt want nothing.' Elizabeth Southerns of the same Coven
said that 'there met her this Examinate a Spirit or Deuill, in the shape
of a Boy, the one halfe of his Coate blacke, and the other browne'.[2] To
Margaret Johnson, one of the later Lancashire witches, 1633, there
appeared 'a spirit or divell in the similitude and proportion of a man,
apparelled in a suite of black, tyed about w th silke
pointes'.[3] The Yarmouth witch, 1644, 'when she was in Bed, heard one
knock at her Door, and rising to her Window, she saw, it being Moonlight,
a tall black Man there'.[4] The Essex witches, 1645, agreed very fairly in
their description of the man who came amongst them: according to Elizabeth
Clarke he appeared 'in the shape of a proper gentleman, with a laced band,
having the whole proportion of a man . . . He had oftentimes knocked at
her dore in the night time; and shee did arise open the dore and let him
in'; Rebecca Weste gave evidence that 'the Devil appeared in the likeness
of a proper young man'; and Rebecca Jones said that the Devil as 'a very
handsome young man came to the door, who asked how she did'; on another
occasion she met the Devil, 'as shee was going to St. Osyth to sell
butter', in the form of a 'man in a ragged sute'.[5] There are two
accounts of the evidence given by the Huntingdonshire witch, Joan Wallis
of Keiston, 1646: Stearne says that she 'confessed the Devill came to her
in the likenesse of a man in blackish cloathing, but had cloven feet'.
Davenport's record is slightly different: 'Blackman came first to her,
about a
[1. Examination of John Walsh.
2. Potts, D 3, B 2.
3. Baines, i, p. 607 note.
4. Hale, p. 46.
5. Howell, iv, 833, 836, 840,
854-5.]
twelve-moneth since, like a man
something ancient, in blackish cloathes, but he had ugly feet
uncovered.'[1] The evidence of the Suffolk witches, 1645-6, is to the same
effect; Thomazine Ratcliffe of Shellie confessed that 'there came one in
the likeness of a man.——One Richmond, a woman which lived at
Brampford, confessed the Devill appeared to her in the likenesse of a
man, called Daniel the Prophet.——One Bush of Barton,
widdow, confessed that the Devill appeared to her in the shape of a young
black man'.[2] All the Covens of Somerset, 1664, were evidently under one
Chief; he came to Elizabeth Style as 'a handsome man'; to Elizabeth Style,
Anne Bishop, Alice Duke, and Mary Penny as 'a Man in black Clothes, with a
little Band'; to Christian Green 'in the shape of a Man in blackish
Clothes'; and to Mary and Catherine Green as 'a little Man in black
Clothes with a little Band'.[3] To the Yorkshire witch, Alice Huson, 1664,
he appeared 'like a Black Man on a Horse upon the Moor', and again
'like a Black Man upon a Black Horse, with Cloven Feet'.[4] Abre
Grinset of Dunwich, in Suffolk, 1665, said 'he did appear in the form of a
Pretty handsom Young Man'.[5] In Northumberland, 1673, Ann Armstrong said
that 'she see the said Ann Forster [with twelve others and] a long black
man rideing on a bay galloway, as she thought, which they call'd there
protector'.[6] The Devonshire witch Susanna Edwards, 1682, enters into
some detail: 'She did meet with a gentleman in a field called the
Parsonage Close in the town of Biddiford. And saith that his apparel was
all of black. Upon which she did hope to have a piece of money of him.
Whereupon the gentleman drawing near unto this examinant, she did make a
curchy or courtesy unto him, as she did use to do to gentlemen. Being
demanded what and who the gentleman she spake of was, the said examinant
answered and said, That it was the Devil.'[7] In Northamptonshire, 1705,
he came to Mary Phillips and Elinor Shaw as 'a tall black Man'.[8]
Scotland.——The earliest
description is in the trial of Bessie
[1. Stearne, p. 13.——Davenport, p.
13.
2. Stearne, pp. 22, 29, 30.
3. Glanvil, pt. ii, pp. 136, 137,
147, 149, 156, 161-5.
4. Hale, p. 58.
5. Petto, p. 18.
6. Denham Tracts, ii, p. 301.
7. Howell, viii, 1035
8. Elinor Shaw and Mary
Phillips, p. 6.]
Dunlop of Lyne in Ayrshire in
1576, and is one of the most detailed. Bessie never spoke of the person,
who appeared to her, as the 'Devil', she invariably called him Thom Reid;
but he stood to her in the same relation that the Devil stood to the
witches, and like the Devil he demanded that she should believe on him.
She described him as 'ane honest wele elderlie man, gray bairdit, and had
ane gray coitt with Lumbart slevis of the auld fassoun; ane pair of gray
brekis, and quhyte schankis, gartanit aboue the kne; ane blak bonet on his
heid, cloise behind and plane befoir, with silkin laissis drawin throw the
lippis thairof; and ane quhyte wand in his hand'.[1] Alison Peirson, 1588,
must have recognized the man who appeared to her, for she 'wes conuict of
the vsing of Sorcerie and Wichcraft, with the Inuocatioun of the spreitis
of the Dewill; speciallie, in the visioune and forme of ane Mr. William
Sympsoune, hir cousing and moder-brotheris-sone, quha sche affermit wes
ane grit scoller and doctor of medicin'.[2] Though the Devil of North
Berwick, 1590, appeared in disguise, it is not only certain that he was a
man but his identity can be determined. Barbara Napier deposed that 'the
devil wess with them in likeness of ane black man . . . the devil start up
in the pulpit, like a mickle blak man, with ane black beard sticking out
like ane goat's beard, clad in ane blak tatie [tattered] gown and ane
ewill favoured scull bonnet on his heid; hauing ane black book in his
hand'. Agnes Sampson's description in the official record was very brief:
'he had on him ane gown, and ane hat, which were both black';[3] but
Melville, who probably heard her evidence, puts it more dramatically: 'The
deuell wes cled in ane blak gown with ane blak hat vpon his head. . . .
His faice was terrible, his noise lyk the bek of ane egle, gret bournyng
eyn; his handis and leggis wer herry, with clawes vpon his handis, and
feit lyk the griffon.'[4] John Fian merely mentions that the first time
the Devil came he was clothed in white raiment.[5] The evidence from
Aberdeen, 1596-7, points to there being two, Chiefs, one old and one
young. Ellen Gray confessed that
[1. Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, pp. 51-6.
2. Id., i, pt. ii, p. 162.
3. Id., i, pt. ii, pp. 245-6, 239.
Spelling modernized.
4. Melville, pp. 395-6.
5. Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 210.]
'the Devill, thy maister, apperit
to thee in the scheap of ane agit man, beirdit, with a quhyt gown and a
thrummit [shaggy] hatt'. Andro Man 'confessis that Crystsunday cum to hym
in liknes of ane fair angell, and clad in quhyt claythis'. Christen
Mitchell stated that 'Sathan apperit to the in the lyknes of a littill
crippill man'; and Marion Grant gave evidence that 'the Deuill, quhom thow
callis thy god, apperit to thee in ane gryte man his licknes, in silkin
abuilzeament [habiliment], withe ane quhyt candill in his hand'.[1]
Isobell Haldane of Perth, 1607, was carried away into a fairy hill, 'thair
scho stayit thrie dayis, viz. fra Thurisday till Sonday at xii houris.
Scho mett a man with ane gray beird, quha brocht hir furth agane.' This
man stood to her in the same relation as Thom Reid to Bessie Dunlop, or as
the Devil to the witches.[2] Jonet Rendall of Orkney, 1629, saw him 'claid
in quhyt cloathis, with ane quhyt head and ane gray beard'.[3] In East
Lothian, 1630, Alexander Hamilton met the Devil in the likeness of a black
man.[4] At Eymouth, 1634, Bessie Bathgate was seen by two young men 'at 12
hours of even (when all people are in their beds) standing bare-legged and
in her sark valicot, at the back of hir yard, conferring with the devil
who was in green cloaths'.[5] Manie Haliburton of Dirlton, 1649, confessed
that, when her daughter was ill, 'came the Devill, in licknes of a man, to
hir hous, calling himselff a phisition'.[6] He came also as 'a Mediciner'
to Sandie Hunter in East Lothian in 1649.[7] In the same year he appeared
as a black man to Robert Grieve, 'an eminent Warlock' at Lauder.[8] In the
same year also 'Janet Brown was charged with having held a meeting with
the Devil appearing as a man, at the back of Broomhills'.[1] Among the
Alloa witches, tried in 1658, Margret Duchall 'did freelie confes hir
paction with the diwell, how he appeared first to hir in the liknes of a
man in broun cloathis, and ane blak hat'; while Kathren Renny said 'that
he first appeared to hir in the bodis medow
[1. Spalding Club Miscellany,
i, pp. 124, 127; 164, 172.
2. Pitcairn, ii, p. 537.
3. County Folklore, iii, p.
103. Orkney.
4. From the record of the trial in
the Justiciary Court, Edinburgh.
5. Spoltiswode Miscellany,
ii, p. 65.
6. Pitcairn, iii, p. 599.
7. Sinclair, p. 122.
8. Id., p. 47.
9. Arnot, p. 358.]
in the liknes of a man with gray
cloathis and ane blew cap'.[1] The years 1661 and 1662 are notable in the
annals of Scotch witchcraft for the number of trials and the consequent
mass of evidence, including many descriptions of the Grand-master. At
Forfar, in 1661, Helen Guthrie said that at several meetings the devil was
present 'in the shape of a black iron-hued man'; Katherine Porter 'saw the
divill and he had ane blacke plaid about him'; when Issobell Smyth was
alone gathering heather, 'hee appeared to hir alone lik ane braw
gentleman'; and on another occasion 'like a light gentleman'.[2] Jonet
Watson of Dalkeith, also in 1661, said 'that the Deivill apeired vnto her
in the liknes of ane prettie boy, in grein clothes. . . . Shoe was at a
Meitting in Newtoun-dein with the Deavill, who had grein clothes vpone
him, and ane blak hatt vpone his head'.[3] In the same year an Edinburgh
Coven was tried: Jonet Ker was accused that 'as you wer comeing from Edr
to the park you mett with the devill at the bough in the liknes of a
greavous black man'; Helene Casso 'met with the devill in liknes of a man
with greine cloaths in the links of Dudingstone qr he wes gathering sticks
amongst the whines'; Isobel Ramsay 'mett with the devill in the Liknes of
a pleasant young man who said qr live you goodwyf and how does the
minister And as you wes goeing away he gave you a sexpence saying God bud
him give you that qch you wared and bought meall therwith As also you had
ane uther meiting wt the devill in yor awne house in the liknes of yor
awne husband as you wes lying in yor bed at qch tyme you engadged to be
his servant'; Jonet Millar 'did meit wt the devill in liknes of ane young
man in the hous besyd the standing stane'.[4] The trials of the Auldearne
witches in 1662 are fully reported as regards matters which interested the
recorder; unfortunately the appearance of the Devil was not one of these,
therefore Isobel Gowdie's description is abbreviated to the following: 'He
was a meikle black roch man. Sometimes he had boots and sometimes shoes on
his foot; but still [always] his foot are
[1. Scottish Antiquary, ix,
pp. 50, 51.
2. Kinloch, pp. 114,128, 132.
3. Pitcairn, iii, p. 601.
4. From the records in the
Justiciary Court, Edinburgh.]
forked and cloven.'[1] At Crook of
Devon in Kinross-shire, in the same year, nine of the witches describe the
men they saw, for evidently there were two 'Devils' in this district;
Isobel Rutherford said that 'Sathan was in the likness of a man with gray
cloathes and ane blue bannet, having ane beard'; Bessie Henderson, 'the
Devil appeared to you in the likeness of ane bonnie young lad, with ane
blue bonnet'; Robert Wilson, 'the Devil was riding on ane horse with
fulyairt clothes and ane Spanish cape'; Bessie Neil, 'Sathan appeared to
you with dun-coloured clothes'; Margaret Litster, 'Sathan having grey
clothes'; Agnes Brugh, 'the Devil appeared in the twilight like unto a
half long fellow with an dusti coloured coat'; Margaret Huggon, 'he was an
uncouth man with black cloathes with ane hood on his head'; Janet Paton, 'Sathan
had black coloured clothes and ane blue bonnet being an unkie like man';
Christian Grieve, 'Sathan did first appear to yow like ane little man with
ane blue bonnet on his head with rough gray cloaths on him'.[2] Marie
Lamont of Innerkip, also in 1662, said that 'the devil was in the likeness
of a meikle black man, and sung to them, and they dancit'; he appeared
again 'in the likeness of a black man with cloven featt'.[3] At Paisley,
in 1678, the girl-witch Annabil Stuart said that 'the Devil in the shape
of a Black man came to her Mother's House'; her brother John was more
detailed in his description, he observed 'one of the black man's feet to
be cloven: and that the black man's Apparel was black; and that he had a
bluish Band and Handcuffs; and that he had Hogers[4] on his Legs without
Shoes'; Margaret Jackson of the same Coven confirmed the description, 'the
black man's Clothes were black, and he had white Handcuffs'.[5] The
clearest evidence is from an unpublished trial of 1678 among the records
in the Justiciary Court in Edinburgh:
'Margaret Lowis declaires that
about Elevin years ago a man whom she thought to be ane Englishman that
cured diseases in the countrey called [blank] Webb appeared to her in her
own house and gave her a drink and told her that she
[1. Pitcairn, iii, p. 603.
2. Burns Begg, pp. 221-39.
3. Sharpe, pp. 131, 134.
4. Hogers, a coarse
stocking without the foot.
5. Glanvil, pt. ii, pp. 291-5,
297.]
would have children after the
taking of that drink And declares that that man made her renunce her
baptisme . . . and declares that she thought that the man who made her doe
these things wes the divill and that she has hade severall meitings with
that man after she knew him to be the divill. Margaret Smaill prisoner
being examined anent the Cryme of witchcraft depones that having come into
the house of Jannet Borthvick in Crightoun she saw a gentleman sitting
with her, and they desyred her to sitt down and having sitten down the
gentleman drank to her and she drank to him and therefter the said Jannet
Borthvick told her that that gentleman was the divill and declares that at
her desyre she renunced her baptisme and gave herself to the divill.'
At Borrowstowness in 1679 Annaple
Thomson 'had a metting with the devill in your cwming betwixt Linlithgow
and Borrowstownes, where the devil, in the lyknes of ane black man, told
yow, that yow wis ane poore puddled bodie . . . And yow the said Annaple
had ane other metting, and he inveitted yow to go alongst, and drink with
him'. The same devil met Margaret Hamilton 'and conversed with yow at the
town-well of Borrowstownes, and several tymes in yowr awin howss, and
drank severall choppens of ale with you'.[1] The Renfrewshire trials of
1696 show that all Mrs. Fulton's grandchildren saw the same personage;
Elizabeth Anderson, at the age of seven, 'saw a black grim Man go in to
her Grandmothers House'; James Lindsay, aged fourteen, 'met his
Grandmother with a black grim Man'; and little Thomas Lindsay was awaked
by his grandmother 'one Night out of his Bed, and caused him take a Black
Grimm Gentleman (as she called him) by the Hand'.[2] At Pittenweem, in
1704, 'this young Woman Isobel Adams [acknowledged] her compact with the
Devil, which she says was made up after this manner, viz. That
being in the House of the said Beatie Laing, and a Man at the end of the
Table, Beatie proposes to Isobel, that since she would not Fee and Hire
with her, that she would do it, with the Man at the end of the Table; And
accordingly Isobel agreed to it, and spoke with the Man at that time in
General terms. Eight days after, the same Person in Appearance comes to
her, and owns that
[1. Scots Magazine, 1814,
p. 200.
2. Narrative of the Sufferings
of a Young Girle, pp. xxxix-xli——Sadd. Debell., pp. 38-40.]
he was the Devil.'[1] The latest
instance is at Thurso in 1719, where the Devil met Margaret Nin-Gilbert
'in the way in the likeness of a man, and engaged her to take on with him,
which she consented to; and she said she knew him to be the devil or he
parted with her'.[2]
In Ireland one of the earliest
known trials for ritual witchcraft occurred in 1324, the accused being the
Lady Alice Kyteler. She was said to have met the Devil, who was called
Robin son of Artis, 'in specie cuiusdam aethiopis cum duobus sociis ipso
maioribus et longioribus'.[3]
In France also there is a
considerable amount of evidence. The earliest example is in 143'0, when
Pierronne, a follower of Joan of Arc, was put to death by fire as a witch.
She persisted to the end in her statement, which she made on oath, that
God appeared to her in human form and spoke to her as friend to friend,
and that the last time she had seen him he was clothed in a scarlet cap
and a long white robe.[4] Estebene de Cambrue of the parish of Amou in
1567 said that the witches danced round a great stone, 'sur laquelle est
assis un grand homme noir, qu'elles appellent Monsieur'.[5] Jeanne
Hervillier of Verberie near Compiègne, in 1578, daughter of a witch who
had been condemned and burnt, 'confessa qu'à l'aage de douze ans sa mere
la presenta au diable, en forme d'vn grand homme noir, & vestu de noir,
botté, esperonné, auec vne espée au costé, & vn cheual noir à la porte'.[1],
Françoise Secretain of Saint Claud in 1598 stated 'qu'elle s'estoit donnée
au Diable, lequel auoit lors la semblance d'vn grand homme noir';
Thievenne Paget, from the same district, 'racontoit que le Diable
s'apparut à elle la premiere fois en plein midy, en forme d'vn grand homme
noir'; and Antide Colas 'disoit, que Satan s'apparut à elle en forme d'vn
homme, de grande stature, ayant sa barbe & ses habillemens noirs'.[7]
Jeanne d'Abadle, in the Basses-Pyrénées, 1609, 'dit qu'elle y vid le
[1. A true and full Relation of
the Witches of Pittenweem, p. 10,——Sinclair, p. lxxxix.
2. Sharpe, p. 191.
3. Camden Society, Lady
Alice Kyteler, p. 3.
4. Journal d'un bourgeois de
Paris, p. 687.
5. De Lancre, Tableau, p. 123.
6. Bodin, p. 226.
7. Boguet, pp. 8, 96].
Diable en forme d'homme noir &
hideux, auec six cornes en la teste, parfois huict'.[1] Silvain Nevillon,
tried at Orleans in 1614, 'dit que le Sabbat se tenoit dans vne maison, où
il vit à la cheminée com{m}e ledit Sabbat se faisoit, vn homme noir,
duquel on ne voyoit point la teste. Vit aussi vn grand homme noir à
l'opposite de celuy de la cheminée. Dit que les deux Diables qui estoient
au Sabbat, l'vn s'appelloit l'Orthon, & l'autre Traisnesac.'[2] Two
sisters were tried in 1652: one 'dict avoir trouvé ung diable en ghuise
d'ung home à pied'; the other said that 'il entra dans sa chambre en forme
d'ung chat par une fenestre et se changea en la posture d'un home vestu de
rouge'.[3]
In Belgium, Digna Robert, 1565,
met 'un beau jeune homme vètu d'une casaque noire, qui était le diable, et
se nommait Barrebon . . . À la Noël passée, un autre diable, nommé Crebas,
est venu près d'elle.' Elisabeth Vlamynx of Ninove in the Pays d'Alost,
1595, was accused 'que vous avez, avant comme après le repas, vous
septième ou huitième, dansé sous les arbres en compagnie de votre
Belzebuth et d'un autre démon, tous deux en pourpoint blanc à la mode
française' Josine Labyns in 1664, aged about forty: 'passé dix-neuf ans le
diable s'est offert à vos yeux, derrière votre habitation, sous la figure
d'un grand seigneur, vètu en noir et portant des plumes sur son
chapeau.'[4]
In the copper mines of Sweden,
1670, the Devil appeared as a minister.' In the province of Elfdale in the
same year his dress was not the usual black of that period: 'He used to
appear, but in different Habits; but for the most part we saw him in a
gray Coat, and red and blue Stockings; he had a red Beard, a high-crown'd
Hat, with Linnen of divers colours wrapt about it, and long Garters upon
his Stockings." This is not unlike the costume of Thom Reid as described,
more than a century before, by Bessie Dunlop.
[1. De Lancre, Tableau, p.
130.
2. Id., L'Incredulité, pp.
799, 800. The second Devil is called Tramesabot on p. 802.
3. Van Elven, La Tradition,
v (1891), p. 215. Neither the witches' names nor the place are given.
4. Cannaert, pp. 44, 53-4, 60.
5. Fountainhall, i, p. 14.
6. Horneck, Pt. ii, p. 316.]
In America the same evidence is
found. At Hartford, 1662, 'Robert Sterne testifieth as followeth: I saw
this woman goodwife Seager in ye woods with three more women and with them
I saw two black creatures like two Indians but taller'; and Hugh Crosia 'sayd
ye deuell opned ye dore of eben booths hous made it fly open and ye gate
fly open being asked how he could tell he sayd ye deuell apeered to him
like a boye and told him hee ded make them fly open and then ye boye went
out of his sight.'[1] Elizabeth Knap at Groton, 1671, 'was with another
maid yt boarded in ye house, where both of them saw ye appearance of a
mans head and shoulders, wth a great white neckcloath, looking in at ye
window, which shee hath since confessed, was ye Devill coming to her.——One
day as shee was alone in a lower roome she looked out of ye window, and
saw ye devill in ye habit of an old man, coming over a great meadow.'[2]
At Salem, 1692, Mary Osgood saw him as a black man who presented a book;
and Mary Lacey described him as a black man in a high-crowned hat.[3]
The evidence suggests that an
important part of the Devil's costume was the head-covering, which he
appears to have worn both in and out of doors. Though the fact is not of
special interest in itself, it may throw light on one of the possible
origins of the cult.
In 1576 Bessie Dunlop met Thom
Reid, who was clearly the Devil; he was 'ane honest wele elderlie man,
gray bairdit, and had ane gray coitt with Lumbart slevis of the auld
fassoun; ane pair of gray brekis and quhyte schankis, gartanit aboue the
kne; ane blak bonet on his heid, cloise behind and plane befoir, with
silkin laissis drawin throw the lippis thairof.'[4] At North Berwick in
1590, 'the deuell, cled in a blak gown with a blak hat vpon his head,
preachit vnto a gret nomber of them.'[5] Another description of the same
event shows that 'the Devil start up in the pulpit, like a mickle black
man clad in a black tatie gown; and an evil-favoured scull-bonnet on his
head'.[6] At Aberdeen in 1597 Ellen Gray described the
[1. Taylor, pp. 81, 118.
2. Green, pp. 9, 14.
3. Howell, vi, 660, 664; J.
Hutchinson, ii, pp. 31, 37.
4. Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 51.
5. Melville, p. 395.
7. Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 246.
Spelling modernized.]
Devil as 'ane agit man, beirdit,
with a quhyt gown and a thrummit hat'.[1] 'In 1609, in the Basses-Pyrénées,
when the Devil appeared as a goat, 'on luy voit aussi quelque espece de
bonet ou chapeau au dessus de ses cornes.'[2] The Alloa Coven in 1658
spoke of 'a man in broun clathis and ane blak hat'; and on two occasions
of 'a young man with gray cloathis and ane blew cap'.[3] In 1661 Janet
Watson of Dalkeith 'was at a Meitting in Newtoun-dein with the Deavill,
who had grein cloathes vpone him, and ane blak hatt vpone his head'.' Five
members of the Coven at Crook of Devon in 1662 spoke of the Devil's
head-gear: 'Sathan was in the likeness of a man with gray cloathes and ane
blue bannet, having ane beard. Ane bonnie young lad with ane blue bonnet.
Ane uncouth man with black clothes with ane hood on his head. Sathan had
all the said times black coloured cloathes and ane blue bonnet being an
unkie like man. Ane little man with ane blue bonnet on his head with rough
gray cloathes on him." In 1662 in Connecticut Robert Sterne saw 'two black
creatures like two Indians, but taller'; I as he was at a little distance
it is probable that he took a plumed or horned head-dress to be the same
as the Indian head-gear. In Belgium in 1664 Josine Labyns saw the Devil
wearing a plumed hat.[7] In Somerset in 1665 Mary Green said that when he
met the witches 'the little Man put his hand to his Hat, saying How do ye,
speaking low but big'.[8] At Torryburn Lilias Adie said that the light was
sufficient to 'shew the devil, who wore a cap covering his cars and
neck'.[9] In Sweden in 1670 the Devil came 'in a gray Coat, and red and
blue Stockings, he had a red Beard, a high-crown'd Hat, with Linnen of
divers colours wrapt about, and long Garters upon his Stockings'.[10] At
Pittenweem in 1670 the young lass Isobel Adams saw the Devil as 'a man in
black cloaths with a hat on his head, sitting at the table' in Beatty
Laing's house."
[1. Spalding Club Misc., i,
p. 127.
2. De Lancre, Tableau, p.
68.
3. Scottish Antiquary, ix,
pp. 50, 51.
4. Pitcairn, iii, p. 601.
5. Burns Begg, pp. 221, '223, 234,
235, 239.
6. Taylor, p. 81.
7. Cannaert, p. 60.
8. Glanvil, pt. ii, p. 164.
9. Chambers, iii, p. 298.
10. Glanvil, pt. ii, p. 316.
11. Sinclair, p. lxxxix.]
(b) Woman
The Queen of Elphin, or Elfhame,
is sometimes called the Devil, and it is often impossible to distinguish
between her and the Devil when the latter appears as a woman. Whether she
was the same as the French Reine du Sabbat is equally difficult to
determine. The greater part of the evidence regarding the woman-devil is
from Scotland.
In 1576 Bessie Dunlop's evidence
shows that Thom Reid, who was to her what the Devil was to witches, was
under the orders of the Queen of Elfhame:
'Interrogat, Gif sche neuir askit
the questioun at him, Quhairfoir he com to hir mair [than] ane vthir bodye?
Ansuerit, Remembring hir, quhen sche was lyand in childbed-lair, with ane
of her laiddis, that ane stout woman com in to hir, and sat doun on the
forme besyde hir, and askit ane drink at her, and sche gaif hir; quha
alsua tauld hir, that that barne wald de, and that hir husband suld mend
of his seiknes. The said Bessie ansuerit, that sche remembrit wele thairof;
and Thom said, That was the Quene of Elfame his maistres, quha had
commandit him to wait vpoun hir, and to do hir gude. Confessit and fylit.'[1]
In 1588 Alison Peirson 'was
conuict for hanting and repairing with the gude nychtbouris and Quene of
Elfame, thir diuers 3eiris bypast, as scho had confest be hir
depositiounis, declaring that scho could nocht say reddelie how lang scho
wes with thame; and that scho had freindis in that court quhilk wes of hir
awin blude, quha had gude acquentence of the Quene of Elphane. And that
scho saw nocht the Quene thir seuin 3eir.'[2] In 1597 at Aberdeen Andro
Man was accused that
'thriescoir yeris sensyne or
thairby, the Devill, thy maister, come to thy motheris hous, in the liknes
and scheap of a woman, quhom thow callis the Quene of Elphen, and was
delyverit of a barne, as apperit to the their, thow confessis that be the
space of threttie two yeris sensyn or thairby, thow begud to have carnall
deall with that devilische spreit, the Quene of Elphen, on quhom thow
begat dyveris bairnis, quhom thow hes sene sensyn . . . Thow confessis
that the Devill, thy maister, quhom thow termes Christsonday, and
[1. Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 56.
2. Id., i, pt. ii, p. 163.]
supponis to be ane engell, and
Goddis godsone, albeit he hes a thraw by God, and swyis [sways] to the
Quene of Elphen, is rasit be the speaking of the word Benedicite .
. . Siclyk, thow affermis that the Quene of Elphen hes a grip of all the
craft, bot Christsonday is the gudeman, and hes all power vnder God . . .
Vpon the Ruidday in harvest, in this present yeir, quhilk fell on a
Wedinsday, thow confessis and affermis, thow saw Christsonday cum out of
the snaw in liknes of a staig, and that the Quene of Elphen was their, and
vtheris with hir, rydand on quhyt haikneyes, and that thay com to the
Binhill and the Binlocht, quhair thay vse commonlie to convene, and that
thay quha convenis with thame kissis Christsonday and the Quene of
Elphenis airss. Thow affermis that the quene is verray plesand, and wilbe
auld and young quhen scho pleissis; scho mackis any kyng quhom scho
pleisis, and lyis with any scho lykis'.[1]
Another Aberdeen witch, Marion
Grant, was accused in the same year and confessed, 'that the Devill, thy
maister, quhome thow termes Christsonday, causit the dans sindrie tymes
with him and with Our Ladye, quha, as thow sayes, was a fine woman, cled
in a quhyt walicot'.[1] In Ayrshire in 1605 Patrick Lowrie and Jonet
Hunter were accused that they 'att Hallow-evin assemblit thame selffis
vpon Lowdon-hill, quhair thair appeirit to thame ane devillische Spreit,
in liknes of ane woman, and callit hir selff Helen Mcbrune'.[3] In the
Basses-Pyrénées in 1609, one could 'en chasque village trouuer vne Royne
du Sabbat, que Sathan tenoit en delices com{m}e vne espouse priuilegiée'.[4]
At the witch-mass the worshippers 'luy baisent la main gauche, tremblans
auec mille angoisses, & luy offrent du pain, des þufs, & de l'argent: & la
Royne du Sabbat les reçoit, laquelle est assise à son costé gauche, & en
sa main gauche elle tient vne paix ou platine, dans laquelle est grauée
l'effigie de Lucifer, laquelle on ne baise qu'après l'auoir premièrement
baisée à elle'.[5] In 1613 the Lancashire witch, Anne Chattox, made a
confused statement as to the sex of the so-called spirits; it is however
quite possible that the confusion is due to the recorder, who was
accustomed to consider all demons as male: 'After their eating, the Deuill
called
[1. Spalding Club Misc.,
pp. 119-21.
2. Id., i, p. 171.
3. Pitcairn, ii, p. 478.
4. De Lancre, L'Incredulité,
p. 36.
5. Id., Tableau, p. 401.]
Fancie, and the other Spirit
calling himselfe Tibbe, carried the remnant away: And she sayeth that at
their said Banquet, the said Spirits gaue them light to see what they did,
and that they were both shee Spirites and Diuels.'[1] In 1618 at Leicester
Joan Willimott 'saith, that shee hath a Spirit which shee calleth Pretty,
which was giuen vnto her by William Berry of Langholme in Rutlandshire,
whom she serued three yeares; and that her Master when he gaue it vnto
her, willed her to open her mouth, and hee would blow into her a Fairy
which should doe her good; and that shee opened her mouth, and he did blow
into her mouth; and that presently after his blowing, there came out of
her mouth a Spirit, which stood vpon the ground in the shape and forme of
a Woman, which Spirit did aske of her her Soule, which she then promised
vnto it, being willed thereunto by her Master.'[2] William Barton was
tried in Edinburgh about 1655:
'One day, says he, going from my
own house in Kirkliston, to the Queens Ferry, I overtook in Dalmeny Muire,
a young Gentlewoman, as to appearance beautiful and comely. I drew near to
her, but she shunned my company, and when I insisted, she became angry and
very nyce. Said I, we are both going one way, be pleased to accept of a
convoy. At last after much entreaty she grew better natured, and at length
came to that Familiarity, that she suffered me to embrace her, and to do
that which Christian ears ought not to hear of. At this time I parted with
her very joyful. The next night, she appeared to him in that same very
place, and after that which should not be named, he became sensible, that
it was the Devil. Here he renounced his Baptism, and gave up himself to
her service, and she called him her beloved, and gave him this new name of
Iohn Baptist, and received the Mark.'[3]
At Forfar in 1662 Marjorie Ritchie
'willingly and friely declared that the divill appeired to her thrie
severall tymes in the similitud of a womane, the first tyme in on Jonet
Barrie's house, the second tyme whyle she was putting vp lint in the
companie of the said Jonet, and that the divill did take her by the hand
at that tyme, and promised that she should never
[1. Potts, B 4.
2. Wonderful Discovery of
Margaret and Phillip Flower, p. 117.
3. Sinclair, p. 160.]
want money; and therafter that the
divill appeired to her in the moiss of Neutoune of Airly, wher and when
she did renunce her baptism'.[1] In 1670 Jean Weir, sister of the
notorious Major Weir, gave an account of how she entered the service of
the Devil; the ceremony began as follows: 'When she keeped a school at
Dalkeith, and teached childering, ane tall woman came to the declarants
hous when the childering were there; and that she had, as appeared to her,
ane chyld upon her back, and on or two at her foot; and that the said
woman desyred that the declarant should imploy her to spick for her to the
Queen of Farie, and strik and battle in her behalf with the said Queen
(which was her own words).'[2] Among the Salem witches in 1692, this
Rampant Hag, Martha Carrier, was the person, of whom the Confessions of
the Witches, and of her own Children among the rest, agreed, That the
Devil had promised her, she should be Queen of Hell.'[3]
As it is certain that the
so-called 'Devil' was a human being, sometimes disguised and sometimes
not, the instances in which these persons can be identified are worth
investigating. In most cases these are usually men, and the names are
often given, but it is only in the case of the Devil of North Berwick that
the man in question is of any historic importance; the others are simply
private individuals of little or no note.
Elizabeth Stile of Windsor, in
1579, gives a description of Father Rosimond's changes of form, which
points to his being the Chief of the Windsor witches: 'She confesseth, her
self often tymes to haue gon to Father Rosimond house where she founde hym
sittyng in a Wood, not farre from thence, vnder the bodie of a Tree,
sometymes in the shape of an Ape, and otherwhiles like an Horse.'[4] In
the reign of Elizabeth, 1584, there is a list of eighty-seven suspected
persons, among whom occur the names of 'Ould Birtles the great devil,
Roger Birtles and his wife and Anne Birtles, Darnally the sorcerer, the
oulde
[1. Kinloch, p. 144.
2. Law, p. 27 note.
3. Cotton Mather, p. 159.
4. Rehearsall both straung and
true, par. 24.]
witche of Ramsbury, Maud Twogood
Enchantress, Mother Gillian witch' and several other 'oulde witches'.[1]
The account by John Stearne the pricker, in 1645, indicates that one of
the magistrates of Fenny Drayton was the local Devil: 'Some will say, It
is strange they should know when they should be searched, if it be kept
private. I answer, Let it be kept never so private, it hath been common,
and as common as any other thing, as they themselves have confessed: for
so did they of Fenny-Drayton in Cambridge-shire, who made very large
Confessions, as, that the devil told them of our coming to town.'[2] One
of the clearest cases, however, is that of Marsh of Dunstable in 1649,
'whom Palmer confessed to be head of the whole Colledge of Witches, that
hee knows in the world: This Palmer hath been a witch these sixty years
(by his own confession) long enough to know and give in the totall summe
of all the conjuring conclave, and the Society of Witches in England."[3]
In Scotland a certain number of
identifications are also possible. Alison Peirson, tried in 1588, learnt
all her charms and obtained all her knowledge from the Devil, who came to
her in the form of Mr. William Sympson, her mother's brother's son, who
was a great scholar and doctor of medicine in Edinburgh.[4] Jonet Stewart
in 1597 'learnt her charms from umquhill Michaell Clark, smyth in Laswaid,
and fra ane Italean strangear callit Mr. John Damiet, ane notorious knawin
Enchanter and Sorcerer'.[5] In the trial of Marion Pardon of Hillswick in
1644 'it was given in evidence that a man spoke of the devil as Marion
Pardon's pobe, i.e. nurse's husband or foster father'.[6] In a case tried
at Lauder in 1649 there is an indication that one of the magistrates was
the Chief of the witches; Robert Grieve accused a certain woman at a
secret session of the court, 'but the Devil came that same night unto her,
and told her that Hob Grieve had fyled her for a witch'.[7] Isobel Ramsay
in 1661 was accused that 'you had ane uther meiting wt the devill in yor
awne hous in the liknes of yor awne
[1. Calendar of State Papers.
Domestic, 1584, p. 220.
2. Stearne, p. 45.
3. Gerish, The Divell's
Delusions, p. 11
4. Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, pp. 161-4.
5. Id., ii, pp. 26-7.
6. Hibbert, p. 578.
7. Sinclair, p. 48.]
husband as you wes lying in yor
bed at qch tyme you engadged to be his servant and receaved a dollar from
him'.[1] When a man had special knowledge as to which women were witches,,
it is suggestive that he might be himself the Devil; as in the case of the
Rev. Allan Logan, who 'was particularly knowing in the detection of
witches. At the administration of the communion, he would cast his eye
along, and say: "You witch wife, get up from the table of the Lord", when
some poor creature would rise and depart.'[2]
It seems probable that the
infamous Abbé Guibourg was the head of the Paris witches, for it was he
who celebrated the 'black mass' and performed the sacrifice of a child,
both of which were the duties of the 'Devil'.[3]
At Salem also the account given by
the witches of the Rev. George Burroughs points to his filling the office
of 'Devil', for he was 'Head Actor at some of their Hellish Randezvouses,
and one who had the promise of being a King in Satan's kingdom.——He was
the person who had Seduc'd and Compell'd them into the snares of
Witchcraft'.[4] That Burroughs was a religious person is no argument
against his being also the 'Devil' of Salem. Apart from the well-known
psychological fact that a certain form of religious feeling can exist at
the same time as the propensity to and practice of sexual indulgence,
there is proof that many of the witches were outwardly religious according
to the tenets of Christianity. So many Christian priests were also
followers of the witch-religion that the Inquisitors of the sixteenth
century were greatly exercised in their minds as to how to deal with the
offender. Antide Colas confessed that she attended the midnight mass on
Christmas Eve, then went to a witch meeting, and returned to the church in
time for the mass at dawn on Christmas morning.[5] At Ipswich in 1645
'Mother Lakeland hath been a professour of Religion, a constant hearer of
the Word for these many years, and yet a witch (as she confessed) for the
space of near twenty years'.[6] The best-known case
[1. From the record in the
Justiciary office, Edinburgh.
2. Chambers, iii, p. 299.
3. Ravaisson, 1679, pp. 334-6.
4. Mather, pp. 120, 125; J.
Hutchinson, History, ii, pp. 37 seq.
5. Boguet, p. 125.
6. Lawes against Witches and
Conivration, p. 7.]
of the kind is that of Major Weir
in Edinburgh in 1670, whose outward appearance tallies with the usual
descriptions of the Devil, and whose conduct is only explainable on the
supposition that he actually was the Chief of the witches: 'His garb was
still a cloak, and somewhat dark, and he never went without his staff. He
was a tall black man, and ordinarily looked down to the ground; a grim
countenance, and a big nose.'[1] His reputation for piety was so great
that a woman, who had actually seen him commit an offence against the
criminal law, was flogged for mentioning the fact and thus defaming a man
of such extreme and well-established piety. He was tried as a witch on his
own unsolicited confession, and was burnt together with his staff, dying
'impenitent' and renouncing all hope of a Christian heaven. The most
interesting case historically, however, is that of the Devil of the North
Berwick witches (1590). The number of people involved was thirty-nine,
i.e. three Covens; but though the names of all were known, only four were
tried. The records are given in considerable detail, and the
identification of the Chief is therefore possible.
The character of the accused in
this case is of great importance when considering the evidence. Nothing
more unlike the conventional idea of witches can well be imagined than the
man and women who were arraigned on that occasion Agnes Sampson, the wise
wife of Keith, was 'a woman not of the base and ignorant sort of Witches,
but matron-like, grave and settled in her answers, which were all to some
purpose'. John Fian, or Cunynghame, was a schoolmaster, therefore a man of
education; Effie McCalyan, the daughter of Lord Cliftonhall, was a woman
of family and position; Barbara Napier was also of good family. These were
clearly the moving spirits of the band, and they were all persons capable
of understanding the meaning and result of their actions.[2]
The accusation against the witches
was that they had met together to plot the murder of the King and Queen by
witchcraft. The trial therefore was on a double charge, Witchcraft
[1. Wilson, ii, p. 158.
2. The trials are published by
Pitcairn, i, pt. ii.]
and high treason, and both charges
had to be substantiated. Keeping in mind Lord Coke's definition of a witch
as 'a person who has conference with the Devil to take counsel or to do
some act', it is clear that the fact of the Devil's bodily presence at the
meetings had to be proved first, then the fact of the 'conference', and
finally the attempts at murder. The reports of the trial do not, however,
differentiate these points in any way, and the religious prepossession of
the recorders colours every account. It is therefore necessary to take the
facts without the construction put upon them by the natural bias of the
Christian judges and writers. The records give in some detail the account
of several meetings where the deaths of the King and Queen were discussed,
and instructions given and carried out to effect that purpose. At each
meeting certain ceremonies proper to the presence of the Grand Master were
performed, but the real object of the meeting was never forgotten or even
obscured.
The actual evidence of the affair
was given by Agnes Sampson (also called Anny Simpson or Tompson), John
Fian, Euphemia or Effie McCalyan, and Barbara Napier. As it was a case of
high treason, the two leaders, Sampson and Fian, were tortured to force
them to divulge the name of the prime mover. Both these two and Effie
McCalyan were condemned and executed; Barbara Napier, equally guilty
according to the evidence but more fortunate in her jurors, was released;
for which action the jurors themselves were subsequently tried.
Though the means used by the
witches may seem ridiculous, the murderous intention is very clear. First
they performed incantations to raise a storm to wreck the Queen's ship on
her way to Scotland, and the storm which actually arose very nearly
effected their purpose. As it failed, however, they betook themselves to
the accredited method of melting a waxen image, but they were also ready
to use poisons, which were to their minds the most virulent that could be
prepared.
I have arranged the evidence so as
to make as far as possible a consecutive narrative of the occurrences.
John Fian, tried December
26, 1590. The first items relate to his consulting with the Devil and
working witchcraft.
7. Item, Fylit, for the rasing of
wyndis att the Kingis passing to Denmark, and for the sending of ane
letter to Marioun Linkup in Leyth, to that effect, bidding hir to meit him
and the rest, on the see, within fyve dayes; quhair Satan delyuerit ane
catt out of his hand to Robert Griersoune, gevand the word to 'Cast the
same in the see hola!': And thaireftir, being mountit in a schip, and
drank ilk ane to otheris, quhair Satane said, 'ye shall sink the schip ',
lyke as thay thocht thay did. 8. Item, Fylit, for assembling him selff
with Sathane, att the Kingis returning to Denmark; quhair Satan promeist
to raise ane mist, and cast the Kingis Majestie in Ingland.
Agnes Sampson, tried
January 27, 1591. The first part of the dittay is entirely occupied with
her conferences with the devil and her healing the sick by his advice. 40.
Item, fylit and convict, of the delyuerie of ane letter, quhilk John Fiene,
clerk, maid in George Mutis bak[e] hous in the Pannis, accumpaneit with
the gudwyff of the hous, Gelie Duncan [and eight others], quha convenit
thair for rasing of storme, to stay the Quene's hame cuming to Scotland;
eftir consultatioun, quhether Gelie Duncan or Bessie Thomsoun wes meitest
to send the letter with; and concludit to send thc said Gelie, quhilk
letter wes send to Marioun Lenchop in Leyth. The effect quhairoff is this:
Marioun Lenchop, ye sall warne the rest of the sisteris, to raise the wind
this day, att eleavin houris, to stay the Quenis cuming in Scotland. Lyke
as they that wer convenit at the Pannis sould do their part be-eist; and
to meit thame that wer in the Pannis; and att thair meting, thay sould mak
the storme vniversall thro the see. [Then follows the method of doing this
by casting in a cat.]
[From Newes from Scotland.]
The said Agnis Tompson(Sampson) confessed, that the Divell, being then at
North Barrick Kirke attending their comming, in the habit or likenesse of
a man . . . and having made his ungodly exhortations, wherein be did
greatly inveigh against the King of Scotland, he received their oathes for
their good and true service towards him, and departed; which done, they
returned to sea, and so home again. At which time, the witches demaunded
of the Divell, 'why he did beare such hatred to the Kinge?' who aunswered,
'By reason the King is the greatest enemie hee hath in the world.' All
which their confessions and depositions are still extant upon record.
Barbara Napier, tried May
8, 1591. Released. Assisors tried June 7, and acquitted. The said Barbara
was accusit, that scho gaif hir presens, in the maist develisch and
tressonabill Conventioune, haldin be hir and hir complices in the Divellis
name, vpoune Lambmes-ewin last, att the New-heavin callit
Aitchesounes-heavin, betuix Musselburcht and Prestonpannis, sin his
Majestie come furth of Denmark; quhair war assemblit nyne principallis, to
witt, Agnes Sampsoune, Jonett Straittoun, Ewfame McCalyeane, hir selff,
Johne Fiene, Robert Griersoun, George Moitis wyffe in Prestoune, Margrett
Thomsoune, and Donald Robesoune; quhilkis nyne persounes, the Devill, quha
wes with thame in liknes of ane blak man, thocht maist meit to do the
turne for the quhilk thay wer convenit; and thairfore, he sett thame nyne
nerrest to him selff, in ane cumpany; and thay, togidder with the wyffe of
Saltoune myle and the rest of the inferiouris, to the nowmer of threttie
persounes, standand skairse the lenth of ane buird frae the foirsaid nyne
persounes in ane vthir cumpany;[1] Agnes Sampsoune proponit the
distructioune of his hienes persoune, saying to the Dewill, 'We haif ane
turne ado, and we would fain be att itt gif we could, and thairfore help
ws to itt'. The Dewill ansuerit, he sould do quhat he could, bott it wald
be lang to, because it wald be thoirterit [thwarted], and he promeist to
hir and thame ane pictour of walx, and ordenit hir and thame to hing,
roist, and drop ane taid, and to lay the droppis of the taid [mixed with
other supposedly virulent poisons], in his hienes way, quhair his Maiestie
wald gang inowre or outowre, or in ony passage quhair itt mycht drop vpoun
his hienes heid or body, for his hienes disttuctioune, that ane vther
mycht haif rewlit in his Maiesties place, and the ward [government] mycht
haif gane to the Dewill. Att the quhilk conventioune, his hienes name wes
pronunceit in Latine; and Agnes Sampsoune wes appointit to mak the pictour
and to gif it to the Devill to be inchantit, quhilk scho maid in deid, and
gaif itt to him; and he promiseit to giff it to the said Barbara and to
Effie McCalyan, att the nixt meting to be roistit. Margarett Thomsoun was
appointit to dropp the taid. There wes ane appointit to seik sum of his
hienes linning claithes, to do the turne with.
Agues Sampson, continued.
Anny Sampsoun affirmed that sche, in company with nyn vthers witches,
being convenit in the nycht besyd Prestounpannes, the deuell ther maister
being present standing in the midis of thame; ther a body of wax, schaipen
and maid be the said Anny Sampsoun, wrappit within a lynnyng claith, was
fyrst delyuerit to the deuell quhilk efter he had prontincit his verde,
delyuerit the said pictour to Anny Sampsoun, and sche to hir nyxt marrow,
and sa euery ane round about, saying, 'This is King James the sext,
ordonit to be consumed at the instance of a noble
[1. There were present on this
occasion thirty-nine persons, or three Covens. See chap. vii on the
Organization.]
man Francis Erle Bodowell![1]
Efterwart again, at ther meting be nycht at the kirk of Northberick, wher
the deuell, cled in a blak gown with a blak hat vpon his head, preachit
vnto a gret nomber of them out of the pulpit, having lyk leicht candles
rond about him. The effect of his language was till knaw, what skaith they
had done, whow many they had won to ther oppinion sen their last meting,
what succes the melting of the pictour had tane, and sic vain toyes. And
because ane auld sely pure plowman, callit Grey Meill, chancit to say that
'nathing ailit the King yet, God be thankit' the deuell gaif him a gret
blaw. Then dyuers amang them enterit in a raisonyng, maruelling that all
ther deuelleric culd do na harm to the King, as it did till others dyuers.
The deuell answer-it, 'Il est vn home de Dieu'.[1]
Euphemia McCalyan, tried
June 9, 1591, executed (burnt alive) June 25, 1591. Evidence was first
given as to her practising witchcraft and consorting with well-known
witches. Item, indyttit and accusit, of the conventicle had att North
Berwick Kirk, tuentie dayes before Michelmas, 1590; and thair inquyring
for the Kings pictour, gewin by Annie Sampsoun to the Dewill, to be
inchantit, for the tressonabill distructioun of the King. Item, indyttit
and accusit, for being att ane Conventioun haldin at the New Heaven callit
the Fayrie-hoillis, att Lambmes last wes, to the effect immediatlie aboue
writtin. Item, Indytit and accusit, for an Conventioun halden by yow and
utheris notorious Wichis, youre associattis, att the Brwme-hoillis, quhair
yow and thay tuik the sea, Robert Griersoun being your admerell and
Maister-manne. [Then comes the recital of the magical means used to raise
a tempest], quhairby the Quene wes putt back be storme. Item, Indytit, for
consulting with the said Annie Sampsoun, Robert Griersoun, and diuers
vtheris Wichis, for the tressonabill staying of the Quene's hame-cuming,
be storme and wind; and rasing of storme, to that effect; or ellis to haif
drownit hir Majestie and hir cumpany, be coniuring of cattis and casting
of thame in the sea, at Leith, at the bak of Robert Griersounis hous.
Barbara Napier, continued.
And siclyke, the said Barbara was accusit, that sche gaif hir bodelie
presens vpoun Alhallow-ewin last was, 1590 yeiris, to the frequent
conuentioune haldin att the Kirk of North-Berwick, quhair sche dancit
endlang
[1. Bannatyne Club,
Melville, Memoirs, p. 395. The sycophantic Melville adds, 'And
certanly he is a man of God, and dois na wrang wittingly, bot is inclynit
to all godlynes, justice and virtu; therfore God hes preserued him in the
midis of many dangers.']
the Kirk-yaird, and Gelie Duncan
playit on ane trump, Johnne Fiene missellit [muffled] led the ring; Agnes
Sampsoun and hir dochteris and all the rest following the said Barbara, to
the nowmer of sevin scoir of persounes. . . . And the Devill start vp in
the pulpett, lyke ane mekill blak man, haifand ane blak buik in his hand,
callit on ewerie ane of thame, desyring thame all to be guid serwandis to
him, and he sould be ane guid maister to thame. Robert Griersoun and Johne
Fian stuid on his left hand; and the said Robert ffand grit fault with the
Dewill, and cryit out, that all quhilkis wer besyd mycht heir, becaus his
hienes pictour was nocht gewin thame, as wes promesit; the said Effie
McCalyan remembrand and bid[d]and the said Robert Griersoun to speir for
the pictour, meaning his Maiesties pictour, quhilk sould have been roistit.
Robert Griersoun said thir wordis, 'Quhair is the thing ye promiseit?
meaning the pictour of walx, dewysit for roisting and vndoing his hienes
persoune, quhilk Agnes Sampsoune gaif to him; and Robert cryit to 'haif
the turne done'; yit his hienes name was nocht nameit, quhill thay that
wer wernen nameit him; craifand in playne termes his hienes pictour. Bot
he ansuerit, 'It sould be gottin the nixt meitting; and he wald hald the
nixt assemblie for that caus the soner: It was nocht reddie at that tyme.'
Robert Griersoune ansuerit, 'Ye promiseit twyis and begylit ws.' And four
honest-like wemene wer very ernist and instant to haif itt. And the said
Barbara and Effie McCalyane gatt than ane promeis of the Dewill, that his
hienes pictour sould be gottin to thame twa, and that rycht sone: And this
mater of his hienes pictour was the caus of that assemblie.
This ends the evidence of the
witches; the point to be proved now is the identity of the man whom they
believed in and obeyed as God incarnate.
In all cases of murder or
attempted murder it is necessary to find the person who would benefit, for
murder is differentiated from manslaughter by the fact that it is
deliberately planned and that it is done for a motive. In the case of the
witches of North Berwick, the man who instigated the meetings, and to whom
consequently suspicion points, was Francis Stewart Earl of Bothwell. His
position as regards both the King and the witches must therefore be
investigated.
Francis, afterwards Earl of
Bothwell, was the eldest son of John Stewart and Jane Hepburn, sister of
that Earl of Bothwell whom Mary Queen of Scots married. Francis succeeded
his maternal uncle in title and estates. His father, Lord John Stewart,
was an illegitimate son of James V. The Pope, however, legitimized all the
natural children of James V; and Mary, after her accession, granted
letters of legitimation[1] to her two half-brothers, John Stewart, and
James, afterwards the Regent Moray. John was slightly the elder of the
two, and had he been legitimate would have been the heir to the exclusion
of Mary. The Regent Moray left only daughters, whereas John Stewart had
several sons, of whom Francis was the eldest. Francis might therefore
claim to be the next heir male to the throne of Scotland, and possibly of
England, had James VI died without children. James's own opinion of the
matter is shown in his speech to his Parliament in 1592, when he denounced
Bothwell as an aspirant to the throne, although he was 'but a bastard, and
could claim no title to the crown'. Bothwell, however, was himself no
bastard, though his father was. But the significance of the witches'
attempt, as well as the identity of the chief personage at their meeting,
is given in Barbara Napier's evidence as to the reason for the attempted
murder of the King, 'that another might have ruled in his Majesty's place,
and the government might have gone to the Devil'. By changing the title
'the Devil' by which he was known to the witches, to the title 'Earl of
Bothwell' by which he was known outside the community, the man and the
motive are manifest. This hypothesis is borne out by the contemporary
accounts.
The trial of the witches created a
great stir, and Bothwell's name was freely coupled with the witches'. He
denied all complicity; this was only natural, as confession would have
meant an acknowledgement of high treason. But his followers might have
betrayed him. The two leaders, Agnes Sampson and John Fian, were tortured.
Sampson admitted that the wax image was made at the instance of Francis,
Earl of Bothwell; an admission sufficiently damning, but beyond that she
would say nothing. The real danger to Bothwell lay in Fian. Under torture
he made admissions and signed a confession in the presence of the King. He
was then
[1. Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot.,
No. 565, Feb. 7, 1550/1.]
'by the maister of the prison
committed to ward, and appointed to a chamber by himselfe; where,
foresaking his wicked wayes, acknowledging his most ungodly lyfe, shewing
that he had too much folowed the allurements and enticements of Sathan,
and fondly practised his conclusions, by conjuring, witchcraft,
inchantment, sorcerie, and such like, hee renounced the Devill and all his
wicked workes, vowed to lead the lyfe of a Christian, and seemed newly
converted to God. The morrow after, upon conference had with him, he
granted that the Devill had appeared unto him in the night before,
appareled all in blacke, with a white wande in his hande; and that the
Devill demaunded of him, "If hee woulde continue his faithfull service,
according to his first oath and promise made to that effect": Whome (as
hee then saide) he utterly renounced to his face, and said unto him in
this manner, "Avoide! Sathan, avoide! for I have listned too much unto
thee, and by the same thou hast undone me; in respect whereof I utterly
forsake thee". To whome the Devill answered, that "once ere thou die thou
shalt bee mine". And with that (as he sayd) the Devill brake the white
wand, and immediately vanished foorth of his sight. Thus, all the daie,
this Doctor Fian continued verie solitarie, and seemed to have a care of
his owne soule, and would call uppon God, showing himselfe penitent for
his wicked life; neverthelesse, the same night, hee found such meanes that
he stole the key of the prison doore and chamber in which he was, which in
the night hee opened and fled awaie to the Saltpans, where hee was alwayes
resident, and first apprehended. Of whose sodaine departure, when the
Kings Majestie had intelligence, hee presently commanded diligent inquirie
to bee made for his apprehension; and for the better effecting thereof hee
sent publike proclamations into all partes of his lande to the same
effect. By means of whose hot and harde pursuite he was agayn taken, and
brought to prison; and then, being called before the Kings Highnes, hee
was reexamined, as well touching his departure, as also touching all that
had before happened. But this Doctor, notwithstanding that his owne
confession appeareth, remaining in recorde under his owne hande writting,
and the same thereunto fixed in the presence of the Kings Majestie and
sundrie of his Councell, yet did hee utterly denie the same. Whereupon the
Kings Majestie, perceiving his stubborne wilfulnesse, conceived and
imagined, that in the time of his absence, hee had entered into newe
conference and league with the Devill his maister'. [Fian was then
subjected to the most horrible tortures that could be devised.] 'And
notwithstanding all these grievous paines and cruel torments, hee would
not confess anie thinges; so deeply had the Devill entered into his heart,
that hee utterly denied all that which he before avouched; and would saie
nothing thereunto, but this, that what hee had done and saide before, was
onely done and sayde, for fear of paynes which he had endured'.[1]
He continued steadfast and was
executed at the Castle Hill. The character of Fian is perfectly
consistent. Under torture he signed a confession, which confession might
have implicated Bothwell. That night Bothwell himself, or one of his
emissaries, obtained access to the prisoner and arranged for his escape.
The wretched Fian was faced with death either way; if he retracted his
confession, he would die as a criminal by the hands of the law; if he held
to it, he would die as a traitor by the hands of his comrades. There was
no alternative. All that day he 'continued verie solitarie', calling upon
God, but by night he had made his choice and fled. He apparently escaped
without difficulty. The story of his stealing the keys of his own cell and
of the prison door is absurd; the escape was obviously effected by
connivance just as later on Bothwell's own escape was effected. Fian went
back to his own home, where, according to James's surmise, he had an
interview with the Devil (i. e. Bothwell), and there he tamely waited till
the officers of the law came and recaptured him. This tameness is not in
keeping with the rest of his character. A man with sufficient courage and
resource to get out of a strongly guarded prison would have made good his
escape; an easy enough matter in those turbulent times. Fian then must
have been retaken because he wished to be retaken. For fear of torture and
in hope of pardon he signed the first confession, implicating Bothwell[2]
yet later he endured agonies of torture with the certainty of death rather
than acknowledge one word which might lead to the discovery that James was
bent upon. James's surmise was perhaps more than a mere guess; it was
prompted by his knowledge of the facts. Fian had had an interview
[1. Newes from Scotland.
Quoted in Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, pp. 213-23.
2. It is perhaps significant that
the confession of John Fian, and the trials of both Barbara Napier and of
Bothwell himself for witchcraft, have disappeared from the Justiciary
Records.]
with his Master, whom he believed
to be God Incarnate, ane like many a Christian martyr he atoned for the
first betrayal by steadfast courage through cruel torment even to death.
Reading the accounts in the light
of this supposition, it is seen that every one, including James, suspected
Bothwell. Even if they did not acknowledge his divinity, they feared the
magical powers which, as Chief of the Witches, he was supposed to wield.
It is impossible to study the details of this period without realizing the
extraordinary fear which James had of his cousin; it was fear with an
underlying horror, totally different from his feeling towards his other
turbulent subjects. When Bothwell, seeking pardon, was introduced into
Holyrood Palace by Lady Athol in the early morning of July 24, 1593, he
entered the King's chamber. James, always undignified, was caught in the
middle of his morning toilet; he tried to run into the Queen's room, but
the way was barred by Bothwell's friends and the door was locked. 'The
king, seeing no other refuge, asked what they meant. Came they to seek his
life? let them take it——they would not get his soul.'[1] This remark, made
in the urgency and excitement of the moment, is highly significant. Had
Bothwell been, like many of James's other enemies, merely an assassin,
James would not have spoken of his soul. But Bothwell as the Devil of the
witches had the right to demand the yielding of the soul, and James was
aware of the fact.
The birth of James's children
removed Bothwell's hopes of succession; the power of the witch
organization, of which he was the Chief, was broken by the death of its
leaders. He had made a strong bid for power, he failed, fled the country,
and finally died in poverty at Naples. There George Sandys the traveller
heard of him: 'Here a certaine Calabrian hearing that I was an
Englishman, came to me, and would needs perswade me that I had insight in
magicke: for that Earle Bothel was my countryman, who liues at
Naples, and is in those parts famous for suspected negromancie.'[2]
The Devil being actually a human
being, the letter of introduction
[1. Burton, V, p. 283.
2. Sandys, p. 250.]
to him, given by a man-witch to a
would-be proselyte, becomes quite credible. It is worth quoting verbatim:
'Monseigneur, d'autant qu'il me
faut retirer de la Religion des Chrestiens, afin que ie multiplie vostre
party, duquel estant, il est raisonnable que ie vous glorifie et assemble
tant de gens que ie pourray, ie vous enuoye ce porteur pour estre du
nombre: c'est pourquoy ie vous prie de l'aider en ses amours.'
Satan's reply to the novice shows
a distinctly human trace of temper:
'Vous autres Chrestiens vous estes
perfides et obstinez: Quand vous auez quelque violent desir, vous vous
departez de vostre maistre, et auez recours à moy: mais quand vostre desir
est accompli, vous me tournez le dos comme à vn ennemi, et vous en
retournez à vostre Dieu, lequel estant benin et clement, vous pardonne et
reçoit volontiers. Mais fay moy vne promesse escrite et signee de ta main,
par laquelle tu renonces volontairement ton Christ et ton Baptesme, et me
promets que tu adhereras et seras auec moy iusqu'au iour du iugement; et
apres iceluy tu te delecteras encore auec moy de souffrir les peines
eternelles, et i'accompliray ton desir."
In many religions the disguising
of the principal personage -whether god or priest-as an animal is well
known. The custom is very ancient-such disguised human beings are found
even among the palaeolithic drawings in France; and on a slate palette
belonging to the late pre-dynastic period of Egypt there is a
representation of a man disguised as a jackal and playing on a pipe.[2]
The ritual disguise as an animal is condemned, with great particularity,
as devilish, in the Liber Poenitentialis of Theodore of the seventh
century (see supra, p. 21), showing that it continued in force
[1. De Lancre, Tableau, pp.
176, 177.
2. Quibell, pl. xxviii. The
palette itself is now in the Ashmolean museum,
Oxford].
after the conversion of England to
an outward appearance of Christianity. From the analogy of other religions
in which tile custom occurs, it would appear that it is a ritual for the
promotion of fertility; the animal represented being either the sacred
animal of the tribe or the creature most used for food.
The suggestion that the Devil was
a man, wearing either an animal's skin or a mask in the form of an
animal's head as a ritual disguise, accounts as nothing else can for the
witches' evidence as to his appearance and his changes of form. A
confusion, however, exists from the fact that the witches, and therefore
the recorders, usually spoke of the familiars as the Devil; but in almost
every case the disguised man can, on examination of the evidence, be
distinguished from the animal familiar.
The animal forms in which the
Devil most commonly appeared were bull, cat, dog, goat, horse, and sheep.
A few curious facts come to light on tabulating these forms; i.e. The
Devil appears as a goat or a sheep in France only; he is never found in
any country as a hare, though this was the traditional form for a witch to
assume; nor is lie found as a toad, though this was a common form for the
familiar; the fox and the ass also are unknown forms; and in Western
Europe the pig is an animal almost entirely absent from all the rites and
ceremonies as well as from the disguises of the Devil.
The witches never admitted in so
many words that the Devil was a man disguised, but their evidence points
strongly to the fact. In some cases the whole body was disguised, in
others a mask was worn, usually over the face. The wearing of the mask is
indicated partly by descriptions of its appearance, and partly by the
description of the Devil's voice. The Lorraine witches in 1589 said that
the Devils 'können nimmermehr die Menschliche Stimme so aussdrücklich
nachreden, dass man nicht leicht daran mercke, dass es eine gemachte
falsche Stimme sey. Nicolaea Ganatia, und fast alle andere sagen, dass sie
eine Stimme von sich geben, gleich denen, so den Kopff in ein Fass oder
zerbrochenen Hafen stecken und daraus reden. Auch geben sie etwann eine
kleine leise Stimme von sich.'[1] The North Berwick Devil in 1590 was
purposely disguised out of all recognition: ' The Devil start up in the
pulpit, like a mickle black man, with a black beard sticking out like a
goat's beard; and a high ribbed nose, falling down sharp like the beak of
a hawk; with a long rumpill' [tail].[2] This was Barbara Napier's account;
Agnes Sampson describes the same personage, 'The deuell caused all the
company to com and kiss his ers, quhilk they said was cauld like yce; his
body was hard lyk yrn, as they thocht that handled him; his faice was
terrible, his noise lyk the bek of an egle, gret bournyng eyn: his handis
and legis wer herry, with clawis vpon his handis and feit lyk the griffon,
and spak with a how voice.'[3] Boguet states that 'on demanda à George
Gandillon, si lors qu'il fut sollicité par Sata{n} de se bailler à luy,
Satan parloit distinctement. Il respondit que non, & qu'à peine pouuoit il
comprendre ce qu'il disoit.'[4] The evidence of the witches in the
Basses-Pyrénées makes it clear that a disguise was worn, and that a mask
was placed on the back either of the head or of the person; this also
explains part of Agnes Sampson's evidence given above. The effect of the
mask at the back of the head was to make the man appear two-faced, 'comme
le dieu Janus'. In the other case 'le diable estoit en forme de bouc,
avant vne queue, & au-dessoubs vn visage d'homme noir & n'a parole par ce
visage de derriere.——Vne grande queüe au derriere, & vne forme de visage
au dessoubs: duquel visage il ne profere aucune parole, ains luy sert pour
donner à baiser à ceux qui bon luy semble.——Marie d'Aspilecute dit qu'elle
le baisa à ce visage de derriere au dessoubs d'vne grande queüe; qu'elle
l'y a baisé par trois fois, & qu'il auoit ce visage faict comme le museau
d'vn bouc.——Bertrand de Handuch, aagee de dix ans, confessa que le cul du
grad maistre auoit vn visage derriere, & c'estoit le visage de derriere
qu'on baisoit, & non le cul.'[5] The Devil of the Basses-Pyrénées
evidently wore a mask over the face, for he had 'la voix effroyable & sans
ton, quand il parle on diroit que cest vn mullet qui se met à braire, il a
la voix
[1. Remigius, pt. i, p. 38.
2. Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 246.
Spelling modernized.
3. Melville, p. 395.
4. Boguet, p. 56.
5. De Lancre, Tableau, pp.
68, 73, 126.]
casse, la parole malarticulee, &
peu intelligible, parcequ'il a tousiours la voix triste & enroüee'. On
occasions also 'il quitoit la forme de Bouc, & prenoit celle d'homme'.[1]
In 1614 at Orleans Silvain Nevillon said 'qu'il vit à la cheminée vn homme
noir duquel on ne voyoit pas la teste. Vit aussi vn grand homme noir a
l'opposite de celuy de la cheminée, & que ledit hom{m}e noir parloit comme
si la voix fut sortie d'vn poinson. Dit: Que le Diable dit le Sermo{n} au
Sabbat, mais qu'on n'entend ce qu'il dit, parce qu'il parle com{m}e en
gro{n}dant.'[2] The devil who appeared to Joan Wallis, the Huntingdonshire
witch, in 1649, was in the shape of a man dressed in black, but he 'was
not as her husband, which speaks to her like a man, but he as he had been
some distance from her when he was with her'.[3] Thomazine Ratcliffe, a
Suffolk witch, said that the Devil 'spoke with a hollow, shrill voyce'.[4]
According to Mary Green (1665) the Somerset Devil, who was a little man,
'put his hand to his Hat, saying, How do ye? speaking low but big'.[5] In
the same year Abre Grinset, another Suffolk witch, confessed that she met
the Devil, who was in the form of 'a Pretty handsom Young Man, and spake
to her with a hollow Solemn Voice'., John Stuart at Paisley (1678) said
the Devil came to him as a black man, 'and that the black man's Apparel
was black; and that the black man's Voice was hough and goustie'.[7]
The coldness of the devil's entire
person, which is vouched for by several witches, suggests that the ritual
disguise was not merely a mask over the face, but included a covering,
possibly of leather or some other hard and cold substance, over the whole
body and even the hands. Such a disguise was apparently not always worn,
for in the great majority of cases there is no record of the Devil's
temperature except in the sexual rites, and even then the witch could not
always say whether the touch of the Devil was warm or not. In 1565 the
Belgian witch, Digna Robert, said the devil 'était froid dans tous ses
membres'.[8] In 1590, at North Berwick, 'he caused all the company to com
and kiss his ers,
[1. De Lancre, Tableau, pp.
225, 398.
2. Id., L'1ncredulé, pp.
799-801.
3. Stearne, p. 13.
4. Id., p. 22.
5. Glanvil, pt. ii, p. 164.
6. Petto, p. 18.
7. Glanvil, pt. ii, pp. 294-5.
8. Cannaert, p. 54.]
quhilk they said was cauld lyk
yce; his body was hard lyk yrn, as they thocht that handled him'.[1] In
1598 Pierre Burgot, whose statement is quoted by several authors, 'a
confessé, que le Diable luy donna à baiser sa main senestre, qui estoit
noire, comme morte, & toute froide'.[2] In 1609, in the Basses-Pyrénées,
Isaac de Queyran, aged 25, said that he and others 'le baiserent à vne
fesse qui estoit blanche & rouge, & auoit la forme d'vne grande cuisse
d'vn homme, & estoit velue'.[3] This shows the ritual disguise of the
person and suggests the use of an animal's hide with the hair still
attached. In 1645 the Essex witch Rebecca West said 'he kissed her, but
was as cold as clay'.[4] At Salisbury in 1653, when the witch Anne
Bodenham persuaded Anne Styles to join the community, 'then appeared two
Spirits in the likenesse of great Boyes, with long shagged black hair, and
stood by her looking over her shoulder, and the Witch took the Maids
forefinger of her right hand, and pricked it with a pin, and squeezed out
the blood and put it into a Pen, and put the Pen in the Maids hand, and
held her hand to write in a great book, and one of the Spirits laid his
hand or Claw upon the Witches whilest the Maid wrote; and the Spirits hand
did feel cold to the Maid as it touched her hand, when the witches hand
and hers were together writing'.[5] At Forfar in 1661 three of the witches
agreed as to the coldness of the Devil; 'Elspet Alexander confesses that
the divill kissed hir selfe that night and that it was ane cold kisse;
Katheren Porter confesseth that the divill tooke hir by the hand, that his
hand was cold; Isobell Smith confessed that he kissed hir and his mouth
and breath were cold."; In 1662 the Crook of Devon witches were also in
accord. Isabel Rutherford 'confesst that ye was at ane meeting at
Turfhills, where Sathan took you by the hand and said "welcome, Isabel",
and said that his hand was cold.——Margaret Litster confessed that Sathan
took you be the hand and stayed the space of half an hour, Sathan having
grey clothes and his hand cold.——Janet Paton confessed that Sathan asked
you gif ye would be his servant, whilk ye did, and
[1. Melville, Memoirs, p.
395.
2. Boguet, pp. 53-4.
3. De Lancre, Tableau, p.
148.
4. Howell, iv, 842.
5. More, pp. 196-7.
6. Kinloch, pp. 115, 129,132.]
Sathan took you be the hand, and
ye said that his hand was cold.' On the other hand Agnes Murie 'knew not
whether his body was hot or cold'.' According to Isobel Gowdie at
Auldearne in 1662, 'he was a meikle blak roch man, werie cold';[2] at
Torryburn, Lilias Adie found his skin was cold';[3] and the Crighton
witches in 1678 said, 'he was cold, and his breath was like a damp
air'.[4] In 1697 little Thomas Lindsay declared that 'Jean Fulton his
Grand-mother awaked him one Night out of his Bed, and caused him take a
Black Grimm Gentleman (as she called him) by the Hand; which he felt to be
cold'.[5]
The evidence as to the forms
assumed by the Devil is tabulated here under each animal, each section
being arranged in chronological order,
1. Bull.——In 1593 at Angers
'Michel des Rousseaux, agé de 50 ans, dict que ledict homme noir appellé
Iupin se transforma aussitost en Bouc . . . et apres leur auoir baillé des
boüetes de poudre, il se tra{n}sforma en Bouuard'.[6] At Aberdeen in 1597
Marion Grant confessed that 'the Devill apperit to the, sumtyme in the
scheap of a beist, and sumtyme in the scheap of a man'. Jonet Lucas of the
same Coven said that the Devil was with them, 'beand in likenes of ane
beist'. Agnes Wobster, also of the same Coven, acknowledged that
'thaireftir Satan apperit to the in the likenes of a calff, and spak to
the in manner forsaid, and baid the be a gude servand to him'.[7] In 1608
Gabriel Pellé confessed that he went with a friend to the Sabbath, where
'le Diable estoit en vache noire, & que cette vache noire luy fit renoncer
Dieu'.[8] De Lancre says that at Tournelle the Devil appeared 'parfois
comme vn grand Bþuf d'airain couché à terre, comme vn Bþuf naturel qui se
repose'.[3] At Lille in 1661 the witches 'adored a beast with which they
committed infamous things'.[10]
[1. Burns Begg, pp. 219, 221, 228,
230.
2. Pitcairn, iii, p. 603.
3. Chambers, iii, 298.
4. Fountainhall, i, p. 14.
5. Narrative of the sufferings
of a Young Girle, p. xli; Sadd. Debell., p. 40.
6. De Lancre, L'Incredulité,
p. 769.
7. Spalding Club Misc., i,
p. 12 9.
8. De Lancre, L'Incredulité,
p. 794.
9. Id., Tableau, p. 68.
10. Bourignon, Parole, p.
87; Hale, p. 26.]
According to Isobel Gowdie in
1662, the Devil of Auldearne changed his form, or disguise, continually,
'somtym he vold be lyk a stirk, a bull, a deir, a rae, or a dowg'.[1] [In
the above, I have taken the word 'beast' in its usual meaning as an animal
of the cattle tribe, but it is quite possible that the Lille beast,
beste in the original, may have been a goat and not a bull. This seems
likely from the fact that the sacrifice was by fire as in the other places
where the Devil used the goat-disguise.]
2. Cat.——The earliest
example of the cat-disguise is in the trial of the Guernsey witches in
1563, when Martin Tulouff confessed:
'q il y a viron ung quartier d'an
passez q il soy trouva auvecqs de la Vieillesse aultreme{n}t dit
Collenette Gascoing, en la rue fosse au Coully, là ou 1 y avoet chinq ou
vi chatz, dou il y en avoet ung qui estoet noir, qui menoit la dance, et
danssoient et luy dyst ladte Collenette, q il besait ledt
Chat et dt q il estoet sur ses pieds plat, et que ladite
Collenette le besa p de derriere, et luy p la crysse, et q fra{n}coize
Lenouff sa mère y estoet et Collette Salmon fae de Collas du port, laqlle
alloet deva{n}t et s'agenouillerent tos deva{n}t le Chat et
l'adorere{n}t en luy bailla{n}t ler foy, et luy dist ladite
Vieillesse q ledit Chat estoet le diable.'[2]
Françoise Secretain, in 1598, saw
the Devil 'tantost en forme de chat'. Rolande de Vernois said, 'Le Diable
se presenta, pour lors au Sabbat en forme d'vn groz chat noir.'[3] In 1652
another French witch confessed that 'il entra dans sa chambre en forme
d'ung chat et se changea en la posture d'un home vestu de rouge', who took
her to the Sabbath.[4] Both the Devonshire witches, Mary Trembles and
Susanna Edwards, in 1682, stated that they saw him as a lion, by which
they possibly meant a large cat.[5] In this connexion it is worth noting
that in Lapland as late as 1767 the devil appeared 'in the likeness of a
cat, handling them from their feet to their mouth, and counting their
teeth'.[6]
3. Dog.——At Chelmsford in
1556 Joan Waterhouse 'dydde as she had seene her mother doe, callynge
Sathan, whiche
[1. Pitcairn, iii, p. 613.
2. From a trial in the Guernsey
Greffe.
3. Boguet, pp. 8, 70, 411.
4. La Tradition, v (1891),
p. 215.
5. Howell, viii, 1034, 1036.
6. Pinkerton, i, p. 473.]
came to her (as she sayd) in the
lykenes of a great dogge'.[1] In 1616 Barthélemy Minguet of Brécy was
tried for witchcraft. 'Enquis, comme il a aduis quand le Sabbat se doit
tenir. Respond, que c'est le Diable qui luy vient dire estant en forme de
chien noir, faict comme vn barbet, parle à luy en ceste forme. Enquis, en
quelle forme se met le Diable estant au Sabbat. Respond, qu'il ne l'a
iamais veu autrement qu'en forme de barbet noir. Enquis, quelles
ceremonies ils obseruent estant au Sabbat. Respond, que le Diable estant
en forme de barbet noir (comme dessus est dit) se met tout droit sur les
pattes de derriere, les preche',[2] etc. In Guernsey in 1617, Isabel
Becquet went to Rocquaine Castle, 'the usual place where the Devil kept
his Sabbath; no sooner had she arrived there than the Devil came to her in
the form of a dog, with two great horns sticking up: and with one of his
paws (which seemed to her like hands) took her by the hand: and calling
her by her name told her that she was welcome; then immediately the Devil
made her kneel down: while he himself stood up on his hind legs; he then
made her express detestation of the Eternal in these words: I renounce
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost; and then caused
her to worship and invoke himself.'[3] Barton's wife, about 1655, stated
that 'one Night going to a dancing upon Pentland-hills, he went before us
in the likeness of a rough tanny-Dog, playing on a pair of Pipes, and his
tail played ey wig wag wig wag'.[4] In 1658 an Alloa witch named Jonet
Blak declared that he appeared to her first as 'a dog with a sowis
head'.[5] In 1661 Jonet Watson of Dalkeith said that 'the Deivill apeired
vnto her, in the liknes of ane prettie boy, in grein clothes, and went
away from her in the liknes of ane blak doug'.[6] According to Marie
Lamont of Innerkip in 1662, 'the devill in the likeness of a brown dog'
helped to raise a storm., Margaret Hamilton, widow of James Pullwart of
Borrowstowness in 1679, was accused that she met 'the devil in the
likeness of a man, but he removed from you in the
[1. Witches of Chelmsford,
p. 34; Philobiblon Soc., viii.
2. De Lancre, L'Incredulité
p. 805.
3. Goldsmid, p. 12.
4. Sinclair, p. 163.
5. Scottish Antiquary, ix,
51.
5. Pitcairn, iii, p. 601.
7. Sharpe, p. 132.]
likeness of an black dog'.[1] The
Highland witches in the eighteenth century saw the devil as a dog; he was
'a large black ugly tyke', to whom the witches made obeisance; the dog
acknowledged the homage 'by bowing, grinning, and clapping his paws'.[2]
In the case of the dog-disguise, there is again a similarity with Lapp
beliefs and customs, the appearance of the Devil as a dog being not
uncommon in Lapland.[3]
4. Goat.——An interesting
point as regards this form of disguise is that it does not occur in Great
Britain, nor have I found it so far in Belgium. It prevailed chiefly in
France, from which all my examples are taken. At Poictiers in 1574 'trois
Sorciers & vne Sorciere declarent qu'ils estoyent trois fois l'an, à
l'assemblée generale, où plusieurs Sorciers se, trouuoyent prés d'vne
croix d'vn carrefour, qui seruoit d'enseigne. Et là se trouuoit vn grand
bouc noir, qui parloit comme, vne personne aux assistans, & dansoyent à
l'entour du bouc.'[4] At Avignon in 1581 'when hee comes to be adored, he
appeareth not in a humane forme, but as the Witches themselues haue
deposed, as soone as they are agreed of the time that he is to mount vpon
the altar (which is some rock or great stone in the fields) there to bee
worshipped by them, hee instantly turneth himselfe into the forme of a
great black Goate, although in all other occasions hee vseth to appeare in
the shape of a man.[5] In Lorraine in 1589 the Devil 'sich in einen
zottelichten Bock verwandelt hat, und viel stärker reucht und übeler
stinckt als immer ein Bock im Anfang des Frühlings thun mag'.[1] In Puy de
Dôme in 1594 Jane Bosdeau's lover took her to a meeting, and 'there
appeared a great Black Goat with a Candle between his Horns'.[7] In 1598
'Satan apres auoir prins la figure d'vn Bouc, se consume en feu'.[1] In
the Basses-Pyrénées in 1609:
'le Diable estoit en forme de
bouc, ayant vne queue, & audessoubs vn visage d'homme noir, & n'a parole
par ce visage
[1. Scots Magazine, 1814,
p. 201. Spelling modernized.
2. Stewart, p. 175. The whole
account is marred by the would-be comic style adopted by the author.
3. Pinkerton, i, p. 473.
4. Bodin, p. 187.
5. Michaelis, Discourse, p.
148.
6. Remigius, pt. i, p. 90.
7. F. Hutchinson, Historical
Essay, p. 42.
8. Boguet, p. 141.]
de derriere.——Marie d'Aguerre dit
qu'il y a vne grande cruche au milieu du Sabbat, d'où sort le Diable en
forme de bouc.——D'autres disent qu'il est comme vn grand bouc, ayant deux
cornes devant & deux en derriere; que celles de devant se rebrassent en
haut comme la perruque d'vne femme. Mais le commun est qu'il a seulement
trois cornes, & qu'il a quelque espece de lumiere en celle du milieu. On
luy voit aussi quelque espece de bonet ou chapeau au dessus de ces cornes.
On a obserué de tout temps que lorsqu'il veut receuoir quelcun à faire
pacte auec luy, il se presente tousiours en homme, pour ne l'effaroucher
ou effraier: car faire pacte auec vn Bouc ouuertement, tiendroit plus de
la beste que de la creature raisonnable. Mais le pacte faict, lors qu'il
veut receuoir quelqu'vn A l'adoration, communeme{n}t il se represente en
Bouc.'[1]
Silvain Nevillon confessed at
Orleans in 1614 'qu'il a veu le Diable en plusieurs façons, tantost comme
vn bouc, ayant vn visage deuant & vn autre derriere'.[2]
5. Horse——I give here only
the references to the Devil when actually disguised as a horse, but there
are a very great number of cases where he appeared riding on a horse.
These cases are so numerous as to suggest that the horse was part of the
ritual, especially as the riding Devil usually occurs in places where an
animal disguise was not used, e.g. in 1598, in Aberdeen, where Andro Man
'confessis that Crystsunday rydis all the tyme that he is in thair
cumpanie'.[3] The actual disguise as a horse is not common. Elizabeth
Stile of Windsor in 1579 'confesseth, her self often tymes to haue gon to
Father Rosimond house where she found hym sittyng in a Wood, not farre
from thence, vnder the bodie of a Tree, sometymes in the shape of an Ape,
and otherwhiles like an Horse'.[4] Helen Guthrie in 1661 stated that when
the Forfar witches were trying to sink a ship, 'the divell wes there
present with them all, in the shape of ane great horse. They returned all
in the same liknes as of befor, except that the divell wes in the shape of
a man.'[5] Mary Lacey of Salem in 1692 said that
[1. De Lancre, Tableau, pp.
67, 68, 69, 126.
2 Id., L'Incredulité, p.
800.
3. Spalding Club Misc., i,
p. 125. Cp. Elworthy on the Hobby-horse as the Devil, Horns of Honour,
p. 140.
4. Reehearsall both Straung and
True, par. 24.
5. Kinloch, pp. 122-3.]
he appeared in the shape of a
horse, 'I was in bed and the devil came to me and bid me obey him."
6. Sheep.——The
sheep-disguise, which is perhaps a form of the goat, is usually found in
France only. In 1453 'Guillaume Edeline, docteur en théologie, prieur de
S. Germain en Laye, et auparavant Augustin, et religieux de certaines
aultres ordres . . . confessa, de sa bonne et franche voulonté, avoir fait
hommage audit ennemy en l'espèce et semblance d'ung mouton'.[2] Iaquema
Paget and Antoine Gandillon in 1598 said that 'il prenoit la figure d'vn
mouton noir, portant des cornes'.[3] In 1614 at Orleans Silvain Nevillon
was induced to reveal all he knew; 'dit qu'il a veu le Diable en plusieurs
façons, tantost comme vn bouc, ores comme vn gros mouton'.[4]
The rarer animal disguises are the
deer and the bear. Of these the deer is found at Aberdeen in 1597, Andro
Man 'confessis and affermis, thow saw Christsonday cum owt of the snaw in
liknes of a staig';[5] at Auldearne in 1662, 'somtym he vold be lyk a
stirk, a bull, a deir, a rae, or a dowg';[6] at Hartford, Connecticut,
1662, Rebecca Greensmith said that 'the devil first appeared to her in the
form of a deer or fawn'.[7] The bear is still rarer, as I have found it
only twice-once in Lorraine, and once in Lancashire. In 1589 'es haben die
Geister auch etwann Lust sich in Gestalt eines Bären zu erzeigen'.[8] In
1613 Anne Chattox declared that the Devil 'came vpon this Examinate in the
night time: and at diuerse and sundry times in the likenesse of a Beare,
gaping as though lie would haue wearied [worried] this Examinate. And the
last time of all shee, this Examinate, saw him, was vpon Thursday last
yeare but one, next before Midsummer day, in the euening, like a Beare,
and this Examinate would not then speake vnto him, for the which the said
Deuill pulled this Examinate downe.'[9]
[1. Howell, vi, 663-4; J.
Hutchinson, ii, pp. 36-7.
2. Chartier, iii, 44-5.
3. Boguet, p. 70.
4. De Lancre, L'Incredulité,
p. 800.
5. Spalding Club Misc., i,
p. 121.
6. Pitcairn, iii, p. 613.
7. Taylor, p. 98.
8. Remigius, p. 98.
9. Potts, E 3.] |
