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VI. THE RITES
(continued)
WITCHES' RAIN-MAKING AND FERTILITY
RITES
IN common with many other
religions of the Lower Culture, the witch-cult of Western Europe observed
certain rites for rain-making and for causing or blasting fertility. This
fact was recognized in the papal Bulls formulated against the witches who
were denounced, not for moral offences, but for the destruction of
fertility. The celebrated Decree of Innocent VIII, which in 1488 let loose
the full force of the Church against the witches, says that 'they blight
the marriage bed, destroy the births of women and the increase of cattle;
they blast the corn on the ground, the grapes of the vineyard, the fruits
of the trees, the grass and herbs of the field'. Adrian VI followed this
up in 1521 with a Decretal Epistle, denouncing the witches 'as a Sect
deviating from the Catholic Faith, denying their Baptism, and showing
Contempt of the Ecclesiastical Sacraments, treading Crosses under their
Feet, and, taking the Devil for their Lord, destroyed. the Fruits of the
Earth by their Enchantments, Sorceries, and Superstitions'.
The charms used by the witches,
the dances, the burning of the god and the broadcast scattering of his
ashes, all point to the fact that this was a fertility cult; and this is
the view taken also by those contemporary writers who give a more or less
comprehensive account of the religion and ritual. Though most of the
fertility or anti-fertility charms remaining to us were used by the
witches either for their own benefit or to injure their enemies, enough
remains to show that originally all these charms were to promote fertility
in general and in particular. When the charm was for fertility in general,
it was performed by the whole congregation together; but for the fertility
of any particular woman, animal, or field, the ceremony was performed by
one witch alone or by two at most.
The power which the witches
claimed to possess over human fertility is shown in many of the trials.
Jonet Clark was tried in Edinburgh in 1590 'for giving and taking away
power from sundry men's Genital-members';[1] and in the same year and
place Bessie Roy was accused of causing women's milk to dry up.[2] The
number of midwives who practised witchcraft points also to this fact; they
claimed to be able to cause and to prevent pregnancy, to cause and to
prevent an easy delivery, to cast the labour-pains on an animal or a human
being (husbands who were the victims are peculiarly incensed against these
witches), and in every way to have power over the generative organs of
both sexes. In short, it is possible to say that, in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, the better the midwife the better the witch.
The Red Book of Appin,[3] which
was obtained from the Devil by a trick, is of great interest in this
connexion. It was said to contain charms for the curing of diseases of
cattle; among them must certainly have been some for promoting the
fertility of the herds in general, and individual animals in particular.
It is not unlikely that the charms as noted in the book were the result of
many experiments, for we know that the witches were bound to give account
to the Devil of all the magic they performed in the intervals between the
Sabbaths, and he or his clerk recorded their doings. From this record the
Devil instructed the witches. It is evident from the confessions and the
evidence at the trials that the help of the witches was often required to
promote fertility among human beings as well as among animals. The number
of midwives who were also witches was very great, and the fact can hardly
be accidental.
Witches were called in to perform
incantations during the various events of a farm-yard. Margrat Og of
Aberdeen, 1597, was 'indyttit as a manifest witche, in that, be the space
of a yeirsyn or theirby, thy kow being in bulling, and James
[1. Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 206;
Glanvil, pt. ii, p. 301.
2. Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 207.
3. J. G. Campbell, pp. 293-4. The
book was in manuscript, and when last heard of was in the possession of
the now-extinct Stewarts of Invernahyle.]
Farquhar, thy awin gude son
haulding the kow, thow stuid on the ane syd of the kow, and thy dochter,
Batrix Robbie, on the vther syd, and quhen the bull was lowping the kow,
thow tuik a knyff and keist ower the kow, and thy dochter keapit the sam,
and keist it over to the agane, and this ye did thryiss, quililk thou can
nocht deny'.[1] At Auldearne the Coven, to which Isobel Gowdie belonged,
performed a ceremony to obtain for themselves the benefit of a neighbour's
crop. 'Befor Candlemas, we went be-east Kinlosse, and ther we yoaked an
plewghe of paddokis. The Divell held the plewgh, and Johne Yownge in
Mebestowne, our Officer, did drywe the plewghe. Paddokis did draw the
plewgh as oxen; quickens wer sowmes, a riglen's horne was a cowter, and an
piece of an riglen's horne was an sok. We went two seueral tymes abowt;
and all we of the Coeven went still wp and downe with the plewghe,
prayeing to the Divell for the fruit of that land, and that thistles and
brieris might grow ther'.[2] Here the ploughing ceremony was to induce
fertility for the benefit of the witches, while the draught animals and
all the parts of the plough connoted barrenness for the owner of the soil.
The most detailed account of a
charm for human fertility is given in the confession of the Abbé Guibourg,
who appears to have been the Devil of the Paris witches. The ceremony took
place at the house of a witch-midwife named Voisin or Montvoisin, and
according to the editor was for the benefit of Louis XIV or Charles II,
two of the most notorious libertines of their age.
'Il a fait chez la Voisin, revêtu
d'aube, d'étole et de manipule, une conjuration en présence de la Des
Oeillets [attendant of Madame de Montespan], qui prétendait faire un
charme pour le (Roi) et qui était accompagnée d'un homme qui lui donna la
conjuration, et comme il était nécessaire d'avoir du sperme des deux
sexes, Des Oeillets ayant ses mois n'en put donner mais versa dans le
calice de ses menstrues et l'homme qui l'accompagnait, ayant passé dans la
ruelle du lit avec lui Guibourg, versa de son sperme dans le calice. Sur
[1. Spalding Club. Misc.,
i, p. 143.
2. Pitcairn, iii, p. 603. 'Toads
did draw the plough as oxen, couch-grass was the harness and trace-chains,
a gelded animal's horn was the Coulter, and a piece of a gelded animal's
horn was the sock.']
le tout, la Des Oeillets et
l'homme mirent chacun d'une poudre de sang de chauve-souris et de la
farine pour donner un corps plus ferme à toute la composition et aprés
qu'iI eut récité la conjuration il tira le tout du calice qui fut mis dans
un petit vaisseau que la Des Oeillets ou l'homme emporta.'[1]
The ecclesiastical robes and the
use of the chalice point to this being a ceremony of a religious
character, and should be compared with the child-sacrifices performed by
the same priest or Devil (see pp. 150, 157).
An anti-fertility rite, which in
its simplicity hardly deserves the name of a ceremony, took place at Crook
of Devon in Kinross-shire. Bessie Henderson 'lykeways confessed and
declared that Janet Paton was with you at ane meeting when they trampit
down Thos. White's rie in the beginning of harvest, 1661, and that she had
broad soals and trampit down more nor any of the rest'.[2]
The rain-making powers of the
witches have hardly been noted by writers on the subject, for by the time
the records were made the witches were credited with the blasting of
fertility rather than its increase. Yet from what remains it is evident
that the original meaning of much of the ritual was for the production of
fertilizing rain, though both judges and witnesses believed that it was
for storms and hail.
One of the earliest accounts of
such powers is given in the story quoted by Reginald Scot from the
Malleus Maleficarum, written in 1487, a century before Scot's own
book:
'A little girle walking abroad
with hir father in his land, heard him complaine of drought, wishing for
raine, etc. Whie father (quoth the child) 'can make it raine or haile,
when and where I list: He asked where she learned it. She said, of hir
mother, who forbad hir to tell anie bodie thereof. He asked hir how hir
mother taught hir? She answered, that hir mother committed hir to a
maister, who would at anie time doo anie thing for hir. Whie then (said
he) make it raine but onlie in my field. And so she went to the streame,
and threw vp water in hir maisters name, and made it raine presentlie. And
proceeding further with hir father, she made it haile in
[1. Ravaisson, 1679-81, p. 336.
2. Burns Begg, p. 224.]
another field, at hir father's
request. Herevpon he accused his wife, and caused hir to be burned; and
then he new christened his child againe.'[1]
Scot also gives 'certaine
impossible actions' of witches when he ridicules the belief
'that the elements are obedient to
witches, and at their commandement; or that they may at their pleasure
send raine, haile, tempests, thunder, lightening; when she being but an
old doting woman, casteth a flint stone ouer hir left shoulder, towards
the west, or hurleth a little sea sand vp into the element, or wetteth a
broome sprig in water, and sprinkleth the same in the aire; or diggeth a
pit in the earth, and putting water therein, stirreth it about with hir
finger; or boileth hogs bristles; or laieth sticks acrosse vpon a banke,
where neuer a drop of water is; or burieth sage till it be rotten; all
which things are confessed by witches, and affirmed by writers to be the
meanes that witches vse to mooue extraordinarie tempests and raine'.[2]
More quotes Wierus to the same
effect: 'Casting of Flint-Stones behind their backs towards the West, or
flinging a little Sand in the Air, or striking a River with a Broom, and
so sprinkling the Wet of it toward Heaven, the stirring of Urine or Water
with their finger in a Hole in the ground, or boyling of Hogs Bristles in
a Pot.'[3]
The throwing of stones as a
fertility rite is found in the trial of Jonet Wischert, one of the chief
witches at Aberdeen, and is there combined with a nudity rite. 'In hervest
last bypast, Mr. William Raves huikes [saw thee at] the heid of thi awin
gudmannis croft, and saw the tak all thi claiss about thi heid, and thow
beand naikit from the middill down, tuik ane gryte number of steynis, and
thi self gangand baklenis, keist ane pairt behind the our thi heid, and
ane wther pairt fordward.'[4]
Every contemporary writer who
gives a general view of the religion and ritual observes the witches'
powers over human fertility. Boguet says, 'Ils font encor cacher & retirer
les
[1. Reg. Scot, Bk. III, p. 60.
2. Id., Bk. III, p. 60.
3. More, p. 168.
4. Spalding Club Misc., i,
p. 93.]
parties viriles, et puis les font
ressortir quand il leur plait. Ils empeschent aussi tantost la copulation
charnelle de l'hom{m}e & de la femme, en retirant les nerfs, & ostant la
roideur du membre; et tantost la procreation en destournant ou bouchant
les conduicts de la semence, pour empescher qu'elle ne descende aux vases
de la generation.'[1] Scot, who quotes generally without any
acknowledgement and often inaccurately, translates this statement, 'They
also affirme that the vertue of generation is impeached by witches, both
inwardlie, and outwardlie: for intrinsecallie they represse the courage,
and they stop the passage of the mans seed, so as it may not descend to
the vessels of generation: also they hurt extrinsecallie, with images,
hearbs, &c.'[2] Bodin also remarks that witches, whether male or female,
can affect only the generative organs.[3] Madame Bourignon says that the
girls, whom she befriended,
'told me, that Persons who were
thus engaged to the Devil by a precise Contract, will allow no other God
but him, and therefore offer him whatsoever is dearest to them; nay, are
constrained to offer him their Children, or else the Devil would Beat
them, and contrive that they should never arrive to the State of Marriage,
and so should have no Children, by reason that the Devil hath power by his
Adherents, to hinder both the one and the other . . . So soon as they come
to be able to beget Children, the Devil makes them offer the desire which
they have of Marrying, to his Honor: And with this all the Fruit that may
proceed from their Marriage. This they promise voluntarily, to the end
that they may accomplish their Designs: For otherwise the Devil threatens
to hinder them by all manner of means, that they shall not Marry, nor have
Children.'[4]
Glanvil, writing on the Scotch
trials of 1590, speaks of some Effects, Kinds, or Circumstances of
Witchcraft, such as the giving and taking away power from sundry men's
Genital-members. For which Jannet Clark was accused.'[5] In the official
record Jonet Clark was tried and condemned for 'gewing of ane secreit
member to Iohnne Coutis; and gewing and taking of power fra sindrie mennis
memberis. Item, fylit of taking Iohnne Wattis secreit member fra him.'[6]
[1. Boguet, p. 211.
2. R. Scot, p. 77.
3. Bodin, pp. 125-7.
4. Bourignon, Vie, pp.
222-3; Hale, pp. 37-8.
5. Glanvil, pt. ii, p. 301.
6. Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 206.]
Sexual ritual occurs in many
religions of the Lower Culture and has always horrified members of the
higher religions both in ancient and modern times. In fertility cults it
is one of the chief features, not only symbolizing the fertilizing power
in the whole animate world, but, in the belief of the actors, actually
assisting it and promoting its effects.
Such fertility rites are governed
by certain rules, which vary in different countries, particularly as to
the age of girls, i.e. whether they are over or under puberty. Among the
witches there appears to have been a definite rule that no girl under
puberty had sexual intercourse with the Devil. This is even stated as a
fact by so great an authority as Bodin: 'Les diables ne font point de
paction expresse auec les enfans, qui leurs sont vouëz, s'ils n'ont
attaint l'aage de puberté.'[1] The details of the trials show that this
statement is accurate. 'Magdalene de la Croix, Abbesse des Moniales de
Cordoüe en Espaigne, confessa que Satan n'eust point copulation, ny
cognoissance d'elle, qu'elle n'eust douze ans.'[2] Bodin and De Lancre
both cite the case of Jeanne Hervillier of Verbery in Compiègne; she was a
woman of fifty-two at the time of her trial in 1578, She '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 an costé, et
vn cheual noir à la porte, auquel la mere dit: Voicy ma fille que ie vous
ay promise: Et à la fille, Voicy vostre amy, qui vous fera bien heureuse,
et deslors qu'elle renonça à Dieu, & à la religion, & puis coucha auec
elle charnellement, en la mesme sorte & maniere que' font les hommes auec
les femmes.'[3] De Lancre also emphasizes the age: 'Ieanne Haruillier
depose qu'encore sa mere l'eust voüée à Satan dés sa naissance, neantmoins
qu'il ne la cognut charnellement qu'elle n'eust attainct l'aage de douze
ans.'[4] De Lancre's own experience points in the same direction; he found
that the children were not treated in the same way as
[1. Bodin, p. 465.
2. Id., p. 465. The trial was in
1545, Magdalene being then forty-two. See also Pleasant Treatise,
p. 6.
3. Id., p. 227.
4. De Lancre, Tableau, p.
183.]
adults, nor were they permitted to
join in all the ceremonies until after they had passed childhood.[1]
The same rule appears to have held
good in Scotland, for when little Jonet Howat was presented to the Devil,
he said, 'What shall I do with such a little bairn as she?'[2] It is,
however, rare to find child-witches in Great Britain, therefore the rules
concerning them are difficult to discover.
Another rule appears to have been
that there was no sexual connexion with a pregnant woman. In the case of
Isobel Elliot, the Devil 'offered to lie with her, but forbore because she
was with child; that after she was kirked the Devil often met her,
and had carnal copulation with her'.[3]
Since the days of Reginald Scot it
has been the fashion of all those writers who disbelieved in the magical
powers of witches to point to the details of the sexual intercourse
between the Devil and the witches as proof positive of hysteria and
hallucination. This is not the attitude of mind of the recorders who heard
the evidence at the trials. 'Les confessions des Sorciers, que i'ay eu en
main, me font croire qu'il en est quelque chose: dautant qu'ils ont tous
recogneu, qu'ils auoient esté couplez auec le Diable, et que la semence
qu'il iettoit estoit fort froide; Ce qui est conforme à ce qu'en rapporte
Paul Grilland, et les Inquisiteurs de la foy.'[4] It pleaseth their new
Maister oftentimes to offer himselfe familiarly vnto them, to dally and
lye with them, in token of their more neere coniunction, and as it were
marriage vnto him.'[5] 'Witches confessing, so frequently as they
do, that the Devil lies with them, and withal complaining of his
tedious and offensive coldness, it is a shrewd presumption that he
doth lie with them indeed, and that it is not a meer Dream.'[6]
It is this statement of the
physical coldness of the Devil which modern writers adduce to prove their
contention that the witches suffered from hallucination. I have shown
above (pp. 61 seq.) that the Devil was often masked and his whole person
covered with a disguise, which accounts for part of the evidence but not
for all, and certainly not for the most important item. For in trial after
trial, in places far removed from
[1. De Lancre, Tableau, pp.
145, 398. Kinloch, p. 124.
2. Arnot, p. 360.
3. Boguet, p. 68.
4. Cooper, p. 92.
5. More, p. 241.]
one another and at periods more
than a century apart, the same fact is vouched for with just the small
variation of detail which shows the actuality of the event. This is that,
when the woman admitted having had sexual intercourse with the Devil, in a
large proportion of cases she added, 'The Devil was cold and his seed
likewise.' These were women of every class and every age, from just above
puberty to old women of over seventy, unmarried, married, and widows. It
is unscientific to disbelieve everything, as Scot does, and it is equally
unscientific to label all the phenomena as the imagination of hysterical
women. By the nature of things the whole of this evidence rests only on
the word of the women, but I have shown above (pp. 63-5) that there were
cases in which the men found the Devil cold, and cases in which the women
found other parts of the Devil's person to be cold also. Such a mass of
evidence cannot be ignored, and in any other subject would obtain credence
at once. But the hallucination-theory, being the easiest, appears to have
obsessed the minds of many writers, to the exclusion of any attempt at
explanation from an unbiassed point of view.
Students of comparative and
primitive religion have explained the custom of sacred marriages as an
attempt to influence the course of nature by magic, the people who
practise the rite believing that thereby all crops and herds as well as
the women were rendered fertile, and that barrenness was averted. This
accounts very well for the occurrence of 'obscene rites' among the
witches, but fails when it touches the question of the Devil's coldness. I
offer here an explanation which I believe to be the true one, for it
accounts for all the facts; those facts which the women confessed
voluntarily and without torture or fear of punishment, like Isobel Gowdie,
or adhered to as the truth even at the stake amid the flames, like Jane
Bosdeau.
In ancient times the Sacred
Marriage took place usually once a year; but besides this ceremony there
were other sexual rites which were not celebrated at a fixed season, but
might be performed in the precincts of the temple of a god or goddess at
any time, the males being often the priests or temple officials. These are
established facts, and it is not too much to suppose that the witches'
ceremonies were similar. But if the women believed that sexual intercourse
with the priests would increase fertility, how much more would they
believe in the efficacy of such intercourse with the incarnate God of
fertility himself. They would insist upon it as their right, and it
probably became compulsory at certain seasons, such as the breeding
periods of the herds or the sowing and reaping periods of the crops. Yet
as the population and therefore the number of worshippers in each
'congregation' increased, it would become increasingly difficult and
finally impossible for one man to comply with the requirements of so many
women.[1] The problem then was that on the one hand there were a number of
women demanding what was in their eyes a thing essential for themselves
and their families, and on the other a man physically unable to satisfy
all the calls upon him. The obvious solution of the problem is that the
intercourse between the Chief and the women was by artificial means, and
the evidence in the trials points clearly to this solution.
Artificial phalli are well known
in the remains of ancient civilizations. In ancient Egypt it was not
uncommon to have statues of which the phallus was of a different material
from the figure, and so made that it could be removed from its place and
carried in procession. The earliest of such statues are the colossal
limestone figures of the fertility-god Min found at Koptos, dating to the
first dynasty, perhaps B.C. 5500.[2] But similar figures are found at
every period of Egyptian history, and a legend was current at the time of
Plutarch to account for this usage as well as for the festival of the
Phallephoria.[3] Unless the phallus itself were the object of adoration
there would be no reason to carry it in procession as a religious
ceremony, and it is easily understandable that such a cult would commend
itself chiefly to women.[4]
[1. The Deuill your maister, beand
in liknes of ane beist, haid carnall [deal] with ilk ane of you.'-Spalding
Club Misc., i, p. 149.
2. Petrie pp. 7-9; Capart, p. 223.
3. Plutarch, De Iside et
Osiride, xviii, 5.
4. On the other hand, the female
generative organs were also adored, and presumably by men. This suggestion
is borne out by the figures of women with the pudenda exposed and often
exaggerated in size. Such figures are found in Egypt, where they were
called Baubo, and a legend was invented to account for the attitude; and
similar figures were actually known in ancient Christian churches (Payne
Knight, Discourse on the Worship of Priapus).]
The phallus of a divine statue was
not always merely for adoration and carrying in procession; the Roman
bride sacrificed her virginity to the god Priapus as a sacred rite. This
is probably the remains of a still more ancient custom when the god was
personated by a man and not by an image. The same custom remained in other
parts of the world as the jus primae noctis, which was held as an
inalienable right by certain kings and other divine personages. As might
be expected, this custom obtained also among the witches.
'Le Diable faict des mariages au
Sabbat entre les Sorciers & Sorcieres, & leur joignant les mains, il leur
dict hautement
Esta es buena
parati
Esta parati lo toma.
Mais auant qu'ils couchent
ensemble, il s'accouple auec elles, oste la virginité des
filles.'——Ieannette d'Abadie, aged sixteen, 's'accusoit elle mesme d'auoir
esté depucellee par Satan.'[1]
The occasional descriptions of the
Devil's phallus show without question its artificial character:
In 1598 in Lorraine 'es sagte die
Alexia Dragaea, ihre Bulschafft hätte einen [Glied] so starcken etc
allezeit gehabt, wenn ihm gestanden, und so gross als ein Ofengabel-Stiel,
dessgleichen sie zugegen zeigte, denn ohngefehr eine Gabel zugegen war,
sagte auch wie sie kein Geleuth weder Hoden noch Beutel daran gemerckt
hat'.[2]
'Iaquema Paget adioustoit, qu'elle
auoit empoigné plusieurs fois auec la main le membre du Demon, qui la
cognoissoit, et que le membre estoit froid comme glace, long d'vn bon
doigt, & moindre en grosseur que celuy d'vn homme. Tieuenne Paget et
Antoine Tornier adioustoient aussi, que le membre de leurs Demons estoit
long et gros, comme l'vn de leurs doigts.'[3] 'Il a au deuant son membre
tiré et pendant, & le monstre tousiours long d'vn coudée.——Le membre du
Demon est faict à escailles comme vn poisson.——Le membre du Diable
[1. De Lancre, Tableau, pp.
132, 404.
2. Remigius, pt. i, p. 19.
3. Boguet, pp. 68-9.]
s'il estoit estendu est long
enuiron d'vne aulne, mais il le tient entortillé et sinueux en forme de
serpent.——Le Diable, soit qu'il ayt la forme d'homme, on qu'il soit en
forme de Bouc, a tousiours vn membre de mulet, ayant choisy en imitation
celuy de cet animal comme le mieux pourueu. Il l'a long et gros comme le
bras.——Le membre du Diable est long enuiron la moitié d'vne aulne, de
mediocre grosseur, rouge, obscur, & tortu, fort rude & comme piquant.——Ce
mauuais Demon ait son membre myparty, moitié de fer, moitié de chair tout
de son long, & de mesme les genitoires. Il tient tousiours son membre
dehors.——Le Diable a le membre faict de corne, ou pour le moins il en a
I'apparence: c'est pourquoy il faict tant crier les femmes.——Jeannette
d'Abadie dit qu'elle n'a iamais senty, qu'il eust aucune semence, sauf
quand il la depucella qu'elle la sentit froide, mais que celle des autres
hommes qui l'ont cognue, est naturelle.'[1]
Sylvine de la Plaine, 1616,
confessed 'qu'il a le membre faict comme vn cheual, en entrant est froid
comme glace, iette la semence fort froide, & en sortant la brusle comme si
c'estoit du feu'.[1] In 1662 Isobel Gowdie said, 'His memberis ar
exceiding great and long; no man's memberis ar so bigg as they ar.'[3].
The artificial phallus will
account as nothing else can for the pain suffered by many of the women;
and that they suffered voluntarily, and even gladly, can only be
understood by realizing that they endured it for motives other than
physical satisfaction and pleasure. 'There appeared a great Black Goal
with a Candle between his Horns . . . He had carnal knowledge of
her which was with great pain." 'Presque toutes les Sorcieres rapportent
que cet accouplement leur est le plus souuent des-agreable, tant pour la
laideur & deformité de Satan, que pour ce qu'elles y ont vne extreme
douleur.'[5] 'Elle fuyoit l'accouplement du Diable, à cause qu'ayant son
membre faict en escailles il fait souffrir vne extresme douleur.'[6] At
the Sabbath in the Basses Pyrénées, the Devil took the women behind some
sort of screen, and the children 'les oyent crier comme personnes qui
souffrent vne grande douleur, et ils les voyent aussi tost reuenir au
Sabbat
[1. De Lancre, Tableau, pp.
68, 224-6.
2. Id., L'Incredulité, p.
808.
3. Pitcairn, iii, p. 610.
4. F. Hutchinson, Historical
Essays, p. 47.
5. Boguet, p. 69.
6. De Lancre, Tableau, p.
132.]
toutes sanglantes'.[1] As regards
brides, 'En cet accouplement il leur faict perdre vne infinité de sang, et
leur faict souffrit mille douleurs.'[2] Widow Bush of Barton said that the
Devil, who came to her as a young black man, 'was colder than man, and
heavier, and could not performe nature as man.'[3]
The physical coldness of the Devil
is vouched for in all parts of Europe.'[4]
Toutes les Sorcieres s'accordent
en cela, que la semence, qu'elles reçoiuent du Diable, est froide comme
glace: Spranger & les Inquisiteurs, qui en ont veu. vne infinité,
l'escriuent ainsi. Remy, qui a fait le procez à plus de deux milles
Sorciers, en porte vn tesmoignage irrefragable. Ie puis asseurer au
semblable, que celles, qui me sont passées par les mains, en ont confessé
tout autant. Que si la semence est ainsi froide, il s'ensuit qu'elle est
destituée de ses esprits vitaux, & ainsi qu'elle ne peut estre cause
d'aucune generation.'[5]
Isobel Gowdie and Janet Breadheid
of Auldearne both said that the Devil was 'a meikle, blak, roch man, werie
cold; and I fand his nature als cold within me as spring-well-water'.
Isobel continues, 'He is abler for ws that way than any man can be, onlie
he ves heavie lyk a malt-sek; a hudg nature, verie cold, as yce.'[6]
Another point which goes to prove
that the intercourse was by artificial means was that pregnancy did not
follow, except by special consent of the woman. Jeannette d'Abadie, aged
sixteen, said, 'Elle fuyoit l'accouplement du Diable, à cause qu'ayant son
membre faict en escailles il fait souffrir vne extresme douleur; outre que
la semence est extresmement froide, si bien qu'elle n'engrosse iamais, ni
celle des autres hommes au
[1. De Lancre, Tableau, p.
219.
2. Id. ib., p. 404.
3. Stearne, p. 29. The following
references are in chronological order, and are only a few out of the many
trials in which this coldness of the Devil is noted: 1565, Cannaert, p.
54; 1567, De Lancre, Tableau, p. 132; 1578, Bodin, Fléau, p.
227; 1590, Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 219; 1598, Boguet, op. cit., pp.
8, 412, 1645, Stearne, p. 29; 1649, Pitcairn, iii, p. 599; 1652, Van
Elven, La Tradition 1891, V, p. 215; 1661, Kinloch and Baxter, p.
132; 1662, Pitcairn, iii, pp. 603, 611, 617; 1662, Burns Begg, x, pp. 222,
224, 231-2, 234; 1678, Fountainhall, i, p. 14; 1682, Howell, Viii, 1032;
170r, Trials of Elinor Shaw, p. 6.
4. Boguet, p. 92.
5. Pitcairn, iii, pp. 603, 611,
617.]
sabbat, bien qu'elle soit
naturelle.'[1] Boguet remarks, 'Il me souuient, qu'Antoinette Tornier, &
Antoinette Gandillon, estans interroguées, si elles craignoient point de
deuenir enceintes des þuures du Diable; l'vne respondit qu'elle estoit
trop vieille; l'autre que Dieu ne le vouloit pas permettre.'[2] According
to Jeanne Hervillier, the Devil 'coucha auec elle charnellement, en la
mesme sorte & maniere que font les hommes auec les femmes, horsmis que la
semence estoit froide. Cele dit elle continua tous les huict ou quinze
iours. . . . Et vn iour le diable luy demanda, si elle vouloit estre
enceinte de luy, ce qu'elle ne voulut pas.'[3] But when the witch was
willing to have a child, it is noticeable that there is then no complaint
of the Devil's coldness. At Maidstone in 1652 'Anne Ashby, Anne Martyn,
and one other of their Associates, pleaded that they were with child
pregnant, but confessed it was not by any man, but by the Divell. . . .
Anne Ashby and Anne Martyn confessed that the Divell had known them
carnally, and that they had no hurt by it.'[4]
The Devil appears to have donned
or doffed his disguise in the presence of his worshippers, and this was
often the case at the time of the sexual rites, whether public or private:
'Il cognoist les Sorcieres tantost
en forme d'homme tout noir, & tantost en forme de beste, comme d'vn chien,
d'vn chat, d'vn bouc, d'vn mouton. Il cognoissoit Thieuenne Paget, &
Antoine Tornier en forme d'vn homme noir: Et lors qu'il accouploit auec
Iaquema Paget, & Antoine Gandillon, il prenoit la figure d'vn mouton noir,
portant des cornes. Françoise Secretain a dit que son Demon se mettoit
tantost en chien, tantost en chat, et tantost en poule, quand il la
vouloit cognoistre charnellement. Or tout cecy me fait de tant mieux
asseurer l'accouplement reel du Sorcier, & de la Sorciere auec le
Demon.'[5]
In the Basses-Pyrénées Marie
d'Aspilcouette 'disoit le mesme, pour ce qui est du membre en escailles,
mais elle deposoit, que lors qu'il les vouloit cognoistre, il quitoit la
forme de Bouc, & prenoit celle d'homme'.[6] 'Il entra dans sa chambre en
forme d'ung chat et se changea en la posture d'un
[1. De Lancre, Tableau, p.
132.
2. Boguet, p. 78.
3. Bodin, p. 227.
4. A Prodigious and Tragicall
Historie, pp. 4, 5.
5. Boguet, p. 70.
6. De Lancre, Tableau, p.
225.]
home vestu de rouge.'[1] At an
attempt to wreck a ship in a great storm 'the devil was there present with
them all, in the shape of a great horse. . . . They returned all in the
same like. ness as of before, except that the devil was in the shape of a
man.'[2] 'The Deivill apeired vnto her, in the liknes of ane prettie boy
in grein clothes. . . . And at that tyme the Deivil gaive hir his markis;
and went away from her in the liknes of ane blak doug.'[3] 'He wold haw
carnall dealling with ws in the shap of a deir, or in any vther shap, now
and then. Somtym he vold be lyk a stirk, a bull, a deir, a rae, or a dowg,
etc., and haw dealling with ws.'[4] 'Yow the said Margaret Hamilton,
relict of James Pullwart . . . had carnall cowpulatiown with the devil in
the lyknes of ane man, bot he removed from yow in the lyknes of ane black
dowg.'[5] The most important instance is in Boguet's description of the
religious ceremony at the Sabbath: 'Finalement Satan apres auoir prins la
figure d'vn Bouc, se consume en feu, & reduit en cendre.'[6]
The witches' habit of speaking of
every person of the other sex with whom they had sexual intercourse at the
Sabbath as a 'devil' has led to much confusion in the accounts. The
confusion has been accentuated by the fact that both male and female
witches often used a disguise, or were at least veiled. 'Et pource que les
hommes ne cedent guieres aux femmes en lubricité, c'est pourquoy le Demon
se met aussi en femme ou Succube. . . . Ce qu'il fait principalement au
Sabbat, selon que l'ont rapporté Pierre Gandillon, & George Gandillon,
pere & fils, & les autres, lesquels disent tout vnanimement, qu'en leurs
assemblées il y a plusieurs Demons, & que les vns exercent le mestier de
l'homme pour les femmes, & les autres le mestier des femmes pour les
hommes.'[7] 'The Incubus's in the shapes of proper men satisfy the desires
of the Witches, and the Succubus's serve for Whores to the Wizards.'[8]
Margaret
[1. H. G. van Elveu, La
Tradition, 1891, v, p. 215. Place and names not given.
2. Kinloch, pp. 122, 123.
3. Pitcairn, iii, p. 601.
4. Id., iii, pp. 611, 613.
5. Scots Magazine, 1817, p.
201.
6. Boguet, p. 141.
7. Id., p. 65.
8. Pleasant Treatise of Witches,
p. 6. The remembrance of the numerous male devils at the Sabbath survives
in the Samalsain dance in the Basses-Pyrénées, where the male attendants
on the King and Queen of the dance are still called Satans. Moret,
Mystères Ègyptiens, p. 247.]
Johnson said the same: 'Their
spirittes vsuallie have knowledge of theire bodies . . . Shee also saith,
that men Witches usualie have woemen spirittes and woemen witches men
spirittes.'[1] The girls under Madame Bourignon's charge 'declared that
they had daily carnal Cohabitation with the Devil; that they went to the
Sabbaths or Meetings, where they Eat, Drank, Danc'd, and committed other
Whoredom and Sensualities. Every one had her Devil in form of a Man; and
the Men had their Devils in the form of a Woman. . . . They had not the
least design of changing, to quit these abominable Pleasures, as one of
them of Twenty-two Years old one day told me. No, said she, I
will not be other than I am; I find too much content in my Condition; I am
always Caressed." One girl of twelve said definitely that she knew the
Devil very well, 'that he was a Boy a little bigger than her self; and
that he was her Love, and lay with her every Night'; and another girl
named Bellot, aged fifteen, 'said her Mother had taken her with her [to
the Sabbath] when she was very Young, and that being a little Wench, this
Man-Devil was then a little Boy too, and grew up as she did, having been
always her Love, and Caressed her Day and Night.'[3] Such connexions
sometimes resulted in marriage. Gaule mentions this fact in his general
account: 'Oft times he marries them ere they part, either to himselfe, or
their Familiar, or to one another; and that by the Book of Common Prayer
(as a pretender to witchfinding lately told me in the Audience of
many).'[4] This statement is borne out in the trials: 'Agnes Theobalda
sagte, sie sey selbst zugegen auff der Hochzeit gewesen, da Cathalina, und
Engel von Hudlingen, ihren Beelzebub zur Ehe genommen haben.'[5] The Devil
of Isobel Ramsay's Coven was clearly her husband,[6] but there is nothing
to show whether the marriage took place before she became
[1. Baines, i, pp. 607-8, note.
2. Bourignon, Parole, pp.
86, 87; Hale, pp. 26, 27.
3. Id., Vie, p. 214, 211;
Hale, pp. 29, 31.
4. Gaule, p. 63.
5. Remigius, p. 131.
6. Record of Trial in the
Edinburgh Justiciary Court.]
a witch, as in the case of Janet
Breadheid of Auldearne, whose husband 'enticed her into that craft'.[1] I
have quoted above (p. 179) the ceremony at the marriage of witches in the
Basses-Pyrénées. Rebecca Weste, daughter of a witch, married the Devil by
what may be a primitive rite; he came to her 'as shee was going to bed,
and told her, he would marry her, and that shee could not deny him; shee
said he kissed her, but was as cold as clay, and married her that night,
in this manner; he tooke her by the hand and lead her about the chamber,
and promised to be her loving husband till death, and to avenge her of her
enemies; and that then shee promised him to be his obedient wife till
death, and to deny God, and Christ Jesus.'[2] At Edinburgh in 1658 a young
woman called Anderson was tried: 'her confessioun was, that scho did marry
the devill.'[3] The Swedish witches in 1670 confessed that at Blockula
'the Devil had Sons and Daughters which he did marry together'.[4]
Giraldus Cambrensis gives an account of a 'spirit' in the, form of a
red-haired young man, called Simon, who 'was begotten upon the wife of a
rustic in that parish, by a demon, in the shape of her husband, naming the
man, and his father-in-law, then dead, and his mother, still alive; the
truth of which the woman upon examination openly avowed'.[5]
[1. Pitcairn, iii, p. 616.
2. Howell, iv, 842.
3. Nicoll's Diary, p. 212.
Bannatyne Club.
4. Horneck, pt. ii, p. 323.
5. Davies, p. 183. Cp. also the
birth of Merlin. Giraldus Cambrensis, Itinerary, Bk. I, xii, 91 b.]
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