The Witch-cult in Western Europe Part 12

[Footnote 301: Thompson and Miles, ii, p. 341.]

[Footnote 302: _Journal of Anatomy_, xiii, pp. 438, 447.]

[Footnote 303: Id., xiii, p. 153.]

[Footnote 304: _Alse Gooderidge_, pp. 8, 9.]

[Footnote 305: _Elisabeth Sawyer_, B 3, obv. and rev.]

[Footnote 306: Howell, iv, 838, 843, 848, 849, 850, 851.]

[Footnote 307: _Four Notorious Witches at Worcester_, p. 4. The place is wrongly given: it should be Ess.e.x, not Worcester.]

[Footnote 308: Davenport, p. 15.]

[Footnote 309: Gerish, _The Divel's Delusions_, p. 12.]

[Footnote 310: _Surtees Soc._, xl, p. 30.]

[Footnote 311: Id., xl, p. 38.]

[Footnote 312: _County Folklore_, ii, p. 139.]

[Footnote 313: _Prod. and Trag. Hist._, p. 6.]

[Footnote 314: Bower, p. 28.]

[Footnote 315: _Surtees Soc._, xl, p. 69.]

[Footnote 316: Gerish, _Relation of Mary Hall_, p. 24.]

[Footnote 317: Howell, iv, 827 note.]

[Footnote 318: Hale, p. 58.]

[Footnote 319: Petto, p. 18.]

[Footnote 320: Howell, vi, 696.]

[Footnote 321: Id., viii, 1022.]

[Footnote 322: Mather, p. 137.]

[Footnote 323: F. Hutchinson, _Historical Essay_, p. 62.]

[Footnote 324: Gilbert, p. 6.]

[Footnote 325: _Witches of Northamptons.h.i.+re_, p. 6.]

[Footnote 326: R. Scot, Bk. II, ch. 5.]

[Footnote 327: _Journal of Anatomy_, xxv, 225 seq.]

IV. THE a.s.sEMBLIES

There were two kinds of a.s.semblies; the one, known as the Sabbath, was the General Meeting of all the members of the religion; the other, to which I give-on the authority of Estebene de Cambrue-the name of Esbat, was only for the special and limited number who carried out the rites and practices of the cult, and was not for the general public.

The derivation of the word Sabbath in this connexion is quite unknown. It has clearly nothing to do with the number seven, and equally clearly it is not connected with the Jewish ceremonial. It is possibly a derivative of _s'esbattre_, 'to frolic'; a very suitable description of the joyous gaiety of the meetings.

1. _Sabbath_

_Locomotion._-The method of going to the meetings varied according to the distance to be traversed. In an immense majority of cases the means of locomotion are not even mentioned, presumably therefore the witches went on foot, as would naturally be the case in going to the local meeting or Esbat, which was attended only by those who lived near. There are, however, a few instances where it was thought worth while to mention that the wors.h.i.+ppers walked to the meeting. Boguet (1598), who yields to none in his accounts of magical means of going to the Sabbath, says, 'les Sorciers netmoins vont quelquefois de pied au Sabbat, ce qui leur aduient princ.i.p.alement, lors que le lieu, ou ils font leur a.s.semblee, n'est pas guieres eslongne de leur habitation', and cites in confirmation the evidence of George and Antoinette Gandillon and their father Pierre, Clauda Ianprost, Clauda Ianguillaume, Iaquema Paget, Gros Iaques, the two brothers Claude and Claude Charloz, Pierre Willermoz, l'Aranthon, Pernette Molard, Ianne Platet, and Clauda Paget.[328] Iaquema Paget's account of how she and Antoine Tornier went to a meeting on their way home from the harvest field (see p. 121), proves that they were on foot. The Lang-Niddry witches (1608) clearly walked, they 'convenit thame selffis at Deane-fute of Lang-Niddry ... thaireftir thay past altogidder to the said Beigis hous in Lang-Nydry [where they drank]; and thaireftir come with all thair speid to Seaton-thorne be-north the zet; quhair the Devill callit for the said Christiane Tod, and past to Robert Smartis house, and brocht hir out....

And thay thaireftir past altogidder, with the Devill, to the irne zet of Seatoun.... And thaireftir come all bak agane to the Deane-fute, quhair first thai convenit.'[329] The distance from Lang Niddry to Seaton Castle is under a mile. Isaac de Queyran (1609), a young fellow of twenty-five, told de Lancre that those living at a distance flew home through the air, the near ones returned on foot.[330] Barthelemy Minguet of Brecy was tried in 1616: 'Enquis, de quelle facon sa femme fut au Sabbat la premiere fois.

Respond, qu'elle y fut transportee par le Diable, lequel la rapporta apres le Sabbat, & que la seconde fois qu'elle y a este, elle y fut de son pied avec luy, & s'en retourna de son pied, & qu'elle n'y a iamais este que ces deux fois.'[331] Helen Guthrie of Forfar (1661) said that 'herselfe, Isobell Shyrie, and Elspet Alexander, did meit togither at ane aile house near to Barrie, a litle befor sunsett, efter they hade stayed in the said house about the spaice of ane houre drinking of thrie pintis of ale togidder, they went foorth to the sandis, and ther thrie other women met them, and the divell wes there present with them all ... and they parted so late that night that she could get no lodging, but wes forced to lye at ane dyk syde all night.'[332] Christian Grieve, of Crook of Devon (1662), acknowledged 'that ye came to the foresaid meeting immediately after your goodman and the rest went to bed, and that ye locked the door and put the key under the same, and that ye and the said Margaret Young your neighbor came foot for foot to the foresaid meeting and that ye stayed at the foresaid meeting about the s.p.a.ce of two hours and came back again on your foot, and the foresaid Margaret Young with you, and found the key of the door in that same place where you left it, and declared that neither your husband nor any other in the house was waking at your return'.[333] At Lille (1661) the girl Bellot, then aged fifteen, said that 'her Mother had taken her with her when she was very Young, and had even carried her in her Arms to the Witches Sabbaths or a.s.semblies'.[334] At Strathdown (eighteenth century) the witches went along the side of the river Avon to Craic-pol-nain, fording the river on foot.[335]

In the cases cited above there is nothing in the least bizarre or extraordinary, but there are other methods recorded of reaching the distant meetings. Sometimes the obvious means was by riding on a horse; sometimes the witches were accused, or claimed the power, of flying through the air, of riding in the air on a stick, of riding on animals or human beings, which latter were sometimes in their own natural form and sometimes enchanted into the form of animals.

The following instances are of those who rode to or from the meetings on horseback. Agnes Sampson of North Berwick (1590) said that 'the Devil in mans likeness met her going out in the fields from her own house at _Keith_, betwixt five and six at even, being her alone and commanded her to be at _North-Berwick_ Kirk the next night: And she pa.s.sed there on horse-back, conveyed by her Good-son, called Iohn Couper'.[336] Boguet (1608) mentions, in pa.s.sing, the fact that the witches sometimes rode on horses.[337] The Lancas.h.i.+re witches (1613), after the meeting at Malking Tower, 'went out of the said House in their owne shapes and likenesses. And they all, by that they were forth of the dores, gotten on Horseback, like vnto foals, some of one colour, some of another.'[338] This was the usual mode of locomotion among the Lancas.h.i.+re witches, for Margaret Johnson (1633) said that at the meeting at h.o.a.rstones 'there was, at y^t tyme, between 30 and 40 witches, who did all ride to the said meetinge'.[339]

Isobell Gowdie (1662) said, 'I haid a little horse, and wold say, "Horse and Hattock, in the Divellis name!"'[340] The most detailed account is from Sweden (1669):

'Another Boy confessed too, that one day he was carried away by his Mistriss, and to perform the Journey he took his own Father's Horse out of the Meadow where it was, and upon his return she let the Horse go in her own ground. The next morning the Boys Father sought for his Horse, and not finding it, gave it over for lost; but the Boy told him the whole story, and so his Father fetcht the Horse back again.'[341]

We now come to the marvellous and magical means of locomotion. The belief in the power of witches to ride in the air is very ancient and universal in Europe. They flew either unsupported, being carried by the Devil, or were supported on a stick; sometimes, however, an animal which they rode pa.s.sed through the air. The flying was usually preceded by an anointing of the whole or part of the body with a magical ointment.

The earliest example of unsupported flying is from Paul Grilland (1537), who gives an account of an Italian witch in 1526, who flew in the air with the help of a magic ointment.[342]

Reginald Scot (1584) says that the ointment 'whereby they ride in the aire'

was made of the flesh of unbaptized children, and gives two recipes:

[1] 'The fat of yoong children, and seeth it with water in a brasen vessell, reseruing the thickest of that which remaineth boiled in the bottome, which they laie up and keepe, untill occasion serueth to use it. They put hereunto Eleoselinum, Aconitum, Frondes populeas, and Soote.' [2] 'Sium, acarum vulgare, pentaphyllon, the blood of a flitter mouse, solanum somniferum, and oleum. They stampe all these togither, and then they rubbe all parts of their bodys exceedinglie, till they looke red, and be verie hot, so as the pores may be opened, and their flesh soluble and loose. They ioine herewithall either fat, or oil in steed thereof, that the force of the ointment maie the rather pea.r.s.e inwardly, and so be more effectuall. By this means in a moonlight night they seeme to be carried in the aire.'[343]

So far this is only hearsay evidence, but there is also a certain amount of first-hand testimony, the witches declaring that they actually pa.s.sed through the air above ground, or had seen others do so.

In 1598 'Thieuenne Paget racontoit, que le Diable s'apparut a elle la premiere fois en plein midy, en forme d'vn grand homme noir, & que comme elle se fut baillee a luy, il l'embra.s.sa & l'esleva en l'air, & la transporta en la maison du prel de Longchamois ... & puis la rapporta au lieu mesme, ou il l'auoit prise. Antide Colas disoit, que le soir, que Satan s'apparut a elle en forme d'vn homme de grande stature, ayant sa barbe & ses habillemens noirs, il la transporta au Sabbat, & qu'aux autres fois, il la venoit prendre dans son lict, & l'emportoit comme si c'eust este vn vent froid, l'empoignant par la teste.'[344]

Isaac de Queyran (1609), whose evidence has already been quoted, said that the witches living at a distance flew home through the air.[345] In France (1652) 'lors qu'elle vouloit aller aux danses, elle se oindoit d'ung onguen qui lui estoit donne par vn sorcier envoye par le diable. Que lors elle s'en alloit comme ung vent aux dictes danses avecque les aultres.'[346] At Crook of Devon (1661) Bessie Henderson confessed 'that ye was taken out of your bed to that meeting in an flight'.[347] The most detail comes from an English source: the Somerset witches (1664) claimed that they habitually flew through the air by means of a magical oil and magical words. Elizabeth Style said:

'Before they are carried to their meetings, they anoint their Foreheads, and Hand-wrists with an Oyl the Spirit brings them (which smells raw) and then they are carried in a very short time, using these words as they pa.s.s, _Thout, tout a tout, tout, throughout and about_. And when they go off from their Meetings, they say, _Rentum, Tormentum_ ... all are carried to their several homes in a short s.p.a.ce.' Alice Duke gave the same testimony, noting besides that the oil was greenish in colour. Anne Bishop, the Officer of the Somerset covens, confessed that 'her Forehead being first anointed with a Feather dipt in Oyl, she hath been suddenly carried to the place of their meeting.... After all was ended, the Man in black vanished. The rest were on a sudden conveighed to their homes.'[348]

The belief that the witches actually rode in the air seated on some concrete object, such as an animal, a human being, or a stick, is both ancient and universal, and is reflected in the ecclesiastical and civil laws, of which the earliest is the decree of the ninth century, attributed to the Council of Ancyra. 'Certeine wicked women following sathans prouocations, being seduced by the illusion of diuels, beleeve and professe, that in the night times they ride abroad with _Diana_, the G.o.ddesse of the _Pagans_, or else with _Herodias_, with an innumerable mult.i.tude, vpon certeine beasts ... and doo whatsoeuer those fairies or ladies command.'[349] The laws of Lorraine (1329-46) decree that 'celui qui fera magie, sortilege, billets de sort, p.r.o.nostic d'oiseau ou se vanteroit d'avoir chevauche la nuit avec Diane ou telle autre vielle qui se dit magicienne, sera banni et payera dix livres tournois'.[350]

The witches themselves confirmed the statements about riding on animals to the Sabbath. Rolande du Vernier (1598) confessed 'que lors qu'elle y fut, elle y alla sur vn gros mouton noir, qui la portoit si viste en l'air, qu'elle ne se pouuoit recognoistre'.[351] De Lancre says that the witches 'se font porter iusqu'audit lieu, sur vne beste, qui semble parfois vn cheual, & parfoys vn homme'.[352] Margaret Johnson (1633) 'saith, if they desyre to be in any place upon a sodaine, theire devill or spirit will, upon a rodde, dogge, or any thinge els, presently convey them thither'.[353] One of Madame Bourignon's girls, then aged twelve (1661), declared that 'her said Lover came upon a little Horse, and took her by the Hand, asking her if she would be his Mistress, and she saying Ay, she was catched up into the Air with him and the other Girls, and they flew all together to a great Castle'.[354] The Swedish witches (1669) said: