The Witch-cult in Western Europe Part 24

[Footnote 647: Horneck, pt. ii, p. 316.]

[Footnote 648: From the record of the trial in the Guernsey Greffe.]

[Footnote 649: De Lancre, _Tableau_, pp. 123, 400.]

[Footnote 650: Pitcairn, iii, pp. 604, 608.]

[Footnote 651: Glanvil, pt. ii, pp. 139, 141. I have pointed out that the cry of 'A Boy' is possibly the Christian recorder's method of expressing the Bacchic shout 'Evoe'. See _Jour. Man. Or. Soc._, 1916-17, p. 65.]

[Footnote 652: De Lancre, _Tableau_, pp. 401, 461, 462, 464.]

[Footnote 653: Bodin, p. 190.]

[Footnote 654: The names of the smaller islands are often compounded with the name of this deity, e.g. Li-hou, Brecq-hou, &c.]

[Footnote 655: Law, p. 27 note.]

[Footnote 656: From a trial in the Guernsey Greffe.]

[Footnote 657: Pitcairn, iii, pp. 607-8, 611.]

[Footnote 658: Glanvil, pt. ii, pp. 137, 139, 148, 149.]

[Footnote 659: Pitcairn, iii, p. 612. Sych = sighing, lamentation.]

[Footnote 660: Id., i, pt. ii, p. 212.]

[Footnote 661: _Newes from Scotland_, see Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 218.]

[Footnote 662: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 237.]

[Footnote 663: Id., ii, p. 542.]

VI. THE RITES (_continued_)

WITCHES' RAIN-MAKING AND FERTILITY RITES

1. _General_

In common with many other religions of the Lower Culture, the witch-cult of Western Europe observed certain rites for rain-making and for causing or blasting fertility. This fact was recognized in the papal Bulls formulated against the witches who were denounced, not for moral offences, but for the destruction of fertility. The celebrated Decree of Innocent VIII, which in 1488 let loose the full force of the Church against the witches, says that 'they blight the marriage bed, destroy the births of women and the increase of cattle; they blast the corn on the ground, the grapes of the vineyard, the fruits of the trees, the gra.s.s 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 Superst.i.tions'.

The charms used by the witches, the dances, the burning of the G.o.d and the broadcast scattering of his ashes, all point to the fact that this was a fertility cult; and this is the view taken also by those contemporary writers who give a more or less comprehensive account of the religion and ritual. Though most of the fertility or anti-fertility charms remaining to us were used by the witches either for their own benefit or to injure their enemies, enough remains to show that originally all these charms were to promote fertility in general and in particular. When the charm was for fertility in general, it was performed by the whole congregation together; but for the fertility of any particular woman, animal, or field, the ceremony was performed by one witch alone or by two at most.

The power which the witches claimed to possess over human fertility is shown in many of the trials. Jonet Clark was tried in Edinburgh in 1590 'for giving and taking away power from sundry men's Genital-members';[664]

and in the same year and place Bessie Roy was accused of causing women's milk to dry up.[665] The number of midwives who practised witchcraft points also to this fact; they claimed to be able to cause and to prevent pregnancy, to cause and to prevent an easy delivery, to cast the labour-pains, on an animal or a human being (husbands who were the victims are peculiarly incensed against these witches), and in every way to have power over the generative organs of both s.e.xes. In short, it is possible to say that, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the better the midwife the better the witch.

The Red Book of Appin,[666] which was obtained from the Devil by a trick, is of great interest in this connexion. It was said to contain charms for the curing of diseases of cattle; among them must certainly have been some for promoting the fertility of the herds in general, and individual animals in particular. It is not unlikely that the charms as noted in the book were the result of many experiments, for we know that the witches were bound to give account to the Devil of all the magic they performed in the intervals between the Sabbaths, and he or his clerk recorded their doings. From this record the Devil instructed the witches. It is evident from the confessions and the evidence at the trials that the help of the witches was often required to promote fertility among human beings as well as among animals.

The number of midwives who were also witches was very great, and the fact can hardly be accidental.

Witches were called in to perform incantations during the various events of a farm-yard. Margrat Og of Aberdeen, 1597, was 'indytt.i.t as a manifest witche, in that, be the s.p.a.ce of a yeirsyn or theirby, thy kow being in bulling, and James Farquhar, thy awin gude son haulding the kow, thow stuid on the ane syd of the kow, and thy dochter, Batrix Robbie, on the vther syd, and quhen the bull was lowping the kow, thow tuik a knyff and keist ower the kow, and thy dochter keapit the sam, and keist it over to the agane, and this ye did thryiss, quhilk thou can nocht deny.'[667] At Auldearne the Coven, to which Isobel Gowdie belonged, performed a ceremony to obtain for themselves the benefit of a neighbour's crop. 'Befor Candlemas, we went be-east Kinlosse, and ther we yoaked an plewghe of paddokis. The Divell held the plewgh, and Johne Yownge in Mebestowne, our Officer, did drywe the plewghe. Paddokis did draw the plewgh as oxen; quickens wer sowmes, a riglen's horne was a cowter, and an piece of an riglen's horne was an sok. We went two seueral tymes abowt; and all we of the Coeven went still wp and downe with the plewghe, prayeing to the Divell for the fruit of that land, and that thistles and brieris might grow ther'.[668] Here the ploughing-ceremony was to induce fertility for the benefit of the witches, while the draught animals and all the parts of the plough connoted barrenness for the owner of the soil.

The most detailed account of a charm for human fertility is given in the confession of the Abbe Guibourg, who appears to have been the Devil of the Paris witches. The ceremony took place at the house of a witch-midwife named Voisin or Montvoisin, and according to the editor was for the benefit of Louis XIV or Charles II, two of the most notorious libertines of their age.

'Il a fait chez la Voisin, revetu d'aube, d'etole et de manipule, une conjuration en presence de la Des Oeillets [attendant of Madame de Montespan], qui pretendait faire un charme pour le (Roi) et qui etait accompagnee d'un homme qui lui donna la conjuration, et comme il etait necessaire d'avoir du sperme des deux s.e.xes, Des Oeillets ayant ses mois n'en put donner mais versa dans le calice de ses menstrues et l'homme qui l'accompagnait, ayant pa.s.se dans la ruelle du lit avec lui Guibourg, versa de son sperme dans le calice. Sur le tout, la Des Oeillets et l'homme mirent chacun d'une poudre de sang de chauve-souris et de la farine pour donner un corps plus ferme a toute la composition et apres qu'il eut recite la conjuration il tira le tout du calice qui fut mis dans un pet.i.t vaisseau que la Des Oeillets ou l'homme emporta.'[669]

The ecclesiastical robes and the use of the chalice point to this being a ceremony of a religious character, and should be compared with the child-sacrifices performed by the same priest or Devil (see pp. 150, 157).

An anti-fertility rite, which in its simplicity hardly deserves the name of a ceremony, took place at Crook of Devon in Kinross-s.h.i.+re. Bessie Henderson 'lykeways confessed and declared that Janet Paton was with you at ane meeting when they trampit down Thos. White's rie in the beginning of harvest, 1661, and that she had broad soals and trampit down more nor any of the rest'.[670]

2. _Rain-making_

The rain-making powers of the witches have hardly been noted by writers on the subject, for by the time the records were made the witches were credited with the blasting of fertility rather than its increase. Yet from what remains it is evident that the original meaning of much of the ritual was for the production of fertilizing rain, though both judges and witnesses believed that it was for storms and hail.

One of the earliest accounts of such powers is given in the story quoted by Reginald Scot from the _Malleus Maleficarum_, written in 1487, a century before Scot's own book:

'A little girle walking abroad with hir father in his land, heard him complaine of drought, wis.h.i.+ng for raine, etc. Whie father (quoth the child) I can make it raine or haile, when and where I list: He asked where she learned it. She said, of hir mother, who forbad hir to tell anie bodie thereof. He asked hir how hir mother taught hir? She answered, that hir mother committed hir to a maister, who would at anie time doo anie thing for hir. Whie then (said he) make it raine but onlie in my field. And so she went to the streame, and threw vp water in hir maisters name, and made it raine presentlie. And proceeding further with hir father, she made it haile in another field, at hir father's request. Herevpon he accused his wife, and caused hir to be burned; and then he new christened his child againe.'[671]

Scot also gives 'certaine impossible actions' of witches when he ridicules the belief

'that the elements are obedient to witches, and at their commandement; or that they may at their pleasure send raine, haile, tempests, thunder, lightening; when she being but an old doting woman, casteth a flint stone ouer hir left shoulder, towards the west, or hurleth a little sea sand vp into the element, or wetteth a broome sprig in water, and sprinkleth the same in the aire; or diggeth a pit in the earth, and putting water therein, stirreth it about with hir finger; or boileth hogs bristles; or laieth sticks acrosse vpon a banke, where neuer a drop of water is; or burieth sage till it be rotten; all which things are confessed by witches, and affirmed by writers to be the meanes that witches vse to mooue extraordinarie tempests and raine'.[672]

More quotes Wierus to the same effect: 'Casting of Flint-Stones behind their backs towards the West, or flinging a little Sand in the Air, or striking a River with a Broom, and so sprinkling the Wet of it toward Heaven, the stirring of Urine or Water with their finger in a Hole in the ground, or boyling of Hogs Bristles in a Pot.'[673]

The throwing of stones as a fertility rite is found in the trial of Jonet Wischert, one of the chief witches at Aberdeen, and is there combined with a nudity rite. 'In hervest last bypast, Mr. William Rayes huikes [saw thee at] the heid of thi awin gudmannis croft, and saw the tak all thi claiss about thi heid, and thow beand naikit from the middill down, tuik ane gryte number of steynis, and thi self gangand baklenis, keist ane pairt behind the our thi heid, and ane wther pairt fordward.'[674]

3. _Fertility_

Every contemporary writer who gives a general view of the religion and ritual observes the witches' powers over human fertility. Boguet says, 'Ils font encor cacher & retirer les parties viriles, et puis les font ressortir quand il leur plait. Ils empeschent aussi tantost la copulation charnelle de l'ho[~m]e & de la femme, en retirant les nerfs, & ostant la roideur du membre; et tantost la procreation en destournant ou bouchant les conduicts de la s.e.m.e.nce, pour empescher qu'elle ne descende aux vases de la generation.'[675] Scot, who quotes generally without any acknowledgement and often inaccurately, translates this statement, 'They also affirme that the vertue of generation is impeached by witches, both inwardlie, and outwardlie: for intrinsecallie they represse the courage, and they stop the pa.s.sage of the mans seed, so as it may not descend to the vessels of generation: also they hurt extrinsecallie, with images, hearbs, &c.'[676]

Bodin also remarks that witches, whether male or female, can affect only the generative organs.[677] Madame Bourignon says that the girls, whom she befriended,

'told me, that Persons who were thus engaged to the Devil by a precise Contract, will allow no other G.o.d but him, and therefore offer him whatsoever is dearest to them; nay, are constrained to offer him their Children, or else the Devil would Beat them, and contrive that they should never arrive to the State of Marriage, and so should have no Children, by reason that the Devil hath power by his Adherents, to hinder both the one and the other.... So soon as they come to be able to beget Children, the Devil makes them offer the desire which they have of Marrying, to his Honor: And with this all the Fruit that may proceed from their Marriage. This they promise voluntarily, to the end that they may accomplish their Designs: For otherwise the Devil threatens to hinder them by all manner of means, that they shall not Marry, nor have Children.'[678]

Glanvil, writing on the Scotch trials of 1590, speaks of 'some Effects, Kinds, or Circ.u.mstances of Witchcraft, such as the giving and taking away power from sundry men's Genital-members. For which Jannet Clark was accused.'[679] In the official record Jonet Clark was tried and condemned for 'gewing of ane secreit member to Iohnne Coutis; and gewing and taking of power fra sindrie mennis memberis. Item, fylit of taking Iohnne Wattis secreit member fra him.'[680]

s.e.xual 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 a.s.sisting 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 p.u.b.erty. Among the witches there appears to have been a definite rule that no girl under p.u.b.erty had s.e.xual intercourse with the Devil. This is even stated as a fact by so great an authority as Bodin: 'Les diables ne font point de paction expresse auec les enfans, qui leurs sont vouez, s'ils n'ont attaint l'aage de p.u.b.erte.'[681] The details of the trials show that this statement is accurate. 'Magdalene de la Croix, Abbesse des Moniales de Cordoue en Espaigne, confessa que Satan n'eust point copulation, ny cognoissance d'elle, qu'elle n'eust douze ans.'[682] Bodin and De Lancre both cite the case of Jeanne Hervillier of Verbery in Compiegne; she was a woman of fifty-two at the time of her trial in 1578. She 'confessa qu'a l'aage de douze ans sa mere la presenta au diable, en forme d'vn grand homme noir, & vestu de noir, botte, esperonne, auec vne espee au coste, et vn cheual noir a la porte, auquel la mere dit: Voicy ma fille que ie vous ay promise: Et a la fille, Voicy vostre amy, qui vous fera bien heureuse, et deslors qu'elle renonca a Dieu, & a la religion, & puis coucha auec elle charnellement, en la mesme sorte & maniere que font les hommes auec les femmes.'[683] De Lancre also emphasizes the age: 'Ieanne Haruillier depose qu'encore sa mere l'eust vouee a Satan des sa naissance, neantmoins qu'il ne la cognut charnellement qu'elle n'eust attainct l'aage de douze ans.'[684] De Lancre's own experience points in the same direction; he found that the children were not treated in the same way as adults, nor were they permitted to join in all the ceremonies until after they had pa.s.sed childhood.[685]

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?'[686] 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 s.e.xual 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'.[687]