An Examen of Witches/Chapter 15
Chapter XV.
How and in what Fashion Witches are
Conveyed to the Sabbat.
Françoise Secretain was carried there upon a white staff; Rollande du Vernois on a big black ram which she rode horsewise. Satan was in the form of a black man when he bore Thievenne Paget and Antide Colas to the Sabbat: Paracel. de Malefic. c. 16.
Bodin. Demonom. II. 3.
Remy, Demonol. I. 14.others go there sometimes on a goat, sometimes on a horse, and sometimes on a broom, and generally leave their house by the chimney. Some rub themselves first with a certain ointment, and others use none. There are also some who are not witches, but after anointing themselves do not fail to fly up through the chimney and to be carried away as if they were witches. Nevertheless it must not be thought that it is this ointment which causes their transvection; for we shall show later that neither ointment nor words nor symbols are, of themselves, of any use to witches. Those, therefore, of whom we have spoken are transported by the just permission of God, who in this manner punishes them for their too great curiosity.
There are some also who go to the Sabbat without either beast or staff to carry them; and again it should be known that a beast or a staff is of no more use than the ointment, Paracel. de Malefic. cap 17.
Wier, de praestig. II. 29.but that it is the Devil, who of his own power, is as a wind which bears them along, just as a whirlwind uproots even the highest trees, and carried them two or three leagues away from the place where they grew. Plutarch, Romulus.Even men have been known to be transported in this manner, as was Romulus, who, whilst he was among the Senators in the Field of Mars near the Goat’s Pool, was lifted up into the air by a whirlwind and never returned. Again, Antide Colas said that when the Devil came to take her in her bed to carry her to the Sabbat, he was like a cold wind which took her by the head.