Compendium Maleficarum/Book 1/Chapter 12

by Francesco Maria Guazzo

Chapter XII

Whether Witches are Really Transported from Place to Place to their Nightly Assemblies.

Argument.

Many of the followers of Luther and Melancthon maintained that witches went to their Sabbats in imagination only, and that there was some diabolical illusion in the matter, alleging that their bodies had often been found lying at home in their beds and had never moved from them; and they support their contention with that passage in the Life of S. Germanus concerning the women who met together, as it seemed, in a feast, and yet were all the time sleeping at home. It is certain that such women are very often the victims of illusion, but it is not proved that this is always so. But as Michal the wife of David deceived the soldiers of her father Saul by putting an image in David’s room, so we say that the devil can and does place a false body in the bed to deceive the husband while a witch has gone to the Sabbat; and in order that the husband may not suspect she is absent, he either causes him to fall into a heavy sleep, or substitutes a likeness of his wife so that the husband on awaking may think that it is indeed his wife. Nicolas Remy proves this from judicial records. A barber’s wife confessed at Forbach on 1st September, 1587, that she had often done this to her husband Bertrand, and had put him to so deep a sleep by anointing him with a certain ointment that she could tweak him by the ear without rousing him; and she used the same ointment upon herself when she wished to go to the Sabbat. On the same day at the same place Eller, the wife of a beadle of Öttingen, was said to have substituted for her own body a child’s cradle, or as some said a bundle of twigs marked with the name of her Familiar, and so often duped her husband. At Homberg on the 5th June, 1590, Maria, the wife of a tailor in Metzer Esch, anointed a bundle of straw and so created an illusion which vanished as soon as she herself returned to the house. Catharine Ruffa declared that the devil himself had at times taken her place in bed and acted in her stead. These instances are taken from Remy, Demonolatreia, I, 12.

Further I hold it to be very true that sometimes witches are really transported from place to place by the devil who, in the shape of a goat or some other fantastic animal, both carries them bodily to the Sabbat and himself is present at its obscenities. This is the general opinion of the Theologians and Jurisconsults of Italy, Spain, and Catholic Germany; while a great many others are of a like opinion. Turrecremata (Torquemada) on Grilland, De sortileg. libre 2, q. 7, num. 8: Remy, Demonolatreia, I, 14, 24, 29: S. Peter Damian, Epist. IV, 17: Francesco Silvester,^[1] In uerbo haeresis, num. 3: Gaietani on S. Mark iv, quest. 47: Alfonso à Castro^[2]: Sisto of Siena^[3]: Crespet: Spina, Contra Ponzinibium^[4]: Anania: and very many others whom for the sake of brevity I omit.

But it must be known that before they go to the Sabbat they anoint themselves upon some part of their bodies with an unguent made from various foul and filthy ingredients, but chiefly from murdered children; and so anointed they are carried away on a cowl-staff, or a broom, or a reed, a cleft stick or a distaff, or even a shovel, which things they ride. At times they are mounted upon an ox or a goat or a dog, and so are carried to their feast. And yet again they go on foot when the place is not far distant. Examples of all these were to be found in Remy, I, 14.

When these members of the devil have met together, they generally light a foul and horrid fire. The devil is president of the Assembly and sits on a throne in some terrible shape, as of a goat or a dog; and they approach him to adore him, but not always in the same manner. For sometimes they bend their knees as suppliants, and sometimes stand with their backs turned, and sometimes kick their legs high up so that their heads are bent back and their chins point to the sky.

Then they offer him pitch black candles, or infants’ navel cords; and kiss him upon the buttocks in sign of homage. Having committed these and similar crimes and execrable abominations, they proceed to other infamies as we shall tell later: but first let us discuss the hour of their Sabbat.

Remy says that he learned from the witches’ own answers at their trials that the fixed time for the nocturnal assembly of witches is one or two hours before midnight, this being most suitable and opportune not only for such assemblies but also for certain other devils’ terrors, sports, runnings about and hubbub which follow, and are not at such an hour so obnoxious. Witches do not explain the cause of this, neither do I inquire into it. But it has been sworn to by Johannes à Villa and Agatina the wife of Francis the tailor. This one thing will I add: that no hours of the night are more suspect nor more favourable to the apparition of fearful and terrifying shades. Indeed it is known from experience that such hours are chiefly notorious for spectres and hideous ghosts, as the classical authors have testified in their writings. For example, Aristomenes,^[5] in Apuleius, Golden Ass, Bk. I: Pliny,^[6] VII, 6: Pliny the Younger,^[7] Epist. 7: and among more modern writers Alexander ab Alexandro (Genial. Dierum, V, 24) tells that he heard in the silence of midnight a terrible noise of ghosts from certain houses in Rome. And authors of weight say that this silent time is the dead of night which comes (according to Censorinus,^[8] De Die Natali, cap. XXIV) just before the stroke of midnight. Eusebius of Caesarea argues that the untimely hour of the night is just before cock crow, and that this is the most suited to the demon’s wicked purposes. Servius (in the Fifth Book of the Aeneid) says that it is the middle of the night: Macrobius^[9] that it is just after midnight; since such time is aptest to the Prince of Darkness for his dealings

with men, being an uncouth and vacant time. And, to return to the subject of the cock crow, Remy in the same place says that he had it in judicial examination from a witch named Latoma that nothing more baleful and hostile to them could happen than that the cock should crow while they were still about their business. Johann Pulmer and his wife Desideria, both of them witches, likewise deposed in Court that their Masters often used to cry out, when it was nearly time to break up the Sabbat: “Now go quickly away all, for the cocks begin to crow.” And this can only mean that they are unable to prolong their business any further. But I know not the reason of their fear of the cock crow. From Pliny and Aelian I know that the cock crow is feared by lions and Scolopendrae. Also that it portends much when they crow out of time during the night, as Zacchia da Volterra^[10] (Philologiae, libre 25) records it to have happened on the birth night of the eldest son of Matteo Visconti the Great, Lord of Milan: for on that night the cocks did not cease from crowing to the point of tediousness, and therefore the child was named Galeazzo, and grew up to great eloquence and military glory, as Paolo Giovio tells.

Remy (I, 16) tells that the witches themselves assert that a great number of both sexes meet at their nocturnal Sabbats, but that there are far more women than men. This was affirmed by Barbellina Raiel of Blainville-la-Grande on the 13th January, 1587. In 1585 Jeanne de Bans and Nicole Ganette from the town of Mainz in Lorraine said that they were sometimes present among so great a

number of witches that they felt no small pity for the human race when they saw it assailed by so many enemies and betrayers, and that it was indeed wonderful that mortals did not suffer more harm from them. Catharine Ruffa of Val-de-Villé near the Moselle said in July 1587 that she saw no less than five hundred on that night when she was first lured into their number.

There are tables placed and drawn up, and they sit and start to eat of the food which the demon has provided, or which they have themselves brought. But all who have sat down to such tables confess that the feasts are all foul either in appearance or in smell, so that they would easily nauseate the most ravenously hungry stomach. The above-mentioned Barbellina and Sybil Morelle said at Bar-le-Duc in September 1586 that all sorts of food were there, but so vile and mean and badly cooked that they were scarcely worth eating. At Bar-le-Duc in February 1587 Nicolas Morelle said that their taste was so evil and dry and bitter that he had to spue them out as soon as he had eaten them; and that the demon was so angry when he saw this that he hardly kept his hands from him. Their wine also is black like stale blood, and is given to the feasters in some filthy sort of drinking horn. They say that there is plenty of everything except bread and salt. In 1583 at Ribeauville, near the Château de Girsberg, Dominique Isabelle added that human flesh was also set out, and that this was a frequent practice among the Scythian witches we learn from Belleforest (Cosmographiae, II, 6). Most of the partakers of such feasts say that the food and drink satisfy

neither their hunger nor their thirst, but they are just as hungry and thirsty afterwards as they were before. Joanna Michaelis, of Château-Salins, in 1590 added that the eyes of those who attend such assemblies are not sure and clear of sight, but that all is confused and disturbed and appears vague to them, like those who are blinded by drunkenness or some sin or some magic. Thus witches sometimes are actually present at the Sabbat; and often again they are fast asleep at home, and yet think that they are at the Sabbat; for the devil deceives their senses, and through his illusions many imaginings may enter the minds of sleepers, leaving them with a conviction of their reality when they awake, as if it were not a dream but an actual experience and an undoubted physical action. For so for the most part does the crafty devil manage his affairs.

Then follow dances, which are performed in a circle but always round to the left; and just as our dances are for pleasure, so their dances and measures bring them labour and fatigue and the greatest toil. And they return home from them so weary, according to the confession of Barbellina and nearly all witches who have attended them, that they have often had to lie abed for a full two days. And the most sorry and most iniquitous thing about it is that no one is allowed to excuse herself from the dance; and if any of them, by reason of ill health or old age, shirks that labour, she is soon beaten and bruised by fists and feet, just as salted fish is beaten with hammers.

When they approach the demons to venerate them, they turn their backs and, going backwards like crabs, put out their hands behind them to touch him in supplication. When they speak they turn their faces to the ground; and they do all things in a manner altogether foreign to the use of other men. Indeed it is sufficiently clear from our own experience that the desire of men for wanton dancing and treading light measures nearly always lead by evil example to more lust and sin; in his day this was complained of by Scipio Aemilianus, in his oration contra legem iudiciariam Tiberii Gracchi, and by Macrobius, Saturnalia, III, 4.

Sometimes they dance before eating, and sometimes after the repast. Some three or four tables are set apart for the richest and most honoured among them. Sometimes each sits next to his own Familiar Spirit; sometimes the witches on one side, and the demons opposite them. There is not lacking a grace said at this table, worthy of such an assembly, composed of blasphemous words in which Beelzebub himself is acclaimed the Creator and Giver and Preserver of all. The same spirit inspires their actions after the tables have been removed. For when the banquet is done each demon takes by the hand the disciple under his guardianship, and all the rites are performed with the utmost absurdity in a frenzied ring with hands joined and back to back; and so they dance, throwing their heads like frantic folk, sometimes holding in their hands the candles which they have before used in worshipping the devil.

They sing in honour of the devil the most obscene songs to the sound of a bawdy pipe and tabor played by one seated in the fork of a tree; and then in the foulest manner they copulate with their demon lovers. They come to these Sabbats, as we have said, in the silence of midnight when the

powers of darkness are strong; but sometimes they even meet at noontide; and this is referred to in the passage of the Psalms (xci, 6) where it speaks of the noon-day demon. They have also fixed days which differ in various localities. In Italy they meet about midnight on Thursday, according to Sébastien Michaelis.^[11] The witches of Lorraine meet on Wednesday night, and on Saturday night with the Sunday following, according to Remy: and I have read that others meet on Tuesday night.

From what we have already described, therefore, and from the confessions of witches themselves before their Judges, it is clearer than light, and will be confirmed by particular instances, that witches are carried bodily through the air to the Sabbat by demons; and not only are they themselves so carried, but with the help of the devil they can carry others on their own shoulders, as the examples will show. Sometimes indeed, when the Sabbat has been suddenly dispersed, tables and silver furnishings have been found and recognised by their owners, which the women have confessed that they have carried with them to the Sabbat.

Only I will add this: that they who assert that all this is not true, but only a dream or an illusion, certainly sin in lack of true reverence to our Mother the Church. For the Catholic Church punishes no crime that is not evident and manifest, and counts no one a heretic unless he has been caught in patent heresy. Now for many years the Church has counted witches as heretics and has ordered that they be punished by the Inquisitors and handed over to the Secular Courts, as is clear from the works of Sprenger, Nider, Nicolas Jacquier,^[12] and Michaelis, as well as from our own knowledge. Therefore either the Church is in error, or they who maintain this belief. But he who says that the Church is in error over a matter concerning the faith is Anathema Maranatha. I conclude therefore that witches are most often actually transported by the devil, and that sometimes they go afoot: and when they wish to be transported bodily they anoint themselves, as I have said already, with an ointment made from the fat of infants’ bodies; but when they wish to attend the Sabbat only in dream, they lie down on their left side: but when they prefer to keep awake, and yet see what is done at the Sabbat as if they were present at it, then by some devils’ work they send a thick vapour from their mouths, in which they can see all that is done as if in a mirror.

It is Stated by some authors^[13] as a fact that there have been women who have manifestly spent the night in bed with their husbands, and yet on the next morning have confidently remembered and spoken about many things pertaining to the Sabbat, at which they have maintained that they were present on the preceding night. Others have been observed by their family and relations, who have formed some suspicion of them, to start violently in their sleep as if they were in great pain; or even to bestride a chair or some other object as if it were a horse, and spur it on with their heels: yet they have not gone out of the house, but on awaking have been as tired as if they had returned from a long journey, and have told of marvellous things which they thought they had done. And what is more, they are angry and incensed against those who do not believe them. This has led many to believe that this is no more than a matter of dreams sent by the devil into the minds of those whom he has caught in his net.

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Examples.

In the County of York in England a wonderful thing happened which is recorded by Martin Delrio of the Society of Jesus, who quotes from William of Newburgh,^[14] to whom it was known from boyhood (for it was not far from the birthplace of this historian). There is a village some miles from the North Sea, near which are those famous waters which the common people call “the Gipsies”^[15] or the “Gipsey-race.” A certain peasant went on a visit from this village to a neighbouring village to see a friend and as he was returning late at night not very sober, behold from a mound some two or three furlongs from the village came the sound of voices singing and of people feasting. He wondered who could be breaking the silence of the night in that place with these formal celebrations, and was curious enough to wish to enquire into it; and seeing an open door in the side of the mound he went and looked in, and saw a wide and well-lit hall filled with men and women sitting down to a grand feast. But one of the servers saw him standing at the door and brought him a cup,^[16] which he took but purposely refused to drink from it; for he spilled its contents and at once went away with the cup. An outcry arose among the feasters at the theft of the cup, and the guests went in pursuit of him; but he escaped thanks to the speed of his horse, and came back to the village with his rare prize. Afterwards this cup, which was of unknown material and unusual colour and uncommon shape, was offered as a gift to Henry I, King of England, and then to the brother of the Queen of David, King of Scotland, and was for many years kept in the Treasury of Scotland, as may be read in the First Book Rerum Anglicarum, cap. 28.

Sébastien Michaelis tells that among the witches of Avignon a boy was taken who told the Judge that he had been led by his father to the Synagogue (for so they called their Assembly), and had there seen many wicked and horrible things done; so that in his terror he had signed himself with the cross and said “Jesus, what is this!” And as soon as he had said this the whole rout disappeared, leaving him there alone; and the next day he returned home, which was three German miles distant from the place of the Synagogue, and brought his father before the Judges. And therefore in that district the boy was given the name Masquillon, that is, Little Magician: and this boy was still in captivity at Avignon when Michaelis wrote this in 1582.

Bartolomeo de Spina (De Strig. Tom. II, p. II, cap. 17) relates the following: Master Socino Benci, a famous physician of Ferrara who was Public Intendant of the sick in that city, lately told me as the faithful truth that when he was in the country about three years ago to see after his properties, he fell into conversation with his bailiff about witches. The physician said that all the talk about witches was madness, especially that they could be bodily transported wherever they wished. But the bailiff (who is still living, one Tommasino Polastros from the district of Mirandola, but now living in the place called Clavica Malaguzi) replied that there was another peasant living close by, who said that he had seen great numbers of men and women dancing in the night and abandoning themselves to pleasures. The physician was astounded and asked the bailiff to bring that peasant to him; and when he was brought and asked about those things, he answered as follows: “One night I rose about three hours before dawn and came with my own oxen and wagon to this bailiff of yours to help him in a job of work; and I had got as far as that plain I am pointing to” (for it was near by) “when I saw afar off a big fire in different places, like great lights, among which I saw a great crowd of men and women wrestling or dancing together. Going nearer, I saw more than six thousand people in the clear light of the fires, and tables spread, and some of them eating and drinking; but more were dancing and playing different sorts of games, while most of them were acting bawdy in a way that it is not right to speak of. I saw some men and women among them whom I knew, and spoke to some of them: but after an hour a signal was given and they all seemed to run away very quickly indeed, and they were nowhere to be seen, as if they had been carried away in a cloud.” On hearing this evidence the physician changed his opinion, and not only believed that what he had formerly thought to be madness was possible, but that it did actually happen.

The following, which is a witch’s own statement, is taken from Grilland. After she had paid her homage, the chief of the devils at once appointed as her guardian a demon who must never leave her but serve her in all that she wished; and whenever their rendezvous and games were to be held he was to inform her of it and take her there fully instructed: and this demon used her carnally as a husband serves his wife. She said that witches often go to these Assemblies, where a great number of women meet; and that it is no matter of a mere mental or intellectual or apparent vision, for in their true and natural shape they go to such places in the following manner. A day or two before the Sabbat the witch is told by her guardian demon to prepare to go to the games on such a night at such an hour; and if she has any just cause to hinder her she adduces it and is heard, provided that it is a true and legitimate excuse: but if she invents a false reason to excuse her attendance, she is not carried there against her will, but remains in her house; yet as a punishment for her lies the demon so mightily torments her both in mind and body with continuous torture of the sharpest degree, and aches and pains both within and without, that she can have no rest by day or by night, but is always plagued; and everything that she does comes to nothing and is abortive. So that, to put an end to such great pain, she must confess her fault and promise on oath that she will no more refuse to go to the Sabbat. When she has so promised, as soon as the night and the hour have arrived she is summoned in a sort of human voice by the demon himself, whom she does not call demon but Little Master, or Martinet Master, or Martinellus. And on this summons she goes out of her house and always finds her Little Master waiting by the door in the form of a goat, upon which this woman said that she rode holding tightly to its hair, and the goat rose into the air and in the shortest time carried her to the wizard walnut tree of Benevento^[17] and gently put her down there.

Paul Grilland (De sortileg. II, 7) tells that in 1524 there was brought to him as Inquisitor a certain Lucretia who, while she was being carried home from the Sabbat, came at dawn within sound of the bells calling the people to morning prayer, and was suddenly left by the devil who was carrying her near a river in a field covered with thorns. It happened that a young man well known to her was walking across it, and the unhappy woman called to him by his name. The young man, seeing her quite naked except for a covering over her private parts, and with her hair all loose, was afraid to go near her: but she coaxed him with flattering words, and at last he went up to her and asked her how she came to be there in that state. At first she invented many lies, but the young man did not believe her and said he would not help her unless she told the truth. Then, binding him to secrecy, she told the truth of what had happened to her, and the reason for it. The young man took her secretly to her home, and she gave him many gifts; but in the end he forgot his promise and spoke of the matter first to one and then to another, and so by degrees the disgraceful story was spread abroad, and the woman was taken, and the young man was compelled to give evidence of the truth and he told all this to Grilland.

A woman in the Diocese of Sabina practised this diabolic art, and her husband becoming suspicious repeatedly questioned her, but she always denied the charge. But the husband retained his suspicions and anxiously sought to know the truth, and contrived so cunningly that one night he saw her anointing herself with some ointment, after which she flew away as quickly as a bird. He followed to see where she was going, but lost sight of her; and going to the door of the house he found it shut, which caused him great surprise. On the following day he again asked his wife what he so eagerly wished to know, and she firmly denied all knowledge; until, so that she could no longer plead ignorance, he openly told her all that he had seen her do the night before, and then soundly thrashed her, since it is wisely said that an obstinate heart is broken by the rod; and he threatened to beat her even more severely unless she told the truth, promising her a full pardon if she would freely confess. The woman, seeing that she could no longer hide it, told the truth and asked pardon of her husband, which he granted on condition that she would take him to the Sabbat. To obtain forgiveness she readily promised this, and, with the permission of Satan, fulfilled her word. The husband was taken to the place of the Sabbat and saw the games and dances and everything else, and finally sat down with the rest at the tables to eat; but finding the food insipid, he asked for salt and, although there was none on the table, kept asking again and again for it, but was not given any until after much importunacy and long waiting. Then he said; “Praise be to God, for at last the salt has come!” As soon as he had uttered these words the demons immediately departed, and all the rest vanished, and the lights were put out and he remained there alone and naked. In the morning he saw some shepherds whom he asked in what country he was; and they answered that it was Benevento in the Kingdom of Naples, which was a hundred miles from the man’s own country. So, although he was a rich man, he had to beg his way home; and on his arrival he at once accused his wife of the crime of witchcraft, and told the Judges the whole story and how she had departed. And when they had well and duly examined the matter, they found all that we have related to be true, and it was all confirmed by the woman’s own confession.

Bartolomeo Spina,^[18] Master of the Sacred Palace, records some equally certain examples, one of which is as follows. A girl who lived with her mother at Bergamo was found one night at Venice in her brother-in-law’s bed. In the morning she was found naked and was recognised as a kinswoman, and was asked why she had come there. When they had clothed her she told with tears the following story: “Last night I was lying in bed awake and saw my mother, who thought I was asleep, rise from her bed and take off her vest and anoint her body with an unguent from a pot which she took from a secret place; and then she mounted a staff which was at hand as if it were a horse, and rose up and was carried through the window, so that I could no longer see her. Then I also rose from bed and anointed my body as my mother had done, and was at once borne through the window and brought to this place, where I saw my mother threatening with horrid gestures the boy lying in this bed. I was frightened at this, and saw that my mother also was disturbed by my appearance and began to menace me: so I called upon the Name of the Lord Jesus and of His Mother, and then I no longer saw my mother, and was left here alone and naked.” When they heard these words of the girl, her brother-in-law wrote all down and brought it before the Inquisitor-General of Bergamo, who took the woman into custody. She was exposed to torture and confirmed everything in confession, adding that the demon had carried her more than fifty times to kill the son of that brother-in-law, but that she had never succeeded in doing so because she had always found him too well protected by his parents with the sign of the cross and holy prayers.

Spina also relates that a certain Antonio Leone, a charcoal burner of Ferrara, who was then living in the Valtellina, that very same year, attested that he knew intimately the man to whom the following occurred in his native district. This man, on account of many hints which had been given him, suspected his wife of going to the witches’ Sabbat while he himself was asleep. One night, therefore, he pretended to be in a deep sleep, and saw his wife rise from her bed and anoint herself from a hidden vase, and immediately vanish. In astonishment not unmixed with curiosity the man also rose from his bed and did as his wife had done; and at once, as it seemed to him, he was carried up the chimney just as his wife appeared to have been, into the wine cellar of a certain noble Count, where he found his wife together with many others. When she saw him, his wife and all the rest of the company made a certain occult sign and disappeared, the husband being left all alone in that place. There he was found in the morning by the servants of the house, who raised an outcry, and seizing him as a thief haled him before the Count. When he had been granted leave to speak, he shamefacedly told what had happened; and so his wife was accused before the Inquisitor, and at last confessed, and suffered the punishment well merited by her crimes.

Nicolas Remy (I, 14) tells the following examples. At Luthz at the foot of the Vosges Mountains in May 1589 the villagers were celebrating a pagan festival. Claude Cothèze was returning in the evening from that village to the next, which is called Wisembach, and had already climbed a good part of the hill which separates the two villages, when he was suddenly caught in a whirlwind and stood looking about him in amazement to see if he could find any cause for such an unusual occurrence, for the air was most calm and still everywhere else. Then he saw in a sheltered place six witch women dancing round a table sumptuously decked with gold and silver, tossing their heads about like people afflicted with madness; and near them was a man like a black bull watching them as if he were a casual passer by. He therefore stood still for a while collecting himself and making sure that he saw quite clearly; and when he had done so, they all suddenly vanished from his sight. Recovering from his fright he then started on his road again and had already passed the top of the hill when behold, those women were following him from behind, throwing their heads about as before and keeping a deep silence, while before them went a man with a black face and hands curved like talons, with which he would have clawed his forehead if he had not turned and opposed him with his drawn sword; but then the man ceased to threaten him and vanished as if in fear of his life. The women showed themselves yet again, and with them the man like a bull, who, as I have said, was looking on at their dances. Cothèze now felt more confident towards this man, and went up to him, saying: “Are not you my friend Desirée Gazète?” (for so he was named). “I beg you to protect me if you can; for I promise you that I will tell no one anything of what I have seen.” Hardly had he said this when he was encompassed by a fresh whirlwind or cloud, and when he had come out of it as soon as he could, he went home. Three days after he had given evidence as above, he was recalled for examination by the Judge, and added the following: that he remembered that when he had gone near the table to see what food there was upon it, the demon had instantly flown at his face with his talons, and that while he was defending himself with his sword he had been lifted up by a violent wind and carried to the cataracts of Comber Hill, which was no less than two hundred paces away. And lest anyone should think that this was the imagining of a drunken man frightened by the darkness and solitude, the story was confirmed at St.-Dié in June 1589 by Barbelline Gazète, one of the women in question, who told it in almost the same words to the Inquisitor, adding that her husband Desirée Gazète had given to Cothèze as a gift three measures of wheat and as many cow’s cheeses which he kept hidden, and that she had seen them. All this was admitted and agreed to, except that Barbelline said that the demon had not raised his hands against Cothèze because he came near the table, as he had falsely stated in his evidence, but because he was about to steal a golden cup from it.

When Johann of Hembach was scarcely more than a child, his witch mother took him to the nocturnal assembly of demons and, because he was so clever a crowder, ordered him to play his kit and to climb up a tree from which he could be heard better. He did so and, having leisure to watch their lewd reels and rigadoons, found it very unusual (for everything at their Sabbat was uncouth and ridiculous), and cried out: “Good God, whence came that extraordinary mob of madmen?” No sooner had he said this than he fell to the ground and hurt his shoulder; and when he called for help, he found himself alone. He told this story openly and various opinions were formed about it; some saying that it was only a vision, whilst others contended that it had really happened. But not long afterwards the opportunity arose to remove all doubt. For Catharine Prevotte, one of those who had taken part in those dances, was soon afterwards taken on suspicion of witchcraft, and confessed the whole matter as we have told it, although she was unaware of the story told by Johann and was not pressed by any questions.

As Nicole Langbernard was returning home from Marainviller to Igney-Avricourt in July 1590, and was walking at full noonday along a wooded path, she saw in a neighbouring field a company of men and women dancing in a ring, not in the usual manner of men but in the opposite direction and with their backs turned. She looked more closely and saw further some who were deformed with hooves like goats or oxen among the dancers; and being struck with terror she began to call upon the Most Holy Name of Jesus, and earnestly to pray that she might come back safe and unharmed to her own people. Thereupon all the dancers vanished except one named Peter, and he quickly rose into the air and was seen to let fall to the earth a little brush of the sort used by bakers to clean their ovens before they bake bread. Meanwhile she was caught in a violent wind so that she could hardly draw her breath; and then returned home, where she lay sick for three whole days. This thing became known through the talk of herself and her neighbours, and had soon spread all over the village. This Peter, lest by ignoring the story he should seem to admit and confess to so heavy a charge, went first to the Judge and angrily laid a complaint before him; but in the end he was afraid he would lose his suit and lay himself open to a greater danger, and so desisted from it. This brought him into far greater suspicion of the crime, since many were of opinion that his guilty conscience had caused him to withdraw the complaint which he had started so bitterly against her. Accordingly the Judge made diligent enquiry into his life and character, and found some indications that this was no empty suspicion, and arrested him (at Dieuze, Feb. 1591). And he was with little trouble induced to confess his guilt, and finally to name and indicate those others who had been partners in that crime, among whom were Barbelia the wife of Johann Latomer, and Mayette the wife of Laurentius, the Chief Magistrate, all of whom told the same story of their dancing back to back with the cloven-hoofed creatures, maintaining that it was all true. Their confession was yet further substantiated by Johann Michel, a herdsman, who stated that during those proceedings he had been playing upon his pipes, beating time with his foot and moving his fingers quickly over the pipes. But when Nicole in panic called upon Jesus, and moreover signed herself with the Cross, he fell from the high branch of an oak on which he was sitting, and was then caught in a whirlwind and carried to a field called Veiler in which he had shortly before left his flock grazing. But the gravest and weightiest proof was that the place where the dance had been performed had been found, on the day following that mentioned by Nicole, marked with a ring such as is seen in circuses where horses run round in a circle, and there were recent tracks of goats or oxen, all of which could be seen until that field was again ploughed up in the following winter.

In Holland there was in the village of Oostbruck not far from Maestricht a widow woman whose circumstances required her to keep a manservant to manage the affairs of the house. This man was, like most servants, inquisitive, and often used to look through a window and see his mistress go at the dead of every night, as soon as the servants had gone to sleep, to a certain fixed spot in the stables, where she stretched up and laid fast hold of the nearest rack of hay. At last, wondering what she could be about, he made up his mind to do the same just once, unbeknown to his mistress, and to try the same venture. So when his mistress went as usual to that place and seemed to be out of sight, he followed and looked about the place and, as his mistress had done, grasped the hay. Then he was at once carried to the town of Wijk into a secret underground cave, where he found himself in the midst of a company of witches brewing their evil plots. The mistress was surprised at her servant’s unexpected appearance, and asked how he had managed to come there in a moment of time. He told her how it was; and she waxed very angry and highly incensed, being afraid lest by this means their nocturnal and clandestine meetings should become known. She therefore asked her associates what they advised in this doubtful pass, and they at length agreed that he should be received in friendly fashion and be sworn to keep silence, and that he would never communicate or tell to any one those mysteries which chance had allowed him to witness, beyond his desert or expectation. He gave his promise and spoke fairly to them; and, that they might treat him more leniently, pretended that his one chief wish was that they should thereafter admit him into the fellowship and company of witches. Meanwhile the hours passed until it was time for their return; and then a new question was posed by the mistress, whether he should be sent back home to be a danger to the whole assembly, or whether he should be killed for the general good. They arrived at the more merciful decision of binding him by an oath and sending him home. This duty was undertaken by his mistress, who promised that when he had given his oath she would carry him home on her shoulders; and to this business they set themselves, and were carried by an east wind through the air. But when they had covered the greater part of their journey a lake overgrown with reeds came in sight; and the old witch, fearing lest the young man should be led by penitence to disclose what he had seen at those frantic orgies, saw her chance of getting rid of him, and to cast him from her as she flew, hoping, as it is thought, that he would die either from the violence of his fall or in the deep waters of the lake. But God, who is merciful and desireth not the death of a sinner but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live, frustrated the evil design of that witch, and did not allow the innocent young man to be drowned, but most justly granted that he should live to this very day. As he fell among the reeds he received no mortal hurt indeed, for the violence of his fall was a little broken by the reeds: but the unhappy man was unable to do anything but use his tongue, and lay there till daylight in the most dreadful agony, sighing and groaning, until some passers by were surprised to hear this unusual lamentation, and searched and found a young man with both his hips dislocated. They asked how he had fallen into such misfortune; and when he had told all they took him in a cart to Maestricht. There a nobleman, Jehan Chulenburgh, the Mayor of the city, being struck by the strangeness of the affair, wonderingly enquired into it all; and having examined the matter he ordered the youth’s mistress to be seized and put in chains. As soon as she fell into the hands of the Mayor, she denied nothing, but confessed to every particular.

Bernard of Como^[19] in his De Strigiis, 3, tells that about sixty years ago in the Diocese of Como proceedings were being taken against such witches by an Inquisitor named Master Bartolomeo de Homate, with Master Lorenzo da Concorezzo the Podesta and Giovanni da Fossato as Notary. One day the Podesta, out of curiosity, wished to prove by experience whether witches go to the Sabbat really and in their bodies. Accordingly he agreed to go one Thursday evening with his Notary and another companion to a place outside the town^[20] which had been indicated by the witches. While they were standing there they saw many people assembled before one who was the devil in the form of a goat enthroned like some great Lord: and behold, at the command of the devil all those persons there assembled fell upon that magistrate and his companions and, with God’s permission, so beat them with sticks that they all three died from their blows within fifteen days.

Florimond de Raymond,^[21] Senator of the King at the Parlement of Bordeaux, a pious catholic and learned man, in his L’Antéchrist, VII, tells of some unspeakable and sacrilegious rites in the following words.

At this Court in the year 1594 was tried a young girl of Aquitane, a wench of intelligent appearance who, without being tortured, freely confessed that she had been corrupted at a tender age by a certain Italian. In the middle of the night before the day of S. John Baptist the Italian had led her to a certain field, where he had traced a circle on the ground with a beech twig, muttering some words out of a black book. Suddenly there appeared a large and perfectly black goat, well horned, and accompanied by two women, and soon there came up a man clothed and vested like a priest. The goat asked the Italian what girl that was; and he answered that she had been brought by him to be enrolled among the goat’s subjects. Hearing this, the goat ordered her to make the sign of the cross with her left hand, and all who were present to approach and perform their act of veneration. Thereupon they all kissed him with their lips under his tail. Between the goat’s horns a black candle gave a horrid light, and from this they all lit the candles they were holding; and as they worshipped the goat, they dropped money in a bowl. This is what happened the first time. Afterwards the Italian again took the girl to the same place; and then the goat asked her for a tress or lock of her hair, which the Italian cut off and gave to him. By this sign the goat led her apart as his bride into a neighbouring wood and, pressing her against the ground, penetrated her: but the girl said that she found this operation quite lacking in any sensation of pleasure, for she rather experienced a very keen pain and sense of horror of the goat’s semen, which was as cold as ice. On a Wednesday and a Friday in each month these rites were performed by the well of Dôme, and she attended them countless times with more than sixty others, all of whom brought candles with them which the goat lit by blowing upon them from his behind, after which they danced round with joined hands and their backs turned. They also performed a travesty of the Mass, celebrated by one clothed in a black cope with no cross woven upon it. At the time of the Holy Sacrifice and the Elevation of the Host, he lifted up a segment or round of turnip stained black, upon which they all with one voice cried out: “Master, help us!” The Chalice contained water instead of wine; and they made their Holy Water as follows:—The goat pissed into a hole dug in the ground, and with this undiluted water the celebrant sprinkled them all with a black aspergillum. In this assembly each witch has his or her particular duty assigned, and each gives a report of what he has done. So writes Raymond; and he discusses the question of poisons, spells, charms and magic remedies, as also the destruction of the fruits of the earth, and many such crimes.

Let us now consider how witches are borne through the clouds by demons at other times than that of the nocturnal assembly. In Belgium a nobleman of proved faith named Vanderburch, Dean of the Cathedral Chapter and an honoured citizen of Mechlin, was walking outside the town with an arquebus, when suddenly he heard the screaming of crows and crowds of obscene crows and pies in a tree near his path. He levelled his arquebus and discharged it at them, and thought he had fairly hit one and brought it down from the tree; but all he found was an iron key from a woman’s girdle. He took this home and told a friend what had happened, asking whether he recognised the key. His friend said that he knew it for the key of a neighbouring house. They then went to the house, found the door locked, opened it with their key and, shutting the door behind them, went in, since they were acquainted with the good man of the house; and there they found a woman, the owner’s wife, wounded in the side with an arquebus shot.

Martin Delrio (Disqu. Magic. V, 3) makes the following observation:—I was at the Nieulay Bridge at Calais when it was stormed under the auspicious leadership of the Serene Archduke Albert and held by the soldiers of His Catholic Majesty. A company from Valogne was stationed as outpost to keep a watch upon the men of Boulogne, who were then on the enemy’s side; and towards the evening two of these men saw a black cloud floating out of the clear sky, and from the midst of it there seemed to come a confused sound of many voices, although no one could be seen. At last the bolder of these two men said: “What is this? Are we safe? If you consent, I will discharge my arquebus into that cloud.” His comrade agreed, and after the report of the arquebus, there fell to their feet from the cloud a drunken naked woman, very fat and of middle age, wounded right through the thigh. On being seized she pretended to be feeble minded, and would answer nothing to their questions but, “Are you friends or foes?” Now what do they say to this, who deny that these witches are transported? They will say that they do not believe it. Then let them remain sceptical; for they will not believe any number of eye-witnesses whom I could produce. Why? Because they themselves have never seen or heard such a thing, and they have examined certain witnesses who have maintained that they knew nothing of such happenings. So says Delrio.

Now, reader, I will take further instances from Nicolas Remy, the truth of which has been sworn on oath and given in evidence at trials. There is, he says, at Gironcourt in the Vosges Province a strong-built castle which was struck by lightning so that some of its roofing was torn away. Not long afterwards, namely, in October 1580, one Sebastienne Piccarde was accused of witchcraft in that village, and confessed to the Judge that this had been the work of herself and her demon. For, she said, we together rushed from a cloud upon the castle meaning to bring it entirely to ruin; but it was not in our power to do so, and we could only inflict a little damage so that our attempt should not be altogether abortive.

The following instance is similar. A man named Cunin, who was a magistrate in the bailiwick of S. Clement in Ronchamp, was attending to his hay with his servants on the 1st December, 1586, when he noticed the sky grow very stormy. He was getting ready to go home, when suddenly he saw six oak trees near him struck by lightning and torn up by the roots, and a seventh appeared as if it had been all rent and lacerated with claws. He then made the more haste towards home, in his hurry leaving behind his hat and all his tools, and again heard the crash of lightning striking and saw perched in the top of an oak near him a woman who seemed to have come from the clouds. He looked at her more closely and recognised her as an old neighbour of his, and at once began to revile her as follows: “Are not you that vile hag Marguerite Warens, who, as I now find, thoroughly deserve the general suspicion of witchcraft which every one has long harboured against you? Whence come you now in that costume?” To this she answered: “Spare me, I entreat you, and keep silent about what you now see. If you will promise me this, I will manage so that no harm at all shall ever come from me to you and yours.” And lest any should doubt the truth of this, let him know that it was proved not only by the evidence of Cunin, but by the confession of that very Warens which was often repeated even without the stimulus of torture, and confirmed by her in the hearing of many at the very last moment of her life.

To the same effect are instances arising out of other capital trials, vouched for as true by those who conducted them. A great thunder­ storm arose while some shepherds were watching their flocks in the Vosges, and since they were exposed in the open they took shelter in the neighbouring woods. There all at once they saw two peasants perched, or rather entangled, in the tops of the trees, so terrified that it was easy to see that they were not there of their own will, but quite by accident and through some unexpected impetus. But then the filth and muddiness of their clothing, and the fact that they were all scratched with brambles, gave rise to an increasing suspicion that they had been cast out and hurled into that place by their Master after he had dragged them hither and thither according to his custom. This suspicion was the more confirmed because, after they had sat there long enough for the shepherds’ eyes to make sure that they saw clearly, in an instant, without anyone marking how, they seemed to fall to the ground. Finally all doubt was removed when their own words, and the report of the shepherds, were fully borne out by spontaneous confession when they were questioned in prison.

There is also a village lying to the left as you go from Bellemont to Vittel, where the same two peasants fell headlong from a storm cloud on to the top of a roof. One of them, whose name was Rouet, was terribly troubled as to how they could get safely to ground from so difficult a place. But the other, Amant, had been led into the devil’s service by his parents as soon as he reached puberty and very soon adapted himself to the conditions, saying: “Cheer up, you fool; for he in whose power we are is Master of far more difficult matters than this, and will very soon manage this affair for us.” And no sooner said than done; for they were suddenly caught up together in a whirlwind and set down safe on the ground, while the house itself shook so that it seemed to be torn from its foundations. This was told by each of them separately in the same words: moreover their story agreed in every respect with that of the villagers, as to the day, the storm, and all the panic. Finally, they who in life had been associated together in crime, perished in one fire by the Judge’s sentence. So says Remy.

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1. “Silvester of Avila.” Francesco Silvester, c. 1474–1526. Dominican theologian, and sometime Master-General of the Order. A prolific and esteemed writer.
2. “Alfonso à Castro. 1495–1558. A Franciscan theologian of great eminence. Confessor to Charles V and Philip II. Among his chief works are “Aduersus omnes hæreses,” first edition, Cologne, 1539; and “De Iusta Hæreticorum punitione,” Salamanca, 1547.
3. “Sisto of Siena.” Dominican theologian and demonologist. His chief work is “Bibliotheca Sancta,” Libri V., Francofurti, folio, 1575 (secunda editio).
4. “Contra Ponzinibium.” The jurist Gianfrancesco Ponzinibio wrote a rationalistic monograph on witchcraft in which he strove to regard the Sabbat, the flight of witches and much beside as a sick illusion. He was completely answered and routed by Bartolomeo Spina, who devoted no less than three tractates to these points and very properly arraigned Ponzinibio as himself vehemently suspect of heresy and an advocate of heretics.
5. “Aristomenes.” The traveller who relates the story of witchcraft, “Metamorphoseon, I. The hags appear “circa tertiam ferme uigiliam,” and long after their departure “nox ibat in diem.”
6. “Pliny, H.N.” VII, 6: Plenilunium, “quod tempos editos quoque infantes praecipue infestat.”
7. “Pliny the Younger.” The allusion is to the well-known history of the haunted house at Athens, “Epist.” VII, 27. The spectre appeared with a noise of chains “per silentium noctis,” and when the philosopher Athenodorus was watching “Initio, quale ubique, silentium noctis, deinde concuti ferrum, uincula moueri.”
8. “Censorinus.” “Concubium,” cum itum est cubitum. Exinde “intempesta,” id est, multa nox, qua nihil agi tempestiuum est: tunc “ad medium noctem,” dicitur: et sic “media nox.”
9. “Macrobius.” “Saturnalia,” I, 3: “magistratus … post mediam noctem auspicantur.”
10. “Volterra.” A famous professor of the University of Pisa.
11. “Sébastien Michaelis.” A Dominican of great sanctity, born at Saint Zacharie in Provence, 1543; died at Paris, 1618. He was widely known for his deep study of the demonologists, and as a most powerful exorcist he was summoned to deal with the possession of Madeleine de la Palud, who had been bewitched by Gaufridi. For an account of this see my “Geography of Witchcraft,” pp. 408–12. The cause of Sébastien Michaelis has been introduced at Rome, and he has been declared Venerable.
12. “Nicolas Jacquier.” Dominican and Inquisitor. Author of “Flagellum Haereticorum fascinariorum,” a piece of great value, which with some other tractates was first printed at Frankfort by Basse in 1581.
13. “Some authors.” e.g. Bodin, “Démonomanie,” II, 5.
14. “William of Newburgh.” “Historia Anglicana,” I, 28.
15. “Gipsies.” “Gipse” is the reading of Lambeth MS.; Cotton MS.; and Hearne’s edition of William of Newburgh. MS. Reg. 13 B ix gives “Vipse.” The village of Wold Newton, eight miles from Bridlington, has a large mere principally supplied by the “Gipseys,” streams of water which appear after intervals of two or three years and disappear after two or three months. Allen, “History of County of York,” vol. II, p. 330.
16. “A cup.” Hamilton in his edition of William of Newburgh has the following note on this passage: “This Scandinavian legend is common, with variations, to the ballad and romantic literature of most countries of Europe. It may be sufficient to direct attention to a version very similar to the above, named the ‘Altar-cup in Aegerup,’ a story of the Trolls, quoted in Keightley’s ‘Fairy Mythology from Thiele’s ‘Danske Folkesagen.’ ”
17. “Benevento.” The magic walnut tree of Benevento was reputed to be the general rendezvous of all the witches in Italy. Peter of Piperno has a pamphlet, “De Nuce Maga Beneuentana,” which gives many of the legends connected with this ill-omened spot. See Montague Summers, “Geography of Witchcraft,” pp. 546–48; and A. de Blasio, “Inciarmatori, Maghi, e Streghe di Benevento,” Naples, 1900.
18. “Spina.” This is from “De Strigibus,” c. xviii. It was told Spina by Andrea Magnani of Bergamo, who personally knew of these events.
19. “Bernard of Como.” Dominican Inquisitor. The “De Strigiis” is a short but very important tractate which is usually found appended to his famous “Lucerna Inquisitorum Haereticae Prauitatis.” My own copy is Venice, 1596, and this edition also contains the valuable Commentaries of Francesco Pegna.
20. “Place outside the town.” Mendrisio. For other accounts of this celebrated episode see—“Mémoires de Jacques du Clercq,” IV, 4; “Chron. Cornel. Zanfliet,” ann. 1460 (Martene, “Ampl. Coll.” V, 502); and Prierias, “De Strigimagarum mirandis,” I, 2, 14; II, 1, 4.
21. “Raymond.” Or Raemond; sometimes Rémond. Born at Agen c. 1540; died at Bordeaux, c. 1602. His famous work, “L’Antéchrist,” first appeared at Lyons in 1597, and was frequently reprinted. There are editions of Paris, 1599 and 1607; Arras, 1613; Cambrai, 1613.