was heresy to believe that witches are conveyed from one place to another in the manner they allege: Navarro, in fact, reckoned such a belief to be a mortal sin.Wier, de praestig. VII. 29.
Can. episcop. 26. q. 5.
Mall. Malefic. II. 1.
Bodin, Demonom. II. 3.
Remy, Dem. I. 14.
Grilland, de Sortileg. VII. 26.
Dan. Dialog. 4.
Bodin, ibid.
Nevertheless I have always been well persuaded of the contrary opinion, both because of the authority of those who have maintained this view, and by reason of the confession of nearly all witches that they have been conveyed to the Sabbat. There have even been cases of persons who were not witches, but have, following the example of and at the instigation of witches, rubbed themselves with a certain ointment, and of farmers, who have been transported to as much as a hundred or two hundred leagues from their homes, so that they have had great difficulty in finding their way back again.
But I will come to what I have learned of this matter. Françoise Secretain said that, to go to the Sabbat, she placed a white staff between her legs and uttered certain words, and that she was then conveyed through the air to the witches’ assembly. Rollande du Vernois confessed that she went there on a great black ram which carried her through the air so quickly that she was unconscious of the passage. Thievenne Paget said that the first time the Devil appeared to her, it was in full daylight in the form of a big black man, and that when she had given herself to him he embraced her and raised her in the air and conveyed her to the house in the field of Longchamois where he had carnal intercourse with her, and that he then brought her back to the place from where he had taken her. This field was the place where the witches of Longchamois and Orcieres held their Sabbat. Antide Colas