for the Sabbat. Secondly, when the cock crew she awoke suddenly; now the Sabbat is held by night and lasts until the cock crows, but after it has crowed everything vanishes. Thirdly, the excuse she gave clearly proves that there was deceit on her part; for who has ever known a man to be so tired from his labour and toil that he could not easily be awakened? George Gandillon used the same excuse when he was asked why he had not been awakened even when he was frequently and violently shaken. Fourthly, it is obvious that there was devil’s work, since the husband was as it were caught by the legs, and unable to cry out. And finally, the Magistrates of Unau who adjudicated for the husband stated that the woman was descended from parents who had already been suspected of witchcraft.
So much, then, for the contention that witches go to the Sabbat in spirit and soul only; a view which is in agreement with what Pliny wrote: “We have found it stated of Hermontinus of Clazomenæ that the soul used often to leave his body and go wandering here and there and bring back news of things that could only be known to such as were present to witness them, all the time leaving the body in a state resembling death, until his enemies, called the Cantarides, burned the body and so took away from the returning soul its casing, as it were.”
But everyone will form his own opinion of this matter. For my part I have never been able to believe that such a thing is in any way possible; for if it is true that when the soul is separated from the body, death must necessarily follow, how can it be possible for a witch, after having been in spirit to the Sabbat, to return to life by
