Part 7
5. _Horse._--I give here only the references to the Devil when actually disguised as a horse, but there are a very great number of cases where he appeared riding on a horse. These cases are so numerous as to suggest that the horse was part of the ritual, especially as the riding Devil usually occurs in places where an animal disguise was not used, e.g. in 1598, in Aberdeen, where Andro Man 'confessis that Crystsunday rydis all the tyme that he is in thair cumpanie'.[209] The actual disguise as a horse is not common. Elizabeth Stile of Windsor in 1579 'confesseth, her self often tymes to haue gon to Father Rosimond house where she found hym sittyng in a Wood, not farre from thence, vnder the bodie of a Tree, sometymes in the shape of an Ape, and otherwhiles like an Horse'.[210] Helen Guthrie in 1661 stated that when the Forfar witches were trying to sink a ship, 'the divell wes there present with them all, in the shape of ane great horse. They returned all in the same liknes as of befor, except that the divell wes in the shape of a man.'[211] Mary Lacey of Salem in 1692 said that he appeared in the shape of a horse. 'I was in bed and the devil came to me and bid me obey him.'[212]
6. _Sheep._--The sheep-disguise, which is perhaps a form of the goat, is usually found in France only. In 1453 'Guillaume Edeline, docteur en théologie, prieur de S. Germain en Laye, et auparavant Augustin, et religieux de certaines aultres ordres ... confessa, de sa bonne et franche voulonté, avoir fait hommage audit ennemy en l'espèce et semblance d'ung mouton'.[213] Iaquema Paget and Antoine Gandillon in 1598 said that 'il prenoit la figure d'vn mouton noir, portant des cornes'.[214] In 1614 at Orleans Silvain Nevillon was induced to reveal all he knew; 'dit qu'il a veu le Diable en plusieurs façons, tantost comme vn bouc, ores comme vn gros mouton'.[215]
The rarer animal disguises are the deer and the bear. Of these the deer is found at Aberdeen in 1597, Andro Man 'confessis and affermis, thow saw Christsonday cum owt of the snaw in liknes of a staig';[216] at Auldearne in 1662, 'somtym he vold be lyk a stirk, a bull, a deir, a rae, or a dowg';[217] at Hartford, Connecticut, 1662, Rebecca Greensmith said that 'the devil first appeared to her in the form of a deer or fawn'.[218] The bear is still rarer, as I have found it only twice--once in Lorraine, and once in Lancashire. In 1589 'es haben die Geister auch etwann Lust sich in Gestalt eines Bären zu erzeigen'.[219] In 1613 Anne Chattox declared that the Devil 'came vpon this Examinate in the night time: and at diuerse and sundry times in the likenesse of a Beare, gaping as though he would haue wearied [worried] this Examinate. And the last time of all shee, this Examinate, saw him, was vpon Thursday last yeare but one, next before Midsummer day, in the euening, like a Beare, and this Examinate would not then speake vnto him, for the which the said Deuill pulled this Examinate downe.'[220]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 27: Danaeus, E 1, ch. iv.]
[Footnote 28: Gaule, p. 62.]
[Footnote 29: Cannaert, p. 45.]
[Footnote 30: _Spalding Club Miscellany_, i, pp. 171, 172.]
[Footnote 31: De Lancre, _Tableau_, pp. 398, 399.]
[Footnote 32: Id., _L'Incredulité_, p. 801.]
[Footnote 33: Baines, i, p. 607 note. For the name Mamillion see Layamon's _Brut_, p. 155, Everyman Library.]
[Footnote 34: Bourignon, _Vie_, p. 222.--Hale, p. 37.]
[Footnote 35: Pitcairn, iii, pp. 605, 607, 613.]
[Footnote 36: Hale, p. 58.]
[Footnote 37: _Surtees Soc._, xl, pp. 191, 193.]
[Footnote 38: Fountainhall, i. 15.]
[Footnote 39: Howell, vi, 660.--J. Hutchinson, ii, p. 31.]
[Footnote 40: _Alse Gooderidge_, pp. 9, 10.]
[Footnote 41: Boguet, p. 54.]
[Footnote 42: _Wonderfull Discouerie of Elizabeth Sawyer_, C 4, rev.]
[Footnote 43: _County Folklore_, iii, Orkney, pp. 103, 107-8.]
[Footnote 44: Stearne, pp. 28, 38]
[Footnote 45: _Highland Papers_, iii, pp. 16, 17.]
[Footnote 46: It is possible that the shoe was cleft like the modern 'hygienic' shoe. Such a shoe is described in the ballad of the _Cobler of Canterbury_, date 1608, as part of a woman's costume:
'Her sleevës blue, her traine behind, With silver hookes was tucked, I find; Her shoës broad, and forked before.' ]
[Footnote 47: Danaeus, ch. iv.]
[Footnote 48: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 69.]
[Footnote 49: Cooper, _Pleasant Treatise_, p. 2.]
[Footnote 50: Burns Begg, p. 217.]
[Footnote 51: _Examination of John Walsh._]
[Footnote 52: Potts, D 3, B 2.]
[Footnote 53: Baines, i, p. 607 note.]
[Footnote 54: Hale, p. 46.]
[Footnote 55: Howell, iv, 833, 836, 840, 854-5.]
[Footnote 56: Stearne, p. 13.--Davenport, p. 13.]
[Footnote 57: Stearne, pp. 22, 29, 30.]
[Footnote 58: Glanvil, pt. ii, pp. 136, 137, 147, 149, 156, 161-5.]
[Footnote 59: Hale, p. 58.]
[Footnote 60: Petto, p. 18.]
[Footnote 61: Denham Tracts, ii, p. 301.]
[Footnote 62: Howell, viii, 1035.]
[Footnote 63: _Elinor Shaw and Mary Phillips_, p. 6.]
[Footnote 64: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, pp. 51-6.]
[Footnote 65: Id., i, pt. ii, p. 162.]
[Footnote 66: Id., i, pt. ii, pp. 245-6, 239. Spelling modernized.]
[Footnote 67: Melville, pp. 395-6.]
[Footnote 68: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 210.]
[Footnote 69: _Spalding Club Miscellany_, i, pp. 124, 127, 164, 172.]
[Footnote 70: Pitcairn, ii, p. 537.]
[Footnote 71: _County Folklore_, iii, p. 103. Orkney.]
[Footnote 72: From the record of the trial in the Justiciary Court, Edinburgh.]
[Footnote 73: _Spottiswode Miscellany_, ii, p. 65.]
[Footnote 74: Pitcairn, iii, p. 599.]
[Footnote 75: Sinclair, p. 122.]
[Footnote 76: Id., p. 47.]
[Footnote 77: Arnot, p. 358.]
[Footnote 78: _Scottish Antiquary_, ix, pp. 50, 51.]
[Footnote 79: Kinloch, pp. 114, 128, 132.]
[Footnote 80: Pitcairn, iii, p. 601.]
[Footnote 81: From the records in the Justiciary Court, Edinburgh.]
[Footnote 82: Pitcairn, iii, p. 603.]
[Footnote 83: Burns Begg, pp. 221-39.]
[Footnote 84: Sharpe, pp. 131, 134.]
[Footnote 85: _Hogers_, a coarse stocking without the foot.]
[Footnote 86: Glanvil, pt. ii, pp. 291-5, 297.]
[Footnote 87: _Scots Magazine_, 1814, p. 200.]
[Footnote 88: _Narrative of the Sufferings of a Young Girle_, pp. xxxix-xli--_Sadd. Debell._, pp. 38-40.]
[Footnote 89: _A true and full Relation of the Witches of Pittenweem_, p. 10.--Sinclair, p. lxxxix.]
[Footnote 90: Sharpe, p. 191.]
[Footnote 91: _Camden Society_, Lady Alice Kyteler, p. 3.]
[Footnote 92: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 687.]
[Footnote 93: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 123.]
[Footnote 94: Bodin, p. 226.]
[Footnote 95: Boguet, pp. 8, 96.]
[Footnote 96: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 130.]
[Footnote 97: Id., _L'Incredulité_, pp. 799, 800. The second Devil is called Tramesabot on p. 802.]
[Footnote 98: Van Elven, _La Tradition_, v (1891), p. 215. Neither the witches' names nor the place are given.]
[Footnote 99: Cannaert, pp. 44, 53-4, 60.]
[Footnote 100: Fountainhall, i, p. 14.]
[Footnote 101: Horneck, pt. ii, p. 316.]
[Footnote 102: Taylor, pp. 81, 118.]
[Footnote 103: Green, pp. 9, 14.]
[Footnote 104: Howell, vi, 660, 664; J. Hutchinson, ii, pp. 31, 37.]
[Footnote 105: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 51.]
[Footnote 106: Melville, p. 395.]
[Footnote 107: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 246. Spelling modernized.]
[Footnote 108: _Spalding Club Misc._, i, p. 127.]
[Footnote 109: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 68.]
[Footnote 110: _Scottish Antiquary_, ix, pp. 50, 51.]
[Footnote 111: Pitcairn, iii, p. 601.]
[Footnote 112: Burns Begg, pp. 221, 223, 234, 235, 239.]
[Footnote 113: Taylor, p. 81.]
[Footnote 114: Cannaert, p. 60.]
[Footnote 115: Glanvil, pt. ii, p. 164.]
[Footnote 116: Chambers, iii, p. 298.]
[Footnote 117: Glanvil, pt. ii, p. 316.]
[Footnote 118: Sinclair, p. lxxxix.]
[Footnote 119: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 56.]
[Footnote 120: Id., i, pt. ii, p. 163.]
[Footnote 121: _Spalding Club Misc._, pp. 119-21.]
[Footnote 122: Id., i, p. 171.]
[Footnote 123: Pitcairn, ii, p. 478.]
[Footnote 124: De Lancre, _L'Incredulité_, p. 36.]
[Footnote 125: Id., _Tableau_, p. 401.]
[Footnote 126: Potts, B 4.]
[Footnote 127: _Wonderful Discovery of Margaret and Phillip Flower_, p. 117.]
[Footnote 128: Sinclair, p. 160.]
[Footnote 129: Kinloch, p. 144.]
[Footnote 130: Law, p. 27 note.]
[Footnote 131: Cotton Mather, p. 159.]
[Footnote 132: _Rehearsall both straung and true_, par. 24.]
[Footnote 133: _Calendar of State Papers._ Domestic, 1584, p. 220.]
[Footnote 134: Stearne, p. 45.]
[Footnote 135: Gerish, _The Divel's Delusions_, p. 11.]
[Footnote 136: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, pp. 161-4.]
[Footnote 137: Id., ii, pp. 26-7.]
[Footnote 138: Hibbert, p. 578.]
[Footnote 139: Sinclair, p. 48.]
[Footnote 140: From the record in the Justiciary Office, Edinburgh.]
[Footnote 141: Chambers, iii, p. 299.]
[Footnote 142: Ravaisson, 1679, pp. 334-6.]
[Footnote 143: Mather, pp. 120, 125; J. Hutchinson, _History_, ii, pp. 37 seq.]
[Footnote 144: Boguet, p. 125.]
[Footnote 145: _Lawes against Witches and Conivration_, p. 7.]
[Footnote 146: Wilson, ii, p. 158.]
[Footnote 147: The trials are published by Pitcairn, i, pt. ii.]
[Footnote 148: There were present on this occasion thirty-nine persons, or three Covens. See chap. vii on the Organization.]
[Footnote 149: _Bannatyne Club_, Melville, _Memoirs_, p. 395. The sycophantic Melville adds; 'And certanly he is a man of God, and dois na wrang wittingly, bot is inclynit to all godlynes, justice and virtu; therfore God hes preserued him in the midis of many dangers.']
[Footnote 150: _Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot._, No. 565, Feb. 7, 1550/1.]
[Footnote 151: _Newes from Scotland._ Quoted in Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, pp. 213-23.]
[Footnote 152: It is perhaps significant that the confession of John Fian, and the trials of both Barbara Napier and of Bothwell himself for witchcraft, have disappeared from the Justiciary Records.]
[Footnote 153: Burton, v, p. 283.]
[Footnote 154: Sandys, p. 250.]
[Footnote 155: De Lancre, _Tableau_, pp. 176, 177.]
[Footnote 156: Quibell, pl. xxviii. The palette itself is now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.]
[Footnote 157: Remigius, pt. i, p. 38.]
[Footnote 158: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 246. Spelling modernized.]
[Footnote 159: Melville, p. 395.]
[Footnote 160: Boguet, p. 56.]
[Footnote 161: De Lancre, _Tableau_, pp. 68, 73, 126.]
[Footnote 162: De Lancre, _Tableau_, pp. 225, 398.]
[Footnote 163: Id., _L'Incredulité_, pp. 799-801.]
[Footnote 164: Stearne, p. 13.]
[Footnote 165: Id., p. 22.]
[Footnote 166: Glanvil, pt. ii, p. 164.]
[Footnote 167: Petto, p. 18.]
[Footnote 168: Glanvil, pt. ii, pp. 294-5.]
[Footnote 169: Cannaert, p. 54.]
[Footnote 170: Melville, _Memoirs_, p. 395.]
[Footnote 171: Boguet, pp. 53-4.]
[Footnote 172: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 148.]
[Footnote 173: Howell, iv, 842.]
[Footnote 174: More, pp. 196-7.]
[Footnote 175: Kinloch, pp. 115, 129, 132.]
[Footnote 176: Burns Begg, pp. 219, 221, 228, 230.]
[Footnote 177: Pitcairn, iii, p. 603.]
[Footnote 178: Chambers, iii, 298.]
[Footnote 179: Fountainhall, i, p. 14.]
[Footnote 180: _Narrative of the Sufferings of a Young Girle_, p. xli; _Sadd. Debell._, p. 40.]
[Footnote 181: De Lancre, _L'Incredulité_, p. 769.]
[Footnote 182: _Spalding Club Misc._, i, p. 129.]
[Footnote 183: De Lancre, _L'Incredulité_, p. 794.]
[Footnote 184: Id., _Tableau_, p. 68.]
[Footnote 185: Bourignon, _Parole_, p. 87; Hale, p. 26.]
[Footnote 186: Pitcairn, iii, p. 613.]
[Footnote 187: From a trial in the Guernsey Greffe.]
[Footnote 188: Boguet, pp. 8, 70, 411.]
[Footnote 189: _La Tradition_, v (1891), p. 215.]
[Footnote 190: Howell, viii, 1034, 1036.]
[Footnote 191: Pinkerton, i, p. 473.]
[Footnote 192: _Witches of Chelmsford_, p. 34; Philobiblon Soc., viii.]
[Footnote 193: De Lancre, _L'Incredulité_, p. 805.]
[Footnote 194: Goldsmid, p. 12.]
[Footnote 195: Sinclair, p. 163.]
[Footnote 196: _Scottish Antiquary_, ix, 51.]
[Footnote 197: Pitcairn, iii, p. 601.]
[Footnote 198: Sharpe, p. 132.]
[Footnote 199: _Scots Magazine_, 1814, p. 201. Spelling modernized.]
[Footnote 200: Stewart, p. 175. The whole account is marred by the would-be comic style adopted by the author.]
[Footnote 201: Pinkerton, i, p. 473.]
[Footnote 202: Bodin, p. 187.]
[Footnote 203: Michaelis, _Discourse_, p. 148.]
[Footnote 204: Remigius, pt. i, p. 90.]
[Footnote 205: F. Hutchinson, _Historical Essay_, p. 42.]
[Footnote 206: Boguet, p. 141.]
[Footnote 207: De Lancre, _Tableau_, pp. 67, 68, 69, 126.]
[Footnote 208: Id., _L'Incredulité_, p. 800.]
[Footnote 209: _Spalding Club Misc._, i, p. 125. Cp. Elworthy on the Hobby-horse as the Devil, _Horns of Honour_, p. 140.]
[Footnote 210: _Rehearsall both Straung and True_, par. 24.]
[Footnote 211: Kinloch, pp. 122-3.]
[Footnote 212: Howell, vi, 663-4; J. Hutchinson, ii, pp. 36-7.]
[Footnote 213: Chartier, iii, 44-5.]
[Footnote 214: Boguet, p. 70.]
[Footnote 215: De Lancre, _L'Incredulité_, p. 800.]
[Footnote 216: _Spalding Club Misc._, i, p. 121.]
[Footnote 217: Pitcairn, iii, p. 613.]
[Footnote 218: Taylor, p. 98.]
[Footnote 219: Remigius, p. 98.]
[Footnote 220: Potts, E 3.]
III. ADMISSION CEREMONIES
1. _General_
In the ceremonies for admission, as in all the other ceremonies of the cult, the essentials are the same in every community and country, though the details differ. The two points which are the essence of the ceremony are invariable: the first, that the candidates must join of their own free will and without compulsion; the second, that they devote themselves, body and soul, to the Master and his service.
The ceremonies of admission differed also according to whether the candidate were a child or an adult. The most complete record of the admission of children comes from the Basses-Pyrénées in 1609:
'Les Sorcieres luy offr[~e]t des petits enfans le genoüil en terre, lui disant auec vne soubmission, _Grand seigneur, lequel i'adore, ie vous ameine ce nouueau seruiteur, lequel veut estre perpetuellement vostre esclaue_: Et le Diable en signe de remerciement & gratification leur respond, _Approchez vous de moy_: à quoy obeissant, elles en se trainant à genouil, le luy presentent, & luy receuant l'enfant entre ses bras, le rend à la Sorciere, la remercie, & puis luy recommande d'en auoir soing, leur disant par ce moyen sa troupe s'augmentera. Que si les enfans ayans attainct l'aage de neuf ans, par malheur se voüent au Diable sans estre forcez ny violentez d'aucun Sorcier, ils se prosternent par terre deuant Satan: lequel iettant du feu par les yeux, leur dit, Que demandez vous, voulez vous estre à moy? ils respondent qu'ouy, il leur dict, Venez vous de vostre bonne volonté? ils respondent qu'ouy, Faictes donc ce que ie veux, & ce que ie fay. Et alors la grande maistresse & Royne du Sabbat qui leur sert de pedagogue, dict à ce nouueau qui se presente, qu'il die à haute voix, _Ie renie Dieu premierement, puis Iesus Christ son Fils, le S. Esprit, la vierge, les Saincts, la Saincte Croix, le Chresme, le Baptesme, & la Foy que ie tiens, mes Parrain & Marraine, & me remets de tout poinct en ton pouuoir & entre tes mains, ne recognois autre Dieu: si bien que tu es mon Dieu & ie suis ton esclaue_. Aprés on luy baille vn crapaud habillé auec son capot ou manteau, puis il commande qu'on l'adore; si bien qu'obeyssans & estants mis à genouil, ils baisent le Diable auprés de l'[oe]il gauche, à la poitrine, à la fesse, à la cuisse, & aux parties honteuses, puis leuant la queue ils luy baisent le derriere.'[221]
The novice was then marked by a scratch from a sharp instrument, but was not admitted to the 'high mysteries' till about the age of twenty.[222] As no further ceremonies are mentioned, it may be concluded that the initiation into these mysteries was performed by degrees and without any special rites.
At Lille, about the middle of the seventeenth century, Madame Bourignon founded a home for girls of the lowest classes, 'pauvres et mal-originées, la plus part si ignorantes au fait de leur salut qu'elles vivoient comme des bêtes'.[223] After a few years, in 1661, she discovered that thirty-two of these girls were worshippers of the Devil, and in the habit of going to the Witches' Sabbaths. They 'had all contracted this Mischief before they came into the House'.[224] One of these girls named Bellot, aged fifteen, said 'that her Mother had taken her with her when she was very Young, and had even carried her in her Arms to the Witches Sabbaths'.[225] Another girl of twelve had been in the habit of going to the Sabbath since she also was 'very Young'. As the girls seem to have been genuinely fond of Madame Bourignon, she obtained a considerable amount of information from them. They told her that all worshippers of the Devil 'are constrained to offer him their Children. When a child thus offered to the Devil by its Parents, comes to the use of Reason, the Devil then demands its Soul, and makes it deny God and renounce Baptism, and all relating to the Faith, promising Homage and Fealty to the Devil in manner of a Marriage, and instead of a Ring, the Devil gives them a Mark with an iron awl [aleine de fer] in some part of the Body.'[226]
It is also clear that Marguerite Montvoisin[227] in Paris had been instructed in witchcraft from an early age; but as the trial in which she figures was for the attempted poisoning of the king and not for witchcraft, no ceremonies of initiation or admission are recorded.
In Great Britain the ceremonies for the reception of children are not given in any detail, though it was generally acknowledged that the witches dedicated their children to the Devil as soon as born; and from the evidence it appears that in many cases the witches had belonged to that religion all their lives. It was sometimes sufficient evidence against a woman that her mother had been a witch,[228] as it presupposed that she had been brought up as a worshipper of the Devil.
The Anderson children in Renfrewshire were all admitted to the society at an early age.[229] Elizabeth Anderson was only seven when she was first asked to swear fealty to the 'black grim Man.' James Lindsay was under fourteen, and his little brother Thomas was still 'below pupillarity' at the time of the trial, where he declared that he had been bribed, by the promise of a red coat, to serve 'the Gentleman, whom he knew thereafter to be the Devil'.[230] At Forfar in 1661, Jonet Howat was so young that when Isabel Syrie 'presented hir to the divell, the divell said, What shall I do with such a little bairn as she?' He accepted her, however, and she was evidently the pet of the community, the Devil calling her 'his bonny bird'.[231] At Paisley, Annabil Stuart was fourteen when, at her mother's persuasion, she took the vows of fidelity to the Devil.[232]
Elizabeth Frances at Chelmsford (tried in 1556) was about twelve years old when her grandmother first taught her the art of witchcraft.[233] Elizabeth Demdike, the famous Lancashire witch, 'brought vp her owne Children, instructed her Graund-children, and tooke great care and paines to bring them to be Witches'.[234] One of her granddaughters, Jennet Device, was aged nine at the time of the trial.
In Sweden the children were taken regularly to the assemblies,[235] and in America[236] also a child-witch is recorded in the person of Sarah Carrier, aged eight, who had made her vows two years before at her mother's instigation.
The ceremony for the admission of adults who were converts to the witch religion from Christianity follow certain main lines. These are (1) the free consent of the candidate, (2) the explicit denial and rejection of a previous religion, (3) the absolute and entire dedication of body and soul to the service and commands of the new Master and God.
The ceremonies being more startling and dramatic for adults than for children, they are recorded in Great Britain with the same careful detail as in France, and it is possible to trace the local variations; although in England, as is usual, the ceremonies had lost their significance to a far greater extent than in Scotland, and are described more shortly, probably because they were more curtailed.
The legal aspect of the admission ceremonies is well expressed by Sir George Mackenzie, writing in 1699 on the Scotch laws relating to witchcraft in the seventeenth century:
'As to the relevancy of this Crime, the first Article useth to be _paction_ to serve the Devil, which is certainly relevant, _per se_, without any addition.... Paction with the Devil is divided by Lawyers, in _expressum_, _& tacitum_, an express and tacit Paction. Express Paction is performed either by a formal Promise given to the Devil then present, or by presenting a Supplication to him, or by giving the promise to a Proxie or Commissioner impowered by the Devil for that effect, which is used by some who dare not see himself. The _Formula_ set down by _Delrio_, is, _I deny God Creator of Heaven and Earth, and I adhere to thee, and believe in thee_. But by the Journal Books it appears, that the ordinary Form of express Paction confest by our Witness, is a simple Promise to serve him. Tacit Paction is either when a person who hath made no express Paction, useth the Words or Signs which Sorcerers use, knowing them to be such.... Renouncing of Baptism is by _Delrio_ made an effect of Paction, yet with us it is relevant, _per se_ ... and the Solemnity confest by our Witches, is the putting one hand to the crown of the Head, and another to the sole of the Foot, renouncing their Baptism in that posture. _Delrio_ tells us, that the Devil useth to Baptize them of new, and to wipe off their Brow the old Baptism: And our Witches confess always the giving them new Names.... The Devil's Mark useth to be a great Article with us, but it is not _per se_ found relevant, except it be confest by them, that they got that Mark with their own consent; _quo casu_, it is equivalent to a Paction. This Mark is given them, as is alledg'd, by a Nip in any part of the body, and it is blew.'[237]
Reginald Scot,[238] writing considerably earlier, gives a somewhat similar account of the English witches, though couched in less legal phraseology: