The Witch cult in Western Europe

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The charms used by the witches, the dances, the burning of the god and the
broadcast scattering of his ashes, all point to the fact that this was a
fertility cult; and this is the view taken also by those contemporary
writers who give a more or less comprehensive account of the religion and
ritual. Though most of the fertility or anti-fertility charms remaining to
us were used by the witches either for their own benefit or to injure their
enemies, enough remains to show that originally all these charms were to
promote fertility in general and in particular. When the charm was for
fertility in general, it was performed by the whole congregation together;
but for the fertility of any particular woman, animal, or field, the
ceremony was performed by one witch alone or by two at most.

The power which the witches claimed to possess over human fertility is
shown in many of the trials. Jonet Clark was tried in Edinburgh in 1590
'for giving and taking away power from sundry men's Genital-members';[664]
and in the same year and place Bessie Roy was accused of causing women's
milk to dry up.[665] The number of midwives who practised witchcraft points
also to this fact; they claimed to be able to cause and to prevent
pregnancy, to cause and to prevent an easy delivery, to cast the
labour-pains, on an animal or a human being (husbands who were the victims
are peculiarly incensed against these witches), and in every way to have
power over the generative organs of both sexes. In short, it is possible to
say that, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the better the
midwife the better the witch.

The Red Book of Appin,[666] which was obtained from the Devil by a trick,
is of great interest in this connexion. It was said to contain charms for
the curing of diseases of cattle; among them must certainly have been some
for promoting the fertility of the herds in general, and individual animals
in particular. It is not unlikely that the charms as noted in the book were
the result of many experiments, for we know that the witches were bound to
give account to the Devil of all the magic they performed in the intervals
between the Sabbaths, and he or his clerk recorded their doings. From this
record the Devil instructed the witches. It is evident from the confessions
and the evidence at the trials that the help of the witches was often
required to promote fertility among human beings as well as among animals.
The number of midwives who were also witches was very great, and the fact
can hardly be accidental.

Witches were called in to perform incantations during the various events of
a farm-yard. Margrat Og of Aberdeen, 1597, was 'indyttit as a manifest
witche, in that, be the space of a yeirsyn or theirby, thy kow being in
bulling, and James Farquhar, thy awin gude son haulding the kow, thow
stuid on the ane syd of the kow, and thy dochter, Batrix Robbie, on the
vther syd, and quhen the bull was lowping the kow, thow tuik a knyff and
keist ower the kow, and thy dochter keapit the sam, and keist it over to
the agane, and this ye did thryiss, quhilk thou can nocht deny.'[667] At
Auldearne the Coven, to which Isobel Gowdie belonged, performed a ceremony
to obtain for themselves the benefit of a neighbour's crop. 'Befor
Candlemas, we went be-east Kinlosse, and ther we yoaked an plewghe of
paddokis. The Divell held the plewgh, and Johne Yownge in Mebestowne, our
Officer, did drywe the plewghe. Paddokis did draw the plewgh as oxen;
quickens wer sowmes, a riglen's horne was a cowter, and an piece of an
riglen's horne was an sok. We went two seueral tymes abowt; and all we of
the Coeven went still wp and downe with the plewghe, prayeing to the Divell
for the fruit of that land, and that thistles and brieris might grow
ther'.[668] Here the ploughing-ceremony was to induce fertility for the
benefit of the witches, while the draught animals and all the parts of the
plough connoted barrenness for the owner of the soil.

The most detailed account of a charm for human fertility is given in the
confession of the Abbe Guibourg, who appears to have been the Devil of the
Paris witches. The ceremony took place at the house of a witch-midwife
named Voisin or Montvoisin, and according to the editor was for the benefit
of Louis XIV or Charles II, two of the most notorious libertines of their
age.

'Il a fait chez la Voisin, revetu d'aube, d'etole et de manipule, une
conjuration en presence de la Des Oeillets [attendant of Madame de
Montespan], qui pretendait faire un charme pour le (Roi) et qui etait
accompagnee d'un homme qui lui donna la conjuration, et comme il etait
necessaire d'avoir du sperme des deux sexes, Des Oeillets ayant ses
mois n'en put donner mais versa dans le calice de ses menstrues et
l'homme qui l'accompagnait, ayant passe dans la ruelle du lit avec lui
Guibourg, versa de son sperme dans le calice. Sur le tout, la Des
Oeillets et l'homme mirent chacun d'une poudre de sang de
chauve-souris et de la farine pour donner un corps plus ferme a toute
la composition et apres qu'il eut recite la conjuration il tira le
tout du calice qui fut mis dans un petit vaisseau que la Des Oeillets
ou l'homme emporta.'[669]

The ecclesiastical robes and the use of the chalice point to this being a
ceremony of a religious character, and should be compared with the
child-sacrifices performed by the same priest or Devil (see pp. 150, 157).

An anti-fertility rite, which in its simplicity hardly deserves the name of
a ceremony, took place at Crook of Devon in Kinross-shire. Bessie Henderson
'lykeways confessed and declared that Janet Paton was with you at ane
meeting when they trampit down Thos. White's rie in the beginning of
harvest, 1661, and that she had broad soals and trampit down more nor any
of the rest'.[670]

2. _Rain-making_

The rain-making powers of the witches have hardly been noted by writers on
the subject, for by the time the records were made the witches were
credited with the blasting of fertility rather than its increase. Yet from
what remains it is evident that the original meaning of much of the ritual
was for the production of fertilizing rain, though both judges and
witnesses believed that it was for storms and hail.

One of the earliest accounts of such powers is given in the story quoted by
Reginald Scot from the _Malleus Maleficarum_, written in 1487, a century
before Scot's own book:

'A little girle walking abroad with hir father in his land, heard him
complaine of drought, wishing for raine, etc. Whie father (quoth the
child) I can make it raine or haile, when and where I list: He asked
where she learned it. She said, of hir mother, who forbad hir to tell
anie bodie thereof. He asked hir how hir mother taught hir? She
answered, that hir mother committed hir to a maister, who would at
anie time doo anie thing for hir. Whie then (said he) make it raine
but onlie in my field. And so she went to the streame, and threw vp
water in hir maisters name, and made it raine presentlie. And
proceeding further with hir father, she made it haile in another
field, at hir father's request. Herevpon he accused his wife, and
caused hir to be burned; and then he new christened his child
againe.'[671]

Scot also gives 'certaine impossible actions' of witches when he ridicules
the belief

'that the elements are obedient to witches, and at their commandement;
or that they may at their pleasure send raine, haile, tempests,
thunder, lightening; when she being but an old doting woman, casteth a
flint stone ouer hir left shoulder, towards the west, or hurleth a
little sea sand vp into the element, or wetteth a broome sprig in
water, and sprinkleth the same in the aire; or diggeth a pit in the
earth, and putting water therein, stirreth it about with hir finger;
or boileth hogs bristles; or laieth sticks acrosse vpon a banke, where
neuer a drop of water is; or burieth sage till it be rotten; all which
things are confessed by witches, and affirmed by writers to be the
meanes that witches vse to mooue extraordinarie tempests and
raine'.[672]

More quotes Wierus to the same effect: 'Casting of Flint-Stones behind
their backs towards the West, or flinging a little Sand in the Air, or
striking a River with a Broom, and so sprinkling the Wet of it toward
Heaven, the stirring of Urine or Water with their finger in a Hole in the
ground, or boyling of Hogs Bristles in a Pot.'[673]

The throwing of stones as a fertility rite is found in the trial of Jonet
Wischert, one of the chief witches at Aberdeen, and is there combined with
a nudity rite. 'In hervest last bypast, Mr. William Rayes huikes [saw thee
at] the heid of thi awin gudmannis croft, and saw the tak all thi claiss
about thi heid, and thow beand naikit from the middill down, tuik ane gryte
number of steynis, and thi self gangand baklenis, keist ane pairt behind
the our thi heid, and ane wther pairt fordward.'[674]

3. _Fertility_

Every contemporary writer who gives a general view of the religion and
ritual observes the witches' powers over human fertility. Boguet says, 'Ils
font encor cacher & retirer les parties viriles, et puis les font
ressortir quand il leur plait. Ils empeschent aussi tantost la copulation
charnelle de l'ho[~m]e & de la femme, en retirant les nerfs, & ostant la
roideur du membre; et tantost la procreation en destournant ou bouchant les
conduicts de la semence, pour empescher qu'elle ne descende aux vases de la
generation.'[675] Scot, who quotes generally without any acknowledgement
and often inaccurately, translates this statement, 'They also affirme that
the vertue of generation is impeached by witches, both inwardlie, and
outwardlie: for intrinsecallie they represse the courage, and they stop the
passage of the mans seed, so as it may not descend to the vessels of
generation: also they hurt extrinsecallie, with images, hearbs, &c.'[676]
Bodin also remarks that witches, whether male or female, can affect only
the generative organs.[677] Madame Bourignon says that the girls, whom she
befriended,

'told me, that Persons who were thus engaged to the Devil by a precise
Contract, will allow no other God but him, and therefore offer him
whatsoever is dearest to them; nay, are constrained to offer him their
Children, or else the Devil would Beat them, and contrive that they
should never arrive to the State of Marriage, and so should have no
Children, by reason that the Devil hath power by his Adherents, to
hinder both the one and the other.... So soon as they come to be able
to beget Children, the Devil makes them offer the desire which they
have of Marrying, to his Honor: And with this all the Fruit that may
proceed from their Marriage. This they promise voluntarily, to the end
that they may accomplish their Designs: For otherwise the Devil
threatens to hinder them by all manner of means, that they shall not
Marry, nor have Children.'[678]

Glanvil, writing on the Scotch trials of 1590, speaks of 'some Effects,
Kinds, or Circumstances of Witchcraft, such as the giving and taking away
power from sundry men's Genital-members. For which Jannet Clark was
accused.'[679] In the official record Jonet Clark was tried and condemned
for 'gewing of ane secreit member to Iohnne Coutis; and gewing and taking
of power fra sindrie mennis memberis. Item, fylit of taking Iohnne Wattis
secreit member fra him.'[680]

Sexual ritual occurs in many religions of the Lower Culture and has always
horrified members of the higher religions both in ancient and modern times.
In fertility cults it is one of the chief features, not only symbolizing
the fertilizing power in the whole animate world, but, in the belief of the
actors, actually assisting it and promoting its effects.

Such fertility rites are governed by certain rules, which vary in different
countries, particularly as to the age of girls, i.e. whether they are over
or under puberty. Among the witches there appears to have been a definite
rule that no girl under puberty had sexual intercourse with the Devil. This
is even stated as a fact by so great an authority as Bodin: 'Les diables ne
font point de paction expresse auec les enfans, qui leurs sont vouez, s'ils
n'ont attaint l'aage de puberte.'[681] The details of the trials show that
this statement is accurate. 'Magdalene de la Croix, Abbesse des Moniales de
Cordouee en Espaigne, confessa que Satan n'eust point copulation, ny
cognoissance d'elle, qu'elle n'eust douze ans.'[682] Bodin and De Lancre
both cite the case of Jeanne Hervillier of Verbery in Compiegne; she was a
woman of fifty-two at the time of her trial in 1578. She 'confessa qu'a
l'aage de douze ans sa mere la presenta au diable, en forme d'vn grand
homme noir, & vestu de noir, botte, esperonne, auec vne espee au coste, et
vn cheual noir a la porte, auquel la mere dit: Voicy ma fille que ie vous
ay promise: Et a la fille, Voicy vostre amy, qui vous fera bien heureuse,
et deslors qu'elle renonca a Dieu, & a la religion, & puis coucha auec elle
charnellement, en la mesme sorte & maniere que font les hommes auec les
femmes.'[683] De Lancre also emphasizes the age: 'Ieanne Haruillier depose
qu'encore sa mere l'eust voueee a Satan des sa naissance, neantmoins qu'il
ne la cognut charnellement qu'elle n'eust attainct l'aage de douze
ans.'[684] De Lancre's own experience points in the same direction; he
found that the children were not treated in the same way as adults, nor
were they permitted to join in all the ceremonies until after they had
passed childhood.[685]

The same rule appears to have held good in Scotland, for when little Jonet
Howat was presented to the Devil, he said, 'What shall I do with such a
little bairn as she?'[686] It is, however, rare to find child-witches in
Great Britain, therefore the rules concerning them are difficult to
discover.

Another rule appears to have been that there was no sexual connexion with a
pregnant woman. In the case of Isobel Elliot, the Devil 'offered to lie
with her, but forbore because she was with child; that after she was
_kirked_ the Devil often met her, and had _carnal copulation_ with
her'.[687]

Since the days of Reginald Scot it has been the fashion of all those
writers who disbelieved in the magical powers of witches to point to the
details of the sexual intercourse between the Devil and the witches as
proof positive of hysteria and hallucination. This is not the attitude of
mind of the recorders who heard the evidence at the trials. 'Les
confessions des Sorciers, que i'ay eu en main, me font croire qu'il en est
quelque chose: dautant qu'ils out tous recogneu, qu'ils auoient este
couplez auec le Diable, et que la semence qu'il iettoit estoit fort froide;
Ce qui est conforme a ce qu'en rapporte Paul Grilland, et les Inquisiteurs
de la foy.'[688] 'It pleaseth their new Maister oftentimes to offer
himselfe familiarly vnto them, to dally and lye with them, in token of
their more neere coniunction, and as it were marriage vnto him.'[689]
'_Witches_ confessing, so frequently as they do, that the Devil _lies with
them_, and withal complaining of his tedious and offensive _coldness_, it
is a shrewd presumption that he doth lie with them _indeed_, and that it is
not a meer _Dream_.'[690]

It is this statement of the physical coldness of the Devil which modern
writers adduce to prove their contention that the witches suffered from
hallucination. I have shown above (pp. 61 seq.) that the Devil was often
masked and his whole person covered with a disguise, which accounts for
part of the evidence but not for all, and certainly not for the most
important item. For in trial after trial, in places far removed from one
another and at periods more than a century apart, the same fact is vouched
for with just the small variation of detail which shows the actuality of
the event. This is that, when the woman admitted having had sexual
intercourse with the Devil, in a large proportion of cases she added, 'The
Devil was cold and his seed likewise.' These were women of every class and
every age, from just above puberty to old women of over seventy, unmarried,
married, and widows. It is unscientific to disbelieve everything, as Scot
does, and it is equally unscientific to label all the phenomena as the
imagination of hysterical women. By the nature of things the whole of this
evidence rests only on the word of the women, but I have shown above (pp.
63-5) that there were cases in which the men found the Devil cold, and
cases in which the women found other parts of the Devil's person to be cold
also. Such a mass of evidence cannot be ignored, and in any other subject
would obtain credence at once. But the hallucination-theory, being the
easiest, appears to have obsessed the minds of many writers, to the
exclusion of any attempt at explanation from an unbiassed point of view.

Students of comparative and primitive religion have explained the custom of
sacred marriages as an attempt to influence the course of nature by magic,
the people who practise the rite believing that thereby all crops and herds
as well as the women were rendered fertile, and that barrenness was
averted. This accounts very well for the occurrence of 'obscene rites'
among the witches, but fails when it touches the question of the Devil's
coldness. I offer here an explanation which I believe to be the true one,
for it accounts for all the facts; those facts which the women confessed
voluntarily and without torture or fear of punishment, like Isobel Gowdie,
or adhered to as the truth even at the stake amid the flames, like Jane
Bosdeau.

In ancient times the Sacred Marriage took place usually once a year; but
besides this ceremony there were other sexual rites which were not
celebrated at a fixed season, but might be performed in the precincts of
the temple of a god or goddess at any time, the males being often the
priests or temple officials. These are established facts, and it is not
too much to suppose that the witches' ceremonies were similar. But if the
women believed that sexual intercourse with the priests would increase
fertility, how much more would they believe in the efficacy of such
intercourse with the incarnate God of fertility himself. They would insist
upon it as their right, and it probably became compulsory at certain
seasons, such as the breeding periods of the herds or the sowing and
reaping periods of the crops. Yet as the population and therefore the
number of worshippers in each 'congregation' increased, it would become
increasingly difficult and finally impossible for one man to comply with
the requirements of so many women.[691] The problem then was that on the
one hand there were a number of women demanding what was in their eyes a
thing essential for themselves and their families, and on the other a man
physically unable to satisfy all the calls upon him. The obvious solution
of the problem is that the intercourse between the Chief and the women was
by artificial means, and the evidence in the trials points clearly to this
solution.

Artificial phalli are well known in the remains of ancient civilizations.
In ancient Egypt it was not uncommon to have statues of which the phallus
was of a different material from the figure, and so made that it could be
removed from its place and carried in procession. The earliest of such
statues are the colossal limestone figures of the fertility-god Min found
at Koptos, dating to the first dynasty, perhaps B.C. 5500.[692] But similar
figures are found at every period of Egyptian history, and a legend was
current at the time of Plutarch to account for this usage as well as for
the festival of the Phallephoria.[693] Unless the phallus itself were the
object of adoration there would be no reason to carry it in procession as a
religious ceremony, and it is easily understandable that such a cult would
commend itself chiefly to women.[694]

The phallus of a divine statue was not always merely for adoration and
carrying in procession; the Roman bride sacrificed her virginity to the god
Priapus as a sacred rite. This is probably the remains of a still more
ancient custom when the god was personated by a man and not by an image.
The same custom remained in other parts of the world as the _jus primae
noctis_, which was held as an inalienable right by certain kings and other
divine personages. As might be expected, this custom obtained also among
the witches.

'Le Diable faict des mariages au Sabbat entre les Sorciers &
Sorcieres, & leur joignant les mains, il leur dict hautement

Esta es buena parati
Esta parati lo toma.

Mais auant qu'ils couchent ensemble, il s'accouple auec elles, oste la
virginite des filles.'--Ieannette d'Abadie, aged sixteen, 's'accusoit
elle mesme d'auoir este depucellee par Satan.'[695]

The occasional descriptions of the Devil's phallus show without question
its artificial character:

In 1598 in Lorraine 'es sagte die Alexia Dragaea, ihre Bulschafft
haette einen [Glied] so starcken etc. allezeit gehabt, wenn ihm
gestanden, und so gross als ein Ofengabel-Stiel, dessgleichen sie
zugegen zeigte, denn ohngefehr eine Gabel zugegen war, sagte auch wie
sie kein Geleuth weder Hoden noch Beutel daran gemerckt hat'.[696]

'Iaquema Paget adioustoit, qu'elle auoit empoigne plusieurs fois auec
la main le membre du Demon, qui la cognoissoit, et que le membre
estoit froid comme glace, long d'vn bon doigt, & moindre en grosseur
que celuy d'vn homme. Tieuenne Paget et Antoine Tornier adioustoient
aussi, que le membre de leurs Demons estoit long et gros, comme l'vn
de leurs doigts.'[697] 'Il a au deuant son membre tire et pendant, &
le monstre tousiours long d'vn coudee.--Le membre du Demon est faict a
escailles comme vn poisson.--Le membre du Diable s'il estoit estendu
est long enuiron d'vne aulne, mais il le tient entortille et sinueux
en forme de serpent.--Le Diable, soit qu'il ayt la forme d'homme, ou
qu'il soit en forme de Bouc, a tousiours vn membre de mulet, ayant
choisy en imitation celuy de cet animal comme le mieux pourueu. Il l'a
long et gros comme le bras.--Le membre du Diable est long enuiron la
moitie d'vne aulne, de mediocre grosseur, rouge, obscur, & tortu, fort
rude & comme piquant.--Ce mauuais Demon ait son membre myparty, moitie
de fer, moitie de chair tout de son long, & de mesme les genitoires.
Il tient tousiours son membre dehors.--Le Diable a le membre faict de
corne, ou pour le moins il en a l'apparence: c'est pourquoy il faict
tant crier les femmes.--Jeannette d'Abadie dit qu'elle n'a iamais
senty, qu'il eust aucune semence, sauf quand il la depucella qu'elle
la sentit froide, mais que celle des autres hommes qui l'ont cognue,
est naturelle.'[698]

Sylvine de la Plaine, 1616, confessed 'qu'il a le membre faict comme vn
cheual, en entrant est froid comme glace, iette la semence fort froide, &
en sortant la brusle comme si c'estoit du feu'.[699] In 1662 Isobel Gowdie
said, 'His memberis ar exceiding great and long; no man's memberis ar so
long & bigg as they ar.'[700]

The artificial phallus will account as nothing else can for the pain
suffered by many of the women; and that they suffered voluntarily, and even
gladly, can only be understood by realizing that they endured it for
motives other than physical satisfaction and pleasure. 'There appeared a
great _Black Goat_ with a _Candle_ between his Horns.... He had carnal
knowledge of her which was with great pain.'[701] 'Presque toutes les
Sorcieres rapportent que cet accouplement leur est le plus souuent
des-agreable, tant pour la laideur & deformite de Satan, que pour ce
qu'elles y ont vne extreme douleur.[702] 'Elle fuyoit l'accouplement du
Diable, a cause qu'ayant son membre faict en escailles il fait souffrir vne
extresme douleur.'[703] At the Sabbath in the Basses-Pyrenees, the Devil
took the women behind some sort of screen, and the children 'les oyent
crier comme personnes qui souffrent vne grande douleur, et ils les voyent
aussi tost reuenir au Sabbat toutes sanglantes'.[704] As regards brides,
'En cet accouplement il leur faict perdre vne infinite de sang, et leur
faict souffrir mille douleurs.'[705] Widow Bush of Barton said that the
Devil, who came to her as a young black man, 'was colder than man, and
heavier, and could not performe nature as man.'[706]

The physical coldness of the Devil is vouched for in all parts of
Europe.[707]

'Toutes les Sorcieres s'accordent en cela, que la semence, qu'elles
recoiuent du Diable, est froide comme glace: Spranger & les
Inquisiteurs, qui en ont veu vne infinite, l'escriuent ainsi. Remy,
qui a fait le procez a plus de deux milles Sorciers, en porte vn
tesmoignage irrefragable. Ie puis asseurer au semblable, que celles,
qui me sont passees par les mains, en ont confesse tout autant. Que si
la semence est ainsi froide, il s'ensuit qu'elle est destituee de ses
esprits vitaux, & ainsi qu'elle ne peut estre cause d'aucune
generation.'[708]

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