The Witch cult in Western Europe

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Isobel Gowdie and Janet Breadheid of Auldearne both said that the Devil was
'a meikle, blak, roch man, werie cold; and I fand his nature als cold
within me as spring-well-water'. Isobel continues, 'He is abler for ws that
way than any man can be, onlie he ves heavie lyk a malt-sek; a hudg nature,
verie cold, as yce.'[709]

Another point which goes to prove that the intercourse was by artificial
means was that pregnancy did not follow, except by special consent of the
woman. Jeannette d'Abadie, aged sixteen, said, 'Elle fuyoit l'accouplement
du Diable, a cause qu'ayant son membre faict en escailles il fait souffrir
vne extresme douleur; outre que la semence est extresmement froide, si bien
qu'elle n'engrosse iamais, ni celle des autres hommes au sabbat, bien
qu'elle soit naturelle.'[710] Boguet remarks, 'Il me souuient,
qu'Antoinette Tornier, & Antoinette Gandillon, estans interroguees, si
elles craignoient point de deuenir enceintes des [oe]uures du Diable; l'vne
respondit qu'elle estoit trop vieille; l'autre que Dieu ne le vouloit pas
permettre.'[711] According to Jeanne Hervillier, the Devil 'coucha auec
elle charnellement, en la mesme sorte & maniere que font les hommes auec
les femmes, horsmis que la semence estoit froide. Cele dit elle continua
tous les huict ou quinze iours.... Et vn iour le diable luy demanda, si
elle vouloit estre enceinte de luy, ce qu'elle ne voulut pas.'[712] But
when the witch was willing to have a child, it is noticeable that there is
then no complaint of the Devil's coldness. At Maidstone in 1652 'Anne
Ashby, Anne Martyn, and one other of their Associates, pleaded that they
were with child pregnant, but confessed it was not by any man, but by the
Divell.... Anne Ashby and Anne Martyn confessed that the Divell had known
them carnally, and that they had no hurt by it.'[713]

The Devil appears to have donned or doffed his disguise in the presence of
his worshippers, and this was often the case at the time of the sexual
rites, whether public or private:

'Il cognoist les Sorcieres tantost en forme d'homme tout noir, &
tantost en forme de beste, comme d'vn chien, d'vn chat, d'vn bouc,
d'vn mouton. Il cognoissoit Thieuenne Paget, & Antoine Tornier en
forme d'vn homme noir: Et lors qu'il accouploit auec Iaquema Paget, &
Antoine Gandillon, il prenoit la figure d'vn mouton noir, portant des
cornes. Francoise Secretain a dit que son Demon se mettoit tantost en
chien, tantost en chat, et tantost en poule, quand il la vouloit
cognoistre charnellement. Or tout cecy me fait de tant mieux asseurer
l'accouplement reel du Sorcier, & de la Sorciere auec le Demon.'[714]

In the Basses-Pyrenees Marie d'Aspilcouette 'disoit le mesme, pour ce qui
est du membre en escailles, mais elle deposoit, que lors qu'il les vouloit
cognoistre, il quitoit la forme de Bouc, & prenoit celle d'homme.'[715] 'Il
entra dans sa chambre en forme d'ung chat et se changea en la posture d'un
home vestu de rouge.'[716] At an attempt to wreck a ship in a great storm
'the devil was there present with them all, in the shape of a great
horse.... They returned all in the same likeness as of before, except that
the devil was in the shape of a man.'[717] 'The Deivill apeired vnto her,
in the liknes of ane prettie boy in grein clothes.... And at that tyme the
Deivil gaive hir his markis; and went away from her in the liknes of ane
blak doug.'[718] 'He wold haw carnall dealling with ws in the shap of a
deir, or in any vther shap, now and then. Somtym he vold be lyk a stirk, a
bull, a deir, a rae, or a dowg, etc., and haw dealling with ws.'[719] 'Yow
the said Margaret Hamilton, relict of James Pullwart ... had carnall
cowpulatiown with the devil in the lyknes of ane man, bot he removed from
yow in the lyknes of ane black dowg.'[720] The most important instance is
in Boguet's description of the religious ceremony at the Sabbath:
'Finalement Satan apres auoir prins la figure d'vn Bouc, se consume en feu,
& reduit en cendre.'[721]

The witches' habit of speaking of every person of the other sex with whom
they had sexual intercourse at the Sabbath as a 'devil' has led to much
confusion in the accounts. The confusion has been accentuated by the fact
that both male and female witches often used a disguise, or were at least
veiled. 'Et pource que les hommes ne cedent guieres aux femmes en
lubricite, c'est pourquoy le Demon se met aussi en femme ou Succube.... Ce
qu'il fait principalement au Sabbat, selon que l'ont rapporte Pierre
Gandillon, & George Gandillon, pere & fils, & les autres, lesquels disent
tout vnanimement, qu'en leurs assemblees il y a plusieurs Demons, & que les
vns exercent le mestier de l'homme pour les femmes, & les autres le mestier
des femmes pour les hommes.'[722] 'The Incubus's in the shapes of proper
men satisfy the desires of the Witches, and the Succubus's serve for Whores
to the Wizards.'[723] Margaret Johnson said the same: 'Their spirittes
vsuallie have knowledge of theire bodies.... Shee also saith, that men
Witches usualie have woemen spirittes and woemen witches men
spirittes.'[724] The girls under Madame Bourignon's charge 'declared that
they had daily carnal Cohabitation with the Devil; that they went to the
Sabbaths or Meetings, where they Eat, Drank, Danc'd, and committed other
Whoredom and Sensualities. Every one had her Devil in form of a Man; and
the Men had their Devils in the form of a Woman.... They had not the least
design of changing, to quit these abominable Pleasures, as one of them of
Twenty-two Years old one day told me. _No_, said she, _I will not be other
than I am; I find too much content in my Condition; I am always
Caressed._'[725] One girl of twelve said definitely that she knew the Devil
very well, 'that he was a Boy a little bigger than her self; and that he
was her Love, and lay with her every Night'; and another girl named Bellot,
aged fifteen, 'said her Mother had taken her with her [to the Sabbath] when
she was very Young, and that being a little Wench, this Man-Devil was then
a little Boy too, and grew up as she did, having been always her Love, and
Caressed her Day and Night.'[726] Such connexions sometimes resulted in
marriage. Gaule mentions this fact in his general account: 'Oft times he
marries them ere they part, either to himselfe, or their Familiar, or to
one another; and that by the Book of Common Prayer (as a pretender to
witchfinding lately told me in the Audience of many).'[727] This statement
is borne out in the trials: 'Agnes Theobalda sagte, sie sey selbst zugegen
auff der Hochzeit gewesen, da Cathalina und Engel von Hudlingen, ihren
Beelzebub zur Ehe genommen haben.'[728] The Devil of Isobel Ramsay's Coven
was clearly her husband,[729] but there is nothing to show whether the
marriage took place before she became a witch, as in the case of Janet
Breadheid of Auldearne, whose husband 'enticed her into that craft'.[730] I
have quoted above (p. 179) the ceremony at the marriage of witches in the
Basses-Pyrenees. Rebecca Weste, daughter of a witch, married the Devil by
what may be a primitive rite; he came to her 'as shee was going to bed, and
told her, he would marry her, and that shee could not deny him; shee said
he kissed her, but was as cold as clay, and married her that night, in this
manner; he tooke her by the hand and lead her about the chamber, and
promised to be her loving husband till death, and to avenge her of her
enemies; and that then shee promised him to be his obedient wife till
death, and to deny God, and Christ Jesus.'[731] At Edinburgh in 1658 a
young woman called Anderson was tried: 'her confessioun was, that scho did
marry the devill.'[732] The Swedish witches in 1670 confessed that at
Blockula 'the Devil had Sons and Daughters which he did marry
together'.[733] Giraldus Cambrensis gives an account of a 'spirit' in the
form of a red-haired young man, called Simon, who 'was begotten upon the
wife of a rustic in that parish, by a demon, in the shape of her husband,
naming the man, and his father-in-law, then dead, and his mother, still
alive; the truth of which the woman upon examination openly avowed'.[734]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 664: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 206; Glanvil, pt. ii, p. 301.]

[Footnote 665: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 207.]

[Footnote 666: J. G. Campbell, pp. 293-4. The book was in manuscript, and
when last heard of was in the possession of the now-extinct Stewarts of
Invernahyle.]

[Footnote 667: _Spalding Club Misc._, i, p. 143.]

[Footnote 668: Pitcairn, iii, p. 603. 'Toads did draw the plough as oxen,
couch-grass was the harness and trace-chains, a gelded animal's horn was
the coulter, and a piece of a gelded animal's horn was the sock.']

[Footnote 669: Ravaisson, 1679-81, p. 336.]

[Footnote 670: Burns Begg, p. 224.]

[Footnote 671: Reg. Scot, Bk. III, p. 60.]

[Footnote 672: Id., Bk. III, p. 60.]

[Footnote 673: More, p. 168.]

[Footnote 674: _Spalding Club Misc._, i, p. 93.]

[Footnote 675: Boguet, p. 211.]

[Footnote 676: R. Scot, p. 77.]

[Footnote 677: Bodin, pp. 125-7.]

[Footnote 678: Bourignon, _Vie_, pp. 222-3; Hale, pp. 37-8.]

[Footnote 679: Glanvil, pt. ii, p. 301.]

[Footnote 680: Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 206.]

[Footnote 681: Bodin, p. 465.]

[Footnote 682: Id., p. 465. The trial was in 1545, Magdalene being then
forty-two. See also _Pleasant Treatise_, p. 6.]

[Footnote 683: Id., p. 227.]

[Footnote 684: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 183.]

[Footnote 685: De Lancre, _Tableau_, pp. 145, 398.]

[Footnote 686: Kinloch, p. 124.]

[Footnote 687: Arnot, p. 360.]

[Footnote 688: Boguet, p. 68.]

[Footnote 689: Cooper, p. 92.]

[Footnote 690: More, p. 241.]

[Footnote 691: 'The Deuill your maister, beand in liknes of ane beist, haid
carnall [deal] with ilk ane of you.'--_Spalding Club Misc._, i, p. 149.]

[Footnote 692: Petrie, pp. 7-9; Capart, p. 223.]

[Footnote 693: Plutarch, _De Iside et Osiride_, xviii, 5.]

[Footnote 694: On the other hand, the female generative organs were also
adored, and presumably by men. This suggestion is borne out by the figures
of women with the pudenda exposed and often exaggerated in size. Such
figures are found in Egypt, where they were called Baubo, and a legend was
invented to account for the attitude; and similar figures were actually
known in ancient Christian churches (Payne Knight, _Discourse on the
Worship of Priapus_).]

[Footnote 695: De Lancre, _Tableau_, pp. 132, 404.]

[Footnote 696: Remigius, pt. i, p. 19.]

[Footnote 697: Boguet, pp. 68-9.]

[Footnote 698: De Lancre, _Tableau_, pp. 68, 224-6.]

[Footnote 699: Id., _L'Incredulite_, p. 808.]

[Footnote 700: Pitcairn, iii, p. 610.]

[Footnote 701: F. Hutchinson, _Historical Essays_, p. 42.]

[Footnote 702: Boguet, p. 69.]

[Footnote 703: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 132.]

[Footnote 704: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 219.]

[Footnote 705: Id. ib., p. 404.]

[Footnote 706: Stearne, p. 29.]

[Footnote 707: The following references are in chronological order, and are
only a few out of the many trials in which this coldness of the Devil is
noted: 1565, Cannaert, p. 54; 1567, De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 132; 1578,
Bodin, _Fleau_, p. 227; 1590, Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 219; 1598, Boguet,
_op. cit._, pp. 8, 412; 1645, Stearne, p. 29; 1649, Pitcairn, iii, p. 599;
1652, Van Elven, _La Tradition_, 1891, v, p. 215; 1661, Kinloch and Baxter,
p. 132; 1662, Pitcairn, iii, pp. 603, 611, 617; 1662, Burns Begg, x, pp.
222, 224, 231-2, 234; 1678, Fountainhall, i, p. 14; 1682, Howell, viii.
1032; 1705, _Trials of Elinor Shaw_, p. 6.]

[Footnote 708: Boguet, p. 92.]

[Footnote 709: Pitcairn, iii, pp. 603, 611, 617.]

[Footnote 710: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 132.]

[Footnote 711: Boguet, p. 78.]

[Footnote 712: Bodin, p. 227.]

[Footnote 713: _A Prodigious and Tragicall Historie_, pp. 4, 5.]

[Footnote 714: Boguet, p. 70.]

[Footnote 715: De Lancre, _Tableau_, p. 225.]

[Footnote 716: H. G. van Elven, _La Tradition_, 1891, v, p. 215. Place and
names not given.]

[Footnote 717: Kinloch, pp. 122, 123.]

[Footnote 718: Pitcairn, iii, p. 601.]

[Footnote 719: Id., iii, pp. 611, 613.]

[Footnote 720: _Scots Magazine_, 1817, p. 201.]

[Footnote 721: Boguet, p. 141.]

[Footnote 722: Id., p. 65.]

[Footnote 723: _Pleasant Treatise of Witches_, p. 6. The remembrance of the
numerous male devils at the Sabbath survives in the Samalsain dance in the
Basses-Pyrenees, where the male attendants on the King and Queen of the
dance are still called Satans. Moret, _Mysteres Egyptiens_, p. 247.]

[Footnote 724: Baines, i, pp. 607-8, note.]

[Footnote 725: Bourignon, _Parole_, pp. 86, 87; Hale, pp. 26, 27.]

[Footnote 726: Id., _Vie_, p. 211, 214; Hale, pp. 29, 31.]

[Footnote 727: Gaule, p. 63.]

[Footnote 728: Remigius, p. 131.]

[Footnote 729: Record of Trial in the Edinburgh Justiciary Court.]

[Footnote 730: Pitcairn, iii, p. 616.]

[Footnote 731: Howell, iv, 842.]

[Footnote 732: Nicoll's Diary, p. 212. _Bannatyne Club._]

[Footnote 733: Horneck, pt. ii, p. 323.]

[Footnote 734: Davies, p. 183. Cp. also the birth of Merlin. Giraldus
Cambrensis, _Itinerary_, Bk. I, xii, 91b.]

VII. THE ORGANIZATION

The cult was organized in as careful a manner as any other religious
community; each district however was independent, and therefore Mather is
justified in saying that the witches 'form themselves after the manner of
Congregational Churches'.[735]

1. _The Officer_

The Chief or supreme Head of each district was known to the recorders as
the 'Devil'. Below him in each district, one or more officers--according to
the size of the district--were appointed by the chief. The officers might
be either men or women; their duties were to arrange for meetings, to send
out notices, to keep the record of work done, to transact the business of
the community, and to present new members. Evidently these persons also
noted any likely convert, and either themselves entered into negotiations
or reported to the Chief, who then took action as opportunity served. At
the Esbats the officer appears to have taken command in the absence of the
Grand Master; at the Sabbaths the officers were merely heads of their own
Covens, and were known as Devils or Spirits, though recognized as greatly
inferior to the Chief. The principal officer acted as clerk at the Sabbath
and entered the witches' reports in his book; if he were a priest or
ordained minister, he often performed part of the religious service; but
the Devil himself always celebrated the mass or sacrament. In the absence
of all direct information on the subject, it seems likely that the man who
acted as principal officer became Grand Master on the death of the previous
Chief. Occasionally the Devil appointed a personal attendant for himself,
who waited upon him on all solemn occasions, but does not appear to have
held any official position in the community.

Estebene de Cambrue (1567) said that 'elle a veu au Sabbat vn Notaire
qu'elle nomme, lequel a accoustume de leuer les defauts de celles qui ont
manque de se trouuer au Sabbat.'[736] At the North Berwick meetings (1590),
there were several officers, of whom Fian was the chief.

'Robert Griersoun being namit, they all ran hirdie-girdie and wer
angrie: for it wes promisit he sould be callit "Ro^t the Comptroller,
alias Rob the Rowar," for expreming of his name.--Johnne Fiene wes
ewer nerrest to the Devill, att his left elbok; Gray Meill kepit the
dur.--The accusation of the saide Geillis Duncane aforesaide, who
confessed he [Fian] was their Regester, and that there was not one man
suffered to come to the Divels readinges but onelie hee.--[Fian's
confession] That at the generall meetinges of those witches, he was
always present; that he was clarke to all those that were in
subiection to the Divels service, bearing the name of witches; that
alway hee did take their oathes for their true service to the Divell;
and that he wrote for them such matters as the Divell still pleased to
commaund him.'[737]

Elizabeth Southerns, otherwise known as old Mother Demdike (1613), 'was
generall agent for the Deuill in all these partes'.[738] The 'eminent
warlok' Robert Grieve of Lauder (1649) 'was brought to a Confession of his
being the _Devils Officer_ in that Countrey for warning all Satans Vassals
to come to the Meetings, where, and whensoever the Devil required.... The
Devil gave him that charge, to be his Officer to warn all to the meetings;
(as was said before,) in which charge he continued for the space of
eighteen years and more.'[739] The evidence concerning Isobel Shyrie at
Forfar (1661) is too long to quote, but it is clear that she acted as the
officer.[740] Isobel Gowdie (1662) says definitely, 'Johne Young, in
Mebestowne, is Officer to owr Coeven', and remarks in another part of her
confession that 'Johne Yownge in Mebestowne, owr Officer, did drywe the
plewghe'.[741] The only indication of a change of personnel is given by
Janet Breadheid, of the same Coven as Isobel Gowdie.

'Johne Taylor, my husband, was then Officer, bot Johne Young in
Mebestoune, is now Officer to my Coeven. Quhan I cam first ther, the
Divell called tham all be thair names, on the book; and my husband,
than called thame at the door.... Whan we haid Great Meittingis,
Walter Ledy, in Penick, my husband, and Alexander Elder, nixt to the
Divell, wer Ruleris; and quhan ther wold be but fewar, I my self, the
deceassit Jean Suthirland, Bessie Hay, Bessie Wilsone, and Janet
Burnet wold rule thaim.'[742]

In Somerset (1664) Anne Bishop appears to have been the chief personage
under the Devil, in other words the Officer.[743] At Paisley (1678) Bessie
Weir 'was Officer to their several meetings.--Bessie Weir did intimate to
him [John Stewart], that there was a meeting to be at his house the next
day: And that the Devil under the shape of a black man, Margaret Jackson,
Margery Craige, and the said Bessie Weir, were to be present. And that the
said Bessie Weir required the Declarant to be there, which he
promised.'[744] In New England (1692) it appears that both Bridget Bishop
and Martha Carrier held high rank, and were probably Officers.

One duty seems to have been delegated to a particular individual, who might
perhaps hold no other office, or who might, on the other hand, be the chief
official; this was the manager, often the leader, of the dance. As pace
seems to have been an essential in the dance, the leader was necessarily
active and generally young. At North Berwick (1590) 'John Fein mussiled led
the ring'.[745] In Aberdeen (1596) Thomas Leyis was the chief person in the
dance; 'thow the said Thomas was formest and led the ring, and dang the
said Kathren Mitchell, becaus scho spillet your dans, and ran nocht so fast
about as the rest.'[746] Isobel Cockie of the same Coven was next in
importance; 'in the quhilk danse, thow was the ring leader nixt Thomas
Leyis.'[747] Mr. Gideon Penman (1678), who had once been minister at
Crighton, went to the Sabbaths, where the Devil spoke of him as 'Mr.
Gideon, my chaplain'.[748] The witches said that 'ordinarily Mr. Gideon
was in the rear in all their dances, and beat up those that were slow'.
This Mr. Gideon seems to be the same person as the 'warlock who formerly
had been admitted to the ministrie in the Presbyterian times, and now he
turnes a preacher under the devill.--This villan was assisting to Satan in
this action' [giving the sacrament] 'and in preaching.'[749]

The personal attendant of the Devil is rare. At Aberdeen (1596) Issobell
Richie was accused that 'at that tyme thow ressauit thy honours fra the
Dewyll, thy maister, and wer appoynted be him in all tymes thairefter, his
speciall domestick servand and furriour'.[750] John McWilliam Sclater
(1656) was appointed cloak-bearer to the Devil.[751]

The Devil's piper was also an official appointment in Scotland, but does
not occur elsewhere. John Douglas of Tranent (1659) was the Devil's
piper,[752] and so also was a man mentioned by Sinclair: 'A reverend
Minister told me, that one who was the Devils Piper, a wizzard confest to
him, that at a Ball of dancing, the Foul Spirit taught him a Baudy song to
sing and play.'[753]

The Queen of the Sabbath may perhaps be considered as an official during
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, though in early times she was
probably the chief personage in the cult, as Pearson has pointed out.[754]
It is not unlikely that she was originally the same as the Queen of
Elfhame; in Scotland, however, in the seventeenth century, there is a
Maiden of the Coven, which was an important position in the Esbat but
entirely distinct from the Queen of Faery, while in other places a woman,
not the Queen, is often the officer and holds the highest place after the
Grand Master.

Elizabeth Stile of Windsor (1579) said that 'mother Seidre dwelling in the
Almeshouse, was the maistres Witche of all the reste'.[755] Marion Grant of
Aberdeen (1597) confessed that 'the Devill thy maister causit the dans
sindrie tymes with him and with Our Ladye, quha, as thow sayes, was a fine
woman, cled in a quhyte walicot'.[756] In France (1609) the custom seems
to have been universal, 'en chasque village trouuer vne Royne du Sabbat',
who sat at the Devil's left hand during the celebration of the mass and
received the offerings of the faithful.[757] The witches called her both
the Grande Maitresse and the Reine du Sabbat.[758] Isobel Gowdie's
confession (1662) shows that the Queen of Elthame was not the same as the
chief woman of the Coven, for she saw the Queen only on going into the
fairy-howe, while the Maiden of the Coven was at each meeting. 'We doe no
great mater without owr Maiden.--Quhan we ar at meat, or in any vther place
quhateuir, the Maiden of each Coven sittis abow the rest, nixt the
Divell.'[759] In New England (1692) Deliverance Hobbs confessed that 'the
said G. B. preached to them, and such a woman was their Deacon'.[760]

2. _The Covens_

The word _coven_ is a derivative of 'convene', and is variously spelt
_coven_, _coeven_, _covine_, _cuwing_, and even _covey_. The special
meaning of the word among the witches is a 'band' or 'company', who were
set apart for the practice of the rites of the religion and for the
performance of magical ceremonies; in short, a kind of priesthood.

The Coven was composed of men and women, belonging to one district, though
not necessarily all from one village, and was ruled by an officer under the
command of the Grand Master. The members of the Coven were apparently bound
to attend the weekly Esbat; and it was they who were instructed in and
practised magical arts, and who performed all the rites and ceremonies of
the cult. The rest of the villagers attended the Esbats when they could or
when they felt so inclined, but did not necessarily work magic, and they
attended the Sabbaths as a matter of course. This view of the organization
of the religion is borne out by the common belief in modern France:

'Il est de croyance generale qu'il _faut un nombre fixe de sorciers et
de sorcieres dans chaque canton_. Le nouvel initie reprend les _vieux
papiers_ de l'ancien.--Les mauvaises gens forment une confrerie qui
est dirigee par une sorciere. Celle-ci a la _jarretiere_ comme marque
de sa dignite. Elles se la transmettent successivement par rang
d'anciennete. Il n'existe que cette difference de rang entre les
sorciers et les sorcieres. Ceux-la se recrutent aussi bien parmi les
gens _maries_ que chez les _celibataires_.'[761]

The 'fixed number' among the witches of Great Britain seems to have been
thirteen: twelve witches and their officer. The actual numbers can be
obtained, as a rule, only when the full record of the trial is available;
for when several witches in one district are brought to trial at the same
time they will always be found to be members of a Coven, and usually the
other members of the Coven are implicated or at least mentioned.

The earliest account of a Coven is in the trial of Bessie Dunlop (1567);
when Thom Reid was trying to induce her to join the society, he took her
'to the kill-end, quhair he forbaid her to speik or feir for onye thing
sche hard or saw; and quhene thai had gane ane lytle pece fordwerd, sche
saw twelf persounes, aucht wemene and four men: The men wer cled in
gentilmennis clething, and the wemene had all plaiddis round about thame
and wer verrie semelie lyke to se; and Thom was with thame.'[762] Clearly
this was a Coven with Thom as the Officer, and he had brought Bessie to see
and be seen. The witches tried at St. Osyth in Essex in 1582 were thirteen
in number.[763] At the meeting of the North Berwick witches (1590) to
consult on the means to compass the king's death, nine witches stood 'in
ane cumpany', and the rest 'to the nowmer of threttie persons in ane vthir
cumpany'; in other words, there were thirty-nine persons, or three Covens,
present.[764] At Aberdeen (1596-7) sixty-four names of witches occur in the
trials; of these, seven were merely mentioned as being known to the
accused, though not as taking part in the ceremonies, and five were
acquitted; thus leaving fifty-two persons, or four Covens. Out of these
fifty-two, one was condemned and executed at the assize in 1596 and twelve
in 1597, making in all thirteen persons, or one Coven, who were put to
death.[765] The great trial of the Lancashire witches in 1613 gives a grand
total of fifty-two witches, or four Covens, whose names occur in the
record. This includes the three Salmesbury witches mentioned by Grace
Sowerbuts, whose evidence was discredited as being the outcome of a 'Popish
plot' to destroy the three women as converts to the Reformed Church; but as
the record shows that the other accused witches were tried on similar
charges and condemned, it may be concluded that other causes occasioned the
acquittal. Taking together, however, only those witches who are mentioned,
in these trials, as having actually taken part in the ceremonies and
practices of witchcraft in the neighbourhood of Pendle, it will be found
that there were thirty-nine persons, or three Covens.[766] In Guernsey in
1617 Isabel Becquet confessed that--

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