The Witch cult in Western Europe

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2. _Cat._--The earliest example of the cat-disguise is in the trial of the
Guernsey witches in 1563, when Martin Tulouff confessed:

'[*q] il y a viron ung quartier d'an passez [*q] il soy trouva
auvec[*q]s la Vieillesse aultrem[~e]t dit Collenette Gascoing, en la
rue de la fosse au Coully, la ou l y avoet chinq ou vi chatz, d'ou il
y en avoet ung qui estoet noir, qui menoit la dance, et danssoient et
luy dyst lad^te Collenette, [*q] il besait led^t Chat et d^t [*q] il
estoet sur ses pieds plat, et que ladite Collenette le besa [*p] de
derriere, et luy [*p] la crysse, et [*q] fracoize Lenouff sa mere y
estoet et Collette Salmon fae de Collas du port, laqlle alloet devat
et s'agenouillerent to^s devat le Chat et l'adorer[~e]t en luy baillat
le^r foy, et luy dist ladite Vieillesse [*q] ledit Chat estoet le
diable.'[187]

Francoise Secretain, in 1598, saw the Devil 'tantost en forme de chat'.
Rolande de Vernois said, 'Le Diable se presenta pour lors au Sabbat en
forme d'vn groz chat noir.'[188] In 1652 another French witch confessed
that 'il entra dans sa chambre en forme d'ung chat et se changea en la
posture d'un home vestu de rouge', who took her to the Sabbath.[189] Both
the Devonshire witches, Mary Trembles and Susanna Edwards, in 1682, stated
that they saw him as a lion, by which they possibly meant a large cat.[190]
In this connexion it is worth noting that in Lapland as late as 1767 the
devil appeared 'in the likeness of a cat, handling them from their feet to
their mouth, and counting their teeth'.[191]

3. _Dog._--At Chelmsford in 1556 Joan Waterhouse 'dydde as she had seene
her mother doe, callynge Sathan, whiche came to her (as she sayd) in the
lykenes of a great dogge'.[192] In 1616 Barthelemy Minguet of Brecy was
tried for witchcraft. 'Enquis, comme il a aduis quand le Sabbat se doit
tenir. Respond, que c'est le Diable qui luy vient dire estant en forme de
chien noir, faict comme vn barbet, parle a luy en ceste forme. Enquis, en
quelle forme se met le Diable estant au Sabbat. Respond, qu'il ne l'a
iamais veu autrement qu'en forme de barbet noir. Enquis, quelles ceremonies
ils obseruent estant au Sabbat. Respond, que le Diable estant en forme de
barbet noir (comme dessus est dit) se met tout droit sur les pattes de
derriere, les preche'.[193] etc. In Guernsey in 1617 Isabel Becquet went to
Rocquaine Castle, 'the usual place where the Devil kept his Sabbath; no
sooner had she arrived there than the Devil came to her in the form of a
dog, with two great horns sticking up: and with one of his paws (which
seemed to her like hands) took her by the hand: and calling her by her name
told her that she was welcome: then immediately the Devil made her kneel
down: while he himself stood up on his hind legs; he then made her express
detestation of the Eternal in these words: _I renounce God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Holy Ghost_; and then caused her to worship and invoke
himself.'[194] Barton's wife, about 1655, stated that 'one Night going to a
dancing upon Pentland-hills, he went before us in the likeness of a rough
tanny-Dog, playing on a pair of Pipes, and his tail played ey wig wag wig
wag'.[195] In 1658 an Alloa witch named Jonet Blak declared that he
appeared to her first as 'a dog with a sowis head'.[196] In 1661 Jonet
Watson of Dalkeith said that 'the Deivill apeired vnto her, in the liknes
of ane prettie boy, in grein clothes, and went away from her in the liknes
of ane blak doug'.[197] According to Marie Lamont of Innerkip in 1662, 'the
devill in the likeness of a brown dog' helped to raise a storm.[198]
Margaret Hamilton, widow of James Pullwart of Borrowstowness in 1679, was
accused that she met 'the devil in the likeness of a man, but he removed
from you in the likeness of an black dog'.[199] The Highland witches in
the eighteenth century saw the devil as a dog; he was 'a large black ugly
tyke', to whom the witches made obeisance; the dog acknowledged the homage
'by bowing, grinning, and clapping his paws'.[200] In the case of the
dog-disguise, there is again a similarity with Lapp beliefs and customs,
the appearance of the Devil as a dog being not uncommon in Lapland.[201]

4. _Goat._--An interesting point as regards this form of disguise is that
it does not occur in Great Britain, nor have I found it so far in Belgium.
It prevailed chiefly in France, from which all my examples are taken. At
Poictiers in 1574 'trois Sorciers & vne Sorciere declarent qu'ils estoyent
trois fois l'an, a l'assemblee generale, ou plusieurs Sorciers se
trouuoyent pres d'vne croix d'vn carrefour, qui seruoit d'enseigne. Et la
se trouuoit vn grand bouc noir, qui parloit comme vne personne aux
assistans, & dansoyent a l'entour du bouc.'[202] At Avignon in 1581 'when
hee comes to be adored, he appeareth not in a humane forme, but as the
Witches themselues haue deposed, as soone as they are agreed of the time
that he is to mount vpon the altar (which is some rock or great stone in
the fields) there to bee worshipped by them, hee instantly turneth himselfe
into the forme of a great black Goate, although in all other occasions hee
vseth to appeare in the shape of a man.[203] In Lorraine in 1589 the Devil
'sich in einen zottelichten Bock verwandelt hat, und viel staerker reucht
und uebeler stinckt als immer ein Bock im Anfang des Fruehlings thun
mag'.[204] In Puy de Dome in 1594 Jane Bosdeau's lover took her to a
meeting, and 'there appeared a great Black Goat with a Candle between his
Horns'.[205] In 1598 'Satan apres auoir prins la figure d'vn Bouc, se
consume en feu'.[206] In the Basses-Pyrenees in 1609:

'le Diable estoit en forme de bouc, ayant vne queue, & au-dessoubs vn
visage d'homme noir, & n'a parole par ce visage de derriere.--Marie
d'Aguerre dit qu'il y a vne grande cruche au milieu du Sabbat, d'ou
sort le Diable en forme de bouc.--D'autres disent qu'il est comme vn
grand bouc, ayant deux cornes devant & deux en derriere; que celles de
devant se rebrassent en haut comme la perruque d'vne femme. Mais le
commun est qu'il a seulement trois cornes, & qu'il a quelque espece de
lumiere en celle du milieu. On luy voit aussi quelque espece de bonet
ou chapeau au dessus de ces cornes. On a obserue de tout temps que
lorsqu'il veut receuoir quelcun a faire pacte auec luy, il se presente
tousiours en homme, pour ne l'effaroucher ou effraier: car faire pacte
auec vn Bouc ouuertement, tiendroit plus de la beste que de la
creature raisonnable. Mais le pacte faict, lors qu'il veut receuoir
quelqu'vn a l'adoration, communem[~e]t il se represente en Bouc.'[207]

Silvain Nevillon confessed at Orleans in 1614 'qu'il a veu le Diable en
plusieurs facons, tantost comme vn bouc, ayant vn visage deuant & vn autre
derriere'.[208]

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
theologie, prieur de S. Germain en Laye, et auparavant Augustin, et
religieux de certaines aultres ordres ... confessa, de sa bonne et franche
voulonte, avoir fait hommage audit ennemy en l'espece 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 facons, 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 Baeren 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'Incredulite_, 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 sleeves blue, her traine behind,
With silver hookes was tucked, I find;
Her shoes 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'Incredulite_, 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'Incredulite_, 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'Incredulite_, 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'Incredulite_, p. 769.]

[Footnote 182: _Spalding Club Misc._, i, p. 129.]

[Footnote 183: De Lancre, _L'Incredulite_, 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'Incredulite_, 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'Incredulite_, 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'Incredulite_, 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-Pyrenees in 1609:

'Les Sorcieres luy offr[~e]t des petits enfans le genoueil 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_: a quoy obeissant, elles en se
trainant a genouil, le luy presentent, & luy receuant l'enfant entre
ses bras, le rend a 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 voueent
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 a moy? ils
respondent qu'ouy, il leur dict, Venez vous de vostre bonne volonte?
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 a ce nouueau qui se presente, qu'il die a 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_. Apres on luy baille vn
crapaud habille auec son capot ou manteau, puis il commande qu'on
l'adore; si bien qu'obeyssans & estants mis a genouil, ils baisent le
Diable aupres de l'[oe]il gauche, a la poitrine, a la fesse, a 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-originees,
la plus part si ignorantes au fait de leur salut qu'elles vivoient comme
des betes'.[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]

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