The Devil in Britain and America

CHAPTER XI

But how did a woman become a witch, and attain to the full possession of her wicked powers? There is no doubt but that she must have been a mauvais sujet to start with, or else the Devil would not have thought of meeting her, and introducing himself to her. According to the witches’ confessions, of which we shall have many, they generally first meet the Devil by chance, and their differing testimonies affirm that he was somewhat protean in shape, appearing to one as a great black man, to another in the form of some animal. Others, again, were regularly introduced to him by some perfected witch at one of their meetings, for it was part of their duty to beat up recruits for his Satanic majesty.

Their agreement with the Devil is forcibly described by Reginald Scot,29 who quotes as his authorities such crushing names as the ‘Malleus Maleficarum,’ Bodin, Nider, Danæus, Psellus, Erastus, Hemingius, Cumanus, Aquinas, Bartholomæus Spineus, etc., so that doubtless he is correct.

‘The order of their bargaine or profession is double; the one solemne and publike; the other secret and priuate. That which is solemne or publike, is where witches come togither at certaine assemblies, at the times prefixed, and doo not onelie see the diuell in visible forme; but confer and talke familiarlie with him. In which conference the diuell exhorteth them to obserue their fidelitie unto him promising them long life and prosperitie. Then the witches assembled, commend a new disciple (whom they call a nouice) unto him; and, if the diuell findeth that young witch apt and forward in renunciation of the christian faith, in despising anie of the seuen sacraments, in treading upon Crosses, in spitting at the time of the elevation, in breaking their fast on fasting daies, and fasting on sundaies, then the diuell giveth foorth his hand, and the nouice ioining hand in hand with him, promiseth to obserue and keepe all the diuel’s commandements.

‘This done the diuell beginneth to be more bold with hir, telling hir plainelie, that all this will not serue his turne; and therefore requireth homage at hir hands: yea, he also telleth hir, that she must grant him both hir bodie and soule to be tormented in everlasting fire, which she yeeldeth unto. Then he chargeth her, to procure as many men, women and children also, as she can, to enter into this societie. Then he teacheth them to make ointments of the bowels and members of children, whereby they ride in the aire, and accomplish all their desires. So as, if there be anie children unbaptised, or not garded with the signe of the crosse, or orisons; then the witches may and doo catch them from their mothers sides in the night, or out of their cradles, or otherwise kill them with their ceremonies; and, after buriall, steale them out of their graves, and seeth them in a caldron, untill their flesh be made potable. Of the thickest whereof they make ointments, whereby they ride in the aire; but the thinner potion they put into flaggons, whereof whosoever drinketh, observing certeine ceremonies, immediatlie becommeth a maister, or rather, a mistresse in that practise and facultie.’

But there were other hell broths used by witches, as we may see by the accompanying illustration from Molitor’s ‘Die Hexen’ (1489?), in which a cock and serpent form part of the ingredients of the broth, which is being brewed during a violent hailstorm. In ‘The Witch: a Tragi-comedie,’ by Thomas Middleton, we have good notices of the component parts of these mixtures:

We all know the Witches scene in ‘Macbeth,’ but few are probably aware to what extent Shakespeare was indebted to this play of Middleton’s for its telling effect and language.

After this introduction to and instruction from the Devil, the novice has to do homage to her master. Still quoting Reginald Scot:

‘Sometimes their homage, with their oth and bargaine is receiued for a certeine number of yeares; sometimes for euer. Sometimes it consisteth in the deniall of the whole faith, sometimes in part. The first is, when the soule is absolutelie yeelded to the Diuell and hell fier; the other is, when they have but bargained to obserue certeine ceremonies and statutes of the Church; as to conceale faults at shrift, to fast on sundaies, &c. And this is doone, either by oth, protestation of words, or by obligation in writing, sometimes sealed with wax, sometimes signed with bloud, sometimes by kissing the Diuell’s bare buttocks; as did a Doctor called Edlin, who (as Bodin saith) was burned for witchcraft.

‘You must also understand, that after they have delicatlie banketted with the Diuell and the ladie of the fairies; and have eaten up a fat oxe, and emptied a butt of malmesie, and a binne of bread, at some nobleman’s house, in the dead of night, nothing is missed of all this in the morning. For the ladie Sibylla, Minerua, or Diana, with a golden rod striketh the vessell and the binne, and they are fullie replenished againe. Yea, she causeth the bullock’s bones to be brought and laid togither upon the hide, and lappeth the foure ends thereof togither, laieing her golden rod thereon; and then riseth up the bullocke againe, in his former estate and condition: and yet, at their returne home, they are like to starve for hunger; as Spineus saith. And this must be an infallible rule, that euerie fortnight, or at the least, euerie moneth, each witch must kill one child, at the least, for hir part.

‘And this is to be noted, that the inquisitors affirme, that during the whole time of the witch’s excourse, the Diuell occupieth the roome and place of the witch, in so perfect a similitude, as hir husband in his bed, neither by feeling, speech, nor countenance can discerne hir from his wife. Yea, the wife departeth out of hir husbands armes insensiblie, and leaueth the Diuell in her roome visiblie.’

The novice is now a full-fledged witch, and according to the best authorities may, and must, commit certain crimes, of which the following are some:

‘They denie God, and all religion.

‘They cursse, blaspheme, and provoke God with all despite.

‘They give their faith to the diuell, and they worship and offer sacrifice to him.

‘They doo solemnelie vow and promise all their progenie unto the diuell.

‘They sacrifice their owne children to the diuell before baptisme, holding them up in the aire unto him, and then thrust a needle into their braines.

‘They burne their children when they have sacrificed them.

‘They sweare to the diuell to bring as manie into that societie, as they can.

‘They sweare by the name of the diuell.

‘They boile infants (after they have murthered them unbaptized) untill their flesh be made potable.

‘They eate the flesh and drinke the bloud of men and children openlie.

‘They kill men with poison.

‘They kill men’s Cattell.

‘They bewitch men’s corne, and bring hunger and barrennes into the countrie; they ride and flie in the aire, bring stormes, make tempests, &c.’

Scot, quoting Sprenger, gives yet a wider range to the wickedness of witches.31 ‘Although it be quite against the haire, and contrarie to the diuel’s will, contrarie to the witch’s oth, promise, and homage, and contrarie to all reason that witches should helpe anie thing that is bewitched; but rather set forward their Maister’s businesse; yet we read In Malleo Maleficarum, of three sorts of witches; and the same is affirmed by all the writers hereupon, new and old. One sort, they say, can hurt and not helpe, the second can helpe and not hurt, the third can both helpe and hurt. And, among the hurtful witches, he saith there is one sort more beastlie than any kind of beasts, saving woolues: for these usuallie deuoure and eate yong children and infants of their owne kind. These be they (saith he) that raise haile, tempests, and hurtfull weather; as lightening, thunder, &c. These be they that procure barrennesse in man, woman and beast. These can throwe children into waters, as they walke with their mothers, and not be seene. These can make horses kicke, till they cast their riders. These can so alter the mind of iudges, that they can haue no power to hurt them. These can procure to themselves and to others, taciturnitie and insensibilitie in their torments. These can bring trembling to the hands, and strike terror into the minds of them that apprehend them. These can manifest unto others, things hidden and lost, and foreshow things to come; and see them as though they were present. These can alter men’s minds to inordinate love or hate. These can kill whom they list, with lightening and thunder. These can take awaie man’s courage, and the power of generation. These can make a woman miscarrie in childbirth, and destroie the child in the mother’s wombe, without any sensible meanes either inwardlie or outwardlie applied. These can, with their looks, kill either man or beast.’

CHAPTER XII

In order to enable the witch to carry out her benevolent intentions, the Devil supplied her with one or more familiar spirits, of which we shall hear much in the accounts of cases of witchcraft, and in this old English illustration we see the Devil presenting one to a young witch. They were of all kinds of shapes – perhaps the commonest was a cat or dog; but sometimes they took strange forms.

These familiars could talk and hold conversations with their mistresses, as witness the following story told by Giffard. A witch had confessed she had killed a man. ‘And upon the ladder she seemed very penitent, desiring all the world to forgive her. She sayd she had a spirit in the likeness of a yellow dun Cat. This Cat came unto her, as she sayd, as she sat by her fire, when she was fallen out with a neighbour of hers, and wished that the vengeance of God might light upon him and his. The Cat bad her not be afraid, she would do her no harme, she had served a dame five yeares in Kent, that was now dead, and if she would, she would be her servant. And whereas, sayd the Cat, such a man hath misused thee, if thou wilt I will plague him in his cattell. She sent the Cat, she killed three hogs and one Cow. The man, suspecting, burnt a pig alive, and, as she sayd, her Cat would never go thither any more. Afterward, she fell out with that Man; she sent her Cat, who told her, that she had given him that, which he should never recover; and, indeed, the man died.’32

In ‘The Lawes against Witches and Coniuration,’ etc., the attention of justices of the peace is thus directed to these familiar spirits:

‘1. These Witches have ordinarily a familiar, or spirit, which appeareth to them; sometimes in one shape, sometimes in another, as in the shape of a Man, Woman, Boy, Dogge, Cat, Foale, Fowle, Hare, Rat, Toad, etc. And to these their spirits they give names, and they meet together to christen them.

‘2. Their said Familiar hath some big or little teat upon their body, where he sucketh them; and besides their sucking, the Devil leaveth other marks upon their bodies, sometimes like a Blew-spot, or Red-spot, like a flea-biting, sometimes the flesh sunk in and hollow, all which, for a time, may be covered, yea, taken away, but will come againe to their old forme; and these the Devil’s markes be insensible, and being pricked will not bleed; and be often in their secret parts, and therefore require diligent and carefull search…

‘So likewise, if the suspected be proved to have been heard to call upon their Spirit, or to talk to them, or of them, or have offered them to others.

‘So, if they have been seen with their Spirits, or seen to feed something secretly, these are proofes that they have a familiar, &c.’

Matthew Hopkins (of whom more anon) was a past master in the matter of familiars, and thus relates his experience of some of them.33 He is supposed to be asked where he had gained his experience.

‘The Discoverer never travelled far for it, but in March 1644, he had some seven or eight of that horrible sect of Witches living in the Towne where he lived, a Towne in Essex called Maningtree, with divers other adjacent Witches of other towns, who every six weeks, in the night (being alwayes on the Friday night) had their meeting close by his house, and had their severall solemne sacrifices there offered to the Devill, one of which this discoverer heard speaking to her Imps one night, and bid them goe to another Witch, who was thereupon apprehended, and searched by women, who for many yeares had knowne the Devill’s marks, and found to have three teats about her, which honest women have not; so upon command from the Justice, they were to keep her from sleep, two or three nights, expecting in that time to see her familiars, which the fourth night she called in by their severall names, and told them what shapes, a quarter of an houre before they came in, there being ten of us in the roome; the first she called was:

‘1. Holt, who came like a white kitling.