The Witch-cult in Western Europe: A Study in Anthropology

The witches are even more explicit, and their evidence proves the belief that their Master was to them their God. The accusation against Elisabeth Vlamyncx of Alost, 1595, was t...

In France also there is a considerable amount of evidence. The earliest example is in 1430, when Pierronne, a follower of Joan of Arc, was put to death by fire as a witch. She p...

The signing of a covenant does not occur in every case and was probably a late introduction. Forbes, as quoted above, gives the contract between the Devil and his follower, with...

The animal forms in which the Devil most commonly appeared were bull, cat, dog, goat, horse, and sheep. A few curious facts come to light on tabulating these forms; i.e. the Dev...

1597. Christian Livingston of Leith. Scho affermit that hir dochter was tane away with the Farie-folk, and declarit to Gothrayis wyff, than being with barne, that it was a man c...

_Locomotion._--The method of going to the meetings varied according to the distance to be traversed. In an immense majority of cases the means of locomotion are not even mention...

At Aix in 1610 Magdalene de Demandouls 'said that that accursed Magician Lewes [Gaufredy] did first inuent the saying of Masse at the Sabbaths, and did really consecrate and pre...

'the said Elizabeth desired this informant, and the rest that were in the roome with her, to sit downe, and said, shee would shew this informant and the rest some of her impes:...

There seem to have been four methods of obtaining familiars: 1, by gift from the Devil; 2, by gift from a fellow-witch; 3, by inheritance; 4, by magical ceremonies. Of these, No...

In many cases it is very certain that the transformation was ritual and not actual; that is to say the witches did not attempt to change their actual forms but called themselves...

'Un bloc de pierre isole et d'aspect extraordinaire est generalement appele _pierre du diable_. Exemples: A) le dolmen detruit pres de Namur; B) la grande pierre en forme de tab...

The collection and use of the ashes by the worshippers point to the fact that we have here a sacrifice of the god of fertility. Originally the sprinkling of the ashes on fields...

The ceremony is one of the earliest of which there is any record. In 1303 a Bishop of Coventry was accused at Rome of a number of crimes, amongst others 'quod diabolo homagium f...

The feast, like the rest of the ritual, varied in detail in different places. It took place either indoors or out according to the climate and the season; in Southern France alm...

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 mig...

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 (16...

[Footnote 617: From an unpublished trial in the Justiciary Court at Edinburgh. The meaning of the word _laif_ is not clear. The Oxford dictionary gives _lop-eared_, the Scotch d...

Though the means used by the witches may seem ridiculous, the murderous intention is very clear. First they performed incantations to raise a storm to wreck the Queen's ship on...

[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 al...

In cases where popular fury, unrestrained by the law, worked its own vengeance on individuals, horrible scenes occurred; but these were the exception, and, examining only the le...

In the Lyons district (1598) 'les Sorciers rendent conte a Satan de ce qu'ils ont fait des la derniere assemblee, estans ceux la les mieux venus qui ont commis le plus de mescha...

'wes at a meitting in the church yeard of Forfar in the Holfe therof.... Betwixt the oatseid and the bearseid [barleysowing], she wes at ane other meitting at the Pavilione holl...

The mass of existing material on this subject is so great that I have not attempted to make a survey of the whole of European 'Witchcraft', but have confined myself to an intens...

Fairies:-- Arrows, 201, 245. Boy in green, 37, 244. Boys, 245. Children by Queen of Elphen, 44, 242. Colour of clothes, 37, 140, 240-2, 244. Connexion between witches and fairie...

There is evidence from Joan's own words that she felt herself divine and also that she knew her time was limited, but she never realized till the last that the end meant death;...

The other form of the Devil's Mark was the 'little Teat'. It occurred on various parts of the body; was said to secrete milk and to give suck to the familiars, both human and an...

_Sadducismus Debellatus._ London, 1698. _St. Osees, A true and iust Recorde of all the Witches taken at._ London, 1582. Sandys, George. _Relation of a Journey._ London, 1632. _S...

Margaret Agar Somerset 1664 Margaret Aitchison N. Berwick 1590 Margaret Aynsley Northumberland 1673 Margaret Barclay Irvine 1618 Margret Bean Aberdeen 1597 Meg Begtoun N. Berwic...

'and ane Androw Mar cuming for the, the Devill thy maister, quhome thow seruis, and quha techis the all this vytchcraft and sorcerie, apperit to the, in the licknes of ane horss...

Qu'au Sabbat on y blasphemoit souuent, disant chardieu, c'est vne belle chose qu'ils font blanchir pour qu'on la voye de plus loing, & puis la mangent, & quand ils l'ont mange i...

Renfrewshire:-- Capital punishment, 203. Child witches, 39, 65, 73. Coldness of Devil, 65. Devil as a man, 39, 65, 73. Fairies, 246. Hanging with a lace, 203-4. Mark, 90, 246. N...

Bessie Aiken Edinburgh 1597 Elspet Alexander Forfar 1661 Elizabeth Astley Lancs 1613 Elizabeth Atchinson Northumberland 1673 Bessie Bathgate Eymouth 1634 Elizabeth Bennet St. Os...