The True Story vs. Myth of Witchcraft. William Godwin

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The True Story vs. Myth of Witchcraft - William Godwin


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All ill come running in, all good keepe out!

       Hec. So, soe, enough: into the vessell with it.

       There, ’t hath the true perfection: I am so light

       At any mischief; there’s no villany

       But is a tune methinkes.

       Fire. A Tune! ’tis to the tune of dampnation then, I warrant

       You that that song hath a villainous burthen.

       Hec. Come my sweet sisters; let the aire strike our tune,

       Whilst we show reverence to yond peeping moone.

       Here they daunce. The Witches daunce and Ext.

      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.’

      Chapter XII.

       Table of Contents

      Familiar Spirits—Matthew Hopkins, the ‘Witch-finder’—Prince Rupert’s dog Boy—Unguents used for transporting Witches from Place to Place—Their Festivities at the Sabbat.

      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.

      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


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