Chapter I: Part 1

WITCHCRAFT

AND

DEVIL LORE

IN THE

CHANNEL ISLANDS

TRANSCRIPTS FROM THE OFFICIAL RECORDS OF THE GUERNSEY ROYAL COURT, WITH AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION AND HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

BY

JOHN LINWOOD PITTS,

_Membre de la Société des Antiquaires de Normandie._

_Editor of "The Patois Poems of the Channel Islands;" "The Sermon on the Mount and the Parable of the Sower, in the Franco-Norman Dialects of Guernsey and Sark," &c., &c._

Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.

--EXODUS xxii, 18.

Guernsey:

GUILLE-ALLÈS LIBRARY,

AND

THOMAS M. BICHARD, PRINTER TO THE STATES.

1886.

[_All Rights Reserved._]

TO

EDGAR MACCULLOCH, ESQUIRE,

F.S.A., LONDON AND NORMANDY, AND MEMBER OF THE FOLKLORE SOCIETY,

BAILIFF OF GUERNSEY,

WHOSE HISTORICAL RESEARCHES HAVE TENDED SO MUCH TO ELUCIDATE THE TIME-HONOURED CONSTITUTION

AND

ANCIENT CUSTOMS OF HIS NATIVE ISLAND,

THIS

BRIEF RECORD OF ONE OF THE DARKEST CHAPTERS IN ITS CHEQUERED ANNALS

Is Dedicated

WITH SENTIMENTS OF THE HIGHEST RESPECT AND ESTEEM.

_Venena magnum fas nefasque non valent Convertere humanam
vicem._

HORACE, Epod. V. 87-8.

FOREWORD.

In presenting to the public another little volume of the "Guille-Allès Library Series," it affords me much pleasure to acknowledge various kindnesses experienced during its preparation. From Edgar MacCulloch, Esq., F.S.A., Bailiff of Guernsey, I have received several valuable hints and suggestions bearing upon the subject; and also from F.J. Jérémie, Esq., M.A., Jurat of the Royal Court. I am also particularly indebted to James Gallienne, Esq., Her Majesty's Greffier, for his uniform kindness and courtesy in allowing the fullest access at all times to the Archives under his care, not only in respect to the subject-matter of the present publication, but also in other historical researches which I have wished to make. I am equally obliged to Mr. E.M. Cohu and Mr. H.J.V. Torode, Deputy-Greffiers, and to Mr. A. Isemonger, Bailiff's Clerk, for various information and much ready help, which materially facilitated my investigations. All these gentlemen have my cordial acknowledgments and best thanks.

J.L.P.

Guernsey, December, 1885.

NOTE.--The Seal represented on the title page is
that of the Guernsey Bailiwick. It was first granted by
Edward I. in the seventh year of his reign (1279), and bears
the inscription: S. BALLIVIE INSULE DE GERNEREYE.

CONTENTS.

_Page_

DEDICATION v.

FOREWORD vii.

TABLE OF CONTENTS viii.

INTRODUCTION 1

WITCHCRAFT IN GUERNSEY 1

The Witches' Sabbath 2

The Devil's Ointment 2

Three Women burnt for Heresy in Guernsey 3

WITCHCRAFT IN JERSEY 4

Ordinance of the Royal Court 4

Women Hanged and Burnt *4

Mr. Philippe Le Geyt's Opinion 5

Later Superstitions 5

The Pricking of Witches *5

_Sorcerots_, or Witches' Spells 6

Torture of Witches in Guernsey *6

" " Scotland 7

GENERAL PERSECUTION OF WITCHES *7

On the Continent *7

In America *7

In England 8

In Scotland 8

CONFESSIONS OF GUERNSEY WITCHES UNDER TORTURE 9

Collette Du Mont 11

Marie Becquet 15

Isabel Becquet 16

DEPOSITIONS AGAINST COLLAS BECQUET 22

NOTE ON THE GUERNSEY RECORDS 27

WITCHCRAFT TRIALS IN GUERNSEY, 1563-1634 28

THE STORY IN BRIEF OF THE GUILLE-ALLÈS LIBRARY 33

INTRODUCTION.

The Witchcraft superstitions of the Channel Islands, sad as they were in their characteristics and results--as is abundantly evidenced by our judicial records--were but a part and parcel of that vast wave of unreasoning credulity which swept across the civilised world during the Middle Ages, and more or less affected every class of society, and all sorts and conditions of men. From the lists given in the following pages (pp. 28-32), it will be seen that in about seventy-one years, during the reigns of Elizabeth, James I. and Charles I., no fewer than seventy-eight persons--fifty-eight of them being women, and twenty of them men--were brought to trial for Sorcery in Guernsey alone. Out of these unfortunate victims, three women and one man appear to have been burnt alive; twenty-four women and four men were hanged first and burnt afterwards; one woman was hanged for returning to the island after being banished; three women and one man were whipped and had each an ear cut off; twenty-two women and five men were banished from the island; while five women and three men had the good fortune to be acquitted. Most of these accused persons were natives of Guernsey, but mention is made of one woman from Jersey, of three men and a woman from Sark, and of a man from Alderney.

With regard to the gatherings at the so-called Witches' Sabbaths, there can be no doubt that--quite apart from the question of any diabolic presence at such meetings--very questionable assemblies of people did take place at intervals among the inhabitants of many countries. Probably these gatherings first had their rise in the old pagan times, and were subsequently continued from force of habit, long after their real origin and significance had been forgotten. Now, it would be very easy for these orgies to become associated--particularly in the then superstitious condition of the popular mind--with the actual bodily presence of the Devil as one of the participants; while it is also not improbable that, in some cases at least, heartless and evil-minded persons worked upon the prevailing credulity to further their own nefarious purposes. Our esteemed Bailiff has offered a suggestion or two of considerable value on this point with regard to certain Guernsey phases of the superstition. He thinks it highly probable that some of these deluded women were actually the dupes of unprincipled and designing men, who arrayed themselves in various disguises and then met their unfortunate victims by appointment. This idea is, indeed, borne out to a great extent by some of the particulars stated in the following confessions. For instance, some of the women assert that when they met the Devil he was in the form of a dog, _but rather larger_; he always stood upon his hind legs--probably the man's feet; and, when he shook hands with them, his paw _felt like a hand_--doubtless it _was_ a hand. Another suggestion of the Bailiff's is also worth notice. It is that the black ointment so often mentioned as being rubbed on the bodies of the so-called witches, had a real existence, and may have been so compounded as to act as a narcotic or intoxicant, and produce a kind of extatic condition, just as the injection of certain drugs beneath the skin is known to do now. These suggestions are certainly worth consideration as offering reasonable solutions of at least two difficulties connected with those strange and lamentable superstitions. In one way or other there must have been some physical basis for beliefs so widely extended and so terribly real. Imagination, of course, possesses a marvellous power of modification and exaggeration, but still it requires some germs of fact around which to crystallise. And it is to the discovery of the nature of such germs that a careful and conscientious observer will naturally turn his attention.

* * * * *

While speaking of the burning of Witches in Guernsey, I may also refer for a moment to the three women who, in Queen Mary's reign suffered death by fire, for heresy, because the reason of their condemnation and punishment has caused some controversy, and is often associated in the popular mind with a charge of sorcery. Dr. Heylin in his _Survey_ (page 323), says:--

Katherine Gowches, a poor woman of St. Peter-Port, in
Guernsey, was noted to be much absent from church, and her
two daughters guilty of the same neglect. Upon this they
were presented before James Amy, then dean of the island,
who, finding in them that they held opinions contrary to
those then allowed about the sacrament of the altar,
pronounced them heretics, and condemned them to the fire.
The poor women, on the other side, pleaded for themselves,
that that doctrine had been taught them in the time of King
Edward; but if the queen was otherwise disposed, they were
content to be of her religion. This was fair but it would
not serve; for by the dean they were delivered unto Helier
Gosselin, then bailiff, and by him unto the fire, July 18,
1556. One of these daughters, Perotine Massey, she was
called, was at that time great with child; her husband, who
was a minister, having in those dangerous times fled the
island; in the middle of the flames and anguish of her
torments, her belly broke in sunder, and her child, a goodly
boy, fell down into the fire, but was presently snatched up
by one W. House, one of the by-standers. Upon the noise of
this strange incident, the cruel bailiff returned command
that the poor infant must be cast again into the flames,
which was accordingly performed; and so that pretty babe was
born a martyr, and added to the number of the holy
innocents.

Parsons, the English Jesuit, has asserted that the women were felons and were executed for theft, while other apologists have described them as prostitutes and generally infamous in character. The original sentences, however, which still exist at the Guernsey _Greffe_, and which I have examined, conclusively settle the question. Both the ecclesiastical sentence, which is in Latin, and the civil sentence, which is in French, distinctly describe the charge as one of _heresy_, and make no mention whatever of any other crime as having aught to do with the condemnation.

It has been questioned too whether a child could be born alive under such circumstances. Mr. F.B. Tupper, in his _History of Guernsey_ (page 151), says: "We are assured by competent surgical authority that the case is very possible"; and he further mentions that in a volume entitled _Three Visits to Madagascar_, by the Rev. Wm. Ellis, published in London, in 1858, a precisely similar case is stated to have occurred in that island. A native woman was burnt for becoming a convert to Christianity, and her infant, born in the flames, was thrust into them again, and burnt also.

Lord Tennyson refers to this Guernsey martyrdom in his historical drama of _Queen Mary_ (Act v. Scene iv.). It is night-time in London; a light is burning in the Royal Palace; and he makes two "Voices of the Night" say:--

_First_:--There's the Queen's light. I hear she cannot live.

_Second_:--God curse her and her Legate! Gardiner burns Already; but to pay them full in kind, The hottest hold in all the devil's den Were but a sort of winter; Sir, in Guernsey, I watch'd a woman burn; and in her agony The mother came upon her--a child was born-- And, Sir, they hurl'd it back into the fire, That, being thus baptised in fire, the babe Might be in fire for ever. Ah, good neighbour, There should be something fierier than fire To yield them their deserts.

With regard to Witchcraft in Jersey, I have not had an opportunity of personally examining the official records there. I find, however, some information on the subject, given by M. De La Croix, in his _Ville de St. Hélier_, and _Les Etats de Jersey_, upon which I have drawn. In the way of legislation, the Guernsey Court does not appear to have promulgated any penal statutes on the subject, being content to treat the crime as one against the common law of the Island. In Jersey on the contrary, Witchcraft was specially legislated against at least on one occasion, for we find that on December 23rd, 1591, the Royal Court of that island passed an Ordinance, of which the following is the purport:--

Forasmuch as many persons have hitherto committed and
perpetrated great and grievous faults, as well against the
honour and express commandment of God as to the great
scandal of the Christian faith, and of those who are charged
with the administration of justice, by seeking assistance
from Witches and Diviners in their ills and afflictions; and
seeing that ignorance is no excuse for sin, and that no one
can tell what vice and danger may ensue from such practices:
This Act declares that for the time to come everyone shall
turn away from such iniquitous and diabolical practices,
against which the law of God decrees the same punishments as
against Witches and Enchanters themselves; and also in
order that the Divine Vengeance may be averted, which on
account of the impunity with which these crimes have been
committed, now threatens those who have the repression of
them in their hands. It is, therefore, strictly forbidden to
all the inhabitants of this island to receive any counsel or
assistance in their adversities from any Witches or
Diviners, or anyone suspected of practicing Sorcery, under
pain of one month's imprisonment in the Castle, on bread and
water; and on their liberation they shall declare to the
Court the cause of such presumption, and according as this
shall appear reasonable, shall be dealt with as the law of
God directs.

In 1562 two women were executed in Jersey for witchcraft. One of them named _Anne_, a native of St. Brelade's, was burnt at St. Helier's; and the other, _Michelle La Blanche_, expiated her crime at the gibbet of the Hurets, in the parish of St. Ouen, because criminals dwelling on the Fief Haubert de St. Ouen, were, in accordance with custom, required to be executed within the boundaries of the said Fief--seeing that it possessed a gallows-right--and their goods and lands became forfeited to the Seigneur.

In 1583 a rather curious point of law was raised in connection with a pending witch-trial at St. Helier's. On the 15th of February in that year, a suspected witch named _Marion Corbel_, who had been imprisoned in the Castle awaiting her trial, suddenly died. Whereupon her relatives came forward and claimed to be heirs to her goods and chattles, seeing that she had not been convicted of the imputed crime, and urging that her death put an end to further criminal proceedings. The Queen's Procureur, however--it was in the reign of Elizabeth--contended that death was no bar to the completion of the indictment, although it had effectually removed the criminal from the jurisdiction of the Court, as far as punishment was concerned. The very reasonable claim of the deceased woman's relatives was therefore set aside, and the defunct of course being found guilty, her possessions reverted to the crown.

Again, forty years later, in 1623, an old woman of sixty, named _Marie Filleul_, daughter of _Thomas Filleul_, of the parish of St. Clement's, was tried before a jury of twenty-four of her countrymen, and found guilty of the diabolical crime of Sorcery. She was therefore hanged and burnt as a witch, and her goods were confiscated to the King [James I.], and to the Seigneurs to whom they belonged.

It may be interesting to note here the opinion of Mr. Philippe Le Geyt, the famous commentator on the constitution and laws of Jersey, and one of the most enlightened men of his time, who for many years was Lieutenant-Bailiff of that island. He was born in 1635 and died in 1715, in his eighty-first year. In Vol. I., page 42, of his works, there occurs a passage of which the following is a translation:--

As Holy Scripture forbids us to allow witches to live, many
persons have made it a matter of conscience and of religion
to be severe in respect to such a crime. This principle has
without doubt made many persons credulous. How often have
purely accidental associations been taken as convincing
proofs? How many innocent people have perished in the flames
on the asserted testimony of supernatural circumstances? I
will not say that there are no witches; but ever since the
difficulty of convicting them has been recognized in the
island, they all seem to have disappeared, as though the
evidence of the times gone by had been but an illusion. This
shows the instability of all things here below.

Coming down now to within a century ago, we find an article in the _Gazette de Jersey_, of Saturday, March 10th, 1787, complaining of the great increase of wizards and witches in the island, as well as of their supposed victims. The writer says that the scenes then taking place were truly ridiculous, and he details a case that had just occurred at St. Brelade's as corroborative of his assertion. It appears that a worthy householder there, had dreamed that a certain wizard appeared to him and ordered him to poison himself at a date which was specified, enjoining him above all things not to mention the incident to anyone. The poor silly fellow was dreadfully distressed, for he felt convinced that he would have to carry out the disagreeable command. At the same time he was quite unable to keep so momentous a secret to himself, and so he divulged the approaching tragedy to his wife. The good woman's despair was fully equal to his own, and after much anxious domestic counsel they determined to seek the good offices of a White Witch (_une Quéraude_), with the hope that her incantations might overcome the evil spells of the Black Witch who was causing all the mischief. This White Witch prescribed lengthened fasting and other preparations for the great ordeal, and on a given night she and the bewitched householder, together with his wife and four or five trusty friends with drawn swords, shut themselves up in a room, and commenced their mysterious ceremonial. There was the boiling of occult herbs; the roasting of a beeve's heart stuck full of nails and pins; the reading of certain passages from the family Bible; a mighty gesticulating with the swords, which were first thrust up the chimney to prevent the Black Witch from coming down, and anon were pointed earthward to hinder him from rising up; and so the ridiculous game went on. The only person who benefited was of course the imposter, who was paid for her services; while we may perhaps charitably hope that her dupes also were afterwards easier in their minds. The writer adds that many other persons besides this man at St. Brelade's, had latterly believed themselves bewitched, and had consulted wizards, who were thus driving a profitable trade.

* * * * *

Among the indications and symptoms of a witch, are reckoned various bodily marks and spots, said to be insensible to pain (page 20), inability to shed tears, &c. The pricking of witches was at one time a lucrative profession both in England and Scotland, one of the most noted prickers being a wretched imposter named Matthew Hopkins who was sent for to all parts of the country to exercise his vile art. Ralph Gardner, in his _England's Grievance Discovered_ (1655), speaks also of two prickers, Thomas Shovel and Cuthbert Nicholson, who, in 1649 and 1650, were sent by the magistrates of Newcastle-on-Tyne, into Scotland, there to confer with another very able man in that line and bring him back to Newcastle. They were to have twenty shillings, but the Scotchman three pounds, per head _of all they could convict_, and a free passage there and back. When these wretches got to any town--for they tried all the chief market-towns in the district--the crier used to go round with his bell, desiring "all people that would bring in any complaint against any woman for a witch, they should be sent for and tried by the person appointed." As many as thirty women were brought at once into the Newcastle town-hall, stripped and pricked, and twenty-seven set aside as guilty. Gardner continues:--

The said witch-finder acquainted Lieutenant-Colonel Hobson
that he knew women whether they were witches or no by their
looks; and when the said person was searching of a
personable and good-like woman, the said colonel replied and
said, 'Surely this woman is none, and need not be tried;'
but the Scotchman said she was, for the town said she was,
and therefore he would try her; and presently, in sight of
all the people, laid her body naked to the waist, with her
clothes over her head, by which fright and shame all her
blood contracted into one part of her body, and then he ran
a pin into her thigh, and then suddenly let her coats fall,
and then demanded whether she had nothing of his in her
body, but did not bleed? But she, being amazed, replied
little. Then he put his hands up her coats and pulled out
the pin, and set her aside as a guilty person and child of
the devil, and fell to try others, whom he made guilty.
Lieutenant-Colonel Hobson, perceiving the alteration of the
aforesaid woman by her blood settling in her right parts,
caused that woman to be brought again, and her clothes
pulled up to her thigh, and required the Scot to run the pin
into the same place, and then it gushed out of blood, and
the said Scot cleared her, and said she was not a child of
the devil.

If this precious wretch had not been stopped he would have declared half the women in the north country to be witches. But the magistrates and the people got tired of him at last, and his imposture being discovered, he was hanged in Scotland. At the gallows he confessed that he had been the death of 220 men and women in England and Scotland, simply for the sake of the twenty shillings which he generally received as blood-money.

* * * * *

The belief in _Sorcerots_, or witches' spells of a peculiar kind, mentioned in the _Depositions_ (pages 22, 23, &c.) receives curious modern confirmation by a kindred superstition still current among the emancipated negroes of the United States. It was described in a letter on "Voudouism in Virginia" which appeared in the _New York Tribune_, dated Richmond, September 17, 1875. Mr. Moncure D. Conway, in quoting this and commenting on it in his _Demonology and Devil-Lore_ (Vol. I. pages 68-69), says that it belongs to a class of superstitions generally kept close from the whites, as he believes, because of their purely African origin. Mr. Conway is, however, probably mistaken about the origin, seeing that the same belief prevailed in Guernsey three centuries ago. The extract from the letter is as follows:--

If an ignorant negro is smitten with a disease which he
cannot comprehend, he often imagines himself the victim of
witchcraft, and having no faith in "white folks' physic" for
such ailments, must apply to one of these quacks. A
physician residing near the city [Richmond] was invited by
such a one to witness his mode of procedure with a dropsical
patient for whom the physician in question had occasionally
charitably prescribed. Curiosity led him to attend the
seance, having previously informed the quack that since the
case was in such hands he relinquished all connection with
it. On the coverlet of the bed on which the sick man lay,
was spread a quantity of bones, feathers, and other trash.
The charlatan went through with a series of so-called
conjurations, burned feathers, hair, and tiny fragments of
wood in a charcoal furnace, and mumbled gibberish past the
physician's comprehension. He then proceeded to rip open the
pillows and bolsters, and took from them some queer
conglomerations of feathers. These he said had caused all
the trouble. Sprinkling a whitish powder over them, he burnt
them in his furnace. A black offensive smoke was produced,
and he announced triumphantly that the evil influence was
destroyed, and that the patient would surely get well. He
died not many days later, believing, in common with his
friends and relatives, that the conjurations of the "trick
doctor" had failed to save him only because resorted to too
late.

From the above it is evident that the natural tendency of wool and feathers to felt and clog together, has been distorted, by widely different peoples, into an outward and visible sign that occult and malignant influences were at work.

* * * * *

As to the manner in which wizards and witches were put to the question in Guernsey--that is tortured until they confessed whatever was required of them--Mr. Warburton, a herald and celebrated antiquary who wrote in the reign of Charles II., has given a circumstancial account, the correctness of which may be relied on. His _Treatise on the History, Laws and Customs of the Island of Guernsey_, bears the date of 1682, and at page 126 he says:--

By the law approved (_Terrien_, Lib. xii. cap. 37), torture
is to be used, though not upon slight presumption, yet where
the presumptive proof is strong, and much more when the
proof is positive, and there wants only the confession of
the party accused. Yet this practice of torturing does not
appear to have been used in the island for some ages, except
in the case of witches, when it was too frequently applied,
near a century since. The custom then was, when any person
was supposed guilty of sorcery or witchcraft, they carried
them to a place in the town called _La Tour Beauregard_, and
there, tying their hands behind them by the two thumbs, drew
them to a certain height with an engine made for that
purpose, by which means sometimes their shoulders were
turned round; and sometimes their thumbs torn off; but this
fancy of witches has for some years been laid aside.

It will be noticed in the subsequent _Confessions_ of witches (page 11, &c.), that a number of colons (:) are inserted in the text where they would not be required as ordinary marks of punctuation. These correspond, however, to similar pauses in the original records, and evidently indicate the successive stages by which the story was wrung from the wretched victims. They are thus endowed with a sad and ghastly significance, which must be borne in mind when the confessions are read. It must also be remembered that these confessions were not usually made in the connected form in which they stand recorded, but were rather the result of leading questions put by the inquisitors, such as: How old were you when the Devil first appeared to you? What form did he assume? What parish were you in? What were you doing? &c., &c.

Melancholy and revolting as all this is, yet the tortures made use of in Guernsey were far from possessing those refinements of cruelty and that intensity of brutality which characterised the methods practiced in some other countries. Let us take as a proof of this, the notable case of Dr. Fian and his associates, who were tried at Edinburgh, in the year 1591. The evidence was of the usual ridiculous kind, and a confession--afterwards withdrawn--was extorted by the following blood-curdling barbarities, as is quoted by Mr. C.K. Sharpe, in his _Historical Account of the Belief in Witchcraft in Scotland_:--

The said Doctor was taken and imprisoned, and used with the
accustomed paine provided for those offences inflicted upon
the rest, as is aforesaid. First, by thrawing of his head
with a rope, whereat he would confesse nothing. Secondly, he
was perswaded by faire meanes to confesse his follies; but
that would prevaile as little. Lastly, hee was put to the
most severe and cruell paine in the world, called the
bootes, who, after he had received three strokes, being
inquired if he would confesse his damnable actes and wicked
life, his toong would not serve him to speak; in respect
whereof, the rest of the witches willed to search his toong,
under which was founde two pinnes thrust up into the heade,
whereupon the witches did say, now is the charme stinted,
and shewed that these charmed pins were the cause he could
not confesse any thing; then was he immediately released of
the bootes, brought before the King, his confession was
taken, and his own hand willingly set thereunto.... But this
Doctor, notwithstanding that his owne confession appeareth
remaining in recorde under his owne hande-writing, and the
same thereunto fixed in the presence of the King's majestie,
and sundrie of his councell, yet did he utterly denie the
same. Whereupon the Kinges majestie, perceiving his
stubbourne wilfulnesse, conceived and imagined that in the
time of his absence hee had entered into newe conference and
league with the devill, his master, and that hee had beene
agayne newly marked, for the which he was narrowly searched;
but it coulde not in anie wice be founde; yet, for more
tryall of him to make him confesse, hee was commaunded to
have a most straunge torment, which was done in this manner
following: His nailes upon all his fingers were riven and
pulled off with an instrument called in Scottish a turkas,
which in England wee call a payre of pincers, and under
everie nayle there was thrust in two needles over, even up
to the heads; at all which tormentes notwithstanding the
Doctor never shronke anie whit, neither woulde he then
confesse it the sooner for all the tortures inflicted upon
him. Then was hee, with all convenient speed, by
commandement, convaied againe to the torment of the bootes,
wherein he continued a long time, and did abide so many
blowes in them, that the legges were crusht and beaten
together as small as might bee, and the bones and flesh so
bruised that the blood and marrow spouted forth in great
abundance, whereby they were made unserviceable for ever;
and notwithstanding all those grievous paines and cruell
torments, hee would not confess anie thing; so deeply had
the devill entered into his heart, that hee utterly denied
all that which he had before avouched, and would saie
nothing thereunto but this, that what he had done and sayde
before, was onely done and sayde for fear of paynes which he
had endured. After this horrible treatment the wretched man
was strangled and burnt.

The following list gives a few--and only a few--of the direful results to which this widespread superstition led. The instances are chiefly taken from Dr. Réville's _History of the Devil_, and Haydn's well-known _Dictionary of Dates_:--

At Toulouse a noble lady, fifty-six years of age, named
Angela de Labarète, was the first who was burnt as a
sorceress, in which special quality she formed part of the
great _auto-da-fé_ which took place in that city in the year
1275; at Carcasonne, from 1320 to 1350, more than four
hundred executions for witchcraft are on record; in 1309
many Templars were burnt at Paris for witchcraft; Joan of
Arc was burnt as a witch at Rouen, May 30th, 1431; in 1484
Pope Innocent VIII. issued a bull against witchcraft,
causing persecutions to break out in all parts of
Christendom; during three months of the year 1515, about
five hundred witches were burnt at Geneva; in 1524 many
persons were burnt for the same crime in the Diocese of
Como; about the year 1520 a great number suffered in France,
and one sorcercer confessed to having 1,200 associates; from
1580 to 1595--a period of fifteen years--about nine hundred
witches were burnt in Lorraine; between 1627 and 1629, no
fewer than one hundred and fifty-seven persons, old and
young, and of all ranks, were burnt at Wurtzburg, in
Bavaria; in 1634 a clerk named Urbain Grandier, who was
parish priest at Loudon, was burnt on a charge of having
bewitched a whole convent of Ursuline nuns; in 1654 twenty
poor women were put to death as witches in Brittany; in
1648-9 serious disturbances on account of witchcraft took
place in Massachusetts; and in 1683 dreadful persecutions
raged in Pennsylvania from the same cause; in 1692, at
Salem, in New England, nineteen persons were hanged by the
Puritans for witchcraft, and eight more were condemned,
while fifty others confessed themselves to be witches, and
were pardoned; in 1657 the witch-judge Nicholas Remy boasted
of having burnt nine hundred persons in fifteen years; in
one German principality alone, at least two hundred and
forty-two persons were burnt between 1646 and 1651,
including many children from one to six years of age; in
1749 Maria Renata was burnt at Wurtzburg for witchcraft; on
January 17th, 1775, nine old women were burnt at Kalish, in
Poland, on a charge of having bewitched and rendered
unfruitful the lands belonging to the palatinate; at
Landshut, in Bavaria, in 1756, a young girl of thirteen
years was convicted of impure intercourse with the Devil and
put to death. There were also executions for sorcery at
Seville, in Spain, in 1781, and at Glarus, in Switzerland,
in 1783; while even as late as December 15th, 1802, five
women were condemned to death for sorcery at Patna, in the
Bengal Presidency, by the Brahmins, and were all executed.

IN ENGLAND the record of Witchcraft is also a
melancholy chapter. A statute was enacted declaring all
witchcraft and sorcery to be felony without benefit of
clergy, 33 Henry VIII. 1541; and again 5 Elizabeth, 1562,
and 1 James I. 1603. The 73rd Canon of the Church, 1603,
prohibits the Clergy from casting out devils. Barrington
estimates the judicial murders for witchcraft in England,
during two hundred years, at 30,000; Matthew Hopkins, the
"witch-finder," caused the judicial murder of about one
hundred persons in Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk, 1645-7; Sir
Matthew Hale burnt two persons for witchcraft in 1664; about
1676 seventeen or eighteen persons were burnt as witches at
St. Osyths, in Essex; in 1705 two pretended witches were
executed at Northampton, and five others seven years
afterwards; in 1716, a Mrs. Hicks, and her daughter, a
little girl of nine years old, are said to have been hanged
as witches at Huntingdon, but of this there seems to be some
doubt. The last really authentic trial in England for
witchcraft took place in 1712, when the jury convicted an
old woman named Jane Wenham, of Walkerne, a little village
in the north of Hertfordshire, and she was sentenced to be
hanged. The judge, however, quietly procured a reprieve for
her, and a kind-hearted gentleman in the neighbourhood gave
her a cottage to live in, where she ended her days in peace.
With regard to the mobbing of reputed sorcerers, it is
recorded that in the year 1628, Dr. Lamb, a so-called
wizard, who had been under the protection of the Duke of
Buckingham, was torn to pieces by a London mob. While even
as late as April 22nd, 1751, a wild and tossing rabble of
about 5,000 persons beset and broke into the work-house at
Tring, in Hertfordshire, where seizing Luke Osborne and his
wife, two inoffensive old people suspected of witchcraft,
they ducked them in a pond till the old woman died. After
which, her corpse was put to bed to her husband by the mob,
of whom only one person--a chimney-sweeper named Colley, who
was the ringleader--was brought to trial and hanged for the
detestable outrage.

The laws against witchcraft in England had lain dormant for
many years, when an ignorant person attempted to revive them
by filing a bill against a poor old woman in Surrey, accused
as a witch; this led to the repeal of the laws by the
statute 10 George II. 1736. Credulity in witchcraft,
however, still lingers in some of the country districts of
the United Kingdom. On September 4th, 1863, a poor old
paralysed Frenchman died in consequence of having been
ducked as a wizard at Castle Hedingham, in Essex, and
similar cases have since occurred; while on September 17th,
1875,--only ten years ago--an old woman named Ann Turner,
was killed as a witch, by a half-insane man, at Long
Compton, Warwickshire.

IN SCOTLAND, thousands of persons were burnt for
witchcraft within a period of about a hundred years, in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Among the victims were
persons of the highest rank, while all orders of the state
concurred. James I. even caused a whole assize to be
prosecuted because of an acquittal; the king published his
work on _Dæmonologie_, in Edinburgh, in 1597; the last
sufferer for witchcraft in Scotland was at Dornoch, in 1722.

CONFESSIONS OF WITCHES UNDER TORTURE.

_LE 4 JUILLET 1617._

Devant AMICE DE CARTERET, Ecuyer, Baillif, présents, etc.

SENTENCE DE MORT.

_Collette Du Mont_, veuve de _Jean Becquet_, _Marie_, sa fille, femme de _Pierre Massy_, _Isbel Bequet_, femme de _Jean Le Moygne_, etant par la coutume renommée et bruit des gens de longue main du bruit de damnable art de Sorcellerie, et icelles sur ce saisies et apprehendées par les Officiers de Sa Majesté, apres s'etre volontairement sumis et sur l'enquete generale du pays, et apres avoir été plusieurs fois conduites en Justice, ouïes, examinées et confrontées sur un grand nombre de depositions faites et produites à l'encontre d'elles par les dits Officiers, par lesquels est clair et evident qu'auraient, par longeur d'années, le susdit diabolique art de Sorcellerie, par avoir non seulement jété leur sort sur des choses insensible, mais aussi tenu en langueur par maladies etranges plusieurs personnes et betes, et aussi cruellement meurti grand nombre d'hommes, femmes, et enfans, et fait mourir plusieurs animaux, recordés aux informations sur ce faites, s'ensuit qu'elles sont plainement convaincues et atteintes d'etre Sorcieres. Pour reparation duquel crime a eté dit par la Cour que lesdites femmes seront presentement conduites la halte au col au lieu de supplice accoutumé, et par l'Officier criminel attachées à un poteau, pendues, etranglées, osciées, et brulées, jusqu'à ce que leur chairs et ossements soient reduits en cendres, et leurs cendres eparcées; et sont tous les biens, meubles, et heritages, si aucun en ont acquit, à Sa Majesté. Pour leur faire confesser leurs complices, qu'elles seront mises à la question en Justice avant que d'etre executées.

[TRANSLATION.]

Before AMICE DE CARTERET, Esq., Bailiff, and the Jurats.

_JULY 4th, 1617._

SENTENCE OF DEATH.

_Collette du Mont_, widow of _Jean Becquet_; _Marie_, her daughter, wife of _Pierre Massy_; and _Isabel Becquet_, wife of _Jean Le Moygne_, being by common rumour and report for a long time past addicted to the damnable art of Witchcraft, and the same being thereupon seized and apprehended by the Officers of His Majesty [James I.], after voluntarily submitting themselves, both upon the general inquest of the country, and after having been several times brought up before the Court, heard, examined, and confronted, upon a great number of depositions made and produced before the Court by the said Officers; from which it is clear and evident that for many years past the aforesaid women have practiced the diabolical art of Witchcraft, by having not only cast their spells upon inanimate objects, but also by having retained in languor through strange diseases, many persons and beasts; and also cruelly hurt a great number of men, women, and children, and caused the death of many animals, as recorded in the informations thereupon laid, it follows that they are clearly convicted and proved to be Witches. In expiation of which crime it has been ordered by the Court that the said women shall be presently conducted, with halters about their necks, to the usual place of punishment, and shall there be fastened by the Executioner to a gallows, and be hanged, strangled, killed, and burnt, until their flesh and bones are reduced to ashes, and the ashes shall be scattered; and all their goods, chattels, and estates, if any such exist, shall be forfeited to His Majesty. In order to make them disclose their accomplices, they shall be put to the question before the Court, previous to being executed.

Sentence de mort ayant esté prononcée à l'encontre de _Collette Du Mont_, veuve de _Jean Becquet_, _Marie_, sa fille, femme de _Pierre Massy_, et _Isbel Becquet_, femme de _Jean Le Moygne_, auroyent icelles confessé comme suit:--

CONFESSION DE COLLETTE DU MONT.

Premier, la diste _Collette_ immediatement appres la dyte sentence donnée, et avant que de sortir de l'auditoire, a librement recognu qu'elle estoit Sorciere; toutesfois ne voulant particularizer les crimes qu'auroit commis a esté conduite avec les autres en la Maison de la Question, et la dite question luy estant applicquée, a confessé qu'elle estoit encore jeune lors que le Diable en forme de chat: s'aparut à elle: en la Paroisse de Torteval: lors qu'elle retournoit de son bestiall, estant encore jour, et qu'il print occasion de la seduire, par l'inciter à se venger d'un de ses voisins avec lequell elle estoit pour lors en querelle pour quelque domage qu'elle auroit receu par les bestes d'yceluy; que depuis lors qu'elle avoit eu querelle avec quelcun, ill se representoit à elle en la susdite forme: et quelquefois en forme de chien: l'induisant à se venger de ceux contre lesquels elle estoit faschée: la persuadant de faire mourir des personnes et bestes.

Que le Diable l'estant venue querir pour aller au Sabat, l'appelloit sans qu'on s'en apperceust: et luy bailloit ung certain onguent noir, duquel (appres s'etre despouillée) elle se frotoit le dos, ventre et estomac: et s'estant revestuë, sortoit hors son huis, lors estoit incontinent emportée par l'air d'une grande vitesse: et se trouvoit a l'instant au lieu du Sabat, qui estoit quelquefois pres le cimetiere de la paroisse: et quelques autres fois pres le rivage de la mer, aux environs du Chateau de Rocquaine: là où estant arivée s'y rencontroit souvent quinze ou saize Sorciers et Sorcieres avec les Diables, qu'y estoient là en forme de chiens, chats, et lievres: lesquels Sorciers et Sorcieres elle n'a peu recognoistre, parce qu'ils estoyent tous noircis et deffigurés: bien est vray avoir ouy le Diable les evocquer par leur noms, et se souvaient entre autres de la _Fallaise_, et de la _Hardie_; dit confesse qu'a l'entrée du Sabath: le Diable les voulant esvosquer commencoit par elle quelquefois. Que sa fille _Marie_, femme de _Massy_, à present condamnée pour pareill crime, est Sorciere: et qu'elle la menée par deux fois au Sabath avec elle: ne scait par où le Diable la merchée: qu'au Sabath appres avoir adoré le Diable, lequell se tenoit debout sur ses pieds de derriere, ils avoient copulation avec luy en forme de chien; puis dansoyent dos a dos. Et appres avoir dansé, beuvoyent du vin (ne scait de quelle couleur), que le Diable versoit hors d'un pot en ung gobelet d'argent ou d'estrain; lequell vin ne luy sembloit sy bon que celuy qu'on boit ordinarement; mangeoist aussy du pain blanc quj leur presentoit--n'a jamais veu de sell au Sabath.

Confesse que le Diable luy avoit donné charge d'appeler en passant _Isebell le Moygne_: lors quelle viendroit au Sabath, ce qu'elle a fait diverses fois. Qu'au partir du Sabath le Diable l'incitoit à perpetrer plusieurs maux: et pour cest effect luy bailloit certaines pouldres noires, qu'il lui commandoit de ietter sur telles personnes et bestes qu'elle voudroit; avec laquelle pouldre elle a perpetré plusieurs maux desquels ne se souvient: entres autres en ietta sur _Mes. Dolbell_, ministre de la paroisse: et fut occasion de sa mort par ce moyen. Par ceste mesme pouldre ensorcela la femme de _Jean Maugues_: toutesfois nie qu'elle soit morte par son sort: qu'elle toucha par le costé, et ietta de ceste pouldre sur la femme defuncte de _Mr Perchard_, successeur ministre du dit _Dolbell_, en ycelle paroisse, ycelle estant pour lors enceinte, tellement qu'elle la fist mourir et son fruit--ne scait quelle occasion luy fut donnée par la dite femme.

Que sur le refus que la femme de _Collas Tottevin_ luy fist de luy donner du laict: elle fist assecher sa vache, en iettant sur ycelle de ceste pouldre: laquelle vache elle regarit par appres en luy faisant manger du son, et de l'herbe terrestre que le Diable lui bailla.

Sentence of Death having been pronounced against _Collette Du Mont_, widow of _Jean Becquet_; _Marie_, her daughter, wife of _Pierre Massy_; and _Isabel Becquet_, wife of _Jean Le Moygne_; the same have confessed as follows:--

CONFESSION OF COLLETTE DU MONT.

First, the said _Collette_ immediately after the said sentence was pronounced, and before leaving the Court, freely admitted that she was a Witch; at the same time, not wishing to specify the crimes which she had committed, she was taken, along with the others, to the Torture Chamber, and the said question being applied to her, she confessed that she was quite young when the Devil, in the form of a cat: appeared to her: in the Parish of Torteval: as she was returning from her cattle, it being still daylight, and that he took occasion to lead her astray by inciting her to avenge herself on one of her neighbours, with whom she was then at enmity, on account of some damage which she had suffered through the cattle of the latter; that since then when she had a quarrel with anyone, he appeared to her in the aforesaid form: and sometimes in the form of a dog: inducing her to take vengence upon those who had angered her: persuading her to cause the death of persons and cattle.

That the Devil having come to fetch her that she might go to the Sabbath, called for her without anyone perceiving it: and gave her a certain black ointment with which (after having stripped herself), she rubbed her back, belly and stomach: and then having again put on her clothes, she went out of her door, when she was immediately carried through the air at a great speed: and she found herself in an instant at the place of the Sabbath, which was sometimes near the parochial burial-ground: and at other times near the seashore in the neighbourhood of Rocquaine Castle: where, upon arrival, she met often fifteen or sixteen Wizards and Witches with the Devils who were there in the form of dogs, cats, and hares: which Wizards and Witches she was unable to recognise, because they were all blackened and disfigured: it was true, however, that she had heard the Devil summon them by their names, and she remembered among others those of _Fallaise_ and _Hardie_; confessed that on entering the Sabbath: the Devil wishing to summon them commenced with her sometimes. Admitted that her daughter _Marie_, wife of _Massy_, now condemned for a similar crime, was a Witch: and that she took her twice to the Sabbath with her: at the Sabbath, after having worshipped the Devil, who used to stand up on his hind legs, they had connection with him under the form of a dog; then they danced back to back. And after having danced, they drank wine (she did not know what colour it was), which the Devil poured out of a jug into a silver or pewter goblet; which wine did not seem to her so good as that which was usually drunk; they also ate white bread which he presented to them--she had never seen any salt at the Sabbath.

Confessed that the Devil had charged her to call, as she passed, for _Isabel le Moygne_: when she came to the Sabbath, which she had done several times. On leaving the Sabbath the Devil incited her to commit various evil deeds: and to that effect he gave her certain black powders, which he ordered her to throw upon such persons and cattle as she wished; with this powder she perpetrated several wicked acts which she did not remember: among others she threw some upon _Mr Dolbell_, parish minister: and was the occasion of his death by these means. With this same powder she bewitched the wife of _Jean Maugues_: but denied that the woman's death was caused by it: she also touched on the side, and threw some of this powder over the deceased wife of _Mr Perchard_, the minister who succeeded the said _Dolbell_ in the parish, she being _enceinte_ at the time, and so caused the death of her and her infant--she did not know that the deceased woman had given her any cause for doing so.

Upon the refusal of the wife of _Collas Tottevin_ to give her some milk: she caused her cow to dry up, by throwing upon it some of this powder: which cow she afterwards cured again by making it eat some bran, and some terrestrial herb that the Devil gave her.

CONFESSION DE MARIE BECQUET.

_Marie_, femme de _Pierre Massy_, appres sentence de mort prononcée a l'encontre d'elle, ayant esté mise a la question, a confessé qu'elle est Sorciere; et qu'à la persuation du Diable, quj s'aparut à elle en forme de chien: elle se donna à luy: que lors que se donna à luy ill la print de sa patte par la main: qu'elle s'est oint du mesme onguent que sa mere s'oignoit: et a esté au Sabath sur la banque pres du Chateau de Rocquaine, avec luy, où n'y avoit que le Diable et elle, se luy sembloit: en la susdite forme en laquelle elle la veu plusieurs fois. A été aussi au Sabath une fois entre autres en la ruë, _Collas Tottevin_; que toutes les fois qu'elle alloit au Sabath le Diable la venant querir luy sembloit qu'il la transformait en chienne; dit que sur le rivage, pres du dit Rocquaine: le Diable, en forme de chien, ayant eu copulation avec elle, luy donnoit du pain et du vin, qu'elle mangeoit et beuvoit.

Que le Diable luy bailloit certaines pouldres: lesquelles pouldres ill luy mettoit dans la main, pour ietter sur ceux qu'il luy commanderoit: qu'elle en a ietté par son commandement sur des personnes et bestes: notament sur l'enfant _Pierre Brehaut_. Item, sur la femme _Jean Bourgaize_ lors qu'estoit enciente. Item, sur l'enfant _Leonard le Messurier_.

CONFESSION OF MARIE BECQUET.

_Marie_, wife of _Pierre Massy_, after sentence of death had been pronounced against her, having been put to the question, confessed that she was a Witch; and that at the persuasion of the Devil, who appeared to her in the form of a dog: she gave herself to him: that when she gave herself to him he took her by the hand with his paw: that she used to anoint herself with the same ointment as her mother used: and had been to the Sabbath upon the bank near Rocquaine Castle with her, where there was no one but the Devil and her as it seemed: in the aforesaid form in which she had seen him several times: She was also at the Sabbath on one occasion among others in the road near _Collas Tottevin's_; every time that she went to the Sabbath, the Devil came to her, and it seemed as though he transformed her into a female dog; she said that upon the shore, near the said Rocquaine: the Devil, in the form of a dog, having had connection with her, gave her bread and wine, which she ate and drank.

The Devil gave her certain powders: which powders he put into her hand, for her to throw upon those whom he ordered her: she threw some of them by his orders upon persons and cattle: notably upon the child of _Pierre Brehaut_. Item, upon the wife of _Jean Bourgaize_, while she was _enceinte_. Item, upon the child of _Leonard le Messurier_.

CONFESSION D'ISABEL BECQUET.