by Sax Rohmer
On March 4, 1647, at Worcester, four witches, Cock, Landish, Rebecca West, and Rose Hallybread, were sentenced to be burnt at the stake together. The following is taken from a rare tract published the same year:
“When being come to the Place of Execution, they made a strange and lamentable Yeling and Howling, after which they Confessed the Crimes for which they Suffered, and also declared how they had killed abundance of Cattle for several years past, and that it was extream Pride, Malice, and Revenge, that caused them to enter into such a cursed and Hellish League with the Devil, who told them to the Last, that he would secure them from Public Punishment, but now, too late, they found him a Lyer, as he was from the beginning of the World. Cock and Landish seemed penitent, desiring all young Women to take Warning by their Devilish Lives, and Shameful Deaths, assuring the Spectators, that as Satan in the first Infancy of the World, prevail’d on the Woman to bring his Hellish attempts to pass, so he still strives with that Sex as the weaker Vessels, to Work their Destructions; they both said the Lord’s Prayer very distinctly, but Rebecca West and Rose Hallybread dyed very Stuborn and Refractory, without any remorse, or seeming Terror of Conscience for their abominable Witchcraft.”
Pitcairn in his Criminal Trials in Scotland writes:
“Among the circumstances which peculiarly characterize the earlier Criminal proceedings of Scotland, as well as those of England, France, and Germany, etc., none are more prominent than the unmitigated vigour with which the profession as well as the practice of Witchcraft, Sorcery, and Necromancy, were punished.
The hecatombs of innocent victims, whose lives were sacrificed to satisfy the gloomy superstitions of Nations termed Christian and civilized, but who in reality were only emerging from a state of semi-barbarism, sufficiently attest the Justice of this observation... matters were no better in England, where the most shocking atrocities were perpetrated during the reigns of Charles I and Charles II, and also under the Puritans of Oliver Cromwell’s time.”
He also says:
“Perhaps there cannot be adduced a more touching proof of the nefarious wickedness which must have been perpetrated in Scotland during the reign of James VI, than the following memorandum, which is preserved by Thomas, Earl of Haddington... in his Minutes of Privy Council Proceedings. He relates, under date December 8, 1608: ‘The Earl of Mar declareth to the Council, that some women were taken in Broughton as Witches; and being put to an Assize, and convicted, albeit they persevered in their denial to the end, they were burnt alive after such a cruel manner, that some of them died in despair, renouncing their baptism and blaspheming; and others half-burnt brake out of the fire and were cast in alive in it again until they were burnt to death.’”
The following quaint remarks on witches are worth quoting. They are taken from Reginald Scot’s Discoverie of Witchcraft, written against the popular superstitions of the time. Reginald Scot was a refreshing example of an enlightened mind in a superstitious age. His book, written in 1584, is brimful of humour and quaint good sense. James VI of Scotland ordered all copies of the work that could be found to be burnt by the common hangman, and we have already seen, from a portion of the Royal author’s Demonologie, quoted, that he counted Scot a friend of Satan.
“The true idea of a Witch, an old weather-beaten Crone, having her Chin and her Knees meeting for Age, walking like a Bow leaning on a Staff, Hollow-Ey’d, Untooth’d, Furrow’d on her Face, having her Lips trembling with the Palsy, going mumbling in the Streets: One that hath forgotten her Pater-Noster, and yet hath a shrewd Tongue to call a Drab a Drab. If she hath learn’d of an old Wife in a Chimney End, Pax, Max, Fax for a Spell; or can say Sir John Grantham’s Curse for the Miller’s Eels, All ye that have stolen the Miller’s Eels, laudate Dominum de Cœlis: And all they that have consented thereto, benedicamus Domino: Why then beware, look about you my Neighbours. If any of you have a sheep sick of the Giddies, or a Hog of the Mumps, or a Horse of the Staggers, or a Knavish Boy of the School, or an idle Girl of the Wheel, or a young Drab of the Sullens, and hath not Fat enough for her Pottage, or Butter enough for her Bread, and she hath a little Help of the Epilepsy, or Cramp, to teach her to roll her Eyes, wry her Mouth, gnash her Teeth, startle with her Body, hold her Arms and Hands stiff, etc. And then when an old Mother Nobs hath by Chance call’d her Idle young Housewife, or bid the Devil scratch her; then no doubt but Mother Nobs is the Witch, and the young Girl is Owlblasted....
“They that have their Brains baited, and their Fancies distemper’d with the Imaginations and Apprehensions of Witches, Conjurors, and Fairies, and all that Lymphatical Chimæra, I find to be marshall’d in one of these five Ranks; Children, Fools, Women, Cowards, sick or black melancholick discompos’d Wits.”
VI. THE INCUBUS OF PAVIA
It is not remarkable that the confessions of these poor tortured souls corresponded so closely; the form of interrogation was identical in each case, the answers mere groaning “Nays” and all but inaudible “Yeas.” But the views held by many people of considerable intelligence at this time are less easy to explain.
The particular instance I have in mind is that of Sinistrari of Ameno. Whilst searching for a certain print in one of the shops of the Palais Royal I came upon a copy of Sinistrari’s book on Demoniality, translated from a seventeenth-century MS., and printed in Paris. There is also a copy of this curious work in the British Museum. As one peruses the reverend Father’s pages, much that has seemed incomprehensible in the records of the sorcery laws becomes comprehensible; for it was men such as this who framed them.
I make no apology for the following long extract; I am confident that it will enlighten my reader as it has enlightened me.
A most marvellous and well-nigh incomprehensible fact (says Sinistrari): the Incubi whom the Italians call Folletti, the Spaniards Duendes, the French Follets, do not obey the Exorcist, have no dread of exorcism, no reverence for holy things, at the approach of which they are not in the least overawed; very different in that respect from the Demons who vex those whom they possess; for, however obstinate those evil Spirits may be, however restive to the injunctions of the Exorcist who bids them leave the body they possess, yet, at the mere utterance of the holy names — or of some verses of holy Writ, at the mere imposition of relics, especially of a piece of the wood of the Holy Cross, or the sight of the holy images, they roar at the mouth of the possessed person, they gnash, shake, quiver, and display fright and awe. But the Folletti show none of those signs, and leave off their vexations but after a long space of time. Of this I was an eye-witness, and shall relate a story which verily passes human belief; but I take God to witness that I tell the precise truth, corroborated by the testimony of numerous persons.
About twenty-five years ago, when I was a lecturer on Sacred Theology in the convent of the Holy Cross, in Pavia, there was living in that city a married woman of unimpeachable morality, and who was most highly spoken of by all such as knew her, especially by the Friars; her name was Hieronyma, and she lived in the parish of St. Michael. One day, this woman had kneaded bread at home and given it out to bake. The oven-man brought her back her loaves when baked, and with them a large cake of a peculiar shape, and made of butter and Venetian paste, as is usual in that city. She declined to take it in, saying she had not made anything of the kind.
“But,” said the man, “I had no other bread but yours to bake to-day, therefore this cake also must have come from your house; your memory is at fault.”
The good lady allowed herself to be persuaded, and partook of the cake with her husband, her little girl three years old, and the house servant. The next night, whilst in bed with her husband, and both asleep, she suddenly woke up at the sound of a very slender voice, something like a shrill hissing, whispering in her ears, yet with great distinctness, and inquiring whether the cake had been to her taste.” The good lady, frightened, set about guarding herself with the sign of the cross and repeatedly calling the holy names.
“Be not afraid,” said the voice,
“I mean you no harm; quite the reverse. I am prepared to do anything to please you; I am captivated by your beauty, and desire nothing more than to enjoy your embraces.”
And she felt some one kissing her cheeks, so lightly, so softly, that she might have fancied being grazed by the finest down.
She resisted without giving any answer, merely repeating over and over again the names... and crossing herself; the tempter kept on thus for nearly half an hour, when he withdrew.
The next morning the dame called on her confessor, a discreet and learned man, who confirmed her in her faith, exhorted her to maintain her energetic resistance and to provide herself with some holy relics. On the ensuing nights, like temptation with the same language and kisses, like constancy also on the part of the woman. Weary, however, of such painful and persistent molestation, taking the advice of her confessor and other grave men, she had herself exorcised by experienced exorcists, in order to ascertain whether perchance she was not possessed.
Having found in her no trace of the Evil Spirit, they blessed the house, the bedroom, the bed, and enjoined on the Incubus to discontinue his molestations. All to no purpose; he kept on worse than ever, pretending to be love-sick, weeping and moaning in order to melt the heart of the lady, who, however, by the grace of God, remained unconquered.
The Incubus then went another way to work: he appeared in the shape of a lad or little man of great beauty, with golden locks, a flaxen beard that shone like gold, sea-green eyes calling to mind the flax-flower, and arrayed in a fancy Spanish dress. Besides, he appeared to her even when in company, whimpering, after the fashion of lovers, kissing his hand to her, and endeavouring by every means to obtain her embraces. She alone saw and heard him; for everybody else, he was not to be seen.
The good lady kept persevering in her admirable constancy till, at last, after some months of courting, the Incubus, incensed at her disdain, had recourse to a new kind of persecution.
First, he took away from her a silver cross filled with holy relics, and a holy wax or papal lamb of the blessed Pontiff Pius V, which she always carried on her person; then, leaving the locks untouched, he purloined her rings and other gold and silver jewellery from the casket wherein they were put away.
Next, he began to strike her cruelly, and after each beating bruises and marks were to be seen on her face, her arms, or other parts of her body, which lasted a day or two, then suddenly disappeared, the reverse of natural bruises, which decrease slowly and by degrees. Sometimes, while she was nursing her little girl, he would snatch the child away from her breast, and lay it upon the roof, or the edge of the gutter, or hide it; but without ever harming it. Sometimes he would upset all the furniture, or smash to pieces saucepans, plates, and other earthenware which, in the twinkling of an eye, he restored to their former state.
One night that she was lying with her husband, the Incubus, appearing in his customary shape, vehemently urged his demand, which she resisted as usual. The Incubus withdrew in a rage, and shortly came back with a large load of those flagstones which the Genoese, and the inhabitants of Liguria in general, use for roofing their houses. With those stones he built around the bed a wall so high that it reached the tester, and that the couple could not leave their bed without using a ladder. This wall, however, was built up without lime; when pulled down, the flags were laid by in a corner where, during two days, they were seen by many who came to look at them; they then disappeared.
On St. Stephen’s day, the husband had asked some military friends to dinner, and, to do honour to his guests, had provided a substantial repast. Whilst they were, as customary, washing their hands before taking their seats, the table prepared in the diningroom suddenly vanished; all the dishes, saucepans, kettles, plates, and crockery in the kitchen vanished likewise, as well as the jugs, bottles, and glasses.
You may imagine the surprise, the stupor of the guests, eight in number; amongst them was a Spanish captain of infantry, who, addressing the company, said to them:
“Do not be frightened, it is but a trick: the table is certainly still where it stood, and I shall soon find it by feeling for it.”
Having thus spoken, he paced round the room with outstretched arms, endeavouring to lay hold of the table; but when, after many circuitous perambulations, it was apparent that he laboured in vain and grasped at naught but thin air, he was laughed at by his friends; and it being already high time for having dinner, each guest took up his cloak and set about to return home.
They had already reached the street-door with the husband, who, out of politeness, was attending them, when they heard a great noise in the dining-room; they stood to ascertain the cause thereof, and presently the servant came up to announce that the kitchen was stocked with new vessels filled with food, and that the table was standing again in its former place. Having gone back to the dining-room, they were stupefied to see the table was laid, with cloths, napkins, salt-cellars, and trays that did not belong to the house, and with food which had not been cooked there.
On a large sideboard all were arranged in perfect order, crystal, silver and gold chalices, with all kinds of amphoras, decanters, and cups filled with foreign wines, from the Isle of Crete, Campania, the Canaries, the Rhine, etc. In the kitchen there was also an abundant variety of meats in saucepans and dishes that had never been seen there before.
At first some of the guests hesitated whether they should taste of that food; however, encouraged by others, they sat down, and soon partook of the meal, which was found exquisite. Immediately afterwards, as they were sitting before a seasonable fire, everything vanished at once, the dishes and the leavings, and in their stead reappeared the cloth of the house and the victuals which had been previously cooked; but, for a wonder, all the guests were satisfied, so that no one thought of supper after such a magnificent dinner, a clear proof that the substituted viands were real, and nowise fictitious.
This kind of persecution had been going on some months when the lady betook herself to the blessed Bernardine of Feltri, whose body is worshipped in the Church of St. James, a short distance from the walls of the city. She made a vow to him that she would wear, during a whole twelvemonth, a grey frock, tied round her waist with a piece of cord, and such as is worn by the Minor Brethren, the order to which had belonged the blessed Bernardine; this she vowed, in the hope of being, through his intercession, at last rid of the persecution of the Incubus.
And accordingly, on September 28, the vigil of the Dedication of the Archangel St. Michael, and the festival of the blessed Bernardine, she assumed the votive robe. The next morning, which was St. Michael’s festival, the afflicted woman proceeded to the Church of St. Michael, her own parish, already mentioned; it was about ten o’clock, a time when a crowd of people were going to mass.
She had no sooner set foot on the threshold of the church than her clothes and ornaments fell off to the ground, and disappeared in a gust of wind, leaving her stark naked.
There happened fortunately to be among the crowd two cavaliers of mature age, who, seeing what had taken place, hastened to divest themselves of their cloaks, with which they concealed, as well as they could, the woman’s nudity, and having put her into a vehicle, accompanied her home. The clothes were not restored by him before six months had elapsed.
I might relate many other most surprising tricks which that Incubus played on her, were it not wearisome. Suffice it to say that for a number of years he persevered in his temptation of her, but that, finding at last that he was losing his pains, he desisted from his vexatious importunities.
In the above case, as well as in others that may be heard or read of occasionally, the Incubus attempts no act against religion; he merely assails chastity. In consequence (adds Sinistrari) consent is not a sin through ungodliness, but through incontinence.
VII. STORY OF THE NOBLE MAIDEN AND OF THE DEACON AUSTIN
One so rarely happens upon a lighter side to this dark subject, that I am loath to dismiss Sinistrari of Ameno without another short extra
ct. I shall therefore transcribe paragraphs 71 and 72 from his valuable work:
To illustrate this subject (he says), I give two stories, the first of which I have from a Confessor of Nuns, a man of weight, and most worthy of credit; the second I was eye-witness to.
In a certain monastery of holy nuns there lived, as a boarder, a young maiden of noble birth, who was tempted by an Incubus that appeared to her by day and by night, and with the most earnest entreaties, the manners of a most passionate lover, incessantly incited her to sin; but she, supported by the grace of God and the frequent use of the sacraments, stoutly resisted the temptation. But, all her devotions, fasts, and vows notwithstanding, despite the exorcisms, the blessings, the injunctions showered by exorcists on the Incubus that he should desist from molesting her; in spite of the crowd of relics and other holy objects collected in the maiden’s room, of the lighted candles kept burning there all night, the Incubus none the less persisted in appearing to her as usual, in the shape of a very handsome young man.
At last, among other learned men, whose advice had been taken on the subject, was a very erudite Theologian, who, observing that the maiden was of a thoroughly phlegmatic temperament, surmised that the Incubus was an aqueous Demon (there are in fact, as is testified by Guaccius, igneous, aerial, phlegmatic, earthly, subterranean Demons, who avoid the light of day), and prescribed an uninterrupted fumigation in the room.
A new vessel, made of glass-like earth, was accordingly brought in, and filled with sweet cane, cubeb seed, roots of both aristolochies, great and small cardamom, ginger, long-pepper, caryophylleæ, cinnamon, cloves, mace, nutmegs, calamite, storax, benzoin, aloes-wood and roots, one ounce of triasandalis, and three pounds of half brandy and water; the vessel was then set on hot ashes in order to distil the fumigating vapour, and the cell was kept closed.
