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

rum; and in the eleventh century the heathen king Cnut led his hordes to victory. As in the case of the Saxon kings of the seventh

t least, worshipped Christ, Odin, or any other deity whom the king favoured for the moment; but there can be hardly any doubt that in private the mass of the people adhered to the old religion to which they were accustomed. This tribal conversion is clearly marked when a heathen king married a Christian queen, or vice versa; and it mu

e references to it in the classical authors, the eccle

trabo, 63 b

and Persephone are venerated with rites

e rites of Bacchus were performed by the women, crowned with leaves;

, Archbishop of Ca

ngland. It consists of a list of offences and the penance due for each offence; one wh

ice to

er being told by the [Christian] priest that it is sacrilege and t

d Christ. If anyone at the kalends of January goes about as a stag or a bull; that is, making himself into a wild animal and dressing in the skin of a herd animal, a

htraed, King o

on those who o

Poenitentiale of Ecgberht, first

methods of the heathen; of vows paid, loosed, or confirmed at wells, stones, o

e Northumbria

ay love witchcraft, or worship idols, if he be a king's thane, let him pay X half-marks; half to Christ, half to the k

ibuted to a General C

nd profess that they ride at night with Diana on certain beasts, with an innumerable multitude of women, p

f Edward and Guth

enism, by word or by work, let him pay as well wer,

Athelstan,[

be thereby killed, and he could not deny it, that he be liable in his life. But if he wi

canons of King

tices which are carried on with various spells, and with "frithsplots",[15] and with elders, and also with various other trees, and with stones, and with many various delusions, with which men do much of what they should no

Ethelred,[1

trictly keep his Christianity.... Let us zealously venerate

s of King Cnut

at they worship heathen gods, and the sun or the moon, fire or rivers, water-wells or sto

erkeithing presented before the bishop in 1282 for leading a fertility dance at Ea

oventry was accused before the Pop

me Alice Ky

ive and ritual witchc

Formicar

proceedings in Berne, which had been inf

as a witch, 1431. Gilles de R

di Bosc

o suppress the witches in B

e Innocent

the births of women, the increase of animals, the corn of the ground, the grapes of the vineyard and the fruit of the trees, as well as men, women, flocks, herds, and other various kinds of animals, vines and apple trees, grass, corn and other frui

er cult. It takes no account of the effect of these practices on the morals of the people who believed in them, but lays stress only on their power over fertility; the fertility of human beings, animals, and crops. In short it is exactly

adually degraded into a method for blasting fertility, and thus the witches who had been once the means of bringing prosperity to the people and the la

iest example is from Lorraine in 1408, 'lequel méfait les susdites dames disoient et confessoient avoir enduré à leur contentement et saoulement de plaisir que n'av

veu faire) mais parce que le Diable tenoit tellement liés leurs coeurs & leurs volontez qu'à peine y laissoit il entrer nul autre desir.... Au reste elle dict qu'elle ne croyoit faire aucun mal d'aller au sabbat, & qu'elle y auoit beaucoup plus de plaisir & contentement que d'aller à la Messe, parce que le Diable leur faisoit à croire qu'il estoit le vray Dieu, & que la ioye que les sorciers prenoyent au sabbat n'estoit qu'vn commencement d'vne beaucoup plus grande gloire.-Elles disoyent franchement, qu'elles y alloyent & voyoient toutes ces execrations auec vne volupté admirable, & vn desir enrager d'y aller & d'y estre, trouu?t les iours trop reculez de la nuict pour faire le voyage si desiré, & le poinct ou les heures pour y aller trop lentes, & y estant, trop courtes pour vn si agreable seio

les seront bien heureuses apres cette vie, qui empesche qu'ell

rs of the society, there follows an expression of this sort, 'ye freely and willingly accepted and granted thereto'. And that they held to their god as firmly as those de Lancre put to death is equally evident in view of the North Berwick witches, of Rebecca West and Rose Hallybread, who 'dyed very Stuburn, and Refractory without any Remorss, or seeming Terror of Conscience for their abominable Witch-craft';[24] Major Weir, who perished as a witch, renouncing all hope of heaven;[25] and the Northampton witches, Agnes Browne and her daughter, who 'were never heard to pray, or to call vppon God, never asking pardon for their off

TNO

unt,

, Bk. II

eography, Bk.

s, Periegete

pe, ii,

rpe, i,

ii, p.

ii, pp.

p. 66.-Lea,

orpe, i

d., i,

., ii,

t = plot of ground; sometime

, i, pp. 31

d., i,

f Lanercost, p. 1

ymer,

ournon

leau, pp. 124, 125,

in, Fléa

, Parole, p. 8

ls of Notoriou

ciary Court of Edinburgh,

of Northampto