CHAPTER VII

Of the Various Ways by which Witches Vent their Spite upon the Human Race.
Argument.
T is not to be wondered at that witches are everywhere to be feared*: for although they have not
* “Witches .. . to be feared.” King James in his “‘Demonologie,” Book II, v, says that there are three kinds of folk whom God will
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an infinite power of doing ill to whom- soever they wish (see the history of Asmodeus and the seven husbands of Sara in Tobit), yet our sins, when God wills, often make us the victims of their malice. For no one is so upright of life and free from sin but that he is pricked and terrified by the conscience of some misdeed ; no one is so attentive and diligent in his religious observ- ances but that sometimes the stress of business will cause him to neglect the customary prayers by which he was daily wont to commend himself to the protection and guardianship of God; : no one is so secure as to be free from all fear of in- jury by the wicked. Our daily experi- ence is proof enough that most of us are exposed to no light danger in this direc- tion: Ror witches do not attack with their poisons . only those who are off their guard or asleep at night; but they spread their snares for the vigilant in such a way that they can scarcely be escaped by human counsel or foresight. ‘There are many stories upon this subject in other parts of our book which should abundantly satisfy the reader; but as we are ap- proaching the subject from a fresh angle, and the stories are not alto- gether without pleasant profit and
permit to be troubled or tempted by witches: “the wicked for their horrible sinnes, to punish them in the like measure; The godlie that are sleeping in anie great sinnes or infirmities and weakenesse in faith, to waken them up the fas- ter by such an uncouth forme: and even some of the best, that thetr patience may bee tryed before the world, as Iob was.”
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interest, it may not prove wearisome if they are here set out at some length.
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Examples.
An old man who was porter at the Chateau de Bassompierre had married a young wife, but continued to live in adultery with another woman who had been his mistress before his marriage. His wife grieved that a harlot, who could not be compared with her for youth or beauty, should be preferred to her ; and, as the custom is, went and told her trouble to a neighbouring woman and asked her advice as to what she should do. Her neighbour, whose name was Laire, told her to be of good heart, for she had ready a remedy for her misfortune; and she picked a herb from her garden and gave it to her, saying that if she made a broth from it and gave it to her husband he would entirely lose his love for the other woman. She gave him the broth the next day at supper; and _ he then first experienced a heaviness in his head and afterwards sank into a deep sleep. When he awoke from this on the next day he discovered, not without shame, that his virility had been taken from him; yet he told his wife of his misfortune, since he could not hope to conceal it from her for long. His wife, seeing that her impru- dence and folly had betrayed her, and that through begrudging another woman a part she had herself lost the whole, told her husband everything that had been done, and asked for- giveness for her fault, saying that it was all due to the great love which she had for him. The husband easily forgave her, recognising that the mis- fortune had been brought about by his own lasciviousness and lust; and he told the whole matter to his patron, the Lord of the place, Francois de Bassompierre. This noble man thought it his duty both to attend to
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the recovery and health of a member of his household, and worthily to punish the witch for so foul a crime; so he summoned the woman and com- pelled her by his threats to restore to the man that which had to all seeming been lost: and this she did by giving him another herb to eat. She was therefore guilty by her own showing, and was seized and soon afterwards burned to death. It is very clear from this that there is no real actuality in such matters, but that it is all a mockery and a delusion of the eyes. This is taken from Remy, II, 5.
Again, Barbellina Rayel had con- ceived a vindictive hatred for Jean Louis. As he was crossing a river on his way to a mill house, with the help of a demon she shook a big sack of wheat from his wagon, and then threw over his horses some powder which had been drugged by her Little Mas- ter, by which means she killed two of them at once, and the rest were ill for many days. Next, changing herself into a cat, she entered his house by night in that form, and with the same powder killed his two-year-old son. Finally she placed a poisoned pear in his way as he was going to Gerbéviller, as if it had fallen from a traveller’s bag; he imprudently took it up and ate it, and at once became so ill that he could hardly crawl home for pain. The demon had foretold all these things just as they happened, and had even himself advised the placing of the pear by the roadside.
Lolla Gelea aroused against herself the hatred and malice of Catharine of Metz, who kept trying to find a means of avenging herself but could not see how to do it without attracting sus- picion towards herself, for she knew that the other was on the alert against her wiles. But a demon showed her a safe way, and told her to come the next day and fill a pitcher with burn- ing cinders from the metal furnaces (which at Dieuze are the most famous in all Lorraine), and to go to Lolla and: upset the pitcher and breathe in
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her face: for he said that Lolla would give birth before her time with the greatest pain. And it was as he had said; for no sooner had Catharine overset the pitcher and breathed un- cleanly upon her, than Lolla was at once seized with violent parturient pains, and could hardly get into her house in time.
At Conz in July 1582 Jeanne Gran- saint went alone to the window late one night thinking how she could be revenged on the comely Barbara, who had insulted her. At once there ap- peared a demon in the form of a cat, who told her to pound a slug’s head to powder and sprinkle it over Bar- bara’s clothes. She followed this ad- vice as closely as she could, and soon found an occasion to make use of it; for she found Barbara sleeping in a mean stable on some straw in the cattles’ stall. She therefore blew the powder over her and the cattle that were with her, and they all at once died.
She used the same powder with less harmful effect against the daughter of Antoine Lebossa: for though she thor- oughly sprinkled her limbs with it, she only suffered a slight sickness and re- covered her health after a few days.
Here it is to be noted that the drugs which they use in this way possess no inherent power either to kill or to heal, neither can the same substance possess such contradictory qualities. But all this is contrived and effected by the power of the demon, who is satisfied if the witch does but lend her hand to the work so that she may be a con- scious participator in the crime.
Alexia Belheure used continuously to quarrel with her husband, as is usually the case when there are poverty and want in the home: and her hatred of him grew to such an extent that it was only the difficulty of injuring him, not the will to do so, that restrained her. But a demon agreed to do the work for her, if he should consider her request worthy of execution by him; and when she had extravagantly
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rayed him to do so, he undertook the
usiness. It chanced that on Christ- mas Eve the unhappy husband had gone to a neighbouring town to buy household necessities for that Holy Season, and was returning home late at night. The demon violently seized him on his way and beat him and left him half dead in the cave of Donali- baria (as it was called), and flying to his good wife told her what he had done. On hearing this she hastened out to all appearance as if she were anxious about her husband’s return, but really that she might see with her own eyes the miserable condition of him against whom she had so long cherished evil thoughts. When she found him lying and bewailing his unhappy lot, she said: “Alas! husband, I was coming to meet you, knowing that you were returning through the country so late at night; but what does this mean? Why do I find you lying thus on the ground and groan- ing?” When he had told her what she already knew, she raised him up and, supporting him as well as she could with her shoulder, brought him home, where he died on the same night from the intolerable pain of his wounds. The next day she roused the neigh- bours and showed them the naked body all black and blue with bruises,
and said that he had fallen into the
hands of brigands the day before and had crawled home in that condition gasping for breath. And they all easily believed her, for she was not young or beautiful enough to be suspected of having entertained adulterers.
Odille Boncceur of Harécourt said that it was the custom of witches, when they feared to be caught in the act, to sprinkle a poison powder in the way by which they thought those persons would go against whom they plotted some calamity. And this agrees with the confession of Rose Gerardine in 1588, that she infected her partner Stephane Obert with a mortal disease by scattering such a powder on his threshold before the dawn.
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Jacobus Agathius, again, said that his demon had taught him that this was by far the easiest way to destroy the wife of Hilary 4 Banno.
Isabella Pardea and Martha Merge- latia affirmed that they had never used this means against anyone without success, especially if they were bidden to do it by their demons.
Francesca Perina took, as she was passing, some pears which had fallen from a tree belonging to a neighbour called Riberianus, and was severely beaten for it. As she was enraged by this and seeking to be revenged by any means, it was not long before a demon showed her a way to obtain her wish, and gave her some herbs which she must scatter on the path by which Riberianus used to go to his work in the morning. This she did; and he, not suspecting anything, walked over the herbs and at once became ill, so that he soon died in great agony.
Barbeline Rayel used similar means against Frangois le Violon, near whom she had lately come to live. She poisoned with a powder the gate through which his cattle used to go to water, and on the next day three of his mares were found in the stable dead on their backs.
In 1586 Claude Morel spread such a powder before the doors of his kins- man by marriage, Wolfgang Hado- wille; and when his daughter hap- pened to go that way she at once fell ill and soon afterwards died miserably : for when she passed by that way she broke her leg.
Catharina of Metz was angry be- cause she had been refused by a baker from whom she wished to obtain bread on credit, and asked the help of her demon to pay him out. The demon, as is their nature, came at once ready and eager for any chance of doing ill, and gave her some herbs wrapped in a paper, telling her to scatter them in the place most often used by the baker and his family. She at once took them and spread them in the doorway by which they had to go to the village:
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and the baker, and after him his wife and children, walked over them and were all afflicted with the same sick- ness. And they did not recover until the witch, moved by pity, obtained from the demon another herb to re- store them. This she secretly hid in their beds, as she had been told to do, and they were soon all restored from sickness to their former health.
Driget and Odille considered that they were being taxed too heavily by the officials of the village where they lived, and wished to exact some heavy vengeance for that grievance. A demon did not fail to appear and show them how to set to work; for he told them to scatter a poison broad- cast in that place where the village cattle most often went to pasture, and that they might readily prepare the poison by pounding a sufficient quan- tity of grubs and worms. This they did, and within a few days there died of the cattle of that village a hundred and fifty according to Driget, and a hundred and sixty according to Odille. For they were questioned separately but agreed in everything except the number.
Jeanne Foirelle gave a drugged cake to the whole of a neighbour’s family to eat, but that one only died whom she had intended to kill.
Huberte of Bussiére had been un- fairly treated by one of the townsmen, and it seemed to her that she would be amply revenged if she killed by poison the five cows by which he sup- ported himself and his family. But there was a danger of her being caught in the act if she did the business with her own hand by touching each cow with a poisoned wand as was her method in her other poisonings. So her Little Master relieved her of that fear and told her to sprinkle before dawn a poison powder which he gave her about the place where the cattle were usually driven. But she hesitated, fearing lest the poison should affect the whole of the cattle, since she wished to harm none except that of
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the man against whom she wished to be revenged. The demon then pro- mised that all the harm should be confined to those five cows; and so it proved in the event. For of all the cattle, only those five died or even became sick.
Jeanne Armacuriana had stolen three bundles of faggots from a neigh- bour’s land, and had hidden them in the garden of Alexée Cabuse, which lay most conveniently to conceal her theft ; but she did not manage secretly enough to prevent Cabuse, who was at work in a remote part of her garden, from seeing her. After the way of women, she told her neighbours what she had seen; and in consequence, Jeanne was not only ill spoken of, but was even in some danger: for in Lor- raine the punishment for the theft of even a cabbage from another’s garden is the lash. Her anger and indignation against Cabuse was beyond descrip- tion, and she kept looking for any means of revenging herself satisfac- torily for so great an injury. While she was pondering deeply on this subject, the demon to which she had given herself came to her and twitted her with cowardice in that she had allowed herself to suffer such mental torture for so long when she had so often proved that he was ready to procure her the occasion for vengeance; and he undertook that it would not be long before the other woman should be punished for her evil tongue, if she would allow him to work. Jeanne said that such was her wish, and the demon at once flew to Alexée, who was then tending her cattle in the meadows and was trying to drive back to the herd one which had strayed into a neigh- bour’s corn-field. He caught her up in a whirlwind and dashed her to the ground so violently that her leg was broken, and she was so bewildered by this happening that she had to be carried home half dead.
The following example concerns one Bernard Bloguat. He was driving his cart to Strasburg where he had some
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business, when he was seen by Jeanne de Bans as she was working in the fields. She then called to mind certain injuries he had done her, which had not been avenged, and by her curses and execrations brought disaster upon him. For she had hardly begun to curse before he fell so violently from the cart in which he was sitting that he was instantly killed. Yet his body was quite uninjured, with no wound or bruise or discoloration or any swell- ing or dislocation or hurt of any sort, so that it is to be believed that his life and soul were cut off in a moment by a demon. And lest any should think that such a belief was based solely upon that witch’s confession, let him know that it was commonly reported that an ostler named Johann, who had lent Bloguat his cart for that journey, was privy to the whole affair. More- over, the strange and unheard-of man- ner of his death is itself an argument that it was due to some preternatural power of evil.
At Nancy a certain witch commonly known as Asinaria used to go from door to door begging, and her age and infirmity so aroused the pity of the rich that she received every day enough to live in comfort. One day she was standing as usual begging in front of the Governor’s door, when his eldest son, coming out in an unlucky moment, told her to go away and to ask him another time, because it was not convenient just then for his ser- vants to give her money. She became indignant at this treatment and, as witches are always ready to do, cursed him: and immediately afterwards, as if he had pierced his foot with a flint stone, he fell and hurt himself so that he had to be carried back into the house at once. There he told his ser- vants how it had all happened, adding that it was not the result of any im- prudent or careless step on his part, but that he had been struck from be- hind by some higher power and that there was no doubt he would have broken his leg if God had not helped
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him as he fell; for he said that he had fortified himself with the sign of the Cross at his prayers that morning. Yet after this the witch did not rest: for when her familiar had indignantly up- braided her because he had been foiled in his attempt, she started to beg and beseech him all the more to proceed by any means with the destruction of the young man, a task which would be easy for him if ever the youth came out without the protection of his morn- ing prayers and the sign of the Cross; for the demon himself admitted that these were the causes of his previous failure: Not many days later it hap- pened that the young man put his arm out of the window of an upper room to take some young sparrows from the nest on the wall, when he was lifted up from behind and thrown through the window with such force that he was thought to be dead. But after a few hours he regained consciousness and, looking at his father who was abandoning himself to tears and lamentation, said: ‘‘Father, do not think that this evil has happened to me through my own fault, for indeed I am very far from being to blame. Something came behind me and thrust me through the window in spite of my struggles, and I was over- powered by some stronger power and forced out.” And indeed they had found near him as he lay prone a piece of wood from a pile which had been stored for household use in the top attic. Constantly maintaining the same story, the youth died after a few days. Not many days later, Asinaria was thrown into prison by reason of the evidence of other witches against her and because of the daily increasing suspicion that she was a witch, and as a result of her careful examination and the evidence taken by Remy, who tells this story. And at last she was induced by persuasion, without any recourse to torture, to make a full confession of all her crimes; and among them was that which had been so often and confidently affirmed by the boy. For
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she said that as soon as he had accom- plished the crime the demon had flown to her in a neighbouring market-place and told her everything that had been done: and she continued to maintain this until she suffered punishment by death in the fire.
There were some peasants, one of whom was lopping off the over luxu- riant boughs of a tree, another throw- ing fruit from a loft down to the yard ready to be pressed, and another load- ing and arranging straw at the top of a wagon. None of them were acting rashly in any way ; but they were taken and hurled to the ground with such force that they had to be carried away half dead. Yet there was no sign of any person or thing to have caused their fall.
There was a pear tree in a remote part of a wood, from which Jean Rotier had long planned to gather the fruit; and he did not think that the tree, being in such a hidden and out- of-the-way place, would be noticed by anyone, and his tit-bit be taken from his mouth. Yet the tree was discovered by Desiré Salet, a man of his own class, who came there first and picked the pears. He was caught in the act, and it was not long before Rotier made him suffer for robbing him of his booty; for this class of men bears such injuries hardly and is easily incited to vengeance. He accordingly cursed Desiré, as he was in the habit of cursing others, and he was suddenly caught in a whirlwind and hurled to the ground, and so hurt in one leg that he could not move until some swineherds ran at his cry and helped him home. And he was not yet healed when Rotier made a full confession of this matter.
The following story of Apra Hose- lotte is similar. She had a son in the service of Jean Halecourt, whom his master had cruelly punished for a theft of which he, more than the rest of the servants, was suspected. This grieved the mother and made her wish for revenge, the chance for which she
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eagerly grasped. When the master was bringing his horses home from pasture and was carelessly riding upon one of them, she and her familiar came in- visibly and so bore upon the horse’s neck that the rider fell to the ground and broke his leg: and he was still lame and crippled by that fall when he appeared as a witness against that witch.
Claude Fellet of Maiziéres was al- . ways quarrelling with a neighbouring woman, as it so often appears that women of the same class have only to live near each other to find occasion to quarrel and dispute; and she had pondered for a long time how she could privily bring some harm upon her neighbour. For it had to be done very secretly, since all the inhabitants would at once accuse Fellet if any grave accident befell the other woman. She consulted a demon about it, and he told her to go out into the fields and work as usual, while he would play his part in the town; for if she stayed at home she would be sus- pected. The neighbour’s house was shut up and the doors were bolted, when her son, whom the woman had left alone in the house when she went out, was heard crying pitifully. All who heard it ran up and broke open the door to see what had happened to the child to make it cry so; and they found it covered and surrounded with hot coals. They quickly threw these aside and took him from his cradle to save him if possible, but he was already breathing his last and died in their arms. A rumour then began to be spread that Fellet had certainly been at the bottom of this, for it was bruited that she had punished others before in the same way. Accordingly she was brought to trial on account of this and other crimes of which she had long been suspected, and she was at last induced to confess freely that she had wrought this mischief, and to tell everything that the demon had done at her request, particularly the matter of the burning coals which he had
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taken with a stick from the hearth near by, and had thrown them over the poor child’s cradle.
A peasant named Mauletic was going early one morning to a castle by the Moselle to negotiate a profitable deal in milk, since that was his trade, when a violent whirlwind took all his breath away, though everywhere else it was dead calm, so that he lay for a long time between life and death. This misfortune came to him through the contrivance of Francois Fellet with the help of a demon; for this man had long nursed a rancorous desire for vengeance upon Mauletic for certain injuries, as he himself afterwards ac- knowledged freely, being induced by penitence to confess his sin.
Colette the Fisher’s wife, without coming near her fellow townsman Claude Jaquimine, made him blind in one eye by employing a demon to do that work, as she herself freely con- fessed when she was tried for witch-— craft. And the greater faith was given to her story because the same Jaqui- mine afterwards said that his eye had been wounded as if pierced by a force- fully driven branch of a tree, although there were no trees for a considerable distance in any direction. Therefore it was suspected that he had received that injury through some black art.
Jacobeta Weher testified as follows: “For many reasons I hated a certain peasant who lodged in the same house as 1; but I could not see how to harm him without incurring suspicion, for he kept a keen and careful watch upon me. But at last I found a way; for when he was busy over some work in a thicket, a demon at my request drove a thorn so deep into his knee that he was disabled for a whole three months; and he was not cured until I took pity on his prolonged pain and asked the demon to heal him again. A few days after this, as he was cutting wood in the forest, the demon poured a lotion upon the wound and he was imme- diately healed.”
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