CHAPTER II.

Effect of perfumes on the moral nature of man — Action of lini- ments ; the Magic Ointment frequently operated, by occasioning dreams, which the predisposition to credulity converted into realities — Such dreams may explain the whole history of Sorcery — The principal causes which multiplied the number of Sorcerers, were the employment of mysterious secrets — The crimes which these pretended mysteries served to conceal ; and the rigorous laws absurdly directed against the crime of sorcery.
The impression of the marvellous increases upon us in proportion to the distance which seems to separate the cause from the effect. Draughts and drugs could not be administered without the concurrence of the individual on whom they were intended to operate : but persons might involuntarily become intoxicated by the perfumes shed around the altar, and the incense lavishly used in magical ceremonies, even without a suspicion of their powers. This fact afforded many advantages to the Thaumaturgist, especially when it was his interest to produce visions and ecstacy. The choice and the combination of these perfumes were scrupulously studied.
d 2
36 INFLUENCE OF PERFUMES IN SORCERY.
It may be remembered that in order to give children a capability of receiving revelations in dreams, the use of fumigations with certain ingredients, was recom- mended by Porphyrus.* Proclus, who, frequently in common with his philosophic contemporary transmitted mere medicinal prescriptions, under the form of an allegory, relatesf that the founders of the ancient priest- hood, after collecting various odours combined them ac- cording to the process of divine art : by which means, a singular perfume was compounded, in which the energy of the numerous odours was brought to a climax by this union, and became necessarily weakened by separa- tion.
In the Hymns ascribed to Orpheus, and which evidently belong to the ritual of some very ancient worship, a separate perfume is assigned to accompany the invocation of each divinity. These diverse rites had not, invariably, an actual meaning in their appli- cation : but general rules being thus established, they were more easily taken advantage of, on necessary occasions, the priest having the power of directing the perfume to be used in addressing any particular divinity. :{:
* Proclus. De Sacrifias et Magid.
f Proclus. De Sacrifias et Magid.
I The ancients were particularly fond of perfumes. In Athens, when the guests invited to a feast entered the house of their host, their beards " were perfumed over with censors of frankincense, as ladies have their tresses, on visiting a Turkish harem. The hands, too, after each lavation, were scented." It was usual, also, " after supper to perfume the guests. a The influence of odours
» St. John's Manners and Customs of Ancient Greece, vol. i. p. 175—184.
INFLUENCE OF PERFUMES IN SORCERY. 37
The physical and moral action of odours has not perhaps, in this view, been so much studied, by modern philosophers, as by the ancient Thaumaturgists. He- rodotus, however, informs us, that the Scythians became intoxicated by inhaling the vapour arising from the seeds of a species of hemp, thrown upon heated stones.* We learn also from modern science, that a disposi- tion to anger and to strife, is produced, by the mere odour of the seeds of henbane, when its strength is augmented by heat. Three examples, related in Le Dictionnaire de Médecine, fmd mV Encyclope'dieMkho- on the organs of smelling, depends more on the condition of the nervous^tissue of that organ, than upon the nature of the odours; and much also is due to the healthy or the diseased condition of the system. Odours delightful to one person, are intolerable to another : mignionette possessed nothing agreeable in its odour to the celebrated Blumenbach ; and the distinguished Baron Haller declared, that no odour was so agreeable to him as that of a dis- secting-room. The impression made upon the olfactory nerves is generally transitory, the sensation vanishing when the odorous substance is withdrawn ; but the sensations of some odours con- tinue after the impression of the odorous matter has ceased. In some persons odours do not operate as merely topical stimulants, but affect the whole system : thus, in some, Ipecacuanha causes an asthmatic fever ; in others, the odour of the African geranium, Pelargonium, causes faintings ; the odour of the rose has produced epilepsy ; whilst a few nervous people either lose the power of smelling, or have a constant consciousness of a bad odour, or of something which is not present. Many odours excite powerfully the brain ; some animals, as, for example, cats, are intoxicated by valerian ; whilst other animals, and man himself, are sickened by the odour of tobacco. — Ed. * Herodot. lib. iv. cap. lxxv. f Tom. vu. art, Jusquiame.
38 INFLUENCE OF PERFUMES IN SORCERY.
dique go to prove this effect. The most striking is the case of a married couple, who although, every where else, they lived in perfect harmony could not, without coming to blows, remain a few hours in their ordinary work-room. The room got credit for being bewitched, until the cause of these daily quarrels, over which the unfortunate pair were seriously concerned, was discovered ; a considerable quantity of seeds of henbane were found near the stove, and with the removal of the substance, which emitted this unfortunate odour, all tendency to quarrel vanished.
This class of agents was so much the more valuable, to the Thaumaturgist, that it not only eludes the eye, but it does not even affect the olfactory nerves, in propor- tion to the violence of its effects.
There are substances still more energetic than per- fumes, which affect our nature by acting on the exterior of the body. The extract or the juice of Belladonna, when applied to a wound, produces delirium accompanied by visions; — one drop of this juice, if it touch the eye, will also cause delirium, but preceded by ambliopia, or double images.* A man under its influence, sees every object doubled;f and when subjected to its influence
* This observation was made by Dr. Hymli. See also Pinel, NosographiePhilosophique (5th edition), torn, in, p. 46, et Giraudy. " Sur le délire causé par la Belladone," &c. A Thesis sustained in 1818.
f No extract, or expressed juice of Deadly Nightshade, Atropa Belladonna, known at present, will produce the effect described in the text, when the eye is touched with it ; but when it is taken in full doses, into the stomach, it causes dilatation of the pupils, visual illusions, confusion of the head, and delirium resembling that of intoxication . — En .
INFLUENCE OF PERFUMES IN SORCERY. 39
by the vengeance of the Thaumaturgist, he would exclaim like a new Pentheus — " that he beheld two suns, and two cities of Thebes."*
Experiments have decidedly proved, that several me- dicaments, administered in the form of liniments, are taken in, by the absorbent system, and act upon the habit in the same manner as when they are directly introduced into the stomach. This property of liniments was not unknown to the ancients. In the romance of Achilles Tatius, an Egyptian doctor, in order to cure Leucippus of an attack of frenzy, applied to his head a liniment composed of oil, in which some particular me- dicament was dissolved: the patient fell into a deep sleep, shortly after the anointing. What the physician was acquainted with, the Thaumaturgist could scarcely be ignorant of; and this secret knowledge endowed him with the power of performing many apparent miracles, some merciful, some marvellous and fatal in their ten- dency. It cannot be disputed that the customary and
* Virgil. Mneid. lib. iv. verse 469. Pentheus was King of Thebes, in Bœotia. In his efforts to put down, in his kingdom the Bacchanalian rites, on account of the gross sensualities which attended them, and his refusal to acknowledge the divinity of Bac- chus, he was allured into a wood on Mount Cithseron, with the view of witnessing the ceremonies unnoticed, and was attacked by the Bacchanals and murdered. It is said that his mother was the first who attacked him, and she was followed by his two sisters, Ino who afterwards committed suicide, and was deified by the Gods, and Antihoe. His body was hung upon a tree, which was after- wards cut down by order of the oracle, and made into two statues of the Dyonesian God, which were placed on Mount Citheeron. The priests, no doubt, could have given a satisfactory explanation of the whole transaction. — Ed.
40 INFLUENCE OF PERFUMES IN SORCERY.
frequent anointing, which formed part of the ancient ceremonials, must have offered opportunities, and given facility for turning this knowledge to advantage. Before consulting the oracle of Trophonius, the body was rub- bed with oil j* this preparation undoubtedly concurred in producing the desired vision. Before being admitted to the mysteries of the Indian sages, Apollonius and his companions were anointed with an oil, the strength of which made them imagine that they were bathed with Jire.f
The disciples of the men who established, in the heart of America, religious doctrines and rites, evidently borrowed some of them from the Asiatics. The priests of Mexico, preparatory to their conversing with their divinity, anointed their bodies with a foetid pomatum. The base of it was tobacco, and a bruised seed called
* Pausanias, lib. ix. cap. xxxix. Pausanias was initiated into these mysteries. The priests first made him drink from the well of Oblivion, to banish his past thoughts ; and then from the well of Recollection, that he might remember the vision he was about to behold. He was then shewn a mysterious repre- sentation of Trophonius, and forced to worship it. He was next dressed in linen vestments, with girdles around his body, and led into the sanctuary, where was the cave into which he de- scended by a ladder : at its bottom, in the side of the cave, there was an opening, and having placed his foot in it internally, his whole body was drawn into it by some invisible power. He returned through the same opening at which he had entered ; and being placed on the throne of Mnemosyne, the priests inquired what he had seen, and finally led him back to the sanctuary of the Good Spirit. As soon as he recovered his self-command, he was obliged to write the vision he had seen on a little tablet, which was hung up in the temple. — Ed.
t Philostrat. De vit. Apol. lib. in. cap. v.
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Ololuchqui, the effect of which was to deprive man of his judgment, as that of the tobacco was to benumb his senses. After this, they felt themselves very intrepid and not less cruel ;# and, no doubt, predisposed to have visions, since the intention of this practise was to bring them into connection with the objects of their fantastical worship.
But, quitting the temples for a while, let us trace the effects of this secret when divulged, and after it had fallen into the hands of ordinary magicians.
It is difficult to conceive that all is imposture in the imaginings of poets and writers of romance, respecting the effects of magical ointments. The ingredients of which they were composed had, undoubtedly, some effi- cacy. We have suggested that sensual dreams were mingled with the sleep which they induced ; a suppo- sition whose probability rests on the fact, that those who sought their aid were generally those whose love had been disappointed or betray ed.f
* Acosta. Histoire desIndes Occidentales, liv.v. chap.xxvi, French translation (in 8vo. 1616), pp. 256, 257. The Mexican priests introduced into this ointment the ashes of the bodies of insects that were esteemed venomous, undoubtedly to distract the atten- tion from the nature of the drugs that were to prove efficacious.
f As these ointments seem to have operated upon the nervous system nearly in the same manner as the philtres of the Greeks and Romans, it is probable that cantharides was one of the ingre- dients. Its active principle, Canthariden, is very soluble in oil, and fatty matters, and in this solution it is readily absorbed and carried into the system. It is this principle that causes stranguary after the application of a blister. The ancient love philtres were admi- nistered in the form of potions, which often acted so violently as to produce dangerous delirium. The madness of Caligula was
42 INFLUENCE OF PERFUMES IN SORCERY.
The demands of passion or curiosity for enchantments were generally answered by means of dreams, produced by these magical ointments ; and so vivid were the illu- sions that they could not fail to pass for reality ; a cir- cumstance demonstrated in the history of prosecutions for sorcery, the number of which almost surpass belief.
It was in the night, and during sleep, that the sor- cerers were transported to the Sabbat. In order to obtain this privilege, they were obliged to rub themselves in the evening with pomatum,* the composition of which was unknown to them, but its effects were precisely such as we have mentioned.
A woman accused of sorcery was brought before a magistrate of Florence, a man whose knowledge was greatly in advance of his age and country. She declared herself to be a sorceress, and asserted that she would be present at the Sabbat that very night, if allowed to return to her house and make use of the magic ointment. The judge assented. After being rubbed with foetid drugs, the pretended sorceress lay down and immediately fell asleep ; she was tied to the bed, while blows, pricking, and scorching failed to break attributed to one which was given to him by his wife Cœsarina. Juvenala speaks of the Messalian philtre as one of the most power- ful.—Ed.
* The confessions made by the sorcerers, at the Inquisition of Spain, in 1610, speak of the necessity, in order to be present at the Sabbat, to rub the palms of the hands, the soles of the feet, &c, with the water of a frightened or irritated toad, (Llorente, Histoire de l'Inquisition, chap, xxxvu. art. 2, torn. 3, p. 431, et suivantes) : a puerile receipt, only intended to conceal the com- position of the real ointment, even from the initiated. * Juv. vi. p. 610.
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her slumber. Roused at length, with much trouble, she related the next day that she went to the Sabbat, and she detailed the painful sensations which she had really experienced in her sleep, and to which the judge limited her punishment.*
From three anecdotes precisely similar, which we might quote, from Porta and Fromann,f we shall only extract a physiological remark. Two of the reputed sorcerers, sent to sleep by the magic ointment, had given out that they should go to the Sabbat, and return from it, flying with wings. Both believed that this really happened, and were greatly astonished when assured of the con- trary. One in his sleep even performed some move- ments, and struck out as though he were on the wing. It is well known that, from the blood flowing towards the brain during sleep, it is not uncommon to dream of flying and rising into the air. j
* Paolo Minucci, a Florentine jurisconsult, who died in the sixteenth century, has transmitted this interesting fact, in his commentary on the Malmantile Racquistato, cant. iv. Ott. 76.
f J. B. Porta. Magia Natur. lib. n. cap. xxvi, ; Fromann. Tract, de Fascin. pp. 562, 568-569.
X When sleep is not very profound, the senses, in a certain degree, are excitable ; and the conception of ideas by the mind does not entirely cease, consequently dreams occur. If a light is suddenly brought into a room where a person is in this kind of sleep, he will either dream of being under the equator, or in a tropi- cal landscape ; or of wandering in the fields in a clear summer's day ; or of fire. If a door is slammed, but not so loud as to awake the sleeper, he will dream of thunder ; and if his palm be gently tickled his dreams will be one of ecstatic pleasure. If some particular idea completely occupies the mind during the waking state, it will recur in dreams during sleep ; hence the minds of these unfortunate people
44 INFLUENCE OF PERFUMES IN SORCERY.
. While they acknowledge that they used a magical ointment in order to be present at the Sabbat, these ignorant creatures could give no recipe for making it ; but medicine will readily furnish one. Porta and Cardanus# have mentioned two ; the Solanum somniferum forms the base of one, while Henbane and Opium predominate in the other. The learned Gassendi endeavoured to discover
mentioned in the text, being strongly impressed with the idea of being present at the Sabbat, the dreams would apparently realize that event. If a person in sleep folds his arms closely over his breast, he is likely to dream of being held down by force, and the images of the persons employed in holding him down will be also present to his mind. The predominant emotions of the mind influence greatly the character of dreams. When the influence is depress- ing, the dreams are generally terrible or distressing ; when the exhilarating occupy it, the dreams are delightful and joyous. In dreams, circumstances may present to the mind forebodings ; and it is not impossible that these may really come to pass, without any thing wonderful in the occurrence ; yet it appears wonderful, al- though when the circumstances are analyzed, it will be seen to be merely the result of some leading thought fixed upon the mind, and cherished during the hours of waking. In sleep, a certain degree of voluntary motion may be exerted, and the person may talk, and appear to hear and understand those who speak to him in return : such a state constitutes somnambulism. In such a condition, the functions of the brain are always more or less dis- turbed. The oily frictions said to have been employed by the sorcerers must have had narcotic properties ; but, independent of these, whatever gently stimulates the skin operates sympatheti- cally on the sensorium, and favours sleep and dreaming. — Ed.
* J. Wierius. De Prœstig. lib. n. cap. xxxvi. p. 4 ; J. B. Porta. Magia Natur. lib. 11. ; Cardan. De Subtilitate, lib. xvm, Wierius says that the ointment mentioned by Cardanus, consisted of the fat of boys, mixed with the juice of parsley, aconite, solanum, pentaphylum, and soot. — Ed.
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and to imitate this secret, in order to undeceive the miserable beings who imagined themselves to be sorcer- ers. He anointed some peasants, whom he had fully persuaded that they should attend the Sabbat, with an ointment containing opium After a long sleep, they awoke, satisfied that the magic process had produced its effect ; and they gave a detailed account of all they had seen at the Sabbat, and the pleasures they had enjoyed : in the particulars of which, and the mention of volup- tuous sensations, we may trace the action of opium.*
* The most absurd stories were told and believed respecting this assembly of demons and sorcerers. Among others, we are told that a husband having suspected his wife of being a sor- ceress, and desirous to know whether she attended the Sabbat, and how she transported herself there, watched her, and, one evening, found her occupied in anointing her body. She then took the form of a bird, and flew away; but, in the morning, he found her in bed at his side. He questioned her respecting her absence ; but she would make no confession until she was severely beaten.when she acknowledged that she had been at the Sabbat. He pardoned her, on the condition that she would convey him thither, and she assented to his wish. On arriving at the place, he was placed at table with the assembled magicians and demons ; but finding the food very insipid, he asked for salt, which was not brought. Perceiving, however, a salt-cellar near him, he exclaimed, — " God be praised, the salt is come at last !" In an instant, the whole assemblage and the repast vanished, and he found himself in the midst of barren mountains, more than thirty leagues from his house. On returning, he related the whole affair to the Inquisitors, who immediately ordered the arrest of his wife, and many of her accomplices ; all of whom, accordingly, were found guilty, and unmercifully condemned to the stake.
In such a period, it was unnecessary to poison or to murder a wife who had lost her husband's affection, or incurred his suspi- cion ; the law was willing and ready to perform the office of exe- cutioner for him. — Ed.
46 INFLUENCE OF PERFUMES IN SORCERY.
In 1545, a pomatum composed of opiates was found in the house of a sorcerer. André Laguna, physician to Pope Julius III., made use of it to anoint a woman labouring under frenzy and loss of rest. She slept thirty-six hours consecutively ; and when they succeeded in awaking her, she complained of being taken from a most extraordinary situation.* We may, with the judi- cious and unfortunate Llorente, compare this illusion to those experienced by the women devoted to the wor- ship of the Mother of the Gods, when they heard continually the sound of flutes and of tambourines, saw the joyous dances of the fauns and satyrs, and tasted inexpressible pleasures : similar medicaments were the cause among them of a similar kind of intoxication.
To this cause we may, likewise, refer the success of the magicians in their amours, such as those which Lucian and Apuleius have rendered so famous. This gives new grounds for the probability that the same secret, with slight variations, was obtained by the wretched sorcerers of the West from the inferior magicians, who made a merchandise of love philtres in Greece and in Italy.
In all ages the number of sorceresses has surpassed that of sorcerers ; which is accounted for by women pos- sessing a warmer imagination and a more sensitive organization than men. In the same way we may ex- plain why, in the fables so often repeated, where the demons or magi were magically united to mortals, the greater number of instances are referable to night-mare.
* A. Laguna. Commentaire sur Dioscoride, lib. lxxvi. cap. iv. cité par Llorente. Histoire de V Inquisition, torn. in. p. 428.
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They were real dreams, heightened by a disposition to hysteria, and this was the only reality they possessed.
In short, we do not scruple to say that, in order to explain the principal facts registered in the bloody archives of civil and religious tribunals, and in the volu- minous records of demonology ; in order to explain the confessions of the multitude of credulous or imbecile persons of both sexes who firmly believed themselves to be sorcerers, and were convinced that they had attended the Sabbat, it is only necessary to connect, with the use of the magical ointment, the deep impression on the imagination produced by previous descriptions regarding the Sabbat, with the ceremonies that were witnessed there, and the joys in which those who joined such abominations were to participate.
These presumed assemblies, indeed, and their guilty purposes had been notorious from the commencement of the fifth century, and awakened at an early period the in- creasing severity of the clergy and the magistrates. They are described as of frequent occurrence and long duration ; yet all this time the sorcerers were never once detected at any of these meetings. It was not that fear prevented it ; the same records and trials mention certain proceedings by which either the legal agents or ministers of religion, far from having any thing to fear from the spirits of dark- ness, obtained an ascendancy over them, and had power to apprehend the miserable creatures, in spite of the evil spirit by whom they were misled. But in reality these assemblies had no existence, otherwise they must have sur- vived the wrecks of Polytheism. Solitary initiations were substituted for them, and these were soon reduced to a
48 INFLUENCE OF PERFUMES IN SORCERY.
mere confiding of secrets ; all that remained then was a mutilated tradition of ceremonies borrowed from various pagan mysteries, and a description of the joys promised to the initiated. Conformably to the declarations of the sorcerers themselves, we cannot fail to perceive that they believed the ointment, with which they rubbed their bodies, to be magical ; and the facts quoted prove that its effect was so powerful as to leave them no more in doubt as to the reality of the fanciful impressions it occasioned, than of those sensations received by them in their waking hours. Thus they had the full persuasion of having partaken of rich feasts, while they acknowledged before the judges that at these banquets neither hunger nor thirst were appeased;* the impression of reality was so great, that they could not believe they had merely dreamed of eating and drinking. With their dreams, however, as is usually the case, were mingled various reminiscences. On one hand, memory presented to them a confused succession of absurd scenes, which they had been led to expect; and, on the other, in the midst of magi- cal ceremonies they saw introduced, as actors, persons of their own acquaintance, whom they actually denounced, swearing they had seen them at the Sabbat ; yet this ho- micidal oath was no perjury ! They made it with the same conviction that led them to confessions and revelations, and which devoted them to frightful punishments. Fromann relates f that the confessions of sorcerers condemned to be burnt at Ingolstadt, were publicly read; they confessed to having cut off the lives of several per-
* Fromann. Tract, de Fasc. p. 613. f Fromann. Tract, de Fasc. p. 850.
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sons by their witchcraft : these persons lived, were pre- sent at the trial, thus refuting the absurd confession ; and, nevertheless, the judges continued to institute suits against sorcery. In 1750, at Wurtzburg, a nun was accused of this crime, and carried before a tribunal, where she firmly maintained that she was a sorceress : like the accused at Ingolstadt, she named the victims to her sorceries ; and although these persons were then alive, yet the unfortunate creature perished at the stake.*
The opinion which these revelations tend to establish
* Voltaire. Prix de la Justice et de V Humanité, art. x.
In 1515 not less than fire hundred persons were tried at Geneva, on charges of witchcraft, and executed ; and in Scotland, in 1599, scarcely a year after the publication of the " Dsemonologie" of King James, not less than six hundred human beings were destroyed at once for this imaginary crime.* The sufferers in England, also, were very numerous. The statute of James, which adjudged those convicted of witchcraft to suffer death, was not repealed until the year 1736, the ninth of George the Second.
In every country, it maybe asked, who were the assumed witches ? We may reply in the words of Reginald Scott, in his " Discoverie of Witchcraft, "b they were "women which be commonly old.lame, bleare-eied, pale, fowle, and full of wrinkles ; poore, sullen, superstitious, and papists ; or such as know no religion ; in whose drousie minds the divell hath gotten a fine sear ; so as, what mischafe, mischance, calamitie, or slaughter is brought to passe, they are easilie persuaded the same is doone by themselves, imprinting in their minds an earnest and constant imagination thereof. They are lean and deformed, shewing melancholie in their faces, to the horror of all that see them. They are doting, scolds, mad, divelish, and not much differing from them that are thought to be possessed with spirits ; so firm and stedfast in their opinions, as whosoever shall onlie have respect to the constancie
*~N&$he' s Lenten Stuff, 1599; Drake's Shakespeare, vol. n.p.477. h See book i. chap. in. p. 7. VOL. II. E
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is not new ; J. Wierius had already honoured himself by establishing it. A Spanish theologian* addressed a Treatise to the Inquisition, in which, representing the opinion of many of his contemporaries, he maintained that the greater number of the crimes imputed to the sor- cerers have existed only in dreams; and that for the production of these dreams it was only necessary to anoint the body with drugs, and to establish a firm faith in the individual that he should really be transported to the Sabbat.-f
We do not say that particular causes, in subordination
of their words uttered, would easilie believe they were true in- deed." No comment could throw any additional light upon the cruel nature of these persecutions, and the description of their miserable victims. — Ed.
* Llorente. Histoire de l'Inquisition, torn, m, pp. 454, 455. f It has been, with some degree of probability, supposed, that the idea of the Sabbat arose from the secrecy with which the meet- ings of the Waldenses were compelled to be held ; and the accu- sations of indulging in unhallowed rites which were brought against them. At a very early period, these persecuted people had separated and kept themselves distinct from the Church of Rome. In ] 332, Pope John XXII. issued a Bull against them, and another was sent forth, in 1487, by Innocent VIII., enjoining the Nuncio, Alberto Capitaneis, "to extirpate the pernicious sect of malignant men called the poor people of Lyon, or the Waldenses, who have long endeavoured in Piedmont, and other neighbouring parts, to ensnare the sheep belonging unto God, under a feigned picture of holiness." Many persecutions followed ; but the Waldenses de- fended their opinions with the most determined resolution, and even with the sword. In some of the defeats which they suffered, both women and children were put to death ; and the prisoners were, in several instances, burnt alive. These excesses drove the wretched Waldenses, thus suffering for conscience sake, to take refuge in the fastnesses of the mountains, a step which brought
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to this general one, may not have had a very sensible in- fluence in producing the accusations of witchcraft among a very ignorant population ; for example, the possession of superior science has brought upon a man the reputa- tion of being a sorcerer. The opportunity afforded for observation, was the source of the accusation of sorcery against shepherds. In their frequent isolation from society, necessity has forced these men to be the physi- cians and surgeons of their flocks; and, favoured by chance and guided by analogy, they were sometimes enabled to perform cures on their own race. The sick man was healed; and the question was put, whence did the
upon them the accusations already noticed, and originated the supposition that the Sabbat, which the wretches suspected of witchcraft were stated to attend, was a real meeting. The Wal- denses were also sometimes called Scobases, from the belief that, like the witches, they proceeded through the air to their meetings riding upon broomsticks. Credulity regarded the Sabbat as real ; for Reginald Scott informs us, that it was generally believed that the witches met together " at certaine assemblies, at the time pre- fixed, and doo not onlie see the divell in visible forme, but confer and talke familiarlie with him :" and he adds that, on the intro- duction of a novice, the Arch-demon, " chargeth hir to procure men, women, and children also, as she can to enter into this societie ... At these magical assemblies, the witches never fail to danse, and whiles they sing and danse everie one hath a broome in hir hand, and holdeth it up aloft. "a Such was the ex- traordinary length to which credulity extended respecting this imaginary assembly ; and one of the chief features of the mon- strous and gross superstition which existed, at the period alluded to, was the melancholy fact that it was the creed of all ranks, from the monarch to the beggar. Happily since the light of education has penetrated into the cottage, it remains merely as a matter of fanciful tradition. — Ed.
«■ Discoverie of Witchcraft . book i. chap. in.
E 2
52 PROSECUTIONS FOR SORCERY.
uninstructed individual derive so marvellous a faculty if not from magic ? Several shepherds, it is well known, also, become, in a short time, so intimate with the individual physiognomy of their sheep, as readily to distinguish any one of his own flock mingled with the flock of another shepherd.* The man who could thus select his own from a thousand animals, apparently similar, could not easily avoid being deemed a sorcerer; particularly if vanity or interest should lead him to favour the error, which gains him the reputation of superior power and knowledge. What must be the consequence then, if the centre whence light ought to emanate ; if the autho- rity, which rules the destiny of every citizen ; is governed by the common opinion ? Even in our own day, the French legislation has treated shepherds, as accused, or at least as suspected of sorcery ; for we find that simple menaces, from them, are punished by tortures, reserved, in other cases, for assaults and murders. Does not this arise from the supposition, that there is a power of evil in their mere words ? This law, enacted in 1751,f although fallen into disuse, has not yet been formally abrogated.
The severity exercised towards sorcerers, although
* M. Desgranges. Mémoire sur les Usages d'un Canton de la Beauce. Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de France, torn. i. pp. 242, 243.
f A similar law forbids all shepherds to menace, ill treat, or do any wrong to the farmers or labourers whom they serve, or who are served by them, as well as their families, shepherds, or domes- tics, under penalty, for the said shepherds, of five years at the galleys for simple menaces, and for ill treatment nine years." — Préambule du Conseïl-d' Etat du Roi, du 15 Septembre, 1751.
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altogether absurd in principle, yet was not always un- just in its application, since sorcery served frequently, as the mask or instrument for the perpetration of criminal actions. Thus the use of drugs, by which the fish in a preserve are rendered so stupified, that they can be taken by the hand, although considered now a delinquency, pro- vided against and punished by law, was formerly regarded as the effect of sorcery. The tricks of sharpers, with whose delinquencies our small courts are daily filled, and which consist of selling the imaginary aid of super- natural power at a high rate, were acts of sorcery. Sorcery, indeed, was a cover for many atrocities, and crimes, sometimes arising from the mere desire to impose ; sometimes from transports of cruelty or refinements of revenge, and the wish to transfer their load of guilt to those whom they initiated.*
* " Commodus sacra Mithriaca homicidio vero polluit ;
cum illic aliquid, ad speciem timoris, vel dici, vel fingi soleat." — (Ael. Lamprid. in Commod. Anton.) This phrase is obscure ; and shews us the extreme reserve of ancient writers on all that con- cerned the initiations. We may , nevertheless, deducefrom it, that the novice in the mysteries of Mythra believed himself obliged to obey the command of the initiating to kill aman. These mysteries, which penetrated into Rome, and afterwards into Gaul, towards the com- mencement of our era, belonged, in Asia, to the remotest anti- quity, since Zoroaster was thus initiated before setting out on his religious mission. Now this prophet was much earlier than Ninus ; the religion which he founded was general and powerful in the empire of Assyria, in the time of Ninus and Semiramis. The trial which the priests of Mythra, in order to assure themselves, made use of to determine the resolution and docility of an aspi- rant, is still practised by one of the superior Lodges of Free- masons. Similar trials necessarily passed into the schools of magic, from the ancient temples ; and that which was only used as a pretence in general, might easily on occasion become reality.
54 PROSECUTIONS FOR SORCERY.
But, it cannot be denied, that poison alone, has too often constituted the real efficacy of sorcery ; this is a fact of which the ancients were not ignorant, a proof of which exists in the passage in the second eclogue of Theocritus,* which we have just quoted. It is a curious fact, confirmed by judicial trials in modern times,f that the victim persisting in ascribing his sufferings to supernatural agency, has thus aided in shielding the real crime of the guilty from the investigation of the law.
In such a case, had the magistrates been enlightened, as well as severe, they would have acquired great claims to public gratitude, by giving some attention to the real nature of the crime, as well as to the punishment of it. They might, by unveiling and giving publicity to pre- tended magical operations, have exposed the impotency of the magicians, when prevented by circumstances from having recourse to their detestable practices; and by
* See chap. ix.
t In 1689, some shepherds of Brien destroyed the cattle of their neighbours, by administering to them drugs on which they had thrown holy water, and over which they recited magical incantations. Prosecuted as sorcerers, they were condemned as poisoners. It was discovered that the basis of these drugs was arsenic.
It is curious to observe the similarity of customs in very distant countries. In Shetland the religious charmer imbued water with magical powers for a very opposite purpose, namely, to pre- serve from mischance ; to combat an evil eye or an evil tongue. The charmer muttered some words over water, in imitation of Catholic priests consecrating holy water, and the fluid was named " forespoken water." Boats were sprinkled with it; and diseased limbs washed with it, for the purpose of telling out pains. — Ed.
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such revelations, many disordered imaginations might eventually have been cured.
But far from doing so, the judges, for a long period, reasoned like the inquisitors who, when obliged, by for- mal depositions, to admit that the secret of the sorcerers consisted in the composition of poisons, punished never- theless the imaginary rather than the real crime.* Legislators had no clearer discernment than the populace : they issued terrible decrees against sorcerers, and even by these means doubled, nay tenfold increased their num- ber. To doubt, in this case, the effect of persecution, were to betray great ignorance of mankind. Opening a vast field for all the calumny and tale-bearing, that might be dictated by folly, by fear, by hatred, or ven- geance, in preparing instruments of torture, and erecting stakes in every market-place, they multiplied absurd or false accusations and still more absurd confes- sions.f In giving importance to these foolish terrors,
* Llorente. Histoire de V Inquisition, tome in. pp. 440 — 441.
t No portion of the history of witchcraft is more extraordinary than the confessions occasionally made by the wretched beings who were brought to trial as sorcerers. Although many of them were extorted uDder torture, and afterwards revoked during mo- ments of mental and bodily resuscitation, yet some of those recorded were voluntary. What condition of mind, it may be asked, could lead to the latter, if we can believe that the accused could ever fancy that they were really actors in such supernatural transactions ? In reply, we may venture to suggest, that vanity, one of the most powerful agents in the female character, in raising an idea of importance at being thought possessors of the extraor- dinary powers which they assumed, must have had a considerable share in producing them. As a specimen of these confessions, we may mention that of Agnes Tompson, who was implicated in the
56 PROSECUTIONS FOR SORCERY.
by bringing the sacred character of the law to bear upon them, they rendered this general apprehension incurable. The multitude no longer doubted the guilt of men who were so rigourously prosecuted ; enlightened individuals swelled the ranks of the multitude, either from the influence of the general panic, or lest they should them- selves become suspected of the crimes, whose existence they denied. How can we otherwise account for the lengthened and deplorable annals of sorcery, whose daily records tell of acts perfectly impossible, but which the accused confessed, the witnesses affirmed, the doc- tors established, and the judges visited with punishment
supposed detected conspiracy of two hundred witches with Dr Fian, " Register to the Devil," at their head, to bewitch and drown King James, on his return from Denmark in 1590. Agnes con- fessed that she and the other witches, her comrades, " went altogether by sea, each one in her riddle or sieve, with flaggons of wine, making merry and drinking by the way, to the kirk of North Berwick, in Lothian, where, when they had landed, they took hands and danced, singing all with one voice —
" Commer goe ye before, Commer goe ye ; Gif ye will not go before, Commer let me :" and " that Giles Duncane did go before them, playing said reel on a Jew's trump ; and that the devil had met them at the kirk."
The silly monarch, who was present at their confession, ex- pressed some doubts as to the last part of it ; but, taking Agnes aside, he affirmed that she " declared unto him the very words which had passed between him and his Queen on the first night of their marriage, with their answers to each other ; whereat the King wondered greatly, and swore by the living God, that he believed all the devils in hell could not have discovered the same.* —Ed.
"■ Newes from Scotlandt reprinted in the Gent. Mag. vol. xlix. p. 449, and quoted in Drake's Shakespeare, vol. n. p. 476.
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and death ! It was, for instance supposed, that the phy- sical insensibility of the whole, or some part of the body, was a sure sign of a compact with the devil. In France, in 1589, fourteen pretended sorcerers, who were declared incapable of feeling, were, for this cause condemned to death, on the testimony of the surgeons who formed part of the legal commission. On an appeal from these unfortunate beings, another examination was ordered by the parliament, at that time assembled at Tours. The sentence was stayed by the sensible men who conducted the second inquiry, and who reported that the accused were imbecile or deranged, (perhaps in consequence of the misery they had endured), but in other respects physically possessing a keenly sensitive nature.* For once, truth was triumphant, and the lives of the poor wretches were saved. But this was a singular instance.
The course of the seventeenth century again saw a great number of prosecutions for sorcery ; till at length the progress of knowledge, the great benefit of civiliza- tion, drew the film from the eyes of the supreme autho- rities. The Act of the Parliament of France, of 1682, decrees that sorcerers shall be no longer prosecuted, ex- cept as deceivers, blasphemers, and poisoners, that is to say, for their real crimes ; and from that time their number has diminished every day.f
This discussion may appear superfluous to those im- patient spirits, who believe it but loss of time, to refute to-day, the error of yesterday ; forgetting that the de- velopment of the sources of error form an essential
* Chirurgie de Pigray. lib. viii. chap. x. p. 445. t Dulaure, Histoire de Paris, tome v. pp. 36 — 37.
58 PROSECUTIONS FOR SORCERY.
part of the History of the human mind. Besides although the better instructed throughout Europe have ceased to believe in witchcraft, is this progress so very remote ; has the light already shone on so vast a circle that this subject merits only to be consigned to oblivion ? Scarcely a hundred years have elapsed since a book ap- peared in Paris, recommending the rigour of the laws, and the severity of the tribunals against sorcerers, and against those who were sceptical, as to the existence of witchcraft, and magic ; yet this book has received the approbation of the judges of literature.*
We have already related the punishment of a pretended witch, who was burned at Wurzburg, in 1750. At the same period, in an enlightened country, the rage of popu- lar credulity survived the rigour of the magistrates, who had ceased to prosecute for a chimerical crime. " Scarcely half a century has elapsed," writes a traveller, an enthu- siastic admirer of the English, " since witches have been drowned in England. In the year 1751, two old women, suspected to be witches, were arrested, and in the course of some experiments made on these unfortu- nate creatures, by the populace, they were plunged three several times into a pond, and were drowned; this occurred near Tring, a few miles from London. "f Notwithstand- ing the vicinity of the metropolis, it does not appear that any steps were taken to punish the actors in these
* Traité sur la Magie par Daugis (in 12mo. Paris, 1732), extracted, with an eulogium on it, in the Journal de Trévoux, September, 1732, pp. 1534—1544,
f Voyage d'un Français en Angleterre, (2 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1816, tome i. p. 490.)
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two murderous assaults, to which the traveller gives the gentle name of experiments.*
* It is curious to trace the influence of the belief of witchcraft in England and Scotland, at different periods. It had attracted the attention of Government in the reign of Henry the Eighth, in the thirty-third year of which a statute was enacted which adjudged all witchcraft and sorcery to be punished as felony, without benefit of clergy. This statute did not regard these crimes as impostures, but as real supernatural demoniacal gifts, and consequently punishable. In the subsequent reign, Elizabeth, the Queen, suffered " under excessive anguish by pains in her teeth,"a which deprived her of rest, a circumstance which was attributed to the sorcery of a Mrs. Dyer, who was accused of conjuration and witch- craft on that account ; indeed, the belief had infatuated all ranks, and extended even to the clergy. Bishop Jewel, in a sermon preached before the Queen in 1558, made use of the following expressions: — "It may please your Grace to understand that witches and sorcerers, within these few last years, are marvellously increased within your Grace's realm. Your Grace's subjects pine away, even unto the death ; their colour fadeth, — their flesh rotteth, — their speech is benumbed, — their senses are bereft ; — I pray God they never practise further upon the subject."1" Regi- nald Scott, also, in his excellent work, entitled " The Discoverie of Witchcraft," says, " I have heard, to my greefe, some of the ministerie affirme, that they have had in 'their parish, at one instant, xvii or xviii witches ; meaning such as could work miracles supernaturaUie."c Were we not accurately informed of the deep root, and consequently firm hold, which the idea of the existence of witchcraft had taken of the public mind at this period, the neglect of Scott's work, and that of Johannis Wierus, de Prestigiis Dœmonuvn, would greatly astonish us. Both of these valuable productions were intended to free the world from the infatuation which had seized upon it ; to prove the falsehood of the accusa- tions, and even of the confessions ; and to shield the poor, the
a Styrpe's Annals, vol. iv. p. 7. b Styrpe's Annals, vol. i. p, 8. c Discoverie of Witchcraft, chap. i. p. 4.
60 PROSECUTIONS FOR SORCERY.
After such an example, it may be understood, how
ignorant, and the friendless aged from falling victims to the arm of murder, under the perverted name of justice, uplifted by terror and the darkest superstition. Scott informs us, that the whole parish of St. Osus, in Essex, consisting of " seventeene or eighteene, were condemned at once." On the accession of James to the English throne, the superstition of that weak and absurd monarch, which had been previously displayed in his " Demo- nologie," published at Edinburgh in 1597, brought forth a new statute against witches, which contains the following clause : — " Any that shall use, practise, or exercise any invocation or con- juration of an evill or wicked spirit, or consult, covenant with, entertain, or employ, feed or rewarde, any evill or wicked spirit, or to or for any intent or purpose ; or take up any dead man, woman, or child, out of his, her, or their grave, or any other place where the dead body resteth, or the skin, bone, or other part of any dead person, to be employed or used in any manner of witchcraft, sor- cery, charme, or enchantment, whereby any person shall be killed, destroyed, wasted, consumed, pined, or bound in his or her body, or any part thereof ; such offenders, duly and lawfully convicted and attainted, shall suffer death."" After such edicts as these, issuing from the highest authorities in the kingdom, can we won- der at the extension of the credulity of the people respecting supernatural agency ; or at their faith in the power of those who professed to do " a deed without a name ;" and who, as the silly monarch and royal author, to whom we have referred, sayeth, " gave their hand to the devil, and promised to observe and keepe all the devil's commandments. "b The early Christians were not only dupes to these deceptions, but they preferred their assistance by means of prayers and benedictions to obviate the influence of the demon ; and thus contributed to rivet the chains that already enslaved the human mind in the darkest superstition.0 — En.
» This statute was not repealed till the 9th of George the Second, in 1736.
b Discoverie of Witchcraft, book iii. chap. i. p. 40.
c The act of clucking supposed witches in England, has been practised more than once within the present century.
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in 1760, in one of the inland provinces of Sweden,* it required the authority and the courage of the wife of a great personage, to save twelve families, under an ac- cusation of witchcraft, from the fury of the populace.
In 1774, in Germany, where philosophy is so ardently cultivated, numerous disciples and followers of Gassner and Schrcepfer, adopted their doctrines respecting mira- cles, exorcisms, magic, and Theurgy.f In 1785, in the canton of Lucerne, J. Muller, the celebrated historian and one of his friends, while peaceably seated under a tree and reading Tacitus aloud, where assailed by a troop of peasants, who had been persuaded by some monks, that the strangers were sorcerers. They nar- rowly escaped being massacred.} At the commence- ment of the century several sharpers were condemned in France for traversing the country, and persuading the peasants, that spells had been cast, both on their cattle and on themselves ; and, not satisfied with ex- acting payment for taking off the pretended spells, they raised violent enmities, and occasioned even murderous encounters, by pointing out the authors of these pre- tended spells.
It was still a matter of serious argument, in the schools of Rome, in the year 1810, as to whether sorcerers were mad or possessed.! They went further
* En Dalécarlie. — Barbier, Dictionnaire Historique, p. 1195. f Tiedman. Queestione, &c. pp. 114 — 115. î C. V. de Bonstetten. Pensées sur divers objets de bien public, pp 230—232.
Il Guinan Laoureins. Tableau de Rome vers la fin de 1814, p. 228.
62 PERSECUTIONS OF SUPPOSED SORCERERS.
in Paris, for in 1817, works* were there published in which the existence of magic was formally maintained ; and in which the zeal of the learned and virtuous, but mistaken men, who formerly had caused sorcerers to be burned, was applauded.
Let the upholders of such doctrines applaud them- selves ; the doctrines are still dominant in those distant countries, where colonization has oftener introduced the vices than the advanced knowledge of Europe. The elevated and arid soil of the American islands, is, in summer, a prey to maladies which attack the horses and flocks, and do not even spare men. It cannot be doubted that they arise from the noxious proper- ties of the stagnant water, which they are obliged to make use of; as a proof of which the habitations, near a running stream, invariably escape the scourge. Far from recognising this fact, the planters persist in ascrib- ing their losses to sorcery, practised by their slaves ; and, consequently the unlucky individuals, on whom chance fixes the suspicion, are condemned to perish by torture.f
But, to find examples of such horrible extravagance, it is unnecessary to cross the ocean. In the year 1617, in a country village of East Flanders, a father murdered his daughter, who was only ten years old, " because," he
* Les Précurseurs de I' Anti-Christ. — Les Superstitions et Pres- tiges des Philosophes. Voyez le Journal de Paris, 28 Décembre, 1817. — The maladies to which our author alludes are the conse- quence of malaria, arising from decomposing animal and vegetable matters. If such accusations as he mentions occur in the French West Indian Islands, they are happily unknown in the English. —Ed.
f I got this fact from an eye witness.
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asserted, " she was a sorceress." For a similar motive he intended the same fate for his wife and sister. # It was pleaded in excuse that he was insane. What awful insanity was that, which converted the husband and father into an assassin ! How fearful the credulity that led to such a delirium ! Can we qualify the culpability of those who awaken, or who dare to encourage it ?
In 1826 the town of Spire was much scandalized by a circumstance that was more deplorable from the cha- racter given to it by the position of those with whom it originated, and from the moral consequences which might have ensued. The Bishop of that town died at the age of eighty-two years, and had bequeathed 20,000 florins to its cathedral. He was not buried in a chapel of his church, as his predecessors had been ; nor would the clergy take part in his obsequies, because they accused the venerable prelate of sorcery.f
How can one, after this, be surprised at the ignorant credulity of the multitude, with such an example from their spiritual advisers ?
In the peninsula of Hela, near Dantzic, a woman was accused by a charlatan of having cast a spell over a sick person. She was seized, and tortured several times in the course of two days ; twice they tried to drown her, they ended by murdering her with a knife, because she refused to acknowledge herself to be a witch, and because she declared herself incapable of curing the sick person. |
* Voyez le Journal de Paris, Jeudi, 3 Avril, 1817. p. 3. f Voyez le Constitutionnel, du 15 Août, 1826. X Voyez le National du 28 Août, 1836.
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In France also, justly proud of its enlightenment, of its civilization, and the gentleness of its manners, this error has been fruitful. A countrywoman of the neigh- bourhood of Dax having fallen ill, the friends who were with her were persuaded by a quack that her illness was the result of a spell, thrown upon her by one of her neighbours. The peasants seized on the accused indivi- dual, and after violently beating her, thrust her into the flames to compel her to dissolve the spell; there they held her in spite of her cries, her screams, and assertions of innocence, and at last drove her from the house only when she was on the point of expiring.*
This crime, which was committed eleven years ago, has lately been repeated in a village in the department of Cher. The victim, who was accused of bewitching the cattle, will probably die, owing to the atrocious treat- ment she has met with.f It is true that justice will pursue her murderers, and punish them ; but of what use is the condemnation of a few grossly ignorant pea- sants, while the source of the evil remains unremoved ? Has the time not yet passed for maintaining the opinion that it is well for the people to remain in ignorance, and to believe whatever is told them without examination ? In the schools open to the lower classes can no one venture to expostulate, or to forewarn and forearm them against the dangers of a blind credulity ? Even in the vicinity of the capital, the country districts are infested with books on witchcraft. I speak of what I have my-
* Voyez le Constitutionnel du 26 Juillet, 1826. f Voyez le National du 6 Novembre, 1836.
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self witnessed. One, amongst others recently printed, particularly attracted my observation, from the typogra- phical character, the whiteness of the paper, the state of preservation, and the general neatness of the volume, so uncommon in the rough hands of a herdsman. With various absurdities, and extracts from conjuring books, less innocent recipes were interspersed: for example, one for the composition of the waters of Death, a violent poison, described as being capable of transmuting all metals into gold ; another for procuring early abortion ; and a third for a more active medicine, should the mother have felt the infant move : so true it is, as we have already observed, that lessons of crime have been almost always mixed up with the absurd fancies of sorcery !
Is this error, then, to be left to root itself out ? Is it not rather the duty of the higher classes to strive against the principles that lead to it, until the progress of know- ledge shall afford a guard to men of simple and limited understanding ? Should they not endeavour to save those who wildly believe themselves to be endowed with supernatural power, from the consequences of this belief, and release the credulous who, through fear of this power, are tormented by anxieties equally formidable in their issue, and ridiculous in their origin ? Or, is this a mere speculative question of philosophy ? The age is not long past since peaceable individuals were dragged to punishment by a multitude agitated by that excessive terror, which is so much the more difficult to cure because it has no real foun- dation ; an age in which a single word, a vague rumour, was sufficient to constitute the same person at once an
VOL. II. F
66 PERSECUTIONS OF SUPPOSED SORCERERS.
accuser, a judge, and an executioner. Do not these su- perstitious terrors, which convert man into a ferocious animal, place a powerful engine in the hands of those whose interest it is to excite him ; whose aim is the subversion of order and of government? Should the opinions I have proffered affix upon me the charge of profaneness from some fanatical hypocrites, I can only answer, I am obeying my conscience in endeavouring to expose the shameful absurdity of a belief as contrary to the best interests of society, as to all which true piety teaches of the power, the wisdom, and the goodness of God.
INFLUENCE OF THE IMAGINATION. 67