The Witch-cult in Western Europe: A Study in Anthropology — Margaret Alice Murray
You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org . If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title : The Witch-cult in Western Europe: A Study in Anthropology Author : Margaret Alice Murray Release date : January 22, 2007 [eBook #20411] Language : English Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20411 Credits : Produced by Michael Ciesielski, Irma pehar and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net *** START OF In order, however, to obtain a clearer understanding of the ritual and beliefs I have had recourse to French and Flemish sources, as the cult appears to have been the same throughout Western Europe. The New England records are unfortunately not published in extenso ; this is the more unfortunate as the extracts already given to the public occasionally throw light on some of the English practices. It is more difficult to trace the English practices than the Scotch or French, for in England the cult was already in a decadent condition when the records were made; therefore records in a purely English colony would probably contain much of interest. The sources from which the information is taken are the judicial records and contemporary chroniclers. In the case of the chroniclers I have studied their facts and not their opinions. I have also had access to some unpublished trials among the Edinburgh Justiciary Records and also in the Guernsey Greffe. The following articles have already appeared in various journals, to whose editors I am indebted for kind permission to republish: 'Organization of Witch Societies' and 'Witches and the number Thirteen' in Folk Lore ; 'The God of the Witches' in the Journal of the Manchester Oriental Society ; 'Child Sacrifice', 'Witches' Familiars', 'The Devil's Mark', 'The Devil's Officers', 'Witches' Fertility Rites', 'Witches Transformations', in Man ; and 'The Devil of North Berwick' in the Scottish Historical Review . My thanks are due to Georgiana Aitken, W. Bonser, and Mary Slater for much kind help, also to Prof. C. G. Seligman for valuable suggestions and advice as to lines of research. M. A. MURRAY. University College, London. CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE 5 INTRODUCTION 9 I. CONTINUITY OF THE RELIGION 19 II. THE GOD 28 1. As God 28 2. As a Human Being 31 3. Identification 47 4. As an Animal 60 III. ADMISSION CEREMONIES 71 1. General 71 2. The Introduction 76 3. The Renunciation and Vows 77 4. The Covenant 79 5. The Baptism 82 6. The Mark 86 IV. THE ASSEMBLIES 97 1. The Sabbath. Method of going. The site. The date. The hour 97 2. The Esbat. Business. The site. The time 112 V. THE RITES 124 1. General 124 2. Homage 126 3. The Dances 130 4. The Music 135 5. The Feast 138 6. Candles 144 7. The Sacrament 148 8. Sacrifices: Of animals. Of children. Of the God 152 9. Magic Words 162 VI. THE RITES, continued 169 1. General 169 2. Rain-making 172 3. Fertility 173 VII. THE ORGANIZATION 186 1. The Officer 186 2. The Covens 190 3. Duties 194 4. Discipline 197 VIII. THE FAMILIARS AND TRANSFORMATIONS 205 1. The Divining Familiar 205 2. The Domestic Familiar 208 3. Methods of obtaining Familiars 222 4. Transformations into Animals 230 APPENDIX I. Fairies and Witches 238 APPENDIX II. Trial of Silvain Nevillon. Taken from De Lancre's L'Incredulité et Méscréance 246 APPENDIX III. A. Covens and Names of Members 249 B. Index of Witches' Names, with Notes 255 APPENDIX IV. Notes on the Trials of Joan of Arc and Gilles de Rais 270 APPENDIX V. Some Notes on 'Flying' Ointments. By Prof. A. J. Clark 279 BIBLIOGRAPHY 281 GENERAL INDEX 286 INTRODUCTION The subject of Witches and Witchcraft has always suffered from the biassed opinions of the commentators, both contemporary and of later date. On the one hand are the writers who, having heard the evidence at first hand, believe implicitly in the facts and place upon them the unwarranted construction that those facts were due to supernatural power; on the other hand are the writers who, taking the evidence on hearsay and disbelieving the conclusions drawn by their opponents, deny the facts in toto . Both parties believed with equal firmness in a personal Devil, and both supported their arguments with quotations from the Bible. But as the believers were able to bring forward more texts than the unbelievers and had in their hands an unanswerable argument in the Witch of Endor, the unbelievers, who dared not contradict the Word of God, were forced to fall back on the theory that the witches suffered from hallucination, hysteria, and, to use the modern word, 'auto-suggestion'. These two classes still persist, the sceptic predominating. Between the believer who believed everything and the unbeliever who disbelieved everything there has been no critical examination of the evidence, which presents a new and untouched field of research to the student of comparative religion. Among the believers in witchcraft everything which could not be explained by the knowledge at their disposal was laid to the credit of supernatural powers; and as everything incomprehensible is usually supposed to emanate from evil, the witches were believed to be possessed of devilish arts. As also every non-Christian God was, in the eyes of the Christian, the opponent of the Christian God, the witches were considered to worship the Enemy of Salvation, in other words, the Devil. The greater number of these writers, however, obtained the evidence at first hand, and it must therefore be accepted although the statements do not bear the construction put upon them. It is only by a careful comparison with the evidence of anthropology that the facts fall into their proper places and an organized religion stands revealed. The common beliefs as to the powers of the witches are largely due to the credulous contemporary commentators, who misundersto