The Witch-cult in Western Europe | Page 5

she took in it was but the prelude to a much greater glory, for her
god so held her heart that no other desire could enter in. Thus the
witches often went to the gibbet and the stake, glorifying their god and
committing their souls into his keeping, with a firm belief that death
was but the entrance to an eternal life in which they would never be
parted from him. Fanatics and visionaries as many of them were, they
resemble those Christian martyrs whom the witch-persecutors often
held in the highest honour.
Another objection is that, as the evidence of the witches at the trials is
more or less uniform in character, it must be attributed to the
publication by the Inquisitors of a questionary for the use of all judges
concerned in such trials; in short, that the evidence is valueless, as it
was given in answer to leading questions. No explanation is offered by

the objectors as to how the Inquisitors arrived at the form of
questionary, nor is any regard given to the injunction to all Inquisitors
to acquaint themselves with all the details of any heresy which they
were commissioned to root out; they were to obtain the information
from those who would recant and use it against the accused; and to
instruct other judges in the belief and ritual of the heresy, so that they
also might recognize it and act accordingly. The objectors also
overlook the fact that the believers in any given religion, when tried for
their faith, exhibit a sameness in their accounts of the cult, usually with
slight local differences. Had the testimony of the witches as to their
beliefs varied widely, it would be prima facie evidence that there was
no well-defined religion underlying their ritual; but the very uniformity
of their confessions points to the reality of the occurrence.
Still another objection is that the evidence was always given under
torture, and that the wretched victims consequently made reckless
assertions and accusations. In most of the English and many of the
Scotch trials legal torture was not applied; and it was only in the
seventeenth century that pricking for the mark, starvation, and
prevention of sleep were used. Even then there were many voluntary
confessions given by those who, like the early Christian martyrs,
rushed headlong on their fate, determined to die for their faith and their
god.
Yet even if some of the evidence were given under torture and in
answer to leading questions, there still remains a mass of details which
cannot be explained away. Among others there are the close
connexions of the witches with the fairies, the persistence of the
number thirteen in the Covens, the narrow geographical range of the
domestic familiar, the avoidance of certain forms in the animal
transformations, the limited number of personal names among the
women-witches, and the survival of the names of some of the early
gods.
In England the legal method of executing a witch was by hanging; after
death the body was burnt and the ashes scattered. In Scotland, as a rule,
the witch was strangled at the stake and the body burned, but there are

several records of the culprit being sentenced to burning alive. In
France burning alive was the invariable punishment.
In cases where popular fury, unrestrained by the law, worked its own
vengeance on individuals, horrible scenes occurred; but these were the
exception, and, examining only the legal aspect of the subject, it will be
found that witches had a fair trial according to the methods of the
period, and that their punishment was according to the law. There was,
however, one popular method of dealing with a person accused of
witchcraft which is interesting as showing the survival of a legal
process, obsolete as regards the law itself, but remaining in full force
among the people. This is the ordeal by water. In the Laws of Athelstan
the full detail of this ordeal is given: after the person who was to
undergo the ordeal had been prepared by prayer and fasting, he was tied,
the right thumb to the right big toe, the left thumb to the left big toe,
and was then cast into the water with suitable prayers to the Almighty
to declare the right; if he sank he was considered innocent, if he floated
he was guilty. The witch was 'tried' in the same way, except that she
was tied 'crossways', i.e. the right thumb to the left big toe, and the left
thumb to the right big toe. So great was the belief in this test that many
women accused of witchcraft insisted on undergoing this ordeal, which
was often conducted with solemnity and decency under the auspices of
the minister of the parish and other grave persons. Unless