The Witch-cult in Western Europe | Page 9

Diable tenoit tellement li��s leurs coeurs & leurs volontez qu'�� peine y laissoit il entrer nul autre desir.... Au reste elle dict qu'elle ne croyoit faire aucun mal d'aller au sabbat, & qu'elle y auoit beaucoup plus de plaisir & contentement que d'aller �� la Messe, parce que le Diable leur faisoit �� croire qu'il estoit le vray Dieu, & que la ioye que les sorciers prenoyent au sabbat n'estoit qu'vn commencement d'vne beaucoup plus grande gloire.--Elles disoyent franchement, qu'elles y alloyent & voyoient toutes ces execrations auec vne volupt�� admirable, & vn desir enrager d'y aller & d'y estre, trouu?t les iours trop reculez de la nuict pour faire le voyage si desir��, & le poinct ou les heures pour y aller trop lentes, & y estant, trop courtes pour vn si agreable seiour & delicieux amusement.--En fin il a le faux martyre: & se trouue des Sorciers si acharnez �� son seruice endiabl��, qu'il n'y a torture ny supplice qui les estonne, & diriez qu'ils vont au vray martyre & �� la mort pour l'amour de luy, aussi gayement que s'ils alloient �� vn festin de plaisir & reio��yssance publique.--Quand elles sont preuenues de la Iustice, elles ne pleurent & ne iettent vne seule larme, voire leur faux martyre soit de la torture, soit du gibet leur est si plaisant, qu'il tarde �� plusieurs qu'elles ne soi[~e]t execut��es �� mort, & souffr[~e]t fort ioyeusement qu'on leur face le procez, tant il leur tarde qu'elles ne soient auec le Diable. Et ne s'impatientent de rien tant en leur prison, que de ce qu'elles ne lui peuuent tesmoigner c[=o]bi[~e] elles souffrent & desirent souffrir pour luy.'[21]
Bodin says, 'Il y en a d'autres, ausquelles Satan promet qu'elles seront bien heureuses apres cette vie, qui empesche qu'elles ne se repentent, & meurent obstinees en leur mechancet��'.[22]
Madame de Bourignon's girls at Lille (1661) 'had not the least design of changing, to quit these abominable Pleasures, as one of them of Twenty-two Years old one day told me. No, said she, I will not be other than I am; I find too much content in my Condition.'[23] Though the English and Scotch witches' opinions are not reported, it is clear from the evidence that they were the same as those of the Basses-Pyr��n��es, for not only did they join of their own free will but in many cases there seems to have been no need of persuasion. In a great number of trials, when the witches acknowledged that they had been asked to become members of the society, there follows an expression of this sort, 'ye freely and willingly accepted and granted thereto'. And that they held to their god as firmly as those de Lancre put to death is equally evident in view of the North Berwick witches, of Rebecca West and Rose Hallybread, who 'dyed very Stuburn, and Refractory without any Remorss, or seeming Terror of Conscience for their abominable Witch-craft';[24] Major Weir, who perished as a witch, renouncing all hope of heaven;[25] and the Northampton witches, Agnes Browne and her daughter, who 'were never heard to pray, or to call vppon God, never asking pardon for their offences either of God or the world in this their dangerous, and desperate Resolution, dyed'; Elinor Shaw and Mary Phillips, at their execution 'being desired to say their Prayers, they both set up a very loud Laughter, calling for the Devil to come and help them in such a Blasphemous manner, as is not fit to Mention; so that the Sherif seeing their presumptious Impenitence, caused them to be Executed with all the Expedition possible; even while they were Cursing and raving, and as they liv'd the Devils true Factors, so they resolutely Dyed in his Service': the rest of the Coven also died 'without any confession or contrition'.[26]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 3: Hunt, vol. i]
[Footnote 4: Bede, Bk. II, ch. xv.]
[Footnote 5: Strabo, Geography, Bk. IV, c. iv, 6.]
[Footnote 6: Dionysius, Periegetes, ll. 1120-5.]
[Footnote 7: Thorpe, ii, pp. 32-4.]
[Footnote 8: Thorpe, i, p. 41.]
[Footnote 9: Id., ii, p. 157 seq.]
[Footnote 10: Id., ii, pp. 299, 303.]
[Footnote 11: Scot, p. 66.--Lea, iii, p. 493.]
[Footnote 12: Thorpe, i, p. 169.]
[Footnote 13: Id., i, p. 203.]
[Footnote 14: Id., ii, p. 249.]
[Footnote 15: Frith = brushwood, splot = plot of ground; sometimes used for 'splotch, splash'.]
[Footnote 16: Thorpe, i, pp. 311, 323, 351.]
[Footnote 17: Id., i, p. 379.]
[Footnote 18: Chronicles of Lanercost, p. 109, ed. Stevenson.]
[Footnote 19: Rymer, ii, 934.]
[Footnote 20: Bournon, p. 23.]
[Footnote 21: De Lancre, Tableau, pp. 124, 125, 126, 135, 208, 458.]
[Footnote 22: Bodin, Fl��au, p. 373.]
[Footnote 23: Bourignon, Parole, p. 87.--Hale, p. 27.]
[Footnote 24: Full Tryals of Notorious Witches, p. 8.]
[Footnote 25: Records of the Justiciary Court of Edinburgh, ii, p. 14.--Arnot, p. 359.]
[Footnote 26: Witches of Northamptonshire, p. 8.]

II. THE GOD
1. As God
It is impossible