Demonology -- Early works to 1800; Magic -- Early works to 1800; Witchcraft -- Early works to 1800
Sometimes their homage with their oth and bargaine is received for a
certeine terme of yeares; sometimes for ever. Sometimes it consisteth
in the deniall of the whole faith, sometimes in part. The first is,
when the soule is absolutelie yeelded to the divell and hell fier: the
other is, when they have but bargained [not] to observe certeine
ceremonies and statutes of the church; as to conceale faults at shrift,
to fast on sundaies, &c. And this is doone either by oth, protestation
of words, or by obligation in writing, sometimes sealed with wax,
sometimes signed with bloud, sometimes by kissing the divels bare
buttocks; as did a Doctor called _Edlin_, who as (_Bodin_ saith) was
burned for witchcraft.
♦Homage of witches to the divell.♦
You must also understand, that after they have delicatlie banketted
with the divell and the ladie of the fairies; and have eaten up a fat
oxe, and emptied a butt of malmesie, and a binne of bread at some
noble mans house, in the dead of the night, nothing is missed of all
this in the morning. For the ladie _Sibylla_, _Minerva_, or _Diana_
with a golden rod striketh the vessell & the binne, and they are
fullie replenished againe. Yea, she causeth the bullocks bones to be
brought and laid togither upon the hide, and lappeth the foure ends
thereof togither, laieng her golden rod thereon; and then riseth up the
bullocke againe in his former estate and condition: and yet at their
returne home they are like to starve for hunger; as _Spineus_ saith.
And this must be an infallible rule, that everie fortnight, or at the
least everie moneth, each witch must kill one child at the least for
hir part.
♦_Bar. Spineus, cap. 1. in novo Mal. malef._♦
♦_Idem Ibid._♦
And here some of _Monsieur Bodins_ lies may be inserted, who saith that
at these magicall assemblies, the witches never faile to danse; and
in their danse they sing these words; Har har, divell divell, danse
here, danse here, plaie here, plaie here, _Sabbath_, _sabbath_. And
whiles they sing and danse, everie one hath a broome in hir hand, and
holdeth it up aloft. Item he saith, that these night-walking or rather
night-dansing witches, brought out of _Italie_ into _France_, that
danse, which is called _La volta_.
♦_I. Bod. de dæmon. lib. 2, cap. 4._♦
A part of their league is, to scrape off the oile, which is received
in extreame follie (unction I should have said). But if that be so
dangerous, they which socke the corps had neede to take great care,
that they rub not off the oile, which divers other waies may also be
thrust out of the forehead; and then I perceive all the vertue thereof
is gone, and farewell it. But I marvell how they take on to preserve
the water powred on them in baptisme, which I take to be largelie of
as great force as the other; and yet I thinke is commonlie wiped and
washed off, within foure and twentie houres after baptisme: but this
agreeth with the residue of their follie.
♦_Mal. malef._♦
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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