goat rampant; a chasuble that bore the inverse Cross, and similar robes adorned by some needle with the heraldry of hell. In bitter mockery of the _Asperges_ the celebrant sprinkled the witches with filthy and brackish water, or even with stale. “The Devil at the same time made water into a hole dug in the earth, & used it as holy water, wherewith the celebrant of the mass sprinkled all present, using a black aspergillum.”[130] Silvain Nevillon, a sorcerer who was tried at Orleans in 1614-1615, said: “When Tramesabot said Mass, before he commenced he used to sprinkle all present with holy water which was nothing else than urine, saying meanwhile _Asperges Diaboli_.”[131] According to Gentien le Clerc: “The holy water is yellow ... & after it has been duly sprinkled Mass is said.”[132] Madeleine de la Palud declared that the sorcerers were sprinkled with water, and also with consecrated wine from the chalice upon which all present cried aloud: _Sanguis eius super nos et super filios nostros._[133] (His blood be upon us and upon our children.) This foul travesty of the holiest mysteries began with an invocation of the Devil, which was followed by a kind of general confession, only each one made mock acknowledgement of any good he might have done, and as a penance he was enjoined to utter some foul blasphemy or to break some precept of the Church. The president absolved the congregation by an inverse sign of the Cross made with the left hand. The rite then proceeded with shameless profanity, but De Lancre remarks that the _Confiteor_ was never said, not even in a burlesque form, and _Alleluia_ never pronounced. After reciting the Offertory the celebrant drew back a little from the altar and the assembly advancing in file kissed his left hand. When the Queen of the Sabbat—the witch who ranked first after the Grand Master, the oldest and most evil of the witches (“en chasque village,” says De Lancre, “trouuer vne Royne du Sabbat”)—was present she sat on the left of the altar and received the offerings, loaves, eggs, any meat or country produce, and money, so long as the coins were not stamped with a cross. In her hand she held a disc or plate “vne paix ou platine,” engraved with a figure of the Devil, and this his followers devoutly kissed. In many places to-day, especially Belgium, during Holy Mass the pax-brede (_instrumentum pacis_) is kissed by the congregation at the Offertory, and universally when Mass is said by a priest in the presence of a Prelate the pax-brede is kissed by the officiant and the Prelate after the _Agnus Dei_ and the first appropriate ante-communion prayer. Silvain Nevillon, who was tried at Orleans in 1614-15, avowed: “The Devil preached a sermon at the Sabbat, but nobody could hear what he said, for he spoke in a growl.”[134] At the Sabbat a sermon is not infrequently delivered, a farrago of impiety and evil counsel.