[67] W. B. Gerish. _The Devil’s Delusions_, Bishops Stortford, 1914. [68] _Prodigious and Tragicall Histories_, London, 1652. [69] W. B. Gerish, _Relation of Mary Hall of Gadsden_, 1912. [70] T. B. Howell, _State Trials_, London, 1816. [71] Cotton Mather, _Wonders of the Invisible World_. CHAPTER III DEMONS AND FAMILIARS One of the most authoritative of the older writers upon Witchcraft, Francesco-Maria Guazzo, a member of the Congregation of S. Ambrose ad Nemus,[1] in his encyclopædic _Compendium Maleficarum_, first published at Milan, 1608, has drawn up under eleven heads those articles in which a solemn and complete profession of Witchcraft was then held to consist: _First_: The candidates have to conclude with the Devil, or some other Wizard or Magician acting in the Devil’s stead, an express compact by which, in the presence of witnesses they devote themselves to the service of evil, he giving them in exchange his pledge for riches, luxury, and such things as they desire. _Secondly_: They abjure the Catholic Faith, explicitly withdraw from their obedience to God, renounce Christ and in a particular manner the Patronage and Protection of Our Lady, curse all Saints, and forswear the Sacraments. In Guernsey, in 1617, Isabel Becquet went to Rocquaine Castle, “the usual place where the Devil kept his Sabbath: no sooner had she arrived there than the Devil came to her in the form of a dog, with two great horns sticking up: and with one of his paws (which seemed to her like hands) took her by the hand: and calling her by her name told her that she was welcome: then immediately the Devil made her kneel down: while he himself stood up on his hind legs; he then made her express detestation of the Eternal in these words: _I renounce God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost_; and then caused her to worship and invoke himself.”[2] De Lancre tells us that Jeannette d’Abadie, a lass of sixteen, confessed that she was made to “renounce & deny her Creator, the Holy Virgin, the Saints, Baptism, father, mother, relations, Heaven, earth, & all that the world contains.”[3] In a very full confession made by Louis Gaufridi on the second of April, 1611, to two Capuchins, Father Ange and Father Antoine, he revealed the formula of his abjuration of the Catholic faith. It ran thus: “I, Louis Gaufridi, renounce all good, both spiritual as well as temporal, which may be bestowed upon me by God, the Blessed Virgin Mary, all the Saints of Heaven, particularly my Patron S. John-Baptist, as also S. Peter, S. Paul, and S. Francis, and I give myself body and soul to Lucifer, before whom I stand, together with every good that I may ever possess (save always the benefit of the sacraments touching those who receive them). And according to the tenour of these terms have I signed and sealed.”[4] Madeleine de la Palud, one of his victims, used a longer and more detailed declaration in which