The bargain was usually in writing, signed with the witch's own blood. She was rebaptized, receiving a new name, and had to trample on the cross and renounce God and Christ (among Roman Catholics, also the Virgin Mary), in forms parodying the renunciation of the devil in the formula of Christian baptism. A mark was impressed on some part of her body; this mark remained forever after insensible, and was one of the means of discovery employed by the witch-finders. The powers conferred by Satan on these covenanted servants of his were essentially the same as had always been attrib uted to sorcerers; the mode of exorcising them was also the same, namely, by charms, incantations, concoctions, etc. The only change was in the theory. These mystic rites, instead of producing their effects by an inherent virtue, were merely symbols by which the witch conveyed herbehests to the devil and his ministers, who obeyed them accord ing to the compact. Another difference to be noted is, that the power was exclusively directed to work evil—to raise storms, blast crops, render men and beasts barren, inflict racking pain on an enemy, or make him pine away in sickness (which was usually done by making an image of wax, and sticking it full of pins, or setting it to melt away be fore the fire). If a witch attempted to do good, the devil was enraged, and chastised her. A remarkable circumstance is, that seem to have been powerless to serve their own interests, for they remained poor and miserable.
A. prominent point in witchcraft was the belief in stated meetings of witches and devils by night, called witches' Sabbaths. First anointing her feet and shoulders with a salve made of the fat of murdered and unbaptized children, the witch mounted a broom stick, distaff, rake, or the like, and, making her exit by the chimney, rode through the air to the place of rendezvous. If her own particular demon-lover came to fetch her, he sat on the staff before, and she behind him; or he came in the shape of a goat, and earned her off on his back. At the place of assembly, the arch-devil, in the shape of a large goat, with a black human countenance, sat on a high chair, and the witches and demons paid homage by kneeling to him, and kissing his posteriors. • The feast was lighted up with torches, all kindled at a light burning between the horns of the great goat. Among the viands there was no bread or salt; and they drank out of ox-hoofs and horses' skulls; but the meal neither satisfied the appetite nor nourished. After eat ing and drinking they danced to music played on a bagpipe with a horse's head for the bag, and a cat's tail for a chanter. In dancing, they turned their backs toward one another. In the intervals they narrated to ona another what mischief they had done, and planned more. The revel concluded with obscene debauchery; after which, the great goat burned himself to ashes, which were divided among the witches, to raise storms with. They returned as they came; and the husband was kept from being aware of the wife's absence by a stick being laid in the bed, which he mistook for her. The places of meeting were always such as had feelings of solemnity and awe attached to them, derived from tradition or otherwise; the more noted arc known to have been places of sacrifice in heathen times (see WALFURGA).
The prosecutions for witchcraft form one of the most deplorable episodes in human history. They show more strikingly than anything else has ever done, on the one hand, what relentless cruelty human nature is capable of under the influence of a fanat ical delusion; and on the other, how little reliance is to be placed on the concurrence of any number of witnesses when an extensive excitement prevails on a subject involv ing the sentiment of wonder. Multitudes will be found testifying, and hon estly, to alleged facts which fall in with the prevailing belief, but have no better found ation than their own heated imaginations.
In the early laws of Rome, the twelve tables, there were penal enactments against him who should bewitch the fruits of the earth, or conjure away his neighbor's corn into his own field. A century and a half later 170 Roman ladies were convicted of poisoning under the pretense of charms and incantations; which led to additional laws against such practices. But in all this, the penalties were directed against those who had done, or were believed to have done, positive injury to another; and this is prob ably the meaning of the Mosaic law against witchcraft. At all events in the heathen world, the mere possessing, or being believed to possess, supernatural powers, was not in itself a crime. It was feared, no doubt, as being liable to be turned to malicious purposes; but on the whole, magic was looked upon as a beneficial art, being, in fact, the only form of the healing art known, and in part also the religion of domestic life. This view of the subject continued to prevail for many centuries after the reception of Christianity. Constantine, in the 4th c., while ordaining capital punishment for those who practiced noxious charms against the life or health of others, is careful to protect from prosecution all magical means used for good—such as warding off hailstorms and excessive rains (Codex Justin. lib. ix. tit. 18); and the distinction between black and white magic was long kept up. It was through the prosecutions directed against heresy, which were systematically organized in the 11th c. (see IxqursurioN), that the magic arts came gradually to be all dyed black alike. Along with errors in doctrine, the here tics were almost always accused of magical practices, and their secret meetings were represented as a kind of devil-worship, attended with all kinds of abominations. Thus sorcery and heresy became synonymous, and to the dread of supernatural power was added the feeling of pious horror. White magic, no less than black, was now looked upon as the work of Satan; and the counter-charms against the malice of him and his agents were to be sought only in the rites of the church as ministered by the accredited servants of heaven. The belief in this ecclesiastical white magic was as zealously culti vated by the Protestant clergy as by the Roman Catholic.