# An Examen of Witches/Chapter 21

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Chapter XXI.
The fifth point in Françoise Secretain’s confession is that she had danced at the Sabbat, and had beaten water to produce hail. I have no doubt that she did many other things, but witches never confess more than half of what they have done. But since I have learned from others nearly everything that is done at the Sabbat, I propose to set it down here in writing, since the occasion offers.
Bodin, Demonom. II. 4.The witches, then, being assembled in their Synagogue, first worship Satan, who appears to them now in the shape of a big black man and now as a goat; and to do him the greater homage ​they offer him candles, which burn with a blue flame; then they kiss him on the shameful parts behind. Some kiss him on the shoulder; and at other times he holds up a black image which he requires the witches to kiss, according to Antide Colas, who said that, on kissing it, they offered a candle or burning torch. Jeanne Platet and Clauda Paget said that the Devil gave them these candles, and that after they had offered them they did not know what became of them.
Caron, Antichrist, I. Remy, Demonol. I. 17.Following this, they dance; and this they do in a ring back to back. Clauda Jamprost and Françoise Secretain have reported that the lame show more eagerness for these dances than do the others; for they said that the lame urged on the others to leap and dance. Now they dance in this manner back to back so that they may not be recognised; but in these days they make use of a different device for the same purpose, which is to mask themselves, according to the confessions of Clauda Paget, named la Foulet. There are also demons which join in these dances in the shape of goats or rams, as we learn from many witches besides those we have just mentioned; and particularly Antoine Tornier observed that, when she danced, a black ram held her up by the hands with his feet, which were, as she said, very hairy, that is to say, rough and rude.
They are not without pipes at these revels, for there are those whose duty it is to provide the dance music. Most often Satan plays upon the flute, and at other times the witches are content to sing with their voices; but they sing at haphazard and in such confusion that one cannot hear the other. Sometimes, but rarely, they dance in couples and at other times one here and ​another there, and always in confusion; for their dances are such as those of the fairies, which are truly devils in bodily form who had power no long time since.
After the dancing the witches begin to couple with each other; and in this matter the son does not spare his mother, nor the brother his sister, nor the father his daughter; but incest is commonly practised. The Persians also believed that, to be a competent and complete witch and magician, a person must be born of a mother by her son.
Catul. XC.Of son by mother is a witch conceived, If the foul Persian creed may be believed.
I may safely leave to the imagination the question whether or not every other kind of lechery known to the world is practised at the Sabbat: what is even more remarkable is that Satan becomes an Incubus for the women and a Succubus for the men. This is a fact to which George and Antoine Gandillon have testified and, before them, Antoine Tornier, Jacquema Paget and several others.
These incests and lecheries bring to my mind the practices of the Euchites and Gnostics. They used to meet together on Good Friday evening with certain women, who were their sisters and aunts and cousins, and had carnal connexion with them. Nine months later, they again met at the same place and, taking the children that had been born of these incestuous couplings, they cut them about all over their bodies and collected their blood in phials, and afterwards burned the bodies. They then mixed the blood with ashes and made a sauce, with which they seasoned their food and drink.
​After having abandoned themselves to such foul fleshly pleasures the witches fall to feasting and banqueting. In their banquets they have various kinds of meats, which differ according to the locality and the rank of those who are assembled. In our own district the table was covered with butter, cheese and flesh; Clauda Jamguillaume, Jacquema Paget and some others said that there was a great cauldron on the fire from which they all helped themselves to meat. Their drink is sometimes wine and sometimes water: Antoine Tornier said that she drank wine from a wooden cup, but the others mentioned nothing but water. But there is never any salt; for salt is a symbol of immortality, and is held in bitter abhorrence by the Devil. Levit. 2. Mark 9.Moreover, God commanded that salt should be mingled with every sacrifice or oblation which is offered to Him; and therefore it is used in Baptism, which is a sovereign antidote against the power of the Devil. It may also be said that, since salt is symbolical of wisdom, God in His hidden purpose does not allow it to be used at the Sabbat, so that the witches may know that all that they do is sheer folly.
Some have written that in the same way they never use bread; Remy, Demonol. I. 16.but Christofle of the village of Aranthon has testified to the contrary, saying that she had eaten bread, meat and cheese at the Sabbat.
But all witches are agreed that there is no taste at all in the dishes of which they eat at the Sabbat, and that the meat is nothing but horseflesh. And nearly all declare that when they leave the table they are as hungry as when they went to it. Antide Colas said that the food was cold; Clauda Vuillat, of the village of Mirebeau, that ​they ate nothing but wind at the Sabbat; Christofle of Aranthon that it seemed to her as if she had eaten nothing. All this shows how the Devil is always a deceiver, since he feeds his own people with wind instead of solid meat, as if they were chameleons. I have read that two Counts who were sorcerers followed his example, and treated their guests in such a way that they always came hungry away from their feasts; but Numa Pompilius and Pasetes had already acted in the same manner. But it must always be believed that, in most cases, those who eat at the Sabbat know very well what they are about.
Having finished the banquet, they render to Satan an account of what they have done since the last assembly; and those are the most welcome who have caused the death of the most persons and cattle, who have cast the most spells of illness, and spoiled the most fruit—in short, those who have done the most mischief and wickedness. Others, who have behaved rather more humanely, are hissed and derided by all, are set apart to one side, and are generally beaten and ill treated by their master; and from this arises the proverb that is common among them—“Do the worst you can, and the Devil will not know what to demand of you.”
At this point Satan forms a league with his followers against Heaven, and plots the ruin of the human race. He makes these wretched creatures repeat their renunciation of God, Chrism and Baptism, and renew the solemn oath they have taken never to speak of God, the Virgin Mary, or the Saints except in the way of mockery and derision: he makes them abandon their share in Paradise and promise that they will, ​on the contrary, for ever hold to him as their sole master and be always faithful to him. He then urges them to do all the harm that they can, to afflict their neighbours with illnesses, to kill their cattle, and to avenge themselves upon their enemies, saying to them: “Avenge yourselves, or you shall die.” Also he makes them promise to waste and spoil the fruits of the earth, and gives them a certain powder or ointment for that purpose—or so, at least, he persuades them to believe. Also he makes them take a solemn oath not to lay information against each other, and not to reveal anything that is done amongst them. This was part of the confession of Jacquema Paget, and the reason that she would say nothing against Antoine Tornier; Remy, Demonol. I. 18.and Judges should pay attention to this point.
Sixthly, the witches produce hail; but I shall explain later how this is done.
Sometimes, again, they say Mass at the Sabbat. But I cannot write without horror of the manner in which it is celebrated; Raemond, Antichrist, c. 7. num. 5.for he who is to say the office is clothed in a black cope with no cross upon it, and after putting the water in the chalice he turns his back to the altar, and then elevates, in place of the Host, a round of turnip coloured black; and then all the witches cry aloud: “Master, help us.” And to make Holy Water, the Devil pisses in a hole in the ground, and the worshippers are then sprinkled with his urine by the celebrant with a black asperge.
Bodin, Demonom. II. 4.Finally, Satan takes the form of a goat, consumes himself in flames, and burns to ashes which the witches collect and secrete for use in the performance of their execrable and abominable designs.
​Matth. 4. Can. nec mirum, 26. q. 5.Before ending this chapter I should like to point out how Satan in every way apes the living God. For to what purpose does he cause himself to be worshipped, if not to imitate Him? And are not his dances modelled upon those of the ancient Hebrews, who used to leap as a sign of eagerness whenever they offered anything to God or sang His praises? II Sam. 6.For thus did David when he played upon the harp before the Ark of the Old Testament. And further, may we not suppose that this cursed Serpent consumes and burns himself to ashes at the Sabbat in imitation of Matth. 26. Luke 22. Mark 14.what Jesus Christ did at the Last Supper which He prepared for His disciples, when He gave them His body to eat and His blood to drink? I pass over the abominable sacrifice which they make; for the hair stands up on my head when I think of it. And indeed I should not have mentioned this matter at all were it not that I hold that we can draw from it a strong argument to uphold the reality of the body and blood of Jesus Christ at the Holy Sacrament of the Altar; for if we were in error concerning this, the Devil would never have troubled to bring pollution upon the Mass, but would have allowed us to slip further and further into a perpetual idolatry. He acts in the same way with regard to the Holy Relics which we venerate and adore; for in mockery of them he causes his disciples to kiss his most shameful parts.
But, that we may not wander from our subject, let us now consider whether witches can produce hail.