National opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1865-1874, 1873-02-14
Witchcraft.

II was in Germany that the belief il
witchcraft seems TO have first taken tina
/ dark, systematcnl form which held q,
fearful sway over mems minds in tn
sixteenth and seventecth centuries
There the wilder superstitions Of th,
ancient Teutonic creed have been pre-
served in greater force than in any 9th
er part OF Europe. The pious legends
of Cesarus Of Heisterbach, who -four
ished in the earlier part of the thir
teenth century, are little better than q
mass Of stories Of magic and sorcery.
The imaginative feelings of the people,
and tho wild character Of many parts OF
the country, were peculiarly calculated
to foster supersttions of this charac-
ter.
In fact, we may there trace back dis
tinctly most Of the circumstances of the
earlier belief relating to witchcraft TO
the mythology of the ante Christian Pc
Rod. The grand night of meeting OF
the German witches was the Night of
st. WalPurgia, which answered to one
of the religious festivals of the leu
tonic tribes before their conversion. in
after times two other nights of annual
assembly were added-thoso of the
feasts OF st. John and ST. Bartholomew.
1t probable that, as Christianity gain
ed ground, and been established rs tho
the religion of the state, the old reli-
gious festivals, to which the lower and
more Ignorant part of the people, and
particularly the weaker sex more sus-
ceptlblc OF superstitious feelings), were
still attached, were celebrated in solita-
ry places and in private, and those who
frequentcd them were branded as witch
es and sorcerers, who met together to
hold communication with demons, for
as such the earlier Christians looked
upon all the heather gods. This gives
us an easy explanation of the manner in
which the heather worship became
transformed into the witchcraft of the |
middle ages.
At an early period it was commonly
believed that the witches rode through
the air to place of rendezvous on reeds
and sticks, or on brooms, which latter
were the articles readiest at hand to
women of thiS classic society. The
chief place of meeting of the great an
lual witch festivals IN Germany appears
% have been, from an early period, the
Broken Mountain, the highest part of
he wild Hartz chain: but there were
several other places of resort.
The persons believed to have been {
initiated at their assemblies were looked
lpon with dread; for they were sup /
'osed to be capable of I'M uring people (
II various ways, both i'll their persons t
nd their possessions, and their malice 4
'as especially directed against little i
hildren.
One of the earliest trials for witch .
raft, unconnected with other offences J
n the Continent, is that of woman in |
he bishopric of Novara, on the north y
IN borders of Italy, about the middle $
the fourteenth century; and it illus f
rates the general belief which also pre-
allied III Germany at that period.
1t appears, from the slight account
Inch remains of the trial, that the be-
eff then held by the Church vas, that q
omen of this class. could by their v
ouch or look fascinate men, or chill .
rem, or beasts, so rs to produce sick !.
ess or death; and they believed fur 4
Ter, that they had devoted their own :, u
'nls to the demon, to whom also they :
adj done personal homage, after having :,
ampled under foot tho figure of the IL IL
'oss. For these offenses they were =
ldged by the most learned theolo {
ans to be worthy of being burnt at the a
AXE u