Section ofthe History ofMedicine · the Inquisition soughtto obtainconfession, con-viction and...

Volume 59 September 1966

Section of theHistory of Medicine

PresidentW S C Copeman CBE FRCP

Meeting March 21966

Paper

Historical Witchcraft and Psychiatricillness in Western Europeby R E Hemphill MD DPM(Barrow Hospital, near Bristol)

Historical witchcraft is to be distinguished frompopular and romantic witchcraft, and professionalmagic. Witch hunting was anepisodeinthe historyofman that for sustained brutality, cynical crueltyand dishonesty has never been surpassed. Theinvention and propagation of the witchcraftdelusion extended for over two centuries. Itinvolved persons in every rank of society, and didincalculable harm to the progress of science,medicine, culture and humanity. Thousands ofmental patients were sacrificed, and probablyevery manifestation of witchcraft can be explainedby psychological mechanisms, mental illness, orthe action of deliriant drugs.

Sorcery is 'an attempt to control nature, and toproduce good or evil results, generally by the aidof evil spirits' (Robbins 1959). Closely allied tomagic, it has existed in every culture, race andreligion from the dawn of society.

Sorcery was punishable by death in the secularand ecclesiastical courts in Europe from earlytimes. It is to be distinguished from witchcraftproper (historical) in which a contract between thewitch and the Devil was implied. Witchcrafttherefore was a heresy and was punished as suchfrom the middle of the fifteenth century.

Inquisitorial CourtsDuring the twelfth and thirteenth centuries,popes with their state police and great secularpowers established ecclesiastical courts for thedetection and eradication of heresy. Heresy, oneof the greatest of crimes, was holding views orperforming acts contrary to the teaching of theChurch. The heretic would not only contaminateothers by leading them away from the Church,but by dying unrepentant would spend eternityin hell fire. Thus in the spiritual interest of heretics

the Inquisition sought to obtain confession, con-viction and repentance; this was achieved bytorture. The heretics were 'relaxed', i.e. handedover to the civil authorities for punishment.Those who confessed were graciously strangledbefore being burned, and the unrepentant wereburned alive in public. Few accused heretics areknown to have been acquitted.The legal procedure was unusual. Prisoners

were arrested on suspicion or denounced, andwere deemed guilty until they could prove thereverse. They were allowed neither witnesses nordefending counsel, for these would be regarded assupporting heresy, and would themselves riskbeing charged as heresy lovers or later as witchlovers. Church witnesses were permitted to beanonymous. The inquisitors would plead with theprisoner, trying to get him to confess and see theerror of his ways for the benefit of his soul.

In theory the Inquisition was intended toestablish truth and correct spiritual mistakes, sothat the notion of defending counsel is out ofplace. With this procedure tens of thousands ofso-called heretics were burned. The last sentencepassed by the Inquisition was in Spain in 1808.

Beliefin Spirits or MagicChristians of the medieval world believed thatgood and bad spirits could assume the shapes ofliving creatures and that the devil was a physicalreality who had been given limited powers byGod to bring about happenings in the materialworld and to possess, if he could, the souls ofmen. With the evidence that the Bible provided(e.g. Witch of Endor, 1 Sam. xxviii.7), noeducated Christian could doubt that demons andwitches existed or that the holy writ stated that awitch should not be permitted to live (Exodusxxii. 18).

Life was short, infant mortality high, plaguesand epidemics decimated the population, chronicillnesses, notably intestinal infections, wereaccepted as normal, therapeutic medicine wasineffective, Christians were terrified of being

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892 Proceedings ofthe Royal Society ofMedicine

Fig 1 Demons and angels contending for the soul of adying man ('Ars moriendi': Augsburg, c. 1471)

condemned after death to torture and the fire ofhell for eternity, from which only the Churchcould ensure salvation. On the death bed ademon might snatch the soul (Fig 1); thus thefears of heresy and of the power of the Devil weremore potent than that of death itself.However, in the fifteenth century, as these

superstitions were increasingly challenged by thescepticism and scientific thinking of theRenaissance, the Church, seeking to extend thepowers and scope of the Inquisition, designatedwitchcraft as a heresy. Following St ThomasAquinas (1227-74) the official instruction of theChurch was that acts of witches were illusions orfantasies originating in dreams, and that it washeresy to believe in the actuality of witchcraft.

In 1489 Sprenger & Kramer published 'TheMalleus Malleficarum'. This great textbookdefined witchcraft and codified the actions to betaken against witchcraft as heresy. Pope InnocentVIII recognized the book, and in a Bull estab-lished witchcraft as the most extreme form ofheresy. He was one of the most corrupt of Popes.He died in 1492, and in his struggle to surviveand be rejuvenated it is said that he was suckled bya woman and that three boys were sacrifiecd in anattempt at blood transfusion, no doubt one of theearliest attempts recorded. His Bull establishedthe witchcraft delusion and the era of historicalwitchcraft.

The Reformation did not question the validityof witchcraft, and with it witch trials were pro-moted with even greater severity by Calvinist,Lutheran and other reform governments. Theprosecution of witchcraft was taken over by thesecular courts. The German Rhineland and Swissstates, particularly the great centres of culturesuch as Bonn, Strasbourg, Bamberg and Treves,exceeded all others in savagery. Scotland wasclose behind, with at least 4,400 executions by fire.One hundred thousand witches were burned inGermany; from 1615 to 1653 five thousand wereburned in Strasbourg alone. In seven years twovillages near Treves were burned out, and inanother village only two women remained alive.Bamberg was named the Shrine of Horror, and atraveller through Switzerland and the Rhinelandin the seventeeth century described the forests ofburned stakes on the outskirts of the towns. OnePrince Archbishop boasted of having himselfcondemned nine hundred persons.England was relatively moderate. Trials were

common chiefly in the counties where Calvinistrefugees from the Continent had settled. Probablyless than 1,000 persons were executed altogether.In 1727, however, in Scotland a woman wasburned for 'having used her daughter as a flyinghorse'.The first witch trial in Ireland was that of the

Lady Alice Kyteler, charged with sorcery, andnot more than seven others up to 1711 have beenrecorded. But the last killing for witchcraft inEurope was the burning of a so-called witch byher relatives near Clonmel in County Tipperaryin March 1894. The culprits were found guilty ofmanslaughter.The last execution for witchcraft took place in

Germany in 1775.

WitchcraftAccording to the new conception, witches wereChristians, male or female, who had becomeagents of the Devil and had been given magicpowers, a sort of underground army of religioussaboteurs. Witchcraft was the official name of thisheresy and it implied two things: (1) Havingmade a pact with the Devil to harm the Church(Figs 2, 3) and (2) Performing evil deedsknown as malefici. These deeds might be harmfulto Christians in order to break their faith, or en-joyable so as to seduce them from it. Causingplagues or death would be examples of theformer; sexual enticements of the latter. In theContinental witch trials proof of a contract withthe Devil was sought, but in England evidence ofphysical harm only was required. Paradoxicallyas Jews and infidels were not Christians theycould not be charged with witchcraft.

JR

Section ofthe History ofMedicine

Fig 2 The Devilforces apact upon those who have madehim appear (Guaccius, 'Compendium maleficarum').The magic circle drawn around the company has failedto protect themfrom the DevilWitchesA witch might be man or woman. The traditionalpicture of the dirty old hag was introducedrather later as the Church thought that theseductive young siren might be too tempting.The modem use of the terms bewitched, en-chanting, charming, or of the beautiful witch goesback to the early idea of supernatural feminineenticements. The witch appeared to lead a normallife, secretly performing as a witch until suspicionfell on her. Her real nature was only revealed atthe trial when, under torture, she was forced toconfess.

After a number of trials and confessions, muchcame to be known about the biology, naturalhistory and habits of witches. This was set downin the textbooks of demonologists for the use ofjudges, and we are indebted to them for most ofwhat we know about the subject. Some of thedemonologists were outstanding lawyers oracademic teachers of the sixteenth and seventeenthcenturies, and it is a sobering thought that theseexperts dreamed the whole business up and wrotetheir textbooks from the security of their cham-bers and universities without the slightest refer-ence to scientific and factual evidence. With theinvention of printing in the fifteenth centuryillustrations of witch activity had a wide circula-tion. The public who read the accounts and sawthe illustrations became greatly aware of theirperil, and therefore much more watchful andready to report suspicions to the authorities alltoo eager for victims. Persons of every rank, ageand profession were burned, and their propertyconfiscated. This was a considerable inducementto charge the rich, especially as virtually no onecharged on the Continent ever escaped. Theinvention of printing with the publication ofillustrations was an even greater instrument of

Fig 3 A demon carrying away a child underthe eyes of its parents, who had promised itto him by pact ('Der Ritter vom Turn':Augsburg, 1498)propaganda than radio and television are in thiscentury.The following technical terms were used in

demonologies and witch trials:

Witch: 'One that worketh for the Devil, hunting orhealing, for telling things to come, which the Devil hasdevised to snare men's souls to damnation' (Gifford1587).Witchcraft: Implies a pact with the Devil.Lycanthropy: Metamorphosis or transformation intoa wild animal with a sadistic craving for blood, e.g.werewolf.Sorcery: Attempt to control nature to produce goodor evil results by the aid of spirits.Necromancy (=Divination): Includes revealing hiddentreasure and other practices by calling up the Devil inthe likeness of one who has died.Sabbat: Nocturnal assembly of witches.Familiar (=Imp): A low-ranking demon, shaped as adomestic animal, given to witches by the Devil, towork for him, even to commit murder.Charm: Magic, usually involving an incantation, tosecure a result.Potion: A mixture with magical properties to beadministered to the object or victim; includes lovephiltre.Incubus: A lewd demon who seeks sexual intercoursewith a woman.Succubus: The same, but with a man.Ligature: Impotence, produced by sorcery by tyingknots in a thread or administering potions.Poppet: Wax figurine made in the likeness of theintended victim, who by 'sympathetic' magic wouldsuffer or die as the image was treated, e.g. stabbed,burned, &c.Obsession: The activation and controlling of the mindof the victim against his will by Satan (cf. schizophrenic'thought control').Possession: Inhabiting or possessing the victim bySatan.Exorcism: Driving the Devil out of the possessedperson by a priest.

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Witch ActivitiesThe more important activities are as follows:

The Pact: Witches undertook to blaspheme and l1to desecrate the Host, to defile corpses, tocommit sexual offences, to pervert and corrupt, asagents in the Devil's war against the Church.

Sabbat: The witches' sabbat was a nocturnalrally of witches who flew on forks, later broom-sticks, to some remote place. The ceremonyincluded worshipping the Devil in the form of agoat, which involved kissing his posterior, andfrom which no doubt the vulgar incantation ofrejection in popular use today is derived; desecra-tion of the Host, stolen from the altar, by mixingit with blood or urine; dancing, often back toback, copulation with devils and various sexualperversions. There was a banquet and thedemonologists insisted that the food tastedfilthy. In Scotland there was better value formoney; the sabbat was described as a sort ofsexual highland games at which whisky wasdistributed.

Ointments and potions: Witches were enabled tofly or change themselves into animals by use of an

Fig 5 Witch preparing a philtre. The lover is appearing.The love philtre is compounded of drugs and a heart.(German,fifteenth century)

ointment (Fig 4). This was compounded frommany disgusting objects such as dead toads andsnakes brewed up with the blood of babies and theleaves of herbs; the fat of corpses was the base.

r Most 'flying ointments' contained aconite orbelladonna with human fat as a basis, and thealkaloids were probably well absorbed throughthe skin. Professional witches sold 'killing

/a00 + aj ointment' or 'killing powder', and potions andA. charms intended to harm or poison others, or

influence sexual powers and attraction (Fig 5).

Sex: The sexual activities of witches were greatlydreaded (Fig 6). The Devil or witches couldcopulate with men or women during sleep, the

;,incubus with awoman and the succubus with aman; the former were more numerous as womenwere said to be more susceptible. The purposeof this was partly to corrupt and partly to procuredevil progeny. The demon would collect semen

9'! ^ ^sfroma male or the succubus in copulation during.; v: .# z6^-t.sleep.It would then be frozen and introduced16 ~~~~-`. ~~~into a woman by the incubus impregnating her-

the earliest example of AID. There are numerousFig4 Compoundingthe sorcerer's unguent(HansBaldung, descriptions of the copulation experienced, par-1475-1545). Witches areflying onforks not broomsticks ticularly from the testimony of nuns. All agree

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that it was extremely unpleasant or painful andthe experience was of ice-cold intercourse. Nodoubt the women had sexual nightmares andawakened cold and terrified at the thought that adevil or witch had visited them.

Ligature: This was impotence in the male causedby potions and tying a knot in string or hair andleaving it in the house. Potency could only berestored when the object had been discovered andthe knot untied. The greatest scholars of theChurch and universities believed in these sexualactivities, about which holy inquisitors andcelibate scholars had an insatiable curiosity.

Common disasters: Disasters such as the death ofa cow, tempests, destruction of the crops by rain,were attributed to witchcraft.

Illness: Witches were frequently blamed forcausing epidemic deaths of several children in onehousehold or for causing a sudden death, and'plague smearers' were accused of disseminatingplague by smearing ointment made from corpseson the doors of houses. In Milan and Naplesparticularly, innocent persons were torturedsavagely to death during the plague visitations forthis reason.

Demoniacal possession: The Devil by witchcraftcould occupy the body of a victim and by obses-sion control his thoughts. The Devil might beexpelled by exorcism. Possession figured promi-nently in the French trials of the seventeenthcentury.

Nightmares: Nightmares were the nocturnalvisitation of a sexual demon or 'mare', not a

Fig 6 A demon making love to a witch (Molitor 1489).Thefirst known representation ofa devil making love

Fig 7 A witch andher imps, AD 1621

horse, who all but killed the victim and left heroppressed, terrified and exhausted, well expressedby Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) in his poem,'The Nightmare':

'So in his nightmare, thro' the evening fog,Flits the squat fiend o'er fen, lake and bog;Seeks some love-wildered maid, with sleep oppressed,Alights, and grinning sits upon her breast ...Back o'er her pillow sinks her blushing head,Then snow white limbs hang helpless from the bed;While with quick sighs and suffocative breathHer interrupted heart pulse swims in death.'

Imps andfamiliars: These minor spirits, usually inthe guise of domestic animals, who assistedwitches, figured prominently in the English witchtrials (Fig 7).

From all the above we ask - where did theevidence come from? It was compounded fromsuperstitious beliefs and fears and from theforced and manufactured confessions of thewitch trials. But there is no doubt that a largenumber of those indicted were mentally ill andthat they implicated themselves by their strangebehaviour and statements, and so providedmaterial for the witch hunters all too eager formore victims.

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Witch TrialsThe Continental and Scottish witch trials weremodelled on the procedure of the Courts ofInquisition. Many detailed accounts of trials havebeen preserved and some of these make the mostharrowing and gruesome reading possible. Everyvictim accused of witchcraft was ordered toconfess. He (or she) usually refused, was shownthe instruments of torture and then tortured untila confession was obtained. Having confessed, hewas tortured still further to reveal his accomplices.Eventually, when no more could be got from him,if he confessed and did not recant he was usuallystrangled before being burned.The poor prisoner was in an impossible

dilemma. By confessing to witchcraft andproclaiming his contract with the Devil heautomatically condemned himself to eternalhell-fire. If he did not confess he had to enduretorture. This seems to be the main reason why somany ordinary people withdrew their confessionsat the end, even though they knew they would beretortured or burned alive. This aspect places thewitch trials in an even higher category of horrorthan their modern political counterparts.The majority of women were forced to admit

that they had attended Sabbats, and reveal thenames of their companions.On the Continent the methods and stages of

torture were standardized: Strappado was usuallyfirst; this was hoisting the prisoner on a ladderand stretching the limbs by ropes over the rungs.Thumb screws were applied to the joints of thefingers and toes to smash them to pulp. Squassa-tion was more severe; the victim was trussed andhoisted up with weights attached to the feet andwas then dropped sharply so that the jerkdislocated his joints or even his spine. SpanishBoots or vices were applied to the legs or arms,wedges were driven in exerting more pressureuntil the bones were smashed and the marrowexuded. Various refinements of fire were applied,such as red hot pincers, burning of the throat andtongue, and in Bamberg an iron chair whichcould be slowly heated was used and even anoven.

In England torture was not officially used,witches were hanged and rarely burned alive,although in the reign of Henry VIII some wereboiled (Fig 8). It is reckoned that between 5%and 40%, as a rule not more than 20%, of theaccused were punished at the English witchcourts, with the execution peak in the reign ofElizabeth I.However, the English, by using fatigue and

sensory deprivation, may have been successful inforcing the victims to believe in their guilt. Thewitch was kept in the dark alone and then walked,if necessary for days, to keep her awake. In the

confused delirium so produced the victim nodoubt believed what she confessed. The Englishwere particularly clinical and looked for physicalsigns. These were scars from Devil scratches,accessory nipples (which might be warts) wherethe Devil had sucked, and areas of anaesthesia(common in hysterics) or areas which did notbleed on being pricked. The victim was shaved allover and inspected for marks. She was thenpricked for aniesthesia and failure to bleed. Witchfinders are known to have employed prickers withblades that could be retracted into the shaft so asto cause no pain when touched. An ancientclinical test was swimming - if the victim floatedshe was guilty. In England the witch finderstrussed the victims with toes and thumbs togetherbefore throwing them into the pool.Witch trials were lucrative for judges, witnesses

and torturers. They were expensive and thevictims' families had to pay all the costs. Thecanny Scots sometimes released a victim as fundshad run out and neither torture nor burning wasavailable free.

It was not long before, through the smoke ofthe witch fires, appeared that sinister specialist,the witch finder. When accusations and mentalpatients began to run out he claimed to be able todetect witches. He flourished in Germany and for

S Th e Apprehenflon and confefsionofthree notoriouis Witches.

vfrretgned and byIufiie condemnedandcxcuted at (helust,-forde, in the Counryc of

Etfex, th x. d4yoflxe, Lo,#pw.j.I 1 9.

¶ With themanneroftheirdsuciih praaiccs and kceepingofthciL(pirits,whorefourmesarehecrein truelyc

proportionecL

Fig 8 Executions at Chelmsford, AD 1589

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Fig 9 A witch hunter andhis victims, AD 1647

a while in England. The most evil and celebratedwas Matthew Hopkins (d. 1646) (Fig 9). Thewitch finder would visit a town like a sort ofsanitary inspector, sow fears in people's minds,make profitable suggestions to the administration,and for a fee would set about his clinical examina-tion of those he suspected, nearly always withpositive results. In the North of England and inScotland, witch finders received twenty shillingsa head. It was said that judicious bribes couldproduce a negative result occasionally, and somewitch finders specialized in investigating youngand attractive married women whose husbandswere eager to buy them off.

MEDICAL AND PSYCHIATRIC CONSIDERATIONSIn this drama there was a psychological inter-action between the three participants - the public,the accusers and the accused.

The PublicThe effect of the witch hunting on the publiccannot be over-estimated. The daily sight ofburnings and the terror of torture in this worldand damnation in the next, as well as the real fearof witches, must have influenced the attitude anddaily relationships of people and coloured theirthoughts and dreams. People might wake from anightmare screaming about the Devil, only to bereported to the magistrates next day. Drunkenarguments must have been risky and this deeplyrooted topic must have entered into the delusionsof the psychotics.

Although it is doubtful if the terrified publicreally questioned the validity of the witch theory,they would have been careful to avoid expressionssuch as 'Devil take it', 'Go to the Devil', &c. Aslong as there was no scientific explanation fornatural disasters and no practical remedies, itwas difficult to doubt that witchcraft, with theauthority of the learned, might be responsible.

The AccusersNo doubt many persons were accused fraud-ulently by those who would benefit from theconfiscation of their property or who had aninterest in getting them out of the way, or, likethe witch finder, in the commerce of witch trials.Many were implicated by the forced con-

fessions of other victims. But apart from these,suspicion usually fell upon persons either becausethey were suspected of doing evil or because theydirected it to themselves.

In Scotland a woman was burned because arabbit had been seen every morning in front of herdoor when a neighbour's child became ill anddied. A cow was found dead: the witch, who wasburned, had taken it for food for the Devil who,having eaten it, had restored the flesh again inorder to deceive the Christians.

Believing that such things were possible,paranoid persons had an enormous predispositionto develop suspicions that they were the victimsof witchcraft. Today there are many cases ofparanoia in which innocent persons are chargedby the psychotic with having done harm, affectedthe mind, poisoned the spouse or interfered withsexual powers. Clinical histories of these readexactly like evidence in witch trials. Thesepatients still report their suspicions to the policeas their ancestors did to the witch authorities.

Children, who today believe in space fiction orfairies, in the past were regular accusers, some-times fraudulently, sometimes genuinely, andthere is a sad list of convictions on children'sevidence alone, e.g. the Salem witches inConnecticut dramatized in 'The Crucible'. Somechildren accused for the publicity like WilliamPerry, the Bilson boy, who in 1620 was observedpouring ink into his chamber pot and stuffing apad of inky cotton wool into his prepuce,claiming that his urine had been bewitched.

In 1590 a pupil reported that the noble DrFian, a schoolmaster, had offered to teach himwithout whipping if he would procure three pubichairs from his sister so that the doctor could makea love philtre to secure her affection. The brotherand sister slept in the same bed. The boy un-successfully tried to pull out the hairs when hissister slept; she woke, called her mother andreported him. The mother, with experience ofwitchcraft, knew what it was about, cut three

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hairs from the udder of a heifer which were usedby Dr Fian with the result that the lovesick heiferfollowed him about the town and into Church.He was viciously tortured and his legs weresnapped in the vices for this and other witchcharges in the presence of King James I in thefamous North Berwick trial.

The AccusedMany persons suffering from mental illnessincriminated themselves, and without their state-ments the witchcraft delusion could hardly havebeen made credible. The most important illnesseswere depression, delirium due to malnutrition,schizophrenia and epilepsy.

Depression: Those suffering from depression havefeelings of guilt and frequently accuse themselvesof real or imagined sins. They may say that theyhave denied God, blasphemed or been taken bythe Devil, and may attempt suicide. Thesedelusions are common even today. The delusionwill disappear with cure but usually return inidentical form in subsequent attacks. During theprolonged imprisonment of the witch trial andperhaps as a result of the gross physiologicalstresses involved, remission of depression oftenoccurred. The patient would then deny the earlyconfession and be put to torture again.

Excitement: The ramblings, boastings anddelusions of mania, GPI, states of delirium anddisturbances due to alcohol and brain damagewould also have been incriminating.The old witch was no doubt often dementing,

paranoid or lonely and depressed, suffering frommalnutrition or the cerebral results of vitamindeficiency that are often seen today. It is perhapsnot a coincidence that the typical witch isdepicted as aged and emaciated: Reginald Scot(1584) drew attention to this.

Schizophrenia: The delusions and hallucinationsof schizophrenia reflect the potent emotional andpsychological influences of development, archaicfears and primitive thinking. The patient attri-butes hallucinations according to contemporaryknowledge; imaginary voices, thought controland the like, which today they will say are due tocosmic rays and physical phenomena, wouldearlier have been due to magic and witchcraft.The fixed postures of schizophrenics maysymbolize their delusions, and the bizarreconversation, writing and painting would supporta suspicion of witchcraft which would be con-firmed by the indifference to cold and painsometimes seen, and particularly the inability toshake the professed delusions by any argumentsor inducements.

The spontaneous paintings of schizophrenicsoften depict or imply the supernatural. That theydid so in the seventeenth century is shown byChristoph Haizmann's paintings of the Devil,reproduced and commented on by Macalpine &Hunter (1956).

Self-accusation: There are obsessional personswho, disturbed by some natural disaster or crime,give themselves up falsely so that they can getreassurance with exoneration by the police. Thereis usually some remote coincidental connexionbetween them and the event that triggered off theemotional doubt. Some hysterics do the same.Masochists, who derive physical and sexualsatisfaction from being humiliated, beaten ortortured by others, may have been tempted toaccuse themselves in order to be punished.

Psychosomatic aspects: It is to be expected thatthe extreme emotional stresses of accusation andinvestigation produced vasomotor and psychoso-matic reactions such as blanching or blushing.

In the English witch trials the witch finderslooked for patches of anxsthesia and areas thatdid not bleed. Some hysterics complied. A certainColonel Hobson (1649), in one of the earliestpsychophysiological observations, noted thatwhen the witch finder in public threw the skirts ofa respectable woman over her head and thrust aneedle into her thigh she became pale withembarrassment and did not bleed. Hobson laterraised her skirt to show blood pouring from theprick, and ordered her release (Robbins 1959).

Demoniacal possession: Before the discovery ofmodern anticonvulsant drugs, epileptics had veryfrequent major fits. These must have been acommon and arresting sight. The attack, the fall,convulsive movements, post-convulsive be-haviour, confused speaking and exhaustionbefore return to normality, would reasonablyseem to be due to the struggle of the victim withthe devil who tried to possess her. Ceremonialexorcism by a priest seemed to drive out the devilat the end of a fit but gave no guarantee that itwould not return. The epileptic was believed to bethe victim and not usually held to blame, but itwas necessary to torture her so that she wouldreveal the witch or source from which the devilcame to possess her. In this way many personswere incriminated. The spiteful disposition orparanoid delusions found in some epilepticswould have led them to charge those theydisliked.

Persons of hysterical make-up who hadwitnessed epileptic fits might develop hystero-epilepsy, which is rarely seen today, and out-bursts of hystero-epilepsy with much immoderate


and released sexual behaviour were common inthe convents in France in the seventeenth century.Sometimes the priest or confessor, like Grandier

at Loudun, was named by the possessed andtortured; sometimes the victim was the prioresslike Sister Renato (1749). The atmosphere ofthese convents was emotionally charged, and onegenuine epileptic would have been sufficient to setoff a whole group ofwomen.

Similarly, trance-like states with highly hys-terical behaviour occur today in revivalistmeetings in the USA.

Hysterical psychopaths no doubt invented lies.In 1550 in Brabant nuns climbed trees like catsand said they were levitated, and a respectablewoman was tortured into confessing that she hadbewitched the convent. In 1583 Jesuits 'expelled'12,652 living demons from a 16 year-old boywhich 'his grandmother had kept as flies in glassjars in the kitchen'. The old lady, under torture,confessed to having had sexual intercourse withthe Devil in the shape of a ball of thread. Shewas burned alive (Robbins 1959).

DrugsDeliriant drugs derived from various leaves andherbs have been taken by all races to induceintoxication and altered mental states. Dr Weyerthought that digitalis and belladonna in the witchointment were responsible for sensations of flyingand floating with the dream of attending thesabbat, and Alphonso de Torado (1451), Bishopof Avila, stated that the sabbat was entirely dueto the delusions caused by taking drugs. Themodern experiments with mescaline are familiarto everybody. The altered perceptions, dreamsand experiences of the drug-intoxicated persons,as well as their utterances, may well have beenattributed to witchcraft. Some people no doubtdeliberately sought potions, charms and ointmentin order to acquire demoniac or magical powersfor themselves. It is probable that some womendeliberately used 'flying ointment' in the hope ofattending a sabbat.

Professional Magicians andSorcerersFortune tellers have always been punished underEnglish law and still are for fraud but not forsorcery or heresy; there have always been pro-fessional magicians. In the past the alchemists, thefathers of modem chemistry, conjurers, faithhealers, quack doctors, and those who couldclaim to foretell the future and the stars and evento detect buried treasure had a recognized placein communities. They seem to have practisedmore or less with impunity right through theheight of the witch burning. Perhaps they weretoo useful to destroy and a blind eye was turnedon them. Theologians argued about whether

'good' magic as well as 'bad' magic should bedealt with as heresy.

'Wise' men and 'wise' women practised a formof medicine, horse doctoring and magic in mostvillages, and probably did useful work. However,these magicians have been rightly accused of theevil role of suppliers of poisons as well as lovephiltres - often theformer for thehusband and thelatter for the intended lover! Arsenic powdermight be scattered on a victim's shirt, which wasso infrequently changed that chronic arsenicalpoisoning was the result.

In England witches were executed for treason,the charge being that they had employed spells byconjuration to destroy the Monarch, who heldhis office by divine right. Elizabeth I was par-ticularly susceptible to this threat and to the fearof being poisoned. No doubt many so-calledpoison deaths were really due to typhoid orintestinal infections, and it is interesting that thedeath of the Prince of Wales in 1612 was the firstcase of typhoid fever recorded in England.

In France these practitioners were muchpatronized by the courtiers of Louis XIV. Therewere so many scandals and deaths by poison thata special court - the Chambre Ardente - was setup by Louis XIV to investigate them. Theactivities of Madame de Montespan are typical ofthe disclosures revealed by the Court. Madamede Montespan competed with others for theinfluential post of chief mistress to the King. Shecelebrated a Black Mass and had prepared a lovephiltre, and this is what was recorded at theinvestigation:

'In 1668 a love powder was prescribed for Louis XIV.It was a horrible mixture of burned bones, toads,moles' teeth, powdered remains of corpses andcantharides powder, with extract of prunes (as well asvarious additions from the human body). The King,in spite of his well-known strong stomach, complainedof flatulence and sickness to such an extent that thedoctors, mystified, could not discover the origin'(Truc 1936).

We are not told how the powder was admin-istered to the King, but the intrigue was successful.

DemonologistsThe witchcraft delusion produced a new specialist,the demonologist. He was usually a lawyer whowrote textbooks describing lucidly the wholerange of witchcraft and the legal procedure fordealing with it. These textbooks or demonologieswere essential for the management of witch trials,which could never have been organized withoutthem.One of the most widely used and important

examples, 'An Examen of Witches' by Boguet(1550-1619), is available in English translation.

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He seems to omit no detail, and chapters havetitles such as the following:XIII. Whether the copulation of Satan with a witchcan bring to birth a living being.XLIII. Witches must be shaved and their clotheschanged.LVII. Of the perfumes used by priests in their con-juration.LVI. If one accused of witchcraft be found guilty ofassisting at the sabbat, even though he has done noother ill, the secular judge may pass sentence of deathupon him.

Jean Bodin (Paris, 1580), an eminent lawyerand philosopher, wrote: 'For it is recommendedin crimes so conspiratorial that presumption andconjecture are sufficient proof.'

Nicholas Remy, b.1530, another importantauthor and Attorney General of Lorraine, wrote:'Everything that is unknown lies in the curseddomain of demonology. There are no unexplainedfacts. What is not normal is due to the Devil.'

Father Drexel (1637) wrote: 'Who could dareaccuse of error and injustice the judges who withfire and sword proceed against this pest witch-craft. Exterminate this pest with fire and sword.'King James I was a noted demonologist, and

the author of an important textbook which, withthe 'Saducismus Triumphatus' of Joseph Glanvill(1630-80), Chaplain to King Charles II andFellow of the Royal Society, can be read in manylibraries.

Witchcraft andArtRelevant paintings of the supernatural, as mightbe expected, came from countries most affectedby the witchcraft delusion. Durer and Baldunghave shown witches, many artists Sabbats, Bosch,Griunewald and Breughel hell and the activities ofdevils, many Netherlandish painters the tempta-tion of St Anthony. The alchemist was a popularsubject, and there are important examples of itby Rembrandt, Breughel, Teniers and Ostade-Rembrandt seems particularly to have beeninterested in the occult.

Possession and exorcism is shown mainly byminor French painters and engravers. Thewitchcraft topic hardly appears in Italian art.Witch trials, tortures, punishments and the

more technical side of witchcraft have beendepicted by minor artists in woodcuts andengravings for popular distribution and toillustrate demonologies.The satirists, especially Hogarth, the English

caricaturists (Fig 10) and Goya, gave a final blowto the witch delusion. Goya persistently attackedits superstitions and cruelties in paintings andengravings. One particularly moving example isof an old woman he saw at Saragossa beaten andexecuted 'because it was said shehad made mice.'

The Decline ofthe Witch TrialsThe trials were big business. As the property ofthe victims was confiscated it was profitable toaccuse the rich with the result that in some citiesbusiness was completely destroyed. Banquetswere held at the expense of the prisoner and theexecutioners travelled like nobles. As soon asconfiscation of property was forbidden the num-ber of trials fell off.

Scientific advances and public opinion played apart, but above all it was the action of a few bravemen who, at their peril, wrote and spoke againstthe delusion, that probably had the greatestinfluence.

In England, with the example of the Continentin mind, Parliament saw the danger to businessand administration in witch trials, and frequentlyannulled the verdicts of the provincial courts.It is, however, remarkable that a pernicioussystem according to which rich and poor,administrators, judges, even Bishops, could beexecuted on the evidence of a child, could havelasted so long in any administration. This is prob-ably the biggest proof of the hold that the belief inthe Devil had on the ordinary man and the fear itengendered.The case of Galileo is a good example of the

'double think' that makes it so difficult to decidewhether the motive behind the heresy trials wasentirely political or whether the Church reallybelieved its own pronouncements.An edict from the Pope was published in 1616

to the effect that the Earth's rotation round thesun was foolish, false and heretical becausecontrary to the Scriptures. In 1632 Galileopublished his 'Dialogue of the Two Chief WorldSystems'. He was brought before the Inquisition,charged with heresy and threatened with torture.He recanted and confessed, saying: 'I believe andalways will believe that what the Church requires

Fig 10 A nightmare, drawn and etched by RichardNewton, 1794

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is true ... I shall not teach the false theory of themotion of the Earth and the stationariness of theSun because it is contrary to Holy Scripture. Inorder to remove every Catholic Christian's justsuspicion of me I abjure and curse the statedheresies and opinions . . .', &c.

Galileo died in 1644; it was not until 1822 thatthe College of Cardinals removed his book fromthe index of prohibited books and therefore histheory from the list of heresies. Neverthelessduring the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenthcenturies the Church financed the voyages to thenew world which brought back treasure, andrelied for navigation on the Galilean theory.

There is little doubt that the witchcraftdelusion was deliberately introduced by theChurch to combat the increasing dissatisfactionwith its administration and the growth ofscientific attitude of enquiry and scepticism of thefifteenth century. The credulous and terrifiedpublic, accustomed to public burnings, was notlikely to protest. Secular authorities in Protestantstates were thus quick to adapt the witch hunt forpolitical purposes and personal gain.The technique of inventing a threat to the

State and proving it by forced public confessionis a successful feature of totalitarian governments,and witch hunts proved equally useful to laygovernments after the Reformation. Most shock-ing however, is the part played by the intellectuals,lawyers and other educated persons in authoritywho, following the 'party line', accepted anddeveloped the myth of witchcraft. Scholars,judges, deans of universities and bishops hastenedto publish works on demonology, describing theappearance and activities of witches that they hadnever seen and noting in detail the kind of tortureto be applied. It must be recalled that even thecritics ofthe witchcraft delusionbelievedinwitchesbut they denounced the theory that there was anextensive supernatural plot against the Church.On the whole doctors came out badly and in the

seventeenth century they would blame sorcery forinability to cure disease. A few distinguishedthemselves by their outspoken attitude andcourageous denunciation of witchcraft. Foremostis Johannes Weyer (1515-1588). He studied underCornelius Agrippa, became tutor to the householdof King Francis I of France, and was physician tothe Prince of Cleves. Believing in Satan, hedistinguished between simple persons who did noharm and magicians who conspired with theDevil. In his book 'De Praestigiis' (1563) heattacked the cruelty of the trial, the uselessness ofconfessions obtained by torture, and attributedthe sabbat and other manifestations to mentalderangement. In this he was preceded by Para-celsus, himself something of an alchemist (1493-1541).

The demonologists, who agreed that theaccused might suffer from mental illness, arguedthat this was a further proof of guilt as it had beencontracted as the consequence of relationshipwith the Devil. A number of lay persons coura-geously attacked the judges for corruption, andwere sometimes tortured to death.

'The Discoverie of Witchcraft' by ReginaldScot (1584) and 'The Displaying of supposedWitchcraft' by John Webster (1677) contravertedthe opinions of the demonologists.Now that the episode of witchcraft is over, and

fairyland and the magic world are the domain ofchildren, it is amazing that such deception,extremes of cruelty and utter cynical arrogancecan ever have been accepted by civilized men.Yet the same cultures produced some of thefinest creations in literature and art, simul-taneously with the persecution of witchcraft.The Church, in the name of Christ, with Hismessage of compassion, tolerance and humility,promoted the witch trials.The witchcraft delusion was not invented by

ordinary men but by scholastic and academictyrants who could dictate policy from their ivorytowers, relying on their reputation for learning.Even advanced rulers and religious reformers likeLuther and Calvin supported it.The same can happen, and to some extent does

happen, in other forms today. In the scale ofevolution little separates man in the twentiethcentury, in ethical values, from the sixteenth, andthe potential for such another delusion is stillpresent. It is not ourselves but circumstancesthat distinguish our possible freedom of actionand expression from that of our predecessors.

Authority for statements about the subject ofwitchcraft will be found in the bibliography.

BIBLIOGRAPHYBoguet H (1590) Discours des Sorciers. (An Examen of Witches.Trans. E. A. Ashwin. Ed. M Summers. London, 1929)Davies R T (1947) Four Centuries of Witch-beliefs. LondonEwen C H (1933) Witchcraft and Demonianism. LondonEwen C L'E (1929) Witch Hunting and Witch Trials. LondonFolklore (1895) 6, 373Gifford G (1587) Discourse of the Subtil Practices of Devils byWitches and Sorcerers. LondonGlanvill J (1681) Saducismus Triumphatus. LondonGriliot de Givry E A d'A (1931) Witchcraft, Magic and Alchemy.Trans. J C Locke. LondonJames I (1616) The Works of the most high and mightie PrinceJames. Dwmonologie in the forme ofa Dialogue. LondonMacalpine I & Hunter R A(1956) Schizophrenia 1677. LondonMolitor U (1489) De Laniis et Phitonicis Mulieribus. PaduaMurrayM A (1921) The Witch-cult in Western Europe. LondonNotestein W (1911) A History of Witchcraft in England from1558-1718. WashingtonRobbins R H (1959) Encycloptdia ofWitchcraft and Demonology.TorontoScot R (1584) Discoverie of WitchcraftSprenger J & Kriimer H(1489) Malleus Maleficarum. (Trans. M Summers. London, 1928)Truc G (1936) Madame de Montespan. ParisWebster J (1677) The Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft. London


DISCUSSIONDr R M Maher (Rochdale) raised the question ofwitchcraft in modern life and how it was beingexploited in certain parts of the country by sinistergroups within the community. Stemming fromwitchcraft was modern Satanism revealed in a numberof instances in areas north of London. For example,there was at Clophill an old church ruin on the hill,but the cemetery was still used. In 1962, when theheavy snow had cleared, some mourners had gone tothe churchyard and to their horror saw some school-boys carrying a human skull. This had been found seton a stake with the other bones arranged in a circle.Satanic signs had been present on the ruined walls.The remains were of one Jenny Humberstone, theapothecary's wife, aged 21, who had died about 1778from smallpox. The heavy tombstone of this unfortu-nate girl had required twelve or more men to removeit. Dr Maher asked if Dr Hemphill had furtherknowledge of this type of activity and its relationshipto witchcraft.With regard to the statement of no defence for

heretics or witchcraft, Dr Maher thought the excep-tion was Rodrigo Borgia (Pope Alexander VI), the

wicked Pope and the most able who ever sat on thepapal throne. He was said to have intervened with theInquisitors about the persecution of Jews and heretics.

Dr Hemphill, in reply, said that cases where teenagershad desecrated churchyards out of destructiveness andwhere children had played at magic because of whatthey had read in the papers or seen in films had beenreported in recent years. He did not know of anygenuine revival of witch cults in that connexion, buthe had seen personally examples where schizophrenicshad performed a ritual with objects involving thedead.

In reply to Dr Maher's second question, DrHemphill said that, in theory, defending counsel anddefence witnesses could have been available in thesecular trials, but not the ecclesiastical heresy trials.In fact they seldom if ever had been, except possibly inEngland. He was not sure about Pope Alexander VI,but there had been such feeling against the SpanishPopes in Rome and some of the Italian states, that hemight well have intervened with the Inquisitors onpolitical issues or to get support for the Spanish side.

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