A POPULAR HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT BY MONTAGUE SUMMERS LONDON KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD. BROADWAY HOUSE, 66-74 CARTER LANE, E.C. I937 7X.s oJmc of Sorcery is so great and compehensiue that it includGs in itserf almost ewy other crime. PAULLAYMANN, Processus Juridicu contra Sagas et Veneficos. THE NECROMANCERS Dr. Dee and Kelley raising the dead CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION. xi CHAP. I. OF THE PRACTICEAND PROFESSIONOF WITCHCRAFT ; OF THE CONTRACT; AND OF THE FAMILIAR I IV. OF THE BLACKMASS ; AND OF THE LOVES OF THE INCUBIAND SUCCUBI . 160 vii ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE I. THENECROMANCERS . Frontispiece Dr. Dee and Kdey raising the dead. From Histoile curieuse et ittmesque des smcie~s, dewins, magic;ens, astrol gues, voyants, revenants, hes en peine, vampires, spectres, esprits malins, sorts jetks, exorcismes, etc., depuis I'Antiquitl jusqu'& nos jours, par Le Rev. Pbre Mathias de Giraldo, dmimcmn, amflClenexmciste de l'lnqui- sition. Revue et augrnentde par Fornari. Paris, I 846. Dr. Fian and his Coven pacing round the Church (withershins). All Hallows E'en, 1589. Dtaum and Etched by F. Amtytage. Pub. London : William Tegg. Collection of the author. Mayrnon Rex. From a manuscript Book of Black Magic written in England c. 1600, and now in the possession of Messrs. Maggs, by whose kind permission this drawing is repro- duced. IV. THEWORLD TOST AT TENNIS . 118 Title-page of the First Quarto, 1620, of the Masque by Middleton and Rawley. The engraved title-page of a rare volume, a study of witchcraft, Magica De Spectris et A@&- ticmibus Spirituum, etc. This book, which con- tains a number of histories of the supernatural, compiled from more than one hundred and fifty authors, was first issued by Hennig Grasse of Leipzig at Eisleben in 1597, but the Second Edition, Leyden, 1656, is far more uncommon and more highly esteemed. Collection of the author. ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE VI. THEWITCHES' SYNAGOGUE. Goya . 176 VII. THEDEVIL CHASTISING THE WITCHES. George Cruikshank. From Twelve Sketches Illustrative of Sir Walter Scott's Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft, pub. J. Robins and Co., London, I 830. Cruikshank describes his sketch as " Black John " Chastising the Witches. The apposite quotation is from the Ninth Letter : " The ceremonial of the Sabbath meetings was very strict. The foul fiend was very rigid in exacting the most ceremonious attention from his votaries, and the title of Lord when addressed by them. Sometimes, how- ever, the weird sisters when whisperiog amongst themselves, irreverently spoke of their sovereign by the name of Black John ; upon such occasions, the fiend rushed on them like a schoolmaster who surprises his pupils in delict, and beat and buffeted them without mercy." Collection of the author. VIII. A YORKSHIKEWITCH AND HER IMPS . 224, This contemporary drawing, I 622, which is said to have been done by the Rev. Miles Gale, vicar of Keighley, is from the illustrated transcript (BritishMuseurn, Add. MS. 32496) of the account compiled by Edward Fairfax of Fewstone in the Forest of Knaresborough in which he describes the tormenting of his own children and other victims by seven witches. The hag here por- trayed is Elizabeth Fletcher, the daughter oi a witch, Mother Foster. Elizabeth Fletcher is spoken of as greatly feared by her neighbours on account of her evil cantrips and spells. INTRODUCTION During the eleven years which have passed since I published my History of Wikhcraft and Demonology a second edition has repeatedly been asked for, and- wisely or no--I have as often delayed this and deferred. The fact is that throughout this time owing to my further researches into an immense subject- as old as the world and as wide as the world-and perhaps more especially owing to the interest and kindness of correspondents from every continent I found that I had accumulated so vast a quantity of new material that in order to include a tithe, and yet keep my work within a reasonable compass, there would have to be frequent excisions from the original pages together with a certain amount of compression. At first I began upon these lines, but I soon recognized that again and again I was at a loss how to abbreviate without in some way impairing the structure and sequence of the chapters, and thus it was a matter of no little difficulty to avail myself to any extent of many recent and extraordinarily interesting narratives and investigations whilst not essentially altering and even recasting the whole. A considerable amount of time also was taken up in closely examining and discussing cases and incidents which were brought under my notice. Not a few persons were, quite naturally, at first reluctant to give details. The majority shrank from furnishing their names, dates, and the exact localities, such precise xi xii INTRODUCTION information as might bring them into a notice they were far from desiring or indeed would for a moment allow. This, an entirely reasonable and prudent point of view, must often hinder and obstruct the student of these dark and riddling mysteries. Yet he has no right whatsoever to complain or show himself embarrassed by the discretion of a reticence which is perfectly justifiable and fair. It was necessary to poise delicate questions and to probe with great tact in order to obtain knowledge together with the con- firmation of knowledge which not unseldom was only supplied on condition that it was not publicly utilized, or, if so employed, disguised in such a way that the informant could not be identified. Persons who have been brought in contact with, and it may be who have hardly escaped from the clutches of, the Satanists are loath that their experiences, however valuable to others, should be published. They are afraid too of the vengeance and pursuit of the witches. This is quite understandable, nor are they to be blamed who lack courage to expose and confront those infernal gangs whose weapons are poisons, black magic, and evil spells. As time went on and I was even more frequently being requested to issue a second edition of my book it became increasingly difficult satisfactorily to myself to find a happy issue from the impasse. In the view of so much that was new and vitally important I did not wish to send it from the press without certain added matter. I was, too, perpetually being urged by those whose opinion carries no little weight that I would bring the subject right up to the very day of writing, that I would emphasize the oneness of witchcraft throughout the world, the unchangeableness of the church of Satan .. INTRODUCTION Xlll throughout the centuries, and thus expose the horrid activities and propaganda of the society of devil- worshippers in our midst. Such arguments were scarcely to be resisted, and I decided that in order to accomplish what was required more efficiently it would be better, rather than to attempt any modification of my first work, to write a new study ; and this I have called A Popular History of Witchcraft. My aim throughout my new work has been to show how the profession and practice of witchcraft are the same always and in all places, be it in some remote English village, in a quiet cathedral city, in the sweltering hinterland of Jamaica, or in savage Africa. In the course of the present study I have con- centrated upon England and English witchcraft, although I have freely cited parallel circumstances as revealed in foreign trials. Since A Popular History of Witchcraft is designed for the general reader rather than for the specialist I have been advised not to burden the text with a multiplicity of notes. A reader, unless it be the scholar at his desk, pen in hand, is harassed by, or else ignores, a parade of commentary, the details of which he has no intention, even if he had the opportunity, of verifying by making reference to the original source. In quotations, for the same reason, I have given the newer forms of words rather than strictly adhering to the old spelling, which so many find cumbersome and a nuisance, although I have been scrupulously careful neither to alter nor modify. My citations of texts are from the Authorized Version of the Bible, but these have been checked in each instance by the Douai. xiv INTRODUCTION The last chapter, English witchcraft, is necessarily in the nature of a survey, designed to show the con- tinuity of the thing rather than to enter into details of cases, many of which, however important, I have been obliged to pass without mention. For these particulars I must refer the reader to my Geography of Witchraft. The present work is designed to awaken the general reader to a sense of the dangers with which he is encompassed and beset. Although A Popular History of Witchcraft is entirely new I have not hesitated to make use of apposite passages from my previously published works, and even to incorporate one or two sentences, the gist of which I felt I was not able better or more forcibly to express. Since I published The History of Witchcraft and Demonology there has been little or nothing, I believe, which covers the same ground. Professor Lynn Thorndike's work, for example, encyclopaedic in extent, was scarcely designed to touch upon the field I review. The Short Title-Catalogue of my friend Mr. Harry Price will, of course, be in the hands of, and constantly referred to by, every student of occultism, for whom the Proceedings of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research must be an ever ready guide-book, his veritable Baedeker.