I do not intend to discuss the obscene rites which took place at all four Sabbaths, but which I believe were originally confined to May Eve and November Eve. But I would call your attention to their resemblance to similar ceremonies and beliefs among the ancients: the goat of Mendes, the wild scenes at Bubastis, the bull Dionysos and his following of dancing women, and those phallic rites of which we only catch glimpses, but which obviously played a large part at one time in the popular beliefs of the ancient world.
It is noticeable that there is hardly a mention of the Sabbath in the English trials nor in the celebrated German witch book, the Malleus Maleficarum; all the details which follow are taken from Scotch sources, supplemented where obscure by the French accounts.
Though the date of the Sabbath was fixed the site varied, and the members of the community were notified by the officer as to the locality; he either went to their houses[1] or warned them when he met them.[2] The site in France[3] was always near water. The exact order of the ceremonies is not clear, possibly because the ritual varied slightly in different places, for as Mather says the societies were like congregational churches, meaning that each one was independent. The Devil always presided, and the proceedings began by his receiving the homage of his worshippers; the women paid their adoration first, then the men[4]; and the homage included a renewal of the vows of fidelity and obedience.[5] Then came the religious service, in France the mass,[6] in Scotland the sacrament[7]; and
- ↑ Glanvil, Sadducismus Triumphatus, pt. ii. p. 293-5.
- ↑ Reg. Scot, Discoverie of Witchcraft, Bk. iii. ch. 3.
- ↑ De Lancre, Tableau de l'Inconstance, p. 62, ed. 1613.
- ↑ Pitcairn, Criminal Trials, i. pt. iii. p. 239.
- ↑ De Lancre, op. cit. p. 131.
- ↑ De Lancre, op. cit. pp. 401-3.
- ↑ Sharpe, Witchcraft in Scotland, pp. 130-4. ed. 1884. This is perhaps a confusion between the feast and the sacrament. Howell, State Trials, vi. 683.
