The opinion that the rides through the air and the orgies of the witches’ sabbath were but delusions which the devil suggested to the poor foolish women, was already rather widely spread in the fifteenth century. Froissart, describing the striking case of a Gascon nobleman and his familiar demon called Horton (he surpasses himself here in exactness and vividness of narrative), treats it as an “error.” But it is an error caused by the devil, so the rationalizing interpretation, after all, goes only half-way. Gerson alone goes so far as to suggest the notion of a cerebral lesion, the others confine themselves to the hypothesis of diabolical illusions. Martin Lefranc, provost of the church of Lausanne, in the Champion des Dames, which he dedicated to Philip the Good in 1440, defended this opinion.
“Je ne croiray tant que je vive
Que femme corporellement
Voit par l’air comme merle ou grive,
—Dit le Champion prestement.—
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Quant la pourelle est en sa couche,
Pour y dormir et reposer,
L’ennemi qui point ne se couche
Se vient encoste allé poser.
Lors illusions composer
Lui scet sy tres soubtillement
Qu’elle croit faire ou proposer
Ce qu’elle songe seulement.
Force la vielle songera
Que sur un chat ou sur un chien
A l’assemblée s’en ira;
Mais certes il n’en sera rien:
Et sy n’est baston ne mesrien
Qui le peut ung pas enlever.”[1]
In general the mental attitude towards supernatural facts
- ↑ As long as I live I shall not believe That a woman can bodily Travel through the air like blackbird or thrush, Said the Champion forthwith…. When the poor woman lies in her bed, In order to sleep and to rest there, The enemy who never lies down to sleep Comes and remains by her side. Then to call up illusions Before her he can so subtly, That she thinks she does or proposes to do What she only dreams. Perhaps the gammer will dream That on a cat or on a dog She will go to the meeting; But certainly nothing will happen; And there is neither a stick nor a beam Which could lift her a step.
