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6,852 published records with substantive text · Page 123 of 143
Any such disaster is naturally attributed to the old beggar-woman--who is thus at once elevated to the dangerous eminence of witch-hood
Read record →As the King has his orb and sceptre, the astrologer his spheres and quadrant, so the witch has her insignia of office
Read record →A characteristic of the witch, in common with demons and imps in general, is that she does everything contrary to the tastes and customs of good Christians
Read record →Of all these insignia and attributes of her office the most important, as the most characteristic, were her "familiars" or imps
Read record →There is some slight confusion about the provenance of this same witch-mark, unless it varied in individual cases--whether, that is to say, the marks were the result of suckling the imps, or whether, being already imprinted on the witch's body, they were selec
Read record →Although in earlier ages this formality may have been dispensed with, by the sixteenth century the witch invariably signed a definite contract with Satan
Read record →Of the preliminaries leading up to the bargain we are given an illuminating glimpse by Edward Fairfax in his already quoted book
Read record →Her contract once signed, the witch naturally became as soon as possible proficient in the "Devil's rudiments," which James I
Read record →Other accounts follow similar lines or add further indictments; as Jean Bodin, who also details the crimes of eating human flesh and drinking blood, destroying fruit and causing famine and sterility
Read record →Although less generally harmful in its effects, the witch's passion for aviation was as reprehensible as the rest of her proceedings
Read record →The ointment used by witches for such purposes are by many considered to have been but another instance of Satan's cunning and lack of good faith
Read record →In deference to the unceasing demand, the witch has ever been a prominent exponent of prophecy and divination--nor have any of her practices given more offence to Holy Church
Read record →He might also appear in the form of a tree-trunk, without arms or feet, but with the indistinct suggestion of a face, seated on a throne; sometimes like a giant, clad in dark clothes, as he does not wish his disciples to realise that he is himself suffering th
Read record →of the Sabbath varied greatly at different times and places, but having already given a typical example in an earlier chapter, it is unnecessary to dwell further on so unsavoury a subject
Read record →One Jehannes du Hard, in her confession, gives us an account of the method of compounding poisons and witch-ointments at the Sabbaths
Read record →Having seen how the witch in general lived and went about her evil business, it may be well to consider the personality of individual members of the craft
Read record →We may then disregard such historical characters as have other claims to fame, and confine our attention to those whose activities were concentrated upon witchcraft pure and simple
Read record →Passing by Young Nixon, the dwarf, who, although a prophet scarcely less inferior in fame to Mother Shipton, scarcely falls within the limit of this volume--though it may be noted that one of his best-known prophecies, that he would starve to death, did actual
Read record →Years thus passed, Jinney using her foul tongue against everyone, and the rabble in return baiting her as if she were a wild beast
Read record →Wapping, nowadays, is a sufficiently prosaic spot
Read record →The earliest English witch to attain any individual immortality was she of Berkeley, who differed from most of her successors by being extremely well off
Read record →A famous witch was Margery Jourdemain, better known as the Witch of Eye, who gains a reflected halo of respectability in that she was burnt at Smithfield in 1441 as an accomplice of Eleanor of Gloucester, elsewhere referred to
Read record →Elizabeth Sawyer, the Witch of Edmonton, though during her life gaining only local fame, yet achieved the posthumous glory of providing Ford and Dekker with the material for a play
Read record →Bodin, or Pierre de Lancre might have found it difficult to put forward satisfactory proof for the cause in which they were briefed had it not been for the fortunate existence of one quite unimpeachable witness--the direct command in the book of Exodus, "Thou
Read record →It is, of course, as true as it was natural that Christian writers on witchcraft seized eagerly upon definite Biblical authority for the sin they were condemning
Read record →The Christians, in adopting to their own uses certain pagan rites and beliefs, and regarding all the rest as witchcraft and an abominable sin, were but following the example of their predecessors, the Jews
Read record →The Jews had no national system of magic or witchcraft
Read record →Side by side with the regular magicians was a vast host of sorcerers practising without elaborate ritual, amongst whom witches were greatly in the ascendant
Read record →stitions amid which their great forefather had been brought up, it was scarcely surprising that the monotheistic ideal peculiar to the Jews should have suffered occasional eclipses
Read record →Isis, another prominent protector of witchcraft, was, in fact, more witch than goddess
Read record →They recognised two varieties of evil spirits--the fallen angels and those who were but semi-supernatural
Read record →On the other hand, they had dealings with familiar spirits, and, as was natural in a nation distinguished by its genius for prophecy, they excelled in divination
Read record →Despite the wide sway of the evil and the severity of the laws against it, spasmodically enforced by several of the kings, as Saul and Hezekiah, there are no definite records of witch-persecutions comparable to those of mediæval Christianity until the reign of
Read record →It is, at first sight, surprising that the Chaldean, Egyptian, or Jewish witch should have conformed so closely to the type familiarised by the witch-mania of the Middle Ages
Read record →Gradually she grew into the spectral originator of all those horrors with which darkness affects the imagination
Read record →Hecate, who became the mother of Scylla, and, according to some accounts also of Medea and of Circe, was arch-mistress of the knowledge of herbs and simples, more especially of poisons
Read record →Nor were such grisly exploits confined to Thessaly, for in Syria, as Marcassus tells us, troops of witches haunted the battle-field during the night, devouring the bodies of the slain
Read record →The Persian wars brought new influences to bear upon Greek religion in general and witchcraft in particular
Read record →That the Greek witch of the older school should be powerfully influenced by such innovators was natural enough, the more so that in Chaldea women took a foremost part in practising the more evil kinds of magic
Read record →nder the influence of Grecian culture, and in return providing her with new cults and crazes, one more fantastic than the other, but all seized upon with equal avidity by the hungry Hellenic intellect, craving always for some new thing
Read record →At the same time, laws existed against it, subsequently to find an echo in Roman legislation
Read record →Of Greek magic he would have learned enough--and to spare--in the long ten years' warring on the plains of Ilium
Read record →As in Greece, so in Rome, the personal character of the witch was identical in some respects with that of the goddess, so as to be frequently indistinguishable
Read record →Like the pythoness of Greece, the Roman sibyl was priestess as well as witch
Read record →Roman morality being enforced upon social rather than religious grounds, witchcraft was forbidden only in so far as it was considered a pernicious influence within the State
Read record →Already in the early days of the Laws of the Twelve Tables, Greek influence on Roman witchcraft was noticeable--it increased in proportion as Greek thought extended its sway over the Roman mind
Read record →To which Pliny adds that it must be used in conjunction with split reeds, a prudent suggestion enough
Read record →The Emperors held widely divergent views on the matter of witchcraft
Read record →