Research source

Michael' came to her naked, she did not give a direct answer

Date of account: Published 1921
Source: The Witch-cult in Western Europe: A Study in Anthropology
Reference: The Witch-cult in Western Europe: A Study in Anthropology · selected passage 191
Rights: public_domain
Language: English with quoted European trial material
Record updated: 2026-08-24

Record summary

Michael' came to her naked, she did not give a direct answer

Published source text

Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.

Source passage

Source text · mention only

Michael' came to her naked, she did not give a direct answer. Later the following dialogue took place: 'If the devil were to put himself in the form or likeness of an angel, how would you know if it were a good or an evil angel?' asked the judges. Again Joan's reply was not direct: 'I should know quite well if it were St. Michael or a counterfeit.' She then stated that she had seen him many times before she knew him to be St. Michael; when a child she had seen him and had been afraid at first. Pressed for a description, she said he came 'in the form of a true honest man' [tres vray preudomme, forma unius verissimi probi hominis].[957] The accounts of the trial prove that Joan continually received advice from the 'saints'. The person whom she called 'St. Katherine' was obviously in the castle and able to communicate with the prisoner: this was not difficult, for the evidence shows that there was a concealed opening between Joan's room and the next.

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

This is a historical account assembled under the reporting and publishing conventions of its period. It may preserve testimony, hearsay, retelling and editorial interpretation together.

Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

A modern comparison can identify recurring descriptions and possible explanations, but the account is not treated as independently verified evidence merely because it appeared in print.

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