Organisations of Witches in Great Britain (Folklore History Series)

M. A. Murray

Description

Witch cult and ritual have not yet, as far as I am aware, been subjected to a searching scientific investigation from the anthropological side. The author setting out here to understand the idea of witchcraft and the people it attracts. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900's and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Sujets

• Witchcraft
• Spirituality
• Wicca

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 21 octobre 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781447490708
• Langue: English

Extrait

Organisations of Witches in Great Britain
By
M. A. Murray
Copyright 2011 Read Books Ltd. This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any way without the express permission of the publisher in writing
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Contents
ORGANISATIONS OF WITCHES IN GREAT BRITAIN
ORGANISATIONS OF WITCHES IN GREAT BRITAIN.
BY M. A. MURRAY.
( Read before the Society, April 18, 1917.)
W ITCH cult and ritual have not yet, as far as I am aware, been subjected to a searching scientific investigation from the anthropological side. The whole thing has generally been put down to hypnotism, hysteria, and hallucination on the part of the witches, to prejudice and cruelty on the part of the judges. I shall try to prove that the hysteria-cum-prejudice theory, including that blessed word autosuggestion, is untenable, and that among the witches we have the remains of a fully organised religious cult, which at one time was spread over Central and Western Europe, and of which traces are found at the present day.
I am not concerned with Operative Witchcraft or the effects, real or imaginary, of witch-charms, nor with the magical powers claimed by the witches, such as flying through the air and transformation into animals. It is the organisation and the cult, which I am about to describe.
Its organisation was recognised by the Roman Catholic Church which speaks of it as a sect; 1 and in its latest stages in America, Cotton Mather is able to say with truth, the Witches do say, that they form themselves much after the manner of Congregational Churches , and that they have a Baptism , and a Supper , and Officers among them, abominably resembling those of our Lord. 1
It is obvious to anyone who considers the matter that the conversion of the heathen tribes of Great Britain must have been a long process. Kings and nobles might follow the new religion, but for the mass of the people Christianity must have been a mere veneer for several centuries. As Christianity took a firmer and firmer hold, the old paganism was either more and more relegated to country places and to the lower classes of the community; or else by dropping the gross forms, its ritual remained as rustic festivals patronised by the Church.
I give here, in chronological order, extracts from various sources showing the historical continuity of the ancient religion. The laws became stricter as Christianity increased in power.
Strabo says that, in an island close to Britain, Ceres and Proserpine were venerated with rites similar to the orgies of Samothrace. 2 Dionysius states that the rites of Bacchus were duly celebrated in the British Isles. 3 This is evidence that fertility rites were celebrated in Britain which had a close resemblance to those of Greece and Asia Minor.
The conversion of Britain took place during the 7th century; and the Christian ecclesiastical writers, from whom our knowledge of the consecutive history of the period is derived, write with a bias in favour of their own religion, ignoring the existence of the underlying paganism. But the following extracts from contemporary documents show its continuance:
7th cent. Liber Poenitentialis of Theodore, Archibishop of Canterbury .
1. Sacrifice to devils.
2. Eating and drinking in the heathen temple, ( a ) in ignorance, ( b ) after being told by the priest that it is sacrilege and the table of devils, ( c ) as a cult of devils and in honour of idols.
5. Not only celebrating feasts in the abominable places of the heathen and offering food there, but also consuming it.
7. Anyone found serving this hidden idolatry, having relinquished Christ, and given himself up to idolatry.
19. If anyone at the kalends of January goes about as a stag or a bull; that is, making himself into a wild animal, and dressing in the skin of a herd animal, and putting on the heads of beasts; those who in such wise transform themselves into the appearance of a wild animal, penance for three years; because this is devilish.
7th cent. Laws of King Wihtraed .
Fines for offerings to devils.
8th cent. Ecgbert, Archbishop of York, Confessionale .
Against offerings to devils. Witchcraft. Auguries according to the methods of the heathen. Vows paid or loosed or confirmed at wells, stones, and trees. Gathering of herbs with any incantation except Christian prayers.
8th cent. Law of the Northumbrian Priests .
48. If then anyone be found that shall henceforth practise any heathenships, either by sacrifice or by fyrt, or in any way love witchcraft, or worship idols, if he be a king s thane, let him pay x half-marks; half to Christ, half to the king.
67. We are all to love and worship one God, and strictly hold one Christianity, and totally renounce all heathenship.
9th cent. Decree attributed to a Council of Anquira .
Some wicked women, reverting to Satan, and seduced by the illusions and phantasms of demons, believe and profess that they ride at night with Diana on certain beasts, with an innumerable multitude of women, passing over immense distances, obeying her commands as their mistress, and evoked by her on certain nights.
9th and 10th cent. Laws of Alfred and Guthrun. Laws of Edward and Guthrun .
11. If witches or diviners, perjurers or morth-workers, or foul defiled notorious adulteresses, be found anywhere within the land; let them then be driven from the country and the people cleansed, or let them totally perish within the country, unless they desist, and the more deeply make bot .
2. If any one violate Christianity, or reverence heathenism, by word or by work, let him pay as well w r , as wite or lah-slit , according as the deed may be.
10th cent. Laws of Athelstan . 1
6. We have ordained respecting witchcrafts, and lyblacs, and morth-daeds: if any one should be thereby killed, and he could not deny it, that he be liable in his life. But if he will deny it, and at the threefold ordeal shall be guilty; that he be cxx days in prison; and after that let his kindred take him out, and give to the king cxx shillings, and pay the wer to his kindred, and enter into borh for him, that he evermore desist from the like.
10th cent. King Edgar. Ecclesiastical Canons .
16. We enjoin, that every priest zealously promote Christianity, and totally extinguish every heathenism; and forbid well-worshipings, and necromancies, and divinations, and enchantments, and man-worshipings, and the vain practices which are carried on with various spells, and with frith-splots and with elders, and also with various other trees, and with stones, and with many various delusions, with which men do much of what they should not.
17. And we enjoin, that every Christian man zealously accustom his children to Christianity, and teach them the Paternoster and the Creed.
18. And we enjoin, that on feast-days heathen songs and devil s games be abstained from.
10th cent. Laws of Ethelred .
Let every Christian man do as is needful to him; let him strictly keep his Christianity.
Let us zealously venerate right Christianity, and totally despise every heathenism.
11th cent. Laws of Cnut .
5. We earnestly forbid every heathenism: heathenism is, that men worship idols; that is, that they worship heathen gods, and the sun or the moon, fire or rivers, water-wells or stones, or forest trees of any kind; or love witchcraft, or promote morthwork in any wise.
12th cent. John of Salisbury .
Mentions witches Sabbaths.
13th cent. Galilee porches, for the use of the unbaptised and excommunicate, no longer built .
14th cent. Nider s Formicarius .
Berne infested with witches for more than sixty years.
Inquisition of Como in 1510, records that witches had existed there for more than 150 years.
Dame Alice Kyteler, tried for witchcraft, 1324. Devil appeared as a black man. Had in her possession a wafer bearing the devil s name instead of Christ s.
15th cent.
Trials of witches in Italy, France, and Germany. The characteristic features of the ritual are found.
15th cent.
Decree of Innocent VIII. 1 Generally said to be the beginning of the outbreak of witchcraft.
It has come to our ears . . . that many persons of both sexes, deviating from the Catholic faith, do not avoid to have intercourse with devils, incubi and succubi, and that by their incantations, charms, and sorceries, they blight the marriage bed, destroy the births of women, and the increase of cattle