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CHAP. II.
The order of the Witches homage done (as it is written hy lewd Inquisitors and peevish Witch-mongers) to the devil in person; of their songs and dances, and namely of Lavolta, and of other ceremonies, also of their excourses.
SOmetimes their homage with their oath and bargain is received for a cer∣tain term of years; sometimes for ever:* 1.1 Sometimes it consisteth in the denial of the whole faith, sometimes in part. The first is, when the soul is absolutely yielded to the Devil and hell fire: the other is, when they have but bargained to observe certain ceremonies and statutes of the Church; as to conceal faults at Shrift, to fast on Sundaies, &c. And this is done either by oath, protestation of words, or by obligation in writing, sometimes sealed with wax, sometimes signed with bloud, sometimes by kissing the Devils bare but∣tocks; as did a Doctor called Edlin, who (as Bodin saith) was burned for Witch∣craft.
You must also understand,* 1.2 that after they have delicately banqueted with the Devil and the lady of the Fayries; and have eaten up a fat Ox, and emptied a Butt of Malmsie, and a Binn of Bread at some Noble mans house, in the dead of the night, nothing is missed of all this in the morning: For the Lady Sibylla, Minerva; or Diana with a golden rod striketh the vessel and the binn, and they are fully replenished again: Yea, she causeth the Bullocks bones to be brought and laid together upon the hide, and lappeth the four ends thereof together, laying her golden rod thereon, and then riseth up the Bullock again in his for∣mer estate and condition: and yet at their return home, they are like to starve for hunger; as Spineus saith. And this must be an infallible rule,* 1.3 that every fortnight, or at the least every moneth, each Witch must kill one childe at the least for her part.
And here some of Monsier Bodin's lies may be inserted, who saith,* 1.4 that at these Magical assemblies, the Witches never fail to dance; and in their dance they sing these words; Har har, Devil devil, dance here, dance here, play here, play here, Sabbath, sabbath: And whiles they sing and dance, every one hath a broom in her hand, and holdeth it up aloft. Item, he saith, that these night-walkings, or rather night-dancings, brought out of Italy into France, that dance which is called La volta.* 1.5
A part of their league is, to scrape off the oyl, which is received in extream folly (unction I should have said): But if that be so dangerous, they which sock the corps had need to take great care, that they rub not off the oyl, which divers other waies may also be thrust out of the forehead; and then I perceive all the vertue thereof is gone, and farewell it. But I marvel how they take up∣on them to preserve the water powred on them in Baptism, which I take to be largely of as great force as the other; and yet I think is commonly wiped and washed off, within four and twenty hours after baptism: but this agreeth with the residue of their folly.
And this is to be noted, that the Inquisitors affirm, that during the whole time of the Witches excourse, the Devil occupieth the room and place of the Witch, in so perfect a similitude, as her husband in his bed, neither by feeling, speech, nor countenance, can discern her from his wife. Yea the wife depart∣eth out of her husbands arms insensibly, and leaveth the Devil in her room visi∣bly. Wherein their credulity is incredible,* 1.6 who will have a very body in the fained play, and a phantastical body in the true bed: and yet (forsooth) at the Name of Jesus, or at the sign of the Cross, all these bodily Witches they say) vanish away.