Witches' Sabbath: Difference between revisions

[[File:Hexensabbat.jpg|thumb|300px|Sixteenth-century Swiss representation of Sabbath gathering from the chronicles of [[Johann Jakob Wick]]. Note Hornedthe Godhorned god seated on serpent-enlaced throne, witch performing the [[osculum infame]] upon a demon and another being aided by a demon to summon a storm from her [[cauldron]], while others carouse and prepare magic [[potion]]s]]

The most infamous and influential work of witch-phobiahunting lore, ''[[Malleus Maleficarum]]'' (1486) does not contain the word sabbath (''sabbatum'').

The first recorded English use of ''sabbath'' referring to sorcery was in 1660, in Francis Brooke's translation of [[Vincent Le Blanc]]'s book ''The World Surveyed'': "Divers Sorcerers […] have confessed that in their Sabbaths […] they feed on such fare."<ref>''Oxford English Dictionary'', s.v. [https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2284528989 "sabbath, n."], July 2023.</ref> The phrase "Witches' Sabbath" appeared in a 1613 translation by "W. B." of [[Sébastien Michaëlis]]'s ''Admirable History of Possession and Conversion of a Penitent Woman'': "He also said to Magdalene, Art not thou an accursed woman, that the Witches Sabbath [French ''le Sabath''] is kept here?"<ref>''Oxford English Dictionary'', s.v. [https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2828411604 "witches' Sabbath, n."], July 2023.</ref>

Lea and Hansen's influence may have led to a much broader use of the shorthand phrase, including in English. Prior to Hansen, use of the term by German historians also seems to have been relatively rare. A compilation of German folklore by [[Jakob Grimm]] in the 1800s (''Kinder und HausMärchen, Deutsche Mythologie'') seems to contain no mention of ''hexensabbat'' or any other form of the term ''sabbat'' relative to fairies or magical acts.<ref>Grimm, [https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=f2gHAAAAQAAJ&pg=GBS.PA144 ''Kinder und HausMärchen'' (1843 ed, 2nd Volume)]</ref> The contemporary of Grimm and early historian of witchcraft, WGW.G. Soldan also doesn'tdoes not seem to use the term in his history (1843).

In contrast to German and English counterparts, French writers (including Francophone authors writing in Latin) used the term more frequently, albeit still relatively rarerarely. There would seemseems to possibly be deep roots to inquisitorial persecution of the [[Waldensians]]. In 1124, the term ''inzabbatos'' is used to describe the Waldensians in Northern Spain.<ref>Phillipus van Limborch, History of Inquisition (1692), [https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=NohCAAAAYAAJ&pg=GBS.PA88 English translation (1816) p. 88], [https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=cysymJOAxLwC&pg=GBS.PP316 original Latin here]</ref> In 1438 and 1460, seemingly related terms ''synagogam'' and ''synagogue of Sathan'' are used to describe Waldensians by inquisitors in France. These terms could be a reference to Revelation 2:9. ("I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not, but are the [[synagogue of Satan]].")<ref>Hansen, ''Quellen'' (1901) [https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=QXXX48OyGjcC&pg=GBS.PA186 p.186]</ref><ref>The verse in Revelation is pointed to by Wolfgang Behringer, ''Witches and Witch-Hunts''(2004) p.60</ref> Writing in Latin in 1458, Francophone author [[Nicolas Jacquier]] applies ''synagogam fasciniorum'' to what he considers a gathering of witches.<ref>Nicolaus Jacquier [https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=fGtMAAAAcAAJ&pg=GBS.PA40 ''Flagellum'' (printed 1581) p. 40]</ref>

About 150 years later, near the peak of the witch-phobia and the persecutions which led to the execution of an estimated 40,000-100,000 persons,<ref>Alison Rowlands, Witchcraft Narratives in Germany, Rothenburg,1561-1652 (Manchester, 2003), 10.</ref><ref>"...the fear of a monstrous conspiracy of Devil-worshipping witches was fairly recent, and indeed modern scholarship has confirmed that massive witch hunts occurred almost exclusively in the early modern period, reaching their peak intensity during the century 1570-1670." Benjamin G. Kohl and H.C. Erik Midelfort, editors, On Witchcraft An Abridged Translation of Johann Weyer's De praestigiis daemonun. Translation by John Shea (North Carolina, 1998) xvi.</ref> with roughly 80% being women,<ref>Per Scarre & Callow (2001),"Records suggest that in Europe, as a whole, about 80 per cent of trial defendants were women, though the ratio of women to men charged with the offence varied from place to place, and often, too, in one place over time."</ref><ref>"Menopausal and post-menopausal women were disproportionally represented amongst the victims of the witch craze--and their over-representation is the more striking when we recall how rare women over fifty must have been in the population as a whole." Lyndal Roper Witch Craze (2004)p. 160</ref> the [[Francophone]] writers still seem to be the main ones using these related terms, although still infrequently and sporadically in most cases. [[Lambert Daneau]] uses ''sabbatha'' one time (1581) as ''Synagogas quas Satanica sabbatha''.<ref>Daneau's work is included with Jacquier in 1581 printing, link above. See p. 242.</ref> Nicholas Remi uses the term occasionally as well as ''synagoga'' (1588). [[Jean Bodin]] uses the term three times (1580) and, across the channel, the Englishman [[Reginald Scot]] (1585) writing a book in opposition to witch-phobia, uses the term but only once in quoting Bodin. (<ref>The Puritan [[Richard Baxter]], writing much later (1691), also uses the term only once, in the exact same way–quotingway – quoting Bodin. Other witch-phobic English Puritans who were Baxter's contemporaries, like [[Increase Mather|Increase]] and [[Cotton Mather]] (1684, 1689, 1692), did not use the term, perhaps because they were [[Puritan Sabbatarianism|Sabbatarians]].)</ref>

Writing more than two hundred years after Pierre de Lancre, another French writer, [[Lamothe-Langon]] (whose character and scholarship was questioned in the 1970s), uses the term in (presumably) translating into French a handful of documents from the inquisition in Southern France. [[Joseph Hansen (historian)|Joseph Hansen]] cited Lamothe-Langon as one of many sources.

*[[c:File:Hans_Baldung_-_Witches_Sabbath_-_WGA01221.jpgThe Witches (Hans Baldung)|''The Witches' Sabbath'']] by [[Hans Baldung]] (1510)

The book ''[[Compendium Maleficarum]]'' (1608), by [[Francesco Maria Guazzo]], illustrates a typical view of gathering of witches as "the attendants riding flying goats, trampling the cross, and being re-baptised in the name of the Devil while giving their clothes to him, kissing his behind, and dancing back to back forming a round."

The descriptions of Sabbats were made or published by priests, jurists and judges who never took part in these gatherings, or were transcribed during the process of the [[witchcraft trials]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Witchcraft: The Sixth Sense|last=Glass|first=Justine|publisher=Wilshire Book Company|year=1965|location=North Hollywood, California|pages=100}}</ref> That these testimonies reflect actual events is for most of the accounts considered doubtful. Norman Cohn argued that they were determined largely by the expectations of the interrogators and free association on the part of the accused, and reflect only popular imagination of the times, influenced by [[ignorance]], [[fear]], and religious intolerance towards minority groups.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Cohn|first1=Norman|title=Europe's inner demons : an enquiry inspired by the great witch-hunt|date=1975|publisher=Basic Books|location=New York|isbn=978-0465021314|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/europesinnerdemo00cohn}}</ref>

Many of the diabolical elements of the Witches' Sabbath stereotype, such as the eating of babies, poisoning of wells, [[host desecration|desecration of hosts]] or [[osculum infame|kissing of the devil's anus]], were also made about heretical Christian sects, [[leper]]s, [[Muslim]]s, and [[Judaism|Jew]]s.<ref name=ginz>{{cite book|last1=Rosenthal|first1=Carlo Ginzburg; translated by Raymond|title=Ecstasies deciphering the witches' Sabbath|date=1991|publisher=Pantheon Books|location=New York|isbn=978-0394581637|edition=1st American|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eV0ZhvAkHC0C&pg=PA1}}</ref> The term is the same as the normal English word "[[Biblical Sabbath|Sabbath]]" (itself a transliteration of Hebrew "[[Shabbat]]", the seventh day, on which the [[God|Creator]] rested after creation of the world), referring to the witches' equivalent to the [[Christian Sabbath|Christian day of rest]]; a more common term was "synagogue" or "[[synagogue of Satan]]"<ref name=Kieckhefer>{{cite book|last1=Kieckhefer|first1=Richard|title=European witch trials : their foundations in popular and learned culture, 1300–1500|date=1976|publisher=Routledge & K. Paul|location=London|isbn=978-0710083142|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2hmFIAlaxqQC}}</ref> possibly reflecting anti-Jewish sentiment, although the acts attributed to witches bear little resemblance to the [[Sabbath in Christianity]] or Jewish [[Shabbat]] customs. The ''Errores Gazariorum'' ("''Errors of the Cathars"''), which mentions the Sabbat, while not discussing the actual behavior of the [[Cathars]], is named after them, in an attempt to link these stories to an heretical Christian group.<ref>{{cite book| last=Peters |first=Edward| contribution=Sorcerer and Witch| editor-last=Jolly |editor-first=Karen Louise

Other historians, including [[Carlo Ginzburg]], [[Éva Pócs]], Bengt Ankarloo and Gustav Henningsen hold that these testimonies can give insights into the belief systems of the accused. Ginzburg famously discovered records of a group of individuals in northern Italy, calling themselves ''[[benandanti]]'', who believed that they went out of their bodies in spirit and fought amongst the clouds against evil spirits to secure prosperity for their villages, or congregated at large feasts presided over by a goddess, where she taught them magic and performed divinations.<ref name=ginz /> Ginzburg links these beliefs with similar testimonies recorded across Europe, from the ''armiers'' of the [[Pyrenees]], from the followers of [[Signora Oriente]] in fourteenth century [[Milan]] and the followers of [[Richella]] and 'the wise Sibillia' in fifteenth century northern Italy, and much further afield, from [[Livonia]]n [[werewolf|werewolves]], [[Dalmatia]]n ''[[krsnik|kresniki]]'', [[Hungary|Hungarian]] ''[[táltos]]'', [[Romania]]n ''[[căluşari]]'' and [[Ossetians|Ossetian]] ''burkudzauta''. In many testimonies, these meetings were described as out-of-body, rather than physical, occurrences.<ref name=ginz />