Nature (journal)/Volume 109/Number 2740/The Witch-Cult in Western Europe: A Study in Anthropology. By M. A. Murray

IN her study of witchcraft in Western Europe Miss Murray has endeavoured to show, first, that the witch-cult was a definite organised religion, and secondly, that it is possible to deduce from the records the character of its ritual. The problem which Miss Murray has set herself is entirely new and has not hitherto been considered, much less attacked.

As regards the evidence upon which Miss Murray's investigations are based, her aim has been to arrive at an impartial statement by quoting the ipsissima verba of the witches in their confessions and at their trials as recorded by contemporary chroniclers, all comments of those who compiled the records being omitted. Early accounts of witchcraft, as she points out, are apt to be vitiated by too great credulity or an excess of scepticism.

Exception is not infrequently taken, to the evidence of the witches themselves on the ground that it was elicited under torture, but Miss Murray meets this objection by pointing out that in the English trials and in many of the Scottish trials legal torture was not employed. It is true that she is concerned principally with witchcraft in this country and deals with the French evidence only for purposes of elucidation and amplification; much of the French evidence was the result of torture, and even in this country in some of the most important cases torture was employed. In the case of the North Berwick witches, who were accused of a conspiracy against James VI. in which Bothwell was implicated, two were subjected to the ordeal of having their nails pulled out with pincers, pins were stuck into the quick, and they were tortured with the boot. It is to be noted, however, that the confessions, whether elicited under torture or without it, display a remarkable uniformity in detail, although drawn from a wide area and spread over a considerable period of time. This lends strong support to the view that the evidence may be accepted as it stands.

Taking the evidence at its face value, Miss Murray has arrived at the conclusion that the witch-cult was a definite organised religion and, as such, was a survival of the primitive religion of Western Europe. It represents, she holds, the religion of a pre-agricultural people who celebrated their religious festivals in accordance with a pre-solstitial calendar. She argues, reasonably enough, that the wholesale conversions to Christianity in the early days of tribes and peoples were merely superficial and that the bulk of the people continued to follow their old beliefs and to practise their traditional ritual, more or less in secret. If it be conceded that the witches in their accounts of what took place at the Sabbaths were describing, not furtive assemblies for malicious evil practices and unlimited debauchery, but gatherings for performing the rites of an organised religion, their evidence takes on an entirely new significance. Taking this point of view Miss Murray is able to deduce from it the character of the god they worshipped, the nature of the rites, and the organisation by which the religion was carried on.

The god, who was confused with the devil by Christians, was regarded by his worshippers as incarnate in man, woman, or animal. The animal form varied, being sometimes a bull, sometimes a dog, a cat, a horse, or a sheep. The goat, common in France, does not occur in this country. Further investigation of this point might throw light on the early history and distribution of the cult. The god incarnate acted as the leader of the association in which there was an inner circle or council, the “coven,” consisting apparently of thirteen individuals. Miss Murray is of the opinion that in certain instances it is possible to identify these leaders, and cites, among others, Bothwell, Joan of Arc, and her companion in arms, Gilles de Rais, the French “Bluebeard.” Her suggestion that the god was sacrificed at stated intervals would account for certain peculiar features in the trials, such as, possibly, the line taken by Joan of Arc under examination, and the unsolicited confession of Major Weir, who was burned as a witch at Edinburgh in 1670. The evidence on this point would not be strong in itself, if it were not fully in keeping with Miss Murray's view of the witch-ritual. As is well known the central features of the Sabbath were a feast and sexual licence. This suggests inevitably that it was a fertility rite of the type familiar to anthropologists. It was only at a later date, and in the first instance by popular perversion that the function of the witch became the blasting of crops and herds as set forth in the famous Bull of Innocent VIII.

Many other topics are discussed in this important study which are of the greatest interest to anthropologists, and it bristles with points which call for further consideration did space allow. It has, however, one aspect to which reference must be made, and that is its bearing upon mediaeval history. From this point of view it is a book which no historian or student can afford to neglect. The position of the Church and its relation to witchcraft before the beginning of the fifteenth century must be reconsidered first in the light of Miss Murray's conclusions and, secondly, with reference to the numerical strength the cult could command as an organisation—a point upon which Miss Murray does not touch.