Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/708

* WITCH BROOMS. 002 WITCHCRAFT. fied, becoming larger and softer in texture. The direction and mode of branching is completely altered, and the number of branches much in- creased. The occasion for the name is obvious, since these tufts of branches are often very con- spicuous. See ilALFOBlIATIOK. WITCHCRAFT (AS. iciccecrwft, iciccrwft, from aircc, iiicca, wizard, witch -)- crwft, OHG. chraft, Ger. Kraft, strength, power, art). The art and trade of a witch or of a wizard. To a certain extent the witch may be considered the predecessor of the modern scientist. At a time when no sj-stematic knowledge of nature existed, it was taken for granted that the future could be predicted and controlled by appropriate actions and expressions, through '.sympathetic magic' or potent formulas, of which the 'wise' man or woman was the repository, often possessing also such skill in the use of drugs, simples, or sur- gery as belonged to the period. Another and more essential element, however, entered into the conception, inasmuch as it was believed that these powers were attainable through intimacy with spirits whose supernatural force as at the disposal of their representative. In this de- pendence on spiritual beings the witch onlj- fol- lowed universal belief and practice, exercising the same powers as the priest or medicine man, whose recognized business it was to converse with unseen powers. The only difference lay in the fact that the priest occupied an accepted position, and served spirits recognized as friends or masters of the tribe, whereas the witch em- ployed jirivate demons, not so universally ac- credited, and therefore supposed to be inclined to malevolence. Professional jealousy would cause the irr%ular practitioners to be opposed and detested by the official mediums, while the independent attitude of the former would natu- rally result in a lowe^ ethical status, as freer front restraints of public opinion. Witches were ready, therefore, to put their knowledge and energy at the disposal of any person who would pay them, and were equally willing to work evil and good, not only to foreigners, but to mem- bers of tile community. Hence the witch, or supposed witch, has been always and everywhere the object of general hatred and assault. That in Rome the witch was also exposed to the puljlic vengeance is manifest from the account which Horace gives' in his fifth Epode of Canidia, whom he threatens with stoning at the hands of the people. The crimes attributed to her form a curious parallel to those ascribed to her class in modern times, and show that those accusa- tions depended on world-old superstition. She is made to devise the death of a boy, who is buried to the neck in the earth, and mocked by the offer of food out of his reach, to the end that the marrow of the victim, being full of desire, may be used as a love charm. Her rites in- eluded invocation of the gods below, the use of the poison of a toad, the plumage of birds of darkness, and the .sprinkling of water from Acheron; yet it is not to bo supposed that Horace, herein like all his contemporaries of the higher class, actually bclieveil in the enieacy of such ■witchcraft, and in tliis incredulity" nuist be sought the rea.son why the laws of Greece and Rome were so lax. there could be no general prohibition of a trade which corresponded to that of the accepted augur (see Auquries and AU.SPICES), and enchantment, when directed against individuals with murderous intent, would be criminal exactly as any other attack on their welfare. Considering that the employ- ment of such practitioners was universal, and their activity must constantly have been in- tended to destroy, it is singular that legal pro- ceedings offer few processes. Evidently the law- givers and judges were not in s.vmpathy with the popular fear and indignation, iind were inclined to regard the business rather as one followed by charlatans than as the work of persons really endowed with supernatural inlluence. This laxity was handed down to Christian time. The opinion of the Church oscillated be- tween contempt of witchery as a delusion and abhorrence of it as a form" of intercourse with evil spirits. One opinion was that belief in the existence of such power was in itself heretical, and that Christians were bound to believe in the impotence of magicians. Tliis was the doc- trine expressed in the decree of an unidentified council called that of Anquira. which has been traced as far back as the ninlh century. During the iliddle Ages, therefore, the Church had little to do with promoting the punishment of witches, who suffered rather from the fury of the popu- lace, or at times from tho severity of secu- lar authority. The accepted punishment, as in the case of heresy, was by fire. These punish- ments, however, were sporadic, and involved no systematic attempt to suppress the practice. It is one of the anomalies of history that the legal crusade against witchcraft should be modern, be- longing to the time of the Renaissance. The impulse was religious, and witchcraft was identified with heresy, as consisting in converse with the source of all evil. With this movement the Inquisition had much to do, and the bull Summis desider- anies, of Innocent VIII., in 1484, gave the oc- casion for unexampled severity. The composi- tion by Sprengel, one of the" Inquisitors ap- pointed by Innocent, of the Jlalleiis maleficarum, or Hummer of Kiiches. gave precision and fixed form to the cliarges of witclicraft. The weight of accusation now consisted, not in the evil use made of the enchanter's power, but in every exercise of that power; the witch was punishe'd as an idolater and servant of Satan. This atti- tude was promoted by the imperfectly understood language of the Bible, in which witchcraft was identified with the worship of idols, and bv the command of Exod. xxii. 18. "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." Judicial procedure, by the employment of torture, placed in the hands of the judge a means to enforce confession of any charges he might please to approve. Very sooii, therefore, a body of evidence was constructed, supported apparently by irresistible experience. The accusations took a definite form, which was repeated with imiform persistency. The sup- posed witches were made to confess that they Avere aide to fly through the air on brooms or by the aid of their familiar spirits, and thus to resort to desolate localities, where they held a 'Sabbath' or religious festival, in the presence of Satan, to whom (lioy oll'ored worship, and with whom they had criminal relations. The char- acter of the services at the Salibath consisled in the Ulack llass, a paro<ly and inversion of the eeremoiiy of the mass: homage was paid to the demon in the shape of goat, dog, or ape; the WOT-