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Another common aspect of the witch trials was the involvement of the Devil.
This is not surprising as the belief in Satan as an agent of evil was particularly strong
in the Middle Ages and Reformation, so as the witches were believed to cause harm
and thus be evil it was safe to conclude that the Devil was involved. In the
confessions extracted from witches there are many references to the Devil, appearing
in person to the witch or witches as the leader of a coven, or to tempt them into his
service. His most common appearance, that of a man, was described by Henri Boguet
(1550 - 1619), a jurist in witch trials in Discourse des sorciers (1602): “Whenever he
(the Devil) assumes the form of a man, he is, however, always black, as all witches
bear witness. And for my part I hold that there are two principal reasons for this: first,
that he who is the Father and Ruler of darkness may not be able to disguise himself so
well that he may not always be known for what he is; secondly, as proof that his study
is only to do evil; for evil, as Pythagoras said, is symbolised by black.” He could also
take the form of saints, the Virgin Mary, young women, preachers and a variety of
animals, most commonly a dog, goat or serpent. He was also portrayed in the fashion
that he is readily identified by today, as the likeness of Pan, the horned and cloven
hoofed Roman God of nature. One detail that is commonly omitted from the modern
image is his penis. The Lancashire witches, of whom one Elizabeth Dundike was a
member, claimed that copulation with the Devil was painful ‘because his huge
member was covered in scales’. In Scotland in 1662 Isobel Gowdie told the court that
the Devil was ‘heavy like a malt sack’ and had ‘a huge member that was cold as ice’
but also claimed that ‘he is abler for us that way than any man can be’.
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This ties in closely with the sabbats that witches did, really or allegedly,
attend. Common details included the presiding of the sabbat by the Devil in the form
of a goat upon a throne, the sacrifice of unbaptized infants, the renunciation of
Christianity, oath-taking and marking by the devil of initiates, great feasts with much
eating and drinking but with the noted absence of salt, dancing and copulation with
demons or the Devil himself. The witches attended these sabbats in the nude and
paid homage to the Devil by kissing his backside, a practice perhaps known to
Michael Pacher, who portrayed the Devil with a face on his backside in his alterpiece
panel of St. Wolfgang forcing the Devil to hold a prayer book (the image of the Devil
from this piece is shown right). Dennis Wheatley
suggests that these sabbats did occur, originating as the feasts and weekly meetings
(esbats) of the worshippers of the Horned God in which he was worshipped by
feasting and drinking and fornication. He goes on to postulate that the persecution of
witches along with the threats of eternal damnation and the increasing Christian
devoutness in the population caused a change in the character of the sabbats from
‘midnight picnics and bawdy gaiety’ to ‘blasphemous parodies of the Christian faith’
in which the above details were true. The Devil was the chief of the coven, ‘always
disguised as some type of animal’ and ruled over his coven strictly, for the risks of
discovery were high and the punishments severe. Unfortunately apart from the
accounts produced in the witch trials there are few other records, and as the
confession of the witches cannot be relied upon to be the truth because of the
undoubted manipulation of the facts that can be attributed to the persecutors of
witches, as a means of portraying witches as evil and in league with the Devil and the
very nature of the torture used to gain this information must cast doubt upon it’s
validity as the torture would not stop until the accusers heard what they wanted;
evidence of witchcraft.