nees, they addressed their prayers to him, they offered thanks to him as
the giver of food and the necessities of life, they dedicated their
children to him, and there are indications that, like many another god, he
was sacrificed for the good of his people.

The contemporary writers state in so many words that the witches believed
in the divinity of their Master. Danaeus, writing in 1575, says, 'The
Diuell co[~m]aundeth them that they shall acknowledge him for their god,
cal vp[~o] him, pray to him, and trust in him.--Then doe they all repeate
the othe which they haue geuen vnto him; in acknowledging him to be their
God.'[27] Gaule, in 1646, nearly a century later, says that the witches vow
'to take him [the Devil] for their God, worship, invoke, obey him'.[28]

The witches are even more explicit, and their evidence proves the belief
that their Master was to them their God. The accusation against Elisabeth
Vlamyncx of Alost, 1595, was that 'vous n'avez pas eu honte de vous
agenouiller devant votre Belzebuth, que vous avez adore'.[29] The same
accusation was made against Marion Grant of Aberdeen, 1596, that 'the
Deuill quhome thow callis thy god ... causit the worship him on thy kneis
as thy lord'.[30] De Lancre (1609) records, as did all the Inquisitors,
the actual words of the witches; when they presented a young child, they
fell on their knees and said, 'Grand Seigneur, lequel i'adore', and when
the child was old enough to join the society she made her vow in these
words: 'Ie me remets de tout poinct en ton pouuoir & entre tes mains, ne
recognois autre Dieu: si bien que tu es mon Dieu'.[31] Silvain Nevillon,
tried at Orleans in 1614, said, 'On dit au Diable nous vous recognoissons
pour nostre maistre, nostre Dieu, nostre Createur'.[32] The Lancashire
witch, Margaret Johnson, 1633, said: 'There appeared vnto her a spirit or
divell in the similitude and proportion of a man. And the said divell or
spirit bidd her call him by the name of Mamillion. And saith, that in all
her talke and conferense shee calleth her said Divell Mamillion, my
god.'[33] According to Madame Bourignon, 1661, 'Persons who were thus
engaged to the Devil by a precise Contract, will allow no other God but
him'.[34] Isobel Gowdie confessed that 'he maid vs beliew that ther wes no
God besyd him.--We get all this power from the Divell, and when ve seik it
from him, ve call him "owr Lord".--At each tyme, quhan ve wold meitt with
him, we behoowit to ryse