e also possible. Alison
Peirson, tried in 1588, learnt all her charms and obtained all her
knowledge from the Devil, who came to her in the form of Mr. William
Sympson, her mother's brother's son, who was a great scholar and doctor of
medicine in Edinburgh.[136] Jonet Stewart in 1597 'learnt her charms from
umquhill Michaell Clark, smyth in Laswaid, and fra ane Italean strangear
callit Mr. John Damiet, ane notorious knawin Enchanter and Sorcerer'.[137]
In the trial of Marion Pardon of Hillswick in 1644 'it was given in
evidence that a man spoke of the devil as Marion Pardon's pobe, i.e.
nurse's husband or foster father'.[138] In a case tried at Lauder in 1649
there is an indication that one of the magistrates was the Chief of the
witches; Robert Grieve accused a certain woman at a secret session of the
court, 'but the Devil came that same night unto her, and told her that Hob
Grieve had fyled her for a witch'.[139] Isobel Ramsay in 1661 was accused
that 'you had ane uther meiting wt the devill in yor awne hous in the
liknes of yor awne husband as you wes lying in yor bed at qch tyme you
engadged to be his servant and receaved a dollar from him'.[140] When a man
had special knowledge as to which women were witches, it is suggestive that
he might be himself the Devil; as in the case of the Rev. Allan Logan, who
'was particularly knowing in the detection of witches. At the
administration of the communion, he would cast his eye along, and say: "You
witch wife, get up from the table of the Lord", when some poor creature
would rise and depart.'[141]

It seems probable that the infamous Abbe Guibourg was the head of the Paris
witches, for it was he who celebrated the 'black mass' and performed the
sacrifice of a child, both of which were the duties of the 'Devil'.[142]

At Salem also the account given by the witches of the Rev. George Burroughs
points to his filling the office of 'Devil', for he was 'Head Actor at some
of their Hellish Randezvouses, and one who had the promise of being a King
in Satan's kingdom.--He was the person who had Seduc'd and Compell'd them
into the snares of Witchcraft'.[143] That Burroughs was a religious person
is no argument against his being also the 'Devil' of Salem. Apart from the
well-known psychological fact that a certain form of religious feeling can
exist at the same time as the propensity to and practice of sexual
indulgence, there is proof that many of the witches were outwardly
religious