pretended sorcerers and witches, that he
appears under this shape, that he eats, drinks, and travels, and does
other actions to make simpletons believe that sorcerers go to the
sabbath. What advantage does the devil derive from making idiots
believe these things, or maintaining them in such an error?
Nevertheless it is related[217] that St. Germain, Bishop of Auxerre,
traveling one day, and passing through a village in his diocese, after
having taken some refreshment there, remarked that they were preparing
a great supper, and laying out the table anew; he asked if they
expected company, and they told him it was for those good women who go
by night. St. Germain well understood what was meant, and resolved to
watch to see the end of this adventure.
Some time after he beheld a multitude of demons who came in the form
of men and women, and sat down to table in his presence. St. Germain
forbade them to withdraw, and calling the people of the house, he
asked them if they knew those persons: they replied, that they were
such and such among their neighbors: "Go," said he, "and see if they
are in their houses:" they went, and found them asleep in their beds.
The saint conjured the demons, and obliged them to declare that it is
thus they mislead mortals, and make them believe that there are
sorcerers and witches who go by night to the sabbath; they obeyed, and
disappeared, greatly confused.
This history may be read in old manuscripts, and is to be found in
Jacques de Varasse, Pierre de Noels, in St. Antonine, and in old
Breviaries of Auxerre, as well printed, as manuscript. I by no means
guarantee the truth of this story; I think it is absolutely
apocryphal; but it proves that those who wrote and copied it believed
that these nocturnal journeys of sorcerers and witches to the sabbath,
were mere illusions of the demon. In fact, it is hardly possible to
explain all that is said of sorcerers and witches going to the
sabbath, without having recourse to the ministry of the demon; to which
we must add a disturbed imagination, with a mind misled, and foolishly
prepossessed, and, if you will, a few drugs which affect the brain,
excite the humors, and produce dreams relative to impressions already
in their minds.
In John Baptist Porta Cardan, and elsewhere, may be found the
composition of those ointments with which witches are said to anoint
themselves, to be able to transport themselves to the sabbath; but the
only real effect t
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