I have been forced to listen with much gravity, to a man partially insane, who assured me that the devil was lodged in his side, and that I should perceive him thumping and fluttering there, in a manner which would perfectly convince me of his presence.
Another lunatic believed that he had swallowed the devil, and had retained him in his stomach. He resisted the calls of nature during several days, lest he should set the foul fiend at liberty. I overcame his resolution, however, by administering an emetic in his food.
In Mather’s Wonders of the invisible World, containing the trials of the American witches, in 1692, a work which may be regarded as official, it appears that the visions of several persons who thought themselves bewitched, were occasioned by the night-mare.
On the trial of Bridget Bishop, at Salem, for example; “John Cook testified, that about five or six years ago, one morning about sun-rise, he was in his chamber assaulted by the shape of this prisoner, which looked on him, grinned at him, and very much hurt him with a blow on the side of the head.”... “Richard Ceman testified, that eight years ago, as he lay awake in his bed, with a light burning in the room, he was annoyed with the apparition of this Bishop and of two more that were strangers to him, who came and oppressed him so, that he could neither stir himself, nor wake any one else,” &c.
Again, on the trial of Susannah Martin, “Bernard Peache testified, that being in bed, on the Lord’s day night, he heard a scrabbling at the window, whereat he then saw Susannah Martin come in and jump down upon the floor. She took hold of this deponent’s feet, and drawing his body up into one heap, she lay upon him near two hours; in all which time he could neither speak nor hear.”
In the introduction to his history of the trials, which were conducted on such evidence, Mather gravely says;
“’Tis, as I remember, the learned Scribonius, who reports, that one of his acquaintance, devoutly making his prayers on the behalf of a person molested by evil spirits, received from those evil spirits an horrible blow over the face: and I may myself expect not few or small buffetings from evil spirits, for the endeavours wherewith I am now going to encounter them. I am far from insensible, that at this extraordinary time of the Devil’s coming down in great wrath upon us, there are too many tongues and hearts thereby set on fire of hell, that the various opinions about the witchcrafts which of later time have troubled us, are maintained by some with so much loud fury, as if they could never be sufficiently stated, unless written in the liquor wherewith witches use to write their covenants; and that he who becomes an author at such a time, had need be fenced with iron, and the staff of a spear.”
Stoughton, the Lieutenant-Governor of New England, affixed his approbation to this book, vouching for the truth of the statements, and declaring that all good men would “greatly rejoice, that the spirit of the Lord had thus enabled him (Mather) to lift up a standard against the infernal enemy, that hath been coming in like a flood upon us.” Such was the force of this memorable fit of national insanity, during which torrents of innocent blood were shed, by the misguided judges and juries, under the impression that they were actually invaded by a legion of devils; the part of which was really performed by themselves.
Nothing, indeed, can be added to the diligence of Remy, or Remigius, with respect to the forms of demons. He was a commissioner for the trial of witches, in Lorrain, and as he informs us, in the course of fifteen years, he condemned nine hundred criminals to the stake. His book is one of the most remarkable productions of credulity; for the monstrous absurdities which it contains are supported by juridical proofs, most of which evidently proceeded from spectral impressions, when they were not extorted by torture.
My edition of this work, which is become very rare, was printed by Vincenti, at Lyons, in 1595. It is entitled, Dæmonolatreia. The trials appear to have begun in 1583. Mr. Remy seems to have felt great anxiety to ascertain the exact features and dress of the demons, with whom many of the persons supposed themselves to be familiar. Yet nothing transpired, in his examinations, which varied from the usual figures exhibited by the gross sculptures and paintings of the middle age. They are said to be black-faced,[7] with sunk, but fiery eyes, their mouths wide, and smelling of sulphur; their hands hairy, with claws: their feet horny and cloven.