[659] Pitcairn, iii, p. 612. Sych = sighing, lamentation.
[660] Id., i, pt. ii, p. 212.
[661] Newes from Scotland, see Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 218.
[662] Pitcairn, i, pt. ii, p. 237.
[663] Id., ii, p. 542.
VI. THE RITES (continued)
Witches' Rain-making and Fertility Rites
1. General
In common with many other religions of the Lower Culture, the witch-cult of Western Europe observed certain rites for rain-making and for causing or blasting fertility. This fact was recognized in the papal Bulls formulated against the witches who were denounced, not for moral offences, but for the destruction of fertility. The celebrated Decree of Innocent VIII, which in 1488 let loose the full force of the Church against the witches, says that 'they blight the marriage bed, destroy the births of women and the increase of cattle; they blast the corn on the ground, the grapes of the vineyard, the fruits of the trees, the grass and herbs of the field'. Adrian VI followed this up in 1521 with a Decretal Epistle, denouncing the witches 'as a Sect deviating from the Catholic Faith, denying their Baptism, and showing Contempt of the Ecclesiastical Sacraments, treading Crosses under their Feet, and, taking the Devil for their Lord, destroyed the Fruits of the Earth by their Enchantments, Sorceries, and Superstitions'.