[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
new, and his life was one long struggle. The old religion demanded human sacrifices and he gave them, the
new religion regarded murder as mortal sin and he tried to offer expiation; openly he had Christian masses
and prayers celebrated with the utmost pomp, secretly he followed the ancient cult; when he was about to
remove the bodies of the human victims from the castle of Champtoc, he swore his accomplices to secrecy
by the binding oaths of both religions; on the other hand members of the old faith, whom he consulted when
in trouble, warned him that as long as he professed Christianity and practised its rites they could do nothing
for him.
An infringement of the rights of the Church brought him under the ecclesiastical law, and the Church was not
slow to take advantage of the position. Had he chosen to resist, his exalted position would have protected
him, but he preferred to yield, and like Joan he stood his trial on the charge of heresy. The trial did not take
long; he was arrested on September 14, and executed on October 26. With him were arrested eight others, of
whom two were executed with him. Seeing that thirteen was always the number of witches in a Coven, it is
surely more than an accidental coincidence that nine men and women, including Gilles, were arrested, two
saved themselves by flight, and two more who had played a large part in the celebration of the rites of the old
religion were already dead. Thus even as early as the middle of the fifteenth century the Coven of thirteen
was in existence.
Gilles was charged with heresy before a Court composed of ecclesiastics only, and like Joan he was willing to
be tried for his faith. He announced that he had always been a Christian, which may be taken to mean that
there was some doubt as to whether he was not a heathen. He suddenly gave way to a curious outburst against
the authority of the Court, saying that he would rather be hanged by the neck with a lace than submit to them
as judges. This can only be understood by comparing his reference to 'hanging with a lace' with the method
by which Playfair in 1597 (p. 204) John Stewart in 1618 (p. 202), and John Reid in 1697 (p. 203), met their
deaths.
The sudden change of front in this haughty noble may be accounted for by the excommunication which was
decreed against him, but this explains neither his passionate haste to confess all, and more than all, of which
he was accused, nor his earnest and eager desire to die. How much of his confession was true cannot be
determined now, but it is very evident that he was resolved to make his own death certain. His action in this
may be compared with that of Major Weir in 1670, who also was executed on his own voluntary confession
of witchcraft and crime. Gilles's last words, though couched in Christian phraseology, show that he had not
realized the enormity of the crimes which he confessed: 'We have sinned, all three of us', he said to his two
companions, 'but as soon as our souls have left our bodies we shall all see God in His glory in Paradise.' He
was hanged on a gibbet above a pyre, but when the fire burned through the rope the body was snatched from
the flames by several ladies of his family, who prepared it for burial with their own hands, and it was then
interred in the Carmelite church close by. His two associates were also hanged, their bodies being burned and
the ashes scattered.
On the spot where Gilles was executed his daughter erected a monument, to which came all nursing mothers
to pray for an abundance of milk. Here again is a strong suggestion that he was regarded as the Incarnate God
of fertility. Another suggestive fact is the length of time-nine years-which elapsed between the death of Joan
and the death of Gilles. This is a usual interval when the Incarnate God is given a time-limit.
It required twenty-five years before an action of rehabilitation could be taken for Joan. In the case of Gilles,
two years after the execution the King granted letters of rehabilitation for that 'the said Gilles, unduly and
without cause, was condemned and put to death'.
An intensive study of this period might reveal the witch organization at the royal Court and possibly even the
Grand-master to whom Joan owed allegiance, the 'God' who sent her. Giac, the King's favourite, was
2. Gilles de Rais 174
The Witch Cult in Western Europe
executed as a witch, and Joan's beau duc, the Duke d'Alenon, was also of the fraternity.
APPENDIX V
FLYING OINTMENTS
IMPORTANT NOTE
As noted in the text, several of the ingredients listed here are DEADLY POISONS. Some of these ingredients
can KILL YOU simply through SKIN CONTACT. We include this appendix because it is an integral part of
the original text of the book the Witch-Cult in Western Europe . We do not recommend attempting to
duplicate this formula or using ANY of the ingredients in this formula. NOTE: sacred-texts.com will not be
held responsible for the outcome of anyone attempting to use this formula or any of these ingredients.
CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED.
Here is a quote from an interview with Sharon Devlin, an experienced wiccan herbalist, from the book
Drawing Down the Moon by Margot Adler:
"One day I decided to make a flying ointment. I was doing it in front of a student who I
wanted to impress. Well, I made it about a thousand-fold stronger than I should have
because I was using denatured alcohol instead of sprits of wine to extract it, which is what
they did in the old days. And instead of lard I was using hydrophilic ointment. As a result I
increased the potency about two hundred to three hundred percent, and I got enough under
my fingernails just by mixing it to kill me. And I would have died if it hadn't been for a
friend of mine who was a doctor and a magician, whom I called immediately. I learned a
very heavy lesson. It was my first heavy experience with death, and a lot of bullshit pride
went down the toilet with the rest of the flying ointment."
THE three formulae for the 'flying' ointment used by witches are as follows:
1. Du persil, de l'eau de l'Aconite, des feuilles de Peuple, et de la suye.
2. De la Berle, de l'Acorum vulgaire, de la Quintefeuille, du sang de chauuesouris, de la Morelle endormante,
et de l'huyle.
3. De graisse d'enfant, de suc d'Ache, d'Aconite, de Quintefeuille, de Morelle, et de suye.
These formulae may be translated as follows -
1. Parsley, water of aconite, poplar leaves, and soot.
2. Water parsnip, sweet flag, cinquefoil, bat's blood, deadly night. shade, and oil.
3. Baby's fat, juice of water parsnip, aconite, cinquefoil, deadly nightshade, and soot.
These prescriptions show that the society of witches had a very creditable knowledge of the art of poisoning:
aconite and deadly nightshade or belladonna are two of the three most poisonous plants growing freely in
Europe, the third is hemlock, and in all probability 'persil' refers to hemlock and not to the harmless parsley,
APPENDIX V 175
The Witch Cult in Western Europe
which it resembles closely.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]