Malleus Maleficarum

preferring to the day of the assys, was put in one lockfast buith,⁠ ⁠… and for avoyding of putting violent handis on himself, was verie strictly gairdit and flitherit be the airms, as us is.” He was visited by two ministers, who exhorted him to repentance, and seemed very contrite, confessing his witchcrafts. However, almost immediately after “he was fund be the burrow officers, quha went about him stranglit and hangit be the cruik of the dur, with ane tait of hemp (or a string maid of hemp, supposed to haif been his garters, or string of his bonnet) not above the length of two span long, his kneyis not being from the grund half ane span, and was brocht out of the hous, his lyf not being so layt expellit: but notwithstanding of quhat-somever meines usit to the contrair for remeid of his lyf, he revievit not, but so endit his lyf miserable by the help of the devill his maister.” In 1649 the lady of Pittahro, Mistress Henderson, “being delated by many to be a witch, was apprehended and carried to Edenbroughe, wher she was keiped fast; and after her remaining in prison for a tyme, being in health all night, upon the morne was found dead. It was thought, and spoken by many, that she wronged her selfe, either by strangling or by poyson.”

It is recorded of the Renfrewshire trials (1697) that John Reid, a notorious warlock of Bargarran, “after his Confession had called out of his prison Window, desiring Baily Scott to keep that old body Angus Forrester, who had been his fellow prisoner, close and secure; whereupon the company asked John when they were leaving him on Friday night the 21st of May, whether he desired company or would be afraid alone, he said he had no fear of anything: So being left till Saturday in the Forenoon, he was found in this posture, viz. sitting upon a stool which was on the Hearth of the Chimney, with his feet on the floor and his Body straight upward, his shoulders touching the lintel of the Chimney, but his Neck tied with his own neckcloth (whereof the know was behind) to a small stick thrust into a hole above the lintel of the Chimney, upon which the Company, especially John Campbel a Chyrurgeon who was called, thought at first in respect of his being in an ordinary posture of sitting, and the neckcloth not having any drawn knot (or ‘run loup’) but an ordinary one which was not very strait, and the sticke not having the strength to bear the weight of his Body or the struggle, that he had not been quite dead; but finding it otherways, and that he was in such a Situation that he could not have been the Actor thereof himself, concluded that some extraordinary Agent had done it, especially considering that the Door of the Room was secured, and that there was a board set over the Window which was not there the night before when they left him.” ↩

The beautiful devotion to the Sacred Tears of Our Lord is well known. The Premonstratensians have a Mass, “De Lacryma Christi,” proper to the Order.

Our Lady of Tears, Santa Maria delle Lagrime, is the Patroness of Spoleto. A picture of Our Lady, painted upon the wall of the house belonging to Diotallevio d’Antonio, which stood on the road from Spoleto to Trevi, was seen to shed tears in great abundance. Many graces and favours were obtained before the miraculous picture. A small chapel was erected on the spot in August 1485, and Mass was daily offered therein. On 27 March 1487, the large basilica was begun, which on its completion, 8 March 1489, was entrusted to the Olivetans. ↩

The “Agnus Dei,” which is a disc of wax, stamped with the figure of a Lamb, and on certain stated days blessed by the Holy Father. These Agnus Deis may either be worn suspended round the neck, or preserved as objects of devotion. They are to be regarded as Sacramentals. ↩

S. John 15:22. ↩

De Lancre, Tableau de l’inconstance des mauvais agnes et démons, Paris, 1912, has: “Pour ne confesser iamais le secret de l’escole, on faict au sabbat une paste de millet noir, auec de la poudre du foyer de quelque enfant non baptisé qu’on faict secher, puis meslant cette poudre avec ladicte paste, elle a cette vertu de tacitrunité; si bien que qui en mange ne confesse iamais.” Five Forfar witches, of which one was Helen Guthrie, in 1661 dug up the body of an unbaptized infant, which was buried in the churchyard near the southeast door of the church “and took severall peices thereof, as the feet, hands, pairt of the head, and a pairt of the buttocks, and they made a py thereof, that they might eat of it, that by this means they might never make a confession (as they thought) of their witchcraft.” ↩

Proverbs 26:11: “As a dog that returneth to his vomit, so is the fool that repeateth his folly.” 2 Peter 2:22: “For, that of the true proverb has happened to them: the dog is returned to his vomit: and, The sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire.” ↩

S. Henry II, German King and Roman Emperor, was born 972, and died in his palace of Grona, at Göttingen, 13 July, 1024. He was canonized in 1146 by Eugenius III; and his wife Cunegond on 3 March 1200, by Innocent III. Later writers are inclined to believe that the ascetic theme of his maiden marriage has no foundation in fact. Saint Henry on assuming the Imperial dignity took to wife Cunegond, daughter of Siegfried, Count of Luxembourg. It has been beautifully said that she shares her husband’s celestial, as she shared his earthly crown. When