Genocide Project

The Witches’ Sabbath and the Black Mass are described as evolving from harmless pagan survivals into a structured “communion of revolt” against the established Church.

Key Elements of the Witches’ Sabbath

The Sabbath changed over time from simple nocturnal gatherings to large popular festivals.

• Origins and Evolution: It began as an unimportant relic of paganism, such as the Sabasia (festivals of Bacchus Sabasius) and the Pervigilium Veneris. By the 14th century, it became a deliberate defiance of Jesus Christ.
• Participants: Originally composed of simple peasantry and serfs, by the 17th century it included persons of all classes, including nobles and priests.
• Ritual and Atmosphere: The gatherings often took place at night on wild heaths or near old Celtic dolmens. Participants engaged in a “Witches’ Round,” a whirling dance performed back-to-back to induce intoxication.
• Satan’s Role: In earlier periods, Satan was represented by a wooden figure. Later, he was depicted as a refined nobleman in a gilded armchair who defrayed expenses and provided strange music and silver plate for feasts.

Key Acts of the Black Mass

The Black Mass is characterized as the “Holy Sacrament turned inside out”. It consists of four distinct acts:

• Act I: The Introit and Homage: This act includes the “Kiss of Devotion” and a banquet. It begins with a denial of Jesus and homage to the new Master, including the “feudal kiss”. A woman, often “The Aged,” serves as the priestess and is “consecrated” by the wooden god.
• Act II: The Offertory and Sacrifice: A woman serves as both the altar and the sacrifice. A demon performs the Mass upon her body while she is prostrate. Offerings of wheat and birds (symbolizing liberty) are made to the Spirit of the Earth. The host is often a confarreatio, a “sacrament of love” or cake baked on the woman’s body.
• Act III: The Orgy and Incest: This act involves “incestuous love-making”. While some accounts describe it as a wild carnival of lust and public incest, others suggest it was more decent, with families attending and children present. It emphasized “loveless love” and female sterility.
• Act IV: The Disappearance of Satan: This final act depicts the “death of Satan”. The Sorceress is described as flying away to rejoin her lover in Hell, often on a gigantic black horse. Satan himself “slips off this mortal coil” and vanishes in a flash of fire as dawn approaches.

Jules Michelet’s Satanism and Witchcraft is a sociological and historical analysis of medieval superstition, arguing that witchcraft was a “communion of revolt” born from the extreme despair and oppression of the Middle Ages. Michelet rejects the idea that witchcraft was merely a lingering pagan relic; instead, he contends it was a direct reaction to a society crushed by the Church and Feudalism.

Core Thesis: The Sorceress as a Figure of Revolt

Michelet positions the Sorceress as the central figure of this history, arguing she was created by the “Church’s crime”—the profound despair it inflicted on the people.

• The Healer of the People: For a thousand years, the Sorceress was the people’s only physician. While kings had official doctors, the masses relied on “The Wise Woman”.
• A Scientific Pioneer: She utilized “Comforting plants” (Solanaceae), such as belladonna and henbane, to treat skin diseases and labor pains. Michelet claims modern medicine, including the work of Paracelsus, was built on the empirical knowledge of these “witches”.
• The Victim of Despair: The “Pact with Satan” was not a result of whim or sin, but a last resort for serfs driven to madness by feudal raids, excessive taxes, and the “right of prehension”.

The Evolution of Satanism

Michelet traces the transformation of the concept of Satan and his role in medieval society:

• Early Middle Ages (The Little Demon): Satan began as a “harmless Brownie” or household spirit, a vestige of ancient nature gods hidden at the hearth.
• 1300s (The Age of Despair): As feudalism became more rigid and gold gained mastery, the figure of Satan grew more formidable. The “Black Mass” emerged as a deliberate defiance of the Church.
• The Witches’ Sabbath: This nocturnal gathering evolved from simple rustic festivals into large-scale popular celebrations of fraternity and revolt against the “King of the World”.

Key Historical Scandals and Persecution

The book details the transition from religious inquisitions to lay legal persecutions:

• The Inquisitors: Michelet critiques the “asinine collections” of Dominican manuals like the Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches) by Sprenger, which codified the persecution of women based on the doctrine of Original Sin.
• The Rise of Lay Judges: By the late 16th century, secular lawyers like Lancre and Boguet became “as good at burning as the Priests,” turning witch-hunting into a professional rivalry.
• Nunnery Scandals: The book analyzes high-profile cases of “diabolical possession” in 17th-century convents, such as those at Aix (Gauffridi), Loudun (Urbain Grandier), and Louviers (Madeleine Bavent). Michelet argues these were often caused by the psychological strain of forced celibacy and manipulated by jealous monks to ruin rival secular priests.

The End of Witchcraft and the “Reign of Reason”

Michelet concludes that witchcraft perished not because the Church won, but because the spirit of the Enlightenment and scientific observation triumphed.

• Satan Triumphant: The “Satanic” spirit—the spirit of revolt, nature, and free will—prevailed through the birth of modern physics, chemistry, and mathematics.
• The Survivor: While the “Sorceress” perished at the stake, Michelet argues the “Fairy”—the immortal feminine spirit of healing and consolation—remains.

Jules Michelet’s Satanism and Witchcraft provides a chronological and sociological analysis of the evolution of witchcraft through the following chapters:

Part One: The Origins and Rise of Witchcraft

• Chapter 1: Death of the Gods: Following the victory of Christianity, ancient nature gods were declared demons. This wholesale proscription drove these deities from public life into the private hearth, where they were preserved by women.
• Chapter 2: What Drove the Middle Ages to Despair: This chapter details the “crushing boredom” and despair caused by a rigid church and the transition of free men into serfs through feudalism.
• Chapter 3: The Little Demon of the Hearth and Home: Isolated in their huts, serf wives revived ancient nature spirits in the form of “harmless brownies” or fairies like Robin Goodfellow.
• Chapter 4: Temptations: Under the pressure of feudal raids and the “right of prehension,” the serf’s wife began to invoke stronger spirits for protection and wealth.
• Chapter 5: Diabolical Possession: By 1300, the need for gold to pay feudal dues drove the peasant wife into an alliance with the “Demon of Gold”.
• Chapter 6: The Pact with Satan: Driven to extremes by feudal cruelty, such as the public mutilation of her clothing and status, the woman fled to the wilds and made a formal pact with Satan for revenge.
• Chapter 7: King of the Dead: In her isolation, the Sorceress claimed the power to evoke the spirits of the dead, providing consolation to those mourning lost loved ones.
• Chapter 8: Prince of Nature: The Sorceress emerged as a “High-priestess of Nature,” discovering the healing and hallucinogenic properties of plants previously deemed accursed.
• Chapter 9: Satan the Healer: For a thousand years, the Sorceress was the people’s only physician. She pioneered the use of “Comforting plants” (Solanaceae) like belladonna to treat diseases that the Church attributed solely to sin.
• Chapter 10: Charms and Love Potions: The Sorceress gained power over all classes, including the nobility, by providing love philters and charms to manipulate desire and social rank.
• Chapter 11: Communion of Revolt—Witches’ Sabbaths—The Black Mass: The Sabbath evolved into a “Black Mass,” a deliberate, four-act defiance of the Church where a woman served as the living altar.
• Chapter 12: Black Mass Continued—Love and Death—Satan Disappears: The final acts of the Mass involved rituals of “incestuous love-making” aimed at ensuring family sterility followed by the symbolic disappearance of Satan at dawn.

Part Two: Decadence and Persecution

• Chapter 13: The Sorceress in Her Decadence: By the 15th century, witchcraft became vulgarized. Great ladies employed “Witch-wives” for trivial caprices, such as the “werewolf” transformation or the corruption of children.
• Chapter 14: Persecutions: This chapter critiques the Malleus Maleficarum, the inquisitors’ manual that codified the mass burning of women based on the doctrine of Original Sin.
• Chapter 15: A Hundred Years’ Toleration in France: Michelet notes a period of relative peace in France until the late 16th century, when lay lawyers like Remy and Boguet became more zealous hunters than the priests.
• Chapter 16: The Basque Witches, 1609: Details the trials led by Judge Lancre, where mass hysteria and the testimony of children led to dozens of executions.
• Chapter 17: Satan Turns Ecclesiastic, 1610: The “Sabbath” became a commercialized festival attended by the wealthy and clergy, where “loveless love” and female sterility remained central themes.
• Chapter 18: Gauffridi, 1610: The trial of a priest for sorcery revealed deep conventual jealousies and the psychological strain of “diabolical possession” in nunneries.
• Chapter 19: The Nuns of Loudun—Urbain Grandier, 1633, 1634: A high-profile case where an eloquent priest was burned after nuns claimed he possessed them; Michelet views this as a result of political intrigue and forced celibacy.
• Chapter 20: The Nuns of Louviers and Satanic Possession—Madeleine Bavent, 1640–1647: Another scandal involving “Illuminism” and the brutal treatment of the nun Madeleine Bavent, who was used as a false witness by her inquisitors.
• Chapter 21: Satan Triumphant in the Seventeenth Century: Michelet concludes that the spirit of revolt and scientific reason finally triumphed over medieval superstition.
• Chapters 22, 23, & 24: Father Girard and Charlotte Cadière: The final case study details the trial of a Jesuit who abused his spiritual authority over a young woman; despite clear evidence of his crimes, he was acquitted while she was condemned as a slanderer.