THE INQUISITION OF TOULOUSE
The Witches' Sabbath
Fourteenth Century

This text is taken from depositions in the archive of the Inquisition at Toulouse. The key description of the witches' assembly, the Sabbath, marks the first record we possess of the juridical recognition of the reality of these meetings. These declarations are the forerunners of thousands of confessions of witchcraft taken by ecclesiastical and civil courts between the fourteenth and the eighteenth centuries. Text in Caro Baroja, pp. 849786. French text in Hansen, Quellen, pp. 4509753.

Anne Marie de Georgel and Catherine, the wife of Delort, both from Toulouse and advanced in years, have declared in their confessions to the legal authorities that they have been members of the numberless hosts of Satan for about twenty years, and have given themselves to him for this life and the next. Frequently on Friday nights they have attended the Sabbath which is held sometimes in one place, sometimes in another. There, in company with other men and women who are equally sacrilegious, they commit all manner of excesses, whose details are horrible to tell. Each of them has been interrogated separately and they have given explanations which have entirely convinced us of their guilt.

Anne Marie de Georgel declares that one morning when she was washing clothes near Pech-David above the town, she saw a man of huge stature coming towards her across the water. He was dark-skinned and his eyes burned like living coals; he was dressed in the hides of beasts. This monster asked her if she would give herself to him and she said yes. Then he blew into her mouth and from the Saturday following she was borne to the Sabbath, simply because it was his will. There she found a huge he-goat and after greeting him she submitted to his pleasure. The he-goat in return taught her all kinds of secret spells; he explained poisonous plants to her and she learned from him words for incantations and how to cast spells during the night of the vigil of St. John's day, Christmas Eve, and the first Friday in every month.