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Sidonia The Sorceress V1

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And hereupon he pronounced a last blessing over him. And when the
executioner took off his upper garment and bound the kerchief over
his eyes, M. Vitus again spake--

"Think on the holy martyrs, of whom Basilius Magnus testifies that
they exclaimed, when undressing for their death--_Non vestes
exuimus, sed veterem hommem deponimus." [Footnote: "We lay not off
our clothes, but the old man."--Basil the Great, Archbishop of
Caesarea, A.D. 379.]

Upon which he answered from under the kerchief something in Latin,
but the executioner had laid the cloth so thickly even over his
mouth and chin, that no one could catch the words. Then he kneeled
down, and while the executioner drew his sword, M. Vitus chanted--

"When my lips no more can speak,
May Thy Spirit in me cry;
When my eyes are faint and weak,
May my soul see Heaven nigh!

When my heart is sore dismayed,
This dying frame has lost its strength,
May my spirit, with Thy aid,
Cry--Jesu, take me home at length!"

And all who stood round saw, as it were, a wonderful sign from
God; for as the executioner let the sword fall, head and sun
appeared at the same moment--the head upon the earth, the sun
above the earth; and there was a deep silence. Sidonia alone
laughed out loud, and cried, "So ends the conversion!" And while
the psalm was singing, "Now, pray we to the Holy Ghost," the
executioner acting as clerk, she disappeared, and for thirty
years, as we shall hear presently, no one could ascertain where
she went to or how she lived; though sometimes, like a horrible
ghost, she was seen occasionally here and there.

_Summa_.--The miserable criminal was laid in his coffin, and
as, in truth, it was too short for the corpse, and the poor sinner
had requested that his head might not be placed between his feet,
so it was laid upon his chest, with his hands folded over it, and
thus he was buried.

The old father rejoiced greatly that his son remained steadfast in
the truth until the last, and thanked God for it. Then he returned
to Stargard; and I may just mention, to conclude concerning him,
that the merciful God heard the prayer of this His faithful
servant, for he scarcely survived his son a year, but, after a
short illness, fell asleep in Jesus. [Footnote: For further
particulars concerning this truly worthy man, who may well be
called the Pomeranian Manlius, see Friedeborn, "Description of Old
Stettin," vol. ii. p. 113; and Barthold, "Pomeranian History," pp.
46, 419.]




CHAPTER XIX.

_Of Sidonia's disappearance for thirty years--Item, how the
young Princess Elizabeth Magdelene was possessed by a devil, and
of the sudden death of her father, Ernest Ludovicus of
Pomerania._


I have said that Sidonia disappeared after the execution at
Bruchhausen, and that for thirty years no one knew where she lived
or how she lived. At her farm-house at Zachow she never appeared;
but the _Acta Criminalia_ set forth that during that period
she wandered about the towns of Freienwald, Regenwald, Stargard,
and other places, in company with Peter Konnemann and divers other
knaves.

However, the ducal prosecutor, although he instituted the
strictest inquiries at the period of her trial, could ascertain
nothing beyond this, except that, in consequence of her evil
habits and licentious tongue, she was held everywhere in fear and
abhorrence, and was chased away from every place she entered after
about six or eight o'clock. Further, that some misfortune always
fell upon every one who had dealings with her, particularly young
married people. To the said Konnemann, she betrothed herself after
the death of her first paramour, but afterwards gave him fifty
florins to get rid of the contract, as she confessed at the
seventeenth question upon the rack, according to the _Actis
Lothmanni_. Meantime her brother and cousins were so completely
turned against her, that her brother even took those two
farm-houses to himself; and though Sidonia wrote to him, begging
that an annuity might be settled on her, yet she never received a
line in answer--and this was the manner in which the whole
cousinhood treated her in her despair and poverty.

I myself made many inquiries as to her mode of life during those
thirty years, but in vain. Some said that she went into Poland and
there kept a little tavern for twenty years; some had seen her
living at Riigen at the old wall, where in heathen times the
goddess Hertha was honoured. Some said she went to Riiden, a
little uninhabited island between Riigen and Usdom, where the wild
geese and other birds flock in the moulting season and drop their
feathers. Thence, they said, she gathered the eggs, and killed the
birds with clubs. At least this was the story of the Usdom
fishermen, but whether it were Sidonia or some other outcast
woman, I cannot in strict verity declare. Only in Freienwald did I
hear for certain that she lived there twelve years with some earl
whom she called her shield-knight; but one day they quarrelled,
and beat each other till the blood flowed, after which they both
ran out of the town, and went different ways.

_Summa._--On the 1st of May 1592, when the witches gather in
the Brocken to hold their Walpurgis night, and the princely castle
of Wolgast was well guarded from the evil one by white and black
crosses placed on every door, an old wrinkled hag was seen about
eight o'clock of the morning (just the time she had returned from
the Blocksberg, according to my thinking), walking slowly up and
down the great corridor of the princely castle. And the providence
of the great God so willed it that at that moment the young and
beautiful Princess Elizabeth Magdalena (who had been betrothed to
the Duke Frederick of Courland) opened her chamber-door and
slipped forth to pay her morning greetings to her illustrious
father, Duke Ernest, and his spouse, the Lady Sophia Hedwig of
Brunswick, who sat together drinking their warm beer, [Footnote:
Before the introduction of coffee or chocolate, warm beer was in
general use at breakfast] and had sent for her.

So the hag advanced with much friendliness and cried out, "Hey,
what a beautiful young damsel! But her lord papa was called 'the
handsome' in his time, and wasn't she as like him as one egg to
another. Might she take her ladyship's little hand and kiss it?"
Now as the hag was bold in her bearing, and the young Princess was
a timid thing, she feared to refuse; so she reached forth her
hand, alas! to the witch, who first three times blew on it,
murmuring some words before she kissed it; then as the young
Princess asked her who she was and what she wanted, the evil hag
answered, "I would speak with your gracious father, for I have
known him well. Ask his princely Grace to come to me, for I have
somewhat to say to him." Now the Princess, in her simplicity,
omitted to ask the hag's name, whereby much evil came to pass, for
had she told her gracious father that SIDONIA wished to speak to
him, assuredly he never would have come forth, and that fatal and
malignant glance of the witch would not have fallen upon him.

However, his Serene Grace, having a mild Christian nature, stepped
out into the corridor at the request of his dear daughter, and
asked the hag who she was and what she wanted. Upon this, she
fixed her eyes on him in silence for a long while, so that he
shuddered, and his blood seemed to turn to ice in his veins.
[Footnote: This belief in the witchcraft of a glance was very
general during the witch period. And even the ancients notice it
(Pliny, Hist. Nat. vii. 2), also Aul. Gell. Noct. Attic, ix. 4;
and Virgil, Eclog. in. 103. The glance of a woman with double
pupils was particularly feared.] At last she spake: "It is a
strange thing, truly, that your Grace should no longer remember
the maiden to whom you once promised marriage." At this his Grace
recoiled in horror, and exclaimed, "Ha, Sidonia! but how you are
changed." "Ah!" she answered, with a scornful laugh, "you may well
triumph, now that my cheek is hollow, and my beauty gone, and that
I have come to you for justice against my own brother in Stramehl,
who denies me even the means of subsistence--you, who brought me
to this pass."

Upon which his Grace answered that her brother was a subject of
the Duke of Stettin. Let her go then to Stettin, and demand
justice there.

_Illa._--"She had been there, but the Duke refused to see
her, and to her request for a _proebenda_ in the convent of
Marienfliess had returned no answer. She prayed his Grace,
therefore, out of old good friendship, to take up her cause, and
use his influence with the Lord Duke of Stettin to obtain the
_proebenda_ for her, also to send a good scolding to her
brother at Stramehl under his own hand."

Now my gracious Prince was so anxious to get rid of her, that he
promised everything she asked. Whereupon she would kiss his hand,
but he drew it back shuddering, upon which she went down the great
castle steps again, murmuring to herself.

But her wickedness soon came to light; for mark--scarcely a few
days had passed over, when the beautiful young Princess was
possessed by Satan; she rolls herself upon the ground, twists and
writhes her hands and feet, speaks with a great coarse voice like
a common carl, blasphemes God and her parents; and what was more
wonderful than all, her throat swelled, and when they laid their
hand on it, something living seemed creeping up and down in it.
Then it went up to her mouth, and her tongue swelled so, that her
eyes seemed starting from their sockets, and the gracious young
lady became fearful to look at.

_Item,_ then she began to speak Latin, though she had never
learned this tongue, whereupon many, and in particular Mag.
Michael Aspius, the court chaplain (for Dr. Gerschovius was long
since dead) pronounced that Satan himself verily must be in the
maiden. [Footnote: The ancients name three distinguishing marks of
demoniacal possession:--

1st, When the patient blasphemes God and cannot repeat the leading
articles of his Christian belief.

2nd, When he foretells events which afterwards come to pass.

3rd, When he speaks in a strange tongue, which it can be proved he
never learned.

Now the somnambulists of our day fulfil the second and third
conditions without dispute; and some account for the divining
power by saying it is the effect of the increased activity of the
soul. They also assert that the patient speaks in a strange tongue
only when the magnetiser with whom he is in _en rapport_
understands the tongue himself, and the patient speaks it because
all the thoughts, feelings, words, &c., of the operator become
his--in short, their souls become one. This explanation, however,
is very improbable, and has not been confirmed by facts; for the
phenomenon of speaking in a strange tongue often appears before a
perfect _rapport_ has been obtained between the patient and
the operator. Indeed, Psellus gives an instance to show that it is
not even at all necessary. (Psellus lived about the eleventh
century, and wrote _De Operatione Doemonum,_ also _De
Mysteriis AEgyptiorum,_ his works are very remarkable, and well
worth a perusal.) He states that a sick woman all at once began to
speak in a strange and barbarous tongue no one had ever heard
before. At last some of the women about her brought an Armenian
magician to see her, who instantly found that she spoke Armenian,
though she had never in her life beheld one of that nation.
Psellus describes him as an old lean wrinkled man. He acted quite
differently from our modern magnetisers, for he never sought to
place himself in sympathetic relation with her by passes or
touches; on the contrary, he drew his sword, and placing himself
beside the bed, began tittering the most harsh and cruel words he
could think of in the Armenian tongue _(acriter conviciatus
est)_. The woman retorted in the Armenian tongue likewise, and
tried to get out of bed to fight with him. Then the barbarian grew
as if mad, and endeavoured to stab her, upon which she shrunk back
terrified and trembling, and soon fell into a deep sleep. Psellus
seems to have witnessed this, for he says the woman was wife to
his eldest brother. As further regards demoniacal possession, the
New Testament is full of examples thereof; and though in the last
century the reality of the fact was assailed, yet Franz Meyer has
again defended it with arguments that cannot be overthrown.
Remarkable examples of possession in modern times we find in the
_Didiskalia,_ No. 81, of the year 1833, and in Berner's
"History of Satanic Possession," p. 20.] This was fully proved on
the following Sunday; for during divine service in the Church of
St. Peter, the young Princess was carried in on a litter and laid
down before the altar, whereupon she commenced uttering horrible
blasphemies, and mocking the holy prayer in a coarse bass voice,
while she foamed and raged so violently, that eight men could
scarcely hold her in her bed. Whereat the whole Christian
congregation were admonished to pray to the Lord for this poor
maiden, that she might be freed from the devil within her; and
during the week all priests throughout the land were commanded to
offer up prayers day and night for her princely Grace. But on
Sundays all the people were to unite in one common supplication to
the throne of grace for the like object.

And it seemed, after some weeks, as if God had heard their
prayers, and commanded Satan to leave the body of the young
maiden, for she had now rest for fourteen days, and was able to
pray again. Also her rosy cheeks began to bloom once more, so that
her parents were filled with joy, and resolved to hold a
thank-festival throughout the land, and receive the Holy Sacrament
in St. Peter's Church with their beloved daughter.

But what happened? For as the godly discourse had ended, and their
Graces stepped to the altar to make a rich offering on the plate
which lay upon the little desk, free of approach from all sides,
my knave Satan has again begun his work. Truly, he waited with
cunning till her Grace had swallowed the Sacrament, that his
blasphemies might seem more horrible. And this was the way he
manifested himself.

After the court marshal and the castellan had laid down a black
velvet carpet, embroidered in gold with the Pomeranian and
Brandenburg arms, for their Graces to kneel upon, they took
another black velvet cloth, on which the Holy Supper was
represented embroidered in silver, to hold before their Graces
like a serviette, while they received the blessed elements. Then
advanced the priest with the Sacrament, but scarcely had the
gracious young Princess swallowed the same, when she uttered a
loud cry and fell backwards with her head upon the ground, while
Satan raged so in her that it might have melted the heart of a
stone.

So M. Aspius bade the organ cease, and then placed the young lady
upon a seat, after which he called upon their Graces and the whole
congregation to join him in offering up a prayer. Then he solemnly
adjured the evil spirit to come out of her; it, however, had grown
so daring that it only laughed at the priest; and when asked where
it had been for so long, and in particular where it had lain while
the Jesu bride was wedded to her Holy Saviour in the Blessed
Sacrament, it impatiently answered that it had lain under her
tongue; many knaves might lie under a bridge while an honourable
seigneur passed overhead, and why should not it do the like? And
here, to the unspeakable horror of the whole congregation, it
seemed to move up and down in the chest and throat of the young
Princess, like some animal.

But the long-suffering of God was now at an end, for while the
Reverend Dr. Aspius was talking himself weary with adjurations,
and gaining no good by it, for the evil spirit only mocked and
jeered him, crying, "Look at the fat parson how he sweats, maybe
it will help as much as his chattering over the wine," who should
enter the church (sent no doubt by the all-merciful God) but the
Reverend Dr. Joel, Professor at Grypswald, for he had heard how
this lusty Satan had taken possession of the princely maiden. When
the devil saw him, he began to tremble through all the limbs of
the young Princess, and exclaimed in Latin, _"Consummatum
est."_ [Footnote: "It is over."] For this Dr. Joel was a
powerful man, and learned in all the cunning shifts of the
arch-enemy, having many times disputed de Magis. [Footnote: Of
Witchcraft; see Barthold, iv. 2, 412.]

Now when he advanced to the young Princess, and saw how the evil
spirit ran up and down her poor form, like a mouse in a net, he
was filled with horror, and removing his hat, exclaimed, without
taking much heed of his Latin, _"Deus misereatur
peccatoris."_ Upon which the devil, in a deep bass voice,
corrected him, crying, _"Die peccatricls, die peccatricls."_
[Footnote: Peccatoris is masculine, Peccatricis feminine.]

However, Satan himself felt that his hour had come; for when
Doctor Joel laid his hand upon the maiden, and repeated a powerful
adjuration from the _Clavilcula Salomonis,_ Satan immediately
promised to obey if he were allowed to take away the
oblation-cloth which lay upon the desk.

_Ille._--"What did he want with the oblation-cloth?"

_Satanas._--"There was a coin in it which vexed him."

_Ille._--"What coin could it be, and wherefore did it vex
him?"

_Satanas._--"He would not say."

_Ille._--(Adjures him again.)

_Satanas._--"Let him have it, or he would tear the young
maiden to pieces." And here he began to foam and rage so horribly,
that her eyes turned in her head, and she gnashed with her teeth,
so that father and mother had to cover their eyes not to see her
great agony. Whereupon Doctor Joel bent down and wrote with his
finger upon her breast the Tetragrammaton, crying out-- [Footnote:
The four letters which compose the name Jehovah ( [Hebrew Text]).
It was employed by the Theurgists in all their most powerful
conjurations.]

"Away, thou unclean spirit, and give place to the Holy Ghost!"

Upon which the young maiden sank down as quiet as a corpse, and
the oblation-cloth, which lay upon the desk, whirled round of
itself in the middle of the church with great noise and clatter,
as if seized by a storm-wind, and the money therein was all
scattered about the church, so that the old wives who sat upon the
benches fell down upon the floor, right and left, to try and catch
it. Great horror and amazement now filled the whole congregation;
yet as some had expressed an opinion that the young Princess was
only afflicted by a sickness, and not possessed at all, Doctor
Joel thought it needful to admonish them in the following words:--

"Those wise persons who, forsooth, would not credit such a thing
as Satanic possession, might see now of a truth, by the
oblation-cloth, that Satan bodily had been amongst them. He knew
there were many such wise knaves in the church; therefore let them
hold their tongue for evermore, and remember that such signs had
been permitted before of God, to testify of the real bodily
presence of the devil. Example (Matt. viii.), where, on the
command of Christ, a legion of devils went into the swine of the
Gergasenes; so that these animals, contrary to their nature, ran
down into the sea and were drowned. But the wise people of this
day little heed these divine signs; so he will add two from
historical records which he happened to remember.

"First, the Jew Josephus relates that, in presence of the
world-renowned Roman captain Vespasian, of his son Titus, also of
all the officers and troops of the army, an acquaintance of his,
by name Eleazer, adjured the devil out of one possessed by means
of the ring of Solomon, repeating at the same time the powerful
spell which, no doubt, the great king himself employed to control
the demons, and which, probably, was the very one he had just now
exorcised the devil with, out of the _Clavicula Salomonis._
And to show the bystanders that it was indeed a devil which he had
exorcised out of the nose of the patient, the said Eleazer bid
him, as he was passing, to overturn a vessel of water that lay
there, which indeed was done, to the great wonderment of all
present. Thus even the blind heathen were convinced, though the
would-be wise of the present day ignorantly doubted.

"But people might say this happened in old times, and was only
told by a stupid Jew; therefore he would give a modern example.

"There was a woman named Kronisha (she was still well remembered
by the old people of Stralsund), who was sorely given to pomp and
vanity, wherefore a devil was sent into her to punish her; and
after the preacher at St. Nicholas had exorcised him to the best
of his power, the wicked spirit said, mockingly, that he would go
if they gave him a pane of glass out of the window over the tower
door; and this being granted, one of the panes was instantly
scattered with a loud clang, and the devil flew away through the
opening. [Note: See Sastrowen, his family, birth, and adventures.
Edited by Mohnike, part i. 73.]

"So the Christian congregation might now see what silly fools
these wise people were who presumed to doubt," &c. Then Doctor
Joel admonished the Prince himself to keep a diligent eye over
this Satan, who, day by day, was growing more impudent in the
land--no doubt because the pure doctrine of Dr. Luther vexed him
sorely.

And indeed his Highness, to show his gratitude for the recovery of
his dear daughter, did not cease in his endeavours to banish
witches from the land, knowing that Sidonia had brought all the
evil upon the young Princess. Fifteen were seized and burned at
this time, to the great joy of the country; but, alas! these truly
princely and Christian measures little helped among the godless
race, for evil seemed still to strengthen in the land, and many
wonderful signs appeared, one of which I would not set down here,
as it was only seen by the court-fool, but that events confirmed
it.

I mean that strange thing, along with a three-legged hare, which
appeared eighty years before at the death of Duke Bogislaus the
Great, and since at the death of each Duke of his house. By a
strange whim of Satan's, this apparition was only visible to
fools; until indeed (as we shall hear anon) it appeared to the
nuns at Marienfliess, who bore witness of it.

_Summa._--On the very day wherein the devil's brides were
burned at Wolgast, the fool was walking at evening time up and
down the great corridor, when a little manikin, hardly three hands
high, started out from behind a beer-barrel, riding on a
three-legged hare. He was dressed all in black, except little red
boots which he had on, and he rides up and down the corridor--hop!
hop! hop!--stares at my fool and makes a face at him; then rides
off again--hop! hop! hop!--till he vanished behind the barrel.

No one would believe the fool's story; but woe, alas! it soon
became clear what the little manikin Puck denoted. For my gracious
Prince, who had grown quite weak ever since this horrible
witch-work, which had been raging for some weeks--so that
Pomerania never had seen the like--became daily worse, and not
even the fine Falernian wine from Italy, which used to cure him,
helped him now. So he died on the 17th July 1591, aged forty-six
years, seven months, and fifteen days, leaving his only son,
Philippus Julius, a child of eight years old, to reign in his
place. Whereupon the deeply afflicted widow placed the boy under
the tutelage and guardianship of his uncle, the princely Lord of
Stettin; but, woe! woe! the guardian must soon follow his dear
brother! and all through the evil wickedness of Sidonia, as we
shall hear in the following chapters.




CHAPTER XX.

_How Sidonia demeans herself at the Convent of
Marienfliess--Item, how their Princely and Electoral Graces of
Pomerania, Brandenburg, and Mecklenburg, went on sleighs to
Wolgast, and of the divers pastimes of the journey._


After this, Sidonia disappeared again for a couple of years, and
no man knew whither she had flown or what she did, until one
morning she appeared at the convent of Marienfliess, driving a
little one-horse waggon herself, and dressed no better than a
fish-wife. On driving into the court, she desired to speak with
the abbess, Magdalena von Petersdorf; and when she came, Sidonia
ordered the cell of the deceased nun, Barbara Kleist, to be got
ready for her reception, as his Highness of Stettin had presented
her to a _præbenda_ here.

So the pious old abbess believed the story, and forthwith
conducted her to the cell, No. 11; but Sidonia spat out at it,
said it was a pig-sty, and began to run clattering through all the
cells till she reached the refectory, a large chamber where the
nuns assembled for evening prayer. This, she said, was the only
spot fit for her to put her nose in, and she would keep it for
herself. Meanwhile, the whole sisterhood ran together to the
refectory to see Sidonia; and as most of them were girls under
twenty, they tittered and laughed, as young women-folk will do
when they behold a hag. This angered her.

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