Witch Covens and the Grand Masters - The Witches' Journey to the Sabbat, and the Sabbat Orgy

How were the witch-societies of early modern Europe organised, and what really happened when the faithful gathered by night? Here a formidable scholar maps the coven, its masters, and the road to the Sabbat.

Taken from Montague Summers' The History of Witchcraft and Demonology (1926), this study sets out the reputed hierarchy of the witch-cult, the journey to the Sabbat, and the notorious Sabbat orgy, drawn from trial records, wrung confessions, and the Continental demonologists. Augustus Montague Summers (1880 – 1948) was an English author and clergyman celebrated for his earnest studies of witches, werewolves, and vampires, all of which he held to be quite real; in 1928 he produced the first English translation of the notorious witch-hunters' manual, the Malleus Maleficarum.

This edition features:

• A close account of coven structure, the Grand Master or presiding Devil, and the initiations that bound members to the cult. • The alleged transvection to the Sabbat, its Pagan and diabolical rites, feasting, and the orgy that closed the gathering. • Summers' formidable erudition and his singular conviction that the practices he describes were genuine and widespread.

© 2012 Obscure Press (E-bog): 9781447480365

Udgivelsesdato

E-bog: 1. november 2012