THE SABBAT. 495 these lamicB, when any one who incautiously pronounced the name of Christ was precipitated to the earth. Half a century later Jean de Meung tells us that those who ride with Dame Habonde claim that they number a third of the population, and when the Inquisi- tion undertook the suppression of sorcery, in its formula of inter- rogatories, as we have seen in the preceding chapter, there was a question as to the night-riding of the good women.* Thus the Church, in its efforts to suppress these relics of pagan- dom, preferred to regard the nocturnal assemblages as a fiction, and denounced as heretical the belief in the reality of the delusion. This, as part of the canon law, remained unalterable, but alongside of it grew up, with the development of heresy, tales of secret con- venticles, somewhat similar in character, in which the sectaries worshipped the demon in the form of a cat or other beast, and celebrated their impious and impure rites. Stories such as this are told of the Cathari punished at Orleans in 1017, and of their successors in later times ; and the Universal Doctor, Alain de Lille, even derives the name of Cathari from their kissing Lucifer under
- Frag. Capitular, c. 13 (Baluz. II. 365). — Reginon. de Eccles. Discip. 11.
364. — Burchard. Decret. xi. 1, xix. 5.— Ivon. Decret. xi. 30. — Gratian. Decret. II. xxvii. v. 12.— Servius in Virgil. iEneid. iv. 511, vi. 118.— Vit. S. Caesar. Arelat. Lib. 11. c. 2. — Raynald. ami. 1317, No. 53. — Grimm's Teut. Mythol. I. 268 sqq.— Finn Magnusen Boreal. Mythol. Lexicon, pp. 7, 71, 567.— Lib. de Spiritu et Anima c. 28.— Augerii Cenomanens. Statut. (Du Cange s. v. Diana).— Cone. Trevirens. ann. 1310 c. 81 (Martene Thesaur. IV. 257).— Cone. Ambianens. cap. iii. No. 8 (Martene Am pi. Coll. VII. 1241).— Johann. Saresberiens. Polycrat. 11. xvii. — Grimm's Teut. Mythol. III. 1055-7. — Wright's Dame Kyteler, pp. iv., xxxvi.— Gervas. Tilberiens. Otia Imp. Decis. in. c. 86, 93.— Jean de Meung says— " Maintes gens par lor folie Li tiers enfant de naeion Cuident estre par nuict estrges Sunt de ceste condicion." Errant avecques Dame Habonde; (Roman de la Rose, 18624.— Wright, Et dient que par tout le monde loc. cit.). A story in Jac. de Voragine's life of St. Germain l'Auxerrois illustrates the genesis of the belief concerning the Dame Habonde and her troop, who assisted in household work. On visitiug a certain house St. Germain found that the supper-table was set by " the good women who walk by night." He remained up and saw a crowd of demons, in the shape of men and women, who came to set it ; he commanded them to stay, and woke the family, who recognized in the intruders their neighbors, but the latter, on investigation, were found in their beds, and the demons confessed that the likenesses were assumed for the purpose of deception.— Jac. de Vorag. s. v. S. Oermanus.
