The ceremony of initiation to the dreadful vocation and great powers of witchcraft was attended with considerable form and mystery:—­

——­They call me hag and witch. 
What is the name?  When, and by what art learned? 
With what spell, what charm or invocation,
May the thing call’d familiar be purchas’d?

The older and more ugly the performer in these appalling ceremonies, the better.  Some witches seem to have had the devil quite at their beck; but his visits to most of them appear to have been “few and far between.”  The convention (remarks John Gaule, an old writer) for such a solemn initiation being proclaimed (by some herald imp) to some others of the confederation, on some great holy or Lord’s day, they meet in some church, either before the consecrated bell hath tolled, or else very late, after all the services are past and over.  “The party, in some vesture for that purpose, is presented by some confederate or familiar to the prince of devills, sitting now in a throne of infernall majesty, appearing in the form of a man, only labouring to hide his cloven foot.  To whom, after bowing and homage done, a petition is presented to be received into his association and protection; and first, if the witch be outwardly Christian, baptism must be renounced, and the party must be re-baptised in the devill’s name, and a new name is also imposed by him, and here must be godfathers too ...  But above all he is very busie with his long nails, in scraping and scratching those places of the forehead where the signe of the crosse was made, or where the chrisme was laid.  Instead of both which, he impresses or inures the mark of the beast (the devill’s flesh brand) upon one or other part of the body.  Further, the witch (for her part) vows, either by word of mouth, or peradventure by writing, (and that in her owne bloode,) to give both body and soul to the devill, to deny and defy God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; but especially the blessed Virgin, convitiating her with one infamous nickname or other; to abhor the word and sacraments, but especially to spit at the saying of masse; to spurn at the crosse, and tread saints’ images under feet; and as much as possibly they may, to profane all saints’ reliques, holy water, consecrated salt, wax, &c.; to be sure to fast on Sundays, and eat flesh on Fridays; not to confess their sins, whatsoever they do, especially to a priest; to separate from the Catholic church, and despise his vicar’s primacy; to attend the devill’s nocturnal conventicles, sabbaths, and sacrifices; to take him for their god, worship, invoke, and obey him; to devote their children to him, and to labour all that they may to bring others into the same confederacy.  Then the devill, for his part, promises to be always present with them, to serve them at their beck; that they shall have their wills upon any body; that they shall have what riches, honours, and pleasures they can imagine; and if any be so wary as to think of their future being,