Excerpt from Henry Boguet, An Examen of Witches (1603) (Reading 2)

AUTHOR’S PREFACE

Itis astonishing that there should still be found to-day people who do not believe that there are witches. For my part I suspect that the truth is that such people really believe in their hearts, but will not admit it; for the Pagans have a lesson for them in this matter; they are refuted by the Canon and Civil Laws; Holy Scripture gives them the lie; the voluntary and repeated confessions of witches prove them wrong; and the sentences passed in various places against the accused must shut their mouths. I am not sure that I dare not go so far as to say that it seems more likely than not that such people are of the witches’ party: in any case, I have no doubt this is true of some of them; and that the rest are unwilling to admit the existence of witches because, perhaps, they are descended from them and, in defence of their ancestors, would have men firmly believe that there are no witches in the world. Yet this is not a matter of such small moment as many people think; for it is a cause of the frequent immunity of witches, greatly to the mischief of the public and to the prejudice of the honour of God, which we should in all things have as our object, not allowing Satan to enlarge his kingdom further, as he does by means of the damnable plots of these his subjects.

Now I do not gainsay that the stories told of witches are very strange; for there is matter for much wonder in the form taken by Satan when he accosts them; their transvection to the Sabbat is astounding; we can but marvel at their oblations, their dances, their obscene kisses, their feasts, and their carnal couplings with their Master; it is beyond comprehension how they cause hail and tempests to spoil the fruits of the earth, and again how they cause the death of a man or the sickness of an animal; it would seem impossible for a witch to trans­port the corn from one field to another, and milk from the udder of one cow to that of another; it is beyond knowledge how they con­trive to send demons and evil spirits into a man’s body, or how they change themselves into wolves. In short, the deeds of witches have been considered as supernatural and mirac­ulous, and therefore have men been unable to credit them.

But what then; Do we not know how great is the knowledge and experi­ence of demons? It is certain that they have a deep knowledge of all things. For there is no Theologian who can interpret the Holy Scripture better than they; there is no Lawyer with a profounder knowledge of Testaments, Contracts and Actions; there is no physician or philosopher who better understands the composi­tion of the human body, and the virtue of the Heavens, the Stars, Birds, and Fishes, of trees and herbs and metals and stones. Furthermore, since they are of the same nature as the Angels, all bodies must obey them in respect of local motion. Again, do we not know how great is the power which God in express words has given them upon earth. The Book of Job teaches us this so plainly that there is no need of other proofs; for God even says that there is no power upon earth which may be compared with that of Behemoth.

And if such be the power of Satan, why should he not be able to per­form the works which we have men­tioned? I will even say that it is all the easier for him to do so, in that all these works are due to natural causes. For the demons never work except through second and natural causes, although the speed and cun­ning which they employ make their actions appear to be miracles; where­as miracles can never be ascribed to them, since these belong to God only, as the Psalmist says: “He alone doeth great marvels.”

At other times Satan has worked purely by means of illusion, by troubling and confusing man’s eyes or fantasy. This is so in the case of Lycanthropes, and of those who be­lieve that they see such creatures. Yet even this he contrives by natural means. So much for Satan in par­ticular.

As for witches, although they cannot do such marvels as Satan, yet with his help they do terrible and shock­ing things. For they learn from him to compound a poison which they secretly pour into the broth of their enemy, who after tasting this poison sickens and languishes or suddenly dies, according to the might and virtue of the poison he has received: they strike people with headaches, pains in the feet and belly, with leprosy, epilepsy, swelling, and other such ills: guided by Satan they enter a man s house by night and cut his throat in his bed: they run about the fields and rocks in the form of wolves and so kill now a beast and now a child: in short they have ten thousand ways of harming men, beasts, and the fruits of the earth, with the help of the Devil.

For the most part the witch has only the intent to harm, whilst Satan actually performs that which he would have done. We have many proofs of this, as when a witch touches someone with his hand or a wand, or melts a waxen image, or utters certain words, with the intent to cause the death or sickness of such a person. For neither the touch, nor the waxen Image, nor the words are effective in anything save as a symbol of the pact formed by the witch with Satan; and it is Satan who, in this case, in some secret manner causes the death or sickness. It may be that he could not do this but for the wicked intent and wish of the witch; just as the body can do nothing with­out the soul, and the soul of itself can do nothing regarding the actions which belong to the body. And here­in the witch is as guilty as if he had himself committed the deed, in ac­cordance with the provisions of the Common Law which considers the author of a crime equally worthy of punishment as the man who actually commits it. And from this it will appear that the stories told of witches are no fable.

But to make this still clearer, I have founded the following Examen upon certain trials which I have myself conducted, during the last two years, of several members of this sect, whom I have seen and heard and probed as carefully as I possibly could in order to draw the truth from them. And although I have been at pains to be brief, I think that I have touched upon the chief points of my subject, as may be seen from a glance at the list of the chapter headings.

At the end of this Examen, I have added a short instruction for Judges who find themselves in the same case, since they must not conduct them­selves in such trials as they do in those of other crimes. In this I have had the assistance of the works of the Inquisitors of Bodin, Remy, Bins­feld, and others; but my chief help has been my own experience and my own observations of this damn­able sect of people, who are the more difficult to convict in that they have always as their advocate that cunning Satan, who has the hardihood even to help and advise them when the Judge is speaking to them and ques­tioning them.

And if anyone takes exception to my having disclosed the names of the witches who were accused, I answer that, since their trials have been accomplished, this does not seem to me to matter much; for their names can always be found by going to the registers. Further, it is better that their names should be known, so that men may be on their guard not only against them, but also against their children, who usually follow their manner of life, and to protect them­selves either change their names or their place of abode. In short I am in this respect but imitating the example of most who have written before me. And although I have never in this book departed from the strictest standards of moderation, I would yet have it plainly known that I am a sworn enemy to witches, and that I shall never spare them, for their execrable abominations, and for the countless numbers of them which are seen to increase every day so that it seems that we are now in the time of Antichrist, since, among the signs that are given of his arrival, this is one of the chief, namely, that witchcraft shall then be rife through­out the world.

CHAPTER I

Loyse Maillat, Eight Years Old, is Pos­sessed of Five Devils and later de­livered of them, and Françoise Secretain made Prisoner for Casting the Spell

On Saturday the fifth of June in the year 1598 Loyse, the eight-years-old daughter of Claude Maillat and Humberte of Coyrieres in Perche, was struck helpless in all her limbs so that she had to go on all-fours; also she kept twisting her mouth about in a very strange manner. She continued thus afflicted for a number of days, until on the 19th of July her father and mother, judging from her appearance that she was pos­sessed, took her to the Church of Our Saviour to be exorcised. There were then found five devils, whose names were Wolf, Cat, Dog, Jolly and Griffon; and when the priest asked the girl who had cast the spell on her she answered that it was Secretain, whom she pointed out fromamong all those who were present at her exorcism. But as for that day, the devils did not go out of her.

But when the girl had been taken back to her parents’ house, she begged them to pray God for her, assuring them that if they fell to their prayers she would quickly be delivered. Accordingly they did so at the approach of night, and as soon as her father and mother had done pray­ing the girl told them that two of the devils were dead, and that if they persevered with their devotions they would kill the remaining ones also. Her father and mother were anxious for their daughter’s health and did not cease praying all night. The next morning at dawn the girl was worse than usual and kept foaming at the mouth; but at last she was thrown to the ground and the devils came out of her mouth in the shape of balls as big as the fist and red as fire, except the Cat, which was black. The two which the girl thought to be dead came out last and with less violence than the three others; for they had given up the struggle from the first, and for this reason the girl had thought they were dead. When all these devils had come out, they danced three or four times round the fire and then vanished; and from that time the girl began to recover her health.

For the rest:—Late on the fourth of June Françoise Secretain had come to the house of Loyse Maillat’s parents and had asked for lodg­ing for that night. In the absence of her husband, Humberte had at first refused, but had in the end been forced by Françoise’s insistence to give her lodging. When she had been received into the house, and Humberte had gone out to attend to her cattle, Françoise went up to Loyse and two of her younger sisters as they were warming themselves by the fire, gave Loyse a crust of bread resembling dung and made her eat it, strictly forbidding her to speak of it,or she would kill her and eat her (those were her words); and on the next day the girl was found to be possessed. Her mother bore witness to her refusal to give Françoise lodging, her father and mother together gave evidence of their daugh­ter’s malady, and this was confirmed by the girl, who gave evidence as to all the rest; and al­though she was so young she was so unshakeable in her testimony that she compelled belief just as if she had been thirty or forty years old.

The Judge, being fully convinced as to what had happened, had Françoise Secretain seized and put into prison.

CHAPTER II

The Means by which the Truth was drawn from Françoise Secretain.

For three days of her imprisonment Françoise Secretain refused to confess anything, saying that she was innocent of the crime of which she was accused and that they did her great wrong to detain her. To look at her, you would have thought she was the best woman in the world; for she was always talking of God, of the Virgin Mary, and of the Holy Saints of Paradise, and she had in her hand a long rosary which she pretended to say without interruption. But the truth is that the Cross of this rosary was defec­tive, and it will be seen that this fact furnished evidence against her.

Further, it was observed that during her ex­amination, although she strove her utmost to do so, she could not shed a single tear. For this reason she was more closely imprisoned, and cer­tain threats were used to her. The following day she was pressed to tell the truth, but with­out success. Accordingly it was decided to shave off her hair and change her garments, and to search her to see if she were marked in any way. She was therefore stripped, but no mark was found; and when they came to cut the hair of her head she submitted with the utmost con­fidence. But no sooner was her hair cut than she grew perturbed and trembled all over her body, and at once confessed, adding to her first confessions from day to day. I shall set down only the principal points of her confession, fol­lowing my undertaking to be brief.

CHAPTER III.

The Principal Points in the Confession of Françoise Secretain.

First, that she had wished five devils on Loyse Maillat.

Second, that she had long since given herself to the Devil, who at that time had the likeness of a big black man.

Third, that the Devil had four or five times known her carnally, in the form sometimes of a dog, sometimes of a cat, and sometimes of a fowl; and that his semen was very cold.

Fourth, that she had countless times been to the Sabbat and assembly of witches near the village of Coyrieres in a place called Combes by the water; and that she went there on a white staff which she placed between her legs.

Fifth, that at the Sabbat she had danced, and had beaten water to cause hail.

Sixth, that she and Groz-Jacques Bocquet had caused Loys Monneret to die by making her eat a piece of bread which they had dusted with a powder given to them by the Devil. Seventh, that she had caused several cows to die, and that she did so by touching them with her hand or with a wand while saying certain words.

CHAPTER VII.

Of the Bodies of Spirits and Devils.

Françoise Secretain confessed in the second place that she had formerly given herself to the Devil, and that the Devil at that time had the appearance of a big black man. It is very certain that both good and bad spirits can make themselves a body from the elements; and this should not seem strange, if it is considered that the vapours which rise from the earth very often seem to us to take the form of men or animals. But these spirits, after the manner of a skilled painter, give whatever colour or form they please to the bodies which they make themselves. The spirit which foretold his defeat and death to Saul had the exact likeness of Samuel, who had been dead for some years. Ezekiel was transported to Azotus by an Angel who had the lips of a man, whose face was the colour of amber, and from the loins downward he had the appearance of fire. The Angel who accompanied the young Tobias in his journey to Gabael had the form of a young man, as also had the two Angels who visited Lot. We read in the Book of Maccabees; that, when Heliodorus was sent by his Prince to despoil the Temple of Jerusalem, there appeared unto him a horse with a terrible rider, together with two other young men excellent in beauty, who surrounded him and scourged him so that his friends were constrained to run to the High Priest, Onias, and to beg him to intercede for him. And when Joshua entered into the prom­ised land, he saw standing in a field an Angel in the form of a man, with his sword drawn, who told him that he had been sent to guide and con­duct the army of the children of Israel. Augustus Caesar, when he was about to proclaim himself Emperor and Lord of the whole world, saw a vision in the air of a Virgin holding a little child in her arms, and for this reason he abandoned his enterprise: similarly Attila, the King of the Huns, departed from Italy, which he had deter­mined to ruin and lay entirely waste, because he saw standing on each side of Pope Leo I two old men with flaming swords who threatened him with death if he should advance any further: it is said that these two old men were St. Peter and St. Paul, who have always been the true Tutelary Saints of Rome and Italy.

But I am particularly concerned with Satan, who also adopts what shape he pleases, sometimes that of a man, sometimes that of a beast, and some­times even he transforms himself into an Angel of Light. When he tried to tempt Jesus Christ and carried Him to the pinnacle of the Temple and to the top of a high mountain, he had the appearance of a man. When he addressed him­self to Françoise Secretain, Jacques Bocquet, Clauda Jamprost, and several others of whom we shall speak later, it was under the shape of a man that he gained them. Of the same form was the demon which appeared to Brutus when he was about to pass out of Asia, and that which ap­peared to Cassius after the defeat of Mark Antony’s army, which openly said that he was a devil. The devils which came out of the Idol of the Moon, which St. Jude broke in pieces, had the appearance of Ethiopians. Cynops, who cast himself into the sea at the prayers of St. John the Evangelist, was accompanied by three devils in the form of men newly raised from the dead. Satyrs, Fauns and Sylvans are nothing but devils bearing some resemblance to men.

Sometimes the Evil One takes the form of a woman, as we are taught in the stories of the lives of St. Anthony and St. Jerome, among others: and the two demons which appeared to Dion were in the form of women, as also seems to have been that which Curtius Rufus saw as he was walking late one day along a gallery. In Boethius also we have the story of a very beauti­ful young man who was burdened with a Succu­bus devil with a very fair face. What we know of Succubi is proof enough that the Devil often assumes the form of a woman, and that he chiefly does so at the Sabbat, as is evidenced by the words of Thievenne, ofJacquema Paget, and of several other witches.

We have said that the Devil sometimes assumes the shape of a beast; and this we learn from St. Arhanasius, who tells us in his Life of St. Anthony that the demons appeared to that holy man in the shape of Bulls, Wolves, Vipers, Scor­pions, Leopards, Bears and horrible Dragons. Also George Gandillon confessed that, when the Devil appeared to them the first time, he had the form of a large horned Ram. At the Sabbat, too, he most often appears as a ram or a goat. Françoise Secretain confessed that he had lain with her four or five times, and that he was then in the form either of a dog or a cat or a fowl. Agrippa was followed by a black dog which was no other than a devil in disguise, as was clearly seen at his master’s death; for being taken ill at an inn at Lyons, and finding himself at the point of death, he took from the dog a collar which it was wearing, all covered with certain characters, saying: “Begone, evil beast which have brought me to perdition.” Upon this the dog threw itself into the Saône, and has never since been seen. The Devil which St. Philip cast out of the Idol of Death was in the form of a Dragon: and the seven devils which so tormented the passers-by, and were made to vanish by St. Andrew, were transformed into dogs. Thevet, again, tells us that in America they have a demon whom they call Agnan, which, like Proteus, appears now in one shape and now in another. And why should we not believe that the Dove and the Bull of Mahomet were no more than devils in that shape; just as it was with Agrippa’s dog?

Nevertheless, although Satan may take what shape he pleases, when he wishes to entice any­one into his net he most often appears to him in the form of a man; and I suppose that he does this so that he may not frighten him whom he approaches, or cause him to be amazed, as he would if he were to speak to him in the shape of a ram or a goat or any other beast. And in this we may see how very busy is this mortal enemy of the human race. But whenever he assumes the form of a man, he is, however, always black, as all witches bear witness. And for my part I hold that there are two principal reasons for this: first, that he who is the Father and Ruler of darkness may not be able to dis­guise himself so well that he may not always be known for what he is; secondly, as a proof that his study is only to do evil; for evil, as Pytha­goras said, is symbolised by black. This is what Tamburlaine the Great had in mind when, while he was besieging a town, he set up black tents on the third day as a sign that he would put all the inhabitants to fire and the sword if they did not surrender. And long before him, the Greeks regarded it as a bad omen if, in drawing lots, one of the lots were black.

Furthermore, Satan does not always create for himself a body out of air, water or earth, but very often enters into a beast. We see this in St. Mark, where the Devil whose name was Legion prayed Jesus Christ to send him and his com­panions into the bodies of certain swine, and obtained his request. And, if we may believe Psellus, there are even demons which live under the earth, and sometimes enter into the body of a swine or other beast, not inorder to harm it, but because the cold underneath the earth is so extreme that they cannot endure it, and, being equally unable to endure the rays of the sun, they are compelled to seek lodging in the bodies of beasts.

The Devil has also sometimes borrowed the body of a man who has been hanged; and this he does chiefly when he wishes to associate with a witch. It is for this reason, according to Cardan, that witches are usually ugly and stinking.

CHAPTER VIII

The Means Whereby Satan Wins Us to Him

Satan goes even further: for when he appears to us in the manner we have described, he in­vites us to give ourselves to him. This is how he acted in the case of Françoise Secretain, accord­ing to her own admission; and other witches say the same, and even that the Wicked One is so cunning that he knows how to choose the times and occasion most favourable to his designs. For he takes men when they are alone and in despair or misery because of hunger or some disaster which has befallen them. Eve was alone when she was seduced. Thievenne Paget was watching her cows in a field and lost one and as she was sorrowing for this, Satan approached her and won her. It was the same with George Gandil­lon, who was irritated because he could not drive certain oxen. His father, Pierre Gandillon, was angry because his scythe did not cut so well as those of his companions, and wished himself to the Devil; whereupon Satan immediately ap­peared to him and won his soul. Jacques Boc­quet, Françoise Secretain, Clauda Jamprost, Antoine Gandillon and several others abandoned themselves to him because oftheir misery and poverty.

Furthermore, he makes fair promises. For to some he offers riches, assuring them that they will never lack for anything: to the vengeful he suggests the means to avenge themselves on their enemies: others he persuades that he will advance them in honour and rank: in short he so well suits himself to the character and humour of each one that he captures them at his will.

Yet itmust be confessed that the fault lies wholly with the witch, for when he accosts them, Satan openly declares to them that he is the Devil, and makes them renounce God, Chrism and Bap­tism; and therefore such persons place themselves beyond forgiveness, For is there any man so foolish as not to know that the Devil is our mor­tal enemy, and that he desires nothing but the destruction of the human race? I have seen a deaf and dumb girl who, when she was angry, made an ugly grimace and pointed two fingers in the form of horns at those who had angered her, as if she wished to threaten them with the Devil; and this makes me think that she, and such as she, are well aware of his taking the form of a horned beast. Besides, who is ignorant that there is a God, and that He is above all the might of Satan? Even the Pagans are agreed that this truth is loudly proclaimed by Nature. Why, then, do we not turn to Him when we are tempted by the Devil, instead of yielding our­selves to the promises of our sworn enemy? Finally, if there were nothing else to be considered, are not witches condemned by the very nature of the rewards which they expect from Satan?

I have touched upon this point here to refute the opinion of those who try to excuse the greater number of witches on the ground that they are simple and ignorant. For itis clear that they are guilty of an offence against natural principles, of a crime which is severely and inexorably vindi­cated by the law. I may add that the infinite goodness of God towards them does but render them the more guilty; for He does not allow them to be taken by surprise. They know who itis with whom they are treating, they have time for deliberation as to whether or not they shall yield; it even appears that God takes no very strict count of their first renunciation of Him, of Chrism and of Baptism, as having been made in too great haste and without thought. Therefore the Devil in his subtlety and cunning makes them repeat their abnegation two or three times, and causes them to say that they do so with a willing heart, It is therefore apparent that they willingly cast themselves into Satan’s net.

CHAPTER XI.

Of the Copulation of the Devil with Male and Female Witches.

Thethird point in Françoise Secretain’s con­fession was that she had had carnal relations with Satan. Clauda Jamprost, Jacquema Paget, Antoine Tornier, Antoine Gandillon, Clauda Janguillaume, Thievenne Paget, Rollande du Vernois, Janne Platet and Clauda Paget confessed the same thing; and it has been revealed in the examinations of witches that they all have this connexion with Satan. The Devil uses them so because he knows that women love carnal pleasures, and he means to bind them to his allegiance by such agreeable provocations. More­over, there is nothing which makes a woman more subject and loyal to a man than that he should abuse her body.

And since male witches are addicted no less than female to this pleasure, the Devil also appears as a woman to satisfy them. This he does chiefly at the Sabbat, according to the reports of the father and son, George and Pierre Gandillon, and of those women whom I have several times named, who all agree in saying that in their assemblies there are many demons, of whom some take the form of women for the men, and others that of men for the women. These demons are called Incubi and Succubi, And it is no new thing for Satan to draw us to him by these means, for we read that, in order to tempt St. Anthony, St. Jerome and other devout persons, who passed their life in the solitude of the desert, he commonly appeared to them in the form of a courtesan.

There is also another reason for the coupling of the Devil with a witch, which is that the sin may thereby become the more grievous. For if God abominates the coupling of an infidel with a Christian, how much more shall He detest that of a man with the Devil? Moreover, by this means man’s natural semen is wasted, with the result that the love between man and wife is often turned to hatred.

CHAPTER XII.

Whether such Copulation Exists in the Imagination Only.

But since there are some who maintain that the coupling of which we have just spoken exists in the imagination only, it will be well to say something here on this subject. For some treat the matter with derision, some are doubtful about it, and others firmly believe itto be a fact. St. Augustine appears to be among these last, as also St. Thomas Aquinas and several other later learned authorities. But the witches’ confessions which I have had make me think that there is truth in this matter; for they have all admitted that they have coupled with the Devil, and that his semen was very cold; and this is confirmed by the reports of Paul Grilland and the Inquisitors of the Faith. Jacquema Paget added that she had several times taken in her hand the member of the Demon which lay with her, and that it was as cold as ice and a good finger’s length, but not so thick as that of a man. Thievenne Paget and Antoine Tornier also added that the members of their demons were as long and big as one of their fingers; and Thievenne Paget said, moreover, that when Satan coupled with her she had as much pain as a woman in travail. Françoise Secretain said that, whilst she was in the act, she felt something burning in her stomach; and nearly all witches affirm that this coupling is by no means pleasurable to them, both because of Satan’s ugliness and deformity, and because of the physical pain which it causes them, as we have just said.

The ugliness and deformity lies in the fact that Satan couples with witches sometimes in the form of a black man, sometimes in that of some animal, as a dog or a cat or a ram. With Thie­venne Paget and Antoine Tornier he lay in the form of a black man; and when he coupled with Jacquema Paget and Antoine Gandillon he took the shape of a black ram with horns: Françoise Secretain confessed that her demon appeared sometimes as a dog, sometimes as a cat, and sometimes as a fowl when he wished to have carnal intercourse with her. For all these rea­sons I am convinced that there is real and actual copulation between a witch and a demon; for what is there to prevent the Devil, when he has taken the form of an animal, from coition with a witch? In Toulouse and Paris women have been known to make sexual abuse of a natural dog; and it seems to me quite to the point to refer here to the legends of Pasiphaë and other such women.

Another matter that I must mention, which is as strange as it is true, concerns one Antide Colas of Betoncourt in the district of Baume. She was imprisoned at that place for witchcraft, and it was found when visiting her that she had a hole beneath her navel, quite contrary to nature. This hole was examined on the eleventh of July, 1598, by Master Nicolas Milliere of Regnaucourt, Chirurgeon, who thrust his probe deeply into it in the presence of his servant, and of Antoinette Mongin, Jannette Bolet and Claudine Menestrey, who were required to be there as witnesses; and then the witch confessed that her Devil, whom she called Lizabet, had sexual connexion with her through this hole, and her husband through the natural hole; but afterwards, when she was taken by order of the Court to the prison of Dôle, and they wished to examine this hole, it was found to be closed up, and there remained nothing but a scar. This woman was burned alive on the twentieth of February, 1599. But who would believe that Satan even lies with witches in prison? Yet this woman of whom we have just told confessed that he did so; as also did Thievenne Paget, who said that the Devil had lain with her three times while she was in prison.

When Satan means to lie with a witch in the form of a man, he takes to himself the body of some man who has been hanged. But even if he has only a body formed from the air there is still nothing to prevent him from intercourse with a witch; for in that case he makes the body of air so dense that it is palpable (for air is, of itself, palpable), and consequently capable of co­ition with, and even defloration of a woman. And why should not this be easy for him, seeing that he is powerful enough to overthrow a town or a city or a kingdom?  And as for his semen, he has but too plentiful a supply, even were there no other source of it, in that which he receives when he acts as a Succubus.

And therefore I thoroughly believe all that has been written of Fauns, Satyrs and woodland gods, which were no more than demons, and were inordinately lustful and lascivious. Also I think that we may consider under this head the stories we are told of the wantonnesses of Numa, and of the nymph Egeria, and of several others whom the poets have particularly mentioned.

Similarly we find in the West Indies that their gods, which they call Cocoto, lay with women and had sexual intercourse with them; unless it was really certain lickerish men who abused them, as Decius Mundus, a Roman knight, whose story Josephus tells in his Antiquities, did to Paulina under pretence of being the God Anubis.

But to return to Françoise Secretain, it is a strange thing that Satan lay with her in the shape of a fowl. I am of opinion that she meant to say a gander instead of a fowl, for that is a form which Satan often takes, and therefore we have the proverb that Satan has feet like a goose. Yet it would be as easy for him to take the shape of a fowl as that of a gander. For we know that he has at different times assumed the shape of a dog for the same purpose, and we have two re­markable examples of this: one of a dog, said to be a demon, which used to lift up the robes of the nuns in a convent of the diocese of Cologne in order to abuse them; the other, of certain dogs found on the beds of the nuns of a convent on Mount Hesse in Germany.