WOMAN AS WITCH 11 



phases of Germanic witchcraft, and mark in what 

 manner it comes into contact with early Germanic 

 Christianity. 



We have, in the first place, to note how essentially 

 the ideas of witchcraft and of witches are associated with 

 women; and then to observe that the further we go 

 back into the days of early Christianity and pre- 

 Christianity, the less is the stigma which attaches to 

 the witch. It must be remembered that it was only 

 at the commencement of the fourteenth century that 

 witchcraft was finally associated with heresy, and that 

 these two imputations rolled into one became either 

 a powerful instrument of oppression wielded by an all- 

 powerful Church, or a deadly but often double-edged 

 weapon of revenge in the hands of private individuals. 

 Occasionally, indeed, they served the purpose of a cold- 

 blooded political expediency. The name witch itself 

 signifies the woman who knows, the wiseacre, and de- 

 notes rather a good than a bad attribute. Indeed, we 

 find the witches themselves termed bonae dominae, the 

 "good dames," and their gatherings the ludum bonae 

 societatis, " the sport of the good company." Even till 

 quite late times we hear of white and black witches 

 that is, those who work good and bad magic. " Wise 

 men and wise women," writes Cotta, " reputed a kind 

 of good and honest harmles witches or wizards, who by 

 good words, by hallowed herbes, and salves, and other 

 superstitious ceremonies, promise to allay and calme 

 divels, practises of other witches, and the forces of many 

 diseases." The " white " or " blessing witch " revealed 

 mischiefs and removed evils from the bodies of men and 



