THE DIABOLICAL PACT

 A new element was added to the persecution of witches by Rome in Europe in the late middle ages. This was the idea that the witch owed her powers to having made a deliberate pact with the devil. This was a double sin, not only did it involve a partnership with the devil, but it necessitated the renunciation of God. It didn't matter if the witch hadn't injured anybody, her disloyalty to God was a sufficient enough crime to warrant death. Barbara Rosen describes the notion of a 'diabolical pact' as an "absolutely basic adjunct of the continental idea of a witch." (11) Whereas in England it was the fear of maleficium which was behind most of the accusations and trials, in Europe it was mainly the fear of the devil.
The exposure of heretics was not, however, the only motivation as far as the continent was concerned. If a witch was found guilty her goods might go to the local Lord or to the Inquisitor. Whereas in England, at least from 1563, their possessions were safeguarded should the accused be executed.
The idea of the witch as a devil-worshipper was new to England, and some commentators argue that its introduction, after the accession of Queen Elizabeth 1, was largely responsible for the witch craze in England. Talking about the sudden explosion in the persecution of witches Keith Thomas says " The change can thus be attributed to the superimposition of the theological concept of witch-craft upon the ancient belief in the possibility of maleficium." (12)
I suspect the introduction of the heretical nature of witchcraft into English folklore was gradual, but a milestone in it's development was surely the publication of King James I's Daemonologie (1597) The King categorically stated that witchcraft entails "a formal pact with the Devil, ending almost invariably in his worship." (13)
In 1604 a new Act of Parliament was passed which replaced life imprisonment with execution for a second offence. According to Thomas this was the first time in English history when the "influence of the continental doctrine of the 'diabolical compact' was unambiguous." (14) However he says a distinct difference, in terms of degree, remained. According to European doctrine witchcraft and a pact with the devil are synonymous, whereas in England the act of 1604 implied a witch might be able to commit an offence, say the laming of a neighbours cow, purely as an act of maleficium. This variation is typical of many of the differences which exist between English and European witchcraft. In general terms the former being less extreme, less theological than it's European counterpart.
As in England the majority of European witches were women, and their pact with the Devil was generally consummated by a sexual union. Catherine La Rondellatte, interrogated in 1608, describes how she was seduced by a coloured man whilst walking through the woods, she says: " I knew in the same hour it was the evil spirit, but could not retract because he had instantly made me renounce God, Christ and baptism, promising to serve him." (15)
In English literature of the period there are few examples of the sexual element of witchcraft. In The Tempest Caliban is the product of a sexual union between his Mother and an incubus, " got by the Devil himself / Upon thy wicked dam." (16) In The Witch (Thomas Middleton - circa 1613) Hecate sleeps incestuously with her son Firestone, and talks about pleasuring young men in the shape of an incubus: "When hundred leagues in air we feast and sing, Dance, kiss and coll, use everything. What young man can we wish to pleasure us But we enjoy him in an incubus?" (17)
In England, at least until the middle of the sixteenth century, the pact between the devil and his victim was sealed by the sucking of blood, generally by a 'familiar devil' in the form of an animal. In The Witch of Edmonton (Rowley, Dekker & Ford. 1621) Mother Sawyer reluctantly enters into a pact with the devil who takes the form of a dog who commands her to "seal it with thy blood. If thou deniest / I'll tear thy body into a thousand pieces." (18)
The transposing of the devil onto an animal was rare on the continent, but the sucking of blood ostensibly seems less abhorrent than rape (which is what the European equivalent amounted to) , although it did have some sexual connotation. Searching for a mark was already the most popular method of proving a witch, but from around 1579 the discovery of a teat at which the witch supposedly nourished her familiar was regarded by many Judges as the most important evidence a prosecutor could produce.