Gervaise of Tilbury, Anti-Witch Writer of Arles

Writing about 1214, Gervaise of Tilbury tells stories that he claims to have garnered from eye-witnesses. Men and women ride out at night over long distances. Certain people have seen their flight as they passed over land and sea. They are able to fly all over the globe, so long as none of them makes the mistake of uttering the name of Christ while in flight, for this will make them immediately fall and plunge to the ground. At Arles, Gervaise himself saw a woman who had thus been plunged into the Rhone and soaked as far as her navel. The witches enter people's houses in the course of these nocturnal journeys. They disturb sleepers by sitting on their chests and causing nightmares of suffocation and falling. They have sexual relations with sleeping men. They suck blood, steal infants from their beds, and rummage through baskets and bins for food. They take the form of cats, wolves, or other animals at will (Russell 1987 64).

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Gervaise of Tilbury, Anti-Witch Writer of Arles copyrighted 1996-1998 to Shantell Powell.