Guillaume Edelin

Guillaume Edelin Doctor of Divinity, was a confessed male witch, convicted in 1453, and the first person to confess to have flown on a broom.[1]

Life

He was the Prior of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, an Augustinian and a DD. He promulgated the idea that it was impossible for the Devil to make pacts or witches to fly on brooms.[1][2] After being arrested, he confessed that he had signed a compact with the Devil to satisfy his carnal desires, part of this being that he pretend that witchcraft was impossible. The compact was afterwards found upon his person.[3] He also confessed that he had "done homage to the Enemy, under the form of a sheep, by kissing his posteriors," [4] and to having gone to the Sabbath "mounted on a balai", the first reference to the use of a broomstick in connection with witchcraft.[5]

After his capture, he repented and was imprisoned for the rest of his life in the city of Évreux.[6]

References
  1. Gareth Medway (April 2001). Lure of the Sinister: The Unnatural History of Satanism. NYU Press. p. 328. ISBN 978-0-8147-5645-4.
  2. M. l'abbe J. Duvernet (1791). Histoire de la Sorbonne, dans laquelle on voit l'influence de la théologie sur l'ordre social ... (in French). Paris: Chez Buisson, hotel Coetlosquet, rue Hautefeuille. p. 163. This pretended sorcerer was named Guillaume Edelin ; he had obtained the priory of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. He was a reasonable preacher at a time when there were few reasonable preachers. He preached that all that was said of wizards was only tall tales and dangerous fables.
  3. Montague Summers (4 April 2014) [1926]. The History of Witchcraft and Demonology (Reprint ed.). Routledge. p. 66. ISBN 978-1-317-83267-6.
  4. Enguerrand de Monstrelet; Bon-Joseph Dacier; Joseph Dacier (i.e. Bon Joseph, baron) (1849) [1596]. The chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet. H.G. Bohn. p. 235.
  5. Margeret Murray (1 January 2004). The God of the Witches. NuVision Publications, LLC. p. 114. ISBN 978-1-59547-300-4.
  6. M. l'abbe J. Duvernet (1791). Histoire de la Sorbonne, dans laquelle on voit l'influence de la théologie sur l'ordre social ... (in French). Chez Buisson. pp. 163–165.
  • Man, Myth and Magic: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Supernatural. 1970, edited by Richard Cavendish.
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