Entering the modern era, in 15th century Italy, Pope Innocent VIII was so concerned about the rise of witchcraft that he commissioned Kraemer and Sprenger’s famous Malleus Maleficarum, a treatise on Witchcraft.
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Commissioned in 1484, the treatise repeatedly links witchcraft to abortion and child sacrifice: “Witches who are midwives in various ways kill the child conceived in the womb and procure an abortion.”
During the reign of Louis XIV, for example, there was a network of occult activity involving abortion and infanticide that reached even into the King’s courts. Investigating a series of suspicious deaths, the Lieutenant General of the police in Versailles was led to Madame de Montespan, Louis’ favorite lover, and then to “La Voisin”, a practicing witch and abortionist who had provided the poisons used in the murders. Upon further investigation, he learned that the abortion services connected with satanic rituals were also being performed – primarily for female members of the aristocracy. The following is the testimony of la Voisin’s daughter at the subsequent trial:
“At one of Madame de Montespan’s masses, I saw my mother bring an infant, obviously premature, and place it over a basin over which its throat was slit, and its blood drained into the chalice.”
Note that the child was premature, likely the victim of one of the many abortions la Voisin had performed.
“Then the cup filled with the baby’s blood was lifted up to heaven and this invocation was given: ‘Hail Ashteroth and Asmodeus, Princes of friendship, I conjure you to accept the sacrifice of this child in return for the favors asked of you.’”
Ashteroth was the goddess wife of Moloch. Asmodeus is a transliteration of the Hebrew name for a demon that is normally associated with lust. Aborted children, as well as infants purchased from the prostitutes and the destitute were being sacrificed in a satanic ritual designed to grant spiritual power to the practitioners.
“At her trial la Voisin confessed that no less than 2,500 babies had been disposed of in this manner….”
Historians debate whether these tales of Satanic Black Masses and rumors of ritual infant sacrifices are in fact reliable. Were they coaxed out of frightened witnesses by Gabriel De La Reynie, the Lieutenant General of Police in Versaille, who used torture as part of his interrogation techniques? Or were these simply folk rituals combined with elements of the Catholic mass that served to assuage the conscience of La Voisin as she came to terms with the moral implications of the many abortions she performed?
In the book, Affair of the Poisons, Murder, Infanticide, and Satanism in the Court of Louis XIV, author Anne Somerset offers this explanation:
“La Voisin appears genuinely to have believe in the power of magic but she combined this with an outward profession of piety. As the circumstances of her arrest suggested, she was a regular churchgoer, and her answers to her interrogators would abound with devout sentiments and respectful invocations of the ‘Good Lord.’ When she finally began to make significant revelations she would claim that she was doing so ‘for the glory of the Lord,’ who had commanded her to heed His will as she knelt in prayer. Earlier in her career her readiness to imply that she was in tune with the workings of providence had stood her in good stead, for clients were comforted by her apparent belief that her personal activities were compatible with Christianity. It may be that La Voisin herself was scarcely aware of any contradiction. Once, having assisted at an abortion, she was said to have wept tears of joy when the midwife in attendance baptized the fetus. Far from being troubled at having terminated the unborn child’s existence, she exulted in having been instrumental in securing its salvation.”
Witchcraft? Black masses? Infant blood sacrifice? It does seem far-fetched. It’s no wonder that some historians are skeptical. But when we consider the culture of the time, the picture comes into sharper focus.
The French Renaissance saw the revival of interest in the Greek and Roman gods. King Louis XIV himself loved paintings with mythological themes and had a particular fascination with the sun god, Apollo. In paintings of that era, Louis is portrayed as the “sun king.” La Voisin, no doubt, shared Louis’ fascination with pagan gods and goddesses. She mixed this with a kind of folk witchcraft, herbalism, astrology, and the concoction of love potions and various poisons, including potions used to induce abortion. La Voisin’s vocation as a poisoner is, in fact, the most documented element of the affair. The 1997 film, Marquise, depicts the story of a young actress, played by Sophie Marceau, who purchases poison from La Voisin in order to murder her husband so she might be free to marry her lover.
Likely in the minds La Voisin and others who practiced
