Guillaume Edelin

Guillaume Edelin D.D., was a prior who confessed to being witch, convicted in 1453, and the first person to confess to have flown on a broom.^[1]

Life

Edelin was the Prior of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, an Augustinian and a Doctor of Divinity. He promulgated the idea that it was impossible for the Devil to make pacts or witches to fly on brooms.^[1][2] He also confessed to having gone to the Sabbath "mounted on a balai", the first reference to the use of a broomstick in connection with witchcraft.^[3]

After his arrest he repented and was imprisoned for the rest of his life in the city of Évreux.^[4]

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 [fr]. 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. Margeret Murray (1 January 2004). The God of the Witches. NuVision Publications, LLC. p. 114. ISBN 978-1-59547-300-4.
4. 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.