Europe's inner demons

Now, in the contemporary account of the proceedings against Lady Alice — which is the sole source for these matters — all the charges are listed together, as though they were interdependent; so if one charge is manifestly false, the rest must also be suspect. Moreover the charges are listed twice over — and the second time they appear in the context of a confession extracted under torture. An associate of Lady Alice called Petronilla of Meath was flogged six times, on the bishop’s orders; after which she produced “publicly, in the presence of the assembled clergy and people”, all the above particulars — both those relating to concoctions and maleficia and cursings and those relating to Robin, son of Art.

⁽⁴⁵⁾ Indeed, Petronilla admitted that she herself had acted as go-between (mediatrix) for Lady Alice and her demon lover; and she provided details. With her own eyes, in full daylight, she had seen Robin materialize in the form of three Negroes bearing iron rods in their hands, and in this strange guise have intercourse with the lady. She had even dried the place after their departure, using the bed-cover.⁽⁴⁶⁾

Unless one is prepared to accept all this, there are no grounds for believing any of the charges against Lady Alice.

All the charges, in fact, are designed to serve one and the same purpose: to show that Lady Alice had no right to her wealth, that it had been wrested from its rightful owners by truly diabolic means, that it was tainted at the source. Maleficia had been practised, poisons had been concocted, anathemas had been pronounced, men had been murdered, to secure this wealth. Worse still, all this had been done with the help of a demon who had not only received, as his fee, worship and animal sacrifice — like Pope Boniface’s demon — but also had mated with Lady Alice.

Armed with this information, Bishop de Ledrede wrote to the lord chancellor, Roger Outlaw, prior of Kilmainham, demanding that the accused parties be immediately imprisoned. But Roger Outlaw, who was Lady Alice’s brother-in-law and William Outlaw’s uncle, declined to act; so the bishop had to proceed as best he could, without the help of the secular arm. He cited Lady Alice to appear before him on a certain day; but when the day came it was found that she had fled the town. Next the bishop cited William Outlaw, on charges of heresy and of aiding and protecting heretics; but nothing came of that either, for the seneschal of Kilkenny intervened.

The seneschal was a powerful nobleman called Sir Arnold le Poer, a distant relative of Lady Alice’s fourth husband, Sir John le Poer. Whether out of friendship, or out of self-interest, or simply because he thought the whole business nonsense, he sided with William Outlaw. Together with Outlaw he went to see the bishop and asked him most earnestly to withdraw the indictment; and when this failed, loaded him with reproaches and threats. Next day he went further; he sent a band of armed men to arrest the bishop and lodge him in Kilkenny jail, where he kept him until the day for which William Outlaw had been cited had passed. And when, on his release, the bishop again cited Outlaw to appear before him, and appealed to the seneschal for help, he met with a sharp rebuff.⁽⁴⁷⁾

Ledrede excommunicated Lady Alice; whereupon the lady indicted the bishop for defamation of character, and her allies, Sir Arnold le Poer at their head, had him cited to appear before the parliament in Dublin. But the bishop had never been lacking in self-confidence, and now he defended his conduct and argued his case with such vigour that the assembly was won over. At last he was able to proceed with the arrest of Lady Alice’s associates. They were thrown into prison at Kilkenny; and soon Ledrede had the gratification of reciting the charges against them in the presence of the king’s justiciar, the lord chancellor, the treasurer, and the king’s council, all assembled for the purpose in his own episcopal city. All the accused were found guilty and were sentenced to various punishments. Some, including Petronilla of Meath, were burned alive; others were whipped through the streets of Kilkenny; others were banished and declared excommunicate; others were sentenced to the penance of wearing crosses sewn on their garments.⁽⁴⁸⁾ William Outlaw, after a period in prison, was permitted to recant, to do penance, and to be reconciled with the Church — though he did have to use some of his great wealth in providing a leaden roof for the bishop’s cathedral. As for Lady Alice, who was cast as the chief culprit, she escaped burning only because her powerful kinsfolk got her out of Ireland and into England.⁽⁴⁹⁾