thanks to George of the Irish Heritage newsletter.... Witch of Kilkenny- Dame Alice Kyteler Born in Kilkenny Ireland, Lady Alice or Dame Alice as she was also known was one of the first to be formally tried by the Catholic Church for Sorcery in 1324. Her crime? The Bishop of Ossory, Richard Ledrede, claimed that she and eleven of her family and friends (see list of names below) had transgressions of numerous supernatural types ranging from being heretics to having nocturnal meetings with the Devil himself among the other Unhallowed Artes they practiced. Dame Alice was also known to have a Magistellus or Demon/Familiar that came to her in the form of an animal, sometimes in the form of a cat and sometimes in the form of a large black dog (called Robin Artisson or Robin, Son of Art) with which she had sexual congress and from whom she exacted all her wealth. She and her friends and family were suspected to have both aroused feelings of love and of hatred, and to have inflicted death or disease on the bodies of the faithful (Xtians) by making use of powders, unguents, ointments, and candles of fat, which were compounded as follows. They took the entrails of cocks sacrificed to demons (Robin Artisson), certain worms, various unspecified herbs, dead men's nails, the hair, brains, and shreds of the cerements of boys who were buried unbaptized, with other ingredients, all of this was then cooked with various incants spoken aloud over a fire of oak-logs in a vessel made out of the skull of a beheaded thief. Dame Alice was accused by the Children of her former husbands of beguiling their Fathers with Sorcery and hastening their deaths by her scandalous acts and deeds which left the children destitute and impoverished. Despiste the Bishop's request that the Dame be arrested for her crimes she was left unpunished for the time being. When Bishop Ledrede did not achieve the satisfaction he desired and found his plans thwarted by Sir Arnold le Poer, the Seneschal of Kilkenny (who was probably a distant relation to Alice's fourth husband) he took matters into his own hands and demanded her to appear before him. Dame Alice, as would have been anticipated, fled instead. Foiled again, the Bishop then cited her son William for heresy. After being besought by le Poer to discontinue the matter the tables were turned on the Bishop and he was eventually imprisoned by Stephen le Poer, bailiff of Overk, and an armed posse of men. After being detained for 17 days, the Bishop was released where he continued his reign of harassment. The Bishop had the audacity to again issue a writ demanding that William appear before him but was unable to fulfill that obligation as the Bishop was called to appear himself before his own diocese in Dublin (which he neatly sidestepped claiming that to get there he must travel through Sir Arnold's lands and that would endanger his very life). The Bishop did eventually make his way there to answer to the charges that he had excommunicated Dame Alice, but found that his charges were uncited, unadmonished, and she remained unconvicted of the crime of sorcery. Although Sir Arnold was indeed humbled and a sort of peace was restored temporarily. After finding satisfaction during this latest barrage of charges, the Bishop once again tried to have the Dame seized by the Chancellor as well as the Vicar-General of the Archbishop of Dublin. Once again, Dame Alice fled, this time from Dublin, and made her way to England where she spent the rest of her days in relative peace. Unfortunately, for Petronilla Meath, Alice's maid and confidante, Fate would not be as kind. She was ordered flogged by the Bishop and even after confessing that she too was a worker of the Black Artes, though not nearly as beneficent at them as the Dame, Petronilla was made a scapegoat in the worst possible fashion. The Bishop ordered her death by fire and on 3rd November 1324, in Kilkenny, Petronilla was burnt alive, this being the first case of a death by fire for the crime of heresy. Petronilla's young daughter was shipped to England after her Mother's death and subsequently raised by Dame Alice. Before it was all done and over with even Sir Arnold le Poer, who had taken such a prominent part in the affair, was attacked. The Bishop accused him of heresy as well, then had him excommunicated, and sent to prison at Dublin Castle. The Bishop himself did not fare well and suffered from the accusation of heresy himself brought upon by his Metropolitan, Alexander de Bicknor. He (the Bishop) endured a long exile from his diocese, suffered much personal hardships, and even had his temporalities seized by the Crown as well. In 1339 his royal favour was restored but ten years later additional accusations were brought before the King against in consequence of which the temporalities were a second time taken up, and other more severe measures were threatened. The Bishop died in 1360 leaving behind a veritable wake of disturbances.