What did C.S.Lewis mean when he called witches quislings?

[mojojojo]

I know in one of his works C.S.Lewis refered to witches quislings, what did he mean by that? Was he refering to the White Witch and the Green Witch?

[daughter of the King]

Where does he refer to witches as quislings?

[Alyosha]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quisling

Basically a traitor; it was a wartime term.

Which book was that? I don't remember reading that before either.

[mojojojo]

I know he said it somewhere. I am sure I am not imagining this

[DiGoRyKiRkE]

I've never heard him use that term either (heck, I've never heard the term period). If you could find the specific instance in which he uses this term, I'd be most appreciative. I'd like to read it.

[mojojojo]

It is from his book Mere Christianity here it is

But surely the reason we do not execute witches is that we do not believe there are such things. If we did-if we really thought that there were people going about who had sold themselves to the devil and received supernatural powers from him in return and were using these powers to kill their neighbours or drive them mad or bring bad weather, surely we would all agree that if anyone deserved the death penalty, then these filthy quislings did. There is no difference of moral principle here: the difference is simply about matter of fact. It may be a great advance in knowledge not to believe in witches: there is no moral advance in not executing them when you do not think they are there. You would not call a man humane for ceasing to set mousetraps if he did so because he believed there were no mice in the house.

[daughter of the King]

I haven't read Mere Christianity yet (it has been on my reading list for quite awhile), but I'll try to answer.

I don't think he is referring to the White Witch or the Lady of the Green Kirtle. I think he is referring to witches in our world. He calls them quislings because to become a witch the person would basically sell themselves to the devil. They would become traitors to the human race and collaborators with evil. I suppose it could apply to the witches in Narnia, but I don't think he was specifically talking about them. Does that make sense?

[mojojojo]

Yeah, it makes sense. So how are the witches of Narnia different?

[Boy Scout]

I've just read Mere Christianity and I don't think that he Was refering to the WW of LotGK, (I don't think that The CoN of was writen yet.) I think that he meant devils and evil things. They are traitors because they come from the Lord and they have turned against him.

[mojojojo]

So how were the white witch and the green witch different?

[coracle]

Mojojo, I am going to reply to your post only in the context of the topic - please send me a PM if you wanted to know something else.

The White Witch, and the Lady of the Green Kirtle (she is never called the Green Witch in the book) are not actually humans, and therefore even if they should use evil powers to do things like "kill their neighbours or drive them mad or bring bad weather" they are not betraying their own kind (humans) as could be said of a true quisling.

They are still doing evil things, and using evil power, but they are distinct from a human who does the same things to other humans.