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font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + .footpoem { margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + .footpoem12 { margin-left: 17.6%; margin-right: 15%; } + .footpoem8 { margin-left: 12%; margin-right: 15%; } + .sp { letter-spacing: 1em } + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + hr.full { width: 100%; + margin-top: 3em; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + height: 4px; + border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */ + border-style: solid; + border-color: #000000; + clear: both; } + pre {font-size: 75%;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Superstitions of Witchcraft, by Howard +Williams</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: The Superstitions of Witchcraft</p> +<p>Author: Howard Williams</p> +<p>Release Date: October 1, 2007 [eBook #22822]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SUPERSTITIONS OF WITCHCRAFT***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by Julie Barkley, Suzan Flanagan,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3> +<p> </p> +<div class='center'> +<p><br /></p> +<table border="1" cellpadding="8" class="bbox" cellspacing="0" summary="Transcriber's Note"> +<tr><td align='left'>TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: +<p> +This e-text includes accented Greek letters. If any of these characters do not display properly—in particular, +if the diacritic does not appear directly above or below the +letter—you may have an incompatible browser or unavailable fonts. +If the problem cannot be resolved, use the plain-text file instead.</p> +<p> +Transliterations and corrections are shown with <ins title="like this">popups</ins> underlined in red. Additional +changes are noted in the <a href="#TRANSCRIBERS_NOTES">Transcriber's Notes</a> at the end of the e-text.<br /> +</p></td></tr> +</table></div> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> + +<div class="pad"> +<p class="fm14">SUPERSTITIONS OF WITCHCRAFT.</p> +</div> +<hr /> + +<div class="pad"> +<p class="copy">LONDON<br /> + +PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO.<br /> + +NEW-STREET SQUARE +</p> +</div> +<hr /> + +<p class="fm10">THE</p> + +<p class="fm22">SUPERSTITIONS OF WITCHCRAFT.</p> + +<p class="fm8">BY</p> + +<p class="fm12">HOWARD WILLIAMS, M.A.</p> + +<p class="copy8">ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.</p> +<div class="pad"> +<p class="copy8">'Somnia, terrores magicos, miracula, sagas,<br /> + Nocturnos lemures, portentaque Thessala rides?'</p> +</div> +<div class="pad2"> +<p class="fm12">LONDON:<br /> +LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, ROBERTS, & GREEN.<br /> +1865. +</p> +</div> +<hr /> + +<h2>PREFACE.</h2> + +<hr class="title" /> +<p>'<span class="chap">The Superstitions of Witchcraft</span>' is designed +to exhibit a consecutive review of the characteristic +forms and facts of a creed which (if at +present apparently dead, or at least harmless, +in Christendom) in the seventeenth century +was a living and lively faith, and caused thousands +of victims to be sent to the torture-chamber, +to the stake, and to the scaffold. At +this day, the remembrance of its superhuman +art, in its different manifestations, is immortalised +in the every-day language of the peoples +of Europe.</p> + +<p class="tb">The belief in Witchcraft is, indeed, in its full +development and most fearful results, modern +still more than mediæval, Christian still more +than Pagan, and Protestant not less than +Catholic.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii" href="#Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></p> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> +<hr class="toc" /> + +<div class="toc"> +<p class="ch">Part I.</p> +<p class="ch2">CHAPTER I.</p> + + <p class="chapdesc">The Origin, Prevalence, and Variety of Superstition—The + Belief in Witchcraft the most horrid Form of + Superstition—Most flourishing in the Sixteenth and + Seventeenth Centuries—The Sentiments of Addison, + Blackstone, and the Lawyers of the Eighteenth Century + upon the Subject—Chaldean and Persian Magic—Jewish + Witchcraft—Its important Influence on Christian and + Modern Belief—Greek Pharmacy and Sorcery—Early Roman + Laws against Conjuration and Magic Charms—Crimes + perpetrated, under the Empire, in connection with + Sorceric Practices—The general Persecution for Magic + under Valentinian and Valens—German and Scandinavian + Sagæ—Essential Difference between Eastern and Western + Sorcery—The probable Origin of the general Belief in an + Evil <span class="chapword">Principle</span> <span class="chappg"><a href="#Page_3" class="smcap">page 3</a></span></p> + + <hr class="tb" /> + +<p class="ch">PART II.</p> +<p class="ch2">CHAPTER I.</p> + <p class="chapdesc">Compromise between the New and the Old Faiths—Witchcraft + under the Early Church—The Sentiments of the Fathers and the + Decrees of Councils—Platonic Influences—Historical, Physiological, + and Accidental Causes of the Attribution of Witchcraft to + the Female Sex—Opinions of the Fathers and other Writers—The + <span class="chapword">Witch-Compact</span> <span class="chappg"><a href="#Page_47">47</a></span></p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii" href="#Page_viii">[viii]</a></span></p> + +<div class="toc"> +<p class="ch2">CHAPTER II.</p> + <p class="chapdesc">Charlemagne's Severity—Anglo-Saxon Superstition—Norman and + Arabic Magic—Influence of Arabic Science—Mohammedan Belief + in Magic—Rabbinical Learning—Roger Bacon—The Persecution + of the Templars—Alice <span class="chapword">Kyteler</span> <span class="chappg"><a href="#Page_63">63</a></span></p> + +<p class="ch2">CHAPTER III.</p> + <p class="chapdesc">Witchcraft and Heresy purposely confounded by the Church—Mediæval + Science closely connected with Magic and Sorcery—Ignorance + of Physiology the Cause of many of the Popular Prejudices—Jeanne + d'Arc—Duchess of Gloucester—Jane Shore—Persecution + at <span class="chapword">Arras</span> <span class="chappg"><a href="#Page_84">84</a></span></p> + <hr class="tb" /> + +<p class="ch">PART III.</p> +<p class="ch2">CHAPTER I.</p> + <p class="chapdesc">The Bull of Innocent VIII.—A new Incentive to the vigorous Prosecution + of Witchcraft—The 'Malleus Maleficarum'—Its Criminal + Code—Numerous Executions at the Commencement of the Sixteenth + Century—Examination of Christian Demonology—Various + Opinions of the Nature of Demons—General Belief in the Intercourse + of Demons and other non-human Beings with <span class="chapword">Mankind</span> <span class="chappg"><a href="#Page_101">101</a></span></p> + +<p class="ch2">CHAPTER II.</p> + <p class="chapdesc">Three Sorts of Witches—Various Modes of Witchcraft—Manner of + Witch-Travelling—The Sabbaths—Anathemas of the Popes against + the Crime—Bull of Adrian VI.—Cotemporary Testimony to the + Severity of the Persecutions—Necessary Triumph of the Orthodox + Party—Germany most subject to the Superstition—Acts of Parliament + of Henry VIII. against Witchcraft—Elizabeth Barton—The + Act of 1562—Executions under Queen Elizabeth's Government—Case + of Witchcraft narrated by Reginald <span class="chapword">Scot</span> <span class="chappg"><a href="#Page_126">126</a></span></p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix" href="#Page_ix">[ix]</a></span></p> + +<div class="toc"> +<p class="ch2">CHAPTER III.</p> + <p class="chapdesc">The 'Discoverie of Witchcraft,' published 1584—Wier's 'De Præstigiis + Dæmonum,' &c.—Naudé—Jean Bodin—His 'De la Démonomanie + des Sorciers,' published at Paris, 1580—His Authority—Nider—Witch-case + at Warboys—Evidence adduced at the Trial—Remarkable + as being the Origin of the Institution of an Annual + Sermon at <span class="chapword">Huntingdon</span> <span class="chappg"><a href="#Page_144">144</a></span></p> + +<p class="ch2">CHAPTER IV.</p> + <p class="chapdesc">Astrology in Antiquity—Modern Astrology and Alchymy—Torralvo—Adventures + of Dr. Dee and Edward Kelly—Prospero and Comus, + Types respectively of the Theurgic and Goetic Arts—Magicians + on the Stage in the Sixteenth Century—Occult Science in Southern + Europe—Causes of the inevitable Mistakes of the pre-Scientific + <span class="chapword">Ages</span> <span class="chappg"><a href="#Page_157">157</a></span></p> + +<p class="ch2">CHAPTER V.</p> + <p class="chapdesc">Sorcery in Southern Europe—Cause of the Retention of the Demonological + Creed among the Protestant Sects—Calvinists the most + Fanatical of the Reformed Churches—Witch-Creed sanctioned in + the Authorised Version of the Sacred Scriptures—The Witch-Act + of 1604—James VI.'s 'Demonologie'—Lycanthropy and Executions + in France—The French Provincial Parliaments active in + passing Laws against the various Witch-practices—Witchcraft in + the Pyrenees—Commission of Inquiry appointed—Its Results—Demonology + in <span class="chapword">Spain</span> <span class="chappg"><a href="#Page_168">168</a></span></p> + +<p class="ch2">CHAPTER VI.</p> + <p class="chapdesc">'Possession' in France in the Seventeenth Century—Urbain Grandier + and the Convent of Loudun—Exorcism at Aix—Ecstatic + Phenomena—Madeleine Bavent—Her cruel Persecution—Catholic + and Protestant Witchcraft in Germany—Luther's Demonological + Fears and Experiences—Originated in his exceptional Position + and in the extraordinary Circumstances of his Life and Times—Witch-burning + at Bamburg and at <span class="chapword">Würzburg</span> <span class="chappg"><a href="#Page_186">186</a></span></p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x" href="#Page_x">[x]</a></span></p> + +<div class="toc"> +<p class="ch2">CHAPTER VII.</p> + <p class="chapdesc">Scotland one of the most Superstitious Countries in Europe—Scott's + Relation of the Barbarities perpetrated in the Witch-trials under + the Auspices of James VI.—The Fate of Agnes Sampson, Euphane + MacCalzean, &c.—Irrational Conduct of the Courts of Justice—Causes + of Voluntary Witch-Confessions—Testimony of Sir G. + Mackenzie, &c.—Trial and Execution of Margaret Barclay—Computation + of the Number of Witches who suffered Death in England + and Scotland in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries—Witches + burned alive at Edinburgh in 1608—The Lancashire Witches—Sir + Thomas Overbury and Dr. Forman—Margaret Flower and + Lord <span class="chapword">Rosse</span> <span class="chappg"><a href="#Page_203">203</a></span></p> + +<p class="ch2">CHAPTER VIII.</p> + <p class="chapdesc">The Literature of Europe in the Seventeenth Century proves the + Universality and Horror of Witchcraft—The most acute and most + liberal Men of Learning convinced of its Reality—Erasmus and + Francis Bacon—Lawyers prejudiced by Legislation—Matthew + Hale's judicial Assertion—Sir Thomas Browne's Testimony—John + Selden—The English Church least Ferocious of the Protestant + Sects—Jewell and Hooker—Independent Tolerance—Witchcraft + under the Presbyterian Government—Matthew Hopkins—Gaule's + 'Select Cases of Conscience'—Judicial and Popular + Methods of Witch-discovery—Preventive Charms—Witchfinders a + Legal and Numerous Class in England and Scotland—Remission + in the Severity of the Persecution under the <span class="chapword">Protectorship</span> <span class="chappg"><a href="#Page_219">219</a></span></p> + +<p class="ch2">CHAPTER IX.</p> + <p class="chapdesc">Glanvil's Sadducismus Triumphatus—His Sentiments on Witchcraft + and Demonology—Baxter's 'Certainty of the World of Spirits,' + &c.—Witch Trial at Bury St. Edmund's by Sir Matthew Hale, + 1664—The Evidence adduced in Court—Two Witches hanged—Three + hanged at Exeter in 1682—The last Witches judicially executed + in England—Uniformity of the Evidence adduced at the + Trials—Webster's Attack upon the Witch-creed in 1677—Witch + Trials in England at the end of the Seventeenth Century—French + Parliaments vindicate the Diabolic Reality of the Crime—Witchcraft + in <span class="chapword">Sweden</span> <span class="chappg"><a href="#Page_237">237</a></span></p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi" href="#Page_xi">[xi]</a></span></p> + +<div class="toc"> +<p class="ch2">CHAPTER X.</p> + <p class="chapdesc">Witchcraft in the English Colonies in North America—Puritan Intolerance + and Superstition—Cotton Mather's 'Late Memorable Providences'—Demoniacal + Possession—Evidence given before the + Commission—Apologies issued by Authority—Sudden Termination + of the Proceedings—Reactionary Feeling against the Agitators—The + Salem Witchcraft the last Instance of Judicial Prosecution + on a large Scale in Christendom—Philosophers begin to expose + the Superstition—Meritorious Labours of Webster, Becker, and + others—Their Arguments could reach only the Educated and + Wealthy Classes of Society—These only partially enfranchised—The + Superstition continues to prevail among the Vulgar—Repeal + of the Witch Act in England in 1736—Judicial and Popular Persecutions + in England in the Eighteenth Century—Trial of Jane + Wenham in England in 1712—Maria Renata burned in Germany + in 1749—La Cadière in France—Last Witch burned in Scotland + in 1722—Recent Cases of Witchcraft—Protestant Superstition—Witchcraft + in the Extra-Christian <span class="chapword">World</span> <span class="chappg"><a href="#Page_259">259</a></span></p> +</div> + +<hr /> +<div class="pad"><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1" href="#Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> +<p class="fm14">PART I.</p> + +<h2>EARLIER FAITH.</h2><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2" href="#Page_2">[2]</a></span></p> +</div> + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3" href="#Page_3">[3]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Origin, Prevalence, and Variety of Superstition—The +Belief in Witchcraft the most horrid Form of Superstition—Most +flourishing in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries—The +Sentiments of Addison, Blackstone, and the Lawyers of the +Eighteenth Century upon the Subject—Chaldean and Persian +Magic—Jewish Witchcraft—Its important Influence on Christian +and Modern Belief—Greek Pharmacy and Sorcery—Early +Roman Laws against Conjuration and Magic Charms—Crimes +perpetrated, under the Empire, in connection with Sorceric +Practices—The general Persecution for Magic under Valentinian +and Valens—German and Scandinavian Sagæ—The probable +Origin of the general Belief in an Evil Principle.</p></div> + + +<p><span class="chap">Superstition</span>, the product of ignorance of causes, of +the proneness to seek the solution of phenomena out +of and beyond nature, and of the consequent natural +but unreasoning dread of the Unknown and Invisible +(ignorantly termed the supernatural), is at once universal +in the extent, and various in the kinds, of its +despotism. Experience and reason seem to prove that, +inherent to and apparently coexistent with the human +mind, it naturally originates in the constitution of +humanity: in ignorance and uncertainty, in an instinctive +doubt and fear of the <i>Unknown</i>. Accident may +moderate its power among particular peoples and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4" href="#Page_4">[4]</a></span> +persons; and there are always exceptional minds +whose natural temper and exercise of reason are able +to free them from the servitude of a delusive imagination. +For the mass of mankind, the germ of superstition, +prepared to assume always a new shape +and sometimes fresh vigour, is indestructible. The +severest assaults are ineffectual to eradicate it: +hydra-like, far from being destroyed by a seeming +mortal stroke, it often raises its many-headed form +with redoubled force.</p> + +<p>It will appear more philosophic to deplore the +imperfection, than to deride the folly of human +nature, when the fact that the superstitious sentiment +is not only a result of mere barbarism or vulgar +ignorance, to be expelled of course by civilisation +and knowledge, but is indigenous in the life of every +man, barbarous or civilised, pagan or Christian, is +fully recognised. The enlightening influence of +science, as far as it extends, is irresistible; and its +progress within certain limits seems sure and almost +omnipotent. But it is unfortunately limited in the +extent of its influence, as well as uncertain in duration; +while reason enjoys a feeble reign compared +with ignorance and imagination.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">1</a> If it is the great +office of history to teach by experience, it is never<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5" href="#Page_5">[5]</a></span> +useless to examine the causes and the facts of a mischievous +creed that has its roots deep in the ignorant +fears of mankind; but against the recurrence of the +fatal effects of fanaticism apparent in the earliest +and latest records of the world, there can be no sufficient +security.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">1</span></a> That 'speculation has on every subject of human enquiry three +successive stages; in the first of which it tends to explain the phenomena +by supernatural agencies, in the second by metaphysical +abstractions, and in the third or final state, confines itself to ascertaining +their laws of succession and similitude' (<i>System of Logic</i>, by J. S. Mill), is a generalisation of Positive Philosophy, and a theory +of the Science of History, consistent probably with the progress of +knowledge among philosophers, but is scarcely applicable to the mass +of mankind.</p></div> + +<p>Dreams, magic terrors, miracles, witches, ghosts, +portents, are some of the various forms superstition +has invented and magnified to disturb the peace of +society as well as of individuals. The most extravagant +of these need not be sought in the remoter ages +of the human race, or even in the 'dark ages' of +European history: they are sufficiently evident in +the legislation and theology, as well as in the popular +prejudices of the seventeenth century.</p> + +<p>The belief in the <i>infernal</i> art of witchcraft is perhaps +the most horrid, as it certainly is the most +absurd, phenomenon in the religious history of the +world. Of the millions of victims sacrificed on the +altars of religion this particular delusion can claim a +considerable proportion. By a moderate computation, +nine millions have been burned or hanged since the +establishment of Christianity.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">2</a> Prechristian antiquity +experienced its tremendous power, and the primitive<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6" href="#Page_6">[6]</a></span> +faith of Christianity easily accepted and soon developed +it. It was reserved, however, for the triumphant +Church to display it in its greatest horrors: +and if we deplore the too credulous or accommodative +faith of the early militant Church or the unilluminated +ignorance of paganism, we may still more +indignantly denounce the cruel policy of Catholicism +and the barbarous folly of Protestant theology which +could deliberately punish an impossible crime. It is +the reproach of Protestantism that this persecution +was most furiously raging in the age that produced +Newton and Locke. Compared with its atrocities +even the Marian burnings appear as nothing: and +it may well be doubted whether the fanatic zeal of +the 'bloody Queen,' is no less contemptible than the +credulous barbarity of the judges of the seventeenth +century. The period 1484 (the year in which Innocent +VIII. published his famous 'Witch Hammer' +signally ratified 120 years later by the Act of Parliament +of James I. of England) to 1680 might be +characterised not improperly as the era of devil-worship; +and we are tempted almost to embrace the +theory of Zerdusht and the Magi and conceive<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7" href="#Page_7">[7]</a></span> +that Ahriman was then superior in the eternal strife; +to imagine the <i>Evil One</i>, as in the days of the Man +of Uz, 'going to and fro in the earth, and walking up +and down in it.' It is come to that at the present +day, according to a more rational observer of the +seventeenth century, that it is regarded as a part of +religion to ascribe great wonders to the devil; and +those are taxed with infidelity and perverseness who +hesitate to believe what thousands relate concerning +his power. Whoever does not do so is accounted an +atheist because he cannot persuade himself that there +are two Gods, the one good and the other evil<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">3</a>—an +assertion which is no mere hyperbole or exaggeration +of a truth: there is the certain evidence of facts as +well as the concurrent testimony of various writers.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">2</span></a> According to Dr. Sprenger (<i>Life of Mohammed</i>). Cicero's observation that there was no people either so civilised or learned, or so +savage and barbarous, that had not a belief that the future may be +predicted by certain persons (De Divinatione, i.), is justified by the +faith of Christendom, as well as by that of paganism; and is as +true of witchcraft as it is of prophecy or divination.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">3</span></a> Dr. Balthazar Becker, Amsterdam, 1691, quoted in Mosheim's +<i>Institutes of Ecclesiastical History</i>, ed. Reid.</p></div> + +<p>Those (comparatively few) whose reason and humanity +alike revolted from a horrible dogma, loudly +proclaim the prevailing prejudice. Such protests, +however, were, for a long time at least, feeble and +useless—helplessly overwhelmed by the irresistible +torrent of public opinion. All classes of society were +almost equally infected by a plague-spot that knew +no distinction of class or rank. If theologians (like +Bishop Jewell, one of the most esteemed divines in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8" href="#Page_8">[8]</a></span> +the Anglican Church, publicly asserting on a well +known occasion at once his faith and his fears) or +lawyers (like Sir Edward Coke and Judge Hale) are +found unmistakably recording their undoubting +conviction, they were bound, it is plain, the one class +by theology, the other by legislation. Credulity of +so extraordinary a kind is sufficiently surprising even +in theologians; but what is to be thought of the deliberate +opinion of unbiassed writers of a recent age +maintaining the possibility, if not the actual occurrence, +of the facts of the belief?</p> + +<p>The deliberate judgment of Addison, whose wit +and preeminent graces of style were especially devoted +to the extirpation of almost every sort of +popular folly of the day, could declare: 'When I +hear the relations that are made from all parts of +the world, not only from Norway and Lapland, from +the East and West Indies, but from every particular +nation in Europe, I cannot forbear thinking that +there is such an intercourse and commerce with evil +spirits as that which we express by the name of +witchcraft.... In short, when I consider the question +whether there are such persons in the world as +those we call witches, my mind is divided between +two opposite opinions; or rather, to speak my +thoughts freely, I believe in general that there is +and has been such a thing as witchcraft, but at the +same time can give no credit to any particular<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9" href="#Page_9">[9]</a></span> +modern instance of it.'<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">4</a> Evidence, if additional +were wanted, how deference to authority and universal +custom may subdue the reason and understanding. +The language and decision of Addison +are adopted by Sir W. Blackstone in 'Commentaries +on the Laws of England,' who shelters himself behind +that celebrated author's sentiment; and Gibbon +informs us that 'French and English lawyers of the +present age [the latter half of the last century] +allow the <i>theory</i> but deny the <i>practice</i> of witchcraft'—influenced +doubtless by the spirit of the past +legislation of their respective countries. In England +the famous enactment of the subservient parliament +of James I. against the crimes of sorcery, +&c., was repealed in the middle of the reign of +George II., our laws sanctioning not 130 years since +the popular persecution, if not the legal punishment.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10" href="#Page_10">[10]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">4</span></a> <i>Spectator</i>, No. 117. The sentiments of Addison on a kindred +subject are very similar. Writing about the vulgar ghost creed, he +adds these remarkable words: 'At the same time I think a person +who is thus terrified with the imagination of ghosts and spectres much +more reasonable than one who, contrary to the reports of all historians, +sacred and profane, ancient and modern, and to the traditions +of all nations, thinks the appearance of spirits fabulous and groundless. +Could not I give myself up to the general testimony of mankind, +I should to the relations of particular persons who are now living, +and whom I cannot distrust in other matters of fact.' Samuel Johnson +(whose prejudices were equalled only by his range of knowledge) +proved his faith in a well-known case, if afterwards he advanced so +far as to consider the question as to the reality of 'ghosts' as <i>undecided</i>. +Sir W. Scott, who wrote when the profound metaphysical +inquiries of Hume had gained ground (it is observable), is quite +sceptical.</p></div> + +<p>The origin of witchcraft and the vulgar diabolism +is to be found in the rude beginnings of the religious +or superstitious feeling which, known amongst the +present savage nations as Fetishism, probably prevailed +almost universally in the earliest ages; while +that of the sublimer magic is discovered in the religious +systems of the ancient Chaldeans and Persians. +Chaldea and Egypt were the first, as far as is known, +to cultivate the science of magic: the former people +long gave the well-known name to the professional +practisers of the art. Cicero (<i>de Divinatione</i>) celebrates, +and the Jewish prophets frequently deride, +their skill in divination and their modes of incantation. +The story of Daniel evidences how highly +honoured and lucrative was the magical or divining +faculty. The Chazdim, or Chaldeans, a priestly +caste inhabiting a wide and level country, must have +soon applied themselves to the study, so useful to +their interests, of their brilliant expanse of heavens. +By a prolonged and 'daily observation,' considerable +knowledge must have been attained; but in the infancy +of the science astronomy necessarily took the +form of an empirical art which, under the name of +astrology, engaged the serious attention and perplexed +the brains of the mediæval students of science +or magic (nearly synonymous terms), and which still<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11" href="#Page_11">[11]</a></span> +survives in England in the popular almanacks. The +natural objects of veneration to the inhabitants of +Assyria were the glorious luminaries of the sun and +moon; and if their worship of the stars and planets +degenerated into many absurd fancies, believing an +intimate connection and subordination of human +destiny to celestial influences, it may be admitted +that a religious sentiment of this kind in its primitive +simplicity was more rational, or at least sublime, +than most other religious systems.</p> + +<p>It is not necessary to trace the oriental creeds of +magic further than they affected modern beliefs; but +in the divinities and genii of Persia are more immediately +traced the spiritual existences of Jewish and +Christian belief. From the Persian priests are derived +both the name and the practice of magic. The +Evil Principle of the Magian, of the later Jewish, +and thence of the western world, originated in the +system (claiming Zoroaster as its founder), which +taught a duality of Gods. The philosophic lawgiver, +unable to penetrate the mystery of the empire of +evil and misery in the world, was convinced that +there is an equal and antagonistic power to the representative +of light and goodness. Hence the continued +eternal contention between Ormuzd with the +good spirits or genii, Amchaspands, on one side, and +Ahriman with the Devs (who may represent the infernal +crew of Christendom) on the other. Egypt,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12" href="#Page_12">[12]</a></span> +in the Mosaic and Homeric ages, seems to have +attained considerable skill in magic, as well as in +chymistry and astrology. As an abstruse and esoteric +doctrine, it was strictly confined to the priests, or to +the favoured few who were admitted to initiation. +The magic excellence of the magicians, who successfully +emulated the miracles of Moses, was apparently +assisted by a legerdemain similar to that of the +Hindu jugglers of the present day.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">5</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">5</span></a> The names of two of these magicians, Jannes and Jambres, have +been preserved by revelation or tradition.</p></div> + +<p>In Persian theology, the shadowy idea of the devil +of western Asia was wholly different from the grosser +conception of Christendom. Neither the evil principle +of Magianism nor the witch of Palestine has +much in common with the Christian. 'No contract +of subjection to a diabolic power, no infernal stamp +or sign of such a fatal league, no revellings of Satan +and his hags,'<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">6</a> no such materialistic notions could be +conformable to the spirit of Judaism or at least of +Magianism. It is not difficult to find the cause +of this essential dissimilarity. A simple unity was +severely inculcated by the religion and laws of Moses, +which permitted little exercise of the imagination: +while the Magi were equally severe against idolatrous +forms. A monstrous idea, like that of 'Satan and +his hags,' was impossible to them. Christianity, the +religion of the West, has received its <i>corporeal</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13" href="#Page_13">[13]</a></span> +ideas of demonology from the divinities and demons +of heathenism. The Satyri and Fauni of +Greece and Rome have suggested in part the form, +and perhaps some of the characteristics, of the vulgar +Christian devil. A knowledge of the arts of magic +among the Jews was probably derived from their +Egyptian life, while the Bedouins of Arabia and Syria +(kindred peoples) may have instilled the less scientific +rites of Fetishism. It is in the early accounts of that +people that sorcery, whatever its character and profession, +with the allied arts of divination, necromancy, +incantations, &c., appears most flourishing. The +Mosaic penalty, 'Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live,' +and the comprehensive injunction, 'There shall not +be found among you that maketh his son or his +daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, +or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a +witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar +spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer,' indicate at +once the extent and the horror of the practice. +Balaam (that equivocal prophet), on the border-land +of Arabia and Palestine, was courted and dreaded as +a wizard who could perplex whole armies by means +of spells. His fame extended far and wide; he was +summoned from his home beyond the Euphrates in +the mountains of Mesopotamia by the Syrian tribes +to repel the invading enemy. This great magician +was, it seems, universally regarded as 'the rival and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14" href="#Page_14">[14]</a></span> +the possible conqueror of Moses.'<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">7</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">6</span></a> Sir W. Scott, <i>Letters on Demonology</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">7</span></a> Dean Stanley's <i>Lectures on the Jewish Church</i>.</p></div> + +<p>About the time when the priestly caste had to +yield to a profane monarchy, the forbidden practices +were so notorious and the evil was of such magnitude, +that the newly-elected prince 'ejected' (as Josephus +relates) 'the fortune-tellers, necromancers, and all +such as exercised the like arts.' His interview with +the witch has some resemblance to modern <i>diablerie</i> +in the circumstances. Reginald Scot's rationalistic +interpretation of this scene may be recommended to +the commentating critics who have been so much at +a loss to explain it. He derides the received opinion +of the woman of Endor being an agent of the devil, +and ignoring any mystery, believes, 'This Pythonist +being a <i>ventriloqua</i>, that is, speaking as it were from +the bottom of her belly, did cast herself into a trance +and so abused Saul, answering to Saul in Samuel's +name in her counterfeit hollow voice.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">8</a> An institution +very popular with the Jews of the first temple, often +commemorated in their scriptures—the schools of the +prophets—was (it is not improbable) of the same kind +as the schools of Salamanca and Salerno in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15" href="#Page_15">[15]</a></span> +middle ages, where magic was publicly taught as an +abstruse and useful science; and when Jehu justifies +his conduct towards the queen-mother by bringing a +charge of witchcraft, he only anticipates an expedient +common and successful in Europe in the sixteenth and +seventeenth centuries. A Jewish prophet asserts of +the Babylonian kings, that they were diligent cultivators +of the arts, reproaching them with practising +against the holy city.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">8</span></a> <i>Discoverie of Witchcraft</i>, lib. viii. chap. 12. The contrivance of +this illusion was possibly like that at Delphi, where in the centre of +the temple was a chasm, from which arose an intoxicating smoke, +when the priestess was to announce divine revelations. Seated over +the chasm upon the tripod, the Pythia was inspired, it seems, by the +soporific and maddening drugs.</p></div> + +<p>Yet if we may credit the national historian (not +to mention the common traditions), the Chaldean +monarch might have justly envied, if he could scarcely +hope to emulate, the excellence of a former prince +of his now obscure province. Josephus says of +Solomon that, amongst other attainments, 'God +enabled him to learn that skill which expels +demons, which is a science useful and sanative to +men. He composed such incantations also by which +distempers are alleviated, and he left behind him +the manner of using exorcisms by which they drive +away demons so that they never return.'<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">9</a> The +story of Daniel is well known. In the captivity +of the two tribes carried away into an honourable servitude +he soon rose into the highest favour, because, +as we are informed, he excelled in a divination that +surpassed all the art of the Chaldeans, themselves +so famous for it. The inspired Jew had divined a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16" href="#Page_16">[16]</a></span> +dream or vision which puzzled 'the magicians, and +the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans,' +and immediately was rewarded with the greatest gift +at the disposal of a capricious despot. Most of the +apologetic writers on witchcraft, in particular the +authors of the 'Malleus Maleficarum,' accept the assertion +of the author of the history of Daniel that Nebuchadnezzar +was 'driven from men, and did eat grass +as oxen,' in its apparent sense, expounding it as +plainly declaring that he was corporeally metamorphosed +into an ox, just as the companions of Ulysses +were transformed into swine by the Circean sorceries.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">9</span></a> <i>Antiquities</i>, book viii. 2. Whiston's transl.</p></div> + +<p>The Jewish ideas of good or at least evil spirits or +angels were acquired during their forced residence +in Babylon, whether under Assyrian or Persian +government. At least 'Satan' is first discovered +unmistakably in a personal form in the poem of +Job, a work pronounced by critics to have been +composed after the restoration. In the Mosaic +cosmogony and legislation, the writer introduces not, +expressly or impliedly, the existence of an evil +principle, unless the serpent of the Paradisaic account, +which has been rather arbitrarily so metamorphosed, +represents it;<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">10</a> while the expressions in +books vulgarly reputed before the conquest are at +least doubtful. From this time forward (from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17" href="#Page_17">[17]</a></span> +fifth century <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>), says a German demonologist, as +the Jews lived among the admirers of Zoroaster, and +thus became acquainted with their doctrines, are +found, partly in contradiction to the earlier views of +their religion, many tenets prevailing amongst them +the origin of which it is impossible to explain except +by the operation of the doctrines of Zoroaster: to +these belongs the general acceptance of the theory +of Satan, as well as of good and bad angels.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">11</a> Under +Roman government or vassalage, sorceric practices, +as they appear in the Christian scriptures, were +much in vogue. Devils or demons, and the 'prince +of the devils,' frequently appear; and the <i>demoniacs</i> +may represent the victims of witchcraft. +The Talmud, if there is any truth in the assertions +of the apologists of witchcraft, commemorates many +of the most virtuous Jews accused of the crime and +executed by the procurator of Judea.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">12</a> Exorcism +was a very popular and lucrative profession.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18" href="#Page_18">[18]</a></span><a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">13</a> Simon +Magus the magician (<i>par excellence</i>), the impious +pretender to miraculous powers, who 'bewitched the +people of Samaria by his sorceries,' is celebrated by +Eusebius and succeeding Christian writers as the +fruitful parent of heresy and sorcery.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">10</span></a> Some ingenious remarks on the subject of the serpent, &c., may +be found in <i>Eastern Life</i>, part ii. 5, by H. Martineau.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">11</span></a> Horst, quoted in Ennemoser's <i>History of Magic</i>. It has been +often remarked as a singular phenomenon, that the 'chosen people,' +so prompt in earlier periods on every occasion to idolatry and its +cruel rites, after its restoration under Persian auspices, has been ever +since uniformly opposed, even fiercely, to any sign contrary to the +unity of the Deity. But the Magian system was equally averse to +idolatry.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">12</span></a> Bishop Jewell (<i>Apology for the Church of England</i>) states that +Christ was accused by the malice of his countrymen of being a juggler +and wizard—<i>præstigiator et maleficus</i>. In the apostolic narrative and +epistles, sorcery, witchcraft, &c., are crimes frequently described and +denounced. The Sadducean sect alone denied the existence of demons.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">13</span></a> The common belief of the people of Palestine in the transcendent +power of exorcism is illustrated by a miracle of this sort, gravely +related by Josephus. It was exhibited before Vespasian and his +army. 'He [Eleazar, one of the professional class] put a ring that had +a root of one of those sorts mentioned by Solomon to the nostrils of +the demoniac; after which he drew out the demon through his +nostrils: and when the man fell down immediately he adjured him +to return into him no more, making still mention of Solomon, and +reciting the incantations which he composed. And when Eleazar +would demonstrate to the spectators that he had such power, he set +a little way off a cup or basin full of water, and commanded the +demon as he went out of the man to overturn it, and thereby to let +the spectators know he had left the man.' This performance was +received with contempt or credulity by the spectators according to +their faith: but the credulity of the believers could hardly exceed +that of a large number of educated people, who in our own generation +detect in the miracles of animal magnetism, or the legerdemain of +jugglers, an infernal or supernatural agency.</p></div> + +<p>That witchcraft, or whatever term expresses the +criminal practice, prevailed among the worshippers +of Jehovah, is evident from the repeated anathemas +both in their own and the Christian scriptures, not +to speak of traditional legends; but the Hebrew and +Greek expressions seem both to include at least the +use of drugs and perhaps of poison.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">14</a> The Jewish +creed, as exposed in their scriptures, has deserved a +fame it would not otherwise have, because upon it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19" href="#Page_19">[19]</a></span> +have been founded by theologians, Catholic and Protestant, +the arguments and apology for the reality of +witchcraft, derived from the sacred writings, with an +ingenuity only too common and successful in supporting +peculiar prejudices and interests even of the +most monstrous kind.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">15</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">14</span></a> <i>Chashaph</i> and <i>Pharmakeia</i>. Biblical critics are inclined, however, +to accept in its strict sense the translation of the Jacobian divines. +'Since in the LXX.,' says Parkhurst, the lexicographer of the N.T., +'this noun [pharmakeia] and its relatives always answer to some +Hebrew word that denotes some kind of their magical or conjuring +tricks; and since it is too notorious to be insisted upon, that such +infernal practices have always prevailed, and do still prevail in idolatrous +countries, I prefer the other sense of incantation.'</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">15</span></a> A sort of ingenuity much exercised of late by 'sober brows +approving with a text' the institution of slavery: <i>divine</i>, according to +them; <i>the greatest evil that afflicts mankind</i>, according to Alexander +von Humboldt. See <i>Personal Narrative</i>.</p></div> + +<p>In examining the phenomenon as it existed among +the Greeks and Romans, it will be remarked that, +while the Greeks seem to have mainly adopted the +ideas of the East, the Roman superstition was of +Italian origin. Their respective expressions for the +predictive or presentient faculty (<i>manteia</i> and <i>divinatio</i>), +as Cicero is careful to explain, appear to +indicate its different character with those two peoples: +the one being the product of a sort of madness, the +other an elaborate and divine skill. Greek traditions +made them believe that the magic science was brought +from Egypt or Asia by their old philosophic and +legislating sages. Some of the most eminent of the +founders of philosophic schools were popularly accused<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20" href="#Page_20">[20]</a></span> +of encouraging it. Pythagoras (it is the +complaint of Plato) is said to have introduced to his +countrymen an art derived from his foreign travels; +a charge which recalls the names of Roger Bacon, +Albertus Magnus, Galileo, and others, who had to pay +the penalty of a premature knowledge by the suspicion +of their cotemporaries. Xenophanes is said +to be the only one of the philosophers who admitted +the existence or providence of the gods, and at the +same time entirely discredited divination. Of the +Stoics, Panætius was the only one who ventured even +to doubt. Some gave credit to one or two particular +modes only, as those of dreams and frenzy; but +for the most part every form of this sort of divine +revelation was implicitly received.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">16</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">16</span></a> Cicero, in his second book <i>De Divinatione</i>, undertakes to refute +the arguments of the Stoics, 'the force of whose mind, being all +turned to the side of morals, unbent itself in that of religion.' The +divining faculty is divisible generally into the artificial and the +natural.</p></div> + +<p>The science of magic proper is developed in the +later schools of philosophy, in which Oriental theology +or demonology was largely mixed. Apollonius of +Tyana, a modern Pythagorean, is the most famous +magician of antiquity. This great miracle-worker +of paganism was born at the commencement of +the Christian era; and it has been observed that +his miracles, though quite independent of them, +curiously coincide both in time and kind with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21" href="#Page_21">[21]</a></span> +Christian.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">17</a> According to his biographer Philostratus, +this extraordinary man (whose travels and researches +extended, we are assured, over the whole East even +into India, through Greece, Italy, Spain, northern +Africa, Ethiopia, &c.) must have been in possession +of a scientific knowledge which, compared with that +of his cotemporaries, might be deemed almost supernatural. +Extraordinary attainments suggested to +him in later life to excite the awe of the vulgar by +investing himself with magical powers. Apollonius +is said to have assisted Vespasian in his struggle for +the throne of the Cæsars; afterwards, when accused +of raising an insurrection against Domitian, and +when he had given himself up voluntarily to the +imperial tribunal at Rome, he escaped impending +destruction by the exertion of his superhuman art.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">17</span></a> The proclamation of the birth of Apollonius to his mother by +Proteus, and the incarnation of Proteus himself, the chorus of swans +which sang for joy on the occasion, the casting out of devils, raising +the dead, and healing the sick, the sudden appearances and disappearances +of Apollonius, his adventures in the cave of Trophonius, +and the sacred voice which called him at his death, to which may be +added his claim as a teacher having authority to reform the world, +'cannot fail to suggest,' says a writer in the <i>Dictionary of Greek and +Roman Biography</i>, &c., ed. by Dr. W. Smith, 'the parallel passages +in the Gospel history.'</p></div> + +<p>Of the incantations, charms, and magic compounds +in the practice of Greek witchcraft, numerous examples +occur in the tragic and comic poetry of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22" href="#Page_22">[22]</a></span> +Greece; and the <i>philtres</i>, or love-charms, of Theocritus +are well known. The names of Colchis, +Chaldea, Assyria, Iberia, Thrace, may indicate the +origin of a great part of the Hellenic sorceries. Yet, +if the more honourable science may have been of +foreign extraction, Hellas was not without something +of the sorcery of modern Europe. The infernal +goddess Hecate, of Greek celebrity, is the omnipotent +patroness of her modern Christian slaves; and she +presides at the witch meetings of Christendom +with as much solemnity but with far greater malice. +Originally of celestial rank, by a later metamorphosis +connected, if not personally identical with, Persephone, +the Queen of Hades, Hecate was invested with many +of the characteristic attributes of a modern devil, or +rather perhaps of a witch. The triple goddess, in +her various shapes, wandered about at night with the +souls of the dead, terrifying the trembling country +people by apparitions of herself and infernal satellites, +by the horrible whining and howls of her hellhounds +which always announced her approach. She +frequented cross-roads, tombs, and melancholy places, +especially delighting in localities famous for deeds of +blood and murder. The hobgoblins, the various malicious +demons and spirits, who provoked the lively +terrors of the mediæval peoples, had some prototypes +in the fairy-land of Greece, in the Hecatean +hobgoblins (like the Latin larvæ, &c.), Empusa,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23" href="#Page_23">[23]</a></span> +Mormo, and other products of an affrighted imagination +familiar to the students of Greek literature in +the comic pages of Aristophanes.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">18</a> From the earliest +literary records down to the latest times of paganism +as the state religion, from the times of the Homeric +Circe and Ulysses (the latter has been recognised by +many as a genuine wizard) to the age of Apollonius +or Apuleius, magic and sorcery, as a philosophical +science or as a vulgar superstition, had apparently +more or less distinctly a place in the popular +mythology of old Greece. But in the pagan history +of neither Greece nor Rome do we read of holocausts +of victims, as in Christian Europe, immolated on the +altars of a horrid superstition.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">19</a> The occasion of the +composition of the treatise by Apuleius 'On Magic' is +somewhat romantic. On his way to Alexandria, the +philosopher, being disabled from proceeding on the +journey, was hospitably received into the mansion of +one Sicinius Pontianus. Here, during the interesting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24" href="#Page_24">[24]</a></span> +period of his recovery, he captivated, or was +captivated by, the love of his host's mother, a wealthy +widow, and the lovers were soon united by marriage. +Pudentilla's relatives, indignant at the loss of a +much-coveted, and perhaps long-expected fortune, +brought an action against Apuleius for having gained +her affection by means of spells or charms. The +cause was heard before the proconsul of Africa, +and the apology of the accused labours to convince +his judges that a widow's love might be provoked +without superhuman means.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">20</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">18</span></a> Particularly in the <i>Batrachoi</i>. The dread of the infernal apparition +of the fierce Gorgo in Hades blanched the cheek of even much-daring +Odysseus (Od. xi. 633). The satellites of Hecate have been +compared, not disadvantageously, with the monstrous guardians of +hell; than whom +</p> + +<p class="footpoem">'Nor uglier follow the night-hag when, called<br /> +In secret, riding through the air she comes<br /> +Lured with the smell of infant blood to dance<br /> +With Lapland witches—.'<br /> +</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">19</span></a> An exceptional case, on the authority of Demosthenes, is that of +a woman condemned in the year, or within a year or two, of the execution +of Socrates.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">20</span></a> St. Augustin, in denouncing the Platonic theories of Apuleius, +of the mediation and intercession of demons between gods and men, +and exposing his magic heresies, takes occasion to taunt him with +having evaded his just fate by not professing, like the Christian +martyrs, his real faith when delivering his 'very copious and eloquent' +apology (<i>De Civitate Dei</i>, lib. viii. 19). In the <i>Golden Ass</i> of +the Greek romancist of the second century, who, in common with his +cotemporary the great rationalist Lucian, deserves the praise of +having exposed (with more wit perhaps than success) some of the +most absurd prejudices of the day, his readers are entertained with +stories that might pretty nearly represent the sentiments of the +seventeenth century.</p></div> + +<p>Gibbon observes of the Roman superstition on the +authority of Petronius, that it may be inferred that it +was of Italian rather than barbaric extraction. Etruria +furnished the people of Romulus with the science of +divination. Early in the history of the Republic the +law is very explicit on the subject of witchcraft. In +the decemviral code the extreme penalty is attached<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25" href="#Page_25">[25]</a></span> +to the crime of witchcraft or conjuration: 'Let +him be capitally punished who shall have bewitched +the fruits of the earth, or by either kind of conjuration +(<i>excantando neque incantando</i>) shall have conjured +away his neighbour's corn into his own field,' +&c., an enactment sneered at in Justinian's <i>Institutes</i> +in Seneca's words. A rude and ignorant antiquity, +repeat the lawyers of Justinian, had believed that rain +and storms might be attracted or repelled by means +of spells or charms, the impossibility of which has +no need to be explained by any school of philosophy. +A hundred and fifty years later than the legislation +of the decemvirs was passed the <i>Lex Cornelia</i>, +usually cited as directed against sorcery: but while +involving possibly the more shadowy crime, it seems +to have been levelled against the more 'substantial +poison.' The conviction and condemnation of 170 +Roman ladies for poisoning, under pretence of incantation, +was the occasion and cause. Sulla, when dictator, +revived this act <i>de veneficiis et malis sacrificiis</i>, +for breach of which the penalty was 'interdiction +of fire and water.' Senatorial anathemas, or even +those of the prince, were ineffective to check the +continually increasing abuses, which towards the end +of the first century of the empire had reached an +alarming height.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">21</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">21</span></a> It will be observed that <i>veneficus and maleficus</i> are the significant +terms among the Italians for the criminals.</p></div> + +<p>A general degradation of morals is often accompanied,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26" href="#Page_26">[26]</a></span> +it has been justly remarked, by a corresponding +increase of the wildest credulity, and by an +abject subservience to external religious rites in propitiation +of an incensed deity. It was thus at Rome +when the eloquence of Cicero, and afterwards the +indignant satire of Juvenal or the calm ridicule of +the philosophic Lucian,<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">22</a> attempted to assert the +'proper authority of reason.' To speak the truth, +says Cicero, superstition has spread like a torrent over +the entire globe, oppressing the minds and intellects +of almost all men and seizing upon the weakness of +human nature.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">23</a> The historian of 'The Decline and +Fall of the Roman Empire' justifies and illustrates +this lament of the philosopher of the Republic in the +particular case of witchcraft. 'The nations and the +sects of the Roman world admitted with equal credulity +and similar abhorrence the reality of that +infernal art which was able to control the eternal +order of the planets, and the voluntary operations of +the human mind. They dreaded the mysterious +power of spells and incantations, of potent herbs and +execrable rites, which could extinguish or recall life, +influence the passions of the soul, blast the works of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27" href="#Page_27">[27]</a></span> +creation, and extort from the reluctant demons the +secrets of Futurity. They believed with the wildest +inconsistency that the preternatural dominion of the +the air, of earth, and of hell, was exercised from the +vilest motives of malice or gain by some wrinkled +hags or itinerant sorcerers who passed their obscure +lives in penury and contempt. Such vain terrors +disturbed the peace of society and the happiness of +individuals; and the harmless flame which insensibly +melted a waxen image might derive a powerful and +pernicious energy from the affrighted fancy of the +person whom it was maliciously designed to represent. +From the infusion of those herbs which were supposed +to possess a supernatural influence, it was an +easy step to the case of more substantial poison; +and the folly of mankind sometimes became the +instrument and the mask of the most atrocious +crimes.'<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">24</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">22</span></a> If the philosophical arguments of Menippus (<i>Nekrikoi Dialogoi</i>) +could have satisfied the interest of the priests or the ignorance of the +people of after times, the <i>infernal</i> fires of the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries might not have burned.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">23</span></a> <i>De Divinatione</i>, lib. ii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">24</span></a> <i>The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire</i>, xxv. +This description applies more to the Christian and later empires.</p></div> + +<p>Latin poetry of the Augustan and succeeding period +abounds with illustrations, and the witches of Horace, +Ovid, and Lucan are the famous classical types.<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">25</a> +Propertius has characterised the Striga as 'daring +enough to impose laws upon the moon bewitched by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28" href="#Page_28">[28]</a></span> +her spells;' while Petronius makes his witch, as potent +as Strepsiades' Thessalian sorceress, exclaim that the +very form of the moon herself is compelled to descend +from her position in the universe at her command. For +the various compositions and incantations in common +use, it must be sufficient to refer to the pages of the +Roman poets. The forms of incantation and horrid +rites of the Horatian Sagana Canidia (<i>Epod.</i> v. and +<i>Sat.</i> i. 8), or the scenes described by the pompous +verses of the poet of the civil war (<i>De Bello Civili</i>, +vi.), where all nature is subservient, are of a similar +kind, but more familiar, in the dramatic writings +of the Elizabethan age. The darker characteristics +of the practice, however, are presented in the burning +declamations of Juvenal, only too faithfully exhibiting +the unnatural atrocities perpetrated in the form +and under the disguise of love-potions and charms. +Roman ladies in fact acquired considerable proficiency, +worthy of a Borgia or Brinvilliers, in the art of +poisoning and in the use of drugs. The reputed +witch, both in ancient and modern times, very +often belonged, like the Ovidian Dipsas, to the real +and detestable class of panders: wrinkled hags were +experienced in the arts of seduction, as well as in the +employment of poison and drugs more familiar +to the wealthier class (<i>Sat.</i> vi.). The great Satirist +wrote in the latter half of the first century of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29" href="#Page_29">[29]</a></span> +Christianity; but even in the Augustan period such +crimes were prevalent enough to make Ovid enumerate +them among the universal evils introduced by the +Iron age (<i>Metamorphoses</i>, i.). The despotic will of +the princes themselves was exerted in vain; the mischief +was too deep-rooted to succumb even to the +decrees of the masters of the world. Nor did the +<i>divi</i> themselves disdain to be initiated in the infernal +or celestial science. Nigidius Figulus and the +two Thrasylli are magical or mathematical names +closely connected with the destinies of the two first +imperial princes. Nigidius predicted, and perhaps +promoted, the future elevation of Octavianus; and +the elder Thrasyllus, the famous Rhodian astrologer, +skilfully identified his fate with the life of his credulous +dupe but tyrannical pupil. Thrasyllus' art is +stated to have been of service in preventing the superstitious +tyrant from executing several intended victims +of his hatred or caprice, by making <i>their</i> safety the +condition of <i>his</i> existence. The historian of the early +empire tells of the incantations which could 'affect +the mind and increase the disease' of Germanicus, +Tiberius' nephew. 'There were discovered,' says +Tacitus, 'dug up from the ground and out of the walls +of the house, the remains of human corpses, charms +and spells, and the name of Germanicus inscribed +on leaden tablets, ashes half consumed covered with +decaying matter, and other practices by which it is +believed that souls are devoted to the deities of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30" href="#Page_30">[30]</a></span> +hell.'<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">26</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">25</span></a> 'The Canidia of Horace,' Gibbon pronounces, 'is a vulgar witch. +The Erichtho of Lucan is tedious, disgusting, but sometimes sublime.' +The love-charms of Canidia and Medea are chiefly indebted to the +<i>Pharmakeutria</i> of Theocritus.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">26</span></a> <i>Annales</i>, ii. 69. Writing of the mathematicians and astrologers +in the time of Galba, who urged the governor of Lusitania on the +perilous path to the supreme dignity, the historian characterises +them truly, in his inimitable language and style, as 'a class of persons +not to be trusted by those in power, deceptive to the expectant; a +class which will always be proscribed and preserved in our state.'</p></div> + +<p>In the fourth century, the first Christian emperor +limited the lawful exercise of magic to the beneficial +use of preserving or restoring the fruits of the earth +or the health of the human body, while the practice +of the noxious charms is capitally punished. The +science of those, proclaims the imperial convert, who, +immersed in the arts of magic, are detected either in +attempts against the life and health of their fellow-men, +or in <i>charming</i> the minds of modest persons to +the practice of debauchery, is to be avenged and +punished deservedly by severest penalties. But in no +sorts of criminal charges are those remedies to be +involved which are employed for the good of individuals, +or are harmlessly employed in remote +places to prevent premature rains, in the case of +vineyards, or the injurious effects of winds and hailstorms, +by which the health and good name of no one +can be injured; but whose practices are of laudable +use in preventing both the gifts of the Deity and +the labours of men from being scattered and +destroyed.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">27</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">27</span></a> <i>Cod. Justinian</i>, lib. ix. tit. 18.</p></div> + +<p>Constantine, in distinguishing between good and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31" href="#Page_31">[31]</a></span> +bad magic, between the <i>theurgic</i> and <i>goetic</i>, maintains +a distinction made by the pagans—a distinction ignored +in the later Christian Church, in whose system +'all demons are infernal spirits, and all commerce with +them is idolatry and apostasy.' Christian zeal has +accused the imperial philosopher and apostate Julian +of having had recourse—not to much purpose—to +many magical or necromantic rites; of cutting up the +dead bodies of boys and virgins in the prescribed +method; and of raising the dead to ascertain the event +of his Eastern expedition against the Persians.</p> + +<p>Not many years after the death of Julian the +Christian Empire witnessed a persecution for witchcraft +that for its ferocity, if not for its folly, can be +paralleled only by similar scenes in the fifteenth or +seventeenth century. It began shortly after the +final division of the East and West in the reigns of +Valentinian and Valens, <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 373. The unfortunate +accused were pursued with equal fury in the Eastern +and Western Empires; and Rome and Antioch were +the principal arenas on which the bloody tragedy was +consummated. Gibbon informs us that it was occasioned +by a criminal consultation, when the twenty-four +letters of the alphabet were ranged round a +magic tripod; a dancing ring placed in the centre +pointed to the first four letters in the name of the +future prince. 'The deadly and incoherent mixture +of treason and magic, of poison and adultery, afforded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32" href="#Page_32">[32]</a></span> +infinite gradations of guilt and innocence, of excuse +and aggravation, which in these proceedings appear +to have been confounded by the angry or corrupt +passions of the judges. They easily discovered that +the degree of their industry and discernment was +estimated by the imperial court according to the +number of executions that were furnished from their +respective tribunals. It was not without extreme +reluctance that they pronounced a sentence of acquittal; +but they eagerly admitted such evidence as +was stained with perjury or procured by torture to +prove the most improbable charges against the most +respectable characters. The progress of the inquiry +continually opened new subjects of criminal prosecution; +the audacious informers whose falsehood was +detected retired with impunity: but the wretched +victim who discovered his real or pretended accomplices +was seldom permitted to receive the price of +his infamy. From the extremity of Italy and Asia +the young and the aged were dragged in chains to +the tribunals of Rome and Antioch. Senators, +matrons, and philosophers expired in ignominious +and cruel tortures. The soldiers who were appointed +to guard the prisons declared, with a murmur of pity +and indignation, that their numbers were insufficient +to oppose the flight or resistance of the multitude of +captives. The wealthiest families were ruined by +fines and confiscations; the most innocent citizens<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33" href="#Page_33">[33]</a></span> +trembled for their safety: and we may form some +notion of the magnitude of the evil from the extravagant +assertion of an ancient writer [Ammianus +Marcellinus], that in the obnoxious provinces the +prisoners, the exiles, and the fugitives formed the +greatest part of the inhabitants. The philosopher +Maximus,' it is added, 'with some justice was involved +in the charge of magic; and young Chrysostom, who +had accidentally found one of the proscribed books, +gave himself up for lost.'<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">28</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">28</span></a> <i>The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire</i>, +xxv.</p></div> + +<p>The similarity of this to the horrible catastrophe +of Arras, recorded by the chroniclers of the fifteenth +century, excepting the grosser absurdities of the +latter, is almost perfect. Valentinian and Valens, +who seem to have emulated the atrocious fame of +the Cæsarean family, with their ministers, concealed, +it is probable, under the disguise of a simulated +credulity the real motives of revenge and cupidity.</p> + +<p>The Roman world, Christian and pagan, was +subject to the prevailing fear. That portion of the +globe, however, comprehended but a small part of +the human race. The records of history are incomplete +and imperfect; nor are they more confined in +point of time than of extent. History is little more +at any period than an imperfect account of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34" href="#Page_34">[34]</a></span> +life of a few particular peoples. Necessarily limited +almost entirely to an acquaintance with the history +of that portion of the globe included in the 'Roman +Empire,' we almost forget our profound ignorance of +that vastly larger proportion of the earth's surface, +the extra-Roman world, embracing then, as now, +civilised as well as barbarous nations. The Chinese +empire (the most extraordinary, perhaps, and whose +antiquity far surpasses that of any known), comprehending +within its limits two-thirds of the population +of the globe; the refined and ingenious people of +Hindustan, an immense population, in the East: in +the Western hemisphere nations in existence whose +remains excited the admiration of the Spanish +invaders; the various savage tribes of the African +continent; the nomad populations of Northern Asia +and Europe; nearly all these more or less, on +the testimony of past and present observation, +experienced the tremendous fears of the vulgar demonism.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">29</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">29</span></a> It may be safely affirmed, according to a celebrated modern philosopher, +that popular religions are really, in the conception of their +more vulgar votaries, a species of demonism. 'Primus in orbe deos +fecit timor,' or, in the fuller expression of a modern, 'Fear made the +devils, and weak Hope the gods.'</p></div> + +<p>With the tribes who, in the time of Cæsar or +Tacitus, inhabited the forests of Germany, and, +perhaps, amongst the Scandinavians, some more +elevated ideas obtained, the germ, however, of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35" href="#Page_35">[35]</a></span> +degenerated popular prejudice. By all the German +tribes, on the testimony of cotemporary writers, +women were held in high respect, and were believed +to have something even divine in their mental or +spiritual faculties. 'Very many of their women they +regard in the light of prophetesses, and when superstitious +fear is in the ascendant, even of goddesses.' +History has preserved the names of some of these +Teutonic <i>deities</i>. Veleda, by prophetic inspiration, +or by superior genius, directed the councils of her +nation, and for some years successfully resisted the +progress of the imperial arms.<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">30</a> Momentous questions +of state or religion were submitted to their +<i>divine</i> judgment, and it is not wonderful if, endowed +with supernatural attributes, they, like other prophets, +helped to fulfil their own predictions. The Britons +and Gauls, of the Keltic race, seem to have resembled +the Orientals, rather than the Teutons or Italians, in +their religious systems. Long before the Romans +came in contact with them the magic science is said +to have been developed, and the priests, like those of +India or Egypt, communicated the mysteries only to +a privileged few, with circumstances of profound +secrecy. Such was the excellence of the magic +science of the British Druids, that Pliny (<i>Hist. +Nat.</i> xxx.) was induced to suppose that the Magi +of Persia must have derived their system from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36" href="#Page_36">[36]</a></span> +Britain. For the most part the Kelts then, as in +the present day, were peculiarly tenacious of a creed +which it was the interest of a priestly caste to +preserve. On the other hand, the looser religion of +the Teuton nations, of the Scandinavians and Germans, +could not find much difficulty in accepting the +particular conceptions of the Southern conquerors; +and the sorceric mythology of the Northern barbarians +readily recognised the power of an Erichtho to +control the operations of nature, to prevent or confound +the course of the elements, interrupt the +influence of the sun, avert or induce tempests, to +affect the passions of the soul, to fascinate or charm +a cruel mistress, &c., with all the usual necromantic +rites. But if they could acknowledge the characteristics +of the Italian Striga, those nations at the +same time retained a proper respect for the venerated +Saga—the German Hexe.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">30</span></a> Aurinia was the Latin name of another of these venerable sagæ. +Tacitus, <i>Histor.</i> iv. 61, and <i>Germania</i>, viii.</p></div> + +<p>Of all the historic peoples of ancient Europe, the +Scandinavians were perhaps most imbued with a +persuasion of the efficacy of magic; a fact which +their home and their habits sufficiently explain. In the +Eddas, Odin, the leader of the immigration in the +first century, and the great national lawgiver, is represented +as well versed in the knowledge of that preternatural +art; and the heroes of the Scandinavian legends +of the tenth or twelfth century are especially am<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37" href="#Page_37">[37]</a></span>bitious +of initiation. The Scalds, like the Brahmins +or Druids, were possessed of tremendous secrets; +their <i>runic</i> characters were all powerful charms, +whether against enemies, the injurious effects of an +evil eye, or to soften the resentment of a lover.<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">31</a> +The Northmen, with the exception of some nations of +Central Europe, like the Lithuanians, who were not +christianised until the thirteenth or fourteenth century,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38" href="#Page_38">[38]</a></span> +from their roving habits as well perhaps as from +their remoteness, were among the last peoples of +Europe to abandon their old creed. Urged by poverty +and the hopes of plunder, the pirates of the Baltic +long continued to be the terror of the European +coasts; but, without a political status, they were the +common outlaws of Christendom. They were the +relics of a savage life now giving way in Europe to +the somewhat more civilised forms of society, continuing +their indiscriminate depredations with impunity +only because of the want of union and +organisation among their neighbours. But they +were in a transitional state: the coasts and countries +they had formerly been content to ravage, they were +beginning to find it their interest to colonise and +cultivate. In the new interests and pursuits of civilisation +and commerce, a natural disgust might +have been experienced for the savage traditions of a +religion whose gods and heroes were mostly personifications +of war and rapine, under whose banners +they had suffered the hardships, if they had enjoyed +the plunder, of a piratic life. The national deities +from being disregarded, must have come soon to be +treated with undisguised contempt at least by the +leaders: while the common people, serfs, or slaves +were still immersed (as much as in Christian Europe) +in a stupid superstition.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">31</span></a> The following story exhibits the influence of witchcraft among +the followers of Odin. Towards the end of the tenth century, the +dreaded Jomsburg sea-rovers had set out on one of their periodical +expeditions, and were devastating with fire and sword the coast of +Norway. A celebrated Norwegian Jarl, Hakon, collected all his +forces, and sailed with a fleet of 150 vessels to encounter the pirates. +Hakon, after trying in vain to break through the hostile line, retired +with his fleet to the coast, and proceeded to consult a well-known +sorceress in whom he had implicit confidence for any emergency. +With some pretended reluctance the sorceress at length informed +him that the victory could be obtained only by the sacrifice of his +son. Hakon hesitated not to offer up his only son as a propitiatory +sacrifice; after which, returning to his fleet, and his accustomed post +in the front ranks of the battle, he renewed the engagement. Towards +evening the Jomsburg pirates were overtaken and overwhelmed by +a violent storm, destroying or damaging their ships. They were +convinced that they saw the witch herself seated on the prow of the +Jarl's ships with clouds of missile weapons flying from the tips of her +fingers, each arrow carrying a death-wound. With such of his followers +as had escaped the sorceric encounter, the pirate-chief made +the best of his way from the scene of destruction, declaring he had +made a vow indeed to fight against men, but not against witches. A +narrative not inconsistent with the reply of a warrior to an inquiry +from the Saint-king Olaf, 'I am neither Christian nor pagan; my +companions and I have no other religion than a just confidence in +our strength, and in the good success which always attends us in +war; and we are of opinion that it is all that is necessary.'—Mallet's +<i>Northern Antiquities</i>.</p></div> + +<p>When men's minds are thus universally unsettled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39" href="#Page_39">[39]</a></span> +and in want—a want both universal and necessary in +states—of some new divine objects of worship more +suited to advanced ideas and requirements, a system of +religion more civilising and rational than the antiquated +one, will be adopted without much difficulty, +especially if it is not too exclusive. Yet the <ins title="removed comma">Scandinavians</ins> +were unusually tenacious of the forms of their +ancestral worship; for while the Icelanders are said to +have received Christianity about the beginning of +the eleventh century, the people of Norway were not +wholly converted until somewhat later. The halls of +Valhalla must have been relinquished with a sigh in +exchange for the less intelligible joys of a tranquil +and insensuous paradise. An ancient Norsk law +enjoins that the king and bishop, with all possible +care, make inquiry after those who exercise pagan +practices, employ magic arts, adore the genii of +particular places, of tombs or rivers, who transport +themselves by a diabolical mode of travelling through +the air from place to place. In the extremity of +the northern peninsula (amongst the Laplanders), +where the light of science, or indeed of civilisation, +has scarcely yet penetrated, witchcraft remains as +flourishing as in the days of Odin; and the Laplanders +at present are possibly as credulous in this +respect as the old Northmen or the present tribes +of Africa and the South Pacific. Before the introduction +of the new religion (it is a curious fact), the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40" href="#Page_40">[40]</a></span> +Germans and Scandinavians, as well as the Jews, were +acquainted with the efficacy of the rite of infant +baptism. A Norsk chronicle of the twelfth century, +speaking of a Norwegian nobleman who lived in the +reign of Harald Harfraga, relates that he poured +water on the head of his new-born son, and called +him Hakon, after the name of his father. Harald +himself had been baptized in the same way; and it +is noted of the infant pagan St. Olaf that his mother +had him baptized as soon as he was born. The +Livonians observed the same ceremony; and a letter +sent expressly by Pope Gregory III. to St. Boniface, +the great apostle of the Germans, directs him how +to act in such cases. It is probable, Mallet conjectures, +that all these people might intend by such a rite to +preserve their children from the sorceries and evil +charms which wicked spirits might employ against +them at the instant of their birth. Several nations +of Asia and America have attributed such a power to +ablutions of this kind; nor were the Romans without +the custom, though they did not wholly confine it to +new-born infants. A curious magical use of an +initiatory and sacramental rite, ignorantly anticipated, +it seems, by the unilluminated faith of the +pagan world.</p> + +<p>In reviewing the characteristics of sorcery which +prevailed in the ancient world, it is obvious to com<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41" href="#Page_41">[41]</a></span>pare +the superstition as it existed in the nations of +the East and West, of antiquity and of modern times. +These natural or accidental differences are deducible +apparently from the following causes:—(1) The essential +distinction between the demonology of Orientalism—of +Brahminism, Buddhism, Magianism, +Judaism, Mohammedanism—and that of the West, +of paganism and of Christianity, founded on their +respective <i>idealistic</i> and <i>realistic</i> tendencies. (2) The +divining or necromantic faculties have been generally +regarded in the East as honourable properties; whereas +in the West they have been degraded into the +criminal follies of an infernal compact. The magical +art is a noble cultivated science—a prerogative of the +priestly caste: witchcraft, in its strict sense, was +mostly abandoned to the lowest, and, as a rule, to the +oldest and ugliest of the female sex. In the one case +the proficient was the master, in the other the slave, +of the demons. (3) The position of the female sex +in the Western world has been always very opposite +to their status in the East, where women are believed +to be an inferior order of beings, and therefore +incapable of an art reserved for the superior endowments +of the male sex. The modern witchcraft may +be traced to that perhaps oldest form of religious +conception, Fetishism, which still prevails in its utmost +horrors amongst the savage peoples in different +parts of the world. The early practice of magic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42" href="#Page_42">[42]</a></span> +was not dishonourable in its origin, closely connected +as it was with the study of natural science—with +astronomy and chymistry.</p> + +<p>The magic system—interesting to us as having +influenced the later Jewish creed and mediately the +Christian—referred like most developed creeds to a +particular founder, Zerdusht (Zarathustra of the +Zend), may have thus originated. Mankind, in +seeking a solution for that most interesting but +unsatisfactory problem, the cause of the predominance +of evil on the earth, were obliged by their +ignorance and their fears to imagine, in addition +to the idea of a single supreme existence, the +author and source of good, antagonistic influence—the +source and representative of evil. Physical +phenomena of every day experience; the alternations +of light and darkness, of sunshine and clouds; the +changes and oppositions in the outer world, would +readily supply an analogy to the moral world. Thus +the dawn and the sun, darkness and storms, in the +wondering mind of the earlier inhabitants of the +globe, may have soon assumed the substantial forms +of personal and contending deities.<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">32</a> Such seems to +be the origin of the personifications in the Vedic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43" href="#Page_43">[43]</a></span> +hymns of Indra and Vritra with their subordinate +ministers (the Ormuzd and Ahriman, &c., of the +Zend-Avesta), and of the first religious conceptions +of other peoples. After this attempt to +reconcile the contradictions, the irregularities of +nature, by establishing a duality of gods whose +respective provinces are the happiness and unhappiness +of the human race, the step was easy to +the conviction of the superior activity of a malignant +god. The benevolent but epicurean security of the +first deity might seem to have little concern in +defeating or preventing the malicious schemes of the +other. All the infernal apparatus of later ages was +easy to be supplied by a delusive and an unreasoning +imagination.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">32</span></a> The despotism of language and its immense influence on the +destiny, as well as on the various opinions, of mankind, is well shown +by Professor Max Müller. 'From one point of view,' he declares, +'the true history of religion would be neither more nor less than an +account of the various attempts at expressing the Inexpressible' +(<i>Lectures on the Science of Language</i>, Second Series). The witch-creed +may be indirectly referred, like many other absurdities, to the +perversion of language.</p></div> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44" href="#Page_44">[44]</a></span></p> +<div class="pad"><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45" href="#Page_45">[45]</a></span></p> +<p class="fm14">PART II.</p> + +<h2>MEDIÆVAL FAITH.</h2><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46" href="#Page_46">[46]</a></span></p> +</div> + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47" href="#Page_47">[47]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Compromise between the New and the Old Faiths—Witchcraft +under the Early Church—The Sentiments of the Fathers and +the Decrees of Councils—Platonic Influences—Historical, +Physiological, and Accidental Causes of the Attribution of +Witchcraft to the Female Sex—Opinions of the Fathers and +other Writers—The Witch-Compact.</p></div> + +<p><span class="chap">It</span> might appear, in a casual or careless observation, +surprising that Christianity, whose original spirit, if +not universal practice, was to enlighten; whose professed +mission was 'to destroy the works of the devil,' +failed to disprove as well as to dispel some of the most +pernicious beliefs of the pagan world: that its final +triumph within the limits of the Roman empire, or +as far as it extended without, was not attended by the +extinction of at least the most revolting practices of +superstition. Experience, and a more extended +view of the progress of human ideas, will teach that +the growth of religious perception is fitful and +gradual: that the education of collective mankind +proceeds in the same way as that of the individual +man. And thus, in the expression of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48" href="#Page_48">[48]</a></span> +biographer of Charles V., the barbarous nations when +converted to Christianity changed the object, not the +spirit, of their religious worship. Many of the ideas +of the old religion were consciously tolerated by the +first propagators of Christianity, who justly deemed +that the new dogmas would be more readily insinuated +into the rude and simple minds of their +neophytes, if not too strictly uncompromising. Both +past and present facts testify to this compromise. It +was a maxim with some of the early promoters of +the Christian cause, to do as little violence as possible +to existing prejudices<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">33</a>—a judicious method still +pursued by the Catholic, though condemned by the +Protestant, missionaries of the present day.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">34</a> It was +not seldom that an entire nation was converted and +christianised by baptism almost in a single day: the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49" href="#Page_49">[49]</a></span> +mass of the people accepting, or rather acquiescing +in, the arguments of the missionaries in submission +to the will or example of their prince, whose conduct +they followed as they would have followed him into +the field. Such was the case at the conversion of the +Frankish chief Clovis, and of the Saxon Ethelbert. +But if St. Augustin or St. Boniface, and the earlier +missionaries, had more success in persuading the +simple faith of the Germans, without a written revelation +and miracles, than the modern emissaries have +in inducing the Hindus to abandon their Vedas, it +was easier to convince them of the facts, than of +the reason, of their faith. Nor was it to be expected +that such raw recruits (if the expression may +be allowed) should lay aside altogether prejudices +with which they were imbued from infancy.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">33</span></a> The remark of a late Professor of Divinity in the University of +Cambridge. 'The heathen temples,' says Professor Blunt, 'became +Christian churches; the altars of the gods altars of the saints; the +curtains, incense, tapers, and votive-tablets remained the same; the +<i>aquaminarium</i> was still the vessel for holy water; St. Peter stood at +the gate instead of Cardea; St. Rocque or St. Sebastian in the bedroom +instead of the Phrygian Penates; St. Nicholas was the sign of +the vessel instead of Castor and Pollux; the Mater Deûm became +the Madonna; alms pro Matre Deûm became alms for the Madonna; +the festival of the Mater Deûm the festival of the Madonna, or +<i>Lady Day</i>; the Hostia or victim was now the Host; the "Lugentes +Campi," or dismal regions, Purgatory; the offerings to the Manes +were masses for the dead.' The parallel, he ventures to assert, might +be drawn out to a far greater extent, &c.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">34</span></a> Conformably to this plan, the first proselytisers in Germany and +the North were often reduced (we are told) to substituting the name +of Christ and the saints for those of Odin and the gods in the +toasts drunk at their bacchanalian festivals.</p></div> + +<p>The extent of the credit and practice of witchcraft +under the Church triumphant is evident from +the numerous decrees and anathemas of the Church +in council, which, while oftener treating it as a dread +reality, has sometimes ventured to contemn or to +affect to contemn it as imposture and delusion. Both +the civil and ecclesiastical laws were exceptionally +severe towards <i>goetic</i> practices. 'In all those laws +of the Christian emperors,' says Bingham, 'which +granted indulgences to criminals at the Easter festival, +the <i>venefici</i> and the <i>malefici</i>, that is, magical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50" href="#Page_50">[50]</a></span> +practices against the lives of men, are always excepted +as guilty of too heinous a crime to be comprised +within the general pardon granted to other offenders.'<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">35</a> +In earlier ecclesiastical history, successive councils +or synods are much concerned in fulminating +against them. The council of Ancyra (314) prohibits +the art under the name of pharmacy: a few years' +penance being appointed for anyone receiving a +magician into his house. St. Basil's canons, more +severe, appoint thirty years as the necessary atonement. +Divination by lots or by consulting their +sacred scriptures, just as afterwards they consulted +Virgil, seems to have been a very favourite mode of +discovering the future. The clergy encouraged and +traded upon this kind of divination: in the Gallican +church it was notorious. 'Some reckon,' the pious +author of the 'Antiquities of the Christian Church' +informs us, 'St. Augustin's conversion owing to such +a sort of consultation; but the thought is a great +mistake, and very injurious to him, for his conversion +was owing to a providential call, like that of St. +Paul, from heaven.' And that eminent saint's confessions +are quoted to prove that his conversion from +the depths of vice and licentiousness to the austere +sobriety of his new faith, was indebted to a legitimate +use of the scriptures. St. Chrysostom upbraids his +cotemporaries for exposing the faith, by their illegitimate +inquiries, to the scorn of the heathen, many of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51" href="#Page_51">[51]</a></span> +whom where wiser than to hearken to any such fond +impostures.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">35</span></a> Bingham's <i>Origines Ecclesiasticæ</i>, xvi.</p></div> + +<p>St. Augustin complains that Satan's instruments, +professing the exercise of these arts, were used to 'set +the name of Christ before their ligatures, and enchantments, +and other devices, to seduce Christians +to take the venomous bait under the covert of a sweet +and honey potion, that the bitter might be hid +under the sweet, and make men drink it without discerning +to their destruction.' The heretics of the +primitive, as well as of the middle, ages were accused +of working miracles, and propagating their accursed +doctrines by magical or infernal art. Tertullian, +and after him Eusebius, denounce the arch-heretic +Simon Magus for performing his spurious miracles +in that way: and Irenæus had declared of the heretic +Marcus, that when he would consecrate the eucharist +in a cup of wine and water, by one of his juggling +tricks, he made it appear of a purple and red colour, +as if by a long prayer of invocation, that it might be +thought the grace from above distilled the blood +into the cup by his invocation. A correspondent of +Cyprian, the celebrated African bishop, describes a +woman who pretended 'to be inspired by the Holy +Ghost, but was really acted on by a diabolical spirit, +by which she counterfeited ecstasies, and pretended +to prophesy, and wrought many wonderful and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52" href="#Page_52">[52]</a></span> +strange things, and boasted she would cause the +earth to move. Not that the devil [he is cautious +to affirm] has so great a power either to move the +earth or shake the elements by his command; but +the wicked spirit, foreseeing and understanding that +there will be an earthquake, pretends to do that +which he foresees will shortly come to pass. And by +these lies and boastings, the devil subdued the minds +of many to obey and follow him whithersoever he +would lead them. And he made that woman walk +barefoot through the snow in the depth of winter, +and feel no trouble nor harm by running about in +that fashion. But at last, after having played many +such pranks, one of the exorcists of the Church discovered +her to be a cheat, and showed that to be a +wicked spirit which before was thought to be the +Holy Ghost.'<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">36</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">36</span></a> <i>Origines Ecclesiasticæ</i>, xvi. The exorcists were a recognised and +respectable order in the Church. See id. iii. for an account of the +<i>Energumenoi</i> or demoniacs. The lawyer Ulpian, in the time of +Tertullian, mentions the Order of Exorcists as well known. St. +Augustin (<i>De Civit. Dei</i>, xxii. 8) records some extraordinary cures +on his own testimony within his diocess of Hippo.</p></div> + +<p>Christian witchcraft was of a more tremendous +nature than even that of older times, both in its +origin and practice. The devils of Christianity were +the metamorphosed deities of the old religions. The +Christian convert was convinced, and the Fathers of +the Church gravely insisted upon the fact, that the +oracles of Delphi or Dodona had been inspired in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53" href="#Page_53">[53]</a></span> +times of ignorance and idolatry by the great Enemy, +who used the priest or priestess as the means of accomplishing +his eternal schemes of malice and mischief. +At the instant, however (so it was confidently +affirmed), of the divine incarnation the oracular temples +were closed for ever; and the demons were no +longer permitted to delude mankind by impersonating +pagan deities. They must now find some other +means of effecting their fixed purpose. It was not +far to seek. There were human beings who, by a +preeminently wicked disposition, or in hope of some +temporary profit, were prepared to risk their future +prospects, willing to devote both soul and body to +the service of hell. The 'Fathers' and great expounders +of Christianity, by their sentiments, their +writings, and their claims to the miraculous powers +of exorcising, greatly assisted to advance the common +opinions. Justin Martyr, Origen, Tertullian, +Jerome, were convinced that they were in perpetual +conflict with the disappointed demons of the old +world, who had inspired the oracles and usurped the +worship of the true God. Nor was the contest always +merely spiritual: they engaged personally and corporeally. +St. Jerome, like St. Dunstan in the tenth, +or Luther in the sixteenth century, had to fight with +an incarnate demon.</p> + +<p>Exorcism—the magical or miraculous ejection of +evil spirits by a solemn form of adjuration—was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54" href="#Page_54">[54]</a></span> +universal mode of asserting the superior authority of +the orthodox Church against the spurious pretensions +of heretics.<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">37</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">37</span></a> The art of expelling demons, indeed, has been preserved in the +Protestant section of the Christian Church until a recent age. The +<i>exorcising</i> power, it is remarkable, is the sole claim to miraculous +privilege of the Protestants. The formula <i>de Strumosis Attrectandis</i>, +or the form of touching for the king's evil (a similar claim), was one +of the recognised offices of the English Established Church in the +time of Queen Anne, or of George I.</p></div> + +<p>Christian theology in the first age even was considerably +indebted to the Platonic doctrines as taught +in the Alexandrian school; and demonology in the +third century received considerable accessions from the +speculations of Neo-Platonism, the reconciling medium +between Greek and Oriental philosophy. Philo-Judæus +(whose reconciling theories, displayed in his +attempt to prove the derivation of Greek religious +or philosophical ideas from those of Moses, have been +ingeniously imitated by a crowd of modern followers) +had been the first to undertake to adapt the Jewish +theology to Greek philosophy. Plotinus and Porphyrius, +the founders of the new school of Platonism, +introduced a large number of angels or demons to +the acquaintance of their Christian fellow-subjects in +the third century.<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">38</a> It has been remarked that 'such +was the mild spirit of antiquity that the nations were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55" href="#Page_55">[55]</a></span> +less attentive to the difference than to the resemblance +of their religious worship. The Greek, the +Roman, and the barbarian, as they met before their +respective altars, easily persuaded themselves that, +under various names and with various ceremonies, +they adored the same deities.'<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">39</a> Magianism and +Judaism, however, were little imbued with the spirit +of toleration; and the purer the form of religious +worship, the fiercer, too often, seems to be the persecution +of differing creeds. Christianity, with something +of the spirit of Judaism from which it sprung, +was forced to believe that the older religions must have +sprung from a diabolic origin. The whole pagan +world was inspired and dominated by wicked spirits. +'The pagans <i>deified</i>, the Christians <i>diabolised</i>, Nature.'<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">40</a> +It is in this fact that the entirely opposite +spirit of antique and mediæval thought, evident in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56" href="#Page_56">[56]</a></span> +the life, literature, in the common ideas of ancient and +mediæval Europe, is discoverable.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">38</span></a> 'The knowledge that is suited to our situation and powers, the +whole compass of moral, natural, and mathematical science, was neglected +by the new Platonists; whilst they exhausted their strength +in the verbal disputes of metaphysics, they attempted to explore the +secrets of the invisible world, and studied to reconcile Aristotle with +Plato on subjects of which both these philosophers were as ignorant +as the rest of mankind. Consuming their reason in those deep but unsubstantial +meditations, their minds were exposed to illusions of fancy. +They flattered themselves that they possessed the secret of disengaging +the soul from its corporeal prison; claimed a familiar intercourse +with demons and spirits; and by a very singular revolution, +converted the study of philosophy into that of magic.'—<i>The Decline +and Fall of the Roman Empire</i>, chap. xiii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">39</span></a> The Egyptians, almost the only exception to polytheistic tolerance, +seem to have been rendered intolerant by the number of antagonistic +animal-gods worshipped in different parts of the country, enumerated +by Juvenal, who describes the effects of religious animosity displayed +in a faction fight between Ombi or Coptos and Tentyra.—<i>Sat.</i> xv.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">40</span></a> <i>Life of Goethe</i>, by G. H. Lewes.</p></div> + +<p>The female sex has been always most concerned +in the crime of Christian witchcraft. What was the +cause of this general addiction, in the popular belief, +of that sex, it is interesting to inquire. In the East +now, and in Greece of the age of Simonides or +Euripides, or at least in the Ionic States, women are +an inferior order of beings, not only on account of +their weaker natural faculties and social position, +but also in respect of their natural inclination to every +sort of wickedness. And if they did not act the part +of a Christian witch, they were skilled in the practice +of toxicology. With the Latin race and many European +peoples, the female sex held a better position; +and it may appear inconsistent that in Christendom, +where the Goddess-Mother was almost the highest +object of veneration, woman should be degraded into +a slave of Satan. By the northern nations they were +supposed to be gifted with supernatural power; and the +universal powers of the Italian hag have been already +noticed. But the Church, which allowed no miracle +to be legitimate out of the pale, and yet could not +deny the fact of the miraculous without, was obliged +to assert it to be of diabolic origin. Thus the <i>priestess</i> +of antiquity became a <i>witch</i>. This is the historical +account. Physically, the cause seems discoverable in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57" href="#Page_57">[57]</a></span> +the fact that the natural constitution of women +renders their <i>imaginative</i> organs more excitable for +the ecstatic conditions of the prophetic or necromantic +arts. On all occasions of religious or other cerebral +excitement, women (it is a matter of experience) are +generally most easily reduced to the requisite state +for the expected supernatural visitation. Their hysterical +(<i>hystera</i>) natures are sufficiently indicative of +the origin of such hallucinations. Their magical or +pharmaceutical attributes might be derived from +savage life, where the men are almost exclusively +occupied either in war or in the chase: everything +unconnected with these active or necessary pursuits is +despised as unbecoming the superior nature of the +male sex. To the female portion of the community +are abandoned domestic employments, preparation +of food, the selection and mixture of medicinal +herbs, and all the mysteries of the medical art. +How important occupations like these, by ignorance +and interest, might be raised into something more +than natural skill, is easy to be conjectured. That +so extraordinary an attribute would often be abused +is agreeable to experience.<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">41</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">41</span></a> Quintilian declared, '<i>Latrocinium</i> facilius in viro, <i>veneficium</i> in +feminâ credam.' To the same effect is an observation of Pliny: +'Scientiam feminarum in <i>veneficiis</i> prævalere.'</p></div> + +<p>According to the earlier Christian writers, the +frailer sex is addicted to infernal practices by reason<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58" href="#Page_58">[58]</a></span> +of their innate wickedness: and in the opinion of the +'old Fathers' they are fitted by a corrupt disposition +to be the recipients and agents of the devil's will +upon earth. The authors of the <i>Witch-Hammer</i> have +supported their assertions of the proneness of women +to evil in general, and to sorcery in particular, by the +respectable names and authority of St. Chrysostom, +Augustin, Dionysius Areopagiticus, Hilary, &c. &c.<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">42</a> +The Golden-mouthed is adduced as especially hostile +in his judgment of the sex; and his 'Homily on Herodias' +takes its proper place with the satires of Aristophanes +and Juvenal, of Boccaccio and Boileau.<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">43</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">42</span></a> +</p><p class="footpoem"> +<span class="footpoem12">'They style a wife<br /></span> +The dear-bought curse and lawful plague of life,<br /> +A bosom-serpent and a domestic evil.'<br /> +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">43</span></a> The royal author of the <i>Demonologie</i> finds no difficulty in accounting +for the vastly larger proportion of the female sex devoted to +the devil's service. 'The reason is easy,' he declares; 'for as that sex +is frailer than man is, so is it easier to be entrapped in the gross +snares of the devil, as was over-well proved to be true by the serpent's +deceiving of Eva at the beginning, which makes him the homelier +with that sex sensine:' and it is profoundly observed that witches +cannot even shed tears, though women in general are, like the crocodile, +ready to weep on every light occasion.</p></div> + +<p>Reginald Scot gives the reasons alleged by the +apologists of witchcraft. 'This gift and natural +influence of fascination may be increased in man +according to his affections and perturbations, as +through anger, fear, love, hate, &c. For by hate, +saith Varius, entereth a fiery inflammation into the +eye of man, which being violently sent out by beams<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59" href="#Page_59">[59]</a></span> +and streams infect and bewitch those bodies against +whom they are opposed. And therefore (he saith) +that is the cause that women are oftener found to be +witches than men. For they have such an unbridled +force of fury and concupiscence naturally, that by +no means is it possible for them to temper or +moderate the same. So as upon every trifling +occasion they, like unto the beasts, fix their furious +eyes upon the party whom they bewitch.... +Women also (saith he) are oftenlie filled full of +superfluous humours, and with them the melancholike +blood boileth, whereof spring vapours, and are carried +up and conveyed through the nostrils and mouth, to +the bewitching of whatsoever it meeteth. For they +belch up a certain breath wherewith they bewitch +whomsoever they list. And of all other women +lean, hollow-eyed, old, beetle-browed women (saith +he) are the most infectious.'<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">44</a> Why <i>old</i> women are +selected as the most proper means of doing the +devil's will may be discovered in their peculiar +characteristics. The repulsive features, moroseness, +avarice, malice, garrulity of his hags are said to be +appropriate instruments. Scot informs us, 'One sort<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60" href="#Page_60">[60]</a></span> +of such as are said to be witches are women which be +commonly old, lame, blear-eyed, pale, foul, and full +of wrinkles, poor, sullen, superstitious, and <i>papists</i>, +or such as know no religion, in whose drowsy minds +the devil hath got a fine seat. They are lean and +deformed, showing melancholy in their faces, to the +horror of all that see them. They are doting, scolds, +mad, devilish ... neither obtaining for their +service and pains, nor yet by their art, nor yet at the +devil's hands, with whom they are said to make a +perfect visible bargain, either beauty, money, promotion, +wealth, worship, pleasure, honour, knowledge, +or any other benefit whatsoever.' As to the preternatural +gifts of these hags, he sensibly argues: 'Alas! +what an unapt instrument is a toothless, old, impotent, +unwieldy woman to fly in the air; truly, the +devil little needs such instruments to bring his +purposes to pass.'<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">45</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">44</span></a> <i>Discoverie of Witchcraft</i>, book xii. 21.—We shall have occasion +hereafter to notice this great opponent of the devil's regime in the +sixteenth century. We may be inclined to consider a more probable +reason—that spirits, being in the general belief (so Adam infers that +God had 'peopled highest heaven with spirits masculine') of the +masculine gender, the recipients of their inspiration are naturally of +the other sex: evil spirits could propagate their human or half-human +agents with least suspicion and in the most natural way.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">45</span></a> <i>Discoverie</i>, i. 3, 6.—Old women, however, may be negatively useful. +One of the writers on the subject (John Nider) recommends +them to young men since '<i>Vetularum aspectus et colloquia amorem +excutiunt</i>.'</p></div> + +<p>Dr. Glanvil, who wrote in the latter half of the +seventeenth century, and is bitterly opposed to the +'Witch-Advocate' and his followers, defends the +capabilities of hags and the like for serving the +demons. He conjectures, 'Peradventure 'tis one of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61" href="#Page_61">[61]</a></span> +the great designs, as 'tis certainly the interest, of those +wicked agents and machinators industriously to hide +from us their influences and ways of acting, and to +work as near as 'tis possible <i>incognito</i>; upon which +supposal it is easy to conceive a reason why they +most commonly work by and upon the weak and the +ignorant, who can make no cunning observations or +tell credible tales to detect their artifice.'<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">46</a> The act +of bewitching is defined to be 'a supernatural work +contrived between a corporal old woman and a +spiritual devil' ('Discoverie,' vi. 2). The method of +initiation is, according to a writer on the subject, as +follows: A decrepit, superannuated, old woman is +tempted by a man in black to sign a contract to +become his, both soul and body. On the conclusion +of the agreement (about which there was much +cheating and haggling), he gives her a piece of +money, and causes her to write her name and make +her mark on a slip of parchment with her own blood. +Sometimes on this occasion also the witch uses the +ceremony of putting one hand to the sole of her foot +and the other to the crown of her head. On departing +he delivers to her an imp or familiar. The +familiar, in shape of a cat, a mole, miller-fly, or some +other insect or animal, at stated times of the day +sucks her blood through teats in different parts of +her body.<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">47</a> If, however, the proper vulgar witch is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62" href="#Page_62">[62]</a></span> +an old woman, the younger and fairer of the sex were +not by any means exempt from the crime. Young +and beautiful women, children of tender years, have +been committed to the rack and to the stake on the +same accusation which condemned the old and the +ugly.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">46</span></a> <i>Sadducismus Triumphatus</i>, part i. sect. 8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">47</span></a> <i>Grose's Antiquities</i>, in Brand's <i>Popular Antiquities of Great +Britain</i>.</p></div> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63" href="#Page_63">[63]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Charlemagne's Severity—Anglo-Saxon Superstition—Norman +and Arabic Magic—Influence of Arabic Science—Mohammedan +Belief in Magic—Rabbinical Learning—Roger Bacon—The +Persecution of the Templars—Alice Kyteler.</p></div> + +<p><span class="chap">Tremendous</span> as was the power of the witch in earlier +Christendom, it was not yet degraded into the +thoroughly diabolistic character of her more recent +successors. Diabolism advanced in the same proportion +with the authority of the Church and the +ignorant submission of the people. In the civil law, +the Emperor Leo, in the sixth century, abrogated the +Constantinian edict as too indulgent or too credulous: +from that time all sorts of charms, all use of them, +beneficial or injurious, were declared worthy of +punishment. The different states of Europe, founded +on the ruins of the Western Empire, more or less +were engaged in providing against the evil consequences +of sorcery. Charlemagne pursued the +criminals with great severity. He 'had several times +given orders that all necromancers, astrologers, and +witches should be driven from his states; but as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64" href="#Page_64">[64]</a></span> +number of criminals augmented daily, he found it +necessary at last to resort to severer measures. In +consequence, he published several edicts, which may +be found at length in the "Capitulaire de Baluse." +By these every sort of magic, enchantment, and +witchcraft was forbidden, and the punishment of +death decreed against those who in any way evoked +the devil, compounded love-philters, afflicted either +man or woman with barrenness, troubled the atmosphere, +excited tempests, destroyed the fruits of the +earth, dried up the milk of cows, or tormented their +fellow-creatures with sores and diseases. All persons +found guilty of exercising these execrable arts were +to be executed immediately upon conviction, that the +earth might be rid of the curse and burden of their +presence; and those who consulted them might also +be punished with death.'<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">48</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">48</span></a> M. Garinet's <i>Histoire de la Magic en France</i>, quoted in <i>Memoirs +of Extraordinary Popular Delusions</i>.</p></div> + +<p>The Saxons, in the fifth century, imported into +Britain the pagan forms of the Fatherland; and the +Anglo-Saxon (Christian) laws are usually directed +against practices connected with heathen worship, of +which many reminiscences were long preserved. +Their Hexe, or witch,<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">49</a> appears to be half-divine, +half-diabolic, a witch-priestess who derived her inspiration<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65" href="#Page_65">[65]</a></span> +as much from heavenly as from hellish +sources; from some divinity or genius presiding at a +sacred grove or fountain. King Athelstan is said +to have made a law against witchcraft and similar +acts which inflict death; that if one by them be made +away, and the thing cannot be denied, such practicers +shall be put to death; but if they endeavour to purge +themselves, and be cast by the threefold ordeal, they +shall be in prison 120 days; which ended, their +kindred may redeem them by the payment [in the +universal style of the English penalties] of 120 +shillings to the king, and further pay to the kindred +of the slain the full valuation of the party's head; +and then the criminals shall also procure sureties for +good behaviour for the time to come; and the +Danish prince Knut denounces by an express doom +the noxious acts of sorcery.<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">50</a> Some of the witches +who appear under Saxon domination are almost as +ferocious as those of the time of Bodin or of James; +cutting up the bodies of the dead, especially of +children, devouring their heart and liver in midnight +revels. Fearful are the deeds of Saxon sorcery as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66" href="#Page_66">[66]</a></span> +related by the old Norman or Anglo-Norman writers. +Roger of Wendover ('Flowers of History') records the +terrible fate of a hag who lived in the village of +Berkely, in the ninth century. The devil at the +appointed hour (as in the case of Faust) punctually +carries off the soul of his slave, in spite of the utmost +watch and ward. These scenes are, perhaps, rather +Norman than Saxon. It was a favourite belief of +the ancients and mediævalists that the inhospitable +regions of the remoter North were the abode of +demons who held in those suitable localities their +infernal revels, exciting storms and tempests: and +the monk-chronicler Bede relates the northern parts +of Britain were thus infested.<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">51</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">49</span></a> The Saxon 'witch' is derived, apparently, from the verb 'to +weet,' to know, <i>be wise</i>. The Latin 'saga' is similarly derived—'Sagire, +sentire acute est: ex quo <i>sagæ</i> anus, quia malta <i>scire</i> +volunt.'—Cicero, <i>de Divinatione</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">50</span></a> A curious collection of old English superstitions in these and their +allied forms, as exhibited in various documents, appears in a recent +work of authority, entitled 'Leechdoms, Wort-Cunning, and Starcraft +of Early England. Published by the authority of the Lords +Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, under the direction of +the Master of the Rolls.' Diseases of all sorts are for the most part +inflicted upon mankind by evil demons, through the agency of spells +and incantations.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">51</span></a> Strutt derives the 'long-continued custom of swimming people +suspected of witchcraft' from the Anglo-Saxon mode of judicial trial—the +ordeal by water. Another 'method of proving a witch,' by +weighing against the Church Bible (a formidable balance), is traced +to some of their ancient customs. James VI. (<i>Demonologie</i>) is convinced +that 'God hath appointed, for a supernatural sign of the +monstrous impiety of witches, that the water shall refuse to receive +them in her bosom that have shaken off them the sacred water of +baptism and wilfully refused the benefit thereof.'</p></div> + +<p>From Scandinavia the Normans must have brought +a conviction of the truths of magic; and although +they had been long settled, before the conquest of +England, in Northern France and in Christianity, the +traditional glories of the land from which were de<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67" href="#Page_67">[67]</a></span>rived +their name and renown could not be easily +forgotten. Not long after the Conquest the Arabic +learning of Spain made its way into this country, and +it is possible that Christian magic, as well as science, +may have been influenced by it. Magic, scientifically +treated, flourished in Arabic Spain, being extensively +cultivated, in connection with more real or practical +learning, by the polite and scientific Arabs. The +schools of Salamanca, Toledo, and other Saracenic +cities were famous throughout Europe for eminence +in medicine, chymistry, astronomy, and mathematics. +Thither resorted the learned of the North to perfect +themselves in the then cultivated branches of knowledge. +The vast amount of scientific literature of the +Moslems of Spain, evidenced in their public libraries, +relieves Southern Europe, in part at least, from the +stigma of a universal barbaric illiteracy.<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">52</a> Several +volumes of Arabian philosophy are said to have been +introduced to Northern Europe in the twelfth century; +and it was in the school of Toledo that Gerbert—a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68" href="#Page_68">[68]</a></span> +conspicuous name in the annals of magic—acquired +his preternatural knowledge.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">52</span></a> The royal library of the Fatimites consisted of 100,000 manuscripts, +elegantly transcribed and splendidly bound, which were lent, +without avarice or jealousy, to the students of Cairo. Yet this collection +must appear moderate if we believe that the Ommiades of +Spain had formed a library of 600,000 volumes, 44 of which were +employed in the mere catalogue. Their capital, Cordova, with the +adjacent towns of Malaga, Almeira, and Murcia, had given birth to +more than 300 writers; and above 70 public libraries were opened in +the cities of the Andalusian kingdom.—<i>Decline and Fall of the Roman +Empire</i>, lii.</p></div> + +<p>The few in any way acquainted with Greek literature +were indebted to the Latin translations of the +Arabs; while the Jewish rabbinical learning, whose +more useful lore was encumbered with much mystical +nonsense, enjoyed considerable reputation at this +period. The most distinguished of the rabbis taught +in the schools in London, York, Lincoln, Oxford, and +Cambridge; and Christendom has to confess its obligations +for its first acquaintance with science to the +enemies of the Cross.<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">53</a> The later Jewish authorities +had largely developed the demonology of the subjects +of Persia; and the spiritual or demoniacal creations +of the rabbinical works of the Middle Ages might be +readily acceptable, if not coincident, to Christian +faith. But the Western Europeans, before the philosophy +of the Spanish Arabs was known, had come +in contact with the Saracens and Turks of the East +during frequent pilgrimages to the tomb of Christ; and +the fanatical crusades of the eleventh and twelfth centuries +facilitated and secured the hazardous journey. +Mohammedans of the present day preserve the implicit +faith of their ancestors in the efficacy of the +113th chapter of the Koran against evil spirits, the +spells of witches and sorcerers—a chapter said to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69" href="#Page_69">[69]</a></span> +have been revealed to the Prophet of Islam on the +occasion of his having been bewitched by the +daughters of a Jew. The Genii or Ginn—a Preadamite +race occupying an intermediate position between +angels and men, who assume at pleasure the form of +men, of the lower animals, or any monstrous shape, +and propagate their species like, and sometimes with, +human kind—appear in imposing proportions in +'The Thousand and One Nights'—that rich display +of the fancy of the Oriental imagination.<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">54</a> Credulous +and confused in critical perception, the crusading +adventurers for religion or rapine could scarcely fail +to confound with their own the peculiar tenets of an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70" href="#Page_70">[70]</a></span> +ill-understood mode of thought; and that the critical +and discriminating faculties of the champions of the +Cross were not of the highest order, is illustrated by +their difficulty in distinguishing the eminently unitarian +religion of Mohammed from paganism. By a +strange perversion the Anglo-Norman and French +chroniclers term the Moslems <i>Pagans</i>, while the +Saxon heathen are dignified by the title of <i>Saracens</i>; +and the names of Mahmoud, Termagaunt, Apollo, +could be confounded without any sense of impropriety. +However, or in whatever degree, Saracenic +or rabbinical superstition tended to influence Christian +demonology, from about the end of the thirteenth +century a considerable development in the mythology +of witchcraft is perceptible.<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">55</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">53</span></a> Chymistry and Algebra still attest our obligation by their Arabic +etymology.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">54</span></a> A common tradition is that Soliman, king of the Jews, having +finally subdued—a success which he owed chiefly to his vast magical +resources—the rebellious spirits, punished their disobedience by incarcerating +them in various kinds of prisons, for longer or shorter +periods of time, in proportion to their demerits. For the belief of +the followers of Mohammed in the magic excellence of Solomon, see +Sale's <i>Koran</i>, xxi. and xxvii. According to the prophet, the devil +taught men magic and sorcery. The magic of the Moslems, or, at +least, of the Egyptians, is of two kinds—high and low—which are +termed respectively <i>rahmanee</i> (divine) and <i>sheytanee</i> (Satanic). By +a perfect knowledge of the former it is possible to the adept to 'raise +the dead to life, kill the living, transport himself instantly wherever +he pleases, and perform any other miracle. The <i>low</i> magic (<i>sooflee</i> +or <i>sheytanee</i>) is believed to depend on the agency of the devil and +evil spirits, and unbelieving genii, and to be used for bad purposes +and by bad men.' The <i>divine</i> is 'founded on the agency of God +and of His angels, &c., and employed always for good purposes, and +only to be practised by men of probity, who, by tradition or from +books, learn the names of those superhuman agents, &c.'—Lane's +<i>Modern Egyptians</i>, chap. xii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">55</span></a> Its effect was probably to enlarge more than to modify appreciably +the current ideas. A large proportion of the importations from +the East may have been indebted to the invention, as much as to the +credulity, of the adventurers; and we might be disposed to believe +with Hume, that 'men returning from so great a distance used the +liberty [a too general one] of imposing every fiction upon their believing +audience.'</p></div> + +<p>Conspicuous in the vulgar prejudices is the suspicion +attaching to the extraordinary discoveries of +philosophy and science. Diabolic inspiration (as in +our age infidelity and atheism are popular outcries) +was a ready and successful accusation against ideas +or discoveries in advance of the time. Roger Bacon,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71" href="#Page_71">[71]</a></span> +Robert Grostête, Albert the Great, Thomas of Ercildoun, +Michael Scot—eminent names—were all more +or less objects of a persecuting suspicion. Bacon +may justly be considered the greatest name in the +philosophy of the Middle Age. That anomaly of +mediævalism was one of the few who could neglect +a vain and senseless theology and system of metaphysics +to apply his genius to the solid pursuits of +truer philosophy; and if his influence has not been +so great as it might have been, it is the fault of the +age rather than of the man. Condemned by the fear +or jealousy of his Franciscan brethren and Dominican +rivals, Bacon was thrown into prison, where he was +excluded from propagating 'certain suspected novelties' +during fourteen years, a victim of his more +liberal opinions and of theological hatred. One of +the traditions of his diabolical compacts gives him +credit at least for ingenuity in avoiding at once a +troublesome bargain and a terrible fate. The philosopher's +compact stipulated that after death his soul +was to be the reward and possession of the devil, +whether he died within the church's sacred walls or +without them. Finding his end approaching, that +sagacious magician caused a cell to be constructed in +the walls of the consecrated edifice, giving directions, +which were properly carried out, for his burial in a +tomb that was thus neither within nor without the +church—an evasion of a long-expected event, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72" href="#Page_72">[72]</a></span> +lost the disappointed devil his prize, and probably +his temper. 'Friar Bacon' became afterwards a +well-known character in the vulgar fables: he was +the type of the mediæval, as the poet Virgil was of +the ancient, magician. A popular drama was founded +on his reputed exploits and character in the sixteenth +century, by Robert Greene, in 'Friar Bacon and Friar +Bungay;' but the famous Dr. Faustus, the most +popular magic hero of that time on the stage, was a +formidable rival. While his cotemporaries denounced +his rational method, preferring their theological +jargon and scholastic metaphysics; how much the +Aristotle of mediævalism has been neglected even +latterly is a surprising fact.<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">56</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">56</span></a> The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge have not exhibited +the same impatience for a worthy edition of the works of Bacon with +which Clement IV. expected a copy of the <i>Opus Majus</i>. His principal +writings remained in MS. and were not published to the world +until the middle of last century.</p></div> + +<p>But in proof of the prevalence of the popular suspicion, +not even the all-powerful spiritual Chief of +Christendom was spared. Many of the pontiffs were +charged with being addicted to the 'Black Art'—an +odd imputation against the vicars of Christ and the +successors of St. Peter. A charge, however, which +we may be disposed to receive as evidence that in a +long and disgusting list of ambitious priests and +licentious despots there have been some popes who, +by cultivating philosophy, may have in some sort<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73" href="#Page_73">[73]</a></span> +partially redeemed the hateful character of Christian +sacerdotalism. At a council held at Paris in the +interest of Philip IV., Boniface VIII. was publicly +accused of sorcery: it was affirmed that 'he had a +familiar demon [the Socratic Genius?]; for he has +said that if all mankind were on one side and he +alone on the other, he could not be mistaken either +in point of fact or of right, which presupposes a +diabolical art'—a dogma of sacerdotalism sufficiently +confident, but scarcely requiring a miraculous solution. +This pope's death, it is said, was hastened by +these and similar reports of his dealings with familiar +spirits, invented in the interest of the French king +to justify his hostility. Boniface VIII.'s esoteric +opinions on Catholicism and Christianity, if correctly +reported, did not show the orthodoxy to be expected +from the supreme pontiff: but he would not be a +singular example amongst the numerous occupants +of the chair of St. Peter.<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">57</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">57</span></a> Leo X. (whose tastes were rather profane than pious) instructed +or amused himself by causing to be discussed the question of the +nature of the soul—himself adopting the opinion 'redit in nihilum +quod fuit ante nihil,' and the decision of Aristotle and of Epicurus.</p></div> + +<p>John XXII., one of his more immediate successors, +is said to be the pope who first formally condemned +the crime of witchcraft, more systematically anathematised +some hundred and fifty years afterwards by +Innocent VIII. He complains of the universal in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74" href="#Page_74">[74]</a></span>fection +of Christendom: that his own court even, +and immediate attendants, were attached to the +devil's service, applying to him on all occasions for +help. The earliest judicial trial for the crime on +record in England is said to have occurred in the +reign of John. It is briefly stated in the 'Abbreviatio +Placitorum' that 'Agnes, the wife of Odo the merchant, +accused Gideon of sorcery; and he was +acquitted by the judgment of iron.' The first account +of which much information is given occurs in +Edward II.'s reign, when the lives of the royal favourites, +the De Spencers, and his own, were attempted +by a supposed criminal, one John of Nottingham, +with the assistance of his man, Robert Marshall, who +became king's evidence, and charged his master with +having conspired the king's death by the arts of +sorcery.<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">58</a> Cupidity or malice was the cause of this +informer's accusation. One of the distinguishing +characteristics in its annals was the abuse of the +common prejudice for political purposes, or for the +gratification of private passion.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">58</span></a> <i>Narratives of Sorcery and Magic</i>, by Thomas Wright.</p></div> + +<p>At the commencement of the fourteenth century +the persecution and final destruction of the Order of +the Knights Templars in the different countries of +Europe, but chiefly in France (an instance of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75" href="#Page_75">[75]</a></span> +former abuse), is one of the most atrocious facts in +the history of those times. The fate of the Knights +of the Temple (whose original office it had been to +protect their coreligionists during pilgrimages in the +Holy City, and whose quarters were near the site of +the Temple—whence the title of the Order) in +France was determined by the jealousy or avarice of +Philip IV. Founded in the first half of the twelfth +century as a half-religious, half-military institution, +that celebrated Order was, in its earlier career, in +high repute for valour and success in fighting the +battles of the Cross. With wealth and fame, pride +and presumption increased to the highest pitch; and +at the end of 150 years the champions of Christendom +were equally hated and feared. Their entire +number was no more than 1,500; but they were all +experienced warriors, in possession of a number of +important fortresses, besides landed property to the +amount, throughout their whole extent, of nine +thousand manorial estates. When the Holy Land +was hopelessly lost to the profane ambition or religious +zeal of the West, its defenders returned to +their homes loaded with riches and prestige if not +with unstained honour, and without insinuations that +they had betrayed the cause of Christ and the Crusades. +Such was the condition of the Temple when +Philip, after exhausting the coffers of Jews and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76" href="#Page_76">[76]</a></span> +Christians, found his treasury still unfilled. The +opportunity was not to be neglected: it remained +only to secure the consent of the Church, and to +provoke the ready credulity of the people. Church +and State united, supported by the popular superstition, +were irresistible; and the destined victims +expected their impending fate in silent terror. At +length the signal was given. Prosecutions in 1307 +were carried on simultaneously throughout the provinces; +but in French territory they assumed the +most formidable shape. In many places they were +acquitted of the gravest indictments: the English +king, from a feeling of justice or jealousy, expressed +himself in their favour. As for Spain, 'it was not in +presence of the Moors, and on the classic ground of +Crusade, that the thought could be entertained of +proscribing the old defenders of Christendom.' Paris, +where was their principal temple, was the centre of +the Order; their wealth and power were concentrated +in France; and thus the spoils not of a single province, +but almost of the entire body, were within the +grasp of a single monarch. Hence he assumed the +right of presiding as judge and executioner.<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">59</a> On +October 12, 1307, Jacques Molay, with the heads<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77" href="#Page_77">[77]</a></span> +of the Temple, was invited to Paris, where, loaded +with favours, they were lulled into fatal security. +The delusion was soon abruptly dispelled. Molay, +together with 140 of his brethren, was arrested—the +signal for a more general procedure throughout the +kingdom.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">59</span></a> Dante seems to refer to this recent spoliation in the following +verses:— +</p> +<p class="footpoem">'Lo! the new Pilate, of whose cruelty<br /> +Such violence cannot fill the measure up,<br /> +With no decree to sanction, pushes on<br /> +Into the Temple his yet eager sails.'<br /> +</p><p class="cite3"> +<i>Purgat.</i> xx. Cary's Transl.</p></div> + +<p>The charges have been resolved under three heads: +(1) The denial of Christ. (2) Treachery to the +cause of Christianity. (3) The worship of the devil, +and the practice of sorcery. The principal articles in +the indictment were that the knights at initiation +formally denied the divinity of Christ, pronouncing +he was not truly a God—even going so far as to +assert he was a false prophet, a man who had been +punished for his crimes; that they had no hopes of +salvation through him; that at the final reception +they always spat on the Cross, trampling it under +foot; that they worshipped the devil in the form of a +cat, or some other familiar animal; that they adored +him in the figure of an idol consecrated by anointing +it with the fat of a new-born infant, the illegitimate +offspring of a brother; that a demon appeared in the +shape of a black or gray cat, &c. The idol is a +mysterious object. According to some it was a head +with a beard, or a head with three faces: by others +it was said to be a skull, a cat. One witness testified +that in a chapter of the Order one brother said to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78" href="#Page_78">[78]</a></span> +another, 'Worship this head; it is your God and +your Mahomet.' Of this kind was the general evidence +of the witnesses examined. Less incredible, +perhaps, is the statement that they sometimes saw +demons in the appearance of women; and a more +credible allegation is that of a secret understanding +with the Turks.</p> + +<p>Notoriously suspicious communication had been +maintained with the enemy; they even went so far +as to adopt their style of dress and living. Worse +than all, by an amiable but unaccustomed tolerance, +the followers of Mohammed had been allowed a free +exercise of their religion, a sort of liberality little +short of apostasy from the faith. Without recounting +all the horrors of the persecution, it must be +sufficient to repeat that fifty-four of the wretched +condemned, having been degraded by the Bishop of +Paris, were handed over to the flames. Four years +afterwards the scene was consummated by the burning +of Jacques Molay. Torture of the most dreadful +sort had been applied to force necessary confessions; +and the complaint of one of the criminals is significant—'I, +single, as I am, cannot undertake to argue +with the Pope and the King of France.'<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">60</a> In attempting +to detect the mysterious facts of this dark<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79" href="#Page_79">[79]</a></span> +transaction little assistance is given by the contradictory +statements of cotemporary or later writers; +some asserting the charges to be mere fabrications +throughout; others their positive reality; and recent +historians have attempted to substantiate or +destroy them. Hallam truly remarks that the rapacious +and unprincipled conduct of Philip, the +submission of Clement V. to his will, the apparent +incredibility of the charges from their monstrousness, +the just prejudice against confessions obtained by +torture and retracted afterwards; the other prejudice, +not always so just, but in the case of those not convicted +on fair evidence deserving a better name, in +favour of assertions of innocence made on the scaffold +and at the stake, created, as they still preserve, a +strong willingness to disbelieve the accusations which +come so suspiciously before us.<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">61</a> An approximation +to the truth may be obtained if, rejecting as improbable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80" href="#Page_80">[80]</a></span> +the accusations of devil-worship and its concomitant +rites which, invented to amuse the vulgar, +characterise the proceedings, we admit the <i>probability</i> +of a secret understanding with the Turks, or +the <i>possibility</i> of infidelity to the religion of Christ. +Their destruction had been predetermined; the +slender element of truth might soon be exaggerated +and confounded with every kind of fiction. Their +pride, avarice, luxury, corrupt morals, would give +colour to the most absurd inventions.<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">62</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">60</span></a> Michelet's <i>History of France</i>, book v. 4. M. Michelet suggests +an ingenious explanation of some of their supposed secret practices. +'The principal charge, the denial of the Saviour, rested on an equivocation. +The Templars might confess to the denial without being +in reality apostates. Many averred that it was a symbolical denial, +in imitation of St. Peter's—one of those pious comedies in which the +antique Church enveloped the most serious acts of religion, but +whose traditional meaning was beginning to be lost in the fourteenth +century.' The idol-head, believed to represent Mohammed or the devil, +he supposes to have been 'a representation of the Paraclete, whose +festival, that of Pentecost, was the highest solemnity of the Temple.' +Some have identified them, like those of the Albigenses or Waldenses, +with the ceremonies of the Gnostics.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">61</span></a> <i>View of the Middle Ages</i>, chap. i. The judicial impartiality +(eulogised by Macaulay) and patient investigation of truth (the first +merits of a historian) of the author of the <i>Constitutional History of +England</i>, might almost entitle him to rank with the first of historians, +Gibbon.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">62</span></a> The alliance of the Church—of the Dominican Order in particular—with +the secular power against its once foremost champions, is +paralleled and explained by the causes that led to the dissolution of +the Order of Jesus by Clement XIV. in the eighteenth century—fear +and jealousy.</p></div> + +<p>If the history of the extermination of the Templars +exemplifies in an eminent manner the political uses +made by the highest in office of a prevalent superstition, +the story of Alice Kyteler illustrates equally +the manner in which it was prostituted to the private +purposes of designing impostors. The scene is in +Ireland, the period the first half of the fourteenth +century; Richard de Ledrede, Bishop of Ossory, being +the principal prosecutor, and a lady, Alice Kyteler, +the defendant. The details are too tedious to be repeated +here;<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">63</a> but the articles upon which the conviction +of Alice Kyteler and her accomplices was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81" href="#Page_81">[81]</a></span> +sought are not dissimilar to those just narrated. To +give effect to their sorcery they were in the habit of +denying the faith for a year, or shorter period, as the +object to be attained was greater or less. Demons +were propitiated with sacrifices of living animals, +torn limb by limb and scattered (a Hecatean feast) +about cross-roads. It was alleged that by sorceries +they obtained help from the devil; that they impiously +used the ceremonies of the Church in nightly +conventicles, pronouncing with lighted candles of +wax excommunication against the persons of their own +husbands, naming expressly every member from the +sole of the foot to the top of the head. Their compositions +are of the Horatian and Shakspearian sort.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82" href="#Page_82">[82]</a></span> +With the intestines of cocks were sacrificed various +herbs, the nails of dead men, hair, brains, and +clothes of children dying unbaptized, with other +equally efficacious ingredients, boiled in the skull of +a certain famous robber recently beheaded: powders, +ointments, and candles of fat boiled in the same +skull were the intended instruments for exciting +love or hatred, and in affecting the bodies of the +faithful. An unholy connection existed between +the Lady Alice and a demon in the form sometimes +of a black dog, sometimes of a cat. She was possessed +of a secret ointment for impregnating a piece +of wood, upon which, with her companions, she was +carried to any part of the world without hurt or hindrance: +in her house was found a wafer of consecrated +bread inscribed with the name of the devil. +The event of this trial was the conviction and imprisonment +of the criminals, with the important +exception of the chief object of the bishop's persecution, +who contrived an escape to England. Petronilla +de Meath was the first to suffer the extreme penalty. +This lady, by order of the bishop, had been six times +flogged, when, to escape a repetition of that barbarous +infliction, she made a public confession involving +her fellow-prisoners. After which Petronilla was +carried out into the city and burned before all the +people—the first witch, it is said, ever burned in +Ireland. Of the other accused all were treated with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83" href="#Page_83">[83]</a></span> +more or less severity; two were subsequently burned, +some were publicly flogged in the market-place and +through the city, others banished; a few, more fortunate, +escaping altogether.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">63</span></a> They are given in full in <i>Narratives of Sorcery and Magic from +the most Authentic Sources</i>, by Thomas Wright. In the <i>Annals of +Ireland</i>, affixed to Camden's <i>Britannia</i>, ed. 1695, sub anno 1325 +<span class="smcap">a.d.</span>, the case of Dame Alice Ketyll is briefly chronicled. Being +cited and examined by the Bishop of Ossory, it was discovered, among +other things, 'That a certain spirit called Robin Artysson lay with +her; and that she offered him nine red cocks on a stone bridge where +the highway branches out into four several parts. <i>Item</i>: That she +swept the streets of Kilkenny with besoms between Compline and +Courefeu, and in sweeping the filth towards the house of William +Utlaw, her son, by way of conjuring, wished that all the wealth of +Kilkenny might flow thither. The accomplices of this Alice in these +devilish practices were Pernil of Meth, and Basilia the daughter of +this Pernil. Alice, being found guilty, was fined by the bishop, and +forced to abjure her sorcery and witchcraft. But being again convicted +of the same practice, she made her escape with Basilia, and +was never found. But Pernil was burnt at Kilkenny, and before her +death declared that William above-said deserved punishment as well +as she—that for a year and a day he wore the devil's girdle about +his bare body,' &c.</p></div> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84" href="#Page_84">[84]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Witchcraft and Heresy purposely confounded by the Church—Mediæval +Science closely connected with Magic and Sorcery—Ignorance +of Physiology the Cause of many of the Popular +Prejudices—Jeanne d'Arc—Duchess of Gloucester—Jane Shore—Persecution +at Arras.</p></div> + +<p><span class="chap">What</span> can hardly fail to be discerned in these prosecutions +is the confusion of heresy and sorcery industriously +created by the orthodox Church to secure +the punishment of her offending dissentients. There +are few proceedings against the pretended criminals +in which it is not discoverable; the one crime being, +as a matter of course, the necessary consequence of +the other. In the interest of the Church as much +as in the credulity of the people must be sought +the main cause of so violent an epidemic, of so fearful +a phenomenon in its continuance and atrocities, a +fact demonstrated by the whole course of the superstition +in the old times of Catholicism. Materials for +exciting animosity and indignation against suspected +heretics were near at hand. In the assurance of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85" href="#Page_85">[85]</a></span> +pre-scientific world everything remote from ordinary +knowledge or experience was inseparable from +supernaturalism. What surpassed the limits of a +very feeble understanding, what was beyond the +commonest experience of every-day life, was with +one accord relegated to the domain of the supernatural, +or rather to that of the devil. For what +was not done or taught by Holy Church must be of +'that wicked One'—the cunning imitator.</p> + +<p>In the twelfth century the Church was alarmed by +the simultaneous springing up of various sects, which, +if too hastily claimed by Protestantism as <i>Protestants</i>, +in the modern sense, against Catholic theology, were +yet sufficiently hostile or dangerous to engage the +attention and to provoke the enmity of the pontiffs. +The fate of the Stedingers and others in Germany, +of the Paulicians in Northern France; of the Albigenses +and Waldenses in Southern Europe, is in +accordance with this successful sort of theological +tactics. Many of the articles of indictment against +those outlaws of the Church and of society are extracted +from the primitive heresies, in particular from +the doctrines of the anti-Judaic and <i>spiritualising</i> +Gnostics, and their more than fifty subdivided sects—Marcionites, +Manicheans, &c. Gregory IV. issued +a bull in 1232 against the Stedingers, revolted from +the rule of the Archbishop of Bremen, where they are +declared to be accustomed to scorn the sacraments,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86" href="#Page_86">[86]</a></span> +hold communion with devils, make representative +images of wax, and consult with witches.<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">64</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">64</span></a> A second bull enters into details. On the reception of a convert, +a toad made its appearance, which was adored by the assembled +crowd. On sitting down to the banquet a black cat comes upon the +stage, double the size of an ordinary dog, advancing backwards with +up-turned tail. The neophytes, one after another, kissed this feline +demon, with due solemnity, on the back. Walter Mapes has given +an account of the similar ceremonies of the <i>Publicans</i> (Paulicians). +Heretical worship was of a most licentious as well as disgusting +kind. The religious meetings terminate always in indiscriminate +debauchery.</p></div> + +<p>Alchymy, astrology, and kindred arts were closely +allied to the practice of witchcraft: the profession of +medicine was little better than the mixing of magical +ointments, love-potions, elixirs, not always of an innocent +sort; and Sangrados were not wanting in those +days to trade upon the ignorance of their patients.<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">65</a> +Nor, unfortunately, are the genuine seekers after truth +who honestly applied to the study of nature exempt +from the charge of often an unconscious fraud. +Monstrous notions mingled with the more real results +of their meritorious labours. Science was in its infancy, +or rather was still struggling to be freed from +the oppressive weight of speculative and theological +nonsense before emerging into existence. Many of +the fancied phenomena of witch-cases, like other +physical or mental eccentricities, have been explained<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87" href="#Page_87">[87]</a></span> +by the progress of reason and knowledge. Lycanthropy +(the transformation of human beings into +wolves by sorcery), with the no less irrational belief +in demoniacal possession, the product of a diseased +imagination and brain, was one of the many results +of mere ignorance of physiology. In the seventeenth +century lycanthropy was gravely defended by doctors +of medicine as well as of divinity, on the authority of +the story of Nebuchadnezzar, which proved undeniably +the possibility of such metamorphoses.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">65</span></a> Pliny (<i>Hist. Natur.</i> xxx.) 'observes,' as Gibbon quotes him, 'that +magic held mankind by the triple chain of religion, of physic, and of +astronomy.'</p></div> + +<p>Cotemporary annalists record the extraordinary +frenzy aggravated, as it was, by the proceedings +against the Templars, the signal of witch persecutions +throughout France. The historian of France draws +a frightful picture of the insecure condition of an +ignorantly prejudiced society. Accusations poured +in; poisonings, adulteries, forgeries, and, above all, +charges of witchcraft, which, indeed, entered as an ingredient +into all causes, forming their attraction and +their horror. The judge shuddered on the judgment +seat when the proofs were brought before him in the +shape of philtres, amulets, frogs, black cats, and waxen +images stuck full of needles. Violent curiosity was +blended at these trials with the fierce joy of vengeance +and a cast of fear. The public mind could not be +satiated with them: the more there were burnt, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88" href="#Page_88">[88]</a></span> +more there were brought to be burnt.<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">66</a> In 1398 the +Sorbonne, at the chancellor's suggestion, published 27 +articles against all sorts of sorcery, pictures of demons, +and waxen figures. Six years later a synod was +specially convened at Langres, and the pressing evil +was anxiously deliberated at the Council of Constance.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">66</span></a> Michelet, whose poetic-prose may appear hardly suitable to the +philosophic dignity of history, relating the fate of two knights accused +with a monk of having 'sinned' with the king's daughter-in-law +'even on the holiest days,' and who were castrated and flayed alive, +truly enough infers that 'the pious confidence of the middle age which +did not mistrust the immuring of a great lady along with her knights +in the precincts of a castle, of a narrow tower; the vassalage which +imposed on young men as a feudal duty the sweetest cares, was a +dangerous trial to human nature.'</p></div> + +<p>Conspicuous about this period, by their importance +and iniquity, are the cases of the Pucelle d'Orléans +and the catastrophe of Arras. Incited (it is a modern +conviction) by a noble enthusiasm, by her own ardent +imagination, the Pucelle divested herself of the +natural modesty of her sex for the dress and arms of +a warrior; and 'her inexperienced mind, working +day and night on the favourite object, mistook the +impulses of passion for heavenly inspiration.' Reviewing +the last scenes in the life of that patriotic +shepherdess, we hesitate whether to stigmatise more +the unscrupulous policy of the English authorities or +the base subservience of the Parliament of Paris. +The English Regent and the Cardinal of Winchester, +unable to allege against their prisoner (the saviour of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89" href="#Page_89">[89]</a></span> +her country, taken prisoner in a sally from a besieged +town, had been handed over by her countrymen to the +foreigner) any civil crime, were forced to disguise a +violation of justice and humanity in the pretence of +religion; and the Bishop of Beauvais presented a +petition against her, as an ecclesiastical subject, demanding +to have her tried by an ecclesiastical court +for sorcery, impiety, idolatry, and magic. The University +of Paris acquiesced. Before this tribunal the +accused was brought, loaded with chains, and clothed +in her military dress. It was alleged that she had +carried about a standard consecrated by magical enchantments; +that she had been in the habit of +attending at the witches' sabbath at a fountain near +the oak of Boulaincourt; that the demons had discovered +to her a magical sword consecrated in the +Church of St. Catherine, to which she owed her +victories; that by means of sorcery she had gained +the confidence of Charles VIII. Jeanne d'Arc was +convicted of all these crimes, aggravated by <i>heresy</i>: +her revelations were declared to be inventions of the +devil to delude the people.<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">67</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">67</span></a> Shakspeare brings the fiends upon the stage: their work is done, +and they now abandon the enchantress. In vain La Pucelle invokes +in her extremity— +</p> +<p class="footpoem">'Ye familiar spirits, that are cull'd<br /> +Out of the powerful regions under earth,<br /> +Help me this once, that France may get the field.<br /> +Oh, hold me not with silence over-long!<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>Her ecclesiastical judges then consigned their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90" href="#Page_90">[90]</a></span> +prisoner to the civil power; and, finally, in the +words of Hume, 'this admirable heroine—to whom +the more generous superstition of the ancients would +have erected altars—was, on pretence of heresy and +magic, delivered over alive to the flames; and expiated +by that dreadful punishment the signal services she +had rendered to her prince and to her native country.'<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">68</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">68</span></a> <i>History of England</i>, <span class="smcap">xx</span>. Shakspeare (<i>Henry VI.</i> part ii. act i.) +has furnished us with the charms and incantations employed about +the same time in the case of the Duchess of Gloucester. Mother +Jourdain is the representative witch-hag.</p></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><ins title="added missing quotation mark">'Where</ins> I was wont to feed you with my blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I'll lop a member off, and give it you,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In earnest of a further benefit;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So you do condescend to help me now.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"><div class="i0"> +<span class="sp">* * * * *<br /></span></div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Cannot my body, nor blood-sacrifice,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Entreat you to your wonted furtherance?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then take my soul; my body, soul, and all,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before that England give the French the foil.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">See! they forsake me.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"><div class="i0"> +<span class="sp">* * * * *<br /></span></div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">My ancient incantations are too weak<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hell too strong for me to buckle with.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But a worthier, if contradictory, origin is assigned for her enthusiasm +when she replies to the foul aspersion of her taunting captors—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Virtuous, and holy; chosen from above,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By inspiration of celestial grace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To work exceeding miracles on earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I never had to do with wicked spirits.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But you—that are polluted with your lusts,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stain'd with the guiltless blood of innocents,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Corrupt and tainted with a thousand vices—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Because you want the grace that others have,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You judge it straight a thing impossible<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To compass wonders, but by help of devils.'<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91" href="#Page_91">[91]</a></span></p> +<p>Without detracting from the real merit of the patriotic +martyr, it might be suspected that, besides her inflamed +imagination, a pious and pardonable collusion +was resorted to as a last desperate effort to rouse the +energy of the troops or the hopes of the people—a +collusion similar to that of the celebrated Constantinian +Cross, or of the Holy Lance of Antioch. Every +reader is acquainted with the fate of the great personages +who in England were accused, politically or +popularly, of the crime; and the histories of the +Duchess of Gloucester and of Jane Shore are immortalised +by Shakspeare. In 1417, Joan, second +wife of Henry IV., had been sentenced to prison, +suspected of seeking the king's death by sorcery; a +certain Friar Randolf being her accomplice and +agent. The Duchess of Gloucester, wife of Humphry +and daughter of Lord Cobham, was an accomplice in +the witchcraft of a priest and an old woman. Her associates +were Sir Roger Bolingbroke, priest; Margery +Jordan or Guidemar, of Eye, in Suffolk; Thomas +Southwell, and Roger Only. It was asserted 'there +was found in their possession a waxen image of the +king, which they melted in a magical manner before a +slow fire, with the intention of making Henry's force +and vigour waste away by like insensible degrees.' +The duchess was sentenced to do penance and to per<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92" href="#Page_92">[92]</a></span>petual +imprisonment; Margery was burnt for a witch +in Smithfield; the priest was hanged, declaring his +employers had only desired to know of him how long +the king would live; Thomas Southwell died the +night before his execution; Roger Only was hanged, +having first written a book to prove his own innocence, +and against the opinion of the vulgar.<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">69</a> Jane +Shore (whose story is familiar to all), the mistress of +Edward IV., was sacrificed to the policy of Richard +Duke of Gloucester, more than to any general suspicion +of her guilt. Both the Archbishop of York +and the Bishop of Ely were involved with the citizen's +wife in demoniacal dealings, and imprisoned in +the Tower. As for the 'harlot, strumpet Shore,' not +being convicted, or at least condemned, for the +worse crime, she was found guilty of adultery, and +sentenced (a milder fate) to do penance in a white +sheet before the assembled populace at St. Paul's.<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">70</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">69</span></a> The historian of England justly reflects on this case that the +nature of the crime, so opposite to all common sense, seems always to +exempt the accusers from using the rules of common sense in their +evidence.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">70</span></a> This unfortunate woman was celebrated for her beauty and, with +one important exception, for her virtues; and, if her vanity could not +resist the fascination of a royal lover, her power had been often, it is +said, exerted in the cause of humanity. Notwithstanding the neglect +and ill-treatment experienced from the ingratitude of former fawning +courtiers and people, she reached an advanced age, for she was living +in the time of Sir Thomas More, who relates that 'when the Protector +had awhile laid unto her, for the manner sake, that she went about to +bewitch him, and that she was of counsel with the lord chamberlain +to destroy him; in conclusion, when no colour could fasten upon this +matter, then he laid heinously to her charge the thing that herself +could not deny, that all the world wist was true, and that natheless +every man laughed at to hear it then so suddenly so highly taken—that +she was naught of her body.'—<i>Reign of Richard III.</i>, quoted by +Bishop Percy in <i>Reliques of Old English Romance Poetry</i>. The deformed +prince fiercely attributes his proverbial misfortune to hostile +witchcraft. He addresses his trembling council: +</p> +<p class="footpoem">'Look how I am bewitch'd; behold mine arm<br /> +Is, like a blasted sapling, wither'd up:<br /> +And this is Edward's wife, that monstrous witch,<br /> +Consorted with that harlot, strumpet Shore,<br /> +That by their witchcraft thus have marked me.'<br /> +</p><p class="cite3"> +<i>Richard III.</i> act iii. sc. 4.<br /> +</p> +</div> + +<p>More tremendous than any of the cases above<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93" href="#Page_93">[93]</a></span> +narrated is that of Arras, where numbers of all classes +suffered. So transparent were the secret but real +motives of the chief agitators, that even the unbounded +credulity of the public could penetrate the +thin disguise. The affair commenced with the +accusation of a woman of Douai, called Demiselle +(une femme de folle vie). Put to the torture repeatedly, +this wretched woman was forced to confess +she had frequented a meeting of sorcerers where +several persons were seen and recognised; amongst +others Jehan Levite, a painter at Arras. The chronicler +of the fifteenth century relates the diabolical catastrophe +thus: 'A terrible and melancholy transaction +took place this year (1459) in the town of Arras, the +capital of the county of Artois, which said transaction +was called, I know not why, <i>Vaudoisie</i>: but it was +said that certain men and women transported themselves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94" href="#Page_94">[94]</a></span> +whither they pleased from the places where +they were seen, by virtue of a compact with the +devil. Suddenly they were carried to forests and +deserts, where they found assembled great numbers +of both sexes, and with them a devil in the form of a +man, whose face they never saw. This devil read to +them, or repeated his laws and commandments in +what way they were to worship and serve him: then +each person kissed his back, and he gave to them +after this ceremony some little money. He then regaled +them with great plenty of meats and wines, +when the lights were extinguished, and each man +selected a female for amorous dalliance; and suddenly +they were transported back to the places they +had come from. For such criminal and mad acts +many of the principal persons of the town were imprisoned; +and others of the lower ranks, with women, +and such as were known to be of this sect, were so +terribly tormented, that some confessed matters to +have happened as has been related. They likewise +confessed to have seen and known many persons of +rank, prelates, nobles, and governors of districts, as +having been present at these meetings; such, indeed, +as, upon the rumour of common fame, their judges +and examiners named, and, as it were, put into their +mouths: so that through the pains of the torments +they accused many, and declared they had seen them +at these meetings. Such as had been thus accused<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95" href="#Page_95">[95]</a></span> +were instantly arrested, and so long and grievously +tormented that they were forced to confess just whatever +their judges pleased, when those of the lower +rank were inhumanly burnt. Some of the richer and +more powerful ransomed themselves from this disgrace +by dint of money; while others of the highest +orders were remonstrated with, and seduced by their +examiners into confession under a promise that if +they would confess, they should not suffer either in +person or property. Others, again, suffered the +severest torments with the utmost patience and fortitude. +The judges received very large sums of money +from such as were able to pay them: others fled the +country, or completely proved their innocence of the +charges made against them, and remained unmolested. +It must not be concealed (proceeds Monstrelet) that +many persons of worth knew that these charges had +been raked up by a set of wicked persons to harass +and disgrace some of the principal inhabitants of +Arras, whom they hated with the bitterest rancour, +and from avarice were eager to possess themselves of +their fortunes. They at first maliciously arrested +some persons deserving of punishment for their +crimes, whom they had so severely tormented, holding +out promises of pardon, that they forced them to +accuse whomsoever they were pleased to name. This +matter was considered [it must have been an exceedingly +ill-devised plot to provoke suspicion and even<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96" href="#Page_96">[96]</a></span> +indignation in such a matter] by all men of sense +and virtue as most abominable: and it was thought +that those who had thus destroyed and disgraced so +many persons of worth would put their souls in imminent +danger at the last day.'<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">71</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">71</span></a> Enguerrand de Monstrelet's <i>Chronicles</i>, lib. iii. cap. 93, Johnes' +Translation. <i>Vaudoisie</i>, which puzzles the annalist, seems to disclose +the pretence, if not the motive, of the proceedings. Yet it is not easy +to conceive so large a number of all classes involved in the proscribed +heresy of the Vaudois in a single city in the north of France.</p></div> + +<p>Meanwhile the inquisitor, Jacques Dubois, doctor +in theology, dean of Nôtre Dame at Arras, ordered +the arrest of Levite the artist, and made him confess he +had attended the 'Vauldine;' that he had seen there +many people, men and women, burghers, ecclesiastics, +whose names were specified. The bishops' vicars, +overwhelmed by the number and quality of the involved, +began to dread the consequence, and wished +to stop the proceedings. But this did not satisfy the +projects of two of the most active promoters, Jacques +Dubois and the Bishop of Bayrut, who urged the +Comte d'Estampes to use his authority with the vicars +to proceed energetically against the prisoners. Soon +afterwards the matter was brought to a crisis; the +fate of the tortured convicts was decided, and amidst +thousands of spectators from all parts, they were +brought out, each with a mitre on his head, on which +was painted the devil in the form in which he appeared +at the general assemblies, and burned.</p> + +<p>They admitted (under the severest torture, promises,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97" href="#Page_97">[97]</a></span> +and threats) the truth of their meetings at the +sabbaths. They used a sort of ointment well known +in witch-pharmacy for rubbing a small wooden rod +and the palms of their hands, and by a very common +mode of conveyance were borne away suddenly to +the appointed rendezvous. Here their lord and +master was expecting them in the shape of a goat +with the face of a man and the tail of an ape. +Homage was first done by his new vassals offering up +their soul or some part of the body; afterwards +in adoration kissing him on the back—the accustomed +salutation.<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">72</a> Next followed the different signs +and ceremonies of the infernal vassalage, in particular +treading and spitting upon the cross. Then to +eating and drinking; after which the guests joined +in acts of indescribable debauchery, when the devil +took the form alternately of either sex. Dismissal +was given by a mock sermon, forbidding to go to +church, hear mass, or touch holy water. All these +acts indicate schismatic offences which yet for the +most part are the characteristics of the sabbaths +in later Protestant witchcraft, excepting that the +wicked apostates are there usually <i>papistical</i> instead +of <i>protestant</i>. During nearly two years Arras was subjected +to the arbitrary examinations and tortures of +the inquisitors; and an appeal to the Parliament of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98" href="#Page_98">[98]</a></span> +Paris could alone stop the proceedings, 1461. The +chance of acquittal by the verdict of the public was +little: it was still less by the sentence of judicial +tribunals.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">72</span></a> The 'Osculum in tergo' seems to be an indispensable part of the +Homagium or <i>Diabolagium</i>.</p></div> + + + +<hr /> +<div class="pad"><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99" href="#Page_99">[99]</a></span></p> +<p class="fm14">PART III.</p> + +<h2>MODERN FAITH.</h2><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100" href="#Page_100">[100]</a></span></p> +</div> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101" href="#Page_101">[101]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Bull of Innocent VIII.—A new Incentive to the vigorous +Prosecution of Witchcraft—The 'Malleus Maleficarum'—Its +Criminal Code—Numerous Executions at the Commencement +of the Sixteenth Century—Examination of Christian Demonology—Various +Opinions of the Nature of Demons—General +Belief in the Intercourse of Demons and other non-human +Beings with Mankind.</p></div> + +<p><span class="chap">Perhaps</span> the most memorable epoch in the annals of +witchcraft is the date of the promulgation of the bull +of Pope Innocent VIII., when its prosecution was +formally sanctioned, enforced, and developed in the +most explicit manner by the highest authority in the +Church. It was in the year 1484 that Innocent +VIII. issued his famous bull directed especially +against the crime in Germany, whose inquisitors +were empowered to seek out and burn the malefactors +<i>pro strigiatûs hæresi</i>. The bull was as +follows: 'Innocent, Bishop, servant of the servants +of God, in order to the future memorial of the +matter.... In truth it has come to our ears, not +without immense trouble and grief to ourselves, that +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102" href="#Page_102">[102]</a></span>in some parts of Higher Germany ... very many +persons of both sexes, deviating from the Catholic +faith, abuse themselves with the demons, Incubus and +Succubus; and by incantations, charms, conjurations, +and other wicked <i>superstitions</i>, by criminal acts and +offences have caused the offspring of women and of +the lower animals, the fruits of the earth, the grape, +and the products of various plants, men, women, and +other animals of different kinds, vineyards, meadows, +pasture land, corn, and other vegetables of the earth, +to perish, be oppressed, and utterly destroyed; that +they torture men and women with cruel pains and +torments, internal as well as external; that they +hinder the proper intercourse of the sexes, and the +propagation of the human species. Moreover, they +are in the habit of denying the very faith itself. We +therefore, willing to provide by opportune remedies +according as it falls to us by our office, by our +apostolical authority, by the tenor of these presents +do appoint and decree that they be convicted, imprisoned, +punished, and mulcted according to their +offences.... By the apostolic rescript given at +Rome.'</p> + +<p>This, in brief, is an outline of the proclamation +of Innocent VIII., the principles of which were developed +in the more voluminous work of the 'Malleus +Maleficarum,'<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">73</a> or Hammer of Witches, five years +later. In the interval, the effect of so forcible an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103" href="#Page_103">[103]</a></span> +appeal from the Head of the Church was such as +might be expected. Cumanus, one of the inquisitors +in 1485, burned forty-one witches, first shaving them +to search for 'marks.' Alciatus, a lawyer, tells us +that another ecclesiastical officer burned one hundred +witches in Piedmont, and was prevented in his plan +of daily <i>autos-da-fé</i> only by a general uprising of the +people, who at length drove him out of the country, +when the archbishop succeeded to the vacant office. +In several provinces, even the servile credulity of +the populace could not tolerate the excesses of the +judges; and the inhabitants rose <i>en masse</i> against +their inquisitorial oppressors, dreading the entire +depopulation of their neighbourhood. As a sort of +apology for the bull of 1484 was published the +'Malleus'—a significantly expressive title.<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">74</a> The +authors appointed by the pope were Jacob Sprenger,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104" href="#Page_104">[104]</a></span> +of the Order of Preachers, and Professor of Theology +in Cologne; John Gremper, priest, Master in Arts; +and Henry Institor. The work is divisible, according +to the title, into three parts—Things that pertain +to Witchcraft; The Effects of Witchcraft; and The +Remedies for Witchcraft.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">73</span></a> Ennemoser (<i>History of Magic</i>), a modern and milder Protestant, +excepts to the general denunciations of Pope Innocent ('who assumed +this name, undoubtedly, because he wished it to indicate what he +really desired to be') by Protestant writers who have used such terms +as 'a scandalous hypocrite,' 'a cursed war-song of hell,' 'hangmen's +slaves,' 'rabid jailers,' 'bloodthirsty monsters,' &c.; and thinks that +'the accusation which was made against Innocent could only have +been justly founded if the pope had not participated in the general +belief, if he had been wiser than his time, and really seen that the +heretics were no allies of the devil, and that the witches were no +heretics.'</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">74</span></a> The complete title is 'MALLEUS MALEFICARUM in tres +partes divisus, in quibus I. Concurrentia ad maleficia; II. Maleficiorum +effectus; III. Remedia adversus maleficia. Et modus denique +procedendi ac puniendi maleficas abunde continetur, præcipue +autem omnibus inquisitoribus et divini verbi concionatoribus utilis et +necessarius.' The original edition of 1489 is the one quoted by +Hauber, <i>Bibliotheca Mag.</i>, and referred to by Ennemoser, <i>History +of Magic</i>.</p></div> + +<p>In this apology the editors are careful to affirm +that they <i>collected</i>, rather than <i>furnished</i>, their +materials originally, and give as their venerable +authorities the names of Dionysius the Areopagite, +Chrysostom, Hilary, Augustin, Gregory I., Remigius, +Thomas Aquinas, and others. The writers exult in the +consciousness of security, in spite of the attempts of +the demons, day and night, to deter them from completing +their meritorious labours. Stratagems of every +sort are employed in vain. In their judgment the +worst species of human wickedness sink into nothing, +compared with apostasy from the Church and, by +consequence, alliance with hell. A genuine or pretended +dread of sorcery, and an affected contempt +for the female sex, with an extremely low estimate +of its virtues (adopting the language of the Fathers), +characterises the opinions of the compilers.</p> + +<p>Ennemoser has made an abstract from the 'Demonomagie' +of Horst (founded on Hauber's original work), +of the 'Hexenhammer,' under its three principal divisions.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105" href="#Page_105">[105]</a></span> +The third part, which contains the Criminal +Code, and consists of thirty-five questions, is the +most important section. It is difficult to decide +which is the more astonishing, the perfect folly or +the perfect iniquity of the Code: it is easier to +understand how so many thousands of victims were +helplessly sacrificed. The arrest might take place +on the simple rumour of a witch being found somewhere, +without any previous denunciation. The +most abandoned and the most infamous persons may +be witnesses: no criminal is too bad. Even a witch +or heretic (the <i>worst</i> criminal in the eye of ecclesiastical +law) is capable of giving evidence. Husbands +and wives may witness one against the other; and the +testimony of children was received as good evidence.</p> + +<p>The ninth and tenth chapters consider the question +'whether a defence was to be allowed; if +an advocate defended his client beyond what was +requisite, whether it was not reasonable that he too +should be considered guilty; for he is a patron of +witches and heretics.... Thirteenth chapter: +What the judge has to notice in the torture-chamber. +Witches who have given themselves up for years, +body and soul, to the devil, are made by him so insensible +to pain on the rack, that they rather allow +themselves to be torn to pieces than confess. Fourteenth +chapter: Upon torture and the mode of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106" href="#Page_106">[106]</a></span> +racking. In order to bring the accused to voluntary +confession, you may promise her her life; which +promise, however, may afterwards be withdrawn. If +the witch does not confess the first day, the torture +to be continued the second and third days. But +here the difference between continuing and repeating +is important. The torture may not be <i>continued</i> +without fresh evidence, but it may be <i>repeated</i> +according to judgment. Fifteenth chapter: Continuance +of the discovery of a witch by her marks. +Amongst other signs, weeping is one. It is a damning +thing if the accused, on being brought up, cannot +shed tears. The clergy and judges lay their hands +on the head of the accused, and adjure her by the +hot tears of the Most Glorified Virgin that in case +of her innocence, she shed abundant tears in the +name of God the Father.'<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">75</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">75</span></a> Ennemoser's <i>History of Magic</i>. Translated by W. Howitt. +There are three kinds of men whom witchcraft cannot touch—magistrates; +clergymen exercising the pious rites of the Church; and +saints, who are under the immediate protection of the angels.</p></div> + +<p>The 'Bull' and 'Malleus' were the code and textbook +of Witchcraft amongst the Catholics, as the Act +and 'Demonologie' of James VI. were of the Protestants. +Perhaps the most important result of the +former was to withdraw entirely the authorised prosecution +and punishment of the criminals from the +civil to the ecclesiastical tribunals. Formerly they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107" href="#Page_107">[107]</a></span> +had a divided jurisdiction. At the same time the +fury of popular and judicial fanaticism was greatly +inflamed by this new sanction. Immediately, and +almost simultaneously, in different parts of Europe, +heretical witches were hunted up, tortured, burned, +or hanged; and those parts of the Continent most +infected with the widening heresy suffered most. +The greater number in Germany seems to show that +the dissentients from Catholic dogma there were +rapidly increasing, some time before Luther thundered +out his denunciations. An unusual storm of +thunder and lightning in the neighbourhood of Constance +was the occasion of burning two old women, +Ann Mindelen and one 'Agnes.'<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">76</a> One contemporary +writer asserts that 1,000 persons were put to +death in one year in the district of Como; and +Remigius, one of the authorised <i>inquisitores pravitatis +hæreticæ</i>, boasts of having burned 900 in the +course of fifteen years. Martin del Rio states 500 +were executed in Geneva in the short space of three +months in 1515; and during the next five years 40 +were burned at Ravensburgh. Great numbers suffered +in France at the same period. At Calahorra, +in Spain, in 1507, a vast <i>auto-da-fé</i> was exhibited, +when 39 women, denounced as sorceresses, were +committed to the flames—religious carnage attested +by the unsuspected evidence of the judges and executioners<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108" href="#Page_108">[108]</a></span> +themselves.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">76</span></a> <ins title="corrected typo Hutchison's">Hutchinson's</ins> <i>Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft</i>, chap ii.</p></div> + + +<p>It is opportune here to examine the common +beliefs of demonology and sorcery as they existed in +Europe. Christian demonology is a confused mixture +of pagan, Oriental, and Christian ideas. The Christian +Scriptures have seemed to suggest and sanction +a constant personal interference of the 'great +adversary,' who is always traversing the earth +'seeking whom he may devour;' and his popular +figure is represented as a union of the great dragon, +the satyrs, and fauns. Nor does he often appear +without one or other of his recognised marks—the +cloven foot, the goat's horns, beard, and legs, or the +dragon's tail. With young and good-looking witches +he is careful to assume the recommendations of a +young and handsome man, whilst it is not worth +while to disguise so unprepossessing peculiarities in +his incarnate manifestations to <i>old</i> women, the +enjoyment of whose souls is the great purpose of +seduction.</p> + +<p>Sir Thomas Browne ('Vulgar Errors'), a man of +much learning and still more superstitious fancy, +speciously explains the phenomenon of the cloven +foot. He suggests that 'the ground of this opinion +at first might be his frequent appearing in the shape +of a goat, which answers this description. This was +the opinion of the ancient Christians concerning the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109" href="#Page_109">[109]</a></span> +apparitions of <i>panites</i>, fauns, and satyrs: and of +this form we read of one that appeared to Anthony +in the wilderness. The same is also confirmed from +exposition of Holy Scripture. For whereas it is said +"Thou shalt not offer unto devils," the original word +is <i>Seghuirim</i>, i. e. rough and hairy goats; because +in that shape the devil most often appeared, as is +expounded by the rabbins, as Tremellius hath also +explained; and as the word <i>Ascimah</i>, the God of +Emath, is by some explained.' Dr. Joseph Mede, a +pious and learned divine, author of the esteemed +'Key to the Apocalypse,' pronounces that 'the devil +could not appear in human shape while man was in +his integrity, because he was a spirit fallen from his +first glorious perfection, and therefore must appear +in such shape which might argue his imperfection +and abasement, which was the shape of a beast; +otherwise [he plausibly contends] no reason can be +given why he should not rather have appeared to +Eve in the shape of a woman than of a serpent. +But since the fall of man the case is altered; now we +know he can take upon him the shape of a man. +He appears in the shape of man's imperfection rather +for age or deformity, as like an old man (for so +the witches say); and, perhaps, it is not altogether +false, which is vulgarly affirmed, that the devil +appearing in human shape has always a deformity of +some uncouth member or other, as though he could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110" href="#Page_110">[110]</a></span> +not yet take upon him human shape entirely, for +that man is not entirely and utterly fallen as he is.' +Whatever form he may assume, the cloven foot must +always be visible under every disguise; and Othello +looks first for that fabulous but certain sign when he +scrutinises his treacherous friend.</p> + +<p>Reginald Scot's reminiscences of what was instilled +into him in the nursery may possibly occur to some +even at this day. 'In our childhood,' he complains, +'our mothers' maids have so terrified us with an ugly +devil having horns on his head, fire in his mouth, a +tail in his breech, eyes like a bison, fangs like a dog, +a skin like a <i>niger</i>, a voice roaring like a lion, whereby +we start and are afraid when we hear one cry Boh!' +Chaucer has expressed the belief of his age on the +subject. It seems to have been a proper duty of a +parish priest to bring to the notice of his ecclesiastical +superior, with other crimes, those of sorcery. +The Friar describes his 'Erchedeken' as one—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">That boldely didde execucioun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In punyschying of fornicacioun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of wicchecraft....<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>This ecclesiastic employed in his service a subordinate +'sompnour,' who, in the course of his official +duty, one day meets a devil, whose 'dwellynge is in +Helle,' who condescends to enlighten the officer on +the dark subject of demon-apparitions:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When us liketh we can take us on<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or ellis make you seme that we ben schape<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Som tyme like a man or like an ape;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111" href="#Page_111">[111]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or like an aungel can I ryde or go:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It is no wonder thing though it be so,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A lowsy jogelour can deceyve the;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, parfay, yet can I more craft than he.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>To the question why they are not satisfied with <i>one</i> +shape for all occasions, the devil answers at length:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Som tyme we ben Goddis instrumentes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And menes to don his commandementes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whan that him liste, upon his creatures<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In divers act and in divers figures.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Withouten him we have no might certayne<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If that him liste to stonden ther agayne.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And som tyme at our prayer, have we leve<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Only the body and not the soule greve;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Witnesse on Job, whom we didde ful wo.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And som tyme have we might on bothe two,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That is to say of body and soule eeke<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And som tyme be we suffred for to seeke<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon a man and don his soule unrest<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And not his body, and al is for the best.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whan he withstandeth our temptacioun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It is a cause of his savacioun.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Al be it so it was naught our entente<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He schuld be sauf, but that we wolde him hente.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And som tyme we ben servaunt unto man<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As to the Erchebisschop Saynt Dunstan;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And to the Apostolis servaunt was I.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"><div class="i0"> +<span class="sp">* * * * *<br /></span></div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Som tyme we fegn, and som tyme we ryse<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With dede bodies, in ful wonder wyse,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And speke renably, and as fayre and wel<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As to the Phitonissa dede Samuel:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And yit wil som men say, it was not he.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I do no fors of your divinitie.<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">77</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">77</span></a> <i>Canterbury Tales.</i> T. Wright's Text. Chaucer, the English +Boccaccio in verse, attacks alike with his sarcasms the Church and the +female sex.</p></div> + +<p>Jewish theology, expanded by their leading divines,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112" href="#Page_112">[112]</a></span> +includes a formidable array of various demons; and +the whole of nature in Christian belief was peopled +with every kind</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Of those demons that are found<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In fire, air, flood, or under ground.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Various opinions have been held concerning the +nature of devils and demons. Some have maintained, +with Tertullian, that they are 'the souls of baser +men.' It is a disputed question whether they are +mortal or immortal; subject to, or free from, pain. +'Psellus, a Christian, and sometime tutor to Michael +Pompinatius, Emperor of Greece, a great observer of +the nature of devils, holds they are corporeal, and +live and die: ... that they feel pain if they be hurt +(which Cardan confirms, and Scaliger justly laughs +him to scorn for); and if their bodies be cut, with +admirable celerity they come together again. Austin +approves as much; so doth Hierome, Origen, Tertullian, +Lactantius, and many eminent fathers of the +Church; that in their fall their bodies were changed +into a more aerial and gross substance.' The Platonists +and some rabbis, Porphyrius, Plutarch, Zosimus, +&c., hold this opinion, which is scornfully denied +by some others, who assert that they only deceive the +eyes of men, effecting no real change. Cardan believes +'they feed on men's souls, and so [a worthy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113" href="#Page_113">[113]</a></span> +origin] belike that we have so many battles fought +in all ages, countries, is to make them a feast and +their sole delight: but if displeased they fret and +chafe (for they feed belike on the souls of beasts, as +we do on their bodies) and send many plagues +amongst us.'</p> + +<p>Their exact numbers and orders are differently +estimated by different authorities. It is certain that +they fill the air, the earth, the water, as well as the +subterranean globe. The air, according to Paracelsus, +is not so full of flies in summer as it is at all times of +invisible devils. Some writers, professing to follow +Socrates and Plato, determine nine sorts. Whatever +or wherever the supralunary may be, our world is +more interested in the sublunary tribes. These are +variously divided and subdivided. One authority +computes six distinct kinds—Fiery, Aerial, Terrestrial, +Watery, Subterranean and Central: these last +inhabiting the central regions of the interior of the +earth. The Fiery are those that work 'by blazing +stars, fire-drakes; they counterfeit suns and moons, +stars oftentimes. The Aerial live, for the most part, +in the air, cause many tempests, thunder and lightning, +tear oaks, fire steeples, houses; strike men and +beasts; make it rain stones, as in Livy's time, wool, +frogs, &c.; counterfeit armies in the air, strange +noises ... all which Guil. Postellus useth as +an argument (as, indeed, it is) to persuade them that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114" href="#Page_114">[114]</a></span> +will not believe there be spirits or devils. They +cause whirlwinds on a sudden and tempestuous +storms, which, though our meteorologists generally +refer to natural causes, yet I am of Bodine's mind, +they are more often caused by those aerial devils in +their several quarters; for they ride on the storms +as when a desperate man makes away with himself, +which, by hanging or drowning, they frequently do, +as Kormannus observes, <i>tripudium agentes</i>, dancing +and rejoicing at the death of a sinner. These can +corrupt the air, and cause sickness, plagues, storms, +shipwrecks, fires, inundations.... Nothing so +familiar (if we may believe those relations of Saxo +Grammaticus, Olaus Magnus, &c.) as for witches and +sorcerers in Lapland, Lithuania, and all over Scandia +to sell winds to mariners and cause tempests, which +Marcus Paulus, the Venetian, relates likewise of the +Tartars.<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">78</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">78</span></a> It is still the custom of the Tartar or Thibetian Lamas, or at least +of some of them, to scatter charms to the winds for the benefit of travellers. +M. Huc's <i>Travels in Tartary, Thibet, &c.</i></p></div> + +<p>'These are they which Cardan thinks desire so much +carnal copulation with witches (Incubi and Succubi), +transform bodies, and are so very cold if they be +touched, and that serve magicians.... Water +devils are those naiads or water nymphs which have +been heretofore conversant about waters and rivers. +The water (as Paracelsus thinks) is their chaos,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115" href="#Page_115">[115]</a></span> +wherein they live ... appearing most part +(saith Trithemius) in women's shapes. Paracelsus +hath several stories of them that have lived and been +married to mortal men, and so continued for certain +years with them, and after, upon some dislike, have +forsaken them. Such an one was Egeria, with whom +Numa was so familiar, Diana, Ceres, &c.... +Terrestrial devils are Lares, Genii, Fauns, Satyrs, +Wood-nymphs, Foliots, Fairies, Robin Goodfellows, +Trulli; which, as they are most conversant with +men, so they do them most harm. Some think it +was they alone that kept the heathen people in awe +of old.... Subterranean devils are as common +as the rest, and do as much harm. Olaus Magnus +makes six kinds of them, some bigger, some less, +commonly seen about mines of metals, and are some +of them noxious; some again do no harm (they are +guardians of treasure in the earth, and cause earthquakes). +The last (sort) are conversant about the +centre of the earth, to torture the souls of damned +men to the day of judgment; their egress and +ingress some suppose to be about Ætna, Lipari, +Hecla, Vesuvius, Terra del Fuego, because many +shrieks and fearful cries are continually heard thereabouts, +and familiar apparitions of dead men, ghosts, +and goblins.'</p> + +<p>As for the particular offices and operations of those +various tribes, 'Plato, in <i>Critias</i>, and after him his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116" href="#Page_116">[116]</a></span> +followers, gave out that they were men's governors +and keepers, our lords and masters, as we are of our +cattle. They govern provinces and kingdoms by +oracles, auguries, dreams, rewards and punishments, +prophecies, inspirations, sacrifices and religious <i>superstitions</i>, +varied in as many forms as there be diversity +of spirits; they send wars, plagues, peace, sickness, +health, dearth, plenty, as appears by those histories +of Thucydides, Livius, Dionysius Halicarnassensis, +with many others, that are full of their wonderful +stratagems.' They formerly devoted themselves, +each one, to the service of particular individuals as +familiar demons, 'private spirits.' Numa, Socrates, +and many others were indebted to their <i>Genius</i>. +The power of the devil is not limited to the body. +'Many think he can work upon the body, but not +upon the mind. But experience pronounceth otherwise, +that he can work both upon body and mind. +Tertullian is of this opinion.'</p> + +<p>The causes and inducements of 'possession' are +many. One writer affirms that 'the devil being a +slender, incomprehensible spirit can easily insinuate +and wind himself into human bodies, and cunningly +couched in our bowels, vitiate our healths, terrify our +souls with fearful dreams, and shake our minds with +furies. They go in and out of our bodies as bees do +in a hive, and so provoke and tempt us as they +perceive our temperature inclined of itself and most +apt to be deluded.... Agrippa and Lavater are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117" href="#Page_117">[117]</a></span> +persuaded that this humour [the melancholy] invites +the devil into it, wheresoever it is in extremity, and, +of all other, melancholy persons are most subject to +diabolical temptations and illusions, and most apt to +entertain them, and the devil best able to work +upon them. 'But whether,' declares Burton, 'by +obsession, or possession, or otherwise, I will not +determine; 'tis a difficult question.'<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">79</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">79</span></a> <i>The Anatomy of Melancholy</i>, by Democritus junior; edited by +Democritus minor. Part i. sect. 2. An equally copious and curious +display of learning. Few authors, probably, have been more +plagiarised.</p></div> + +<p>The mediævalists believed themselves surrounded +everywhere by spiritual beings; but unlike the ancients, +they were convinced not so much that they +were the peculiar care of heaven as that they were +the miserable victims of hellish malice, ever seeking +their temporal as well as eternal destruction; a +fact apparent in the whole mediæval literature +and art.<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">80</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">80</span></a> Sismondi (<i>Literature of the South of Europe</i>) has observed of +the greatest epic of the Middle Age, that 'Dante, in common with +many fathers of the Church, under the supposition that paganism, +in the persons of the infernal gods, represented the fallen angels, has +made no scruple to adopt its fables.' Tasso, at a later period, introduces +the deities of heathendom. In the <i>Gerusalemme Liberata</i> they +sit in council to frustrate the plans and destroy the forces of the +Christian leaders before Jerusalem (iv). Ismeno, a powerful magician +in the ranks of the Turks, brings up a host of diabolic allies +to guard the wood which supplied the infidels with materials for +carrying on the siege of the city (xiii.). And the masterpieces of +art of Guido or Raffaelle, which excite at once admiration and despair +in their modern disciples, consecrated and immortalised the +vulgar superstition.</p></div> + +<p>Glanvil's conjectures on the cause of the <i>comparative</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118" href="#Page_118">[118]</a></span> +rarity of demoniac and other spiritual apparitions +in general may interest the credulous or curious reader. +''Tis very probable,' reasons the Doctor, 'that the state +wherein they are will not easily permit palpable intercourses +between the bad genii and mankind: since +'tis like enough their own laws and government do +not allow their frequent excursions into the world. +Or it may with great probability be supposed that +'tis a very hard and painful thing for them to force +their thin and <i>tenuious</i> bodies into a visible consistence, +and such shapes as are necessary for their +designs in their correspondence with witches. For +in this action their bodies must needs be exceedingly +compressed, which cannot well be without a painful +sense. And this is, perhaps, a reason why there are +so few apparitions, and why appearing spirits are +commonly in such a hurry to be gone, viz. that they +may be delivered of the unnatural pressure of their +tender vehicles,<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">81</a> which I confess holds more in the +apparition of good than evil spirits ... the reason +of which probably is the greater subtlety and tenuity +of the former, which will require far greater degrees +of compression and consequently of pain to make +them visible; whereas the latter are feculent and +gross, and so nearer allied to palpable existences, +and more easily reducible to appearance and visibility.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119" href="#Page_119">[119]</a></span><a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">82</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">81</span></a> So specious a theory must have occurred to, and its propriety +will easily be recognised by, the spirit and ghost advocates of the +present day.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">82</span></a> <i>Sadducismus Triumphatus.</i> Considerations about Witchcraft. +Sect. xi.</p></div> + +<p>'Palpable intercourses between the bad genii and +mankind' are more frequent than Dr. Glanvil was +disposed to believe; and he must have been conversant +with the acts of Incubus and Succubus. In the +first age (orbe novo cœloque recenti) under the +Saturnian regime, 'while yet there was no fear of +Jove,'<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">83</a> innocence prevailed undisturbed; but soon as +the silver age was inaugurated by the usurpation of +Jove, <i>liaisons</i> between gods and mortals became frequent. +Love affairs between good or bad 'genii' +and mankind are of common occurrence in the +mythology of most peoples. In the romance-tales of +the middle age lovers find themselves unexpectedly +connected with some mysterious being of inhuman +kind. The writers in defence of witchcraft quote +Genesis vi. in proof of the reality of such intercourses; +and Justin Martyr and Tertullian, the great apologists +of Christianity, and others of the Fathers, interpret +<i>Filios Dei</i> to be angels or evil spirits who, enamoured +with the beauty of the women, begot the primeval +giants.<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">84</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">83</span></a> 'Jove nondum Barbato.'</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">84</span></a> Milton indignantly exclaims, alluding to this common fancy of +the leaders of the Primitive Church, 'Who would think him fit to +write an apology for Christian faith to the Roman Senate that could +tell them "how of the angels"—of which he must needs mean those +in Genesis called the Sons of God—"mixing with women were begotten +the devils," as good Justin Martyr in his Apology told them.' +(<i>Reformation in England</i>, book i.). And 'Clemens Alexandrinus, +Sulpicius Severus, Eusebius, &c., make a twofold fall of angels—one +from the beginning of the world; another a little before the deluge, +as Moses teacheth us, openly professing that these <i>genii</i> can beget +and have carnal copulation with woman' (<i>Anatomy of Melancholy</i>, +part i.). Robert Burton gives in his adhesion to the sentiments of +Lactantius (xiv. 15). It seems that the later Jewish devils owe their +origin (according to the Talmudists, as represented by Pererius in +the <i>Anatomy</i>) to a former wife of Adam, called Lilis, the predecessor +of Eve.</p></div> + +<p>Some tremendous results of diabolic connections<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120" href="#Page_120">[120]</a></span> +appear in the metrical romances of the twelfth or +thirteenth century, as well as in those early Anglo-Norman +chroniclers or fabulists, who have been at +the pains to inform us of the pre-historic events of +their country. The author of the romance-poem of +the well-known Merlin—so famous in British prophecy—in +introducing his hero, enters upon a long +dissertation on the origin of the infernal arts. He +informs us on the authority of 'David the prophet, +and of Moses,' that the greater part of the angels +who rebelled under the leadership of Lucifer, lost +their former power and beauty, and became 'fiendes +black:' that instead of being precipitated into 'helle-pit,' +many remained in mid-air, where they still +retain the faculty of seducing mortals by assuming +whatever shape they please. These had been much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121" href="#Page_121">[121]</a></span> +concerned at the miraculous birth of Christ; but it +was hoped to counteract the salutary effects of that +event, by producing from some virgin a semi-demon, +whose office it should be to disseminate sorcerers and +wicked men. For this purpose the devil<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" class="fnanchor">85</a> prepares +to seduce three young sisters; and proceeds at once +in proper disguise to an old woman, with whose +avarice and cunning he was well acquainted. Her +he engaged by liberal promises to be mediatrix in +the seduction of the elder sister, whom he was prevented +from attempting in person by the precautions +of a holy hermit. Like 'the first that fell of womankind,' +the young lady at length consented; was +betrayed by the <i>fictitious</i> youth, and condemned by +the law to be burnt alive.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">85</span></a> Probably, +</p> +<p class="footpoem">'Belial, the dissolutest spirit that fell,<br /> +The sensualist; and after Asmodai<br /> +The fleshliest Incubus.'—<i>Par. Reg.</i><br /> +</p></div> + +<p>The same fate, excepting the fearful penalty, +awaited the second. And now, too late, the holy +hermit became aware of his disastrous negligence. +He strictly enjoined on the third and remaining +sister a constant watch. Her security, however, was +the cause of her betrayal. On one occasion, in a +moment of remissness, she forgot her prayers and the +sign of the cross, before retiring for the night. No +longer excluded, the fiend, assuming human shape, +effected his purpose. In due time a son was born,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122" href="#Page_122">[122]</a></span> +whose parentage was sufficiently evinced by an entire +covering of black hair, although his limbs were well-formed, +and his features fine. Fortunately, the careless +guardian had exactly calculated the moment of +the demon's birth; and no sooner was he informed +of the event, than the new-born infant was borne off +to the regenerating water, when he was christened +by the name of Merlin; the fond hopes of the demons +being for this time, at least, irretrievably disappointed. +How Merlin, by superhuman prowess and +knowledge, defeated the Saracens (Saxons) in many +bloody battles; his magical achievements and favour at +the court of King Vortigern and his successors, are +fully exhibited by the author of the history.<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_86" class="fnanchor">86</a> Geoffrey +of Monmouth recounts them as matters of fact; and +they are repeated by Vergil in the History of Britain, +composed under the auspices of Henry VIII.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86_86"><span class="label">86</span></a> See <i>Early English Metrical Romances</i>, ed. by Sir H. Ellis.</p></div> + +<p>By the ancients, whole peoples were sometimes +said to be derived from these unholy connections. +Jornandes, the historian of the Goths, is glad to be +able to relate their hated rivals, the Huns (of whom +the Kalmuck Tartars are commonly said to be the +modern representatives), to have owed their origin to +an intercourse of the Scythian witches with infernal +spirits. The extraordinary form and features of those +dreaded emigrants from the steppes of Tartary, had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123" href="#Page_123">[123]</a></span> +suggested to the fear and hatred of their European +subjects, a fable which Gibbon supposes might have +been derived from a more pleasing one of the +Greeks.<a name="FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_87" class="fnanchor">87</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87_87"><span class="label">87</span></a> A sufficiently large collection from ancient and modern writers +of the facts of <i>inhuman</i> connections may be seen in the <i>Anatomy of +Melancholy</i>, part iii. sect. 2. Having repeated the assertions of +previous authors proving the fact of intercourses of human with inferior +species of animals, Burton fortifies his own opinion of their +reality by numerous authorities. If those stories be true, he reasons, +that are written of Incubus and Succubus, of nymphs, lascivious +fauns, satyrs, and those heathen gods which were devils, those lascivious +Telchines of whom the Platonists tell so many fables; or those +familiar meetings in our day [1624] and company of witches and +devils, there is some probability for it. I know that Biarmannus, +Wierus, and some others stoutly deny it ... but Austin (lib. xv. <i>de +Civit. Dei</i>) doth acknowledge it. And he refers to Plutarch, <i>Vita +Numæ; Wierus, de Præstigiis Dæmon., Giraldus Cambrensis, Malleus +Malef., Jacobus Reussus, Godelman, Erastus, John Nider, Delrio, +Lipsius, Bodin, Pererius, King James, &c</i>. The learned and curious +work of the melancholy Student of Christ Church and Oxford Rector +has been deservedly commended by many eminent critics. That +'exact mathematician and curious calculator of nativities' calculated +exactly, according to Anthony Wood (<i>Athenæ Oxon</i>.), the period of +his own death—1639.</p></div> + +<p>The acts of Incubus assume an important part in +witch-trials and confessions. Incubus is the visitor +of females, Succubus of males. Chaucer satirises the +gallantries of the vicarious Incubus by the mouth of +the wife of Bath (that practical admirer of Solomon +and the Samaritan woman),<a name="FNanchor_88_88" id="FNanchor_88_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88_88" class="fnanchor">88</a> who prefaces her tale +with the assurance:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">That maketh that ther ben no fayeries,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124" href="#Page_124">[124]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">For ther as wont was to walken an elf<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ther walketh noon but the <i>Lymitour</i> himself.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"><div class="i0"> +<span class="sp">* * * * *<br /></span></div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Women may now go safely up and downe;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In every busch and under every tre<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ther is noon other <i>Incubus</i> but he.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_88_88" id="Footnote_88_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88_88"><span class="label">88</span></a> The wife of Bath, who had buried only her fifth husband, must +appear modest by comparison. Not to mention Seneca's or Martial's +assertions or insinuations, St. Jerome was acquainted with the case +of a woman who had buried her <i>twenty-second</i> husband, whose conjugal +capacity, however, was exceeded by the Dutch wife who, on the +testimony of honest John Evelyn, had buried her <i>twenty-fifth</i> +husband!</p></div> + +<p>Reginald Scot has devoted several chapters of his +work to a relation of the exploits of Incubus.<a name="FNanchor_89_89" id="FNanchor_89_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89_89" class="fnanchor">89</a> But +he honestly warns his readers 'whose chaste ears +cannot well endure to hear of such lecheries (gathered +out of the books of divinity of great authority) to +turn over a few leaves wherein I have, like a groom, +thrust their stuff, even that which I myself loath, as +into a stinking corner: howbeit none otherwise, I +hope, but that the other parts of my writing shall +remain sweet.' He repeats a story from the 'Vita +Hieronymi,' which seems to insinuate some suspicion +of the character of a certain Bishop Sylvanus. It +relates that one night Incubus invaded a certain +lady's bedroom. Indignant at so unusual, or at least +disguised, an apparition, the lady cried out loudly +until the guests of the house came and found it +under the bed in the likeness of the bishop; 'which +holy man,' adds Scot, 'was much defamed thereby.' +Another tradition or legend seems to reflect upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125" href="#Page_125">[125]</a></span> +the chastity of the greatest saint of the Middle Ages.<a name="FNanchor_90_90" id="FNanchor_90_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_90_90" class="fnanchor">90</a> +The superhuman oppression of Incubus is still remembered +in the proverbial language of the present +day. The horrors of the infernal compacts and +leagues, as exhibited in the fates of wizards or +magicians at the last hour, formed one of the most +popular scenes on the theatrical stage. Christopher +Marlow, in 'The Life and Death of Dr. Faustus,' and +Robert Greene, in 'Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay,' +in the Elizabethan age, dramatised the common, +conception of the Compact.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_89_89" id="Footnote_89_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89_89"><span class="label">89</span></a> See the fourth book of the <i>Discoverie</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_90_90" id="Footnote_90_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90_90"><span class="label">90</span></a> 'It is written in the legend of St. Bernard,' we are told, 'that a +pretty wench that had the use of Incubus his body by the space of +six or seven years in Aquitania (being belike weary of him for that +he waxed old), would needs go to St. Bernard another while. But +Incubus told her if she would so forsake him, he would be revenged +upon her. But befal what would, she went to St. Bernard, who took +her his staff and bad her lay it in the bed beside her. And, indeed, +the devil, fearing the staff or that St. Bernard lay there himself, +durst not approach into her chamber that night. What he did afterwards +I am uncertain.' This story will not appear so evidential to +the reader as Scot seems to infer it to be. If any credit is to be +given to the strong insinuations of Protestant divines of the sixteenth +century, the 'holy bishop Sylvanus' is not the only example +among the earlier saints of the frailty of human nature.</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126" href="#Page_126">[126]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Three Sorts of Witches—Various Modes of Witchcraft—Manner +of Witch-Travelling—The Sabbaths—Anathemas of the +Popes against the Crime—Bull of Adrian VI.—Cotemporary +Testimony to the Severity of the Persecutions—Necessary +Triumph of the Orthodox Party—Germany most subject to +the Superstition—Acts of Parliament of Henry against Witchcraft—Elizabeth +Barton—The Act of 1562—Executions under +Queen Elizabeth's Government—Case of Witchcraft narrated +by Reginald Scot.</p></div> + +<p><span class="chap">The</span> ceremonies of the compact by which a woman +became a witch have been already referred to. It +was almost an essential condition in the vulgar creed +that she should be, as Gaule ('Select Cases of Conscience +touching Witches,' &c., 1646) represents, an +old woman with a wrinkled face, a furred brow, a +hairy lip, a gobber tooth, a squint eye, a squeaking +voice, a scolding tongue, having a ragged coat on +her back, a skull-cap on her head, a spindle in her +hand, a dog or cat by her side. There are three sorts +of the devil's agents on earth—the black, the gray, +and the white witches. The first are omnipotent for +evil, but powerless for good. The white have the +power to help, but not to hurt.<a name="FNanchor_91_91" id="FNanchor_91_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_91_91" class="fnanchor">91</a> As for the third +species (a mixture of white and black), they are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127" href="#Page_127">[127]</a></span> +equally effective for good or evil.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_91_91" id="Footnote_91_91"></a><a href="#FNanchor_91_91"><span class="label">91</span></a> A writer at the beginning of the seventeenth century (Cotta, <i>Tryall +of Witchcraft</i>) says, 'This kind is not obscure at this day, swarming in +this kingdom, whereof no man can be ignorant who lusteth to observe +the uncontrouled liberty and licence of open and ordinary resort in +all places unto <i>wise</i> men and <i>wise</i> women, so vulgarly termed for their +reputed knowledge concerning such diseased persons as are supposed +to be bewitched.' And (<i>Short Discoverie of Unobserved Dangers, +1612</i>) 'the mention of witchecraft doth now occasion the remembrance +in the next place of a sort of practitioners whom our custom and +country doth call wise men and wise women, reputed a kind of good +and honest harmless witches or wizards, who, by good words, by hallowed +herbs and salves, and other superstitious ceremonies, promise +to allay and calm devils, practices of other witches, and the forces of +many diseases.' Another writer of the same date considers 'it were +a thousand times better for the land if all witches, but specially the +<i>blessing witch</i>, might suffer death. Men do commonly hate and spit +at the <i>damnifying</i> sorcerer as unworthy to live among them, whereas +they fly unto the other in necessity; they depend upon him as their +God, and by this means thousands are carried away, to their final +confusion. Death, therefore, is the just and deserved portion of the +<i>good</i> witch.'—<i>Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great +Britain</i>, by Brand, ed. by Sir H. Ellis.</p></div> + +<p>Equally various and contradictory are the motives +and acts assigned to witches. Nothing is too great +or too mean for their practice: they engage with +equal pleasure in the overthrow of a kingdom or a +religion, and in inflicting the most ordinary evils +and mischiefs in life. Their mode of bewitching +is various: by fascination or casting an evil eye +('Nescio,' says the Virgilian shepherd, 'quis teneros +oculus mihi fascinat agnos'); by making +representations of the person to be acted upon in +wax or clay, roasting them before a fire; by mixing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128" href="#Page_128">[128]</a></span> +magical ointments or other compositions and ingredients +revealed to us in the witch-songs of Shakspeare, +Jonson, Middleton, Shadwell, and others; sometimes +merely by muttering an imprecation.</p> + +<p>They ride in sieves on the sea, on brooms, spits +magically prepared; and by these modes of conveyance +are borne, without trouble or loss of time, to +their destination. By these means they attend the +periodical sabbaths, the great meetings of the witch-tribe, +where they assemble at stated times to do +homage, to recount their services, and to receive the +commands of their lord. They are held on the +night between Friday and Saturday; and every year +a grand sabbath is ordered for celebration on the +Blocksberg mountains, for the night before the first +day of May. In those famous mountains the obedient +vassals congregate from all parts of Christendom—from +Italy, Spain, Germany, France, England, +and Scotland. A place where four roads meet, a +rugged mountain range, or perhaps the neighbourhood +of a secluded lake or some dark forest, is +usually the spot selected for the meeting.<a name="FNanchor_92_92" id="FNanchor_92_92"></a><a href="#Footnote_92_92" class="fnanchor">92</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_92_92" id="Footnote_92_92"></a><a href="#FNanchor_92_92"><span class="label">92</span></a> 'When orders had once been issued for the meeting of the sabbath, +all the wizards and witches who failed to attend it were lashed +by demons with a rod made of serpents or scorpions. In France and +England the witches were supposed to ride uniformly upon broom-sticks; +but in Italy and Spain, the devil himself, in the shape of a +goat, used to transport them on his back, which lengthened or shortened +according to the number of witches he was desirous of accommodating. +No witch, when proceeding to the sabbath, could get out +by a door or window were she to try ever so much. Their general +mode of ingress was by the key-hole, and of egress by the chimney, +up which they flew, broom and all, with the greatest ease. To prevent +the absence of the witches being noticed by their neighbours, +some inferior demon was commanded to assume their shapes, and lie +in their beds, feigning illness, until the sabbath was over. When +all the wizards and witches had arrived at the place of rendezvous, +the infernal ceremonies began. Satan having assumed his favourite +shape of a large he-goat, with a face in front and another in his +haunches, took his seat upon a throne; and all present in succession +paid their respects to him and kissed him in his face behind. This +done, he appointed a master of the ceremonies, in company with +whom he made a personal examination of all the witches, to see +whether they had the secret mark about them by which they were +stamped as the devil's own. This mark was always insensible to +pain. Those who had not yet been marked received the mark from +the master of the ceremonies, the devil at the same time bestowing +nick-names upon them. This done, they all began to sing and dance +in the most furious manner until some one arrived who was anxious +to be admitted into their society. They were then silent for a while +until the new comer had denied his salvation, kissed the devil, spat +upon the Bible, and sworn obedience to him in all things. They then +began dancing again with all their might and singing.... In the +course of an hour or two they generally became wearied of this violent +exercise, and then they all sat down and recounted their evil deeds +since last meeting. Those who had not been malicious and mischievous +enough towards their fellow-creatures received personal chastisement +from Satan himself, who flogged them with thorns or scorpions +until they were covered with blood and unable to sit or stand. When +this ceremony was concluded, they were all amused by a dance of +toads. Thousands of these creatures sprang out of the earth, and +standing on their hind-legs, danced while the devil played the bagpipes +or the trumpet. These toads were all endowed with the +faculty of speech, and entreated the witches there to reward them +with the flesh of unbaptized infants for their exertions to give them +pleasure. The witches promised compliance. The devil bade them +remember to keep their word; and then stamping his foot, caused all +the toads to sink into the earth in an instant. The place being thus +cleared, preparations were made for the banquet, where all manner +of disgusting things were served up and greedily devoured by the +demons and witches, although the latter were sometimes regaled with +choice meats and expensive wines, from golden plates and crystal +goblets; but they were never thus favoured unless they had done an +extraordinary number of evil deeds since the last period of meeting. +After the feast, they began dancing again; but such as had no relish +for any more exercise in that way, amused themselves by mocking +the holy sacrament of baptism. For this purpose the toads were +again called up, and sprinkled with filthy water, the devil making the +sign of the cross, and all the witches calling out—[some gibberish]. +When the devil wished to be particularly amused, he made the +witches strip off their clothes and dance before him, each with a cat +tied round her neck, and another dangling from her body in form of +a tail. When the cock crew they all disappeared, and the sabbath +was ended. This is a summary of the belief that prevailed for many +centuries nearly all over Europe, and which is far from eradicated +even at this day.'—<i>Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions</i>, by +C. Mackay.</p></div> + +<p>A mock sermon often concludes the night's proceedings,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129" href="#Page_129">[129]</a></span> +the ordinary salutation of the <i>osculum in +tergo</i> being first given. But these circumstances are +innocent compared with the obscene practices when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130" href="#Page_130">[130]</a></span> +the lights are put out; indiscriminate debauchery +being then the order of the night. A new rite of +baptism initiated the neophyte into his new service: +the candidate being signed with the sign of the devil +on that part of the body least observable, and submitting +at the same time to the first act of criminal +compliance, to be often repeated. On these occasions +the demon presents himself in the form of +either sex, according to that of his slaves. It was +elicited from a witch examined at a trial that, from +the period of her servitude, the devil had had inter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131" href="#Page_131">[131]</a></span>course +with her <i>ut viri cum fœminis solent</i>, excepting +only in one remarkable particular.</p> + +<p>During the pontificate of Julius II.—the first decade +of the sixteenth century—a set of sorceresses +was discovered in large numbers: a dispute between +the civil and ecclesiastical authorities averted their +otherwise certain destruction. The successors of +Innocent VIII. repeated his anathemas. Alexander +VI., Leo X., and Adrian VI. appointed special commissioners +for hunting up sorcerers and heretics. In +1523, Adrian issued a bull against <i>Hæresis Strigiatûs</i> +with power to excommunicate all who opposed those +engaged in the inquisition. He characterises the +obnoxious class as a sect deviating from the Catholic +faith, denying their baptism, showing contempt for +the sacraments, in particular for that of the Eucharist, +treading crosses under foot, and taking the devil as +their lord.<a name="FNanchor_93_93" id="FNanchor_93_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_93_93" class="fnanchor">93</a> How many suffered for the crime during +the thirty or forty years following upon the bull of +1484, it is difficult exactly to ascertain: that some +thousands perished is certain, on the testimony of the +judges themselves. The often-quoted words of Florimond, +author of a work 'On Antichrist,' as given by +Del Rio the Jesuit ('De Magiâ'), are not hyperbolical. +'All those,' says he, 'who have afforded us some signs +of the approach of antichrist agree that the increase +of sorcery and witchcraft is to distinguish the melancholy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132" href="#Page_132">[132]</a></span> +period of his advent; and was ever age so +afflicted with them as ours? The seats destined for +criminals before our judicatories are blackened with +persons accused of this guilt. There are not judges +enough to try enough. Our dungeons are gorged +with them. No day passes that we do not render +our tribunals bloody by the dooms we pronounce, or in +which we do not return to our homes discountenanced +and terrified at the horrible contents of the confessions +which it has been our duty to hear. And the devil +is accounted so good a master that we cannot commit +so great a number of his slaves to the flames but +what there shall arise from their ashes a number +sufficient to supply their place.'</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_93_93" id="Footnote_93_93"></a><a href="#FNanchor_93_93"><span class="label">93</span></a> Francis Hutchison's <i>Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft</i>, +chap. xiv.; the author quotes Barthol. de Spina, <i>de Strigibus</i>.</p></div> + +<p>It is within neither the design nor the limits of +these pages to repeat all the witch-cases, which might +fill several volumes; it is sufficient for the purpose +to sketch a few of the most notorious and prominent, +and to notice the most remarkable characteristics of +the creed.</p> + +<p>Maximilian I., Emperor of Germany, protected +the inquisitorial executioners from the indignant +vengeance of the inhabitants of the districts of +Southern Germany, which would have been soon +almost depopulated by an unsparing massacre and a +ferocious zeal: while Sigismund, Prince of the Tyrol, +is said to have been inclined to soften the severity of +a persecution he was totally unable, if he had been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133" href="#Page_133">[133]</a></span> +disposed, to prevent. Ulric Molitor, under the auspices +of this prince, however, published a treatise in +Switzerland ('De Pythonicis Mulieribus') in the form +of a dialogue, in which Sigismund, Molitor, and a +citizen of Constance are the interlocutors. They argue +as to the practice of witchcraft; and the argument is +to establish that, although the practicers of the crime +are worthy of death, much of the vulgar opinion +on the subject is false. Even in the middle of the +fifteenth century, and in Spain, could be found an +assertor, in some degree, of common sense, whose +sentiments might scandalise some Protestant divines. +Alphonse de Spina was a native of Castile, of the +order of St. Francis: his book was written against +heretics and unbelievers, but there is a chapter in +which some acts attributed to sorcerers, as transportation +through the air, transformations, &c., are rejected +as unreal.</p> + +<p>From that time two parties were in existence, one +of which advocated the entire reality of all the acts +commonly imputed to witches; while the other +maintained that many of their supposed crimes were +mere delusions suggested by the Great Enemy. The +former, as the orthodox party, were, from the nature +of the case, most successful in the argument—a +seeming paradox explained by the nature and course +of the controversy. Only the <i>received</i> method of +demoniacal possession was questioned by the adverse +side, accepting without doubt the possibility—and,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134" href="#Page_134">[134]</a></span> +indeed, the actual existence—of the phenomenon. +Thus the liberals, or pseudo-liberals, in that important +controversy were placed in an illogical position. +For (as their opponents might triumphantly argue) +if the devil's power and possession could be manifested +in one way, why not by any other method. +Nor was it for them to determine the appointed +methods of his schemes, as permitted by Providence, +for the injury and ruin of mankind. The diabolic +economy, as evidently set forth in the work of man's +destruction, might require certain modes of acting +quite above our reason and understanding. To the +sceptics (or to the <i>atheists</i>, as they were termed) the +orthodox could allege, 'Will you not believe in +witches? The Scriptures aver their existence: to +the jurisconsults will you dispute the existence of a +crime against which our statute-book and the code +of almost all civilised countries have attested by laws +upon which hundreds and thousands have been convicted; +many, or even most, of whom have, by their +judicial confessions, acknowledged their guilt and +the justice of their punishment? It is a strange +scepticism, they might add, that rejects the evidence +of Scripture, of human legislature, and of the accused +persons themselves.'<a name="FNanchor_94_94" id="FNanchor_94_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_94_94" class="fnanchor">94</a> Reason was hopelessly oppressed +by faith. In the presence of universal superstition, +in the absence of the modern philosophy, +escape seemed all but impossible.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_94_94" id="Footnote_94_94"></a><a href="#FNanchor_94_94"><span class="label">94</span></a> Sir W. Scott's <i>Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft</i>, chap. vi.</p></div> + +<p>If preeminence in this particular prejudice can be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135" href="#Page_135">[135]</a></span> +assigned to any single region or people, perhaps +Germany more than any other land was subject to +the demonological fever. A fact to be explained as +well by its being the great theatre for more than a +hundred years of the grand religious struggle between +the opposing Catholics and Protestants, as by +its natural fitness. The gloomy mountain ranges—the +Hartz mountains are especially famous in the +national legend—and forests with which it abounds +rendered the imaginative minds of its peoples peculiarly +susceptible to impressions of supernaturalism.<a name="FNanchor_95_95" id="FNanchor_95_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_95_95" class="fnanchor">95</a> +France takes the next place in the fury of the persecution. +Danæus ('Dialogue') speaks of an innumerable +number of witches. England, Scotland, Spain, +Italy perhaps come next in order.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_95_95" id="Footnote_95_95"></a><a href="#FNanchor_95_95"><span class="label">95</span></a> How greatly the imagination of the Germans was attracted by +the supernatural and the marvellous is plainly seen both in the old +national poems and in the great work of the national mythologist, +Jacob Grimm (<i>Deutsche Mythologie</i>).</p></div> + +<p>Spain, the dominion of the Arabs for seven centuries, +was naturally the land of magic. During the +government of Ferdinand I., or of Isabella, the inquisition +was firmly established. That numbers were +sent from the dungeons and torture-chambers to the +stake, with the added stigma of dealing in the 'black +art,' is certain; but in that priest-dominated, servilely +orthodox southern land, the Church was not perhaps +so much interested in confounding the crimes of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136" href="#Page_136">[136]</a></span> +heresy and sorcery. The first was simply sufficient +for provoking horror and hatred of the condemned. +The South of France is famous for being the very +nest of sorcery: the witch-sabbaths were frequently +held there. It was the country of the Albigenses, +which had been devastated by De Montfort, the +executioner of Catholic vengeance, in the twelfth century, +and was, with something of the same sort of +savageness, ravaged by De Lanere in the seventeenth +century. Scotland, before the religious revolution, +exhibits a few remarkable cases of witch-persecution, +as that of the Earl of Mar, brother of James III. +He had been suspected of calling in the aid of sorcery +to ascertain the term of the king's life: the earl was +bled to death without trial, and his death was followed +by the burning of twelve witches, and four +wizards, at Edinburgh. Lady Glammis, sister of the +Earl of Angus, of the family of Douglas, accused of +conspiring the king's death in a similar way, was +put to death in 1537. As in England, in the cases +of the Duchess of Gloucester and others, the crime +appears to be rather an adjunct than the principal +charge itself; more political than popular. Protestant +Scotland it is that has earned the reputation +of being one of the most superstitious countries in +Europe.</p> + +<p>In 1541 two Acts of Parliament were passed in +England—the first interference of Parliament in this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137" href="#Page_137">[137]</a></span> +kingdom—against false prophecies, conjurations, +witchcraft, sorcery, pulling down crosses; crimes +made felony without benefit of clergy. Both the +last article in the list and the period (a few years +after the separation from the Catholic world) appear +to indicate the causes in operation. Lord Hungerford +had recently been beheaded by the suspicious tyranny +of Henry VIII., for consulting his death by conjuration. +The preamble to the statute has these words: +'The persons that had done these things, had dug up +and pulled down an infinite number of crosses.'<a name="FNanchor_96_96" id="FNanchor_96_96"></a><a href="#Footnote_96_96" class="fnanchor">96</a> The +new head of the English Church, if he found his interest +in assuming himself the spiritual supremacy, +was, like a true despot, averse to any further revolution +than was necessary to his purposes. Some superstitious +regrets too for the old establishment which, +by a fortunate caprice, he abandoned and afterwards +plundered, may have urged the tyrant, who persecuted +the Catholics for questioning his supremacy, +to burn the enemies of transubstantiation. Shortly +before this enactment, eight persons had been hanged +at Tyburn, not so much for sorcery as for a disagreeable +prophecy. Elizabeth Barton, the principal, had +been instigated to pronounce as revelation, that if the +king went on in the divorce and married another<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138" href="#Page_138">[138]</a></span> +wife, he should not be king a month longer, and in +the estimation of Almighty God not one hour longer, +but should die a villain's death. The Maid of Kent, +with her accomplices—Richard Martin, parson of the +parish of Aldington; Dr. Bocking, canon of Christ +Church, Canterbury; Deering; Henry Gold, a parson +in London; Hugh Rich, a friar, and others—was +brought before the Star Chamber, and adjudged to +stand in St. Paul's during sermon-time; the majority +being afterwards executed. In Cranmer's 'Articles of +Visitation,' 1549, an injunction is addressed to his +clergy, that 'you shall inquire whether you know of +any that use charms, sorcery, enchantments, witchcrafts, +soothsaying, or any like craft, invented by the +devil.'</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_96_96" id="Footnote_96_96"></a><a href="#FNanchor_96_96"><span class="label">96</span></a> Hutchison's <i>Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft</i>. The author, +chaplain in ordinary to George I., published his book in 1718. It is +worth while to note the colder scepticism of the Hanoverian chaplain +as compared with the undoubting faith of his predecessor, Dr. +Glanvil.</p></div> + +<p>During the brief reigns of Edward VI. and Mary I. +in England, no conspicuous trials occur. As for the +latter monarch, the queen and her bishops were too +absorbed in the pressing business of burning for the +real offence of heresy to be much concerned in discovering +the concomitant crimes of devil-worship.<a name="FNanchor_97_97" id="FNanchor_97_97"></a><a href="#Footnote_97_97" class="fnanchor">97</a> +An impartial judgment may decide that superstition,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139" href="#Page_139">[139]</a></span> +whether engaged in vindicating the dogmas of +Catholicism or those of witchcraft, is alike contemptible +and pernicious.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_97_97" id="Footnote_97_97"></a><a href="#FNanchor_97_97"><span class="label">97</span></a> Agreeably to that common prejudice which selects certain historical +personages for popular and peculiar esteem or execration, and +attributes to them, as if they were eccentricities rather than examples +of the age, every exceptional virtue or vice, the 'Bloody Queen' has +been stigmatised, and is still regarded, as an <i>extraordinary</i> monster, +capable of every inhuman crime—a prejudice more popular than +philosophical, since experience has taught that despots, unchecked by +fear, by reason, or conscience, are but examples, in an eminent degree, +of the character, and personifications of the worst vices (if not +of the best virtues) of their time. Considered in this view, Mary I. +will but appear the example and personification of the religious intolerance +of Catholicism and of the age, just as Cromwell was of the +patriotic and Puritanic sentiment of the first half, or Charles II. of +the unblushing licentiousness of the last half, of the seventeenth +century.</p></div> + +<p>In the year of Elizabeth's accession, 1558, Strype +('Annals of the Reformation,' i. 8, and ii. 545) +tells that Bishop Jewell, preaching before the +queen, animadverted upon the dangerous and direful +results of witchcraft. 'It may please your +Grace,' proclaims publicly the courtly Anglican +prelate, 'to understand that witches and sorcerers, +within these last few years, are marvellously increased +within your Grace's realm. Your Grace's subjects +pine away even to the death, their colour fadeth, +their flesh rotteth, their speech is benumbed, their +senses are bereft. I pray God they never practise +further than upon the subject.' For himself, the +bishop declares, 'these eyes have seen most evident +and manifest marks of their wickedness.' The annalist +adds that this, no doubt, was the occasion of +bringing in a bill the next Parliament, for making +enchantments and witchcraft felony; and, under +year 1578, we are informed that, whether it were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140" href="#Page_140">[140]</a></span> +the effect of magic, or proceeded from some natural +cause, the queen was in some part of this year under +excessive anguish <i>by pains of her teeth</i>, insomuch +that she took no rest for divers nights, and endured +very great torment night and day. The statute of +1562 includes 'fond and fantastic prophecies' (a +very common sort of political offences in that age) +in the category of forbidden arts. With unaccustomed +lenity it punished a first conviction with the +pillory only.</p> + +<p>Witch-persecutions (which needed not any legal +enactment) sprung up in different parts of the +country; but they were not carried out with either +the frequency or the ferocity of the next age, or as +in Scotland, under the superintendence of James VI. +A number of pamphlets unnecessarily enforced the +obligatory duty of unwearied zeal in the work of +discovery and extermination.<a name="FNanchor_98_98" id="FNanchor_98_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_98_98" class="fnanchor">98</a> Among the executions +under Elizabeth's Government are specially +noticed that of a woman hanged at Barking in 1575; +of four at Abingdon; three at Chelmsford; two at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141" href="#Page_141">[141]</a></span> +Cambridge, 1579; of a number condemned at St. +Osythes; of several in Derbyshire and Staffordshire. +One of the best known is the case at Warboys, in +Huntingdonshire, 1593.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_98_98" id="Footnote_98_98"></a><a href="#FNanchor_98_98"><span class="label">98</span></a> One of these productions, printed in London, bore the sensational +title, 'A very Wonderful and Strange Miracle of God, shewed upon +a Dutchman, of the age of 23 years, who was possessed of ten devils, +and was, by God's Mighty Providence, dispossessed of them again the +27 January last past, 1572.' Another, dedicated to Lord Darcy, by +W. W., 1582, sets forth that all those tortures in common use 'are +far too light, and their rigour too mild; and in this respect he (the +pamphleteer) impudently exclaimeth against our magistrates who +suffer them to be but hanged, when <i>murtherers and such malefactors +be so used, which deserve not the hundredth part of their punishment</i>.'</p></div> + +<p>The author of the 'Discoverie' relates a fact that +came under his personal observation: it is a fair +example of the trivial origin and of the facility of +this sort of charges. 'At the assizes holden at +Rochester, anno 1581, one Margaret Simons, wife of +John Simons, of Brenchly in Kent, was arraigned +for witchcraft, at the instigation and complaint of +divers fond and malicious persons, and especially by +the means of one John Farral, vicar of that parish, +with whom I talked about the matter, and found +him both fondly assotted in the cause and enviously +bent towards her: and, which is worse, as unable to +make a good account of his faith as she whom he +accused. That which he laid to the poor woman's +charge was this. His son, being an ungracious boy, +and 'prentice to one Robert Scotchford, clothier, +dwelling in that parish of Brenchly, passed on a day +by her house; at whom, by chance, her little dog +barked, which thing the boy taking in evil part, +drew his knife and pursued him therewith even to +her door, whom she rebuked with such words as the +boy disdained, and yet nevertheless would not be +persuaded to depart in a long time. At the last he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142" href="#Page_142">[142]</a></span> +returned to his master's house, and within five or six +days fell sick. Then was called to mind the fray +betwixt the dog and the boy: insomuch as the vicar +(who thought himself so privileged as he little mistrusted +that God would visit his children with sickness) +did so calculate as he found, partly through +his own judgment and partly (as he himself told me) +by the relation of other witches, that his said son +was by her bewitched. Yea, he told me that his son +being, as it were, past all cure, received perfect +health at the hands of another witch.' Not satisfied +with this accusation, the vicar 'proceeded yet further +against her, affirming that always in his parish church, +when he desired to read most plainly his voice so failed +him that he could scant be heard at all: which he +could impute, he said, to nothing else but to her enchantment. +When I advertised the poor woman +thereof, as being desirous to hear what she could say +for herself, she told me that in very deed his voice did +fail him, specially when he strained himself to speak +loudest. Howbeit, she said, that at all times his +voice was hoarse and low; which thing I perceived +to be true. But sir, said she, you shall understand +that this our vicar is diseased with such a kind of +hoarseness as divers of our neighbours in this parish +not long ago doubted ... and in that respect +utterly refused to communicate with him until such +time as (being thereunto enjoined by the ordinary)<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143" href="#Page_143">[143]</a></span> +he had brought from London a certificate under the +hands of two physicians that his hoarseness proceeded +from a disease of the lungs; which certificate +he published in the church, in the presence of the +whole congregation: and by this means he was cured, +or rather excused of the shame of the disease. And +this,' certifies the narrator, 'I know to be true, by +the relation of divers honest men of that parish. +And truly if one of the jury had not been wiser than +the others, she had been condemned thereupon, and +upon other as ridiculous matters as this. For the +name of witch is so odious, and her power so feared +among the common people, that if the honestest +body living chanced to be arraigned thereupon, she +shall hardly escape condemnation.'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144" href="#Page_144">[144]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The 'Discoverie of Witchcraft,' published 1584—Wier's 'De +Præstigiis Dæmonum, &c.'—Naudé—Jean Bodin—His 'De la +Démonomanie des Sorciers,' published at Paris, 1580—His +authority—Nider—Witch-case at Warboys—Evidence adduced +at the Trial—Remarkable as being the origin of the institution +of an Annual Sermon at Huntingdon.</p></div> + +<p><span class="chap">Three</span> years after this affair, Dr. Reginald Scot +published his 'Discoverie of Witchcraft, proving +that common opinions of witches contracting with +devils, spirits, or their familiars, and their power to +kill, torment, and consume the bodies of men, +women, and children, or other creatures, by disease, +or otherwise, their flying in the air, &c., to be but +imaginary, erroneous conceptions and novelties: +wherein also the lewd, unchristian, practices of +witchmongers upon aged, melancholy, ignorant, and +superstitious people, in extorting confessions by +inhuman terrors and tortures, is notably detected.'<a name="FNanchor_99_99" id="FNanchor_99_99"></a><a href="#Footnote_99_99" class="fnanchor">99</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_99_99" id="Footnote_99_99"></a><a href="#FNanchor_99_99"><span class="label">99</span></a> The edition referred to is that of 1654. The author is commemorated +by Hallam in terms of high praise—'A solid and learned person, +beyond almost all the English of that age.'—<i>Introduction to the +Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth +Centuries.</i></p></div> + +<p>This work is divided into sixteen books, with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145" href="#Page_145">[145]</a></span> +treatise affixed upon devils and spirits, in thirty-four +chapters. It contains an infinity of quotations from +or references to the writings of those whom the author +terms <i>witch-mongers</i>; and several chapters are devoted +to a descriptive catalogue of the charms in +repute and diabolical rites of the most extravagant +sort. On the accession of James I., whose 'Demonologie' +was in direct opposition to the 'Discoverie,' +it was condemned as monstrously heretical; as many +copies as could be collected being solemnly committed +to the flames. This meritorious and curious +production is therefore now scarce.</p> + +<p>Prefixed is a dedicatory epistle, addressed to the +Right Worshipful, his loving friend, Mr. Dr. Coldwell, +Dean of Rochester, and Mr. Dr. Readman, +Archdeacon of Canterbury, in which the author appealingly +expostulates, 'O Master Archdeacon, is it +not pity that that which is said to be done with the +almighty power of the Most High God, and by our +Saviour his only Son Jesus Christ our Lord, should +be referred to a baggage old woman's nod or wish? +Good sir, is it not one manifest kind of idolatry for +them that labour and are laden to come unto witches +to be refreshed? If witches could help whom they +are said to have made sick, I see no reason but +remedy might as well be required at their hands as a +purse demanded of him that hath stolen it. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146" href="#Page_146">[146]</a></span> +truly it is manifest idolatry to ask that of a creature +which none can give but the Creator. The papist +hath some colour of Scripture to maintain his idol of +bread, but no Jesuitical distinction can cover the +witchmongers' idolatry in this behalf. Alas! I am +ashamed and sorry to see how many die that, being +said to be bewitched, only seek for magical cures whom +wholesome diet and good medicine would have recovered.'<a name="FNanchor_100_100" id="FNanchor_100_100"></a><a href="#Footnote_100_100" class="fnanchor">100</a> +An utterance of courage and common +sense equally rare and useless. Reginald Scot, perhaps +the boldest of the early impugners of witchcraft, +was yet convinced apparently of the reality of ghostly +apparitions.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_100_100" id="Footnote_100_100"></a><a href="#FNanchor_100_100"><span class="label">100</span></a> Writing in an age when the <i>magical</i> powers of steam and electricity +were yet undiscovered, it might be a forcible argument to put—'Good +Mr. Dean, is it possible for a man to break his fast with +you at Rochester, and to dine that day in Durham with Master Dr. +Matthew?'</p></div> + +<p>Johannes Wierus, physician to the Duke of Cleves, +and a disciple of the well-known Cornelius Agrippa +(himself accused of devotion to the black art), in 1563 +created considerable sensation by an attack upon the +common opinions, without questioning however the +principles, of the superstition in his 'De Præstigiis +Dæmonum Incantationibus et Veneficiis.' His common +sense is not so clear as that of the Englishman. +Another name, memorable among the advocates of +Reason and Humanity, is Gabriel Naudé. He was +born at Paris in 1600; he practised as a physician of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147" href="#Page_147">[147]</a></span> +great reputation, and was librarian successively to Cardinals +Richelieu and Mazarin, and to Queen Christina +of Sweden. His book 'Apologie pour les Grands +Hommes accusés de Magie,' published in Paris in +1625, was received with great indignation by the +Church. Some others, both on the Continent and in +England, at intervals by their protests served to prove +that a few sparks of reason, hard to be discovered in +the thick darkness of superstition, remained unextinguished; +but they availed not to stem the torrent +of increasing violence and volume.</p> + +<p>A more copious list can be given of the champions +of orthodoxy and demonolatry; of whom it is sufficient +to enumerate the more notorious names—Sprenger, +Nider, Bodin, Del Rio, James VI., Glanvil, who compiled +or composed elaborate treatises on the subject; +besides whom a cloud of witnesses expressly or incidentally +proclaimed the undoubted genuineness of all the +acts, phenomena, and circumstances of the diabolic +worship; loudly and fiercely denouncing the 'damnable +infidelity' of the dissenters—a proof in itself of +their own complicity. Jean Bodin, a French lawyer, +and author of the esteemed treatise 'De la République,' +was one of the greatest authorities on the orthodox +side. His publication 'De la Démonomanie des +Sorciers' appeared in Paris in the year 1580: an undertaking +prompted by his having witnessed some of the +daily occurring trials. Instead of being convinced of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148" href="#Page_148">[148]</a></span> +their folly, he was or affected to be, certain of their +truth, setting himself gravely to the task of publishing +to the world his own observations and convictions.</p> + +<p>One of the most surprising facts in the whole history +of witchcraft is the insensibility or indifference +of even men of science, and therefore observation, to +the obvious origin of the greatest part of the confessions +elicited; confession of such a kind as could be +the product only of torture, madness, or some other +equally obvious cause. Bodin himself, however, +sufficiently explains the fact and exposes the secret. +'The trial of this offence,' he enunciates, 'must not be +conducted like other crimes. Whoever adheres to +the ordinary course of justice perverts the spirit of +the law both divine and human. He who is accused +of sorcery should <i>never</i> be acquitted unless the malice +of the prosecutor be clearer than the sun; for it is +so difficult to bring full proof of this secret crime, +that out of a million of witches <i>not one would be convicted +if the usual course were followed</i>.'<a name="FNanchor_101_101" id="FNanchor_101_101"></a><a href="#Footnote_101_101" class="fnanchor">101</a> He speaks +of an old woman sentenced to the stake after confessing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149" href="#Page_149">[149]</a></span> +to having been transported to the sabbath in +a state of insensibility. Her judges, anxious to know +how this was effected, released her from her fetters, +when she rubbed herself on the different parts of her +body with a prepared unguent and soon became insensible, +stiff, and apparently dead. Having remained +in that condition for five hours, the witch as suddenly +revived, relating to the trembling inquisitors a number +of extraordinary things proving she must have +been <i>spiritually</i> transported to distant places.<a name="FNanchor_102_102" id="FNanchor_102_102"></a><a href="#Footnote_102_102" class="fnanchor">102</a> An +earlier advocate of the orthodox cause was a Swiss +friar, Nider, who wrote a work entitled 'Formicarium' +(<i>Ant-Hill</i>) on the various sins against religion. One +section is employed in the consideration of sorcery. +Nider was one of the inquisitors who distinguished +themselves by their successful zeal in the beginning +of the century.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_101_101" id="Footnote_101_101"></a><a href="#FNanchor_101_101"><span class="label">101</span></a> Yet the lawyer who enunciated such a maxim as this has been +celebrated for an unusual liberality of sentiment in religious and +political matters, as well as for his learning. Dugald Stewart commends +'the liberal and moderate views of this philosophical politician,' +as shown in the treatise <i>De la République</i>, and states that he knows +of 'no political writer of the same date whose extensive, and various, +and discriminating reading appears to me to have contributed more +to facilitate and to guide the researches of his successors, or whose +references to ancient learning have been more frequently transcribed +without acknowledgment.'—Bayle considered him 'one of the ablest +men that appeared in France during the sixteenth century.'—<i>Dissertation +First</i> in the <i>Encyclopædia Britannica</i>. Hallam (<i>Introduction +to the Literature of Europe</i>) occupies several of his pages in the review +of Bodin's writings. Jean Bodin, however, on the authority of his +friend De Thou, did not escape suspicion himself of being heretical.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_102_102" id="Footnote_102_102"></a><a href="#FNanchor_102_102"><span class="label">102</span></a> In witchcraft (as in the sacramental mystery) it was a subject +for much doubt and dispute whether there might not be simply a +<i>spiritual</i> (without a <i>real corporeal</i>) presence at the sabbath. Each +one decided according to the degree of his orthodoxy.</p></div> + +<p>The Swiss witches, like the old Italian larvæ and +most of the sisterhood, display extraordinary affection +for the blood of new-born unbaptized infants; and it +is a great desideratum to kill them before the pre<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150" href="#Page_150">[150]</a></span>ventive +rite has been irrevocably administered; for +the bodies of unbaptized children were almost indispensable +in the witches' preparations. Soon as buried +their corpses are dug out of their graves and carried +away to the place of assembly, where they are boiled +down for the fat for making the ointments.<a name="FNanchor_103_103" id="FNanchor_103_103"></a><a href="#Footnote_103_103" class="fnanchor">103</a> The +liquid in which they are boiled is carefully preserved; +and the person who tastes it is immediately initiated +into all the mysteries of sorcery. A witch, judicially +examined by the papal commission which compiled +the 'Malleus,' gives evidence of the prevalence of this +practice: 'We lie in wait for children. These are +often found dead by their parents; and the simple +people believe that they have themselves overlain +them, or that they died from natural causes; but it +is we who have destroyed them. We steal them out +of the grave, and boil them with lime till all the +flesh is loosed from the bones and is reduced to one +mass. We make of the firm part an ointment, and +fill a bottle with the fluid; and whoever drinks +with due ceremonies of this belongs to our league, +and is already capable of bewitching.' 'Finger of +birth-strangled babe' is one of the ingredients of +that widely-collected composition of the Macbeth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151" href="#Page_151">[151]</a></span> +witches.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_103_103" id="Footnote_103_103"></a><a href="#FNanchor_103_103"><span class="label">103</span></a> A practice not entirely out of repute at the present day if we +may credit a statement in the <i>Courrier du Hâvre</i> (as quoted in <i>The +Times</i> newspaper, Nov. 7, 1864), that recently the corpse of an old +woman was dug up for the purpose of obtaining the fat, &c., as a +preventive charm against witchcraft, by a person living in the neighbourhood +of Hâvre.</p></div> + +<p>The case at Warboys, which, connected with a +family of some distinction, occasioned unusual interest, +was tried in the year 1593. The village of Warboys, +or Warbois, is situated in the neighbourhood of +Huntingdon. One of the most influential of the inhabitants +was a gentleman of respectability, Robert +Throgmorton, who was on friendly terms with the +Cromwells of Hitchinbrook, and the lord of the +manor, Sir Henry Cromwell. Three criminals—old +Samuel, his wife, and Agnes Samuel their daughter, +were tried and condemned by Mr. Justice Fenner +for bewitching Mr. Throgmorton's five children, +seven servants, the Lady Cromwell, and others. The +father and daughter maintained their innocence to +the last; the old woman confessed. A fact which +makes this affair more remarkable is, that with the +forty pounds escheated to him, as lord of the manor, +out of the property of the convicts, Sir Samuel Cromwell +founded an annual sermon or lecture upon the +sin of witchcraft, to be preached at their town every +Lady-day, by a Doctor or Bachelor of Divinity of +Queen's College, Cambridge; the sum of forty pounds +being entrusted to the Mayor and Aldermen of Huntingdon, +for a rent-charge of forty shillings yearly to +be paid to the select preacher. This lecture, says Dr. +Francis Hutchison, is continued to this day—1718.</p> + +<p>Four years previously to this important trial, Jane<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152" href="#Page_152">[152]</a></span> +Throgmorton, a girl ten years of age, was first suddenly +attacked with strange convulsive fits, which +continued daily, and even several times in the day, +without intermission. One day, soon after the first +seizure, Mother Samuel coming into the Throgmortons' +house, seated herself as customary in a chimney-corner +near the child, who was just recovering from +one of her fits. The girl no sooner noticed her than +she began to cry out, pointing to the old woman, +'Did you ever see one more like a witch than she is? +Take off her black-thumbed cap, for I cannot abide +to look at her.' The illness becoming worse, they +sent to Cambridge to consult Dr. Barrow, an experienced +physician in that town; but he could discover +no natural disease. A month later, the other +children were similarly seized, and persuaded of +Mother Samuel's guilt. The parents' increasing +suspicions, entertained by the doctors, were confirmed +when the servants were also attacked. About the +middle of March, 1590, Lady Cromwell arrived on a +visit to the Throgmortons; and being much affected +at the sufferings of the patients, sent for the suspected +person, whom she charged with being the malicious +cause. Finding all entreaty of no avail in extorting +an admission of guilt, Lady Cromwell suddenly and +unexpectedly cut off a lock of the witch's hair (a +powerful counter-charm), at the same time secretly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153" href="#Page_153">[153]</a></span> +placing it in Mrs. Throgmorton's hands, desiring her +to burn it. Indignant, the accused addressed the +lady, 'Madam, why do you use me thus? I never +did you any harm <i>as yet</i>'—words afterwards recollected. +'That night,' says the narrative, 'my lady +Cromwell was suddenly troubled in her sleep by a +cat which Mother S. had sent her, which offered to +pluck the skin and flesh off her bones and arms. The +struggle betwixt the cat and the lady was so great in +her bed that night, and she made so terrible a noise, +that she waked her bedfellow Mrs. C.' Whether, 'as +some sager' might think, it was a nightmare (a sort +of incubus which terrified the disordered imagination +of the ancients), or some more substantial object that +disturbed the rest of the lady, it is not important to +decide; but next day Lady Cromwell was laid up +with an incurable illness. Holding out obstinately +against all threats and promises, the reputed witch +was at length induced to pronounce an exorcism, when +the afflicted were immediately for the time dispossessed. +'Next day being Christmas-eve and the Sabbath, +Dr. Donington [vicar of the parish] chose his text +of repentance out of the <i>Psalms</i>, and communicating +her confession to the assembly, directed his discourse +chiefly to that purpose to comfort a penitent heart +that it might affect her. All sermon-time Mother +S. wept and lamented, and was frequently so loud in +her passions, that she drew the eyes of the congrega<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154" href="#Page_154">[154]</a></span>tion +upon her.' On the morrow, greatly to the disappointment +of the neighbours, she contradicted her +former confession, declaring it was extracted by +surprise at finding her exorcism had relieved the +child, unconscious of what she was saying.</p> + +<p>The case was afterwards carried before the Bishop +of Lincoln. Now greatly alarmed, the old woman +made a fresh announcement that she was really a +witch; that she owned several spirits (of the nine may +be enumerated the fantastic names of Pluck, Hardname, +Catch, Smack, Blew), one of whom was used +to appear in the shape of a chicken, and suck her +chin. The mother and daughters were, upon this +voluntary admission, committed to Huntingdon gaol. +Of the possessed Jane Throgmorton seems to have +been most familiar with the demons.<a name="FNanchor_104_104" id="FNanchor_104_104"></a><a href="#Footnote_104_104" class="fnanchor">104</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_104_104" id="Footnote_104_104"></a><a href="#FNanchor_104_104"><span class="label">104</span></a> The following ravings of epilepsy, or of whatever was the disorder +of the girl, are part of the evidence of Dr. Donington, clergyman +in the town, and were narrated and could be received as grave +evidence in a court of justice. They will serve as a specimen of the +rest. The girl and the spirit known as <i>Catch</i> are engaged in the little +by-play. 'After supper, as soon as her parents were risen, she fell +into the same fit again as before, and then became senseless, and in +a little time, opening her mouth, she said, "Will this hold for ever? +I hope it will be better one day. From whence come you now, Catch, +limping? I hope you have met with your match." Catch answered +that Smack and he had been fighting, and that Smack had broken +his leg. Said she, "That Smack is a shrewd fellow; methinks I +would I could see him. Pluck came last night with his head broke, +and now you have broken your leg. I hope he will break both your +necks before he hath done with you." Catch answered that he would +be even with him before he had done. Then, said she, "Put forth +your other leg, and let me see if I can break that," having a stick in +her hand. The spirit told her she could not hit him. "Can I not +hit you?" said she; "let me try." Then the spirit put forth his +leg, and she lifted up the stick easily, and suddenly struck the +ground.... So she seemed divers times to strike at the spirit; but +he leaped over the stick, as she said, like a Jackanapes. So after +many such tricks the spirit went away, and she came out of her fit, +continuing all that night and the next day very sick and full of pain +in her legs.'</p></div> + +<p>The sessions at Huntingdon began April 4, 1593,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155" href="#Page_155">[155]</a></span> +when the three Samuels were arraigned; and the +above charges, with much more of the same sort, +were repeated: the indictments specifying the particular +offences against the children and servants of +the Throgmortons, and the 'bewitching unto death' +of the lady Cromwell. The grand jury found a true +bill immediately, and they were put upon their trial +in court. After a mass of nonsense had been gone +through, 'the judge, justices, and jury said the case +was apparent, and their consciences were well satisfied +that the said witches were guilty, and deserved +death.' When sentence of death was pronounced, the +old woman, sixty years of age, pleaded, in arrest of +judgment, that she was with child—a pleading which +produced only a derisive shout of laughter in court. +Husband and daughter asserted their innocence to +the last. All three were hanged. From the moment +of execution, we are assured, Robert Throgmorton's +children were permanently freed from all their sufferings. +Such, briefly, are the circumstances of a witch<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156" href="#Page_156">[156]</a></span> +case that resulted in the sending to the gallows three +harmless wretches, and in the founding an annual +sermon which perpetuated the memory of an iniquitous +act and of an impossible crime. The sermon, it +may be presumed, like other similar surviving institutions, +was preserved in the eighteenth century +more for the benefit of the select preacher than for +that of the people.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157" href="#Page_157">[157]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Astrology in Antiquity—Modern Astrology and Alchymy—Torralvo—Adventures +of Dr. Dee and Edward Kelly—Prospero +and Comus Types respectively of the Theurgic and Goetic Arts—Magicians +on the Stage in the 16th century—Occult Science +in Southern Europe—Causes of the inevitable mistakes of the +pre-Scientific Ages.</p></div> + +<p><span class="chap">The</span> nobler arts of magic, astrology, alchymy, necromancy, +&c., were equally in vogue in this age with +that of the infernal art proper. But they were more +respected. Professors of those arts were habitually +sought for with great eagerness by the highest personages, +and often munificently rewarded. In antiquity +astrology had been peculiarly Oriental in its +origin and practice. The Egyptians, and especially +the Chaldæans, introduced the foreign art to the +West among the Greeks and Italians; the Arabs +revived it in Western Europe in the Middle Age. +Under the early Roman Empire the Chaldaic art +exercised and enjoyed considerable influence and +reputation, if it was often subject to sudden persecutions. +Augustus was assisted to the throne, and +Severus selected his wife, by its means. After it had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158" href="#Page_158">[158]</a></span> +once firmly established itself in the West,<a name="FNanchor_105_105" id="FNanchor_105_105"></a><a href="#Footnote_105_105" class="fnanchor">105</a> the Oriental +astrology was soon developed and reduced to +a more regular system; and in the sixteenth and +seventeenth centuries Dee and Lilly enjoyed a +greater reputation than even Figulus or Thrasyllus +had obtained in the first century. Queen Elizabeth +and Catherine di Medici (two of the astutest persons +of their age) patronised them. Dr. Dee in +England, and Nostradamus in France, were of +this class. Dr. Caius, third founder of a college still +bearing his name in the university of Cambridge, +Kelly, Ashmole, and Lilly, are well-known names in +the astrological history of this period. Torralvo,p +whose fame as an aerial voyager is immortalised by +Cervantes in 'Don Quixote,' was as great a magician +in Spain and Italy as Dee in England, although not +so familiar to English readers as their countryman, +the protégé of Elizabeth. Neither was his magical +faculty so well rewarded. Dr. Torralvo, a physician, +had studied medicine and philosophy with extraordinary +success, and was high in the confidence of +many of the eminent personages of Spain and Italy, +for whom he fortunately predicted future success. A +confirmed infidel or freethinker, he was denounced<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159" href="#Page_159">[159]</a></span> +to the Inquisition by the treachery of an associate as +denying or disputing the immortality of the soul, as +well as the divinity of Christ. This was in 1529. +Torralvo, put to the torture, admitted that his informing +spirit, Zequiel, was a demon by whose +assistance he performed his aerial journeys and all +his extraordinary feats, both of prophecy and of +actual power. Some part of the severity of the +tortures was remitted by the demon's opportune +reply to the curiosity of the presiding inquisitors, that +Luther and the Reformers were bad and cunning +men. Torralvo seems to have avoided the extreme +penalty of fire by recanting his heresies, submitting +to the superior judgment of his gaolers, and still +more by the interest of his powerful employers; and +he was liberated not long afterwards.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_105_105" id="Footnote_105_105"></a><a href="#FNanchor_105_105"><span class="label">105</span></a> The diffusion and progress of astrology in the last two centuries +before the Empire, in Greece and Italy, was favoured chiefly by the +four following causes: its resemblance to the meteorological astrology +of the Greeks; the belief in the conversion of the souls of men +into stars; the cessation of the oracles; the belief in a tutelary +genius.—Sir G. C. Lewis's <i>Historical Survey of the Astronomy of the +Ancients</i>, chap. v.</p></div> + +<p>The life of Dr. Dee, an eminent Cambridge mathematician, +and of his associate Edward Kelly, +forms a curious biography. Dee was born in 1527. +He studied at the English and foreign universities +with great success and applause; and while the +Princess Elizabeth was quite young he acquired her +friendship, maintained by frequent correspondence, +and on her succession to the throne the queen +showed her good will in a conspicuous manner. John +Dee left to posterity a diary in which he has inserted +a regular account of his conjurations, prophetic intimations, +and magical resources. Notwithstanding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160" href="#Page_160">[160]</a></span> +his mathematical acumen, he was the dupe of his +cunning subordinate—more of a knave, probably, +than his master. In 1583 a Polish prince, Albert +Laski, visiting the English court, frequented the +society of the renowned astrologer, by whom he was +initiated in the secrets of the art; and predicted to +be the future means of an important revolution in +Europe. The astrologers wandered over all Germany, +at one time favourably received by the credulity, at +another time ignominiously ejected by the indignant +disappointment, of a patron.<a name="FNanchor_106_106" id="FNanchor_106_106"></a><a href="#Footnote_106_106" class="fnanchor">106</a> Dee returned to England +in 1589, and was finally appointed to the wardenship +of the college at Manchester. In James's +reign he was well received at Court, his reputation as +a magician increasing; and in 1604 he is found presenting +a petition to the king, imploring his good +offices in dispelling the injurious imputation of being +'a conjuror, or caller, or invocator of devils.' Lilly, +the most celebrated magician of the seventeenth +century in England, was in the highest repute during +the civil wars: his prophetic services were sought +with equal anxiety by royalists and patriots, by king<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161" href="#Page_161">[161]</a></span> +and parliament.<a name="FNanchor_107_107" id="FNanchor_107_107"></a><a href="#Footnote_107_107" class="fnanchor">107</a> Sometimes the professor of the +occult science may have been his own dupe: oftener +he imposed and speculated upon the credulity of +others.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_106_106" id="Footnote_106_106"></a><a href="#FNanchor_106_106"><span class="label">106</span></a> While traversing Bohemia, on a particular occasion, it was revealed +to be God's pleasure that the two friends should have a community +of wives; a little episode noted in Dee's journal. 'On Sunday, +May 3, 1587, I, John Dee, Edward Kelly, and our two wives, +covenanted with God, and subscribed the same for indissoluble +unities, charity, and friendship keeping between us four, and all things +between us to be common, as God by sundry means willed us to do.' +A sort of inspiration of frequent occurrence in religious revelations, +from the times of the Arabian to those of the American prophet.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_107_107" id="Footnote_107_107"></a><a href="#FNanchor_107_107"><span class="label">107</span></a> William Lilly wrote a History of his own life and times. His +adroitness in accommodating his prophecies to the alternating chances +of the war does him considerable credit as a prophet.</p></div> + +<p>Prospero is the type of the Theurgic, as Comus is +of the Goetic, magician. His spiritual minister +belongs to the order of good, or at least middle +spirits—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Too black for heav'n, and yet too white for hell.'<a name="FNanchor_108_108" id="FNanchor_108_108"></a><a href="#Footnote_108_108" class="fnanchor">108</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_108_108" id="Footnote_108_108"></a><a href="#FNanchor_108_108"><span class="label">108</span></a> Released by his new lord from the sorceric spell of that 'damn'd +witch Sycorax,' he comes gratefully, if somewhat weariedly, to answer +his 'blest pleasure; be't to fly, to swim, to dive into the fire, to ride +on the curl'd clouds,' &c.</p></div> + +<p>Prospero, by an irresistible magic, subdued to his +service the reluctant Caliban, a monster 'got by the +devil himself upon his wicked dam:' but that semi-demon +is degraded into a mere beast of burden, +brutal and savage, with little of the spiritual essence +of his male parent. Comus, as represented in that +most beautiful drama by the genius of Milton, is of +the classic rather than Christian sort: he is the +true son of Circe, using his mother's method of +enchantment, transforming his unwary victims into +the various forms or faces of the bestial herd. Like +the island magician without his magical garment,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162" href="#Page_162">[162]</a></span> +the wicked enchanter without his wand loses his sorceric +power; and—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Without his rod reversed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And backward mutters of dissevering power,'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>it is not possible to disenchant his spell-bound prisoners.</p> + +<p>In the sixteenth century many wonderful stories +obtained of the tremendous feats of the magic art. +Those that related the lives of Bacon, and of Faust +(of German origin), were best known in England; +and, in the dramatic form, were represented on the +stage. The comedy of 'Friar Bacon and Friar +Bungay,' and the tragedy of 'The Life and Death of +Dr. Faustus,' are perhaps the most esteemed of the +dramatic writings of the age which preceded the +appearance of Shakspeare. In the latter Faustus +makes a compact with the devil, by which a familiar +spirit and a preternatural art are granted him for +twenty-four years. At the end of this period his +soul is to be the reward of the demons.<a name="FNanchor_109_109" id="FNanchor_109_109"></a><a href="#Footnote_109_109" class="fnanchor">109</a> From the +'Faustus' of Christopher Marlow, Goethe has derived<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163" href="#Page_163">[163]</a></span> +the name and idea of the most celebrated tragedy of +our day.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_109_109" id="Footnote_109_109"></a><a href="#FNanchor_109_109"><span class="label">109</span></a> Conscious of his approaching fate, the trembling magician replies +to the anxious inquiries of his surrounding pupils—'"For the vain +pleasure of four-and-twenty years hath Faustus lost eternal joy and +felicity. I writ them a bill with my own blood; the date is expired; +this is the time, and he will fetch me." First Scholar—"Why did not +Faustus tell us of this before, that divines might have prayed for +thee?" Faust—"Oft have I thought to have done so; but the devil +threatened to tear me in pieces if I named God; to fetch me body +and soul if I once gave ear to divinity. And now it is too late."' As +the fearful moment fast approaches, Dr. Faustus, orthodox on the +subject of the duration of future punishment, exclaims in agony— +</p> +<p class="footpoem">'Oh! if my soul must suffer for my sin,<br /> +Impose some end to my incessant pain.<br /> +Let Faustus live in hell a thousand years—<br /> +A hundred thousand, and at the last be saved:<br /> +No end is limited to damned souls.<br /> +Why wert thou not a creature wanting soul?<br /> +Oh, why is this immortal that thou hast?' &c.<br /> +</p> +<p>Mephistopheles, it need hardly be added, was on this occasion true +to his reputation for punctuality. <i>Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay</i> +is remarked for being one of the last dramatic pieces in which the +devil appears on the stage in his proper person—1591. It is also +noticeable that he is the only Scripture character in the new form of +the play retained from the <i>miracles</i> which delighted the spectators +in the fifteenth century, who were at once edified and gratified by +the corporal chastisement inflicted upon his vicarious back.</p></div> + +<p>Magic and necromantic prowess was equally recognised +in Southern Europe. The Italian poets +employed such imposing paraphernalia in the construction +of an epic; and Cervantes has ridiculed +the prevailing belief of his countrymen.<a name="FNanchor_110_110" id="FNanchor_110_110"></a><a href="#Footnote_110_110" class="fnanchor">110</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_110_110" id="Footnote_110_110"></a><a href="#FNanchor_110_110"><span class="label">110</span></a> Benvenuto Cellini, the Florentine engraver, in his amusing <i>Autobiography</i>, +astonishes his readers with some necromantic wonders of +which he was an eyewitness. Cellini had become acquainted and +enamoured with a beautiful Sicilian, from whom he was suddenly +separated. He tells with his accustomed candour and confidence, +'I was then indulging myself in pleasures of all sorts, and engaged +in another amour to cancel the memory of my Sicilian mistress. It +happened, through a variety of odd accidents, that I made acquaintance +with a Sicilian priest, who was a man of genius, and well versed +in the Latin and Greek authors. Happening one day to have some +conversation with him upon the art of necromancy, I, who had a great +desire to know something of the matter, told him I had all my life +felt a curiosity to be acquainted with the mysteries of this art. The +priest made answer that the man must be of a resolute and steady +temper who enters upon that study.' And so it should seem from +the event. One night, Cellini, with a companion familiar with the +Black Art, attended the priest to the Colosseum, where the latter, +'according to the custom of necromancy, began to draw marks upon +the ground, with the most impressive ceremonies imaginable; he +likewise brought thither <i>asafœtida, several precious perfumes and +fire, with some compositions which diffused noisome odours</i>.' Although +several legions of devils obeyed the summons of the conjurations or +compositions, the sorceric rites were not attended with complete success. +But on a succeeding night, 'the necromancer having begun to +make his tremendous invocations, called by their names a multitude +of demons who were the leaders of the several legions, and invoked +them by the virtue and power of the eternal uncreated God, who lives +for ever, insomuch that the amphitheatre was almost in an instant +filled with demons a hundred times more numerous than at the former +conjuration ... I, by the direction of the necromancer, again +desired to be in the company of my Angelica. The former thereupon +turning to me said, "Know that they have declared that in the space +of a month you shall be in her company." He then requested me to +stand resolutely by him, because the legion were now above a thousand +more in number than he had designed; and besides, these were +the most dangerous, so that after they had answered my question it +behoved him to be civil to them and dismiss them quietly.' The infernal +legions were more easily evoked than dismissed. He proceeds—'Though +I was as much terrified as any of them, I did my utmost +to conceal the terror I felt; so that I greatly contributed to inspire +the rest with resolution. But the truth is,' ingenuously confesses the +amorous artist, 'I gave myself over for a dead man, seeing the horrid +fright the necromancer was in.'—<i>Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini</i>, +chap. xiii., Roscoe's transl.—The information was verified, and Benvenuto +enjoyed the society of his mistress at the time foretold.</p></div> + +<p>Alchymy, the science of the transformation of baser<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164" href="#Page_164">[164]</a></span> +metals into gold, a pursuit which engaged the anxious +thought and wasted the health, time, and fortunes of +numbers of fanatical empirics, was one of the most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165" href="#Page_165">[165]</a></span> +prized of the abstruse <i>occult</i> arts. Monarchs, princes, +the great of all countries, eagerly vied among themselves +in encouraging with promises and sometimes +with more substantial incentives the zeal of their +illusive search; and Henry IV. of France could see +no reason why, if the bread and wine were <ins title="corrected typo transsubstantiated">transubstantiated</ins> +so miraculously, a metal could not be transformed +as well.<a name="FNanchor_111_111" id="FNanchor_111_111"></a><a href="#Footnote_111_111" class="fnanchor">111</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_111_111" id="Footnote_111_111"></a><a href="#FNanchor_111_111"><span class="label">111</span></a> The class of horoscopists (the old Chaldaic <i>genethliacs</i>), or those +who predicted the fortunes of individuals by an examination of the +planet which presided at the natal hour, was as much in vogue as that +of any other of the masters of the occult arts; and La Fontaine, +towards the end of the seventeenth century, apostrophises the class: +</p> +<p class="footpoem">'Charlatans, faiseurs d'horoscope!<br /> +Quittez les cours des princes de l'Europe;<br /> +Emmenez avec vous les souffleurs tout d'un temps;<br /> +Vous ne méritez pas plus de foi.'....<br /> +</p> +<p class="cite3"><i>Fables</i>, ii. 13.</p> +<p> +But it is only necessary to recollect the name of Cagliostro (Balsamo) +and others who in the eighteenth century could successfully speculate +upon the credulity of people of rank and education, to moderate our +wonder at the success of earlier empirics.</p></div> + +<p>Among the eminent names of self-styled or reputed +masters of the nobler or white magic, some, like the +celebrated Paracelsus, were men of extraordinary attainments +and largely acquainted with the secrets of +natural science. A necessarily imperfect knowledge, +a natural desire to impose upon the ignorant wonder +of the vulgar, and the vanity of a learning which was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166" href="#Page_166">[166]</a></span> +ambitious of exhibiting, in the most imposing if less +intelligible way, their superior knowledge, were probably +the mixed causes which led such distinguished +scholars as Paracelsus, Cornelius Agrippa, Cardan, +and Campanella to oppress themselves and their +readers with a mass of unintelligible rubbish and +cabalistic mysticism.<a name="FNanchor_112_112" id="FNanchor_112_112"></a><a href="#Footnote_112_112" class="fnanchor">112</a> Slow and gradual as are the +successive advances in the knowledge and improvement +of mankind, it would not be reasonable to be +surprised that preceding generations could not at +once attain to the knowledge of a maturer age; and +the teachers of mankind groped their dark and uncertain +way in ages destitute of the illumination of +modern times.'<a name="FNanchor_113_113" id="FNanchor_113_113"></a><a href="#Footnote_113_113" class="fnanchor">113</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_112_112" id="Footnote_112_112"></a><a href="#FNanchor_112_112"><span class="label">112</span></a> +</p> +<p class="footpoem">'Cardan believed great states depend<br /> +Upon the tip o' th' Bear's tail's end,'<br /> +</p> +<p>correctly enough expresses both the persuasion of the public and +that of many of the soi-disant philosophers of the intimate dependence +of the fates of both states and individuals of this globe upon +other globes in the universe.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_113_113" id="Footnote_113_113"></a><a href="#FNanchor_113_113"><span class="label">113</span></a> It was not so much a want of sufficient observation of known +facts, as the want of a true method and of verification, which rendered +the investigations of the earlier philosophers so vague and uncertain. +And the same causes which necessarily prevented Aristotle, +the greatest intellect perhaps that has ever illuminated the world, +from attaining to the greater perfection of the modern philosophy, +are applicable, in a greater degree, to the case of the mediæval and +later discoverers. The causes of the failure of the pre-scientific +world are well stated by a living writer. 'Men cannot, or at least +they will not, await the tardy results of discovery; they will not sit +down in avowed ignorance. Imagination supplies the deficiencies of +observation. A theoretic arch is thrown across the chasm, because +men are unwilling to wait till a solid bridge be constructed.... The +early thinkers, by reason of the very splendour of their capacities,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167" href="#Page_167">[167]</a></span> +were not less incompetent to follow the slow processes of scientific +investigation, than a tribe of martial savages to adopt the strategy +and discipline of modern armies. No accumulated laws, no well-tried +methods existed for their aid. The elementary laws in each department +were mostly undetected.' The guide of knowledge is verification. +'The complexity of phenomena is that of a labyrinth, the +paths of which cross and recross each other; one wrong turn causes +the wanderer infinite perplexity. Verification is the Ariadne-thread +by which the real issues may be found. Unhappily, the process of +verification is slow, tedious, often difficult and deceptive; and we are +by nature lazy and impatient, hating labour, eager to obtain. Hence +credulity. We accept facts without scrutiny, inductions without +proof; and we yield to our disposition to believe that the order of +phenomena must correspond with our conceptions.' A profound truth +is contained in the assertion of Comte (<i>Cours de Philosophie Positive</i>) +that 'men have still more need of method than of doctrine, of education +than of instruction.'—<i>Aristotle</i>, by G. H. Lewes.</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168" href="#Page_168">[168]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Sorcery in Southern Europe—Cause of the Retention of the +Demonological Creed among the Protestant Sects—Calvinists +the most Fanatical of the Reformed Churches—Witch-Creed +sanctioned in the Authorised Version of the Sacred Scriptures—The +Witch-Act of 1604—James VI.'s 'Demonologie'—Lycanthropy +and Executions in France—The French Provincial +Parliaments active in passing Laws against the various Witch-practices—Witchcraft +in the Pyrenees—Commission of Inquiry +appointed—Its Results—Demonology in Spain.</p></div> + +<p><span class="chap">In</span> the annals of black magic, the silent tribunals of +the Inquisition in Southern Europe which has consigned +so many thousands of heretics to the torture +room and to the flames, do not reveal so many trials +for the simple crime of witchcraft as the tribunals of +the more northern peoples: there all dissent from +Catholic and priestly dogma was believed to be inspired +by the powers of hell, deserving a common +punishment, whether in the form of denial of transubstantiation, +infallibility, of skill in magic, or of +the vulgar practice of sorcery. Throughout Europe +penalties and prosecutions were being continually +enacted. The popes in Italy fulminated abroad their +decrees, and the parliaments of France were almost +daily engaged in pronouncing sentence.</p> + +<p>Where the papal yoke had been thrown off in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169" href="#Page_169">[169]</a></span> +Northern Germany, in Scotland, and in England, +the belief and the persecution remained in full force, +indeed greatly increased; and it is obvious to inquire +the cause of the retention, with many additions, of +the doctrine of witchcraft by those who had at last +finally rejected with scorn most of the grosser religious +dogmas of the old Church, who were so loud +in their just denunciation of Catholic tyranny and +superstition. A general answer might be given that +the Reformation of the sixteenth century, while it +swept away in those countries in which it was effected +the most injurious principles of ecclesiasticism, the +principles of infallibility and authority in matters of +faith, for the destruction of which gratitude is due to +the independent minds of Luther, Zuinglius, and +others, was yet far from complete in its negations. +The leaders of that great revolution, with all their +genius and boldness, could only partially free themselves +from the prejudices of education and of the age. +To develope the important principles they established, +the rights of private judgment and religious +freedom, was the legacy and duty of their successors; +a duty which they failed to perform, to the incalculable +misfortune of succeeding generations. The +Sacred Scriptures, the common and only authority on +faith among the different sections of Protestantism, +unfortunately seemed to inculcate the dread power<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170" href="#Page_170">[170]</a></span> +of the devil and his malicious purposes, and both the +Jewish and Christian Scriptures apparently taught +the reality of witchcraft. Theologians of all parties +would have as easily dared to question the existence +of God himself as to doubt the actual power of +that other deity, and the unbelievers in his universal +interference were not illogically stigmatised as +atheists. With the Protestants some adventitious +circumstances might make a particular church more +fanatical and furious than another, and the Calvinists +have deserved the palm for the bitterest persecution of +witchcraft. But neither the Lutheran nor the Anglican +section is exempt from the odious imputation.<a name="FNanchor_114_114" id="FNanchor_114_114"></a><a href="#Footnote_114_114" class="fnanchor">114</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_114_114" id="Footnote_114_114"></a><a href="#FNanchor_114_114"><span class="label">114</span></a> Lord Peter, and his humbler brothers Martin and Jack, in different +degrees, are all of them obnoxious to the accusation; and +Bossuet (<i>Variations des Eglises Protestantes</i>, xi. 201), who is assured +that St. Paul predicted the 'doctrines of devils' to be characteristic +of Manichæan and Albigensian heresy, might have more safely interpreted +the prophecy as applicable to the universal Christian Church (at +least of Western Europe) of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.</p></div> + +<p>The followers of Calvin were most deeply imbued +with hatred and horror of Catholic practices, and, +adopting the old prejudice or policy of their antagonists, +they were willing to confound the superstitious +rites of Catholicism with those of demonolatry. The +Anglican Church party, whose principles were not so +entirely opposite to the old religion, had far less +antipathy: until the revolution of 1688 it was for +the most part engaged in contending against liberty +rather than against despotism of conscience; against<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171" href="#Page_171">[171]</a></span> +Calvinism than against Catholicism. Yet the Church +of England is exposed to the reproach of having +sanctioned the common opinions in the most authoritative +manner. In the authorised version of the +Sacred Scriptures, in the translation of which into +the English language forty-seven selected divines, +eminent for position and learning, could concur in +consecrating a vulgar superstition, the most imposing +sanction was given. Had they possessed either common +sense or courage, these Anglican divines might +have expressed their disbelief or doubt of its truth +by a more rational, and possibly more proper, interpretation +of the Hebrew and Greek expressions; +or if that was not possible, by an accompanying +unequivocal protest. But the subservience as well as +superstition of the English Church under the last of +the Tudors and under the Stuarts is equally a matter +of fact and of reprobation.</p> + +<p>It was in the first year of the first King of Great +Britain that the English Parliament passed the Act +which remained in force, or at least on the Statute +Book, until towards the middle of last century.<a name="FNanchor_115_115" id="FNanchor_115_115"></a><a href="#Footnote_115_115" class="fnanchor">115</a> +After due consideration the bill passed both Houses;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172" href="#Page_172">[172]</a></span> +and by it, it was enacted that 'If any person shall +use any invocation or conjuration of any evil or wicked +spirit, or shall consult, covenant with, entertain, employ, +feed, or reward any evil or cursed spirit to or +for any intent or purpose, or take up any dead man, +woman, or child out of the grave—or the skin, bone, +or any part of the dead person, to be employed or +used in any manner of witchcraft, sorcery, charm, or +enchantment; or shall use, exercise, or practice any +sort of witchcraft, &c., whereby any person shall be +destroyed, killed, wasted, consumed, pined or lamed +in any part of the body; that every such person +being convicted shall suffer death.' Twelve bishops +sat in the Committee of the Upper House.<a name="FNanchor_116_116" id="FNanchor_116_116"></a><a href="#Footnote_116_116" class="fnanchor">116</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_115_115" id="Footnote_115_115"></a><a href="#FNanchor_115_115"><span class="label">115</span></a> The 'Witch Act' of James I. was passed in the year 1604. The +new translation, or the present authorised version, of the Bible, was +executed in 1607. The inference seems plain. An ecclesiastical +canon passed at the same period, which prohibits the inferior +clergy from exorcising without episcopal licence, proves at the same +time the prevalence of 'possession' and the prevalence of exorcism +in the beginning of the seventeenth century.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_116_116" id="Footnote_116_116"></a><a href="#FNanchor_116_116"><span class="label">116</span></a> The parliament of James I. would have done wisely to have embraced +the philosophic sentiment of a Hungarian prince (1095-1114) +who is said to have dismissed the absurd superstition with laconic +brevity: 'De strigis vero, quæ non sunt, nulla quæstio fiat.'</p></div> + +<p>The Scottish Parliament, during Queen Mary's +reign, anathematised the <i>papistical</i> practices; and +from that time the annals of Scottish judicature are +filled with records of trials and convictions. James +was educated among the stern adherents of Calvin. +In whatever matters of ecclesiastical faith and rule +the countryman of Knox may have deviated from the +teaching of his preceptors, he maintained with constant +zeal his faith in the devil's omnipotence; and +we may be disposed to concede the title of 'Defender<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173" href="#Page_173">[173]</a></span> +of the Faith' (so confidently prefixed to successive +editions of the Authorised Version) to his activity +in the extermination of witches, rather than to his +hatred of priestcraft. While monarch only of the +Northern kingdom, he published a denunciation of +the damnable infidelity of the 'Witch Advocates,' +and his own unhesitating belief. James VI. and his +clerical advisers were persuaded, or affected to be +persuaded, that the devil, with all his hellish crew, +was conspiring to frustrate the beneficial intentions +of a pious Protestant prince. Infernal despair and +rage reached the climax when the marriage with the +Danish princess was to be effected. But, far from +being terrified by so formidable a conspiracy, he +gloried in the persuasion that he was the devil's +greatest enemy; and the man who shuddered at the +sight of a drawn sword was not afraid to enter the +lists against the <i>invisible</i> spiritual enemy.</p> + +<p>The 'Demonologie' was published at Edinburgh +in 1597. The author introduces his book with these +words: 'The fearful abounding at this time in this +country of these detestable slaves of the devil, the +witches or enchanters, hath moved me (beloved +reader) to despatch in post this following treatise +of mine, not in any wise (as I protest) to serve for a +show of my learning and ingine, but only moved of +conscience to press thereby so far as I can to resolve +the doubting hearts of many; both that such assaults<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174" href="#Page_174">[174]</a></span> +of Sathan are most certainly practised, and that the +instruments thereof merits most severely to be +punished: against the damnable opinions of two +principally in our age, whereof the one called +Scot, an Englishman, is not ashamed in public print +to deny that there can be such a thing as witchcraft, +and so maintains the old error of the Sadducees in +denying of spirits. The other, called Wierus, a German +physician, sets out a public apology for all these +crafts-folks, whereby procuring for their impunity, +he plainly bewrays himself to have been one of that +profession. And for to make this treatise the more +pleasant and facile, I have put it in form of a dialogue, +which I have divided into three books: the first +speaking of magic in general, and necromancy in +special; the second, of sorcery and witchcraft; and +the third contains a discourse of all those kinds of +spirits and spectres that appears and troubles persons, +together with a conclusion of the whole work. My +intention in this labour is only to prove two things, +as I have already said: the one, that such devilish +arts have been and are; the other, what exact trial +and severe punishment they merit; and therefore +reason I what kind of things are possible to be performed +in these arts, and by what natural causes +they may be. Not that I touch every particular +thing of the devil's power, for that were infinite; but +only, to speak scholasticly (since this cannot be spoken<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175" href="#Page_175">[175]</a></span> +in our language), I reason upon <i>genus</i>, leaving <i>species</i> +and <i>differentia</i> to be comprehended therein.'<a name="FNanchor_117_117" id="FNanchor_117_117"></a><a href="#Footnote_117_117" class="fnanchor">117</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_117_117" id="Footnote_117_117"></a><a href="#FNanchor_117_117"><span class="label">117</span></a> Speculating on the manner of witches' aerial travels, he thinks, +'Another way is somewhat more strange, and yet it is possible to be +true: which is, by being carried by the force of their spirit, which is +their conductor, either above the earth or above the sea swiftly to the +place where they are to meet: which I am persuaded to be likewise +possible, in respect that as Habakkuk was carried by the angel in that +form to the den where Daniel lay, so think I the devil will be ready +to imitate God as well in that as in other things, which is much more +possible to him to do, being a spirit, than to a mighty wind, being +but a natural meteor to transport from one place to another a solid +body, as is commonly and daily seen in practice. But in this violent +form they cannot be carried but a short bounds, agreeing with the +space that they may retain their breath; for if it were longer their +breath could not remain unextinguished, their body being carried in +such a violent and forcible manner.... And in this transporting +they say themselves that they are invisible to any other, except +amongst themselves. For if the devil may form what kind of impressions +he pleases in the air, as I have said before, speaking of magic, +why may he not far easier thicken and obscure so the air that is next +about them, by contracting it straight together that the beams of any +other man's eyes cannot pierce through the same to see them?' &c.—<i>Cyclopædia +of English Literature</i>, edited by Robert Chambers.</p></div> + +<p>The following injunction is characteristic of all persecuting +maxims, and is worthy of the disciple of +Bodin: 'Witches ought to be put to death according +to the law of God, the civil and the imperial law, and +the municipal law of all Christian nations. Yea, to +spare the life and not to strike whom God bids strike, +and so severely in so odious a treason against God, +is not only unlawful but doubtless as great a sin in +the magistrate as was Saul's sparing Agag.' It is +insisted upon by this <i>sagacious</i> author (echoing the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176" href="#Page_176">[176]</a></span> +rules laid down in the 'Malleus'), that any and every +evidence is good against an exceptional crime: that +the testimony of the youngest children, and of persons +of the most infamous character, not only may, but +ought to be, received.</p> + +<p>This mischievous production is a curious collection +of demonological learning and experience, exhibiting +the reputed practices and ceremonies of witches, the +mode of detecting them, &c.; but is useless even +for the purpose of showing the popular Scottish or +English notions, being chiefly a medley of classical +or foreign ideas, inserted apparently (spite of the +royal author's assurance to the contrary) to parade +an array of abstruse and pedantic learning. That +some of the excessive terror said to have been +exhibited was simulated to promote his pretensions +to the especial hostility of Satan, is probable: but +that also he was impressed, in some degree, with a +real and lively fear scarcely admits of doubt. The +modern Solomon might well have blushed at the +superior common sense of a barbaric chief; and the +'judges of the seventeenth century might have been +instructed and confounded at the superior wisdom of +Rotharis [a Lombardic prince], who derides the +absurd superstition and protects the wretched victims +of popular or judicial cruelty.'<a name="FNanchor_118_118" id="FNanchor_118_118"></a><a href="#Footnote_118_118" class="fnanchor">118</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_118_118" id="Footnote_118_118"></a><a href="#FNanchor_118_118"><span class="label">118</span></a> <i>Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire</i>, xlv. It would have +been well for his subjects if he could have congratulated himself, like +Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (the model of philosophic princes, and a +more practically virtuous, if not wiser, philosopher than the proverbial +Solomon, and of whom Niebuhr, <i>History of Rome</i>, v., asserts, 'If +there is any sublime human virtue, it is his'), that he had learnt +from his instructors to laugh at the bugbears of witches and demons.—<ins title="Greek: Ta eis heauton.">Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν.</ins>—<i>The Meditations of M. A. Antoninus</i>.</p></div> + +<p>Previously to the 'Witch Act,' the charge of sorcery<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177" href="#Page_177">[177]</a></span> +was, in most cases, a subordinate and subsidiary +one, attached to various political or other indictments. +Henceforward the practice of the peculiar +offence might be entirely independent of any more +substantial accusation. In England, compared with +the other countries of Europe, folly more than ferocity, +perhaps, generally characterises the proceedings +of the tribunals. During the pre-Reformation +ages, France, even more than her island neighbour, +suffered from the crime. The fates of the Templars, +of Jeanne d'Arc, of Arras, of those suspected of causing +the mad king's, Charles VI., derangement (when +many of the <i>white</i> witches, or wizards, 'mischievously +good,' suffered for failing, by a pretended skill, +to effect his promised cure) are some of the more +conspicuous examples. But in France, as in the +rest of Europe, it was in the post-feudal period that +prosecutions became of almost daily occurrence.</p> + +<p>A prevalent kind of sorcery was that of lycanthropy, +as it was called, a prejudice derived, it seems, +in part from the Pythagorean metempsychosis. A +few cases will illustrate the nature of this stupendous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178" href="#Page_178">[178]</a></span> +transformation. That it is mostly found to take +place in France and in the southern districts, the +country of wolves, that still make their ravages +there, is a fact easily intelligible; and if the devil +can enter into swine, he can also, in the opinion of the +demonologists, as easily enter into wolves. At Dôle, +in 1573, a loup-garou, or wehr-wolf (man-wolf), was +accused of devastating the country and devouring +little children. The indictment was read by Henri +Camus, doctor of laws and counsellor of the king, to +the effect that the accused, Gilles Garnier, had killed +a girl twelve years of age, having torn her to pieces, +partly with his teeth, and partly with his wolf's +paws; that having dragged the body into the forest, +he there devoured the larger portion, reserving the +remainder for his wife; also that, by reason of injuries +inflicted in a similar way on another young girl, +the loup-garou had occasioned her death; also that +he had devoured a boy of thirteen, tearing him limb +by limb; that he displayed the same unnatural +propensities even in his own proper shape. Fifty +persons were found to bear witness; and he was +put to the rack, which elicited an unreserved confession. +He was then brought back into court, when +Dr. Camus, in the name of the Parliament of Dôle, +pronounced the following sentence: 'Seeing that +Gilles Garnier has, by the testimony of credible +witnesses and by his own spontaneous confession,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179" href="#Page_179">[179]</a></span> +been proved guilty of the abominable crimes of +lycanthropy and witchcraft, this court condemns +him, the said Grilles, to be this day taken in a cart +from this spot to the place of execution, accompanied +by the executioner, where he, by the said +executioner, shall be tied to a stake and burned +alive, and that his ashes be then scattered to the +winds. The court further condemns him, the said +Gilles, to the costs of this prosecution. Given at +Dôle this 18th day of January, 1573.' Five years +later a man named Jacques Rollet was burned alive in +the Place de Grêve for the same crime, having been +tried and condemned by the Parliament of Paris.<a name="FNanchor_119_119" id="FNanchor_119_119"></a><a href="#Footnote_119_119" class="fnanchor">119</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_119_119" id="Footnote_119_119"></a><a href="#FNanchor_119_119"><span class="label">119</span></a> A still more sensational case happened at a village in the mountains +of Auvergne. A gentleman while hunting was suddenly attacked +by a savage wolf of monstrous size. Impenetrable by his shot, the +beast made a spring upon the helpless huntsman, who in the struggle +luckily, or unluckily for the unfortunate lady, contrived to cut off one +of its fore-paws. This trophy he placed in his pocket, and made the +best of his way homewards in safety. On the road he met a friend +to whom he exhibited a bleeding paw, or rather a woman's hand (so it +was produced from the hunter's pocket) upon which was a wedding +ring. His wife's ring was at once recognised by the other. His +suspicions aroused, he immediately went in search of his wife, who +was found sitting by the fire in the kitchen, her arm hidden beneath +her apron: when the husband seizing her by the arm found +his terrible suspicions verified. The bleeding stump was there, +evidently just fresh from the wound. She was given into custody, +and in the event was burned at Riom in presence of thousands of +spectators. Among some of the races of India, among the Khonds +of the mountains of Orissa, a superstition obtains like that of the +<i>loup-garou</i> of France. In India the tiger takes the place of the wolf, +and the metamorphosed witch is there known as the <i>Pulta-bag</i>. +</p><p> +A kindred prejudice, Vampirism, has still many adherents in +Eastern Europe. The vampire is a human being who in his tomb +maintains a posthumous existence by ascending in the night and +sucking the bodies of the living. His punishment was necessarily +less tremendous than that of the witch: the <i>dead</i> body only being +burned to ashes. An official document, quoted by Horst, narrates the +particulars of the examination and burning of a disinterred vampire.</p></div> + +<p>Several witches were burned in successive years<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180" href="#Page_180">[180]</a></span> +throughout the kingdom. In 1564, three witches +and a wizard were executed at Poictiers: on the rack +they declared that they had destroyed numbers of +sheep by magical preparations, attended the Sabbaths, +&c. Trois Echelles, a celebrated sorcerer, examined +in the presence of Charles IX. and his court, acknowledged +his obligation to the devil, to whom he had +sold himself, recounting the debaucheries of the Sabbath, +the methods of bewitching, and the compositions +of the unguents for blighting cattle. The astounding +fact was also revealed that some twelve hundred +accomplices were at large in different parts of the +land. The provincial parliaments in the end of this +and the greater part of the next century are unremittingly +engaged in passing decrees and making +provisions against the increasing offences.<a name="FNanchor_120_120" id="FNanchor_120_120"></a><a href="#Footnote_120_120" class="fnanchor">120</a> 'The +Parliament of Rouen decreed that the possession of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181" href="#Page_181">[181]</a></span> +a <i>grimoire</i> or book of spells was sufficient evidence +of witchcraft; and that all persons on whom such +books were found should be <i>burned alive</i>. Three councils +were held in different parts of France in 1583, +all in relation to the same subject. The Parliament +of Bordeaux issued strict injunctions to all curates +and clergy whatever to use redoubled efforts to +root out the crime of witchcraft. The Parliament of +Tours was equally peremptory, and feared the judgments +of an offended God if all these dealers with +the devil were not swept from the face of the land. +The Parliament of Rheims was particularly severe +against the <i>noueurs d'aiguillettes</i> or 'tiers of the +knot'—people of both sexes who took pleasure in +preventing the consummation of marriage that they +might counteract the command of God to our first +parents to increase and multiply. This parliament +held it to be sinful to wear amulets to preserve from +witchcraft; and that this practice might not be continued +within its jurisdiction, drew up a form of exorcism +'which could more effectually defeat the agents +of the devil and put them to flight.'<a name="FNanchor_121_121" id="FNanchor_121_121"></a><a href="#Footnote_121_121" class="fnanchor">121</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_120_120" id="Footnote_120_120"></a><a href="#FNanchor_120_120"><span class="label">120</span></a> Montaigne, one of the few Frenchmen at this time who seemed +to discredit the universal creed, in one of his essays ventures to +think 'it is very probable that the principal credit of visions, of enchantments, +and of such extraordinary effects, proceeds from the +power of the imagination acting principally upon the more impressible +minds of the vulgar.' He is inclined to assign the prevalent +'liaisons' (nouements d'aiguillettes) to the apprehensions of a fear +with which in his age the French world was so perplexed (si entravé). +<i>Essais</i>, liv. i. 20.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_121_121" id="Footnote_121_121"></a><a href="#FNanchor_121_121"><span class="label">121</span></a> <i>Extraordinary Popular Delusions</i>, by Mackay, whose authorities +are Tablier, Boguet (<i>Discours sur les Sorciers</i>), and M. Jules Garinet +(<i>Histoire de la Magie</i>).</p></div> + +<p>In France, and still more in Italy, there is reason +for believing that many of the convicts were not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182" href="#Page_182">[182]</a></span> +without the real guilt of toxicological practices; and +they might sometimes properly deserve the opprobrium +of the old <i>venefici</i>. The formal trial and sentence +to death of La Maréchale de l'Ancre in 1617 was +perhaps more political than superstitious, but witchcraft +was introduced as one of the gravest accusations. +Her preponderance in the councils of Marie de +Medici and of Louis XIII. originated in the natural +<i>fascination</i> of royal but inferior minds. Two years +afterwards occurred a bonâ fide prosecution on a large +scale. A commission was appointed by the Parliament +of Bordeaux to inquire into the causes and +circumstances of the prevalence of witchcraft in the +Pyrenean districts. Espaignol, president of the local +parliament, with the better known councillor, Pierre +de l'Ancre, who has left a record ('Tableau de l'Inconstance +des Mauvais Anges et Démons, où il est +amplement traité des Sorciers et Démons: Paris'), +was placed at the head of the commission. How the +district of Labourt was so infested with the tribe, that +of thirty thousand inhabitants hardly a family existed +but was infected with sorcery, is explained by +the barren, sterile, mountainous aspect of the neighbourhood +of that part of the Pyrenees: the men +were engaged in the business of fishermen, and +the women left alone were exposed to the tempter. +The priests too were as ignorant and wicked as the +people; their relations with the lonely wives and +daughters being more intimate than proper. Young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183" href="#Page_183">[183]</a></span> +and handsome women, some mere girls, form the +greater proportion of the accused. As many as +forty a day appeared at the bar of the commissioners, +and at least two hundred were hanged or +burned.</p> + +<p>Evidence of the appearance of the devil was various +and contradictory. Some at the <i>Domdaniel</i>, the +place of assemblage, had a vision of a hideous wild +he-goat upon a large gilded throne; others of a man +twisted and disfigured by Tartarean torture; of a +gentleman in black with a sword, booted and spurred; +to others he seemed as some shapeless indistinct object, +as that of the trunk of a tree, or some huge rock or +stone. They proceeded to their meetings riding on +spits, pitchforks, broom-sticks: being entertained on +their arrival in the approved style, and indulging in +the usual licence. Deputies from witchdom attended +from all parts, even from Scotland. When reproached +by some of his slaves for failing to come to the rescue +in the torture-chamber or at the stake, their lord +replied by causing illusory fires to be lit, bidding the +doubters walk through the harmless flames, promising +not more inconvenience in the bonfires of their persecutors. +Lycanthropic criminals were also brought up +who had prowled about and devastated the sheepfolds. +Espaignol and De l'Ancre were provided +with two professional Matthew Hopkinses: one a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184" href="#Page_184">[184]</a></span> +surgeon for examining the 'marks' (generally here +discovered in the left eye, like a frog's foot) in the +men and older women; the other a girl of seventeen, +for the younger of her sex. Many of the priests +were executed; several made their escape from the +country. Besides the work before mentioned, De +l'Ancre published a treatise under the title of 'L'Incrédulité +et Mescréance du Sortilége pleinement +convaincue,' 1622. The expiration of the term of +the Bordeaux commission brought the proceedings +to a close, and fortunately saved a number of the +condemned.</p> + +<p>In Spain, the land of Torquemada and Ximenes, +which had long ago fanatically expelled the Jews +and recently its old Moorish conquerors from its +soil, the unceasing activity of the Inquisition during +140 years must have extorted innumerable confessions +and proofs of diabolic conspiracies and heresy. +Antonio Llorente, the historian of the Inquisition, to +whose rare opportunities of obtaining information we +are indebted for some instructive revelations, has +exposed a large number of the previously silent and +dark transactions of the Holy Office. But the demonological +ideas of the Southern Church and people +are profusely displayed in the copious dramatic literature +of the Spaniards, whose theatre was at one +time nearly as popular, if not as influential, as the +Church.</p> + +<p>The dramas of the celebrated Lope de Vega and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185" href="#Page_185">[185]</a></span> +of Calderon in particular, are filled with demons as +well as angels<a name="FNanchor_122_122" id="FNanchor_122_122"></a><a href="#Footnote_122_122" class="fnanchor">122</a>—a sort of religious compensation +to the Church for the moral deficiencies of a licentious +stage, or rather licentious public.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_122_122" id="Footnote_122_122"></a><a href="#FNanchor_122_122"><span class="label">122</span></a> In the <i>Nacimiento de Christo</i> of Lope de Vega the devil appears +in his popular figure of the dragon. Calderon's <i>Wonder-Working +Magician</i>, relating the adventures of St. Cyprian and the various +temptations and seductions of the Evil Spirit, like Goethe's Faust, +introduces the devil in the disguise of a fashionable and gallant +gentleman.—Ticknor's <i>History of Spanish Literature</i>.</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186" href="#Page_186">[186]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Possession' in France in the Seventeenth Century—Urbain +Grandier and the Convent of Loudun—Exorcism at Aix—Ecstatic +Phenomena—Madeleine Bavent—Her cruel Persecution—Catholic +and Protestant Witchcraft in Germany—Luther's +Demonological Fears and Experiences—Originated in +his exceptional Position and in the extraordinary Circumstances +of his Life and Times—Witch-burning at Bamburg and at +Würzburg.</p></div> + +<p><span class="chap">Demoniacal</span> possession was a phase of witchcraft +which obtained extensively in France during the +seventeenth century: the victims of this hallucination +were chiefly the female inmates of religious +houses, whose inflamed imaginations were prostituted +by their priestly advisers to the most atrocious purposes. +Urbain Grandier's fate was connected with +that of an entire convent. The facts of this celebrated +sorcerer's history are instructive. He was +educated in a college of the Jesuits at Bordeaux, +and presented by the fathers, with whom his abilities +and address had gained much applause, to a benefice +in Loudun. He provoked by his haughtiness the +jealousy of his brother clergy, who regarded him as +an intruder, and his pride and resentment increased<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187" href="#Page_187">[187]</a></span> +in direct proportion to the activity of his enemies, +who had conspired to effect his ruin. Mounier and +Mignon, two priests whom he had mortally offended, +were most active. Urbain Grandier was rash enough +to oppose himself alone to the united counsels of unscrupulous +and determined foes. Defeated singly +in previous attempts to drive him from Loudun, the +two priests combined with the leading authorities of +the place. Their haughty and careless adversary had +the advantage or disadvantage of a fine person and +handsome face, which, with his other recommendations, +gained him universal popularity with the +women; and his success and familiarities with the +fair sex were not likely to escape the vigilance of +spies anxious to collect damaging proofs. What +inflamed to the utmost the animosities of the +two parties was the success of Canon Mignon in obtaining +the coveted position of confessor to the convent +of Ursulines in Loudun, to the exclusion of +Grandier, himself an applicant. This convent was +destined to assume a prominent part in the fate of +the curé of the town. The younger nuns, it seems, +to enliven the dull monotony of monastic life, adopted +a plan of amusing their leisure by frightening the +older ones in making the most of their knowledge of +secret passages in the building, playing off ghost-tricks, +and raising unearthly noises. When the newly +appointed confessor was informed of the state of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188" href="#Page_188">[188]</a></span> +matters he at once perceived the possibility, and +formed the design, of turning it to account. The +offending nuns were promised forgiveness if they +would continue their ghostly amusement, and also +affect demoniacal possession; a fraud in which they +were more readily induced to participate by an assurance +that it might be the humble means of converting +the heretics—Protestants being unusually +numerous in that part of the country.</p> + +<p>As soon as they were sufficiently prepared to assume +their parts, the magistrates were summoned to witness +the phenomena of possession and exorcism. On +the first occasion the Superior of the convent was +the selected patient; and it was extracted from the +demon in possession that he had been sent by Urbain +Grandier, priest of the church of St. Peter. This +was well so far; but the civil authorities generally, +as it appears, were not disposed to accept even the +irrefragable testimony of a demoniac; and the +ecclesiastics, with the leading inhabitants, were in +conflict with the civil power. Opportunely, however, +for the plan of the conspirators, who were almost in +despair, an all-powerful ally was enlisted on their +side. A severe satire upon some acts of the +minister of France, Cardinal Richelieu, or of some of +his subordinates, had made its appearance. Urbain +was suspected to be the author; his enemies were +careful to improve the occasion; and the Cardinal-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189" href="#Page_189">[189]</a></span>minister's +cooperation was secured. A royal commission +was ordered to inquire into the now notorious +circumstances of the Loudun diabolism. Laubardemont, +the head of the commission, arrived in December +1633, and no time was lost in bringing the matter to +a crisis. The house of the suspected was searched +for books of magic; he himself being thrown into a +dungeon, where the surgeons examined him for the +'marks.' Five insensible spots were found—a +certain proof. Meanwhile the nuns become more +hysterical than ever; strong suspicion not being +wanting that the priestly confessors to the convent +availed themselves of their situation to abuse the +bodies as well as the minds of the reputed demoniacs. +To such an extent went the audacity of the exorcists, +and the credulity of the people, that the <i>enceinte</i> condition +of one of the sisters, which at the end of five +or six months disappeared, was explained by the +malicious slander of the devil, who had caused that +scandalous illusion. Crowds of persons of all ranks +flocked from Paris and from the most distant parts to +see and hear the wild ravings of these hysterical or +drugged women, whose excitement was such that they +spared not their own reputations; and some scandalous +exposures were submitted to the amusement or +curiosity of the surrounding spectators. Some few of +them, aroused from the horrible delusion, or ashamed +of their complicity, admitted that all their previous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190" href="#Page_190">[190]</a></span> +revelations were simple fiction. Means were found +to effectually silence such dangerous announcements. +The accusers pressed on the prosecution; the influence +of his friends was overborne, and Grandier +was finally sentenced to the stake. Fearing the +result of a despair which might convincingly betray +the facts of the case to the assembled multitude, they +seem to have prevailed upon the condemned to keep +silence up to the last moment, under promise of an +easier death. But already fastened to the stake, he +learned too late the treachery of his executioners; instead +of being first strangled, he was committed alive +to the flames. Nor were any 'last confessions' possible. +The unfortunate victim of the malice of exasperated +rivals, and of the animosity of the implacable +Richelieu, has been variously represented.<a name="FNanchor_123_123" id="FNanchor_123_123"></a><a href="#Footnote_123_123" class="fnanchor">123</a> It +is noticeable that the scene of this affair was in the +heart of the conquered Protestant region—Rochelle +had fallen only six years before the execution; and +the heretics, although politically subdued, were +numerous and active. A fact which may account +for the seeming indifference and even the opposition +of a large number of the people in this case of diabolism +which obtained comparatively little credit.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191" href="#Page_191">[191]</a></span> +It had been urged to the nuns that it would be for the +good and glory of Catholicism that the heretics should +be confounded by a few astounding miracles. Whether +Grandier had any decided heretical inclinations is +doubtful; but he wrote against the celibacy of the +priesthood, and was suspected of liberal opinions in +religion. A Capuchin named Tranquille (a contemporary) +has furnished the materials for the 'History +of the Devils of Loudun' by the Protestant Aubin, +1716.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_123_123" id="Footnote_123_123"></a><a href="#FNanchor_123_123"><span class="label">123</span></a> Michelet apparently accepts the charge of immorality; according +to which the curé took advantage of his popularity among the ladies +of Loudun, by his insinuating manners, to seduce the wives and +daughters of the citizens. By another writer (Alexandre Dumas, +<i>Celebrated Crimes</i>) he is supposed to have been of a proud and vindictive +disposition, but innocent of the alleged irregularities.</p></div> + +<p>Twenty-four years previously a still more scandalous +affair—that of Louis Gauffridi and the Convent +of Aix, in which Gauffridi, who had debauched +several girls both in and out of the establishment, +was the principal actor—was transacted with similar +circumstances. Madeleine, one of the novices, soon +after entering upon her noviciate, was seized with +the ecstatic trances, which were speedily communicated +to her companions.<a name="FNanchor_124_124" id="FNanchor_124_124"></a><a href="#Footnote_124_124" class="fnanchor">124</a> These fits, in the judgment +of the priests, were nothing but the effect of +witchcraft. Exorcists elicited from the girls that +Louis Gauffridi, a powerful magician having authority<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192" href="#Page_192">[192]</a></span> +over demons throughout Europe, had bewitched +them. The questions and answers were taken down, +by order of the judges, by reporters, who, while +the priests were exorcising, committed the results +to writing, published afterwards by one of them, +Michaelis, in 1613. Among the interesting facts +acquired through these spirit-media, the inquisitors +learned that Antichrist was already come; that +printing, and the invention of it, were alike accursed, +and similar information. Madeleine, tortured and +imprisoned in the most loathsome dungeon, was reduced +to such a condition of extreme horror and +dread, that from this time she was the mere instrument +of her atrocious judges. Having been intimate +with the wizard, she could inform them of the position +of the 'secret marks' on his person: these +were ascertained in the usual way by pricking with +needles. Gauffridi, by various torture, was induced +to make the required confession, and was burned +alive at Aix, April 30, 1611.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_124_124" id="Footnote_124_124"></a><a href="#FNanchor_124_124"><span class="label">124</span></a> M. Maury, in a philosophical and learned work (<i>La Magie et +l'Astrologie dans l'Antiquité et au Moyen Âge</i>), has scientifically explored +and exposed the mysteries of these and the like ecstatic phenomena, +of such frequent occurrence in Protestant as well as in Catholic +countries; in the orphan-houses of Amsterdam and Horn, as well as +in the convents of France and Italy in the 17th century. And the +Protestant revivalists of the present age have in great measure reproduced +these curious results of religious excitement.</p></div> + +<p>Demoniacal possession was a mania in France +in the seventeenth century. The story of Madeleine +Bavent, as reported, reveals the utmost licentiousness +and fiendish cruelty.<a name="FNanchor_125_125" id="FNanchor_125_125"></a><a href="#Footnote_125_125" class="fnanchor">125</a> Gibbon justly observes +that ancient Rome supported with the greatest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193" href="#Page_193">[193]</a></span> +difficulty the institution of <i>six</i> vestals, notwithstanding +the certain fate of a living grave for +those who could not preserve their chastity; and +Christian Rome was filled with many thousands of +both sexes bound by vows to perpetual virginity. +Madeleine was seduced by her Franciscan confessor +when only fourteen; and she entered a convent +lately founded at Louviers. In this building, surrounded +by a wood, and situated in a suitable spot, +some strange practices were carried on. At the instigation +of their director, a priest called David, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194" href="#Page_194">[194]</a></span> +nuns, it is reported, were seized with an irresistible +desire of imitating the primitive Adamite simplicity: +the novices were compelled to return to the simple +nudity of the days of innocence when taking exercise +in the conventual gardens, and even at their devotions +in the chapel. The novice Madeleine, on one occasion, +was reprimanded for concealing her bosom with +the altar-cloth at communion. She was originally of +a pure and artless mind; and only gradually and +stealthily she was corrupted by the pious arguments +of her priest. This man, Picart by name—one of +that extensive class the 'tristes obscœni,' of whom +the Angelos and Tartuffes<a name="FNanchor_126_126" id="FNanchor_126_126"></a><a href="#Footnote_126_126" class="fnanchor">126</a> are representatives—succeeded +to the vacant office of directing confessor to +the nuns of Louviers; and at once embraced the +opportunities of the confessional. Without repeating +all the disgusting scenes that followed, as given by +Michelet, it is only necessary to add that the +miserable nun became the mistress and helpless +creature of her seducer. 'He employed her as a +magical charm to gain over the rest of the nuns. A +holy wafer steeped in Madeleine's blood and buried +in the garden would be sure to disturb their senses +and their minds. This was the very year in which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195" href="#Page_195">[195]</a></span> +Urban Grandier was burned. Throughout France +men spoke of nothing but the devils of Loudun.... +Madeleine fancied herself bewitched and knocked +about by devils; followed about by a lewd cat with +eyes of fire. By degrees other nuns caught the disorder, +which showed itself in odd supernatural jerks +and writhings.'</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_125_125" id="Footnote_125_125"></a><a href="#FNanchor_125_125"><span class="label">125</span></a> It is but one instance of innumerable amours within the secret +penetralia of the privileged conventual establishments. In the +dark recesses of these vestal institutions on a gigantic scale, where +publicity, that sole security, was never known, what vices or even +crimes could not be safely perpetrated? Luther, who proved in the +most practical way his contempt for the sanctity of monastic vows by +eloping with a nun, assures us, among other scandals attaching to +convent life, of the fact that when a fish-pond adjoining one of these +establishments in Rome was drained off, six thousand infant skulls +were exposed to view. A story which may be fact or fiction. But +while fully admitting the probability of invention and exaggeration +in the relations of enemies, and the fact that undue prejudice is likely +to somewhat exaggerate the probable evils of the mysterious and unknown, +how could it be otherwise than that during fourteen centuries +many crimes should have been committed in those silent and safe retreats? +Nor, indeed, is experience opposed to the possibility of the +highest fervour of an unnatural enthusiasm being compatible with +more human passions. The virgin who, +</p> +<p class="footpoem">'Ut flos in septis secretus nascitur hortis<br /> +Ignotus pecori,'<br /> +</p> +<p>as eulogised by the virgin-chorus in the beautiful epithalamium of Catullus, +might be recognised in the youthful 'religieuse' if only human +passion could be excluded; but the story of Heloise and Abelard is +not a solitary proof of the superiority of human nature over an impossible +and artificial spirituality.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_126_126" id="Footnote_126_126"></a><a href="#FNanchor_126_126"><span class="label">126</span></a> As Tartuffe privately confesses, +</p> +<p class="footpoem">'L'amour qui nous attache aux beautés éternelles<br /> +N'étouffe pas en nous l'amour des temporelles.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="sp">* * * * *</span> +<br /><br /> +Pour être dévot, je n'en suis pas moins homme.'<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>The Superior was not averse to the publication of +these events, having the example and reputation of +Loudun before her. Little is new in the possession +and exorcism: for the most part they are a repetition +of those of Aix and Loudun. During a brief +interval the devils were less outrageous: for the +Cardinal-minister was meditating a reform of the +monastic establishments. Upon his death they commenced +again with equal violence. Picart was now +dead—but not so the persecution of his victim. The +priests recommenced miracle-working with renewed +vigour.<a name="FNanchor_127_127" id="FNanchor_127_127"></a><a href="#Footnote_127_127" class="fnanchor">127</a> Saved from immediate death by a fortunate +or, as it may be deemed, unfortunate sensitiveness to +bodily pain, she was condemned for the rest of her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196" href="#Page_196">[196]</a></span> +life to solitary confinement in a fearful dungeon, in +the language of her judges to an <i>in pace</i>. There +lying tortured, powerless in a loathsome cell, their +prisoner was alternately coaxed and threatened into +admitting all sorts of crimes, and implicating whom +they wished.<a name="FNanchor_128_128" id="FNanchor_128_128"></a><a href="#Footnote_128_128" class="fnanchor">128</a> The further cruelties to which the +lust, and afterwards the malignancy, of her gaolers +submitted her were not brought to an end by the interference +of parliament in August 1647, when the +destruction of the Louviers establishment was decreed. +The guilty escaped by securing, by intimidation, the +silence of their prisoner, who remained a living corpse<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197" href="#Page_197">[197]</a></span> +in the dungeons of the episcopal palace of Rouen. +The bones of Picart were exhumed, and publicly +burned; the curé Boullé, an accomplice, was dragged +on a hurdle to the fish-market, and there burned at +the stake. So terminated this last of the trilogical +series. But the hysterical or demoniacal disease was +as furious as ever in Germany in the middle of the +eighteenth century; and was attended with as tremendous +effects at Würzburg as at Louviers.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_127_127" id="Footnote_127_127"></a><a href="#FNanchor_127_127"><span class="label">127</span></a> To the diabolic visions of the other they opposed those of 'a certain +Anne of the Nativity, a girl of sanguine hysterical temperament, +frantic at need, and half mad—so far at least as to believe in her own +lies. A kind of dog-fight was got up between the two. They besmeared +each other with false charges. Anne saw the devil quite +naked by Madeleine's side. Madeleine swore to seeing Anne at the +Sabbath with the Lady Superior, the Mother Assistant, and the +Mother of the novices.... Madeleine was condemned, without a +hearing, to be disgraced, to have her body examined for the marks +of the devil. They tore off her veil and gown, and made her the +wretched sport of a vile curiosity that would have pierced till she +bled again in order to win the right of sending her to the stake. +Leaving to no one else the care of a scrutiny which was in itself a +torture, these virgins, acting as matrons, ascertained if she were with +child or no; shaved all her body, and dug their needles into her +quivering flesh to find out the insensible spots.'—<i>La Sorcière</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_128_128" id="Footnote_128_128"></a><a href="#FNanchor_128_128"><span class="label">128</span></a> The horrified reader may see the fuller details of this case in +Michelet's <i>La Sorcière</i>, who takes occasion to state that, than 'The +History of Madeleine Bavent, a nun of Louviers, with her examination, +&c., 1652, Rouen,' he knows of 'no book more important, more +dreadful, or worthier of being reprinted. It is the most powerful +narrative of its class. <i>Piety Afflicted</i>, by the Capuchin Esprit de +Bosrager, is a work immortal in the annals of tomfoolery. The two +excellent pamphlets by the doughty surgeon Yvelin, the <i>Inquiry</i> and +the <i>Apology</i>, are in the Library of Ste. Geneviève.'—<i>La Sorcière</i>, the +Witch of the Middle Ages, chap. viii. Whatever exaggeration there +may possibly be in any of the details of these and similar histories, +there is not any reasonable doubt of their general truth. It is much +to be wished, indeed, that writers should, in these cases, always confine +themselves to the simple facts, which need not any imaginary +or fictitious additions.</p></div> + +<p>In Germany during the seventeenth century witches +felt the fury of both Catholic and Protestant zeal; +but in the previous age prosecutions are directed +against Protestant witches. They abounded in +Upper Germany in the time of Innocent VIII., and +what numbers were executed has been already seen. +When the revolutionary party had acquired greater +strength and its power was established, they vied with +the conservatives in their vigorous attacks upon the +empire of Satan.</p> + +<p>Luther had been sensible to the contagious fear +that the great spiritual enemy was actually fighting +in the ranks of his enemies. He had personal experience +of his hostility. Immured for his safety in +a voluntary but gloomy prison, occupied intensely +in the plan of a mighty revolution against the most +powerful hierarchy that has ever existed, engaged +continuously in the laborious task of translating the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198" href="#Page_198">[198]</a></span> +Sacred Scriptures, only partially freed from the prejudices +of education, it is little surprising that the +antagonist of the Church should have experienced +infernal hallucinations. This weakness of the champion +of Protestantism is at least more excusable than +the pedantic folly of the head of the English Church. +When Luther, however, could seriously affirm that +witchcraft 'is the devil's proper work wherewith, +when God permits, he not only hurts people but +makes away with them; for in this world we are as +guests and strangers, body and soul, cast under the +devil: that idiots, the lame, the blind, the dumb are +men in whom ignorant devils have established themselves, +and all the physicians who attempt to heal +these infirmities as though they proceeded from +natural causes, are ignorant blockheads who know +nothing about the power of the demon,' we cannot +be indignant at the blind credulity of the masses of +the people. It appears inconsistent that Luther, +averse generally to supernaturalism, should yet find +no difficulty in entertaining these irrational diabolistic +ideas. The circumstances of his life and times sufficiently +explain the inconsistency.<a name="FNanchor_129_129" id="FNanchor_129_129"></a><a href="#Footnote_129_129" class="fnanchor">129</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_129_129" id="Footnote_129_129"></a><a href="#FNanchor_129_129"><span class="label">129</span></a> The following sentence in his recorded conversation, when the +free thoughts of the Reformer were unrestrained in the presence of +his most intimate friends, is suggestive. 'I know,' says he, 'the +devil thoroughly well; he has over and over pressed me so close that +I scarcely knew whether I was alive or dead. Sometimes he has +thrown me into such despair that I even knew not that there is a +God, and had great doubts about our dear Lord Christ. But the +Word of God has speedily restored me' (Luther's <i>Tischreden</i> or <i>Table +Talk</i>, as cited in Howitt's <i>History of the Supernatural</i>). The eloquent +controversialist Bossuet and the Catholics have been careful to avail +themselves of the impetuosity and incautiousness of the great German +Reformer. +</p><p> +Of all the leaders of the religious revolution of the sixteenth +century, the Reformer of Zurich was probably the most liberally +inclined; and Zuinglius' unusual charity towards those ancient +sages and others who were ignorant of Christianity, which induced +him to place the names of Aristides, Socrates, the Gracchi, &c., in the +same list with those of Moses, Isaiah, and St. Paul, who should meet +in the assembly of the virtuous and just in the future life, obliged +Luther openly to profess of his friend that 'he despaired of his salvation,' +and has provoked the indignation of the bishop of Meaux.—<i>Variations +des Eglises Protestantes</i>, ii. 19 and 20.</p></div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199" href="#Page_199">[199]</a></span></p> +<p>On the eve of the prolonged and ferocious struggle +on the continent between Catholicism and Protestantism +a wholesale slaughter of witches and wizards +was effected, a fitting prologue to the religious barbarities +of the Thirty Years' War. Fires were kindled +almost simultaneously in two different places, at +Bamburg and Würzburg; and seldom, even in the +annals of witchcraft, have they burned more tremendously. +The prince-bishops of those territories had +long been anxious to extirpate Lutheranism from +their dioceses. Frederick Forner, Suffragan of Bamburg, +a vigorous supporter of the Jesuits, was the +chief agent of John George II. He waged war upon +the heretical sorcerers in the 'whole armour of God,' +<i>Panoplia armaturæ Dei</i>. According to the statements +of credible historians, nine hundred trials took<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200" href="#Page_200">[200]</a></span> +place in the two courts of Bamburg and Zeil between +1625 and 1630. Six hundred were burned by +Bishop George II. No one was spared. The chancellor, +his son, Dr. Horn, with his wife and daughters, +many of the lords and councillors of the bishop's +court, women and priests, suffered. After tortures +of the most extravagant kind it was extorted that +some twelve hundred of them were confederated to +bewitch the entire land to the extent that 'there +would have been neither wine nor corn in the country, +and that thereby man and beast would have +perished with hunger, and men would be driven to +eat one another. There were even some Catholic +priests among them who had been led into practices +too dreadful to be described, and they confessed +among other things that they had baptized many +children in the devil's name. It must be stated that +these confessions were made under tortures of the +most fearful kind, far more so than anything that +was practised in France or other countries.... +The number brought to trial in these terrible proceedings +were so great, and they were treated with +so little consideration, that it was usual not even to +take the trouble of setting down their names; but +they were cited as the accused Nos. 1, 2, 3, &c. The +Jesuits took their confessions in private, and they +made up the lists of those who were understood to +have been denounced by them.'</p> + +<p>More destructive still were the burnings of Würzburg<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201" href="#Page_201">[201]</a></span> +at the same period under the superintendence +of Philip Adolph, who ascended the episcopal throne +in 1623. In spite of the energy of his predecessors, +a grand confederacy of sorcerers had been discovered, +and were at once denounced.<a name="FNanchor_130_130" id="FNanchor_130_130"></a><a href="#Footnote_130_130" class="fnanchor">130</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_130_130" id="Footnote_130_130"></a><a href="#FNanchor_130_130"><span class="label">130</span></a> 'A catalogue of nine and twenty <i>brände</i> or burnings during a +very short period of time, previous to the February of 1629, will give +the best notion of the horrible character of these proceedings; it is +printed,' adds Mr. Wright, 'from the original records in Hauber's +<i>Bibliotheca Magica</i>.' E.g. in the Fifth Brände are enumerated: (1) +Latz, an eminent shopkeeper. (2) Rutscher, a shopkeeper. (3) The +housekeeper of the Dean of the cathedral. (4) The old wife of the +Court ropemaker. (5) Jos. Sternbach's housekeeper. (6) The wife +of Baunach, a Senator. (7) A woman named Znickel Babel. (8) An +old woman. In the Sixteenth Burning: (1) A noble page of Ratzenstein. +(2) A boy of ten years of age. (3, 4, 5) The two daughters +of the Steward of the Senate and his maid. (6) The fat ropemaker's +wife. In the Twentieth Burning: (1) Gobel's child, the most beautiful +girl in Würzburg. (2) A student on the fifth form, who knew +many languages, and was an excellent musician. (3, 4) Two boys +from the New Minster, each twelve years old. (5) Stepper's little +daughter. (6) The woman who kept the bridge gate. In the Twenty-sixth +Burning are specified: (1) David Hans, a Canon in the New +Minster. (2) Weydenbusch, a Senator. (3) The innkeeper's wife +of the Baumgarten. (4) An old woman. (5) The little daughter of +Valkenberger was privately executed and burned on her bier. (6) +The little son of the town council bailiff. (7) Herr Wagner, vicar in +the cathedral, was burned alive.—<i>Narratives of Sorcery and Magic</i>. +The facts are taken from Dr. Soldan's <i>Geschichte der Hexenprocesse</i>, +whose materials are to be found in Horst's <i>Zauber Bibliothek</i> and +Hauber's <i>Bibliotheca Magica</i>.</p></div> + +<p>Nine appears to have been the greatest number, +and sometimes only two were sent to execution at +once. Five are specially recorded as having been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202" href="#Page_202">[202]</a></span> +burned alive. The victims are of all professions +and trades—vicars, canons, goldsmiths, butchers, +&c. Besides the twenty-nine conflagrations recorded, +many others were lighted about the same time: the +names of whose prey are not written in the Book of +Death. Frederick Spee, a Jesuit, formerly a violent +enemy of the witches, but who had himself been +incriminated by their extorted confessions at these +holocausts, was converted to the opposite side, and +wrote the 'Cautio Criminalis,' in which the necessity +of caution in receiving evidence is insisted upon—a +caution, without doubt, 'very necessary at that time +for the magistracy throughout Germany.' All over +Germany executions, if not everywhere so indiscriminately +destructive as those in Franconia and at Würzburg, +were incessant: and it is hardly the language of +hyperbole to say that no province, no city, no village +was without its condemned.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203" href="#Page_203">[203]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Scotland one of the most Superstitious Countries in Europe—Scott's +Relation of the Barbarities perpetrated in the Witch-trials +under the auspices of James VI.—The Fate of Agnes Sampson, +Euphane MacCalzean, &c.—Irrational Conduct of the Courts of +Justice—Causes of voluntary Witch-confessions—Testimony of +Sir G. Mackenzie, &c.—Trial and Execution of Margaret +Barclay—Computation of the number of Witches who suffered +death in England and Scotland in the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries—Witches burned alive at Edinburgh in 1608—The +Lancashire Witches—Sir Thomas Overbury and Dr. Forman—Margaret +Flower and Lord Rosse.</p></div> + +<p><span class="chap">Scotland</span>, by the physical features of the country and +by the character and habits of the people, is eminently +apt for the reception of the magical and +supernatural of any kind;<a name="FNanchor_131_131" id="FNanchor_131_131"></a><a href="#Footnote_131_131" class="fnanchor">131</a> and during the century +from 1563 it was almost entirely subject to the +dominion of Satan. Sir Walter Scott has narrated +some of the most prominent cases and trials in the +northern part of the island. The series may be said +to commence from the confederated conspiracy of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204" href="#Page_204">[204]</a></span> +hell to prevent the union of James VI. with the +Princess Anne of Denmark. An overwhelming tempest +at sea during the voyage of these anti-papal, +anti-diabolic royal personages was the appointed +means of their destruction.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_131_131" id="Footnote_131_131"></a><a href="#FNanchor_131_131"><span class="label">131</span></a> A late philosophic writer has ventured to institute a comparison +in point of superstition and religious intolerance between Spain and +Scotland. The latter country, however, has denied to political what +it conceded to priestly government: hence its superior material progress +and prosperity.—Buckle's <i>History of Civilisation in England</i>.</p></div> + +<p>The human agents were Agnes Sampson, the wise +wife of Keith (one of the better sort, who cured diseases, +&c.); Dame Euphane MacCalzean, widow of a +senator of the College of Justice, and a Catholic; Dr. +John Fian or Cunninghame, a man of some learning, +and of much skill in poison as well as in magic; +Barbara Napier or Douglas; Geillis Duncan; with +about thirty other women of the lowest condition. +'When the monarch of Scotland sprung this strong +covey of his favourite game, they afforded the Privy +Council and himself sport for the greatest part of the +remaining winter. He attended on the examinations +himself.... Agnes Sampson, after being an +hour tortured by the twisting of a cord around her +head according to the custom of the buccaneers, confessed +that she had consulted with one Richard Grahame +concerning the probable length of the king's +life and the means of shortening it. But Satan, to +whom at length they resorted for advice, told them +in French respecting King James, <i>Il est un homme +de Dieu</i>. The poor woman also acknowledged that +she had held a meeting with those of her sisterhood,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205" href="#Page_205">[205]</a></span> +who had charmed a cat by certain spells, having four +joints of men knit to its feet, which they threw into +the sea to excite a tempest: they embarked in sieves +with much mirth and jollity, the fiend rolling himself +before them upon the waves dimly seen, and resembling +a huge haystack in size and appearance. +They went on board of a foreign ship richly laden +with wines, where, invisible to the crew, they feasted +till the sport grew tiresome; and then Satan sunk +the vessel and all on board. Fian or Cunninghame +was also visited by the sharpest tortures, ordinary +and extraordinary. The nails were torn from his +fingers with smiths' pincers; pins were driven into +the places which the nails usually defended; his +knees were crushed in the <i>boots</i>; his finger-bones +were splintered in the <i>pilniewincks</i>. At length his +constancy, hitherto sustained, as the bystanders supposed, +by the help of the devil, was fairly overcome; +and he gave an account of a great witch-meeting at +North Berwick, where they paced round the church +<i>withershins</i>—i. e. in reverse of the motion of the +sun. Fian then blew into the lock of the church +door, whereupon the bolts gave way: the unhallowed +crew entered, and their master the devil appeared to +his servants in the shape of a black man occupying +the pulpit. He was saluted with a "Hail, Master!" +but the company were dissatisfied with his not having +brought a picture of the king, repeatedly promised,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206" href="#Page_206">[206]</a></span> +which was to place his Majesty at the mercy of this +infernal crew.... The devil, on this memorable +occasion, forgot himself, and called Fian by his +own name instead of the demoniacal sobriquet of +Rob the Rowan, which had been assigned to him as +Master of the Rows or Rolls. This was considered as +bad taste; and the rule is still observed at every rendezvous +of forgers, smugglers, or the like, where it is +accounted very indifferent manners to name an individual +by his own name in case of affording ground +of evidence which may upon a day of trial be brought +against him. Satan, something disconcerted, concluded +the evening with a divertissement and a +dance after his own manner. The former consisted +in disinterring a new-buried corpse, and dividing it +in fragments among the company; and the ball was +maintained by well-nigh two hundred persons, who +danced a ring dance.... Dr. Fian, muffled, +led the ring, and was highly honoured, generally +acting as clerk or recorder. King James was deeply +interested in those mysterious meetings, and took +great delight to be present at the examinations of +the accused. He sent for Geillis Duncan, and caused +her to play before him the same tune to which Satan +and his companions led the brawl in North Berwick +churchyard. His ears were gratified in another way: +for at this meeting it was said the witches demanded +of the devil why he did bear such enmity against the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207" href="#Page_207">[207]</a></span> +king, who returned the flattering answer, that the +king was the greatest enemy whom he had in the +world. Almost all these poor wretches were executed: +nor did Euphane MacCalzean's station in life save +her from the common doom, which was strangling to +death and burning to ashes thereafter. The majority +of the jury which tried Barbara Napier, having +acquitted her of attendance at the North Berwick +meeting, were themselves threatened with a trial for +wilful error upon an assize, and could only escape +from severe censure and punishment by pleading +guilty, and submitting themselves to the king's pleasure. +The alterations and trenching,' adds Scott, +'which lately took place on the Castle-hill at Edinburgh +for the purpose of forming the new approach +to the city from the west, displayed the ashes of the +numbers who had perished in this manner, of whom +a large proportion must have been executed between +1590—when the great discovery was made concerning +Euphane MacCalzean and the wise wife of Keith and +their accomplices—and the union of the crowns.'<a name="FNanchor_132_132" id="FNanchor_132_132"></a><a href="#Footnote_132_132" class="fnanchor">132</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_132_132" id="Footnote_132_132"></a><a href="#FNanchor_132_132"><span class="label">132</span></a> Sir W. Scott's <i>Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft</i>, ix.</p></div> + +<p>Euphane's exceptional doom was 'to be bound to +the stake, and burned in ashes <i>quick</i> to the death.' +'Burning quick' was not an uncommon sentence: if +the less cruel one of hanging or strangling first and +afterwards burning was more usual. Thirty warlocks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208" href="#Page_208">[208]</a></span> +and witches was the total number executed on June +25th, 1591. A few, like Dr. Cunninghame, may +have been really experienced in the use of poison +and poisonous drugs. The art of poisoning has been +practised perhaps almost as extensively as (often +coextensively with) that of sorcery; a tremendous +and mostly inscrutable crime which science, in all +ages, has been able more surely to conceal than to +detect.</p> + +<p>Two facts eminently illustrate the barbarous +iniquity of the Courts of Justice when dealing with +their witch prisoners. An expressed malediction, or +frequently an almost inaudible mutter, followed by +the coincident fulfilment of the imprecation, was +accepted eagerly by the judges as sufficient proof +(an antecedent one, contrary to the boasted principle +of English law at least, which assumes the innocence +until the guilt has been proved, of the accused) of +the crime of the person arraigned. And they complacently +attributed to conscious guilt the ravings +produced by an excruciating torture—that equally +inhuman and irrational invention of judicial cruelty; +confidently boasting that they were careful to sentence +no person without previous confession duly made.</p> + +<p>But these confessions not seldom were partly extracted +from a natural wish to be freed from the +persecution of neighbours as well as from present +bodily torture. Sir George Mackenzie, Lord Advocate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209" href="#Page_209">[209]</a></span> +of Scotland during the period of the greatest fury, +and himself president at many of the trials, a believer, +among other cases in his <i>Criminal Law</i>, 1678, relates +that of a condemned witch who had confessed +judicially to him and afterwards 'told me under +secrecy, that she had not confessed because she was +guilty; but being a poor creature who wrought for +her meat, and being defamed for a witch she knew +she should starve, for no person thereafter would +either give her meat or lodging, and that all men +would beat her and set dogs at her, and that therefore +she desired to be out of the world. Whereupon +she wept most bitterly, and upon her knees called +God to witness to what she said. Another told me +that she was afraid the devil would challenge a right +to her after she was said to be his servant, and would +haunt her, as the minister said when he was desiring +her to confess, and therefore she desired to die. And +really,' admits the learned judge, 'ministers are oft-times +indiscreet in their zeal to have poor creatures +to confess in this; and I recommend to judges that +the wisest ministers should be sent to them; and +that those who are sent should be cautious in this +particular.' Another confession at the supreme +moment of the same sort, as recorded by the Rev. G. +Sinclair in 'Satan's Invisible World Discovered' is +equally significant and genuine. What impression it +left upon the pious clergyman will be seen in his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210" href="#Page_210">[210]</a></span> +concluding inference. The witch, 'being carried forth +to the place of execution, remained silent during the +first, second, and third prayer, and then, perceiving +there remained no more but to rise up and go to the +stake, she lifted up her body and with a loud voice +cried out, "Now all you that see me this day know +that I am now to die as a witch by my own confession, +and I free all men, especially the ministers and magistrates, +of the guilt of my blood. I take it wholly +upon myself—my blood be upon my own head; and +as I must make answer to the God of heaven presently, +I declare I am as free of witchcraft as any +child. But being delated by a malicious woman, +and put in prison under the name of a witch; disowned +by my husband and friends, and seeing no +ground of hope of my coming out of prison or ever +coming in credit again, through the temptation of the +devil I made up that confession on purpose to destroy +my own life, being weary of it, and choosing rather +to die than live"—and so died; which lamentable +story as it did then astonish all the spectators, none +of which could restrain themselves from tears, so it +may be to all a demonstration of Satan's subtlety, +whose design is still to destroy all, partly by tempting +many to presumption, and some others to despair.'</p> + +<p>The trial of Margaret Barclay took place in 1613. +Her crime consisted in having caused by means of +spells the loss of a ship at sea. She was said to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211" href="#Page_211">[211]</a></span> +have had a quarrel with the owner of the shipwrecked +vessel, in the course of which she uttered a wish that +all on board might sink to the bottom of the sea. +Her imprecation was accomplished, and upon the +testimony of an itinerant juggler, John Stewart, she +was arraigned before a Court of Justice. With the +help of the devil in the shape of a handsome black +dog, she had moulded some figures of clay representing +the doomed sailors, which with the prescribed +rites were thrown into the deep. We are informed +by the reporters of the proceedings at this examination, +that 'after using this kind of gentle torture +[viz. placing the legs in a pair of stocks and laying +on gradually increasing weights of iron bars], the +said Margaret began, according to the increase of the +pain, to cry and crave for God's cause to take off her +shin the foresaid irons, and she should declare truly +the whole matter. Which being removed, she began +at her formal denial; and being of new assayed in +torture as before, she then uttered these words: +"Take off, take off! and before God I shall show you +the whole form." And the said irons being of new, +upon her faithful promise, removed, she then desired +my Lord of Eglinton, the said four justices, and +the said Mr. David Dickson, minister of the burgh; +Mr. George Dunbar, minister of Ayr; Mr. Mitchell +Wallace, minister of Kilmarnock; Mr. John Cunninghame, +minister of Dalry; and Hugh Kennedy, provost<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212" href="#Page_212">[212]</a></span> +of Ayr, to come by themselves and to remove all +others, and she should declare truly, as she should +answer to God, the whole matter. Whose desire in +that being fulfilled, she made her confession in this +manner without any kind of demand, freely without +interrogation: God's name by earnest prayer being +called upon for opening of her lips and easing of +her heart, that she by rendering of the truth might +glorify and magnify His holy name and disappoint +the enemy of her salvation.'</p> + +<p>One of those involved in the voluntary confession +was Isabel Crawford, who was frightened into admitting +the offences alleged. In court, when asked +if she wished to be defended by counsel, Margaret +Barclay, whose hopes and fears were revived at seeing +her husband, answered, 'As you please; but all I +have confessed was in agony of torture; and, before +God, all I have spoken is false and untrue.' She was +found guilty; sentenced to be strangled at the stake; +her body to be burned to ashes. Isabel Crawford, +after a short interval, was subjected to the same sort +of examination: a new commission having been +granted for the prosecution, and 'after the assistant-minister +of Irvine, Mr. David Dickson, had made +earnest prayers to God for opening her obdurate and +closed heart, she was subjected to the torture of iron +bars laid upon her bare shins, her feet being in the +stocks. She endured this torture with incredible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213" href="#Page_213">[213]</a></span> +firmness, since she did "admirably, without any kind +of din or exclamation, suffer above thirty stone of +iron to be laid on her legs, never shrinking thereat in +any sort, but remaining, as it were, steady." But in +shifting the situation of the iron bars, and removing +them to another part of her shins, her constancy +gave way; she broke out into horrible cries of "Take +off! take off!" On being relieved from the torture +she made the usual confession of all that she was +charged with, and of a connection with the devil +which had subsisted for several years. Sentence was +given against her accordingly. After this had been +denounced she openly denied all her former confessions, +and died without any sign of repentance; offering +repeated interruptions to the minister in his +prayers, and absolutely refusing to pardon the executioner.'<a name="FNanchor_133_133" id="FNanchor_133_133"></a><a href="#Footnote_133_133" class="fnanchor">133</a> +It might be possible to form an imperfect +estimate of how many thousands were sacrificed +in the Jacobian persecution in Scotland alone from +existing historical records, which would express, however, +but a small proportion of the actual number: +and parish registers may still attest the quantity of +fuel provided at a considerable expense, and the +number of the fires. By a moderate computation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214" href="#Page_214">[214]</a></span> +an average number of two hundred annually, making +a total of eight thousand, are reckoned to have been +burned in the last forty years of the sixteenth century.<a name="FNanchor_134_134" id="FNanchor_134_134"></a><a href="#Footnote_134_134" class="fnanchor">134</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_133_133" id="Footnote_133_133"></a><a href="#FNanchor_133_133"><span class="label">133</span></a> <i>Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft</i>, ix. +</p><p> +The Scotch trials and tortures, of which the above cases are but +one or two out of a hundred similar ones, are perhaps the more +extraordinary as being the result of <i>mere</i> superstition: religious or +political heresy being seldom an excuse for the punishment and an +aggravation of the offence.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_134_134" id="Footnote_134_134"></a><a href="#FNanchor_134_134"><span class="label">134</span></a> A larger proportion of victims than even those of the Holy Office +during an equal space of time. According to Llorente (<i>Hist. de +l'Inquisition</i>) from 1680 to 1781, the latter period of its despotism +(which flourished especially under Charles II., himself, as he was +convinced, a victim of witch-malice), between 13,000 and 14,000 persons +suffered by various punishments: of which number, however, +1,578 were burned alive.</p></div> + +<p>In England, from 1603 to 1680, seventy thousand +persons are said to have been executed; and during +the fifteen hundred years elapsed since the triumph +of the Christian religion, millions are reckoned to +have been sacrificed on the bloody altars of the +Christian Moloch. An entry in the minutes of the +proceedings in the Privy Council for 1608 reveals +that even James's ministers began to experience +some horror of the consequences of their instructions. +And the following free testimony of one of them is +truly 'an appalling record:'—'1608.—December 1.—The +Earl of Mar declared to the council that some +women were taken in Broughton [suburban Edinburgh] +as witches, and being put to an assize and +convicted, albeit they persevered constant in their +denial to the end, yet they were burned <i>quick</i> after +such a cruel manner that some of them died in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215" href="#Page_215">[215]</a></span> +despair, renouncing and blaspheming God; and others +half-burned broke out of the fire, and were cast <i>quick</i> +in it again till they were burned to the death.'<a name="FNanchor_135_135" id="FNanchor_135_135"></a><a href="#Footnote_135_135" class="fnanchor">135</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_135_135" id="Footnote_135_135"></a><a href="#FNanchor_135_135"><span class="label">135</span></a> The terrestrial and <i>real</i> Fiends seem to have striven to realise on +earth and to emulate the 'Tartarus horrificos eructans faucibus æstus' +described by the Epicurean philosophic poet (Lucretius, <i>De Rerum +Naturâ</i>, iii.).</p></div> + +<p>Equally monstrous and degrading were the disclosures +in the torture-chambers; and many admitted +that they had had children by the devil. The circumstances +of the Sabbath, the various rites of the +compact, the forms and method of bewitching, the +manner of sexual intercourse with the demons—these +were the principal staple of the judicial examinations.</p> + +<p>In the southern part of the island witch-hanging +or burning proceeded with only less vehemence than +in Scotland. One of the most celebrated cases in +the earlier half of the seventeenth century (upon +which Thomas Shadwell the poet laureate, who, under +the name of MacFlecknoe, is immortalised by the +satire of Dryden, founded a play) is the story of the +Lancashire Witches. This persecution raged at two +separate periods; first in 1613, when nineteen +prisoners were brought before Sir James Altham +and Sir Edward Bromley, Barons of Exchequer. +Elizabeth Southern, known as 'Mother Demdike' in +the poet laureate's drama, is the leader of the +criminals. In 1634 the proceedings were renewed +wholly on the evidence of a boy who, it was after<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216" href="#Page_216">[216]</a></span>wards +ascertained, had been instructed in his part +against an old woman named Mother Dickenson. +The evidence was of the feeblest sort; nor are its +monotonous details worth repetition. Out of some +forty persons implicated on both occasions, fortunately +the greater number escaped. 'Lancashire +Witches,' a term so hateful in its origin, has been +long transferred to celebrate the superior <i>charms</i> (of +another kind) of the ladies of Lancashire; and +the witches' spells are those of natural youth and +beauty.</p> + +<p>The social position of Sir Thomas Overbury has +made his fate notorious. An infamous plot had been +invented by the Earl of Rochester (Robert Kerr) +and the Countess of Essex to destroy a troublesome +obstacle to their contemplated marriage. The practice +of 'hellish charms' is only incidental; an +episode in the dark mystery. Overbury was too well +acquainted with royal secrets (whose disgusting and +unnatural kind has been probably correctly conjectured), +too important for the keeping of even a +private secretary. His ruin was determined by the +revenge of the noble lovers and sealed by the fear of +the king. At the end of six months he had been +gradually destroyed by secret poison in his prison in +the Tower (to which for an alleged offence he had +been committed) by the agency of Dr. Forman, a +famous 'pharmaceutic,' under the auspices of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217" href="#Page_217">[217]</a></span> +Earl of Rochester. This Dr. Forman had been previously +employed by Lady Essex, a notorious <i>dame +d'honneur</i> at James's Court, to bewitch the Earl to +an irresistible love for her, an enchantment which +required, apparently, no superhuman inducement. +A Mrs. Turner, the countess's agent, was associated +with this skilful conjuror. They were instructed also +to bewitch Lord Essex, lately returned from abroad, +in the opposite way—to divert his love from his +wife.<a name="FNanchor_136_136" id="FNanchor_136_136"></a><a href="#Footnote_136_136" class="fnanchor">136</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_136_136" id="Footnote_136_136"></a><a href="#FNanchor_136_136"><span class="label">136</span></a> The husband was impracticable; he could not be <i>disenchanted</i>. +Conjurations and charms failing, 'the countess was instructed to +bring against the Earl of Essex a charge of conjugal incapacity: A +commission of reverend prelates of the church was appointed to sit +in judgment, over whom the king presided in person; and a jury of +matrons was found to give their opinion that the Lady Essex was a +maiden.' Divorce was accordingly pronounced, and with all possible +haste the king married his favourite to the appellant with great pomp +at Court. After the conspirators had been arraigned by the public +indignation, a curious incident of the trial, according to a cotemporary +report, was, that there being 'showed in court certain pictures +of a man and a woman made in lead, and also a mould of brass wherein +they were cast; a black scarf also full of white crosses which Mrs. +Turner had in her custody; enchanted paps and other pictures [as +well as a list of some of the devil's particular names used in conjuration], +suddenly was heard a crack from the scaffold, which carried +a great fear, tumult, and commotion amongst the spectators and +through the hall; every one fearing hurt as if the devil had been +present and grown angry to have his workmanship known by such as +were not his own scholars' (<i>Narratives of Sorcery and Magic</i>, by +Thomas Wright). Whatever may have been the crime or crimes for +the knowledge of which Sir Thomas Overbury was doomed, it is significant +that for his own safety the king was compelled to break an +oath (sworn upon his knees before the judges he had purposely summoned, +with an imprecation that God's curse might light upon him +and his posterity for ever if he failed to bring the guilty to deserved +punishment), and to not only pardon but remunerate his former favourite +after he had been solemnly convicted and condemned to a +felon's death. The crime, the knowledge of which prevented the appearance +of Somerset at the gibbet or the scaffold, has been supposed +by some, with scarcely sufficient cause or at least proof, to be the +murder by the king of his son Prince Henry. Doubt has been strongly +expressed of the implication at all of the favourite in the death of +Overbury: the evidence produced at the trial about the poisoning +being, it seems, made up to conceal or to mystify the real facts.</p></div> + +<p>Two women were executed at Lincoln, in 1618, for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218" href="#Page_218">[218]</a></span> +bewitching Lord Rosse, eldest son of the Earl of +Rutland, and others of the family—Lord Rosse being +bewitched to death; also for preventing by diabolic +arts the parents from having any more children. +Before the Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas +and one of the Barons of the Exchequer, it was +proved that the witches had effected the death of +the noble lord by burying his glove in the ground, +and 'as that glove did rot and waste, so did the liver +of the said lord rot and waste.' Margaret Flower +confessed she had 'two familiar spirits sucking on her, +the one white, the other black spotted. The white +sucked under her left breast,' &c.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219" href="#Page_219">[219]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Literature of Europe in the Seventeenth Century proves the +Universality and Horror of Witchcraft—The most acute and most +liberal Men of Learning convinced of its Reality—Erasmus and +Francis Bacon—Lawyers prejudiced by Legislation—Matthew +Hale's judicial Assertion—Sir Thomas Browne's Testimony—John +Selden—The English Church least Ferocious of the Protestant +Sects—Jewell and Hooker—Independent Tolerance—Witchcraft +under the Presbyterian Government—Matthew +Hopkins—Gaule's 'Select Cases of Conscience'—Judicial and +Popular Methods of Witch-discovery—Preventive Charms—Witchfinders +a legal and numerous Class in England and +Scotland—Remission in the Severity of the Persecution under +the Protectorship.</p></div> + +<p><span class="chap">Had</span> we not the practical proof of the prevalence of +the credit of the black art in accomplished facts, the +literature of the first half of the seventeenth century +would be sufficient testimony to its horrid dominion. +The works of the great dramatists, the writings of +men of every class, continually suppose the universal +power and horror of witchcraft. Internal evidence +is abundant. The witches of Macbeth are no fanciful +creation, and Shakspeare's representation of La +Pucelle's fate is nothing more than a copy from life.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220" href="#Page_220">[220]</a></span> +What the vulgar superstition must have been may +be easily conceived when men of the greatest genius +or learning credited the possibility, and not only a +theoretical but actual occurrence, of these infernal +phenomena. Gibbon is at a loss to account for the fact +that the acute understanding of the learned Erasmus, +who could see through much more plausible fables, +believed firmly in witchcraft.<a name="FNanchor_137_137" id="FNanchor_137_137"></a><a href="#Footnote_137_137" class="fnanchor">137</a> Francis Bacon, the +advocate and second founder of the inductive method +and first apostle of the Utilitarian philosophy, opposed +though he might have been to the vulgar persecution, +was not able to get rid of the principles upon which +the creed was based.<a name="FNanchor_138_138" id="FNanchor_138_138"></a><a href="#Footnote_138_138" class="fnanchor">138</a> Sir Edward Coke, his contemporary, +the most acute lawyer of the age, or (as it is +said) of any time, ventured even to define the devil's +agents in witchcraft. Sir Thomas Browne (author of +'Pseudodoxia Epidemica' or 'Vulgar Errors!'), a +physician and writer of considerable merit, and Sir +Matthew Hale, in 1664, proved their faith, the one +by his solemn testimony in open court, the other by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221" href="#Page_221">[221]</a></span> +his still more solemn sentence.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_137_137" id="Footnote_137_137"></a><a href="#FNanchor_137_137"><span class="label">137</span></a> See <i>Miscellaneous Works: Abstract of my Readings</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_138_138" id="Footnote_138_138"></a><a href="#FNanchor_138_138"><span class="label">138</span></a> 'Consorting with them [the unclean spirits who have fallen +from their first estate] and all use of their assistance is unlawful; +much more any worship or veneration whatsoever. But a contemplation +and knowledge of their nature, power, illusions, not only from +passages of sacred scripture but <i>from reason or experience</i>, is not the +least part of spiritual wisdom. So truly the Apostle, "We are not +ignorant of his wiles." And it is not less permissible in theology +to investigate the nature of demons, than in physics to investigate +the nature of drugs, or in ethics the nature of vice.'—<i>De Augmentis +Scientiarum</i>, lib. iii. 2.</p></div> + +<p>If theologians were armed by the authority or +their interpretation of Scripture, lawyers were no less +so by that of the Statute Book. Judge Hale, in an +address to the jury at Bury St. Edmund's, carefully +weighing evidence, and, summing up, assures them +he did 'not in the least doubt there are witches: +first, because <i>the Scriptures affirmed it</i>; secondly, +because the <i>wisdom of all nations</i>, particularly of our +own, <i>had provided laws</i> against witchcraft which +implied their belief of such a crime.'<a name="FNanchor_139_139" id="FNanchor_139_139"></a><a href="#Footnote_139_139" class="fnanchor">139</a> Sir Thomas +Browne, who gave his professional experience at +this trial, to the effect that the devil often acts upon +human bodies by natural means, afflicting them in a +more surprising manner through the diseases to which +they are usually subject; and that in the particular +case, the fits (of vomiting nails, needles, deposed by +other witnesses) might be natural, only raised to a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222" href="#Page_222">[222]</a></span> +great degree by the subtlety of the devil cooperating +with the malice of the witches, employs a well-known +argument when he declares ('Religio Medici'), +'Those that to confute their incredulity desire to see +apparitions shall questionless never behold any. The +devil hath these already in a heresy as capital as +witchcraft; and to appear to them were <i>but</i> to convert +them.'</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_139_139" id="Footnote_139_139"></a><a href="#FNanchor_139_139"><span class="label">139</span></a> Unfortunately for the cause of truth and right, Sir Matthew +Hale's reasons are not an exceptional illustration of the mischief according +to Roger Bacon's experience of 'three very bad arguments +we are always using—This has been shown to be so; This is customary; +This is universal: Therefore it must be kept to.' Sir Thomas +Browne, unable, as a man of science, to accept in every particular +alleged the actual bonâ fide reality of the devil's power, makes a +compromise, and has 'recourse to a fraud of Satan,' explaining that +he is in reality but a clever juggler, a transcendent physician who +knows how to accomplish what is in relation to us a prodigy, in +knowing how to use natural forces which our knowledge has not yet +discovered. Such an unworthy compromise was certainly not fitted +to arouse men from their 'cauchemar démonologique.'—See <i>Révue +des Deux Mondes</i>, Aug. 1, 1858.</p></div> + +<p>John Selden, a learned lawyer, but of a liberal +mind, was gifted with a large amount of common +sense, and it might be juster to attribute the <i>dictum</i> +which has been supposed to betray 'a lurking belief' +to an excess of legal, rather than to a defect of intellectual, +perception. Selden, inferring that 'the +law against witches does not prove there be any, +but it punishes the malice of those people that +use such means to take away men's lives,' proceeds +to assert that 'if one should profess that by turning +his hat thrice and crying "Buz," he could take away +a man's life (though in truth he could do no such +thing), yet this were a just law made by the state, +that whosoever shall turn his hat ... with an intention +to take away a man's life, should be put to +death.'<a name="FNanchor_140_140" id="FNanchor_140_140"></a><a href="#Footnote_140_140" class="fnanchor">140</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_140_140" id="Footnote_140_140"></a><a href="#FNanchor_140_140"><span class="label">140</span></a> <i>Table Talk or Discourses</i> of John Selden. Although it must be +excepted to the lawyer's summary mode of dealing with an imaginary +offence, we prefer to give that eminent patriot at least the benefit of +the doubt, as to his belief in witchcraft.</p></div> + +<p>If men of more liberal sentiments were thus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223" href="#Page_223">[223]</a></span> +enslaved to old prejudices, it is not surprising that +the Church, not leading but following, should firmly +maintain them. Fortunately for the witches, without +the motives actuating in different ways Catholics +and Calvinists, and placed midway between both +parties, the reformed English Church was not so +much interested in identifying her crimes with +sorcerers as in maintaining the less tremendous +formulæ of Divine right, Apostolical succession, and +similar pretensions. Yet if they did not so furiously +engage themselves in actual witch-prosecutions, +Anglican divines have not been slow in expressly +or impliedly affirming the reality of diabolical interposition. +Nor can the most favourable criticism +exonerate them from the reproach at least of having +witnessed without protestation the barbarous cruelties +practised in the name of heaven; and the eminent +names of Bishop Jewell, the great apologist of the +English Church, and of the author of the 'Ecclesiastical +Polity,' among others less eminent, may be +claimed by the advocates of witchcraft as respectable +authorities in the Established Church. The 'judicious' +Hooker affirms that the evil spirits are dispersed, +some in the air, some on the earth, some in +the waters, some among the minerals, in dens and +caves that are under the earth, labouring to obstruct +and, if possible, to destroy the works of God. They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224" href="#Page_224">[224]</a></span> +were the <i>dii inferi</i> [the old persuasion] of the +heathen worshipped in oracles, in idols, &c.<a name="FNanchor_141_141" id="FNanchor_141_141"></a><a href="#Footnote_141_141" class="fnanchor">141</a> The +privilege of 'casting out devils' was much cherished +and long retained in the Established Church.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_141_141" id="Footnote_141_141"></a><a href="#FNanchor_141_141"><span class="label">141</span></a> Quoted in Howitt's <i>History of the Supernatural</i>. The author +has collected a mass of evidence 'demonstrating an universal faith,' +a curious collection of various superstition. He is indignant at the +colder faith of the Anglican Church of later times.</p></div> + +<p>During the ascendency of the Presbyterian party +from 1640 to the assumption of the Protectorship +by Cromwell, witches and witch-trials increased more +than ever; and they sensibly decreased only when +the Independents obtained a superiority. The +adherents of Cromwell, whatever may have been +their own fanatical excesses, were at least exempt +from the intolerant spirit which characterised alike +their Anglican enemies and their old Presbyterian +allies. The astute and vigorous intellect of the +great revolutionary leader, the champion of the +people in its struggles for civil and religious liberty, +however much he might affect the forms of the +prevailing religious sentiment, was too sagacious not +to be able to penetrate, with the aid of the counsels +of the author of the 'Treatise of Civil Power in +Ecclesiastical Causes,' who so triumphantly upheld the +fundamental principle of Protestantism,<a name="FNanchor_142_142" id="FNanchor_142_142"></a><a href="#Footnote_142_142" class="fnanchor">142</a> somewhat +beneath the surface. In what manner the Presbyterian<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225" href="#Page_225">[225]</a></span> +Parliament issued commissions for inquiring +into the crimes of sorcery, how zealously they were +supported by the clergy and people, how Matthew +Hopkins—immortal in the annals of English witchcraft—exercised +his talents as witchfinder-general, +are facts well known.<a name="FNanchor_143_143" id="FNanchor_143_143"></a><a href="#Footnote_143_143" class="fnanchor">143</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_142_142" id="Footnote_142_142"></a><a href="#FNanchor_142_142"><span class="label">142</span></a> 'Seeing therefore,' infers Milton, the greatest of England's +patriots as well as poets, 'that no man, no synod, no session of +men, though called the Church, can judge definitively the sense of +Scripture to another man's conscience, which is well known to be a +maxim of the Protestant religion; it follows plainly, that he who +holds in religion that belief or those opinions which to his conscience +and utmost understanding appear with most evidence or probability +in the Scripture, though to others he seem erroneous, can no +more be justly censured for a heretic than his censurers, who do but +the same thing themselves, while they censure him for so doing.... +To Protestants therefore, whose common rule and +touchstone is the Scripture, nothing can with more conscience, more +equity, nothing more Protestantly can be permitted than a free and +lawful debate at all times by writing, conference, or disputation of +what opinion soever disputable by Scripture.... How many +persecutions, then, imprisonments, banishments, penalties, and stripes; +how much bloodshed, have the forcers of conscience to answer for—and +Protestants rather than Papists!' (<i>A Treatise of Civil Power +in Ecclesiastical Causes</i>.) The reasons which induced Milton to exclude +the Catholics of his day from the general toleration are more +intelligible and more plausible, than those of fifty or sixty years +since, when the Rev. Sidney Smith published the <i>Letters of Peter +Plymley</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_143_143" id="Footnote_143_143"></a><a href="#FNanchor_143_143"><span class="label">143</span></a> Displayed in the satire of <i>Hudibras</i>, particularly in Part II. canto +3, Part III. 1, and the notes of Zachary Grey. The author of this +amusing political satire has exposed the foibles of the great Puritan +party with all the rancour of a partisan.</p></div> + +<p>That the strenuous antagonists of despotic dogmas, +by whom the principles of English liberty were first +inaugurated, that they should so fanatically abandon +their reason to a monstrous idea, is additional proof<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226" href="#Page_226">[226]</a></span> +of the universality of superstitious prejudice. But +the conviction, the result of a continual political +religious persecution of their tenets, that if heaven +was on their side Satan and the powers of darkness +were still more inimical, cannot be fully understood +unless by referring to those scenes of murder and +torture. Hunted with relentless ferocity like wild +beasts, holding conventicles and prayer meetings +with the sword suspended over their heads, it is not +surprising that at that period these English and +Scotch Calvinists came to believe that they were the +peculiar objects of diabolical as well as human +malice. Their whole history during the first eighty +years of the seventeenth century can alone explain +this faith. Besides this genuine feeling, the clergy of +the Presbyterian sect might be interested in maintaining +a creed which must magnify their credit as +miracle-workers.<a name="FNanchor_144_144" id="FNanchor_144_144"></a><a href="#Footnote_144_144" class="fnanchor">144</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_144_144" id="Footnote_144_144"></a><a href="#FNanchor_144_144"><span class="label">144</span></a> The author of <i>Hudibras</i>, in the interview of the Knight and +Sidrophel (William Lilly), enumerates the various practices and uses +of astrology and witchcraft in vogue at this time, and employed by +Court and Parliament with equal eagerness and emulation. Dr. +Zachary Grey, the sympathetic editor of <i>Hudibras</i>, supplies much +curious information on the subject in extracts from various old +writers. 'The Parliament,' as he states, 'took a sure way to secure +all prophecies, prodigies, and almanac-news from stars, &c., in favour +of their own side, by appointing a licenser thereof, and strictly +forbidding and punishing all such as were not licensed. Their man +for this purpose was the famous Booker, an astrologer, fortune-teller, +almanac-maker, &c. The words of his license in Rushorth +are very remarkable—for mathematics, almanacs, and prognostications. +If we may believe Lilly, both he and Booker did conjure +and prognosticate well for their friends the Parliament. He tells +us, "When he applied for a license for his <i>Merlinus Anglicus Junior</i> +(in Ap. 1644), Booker wondered at the book, made many impertinent +obliterations, framed many objections, and swore it was not possible +to distinguish between a king and a parliament; and at last licensed +it according to his own fancy. Lilly delivered it to the printer, who, +being an arch-Presbyterian, had five of the ministers to inspect it, +who could make nothing of it, but said it might be printed; for in +that he meddled not with their Dagon." (<i>Lilly's Life</i>.) Which +opposition to Lilly's book arose from a jealousy that he was not then +thoroughly in the Parliament's interest—which was true; for he +frankly confesses, "that till the year 1645 he was more Cavalier +than Roundhead, and so taken notice of; but after that he engaged +body and soul in the cause of the Parliament."' (<i>Life</i>.) Lilly was +succeeded successively by his assistant Henry Coley, and John +Partridge, the well-known object of Swift's satire.</p></div> + +<p>The years 1644 and 1645 are distinguished as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227" href="#Page_227">[227]</a></span> +especially abounding in witches and witchfinders. +In the former year, at Manningtree, a village in +Essex, during an outbreak in which several women +were tried and hanged, Matthew Hopkins first displayed +his peculiar talent. Associated with him in +his recognised legal profession was one John Sterne. +They proceeded regularly on their circuit, making a +fixed charge for their services upon each town or +village. Swimming and searching for secret marks +were the infallible methods of discovery. Hopkins, +encouraged by an unexpected success, arrogantly +assumed the title of 'Witchfinder-General.' His +modest charges (as he has told us) were twenty +shillings a town, which paid the expenses of travelling +and living, and an additional twenty shillings a head<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228" href="#Page_228">[228]</a></span> +for every criminal brought to trial, or at least to +execution.</p> + +<p>The eastern counties of Huntingdon, Cambridge, +Suffolk, Northampton, Bedford, were chiefly traversed; +and some two or three hundred persons appear to +have been sent to the gibbet or the stake by his +active exertions. One of these specially remembered +was the aged <i>parson</i> of a village near Framlingham, +Mr. Lowes, who was hanged at Bury St. Edmund's. +The pious Baxter, an eyewitness, thus commemorates +the event: 'The hanging of a great number of +witches in 1645 and 1646 is famously known. Mr. +Calamy went along with the judges on the circuit to +hear their confessions and see that there was no +fraud or wrong done them. I spoke with many +understanding, pious, learned, and credible persons +that lived in the counties, and some that went to +them in the prison and heard their sad confessions. +Among the rest, an old <i>reading</i> parson named Lowes, +not far from Framlingham, was one that was hanged, +who confessed that he had two imps, and that one of +them was always putting him upon doing mischief; +and he being near the sea as he saw a ship under +sail, it moved him to send it to sink the ship, and +he consented and saw the ship sink before them.' +Sterne, Hopkins's coadjutor, in an Apology published +not long afterwards, asserts that Lowes had been +indicted thirty years before for witchcraft; that he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229" href="#Page_229">[229]</a></span> +had made a covenant with the devil, sealing it with +his blood, and had those familiars or spirits which +sucked on the marks found on his body; that he +had confessed that, besides the notable mischief of +sinking the aforesaid vessel and making fourteen +widows in one quarter of an hour, he had effected +many other calamities; that far from repenting of +his wickedness, he rejoiced in the power of his +imps.</p> + +<p>The excessive destruction and cruelty perpetrated +by the indiscriminate procedure of the +Witchfinder-General incited a Mr. Gaule, vicar of +Great Staughton in Huntingdonshire, to urge some +objections to the inhuman character of his method. +Gaule, like John Cotta before him and others of that +class, was provoked to challenge the propriety of the +ordinary prosecutions, not so much from incredulity +as from humanity, which revolted at the extravagance +of the judges' cruelty. In 'Select Cases of +Conscience touching Witches and Witchcraft,' the +minister of Great Staughton describes from personal +knowledge one of the ordinary ways of detecting +the guilt of the accused. 'Having taken the +suspected witch, she is placed in the middle of a +room upon a stool or table, cross-legged, or in some +other uneasy position, to which, if she submits not, +she is then bound with cords: there is she watched +and kept without meat or sleep for the space of four-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230" href="#Page_230">[230]</a></span>and-twenty +hours (for they say within that time they +shall see her imps come and suck); a little hole is +likewise made in the door for the imps to come in at, +and, lest they should come in some less discernible +shape, they that watch are taught to be ever and +anon sweeping the room, and if they see any spiders +or flies to kill them; and if they cannot kill them, +then they may be sure they are her imps.'</p> + +<p>'Swimming' and 'pricking' were the approved +modes of discovery. By the former method the +witch was stripped naked, securely bound (hands +and feet being crossed), rolled up in a blanket or +cloth, and carried to the nearest water, upon which +she was laid on her back, with the alternative of +floating or sinking. In case of the former event (the +water not seldom refusing to receive the wretch, +because—declares James I.—they had impiously +thrown off the holy water of baptism) she was rescued +for the fire or the gallows; while, in case of +sinking to the bottom, she would be properly and +clearly acquitted of the suspected guilt. Hopkins +prided himself most on his ability for detecting +special marks. Causing the suspected woman to be +stripped naked, or as far as the waist (as the case +might be), sometimes in public, this stigmatic professor +began to search for the hidden signs with unsparing +scrutiny. Upon finding a mole or wart or +any similar mark, they tried the 'insensibleness there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231" href="#Page_231">[231]</a></span>of' +by inserting needles, pins, awls, or any sharp-pointed +instrument; and in an old and withered +crone it might not be difficult to find somewhere a +more insensitive spot.</p> + +<p>Such examinations were conducted with disregard +equally for humanity and decency. All the disgusting +circumstances must be sought for in the works +of the writers upon the subject. Reginald Scot has +collected many of the commonest. These marks +were considered to be teats at which the demons or +imps were used to be suckled. Many were the +judicial and vulgar methods of detecting the guilty—by +repeating the 'Lord's Prayer;' weighing against +the church Bible; making them shed tears—for a +witch can shed tears only with the left eye, and that +only with difficulty and in limited quantity. The +counteracting or preventive charms are as numerous +as curious, not a few being in repute in some parts +at this day. 'Drawing blood' was most effective. +Nailing up a horse-shoe is one of the best-known preventives. +That efficacious counter-charm used to be +suspended over the entrance of churches and houses, +and no wizard or witch could brave it.<a name="FNanchor_145_145" id="FNanchor_145_145"></a><a href="#Footnote_145_145" class="fnanchor">145</a> 'Scoring +above the breath' is omnipotent in Scotland, where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232" href="#Page_232">[232]</a></span> +the witch was cut or 'scotched' on the face and forehead. +Cutting off secretly a lock of the hair of the +accused, burning the thatch of her roof and the +thing bewitched; these are a few of the least offensive +or obscene practices in counter-charming.<a name="FNanchor_146_146" id="FNanchor_146_146"></a><a href="#Footnote_146_146" class="fnanchor">146</a> In +what degree or kind the Fetish-charms of the African +savages are more ridiculous or disgusting than those +popular in England 200 years ago, it would not be +easy to determine.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_145_145" id="Footnote_145_145"></a><a href="#FNanchor_145_145"><span class="label">145</span></a> Gay's witch complains: +</p> +<p class="footpoem">'Straws, laid across, my pace retard.<br /> +The horse-shoe's nailed, each threshold's guard.<br /> +The stunted broom the wenches hide<br /> +For fear that I should up and ride.<br /> +They stick with pins my bleeding seat,<br /> +And bid me show my secret teat.'<br /> +</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_146_146" id="Footnote_146_146"></a><a href="#FNanchor_146_146"><span class="label">146</span></a> The various love-charms, amulets, and spells in the pharmacy of +witchcraft are (like the waxen image known, both to the ancient and +modern art) equally monstrous and absurd. Of a more natural and +pleasing sort was the <ins title="Greek: himas poikilos">ἱμὰς ποικίλος</ins>, the irresistible charm of Aphrodite. Here—</p> +<p class="footpoem"> +<span class="footpoem8"><ins title="Greek: Thelktêria panta tetykto;">θελκτήρια πάντα τέτυκτο‧</ins><br /></span> +<ins title="Greek: Enth' eni men philotês, en d' himeros, en d' oaristys,">Ἔνθ᾽ ἔνι μὲν φιλότης, ἐν δ᾽ ἵμερος, ἐν δ᾽ ὀαριστὺς,</ins><br /> +<ins title="Greek: Parphasis, hê t' eklepse noon pyka per phroneontôn.">Πάρφασις, ἥ τ᾽ ἔκλεψε νόον πύκα περ φρονεόντων.</ins> +</p></div> + +<p>Matthew Hopkins pursued a lucrative trade in +witch-hunting for some years with much applause +and success. His indiscriminating accusations at +last excited either the alarm or the indignation of +his townspeople, if we may believe the tradition suggested +in the well-known verses of Butler, who has no +authority, apparently, for his insinuation ('Hudibras,' +ii. 3), that this eminent <i>Malleus</i> did not die 'the +common death of all men.' However it happened, +his death is placed in the year 1647. An Apology +shortly before had been published by him in refutation +of an injurious report gaining ground that he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233" href="#Page_233">[233]</a></span> +was himself intimately allied with the devil, from +whom he had obtained a memorandum book in which +were entered the names of all the witches in England. +It is entitled 'The Discovery of Witches; in +Answer to several Queries lately delivered to the +Judge of Assize for the County of Norfolk; and +now published by Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder, +for the Benefit of the whole Kingdom. Printed +for R. Royston, at the Angel in Inn Lane, 1647.'<a name="FNanchor_147_147" id="FNanchor_147_147"></a><a href="#Footnote_147_147" class="fnanchor">147</a> +It is, indeed, sufficiently probable that, confident +of the increasing coolness, and perhaps of the wishes, +of the magistrates, the mob, ever ready to wreak +vengeance upon a disgraced favourite who has long +abused the public patience, retaliated upon Hopkins +a method of torture he had frequently inflicted upon +others.<a name="FNanchor_148_148" id="FNanchor_148_148"></a><a href="#Footnote_148_148" class="fnanchor">148</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_147_147" id="Footnote_147_147"></a><a href="#FNanchor_147_147"><span class="label">147</span></a> Quoted by Sir W. Scott from a copy of this 'very rare tract' in +his possession.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_148_148" id="Footnote_148_148"></a><a href="#FNanchor_148_148"><span class="label">148</span></a> Dr. Francis Hutchinson (Historical Essay), referring to the +verses of Samuel Butler, says that he had often heard that some +persons, 'out of indignation at the barbarity [of the witchfinder], +took him and tied his own thumbs and toes, as he used to tie +others; and when he was put into the water, he himself swam as +they did.' But whether the usual fate upon that event awaited him +does not appear. The verses in question are the following:— +</p> +<p class="footpoem">'has not he, within a year,<br /> +Hang'd threescore of 'em in one shire,<br /> +<br /> +<span class="sp">* * * * *</span> +<br /><br /> +Who after prov'd himself a witch,<br /> +And made a rod for his own breech?'<br /> +</p> +<p>The Knight's Squire on the same occasion reminds his master of the +more notorious of the devil's tricks of that and the last age:— +</p> +<p class="footpoem">'Did not the devil appear to Martin<br /> +Luther in Germany for certain,<br /> +And would have gull'd him with a trick<br /> +But Mart was too, too politic?<br /> +Did he not help the Dutch to purge<br /> +At Antwerp their cathedral church?<br /> +Sing catches to the saints at Mascon,<br /> +And tell them all they came to ask him?<br /> +Appear in divers shapes to Kelly,<br /> +And speak i' th' nun of Loudun's belly?<br /> +Meet with the Parliament's committee<br /> +At Woodstock on a pers'nal treaty?<br /> +... &c. &c.'<br /> +</p> +<p class="cite3"><i>Hudibras</i>, <span class="smcap">ii</span>. 3. +</p> +</div> + +<p>Hopkins is the most famous of his class on account<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234" href="#Page_234">[234]</a></span> +of his superior talent; but both in England and +Scotland witchfinders, or <i>prickers</i>, as they were sometimes +called, before and since his time abounded—of +course most where the superstition raged fiercest. +In Scotland they infested all parts of the country, +practising their detestable but legal trade with entire +impunity. The Scottish prickers enjoyed a great +reputation for skill and success; and on a special +occasion, about the time when Hopkins was practising +in the South, the magistrates of Newcastle-upon-Tyne +summoned from Scotland one of great professional +experience to visit that town, then overrun +with witches. The magistrates agreed to pay him +all travelling expenses, and twenty shillings for every +convicted criminal. A bellman was sent round +the town to invite all complainants to prefer their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235" href="#Page_235">[235]</a></span> +charges. Some thirty women, having been brought +to the town-hall, were publicly subjected to an examination. +By the ordinary process, twenty-seven on +this single occasion were ascertained to be guilty, of +whom, at the ensuing assizes, fourteen women and +one man were convicted by the jury and executed.</p> + +<p>Three thousand are said to have suffered for the +crime in England under the supremacy of the Long +Parliament. A respite followed on this bloody persecution +when the Independents came into power, +but it was renewed with almost as much violence +upon the return of the Stuarts. The Protectorship +had been fitly inaugurated by the rational protest of +a gentleman, witness to the proceedings at one of the +trials, Sir Robert Filmore, in a tract, 'An Advertizement +to the Jurymen of England touching Witches.' +This was followed two years later by a similar protest +by one Thomas Ady, called, 'A Candle in the +Dark; or, a Treatise concerning the Nature of +Witches and Witchcraft: being Advice to Judges, +Sheriffs, Justices of the Peace and Grand Jurymen, +what to do before they pass Sentence on such as are +arraigned for their Lives as Witches.' Notwithstanding +the general toleration of the Commonwealth, in +1652, the year before Cromwell assumed the Dictatorship +(1653-1658), there appeared to be a tendency +to return to the old system, and several were +executed in different parts of the country. Six were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236" href="#Page_236">[236]</a></span> +hanged at Maidstone. 'Some there were that wished +rather they might be burned to ashes, alleging that +it was a received opinion amongst many that the +body of a witch being burned, her blood is thereby +prevented from becoming hereafter hereditary to her +progeny in the same evil, while by hanging it is not; +but whether this opinion be erroneous or not,' the +reporter adds, 'I am not to dispute.'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237" href="#Page_237">[237]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Glanvil's Sadducismus Triumphatus—His Sentiments on Witchcraft +and Demonology—Baxter's 'Certainty of the World of +Spirits,' &c.—Witch Trial at Bury St. Edmund's by Sir Matthew +Hale, 1664—The Evidence adduced in Court—Two Witches +hanged—Three hanged at Exeter in 1682—The last Witches +judicially executed in England—Uniformity of the Evidence +adduced at the Trials—Webster's Attack upon the Witch-Creed +in 1677—Witch Trials in England at the end of the Seventeenth +Century—French Parliaments vindicate the Diabolic Reality of +the Crime—Witchcraft in Sweden.</p></div> + +<p><span class="chap">The</span> bold licentiousness and ill-concealed scepticism +of Charles II. and his Court, whose despotic prejudices, +however, supported by the zeal of the Church, +prosecuted dissenters from a form of religion which +maintained 'the right divine of kings to govern +wrong,' might be indifferent to the prejudice of +witchcraft. But the princes and despots of former +times have seldom been more careful of the lives +than they have been of the liberties, of their subjects. +The formal apology for the reality of that +crime published by Charles II.'s chaplain-in-ordinary, +the Rev. Dr. Joseph Glanvil, against the +modern Sadducees (a very inconsiderable sect) who +denied both ghosts and witches, their well-attested<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238" href="#Page_238">[238]</a></span> +apparitions and acts, has been already noticed. His +philosophic inquiry (so he terms it) into the nature +and operations of witchcraft (<i>Sadducismus Triumphatus</i>, +Sadduceeism Vanquished, or 'Considerations +about Witchcraft'), was occasioned by a case that +came under the author's personal observation—the +'knockings' of the demon of Tedworth in the house +of a Mr. Mompesson. The Tedworth demon must +have been of that sort of active spirits which has +been so obliging of late in enlightening the spiritual +<i>séances</i> of our time.</p> + +<p>Glanvil traces the steps by which a well-meaning +student may unwarily be involved in <i>diablerie</i>. This +philosophical inquirer observes:—'Those mystical +students may, in their first address to the science +[astrology], have no other design than the satisfaction +of their curiosity to know remote and hidden things; +yet that in the progress, being not satisfied within +the bounds of their art, doth many times tempt the +curious inquirer to use worse means of information; +and no doubt those mischievous spirits, that are as +vigilant as the beasts of prey, and watch all occasions +to get us within their envious reach, are more constant +attenders and careful spies upon the actions +and inclinations of such whose genius and designs +prepare them for their temptations. So that I look +on judicial astrology as a fair introduction to sorcery +and witchcraft; and who knows but it was first set<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239" href="#Page_239">[239]</a></span> +on foot by the infernal hunters as a lure to draw the +<i>curiosos</i> into those snares that lie hid beyond it. And +yet I believe it may be innocently enough studied.... +I believe there are very few among those +who have been addicted to those strange arts of +wonder and prediction, but have found themselves +attacked by some unknown solicitors, and enticed by +them to the more dangerous actions and correspondencies. +For as there are a sort of base and sordid +spirits that attend the envy and malice of the ignorant +and viler sort of persons, and betray them into +compacts by promises of revenge; so, no doubt, there +are a kind of more airy and speculative fiends, of a +higher rank and order than those wretched imps, +who apply themselves to the curious.... Yea, +and sometimes they are so cautious and wary in their +conversations with more refined persons, that they +never offer to make any <i>express</i> covenant with them. +And to this purpose, I have been informed by a very +reverend and learned doctor that one Mr. Edwards, +a Master of Arts of Trinity College, in Cambridge, +being reclaimed from conjuration, declared in his +repentance that the demon always appeared to him +like a man of good fashion, and never required any +compact from him: and no doubt they sort themselves +agreeably to the rate, post, and genius of those +with whom they converse.'<a name="FNanchor_149_149" id="FNanchor_149_149"></a><a href="#Footnote_149_149" class="fnanchor">149</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_149_149" id="Footnote_149_149"></a><a href="#FNanchor_149_149"><span class="label">149</span></a> <i>Sadducismus Triumphatus</i>, section xvi.X</p></div> + +<p>The sentiments of the royal chaplain on demonology<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240" href="#Page_240">[240]</a></span> +are curious. 'Since good men,' he argues, 'in +their state of separation are said to be <ins title="Greek: isangeloi">ἰσάγγελοι</ins>, +why the wicked may not be supposed to be <ins title="Greek: isodaimones">ἰσοδαίμονες</ins> +(in the worst sense of the word), I know nothing +to help me to imagine. And if it be supposed +that the imps of witches are sometimes wicked +spirits of our own kind and nature, and possibly the +same that have been witches and sorcerers in this +life: this supposal may give a fairer and more probable +account of many of the actions of sorcery and +witchcraft than the other hypothesis, that they are +always devils. And to this conjecture I will venture +to subjoin another, which hath also its probability, +viz. that it is not improbable but the familiars of +witches are a vile kind of spirits of a very inferior +constitution and nature; and none of those that were +once of the highest hierarchy now degenerated into +the spirits we call devils.... And that all +the superior—yea, and inferior—regions have their +several kinds of spirits, differing in their natural +perfections as well as in the kinds and degrees of +their depravities; which being supposed, 'tis very +probable that those of the basest and meanest sorts +are they who submit to the servilities.'<a name="FNanchor_150_150" id="FNanchor_150_150"></a><a href="#Footnote_150_150" class="fnanchor">150</a> It is a +curious speculation how the old apologists of witchcraft<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241" href="#Page_241">[241]</a></span> +would regard the modern 'curiosos'—the adventurous +<i>spirit-media</i> of the present day, and +whether the consulted spirits are of 'base and sordid +rank,' or are 'a kind of airy and more speculative +fiends.' It is fair to infer, perhaps, that they are of +the latter class.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_150_150" id="Footnote_150_150"></a><a href="#FNanchor_150_150"><span class="label">150</span></a> <i>Sadducismus Triumphatus</i>, Part I. sect. 4. Affixed to this work +is a <i>Collection of Relations</i> of well-authenticated instances. Glanvil +was one of the first Fellows of the recently established Royal Society. +He is the author of a philosophical treatise of great merit—the +<i>Scepsis Scientifica</i>—a review of which occupies several pages of <i>The +Introduction to the Literature of Europe</i>, and which is favourably +considered by Hallam. Not the least unaccountable fact in the history +and literature of witchcraft is the absurd contradiction involved +in the unbounded credulity of writers (who were sceptical on almost</p></div> + +<p>The author of the 'Saints' Everlasting Rest,' the +moderate and conscientious Baxter, was a contemporary +of the Anglican divine. In another and later +work this voluminous theological writer more fully +developed his spiritualistic ideas. 'The Certainty of +the World of Spirits fully evinced by unquestionable +Histories of Apparitions, Witchcrafts, Operations, +Voices, &c., proving the Immortality of Souls, the +Malice and Misery of Devils and the Damned, and the +Blessedness of the Justified. Written for the Conviction +of Sadducees and Infidels,' was a formidable +inscription which must have overawed, if it did not +subdue, the infidelity of the modern Sadducees.<a name="FNanchor_151_151" id="FNanchor_151_151"></a><a href="#Footnote_151_151" class="fnanchor">151</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_151_151" id="Footnote_151_151"></a><a href="#FNanchor_151_151"><span class="label">151</span></a> It would not be an uninteresting, but it would be a melancholy, +task to investigate the reasoning, or rather unreasoning, process +which involved such honest men as Richard Baxter in a maze of +credulity. While they rejected the principle of the ever-recurring +ecclesiastical miracles of Catholicism (so sympathetic as well as useful +to ardent faith), their devout imagination yet required the aid of a +present supernaturalism to support their faith amidst the perplexing +doubts and difficulties of ordinary life, and they gladly embraced the +consoling belief that the present evils are the work of the enmity of +the devil, whose temporary sovereignty, however, should be overthrown +in the world to come, when the faith and constancy of his +victims shall be eternally rewarded.</p></div> + +<p>The sentence and execution of two old women at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242" href="#Page_242">[242]</a></span> +Bury St. Edmund's, in 1664, has been already noticed. +This trial was carried on with circumstances of great +solemnity and with all the external forms of justice—Sir +Matthew Hale presiding as Lord Chief Baron: +and the following is a portion of the evidence which +was received two hundred years ago in an English +Court of Justice and under the presidency of one of +the greatest ornaments of the English Bench. One +of the witnesses, a woman named Dorothy Durent, +deposed that she had quarrelled with one Amy Duny, +immediately after which her infant child was seized +with fits. 'And the said examinant further stated that +she being troubled at her child's distemper did go +to a certain person named Doctor Job Jacob, who +lived at Yarmouth, who had the reputation in the +country to help children that were bewitched; who +advised her to hang up the child's blanket in the +chimney-corner all day, and at night when she put +the child to bed to put it into the said blanket; +and if she found anything in it she should not be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243" href="#Page_243">[243]</a></span> +afraid, but throw it into the fire. And this deponent +did according to his direction; and at night when she +took down the blanket with an intent to put the +child therein, there fell out of the same a great toad +which ran up and down the hearth; and she, having +a young youth only with her in the house, desired +him to catch the toad and throw it into the fire, which +the youth did accordingly, and held it there with the +tongs; and as soon as it was in the fire it made a +great and terrible noise; and after a space there was +a flashing in the fire like gunpowder, making a noise +like the discharge of a pistol, and thereupon the toad +was no more seen nor heard. It was asked by the +Court if that, after the noise and flashing, there was +not the substance of the toad to be seen to consume +in the fire; and it was answered by the said Dorothy +Durent that after the flashing and noise there was +no more seen than if there had been none there. +The next day there came a young woman, a kinswoman +of the said Amy, and a neighbour of this deponent, +and told this deponent that her aunt (meaning the +said Amy) was in a most lamentable condition, having +her face all scorched with fire, and that she was sitting +alone in her house in her smock without any fire. +And therefore this deponent went into the house of +the said Amy Duny to see her, and found her in the +same condition as was related to her; for her face, +her legs, and thighs, which this deponent saw, seemed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244" href="#Page_244">[244]</a></span> +very much scorched and burnt with fire; at which +this deponent seemed much to wonder, and asked +how she came in that sad condition. And the said +Amy replied that she might thank her for it, for that +she (deponent) was the cause thereof; but she should +live to see some of her children dead, and she upon +crutches. And this deponent further saith, that after +the burning of the said toad her child recovered and +was well again, and was living at the time of the +Assizes.' The accused were next arraigned for having +bewitched the family of Mr. Samuel Pacy, merchant, +of Lowestoft. The witch turned away from their door +had at once inflicted summary vengeance by sending +some fearful fits and pains in the stomach, apparently +caused by an internal pricking of pins; the children +shrieking out violently, vomiting nails, pins, and +needles, and exclaiming against several women of ill-repute +in the town; especially against two of them, +Amy Duny and Rose Cullender.</p> + +<p>A friend of the family appeared in court, and +deposed: 'At some times the children would see +things run up and down the house in the appearance +of mice, and one of them suddenly snapt one with +the tongs and threw it into the fire, and it screeched +out like a bat. At another time the younger child, +being out of her fits, went out of doors to take a +little fresh air, and presently a little thing like a bee +flew upon her face and would have gone into her +mouth, whereupon the child ran in all haste to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245" href="#Page_245">[245]</a></span> +door to get into the house again, shrieking out in a +most terrible manner. Whereupon this deponent +made haste to come to her; but before she could +get to her the child fell into her swooning fit, and +at last, with much pain and straining herself, she +vomited up a twopenny nail with a broad head; and +being demanded by this deponent how she came by +this nail, she answered that the bee brought this +nail and forced it into her mouth. And at other +times the elder child declared unto this deponent +that during the time of her fits she saw flies come +unto her and bring with them in their mouths crooked +pins; and after the child had thus declared the same +she fell again into violent fits, and afterwards raised +several pins. At another time the said elder child +declared unto this deponent, and sitting by the fire +suddenly started up and said she saw a mouse; and +she crept under the table, looking after it; and at +length she put something in her apron, saying she +had caught it. And immediately she ran to the fire +and threw it in; and there did appear upon it to this +deponent like the flashing of gunpowder, though she +confessed she saw nothing in the child's hands.' +Another witness was the mother of a servant girl, +Susanna Chandler, whose depositions are of much the +same kind, but with the addition that her daughter was +sometimes stricken with blindness and dumbness by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246" href="#Page_246">[246]</a></span> +demoniacal contrivance at the moment when her +testimony was required in court. 'Being brought +into court at the trial, she suddenly fell into her fits, +and being carried out of the court again, within the +space of half an hour she came to herself and recovered +her speech; and thereupon was immediately +brought into the court, and asked by the Court +whether she was in condition to take an oath and +to give evidence. She said she could. But when +she was sworn and asked what she could say against +either of the prisoners, before she could make any +answer she fell into her fits, shrieking out in a miserable +manner, crying "Burn her! burn her!" which +was all the words she could speak.' Doubts having +been hazarded by one or two of the less credulous of +the origin of the fits and contortions, 'to avoid this +scruple, it was privately desired by the judge that +the Lord Cornwallis, Sir Edmund Bacon, and Mr. +Serjeant Keeling and some other gentlemen there in +court, would attend one of the distempered persons +in the farthest part of the hall whilst she was in her +fits, and then to send for one of the witches to try +what would then happen, which they did accordingly.' +Some of the possessed, having been put to the proof +by having their eyes covered, and being touched upon +the hand by one of those present, fell into contortions +as if they had been touched by the witches.</p> + +<p>The suspicion of imposture thus raised was quickly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247" href="#Page_247">[247]</a></span> +silenced by fresh proof. Robert Sherringham, farmer, +deposed that 'about two years since, passing along +the street with his cart and horses, the axle-tree of +his cart touched her house and broke down some +part of it; at which she was very much displeased, +threatening him that his horses should suffer for it. +And so it happened; for all those horses, being four +in number, died within a short time after. Since +that time he hath had great losses by sudden dying +of his other cattle. So soon as his sows pigged, the +pigs would leap and caper, and immediately fall down +and die. Also, not long after, he was taken with a +lameness in his limbs that he could neither go nor +stand for some days.'<a name="FNanchor_152_152" id="FNanchor_152_152"></a><a href="#Footnote_152_152" class="fnanchor">152</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_152_152" id="Footnote_152_152"></a><a href="#FNanchor_152_152"><span class="label">152</span></a> This witness finished his evidence by informing the Court that +'after all this, he was very much vexed with a great number of lice, +of extraordinary bigness; and although he many times shifted himself, +yet he was not anything the better, but would swarm again with +them. So that in the conclusion he was forced to burn all his clothes, +being two suits of apparel, and then was clear from them.'—<i>Narratives +of Sorcery</i>, &c., from the most authentic sources, by Thomas +Wright.</p></div> + +<p>The extreme ridiculousness, even more than the +iniquity, of the accusations may be deemed the principal +characteristic of such procedures: these <i>childish</i> +indictments were received with eagerness by prosecutors, +jury, and judge. After half an hour's deliberation +the jury returned a unanimous verdict +against the prisoners, who were hanged, protesting +their innocence to the end. The year before, a woman<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248" href="#Page_248">[248]</a></span> +named Julian Coxe was hanged at Taunton on the +evidence of a hunter that a hare, which had taken +refuge from his pursuit in a bush, was found on the +opposite side in the likeness of a witch, who had +assumed the form of the animal, and taken the opportunity +of her hiding-place to resume her proper +shape. In 1682 three women were executed at +Exeter. Their witchcraft was of the same sort as +that of the Bury witches. Little variety indeed +appears in the English witchcraft as brought before +the courts of law. They chiefly consist in hysterical, +epileptic, or other fits, accompanied by vomiting of +various witch-instruments of torture. The Exeter +witches are memorable as the last executed judicially +in England.</p> + +<p>Attacks upon the superstition of varying degrees +of merit were not wanting during any period of the +seventeenth century. Webster, who, differing in +this respect from most of his predecessors, declared +his opinion that the whole of witchcraft was founded +on natural phenomena, credulity, torture, imposture, +or delusion, has deserved to be especially commemorated +among the advocates of common sense. He had +been well acquainted in his youth with the celebrated +Lancashire Witches' case, and enjoyed good opportunities +of studying the absurd obscenities of the +numerous examinations. His meritorious work was +given to the world in 1677, under the title of 'The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249" href="#Page_249">[249]</a></span> +Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft.' Towards the +close of the century witch-trials still occur; but the +courts of justice were at length freed from the reproach +of legal murders.</p> + +<p>The great revolution of 1688, which set the principles +of Protestantism on a firmer basis, could not fail +to effect an intellectual as well as a political change. +A recognition of the claims of common sense (at +least on the subject of diabolism) seemed to begin +from that time; and in 1691, when some of the +criminals were put upon their trial at Frome, in +Somersetshire, they were acquitted, not without difficulty, +by the exertion of the better reason of the presiding +judge, Lord Chief Justice Holt. Fortunately +for the accused, Lord Chief Justice Holt was a person +of sense, as well as legal acuteness; for he sat as +judge at a great number of the trials in different parts +of the kingdom. Both prosecutors and juries were +found who would willingly have sent the proscribed +convicts to death. But the age was arrived when at +last it was to be discovered that fire and torture can +extinguish neither witchcraft nor any other heresy; +and the princes and parliaments of Europe seemed to +begin to recognise in part the philosophical maxim +that, 'heresy and witchcraft are two crimes which +commonly increase by punishment, and are never so +effectually suppressed as by being totally neglected.'</p> + +<p>In France, until about the year 1670, there was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250" href="#Page_250">[250]</a></span> +little abatement in the fury or number of the prosecutions. +In that year several women had been +sentenced to death for frequenting the <i>Domdaniel</i> +or Sabbath meeting by the provincial parliament of +Normandy. Louis XIV. was induced to commute +the sentence into banishment for life. The parliament +remonstrated at so astonishing an interference +with the due course of justice, and presented a +petition to the king in which they insist upon the +dread reality of a crime that 'tends to the destruction +of religion and the ruin of nations.'<a name="FNanchor_153_153" id="FNanchor_153_153"></a><a href="#Footnote_153_153" class="fnanchor">153</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_153_153" id="Footnote_153_153"></a><a href="#FNanchor_153_153"><span class="label">153</span></a> 'Your parliament,' protest these legislators, 'have thought it +their duty on occasion of these crimes, the greatest which men can +commit, to make you acquainted with the general and uniform feelings +of the people of this province with regard to them; it being +moreover a question in which are concerned the glory of God and the +relief of your suffering subjects, who groan under their fears from the +threats and menaces of this sort of persons, and who feel the effects +of them every day in the mortal and extraordinary maladies which +attack them, and the surprising damage and loss of their possessions.' +They then review the various laws and decrees of Church +and State from the earliest times in support of their convictions: +they cite the authority of the Church in council and in its most +famous individual teachers. Particularly do they insist upon the +opinions of St. Augustin, in his <i>City of God</i>, as irrefragable. 'After +so many authorities and punishments ordained by human and divine +laws, we humbly supplicate your Majesty to reflect once more upon +the extraordinary results which proceed from the malevolence of this +sort of people; on the deaths from unknown diseases which are often +the consequence of their menaces; on the loss of the goods and +chattels of your subjects; on the proofs of guilt continually afforded +by the insensibility of the marks upon the accused; on the sudden +transportation of bodies from one place to another; on the sacrifices +and nocturnal assemblies, and other facts, corroborated by the testimony +of ancient and modern authors, and verified by so many eyewitnesses, +composed partly of accomplices and partly of people who +had no interest in the trials beyond the love of truth, and confirmed +moreover by the confessions of the accused parties themselves, and +that, Sire, with so much agreement and conformity between the different +cases, that the most ignorant persons convicted of this crime +have spoken to the same circumstances and in nearly the same words +as the most celebrated authors who have written about it; all of +which may be easily proved to your Majesty's satisfaction by the records +of various trials before your parliaments.'—Given in <i>Memoirs +of Extraordinary Popular Delusions</i>. Louis XIV., with an unaccustomed +care for human life, resisting these forcible arguments, +remained firm, and the condemned were saved from the stake.</p></div> + +<p>While most of the Governments of Europe were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251" href="#Page_251">[251]</a></span> +now content to leave sorcerers and witches to the +irregular persecutions of the people, tacitly abandoning +to the mob the right of proceeding against them +as they pleased, without the interference of the law, +in a remote kingdom of Europe a witch-persecution +commenced with the ordinary fury, under express +sanction of the Government. It is curious that at the +last moments of its existence as a legal crime, one of +the last fires of witchcraft should have been lighted +in Sweden, a country which, remote from continental +Europe, seems to have been up to that period exempt +from the judicial excesses of England, France, or +Germany. The story of the Mohra witches is inserted +in an appendix to Glanvil's 'Collection of Relations,' +by Dr. Anthony Horneck. The epidemic broke out +in 1669, in the village of Mohra, in the mountainous +districts of Central Sweden. A number of children<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252" href="#Page_252">[252]</a></span> +became affected with an imaginative or mischievous +disease, which carried them off to a place called +Blockula, where they held communion and festival +with the devil. These, numbering a large proportion +of the youth of the neighbourhood, were incited, +it seems, by the imposture or credulity of the ministers +of Mohra and Elfdale, to report the various +transactions at their spiritual <i>séances</i>. To such a +height increased the terrified excitement of the people, +that a commission was appointed by the king, +consisting of both clergy and laity, to enquire into +the origin and circumstances of the matter. It commenced +proceedings in August 1670. Days for humiliation +and prayer were ordered, and a solemn service +inaugurated the judicial examinations. Agreeably to +the dogma of the most approved foreign authorities, +which allowed the evidence of the greatest criminals +and of the youngest age, the commission began by +examining the children, three hundred in number, +claiming to be bewitched, confronting them with the +witches who had, according to the indictment, been +the means of the devil's seduction. They were strictly +interrogated whether they were certain of the fact of +having been actually carried away by the devil in his +proper person. Being answered in the affirmative, +the royal commissioners proceeded to demand of the +accused themselves, 'Whether the confessions of those +children were true, and admonished them to confess<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253" href="#Page_253">[253]</a></span> +the truth, that they might turn away from the devil +unto the living God. At first most of them did very +stiffly, and without shedding the least tear, deny it, +though much against their will and inclination. After +this the children were examined every one by themselves, +to see whether their confessions did agree or +no; and the commissioners found that all of them, +except some very little ones, which could not tell all +the circumstances, did punctually agree in their confessions +of particulars. In the meanwhile, the commissioners +that were of the clergy examined the +witches, but could not bring them to any confession, +all continuing steadfast in their denials, till at last +some of them burst out into tears, and their confession +agreed with what the children said; and these +expressed their abhorrence of the fact, and begged +pardon, adding that the devil, whom they called +<i>Locyta</i>, had stopped the mouths of some of them, so +loath was he to part with his prey, and had stopped +the ears of others. And being now gone from them, +they could no longer conceal it, for they had now +perceived his treachery.' The Elfdale witches were +induced to announce—'We of the province of Elfdale +do confess that we used to go to a gravel-pit which +lies hard by a cross-way, and there we put on a vest +over our heads, and then danced round; and after +this ran to the cross-way and called the devil thrice, +first with a still voice, the second time somewhat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254" href="#Page_254">[254]</a></span> +louder, and the third time very loud, with these +words, "Antecessor, come and carry us to Blockula." +Whereupon immediately he used to appear, but in +different habits; but for the most part we saw him +in a grey coat and red and blue stockings.<a name="FNanchor_154_154" id="FNanchor_154_154"></a><a href="#Footnote_154_154" class="fnanchor">154</a> He had +a red beard, a high-crowned hat with linen of divers +colours wrapt about it, and long garters about upon +his stockings. Then he asked us whether we would +serve him with soul and body. If we were content +to do so, he set us on a beast which he had there +ready, and carried us over churches and high walls, +and after all he came to a green meadow where +Blockula lies [the Brockenberg in the Hartz forest, +as Scott conjectures]. We procured some scrapings +of altars and filings of church clocks, and then he +gave us a horn with a salve in it, wherewith we do +anoint ourselves, and a saddle, with a hammer and a +wooden nail thereby to fix the saddle. Whereupon +we call upon the devil, and away we go.'</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_154_154" id="Footnote_154_154"></a><a href="#FNanchor_154_154"><span class="label">154</span></a> Accommodating himself to modern refinement, the devil usually +discards the antiquated horns, hoofs, and tail; and if, as Dr. Mede +supposed, 'appearing in human shape, he has always a deformity of +some uncouth member or other,' such inconvenient appendages are +disguised as much as possible. As Goethe's Mephistopheles explains +to his witch: +</p> +<p class="footpoem">'Culture, which renders man less like an ape,<br /> +Has also licked the devil into shape.'<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>Many interrogatories were put. Amongst others, +how it was contrived that they could pass up and +down chimneys and through unbroken panes of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255" href="#Page_255">[255]</a></span> +glass (to which it was replied that the devil removes +all obstacles); how they were enabled to +transport so many children at one time? &c. They +acknowledged that 'till of late they had never power +to carry away children; but only this year and the +last: and the devil did at that time force them to it: +that heretofore it was sufficient to carry but one of +their own children or a stranger's child with them, +which happened seldom: but now he did plague +them and whip them if they did not procure him +many children, insomuch that they had no peace or +quiet for him. And whereas that formerly one +journey a week would serve their turn from their +own town to the place aforesaid, now they were forced +to run to other towns and places for children, and +that they brought with them some fifteen, some sixteen +children every night.' As to their means of +conveyance, they were sometimes men; at other +times, beasts, spits, and posts: but a preferable mode +was the riding upon goats, whose backs were made +more commodious by the use of a magical ointment +whenever a larger freight than usual was to be transported. +Arrived at Blockula, their diabolical initiation +commenced. First they were made to deny +their baptism and take an oath of fealty to their new +master, to whom they devoted soul and body to serve +faithfully. Their new baptism was a baptism of +blood: for their lord cut their fingers and wrote their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256" href="#Page_256">[256]</a></span> +names in blood in his book. After other ceremonies +they sit down to a table, and are regaled with not +the choicest viands (for such an occasion and from +such a host)—broth, bacon, cheese, oatmeal. Dancing +and fighting (the latter a peculiarity of the Northern +Sabbath) ensue alternately. They indulge, too, in +the debauchery of the South: the witches having +offspring from their intercourse with the demons, who +intermarry and produce a mongrel breed of toads +and serpents. As interludes, it may be supposed, to +the serious part of the entertainment the fiend would +contrive various jokes, affecting to be dead; and, +a graver joke, he would bid them to erect a huge +building of stone, in which they were to be saved +upon the approaching day of judgment. While engaged +at this work he threw down the unfinished +house about their ears, to the consternation, and +sometimes injury, of his vassals.<a name="FNanchor_155_155" id="FNanchor_155_155"></a><a href="#Footnote_155_155" class="fnanchor">155</a> Some of the witnesses +spoke of a great dragon encircled with flames, +and an iron chair; of a vision of a burning pit. The +minister of the district gave his evidence that, having +been suffering from a painful headache, he could +account for the unusual severity of the attack only +by supposing that the witches had celebrated one of +their infernal dances upon his head while asleep in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257" href="#Page_257">[257]</a></span> +bed: and one of them, in accordance with this conjecture, +acknowledged that the devil had sent her +with a sledge-hammer to drive a nail into the +temples of the obnoxious clergyman. The solidity of +his skull saved him; and the only result was, as stated, +a severe pain in his head.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_155_155" id="Footnote_155_155"></a><a href="#FNanchor_155_155"><span class="label">155</span></a> Le Sage's <i>Diable Boiteux</i>, who so obligingly introduces the +Spanish student to the secret realities of human life, is, it may be +observed, of both a more rational and more instructive temperament +than the ordinary demons who appear at the witches' revels to practise +their senseless and fantastic rites.</p></div> + +<p>All the persuasive arguments of the examiners +could not induce the witches to repeat before them +their well-known tricks: because, as they affirmed, +'since they had confessed all they found all their +witchcraft was gone: and the devil at this time +appeared very terrible with claws on his hands and +feet, with horns on his head and a long tail behind, +and showed them a pit burning with a hand out; but +the devil did thrust the person down again with an +iron fork, and suggested to the witches that if they +continued in their confession he would deal with them +in the same manner.' These are some of the interesting +particulars of this judicial commission as reported +by contemporaries. Seventy persons were condemned +to death. One woman pleaded (a frequent plea) in +arrest of judgment that she was with child; the +rest perseveringly denying their guilt. Twenty-three +were burned in a single fire at the village of Mohra. +Fifteen children were also executed; while fifty-six +others, convicted of witchcraft in a minor degree, +were sentenced to various punishments: to be scourged<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258" href="#Page_258">[258]</a></span> +on every Sunday during a whole year being a sentence +of less severity. The proceedings were brought +to an end, it seems, by the fear of the upper classes +for their own safety. An edict of the king who +had authorised the enquiry now ordered it to be +terminated, and the history of the commission was +attempted to be involved in silent obscurity. Prayers +were ordered in all the churches throughout Sweden +for deliverance from the malice of Satan, who was +believed to be let loose for the punishment of the +land.<a name="FNanchor_156_156" id="FNanchor_156_156"></a><a href="#Footnote_156_156" class="fnanchor">156</a> It is remarkable that the incidents of the +Swedish trials are chiefly reproductions of the +evidence extracted in the courts of France and +Germany.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_156_156" id="Footnote_156_156"></a><a href="#FNanchor_156_156"><span class="label">156</span></a> <i>Narratives of Sorcery, &c.</i>, by Thomas Wright, who quotes the +authorised reports. Sir Walter Scott refers to 'An account of what +happened in the kingdom of Sweden in the years 1669, 1670, and +afterwards translated out of High Dutch into English by Dr. Anthony +Horneck, attached to Glanvil's <i>Sadducismus Triumphatus</i>. The +translation refers to the evidence of Baron Sparr, ambassador from +the court of Sweden to the court of England in 1672, and that of +Baron Lyonberg, envoy-extraordinary of the same power, both of +whom attest the confessions and execution of the witches. The +King of Sweden himself answered the express inquiries of the Duke +of Holstein with marked reserve. "His judges and commissioners," +he said, "had caused divers men, women, and children to be burnt +and executed on such pregnant evidence as was brought before them; +but whether the actions confessed and proved against them were +real, or only the effect of a strong imagination, he was not as yet +able to determine."'</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259" href="#Page_259">[259]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Witchcraft in the English Colonies in North America—Puritan +Intolerance and Superstition—Cotton Mather's 'Late Memorable +Providences'—Demoniacal Possession—Evidence given before +the Commission—Apologies issued by Authority—Sudden Termination +of the Proceedings—Reactionary Feeling against the +Agitators—The Salem Witchcraft the last Instance of Judicial +Prosecution on a large Scale in Christendom—Philosophers +begin to expose the Superstition—Meritorious Labours of +Webster, Becker, and others—Their Arguments could reach +only the Educated and Wealthy Classes of Society—These only +partially Enfranchised—The Superstition continues to prevail +among the Vulgar—Repeal of the Witch Act in England in +1736—Judicial and Popular Persecutions in England in the +Eighteenth Century—Trial of Jane Wenham in England in 1712—Maria +Renata burned in Germany in 1749—La Cadière in +France—Last Witch burned in Scotland in 1722—Recent Cases +of Witchcraft—Protestant Superstition—Witchcraft in the +Extra-Christian World.</p></div> + +<p><span class="chap">A review</span> of the superstitions of witchcraft would +be incomplete without some notice of the Salem +witches in New England. An equally melancholy +and mischievous access of fanatic credulity, during +the years 1688-1692, overwhelmed the colony of +Massachusetts with a multitude of demons and their +human accomplices; and the circumstances of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260" href="#Page_260">[260]</a></span> +period were favourable to the vigour of the delusion. +In the beginning of their colonisation the New Englanders +were generally a united community; they +were little disturbed by heresy; and if they had +been thus infected they were too busily engaged in +contending against the difficulties and dangers of a +perilous position to be able to give much attention +to differences in religious belief. But soon the <i>purity</i> +of their faith was in danger of being corrupted by +heretical immigrants. The Puritans were the most +numerous and powerful of the fugitives from political +and religious tyranny in England, and the dominant +sect in North America almost as severely oppressed +Anabaptists and Quakers in the colonies as they themselves, +religious exiles from ecclesiastical despotism, +had suffered in the old world. They proved themselves +worthy followers of the persecutors of Servetus. +Other enemies from without also were active in +seeking the destruction of the true believers. Fierce +wars and struggles were continuously being waged +with the surrounding savages, who regarded the increasing +prosperity and number of the intruders with +just fear and resentment.</p> + +<p>Imbued as the colonists were with demoniacal +prepossessions, it is not so surprising that they deemed +their rising State beset by spiritual enemies; and it +is fortunate, perhaps, that the wilds of North America +were not still more productive of fiends and witches,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261" href="#Page_261">[261]</a></span> +and more destructive massacres than that of 1690-92 +did not disgrace their colonial history. From the pen +of Dr. Cotton Mather, Fellow of Harvard College, and +his father (who was the Principal), we have received +the facts of the history. These two divines and their +opinions obtained great respect throughout the colony. +They devoutly received the orthodox creed as expounded +in the writings of the ancient authorities +on demonology, firmly convinced of the reality of +the present wanderings of Satan 'up and down' in +the earth; and Dr. Cotton Mather was at the same +time the chief supporter and the historian of the +demoniacal war now commenced. It was significantly +initiated by the execution of a papist, an Irishman +named Glover, who was accused of having bewitched +the daughters of a mason of Boston, by name Goodwin. +These girls, of infantile age, suffered from +convulsive fits, the ordinary symptom of 'possession.' +Mather received one of them into his house for the +purpose of making experiments, and, if possible, to +exorcise the evil spirits. She would suddenly, in +presence of a number of spectators, fall into a trance, +rise up, place herself in a riding attitude as if setting +out for the Sabbath, and hold conversation with invisible +beings. A peculiar phase of this patient's case was +that when under the influence of 'hellish charms' +she took great pleasure in reading or hearing 'bad' +books, which she was permitted to do with perfect<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262" href="#Page_262">[262]</a></span> +freedom. Those books included the Prayer Book of +the English Episcopal Church, Quakers' writings, and +popish productions. Whenever the Bible was taken +up, the devil threw her into the most fearful convulsions.</p> + +<p>As a result of this <i>diagnosis</i> appeared the publication +of 'Late Memorable Providences relating to +Witchcraft and Possession,' which, together with +Baxter's 'Certainty of the World of Spirits,' a work +Mather was careful to distribute and recommend to +the people, increased the fever of fear and fanaticism +to the highest pitch. The above incidents were the +prelude only to the proper drama of the Salem +witches. In 1692, two girls, the daughter and niece +of Mr. Parvis, minister, suffering from a disease +similar to that of the Goodwins, were pronounced to +be preternaturally afflicted. Two miserable Indians, +man and wife, servants in the family, who indiscreetly +attempted to cure the witch-patients by means of +some charm or drug, were suspected themselves as +the guilty agents, and sent to execution. The physicians, +who seem to have been entirely ignorant of +the origin of these attacks, and as credulous as the +unprofessional world, added fresh testimony to the +reality of 'possession.'<a name="FNanchor_157_157" id="FNanchor_157_157"></a><a href="#Footnote_157_157" class="fnanchor">157</a> At first, persons of the +lower classes and those who, on account of their ill-repute,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263" href="#Page_263">[263]</a></span> +would be easily recognised to be diabolic +agents, were alone incriminated. But as the excitement +increased others of higher rank were pointed +out. A <i>black</i> man was introduced on the stage in the +form of an Indian of terrible aspect and portentous +dimensions, who had threatened the christianising +colonists with extermination for intruding their faith +upon the reluctant heathen. In May 1692, a new +governor, Sir William Phipps, arrived with a new +charter (the old one had been suspended) from England; +this official, far from discouraging the existing +prejudices, urged the local authorities on to greater +extravagance. The examinations were conducted in +the ordinary and most approved manner, the Lord's +Prayer and the secret marks being the infallible +tests. Towards the end of May two women, Bridget +Bishop and Susannah Martin, were hanged.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_157_157" id="Footnote_157_157"></a><a href="#FNanchor_157_157"><span class="label">157</span></a> A phenomenon of apparently the same sort as that which was +of such frequent occurrence in the Middle Age and in the seventeenth +century, is said to have been lately occupying considerable attention +in the South of France. The <i>Courrier des Alpes</i> narrates an extraordinary +scene in one of the churches in the <i>Commune</i> of Morzine, +among the women, on occasion of the visitation of the bishop of the +district. It seems that the malady in question attacks, for the most +part, the female population, and the patients are confidently styled, +and asserted to be, <i>possessed</i>. It 'produces all the effects of madness, +without having its character,' and is said to baffle all the resources +of medical science, which is ignorant of its nature. There +had been an intermission of the convulsions for some time, but they +have now reappeared with greater violence than ever.—<i>The Times</i> +newspaper, June 6, 1864.</p></div> + +<p>On June 2, a formal commission sat, before which +the most ridiculous evidence was gravely given and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264" href="#Page_264">[264]</a></span> +as gravely received. John Louder deposed against +Bridget Bishop, 'that upon some little controversy +with Bishop about her fowls going well to bed, he +did awake in the night by moonlight, and did see +clearly the likeness of this woman grievously oppressing +him, in which miserable condition she held +him unable to help himself till next day. He told +Bishop of this, but she denied it, and threatened +him very much. Quickly after this, being at home +on a Lord's day with the doors shut about him, he +saw a black pig approach him, at which he going to +kick, it vanished away. Immediately after sitting +down he saw a black thing jump in at the window +and come and stand before him. The body was like +that of a monkey, the feet like a cock's, but the face +much like that of a man.<a name="FNanchor_158_158" id="FNanchor_158_158"></a><a href="#Footnote_158_158" class="fnanchor">158</a> He being so extremely +affrighted that he could not speak, this monster spoke +to him and said, "I am a messenger sent unto you, +for I understand that you are in some trouble of mind, +and if you will be ruled by me you shall want for +nothing in this world." Whereupon he endeavoured +to clap his hands upon it, but he could feel no substance; +and it jumped out of window again, but immediately +came in by the porch (though the doors +were shut) and said, "You had better take my counsel." +He then struck at it with a stick, and struck +only the ground and broke the stick. The arm<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265" href="#Page_265">[265]</a></span> +with which he struck was presently disabled, and it +vanished away. He presently went out at the back +door, and spied this Bishop in her orchard going +towards her house, but he had no power to set one +foot forward to her; whereupon, returning into the +house, he was immediately accosted by the monster +he had seen before, which goblin was now going to +fly at him; whereat he cried out, "The whole armour +of God be between me and you!" so it sprung back +and flew over the apple-tree, shaking many apples +off the tree in its flying over. At its leap, it flung +dirt with its feet against the stomach of the man, +whereupon he was then struck dumb, and so continued +for three days together.' Another witness +declared in court; that, 'being in bed on the Lord's +day, at night he heard a scrambling at the window; +whereat he then saw Susanna Martin come in and +jump down upon the floor. She took hold of this +deponent's foot, and, drawing his body into a heap, +she lay upon him nearly two hours, in all which time +he could neither speak nor stir. At length, when he +could begin to move, he laid hold on her hand, and, +pulling it up to his mouth, he bit some of her fingers, +as he judged into the bone; whereupon she went +from the chamber down stairs out at the door,' &c.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_158_158" id="Footnote_158_158"></a><a href="#FNanchor_158_158"><span class="label">158</span></a> 'Rara avis in terris.' A mongrel and anomalous species like the +German <i>Meerkatzen</i>—monkey-cats.</p></div> + +<p>On July 19 five women, and on August 19, six +persons, were sent to the gallows, among whom was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266" href="#Page_266">[266]</a></span> +Mr. George Burroughs, minister, who had provoked +his judges by questioning the very existence of +witchcraft. At the last moments he so favourably +impressed the assembled spectators by an eloquent +address, that Dr. Mather, who was present, found it +necessary to prevent the progress of a reactionary +feeling by asserting that the criminal was no regularly +ordained minister, and the devil has often been +transformed into an angel of light. So transparently +iniquitous and absurd had their mode of procedure +become, that one of the subordinates in the service +of the authorities, whose office it was to arrest the +accused, refused to perform any longer his hateful +office, and being himself denounced as an accomplice, +he sought safety in flight. He was captured and +executed as a recusant and wizard. Eight sorcerers +suffered the extreme penalty of the law on September +22. Giles Gory, a few days before, indignantly refusing +to plead, was 'pressed to death,' an accustomed +mode of punishing obstinate prisoners; and +in the course of this torture, it is said, when the +tongue of the victim was forced from his mouth in +the agony of pain, the presiding sheriff forced it back +with his cane with much <i>sang froid</i>. At this stage +in the proceedings, the magistrates considered that a +justificatory memoir ought to be published for the +destruction of twenty persons of both sexes, and, at +the express desire of the governor, Cotton Mather<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267" href="#Page_267">[267]</a></span> +drew up an Apology in the form of a treatise, 'More +Wonders of the Invisible World,' in which the Salem, +executions are justified by the precedent of similar +and notorious instances in the mother-country, as well +as by the universally accepted doctrines of various +eminent authors of all ages and countries. Increase +Mather, Principal of Harvard College, was also directed +to solve the question whether the devil could sometimes +assume the shape of a saint to effect his particular +design. The reverend author resolved it +affirmatively in a learned treatise, which he called (a +seeming plagiarism) 'Cases of Conscience concerning +Witchcraft and Evil Spirits personating Men,' an +undertaking prompted by an unforeseen and disagreeable +circumstance. The wife of a minister, one +of the most active promoters of the prosecution, was +involved in the indiscriminate charges of the informers, +who were beginning to aim at more exalted +prey. The minister, alarmed at the unexpected +result of his own agitation, was now convinced of the +falseness of the whole proceeding. It was a fortunate +occurrence. From that time the executions +ceased.<a name="FNanchor_159_159" id="FNanchor_159_159"></a><a href="#Footnote_159_159" class="fnanchor">159</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_159_159" id="Footnote_159_159"></a><a href="#FNanchor_159_159"><span class="label">159</span></a> If, however, individuals of the human species were at length exempt +from the penalty of death, those of the canine species were +sacrificed, perhaps vicariously. Two dogs, convicted, as it is reported, +of being accessories, were solemnly hanged!</p></div> + +<p>The dangerously increasing class of informers who,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268" href="#Page_268">[268]</a></span> +like the 'delatores' of the early Roman Empire, +made a lucrative profession by their baseness, and +spared not even reluctant or recusant magistrates +themselves, more than anything else, was the cause +of the termination of the trials. If they would preserve +their own lives, or at least their reputations, +the authorities and judges found it was necessary at +once to check the progress of the infection. About +one hundred and fifty witches or wizards were still +under arrest (two hundred more being about to be +arrested), when Governor Phipps having been recalled +by the Home Government, was induced by a feeling +of interest or justice to release the prisoners, to the +wonder and horror of the people. From this period +a reaction commenced. Those who four years before +originated the trials suddenly became objects of +hatred or contempt. Even the clergy, who had taken +a leading part in them, became unpopular. In spite +of the strenuous attempts of Dr. Cotton Mather and +his disciples to revive the agitation, the tide of +public opinion or feeling had set the other way, and +people began to acknowledge the insufficiency of the +evidence and the possible innocence of the condemned. +Public fasts and prayers were decreed +throughout the colony. Judges and juries emulated +one another in admitting a misgiving 'that we were +sadly deluded and mistaken.' Dr. Mather was less +fickle and less repentant. In one of his treatises on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269" href="#Page_269">[269]</a></span> +the subject, recounting some of the signs and proofs +of the actual crime, he declares: 'Nor are these the +tenth part of the prodigies that fell out among the +inhabitants of New England. <i>Fleshy</i> people may +burlesque these things: but when hundreds of the +most solemn people, in a country where they have +as much mother-wit certainly as the rest of mankind, +know them to be true, nothing but the froward spirit +of Sadduceeism can question them. I have not yet +(he confidently asserts) mentioned so much as one +thing that will not be justified, if it be required, by +the oaths of more considerate persons than any that +can ridicule these odd phenomena.'<a name="FNanchor_160_160" id="FNanchor_160_160"></a><a href="#Footnote_160_160" class="fnanchor">160</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_160_160" id="Footnote_160_160"></a><a href="#FNanchor_160_160"><span class="label">160</span></a> <i>Narratives of Sorcery and Magic</i>, chap. xxxi. The faith of the +Fellow of Harvard College, we may be inclined to suppose, was +quickened in proportion to his doubts. To do him justice, he admitted +that <i>some</i> of the circumstances alleged might be exaggerated +or even imaginary.</p></div> + +<p>So ended the last of public and judicial persecutions +of considerable extent for witchcraft in Christendom. +As far as the superior intellects were concerned, +philosophy could now dare to reaffirm that reason +'must be our last judge and guide in everything.' +Yet Folly, like Dulness, 'born a goddess, never dies;' +and many of the higher classes must have experienced +some silent regrets for an exploded creed which held +the reality of the constant personal interference of +the demons in human affairs. The fact that the +great body of the people of every country in Europe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270" href="#Page_270">[270]</a></span> +remained almost as firm believers as their ancestors +down to the present age, hardly needs to be insisted +on; that theirs was a <i>living</i> faith is evidenced in +the ever-recurring popular outbreaks of superstitious +ignorance, resulting both in this country and on the +Continent often in the deaths of the objects of their +diabolic fear.</p> + +<p>Such arguments as those of Webster in England, +of Becker and Thomasius in Germany, on the +special subject of witchcraft, and the general arguments +of Locke or of Bayle, could be addressed +only to the few.<a name="FNanchor_161_161" id="FNanchor_161_161"></a><a href="#Footnote_161_161" class="fnanchor">161</a> Nor indeed would it be philosophical +to expect that the vulgar should be able +to penetrate an inveterate superstition that recently<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271" href="#Page_271">[271]</a></span> +had been universally credited by the learned world.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_161_161" id="Footnote_161_161"></a><a href="#FNanchor_161_161"><span class="label">161</span></a> Dr. Balthazar Becker, theological professor at Amsterdam, published +his heretical work in Dutch, under the title of 'The World +Bewitched, or a Critical Investigation of the commonly-received +Opinion respecting Spirits, their Nature, Power, and Acts, and all +those extraordinary Feats which Men are said to perform through +their Aid;' 1691. 'He founds his arguments on two grand principles—that +from their very nature spirits cannot act upon material +beings, and that the Scriptures represent the devil and his satellites +as shut up in the prison of hell. To explain away the texts which +militate against his system, evidently cost him much labour and +perplexity. His interpretations, for the most part, are similar to +those still relied on by the believers in his doctrine' (Note by Murdock +in Mosheim's <i>Institutes of <ins title="corrected typo Eccclesiastical">Ecclesiastical</ins> History</i>). The usually +candid Mosheim notices, apparently with contempt, '"The World +Bewitched," a prolix and copious work, in which he perverts and +explains away, with no little ingenuity indeed, but with no less audacity, +whatever the sacred volume relates of persons possessed by evil +spirits, and of the power of demons, and maintains that the miserable +being whom the sacred writers call Satan and the devil, together +with his ministers, is bound with everlasting chains in hell, so that +he cannot thence go forth to terrify mortals and to plot against the +righteous.' Balthazar Becker, one of the most meritorious of the +opponents of diabolism, was deposed from his ministerial office by +an ecclesiastical synod, and denounced as an atheist. His position, +and the boldness of his arguments, excited extraordinary attention +and animosity, and 'vast numbers' of Lutheran divines arose to +confute his atheistical heresy. The impunity which he enjoyed +from the vengeance of the devil (he had boldly challenged the deity +of hell to avenge his overturned altars) was explained by the orthodox +divines to be owing to the superior cunning of Satan, who was +certain that he would be in the end the greatest gainer by unbelief. +Christ. Thomasius, professor of jurisprudence, was the author of +several works against the popular prejudice between the years 1701 +and 1720. He is considered by Ennemoser to have been able to +effect more from his professional position than the humanely-minded +Becker. But, after all, the overthrow of the diabolic altars was +caused much more by the discoveries of science than by all the writings +of literary philosophers. Even in Southern Europe and in Spain +(as far as was possible in that intolerant land) reason began to exhibit +some faint signs of existence; and Benito Feyjoó, whose Addisonian +labours in the eighteenth century in the land of the Inquisition +deserve the gratitude of his countrymen (in his <i>Téatro Critico</i>), +dared to raise his voice, however feeble, in its behalf.</p></div> + +<p>The cessation of legal procedure against witches +was negative rather than positive: the enactments in +the statute-books were left unrepealed, and so seemed +not to altogether discountenance a still somewhat +doubtful prejudice. It was so late as in the ninth +year of the reign of George II., 1736, that the Witch +Act of 1604 was formally and finally repealed. By a +tardy exertion of sense and justice the Legislature +then enacted that, for the future, no prosecutions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272" href="#Page_272">[272]</a></span> +should be instituted on account of witchcraft, sorcery, +conjuration, enchantment, &c., against any person or +persons. Unfortunately for the credit of civilisation, +it would be easy to enumerate a long list of <i>illegal</i> +murders both before and since 1736. One or two of +the most remarkable cases plainly evincing, as Scott +thinks, that the witch-creed 'is only asleep, and +might in remote corners be again awakened to deeds of +blood,' are too significant not to be briefly referred +to. In 1712 Jane Wenham, a poor woman belonging +to the village of Walkern, in the county of Hertford, +was solemnly found guilty by the jury on the evidence +of sixteen witnesses, of whom three were +clergymen; Judge Powell presiding. She was condemned +to death as a witch in the usual manner; +but was reprieved on the representation of the judge. +She had been commonly known in the neighbourhood +of her home as a malicious witch, who took great +pleasure in afflicting farmers' cattle and in effecting +similar mischief. The incumbent of Walkern, +the Rev. Mr. Gardiner, fully shared the prejudice of +his parishioners; and, far from attempting to dispel, +he entirely concurred with, their suspicions. A warrant +was obtained from the magistrate, Sir Henry +Chauncy, for the arrest of the accused: and she was +brought before that local official; depositions were +taken, and she was searched for 'marks.' The vicar +of Ardley, a neighbouring village, tested her guilt or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273" href="#Page_273">[273]</a></span> +innocence with the Lord's Prayer, which was repeated +incorrectly: by threats and other means he forced +the confession that she was indeed an agent of the +devil, and had had intercourse with him.</p> + +<p>But, even in the middle of the eighteenth century, +witches were occasionally tried and condemned +by judicial tribunals. In the year 1749, Maria or +Emma Renata, a nun in the convent of Unterzell, +near Würzburg, was condemned by the spiritual, and +executed by the civil, power. By the clemency of +the prince, the proper death by burning alive was +remitted to the milder sentence of beheading, and +afterwards burning the corpse to ashes: for no vestige +of such an accursed criminal should be permitted +to remain after death. When a young girl Maria +Renata had been seduced to witchcraft by a military +officer, and was accustomed to attend the witch-assemblies. +In the convent she practised her infernal +arts in bewitching her sister-nuns.<a name="FNanchor_162_162" id="FNanchor_162_162"></a><a href="#Footnote_162_162" class="fnanchor">162</a> About the same +time a nun in the south of France was subjected to +the barbarous imputation and treatment of a witch: +Father Girard, discovering that his mistress had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274" href="#Page_274">[274]</a></span> +some extraordinary scrofulous marks, conceived the +idea of proclaiming to the world that she was possessed +of the <i>stigmata</i>—impressions of the marks of +the nails and spear on the crucified Lord, believed to +be reproduced on the persons of those who, like the +celebrated St. Francis, most nearly assimilated their +lives to His. The Jesuits eagerly embraced an opportunity +of producing a miracle which might confound +their Jansenist rivals, whose sensational miracles +were threatening to eclipse their own.<a name="FNanchor_163_163" id="FNanchor_163_163"></a><a href="#Footnote_163_163" class="fnanchor">163</a> Sir Walter +Scott states that the last judicial sentence of death +for witchcraft in Scotland was executed in 1722, when +Captain David Ross, sheriff of Sutherland, condemned +a woman to the stake. As for illegal persecution, +M. Garinet ('Histoire de la Magie en France') gives +a list of upwards of twenty instances occurring in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275" href="#Page_275">[275]</a></span> +France between the years 1805 and 1818. In the +latter year three tribunals were occupied with the +trials of the murderers.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_162_162" id="Footnote_162_162"></a><a href="#FNanchor_162_162"><span class="label">162</span></a> Ennemoser relates the history of this witch from 'The Christian +address at the burning of Maria Renata, of the convent of Unterzell, +who was burnt on June 21, 1749, which address was delivered +to a numerous multitude, and afterwards printed by command +of the authorities.' The preacher earnestly insisted upon the divine +sanction and obligation of the Mosaic law, 'Thou shalt not suffer a +witch to live,' which was taken as the text; and upon the fact that, +so far from being abolished by Christianity, it was made more imperative +by the Christian Church.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_163_163" id="Footnote_163_163"></a><a href="#FNanchor_163_163"><span class="label">163</span></a> The victim of the pleasure, and afterwards of the ambition, of +Father Girard, is known as La Cadière. She was a native of Toulon, +and when young had witnessed the destructive effects of the plague +which devastated that city in 1720. Amidst the confusion of society +she was distinguished by her purity and benevolence. The story of +La Cadière and Father Girard is eloquently narrated by M. Michelet +in <i>La Sorcière</i>. The convulsions of the Flagellants of the thirteenth +century, and of the Protestant Revivalists of the present day, exhibit +on a large scale the paroxysms of the French convents and the Dutch +orphan-houses of the seventeenth century. Nor is diabolical 'possession' +yet extinct in Christendom, if the reports received from time to +time from the Continent are to be credited. Recently, a convent of +Augustinian nuns at Loretto, on the authority of the <i>Corriere delle +Marche</i> of Ancona, was attacked in a similar way to that of Loudun. +A vomiting of needles and pins, the old diabolical torture, and a +strict examination of the accused, followed.</p></div> + +<p>If a belief should be entertained that the now +'vulgar' ideas of witchcraft have been long obsolete +in England, it would be destroyed by a perusal of a +few of the newspapers and periodicals of the last +hundred years; and a sufficiently voluminous work +might be occupied with the achievements of modern +Sidrophels, and the records of murders or mutilations +perpetrated by an ignorant mob.<a name="FNanchor_164_164" id="FNanchor_164_164"></a><a href="#Footnote_164_164" class="fnanchor">164</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_164_164" id="Footnote_164_164"></a><a href="#FNanchor_164_164"><span class="label">164</span></a> Without noticing other equally notorious instances of recent +years, it may be enough (to dispel any such possible illusion) to +transcribe a paragraph from an account in <i>The Times</i> newspaper of +Sept. 24, 1863. 'It is a somewhat singular fact,' says the writer, +describing a late notorious witch-persecution in the county of Essex, +'that nearly all the sixty or seventy persons concerned in the outrage +which resulted in the death of the deceased <i>were of the small tradesmen +class</i>, and that none of the agricultural labourers were mixed up +in the affair. It is also stated that none of those engaged were in any +way under the influence of liquor. The whole disgraceful transaction +arose out of a deep belief in witchcraft, which possesses to a lamentable +extent the tradespeople and the lower orders of the district.' +Nor does it appear that the village of Hedingham (the scene of the +witch-murder) claims a superiority in credulity over other villages in +Essex or in England. The instigator and chief agent in the Hedingham +case was the wife of an innkeeper, who was convinced that she +had been bewitched by an old wizard of reputation in the neighbourhood: +and the mode of punishment was the popular one of drowning +or suffocating in the nearest pond. Scraps of written papers found +in the hovel of the murdered wizard revealed the numerous applications +by lovers, wives, and other anxious inquirers. Amongst other +recent revivals of the 'Black Art' in Southern Europe already referred +to, the inquisition at Rome upon a well-known English or American +'spiritualist,' when, as we learn from himself, he was compelled to +make a solemn abjuration that he had not surrendered his soul to the +devil, is significant.</p></div> + +<p>Nor would it be safe to assume, with some writers,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276" href="#Page_276">[276]</a></span> +that diabolism, as a vulgar prejudice, is now entirely +extirpated from Protestant Christendom, and survives +only in the most orthodox countries of Catholicism +or in the remoter parts of northern or eastern Europe. +Superstition, however mitigated, exists even in the +freer Protestant lands of Europe and America; and +if Protestants are able to smile at the religious creeds +or observances of other sects, they may have, it is +probable, something less pernicious, but perhaps +almost as absurd, in their own creed.<a name="FNanchor_165_165" id="FNanchor_165_165"></a><a href="#Footnote_165_165" class="fnanchor">165</a> But, after a +despotism of fifteen centuries, Christendom has at +length thrown off the hellish yoke, whose horrid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277" href="#Page_277">[277]</a></span> +tyranny was satiated with innumerable holocausts. +The once tremendous power of the infernal arts is +remembered by the higher classes of society of the +present age only in their proverbial language, but it is +indelibly graven in the common literature of Europe. +With the savage peoples of the African continent and +of the barbarous regions of the globe, witchcraft or +sorcery, under the name of Fetishism, flourishes +with as much vigour and with as destructive effects +as in Europe in the sixteenth century; and every +traveller returning from Eastern or Western Africa, +or from the South Pacific, testifies to the prevalence +of the practice of horrid and bloody rites of a religious +observance consisting of charms and incantations. +With those peoples that have no further conception +of the religious sentiment there obtains for +the most part, at least, the magical use of sorcery.<a name="FNanchor_166_166" id="FNanchor_166_166"></a><a href="#Footnote_166_166" class="fnanchor">166</a> +Superstition, ever varying, at some future date may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278" href="#Page_278">[278]</a></span> +assume, even in Europe, a form as pernicious or +irrational as any of a past or of the present age; +for in every age 'religion, which should most distinguish +us from beasts, and ought most peculiarly +to elevate us as rational creatures above brutes, is +that wherein men often appear most irrational and +more senseless than beasts themselves.'<a name="FNanchor_167_167" id="FNanchor_167_167"></a><a href="#Footnote_167_167" class="fnanchor">167</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_165_165" id="Footnote_165_165"></a><a href="#FNanchor_165_165"><span class="label">165</span></a> A modern philosopher has well illustrated this obvious truth +(<i>Natural History of Religion</i>, sect. xii.). 'The age of superstition,' +says an essayist of some notoriety, with perfect truth, 'is not past; +nor,' he adds, a more questionable thesis, 'ought we to wish it past.' +Some of the most eminent writers (e.g. Plutarch, Francis Bacon, +Bayle, Addison) have rightly or wrongly agreed to consider fanatical +superstition more pernicious than atheism. When it is considered +that the scientific philosophy of Aristotle, of more than 2,000 years +ago, was revived at a comparatively recent date, it may be difficult +not to believe in a <i>cyclic</i> rather than really progressive course of +human ideas, at least in metaphysics. The fact, remarked by +Macaulay, that the two principal sections of Christendom in Europe +remain very nearly in the limits in which they were in the sixteenth, +or in the middle of the seventeenth century, is incontestable. Nor, +indeed, are present facts and symptoms so adverse, as is generally +supposed, to the probability of an ultimate reaction in favour of +Catholic doctrine and rule, even among the Teutonic peoples, in the +revolutions to which human ideas are continually subject.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_166_166" id="Footnote_166_166"></a><a href="#FNanchor_166_166"><span class="label">166</span></a> Among the numerous evidences of recent travellers may be specially +mentioned that of the well-known traveller R. F. Burton +(<i>The Lake Regions of Central Africa</i>) for the practices of the Eastern +Africans. On the African continent and elsewhere, as was the case +amongst the ancient Jews, the demons are propitiated by human +sacrifices. To what extent witch-superstition obtains among the +Hindus, the historian of British India bears witness. 'The belief of +witchcraft and sorcery,' says Mr. Mill, 'continues universally prevalent, +and is every day the cause of the greatest enormities. It not +unfrequently happens that Brahmins tried for murder before the +English judges assign as their motive to the crime that the murdered +individual had enchanted them. No fewer than five unhappy persons +in one district were tried and executed for witchcraft so late +as the year 1792. The villagers themselves assume the right of sitting +in judgment on this imaginary offence, and their sole instruments of +proof are the most wretched of all incantations (<i>History of British +India</i>, book ii. 7). A certain instinctive or traditional dread of evil +spirits excites the terrors of those peoples who have no firm belief in +the providence or existence of a benevolent Divinity. Even among +the Chinese—the least religious nation in the world, and whose trite +formula of scepticism, 'Religions are many: Reason is one,' expresses +their indifferentism to every form of religion—there exists a sort of +demoniacal fear (Huc's <i>Chinese Empire</i>, <ins title="added period">xix.</ins>). The diabolic and +magic superstitions of the Moslem are displayed in Sale's <i>Korân</i> and +Lane's <i>Modern Egyptians</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_167_167" id="Footnote_167_167"></a><a href="#FNanchor_167_167"><span class="label">167</span></a> <i>Essay concerning the Human Understanding</i>, book iv. 18.</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class='center'> +<p><br /></p> +<table border="1" class="bbox" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="2" summary="Transcriber's Notes"> +<tr><td align='left'><a name="TRANSCRIBERS_NOTES" id="TRANSCRIBERS_NOTES"></a><h2>TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES</h2> + +<p>The footnotes have been moved and renumbered for easier reading; as a result, +some of the page numbers are skewed in the HTML version.</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_27">Page 27</a>: Deleted extra "the"</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_39">Page 39</a>: Removed comma after "Scandinavians."</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_90">Page 90</a>: Added missing quotation mark.</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_107">Page 107</a>: Corrected typo "Hutchison's."</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_165">Page 165</a>: Corrected typo "transsubstantiated."</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_232">Page 232</a>: Corrected typo "ἱμάς."</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_278">Page 278</a>: Added period after "xix."</p> +</td></tr> +</table></div> +<p><br /></p> + +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SUPERSTITIONS OF WITCHCRAFT***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 22822-h.txt or 22822-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/8/2/22822">http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/8/2/22822</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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