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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/38763-0.txt b/38763-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..240d9df --- /dev/null +++ b/38763-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12621 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Witch, Warlock, and Magician, by +William Henry Davenport Adams + +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 www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Witch, Warlock, and Magician + Historical Sketches of Magic and Witchcraft in England and Scotland + +Author: William Henry Davenport Adams + +Release Date: February 4, 2012 [EBook #38763] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITCH, WARLOCK, AND MAGICIAN *** + + + + +Produced by Irma + + + + + + +Transcriber's Note + +Superscripted characters are surrounded with braces, e.g. D{ni}. + +There is one instance of a symbol, indicated with {+++}, which in the +original text appeared as three + signs arranged in an inverted +triangle. + + + + + WITCH, WARLOCK, AND + MAGICIAN + + Historical Sketches of Magic and Witchcraft + in England and Scotland + + BY + W. H. DAVENPORT ADAMS + + + 'Dreams and the light imaginings of men' + Shelley + + + J. W. BOUTON + 706 & 1152 BROADWAY + NEW YORK + 1889 + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The following pages may be regarded as a contribution towards that +'History of Human Error' which was undertaken by Mr. Augustine Caxton. +I fear that many minds will have to devote all their energies to the +work, if it is ever to be brought to completion; and, indeed, it may +plausibly be argued that its completion would be an impossibility, +since every generation adds something to the melancholy +record--'pulveris exigui parva munera.' However this may be, little +more remains to be said on the subjects which I have here considered +from the standpoint of a sympathetic though incredulous observer. +Alchemy, Magic, Witchcraft--how exhaustively they have been +investigated will appear from the list of authorities which I have +drawn up for the reader's convenience. They have been studied by +'adepts,' and by critics, as realities and as delusions; and almost +the last word would seem to have been said by Science--though not on +the side of the adepts, who still continue to dream of the Hermetic +philosophy, to lose themselves in fanciful pictures, theurgic and +occult, and to write about the mysteries of magic with a simplicity +of faith which we may wonder at, but are bound to respect. + +It has not been my purpose, in the present volume, to attempt a +general history of magic and alchemy, or a scientific inquiry into +their psychological aspects. I have confined myself to a sketch of +their progress in England, and to a narrative of the lives of our +principal magicians. This occupies the first part. The second is +devoted to an historical review of witchcraft in Great Britain, and an +examination into the most remarkable Witch-Trials, in which I have +endeavoured to bring out their peculiar features, presenting much of +the evidence adduced, and in some cases the so-called confessions of +the victims, in the original language. I believe that the details, +notwithstanding the reticence imposed upon me by considerations of +delicacy and decorum, will surprise the reader, and that he will +readily admit the profound interest attaching to them, morally and +intellectually. I have added a chapter on the 'Literature of +Witchcraft,' which, I hope, is tolerably exhaustive, and now offer the +whole as an effort to present, in a popular and readable form, the +result of careful and conscientious study extending over many years. + + W. H. D. A. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + INTRODUCTION. + + PAGE + PROGRESS OF ALCHEMY IN EUROPE 1 + + + BOOK I. + + _THE ENGLISH MAGICIANS._ + + CHAPTER + + I. ROGER BACON: THE TRUE AND THE LEGENDARY 27 + + II. THE STORY OF DR. JOHN DEE 59 + + III. DR. DEE'S DIARY 93 + + IV. MAGIC AND IMPOSTURE: A COUPLE OF KNAVES 102 + + V. THE LAST OF THE ENGLISH MAGICIANS: WILLIAM LILLY 128 + + VI. ENGLISH ROSICRUCIANS 181 + + + BOOK II. + + _WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT._ + + I. EARLY HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT IN ENGLAND 203 + + II. WITCHCRAFT IN ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 244 + + III. THE DECLINE OF WITCHCRAFT IN ENGLAND 292 + + IV. THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND 303 + + V. THE LITERATURE OF WITCHCRAFT 378 + + + + +WITCH, WARLOCK, AND MAGICIAN. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +PROGRESS OF ALCHEMY IN EUROPE. + +The word χημεια--from which we derive our English word +'chemistry'--first occurs, it is said, in the Lexicon of Suidas, a +Greek writer who flourished in the eleventh century. Here is his +definition of it: + + 'Chemistry is the art of preparing gold and silver. The books + concerning it were sought out and burnt by Diocletian, on + account of the new plots directed against him by the + Egyptians. He behaved towards them with great cruelty in his + search after the treatises written by the ancients, his + purpose being to prevent them from growing rich by a + knowledge of this art, lest, emboldened by measureless + wealth, they should be induced to resist the Roman + supremacy.' + +Some authorities assert, however, that this art, or pretended art, is +of much greater antiquity than Suidas knew of; and Scaliger refers to +a Greek manuscript by Zozomen, of the fifth century, which is entitled +'A Faithful Description of the Secret and Divine Art of Making Gold +and Silver.' We may assume that as soon as mankind had begun to set an +artificial value upon these metals, and had acquired some knowledge +of chemical elements, their combinations and permutations, they would +entertain a desire to multiply them in measureless quantities. Dr. +Shaw speaks of no fewer than eighty-nine ancient manuscripts, +scattered through the European libraries, which are all occupied with +'the chemical art,' or 'the holy art,' or, as it is sometimes called, +'the philosopher's stone'; and a fair conclusion seems to be that +'between the fifth century and the taking of Constantinople in the +fifteenth, the Greeks believed in the possibility of making gold and +silver,' and called the supposed process, or processes, _chemistry_. + +The delusion was taken up by the Arabians when, under their Abasside +Khalifs, they entered upon the cultivation of scientific knowledge. +The Arabians conveyed it into Spain, whence its diffusion over +Christendom was a simple work of time, sure if gradual. From the +eleventh to the sixteenth century, alchemy was more or less eagerly +studied by the scholars of Germany, Italy, France, and England; and +the volumes in which they recorded both their learning and their +ignorance, the little they knew and the more they did not know, +compose quite a considerable library. One hundred and twenty-two are +enumerated in the 'Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa,' of Mangetus, a +dry-as-dust kind of compilation, in two huge volumes, printed at +Geneva in 1702. Any individual who has time and patience to expend _ad +libitum_, cannot desire a fairer field of exercise than the +'Bibliotheca.' One very natural result of all this vain research and +profitless inquiry was a keen anxiety on the part of victims to +dignify their labours by claiming for their 'sciences, falsely +so-called,' a venerable and mysterious origin. They accordingly +asserted that the founder or creator was Hermes Trismegistus, whom +some of them professed to identify with Chanaan, the son of Ham, whose +son Mizraim first occupied and peopled Egypt. Now, it is clear that +any person might legitimately devote his nights and days to the +pursuit of a science invented, or originally taught, by no less +illustrious an ancient than Hermes Trismegistus. But to clothe it with +the awe of a still greater antiquity, they affirmed that its +principles had been discovered, engraved in Phœnician characters, +on an emerald tablet which Alexander the Great exhumed from the +philosopher's tomb. Unfortunately, as is always the case, the tablet +was lost; but we are expected to believe that two Latin versions of +the inscription had happily been preserved. One of these may be +Englished as hereinunder: + +1. I speak no frivolous things, but only what is true and most +certain. + +2. What is below resembles that which is above, and what is above +resembles that which is below, to accomplish the one thing of all +things most wonderful. + +3. And as all things proceeded from the meditation of the One God, so +were all things generated from this one thing by the disposition of +Nature. + +4. Its father is _Sol_, its mother _Luna_; it was engendered in the +womb by the air, and nourished by the earth. + +5. It is the cause of all the perfection of things throughout the +whole world. + +6. It arrives at the highest perfection of powers if it be reduced +into earth. + +7. Separate the earth from the fire, the subtle from the gross, acting +with great caution. + +8. Ascend with the highest wisdom from earth to heaven, and thence +descend again to earth, and bind together the powers of things +superior and things inferior. So shall you compass the glory of the +whole world, and divest yourself of the abjectness of humanity. + +9. This thing has more fortitude than fortitude itself, since it will +overcome everything subtle and penetrate everything solid. + +10. All that the world contains was created by it. + +11. Hence proceed things wonderful which in this wise were +established. + +12. For this reason the name of Hermes Trismegistus was bestowed upon +me, because I am master of three parts of the philosophy of the whole +world. + +13. This is what I had to say concerning the most admirable process of +the chemical art. + +These oracular utterances are so vague and obscure that an enthusiast +may read into them almost any meaning he chooses; but there seems a +general consensus of opinion that they refer to the 'universal +medicine' of the earlier alchemists. This, however, is of no great +importance, since it is certain they were invented by some ingenious +hand as late as the fifteenth century. Another forgery of a similar +kind is the 'Tractatus Aureus de Lapidis Physici Secretis,' also +attributed to Hermes; it professes to describe the process of making +this 'universal medicine,' or 'philosopher's stone,' and the formulary +is thus translated by Thomson: + + 'Take of moisture an ounce and a half; of meridional + redness--that is, the soul of the sun--a fourth part, that + is, half an ounce; of yellow sage likewise half an ounce; and + of auripigmentum half an ounce; making in all three ounces.' + +Such a recipe does not seem to help forward an enthusiastic student to +any material extent. + + +THE EARLIER ALCHEMISTS. + +It is in the erudite writings of the great Arabian physician, +Gebir--that is, Abu Moussah Djafar, surnamed _Al Sofi_, or The +Wise--that the science of alchemy, or chemistry (at first the two were +identical), first assumes a definite shape. Gebir flourished in the +early part of the eighth century, and wrote, it is said, upwards of +five hundred treatises on the philosopher's stone and the elixir of +life. In reference to the latter mysterious potion, which possessed +the wonderful power of conferring immortal youth on those who drank of +it, one may remark that it was the necessary complement of the +philosopher's stone, for what would be the use of an unlimited faculty +of making gold and silver unless one could be sure of an immortality +in which to enjoy its exercise? Gebir's principal work, the 'Summæ +Perfectionis,' containing instructions for students in search of the +two great secrets, has been translated into several European +languages; and an English version, by Richard Russell, the alchemist, +was published in 1686. + +Gebir lays down, as a primary principle, that all metals are compounds +of mercury and sulphur. They all labour under disease, he says, except +gold, which is the one metal gifted with perfect health. Therefore, a +preparation of it would dispel every ill which flesh is heir to, as +well as the maladies of plants. We may excuse his extravagances, +however, in consideration of the services he rendered to science by +his discovery of corrosive sublimate, red oxide of mercury, white +oxide of arsenic, nitric acid, oxide of copper, and nitrate of silver, +all of which originally issued from Gebir's laboratory. + +Briefly speaking, the hypothesis assumed by the alchemists was this: +all the metals are compounds, and the baser contain the same elements +as gold, contaminated, indeed, with various impurities, but capable, +when these have been purged away, of assuming all its properties and +characters. The substance which was to effect this purifying process +they called the philosopher's stone (_lapis philosophorum_), though, +as a matter of fact, it is always described as a _powder_--a powder +red-coloured, and smelling strongly. Few of the alchemists, however, +venture on a distinct statement that they had discovered or possessed +this substance. + +The arch-quack Paracelsus makes the assertion, of course; unblushing +mendacity was part of his stock-in-trade; and he pretends even to +define the methods by which it may be realized. Unfortunately, to +ordinary mortals his description is absolutely unintelligible. Others +there are who affirm that they had seen it, and seen it in operation, +transmuting lead, quicksilver, and other of the inferior metals into +ruddy gold. One wonders that they did not claim a share in a process +which involved such boundless potentialities of wealth! + +Helvetius, the physician, though no believer in the magical art, tells +the following wild story in his 'Vitulus Aureus': + +On December 26, 1666, a stranger called upon him, and, after +discussing the supposed properties of the universal medicine, showed +him a yellow powder, which he declared to be the _lapis_, and also +five large plates of gold, which, he said, were the product of its +action. Naturally enough, Helvetius begged for a few grains of this +marvellous powder, or that the stranger would at least exhibit its +potency in his presence. He refused, however, but promised that he +would return in six weeks. He kept his promise, and then, after much +entreaty, gave Helvetius a pinch of the powder--about as much as a +rape-seed. The physician expressed his fear that so minute a quantity +would not convert as much as four grains of lead; whereupon the +stranger broke off one-half, and declared that the remainder was more +than sufficient for the purpose. During their first conference, +Helvetius had contrived to conceal a little of the powder beneath his +thumb-nail. This he dropped into some molten lead, but it was nearly +all exhaled in smoke, and the residue was simply of a vitreous +character. + +On mentioning this circumstance to his visitor, he explained that the +powder should have been enclosed in wax before it was thrown into the +molten lead, to prevent the fumes of the lead from affecting it. He +added that he would come back next day, and show him how to make the +projection; but as he failed to appear, Helvetius, in the presence of +his wife and son, put six drachms of lead into a crucible, and as soon +as the lead was melted, flung into it the atoms of powder given to him +by his mysterious visitor, having first rolled them up in a little +ball of wax. At the end of a quarter of an hour he found the lead +transmuted (so he avers) into gold. Its colour at first was a deep +green; but the mixture, when poured into a conical vessel, turned +blood-red, and, after cooling, acquired the true tint of gold. A +goldsmith who examined it pronounced it to be genuine. Helvetius +requested Purelius, the keeper of the Dutch Mint, to test its value; +and two drachms, after being exposed to aquafortis, were found to have +increased a couple of scruples in weight--an increase doubtlessly +owing to the silver, which still remained enveloped in the gold, +despite the action of the aquafortis. + +It is obvious that this narrative is a complete mystification, and +that either the stranger was a myth or Helvetius was the victim of a +deception. + +The recipes that the alchemists formulate--those, that is, who +profess to have discovered the stone, or to have known somebody who +enjoyed so rare a fortune--are always unintelligible or impracticable. +What is to be understood, for example, of the following elaborate +process, or series of processes, which are recorded by Mangetus, in +his preface to the ponderous 'Bibliotheca Chemica' (to which reference +has already been made)? + +1. Prepare a quantity of spirits of wine, so free from water as to be +wholly combustible, and so volatile that a drop of it, if let fall, +will evaporate before it reaches the ground. This constitutes the +first menstruum. + +2. Take pure mercury, revived in the usual manner from cinnabar; put +it into a glass vessel with common salt and distilled vinegar; shake +violently, and when the vinegar turns black, pour it off, and add +fresh vinegar. Shake again, and continue these repeated shakings and +additions until the mercury no longer turns the vinegar black; the +mercury will then be quite pure and very brilliant. + +3. Take of this mercury four parts; of sublimed mercury (_mercurii +meteoresati_--probably corrosive sublimate), prepared with your own +hands, eight parts; triturate them together in a wooden mortar with a +wooden pestle, till all the grains of running mercury disappear. (This +process is truly described as 'tedious and rather difficult.') + +4. The mixture thus prepared is to be put into a sand-bath, and +exposed to a subliming heat, which is to be gradually increased until +the whole sublimes. Collect the sublimed matter, put it again into the +sand-bath, and sublime a second time; this process must be repeated +five times. The product is a very sweet crystallized sublimate, +constituting the _sal sapientum_, or wise men's salt (probably +calomel), and possessing wonderful properties. + +5. Grind it in a wooden mortar, reducing it to powder; put this powder +into a glass retort, and pour upon it the spirit of wine (see No. 1) +till it stands about three finger-breadths above the powder. Seal the +retort hermetically, and expose it to a very gentle heat for +seventy-four hours, shaking it several times a day; then distil with a +gentle heat, and the spirit of wine will pass over, together with +spirit of mercury. Keep this liquid in a well-stoppered bottle, lest +it should evaporate. More spirit of wine is to be poured upon the +residual salt, and after digestion must be distilled off, as before; +and this operation must be repeated until all the salt is dissolved +and given off with the spirit of wine. A great work will then have +been accomplished! For the mercury, having to some extent been +rendered volatile, will gradually become fit to receive the tincture +of gold and silver. Now return thanks to God, who has hitherto crowned +your wonderful work with success. Nor is this wonderful work enveloped +in Cimmerian darkness; it is clearer than the sun, though preceding +writers have sought to impose upon us with parables, hieroglyphs, +fables, and enigmas. + +6. Take this mercurial spirit, which contains our magical steel in +its belly (_sic_), and put it into a glass retort, to which a receiver +must be well and carefully adjusted; draw off the spirit by a very +gentle heat, and in the bottom of the retort will remain the +quintessence or soul of mercury. This is to be sublimed by applying a +stronger heat to the retort that it may become volatile, as all the +philosophers affirm: + + 'Si fixum solvas faciesque volare solutum, + Et volucrum figas faciet te vivere tutum.' + +This is our _luna_, our fountain, in which 'the king' and 'the queen' +may bathe. Preserve this precious quintessence of mercury, which is +exceedingly volatile, in a well-closed vessel for further use. + +8. Let us now proceed to the production of common gold, which we shall +communicate clearly and distinctly, without digression or obscurity, +in order that from this common gold we may obtain our philosophical +gold, just as from common mercury we have obtained, by the foregoing +processes, philosophical mercury. In the name of God, then, take +common gold, purified in the usual way by antimony, and reduce it into +small grains, which must be washed with salt and vinegar until they +are quite pure. Take one part of this gold, and pour on it three parts +of the quintessence of mercury: as philosophers reckon from seven to +ten, so do we also reckon our number as philosophical, and begin with +three and one. Let them be married together, like husband and wife, to +produce children of their own kind, and you will see the common gold +sink and plainly dissolve. Now the marriage is consummated; and two +things are converted into one. Thus the philosophical sulphur is at +hand, as the philosophers say: 'The sulphur being dissolved, the stone +is at hand.' Take then, in the name of God, our philosophical vessel, +in which the king and queen embrace each other as in a bedchamber, and +leave it till the water is converted into earth; then peace is +concluded between the water and the fire--then the elements no longer +possess anything contrary to each other--because, when the elements +are converted into earth, they cease to be antagonistic; for in earth +all elements are at rest. The philosophers say: 'When you shall see +the water coagulate, believe that your knowledge is true, and that all +your operations are truly philosophical.' Our gold is no longer +common, but philosophical, through the processes it has undergone: at +first, it was exceedingly 'fixed' (_fixum_); then exceedingly +volatile; and again, exceedingly fixed: the entire science depends +upon the change of the elements. The gold, at first a metal, is now a +sulphur, capable of converting all metals into its own sulphur. And +our tincture is wholly converted into sulphur, which possesses the +energy of curing every disease; this is our universal medicine against +all the most deplorable ills of the human body. Therefore, return +infinite thanks to Almighty God for all the good things which He hath +bestowed upon us. + +9. In this great work of ours, two methods of fermentation and +projection are wanting, without which the uninitiated will not +readily follow out our process. The mode of fermentation: Of the +sulphur already described take one part, and project it upon three +parts of very pure gold fused in a furnace. In a moment you will see +the gold, by the force of the sulphur, converted into a red sulphur of +an inferior quality to the primary sulphur. Take one part of this, and +project it upon three parts of fused gold; the whole will again be +converted into a sulphur or a fixable mass; mixing one part of this +with three parts of gold, you will have a malleable and extensible +metal. If you find it so, it is well; if not, add more sulphur, and it +will again pass into a state of sulphur. Now our sulphur will +sufficiently be fermented, or our medicine brought into a metallic +nature. + +10. The method of projection is this: Take of the fermented sulphur +one part, and project it upon two parts of mercury, heated in a +crucible, and you will have a perfect metal; if its colour be not +sufficiently deep, fuse it again, and add more fermented sulphur, and +thus it will gain colour. If it become frangible, add a sufficient +quantity of mercury, and it will be perfect. + +Thus, friend, you have a description of the universal medicine, not +only for curing diseases and prolonging life, but also for transmuting +all metals into gold. Give thanks, therefore, to Almighty God, who, +taking pity on human calamities, hath at last revealed this +inestimable treasure, and made it known for the common benefit of all. + +Such is the jargon with which these so-called philosophers imposed +upon their dupes, and, to some extent perhaps, upon themselves. As Dr. +Thomson points out, the philosopher's stone prepared by this elaborate +process could hardly have been anything else than _an amalgam of +gold_. Chloride of gold it could not have contained, because such a +preparation, instead of acting medicinally, would have proved a most +virulent poison. Of course, amalgam of gold, if projected into melted +lead or tin, and afterwards cupellated, would leave a portion of +gold--that is, exactly the amount _which existed previously in the +amalgam_. Impostors may, therefore, have availed themselves of it to +persuade the credulous that it was really the philosopher's stone; but +the alchemists who prepared the amalgam must have known that it +contained gold.[1] + +It is well known that the mediæval magicians, necromancers, +conjurers--call them by what name you will--who adopted alchemy as an +instrument of imposition, and by no means in the spirit of +philosophical inquiry and research which had characterized their +predecessors, resorted to various ingenious devices in order to +maintain their hold upon their victims. Sometimes they made use of +crucibles with false bottoms--at the real bottom they concealed a +portion of oxide of gold or silver covered with powdered sulphur, +which had been rendered adhesive by a little gummed water or wax. When +heat was applied the false bottom melted away, and the oxide of gold +or silver eventually appeared as the product of the operation at the +bottom of the crucible. Sometimes they made a hole in a lump of +charcoal, and filling it with oxide of gold or silver, stopped up the +orifice with wax; or they soaked charcoal in a solution of these +metals; or they stirred the mixture in the crucible with hollow rods, +containing oxide of gold or silver, closed up at the bottom with wax. +A faithful representation of the stratagems to which the +pseudo-alchemist resorted, that his dupes might not recover too soon +from their delusion, is furnished by Ben Jonson in his comedy of 'The +Alchemist,' and his masque of 'Mercury vindicated from the +Alchemists.' The dramatist was thoroughly conversant with the +technicalities of the pretended science, and also with the deceptions +of its professors. In the masque he puts into the mouth of Mercury an +indignant protest: + + 'The mischief a secret any of them knows, above the consuming + of coals and drawing of usquebagh; howsoever they may + pretend, under the specious names of Gebir, Arnold, Lully, or + Bombast of Hohenheim, to commit miracles in art, and treason + against nature! As if the title of philosopher, that creature + of glory, were to be fetched out of a furnace!' + +But while the world is full of fools, it is too much to expect there +shall be any lack of knaves to prey upon them! + +FOOTNOTE: + +[1] _Cf._ Stahl, 'Fundamenta Chimiæ,' cap. 'De Lapide Philosophorum'; +and Kircher, 'Mundus Subterraneus.' + + +IN THE MIDDLE AGES. + +The first of the great European alchemists I take to have been + +_Albertus Magnus_ or _Albertus Teutonicus_ (_Frater Albertus de +Colonia_ and _Albertus Grotus_, as he is also called), a man of +remarkable intellectual energy and exceptional force of character, who +has sometimes, and not without justice, been termed the founder of the +Schoolmen. Neither the place nor the date of his birth is +authentically known, but he was still in his young manhood when, about +1222, he was appointed to the chair of theology at Padua, and became a +member of the Dominican Order. He did not long retain the +professorship, and, departing from Padua, taught with great success in +Ratisbon, Köln, Strassburg, and Paris, residing in the last-named city +for three years, together with his illustrious disciple, Thomas +Aquinas. In 1260 he was appointed to the See of Ratisbon, though he +had not previously held any ecclesiastical dignity, but soon resigned, +on the ground that its duties interfered vexatiously with his studies. +Twenty years later, at a ripe old age, he died, leaving behind him, as +monuments of his persistent industry and intellectual subtlety, +one-and-twenty ponderous folios, which include commentaries on +Aristotle, on the Scriptures, and on Dionysius the Areopagite. Among +his minor works occurs a treatise on alchemy, which seems to show that +he was a devout believer in the science. + +From the marvellous stories of his thaumaturgic exploits which have +come down to us, we may infer that he had attained a considerable +amount of skill in experimental chemistry. The brazen statue which he +animated, and the garrulity of which was so offensive that Thomas +Aquinas one day seized a hammer, and, provoked beyond all endurance, +smashed it to pieces, may be a reminiscence of his powers as a +ventriloquist. And the following story may hint at an effective +manipulation of the _camera obscura_: Count William of Holland and +King of the Romans happening to pass through Köln, Albertus invited +him and his courtiers to his house to partake of refreshment. It was +mid-winter; but on arriving at the philosopher's residence they found +the tables spread in the open garden, where snowdrifts lay several +feet in depth. Indignant at so frugal a reception, they were on the +point of leaving, when Albertus appeared, and by his courtesies +induced them to remain. Immediately the scene was lighted up with the +sunshine of summer, a warm and balmy air stole through the whispering +boughs, the frost and snow vanished, the melodies of the lark dropped +from the sky like golden rain. But as soon as the feast came to an end +the sunshine faded, the birds ceased their song, clouds gathered +darkling over the firmament, an icy blast shrieked through the +gibbering branches, and the snow fell in blinding showers, so that the +philosopher's guests were glad to fold their cloaks about them and +retreat into the kitchen to grow warm before its blazing fire. + +Was this some clever scenic deception, or is the whole a fiction? + +A knowledge of the secret of the _Elixir Vitæ_ was possessed (it is +said) by _Alain de l'Isle_, or Alanus de Insulis; but either he did +not avail himself of it, or failed to compound a sufficient quantity +of the magic potion, for he died under the sacred roof of Citeaux, in +1298, at the advanced age of 110. + +_Arnold de Villeneuve_, who attained, in the thirteenth century, some +distinction as a physician, an astronomer, an astrologer, and an +alchemist--and was really a capable man of science, as science was +then understood--formulates an elaborate recipe for rejuvenating one's +self, which, however, does not seem to have been very successful in +his own case, since he died before he was 70. Perhaps he was as +disgusted with the compound as (in the well-known epitaph) the infant +was with this mundane sphere--he 'liked it not, and died.' I think +there are many who would forfeit longevity rather than partake of it. + +'Twice or thrice a week you must anoint your body thoroughly with the +manna of cassia; and every night, before going to bed, you must place +over your heart a plaster, composed of a certain quantity (or, rather, +uncertain, for definite and precise proportions are never +particularized) of Oriental saffron, red rose-leaves, sandal-wood, +aloes, and amber, liquefied in oil of roses and the best white wax. +During the day this must be kept in a leaden casket. You must next pen +up in a court, where the water is sweet and the air pure, sixteen +chickens, if you are of a sanguine temperament; twenty-five, if +phlegmatic; and thirty, if melancholic. Of these you are to eat one a +day, after they have been fattened in such a manner as to have +absorbed into their system the qualities which will ensure your +longevity; for which purpose they are first to be kept without food +until almost starved, and then gorged with a broth of serpents and +vinegar, thickened with wheat and beans, for at least two months. +When they are served at your table you will drink a moderate quantity +of white wine or claret to assist digestion.' + +I should think it would be needed! + + * * * * * + +Among the alchemists must be included _Pietro d'Apono_. He was an +eminent physician; but, being accused of heresy, was thrown into +prison and died there. His ecclesiastical persecutors, however, burned +his bones rather than be entirely disappointed of their _auto da fé_. +Like most of the mediæval physicians, he indulged in alchemical and +astrological speculations; but they proved to Pietro d'Apono neither +pleasurable nor profitable. It was reputed of him that he had summoned +a number of evil spirits; and, on their obeying his call, had shut +them up in seven crystal vases, where he detained them until he had +occasion for their services. In his selection of them he seems to have +displayed a commendably catholic taste and love of knowledge; for one +was an expert in poetry, another in painting, a third in philosophy, a +fourth in physic, a fifth in astrology, a sixth in music, and a +seventh in alchemy. So that when he required instruction in either of +these arts or sciences, he simply tapped the proper crystal vase and +laid on a spirit. + +The story seems to be a fanciful allusion to the various acquirements +of Pietro d'Apono; but if intended at first as a kind of allegory, it +came in due time to be accepted literally. + + * * * * * + +I pass on to the great Spanish alchemist and magician, _Raymond +Lully_, or Lulli, who was scarcely inferior in fame, or the qualities +which merited fame, even to Albertus Magnus. He was a man, not only of +wide, but of accurate scholarship; and the two or three hundred +treatises which proceeded from his pen traversed the entire circle of +the learning of his age, dealing with almost every conceivable subject +from medicine to morals, from astronomy to theology, and from alchemy +to civil and canon law. His life had its romantic aspects, and his +death (in 1315?) was invested with something of the glory of +martyrdom; for while he was preaching to the Moslems at Bona, the mob +fell upon him with a storm of stones, and though he was still alive +when rescued by some Genoese merchants, and conveyed on board their +vessel, he died of the injuries he had received before it arrived in a +Spanish port. + +There seems little reason to believe that Lulli visited England about +1312, on the invitation of Edward II. Dickenson, in his work on 'The +Quintessences of the Philosophers,' asserts that his laboratory was +established in Westminster Abbey--that is, in the cloisters--and that +some time after his return to the Continent a large quantity of +gold-dust was found in the cell he had occupied. Langlet du Fresnoy +contends that it was through the intervention of John Cremer, Abbot of +Westminster, a persevering seeker after the _lapis philosophorum_, +that he came to England, Cremer having described him to King Edward as +a man of extraordinary powers. Robert Constantine, in his 'Nomenclator +Scriptorum Medicorum' (1515), professes to have discovered that Lulli +resided for some time in London, and made gold in the Tower, and that +he had seen some gold pieces of his making, which were known in +England as the nobles of Raymond, or rose-nobles. But the great +objections to these very precise statements rests on two facts pointed +out by Mr. Waite, that the rose-noble, so called because a rose was +stamped on each side of it, was first coined in 1465, in the reign of +Edward IV., and that there never was an Abbot Cremer of Westminster. + + * * * * * + +_Jean de Meung_ is also included among the alchemists; but he +bequeathed to posterity in his glorious poem of the 'Roman de la Rose' +something very much more precious than would have been any formula for +making gold. In one sense he was indeed an alchemist, and possessed +the secret of the universal medicine; for in his poem his genius has +transmuted into purest gold the base ore of popular traditions and +legends. + +Some of the stories which Langlet du Fresnoy tells of _Nicholas +Flamel_ were probably invented long after his death, or else we should +have to brand him as a most audacious knave. One of those amazing +narratives pretends that he bought for a couple of florins an old and +curious volume, the leaves of which--three times seven (this sounds +better than twenty-one) in number--were made from the bark of trees. +Each seventh leaf bore an allegorical picture--the first representing +a serpent swallowing rods, the second a cross with a serpent crucified +upon it, and the third a fountain in a desert, surrounded by creeping +serpents. Who, think you, was the author of this mysterious volume? +No less illustrious a person than Abraham the patriarch, Hebrew, +prince, philosopher, priest, Levite, and magian, who, as it was +written in Latin, must have miraculously acquired his foreknowledge of +a tongue which, in his time, had no existence. A perusal of its mystic +pages convinced Flamel that he had had the good fortune to discover a +complete manual on the art of transmutation of metals, in which all +the necessary vessels were indicated, and the processes described. But +there was one serious difficulty to be overcome: the book assumed, as +a matter of course, that the student was already in possession of that +all-important agent of transmutation, the philosopher's stone. + +Careful study led Flamel to the conclusion that the secret of the +stone was hidden in certain allegorical drawings on the fourth and +fifth leaves; but, then, to decipher these was beyond his powers. He +submitted them to all the learned savants and alchemical adepts he +could get hold of: they proved to be no wiser than himself, while some +of them actually laughed at Abraham's posthumous publication as +worthless gibberish. Flamel, however, clung fast to his conviction of +the inestimable value of his 'find,' and daily pondered over the two +cryptic illustrations, which may thus be described: On the first page +of the fourth leaf Mercury was contending with a figure, which might +be either Saturn or Time--probably the latter, as he carried on his +head the emblematical hour-glass, and in his hand the not less +emblematical scythe. On the second stage a flower upon a mountain-top +presented the unusual combination of a blue stalk, with red and white +blossoms, and leaves of pure gold. The wind appeared to blow it about +very harshly, and a gruesome company of dragons and griffins +encompassed it. + +Upon the study of these provokingly obscure designs Flamel fruitlessly +expended the leisure time of thrice seven years: after which, on the +advice of his wife, he repaired to Spain to seek the assistance of +some erudite Jewish rabbi. He had been wandering from place to place +for a couple of years, when he met, somewhere in Leon, a learned +Hebrew physician, named Canches, who agreed to return with him to +Paris, and there examine Abraham's volume. Canches was deeply versed +in all the lore of the Cabala, and Flamel hung with delight on the +words of wisdom that dropped from his eloquent lips. But at Orleans +Canches was taken ill with a malady of which he died, and Flamel found +his way home, a sadder, if not a wiser, man. He resumed his study of +the book, but for two more years could get no clue to its meaning. In +the third year, recalling some deliverance of his departed friend, the +rabbi, he perceived that all his experiments had hitherto proceeded +upon erroneous principles. He repeated them upon a different basis, +and in a few months brought them to a successful issue. On January 13, +1382, he converted mercury into silver, and on April 25 into gold. +Well might he cry in triumph, 'Eureka!' The great secret, the sublime +magistery was his: he had discovered the art of transmuting metals +into gold and silver, and, so long as he kept it to himself, had at +his command the source of inexhaustible wealth. + +At this time Nicholas Flamel, it is said, was about eighty years old. +His admirers assert that he also discovered the elixir of immortal +life; but, as he died in 1419, at the age (it is alleged) of 116, he +must have been content with the merest sip of it! Why did he not +reveal its ingredients for the general benefit of our afflicted +humanity? His immense wealth he bequeathed to churches and hospitals, +thus making a better use of it after death than he had made of it in +his lifetime. For it is said that Flamel was a usurer, and that his +philosopher's stone was 'cent per cent.' It is true enough that he +dabbled in alchemy, and probably he made his alchemical experiments +useful in connection with his usurious transactions. + + + + +BOOK I. + +_THE ENGLISH MAGICIANS._ + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +ROGER BACON: THE TRUE AND THE LEGENDARY. + + +It was in the early years of the fourteenth century that the two +pseudo-sciences of alchemy and astrology, the supposititious sisters +of chemistry and astronomy, made their way into England. At first +their progress was by no means so rapid as it had been on the +Continent; for in England, as yet, there was no educated class +prepared to give their leisure to the work of experimental +investigation. A solitary scholar here and there lighted his torch at +the altar-fire which the Continental philosophers kept burning with so +much diligence and curiosity, and was generally rewarded for his +heterodox enthusiasm by the persecution of the Church and the +prejudice of the vulgar. But by degrees the new sciences increased the +number of their adherents, and the more active intellects of the time +embraced the theory of astral influences, and were fascinated by the +delusion of the philosopher's stone. Many a secret furnace blazed day +and night with the charmed flames which were to resolve the metals +into their original elements, and place the pale student in +possession of the coveted _magisterium_, or 'universal medicine.' At +length the alchemists became a sufficiently numerous and important +body to draw the attention of the Government, which regarded their +proceedings with suspicion, from a fear that the result might +injuriously affect the coinage. In 1434 the Legislature enacted that +the making of gold or silver should be treated as a felony. But the +Parliament was influenced by a very different motive from that of the +King and his Council, its patriotic fears being awakened lest the +Executive, enabled by the new science to increase without limit the +pecuniary resources of the Crown, should be rendered independent of +Parliamentary control. + +In the course of a few years, however, broader and more enlightened +views prevailed; and it came to be acknowledged that scientific +research ought to be relieved from legislative interference. In 1455 +Henry VI. issued four patents in succession to certain knights, London +citizens, chemists, monks, mass-priests, and others, granting them +leave and license to undertake the discovery of the philosopher's +stone, 'to the great benefit of the realm, and the enabling the King +to pay all the debts of the Crown in _real gold and silver_.' On the +remarkable fact that these patents were issued to ecclesiastics as +well as laymen, Prynne afterwards remarked, with true theological +acridity, that they were so included because they were 'such good +artists in transubstantiating bread and wine in the Eucharist, and +were, therefore, the more likely to be able to effect the +transmutation of base metals into better.' Nothing came of the +patents. The practical common-sense of Englishmen never took very +kindly to the alchemical delusion, and Chaucer very faithfully +describes the contempt with which it was generally regarded. +Enthusiasts there were, no doubt, who firmly believed in it, and +knaves who made a profit out of it, and dupes who were preyed upon by +the knaves; and so it languished on through the sixteenth and +seventeenth centuries. It seems at one time to have amused the shrewd +intellect of Queen Elizabeth, and at another to have caught the +volatile fancy of the second Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. But alchemy +was, in the main, the _modus vivendi_ of quacks and cheats, of such +impostors as Ben Jonson has drawn so powerfully in his great comedy--a +Subtle, a Face, and a Doll Common, who, in the Sir Epicure Mammons of +the time, found their appropriate victims. These creatures played on +the greed and credulity of their dupes with successful audacity, and +excited their imaginations by extravagant promises. Thus, Ben Jonson's +hero runs riot with glowing anticipations of what the alchemical +_magisterium_ can effect. + + 'Do you think I fable with you? I assure you, + He that has once the flower of the sun, + The perfect ruby, which we call _Elixir_, + Not only can do that, but, by its virtue, + Can confer honour, love, respect, long life; + Give safety, valour, yes, and victory, + To whom he will. In eight-and-twenty days + I'll make an old man of fourscore a child.... + 'Tis the secret + Of nature naturized 'gainst all infections, + Cures all diseases coming of all causes; + A month's grief in a day, a year's in twelve, + And of what age soever in a month.' + +The English alchemists, however, with a few exceptions, depended for a +livelihood chiefly on their sale of magic charms, love-philters, and +even more dangerous potions, and on horoscope-casting, and +fortune-telling by the hand or by cards. They acted, also, as agents +in many a dark intrigue and unlawful project, being generally at the +disposal of the highest bidder, and seldom shrinking from any crime. + + * * * * * + +The earliest name of note on the roll of the English magicians, +necromancers and alchemists is that of + + +ROGER BACON. + +This great man has some claim to be considered the father of +experimental philosophy, since it was he who first laid down the +principles upon which physical investigation should be conducted. +Speaking of science, he says, in language far in advance of his times: +'There are two modes of knowing--by argument and by experiment. +Argument winds up a question, but does not lead us to acquiesce in, or +feel certain of, the contemplation of truth, unless the truth be +proved and confirmed by experience.' To Experimental Science he +ascribed three differentiating characters: 'First, she tests by +experiment the grand conclusions of all other sciences. Next, she +discovers, with reference to the ideas connected with other sciences, +splendid truths, to which these sciences without assistance are unable +to attain. Her third prerogative is, that, unaided by the other +sciences, and of herself, she can investigate the secrets of nature.' +These truths, now accepted as trite and self-evident, ranked, in Roger +Bacon's day, as novel and important discoveries. + +He was born at Ilchester, in Somersetshire, in 1214. Of his lineage, +parentage, and early education we know nothing, except that he must +have been very young when he went to Oxford, for he took orders there +before he was twenty. Joining the Franciscan brotherhood, he applied +himself to the study of Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Arabic; but his +genius chiefly inclined towards the pursuit of the natural sciences, +in which he obtained such a mastery that his contemporaries accorded +to him the flattering title of 'The Admirable Doctor.' His lectures +gathered round him a crowd of admiring disciples; until the boldness +of their speculations aroused the suspicion of the ecclesiastical +authorities, and in 1257 they were prohibited by the General of his +Order. Then Pope Innocent IV. interfered, interdicting him from the +publication of his writings, and placing him under close supervision. +He remained in this state of tutelage until Clement IV., a man of more +liberal views, assumed the triple tiara, who not only released him +from his irksome restraints, but desired him to compose a treatise on +the sciences. This was the origin of Bacon's 'Opus Majus,' 'Opus +Minus' and 'Opus Tertius,' which he completed in a year and a half, +and despatched to Rome. In 1267 he was allowed to return to Oxford, +where he wrote his 'Compendium Studii Philosophiæ.' His vigorous +advocacy of new methods of scientific investigation, or, perhaps, his +unsparing exposure of the ignorance and vices of the monks and the +clergy, again brought down upon him the heavy arm of the +ecclesiastical tyranny. His works were condemned by the General of his +Order, and in 1278, during the pontificate of Nicholas III., he was +thrown into prison, where he was detained for several years. It is +said that he was not released until 1292, the year in which he +published his latest production, the 'Compendium Studii Theologiæ.' +Two years afterwards he died. + +In many respects Bacon was greatly in advance of his contemporaries, +but his general repute ignores his real and important services to +philosophy, and builds up a glittering fabric upon mechanical +discoveries and inventions to which, it is to be feared, he cannot lay +claim. As Professor Adamson puts it, he certainly describes a method +of constructing a telescope, but not so as to justify the conclusion +that he himself was in possession of that instrument. The invention of +gunpowder has been attributed to him on the strength of a passage in +one of his works, which, if fairly interpreted, disposes at once of +the pretension; besides, it was already known to the Arabs. +Burning-glasses were in common use; and there is no proof that he made +spectacles, although he was probably acquainted with the principle of +their construction. It is not to be denied, however, that in his +interesting treatise on 'The Secrets of Nature and Art,'[2] he +exhibits every sign of a far-seeing and lively intelligence, and +foreshadows the possibility of some of our great modern inventions. +But, like so many master-minds of the Middle Ages, he was unable +wholly to resist the fascinations of alchemy and astrology. He +believed that various parts of the human body were influenced by the +stars, and that the mind was thus stimulated to particular acts, +without any relaxation or interruption of free will. His 'Mirror of +Alchemy,' of which a translation into French was executed by 'a +Gentleman of Dauphiné,' and printed in 1507, absolutely bristles with +crude and unfounded theories--as, for instance, that Nature, in the +formation of metallic veins, tends constantly to the production of +gold, but is impeded by various accidents, and in this way creates +metals in which impurities mingle with the fundamental substances. The +main elements, he says, are quicksilver and sulphur; and from these +all metals and minerals are compounded. Gold he describes as a perfect +metal, produced from a pure, fixed, clear, and red quicksilver; and +from a sulphur also pure, fixed, and red, not incandescent and +unalloyed. Iron is unclean and imperfect, because engendered of a +quicksilver which is impure, too much congealed, earthy, incandescent, +white and red, and of a similar variety of sulphur. The 'stone,' or +substance, by which the transmutation of the imperfect into the +perfect metals was to be effected must be made, in the main, he said, +of sulphur and mercury. + +It is not easy to determine how soon an atmosphere of legend gathered +around the figure of 'the Admirable Doctor;' but undoubtedly it +originated quite as much in his astrological errors as in his +scientific experiments. Some of the myths of which he is the +traditional hero belong to a very much earlier period, as, for +instance, that of his Brazen Head, which appears in the old romance of +'Valentine and Orson,' as well as in the history of Albertus Magnus. +Gower, too, in his 'Confessio Amantis,' relates how a Brazen Head was +fabricated by Bishop Grosseteste. It was customary in those days to +ascribe all kinds of marvels to men who obtained a repute for +exceptional learning, and Bishop Grosseteste's Brazen Head was as +purely a fiction as Roger Bacon's. This is Gower's account: + + 'For of the gretè clerk Grostest + I rede how busy that he was + Upon the clergie an head of brass + To forgè; and make it fortelle + Of suchè thingès as befelle. + And seven yerès besinesse + He laidè, but for the lachèsse[3] + Of half a minute of an hour ... + He lostè all that he hadde do.' + +Stow tells a story of a Head of Clay, made at Oxford in the reign of +Edward II., which, at an appointed time, spoke the mysterious words, +'Caput decidetur--caput elevabitur. Pedes elevabuntur supra caput.' +Returning to Roger Bacon's supposed invention, we find an ingenious +though improbable explanation suggested by Sir Thomas Browne, in his +'Vulgar Errors': + + 'Every one,' he says, 'is filled with the story of Friar + Bacon, that made a Brazen Head to speak these words, "_Time + is_." Which, though there went not the like relations, is + surely too literally received, and was but a mystical fable + concerning the philosopher's great work, wherein he eminently + laboured: implying no more by the copper head, than the + vessel wherein it was wrought; and by the words it spake, + than the opportunity to be watched, about the _tempus ortus_, + or birth of the magical child, or "philosophical King" of + Lullius, the rising of the "terra foliata" of Arnoldus; when + the earth, sufficiently impregnated with the water, ascendeth + white and splendent. Which not observed, the work is + irrecoverably lost.... Now letting slip the critical + opportunity, he missed the intended treasure: which had he + obtained, he might have made out the tradition of making a + brazen wall about England: that is, the most powerful defence + or strongest fortification which gold could have effected.' + +An interpretation of the popular myth which is about as ingenious and +far-fetched as Lord Bacon's expositions of the 'Fables of the +Ancients,' of which it may be said that they possess every merit but +that of probability! + +Bacon's Brazen Head, however, took hold of the popular fancy. It +survived for centuries, and the allusions to it in our literature are +sufficiently numerous. Cob, in Ben Jonson's comedy of 'Every Man in +his Humour,' exclaims: 'Oh, an my house were the Brazen Head now! +'Faith, it would e'en speak _Mo' fools yet_!' And we read in Greene's +'Tu Quoque': + + 'Look to yourself, sir; + The brazen head has spoke, and I must have you.' + +Lord Bacon used it happily in his 'Apology to the Queen,' when +Elizabeth would have punished the Earl of Essex for his misconduct in +Ireland:--'Whereunto I said (to the end utterly to divert her), +"Madam, if you will have me speak to you in this argument, I must +speak to you as Friar Bacon's head spake, that said first, '_Time +is_,' and then, '_Time was_,' and '_Time would never be_,' for +certainly" (said I) "it is now far too late; the matter is cold, and +hath taken too much wind."' Butler introduces it in his +'Hudibras':--'Quoth he, "My head's not made of brass, as Friar Bacon's +noddle was."' And Pope, in 'The Dunciad,' writes:--'Bacon trembled for +his brazen head.' A William Terite, in 1604, gave to the world some +verse, entitled 'A Piece of Friar Bacon's Brazen-head's Prophecie.' +And, in our own time, William Blackworth Praed has written 'The Chaunt +of the Brazen Head,' which, in his prose motto, he (in the person of +Friar Bacon) addresses as 'the brazen companion of his solitary +hours.' + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] Epistola Fratris Rogerii Baconis de Secretis Operibus Artis et +Naturæ et de Nullitate Magiæ. + +[3] _Laches_, oversight. + + +'THE FAMOUS HISTORIE OF FRIAR BACON.' + +Towards the end of the sixteenth century, the various legends which +had taken Friar Bacon as their central figure were brought together in +a connected form, and wrought, along with other stories of magic and +sorcery, into a continuous narrative, which became immensely popular. +It was entitled, 'The Famous Historie of Friar Bacon: Conteyning the +Wonderful Thinges that he Did in his Life; also the Manner of his +Death; with the Lives and Deaths of the Two Conjurers, Bungye and +Vandermast,' and has been reprinted by Mr. Thoms, in his 'Early +English Romances.' + +According to this entertaining authority, the Friar was 'born in the +West part of England, and was sonne to a wealthy farmer, who put him +to the schoole to the parson of the towne where he was borne; not with +intent that hee should turne fryer (as hee did), but to get so much +understanding, that he might manage the better the wealth hee was to +leave him. But young Bacon took his learning so fast, that the priest +could not teach him any more, which made him desire his master that he +would speake to his father to put him to Oxford, that he might not +lose that little learning that he had gained.... The father affected +to doubt his son's capacity, and designed him still to follow the same +calling as himself; but the student had no inclination to drive fat +oxen or consort with unlettered hinds, and stole away to "a cloister" +some twenty miles off, where the monks cordially welcomed him. +Continuing the pursuit of knowledge with great avidity, he attained to +such repute that the authorities of Oxford University invited him to +repair thither. He accepted the invitation, and grew so excellent in +the secrets of Art and Nature, that not England only, but all +Christendom, admired him.' + +There, in the seclusion of his cell, he made the Brazen Head on which +rests his legendary fame. + + 'Reading one day of the many conquests of England, he + bethought himselfe how he might keepe it hereafter from the + like conquests, and so make himselfe famous hereafter to all + posterities. This, after great study, hee found could be no + way so well done as one; which was to make a head of brasse, + and if he could make this head to speake, and heare it when + it speakes, then might hee be able to wall all England about + with brasse.[4] To this purpose he got one Fryer Bungey to + assist him, who was a great scholar and a magician, but not + to bee compared to Fryer Bacon: these two with great study + and paines so framed a head of brasse, that in the inward + parts thereof there was all things like as in a naturall + man's head. This being done, they were as farre from + perfection of the worke as they were before, for they knew + not how to give those parts that they had made motion, + without which it was impossible that it should speake: many + bookes they read, but yet coulde not finde out any hope of + what they sought, that at the last they concluded to raise a + spirit, and to know of him that which they coulde not attaine + to by their owne studies. To do this they prepared all things + ready, and went one evening to a wood thereby, and after many + ceremonies used, they spake the words of conjuration; which + the Devill straight obeyed, and appeared unto them, asking + what they would? "Know," said Fryer Bacon, "that wee have + made an artificiall head of brasse, which we would have to + speake, to the furtherance of which wee have raised thee; and + being raised, wee will here keepe thee, unlesse thou tell to + us the way and manner how to make this head to speake." The + Devill told him that he had not that power of himselfe. + "Beginner of lyes," said Fryer Bacon, "I know that thou dost + dissemble, and therefore tell it us quickly, or else wee will + here bind thee to remaine during our pleasures." At these + threatenings the Devill consented to doe it, and told them, + that with a continual fume of the six hottest simples it + should have motion, and in one month space speak; the time of + the moneth or day hee knew not: also hee told them, that if + they heard it not before it had done speaking, all their + labour should be lost. They being satisfied, licensed the + spirit for to depart. + + 'Then went these two learned fryers home againe, and prepared + the simples ready, and made the fume, and with continuall + watching attended when this Brazen Head would speake. Thus + watched they for three weekes without any rest, so that they + were so weary and sleepy that they could not any longer + refraine from rest. Then called Fryer Bacon his man Miles, + and told him that it was not unknown to him what paines Fryer + Bungey and himselfe had taken for three weekes space, onely + to make and to heare the Brazen Head speake, which if they + did not, then had they lost all their labour, and all England + had a great losse thereby; therefore hee intreated Miles that + he would watch whilst that they slept, and call them if the + head speake. "Fear not, good master," said Miles, "I will not + sleepe, but harken and attend upon the head, and if it doe + chance to speake, I will call you; therefore I pray take you + both your rests and let mee alone for watching this head." + After Fryer Bacon had given him a great charge the second + time, Fryer Bungey and he went to sleepe, and Miles was lefte + alone to watch the Brazen Head. Miles, to keepe him from + sleeping, got a tabor and pipe, and being merry disposed, + with his owne musicke kept from sleeping at last. After some + noyse the head spake these two words, "TIME IS." Miles, + hearing it to speake no more, thought his master would be + angry if hee waked him for that, and therefore he let them + both sleepe, and began to mocke the head in this manner: + "Thou brazen-faced Head, hath my master tooke all these + paines about thee, and now dost thou requite him with two + words, TIME IS? Had hee watched with a lawyer so long as hee + hath watched with thee, he would have given him more and + better words than thou hast yet. If thou canst speake no + wiser, they shal sleepe till doomes day for me: TIME IS! I + know Time is, and that you shall heare, Goodman Brazen-face. + + '"Time is for some to eate, + Time is for some to sleepe, + Time is for some to laugh, + Time is for some to weepe. + + '"Time is for some to sing, + Time is for some to pray, + Time is for some to creepe, + That have drunken all the day. + + '"Do you tell us, copper-nose, when TIME IS? I hope we + schollers know our times, when to drink drunke, when to kiss + our hostess, when to goe on her score, and when to pay + it--that time comes seldome." After halfe an houre had + passed, the Head did speake againe, two words, which were + these, "TIME WAS." Miles respected these words as little as + he did the former, and would not wake them, but still scoffed + at the Brazen Head that it had learned no better words, and + have such a tutor as his master: and in scorne of it sung + this song: + + '"Time was when thou, a kettle, + wert filled with better matter; + But Fryer Bacon did thee spoyle + when he thy sides did batter. + + '"Time was when conscience dwelled + with men of occupation; + Time was when lawyers did not thrive + so well by men's vexation. + + '"Time was when kings and beggars + of one poore stuff had being; + Time was when office kept no knaves-- + that time it was worth seeing. + + '"Time was a bowle of water + did give the face reflection; + Time was when women knew no paint, + which now they call complexion. + + '"TIME WAS! I know that, brazen-face, without your telling; I + know Time was, and I know what things there was when Time + was; and if you speake no wiser, no master shall be waked for + mee." Thus Miles talked and sung till another halfe-houre was + gone: then the Brazen Head spake again these words, "TIME IS + PAST;" and therewith fell downe, and presently followed a + terrible noyse, with strange flashes of fire, so that Miles + was halfe dead with feare. At this noyse the two Fryers + awaked, and wondred to see the whole roome so full of smoake; + but that being vanished, they might perceive the Brazen Head + broken and lying on the ground. At this sight they grieved, + and called Miles to know how this came. Miles, halfe dead + with feare, said that it fell doune of itselfe, and that with + the noyse and fire that followed he was almost frighted out + of his wits. Fryer Bacon asked him if hee did not speake? + "Yes," quoth Miles, "it spake, but to no purpose: He have a + parret speake better in that time that you have been teaching + this Brazen Head." + + '"Out on thee, villaine!" said Fryer Bacon; "thou hast undone + us both: hadst thou but called us when it did speake, all + England had been walled round about with brasse, to its glory + and our eternal fames. What were the words it spake?" "Very + few," said Miles, "and those were none of the wisest that I + have heard neither. First he said, 'TIME IS.'" "Hadst thou + called us then," said Fryer Bacon, "we had been made for + ever." "Then," said Miles, "half-an-hour after it spake + againe, and said, 'TIME WAS.'" "And wouldst thou not call us + then?" said Bungey. "Alas!" said Miles, "I thought hee would + have told me some long tale, and then I purposed to have + called you: then half-an-houre after he cried, 'TIME IS + PAST,' and made such a noyse that hee hath waked you + himselfe, mee thinkes." At this Fryer Bacon was in such a + rage that hee would have beaten his man, but he was + restrained by Bungey: but neverthelesse, for his punishment, + he with his art struck him dumbe for one whole month's space. + Thus the greate worke of these learned fryers was overthrown, + to their great griefes, by this simple fellow.' + +The historian goes on to relate many instances of Friar Bacon's +thaumaturgical powers. He captures a town which the king had besieged +for three months without success. He puts to shame a German conjuror +named Vandermast, and he performs wonders in love affairs; but at +length a fatal result to one of his magical exploits induces him to +break to pieces his wonderful glass and doff his conjurer's robe. +Then, receiving intelligence of the deaths of Vandermast and Friar +Bungey, he falls into a deep grief, so that for three days he refuses +to partake of food, and keeps his chamber. + + 'In the time that Fryer Bacon kept his Chamber, hee fell into + divers meditations; sometimes into the vanity of Arts and + Sciences; then would he condemne himselfe for studying of + those things that were so contrary to his Order soules + health; and would say, That magicke made a man a Devill: + sometimes would hee meditate on divinity; then would hee cry + out upon himselfe for neglecting the study of it, and for + studying magicke: sometime would he meditate on the + shortnesse of mans life, then would he condemne himself for + spending a time so short, so ill as he had done his: so would + he goe from one thing to another, and in all condemne his + former studies. + + 'And that the world should know how truly he did repent his + wicked life, he caused to be made a great fire; and sending + for many of his friends, schollers, and others, he spake to + them after this manner: My good friends and fellow students, + it is not unknown to you, how that through my Art I have + attained to that credit, that few men living ever had: of the + wonders that I have done, all England can speak, both King + and Commons: I have unlocked the secrets of Art and Nature, + and let the world see those things that have layen hid since + the death of Hermes,[5] that rare and profound philosopher: + my studies have found the secrets of the Starres; the bookes + that I have made of them do serve for precedents to our + greatest Doctors, so excellent hath my judgment been therein. + I likewise have found out the secrets of Trees, Plants, and + Stones, with their several uses; yet all this knowledge of + mine I esteeme so lightly, that I wish that I were ignorant + and knew nothing, for the knowledge of these things (as I + have truly found) serveth not to better a man in goodnesse, + but onely to make him proude and thinke too well of himselfe. + What hath all my knowledge of Nature's secrets gained me? + Onely this, the losse of a better knowledge, the losse of + Divine Studies, which makes the immortal part of man (his + soule) blessed. I have found that my knowledge has beene a + heavy burden, and has kept downe my good thoughts; but I will + remove the cause, which are these Bookes, which I doe purpose + here before you all to burne. They all intreated him to spare + the bookes, because in them there were those things that + after-ages might receive great benefit by. He would not + hearken unto them, but threw them all into the fire, and in + that flame burnt the greatest learning in the world. Then did + he dispose of all his goods; some part he gave to poor + schollers, and some he gave to other poore folkes: nothing + left he for himselfe: then caused hee to be made in the + Church-Wall a Cell, where he locked himselfe in, and there + remained till his Death. His time hee spent in prayer, + meditation, and such Divine exercises, and did seeke by all + means to perswade men from the study of Magicke. Thus lived + hee some two years space in that Cell, never comming forth: + his meat and drink he received in at a window, and at that + window he had discourse with those that came to him; his + grave he digged with his owne nayles, and was there layed + when he dyed. Thus was the Life and Death of this famous + Fryer, who lived most part of his life a Magician, and dyed a + true Penitent Sinner and Anchorite.' + +Upon this popular romance Greene, one of the best of the second-class +Elizabethan dramatists, founded his rattling comedy, entitled 'The +Historye of Fryer Bacon and Fryer Bungay,' which was written, it would +seem, in 1589, first acted about 1592, and published in 1594. He does +not servilely follow the old story-book, but introduces an under-plot +of his own, in which is shown the love of Prince Edward for Margaret, +the 'Fair Maid of Fressingfield,' whom the Prince finally surrenders +to the man she loves, his favourite and friend, Lacy, Earl of Lincoln. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] This patriotic sentiment would seem to show that the book was +written or published about the time of the Spanish Armada. + +[5] Hermes Trismegistus ('thrice great'), a fabulous Chaldean +philosopher, to whom I have already made reference. The numerous +writings which bear his name were really composed by the Egyptian +Platonists; but the mediæval alchemists pretend to recognise in him +the founder of their art. Gower, in his 'Confessio Amantis,' says: + + 'Of whom if I the namès calle, + Hermes was one the first of alle, + To whom this Art is most applied.' + +The name of Hermes was chosen because of the supposed magical powers +of the god of the caduceus. + + +GREENE'S COMEDY. + +In Scene I., which takes place near Framlingham, in Suffolk, we find +Prince Edward eloquently expatiating on the charms of the Fair Maid to +an audience of his courtiers, one of whom advises him, if he would +prove successful in his suit, to seek the assistance of Friar Bacon, a +'brave necromancer,' who 'can make women of devils, and juggle cats +into coster-mongers.'[6] The Prince acts upon this advice. + +Scene II. introduces us to Friar Bacon's cell at Brasenose College, +Oxford (an obvious anachronism, as the college was not founded until +long after Bacon's time). Enter Bacon and his poor scholar, Miles, +with books under his arm; also three doctors of Oxford: Burden, Mason, +and Clement. + + BACON. Miles, where are you? + + MILES. _Hic sum, doctissime et reverendissime Doctor._ (Here + I am, most learned and reverend Doctor.) + + BACON. _Attulisti nostros libros meos de necromantia?_ (Hast + thou brought my books of necromancy?) + + MILES. _Ecce quam bonum et quam jucundum habitare libros in + unum!_ (See how good and how pleasant it is to dwell among + books together!) + + BACON. Now, masters of our academic state + That rule in Oxford, viceroys in your place, + Whose heads contain maps of the liberal arts, + Spending your time in depths of learnèd skill, + Why flock you thus to Bacon's secret cell, + A friar newly stalled in Brazen-nose? + Say what's your mind, that I may make reply. + + BURDEN. Bacon, we hear that long we have suspect, + That thou art read in Magic's mystery: + In pyromancy,[7] to divine by flames; + To tell by hydromancy, ebbs and tides; + By aeromancy to discover doubts,-- + To plain out questions, as Apollo did. + + BACON. Well, Master Burden, what of all this? + + MILES. Marry, sir, he doth but fulfil, by rehearsing of these + names, the fable of the 'Fox and the Grapes': that which is + above us pertains nothing to us. + + BURD. I tell thee, Bacon, Oxford makes report, + Nay, England, and the Court of Henry says + Thou'rt making of a Brazen Head by art, + Which shall unfold strange doubts and aphorisms, + And read a lecture in philosophy: + And, by the help of devils and ghastly fiends, + Thou mean'st, ere many years or days be past, + To compass England with a wall of brass. + + BACON. And what of this? + + MILES. What of this, master! why, he doth speak mystically; + for he knows, if your skill fail to make a Brazen Head, yet + Master Waters' strong ale will fit his time to make him have + a copper nose.... + + BACON. Seeing you come as friends unto the friar, + Resolve you, doctors, Bacon can by books + Make storming Boreas thunder from his cave, + And dim fair Luna to a dark eclipse. + The great arch-ruler, potentate of hell, + Tumbles when Bacon bids him, or his fiends + Bow to the force of his pentageron.[8] ... + I have contrived and framed a head of brass + (I made Belcephon hammer out the stuff), + And that by art shall read philosophy: + And I will strengthen England by my skill, + That if ten Cæsars lived and reigned in Rome, + With all the legions Europe doth contain, + They should not touch a grass of English ground: + The work that Ninus reared at Babylon, + The brazen walls framed by Semiramis, + Carved out like to the portal of the sun, + Shall not be such as rings the English strand + From Dover to the market-place of Rye. + +In this patriotic resolution of the potent friar the reader will trace +the influence of the national enthusiasm awakened, only a few years +before Greene's comedy was written and produced, by the menace of the +Spanish Armada. + +It is unnecessary to quote the remainder of this scene, in which Bacon +proves his magical skill at the expense of the jealous Burden. Scene +III. passes at Harleston Fair, and introduces Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, +disguised as a rustic, and the comely Margaret. In Scene IV., at +Hampton Court, Henry III. receives Elinor of Castile, who is betrothed +to his son, Prince Edward, and arranges with her father, the Emperor, +a competition between the great German magician, Jaques Vandermast, +and Friar Bacon, 'England's only flower.' In Scene V. we pass on to +Oxford, where some comic incidents occur between Prince Edward (in +disguise) and his courtiers; and in Scene VI. to Friar Bacon's cell, +where the friar shows the Prince in his 'glass prospective,' or magic +mirror, the figures of Margaret, Friar Bungay, and Earl Lacy, and +reveals the progress of Lacy's suit to the rustic beauty. Bacon +summons Bungay to Oxford--straddling on a devil's back--and the scene +then changes to the Regent-house, and degenerates into the rudest +farce. At Fressingfield, in Scene VIII., we find Prince Edward +threatening to slay Earl Lacy unless he gives up to him the Fair Maid +of Fressingfield; but, after a struggle, his better nature prevails, +and he retires from his suit, leaving Margaret to become the Countess +of Lincoln. Scene IX. carries us back to Oxford, where Henry III., the +Emperor, and a goodly company have assembled to witness the trial of +skill between the English and the German magicians--the first +international competition on record!--in which, of course, Vandermast +is put to ridicule. + +Passing over Scene X. as unimportant, we return, in Scene XI., to +Bacon's cell, where the great magician is lying on his bed, with a +white wand in one hand, a book in the other, and beside him a lighted +lamp. The Brazen Head is there, with Miles, armed, keeping watch over +it. Here the dramatist closely follows the old story. The friar falls +asleep; the head speaks once and twice, and Miles fails to wake his +master. It speaks the third time. 'A lightning flashes forth, and a +hand appears that breaks down the head with a hammer.' Bacon awakes to +lament over the ruin of his work, and load the careless Miles with +unavailing reproaches. But the whole scene is characteristic enough to +merit transcription: + + Scene XI.--_Friar Bacon's Cell._ + + _FRIAR BACON is discovered lying on a bed, with a white stick + in one hand, a book in the other, and a lamp lighted beside + him; and the BRAZEN HEAD, and MILES with weapons by him._ + + BACON. Miles, where are you? + + MILES. Here, sir. + + BACON. How chance you tarry so long? + + MILES. Think you that the watching of the Brazen Head craves + no furniture? I warrant you, sir, I have so armed myself + that if all your devils come, I will not fear them an inch. + + BACON. Miles, + Thou know'st that I have divèd into hell, + And sought the darkest palaces of fiends; + That with my magic spells great Belcephon + Hath left his lodge and kneelèd at my cell; + The rafters of the earth rent from the poles, + And three-form'd Luna hid her silver looks, + Tumbling upon her concave continent, + When Bacon read upon his magic book. + With seven years' tossing necromantic charms, + Poring upon dark Hecat's principles, + I have framed out a monstrous head of brass, + That, by the enchanting forces of the devil, + Shall tell out strange and uncouth aphorisms, + And girt fair England with a wall of brass. + Bungay and I have watch'd these threescore days, + And now our vital spirits crave some rest: + If Argus lived and had his hundred eyes, + They could not over-watch Phobetor's[9] night. + Now, Miles, in thee rests Friar Bacon's weal: + The honour and renown of all his life + Hangs in the watching of this Brazen Head; + Therefore I charge thee by the immortal God + That holds the souls of men within his fist, + This night thou watch; for ere the morning star + Sends out his glorious glister on the north + The Head will speak. Then, Miles, upon thy life + Wake me; for then by magic art I'll work + To end my seven years' task with excellence. + If that a wink but shut thy watchful eye, + Then farewell Bacon's glory and his fame! + Draw close the curtains, Miles: now, for thy life, + Be watchful, and ... (_Falls asleep._) + + MILES. So; I thought you would talk yourself asleep anon; and + 'tis no marvel, for Bungay on the days, and he on the nights, + have watched just these ten and fifty days: now this is the + night, and 'tis my task, and no more. Now, Jesus bless me, + what a goodly head it is! and a nose! You talk of _Nos[10] + autem glorificare_; but here's a nose that I warrant may be + called _Nos autem populare_ for the people of the parish. + Well, I am furnished with weapons: now, sir, I will set me + down by a post, and make it as good as a watchman to wake me, + if I chance to slumber. I thought, Goodman Head, I would call + you out of your _memento_.[11] Passion o' God, I have almost + broke my pate! (_A great noise._) Up, Miles, to your task; + take your brown-bill in your hand; here's some of your + master's hobgoblins abroad. + + THE BRAZEN HEAD (_speaks_). Time is. + + MILES. Time is! Why, Master Brazen-Head, you have such a + capital nose, and answer you with syllables, 'Time is'? Is + this my master's cunning, to spend seven years' study about + 'Time is'? Well, sir, it may be we shall have some better + orations of it anon: well, I'll watch you as narrowly as + ever you were watched, and I'll play with you as the + nightingale with the glow-worm; I'll set a prick against my + breast.[12] Now rest there, Miles. Lord have mercy upon me, I + have almost killed myself. (_A great noise._) Up, Miles; list + how they rumble. + + THE BRAZEN HEAD (_loquitur_). Time was. + + MILES. Well, Friar Bacon, you have spent your seven years' + study well, that can make your Head speak but two words at + once, 'Time was.' Yea, marry, time was when my master was a + wise man; but that was before he began to make the Brazen + Head. You shall lie while you ache, an your head speak no + better. Well, I will watch, and walk up and down, and be a + peripatetian[13] and a philosopher of Aristotle's stamp. (_A + great noise._) What, a fresh noise? Take thy pistols in hand, + Miles. (_A lightning flashes forth, and a Hand appears that + breaks down the HEAD with a hammer._) Master, master, up! + Hell's broken loose! Your Head speaks; and there's such a + thunder and lightning, that I warrant all Oxford is up in + arms. Out of your bed, and take a brownbill in your hand; the + latter day is come. + + BACON. Miles, I come. (_Rises and comes forward._) + + O, passing warily watched! + Bacon will make thee next himself in love. + When spake the Head? + + MILES. When spake the Head? Did you not say that he should + tell strange principles of philosophy? Why, sir, it speaks + but two words at a time. + + BACON. Why, villain, hath it spoken oft? + + MILES. Oft! ay, marry hath it, thrice; but in all those three + times it hath uttered but seven words. + + BACON. As how? + + MILES. Marry, sir, the first time he said, 'Time is,' as if + Fabius Commentator[14] should have pronounced a sentence; + then he said, 'Time was;' and the third time, with thunder + and lightning, as in great choler, he said, 'Time is past.' + + BACON. 'Tis past, indeed. Ah, villain! Time is past; + My life, my fame, my glory, are all past. + Bacon, + The turrets of thy hope are ruined down, + Thy seven years' study lieth in the dust: + Thy Brazen Head lies broken through a slave + That watched, and would not when the Head did will. + What said the Head first? + + MILES. Even, sir, 'Time is.' + + BACON. Villain, if thou hadst called to Bacon then, + If thou hadst watched, and waked the sleepy friar, + The Brazen Head had uttered aphorisms, + And England had been circled round with brass: + But proud Asmenoth,[15] ruler of the North, + And Demogorgon,[16] master of the Fates, + Grudge that a mortal man should work so much. + Hell trembled at my deep-commanding spells, + Fiends frowned to see a man their over-match; + Bacon might boast more than a man might boast; + But now the braves[17] of Bacon have an end, + Europe's conceit of Bacon hath an end, + His seven years' practice sorteth to ill end: + And, villain, sith my glory hath an end, + I will appoint thee to some fatal end.[18] + Villain, avoid! get thee from Bacon's sight! + Vagrant, go, roam and range about the world, + And perish as a vagabond on earth! + + MILES. Why, then, sir, you forbid me your service? + + BACON. My service, villain, with a fatal curse, + That direful plagues and mischief fall on thee. + + MILES. 'Tis no matter, I am against you with the old proverb, + 'The more the fox is cursed, the better he fares.' God be + with you, sir: I'll take but a book in my hand, a + wide-sleeved gown on my back, and a crowned cap[19] on my + head, and see if I can merit promotion. + + BACON. Some fiend or ghost haunt on thy weary steps, + Until they do transport thee quick to Hell! + For Bacon shall have never any day, + To lose the fame and honour of his Head. + + [_Exeunt._ + +Scene XII. passes in King Henry's Court, and the royal consent is +given to Earl Lacy's marriage with the Fair Maid, which is fixed to +take place on the same day as Prince Edward's marriage to the Princess +Elinor. In Scene XIII. we again go back to Bacon's cell. The friar is +bewailing the destruction of his Brazen Head to Friar Bungay, when two +young gentlemen, named Lambert and Sealsby, enter, in order to look +into the 'glass prospective,' and see how their fathers are faring. +Unhappily, at this very moment, the elder Lambert and Sealsby, having +quarrelled, are engaged 'in combat hard by Fressingfield,' and stab +each other to the death, whereupon their sons immediately come to +blows, with a like fatal result. Bacon, deeply affected, breaks the +magic crystal which has been the unwitting cause of so sad a +catastrophe, expresses his regret that he ever dabbled in the unholy +science, and announces his resolve to spend the remainder of his life +'in pure devotion.' + +At Fressingfield, in Scene XIV., the opportune arrival of Lacy and his +friends prevents Margaret from carrying out her intention of retiring +to the nunnery at Framlingham, and with obliging readiness she +consents to marry the Earl. Scene XV. shifts to Bacon's cell, where a +devil complains that the friar hath raised him from the darkest deep +to search about the world for Miles, his man, and torment him in +punishment for his neglect of orders. + +Miles makes his appearance, and after some comic dialogue, intended to +tickle the ears of the groundlings, mounts astride the demon's back, +and goes off to ----! In Scene XVI., and last, we return to the Court, +where royalty makes a splendid show, and the two brides--the Princess +Elinor and the Countess Margaret--display their rival charms. Of +course the redoubtable friar is present, and in his concluding speech +leaps over a couple of centuries to make a glowing compliment to Queen +Elizabeth, which seems worth quotation: + + 'I find by deep prescience of mine art, + Which once I tempered in my secret cell, + That here where Brute did build his Troynovant,[20] + From forth the royal garden of a King + Shall flourish out so rich and fair a bud, + Whose brightness shall deface proud Phœbus' flower, + And overshadow Albion with her leaves. + Till then Mars shall be master of the field, + But then the stormy threats of war shall cease: + The horse shall stamp as careless of the pike, + Drums shall be turned to timbrels of delight; + With wealthy favours Plenty shall enrich + The strand that gladded wandering Brute to see, + And peace from heaven shall harbour in these leaves + That gorgeous beautify this matchless flower: + Apollo's heliotropian[21] then shall stoop, + And Venus' hyacinth[22] shall vail her top; + Juno shall shut her gilliflowers up, + And Pallas' bay shall 'bash her brightest green; + Ceres' carnation, in consort with those, + Shall stoop and wonder at Diana's rose.'[23] + +So much for Greene's comedy of 'Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay'--not, on +the whole, a bad piece of work. + + * * * * * + +Among the earlier English alchemists I may next name, in chronological +order, George Ripley, canon of Bridlington, who, in 1471, dedicated to +King Edward III. his once celebrated 'Compound of Alchemy; or, The +Twelve Gates leading to the Discovery of the Philosopher's Stone.' +These 'gates,' each of which he describes in detail, but with little +enlightenment to the uninitiated reader, are:--1. Calcination; 2. +Solution; 3. Separation; 4. Conjunction; 5. Putrefaction; 6. +Congelation; 7. Cibation; 8. Sublimation; 9. Fermentation; 10. +Exaltation; 11. Multiplication; and 12. Projection. In his old age +Ripley learned wisdom, and frankly acknowledged that he had wasted his +life upon an empty pursuit. He requested all men, if they met with any +of the five-and-twenty treatises of which he was the author, to +consign them to the flames as absolutely vain and worthless. + +Yet there is a wild story that he actually discovered the +'magisterium,' and was thereby enabled to send a gift of £100,000 to +the Knights of St. John, to assist them in their defence of Rhodes +against the Turks. + + * * * * * + +Thomas Norton, of Bristol, was the author of 'The Ordinall of Alchemy' +(printed in London in 1652). He is said to have been a pupil of +Ripley, under whom (at the age of 28) he studied for forty days, and +in that short time acquired a thorough knowledge of 'the perfection of +chemistry.' Ripley, however, refused to instruct so young a man in the +master-secret of the great science, and the process from 'the white' +to 'the red powder,' so that Norton was compelled to rely on his own +skill and industry. Twice in his labours a sad disappointment overtook +him. On one occasion he had almost completed the tincture, when the +servant whom he employed to look after the furnace decamped with it, +supposing that it was fit for use. On another it was stolen by the +wife of William Canning, Mayor of Bristol, who immediately sprang into +immense wealth, and as some amends, I suppose, for his ill-gotten +gains, built the beautiful steeple of the church of St. Mary, +Redcliffe--the church afterwards connected with the sad story of +Chatterton. As for Norton, he seems to have lived in poverty and died +in poverty (1477). + +The 'Ordinall of Alchemy' is a tedious panegyric of the science, +interspersed with a good deal of the vague talk about white and red +stones and the philosophical magnesia in which 'the adepts' delighted. + + * * * * * + +To Norton we owe our scanty knowledge of Thomas Dalton, who flourished +about the middle of the fifteenth century. He had the reputation of +being a devout Churchman until he was accused by a certain Debois of +possessing the powder of projection. Debois roundly asserted that +Norton had made him a thousand pounds of gold (lucky man!) in less +than twelve hours. Whereupon Dalton simply said, 'Sir, you are +forsworn.' His explanation was that he had received the powder from a +canon of Lichfield, on undertaking not to use it until after the +canon's death; and that since he had been so troubled by his +possession of it, that he had secretly destroyed it. One Thomas +Herbert, a squire of King Edward, waylaid the unfortunate man, and +shut him up in the castle of Gloucester, putting heavy pressure upon +him to make the coveted tincture. But this Dalton would not and could +not do; and after a captivity of four years, Herbert ordered him to be +brought out and executed in his presence. He obeyed the harsh summons +with great delight, exclaiming, 'Blessed art Thou, Lord Jesus! I have +been too long absent from Thee. The science Thou gavest me I have +kept without ever abusing it; I have found no one fit to be my heir; +wherefore, sweet Lord, I will restore Thy gift to Thee again.' + +'Then, after some devout prayer, with a smiling countenance he desired +the executioner to proceed. Tears gushed from the eyes of Herbert when +he beheld him so willing to die, and saw that no ingenuity could wrest +his secret from him. He gave orders for his release. His imprisonment +and threatened execution were contrived without the King's knowledge +to intimidate him into compliance. The iniquitous devices having +failed, Herbert did not dare to take away his life. Dalton rose from +the block with a heavy countenance, and returned to his abbey, much +grieved at the further prolongation of his earthly sojourn. Herbert +died shortly after this atrocious act of tyranny, and Debois also came +to an untimely end. His father, Sir John Debois, was slain at the +battle of Tewkesbury, May 4, 1471; and two days after, as recorded in +Stow's "Annales," he himself (James Debois) was taken, with several +others of the Lancastrian party, from a church where they had fled for +sanctuary, and was beheaded on the spot.' + +FOOTNOTES: + +[6] That is, costard, or apple, mongers. + +[7] See Appendix to the present chapter, p. 58. + +[8] The pentageron, or pentagramma, is a mystic figure produced by +prolonging the sides of a regular pentagon till they intersect one +another. It can be drawn without a break in the drawing, and, viewed +from five sides, exhibits the form of the letter A (pent-alpha), or +the figure of the fifth proposition in Euclid's First Book. + +[9] From the Greek φόβος, fear; φόβητρα, bugbears. + +[10] Bad puns were evidently common on the stage before the days of +Victorian burlesque. + +[11] So Shakespeare, '1 Hen. IV.,' iii. Falstaff says: 'I make as good +use of it as many a man doth of a death's head, or a memento house.' + +[12] So in the 'Passionate Pilgrim': + + 'Save the nightingale alone: + She, poor bird, as all forlorn, + Leaned her breast uptill a thorn.' + +[13] A _peripatetic_, or walking philosopher. Observe the +facetiousness in 'Aristotle's _stamp_.' Aristotle was the founder of +the Peripatetics. + +[14] Fabius _Cunctator_, or the Delayer, so called from the policy of +delay which he opposed to the vigorous movements of Hannibal. One +would suppose that the humour here, such as it is, would hardly be +perceptible to a theatrical audience. + +[15] In the old German 'Faustbuch,' the title of 'Prince of the North' +is given to Beelzebub. + +[16] _Demogorgon_, or _Demiourgos_--the creative principle of +evil--figures largely in literature. He is first mentioned by +Lactantius, in the fourth century; then by Boccaccio, Boiardo, Tasso +('Gierusalemme Liberata'), and Ariosto ('Orlando Furioso'). Marlowe +speaks, in 'Tamburlaine,' of 'Gorgon, prince of Hell.' Spenser, in +'The Faery Queen,' refers to-- + + 'Great Gorgon, prince of darkness and dead night, + At which Cocytus quakes, and Styx is put to flight.' + +Milton, in 'Paradise Lost,' alludes to 'the dreaded name of +Demogorgon.' Dryden says: 'When the moon arises, and Demogorgon walks +his round.' And he is one of the _dramatis personæ_ of Shelley's +'Prometheus Unbound': 'Demogorgon, a tremendous gloom.... A mighty +Darkness, filling the seat of power.' + +[17] Boasts. So in Peele's 'Edward I': 'As thou to England brought'st +thy Scottish braves.' + +[18] This reiteration of the same final word, for the sake of +emphasis, is found in Shakespeare. + +[19] A corner or college cap. + +[20] An allusion to the old legend that Brut, or Brutus, +great-grandson of Æneas, founded New Troy (Troynovant), or London. + +[21] Probably the reference is to the sunflower. + +[22] The classic writers usually identify the hyacinth with Apollo. + +[23] The rose, that is, of the Virgin Queen--an English +Diana--Elizabeth. In Shakespeare's 'Midsummer Night's Dream' +(Act iv., scene 1) we read of 'Diana's bud.' + + +APPENDIX TO CHAPTER I. + +The ancient magic included various kinds of divination, of which the +principal may here be catalogued: + +_Aeromancy_, or divination from the air. If the wind blew from the +east, it signified good fortune (which is certainly not the general +opinion!); from the west, evil; from the south, calamity; from the +north, disclosure of what was secret; from all quarters simultaneously +(!), hail and rain. + +_Axinomancy_, practised by the Greeks, more particularly for the +purpose of discovering criminals. An axe poised upon a stake, or an +agate on a red-hot axe, was supposed by its movement to indicate the +offender. Or the names of suspected persons were called out, and the +movement of the axe at a particular name was understood to certify +guilt. + +_Belomancy_, in use among the Arabs, was practised by means of arrows, +which were shot off, with written labels attached to them; and the +inscription on the arrow first picked up was accepted as prophetic. + +_Bibliomancy_, divining by means of the Bible, survived to a +comparatively recent period. The passage which first caught the eye, +on a Bible being opened haphazard, was supposed to indicate the +future. This was identical with the _Sortes Virgilianæ_, the only +difference being that in the latter, Virgil took the place of the +Bible. Everybody knows in connection with the Sortes the story of +Charles I. and Lord Falkland. + +_Botanomancy_, divining by means of plants and flowers, can hardly be +said to be extinct even now. In Goethe's 'Faust,' Gretchen seeks to +discover whether Faust returns her affection by plucking, one after +another, the petals of a star-flower (_sternblume_, perhaps the +china-aster), while she utters the alternate refrains, 'He loves me!' +'He loves me not!' as she plucks the last petal, exclaiming +rapturously, 'He loves me!' According to Theocritus, the Greeks used +the poppy-flower for this purpose. + +_Capnomancy_, divination by smoke, the ancients practised in two ways: +they threw seeds of jasmine or poppy in the fire, watching the motion +and density of the smoke they emitted, or they observed the +sacrificial smoke. If the smoke was thin, and shot up in a straight +line, it was a good omen. + +_Cheiromancy_ (or Palmistry), divination by the hand, was worked up +into an elaborate system by Paracelsus, Cardan, and others. It has +long been practised by the gipsies, by itinerant fortune-tellers, and +other cheats; and recently an attempt has been made to give it a +fashionable character. + +_Coscinomancy_ was practised by means of a sieve and a pair of shears +or forceps. The forceps or shears were used to suspend a sieve, which +moved (like the axe in axinomancy) when the name of a guilty person +was mentioned. + +_Crystallomancy_, divining by means of a crystal globe, mirror, or +beryl. Of this science of prediction, Dr. Dee was the great English +professor; but the reader will doubtless remember the story of the +Earl of Surrey and his fair 'Geraldine.' + +_Geomancy_, divination by casting pebbles on the ground. + +_Hydromancy_, divination by water, in which the diviner showed the +figure of an absent person. 'In this you conjure the spirits into +water; there they are constrained to show themselves, as Marcus Varro +testifieth, when he writeth how he had seen a boy in the water, who +announced to him in a hundred and fifty verses the end of the +Mithridatic war.' + +_Oneiromancy_, divination by dreams, is still credited by old women of +both sexes. Absurdly baseless as it is, it found believers in the old +time among men of culture and intellectual force. Archbishop Laud +attached so much importance to his dreams that he frequently recorded +them in his diary; and even Lord Bacon seems to have thought that a +prophetic meaning was occasionally concealed in them. + +_Onychomancy_, or _Onymancy_, divination by means of the nails of an +unpolluted boy. + +_Pyromancy_, divination by fire. 'The wife of Cicero is said, when, +after performing sacrifice, she saw a flame suddenly leap forth from +the ashes, to have prophesied the consulship to her husband for the +same year.' Others resorted to the blaze of a torch of pitch, which +was painted with certain colours. It was a good omen if the flame ran +into a point; bad when it divided. A thin-tongued flame announced +glory; if it went out, it signified danger; if it hissed, misfortune. + +_Rabdomancy_, divination by the rod or wand, is mentioned by Ezekiel. +The use of a hazel-rod to trace the existence of water or of a seam of +coal seems a survival of this practice. But enough of these follies: + + 'Necro-, pyro-, geo-, hydro-, cheiro-, coscinomancy, + With other vain and superstitious sciences.' + Tomkis, 'Albumazar,' ii. 3. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE STORY OF DR. JOHN DEE. + + +The world must always feel curious to know the exact moment when its +great men first drew the breath of life; and it is satisfactory, +therefore, to be able to state, on the weighty authority of Dr. Thomas +Smith, that Dr. John Dee, the famous magician and 'philosopher,' was +born at forty minutes past four o'clock on the morning of July 13, +1527. According to the picturesque practice of latter-day biographers, +here I ought to describe a glorious summer sunrise, the golden light +spreading over hill and pasture, the bland warm air stealing into the +chamber where lay the mother and her infant; but I forbear, as, for +all I know, this particular July morning may have been cloudy, cold, +and wet; besides, John, the son of Rowland Dee, was born in London. +From like want of information I refrain from comments on Master Dee's +early bringing-up and education. But it is reported that he gave proof +of so exceptional a capacity, and of such a love of letters, that, at +the early age of fifteen, he was sent to the University of Cambridge, +to study the classics and the old scholastic philosophy. There, for +three years, he was so vehemently bent, he says, on the acquisition of +learning, that he spent eighteen hours a day on his books, reserving +two only for his meals and recreation, and four for sleep--an +unhealthy division of time, which probably over-stimulated his +cerebral system and predisposed him to delusions and caprices of the +imagination. Having taken his degree of B.A., he crossed the seas in +1547 'to speak and confer' with certain learned men, chiefly +mathematicians, such as Gemma Frisius, Gerardus Mercator, Gaspar a +Morica, and Antonius Gogara; of whom the only one now remembered is +Mercator, as the inventor of a method of laying down hydrographical +charts, in which the parallels and meridians intersect each other at +right angles. After spending some months in the Low Countries he +returned home, bringing with him 'the first astronomer's staff of +brass that was made of Gemma Frisius' devising, the two great globes +of Gerardus Mercator's making, and the astronomer's ring of brass (as +Gemma Frisius had newly framed it).' + +Returning to the classic shades of Granta, he began to record his +observations of 'the heavenly influences in this elemental portion of +the world;' and I suppose it was in recognition of his scientific +scholarship that Henry VIII. appointed him to a fellowship at Trinity +College, and Greek under-reader. In the latter capacity he +superintended, in 1548, the performance of the Ἐιρηνη of +Aristophanes, introducing among 'the effects' an artificial scarabæus, +which ascended, with a man and his wallet of provisions on its back, +to Jupiter's palace. This ingenious bit of mechanism delighted the +spectators, but, after the manner of the time, was ascribed to Dee's +occultism, and he found it convenient to retire to the Continent +(1548), residing for awhile at Louvain, and devoting himself to +hermetic researches, and afterwards at Paris (1580), where he +delivered scientific lectures to large and distinguished audiences. +'My auditory in Rhemes Colledge,' he says, 'was so great, and the most +part older than my selfe, that the mathematicall schooles could not +hold them; for many were faine, without the schooles, at the windowes, +to be auditors and spectators, as they best could help themselves +thereto. I did also dictate upon every proposition, beside the first +exposition. And by the first foure principall definitions representing +to the eyes (which by imagination onely are exactly to be conceived), +a greater wonder arose among the beholders, than of my Aristophanes +Scarabæus mounting up to the top of Trinity-hall in Cambridge.' + +The accomplishments of this brilliant scientific mountebank being +noised abroad over all Europe, the wonderful story reached the remote +Court of the Muscovite, who offered him, if he would take up his +residence at Moscow, a stipend of £2,000 per annum, his diet also to be +allowed to him free out of 'the Emperor's own kitchen, and his place to +be ranked amongst the highest sort of the nobility there, and of his +privy councillors.' Was ever scholar so tempted before or since? In +those times, the Russian Court seems to have held _savants_ and +scholars in as much esteem as nowadays it holds _prima-donnas_ and +_ballerines_. Dee also received advantageous proposals from four +successive Emperors of Germany (Charles V., Ferdinand, Maximilian II., +and Rudolph II.), but the Muscovite's outbade them all. A residence in +the heart of Russia had no attraction, however, for the Oxford scholar, +who, in 1551, returned to England with a halo of fame playing round his +head (to speak figuratively, as Dee himself loved to do), which +recommended him to the celebrated Greek professor at Cambridge, Sir +John Cheke. Cheke introduced him to Mr. Secretary Cecil, as well as to +Edward VI., who bestowed upon him a pension of 100 crowns per annum +(speedily exchanged, in 1553, for the Rectory of Upton-upon-Severn). At +first he met with favour from Queen Mary; but the close correspondence +he maintained with the Princess Elizabeth, who appreciated his +multifarious scholarship, exposed him to suspicion, and he was accused +of practising against the Queen's life by divers enchantments. Arrested +and imprisoned (at Hampton Court), he was subjected to rigorous +examinations, and as no charge of treason could be proved against him, +was remitted to Bishop Bonner as a possible heretic. But his enemies +failed again in their malicious intent, and in 1555 he received his +liberty. Imprisonment and suffering had not quenched his activity of +temper, and almost immediately upon his release he solicited the +Queen's assent to a plan for the restoration and preservation of +certain precious manuscripts of classical antiquity. He solicited in +vain. + +When Elizabeth came to the throne, Dee, as a proficient in the occult +arts, was consulted by Dudley (afterwards Earl of Leicester) as to the +most suitable and auspicious day for her coronation. She testified to +her own belief in his skill by employing him, when her image in wax +had been discovered in Lincoln's Inn Fields, to counteract the evil +charm. But he owed her favour, we may assume, much more to his +learning, which was really extensive, than to his supposed magical +powers. He tells us that, shortly before her coronation, she summoned +him to Whitehall, remarking to his patrons, Dudley and the Earl of +Pembroke, 'Where my brother hath given him a crown, I will give him a +noble.' She was certainly more liberal to Dee than to many of her +servants who were much more deserving. In December, 1564, she granted +him the reversion of the Deanery of Gloucester. Not long afterwards +his friends recommended him for the Provostship of Eton College. +'Favourable answers' were returned, but he never received the +Provostship. He obtained permission, however, to hold for ten years +the two rectories of Upton and Long Ledenham. Later in her reign +(July, 1583), when two great nobles invited themselves to dine with +him, he was compelled to decline the honour on account of his poverty. +The Queen, on being apprised of this incident, sent him a present of +forty angels of gold. We shall come upon other proofs of her +generosity. + +Dee was travelling on the Continent in 1571, and on his way through +Lorraine was seized with a dangerous sickness; whereupon the Queen not +only sent 'carefully and with great speed' two of her physicians, but +also the honourable Lord Sidney 'in a manner to tend on him,' and 'to +discern how his health bettered, and to comfort him from her Majesty +with divers very pithy speeches and gracious, and also with divers +rarities to eat, to increase his health and strength.' Philosophers +and men of letters, when they are ailing, meet with no such pleasant +attentions nowadays! But the list of Elizabeth's bounties is not yet +ended. The much-travelling scholar, who saw almost as much of cities +and men and manners as Odysseus himself, had wandered into the +farthest parts of the kingdom of Bohemia; and that no evil might come +to him, or his companion, or their families, she sent them her most +princely and royal letters of safe-conduct. After his return home, a +little before Christmas, 1589, hearing that he was unable to keep +house as liberally as became his position and repute, she promised to +assist him with the gift of a hundred pounds, and once or twice +repeated the promise on his coming into her presence. Fifty pounds he +_did_ receive, with which to keep his Christmas merrily, but what +became of the other moiety he was never able to discover. A malignant +influence frequently interposed, it would seem, between the Queen's +benevolence in intention and her charity in action; and the +unfortunate doctor was sometimes tantalized with promises of good +things which failed to be realized. On the whole, however, I do not +think he had much to complain of; and the reproach of parsimony so +often levelled at great Gloriana would certainly not apply to her +treatment of Dr. Dee. + +She honoured him with several visits at Mortlake, where he had a +pleasant house close by the riverside, and a little to the westward of +the church--surrounded by gardens and green fields, with bright +prospects of the shining river. Elizabeth always came down from +Whitehall on horseback, attended by a brave retinue of courtiers; and +as she passed along, her loyal subjects stood at their doors, or lined +the roadside, making respectful bows and curtseys, and crying, 'God +save the Queen!' One of these royal visits was made on March 10, 1575, +the Queen desiring to see the doctor's famous library; but learning +that he had buried his wife only four hours before, she refused to +enter the house. Dee, however, submitted to her inspection his magic +crystal, or 'black stone,' and exhibited some of its marvellous +properties; her Majesty, for the better examination of the same, being +taken down from her horse 'by the Earl of Leicester, by the Church +wall of Mortlack.' + +She was at Dr. Dee's again on September 17, 1580. This time she came +from Richmond in her coach, a wonderfully cumbrous vehicle, drawn by +six horses; 'and when she was against my garden in the fielde,' says +the doctor, 'her Majestie staide there a good while, and then came +into the street at the great gate of the field, where her Majestie +espied me at my dore, making reverent and dutifull obeysance unto her, +and with her hand her Majestie beckoned for me to come to her, and I +came to her coach side; her Majestie then very speedily pulled off her +glove, and gave me her hand to kiss; and to be short, her Majestie +wished me to resort oftener to her Court, and by some of her Privy +Chamber to give her Majestie to wete (know) when I came there.' + +Another visit took place on October 10, 1580:--'The Queenes Majestie +to my great comfort (_horâ quintâ_) came with her train from the +Court, and at my dore graciously calling me unto her, on horseback +exhorted me briefly to take my mother's death patiently; and withal +told me, that the Lord Treasurer had greatly commended my doings for +her title royall, which he had to examine. The which title in two +rolls of velome parchment his Honour had some houres before brought +home, and delivered to Mr. Hudson for me to receive at my coming from +my mother's buriall at church. Her Majestie remembered also then, how +at my wives buriall it was her fortune likewise to call upon me at my +house, as before is noted.' + +Dee's library--as libraries went then--was not unworthy of royal +inspection. Its proud possessor computed it to be worth £2,000, which, +at the present value of money, would be equal, I suppose, to £10,000. +It consisted of about 4,000 volumes, bound and unbound, a fourth part +being MSS. He speaks of four 'written books'--one in Greek, two in +French, and one in High Dutch--as having cost him £533, and inquires +triumphantly what must have been the value of some hundred of the +best of all the other written books, some of which were the +_autographia_ of excellent and seldom-heard-of authors? He adds that +he spent upwards of forty years in collecting this library from divers +places beyond the seas, and with much research and labour in England. + +Of the 'precious books' thus collected, Dee does not mention the +titles; but he has recorded the rare and exquisitely made 'instruments +mathematical' which belonged to him: An excellent, strong, and fair +quadrant, first made by that famous Richard Chancellor who boldly +carried his discovery-ships past the Icy Cape, and anchored them in +the White Sea. There was also an excellent _radius astronomicus_, of +ten feet in length, the staff and cross very curiously divided into +equal parts, after Richard Chancellor's quadrant manner. Item, two +globes of Mercator's best making: on the celestial sphere Dee, with +his own hand, had set down divers comets, their places and motions, +according to his individual observation. Item, divers other +instruments, as the theorie of the eighth sphere, the ninth and tenth, +with an horizon and meridian of copper, made by Mercator specially for +Dr. Dee. Item, sea-compasses of different kinds. Item, a magnet-stone, +commonly called a loadstone, of great virtue. Also an excellent +watch-clock, made by one Dibbley, 'a notable workman, long since +dead,' by which the time might sensibly be measured in the seconds of +an hour--that is, not to fail the 360th part of an hour. We need not +dwell upon his store of documents relating to Irish and Welsh estates, +and of ancient seals of arms; but my curiosity, I confess, is somewhat +stirred by his reference to 'a great bladder,' with about four pounds +weight of 'a very sweetish thing,' like a brownish gum, in it, +artificially prepared by thirty times purifying, which the doctor +valued at upwards of a hundred crowns. + + * * * * * + +While engaged in learned studies and correspondence with learned men, +Dee found time to indulge in those wild semi-mystical, transcendental +visions which engaged the imagination of so many mediæval students. +The secret of 'the philosopher's stone' led him into fascinating +regions of speculation, and the ecstasies of Rosicrucianism dazzled +him with the idea of holding communication with the inhabitants of the +other world. How far he was sincere in these pursuits, how far he +imparted into them a spirit of charlatanry, I think it is impossible +to determine. Perhaps one may venture to say that, if to some small +extent an impostor, he was, to a much larger extent, a dupe; that if +he deceived others, he also deceived himself; nor is he, as biography +teaches, the only striking example of the credulous enthusiast who +mingles with his enthusiasm, more or less unconsciously, a leaven of +hypocrisy. As early as 1571 he complains, in the preface to his +'English Euclid,' that he is jeered at by the populace as a conjurer. +By degrees, it is evident, he begins to feel a pride in his magical +attainments. He records with the utmost gravity his remarkable dreams, +and endeavours to read the future by them. He insists, moreover, on +strange noises which he hears in his chamber. In those days a +favourite method of summoning the spirits was to bring them into a +glass or stone which had been prepared for the purpose; and in his +diary, under the date of May 25, 1581, he records--for the first +time--that he had held intercourse in this way with supra-mundane +beings. + +Combining with his hermetico-magical speculations religious exercises +of great fervour, he was thus engaged, one day in November, 1582, when +suddenly upon his startled vision rose the angel Uriel 'at the west +window of his laboratory,' and presented him with a translucent stone, +or crystal, of convex shape, possessing the wonderful property of +introducing its owner to the closest possible communication with the +world of spirits. It was necessary at times that this so-called mirror +should be turned in different positions before the observer could +secure the right focus; and then the spirits appeared on its surface, +or in different parts of the room by reason of its action. Further, +only one person, whom Dee calls the _skryer_, or seer, could discover +the spirits, or hear and interpret their voices, just as there can be +but one medium, I believe, at a spiritualistic séance of the present +day. But, of course, it was requisite that, while the medium was +absorbed in his all-important task, some person should be at hand to +describe what he saw, or professed to see, and commit to paper what he +heard, or professed to hear; and a seer with a lively imagination and +a fluent tongue could go very far in both directions. This humbler, +secondary position Dee reserved for himself. Probably his invention +was not sufficiently fertile for the part of a medium, or else he was +too much in earnest to practise an intentional deception. As the +crystal showed him nothing, he himself said so, and looked about for +someone more sympathetic, or less conscientious. His choice fell at +first on a man named Barnabas Saul, and he records in his diary how, +on October 9, 1581, this man 'was strangely troubled by a spiritual +creature about midnight.' In a MS. preserved in the British Museum, he +relates some practices which took place on December 2, beginning his +account with this statement: 'I willed the skryer, named Saul, to +looke into my great crystalline globe, if God had sent his holy angel +Azrael, or no.' But Saul was a fellow of small account, with a very +limited inventive faculty, and on March 6, 1582, he was obliged to +confess 'that he neither heard nor saw any spiritual creature any +more.' Dee and his inefficient, unintelligent skryer then quarrelled, +and the latter was dismissed, leaving behind him an unsavoury +reputation. + + +EDWARD KELLY. + +Soon afterwards our magician made the acquaintance of a certain Edward +Kelly (or Talbot), who was in every way fitted for the mediumistic +_rôle_. He was clever, plausible, impudent, unscrupulous, and a most +accomplished liar. A native of Worcester, where he was born in 1555, +he was bred up, according to one account, as a druggist, according to +another as a lawyer; but all accounts agree that he became an adept in +every kind of knavery. He was pilloried, and lost his ears (or at +least was condemned to lose them) at Lancaster, for the offence of +coining, or for forgery; afterwards retired to Wales, assumed the name +of Kelly, and practised as a conjurer and alchemist. A story is told +of him which illustrates the man's unhesitating audacity, or, at all +events, the notoriety of his character: that he carried with him one +night into the park of Walton-le-Dale, near Preston, a man who +thirsted after a knowledge of the future, and, when certain +incantations had been completed, caused his servants to dig up a +corpse, interred only the day before, that he might compel it to +answer his questions. + +How he got introduced to Dr. Dee I do not profess to know; but I am +certainly disinclined to accept the wonderful narrative which Mr. +Waite renders in so agreeable a style--that Kelly, during his Welsh +sojourn, was shown an old manuscript which his landlord, an innkeeper, +had obtained under peculiar circumstances. 'It had been discovered in +the tomb of a bishop who had been buried in a neighbouring church, and +whose tomb had been sacrilegiously up-torn by some fanatics,' in the +hope of securing the treasures reported to be concealed within it. +They found nothing, however, but the aforesaid manuscript, and two +small ivory bottles, respectively containing a ponderous white and red +powder. 'These pearls beyond price were rejected by the pigs of +apostasy: one of them was shattered on the spot, and its ruddy, +celestine contents for the most part lost. The remnant, together with +the remaining bottle and the unintelligible manuscript, were speedily +disposed of to the innkeeper in exchange for a skinful of wine.' The +innkeeper, in his turn, parted with them for one pound sterling to +Master Edward Kelly, who, believing he had obtained a hermetic +treasure, hastened to London to submit it to Dr. Dee. + +This accomplished and daring knave was engaged by the credulous doctor +as his skryer, at a salary of £50 per annum, with 'board and lodging,' +and all expenses paid. These were liberal terms; but it must be +admitted that Kelly earned them. Now, indeed, the crystal began to +justify its reputation! Spirits came as thick as blackberries, and +voices as numerous as those of rumour! Kelly's amazing fertility of +fancy never failed his employer, upon whose confidence he established +an extraordinary hold, by judiciously hinting doubts as to the +propriety of the work he had undertaken. How could a man be other than +trustworthy, when he frankly expressed his suspicions of the _mala +fides_ of the spirits who responded to the summons of the crystal? It +was impossible--so the doctor argued--that so candid a medium could be +an impostor, and while resenting the imputations cast upon the +'spiritual creatures,' he came to believe all the more strongly in the +man who slandered them. The difference of opinion gave rise, of +course, to an occasional quarrel. On one occasion (in April, 1582) +Kelly specially provoked his employer by roundly asserting that the +spirits were demons sent to lure them to their destruction; and by +complaining that he was confined in Dee's house as in a prison, and +that it would be better for him to be near Cotsall Plain, where he +might walk abroad without danger. + +Some time in 1583 a certain 'Lord Lasky,' that is, Albert Laski or +Alasco, prince or waiwode of Siradia in Poland, and a guest at +Elizabeth's Court, made frequent visits to Dee's house, and was +admitted to the spirit exhibitions of the crystal. It has been +suggested that Kelly had conceived some ambitious projects, which he +hoped to realize through the agency of this Polish noble, and that he +made use of the crystal to work upon his imagination. Thenceforward +the spirits were continually hinting at great European revolutions, +and uttering vague predictions of some extraordinary good fortune +which was in preparation for Alasco. On May 28 Dee and Kelly were +sitting in the doctor's study, discussing the prince's affairs, when +suddenly appeared--perhaps it was an optical trick of the ingenious +Kelly--'a spiritual creature, like a pretty girl of seven or nine +years of age, attired on her head, with her hair rowled up before, and +hanging down very long behind, with a gown of soy, changeable green +and red, and with a train; she seemed to play up and down, and seemed +to go in and out behind my books, lying in heaps; and as she should +ever go between them, the books seemed to give place sufficiently, +dividing one heap from the other while she passed between them. And +so I considered, and heard the diverse reports which E. K. made unto +this pretty maid, and I said, "Whose maiden are you?"' Here follows +the conversation--inane and purposeless enough, and yet deemed worthy +of preservation by the credulous doctor: + + DOCTOR DEE'S CONVERSATION WITH THE SPIRITUAL CREATURE. + + SHE. Whose man are you? + + DEE. I am the servant of God, both by my bound duty, and also + (I hope) by His adoption. + + A VOICE. You shall be beaten if you tell. + + SHE. Am not I a fine maiden? give me leave to play in your + house; my mother told me she would come and dwell here. + + (_She went up and down with most lively gestures of a young + girl playing by herself, and divers times another spake to + her from the corner of my study by a great perspective + glasse, but none was seen beside herself._) + + SHE. Shall I? I will. (_Now she seemed to answer me in the + foresaid corner of my study._) I pray you let me tarry a + little? (_Speaking to me in the foresaid corner._) + + DEE. Tell me what you are. + + SHE. I pray you let me play with you a little, and I will + tell you who I am. + + DEE. In the name of Jesus then, tell me. + + SHE. I rejoice in the name of Jesus, and I am a poor little + maiden; I am the last but one of my mother's children; I have + little baby children at home. + + DEE. Where is your home? + + SHE. I dare not tell you where I dwell, I shall be beaten. + + DEE. You shall not be beaten for telling the truth to them + that love the truth; to the Eternal Truth all creatures must + be obedient. + + SHE. I warrant you I will be obedient; my sisters say they + must all come and dwell with you. + + DEE. I desire that they who love God should dwell with me, + and I with them. + + SHE. I love you now you talk of God. + + DEE. Your eldest sister--her name is Esiměli. + + SHE. My sister is not so short as you make her. + + DEE. O, I cry you mercy! she is to be pronounced Esimīli! + + KELLY. She smileth; one calls her, saying, Come away, maiden. + + SHE. I will read over my gentlewomen first; my master Dee + will teach me if I say amiss. + + DEE. Read over your gentlewomen, as it pleaseth you. + + SHE. I have gentlemen and gentlewomen; look you here. + + KELLY. She bringeth a little book out of her pocket. She + pointeth to a picture in the book. + + SHE. Is not this a pretty man? + + DEE. What is his name? + + SHE. My (mother) saith his name is Edward: look you, he hath + a crown upon his head; my mother saith that this man was Duke + of York. + +And so on. + +The question here suggests itself, Was this passage of nonsense Dr. +Dee's own invention? And has he compiled it for the deception of +posterity? I do not believe it. It is my firm conviction that he +recorded in perfect good faith--though I own my opinion is not very +complimentary to his intelligence--the extravagant rigmarole dictated +to him by the arch-knave Kelly, who, very possibly, added to his many +ingenuities some skill in the practices of the ventriloquist. No great +amount of artifice can have been necessary for successfully deceiving +so admirable a subject for deception as the credulous Dee. It is +probable that Dee may sometimes have suspected he was being imposed +upon; but we may be sure he was very unwilling to admit it, and that +he did his best to banish from his mind so unwelcome a suspicion. As +for Kelly, it seems clear that he had conceived some widely ambitious +and daring scheme, which, as I have said, he hoped to carry out +through the instrumentality of Alasco, whose interest he endeavoured +to stimulate by flattering his vanity, and representing the spiritual +creature as in possession of a pedigree which traced his descent from +the old Norman family of the Lacys. + +With an easy invention which would have done credit to the most +prolific of romancists, he daily developed the characters of his +pretended visions.[24] Consulting the crystal on June 2, he professed +to see a spirit in the garb of a husbandman, and this spirit +rhodomontaded in mystical language about the great work Alasco was +predestined to accomplish in the conversion and regeneration of the +world. Before this invisible fictionist retired into his former +obscurity, Dee petitioned him to use his influence on behalf of a +woman who had committed suicide, and of another who had dreamed of a +treasure hidden in a cellar. Other interviews succeeded, in the course +of which much more was said about the coming purification of humanity, +and it was announced that a new code of laws, moral and religious, +would be entrusted to Dee and his companions. What a pity that this +code was never forthcoming! A third spirit, a maiden named Galerah, +made her appearance, all whose revelations bore upon Alasco, and the +greatness for which he was reserved: 'I say unto thee, his name is in +the Book of Life. The sun shall not passe his course before he be a +king. His counsel shall breed alteration of his State, yea, of the +whole world. What wouldst thou know of him?' + +'If his kingdom shall be of Poland,' answered Dee, 'in what land +else?' + +'Of two kingdoms,' answered Galerah. + +'Which? I beseech you.' + +'The one thou hast repeated, and the other he seeketh as his right.' + +'God grant him,' exclaimed the pious doctor, 'sufficient direction to +do all things so as may please the highest of his calling.' + +'He shall want no direction,' replied Galerah, 'in anything he +desireth.' + +Whether Kelly's invention began to fail him, or whether it was a +desire to increase his influence over his dupe, I will not decide; but +at this time he revived his pretended conscientious scruples against +dealing with spirits, whom he calumniously declared to be ministers of +Satan, and intimated his intention of departing from the unhallowed +precincts of Mortlake. But the doctor could not bear with equanimity +the loss of a skryer who rendered such valuable service, and watched +his movements with the vigilance of alarm. It was towards the end of +June, the month made memorable by such important revelations, that +Kelly announced, one day, his design of riding from Mortlake to +Islington, on some private business. The doctor's fears were at once +awakened, and he fell into a condition of nervous excitement, which, +no doubt, was exactly what Kelly had hoped to provoke. 'I asked him,' +says Dee, 'why he so hasted to ride thither, and I said if it were to +ride to Mr. Henry Lee, I would go thither also, to be acquainted with +him, seeing now I had so good leisure, being eased of the book +writing. Then he said, that one told him, the other day, that the Duke +(Alasco) did but flatter him, and told him other things, both against +the Duke and me. I answered for the Duke and myself, and also said +that if the forty pounds' annuity which Mr. Lee did offer him was the +chief cause of his minde setting that way (contrary to many of his +former promises to me), that then I would assure him of fifty pounds +yearly, and would do my best, by following of my suit, to bring it to +pass as soon as I possibly could, and thereupon did make him promise +upon the Bible. Then Edward Kelly again upon the same Bible did sweare +unto me constant friendship, and never to forsake me; and, moreover, +said that unless this had so fallen out, he would have gone beyond the +seas, taking ship at Newcastle within eight days next. And so we +plight our faith each to other, taking each other by the hand upon +these points of brotherly and friendly fidelity during life, which +covenant I beseech God to turn to His honour, glory, and service, and +the comfort of our brethren (His children) here on earth.' + +This concordat, however, was of brief duration. Kelly, who seems to +have been in fear of arrest,[25] still threatened to quit Dee's +service; and by adroit pressure of this kind, and by unlimited +promises to Alasco, succeeded in persuading his two confederates to +leave England clandestinely, and seek an asylum on Alasco's Polish +estates. Dee took with him his second wife, Jane Fromond, to whom he +had been married in February, 1578, his son Arthur (then about four +years old), and his children by his first wife. Kelly was also +accompanied by his wife and family. + +On the night of September 21, 1583, in a storm of rain and wind, they +left Mortlake by water, and dropped down the river to a point four or +five miles below Gravesend, where they embarked on board a Danish +ship, which they had hired to take them to Holland. But the violence +of the gale was such that they were glad to transfer themselves, after +a narrow escape from shipwreck, to some fishing-smacks, which landed +them at Queenborough, in the Isle of Sheppey, in safety. There they +remained until the gale abated, and then crossed the Channel to Brill +on the 30th. Proceeding through Holland and Friesland to Embden and +Bremen, they thence made their way to Stettin, in Pomerania, arriving +on Christmas Day, and remaining until the middle of January. + +Meanwhile, Kelly was careful not to intermit those revelations from +the crystal which kept alive the flame of credulous hope in the bosom +of his two dupes, and he was especially careful to stimulate the +ambition of Alasco, whose impoverished finances could ill bear the +burden imposed upon them of supporting so considerable a company. They +reached Siradia on February 3, 1584, and there the spirits suddenly +changed the tone of their communications; for Kelly, having +unexpectedly discovered that Alasco's resources were on the brink of +exhaustion, was accordingly prepared to fling him aside without +remorse. The first spiritual communication was to the effect that, on +account of his sins, he would no longer be charged with the +regeneration of the world, but he was promised possession of the +Kingdom of Moldavia. The next was an order to Dee and his companions +to leave Siradia, and repair to Cracow, where Kelly hoped, no doubt, +to get rid of the Polish prince more easily. Then the spirits began to +speak at shorter intervals, their messages varying greatly in tone and +purport, according, I suppose, as Alasco's pecuniary supplies +increased or diminished; but eventually, when all had suffered +severely from want of money, for it would seem that their tinctures +and powders never yielded them as much as an ounce of gold, the +spirits summarily dismissed the unfortunate Alasco, ordered Dee and +Kelly to repair to Prague, and entrusted Dee with a Divine +communication to Rudolph II., the Emperor of Germany. + +Quarrels often occurred between the two adepts during the Cracow +period. In these Kelly was invariably the prime mover, and his object +was always the same: to confirm his influence over the man he had so +egregiously duped. At Prague, Dee was received by the Imperial Court +with the distinction due to his well-known scholarship; but no +credence was given to his mission from the spirits, and his +pretensions as a magician were politely ignored. Nor was he assisted +with any pecuniary benevolences; and the man who through his crystal +and his skryer had apparently unlimited control over the inhabitants +of the spiritual world could not count with any degree of certainty +upon his daily bread. He failed, moreover, to obtain a second +interview with the Emperor. On attending at the palace, he was +informed that the Emperor had gone to his country seat, or else that +he had just ridden forth to enjoy the pleasures of the chase, or that +his imperfect acquaintance with the Latin tongue prevented him from +conferring with Dee personally; and eventually, at the instigation of +the Papal nuncio, Dee was ordered to depart from the Imperial +territories (May, 1586). + +The discredited magician then betook himself to Erfurt, and afterwards +to Cassel. He would fain have visited Italy, where he anticipated a +cordial welcome at those Courts which patronized letters and the arts, +but he was privately warned that at Rome an accusation of heresy and +magic had been preferred against him, and he had no desire to fall +into the fangs of the Inquisition. In the autumn of 1586, the +Imperial prohibition having apparently been withdrawn, he followed +Kelly into Bohemia; and in the following year we find both of them +installed as guests of a wealthy nobleman, named Rosenberg, at his +castle of Trebona. Here they renewed their intercourse with the spirit +world, and their operations in the transmutation of metals. Dee +records how, on December 9, he reached the point of projection! +Cutting a piece out of a brass warming-pan, he converted it--by merely +heating it in the fire, and pouring on it a few drops of the magical +elixir--a kind of red oil, according to some authorities--into solid, +shining silver. And there goes an idle story that he sent both the pan +and the piece of silver to Queen Elizabeth, so that, with her own +eyes, she might see how exactly they tallied, and that the piece had +really been cut out of the pan! About the same time, it is said, the +two magicians launched into a profuse expenditure,--Kelly, on one of +his maid-servants getting married, giving away gold rings to the value +of £4,000. Yet, meanwhile, Dee and Kelly were engaged in sharp +contentions, because the spirits fulfilled none of the promises made +by the latter, who, his invention (I suppose) being exhausted, +resolved, in April, 1587, to resign his office of 'skryer,' and young +Arthur Dee then made an attempt to act in his stead. + +The conclusion I have arrived at, after studying the careers and +characters of our two worthies, is that they were wholly unfitted for +each other's society; a barrier of 'incompatibility' rose straitly +between them. Dee was in earnest; Kelly was practising a sham. Dee +pursued a shadow which he believed to be a substance; Kelly knew that +the shadow was nothing more than a shadow. Dee was a man of rare +scholarship and considerable intellectual power, though of a credulous +and superstitious temper; Kelly was superficial and ignorant, but +clever, astute, and ingenious, and by no means prone to fall into +delusions. The last experiment which he made on Dee's simple-mindedness +stamps the man as the rogue and knave he was; while it illustrates the +truth of the preacher's complaint that there is nothing new under the +sun. The doctrine of free marriage propounded by American enthusiasts +was a _remanet_ from the ethical system of Mr. Edward Kelly. + + * * * * * + +Kelly had long been on bad terms with his wife, and had conceived a +passionate attachment towards Mrs. Dee, who was young and charming, +graceful in person, and attractive in manner. To gratify his desires, +he resorted to his old machinery of the crystal and the spirits, and +soon obtained a revelation that it was the Divine pleasure he and Dr. +Dee should exchange partners. Demoralized and abased as Dee had become +through his intercourse with Kelly, he shrank at first from a proposal +so contrary to the teaching and tenor of the religion he professed, +and suggested that the revelation could mean nothing more than that +they ought to live on a footing of cordial friendship. But the +spirits insisted on a literal interpretation of their command. Dee +yielded, comparing himself with much unction to Abraham, who, in +obedience to the Divine will, consented to the sacrifice of Isaac. The +parallel, however, did not hold good, for Abraham saved his son, +whereas Dr. Dee lost his wife! + +It was then Kelly's turn to affect a superior morality, and he +earnestly protested that the spirits could not be messengers from +heaven, but were servants of Satan. Whereupon they then declared that +he was no longer worthy to act as their interpreter. But why dwell +longer on this unpleasant farce? By various means of cajolery and +trickery, Kelly contrived to accomplish his design. + +This communistic arrangement, however, did not long work +satisfactorily--at least, so far as the ladies were concerned; and one +can easily understand that Mrs. Dee would object to the inferior +position she occupied as Kelly's paramour. However this may be, Dee +and Kelly parted company in January, 1589; the former, according to +his own account, delivering up to the latter the mysterious elixir and +other substances which they had made use of in the transmutation of +metals. Dee had begun to turn his eyes wistfully towards his native +country, and welcomed with unfeigned delight a gracious message from +Queen Elizabeth, assuring him of a friendly reception. In the spring +he took his departure from Trebona; and it is said that he travelled +with a pomp and circumstance worthy of an ambassador, though it is +difficult to reconcile this statement with his constant complaints of +poverty. Perhaps, after all, his three coaches, with four horses to +each coach, his two or three waggons loaded with baggage and stores, +and his hired escort of six to twenty-four soldiers, whose business it +was to protect him from the enemies he supposed to be lying in wait +for him, existed only, like the philosopher's stone, in the +imagination! He landed at Gravesend on December 2, was kindly received +by the Queen at Richmond a day or two afterwards, and before the year +had run out was once more quietly settled in his house 'near the +riverside' at Mortlake. + +Kelly, whom the Emperor Maximilian II. had knighted and created +Marshal of Bohemia, so strong a conviction of his hermetic abilities +had he impressed on the Imperial mind, remained in Germany. But the +ingenious, plausible rogue was kept under such rigid restraint, in +order that he might prepare an adequate quantity of the transmuting +stone or powder, that he wearied of it, and one night endeavoured to +escape. Tearing up the sheets of his bed, he twisted them into a rope, +with which to lower himself from the tower where he was confined. But +he was a man of some bulk; the rope gave way beneath his weight, and +falling to the ground, he received such severe injuries that in a few +days he expired (1593). + +Dee's later life was, as Godwin remarks, 'bound in shallows and +miseries.' He had forfeited the respect of serious-minded men by his +unworthy confederacy with an unscrupulous adventurer. The Queen still +treated him with some degree of consideration, though she had lost all +faith in his magical powers, and occasionally sent him assistance. The +unfortunate man never ceased to weary her with the repetition of his +trials and troubles, and strongly complained that he had been deprived +of the income of his two small benefices during his six years' +residence on the Continent. He related the sad tale of the destruction +of his library and apparatus by an ignorant mob, which had broken into +his house immediately after his departure from England, excited by the +rumours of his strange magical practices. He enumerated the expenses +of his homeward journey, arguing that, as it had been undertaken by +the Queen's command, she ought to reimburse him. At last (in 1592) the +Queen appointed two members of her Privy Council to inquire into the +particulars of his allegations. These particulars he accordingly put +together in a curious narrative, which bore the long-winded title of: + + 'The Compendious Rehearsall of John Dee, his dutiful + Declaracion and Proof of the Course and Race of his Studious + Lyfe, for the Space of Halfe an Hundred Yeares, now (by God's + Favour and Helpe) fully spent, and of the very great + Injuries, Damages, and Indignities, which for those last nyne + Years he hath in England sustained (contrary to Her Majesties + very gracious Will and express Commandment), made unto the + Two Honourable Commissioners, by Her Most Excellent Majesty + thereto assigned, according to the intent of the most humble + Supplication of the said John, exhibited to Her Most Gracious + Majestie at Hampton Court, Anno 1592, November 9.' + +It has been remarked that in this 'Compendious Rehearsal' he alludes +neither to his magic crystal, with its spiritualistic properties, nor +to the wonderful powder or elixir of transmutation. He founds his +claim to the Queen's patronage solely upon his intellectual eminence +and acknowledged scholarship. Nor does he allude to his Continental +experiences, except so far as relates to his homeward journey. But he +is careful to recapitulate all his services, and the encomiastic +notices they had drawn from various quarters, while he details his +losses with the most elaborate minuteness. The quaintest part of his +lamentable and most fervent petition is, however, its conclusion. +Having shown that he has tried and exhausted every means of raising +money for the support of his family, he concludes: + + 'Therefore, seeing the blinded lady, Fortune, doth not + governe in this commonwealth, but _justitia_ and _prudentia_, + and that in better order than in Tullie's "Republica," or + bookes of offices, they are laied forth to be followed and + performed, most reverently and earnestly (yea, in manner with + bloody teares of heart), I and my wife, our seaven children, + and our servants (seaventeene of us in all) do this day make + our petition unto your Honors, that upon all godly, + charitable, and just respects had of all that, which this day + you have seene, heard, and perceived, you will make such + report unto her Most Excellent Majestie (with humble request + for speedy reliefes) that we be not constrained to do or + suffer otherwise than becometh Christians, and true, and + faithfull, and obedient subjects to doe or suffer; and all + for want of due mainteynance.' + +The main object Dee had in view was the mastership of St. Cross's +Hospital, which Elizabeth had formerly promised him. This he never +received; but in December, 1594, he was appointed to the +Chancellorship of St. Paul's Cathedral, which in the following year he +exchanged for the wardenship of the College at Manchester. He still +continued his researches into supernatural mysteries, employing +several persons in succession as 'skryers'; but he found no one so +fertile in invention as Kelly, and the crystal uttered nothing more +oracular than answers to questions about lovers' quarrels, hidden +treasures, and petty thefts--the common stock-in-trade of the +conjurer. In 1602 or 1604, he retired from his Manchester appointment, +and sought the quiet and seclusion of his favourite Mortlake. His +renown as 'a magician' had greatly increased--not a little, it would +seem, to his annoyance; for on June 5, 1604, we find that he presented +a petition to James I. at Greenwich, soliciting his royal protection +against the wrong done to him by enemies who mocked him as 'a +conjurer, or caller, or invocator of devils,' and solemnly asserting +that 'of all the great number of the very strange and frivolous fables +or histories reported and told of him (as to have been of his doing) +none were true.' It is said that the treatment Dee experienced at this +time was the primary cause of the Act passed against personal slander +(1604)--a proof of legislative wisdom which drew from Dee a versified +expression of gratitude--in which, let us hope, the sincerity of the +gratitude is not to be measured by the quality of the verse. It is +addressed to 'the Honorable Members of the Commons in the Present +Parliament,' and here is a specimen of it, which will show that, +though Dee's crystal might summon the spirits, it had no control over +the Muses: + + 'The honour, due unto you all, + And reverence, to you each one + I do first yield most spe-ci-all; + Grant me this time to heare my mone. + + 'Now (if you will) full well you may + Fowle sclaundrous tongues for ever tame; + And helpe the truth to beare some sway + In just defence of a good name.' + +Thenceforward Dee sinks into almost total obscurity. His last years +were probably spent in great tribulation; and the man who had dreamed +of converting, Midas-like, all he touched into gold, seems frequently +to have wanted bread. It was a melancholy ending to a career which +might have been both useful and brilliant, if his various scholarship +and mental energy had not been expended upon a delusion. Unfortunately +for himself, Dee, with all his excellent gifts, wanted that greatest +gift of all, a sound judgment. His excitable fancy and credulous +temper made him the dupe of his own wishes, and eventually the tool of +a knave far inferior to himself in intellectual power, but surpassing +him in strength of will, in force of character, in audacity and +inventiveness. Both knave and dupe made but sorry work of their lives. +Kelly, as we have seen, broke his neck in attempting to escape from a +German prison, and Dee expired in want and dishonour, without a friend +to receive his last sigh. + +He died at Mortlake in 1608, and was buried in the chancel of +Mortlake Church, where, long afterwards, Aubrey, the gossiping +antiquary, was shown an old marble slab as belonging to his tomb. + +His son Arthur, after acting as physician to the Czar of Russia and to +our own Charles I., established himself in practice at Norwich, where +he died. Anthony Wood solemnly records that this Arthur, in his +boyhood, had frequently played with quoits of gold, which his father +had cast at Prague by means of his 'stone philosophical.' How often +Dee must have longed for some of those 'quoits' in his last sad days +at Mortlake, when he sold his books, one by one, to keep himself from +starvation! + +After Dee's death, his fame as a magician underwent an extraordinary +revival; and in 1659, when the country was looking forward to the +immediate restoration of its Stuart line of kings, the learned Dr. +Meric Casaubon thought proper to publish, in a formidable folio +volume, the doctor's elaborate report of his--or rather +Kelly's--supposed conferences with the spirits--a notable book, as +being the initial product of spiritualism in English literature. In +his preface Casaubon remarks that, though Dee's 'carriage in certain +respects seemed to lay in works of darkness, yet all was tendered by +him to kings and princes, and by all (England alone excepted) was +listened to for a good while with good respect, and by some for a long +time embraced and entertained.' And he adds that 'the fame of it made +the Pope bestir himself, and filled all, both learned and unlearned, +with great wonder and astonishment.... As a whole, it is undoubtedly +not to be paralleled in its kind in any age or country.' + +FOOTNOTES: + +[24] 'Adeo viro præ credulo errore jam factus sui impos et mente +captus, et Dæmones, quo arctius horrendis hisce Sacris adhærescent +illius ambitioni vanæ summæ potestatis in Patria adipiscendæ spe et +expectatione lene euntis illum non solius Poloniæ sed alterius quoque +regni, id est primo Poloniæ, deinde alterius, viz. Moldaviæ Regem +fore, et sub quo magnæ universi mundi mutationes incepturas esse, +Judæos convertendos, et ab illo Saræmos et Ethnicos vexillo crucis +superandos, facili ludificarentur.'--Dr. Thomas Smith, 'Vitæ +Eruditissimorum ac Illustrium Virorum,' London, 1707. 'Vita Joannis +Dee,' p. 25. + +[25] He was suspected of coining false money, but Dr. Dee declares he +was innocent. (June, 1583.) + + +NOTE. + +In the curious 'Apologia' published by Dee, in 1595, in the form of a +letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, 'containing a most briefe +Discourse Apologeticall, with a plaine Demonstration and formal +Protestation, for the lawfull, sincere, very faithfull and Christian +course of the Philosophicall studies and exercises of a certaine +studious Gentleman, an ancient Servant to her most excellent Maiesty +Royall,' he furnishes a list of 'sundry Bookes and Treatises' of which +he was the author. The best known of his printed works is the 'Monas +Hieroglyphica, Mathematicè, Anagogicè que explicata' (1564), dedicated +to the Emperor Maximilian. Then there are 'Propæ deumata Aphoristica;' +'The British Monarchy,' otherwise called the 'Petty Navy Royall: for +the politique security, abundant wealth, and the triumphant state of +this kingdom (with God's favour) procuring' (1576); and 'Paralaticæ +Commentationis, Praxcosque Nucleus quidam' (1573). His unpublished +manuscripts range over a wide field of astronomical, philosophical, +and logical inquiry. The most important seem to be 'The first great +volume of famous and rich Discoveries,' containing a good deal of +speculation about Solomon and his Ophirian voyage; 'Prester John, and +the first great Cham;' 'The Brytish Complement of the perfect Art of +Navigation;' 'The Art of Logicke, in English;' and 'De Hominis +Corpore, Spiritu, et Anima: sive Microcosmicum totius Philosophiæ +Naturalis Compendium.' + +The character drawn of Dr. Dee by his learned biographer, Dr. Thomas +Smith, by no means confirms the traditional notion of him as a crafty +and credulous practiser in the Black Art. It is, on the contrary, the +portrait of a just and upright man, grave in his demeanour, modest in +his manners, abstemious in his habits; a man of studious disposition +and benevolent temper; a man held in such high esteem by his +neighbours that he was called upon to arbitrate when any differences +arose between them; a fervent Christian, attentive to all the offices +of the Church, and zealous in the defence of her faith. + +Here is the original: 'Si mores exterioremque vitæ cultum +contemplemur, non quicquam ipsi in probrum et ignominium verti +possit; ut pote sobrius, probus, affectibus sedatis, compositisque +moribus, ab omni luxu et gulâ liber, justi et æqui studiosissimus, +erga pauperes beneficus, vicinis facilis et benignus, quorum lites, +atrisque partibus contendentium ad illum tanquam ad sapientum arbitrum +appellantibus, moderari et desidere solebat: in publicis sacris +cœtibus et in orationibus frequens, articulorum Christianæ fidei, +in quibus omnes Orthodoxi conveniunt, strenuus assertor, zelo in +hæreses, à primitiva Ecclesia damnatas, flagrans, inqui Peccōrum, +qui virginitatem B. Mariæ ante partum Christi in dubium vocavit, +accerimè invectus: licet de controversiis inter Romanenses et +Reformatos circa reliqua doctrinæ capita non adeo semperosè solicitus, +quin sibi in Polonia et Bohemia, ubi religio ista dominatur, Missæ +interesse et communicare licere putaverit, in Anglia, uti antea, post +redditum, omnibus Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ ritibus conformis.' It must be +admitted that Dr. Smith's Latin is not exactly 'conformed' to the +Ciceronian model. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +DR. DEE'S DIARY. + + +I am not prepared to say, with its modern editor, that Dr. Dee's +Diary[26] sets the scholar magician's character in its true light more +clearly than anything that has yet been printed; but I concede that it +reveals in a very striking and interesting manner the peculiar +features of his character--his superstitious credulity, and his +combination of shrewdness and simplicity--as well as his interesting +habits. I shall therefore extract a few passages to assist the reader +in forming his opinion of a man who was certainly in many respects +remarkable. + +(i.) I begin with the entries for 1577: + + '1577, January 16th.--The Erle of Leicester, Mr. Philip + Sidney, Mr. Dyer,[27] etc., came to my house (at Mortlake). + + '1577, January 22nd.--The Erle of Bedford came to my house. + + '1577, March 11th.--My fall uppon my right nuckel bone, _hora + 9 fere mane_, wyth oyle of Hypericon (_Hypericum_, or St. + John's Wort) in twenty-four howers eased above all hope: God + be thanked for such His goodness of (to?) His creatures. + + '1577, March 24th.--Alexander Simon, the Ninevite, came to + me, and promised me his service into Persia. + + '1577, May 1st.--I received from Mr. William Harbut of St. + Gillian his notes uppon my "Monas."[28] + + '1577, May 2nd.--I understode of one Vincent Murfryn his + abbominable misusing me behinde my back; Mr. Thomas Besbich + told me his father is one of the cokes of the Court. + + '1577, May 20th.--I hyred the barber of Cheswik, Walter + Hooper, to kepe my hedges and knots in as good order as he + saw them then, and that to be done with twice cutting in the + yere at the least, and he to have yerely five shillings, meat + and drink. + + '1577, June 26th.--Elen Lyne gave me a quarter's warning. + + '1577, August 19.--The "Hexameron Brytanicum" put to + printing. (Published in 1577 with the title of "General and + Rare Memorials pertayning to the perfect Art of Navigation.") + + '1577, November 3rd.--William Rogers of Mortlak about 7 of + the clok in the morning, cut his own throte, _by the fiende + his instigator_. + + '1577, November 6th.--Sir Umfrey Gilbert[29] cam to me to + Mortlak. + + '1577, November 22nd.--I rod to Windsor to the Q. Majestie. + + '1577, November 25th.--I spake with the Quene _hora quinta_; + I spoke with Mr. Secretary Walsingham.[30] I declared to the + Quene her title to Greenland, Estotiland, and Friesland. + + '1577, December 1st.--I spoke with Sir Christopher Hatton; he + was made Knight that day. + + '1577, December --th.--I went from the Courte at Wyndsore. + + '1577, December 30th.--Inexplissima illa calumnia de R. + Edwardo, iniquissima aliqua ex parte in me denunciebatur: + ante aliquos elapsos diro, sed ... sua sapientia me + innocentem.' + +I cannot ascertain of what calumny against Edward VI. Dee had been +accused; but it is to be hoped that his wish was fulfilled, and that +he was acquitted of it before many days had elapsed. + +I have omitted some items relating to moneys borrowed. It is +sufficiently plain, however, that Dee never intended his Diary for the +curious eyes of the public, and that it mainly consists of such +memoranda as a man jots down for his private and personal use. +Assuredly, many of these would never have been recorded if Dee had +known or conjectured that an inquisitive antiquarian, some three +centuries later, would exhume the confidential pages, print them in +imperishable type, and expose them to the world's cold gaze. It seems +rather hard upon Dr. Dee that his private affairs should thus have +become everybody's property! Perhaps, after all, the best thing a man +can do who keeps a diary is to commit it to the flames before he +shuffles off his mortal coil, lest some laborious editor should +eventually lay hands upon it, and publish it to the housetops with all +its sins upon it! But as in Dr. Dee's case the offence has been +committed, I will not debar my readers from profiting by it. + +(ii.) 1578-1581. + + '1578, June 30th.--I told Mr. Daniel Rogers, Mr. Hackluyt of + the Middle Temple being by, that Kyng Arthur and King Maty, + both of them, did conquer Gelindia, lately called Friseland, + which he so noted presently in his written copy of Mon ... + thensis (?), for he had no printed boke thereof.' + +What a pity Dr. Dee has not recorded his authority for King Arthur's +Northern conquests! The Mr. Hackluyt here mentioned is the industrious +compiler of the well-known collection of early voyages. + +Occasionally Dee relates his dreams, as on September 10, 1579: 'My +dream of being naked, and my skyn all overwrought with work, like some +kinde of tuft mockado, with crosses blue and red; and on my left +arme, about the arme, in a wreath, this word I red--_sine me nihil +potestis facere_.' + +Sometimes he resorts to Greek characters while using English words: + + '1579, December 9th.--Θις νιγτ μι υυιφ δρεμιδ θατ ονε καμ + το 'ερ ανδ τουχεδ 'ερ, σαινγ, "Μιστρές Δεε, γου αρ κονκεινεδ + οφ χιλδ, ύος ναμε μυστ βε Ζαχαριας; βε οφ γοδ χερε, ἑ + σαλ δο υυελ ας θις δοθ!" + + '1579, December 28th.--I reveled to Roger Coke the gret + secret of the elixir of the salt οφ ακετελς, ονε υππον α + υνδρεδ. + +Other entries refer to this Mr. Roger Coke, or Cooke, who seems to +have been Dee's pupil or apprentice, and at one time to have enjoyed +his confidence. They quarrelled seriously in 1581. + + '1581, September 5th.--Roger Cook, who had byn with me from + his 14 years of age till 28, of a melancholik nature, pycking + and devising occasions of just cause to depart on the + suddayn, about 4 of the clok in the afternone requested of me + lycense to depart, wheruppon rose whott words between us; and + he, imagining with himself that he had, the 12 of July, + deserved my great displeasure, and finding himself barred + from view of my philosophicall dealing with Mr. Henrik, + thought that he was utterly recast from intended goodness + toward him. Notwithstanding Roger Cook his unseamely dealing, + I promised him, if he used himself toward me now in his + absens, one hundred pounds as sone as of my own clene + hability I myght spare so much; and moreover, if he used + himself well in life toward God and the world, I promised him + some pretty alchimicall experiments, whereuppon he might + honestly live. + + '1581, September 7th.--Roger Cook went for altogether from + me.' + +In February, 1601, however, this quarrel was made up. + +(iii.) Of the learned doctor's colossal credulity the Diary supplies +some curious proofs: + + '1581, March 8th.--It was the 8 day, being Wensday, hora + noctis 10-11, the strange noyse in my chamber of knocking; + and the voyce, ten times repeted, somewhat like the shriek + of an owle, but more longly drawn, and more softly, as it + were in my chamber. + + '1581, August 3rd.--All the night very strange knocking and + rapping in my chamber. August 4th, and this night likewise. + + '1581, October 9th.--Barnabas Saul, lying in the ... hall, + was strangely trubled by a spirituall creature about + mydnight. + + '1582, May 20th.--Robertus Gardinerus Salopiensis lactum mihi + attulit minimum de materia lapidis, divinitus sibi revelatus + de qua. + + '1582, May 23rd.--Robert Gardiner declared unto me hora 4½ a + certeyn great philosophicall secret, as he had termed it, of + a spirituall creature, and was this day willed to come to me + and declare it, which was solemnly done, and with common + prayer. + + '1590, August 22nd.--Ann, my nurse, had long been tempted by + a wycked spirit: but this day it was evident how she was + possessed of him. God is, hath byn, and shall be her + protector and deliverer! Amen. + + '1590, August 25th.--Anne Frank was sorowful, well comforted, + and stayed in God's mercyes acknowledging. + + '1590, August 26th.--At night I anoynted (in the name of + Jesus) her brest with the holy oyle. + + '1590, August 30th.--In the morning she required to be + anoynted, and I did very devoutly prepare myself, and pray + for virtue and powr, and Christ his blessing of the oyle to + the expulsion of the wycked, and then twyce anoynted, the + wycked one did rest a while.' + +The holy oil, however, proved of no effect. The poor creature was +insane. On September 8 she made an attempt to drown herself, but was +prevented. On the 29th she eluded the dexterity of her keeper, and cut +her throat. + +(iv.) Occasionally we meet with references to historic events and +names, but, unfortunately, they are few: + + '1581, February 23rd.--I made acquayntance with Joannes + Bodonius, in the Chamber of Presence at Westminster, the + ambassador being by from Monsieur.' + +Bodonius, or Bodin, was the well-known writer upon witchcraft. + + '1581, March 23rd.--At Mortlak came to me Hugh Smyth, who had + returned from Magellan strayghts and Vaygatz. + + '1581, July 12th.--The Erle of Leicester fell fowly out with + the Erle of Sussex, Lord Chamberlayn, calling each other + trayter, whereuppon both were commanded to kepe theyr chamber + at Greenwich, wher the court was.' + +This was the historic quarrel, of which Sir Walter Scott has made such +effective use in his 'Kenilworth.' + + '1583, January 13th.--On Sonday, the stage at Paris Garden + fell down all at once, being full of people beholding the + bear-bayting. Many being killed thereby, more hurt, and all + amased. The godly expownd it as a due plage of God for the + wickedness ther used, and the Sabath day so profanely spent.' + +This popular Sabbatarian argument, which occasionally crops up even in +our own days, had been humorously anticipated, half a century before, +by Sir Thomas More, in his 'Dyalogue' (1529): 'At Beverley late, much +of the people being at a bear-baiting, the church fell suddenly down +at evening-time, and overwhelmed some that were in it. A good fellow +that after heard the tale told--"So," quoth he, "now you may see what +it is to be at evening prayers when you should be at the +bear-baiting!"' + +The Paris Garden Theatre at Bankside had been erected expressly for +exhibitions of bear-baiting. The charge for admission was a penny at +the gate, a penny at the entry of the scaffold or platform, and a +penny for 'quiet standing.' During the Commonwealth this cruel sport +was prohibited; but it was revived at the Restoration, and not +finally suppressed until 1835. + + '1583, January 23rd.--The Ryght Honorable Mr. Secretary + Walsingham came to my howse, where by good luk he found Mr. + Adrian Gilbert (of the famous Devonshire family of seamen), + and so talk was begonne of North West Straights discovery. + + '1583, February 11th.--The Quene lying at Richmond went to + Mr. Secretary Walsingham to dinner; she coming by my dore, + graciously called me to her, and so I went by her horse side, + as far as where Mr. Hudson dwelt. Ερ μαιεστι αξεδ με + οβυσκυρελι οφ μουνσιευρὶς στατε: διξὲ βισθανατος εριτ. + + '1583, March 6th.--I, and Mr. Adrian Gilbert and John Davis + (the Arctic discoverer), did mete with Mr. Alderman Barnes, + Mr. Tounson, Mr. Young and Mr. Hudson, about the N. W. + voyage. + + '1583, April 18th.--The Quene went from Richmond toward + Greenwich, and at her going on horsbak, being new up, she + called for me by Mr. Rawly (Sir Walter Raleigh) his putting + her in mynde, and she sayd, "quod defertur non aufertur," and + gave me her right hand to kiss. + + '1590, May 18th.--The two gentlemen, the unckle Mr. Richard + Candish (Cavendish), and his nephew, the most famous Mr. + Thomas Candish, who had sayled round about the world, did + visit me at Mortlake. + + '1590, December 4th.--The Quene's Majestie called for me at + my dore, circa 3½ a meridie as she passed by, and I met her + at Est Shene gate, where she graciously, putting down her + mask, did say with mery chere, "I thank thee, Dee; there wus + never promisse made, but it was broken or kept." I understode + her Majesty to mean of the hundred angels she promised to + have sent me this day, as she yesternight told Mr. Richard + Candish. + + '1595, October 9th.--I dyned with Sir Walter Rawlegh at + Durham House.' + +(v.) Some of the entries which refer to Dee's connection with Lasco +and Kelly are interesting: + + '1583, March 18th.--Mr. North from Poland, after he had byn + with the Quene he came to me. I received salutation from + Alaski, Palatine in Poland. + + '1583, May 13th.--I became acquaynted with Albertus Laski at + 7½ at night, in the Erle of Leicester his chamber, in the + court at Greenwich. + + '1583, May 18th.--The Prince Albertus Laski came to me at + Mortlake, with onely two men. He came at afternone, and + tarryed supper, and after sone set. + + '1583, June 15th.--About 5 of the clok cum the Polonian + prince, Lord Albert Lasky, down from Bisham, where he had + lodged the night before, being returned from Oxford, whither + he had gon of purpose to see the universityes, wher he was + very honorably used and enterteyned. He had in his company + Lord Russell, Sir Philip Sydney, and other gentlemen: he was + rowed by the Quene's men, he had the barge covered with the + Quene's cloth, the Quene's trumpeters, etc. He came of + purpose to do me honour, for which God be praysed! + + '1583, September 21st.--We went from Mortlake, and so the + Lord Albert Lasky, I, Mr. E. Kelly, our wives, my children + and familie, we went toward our two ships attending for us, + seven or eight myle below Gravesende. + + '1586, September 14th.--Trebonam venimus. + + '1586, October 18th.--E. K. recessit a Trebona versus Pragam + curru delatus; mansit hic per tres hebdomadas. + + '1586, December 19th.--Ad gratificandam Domino Edouardo + Garlando, et Francisco suo fratri, qui Edouardus nuncius mihi + missus erat ab Imperatore Moschoriæ ut ad illum venirem, + E. K. fecit proleolem (?) lapidis in proportione unius ... + gravi arenæ super quod vulgaris oz. et ½ et producta est + optimè auri oz. fere: quod aurum post distribuimus a + crucibolo una dedimus Edouardo. + + '1587, January 18th.--Rediit E. K. a Praga. E. K. brought + with him from the Lord Rosenberg to my wyfe a chayne and + juell estemed at 300 duckettes; 200 the juell stones, and 100 + the gold. + + '1587, September 28th.--I delivered to Mr. Ed. Kelley + (earnestly requiring it as his part) the half of all the + animall which was made. It is to weigh 20 oz.; he wayed it + himself in my chamber: he bowght his waights purposely for + it. My lord had spoken to me before for some, but Mr. Kelly + had not spoken. + + '1587, October 28th and 29th.--John Carp did begyn to make + furnaces over the gate, and he used of my rownd bricks, and + for the yron pot was contented now to use the lesser bricks, + 60 to make a furnace. + + '1587, November 8th.--E. K terribilis expostulatio, + accusatio, etc., hora tertia a meridie. + + '1587, December 12th.--Afternone somewhat, Mr. Ed. Kelly + [did] his lamp overthrow, the spirit of wyne long spent to + nere, and the glas being not stayed with buks about it, as it + was wont to be; and the same glass so flitting on one side, + the spirit was spilled out, and burnt all that was on the + table where it stode, lynnen and written bokes,--as the bok + of Zacharias, with the "Alkanor" that I translated out of + French, for some by [boy?] spirituall could not; "Rowlaschy," + his third boke of waters philosophicall; the boke called + "Angelicum Opus;" all in pictures of the work from the + beginning to the end; the copy of the man of Badwise + "Conclusions for the Transmution of Metalls;" and 40 leaves + in 4to., entitled "Extractiones Dunstat," which he himself + extracted and noted out of Dunstan his boke, and the very + boke of Dunstan was but cast on the bed hard by from the + table.' + +This so-called 'Book of St. Dunstan' was one which Kelly professed to +have bought from a Welsh innkeeper, who, it was alleged, had found it +among the ruins of Glastonbury. + + '1588, February 8th.--Mr. E. K., at nine of the clok, + afternone, sent for me to his laboratory over the gate to see + how he distilled sericon, according as in tyme past and of + late he heard of me out of Ripley. God lend his heart to all + charity and virtue! + + '1588, August 24th.--Vidi divinam aquam demonstratione + magnifici domini et amici mei incomparabilis D[omini] Ed. + Kelii ante meridiem tertia hora. + + '1588, December 7th.--γρεατ φρενδκιπ προμισιδ φορ μανι, + ανδ τυυο ουνκες φορ θε θινγ.'[31] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[26] 'The Private Diary of Dr. John Dee,' edited by J. O. Halliwell +(Phillipps) for the Camden Society, 1842. + +[27] This was Sir Edward Dyer, the friend of Spenser and Sidney, +remembered by his poem 'My Mind to me a Kingdom is.' + +[28] The 'Monas Hieroglyphica.' + +[29] The celebrated navigator, whose heroic death is one of our +worthiest traditions. + +[30] A warm and steady friend to Dr. Dee. + +[31] This Diary, written in a very small and illegible hand on the +margins of old almanacs, was discovered by Mr. W. H. Black in the +Ashmolean Library at Oxford. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +MAGIC AND IMPOSTURE--A COUPLE OF KNAVES. + + +The secrecy, the mystery, and the supernatural pretensions associated +with the so-called occult sciences necessarily recommended them to the +knave and the cheat as instruments of imposition. If some of the +earlier professors of Hermeticism, the first seekers after the +philosophical stone, were sincere in their convictions, and actuated +by pure and lofty motives, it is certain that their successors were +mostly dishonest adventurers, bent upon turning to their personal +advantage the credulous weakness of their fellow-creatures. With some +of these the chief object was money; others may have craved +distinction and influence; others may have sought the gratification of +passions more degrading even than avarice or ambition. At all events, +alchemy became a synonym for fraud: a magician was accepted as, by +right of his vocation, an impostor; and the poet and the dramatist +pursued him with the whips of satire, invective, and ridicule, while +the law prepared for him the penalties usually inflicted upon +criminals. These penalties, it is true, he very frequently contrived +to elude; in many instances, by the exercise of craft and cunning; in +others, by the protection of powerful personages, to whom he had +rendered questionable services; and again in others, because the agent +of the law did not care to hunt him down so long as he forbore to +bring upon himself the glare of publicity. Thus it came to pass that +generation after generation saw the alchemist still practising his +unwholesome trade, and probably he retained a good deal of his old +notoriety down to as late a date as the beginning of the eighteenth +century. It must be admitted, however, that his alchemical pursuits +gradually sank into obscurity, and that it was more in the character +of an astrologer, and as a manufacturer of love-potions and philtres, +of charms and waxen images--not to say as a pimp and a bawd--that he +looked for clients. In the _Spectator_, for instance, that admirable +mirror of English social life in the early part of the eighteenth +century, you will find no reference to alchemy or the alchemist; but +in the _Guardian_ Addison's light humour plays readily enough round +the delusions or deceptions of the astrologer. The reader will +remember the letter which Addison pretends to have received with great +satisfaction from an astrologer in Moorfields. And in contemporary +literature generally, it will be found that the august inquirer into +the secrets of nature, who aimed at the transmutation of metals, and +the possession of immortal youth, had by this time been succeeded by +an obscure and vulgar cheat, who beguiled the ignorant and weak by his +jargon about planetary bodies, and his cheap stock-in-trade of a wig +and a gown, a wand, a horoscope or two, and a few coloured vials. This +'modern magician' is, indeed, a common character in eighteenth-century +fiction. + +But a century earlier the magician retained some little of the 'pomp +and circumstance' of the old magic, and was still the confidant of +princes and nobles, and not seldom the depository of State secrets +involving the reputation and the honour of men and women of the +highest position. So much as this may be truly asserted of Simon +Forman, who flourished in the dark and criminal period of the reign of +James I., when the foul practices of mediæval Italy were transferred +for the first and last time to an English Court. Forman was born at +Quidham, a village near Wilton, in Wilts, in 1552. Little is known of +his early years; but he seems to have received a good education at the +Sarum Grammar School, and afterwards to have been apprenticed to a +druggist in that ancient city. Endowed with considerable natural gifts +and an ambitious temper, he made his way to Oxford, and was entered at +Magdalene College, but owing to lack of means was unable to remain as +a student for more than two years. To improve his knowledge of +astrology, astronomy, and medicine, he visited Portugal, the Low +Countries, and the East. + +On his return he began to practise as a physician in Philpot Lane, +London; but, as he held no diploma, was four times imprisoned and +fined as a quack. Eventually he found himself compelled to take the +degree of M.D. at Cambridge (June 27, 1603); after which he settled in +Lambeth, and carried on the twofold profession of physician and +astrologer. In his comedy of 'The Silent Woman,' Ben Jonson makes one +of his characters say: 'I would say thou hadst the best philtre in the +world, and could do more than Madam Medea or Doctor Forman,' whence we +may infer that the medicines he compounded were not of the orthodox +kind or approved by the faculty. Lovers resorted to him for potions +which should soften obdurate hearts; beauties for powders and washes +which might preserve their waning charms; married women for drugs to +relieve them of the reproach of sterility; rakes who desired to +corrupt virtue, and impatient heirs who longed for immediate +possession of their fortunes, for compounds which should enfeeble, or +even kill. Such was the character of Doctor Forman's sinister +'practice.' Among those who sought his unscrupulous assistance was the +infamous Countess of Essex, though Forman died before her nefarious +schemes reached the stage of fruition. + +His death, which took place on the 12th of September, 1611, was +attended (it is said) by remarkable circumstances. The Sunday night +previous, 'his wife and he being at supper in their garden-house, she +being pleasant, told him she had been informed he could resolve +whether man or wife should die first. "Whether shall I," quoth she, +"bury you or no?" "Oh, Truais," for so he called her, "thou shalt bury +me, but thou wilt much repent it." "Yea, but how long first?" "I +shall die," said he, "on Thursday night." Monday came; all was well. +Tuesday came, he not sick. Wednesday came, and still he was well, with +which his impertinent wife did much twit him in his teeth. Thursday +came, and dinner was ended, he very well; he went down to the +water-side, and took a pair of oars to go to some buildings he was in +hand with in Puddle Dock. Being in the middle of the Thames, he +presently fell down, only saying, "An impost, an impost," and so died. +A most sad storm of wind immediately following.' + +It seems as if these men could never die without bringing down upon +the earth a grievous storm or tempest! The preceding story, however, +partakes too much of the marvellous to be very easily accepted. + +According to Anthony Wood, this renowned magician was 'a person that +in horary questions, especially theft, was very judicious and +fortunate' (in other words, he was well served by his spies and +instruments); 'so, also, in sickness, which was indeed his +masterpiece; and had good success in resolving questions about +marriage, and in other questions very intricate. He professed to his +wife that there would be much trouble about Sir Robert Carr, Earl of +Somerset, and the Lady Frances, his wife, who frequently resorted to +him, and from whose company he would sometimes lock himself in his +study one whole day. He had compounded things upon the desire of Mrs. +Anne Turner, to make the said Sir Robert Carr calid _quo ad hanc_, and +Robert, Earl of Essex frigid _quo ad hanc_; that his, to his wife the +Lady Frances, who had a mind to get rid of him and be wedded to the +said Sir Robert. He had also certain pictures in wax, representing Sir +Robert and the said Lady, to cause a love between each other, with +other such like things.' + + +A CAUSE CÉLÈBRE. + +Lady Frances Howard, second daughter of the Earl of Suffolk, was +married, at the age of thirteen, to Robert, Earl of Essex, who was +only a year older. The alliance was dictated by political +considerations, and had been recommended by the King, who did not fail +to attend the gorgeous festivities that celebrated the occasion +(January 5th, 1606). As it was desirable that the boy-bridegroom +should be separated for awhile from his child-wife, the young Earl was +sent to travel on the Continent, and he did not return to claim his +rights as a husband until shortly after Christmas, 1609, when he had +just passed his eighteenth birthday. In the interval his wife had +developed into one of the most beautiful, and, unfortunately, one of +the most dissolute, women in England. Naturally impetuous, +self-willed, and unscrupulous, she had received neither firm guidance +nor wise advice at the hands of a coarse and avaricious mother. Nor +was James's Court a place for the cultivation of the virtues of +modesty and self-restraint. The young Countess, therefore, placed no +control upon her passions, and had already become notorious for her +disregard of those obligations which her sex usually esteem as sacred. +At one time she intrigued with Prince Henry, but he dismissed her in +angry disgust at her numerous infidelities. Finally, she crossed the +path of the King's handsome favourite, Sir Robert Carr, and a guilty +passion sprang up between them. It is painful to record that it was +encouraged by her great-uncle, Lord Northampton, who hoped through +Carr's influence to better his position at Court; and it was probably +at his mansion in the Strand that the plot was framed of which I am +about to tell the issue. But the meetings between the two lovers +sometimes took place at the house of one of Carr's agents, a man named +Coppinger. + +At first, when Essex returned, the Countess refused to live with him; +but her parents ultimately compelled her to treat him as her husband, +and even to accompany him to his country seat at Chartley. There she +remained for three years, wretched with an inconceivable wretchedness, +and animated with wild dreams of escape from the husband she hated to +the paramour she loved. + +For this purpose she sought the assistance of Mrs. Anne Turner, the +widow of a respectable physician, and a woman of considerable personal +charms, who had become the mistress of Sir Arthur Mainwaring.[32] Mrs. +Turner introduced her to Dr. Simon Forman, and an agreement was made +that Forman should exercise his magical powers to fix young Carr's +affections irrevocably upon the Countess. The intercourse between the +astrologer and the ladies became very frequent, and the former +exercised all his skill to carry out their desires. At a later period, +Mrs. Forman deposed in court 'that Mrs. Turner and her husband would +sometimes be locked up in his study for three or four hours together,' +and the Countess learned to speak of him as her 'sweet father.' + +The Countess next conceived the most flagitious designs against her +husband's health; and, to carry them out, again sought the assistance +of her unscrupulous quack, who accordingly set to work, made waxen +images, invented new charms, supplied drugs to be administered in the +Earl's drinks, and washes in which his linen was to be steeped. These +measures, however, did not prove effectual, and letters addressed by +the Countess at this time to Mrs. Turner and Dr. Forman complain that +'my lord is very well as ever he was,' while reiterating the sad story +of her hatred towards him, and her design to be rid of him at all +hazards. In the midst of the intrigue came the sudden death of Dr. +Forman, who seems to have felt no little anxiety as to his share in +it, and, on one occasion, as we have seen, professed to his wife 'that +there would be much trouble about Carr and the Countess of Essex, who +frequently resorted unto him, and from whose company he would +sometimes lock himself in his study a whole day.' Mrs. Forman, when, +at a later date, examined in court, deposed 'that Mrs. Turner came to +her house immediately after her husband's death, and did demand +certain pictures which were in her husband's study, namely, one +picture in wax, very mysteriously apparelled in silk and satin; as +also another made in the form of a naked woman, spreading and laying +forth her hair in a glass, which Mrs. Turner did confidently affirm to +be in a box, and she knew in what part of the room in the study they +were.' We also learn that Forman, in reply to the Countess's +reproaches, averred that the devil, as he was informed, had no power +over the person of the Earl of Essex. The Countess, however, was not +to be diverted from her object, and, after Forman's death, employed +two or three other conjurers--one Gresham, and a Doctor Lavoire, or +Savory, being specially mentioned. + +What followed has left a dark and shameful stain on the record of the +reign of James I. The King personally interfered on behalf of his +favourite, and resolved that Essex should be compelled to surrender +his wife. For this purpose the Countess was instructed to bring +against him a charge of conjugal incapacity; and a Commission of right +reverend prelates and learned lawyers, under the presidency--one +blushes to write it--of Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, was appointed +to investigate the loathsome details. A jury of matrons was empanelled +to determine the virginity of Lady Essex, and, as a pure young girl +was substituted in her place, their verdict was, of course, in the +affirmative! As for the Commission, it decided, after long debates, by +a majority of seven to five, that the Lady Frances was entitled to a +divorce--the majority being obtained, however, only by the King's +active exercise of his personal influence (September, 1613). The lady +having thus been set free from her vows by a most shameless intrigue, +James hurried on a marriage between her and his favourite, and on St. +Stephen's Day it was celebrated with great splendour. In the interval +Carr had been raised to the rank and title of Earl of Somerset, and +his wife had previously been made Viscountess Rochester. + +A strenuous opponent of these unhallowed nuptials had been found in +the person of Sir Thomas Overbury, a young man of brilliant parts, who +stood towards Somerset in much the same relation that Somerset stood +towards the King. At the outset he had looked with no disfavour on his +patron's intrigue with Lady Frances, but had actually composed the +love-letters which went to her in the Earl's name; but, for reasons +not clearly understood, he assumed a hostile attitude when the +marriage was proposed. As he had acquired a knowledge of secrets which +would have made him a dangerous witness before the Divorce Commission, +the intriguers felt the necessity of getting him out of the way. +Accordingly, the King pressed upon him a diplomatic appointment on the +Continent, and when this was refused committed him to the Tower. There +he lingered for some months in failing health until a dose of poison +terminated his sufferings on September 13, 1613, rather more than +three months before the completion of the marriage he had striven +ineffectually to prevent. This poison was unquestionably administered +at the instigation of Lady Essex, though under what circumstances it +is not easy to determine. The most probable supposition seems to be +that an assistant of Lobell, a French apothecary who attended +Overbury, was bribed to administer the fatal drug. + +For two years the murder thus foully committed remained unknown, but +in the summer of 1615, when James's affection for Somerset was rapidly +declining, and a new and more splendid favourite had risen in the +person of George Villiers, some information of the crime was conveyed +to the King by his secretary, Winwood. How Winwood obtained this +information is still a mystery; but we may, perhaps, conjecture that +he received it from the apothecary's boy, who, being taken ill at +Flushing, may have sought to relieve his conscience by confession. A +few weeks afterwards, Helwys, the Lieutenant of the Tower, under an +impression that the whole matter had been discovered, acknowledged +that frequent attempts had been made to poison Overbury in his food, +but that he had succeeded in defeating them until the apothecary's boy +eluded his vigilance. Who sent the poison he did not know. The only +person whose name he had heard in connection with it was Mrs. Turner, +and the agent employed to convey it was, he said, a certain Richard +Weston, a former servant of Mrs. Turner, who had been admitted into +the Tower as a keeper, and entrusted with the immediate charge of +Overbury. + +On being examined, Weston at first denied all knowledge of the affair; +but eventually he confessed that, having been rebuked by Helwys, he +had thrown away the medicaments with which he had been entrusted; and +next he accused Lady Somerset of instigating him to administer to +Overbury a poison, which would be forwarded to him for that purpose. +Then one Rawlins, a servant of the Earl, gave information that he had +been similarly employed. As soon as Somerset heard that he was +implicated, he wrote to the King protesting his innocence, and +declaring that a conspiracy had been hatched against him. But many +suspicious particulars being discovered, he was committed to the +custody of Sir Oliver St. John; while Weston, on October 23, was put +on his trial for the murder of Overbury, and found guilty, though no +evidence was adduced against him which would have satisfied a modern +jury. + +On November 7 Mrs. Turner was brought before the Court. Her trial +excited the most profound curiosity, and Westminster Hall was crowded +by an eager multitude, who shuddered with superstitious emotion when +the instruments employed by Forman in his magical rites were exposed +to view.[33] It would seem that Mrs. Turner, when arrested, +immediately sent her maid to Forman's widow, to urge her to +burn--before the Privy Council sent to search her house--any of her +husband's papers that might contain dangerous secrets. She acted on +the advice, but overlooked a few documents of great importance, +including a couple of letters written by Lady Essex to Mrs. Turner and +Forman. The various articles seized in Forman's house referred, +however, not to the murder of Overbury, but to the conjurations +employed against the Earls of Somerset and Essex. 'There was shewed in +Court,' says a contemporary report, 'certaine pictures of a man and a +woman made in lead, and also a moulde of brasse wherein they were +cast, a blacke scarfe alsoe full of white crosses, which Mrs. Turner +had in her custody,' besides 'inchanted paps and other pictures.' +There was also a parcel of Forman's written charms and incantations. +'In some of those parchments the devill had particular names, who were +conjured to torment the lord Somersett and Sir Arthur Mannering, if +theire loves should not contynue, the one to the Countesse, the other +to Mrs. Turner.' Visions of a dingy room haunted by demons, who had +been summoned from the infernal depths by Forman's potent spells, +stimulated the imagination of the excited crowd until they came to +believe that the fiends were actually there in the Court, listening in +wrath to the exposure of their agents; and, behold! in the very heat +and flush of this extravagant credulity, a sudden crack was heard in +one of the platforms or scaffolds, causing '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.' The +narrator adds that there was also a note showed in Court, made by Dr. +Forman, and written on parchment, signifying what ladies loved what +lords; but the Lord Chief Justice would not suffer it to be read +openly. This 'note,' or book, was a diary of the doctor's dealings +with the persons named; and a scandalous tradition affirms that the +Lord Chief Justice would not have it read because his wife's name was +the first which caught his eye when he glanced at the contents. + +Mrs. Turner's conviction followed as a matter of course upon Weston's. +There was no difficulty in proving that she had been concerned in his +proceedings, and that if he had committed a crime she was _particeps +criminis_. Both she and Weston died with an acknowledgment on their +lips that they were justly punished. Her end, according to all +accounts, was sufficiently edifying. Bishop Goodman quotes the +narrative of an eye-witness, one Mr. John Castle, in which we read +that, 'if detestation of painted pride, lust, malice, powdered hair, +yellow bands, and the rest of the wardrobe of Court vanities; if deep +sighs, tears, confessions, ejaculations of the soul, admonitions of +all sorts of people to make God and an unspotted conscience always our +friends; if the protestation of faith and hope to be washed by the +same Saviour and the like mercies that Magdalene was, be signs and +demonstrations of a blessed penitent, then I will tell you that this +poor broken woman went _a cruce ad gloriam_, and now enjoys the +presence of her and our Redeemer. Her body being taken down by her +brother, one Norton, servant to the Prince, was in a coach conveyed to +St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, where, in the evening of the same day, she +had an honest and a decent burial.' Her sad fate seems to have +appealed strongly to public sympathy, and to have drawn a veil of +oblivion over the sins and follies of her misspent life. A +contemporary versifier speaks of her in language worthy of a Lucretia: + + 'O how the cruel cord did misbecome + Her comely neck! and yet by Law's just doom + Had been her death. Those locks, like golden thread, + That used in youth to enshrine her globe-like head, + Hung careless down; and that delightful limb, + Her snow-white nimble hand, that used to trim + Those tresses up, now spitefully did tear + And rend the same; nor did she now forbear + To beat that breast of more than lily-white, + Which sometime was the bed of sweet delight. + From those two springs where joy did whilom dwell, + Grief's pearly drops upon her pale cheek fell.' + +The next to suffer was an apothecary named Franklin, from whom the +poison had been procured. 'Before he was executed, he threw out wild +hints of the existence of a plot far exceeding in villainy that which +was in course of investigation. He tried to induce all who would +listen to him to believe that he knew of a conspiracy in which many +great lords were concerned; and that not only the late Prince [Henry] +had been removed by unfair means, but that a plan had been made to get +rid of the Electress Palatine and her husband. As, however, all this +was evidently only dictated by a hope of escaping the gallows, he was +allowed to share with the others a fate which he richly deserved.' + + * * * * * + +After the execution of these smaller culprits, some months elapsed +before Bacon, as Attorney-General, was directed to proceed against the +greater. It was not until May 24, 1616, that the Countess of Somerset +was put upon her trial before the High Steward's Court in Westminster +Hall. Contemporary testimony differs strangely as to her behaviour. +One authority says that, whilst the indictment was being read, she +turned pale and trembled, and when Weston's name was mentioned hid her +face behind her fan. Another remarks: 'She won pity by her sober +demeanour, which, in my opinion,' he adds, 'was more curious and +confident than was fit for a lady in such distress, yet she shed, or +made show of some tears, divers times.' The evidence against her was +too strong to be confuted, and she pleaded guilty. When the judge +asked her if she had anything to say in arrest of judgment, she +replied, in low, almost inaudible tones, that she could not extenuate +her fault. She implored mercy, and begged that the lords would +intercede with the King on her behalf. Sentence was then pronounced, +and the prisoner sent back to the Tower, to await the King's decision. + +On the following day the Earl was tried. Bacon again acted as +prosecutor, and in his opening speech he said that the evidence to be +brought forward by the Government would prove four points: 1. That +Somerset bore malice against Overbury before the latter's +imprisonment; 2. That he devised the plan by which that imprisonment +was effected; 3. That he actually sent poisons to the Tower; 4. That +he had made strenuous efforts to conceal the proofs of his guilt. He +added that he himself would undertake the management of the case on +the first two points, leaving his subordinates, Montague and Crew, to +deal with the third and fourth. + +Bacon had chosen for himself a comparatively easy task. The +ill-feeling that had existed between Overbury and his patron was +beyond doubt; while it was conclusively shown, and, indeed, hardly +disputed, that Somerset had had a hand in Overbury's imprisonment, and +in the appointment of Helwys and Weston as his custodians. Passages +from Lord Northampton's letters to the Earl proved the existence of a +plot in which both were mixed up, and that Helwys had expressed an +opinion that Overbury's death would be a satisfactory termination of +the imbroglio. But he might probably have based this opinion on the +fact that Overbury was seriously ill, and his recovery more than +doubtful. + +When Bacon had concluded his part of the case, Ellesmere, who +presided, urged Somerset to confess his guilt. 'No, my lord,' said the +Earl calmly, 'I came hither with a resolution to defend myself.' + +Montague then endeavoured to demonstrate that the poison of which +Overbury died had been administered with Somerset's knowledge. But he +could get no further than this: that Somerset had been in the habit of +sending powders, as well as tarts and jellies, to Overbury; but he did +not, and could not prove that the powders were poisonous. Nor was +Serjeant Crew able to advance the case beyond the point reached by +Bacon; he could argue only on the assumption of Somerset's guilt, +which his colleagues had failed to establish. + +In our own day it would be held that the case for the prosecution had +completely broken down; and I must add my conviction that Somerset was +in no way privy to Overbury's murder. He had assented to his +imprisonment, because he was weary of his importunity; but he still +retained a kindly feeling towards him, and was evidently grieved at +the serious nature of his illness. As a matter of fact, it was not +proved even that Overbury died of poison, though I admit that this is +put beyond doubt by collateral circumstances. Somerset's position, +however, before judges who were more or less hostilely disposed, with +the agents of the Crown bent on obtaining his conviction, and he +himself without legal advisers, was both difficult and dangerous. He +was embarrassed by the necessity of keeping back part of his case. He +was unable to tell the whole truth about Overbury's imprisonment. He +could not make known all that had passed between Lady Essex and +himself before marriage, or that Overbury had been committed to the +Tower to prevent him from giving evidence which would have certainly +quashed Lady Essex's proceedings for a divorce. And, in truth, if he +mustered up courage to tell this tale of shame, he could not hope that +the peers, most of whom were his enemies, would give credence to it, +or that, if they believed it, they would refrain from delivering an +adverse verdict. + +Yet he bore himself with courage and ability, when, by the flickering +light of torches, for the day had gone down, he rose to make his +defence. Acknowledging that he had consented to Overbury's +imprisonment in order that he might throw no obstacles in the way of +his marriage with Lady Essex, he firmly denied that he had known +anything of attempts to poison him. The tarts he had sent were +wholesome, and of a kind to which Overbury was partial; if any had +been tampered with, he was unaware of it. The powders he had received +from Sir Robert Killigrew, and simply sent them on; and Overbury had +admitted, in a letter which was before the Court, that they had done +him no mischief. Here Crew interrupted: The three powders from +Killigrew had been duly accounted for; but there was a fourth powder, +which had not been accounted for, and had (it was assumed) contained +poison. Now, it was improbable that the Earl could remember the exact +history of every powder sent to Overbury two years before, and, +besides, it was a mere assumption on the part of the prosecution that +this fourth powder was poison. But Somerset's inability to meet this +point was made the most of, and gave the peers a sufficient pretext +for declaring him guilty. The Earl received his sentence with the +composure he had exhibited throughout the arduous day, which had shown +how a nature enervated by luxury and indulgence can be braced up by +the chill air of adversity, and contented himself with expressing a +hope that the Court would intercede with the King for mercy. + +I have dwelt at some length on the details of this celebrated trial +because it is the last (in English jurisprudence) in which men and +women of rank have been mixed up with the secret practices of the +magician; though, for other reasons, it is one of very unusual +interest. In briefly concluding the recital, I may state that James +was greatly relieved when the trial was over, and he found that +nothing damaging to himself had been disclosed. It is certain that +Somerset was in possession of some dark secret, the revelation of +which was much dreaded by the King; so that precautions had even been +taken, or at all events meditated, to remove him from the Court if he +entered upon the dangerous topic, and to continue the trial in his +absence. He would probably have been silenced by force. The Earl, +however, refrained from hazardous disclosures, and James could breathe +in peace. + +On July 13, the King pardoned Lady Somerset, who was certainly the +guiltiest of all concerned. The Earl was left in prison, with sentence +of death suspended over him for several years, in order, no doubt, to +terrify him into silence. A few months before his death, James appears +to have satisfied himself that he had nothing to fear, and ordered the +Earl's release (January, 1622). Had he lived, he would probably have +restored him to his former influence and favour.[34] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[32] This woman has a place in the records of fashion as introducer of +the novelty of yellow-starching the extensive ruffs which were then +generally worn. When Lord Chief Justice Coke sentenced her to death +(as we shall hereafter see) for her share in the murder of Overbury, +he ordered that 'as she was the person who had brought yellow-starched +ruffs into vogue, she should be hanged in that dress, that the same +might end in shame and detestation.' As the hangman was also adorned +with yellow ruffs, it is no wonder that Coke's prediction was amply +fulfilled. + +[33] Arthur Wilson, in his 'Memoirs,' furnishes a strange account of +the practices in which Lady Essex, Mrs. Turner, and the conjurer took +part. 'The Countess of Essex,' he says, 'to strengthen her designs, +finds out one of her own stamp, Mrs. Turner, a doctor of physic's +widow, a woman whom prodigality and looseness had brought low; yet her +pride would make her fly any pitch, rather than fall into the jaws of +Want. These two counsel together how they might stop the current of +the Earl's affection towards his wife, and make a clear passage for +the Viscount in his place. To effect which, one Dr. Forman, a reputed +conjurer (living at Lambeth) is found out; the women declare to him +their grievances; he promises sudden help, and, to amuse them, frames +many little pictures of brass and wax--some like the Viscount and +Countess, whom he must unite and strengthen, others like the Earl of +Essex, whom he must debilitate and weaken; and then with philtrous +powders, and such drugs, he works upon their persons. And to practise +what effects his arts would produce, Mrs. Turner, that loved Sir +Arthur Manwaring (a gentleman then attending the Prince), and willing +to keep him to her, gave him some of the powder, which wrought so +violently with him, that through a storm of rain and thunder he rode +fifteen miles one dark night to her house, scarce knowing where he was +till he was there. Such is the devilish and mad rage of lust, +heightened with art and fancy. + +'These things, matured and ripened by this juggler Forman, gave them +assurance of happy hopes. Her courtly incitements, that drew the +Viscount to observe her, she imputed to the operation of those drugs +he had tasted; and that harshness and stubborn comportment she +expressed to her husband, making him (weary of such entertainments) to +absent himself, she thought proceeded from the effects of those +unknown potions and powders that were administered to him. So apt is +the imagination to take impressions of those things we are willing to +believe. + +'The good Earl, finding his wife nurseled in the Court, and seeing no +possibility to reduce her to reason till she were estranged from the +relish and taste of the delights she sucked in there, made his +condition again known to her father. The old man, being troubled with +his daughter's disobedience, embittered her, being near him, with +wearisome and continued chidings, to wean her from the sweets she +doted upon, and with much ado forced her into the country. But how +harsh was the parting, being sent away from the place where she grew +and flourished! Yet she left all her engines and imps behind her: the +old doctor and his confederate, Mrs. Turner, must be her two +supporters. She blazons all her miseries to them at her depart, and +moistens the way with her tears. Chartley was an hundred miles from +her happiness; and a little time thus lost is her eternity. When she +came thither, though in the pleasantest part of the summer, she shut +herself up in her chamber, not suffering a beam of light to peep upon +her dark thoughts. If she stirred out of her chamber, it was in the +dead of the night, when sleep had taken possession of all others but +those about her. In this implacable, sad, and discontented humour, she +continued some months, always murmuring against, but never giving the +least civil respect to, her husband, which the good man suffered +patiently, being loth to be the divulger of his own misery; yet, +having a manly courage, he would sometimes break into a little passion +to see himself slighted and neglected; but having never found better +from her, it was the easier to bear with her.' + +[34] See 'The State Trials;' 'The Carew Letters;' Spedding, 'Life and +Letters of Lord Bacon;' Amos, 'The Grand Oyer of Poisoning;' and S. R. +Gardiner, 'History of England,' vol. iv., 1607-1616. + + +DR. LAMBE. + +A worthy successor to Simon Forman appeared in Dr. Lambe, or Lamb, +who, in the first two Stuart reigns, attained a wide celebrity as an +astrologer and a quack doctor. A curious story respecting his +pretended magical powers is related by Richard Baxter in his +'Certainty of the World of Spirits' (1691). Meeting two acquaintances +in the street, who evidently desired some experience of his skill in +the occult art, he invited them home with him, and ushered them into +an inner chamber. There, to their amazement, a tree sprang up before +their eyes in the middle of the floor. Before they had ceased to +wonder at this sight surprising, three diminutive men entered, with +tiny axes in their hands, and, nimbly setting to work, soon felled the +tree. The doctor then dismissed his guests, who went away with a +conviction that he was as potent a necromancer as Roger Bacon or +Cornelius Agrippa. + +That same night a tremendous gale arose, so that the house of one of +Lambe's visitors rocked to and fro, threatening to topple over with a +crash, and bury the man and his wife in the ruins. In great terror his +wife inquired, 'Were you not at Dr. Lambe's to-day?' The husband +acknowledged that it was so. 'And did you bring anything away from his +house?' Yes: when the dwarfs felled the tree, he had been foolish +enough to pick up some of the chips, and put them in his pocket. Here +was the cause of the hurricane! With all speed he got rid of the +chips; the storm immediately subsided, and the remainder of the night +was spent in undisturbed repose. + +Lambe was notorious for the lewdness of his life and his evil habits. +But his supposed skill and success as a soothsayer led to his being +frequently consulted by George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, with the +result that each helped to swell the volume of the other's +unpopularity. The Puritans were angered at the Duke's resort to a man +of Lambe's character and calling; the populace hated Lambe as the tool +and instrument of the Duke. In 1628 the brilliant favourite of +Charles I. was the best-hated man in England, and every slander was +hurled at him that the resources of political animosity could supply. +The ballads of the time--an indisputably satisfactory barometer of +public opinion--inveighed bitterly and even furiously against his +luxuriousness, his love of dress, his vanity, his immorality, and his +proved incompetence as soldier and statesman. He was accused of having +poisoned Lords Hamilton, Lennox, Southampton, Oxford, even James I. +himself. He had sat in his boat, out of the reach of danger, while his +soldiers perished under the guns of Ré. He had corrupted the chastest +women in England by means of the love-philtre which Dr. Lambe +concocted for him. In a word, the air was full of the darkest and +dreadest accusations. + +Lambe's connection with the Duke brought on a catastrophe which his +magical art failed to foresee or prevent. He was returning, one summer +evening--it was June 13--from the play at the Fortune Theatre, when he +was recognised by a company of London prentices. With a fine scent for +the game, they crowded round the unfortunate magician, and hooted at +him as the Duke's devil, hustling him to and fro, and treating him +with cruel roughness. To save himself from further violence, he hired +some sailors to escort him to a tavern in Moorgate Street, where he +supped. On going forth again, he found that many of his persecutors +lingered about the door; and, bursting into a violent rage, he +threatened them with his vengeance, and told them 'he would make them +dance naked.' Still guarded by his sailors, he hurried homeward, with +the mob close at his heels, shouting and gesticulating, and increasing +every minute both in numbers and fury. In the Old Jewry he turned to +face them with his protectors; but this movement of defence, construed +into one of defiance, stimulated the passions of the populace to an +ungovernable pitch; they made a rush at him, from which he took refuge +in the Windmill tavern. A volley of stones smashed against pane and +door; and with shouts, screams, and yells, they demanded that he +should be given up. But the landlord, a man of courage and humanity, +would not throw the poor wretch to his pursuers as the huntsman throws +the captured fox to the fangs of his hounds. He detained him for some +time, and then he provided him with a disguise before he would suffer +him to leave. The precaution was useless, for hate is keen of vision: +the man was recognised; the pursuit was resumed, and he was hunted +through the streets, pale and trembling with terror, his dress +disordered and soiled, until he again sought an asylum. The master of +this house, however, fell into a paroxysm of alarm, and dismissed him +hastily, with four constables as a bodyguard. But what could these +avail against hundreds? They were swept aside--the doctor, bleeding +and exhausted, was flung to the ground, and sticks and stones rained +blows upon him until he was no longer able to ask for mercy. One of +his eyes was beaten out of its socket; and when he was rescued at +length by a posse of constables and soldiers, and conveyed to the +Compter prison, it was a dying man who was borne unconscious across +its threshold. + +Such was the miserable ending of Dr. Lambe. Charles I. was much +affected when he heard of it; for he saw that it was a terrible +indication of the popular hostility against Lambe's patron. The +murderers had not scrupled to say that if the Duke had been there they +would have handled him worse; they would have minced his flesh, so +that every one of them might have had a piece. Summoning to his +presence the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, the King bade them discover the +offenders; and when they failed in what was an impossible task, he +imposed a heavy fine upon the City. + +The ballad-writers of the day found in the magician's fate an occasion +for attacking Buckingham: one of them, commenting on his supposed +contempt for Parliament, puts the following arrogant defiance into his +mouth: + + 'Meddle with common matters, common wrongs, + To th' House of Commons common things belong ... + Leave him the oar that best knows how to row + And State to him that the best State doth know ... + Though Lambe be dead, _I'll_ stand, and you shall see + I'll smile at them that can but bark at me.' + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE LAST OF THE ENGLISH MAGICIANS: WILLIAM LILLY. + + + 'Lilly was a prominent, and, in the opinion of many of his + contemporaries, a very important personage in the most + eventful period of English history. He was a principal actor + in the farcical scenes which diversified the bloody tragedy + of civil war; and while the King and the Parliament were + striving for mastery in the field, he was deciding their + destinies in the closet. The weak and the credulous of both + parties who sought to be instructed in "destiny's dark + counsels," flocked to consult the "wily Archimagus," who, + with exemplary impartiality, meted out victory and good + fortune to his clients, according to the extent of their + faith and the weight of their purses. A few profane Cavaliers + might make his name the burthen of their malignant rhymes--a + few of the more scrupulous among the saints might keep aloof + in sanctified abhorrence of the "Stygian sophister"--but the + great majority of the people lent a willing and reverential + ear to his prophecies and prognostications. Nothing was too + high or too low, too mighty or too insignificant, for the + grasp of his genius. The stars, his informants, were as + communicative on the most trivial as on the most important + subjects. If a scheme was set on foot to rescue the King, or + to retrieve a stray trinket; to restore the royal authority, + or to make a frail damsel an honest woman; to cure the nation + of anarchy, or a lap-dog of a surfeit--William Lilly was the + oracle to be consulted. His almanacks were spelled over in + the tavern, and quoted in the Senate; they nerved the arm of + the soldier, and rounded the period of the orator. The + fashionable beauty, dashing along in her calash from St. + James's or the Mall, and the prim starched dame from Watling + Street or Bucklersbury, with a staid foot-boy, in a plush + jerkin, plodding behind her--the reigning toast among "the + men of wit about town," and the leading groaner in a + tabernacle concert--glided alternately into the study of the + trusty wizard, and poured into his attentive ear strange + tales of love, or trade, or treason. The Roundhead stalked in + at one door, whilst the Cavalier was hurried out at the + other. + + 'The confessions of a man so variously consulted and trusted, + if written with the candour of a Cardan or a Rousseau, would + indeed be invaluable. The "Memoirs of William Lilly," though + deficient in this particular, yet contain a variety of + curious and interesting anecdotes of himself and his + contemporaries, which, when the vanity of the writer or the + truth of his art is not concerned, may be received with + implicit credence. + + 'The simplicity and apparent candour of his narrative might + induce a hasty reader of this book to believe him a + well-meaning but somewhat silly personage, the dupe of his + own speculations--the deceiver of himself as well as of + others. But an attentive examination of the events of his + life, even as recorded by himself, will not warrant so + favourable an interpretation. His systematic and successful + attention to his own interest, his dexterity in keeping on + "the windy side of the law," his perfect political + pliability, and his presence of mind and fertility of + resources when entangled in difficulties, indicate an + accomplished impostor, not a crazy enthusiast. It is very + possible and probable that, at the outset of his career, he + was a real believer in the truth and lawfulness of his art, + and that he afterwards felt no inclination to part with so + pleasant and so profitable a delusion.... Of his success in + deception, the present narrative exhibits abundant proofs. + The number of his dupes was not confined to the vulgar and + illiterate, but included individuals of real worth and + learning, of hostile parties and sects, who courted his + acquaintance and respected his predictions. His proceedings + were deemed of sufficient importance to be twice made the + subject of a Parliamentary inquiry; and even after the + Restoration--when a little more scepticism, if not more + wisdom, might have been expected--we find him examined by a + Committee of the House of Commons respecting his + foreknowledge of the Great Fire of London. We know not + whether it "should more move our anger or our mirth" to see + our assemblage of British Senators--the contemporaries of + Hampden and Falkland, of Milton and Clarendon, in an age + which moved into action so many and such mighty + energies--gravely engaged in ascertaining the cause of a + great national calamity from the prescience of a knavish + fortune-teller, and puzzling their wisdoms to interpret the + symbolical flames which blazed in the misshapen woodcuts of + his oracular publications. + + 'As a set-off against these honours may be mentioned the + virulent and unceasing attacks of almost all the party + scribblers of the day; but their abuse he shared in common + with men whose talents and virtues have outlived the malice + of their contemporaries.'--_Retrospective Review._ + +William Lilly was born at Diseworth, in Leicestershire, on May 1, +1602. He came of an old and reputable family of the yeoman class, and +his father was at one time a man of substance, though, from causes +unexplained, he fell into a state of great impoverishment. William +from the first was intended to be a scholar, and at the age of eleven +was sent to the grammar-school at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, where he made a +fair progress in his classical studies. In his sixteenth year he began +to be much troubled in his dreams regarding his chances of future +salvation, and felt a large concern for the spiritual welfare of his +parents. He frequently spent the night in weeping and praying, and in +an agony of fear lest his sins should offend God. That in this +exhibition of early piety he was already preparing for his career of +self-hypocrisy and deception, I will not be censorious enough to +assert; but in after-life his conscience was certainly much less +sensitive, and he ceased to trouble himself about the souls of any of +his kith and kin. + +He was about eighteen when the collapse of his father's circumstances +compelled him to leave school. He had used his time and opportunities +so well that he had gained the highest form, and the highest place on +that form. He spoke Latin as readily as his native tongue; could +improvise verses upon any theme--all kinds of verses, hexameter, +pentameter, phalenciac, iambic, sapphic--so that if any ingenious +youth came from remote schools to hold public disputations, Lilly was +always selected as the Ashby-de-la-Zouch champion, and in that +capacity invariably won distinction. 'If any minister came to examine +us,' he said, 'I was brought forth against him, nor would I argue with +him unless in the Latin tongue, which I found few could well speak +without breaking Priscian's head; which, if once they did, I would +complain to my master, _Non bene intelliget linguare Latinam, nec +prorsus loquitur_. In the derivation of words, I found most of them +defective; nor, indeed, were any of them good grammarians. All and +every of those scholars who were of my form and standing went to +Cambridge, and proved excellent divines; only I, poor William Lilly, +was not so happy; fortune then frowning upon my father's present +condition, he not in any capacity to maintain me at the University.' + +The _res angustæ domi_ pressing heavily upon the quick-witted, +ingenious, and active young fellow, he set forth--as so many Dick +Whittingtons have done before and since--to make his fortune in London +City. His purse held only 20s., with which he purchased a new +suit--hose, doublets, trunk, and the like--and with a donation from +his friends of 10s., he took leave of his father ('then in Leicester +gaol for debt') on April 4th, and tramping his way to London, in +company with 'Bradshaw the carrier,' arrived there on the 9th. When he +had gratified the carrier and his servants, his capital was reduced to +7s. 6d. in money, a suit of clothes on his back, two shirts, three +bands, one pair of shoes, and as many stockings. The master to whom he +had been recommended--Leicestershire born, like himself--a certain +Gilbert Wright, received him kindly, purchasing for him a new cloak--a +welcome addition to Lilly's scanty wardrobe; and Lilly then settled +down, contentedly enough, to his laborious duties, though they were +hardly of a kind to gratify the tastes of an earnest scholar. 'My +work,' he says, 'was to go before my master to church; to attend my +master when he went abroad; to make clean his shoes; sweep the street; +help to drive bucks when he washed; fetch water in a tub from the +Thames (I have helped to carry eighteen tubs of water in one morning); +weed the garden; all manner of drudgeries I willingly performed; +scrape trenchers,' etc. + + * * * * * + +In 1624 his mistress (he says) died of cancer in the breast, and he +came into possession--by way of legacy, I suppose--of a small scarlet +bag belonging to her, which contained some rare and curious things. +Among others, several sigils, amulets, or charms: some of Jupiter in +trine, others of the nature of Venus; some of iron, and one of +gold--pure angel gold, of the bigness of a thirty-shilling piece of +King James's coinage. In the circumference, on one side, was +engraven, _Vicit Leo de tribu Judæ Tetragrammaton_, and within the +middle a holy lamb. In the circumference on the obverse side were +Amraphel and three {+++}, and in the centre, _Sanctus Petrus Alpha et +Omega_. + +According to Lilly, this sigil was framed under the following +circumstances: + + 'His mistress's former husband travelling into Sussex, + happened to lodge in an inn, and to lie in a chamber thereof, + wherein, not many months before, a country grazier had lain, + and in the night cut his own throat. After this night's + lodging he was perpetually, and for many years, followed by a + spirit, which vocally and articulately provoked him to cut + his throat. He was used frequently to say, "I defy thee, I + defy thee," and to spit at the spirit. This spirit followed + him many years, he not making anybody acquainted with it; at + last he grew melancholy and discontented, which being + carefully observed by his wife, she many times hearing him + pronounce, "I defy thee," desired him to acquaint her with + the cause of his distemper, which he then did. Away she went + to Dr. Simon Forman, who lived then in Lambeth, and acquaints + him with it; who having framed this sigil, and hanged it + about his neck, he wearing it continually until he died, was + never more molested by the spirit. I sold the sigil for + thirty-two shillings, but transcribed the words _verbatim_ as + I have related.' + +Lilly continued some time longer in the service of Master Gilbert +Wright. When the plague broke out in London in 1625, he, with a +fellow-servant, was left in charge of his employer's house. He seems +to have taken things easily enough, notwithstanding the sorrow and +suffering that surrounded him on every side. Purchasing a bass-viol, +he hired a master to instruct him in playing it; the intervals he +spent in bowling in Lincoln's Inn Fields, with Wat the Cobbler, Dick +the Blacksmith, and such-like companions. 'We have sometimes been at +our work at six in the morning, and so continued till three or four in +the afternoon, many times without bread or drink all that while. +Sometimes I went to church and heard funeral sermons, of which there +was then great plenty. At other times I went early to St. Antholin's, +in London, where there was every morning a sermon. The most able +people of the whole city and suburbs were out of town; if any +remained, it were such as were engaged by parish officers to remain; +no habit of a gentleman or woman continued; the woeful calamity of +that year was grievous, people dying in the open fields and in open +streets. At last, in August, the bills of mortality so increased, that +very few people had thoughts of surviving the contagion. The Sunday +before the great bill came forth, which was of five thousand and odd +hundreds, there was appointed a sacrament at Clement Danes'; during +the distributing whereof I do very well remember we sang thirteen +parts of the 119th Psalm. One Jacob, our minister (for we had three +that day, the communion was so great), fell sick as he was giving the +sacrament, went home, and was buried of the plague the Thursday +following.' + +Having been led by various circumstances to apply himself to the study +of astrology, he sought a guide and teacher in the person of one +Master Evans, whom he describes as poor, ignorant, boastful, drunken, +and knavish; he had a character, or reputation, however, for erecting +a figure (or horoscope) predicting future events, discovering +secrets, restoring stolen goods, and even for raising spirits, when it +so pleased him. Of this crafty cheat he relates an extraordinary +story. Some time before Lilly became acquainted with him, Lord +Bothwell and Sir Kenelm Digby visited him at his lodgings in the +Minories, in order that they might enjoy what is nowadays called a +'spiritualistic séance.' The magician drew the mysterious circle, and +placed himself and his visitors within it. He began his invocations; +but suddenly Evans was caught up from the others, and transferred, he +knew not how, to Battersea Fields, near the Thames. Next morning a +countryman discovered him there, fast asleep, and, having roused him, +informed him, in answer to his inquiries, where he was. Evans in the +afternoon sent a messenger to his wife, to acquaint her with his +safety, and dispel the apprehensions she might reasonably entertain. +Just as the messenger arrived, Sir Kenelm Digby also arrived, not +unnaturally curious to learn the issue of the preceding day's +adventure. This monstrous story Evans told to Lilly, who, I suppose, +affected to believe it, and asked him how such an issue chanced to +attend on his experiment. Because, the knave replied, in performing +the invocation rites, he had carelessly omitted the necessary +suffumigation, and at this omission the spirit had taken offence. It +is evident that the spirits insist on being treated with due regard to +etiquette. + +Lilly, by the way, records some quaint biographical particulars +respecting the astrologers of his time; they are not of a nature, +however, to elevate our ideas of the profession. One would almost +suppose that free intercourse with the inhabitants of the unseen world +had an exceptionally bad effect on the morals and manners of the +mortals who enjoyed it; or else the spirits must have had a penchant +for low society. Lilly speaks of one William Poole, who was a nibbler +at astrological science, and, in addition, a gardener, an apparitor, a +drawer of lime, a plasterer, a bricklayer; in fact, he bragged of +knowing no fewer than seventeen trades--such was the versatility of +his genius! It is pleasant to know that this wonderfully clever fellow +could condescend to 'drolling,' and even to writing poetry (heaven +save the mark!), of which Lilly, in his desire to astonish posterity, +has preserved a specimen. Master Poole's rhymes, however, are much too +offensively coarse to be transferred to these pages. + +This man of many callings died about 1651 or 1652, at St. Mary +Overy's, in Southwark, and Lilly quotes a portion of his last will and +testament: + + '_Item._ I give to Dr. Arder all my books, and one manuscript + of my own, worth one hundred of Lilly's Introduction. + + '_Item._ If Dr. Arder gives my wife anything that is mine, I + wish the D--l may fetch him body and soul.' + +Terrified at this uncompromising malediction, the doctor handed over +all the deceased conjurer's books and goods to Lilly, who in his turn +handed them over to the widow; and in this way Poole's curse was +eluded, and his widow got her rights. + +The true name of this Dr. Arder, it seems, was Richard Delahay. He +had originally practised as an attorney; but falling into poverty, and +being driven from his Derbyshire home by the Countess of Shrewsbury, +he turned to astrology and physic, and looked round about him for +patients, though with no very great success. He had at one time known +a Charles Sledd, a friend of Dr. Dee, 'who used the crystal, and had a +very perfect sight'--in modern parlance, was a good medium. + +Dr. Arder often declared to Lilly that an angel had on one occasion +offered him a lease of life for a thousand years, but for some +unexplained reasons he declined the valuable freehold. However, he +outlived the Psalmist's span, dying at the ripe old age of eighty. + + * * * * * + +A much more famous magician was John Booker, who, in 1632 and 1633, +gained a great notoriety by his prediction of a solar eclipse in the +nineteenth degree of Aries, 1633, taken out of 'Leuitius de Magnis +Conjunctionibus,' namely, 'O Reges et Principes,' etc., both the King +of Bohemia and Gustavus, King of Sweden, dying during 'the effects of +that eclipse.' + +John Booker was born at Manchester, of good parentage, in 1601. In his +youth he attained a very considerable proficiency in the Latin tongue. +From his early years we may take it that he was destined to become an +astrologer--he showed so great a fancy (otherwise inexplicable!) for +poring over old almanacks. In his teens he was despatched to London to +serve his apprenticeship to a haberdasher in Lawrence Lane. But +whether he contracted a distaste for the trade, or lacked the capital +to start on his own account, he abandoned it on reaching manhood, and +started as a writing-master at Hadley, in Middlesex. It is said that +he wrote singularly well, 'both Secretary and Roman.' Later in life he +officiated as clerk to Sir Christopher Clithero, Alderman of London, +and Justice of the Peace, and also to Sir Hugh Hammersley, Alderman, +and in these responsible positions became well known to many citizens +who, like Cowper's John Gilpin, were 'of credit and renown.' + +In star-craft this John Booker was a past master! His verses upon the +months, framed according to their different astrological +significations, 'being blessed with success, according to his +predictions,' made him known all over England. He was a man of 'great +honesty,' abhorring any deceit in the art he loved and studied. So +says Lilly; but it is certain that if an astrologer be in earnest, he +must deceive himself, if he do not deceive others. This Booker had +much good fortune in detecting thefts, and was not less an adept in +resolving love-questions. His knowledge of astronomy was by no means +limited; he understood a good deal of physic; was a great advocate of +the antimonial cup, whose properties were first discovered by Basil +Valentine; not unskilled in chemistry, though he did not practise it. +He died in the sweet odour of a good reputation in 1667, leaving +behind him a tolerable library (which was purchased by Elias Ashmole, +the antiquary), a widow, four children, and the MSS. of his annual +prognostications. During the Long Parliament period he published his +'Bellum Hibernicale,' which is described as 'a very sober and +judicious book,' and, not long before his death, a small treatise on +Easter Day, wherein he displayed a laudable erudition. + + * * * * * + +Lilly has also something to say about a Master Nicholas Fiske, +licentiate in physic, who came of a good old family, and was born near +Framlingham, in Suffolk. He was educated for the University, but +preferred staying at home, and studying astrology and medicine, which +he afterwards practised at Colchester, and at several places in +London. + + 'He was a person very studious, laborious, of good + apprehension, and had by his own industry obtained both in + astrology, physic, arithmetic, astronomy, geometry, and + algebra, singular judgment: he would in astrology resolve + horary questions very soundly, but was ever diffident of his + own abilities. He was exquisitely skilful in the art of + directions upon nativities, and had a good genius in + performing judgment thereupon; but very unhappy he was that + he had no genius in teaching his scholars, for he never + perfected any. His own son Matthew hath often told me that + when his father did teach any scholars in his time, they + would principally learn of him. _He had Scorpio ascending + (!)_, and was secretly envious to those he thought had more + parts than himself. However, I must be ingenuous, and do + affirm that by frequent conversation with him I came to know + which were the best authors, and much to enlarge my judgment, + especially in the art of directions: he visited me most days + once after I became acquainted with him, and would + communicate his most doubtful questions unto me, and accept + of my judgment therein rather than his own.' + +Resuming his own life-story, Lilly records an important purchase which +he made in 1634--the great astrological treatise, the 'Ars Notaria,' +a large parchment volume, enriched with the names and pictures of +those angels which are thought and believed by wise men to teach and +instruct in all the several liberal sciences--as if heaven were a +scientific academy, with the angels giving lectures as professors of +astrology, medicine, mathematics, and the like! Next he describes how +he sought to extend his fame as a magician by attempting the discovery +of a quantity of treasure alleged to have been concealed in the +cloister of Westminster Abbey; and having obtained permission from the +authorities, he repaired thither, one winter night, accompanied by +several gentlemen, and by one John Scott, a supposed expert in the use +of the Mosaical or divining rods. The hazel rods were duly played +round about the cloister, and on the west side turned one over the +other, a proof that the treasure lay there. The labourers, after +digging to a depth of six feet, came upon a coffin; but as it was not +heavy, Lilly refrained from opening it, an omission which he +afterwards regretted. From the cloister they proceeded to the Abbey +Church, where, upon a sudden, so fierce, so high, so blustering and +loud a wind burst forth, that they feared the west end of the church +would fall upon them. Their rods would not move at all; the candles +and torches, all but one, were extinguished, or burned very dimly. +John Scott, Lilly's partner, was amazed, turned pale, and knew not +what to think or do, until Lilly gave command to dismiss the demons. +This being done, all was quiet again, and the party returned home +about midnight. 'I could never since be induced,' says Master Lilly, +with sublime impertinence, 'to join with any in such-like actions. The +true miscarriage of the business,' he adds, 'was by reason of so many +people being present at the operation; for there were about thirty, +some laughing, others deriding, _so that if we had not dismissed the +demons, I believe most part of the Abbey Church had been blown down_! +Secrecy and intelligent operators,' he adds, 'with a strong confidence +and knowledge of what they are doing, are best for this work.' They +are, at all events, for conspiracy and collusion. + +In reading a narrative like this, one finds it not easy to satisfy +one's self how far it has been written in good faith, or how far it is +compounded of credulity or of conscious deception--how far the writer +has unwittingly imposed upon himself, or is knowingly imposing upon +the reader. That Lilly should gravely transmit to posterity such a +record, if aware that it was an audacious invention, seems hardly +credible; and yet it is still less credible that a man so shrewd and +keen-witted should believe in the operations of demons, and in their +directing a blast of wind against the Abbey Church because they +resented his search for a hidden treasure, to which they at least +could have no claim! As great wit to madness nearly is allied, so is +there a dangerous proximity between credulity and imposture, and the +man who begins by being a dupe often ends by becoming a knave. Perhaps +there are times when the axiom should be reversed. + +Lilly's astrological pursuits appear to have affected his health: he +grew lean and haggard, and suffered much from hypochondria; so that, +at length, he resolved to try the curative effects of country air, and +removed, in the spring of 1636, to Hersham, a quiet and picturesque +hamlet, near Walton-on-the-Thames. He did not give up his London +house, however, until thirty years later (1665), when he finally +settled at Hersham as a country gentleman, and a person of no small +consideration. + +Having recovered his health in his rural quarters, our great magician +returned to London, and practised openly his favourite art. But a +secret intelligence apprising him that he was not sufficiently an +adept, he again withdrew into the country, where he remained for a +couple of years, immersed, I suppose, in occult studies. We may take +it that he really entered on a professional career in 1644, when a +'happy thought' inspired him to bring out the first yearly issue of +his prophetical almanac, or 'Merlinus Anglicus Junior.' In his usual +abrupt and disjointed style he gives the following account of his +publication: 'I had given, one day, the copy thereof unto the then Mr. +[afterwards Sir Bulstrode] Whitlocke, who by accident was reading +thereof in the House of Commons. Ere the Speaker took the chair, one +looked upon it, and so did many, and got copies thereof; which, when I +heard, I applied myself to John Booker to license it, for then he was +licenser of all mathematical books.... He wondered at the book, made +many impertinent obliterations, formed many objections, swore it was +not possible to distinguish betwixt King and Parliament [O shrewd +John Booker!]; at last licensed it according to his own fancy. I +delivered it unto the printer, who being an arch Presbyterian, had +five of the ministry to inspect it, _who could make nothing of it_, +but said that it might be printed, for in that I meddled not with +their Dagon. The first impression was sold in less than one week. When +I presented some [copies] to the members of Parliament, I complained +of John Booker, the licenser, who had defaced my book; they gave me +order forthwith to reprint it as I would, and let me know if any durst +resist me in the reprinting or adding what I thought fit: so the +second time it came forth as I would have it.' + +In June, 1644, Lilly published his 'Supernatural Sight,' and also 'The +White King's Prophecy,' of which, in three days, eighteen hundred +copies were sold. He issued the second volume of his 'Prophetical +Merlin,' in which he made use of the King's nativity, and discovering +that _his ascendant was approaching to the quadrature of Mars about +June, 1645_, delivered himself of this oracular utterance, as +ambiguous as any that ever fell from the lips of the Pythian +priestess: + + 'If now we fight, a victory stealeth upon us--' + +which he afterwards boasted to be a clear prediction of the defeat of +Charles I. at Naseby, and, of course, would equally well have served +to have explained a royal victory. Whitlocke, in his 'Memorials of +Affairs in his own Times,' states that he met the astrologer in the +spring of 1645, and jestingly asking him what events were likely to +take place, Lilly repeated this prophecy of a victory. He remarks that +in 1648 some of Lilly's prognostications 'fell out very strangely, +particularly as to the King's fall from his horse about this time.' +But it would have been strange if a man so well informed of public +affairs, and so shrewd, as William Lilly, had never been right in his +forecasts. And a lucky coincidence will set an astrologer up in credit +for a long time, his numerous failures being forgotten. + +In this same memorable and eventful year he published his 'Starry +Messenger,' with an interpretation of three mock suns, or _parhelia_, +which had been seen in London on the 29th of May, 1644, King Charles +II.'s birthday. Complaint was immediately made to the Parliamentary +Committee of Examination that it contained treasonable and scandalous +matter. Lilly was summoned before the Committee, but several of his +friends were upon it, and voted the charges against him frivolous--as, +indeed, they were--so that he met with his usual good fortune, and +came off with flying colours. + +All the English astrologers of the old school seem to have been +startled and confounded by the innovations of this dashing young +magician, with his yearly almanacks and political predictions and +self-advertisement, especially a certain Mr. William Hodges, who lived +near Wolverhampton, and candidly confessed that Lilly did more by +astrology than he himself could do by the crystal, though he +understood its use as well as any man in England. Though a strong +royalist, he could never strike out any good fortune for the King's +party--the stars in their courses fought against Charles Stuart. The +angels whom he interviewed by means of the crystal were Raphael, +Gabriel, and Ariel; but his life was wanting in the purity and +holiness which ought to have been conspicuous in a man who was +favoured by communications from such high celestial sources. + +A proof of his skill is related by Lilly on the authority of Lilly's +partner, John Scott. + +Scott had some knowledge of surgery and physic; so had Will Hodges, +who had at one time been a schoolmaster. Having some business at +Wolverhampton, Scott stayed for a few weeks with Hodges, and assisted +him in dressing wounds, letting blood, and other chirurgical matters. +When on the point of returning to London, he asked Hodges to show him +the face and figure of the woman he should marry. Hodges carried him +into a field near his house, pulled out his crystal, bade Scott set +his foot against his, and, after a pause, desired him to look into the +crystal, and describe what he saw there. + +'I see,' saith Scott, 'a ruddy-complexioned wench, in a red waistcoat, +drawing a can of beer.' + +'She will be your wife,' cried Hodges. + +'You are mistaken, sir,' rejoined Scott. 'So soon as I come to London, +I am engaged to marry a tall gentlewoman in the Old Bailey.' + +'You will marry the red gentlewoman,' replied Hodges, with an air of +imperturbable assurance. + +On returning to London, Scott, to his great astonishment, found that +his tall gentlewoman had jilted him, and taken to herself another +husband. Two years afterwards, in the course of a Kentish journey, he +refreshed himself at an inn in Canterbury; fell in love with its +ruddy-complexioned barmaid; and, when he married her, remembered her +red waistcoat, her avocation, and Mr. Hodges 'his crystal.' + +An amusing story is told of this man Hodges. + +A neighbour of his, who had lost his horse, recovered the animal by +acting upon the astrologer's advice. Some years afterwards he +unluckily conceived the idea of playing upon the wise man a practical +joke, and obtained the co-operation of one of his friends. He had +certainly recovered his horse, he said, in the way Hodges had shown +him, but it was purely a chance, and would not happen again. 'So come, +let us play him a trick. I will leave some boy or other at the town's +end with my horse, and we will then call on Hodges and put him to the +test.' + +This was done, and Hodges said it was true the horse was lost, and +would never be recovered. + +'I thought what fine skill you had,' laughed the gentleman; 'my horse +is walking in a lane at the town's end.' + +Whereupon Hodges, with an oath, as was his evil habit, asserted that +the horse was gone, and that his owner would never see him again. +Ridiculing the wise man without mercy, the gentleman departed, and +hastened to the town's end, and there, at the appointed place, the +boy lay stretched upon the ground, fast asleep, with the bridle round +his arm, but the horse was gone! + +Back to Hodges hurried the chap-fallen squire, ashamed of his +incredulity, and eagerly seeking assistance. But no; the conjurer +swore freely--'Be gone--be gone about your business; go and look for +your horse.' He went and he looked, east and west, and north and +south, but his horse saw never more. + + * * * * * + +Let us next hear what Lilly has to tell us of Dr. Napper, the parson +of Great Lindford, in Buckinghamshire, the advowson of which parish +belonged to him. He sprang from a good old stock, according to the +witness of King James himself. For when his brother, Robert Napper, an +opulent Turkey merchant, was to be made a baronet in James's reign, +some dispute arose whether he could prove himself a gentleman for +three or more descents. 'By my soul,' exclaimed the King, 'I will +certify for Napper, that he is of above three hundred years' standing +in his family; all of them, by my soul, gentlemen!' The parson was +legitimately and truly master of arts; his claim to the title of +doctor, however, seems to have been dubious. Miscarrying one day in +the pulpit, he never after ventured into it, but all his lifetime kept +in his house some excellent scholar to officiate for him, allowing him +a good salary. Lilly speaks highly of his sanctity of life and +knowledge of medicine, and avers that he cured the falling sickness by +constellated rings, and other diseases by amulets. + +The parents of a maid who suffered severely from the falling sickness +applied to him, on one occasion, for a cure. He fashioned for her a +constellated ring, upon wearing of which she completely recovered. Her +parents chanced to make known the cure to some scrupulous divines, who +immediately protested that it was done by enchantment. 'Cast away the +ring,' they said; 'it's diabolical! God cannot bless you, if you do +not cast it away.' The ring was thrown into a well, and the maid was +again afflicted with her epilepsy, enduring the old pain and misery +for a weary time. At last the parents caused the well to be emptied, +and regained the ring, which the maid again made use of, and recovered +from her fits. Thus things went on for a year or two, until the +Puritan divines, hearing that she had resumed the ring, insisted with +her parents until they threw the ring away altogether; whereupon the +fits returned with such violence that they betook themselves to the +doctor, told their story, acknowledged their fault, and once more +besought his assistance. But he could not be persuaded to render it, +observing that those who despised God's mercies were not capable or +not worthy of enjoying them. + +We do not dismiss this story as entirely apocryphal, knowing that, in +the cure or mitigation of nervous diseases, the imagination exercises +a wonderful influence. There are well-authenticated instances of +'faith healing' not a whit less extraordinary than this case described +by Lilly of the maiden and the ring. It would be trivial, perhaps, to +hint that a good many maidens have been cured of some, at least, of +their ailments by _a ring_. + + * * * * * + +In 1646 Lilly printed a collection of prophecies, with the explanation +and verification of 'Aquila; or, The White King's Prophecy,' as also +the nativities of Archbishop Laud and the Earl of Strafford, and a +learned speech, which the latter intended to have spoken on the +scaffold. In the following year he completed his 'Introduction unto +Astrology,' or 'Christian Astrology,' and was summoned, along with +John Booker, to the head-quarters of Fairfax, at Windsor. They were +conveyed thither in great pomp and circumstance, with a coach and four +horses, welcomed in hearty fashion, and feasted in a garden where +General Fairfax lodged. In the course of their interview with the +general he said to them: + + 'That God had blessed the army with many signal victories, + and yet their work was not finished. He hoped God would go + along with them until His work was done. They sought not + themselves, but the welfare and tranquillity of the good + people and whole nation; and, for that end, were resolved to + sacrifice both their lives and their own fortunes. As for the + art that Lilly and Booker studied, he hoped it was lawful and + agreeable to God's Word: he himself understood it not, but + doubted not they both feared God, and therefore had a good + opinion of them both.' + +Lilly replied: + + 'My lord, I am glad to see you here at this time. Certainly, + both the people of God, and all others of this nation, are + very sensible of God's mercy, love, and favour unto them, in + directing the Parliament to nominate and elect you General of + their armies, a person so religious, so valiant. + + 'The several unexpected victories obtained under your + Excellency's conduct will eternize the same unto all + posterity. + + 'We are confident of God's going along with you and your army + until the great work, for which He ordained you both, is + fully perfected, which we hope will be the conquering and + subversion of your and the Parliament's enemies; and then a + quiet settlement and firm peace over all the nation unto + God's glory, and full satisfaction of tender consciences. + + 'Sir, as for ourselves, we trust in God; and, as Christians, + we believe in Him. We do not study any art but what is lawful + and consonant to the Scriptures, Fathers, and antiquity, + which we humbly desire you to believe.' + +They afterwards paid a visit to Hugh Peters, the famous Puritan +ecclesiastic, who had lodgings in the Castle. They found him reading +'an idle pamphlet,' which he had received from London that morning. +'Lilly, thou art herein,' he exclaimed. 'Are not you there also?' +'Yes, that I am,' he answered. + +The stanza relating to Lilly ran as follows: + + 'From th' oracles of the Sibyls so silly, + The curst predictions of William Lilly, + And Dr. Sibbald's Shoe-Lane Philly, + Good Lord, deliver me.' + +After much conference with Hugh Peters, and some private discourse +betwixt the two 'not to be divulged,' they parted, and Master Lilly +returned to London. + +In 1647 he published 'The World's Catastrophe,' 'The Prophecies of +Ambrose Merlin' (both of which were translated by Elias Ashmole), and +'Trithemius of the Government of the World, by the Presiding +Angels'--all three tracts in one volume. + +Notwithstanding his services to the Parliamentary cause, Lilly +secretly retained a strong attachment towards Charles I., and he was +consulted by Mrs. Whorwood, a lady who enjoyed the royal confidence, +as to the best place for the concealment of the King, when he escaped +from Hampton Court. After the usual sham of 'erecting a figure' had +been gone through, Lilly advised that a safe asylum might be found in +Essex, about twenty miles from London. 'She liked my judgment very +well,' he says, and being herself of sharp judgment, remembered a +place in Essex about that distance, where was an excellent house, and +all conveniences for his reception. But, either guided by an +irresistible destiny, or misled by Ashburnham, whose good faith has +been sometimes doubted, he went away in the night-time westward, and +surrendered himself to Colonel Hammond, in the Isle of Wight. + +With another unfortunate episode in the King's later career, Lilly was +also connected. During the King's confinement at Carisbrooke the +Kentishmen, in considerable numbers, rose in arms, and joined with +Lord Goring; at the same time many of the best ships revolted, and a +movement on behalf of the King was begun among the citizens of London. +'His Majesty then laid his design to escape out of prison by sawing +the iron bar of his chamber window; a small ship was provided, and +anchored not far from the Castle, to bring him into Sussex; horses +were provided ready to carry him through Sussex into Kent, so that he +might be at the head of the army in Kent, and from thence to march +immediately to London, where thousands then would have armed for +him.' Lilly was brought acquainted with the plot, and employed a +locksmith in Bow Lane to make a saw for cutting asunder the iron bar, +and also procured a supply of aqua fortis. But, as everybody knows, +the King was unable to force his body through the narrow casement, +even after the removal of the bar, and the plot failed. + +When the Parliament sent Commissioners into the Island to negotiate +with Charles the terms of a concordat, of whom Lord Saye was one, Lady +Whorwood again sought Lilly's assistance and advice. After perusing +his 'figure,' he told her the Commissioners would arrive in the Island +on such a date; elected a day and hour when the King would receive the +Commissioners and their propositions; and as soon as these were read, +advised the King to sign them, and in all haste to accompany the +Commissioners to London. The army being then far removed from the +capital, and the citizens stoutly enraged against the Parliamentary +leaders, Charles promised he would do so. But, unfortunately, he +allowed Lord Saye to dissuade him from signing the propositions, on +the assurance that he had a powerful party both in the House of Lords +and the House of Commons, who would see that he obtained more +favourable conditions. Thus was lost almost his last chance of +retaining his crown, and baffling the designs of his enemies. + +Whilst the King, in his last days, was at Windsor Castle, on one +occasion, when he was taking the air upon the leads, he looked through +Captain Wharton's 'Almanack.' 'My book,' saith he, 'speaks well as to +the weather.' A Master William Allen, who was standing by, inquired, +'What saith his antagonist, Mr. Lilly?' 'I do not care for Lilly,' +remarked his Majesty, 'he has always been against me,' infusing some +bitterness into his expressions. 'Sir,' observed Allen, 'the man is an +honest man, and writes but what his art informs him.' 'I believe it,' +said his Majesty, 'and that Lilly understands astrology as well as any +man in Europe.' + + * * * * * + +In 1648 the Council of State acknowledged Lilly's services with a +grant of £50, and a pension of £100 a year, which, however, he +received for two years only. + +In the following January, while the King lay at St. James's House, +Lilly began his observations, he tells us, in the following oracular +fashion: + +'I am serious, I beg and expect justice; either fear or shame begins +to question offenders. + +'The lofty cedars begin to divine a thundering hurricane is at hand; +God elevates man contemptible. + +'Our demigods are sensible, we begin to dislike their actions very +much in London; more in the country. + +'Blessed be God, who encourages His servants, makes them valiant, and +of undaunted spirit to go on with His decrees: upon a sudden, great +expectations arise, and men generally believe a quiet and calm time +draws nigh.' + +Our garrulous and egotistical conjurer, who seems really to have +believed that he exercised a considerable influence upon the course of +events, though his position was no more important than that of the fly +upon the wheel, evidently wished to connect these commonplaces with +the execution of Charles I.: + +'In Christmas holidays,' he writes, 'the Lord Gray of Groby, and Hugh +Peters, sent for me to Somerset House, with directions to bring them +two of my almanacks. I did so. Peters and he read January's +observations. "If we are not fools and knaves," saith he, "we shall do +justice." Then they whispered. _I understood not their meaning until +his Majesty _was beheaded_._ They applied what I wrote of justice to +be understood of his Majesty, _which was contrary to my intention_; +for Jupiter, the first day of January, became direct; and Libra is a +sign signifying justice. I implored for justice generally upon such as +had cheated in their places, being treasurers and such-like officers. +I had not then heard the least intimation of bringing the King unto +trial, and yet the first day thereof I was casually there, it being +upon a Saturday. For going to Westminster every Saturday in the +afternoon, in these times, at Whitehall I casually met Peters. "Come, +Lilly, wilt thou go hear the King tried?" "When?" said I. "Now--just +now; go with me." I did so, and was permitted by the guard of soldiers +to pass up to the King's Bench. Within one quarter of an hour came the +judges; presently his Majesty, who spoke excellently well, and +majestically, without impediment in the least when he spoke. I saw +the silver top of his staff unexpectedly fall to the ground, which was +took up by Mr. Rushworth; and then I heard Bradshaw, the judge, say to +his Majesty: "Sir, instead of answering the Court, you interrogate +their power, which becomes not one in your condition." These words +pierced my heart and soul, to hear a subject thus audaciously to +reprehend his Sovereign, who ever and anon replied with great +magnanimity and prudence.' + +Lilly tells us that during the siege of Colchester he and his +fellow-astrologer, Booker, were sent for, to encourage the soldiers by +their vaticinations, and in this they succeeded, as they assured them +the town would soon be surrendered--which was actually the case. Our +prophet, however, if he could have obtained leave to enter the town, +would have carried all his sympathies, and all his knowledge of the +condition of affairs in the Parliament's army, to Sir Charles Lucas, +the Royalist Governor. He had a narrow escape with his life during his +sojourn in the camp of the besiegers. A couple of guns had been placed +so as to command St. Mary's Church, and had done great injury to it. +One afternoon he was standing in the redoubt and talking with the +cannoneer, when the latter cried out for everybody to look to himself, +as he could see through his glass that there was a piece in the Castle +loaded and directed against his work, and ready to be discharged. +Lilly ran in hot haste under an old ash-tree, and immediately the +cannon-shot came hissing over their heads. 'No danger now,' said the +gunner, 'but begone, for there are five more loading!' And so it was. +Two hours later those cannon were fired, and unluckily killed the +cannoneer who had given Lilly a timely warning. + +The practice of astrology must have been exceedingly lucrative, for +Lilly is known to have acquired a considerable fortune. In 1651 he +expended £1,030 in the purchase of fee-farm rents, equal in value to +£120 per annum. And in the following year he bought his house at +Hersham, with some lands and buildings, for £950. In the same year he +published his 'Annus Tenebrosus,' a title which he chose _not_ +'because of the great obscurity of the solar eclipse,' but in allusion +to 'those underhand and clandestine counsels held in England by the +soldiery, of which he would never, except _in generals_, give +information to any Parliament man.' Unfortunately, Lilly's knowledge +was always embodied 'in generals,' and the misty vagueness of his +vaticinations renders it impossible for the reader to pin them down to +any definite meaning. You may apply them to all events--or to none. +Their elastic indications of things good and evil may be made to suit +the events of the nineteenth century almost as well as those of the +seventeenth. + +Many characters Mr. William Lilly must be owned to have represented +with great success. But that all-essential one--if we desire to secure +the confidence of our contemporaries, and the respect of posterity--of +_an honest man_, I fear he was never able to personate successfully. +Of the craft and cunning he could at times display he records a +striking illustration--evidently with entire satisfaction to himself, +and apparently never suspecting that it might not be so favourably +regarded by others, and especially by those plain, commonplace people +who make no pretensions to hermetic learning or occult knowledge, but +have certain unsophisticated ideas as to the laws of morality and fair +dealing. + +In his 1651 'Almanack' he asserted that the Parliament stood upon +tottering foundations, and that the soldiery and commonalty would +combine against it--a conclusion at which every intelligent onlooker +must by that time have arrived, without 'erecting a figure' or +consulting the starry heavens. + +This previous attempt at forecasting the future 'lay for a whole +week,' says its author, 'in the Parliament House, much criticised by +the Presbyterians; one disliking this sentence, another that, and +others disliking the whole. In the end a motion was made that it +should be examined by a Committee of the House, with instructions to +report concerning its errors. + +'A messenger attached me by a warrant from that Committee. I had +private notice ere the messenger came, and hasted unto Mr. Speaker +Lenthall, ever my friend. He was exceeding glad to see me, told me +what was done, called for "Anglicus," marked the passages which +tormented the Presbyterians so highly. I presently sent for Mr. +Warren, the printer, an assured cavalier, obliterated what was most +offensive, put in other more significant words, and desired only to +have six amended against next morning, which very honestly he brought +me. I told him my design was to deny the book found fault with, to own +only the six books. I told him I doubted he would be examined. "Hang +them!" said he; "they are all rogues. I'll swear myself to the devil +ere they shall have an advantage against you, by my oath." + +'The day after, I appeared before the Committee. At first they showed +me the true "Anglicus," and asked if I wrote and printed it.' + +Lilly, after pretending to inspect it, denied all knowledge of it, +asserting that it must have been written with a view to do him injury +by some malicious Presbyterian, at the same time producing the six +amended copies, to the great surprise and perplexity of the Committee. +The majority, however, were inclined to send him to prison, and some +had proposed Newgate, others the Gate House, when one Brown, of +Sussex, who had been influenced to favour Lilly, remarked that neither +to Newgate nor the Gate House were the Parliament accustomed to send +their prisoners, and suggested that the most convenient and legitimate +course would be for the Sergeant-at-Arms to take this Mr. Lilly into +custody. + +'Mr. Strickland, who had for many years been the Parliament's +ambassador or agent in Holland, when he saw how they inclined, spoke +thus: + +'"I came purposely into the Committee this day to see the man who is +so famous in those parts where I have so long continued. I assure you +his name is famous over all Europe. I come to do him justice. A book +is produced by us, and said to be his; he denies it; we have not +proved it, yet will commit him. Truly this is great injustice. It is +likely he will write next year, and acquaint the whole world with our +injustice, and so well he may. It is my opinion, first to prove the +book to be his ere he be committed." + +'Another old friend of mine spoke thus: + +'"You do not know the many services this man hath done for the +Parliament these many years, or how many times, in our greatest +distresses, on applying unto him, he hath refreshed our languishing +expectations; he never failed us of comfort in our most unhappy +distresses. I assure you his writings have kept up the spirits both of +the soldiery, the honest people of this nation, and many of us +Parliament men; and at last, for a slip of his pen (if it were his), +to be thus violent against him, I must tell you, I fear the +consequence urged out of the book will prove effectually true. It is +my counsel to admonish him hereafter to be more wary, and for the +present to dismiss him." + +'Notwithstanding anything that was spoken on my behalf, I was ordered +to stand committed to the Sergeant-at-Arms. The messenger attached my +person said I was his prisoner. As he was carrying me away, he was +called to bring me again. Oliver Cromwell, Lieutenant-General of the +army, having never seen me, caused me to be produced again, when he +steadfastly beheld me for a good space, and then I went with the +messenger; but instantly a young clerk of that Committee asks the +messenger what he did with me. Where is the warrant? Until that is +signed you cannot seize Mr. Lilly, or shall [not]. Will you have an +action of false imprisonment against you? So I escaped that night, but +next day stayed the warrant. That night Oliver Cromwell went to Mr. +R----, my friend, and said: "What, never a man to take Lilly's cause +in hand but yourself? None to take his part but you? He shall not be +long there." Hugh Peters spoke much in my behalf to the Committee, but +they were resolved to lodge me in the Sergeant's custody. One +Millington, a drunken member, was much my enemy, and so was Cawley and +Chichester, a deformed fellow, unto whom I had done several +courtesies. + +'First thirteen days I was a prisoner, and though every day of the +Committee's sitting I had a petition to deliver, yet so many churlish +Presbyterians still appeared I could not get it accepted. The last day +of the thirteen, Mr. Joseph Ash was made chairman, unto whom my cause +being related, he took my petition, and said I should be bailed in +despite of them all, but desired I would procure as many friends as I +could to be there. Sir Arthur Haselrig and Major Galloway, a person of +excellent parts, appeared for me, and many more of my old friends came +in. After two whole hours' arguing of my cause by Sir Arthur and Major +Galloway, and other friends, the matter came to this point: I should +be bailed, and a Committee nominated to examine the printer. The order +of the Committee being brought afterwards to him who should be +Chairman, he sent me word, do what I would, he would see all the +knaves hanged, or he would examine the printer. This is the truth of +the story.' + +Lilly's biographer, however anxious he may be to imitate biographers +generally, and whitewash his hero, feels that in this episode of his +life the great seer fell miserably below the heroic standard, and was +guilty of pusillanimous as well as unveracious and dishonourable +conduct. Yet Lilly is evidently unaware of the unfavourable light in +which he has shown himself, and ambles along in an easy and +well-satisfied mood, as if to the sound of universal applause. + +On February 26, 1654, Lilly lost his second wife, and I regret to say +he seems to have borne the loss with astonishing equanimity. On April +20 Cromwell expelled from the House our astrologer's great enemies, +the Parliament men, and thereby won his most cordial applause. He +breaks out, indeed, into a burst of devotional praise--Gloria +Patri--as if for some special and never-to-be-forgotten mercy. A +German physician, then resident in London, sent to him the following +epigram: + + _Strophe Alcaica: Generoso Domino Gulielmo Lillio + Astrologo, de dissoluto super Parliamento:_ + + 'Quod calculasti Sydere prævio, + Miles peregit numine conscio; + Gentis videmus nunc Senatum + Marti togaque gravi leviatum.' + +His widower's weeds, if he ever wore them, he soon discarded, marrying +his third wife in October, eight months after the decease of his +second. This, his latest partner and helpmate, was signified in his +nativity, he says, by _Jupiter in Libra_, which seems to have been a +great comfort to him, and perhaps to his wife also. 'Jupiter in Libra' +sounds as well, indeed, as 'that blessed word, Mesopotamia.' + +In reference to the restoration of Charles II., in 1660, Lilly +unearths an old prophecy attributed to Ambrose Merlin, and written, he +says, 990 years before. + +'He calls King James the Lion of Righteousness, and saith, when he +died, or was dead, there would reign a noble White King; this was +Charles I. The prophet discovers all his troubles, his flying up and +down, his imprisonment, his death, and calls him Aquila. What concerns +Charles II. is,' says Lilly, 'the subject of our discourse; in the +Latin copy it is thus: + +'_Deinde ab Austro veniet cum Sole super ligneos equos, et super +spumantem inundationem maris, Pullus Aquilæ navigans in Britanniam._ + +'_Et applicans statim tunc altam domum Aquilæ sitiens, et cito aliam +sitiet._ + +'_Deinde Pullus Aquilæ nidificabit in summa rupe totius Britanniæ: nec +juvenis occidet, nec ad senem vivet._' + +This, in an old copy, is Englished thus: + +'After then shall come through the south with the sun, on horse of +tree, and upon all waves of the sea, the Chicken of the Eagle, sailing +into Britain, and arriving anon to the house of the Eagle, he shall +show fellowship to these beasts. + +'After, the Chicken of the Eagle shall nestle in the highest rock of +all Britain: nay, he shall nought be slain young; nay, he nought come +old.' + +Master William Lilly then supplies an explanation, or, as he calls it, +a verification, of these venerable predictions. We shall give it in +his own words: + +'His Majesty being in the Low Countries when the Lord-General had +restored the secluded members, the Parliament sent part of the royal +navy to bring him for England, which they did in May, 1660. Holland is +east from England, so he came with the sun; but he landed at Dover, a +port in the south part of England. Wooden horses are the English +ships. + +'_Tunc nidificabit in summo rupium._ + +'The Lord-General, and most of the gentry in England, met him in Kent, +and brought him unto London, then to White-hall. + +'Here, by the highest Rooch (some write Rock) is intended London, +being the metropolis of all England. + +'Since which time, unto this very day, I write this story, he hath +reigned in England, and long may he do hereafter.' (Written on +December 20, 1667.) + +Lilly quotes a prophecy, printed in 1588, in Greek characters, which +exactly deciphered, he says, the long troubles the English nation +endured from 1641 to 1660, but he omits to tell us where he saw it or +who was its author. It ended in the following mysterious fashion: + +'And after that shall come a dreadful dead man, and with him a royal +G' (it is gamma, Γ, in the Greek, intending C in the Latin, being +the third letter in the alphabet), 'of the best blood in the world, +and he shall have the crown, and shall set England in the right way, +and put out all heresies.' + +To a man who could read the secrets of the stars, and divine the +events of the future, there was, of course, nothing mysterious or +obscure in these lines, and their meaning he had no difficulty in +determining. Monkery having been extinguished above eighty or ninety +years, and the Lord-General's name being _Monk_, what more clear than +that he must be the 'dead man'? And as for the royal Γ, or C, who +came of the best blood of the world, it was evident that he could be +no other than Charles II.? The unlearned reader, who has neither the +stars nor the crystal to assist him, will, nevertheless, arrive at the +conclusion that if prophecies can be interpreted in this liberal +fashion, there is nothing to prevent even him from assuming the _rôle_ +of an interpreter! + +But let it be noted that, according to our brilliant magicians, 'these +two prophecies were not given vocally by the angels, but by inspection +of the crystal in types and figures, or by apparition, the circular +way, where, at some distance, the angels appear, representing by +forms, shapes, and motions, what is demanded. It is very rare, yea, +even in our days, for any operator or master to have the angels speak +articulately; _when they do speak, it is like the Irish, much in the +throat_.' + +In June, 1660, Lilly was summoned before a Committee of the House of +Commons to answer to an inquiry concerning the executioner employed to +behead Charles I. Here is his account of the examination: + +'God's providence appeared very much for me that day, for walking in +Westminster Hall, Mr. Richard Pennington, son to my old friend, Mr. +William Pennington, met me, and inquiring the cause of my being there, +said no more, but walked up and down the Hall, and related my kindness +to his father unto very many Parliament men of Cheshire and +Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cumberland, and those northern counties, who +numerously came up into the Speaker's chamber, and bade me be of good +comfort; at last he meets Mr. Weston, one of the three [the two others +were Mr. Prinn and Colonel King] unto whom my matter was referred for +examination, who told Mr. Pennington that he came purposely to punish +me, and would be bitter against me; but hearing it related, namely, my +singular kindness and preservation of old Mr. Pennington's estate, to +the value of £6,000 or £7,000, "I will do him all the good I can," +says he. "I thought he had never done any good; let me see him, and +let him stand behind me where I sit." I did so. At my first +appearance, many of the young members affronted me highly, and +demanded several scurrilous questions. Mr. Weston held a paper before +his mouth; bade me answer nobody but Mr. Prinn; I obeyed his command, +and saved myself much trouble thereby; and when Mr. Prinn put any +difficult or doubtful query unto me, Mr. Weston prompted me with a fit +answer. At last, after almost one hour's tugging, I desired to be +fully heard what I could say as to the person who cut Charles I.'s +head off. Liberty being given me to speak, I related what follows, +viz.: + +'That the next Sunday but one after Charles I. was beheaded, Robert +Spavin, Secretary unto Lieutenant-General Cromwell at that time, +invited himself to dine with me, and brought Anthony Peirson and +several others along with him to dinner: that their principal +discourse all dinner-time was only who it was that beheaded the King. +One said it was the common hangman; another, Hugh Peters; others also +were nominated, but none concluded. Robert Spavin, so soon as dinner +was done, took me by the hand, and carried me to the south window: +saith he, "These are all mistaken, they have not named the man that +did the fact: it was Lieutenant-Colonel Joyce. I was in the room when +he fitted himself for the work, stood behind him when he did it; when +done, went in again with him. There is no man knows this but my +master, namely, Cromwell, Commissary Ireton, and myself." "Doth not +Mr. Rushworth know it?" said I. "No, he doth not know it," saith +Spavin. The same thing Spavin since had often related unto me when we +were alone. Mr. Prinn did, with much civility, make a report hereof in +the House; yet Norfolk, the Serjeant, after my discharge, kept me two +days longer in arrest, purposely to get money of me. He had six +pounds, and his messenger forty shillings; and yet I was attached but +upon Sunday, examined on Tuesday, and then discharged, though the +covetous Serjeant detained me until Thursday. By means of a friend, I +cried quittance with Norfolk, which friend was to pay him his salary +at that time, and abated Norfolk three pounds, which he spent every +penny at one dinner, without inviting the wretched Serjeant; but in +the latter end of the year, when the King's Judges were arraigned at +the Old Bailey, Norfolk warned me to attend, believing I could give +information concerning Hugh Peters. At the Sessions I attended during +its continuance, but was never called or examined. There I heard +Harrison, Scott, Clement, Peters, Harker, Scroop, and others of the +King's Judges, and Cook the Solicitor, who excellently defended +himself; I say, I did hear what they could say for themselves, and +after heard the sentence of condemnation pronounced against them by +the incomparably modest and learned Judge Bridgman, now Lord Keeper of +the Great Seal of England.' + +In spite of Spavin's circumstantial statement, as recorded by Lilly, +it is now conclusively established that the executioner of Charles I. +was Richard Brandon, the common executioner, who had previously +beheaded the Earl of Strafford. It is said that he was afterwards +seized with poignant remorse for the act, and died in great mental +suffering. His body was carried to the grave amid the execrations of +an excited and angry populace. + +Though our astrologer, as we have seen, was at heart a Royalist, his +services towards the Parliamentary cause were sufficiently conspicuous +to expose him after the Restoration to a good deal of persecution; and +he found it advisable to sue out his pardon under the Great Seal, +which cost him, as he takes care to tell us, £13 6s. 8d. + +He claimed to have foreseen the Restoration, and all the good things +which flowed--or were expected to have flowed--from that 'auspicious +event.' In page 111 of his 'Prophetical Merlin,' published in 1644, +dwelling upon three sextile aspects of Saturn and Jupiter made in 1659 +and 1660, he says: 'This, their friendly salutation, comforts us in +England: every man now possesses his own vineyard; our young youth +grow up unto man's estate, and our old men live their full years; our +nobles and gentlemen rest again; our yeomanry, many years +disconsolated, now take pleasure in their husbandry. The merchant +sends out ships, and hath prosperous returns; the mechanic hath quick +trading; here is almost a new world; new laws, new lords. Now any +county of England shall shed no more tears, but rejoice with and in +the many blessings God gives or affords her annually.' + +He also wrote, he says, to Sir Edward Walker, Garter King-at-Arms in +1659, when, by the way, the restoration of Charles II. was an event +that loomed in the near future, and was anticipated by every man of +ordinary political sagacity: 'Tu, Dominusque vester videbitis Angliam, +infra duos annis' (You and your Lord shall see England within two +years). 'For in 1662,' adds the arch impostor, in his strange +astrological jargon, 'his moon came by direction to the body of the +sun.' + +'_But he came in upon the ascendant directed unto the trine of Sol and +antiscion of Jupiter._' + +No doubt he did. Who would presume to contradict our English Merlin? + +In 1663 and 1664 he served as churchwarden--surely the first and last +astrologer who filled that respectable office--of Walton-upon-Thames, +settling as well as he could the affairs of that 'distracted parish' +upon his own charges. + +An absurdly frivolous accusation was brought against him in the year +1666. He was once more summoned before a Committee of the House of +Commons, because in his book, 'Monarchy or No Monarchy,' published in +1651, he had introduced sixteen plates, of which the eighth +represented persons digging graves, with coffins and other emblems of +mortality, and the thirteenth a city in flames. Hence it was inferred +that he must have had something to do with the Great Fire which had +destroyed so large a part of London, if not with the Plague, which had +almost depopulated it. The chairman, Sir Robert Burke, on his coming +into the Committee's presence, addressed him thus: + +'Mr. Lilly, this Committee thought fit to summon you to appear before +them this day, to know if you can say anything as to the cause of the +late Fire, or whether there might be any design therein. You are +called the rather hither, because in a book of yours, long since +printed, you hinted some such thing by one of your hieroglyphics.' + +Whereto Mr. Lilly replied, with a firm assumption of superior wisdom +and oracular knowledge: + +'May it please your Honours,--After the beheading of the late King, +considering that in the three subsequent years the Parliament acted +nothing which concerned the settlement of the nation in peace; and +seeing the generality of people dissatisfied, the citizens of London +discontented, the soldiery prone to mutiny, I was desirous, according +to the best knowledge God had given me, to make inquiry by the art I +studied, what might from that time happen unto the Parliament and +nation in general. At last, having satisfied myself as well as I +could, and perfected my judgment therein, I thought it most convenient +to signify my intentions and conceptions thereof in Forms, Shapes, +Types, Hieroglyphics, etc., without any commentary, that so my +judgment might be concealed from the vulgar, and made manifest only +unto the wise. I herein imitating the examples of many wise +philosophers who had done the like.' + +'Sir Robert,' saith one, 'Lilly is yet _sub vestibulo_.' + +'Having found, sir,' continued Lilly, 'that the city of London should +be sadly afflicted with a great plague, and not long after with an +exorbitant Fire, I framed those two hieroglyphics as represented in +the book, which in effect have proved very true.' + +'Did you foresee the year?' inquired a member of the Committee. + +'I did not,' said Lilly, 'nor was desirous; of that I made no +scrutiny. Now, sir,' he proceeded, 'whether there was any design of +burning the city, or any employed to that purpose, I must deal +ingenuously with you, that since the Fire, I have taken much pains in +the search thereof, but cannot or could not give myself any the least +satisfaction therein. I conclude, that it was the only finger of God; +but what instruments he used thereunto, I am ignorant.' + + * * * * * + +In 1665 Lilly finally left London, and settling down at Hersham, +applied himself to the study of medicine, in which he arrived at so +competent a degree of knowledge, assisted by diligent observation and +experiment, that, in October, 1670, on a testimonial from two +physicians of the College in London, he obtained from the Archbishop +of Canterbury a license to practise. In his new profession this +clever, plausible fellow was, of course, successful. Every Saturday he +rode to Kingston, whither the poorer sort flocked to him from all the +countryside, and he dispensed his advice and prescriptions freely and +without charge. From those in a better social position he now and then +took a shilling, and sometimes half a crown, if it were offered to +him; but he never demanded a fee. And, indeed, his charity towards the +poor seems to have been real and unaffected. He displayed the greatest +care in considering and weighing their particular cases, and in +applying proper remedies for their infirmities--a line of conduct +which gained him deserved popularity. + +Gifted with a robust constitution, he enjoyed good health far on into +old age. He seems to have had no serious illness until he was past his +seventy-second birthday, and from this attack he recovered completely. +In November, 1675, he was less fortunate, a severe attack of fever +reducing him to a condition of great physical weakness, and so +affecting his eyesight that thenceforward he was compelled to employ +the services of an amanuensis in drawing up his annual astrological +budget. After an attack of dysentery, in the spring of 1681, he became +totally blind; a few weeks later he was seized with paralysis; and on +June 9 he passed away, 'without any show of trouble or pangs.' + +He was buried, on the following evening, in the chancel of Walton +Church, where Elias Ashmole, a month later, placed a slab of fair +black marble ('which cost him six pounds four shillings and +sixpence'), with the following epitaph, in honour of his departed +friend: 'Ne Oblivione conteretur Urna GULIELMI LILLII, Astrologi +Peritissimi Qui Fatis cessit, Quinto Idus Junii, Anno Christi Juliano, +MDCLXXXI, Hoc illi posuit amoris Monumentum ELIAS ASHMOLE, Armiger.' +There is a pagan flavour about the phrases 'Qui Fatis cessit,' and +'Quinto Idus Junii,' and they read oddly enough within the walls of a +Christian church. + +There are two sides to every shield. As regards our astrologer, the +last of the English magicians who held a position of influence, let us +first take the silver side, as presented in the eulogistic verse of +Master George Smalridge, scholar at Westminster. Thus it is that he +describes his hero's capacity and potentiality. 'Our prophet's gone,' +he exclaims in lugubrious tones-- + + 'No longer may our ears + Be charmed with musick of th' harmonious spheres: + Let sun and moon withdraw, leave gloomy night + To show their Nuncio's fate, who gave more light + To th' erring world, than all the feeble rays + Of sun or moon; taught us to know those days + Bright Titan makes; followed the hasty sun + Through all his circuits; knew the unconstant moon, + And more constant ebbings of the flood; + And what is most uncertain, th' factious brood, + Flowing in civil broils: by the heavens could date + The flux and reflux of our dubious state. + He saw the eclipse of sun, and change of moon + He saw; but seeing would not shun his own: + Eclipsed he was, that he might shine more bright, + And only changed to give a fuller light. + He having viewed the sky, and glorious train + Of gilded stars, scorned longer to remain + In earthly prisons: could he a village love + Whom the twelve houses waited for above?' + +The other side of the shield is turned towards us by Butler, who, in +his 'Hudibras,' paints Lilly with all the dark enduring colours which +a keen wit could place at the disposal of political prejudice. When +Hudibras is unable to solve 'the problems of his fate,' Ralpho, his +squire, advises him to apply to the famous thaumaturgist. He says: + + 'Not far from hence doth dwell + A cunning man, hight Sidrophel, + That deals in Destiny's dark counsels, + And sage opinions of the Moon sells; + To whom all people, far and near, + On deep importances repair: + When brass and pewter hap to stray, + And linen slinks out o' the way; + When geese and pullen are seduced, + And sows of sucking pigs are choused; + When cattle feel indisposition, + And need th' opinion of physician; + When murrain reigns in hogs or sheep, + And chickens languish of the pip; + When yeast and outward means do fail, + And have no pow'r to work on ale; + When butter does refuse to come, + And love proves cross and humoursome; + To him with questions, and with urine, + They for discov'ry flock, or curing.' + +After this humorous _reductio ad absurdum_ of Lilly's pretensions as +an astrologer, the satirist proceeds to allude to his dealings with +the Puritan party: + + 'Do not our great Reformers use + This Sidrophel to forebode news; + To write of victories next year, + And castles taken, yet i' th' air? + Of battles fought at sea, and ships + Sunk, two years hence, the last eclipse?' + +The satirist then devotes himself to a minute exposure of Lilly's +pretensions: + + 'He had been long t'wards mathematics, + Optics, philosophy, and statics; + Magic, horoscopy, astrology, + And was old dog at physiology; + But as a dog that turns the spit + Bestirs himself, and plies his feet + To climb the wheel, but all in vain, + His own weight brings him down again, + And still he's in the self-same place + Where at his setting out he was; + So in the circle of the arts + Did he advance his nat'ral parts ... + Whate'er he laboured to appear, + His understanding still was clear; + Yet none a deeper knowledge boasted, + Since old Hodge Bacon and Bob Grosted.' + +(Robert Grostête, Bishop of Lincoln [_temp._ Henry III.], whose +learning procured him among the ignorant the reputation of being a +conjurer.) + + 'He had read Dee's prefaces before + The Dev'l and Euclid o'er and o'er; + And all th' intrigues 'twixt him and Kelly, + Lascus, and th' Emperor, would tell ye; + But with the moon was more familiar + Than e'er was almanack well-willer; + Her secrets understood so clear, + That some believed he had been there; + Knew when she was in fittest mood + For cutting corns or letting blood ...' + +Continuing his enumeration of the conjurer's various and versatile +achievements, the poet says he can-- + + 'Cure warts and corns with application + Of med'cines to th' imagination; + Fright agues into dogs, and scare + With rhymes the toothache and catarrh; + Chase evil spirits away by dint + Of sickle, horse-shoe, hollow flint; + Spit fire out of a walnut-shell, + Which made the Roman slaves rebel; + And fire a mine in China here + With sympathetic gunpowder. + He knew whats'ever's to be known, + But much more than he knew would own ... + How many diff'rent specieses + Of maggots breed in rotten cheese; + And which are next of kin to those + Engendered in a chandler's nose; + Or those not seen, but understood, + That live in vinegar and wood.' + +In the course of the long dialogue that takes place between Hudibras +and the astrologer, Butler contrives to introduce a clever and +trenchant exposure of the follies and absurdities, the impositions and +assumptions, of the art of magic. With reference to the pretensions of +astrologers, he observes that-- + + 'There's but the twinkling of a star + Between a man of peace and war, + A thief and justice, fool and knave, + A huffing officer and a slave, + A crafty lawyer and pick-pocket, + A great philosopher and a blockhead, + A formal preacher and a player, + A learn'd physician and man-slayer; + As if men from the stars did suck + Old age, diseases, and ill-luck, + Wit, folly, honour, virtue, vice, + Trade, travel, women, claps, and dice; + And draw, with the first air they breathe, + Battle and murder, sudden death. + Are not these fine commodities + To be imported from the skies, + And vended here among the rabble, + For staple goods and warrantable? + Like money by the Druids borrowed + In th' other world to be restored.' + +The character of Lilly is to some extent a problem, and I confess it +is not one of easy or direct solution. As I have already hinted, it is +always difficult to draw the line between conscious and unconscious +imposture--to determine when a man who has imposed upon himself begins +to impose upon others. But was Lilly self-deceived? Or was he openly +and knowingly a fraud and a cheat? For myself I cannot answer either +question in the affirmative. I do not think he was entirely innocent +of deception, but I also believe that he was not wholly a rogue. I +think he had a lingering confidence in the reality of his horoscopes, +his figures, his stellar prophecies; though at the same time he did +not scruple to trade on the credulity of his contemporaries by +assuming to himself a power and a capacity which he did not possess, +and knew that he did not possess. Despite his vocation, he seems to +have lived decently, and in good repute. The activity of his enemies +failed to bring against him any serious charges, and we know that he +enjoyed the support of men of light and leading, who would have stood +aloof from a common charlatan or a vulgar knave. He was, it is +certain, a very shrewd and quick observer, with a keen eye for the +signs of the times, and a wide knowledge of human nature; and his +success in his peculiar craft was largely due to this alertness of +vision, this practical knowledge, and to the ingenuity and readiness +with which he made use of all the resources at his command. + + +NOTE.--DR. DEE'S MAGIC CRYSTAL. + +Horace Walpole gives an amusing account of Kelly's famous crystal, and +of the useful part it played in a burglary committed at his house in +Arlington Street in the spring of 1771. At the time, he was taking his +ease at his Strawberry Hill villa, near Teddington, when a courier +brought him news of what had occurred. Writing to his friend, Sir +Horace Mann, March 22, he says: + +'I was a good quarter of an hour before I recollected that it was very +becoming to have philosophy enough not to care about what one does +care for; if you don't care, there is no philosophy in bearing it. I +despatched my upper servant, breakfasted, fed the bantams as usual, +and made no more hurry to town than Cincinnatus would if he had lost a +basket of turnips. I left in my drawers £270 of bank bills and three +hundred guineas, not to mention all my gold and silver coins, some +inestimable miniatures, a little plate, and a good deal of furniture, +under no guard but that of two maidens.... + +'When I arrived, my surprise was by no means diminished. I found in +three different chambers three cabinets, a large chest, and a glass +case of china wide open, the locks not picked, but forced, and the +doors of them broken to pieces. You will wonder that this should +surprise me, when I had been prepared for it. Oh, the miracle was that +I did not find, nor to this time have found, the least thing missing! +In the cabinet of modern medals there were, and so there are still, a +series of English coins, with downright John Trot guineas, +half-guineas, shillings, sixpences, and every kind of current money. +Not a single piece was removed. Just so in the Roman and Greek +cabinet, though in the latter were some drawers of papers, which they +had tumbled and scattered about the floor. A great exchequer desk, +that belonged to my father, was in the same room. Not being able to +force the lock, the philosophers (for thieves that steal nothing +deserve the title much more than Cincinnatus or I) had wrenched a +great flapper of brass with such violence as to break it into seven +pieces. The trunk contained a new set of chairs of French tapestry, +two screens, rolls of prints, and a suit of silver stuff that I had +made for the King's wedding. All was turned topsy-turvy, and nothing +stolen. The glass case and cabinet of shells had been handled as +roughly by these impotent gallants. Another little table with drawers, +in which, by the way, the key was left, had been opened too, and a +metal standish, that they ought to have taken for silver, and a silver +hand-candlestick that stood upon it, were untouched. Some plate in the +pantry, and all my linen just come from the wash, had no more charms +for them than gold or silver. In short, I could not help laughing, +especially as the only two movables neglected were another little +table with drawers and the money, and a writing-box with the +bank-notes, both in the same room where they made the first havoc. In +short, they had broken out a panel in the door of the area, and +unbarred and unbolted it, and gone out at the street-door, which they +left wide open at five o'clock in the morning. A passenger had found +it so, and alarmed the maids, one of whom ran naked into the street, +and by her cries waked my Lord Romney, who lives opposite. The poor +creature was in fits for two days, but at first, finding my +coachmaker's apprentice in the street, had sent him to Mr. Conway, who +immediately despatched him to me before he knew how little damage I +had received, the whole of which consists in repairing the doors and +locks of my cabinets and coffers. + +'All London is reasoning on this marvellous adventure, and not one +argument presents itself that some other does not contradict. I insist +that I have a talisman. You must know that last winter, being asked by +Lord Vere to assist in settling Lady Betty Germaine's auction, I found +in an old catalogue of her collection this article, "_The Black Stone +into which Dr. Dee used to call his spirits_." Dr. Dee, you must know, +was a great conjurer in the days of Queen Elizabeth, and has written a +folio of the dialogues he held with his imps. I asked eagerly for this +stone; Lord Vere said he knew of no such thing, but if found, it +should certainly be at my service. Alas, the stone was gone! This +winter I was again employed by Lord Frederick Campbell, for I am an +absolute auctioneer, to do him the same service about his father's +(the Duke of Argyll's) collection. Among other odd things, he produced +a round piece of shining black marble in a leathern case as big as the +crown of a hat, and asked me what that possibly could be? I screamed +out, "Oh, Lord! I am the only man in England that can tell you!... It +is Dr. Dee's 'Black Stone.'" It certainly is; Lady Betty had formerly +given away or sold, time out of mind, for she was a thousand years +old, that part of the Peterborough collection which contained natural +philosophy. So, or since, the Black Stone had wandered into an +auction, for the lotted paper was still on it. The Duke of Argyll, who +bought everything, bought it. Lord Frederick [Campbell] gave it to me; +and if it was not this magical stone, which is only of high-polished +coal, that preserved my chattels, in truth I cannot guess what +did.'[35] + +At the great Strawberry Hill sale, in 1842, which dispersed the +Walpole Collection, it was described in the catalogue as 'a singularly +interesting and curious relic of the superstition of our +ancestors--the celebrated _Speculum of Kennel Coal_, highly polished, +in a leathern case. It is remarkable for having been used to deceive +the mob (!) by the celebrated Dr. Dee, the conjurer, in the reign of +Queen Elizabeth,' etc. + +The authorities of the British Museum purchased this 'relic of the +superstition of our ancestors' for the sum of twelve guineas. It is +neither more nor less than what it has been described, a polished +piece of cannel-coal, and thus explains the allusion in Butler's +'Hudibras': + + 'Kelly did all his feats upon + The devil's looking-glass--a stone.' + +FOOTNOTE: + +[35] Horace Walpole (Earl of Orford), 'Letters,' v. 290, _et seq._ + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +ENGLISH ROSICRUCIANS. + + +It is not very easy to trace the origin of the Rosicrucian +Brotherhood. It is not easy, indeed, to get at the true derivation of +the name 'Rosicrucian.' Some authorities refer it to that of the +ostensible founder of the society, the mysterious Christian +Rosenkreuse, but who can prove that such an individual ever existed? +Others borrow it from the Latin word _ros_, dew, and _crux_, a cross, +and explain it thus: 'Dew,' of all natural bodies, was esteemed the +most powerful solvent of gold; and 'the cross,' in the old chemical +language, signified _light_, because the figure of a cross exhibits at +the same time the three letters which form the word _lux_. 'Now, lux +is called the seed, or menstruum, of the red dragon; or, in other +words, that gross and corporeal light, which, when properly digested +and modified, produces gold.' So that, according to this derivation, a +Rosicrucian is one who by the intervention and assistance of the 'dew' +seeks for 'light'--that is, the philosopher's stone. But such an +etymology is evidently too fanciful, and assumes too much to be +readily accepted, and we try a third derivation, namely, from _rosa_ +and _crux_; in support of which may be adduced the oldest official +documents of the brotherhood, which style it the 'Broederschafft des +Roosen Creutzes,' or Rose-Crucians, or 'Fratres Rosatæ Crucis;' while +the symbol of the order is 'a red rose on a cross.' Both the rose and +the cross possess a copious emblematic history, and their choice by a +secret society, which clothed its beliefs and fancies in allegorical +language, is by no means difficult to understand. 'The rose,' says +Eliphas Levi, in his 'Histoire de la Magie,' 'which from time +immemorial has been the symbol of beauty and life, of love and +pleasure, expressed in a mystical manner all the protestations of the +Renaissance. It was the flesh revolting against the oppression of the +spirit; it was Nature declaring herself to be, like Grace, the +daughter of God; it was Love refusing to be stifled by celibacy; it +was Life desiring to be no longer barren; it was Humanity aspiring to +a natural religion, full of love and reason, founded on the revelation +of the harmonies of existence of which the rose was for initiates the +living and blooming symbol....' The reunion of the rose and the +cross--such was the problem proposed by supreme initiation, and, in +effect, occult philosophy, being the universal synthesis, should take +into account all the phenomena of Being. It may be doubted, however, +whether this ingenious symbolism has anything at all to do with +Rosicrucianism; but it is not the less a fact that the rose and the +cross were chosen because they were recognised emblems. And probably +because the rose typified secrecy, while the cross was a protest +against the tyranny and superstition of the Papacy. + +We hear nothing of Rosicrucianism until the beginning of the +seventeenth century. The earlier alchemists knew nothing of its +theosophic doctrines; and the earlier Rosicrucians did not dabble in +alchemy. The connection between the two was established at a later +date; when the quest of the 'elixir of life' and the 'philosopher's +stone' was grafted upon the mysticism which had taken up the ancient +teaching of the Alexandrian Platonists, combining with it much of the +allegorical jargon of Paracelsus, and something of the theology of +Luther and the German Reformers. The antiquity claimed for the +brotherhood in the 'Fama Fraternitatis' is purely a myth. For my own +part, I must regard as its virtual founder--though he may not have +been its actual initiator--the celebrated Johann Valentine Andreas, +who with wide and profound learning united a lively imagination, and +was, moreover, a man of pure and lofty purpose. The regeneration of +humanity, the extirpation of the vices and follies which had sprung up +in the dark shadow of the mediæval Church, was the dream of his life; +and it is beyond doubt that he hoped to realize it by secret societies +bound together for the purpose of reforming the morals of the age and +inspiring men with a love of wisdom. This is proved by three of his +acknowledged works, namely, 'Reipublicæ Christianapolitanæ +Descriptio,' 'Turris Babel, sive Judiciorum de Fraternitate Rosaceæ +Crucis Chaos,' and 'Christianæ Societatis Idea'; and I venture to +think, though Mr. Waite will not have it so, that the author of these +works was also the author of the 'Fama,' as well as of the 'Confessio +Fraternitatis' and the 'Nuptæ Chymicæ,' in which he gathered up all +the floating dreams and traditions bearing on his subject, and gave to +them a certain form and order, infusing into them a fascinating +poetical colouring, and inspiring them with his own idealistic +speculations. + +'Akin to the school of the ancient Fire-Believers,' says Ennemoser, +'and of the magnetists of a later period, of the same cast as those +speculators and searchers into the mysteries of Nature, drawing from +the same well, are the theosophists of the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries. These practised chemistry, by which they asserted they +could explore the profoundest secrets of Nature. As they strove, above +all earthly knowledge, after the Divine, and sought the Divine light +and fire, through which all men can acquire the true wisdom, they were +called the Fire-Philosophers (_philosophi per ignem_).' They were +identical with the Rosicrucians, and in the books of the later +Rosicrucians we meet with the same mysticism and transcendental +philosophy as in theirs. + +Whether we agree in accepting Andreas as the founder of the order, or +as simply its hierophant, we must admit that the rise of +Rosicrucianism dates from the publication of the 'Fama' and the +'Confessio Fraternitatis.' They produced an immense sensation, passed +through several editions, and were devoured by multitudes of eager +readers. 'In the library at Gottingen,' says De Quincey (adapting +from Professor Buhle), 'there is a body of letters addressed to the +imaginary order of Father Rosy Cross, from 1614 to 1617, by persons +offering themselves as members.... As certificates of their +qualifications, most of the candidates have enclosed specimens of +their skill in alchemy and cabalism.... Many other literary persons +there were at that day who forbore to write letters to the society, +but threw out small pamphlets containing their opinions of the order, +and of its place of residence.' + +It is not my business, however, to write a history of Rosicrucianism. +I have desired simply to say so much about its origin as will serve as +a preface to my account of the principal English members of the +brotherhood. The reader who would know more about its origin and +extension, its pretensions and professors, may consult Heckethorn's +'Secret Societies of all Ages and Countries,' Ennemoser's 'History of +Magic,' Thomas de Quincey's essay on 'Rosicrucians and Freemasons,' +and Arthur Edward Waite's 'Real History of the Rosicrucians.'[36] + +The greatest English Rosicrucian, and most distinguished of the +disciples of Paracelsus, was Robert Fludd (or Flood, or De Fluctibus), +a man of singular erudition, of great though misdirected capacity, and +of a vivid and fertile imagination. + +The second son of Sir Thomas Flood, Treasurer of War to Queen +Elizabeth, he was born at Milgate House, in the parish of Bersted, +Kent, in the year 1574. At the age of seventeen he was entered of St. +John's College, Oxford. His father had originally intended him for a +military life, but finding that his inclinations led him into the +peaceful paths of scholarship, he forbore to oppose them, and the +youth entered upon a particular study of medicine, which drew him, no +doubt, into a pursuit of alchemy and chemistry. Having graduated both +in the arts and sciences, he went abroad, and for six years travelled +over France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, making the acquaintance of the +principal Continental scholars, as well as of the enthusiasts who +belonged to the theosophic school of the divine Paracelsus, and the +adepts who dabbled in the secrets of the Cabala. Returning to England +in 1605, he became a member of the College of Physicians, and settled +down to practise in Coleman Street, London, where, about 1616, he was +visited by the celebrated German alchemist, Michael Maier. + +His active imagination stimulated by his knowledge of the Rosicrucian +doctrines, he resolved on revealing to his countrymen the true light +of science and wisdom. He had already, as a believer in the theory of +magnetism, introduced into England the celebrated 'weapon salve' of +Paracelsus, which healed the severest wound by sympathy--not being +applied to the wound itself, but to the weapon or instrument that had +caused it. The recipe, as formulated by Paracelsus, would hardly be +approved by modern practitioners: 'Take of moss growing on the head of +a thief who has been hanged and left in the air, of real mummy, of +human blood still warm, one ounce each; of human suet, two ounces; of +linseed-oil, turpentine, and Armenian bole, of each two drachms. Mix +together thoroughly in a mortar, and keep the salve in a narrow oblong +urn.' This, or, I presume, some similar compound, Fludd tried with +success in several cases, and no wonder; for while the sword was +anointed and put away, the wound was well washed and carefully +bandaged--a process which has been known to succeed in our own day +without the intervention of any salve whatever! Fludd contended that +every disease might be cured by the magnet if it were properly +applied; but that as every man had, like the earth, a north pole and a +south, magnetism could be produced only when his body occupied a +boreal position. The salve, at all events, grew into instant favour. +Among other believers in its virtues was Sir Kenelm Digby, who, +however, converted the salve into a powder, which he named 'the powder +of sympathy.' But it had its incredulous opponents, of whom the most +strenuous was a certain Pastor Foster, who published an invective +entitled 'Hyplocrisma Spongus; or, A Sponge to Wipe Away the Weapon +Salve,' and affirmed that it was as bad as witchcraft to use or +recommend such an unguent, that its inventor, the devil, would at the +Last Day claim every person who had meddled with it. 'The devil,' he +said, 'gave it to Paracelsus, Paracelsus to the Emperor, the Emperor +to a courtier, the courtier to Baptista Porta, and Baptista Porta to +Doctor Fludd, a doctor of physic, yet living and practising in the +famous city of London, who now stands tooth and nail for it.' Tooth +and nail Dr. Fludd met his adversary, and the public were infinitely +amused by the vehemence of his style in his pamphlet, 'The Spunging of +Parson Foster's Spunge; wherein the Spunge-carrier's immodest Carriage +and Behaviour towards his Brethren is detected; the bitter Flames of +his Slanderous Reports are, by the sharp Vinegar of Truth, corrected +and quite extinguished; and, lastly, the Virtuous Validity of his +Spunge in wiping away the Weapon Salve, is crushed out and clean +abolished.' + +In all the dreams of the mediæval philosophy--in the philosopher's +stone and the stone philosophic, in the universal alkahest, in the +magical 'elixir vitæ'--Dr. Fludd was a serious believer. It was a +favourite hypothesis of his that all things depended on two +principles--_condensation_, or the boreal principle, and _rarefaction_, +the southern or austral. The human body, he averred, was governed by a +number of demons, whom he distributed over a rhomboidal figure. +Further, he taught that every disease had its own particular demon, the +evil influence of which could be neutralized only by the assistance of +the demon placed opposite to it in the rhomboid. The doctrines of the +Rosicrucian brotherhood he defended with a charming enthusiasm, and +when they had been attacked by Libavius and others, he set them forth +in what he conceived to be their true light in his 'Apologia +Compendiaria Fraternitatem de Rosea-Cruce suspicionis et infamiæ +Maculis Aspersam,' etc. (published at Leyden in 1616)--a work which +entitles him to be regarded as the high-priest of their mysteries. It +was severely criticised, however, by contemporary men of science, as by +Kepler, Gassendus (in his 'Epistolica Exercitatio'), and Mersenne, +whose searching analysis of the pretensions of the fraternity provoked +from Fludd an elaborate reply, entitled 'Summum Bonum, quod est Magiæ, +Cabalæ, Alchemiæ, Fratrum Roseæ-Crucis verorum, et adversus Mersenium +Calumniatorem.'[37] + +In addition to the foregoing works, Fludd gave to the world: + +1. 'Utriusque Cosmi, Majoris et Minoris, Technica Historia,' 2 vols., +folio, Oppenheim, 1616; 2. 'Tractatus Apologeticus Integritatem +Societatis de Rosea-Cruce Defendens,' Leyden, 1617; 3. 'Monochordon +Mundi Symphoniacum, seu Replicatio ad Apologiam Johannis Kepleri,' +Frankfort, 1620; 4. 'Anatomiæ Amphitheatrum effigie triplici +Designatum,' Frankfort, 1623; 5. 'Philosophia Sacra et vere +Christiana, seu Meteorologica Cosmica,' Frankfort, 1626; 6. 'Medicina +Catholica, seu Mysterium Artis Medicandi Sacrarium,' Frankfort, 1631; +7. 'Integrum Morborum Mysterium,' Frankfort, 1631; 8. 'Clavis +Philosophiæ et Alchymiæ,' Frankfort, 1633; 9. 'Philosophia Mosaica,' +Goudac, 1638; and 10. 'Pathologia Dæmoniaca,' Goudac, 1640. + +The last two treatises were posthumous publications. Fludd died in +London in 1637, and was buried in Bersted Church, where an imposing +monument perpetuates his memory. It represents him seated, with his +hand on a book, from the perusal of which his head has just been +lifted. Just below are two volumes (there were eight originally) in +marble, inscribed respectively, 'Mysterium Cabalisticum' and +'Philosophia Sacra.' The epitaph runs as follows: 'viii. Die Mensis +vii. A{o} D{ni}, M.D.C.XXXVII. Odoribvs vana vaporat crypta tegit +cineres nee speciosa tros qvod mortale minvs tibi. Te committimvs vnvm +ingenii vivent hic monvmenti tvi nam tibi qvi similis scribit +moritvrqve sepvlchrvm pro tota eternvm posteritate facit. Hoc +monvmentvm Thomas Flood Gore Courti in-coram apud Cantianos armiger +infœlicissimum in charissimi patrvi svi memoriam erexit die Mensis +Avgvsti, M.D.C.XXXVII.' + +I shall not weary the reader with an analysis of any of Fludd's +elaborately mystical productions. They are as dead as anything can be, +and no power that I know of could breathe into them the breath of +life. But I may quote a few specimen or sample sentences, so to speak, +which will afford an idea of their style and tone: + +'Particulars are frequently fallible, but universal never. Occult +philosophy lays bare Nature in her complete nakedness, and alone +contemplates the wisdom of universals by the eyes of intelligence. +Accustomed to partake of the rivers which flow from the Fountain of +Life, it is unacquainted with grossness and with clouded waters.' + +In reference to Music, which he says stands in the same relation to +arithmetic as medicine to natural philosophy, he revives the +Pythagorean idea of the harmony of the universe: 'What is this music +(of men) compared with that deep and true music of the wise, whereby +the proportions of natural things are investigated, the harmonical +concord and the qualities of the whole world are revealed, by which +also connected things are bound together, peace established between +conflicting elements, and whereby each star is perpetually suspended +in its appointed place by its weight and strength, and by the harmony +of its herent spirit.' + +_Light._--'Nothing in this world can be accomplished without the +mediation or divine act of light.' + +_Magic._--'That most occult and secret department of physics, by which +the mystical properties of natural substances are extracted, we term +Natural Magic. The wise kings who (led by the new star from the east) +sought the infant Christ, are called Magi, because they had attained a +perfect knowledge of natural things, whether celestial or sublunar. +This branch of the Magi also includes Solomon, since he was versed in +the arcane virtues and properties of all substances, and is said to +have understood the nature of every plant, from the cedar to the +hyssop. Magicians who are proficient in the mathematical division +construct marvellous machines by means of their geometrical knowledge; +such were the flying dove of Archytas, and the brazen heads of Roger +Bacon and Albertus Magnus, which are said to have spoken. Venefic +magic is familiar with potions, philtres, and with the various +preparations of poisons; it is, in a measure, included in the natural +division, because a knowledge of the properties of natural things is +requisite to produce its results. Necromantic magic is divided into +Goëtic, maleficent, and theurgic. The first consists in diabolical +commerce with unclean spirits, in rites of criminal curiosity, in +illicit songs and invocations, and in the invocation of the souls of +the dead. The second is the adjuration of the devils by the virtue of +Divine names. The third pretends to be governed by good angels and the +Divine will, but its wonders are most frequently performed by evil +spirits, who assume the names of God and of the angels. This +department of necromancy can, however, be performed by natural powers, +definite rites and ceremonies, whereby celestial and Divine virtues +are reconciled and drawn to us; the ancient Magi formulated in their +secret books many rules of this doctrine. The last species of magic is +the thaumaturgic, begetting illusory phenomena; by this art the Magi +produced their phantasms and other marvels.' + +_The Creation._--'According to Fludd's philosophy,' says Mr. Waite, +'the whole universe was fashioned after the pattern of an archetypal +world which existed in the Divine ideality, and was framed out of +unity in a threefold manner. The Eternal Monad or Unity, without any +regression from His own central profundity, compasses complicitly the +three cosmical dimensions, namely, root, square, and cube. If we +multiply unity as a root, in itself, it will produce only unity for +its square, which being again multiplied in itself, brings forth a +cube, which is one with root and square. Thus we have three branches +differing in formal progression, yet one unity in which all things +remain potentially, and that after a most abstruse manner. The +archetypal world was made by the egression of one out of one, and by +the regression of that one, so emitted into itself by emanation. +According to this ideal image, or archetypal world, our universe was +subsequently fashioned as a true type and exemplar of the Divine +Pattern; for out of unity in His abstract existence, viz., as it was +hidden in the dark chaos, or potential mass, the bright flame of all +formal being did shine forth, and the spirit of wisdom, proceeding +from them both, conjoined the formal emanation with the potential +matter, so that by the union of the divine emanation of light, and the +substantial darkness, which was water, the heavens were made of old, +and the whole world.'[38] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[36] See also Louis Figuier's 'L'Alchimie et les Alchimistes,' a +popular and agreeable survey; and the more erudite work of Professor +Buhle. + +[37] This is sometimes ascribed to Joachim Fritz, but no one can doubt +that virtually it is Fludd's, who accompanied it with a defence of his +general philosophical teaching, entitled 'Sophiæ cum Moriâ Certamen.' +But whose was 'the Wisdom,' and whose 'the Folly'? + +[38] Waite, 'History of the Rosicrucians,' p. 385. + + +THOMAS VAUGHAN. + +Another English Rosicrucian to whom allusion must briefly be made is +Thomas Vaughan, who in his writings assumes the more classical +appellation of Eugenius Philalethes ('truth-lover'), and in his +travels was known as Carnobius in Holland, and Doctor Zheil in +America. He was born about 1612; was educated at Oxford; wandered +afterwards through many countries; embraced the delusions of alchemy +and the Rosy Cross; accreted round his personality a number of wild +and extravagant stories; and finally disappeared into such complete +oblivion that the time and place of his death are alike unknown. + +The writings attributed to him are: 1. 'Anthroposophia Magica; or, A +Discourse of the Nature of Man and his State after Death;' and 'Anima +Magica Abscondita; or, A Discourse of the Universall Spirit of +Nature,' London, 1650. 2. 'Magia Adamica; or, The Antiquities of +Magic,' same place and date. 3. 'The Man-Mouse taken in a Trap;' a +reply to Henry More, who had criticised his 'Anthroposophia Magica.' +4. 'Lumen de Lumine; or, A New Magicall Light discovered and +communicated to the World,' London, 1651. 5. 'The Second Wash; or, The +Moor Scoured Once More, being a charitable Cure for the Distractions +of Abazonomastix' [Henry More], London, 1651. 6. 'The Fame and +Confession of the Fraternity of R. C., with a Preface annexed thereto, +and a short declaration of their physicall work,' London, 1652. 7. +'Euphrates; or, The Waters of the East, being a Short Discourse of +that Great Fountain whose water flows from Fire, and carries in it the +beams of the Sun and Moon,' London, 1656. 8. 'A Brief Natural +History,' London, 1669. And 9. 'Introitus Apertus ad Occlusum Regis +Palatium. Philalethæ Tractatus Tres: i. Metallorum Metamorphosis; ii. +Brevis Manductio ad Rubrium Cœlestem; iii. Fons Chymicæ Veritatis,' +London, 1678. + +Vaughan seems to have led a wandering life, and to have fallen 'often +into great perplexities and dangers from the mere suspicion that he +possessed extraordinary secrets.' The suspicion, I should say, was +abundantly justified, since he made gold at will, and knew the +composition of the wonderful elixir! On one occasion, he tells us, he +went to a goldsmith, desiring to sell him twelve hundred marks' worth +of gold; but the goldsmith at first sight pronounced that it had never +come out of any mine, but was the production of art, seeing that it +was not of the standard of any known kingdom. Vaughan adds that he was +so confounded at this statement--though, surely, he must have expected +it--that he at once departed, _leaving the gold behind him_. But the +strangest part of his history is, that a writer in 1749 speaks of him +as living _then_, at the respectable old age of 137. 'A person of +great credit at Nuremberg, in Germany, affirms that he conversed with +him but a year or two ago. Nay, it is further asserted that this very +individual is the president of the Illuminated in Europe, and that he +sits as such in all their annual meetings.' Mayhap he is sitting at +them still! Only if he have discovered, not only the secret of the +transmutation of metals, but that of the indefinite prolongation of +life, is it not cruelly selfish of him to withhold it--we will not say +from the world at large, which deserves to be punished for its +scepticism and incredulity, but from the members of his own +fraternity? + + +JOHN HEYDON. + +The English Rosicrucians are few in number--_rari gurgite in vasto +nantes_--and when I have added John Heydon to Vaughan and Fludd, I +shall have named the most distinguished. Heydon was the author of 'The +Wise Man's Crown; or, The Glory of the Rosie Cross' (1664); 'The Holy +Guide, leading the Way to Unite Art and Nature, with the Rosie Cross +Uncovered' (1662); and 'A New Method of Rosicrucian Physic; by John +Heydon, the Servant of God and the Secretary of Nature' (1658). In the +last-named he describes himself as an attorney--who will not pity his +clients, if he had any?--practising at Westminster Hall all term times +as long as he lived, and in the vacations devoting himself to +alchemical and Rosicrucian speculation. His introduction ('An Apologue +for an Epilogue') is full of such outrageous nonsense as to suggest +suspicion of his sanity. He speaks of Moses, Elias, and Ezekiel as the +prophets and founders of Rosicrucianism. Its present believers, he +says, may be few in number, but their position is incomparably +glorious. They are the eyes and ears of the great King of the +universe, seeing all things and hearing all things; they are +seraphically illuminated; they belong to the holy company of embodied +souls and immortal angels; they can assume any shape at will, and +possess the power of working miracles. They can walk in the air, +banish epidemics from stricken cities, pacify the most violent storms, +heal every disease, and turn all metals into gold. He had known, he +says, two illustrious brethren, named Williams and Walford, and had +seen them perform miracles--a statement which brands him either as a +knave or a dupe. 'I desired one of them to tell me,' he says, 'whether +my complexion were capable of the society of my good genius. "When I +see you again," said he (which was when he pleased to come to me, for +I knew not where to go to him), "I will tell you." When I saw him +afterwards, he said: "You should pray to God: for a good and holy man +can offer no greater or more acceptable service to God than the +oblation of himself--his soul." He said also, that the good genii were +the benign eyes of God, running to and fro in the world, and with love +and pity beholding the innocent endeavours of harmless and +single-hearted men, ever ready to do them good and to help them.' + +Heydon advocated, without enforcing his precepts by example, the +Rosicrucian dogma, that men could live without eating and drinking, +affirming that all of us could exist in the same manner as the +singular people dwelling near the source of the Ganges, described by +his namesake, Sir Christopher Heydon[39] (but certainly by no other +traveller), who had no mouths, and therefore could not eat, but lived +by the breath of their nostrils--except when they went on a far +journey, and then, to recuperate their strength, they inhaled the +scent of flowers. He dilated on the 'fine foreign fatness' which +characterized really pure air--the air being impregnated with it by +the sunbeams--and affirmed that it should suffice for the nourishment +of the majority of mankind. He was not unwilling, however, that people +with gross appetites should eat animal food, but declared it to be +unnecessary for them, and that a much more efficacious mode would be +to use the meat, nicely cooked, as a plaster on the pit of the +stomach. By adopting this external treatment, they would incur no risk +of introducing diseases, as they did by the broad and open gate of the +mouth, as anyone might see by the example of drink; for so long as a +man sat in water, he knew no thirst. He had been acquainted--so he +declared--with many Rosicrucians who, by using wine as a bath, had +fasted from solid food for several years. And, as a matter of fact, +one might fast all one's life, though prolonged for 300 years, if one +ate no meat, and so avoided all risk of infection by disease. + +Growing confidential in reference to his imaginary fraternity, he +states that its chiefs always carried about with them their symbol, +the R.C., an ebony cross, flourished and decked with roses of gold; +the cross typifying Christ's suffering for the sins of mankind, and +the golden roses the glory and beauty of His Resurrection. This symbol +was carried in succession to Mecca, Mount Calvary, Mount Sinai, Haran, +and three other places, which I cannot pretend to identify--Casele, +Apamia, and Chaulateau Viciosa Caunuch: these were the meeting-places +of the brotherhood. + +'The Rosie Crucian Physick or Medicines,' says this bravely-mendacious +gentleman, 'I happily and unexpectedly light upon in Arabia, which +will prove a restoration of health to all that are afflicted with +sickness which we ordinarily call natural, and all other diseases. +These men have no small insight into the body: Walford, Williams, and +others of the Fraternity now living, may bear up in the same likely +equipage with those noble Divine Spirits their Predecessors; though +the unskilfulness in men commonly acknowledges more of supernatural +assistance in hot, unsettled fancies, and perplexed melancholy, than +in the calm and distinct use of reason; yet, for mine own part, I look +upon these Rosie Crucians above all men truly inspired, and more than +any that professed themselves so this sixteen hundred years, and I am +ravished with admiration of their miracles and transcendant mechanical +inventions, for the solving the Phænomenon of the world. I may, +without offence, therefore, compare them with Bezaliel, Aholiab, those +skilful workers of the Tabernacle, who, as Moses testifies, were +filled with the Spirit of God, and therefore were of an excellent +understanding to find out all manner of curious work.' + +The plain fact is that Heydon's books are _fictions_--purely +imaginative work, based on some rough and ready knowledge of the old +alchemy and the new magic; partly allegorical and mystical, such as a +quick invention might readily conceive under the influence of +theosophic study, and partly borrowed from Henry More, and other +writers of the same stamp. The island inhabited by Rosicrucians, which +he describes in the introduction to 'The Holy Guide,' was evidently +suggested by Sir Thomas More's 'Utopia,' and Bacon's 'New Atlantis.' +It would be easy to point out his obligations elsewhere. + +I may add, in bringing this chapter to a close, that Dr. Edmund +Dickenson, one of Charles II.'s physicians, professed to be a member +of the brotherhood, and wrote a book upon one of their supposed +doctrines, entitled 'De Quinta Essentia Philosophorum,' which was +printed at Oxford in 1686. + + * * * * * + +Whatever may be our opinion of Rosicrucianism, which, I believe, still +finds some believers and adepts in this country, we must acknowledge +that the literature of poetry and fiction is indebted to it +considerably. The machinery of Pope's exquisite poem, 'The Rape of the +Lock,' was borrowed from Paracelsus and Jacob Böhmen--not directly, it +is true, but through the medium of the Abbé de Villars' sparkling +romance, 'Le Comte de Gabalis.' 'According to those gentlemen,' says +Pope, 'the four elements are inhabited by spirits, which they call +sylphs, gnomes, nymphs, and salamanders.' + +The Rosicrucian water-nymph supplied La Motte Fouqué with the idea of +that graceful and lovely creation, 'Undine,' and Sir Walter Scott has +invested his 'White Lady of Avenel' with some of her attributes. + +William Godwin's romance of 'St. Leon' turns on the Rosicrucian fancy +of immortal life; while Lord Lytton's 'Zanoni' is practically a +Rosicrucian fiction. The influence of the Rosicrucian writers is also +apparent in the same author's 'A Strange Story.' + +FOOTNOTE: + +[39] Author of 'A Defence of Judiciall Astrologie,' printed at +Cambridge in 1603. + + + + +BOOK II. + +_WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT._ + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +EARLY HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT IN ENGLAND. + + +To various conspicuous and easily intelligible causes the witch and +the warlock, like the necromancer and the astrologer, owed their power +with the multitude. First, there was the eager desire which humanity +not unnaturally feels to tear aside the veil of Isis, and obtain some +knowledge of that Other World which is hidden so completely from it. +Next must be taken into account man's greed for temporal advantages, +his anxiety to direct the course of events to his personal benefit; +and, lastly, his malice against his fellows. Thus we see that the +influence enjoyed by the sorcerer and the magician had its origin in +the unlawful passions of humanity, in whose history the pages that +treat of witches and witchcraft are painful and humiliating reading. + +To define the limit between the special functions of the magician and +the witch is somewhat difficult, more especially as the position of +the witch gradually decreased in reputation and importance. There is a +great gulf between the witch of Endor, or the witch of classical +antiquity, or the witch of the Norse Sagas, or the witch of the +Saxons, and the English or Scottish witch of the sixteenth and +seventeenth centuries. The former were surrounded with an atmosphere +of dread and mystery; the latter was the creature of vulgar and +commonplace traditions. In the early age of witchcraft, the witch, +like the magician, summoned spirits from the vasty deep, discovered +the hiding-places of concealed treasures, struck down men or beasts by +her spells, or covered the heavens with clouds and let loose the winds +of destruction and desolation. Both could blight the promise of the +harvest, baffle the plans of their enemies, or wither the health of +their victims. But while the magician was frequently a man of ability +and learning, and belonged to the cultured classes, the witch was +almost always a woman of the lower orders, ignorant and uneducated, +though occasionally ladies of high rank, and even ecclesiastics, have +been accused of practising witchcraft. + +While witchcraft was a power in the land, the witch, or warlock, was +popularly supposed to be the direct instrument, and, indeed, the +bond-slave, of the Evil One, fulfilling his behests in virtue of a +compact, written in letters of blood, by which the witch made over her +soul to the Infernal Power in return for the enjoyment of supernatural +prerogatives for a fixed period. This treaty having been concluded, +the witch received a mark on some part of the body, which was +thenceforward insensible of pain--the stigma or devil's mark, by which +he might know his own again. A familiar imp or spirit was assigned to +her, generally in the form of an animal, and more particularly in that +of a black cat or dog. Round this general idea were gathered a number +of horrible and unclean conceptions, on which, happily, it will not be +necessary to enlarge. The devil, it was said, resorted to carnal +communication with his servants, being denominated _succubus_ when the +favourite was a female, and _incubus_ when a male was chosen. It was +alleged, too, that on certain occasions the devil, with his familiars, +and the great company of witches and warlocks whose souls he had +bought, assembled in the dead of night in some remote and savage +wilderness, to hold that frightful carnival of the Witches' Sabbat +which Goethe has depicted so powerfully in the second part of 'Faust.' +The human imagination has not invented, I think, any scene more +horrible, more degrading, or more bestial. We may suppose, however, +that it was not conceived by any single mind, or even people, or in +any single generation, but that it gradually took up additional +details from different nations, at different times, until it was +developed into the terrible whole presented by the mediæval writers. + +This wild and awful revel was called the Sabbat because it took place +after midnight on Friday; that is, on the Jewish Sabbath--a curious +illustration of the popular antipathy against the Jews. + +The spot where it was held never bloomed again with flower or herb; +the burning feet of the demons blighted it for ever. + +Witch or warlock who failed to obey the summons of the master was +lashed by devils with rods made of scorpions or serpents, in +chastisement of his or her contumacy. + +The guests repaired thither, according to the belief entertained in +France and England, upon broomsticks; but in Spain and Italy it was +thought that the devil himself, in the shape of a goat, conveyed them +on his back, which he contracted or elongated according to the number +he carried. The witch, when starting on her aerial journey, would not +quit her house by door or window; but astride on her broomstick made +her exit by the chimney. During her absence, to prevent the suspicions +of her neighbours from being aroused, an inferior demon assumed the +semblance of her person, and lay in her bed, pretending to be ill or +asleep. + +A curious story may here be introduced. In April, 1611, a Provençal +curé, named Gaurifidi, was accused of sorcery before the Parliament of +Aix. In the course of trial much was said in proof of the power of the +demons. Several witnesses asserted that Gaurifidi, after rubbing +himself with a magic oil, repaired to the Sabbat, and afterwards +returned to his chamber down the chimney. One day, when this sort of +thing was exciting the imagination of the judges, an extraordinary +noise was heard in the chimney of the hall, terminating suddenly in +the apparition of a tall black man, who shook his head vigorously. The +judges, thinking the devil had come in person to the rescue of his +servant, took to their heels, with the exception of one Thorm, the +reporter, who was so hemmed in by his desk that he was unable to move. +Terror-stricken at the sight before him, with his body all of a +tremble, and his eyes starting from his head, he made repeated signs +of the cross, until the supposed fiend was equally alarmed, since he +could not understand the cause of the reporter's evident perturbation. +On recovering from his embarrassment he made himself known--he was a +sweep, who had been operating on a chimney on the roof above, but, +when ready to return, had mistaken the entrance, and thus unwillingly +intruded himself into the chamber of the Parliament. + + * * * * * + +The unclean ceremonies of the Witches' Sabbat were 'inaugurated' by +Satan, who, in his favourite assumption of a huge he-goat (a +suggestion, no doubt, from Biblical imagery), with one face in front, +and another between his haunches, took his place upon his throne. +After all present had done homage by kissing him on the posterior +face, he appointed a master of the ceremonies, and, attended by him, +made a personal examination of any guest to ascertain if he or she +bore the stigma, which indicated his right of ownership. Any who were +found without it received the mark at once from the master of the +ceremonies, while the devil bestowed on them a nickname. Thereafter +all began to dance and sing with wild extravagance-- + + 'There is no rest to-night for anyone: + When one dance ends another is begun'-- + +until some neophyte arrived, and sought admission into the circle of +the initiated. Silence prevailed while the newcomer went through the +usual form of denying her salvation, spitting upon the Bible, kissing +the devil, and swearing obedience to him in all things. The dancing +then renewed its fury, and a hoarse chorus went up of-- + + 'Alegremos, alegremos, + Que gente va tenemos!' + +When spent with the violent exercise, they sat down, and, like the +witches in 'Macbeth,' related the evil things each had done since the +last Sabbat, those who had not been sufficiently active being +chastised by Satan himself until they were drenched in blood. A dance +of toads was the next entertainment. They sprang up out of the earth +by thousands, and danced on their hind-legs while Satan played on the +bagpipes or the trumpet, after which they solicited the witches to +reward them for their exertions by feeding them _with the flesh of +unbaptized babes_. Was there ever a more curious mixture of the +grotesque and the horrible? At a stamp from the devil's foot they +returned to the earth whence they came, and a banquet was served up, +the nature of which the reader may be left to imagine! Dancing was +afterwards resumed, while those who had no partiality for the pastime +found amusement in burlesquing the sacrament of baptism, the toads +being again summoned and sprinkled with holy water, while the devil +made the sign of the cross, and the witches cried out in chorus: 'In +nomine Patricâ, Aragueaco Patrica, agora, agora! Valentia, jurando +gome guito goustia!' that is, 'In the name of Patrick, Patrick of +Aragon now, now, all our ills are over!' + +Sometimes the devil would cause the witches to strip themselves, and +dance before him in their nakedness, each with a cat tied round her +neck, and another suspended from her body like a tail. At cockcrow the +whole phantasmagoria vanished. + +One cannot help wondering who first conceived the idea of these horrid +saturnalia. Did it spring from the diseased imagination of some +half-mad monk, brooding in the solitude of his silent cell, who +gathered up all these unclean and grim images and worked them into so +ghastly a picture? They are partly heathen, partly Christian; partly +classical, partly Teutonic--a strange and unwholesome compound, as +'thick and slab' as the hell-broth mixed by the hags on 'the blasted +heath'! + +In these pages I am concerned only with our own 'tight little island,' +into which the superstition was most certainly introduced by the +northern invaders. It would derive strength and consistency from the +teaching of the Old Testament, which distinctly recognises the +existence of witchcraft. 'Let not a witch live!' is the command given +in Exodus (chapter xxii.); and similar threats against witches, +wizards and the like frequently occur in the books of Leviticus and +Deuteronomy. Says Sir William Blackstone: 'To deny the possibility, +nay, the actual existence of witchcraft and sorcery, is at once flatly +to contradict the revealed Word of God in various passages of the Old +and New Testaments, and the thing itself is a truth to which every +nation in the world hath, in its turn, borne testimony, either by +example seemingly well attested, or by prohibitory laws, which at +least suppose the possibility of a commerce with evil spirits.' The +Church at a very early period admitted its existence, and fulminated +against all who practised it. The fourth canon of the Council of +Auxerre, in 525, stringently prohibited all resort to sorcerers, +diviners, augurs, and the like. A canon of the Council held at +Berkhampstead in 696 condemned to corporal punishment, or mulcted in a +fine, every person who made sacrifices to the evil spirits. Under the +name of _sortilegium_, the offence was treated eventually as a kind of +heresy, for which, on the first occasion, the offender, if penitent, +was punished by the Ecclesiastical Courts; but if there were no +abjuration, or a relapse after abjuration, she was handed over to the +secular power to be executed by authority of the writ _de heretico +comburendo_. At a later date, statutes against witchcraft were enacted +by Parliament, and the offence was both tried and punished by the +civil power. Such statutes were passed in the reigns of Henry VIII., +Elizabeth, and James I. Legislation derives its chief support from +public opinion; and these statutes are a proof that the existence of +witchcraft was generally believed in. 'For centuries in this country,' +says Mr. Inderwick, 'strange as it may now appear, a denial of the +existence of such demoniacal agency was deemed equal to a confession +of atheism, and to a disbelief in the Holy Scriptures themselves. Not +only did Lord Chancellors, Lord Keepers, benches of Bishops, and +Parliament after Parliament attest the truth and the existence of +witchcraft, but Addison, writing as late as 1711, in the pages of the +_Spectator_, after describing himself as hardly pressed by the +arguments on both sides of this question, expresses his own belief +that there is, and has been, witchcraft in the land.' At the same +time, it is pleasant to remember that there have almost always been a +few minds, bolder and more enlightened than the rest, to protest +against a credulity which led to acts of the greatest inhumanity, and +fostered a grotesque and dangerous superstition. + +It is in the twelfth century that we first obtain, in England, any +distinct indications of the nature of this superstition, and it is +then we first meet with the written compact between the devil and his +victim. The story of the old woman of Berkeley, with which Southey's +ballad has made everybody familiar, is related by William of +Malmesbury, on the authority of a friend who professed to have been an +eye-witness of the facts. When the devil, we read, announced to the +witch that the term of her compact had nearly expired, she summoned to +her presence the monks of the neighbouring monastery and her children, +confessed her sins, acknowledged her criminal compact, and displayed a +curious anxiety lest Satan should secure her body as well as her soul. +'Sew me in a stag's hide,' she said, 'and, placing me in a stone +coffin, shut me in with lead and iron. Load this with a heavy stone, +and fasten down the whole with three iron chains. Let fifty psalms be +sung by night, and fifty masses be said by day, to baffle the power of +the demons, and if you can thus protect my body for three nights, on +the fourth day you may safely bury it in the ground.' These +precautions, though religiously observed, proved ineffectual. On the +first night the monks bravely resisted the efforts of the fiends, who, +however, on the second night, renewed the attack with increased +vehemence, burst open the gates of the monastery, and rent asunder two +of the chains which held down the coffin. On the third night, so +terrible was the hurly-burly, that the monastery shook to its +foundations, and the terror-stricken priests paused, aghast, in the +midst of their ministrations. Then the doors flew apart, and into the +sacred place stalked a demon, who rose head and shoulders above his +fellows. Stopping at the coffin, he, in a terrible voice, commanded +the dead to rise. The woman answered that she was bound by the third +chain: whereupon the demon put his foot on the coffin, the chain +snapped like a thread, the coffin-lid fell off, the witch arose, and +was hurried to the church-door, where the demon, mounting a huge black +horse, swung his victim on to the crupper, and galloped away into the +darkness with the swiftness of an arrow, while her shrieks resounded +through the air. + +There are many allusions in the old monastic chronicles which +illustrate the development of public opinion in reference to witches +and their craft. Thus, John of Salisbury describes the nocturnal +assemblies of the witches, the presence of Satan, the banquet, and the +punishment or reward of the guests according to the failure or +abundance of their zeal. William of Malmesbury tells us that on the +highroad to Rome dwelt a couple of beldams, of ill repute, who +enticed the weary traveller into their wretched hovel, and by their +incantations transformed him into a horse, a dog, or some other +animal--similar to the transformations we read of in Oriental +tales--and that this animal they sold to the first comer, in this way +picking up a tolerable livelihood. One day, a jongleur, or mountebank, +asked for a night's lodging, and when he disclosed his vocation to the +two hags, they informed him that they had an ass of remarkable +capacity, which, indeed, could do everything but speak, and that they +were willing to sell it. The sum asked was large, but the ass +displayed such wonderful intelligence that the jongleur gladly paid +it, and departed, taking with him the ass and a piece of advice from +the old women--not to let the ass go near running water. For some time +all went well, the ass became an immense attraction, and the jongleur +was growing passing rich, when, in one of his drunken fits, he allowed +the animal to escape. Running directly to the nearest stream, it +plunged in, and immediately resumed its original shape as a handsome +young man, who explained that he had been transformed by the spells of +the two crones. + +The first trial for witchcraft in England occurred in the tenth year +of King John, when, as recorded in the 'Abbreviatio Placitorum,' +Agnes, wife of Ado the merchant, accused one Gideon of the crime; but +he proved his innocence by the ordeal of red-hot iron. The first trial +which has been reported with any degree of particularity belongs to +the year 1324. Some citizens of Coventry, it would appear, had +suffered severely at the hands of the prior, who had been supported in +his exactions by the two Despensers, Edward II.'s unworthy favourites. +In revenge, they plotted the death of the prior, the favourites, and +the King. For this purpose they sought the assistance of a famous +magician of Coventry, named Master John of Nottingham, and his man, +Robert Marshall of Leicester. The conspiracy was revealed by the said +Robert Marshall, probably because his pecuniary reward was +unsatisfactory, and he averred that John of Nottingham and himself, +having agreed to carry out the desire of the citizens, the latter, on +Sunday, March 13, brought an instalment of the stipulated fee, +together with seven pounds of wax and two yards of canvas; that with +this wax he and his master made seven images, representing +respectively the King (with his crown), the two Despensers, the prior, +his caterer, and his steward, and one Richard de Lowe--the last named +being introduced merely as a lay-figure on which to test the efficacy +of the charm. + +The two wizards retired to an old ruined house at Shorteley Park, +about half a league from Coventry, where they remained at work for +several days, and about midnight on the Friday following Holy Cross +Day, the said Master John gave to the said Robert a sharp-pointed +leaden branch, and commanded him to insert it about two inches deep in +the forehead of the image representing Richard de Lowe, this being +intended as an experiment. It was done, and next morning Master John +sent his servant to Lowe's house to inquire after his condition, who +found him screaming and crying 'Harrow!' He had lost his memory, and +knew no one, and in this state he continued until dawn on the Sunday +before Ascension, when Master John withdrew the branch from the +forehead of the image and thrust it into the heart. There it remained +until the following Wednesday, when the unfortunate man expired. Such +was Robert Marshall's fable, as told before the judges; but apparently +it met with little credence, and the trial, after several +adjournments, fell to the ground. + +Wonderful stories are told by the later chroniclers of a certain Eudo +de Stella, who had acquired great notoriety as a sorcerer. William of +Newbury says that his 'diabolical charms' collected a large company of +disciples, whom he carried with him from place to place, adding to +their number wherever he stopped. At times he encamped in the heart of +a wood, where sumptuous tables were suddenly spread with all kinds of +dainty dishes and fragrant wines, and every wish breathed by the +meanest guest was immediately fulfilled. Some of Eudo's followers, +however, confided to our authority that there was a strange want of +solidity in these magically-supplied viands, and that though they ate +of them continually, they were never satisfied. But it appears that +whoever once tasted of the sorcerer's meats, or received from him a +gift, thereby became enrolled among his followers. And the chronicler +supplies this irrefutable proof: A knight of his acquaintance paid a +visit to the wizard, and endeavoured to turn him from his evil +practices. When he departed, Eudo presented his squire with a handsome +hawk, which the knight, observing, advised him to cast away. Not so +the squire: he rejoiced in his high-mettled bird; but they had +scarcely got out of sight of the wizard's camp before the hawk's +talons gripped him more and more closely, and at last it flew away +with him, and he was never more heard of. + +The trial of Dame Alicia Kyteler, or Le Poer, takes us across the +seas, but it furnishes too many interesting particulars to be entirely +ignored. Hutchinson informs us that, in 1324, Bishop de Ledrede, of +Ossory, in the course of a visitation of his diocese, came to learn +that, in the city of Kilkenny, there had long resided certain persons +addicted to various kinds of witchcraft; and that the chief offender +among them was a Dame Alicia Kyteler. As she was a woman of +considerable wealth, which might prove of great benefit to the Church, +the episcopal zeal blazed up strongly, and she and her accomplices +were ordered to be put upon their trial. + +The accusation against them was divided into seven distinct heads: + +First: That, in order to give effect to their sorcery, they were wont +altogether to deny the faith of Christ and of the Church for a year or +month, according as the object to be attained was greater or less, so +that during this longer or shorter period they believed in nothing +that the Church believed, and abstained from worshipping Christ's +body, from entering a church, from hearing Mass, and from +participating in the Sacrament. Second: That they propitiated the +demons with sacrifices of living animals, which they tore limb from +limb, and offered, by scattering them in cross-roads, to a certain +demon, Robert Artisson (_filius Artis_), who was 'one of the poorer +class of hell.' Third: That by their sorceries they sought responses +and oracles from demons. Fourth: That they used the ceremonies of the +Church in their nocturnal meetings, pronouncing, with lighted candles +of wax, sentence of excommunication even against the persons of their +own husbands, naming expressly every member, from the sole of the foot +to the top of the head, and at length extinguishing the candles with +the exclamation, 'Fi! fi! fi! Amen!' Fifth: That with the intestines +and other inner parts of cocks sacrificed to the demons, with 'certain +horrible worms,' various herbs, the nails of dead men, the hair, +brains, and clothes of children who had died unbaptized, and other +things too disgusting to mention, boiled in the skull of a certain +robber who had been beheaded, on a fire made of oak-sticks, they had +invented powders and ointments, and also candles of fat boiled in the +said skull, with certain charms, which things were to be instrumental +in exciting love or hatred, and in killing or torturing the bodies of +faithful Christians, and for various other unlawful purposes. Sixth: +That the sons and daughters of the four husbands of the same Dame +Alice had made their complaint to the Bishop, that she, by such +sorcery, had procured the death of her husbands, and had so beguiled +and infatuated them, that they had given all their property to her and +her son [by her first husband, William Outlawe], to the perpetual +impoverishment of their own sons and heirs: insomuch that her present +[and fourth] husband, Sir John Le Poer, was reduced to a most +miserable condition of body by her ointments, powders, and other +magical preparations; but, being warned by her maidservant, he had +forcibly taken from his wife the keys of her house, in which he found +a bag filled with the 'detestable' articles above mentioned, which he +had sent to the Bishop. Seventh: That there existed an unholy +connection between the said Lady Alice and the demon called Robert +Artisson, who sometimes appeared to her in the form of a cat, +sometimes in that of a black shaggy dog, and at others in the form of +a black man, with two tall companions as black as himself, each +carrying in his hand a rod of iron. Some of the old chroniclers +embroider upon this charge the fanciful details that her offering to +the demon was nine red cocks' and nine peacocks' eyes, which were paid +on a certain stone bridge at a cross-road; that she had a magical +ointment,[40] which she rubbed upon a coulter or plough handle, in +order that the said coulter might carry her and her companions +whithersoever they wished to go; that in her house was found a +consecrated wafer, with the devil's name written upon it; and that, +sweeping the streets of Kilkenny between complin and twilight, she +raked up all the ordure towards the doors of her son, William Outlawe, +saying to herself: + + 'To the house of William my son, + Hie all the wealth of Kilkenny town.' + +The lady, rejoicing in powerful friends and advisers, defied the +Bishop and all his works. She was excommunicated, and her son summoned +to appear before the Bishop for the offence of harbouring and +concealing her; but Dame Alice's friends retaliated by throwing the +Bishop into prison for several days. He revenged himself by placing +the whole diocese under an interdict, and again summoning William +Outlawe to appear on a certain day; but before the day arrived, he in +his turn was cited before the Lord Justice, to answer for having +imposed an interdict on his diocese, and to defend himself against +accusations submitted by the seneschal. The Bishop pleaded that it was +unsafe for him to travel; but the plea was not allowed, and, to save +himself from further molestation, he recalled the interdict. + +The quarrel was not yet fought out. On the Monday following the octave +of Easter, the seneschal, Arnold de la Poer, held his judicial court +in the Assize Hall at Kilkenny. Thither repaired the Bishop, and, +though refused admission, he forced his way in, robed in full +pontificals, carrying in his hand the Host in pyx of gold, and +attended by a numerous train of friars and clergy. But he was received +with a storm of insults and reproaches, which compelled him to retire. +Upon his repeated protests, however, and at the intercession of some +influential personages, his return was permitted. Being ordered to +take his stand at the criminal's bar, he exclaimed that Christ had +never been treated so before, since He stood at the bar before Pontius +Pilate; and he loudly called upon the seneschal to order the arrest of +the persons accused of sorcery, and their deliverance into his hands. +When the seneschal abruptly refused, he opened the book of the +decretals, and saith, 'You, Sir Arnold, are a knight, and instructed +in letters, and that you may not have the excuse of ignorance, we are +prepared to prove by these decretals that you and your officials are +bound to obey our order in this matter, under heavy penalties.' + +'Go to the church with your decretals,' replied the seneschal, 'and +preach there, for none of us here will listen to you.' + +In the Bishop's character there must have been a fine strain of +perseverance, for all these rebuffs failed to baffle him, and he +actually succeeded, after a succession of disappointments and a +constant renewal of difficulties, in obtaining permission to bring the +alleged offenders to trial. Most of them suffered imprisonment; but +Dame Alice escaped him, being secretly conveyed to England. Of all +concerned in the affair, only one was punished: Petronella of Meath, +who was selected as a scapegoat, probably because she had neither +friends nor means of defence. + +By order of the Bishop she was six times flogged, after which the poor +tortured victim made a confession, in which she declared not only her +own guilt, but that of everybody against whom the Bishop had +proceeded. She affirmed that in all Britain, nay, indeed, in the whole +world, was no one more skilled in magical practices than Dame Alice +Kyteler. She was brought to admit the truth--though in her heart she +must have known its absolute falsehood[41]--of the episcopal +indictment, and pretended that she had been present at the sacrifices +to the Evil One--that she had assisted in making the unguents with the +unsavoury materials already mentioned, and that with these unguents +different effects were produced upon different persons--the faces of +certain ladies, for instance, being made to appear horned like goats; +that she had been present at the nocturnal revelries, and, with her +mistress's assistance, had frequently pronounced sentence of +excommunication against her own husband, with all due magical rites; +that she had attended Dame Alice in her assignations with the demon, +Robert Artisson, and had seen acts of an immorality so foul that I +dare not allude to it pass between them. Having been coerced and +tortured into this amazingly wild and fictitious confession, the poor +woman was declared guilty, sentenced, and burned alive, the first +victim of the witchcraft delusion in Ireland. + + * * * * * + +It is worthy of observation that the mind of the public was roused to +a much stronger feeling of hostility against witchcraft than against +magic. Alchemists, astrologers, fortune-tellers, diviners, and the +like, might incur suspicion, and sometimes punishment; but, on the +whole, they were treated with tolerance, and even with distinction. +For this inequality of treatment two or three reasons suggest +themselves. In the crime of witchcraft the central feature was the +compact with the demon, and it was natural that men should resent an +act which entailed the eternal loss of the soul. Again, witchcraft, +much more frequently than magic, was the instrument of personal +ill-feeling, and was more generally directed against the lower +classes. The magician seldom used his power except when liberally paid +by an employer; the witch, it was thought, exercised her skill for the +gratification of her own malice. However this may be, an imputation of +witchcraft became, in the fifteenth century, a formidable affair, +ensuring the death or ruin of the unfortunate individual against whom +it was made. There was no little difficulty in defending one's self; +and in truth, once made, it clung to its victim like a Nessus's shirt, +and with a result as deadly. + +Its value as a political 'move' was shown in the persecution of the +Knights Templars, and, in our own history, in Cardinal Beaufort's +intrigue against Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, who governed England as +Protector during the minority of Henry VI. + +The Cardinal struck at the Duke through his beautiful wife, Eleanor +Cobham. In July, 1441, two ecclesiastics, Roger Bolingbroke, and +Thomas Southwell, a canon of St. Stephen's Chapel, were arrested on a +charge of high treason; 'for it was said that the said Master Roger +should labour to consume the King's person by way of necromancy; and +that the said Master Thomas should say masses upon certain instruments +with the which the said Master Roger should use his said craft of +necromancy.' Bolingbroke was a scholar, an adept in natural science, +and an ardent student of astronomy: William of Worcester describes him +as one of the most famous clerks of the world. One Sunday, after +having undergone rigorous examination, he was conveyed to St. Paul's +Cross, where he was mounted 'on a high stage above all men's heads in +Paul's Churchyard, whiles the sermon endured, holding a sword in his +right hand and a sceptre in his left, arrayed in a marvellous array, +wherein he was wont to sit when he wrought his necromancy.' + +The Duchess of Gloucester, meanwhile, perceiving that her ruin was +intended, fled to sanctuary at Westminster. Before the King's Council +Bolingbroke was brought to confess that he had plied his magical trade +at the Duchess's instigation, 'to know what should fall of her, and +to what estate she should come.' In other words, he had cast her +horoscope, a proceeding common enough in those days, and one which had +no treasonable complexion. The Cardinal's party, however, seized upon +Bolingbroke's confession, and made such use of it that the unfortunate +lady was cited to appear before an ecclesiastical tribunal composed of +Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Beaufort, Bishop of +Winchester, Cardinal Kemp, Archbishop of York, and Ayscough, Bishop of +Salisbury, on July 2, 'to answer to divers articles of necromancy, of +witchcraft or sorcery, of heresy, and of treason.' Bolingbroke was +brought forward as a witness, and repeated that the Duchess 'first +stirred him to labour in his necromancy.' + +After this, he and Southwell were indicted as principals of treason, +and the Duchess as accessory, though, if his story were true, their +positions should have been reversed. At the same time, a woman named +Margery Goodman, and known as the 'Witch of Eye,' was burned at +Smithfield because in former days she had given potions and philtres +to Eleanor Cobham, to enable her to secure the Duke of Gloucester's +affections. Roger Bolingbroke was hung, drawn, and quartered, +according to the barbarous custom of the age; Southwell escaped a +similar fate by dying in the Tower before the day appointed for his +trial. The charge of high treason brought against them rested entirely +on the allegation that, at the Duchess's request, they had made a +waxen image to resemble the King, and had placed it before a fire, +that, as it gradually melted, so might the King gradually languish +away and die. As for the Duchess, she was sentenced to do penance, +which she fulfilled 'right meekly, so that the more part of the people +had her in great compassion,' on Monday, November 13, 1441, walking +barefoot, with a lighted taper in her hand, from Temple Bar to St. +Paul's, where she offered the taper at the high altar. She repeated +the penance on the Wednesday and Friday following, walking to St. +Paul's by different routes, and on each occasion was accompanied by +the Lord Mayor, the sheriffs, and the various guilds, and by a +multitude of people, whom the repute of her beauty and her sorrows had +attracted, so that what was intended for a humiliation became really a +triumph. She was afterwards imprisoned in Chester Castle, and thence +transferred to the Isle of Man. + + * * * * * + +The charge of sorcery which Richard III. brought against Lord +Hastings, accusing him of having wasted his left arm, though from his +birth it had been fleshless, dry, and withered, is made the basis of +an effective scene in Shakespeare's 'Richard III.' His brother's +widow, Queen Elizabeth Woodville, was included in the charge, and Jane +Shore was named as her accomplice. This frail beauty was brought +before the Council, and accused of having 'endeavoured the ruin and +destruction of the Protector in several ways,' and particularly 'by +witchcraft had decayed his body, and with the Lord Hastings had +contrived to assassinate him.' The indictment, however, was not +sustained, and her offence was reduced to that of lewd living. +Whereupon she was handed over to the Bishop of London to do public +penance for her sin on Sunday morning in St. Paul's Cathedral church. +Clothed in a white sheet, with a wax taper in her hand, and a cross +borne before her, she was led in procession from the episcopal palace +to the cathedral, where she made open confession of her fault. The +moral effect of this exhibition seems to have been considerably marred +by the beauty of the penitent, which produced upon the multitude an +impression similar to that which the bared bosom of Phryne produced +upon her judges in the days of old. + +In 1480 Pope Innocent VIII. issued a Bull enjoining the detection, +trial, and punishment (by burning) of witches. This was the first +formal recognition of witchcraft by the head of the Church. In England +the first Act of Parliament levelled at it was passed in 1541. Ten +years later two more statutes were enacted, one relating to false +prophecies, and the other to conjuration, witchcraft and sorcery. But +in no one of these was witchcraft condemned _qua_ witchcraft; they +were directed against those who, by means of spells, incantations, or +compacts with the devil, threatened the lives and properties of their +neighbours. When, in 1561, Sir Edward Waldegrave, one of Mary Stuart's +councillors, was arrested by order of Secretary Cecil as 'a +mass-monger,' the Bishop of London, to whom he was remitted, felt no +disposition to inflict a heavy penalty for hearing or saying of mass; +but, on inquiry, he discovered that the officiating priest had been +concerned in concocting 'a love-philtre,' and he then decided that +sorcery would afford a safer ground for process. He applied, +therefore, to Chief Justice Catlin, to learn what might be the law in +such cases, and was astonished when he was told that no legal +provision had been made for them. Previously they came before the +Church Courts; but these had been deprived of their powers by the +Reformation, and the only precedent he could find for moving in the +matter belonged to the reign of Edward III., and was thus entered on +the roll: + + 'Ung homme fut prinse en Southwark avec ung teste et ung + visaige dung homme morte avec ung lyvre de sorcerie en son + male et fut amesné en banke du Roy devant Knyvet Justice, + mais nulle indictment fut vers lui, por qui les clerkes luy + fierement jurement que jamais ne feroit sorcerie en après, et + fut delyvon del prison, et le teste et les lyvres furent + arses a Totehyll a les costages du prisonnier.' (That is: A + man was taken in Southwark, with a dead man's skull and a + book of sorcery in his wallet, and was brought up at the + King's Bench before Knyvet Justice; but no indictment was + laid against him, for that the clerks made him swear he would + meddle no more with sorcery, and the head and the books were + burnt at Tothill Fields at the prisoner's charge.) + +But in the following year Parliament passed an Act which defined +witchcraft as a capital crime, whether it was or was not exerted to +the injury of the lives, limbs, and possessions of the lieges. +Thenceforward the persecution of witches took its place among English +institutions. During the latter years of Elizabeth's reign several +instances occurred. Thus, on July 25, 1589, three witches were burnt +at Chelmsford. The popular mind was gradually familiarized with the +idea of witchcraft, and led to concentrate its attention on the +individual marks, or characteristics, which were supposed to indicate +its professors. Even among the higher classes a belief in its +existence became very general, and it is startling to find a man like +the learned and pious Bishop Jewell, in a sermon before Queen +Elizabeth, saying: 'It may please your Grace to understand that +witches and sorcerers within these last four years are marvellously +increased within this your Grace's realm. Your Grace's subjects pine +away even unto the death; their colour fadeth; their flesh rotteth; +their speech is benumbed; their senses are bereft! I pray God they may +never practise further than upon the subject!' (1598). + + * * * * * + +The witches in 'Macbeth'--those weird sisters who met at midnight upon +the blasted heath, and in their caldron brewed so deadly a +'hell-broth'--partake of the dignity of the poet's genius, and belong +to the vast ideal world of his imagination. No such midnight hags +crossed the paths of ordinary mortals. The Elizabethan witch, who +scared her neighbours in town and village, and flourished on their +combined ignorance and superstition, appears, however, in 'The Merry +Wives of Windsor,' where Master Ford describes 'the fat woman of +Brentford' as 'a witch, a quean, an old cozening quean!' He adds: +'Have I not forbid her my house? She comes of errands, does she? We +are simple men; we do not know what's brought to pass under the +profession of fortune-telling. She works by charms, by spells, by the +figure; and such daubery as this is beyond our element.' Most of +Master Ford's contemporaries, I fear, were, in this matter, 'simple +men.' Even persons of rank and learning, of position and refinement, +were as credulous as their poorer, more ignorant, and more vulgar +neighbours; were just as ready to believe that an untaught village +crone had made a compact with the devil, and bartered her soul for the +right of straddling across a broom or changing herself into a black +cat! + + * * * * * + +Near Warboise, in Huntingdonshire, in 1593, lived two gentlemen of +good estate--Mr. Throgmorton and Sir Samuel Cromwell. The former had +five daughters, of whom the eldest, Joan, was possessed with a lively +imagination, which busied itself constantly with ghosts and witches. +On one occasion, when she passed the cottage of an old and infirm +woman, known as Mother Samuel, the good dame, with a black cap on her +head, was sitting at her door knitting. Mistress Joan exclaimed that +she was a witch, hurried home, went into convulsions, and declared +that Mother Samuel had bewitched her. In due course, her sisters +followed her example, and they too laid the blame of their fits on +Mother Samuel. The parents, not less infatuated than the children, +lent ready ears to their wild tales, and carried them to Lady +Cromwell, who, as a friend of Mrs. Throgmorton, took the matter up +right earnestly, and resolved that the supposed witch should be put to +the ordeal. Sir Samuel was by no means unwilling; and the children, +encouraged by this prompt credulity, let loose their fertile +inventions. They declared that Mother Samuel sent a legion of evil +spirits to torment them incessantly. Strange to say, these spirits had +made known their names, which, though grotesque, had nothing of a +demoniac character about them--'First Smack,' 'Second Smack,' 'Third +Smack,' 'Blue,' 'Catch,' 'Hardname,' and 'Pluck'--names invented, of +course, by the young people themselves. + +At length the aggrieved Throgmorton, summoning all his courage, +repaired to Mother Samuel's humble residence, seized upon the unhappy +old crone, and dragged her into his own grounds, where Lady Cromwell +and Mrs. Throgmorton and her children thrust long pins into her body +to see if they could draw blood. With unmeasured violence, Lady +Cromwell tore the old woman's cap from her head, and plucked out a +handful of her gray hair, which she gave to Mrs. Throgmorton to burn, +as a charm that would protect her from all further evil practices. +Smarting under these injuries, the poor old woman, in a moment of +passion, invoked a curse upon her torturers--a curse afterwards +remembered against her, though at the time she was allowed to depart. +For more than a year her life was made miserable by the incessant +persecution inflicted upon her by the two hostile families, who, on +their part, declared that her demons brought upon them all kinds of +physical ills, prevented their ewes and cows from bearing, and turned +the milk sour in the dairy-pans. It so happened that Lady Cromwell was +seized with a sudden illness, of which she died, and though some +fifteen months had elapsed since the utterance of the curse, on poor +Mother Samuel was placed the responsibility. Sir Samuel Cromwell, +therefore, felt called upon to punish her for her ill-doing. + +By this time the old woman, partly through listening to the incessant +repetition of the charges against her, and partly, perhaps, from a +weak delight in the notoriety she had attained, had come to believe, +or to think she believed, that she was really the witch everybody +declared her to be--just as a young versifier is sometimes deluded +into a conviction of his poetic genius through unwisely crediting the +eulogies of an admiring circle of friends and relatives. On one +occasion, she was forcibly conveyed into Mrs. Throgmorton's house when +Joan was in one of her frequently-recurring fits, and ordered to +exorcise the demon that was troubling the maid, with the formula: 'As +I am a witch, and the causer of Lady Cromwell's death, I charge thee, +fiend, to come out of her!' The poor creature did as she was told, and +confessed, besides, that her husband and her daughter were her +associates in witchcraft, and that all three had sold their souls to +the devil. On this confession the whole family were arrested, and sent +to Huntingdon Gaol. Soon afterwards they were tried before Mr. Justice +Fenner, and put to the torture. + +In her agony the old woman confessed anything that was required of +her--she was a witch, she had bewitched the Throgmortons, she had +caused the death of Lady Cromwell. Her husband and her daughter, +stronger-minded, resolutely asserted their innocence. Ignorance, +however, would not be denied its victims; all three were sentenced to +be hanged, and to have their bodies burned. The daughter, who was +young and comely, was regarded compassionately by many persons, and +advised to gain at least a respite by pleading pregnancy. She +indignantly refused to sacrifice her good name. They might falsely +call her a witch, she exclaimed, but they should not be able to say +that she had acknowledged herself to be a harlot. Her old mother, +however, caught at the idea, and openly asserted that she was with +child, the court breaking out into loud laughter, in which she +fatuously joined. The three victims suffered on April 7, 1595. + +Out of the confiscated property of the Samuels, Sir Samuel Cromwell, +as lord of the manor, received a sum of £40, which he converted into +an annual rent-charge of 40s. for the endowment of an annual sermon or +lecture on the iniquity of witchcraft, to be delivered by a D.D. or +B.D. of Queen's College, Cambridge. This strange memorial of a +shameful and ignorant superstition was discontinued early in the +eighteenth century. + + * * * * * + +In 1594, Ferdinando, Earl of Derby, died in and from the firm +conviction that he was mortally bewitched, though he had no knowledge +of the person who had so bewitched him. + + * * * * * + +About the same time there lived in an obscure part of Lancashire, not +far from Pendle, two families of the names of Dundike and Chattox +respectively, who both pretended to enjoy supernatural privileges, +and were therefore as bitterly antagonistic as if they had belonged to +different political factions. Their neighbours, however, seem to have +believed in the superior claims of the head of the Dundike family, +Mother Dundike, who pretended that she had enjoyed her unhallowed +powers for half a century. The year in which occurred the incidents I +am about to describe was, so to speak, her jubilee. + +Mother Dundike must have been a woman of lively imagination, if we may +form conclusions from her graphic account of the circumstances +attending her initiation into the great army of 'the devil's own.' One +day, when returning from a begging expedition, she was accosted by a +boy, dressed in a parti-coloured garment of black and white, who +proved to be a demon, or evil spirit, and promised her that, in return +for the gift of her soul, she should have anything and everything she +desired. On inquiring his name, she was told it was Tib; and here I +may note that the 'princes and potentates' of the nether world seem to +have had a great predilection for monosyllabic names, and names of a +vulgar and commonplace character. The upshot of the conversation +between Tib and the woman was the surrender of her soul on the liberal +conditions promised, and for the next five or six years the said devil +frequently appeared unto her 'about daylight-gate' (near evening), and +asked what she would have or do. With wonderful unselfishness she +replied, 'Nothing.' Towards the end of the sixth year, on a quiet +Sabbath morning, while she lay asleep, Tib came in the shape of a +brown dog, forced himself to her knee, and, as she wore no other +garment than a smock, succeeded in drawing blood. Awaking suddenly, +she exclaimed, 'Jesu, save my child!' but had not the power to say, +'Jesu, save _me_!' Whereupon the brown dog vanished, and for a space +of eight weeks she was 'almost stark mad.' + +The matter-of-fact style which distinguishes Mother Dundike's +confession may also be traced in the statements of her children and +grandchildren, who all speak as if witchcraft were an everyday +reality, and as if evil spirits in various common disguises went to +and fro in the land with edifying regularity. Let us turn to the +evidence, if such it may be called, of Alison Device, a girl of about +thirteen or fourteen years of age. Incriminating her grandmother +without scruple, she declared that when they were on the tramp, the +old woman frequently persuaded her to allow a devil or 'familiar' to +suck at some part of her body, after which she might have and do what +she would--though, strange to say, neither she nor anyone else ever +availed themselves of their powers to improve their material +condition, but lingered on in poverty and privation. James Device, one +of Mother Dundike's grandsons, said that on Shrove Tuesday she bade +him go to church to receive the sacrament--not, however, to eat the +consecrated bread, but to bring it away, and deliver it to 'such a +Thing' as should meet him on his way homeward. But he disobeyed the +injunction, and ate the sacred bread. On his way home, when about +fifty yards from the church, he was met by a 'Thing in the shape of a +hare,' which asked him whether he had brought the bread according to +his grandmother's directions. He answered that he had not; and +therefore the Thing threatened to rend him in pieces, but he got rid +of it by calling upon God. + +Some few days later, hard by the new church in Pendle, a Thing +appeared to him like to a brown dog, asked him for his soul, and +promised in return that he should be avenged on his enemies. The +virtuous youth replied, somewhat equivocatingly, that his soul was not +his to give, but belonged to his Saviour Jesus Christ; as much as was +his to give, however, he was contented to dispose of. Two or three +days later James Device had occasion to go to Cave Hall, where a Mrs. +Towneley angrily accused him of having stolen some of her turf, and +drove him from her door with violence. When the devil next +appeared--this time like a _black_ dog--he found James Device in the +right temper for a deed of wickedness. He was instructed to make an +image of clay like Mrs. Towneley; which he did, and dried it the same +night by the fire, and daily for a week crumbled away the said image, +and two days after it was all gone Mrs. Towneley died! In the +following Lent, one John Duckworth, of the Launde, promised him an old +shirt; but when young Device went to his house for the gift, he was +denied, and sent away with contumely. The spirit 'Dandy' then appeared +to him, and exclaimed: 'Thou didst touch the man Duckworth,' which he, +James Device, denied; but the spirit persisted: 'Yes; thou _didst_ +touch him, and therefore he is in my power.' Device then agreed with +the demon that the said Duckworth should meet with the same fate as +Mrs. Towneley, and in the following week he died. + + * * * * * + +It is a curious fact that the old woman Chattox, the head of the rival +faction of practitioners in witchcraft, accused Mother Dundike of +having inveigled her into the ranks of the devil's servants. This was +about 1597 or 1598. To Mrs. Chattox the Evil One appeared--as he has +appeared to too many of her sex--in the shape of a man. Time, +midnight; place, Elizabeth Dundike's tumble-down cottage. He asked, as +usual, for her soul, which she at first refused, but afterwards, at +Mother Dundike's advice and solicitation, agreed to part with. +'Whereupon the said wicked spirit then said unto her, that he must +have one part of her body for him to suck upon; the which she denied +then to grant unto him; and withal asked him, what part of her body he +would have for that use; who said, he would have a place of her right +side, near to her ribs, for him to suck upon; whereunto she assented. +And she further said that, at the same time, there was a Thing in the +likeness of a spotted bitch, that came with the said spirit unto the +said Dundike, which did then speak unto her in Anne Chattox's hearing, +and said, that she should have gold, silver, and worldly wealth at her +will; and at the same time she saith there was victuals, viz., flesh, +butter, cheese, bread, and drink, and bid them eat enough. And after +their eating, the devil called Fancy, and the other spirit calling +himself Tib carried the remnant away. And she saith, that although +they did eat, they were never the fuller nor better for the same; and +that at their said banquet the said spirits gave them light to see +what they did, although they had neither fire nor candle-light; and +that there be both she-spirits and (he-)devils.' + +In a later chapter I shall have occasion to refer to the confessions +of the various persons implicated in this 'Great Oyer' of witchcraft. +What comes out very strongly in them is the hostility which existed +between the Chattoxes and the Dundikes, and their respective +adherents. In Pendle Forest there were evidently two distinct parties, +one of which sought the favour and sustained the pretensions of Mother +Dundike, the other being not less steadfast in allegiance to Mother +Chattox. As to these two beldams, it is clear enough that they +encouraged the popular credulity, resorted to many ingenious +expedients for the purpose of supporting their influence, and +unscrupulously employed that influence in furtherance of their +personal aims. They knowingly played at a sham game of commerce with +the devil, and enjoyed the fear and awe with which their neighbours +looked up to them. It flattered their vanity; and perhaps they played +the game so long as to deceive themselves. 'Human passions are always +to a certain degree infectious. Perceiving the hatred of their +neighbours, they began to think that they were worthy objects of +detestation and terror, that their imprecations had a real effect, +and their curses killed. The brown horrors of the forest were +favourable to visions, and they sometimes almost believed that they +met the foe of mankind in the night.' To the delusions of the +imagination, especially when suggested by pride and vanity, there are +no means of putting a limit; and it is quite possible that in time +these women gave credence to their own absurd inventions, and saw a +demon or familiar spirit in every hare or black or brown dog that +accidentally crossed their path. + +For awhile the witches created a reign of terror in the forest. But +the interlacing animosities which gradually sprang up between its +inhabitants were the fertile source of so much disorder that, at +length, a county magistrate of more than ordinary energy, Roger +Nowell, Esq., described as a very honest and religious gentleman, +conceived the idea that, by suppressing them, he should do the State +good service. Accordingly he ordered the arrest of Dundike and +Chattox, Alison Device, and Anne Redfern, and each, in the hope of +saving her life, having made a full confession, he committed them to +Lancaster Castle, on April 2, 1612, to take their trials at the next +assizes. + +No attempt was made, however, to search Malkin Tower. This lonely ruin +was regarded with superstitious dread by the peasantry, who durst +never approach it, on account of the strange unearthly noises and the +weird creatures that haunted its wild recesses. James Device, when +examined afterwards by Nowell, deposed that about a month before his +arrest, as he was going towards his mother's house in the twilight, he +met a brown dog coming from it, and, of course, a brown dog was the +disguise of an evil spirit. About two or three nights after, he heard +a great number of children shrieking and crying pitifully in the same +uncanny neighbourhood; and at a later date his ears were shocked by a +loud yelling, 'like unto a great number of cats.' We have heard the +same sounds ourselves, at night, in places which did not profess to be +haunted! It is very possible that Dame Dundike, who was obviously a +crafty old woman, with much knowledge of human nature, had something +to do with these noises and appearances, for it was to her interest to +maintain the eerie reputation of the Tower, and prevent the intrusion +of inquisitive visitors. With all her little secrets, it was natural +enough she should say, '_Procul este, profani_,' while she would +necessarily seize every opportunity of extending and strengthening her +authority. + +It was the general belief that the Malkin Tower was the place where +the witches annually kept their Sabbath on Good Friday, and in 1612, +after Dame Dundike's arrest, they met there as usual, in exceptionally +large numbers, and, after the usual feasting, conferred together on +'the situation'--to use a slang phrase of the present day. Elizabeth +Device presided, and asked their advice as to the best method of +obtaining her mother's release. There must have been some daring +spirits among those old women; for it was proposed--so runs the +record--to kill Lovel, the gaoler of Lancaster Castle, and another +man of the name of Lister, accomplish an informal 'gaol-delivery,' and +blow up the prison! Even with the help of their familiars, they would +have found this a difficult and dangerous enterprise, and we do not +wonder that the proposal met with general disfavour. + +Seldom, if ever, do conspirators meet without a traitor in their +midst; and on this occasion there was a traitor in Malkin Tower in the +person of Janet Device, the youngest daughter of Alison Device, and +grand-daughter of the unfortunate old woman who was lying ill and weak +in Lancaster Gaol. A girl of only nine years of age, she was an +experienced liar and thoroughly unscrupulous; and having been bribed +by Justice Nowell, she informed against the persons present at this +meeting, and secured their arrest. The number of prisoners at +Lancaster was increased to twelve, among whom were Elizabeth Device, +her son James, and Alice Nutter, of Rough Lea, a lady of good family +and fair estate. There is good reason to believe that the last-named +was in no way implicated in the doings of the so-called witches, but +that she was introduced by Janet Device to gratify the greed of some +of her relatives--who, in the event of her death, would inherit her +property--and the ill-feeling of Justice Nowell, whom she had worsted +in a dispute about the boundary of their respective lands. The charges +against her were trivial, and amounted to no more than that she had +been present at the Malkin Tower convention, and had joined with +Mother Dundike and Elizabeth Device in bewitching to death an old man +named Mitton. The only witnesses against her were Janet and Elizabeth +Device, neither of whom was worthy of credence. + +Blind old Mother Dundike escaped the terrible penalty of an +unrighteous law by dying in prison before the day of trial. But +justice must have been well satisfied with its tale of victims. +Foremost among them was Mother Chattox, the head of the anti-Dundike +faction--'a very old, withered, spent, and decrepit creature,' whose +sight was almost gone, and whose lips chattered with the meaningless +babble of senility. When judgment was pronounced upon her, she uttered +a wild, incoherent prayer for Divine mercy, and besought the judge to +have pity upon Anne Redfern, her daughter. The next person for trial +was Elizabeth Device, who is described as having been branded 'with a +preposterous mark in nature, even from her birth, which was her left +eye standing lower than the other; the one looking down, the other +looking up; so strangely deformed that the best that were present in +that honourable assembly and great audience did affirm they had not +often seen the like.' When this woman discovered that the principal +witness against her was her own child, she broke out into such a storm +of curses and reproaches that the proceedings came to a sudden stop, +and she had to be removed from the court before her daughter could +summon up courage to repeat the fictions she had learned or concocted. +The woman was, of course, found guilty, as were also James and Alison +Device, Alice Nutter, Anne Redfern, Katherine Hewit, John and Jane +Balcock, all of Pendle, and Isabel Roby, of Windle, most of whom +strenuously asserted their innocence to the last. On August 13, the +day after their trial, they were burnt 'at the common place of +execution, near to Lancaster'--the unhappy victims of the ignorance, +superstition, and barbarity of the age. + +Janet Device, as King's evidence, obtained a pardon, though she +acknowledged to have taken part in the practices of her parents, and +confessed to having learned from her mother two prayers, one to cure +the bewitched, and the other to get drink. The former, which is +obviously a _pasticcio_ of the old Roman Catholic hymns and +traditional rhymes, runs as follows: + + 'Upon Good Friday, I will fast while I may + Untill I heare them knell + Our Lord's owne bell. + Lord in His messe + With His twelve Apostles good, + What hath He in His hand? + Ligh in leath wand: + What hath He in His other hand? + Heaven's door key. + Open, open, Heaven's door keys! + Stark, stark, hell door. + Let Criznen child + Goe to its mother mild; + What is yonder that crests a light so farrndly? + Thine owne deare Sonne that's nailed to the Tree. + He is naild sore by the heart and hand, + And holy harne panne. + Well is that man + That Fryday spell can, + His child to learne; + A crosse of blew and another of red, + As good Lord was to the Roode. + Gabriel laid him downe to sleepe + Upon the ground of holy weepe; + Good Lord came walking by. + Sleep'st thou, wak'st thou, Gabriel? + No, Lord, I am sted with sticks and stake + That I can neither sleepe nor wake: + Rise up, Gabriel, and goe with me, + The stick nor the stake shall never dure thee. + Sweet Jesus, our Lord. Amen!' + +The other prayer consisted only of the Latin phrase: 'Crucifixus hoc +signum vitam æternam. Amen.'[42] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[40] So in Duclerq's 'Memoires' ('Collect. du Panthéon'), p. 141, we +read of a case at Arras, in which the sorcerers were accused of using +such an ointment: 'D'ung oignement que le diable leur avoit baillé, +ils oindoient une vergue de bois bien petite, et leurs palmes et leurs +mains, puis mectoient celle virguelte entre leurs jambes, et tantost +ils s'en volvient où ils voullvient estre, purdesseures bonnes villes, +bois et cams; et les portoit le diable au lieu où ils debvoient faire +leur assemblée.' + +[41] That is, of sacrificing to the Evil One, of meeting the demon +Robert Artisson, and so on; though it is quite possible that strange +unguents were made and administered to different persons, and that +Dame Alice and her companions played at being sorcerers. Some of the +so-called witches, as we shall see, encouraged the deception on +account of the influence it gave them. + +[42] Thomas Pott's 'Wonderful Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of +Lancashire' (1615), reprinted by the Chetham Society, 1845. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +WITCHCRAFT IN ENGLAND IN THE 17TH CENTURY. + + +The accession of James I., a professed demonologist, and an expert in +all matters relating to witchcraft, gave a great impulse to the +persecution of witches in England. 'Poor old women and girls of tender +age were walked, swum, shaved, and tortured; the gallows creaked and +the fires blazed.' In accordance with the well-known economic law, +that the demand creates the supply, it was found that, in proportion +as trials and tortures increased, so did the number of witches, until +half the old hags in England supposed themselves, or were supposed by +others, to have made compacts with the devil. Legislation then +augmented its severity, and Parliament, in compliance with the wishes +of the new King, passed an Act by which sorcery and witchcraft were +made felony, without benefit of clergy. For some years the country was +witch-ridden, and it is appalling to think of the hundreds of hapless, +ignorant, and innocent creatures who were cruelly done to death under +the influence of this extraordinary mania. + +A remarkable case tried at King's Lynn in 1606 is reported in +Howell's 'State Trials.' I avail myself of the summary furnished by +Mr. Inderwick. + +Marie, wife of Henry Smith, grocer, confessed, under examination, +that, being indignant with some of her neighbours because they +prospered in their trade more than she did, she oftentimes cursed +them; and that once, while she was thus engaged, the devil appeared in +the form of a black man, and willed that she should continue in her +malice, envy, and hatred, banning and cursing, and then he would see +that she was revenged upon all to whom she wished evil. There was, of +course, a compact insisted upon: that she should renounce God, and +embrace the devil and all his works. After this he appeared +frequently--once as a mist, once as a ball of fire, and twice he +visited her in prison with a pair of horns, advising her to make no +confession, but to rely upon him. + +The evidence of the acts of witchcraft was as follows: + +John Oakton, a sailor, having struck her boy, she cursed him roundly, +and hoped his fingers would rot off, which took place, it was said, +two years afterwards. + +She quarrelled with Elizabeth Hancock about a hen, alleging that +Elizabeth had stolen it. When the said Elizabeth denied the theft, she +bade her go indoors, for she would repent it; and that same night +Elizabeth had pains all over her body, and her bed jumped up and down +for the space of an hour or more. Elizabeth then consulted her father, +and was taken by him to a wizard named Drake, who taught her how to +concoct a witch-cake with all the nastiest ingredients imaginable, and +to apply it, with certain words and conjurations, to the afflicted +parts. For the time Elizabeth was cured; but some time afterwards, +when she had been married to one James Scott, a great cat began to go +about her house, and having done some harm, Scott thrust it twice +through with his sword. As it still ran to and fro, he smote it with +all his might upon its head, but could not kill it, for it leaped +upwards almost a yard, and then crept down. Even when put into a bag, +and dragged to the muck-hill, it moved and stirred, and the next +morning was nowhere to be found. And this same cat, it was afterwards +sworn, sat on the chest of Cicely Balye, and nearly suffocated her, +because she had quarrelled with the witch about her manner of sweeping +before her door; and the said witch called the said Cicely 'a +fat-tailed sow,' and said her fatness would shortly be abated, as, +indeed, it was. + +Edmund Newton swore that he had been afflicted with various +sicknesses, and had been banged in the face with dirty cloths, because +he had undersold Marie Smith in Dutch cheeses. She also sent to him a +person clothed in russet, with a little bush beard and a cloven foot, +together with her imps, a toad, and a crab. One of his servants took +the toad and put it into the fire, when it made a groaning noise for a +quarter of an hour before it was consumed, 'during which time Marie +Smith, who sent it, did endure (as was reported) torturing pains, +testifying the grief she felt by the outcries she then made.' + +Upon this evidence--such as it was--and upon her own confession, Marie +Smith was convicted and sentenced to death. On the scaffold she humbly +acknowledged her sins, prayed earnestly that God might forgive her the +wrongs she had done her neighbours, and asked that a hymn of her own +choosing--'Lord, turn not away Thy face'--might be sung. Then she died +calmly. It is, no doubt, a curious fact--if, indeed, it _be_ a fact, +but the evidence is by no means satisfactory--that she confessed to +various acts of witchcraft, and to having made a compact with the +devil; but even this alleged confession cannot receive our credence +when we reflect on the inherent absurdity and impossibility of the +whole affair. + + * * * * * + +In 1619, Joan Flower and her two daughters, Margaretta and Philippa, +formerly servants at Belvoir Castle, were tried before Judges Hobart +and Bromley, on a charge of having bewitched to death two sons of the +sixth Earl of Rutland, and found guilty. The mother died in prison; +the two daughters were executed at Lincoln. + + +THE LANCASHIRE WITCHES. + +My chronological survey next brings me to the famous case of the +Lancashire witches. + +I have already told the story of the Dundikes and the Chattoxes, and +their exploits in Pendle Forest. In the same locality, two-and-twenty +years later, lived a man of the name of Robinson, to whom it occurred +that the prevalent belief in witchcraft might be turned to account +against his neighbours. In this design he made his son--a lad about +eleven years old--his instrument. After he had been properly trained, +he was instructed by his father, on February 10, 1633, to go before +two justices of the peace, and make the following declaration: + +That, on All Saints' Day, while gathering wild plums in Wheatley Lane, +he saw a black greyhound and a brown scamper across the fields. They +came up to him familiarly, and he then discovered that each wore a +collar shining like gold. As no one accompanied them, he concluded +that they had broken loose from their kennels; and as at that moment a +hare started up only a few paces from him, he thought he would set +them to hunt it, but his efforts were all in vain; and in his wrath he +took the strings that hung from their collars, tied both to a little +bush, and then whipped them. Whereupon, in the place of the black +greyhound, started up the wife of a man named Dickinson, and in that +of the brown a little boy. In his amazement, young Robinson (so he +said) would have run away, but he was stayed by Mistress Dickinson, +who pulled out of her pocket 'a piece of silver much like unto a fine +shilling,' and offered it to him, if he promised to be silent. But he +refused, exclaiming: 'Nay, thou art a witch!' Whereupon, she again put +her hand in her pocket, and drew forth a string like a jingling +bridle, which she put over the head of the small boy, and, behold, he +was turned into a white horse, with a change as quick as that of a +scene in a pantomime. Upon this white horse the woman placed, by +force, young Robinson, and rode with him as far as the Hoar-Stones--a +house at which the witches congregated together--where divers persons +stood about the door, while others were riding towards it on horses of +different colours. These dismounted, and, having tied up their horses, +all went into the house, accompanied by their friends, to the number +of threescore. At a blazing fire some meat was roasting, and a young +woman gave Robinson flesh and bread upon a trencher, and drink in a +glass, which, after the first taste, he refused, and would have no +more, saying it was nought. Presently, observing that certain of the +company repaired to an adjoining barn, he followed, and saw six of +them on their knees, pulling at six several ropes which were fastened +to the top of the house, with the result that joints of meat smoking +hot, lumps of butter, and milk 'syleing,' or straining from the said +ropes, fell into basins placed underneath them. When these six were +weary, came other six, and pulled right lustily; and all the time they +were pulling they made such foul faces that they frightened the +peeping lad, so that he was glad to steal out and run home. + +No sooner was his escape discovered than a party of the witches, +including Dickinson's wife, the wife of a man named Loynds, and Janet +Device, took up the pursuit, and over field and scaur hurried +headlong, nearly overtaking him at a spot called Boggard Hole, when +the opportune appearance of a couple of horsemen induced them to +abandon their quarry. But young Robinson was not yet 'out of the +wood.' In the evening he was despatched by his father to bring home +the cattle, and on the way, in a field called the Ollers, he fell in +with a boy who picked a quarrel with him, and they fought together +until the blood flowed from his ears, when, happening to look down, he +saw that his antagonist had cloven feet, and, much affrighted, set off +at full speed to execute his commission. Perceiving a light like that +of a lantern, he hastened towards it, in the belief it was carried by +a neighbour; but on arriving at the place of its shining he found +there a woman whom he recognised as the wife of Loynds, and +immediately turned back. Falling in again with the cloven-footed boy, +he thought it prudent to take to his heels, but not before he had +received a blow on the back which pained him sorely. + +In support of this extraordinary story, the elder Robinson deposed +that he had certainly sent his son to bring in the kine; that, +thinking he was away too long, he had gone in search of him, and +discovered him in such a distracted condition that he knew neither his +father nor where he was, and so continued for very nearly a quarter of +an hour before he came to himself. + +The persons implicated by the boy Robinson were immediately arrested, +and confined in Lancaster Castle. Some of them--for he told various +stories, and in each introduced new characters--he did not know by +name, but he protested that on seeing them he should recognise them, +and for this purpose he was carried about to the churches in the +surrounding district to examine the congregations. The method adopted +is thus described by Webster: 'It came to pass that this said boy was +brought into the church of Kildwick, a large parish church, where I +(being then curate there) was preaching in the afternoon, and was set +upon a stall (he being but about ten or eleven years old) to look +about him, which moved some little disturbance in the congregation for +awhile. And, after prayers, I inquiring what the matter was, the +people told me it was the boy that discovered witches, upon which I +went to the house where he was to stay all night, where I found him +and two very unlikely persons that did conduct him and manage his +business. I desired to have some discourse with the boy in private, +but they utterly refused. Then, in the presence of a great many +people, I took the boy near me and said: "Good boy, tell me truly, and +in earnest, didst thou see and hear such strange things of the meeting +of witches as is reported by many that thou dost relate, or did not +some person teach thee to say such things of thyself?" But the two +men, not giving the boy leave to answer, did pluck him from me, and +said he had been examined by two able justices of the peace, and they +did never ask him such a question; to whom I replied, the persons +accused therefore had the more wrong.' + +In all, some eighteen women, married and single--the charge was +generally made against women, as probably less capable of +self-defence, and more impressionable than men--were brought to trial +at Lancaster Assizes. There was really no evidence against them but +the boy Robinson's, and to sustain it his unfortunate victims were +examined for the _stigmata_, or devil-marks, which, of course, were +found in ample quantity. Against seventeen a verdict of guilty was +returned, one or two being convicted on their own confessions--the +most perplexing incident in the whole case, for as these confessions +were unquestionably false, they who made them were really _lying away +their own lives_. By what impulse of morbid vanity, or diseased +craving for notoriety, or strange mental delusion, were they inspired? +And whence came the wild and even foul ideas which formed the staple +of their delirious narratives? How did these quiet, stolid, unlettered +Lancashire peasant-women become possessed of inventions worthy of the +grimmest of German tales of _diablerie_? It is easier to ask these +questions than to answer them; but when the witch mania was once +kindled in a neighbourhood it seems, like a pestilential atmosphere, +to have stricken with disease every mind that was predisposed to the +reception of unwholesome impressions. + +The confession of Margaret Johnson, made on March 9, 1613, has been +printed before, but it has so strong a psychological interest that I +cannot omit it here. It may be taken as a type of the confessions made +by the victims of credulity under similar circumstances: + + 'Betweene seven or eight yeares since, shee being in her + house at Marsden in greate passion and anger, and + discontented, and withall oppressed with some want, there + appeared unto her a spirit or devill in the similitude and + proportion of a man, apparelled in a suite of black, tied + about with silke pointes, whoe offered her, yff shee would + give him her soule, hee would supply all her wantes, and + bring to her whatsoever shee wanted or needed, and at her + appointment would helpe her to kill and revenge her either of + men or beastes, or what she desired; and, after a + sollicitation or two, shee contracted and condicioned with + the said devill or spiritt for her soule. And the said devill + bad her call him by the name of Memillion, and when shee + called hee would bee ready to doe her will. And she saith + that in all her talke and conference shee called the said + Memillion her god. + + 'And shee further saith that shee was not at the greate + meetinge of the witches at Hare-stones in the forest of + Pendle on All Saintes Day last past, but saith shee was at a + second meetinge the Sunday after All Saintes Day at the place + aforesaid, where there was at that time betweene thirty and + forty witches, which did all ride to the same meetinge. And + thead of the said meetinge was to consult for the killing and + hunting of men and beastes; and that there was one devill or + spiritt that was more greate and grand devill than the rest, + and yff anie witch desired to have such an one, they might + have such an one to kill or hurt anie body. And she further + saith, that _such witches as have sharpe boanes are generally + for the devill to prick them with which have no papps nor + duggs, but raiseth blood from the place pricked with the + boane, which witches are more greate and grand witches than + they which have papps or dugs (!)_. And shee being further + asked what persons were at their last meetinge, she named one + Carpnell and his wife, Rason and his wife, Pickhamer and his + wife, Duffy and his wife, and one Jane Carbonell, whereof + Pickhamer's wife is the most greate, grand, and anorcyent + witch; and that one witch alone can kill a beast, and yf they + bid their spiritt or devill to goe and pricke or hurt anie + man in anie particular place, hee presently will doe it. And + that their spiritts have usually knowledge of their bodies. + And shee further saith the men witches have women spiritts, + and women witches have men spiritts; that Good Friday is one + of their constant daies of their generall meetinge, and that + on Good Friday last they had a meetinge neere Pendle + water-side; and saith that their spirit doeth tell them where + their meetinge must bee, and in what place; and saith that if + a witch desire to be in anie place upon a soddaine, that, on + a dogg, or a tod, or a catt, their spiritt will presently + convey them thither, or into anie room in anie man's house. + + 'But shee saith it is not the substance of their bodies that + doeth goe into anie such roomes, but their spiritts that + assume such shape and forme. And shee further saith that the + devill, after hee begins to sucke, will make a papp or a dug + in a short time, and the matter hee sucketh is blood. And + further saith that the devill can raise foule wether and + stormes, and soe hee did at their meetinges. And shee further + saith that when the devill came to suck her pappe, he came to + her in the likeness of a catt, sometimes of one collour, and + sometimes of another. And since this trouble befell her, her + spirit hath left her, and shee never saw him since.' + +Happily, the judge who presided at the trial of these deluded and +persecuted unfortunates was dissatisfied with the evidence, and +reprieved them until he had time to communicate with the Privy +Council, by whose orders Bridgman, Bishop of Chester, proceeded to +examine into the principal cases. Three of the supposed criminals, +however, had died of anxiety and suffering before the work of +investigation began, and a fourth was sick beyond recovery. The cases +into which the Bishop inquired were those of Margaret Johnson, Frances +Dicconson, or Dickinson, Mary Spencer, and Mrs. Hargrave. Margaret +Johnson the good Bishop describes as a widow of sixty, who was deeply +penitent. 'I will not add,' she said, 'sin to sin. I have already done +enough, yea, too much, and will not increase it. I pray God I may +repent.' This victim of hallucination had confessed herself to be a +witch, as we have seen, and was characterized by the Bishop as 'more +often faulting in the particulars of her actions.' Frances Dicconson, +however, and Mary Spencer, absolutely denied the truth of the +accusations brought against them. Frances, according to the boy +Robinson, had changed herself into a dog; but it transpired that she +had had a quarrel with the elder Robinson. Mary Spencer, a young woman +of twenty, said that Robinson cherished much ill-feeling against her +parents, who had been convicted of witchcraft at the last assizes, and +had since died. She repeated the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' +Creed, and declared that she defied the devil and all his works. A +story had been set afloat that she used to call her pail to follow her +as she ran. The truth was that she often trundled it down-hill, and +called to it in jest to come after her if she outstripped it. She +could have explained every circumstance in court, 'but the wind was so +loud and the throng so great, _that she could not hear the evidence +against her_.' + +This last touch, as Mr. S. R. Gardiner remarks, completes the tragedy +of the situation. 'History,' as he says, 'occupies itself perforce +mainly with the sorrows of the educated classes, whose own peers have +left the records of their wrongs. Into the sufferings of the mass of +the people, except when they have been lashed by long-continued +injustice into frenzy, it is hard to gain a glimpse. For once the veil +is lifted, and we see, as by a lightning flash, the forlorn and +unfriended girl, to whom the inhuman laws of her country denied the +services of an advocate, baffled by the noisy babble around her in her +efforts to speak a word on behalf of her innocence. The very Bishop +who examined her was under the influence of the legal superstition +that every accused person was the enemy of the King. He had heard, he +said, that the father of the boy Robinson had offered, for forty +shillings, to withdraw his charge against Frances Dicconson, "but such +evidence being, as the lawyers speak, against the King," he "thought +it not meet without further authority to examine."' + +The Bishop, however, like the judge, was dissatisfied with the +evidence; and the accused persons were eventually sent up to London, +where they were examined by the King's physicians, the Bishops, the +Privy Council, and by King Charles himself. Some medical men and +midwives reported that Margaret Johnson was deceived in her idea that +she bore on her body a sign or mark that her blood had been sucked. +Doubts as to the truth of the boy Robinson's story being freely +entertained, he was separated from his father, and he then revealed +the whole invention to the King's coachman. He had heard stories told +of witches and their doings, and out of these had concocted his +ghastly fiction to save himself a whipping for having neglected to +bring home his mother's cows. His father, perceiving at once how much +might be made out of the tale, took it up and expanded it; manipulated +it so as to serve his feelings of revenge or avarice, and then taught +the boy how to repeat the enlarged and improved version. It was all a +lie--from beginning to end. The day on which he pretended to have been +carried to the Witches' Sabbath at the Hoar-Stones, he was a mile +distant, gathering plums in a farmer's orchard. The accused were then +admitted to the King's presence, and assured that their lives were +safe. Further than this Charles seems to have been unable to go; for +as late as 1636 these innocent and ill-treated persons were still +lying in Lancaster Castle. It is satisfactory to state, however, that +both the boy Robinson and his father were thrown into prison. + +Fresh cases of witchcraft sprang up in the Pendle district, and early +in 1636 four more women were condemned to death at the Lancaster +Assizes. Bishop Bridgman, who was again directed to make inquiries, +found that two of them had died in gaol, and that of the two others, +one had been convicted on a madman's evidence, and that of a woman of +ill fame; while the only proof alleged against the other was that a +fleshy excrescence of the size of a hazel-nut grew on her right ear, +and the end of it, being bloody, was supposed to have been sucked by a +familiar spirit. The two women seem to have been pardoned; but, as in +the former case, public opinion set too strongly against them to admit +of their being released. + + +THE WITCHES OF SALMESBURY. + +The singular circumstances connected with the supposed outbreak of +witchcraft in Pendle Forest have, to a great extent, obscured the +strange case of the witches of Salmesbury, though it presents several +features worthy of consideration. + +Three persons were accused--Jennet Bierley, Ellen Bierley, and Jane +Southworth--and their supposed victim was one Grace Sowerbutts. In the +language of Mr. Thomas Potts, they were led into error by 'a subtle +practice and conspiracy of a seminary priest, or Jesuit, whereof this +county of Lancaster hath good store, who by reason of the general +entertainment they find, and great maintenance they have, resort +hither, being far from the eye of Justice, and, therefore, _procul a +fulmine_.' At their trial, which took place before Mr. Justice Bromley +at Lancaster, on Wednesday, August 19, the evidence of Grace +Sowerbutts was to the following effect: + +That for the space of _some years past_ (at the time of the trial she +was only fourteen) she had been haunted and vexed by four women, +namely, Jennet Bierley, her grandmother, Ellen Bierley, wife to Henry +Bierley, Jane Southworth, and a certain Old Dorwife. Lately, these +four women drew her by the hair of her head, and laid her on the top +of a hay-mow in the said Henry Bierley's barn. Not long after, Jennet +Bierley met her near her house, first appearing in her own likeness, +and after that as a black dog, and when she, Grace Sowerbutts, went +over a stile, she picked her off. However, she was not hurt, and, +springing to her feet, she continued her way to her aunt's at +Osbaldeston. That evening she told her father what had occurred. On +Saturday, April 4, going towards Salmesbury Butt to meet her mother, +she fell in, at a place called the Two Briggs, with Jennet Bierley, +first in her own shape, and afterwards in the likeness of a two-legged +black dog; and this dog kept close by her side until they came to a +pool of water, when it spake, and endeavoured to persuade her to +drown herself therein, saying it was a fair and an easy death. +Whereupon, she thought there came to her one in a white sheet, and +carried her away from the pool, and in a short space of time both the +white thing and the black dog departed; but after Grace had crossed +two or three fields, the black dog re-appeared, and conveyed her into +Hugh Walshman's barn close at hand, laid her upon the floor, covered +her with straw on her body and hay on her head, and lay down on the +top of the straw--for how long a time Grace was unable to determine; +because, she said, her speech and senses were taken from her. When she +recovered her consciousness, she was lying on a bed in Walshman's +house, having been removed thither by some friends who had found her +in the barn within a few hours of her having been taken there. As it +was Monday night when she came to her senses, she had been in her +trance or swoon, according to her marvellous story, for about +forty-eight hours. + +On the following day, Tuesday, her parents fetched her home; but at +the Two Briggs Jennet and Ellen Bierley appeared in their own shapes, +and she fell down in another trance, remaining unable to speak or walk +until the following Friday. + +All this was remarkable enough, but Grace Sowerbutts--or the person +who had tutored her--felt it was not sufficiently grim or gruesome to +make much impression on a Lancashire jury, accustomed in witch trials +to much more harrowing details. She proceeded, therefore, to recall an +incident of a more attractive character. A good while, she said, +before the trance business occurred, she accompanied her aunt, Ellen +Bierley, and her grandmother, Jennet Bierley, to the house of one +Thomas Walshman. It was night, and all the household were asleep, but +the doors flew open, and the unexpected visitors entered. Grace and +Ellen Bierley remained below, while Jennet made her way to the +sleeping-room of Thomas Walshman and his wife, and thence brought a +little child, which, as Grace supposed, must have been in bed with its +father and mother. Having thrust a nail into its navel, she afterwards +inserted a quill, and sucked for a good while(!); then replaced the +child with its parents, who, of course, had never roused from their +sleep. The child did not cry when it was thus abused, but thenceforth +languished, and soon afterwards died. And on the night after its +burial, the said Jennet and Ellen Bierley, taking Grace Sowerbutts +with them, went to Salmesbury churchyard, took up the body, and +carried it to Jennet's house, where a portion of it was boiled in a +pot, and a portion broiled on the coals. Of both portions Jennet and +Ellen partook, and would have had Grace join them in the ghoul-like +repast, but she refused. Afterwards Jennet and Ellen seethed the bones +in a pot, and with the fat that came from them said they would anoint +their bodies, so that they might sometimes change themselves into +other shapes. + +The next story told by this abandoned girl is too foul and coarse for +these pages, and we pass on to the conclusion of her evidence. On a +certain occasion, she said, Jane Southworth, a widow, met her at the +door of her father's house, carried her to the loft, and laid her upon +the floor, where she was found by her father unconscious, and +unconscious she remained till the next day. The widow Southworth then +visited her again, took her out of bed, and placed her upon the top of +a hayrick, three or four yards from the ground. She was discovered in +this position by a neighbour's wife, and laid in her bed again, but +remained speechless and senseless as before for two or three days. A +week or so after her recovery, Jane Southworth paid her a third visit, +took her away from her home, and laid her in a ditch near the house, +with her face downwards. The usual process followed: she was +discovered and put to bed, but continued unconscious--this time, +however, only for a day and a night. And, further, on the Tuesday +before the trial, the said Jane Southworth came again to her father's +house, took her and carried her into the barn, and thrust her head +amongst 'a company of boards' which were standing there, where she was +soon afterwards found, and, being again placed in a bed, remained in +her old fit until the Thursday night following. + +After Grace Sowerbutts had finished her evidence, Thomas Walshman was +called, who proved that his child died when about a year old, but of +what disease he knew not; and that Grace Sowerbutts had been found in +his father's barn, and afterwards carried into his house, where she +lay till the Monday night 'as if she had been dead.' Then one John +Singleton's deposition was taken: That he had often heard his old +master, Sir John Southworth, say, touching the widow Southworth, that +she was, as he thought, an evil woman and a witch, and that he was +sorry for her husband, who was his kinsman, for he believed she would +kill him. And that the said Sir John, in coming or going between +Preston and his own house at Salmesbury, mostly avoided passing the +old wife's residence, though it was the nearest way, entirely _out of +fear of the said wife_. (Brave Sir John!) + +This evidence, it is clear, failed to prove against the prisoners a +single direct act of witchcraft; but so credulous were judge and jury +in matters of this kind, that, notwithstanding the vague and +suspicious character of the testimony brought forward, it would have +gone hard with the accused, but for an accidental question which +disclosed the fact that the girl, Grace Sowerbutts, had been prompted +in her incoherent narrative, and taught to sham her fits of +unconsciousness, by a Roman priest or Jesuit, named Thompson or +Southworth, who was actuated by motives of fanaticism. + +'How well this project,' exclaims the indignant Potts, 'to take away +the lives of these innocent poor creatures by practice and villainy, +to induce a young scholar to commit perjury, to accuse her own +grandmother, aunt, etc., agrees either with the title of a Jesuit or +the duty of a religious Priest, who should rather profess sincerity +and innocency than practise treachery. But this was lawful, for they +are heretics accursed, to leave the company of priests, to frequent +churches, hear the word of God preached, and profess religion +sincerely.' The horrors which he taught his promising pupil, Thompson +probably gathered from the pages of Bodin and Delrio, or some of the +other demonologists. Potts continues: + +'Who did not condemn these women upon this evidence, and hold them +guilty of this so foul and horrible murder? But Almighty God, who in +His providence had provided means for their deliverance, although the +priest, by the help of the Devil, had provided false witnesses to +accuse them; yet God had prepared and placed in the seat of justice an +upright judge to sit in judgment upon their lives, who after he had +heard all the evidence at large against the prisoners for the King's +Majesty, demanded of them what answer they could make. They humbly +upon their knees, with weeping tears, desired him for God's cause to +examine Grace Sowerbutts, who set her on, or by whose means this +accusation came against them.' + +The countenance of Grace Sowerbutts immediately underwent a great +change, and the witnesses began to quarrel and accuse one another. The +judge put some questions to the girl, who, for the life of her, could +make no direct or intelligible answer, saying, with obvious +hesitation, that she was put to a master to learn, but he had told her +nothing of this. + +'But here,' continues Potts, 'as his lordship's care and pains was +great to discover the practices of those odious witches of the Forest +of Pendle, and other places, now upon their tribunal before him; so +was he desirous to discover this damnable practice to accuse these +poor women and bring their lives in danger, and thereby to deliver the +innocent. + +'And as he openly delivered it upon the bench, in the hearing of a +great audience: That if a Priest or Jesuit had a hand in one end of +it, there would appear to be knavery and practice in the other end of +it. And that it might better appear to the whole world, examined +Thomas Sowerbutts what [the] Master taught his daughter: in general +terms, he denied all. + +'The wench had nothing to say, but her Master told her nothing of +this. In the end, some that were present told his lordship the truth, +and the prisoners informed him how she went to learn with one +Thompson, a Seminary Priest, who had instructed and taught her this +accusation against them, because they were once obstinate Papists, and +now came to Church. Here is the discovery of this Priest, and of his +whole practice. Still this fire increased more and more, and one +witness accusing another, all things were laid open at large. + +'In the end his lordship took away the girl from her father, and +committed her to Mr. Leigh, a very religious preacher, and Mr. +Chisnal, two Justices of the Peace, to be carefully examined.' + +The examination was as follows: + +'Being demanded whether the accusation she laid upon her grandmother, +Jennet Bierley, Ellen Bierley, and Jane Southworth, of witchcraft, +namely, of the killing of the child of Thomas Walshman with a nail in +the navel, the boiling, eating, and oiling, thereby to transform +themselves into divers shapes, was true; she doth utterly deny the +same: or that ever she saw any such practices done by them. + +'She further saith, that one Master Thompson, which she taketh to be +Master Christopher Southworth, to whom she was sent to learn her +prayers, did persuade, counsel, and advise her, to deal as formerly +hath been said against her said Grandmother, Aunt, and Southworth's +wife. + +'And further she confesseth and saith, that she never did know, or saw +any Devils, nor any other Visions, as formerly by her hath been +alleged and informed. + +'Also she confesseth and saith, that she was not thrown or cast upon +the hen-ruff and hay-mow in the barn, but that she went up upon the +Mow herself by the wall-side. + +'Being further demanded whether she ever was at the Church, she saith, +she was not, but promised hereafter to go to the Church, and that very +willingly.' + +The three accused were also examined, and declared their belief that +Grace Sowerbutts had been trained by the priest to accuse them of +witchcraft, because they 'would not be dissuaded from the Church.' + +'These examinations being taken, they were brought into the Court, and +there openly in the presence of this great audience published and +declared to the jury of life and death; and thereupon the gentlemen of +their jury required to consider of them. For although they stood upon +their Trial, for matter of fact of witchcraft, murther, and much more +of the like nature: yet in respect all their accusations did appear to +be practice, they were now to consider of them and to acquit them. +Thus were these poor innocent creatures, by the great care and pains +of this honourable Judge, delivered from the danger of this +conspiracy; this bloody practice of the Priest laid open: of whose +fact I may lawfully say, _Etiam si ego tacuero clamabunt lapides_. + +'These are but ordinary with Priests and Jesuits: no respect of blood, +kindred, or friendship can move them to forbear their conspiracies; +for when he had laboured treacherously to seduce and convert them, and +yet could do no good, then devised he this means. + +'God of His great mercy deliver us all from them and their damnable +conspiracies: and when any of his Majesty's subjects, so free and +innocent as these, shall come in question, grant them as honourable a +trial, as reverend and worthy a judge to sit in judgment upon them, +and in the end as speedy a deliverance. + +'And for that which I have heard of them, seen with my eyes, and taken +pains to read of them, my humble prayer shall be to God Almighty, _Vt +convertantur ne pereant. Aut confundantur ne noceant._'[43] + + * * * * * + +I pass on to a remarkable trial for witchcraft which took place at +Taunton Assizes in August, 1626, one Edward Ball and Joan Greedie +being charged with having practised upon a certain Edward Dinham. + +It seems that the complainant, when under the witch-spell, possessed +no fewer than three voices--namely, his own natural voice, and two +artificial voices, of which one was shrill and pleasant, the other +deadly and hollow. These two voices belonged respectively to the good +and evil spirits which alternately prevailed over him. As it is said +that they spoke without any movement of the lips or tongue, it is +probable the man was a natural ventriloquist, and made use of his gift +to imperil the lives of Ball and Greedie, against whom he may have +entertained a hostile feeling. He gave the following specimen of the +conversation which took place between him and his spirits: + + GOOD SPIRIT. How comes this man to be thus tormented? + + BAD SPIRIT. He is bewitched. + + GOOD. Who hath done it? + + BAD. That I may not tell. + + GOOD. Aske him agayne. + + DINHAM. Come, come, prithee, tell me who hath bewitched me. + + BAD. A woman in greene cloathes and a black hatt, with a + large poll; and a man in a gray suite, with blue stockings. + + GOOD. But where are they? + + BAD. She is at her house, and hee is at a taverne in Yeohall + [Youghal] in Ireland. + + GOOD. But what are their names? + + BAD. Nay, that I will not tell. + + GOOD. Then tell half of their names. + + BAD. The one is Johan, and the other Edward. + + GOOD. Nowe tell me the other half. + + BAD. That I may not. + + GOOD. Aske him agayne. + + DINHAM. Come, come, prithee, tell me the other half. + + BAD. The one is Greedie, and the other Ball. + +This information having been obtained, a messenger is sent to a +certain house, where the unfortunate Joan is straightway arrested. The +conversation, if this absurd rigmarole can be so called, was +afterwards resumed, the man conveniently going into one of his 'fits' +for the purpose: + + GOOD. But are these witches? + + BAD. Yes; that they are. + + GOOD. Howe came they to bee soe? + + BAD. By discent. + + GOOD. But howe by discent? + + BAD. From the grandmother to the mother, and from the mother + to the children. + + GOOD. But howe aree they soe? + + BAD. They aree bound to us, and wee to them. + + GOOD. Lett mee see the bond. + + BAD. Thou shalt not. + + GOOD. Lett mee see it, and if I like I will seale alsoe. + + BAD. Thou shalt, if thou wilt not reveale the contentes + thereof. + + GOOD. I will not. + +As usual, the Good Spirit gets its way, and the bond is produced, +drawing from the Good Spirit an exclamation of anguish: 'Alas! oh, +pittifull, pittifull, pittifull! What? eight seales, bloody +seales--four dead, and four alive? Ah, miserable!' + + DINHAM. Come, come, prithee, tell me, Why did they bewitch + me? + + BAD. Because thou didst call Johane Greedie witche. + + DINHAM. Why, is shee not a witche? + + BAD. Yes; but thou shouldest not have said soe. + + GOOD. But why did Ball bewitche him? + + BAD. Because Greedie was not stronge enough. + +A messenger is now sent after Ball; but on reaching his hiding-place, +he finds that the poor man has just escaped, and he meets with people +who had seen his flight. Dinham and his voices then join in a +discourse, from which it appears that before they bewitched Dinham +they had been guilty of various 'evil practices,' and had compassed +the death of, at least, one of their victims. Six days afterwards +Dinham has another 'fit,' and a second unsuccessful effort is made to +track and arrest Ball. Disgusted with this failure, the Good Spirit +strenuously opposes the Evil Spirit in his resolve to secure Dinham's +soul: + + BAD. I will have him, or else I will torment him eight tymes + more. + + GOOD. Thou shalt not have thy will in all thinges; thou shalt + torment him but four times more. + + BAD. I will have thy soule. + + GOOD. If thou wilt answer me three questions, I will seale + and goe with thee. + + BAD. I will. + + GOOD. Who made the world? + + BAD. God. + + GOOD. Who created mankynde? + + BAD. God. + + GOOD. Wherefore was Christ Jesus His precious blood shed? + + BAD. I'le no more of that. + +Here the patient was seized with the most violent convulsions, foaming +at the mouth, and struggling with clenched hands and contorted limbs. + +Another fit came off a few days afterwards, and in this Dinham was +exposed to a double temptation: + + BAD. If thou wilt give me thy soule, I will give thee gold + enough. + + GOOD. Thy gold will scald my fingers. + + BAD. If thou wilt give me thy soule, I will give thee dice, + and thou shalt winne infinite somes of treasure by play. + + GOOD. If thou canst make every letter in this booke [a + Prayer-book which Dinham held in his hand] a die, I will. + + BAD. That I cannott. + + GOOD. Laudes, laudes, laudes! + + BAD. Thou shalt have _ladies_ enough--ladies, ladies, + ladies!... + + GOOD. If thou canst make every letter in this book a ladie, I + will. + +Here the Bad Spirit made an attempt to cast away the book, but, after +a violent struggle, was defeated; and then the Good Spirit celebrated +his victory in 'the sweetest musicke that ever was heard.' Eventually +Ball was captured, and Dinham then declared that his 'two voices' +ceased to trouble him. Greedie and Ball were both committed for trial, +but no record exists of their execution, and we may hope that they +were acquitted of charges supported by such absurd and fallacious +evidence. + + * * * * * + +Edward Fairfax, a man of ability and culture--the refined and +melodious translator of Tasso's Christian epic--prosecuted six of his +neighbours at York Assizes, in 1622, for practising witchcraft on his +children. The grand jury found a true bill against them, and the +accused were brought to trial. But the judge, who had been privately +furnished with a certificate of their 'sober behaviour,' contrived so +to influence the jury as to obtain a verdict of acquittal. The poet +afterwards published an elaborate defence of his conduct. His folly +may be excused, perhaps, since even such men as Raleigh and Bacon +inclined towards a belief in witchcraft; and the judicious Evelyn +makes it one of his principal complaints against solitude that it +created witches. Hobbes, in his 'Leviathan,' takes, however, a more +enlightened view: 'As for witches,' he says, 'I think not that their +witchcraft is any real power; but yet that they are justly punished +for the false belief they have that they can do such mischief, joined +with their purpose to do it if they can.' + + * * * * * + +Even the stir and tumult of the Civil War did not suspend the +persecuting activity of a degraded superstition. In 1644 eight witches +of Manningtree, in Essex, were accused of holding witches' meetings +every Friday night; were searched for teats and devils' marks, +convicted, and, with twenty-nine of their fellows, hung. In the +following year there were more hangings in Essex; and in Norfolk a +score of witches suffered. In 1650 a woman was hung at the Old Bailey +as a witch. 'She was found to have under her armpits those marks by +which witches are discovered to entertain their familiars.' In April, +1652, Jean Peterson, the witch of Wapping, was hung at Tyburn; and in +July of the same year six witches perished at Maidstone. + +In 1653 Alice Bodenham, a domestic servant, was tried at Salisbury +before Chief Justice Wilde, and convicted. It is not certain, however, +that she was executed. + +In 1658 Jane Brooks was executed for practising witchcraft on a boy of +twelve, named Henry James, at Chard, in Somersetshire; in 1663 Julian +Cox, at Taunton, for a similar offence. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[43] Potts, 'Wonderful Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of +Lancaster' (1613). + + +THE WITCH-FINDER: MATTHEW HOPKINS. + +The severe legislation against witchcraft had thus the effect--which +invariably attends legislation when it becomes unduly repressive--of +increasing the offence it had been designed to exterminate. It was +attended, also, by another result, which is equally common--bringing +to the front a number of informers who, at the cost of many innocent +lives, turned it to their personal advantage. Of these witch-finders, +the most notorious was Matthew Hopkins, of Manningtree, in Essex. When +he first started his infamous trade, I cannot ascertain, but his +success would seem to have been immediate. His earliest victims he +found in his own neighbourhood. But, as his reputation grew, he +extended his operations over the whole of Essex; and in a very short +time, if any case of supposed witchcraft occurred, the neighbours sent +for Matthew Hopkins as an acknowledged expert, whose skill would +infallibly detect the guilty person. + +His first appearance at the assizes was in the spring of 1645, when he +accused an unfortunate old woman, named Elizabeth Clarke. To collect +evidence against her, he watched her by night in a room in a Mr. +Edwards's house, in which she was illegally detained. At her trial he +had the audacity to affirm that, on the third night of his watching, +after he had refused her the society of one of her imps, she confessed +to him that, some six or seven years before, she had given herself +over to the devil, who visited her in the form of 'a proper gentleman, +with a hazel beard.' Soon after this, he said, a little dog came +in--fat, short-legged, and with sandy spots besprinkled on the white +ground-colour of its tub-like body. When he prevented it from +approaching the woman--who declared it was Jacmara, one of her +imps--it straightway vanished. Next came a greyhound, which she called +Vinegar Tom; and next a polecat. Improving in fluent and fertile +mendacity, Hopkins went on to assert that, on returning home that +night, about ten of the clock, accompanied by his own greyhound, he +saw his dog give a leap and a bound, and hark away as if hunting a +hare; and on following him, he espied a little white animal, about the +size of a kitten, and observed that his greyhound stood aloof from it +in fright; and by-and-by this imp or kitten danced about the dog, and, +as he supposed, bit a piece from its shoulder, for the greyhound came +to him shrieking and crying, and bleeding from a great wound. Hopkins +further stated that, going into his yard that same night, he saw a +Black Thing, shaped like a cat, but thrice as big, sitting in a +strawberry-bed, with its eyes fixed upon him. When he approached it, +the Thing leaped over the pale towards him, as he thought, but, on the +contrary, ran quite through the yard, with his greyhound after it, to +a great gate, which was underset 'with a pair of tumbril strings,' +threw it wide open, and then vanished, while his dog returned to him, +shaking and trembling exceedingly. + +In these unholy vigils of his, Hopkins was accompanied by one 'John +Sterne, of Manningtree, gentleman,' who, as a matter of course, +confirmed all his statements, and added the interesting detail that +the third imp was called Sack-and-Sugar. The two wretches forced their +way into the house of another woman, named Rebecca West, from whom +they extracted a confession that the first time she saw the devil, he +came to her at night, told her he must be her husband, and finally +married her! The cruel tortures to which these and so many other +unhappy females were exposed must undoubtedly have told on their +nervous systems, producing a condition of hysteria, and filling their +minds with hallucinations, which, perhaps, may partly have been +suggested by the 'leading questions' of the witch-finders themselves. +It is to be observed that their confessions wore a striking +similarity, and that all the names mentioned of the so-called imps or +familiars were of a ludicrous character, such as Prick-ear, Frog, +Robin, and Sparrow. Then the excitement caused by these trials so +wrought on the public mind that witnesses were easily found to +testify--apparently in good faith--to the evil things done by the +accused, and even to swear that they had seen their familiars. Thus +one man declared that, passing at daybreak by the house of a certain +Anne West, he was surprised to find her door open. Looking in, he +descried three or four Things, like black rabbits, one of which ran +after him. He seized and tried to kill him, but in his hands the Thing +seemed a mere piece of wool, which extended lengthwise without any +apparent injury. Full speed he made for a neighbouring spring, in +which he tried to drown him, but as soon as he put the Thing in the +water, he vanished from his sight. Returning to the house, he saw Anne +West standing at the door 'in her smock,' and asked her why she sent +her imp to trouble him, but received no answer. + +His experiments having proved successful, Hopkins took up +witch-finding as a vocation, one which provided him with the means of +a comfortable livelihood, while it gratified his ambition by making +him the terror of many and the admiration of more, investing him with +just that kind of power which is delightful to a narrow and +commonplace mind. Assuming the title of 'Witch-finder-General,' and +taking with him John Sterne, and a woman, whose business it was to +examine accused females for the devil's marks, he travelled through +the counties of Essex, Norfolk, Huntingdon, and Sussex. + +He was at Bury, in Suffolk, in August, 1645, and there, on the 27th, +no fewer than eighteen witches were executed at once through his +instrumentality. A hundred and twenty more were to have been tried, +but the approach of the royal troops led to the adjournment of the +Assize. In one year this wholesale murderer caused the death of sixty +poor creatures. The 'test' he generally adopted was that of +'swimming,' which James I. recommends with much unction in his +'Demonologie.' The hands and feet of the accused were tied together +crosswise, the thumb of the right hand to the big toe of the left +foot, and _vice versâ_. She was then wrapped up in a large sheet or +blanket, and laid upon her back in a pond or river. If she sank, she +was innocent, but established her innocence at the cost of her life; +if she floated, which was generally the case, as her clothes afforded +a temporary support, she was pronounced guilty, and hanged with all +possible expedition. + +Another 'test' was the repetition of the Lord's Prayer, which, it was +believed, no witch could accomplish. Woe to the unfortunate creature +who, in her nervousness, faltered over a syllable or stumbled at a +word! Again she was forced into some awkward and painful attitude, +bound with cords, and kept foodless and sleepless for four-and-twenty +hours. Or she was walked continuously up and down a room, an attendant +holding each arm, until she dropped with fatigue. Sometimes she was +weighed against the church Bible, obtaining her deliverance if she +proved to be heavier. But this last-named test was too lenient for the +Witch-finder-General, who preferred the swimming ordeal. + +One of his victims at Bury was a venerable clergyman, named Lowes, who +had been Vicar of Brandeston, near Framlingham, for fifty years. +'After he was found with the marks,' says Sterne, 'in his +confession'--when made, to whom, or under what circumstances, we are +not informed--'he confessed that in pride of heart to be equal, or +rather above God, the devil took advantage of him, and he covenanted +with the devil, and sealed it with his blood, and had those familiars +or spirits which sucked on the marks found on his body, and did much +harm both by sea and land, especially by sea; for he confessed that +he, being at Lungar Fort [Landguard Fort], in Suffolk, where he +preached, as he walked upon the wall or works there, he saw a great +sail of ships pass by, and that, as they were sailing by, one of his +three imps, namely, his yellow one, forthwith appeared to him, and +asked him what he should do, and he bade him go and sink such a ship, +and showed his imp a new ship among the middle of the rest (as I +remember), one that belonged to Ipswich; so he confessed the imp went +forthwith away, and he stood still and viewed the ships on the sea as +they were a-sailing, and perceived that ship immediately to be in more +trouble and danger than the rest; for he said the water was more +boisterous near that than the rest, tumbling up and down with waves, +as if water had been boiled in a pot, and soon after (he said), in a +short time, it sunk directly down into the sea as he stood and viewed +it, when all the rest sailed down in safety; then he confessed he made +fourteen widows in one quarter of an hour. Then Mr. Hopkins, as he +told me (for he took his confession), asked him if it did not grieve +him to see so many men cast away in a short time, and that he should +be the cause of so many poor widows on a sudden; but he swore by his +Maker he was joyful to see what power his imps had: and so likewise +confessed many other mischiefs, and had a charm to keep him out of the +jail and hanging, as he paraphrased it himself; but therein the devil +deceived him, for he was hanged that Michaelmas time, 1645, at Bury +St. Edmunds.' Poor old man! This so-called confession has a very +dubious air about it, and reads as if it had been invented by Matthew +Hopkins, who, as Sterne naïvely acknowledges, 'took the confessions,' +apparently without any witness or reporter being present. + +The Witch-finder-General, when on his expeditions of inquiry, assumed +the style of a man of fortune. He put up always at the best inns, and +lived in the most luxurious fashion, which he could well afford to do, +as, when invited to visit a town, he insisted on payment of his +expenses for board and lodging, and a fee of twenty shillings. This +sum he claimed under any circumstances; but if he succeeded in +detecting any witches, he demanded another fee of twenty shillings for +each one brought to execution. Generally his pretensions were admitted +without demur; but occasionally he encountered a sturdy opponent, like +the Rev. Mr. Gaul, of Great Staughton, in Huntingdonshire, who +attacked him in a briskly-written pamphlet as an intolerable nuisance. +Hopkins replied by an angry letter to one of the magistrates of the +town, in which he said: 'I am to come to Kimbolton this week, and it +shall be ten to one but I will come to your town first; but I would +certainly know afore whether your town affords many sticklers for such +cattle [_i.e._ witches], or [is] willing to give and afford us good +welcome and entertainment, as other where I have been, else I shall +waive your shire (not as yet beginning in any part of it myself), and +betake me to such places where I do and may persist without control, +but with thanks and recompense.' + +Neither Mr. Gaul nor the magistrates of Great Staughton showed any +anxiety in regard to the witch-finder's threat. On the contrary, Mr. +Gaul returned to the charge in a second pamphlet, entitled 'Select +Cases of Conscience touching Witches and Witchcraft,' in which, while +admitting the existence of witches--for he was not above the +superstition of his age and country--he vigorously attacked Hopkins +for accusing persons on insufficient evidence, and denounced the +atrocious cruelties of which he and his associates were guilty. I have +no doubt that this manly language helped to bring about a wholesome +change of public opinion. In the eastern counties so bitter a feeling +of resentment arose, that Hopkins found it advisable to seek fresh +woods and pastures new. In the spring of 1647 he was at Worcester, +where four unfortunates were condemned on the evidence of himself and +his associates. But the indignation against him deepened and extended, +and he hastily returned to his native town, trembling for his wretched +life. There he printed a defence of his conduct, under the title of +'The Discovery of Witches, in answer to several queries lately +delivered to the Judge of Assize for the county of Norfolk; published +by Matthew Hopkins, witch-finder, for the benefit of the whole +kingdom.' His death occurred shortly afterwards. According to Sterne, +he died the death of a righteous man, having 'no trouble of conscience +for what he had done, as was falsely reported for him.' But the more +generally accepted account is an instance of 'poetical justice'--of +Nemesis satisfied--which I heartily hope is authentic. It is said that +he was surrounded by a mob in a Suffolk village, and accused of being +himself a wizard, and of having, by his tricks of sorcery, cheated the +devil out of a memorandum-book, in which were entered the names of all +the witches in England. 'Thus,' cried the populace, 'you find out +witches, not by God's name, but by the devil's.' He denied the charge; +but his accusers determined that he should be subjected to his +favourite test. He was stripped; his thumbs and toes were tied +together; he was wrapped in a blanket, and cast into a pond. Whether +he was drowned, or whether he floated, was taken up, tried, sentenced, +and executed, authorities do not agree; but they agree that he never +more disturbed the peace of the realm as a witch-finder. + +Butler has found a niche for this knave, among other knaves, in his +'Hudibras': + + 'Hath not this present Parliament + A lieger to the Devil sent, + Fully empowered to set about + Finding revolted witches out? + And has he not within a year + Hanged threescore of them in one shire? + Some only for not being drowned, + And some for sitting above ground + Whole days and nights upon their breeches, + And, feeling pain, were hanged for witches ... + Who proved himself at length a witch, + And made a rod for his own breech'-- + +the engineer hoist with his own petard--happily a by no means +infrequent mode of retribution. + +Sterne, the witch-finder's colleague, not unnaturally shared in the +public disfavour, and in defence of himself and his deceased partner +gave to the world a 'Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft,' in +which he acknowledges to have been concerned in the detection and +condemnation of some 200 witches in the counties of Essex, Suffolk, +Northampton, Huntingdon, Bedford, Norfolk and Cambridge, and the Isle +of Ely. He adds that 'in many places I never received penny as yet, +nor any like, notwithstanding I have bonds for satisfaction, except I +should sin; but many rather fall upon me for what hath been received, +but I hope such suits will be disannulled, and that when I have been +out of moneys for towns in charges and otherwise, such course will be +taken that I may be satisfied and paid with reason.' One can hardly +admire sufficiently the brazen effrontery of this appeal! + + * * * * * + +The number of persons imprisoned on suspicion of witchcraft grew so +large as to excite the alarm of the Government, who issued stringent +orders to the country magistrates to commit for trial persons brought +before them on this charge, and forbade them to exercise summary +jurisdiction. Eventually a commission was given to the Earl of +Warwick, and others, to hold a gaol-delivery at Chelmsford. Lord +Warwick, who had done good service to the State as Lord High Admiral, +was sagacious and fair-minded. But with him went Dr. Edmund Calamy, +the eminent Puritan divine, to see that no injustice was done to the +parties accused. This proved an unfortunate choice; for Calamy, who, +in his sermon before the judges, had enlarged on the enormity of the +sin of witchcraft, sat on the bench with them, and unhappily +influenced their deliberations in the direction of severity. As a +result, sixteen persons were hanged at Yarmouth, fifteen at +Chelmsford, besides some sixty at various places in Suffolk. + + * * * * * + +Whitlocke, in his 'Memorials,' speaks of many 'witches' as having been +put upon their trial at Newcastle, through the agency of a man whom he +calls 'the Witch-finder.' Another of the imitators of Hopkins, a Mr. +Shaw, parson of Rusock, came to condign humiliation (1660). Having +instigated some bucolic barbarians to put an old woman, named Joan +Bibb, to the water-ordeal, she swam right vigorously in the pool, and +struggled with her assailants so strenuously that she effected her +escape. Afterwards she brought an action against the parson for +instigating the outrage, and obtained £20 damages. + + * * * * * + +In 1664, Elizabeth Styles, of Bayford, Somersetshire, was convicted and +sentenced to death, but died in prison before the day fixed for her +execution. It is said that she made a voluntary confession--without +inducement or torture--in the presence of the magistrates and several +divines--another case (if it be true) of the morbid self-delusion which +in times of popular excitement makes so many victims. + + * * * * * + +One feels the necessity of speaking with some degree of moderation +respecting the credulity of the ignorant and uneducated classes, when +one finds so sound a lawyer and so admirable a Christian as Sir +Matthew Hale infected by the mania. No other blot, I suppose, is to be +found on his fame and character; and that he should have incurred this +indelible stain, and fallen into so pitiable an error, is a problem by +no means easy of solution. + +At the Lent Assize, in 1664, at Bury St. Edmunds, two aged women, +named Rose Cullender and Amy Duny were brought before him on a charge +of having bewitched seven persons. The nature of the evidence on which +it was founded the reader will appreciate from the following examples: + +Samuel Pacey, of Lowestoft, a man of good repute for sobriety and +other homely virtues, having been sworn, said: That on Thursday, +October 10 last, his younger daughter Deborah, about nine years old, +fell suddenly so lame that she could not stand on her feet, and so +continued till the 17th, when she asked to be carried to a bank which +overlooked the sea, and while she was sitting there, Amy Duny came to +the witness's house to buy some herrings, but was denied. Twice more +she called, but being always denied, went away grumbling and +discontented. At this instant of time the child was seized with +terrible fits; complained of a pain in her stomach, as if she were +being pricked with pins, shrieking out 'with a voice like a whelp,' +and thus continuing until the 30th. This witness added that Amy Duny, +being known as a witch, and his child having, in the intervals of her +fits, constantly exclaimed against her as the cause of her sufferings, +saying that the said Amy did appear to her and frighten her, he began +to suspect the said Amy, and accused her in plain terms of injuring +his child, and got her 'set in the stocks.' Two days afterwards, his +daughter Elizabeth was seized with similar fits; and both she and her +sister complained that they were tormented by various persons in the +town of bad character, but more particularly by Amy Duny, and by +another reputed witch, Rose Cullender. + +Another witness deposed that she had heard the two children cry out +against these persons, who, they said, threatened to increase their +torments tenfold if they told tales of them. 'At some times the +children would see Things run up and down the house in the appearance +of mice; and one of them suddenly snapped one with the tongs, and +threw it in 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 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 reach her, the child fell into her +swooning fit, and, at last, with much pain and straining, vomited up a +twopenny nail with a broad head; and after that the child had raised +up the nail she came to her understanding, 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.' + +Such evidence as this failing to satisfy Serjeant Keeling, and +several magistrates who were present, of the guilt of the accused, it +was resolved to resort to demonstration by experiment. The persons +bewitched were brought into court to touch the two old women; and it +was observed (says Hutchinson) that when the former were in the midst +of their fits, and to all men's apprehension wholly deprived of all +sense and understanding, closing their fists in such a manner as that +the strongest man could not force them open, yet, at the least touch +of one of the supposed witches--Rose Cullender, by name--they would +suddenly shriek out, opening their hands, which accident would not +happen at any other person's touch. 'And lest they might privately see +when they were touched by the said Rose Cullender, they were blinded +with their own aprons, and the touching took the same effect as +before. There was an ingenious person that objected there might be a +great fallacy in this experiment, and there ought not to be any stress +put upon this to convict the parties, for the children might +counterfeit this their distemper, and, perceiving what was done to +them, they might in such manner suddenly alter the erection and +gesture of their bodies, on purpose to induce persons to believe that +they were not natural, but wrought strangely by the touch of the +prisoners. Wherefore, 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 gentleman then 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; and Amy Duny +was brought from the bar, and conveyed to the maid. They then put an +apron before her eyes; and then one other person touched her hand, +which produced the same effect as the touch of the witch did in the +court. Whereupon the gentlemen returned, openly protesting that they +did believe the whole transaction of the business was a mere +imposture.' As, in truth, it was. + +It is remarkable that Sir Matthew Hale was still unconvinced. He +invited the opinion of Sir Thomas Browne, a man of great learning and +ability--the author of the 'Religio Medici,' and other justly famous +works--who admitted that the fits were natural, but thought them +'heightened by the devil co-operating with the malice of the witches, +at whose instance he did the villanies.' Sir Matthew then charged the +jury. There were, he said, two questions to be considered: First, +whether or not these children were bewitched? And, second, whether the +prisoners at the bar had been guilty of bewitching them? _That there +were such creatures as witches, he did not doubt_; and he appealed to +the Scriptures, which had affirmed so much, and also to the wisdom of +all nations, which had enacted laws against such persons. Such, too, +he said, had been the judgment of this kingdom, as appeared by that +Act of Parliament which had provided punishment proportionable to the +quality of the offence. He desired them to pay strict attention to the +evidence, and implored the great God of heaven to direct their hearts +in so weighty a matter; for to condemn the innocent, and set free the +guilty, was 'an abomination to the Lord.' + +After a charge of this description, the jury naturally brought in a +verdict of 'Guilty.' Sentence of death was pronounced; and the two +poor old women, protesting to the last their innocence, suffered on +the gallows. Who will not regret the part played by Sir Matthew Hale +in this judicial murder? It is no excuse to say that he did but share +in the popular belief. One expects of such a man that he will rise +superior to the errors of ordinary minds; that he will be guided by +broader and more enlightened views--by more humane and generous +sympathies. Instead of attempting an apology which no act can render +satisfactory, it is better to admit, with Sir Michael Foster, that +'this great and good man was betrayed, notwithstanding the rectitude +of his intentions, into a great mistake, under the strong bias of +early prejudices.' + +Gradually, however, a disbelief in witchcraft grew up in the public +mind, as intellectual inquiry widened its scope, and the relations of +man to the Unseen World came to be better understood. Among the +educated classes the old superstition expired much more rapidly than +among the poorer; and so we find that though convictions became rarer, +committals and trials continued tolerably frequent until the closing +years of the eighteenth century. To the ghastly roll of victims, +however, additions continued to be made. Thus in August, 1682, three +women, named Temperance Lloyd, Susannah Edwards, and Mary Trembles, +were tried at Exeter before Lord Chief Justice North and Mr. Justice +Raymond, convicted of various acts of witchcraft, and sentenced to +death. Before their trial they had confessed to frequent interviews +with the devil, who appeared in the shape of a black man as long (or +as short) as a man's arm; and one of them acknowledged to have caused +the death of four persons by witchcraft. Some portion of these +monstrous fictions they recanted under the gallows; but even on the +brink of the grave they persisted in claiming the character of +witches, and in asserting that they had had personal intercourse with +the devil. + +In March, 1684, Alicia Welland was tried before Chief Baron Montague +at Exeter, convicted, and executed. + +To estimate the extent to which the belief in witchcraft, during the +latter part of the seventeenth century, operated against the lives of +the accused, Mr. Inderwick has searched the records of the Western +Circuit, from 1670 to 1712 inclusive, and ascertained that out of +fifty-two persons tried in that period on various charges of +witchcraft, only seven were convicted, and one of these seven was +reprieved. 'What occurred on the Western,' he remarks, 'probably went +on at each of the several circuits into which the country was then +divided; and one cannot doubt that in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, +Huntingdon, and Lancashire, where the witches mostly abounded, the +charges and convictions were far more numerous than in the West. The +judges appear, however, not to have taken the line of Sir Matthew +Hale, but, as far as possible, to have prevented convictions. Indeed, +Lord Jeffreys--who, when not engaged on political business, was at +least as good a judge as any of his contemporaries--and Chief Justice +Herbert, tried and obtained acquittals of witches in 1685 and 1686 at +the very time that they were engaged on the Bloody Assize in +slaughtering the participators in Monmouth's rebellion. It is also a +remarkable fact that, from 1686 to 1712, when charges of witchcraft +gradually ceased, charges and convictions of malicious injury to +property in burning haystacks, barns, and houses, and malicious +injuries to persons and to cattle, increased enormously, these being +the sort of accusations freely made against the witches before this +date.' + +I think there can be little doubt that many evil-disposed persons +availed themselves of the prevalent belief in witchcraft as a cover +for their depredations on the property of their neighbours, diverting +suspicion from themselves to the poor wretches who, through accidental +circumstances, had acquired notoriety as the devil's accomplices. It +would also seem probable that not a few of the reputed witches +similarly turned to account their bad reputation. It is not +impossible, indeed, that there may be a certain degree of truth in the +tales told of the witches' meetings, and that in some rural +neighbourhoods the individuals suspected of being witches occasionally +assembled at an appointed rendezvous to consult upon their position +and their line of operations. The practices at these gatherings may +not always have been kept within the limits of decency and decorum; +and in this way the loathsome details with which every account of the +witches' meetings are embellished may have had a real foundation. + + * * * * * + +That the judges at length began persistently to discourage convictions +for witchcraft is seen in the action of Lord Chief Justice Holt at the +Bury St. Edmunds Assize in 1694. An old woman, known as Mother +Munnings, of Harks, in Suffolk, was brought before him, and the +witnesses against her retailed the village talk--how that her +landlord, Thomas Purnel, who, to get her out of the house she had +rented from him, had removed the street-door, was told that 'his nose +should lie upward in the churchyard' before the following Saturday; +and how that he was taken ill on the Monday, died on the Tuesday, and +was buried on the Thursday. How that she had a familiar in the shape +of a polecat, and how that a neighbour, peeping in at her window one +night, saw her take out of her basket a couple of imps--the one black, +the other white. And how that a woman, named Sarah Wager, having +quarrelled with her, was stricken dumb and lame. All this +tittle-tattle was brushed aside in his charge by the strong +common-sense of the judge; and the jury, under his direction, +returned a verdict of 'Not guilty.' Dr. Hutchinson remarks: 'Upon +particular inquiry of several in or near the town, I find most are +satisfied that it is a very right judgment. She lived about two years +after, without doing any known harm to anybody, and died declaring her +innocence. Her landlord was a consumptive-spent man, and the words not +exactly as they swore them, and the whole thing seventeen years +before.... The white imp is believed to have been a lock of wool, +taken out of her basket to spin; and its shadow, it is supposed, was +the black one.' + +In the same year (1694) a woman, named Margaret Elmore, was tried at +Ipswich; in 1695 one Mary Gay at Launceston; and in 1696 one Elizabeth +Hume at Exeter; but in each case, under the direction of Chief Justice +Holt, a verdict of acquittal was declared. Thus the seventeenth +century went its way in an unaccustomed atmosphere of justice and +humanity. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE DECLINE OF WITCHCRAFT IN ENGLAND. + + +The honour of discouraging prosecutions for witchcraft belongs in the +first place to France, which abolished them as early as 1672, and for +some years previously had refrained from sending any victims to the +scaffold or the stake. In England, the same effect was partly due, +perhaps, to the cynical humour of the Court of Charles II., where +many, who before ventured only to doubt, no longer hesitated to treat +the subject with ridicule. 'Although,' says Mr. Wright, 'works like +those of Baxter and Glanvil had still their weight with many people, +yet in the controversy which was now carried on through the +instrumentality of the press, those who wrote against the popular +creed had certainly the best of the argument. Still, it happened from +their form and character that the books written to expose the +absurdity of the belief in sorcery were restricted in their +circulation to the more educated classes, while popular tracts in +defence of witchcraft and collections of cases were printed in a +cheaper form, and widely distributed among that class in society where +the belief was most firmly rooted. The effect of these popular +publications has continued in some districts down to the present day. +Thus the press, the natural tendency of which was to enlighten +mankind, was made to increase ignorance by pandering to the credulity +of the multitude.' + +I have spoken of the seventeenth century as going out in an atmosphere +of justice and humanity. But an ancient superstition dies hard, and +the eighteenth century, when it dawned upon the earth, found the +belief in witchcraft still widely extended in England. Even men of +education could not wholly surrender their adhesion to it. We read +with surprise Addison's opinion in _The Spectator_, 'that the +arguments press equally on both sides,' and see him balancing himself +between the two aspects of the subject in a curious state of mental +indecision. 'When I hear the relations that are made from all parts of +the world,' he says, '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. But when I consider,' he adds, 'that the +ignorant and credulous parts of the world abound most in these +relations, and that the persons among us who are supposed to engage in +such an infernal commerce are people of a weak understanding and +crazed imagination, and at the same time reflect upon the many +impostures and delusions of this nature that have been detected in all +ages, I endeavour to suspend my belief till I hear more certain +accounts than any which have yet come to my knowledge.' And then he +comes to a halting and unsatisfactory conclusion, which will seem +almost grotesque to the reader of the preceding pages, with their +details of _succubi_ and _incubi_, imps and familiars, black cats, +pole-cats, goats, and the like: 'In short, when I consider the +question, whether there are such persons in the world as 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 instance of it.' + +Addison goes on to draw the picture of a witch of the period, 'Moll +White,' who lived in the neighbourhood of Sir Roger de Coverley, 'a +wrinkled hag, with age grown double.' This old woman had the +reputation of a witch all over the country; her lips were observed to +be always in motion, and there was not a switch about her house which +her neighbours did not believe had carried her several hundreds of +miles. 'If she chanced to stumble, they always found sticks or straws +that lay in the figure of a cross before her. If she made any mistake +at church, and cried Amen in a wrong place, they never failed to +conclude that she was saying her prayers backwards. There was not a +maid in the parish that would take a pin of her, though she should +offer a bag of money with it.... If the dairy-maid does not make her +butter to come so soon as she would have it, Moll White is at the +bottom of the churn. If a horse sweats in the stable, Moll White has +been upon his back. If a hare makes an unexpected escape from the +hounds, the huntsman curses Moll White.... + +'I have been the more particular in this account,' says Addison, +'because I know there is scarce a village in England that has not a +Moll White in it. When an old woman begins to dote, and grow +chargeable to a parish, she is generally turned into a witch, and +fills the whole country with extravagant fancies, imaginary +distempers, and terrifying dreams. In the meantime, the poor wretch +that is the innocent occasion of so many evils begins to be frighted +at herself, and sometimes confesses secret commerces and familiarities +that her imagination forms in a delirious old age. This frequently +cuts off charity from the greatest objects of compassion, and inspires +people with a malevolence towards those poor decrepit parts of our +species in whom human nature is defaced by infirmity and dotage.' + + * * * * * + +On March 2, 1703, one Richard Hathaway, apprentice to Thomas Wiling, a +blacksmith in Southwark, was tried before Chief Justice Holt at the +Surrey Assizes, as a cheat and an impostor, having pretended that he +had been bewitched by Sarah Morduck, wife of a Thames waterman, so +that he had been unable to eat or drink for the space of ten weeks +together; had suffered various pains; had constantly vomited nails and +crooked pins; had at times been deprived of speech and sight, and all +through the wicked cunning of Sarah Morduck; further, that he was from +time to time relieved of his ailments by scratching the said Sarah, +and drawing blood from her. On these charges Sarah had been committed +by the magistrates, and was tried as a witch at the Guildford Assizes +in February, 1701. It was then proved in her defence that Dr. Martin, +minister, of the parish of Southwark, hearing of Hathaway's troubles +and method of obtaining relief, had resolved to put the matter to a +fair test; and repairing to Hathaway's room, in one of his +semi-conscious and wholly blind intervals, had, in the presence of +many witnesses, pretended to give to the supposed sufferer the arm of +Sarah Morduck, when it was really that of a woman whom he had called +in from the street. Hathaway, in ignorance of the trick played upon +him, scratched the wrong arm, and immediately professed to recover his +sight and senses. On finding his deception discovered, Hathaway looked +greatly ashamed, and attempted no defence or excuse, when Dr. Martin +severely reproached him for his conduct. + +The populace, however, remained unconvinced, and when Dr. Martin and +his friends had departed, accompanied Hathaway to the house of Sarah +Morduck, whom they savagely ill-treated. They then declared that the +woman who had lent herself as a subject for experiment was also a +witch, and loaded her with contumely, while her husband gave her a +beating. It further appeared that, on one occasion, when Hathaway +alleged he had been vomiting crooked pins and nails, he had been +searched, and hundreds of packets of pins and nails found in his +pockets, and on his hands being tied behind him, the vomiting +immediately ceased. Eventually the jury acquitted Sarah Morduck, and +branded Hathaway as a cheat and an impostor. The lower classes, +however, received the verdict with contempt, mobbed Dr. Martin, and +raised a collection for Hathaway as for a man of many virtues whom +fortune had ill-treated. A magistrate, Sir Thomas Lane, who sided with +the mob, summoned Sarah Morduck before him, and after she had been +scratched by Hathaway in his presence, ordered her to be examined for +devil-marks by two women and a doctor. Though none could be detected, +his prejudice was so extreme that he committed her as a witch to the +Wood Street Compter, refusing bail to the extent of £500. Dr. Martin, +with other gentlemen, again came to her assistance, and ultimately she +was released on reasonable surety. + +The Government now thought it time to support the cause of justice, +and, carrying out the verdict of the Guildford jury, indicted Hathaway +as a cheat, and himself and his friends for assaulting Sarah Morduck. +In addition to the evidence previously adduced, it was shown that, +being in bad health, he had been placed in the custody of a Dr. Kenny, +a surgeon, who, desiring to test the truth of his fasting, made holes +in the partition wall of his compartment, and watched his proceedings +for about a fortnight, during which period, while pretending to fast, +he was observed to feed heartily on the food conveyed to him, and +once, having received an extra allowance of whisky, he got tipsy, +played a tune on the tongs, and danced before the fire. At the trial a +Dr. Hamilton was called for the defence; but, Balaam-like, he banned +rather than blessed, for having affirmed that the man's fasting was +the chief evidence of witchcraft, 'Doctor,' said the Chief Justice, +'do you think it possible for a man to fast a fortnight?' 'I think +not,' he replied. 'Can all the devils in hell help a man to fast so +long?' 'No, my lord,' said the doctor; 'I think not.' These answers +were conclusive; and without leaving the box, the jury found Hathaway +guilty, and he was sentenced by Chief Justice Holt to pay a fine of +one hundred marks, to stand in the pillory on the following Sunday for +two hours at Southwark, the same on the Tuesday at the Royal Exchange, +the same on the Wednesday at Temple Bar, the next day to be whipped at +the House of Correction, and afterwards to be imprisoned with hard +labour for six months. + +Two reputed witches, Eleanor Shaw and Mary Phillips, were executed at +Northampton on March 17, 1705; and on July 22, 1712, five +Northamptonshire witches, Agnes Brown, Helen Jenkinson, A...... Bill, +Joan Vaughan, and Mary Barber, suffered at the same place. + +It is generally believed that the last time an English jury brought in +a verdict of guilty in a case of witchcraft was in 1712, when a poor +Hertfordshire peasant woman, named Jane Wenham, was tried before Mr. +Justice Powell, sixteen witnesses, including three clergymen, +supporting the accusation. The evidence was absurd and frivolous; but, +in spite of its frivolousness and absurdity, and the poor woman's +fervent protestations of innocence, and the judge's strong summing-up +in her favour, a Hertfordshire jury convicted her. The judge was +compelled by the law to pronounce sentence of death, but he lost no +time in obtaining from the Queen a pardon for the unfortunate woman. +But, on emerging from her prison, she was treated by the mob with +savage ferocity; and, to save her from being lynched, Colonel Plumer, +of Gilson, took her into his service, in which she continued for many +years, earning and preserving the esteem of all who knew her. + +But there is a record of an execution for witchcraft, that of Mary +Hicks and her daughter, taking place in 1716 (July 28); and though it +is not indubitably established, I do not think its authenticity can +well be doubted. + +In January, 1736, an old woman of Frome, reputed to be a witch, was +dragged from her sick-bed, put astride on a saddle, and kept in a +mill-pond for nearly an hour, in the presence of upwards of 200 +people. The story goes that she swam like a cork, but on being taken +out of the water expired immediately. A coroner's inquest was held on +the body, and three persons were committed for trial for manslaughter; +but it is probable that they escaped punishment, as nobody seems to +have been willing to appear in the witness-box against them. + +Among the vulgar, indeed, the superstition was hard to kill. In the +middle of the last century, a poor man and his wife, of the name of +Osborne, each about seventy years of age, lived at Tring, in +Hertfordshire. On one occasion, Mother Osborne, as she was commonly +called, went to a dairyman, appropriately named Butterfield, and asked +for some buttermilk; but was harshly repulsed, and informed that he +had scarcely enough for his hogs. The woman replied with asperity that +the Pretender (it was in the '45 that this took place) would soon have +him and his hogs. It was customary then to connect the Pretender and +the devil in one's thoughts and aspirations; and the ignorant rustics +soon afterwards, when Butterfield's calves sickened, declared that +Mother Osborne had bewitched them, with the assistance of the devil. +Later, when Butterfield, who had given up his farm and taken to an +ale-house, suffered much from fits, Mother Osborne was again declared +to be the cause (1751), and he was advised to send to Northamptonshire +for an old woman, a white witch, to baffle her spells. The white witch +came, confirmed, of course, the popular prejudice, and advised that +six men, armed with staves and pitchforks, should watch Butterfield's +house by day and night. The affair would here, perhaps, have ended; +but some persons thought they could turn it to their pecuniary +advantage, and, accordingly, made public notification that a witch +would be ducked on April 22. On the appointed day hundreds flocked to +the scene of entertainment. The parish officers had removed the two +Osbornes for safety to the church; and the mob, in revenge, seized the +governor of the workhouse, and, collecting a heap of straw, threatened +to drown him, and set fire to the town, unless they were given up. In +a panic of fear the parish officers gave way, and the two poor +creatures were immediately stripped naked, their thumbs tied to their +toes, and, each being wrapped in a coarse sheet, were dragged a +couple of miles, and then flung into a muddy stream. Colley, a +chimney-sweep, observing that the woman did not sink, stepped into the +pool, and turned her over several times with a stick, until the sheet +fell off, and her nakedness was exposed. In this miserable +state--exhausted with fatigue and terror, sick with shame, half choked +with mud--she was flung upon the bank; and her persecutors--alas for +the cruelty of ignorance!--kicked and beat her until she died. Her +husband also sank under his barbarous maltreatment. It is satisfactory +to know that Colley, as the worst offender, was brought to trial on a +charge of wilful murder, found guilty, and most righteously hanged. +The crowd, however, who witnessed his execution, lamented him as a +martyr, unjustly punished for having delivered the world from one of +Satan's servants, and overwhelmed with execrations the sheriff whose +duty it was to see that the behests of the law were carried out. + +In February, 1759, Susannah Hannaker, of Wingrove, Wilts, was put to +the ordeal of weighing, but fortunately for herself outweighed the +church Bible, against which she was tested. In June, 1760, at +Leicester; in June, 1785, at Northampton; and in April, 1829, at +Monmouth, persons were tried for ducking supposed witches. Similar +cases have occurred in our own time. On September 4, 1863, a paralytic +Frenchman died of an illness induced by his having been ducked as a +wizard in a pond at Castle Hedingham, in Essex. And an aged woman, +named Anne Turner, reputed to be a witch, was killed by a man, +partially insane, at the village of Long Compton, in Warwickshire, on +September 17, 1875. But the reader needs no further illustrations of +the longevity of human error, or the terrible vitality of prejudice, +especially among the uneducated. The thaumaturgist or necromancer, +with his wand, his magic circle, his alembics and crucibles, +disappeared long ago, because, as I have already pointed out, his +support depended upon a class of society whose intelligence was +rapidly developed by the healthy influences of literature and science; +but the sham astrologer and the pseudo-witch linger still in obscure +corners, because they find their prey among the credulous and the +ignorant. The more widely we extend the bounds of knowledge, the more +certainly shall we prevent the recrudescence of such forms of +imposture and aspects of delusion as in the preceding pages I have +attempted to describe. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. + + +Among the people of Scotland, a more serious-minded and imaginative +race than the English, the superstition of witchcraft was deeply +rooted at an early period. Its development was encouraged not only by +the idiosyncrasies of the national character, but also by the nature +of the country and the climate in which they lived. The lofty +mountains, with their misty summits and shadowy ravines--their deep +obscure glens--were the fitting homes of the wildest fancies, the +eëriest legends; and the storm crashing through the forests, and the +surf beating on the rocky shore, suggested to the ear of the peasant +or the fisherman the voices of unseen creatures--of the dread spirits +of the waters and the air. To men who believed in kelpie and wraith +and the second sight, a belief in witch and warlock was easy enough. +And it was not until the Calvinist reformers imported into Scotland +their austere and rigid creed, with its literal interpretation of +Biblical imagery, that witchcraft came to be regarded as a crime. It +was not until 1563 that the Parliament of Scotland passed a statute +constituting 'witchcraft and dealing with witches' a capital offence. +It is true that persons accused of witchcraft had already suffered +death--as the Earl of Mar, brother of James III., who was suspected of +intriguing with witches and sorcerers in order to compass his +brother's death, and Lady Glamis, in 1532, charged with a similar plot +against James V.--but in both these cases it was the _treason_ which +was punished rather than the _sorcery_. + +In the Scottish criminal records the first person who suffered death +for the practice of witchcraft was a Janet Bowman, in 1572. No +particulars of her offence are given; and against her name are written +only the significant words, 'convict and byrnt.' + +A remarkable case, that of Bessie Dunlop, belongs to 1576.[44] She was +the wife of an Ayrshire peasant, Andrew Jack. According to her own +statement, she was going one day from her house to the yard of +Monkcastle, driving her cows to the pasture, and greeting over her +troubles--for she had a milch-cow nigh sick to death, and her husband +and child were lying ill, and she herself had but recently risen from +childbed--when a strange man met her, and saluted her with the words, +'Gude day, Bessie!' She answered civilly, and, in reply to his +questions, acquainted him with her anxieties; whereupon he informed +her that her cow, her two sheep, and her child would die, but that her +gude man would recover. She described this stranger in graphic +language as 'an honest, wele-elderlie man, gray bairdit, and had ane +gray coat with Lumbart slevis of the auld fassoun; ane pair of gray +brekis and quhyte schankis, gartaurt above the knee; ane black bonnet +on his heid, cloise behind and plane before, with silkin laissis +drawin throw the lippis thairof; and ane quhyte wand in his hand.' He +told Bessie that his name was _Thomas Reid_, and that he had been +killed at the Battle of Pinkie. Extraordinary as was this information, +it did not seem improbable to her when she noted the manner of his +disappearance through the yard of Monkcastle: 'I thocht he gait in at +ane narroware hoill of the dyke [wall], nor ony erdlie man culd haif +gaun throw; and swa I was sumthing fleit [terrified].' + +Thomas Reid's sinister predictions were duly fulfilled. Soon +afterwards, he again met Bessie, and boldly invited her to deny her +religion, and the faith in which she was christened, in return for +certain worldly advantages. But Bessie steadfastly refused. + +This visitor of hers was under no fear of the ordinance which is +supposed to limit the mundane excursions of 'spiritual creatures' to +the hours between sunset and cockcrow; for he generally made his +appearance at mid-day. It is not less singular that he made no +objection to the presence of humanity. On one occasion he called at +her house, where she sat conversing with her husband _and three +tailors_, and, invisible to them, plucked her by the apron, and led +her to the door, and thence up the hill-end, where he bade her stand, +and be silent, whatever she might hear or see. And suddenly she beheld +twelve persons, eight women and four men; the men clad in gentlemen's +clothing, and the women with plaids round about them, very seemly to +look at. Thomas was among them. They bade her sit down, and said: +'Welcome, Bessie; wilt thou go with us?' But she made no answer, and +after some conversation among themselves, they disappeared in a +hideous whirlwind. + +When Thomas returned, he informed her that the persons she had seen +were the 'good wights,' who dwell in the Court of Faëry, and he +brought her an invitation to accompany them thither--an invitation +which he repeated with much earnestness. She answered, with true +Scotch caution: 'She saw no profit to gang that kind of gates, unless +she knew wherefore.' + +'Seest thou not me,' he rejoined, 'worth meat and worth clothes, and +good enough like in person?' + +The prospect, however, could not beguile her; and she continued firm +in her simple resolve to dwell with her husband and bairns, whom she +had no wish to abandon. Off went Thomas in a storm of anger; but +before long he recovered his temper, and resumed his visits, showing +himself willing to 'fetch and carry' at her request, and always +treating her with the deference due to a wife and mother. The only +benefit she derived from this friendship was, she said, the means of +curing diseases and recovering stolen property, so that her witchcraft +was of the simplest, innocentest kind. There was no compact with the +devil, and it injured nobody--except doctors and thieves. Yet for +yielding to this hallucination--the product of a vivid imagination, +stimulated, we suspect, by much solitary reverie--Bessie Dunlop was +'convyct and byrnt.' Mayhap, as she was led to the death-fire, she may +have dreamed that she had done better to have gone with Thomas Reid to +the Court of Faëry! + + * * * * * + +The combination of the fairy folklore with the gloomier inventions of +witchcraft occurs again in the case of Alison Pierson (1588). There +was a certain William Simpson, a great scholar and physician, and a +native of Stirling. While but a child, he was taken away from his +parents 'by a man of Egypt, a giant,' who led him away to Egypt with +him, 'where he remained by the space of twelve years before he came +home again.' On his return, he made the acquaintance of Alison, who +was a near relative, and cured her of certain ailments; but soon +afterwards, less fortunate in treating himself, he died. Some months +had passed when, one day as Alison was lying on her bed, sick and +alone, she was suddenly addressed by a man in green clothes, who told +her that, if she would be faithful, he would do her good. In her first +alarm, she cried for help, but no one hearing, she called upon the +Divine Name, when her visitor immediately disappeared. Before long, he +came to her again, attended by many men and women; and compelling her +to accompany them, they set off in a gay procession to Lothian, where +they found puncheons of wine, with drinking-cups, and enjoyed +themselves right heartily. Thenceforward she was on the friendliest +terms with the 'good neighbours,' even visiting the Fairy Queen at her +court, where, according to her own account, she was made much of, was +treated, indeed, as 'one of themselves,' and allowed to see them +compounding wonderful healing-salves in miniature pans over tiny +fires. + +It would seem that this woman had acquired a considerable knowledge of +'herbs and simples,' and that the medicines she made up effected +remarkable cures. No doubt it was for the purpose of enhancing the +value of her concoctions that she professed to have obtained the +secret of them from the fairies. So great was her repute for medicinal +skill, that the Archbishop of St. Andrews sought her advice in a +dangerous illness, and, by her directions, ate 'a sodden food,' and at +two draughts absorbed a quart of good claret wine, which she had +previously medicated, greatly benefiting thereby. + +Alison had a fertile fancy and a fluent tongue, and told stories of +the fairies and their doings which did credit to her invention. It +does not appear that she injured anybody, except, perhaps, by her +drugs, but, then, even the faculty sometimes do _that_! But, like +Bessie Dunlop, she was convicted of witchcraft, and burned. The +surprising thing about this and similar cases is, that the poor woman +should have assisted in her own condemnation by devising such +extraordinary fictions. What was the use of them? A prisoner on a +charge which, if proved against her, meant a terrible death, what +object did she expect to gain? Was it all done for the sake of the +temporary surprise and astonishment her tale created? that she might +be the heroine of an hour?--Men have, we know, their strange +ambitions, but if this were Alison Pierson's, it was one of the very +strangest. + + * * * * * + +In the next case I shall bring forward, that of Dame Fowlis, we come +upon the trail of actual crime. Dame Fowlis, second wife of the chief +of the clan Munro, was by birth a Roise or Ross, of Balnagown. To +effect the aggrandisement of her own family, she plotted the death of +Robert, her husband's eldest son, in order to marry his wealthy widow +to her brother, George Roise or Ross, laird of Balnagown; but as he, +too, was married, it was necessary to get rid of _his_ wife also. For +this 'double event,' she employed, with little attempt at concealment, +three 'notorious witches'--Agnes Roy, Christian Roy, and Marjory Nayre +MacAllister, alias Loskie Loncart--besides one William MacGillivordam, +and several other persons of dubious reputation. About Midsummer, +1576, Agnes Roy was despatched to bring Loskie Loncart into Dame +Fowlis' presence. The result of this interview was soon apparent. Clay +images of the two doomed individuals were made, and exposed to the +usual sorceries; while MacGillivordam obtained a supply of poison from +Aberdeen, which the cook was bribed to put into a dish intended for +the lady of Balnagown's table. It did not prove mortal, as +anticipated, but afflicted the unfortunate lady with a long and severe +illness. Dame Fowlis, however, felt no remorse, but continued her +plots, gradually widening their scope until she resolved to kill all +her husband's children by his first wife, in order to secure the +inheritance for her own. In May, 1577, she instructed MacGillivordam +to procure a large quantity of poison. He refused, unless his brother +was made privy to the transaction. I suppose this was done, as the +poison was obtained, and proved to be so deadly in its nature that two +persons--a woman and a boy--were killed by accidentally tasting of it. + +Foiled in her scheme, Dame Fowlis resorted to the practices of +witchcraft, and bought, in June, for five shillings, 'an elf +arrow-head'--that is, a rude flint implement--belonging to the +neolithic age. On July 2, she and her accomplices met together in +secret conclave; and having made an image of butter to resemble Robert +Munro, they placed it against the wall; and then, with the elf +arrow-head, Loskie Loncart shot at it for eight times, but each time +without success, a proof that the familiars of the devil, like their +master, could not always hit the mark. Meeting a second time for the +same purpose, they made an image of clay, at which Loskie shot twelve +times in succession, invariably missing, to the great disappointment +of all concerned. The failure was ascribed to the elf arrow-head, and +in August another was procured; two figures of clay were also made, +for Robert Munro and for Lady Balnagown, respectively; at the latter +Dame Fowlis shot twice, and at the former Loskie Loncart shot thrice; +but the shooting was no better than before, and the two images being +accidentally broken, the charm was destroyed. It was proposed to try +poison again, but by this time the authorities had gained information +of what was going on, and towards the end of November, Christian Roy, +who had been present at the third meeting, was arrested. Being put to +the torture, she confessed everything, and, together with some of her +confederates, was convicted of witchcraft and burnt. Dame Fowlis, who +assuredly was not the least guilty person, escaped to Caithness, but, +after remaining in concealment for nine months, was allowed to return +to her home. In 1588, her husband died, and was succeeded in his +estates by Robert Munro, who revived the charge of witchcraft against +his step-mother, and obtained a commission for her examination and +that of her surviving accomplices. Dame Fowlis was put on her trial on +July 22, 1590; but she had money and friends, and contrived to obtain +a verdict of acquittal. + +It is one of the most remarkable features of this remarkable case +that, as soon as her acquittal was pronounced, a new trial was opened, +in which the defendant was her other stepson, Hector Munro,[45] who +had been, only an hour before, the principal witness against her. The +allegations against him were: first, that, during the sore sickness of +his brother, in the summer of 1588, he had consulted with 'three +notorious and common witches' respecting the best means of curing him, +and had sheltered them for several days, until compelled by his father +to send them about their business; and, second, that falling ill +himself, in January, 1559, he had caused a certain Marion MacIngaruch, +'one of the most notorious and rank witches in the whole realm,' to be +brought to him, and who, after administering three draughts of water +out of three stones which she carried with her, declared that his sole +chance of recovery lay in the sacrifice of 'the principal man of his +blood.' After due consultation, they decided that this vicarious +sufferer must be George Munro, his step-brother, the eldest son of +Dame Fowlis. Messengers were accordingly sent in search of him. +Apprehending no evil, he obeyed the call, and five days afterwards +arrived at the house of Hector Munro. Following the directions of the +witch, Hector received his brother in silence, giving him his left +hand, and taking him by the right hand, and uttering no word of +greeting until he had spoken. George, astounded by the chillness of +his reception, which he could not but contrast with the warmth of the +invitations, remained in his brother's sick-room an hour without +speaking. At last he asked Hector how he felt. 'The better that you +have come to visit me,' replied Hector, and then was again silent, for +so the witch had ordained. An hour after midnight appeared Marion +MacIngaruch, with several assistants; and, arming themselves with +spades, they repaired to a nook of ground at the sea-side, situated +between the boundaries of the estates of the two lairds, and there, +removing the turf, they dug a grave of the size of the invalid. + +Marion returned to the house, and gave directions to her confederates +as to the parts they were to play in the startling scene which was yet +to be enacted. It was represented to her that if George died suddenly +suspicions would be aroused, with a result dangerous to all concerned; +and she thereupon undertook that he should be spared until April 17 +next thereafter. Hector was then wrapped up in a couple of blankets, +and carried to the grave in silence. In silence he was deposited in +it, and the turf lightly laid upon him, while Marion stationed herself +by his side. His foster-mother, one Christiana Neill Dayzell, then +took a young lad by the hand, and ran the breadth of nine ridges, +afterwards inquiring of the witch 'who might be her choice,' and +receiving for answer, 'That Hector was her choice to live, and his +brother George to die for him.' This ceremony was thrice repeated, and +the sick man was then taken from the grave, and carried home, the most +absolute silence still being maintained. + +Such an experience on a bitter January night might well have proved +fatal to the subject of it; but, strange to say, Hector Munro +recovered--probably from the effect on his imagination of rites so +peculiar and impressive; whereas, in the month of April, George Munro +was seized with a grievous illness, of which, in the following June, +he died. Grateful for the cure she had effected, Hector received the +witch Marion into high favour, installing her at his uncle's house of +Kildrummadyis, entertaining her 'as if she had been his spouse, and +giving her such pre-eminence in the county that none durst offend +her.' But it is the nature of such unhallowed confederacies to +surrender, sooner or later, their dark, dread secrets. Whispers spread +abroad, gradually shaping themselves into a connected story which +invited judicial investigation. A warrant was issued for the arrest of +Marion MacIngaruch; but for some time Hector Munro contrived to +conceal her, until Dame Fowlis discovered and made known that she was +lying in the house at Fowlis. She was arrested; and, making a full +confession of her actions, was sentenced to death, and burnt. Hector +Munro, however, was more fortunate, and obtained his acquittal. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[44] Pitcairn, 'Criminal Trials,' i. 49-58. This chapter is mainly +founded on the reports in Pitcairn. + +[45] Pitcairn, _ut ante_, i. 192, 202, 285. + + +JAMES I. AND THE WITCHES. + +These, and other cases of witchcraft which, as the mania extended, +occurred in various parts of the country, attracted the attention of +King James, and made a profound impression upon him. Taking up the +study of the subject with enthusiasm, he inquired into the demonology +of France and Germany, where it had been matured into a science; and +this so thoroughly that he became, as already stated, an expert, and +was really entitled to pronounce authoritative decisions. His example, +however, had a disastrous effect, confirming and deepening the popular +credulity to such an extent that the common people, for a time, might +have been divided into two great classes--witches and witch-finders. +That in such circumstances many acts of cruelty should be perpetrated +was inevitable. So complete was the demoralization, that the most +trivial physical or mental peculiarity was held to be an indubitable +witch-mark, and young and old were hurried to the stake like sheep to +the slaughter. + +In August, 1589, King James was married, by proxy, to Princess Anne of +Denmark; and the impatient monarch was eagerly awaiting the arrival of +his bride from Copenhagen, when the unwelcome intelligence reached him +that the vessels conveying her and her suite had been overtaken by a +storm, and, after a narrow escape from destruction, had put into the +port of Upsal, in Norway, with the intention of remaining there until +the following spring. The eager bridegroom, summoning up all his +courage--he had no love for the sea--resolved to go in search of his +queen, and, having found her, to conduct her to her new home. At Upsal +the marriage was duly solemnized; and husband and wife then voyaged to +Copenhagen, where they spent the winter. The homeward voyage was not +undertaken until the following spring; and it was on May Day, 1590, +that James and his Queen landed at Leith, after an experience of the +sea which confirmed James's distaste for it. + +The political disorder of the country, and the hold which the new +superstition had obtained upon the minds of the people, encouraged the +circulation of dark mysterious rumours in connection with the King's +unfavourable passage; and a general belief soon came to be established +that the tempestuous weather which had so seriously affected it was +due to the intervention of supernatural powers, at the instigation of +human treachery. Suspicion fixed at length upon the Earl of Bothwell, +who was arrested and committed to prison; but in June, 1591, contrived +to make his escape, and conceal himself in the remote recesses of the +Highlands. Not long afterwards, some curious circumstances attending +certain cures which a servant girl--Geillis, or Gillies, Duncan--had +performed, led to her being suspected of witchcraft; and this +suspicion opened up a series of investigations, which revealed the +existence of an extraordinary conspiracy against the King's life. + +Geillis Duncan was in the employment of David Seton, deputy-bailiff of +the small town of Tranent, in Haddingtonshire. Unlike the witch of +English rural life, she was young, comely, and fair-complexioned; and +the only ground on which the idea of witchcraft was associated with +her was the wonderful quickness with which she had cured some sick and +diseased persons, the fact being that she was well acquainted with the +healing properties of herbs. When her master severely interrogated +her, she at once denied all knowledge of the mysteries of the black +art. He then, without leave or license, put her to the torture; she +still continued to protest her innocence. It was a popular conviction +that no witch would confess so long as the devil-mark on her body +remained undiscovered. She was subjected to an indecent +examination--the stigma was found (said the examiners) on her throat; +she was again subjected to the torture. The outraged girl's fortitude +then gave way; she acknowledged whatever her persecutors wished to +learn. Yes, she _was_ a _witch_! She had made a compact with the +devil; all her cures had been effected by his assistance--quite a new +feature in the character of Satan, who has not generally been +suspected of any compassionate feeling towards suffering humanity. +That she had done good instead of harm availed the unfortunate Geillis +nothing. She was committed to prison; and the torture being a third +time applied, made a fuller confession, in which she named her +accomplices or confederates, some forty in number, residing in +different parts of Lothian. Their arrest and examination disclosed the +particulars of one of the strangest intrigues ever concocted. + +The principal parties in it were Dr. Fian, or Frain, a reputed wizard, +also known as John Cunningham; a grave matron, named Agnes Sampson; +Euphemia Macalzean, daughter of Lord Cliftonhall; and Barbara Napier. +Fian, or Cunningham, was a schoolmaster of Tranent, and a man of +ability and education; but his life had been evil--he was a vendor of +poisons--and, though innocent of the preposterous crimes alleged +against him, had dabbled in the practices of the so-called sorcery. +When a twisted cord was bound round his bursting temples, he would +confess nothing; and, exasperated by his fortitude, the authorities +subjected him to the terrible torture of 'the boots.' Even this he +endured in silence, until exhausted nature came to his relief with an +interval of unconsciousness. He was then released; restoratives were +applied; and, while he hovered on the border of sensibility, he was +induced to sign 'a full confession.' Being remanded to his prison, he +contrived, two days afterwards, to escape; but was recaptured, and +brought before the High Court of Justiciary, King James himself being +present. Fian strenuously repudiated the so-called confession which +had been foisted upon him in his swoon, declaring that his signature +had been obtained by a fraud. Whereupon King James, enraged at what he +conceived to be the man's stubborn wilfulness, ordered him again to +the torture. His fingernails were torn out with pincers, and long +needles thrust into the quick; but the courageous man made no sign. He +was then subjected once more to the barbarous 'boots,' in which he +continued so long, and endured so many blows, that 'his legs were +crushed and beaten together as small as might be, and the bones and +flesh so bruised, that the blood and marrow spouted forth in great +abundance, whereby they were made unserviceable for ever.' + +As ultimately extorted from the unfortunate Fian, his confession shows +a remarkable mixture of imposture and self-deception--a patchwork of +the falsehoods he believed and those he invented. Singularly grotesque +is his account of his introduction to the devil: He was lodging at +Tranent, in the house of one Thomas Trumbill, who had offended him by +neglecting to 'sparge' or whitewash his chamber, as he had promised; +and, while lying in his bed, meditating how he might be revenged of +the said Thomas, the devil, _clothed in white raiment_, suddenly +appeared, and said: 'Will ye be my servant, and adore me and all my +servants, and ye shall never want?' Never want! The bribe to a poor +Scotch dominie was immense; Fian could not withstand it, and at once +enlisted among 'the Devil's Own.' As his first act of service, he had +the pleasure of burning down Master Trumbill's house. The next night +Beelzebub paid him another visit, and put his mark upon him with a +rod. Thereafter he was found lying in his chamber in a trance, during +which, he said, he was carried in the spirit over many mountains, and +accomplished an aërial circumnavigation of the globe. In the future he +attended all the nightly conferences of witches and fiends held +throughout Lothian, displaying so much energy and capacity that the +devil appointed him to be his 'registrar and secretary.' + +The first convention at which he was present assembled in the parish +church of North Berwick, a breezy, picturesque seaport at the mouth of +the Forth, about sixteen miles from Preston Pans. Satan occupied the +pulpit, and delivered 'a sermon of doubtful speeches,' designed for +their encouragement. His servants, he said, should never want, and +should ail nothing, so long as their hairs were on, and they let no +tears fall from their eyes. He bade them spare not to do evil, and +advised them to eat, drink, and be merry: after which edifying +discourse they did homage to him in the usual indecent manner. Fian, +as I have said, was an evil-living man, and needed no exhortation from +the devil to do wicked things. In the course of his testimony he +invented, as was so frequently the strange practice of persons accused +of witchcraft, the most extravagant fictions--as, for instance: One +night he supped at the miller's, a few miles from Tranent; and as it +was late when the revel ended, one of the miller's men carried him +home on horseback. To light them on their way through the dark of +night, Fian raised up four candles on the horse's ears, and one on the +staff which his guide carried; their great brightness made the +midnight appear as noonday; but the miller's man was so terrified by +the phenomenon that, on his return home, he fell dead. + +Let us next turn to the confession of Agnes Sampson, 'the wise wife of +Keith,' as she was popularly called. She was charged with having done +grave injury to persons who had incurred her displeasure; but she +seems, when all fictitious details are thrust aside, to have been +simply a shrewd and sagacious old Scotchwoman, with much force of +character, who made a decent living as a herb-doctor. Archbishop +Spottiswoode describes her as matronly in appearance, and grave of +demeanour, and adds that she was composed in her answers. Yet were +those answers the wildest and most extraordinary utterances +imaginable, and, if they be truly recorded, they convict her of +unscrupulous audacity and unfailing ingenuity. + +She affirmed that her service to the devil began after her husband's +death, when he appeared to her in mortal likeness, and commanded her +to renounce Christ, and obey him as her master. For the sake of the +riches he promised to herself and her children, she consented; and +thereafter he came in the guise of a dog, of which she asked +questions, always receiving appropriate replies. On one occasion, +having been summoned by the Lady Edmaston, who was lying sick, she +went out into the garden at night, and called the devil by his +terrestrial or mundane _alias_ of Elva. He bounded over the stone wall +in the likeness of a dog, and approached her so close that she was +frightened, and charged him by 'the law he believed in' to keep his +distance. She then asked him if the lady would recover; he replied in +the negative. In his turn he inquired where the gentlewomen, her +daughters, were; and being informed that they were to meet her in the +garden, said that one of them should be his leman. 'Not so,' exclaimed +the wise wife undauntedly; and the devil then went away howling, like +a whipped schoolboy, and _hid himself in the well_ until after supper. +The young gentlewomen coming into the bloom and perfumes of the +garden, he suddenly emerged, seized the Lady Torsenye, and attempted +to drag her into the well; but Agnes gripped him firmly, and by her +superior strength delivered her from his clutches. Then, with a +terrible yell, he disappeared. + +Yet another story: Agnes, with Geillis Duncan and other witches, +desiring to be revenged on the deputy bailiff, met on the bridge at +Fowlistruther, and dropped a cord into the river, Agnes Sampson +crying, 'Hail! Holloa!' Immediately they felt the end of the cord +dragged down by a great weight; and on drawing it up, up came the +devil along with it! He inquired if they had all been good servants, +and gave them a charm to blight Seton and his property; but _it was +accidentally diverted in its operation, and fell upon another +person_--a touch of realism worthy of Defoe! + +Euphemia Macalzean, a lady of high social position, daughter and +heiress of Lord Cliftonhall (who was eminent as lawyer, statesman, and +scholar), seems to have been involved in this welter of intrigue, +conspiracy, and deception, through her adherence to Bothwell's +faction, and her devotion to the Roman communion. Her confession was +as grotesque and unveracious as that of any of her associates. She was +made a witch (she said) through the agency of an Irishwoman 'with a +fallen nose,' and, to perfect herself in the craft, had paid another +witch, who resided in St. Ninian's Row, Edinburgh, for 'inaugurating' +her with 'the girth of ane gret bikar,' revolving it 'oft round her +head and neck, and ofttimes round her head.' She was accused of having +administered poison to her husband, her father-in-law, and some other +persons; and whatever may be thought of the allegations of sorcery and +witchcraft, this heavier charge seems to have been well-founded. +Euphemia said that her acquaintance with Agnes Sampson began with her +first accouchement, when she applied to her to mitigate her pains, and +she did so by transferring them to a dog. At her second accouchement, +Agnes transferred them to a cat. + +As a determined enemy of the Protestant religion, Satan was inimical +to King James's marriage with a Protestant princess, and to break up +an alliance which would greatly limit his power for evil, he +determined to sink the ship that carried the newly-married couple on +their homeward voyage. His first device was to hang over the sea a +very dense mist, in the hope that the royal ship would miss her +course, and strike on some dangerous rock. When this device failed, +Dr. Fian was ordered to summon all the witches to meet their master at +the haunted kirk of North Berwick. Accordingly, on All-Hallow-mass +Eve, they assembled there to the number of two hundred; and each one +embarking in 'a riddle,' or sieve,[46] they sailed over the ocean +'very substantially,' carrying with them flagons of wine, and making +merry, and drinking 'by the way.' After sailing about for some time, +they met with their master, bearing in his claws a cat, which had +previously been drawn nine times through the fire. Handing it to one +of the warlocks, he bade him cast it into the sea, and shout 'Hola!' +whereupon the ocean became convulsed, and the waters seethed, and the +billows rose like heaving mountains. On through the storm sailed this +eerie company until they reached the Scottish coast, where they +landed, and, joining hands, danced in procession to the kirk of North +Berwick, Geillis Duncan going before them, playing a reel upon her +Jew's-harp, or trump--formerly a favourite musical instrument with +the Scotch peasantry--and singing: + + 'Cummer, go ye before; cummer, go ye; + Gif ye will not go before, cummer, let me!' + +Having arrived at their rendezvous, they danced round it +'withershins'--that is, in reverse of the apparent motion of the sun. +Dr. Fian then blew into the keyhole of the door, which opened +immediately, and all the witches and warlocks entered in. It was +pitch-dark; but Fian lighted the tapers by merely blowing on them, and +their sudden blaze revealed the devil in the pulpit, attired in a +black gown and hat. The description given of the fiend reveals the +stern imagination of the North, and is characteristic of the 'weird +sisters' of Scotland, who form, as Dr. Burton remarks, so grand a +contrast to 'the vulgar grovelling parochial witches of England.' His +body was hard as iron; his face terrible, with a nose like an eagle's +beak; his eyes glared like fire; his voice was gruff as the sound of +the east wind; his hands and legs were covered with hair, and his +hands and feet were armed with long claws. On beholding him, witches +and warlocks, with one accord, cried: 'All hail, master!' He then +called over their names, and demanded of them severally whether they +had been good and faithful servants, and what measure of success had +attended their operations against the lives of King James and his +bride--which surely he ought to have known! Gray Malkin, a foolish old +warlock, who officiated as beadle or janitor, heedlessly answered, +That nothing ailed the King yet, God be thanked! At which the devil, +in a fury, leaped from the pulpit, and lustily smote him on the ears. +He then resumed his position, and delivered his sermon, commanding +them to act faithfully in their service, and do all the evil they +could. Euphemia Macalzean and Agnes Sampson summoned up courage enough +to ask him whether he had brought an image or picture of the King, +that, by pricking it with pins, they might inflict upon its living +pattern all kinds of pain and disease. The devil was fain to +acknowledge that he had forgotten it, and was soundly rated by +Euphemia for his carelessness, Agnes Sampson and several other women +seizing the opportunity to load him with reproaches on their +respective accounts. + +On another occasion, according to Agnes Sampson, she, Dr. Fian, and a +wizard of some energy, named Robert Grierson, with several others, +left Grierson's house at Preston Pans in a boat, and went out to sea +to 'a tryst.' Embarking on board a ship, they drank copiously of good +wine and ale, after which they sank the ship and her crew, and +returned home. And again, sailing from North Berwick in a boat like a +chimney, they saw the devil--in shape and size resembling a huge +hayrick--rolling over the great waves in front of them. They went on +board a vessel called _The Grace of God_, where they enjoyed, as +before, an abundance of wine and 'other good cheer.' On leaving it, +the devil, who was underneath the ship, raised an evil wind, and it +perished. + +Some of these stories proved to be too highly coloured even for the +credulity of King James; and he rightly enough exclaimed that the +witches were, like their master, 'extraordinary liars.' It is said, +however, that he changed his opinion after Agnes Sampson, in a private +conference which he accorded to her, related the details of a +conversation between himself and the Queen that had taken place under +such circumstances as to ensure inviolable secrecy. It is curious that +a very similar story is told of Jeanne Darc--whom our ancestors burned +as a witch--and King Charles VI. of France. + +Despite the machinations of the devil and the witches, King James and +Queen Anne, as we know, escaped every peril, and reached Leith in +safety. The devil sourly remarked that James was 'a man of God,' and +was evidently inclined to let him alone severely; but the Preston Pans +conspirators, instigated, perhaps, by some powerful personages who +kept prudently in the background, resolved on another attempt against +their sovereign's life. On Lammas Eve (July 31, 1590), nine of the +ringleaders, including Dr. Fian, Agnes Sampson, Euphemia Macalzean, +and Barbara Napier, with some thirty confederates, assembled at the +New Haven, between Musselburgh and Preston Pans, at a spot called the +Fairy Holes, where they were met by the devil in the shape of a black +man, which was 'thought most meet to do the turn for the which they +were convened.' Agnes Sampson at once proposed that they should make a +final effort for the King's destruction. The devil took an +unfavourable view of the prospects of their schemes; but he promised +them a waxen image, and directed them to hang up and roast a toad, and +to lay its drippings--mixed with strong wash, an adder's skin, and +'the thing on the forehead of a new-foaled foal'--in James's path, or +to suspend it in such a position that it might drip upon his body. +This precious injunction was duly obeyed, and the toad hung up where +the dripping would fall upon the King, 'during his Majesty's being at +the Brig of Dee, the day before the common bell rang, for fear the +Earl Bothwell should have entered Edinburgh.' But the devil's +foreboding was fulfilled, and the conspirators missed their aim, the +King happening to take a different route to that by which he had been +expected. + +It is useless to repeat more of these wild and desperate stories, or +to inquire too closely into their origin. Fact and fiction are so +mixed up in them, and the embellishments are so many and so bold, that +it is difficult to get at the nucleus of truth; but, setting aside the +witch or supernatural element, we seem driven to the conclusion that +these persons had combined together for some nefarious purpose. +Whether they intended to compass the King's death by the superstitious +practices which the credulity of the age supposed to be effective, or +whether these practices were intended as a cover for surer means, +cannot now be determined. Nor can we pretend to say whether all who +were implicated in the plot by the confession of Geillis Duncan were +really guilty. Dr. Fian, at all events, protested his innocence to +the last; and with regard to him and others, the evidence adduced was +painfully inadequate. But they were all convicted and sentenced to +death. In the case of Barbara Napier, the majority of the jury at +first acquitted her on the principal charges; but the King was highly +indignant, and threatened them with a trial for 'wilful error upon an +assize.' To avoid the consequences, they threw themselves upon the +King's mercy, and were benevolently 'pardoned.' Poor Barbara Napier +was hanged. So was Dr. Fian, on Castle Hill, Edinburgh (in January, +1592), and burned afterwards. So were Agnes Sampson, Agnes Thomson, +and their real or supposed confederates. The punishment of Euphemia +Macalzean was exceptionally severe. Instead of the ordinary sentence, +directing the criminal to be first strangled and then burnt, it was +ordered that she should be 'bound to a stake, and burned in ashes, +_quick_ to the death.' This fate befell her on June 25, 1591. + +It was an unhappy result of this remarkable trial that it confirmed +King James in his belief that he possessed a rare faculty for the +detection of witches and the discovery of witchcraft. Continuing his +investigation of the subject with fanatical zeal, he published in +Edinburgh, in 1597, the outcome of his researches in his +'Dæmonologie'--an elaborate treatise, written in the form of a +dialogue, the spirit of which may be inferred from its author's +prefatory observations: 'The fearful abounding,' he says, 'at this +time and 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 mine own learning and ingene, but only +(moved of conscience) to press thereby, so far as I can, to resolve +the doubting hearts of many, both that such assaults of Satan are most +certainly practised, and that the instrument 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 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 them +impunity, he plainly betrays himself to have been one of that +profession.' + +Not only is King James fully convinced of the existence of witchcraft, +but he is determined to treat it as a capital crime. 'Witches,' he +affirms, 'ought to be put to death, according to the laws of God, the +civil and imperial law, and the municipal law of all Christian +nations; yea, to spare the life, and not strike whom God bids strike, +and so severely punish 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.' Conscious that the evidence brought against the +unfortunate victims was generally of the weakest possible character, +he contends that because the crime is generally abominable, evidence +in proof of it may be accepted which would be refused in other +offences; as, for example, that of young children who are ignorant of +the nature of an oath, and that of persons of notoriously ill-repute. +And the sole chance of escape which he offers to the accused is that +of the ordeal. 'Two good helps,' he says, 'may be used: the one is the +finding of their marks, and the trying the insensibleness thereof; the +other is their floating on the water, for, as in a secret murther, if +the dead carcase be at any time thereafter handled by the murtherer, +it will gush out of blood, as if the blood were raging to the Heaven, +for revenge of the murtherer (God having appointed that secret +supernatural sign for trial of that secret unnatural crime), so that +it appears 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; no, not so much as +their eyes are able to shed tears at every light occasion when they +will; yea, although it were dissembling like the crocodiles, God not +permitting them to dissemble their obstinacy in so horrible a crime.' + + * * * * * + +Encouraged by the practice and teaching of their sovereign, the people +of Scotland, whom the anthropomorphism of their religious creed +naturally predisposed to believe in the personal appearances of the +devil, undertook a regular campaign against those ill-fated +individuals whom malice or ignorance, or their own mental or physical +peculiarities, or other causes, branded as his bond-slaves and +accomplices. Religious animosity, moreover, was a powerful factor in +stimulating and sustaining the mania; and the Scotch Calvinist enjoyed +a double gratification when some poor old woman was burned both as a +witch and a Roman Catholic. It has been calculated that, in the period +of thirty-nine years, between the enactment of the Statute of Queen +Mary and the accession of James to the English throne, the average +number of persons executed for witchcraft was 200 annually, making an +aggregate of nearly 8,000. For the first nine years about 30 or 40 +suffered yearly; but latterly the annual death-roll mounted up to 400 +and 500. James at last grew alarmed at the prevalence of witchcraft in +his kingdom, and seems to have devoted no small portion of his time to +attempts to detect and exterminate it. + +In 1591 the Earl of Bothwell was imprisoned for having conspired the +King's death by sorcery, in conjunction with a warlock named Richie +Graham. Graham was burned on March 8, 1592. Bothwell was not brought +to trial until August 10, 1593, when several witches bore testimony +against him, but he obtained an acquittal. + +In 1597, on November 12, four women were tried by the High Court of +Justiciary, in Edinburgh, on various charges of witchcraft. Their +names are recorded as Christina Livingstone, Janet Stewart, Bessie +Aikin, and Christina Sadler. Their trials, however, present no special +features of interest. + +Passing over half a century, we come to the recrudescence of the +witch-mania, which followed on the restoration of Charles II. Mr. R. +Burns Begg has recently edited for the Society of Antiquaries of +Scotland a report of various witch trials in Forfar and +Kincardineshire, in the opening years of that monarch's reign, which +supplies some further illustrations of the characteristics of Scottish +witchcraft. Here we meet with the strange word 'Covin' or 'Coven' +(apparently connected with 'Covenant' or 'Convention') as applied to +an organization or guild of witches. In 1662 the Judge-General-Depute +for Scotland tried thirteen 'Coviners,' who had been detected by the +efforts of a committee consisting of the ministers and schoolmasters +of the district, together with the 'Laird of Tullibole.' Of these +thirteen unfortunate victims only one was a man. All were found guilty +by the jury, and sentenced to death. Eleven suffered at the stake; one +died before the day of execution, and one was respited on account of +her pregnancy. The evidence was of the usual extraordinary tenor, and +the so-called 'confessions' of the accused were not less puzzling than +in other cases. In Mr. Begg's opinion, which seems to me well founded, +there really _was_ in and around the Crook of Devon a local Covin, or +regularly organized band of so-called witches who acted under the +direction of a person whom they believed to be Satan. He suggests that +at this period there would be many wild and unscrupulous characters, +disbanded soldiers, and others, who found their profit in the +'blinded allegiance' of the witches and warlocks. The difficulty is, +what _was_ this profit? The witches do not seem to have paid anything +in money or in kind. There are allusions which point to acts of +immorality, and in several instances one can understand that personal +enmities were gratified; but on the whole the personators of Satan had +scant reward for all their trouble. And how was it that they were +never denounced by any of their victims? How was it that the vigilance +which detected the witches never tripped up their master? How are we +to explain the diversity of Satan's appearances? At one time he was +'ane bonnie lad;' at another, an 'unco-like man, in black-coloured +clothes and ane blue bonnet;' at another, a 'black iron-hard man;' and +yet again, 'ane little man in rough gray clothes.' Occasionally he +brought with him a piper, and the witches danced together, and the +ground under them was all fireflaughts, and Andrew Watson had his +usual staff in his hand, and although he is a blind man, yet danced he +as nimbly as any of the company, and made also great merriment by +singing his old ballads; and Isabel Shyrrie did sing her song called +'Tinkletum, Tankletum.' Alas, that no obliging pen has transmitted +'Tinkletum, Tankletum' to posterity! One could point to a good many +songs which the world could have better spared. 'Tinkletum, +Tankletum'--there is something amazingly suggestive in the words; +possibilities of humour, perhaps of satire; humour and satire which +might have secured for Isabel Shyrrie a place among Scottish +poetesses, whereas now she comes before us in no more attractive +character than that of a Coviner--a deluded or self-deluding witch. + +Let us next betake ourselves to the East Coast, and make the +acquaintance of Isabel Gowdie, whose 'confessions' are among the most +extraordinary documents to be met with even in the records of Scottish +witchcraft. It is impossible, I think, to overrate their psychological +interest. The first is, perhaps, the most curious; and as no summary +or condensation would do justice to its details, I shall place it +before the reader _in extenso_, with no other alteration than that of +Englishing the spelling. It was made at Auldearn on April 13, 1662, in +presence of the parish minister, the sheriff-depute of Nairn, and nine +lairds and farmers of good position: + +'As I was going betwixt the towns (_i.e._, farmsteadings) of +Drumdeevin and The Heads, I met with the Devil, and there covenanted +in a manner with him; and I promised to meet him, in the night-time, +in the Kirk of Auldearn,[47] which I did. And the first thing I did +there that night, I denied my baptism, and did put the one of my hands +to the crown of my head, and the other to the sole of my foot, and +then renounced all betwixt my two hands over to the Devil. He was in +the Reader's desk, and a black book in his hand. Margaret Brodie, in +Auldearn, held me up to the Devil to be baptized by him, and he marked +me in the shoulder, and sucked out my blood at that mark, and spouted +it in his hand, and, sprinkling it on my head, said, "I baptize thee, +Janet, in my own name!" And within awhile we all removed. The next +time that I met with him was in the New Wards of Inshoch.... He was a +mickle, black, rough [hirsute] man, very cold; and I found his nature +all cold within me as spring-wall-water.[48] Sometimes he had boots, +and sometimes shoes on his feet; but still his feet are forked and +cloven. He would be sometimes with us like a deer or a roe. John +Taylor and Janet Breadhead, his wife, in Belmakeith, ... Douglas, and +I myself, met in the kirkyard of Nairn, and we raised an unchristened +child out of its grave; and at the end of Bradley's cornfieldland, +just opposite to the Mill of Nairn, we took the said child, with the +nails of our fingers and toes, pickles of all sorts of grain, and +blades of kail [colewort], and hacked them all very small, mixed +together; and did put a part thereof among the muck-heaps, and thereby +took away the fruit of his corns, etc., and we parted it among two of +our Covins. When we take corns at Lammas, we take but about two +sheaves, when the corns are full; or two stalks of kail, or thereby, +and that gives us the fruit of the corn-land or kail-yard, where they +grew. And it may be, we will keep it until Yule or Pasche, and then +divide it amongst us. There are thirteen persons [the usual number] in +my Covin. + +'The last time that our Covin met, we, and another Covin, were dancing +at the Hill of Earlseat; and before that, betwixt Moynes and Bowgholl; +and before that we were beyond the Mickle-burn; and the other Covin +being at the Downie-hills, we went from beyond the Mickle-burn, and +went beside them, to the houses at the Wood-End of Inshoch; and within +a while went home to our houses. Before Candlemas we went be-east +Kinloss, and there we yoked a plough of paddocks [frogs]. The Devil +held the plough, and John Young, in Mebestown, our Officer, did drive +the plough. Paddocks did draw the plough as oxen; _quickens wor +sowmes_ [dog-grass served for traces]; a riglon's [ram's] horn was a +coulter, and a piece of a riglon's horn was a sock. We went two +several times about; and all we of the Covin went still up and down +with the plough, praying to the Devil for the fruit of that land, and +that thistles and briars might grow there. + +'When we go to any house, we take meat and drink; and we fill up the +barrels with our own ... again; and we put besoms in our beds with our +husbands, till we return again to them. We were in the Earl of Moray's +house in Darnaway, and we got enough there, and did eat and drink of +the best, and brought part with us. We went in at the windows. I had a +little horse, and would say, "Horse and Hattock, in the Devil's name!" +And then we would fly away, where we would, like as straws would fly +upon a highway. We will fly like straws where we please; wild straws +and corn-straws will be horses to us, and we put them betwixt our feet +and say, "Horse and Hattock, in the Devil's name!" And when any see +these straws in a whirlwind, and do not sanctify themselves, we may +shoot them dead at our pleasure. Any that are shot by us, their souls +will go to Heaven, but their bodies remain with us, and will fly as +horses to us, as small as straws.[49] + +'I was in the Downie Hills, and got meat there from the Queen of +Fairy, more than I could eat. The Queen of Fairy is heavily clothed in +white linen, and in white and lemon clothes, etc.; and the King of +Fairy is a brave man, well favoured, and broad-faced, etc. There were +elf-bulls, routing and skirling up and down there, and they affrighted +me. + +'When we take away any cow's milk, we pull the tail, and twine it and +plait it the wrong way, in the Devil's name; and we draw the tedder +(so made) in betwixt the cow's hinder-feet, and out betwixt the cow's +fore-feet, in the Devil's name, and thereby take with us the cow's +milk. We take sheep's milk even so [in the same manner]. The way to +take or give back the milk again, is to cut that tedder. When we take +away the strength of any person's ale, and give it to another, we +take a little quantity out of each barrel or stand of ale, and put it +in a stoop in the Devil's name, and in his name, with our own hands, +put it amongst another's ale, and give her the strength and substance +and "heall" of her neighbour's ale. And to keep the ale from us, that +we have no power over it, is to sanctify it well. We get all this +power from the Devil; and when we seek it from him, we will him to be +"our Lord." + +'John Taylor, and Janet Breadhead, his wife, in Belmakeith, Bessie +Wilson in Aulderne, and Margaret Wilson, spouse to Donald Callam in +Aulderne, and I, made a picture of clay, to destroy the Laird of +Park's male children. John Taylor brought home the clay in his plaid +nook [the corner of his plaid]; his wife broke it very small, like +meal, and sifted it with a sieve, and poured in water among it, in the +Devil's name, and wrought it very sure, like rye-bout [a stir-about +made of rye-flour]; and made of it a picture of the laird's sons. It +had all the parts and marks of a child, such as head, eyes, nose, +hands, feet, mouth, and little lips. It wanted no mark of a child, and +the hands of it folded down by its sides. It was like a pow [lump of +dough], or a flayed _egrya_ [a sucking-pig, which has been scalded and +scraped]. We laid the face of it to the fire, till it strakned +[shrivelled], and a clear fire round about it, till it was red like a +coal. After that, we would roast it now and then; each other day there +would be a piece of it well roasted. The Laird of Park's whole male +children by it are to suffer, if it be not gotten and brokin, as well +as those that are born and dead already. It was still put in and taken +out of the fire in the Devil's name. It was hung up upon a crock. It +is yet in John Taylor's house, and it has a cradle of clay about it. +Only John Taylor and his wife, Janet Breadhead, Bessie and Margaret +Wilson in Aulderne, and Margaret Brodie, these, and I, were only at +the making of it. All the multitude of our number of witches, of all +the Covins, kent [_kenned_, knew] all of it, at our next meeting after +it was made. And the witches yet that are overtaken have their own +powers, and our powers which we had before we were taken, both. But +now I have no power at all. + +'Margaret Kyllie, in ... is one of the other Covin; Meslie Hirdall, +spouse to Alexander Ross, in Loanhead, is one of them; her skin is +fiery. Isabel Nicol, in Lochley, is one of my Covin. Alexander Elder, +in Earlseat, and Janet Finlay, his spouse, are of my Covin. Margaret +Haslum, in Moynes, is one; Margaret Brodie, in Aulderne, Bessie and +Margaret Wilson there, and Jane Martin there, and Elspet Nishie, +spouse to John Mathew there, are of my Covin. The said Jane Martin is +the Maiden of our Covin. John Young, in Mebestown, is Officer to our +Covin. + +'Elspet Chisholm, and Isabel More, in Aulderne, Maggie Brodie ... and +I, went into Alexander Cumling's litt-house [dye-house], in Aulderne. +I went in, in the likeness of a ken [jackdaw]; the said Elspet +Chisholm was in the shape of a cat. Isabel More was a hare, and Maggie +Brodie a cat, and.... We took a thread of each colour of yarn that +was on the said Alexander Cumling's litt-fatt [dyeing-vat], and did +cast three knots on each thread, in the Devil's name, and did put the +threads in the vat, _withersones_ about in the vat in the Devil's +name, and thereby took the whole strength of the vat away, that it +could litt [dye] nothing but only black, according to the colour of +the Devil, in whose name we took away the strength of the right +colours that were in the vat.' + + * * * * * + +The second confession, made at Aulderne, on May 3, 1662, is not less +remarkable than the foregoing: + +'... After that time there would meet but sometimes a Covin [_i.e._, +thirteen], sometimes more, sometimes less; but a Grand Meeting would +be about the end of each Quarter. There is thirteen persons in each +Covin; and each of us has one Sprite to wait upon us, when we please +to call upon him. I remember not all the Sprites' names, but there is +one called _Swin_, which waits upon the said Margaret Wilson in +Aulderne; he is still [ever] clothed in grass-green; and the said +Margaret Wilson has a nickname, called "Pickle nearest the wind." The +next Sprite is called "Rosie," who waits upon Bessie Wilson, in +Aulderne; he is still clothed in yellow; and her nickname is "Through +the cornyard." ... The third Sprite is called "The Roaring Lion," who +waits upon Isabel Nicol, in Lochlors; and [he is still clothed[50]] in +sea-green; her nickname is "Bessie Rule." The fourth Sprite is called +"Mak Hector," who [waits upon Jane[50]] Martin, daughter to the said +Margaret Wilson; he is a young-like devil, clothed still in +grass-green. [Jane Martin is[50]] Maiden to the Covin that I am of; +and her nickname is "Over the dyke with it," because the Devil [always +takes the[50]] Maiden in his hand nix time we damn "Gillatrypes;" and +when he would leap from ...[50] he and she will say, "Over the dyke +with it!" The name of the fifth Sprite is "Robert the [Rule," and he +is still clothed in[50]] sad-dun, and seems to be a Commander of the +rest of the Sprites; and he waits upon Margaret Brodie, in Aulderne. +[The name of the saxt Sprite] is called "Thief of Hell wait upon +Herself;" and he waits also on the said Bessie Wilson. The name of the +seventh [Sprite is called] "The Read Reiver;" and he is my own Spirit, +that waits on myself, and is still clothed in black. The eighth Spirit +[is called] "Robert the Jackis," still clothed in dun, and seems to be +aged. He is a glaiked, glowked Spirit! The woman's [nickname] that he +waits on is "Able and Stout!" [This was Bessie Hay.] The ninth Spirit +is called "Laing," and the woman's nickname that he waits upon is +"Bessie Bold" [Elspet Nishie]. The tenth Spirit is named "Thomas a +Fiarie," etc. There will be many other Devils, waiting upon [our] +Master Devil; but he is bigger and more awful than the rest of the +Devils, and they all reverence him. I will ken them all, one by one, +from others, when they appear like a man. + +'When we raise the wind, we take a rag of cloth, and wet it in water; +and we take a beetle and knock the rag on a stone, and we say thrice +over: + + '"I knock this rag upon this stane, + To raise the wind, in the Devil's name; + It shall not lie until I please again!" + +When we would lay the wind, we dry the rag, and say (thrice over): + + '"We lay the wind in the Devil's name, + [It shall not] rise while we [or I] like to raise it again!" + +And if the wind will not lie instantly [after we say this], we call +upon our Spirit, and say to him: + + '"Thief! Thief! conjure the wind, and cause it to [lie?...]" + +We have no power of rain, but we will raise the wind when we please. +He made us believe [...] that there was no God beside him. + +'As for Elf arrow-heads, the Devil shapes them with his own hand [and +afterwards delivers them?] to Elf-boys, who "whyttis and dightis" +[shapes and trims] them with a sharp thing like a packing-needle; but +[when I was in Elf-land?] I saw them whytting and dighting them. When +I was in the Elves' houses, they will have very ... them whytting and +dighting; and the Devil gives them to us, each of us so many, when.... +Those that dightis them are little ones, hollow, and boss-backed +[humped-backed]. They speak gowstie [roughly] like. When the Devil +gives them to us, he says: + + '"Shoot these in my name, + And they shall not go heall hame!" + +And when we shoot these arrows (we say): + + '"I shoot you man in the Devil's name, + He shall not win heall hame! + And this shall be always true; + There shall not be one bit of him on lieiw" [on life, alive]. + +'We have no bow to shoot with, but spang [jerk] them from the nails of +our thumbs. Sometimes we will miss; but if they twitch [touch], be it +beast, or man, or woman, it will kill, tho' they had a jack [a coat of +armour] upon them. When we go in the shape of a hare, we say thrice +over: + + '"I shall go into a hare, + With sorrow, and such, and mickle care; + And I shall go in the Devil's name, + Ay, until I come home [again!]." + +And instantly we start in a hare. And when we would be out of that +shape, we will say: + + '"Hare! hare! God send thee care! + I am in a hare's likeness just now, + But I shall be in a woman's likeness even [now]." + +When we would go in the likeness of a cat, we say thrice over: + + '"I shall go [intill ane cat], + [With sorrow, and such, and a black] shot! + And I shall go in the Devil's name, + Ay, until I come home again!" + +And if we [would go in a crow, then] we say thrice over: + + '"I shall go intill a crow, + With sorrow, and such, and a black [thraw! + And I shall go in the Devil's name,] + Ay, until I come home again!" + +And when we would be out of these shapes, we say: + + '"Cat, cat [or crow, crow], God send thee a black shot [or black + thraw!] + I was a cat [or crow] just now, + But I shall be [in a woman's likeness even now]. + Cat, cat" [as _supra_]. + +If we go in the shape of a cat, a crow, a hare, or any other likeness, +etc., to any of our neighbours' houses, being witches, we will say: + + '"[I (or we) conjure] thee go with us [or me]!" + +And presently they become as we are, either cats, hares, crows, etc., +and go [with us whither we would. When] we would ride, we take +windle-straws, or been-stakes [bean-stalks], and put them betwixt our +feet, and say thrice: + + '"Horse and Hattock, horse and go, + Horse and pellatris, ho! ho!" + +And immediately we fly away wherever we would; and lest our husbands +should miss us out of our beds, we put in a besom, or a three-legged +stool, beside them, and say thrice over: + + '"I lay down this besom [or stool] in the Devil's name, + Let it not stir till I come home again!" + +And immediately it seems a woman, by the side of our husband. + +'We cannot turn in[to] the likeness of [a lamb or a dove?] When my +husband sold beef, I used to put a swallow's feather in the head of +the beast, and [say thrice], + + '"[I] put out this beef in the Devil's name, + That mickle silver and good price come hame!" + +'I did even so [whenever I put] forth either horse, nolt [cattle], +webs [of cloth], or any other thing to be sold, and still put in this +feather, and said the [same words thrice] over, to cause the +commodities sell well, and ... thrice over-- + + '"Our Lord to hunting he [is gone] + .......... marble stone, + He sent word to Saint Knitt ..." + +'When we would heal any sore or broken limb, we say thrice over.... + + '"He put the blood to the blood, till all up stood; + The lith to the lith, Till all took nith; + Our Lady charmed her dearly Son, With her tooth and her tongue, + And her ten fingers-- + In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost!" + +'And this we say thrice over, stroking the sore, and it becomes whole. +2ndlie. For the Bean-Shaw [bone-shaw, _i.e._, the sciatica], or pain +in the haunch: "We are here three Maidens charming for the bean-shaw; +the man of the Midle-earth, blew beaver, land-fever, maneris of +stooris, the Lord fleigged (terrified) the Fiend with his holy candles +and yard foot-stone! There she sits, and here she is gone! Let her +never come here again!" 3rdli. For the fevers, we say thrice over, "I +forbid the quaking-fevers, the sea-fevers, the land-fevers, and all +the fevers that God ordained, out of the head, out of the heart, out +of the back, out of the sides, out of the knees, out of the thighs, +from the points of the fingers to the nibs of the toes; net fall the +fevers go, [some] to the hill, some to the heep, some to the stone, +some to the stock. In St. Peter's name, St. Paul's name, and all the +Saints of Heaven. In the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy +Ghost!" And when we took the fruit of the fishes from the fishers, we +went to the shore before the boat would come to it; and we would say, +on the shore-side, three several times over: + + '"The fishers are gone to the sea, + And they will bring home fish to me; + They will bring them home intill the boat, + But they shall get of them but the smaller sort!" + +So we either steal a fish, or buy a fish, or get a fish from them [for +naught], one or more. And with that we have all the fruit of the whole +fishes in the boat, and the fishes that the fishermen themselves will +have will be but froth, etc. + +'The first voyage that ever I went with the rest of our Covins was +[to] Ploughlands; and there we shot a man betwixt the plough-stilts, +and he presently fell to the ground, upon his nose and his mouth; and +then the Devil gave me an arrow, and caused me shoot a woman in that +field; which I did, and she fell down dead.[51] In winter of 1660, +when Mr. Harry Forbes, Minister at Aulderne, was sick, we made a bag +of the galls, flesh, and guts of toads, pickles of barley, parings of +the nails of fingers and toes, the liver of a hare, and bits of +clouts. We steeped all this together, all night among water, all +hacked (or minced up) through other. And when we did put it among the +water, Satan was with us, and learned us the words following, to say +thrice over. They are thus: + + '1st. "He is lying in his bed; he is lying sick and sore; + Let him lie intill his bed two months and [three] days more! + + '2nd. "Let him lie intill his bed; let him lie intill it sick and sore; + Let him lie intill his bed months two and three days more! + + '3rd. "He shall lie intill his bed, he shall lie in it sick and sore; + He shall lie intill his bed two months and three days more!" + +'When we had learned all these words from the Devil, as said is, we +fell all down upon our knees, with our hair down over our shoulders +and eyes, and our hands lifted up, and our eyes [upon] the Devil, and +said the foresaid words thrice over to the Devil, strictly, against +[the recovery of] Master Harry Forbes [from his sickness]. In the +night time we came in to Mr. Harry Forbes's chamber, where he lay, +with our hands all smeared out of the bag, to swing it upon Mr. Harry, +when he was sick in his bed; and in the daytime [one of our] number, +who was most familiar and intimate with him, to wring or swing the bag +[upon the said Mr. Harry, as we could] not prevail in the night time +against him, which was accordingly done. Any of ... comes in to your +houses, or are set to do you evil, they will look uncouth--like, +thrown ... hurly-like, and their clothes standing out. The Maiden of +our Covin, Jane Martin, was [.... We] do no great matter without our +Maiden. + +'And if a child be forespoken [bewitched], we take the cradle ... +through it thrice, and then a dog through it; and then shake the belt +above the fire [... and then cast it] down on the ground, till a dog +or cat go over it, that the sickness may come [... upon the dog or +cat].' + + * * * * * + +With these extended quotations the reader will probably be satisfied, +and in concluding my account of Isabel Gowdie, I must now adopt a +process of condensation. + +Among other freaks and fancies of a disordered imagination, Isabel +declared that she merited to be stretched upon a rack of iron, and +that if torn to pieces by wild horses, the punishment would not exceed +the measure of her iniquities. These iniquities comprehended every act +attributed by the superstition of the time to the servants of the +devil, which had been carefully gathered up by this monomaniac from +contemporary witch-tradition. The cruellest thing was, that she +involved so large a number of innocent persons in the peril into +which she herself had recklessly plunged, naming nearly fifty women, +and I forget how many men, as her associates or accomplices. She +affirmed that they dug up from their graves the bodies of unbaptized +infants, and having dismembered them, made use of the limbs in their +incantations. That when they wished to destroy an enemy's crops, they +yoked toads to his plough; and on the following night the devil, with +this strange team, drove furrows into the land, and blasted it +effectually. The devil, it would seem, was so long and so incessantly +occupied with high affairs in Scotland, that surely the rest of the +world must have escaped meanwhile the evils of his interference! +Witches, added Isabel, were able to assume almost any shape, but their +usual choice was that of a hare, or perhaps a cat. There was some risk +in either assumption. Once it happened that Isabel, in her disguise of +a hare, was hotly pursued by a pack of hounds, and narrowly escaped +with her life. When she reached her cottage-door she could feel the +hot breath of her pursuers on her haunches; but, contriving to slip +behind a chest, she found time to speak the magic words which alone +could restore her to her natural shape, namely: + + 'Hare! hare! God send thee care! + I am in a hare's likeness now; + But I shall be a woman e'en now. + Hare! hare! God send thee care!' + +If witches, while wearing the shape of hare or cat, were bitten by the +dogs, they always retained the marks on their human bodies. When the +devil called a convention of his servants, each proceeded through the +air--like the witches of Lapland and other countries--astride on a +broomstick [or it might be on a corn or bean straw], repeating as they +went the rhyme: + + 'Horse and paddock, horse and go, + Horse and pellatris, ho! ho!' + +They usually left behind them a broom, or three-legged stool, which, +properly charmed and placed in bed, assumed a likeness to themselves +until they returned, and prevented suspicion. This seems to have been +the practice of witches everywhere. Witches specially favoured by +their master were provided with a couple of imps as attendants, who +boasted such very mundane names as 'The Roaring Lion,' 'Thief of +Hell,' 'Ranting Roarer,' and 'Care for Nought'--a great improvement on +the vulgar monosyllables worn by the English imps--and were dressed, +as already described, in distinguishing liveries: sea-green, +pea-green, grass-green, sad-dun, and yellow. The witches were never +allowed--at least, not in the infernal presence--to call themselves, +or one another, by their baptismal names, but were required to use the +appellations bestowed on the devil when he rebaptized them, such as +'Blue Kail,' 'Raise the Wind,' 'Batter-them-down Maggie,' and 'Able +and Stout.' The reader will find in the reports of the trial much more +of this grotesque nonsense--the vapourings of a distempered brain. The +judges, however, took it seriously, and Isabel Gowdie, or Gilbert, +and many of her presumed accomplices, were duly strangled and burned +(in April, 1662). + +FOOTNOTES: + +[46] So the witch in 'Macbeth' (Act I., sc. 3) says: + + 'In a sieve I'll thither sail.' + +[47] It is a singular circumstance, as Pitcairn remarks, that in +almost all the confessions of witches, or at least of the Scottish +witches, their initiation, and many of their meetings, are said to +have taken place within churches, churchyards, and consecrated ground; +and a certain ritual, in imitation, or mockery, of the forms of the +Church, is uniformly said to have been gone through. + +[48] In the Forfarshire reports, alluded to on p. 332, the witches +always speak of the devil's body and kiss as deadly cold. + +[49] Pitcairn remarks, with justice, that the above details are, +perhaps, in all respects the most extraordinary in the history of +witchcraft of this or of any other country. Isabel Gowdie must have +been a woman with a powerful and rank imagination, who, had she lived +in the present day, might, perhaps, have produced a work of fiction of +the school of Zola. + +[50] There are mutilations in the original manuscript, and the +bracketed words are conjectural. + +[51] These, it is needless to say, were pure inventions, and by no +means amusing ones. + + +CASE OF JANET WISHART. + +The case of Janet Wishart, wife of John Leyis, carries us away to the +North of Scotland. It presents some peculiar features, and therefore I +shall put it before the reader, with no more abridgment than is +absolutely needful. It is of much earlier date than the preceding.[52] + +'i. In the month of April, or thereabout, in 1591, in the "gricking" +of the day, [that is, in the dawn,] Janet Wishart, on her way back +from the blockhouse and Fattie, where she had been holding conference +with the devil, pursued Alexander Thomson, mariner, coming forth of +Aberdeen to his ship, ran between him and Alexander Fidler, under the +Castle Hill, as swift, it appeared to him, as an arrow could be shot +forth of a bow, going betwixt him and the sun, and cast her "cantrips" +in his way. Whereupon, the said Alexander Thomson took an immediate +"fear and trembling," and was forced to hasten home, take to his bed, +and lie there for the space of a month, so that none believed he would +live;--one half of the day burning in his body, as if he had been +roasting in an oven, with an extreme feverish thirst, "so that he +could never be satisfied of drink," the other half of the day melting +away his body with an extraordinarily cold sweat. And Thomson, knowing +she had cast this kind of witchcraft upon him, sent his wife to +threaten her, that, unless she at once relieved him, he would see that +she was burnt. And she, fearing lest he should accuse her, sent him by +the two women a certain kind of beer and some other drugs to drink, +after which Thomson mended daily, and recovered his former health.' + +It is to be noted that Janet flatly denied the coming of Mrs. Thomson +on any such errand. + +'ii. Seven years before, on St. Bartholomew's Day, when Andrew Ardes, +webster [weaver], in his play, took a linen towel, and put it about +the said Janet's neck, not fearing any evil from her, or that she +would be offended, Janet, "in a devilish fury and wodnes" [madness], +exclaimed, "Why teasest thou me? Thou shalt die! I shall give bread to +my bairns this towmound [twelvemonth], but thou shalt not bide a month +with thine to give them bread." And immediately after the said +Andrew's departure from her, he took to his bed for the space of eight +days: the one half of the day roasting in his whole body as in a +furnace, and the other half with a vehement sweat melting away; so +that, by her cruel murther and witchcraft, the said Andrew Ardes died +within eight days. And the day after his departure, his widow, +"contracting a high displeasure," took to her bed, and within a month +deceased; so that all their bairns are now begging their meat.' + +This was testified to be true by Elspeth Ewin, spouse to James Mar, +mariner, but was denied by the accused. + +'iii. Twenty-four years ago, in the month of May, when she dwelt on +the School Hill, next to Adam Mair's, she was descried by Andrew +Brabner the younger, John Leslie, of the Gallowgate, Robert Sanders, +wright, Andrew Simson, tailor, and one Johnson, who were then +schoolboys, stealing forth from the said Adam Mair's yard, at two in +the morning, "greyn growand bear;" and instantly, being pointed out by +the said scholars to the wife of the said Adam, she, in her fury, +burst forth upon the scholars: "Well have ye schemed me, but I shall +gar the best of you repent!" And she added that, ere four in the +afternoon, she would make as many wonder at them as should see them. +Upon the same day, between two and three in the afternoon, the said +scholars passed to the Old Watergang in the Links to wash themselves; +and after they had done so, and dried, the said John Leslie and +Johnson took a race beside the Watergang, and desperately threw +themselves into the midst of the Watergang, and were drowned, through +the witchcraft which Janet had cast upon them. And thus, as she had +promised, she did murder them.' + +This was testified by Robert Sanders and Andrew Simson, but was denied +by the accused. + +'iv. Sixteen years since, or thereby, she [the accused] and Malcolm +Carr's wife, having fallen at variance and discord, she openly vowed +that the latter should be confined to her bed for a year and a day, +and should not make for herself a single cake: immediately after which +discord, the said Malcolm's wife went to her own house, sought her +bed, and lay half a year bed-stricken by the witchcraft Janet had cast +upon her, according to her promise; one half of the day burning up her +whole body as in a fiery furnace, the other half melting away her body +with an extraordinary sweat, with a _congealed coldness_.' + +v. She was also accused of lending to Meryann Nasmith a pair of +head-sheets in childbed, into which she put her witchcraft: which +sheets, as soon as she knew they had taken heat about the woman's +head, immediately she went and took them from her; and before she +[Janet] was well out of the house, Meryann went out of her mind, and +was bound hand and foot for three days. + +vi. Three years since, or thereby, James Ailhows, having been a long +time in her service, Janet desired him to continue with her, and on +his refusing, 'Gang where you please,' she said, 'I will see that you +do not earn a single cake of bread for a year and a day.' And as soon +as he quitted her service, he was seized with an extremely heavy +sickness and (wodnes) delirium, with a continual burning heat and cold +sweating, and lay bedfast half a year, according to her promise, +through the devilish witchcraft she had cast upon him. So that he was +compelled to send to Benia for another witch to take the witchcraft +from him: who came to this town and washed him in water _running +south_, and put him through a girth, with some other ceremonies that +she used. And he paid her seventeen marks, and by her help recovered +health again. + +vii. For twenty years past she continually and nightly, after eleven +o'clock, when her husband and servants had gone to their beds, put on +a great fire, and kept it up all night, and sat before it using +witchcraft, altogether contrary to the nature of well-living persons. +And on those nights when she did not make up the fire, she went out of +the house, and stayed away all night where she pleased. + +viii. She caused ...., then in her service, and lately shepherd to Mr. +Alexander Fraser, to take certain drugs of witchcraft made by her, +such as old shoon, and cast them in the fire of John Club, stabler, +her neighbour; since which time, through her witchcraft, the said John +Club has become completely impoverished. + +ix. She and Janet Patton having fallen into variance and discord, +Janet Patton called the witch 'Karling,' to whom she answered that she +would give her to understand if she was a witch, and would try her +skill upon her. And immediately afterwards, Janet Patton [like +everybody else concerned in these mysterious doings] took to her bed, +with a vehement, great, and extraordinary sickness, for one half the +day, from her middle up, burning as in a fiery furnace, with an +insatiable drought, which she could not slake; the other half-day, +melting away with sweat, and from her middle down as cold as ice, so +that through the witchcraft cast upon her she died within a month. + +x. The particulars given of the case of James Lowe, stabler, are +almost the same. He refused to lend his kill and barn, and on the same +day he was seized with this remarkable sickness--half a day burning +hot, and half a day ice-cold. On his death-bed he accused Janet +Wishart of being the cause of his misfortune, saying, "That if he had +lent to her his kill and kilbarn, he wald haf bene ane lewand man." +His wife and only son died of the same kind of disease, and his whole +gear, amounting to more than £3,000, was altogether wracked and thrown +away, so that there was left no memory of the said James, succession +of his body, nor of their gear. + +xi. John Pyet, stabler, is named as another victim. + +xii. There is an air of novelty about the next case, that of John +Allan, cutler, Janet Wishart's son-in-law. Quarrelling with his wife, +he 'dang' her, 'whereupon Mistress Allan complained to her mother, who +immediately betook herself to her son-in-law's house, 'bostit' him, +and promised to gar him repent that ever he saw or kent her. Shortly +afterwards, either she or the devil her master, in the likeness of a +brown tyke, came nightly for five or six weeks to his window, forced +it open, leaped upon the said John, dang and buffeted him, while +always sparing his wife, who lay in bed with him, so that the said +John became half-wod and furious.' And this persecution continued, +until he threatened to inform the ministry and kirk-session. + +xiii. The next case must be given verbatim, it is so striking an +example of ignorant prejudice: + +'Four years since, or thereby, she came in to Walter Mealing's +dwelling-house, in the Castlegate of Aberdeen, to buy wool, which they +refused to sell. Thereafter, she came to the said Walter's bairn, +sitting on her mother's knee, and the said Walter played with her. And +she said, "This is a comely child, a fine child," without any further +words, and would not say "God save her!" And before she reached the +stair-foot, the bairn, by her witchcraft, in presence of both her +father and mother, "cast her gall," changed her colour like dead, and +became as weak as "ane pair of glwffis," and melted continually away +with an extraordinary sweating and extreme drought, which that same +day eight days, at the same hour, she came in first, and then the +bairn departed. And for no request nor command of the said Walter, nor +others whom he directed, she would not come in again to the house to +"visie" the bairn, although she was oft and divers times sent for, +both by the father and mother of the bairn, and so by her witchcraft +she murdered the bairn.' + +xiv. On Yule Eve, in '94, at three in the morning, Janet, remaining in +Gilbert Mackay's stair in the Broadgate, perceived Bessie Schives, +spouse of Robert Blinschell, going forth of her own house to the +dwelling-house of James Davidson, notary, to his wife, who was in +travail. She came down the stair, and cast her cantrips and witchcraft +in her way, and the said Bessie being in perfect health of body, and +as blithe and merry as ever she was in her days, when she went out of +the same James Davidson's house, or ever she could win up her own +stair, took a great fear and trembling that she might scarcely win up +her own stair, and immediately after her up-coming, went to her naked +bed, lay continually for the space of eighteen weeks fast bed-sick, +bewitched by Janet Wishart, the one half-day roasting as in a fiery +furnace, with an extraordinary kind of drought, that she could not be +slaked, and the other half-day in an extraordinary kind of sweating, +melting, and consuming her body, as a white burning candle, which kind +of sickness is a special point of witchcraft; and the said Bessie +Schives saw none other but Janet only, who is holden and reputed a +common witch. + +xv. At Midsummer was a year or thereby, Elspeth Reid, her +daughter-in-law, came into her house at three in the morning, and +found her sitting, mother naked as she was born, at the fireside, and +another old wife siclike mother naked, sitting between her +shoulders[!], making their cantrips, whom the said Elspeth seeing, +after she said 'God speed,' immediately went out of the house; +thereafter, on the same day, returned again, and asked of her, what +she was doing with that old wife? To whom she answered, that she was +charming her. And as soon as the said Elspeth went forth again from +Janet Wishart's house, immediately she took an extraordinary kind of +sickness, and became 'like a dead senseless fool,' and so continued +for half a year. + +xvi. She [Janet] and her daughter, Violet Leyis, desired ... her woman +to go with her said daughter, at twelve o'clock at night, to the +gallows, and cut down the dead man hanging thereon, and take a part of +all his members from him, and burn the corpse, which her servant +would not do, and, therefore, she was instantly sent away. + +xvii. The following deposition is, however, the most singular of all: + +Twelve years since, or thereby, Janet came into Katherine Rattray's, +behind the Tolbooth, and while she was drinking in the said +Katherine's cellar, Katherine reproved her for drinking in her house, +because, she said, she was a witch. Whereupon, she took a cup full of +ale, and cast it in her face, and said that if she were indeed a +witch, the said Katherine should have proof of it; and immediately +after she had quitted the cellar, the barm of the said Katherine's ale +all sank to the bottom of the stand, and no had abaid [a bead] thereon +during the space of sixteen weeks. And the said Katherine finding +herself 'skaithit,' complained to her daughter, Katherine Ewin, who +was then in close acquaintance with Janet, that she had bewitched her +mother's ale; and immediately thereafter the said Katherine Ewin +called on Janet, and said, 'Why bewitched you my mother's ale?' and +requested her to help the same again. Which Janet promised, if +Katherine Ewin obeyed her instructions ... to rise early before the +sun, without commending herself to God, or speaking, and neither +suining herself nor her son sucking on her breast; to go, still +without speaking, to the said Katherine Rattray's house, and not to +cross any water, nor wash her hands; and enter into the said Katherine +Rattray's house, where she would find her servant brewing, and say to +her thrice, 'I to God, and thou to the devil!' and to restore the +same barm where it was again; 'and to take up thrie dwattis on the +southt end of the gauttreyis, and thair scho suld find ane peice of +claithe, fowr newikit, with greyn, red, and blew, and thrie corss of +clewir girss, and cast the same in the fyir; quhilk beand cassin in, +her barm suld be restorit to hir againe, lyik as it was restorit in +effect.' And the said Katherine Ewin, when cracking [gossiping] with +her neighbours, said she could learn them a charm she had gotten from +Janet Wishart, which when the latter heard, she promised to do her an +evil turn, and immediately her son, sucking on her breast, died. And +at her first browst, or brewing, thereafter, the whole wort being +played and put in 'lumes,' the doors fast, and the keys at her own +belt, the whole wort was taken away, and the haill lumes fundin dry, +and the floor dry, and she could never get trial where it yird to. And +when the said Katherine complained to the said Janet Wishart, and dang +herself and her good man both, for injuries done to her by taking of +her son's life and her wort [which Katherine seems to have thought of +about equal value], she promised that all should be well, giving her +her draff for payment. And the said Katherine, with her husband +Ambrose Gordon, being in their beds, could not for the space of twenty +days be quit of a cat, lying nightly in their bed, between the two, +and taking a great bite out of Ambrose's arm, as yet the place +testifies, and when they gave up the draff, the cat went away. + +Some fourteen more charges were brought against her. She was tried on +February 17, 1596, before the Provost and Baillies of Aberdeen, and +found guilty upon eighteen counts of being a common witch and +sorcerer. Sentence of death by burning was recorded against her, and +she suffered on the same day as another reputed witch, Isabel Cocker. +The expenses of their execution are preserved in the account-books of +the Dean of Guild, 1596-1597, and prove that witch-burning was a +luxury scarcely within the reach of the many. + + +JANETT WISCHART AND ISSBEL COCKER. + + _Item._ For twentie loades of peattes to burne + thame xl_sh._ + _Item._ For ane Boile of Coillis xxiiii_sh._ + _Item._ For four Tar barrellis xxvi_sh._ viii_d._ + _Item._ For fyr and Iron barrellis xvi_sh._ viii_d._ + _Item._ For a staik and dressing of it xvi_sh._ + _Item._ For four fudoms [fathoms?] of Towis iiii_sh._ + _Item._ For careing the peittis, coillis, and + barrellis to the Hill viii_sh._ iiii_d._ + _Item._ To on Justice for their execution xiii_sh._ iiii_d._ + -------------------- + cliv _shillings_. + -------------------- + +On several occasions commissions were issued by the King, in favour of +the Provost and some of the Baillies of the burgh, and the Sheriff of +the county, for the purpose of 'haulding Justice Courtis on Witches +and Sorceraris.' These commissioners gave warrants in their turn to +the minister and elders of each parish in the shire, to examine +parties suspected of witchcraft, and to frame a 'dittay' or indictment +against such persons. It was an inevitable result that all the +scandalous gossip of the community was assiduously collected; while +any individual who had become, from whatsoever cause, an object of +jealousy or dislike to her neighbours, was overwhelmed by a mass of +hearsay or fictitious evidence, and by the conscious or unconscious +exaggerations of ignorance, credulity, or malice. + +As an example of the kind of stuff stirred up by this parochial +inquisition, I shall take the return furnished to the commissioners by +Mr. John Ross, minister of Lumphanan: + +'i. _Elspet Strathauchim_, in Wartheil, is indicted to have charmed +Maggie Clarke, spouse to Patrick Bunny, for the fevers, this last +year, with "ane sleipth and ane thrum" [a sleeve and thread]. She is +indicted, this last Hallow e'en, to have brought forth of the house a +burning coal, and buried the same in her own yard. She is indicted to +have bewitched Adam Gordon, in Wark, and to have been the cause of his +death, and that because, she coming out of his service without his +leave, he detained some of her gear, which she promised to do; and +after his death wanted [to have it believed] that she had gotten +"assythment" of him. She is indicted to have said to Marcus Gillam, at +the Burn of Camphil, that none of his bairns should live, because he +would not marry her; which is come to pass, for two of them are dead. +She is indicted continually to have resorted to Margaret Baine her +company. + +'ii. _Isabel Forbes._--She is indicted to have bewitched Gilbert +Makim, in Glen Mallock, with a spindle, a "rok," and a "foil;" as +Isabel Ritchie likewise testified. + +'iii. _James Og_ is indicted to have passed on Rud-day, five years +since, through Alexander Cobain's corn, and have taken nine stones +from his "avine rig" [corn-rick], and cast on the said Alexander's +"rig," and to have taken nine "lokis" [handfuls] of meal from the said +Alexander's "rig," and cast on his own. He is indicted to have +bewitched a cow belonging to the said Alexander, which he bought from +Kristane Burnet, of Cloak; this cow, though his wife had received milk +from her the first night, and the morning thereafter, gave no milk +from that time forth, but died within half a year. He is indicted to +have passed, five years since, on Lammas-Day, through the said +Alexander's corn, and having "gaine nyne span," to have struck the +corn with nine strokes of a white wand, so that nothing grew that year +but "fichakis." He is indicted that, in the year aforesaid or +thereabouts, having corn to dry, he borrowed fire from his neighbour, +haiffing of his avine them presently; and took a "brine" of the corn +on his back, and cast it three times "woodersonis" [or "withersonis," +_ut supra_, that is, west to east, in the direction contrary to the +sun's course] above the "kill." He is indicted that, three years +since, Alexander Cobaine being in Leith, with the Laird of Cors, his +"wittual," he came up early one morning, at the back of the said +Alexander's yard, with a dish full of water in his hand, and to have +cast the water in the gate to the said Alexander's door, and then +perceiving that David Duguid, servant to the said Alexander, was +beholding him, to have fled suddenly; which the said David also +testifies. + +'iv. _Agnes Frew._--She is indicted to have taken three hairs out of +her own cow's tail, and to have cut the same in small pieces, and to +have put them in her cow's throat, which thereafter gave milk, and the +neighbours' none. Also, she is indicted that [she took] William +Browne's calf in her axter, and charmed the same, as, also, she took +the clins [hoofs] from forefeitt aff it, with a piece of "euerry +bing," and caused the said William's wife to "yeird" the same; which +the said William's wife confessed, albeit not in this manner. Also, +she took up Alexander Tailzier's calf, lately [directly] after it was +calved, and carried it three times about the cow. Also, she was seen +casting a horse's fosser on a cow. + +'v. _Isabel Roby._--She is indicted to have bidden her gudeman, when +he went to St. Fergus to buy cattle, that if he bought any before his +home-coming, he should go three times "woodersonis" about them, and +then take three "ruggis" off a dry hillock, and fetch home to her. +Also, that dwelling at Ardmair, there came in a poor man craving alms, +to whom she offered milk, but he refused it, because, as he then +presently said, she had three folks' milk and her own in the pan; and +when Elspet Mackay, then present, wondered at it, he said, "Marvel +not, for she has thy farrow kye's milk also in her pan." Also, she is +commonly seen in the form of a hare, passing through the town, for as +soon as the hare vanishes out of sight, she appears. + +'vi. _Margaret Rianch_, in Green Cottis, was seen in the dawn of the +day by James Stevens embracing every nook of John Donaldson's house +three times, who continually thereafter was diseased, and at last +died. She said to John Ritchie, when he took a tack [a piece of +ground] in the Green Cottis, that his gear from that day forth should +continually decay, and so it came to pass. Also, she cast a number of +stones in a tub, amongst water, which thereafter was seen dancing. +When she clips her sheep, she turns the bowl of the shears three times +in their mouth. Also, James Stevens saw her meeting John Donaldson's +"hoggs" [sheep a year old] in the burn of the Green Cottis, and +casting the water out between her feet backward, in the sheep's face, +and so they all died. Also she confessed to Patrick Gordon, of +Kincragie, and James Gordon, of Drumgase, that the devil was in the +bed between her and William Ritchie, her harlot, and he was upon them +both, and that if she happened to die for witchcraft, that he +[Ritchie] should also die, for if she was a devil, he was too. + +'There are three of these persons, Elspeet Strathauchim, James Og, and +Agnes Frew, whose accusations the Presbytery of Kincardine, within +whose bounds they dwell, counted insufficient, having duly considered +the whole circumstances, always remitted them to the trial of an +assize, if the judges thought it expedient. + + '[Signed] Mr. Jhone Ros, + 'Minister at Lumphanan.' + +It would not be easy to find a more painful exhibition of clerical +ignorance and incapacity. Probably many of the allegations which Mr. +John Ross records are true, as the practice of charms was common +enough among the peasantry both of Scotland and England, and is even +yet not wholly extinct; but, taken altogether, they did not amount to +witchcraft, the very essence of which was a compact with the devil, +and in no one of the preceding cases is such a compact mentioned. And +one must take the existence of the gross superstition and credulity +which is here disclosed to be irrefutable testimony that, as a pastor +and teacher, Mr. John Ross was a signal failure at Lumphanan. + + * * * * * + +I have already alluded to those pathetic instances of self-delusion in +which the reputed witch has been her own enemy, and furnished the +evidence needed for her condemnation in her own confession--a +confession of acts which she must have known had never occurred; +building up a strange fabric of fiction, and perishing beneath its +weight. It would seem as if some of these unfortunate women came to +believe in themselves because they found that others believed in them, +and assumed that they really possessed the powers of witchcraft +because their neighbours insisted that it was so. Nor will this be +thought such an improbable explanation when it is remembered that +history affords more than one example of prophets and founders of new +religions whom the enthusiastic devotion of their followers has +persuaded into a belief in the authenticity of the credentials which +they themselves had originally forged, and the truth of the +revelations which they had invented. + +From this point of view a profound interest attaches to the official +'dittay' or accusation against one Helen Fraser, who was convicted and +sentenced to death in April, 1597, since it shows that she was +condemned principally upon the evidence which she herself supplied: + +'i. John Ramsay, in Newburght, being sick of a consuming disease, sent +to her house, in Aikinshill, to seek relief, and was told by her that +she would do what lay in her power for the recovery of his health; but +bade him keep secret whatever she spake or did, because the world was +evil, and spoke no good of such mediciners. She commanded the said +John to rise early in the morning, to eat "sourrakis" about sunrise, +while the dew was still upon them; also to eat "valcars," and to make +"lavrie" kale and soup. Moreover, to sit down in a door, before the +fowls flew to their roost, and to open his breast, that when the fowls +flew to the roost over him he might receive the wind of their wings +about his breast, for that was very profitable to loose his +heart-pipes, which were closed. But before his departure from her, she +made him sit down, bare-headed, on a stool, and said an orison thrice +upon his head, in which she named the Devil. + +'ii. _Item._--The said Helen publicly confessed in Foverne, after her +apprehension, that she was a common abuser of the people; and that, +further, to sustain herself and her bairns, she pretended knowledge +which she had not, and undertook to do things which she could not. +This was her answer, when she was accused by the minister of Foverne, +for that she abused the people, and when he inquired the cause of her +evil report throughout the whole country. This she confessed upon the +green of Foverne, before the laird, the minister, and reader of +Foverne, Patrick Findlay in Newburght, and James Menzies at the New +Mills of Foverne. + +'iii. _Item._--Janet Ingram, wife to Adam Finnie, dwelling for the +time at the West burn, in Balhelueis, being sick, and affirming +herself to be bewitched, for she herself was esteemed by all men to be +a witch, she sent for the said Helen Frazer to cure her. The said +Helen came, and tarried with her till her departure and burial, and at +her coming assured the said Janet that within a short time she would +be well enough. But the sickness of the said Janet increased, and was +turned into a horrible fury and madness, in such sort that she always +and incessantly blasphemed, and pressed at all times to climb up the +wall after the "heillis" and scraped the wall with her hands. After +that she had been grievously vexed for the space of two days from the +coming of Helen Frazer, her mediciner, to her, she departed this life. +Being dead, her husband went to charge his neighbours to convey her +burial, but before his returning, or the coming of any neighbour to +the carrying of the corpse, the said Helen Frazer, together with two +or three daughters of the said Janet (whereof one yet living, to wit, +Malye Finnie, in the Blairtoun of Balhelueis, is counted a witch), +had taken up the corpse, and had carried her, they alone, the half of +the distance to the kirk, until they came to the Moor of Cowhill; when +the said Adam and others his neighbours came to them, and at their +coming the said Helen fled away through the moss to Aikinshill, and +went no further towards the kirk. + +'iv. _Item._--A horse of Duncan Alexander, in Newburcht, being +bewitched, the said Helen translated the sickness from the horse to a +young cow of the said Duncan; which cow died, and was cast into the +burn of the Newburcht, for no man would eat her. + +'v. _Item._--The said Helen made a compact with certain laxis fishers +of the Newburcht, at the kirk of Foverne, in Mallie Skryne's house, +and promised to cause them to fish well, and to that effect received +of them a piece of salmon to handle at her pleasure for accomplishing +the matter. Upon the morrow she came to the Newburcht, to the house of +John Ferguson, a laxis fisher, and delivered unto him in a closet four +cuts of salmon with a penny; after that she called him out of his own +house, from the company that was there drinking with him, and bade him +put the same in the horn of his coble, and he should have a dozen of +fish at the first shot; which came to pass. + +'vi. _Item._--The said Helen, by witchcraft, enticed Gilbert Davidson, +son to William Davidson, in Lytoune of Meanye, to love and marry +Margaret Strauthachin (in the Hill of Balgrescho) directly against +the will of his parents, to the utter wreck of the said Gilbert. + +'vii. _Item._--At the desire of the said Margaret Strauthachin, by +witchcraft, the said Helen made Catherine Fetchil, wife to William +Davidson, furious, because she was against the marriage, and took the +strength of her left side and arm from her; in the which fury and +feebleness the said Catherine died. + +'viii. _Item._--The said Helen, at the desire of the foresaid Margaret +Strauthachin, bewitched William Hill, dwelling for the time at the +Hill of Balgrescho, through which he died in a fury [_i.e._, a fit of +delirium]. + +'ix. Moreover, at the desire foresaid, the said Helen by witchcraft +slew an ox belonging to the said William; for while Patrick Hill, son +to the said William, and herd to his father, called in the cattle to +the fold, at twelve o'clock, the said Helen was sitting in the yeite, +and immediately after the outcoming of the cattle out of the fold, the +best ox of the whole herd instantly died. + +'x. _Item._--The said Helen counselled Christane Henderson, vulgarly +called mickle Christane, to put one hand to the crown of her head, and +the other to the sole of her foot, and so surrender whatever was +between her hands, and she should want nothing that she could wish or +desire. + +'xi. _Item._--The said Christane Henderson, being henwife in Foverne, +the young fowls died thick; for remedy whereof, the said Helen bade +the said Christane take all the chickens or young fowls, and draw +them through the link of the crook, and take the hindmost, and slay +with a fiery stick, which thing being practised, none died thereafter +that year. + +'xii. _Item._--When the said Helen was dwelling in the Moorhill of +Foverne, there came a hare betimes, and sucked a milch cow pertaining +to William Findlay, at the Mill of the Newburght, whose house was +directly afornent the said Helen's house, on the other side of the +Burn of Foverne, wherethrough the cow pined away, and gave blood +instead of milk. This mischief was by all men attributed to the said +Helen, and she herself cannot deny but she was commonly evil spoken of +for it, and affirmed, after her apprehension at Foverne, that she was +so slandered. + +'xiii. _Item._--When Alexander Hardy, in Aikinshill, departed this +life, it grieved and troubled his conscience very mickle, that he had +been a defender of the said Helen, and especially that he, accompanied +with Malcolm Forbes, travailed, against their conscience, with sundry +of the assessors when she suffered an assize, and especially with the +Chancellor of the Assize, in her favour, he knowing evidently her to +be guilty of death. + +'xiv. _Item._--The said Helen being a domestic in the said Alexander +Hardy's house, disagreed with one of the said Alexander's servants, +named Andrew Skene, and intending to bewitch the said servant, the +evil fell upon Alexander, and he died thereof. + +'xv. _Item._--When Robert Goudyne, now in Balgrescho, was dwelling in +Blairtoun of Balheluies, a discord fell out betwixt Elizabeth +Dempster, nurse to the said Robert for the time, and Christane +Henderson, one of the said Helen's familiars, as her own confession +aforesaid purports, and the country well knows. Upon the which +discord, the said Christane threatened the said Elizabeth with an evil +turn, and to the performing thereof, brought the said Helen Frazer to +the said Robert's house, and caused her to repair oft thereto. After +what time, immediately both the said Elizabeth and the infant to whom +she gave suck, by the devilry of the said Helen, fell into a consuming +sickness, whereof both died. And also Elspet Cheyne, spouse to the +said Robert, fell into the selfsame sickness, and was heavily diseased +thereby for the space of two years before the recovery of his health. + +'xvi. _Item._--By witchcraft the said Helen abstracted and withdrew +the love and affection of Andrew Tilliduff of Rainstoune, from his +spouse Isabel Cheyne, to Margaret Neilson, and so mightily bewitched +him, that he could never be reconciled with his wife, or remove his +affection from the said harlot; and when the said Margaret was +begotten with child, the said Helen conveyed her away to Cromar to +obscure the fact. + +'xvii. _Item._--Wherever the said Helen is known, or has repaired +there many years bygone, she has been, and is reported by all, of +whatsoever estate or sex, to be a common and abominable witch, and to +have learned the same of the late Maly Skene, spouse to the late +Cowper Watson, with whom, during her lifetime, the said Helen had +continual society. The said Maly was bruited to be a rank witch, and +her said husband suffered death for the same crime. + +'xviii. _Item._--When Robert Merchant, in the Newbrucht, had +contracted marriage, and holden house for the space of two years with +the late Christane White, it happened to him to pass to the Moorhill +of Foverne, to sow corn to the late Isabel Bruce, the relict of the +late Alexander Frazer, the said Helen Frazer being familiar and +actually resident in the house of the said Isabel, she was there at +his coming: from the which time forth the said Robert _found his +affection violently and extraordinarily drawn away from the said +Christane to the said Isabel_, a great love being betwixt him and the +said Christane always theretofore, and no break of love, or discord, +falling out or intervening upon either of their parts, which thing the +country supposed and spake to be brought about by the unlawful +travails of the said Helen. + + '[Signed] Thomas Tilideff, + 'Minister, at Fovern, with my hand. + +'_Item._--A common witch by open voice and common fame.' + + * * * * * + +I have given this 'dittay' in full, from a conviction that no summary +would do justice to its terrible simplicity. Upon the evidence which +it afforded, Helen Frazer was brought before the Court of Justiciary, +in Aberdeen, on April 21, 1597, and found guilty in 'fourteen points +of witchcraft and sorcery.' + +The burning of witches went merrily on, so that the authorities of +Aberdeen were compelled to get in an adequate stock of fuel. We note +in the municipal accounts, under the date of March 10, that there was +'bocht be the comptar, and laid in be him in the seller in the +Chappell of the Castel hill, ane chalder of coillis, price thairof, +with the bieing and metting of the same, xvi_lib._ iiii_sh._' As is +usually the case, the frequency of these sad exhibitions whetted at +first the public appetite for them; it grew by what it fed on. One of +the items of expense in the execution of a witch named Margaret Clerk, +is for carrying of 'four sparris, _to withstand the press of the +pepill_, quhairof thair was twa broken, viiis. viiid.' + +Among the victims committed to the flames in 1596-97, we read the +names of 'Katherine Fergus and [Sculdr], Issobel Richie, Margaret Og, +Helene Rodger, Elspet Hendersoun, Katherine Gerard, Christin Reid, +Jenet Grant, Helene Frasser, Katherine Ferrers, Helene Gray, Agnes +Vobster, Jonat Douglas, Agnes Smelie, Katherine Alshensur, and ane +other witche, callit ....'--seventeen in all. That during their +imprisonment they were treated with barbarous rigour, may be inferred +from the following entries: + + _Item._ To Alexander Reid, smyth, for _twa + pair of scheckellis_ to the Witches in the + Stepill xxxii_sh._ + + _Item._ To John Justice, for _burning vpon the + cheik_ of four seurerall personis suspect of + witchcraft and baneschit xxvi_sh._ viii_d._ + + _Item._ Givin to Alexander Home for macking + of _joggis, stapillis, and lockis_ to the + witches, during the haill tyme forsaid xlvi_sh._ viii_d._ + + Expense on Witches aucht-score, xlii_li._ xvii_sh._ iiii_d._ + +On September 21, 1597, the Provost, Baillies and Council of Aberdeen +considered the faithfulness shown by William Dun, the Dean of Guild, +in the discharge of his duty, 'and, besides this, _his extraordinarily +taking pains in the burning of the great number of the witches burnt +this year_, and on the four pirates, and bigging of the port on the +Brig of Dee, repairing of the Grey Friars kirk and steeple thereof, +and thereby has been abstracted from his trade of merchandise, +continually since he was elected in the said office. Therefore, in +recompense of his extraordinary pains, and in satisfaction thereof +(not to induce any preparative to Deans of Guild to crave a recompense +hereafter), but to encourage others to travail as diligently in the +discharge of their office, granted and assigned to him the sum of +forty-seven pounds three shillings and fourpence, owing by him of the +rest of his compt of the unlawis [fines] of the persons convict for +slaying of black fish, and discharged him thereof by their presents +for ever.' + +At length a wholesome reaction took place; the public grew weary of +the number of executions, and, encouraged by this change of +sentiment, persons accused of witchcraft boldly rebutted the charge, +and laid complaints against their accusers for defamation of +character. In official circles, it is true, a belief in the alleged +crime lingered long. As late as 1669, 'the new and old Councils taking +into their serious consideration that many malefices were committed +and done by several persons in this town, who are _mala fama_, and +suspected guilty of witchcraft upon many of the inhabitants of this +town, several ways, and that it will be necessary for suppressing the +like in time coming, and for punishing the said persons who shall be +found guilty; therefore they do unanimously conclude and ordain that +any such person, who is suspect of the like malefices, may be seized +upon, and put in prisoun, and that a Commission be sent for, for +putting of them to trial, that condign justice may be executed upon +them, as the nature of the offence does merit.' No more victims, +however, were sacrificed; nor does it appear that any accusation of +witchcraft was preferred. + +According to Sir Walter Scott, a woman was burnt as a witch in +Scotland as late as 1722, by Captain Ross, sheriff-depute of +Sutherland; but this was, happily, an exceptional barbarity, and for +some years previously the pastime of witch-burning had practically +been extinct. It is a curious fact that educated Scotchmen, as I have +already noted, retained their superstition long after the common +people had abandoned it. In 1730, Professor Forbes, of Glasgow, +published his 'Institutes of the Law of Scotland,' in which he spoke +of witchcraft as 'that black art whereby strange and wonderful things +are wrought by power derived from the devil,' and added: 'Nothing +seems plainer to me than that there may be and have been witches, and +that perhaps such are now actually existing.' Six years later, the +Seceders from the Church of Scotland, who professed to be the true +representatives of its teaching, strongly condemned the repeal of the +laws against witchcraft, as 'contrary,' they said, 'to the express +letter of the law of God.' But they were hopelessly behind the time; +public opinion, as the result of increased intelligence, had numbered +witchcraft among the superstitions of the past, and we may confidently +predict that its revival is impossible. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[52] From the 'Records of the Burgh of Aberdeen,' printed for the +Spalding Club, 1841. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE LITERATURE OF WITCHCRAFT. + + +It should teach us humility when we find a belief in witchcraft and +demonology entertained not only by the uneducated and unintelligent +classes, but also by the men of light and leading, the scholar, the +philosopher, the legislator, who might have been expected to have +risen above so degrading a superstition. It would be manifestly unfair +to direct our reproaches at the credulous prejudices of the multitude +when Francis Bacon, the great apostle of the experimental philosophy, +accepts the crude teaching of his royal master's 'Demonologie,' and +actually discusses the ingredients of the celebrated 'witches' +ointment,' opining that they should all be of a soporiferous +character, such as henbane, hemlock, moonshade, mandrake, opium, +tobacco, and saffron. The weakness of Sir Matthew Hale, to which +reference has been made in a previous chapter, we cannot very strongly +condemn, when we know that it was shared by Sir Thomas Browne, who had +so keen an eye for the errors of the common people, and whose fine and +liberal genius throws so genial a light over the pages of the +'Religio Medici.' In his 'History of the World,' that consummate +statesman, poet, and scholar, Sir Walter Raleigh, gravely supports the +vulgar opinions which nowadays every Board School _alumnus_ would +reject with disdain. Even the philosopher of Malmesbury, the sagacious +author of 'The Leviathan,' Thomas Hobbes, was infected by the +prevalent delusion. Dr. Cudworth, to whom we owe the acute reasoning +of the treatises on 'Moral Good and Evil,' and 'The True Intellectual +System of the Universe,' firmly holds that the guilt of a reputed +witch might be determined by her inability or unwillingness to repeat +the Lord's Prayer. Strangest of it all is it to find the pure and +lofty spirit of Henry More, the founder of the school of English +Platonists, yielding to the general superstition. With large additions +of his own, he republished the Rev. Joseph Glanvill's notorious work, +'Sadducismus Triumphatus'--a pitiful example of the extent to which a +fine intellect may be led astray, though Mr. Lecky thinks it the most +powerful defence of witchcraft ever published. And the sober and +fair-minded Robert Boyle, in the midst of his scientific researches, +found time to listen, with breathless interest, to 'stories of witches +at Oxford, and devils at Muston.' + +Among the Continental authorities on witchcraft, the chief of those +who may be called its advocates are, _Martin Antonio Delrio_ +(1551-1608), who published, in the closing years of the sixteenth +century, his 'Disquisitionarum Magicarum Libri Sex,' a formidable +folio, brimful of credulity and ingenuity, which was translated into +French by Duchesne in 1611, and has been industriously pilfered from +by numerous later writers. Delrio has no pretensions to critical +judgment; he swallows the most monstrous inventions with astounding +facility. + +Reference must also be made to the writings of Remigius, included in +Pez' 'Thesaurus Anecdotorum Novissimus,' and to the great work by H. +Institor and J. Sprenger, 'Malleus Maleficarum,' as well as to Basin, +Molitor ('Dialogus de Lamiis'), and other authors, to be found in the +1582 edition of 'Mallei quorundam Maleficarum,' published at +Frankfort. + +On the same side we find the great philosophical lawyer and historian +_John Bodin_ (1530-1596), the author of the 'Republicæ,' and the +'Methodus ad facilem Historiarum Cognitionem.' In his 'Demonomanie des +Sorcius' he recommends the burning of witches and wizards with an +earnestness which should have gone far to compensate for his +heterodoxy on other points of belief and practice. He informs us that +from his thirty-seventh year he had been attended by a familiar spirit +or demon, which touched his ear whenever he was about to do anything +of which his conscience disapproved; and he quotes passages from the +Psalms, Job, and Isaiah, to prove that spirits indicate their presence +to men by touching and even pulling their ears, and not only by vocal +utterances. + +Also, _Thomas Erastus_ (1524-1583), physician and controversialist, +who took so busy a part in the theological dissensions of his time. In +1577 he published a tract ('De Lamiis') on the lawfulness of putting +witches to death. It is strange that he should have been mastered by +the gross imposture of witchcraft, when he could expose with trenchant +force the pretensions of alchemists, astrologers, and Rosicrucians. + +Happily, the cause of humanity, truth and tolerance was not without +its eager and capable defenders. The earliest I take to have been the +Dutch physician, _Wierus_, who, in his treatise 'De Præstigiis,' +published at Basel in 1564, vigorously attacked the cruel prejudice +that had doomed so many unhappy creatures to the stake. He did not, +however, deny the _existence_ of witchcraft, but demanded mercy for +those who practised it on the ground that they were the devil's +victims, not his servants. That he should have been wholly devoid of +credulity would have been more than one could rightly have expected of +a disciple of Cornelius Agrippa. + +A stronger and much more successful assailant appeared in _Reginald +Scot_ (died 1599), a younger son of Sir John Scot, of Scot's Hall, +near Smeeth, who published his celebrated 'Discoverie of Witchcraft' +in 1584--a book which, in any age, would have been remarkable for its +sweet humanity, breadth of view, and moderation of tone, as well as +for its literary excellencies. One wonders where this quiet Kentish +gentleman, whose chief occupations appear to have been gardening and +planting, accumulated his erudition, and how, in the face of the +superstitions of his contemporaries, he arrived at such large and +liberal conclusions. The scope of his great work is indicated in its +lengthy title: 'The Discoverie of Witchcraft, wherein the lewd dealing +of Witches and Witchmongers is notablie detected, the knaverie of +conjurers, the impietie of enchanters, the follie of soothsaiers, the +impudent falsehood of couseners, the infidelitie of atheists, the +pestilent practices of Pythonists, the curiositie of figure-casters +[horoscope-makers], the vanitie of dreamers, the beggarlie art of +Alcumystrie, the abhomination of idolatrie, the horrible art of +poisoning, the vertue and power of naturall magike, and all the +conveyances of Legierdemain and juggling are deciphered: and many +other things opened, which have long lain hidden, howbeit verie +necessarie to be knowne. Heerevnto is added a treatise upon the Nature +and Substance of Spirits and Devils, etc.: all latelie written by +Reginald Scot, Esquire. 1 John iv. 1: "Believe not everie spirit, but +trie the spirits, whether they are of God; for many false prophets are +gone out into the world."' + +From a book so well known--a new edition has recently appeared--it is +needless to make extracts; but I transcribe a brief passage in +illustration of the vivacity and manliness of the writer: + +'I, therefore (at this time), do only desire you to consider of my +report concerning the evidence that is commonly brought before you +against them. See first whether the evidence be not frivolous, and +whether the proofs brought against them be not incredible, consisting +of guesses, presumptions, and impossibilities contrary to reason, +Scripture, and nature. See also what persons complain upon them, +whether they be not of the basest, the unwisest, and the most +faithless kind of people. Also, may it please you, to weigh what +accusations and crimes they lay to their charge, namely: She was at my +house of late, she would have had a pot of milk, she departed in a +chafe because she had it not, she railed, she cursed, she mumbled and +whispered; and, finally, she said she would be even with me: and soon +after my child, my cow, my sow, or my pullet died, or was strangely +taken. Nay (if it please your Worship), I have further proof: I was +with a wise woman, and she told me I had an ill neighbour, and that +she would come to my house ere it was long, and so did she; and that +she had a mark about her waist, and so had she: God forgive me, my +stomach hath gone against her a great while. Her mother before her was +counted a witch; she hath been beaten and scratched by the face till +blood was drawn upon her, because she hath been suspected, and +afterwards some of those persons were said to amend. These are the +certainties that I hear in their evidences. + +'Note, also, how easily they may be brought to confess that which they +never did, nor lieth in the power of man to do; and then see whether I +have cause to write as I do. Further, if you shall see that +infidelity, popery, and many other manifest heresies be backed and +shouldered, and their professors animated and heartened, by yielding +to creatures such infinite power as is wrested out of God's hand, and +attributed to witches: finally, if you shall perceive that I have +faithfully and truly delivered and set down the condition and state of +the witch, and also of the witchmonger, and have confuted by reason +and law, and by the Word of God itself, all mine adversary's +objections and arguments; then let me have your countenance against +them that maliciously oppose themselves against me. + +'My greatest adversaries are young ignorance and old custom. For what +folly soever tract of time hath fostered, it is so superstitiously +pursued of some, as though no error could be acquainted with custom. +But if the law of nations would join with such custom, to the +maintenance of ignorance and to the suppressing of knowledge, the +civilest country in the world would soon become barbarous. For as +knowledge and time discovereth errors, so doth superstition and +ignorance in time breed them.' + +In another fine passage Scot says: + +'God that knoweth my heart is witness, and you that read my book shall +see, that my drift and purpose in this enterprise tendeth only to +these respects. First, that the glory and power of God be not so +abridged and abused, as to be thrust into the hand or lip of a lewd +old woman, whereby the work of the Creator should be attributed to the +power of a creature. Secondly, that the religion of the Gospel may be +seen to stand without such peevish trumpery. Thirdly, that lawful +favour and Christian compassion be rather used towards these poor +souls than rigour and extremity. Because they which are commonly +accused of witchcraft are the least sufficient of all other persons to +speak for themselves, as having the most base and simple education of +all others; the extremity of their age giving them leave to dote, +their poverty to beg, their wrongs to chide and threaten (as being +void of any other way of revenge), their humour melancholical to be +full of imaginations, from whence chiefly proceedeth the vanity of +their confessions, as that they can transform themselves and others +into apes, owls, asses, dogs, cats, etc.; that they can fly in the +air, kill children with charms, hinder the coming of butter, etc. + +'And for so much as the mighty help themselves together, and the poor +widow's cry, though it reach to heaven, is scarce heard here upon +earth, I thought good (according to my poor ability) to make +intercession, that some part of common rigour and some points of hasty +judgment may be advised upon. For the world is now at that stay (as +Brentius, in a most godly sermon, in these words affirmeth), that +even, as when the heathen persecuted the Christians, if any were +accused to believe in Christ, the common people cried _Ad leonem_; so +now, of any woman, be she never so honest, be she accused of +witchcraft, they cry _Ad ignem_.' + + * * * * * + +Scot's attack upon the credulity of his contemporaries, strenuous and +capable as it was, did not bear much fruit at the time; while it +exposed him to charges of Atheism and Sadduceeism from several small +critics, who were supported by the authority of James I., and, at a +later date, of Dr. Meric Casaubon. He found a fellow-labourer, +however, in his work of humanity, in the _Rev. George Gifford_, of +Maldon, Essex, who in 1593 published 'A Dialogue concerning Witches +and Witchcraft,' in which 'is layed open how craftily the Divell +deceiveth not only the Witches but Many other, and so leadeth them +awaie into Manie Great Errours.' It will be seen from the title that +the writer does not adopt the uncompromising line of Reginald Scot, +but inclines rather to the standpoint of Wierus. There is, however, a +good deal of ability in his treatment of the question; and some +account of the 'Dialogue' reprinted by the Percy Society in 1842, +should be interesting, I think, to the reader. + + * * * * * + +The interlocutors are named Samuel, Daniel, Samuel's wife, M. B., a +schoolmaster, and the goodwife R. + +The dialogue opens with Samuel and Daniel, the former of whom is a +fanatical believer in witches. 'These evil-favoured old witches,' he +says, 'do trouble me.' He repeats the common rumour that there is +scarcely a town or village in the shire but has one or two witches in +it. 'In good sooth,' he adds, 'I may tell it to you as to my friend, +when I go but into my closes, I am afraid, for I see now and then a +hare, which my conscience giveth me is a witch, or some witch's +spirit, she stareth so upon me. And sometime I see an ugly weasel run +through my yard; and there is a foul, great cat sometimes in my barn, +which I have no liking unto.' Having introduced his friend, who is +less credulous than himself, to his wife and his home, he promotes an +argument between him and another friend, M. B., a schoolmaster, on +this _quæstio vexata_. + +M. B. starts with a good deal of fervour: + + 'The word of God doth show plainly that there be witches, and + commandeth they should be put to death. Experience hath + taught too many what harms they do. And if any have the gift + to minister help against them, shall we refuse it?' + +But after some discussion he agrees, at Daniel's instance, to consider +the subject in a spirit of sober argument; and the first question they +take up is: 'Are there witches that work by the Devil?' The +conversation then proceeds as follows: + + DANIEL. It is so evident by the Scriptures, and in all + experience, that there be witches which work by the devil, or + rather, I may say, the devil worketh by them, that such as go + about to prove the contrary, do show themselves but + cavillers. + + M. B. I am glad we agree on that point; I hope we shall in + the rest. What say you to this? That the witches have their + spirits. Some hath one; some hath more, as two, three, four, + or five. Some in one likeness and some in another, as like + cats, weasels, toads, or mice, whom they nourish with milk or + with a chicken, or by letting them suck now and then a drop + of blood, whom they call if they be offended with any, and + send them to hurt them in their bodies, yea, to kill them, + and to kill their cattle. + + DANIEL. Here is great deceit, and great illusion; here the + Devil leadeth the ignorant people into foul errors, by which + he draweth them headlong into many grievous sins. + + M. B. Nay, then, I see you are awry, if you deny these + things, and say they be but illusions.... I did dwell in a + village within these five years where there was a man of good + wealth, and suddenly, within ten days' space, he had three + kine died, his gelding, worth ten pounds, fell lame, he was + himself taken with a great pain in his back, and a child of + seven years old died. He sent to the woman at R. H., and she + said he was plagued by a witch, adding, moreover, that there + were three women witches in that town, and one man witch, + willing him to look whom he most suspected. He suspected an + old woman, and caused her to be carried before a justice of + peace and examined. With much ado at the last she confessed + all, which was this in effect--that she had three spirits, + one like a cat, which she called _Lightfoot_; another like a + toad, which she called _Lunch_; the third like a weasel, + which she called _Makeshift_. This Lightfoot, she said, one + Mother Bailey, of W., sold her above sixteen years ago, for + an oven-cake, and told her the cat would do her good service; + if she would, she might send her of her errands. This cat was + with her but a while, but the weasel and the toad came and + offered their service. The cat would kill kine, the weasel + would kill horses, the toad would plague men in their bodies. + She sent them all three (as she confessed) against this man. + She was committed to the prison, and there she died before + the assizes. + +Daniel then strikes into the conversation, enlarging on the Scriptural +description of devils as 'mighty and terrible spirits, full of rage +and power and cruelty'--principalities and powers, the rulers of the +darkness of this world--and forcibly insisting that if spirits so +awful and potential as these assumed the shapes of such paltry vermin +as cats, mice, toads, and weasels, it must be out of subtilty to cover +and hide the mighty tyranny and power which they exercise over the +hearts of the wicked. And he argues that such spirits would never +deign to be a witch's servant or to do her bidding. M. B. contends, +however, that, although he be lord, yet is he content to serve her +turn; and the witches confess, he says, that they call forth their +demons, and send them on what errands they please, and hire them to +hurt in their bodies and their cattle those against whom they cherish +angry and revengeful feelings. 'I am sorry,' says Daniel mildly, 'you +are so far awry; it is a pity any man should be in such error, +especially a man that hath learning, and should teach others +knowledge.' + +After some further disputation, M. B. is brought to admit that God +giveth the devils power to plague and seduce because of man's +wickedness; but he asks whether a godly, faithful man or woman may not +be bewitched. We see, he says, that the devil had power given him of +old, as over Job. But Daniel will not admit that this is a case in +point, because it is not said that the devil dealt with Job through +the agency of witches. Thereupon Samuel, perceiving the drift of his +argument to be that the devil has no need to act by instruments so +mean and even degraded, and would assuredly never be at their command; +that, consequently, there can be no witchcraft, because there is no +necessity for it, suddenly interposes: + + 'With your leave, M. B., I would ask two or three questions + of my friend. There was but seven miles hence, at W. H., one + M.; the man was of good wealth, and well accounted of among + his neighbours. He pined away with sickness half a year, and + at last died. After he was dead, his wife suspected + ill-dealing. She went to a cunning man, who told her that her + husband died of witchery, and asked her if she did not + suspect any. Yes, there was one woman she did not like, one + Mother W.; her husband and she fell out, and he fell sick + within two days after, and never recovered. He showed her the + woman as plain in a glass as we see one another, and taught + her how she might bring her to confess. Well, she followed + his counsel, went home, caused her to be apprehended and + carried before a justice of peace. He examined her so wisely + that in the end she confessed she killed the man. She was + sent to prison, she was arraigned, condemned, and executed; + and upon the ladder she seemed very penitent, desiring all + the world to forgive her. She said she had a spirit in the + likeness of a yellow dun cat. This cat came unto her, as she + said, as she sat by the fire, when she was fallen out with a + neighbour of hers, and wished that the vengeance of God might + light upon him and his. The cat bade her not be afraid; she + would do her no harm. She had served a dame five years in + Kent that was now dead, and, if she would, she would be her + servant. "And whereas," said the cat, "such a man hath + misused thee, if thou wilt I will plague him in his cattle." + She sent the cat; she killed three hogs and one cow. The man, + suspecting, _burnt a pig alive_, and, as she said, her cat + would never go thither any more. Afterward she fell out with + that M. She sent her cat, who told her that she had given him + that which he should never recover; and, indeed, the man + died. Now, do you not think the woman spoke the truth in all + this? Would the woman accuse herself falsely at her death? + Did not the cat become her servant? Did not she send her? Did + she not plague and kill both man and beast? What should a man + think of this? + + DANIEL. You propound a particular example, and let us examine + everything in it touching the witch. You say the cat came to + her when she was in a great rage with one of her neighbours, + and did curse, wishing the vengeance of God to fall upon him + and his. + + SAM. She said so, indeed. I heard her with my own ears, for I + was at the execution. + + DAN. Then tell me who set her in such a devilish rage, so to + curse and ban, as to wish that the vengeance of God might + light upon him and his? Did not the cat? + + SAM. Truly I think that the devil wrought that in her. + + DAN. Very well. Then, you see, the cat is the beginning of + this play. + + SAM. Call you it a play? It was no play to some. + + DAN. Indeed, the witch at last had better have wrought hard + than been at her play. But I mean Satan did play the juggler; + for doth he not offer his service? Doth he not move her to + send him to plague the man? Tell me, is she so forward to + send, as he is to be sent? Or do you not take it that he + ruleth in her heart, and even wholly directeth it to this + matter? + + SAM. I am fully persuaded he ruleth her heart. + + DAN. _Then was she his drudge, and not he her servant._ He + needeth not to be hired and entreated; for if her heart were + to send him anywhere, unto such as he knoweth he cannot hurt, + nor seeth how to make any show that he hurteth them, he can + quickly turn her from that. Well, the cat goeth and killeth + the man, certain hogs, and a cow. How could she tell that the + cat did it? + + SAM. How could she tell? Why, he told her, man, and she saw + and heard that he lost his cattle. + + DAN. The cat would lie--would she not? for they say such cats + are liars. + + SAM. I do not trust the cat's words, but because the thing + fell out so. + + DAN. Because the hogs and the cow died, are you sure the cat + did kill them? Might they not die of some natural causes, as + you see both men and beasts are well, and die suddenly? + +In this way the dialogue proceeds, with a good deal of ingenuity and +some degree of dramatic spirit; and though the reasoning is not +without its fallacies, yet it is sufficiently clear and forcible, on +the whole, as a protest on the side of liberality and tolerance. + +The next branch of the subject taken up for consideration is 'the help +and remedy' that is sought for against witches 'at the hands of +cunning men;' Daniel contending that, if the cunning men can render +any assistance, it must be through the devil's instrumentality, and, +therefore, Christian men are not justified in availing themselves of +it. The alleged cures performed by witches, Daniel refers to the +influence of the imagination; and in this category he tells an amusing +story. 'There was a person in London,' he say, 'acquainted with the +magician Fento. Now, this Fento had a black dog, whom he called +Bomelius. This party afterwards had a conceit that Bomelius was a +devil, and that he felt him within him. He was in heaviness, and made +his moan to one of his acquaintances, who had a merry head, and told +him he had a friend could remove Bomelius. He bade him prepare a +breakfast, and he would bring him. Then this was the cure: he (the +friend) made him be stripped naked and stand by a good fire, and +though he were fat enough of himself, basted him all over with butter +against the fire, and made him wear a sleek-stone next his skin under +his belly, and the man had immediate relief, and gave him afterwards +great thanks.' + +'The conceit, or imagination, does much,' continues Daniel, 'even when +there is no apparent disease. A man feareth he is bewitched; it +troubleth all the powers of his mind, and that distempereth his body, +making great alterations in it, and bringeth sundry griefs. Now, when +his mind is freed from such imaginations, his bodily griefs, which +flew from the same, are eased. And a multitude of Satan's is of the +same character.' + +The conversation next turns upon the danger of shedding innocent +blood, which is inseparable from the execution of alleged witches; +while juries, says Daniel, must become guilty of shedding innocent +blood by condemning as guilty, and that upon their solemn oath, such +as be suspected upon vain surmises, and imaginations, and illusions, +rising from blindness and infidelity, and fear of Satan which is in +the ignorant sort. + + M. B. If you take it that this is one craft of Satan to bring + many to be guilty of innocent blood, and even upon their + oaths, which is horrible, what would you have the judges and + juries to do, when they are arraigned of suspicion to be + witches? + + DAN. What would I have them do? I would wish them to be most + wary and circumspect that they be not guilty of innocent + blood. And that is, to condemn none but upon sure ground, and + infallible proof; because presumptions shall not warrant or + excuse them before God, if guiltless blood be shed. + +Replying to observations made by the schoolmaster, Daniel continues: + + 'You bring two reasons to prove that in convicting witches + likelihoods and presumptions ought to be of force more than + about thieves or murderers. The first, because their dealing + is secret; the other, because the devil will not let them + confess. Indeed, men, imagining that witches do work strange + mischiefs, burn in desire to have them hanged, as hoping then + to be free; and then, upon such persuasions as you mention, + they suppose it is a very good work to put to death all which + are suspected. But, touching thieves and murderers, let men + take heed how they deal upon presumptions, unless they be + very strong; for we see that juries sometimes do condemn such + as be guiltless, which is a hard thing, especially as they + are upon their oath. And in witches, above all other, the + people had need to be strong, because there is greater + sleight of Satan to pursue the guiltless into death than in + the other. Here is special care and wisdom to be used. And so + likewise for their confessing. Satan doth gain more by their + confession than by their denial, and therefore rather + bewrayeth them himself, and forceth them unto confession + oftener than unto denial.' + +Samuel at first is reluctant to accept this statement. It has always +been his belief that the devil is much angered when witches confess +and betray matters; and in confirmation of this belief, or at least as +some excuse for it, he relates an anecdote. Of course, one woman had +suspected another to be a witch. She prevailed upon a gentleman to +send for the suspected person, and having accused her in his presence, +left him to admonish her with due severity, and to persuade her to +renounce the devil and all his works. While he was thus engaged, and +she was stoutly denying the accusation brought against her, a weasel +or lobster suddenly made its appearance. 'Look,' said the gentleman, +'yonder is thy spirit.' 'Ah, master!' she replied, 'that is a vermin; +there be many of them everywhere.' Well, as they went towards it, it +vanished out of sight; by-and-by it re-appeared, and looked upon them. +'Surely,' said the gentleman, 'it is thy spirit;' but she still +denied, and with that her mouth was drawn awry. Then he pressed her +further, and she confessed all. She confessed she had hurt and killed +by sending her spirit. The gentleman, not being a magistrate, allowed +her to go home, and then disclosed the affair to a justice. When she +reached home another witch accosted her, and said: 'Ah, thou beast, +what hast thou done? Thou hast betrayed us all. What remedy now?' said +she. 'What remedy?' said the other; 'send thy spirit and touch him.' +She sent her spirit, and of a sudden the gentleman had, as it were, a +flash of fire about him: he lifted up his heart to God, and felt no +hurt. The spirit returned, and said he could not hurt him, because he +had faith. 'What then,' said the other witch, 'hath he nothing that +thou mayest touch?' 'He hath a child,' said the other. 'Send thy +spirit,' said she, 'and touch the child.' She sent her spirit; the +child was in great pain, and died. The witches were hanged, and +confessed. + +Daniel, by an ingenious analysis, soon dismisses this absurd story, +which, like all such stories, he takes to be further evidence of +Satan's craft, and no disproof at all of the argument he has laid +down. 'Then,' says Samuel, 'I will tell you of another thing which was +done of late. + +'A woman suspected of being a witch, and of having done harm among +the cattle, was examined and brought to confess that she had a spirit, +which resided in a hollow tree, and spoke to her out of a hole in the +trunk. And whenever she was offended with any persons she went to that +tree and sent her spirit to kill their cattle. She was persuaded to +confess her faults openly, and to promise that she would utterly +forsake such ungodly ways: after she had made this open confession, +the spirit came unto her, being alone. "Ah!" said he, "thou hast +confessed and betrayed all. I could turn it to rend thee in pieces:" +with that she was afraid, and went away, and got her into company. +Within some few weeks after she fell out greatly into anger against +one man. Towards the tree she goeth, and before she came at it--"Oh!" +said the spirit, "wherefore comest thou? Who hath angered thee?" "Such +a man," said the witch. "And what wouldest thou have me do?" said the +spirit. "He hath," saith she, "two horses going yonder; touch them, or +one of them." Well, I think even that night one of the horses died, +and the other was little better. Indeed, they recovered again that one +which was not dead, but in very evil case. Now methinketh it is plain: +he was angry that she had betrayed all. And yet when she came to the +tree he let go all displeasure and went readily.' + +There is much common-sense, as we should nowadays call it, in Daniel's +comments on this extraordinarily wild story. 'Do you think,' he is +represented as saying, 'that Satan lodgeth in a hollow tree? Is he +become so lazy and idle? Hath he left off to be as a roaring lion, +seeking whom he may devour? Hath he put off the bloody and cruel +nature of the fiery dragon, so that he mindeth no harm but when an +angry woman entreats him to go kill a cow or a horse? Is he become so +doting with age that man shall espy his craft--yea, be found craftier +than he is?' + +And now for the winding-up of Parson Gifford's 'Dialogue.' 'Tis to be +wished that all the parsons of his time had been equally sensible and +courageous. + + M. B. I could be content to hear more in these matters; I see + how fondly I have erred. But seeing you must be gone, I hope + we shall meet here again at some other time. God keep you! + + SAM. I am bound to give you great thanks. And, I pray you, + when occasion serveth, that you come this way. Let us see you + at my house. + + M. B. I thought there had not been such subtle practices of + the devil, nor so great sins as he leadeth men into. + + SAM. It is strange to see how many thousands are carried + away, and deceived, yea, many that are very wise men. + + M. B. The devil is too crafty for the wisest, unless they + have the light of God's Word. + + SAMUEL'S WIFE. Husband, yonder cometh the goodwife R. + + SAM. I wish she had come sooner. + + GOODWIFE R. Ho, who is within, by your leave? + + SAMUEL'S WIFE. I would you had come a little sooner; here was + one even now that said you were a witch. + + GOODWIFE R. Was there one said I am a witch? You do but jest. + + SAMUEL'S WIFE. Nay, I promise you he was in good earnest. + + GOODWIFE R. I a witch? I defy him that saith it, though he be + a lord. I would all the witches in the land were hanged, and + their spirits by them. + + M. B. Would you not be glad, if their spirits were hanged up + with them, to have a gown furred with some of their skins? + + GOODWIFE R. Out upon them. There were few! + + SAM. Wife, why didst thou say that the goodwife R. is a + witch? He did not say so. + + SAMUEL'S WIFE. Husband, I did mark his words well enough; he + said she is a witch. + + SAM. He doth not know her, and how could he say she is a + witch? + + SAMUEL'S WIFE. What though he did not know her? Did he not + say that she played the witch that heated the spit red hot, + and thrust it into her cream when the butter would not come? + + SAM. Indeed, wife, thou sayest true. He said that was a thing + taught by the devil, as also the burning of a hen, or of a + hog alive, and all such like devices. + + GOODWIFE R. Is that witchcraft? Some Scripture man hath told + you so. Did the devil teach it? Nay, the good woman at R. H. + taught it my husband: she doth more good in one year than all + those Scripture men will do so long as they live. + + M. B. Who do you think taught it the cunning woman at R. H.? + + GOODWIFE R. It is a gift which God hath given her. I think + the Holy Spirit of God doth teach her. + + M. B. You do not think, then, that the devil doth teach her? + + GOODWIFE R. How should I think that the devil doth teach her? + Did you ever hear that the devil did teach any good thing? + + M. B. Do you know that was a good thing? + + GOODWIFE R. Was it not a good thing to drive the evil spirit + out of any man? + + M. B. Do you think the devil was afraid of your spit? + + GOODWIFE R. I know he was driven away, and we have been rid + of him ever since. + + M. B. Can a spit hurt him? + + GOODWIFE R. It doth hurt him, or it hurteth the witch: one of + them, I am sure: for he cometh no more. Either she can get + him come no more, because it hurteth him: or else she will + let him come no more, because it hurteth her. + + M. B. It is certain that spirits cannot be hurt but with + spiritual weapons: therefore your spit cannot fray nor hurt + the devil. And how can it hurt the witch? You did not think + she was in your cream, did you? + + GOODWIFE R. Some think she is there, and therefore when they + thrust in the spit they say: 'If thou beest here, have at + thine eye.' + + M. B. If she were in your cream, your butter was not very + cleanly. + + GOODWIFE R. You are merrily disposed, M. B. I know you are + of my mind, though you put these questions to me. For I am + sure none hath counselled more to go to the cunning folk than + you. + + M. B. I _was_ of your mind, but I am not now, for I see how + foolish I was. I am sorry that I offended so grievously as to + counsel any for to seek unto devils. + + GOODWIFE R. Why, M. B., who hath schooled you to-day? I am + sure you were of another mind no longer agone than yesterday. + + SAMUEL'S WIFE. Truly, goodwife R., I think my husband is + turned also: here hath been one reasoning with them three or + four hours. + + GOODWIFE R. Is your husband turned, too? I would you might + lose all your hens one after another, and then I would she + would set her spirit upon your ducks and your geese, and + leave you not one alive. Will you come to defend witches?... + + M. B. You think the devil can kill men's cattle, and lame + both man and beast at his pleasure: you think if the witch + entreat him and send him, he will go, and if she will not + have him go, he will not meddle. And you think when he doth + come, you can drive him away with a hot spit, or with burning + a live hen or a pig. + + GOODWIFE R. Never tell me I think so, for you yourself have + thought so; and let them say what they can, all the Scripture + men in the world shall never persuade me otherwise. + + M. B. I do wonder, not so much at your ignorance as at this, + that I was ever of the same mind that you are, and could not + see mine own folly. + + GOODWIFE R. Folly! how wise you are become of a sudden! I + know that their spirits lie lurking, for they foster them; + and when anybody hath angered them, then they call them forth + and send them. And look what they bid them do, or hire them + to do, that shall be done: as when she is angry, the spirit + will ask her, 'What shall I do?' 'Such a man hath misused + me,' saith she; 'go, kill his cow'; by-and-by he goeth and + doeth it. 'Go, kill such a woman's hens'; down go they. And + some of them are not content to do these lesser harms; but + they will say, 'Go, make such a man lame, kill him, or kill + his child.' Then are they ready, and will do anything; and I + think they be happy that can learn to drive them away. + + M. B. If I should reason with you out of the words of God, + you should see that all this is false, which you say. The + devil cannot kill nor hurt anything; no, not so much as a + poor hen. If he had power, who can escape him? Would he tarry + to be sent or entreated by a woman? He is a stirrer up unto + all harms and mischiefs. + + GOODWIFE R. What will you tell me of God's word? Doth not + God's word say there be witches? and do not you think God + doth suffer bad people? Are you a turncoat? Fare you well; I + will no longer talk with you. + + M. B. She is wilful indeed. I will leave you also. + + SAMUEL. I thank you for your good company. + +About the same time that Gifford was endeavouring to teach his +countrymen a more excellent way of dealing with the vexed questions of +demonology and witchcraft, a Dutch minister, named Bekker, scandalized +the orthodox by a frank denial of all power whatsoever to the devil, +and, consequently, to the witches and warlocks who were supposed to be +at one and the same time his servants and yet his employers. His +'Monde Enchanté' (originally written in Dutch) consists of four +ponderous volumes, remarkable for prolixity and repetition, as well as +for a certain originality of argument. There was no just ground, +however, as Hallam remarks, for throwing imputations on the author's +religious sincerity. He shared, however, the opprobrium that attaches +to all who deviate in theology from the orthodox path; and it must be +admitted that his Scriptural explanations in the case of the demoniacs +and the like are more ingenious than satisfactory. + + * * * * * + +A violent trumpet-note on the side of intolerance was blown by King +James I. in 1597 in his famous 'Dæmonologia.' It is written in the +form of a dialogue, and numbers about eighty closely-printed pages. +James, as the reader has seen, had had ample personal experience of +witches and their 'cantrips,' and had 'got up' the subject with a +commendable amount of thoroughness. He divides witches into eight +classes, who severally work their evil designs against mankind; then he +subdivides into white and black witches, of whom the former are the +more dangerous; and again into 'acted' and 'pacted' witches, the former +depending for their power on their supernatural gifts, and the latter +having made a compact with Satan contrary to 'all rules and orders of +nature, art or grace.' Further, the demons have a classification of +their own; some of the higher ranks of the demonarchy looking down +contemptuously enough on those of the inferior grades, who consist of +'the damned souls of departed conjurers.' These 'damned souls' +discharge all kinds of mean and servile offices--bringing fire from +heaven for the convenience of their employers; conveying bodies through +the air; conjuring corn from one field into another; imparting a show +of life to dead bodies; and raising the wind for witches to sell to +their nautical customers--who received pieces of knotted rope, and, +untying the first knot, secured a favourable breeze, for the second a +moderate wind, and for the third a violent gale. + +After describing the rites in vogue on the conclusion of a compact +between witch and devil, King James enlarges on other points of +ceremonial, such as the making of various magic circles--sometimes +round, sometimes triangular, sometimes quadrangular; the use of holy +water and crosses in ridicule of the papists; and the offer to the +demons of some living animal. He adds that the great witches' meetings +frequently took place in churches: and he says that the witches mutter +and hurriedly mumble through their conjurations 'like a priest +despatching a hunting masse'; and that if they step out of a circle in +a sudden alarm at the horrible appearance assumed by the demon, he +flies off with them body and soul. + +The royal expert proceeds to indicate the means by which you may +detect a witch. 'There are two good helpes that may be used for their +trials; the one is the finding of their marke and the trying the +insensibility thereof. The other is their fleeting on the water: for +as in a secret murther, if the dead carkasse be at any time thereafter +handled by the murtherer, it will gush out of blood, as if the blood +were crying to the heaven for revenge of the murtherer, God having +appoynted that secret supernaturale signe for triale of that secret +unnaturale crime, so it appears that God hath appoynted (for a +supernaturale signe of the monstrous impietie of witches) that the +water shall refuse to receive them in her bosome that have shaken off +them the sacred water of Baptism and willingly refused the benefit +thereof: no, not so much as their eies are able to shed teares +(threaten and torture them as you please) while first they repent (God +not permitting them to dissemble their obstinacie in so horrible a +crime), albeit the womenkind especially be able other waies to shed +teares at every light occasion when they will, yea altho' it were +dissemblingly like the crocodiles.' + +Incidentally, our witch-hunting King offers an explanation of a +peculiarity which, no doubt, our readers have already noted--the great +numerical superiority of witches over warlocks. 'The reason is easie,' +he says; 'for as that sex is frailer than man is, so is it easier to +be intrapped in the grosse snares of the devil,--as was over well +prooved to be true by the serpente deceiving of Eva at the beginning, +which makes him the homelier with that sex sensine [ever since].' + +As regards the external appearance of witches, he remarks that they +are not generally melancholic; 'but some are rich and worldly wise, +some are fat and corpulent, and most part are given over unto the +pleasures of the flesh; and further experience daily proves how loth +they are to confess without torture, which witnesseth their +guiltinesse.' He concludes by asking, 'Who is safe?' and replies that +the only safe person is the magistrate, when assiduously employed in +bringing witches to justice. One Reginald Scot, Esq., however, +hop-grower and brewer of Smeeth, in Kent, a persistent disbeliever in +and ridiculer of witchcraft, who had the courage to break lances with +the King and the bench of Bishops in contemporary pamphlets, and is +called by the King an 'Englishman of damnable opiniones,' irreverently +answered this question by saying that the only safe person was the +King himself, as his sex prevented his being taken for a witch, and +the whole kingdom was satisfied that he was no conjurer. + + * * * * * + +In 1616, John Cotta, a Northampton physician, published a forcibly +written attack on the vulgar delusion, under the title of 'The Trial +of Witchcraft,' which reached a second (and enlarged) edition in 1624. +Cotta was also the author of a fierce blast against quacks--'Discovery +of the Dangers of ignorant Practisers of Physick in England,' 1612; +and of a not less vehement attack on the _aurum potabile_ of the +chemists, entitled, 'Cotta contra Antonium, or An Ant. Anthony,' 1623. + + * * * * * + +There is a lively work by John Gaul, preacher of the Word at Great +Haughton, in the county of Huntingdon--'Select Cases of Conscience +touching Witches and Witchcraft,' 1646, which is worth looking into. +Gaul was a courageous and persevering opponent of the great +witch-finder, Hopkins. + + * * * * * + +The unhappy victims of popular prejudice found a strenuous champion +also in Sir Robert Filmer, who, in 1653, published his 'Advertisement +to the Jurymen of England, touching Witches, together with a +Difference between an English and Hebrew Witch.' Filmer is best known +to students by his 'Patriarcha,' an apology for the paternal +government of kings, which does violence to all constitutional +principles, but has at least the negative merit of obvious sincerity +on the part of its writer. It is somewhat surprising to find a mind +like Filmer's, fettered as it was by so many prejudices and a slavish +adherence to prescription, openly urging the cause of tolerance and +enlightenment, and vigorously demolishing the sham arguments by which +the believers in witchcraft endeavoured to support their grotesque +theories. + + * * * * * + +Three years later followed on the same side a certain Thomas Ady, +M.A., who, with considerable vivacity, fulminated against the +witch-mongers and witch-torturers in his tractate, '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.' The quaintly-worded dedication ran as +follows: + +'To the Prince of the Kings of the Earth. It is the manner of men, O +heavenly King, to dedicate their books to some great men, thereby to +have their works protected and countenanced among them; but Thou only +art able by Thy Holy Spirit of Truth, to defend Thy Truth, and to make +it take impression in the heart and understanding of men. Unto Thee +alone do I dedicate this work, entreating Thy Most High Majesty to +grant that, whoever shall open this book, Thy Holy Spirit may so +possess their understanding as that the Spirit of error may depart +from them, and that they may read and try Thy Truth by the touchstone +of Thy Truth, the Holy Scriptures; and finding that Truth, may embrace +it and forsake their darksome inventions of Anti-Christ, that have +deluded and defiled the nations now and in former ages. Enlighten the +world, Thou art the Light of the World, and let darkness be no more in +the world, now or in any future age; but make all people to walk as +children of the light for ever; and destroy Anti-Christ that hath +deceived the nations, and save us the residue by Thyself alone; and +let not Satan any more delude us, for the Truth is thine for ever.' + + * * * * * + +In 1669 John Wagstaffe published 'The Question of Witchcraft Debated.' +According to Wood, he was the son of John Wagstaffe, a London citizen; +was born in Cheapside; entered as a commoner of Oriel College, Oxford, +towards the end of 1649; took the degrees in Arts, and applied himself +to the study of politics and other learning. 'At length being raised +from an academical life to the inheritance of Hasland by the death of +an uncle, who died without male issue, he spent his life afterwards in +single estate.' He died in 1677. Wood describes him as 'a little +crooked man, and of a despicable presence. He was laughed at by the +boys of this University because, as they said, he himself looked like +a little wizard.' + +His book is illuminated throughout by the generous sympathies of a +large and liberal mind. His peroration has been described, and not +unjustly, as 'lofty' and 'memorable,' and, when animated by a noble +earnestness, the writer's language rises into positive eloquence. 'I +cannot think,' he says, 'without trembling and horror on the vast +numbers of people that in several ages and several countries have +been sacrificed unto this cold opinion. Thousands, ten thousands, are +upon record to have been slain, and many of them not with simple +deaths, but horrid, exquisite tortures. And yet, how many are there +more who have undergone the same fate, of whom we have no memorial +extant? Since therefore the opinion of witchcraft is a mere stranger +unto Scripture, and wholly alien from true religion; since it is +ridiculous by asserting fables and impossibilities; since it appears, +when duly considered, to be all bloody and full of dangerous +consequence unto the lives and safety of men; I hope that with this my +discourse, opposing an absurd and pernicious error, I cannot at all +disoblige any sober, unbiased person, especially if he be of such +ingenuity as to have freed himself from a slavish subjection unto +those prejudicial opinions which custom and education do with too much +tyranny impose. + +'If the doctrine of witchcraft should be carried up to a height, and +the inquisition after it should be entrusted in the hands of +ambitious, covetous, and malicious men, it would prove of far more +fatal consequences unto the lives and safety of mankind than that +ancient heathenish custom of sacrificing men unto idol gods, insomuch +that we stand in need of another Heracles Liberator, who, as the +former freed the world from human sacrifice, should, in like manner, +travel from country to country, and by his all-commanding authority +free it from this evil and base custom of torturing people to confess +themselves witches, and burning them after extorted confessions. +Surely the blood of men ought not to be so cheap, nor so easily to be +shed by those who, under the name of God, do gratify exorbitant +passions and selfish ends; for without question, under this side +heaven, there is nothing so sacred as the life of man, for the +preservation whereof all policies and forms of government, all laws +and magistrates are most especially ordained. Wherefore I presume that +this discourse of mine, attempting to prove the vanity and +impossibility of witchcraft, is so far from any deserved censure and +blame, that it rather deserves commendation and praise, if I can in +the least measure contribute to the saving of the lives of men.' + + * * * * * + +Meric Casaubon, a man of abundant learning and not less abundant +superstition, attempted a reply to Wagstaffe in his treatise 'Of +Credulity and Incredulity in Things Divine and Spiritual' (1670). + + * * * * * + +At Thornton, in the parish of Caswold, Yorkshire, was born, on the 3rd +of February, 1610, one of the ablest and most successful of the +adversaries of the witch-maniacs, John Webster. It is supposed that he +was educated at Cambridge; but the first event in his career of which +we have any certain knowledge is his admission to holy orders in the +Church of England by Dr. Morton, Bishop of Durham. In 1634 we find him +officiating as curate at Kildwick in Craven, and nine years later as +Master of the Free Grammar School at Clitheroe. He seems afterwards to +have held for a time a military chaplaincy, then to have withdrawn +from the Church of England, and taken refuge in some form of Dissent. +In 1653 his new religious views found expression in his 'Saints' +Guide,' and in 1654, in 'The Judgment Set and the Books Opened,' a +series of sermons which he had originally preached at All Hallows' +Church in Lombard Street. It was in this church the incident occurred +which Wood has recorded: 'On the 12th of October, 1653, William +Erbury, with John Webster, sometime a Cambridge scholar, endeavoured +to knock down learning and the ministry both together in a disputation +that they then had against two ministers in a church in Lombard +Street, London. Erbury then declared that the wisest ministers and the +purest churches were at that time befooled, confounded, and defiled by +reason of learning. Another while he said that the ministry were +monsters, beasts, asses, greedy dogs, false prophets, and that they +are the Beast with seven heads and ten horns. The same person also +spoke out and said that Babylon is the Church in her ministers, and +that the Great Whore is the Church in her worship, etc., so that with +him there was an end of ministers and churches and ordinations +altogether. While these things were babbled to and fro, the multitude, +being of various opinions, began to mutter, and many to cry out, and +immediately it came to a meeting or tumult (call it which you please), +wherein the women bore away the bell, but lost some of them their +kerchiefs; and the dispute being hot, there was more danger of pulling +down the church than the ministry.' + +In 1654, our iconoclastic enthusiast strongly--but not without good +reason--assailed the educational system then in vogue at Oxford and +Cambridge in his treatise, 'Academiarum Examen,' which created quite a +sensation in 'polite circles,' fluttering the dove-cots of the rulers +of the two Universities. Very curious, however, are its sympathetic +references to the old Hermetic mysteries, Rosicrucianism, and +astrology, to the fanciful abstractions and dreamy speculations of +Paracelsus, Van Helmont, Fludd, and Dr. Dee. One cannot but wonder +that so acute and vigorous an intellect should have allowed itself to +be entangled in the delusions of the occult sciences. But his study of +the works of the old philosophers was, no doubt, the original motive +of the laborious research which resulted in his 'Metallographia; or, A +History of Metals' (1671). In this learned and comprehensive treatise +are declared 'the signs of Ores and Minerals, both before and after +Digging, the causes and manner of their generations, their kinds, +sorts, and differences; with the description of sundry new Metals, or +Semi-Metals, and many other things pertaining to Mineral Knowledge. As +also the handling and showing of their Vegetability, and the +discussion of the most difficult Questions belonging to Mystical +Chymistry, as of the Philosopher's Gold, their Mercury, the Liquor +Alkahest, Aurum potabile, and such like. Gathered forth of the most +approved Authors that have written in Greek, Latin, or High Dutch, +with some Observations and Discoveries of the Author Himself. By John +Webster, Practitioner in Physick and Chirurgery. "_Qui principia +naturalia in seipso ignoraverit, hic jam multum remotus est ab arte +nostra, quoniam non habet radiam veram super quam intentionem suam +fundit._" Geber, Sum. Perfect., lib. i., p. 21.' + +In 1677, Webster, who had abandoned the cure of souls for that of +bodies, produced the work which entitles him to honourable mention in +these pages. According to the fashion of the day, its title was almost +as long as a table of contents. I transcribe it here _in extenso_: + +'_The Displaying of supposed Witchcraft_, Wherein is affirmed that +there are many sorts of Deceivers and Impostors. And Divers persons +under a passive Delusion of Melancholy and Fancy. But that there is a +Corporeal League made betwixt the Devil and the Witch, Or that he +sucks on the Witches Body, has Carnal Copulation, or that Witches are +turned into Cats or Dogs, raise Tempests or the like, is utterly +denied and disproved. Wherein also is handled the Existence of Angels +and Spirits, the Truth of Apparitions, the Nature of Astral and +Sidereal Spirits, the Force of Charms and Philters; with other +Abstruse Matters. By John Webster, Practitioner in Physic. "_Falsæ +etenim opiniones Hominum præoccupantes, non solum surdos sed ut cæcos +faciunt, ita ut videre nequeant, quæ aliis perspicua apparent._" +Galen, lib. viii., de Comp. Med. London. Printed by I. M., and are to +be sold by the Booksellers in London, 1677.' + +Webster, who was evidently a man of restless and inquiring intellect, +and independent judgment, died on June 18, 1682, and was buried in +St. Margaret's, Clitheroe, where his monument may still be seen. Its +singular inscription must have been devised by some astrological +sympathizer: + + Qui hanc figuram intelligunt + Me etiam intellexisse, intelligent. + +Here follows a mysterious figure of the sun, with several circles and +much astrological lettering, which it is unnecessary to reproduce. The +inscription continues: + + Hic jacet ignotus mundo mersus que tumultus + Invidiæ, semper mens tamen æqua fecit, + Multa tulit veterum ut sciret secreta sophorum + Ac tandem vires noverit ignis aquæ. + + Johannes Hyphantes sive Webster. + In villa Spinosa supermontana, in + Parochia silvæ cuculatæ, in agro + Eboracensi, natus 1610, Feb. 3. + Ergastulum animæ deposuit 1682, Junii 18. + Annoq. ætatis suæ 72 currente. + Sicq. peroravit moriens mundo huic valedicens, + Aurea pax vivis, requies æterna sepultis. + +In 1728, Andrew Millar, at the sign of The Buchanan's Head, against +St. Clement's Church in the Strand, published 'A System of Magick: or, +A History of the Black Art,' by Daniel Defoe; a book which, though it +by no means justifies its title, is one of more than passing interest, +partly from the renown of its author, and partly from the light it +throws on the popularity of magic among the English middle classes in +the earlier years of the eighteenth century. As it has not been +reprinted for the last fifty years, and is not very generally known, +some glimpses of the stuff it is made of may be acceptable to the +curious reader.[53] + +In his preface Defoe lavishes a good deal of contempt on contemporary +pretenders to the character of magician, who by sham magical practices +imposed on a public ignorant, and therefore credulous. Magicians, he +says, in the first ages were wise men; in the middle ages, madmen; in +these latter ages, they are cunning men. In the earliest times they +were honest; in the middle time, rogues; in these last times, fools. +At first they dealt with nature; then with the devil; and now, not +with the devil or with nature either. In the first ages the magicians +were wiser than the people; in the second age wickeder than the +people; and in this later age the people are both worse and wickeder +than the magicians. Like many other generalizations, this one of +Defoe's is more pointed than true; and it is evident that the +so-called magicians could not have flourished had there not been an +ignorant class who readily accepted their pretensions. + +Defoe's account of the origin of magic is so vague as to suggest that +he knew very little of the subject he was writing about. 'I have +traced it,' he says, 'as far back as antiquity gives us any clue to +discover it by: it seems to have its beginning in the ignorance and +curiosity of the darkest ages of the world, when miracle and something +wonderful was expected to confirm every advanced notion; and when the +wise men, having racked their invention to the utmost, called in the +devil to their assistance for want of better help; and those that did +not run into Satan's measures, and give themselves up to the infernal, +yet trod so near, and upon the very verge of Hell, that it was hard to +distinguish between the magician and the devil, and thus they have +gone on ever since: so that almost all the dispute between us and the +magicians is that they say they converse with good spirits, and we say +if they deal with any spirits, it is with the devil.' + +Here the greatness of his theme stimulates Defoe into poetry, which +differs very little, however, from his prose, so that a brief specimen +will content everybody: + + 'Hail! dangerous science, falsely called sublime, + Which treads upon the very brink of crime. + Hell's mimic, Satan's mountebank of state, + Deals with more devils than Heaven did e'er create. + The infernal juggling-box, by Heaven designed, + To put the grand parade upon mankind. + The devil's first game which he in Eden played, + When he harangued to Eve in masquerade.' + +Dividing his treatise into two parts, our author, in the introduction +to Part I., discusses the meaning of the principal terms in magical +lore; who, and what kind of people, the magicians were; and the +meaning originally given to the words 'magic' and 'magician.' As a +matter of course, he strays back to the old Chaldean days, when a +magician, he says, was simply a mathematician, a man of science, who, +stored with knowledge and learning, was a kind of walking dictionary +to other people, instructing the rest of mankind on subjects of which +they were ignorant; a wise man, in fact, who interpreted omens, ill +signs, tokens, and dreams; understood the signs of the times, the face +of the heavens, and the influences of the superior luminaries there. +When all this wisdom became more common, and the magi had communicated +much of their knowledge to the people at large, their successors, +still aspiring to a position above, and apart from, the rest of the +world, were compelled to push their studies further, to inquire into +nature, to view the aspect of the heavens, to calculate the motions of +the stars, and more particularly to dwell upon their influences in +human affairs--thus creating the science of astrology. But these men +neither had, nor pretended to have, any compact or correspondence with +the devil or with any of his works. They were men of thought, or, if +you please, men of deeper thinking than the ordinary sort; they +studied the sciences, inquired into the works of nature and +providence, studied the meaning and end of things, the causes and +events, and consequently were able to see further into the ordinary +course and causes both of things about them, and things above them, +than other men. + +Such were the world's gray forefathers, the magicians of the elder +time, in whom was found 'an excellent spirit of wisdom.' There were +others--not less learned--whose studies took a different direction; +who inquired into the structure and organization of the human body; +who investigated the origin, the progress, and the causes of diseases +and distempers, both in men and women; who sought out the physical or +medicinal virtues of drugs and plants; and as by these means they made +daily discoveries in nature, of which the world, until then, was +ignorant, and by which they performed astonishing cures, they +naturally gained the esteem and reverence of the people. + +Sir Walter Raleigh contends that only the word 'magic,' and not the +magical art, is derived from Simon Magus. He adds that Simon's name +was not Magus, a magician, but Gors, a person familiar with evil +spirits; and that he usurped the title of Simon the Magician simply +because it was then a good and honourable title. Defoe avails himself +of Raleigh's authority to sustain his own opinion, that there is a +manifest difference between _magic_, which is wisdom and supernatural +knowledge, and the witchcraft and conjuring which we now understand by +the word. + +In his second chapter Defoe classifies the magic of the ancients under +three heads: i. _Natural_, which included the knowledge of the stars, +of the motions of the planetary bodies, and their revolutions and +influences; that is to say, the study of nature, of philosophy, and +astronomy; ii. _Artificial_ or _Rational_, in which was included the +knowledge of all judicial astrology, the casting or calculating +nativities, and the cure of diseases--(1) by particular charms and +figures placed in this or that position; (2) by herbs gathered at this +or that particular crisis of time; (3) by saying such and such words +over the patient; (4) by such and such gestures; (5) by striking the +flesh in such and such a manner, and innumerable such-like pieces of +mimicry, working not upon the disease itself, but upon the imagination +of the patient, and so affecting the cure by the power of nature, +though that nature were set in operation by the weakest and simplest +methods imaginable; and, iii. _Diabolical_, which was wrought by and +with the concurrence of the devil, carried on by a correspondence with +evil spirits--with their help, presence, and personal assistance--and +practised chiefly by their priests. Defoe argues that the ancients at +first were acquainted only with the purer form of magic, and that, +therefore, sorcery and witchcraft were of much later development. The +cause and motive of this development he traces in his third chapter +('Of the Reason and Occasion which brought the ancient honest Magi, +whose original study was philosophy, astronomy, and the works of +nature, to turn sorcerers and wizards, and deal with the Devil, and +how their Conversation began'). Egyptologists will find Defoe's +comments upon Egyptian magic refreshingly simple and unhistorical, and +his identifications of the Pyramids with magical practices is wildly +vague and hypothetical. Of the magic which was really taught and +practised among the ancient people of Egypt, Defoe, of course, knows +nothing. He tells us, however, that the Jews learned it from them. He +goes on to speculate as to the time when that close intercourse began +between the devil and his servants on earth which is the foundation +of the later or diabolical magic, and concludes that his first +visible appearance on this mundane stage was as the enemy of Job. +Thence he is led to inquire, in his fourth chapter, what shapes the +devil assumed on his first appearances to the magicians and others, in +the dawn of the world's history, and whether he is or has been allowed +to assume a human shape or no. And he suggests that his earliest +acquaintance with mankind was made through dreams, and that by this +method he contrived to infuse into men's minds an infinite variety of +corrupt imaginations, wicked desires, and abhorrent conclusions and +resolutions, with some ridiculous, foolish, and absurd things at the +same time. + +Defoe then proceeds to tell an Oriental story, which, doubtlessly, is +his own invention: + +Ali Albrahazen, a Persian wizard, had, it is said, this kind of +intercourse with the devil. He was a Sabean by birth, and had obtained +a wonderful reputation for his witchcraft, so that he was sent for by +the King of Persia upon extraordinary occasions, such as the +interpretation of a dream, or of an apparition, like that of +Belshazzar's handwriting, or of some meteor or eclipse, and he never +failed to give the King satisfaction. For whether his utterances were +true or false, he couched them always in such ambiguous terms that +something of what he predicted might certainly be deduced from his +words, and so seem to import that he had effectually revealed it, +whether he had really done so or not. + +This Ali, wandering alone in the desert, and musing much upon the +appearance of a fiery meteor, which, to the great terror of the +country, had flamed in the heavens every night for nearly a month, +sought to apprehend its significance, and what it should portend to +the world; but, failing to do so, he sat down, weary and disheartened, +in the shade of a spreading palm. Breathing to himself a strong desire +that some spirit from the other world would generously assist him to +arrive at the true meaning of a phenomenon so remarkable, he fell +asleep. And, lo! in his sleep he dreamed a dream, and the dream was +this: that a tall man came to him, a tall man of sage and venerable +aspect, with a pleasing smile upon his countenance; and, addressing +him by his name, told him that he was prepared to answer his +questions, and to explain to him the signification of the great and +terrible fire in the air which was terrifying all Arabia and Persia. + +His explanation proved to be of an astronomical character. These fiery +appearances, he said, were collections of vapour exhaled by the +influence of the sun from earth or sea. As to their importance to +human affairs, it was simply this: that sometimes by their propinquity +to the earth, and their power of attraction, or by their dissipation +of aqueous vapours, they occasioned great droughts and insupportable +heats; while, at other times, they distilled heavy and unusual rains, +by condensing, in an extraordinary manner, the vapours they had +absorbed. And he added: 'Go thou and warn thy nation that this fiery +meteor portends an excessive drought and famine; for know that by the +strong exhalation of the vapours of the earth, occasioned by the +meteor's unusual nearness to it, the necessary rains will be withheld, +and to a long drought, as a matter of course, famine and scarcity of +corn succeed. Thus, by judging according to the rules of natural +causes, thou shalt predict what shall certainly come to pass, and +shalt obtain the reputation thou so ardently desirest of being a wise +man and a great magician.' + +'This prediction,' said Ali, 'was all very well as regarded Arabia; +but would it apply also to Persia?' 'No,' replied the devil; for Ali's +interlocutor was no less distinguished a personage--fiery meteors from +the same causes sometimes produced contrary events; and he might +repair to the Persian Court, and predict the advent of excessive rains +and floods, which would greatly injure the fruits of the earth, and +occasion want and scarcity. 'Thus, if either of these succeed, as it +is most probable, thou shalt assuredly be received as a sage magician +in one country, if not in the other; also, to both of them thou mayest +suggest, as a probability only, that the consequence may be a plague +or infection among the people, which is ordinarily the effect as well +of excessive wet as of excessive heat. If this happens, thou shalt +gain the reputation thou desirest; and if not, seeing thou didst not +positively foretell it, thou shalt not incur the ignominy of a false +prediction.' + +Ali was very grateful for the devil's assistance, and failed not to +ask how, at need, he might again secure it. He was told to come again +to the palm-tree, and to go around it fifteen times, calling him +thrice by his name each time: at the end of the fifteenth +circumambulation he would find himself overtaken by drowsiness; +whereupon he should lie down with his face to the south, and he would +receive a visit from him in vision. The devil further told him the +magic name by which he was to summon him. + +The magician's predictions were duly made and duly fulfilled. +Thenceforward he maintained a constant communication with the devil, +who, strange to say, seems not to have exacted anything from him in +return for his valuable, but hazardous, assistance. + +Defoe's fifth chapter contains a further account of the devil's +conduct in imitating divine inspirations; describes the difference +between the genuine and the false; and dwells upon signs and wonders, +fictitious as well as real. In chapter the sixth our author treats of +the first practices of magic and witchcraft as a diabolical art, and +explains how it was handed on to the Egyptians and Phœnicians, by +whom it was openly encouraged. He offers some amusing remarks on the +methods adopted by magicians for summoning the devil, who seems to be +at once their servant and master. In parts of India they go up, he +says, to the summit of some particular mountain, where they call him +with a little kettledrum, just as the good old wives in England hive +their bees, except that they beat it on the wrong side. Then they +pronounce certain words which they call 'charms,' and the devil +appears without fail. + +It is not easy to discover in history what words were used for charms +in Egypt and Arabia for so many ages. It is certain they differed in +different countries; and it is certain they differed as the magicians +acted together or individually. Nor are we less at a loss to +understand what the devil could mean by suffering such words, or any +words at all, to charm, summon, alarm, or arouse him. The Greeks have +left us, he says, a word which was used by the magicians of antiquity +pretty frequently--that famous trine or triangular word, Abracadabra: + + A B R A C A D A B R A + A B R A C A D A B R + A B R A C A D A B + A B R A C A D A + A B R A C A D + A B R A C A + A B R A C + A B R A + A B R + A B + A + +'There is abundance of learned puzzle among the ancients to find out +the signification of this word: the subtle position of the letters +gave a kind of reverence to them, because they read it as it were +every way, upwards and downwards, backwards and forwards, and many +will have it still _that the devil put them together_: nay, they begin +at last to think it was old Legion's surname, and whenever he was +called by that name, he used to come very readily; for which reason +the old women in their chimney-corners would be horribly afraid of +saying it often over together, for if they should say it a certain +number of times, they had a notion it would certainly raise the devil. + +'They say, on the contrary, that it was invented by one Basilides, a +learned Greek; that it contained the great and awful name of the +Divinity; and that it was used for many years for the opposing the +spells and charms of the Pagans; that is, the diabolical spells and +charms of the pagan magicians.' + +In the seventh chapter we read of the practice and progress of magic, +as it is now explained to be a diabolical art; how it spread itself in +the world, and by what degrees it grew up to the height which it has +since attained. + + * * * * * + +The introduction to the second part of Defoe's work is devoted to an +exposition of the Black Art 'as it really is,' and sets forth 'why +there are several differing practices of it in the several parts of +the world, and what those practices are; as, also, what is contained +in it in general.' He defines it as 'a new general term for all the +branches of that correspondence which mankind has maintained, or does, +or can carry on, between himself and the devil, between this and the +infernal world.' And he enumerates these branches as: _Divining_, or +_Soothsaying_; _Observing of Times_; _Using Enchantment_; +_Witchcraft_; _Charming_, or _Setting of Spells_; _Dealing with +Familiar Spirits_; _Wizardising_, or _Sorcery_; and _Necromancy_. + +The first chapter treats of Modern Magic, or the Black Art in its +present practice and perfection. + +In the second chapter the scene is changed: as the devil acted at +first with his Black Art without the magicians, so the magicians seem +now to carry it on without the devil. This is written in Defoe's best +style of sober irony. 'The magicians,' he says, 'were formerly the +devil's servants, but now they are his masters, and that to such a +degree, that it is but drawing a circle, casting a few figures, +muttering a little Arabic, and up comes the devil, as readily as the +drawer at a tavern, with a _D'ye call, sir?_ or like a Scotch caude +[caddie?], with _What's your honour's wull, sir?_ Nay, as the learned +in the art say, he must come, he can't help it: then as to tempting, +he is quite out of doors. And I think, as the Old Parliament did by +the bishops, we may e'en vote him useless. In a word, there is no +manner of occasion for him: mankind are as froward as he can wish and +desire of them; nay, some cunning men tell us we sin faster than the +devil can keep pace with us: as witness the late witty and moderately +wicked Lady ...., who blest her stars that the devil never tempted her +to anything; he understood himself better, for she knew well enough +how to sin without him, and that it would be losing his time to talk +to her.' + +Defoe furnishes an entertaining account of his conversation with a +countryman, who had been to a magician at Oundle. Whether true or +fictitious, the narrative shows that many of the favourite tricks +performed at spiritualistic _séances_ in our own time were well known +in Defoe's: + + COUNTRYMAN. I saw my old gentleman in a great chair, and two + more in chairs at some distance, and three great candles, and + a great sheet of white paper upon the floor between them; + every one of them had a long white wand in their hands, the + lower end of which touched the sheet of paper. + + DEFOE. And were the candles upon the ground too? + + C. Yes, all of them. + + D. There was a great deal of ceremony about you, I assure + you. + + C. I think so, too, but it is not done yet: immediately I + heard the little door stir, as if it was opening, and away I + skipped as softly as I could tread, and got into my chair + again, and sat there as gravely as if I had never stirred out + of it. I was no sooner set, but the door opened indeed, and + the old gentleman came out as before, and turning to me, + said, 'Sit still, don't ye stir;' and at that word the other + two that were with him in the room walked out after him, one + after another, across the room, as if to go out at the other + door where I came in; but at the further end of the room they + stopped, and turned their faces to one another, and talked; + but it was some devil's language of their own, for I could + understand nothing of it. + + D. And now I suppose you were frighted in earnest? + + C. Ay, so I was; but it was worse yet, for they had not stood + long together, but the great elbow-chair, which the old + gentleman sat in at the little table just by me, _began to + stir of itself_; at which the old gentleman, knowing I should + be afraid, came to me, and said, 'Sit still, don't you stir, + all will be well; you shall have no harm;' at which he gave + his chair a kick with his foot, and saith, 'Go!' with some + other words, and other language; _and away went the obedient + chair, sliding, two of its legs on the ground, and the other + two off, as if somebody had dragged it by that part_. + + D. And so, no doubt, they did, though you could not see it. + + C. And as soon as the chair was dragged or moved to the end + of the room, where the three, I know not what to call 'em, + were, two other chairs did the like from the other side of + the room, and so they all sat down, and talked together a + good while; at last the door at that end of the room opened + too, and they all were gone in a moment, without rising out + of their chairs; for I am sure they did not rise to go out, + as other folks do. + + D. What did you think of yourself when you saw the chair stir + so near you? + + C. Think! nay, I did not think; I was dead, to be sure I was + dead, with the fright, and expected I should be carried away, + chair and all, the next moment. Then it was, I say, that my + hair would have lifted off my hat, if it had been on, I am + sure it would. + + D. Well, but when they were all gone, you came to yourself + again, I suppose? + + C. To tell you the truth, master, I am not come to myself + yet. + + D. But go on, let me know how it ended. + + C. Why, after a little while, my old man came in again, + called his man to set the chairs to rights, and then sat him + down at the table, spoke cheerfully to me, and asked me if I + would drink, which I refused, though I was a-dry indeed. I + believe the fright had made me dry; but as I never had been + used to drink with the devil, I didn't know what to think of + it, so I let it alone. + +In his third chapter ('Of the present pretences of the Magicians; how +they defend themselves; and some examples of their practice') Defoe +has a lively account of a contemporary magician, a Dr. Bowman, of +Kent, who seems to have been a firm believer in what is now called +Spiritualism. He was a green old man, who went about in a long black +velvet gown and a cap, with a long beard, and his upper lip trimmed +'with a kind of muschato.' He strongly repudiated any kind of +correspondence or intercourse with the devil; but hinted that he +derived much assistance from the good spirits which people the +invisible world. After dwelling on the follies of the learned, and the +superstitions of the ignorant, this lordly conjurer said: 'You see how +that we, men of art, who have studied the sacred sciences, suffer by +the errors of common fame; they take us all for devil-mongers, damned +rogues, and conjurers.' + +The fourth chapter discusses the doctrine of spirits as it is +understood by the magicians; how far it may be supposed there may be +an intercourse with superior beings, apart from any familiarity with +the devil or the spirits of evil; with a transition to the present +times. + +And so much for the 'Art of Magic' as expounded by Daniel Defoe. + + * * * * * + +In 1718 appeared Bishop Hutchinson's 'Historical Essay concerning +Witchcraft,' a book written in a most liberal and tolerant spirit, +and, at the same time, with so much comprehensiveness and exactitude, +that later writers have availed themselves freely of its stores. + +Reference may also be made to-- + +John Beaumont, 'Treatise of Spirits, Apparitions, Witchcrafts, and +other Magical Practices,' 1705. + +James Braid (of Manchester), 'Magic, Witchcraft, Animal Magnetism, +Hypnotism, and Electro-Biology' (1852), in which there is very little +about witchcraft, but a good deal about the influence of the +imagination. + +J. C. Colquhoun, 'History of Magic, Witchcraft, and Animal Magnetism,' +1851. + +Rev. Joseph Glanvill, 'Sadducismus Triumphatus; or, A full and plain +Evidence concerning Witches and Apparitions,' 1670. + +Sir Walter Scott, 'Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft,' 1831. + +Howard Williams, 'The Superstitions of Witchcraft,' 1865. + +It may be a convenience to the reader if I indicate some of the +principal foreign authorities on this subject. Such as--Institor and +Sprenger's great work, 'Malleus Maleficarum' (Nuremberg, 1494); The +monk Heisterbach's (Cæsarius) 'Dialogus Miraculorum' (ed. by +Strange), 1851; Cannaert's 'Procès des Sorcières en Belgique,' 1848; +Dr. W. G. Soldan's 'Geschichte der Hexenprocesse' (1843); G. C. +Horst's 'Zauber-Bibliothek, oder die Zauberei, Theurgie und Mantik, +Zauberei, Hexen und Hexenprocessen, Dämonen, Gespenster und +Geistererscheinungen,' in 6 vols., 1821--a most learned and +exhaustive work, brimful of recondite lore; Collin de Plancy's +'Dictionnaire Infernal; ou Répertoire Universel des Etres, des +Livres, et des Choses qui tiennent aux Apparitions, aux Divinations, +à la Magie,' etc., 1844; Michelet's 'La Sorcière' is, of course, +brilliantly written; R. Reuss's 'La Sorcellerie au xvi{e}. et +xvii{e}. Siècle,' 1872; Tartarotti's 'Del Congresso Notturno delle +Lamie,' 1749; F. Perreaud's 'Demonologie, ou Traité des Démons et +Sorciers,' 1655; H. Boguet's 'Discours des Sorciers,' 1610 (very +rare); and Cotton Mather's 'Wonders of the Invisible World,' 1695--a +monument of credulity, prejudice, and bigotry. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[53] Some authorities doubt the authorship; but the internal evidence +seems to me to justify the claim made for it as Defoe's. + + +BOOKS ON MAGIC. + +It may also be convenient to the reader if I enumerate a few of the +principal authorities on the history of Magic, Sorcery, and Alchemy. A +very exhaustive list will be found in the 'Bibliotheca Magica et +Pneumatica,' by Graessel, 1843; and an 'Alphabetical Catalogue of +Works on Hermetic Philosophy and Alchemy' is appended to the 'Lives of +Alchemystical Philosophers,' by Arthur Edward Waite, 1888. For +ordinary purposes the following will be found sufficient: Langlet du +Fresnoy, 'Histoire de la Philosophie Hermétique,' 1742; Gabriel Naudé, +'Apologie pour les Grands Hommes faussement soupçonnés de Magie,' +1625; Martin Antoine Delrio, 'Disquisitionum Magicarum, libri sex,' +1599; L. F. Alfred Maury, 'La Magie et l'Astrologie dans l'Antiquité +et au Moyen Age,' etc., 1860; Eus. Salverte, 'Sciences Occultes,' ed. +by Littré, 1856 (see the English translation, 'Philosophy of Magic,' +with Notes by Dr. A. Todd Thomson, 1846); Abbé de Villars, 'Entretiens +du Comte de Gabalis' ('Voyages Imaginaires,' tome 34), Englished as +'The Count de Gabalis: being a diverting History of the Rosicrucian +Doctrine of Spirits,' etc., 1714; Elias Ashmole, 'Theatrum Chemicum +Britannicum;' Roger Bacon, 'Mirror of Alchemy,' 1597; Louis Figuier, +'Histoire de l'Alchimie et les Alchimistes,' 1865; Arthur Edward +Waite, 'The Real History of the Rosicrucians,' 1887; Hargrave +Jennings, 'The Rosicrucians,' new edit.; William Godwin, 'Lives of the +Necromancers,' 1834; Dr. T. Thomson, 'History of Chemistry,' 1831; +'Encyclopædia Britannica,' _in locis_; Dr. Kopp, 'Geschichte der +Chemie;' G. Rodwell, 'Birth of Chemistry,' 1874; Haerfor, 'Histoire de +la Chimie,' etc., etc. + + +BILLING AND SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD. + + + + +Transcriber's Note + +Variations in spelling, hyphenation and accent usage are preserved as +printed. + +Minor punctuation errors have been repaired. + +Page 253 includes the phrase "And thead of the said meetinge was to +consult ...". Another source of the quotation uses 'thend' instead +of 'thead'. Although 'thead' may be a typographic error, as there is +no way to be certain it is preserved as printed. + +The following amendments have been made: + + Page 65--1675 amended to 1575--"One of these royal visits was + made on March 10, 1575, ..." + + Page 142--make amended to made--"... made many impertinent + obliterations, formed many objections, ..." + + Page 143--every amended to ever--"... as any that ever fell + from the lips of the Pythian priestess: ..." + + Page 150--or amended to of--"... (both of which were + translated by Elias Ashmole), ..." + + Page 204--withcraft amended to witchcraft--"... and even + ecclesiastics, have been accused of practising witchcraft." + + Page 272--infalliby amended to infallibly--"... whose skill + would infallibly detect the guilty person." + + Page 310--Macgillivordam amended to MacGillivordam--"she + instructed MacGillivordam to procure a large quantity of + poison." + + Page 314--MacIngurach amended to MacIngaruch--"A warrant was + issued for the arrest of Marion MacIngaruch; ..." + + Page 375--changes amended to change, and person amended to + persons--"... encouraged by this change of sentiment, persons + accused of witchcraft ..." + + Page 428--soupçonnès amended to soupçonnés--"... 'Apologie + pour les Grands Hommes faussement soupçonnés de Magie,' ..." + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Witch, Warlock, and Magician, by +William Henry Davenport Adams + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITCH, WARLOCK, AND MAGICIAN *** + +***** This file should be named 38763-0.txt or 38763-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/7/6/38763/ + +Produced by Irma + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +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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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/38763-0.zip b/38763-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a56f82a --- /dev/null +++ b/38763-0.zip diff --git a/38763-8.txt b/38763-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7ef3af6 --- /dev/null +++ b/38763-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12638 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Witch, Warlock, and Magician, by +William Henry Davenport Adams + +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 www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Witch, Warlock, and Magician + Historical Sketches of Magic and Witchcraft in England and Scotland + +Author: William Henry Davenport Adams + +Release Date: February 4, 2012 [EBook #38763] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITCH, WARLOCK, AND MAGICIAN *** + + + + +Produced by Irma pehar, Sam W. and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Note + +Greek text has been transliterated and is surrounded with + signs, +e.g. +biblos+. + +Characters with a macron (straight line) above are indicated as [=x], +where x is the letter. + +Characters with a caron (v shaped symbol) above are indicated as [vx], +where x is the letter. + +Superscripted characters are surrounded with braces, e.g. D{ni}. + +There is one instance of a symbol, indicated with {+++}, which in the +original text appeared as three + signs arranged in an inverted +triangle. + + + + + WITCH, WARLOCK, AND + MAGICIAN + + Historical Sketches of Magic and Witchcraft + in England and Scotland + + BY + W. H. DAVENPORT ADAMS + + + 'Dreams and the light imaginings of men' + Shelley + + + J. W. BOUTON + 706 & 1152 BROADWAY + NEW YORK + 1889 + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The following pages may be regarded as a contribution towards that +'History of Human Error' which was undertaken by Mr. Augustine Caxton. +I fear that many minds will have to devote all their energies to the +work, if it is ever to be brought to completion; and, indeed, it may +plausibly be argued that its completion would be an impossibility, +since every generation adds something to the melancholy +record--'pulveris exigui parva munera.' However this may be, little +more remains to be said on the subjects which I have here considered +from the standpoint of a sympathetic though incredulous observer. +Alchemy, Magic, Witchcraft--how exhaustively they have been +investigated will appear from the list of authorities which I have +drawn up for the reader's convenience. They have been studied by +'adepts,' and by critics, as realities and as delusions; and almost +the last word would seem to have been said by Science--though not on +the side of the adepts, who still continue to dream of the Hermetic +philosophy, to lose themselves in fanciful pictures, theurgic and +occult, and to write about the mysteries of magic with a simplicity +of faith which we may wonder at, but are bound to respect. + +It has not been my purpose, in the present volume, to attempt a +general history of magic and alchemy, or a scientific inquiry into +their psychological aspects. I have confined myself to a sketch of +their progress in England, and to a narrative of the lives of our +principal magicians. This occupies the first part. The second is +devoted to an historical review of witchcraft in Great Britain, and an +examination into the most remarkable Witch-Trials, in which I have +endeavoured to bring out their peculiar features, presenting much of +the evidence adduced, and in some cases the so-called confessions of +the victims, in the original language. I believe that the details, +notwithstanding the reticence imposed upon me by considerations of +delicacy and decorum, will surprise the reader, and that he will +readily admit the profound interest attaching to them, morally and +intellectually. I have added a chapter on the 'Literature of +Witchcraft,' which, I hope, is tolerably exhaustive, and now offer the +whole as an effort to present, in a popular and readable form, the +result of careful and conscientious study extending over many years. + + W. H. D. A. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + INTRODUCTION. + + PAGE + PROGRESS OF ALCHEMY IN EUROPE 1 + + + BOOK I. + + _THE ENGLISH MAGICIANS._ + + CHAPTER + + I. ROGER BACON: THE TRUE AND THE LEGENDARY 27 + + II. THE STORY OF DR. JOHN DEE 59 + + III. DR. DEE'S DIARY 93 + + IV. MAGIC AND IMPOSTURE: A COUPLE OF KNAVES 102 + + V. THE LAST OF THE ENGLISH MAGICIANS: WILLIAM LILLY 128 + + VI. ENGLISH ROSICRUCIANS 181 + + + BOOK II. + + _WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT._ + + I. EARLY HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT IN ENGLAND 203 + + II. WITCHCRAFT IN ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 244 + + III. THE DECLINE OF WITCHCRAFT IN ENGLAND 292 + + IV. THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND 303 + + V. THE LITERATURE OF WITCHCRAFT 378 + + + + +WITCH, WARLOCK, AND MAGICIAN. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +PROGRESS OF ALCHEMY IN EUROPE. + +The word +chmeia+--from which we derive our English word +'chemistry'--first occurs, it is said, in the Lexicon of Suidas, a +Greek writer who flourished in the eleventh century. Here is his +definition of it: + + 'Chemistry is the art of preparing gold and silver. The books + concerning it were sought out and burnt by Diocletian, on + account of the new plots directed against him by the + Egyptians. He behaved towards them with great cruelty in his + search after the treatises written by the ancients, his + purpose being to prevent them from growing rich by a + knowledge of this art, lest, emboldened by measureless + wealth, they should be induced to resist the Roman + supremacy.' + +Some authorities assert, however, that this art, or pretended art, is +of much greater antiquity than Suidas knew of; and Scaliger refers to +a Greek manuscript by Zozomen, of the fifth century, which is entitled +'A Faithful Description of the Secret and Divine Art of Making Gold +and Silver.' We may assume that as soon as mankind had begun to set an +artificial value upon these metals, and had acquired some knowledge +of chemical elements, their combinations and permutations, they would +entertain a desire to multiply them in measureless quantities. Dr. +Shaw speaks of no fewer than eighty-nine ancient manuscripts, +scattered through the European libraries, which are all occupied with +'the chemical art,' or 'the holy art,' or, as it is sometimes called, +'the philosopher's stone'; and a fair conclusion seems to be that +'between the fifth century and the taking of Constantinople in the +fifteenth, the Greeks believed in the possibility of making gold and +silver,' and called the supposed process, or processes, _chemistry_. + +The delusion was taken up by the Arabians when, under their Abasside +Khalifs, they entered upon the cultivation of scientific knowledge. +The Arabians conveyed it into Spain, whence its diffusion over +Christendom was a simple work of time, sure if gradual. From the +eleventh to the sixteenth century, alchemy was more or less eagerly +studied by the scholars of Germany, Italy, France, and England; and +the volumes in which they recorded both their learning and their +ignorance, the little they knew and the more they did not know, +compose quite a considerable library. One hundred and twenty-two are +enumerated in the 'Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa,' of Mangetus, a +dry-as-dust kind of compilation, in two huge volumes, printed at +Geneva in 1702. Any individual who has time and patience to expend _ad +libitum_, cannot desire a fairer field of exercise than the +'Bibliotheca.' One very natural result of all this vain research and +profitless inquiry was a keen anxiety on the part of victims to +dignify their labours by claiming for their 'sciences, falsely +so-called,' a venerable and mysterious origin. They accordingly +asserted that the founder or creator was Hermes Trismegistus, whom +some of them professed to identify with Chanaan, the son of Ham, whose +son Mizraim first occupied and peopled Egypt. Now, it is clear that +any person might legitimately devote his nights and days to the +pursuit of a science invented, or originally taught, by no less +illustrious an ancient than Hermes Trismegistus. But to clothe it with +the awe of a still greater antiquity, they affirmed that its +principles had been discovered, engraved in Phoenician characters, +on an emerald tablet which Alexander the Great exhumed from the +philosopher's tomb. Unfortunately, as is always the case, the tablet +was lost; but we are expected to believe that two Latin versions of +the inscription had happily been preserved. One of these may be +Englished as hereinunder: + +1. I speak no frivolous things, but only what is true and most +certain. + +2. What is below resembles that which is above, and what is above +resembles that which is below, to accomplish the one thing of all +things most wonderful. + +3. And as all things proceeded from the meditation of the One God, so +were all things generated from this one thing by the disposition of +Nature. + +4. Its father is _Sol_, its mother _Luna_; it was engendered in the +womb by the air, and nourished by the earth. + +5. It is the cause of all the perfection of things throughout the +whole world. + +6. It arrives at the highest perfection of powers if it be reduced +into earth. + +7. Separate the earth from the fire, the subtle from the gross, acting +with great caution. + +8. Ascend with the highest wisdom from earth to heaven, and thence +descend again to earth, and bind together the powers of things +superior and things inferior. So shall you compass the glory of the +whole world, and divest yourself of the abjectness of humanity. + +9. This thing has more fortitude than fortitude itself, since it will +overcome everything subtle and penetrate everything solid. + +10. All that the world contains was created by it. + +11. Hence proceed things wonderful which in this wise were +established. + +12. For this reason the name of Hermes Trismegistus was bestowed upon +me, because I am master of three parts of the philosophy of the whole +world. + +13. This is what I had to say concerning the most admirable process of +the chemical art. + +These oracular utterances are so vague and obscure that an enthusiast +may read into them almost any meaning he chooses; but there seems a +general consensus of opinion that they refer to the 'universal +medicine' of the earlier alchemists. This, however, is of no great +importance, since it is certain they were invented by some ingenious +hand as late as the fifteenth century. Another forgery of a similar +kind is the 'Tractatus Aureus de Lapidis Physici Secretis,' also +attributed to Hermes; it professes to describe the process of making +this 'universal medicine,' or 'philosopher's stone,' and the formulary +is thus translated by Thomson: + + 'Take of moisture an ounce and a half; of meridional + redness--that is, the soul of the sun--a fourth part, that + is, half an ounce; of yellow sage likewise half an ounce; and + of auripigmentum half an ounce; making in all three ounces.' + +Such a recipe does not seem to help forward an enthusiastic student to +any material extent. + + +THE EARLIER ALCHEMISTS. + +It is in the erudite writings of the great Arabian physician, +Gebir--that is, Abu Moussah Djafar, surnamed _Al Sofi_, or The +Wise--that the science of alchemy, or chemistry (at first the two were +identical), first assumes a definite shape. Gebir flourished in the +early part of the eighth century, and wrote, it is said, upwards of +five hundred treatises on the philosopher's stone and the elixir of +life. In reference to the latter mysterious potion, which possessed +the wonderful power of conferring immortal youth on those who drank of +it, one may remark that it was the necessary complement of the +philosopher's stone, for what would be the use of an unlimited faculty +of making gold and silver unless one could be sure of an immortality +in which to enjoy its exercise? Gebir's principal work, the 'Summ +Perfectionis,' containing instructions for students in search of the +two great secrets, has been translated into several European +languages; and an English version, by Richard Russell, the alchemist, +was published in 1686. + +Gebir lays down, as a primary principle, that all metals are compounds +of mercury and sulphur. They all labour under disease, he says, except +gold, which is the one metal gifted with perfect health. Therefore, a +preparation of it would dispel every ill which flesh is heir to, as +well as the maladies of plants. We may excuse his extravagances, +however, in consideration of the services he rendered to science by +his discovery of corrosive sublimate, red oxide of mercury, white +oxide of arsenic, nitric acid, oxide of copper, and nitrate of silver, +all of which originally issued from Gebir's laboratory. + +Briefly speaking, the hypothesis assumed by the alchemists was this: +all the metals are compounds, and the baser contain the same elements +as gold, contaminated, indeed, with various impurities, but capable, +when these have been purged away, of assuming all its properties and +characters. The substance which was to effect this purifying process +they called the philosopher's stone (_lapis philosophorum_), though, +as a matter of fact, it is always described as a _powder_--a powder +red-coloured, and smelling strongly. Few of the alchemists, however, +venture on a distinct statement that they had discovered or possessed +this substance. + +The arch-quack Paracelsus makes the assertion, of course; unblushing +mendacity was part of his stock-in-trade; and he pretends even to +define the methods by which it may be realized. Unfortunately, to +ordinary mortals his description is absolutely unintelligible. Others +there are who affirm that they had seen it, and seen it in operation, +transmuting lead, quicksilver, and other of the inferior metals into +ruddy gold. One wonders that they did not claim a share in a process +which involved such boundless potentialities of wealth! + +Helvetius, the physician, though no believer in the magical art, tells +the following wild story in his 'Vitulus Aureus': + +On December 26, 1666, a stranger called upon him, and, after +discussing the supposed properties of the universal medicine, showed +him a yellow powder, which he declared to be the _lapis_, and also +five large plates of gold, which, he said, were the product of its +action. Naturally enough, Helvetius begged for a few grains of this +marvellous powder, or that the stranger would at least exhibit its +potency in his presence. He refused, however, but promised that he +would return in six weeks. He kept his promise, and then, after much +entreaty, gave Helvetius a pinch of the powder--about as much as a +rape-seed. The physician expressed his fear that so minute a quantity +would not convert as much as four grains of lead; whereupon the +stranger broke off one-half, and declared that the remainder was more +than sufficient for the purpose. During their first conference, +Helvetius had contrived to conceal a little of the powder beneath his +thumb-nail. This he dropped into some molten lead, but it was nearly +all exhaled in smoke, and the residue was simply of a vitreous +character. + +On mentioning this circumstance to his visitor, he explained that the +powder should have been enclosed in wax before it was thrown into the +molten lead, to prevent the fumes of the lead from affecting it. He +added that he would come back next day, and show him how to make the +projection; but as he failed to appear, Helvetius, in the presence of +his wife and son, put six drachms of lead into a crucible, and as soon +as the lead was melted, flung into it the atoms of powder given to him +by his mysterious visitor, having first rolled them up in a little +ball of wax. At the end of a quarter of an hour he found the lead +transmuted (so he avers) into gold. Its colour at first was a deep +green; but the mixture, when poured into a conical vessel, turned +blood-red, and, after cooling, acquired the true tint of gold. A +goldsmith who examined it pronounced it to be genuine. Helvetius +requested Purelius, the keeper of the Dutch Mint, to test its value; +and two drachms, after being exposed to aquafortis, were found to have +increased a couple of scruples in weight--an increase doubtlessly +owing to the silver, which still remained enveloped in the gold, +despite the action of the aquafortis. + +It is obvious that this narrative is a complete mystification, and +that either the stranger was a myth or Helvetius was the victim of a +deception. + +The recipes that the alchemists formulate--those, that is, who +profess to have discovered the stone, or to have known somebody who +enjoyed so rare a fortune--are always unintelligible or impracticable. +What is to be understood, for example, of the following elaborate +process, or series of processes, which are recorded by Mangetus, in +his preface to the ponderous 'Bibliotheca Chemica' (to which reference +has already been made)? + +1. Prepare a quantity of spirits of wine, so free from water as to be +wholly combustible, and so volatile that a drop of it, if let fall, +will evaporate before it reaches the ground. This constitutes the +first menstruum. + +2. Take pure mercury, revived in the usual manner from cinnabar; put +it into a glass vessel with common salt and distilled vinegar; shake +violently, and when the vinegar turns black, pour it off, and add +fresh vinegar. Shake again, and continue these repeated shakings and +additions until the mercury no longer turns the vinegar black; the +mercury will then be quite pure and very brilliant. + +3. Take of this mercury four parts; of sublimed mercury (_mercurii +meteoresati_--probably corrosive sublimate), prepared with your own +hands, eight parts; triturate them together in a wooden mortar with a +wooden pestle, till all the grains of running mercury disappear. (This +process is truly described as 'tedious and rather difficult.') + +4. The mixture thus prepared is to be put into a sand-bath, and +exposed to a subliming heat, which is to be gradually increased until +the whole sublimes. Collect the sublimed matter, put it again into the +sand-bath, and sublime a second time; this process must be repeated +five times. The product is a very sweet crystallized sublimate, +constituting the _sal sapientum_, or wise men's salt (probably +calomel), and possessing wonderful properties. + +5. Grind it in a wooden mortar, reducing it to powder; put this powder +into a glass retort, and pour upon it the spirit of wine (see No. 1) +till it stands about three finger-breadths above the powder. Seal the +retort hermetically, and expose it to a very gentle heat for +seventy-four hours, shaking it several times a day; then distil with a +gentle heat, and the spirit of wine will pass over, together with +spirit of mercury. Keep this liquid in a well-stoppered bottle, lest +it should evaporate. More spirit of wine is to be poured upon the +residual salt, and after digestion must be distilled off, as before; +and this operation must be repeated until all the salt is dissolved +and given off with the spirit of wine. A great work will then have +been accomplished! For the mercury, having to some extent been +rendered volatile, will gradually become fit to receive the tincture +of gold and silver. Now return thanks to God, who has hitherto crowned +your wonderful work with success. Nor is this wonderful work enveloped +in Cimmerian darkness; it is clearer than the sun, though preceding +writers have sought to impose upon us with parables, hieroglyphs, +fables, and enigmas. + +6. Take this mercurial spirit, which contains our magical steel in +its belly (_sic_), and put it into a glass retort, to which a receiver +must be well and carefully adjusted; draw off the spirit by a very +gentle heat, and in the bottom of the retort will remain the +quintessence or soul of mercury. This is to be sublimed by applying a +stronger heat to the retort that it may become volatile, as all the +philosophers affirm: + + 'Si fixum solvas faciesque volare solutum, + Et volucrum figas faciet te vivere tutum.' + +This is our _luna_, our fountain, in which 'the king' and 'the queen' +may bathe. Preserve this precious quintessence of mercury, which is +exceedingly volatile, in a well-closed vessel for further use. + +8. Let us now proceed to the production of common gold, which we shall +communicate clearly and distinctly, without digression or obscurity, +in order that from this common gold we may obtain our philosophical +gold, just as from common mercury we have obtained, by the foregoing +processes, philosophical mercury. In the name of God, then, take +common gold, purified in the usual way by antimony, and reduce it into +small grains, which must be washed with salt and vinegar until they +are quite pure. Take one part of this gold, and pour on it three parts +of the quintessence of mercury: as philosophers reckon from seven to +ten, so do we also reckon our number as philosophical, and begin with +three and one. Let them be married together, like husband and wife, to +produce children of their own kind, and you will see the common gold +sink and plainly dissolve. Now the marriage is consummated; and two +things are converted into one. Thus the philosophical sulphur is at +hand, as the philosophers say: 'The sulphur being dissolved, the stone +is at hand.' Take then, in the name of God, our philosophical vessel, +in which the king and queen embrace each other as in a bedchamber, and +leave it till the water is converted into earth; then peace is +concluded between the water and the fire--then the elements no longer +possess anything contrary to each other--because, when the elements +are converted into earth, they cease to be antagonistic; for in earth +all elements are at rest. The philosophers say: 'When you shall see +the water coagulate, believe that your knowledge is true, and that all +your operations are truly philosophical.' Our gold is no longer +common, but philosophical, through the processes it has undergone: at +first, it was exceedingly 'fixed' (_fixum_); then exceedingly +volatile; and again, exceedingly fixed: the entire science depends +upon the change of the elements. The gold, at first a metal, is now a +sulphur, capable of converting all metals into its own sulphur. And +our tincture is wholly converted into sulphur, which possesses the +energy of curing every disease; this is our universal medicine against +all the most deplorable ills of the human body. Therefore, return +infinite thanks to Almighty God for all the good things which He hath +bestowed upon us. + +9. In this great work of ours, two methods of fermentation and +projection are wanting, without which the uninitiated will not +readily follow out our process. The mode of fermentation: Of the +sulphur already described take one part, and project it upon three +parts of very pure gold fused in a furnace. In a moment you will see +the gold, by the force of the sulphur, converted into a red sulphur of +an inferior quality to the primary sulphur. Take one part of this, and +project it upon three parts of fused gold; the whole will again be +converted into a sulphur or a fixable mass; mixing one part of this +with three parts of gold, you will have a malleable and extensible +metal. If you find it so, it is well; if not, add more sulphur, and it +will again pass into a state of sulphur. Now our sulphur will +sufficiently be fermented, or our medicine brought into a metallic +nature. + +10. The method of projection is this: Take of the fermented sulphur +one part, and project it upon two parts of mercury, heated in a +crucible, and you will have a perfect metal; if its colour be not +sufficiently deep, fuse it again, and add more fermented sulphur, and +thus it will gain colour. If it become frangible, add a sufficient +quantity of mercury, and it will be perfect. + +Thus, friend, you have a description of the universal medicine, not +only for curing diseases and prolonging life, but also for transmuting +all metals into gold. Give thanks, therefore, to Almighty God, who, +taking pity on human calamities, hath at last revealed this +inestimable treasure, and made it known for the common benefit of all. + +Such is the jargon with which these so-called philosophers imposed +upon their dupes, and, to some extent perhaps, upon themselves. As Dr. +Thomson points out, the philosopher's stone prepared by this elaborate +process could hardly have been anything else than _an amalgam of +gold_. Chloride of gold it could not have contained, because such a +preparation, instead of acting medicinally, would have proved a most +virulent poison. Of course, amalgam of gold, if projected into melted +lead or tin, and afterwards cupellated, would leave a portion of +gold--that is, exactly the amount _which existed previously in the +amalgam_. Impostors may, therefore, have availed themselves of it to +persuade the credulous that it was really the philosopher's stone; but +the alchemists who prepared the amalgam must have known that it +contained gold.[1] + +It is well known that the medival magicians, necromancers, +conjurers--call them by what name you will--who adopted alchemy as an +instrument of imposition, and by no means in the spirit of +philosophical inquiry and research which had characterized their +predecessors, resorted to various ingenious devices in order to +maintain their hold upon their victims. Sometimes they made use of +crucibles with false bottoms--at the real bottom they concealed a +portion of oxide of gold or silver covered with powdered sulphur, +which had been rendered adhesive by a little gummed water or wax. When +heat was applied the false bottom melted away, and the oxide of gold +or silver eventually appeared as the product of the operation at the +bottom of the crucible. Sometimes they made a hole in a lump of +charcoal, and filling it with oxide of gold or silver, stopped up the +orifice with wax; or they soaked charcoal in a solution of these +metals; or they stirred the mixture in the crucible with hollow rods, +containing oxide of gold or silver, closed up at the bottom with wax. +A faithful representation of the stratagems to which the +pseudo-alchemist resorted, that his dupes might not recover too soon +from their delusion, is furnished by Ben Jonson in his comedy of 'The +Alchemist,' and his masque of 'Mercury vindicated from the +Alchemists.' The dramatist was thoroughly conversant with the +technicalities of the pretended science, and also with the deceptions +of its professors. In the masque he puts into the mouth of Mercury an +indignant protest: + + 'The mischief a secret any of them knows, above the consuming + of coals and drawing of usquebagh; howsoever they may + pretend, under the specious names of Gebir, Arnold, Lully, or + Bombast of Hohenheim, to commit miracles in art, and treason + against nature! As if the title of philosopher, that creature + of glory, were to be fetched out of a furnace!' + +But while the world is full of fools, it is too much to expect there +shall be any lack of knaves to prey upon them! + +FOOTNOTE: + +[1] _Cf._ Stahl, 'Fundamenta Chimi,' cap. 'De Lapide Philosophorum'; +and Kircher, 'Mundus Subterraneus.' + + +IN THE MIDDLE AGES. + +The first of the great European alchemists I take to have been + +_Albertus Magnus_ or _Albertus Teutonicus_ (_Frater Albertus de +Colonia_ and _Albertus Grotus_, as he is also called), a man of +remarkable intellectual energy and exceptional force of character, who +has sometimes, and not without justice, been termed the founder of the +Schoolmen. Neither the place nor the date of his birth is +authentically known, but he was still in his young manhood when, about +1222, he was appointed to the chair of theology at Padua, and became a +member of the Dominican Order. He did not long retain the +professorship, and, departing from Padua, taught with great success in +Ratisbon, Kln, Strassburg, and Paris, residing in the last-named city +for three years, together with his illustrious disciple, Thomas +Aquinas. In 1260 he was appointed to the See of Ratisbon, though he +had not previously held any ecclesiastical dignity, but soon resigned, +on the ground that its duties interfered vexatiously with his studies. +Twenty years later, at a ripe old age, he died, leaving behind him, as +monuments of his persistent industry and intellectual subtlety, +one-and-twenty ponderous folios, which include commentaries on +Aristotle, on the Scriptures, and on Dionysius the Areopagite. Among +his minor works occurs a treatise on alchemy, which seems to show that +he was a devout believer in the science. + +From the marvellous stories of his thaumaturgic exploits which have +come down to us, we may infer that he had attained a considerable +amount of skill in experimental chemistry. The brazen statue which he +animated, and the garrulity of which was so offensive that Thomas +Aquinas one day seized a hammer, and, provoked beyond all endurance, +smashed it to pieces, may be a reminiscence of his powers as a +ventriloquist. And the following story may hint at an effective +manipulation of the _camera obscura_: Count William of Holland and +King of the Romans happening to pass through Kln, Albertus invited +him and his courtiers to his house to partake of refreshment. It was +mid-winter; but on arriving at the philosopher's residence they found +the tables spread in the open garden, where snowdrifts lay several +feet in depth. Indignant at so frugal a reception, they were on the +point of leaving, when Albertus appeared, and by his courtesies +induced them to remain. Immediately the scene was lighted up with the +sunshine of summer, a warm and balmy air stole through the whispering +boughs, the frost and snow vanished, the melodies of the lark dropped +from the sky like golden rain. But as soon as the feast came to an end +the sunshine faded, the birds ceased their song, clouds gathered +darkling over the firmament, an icy blast shrieked through the +gibbering branches, and the snow fell in blinding showers, so that the +philosopher's guests were glad to fold their cloaks about them and +retreat into the kitchen to grow warm before its blazing fire. + +Was this some clever scenic deception, or is the whole a fiction? + +A knowledge of the secret of the _Elixir Vit_ was possessed (it is +said) by _Alain de l'Isle_, or Alanus de Insulis; but either he did +not avail himself of it, or failed to compound a sufficient quantity +of the magic potion, for he died under the sacred roof of Citeaux, in +1298, at the advanced age of 110. + +_Arnold de Villeneuve_, who attained, in the thirteenth century, some +distinction as a physician, an astronomer, an astrologer, and an +alchemist--and was really a capable man of science, as science was +then understood--formulates an elaborate recipe for rejuvenating one's +self, which, however, does not seem to have been very successful in +his own case, since he died before he was 70. Perhaps he was as +disgusted with the compound as (in the well-known epitaph) the infant +was with this mundane sphere--he 'liked it not, and died.' I think +there are many who would forfeit longevity rather than partake of it. + +'Twice or thrice a week you must anoint your body thoroughly with the +manna of cassia; and every night, before going to bed, you must place +over your heart a plaster, composed of a certain quantity (or, rather, +uncertain, for definite and precise proportions are never +particularized) of Oriental saffron, red rose-leaves, sandal-wood, +aloes, and amber, liquefied in oil of roses and the best white wax. +During the day this must be kept in a leaden casket. You must next pen +up in a court, where the water is sweet and the air pure, sixteen +chickens, if you are of a sanguine temperament; twenty-five, if +phlegmatic; and thirty, if melancholic. Of these you are to eat one a +day, after they have been fattened in such a manner as to have +absorbed into their system the qualities which will ensure your +longevity; for which purpose they are first to be kept without food +until almost starved, and then gorged with a broth of serpents and +vinegar, thickened with wheat and beans, for at least two months. +When they are served at your table you will drink a moderate quantity +of white wine or claret to assist digestion.' + +I should think it would be needed! + + * * * * * + +Among the alchemists must be included _Pietro d'Apono_. He was an +eminent physician; but, being accused of heresy, was thrown into +prison and died there. His ecclesiastical persecutors, however, burned +his bones rather than be entirely disappointed of their _auto da f_. +Like most of the medival physicians, he indulged in alchemical and +astrological speculations; but they proved to Pietro d'Apono neither +pleasurable nor profitable. It was reputed of him that he had summoned +a number of evil spirits; and, on their obeying his call, had shut +them up in seven crystal vases, where he detained them until he had +occasion for their services. In his selection of them he seems to have +displayed a commendably catholic taste and love of knowledge; for one +was an expert in poetry, another in painting, a third in philosophy, a +fourth in physic, a fifth in astrology, a sixth in music, and a +seventh in alchemy. So that when he required instruction in either of +these arts or sciences, he simply tapped the proper crystal vase and +laid on a spirit. + +The story seems to be a fanciful allusion to the various acquirements +of Pietro d'Apono; but if intended at first as a kind of allegory, it +came in due time to be accepted literally. + + * * * * * + +I pass on to the great Spanish alchemist and magician, _Raymond +Lully_, or Lulli, who was scarcely inferior in fame, or the qualities +which merited fame, even to Albertus Magnus. He was a man, not only of +wide, but of accurate scholarship; and the two or three hundred +treatises which proceeded from his pen traversed the entire circle of +the learning of his age, dealing with almost every conceivable subject +from medicine to morals, from astronomy to theology, and from alchemy +to civil and canon law. His life had its romantic aspects, and his +death (in 1315?) was invested with something of the glory of +martyrdom; for while he was preaching to the Moslems at Bona, the mob +fell upon him with a storm of stones, and though he was still alive +when rescued by some Genoese merchants, and conveyed on board their +vessel, he died of the injuries he had received before it arrived in a +Spanish port. + +There seems little reason to believe that Lulli visited England about +1312, on the invitation of Edward II. Dickenson, in his work on 'The +Quintessences of the Philosophers,' asserts that his laboratory was +established in Westminster Abbey--that is, in the cloisters--and that +some time after his return to the Continent a large quantity of +gold-dust was found in the cell he had occupied. Langlet du Fresnoy +contends that it was through the intervention of John Cremer, Abbot of +Westminster, a persevering seeker after the _lapis philosophorum_, +that he came to England, Cremer having described him to King Edward as +a man of extraordinary powers. Robert Constantine, in his 'Nomenclator +Scriptorum Medicorum' (1515), professes to have discovered that Lulli +resided for some time in London, and made gold in the Tower, and that +he had seen some gold pieces of his making, which were known in +England as the nobles of Raymond, or rose-nobles. But the great +objections to these very precise statements rests on two facts pointed +out by Mr. Waite, that the rose-noble, so called because a rose was +stamped on each side of it, was first coined in 1465, in the reign of +Edward IV., and that there never was an Abbot Cremer of Westminster. + + * * * * * + +_Jean de Meung_ is also included among the alchemists; but he +bequeathed to posterity in his glorious poem of the 'Roman de la Rose' +something very much more precious than would have been any formula for +making gold. In one sense he was indeed an alchemist, and possessed +the secret of the universal medicine; for in his poem his genius has +transmuted into purest gold the base ore of popular traditions and +legends. + +Some of the stories which Langlet du Fresnoy tells of _Nicholas +Flamel_ were probably invented long after his death, or else we should +have to brand him as a most audacious knave. One of those amazing +narratives pretends that he bought for a couple of florins an old and +curious volume, the leaves of which--three times seven (this sounds +better than twenty-one) in number--were made from the bark of trees. +Each seventh leaf bore an allegorical picture--the first representing +a serpent swallowing rods, the second a cross with a serpent crucified +upon it, and the third a fountain in a desert, surrounded by creeping +serpents. Who, think you, was the author of this mysterious volume? +No less illustrious a person than Abraham the patriarch, Hebrew, +prince, philosopher, priest, Levite, and magian, who, as it was +written in Latin, must have miraculously acquired his foreknowledge of +a tongue which, in his time, had no existence. A perusal of its mystic +pages convinced Flamel that he had had the good fortune to discover a +complete manual on the art of transmutation of metals, in which all +the necessary vessels were indicated, and the processes described. But +there was one serious difficulty to be overcome: the book assumed, as +a matter of course, that the student was already in possession of that +all-important agent of transmutation, the philosopher's stone. + +Careful study led Flamel to the conclusion that the secret of the +stone was hidden in certain allegorical drawings on the fourth and +fifth leaves; but, then, to decipher these was beyond his powers. He +submitted them to all the learned savants and alchemical adepts he +could get hold of: they proved to be no wiser than himself, while some +of them actually laughed at Abraham's posthumous publication as +worthless gibberish. Flamel, however, clung fast to his conviction of +the inestimable value of his 'find,' and daily pondered over the two +cryptic illustrations, which may thus be described: On the first page +of the fourth leaf Mercury was contending with a figure, which might +be either Saturn or Time--probably the latter, as he carried on his +head the emblematical hour-glass, and in his hand the not less +emblematical scythe. On the second stage a flower upon a mountain-top +presented the unusual combination of a blue stalk, with red and white +blossoms, and leaves of pure gold. The wind appeared to blow it about +very harshly, and a gruesome company of dragons and griffins +encompassed it. + +Upon the study of these provokingly obscure designs Flamel fruitlessly +expended the leisure time of thrice seven years: after which, on the +advice of his wife, he repaired to Spain to seek the assistance of +some erudite Jewish rabbi. He had been wandering from place to place +for a couple of years, when he met, somewhere in Leon, a learned +Hebrew physician, named Canches, who agreed to return with him to +Paris, and there examine Abraham's volume. Canches was deeply versed +in all the lore of the Cabala, and Flamel hung with delight on the +words of wisdom that dropped from his eloquent lips. But at Orleans +Canches was taken ill with a malady of which he died, and Flamel found +his way home, a sadder, if not a wiser, man. He resumed his study of +the book, but for two more years could get no clue to its meaning. In +the third year, recalling some deliverance of his departed friend, the +rabbi, he perceived that all his experiments had hitherto proceeded +upon erroneous principles. He repeated them upon a different basis, +and in a few months brought them to a successful issue. On January 13, +1382, he converted mercury into silver, and on April 25 into gold. +Well might he cry in triumph, 'Eureka!' The great secret, the sublime +magistery was his: he had discovered the art of transmuting metals +into gold and silver, and, so long as he kept it to himself, had at +his command the source of inexhaustible wealth. + +At this time Nicholas Flamel, it is said, was about eighty years old. +His admirers assert that he also discovered the elixir of immortal +life; but, as he died in 1419, at the age (it is alleged) of 116, he +must have been content with the merest sip of it! Why did he not +reveal its ingredients for the general benefit of our afflicted +humanity? His immense wealth he bequeathed to churches and hospitals, +thus making a better use of it after death than he had made of it in +his lifetime. For it is said that Flamel was a usurer, and that his +philosopher's stone was 'cent per cent.' It is true enough that he +dabbled in alchemy, and probably he made his alchemical experiments +useful in connection with his usurious transactions. + + + + +BOOK I. + +_THE ENGLISH MAGICIANS._ + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +ROGER BACON: THE TRUE AND THE LEGENDARY. + + +It was in the early years of the fourteenth century that the two +pseudo-sciences of alchemy and astrology, the supposititious sisters +of chemistry and astronomy, made their way into England. At first +their progress was by no means so rapid as it had been on the +Continent; for in England, as yet, there was no educated class +prepared to give their leisure to the work of experimental +investigation. A solitary scholar here and there lighted his torch at +the altar-fire which the Continental philosophers kept burning with so +much diligence and curiosity, and was generally rewarded for his +heterodox enthusiasm by the persecution of the Church and the +prejudice of the vulgar. But by degrees the new sciences increased the +number of their adherents, and the more active intellects of the time +embraced the theory of astral influences, and were fascinated by the +delusion of the philosopher's stone. Many a secret furnace blazed day +and night with the charmed flames which were to resolve the metals +into their original elements, and place the pale student in +possession of the coveted _magisterium_, or 'universal medicine.' At +length the alchemists became a sufficiently numerous and important +body to draw the attention of the Government, which regarded their +proceedings with suspicion, from a fear that the result might +injuriously affect the coinage. In 1434 the Legislature enacted that +the making of gold or silver should be treated as a felony. But the +Parliament was influenced by a very different motive from that of the +King and his Council, its patriotic fears being awakened lest the +Executive, enabled by the new science to increase without limit the +pecuniary resources of the Crown, should be rendered independent of +Parliamentary control. + +In the course of a few years, however, broader and more enlightened +views prevailed; and it came to be acknowledged that scientific +research ought to be relieved from legislative interference. In 1455 +Henry VI. issued four patents in succession to certain knights, London +citizens, chemists, monks, mass-priests, and others, granting them +leave and license to undertake the discovery of the philosopher's +stone, 'to the great benefit of the realm, and the enabling the King +to pay all the debts of the Crown in _real gold and silver_.' On the +remarkable fact that these patents were issued to ecclesiastics as +well as laymen, Prynne afterwards remarked, with true theological +acridity, that they were so included because they were 'such good +artists in transubstantiating bread and wine in the Eucharist, and +were, therefore, the more likely to be able to effect the +transmutation of base metals into better.' Nothing came of the +patents. The practical common-sense of Englishmen never took very +kindly to the alchemical delusion, and Chaucer very faithfully +describes the contempt with which it was generally regarded. +Enthusiasts there were, no doubt, who firmly believed in it, and +knaves who made a profit out of it, and dupes who were preyed upon by +the knaves; and so it languished on through the sixteenth and +seventeenth centuries. It seems at one time to have amused the shrewd +intellect of Queen Elizabeth, and at another to have caught the +volatile fancy of the second Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. But alchemy +was, in the main, the _modus vivendi_ of quacks and cheats, of such +impostors as Ben Jonson has drawn so powerfully in his great comedy--a +Subtle, a Face, and a Doll Common, who, in the Sir Epicure Mammons of +the time, found their appropriate victims. These creatures played on +the greed and credulity of their dupes with successful audacity, and +excited their imaginations by extravagant promises. Thus, Ben Jonson's +hero runs riot with glowing anticipations of what the alchemical +_magisterium_ can effect. + + 'Do you think I fable with you? I assure you, + He that has once the flower of the sun, + The perfect ruby, which we call _Elixir_, + Not only can do that, but, by its virtue, + Can confer honour, love, respect, long life; + Give safety, valour, yes, and victory, + To whom he will. In eight-and-twenty days + I'll make an old man of fourscore a child.... + 'Tis the secret + Of nature naturized 'gainst all infections, + Cures all diseases coming of all causes; + A month's grief in a day, a year's in twelve, + And of what age soever in a month.' + +The English alchemists, however, with a few exceptions, depended for a +livelihood chiefly on their sale of magic charms, love-philters, and +even more dangerous potions, and on horoscope-casting, and +fortune-telling by the hand or by cards. They acted, also, as agents +in many a dark intrigue and unlawful project, being generally at the +disposal of the highest bidder, and seldom shrinking from any crime. + + * * * * * + +The earliest name of note on the roll of the English magicians, +necromancers and alchemists is that of + + +ROGER BACON. + +This great man has some claim to be considered the father of +experimental philosophy, since it was he who first laid down the +principles upon which physical investigation should be conducted. +Speaking of science, he says, in language far in advance of his times: +'There are two modes of knowing--by argument and by experiment. +Argument winds up a question, but does not lead us to acquiesce in, or +feel certain of, the contemplation of truth, unless the truth be +proved and confirmed by experience.' To Experimental Science he +ascribed three differentiating characters: 'First, she tests by +experiment the grand conclusions of all other sciences. Next, she +discovers, with reference to the ideas connected with other sciences, +splendid truths, to which these sciences without assistance are unable +to attain. Her third prerogative is, that, unaided by the other +sciences, and of herself, she can investigate the secrets of nature.' +These truths, now accepted as trite and self-evident, ranked, in Roger +Bacon's day, as novel and important discoveries. + +He was born at Ilchester, in Somersetshire, in 1214. Of his lineage, +parentage, and early education we know nothing, except that he must +have been very young when he went to Oxford, for he took orders there +before he was twenty. Joining the Franciscan brotherhood, he applied +himself to the study of Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Arabic; but his +genius chiefly inclined towards the pursuit of the natural sciences, +in which he obtained such a mastery that his contemporaries accorded +to him the flattering title of 'The Admirable Doctor.' His lectures +gathered round him a crowd of admiring disciples; until the boldness +of their speculations aroused the suspicion of the ecclesiastical +authorities, and in 1257 they were prohibited by the General of his +Order. Then Pope Innocent IV. interfered, interdicting him from the +publication of his writings, and placing him under close supervision. +He remained in this state of tutelage until Clement IV., a man of more +liberal views, assumed the triple tiara, who not only released him +from his irksome restraints, but desired him to compose a treatise on +the sciences. This was the origin of Bacon's 'Opus Majus,' 'Opus +Minus' and 'Opus Tertius,' which he completed in a year and a half, +and despatched to Rome. In 1267 he was allowed to return to Oxford, +where he wrote his 'Compendium Studii Philosophi.' His vigorous +advocacy of new methods of scientific investigation, or, perhaps, his +unsparing exposure of the ignorance and vices of the monks and the +clergy, again brought down upon him the heavy arm of the +ecclesiastical tyranny. His works were condemned by the General of his +Order, and in 1278, during the pontificate of Nicholas III., he was +thrown into prison, where he was detained for several years. It is +said that he was not released until 1292, the year in which he +published his latest production, the 'Compendium Studii Theologi.' +Two years afterwards he died. + +In many respects Bacon was greatly in advance of his contemporaries, +but his general repute ignores his real and important services to +philosophy, and builds up a glittering fabric upon mechanical +discoveries and inventions to which, it is to be feared, he cannot lay +claim. As Professor Adamson puts it, he certainly describes a method +of constructing a telescope, but not so as to justify the conclusion +that he himself was in possession of that instrument. The invention of +gunpowder has been attributed to him on the strength of a passage in +one of his works, which, if fairly interpreted, disposes at once of +the pretension; besides, it was already known to the Arabs. +Burning-glasses were in common use; and there is no proof that he made +spectacles, although he was probably acquainted with the principle of +their construction. It is not to be denied, however, that in his +interesting treatise on 'The Secrets of Nature and Art,'[2] he +exhibits every sign of a far-seeing and lively intelligence, and +foreshadows the possibility of some of our great modern inventions. +But, like so many master-minds of the Middle Ages, he was unable +wholly to resist the fascinations of alchemy and astrology. He +believed that various parts of the human body were influenced by the +stars, and that the mind was thus stimulated to particular acts, +without any relaxation or interruption of free will. His 'Mirror of +Alchemy,' of which a translation into French was executed by 'a +Gentleman of Dauphin,' and printed in 1507, absolutely bristles with +crude and unfounded theories--as, for instance, that Nature, in the +formation of metallic veins, tends constantly to the production of +gold, but is impeded by various accidents, and in this way creates +metals in which impurities mingle with the fundamental substances. The +main elements, he says, are quicksilver and sulphur; and from these +all metals and minerals are compounded. Gold he describes as a perfect +metal, produced from a pure, fixed, clear, and red quicksilver; and +from a sulphur also pure, fixed, and red, not incandescent and +unalloyed. Iron is unclean and imperfect, because engendered of a +quicksilver which is impure, too much congealed, earthy, incandescent, +white and red, and of a similar variety of sulphur. The 'stone,' or +substance, by which the transmutation of the imperfect into the +perfect metals was to be effected must be made, in the main, he said, +of sulphur and mercury. + +It is not easy to determine how soon an atmosphere of legend gathered +around the figure of 'the Admirable Doctor;' but undoubtedly it +originated quite as much in his astrological errors as in his +scientific experiments. Some of the myths of which he is the +traditional hero belong to a very much earlier period, as, for +instance, that of his Brazen Head, which appears in the old romance of +'Valentine and Orson,' as well as in the history of Albertus Magnus. +Gower, too, in his 'Confessio Amantis,' relates how a Brazen Head was +fabricated by Bishop Grosseteste. It was customary in those days to +ascribe all kinds of marvels to men who obtained a repute for +exceptional learning, and Bishop Grosseteste's Brazen Head was as +purely a fiction as Roger Bacon's. This is Gower's account: + + 'For of the gret clerk Grostest + I rede how busy that he was + Upon the clergie an head of brass + To forg; and make it fortelle + Of such things as befelle. + And seven yers besinesse + He laid, but for the lachsse[3] + Of half a minute of an hour ... + He lost all that he hadde do.' + +Stow tells a story of a Head of Clay, made at Oxford in the reign of +Edward II., which, at an appointed time, spoke the mysterious words, +'Caput decidetur--caput elevabitur. Pedes elevabuntur supra caput.' +Returning to Roger Bacon's supposed invention, we find an ingenious +though improbable explanation suggested by Sir Thomas Browne, in his +'Vulgar Errors': + + 'Every one,' he says, 'is filled with the story of Friar + Bacon, that made a Brazen Head to speak these words, "_Time + is_." Which, though there went not the like relations, is + surely too literally received, and was but a mystical fable + concerning the philosopher's great work, wherein he eminently + laboured: implying no more by the copper head, than the + vessel wherein it was wrought; and by the words it spake, + than the opportunity to be watched, about the _tempus ortus_, + or birth of the magical child, or "philosophical King" of + Lullius, the rising of the "terra foliata" of Arnoldus; when + the earth, sufficiently impregnated with the water, ascendeth + white and splendent. Which not observed, the work is + irrecoverably lost.... Now letting slip the critical + opportunity, he missed the intended treasure: which had he + obtained, he might have made out the tradition of making a + brazen wall about England: that is, the most powerful defence + or strongest fortification which gold could have effected.' + +An interpretation of the popular myth which is about as ingenious and +far-fetched as Lord Bacon's expositions of the 'Fables of the +Ancients,' of which it may be said that they possess every merit but +that of probability! + +Bacon's Brazen Head, however, took hold of the popular fancy. It +survived for centuries, and the allusions to it in our literature are +sufficiently numerous. Cob, in Ben Jonson's comedy of 'Every Man in +his Humour,' exclaims: 'Oh, an my house were the Brazen Head now! +'Faith, it would e'en speak _Mo' fools yet_!' And we read in Greene's +'Tu Quoque': + + 'Look to yourself, sir; + The brazen head has spoke, and I must have you.' + +Lord Bacon used it happily in his 'Apology to the Queen,' when +Elizabeth would have punished the Earl of Essex for his misconduct in +Ireland:--'Whereunto I said (to the end utterly to divert her), +"Madam, if you will have me speak to you in this argument, I must +speak to you as Friar Bacon's head spake, that said first, '_Time +is_,' and then, '_Time was_,' and '_Time would never be_,' for +certainly" (said I) "it is now far too late; the matter is cold, and +hath taken too much wind."' Butler introduces it in his +'Hudibras':--'Quoth he, "My head's not made of brass, as Friar Bacon's +noddle was."' And Pope, in 'The Dunciad,' writes:--'Bacon trembled for +his brazen head.' A William Terite, in 1604, gave to the world some +verse, entitled 'A Piece of Friar Bacon's Brazen-head's Prophecie.' +And, in our own time, William Blackworth Praed has written 'The Chaunt +of the Brazen Head,' which, in his prose motto, he (in the person of +Friar Bacon) addresses as 'the brazen companion of his solitary +hours.' + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] Epistola Fratris Rogerii Baconis de Secretis Operibus Artis et +Natur et de Nullitate Magi. + +[3] _Laches_, oversight. + + +'THE FAMOUS HISTORIE OF FRIAR BACON.' + +Towards the end of the sixteenth century, the various legends which +had taken Friar Bacon as their central figure were brought together in +a connected form, and wrought, along with other stories of magic and +sorcery, into a continuous narrative, which became immensely popular. +It was entitled, 'The Famous Historie of Friar Bacon: Conteyning the +Wonderful Thinges that he Did in his Life; also the Manner of his +Death; with the Lives and Deaths of the Two Conjurers, Bungye and +Vandermast,' and has been reprinted by Mr. Thoms, in his 'Early +English Romances.' + +According to this entertaining authority, the Friar was 'born in the +West part of England, and was sonne to a wealthy farmer, who put him +to the schoole to the parson of the towne where he was borne; not with +intent that hee should turne fryer (as hee did), but to get so much +understanding, that he might manage the better the wealth hee was to +leave him. But young Bacon took his learning so fast, that the priest +could not teach him any more, which made him desire his master that he +would speake to his father to put him to Oxford, that he might not +lose that little learning that he had gained.... The father affected +to doubt his son's capacity, and designed him still to follow the same +calling as himself; but the student had no inclination to drive fat +oxen or consort with unlettered hinds, and stole away to "a cloister" +some twenty miles off, where the monks cordially welcomed him. +Continuing the pursuit of knowledge with great avidity, he attained to +such repute that the authorities of Oxford University invited him to +repair thither. He accepted the invitation, and grew so excellent in +the secrets of Art and Nature, that not England only, but all +Christendom, admired him.' + +There, in the seclusion of his cell, he made the Brazen Head on which +rests his legendary fame. + + 'Reading one day of the many conquests of England, he + bethought himselfe how he might keepe it hereafter from the + like conquests, and so make himselfe famous hereafter to all + posterities. This, after great study, hee found could be no + way so well done as one; which was to make a head of brasse, + and if he could make this head to speake, and heare it when + it speakes, then might hee be able to wall all England about + with brasse.[4] To this purpose he got one Fryer Bungey to + assist him, who was a great scholar and a magician, but not + to bee compared to Fryer Bacon: these two with great study + and paines so framed a head of brasse, that in the inward + parts thereof there was all things like as in a naturall + man's head. This being done, they were as farre from + perfection of the worke as they were before, for they knew + not how to give those parts that they had made motion, + without which it was impossible that it should speake: many + bookes they read, but yet coulde not finde out any hope of + what they sought, that at the last they concluded to raise a + spirit, and to know of him that which they coulde not attaine + to by their owne studies. To do this they prepared all things + ready, and went one evening to a wood thereby, and after many + ceremonies used, they spake the words of conjuration; which + the Devill straight obeyed, and appeared unto them, asking + what they would? "Know," said Fryer Bacon, "that wee have + made an artificiall head of brasse, which we would have to + speake, to the furtherance of which wee have raised thee; and + being raised, wee will here keepe thee, unlesse thou tell to + us the way and manner how to make this head to speake." The + Devill told him that he had not that power of himselfe. + "Beginner of lyes," said Fryer Bacon, "I know that thou dost + dissemble, and therefore tell it us quickly, or else wee will + here bind thee to remaine during our pleasures." At these + threatenings the Devill consented to doe it, and told them, + that with a continual fume of the six hottest simples it + should have motion, and in one month space speak; the time of + the moneth or day hee knew not: also hee told them, that if + they heard it not before it had done speaking, all their + labour should be lost. They being satisfied, licensed the + spirit for to depart. + + 'Then went these two learned fryers home againe, and prepared + the simples ready, and made the fume, and with continuall + watching attended when this Brazen Head would speake. Thus + watched they for three weekes without any rest, so that they + were so weary and sleepy that they could not any longer + refraine from rest. Then called Fryer Bacon his man Miles, + and told him that it was not unknown to him what paines Fryer + Bungey and himselfe had taken for three weekes space, onely + to make and to heare the Brazen Head speake, which if they + did not, then had they lost all their labour, and all England + had a great losse thereby; therefore hee intreated Miles that + he would watch whilst that they slept, and call them if the + head speake. "Fear not, good master," said Miles, "I will not + sleepe, but harken and attend upon the head, and if it doe + chance to speake, I will call you; therefore I pray take you + both your rests and let mee alone for watching this head." + After Fryer Bacon had given him a great charge the second + time, Fryer Bungey and he went to sleepe, and Miles was lefte + alone to watch the Brazen Head. Miles, to keepe him from + sleeping, got a tabor and pipe, and being merry disposed, + with his owne musicke kept from sleeping at last. After some + noyse the head spake these two words, "TIME IS." Miles, + hearing it to speake no more, thought his master would be + angry if hee waked him for that, and therefore he let them + both sleepe, and began to mocke the head in this manner: + "Thou brazen-faced Head, hath my master tooke all these + paines about thee, and now dost thou requite him with two + words, TIME IS? Had hee watched with a lawyer so long as hee + hath watched with thee, he would have given him more and + better words than thou hast yet. If thou canst speake no + wiser, they shal sleepe till doomes day for me: TIME IS! I + know Time is, and that you shall heare, Goodman Brazen-face. + + '"Time is for some to eate, + Time is for some to sleepe, + Time is for some to laugh, + Time is for some to weepe. + + '"Time is for some to sing, + Time is for some to pray, + Time is for some to creepe, + That have drunken all the day. + + '"Do you tell us, copper-nose, when TIME IS? I hope we + schollers know our times, when to drink drunke, when to kiss + our hostess, when to goe on her score, and when to pay + it--that time comes seldome." After halfe an houre had + passed, the Head did speake againe, two words, which were + these, "TIME WAS." Miles respected these words as little as + he did the former, and would not wake them, but still scoffed + at the Brazen Head that it had learned no better words, and + have such a tutor as his master: and in scorne of it sung + this song: + + '"Time was when thou, a kettle, + wert filled with better matter; + But Fryer Bacon did thee spoyle + when he thy sides did batter. + + '"Time was when conscience dwelled + with men of occupation; + Time was when lawyers did not thrive + so well by men's vexation. + + '"Time was when kings and beggars + of one poore stuff had being; + Time was when office kept no knaves-- + that time it was worth seeing. + + '"Time was a bowle of water + did give the face reflection; + Time was when women knew no paint, + which now they call complexion. + + '"TIME WAS! I know that, brazen-face, without your telling; I + know Time was, and I know what things there was when Time + was; and if you speake no wiser, no master shall be waked for + mee." Thus Miles talked and sung till another halfe-houre was + gone: then the Brazen Head spake again these words, "TIME IS + PAST;" and therewith fell downe, and presently followed a + terrible noyse, with strange flashes of fire, so that Miles + was halfe dead with feare. At this noyse the two Fryers + awaked, and wondred to see the whole roome so full of smoake; + but that being vanished, they might perceive the Brazen Head + broken and lying on the ground. At this sight they grieved, + and called Miles to know how this came. Miles, halfe dead + with feare, said that it fell doune of itselfe, and that with + the noyse and fire that followed he was almost frighted out + of his wits. Fryer Bacon asked him if hee did not speake? + "Yes," quoth Miles, "it spake, but to no purpose: He have a + parret speake better in that time that you have been teaching + this Brazen Head." + + '"Out on thee, villaine!" said Fryer Bacon; "thou hast undone + us both: hadst thou but called us when it did speake, all + England had been walled round about with brasse, to its glory + and our eternal fames. What were the words it spake?" "Very + few," said Miles, "and those were none of the wisest that I + have heard neither. First he said, 'TIME IS.'" "Hadst thou + called us then," said Fryer Bacon, "we had been made for + ever." "Then," said Miles, "half-an-hour after it spake + againe, and said, 'TIME WAS.'" "And wouldst thou not call us + then?" said Bungey. "Alas!" said Miles, "I thought hee would + have told me some long tale, and then I purposed to have + called you: then half-an-houre after he cried, 'TIME IS + PAST,' and made such a noyse that hee hath waked you + himselfe, mee thinkes." At this Fryer Bacon was in such a + rage that hee would have beaten his man, but he was + restrained by Bungey: but neverthelesse, for his punishment, + he with his art struck him dumbe for one whole month's space. + Thus the greate worke of these learned fryers was overthrown, + to their great griefes, by this simple fellow.' + +The historian goes on to relate many instances of Friar Bacon's +thaumaturgical powers. He captures a town which the king had besieged +for three months without success. He puts to shame a German conjuror +named Vandermast, and he performs wonders in love affairs; but at +length a fatal result to one of his magical exploits induces him to +break to pieces his wonderful glass and doff his conjurer's robe. +Then, receiving intelligence of the deaths of Vandermast and Friar +Bungey, he falls into a deep grief, so that for three days he refuses +to partake of food, and keeps his chamber. + + 'In the time that Fryer Bacon kept his Chamber, hee fell into + divers meditations; sometimes into the vanity of Arts and + Sciences; then would he condemne himselfe for studying of + those things that were so contrary to his Order soules + health; and would say, That magicke made a man a Devill: + sometimes would hee meditate on divinity; then would hee cry + out upon himselfe for neglecting the study of it, and for + studying magicke: sometime would he meditate on the + shortnesse of mans life, then would he condemne himself for + spending a time so short, so ill as he had done his: so would + he goe from one thing to another, and in all condemne his + former studies. + + 'And that the world should know how truly he did repent his + wicked life, he caused to be made a great fire; and sending + for many of his friends, schollers, and others, he spake to + them after this manner: My good friends and fellow students, + it is not unknown to you, how that through my Art I have + attained to that credit, that few men living ever had: of the + wonders that I have done, all England can speak, both King + and Commons: I have unlocked the secrets of Art and Nature, + and let the world see those things that have layen hid since + the death of Hermes,[5] that rare and profound philosopher: + my studies have found the secrets of the Starres; the bookes + that I have made of them do serve for precedents to our + greatest Doctors, so excellent hath my judgment been therein. + I likewise have found out the secrets of Trees, Plants, and + Stones, with their several uses; yet all this knowledge of + mine I esteeme so lightly, that I wish that I were ignorant + and knew nothing, for the knowledge of these things (as I + have truly found) serveth not to better a man in goodnesse, + but onely to make him proude and thinke too well of himselfe. + What hath all my knowledge of Nature's secrets gained me? + Onely this, the losse of a better knowledge, the losse of + Divine Studies, which makes the immortal part of man (his + soule) blessed. I have found that my knowledge has beene a + heavy burden, and has kept downe my good thoughts; but I will + remove the cause, which are these Bookes, which I doe purpose + here before you all to burne. They all intreated him to spare + the bookes, because in them there were those things that + after-ages might receive great benefit by. He would not + hearken unto them, but threw them all into the fire, and in + that flame burnt the greatest learning in the world. Then did + he dispose of all his goods; some part he gave to poor + schollers, and some he gave to other poore folkes: nothing + left he for himselfe: then caused hee to be made in the + Church-Wall a Cell, where he locked himselfe in, and there + remained till his Death. His time hee spent in prayer, + meditation, and such Divine exercises, and did seeke by all + means to perswade men from the study of Magicke. Thus lived + hee some two years space in that Cell, never comming forth: + his meat and drink he received in at a window, and at that + window he had discourse with those that came to him; his + grave he digged with his owne nayles, and was there layed + when he dyed. Thus was the Life and Death of this famous + Fryer, who lived most part of his life a Magician, and dyed a + true Penitent Sinner and Anchorite.' + +Upon this popular romance Greene, one of the best of the second-class +Elizabethan dramatists, founded his rattling comedy, entitled 'The +Historye of Fryer Bacon and Fryer Bungay,' which was written, it would +seem, in 1589, first acted about 1592, and published in 1594. He does +not servilely follow the old story-book, but introduces an under-plot +of his own, in which is shown the love of Prince Edward for Margaret, +the 'Fair Maid of Fressingfield,' whom the Prince finally surrenders +to the man she loves, his favourite and friend, Lacy, Earl of Lincoln. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] This patriotic sentiment would seem to show that the book was +written or published about the time of the Spanish Armada. + +[5] Hermes Trismegistus ('thrice great'), a fabulous Chaldean +philosopher, to whom I have already made reference. The numerous +writings which bear his name were really composed by the Egyptian +Platonists; but the medival alchemists pretend to recognise in him +the founder of their art. Gower, in his 'Confessio Amantis,' says: + + 'Of whom if I the nams calle, + Hermes was one the first of alle, + To whom this Art is most applied.' + +The name of Hermes was chosen because of the supposed magical powers +of the god of the caduceus. + + +GREENE'S COMEDY. + +In Scene I., which takes place near Framlingham, in Suffolk, we find +Prince Edward eloquently expatiating on the charms of the Fair Maid to +an audience of his courtiers, one of whom advises him, if he would +prove successful in his suit, to seek the assistance of Friar Bacon, a +'brave necromancer,' who 'can make women of devils, and juggle cats +into coster-mongers.'[6] The Prince acts upon this advice. + +Scene II. introduces us to Friar Bacon's cell at Brasenose College, +Oxford (an obvious anachronism, as the college was not founded until +long after Bacon's time). Enter Bacon and his poor scholar, Miles, +with books under his arm; also three doctors of Oxford: Burden, Mason, +and Clement. + + BACON. Miles, where are you? + + MILES. _Hic sum, doctissime et reverendissime Doctor._ (Here + I am, most learned and reverend Doctor.) + + BACON. _Attulisti nostros libros meos de necromantia?_ (Hast + thou brought my books of necromancy?) + + MILES. _Ecce quam bonum et quam jucundum habitare libros in + unum!_ (See how good and how pleasant it is to dwell among + books together!) + + BACON. Now, masters of our academic state + That rule in Oxford, viceroys in your place, + Whose heads contain maps of the liberal arts, + Spending your time in depths of learnd skill, + Why flock you thus to Bacon's secret cell, + A friar newly stalled in Brazen-nose? + Say what's your mind, that I may make reply. + + BURDEN. Bacon, we hear that long we have suspect, + That thou art read in Magic's mystery: + In pyromancy,[7] to divine by flames; + To tell by hydromancy, ebbs and tides; + By aeromancy to discover doubts,-- + To plain out questions, as Apollo did. + + BACON. Well, Master Burden, what of all this? + + MILES. Marry, sir, he doth but fulfil, by rehearsing of these + names, the fable of the 'Fox and the Grapes': that which is + above us pertains nothing to us. + + BURD. I tell thee, Bacon, Oxford makes report, + Nay, England, and the Court of Henry says + Thou'rt making of a Brazen Head by art, + Which shall unfold strange doubts and aphorisms, + And read a lecture in philosophy: + And, by the help of devils and ghastly fiends, + Thou mean'st, ere many years or days be past, + To compass England with a wall of brass. + + BACON. And what of this? + + MILES. What of this, master! why, he doth speak mystically; + for he knows, if your skill fail to make a Brazen Head, yet + Master Waters' strong ale will fit his time to make him have + a copper nose.... + + BACON. Seeing you come as friends unto the friar, + Resolve you, doctors, Bacon can by books + Make storming Boreas thunder from his cave, + And dim fair Luna to a dark eclipse. + The great arch-ruler, potentate of hell, + Tumbles when Bacon bids him, or his fiends + Bow to the force of his pentageron.[8] ... + I have contrived and framed a head of brass + (I made Belcephon hammer out the stuff), + And that by art shall read philosophy: + And I will strengthen England by my skill, + That if ten Csars lived and reigned in Rome, + With all the legions Europe doth contain, + They should not touch a grass of English ground: + The work that Ninus reared at Babylon, + The brazen walls framed by Semiramis, + Carved out like to the portal of the sun, + Shall not be such as rings the English strand + From Dover to the market-place of Rye. + +In this patriotic resolution of the potent friar the reader will trace +the influence of the national enthusiasm awakened, only a few years +before Greene's comedy was written and produced, by the menace of the +Spanish Armada. + +It is unnecessary to quote the remainder of this scene, in which Bacon +proves his magical skill at the expense of the jealous Burden. Scene +III. passes at Harleston Fair, and introduces Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, +disguised as a rustic, and the comely Margaret. In Scene IV., at +Hampton Court, Henry III. receives Elinor of Castile, who is betrothed +to his son, Prince Edward, and arranges with her father, the Emperor, +a competition between the great German magician, Jaques Vandermast, +and Friar Bacon, 'England's only flower.' In Scene V. we pass on to +Oxford, where some comic incidents occur between Prince Edward (in +disguise) and his courtiers; and in Scene VI. to Friar Bacon's cell, +where the friar shows the Prince in his 'glass prospective,' or magic +mirror, the figures of Margaret, Friar Bungay, and Earl Lacy, and +reveals the progress of Lacy's suit to the rustic beauty. Bacon +summons Bungay to Oxford--straddling on a devil's back--and the scene +then changes to the Regent-house, and degenerates into the rudest +farce. At Fressingfield, in Scene VIII., we find Prince Edward +threatening to slay Earl Lacy unless he gives up to him the Fair Maid +of Fressingfield; but, after a struggle, his better nature prevails, +and he retires from his suit, leaving Margaret to become the Countess +of Lincoln. Scene IX. carries us back to Oxford, where Henry III., the +Emperor, and a goodly company have assembled to witness the trial of +skill between the English and the German magicians--the first +international competition on record!--in which, of course, Vandermast +is put to ridicule. + +Passing over Scene X. as unimportant, we return, in Scene XI., to +Bacon's cell, where the great magician is lying on his bed, with a +white wand in one hand, a book in the other, and beside him a lighted +lamp. The Brazen Head is there, with Miles, armed, keeping watch over +it. Here the dramatist closely follows the old story. The friar falls +asleep; the head speaks once and twice, and Miles fails to wake his +master. It speaks the third time. 'A lightning flashes forth, and a +hand appears that breaks down the head with a hammer.' Bacon awakes to +lament over the ruin of his work, and load the careless Miles with +unavailing reproaches. But the whole scene is characteristic enough to +merit transcription: + + Scene XI.--_Friar Bacon's Cell._ + + _FRIAR BACON is discovered lying on a bed, with a white stick + in one hand, a book in the other, and a lamp lighted beside + him; and the BRAZEN HEAD, and MILES with weapons by him._ + + BACON. Miles, where are you? + + MILES. Here, sir. + + BACON. How chance you tarry so long? + + MILES. Think you that the watching of the Brazen Head craves + no furniture? I warrant you, sir, I have so armed myself + that if all your devils come, I will not fear them an inch. + + BACON. Miles, + Thou know'st that I have divd into hell, + And sought the darkest palaces of fiends; + That with my magic spells great Belcephon + Hath left his lodge and kneeld at my cell; + The rafters of the earth rent from the poles, + And three-form'd Luna hid her silver looks, + Tumbling upon her concave continent, + When Bacon read upon his magic book. + With seven years' tossing necromantic charms, + Poring upon dark Hecat's principles, + I have framed out a monstrous head of brass, + That, by the enchanting forces of the devil, + Shall tell out strange and uncouth aphorisms, + And girt fair England with a wall of brass. + Bungay and I have watch'd these threescore days, + And now our vital spirits crave some rest: + If Argus lived and had his hundred eyes, + They could not over-watch Phobetor's[9] night. + Now, Miles, in thee rests Friar Bacon's weal: + The honour and renown of all his life + Hangs in the watching of this Brazen Head; + Therefore I charge thee by the immortal God + That holds the souls of men within his fist, + This night thou watch; for ere the morning star + Sends out his glorious glister on the north + The Head will speak. Then, Miles, upon thy life + Wake me; for then by magic art I'll work + To end my seven years' task with excellence. + If that a wink but shut thy watchful eye, + Then farewell Bacon's glory and his fame! + Draw close the curtains, Miles: now, for thy life, + Be watchful, and ... (_Falls asleep._) + + MILES. So; I thought you would talk yourself asleep anon; and + 'tis no marvel, for Bungay on the days, and he on the nights, + have watched just these ten and fifty days: now this is the + night, and 'tis my task, and no more. Now, Jesus bless me, + what a goodly head it is! and a nose! You talk of _Nos[10] + autem glorificare_; but here's a nose that I warrant may be + called _Nos autem populare_ for the people of the parish. + Well, I am furnished with weapons: now, sir, I will set me + down by a post, and make it as good as a watchman to wake me, + if I chance to slumber. I thought, Goodman Head, I would call + you out of your _memento_.[11] Passion o' God, I have almost + broke my pate! (_A great noise._) Up, Miles, to your task; + take your brown-bill in your hand; here's some of your + master's hobgoblins abroad. + + THE BRAZEN HEAD (_speaks_). Time is. + + MILES. Time is! Why, Master Brazen-Head, you have such a + capital nose, and answer you with syllables, 'Time is'? Is + this my master's cunning, to spend seven years' study about + 'Time is'? Well, sir, it may be we shall have some better + orations of it anon: well, I'll watch you as narrowly as + ever you were watched, and I'll play with you as the + nightingale with the glow-worm; I'll set a prick against my + breast.[12] Now rest there, Miles. Lord have mercy upon me, I + have almost killed myself. (_A great noise._) Up, Miles; list + how they rumble. + + THE BRAZEN HEAD (_loquitur_). Time was. + + MILES. Well, Friar Bacon, you have spent your seven years' + study well, that can make your Head speak but two words at + once, 'Time was.' Yea, marry, time was when my master was a + wise man; but that was before he began to make the Brazen + Head. You shall lie while you ache, an your head speak no + better. Well, I will watch, and walk up and down, and be a + peripatetian[13] and a philosopher of Aristotle's stamp. (_A + great noise._) What, a fresh noise? Take thy pistols in hand, + Miles. (_A lightning flashes forth, and a Hand appears that + breaks down the HEAD with a hammer._) Master, master, up! + Hell's broken loose! Your Head speaks; and there's such a + thunder and lightning, that I warrant all Oxford is up in + arms. Out of your bed, and take a brownbill in your hand; the + latter day is come. + + BACON. Miles, I come. (_Rises and comes forward._) + + O, passing warily watched! + Bacon will make thee next himself in love. + When spake the Head? + + MILES. When spake the Head? Did you not say that he should + tell strange principles of philosophy? Why, sir, it speaks + but two words at a time. + + BACON. Why, villain, hath it spoken oft? + + MILES. Oft! ay, marry hath it, thrice; but in all those three + times it hath uttered but seven words. + + BACON. As how? + + MILES. Marry, sir, the first time he said, 'Time is,' as if + Fabius Commentator[14] should have pronounced a sentence; + then he said, 'Time was;' and the third time, with thunder + and lightning, as in great choler, he said, 'Time is past.' + + BACON. 'Tis past, indeed. Ah, villain! Time is past; + My life, my fame, my glory, are all past. + Bacon, + The turrets of thy hope are ruined down, + Thy seven years' study lieth in the dust: + Thy Brazen Head lies broken through a slave + That watched, and would not when the Head did will. + What said the Head first? + + MILES. Even, sir, 'Time is.' + + BACON. Villain, if thou hadst called to Bacon then, + If thou hadst watched, and waked the sleepy friar, + The Brazen Head had uttered aphorisms, + And England had been circled round with brass: + But proud Asmenoth,[15] ruler of the North, + And Demogorgon,[16] master of the Fates, + Grudge that a mortal man should work so much. + Hell trembled at my deep-commanding spells, + Fiends frowned to see a man their over-match; + Bacon might boast more than a man might boast; + But now the braves[17] of Bacon have an end, + Europe's conceit of Bacon hath an end, + His seven years' practice sorteth to ill end: + And, villain, sith my glory hath an end, + I will appoint thee to some fatal end.[18] + Villain, avoid! get thee from Bacon's sight! + Vagrant, go, roam and range about the world, + And perish as a vagabond on earth! + + MILES. Why, then, sir, you forbid me your service? + + BACON. My service, villain, with a fatal curse, + That direful plagues and mischief fall on thee. + + MILES. 'Tis no matter, I am against you with the old proverb, + 'The more the fox is cursed, the better he fares.' God be + with you, sir: I'll take but a book in my hand, a + wide-sleeved gown on my back, and a crowned cap[19] on my + head, and see if I can merit promotion. + + BACON. Some fiend or ghost haunt on thy weary steps, + Until they do transport thee quick to Hell! + For Bacon shall have never any day, + To lose the fame and honour of his Head. + + [_Exeunt._ + +Scene XII. passes in King Henry's Court, and the royal consent is +given to Earl Lacy's marriage with the Fair Maid, which is fixed to +take place on the same day as Prince Edward's marriage to the Princess +Elinor. In Scene XIII. we again go back to Bacon's cell. The friar is +bewailing the destruction of his Brazen Head to Friar Bungay, when two +young gentlemen, named Lambert and Sealsby, enter, in order to look +into the 'glass prospective,' and see how their fathers are faring. +Unhappily, at this very moment, the elder Lambert and Sealsby, having +quarrelled, are engaged 'in combat hard by Fressingfield,' and stab +each other to the death, whereupon their sons immediately come to +blows, with a like fatal result. Bacon, deeply affected, breaks the +magic crystal which has been the unwitting cause of so sad a +catastrophe, expresses his regret that he ever dabbled in the unholy +science, and announces his resolve to spend the remainder of his life +'in pure devotion.' + +At Fressingfield, in Scene XIV., the opportune arrival of Lacy and his +friends prevents Margaret from carrying out her intention of retiring +to the nunnery at Framlingham, and with obliging readiness she +consents to marry the Earl. Scene XV. shifts to Bacon's cell, where a +devil complains that the friar hath raised him from the darkest deep +to search about the world for Miles, his man, and torment him in +punishment for his neglect of orders. + +Miles makes his appearance, and after some comic dialogue, intended to +tickle the ears of the groundlings, mounts astride the demon's back, +and goes off to ----! In Scene XVI., and last, we return to the Court, +where royalty makes a splendid show, and the two brides--the Princess +Elinor and the Countess Margaret--display their rival charms. Of +course the redoubtable friar is present, and in his concluding speech +leaps over a couple of centuries to make a glowing compliment to Queen +Elizabeth, which seems worth quotation: + + 'I find by deep prescience of mine art, + Which once I tempered in my secret cell, + That here where Brute did build his Troynovant,[20] + From forth the royal garden of a King + Shall flourish out so rich and fair a bud, + Whose brightness shall deface proud Phoebus' flower, + And overshadow Albion with her leaves. + Till then Mars shall be master of the field, + But then the stormy threats of war shall cease: + The horse shall stamp as careless of the pike, + Drums shall be turned to timbrels of delight; + With wealthy favours Plenty shall enrich + The strand that gladded wandering Brute to see, + And peace from heaven shall harbour in these leaves + That gorgeous beautify this matchless flower: + Apollo's heliotropian[21] then shall stoop, + And Venus' hyacinth[22] shall vail her top; + Juno shall shut her gilliflowers up, + And Pallas' bay shall 'bash her brightest green; + Ceres' carnation, in consort with those, + Shall stoop and wonder at Diana's rose.'[23] + +So much for Greene's comedy of 'Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay'--not, on +the whole, a bad piece of work. + + * * * * * + +Among the earlier English alchemists I may next name, in chronological +order, George Ripley, canon of Bridlington, who, in 1471, dedicated to +King Edward III. his once celebrated 'Compound of Alchemy; or, The +Twelve Gates leading to the Discovery of the Philosopher's Stone.' +These 'gates,' each of which he describes in detail, but with little +enlightenment to the uninitiated reader, are:--1. Calcination; 2. +Solution; 3. Separation; 4. Conjunction; 5. Putrefaction; 6. +Congelation; 7. Cibation; 8. Sublimation; 9. Fermentation; 10. +Exaltation; 11. Multiplication; and 12. Projection. In his old age +Ripley learned wisdom, and frankly acknowledged that he had wasted his +life upon an empty pursuit. He requested all men, if they met with any +of the five-and-twenty treatises of which he was the author, to +consign them to the flames as absolutely vain and worthless. + +Yet there is a wild story that he actually discovered the +'magisterium,' and was thereby enabled to send a gift of 100,000 to +the Knights of St. John, to assist them in their defence of Rhodes +against the Turks. + + * * * * * + +Thomas Norton, of Bristol, was the author of 'The Ordinall of Alchemy' +(printed in London in 1652). He is said to have been a pupil of +Ripley, under whom (at the age of 28) he studied for forty days, and +in that short time acquired a thorough knowledge of 'the perfection of +chemistry.' Ripley, however, refused to instruct so young a man in the +master-secret of the great science, and the process from 'the white' +to 'the red powder,' so that Norton was compelled to rely on his own +skill and industry. Twice in his labours a sad disappointment overtook +him. On one occasion he had almost completed the tincture, when the +servant whom he employed to look after the furnace decamped with it, +supposing that it was fit for use. On another it was stolen by the +wife of William Canning, Mayor of Bristol, who immediately sprang into +immense wealth, and as some amends, I suppose, for his ill-gotten +gains, built the beautiful steeple of the church of St. Mary, +Redcliffe--the church afterwards connected with the sad story of +Chatterton. As for Norton, he seems to have lived in poverty and died +in poverty (1477). + +The 'Ordinall of Alchemy' is a tedious panegyric of the science, +interspersed with a good deal of the vague talk about white and red +stones and the philosophical magnesia in which 'the adepts' delighted. + + * * * * * + +To Norton we owe our scanty knowledge of Thomas Dalton, who flourished +about the middle of the fifteenth century. He had the reputation of +being a devout Churchman until he was accused by a certain Debois of +possessing the powder of projection. Debois roundly asserted that +Norton had made him a thousand pounds of gold (lucky man!) in less +than twelve hours. Whereupon Dalton simply said, 'Sir, you are +forsworn.' His explanation was that he had received the powder from a +canon of Lichfield, on undertaking not to use it until after the +canon's death; and that since he had been so troubled by his +possession of it, that he had secretly destroyed it. One Thomas +Herbert, a squire of King Edward, waylaid the unfortunate man, and +shut him up in the castle of Gloucester, putting heavy pressure upon +him to make the coveted tincture. But this Dalton would not and could +not do; and after a captivity of four years, Herbert ordered him to be +brought out and executed in his presence. He obeyed the harsh summons +with great delight, exclaiming, 'Blessed art Thou, Lord Jesus! I have +been too long absent from Thee. The science Thou gavest me I have +kept without ever abusing it; I have found no one fit to be my heir; +wherefore, sweet Lord, I will restore Thy gift to Thee again.' + +'Then, after some devout prayer, with a smiling countenance he desired +the executioner to proceed. Tears gushed from the eyes of Herbert when +he beheld him so willing to die, and saw that no ingenuity could wrest +his secret from him. He gave orders for his release. His imprisonment +and threatened execution were contrived without the King's knowledge +to intimidate him into compliance. The iniquitous devices having +failed, Herbert did not dare to take away his life. Dalton rose from +the block with a heavy countenance, and returned to his abbey, much +grieved at the further prolongation of his earthly sojourn. Herbert +died shortly after this atrocious act of tyranny, and Debois also came +to an untimely end. His father, Sir John Debois, was slain at the +battle of Tewkesbury, May 4, 1471; and two days after, as recorded in +Stow's "Annales," he himself (James Debois) was taken, with several +others of the Lancastrian party, from a church where they had fled for +sanctuary, and was beheaded on the spot.' + +FOOTNOTES: + +[6] That is, costard, or apple, mongers. + +[7] See Appendix to the present chapter, p. 58. + +[8] The pentageron, or pentagramma, is a mystic figure produced by +prolonging the sides of a regular pentagon till they intersect one +another. It can be drawn without a break in the drawing, and, viewed +from five sides, exhibits the form of the letter A (pent-alpha), or +the figure of the fifth proposition in Euclid's First Book. + +[9] From the Greek +phobos+, fear; +phobtra+, bugbears. + +[10] Bad puns were evidently common on the stage before the days of +Victorian burlesque. + +[11] So Shakespeare, '1 Hen. IV.,' iii. Falstaff says: 'I make as good +use of it as many a man doth of a death's head, or a memento house.' + +[12] So in the 'Passionate Pilgrim': + + 'Save the nightingale alone: + She, poor bird, as all forlorn, + Leaned her breast uptill a thorn.' + +[13] A _peripatetic_, or walking philosopher. Observe the +facetiousness in 'Aristotle's _stamp_.' Aristotle was the founder of +the Peripatetics. + +[14] Fabius _Cunctator_, or the Delayer, so called from the policy of +delay which he opposed to the vigorous movements of Hannibal. One +would suppose that the humour here, such as it is, would hardly be +perceptible to a theatrical audience. + +[15] In the old German 'Faustbuch,' the title of 'Prince of the North' +is given to Beelzebub. + +[16] _Demogorgon_, or _Demiourgos_--the creative principle of +evil--figures largely in literature. He is first mentioned by +Lactantius, in the fourth century; then by Boccaccio, Boiardo, Tasso +('Gierusalemme Liberata'), and Ariosto ('Orlando Furioso'). Marlowe +speaks, in 'Tamburlaine,' of 'Gorgon, prince of Hell.' Spenser, in +'The Faery Queen,' refers to-- + + 'Great Gorgon, prince of darkness and dead night, + At which Cocytus quakes, and Styx is put to flight.' + +Milton, in 'Paradise Lost,' alludes to 'the dreaded name of +Demogorgon.' Dryden says: 'When the moon arises, and Demogorgon walks +his round.' And he is one of the _dramatis person_ of Shelley's +'Prometheus Unbound': 'Demogorgon, a tremendous gloom.... A mighty +Darkness, filling the seat of power.' + +[17] Boasts. So in Peele's 'Edward I': 'As thou to England brought'st +thy Scottish braves.' + +[18] This reiteration of the same final word, for the sake of +emphasis, is found in Shakespeare. + +[19] A corner or college cap. + +[20] An allusion to the old legend that Brut, or Brutus, +great-grandson of neas, founded New Troy (Troynovant), or London. + +[21] Probably the reference is to the sunflower. + +[22] The classic writers usually identify the hyacinth with Apollo. + +[23] The rose, that is, of the Virgin Queen--an English +Diana--Elizabeth. In Shakespeare's 'Midsummer Night's Dream' +(Act iv., scene 1) we read of 'Diana's bud.' + + +APPENDIX TO CHAPTER I. + +The ancient magic included various kinds of divination, of which the +principal may here be catalogued: + +_Aeromancy_, or divination from the air. If the wind blew from the +east, it signified good fortune (which is certainly not the general +opinion!); from the west, evil; from the south, calamity; from the +north, disclosure of what was secret; from all quarters simultaneously +(!), hail and rain. + +_Axinomancy_, practised by the Greeks, more particularly for the +purpose of discovering criminals. An axe poised upon a stake, or an +agate on a red-hot axe, was supposed by its movement to indicate the +offender. Or the names of suspected persons were called out, and the +movement of the axe at a particular name was understood to certify +guilt. + +_Belomancy_, in use among the Arabs, was practised by means of arrows, +which were shot off, with written labels attached to them; and the +inscription on the arrow first picked up was accepted as prophetic. + +_Bibliomancy_, divining by means of the Bible, survived to a +comparatively recent period. The passage which first caught the eye, +on a Bible being opened haphazard, was supposed to indicate the +future. This was identical with the _Sortes Virgilian_, the only +difference being that in the latter, Virgil took the place of the +Bible. Everybody knows in connection with the Sortes the story of +Charles I. and Lord Falkland. + +_Botanomancy_, divining by means of plants and flowers, can hardly be +said to be extinct even now. In Goethe's 'Faust,' Gretchen seeks to +discover whether Faust returns her affection by plucking, one after +another, the petals of a star-flower (_sternblume_, perhaps the +china-aster), while she utters the alternate refrains, 'He loves me!' +'He loves me not!' as she plucks the last petal, exclaiming +rapturously, 'He loves me!' According to Theocritus, the Greeks used +the poppy-flower for this purpose. + +_Capnomancy_, divination by smoke, the ancients practised in two ways: +they threw seeds of jasmine or poppy in the fire, watching the motion +and density of the smoke they emitted, or they observed the +sacrificial smoke. If the smoke was thin, and shot up in a straight +line, it was a good omen. + +_Cheiromancy_ (or Palmistry), divination by the hand, was worked up +into an elaborate system by Paracelsus, Cardan, and others. It has +long been practised by the gipsies, by itinerant fortune-tellers, and +other cheats; and recently an attempt has been made to give it a +fashionable character. + +_Coscinomancy_ was practised by means of a sieve and a pair of shears +or forceps. The forceps or shears were used to suspend a sieve, which +moved (like the axe in axinomancy) when the name of a guilty person +was mentioned. + +_Crystallomancy_, divining by means of a crystal globe, mirror, or +beryl. Of this science of prediction, Dr. Dee was the great English +professor; but the reader will doubtless remember the story of the +Earl of Surrey and his fair 'Geraldine.' + +_Geomancy_, divination by casting pebbles on the ground. + +_Hydromancy_, divination by water, in which the diviner showed the +figure of an absent person. 'In this you conjure the spirits into +water; there they are constrained to show themselves, as Marcus Varro +testifieth, when he writeth how he had seen a boy in the water, who +announced to him in a hundred and fifty verses the end of the +Mithridatic war.' + +_Oneiromancy_, divination by dreams, is still credited by old women of +both sexes. Absurdly baseless as it is, it found believers in the old +time among men of culture and intellectual force. Archbishop Laud +attached so much importance to his dreams that he frequently recorded +them in his diary; and even Lord Bacon seems to have thought that a +prophetic meaning was occasionally concealed in them. + +_Onychomancy_, or _Onymancy_, divination by means of the nails of an +unpolluted boy. + +_Pyromancy_, divination by fire. 'The wife of Cicero is said, when, +after performing sacrifice, she saw a flame suddenly leap forth from +the ashes, to have prophesied the consulship to her husband for the +same year.' Others resorted to the blaze of a torch of pitch, which +was painted with certain colours. It was a good omen if the flame ran +into a point; bad when it divided. A thin-tongued flame announced +glory; if it went out, it signified danger; if it hissed, misfortune. + +_Rabdomancy_, divination by the rod or wand, is mentioned by Ezekiel. +The use of a hazel-rod to trace the existence of water or of a seam of +coal seems a survival of this practice. But enough of these follies: + + 'Necro-, pyro-, geo-, hydro-, cheiro-, coscinomancy, + With other vain and superstitious sciences.' + Tomkis, 'Albumazar,' ii. 3. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE STORY OF DR. JOHN DEE. + + +The world must always feel curious to know the exact moment when its +great men first drew the breath of life; and it is satisfactory, +therefore, to be able to state, on the weighty authority of Dr. Thomas +Smith, that Dr. John Dee, the famous magician and 'philosopher,' was +born at forty minutes past four o'clock on the morning of July 13, +1527. According to the picturesque practice of latter-day biographers, +here I ought to describe a glorious summer sunrise, the golden light +spreading over hill and pasture, the bland warm air stealing into the +chamber where lay the mother and her infant; but I forbear, as, for +all I know, this particular July morning may have been cloudy, cold, +and wet; besides, John, the son of Rowland Dee, was born in London. +From like want of information I refrain from comments on Master Dee's +early bringing-up and education. But it is reported that he gave proof +of so exceptional a capacity, and of such a love of letters, that, at +the early age of fifteen, he was sent to the University of Cambridge, +to study the classics and the old scholastic philosophy. There, for +three years, he was so vehemently bent, he says, on the acquisition of +learning, that he spent eighteen hours a day on his books, reserving +two only for his meals and recreation, and four for sleep--an +unhealthy division of time, which probably over-stimulated his +cerebral system and predisposed him to delusions and caprices of the +imagination. Having taken his degree of B.A., he crossed the seas in +1547 'to speak and confer' with certain learned men, chiefly +mathematicians, such as Gemma Frisius, Gerardus Mercator, Gaspar a +Morica, and Antonius Gogara; of whom the only one now remembered is +Mercator, as the inventor of a method of laying down hydrographical +charts, in which the parallels and meridians intersect each other at +right angles. After spending some months in the Low Countries he +returned home, bringing with him 'the first astronomer's staff of +brass that was made of Gemma Frisius' devising, the two great globes +of Gerardus Mercator's making, and the astronomer's ring of brass (as +Gemma Frisius had newly framed it).' + +Returning to the classic shades of Granta, he began to record his +observations of 'the heavenly influences in this elemental portion of +the world;' and I suppose it was in recognition of his scientific +scholarship that Henry VIII. appointed him to a fellowship at Trinity +College, and Greek under-reader. In the latter capacity he +superintended, in 1548, the performance of the +Eirn+ of +Aristophanes, introducing among 'the effects' an artificial scarabus, +which ascended, with a man and his wallet of provisions on its back, +to Jupiter's palace. This ingenious bit of mechanism delighted the +spectators, but, after the manner of the time, was ascribed to Dee's +occultism, and he found it convenient to retire to the Continent +(1548), residing for awhile at Louvain, and devoting himself to +hermetic researches, and afterwards at Paris (1580), where he +delivered scientific lectures to large and distinguished audiences. +'My auditory in Rhemes Colledge,' he says, 'was so great, and the most +part older than my selfe, that the mathematicall schooles could not +hold them; for many were faine, without the schooles, at the windowes, +to be auditors and spectators, as they best could help themselves +thereto. I did also dictate upon every proposition, beside the first +exposition. And by the first foure principall definitions representing +to the eyes (which by imagination onely are exactly to be conceived), +a greater wonder arose among the beholders, than of my Aristophanes +Scarabus mounting up to the top of Trinity-hall in Cambridge.' + +The accomplishments of this brilliant scientific mountebank being +noised abroad over all Europe, the wonderful story reached the remote +Court of the Muscovite, who offered him, if he would take up his +residence at Moscow, a stipend of 2,000 per annum, his diet also to be +allowed to him free out of 'the Emperor's own kitchen, and his place to +be ranked amongst the highest sort of the nobility there, and of his +privy councillors.' Was ever scholar so tempted before or since? In +those times, the Russian Court seems to have held _savants_ and +scholars in as much esteem as nowadays it holds _prima-donnas_ and +_ballerines_. Dee also received advantageous proposals from four +successive Emperors of Germany (Charles V., Ferdinand, Maximilian II., +and Rudolph II.), but the Muscovite's outbade them all. A residence in +the heart of Russia had no attraction, however, for the Oxford scholar, +who, in 1551, returned to England with a halo of fame playing round his +head (to speak figuratively, as Dee himself loved to do), which +recommended him to the celebrated Greek professor at Cambridge, Sir +John Cheke. Cheke introduced him to Mr. Secretary Cecil, as well as to +Edward VI., who bestowed upon him a pension of 100 crowns per annum +(speedily exchanged, in 1553, for the Rectory of Upton-upon-Severn). At +first he met with favour from Queen Mary; but the close correspondence +he maintained with the Princess Elizabeth, who appreciated his +multifarious scholarship, exposed him to suspicion, and he was accused +of practising against the Queen's life by divers enchantments. Arrested +and imprisoned (at Hampton Court), he was subjected to rigorous +examinations, and as no charge of treason could be proved against him, +was remitted to Bishop Bonner as a possible heretic. But his enemies +failed again in their malicious intent, and in 1555 he received his +liberty. Imprisonment and suffering had not quenched his activity of +temper, and almost immediately upon his release he solicited the +Queen's assent to a plan for the restoration and preservation of +certain precious manuscripts of classical antiquity. He solicited in +vain. + +When Elizabeth came to the throne, Dee, as a proficient in the occult +arts, was consulted by Dudley (afterwards Earl of Leicester) as to the +most suitable and auspicious day for her coronation. She testified to +her own belief in his skill by employing him, when her image in wax +had been discovered in Lincoln's Inn Fields, to counteract the evil +charm. But he owed her favour, we may assume, much more to his +learning, which was really extensive, than to his supposed magical +powers. He tells us that, shortly before her coronation, she summoned +him to Whitehall, remarking to his patrons, Dudley and the Earl of +Pembroke, 'Where my brother hath given him a crown, I will give him a +noble.' She was certainly more liberal to Dee than to many of her +servants who were much more deserving. In December, 1564, she granted +him the reversion of the Deanery of Gloucester. Not long afterwards +his friends recommended him for the Provostship of Eton College. +'Favourable answers' were returned, but he never received the +Provostship. He obtained permission, however, to hold for ten years +the two rectories of Upton and Long Ledenham. Later in her reign +(July, 1583), when two great nobles invited themselves to dine with +him, he was compelled to decline the honour on account of his poverty. +The Queen, on being apprised of this incident, sent him a present of +forty angels of gold. We shall come upon other proofs of her +generosity. + +Dee was travelling on the Continent in 1571, and on his way through +Lorraine was seized with a dangerous sickness; whereupon the Queen not +only sent 'carefully and with great speed' two of her physicians, but +also the honourable Lord Sidney 'in a manner to tend on him,' and 'to +discern how his health bettered, and to comfort him from her Majesty +with divers very pithy speeches and gracious, and also with divers +rarities to eat, to increase his health and strength.' Philosophers +and men of letters, when they are ailing, meet with no such pleasant +attentions nowadays! But the list of Elizabeth's bounties is not yet +ended. The much-travelling scholar, who saw almost as much of cities +and men and manners as Odysseus himself, had wandered into the +farthest parts of the kingdom of Bohemia; and that no evil might come +to him, or his companion, or their families, she sent them her most +princely and royal letters of safe-conduct. After his return home, a +little before Christmas, 1589, hearing that he was unable to keep +house as liberally as became his position and repute, she promised to +assist him with the gift of a hundred pounds, and once or twice +repeated the promise on his coming into her presence. Fifty pounds he +_did_ receive, with which to keep his Christmas merrily, but what +became of the other moiety he was never able to discover. A malignant +influence frequently interposed, it would seem, between the Queen's +benevolence in intention and her charity in action; and the +unfortunate doctor was sometimes tantalized with promises of good +things which failed to be realized. On the whole, however, I do not +think he had much to complain of; and the reproach of parsimony so +often levelled at great Gloriana would certainly not apply to her +treatment of Dr. Dee. + +She honoured him with several visits at Mortlake, where he had a +pleasant house close by the riverside, and a little to the westward of +the church--surrounded by gardens and green fields, with bright +prospects of the shining river. Elizabeth always came down from +Whitehall on horseback, attended by a brave retinue of courtiers; and +as she passed along, her loyal subjects stood at their doors, or lined +the roadside, making respectful bows and curtseys, and crying, 'God +save the Queen!' One of these royal visits was made on March 10, 1575, +the Queen desiring to see the doctor's famous library; but learning +that he had buried his wife only four hours before, she refused to +enter the house. Dee, however, submitted to her inspection his magic +crystal, or 'black stone,' and exhibited some of its marvellous +properties; her Majesty, for the better examination of the same, being +taken down from her horse 'by the Earl of Leicester, by the Church +wall of Mortlack.' + +She was at Dr. Dee's again on September 17, 1580. This time she came +from Richmond in her coach, a wonderfully cumbrous vehicle, drawn by +six horses; 'and when she was against my garden in the fielde,' says +the doctor, 'her Majestie staide there a good while, and then came +into the street at the great gate of the field, where her Majestie +espied me at my dore, making reverent and dutifull obeysance unto her, +and with her hand her Majestie beckoned for me to come to her, and I +came to her coach side; her Majestie then very speedily pulled off her +glove, and gave me her hand to kiss; and to be short, her Majestie +wished me to resort oftener to her Court, and by some of her Privy +Chamber to give her Majestie to wete (know) when I came there.' + +Another visit took place on October 10, 1580:--'The Queenes Majestie +to my great comfort (_hor quint_) came with her train from the +Court, and at my dore graciously calling me unto her, on horseback +exhorted me briefly to take my mother's death patiently; and withal +told me, that the Lord Treasurer had greatly commended my doings for +her title royall, which he had to examine. The which title in two +rolls of velome parchment his Honour had some houres before brought +home, and delivered to Mr. Hudson for me to receive at my coming from +my mother's buriall at church. Her Majestie remembered also then, how +at my wives buriall it was her fortune likewise to call upon me at my +house, as before is noted.' + +Dee's library--as libraries went then--was not unworthy of royal +inspection. Its proud possessor computed it to be worth 2,000, which, +at the present value of money, would be equal, I suppose, to 10,000. +It consisted of about 4,000 volumes, bound and unbound, a fourth part +being MSS. He speaks of four 'written books'--one in Greek, two in +French, and one in High Dutch--as having cost him 533, and inquires +triumphantly what must have been the value of some hundred of the +best of all the other written books, some of which were the +_autographia_ of excellent and seldom-heard-of authors? He adds that +he spent upwards of forty years in collecting this library from divers +places beyond the seas, and with much research and labour in England. + +Of the 'precious books' thus collected, Dee does not mention the +titles; but he has recorded the rare and exquisitely made 'instruments +mathematical' which belonged to him: An excellent, strong, and fair +quadrant, first made by that famous Richard Chancellor who boldly +carried his discovery-ships past the Icy Cape, and anchored them in +the White Sea. There was also an excellent _radius astronomicus_, of +ten feet in length, the staff and cross very curiously divided into +equal parts, after Richard Chancellor's quadrant manner. Item, two +globes of Mercator's best making: on the celestial sphere Dee, with +his own hand, had set down divers comets, their places and motions, +according to his individual observation. Item, divers other +instruments, as the theorie of the eighth sphere, the ninth and tenth, +with an horizon and meridian of copper, made by Mercator specially for +Dr. Dee. Item, sea-compasses of different kinds. Item, a magnet-stone, +commonly called a loadstone, of great virtue. Also an excellent +watch-clock, made by one Dibbley, 'a notable workman, long since +dead,' by which the time might sensibly be measured in the seconds of +an hour--that is, not to fail the 360th part of an hour. We need not +dwell upon his store of documents relating to Irish and Welsh estates, +and of ancient seals of arms; but my curiosity, I confess, is somewhat +stirred by his reference to 'a great bladder,' with about four pounds +weight of 'a very sweetish thing,' like a brownish gum, in it, +artificially prepared by thirty times purifying, which the doctor +valued at upwards of a hundred crowns. + + * * * * * + +While engaged in learned studies and correspondence with learned men, +Dee found time to indulge in those wild semi-mystical, transcendental +visions which engaged the imagination of so many medival students. +The secret of 'the philosopher's stone' led him into fascinating +regions of speculation, and the ecstasies of Rosicrucianism dazzled +him with the idea of holding communication with the inhabitants of the +other world. How far he was sincere in these pursuits, how far he +imparted into them a spirit of charlatanry, I think it is impossible +to determine. Perhaps one may venture to say that, if to some small +extent an impostor, he was, to a much larger extent, a dupe; that if +he deceived others, he also deceived himself; nor is he, as biography +teaches, the only striking example of the credulous enthusiast who +mingles with his enthusiasm, more or less unconsciously, a leaven of +hypocrisy. As early as 1571 he complains, in the preface to his +'English Euclid,' that he is jeered at by the populace as a conjurer. +By degrees, it is evident, he begins to feel a pride in his magical +attainments. He records with the utmost gravity his remarkable dreams, +and endeavours to read the future by them. He insists, moreover, on +strange noises which he hears in his chamber. In those days a +favourite method of summoning the spirits was to bring them into a +glass or stone which had been prepared for the purpose; and in his +diary, under the date of May 25, 1581, he records--for the first +time--that he had held intercourse in this way with supra-mundane +beings. + +Combining with his hermetico-magical speculations religious exercises +of great fervour, he was thus engaged, one day in November, 1582, when +suddenly upon his startled vision rose the angel Uriel 'at the west +window of his laboratory,' and presented him with a translucent stone, +or crystal, of convex shape, possessing the wonderful property of +introducing its owner to the closest possible communication with the +world of spirits. It was necessary at times that this so-called mirror +should be turned in different positions before the observer could +secure the right focus; and then the spirits appeared on its surface, +or in different parts of the room by reason of its action. Further, +only one person, whom Dee calls the _skryer_, or seer, could discover +the spirits, or hear and interpret their voices, just as there can be +but one medium, I believe, at a spiritualistic sance of the present +day. But, of course, it was requisite that, while the medium was +absorbed in his all-important task, some person should be at hand to +describe what he saw, or professed to see, and commit to paper what he +heard, or professed to hear; and a seer with a lively imagination and +a fluent tongue could go very far in both directions. This humbler, +secondary position Dee reserved for himself. Probably his invention +was not sufficiently fertile for the part of a medium, or else he was +too much in earnest to practise an intentional deception. As the +crystal showed him nothing, he himself said so, and looked about for +someone more sympathetic, or less conscientious. His choice fell at +first on a man named Barnabas Saul, and he records in his diary how, +on October 9, 1581, this man 'was strangely troubled by a spiritual +creature about midnight.' In a MS. preserved in the British Museum, he +relates some practices which took place on December 2, beginning his +account with this statement: 'I willed the skryer, named Saul, to +looke into my great crystalline globe, if God had sent his holy angel +Azrael, or no.' But Saul was a fellow of small account, with a very +limited inventive faculty, and on March 6, 1582, he was obliged to +confess 'that he neither heard nor saw any spiritual creature any +more.' Dee and his inefficient, unintelligent skryer then quarrelled, +and the latter was dismissed, leaving behind him an unsavoury +reputation. + + +EDWARD KELLY. + +Soon afterwards our magician made the acquaintance of a certain Edward +Kelly (or Talbot), who was in every way fitted for the mediumistic +_rle_. He was clever, plausible, impudent, unscrupulous, and a most +accomplished liar. A native of Worcester, where he was born in 1555, +he was bred up, according to one account, as a druggist, according to +another as a lawyer; but all accounts agree that he became an adept in +every kind of knavery. He was pilloried, and lost his ears (or at +least was condemned to lose them) at Lancaster, for the offence of +coining, or for forgery; afterwards retired to Wales, assumed the name +of Kelly, and practised as a conjurer and alchemist. A story is told +of him which illustrates the man's unhesitating audacity, or, at all +events, the notoriety of his character: that he carried with him one +night into the park of Walton-le-Dale, near Preston, a man who +thirsted after a knowledge of the future, and, when certain +incantations had been completed, caused his servants to dig up a +corpse, interred only the day before, that he might compel it to +answer his questions. + +How he got introduced to Dr. Dee I do not profess to know; but I am +certainly disinclined to accept the wonderful narrative which Mr. +Waite renders in so agreeable a style--that Kelly, during his Welsh +sojourn, was shown an old manuscript which his landlord, an innkeeper, +had obtained under peculiar circumstances. 'It had been discovered in +the tomb of a bishop who had been buried in a neighbouring church, and +whose tomb had been sacrilegiously up-torn by some fanatics,' in the +hope of securing the treasures reported to be concealed within it. +They found nothing, however, but the aforesaid manuscript, and two +small ivory bottles, respectively containing a ponderous white and red +powder. 'These pearls beyond price were rejected by the pigs of +apostasy: one of them was shattered on the spot, and its ruddy, +celestine contents for the most part lost. The remnant, together with +the remaining bottle and the unintelligible manuscript, were speedily +disposed of to the innkeeper in exchange for a skinful of wine.' The +innkeeper, in his turn, parted with them for one pound sterling to +Master Edward Kelly, who, believing he had obtained a hermetic +treasure, hastened to London to submit it to Dr. Dee. + +This accomplished and daring knave was engaged by the credulous doctor +as his skryer, at a salary of 50 per annum, with 'board and lodging,' +and all expenses paid. These were liberal terms; but it must be +admitted that Kelly earned them. Now, indeed, the crystal began to +justify its reputation! Spirits came as thick as blackberries, and +voices as numerous as those of rumour! Kelly's amazing fertility of +fancy never failed his employer, upon whose confidence he established +an extraordinary hold, by judiciously hinting doubts as to the +propriety of the work he had undertaken. How could a man be other than +trustworthy, when he frankly expressed his suspicions of the _mala +fides_ of the spirits who responded to the summons of the crystal? It +was impossible--so the doctor argued--that so candid a medium could be +an impostor, and while resenting the imputations cast upon the +'spiritual creatures,' he came to believe all the more strongly in the +man who slandered them. The difference of opinion gave rise, of +course, to an occasional quarrel. On one occasion (in April, 1582) +Kelly specially provoked his employer by roundly asserting that the +spirits were demons sent to lure them to their destruction; and by +complaining that he was confined in Dee's house as in a prison, and +that it would be better for him to be near Cotsall Plain, where he +might walk abroad without danger. + +Some time in 1583 a certain 'Lord Lasky,' that is, Albert Laski or +Alasco, prince or waiwode of Siradia in Poland, and a guest at +Elizabeth's Court, made frequent visits to Dee's house, and was +admitted to the spirit exhibitions of the crystal. It has been +suggested that Kelly had conceived some ambitious projects, which he +hoped to realize through the agency of this Polish noble, and that he +made use of the crystal to work upon his imagination. Thenceforward +the spirits were continually hinting at great European revolutions, +and uttering vague predictions of some extraordinary good fortune +which was in preparation for Alasco. On May 28 Dee and Kelly were +sitting in the doctor's study, discussing the prince's affairs, when +suddenly appeared--perhaps it was an optical trick of the ingenious +Kelly--'a spiritual creature, like a pretty girl of seven or nine +years of age, attired on her head, with her hair rowled up before, and +hanging down very long behind, with a gown of soy, changeable green +and red, and with a train; she seemed to play up and down, and seemed +to go in and out behind my books, lying in heaps; and as she should +ever go between them, the books seemed to give place sufficiently, +dividing one heap from the other while she passed between them. And +so I considered, and heard the diverse reports which E. K. made unto +this pretty maid, and I said, "Whose maiden are you?"' Here follows +the conversation--inane and purposeless enough, and yet deemed worthy +of preservation by the credulous doctor: + + DOCTOR DEE'S CONVERSATION WITH THE SPIRITUAL CREATURE. + + SHE. Whose man are you? + + DEE. I am the servant of God, both by my bound duty, and also + (I hope) by His adoption. + + A VOICE. You shall be beaten if you tell. + + SHE. Am not I a fine maiden? give me leave to play in your + house; my mother told me she would come and dwell here. + + (_She went up and down with most lively gestures of a young + girl playing by herself, and divers times another spake to + her from the corner of my study by a great perspective + glasse, but none was seen beside herself._) + + SHE. Shall I? I will. (_Now she seemed to answer me in the + foresaid corner of my study._) I pray you let me tarry a + little? (_Speaking to me in the foresaid corner._) + + DEE. Tell me what you are. + + SHE. I pray you let me play with you a little, and I will + tell you who I am. + + DEE. In the name of Jesus then, tell me. + + SHE. I rejoice in the name of Jesus, and I am a poor little + maiden; I am the last but one of my mother's children; I have + little baby children at home. + + DEE. Where is your home? + + SHE. I dare not tell you where I dwell, I shall be beaten. + + DEE. You shall not be beaten for telling the truth to them + that love the truth; to the Eternal Truth all creatures must + be obedient. + + SHE. I warrant you I will be obedient; my sisters say they + must all come and dwell with you. + + DEE. I desire that they who love God should dwell with me, + and I with them. + + SHE. I love you now you talk of God. + + DEE. Your eldest sister--her name is Esim[ve]li. + + SHE. My sister is not so short as you make her. + + DEE. O, I cry you mercy! she is to be pronounced Esim[=i]li! + + KELLY. She smileth; one calls her, saying, Come away, maiden. + + SHE. I will read over my gentlewomen first; my master Dee + will teach me if I say amiss. + + DEE. Read over your gentlewomen, as it pleaseth you. + + SHE. I have gentlemen and gentlewomen; look you here. + + KELLY. She bringeth a little book out of her pocket. She + pointeth to a picture in the book. + + SHE. Is not this a pretty man? + + DEE. What is his name? + + SHE. My (mother) saith his name is Edward: look you, he hath + a crown upon his head; my mother saith that this man was Duke + of York. + +And so on. + +The question here suggests itself, Was this passage of nonsense Dr. +Dee's own invention? And has he compiled it for the deception of +posterity? I do not believe it. It is my firm conviction that he +recorded in perfect good faith--though I own my opinion is not very +complimentary to his intelligence--the extravagant rigmarole dictated +to him by the arch-knave Kelly, who, very possibly, added to his many +ingenuities some skill in the practices of the ventriloquist. No great +amount of artifice can have been necessary for successfully deceiving +so admirable a subject for deception as the credulous Dee. It is +probable that Dee may sometimes have suspected he was being imposed +upon; but we may be sure he was very unwilling to admit it, and that +he did his best to banish from his mind so unwelcome a suspicion. As +for Kelly, it seems clear that he had conceived some widely ambitious +and daring scheme, which, as I have said, he hoped to carry out +through the instrumentality of Alasco, whose interest he endeavoured +to stimulate by flattering his vanity, and representing the spiritual +creature as in possession of a pedigree which traced his descent from +the old Norman family of the Lacys. + +With an easy invention which would have done credit to the most +prolific of romancists, he daily developed the characters of his +pretended visions.[24] Consulting the crystal on June 2, he professed +to see a spirit in the garb of a husbandman, and this spirit +rhodomontaded in mystical language about the great work Alasco was +predestined to accomplish in the conversion and regeneration of the +world. Before this invisible fictionist retired into his former +obscurity, Dee petitioned him to use his influence on behalf of a +woman who had committed suicide, and of another who had dreamed of a +treasure hidden in a cellar. Other interviews succeeded, in the course +of which much more was said about the coming purification of humanity, +and it was announced that a new code of laws, moral and religious, +would be entrusted to Dee and his companions. What a pity that this +code was never forthcoming! A third spirit, a maiden named Galerah, +made her appearance, all whose revelations bore upon Alasco, and the +greatness for which he was reserved: 'I say unto thee, his name is in +the Book of Life. The sun shall not passe his course before he be a +king. His counsel shall breed alteration of his State, yea, of the +whole world. What wouldst thou know of him?' + +'If his kingdom shall be of Poland,' answered Dee, 'in what land +else?' + +'Of two kingdoms,' answered Galerah. + +'Which? I beseech you.' + +'The one thou hast repeated, and the other he seeketh as his right.' + +'God grant him,' exclaimed the pious doctor, 'sufficient direction to +do all things so as may please the highest of his calling.' + +'He shall want no direction,' replied Galerah, 'in anything he +desireth.' + +Whether Kelly's invention began to fail him, or whether it was a +desire to increase his influence over his dupe, I will not decide; but +at this time he revived his pretended conscientious scruples against +dealing with spirits, whom he calumniously declared to be ministers of +Satan, and intimated his intention of departing from the unhallowed +precincts of Mortlake. But the doctor could not bear with equanimity +the loss of a skryer who rendered such valuable service, and watched +his movements with the vigilance of alarm. It was towards the end of +June, the month made memorable by such important revelations, that +Kelly announced, one day, his design of riding from Mortlake to +Islington, on some private business. The doctor's fears were at once +awakened, and he fell into a condition of nervous excitement, which, +no doubt, was exactly what Kelly had hoped to provoke. 'I asked him,' +says Dee, 'why he so hasted to ride thither, and I said if it were to +ride to Mr. Henry Lee, I would go thither also, to be acquainted with +him, seeing now I had so good leisure, being eased of the book +writing. Then he said, that one told him, the other day, that the Duke +(Alasco) did but flatter him, and told him other things, both against +the Duke and me. I answered for the Duke and myself, and also said +that if the forty pounds' annuity which Mr. Lee did offer him was the +chief cause of his minde setting that way (contrary to many of his +former promises to me), that then I would assure him of fifty pounds +yearly, and would do my best, by following of my suit, to bring it to +pass as soon as I possibly could, and thereupon did make him promise +upon the Bible. Then Edward Kelly again upon the same Bible did sweare +unto me constant friendship, and never to forsake me; and, moreover, +said that unless this had so fallen out, he would have gone beyond the +seas, taking ship at Newcastle within eight days next. And so we +plight our faith each to other, taking each other by the hand upon +these points of brotherly and friendly fidelity during life, which +covenant I beseech God to turn to His honour, glory, and service, and +the comfort of our brethren (His children) here on earth.' + +This concordat, however, was of brief duration. Kelly, who seems to +have been in fear of arrest,[25] still threatened to quit Dee's +service; and by adroit pressure of this kind, and by unlimited +promises to Alasco, succeeded in persuading his two confederates to +leave England clandestinely, and seek an asylum on Alasco's Polish +estates. Dee took with him his second wife, Jane Fromond, to whom he +had been married in February, 1578, his son Arthur (then about four +years old), and his children by his first wife. Kelly was also +accompanied by his wife and family. + +On the night of September 21, 1583, in a storm of rain and wind, they +left Mortlake by water, and dropped down the river to a point four or +five miles below Gravesend, where they embarked on board a Danish +ship, which they had hired to take them to Holland. But the violence +of the gale was such that they were glad to transfer themselves, after +a narrow escape from shipwreck, to some fishing-smacks, which landed +them at Queenborough, in the Isle of Sheppey, in safety. There they +remained until the gale abated, and then crossed the Channel to Brill +on the 30th. Proceeding through Holland and Friesland to Embden and +Bremen, they thence made their way to Stettin, in Pomerania, arriving +on Christmas Day, and remaining until the middle of January. + +Meanwhile, Kelly was careful not to intermit those revelations from +the crystal which kept alive the flame of credulous hope in the bosom +of his two dupes, and he was especially careful to stimulate the +ambition of Alasco, whose impoverished finances could ill bear the +burden imposed upon them of supporting so considerable a company. They +reached Siradia on February 3, 1584, and there the spirits suddenly +changed the tone of their communications; for Kelly, having +unexpectedly discovered that Alasco's resources were on the brink of +exhaustion, was accordingly prepared to fling him aside without +remorse. The first spiritual communication was to the effect that, on +account of his sins, he would no longer be charged with the +regeneration of the world, but he was promised possession of the +Kingdom of Moldavia. The next was an order to Dee and his companions +to leave Siradia, and repair to Cracow, where Kelly hoped, no doubt, +to get rid of the Polish prince more easily. Then the spirits began to +speak at shorter intervals, their messages varying greatly in tone and +purport, according, I suppose, as Alasco's pecuniary supplies +increased or diminished; but eventually, when all had suffered +severely from want of money, for it would seem that their tinctures +and powders never yielded them as much as an ounce of gold, the +spirits summarily dismissed the unfortunate Alasco, ordered Dee and +Kelly to repair to Prague, and entrusted Dee with a Divine +communication to Rudolph II., the Emperor of Germany. + +Quarrels often occurred between the two adepts during the Cracow +period. In these Kelly was invariably the prime mover, and his object +was always the same: to confirm his influence over the man he had so +egregiously duped. At Prague, Dee was received by the Imperial Court +with the distinction due to his well-known scholarship; but no +credence was given to his mission from the spirits, and his +pretensions as a magician were politely ignored. Nor was he assisted +with any pecuniary benevolences; and the man who through his crystal +and his skryer had apparently unlimited control over the inhabitants +of the spiritual world could not count with any degree of certainty +upon his daily bread. He failed, moreover, to obtain a second +interview with the Emperor. On attending at the palace, he was +informed that the Emperor had gone to his country seat, or else that +he had just ridden forth to enjoy the pleasures of the chase, or that +his imperfect acquaintance with the Latin tongue prevented him from +conferring with Dee personally; and eventually, at the instigation of +the Papal nuncio, Dee was ordered to depart from the Imperial +territories (May, 1586). + +The discredited magician then betook himself to Erfurt, and afterwards +to Cassel. He would fain have visited Italy, where he anticipated a +cordial welcome at those Courts which patronized letters and the arts, +but he was privately warned that at Rome an accusation of heresy and +magic had been preferred against him, and he had no desire to fall +into the fangs of the Inquisition. In the autumn of 1586, the +Imperial prohibition having apparently been withdrawn, he followed +Kelly into Bohemia; and in the following year we find both of them +installed as guests of a wealthy nobleman, named Rosenberg, at his +castle of Trebona. Here they renewed their intercourse with the spirit +world, and their operations in the transmutation of metals. Dee +records how, on December 9, he reached the point of projection! +Cutting a piece out of a brass warming-pan, he converted it--by merely +heating it in the fire, and pouring on it a few drops of the magical +elixir--a kind of red oil, according to some authorities--into solid, +shining silver. And there goes an idle story that he sent both the pan +and the piece of silver to Queen Elizabeth, so that, with her own +eyes, she might see how exactly they tallied, and that the piece had +really been cut out of the pan! About the same time, it is said, the +two magicians launched into a profuse expenditure,--Kelly, on one of +his maid-servants getting married, giving away gold rings to the value +of 4,000. Yet, meanwhile, Dee and Kelly were engaged in sharp +contentions, because the spirits fulfilled none of the promises made +by the latter, who, his invention (I suppose) being exhausted, +resolved, in April, 1587, to resign his office of 'skryer,' and young +Arthur Dee then made an attempt to act in his stead. + +The conclusion I have arrived at, after studying the careers and +characters of our two worthies, is that they were wholly unfitted for +each other's society; a barrier of 'incompatibility' rose straitly +between them. Dee was in earnest; Kelly was practising a sham. Dee +pursued a shadow which he believed to be a substance; Kelly knew that +the shadow was nothing more than a shadow. Dee was a man of rare +scholarship and considerable intellectual power, though of a credulous +and superstitious temper; Kelly was superficial and ignorant, but +clever, astute, and ingenious, and by no means prone to fall into +delusions. The last experiment which he made on Dee's simple-mindedness +stamps the man as the rogue and knave he was; while it illustrates the +truth of the preacher's complaint that there is nothing new under the +sun. The doctrine of free marriage propounded by American enthusiasts +was a _remanet_ from the ethical system of Mr. Edward Kelly. + + * * * * * + +Kelly had long been on bad terms with his wife, and had conceived a +passionate attachment towards Mrs. Dee, who was young and charming, +graceful in person, and attractive in manner. To gratify his desires, +he resorted to his old machinery of the crystal and the spirits, and +soon obtained a revelation that it was the Divine pleasure he and Dr. +Dee should exchange partners. Demoralized and abased as Dee had become +through his intercourse with Kelly, he shrank at first from a proposal +so contrary to the teaching and tenor of the religion he professed, +and suggested that the revelation could mean nothing more than that +they ought to live on a footing of cordial friendship. But the +spirits insisted on a literal interpretation of their command. Dee +yielded, comparing himself with much unction to Abraham, who, in +obedience to the Divine will, consented to the sacrifice of Isaac. The +parallel, however, did not hold good, for Abraham saved his son, +whereas Dr. Dee lost his wife! + +It was then Kelly's turn to affect a superior morality, and he +earnestly protested that the spirits could not be messengers from +heaven, but were servants of Satan. Whereupon they then declared that +he was no longer worthy to act as their interpreter. But why dwell +longer on this unpleasant farce? By various means of cajolery and +trickery, Kelly contrived to accomplish his design. + +This communistic arrangement, however, did not long work +satisfactorily--at least, so far as the ladies were concerned; and one +can easily understand that Mrs. Dee would object to the inferior +position she occupied as Kelly's paramour. However this may be, Dee +and Kelly parted company in January, 1589; the former, according to +his own account, delivering up to the latter the mysterious elixir and +other substances which they had made use of in the transmutation of +metals. Dee had begun to turn his eyes wistfully towards his native +country, and welcomed with unfeigned delight a gracious message from +Queen Elizabeth, assuring him of a friendly reception. In the spring +he took his departure from Trebona; and it is said that he travelled +with a pomp and circumstance worthy of an ambassador, though it is +difficult to reconcile this statement with his constant complaints of +poverty. Perhaps, after all, his three coaches, with four horses to +each coach, his two or three waggons loaded with baggage and stores, +and his hired escort of six to twenty-four soldiers, whose business it +was to protect him from the enemies he supposed to be lying in wait +for him, existed only, like the philosopher's stone, in the +imagination! He landed at Gravesend on December 2, was kindly received +by the Queen at Richmond a day or two afterwards, and before the year +had run out was once more quietly settled in his house 'near the +riverside' at Mortlake. + +Kelly, whom the Emperor Maximilian II. had knighted and created +Marshal of Bohemia, so strong a conviction of his hermetic abilities +had he impressed on the Imperial mind, remained in Germany. But the +ingenious, plausible rogue was kept under such rigid restraint, in +order that he might prepare an adequate quantity of the transmuting +stone or powder, that he wearied of it, and one night endeavoured to +escape. Tearing up the sheets of his bed, he twisted them into a rope, +with which to lower himself from the tower where he was confined. But +he was a man of some bulk; the rope gave way beneath his weight, and +falling to the ground, he received such severe injuries that in a few +days he expired (1593). + +Dee's later life was, as Godwin remarks, 'bound in shallows and +miseries.' He had forfeited the respect of serious-minded men by his +unworthy confederacy with an unscrupulous adventurer. The Queen still +treated him with some degree of consideration, though she had lost all +faith in his magical powers, and occasionally sent him assistance. The +unfortunate man never ceased to weary her with the repetition of his +trials and troubles, and strongly complained that he had been deprived +of the income of his two small benefices during his six years' +residence on the Continent. He related the sad tale of the destruction +of his library and apparatus by an ignorant mob, which had broken into +his house immediately after his departure from England, excited by the +rumours of his strange magical practices. He enumerated the expenses +of his homeward journey, arguing that, as it had been undertaken by +the Queen's command, she ought to reimburse him. At last (in 1592) the +Queen appointed two members of her Privy Council to inquire into the +particulars of his allegations. These particulars he accordingly put +together in a curious narrative, which bore the long-winded title of: + + 'The Compendious Rehearsall of John Dee, his dutiful + Declaracion and Proof of the Course and Race of his Studious + Lyfe, for the Space of Halfe an Hundred Yeares, now (by God's + Favour and Helpe) fully spent, and of the very great + Injuries, Damages, and Indignities, which for those last nyne + Years he hath in England sustained (contrary to Her Majesties + very gracious Will and express Commandment), made unto the + Two Honourable Commissioners, by Her Most Excellent Majesty + thereto assigned, according to the intent of the most humble + Supplication of the said John, exhibited to Her Most Gracious + Majestie at Hampton Court, Anno 1592, November 9.' + +It has been remarked that in this 'Compendious Rehearsal' he alludes +neither to his magic crystal, with its spiritualistic properties, nor +to the wonderful powder or elixir of transmutation. He founds his +claim to the Queen's patronage solely upon his intellectual eminence +and acknowledged scholarship. Nor does he allude to his Continental +experiences, except so far as relates to his homeward journey. But he +is careful to recapitulate all his services, and the encomiastic +notices they had drawn from various quarters, while he details his +losses with the most elaborate minuteness. The quaintest part of his +lamentable and most fervent petition is, however, its conclusion. +Having shown that he has tried and exhausted every means of raising +money for the support of his family, he concludes: + + 'Therefore, seeing the blinded lady, Fortune, doth not + governe in this commonwealth, but _justitia_ and _prudentia_, + and that in better order than in Tullie's "Republica," or + bookes of offices, they are laied forth to be followed and + performed, most reverently and earnestly (yea, in manner with + bloody teares of heart), I and my wife, our seaven children, + and our servants (seaventeene of us in all) do this day make + our petition unto your Honors, that upon all godly, + charitable, and just respects had of all that, which this day + you have seene, heard, and perceived, you will make such + report unto her Most Excellent Majestie (with humble request + for speedy reliefes) that we be not constrained to do or + suffer otherwise than becometh Christians, and true, and + faithfull, and obedient subjects to doe or suffer; and all + for want of due mainteynance.' + +The main object Dee had in view was the mastership of St. Cross's +Hospital, which Elizabeth had formerly promised him. This he never +received; but in December, 1594, he was appointed to the +Chancellorship of St. Paul's Cathedral, which in the following year he +exchanged for the wardenship of the College at Manchester. He still +continued his researches into supernatural mysteries, employing +several persons in succession as 'skryers'; but he found no one so +fertile in invention as Kelly, and the crystal uttered nothing more +oracular than answers to questions about lovers' quarrels, hidden +treasures, and petty thefts--the common stock-in-trade of the +conjurer. In 1602 or 1604, he retired from his Manchester appointment, +and sought the quiet and seclusion of his favourite Mortlake. His +renown as 'a magician' had greatly increased--not a little, it would +seem, to his annoyance; for on June 5, 1604, we find that he presented +a petition to James I. at Greenwich, soliciting his royal protection +against the wrong done to him by enemies who mocked him as 'a +conjurer, or caller, or invocator of devils,' and solemnly asserting +that 'of all the great number of the very strange and frivolous fables +or histories reported and told of him (as to have been of his doing) +none were true.' It is said that the treatment Dee experienced at this +time was the primary cause of the Act passed against personal slander +(1604)--a proof of legislative wisdom which drew from Dee a versified +expression of gratitude--in which, let us hope, the sincerity of the +gratitude is not to be measured by the quality of the verse. It is +addressed to 'the Honorable Members of the Commons in the Present +Parliament,' and here is a specimen of it, which will show that, +though Dee's crystal might summon the spirits, it had no control over +the Muses: + + 'The honour, due unto you all, + And reverence, to you each one + I do first yield most spe-ci-all; + Grant me this time to heare my mone. + + 'Now (if you will) full well you may + Fowle sclaundrous tongues for ever tame; + And helpe the truth to beare some sway + In just defence of a good name.' + +Thenceforward Dee sinks into almost total obscurity. His last years +were probably spent in great tribulation; and the man who had dreamed +of converting, Midas-like, all he touched into gold, seems frequently +to have wanted bread. It was a melancholy ending to a career which +might have been both useful and brilliant, if his various scholarship +and mental energy had not been expended upon a delusion. Unfortunately +for himself, Dee, with all his excellent gifts, wanted that greatest +gift of all, a sound judgment. His excitable fancy and credulous +temper made him the dupe of his own wishes, and eventually the tool of +a knave far inferior to himself in intellectual power, but surpassing +him in strength of will, in force of character, in audacity and +inventiveness. Both knave and dupe made but sorry work of their lives. +Kelly, as we have seen, broke his neck in attempting to escape from a +German prison, and Dee expired in want and dishonour, without a friend +to receive his last sigh. + +He died at Mortlake in 1608, and was buried in the chancel of +Mortlake Church, where, long afterwards, Aubrey, the gossiping +antiquary, was shown an old marble slab as belonging to his tomb. + +His son Arthur, after acting as physician to the Czar of Russia and to +our own Charles I., established himself in practice at Norwich, where +he died. Anthony Wood solemnly records that this Arthur, in his +boyhood, had frequently played with quoits of gold, which his father +had cast at Prague by means of his 'stone philosophical.' How often +Dee must have longed for some of those 'quoits' in his last sad days +at Mortlake, when he sold his books, one by one, to keep himself from +starvation! + +After Dee's death, his fame as a magician underwent an extraordinary +revival; and in 1659, when the country was looking forward to the +immediate restoration of its Stuart line of kings, the learned Dr. +Meric Casaubon thought proper to publish, in a formidable folio +volume, the doctor's elaborate report of his--or rather +Kelly's--supposed conferences with the spirits--a notable book, as +being the initial product of spiritualism in English literature. In +his preface Casaubon remarks that, though Dee's 'carriage in certain +respects seemed to lay in works of darkness, yet all was tendered by +him to kings and princes, and by all (England alone excepted) was +listened to for a good while with good respect, and by some for a long +time embraced and entertained.' And he adds that 'the fame of it made +the Pope bestir himself, and filled all, both learned and unlearned, +with great wonder and astonishment.... As a whole, it is undoubtedly +not to be paralleled in its kind in any age or country.' + +FOOTNOTES: + +[24] 'Adeo viro pr credulo errore jam factus sui impos et mente +captus, et Dmones, quo arctius horrendis hisce Sacris adhrescent +illius ambitioni van summ potestatis in Patria adipiscend spe et +expectatione lene euntis illum non solius Poloni sed alterius quoque +regni, id est primo Poloni, deinde alterius, viz. Moldavi Regem +fore, et sub quo magn universi mundi mutationes incepturas esse, +Judos convertendos, et ab illo Sarmos et Ethnicos vexillo crucis +superandos, facili ludificarentur.'--Dr. Thomas Smith, 'Vit +Eruditissimorum ac Illustrium Virorum,' London, 1707. 'Vita Joannis +Dee,' p. 25. + +[25] He was suspected of coining false money, but Dr. Dee declares he +was innocent. (June, 1583.) + + +NOTE. + +In the curious 'Apologia' published by Dee, in 1595, in the form of a +letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, 'containing a most briefe +Discourse Apologeticall, with a plaine Demonstration and formal +Protestation, for the lawfull, sincere, very faithfull and Christian +course of the Philosophicall studies and exercises of a certaine +studious Gentleman, an ancient Servant to her most excellent Maiesty +Royall,' he furnishes a list of 'sundry Bookes and Treatises' of which +he was the author. The best known of his printed works is the 'Monas +Hieroglyphica, Mathematic, Anagogic que explicata' (1564), dedicated +to the Emperor Maximilian. Then there are 'Prop deumata Aphoristica;' +'The British Monarchy,' otherwise called the 'Petty Navy Royall: for +the politique security, abundant wealth, and the triumphant state of +this kingdom (with God's favour) procuring' (1576); and 'Paralatic +Commentationis, Praxcosque Nucleus quidam' (1573). His unpublished +manuscripts range over a wide field of astronomical, philosophical, +and logical inquiry. The most important seem to be 'The first great +volume of famous and rich Discoveries,' containing a good deal of +speculation about Solomon and his Ophirian voyage; 'Prester John, and +the first great Cham;' 'The Brytish Complement of the perfect Art of +Navigation;' 'The Art of Logicke, in English;' and 'De Hominis +Corpore, Spiritu, et Anima: sive Microcosmicum totius Philosophi +Naturalis Compendium.' + +The character drawn of Dr. Dee by his learned biographer, Dr. Thomas +Smith, by no means confirms the traditional notion of him as a crafty +and credulous practiser in the Black Art. It is, on the contrary, the +portrait of a just and upright man, grave in his demeanour, modest in +his manners, abstemious in his habits; a man of studious disposition +and benevolent temper; a man held in such high esteem by his +neighbours that he was called upon to arbitrate when any differences +arose between them; a fervent Christian, attentive to all the offices +of the Church, and zealous in the defence of her faith. + +Here is the original: 'Si mores exterioremque vit cultum +contemplemur, non quicquam ipsi in probrum et ignominium verti +possit; ut pote sobrius, probus, affectibus sedatis, compositisque +moribus, ab omni luxu et gul liber, justi et qui studiosissimus, +erga pauperes beneficus, vicinis facilis et benignus, quorum lites, +atrisque partibus contendentium ad illum tanquam ad sapientum arbitrum +appellantibus, moderari et desidere solebat: in publicis sacris +coetibus et in orationibus frequens, articulorum Christian fidei, +in quibus omnes Orthodoxi conveniunt, strenuus assertor, zelo in +hreses, primitiva Ecclesia damnatas, flagrans, inqui Pecc[=o]rum, +qui virginitatem B. Mari ante partum Christi in dubium vocavit, +accerim invectus: licet de controversiis inter Romanenses et +Reformatos circa reliqua doctrin capita non adeo semperos solicitus, +quin sibi in Polonia et Bohemia, ubi religio ista dominatur, Miss +interesse et communicare licere putaverit, in Anglia, uti antea, post +redditum, omnibus Ecclesi Anglican ritibus conformis.' It must be +admitted that Dr. Smith's Latin is not exactly 'conformed' to the +Ciceronian model. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +DR. DEE'S DIARY. + + +I am not prepared to say, with its modern editor, that Dr. Dee's +Diary[26] sets the scholar magician's character in its true light more +clearly than anything that has yet been printed; but I concede that it +reveals in a very striking and interesting manner the peculiar +features of his character--his superstitious credulity, and his +combination of shrewdness and simplicity--as well as his interesting +habits. I shall therefore extract a few passages to assist the reader +in forming his opinion of a man who was certainly in many respects +remarkable. + +(i.) I begin with the entries for 1577: + + '1577, January 16th.--The Erle of Leicester, Mr. Philip + Sidney, Mr. Dyer,[27] etc., came to my house (at Mortlake). + + '1577, January 22nd.--The Erle of Bedford came to my house. + + '1577, March 11th.--My fall uppon my right nuckel bone, _hora + 9 fere mane_, wyth oyle of Hypericon (_Hypericum_, or St. + John's Wort) in twenty-four howers eased above all hope: God + be thanked for such His goodness of (to?) His creatures. + + '1577, March 24th.--Alexander Simon, the Ninevite, came to + me, and promised me his service into Persia. + + '1577, May 1st.--I received from Mr. William Harbut of St. + Gillian his notes uppon my "Monas."[28] + + '1577, May 2nd.--I understode of one Vincent Murfryn his + abbominable misusing me behinde my back; Mr. Thomas Besbich + told me his father is one of the cokes of the Court. + + '1577, May 20th.--I hyred the barber of Cheswik, Walter + Hooper, to kepe my hedges and knots in as good order as he + saw them then, and that to be done with twice cutting in the + yere at the least, and he to have yerely five shillings, meat + and drink. + + '1577, June 26th.--Elen Lyne gave me a quarter's warning. + + '1577, August 19.--The "Hexameron Brytanicum" put to + printing. (Published in 1577 with the title of "General and + Rare Memorials pertayning to the perfect Art of Navigation.") + + '1577, November 3rd.--William Rogers of Mortlak about 7 of + the clok in the morning, cut his own throte, _by the fiende + his instigator_. + + '1577, November 6th.--Sir Umfrey Gilbert[29] cam to me to + Mortlak. + + '1577, November 22nd.--I rod to Windsor to the Q. Majestie. + + '1577, November 25th.--I spake with the Quene _hora quinta_; + I spoke with Mr. Secretary Walsingham.[30] I declared to the + Quene her title to Greenland, Estotiland, and Friesland. + + '1577, December 1st.--I spoke with Sir Christopher Hatton; he + was made Knight that day. + + '1577, December --th.--I went from the Courte at Wyndsore. + + '1577, December 30th.--Inexplissima illa calumnia de R. + Edwardo, iniquissima aliqua ex parte in me denunciebatur: + ante aliquos elapsos diro, sed ... sua sapientia me + innocentem.' + +I cannot ascertain of what calumny against Edward VI. Dee had been +accused; but it is to be hoped that his wish was fulfilled, and that +he was acquitted of it before many days had elapsed. + +I have omitted some items relating to moneys borrowed. It is +sufficiently plain, however, that Dee never intended his Diary for the +curious eyes of the public, and that it mainly consists of such +memoranda as a man jots down for his private and personal use. +Assuredly, many of these would never have been recorded if Dee had +known or conjectured that an inquisitive antiquarian, some three +centuries later, would exhume the confidential pages, print them in +imperishable type, and expose them to the world's cold gaze. It seems +rather hard upon Dr. Dee that his private affairs should thus have +become everybody's property! Perhaps, after all, the best thing a man +can do who keeps a diary is to commit it to the flames before he +shuffles off his mortal coil, lest some laborious editor should +eventually lay hands upon it, and publish it to the housetops with all +its sins upon it! But as in Dr. Dee's case the offence has been +committed, I will not debar my readers from profiting by it. + +(ii.) 1578-1581. + + '1578, June 30th.--I told Mr. Daniel Rogers, Mr. Hackluyt of + the Middle Temple being by, that Kyng Arthur and King Maty, + both of them, did conquer Gelindia, lately called Friseland, + which he so noted presently in his written copy of Mon ... + thensis (?), for he had no printed boke thereof.' + +What a pity Dr. Dee has not recorded his authority for King Arthur's +Northern conquests! The Mr. Hackluyt here mentioned is the industrious +compiler of the well-known collection of early voyages. + +Occasionally Dee relates his dreams, as on September 10, 1579: 'My +dream of being naked, and my skyn all overwrought with work, like some +kinde of tuft mockado, with crosses blue and red; and on my left +arme, about the arme, in a wreath, this word I red--_sine me nihil +potestis facere_.' + +Sometimes he resorts to Greek characters while using English words: + + '1579, December 9th.--+This nigt mi uuiph dremid that one kam + to 'er and touched 'er, saing, "Mistres Dee, gou ar konkeined + oph child, uos name must be Zacharias; be oph god chere, he + sal do uuel as this doth!"+ + + '1579, December 28th.--I reveled to Roger Coke the gret + secret of the elixir of the salt +oph aketels, one uppon a + undred+.' + +Other entries refer to this Mr. Roger Coke, or Cooke, who seems to +have been Dee's pupil or apprentice, and at one time to have enjoyed +his confidence. They quarrelled seriously in 1581. + + '1581, September 5th.--Roger Cook, who had byn with me from + his 14 years of age till 28, of a melancholik nature, pycking + and devising occasions of just cause to depart on the + suddayn, about 4 of the clok in the afternone requested of me + lycense to depart, wheruppon rose whott words between us; and + he, imagining with himself that he had, the 12 of July, + deserved my great displeasure, and finding himself barred + from view of my philosophicall dealing with Mr. Henrik, + thought that he was utterly recast from intended goodness + toward him. Notwithstanding Roger Cook his unseamely dealing, + I promised him, if he used himself toward me now in his + absens, one hundred pounds as sone as of my own clene + hability I myght spare so much; and moreover, if he used + himself well in life toward God and the world, I promised him + some pretty alchimicall experiments, whereuppon he might + honestly live. + + '1581, September 7th.--Roger Cook went for altogether from + me.' + +In February, 1601, however, this quarrel was made up. + +(iii.) Of the learned doctor's colossal credulity the Diary supplies +some curious proofs: + + '1581, March 8th.--It was the 8 day, being Wensday, hora + noctis 10-11, the strange noyse in my chamber of knocking; + and the voyce, ten times repeted, somewhat like the shriek + of an owle, but more longly drawn, and more softly, as it + were in my chamber. + + '1581, August 3rd.--All the night very strange knocking and + rapping in my chamber. August 4th, and this night likewise. + + '1581, October 9th.--Barnabas Saul, lying in the ... hall, + was strangely trubled by a spirituall creature about + mydnight. + + '1582, May 20th.--Robertus Gardinerus Salopiensis lactum mihi + attulit minimum de materia lapidis, divinitus sibi revelatus + de qua. + + '1582, May 23rd.--Robert Gardiner declared unto me hora 4 a + certeyn great philosophicall secret, as he had termed it, of + a spirituall creature, and was this day willed to come to me + and declare it, which was solemnly done, and with common + prayer. + + '1590, August 22nd.--Ann, my nurse, had long been tempted by + a wycked spirit: but this day it was evident how she was + possessed of him. God is, hath byn, and shall be her + protector and deliverer! Amen. + + '1590, August 25th.--Anne Frank was sorowful, well comforted, + and stayed in God's mercyes acknowledging. + + '1590, August 26th.--At night I anoynted (in the name of + Jesus) her brest with the holy oyle. + + '1590, August 30th.--In the morning she required to be + anoynted, and I did very devoutly prepare myself, and pray + for virtue and powr, and Christ his blessing of the oyle to + the expulsion of the wycked, and then twyce anoynted, the + wycked one did rest a while.' + +The holy oil, however, proved of no effect. The poor creature was +insane. On September 8 she made an attempt to drown herself, but was +prevented. On the 29th she eluded the dexterity of her keeper, and cut +her throat. + +(iv.) Occasionally we meet with references to historic events and +names, but, unfortunately, they are few: + + '1581, February 23rd.--I made acquayntance with Joannes + Bodonius, in the Chamber of Presence at Westminster, the + ambassador being by from Monsieur.' + +Bodonius, or Bodin, was the well-known writer upon witchcraft. + + '1581, March 23rd.--At Mortlak came to me Hugh Smyth, who had + returned from Magellan strayghts and Vaygatz. + + '1581, July 12th.--The Erle of Leicester fell fowly out with + the Erle of Sussex, Lord Chamberlayn, calling each other + trayter, whereuppon both were commanded to kepe theyr chamber + at Greenwich, wher the court was.' + +This was the historic quarrel, of which Sir Walter Scott has made such +effective use in his 'Kenilworth.' + + '1583, January 13th.--On Sonday, the stage at Paris Garden + fell down all at once, being full of people beholding the + bear-bayting. Many being killed thereby, more hurt, and all + amased. The godly expownd it as a due plage of God for the + wickedness ther used, and the Sabath day so profanely spent.' + +This popular Sabbatarian argument, which occasionally crops up even in +our own days, had been humorously anticipated, half a century before, +by Sir Thomas More, in his 'Dyalogue' (1529): 'At Beverley late, much +of the people being at a bear-baiting, the church fell suddenly down +at evening-time, and overwhelmed some that were in it. A good fellow +that after heard the tale told--"So," quoth he, "now you may see what +it is to be at evening prayers when you should be at the +bear-baiting!"' + +The Paris Garden Theatre at Bankside had been erected expressly for +exhibitions of bear-baiting. The charge for admission was a penny at +the gate, a penny at the entry of the scaffold or platform, and a +penny for 'quiet standing.' During the Commonwealth this cruel sport +was prohibited; but it was revived at the Restoration, and not +finally suppressed until 1835. + + '1583, January 23rd.--The Ryght Honorable Mr. Secretary + Walsingham came to my howse, where by good luk he found Mr. + Adrian Gilbert (of the famous Devonshire family of seamen), + and so talk was begonne of North West Straights discovery. + + '1583, February 11th.--The Quene lying at Richmond went to + Mr. Secretary Walsingham to dinner; she coming by my dore, + graciously called me to her, and so I went by her horse side, + as far as where Mr. Hudson dwelt. +Er maiesti axed me + obyskyreli oph mounsieuris state: dixe bisthanatos erit.+ + + '1583, March 6th.--I, and Mr. Adrian Gilbert and John Davis + (the Arctic discoverer), did mete with Mr. Alderman Barnes, + Mr. Tounson, Mr. Young and Mr. Hudson, about the N. W. + voyage. + + '1583, April 18th.--The Quene went from Richmond toward + Greenwich, and at her going on horsbak, being new up, she + called for me by Mr. Rawly (Sir Walter Raleigh) his putting + her in mynde, and she sayd, "quod defertur non aufertur," and + gave me her right hand to kiss. + + '1590, May 18th.--The two gentlemen, the unckle Mr. Richard + Candish (Cavendish), and his nephew, the most famous Mr. + Thomas Candish, who had sayled round about the world, did + visit me at Mortlake. + + '1590, December 4th.--The Quene's Majestie called for me at + my dore, circa 3 a meridie as she passed by, and I met her + at Est Shene gate, where she graciously, putting down her + mask, did say with mery chere, "I thank thee, Dee; there wus + never promisse made, but it was broken or kept." I understode + her Majesty to mean of the hundred angels she promised to + have sent me this day, as she yesternight told Mr. Richard + Candish. + + '1595, October 9th.--I dyned with Sir Walter Rawlegh at + Durham House.' + +(v.) Some of the entries which refer to Dee's connection with Lasco +and Kelly are interesting: + + '1583, March 18th.--Mr. North from Poland, after he had byn + with the Quene he came to me. I received salutation from + Alaski, Palatine in Poland. + + '1583, May 13th.--I became acquaynted with Albertus Laski at + 7 at night, in the Erle of Leicester his chamber, in the + court at Greenwich. + + '1583, May 18th.--The Prince Albertus Laski came to me at + Mortlake, with onely two men. He came at afternone, and + tarryed supper, and after sone set. + + '1583, June 15th.--About 5 of the clok cum the Polonian + prince, Lord Albert Lasky, down from Bisham, where he had + lodged the night before, being returned from Oxford, whither + he had gon of purpose to see the universityes, wher he was + very honorably used and enterteyned. He had in his company + Lord Russell, Sir Philip Sydney, and other gentlemen: he was + rowed by the Quene's men, he had the barge covered with the + Quene's cloth, the Quene's trumpeters, etc. He came of + purpose to do me honour, for which God be praysed! + + '1583, September 21st.--We went from Mortlake, and so the + Lord Albert Lasky, I, Mr. E. Kelly, our wives, my children + and familie, we went toward our two ships attending for us, + seven or eight myle below Gravesende. + + '1586, September 14th.--Trebonam venimus. + + '1586, October 18th.--E. K. recessit a Trebona versus Pragam + curru delatus; mansit hic per tres hebdomadas. + + '1586, December 19th.--Ad gratificandam Domino Edouardo + Garlando, et Francisco suo fratri, qui Edouardus nuncius mihi + missus erat ab Imperatore Moschori ut ad illum venirem, + E. K. fecit proleolem (?) lapidis in proportione unius ... + gravi aren super quod vulgaris oz. et et producta est + optim auri oz. fere: quod aurum post distribuimus a + crucibolo una dedimus Edouardo. + + '1587, January 18th.--Rediit E. K. a Praga. E. K. brought + with him from the Lord Rosenberg to my wyfe a chayne and + juell estemed at 300 duckettes; 200 the juell stones, and 100 + the gold. + + '1587, September 28th.--I delivered to Mr. Ed. Kelley + (earnestly requiring it as his part) the half of all the + animall which was made. It is to weigh 20 oz.; he wayed it + himself in my chamber: he bowght his waights purposely for + it. My lord had spoken to me before for some, but Mr. Kelly + had not spoken. + + '1587, October 28th and 29th.--John Carp did begyn to make + furnaces over the gate, and he used of my rownd bricks, and + for the yron pot was contented now to use the lesser bricks, + 60 to make a furnace. + + '1587, November 8th.--E. K terribilis expostulatio, + accusatio, etc., hora tertia a meridie. + + '1587, December 12th.--Afternone somewhat, Mr. Ed. Kelly + [did] his lamp overthrow, the spirit of wyne long spent to + nere, and the glas being not stayed with buks about it, as it + was wont to be; and the same glass so flitting on one side, + the spirit was spilled out, and burnt all that was on the + table where it stode, lynnen and written bokes,--as the bok + of Zacharias, with the "Alkanor" that I translated out of + French, for some by [boy?] spirituall could not; "Rowlaschy," + his third boke of waters philosophicall; the boke called + "Angelicum Opus;" all in pictures of the work from the + beginning to the end; the copy of the man of Badwise + "Conclusions for the Transmution of Metalls;" and 40 leaves + in 4to., entitled "Extractiones Dunstat," which he himself + extracted and noted out of Dunstan his boke, and the very + boke of Dunstan was but cast on the bed hard by from the + table.' + +This so-called 'Book of St. Dunstan' was one which Kelly professed to +have bought from a Welsh innkeeper, who, it was alleged, had found it +among the ruins of Glastonbury. + + '1588, February 8th.--Mr. E. K., at nine of the clok, + afternone, sent for me to his laboratory over the gate to see + how he distilled sericon, according as in tyme past and of + late he heard of me out of Ripley. God lend his heart to all + charity and virtue! + + '1588, August 24th.--Vidi divinam aquam demonstratione + magnifici domini et amici mei incomparabilis D[omini] Ed. + Kelii ante meridiem tertia hora. + + '1588, December 7th.--+great phrendkip promisid phor mani, + and tuuo ounkes phor the thing.+'[31] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[26] 'The Private Diary of Dr. John Dee,' edited by J. O. Halliwell +(Phillipps) for the Camden Society, 1842. + +[27] This was Sir Edward Dyer, the friend of Spenser and Sidney, +remembered by his poem 'My Mind to me a Kingdom is.' + +[28] The 'Monas Hieroglyphica.' + +[29] The celebrated navigator, whose heroic death is one of our +worthiest traditions. + +[30] A warm and steady friend to Dr. Dee. + +[31] This Diary, written in a very small and illegible hand on the +margins of old almanacs, was discovered by Mr. W. H. Black in the +Ashmolean Library at Oxford. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +MAGIC AND IMPOSTURE--A COUPLE OF KNAVES. + + +The secrecy, the mystery, and the supernatural pretensions associated +with the so-called occult sciences necessarily recommended them to the +knave and the cheat as instruments of imposition. If some of the +earlier professors of Hermeticism, the first seekers after the +philosophical stone, were sincere in their convictions, and actuated +by pure and lofty motives, it is certain that their successors were +mostly dishonest adventurers, bent upon turning to their personal +advantage the credulous weakness of their fellow-creatures. With some +of these the chief object was money; others may have craved +distinction and influence; others may have sought the gratification of +passions more degrading even than avarice or ambition. At all events, +alchemy became a synonym for fraud: a magician was accepted as, by +right of his vocation, an impostor; and the poet and the dramatist +pursued him with the whips of satire, invective, and ridicule, while +the law prepared for him the penalties usually inflicted upon +criminals. These penalties, it is true, he very frequently contrived +to elude; in many instances, by the exercise of craft and cunning; in +others, by the protection of powerful personages, to whom he had +rendered questionable services; and again in others, because the agent +of the law did not care to hunt him down so long as he forbore to +bring upon himself the glare of publicity. Thus it came to pass that +generation after generation saw the alchemist still practising his +unwholesome trade, and probably he retained a good deal of his old +notoriety down to as late a date as the beginning of the eighteenth +century. It must be admitted, however, that his alchemical pursuits +gradually sank into obscurity, and that it was more in the character +of an astrologer, and as a manufacturer of love-potions and philtres, +of charms and waxen images--not to say as a pimp and a bawd--that he +looked for clients. In the _Spectator_, for instance, that admirable +mirror of English social life in the early part of the eighteenth +century, you will find no reference to alchemy or the alchemist; but +in the _Guardian_ Addison's light humour plays readily enough round +the delusions or deceptions of the astrologer. The reader will +remember the letter which Addison pretends to have received with great +satisfaction from an astrologer in Moorfields. And in contemporary +literature generally, it will be found that the august inquirer into +the secrets of nature, who aimed at the transmutation of metals, and +the possession of immortal youth, had by this time been succeeded by +an obscure and vulgar cheat, who beguiled the ignorant and weak by his +jargon about planetary bodies, and his cheap stock-in-trade of a wig +and a gown, a wand, a horoscope or two, and a few coloured vials. This +'modern magician' is, indeed, a common character in eighteenth-century +fiction. + +But a century earlier the magician retained some little of the 'pomp +and circumstance' of the old magic, and was still the confidant of +princes and nobles, and not seldom the depository of State secrets +involving the reputation and the honour of men and women of the +highest position. So much as this may be truly asserted of Simon +Forman, who flourished in the dark and criminal period of the reign of +James I., when the foul practices of medival Italy were transferred +for the first and last time to an English Court. Forman was born at +Quidham, a village near Wilton, in Wilts, in 1552. Little is known of +his early years; but he seems to have received a good education at the +Sarum Grammar School, and afterwards to have been apprenticed to a +druggist in that ancient city. Endowed with considerable natural gifts +and an ambitious temper, he made his way to Oxford, and was entered at +Magdalene College, but owing to lack of means was unable to remain as +a student for more than two years. To improve his knowledge of +astrology, astronomy, and medicine, he visited Portugal, the Low +Countries, and the East. + +On his return he began to practise as a physician in Philpot Lane, +London; but, as he held no diploma, was four times imprisoned and +fined as a quack. Eventually he found himself compelled to take the +degree of M.D. at Cambridge (June 27, 1603); after which he settled in +Lambeth, and carried on the twofold profession of physician and +astrologer. In his comedy of 'The Silent Woman,' Ben Jonson makes one +of his characters say: 'I would say thou hadst the best philtre in the +world, and could do more than Madam Medea or Doctor Forman,' whence we +may infer that the medicines he compounded were not of the orthodox +kind or approved by the faculty. Lovers resorted to him for potions +which should soften obdurate hearts; beauties for powders and washes +which might preserve their waning charms; married women for drugs to +relieve them of the reproach of sterility; rakes who desired to +corrupt virtue, and impatient heirs who longed for immediate +possession of their fortunes, for compounds which should enfeeble, or +even kill. Such was the character of Doctor Forman's sinister +'practice.' Among those who sought his unscrupulous assistance was the +infamous Countess of Essex, though Forman died before her nefarious +schemes reached the stage of fruition. + +His death, which took place on the 12th of September, 1611, was +attended (it is said) by remarkable circumstances. The Sunday night +previous, 'his wife and he being at supper in their garden-house, she +being pleasant, told him she had been informed he could resolve +whether man or wife should die first. "Whether shall I," quoth she, +"bury you or no?" "Oh, Truais," for so he called her, "thou shalt bury +me, but thou wilt much repent it." "Yea, but how long first?" "I +shall die," said he, "on Thursday night." Monday came; all was well. +Tuesday came, he not sick. Wednesday came, and still he was well, with +which his impertinent wife did much twit him in his teeth. Thursday +came, and dinner was ended, he very well; he went down to the +water-side, and took a pair of oars to go to some buildings he was in +hand with in Puddle Dock. Being in the middle of the Thames, he +presently fell down, only saying, "An impost, an impost," and so died. +A most sad storm of wind immediately following.' + +It seems as if these men could never die without bringing down upon +the earth a grievous storm or tempest! The preceding story, however, +partakes too much of the marvellous to be very easily accepted. + +According to Anthony Wood, this renowned magician was 'a person that +in horary questions, especially theft, was very judicious and +fortunate' (in other words, he was well served by his spies and +instruments); 'so, also, in sickness, which was indeed his +masterpiece; and had good success in resolving questions about +marriage, and in other questions very intricate. He professed to his +wife that there would be much trouble about Sir Robert Carr, Earl of +Somerset, and the Lady Frances, his wife, who frequently resorted to +him, and from whose company he would sometimes lock himself in his +study one whole day. He had compounded things upon the desire of Mrs. +Anne Turner, to make the said Sir Robert Carr calid _quo ad hanc_, and +Robert, Earl of Essex frigid _quo ad hanc_; that his, to his wife the +Lady Frances, who had a mind to get rid of him and be wedded to the +said Sir Robert. He had also certain pictures in wax, representing Sir +Robert and the said Lady, to cause a love between each other, with +other such like things.' + + +A CAUSE CLBRE. + +Lady Frances Howard, second daughter of the Earl of Suffolk, was +married, at the age of thirteen, to Robert, Earl of Essex, who was +only a year older. The alliance was dictated by political +considerations, and had been recommended by the King, who did not fail +to attend the gorgeous festivities that celebrated the occasion +(January 5th, 1606). As it was desirable that the boy-bridegroom +should be separated for awhile from his child-wife, the young Earl was +sent to travel on the Continent, and he did not return to claim his +rights as a husband until shortly after Christmas, 1609, when he had +just passed his eighteenth birthday. In the interval his wife had +developed into one of the most beautiful, and, unfortunately, one of +the most dissolute, women in England. Naturally impetuous, +self-willed, and unscrupulous, she had received neither firm guidance +nor wise advice at the hands of a coarse and avaricious mother. Nor +was James's Court a place for the cultivation of the virtues of +modesty and self-restraint. The young Countess, therefore, placed no +control upon her passions, and had already become notorious for her +disregard of those obligations which her sex usually esteem as sacred. +At one time she intrigued with Prince Henry, but he dismissed her in +angry disgust at her numerous infidelities. Finally, she crossed the +path of the King's handsome favourite, Sir Robert Carr, and a guilty +passion sprang up between them. It is painful to record that it was +encouraged by her great-uncle, Lord Northampton, who hoped through +Carr's influence to better his position at Court; and it was probably +at his mansion in the Strand that the plot was framed of which I am +about to tell the issue. But the meetings between the two lovers +sometimes took place at the house of one of Carr's agents, a man named +Coppinger. + +At first, when Essex returned, the Countess refused to live with him; +but her parents ultimately compelled her to treat him as her husband, +and even to accompany him to his country seat at Chartley. There she +remained for three years, wretched with an inconceivable wretchedness, +and animated with wild dreams of escape from the husband she hated to +the paramour she loved. + +For this purpose she sought the assistance of Mrs. Anne Turner, the +widow of a respectable physician, and a woman of considerable personal +charms, who had become the mistress of Sir Arthur Mainwaring.[32] Mrs. +Turner introduced her to Dr. Simon Forman, and an agreement was made +that Forman should exercise his magical powers to fix young Carr's +affections irrevocably upon the Countess. The intercourse between the +astrologer and the ladies became very frequent, and the former +exercised all his skill to carry out their desires. At a later period, +Mrs. Forman deposed in court 'that Mrs. Turner and her husband would +sometimes be locked up in his study for three or four hours together,' +and the Countess learned to speak of him as her 'sweet father.' + +The Countess next conceived the most flagitious designs against her +husband's health; and, to carry them out, again sought the assistance +of her unscrupulous quack, who accordingly set to work, made waxen +images, invented new charms, supplied drugs to be administered in the +Earl's drinks, and washes in which his linen was to be steeped. These +measures, however, did not prove effectual, and letters addressed by +the Countess at this time to Mrs. Turner and Dr. Forman complain that +'my lord is very well as ever he was,' while reiterating the sad story +of her hatred towards him, and her design to be rid of him at all +hazards. In the midst of the intrigue came the sudden death of Dr. +Forman, who seems to have felt no little anxiety as to his share in +it, and, on one occasion, as we have seen, professed to his wife 'that +there would be much trouble about Carr and the Countess of Essex, who +frequently resorted unto him, and from whose company he would +sometimes lock himself in his study a whole day.' Mrs. Forman, when, +at a later date, examined in court, deposed 'that Mrs. Turner came to +her house immediately after her husband's death, and did demand +certain pictures which were in her husband's study, namely, one +picture in wax, very mysteriously apparelled in silk and satin; as +also another made in the form of a naked woman, spreading and laying +forth her hair in a glass, which Mrs. Turner did confidently affirm to +be in a box, and she knew in what part of the room in the study they +were.' We also learn that Forman, in reply to the Countess's +reproaches, averred that the devil, as he was informed, had no power +over the person of the Earl of Essex. The Countess, however, was not +to be diverted from her object, and, after Forman's death, employed +two or three other conjurers--one Gresham, and a Doctor Lavoire, or +Savory, being specially mentioned. + +What followed has left a dark and shameful stain on the record of the +reign of James I. The King personally interfered on behalf of his +favourite, and resolved that Essex should be compelled to surrender +his wife. For this purpose the Countess was instructed to bring +against him a charge of conjugal incapacity; and a Commission of right +reverend prelates and learned lawyers, under the presidency--one +blushes to write it--of Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, was appointed +to investigate the loathsome details. A jury of matrons was empanelled +to determine the virginity of Lady Essex, and, as a pure young girl +was substituted in her place, their verdict was, of course, in the +affirmative! As for the Commission, it decided, after long debates, by +a majority of seven to five, that the Lady Frances was entitled to a +divorce--the majority being obtained, however, only by the King's +active exercise of his personal influence (September, 1613). The lady +having thus been set free from her vows by a most shameless intrigue, +James hurried on a marriage between her and his favourite, and on St. +Stephen's Day it was celebrated with great splendour. In the interval +Carr had been raised to the rank and title of Earl of Somerset, and +his wife had previously been made Viscountess Rochester. + +A strenuous opponent of these unhallowed nuptials had been found in +the person of Sir Thomas Overbury, a young man of brilliant parts, who +stood towards Somerset in much the same relation that Somerset stood +towards the King. At the outset he had looked with no disfavour on his +patron's intrigue with Lady Frances, but had actually composed the +love-letters which went to her in the Earl's name; but, for reasons +not clearly understood, he assumed a hostile attitude when the +marriage was proposed. As he had acquired a knowledge of secrets which +would have made him a dangerous witness before the Divorce Commission, +the intriguers felt the necessity of getting him out of the way. +Accordingly, the King pressed upon him a diplomatic appointment on the +Continent, and when this was refused committed him to the Tower. There +he lingered for some months in failing health until a dose of poison +terminated his sufferings on September 13, 1613, rather more than +three months before the completion of the marriage he had striven +ineffectually to prevent. This poison was unquestionably administered +at the instigation of Lady Essex, though under what circumstances it +is not easy to determine. The most probable supposition seems to be +that an assistant of Lobell, a French apothecary who attended +Overbury, was bribed to administer the fatal drug. + +For two years the murder thus foully committed remained unknown, but +in the summer of 1615, when James's affection for Somerset was rapidly +declining, and a new and more splendid favourite had risen in the +person of George Villiers, some information of the crime was conveyed +to the King by his secretary, Winwood. How Winwood obtained this +information is still a mystery; but we may, perhaps, conjecture that +he received it from the apothecary's boy, who, being taken ill at +Flushing, may have sought to relieve his conscience by confession. A +few weeks afterwards, Helwys, the Lieutenant of the Tower, under an +impression that the whole matter had been discovered, acknowledged +that frequent attempts had been made to poison Overbury in his food, +but that he had succeeded in defeating them until the apothecary's boy +eluded his vigilance. Who sent the poison he did not know. The only +person whose name he had heard in connection with it was Mrs. Turner, +and the agent employed to convey it was, he said, a certain Richard +Weston, a former servant of Mrs. Turner, who had been admitted into +the Tower as a keeper, and entrusted with the immediate charge of +Overbury. + +On being examined, Weston at first denied all knowledge of the affair; +but eventually he confessed that, having been rebuked by Helwys, he +had thrown away the medicaments with which he had been entrusted; and +next he accused Lady Somerset of instigating him to administer to +Overbury a poison, which would be forwarded to him for that purpose. +Then one Rawlins, a servant of the Earl, gave information that he had +been similarly employed. As soon as Somerset heard that he was +implicated, he wrote to the King protesting his innocence, and +declaring that a conspiracy had been hatched against him. But many +suspicious particulars being discovered, he was committed to the +custody of Sir Oliver St. John; while Weston, on October 23, was put +on his trial for the murder of Overbury, and found guilty, though no +evidence was adduced against him which would have satisfied a modern +jury. + +On November 7 Mrs. Turner was brought before the Court. Her trial +excited the most profound curiosity, and Westminster Hall was crowded +by an eager multitude, who shuddered with superstitious emotion when +the instruments employed by Forman in his magical rites were exposed +to view.[33] It would seem that Mrs. Turner, when arrested, +immediately sent her maid to Forman's widow, to urge her to +burn--before the Privy Council sent to search her house--any of her +husband's papers that might contain dangerous secrets. She acted on +the advice, but overlooked a few documents of great importance, +including a couple of letters written by Lady Essex to Mrs. Turner and +Forman. The various articles seized in Forman's house referred, +however, not to the murder of Overbury, but to the conjurations +employed against the Earls of Somerset and Essex. 'There was shewed in +Court,' says a contemporary report, 'certaine pictures of a man and a +woman made in lead, and also a moulde of brasse wherein they were +cast, a blacke scarfe alsoe full of white crosses, which Mrs. Turner +had in her custody,' besides 'inchanted paps and other pictures.' +There was also a parcel of Forman's written charms and incantations. +'In some of those parchments the devill had particular names, who were +conjured to torment the lord Somersett and Sir Arthur Mannering, if +theire loves should not contynue, the one to the Countesse, the other +to Mrs. Turner.' Visions of a dingy room haunted by demons, who had +been summoned from the infernal depths by Forman's potent spells, +stimulated the imagination of the excited crowd until they came to +believe that the fiends were actually there in the Court, listening in +wrath to the exposure of their agents; and, behold! in the very heat +and flush of this extravagant credulity, a sudden crack was heard in +one of the platforms or scaffolds, causing '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.' The +narrator adds that there was also a note showed in Court, made by Dr. +Forman, and written on parchment, signifying what ladies loved what +lords; but the Lord Chief Justice would not suffer it to be read +openly. This 'note,' or book, was a diary of the doctor's dealings +with the persons named; and a scandalous tradition affirms that the +Lord Chief Justice would not have it read because his wife's name was +the first which caught his eye when he glanced at the contents. + +Mrs. Turner's conviction followed as a matter of course upon Weston's. +There was no difficulty in proving that she had been concerned in his +proceedings, and that if he had committed a crime she was _particeps +criminis_. Both she and Weston died with an acknowledgment on their +lips that they were justly punished. Her end, according to all +accounts, was sufficiently edifying. Bishop Goodman quotes the +narrative of an eye-witness, one Mr. John Castle, in which we read +that, 'if detestation of painted pride, lust, malice, powdered hair, +yellow bands, and the rest of the wardrobe of Court vanities; if deep +sighs, tears, confessions, ejaculations of the soul, admonitions of +all sorts of people to make God and an unspotted conscience always our +friends; if the protestation of faith and hope to be washed by the +same Saviour and the like mercies that Magdalene was, be signs and +demonstrations of a blessed penitent, then I will tell you that this +poor broken woman went _a cruce ad gloriam_, and now enjoys the +presence of her and our Redeemer. Her body being taken down by her +brother, one Norton, servant to the Prince, was in a coach conveyed to +St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, where, in the evening of the same day, she +had an honest and a decent burial.' Her sad fate seems to have +appealed strongly to public sympathy, and to have drawn a veil of +oblivion over the sins and follies of her misspent life. A +contemporary versifier speaks of her in language worthy of a Lucretia: + + 'O how the cruel cord did misbecome + Her comely neck! and yet by Law's just doom + Had been her death. Those locks, like golden thread, + That used in youth to enshrine her globe-like head, + Hung careless down; and that delightful limb, + Her snow-white nimble hand, that used to trim + Those tresses up, now spitefully did tear + And rend the same; nor did she now forbear + To beat that breast of more than lily-white, + Which sometime was the bed of sweet delight. + From those two springs where joy did whilom dwell, + Grief's pearly drops upon her pale cheek fell.' + +The next to suffer was an apothecary named Franklin, from whom the +poison had been procured. 'Before he was executed, he threw out wild +hints of the existence of a plot far exceeding in villainy that which +was in course of investigation. He tried to induce all who would +listen to him to believe that he knew of a conspiracy in which many +great lords were concerned; and that not only the late Prince [Henry] +had been removed by unfair means, but that a plan had been made to get +rid of the Electress Palatine and her husband. As, however, all this +was evidently only dictated by a hope of escaping the gallows, he was +allowed to share with the others a fate which he richly deserved.' + + * * * * * + +After the execution of these smaller culprits, some months elapsed +before Bacon, as Attorney-General, was directed to proceed against the +greater. It was not until May 24, 1616, that the Countess of Somerset +was put upon her trial before the High Steward's Court in Westminster +Hall. Contemporary testimony differs strangely as to her behaviour. +One authority says that, whilst the indictment was being read, she +turned pale and trembled, and when Weston's name was mentioned hid her +face behind her fan. Another remarks: 'She won pity by her sober +demeanour, which, in my opinion,' he adds, 'was more curious and +confident than was fit for a lady in such distress, yet she shed, or +made show of some tears, divers times.' The evidence against her was +too strong to be confuted, and she pleaded guilty. When the judge +asked her if she had anything to say in arrest of judgment, she +replied, in low, almost inaudible tones, that she could not extenuate +her fault. She implored mercy, and begged that the lords would +intercede with the King on her behalf. Sentence was then pronounced, +and the prisoner sent back to the Tower, to await the King's decision. + +On the following day the Earl was tried. Bacon again acted as +prosecutor, and in his opening speech he said that the evidence to be +brought forward by the Government would prove four points: 1. That +Somerset bore malice against Overbury before the latter's +imprisonment; 2. That he devised the plan by which that imprisonment +was effected; 3. That he actually sent poisons to the Tower; 4. That +he had made strenuous efforts to conceal the proofs of his guilt. He +added that he himself would undertake the management of the case on +the first two points, leaving his subordinates, Montague and Crew, to +deal with the third and fourth. + +Bacon had chosen for himself a comparatively easy task. The +ill-feeling that had existed between Overbury and his patron was +beyond doubt; while it was conclusively shown, and, indeed, hardly +disputed, that Somerset had had a hand in Overbury's imprisonment, and +in the appointment of Helwys and Weston as his custodians. Passages +from Lord Northampton's letters to the Earl proved the existence of a +plot in which both were mixed up, and that Helwys had expressed an +opinion that Overbury's death would be a satisfactory termination of +the imbroglio. But he might probably have based this opinion on the +fact that Overbury was seriously ill, and his recovery more than +doubtful. + +When Bacon had concluded his part of the case, Ellesmere, who +presided, urged Somerset to confess his guilt. 'No, my lord,' said the +Earl calmly, 'I came hither with a resolution to defend myself.' + +Montague then endeavoured to demonstrate that the poison of which +Overbury died had been administered with Somerset's knowledge. But he +could get no further than this: that Somerset had been in the habit of +sending powders, as well as tarts and jellies, to Overbury; but he did +not, and could not prove that the powders were poisonous. Nor was +Serjeant Crew able to advance the case beyond the point reached by +Bacon; he could argue only on the assumption of Somerset's guilt, +which his colleagues had failed to establish. + +In our own day it would be held that the case for the prosecution had +completely broken down; and I must add my conviction that Somerset was +in no way privy to Overbury's murder. He had assented to his +imprisonment, because he was weary of his importunity; but he still +retained a kindly feeling towards him, and was evidently grieved at +the serious nature of his illness. As a matter of fact, it was not +proved even that Overbury died of poison, though I admit that this is +put beyond doubt by collateral circumstances. Somerset's position, +however, before judges who were more or less hostilely disposed, with +the agents of the Crown bent on obtaining his conviction, and he +himself without legal advisers, was both difficult and dangerous. He +was embarrassed by the necessity of keeping back part of his case. He +was unable to tell the whole truth about Overbury's imprisonment. He +could not make known all that had passed between Lady Essex and +himself before marriage, or that Overbury had been committed to the +Tower to prevent him from giving evidence which would have certainly +quashed Lady Essex's proceedings for a divorce. And, in truth, if he +mustered up courage to tell this tale of shame, he could not hope that +the peers, most of whom were his enemies, would give credence to it, +or that, if they believed it, they would refrain from delivering an +adverse verdict. + +Yet he bore himself with courage and ability, when, by the flickering +light of torches, for the day had gone down, he rose to make his +defence. Acknowledging that he had consented to Overbury's +imprisonment in order that he might throw no obstacles in the way of +his marriage with Lady Essex, he firmly denied that he had known +anything of attempts to poison him. The tarts he had sent were +wholesome, and of a kind to which Overbury was partial; if any had +been tampered with, he was unaware of it. The powders he had received +from Sir Robert Killigrew, and simply sent them on; and Overbury had +admitted, in a letter which was before the Court, that they had done +him no mischief. Here Crew interrupted: The three powders from +Killigrew had been duly accounted for; but there was a fourth powder, +which had not been accounted for, and had (it was assumed) contained +poison. Now, it was improbable that the Earl could remember the exact +history of every powder sent to Overbury two years before, and, +besides, it was a mere assumption on the part of the prosecution that +this fourth powder was poison. But Somerset's inability to meet this +point was made the most of, and gave the peers a sufficient pretext +for declaring him guilty. The Earl received his sentence with the +composure he had exhibited throughout the arduous day, which had shown +how a nature enervated by luxury and indulgence can be braced up by +the chill air of adversity, and contented himself with expressing a +hope that the Court would intercede with the King for mercy. + +I have dwelt at some length on the details of this celebrated trial +because it is the last (in English jurisprudence) in which men and +women of rank have been mixed up with the secret practices of the +magician; though, for other reasons, it is one of very unusual +interest. In briefly concluding the recital, I may state that James +was greatly relieved when the trial was over, and he found that +nothing damaging to himself had been disclosed. It is certain that +Somerset was in possession of some dark secret, the revelation of +which was much dreaded by the King; so that precautions had even been +taken, or at all events meditated, to remove him from the Court if he +entered upon the dangerous topic, and to continue the trial in his +absence. He would probably have been silenced by force. The Earl, +however, refrained from hazardous disclosures, and James could breathe +in peace. + +On July 13, the King pardoned Lady Somerset, who was certainly the +guiltiest of all concerned. The Earl was left in prison, with sentence +of death suspended over him for several years, in order, no doubt, to +terrify him into silence. A few months before his death, James appears +to have satisfied himself that he had nothing to fear, and ordered the +Earl's release (January, 1622). Had he lived, he would probably have +restored him to his former influence and favour.[34] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[32] This woman has a place in the records of fashion as introducer of +the novelty of yellow-starching the extensive ruffs which were then +generally worn. When Lord Chief Justice Coke sentenced her to death +(as we shall hereafter see) for her share in the murder of Overbury, +he ordered that 'as she was the person who had brought yellow-starched +ruffs into vogue, she should be hanged in that dress, that the same +might end in shame and detestation.' As the hangman was also adorned +with yellow ruffs, it is no wonder that Coke's prediction was amply +fulfilled. + +[33] Arthur Wilson, in his 'Memoirs,' furnishes a strange account of +the practices in which Lady Essex, Mrs. Turner, and the conjurer took +part. 'The Countess of Essex,' he says, 'to strengthen her designs, +finds out one of her own stamp, Mrs. Turner, a doctor of physic's +widow, a woman whom prodigality and looseness had brought low; yet her +pride would make her fly any pitch, rather than fall into the jaws of +Want. These two counsel together how they might stop the current of +the Earl's affection towards his wife, and make a clear passage for +the Viscount in his place. To effect which, one Dr. Forman, a reputed +conjurer (living at Lambeth) is found out; the women declare to him +their grievances; he promises sudden help, and, to amuse them, frames +many little pictures of brass and wax--some like the Viscount and +Countess, whom he must unite and strengthen, others like the Earl of +Essex, whom he must debilitate and weaken; and then with philtrous +powders, and such drugs, he works upon their persons. And to practise +what effects his arts would produce, Mrs. Turner, that loved Sir +Arthur Manwaring (a gentleman then attending the Prince), and willing +to keep him to her, gave him some of the powder, which wrought so +violently with him, that through a storm of rain and thunder he rode +fifteen miles one dark night to her house, scarce knowing where he was +till he was there. Such is the devilish and mad rage of lust, +heightened with art and fancy. + +'These things, matured and ripened by this juggler Forman, gave them +assurance of happy hopes. Her courtly incitements, that drew the +Viscount to observe her, she imputed to the operation of those drugs +he had tasted; and that harshness and stubborn comportment she +expressed to her husband, making him (weary of such entertainments) to +absent himself, she thought proceeded from the effects of those +unknown potions and powders that were administered to him. So apt is +the imagination to take impressions of those things we are willing to +believe. + +'The good Earl, finding his wife nurseled in the Court, and seeing no +possibility to reduce her to reason till she were estranged from the +relish and taste of the delights she sucked in there, made his +condition again known to her father. The old man, being troubled with +his daughter's disobedience, embittered her, being near him, with +wearisome and continued chidings, to wean her from the sweets she +doted upon, and with much ado forced her into the country. But how +harsh was the parting, being sent away from the place where she grew +and flourished! Yet she left all her engines and imps behind her: the +old doctor and his confederate, Mrs. Turner, must be her two +supporters. She blazons all her miseries to them at her depart, and +moistens the way with her tears. Chartley was an hundred miles from +her happiness; and a little time thus lost is her eternity. When she +came thither, though in the pleasantest part of the summer, she shut +herself up in her chamber, not suffering a beam of light to peep upon +her dark thoughts. If she stirred out of her chamber, it was in the +dead of the night, when sleep had taken possession of all others but +those about her. In this implacable, sad, and discontented humour, she +continued some months, always murmuring against, but never giving the +least civil respect to, her husband, which the good man suffered +patiently, being loth to be the divulger of his own misery; yet, +having a manly courage, he would sometimes break into a little passion +to see himself slighted and neglected; but having never found better +from her, it was the easier to bear with her.' + +[34] See 'The State Trials;' 'The Carew Letters;' Spedding, 'Life and +Letters of Lord Bacon;' Amos, 'The Grand Oyer of Poisoning;' and S. R. +Gardiner, 'History of England,' vol. iv., 1607-1616. + + +DR. LAMBE. + +A worthy successor to Simon Forman appeared in Dr. Lambe, or Lamb, +who, in the first two Stuart reigns, attained a wide celebrity as an +astrologer and a quack doctor. A curious story respecting his +pretended magical powers is related by Richard Baxter in his +'Certainty of the World of Spirits' (1691). Meeting two acquaintances +in the street, who evidently desired some experience of his skill in +the occult art, he invited them home with him, and ushered them into +an inner chamber. There, to their amazement, a tree sprang up before +their eyes in the middle of the floor. Before they had ceased to +wonder at this sight surprising, three diminutive men entered, with +tiny axes in their hands, and, nimbly setting to work, soon felled the +tree. The doctor then dismissed his guests, who went away with a +conviction that he was as potent a necromancer as Roger Bacon or +Cornelius Agrippa. + +That same night a tremendous gale arose, so that the house of one of +Lambe's visitors rocked to and fro, threatening to topple over with a +crash, and bury the man and his wife in the ruins. In great terror his +wife inquired, 'Were you not at Dr. Lambe's to-day?' The husband +acknowledged that it was so. 'And did you bring anything away from his +house?' Yes: when the dwarfs felled the tree, he had been foolish +enough to pick up some of the chips, and put them in his pocket. Here +was the cause of the hurricane! With all speed he got rid of the +chips; the storm immediately subsided, and the remainder of the night +was spent in undisturbed repose. + +Lambe was notorious for the lewdness of his life and his evil habits. +But his supposed skill and success as a soothsayer led to his being +frequently consulted by George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, with the +result that each helped to swell the volume of the other's +unpopularity. The Puritans were angered at the Duke's resort to a man +of Lambe's character and calling; the populace hated Lambe as the tool +and instrument of the Duke. In 1628 the brilliant favourite of +Charles I. was the best-hated man in England, and every slander was +hurled at him that the resources of political animosity could supply. +The ballads of the time--an indisputably satisfactory barometer of +public opinion--inveighed bitterly and even furiously against his +luxuriousness, his love of dress, his vanity, his immorality, and his +proved incompetence as soldier and statesman. He was accused of having +poisoned Lords Hamilton, Lennox, Southampton, Oxford, even James I. +himself. He had sat in his boat, out of the reach of danger, while his +soldiers perished under the guns of R. He had corrupted the chastest +women in England by means of the love-philtre which Dr. Lambe +concocted for him. In a word, the air was full of the darkest and +dreadest accusations. + +Lambe's connection with the Duke brought on a catastrophe which his +magical art failed to foresee or prevent. He was returning, one summer +evening--it was June 13--from the play at the Fortune Theatre, when he +was recognised by a company of London prentices. With a fine scent for +the game, they crowded round the unfortunate magician, and hooted at +him as the Duke's devil, hustling him to and fro, and treating him +with cruel roughness. To save himself from further violence, he hired +some sailors to escort him to a tavern in Moorgate Street, where he +supped. On going forth again, he found that many of his persecutors +lingered about the door; and, bursting into a violent rage, he +threatened them with his vengeance, and told them 'he would make them +dance naked.' Still guarded by his sailors, he hurried homeward, with +the mob close at his heels, shouting and gesticulating, and increasing +every minute both in numbers and fury. In the Old Jewry he turned to +face them with his protectors; but this movement of defence, construed +into one of defiance, stimulated the passions of the populace to an +ungovernable pitch; they made a rush at him, from which he took refuge +in the Windmill tavern. A volley of stones smashed against pane and +door; and with shouts, screams, and yells, they demanded that he +should be given up. But the landlord, a man of courage and humanity, +would not throw the poor wretch to his pursuers as the huntsman throws +the captured fox to the fangs of his hounds. He detained him for some +time, and then he provided him with a disguise before he would suffer +him to leave. The precaution was useless, for hate is keen of vision: +the man was recognised; the pursuit was resumed, and he was hunted +through the streets, pale and trembling with terror, his dress +disordered and soiled, until he again sought an asylum. The master of +this house, however, fell into a paroxysm of alarm, and dismissed him +hastily, with four constables as a bodyguard. But what could these +avail against hundreds? They were swept aside--the doctor, bleeding +and exhausted, was flung to the ground, and sticks and stones rained +blows upon him until he was no longer able to ask for mercy. One of +his eyes was beaten out of its socket; and when he was rescued at +length by a posse of constables and soldiers, and conveyed to the +Compter prison, it was a dying man who was borne unconscious across +its threshold. + +Such was the miserable ending of Dr. Lambe. Charles I. was much +affected when he heard of it; for he saw that it was a terrible +indication of the popular hostility against Lambe's patron. The +murderers had not scrupled to say that if the Duke had been there they +would have handled him worse; they would have minced his flesh, so +that every one of them might have had a piece. Summoning to his +presence the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, the King bade them discover the +offenders; and when they failed in what was an impossible task, he +imposed a heavy fine upon the City. + +The ballad-writers of the day found in the magician's fate an occasion +for attacking Buckingham: one of them, commenting on his supposed +contempt for Parliament, puts the following arrogant defiance into his +mouth: + + 'Meddle with common matters, common wrongs, + To th' House of Commons common things belong ... + Leave him the oar that best knows how to row + And State to him that the best State doth know ... + Though Lambe be dead, _I'll_ stand, and you shall see + I'll smile at them that can but bark at me.' + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE LAST OF THE ENGLISH MAGICIANS: WILLIAM LILLY. + + + 'Lilly was a prominent, and, in the opinion of many of his + contemporaries, a very important personage in the most + eventful period of English history. He was a principal actor + in the farcical scenes which diversified the bloody tragedy + of civil war; and while the King and the Parliament were + striving for mastery in the field, he was deciding their + destinies in the closet. The weak and the credulous of both + parties who sought to be instructed in "destiny's dark + counsels," flocked to consult the "wily Archimagus," who, + with exemplary impartiality, meted out victory and good + fortune to his clients, according to the extent of their + faith and the weight of their purses. A few profane Cavaliers + might make his name the burthen of their malignant rhymes--a + few of the more scrupulous among the saints might keep aloof + in sanctified abhorrence of the "Stygian sophister"--but the + great majority of the people lent a willing and reverential + ear to his prophecies and prognostications. Nothing was too + high or too low, too mighty or too insignificant, for the + grasp of his genius. The stars, his informants, were as + communicative on the most trivial as on the most important + subjects. If a scheme was set on foot to rescue the King, or + to retrieve a stray trinket; to restore the royal authority, + or to make a frail damsel an honest woman; to cure the nation + of anarchy, or a lap-dog of a surfeit--William Lilly was the + oracle to be consulted. His almanacks were spelled over in + the tavern, and quoted in the Senate; they nerved the arm of + the soldier, and rounded the period of the orator. The + fashionable beauty, dashing along in her calash from St. + James's or the Mall, and the prim starched dame from Watling + Street or Bucklersbury, with a staid foot-boy, in a plush + jerkin, plodding behind her--the reigning toast among "the + men of wit about town," and the leading groaner in a + tabernacle concert--glided alternately into the study of the + trusty wizard, and poured into his attentive ear strange + tales of love, or trade, or treason. The Roundhead stalked in + at one door, whilst the Cavalier was hurried out at the + other. + + 'The confessions of a man so variously consulted and trusted, + if written with the candour of a Cardan or a Rousseau, would + indeed be invaluable. The "Memoirs of William Lilly," though + deficient in this particular, yet contain a variety of + curious and interesting anecdotes of himself and his + contemporaries, which, when the vanity of the writer or the + truth of his art is not concerned, may be received with + implicit credence. + + 'The simplicity and apparent candour of his narrative might + induce a hasty reader of this book to believe him a + well-meaning but somewhat silly personage, the dupe of his + own speculations--the deceiver of himself as well as of + others. But an attentive examination of the events of his + life, even as recorded by himself, will not warrant so + favourable an interpretation. His systematic and successful + attention to his own interest, his dexterity in keeping on + "the windy side of the law," his perfect political + pliability, and his presence of mind and fertility of + resources when entangled in difficulties, indicate an + accomplished impostor, not a crazy enthusiast. It is very + possible and probable that, at the outset of his career, he + was a real believer in the truth and lawfulness of his art, + and that he afterwards felt no inclination to part with so + pleasant and so profitable a delusion.... Of his success in + deception, the present narrative exhibits abundant proofs. + The number of his dupes was not confined to the vulgar and + illiterate, but included individuals of real worth and + learning, of hostile parties and sects, who courted his + acquaintance and respected his predictions. His proceedings + were deemed of sufficient importance to be twice made the + subject of a Parliamentary inquiry; and even after the + Restoration--when a little more scepticism, if not more + wisdom, might have been expected--we find him examined by a + Committee of the House of Commons respecting his + foreknowledge of the Great Fire of London. We know not + whether it "should more move our anger or our mirth" to see + our assemblage of British Senators--the contemporaries of + Hampden and Falkland, of Milton and Clarendon, in an age + which moved into action so many and such mighty + energies--gravely engaged in ascertaining the cause of a + great national calamity from the prescience of a knavish + fortune-teller, and puzzling their wisdoms to interpret the + symbolical flames which blazed in the misshapen woodcuts of + his oracular publications. + + 'As a set-off against these honours may be mentioned the + virulent and unceasing attacks of almost all the party + scribblers of the day; but their abuse he shared in common + with men whose talents and virtues have outlived the malice + of their contemporaries.'--_Retrospective Review._ + +William Lilly was born at Diseworth, in Leicestershire, on May 1, +1602. He came of an old and reputable family of the yeoman class, and +his father was at one time a man of substance, though, from causes +unexplained, he fell into a state of great impoverishment. William +from the first was intended to be a scholar, and at the age of eleven +was sent to the grammar-school at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, where he made a +fair progress in his classical studies. In his sixteenth year he began +to be much troubled in his dreams regarding his chances of future +salvation, and felt a large concern for the spiritual welfare of his +parents. He frequently spent the night in weeping and praying, and in +an agony of fear lest his sins should offend God. That in this +exhibition of early piety he was already preparing for his career of +self-hypocrisy and deception, I will not be censorious enough to +assert; but in after-life his conscience was certainly much less +sensitive, and he ceased to trouble himself about the souls of any of +his kith and kin. + +He was about eighteen when the collapse of his father's circumstances +compelled him to leave school. He had used his time and opportunities +so well that he had gained the highest form, and the highest place on +that form. He spoke Latin as readily as his native tongue; could +improvise verses upon any theme--all kinds of verses, hexameter, +pentameter, phalenciac, iambic, sapphic--so that if any ingenious +youth came from remote schools to hold public disputations, Lilly was +always selected as the Ashby-de-la-Zouch champion, and in that +capacity invariably won distinction. 'If any minister came to examine +us,' he said, 'I was brought forth against him, nor would I argue with +him unless in the Latin tongue, which I found few could well speak +without breaking Priscian's head; which, if once they did, I would +complain to my master, _Non bene intelliget linguare Latinam, nec +prorsus loquitur_. In the derivation of words, I found most of them +defective; nor, indeed, were any of them good grammarians. All and +every of those scholars who were of my form and standing went to +Cambridge, and proved excellent divines; only I, poor William Lilly, +was not so happy; fortune then frowning upon my father's present +condition, he not in any capacity to maintain me at the University.' + +The _res angust domi_ pressing heavily upon the quick-witted, +ingenious, and active young fellow, he set forth--as so many Dick +Whittingtons have done before and since--to make his fortune in London +City. His purse held only 20s., with which he purchased a new +suit--hose, doublets, trunk, and the like--and with a donation from +his friends of 10s., he took leave of his father ('then in Leicester +gaol for debt') on April 4th, and tramping his way to London, in +company with 'Bradshaw the carrier,' arrived there on the 9th. When he +had gratified the carrier and his servants, his capital was reduced to +7s. 6d. in money, a suit of clothes on his back, two shirts, three +bands, one pair of shoes, and as many stockings. The master to whom he +had been recommended--Leicestershire born, like himself--a certain +Gilbert Wright, received him kindly, purchasing for him a new cloak--a +welcome addition to Lilly's scanty wardrobe; and Lilly then settled +down, contentedly enough, to his laborious duties, though they were +hardly of a kind to gratify the tastes of an earnest scholar. 'My +work,' he says, 'was to go before my master to church; to attend my +master when he went abroad; to make clean his shoes; sweep the street; +help to drive bucks when he washed; fetch water in a tub from the +Thames (I have helped to carry eighteen tubs of water in one morning); +weed the garden; all manner of drudgeries I willingly performed; +scrape trenchers,' etc. + + * * * * * + +In 1624 his mistress (he says) died of cancer in the breast, and he +came into possession--by way of legacy, I suppose--of a small scarlet +bag belonging to her, which contained some rare and curious things. +Among others, several sigils, amulets, or charms: some of Jupiter in +trine, others of the nature of Venus; some of iron, and one of +gold--pure angel gold, of the bigness of a thirty-shilling piece of +King James's coinage. In the circumference, on one side, was +engraven, _Vicit Leo de tribu Jud Tetragrammaton_, and within the +middle a holy lamb. In the circumference on the obverse side were +Amraphel and three {+++}, and in the centre, _Sanctus Petrus Alpha et +Omega_. + +According to Lilly, this sigil was framed under the following +circumstances: + + 'His mistress's former husband travelling into Sussex, + happened to lodge in an inn, and to lie in a chamber thereof, + wherein, not many months before, a country grazier had lain, + and in the night cut his own throat. After this night's + lodging he was perpetually, and for many years, followed by a + spirit, which vocally and articulately provoked him to cut + his throat. He was used frequently to say, "I defy thee, I + defy thee," and to spit at the spirit. This spirit followed + him many years, he not making anybody acquainted with it; at + last he grew melancholy and discontented, which being + carefully observed by his wife, she many times hearing him + pronounce, "I defy thee," desired him to acquaint her with + the cause of his distemper, which he then did. Away she went + to Dr. Simon Forman, who lived then in Lambeth, and acquaints + him with it; who having framed this sigil, and hanged it + about his neck, he wearing it continually until he died, was + never more molested by the spirit. I sold the sigil for + thirty-two shillings, but transcribed the words _verbatim_ as + I have related.' + +Lilly continued some time longer in the service of Master Gilbert +Wright. When the plague broke out in London in 1625, he, with a +fellow-servant, was left in charge of his employer's house. He seems +to have taken things easily enough, notwithstanding the sorrow and +suffering that surrounded him on every side. Purchasing a bass-viol, +he hired a master to instruct him in playing it; the intervals he +spent in bowling in Lincoln's Inn Fields, with Wat the Cobbler, Dick +the Blacksmith, and such-like companions. 'We have sometimes been at +our work at six in the morning, and so continued till three or four in +the afternoon, many times without bread or drink all that while. +Sometimes I went to church and heard funeral sermons, of which there +was then great plenty. At other times I went early to St. Antholin's, +in London, where there was every morning a sermon. The most able +people of the whole city and suburbs were out of town; if any +remained, it were such as were engaged by parish officers to remain; +no habit of a gentleman or woman continued; the woeful calamity of +that year was grievous, people dying in the open fields and in open +streets. At last, in August, the bills of mortality so increased, that +very few people had thoughts of surviving the contagion. The Sunday +before the great bill came forth, which was of five thousand and odd +hundreds, there was appointed a sacrament at Clement Danes'; during +the distributing whereof I do very well remember we sang thirteen +parts of the 119th Psalm. One Jacob, our minister (for we had three +that day, the communion was so great), fell sick as he was giving the +sacrament, went home, and was buried of the plague the Thursday +following.' + +Having been led by various circumstances to apply himself to the study +of astrology, he sought a guide and teacher in the person of one +Master Evans, whom he describes as poor, ignorant, boastful, drunken, +and knavish; he had a character, or reputation, however, for erecting +a figure (or horoscope) predicting future events, discovering +secrets, restoring stolen goods, and even for raising spirits, when it +so pleased him. Of this crafty cheat he relates an extraordinary +story. Some time before Lilly became acquainted with him, Lord +Bothwell and Sir Kenelm Digby visited him at his lodgings in the +Minories, in order that they might enjoy what is nowadays called a +'spiritualistic sance.' The magician drew the mysterious circle, and +placed himself and his visitors within it. He began his invocations; +but suddenly Evans was caught up from the others, and transferred, he +knew not how, to Battersea Fields, near the Thames. Next morning a +countryman discovered him there, fast asleep, and, having roused him, +informed him, in answer to his inquiries, where he was. Evans in the +afternoon sent a messenger to his wife, to acquaint her with his +safety, and dispel the apprehensions she might reasonably entertain. +Just as the messenger arrived, Sir Kenelm Digby also arrived, not +unnaturally curious to learn the issue of the preceding day's +adventure. This monstrous story Evans told to Lilly, who, I suppose, +affected to believe it, and asked him how such an issue chanced to +attend on his experiment. Because, the knave replied, in performing +the invocation rites, he had carelessly omitted the necessary +suffumigation, and at this omission the spirit had taken offence. It +is evident that the spirits insist on being treated with due regard to +etiquette. + +Lilly, by the way, records some quaint biographical particulars +respecting the astrologers of his time; they are not of a nature, +however, to elevate our ideas of the profession. One would almost +suppose that free intercourse with the inhabitants of the unseen world +had an exceptionally bad effect on the morals and manners of the +mortals who enjoyed it; or else the spirits must have had a penchant +for low society. Lilly speaks of one William Poole, who was a nibbler +at astrological science, and, in addition, a gardener, an apparitor, a +drawer of lime, a plasterer, a bricklayer; in fact, he bragged of +knowing no fewer than seventeen trades--such was the versatility of +his genius! It is pleasant to know that this wonderfully clever fellow +could condescend to 'drolling,' and even to writing poetry (heaven +save the mark!), of which Lilly, in his desire to astonish posterity, +has preserved a specimen. Master Poole's rhymes, however, are much too +offensively coarse to be transferred to these pages. + +This man of many callings died about 1651 or 1652, at St. Mary +Overy's, in Southwark, and Lilly quotes a portion of his last will and +testament: + + '_Item._ I give to Dr. Arder all my books, and one manuscript + of my own, worth one hundred of Lilly's Introduction. + + '_Item._ If Dr. Arder gives my wife anything that is mine, I + wish the D--l may fetch him body and soul.' + +Terrified at this uncompromising malediction, the doctor handed over +all the deceased conjurer's books and goods to Lilly, who in his turn +handed them over to the widow; and in this way Poole's curse was +eluded, and his widow got her rights. + +The true name of this Dr. Arder, it seems, was Richard Delahay. He +had originally practised as an attorney; but falling into poverty, and +being driven from his Derbyshire home by the Countess of Shrewsbury, +he turned to astrology and physic, and looked round about him for +patients, though with no very great success. He had at one time known +a Charles Sledd, a friend of Dr. Dee, 'who used the crystal, and had a +very perfect sight'--in modern parlance, was a good medium. + +Dr. Arder often declared to Lilly that an angel had on one occasion +offered him a lease of life for a thousand years, but for some +unexplained reasons he declined the valuable freehold. However, he +outlived the Psalmist's span, dying at the ripe old age of eighty. + + * * * * * + +A much more famous magician was John Booker, who, in 1632 and 1633, +gained a great notoriety by his prediction of a solar eclipse in the +nineteenth degree of Aries, 1633, taken out of 'Leuitius de Magnis +Conjunctionibus,' namely, 'O Reges et Principes,' etc., both the King +of Bohemia and Gustavus, King of Sweden, dying during 'the effects of +that eclipse.' + +John Booker was born at Manchester, of good parentage, in 1601. In his +youth he attained a very considerable proficiency in the Latin tongue. +From his early years we may take it that he was destined to become an +astrologer--he showed so great a fancy (otherwise inexplicable!) for +poring over old almanacks. In his teens he was despatched to London to +serve his apprenticeship to a haberdasher in Lawrence Lane. But +whether he contracted a distaste for the trade, or lacked the capital +to start on his own account, he abandoned it on reaching manhood, and +started as a writing-master at Hadley, in Middlesex. It is said that +he wrote singularly well, 'both Secretary and Roman.' Later in life he +officiated as clerk to Sir Christopher Clithero, Alderman of London, +and Justice of the Peace, and also to Sir Hugh Hammersley, Alderman, +and in these responsible positions became well known to many citizens +who, like Cowper's John Gilpin, were 'of credit and renown.' + +In star-craft this John Booker was a past master! His verses upon the +months, framed according to their different astrological +significations, 'being blessed with success, according to his +predictions,' made him known all over England. He was a man of 'great +honesty,' abhorring any deceit in the art he loved and studied. So +says Lilly; but it is certain that if an astrologer be in earnest, he +must deceive himself, if he do not deceive others. This Booker had +much good fortune in detecting thefts, and was not less an adept in +resolving love-questions. His knowledge of astronomy was by no means +limited; he understood a good deal of physic; was a great advocate of +the antimonial cup, whose properties were first discovered by Basil +Valentine; not unskilled in chemistry, though he did not practise it. +He died in the sweet odour of a good reputation in 1667, leaving +behind him a tolerable library (which was purchased by Elias Ashmole, +the antiquary), a widow, four children, and the MSS. of his annual +prognostications. During the Long Parliament period he published his +'Bellum Hibernicale,' which is described as 'a very sober and +judicious book,' and, not long before his death, a small treatise on +Easter Day, wherein he displayed a laudable erudition. + + * * * * * + +Lilly has also something to say about a Master Nicholas Fiske, +licentiate in physic, who came of a good old family, and was born near +Framlingham, in Suffolk. He was educated for the University, but +preferred staying at home, and studying astrology and medicine, which +he afterwards practised at Colchester, and at several places in +London. + + 'He was a person very studious, laborious, of good + apprehension, and had by his own industry obtained both in + astrology, physic, arithmetic, astronomy, geometry, and + algebra, singular judgment: he would in astrology resolve + horary questions very soundly, but was ever diffident of his + own abilities. He was exquisitely skilful in the art of + directions upon nativities, and had a good genius in + performing judgment thereupon; but very unhappy he was that + he had no genius in teaching his scholars, for he never + perfected any. His own son Matthew hath often told me that + when his father did teach any scholars in his time, they + would principally learn of him. _He had Scorpio ascending + (!)_, and was secretly envious to those he thought had more + parts than himself. However, I must be ingenuous, and do + affirm that by frequent conversation with him I came to know + which were the best authors, and much to enlarge my judgment, + especially in the art of directions: he visited me most days + once after I became acquainted with him, and would + communicate his most doubtful questions unto me, and accept + of my judgment therein rather than his own.' + +Resuming his own life-story, Lilly records an important purchase which +he made in 1634--the great astrological treatise, the 'Ars Notaria,' +a large parchment volume, enriched with the names and pictures of +those angels which are thought and believed by wise men to teach and +instruct in all the several liberal sciences--as if heaven were a +scientific academy, with the angels giving lectures as professors of +astrology, medicine, mathematics, and the like! Next he describes how +he sought to extend his fame as a magician by attempting the discovery +of a quantity of treasure alleged to have been concealed in the +cloister of Westminster Abbey; and having obtained permission from the +authorities, he repaired thither, one winter night, accompanied by +several gentlemen, and by one John Scott, a supposed expert in the use +of the Mosaical or divining rods. The hazel rods were duly played +round about the cloister, and on the west side turned one over the +other, a proof that the treasure lay there. The labourers, after +digging to a depth of six feet, came upon a coffin; but as it was not +heavy, Lilly refrained from opening it, an omission which he +afterwards regretted. From the cloister they proceeded to the Abbey +Church, where, upon a sudden, so fierce, so high, so blustering and +loud a wind burst forth, that they feared the west end of the church +would fall upon them. Their rods would not move at all; the candles +and torches, all but one, were extinguished, or burned very dimly. +John Scott, Lilly's partner, was amazed, turned pale, and knew not +what to think or do, until Lilly gave command to dismiss the demons. +This being done, all was quiet again, and the party returned home +about midnight. 'I could never since be induced,' says Master Lilly, +with sublime impertinence, 'to join with any in such-like actions. The +true miscarriage of the business,' he adds, 'was by reason of so many +people being present at the operation; for there were about thirty, +some laughing, others deriding, _so that if we had not dismissed the +demons, I believe most part of the Abbey Church had been blown down_! +Secrecy and intelligent operators,' he adds, 'with a strong confidence +and knowledge of what they are doing, are best for this work.' They +are, at all events, for conspiracy and collusion. + +In reading a narrative like this, one finds it not easy to satisfy +one's self how far it has been written in good faith, or how far it is +compounded of credulity or of conscious deception--how far the writer +has unwittingly imposed upon himself, or is knowingly imposing upon +the reader. That Lilly should gravely transmit to posterity such a +record, if aware that it was an audacious invention, seems hardly +credible; and yet it is still less credible that a man so shrewd and +keen-witted should believe in the operations of demons, and in their +directing a blast of wind against the Abbey Church because they +resented his search for a hidden treasure, to which they at least +could have no claim! As great wit to madness nearly is allied, so is +there a dangerous proximity between credulity and imposture, and the +man who begins by being a dupe often ends by becoming a knave. Perhaps +there are times when the axiom should be reversed. + +Lilly's astrological pursuits appear to have affected his health: he +grew lean and haggard, and suffered much from hypochondria; so that, +at length, he resolved to try the curative effects of country air, and +removed, in the spring of 1636, to Hersham, a quiet and picturesque +hamlet, near Walton-on-the-Thames. He did not give up his London +house, however, until thirty years later (1665), when he finally +settled at Hersham as a country gentleman, and a person of no small +consideration. + +Having recovered his health in his rural quarters, our great magician +returned to London, and practised openly his favourite art. But a +secret intelligence apprising him that he was not sufficiently an +adept, he again withdrew into the country, where he remained for a +couple of years, immersed, I suppose, in occult studies. We may take +it that he really entered on a professional career in 1644, when a +'happy thought' inspired him to bring out the first yearly issue of +his prophetical almanac, or 'Merlinus Anglicus Junior.' In his usual +abrupt and disjointed style he gives the following account of his +publication: 'I had given, one day, the copy thereof unto the then Mr. +[afterwards Sir Bulstrode] Whitlocke, who by accident was reading +thereof in the House of Commons. Ere the Speaker took the chair, one +looked upon it, and so did many, and got copies thereof; which, when I +heard, I applied myself to John Booker to license it, for then he was +licenser of all mathematical books.... He wondered at the book, made +many impertinent obliterations, formed many objections, swore it was +not possible to distinguish betwixt King and Parliament [O shrewd +John Booker!]; at last licensed it according to his own fancy. I +delivered it unto the printer, who being an arch Presbyterian, had +five of the ministry to inspect it, _who could make nothing of it_, +but said that it might be printed, for in that I meddled not with +their Dagon. The first impression was sold in less than one week. When +I presented some [copies] to the members of Parliament, I complained +of John Booker, the licenser, who had defaced my book; they gave me +order forthwith to reprint it as I would, and let me know if any durst +resist me in the reprinting or adding what I thought fit: so the +second time it came forth as I would have it.' + +In June, 1644, Lilly published his 'Supernatural Sight,' and also 'The +White King's Prophecy,' of which, in three days, eighteen hundred +copies were sold. He issued the second volume of his 'Prophetical +Merlin,' in which he made use of the King's nativity, and discovering +that _his ascendant was approaching to the quadrature of Mars about +June, 1645_, delivered himself of this oracular utterance, as +ambiguous as any that ever fell from the lips of the Pythian +priestess: + + 'If now we fight, a victory stealeth upon us--' + +which he afterwards boasted to be a clear prediction of the defeat of +Charles I. at Naseby, and, of course, would equally well have served +to have explained a royal victory. Whitlocke, in his 'Memorials of +Affairs in his own Times,' states that he met the astrologer in the +spring of 1645, and jestingly asking him what events were likely to +take place, Lilly repeated this prophecy of a victory. He remarks that +in 1648 some of Lilly's prognostications 'fell out very strangely, +particularly as to the King's fall from his horse about this time.' +But it would have been strange if a man so well informed of public +affairs, and so shrewd, as William Lilly, had never been right in his +forecasts. And a lucky coincidence will set an astrologer up in credit +for a long time, his numerous failures being forgotten. + +In this same memorable and eventful year he published his 'Starry +Messenger,' with an interpretation of three mock suns, or _parhelia_, +which had been seen in London on the 29th of May, 1644, King Charles +II.'s birthday. Complaint was immediately made to the Parliamentary +Committee of Examination that it contained treasonable and scandalous +matter. Lilly was summoned before the Committee, but several of his +friends were upon it, and voted the charges against him frivolous--as, +indeed, they were--so that he met with his usual good fortune, and +came off with flying colours. + +All the English astrologers of the old school seem to have been +startled and confounded by the innovations of this dashing young +magician, with his yearly almanacks and political predictions and +self-advertisement, especially a certain Mr. William Hodges, who lived +near Wolverhampton, and candidly confessed that Lilly did more by +astrology than he himself could do by the crystal, though he +understood its use as well as any man in England. Though a strong +royalist, he could never strike out any good fortune for the King's +party--the stars in their courses fought against Charles Stuart. The +angels whom he interviewed by means of the crystal were Raphael, +Gabriel, and Ariel; but his life was wanting in the purity and +holiness which ought to have been conspicuous in a man who was +favoured by communications from such high celestial sources. + +A proof of his skill is related by Lilly on the authority of Lilly's +partner, John Scott. + +Scott had some knowledge of surgery and physic; so had Will Hodges, +who had at one time been a schoolmaster. Having some business at +Wolverhampton, Scott stayed for a few weeks with Hodges, and assisted +him in dressing wounds, letting blood, and other chirurgical matters. +When on the point of returning to London, he asked Hodges to show him +the face and figure of the woman he should marry. Hodges carried him +into a field near his house, pulled out his crystal, bade Scott set +his foot against his, and, after a pause, desired him to look into the +crystal, and describe what he saw there. + +'I see,' saith Scott, 'a ruddy-complexioned wench, in a red waistcoat, +drawing a can of beer.' + +'She will be your wife,' cried Hodges. + +'You are mistaken, sir,' rejoined Scott. 'So soon as I come to London, +I am engaged to marry a tall gentlewoman in the Old Bailey.' + +'You will marry the red gentlewoman,' replied Hodges, with an air of +imperturbable assurance. + +On returning to London, Scott, to his great astonishment, found that +his tall gentlewoman had jilted him, and taken to herself another +husband. Two years afterwards, in the course of a Kentish journey, he +refreshed himself at an inn in Canterbury; fell in love with its +ruddy-complexioned barmaid; and, when he married her, remembered her +red waistcoat, her avocation, and Mr. Hodges 'his crystal.' + +An amusing story is told of this man Hodges. + +A neighbour of his, who had lost his horse, recovered the animal by +acting upon the astrologer's advice. Some years afterwards he +unluckily conceived the idea of playing upon the wise man a practical +joke, and obtained the co-operation of one of his friends. He had +certainly recovered his horse, he said, in the way Hodges had shown +him, but it was purely a chance, and would not happen again. 'So come, +let us play him a trick. I will leave some boy or other at the town's +end with my horse, and we will then call on Hodges and put him to the +test.' + +This was done, and Hodges said it was true the horse was lost, and +would never be recovered. + +'I thought what fine skill you had,' laughed the gentleman; 'my horse +is walking in a lane at the town's end.' + +Whereupon Hodges, with an oath, as was his evil habit, asserted that +the horse was gone, and that his owner would never see him again. +Ridiculing the wise man without mercy, the gentleman departed, and +hastened to the town's end, and there, at the appointed place, the +boy lay stretched upon the ground, fast asleep, with the bridle round +his arm, but the horse was gone! + +Back to Hodges hurried the chap-fallen squire, ashamed of his +incredulity, and eagerly seeking assistance. But no; the conjurer +swore freely--'Be gone--be gone about your business; go and look for +your horse.' He went and he looked, east and west, and north and +south, but his horse saw never more. + + * * * * * + +Let us next hear what Lilly has to tell us of Dr. Napper, the parson +of Great Lindford, in Buckinghamshire, the advowson of which parish +belonged to him. He sprang from a good old stock, according to the +witness of King James himself. For when his brother, Robert Napper, an +opulent Turkey merchant, was to be made a baronet in James's reign, +some dispute arose whether he could prove himself a gentleman for +three or more descents. 'By my soul,' exclaimed the King, 'I will +certify for Napper, that he is of above three hundred years' standing +in his family; all of them, by my soul, gentlemen!' The parson was +legitimately and truly master of arts; his claim to the title of +doctor, however, seems to have been dubious. Miscarrying one day in +the pulpit, he never after ventured into it, but all his lifetime kept +in his house some excellent scholar to officiate for him, allowing him +a good salary. Lilly speaks highly of his sanctity of life and +knowledge of medicine, and avers that he cured the falling sickness by +constellated rings, and other diseases by amulets. + +The parents of a maid who suffered severely from the falling sickness +applied to him, on one occasion, for a cure. He fashioned for her a +constellated ring, upon wearing of which she completely recovered. Her +parents chanced to make known the cure to some scrupulous divines, who +immediately protested that it was done by enchantment. 'Cast away the +ring,' they said; 'it's diabolical! God cannot bless you, if you do +not cast it away.' The ring was thrown into a well, and the maid was +again afflicted with her epilepsy, enduring the old pain and misery +for a weary time. At last the parents caused the well to be emptied, +and regained the ring, which the maid again made use of, and recovered +from her fits. Thus things went on for a year or two, until the +Puritan divines, hearing that she had resumed the ring, insisted with +her parents until they threw the ring away altogether; whereupon the +fits returned with such violence that they betook themselves to the +doctor, told their story, acknowledged their fault, and once more +besought his assistance. But he could not be persuaded to render it, +observing that those who despised God's mercies were not capable or +not worthy of enjoying them. + +We do not dismiss this story as entirely apocryphal, knowing that, in +the cure or mitigation of nervous diseases, the imagination exercises +a wonderful influence. There are well-authenticated instances of +'faith healing' not a whit less extraordinary than this case described +by Lilly of the maiden and the ring. It would be trivial, perhaps, to +hint that a good many maidens have been cured of some, at least, of +their ailments by _a ring_. + + * * * * * + +In 1646 Lilly printed a collection of prophecies, with the explanation +and verification of 'Aquila; or, The White King's Prophecy,' as also +the nativities of Archbishop Laud and the Earl of Strafford, and a +learned speech, which the latter intended to have spoken on the +scaffold. In the following year he completed his 'Introduction unto +Astrology,' or 'Christian Astrology,' and was summoned, along with +John Booker, to the head-quarters of Fairfax, at Windsor. They were +conveyed thither in great pomp and circumstance, with a coach and four +horses, welcomed in hearty fashion, and feasted in a garden where +General Fairfax lodged. In the course of their interview with the +general he said to them: + + 'That God had blessed the army with many signal victories, + and yet their work was not finished. He hoped God would go + along with them until His work was done. They sought not + themselves, but the welfare and tranquillity of the good + people and whole nation; and, for that end, were resolved to + sacrifice both their lives and their own fortunes. As for the + art that Lilly and Booker studied, he hoped it was lawful and + agreeable to God's Word: he himself understood it not, but + doubted not they both feared God, and therefore had a good + opinion of them both.' + +Lilly replied: + + 'My lord, I am glad to see you here at this time. Certainly, + both the people of God, and all others of this nation, are + very sensible of God's mercy, love, and favour unto them, in + directing the Parliament to nominate and elect you General of + their armies, a person so religious, so valiant. + + 'The several unexpected victories obtained under your + Excellency's conduct will eternize the same unto all + posterity. + + 'We are confident of God's going along with you and your army + until the great work, for which He ordained you both, is + fully perfected, which we hope will be the conquering and + subversion of your and the Parliament's enemies; and then a + quiet settlement and firm peace over all the nation unto + God's glory, and full satisfaction of tender consciences. + + 'Sir, as for ourselves, we trust in God; and, as Christians, + we believe in Him. We do not study any art but what is lawful + and consonant to the Scriptures, Fathers, and antiquity, + which we humbly desire you to believe.' + +They afterwards paid a visit to Hugh Peters, the famous Puritan +ecclesiastic, who had lodgings in the Castle. They found him reading +'an idle pamphlet,' which he had received from London that morning. +'Lilly, thou art herein,' he exclaimed. 'Are not you there also?' +'Yes, that I am,' he answered. + +The stanza relating to Lilly ran as follows: + + 'From th' oracles of the Sibyls so silly, + The curst predictions of William Lilly, + And Dr. Sibbald's Shoe-Lane Philly, + Good Lord, deliver me.' + +After much conference with Hugh Peters, and some private discourse +betwixt the two 'not to be divulged,' they parted, and Master Lilly +returned to London. + +In 1647 he published 'The World's Catastrophe,' 'The Prophecies of +Ambrose Merlin' (both of which were translated by Elias Ashmole), and +'Trithemius of the Government of the World, by the Presiding +Angels'--all three tracts in one volume. + +Notwithstanding his services to the Parliamentary cause, Lilly +secretly retained a strong attachment towards Charles I., and he was +consulted by Mrs. Whorwood, a lady who enjoyed the royal confidence, +as to the best place for the concealment of the King, when he escaped +from Hampton Court. After the usual sham of 'erecting a figure' had +been gone through, Lilly advised that a safe asylum might be found in +Essex, about twenty miles from London. 'She liked my judgment very +well,' he says, and being herself of sharp judgment, remembered a +place in Essex about that distance, where was an excellent house, and +all conveniences for his reception. But, either guided by an +irresistible destiny, or misled by Ashburnham, whose good faith has +been sometimes doubted, he went away in the night-time westward, and +surrendered himself to Colonel Hammond, in the Isle of Wight. + +With another unfortunate episode in the King's later career, Lilly was +also connected. During the King's confinement at Carisbrooke the +Kentishmen, in considerable numbers, rose in arms, and joined with +Lord Goring; at the same time many of the best ships revolted, and a +movement on behalf of the King was begun among the citizens of London. +'His Majesty then laid his design to escape out of prison by sawing +the iron bar of his chamber window; a small ship was provided, and +anchored not far from the Castle, to bring him into Sussex; horses +were provided ready to carry him through Sussex into Kent, so that he +might be at the head of the army in Kent, and from thence to march +immediately to London, where thousands then would have armed for +him.' Lilly was brought acquainted with the plot, and employed a +locksmith in Bow Lane to make a saw for cutting asunder the iron bar, +and also procured a supply of aqua fortis. But, as everybody knows, +the King was unable to force his body through the narrow casement, +even after the removal of the bar, and the plot failed. + +When the Parliament sent Commissioners into the Island to negotiate +with Charles the terms of a concordat, of whom Lord Saye was one, Lady +Whorwood again sought Lilly's assistance and advice. After perusing +his 'figure,' he told her the Commissioners would arrive in the Island +on such a date; elected a day and hour when the King would receive the +Commissioners and their propositions; and as soon as these were read, +advised the King to sign them, and in all haste to accompany the +Commissioners to London. The army being then far removed from the +capital, and the citizens stoutly enraged against the Parliamentary +leaders, Charles promised he would do so. But, unfortunately, he +allowed Lord Saye to dissuade him from signing the propositions, on +the assurance that he had a powerful party both in the House of Lords +and the House of Commons, who would see that he obtained more +favourable conditions. Thus was lost almost his last chance of +retaining his crown, and baffling the designs of his enemies. + +Whilst the King, in his last days, was at Windsor Castle, on one +occasion, when he was taking the air upon the leads, he looked through +Captain Wharton's 'Almanack.' 'My book,' saith he, 'speaks well as to +the weather.' A Master William Allen, who was standing by, inquired, +'What saith his antagonist, Mr. Lilly?' 'I do not care for Lilly,' +remarked his Majesty, 'he has always been against me,' infusing some +bitterness into his expressions. 'Sir,' observed Allen, 'the man is an +honest man, and writes but what his art informs him.' 'I believe it,' +said his Majesty, 'and that Lilly understands astrology as well as any +man in Europe.' + + * * * * * + +In 1648 the Council of State acknowledged Lilly's services with a +grant of 50, and a pension of 100 a year, which, however, he +received for two years only. + +In the following January, while the King lay at St. James's House, +Lilly began his observations, he tells us, in the following oracular +fashion: + +'I am serious, I beg and expect justice; either fear or shame begins +to question offenders. + +'The lofty cedars begin to divine a thundering hurricane is at hand; +God elevates man contemptible. + +'Our demigods are sensible, we begin to dislike their actions very +much in London; more in the country. + +'Blessed be God, who encourages His servants, makes them valiant, and +of undaunted spirit to go on with His decrees: upon a sudden, great +expectations arise, and men generally believe a quiet and calm time +draws nigh.' + +Our garrulous and egotistical conjurer, who seems really to have +believed that he exercised a considerable influence upon the course of +events, though his position was no more important than that of the fly +upon the wheel, evidently wished to connect these commonplaces with +the execution of Charles I.: + +'In Christmas holidays,' he writes, 'the Lord Gray of Groby, and Hugh +Peters, sent for me to Somerset House, with directions to bring them +two of my almanacks. I did so. Peters and he read January's +observations. "If we are not fools and knaves," saith he, "we shall do +justice." Then they whispered. _I understood not their meaning until +his Majesty _was beheaded_._ They applied what I wrote of justice to +be understood of his Majesty, _which was contrary to my intention_; +for Jupiter, the first day of January, became direct; and Libra is a +sign signifying justice. I implored for justice generally upon such as +had cheated in their places, being treasurers and such-like officers. +I had not then heard the least intimation of bringing the King unto +trial, and yet the first day thereof I was casually there, it being +upon a Saturday. For going to Westminster every Saturday in the +afternoon, in these times, at Whitehall I casually met Peters. "Come, +Lilly, wilt thou go hear the King tried?" "When?" said I. "Now--just +now; go with me." I did so, and was permitted by the guard of soldiers +to pass up to the King's Bench. Within one quarter of an hour came the +judges; presently his Majesty, who spoke excellently well, and +majestically, without impediment in the least when he spoke. I saw +the silver top of his staff unexpectedly fall to the ground, which was +took up by Mr. Rushworth; and then I heard Bradshaw, the judge, say to +his Majesty: "Sir, instead of answering the Court, you interrogate +their power, which becomes not one in your condition." These words +pierced my heart and soul, to hear a subject thus audaciously to +reprehend his Sovereign, who ever and anon replied with great +magnanimity and prudence.' + +Lilly tells us that during the siege of Colchester he and his +fellow-astrologer, Booker, were sent for, to encourage the soldiers by +their vaticinations, and in this they succeeded, as they assured them +the town would soon be surrendered--which was actually the case. Our +prophet, however, if he could have obtained leave to enter the town, +would have carried all his sympathies, and all his knowledge of the +condition of affairs in the Parliament's army, to Sir Charles Lucas, +the Royalist Governor. He had a narrow escape with his life during his +sojourn in the camp of the besiegers. A couple of guns had been placed +so as to command St. Mary's Church, and had done great injury to it. +One afternoon he was standing in the redoubt and talking with the +cannoneer, when the latter cried out for everybody to look to himself, +as he could see through his glass that there was a piece in the Castle +loaded and directed against his work, and ready to be discharged. +Lilly ran in hot haste under an old ash-tree, and immediately the +cannon-shot came hissing over their heads. 'No danger now,' said the +gunner, 'but begone, for there are five more loading!' And so it was. +Two hours later those cannon were fired, and unluckily killed the +cannoneer who had given Lilly a timely warning. + +The practice of astrology must have been exceedingly lucrative, for +Lilly is known to have acquired a considerable fortune. In 1651 he +expended 1,030 in the purchase of fee-farm rents, equal in value to +120 per annum. And in the following year he bought his house at +Hersham, with some lands and buildings, for 950. In the same year he +published his 'Annus Tenebrosus,' a title which he chose _not_ +'because of the great obscurity of the solar eclipse,' but in allusion +to 'those underhand and clandestine counsels held in England by the +soldiery, of which he would never, except _in generals_, give +information to any Parliament man.' Unfortunately, Lilly's knowledge +was always embodied 'in generals,' and the misty vagueness of his +vaticinations renders it impossible for the reader to pin them down to +any definite meaning. You may apply them to all events--or to none. +Their elastic indications of things good and evil may be made to suit +the events of the nineteenth century almost as well as those of the +seventeenth. + +Many characters Mr. William Lilly must be owned to have represented +with great success. But that all-essential one--if we desire to secure +the confidence of our contemporaries, and the respect of posterity--of +_an honest man_, I fear he was never able to personate successfully. +Of the craft and cunning he could at times display he records a +striking illustration--evidently with entire satisfaction to himself, +and apparently never suspecting that it might not be so favourably +regarded by others, and especially by those plain, commonplace people +who make no pretensions to hermetic learning or occult knowledge, but +have certain unsophisticated ideas as to the laws of morality and fair +dealing. + +In his 1651 'Almanack' he asserted that the Parliament stood upon +tottering foundations, and that the soldiery and commonalty would +combine against it--a conclusion at which every intelligent onlooker +must by that time have arrived, without 'erecting a figure' or +consulting the starry heavens. + +This previous attempt at forecasting the future 'lay for a whole +week,' says its author, 'in the Parliament House, much criticised by +the Presbyterians; one disliking this sentence, another that, and +others disliking the whole. In the end a motion was made that it +should be examined by a Committee of the House, with instructions to +report concerning its errors. + +'A messenger attached me by a warrant from that Committee. I had +private notice ere the messenger came, and hasted unto Mr. Speaker +Lenthall, ever my friend. He was exceeding glad to see me, told me +what was done, called for "Anglicus," marked the passages which +tormented the Presbyterians so highly. I presently sent for Mr. +Warren, the printer, an assured cavalier, obliterated what was most +offensive, put in other more significant words, and desired only to +have six amended against next morning, which very honestly he brought +me. I told him my design was to deny the book found fault with, to own +only the six books. I told him I doubted he would be examined. "Hang +them!" said he; "they are all rogues. I'll swear myself to the devil +ere they shall have an advantage against you, by my oath." + +'The day after, I appeared before the Committee. At first they showed +me the true "Anglicus," and asked if I wrote and printed it.' + +Lilly, after pretending to inspect it, denied all knowledge of it, +asserting that it must have been written with a view to do him injury +by some malicious Presbyterian, at the same time producing the six +amended copies, to the great surprise and perplexity of the Committee. +The majority, however, were inclined to send him to prison, and some +had proposed Newgate, others the Gate House, when one Brown, of +Sussex, who had been influenced to favour Lilly, remarked that neither +to Newgate nor the Gate House were the Parliament accustomed to send +their prisoners, and suggested that the most convenient and legitimate +course would be for the Sergeant-at-Arms to take this Mr. Lilly into +custody. + +'Mr. Strickland, who had for many years been the Parliament's +ambassador or agent in Holland, when he saw how they inclined, spoke +thus: + +'"I came purposely into the Committee this day to see the man who is +so famous in those parts where I have so long continued. I assure you +his name is famous over all Europe. I come to do him justice. A book +is produced by us, and said to be his; he denies it; we have not +proved it, yet will commit him. Truly this is great injustice. It is +likely he will write next year, and acquaint the whole world with our +injustice, and so well he may. It is my opinion, first to prove the +book to be his ere he be committed." + +'Another old friend of mine spoke thus: + +'"You do not know the many services this man hath done for the +Parliament these many years, or how many times, in our greatest +distresses, on applying unto him, he hath refreshed our languishing +expectations; he never failed us of comfort in our most unhappy +distresses. I assure you his writings have kept up the spirits both of +the soldiery, the honest people of this nation, and many of us +Parliament men; and at last, for a slip of his pen (if it were his), +to be thus violent against him, I must tell you, I fear the +consequence urged out of the book will prove effectually true. It is +my counsel to admonish him hereafter to be more wary, and for the +present to dismiss him." + +'Notwithstanding anything that was spoken on my behalf, I was ordered +to stand committed to the Sergeant-at-Arms. The messenger attached my +person said I was his prisoner. As he was carrying me away, he was +called to bring me again. Oliver Cromwell, Lieutenant-General of the +army, having never seen me, caused me to be produced again, when he +steadfastly beheld me for a good space, and then I went with the +messenger; but instantly a young clerk of that Committee asks the +messenger what he did with me. Where is the warrant? Until that is +signed you cannot seize Mr. Lilly, or shall [not]. Will you have an +action of false imprisonment against you? So I escaped that night, but +next day stayed the warrant. That night Oliver Cromwell went to Mr. +R----, my friend, and said: "What, never a man to take Lilly's cause +in hand but yourself? None to take his part but you? He shall not be +long there." Hugh Peters spoke much in my behalf to the Committee, but +they were resolved to lodge me in the Sergeant's custody. One +Millington, a drunken member, was much my enemy, and so was Cawley and +Chichester, a deformed fellow, unto whom I had done several +courtesies. + +'First thirteen days I was a prisoner, and though every day of the +Committee's sitting I had a petition to deliver, yet so many churlish +Presbyterians still appeared I could not get it accepted. The last day +of the thirteen, Mr. Joseph Ash was made chairman, unto whom my cause +being related, he took my petition, and said I should be bailed in +despite of them all, but desired I would procure as many friends as I +could to be there. Sir Arthur Haselrig and Major Galloway, a person of +excellent parts, appeared for me, and many more of my old friends came +in. After two whole hours' arguing of my cause by Sir Arthur and Major +Galloway, and other friends, the matter came to this point: I should +be bailed, and a Committee nominated to examine the printer. The order +of the Committee being brought afterwards to him who should be +Chairman, he sent me word, do what I would, he would see all the +knaves hanged, or he would examine the printer. This is the truth of +the story.' + +Lilly's biographer, however anxious he may be to imitate biographers +generally, and whitewash his hero, feels that in this episode of his +life the great seer fell miserably below the heroic standard, and was +guilty of pusillanimous as well as unveracious and dishonourable +conduct. Yet Lilly is evidently unaware of the unfavourable light in +which he has shown himself, and ambles along in an easy and +well-satisfied mood, as if to the sound of universal applause. + +On February 26, 1654, Lilly lost his second wife, and I regret to say +he seems to have borne the loss with astonishing equanimity. On April +20 Cromwell expelled from the House our astrologer's great enemies, +the Parliament men, and thereby won his most cordial applause. He +breaks out, indeed, into a burst of devotional praise--Gloria +Patri--as if for some special and never-to-be-forgotten mercy. A +German physician, then resident in London, sent to him the following +epigram: + + _Strophe Alcaica: Generoso Domino Gulielmo Lillio + Astrologo, de dissoluto super Parliamento:_ + + 'Quod calculasti Sydere prvio, + Miles peregit numine conscio; + Gentis videmus nunc Senatum + Marti togaque gravi leviatum.' + +His widower's weeds, if he ever wore them, he soon discarded, marrying +his third wife in October, eight months after the decease of his +second. This, his latest partner and helpmate, was signified in his +nativity, he says, by _Jupiter in Libra_, which seems to have been a +great comfort to him, and perhaps to his wife also. 'Jupiter in Libra' +sounds as well, indeed, as 'that blessed word, Mesopotamia.' + +In reference to the restoration of Charles II., in 1660, Lilly +unearths an old prophecy attributed to Ambrose Merlin, and written, he +says, 990 years before. + +'He calls King James the Lion of Righteousness, and saith, when he +died, or was dead, there would reign a noble White King; this was +Charles I. The prophet discovers all his troubles, his flying up and +down, his imprisonment, his death, and calls him Aquila. What concerns +Charles II. is,' says Lilly, 'the subject of our discourse; in the +Latin copy it is thus: + +'_Deinde ab Austro veniet cum Sole super ligneos equos, et super +spumantem inundationem maris, Pullus Aquil navigans in Britanniam._ + +'_Et applicans statim tunc altam domum Aquil sitiens, et cito aliam +sitiet._ + +'_Deinde Pullus Aquil nidificabit in summa rupe totius Britanni: nec +juvenis occidet, nec ad senem vivet._' + +This, in an old copy, is Englished thus: + +'After then shall come through the south with the sun, on horse of +tree, and upon all waves of the sea, the Chicken of the Eagle, sailing +into Britain, and arriving anon to the house of the Eagle, he shall +show fellowship to these beasts. + +'After, the Chicken of the Eagle shall nestle in the highest rock of +all Britain: nay, he shall nought be slain young; nay, he nought come +old.' + +Master William Lilly then supplies an explanation, or, as he calls it, +a verification, of these venerable predictions. We shall give it in +his own words: + +'His Majesty being in the Low Countries when the Lord-General had +restored the secluded members, the Parliament sent part of the royal +navy to bring him for England, which they did in May, 1660. Holland is +east from England, so he came with the sun; but he landed at Dover, a +port in the south part of England. Wooden horses are the English +ships. + +'_Tunc nidificabit in summo rupium._ + +'The Lord-General, and most of the gentry in England, met him in Kent, +and brought him unto London, then to White-hall. + +'Here, by the highest Rooch (some write Rock) is intended London, +being the metropolis of all England. + +'Since which time, unto this very day, I write this story, he hath +reigned in England, and long may he do hereafter.' (Written on +December 20, 1667.) + +Lilly quotes a prophecy, printed in 1588, in Greek characters, which +exactly deciphered, he says, the long troubles the English nation +endured from 1641 to 1660, but he omits to tell us where he saw it or +who was its author. It ended in the following mysterious fashion: + +'And after that shall come a dreadful dead man, and with him a royal +G' (it is gamma, +G+, in the Greek, intending C in the Latin, being +the third letter in the alphabet), 'of the best blood in the world, +and he shall have the crown, and shall set England in the right way, +and put out all heresies.' + +To a man who could read the secrets of the stars, and divine the +events of the future, there was, of course, nothing mysterious or +obscure in these lines, and their meaning he had no difficulty in +determining. Monkery having been extinguished above eighty or ninety +years, and the Lord-General's name being _Monk_, what more clear than +that he must be the 'dead man'? And as for the royal +G+, or C, who +came of the best blood of the world, it was evident that he could be +no other than Charles II.? The unlearned reader, who has neither the +stars nor the crystal to assist him, will, nevertheless, arrive at the +conclusion that if prophecies can be interpreted in this liberal +fashion, there is nothing to prevent even him from assuming the _rle_ +of an interpreter! + +But let it be noted that, according to our brilliant magicians, 'these +two prophecies were not given vocally by the angels, but by inspection +of the crystal in types and figures, or by apparition, the circular +way, where, at some distance, the angels appear, representing by +forms, shapes, and motions, what is demanded. It is very rare, yea, +even in our days, for any operator or master to have the angels speak +articulately; _when they do speak, it is like the Irish, much in the +throat_.' + +In June, 1660, Lilly was summoned before a Committee of the House of +Commons to answer to an inquiry concerning the executioner employed to +behead Charles I. Here is his account of the examination: + +'God's providence appeared very much for me that day, for walking in +Westminster Hall, Mr. Richard Pennington, son to my old friend, Mr. +William Pennington, met me, and inquiring the cause of my being there, +said no more, but walked up and down the Hall, and related my kindness +to his father unto very many Parliament men of Cheshire and +Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cumberland, and those northern counties, who +numerously came up into the Speaker's chamber, and bade me be of good +comfort; at last he meets Mr. Weston, one of the three [the two others +were Mr. Prinn and Colonel King] unto whom my matter was referred for +examination, who told Mr. Pennington that he came purposely to punish +me, and would be bitter against me; but hearing it related, namely, my +singular kindness and preservation of old Mr. Pennington's estate, to +the value of 6,000 or 7,000, "I will do him all the good I can," +says he. "I thought he had never done any good; let me see him, and +let him stand behind me where I sit." I did so. At my first +appearance, many of the young members affronted me highly, and +demanded several scurrilous questions. Mr. Weston held a paper before +his mouth; bade me answer nobody but Mr. Prinn; I obeyed his command, +and saved myself much trouble thereby; and when Mr. Prinn put any +difficult or doubtful query unto me, Mr. Weston prompted me with a fit +answer. At last, after almost one hour's tugging, I desired to be +fully heard what I could say as to the person who cut Charles I.'s +head off. Liberty being given me to speak, I related what follows, +viz.: + +'That the next Sunday but one after Charles I. was beheaded, Robert +Spavin, Secretary unto Lieutenant-General Cromwell at that time, +invited himself to dine with me, and brought Anthony Peirson and +several others along with him to dinner: that their principal +discourse all dinner-time was only who it was that beheaded the King. +One said it was the common hangman; another, Hugh Peters; others also +were nominated, but none concluded. Robert Spavin, so soon as dinner +was done, took me by the hand, and carried me to the south window: +saith he, "These are all mistaken, they have not named the man that +did the fact: it was Lieutenant-Colonel Joyce. I was in the room when +he fitted himself for the work, stood behind him when he did it; when +done, went in again with him. There is no man knows this but my +master, namely, Cromwell, Commissary Ireton, and myself." "Doth not +Mr. Rushworth know it?" said I. "No, he doth not know it," saith +Spavin. The same thing Spavin since had often related unto me when we +were alone. Mr. Prinn did, with much civility, make a report hereof in +the House; yet Norfolk, the Serjeant, after my discharge, kept me two +days longer in arrest, purposely to get money of me. He had six +pounds, and his messenger forty shillings; and yet I was attached but +upon Sunday, examined on Tuesday, and then discharged, though the +covetous Serjeant detained me until Thursday. By means of a friend, I +cried quittance with Norfolk, which friend was to pay him his salary +at that time, and abated Norfolk three pounds, which he spent every +penny at one dinner, without inviting the wretched Serjeant; but in +the latter end of the year, when the King's Judges were arraigned at +the Old Bailey, Norfolk warned me to attend, believing I could give +information concerning Hugh Peters. At the Sessions I attended during +its continuance, but was never called or examined. There I heard +Harrison, Scott, Clement, Peters, Harker, Scroop, and others of the +King's Judges, and Cook the Solicitor, who excellently defended +himself; I say, I did hear what they could say for themselves, and +after heard the sentence of condemnation pronounced against them by +the incomparably modest and learned Judge Bridgman, now Lord Keeper of +the Great Seal of England.' + +In spite of Spavin's circumstantial statement, as recorded by Lilly, +it is now conclusively established that the executioner of Charles I. +was Richard Brandon, the common executioner, who had previously +beheaded the Earl of Strafford. It is said that he was afterwards +seized with poignant remorse for the act, and died in great mental +suffering. His body was carried to the grave amid the execrations of +an excited and angry populace. + +Though our astrologer, as we have seen, was at heart a Royalist, his +services towards the Parliamentary cause were sufficiently conspicuous +to expose him after the Restoration to a good deal of persecution; and +he found it advisable to sue out his pardon under the Great Seal, +which cost him, as he takes care to tell us, 13 6s. 8d. + +He claimed to have foreseen the Restoration, and all the good things +which flowed--or were expected to have flowed--from that 'auspicious +event.' In page 111 of his 'Prophetical Merlin,' published in 1644, +dwelling upon three sextile aspects of Saturn and Jupiter made in 1659 +and 1660, he says: 'This, their friendly salutation, comforts us in +England: every man now possesses his own vineyard; our young youth +grow up unto man's estate, and our old men live their full years; our +nobles and gentlemen rest again; our yeomanry, many years +disconsolated, now take pleasure in their husbandry. The merchant +sends out ships, and hath prosperous returns; the mechanic hath quick +trading; here is almost a new world; new laws, new lords. Now any +county of England shall shed no more tears, but rejoice with and in +the many blessings God gives or affords her annually.' + +He also wrote, he says, to Sir Edward Walker, Garter King-at-Arms in +1659, when, by the way, the restoration of Charles II. was an event +that loomed in the near future, and was anticipated by every man of +ordinary political sagacity: 'Tu, Dominusque vester videbitis Angliam, +infra duos annis' (You and your Lord shall see England within two +years). 'For in 1662,' adds the arch impostor, in his strange +astrological jargon, 'his moon came by direction to the body of the +sun.' + +'_But he came in upon the ascendant directed unto the trine of Sol and +antiscion of Jupiter._' + +No doubt he did. Who would presume to contradict our English Merlin? + +In 1663 and 1664 he served as churchwarden--surely the first and last +astrologer who filled that respectable office--of Walton-upon-Thames, +settling as well as he could the affairs of that 'distracted parish' +upon his own charges. + +An absurdly frivolous accusation was brought against him in the year +1666. He was once more summoned before a Committee of the House of +Commons, because in his book, 'Monarchy or No Monarchy,' published in +1651, he had introduced sixteen plates, of which the eighth +represented persons digging graves, with coffins and other emblems of +mortality, and the thirteenth a city in flames. Hence it was inferred +that he must have had something to do with the Great Fire which had +destroyed so large a part of London, if not with the Plague, which had +almost depopulated it. The chairman, Sir Robert Burke, on his coming +into the Committee's presence, addressed him thus: + +'Mr. Lilly, this Committee thought fit to summon you to appear before +them this day, to know if you can say anything as to the cause of the +late Fire, or whether there might be any design therein. You are +called the rather hither, because in a book of yours, long since +printed, you hinted some such thing by one of your hieroglyphics.' + +Whereto Mr. Lilly replied, with a firm assumption of superior wisdom +and oracular knowledge: + +'May it please your Honours,--After the beheading of the late King, +considering that in the three subsequent years the Parliament acted +nothing which concerned the settlement of the nation in peace; and +seeing the generality of people dissatisfied, the citizens of London +discontented, the soldiery prone to mutiny, I was desirous, according +to the best knowledge God had given me, to make inquiry by the art I +studied, what might from that time happen unto the Parliament and +nation in general. At last, having satisfied myself as well as I +could, and perfected my judgment therein, I thought it most convenient +to signify my intentions and conceptions thereof in Forms, Shapes, +Types, Hieroglyphics, etc., without any commentary, that so my +judgment might be concealed from the vulgar, and made manifest only +unto the wise. I herein imitating the examples of many wise +philosophers who had done the like.' + +'Sir Robert,' saith one, 'Lilly is yet _sub vestibulo_.' + +'Having found, sir,' continued Lilly, 'that the city of London should +be sadly afflicted with a great plague, and not long after with an +exorbitant Fire, I framed those two hieroglyphics as represented in +the book, which in effect have proved very true.' + +'Did you foresee the year?' inquired a member of the Committee. + +'I did not,' said Lilly, 'nor was desirous; of that I made no +scrutiny. Now, sir,' he proceeded, 'whether there was any design of +burning the city, or any employed to that purpose, I must deal +ingenuously with you, that since the Fire, I have taken much pains in +the search thereof, but cannot or could not give myself any the least +satisfaction therein. I conclude, that it was the only finger of God; +but what instruments he used thereunto, I am ignorant.' + + * * * * * + +In 1665 Lilly finally left London, and settling down at Hersham, +applied himself to the study of medicine, in which he arrived at so +competent a degree of knowledge, assisted by diligent observation and +experiment, that, in October, 1670, on a testimonial from two +physicians of the College in London, he obtained from the Archbishop +of Canterbury a license to practise. In his new profession this +clever, plausible fellow was, of course, successful. Every Saturday he +rode to Kingston, whither the poorer sort flocked to him from all the +countryside, and he dispensed his advice and prescriptions freely and +without charge. From those in a better social position he now and then +took a shilling, and sometimes half a crown, if it were offered to +him; but he never demanded a fee. And, indeed, his charity towards the +poor seems to have been real and unaffected. He displayed the greatest +care in considering and weighing their particular cases, and in +applying proper remedies for their infirmities--a line of conduct +which gained him deserved popularity. + +Gifted with a robust constitution, he enjoyed good health far on into +old age. He seems to have had no serious illness until he was past his +seventy-second birthday, and from this attack he recovered completely. +In November, 1675, he was less fortunate, a severe attack of fever +reducing him to a condition of great physical weakness, and so +affecting his eyesight that thenceforward he was compelled to employ +the services of an amanuensis in drawing up his annual astrological +budget. After an attack of dysentery, in the spring of 1681, he became +totally blind; a few weeks later he was seized with paralysis; and on +June 9 he passed away, 'without any show of trouble or pangs.' + +He was buried, on the following evening, in the chancel of Walton +Church, where Elias Ashmole, a month later, placed a slab of fair +black marble ('which cost him six pounds four shillings and +sixpence'), with the following epitaph, in honour of his departed +friend: 'Ne Oblivione conteretur Urna GULIELMI LILLII, Astrologi +Peritissimi Qui Fatis cessit, Quinto Idus Junii, Anno Christi Juliano, +MDCLXXXI, Hoc illi posuit amoris Monumentum ELIAS ASHMOLE, Armiger.' +There is a pagan flavour about the phrases 'Qui Fatis cessit,' and +'Quinto Idus Junii,' and they read oddly enough within the walls of a +Christian church. + +There are two sides to every shield. As regards our astrologer, the +last of the English magicians who held a position of influence, let us +first take the silver side, as presented in the eulogistic verse of +Master George Smalridge, scholar at Westminster. Thus it is that he +describes his hero's capacity and potentiality. 'Our prophet's gone,' +he exclaims in lugubrious tones-- + + 'No longer may our ears + Be charmed with musick of th' harmonious spheres: + Let sun and moon withdraw, leave gloomy night + To show their Nuncio's fate, who gave more light + To th' erring world, than all the feeble rays + Of sun or moon; taught us to know those days + Bright Titan makes; followed the hasty sun + Through all his circuits; knew the unconstant moon, + And more constant ebbings of the flood; + And what is most uncertain, th' factious brood, + Flowing in civil broils: by the heavens could date + The flux and reflux of our dubious state. + He saw the eclipse of sun, and change of moon + He saw; but seeing would not shun his own: + Eclipsed he was, that he might shine more bright, + And only changed to give a fuller light. + He having viewed the sky, and glorious train + Of gilded stars, scorned longer to remain + In earthly prisons: could he a village love + Whom the twelve houses waited for above?' + +The other side of the shield is turned towards us by Butler, who, in +his 'Hudibras,' paints Lilly with all the dark enduring colours which +a keen wit could place at the disposal of political prejudice. When +Hudibras is unable to solve 'the problems of his fate,' Ralpho, his +squire, advises him to apply to the famous thaumaturgist. He says: + + 'Not far from hence doth dwell + A cunning man, hight Sidrophel, + That deals in Destiny's dark counsels, + And sage opinions of the Moon sells; + To whom all people, far and near, + On deep importances repair: + When brass and pewter hap to stray, + And linen slinks out o' the way; + When geese and pullen are seduced, + And sows of sucking pigs are choused; + When cattle feel indisposition, + And need th' opinion of physician; + When murrain reigns in hogs or sheep, + And chickens languish of the pip; + When yeast and outward means do fail, + And have no pow'r to work on ale; + When butter does refuse to come, + And love proves cross and humoursome; + To him with questions, and with urine, + They for discov'ry flock, or curing.' + +After this humorous _reductio ad absurdum_ of Lilly's pretensions as +an astrologer, the satirist proceeds to allude to his dealings with +the Puritan party: + + 'Do not our great Reformers use + This Sidrophel to forebode news; + To write of victories next year, + And castles taken, yet i' th' air? + Of battles fought at sea, and ships + Sunk, two years hence, the last eclipse?' + +The satirist then devotes himself to a minute exposure of Lilly's +pretensions: + + 'He had been long t'wards mathematics, + Optics, philosophy, and statics; + Magic, horoscopy, astrology, + And was old dog at physiology; + But as a dog that turns the spit + Bestirs himself, and plies his feet + To climb the wheel, but all in vain, + His own weight brings him down again, + And still he's in the self-same place + Where at his setting out he was; + So in the circle of the arts + Did he advance his nat'ral parts ... + Whate'er he laboured to appear, + His understanding still was clear; + Yet none a deeper knowledge boasted, + Since old Hodge Bacon and Bob Grosted.' + +(Robert Grostte, Bishop of Lincoln [_temp._ Henry III.], whose +learning procured him among the ignorant the reputation of being a +conjurer.) + + 'He had read Dee's prefaces before + The Dev'l and Euclid o'er and o'er; + And all th' intrigues 'twixt him and Kelly, + Lascus, and th' Emperor, would tell ye; + But with the moon was more familiar + Than e'er was almanack well-willer; + Her secrets understood so clear, + That some believed he had been there; + Knew when she was in fittest mood + For cutting corns or letting blood ...' + +Continuing his enumeration of the conjurer's various and versatile +achievements, the poet says he can-- + + 'Cure warts and corns with application + Of med'cines to th' imagination; + Fright agues into dogs, and scare + With rhymes the toothache and catarrh; + Chase evil spirits away by dint + Of sickle, horse-shoe, hollow flint; + Spit fire out of a walnut-shell, + Which made the Roman slaves rebel; + And fire a mine in China here + With sympathetic gunpowder. + He knew whats'ever's to be known, + But much more than he knew would own ... + How many diff'rent specieses + Of maggots breed in rotten cheese; + And which are next of kin to those + Engendered in a chandler's nose; + Or those not seen, but understood, + That live in vinegar and wood.' + +In the course of the long dialogue that takes place between Hudibras +and the astrologer, Butler contrives to introduce a clever and +trenchant exposure of the follies and absurdities, the impositions and +assumptions, of the art of magic. With reference to the pretensions of +astrologers, he observes that-- + + 'There's but the twinkling of a star + Between a man of peace and war, + A thief and justice, fool and knave, + A huffing officer and a slave, + A crafty lawyer and pick-pocket, + A great philosopher and a blockhead, + A formal preacher and a player, + A learn'd physician and man-slayer; + As if men from the stars did suck + Old age, diseases, and ill-luck, + Wit, folly, honour, virtue, vice, + Trade, travel, women, claps, and dice; + And draw, with the first air they breathe, + Battle and murder, sudden death. + Are not these fine commodities + To be imported from the skies, + And vended here among the rabble, + For staple goods and warrantable? + Like money by the Druids borrowed + In th' other world to be restored.' + +The character of Lilly is to some extent a problem, and I confess it +is not one of easy or direct solution. As I have already hinted, it is +always difficult to draw the line between conscious and unconscious +imposture--to determine when a man who has imposed upon himself begins +to impose upon others. But was Lilly self-deceived? Or was he openly +and knowingly a fraud and a cheat? For myself I cannot answer either +question in the affirmative. I do not think he was entirely innocent +of deception, but I also believe that he was not wholly a rogue. I +think he had a lingering confidence in the reality of his horoscopes, +his figures, his stellar prophecies; though at the same time he did +not scruple to trade on the credulity of his contemporaries by +assuming to himself a power and a capacity which he did not possess, +and knew that he did not possess. Despite his vocation, he seems to +have lived decently, and in good repute. The activity of his enemies +failed to bring against him any serious charges, and we know that he +enjoyed the support of men of light and leading, who would have stood +aloof from a common charlatan or a vulgar knave. He was, it is +certain, a very shrewd and quick observer, with a keen eye for the +signs of the times, and a wide knowledge of human nature; and his +success in his peculiar craft was largely due to this alertness of +vision, this practical knowledge, and to the ingenuity and readiness +with which he made use of all the resources at his command. + + +NOTE.--DR. DEE'S MAGIC CRYSTAL. + +Horace Walpole gives an amusing account of Kelly's famous crystal, and +of the useful part it played in a burglary committed at his house in +Arlington Street in the spring of 1771. At the time, he was taking his +ease at his Strawberry Hill villa, near Teddington, when a courier +brought him news of what had occurred. Writing to his friend, Sir +Horace Mann, March 22, he says: + +'I was a good quarter of an hour before I recollected that it was very +becoming to have philosophy enough not to care about what one does +care for; if you don't care, there is no philosophy in bearing it. I +despatched my upper servant, breakfasted, fed the bantams as usual, +and made no more hurry to town than Cincinnatus would if he had lost a +basket of turnips. I left in my drawers 270 of bank bills and three +hundred guineas, not to mention all my gold and silver coins, some +inestimable miniatures, a little plate, and a good deal of furniture, +under no guard but that of two maidens.... + +'When I arrived, my surprise was by no means diminished. I found in +three different chambers three cabinets, a large chest, and a glass +case of china wide open, the locks not picked, but forced, and the +doors of them broken to pieces. You will wonder that this should +surprise me, when I had been prepared for it. Oh, the miracle was that +I did not find, nor to this time have found, the least thing missing! +In the cabinet of modern medals there were, and so there are still, a +series of English coins, with downright John Trot guineas, +half-guineas, shillings, sixpences, and every kind of current money. +Not a single piece was removed. Just so in the Roman and Greek +cabinet, though in the latter were some drawers of papers, which they +had tumbled and scattered about the floor. A great exchequer desk, +that belonged to my father, was in the same room. Not being able to +force the lock, the philosophers (for thieves that steal nothing +deserve the title much more than Cincinnatus or I) had wrenched a +great flapper of brass with such violence as to break it into seven +pieces. The trunk contained a new set of chairs of French tapestry, +two screens, rolls of prints, and a suit of silver stuff that I had +made for the King's wedding. All was turned topsy-turvy, and nothing +stolen. The glass case and cabinet of shells had been handled as +roughly by these impotent gallants. Another little table with drawers, +in which, by the way, the key was left, had been opened too, and a +metal standish, that they ought to have taken for silver, and a silver +hand-candlestick that stood upon it, were untouched. Some plate in the +pantry, and all my linen just come from the wash, had no more charms +for them than gold or silver. In short, I could not help laughing, +especially as the only two movables neglected were another little +table with drawers and the money, and a writing-box with the +bank-notes, both in the same room where they made the first havoc. In +short, they had broken out a panel in the door of the area, and +unbarred and unbolted it, and gone out at the street-door, which they +left wide open at five o'clock in the morning. A passenger had found +it so, and alarmed the maids, one of whom ran naked into the street, +and by her cries waked my Lord Romney, who lives opposite. The poor +creature was in fits for two days, but at first, finding my +coachmaker's apprentice in the street, had sent him to Mr. Conway, who +immediately despatched him to me before he knew how little damage I +had received, the whole of which consists in repairing the doors and +locks of my cabinets and coffers. + +'All London is reasoning on this marvellous adventure, and not one +argument presents itself that some other does not contradict. I insist +that I have a talisman. You must know that last winter, being asked by +Lord Vere to assist in settling Lady Betty Germaine's auction, I found +in an old catalogue of her collection this article, "_The Black Stone +into which Dr. Dee used to call his spirits_." Dr. Dee, you must know, +was a great conjurer in the days of Queen Elizabeth, and has written a +folio of the dialogues he held with his imps. I asked eagerly for this +stone; Lord Vere said he knew of no such thing, but if found, it +should certainly be at my service. Alas, the stone was gone! This +winter I was again employed by Lord Frederick Campbell, for I am an +absolute auctioneer, to do him the same service about his father's +(the Duke of Argyll's) collection. Among other odd things, he produced +a round piece of shining black marble in a leathern case as big as the +crown of a hat, and asked me what that possibly could be? I screamed +out, "Oh, Lord! I am the only man in England that can tell you!... It +is Dr. Dee's 'Black Stone.'" It certainly is; Lady Betty had formerly +given away or sold, time out of mind, for she was a thousand years +old, that part of the Peterborough collection which contained natural +philosophy. So, or since, the Black Stone had wandered into an +auction, for the lotted paper was still on it. The Duke of Argyll, who +bought everything, bought it. Lord Frederick [Campbell] gave it to me; +and if it was not this magical stone, which is only of high-polished +coal, that preserved my chattels, in truth I cannot guess what +did.'[35] + +At the great Strawberry Hill sale, in 1842, which dispersed the +Walpole Collection, it was described in the catalogue as 'a singularly +interesting and curious relic of the superstition of our +ancestors--the celebrated _Speculum of Kennel Coal_, highly polished, +in a leathern case. It is remarkable for having been used to deceive +the mob (!) by the celebrated Dr. Dee, the conjurer, in the reign of +Queen Elizabeth,' etc. + +The authorities of the British Museum purchased this 'relic of the +superstition of our ancestors' for the sum of twelve guineas. It is +neither more nor less than what it has been described, a polished +piece of cannel-coal, and thus explains the allusion in Butler's +'Hudibras': + + 'Kelly did all his feats upon + The devil's looking-glass--a stone.' + +FOOTNOTE: + +[35] Horace Walpole (Earl of Orford), 'Letters,' v. 290, _et seq._ + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +ENGLISH ROSICRUCIANS. + + +It is not very easy to trace the origin of the Rosicrucian +Brotherhood. It is not easy, indeed, to get at the true derivation of +the name 'Rosicrucian.' Some authorities refer it to that of the +ostensible founder of the society, the mysterious Christian +Rosenkreuse, but who can prove that such an individual ever existed? +Others borrow it from the Latin word _ros_, dew, and _crux_, a cross, +and explain it thus: 'Dew,' of all natural bodies, was esteemed the +most powerful solvent of gold; and 'the cross,' in the old chemical +language, signified _light_, because the figure of a cross exhibits at +the same time the three letters which form the word _lux_. 'Now, lux +is called the seed, or menstruum, of the red dragon; or, in other +words, that gross and corporeal light, which, when properly digested +and modified, produces gold.' So that, according to this derivation, a +Rosicrucian is one who by the intervention and assistance of the 'dew' +seeks for 'light'--that is, the philosopher's stone. But such an +etymology is evidently too fanciful, and assumes too much to be +readily accepted, and we try a third derivation, namely, from _rosa_ +and _crux_; in support of which may be adduced the oldest official +documents of the brotherhood, which style it the 'Broederschafft des +Roosen Creutzes,' or Rose-Crucians, or 'Fratres Rosat Crucis;' while +the symbol of the order is 'a red rose on a cross.' Both the rose and +the cross possess a copious emblematic history, and their choice by a +secret society, which clothed its beliefs and fancies in allegorical +language, is by no means difficult to understand. 'The rose,' says +Eliphas Levi, in his 'Histoire de la Magie,' 'which from time +immemorial has been the symbol of beauty and life, of love and +pleasure, expressed in a mystical manner all the protestations of the +Renaissance. It was the flesh revolting against the oppression of the +spirit; it was Nature declaring herself to be, like Grace, the +daughter of God; it was Love refusing to be stifled by celibacy; it +was Life desiring to be no longer barren; it was Humanity aspiring to +a natural religion, full of love and reason, founded on the revelation +of the harmonies of existence of which the rose was for initiates the +living and blooming symbol....' The reunion of the rose and the +cross--such was the problem proposed by supreme initiation, and, in +effect, occult philosophy, being the universal synthesis, should take +into account all the phenomena of Being. It may be doubted, however, +whether this ingenious symbolism has anything at all to do with +Rosicrucianism; but it is not the less a fact that the rose and the +cross were chosen because they were recognised emblems. And probably +because the rose typified secrecy, while the cross was a protest +against the tyranny and superstition of the Papacy. + +We hear nothing of Rosicrucianism until the beginning of the +seventeenth century. The earlier alchemists knew nothing of its +theosophic doctrines; and the earlier Rosicrucians did not dabble in +alchemy. The connection between the two was established at a later +date; when the quest of the 'elixir of life' and the 'philosopher's +stone' was grafted upon the mysticism which had taken up the ancient +teaching of the Alexandrian Platonists, combining with it much of the +allegorical jargon of Paracelsus, and something of the theology of +Luther and the German Reformers. The antiquity claimed for the +brotherhood in the 'Fama Fraternitatis' is purely a myth. For my own +part, I must regard as its virtual founder--though he may not have +been its actual initiator--the celebrated Johann Valentine Andreas, +who with wide and profound learning united a lively imagination, and +was, moreover, a man of pure and lofty purpose. The regeneration of +humanity, the extirpation of the vices and follies which had sprung up +in the dark shadow of the medival Church, was the dream of his life; +and it is beyond doubt that he hoped to realize it by secret societies +bound together for the purpose of reforming the morals of the age and +inspiring men with a love of wisdom. This is proved by three of his +acknowledged works, namely, 'Reipublic Christianapolitan +Descriptio,' 'Turris Babel, sive Judiciorum de Fraternitate Rosace +Crucis Chaos,' and 'Christian Societatis Idea'; and I venture to +think, though Mr. Waite will not have it so, that the author of these +works was also the author of the 'Fama,' as well as of the 'Confessio +Fraternitatis' and the 'Nupt Chymic,' in which he gathered up all +the floating dreams and traditions bearing on his subject, and gave to +them a certain form and order, infusing into them a fascinating +poetical colouring, and inspiring them with his own idealistic +speculations. + +'Akin to the school of the ancient Fire-Believers,' says Ennemoser, +'and of the magnetists of a later period, of the same cast as those +speculators and searchers into the mysteries of Nature, drawing from +the same well, are the theosophists of the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries. These practised chemistry, by which they asserted they +could explore the profoundest secrets of Nature. As they strove, above +all earthly knowledge, after the Divine, and sought the Divine light +and fire, through which all men can acquire the true wisdom, they were +called the Fire-Philosophers (_philosophi per ignem_).' They were +identical with the Rosicrucians, and in the books of the later +Rosicrucians we meet with the same mysticism and transcendental +philosophy as in theirs. + +Whether we agree in accepting Andreas as the founder of the order, or +as simply its hierophant, we must admit that the rise of +Rosicrucianism dates from the publication of the 'Fama' and the +'Confessio Fraternitatis.' They produced an immense sensation, passed +through several editions, and were devoured by multitudes of eager +readers. 'In the library at Gottingen,' says De Quincey (adapting +from Professor Buhle), 'there is a body of letters addressed to the +imaginary order of Father Rosy Cross, from 1614 to 1617, by persons +offering themselves as members.... As certificates of their +qualifications, most of the candidates have enclosed specimens of +their skill in alchemy and cabalism.... Many other literary persons +there were at that day who forbore to write letters to the society, +but threw out small pamphlets containing their opinions of the order, +and of its place of residence.' + +It is not my business, however, to write a history of Rosicrucianism. +I have desired simply to say so much about its origin as will serve as +a preface to my account of the principal English members of the +brotherhood. The reader who would know more about its origin and +extension, its pretensions and professors, may consult Heckethorn's +'Secret Societies of all Ages and Countries,' Ennemoser's 'History of +Magic,' Thomas de Quincey's essay on 'Rosicrucians and Freemasons,' +and Arthur Edward Waite's 'Real History of the Rosicrucians.'[36] + +The greatest English Rosicrucian, and most distinguished of the +disciples of Paracelsus, was Robert Fludd (or Flood, or De Fluctibus), +a man of singular erudition, of great though misdirected capacity, and +of a vivid and fertile imagination. + +The second son of Sir Thomas Flood, Treasurer of War to Queen +Elizabeth, he was born at Milgate House, in the parish of Bersted, +Kent, in the year 1574. At the age of seventeen he was entered of St. +John's College, Oxford. His father had originally intended him for a +military life, but finding that his inclinations led him into the +peaceful paths of scholarship, he forbore to oppose them, and the +youth entered upon a particular study of medicine, which drew him, no +doubt, into a pursuit of alchemy and chemistry. Having graduated both +in the arts and sciences, he went abroad, and for six years travelled +over France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, making the acquaintance of the +principal Continental scholars, as well as of the enthusiasts who +belonged to the theosophic school of the divine Paracelsus, and the +adepts who dabbled in the secrets of the Cabala. Returning to England +in 1605, he became a member of the College of Physicians, and settled +down to practise in Coleman Street, London, where, about 1616, he was +visited by the celebrated German alchemist, Michael Maier. + +His active imagination stimulated by his knowledge of the Rosicrucian +doctrines, he resolved on revealing to his countrymen the true light +of science and wisdom. He had already, as a believer in the theory of +magnetism, introduced into England the celebrated 'weapon salve' of +Paracelsus, which healed the severest wound by sympathy--not being +applied to the wound itself, but to the weapon or instrument that had +caused it. The recipe, as formulated by Paracelsus, would hardly be +approved by modern practitioners: 'Take of moss growing on the head of +a thief who has been hanged and left in the air, of real mummy, of +human blood still warm, one ounce each; of human suet, two ounces; of +linseed-oil, turpentine, and Armenian bole, of each two drachms. Mix +together thoroughly in a mortar, and keep the salve in a narrow oblong +urn.' This, or, I presume, some similar compound, Fludd tried with +success in several cases, and no wonder; for while the sword was +anointed and put away, the wound was well washed and carefully +bandaged--a process which has been known to succeed in our own day +without the intervention of any salve whatever! Fludd contended that +every disease might be cured by the magnet if it were properly +applied; but that as every man had, like the earth, a north pole and a +south, magnetism could be produced only when his body occupied a +boreal position. The salve, at all events, grew into instant favour. +Among other believers in its virtues was Sir Kenelm Digby, who, +however, converted the salve into a powder, which he named 'the powder +of sympathy.' But it had its incredulous opponents, of whom the most +strenuous was a certain Pastor Foster, who published an invective +entitled 'Hyplocrisma Spongus; or, A Sponge to Wipe Away the Weapon +Salve,' and affirmed that it was as bad as witchcraft to use or +recommend such an unguent, that its inventor, the devil, would at the +Last Day claim every person who had meddled with it. 'The devil,' he +said, 'gave it to Paracelsus, Paracelsus to the Emperor, the Emperor +to a courtier, the courtier to Baptista Porta, and Baptista Porta to +Doctor Fludd, a doctor of physic, yet living and practising in the +famous city of London, who now stands tooth and nail for it.' Tooth +and nail Dr. Fludd met his adversary, and the public were infinitely +amused by the vehemence of his style in his pamphlet, 'The Spunging of +Parson Foster's Spunge; wherein the Spunge-carrier's immodest Carriage +and Behaviour towards his Brethren is detected; the bitter Flames of +his Slanderous Reports are, by the sharp Vinegar of Truth, corrected +and quite extinguished; and, lastly, the Virtuous Validity of his +Spunge in wiping away the Weapon Salve, is crushed out and clean +abolished.' + +In all the dreams of the medival philosophy--in the philosopher's +stone and the stone philosophic, in the universal alkahest, in the +magical 'elixir vit'--Dr. Fludd was a serious believer. It was a +favourite hypothesis of his that all things depended on two +principles--_condensation_, or the boreal principle, and _rarefaction_, +the southern or austral. The human body, he averred, was governed by a +number of demons, whom he distributed over a rhomboidal figure. +Further, he taught that every disease had its own particular demon, the +evil influence of which could be neutralized only by the assistance of +the demon placed opposite to it in the rhomboid. The doctrines of the +Rosicrucian brotherhood he defended with a charming enthusiasm, and +when they had been attacked by Libavius and others, he set them forth +in what he conceived to be their true light in his 'Apologia +Compendiaria Fraternitatem de Rosea-Cruce suspicionis et infami +Maculis Aspersam,' etc. (published at Leyden in 1616)--a work which +entitles him to be regarded as the high-priest of their mysteries. It +was severely criticised, however, by contemporary men of science, as by +Kepler, Gassendus (in his 'Epistolica Exercitatio'), and Mersenne, +whose searching analysis of the pretensions of the fraternity provoked +from Fludd an elaborate reply, entitled 'Summum Bonum, quod est Magi, +Cabal, Alchemi, Fratrum Rose-Crucis verorum, et adversus Mersenium +Calumniatorem.'[37] + +In addition to the foregoing works, Fludd gave to the world: + +1. 'Utriusque Cosmi, Majoris et Minoris, Technica Historia,' 2 vols., +folio, Oppenheim, 1616; 2. 'Tractatus Apologeticus Integritatem +Societatis de Rosea-Cruce Defendens,' Leyden, 1617; 3. 'Monochordon +Mundi Symphoniacum, seu Replicatio ad Apologiam Johannis Kepleri,' +Frankfort, 1620; 4. 'Anatomi Amphitheatrum effigie triplici +Designatum,' Frankfort, 1623; 5. 'Philosophia Sacra et vere +Christiana, seu Meteorologica Cosmica,' Frankfort, 1626; 6. 'Medicina +Catholica, seu Mysterium Artis Medicandi Sacrarium,' Frankfort, 1631; +7. 'Integrum Morborum Mysterium,' Frankfort, 1631; 8. 'Clavis +Philosophi et Alchymi,' Frankfort, 1633; 9. 'Philosophia Mosaica,' +Goudac, 1638; and 10. 'Pathologia Dmoniaca,' Goudac, 1640. + +The last two treatises were posthumous publications. Fludd died in +London in 1637, and was buried in Bersted Church, where an imposing +monument perpetuates his memory. It represents him seated, with his +hand on a book, from the perusal of which his head has just been +lifted. Just below are two volumes (there were eight originally) in +marble, inscribed respectively, 'Mysterium Cabalisticum' and +'Philosophia Sacra.' The epitaph runs as follows: 'viii. Die Mensis +vii. A{o} D{ni}, M.D.C.XXXVII. Odoribvs vana vaporat crypta tegit +cineres nee speciosa tros qvod mortale minvs tibi. Te committimvs vnvm +ingenii vivent hic monvmenti tvi nam tibi qvi similis scribit +moritvrqve sepvlchrvm pro tota eternvm posteritate facit. Hoc +monvmentvm Thomas Flood Gore Courti in-coram apud Cantianos armiger +infoelicissimum in charissimi patrvi svi memoriam erexit die Mensis +Avgvsti, M.D.C.XXXVII.' + +I shall not weary the reader with an analysis of any of Fludd's +elaborately mystical productions. They are as dead as anything can be, +and no power that I know of could breathe into them the breath of +life. But I may quote a few specimen or sample sentences, so to speak, +which will afford an idea of their style and tone: + +'Particulars are frequently fallible, but universal never. Occult +philosophy lays bare Nature in her complete nakedness, and alone +contemplates the wisdom of universals by the eyes of intelligence. +Accustomed to partake of the rivers which flow from the Fountain of +Life, it is unacquainted with grossness and with clouded waters.' + +In reference to Music, which he says stands in the same relation to +arithmetic as medicine to natural philosophy, he revives the +Pythagorean idea of the harmony of the universe: 'What is this music +(of men) compared with that deep and true music of the wise, whereby +the proportions of natural things are investigated, the harmonical +concord and the qualities of the whole world are revealed, by which +also connected things are bound together, peace established between +conflicting elements, and whereby each star is perpetually suspended +in its appointed place by its weight and strength, and by the harmony +of its herent spirit.' + +_Light._--'Nothing in this world can be accomplished without the +mediation or divine act of light.' + +_Magic._--'That most occult and secret department of physics, by which +the mystical properties of natural substances are extracted, we term +Natural Magic. The wise kings who (led by the new star from the east) +sought the infant Christ, are called Magi, because they had attained a +perfect knowledge of natural things, whether celestial or sublunar. +This branch of the Magi also includes Solomon, since he was versed in +the arcane virtues and properties of all substances, and is said to +have understood the nature of every plant, from the cedar to the +hyssop. Magicians who are proficient in the mathematical division +construct marvellous machines by means of their geometrical knowledge; +such were the flying dove of Archytas, and the brazen heads of Roger +Bacon and Albertus Magnus, which are said to have spoken. Venefic +magic is familiar with potions, philtres, and with the various +preparations of poisons; it is, in a measure, included in the natural +division, because a knowledge of the properties of natural things is +requisite to produce its results. Necromantic magic is divided into +Gotic, maleficent, and theurgic. The first consists in diabolical +commerce with unclean spirits, in rites of criminal curiosity, in +illicit songs and invocations, and in the invocation of the souls of +the dead. The second is the adjuration of the devils by the virtue of +Divine names. The third pretends to be governed by good angels and the +Divine will, but its wonders are most frequently performed by evil +spirits, who assume the names of God and of the angels. This +department of necromancy can, however, be performed by natural powers, +definite rites and ceremonies, whereby celestial and Divine virtues +are reconciled and drawn to us; the ancient Magi formulated in their +secret books many rules of this doctrine. The last species of magic is +the thaumaturgic, begetting illusory phenomena; by this art the Magi +produced their phantasms and other marvels.' + +_The Creation._--'According to Fludd's philosophy,' says Mr. Waite, +'the whole universe was fashioned after the pattern of an archetypal +world which existed in the Divine ideality, and was framed out of +unity in a threefold manner. The Eternal Monad or Unity, without any +regression from His own central profundity, compasses complicitly the +three cosmical dimensions, namely, root, square, and cube. If we +multiply unity as a root, in itself, it will produce only unity for +its square, which being again multiplied in itself, brings forth a +cube, which is one with root and square. Thus we have three branches +differing in formal progression, yet one unity in which all things +remain potentially, and that after a most abstruse manner. The +archetypal world was made by the egression of one out of one, and by +the regression of that one, so emitted into itself by emanation. +According to this ideal image, or archetypal world, our universe was +subsequently fashioned as a true type and exemplar of the Divine +Pattern; for out of unity in His abstract existence, viz., as it was +hidden in the dark chaos, or potential mass, the bright flame of all +formal being did shine forth, and the spirit of wisdom, proceeding +from them both, conjoined the formal emanation with the potential +matter, so that by the union of the divine emanation of light, and the +substantial darkness, which was water, the heavens were made of old, +and the whole world.'[38] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[36] See also Louis Figuier's 'L'Alchimie et les Alchimistes,' a +popular and agreeable survey; and the more erudite work of Professor +Buhle. + +[37] This is sometimes ascribed to Joachim Fritz, but no one can doubt +that virtually it is Fludd's, who accompanied it with a defence of his +general philosophical teaching, entitled 'Sophi cum Mori Certamen.' +But whose was 'the Wisdom,' and whose 'the Folly'? + +[38] Waite, 'History of the Rosicrucians,' p. 385. + + +THOMAS VAUGHAN. + +Another English Rosicrucian to whom allusion must briefly be made is +Thomas Vaughan, who in his writings assumes the more classical +appellation of Eugenius Philalethes ('truth-lover'), and in his +travels was known as Carnobius in Holland, and Doctor Zheil in +America. He was born about 1612; was educated at Oxford; wandered +afterwards through many countries; embraced the delusions of alchemy +and the Rosy Cross; accreted round his personality a number of wild +and extravagant stories; and finally disappeared into such complete +oblivion that the time and place of his death are alike unknown. + +The writings attributed to him are: 1. 'Anthroposophia Magica; or, A +Discourse of the Nature of Man and his State after Death;' and 'Anima +Magica Abscondita; or, A Discourse of the Universall Spirit of +Nature,' London, 1650. 2. 'Magia Adamica; or, The Antiquities of +Magic,' same place and date. 3. 'The Man-Mouse taken in a Trap;' a +reply to Henry More, who had criticised his 'Anthroposophia Magica.' +4. 'Lumen de Lumine; or, A New Magicall Light discovered and +communicated to the World,' London, 1651. 5. 'The Second Wash; or, The +Moor Scoured Once More, being a charitable Cure for the Distractions +of Abazonomastix' [Henry More], London, 1651. 6. 'The Fame and +Confession of the Fraternity of R. C., with a Preface annexed thereto, +and a short declaration of their physicall work,' London, 1652. 7. +'Euphrates; or, The Waters of the East, being a Short Discourse of +that Great Fountain whose water flows from Fire, and carries in it the +beams of the Sun and Moon,' London, 1656. 8. 'A Brief Natural +History,' London, 1669. And 9. 'Introitus Apertus ad Occlusum Regis +Palatium. Philaleth Tractatus Tres: i. Metallorum Metamorphosis; ii. +Brevis Manductio ad Rubrium Coelestem; iii. Fons Chymic Veritatis,' +London, 1678. + +Vaughan seems to have led a wandering life, and to have fallen 'often +into great perplexities and dangers from the mere suspicion that he +possessed extraordinary secrets.' The suspicion, I should say, was +abundantly justified, since he made gold at will, and knew the +composition of the wonderful elixir! On one occasion, he tells us, he +went to a goldsmith, desiring to sell him twelve hundred marks' worth +of gold; but the goldsmith at first sight pronounced that it had never +come out of any mine, but was the production of art, seeing that it +was not of the standard of any known kingdom. Vaughan adds that he was +so confounded at this statement--though, surely, he must have expected +it--that he at once departed, _leaving the gold behind him_. But the +strangest part of his history is, that a writer in 1749 speaks of him +as living _then_, at the respectable old age of 137. 'A person of +great credit at Nuremberg, in Germany, affirms that he conversed with +him but a year or two ago. Nay, it is further asserted that this very +individual is the president of the Illuminated in Europe, and that he +sits as such in all their annual meetings.' Mayhap he is sitting at +them still! Only if he have discovered, not only the secret of the +transmutation of metals, but that of the indefinite prolongation of +life, is it not cruelly selfish of him to withhold it--we will not say +from the world at large, which deserves to be punished for its +scepticism and incredulity, but from the members of his own +fraternity? + + +JOHN HEYDON. + +The English Rosicrucians are few in number--_rari gurgite in vasto +nantes_--and when I have added John Heydon to Vaughan and Fludd, I +shall have named the most distinguished. Heydon was the author of 'The +Wise Man's Crown; or, The Glory of the Rosie Cross' (1664); 'The Holy +Guide, leading the Way to Unite Art and Nature, with the Rosie Cross +Uncovered' (1662); and 'A New Method of Rosicrucian Physic; by John +Heydon, the Servant of God and the Secretary of Nature' (1658). In the +last-named he describes himself as an attorney--who will not pity his +clients, if he had any?--practising at Westminster Hall all term times +as long as he lived, and in the vacations devoting himself to +alchemical and Rosicrucian speculation. His introduction ('An Apologue +for an Epilogue') is full of such outrageous nonsense as to suggest +suspicion of his sanity. He speaks of Moses, Elias, and Ezekiel as the +prophets and founders of Rosicrucianism. Its present believers, he +says, may be few in number, but their position is incomparably +glorious. They are the eyes and ears of the great King of the +universe, seeing all things and hearing all things; they are +seraphically illuminated; they belong to the holy company of embodied +souls and immortal angels; they can assume any shape at will, and +possess the power of working miracles. They can walk in the air, +banish epidemics from stricken cities, pacify the most violent storms, +heal every disease, and turn all metals into gold. He had known, he +says, two illustrious brethren, named Williams and Walford, and had +seen them perform miracles--a statement which brands him either as a +knave or a dupe. 'I desired one of them to tell me,' he says, 'whether +my complexion were capable of the society of my good genius. "When I +see you again," said he (which was when he pleased to come to me, for +I knew not where to go to him), "I will tell you." When I saw him +afterwards, he said: "You should pray to God: for a good and holy man +can offer no greater or more acceptable service to God than the +oblation of himself--his soul." He said also, that the good genii were +the benign eyes of God, running to and fro in the world, and with love +and pity beholding the innocent endeavours of harmless and +single-hearted men, ever ready to do them good and to help them.' + +Heydon advocated, without enforcing his precepts by example, the +Rosicrucian dogma, that men could live without eating and drinking, +affirming that all of us could exist in the same manner as the +singular people dwelling near the source of the Ganges, described by +his namesake, Sir Christopher Heydon[39] (but certainly by no other +traveller), who had no mouths, and therefore could not eat, but lived +by the breath of their nostrils--except when they went on a far +journey, and then, to recuperate their strength, they inhaled the +scent of flowers. He dilated on the 'fine foreign fatness' which +characterized really pure air--the air being impregnated with it by +the sunbeams--and affirmed that it should suffice for the nourishment +of the majority of mankind. He was not unwilling, however, that people +with gross appetites should eat animal food, but declared it to be +unnecessary for them, and that a much more efficacious mode would be +to use the meat, nicely cooked, as a plaster on the pit of the +stomach. By adopting this external treatment, they would incur no risk +of introducing diseases, as they did by the broad and open gate of the +mouth, as anyone might see by the example of drink; for so long as a +man sat in water, he knew no thirst. He had been acquainted--so he +declared--with many Rosicrucians who, by using wine as a bath, had +fasted from solid food for several years. And, as a matter of fact, +one might fast all one's life, though prolonged for 300 years, if one +ate no meat, and so avoided all risk of infection by disease. + +Growing confidential in reference to his imaginary fraternity, he +states that its chiefs always carried about with them their symbol, +the R.C., an ebony cross, flourished and decked with roses of gold; +the cross typifying Christ's suffering for the sins of mankind, and +the golden roses the glory and beauty of His Resurrection. This symbol +was carried in succession to Mecca, Mount Calvary, Mount Sinai, Haran, +and three other places, which I cannot pretend to identify--Casele, +Apamia, and Chaulateau Viciosa Caunuch: these were the meeting-places +of the brotherhood. + +'The Rosie Crucian Physick or Medicines,' says this bravely-mendacious +gentleman, 'I happily and unexpectedly light upon in Arabia, which +will prove a restoration of health to all that are afflicted with +sickness which we ordinarily call natural, and all other diseases. +These men have no small insight into the body: Walford, Williams, and +others of the Fraternity now living, may bear up in the same likely +equipage with those noble Divine Spirits their Predecessors; though +the unskilfulness in men commonly acknowledges more of supernatural +assistance in hot, unsettled fancies, and perplexed melancholy, than +in the calm and distinct use of reason; yet, for mine own part, I look +upon these Rosie Crucians above all men truly inspired, and more than +any that professed themselves so this sixteen hundred years, and I am +ravished with admiration of their miracles and transcendant mechanical +inventions, for the solving the Phnomenon of the world. I may, +without offence, therefore, compare them with Bezaliel, Aholiab, those +skilful workers of the Tabernacle, who, as Moses testifies, were +filled with the Spirit of God, and therefore were of an excellent +understanding to find out all manner of curious work.' + +The plain fact is that Heydon's books are _fictions_--purely +imaginative work, based on some rough and ready knowledge of the old +alchemy and the new magic; partly allegorical and mystical, such as a +quick invention might readily conceive under the influence of +theosophic study, and partly borrowed from Henry More, and other +writers of the same stamp. The island inhabited by Rosicrucians, which +he describes in the introduction to 'The Holy Guide,' was evidently +suggested by Sir Thomas More's 'Utopia,' and Bacon's 'New Atlantis.' +It would be easy to point out his obligations elsewhere. + +I may add, in bringing this chapter to a close, that Dr. Edmund +Dickenson, one of Charles II.'s physicians, professed to be a member +of the brotherhood, and wrote a book upon one of their supposed +doctrines, entitled 'De Quinta Essentia Philosophorum,' which was +printed at Oxford in 1686. + + * * * * * + +Whatever may be our opinion of Rosicrucianism, which, I believe, still +finds some believers and adepts in this country, we must acknowledge +that the literature of poetry and fiction is indebted to it +considerably. The machinery of Pope's exquisite poem, 'The Rape of the +Lock,' was borrowed from Paracelsus and Jacob Bhmen--not directly, it +is true, but through the medium of the Abb de Villars' sparkling +romance, 'Le Comte de Gabalis.' 'According to those gentlemen,' says +Pope, 'the four elements are inhabited by spirits, which they call +sylphs, gnomes, nymphs, and salamanders.' + +The Rosicrucian water-nymph supplied La Motte Fouqu with the idea of +that graceful and lovely creation, 'Undine,' and Sir Walter Scott has +invested his 'White Lady of Avenel' with some of her attributes. + +William Godwin's romance of 'St. Leon' turns on the Rosicrucian fancy +of immortal life; while Lord Lytton's 'Zanoni' is practically a +Rosicrucian fiction. The influence of the Rosicrucian writers is also +apparent in the same author's 'A Strange Story.' + +FOOTNOTE: + +[39] Author of 'A Defence of Judiciall Astrologie,' printed at +Cambridge in 1603. + + + + +BOOK II. + +_WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT._ + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +EARLY HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT IN ENGLAND. + + +To various conspicuous and easily intelligible causes the witch and +the warlock, like the necromancer and the astrologer, owed their power +with the multitude. First, there was the eager desire which humanity +not unnaturally feels to tear aside the veil of Isis, and obtain some +knowledge of that Other World which is hidden so completely from it. +Next must be taken into account man's greed for temporal advantages, +his anxiety to direct the course of events to his personal benefit; +and, lastly, his malice against his fellows. Thus we see that the +influence enjoyed by the sorcerer and the magician had its origin in +the unlawful passions of humanity, in whose history the pages that +treat of witches and witchcraft are painful and humiliating reading. + +To define the limit between the special functions of the magician and +the witch is somewhat difficult, more especially as the position of +the witch gradually decreased in reputation and importance. There is a +great gulf between the witch of Endor, or the witch of classical +antiquity, or the witch of the Norse Sagas, or the witch of the +Saxons, and the English or Scottish witch of the sixteenth and +seventeenth centuries. The former were surrounded with an atmosphere +of dread and mystery; the latter was the creature of vulgar and +commonplace traditions. In the early age of witchcraft, the witch, +like the magician, summoned spirits from the vasty deep, discovered +the hiding-places of concealed treasures, struck down men or beasts by +her spells, or covered the heavens with clouds and let loose the winds +of destruction and desolation. Both could blight the promise of the +harvest, baffle the plans of their enemies, or wither the health of +their victims. But while the magician was frequently a man of ability +and learning, and belonged to the cultured classes, the witch was +almost always a woman of the lower orders, ignorant and uneducated, +though occasionally ladies of high rank, and even ecclesiastics, have +been accused of practising witchcraft. + +While witchcraft was a power in the land, the witch, or warlock, was +popularly supposed to be the direct instrument, and, indeed, the +bond-slave, of the Evil One, fulfilling his behests in virtue of a +compact, written in letters of blood, by which the witch made over her +soul to the Infernal Power in return for the enjoyment of supernatural +prerogatives for a fixed period. This treaty having been concluded, +the witch received a mark on some part of the body, which was +thenceforward insensible of pain--the stigma or devil's mark, by which +he might know his own again. A familiar imp or spirit was assigned to +her, generally in the form of an animal, and more particularly in that +of a black cat or dog. Round this general idea were gathered a number +of horrible and unclean conceptions, on which, happily, it will not be +necessary to enlarge. The devil, it was said, resorted to carnal +communication with his servants, being denominated _succubus_ when the +favourite was a female, and _incubus_ when a male was chosen. It was +alleged, too, that on certain occasions the devil, with his familiars, +and the great company of witches and warlocks whose souls he had +bought, assembled in the dead of night in some remote and savage +wilderness, to hold that frightful carnival of the Witches' Sabbat +which Goethe has depicted so powerfully in the second part of 'Faust.' +The human imagination has not invented, I think, any scene more +horrible, more degrading, or more bestial. We may suppose, however, +that it was not conceived by any single mind, or even people, or in +any single generation, but that it gradually took up additional +details from different nations, at different times, until it was +developed into the terrible whole presented by the medival writers. + +This wild and awful revel was called the Sabbat because it took place +after midnight on Friday; that is, on the Jewish Sabbath--a curious +illustration of the popular antipathy against the Jews. + +The spot where it was held never bloomed again with flower or herb; +the burning feet of the demons blighted it for ever. + +Witch or warlock who failed to obey the summons of the master was +lashed by devils with rods made of scorpions or serpents, in +chastisement of his or her contumacy. + +The guests repaired thither, according to the belief entertained in +France and England, upon broomsticks; but in Spain and Italy it was +thought that the devil himself, in the shape of a goat, conveyed them +on his back, which he contracted or elongated according to the number +he carried. The witch, when starting on her aerial journey, would not +quit her house by door or window; but astride on her broomstick made +her exit by the chimney. During her absence, to prevent the suspicions +of her neighbours from being aroused, an inferior demon assumed the +semblance of her person, and lay in her bed, pretending to be ill or +asleep. + +A curious story may here be introduced. In April, 1611, a Provenal +cur, named Gaurifidi, was accused of sorcery before the Parliament of +Aix. In the course of trial much was said in proof of the power of the +demons. Several witnesses asserted that Gaurifidi, after rubbing +himself with a magic oil, repaired to the Sabbat, and afterwards +returned to his chamber down the chimney. One day, when this sort of +thing was exciting the imagination of the judges, an extraordinary +noise was heard in the chimney of the hall, terminating suddenly in +the apparition of a tall black man, who shook his head vigorously. The +judges, thinking the devil had come in person to the rescue of his +servant, took to their heels, with the exception of one Thorm, the +reporter, who was so hemmed in by his desk that he was unable to move. +Terror-stricken at the sight before him, with his body all of a +tremble, and his eyes starting from his head, he made repeated signs +of the cross, until the supposed fiend was equally alarmed, since he +could not understand the cause of the reporter's evident perturbation. +On recovering from his embarrassment he made himself known--he was a +sweep, who had been operating on a chimney on the roof above, but, +when ready to return, had mistaken the entrance, and thus unwillingly +intruded himself into the chamber of the Parliament. + + * * * * * + +The unclean ceremonies of the Witches' Sabbat were 'inaugurated' by +Satan, who, in his favourite assumption of a huge he-goat (a +suggestion, no doubt, from Biblical imagery), with one face in front, +and another between his haunches, took his place upon his throne. +After all present had done homage by kissing him on the posterior +face, he appointed a master of the ceremonies, and, attended by him, +made a personal examination of any guest to ascertain if he or she +bore the stigma, which indicated his right of ownership. Any who were +found without it received the mark at once from the master of the +ceremonies, while the devil bestowed on them a nickname. Thereafter +all began to dance and sing with wild extravagance-- + + 'There is no rest to-night for anyone: + When one dance ends another is begun'-- + +until some neophyte arrived, and sought admission into the circle of +the initiated. Silence prevailed while the newcomer went through the +usual form of denying her salvation, spitting upon the Bible, kissing +the devil, and swearing obedience to him in all things. The dancing +then renewed its fury, and a hoarse chorus went up of-- + + 'Alegremos, alegremos, + Que gente va tenemos!' + +When spent with the violent exercise, they sat down, and, like the +witches in 'Macbeth,' related the evil things each had done since the +last Sabbat, those who had not been sufficiently active being +chastised by Satan himself until they were drenched in blood. A dance +of toads was the next entertainment. They sprang up out of the earth +by thousands, and danced on their hind-legs while Satan played on the +bagpipes or the trumpet, after which they solicited the witches to +reward them for their exertions by feeding them _with the flesh of +unbaptized babes_. Was there ever a more curious mixture of the +grotesque and the horrible? At a stamp from the devil's foot they +returned to the earth whence they came, and a banquet was served up, +the nature of which the reader may be left to imagine! Dancing was +afterwards resumed, while those who had no partiality for the pastime +found amusement in burlesquing the sacrament of baptism, the toads +being again summoned and sprinkled with holy water, while the devil +made the sign of the cross, and the witches cried out in chorus: 'In +nomine Patric, Aragueaco Patrica, agora, agora! Valentia, jurando +gome guito goustia!' that is, 'In the name of Patrick, Patrick of +Aragon now, now, all our ills are over!' + +Sometimes the devil would cause the witches to strip themselves, and +dance before him in their nakedness, each with a cat tied round her +neck, and another suspended from her body like a tail. At cockcrow the +whole phantasmagoria vanished. + +One cannot help wondering who first conceived the idea of these horrid +saturnalia. Did it spring from the diseased imagination of some +half-mad monk, brooding in the solitude of his silent cell, who +gathered up all these unclean and grim images and worked them into so +ghastly a picture? They are partly heathen, partly Christian; partly +classical, partly Teutonic--a strange and unwholesome compound, as +'thick and slab' as the hell-broth mixed by the hags on 'the blasted +heath'! + +In these pages I am concerned only with our own 'tight little island,' +into which the superstition was most certainly introduced by the +northern invaders. It would derive strength and consistency from the +teaching of the Old Testament, which distinctly recognises the +existence of witchcraft. 'Let not a witch live!' is the command given +in Exodus (chapter xxii.); and similar threats against witches, +wizards and the like frequently occur in the books of Leviticus and +Deuteronomy. Says Sir William Blackstone: 'To deny the possibility, +nay, the actual existence of witchcraft and sorcery, is at once flatly +to contradict the revealed Word of God in various passages of the Old +and New Testaments, and the thing itself is a truth to which every +nation in the world hath, in its turn, borne testimony, either by +example seemingly well attested, or by prohibitory laws, which at +least suppose the possibility of a commerce with evil spirits.' The +Church at a very early period admitted its existence, and fulminated +against all who practised it. The fourth canon of the Council of +Auxerre, in 525, stringently prohibited all resort to sorcerers, +diviners, augurs, and the like. A canon of the Council held at +Berkhampstead in 696 condemned to corporal punishment, or mulcted in a +fine, every person who made sacrifices to the evil spirits. Under the +name of _sortilegium_, the offence was treated eventually as a kind of +heresy, for which, on the first occasion, the offender, if penitent, +was punished by the Ecclesiastical Courts; but if there were no +abjuration, or a relapse after abjuration, she was handed over to the +secular power to be executed by authority of the writ _de heretico +comburendo_. At a later date, statutes against witchcraft were enacted +by Parliament, and the offence was both tried and punished by the +civil power. Such statutes were passed in the reigns of Henry VIII., +Elizabeth, and James I. Legislation derives its chief support from +public opinion; and these statutes are a proof that the existence of +witchcraft was generally believed in. 'For centuries in this country,' +says Mr. Inderwick, 'strange as it may now appear, a denial of the +existence of such demoniacal agency was deemed equal to a confession +of atheism, and to a disbelief in the Holy Scriptures themselves. Not +only did Lord Chancellors, Lord Keepers, benches of Bishops, and +Parliament after Parliament attest the truth and the existence of +witchcraft, but Addison, writing as late as 1711, in the pages of the +_Spectator_, after describing himself as hardly pressed by the +arguments on both sides of this question, expresses his own belief +that there is, and has been, witchcraft in the land.' At the same +time, it is pleasant to remember that there have almost always been a +few minds, bolder and more enlightened than the rest, to protest +against a credulity which led to acts of the greatest inhumanity, and +fostered a grotesque and dangerous superstition. + +It is in the twelfth century that we first obtain, in England, any +distinct indications of the nature of this superstition, and it is +then we first meet with the written compact between the devil and his +victim. The story of the old woman of Berkeley, with which Southey's +ballad has made everybody familiar, is related by William of +Malmesbury, on the authority of a friend who professed to have been an +eye-witness of the facts. When the devil, we read, announced to the +witch that the term of her compact had nearly expired, she summoned to +her presence the monks of the neighbouring monastery and her children, +confessed her sins, acknowledged her criminal compact, and displayed a +curious anxiety lest Satan should secure her body as well as her soul. +'Sew me in a stag's hide,' she said, 'and, placing me in a stone +coffin, shut me in with lead and iron. Load this with a heavy stone, +and fasten down the whole with three iron chains. Let fifty psalms be +sung by night, and fifty masses be said by day, to baffle the power of +the demons, and if you can thus protect my body for three nights, on +the fourth day you may safely bury it in the ground.' These +precautions, though religiously observed, proved ineffectual. On the +first night the monks bravely resisted the efforts of the fiends, who, +however, on the second night, renewed the attack with increased +vehemence, burst open the gates of the monastery, and rent asunder two +of the chains which held down the coffin. On the third night, so +terrible was the hurly-burly, that the monastery shook to its +foundations, and the terror-stricken priests paused, aghast, in the +midst of their ministrations. Then the doors flew apart, and into the +sacred place stalked a demon, who rose head and shoulders above his +fellows. Stopping at the coffin, he, in a terrible voice, commanded +the dead to rise. The woman answered that she was bound by the third +chain: whereupon the demon put his foot on the coffin, the chain +snapped like a thread, the coffin-lid fell off, the witch arose, and +was hurried to the church-door, where the demon, mounting a huge black +horse, swung his victim on to the crupper, and galloped away into the +darkness with the swiftness of an arrow, while her shrieks resounded +through the air. + +There are many allusions in the old monastic chronicles which +illustrate the development of public opinion in reference to witches +and their craft. Thus, John of Salisbury describes the nocturnal +assemblies of the witches, the presence of Satan, the banquet, and the +punishment or reward of the guests according to the failure or +abundance of their zeal. William of Malmesbury tells us that on the +highroad to Rome dwelt a couple of beldams, of ill repute, who +enticed the weary traveller into their wretched hovel, and by their +incantations transformed him into a horse, a dog, or some other +animal--similar to the transformations we read of in Oriental +tales--and that this animal they sold to the first comer, in this way +picking up a tolerable livelihood. One day, a jongleur, or mountebank, +asked for a night's lodging, and when he disclosed his vocation to the +two hags, they informed him that they had an ass of remarkable +capacity, which, indeed, could do everything but speak, and that they +were willing to sell it. The sum asked was large, but the ass +displayed such wonderful intelligence that the jongleur gladly paid +it, and departed, taking with him the ass and a piece of advice from +the old women--not to let the ass go near running water. For some time +all went well, the ass became an immense attraction, and the jongleur +was growing passing rich, when, in one of his drunken fits, he allowed +the animal to escape. Running directly to the nearest stream, it +plunged in, and immediately resumed its original shape as a handsome +young man, who explained that he had been transformed by the spells of +the two crones. + +The first trial for witchcraft in England occurred in the tenth year +of King John, when, as recorded in the 'Abbreviatio Placitorum,' +Agnes, wife of Ado the merchant, accused one Gideon of the crime; but +he proved his innocence by the ordeal of red-hot iron. The first trial +which has been reported with any degree of particularity belongs to +the year 1324. Some citizens of Coventry, it would appear, had +suffered severely at the hands of the prior, who had been supported in +his exactions by the two Despensers, Edward II.'s unworthy favourites. +In revenge, they plotted the death of the prior, the favourites, and +the King. For this purpose they sought the assistance of a famous +magician of Coventry, named Master John of Nottingham, and his man, +Robert Marshall of Leicester. The conspiracy was revealed by the said +Robert Marshall, probably because his pecuniary reward was +unsatisfactory, and he averred that John of Nottingham and himself, +having agreed to carry out the desire of the citizens, the latter, on +Sunday, March 13, brought an instalment of the stipulated fee, +together with seven pounds of wax and two yards of canvas; that with +this wax he and his master made seven images, representing +respectively the King (with his crown), the two Despensers, the prior, +his caterer, and his steward, and one Richard de Lowe--the last named +being introduced merely as a lay-figure on which to test the efficacy +of the charm. + +The two wizards retired to an old ruined house at Shorteley Park, +about half a league from Coventry, where they remained at work for +several days, and about midnight on the Friday following Holy Cross +Day, the said Master John gave to the said Robert a sharp-pointed +leaden branch, and commanded him to insert it about two inches deep in +the forehead of the image representing Richard de Lowe, this being +intended as an experiment. It was done, and next morning Master John +sent his servant to Lowe's house to inquire after his condition, who +found him screaming and crying 'Harrow!' He had lost his memory, and +knew no one, and in this state he continued until dawn on the Sunday +before Ascension, when Master John withdrew the branch from the +forehead of the image and thrust it into the heart. There it remained +until the following Wednesday, when the unfortunate man expired. Such +was Robert Marshall's fable, as told before the judges; but apparently +it met with little credence, and the trial, after several +adjournments, fell to the ground. + +Wonderful stories are told by the later chroniclers of a certain Eudo +de Stella, who had acquired great notoriety as a sorcerer. William of +Newbury says that his 'diabolical charms' collected a large company of +disciples, whom he carried with him from place to place, adding to +their number wherever he stopped. At times he encamped in the heart of +a wood, where sumptuous tables were suddenly spread with all kinds of +dainty dishes and fragrant wines, and every wish breathed by the +meanest guest was immediately fulfilled. Some of Eudo's followers, +however, confided to our authority that there was a strange want of +solidity in these magically-supplied viands, and that though they ate +of them continually, they were never satisfied. But it appears that +whoever once tasted of the sorcerer's meats, or received from him a +gift, thereby became enrolled among his followers. And the chronicler +supplies this irrefutable proof: A knight of his acquaintance paid a +visit to the wizard, and endeavoured to turn him from his evil +practices. When he departed, Eudo presented his squire with a handsome +hawk, which the knight, observing, advised him to cast away. Not so +the squire: he rejoiced in his high-mettled bird; but they had +scarcely got out of sight of the wizard's camp before the hawk's +talons gripped him more and more closely, and at last it flew away +with him, and he was never more heard of. + +The trial of Dame Alicia Kyteler, or Le Poer, takes us across the +seas, but it furnishes too many interesting particulars to be entirely +ignored. Hutchinson informs us that, in 1324, Bishop de Ledrede, of +Ossory, in the course of a visitation of his diocese, came to learn +that, in the city of Kilkenny, there had long resided certain persons +addicted to various kinds of witchcraft; and that the chief offender +among them was a Dame Alicia Kyteler. As she was a woman of +considerable wealth, which might prove of great benefit to the Church, +the episcopal zeal blazed up strongly, and she and her accomplices +were ordered to be put upon their trial. + +The accusation against them was divided into seven distinct heads: + +First: That, in order to give effect to their sorcery, they were wont +altogether to deny the faith of Christ and of the Church for a year or +month, according as the object to be attained was greater or less, so +that during this longer or shorter period they believed in nothing +that the Church believed, and abstained from worshipping Christ's +body, from entering a church, from hearing Mass, and from +participating in the Sacrament. Second: That they propitiated the +demons with sacrifices of living animals, which they tore limb from +limb, and offered, by scattering them in cross-roads, to a certain +demon, Robert Artisson (_filius Artis_), who was 'one of the poorer +class of hell.' Third: That by their sorceries they sought responses +and oracles from demons. Fourth: That they used the ceremonies of the +Church in their nocturnal meetings, pronouncing, with lighted candles +of wax, sentence of excommunication even against the persons of their +own husbands, naming expressly every member, from the sole of the foot +to the top of the head, and at length extinguishing the candles with +the exclamation, 'Fi! fi! fi! Amen!' Fifth: That with the intestines +and other inner parts of cocks sacrificed to the demons, with 'certain +horrible worms,' various herbs, the nails of dead men, the hair, +brains, and clothes of children who had died unbaptized, and other +things too disgusting to mention, boiled in the skull of a certain +robber who had been beheaded, on a fire made of oak-sticks, they had +invented powders and ointments, and also candles of fat boiled in the +said skull, with certain charms, which things were to be instrumental +in exciting love or hatred, and in killing or torturing the bodies of +faithful Christians, and for various other unlawful purposes. Sixth: +That the sons and daughters of the four husbands of the same Dame +Alice had made their complaint to the Bishop, that she, by such +sorcery, had procured the death of her husbands, and had so beguiled +and infatuated them, that they had given all their property to her and +her son [by her first husband, William Outlawe], to the perpetual +impoverishment of their own sons and heirs: insomuch that her present +[and fourth] husband, Sir John Le Poer, was reduced to a most +miserable condition of body by her ointments, powders, and other +magical preparations; but, being warned by her maidservant, he had +forcibly taken from his wife the keys of her house, in which he found +a bag filled with the 'detestable' articles above mentioned, which he +had sent to the Bishop. Seventh: That there existed an unholy +connection between the said Lady Alice and the demon called Robert +Artisson, who sometimes appeared to her in the form of a cat, +sometimes in that of a black shaggy dog, and at others in the form of +a black man, with two tall companions as black as himself, each +carrying in his hand a rod of iron. Some of the old chroniclers +embroider upon this charge the fanciful details that her offering to +the demon was nine red cocks' and nine peacocks' eyes, which were paid +on a certain stone bridge at a cross-road; that she had a magical +ointment,[40] which she rubbed upon a coulter or plough handle, in +order that the said coulter might carry her and her companions +whithersoever they wished to go; that in her house was found a +consecrated wafer, with the devil's name written upon it; and that, +sweeping the streets of Kilkenny between complin and twilight, she +raked up all the ordure towards the doors of her son, William Outlawe, +saying to herself: + + 'To the house of William my son, + Hie all the wealth of Kilkenny town.' + +The lady, rejoicing in powerful friends and advisers, defied the +Bishop and all his works. She was excommunicated, and her son summoned +to appear before the Bishop for the offence of harbouring and +concealing her; but Dame Alice's friends retaliated by throwing the +Bishop into prison for several days. He revenged himself by placing +the whole diocese under an interdict, and again summoning William +Outlawe to appear on a certain day; but before the day arrived, he in +his turn was cited before the Lord Justice, to answer for having +imposed an interdict on his diocese, and to defend himself against +accusations submitted by the seneschal. The Bishop pleaded that it was +unsafe for him to travel; but the plea was not allowed, and, to save +himself from further molestation, he recalled the interdict. + +The quarrel was not yet fought out. On the Monday following the octave +of Easter, the seneschal, Arnold de la Poer, held his judicial court +in the Assize Hall at Kilkenny. Thither repaired the Bishop, and, +though refused admission, he forced his way in, robed in full +pontificals, carrying in his hand the Host in pyx of gold, and +attended by a numerous train of friars and clergy. But he was received +with a storm of insults and reproaches, which compelled him to retire. +Upon his repeated protests, however, and at the intercession of some +influential personages, his return was permitted. Being ordered to +take his stand at the criminal's bar, he exclaimed that Christ had +never been treated so before, since He stood at the bar before Pontius +Pilate; and he loudly called upon the seneschal to order the arrest of +the persons accused of sorcery, and their deliverance into his hands. +When the seneschal abruptly refused, he opened the book of the +decretals, and saith, 'You, Sir Arnold, are a knight, and instructed +in letters, and that you may not have the excuse of ignorance, we are +prepared to prove by these decretals that you and your officials are +bound to obey our order in this matter, under heavy penalties.' + +'Go to the church with your decretals,' replied the seneschal, 'and +preach there, for none of us here will listen to you.' + +In the Bishop's character there must have been a fine strain of +perseverance, for all these rebuffs failed to baffle him, and he +actually succeeded, after a succession of disappointments and a +constant renewal of difficulties, in obtaining permission to bring the +alleged offenders to trial. Most of them suffered imprisonment; but +Dame Alice escaped him, being secretly conveyed to England. Of all +concerned in the affair, only one was punished: Petronella of Meath, +who was selected as a scapegoat, probably because she had neither +friends nor means of defence. + +By order of the Bishop she was six times flogged, after which the poor +tortured victim made a confession, in which she declared not only her +own guilt, but that of everybody against whom the Bishop had +proceeded. She affirmed that in all Britain, nay, indeed, in the whole +world, was no one more skilled in magical practices than Dame Alice +Kyteler. She was brought to admit the truth--though in her heart she +must have known its absolute falsehood[41]--of the episcopal +indictment, and pretended that she had been present at the sacrifices +to the Evil One--that she had assisted in making the unguents with the +unsavoury materials already mentioned, and that with these unguents +different effects were produced upon different persons--the faces of +certain ladies, for instance, being made to appear horned like goats; +that she had been present at the nocturnal revelries, and, with her +mistress's assistance, had frequently pronounced sentence of +excommunication against her own husband, with all due magical rites; +that she had attended Dame Alice in her assignations with the demon, +Robert Artisson, and had seen acts of an immorality so foul that I +dare not allude to it pass between them. Having been coerced and +tortured into this amazingly wild and fictitious confession, the poor +woman was declared guilty, sentenced, and burned alive, the first +victim of the witchcraft delusion in Ireland. + + * * * * * + +It is worthy of observation that the mind of the public was roused to +a much stronger feeling of hostility against witchcraft than against +magic. Alchemists, astrologers, fortune-tellers, diviners, and the +like, might incur suspicion, and sometimes punishment; but, on the +whole, they were treated with tolerance, and even with distinction. +For this inequality of treatment two or three reasons suggest +themselves. In the crime of witchcraft the central feature was the +compact with the demon, and it was natural that men should resent an +act which entailed the eternal loss of the soul. Again, witchcraft, +much more frequently than magic, was the instrument of personal +ill-feeling, and was more generally directed against the lower +classes. The magician seldom used his power except when liberally paid +by an employer; the witch, it was thought, exercised her skill for the +gratification of her own malice. However this may be, an imputation of +witchcraft became, in the fifteenth century, a formidable affair, +ensuring the death or ruin of the unfortunate individual against whom +it was made. There was no little difficulty in defending one's self; +and in truth, once made, it clung to its victim like a Nessus's shirt, +and with a result as deadly. + +Its value as a political 'move' was shown in the persecution of the +Knights Templars, and, in our own history, in Cardinal Beaufort's +intrigue against Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, who governed England as +Protector during the minority of Henry VI. + +The Cardinal struck at the Duke through his beautiful wife, Eleanor +Cobham. In July, 1441, two ecclesiastics, Roger Bolingbroke, and +Thomas Southwell, a canon of St. Stephen's Chapel, were arrested on a +charge of high treason; 'for it was said that the said Master Roger +should labour to consume the King's person by way of necromancy; and +that the said Master Thomas should say masses upon certain instruments +with the which the said Master Roger should use his said craft of +necromancy.' Bolingbroke was a scholar, an adept in natural science, +and an ardent student of astronomy: William of Worcester describes him +as one of the most famous clerks of the world. One Sunday, after +having undergone rigorous examination, he was conveyed to St. Paul's +Cross, where he was mounted 'on a high stage above all men's heads in +Paul's Churchyard, whiles the sermon endured, holding a sword in his +right hand and a sceptre in his left, arrayed in a marvellous array, +wherein he was wont to sit when he wrought his necromancy.' + +The Duchess of Gloucester, meanwhile, perceiving that her ruin was +intended, fled to sanctuary at Westminster. Before the King's Council +Bolingbroke was brought to confess that he had plied his magical trade +at the Duchess's instigation, 'to know what should fall of her, and +to what estate she should come.' In other words, he had cast her +horoscope, a proceeding common enough in those days, and one which had +no treasonable complexion. The Cardinal's party, however, seized upon +Bolingbroke's confession, and made such use of it that the unfortunate +lady was cited to appear before an ecclesiastical tribunal composed of +Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Beaufort, Bishop of +Winchester, Cardinal Kemp, Archbishop of York, and Ayscough, Bishop of +Salisbury, on July 2, 'to answer to divers articles of necromancy, of +witchcraft or sorcery, of heresy, and of treason.' Bolingbroke was +brought forward as a witness, and repeated that the Duchess 'first +stirred him to labour in his necromancy.' + +After this, he and Southwell were indicted as principals of treason, +and the Duchess as accessory, though, if his story were true, their +positions should have been reversed. At the same time, a woman named +Margery Goodman, and known as the 'Witch of Eye,' was burned at +Smithfield because in former days she had given potions and philtres +to Eleanor Cobham, to enable her to secure the Duke of Gloucester's +affections. Roger Bolingbroke was hung, drawn, and quartered, +according to the barbarous custom of the age; Southwell escaped a +similar fate by dying in the Tower before the day appointed for his +trial. The charge of high treason brought against them rested entirely +on the allegation that, at the Duchess's request, they had made a +waxen image to resemble the King, and had placed it before a fire, +that, as it gradually melted, so might the King gradually languish +away and die. As for the Duchess, she was sentenced to do penance, +which she fulfilled 'right meekly, so that the more part of the people +had her in great compassion,' on Monday, November 13, 1441, walking +barefoot, with a lighted taper in her hand, from Temple Bar to St. +Paul's, where she offered the taper at the high altar. She repeated +the penance on the Wednesday and Friday following, walking to St. +Paul's by different routes, and on each occasion was accompanied by +the Lord Mayor, the sheriffs, and the various guilds, and by a +multitude of people, whom the repute of her beauty and her sorrows had +attracted, so that what was intended for a humiliation became really a +triumph. She was afterwards imprisoned in Chester Castle, and thence +transferred to the Isle of Man. + + * * * * * + +The charge of sorcery which Richard III. brought against Lord +Hastings, accusing him of having wasted his left arm, though from his +birth it had been fleshless, dry, and withered, is made the basis of +an effective scene in Shakespeare's 'Richard III.' His brother's +widow, Queen Elizabeth Woodville, was included in the charge, and Jane +Shore was named as her accomplice. This frail beauty was brought +before the Council, and accused of having 'endeavoured the ruin and +destruction of the Protector in several ways,' and particularly 'by +witchcraft had decayed his body, and with the Lord Hastings had +contrived to assassinate him.' The indictment, however, was not +sustained, and her offence was reduced to that of lewd living. +Whereupon she was handed over to the Bishop of London to do public +penance for her sin on Sunday morning in St. Paul's Cathedral church. +Clothed in a white sheet, with a wax taper in her hand, and a cross +borne before her, she was led in procession from the episcopal palace +to the cathedral, where she made open confession of her fault. The +moral effect of this exhibition seems to have been considerably marred +by the beauty of the penitent, which produced upon the multitude an +impression similar to that which the bared bosom of Phryne produced +upon her judges in the days of old. + +In 1480 Pope Innocent VIII. issued a Bull enjoining the detection, +trial, and punishment (by burning) of witches. This was the first +formal recognition of witchcraft by the head of the Church. In England +the first Act of Parliament levelled at it was passed in 1541. Ten +years later two more statutes were enacted, one relating to false +prophecies, and the other to conjuration, witchcraft and sorcery. But +in no one of these was witchcraft condemned _qua_ witchcraft; they +were directed against those who, by means of spells, incantations, or +compacts with the devil, threatened the lives and properties of their +neighbours. When, in 1561, Sir Edward Waldegrave, one of Mary Stuart's +councillors, was arrested by order of Secretary Cecil as 'a +mass-monger,' the Bishop of London, to whom he was remitted, felt no +disposition to inflict a heavy penalty for hearing or saying of mass; +but, on inquiry, he discovered that the officiating priest had been +concerned in concocting 'a love-philtre,' and he then decided that +sorcery would afford a safer ground for process. He applied, +therefore, to Chief Justice Catlin, to learn what might be the law in +such cases, and was astonished when he was told that no legal +provision had been made for them. Previously they came before the +Church Courts; but these had been deprived of their powers by the +Reformation, and the only precedent he could find for moving in the +matter belonged to the reign of Edward III., and was thus entered on +the roll: + + 'Ung homme fut prinse en Southwark avec ung teste et ung + visaige dung homme morte avec ung lyvre de sorcerie en son + male et fut amesn en banke du Roy devant Knyvet Justice, + mais nulle indictment fut vers lui, por qui les clerkes luy + fierement jurement que jamais ne feroit sorcerie en aprs, et + fut delyvon del prison, et le teste et les lyvres furent + arses a Totehyll a les costages du prisonnier.' (That is: A + man was taken in Southwark, with a dead man's skull and a + book of sorcery in his wallet, and was brought up at the + King's Bench before Knyvet Justice; but no indictment was + laid against him, for that the clerks made him swear he would + meddle no more with sorcery, and the head and the books were + burnt at Tothill Fields at the prisoner's charge.) + +But in the following year Parliament passed an Act which defined +witchcraft as a capital crime, whether it was or was not exerted to +the injury of the lives, limbs, and possessions of the lieges. +Thenceforward the persecution of witches took its place among English +institutions. During the latter years of Elizabeth's reign several +instances occurred. Thus, on July 25, 1589, three witches were burnt +at Chelmsford. The popular mind was gradually familiarized with the +idea of witchcraft, and led to concentrate its attention on the +individual marks, or characteristics, which were supposed to indicate +its professors. Even among the higher classes a belief in its +existence became very general, and it is startling to find a man like +the learned and pious Bishop Jewell, in a sermon before Queen +Elizabeth, saying: 'It may please your Grace to understand that +witches and sorcerers within these last four years are marvellously +increased within this your Grace's realm. Your Grace's subjects pine +away even unto the death; their colour fadeth; their flesh rotteth; +their speech is benumbed; their senses are bereft! I pray God they may +never practise further than upon the subject!' (1598). + + * * * * * + +The witches in 'Macbeth'--those weird sisters who met at midnight upon +the blasted heath, and in their caldron brewed so deadly a +'hell-broth'--partake of the dignity of the poet's genius, and belong +to the vast ideal world of his imagination. No such midnight hags +crossed the paths of ordinary mortals. The Elizabethan witch, who +scared her neighbours in town and village, and flourished on their +combined ignorance and superstition, appears, however, in 'The Merry +Wives of Windsor,' where Master Ford describes 'the fat woman of +Brentford' as 'a witch, a quean, an old cozening quean!' He adds: +'Have I not forbid her my house? She comes of errands, does she? We +are simple men; we do not know what's brought to pass under the +profession of fortune-telling. She works by charms, by spells, by the +figure; and such daubery as this is beyond our element.' Most of +Master Ford's contemporaries, I fear, were, in this matter, 'simple +men.' Even persons of rank and learning, of position and refinement, +were as credulous as their poorer, more ignorant, and more vulgar +neighbours; were just as ready to believe that an untaught village +crone had made a compact with the devil, and bartered her soul for the +right of straddling across a broom or changing herself into a black +cat! + + * * * * * + +Near Warboise, in Huntingdonshire, in 1593, lived two gentlemen of +good estate--Mr. Throgmorton and Sir Samuel Cromwell. The former had +five daughters, of whom the eldest, Joan, was possessed with a lively +imagination, which busied itself constantly with ghosts and witches. +On one occasion, when she passed the cottage of an old and infirm +woman, known as Mother Samuel, the good dame, with a black cap on her +head, was sitting at her door knitting. Mistress Joan exclaimed that +she was a witch, hurried home, went into convulsions, and declared +that Mother Samuel had bewitched her. In due course, her sisters +followed her example, and they too laid the blame of their fits on +Mother Samuel. The parents, not less infatuated than the children, +lent ready ears to their wild tales, and carried them to Lady +Cromwell, who, as a friend of Mrs. Throgmorton, took the matter up +right earnestly, and resolved that the supposed witch should be put to +the ordeal. Sir Samuel was by no means unwilling; and the children, +encouraged by this prompt credulity, let loose their fertile +inventions. They declared that Mother Samuel sent a legion of evil +spirits to torment them incessantly. Strange to say, these spirits had +made known their names, which, though grotesque, had nothing of a +demoniac character about them--'First Smack,' 'Second Smack,' 'Third +Smack,' 'Blue,' 'Catch,' 'Hardname,' and 'Pluck'--names invented, of +course, by the young people themselves. + +At length the aggrieved Throgmorton, summoning all his courage, +repaired to Mother Samuel's humble residence, seized upon the unhappy +old crone, and dragged her into his own grounds, where Lady Cromwell +and Mrs. Throgmorton and her children thrust long pins into her body +to see if they could draw blood. With unmeasured violence, Lady +Cromwell tore the old woman's cap from her head, and plucked out a +handful of her gray hair, which she gave to Mrs. Throgmorton to burn, +as a charm that would protect her from all further evil practices. +Smarting under these injuries, the poor old woman, in a moment of +passion, invoked a curse upon her torturers--a curse afterwards +remembered against her, though at the time she was allowed to depart. +For more than a year her life was made miserable by the incessant +persecution inflicted upon her by the two hostile families, who, on +their part, declared that her demons brought upon them all kinds of +physical ills, prevented their ewes and cows from bearing, and turned +the milk sour in the dairy-pans. It so happened that Lady Cromwell was +seized with a sudden illness, of which she died, and though some +fifteen months had elapsed since the utterance of the curse, on poor +Mother Samuel was placed the responsibility. Sir Samuel Cromwell, +therefore, felt called upon to punish her for her ill-doing. + +By this time the old woman, partly through listening to the incessant +repetition of the charges against her, and partly, perhaps, from a +weak delight in the notoriety she had attained, had come to believe, +or to think she believed, that she was really the witch everybody +declared her to be--just as a young versifier is sometimes deluded +into a conviction of his poetic genius through unwisely crediting the +eulogies of an admiring circle of friends and relatives. On one +occasion, she was forcibly conveyed into Mrs. Throgmorton's house when +Joan was in one of her frequently-recurring fits, and ordered to +exorcise the demon that was troubling the maid, with the formula: 'As +I am a witch, and the causer of Lady Cromwell's death, I charge thee, +fiend, to come out of her!' The poor creature did as she was told, and +confessed, besides, that her husband and her daughter were her +associates in witchcraft, and that all three had sold their souls to +the devil. On this confession the whole family were arrested, and sent +to Huntingdon Gaol. Soon afterwards they were tried before Mr. Justice +Fenner, and put to the torture. + +In her agony the old woman confessed anything that was required of +her--she was a witch, she had bewitched the Throgmortons, she had +caused the death of Lady Cromwell. Her husband and her daughter, +stronger-minded, resolutely asserted their innocence. Ignorance, +however, would not be denied its victims; all three were sentenced to +be hanged, and to have their bodies burned. The daughter, who was +young and comely, was regarded compassionately by many persons, and +advised to gain at least a respite by pleading pregnancy. She +indignantly refused to sacrifice her good name. They might falsely +call her a witch, she exclaimed, but they should not be able to say +that she had acknowledged herself to be a harlot. Her old mother, +however, caught at the idea, and openly asserted that she was with +child, the court breaking out into loud laughter, in which she +fatuously joined. The three victims suffered on April 7, 1595. + +Out of the confiscated property of the Samuels, Sir Samuel Cromwell, +as lord of the manor, received a sum of 40, which he converted into +an annual rent-charge of 40s. for the endowment of an annual sermon or +lecture on the iniquity of witchcraft, to be delivered by a D.D. or +B.D. of Queen's College, Cambridge. This strange memorial of a +shameful and ignorant superstition was discontinued early in the +eighteenth century. + + * * * * * + +In 1594, Ferdinando, Earl of Derby, died in and from the firm +conviction that he was mortally bewitched, though he had no knowledge +of the person who had so bewitched him. + + * * * * * + +About the same time there lived in an obscure part of Lancashire, not +far from Pendle, two families of the names of Dundike and Chattox +respectively, who both pretended to enjoy supernatural privileges, +and were therefore as bitterly antagonistic as if they had belonged to +different political factions. Their neighbours, however, seem to have +believed in the superior claims of the head of the Dundike family, +Mother Dundike, who pretended that she had enjoyed her unhallowed +powers for half a century. The year in which occurred the incidents I +am about to describe was, so to speak, her jubilee. + +Mother Dundike must have been a woman of lively imagination, if we may +form conclusions from her graphic account of the circumstances +attending her initiation into the great army of 'the devil's own.' One +day, when returning from a begging expedition, she was accosted by a +boy, dressed in a parti-coloured garment of black and white, who +proved to be a demon, or evil spirit, and promised her that, in return +for the gift of her soul, she should have anything and everything she +desired. On inquiring his name, she was told it was Tib; and here I +may note that the 'princes and potentates' of the nether world seem to +have had a great predilection for monosyllabic names, and names of a +vulgar and commonplace character. The upshot of the conversation +between Tib and the woman was the surrender of her soul on the liberal +conditions promised, and for the next five or six years the said devil +frequently appeared unto her 'about daylight-gate' (near evening), and +asked what she would have or do. With wonderful unselfishness she +replied, 'Nothing.' Towards the end of the sixth year, on a quiet +Sabbath morning, while she lay asleep, Tib came in the shape of a +brown dog, forced himself to her knee, and, as she wore no other +garment than a smock, succeeded in drawing blood. Awaking suddenly, +she exclaimed, 'Jesu, save my child!' but had not the power to say, +'Jesu, save _me_!' Whereupon the brown dog vanished, and for a space +of eight weeks she was 'almost stark mad.' + +The matter-of-fact style which distinguishes Mother Dundike's +confession may also be traced in the statements of her children and +grandchildren, who all speak as if witchcraft were an everyday +reality, and as if evil spirits in various common disguises went to +and fro in the land with edifying regularity. Let us turn to the +evidence, if such it may be called, of Alison Device, a girl of about +thirteen or fourteen years of age. Incriminating her grandmother +without scruple, she declared that when they were on the tramp, the +old woman frequently persuaded her to allow a devil or 'familiar' to +suck at some part of her body, after which she might have and do what +she would--though, strange to say, neither she nor anyone else ever +availed themselves of their powers to improve their material +condition, but lingered on in poverty and privation. James Device, one +of Mother Dundike's grandsons, said that on Shrove Tuesday she bade +him go to church to receive the sacrament--not, however, to eat the +consecrated bread, but to bring it away, and deliver it to 'such a +Thing' as should meet him on his way homeward. But he disobeyed the +injunction, and ate the sacred bread. On his way home, when about +fifty yards from the church, he was met by a 'Thing in the shape of a +hare,' which asked him whether he had brought the bread according to +his grandmother's directions. He answered that he had not; and +therefore the Thing threatened to rend him in pieces, but he got rid +of it by calling upon God. + +Some few days later, hard by the new church in Pendle, a Thing +appeared to him like to a brown dog, asked him for his soul, and +promised in return that he should be avenged on his enemies. The +virtuous youth replied, somewhat equivocatingly, that his soul was not +his to give, but belonged to his Saviour Jesus Christ; as much as was +his to give, however, he was contented to dispose of. Two or three +days later James Device had occasion to go to Cave Hall, where a Mrs. +Towneley angrily accused him of having stolen some of her turf, and +drove him from her door with violence. When the devil next +appeared--this time like a _black_ dog--he found James Device in the +right temper for a deed of wickedness. He was instructed to make an +image of clay like Mrs. Towneley; which he did, and dried it the same +night by the fire, and daily for a week crumbled away the said image, +and two days after it was all gone Mrs. Towneley died! In the +following Lent, one John Duckworth, of the Launde, promised him an old +shirt; but when young Device went to his house for the gift, he was +denied, and sent away with contumely. The spirit 'Dandy' then appeared +to him, and exclaimed: 'Thou didst touch the man Duckworth,' which he, +James Device, denied; but the spirit persisted: 'Yes; thou _didst_ +touch him, and therefore he is in my power.' Device then agreed with +the demon that the said Duckworth should meet with the same fate as +Mrs. Towneley, and in the following week he died. + + * * * * * + +It is a curious fact that the old woman Chattox, the head of the rival +faction of practitioners in witchcraft, accused Mother Dundike of +having inveigled her into the ranks of the devil's servants. This was +about 1597 or 1598. To Mrs. Chattox the Evil One appeared--as he has +appeared to too many of her sex--in the shape of a man. Time, +midnight; place, Elizabeth Dundike's tumble-down cottage. He asked, as +usual, for her soul, which she at first refused, but afterwards, at +Mother Dundike's advice and solicitation, agreed to part with. +'Whereupon the said wicked spirit then said unto her, that he must +have one part of her body for him to suck upon; the which she denied +then to grant unto him; and withal asked him, what part of her body he +would have for that use; who said, he would have a place of her right +side, near to her ribs, for him to suck upon; whereunto she assented. +And she further said that, at the same time, there was a Thing in the +likeness of a spotted bitch, that came with the said spirit unto the +said Dundike, which did then speak unto her in Anne Chattox's hearing, +and said, that she should have gold, silver, and worldly wealth at her +will; and at the same time she saith there was victuals, viz., flesh, +butter, cheese, bread, and drink, and bid them eat enough. And after +their eating, the devil called Fancy, and the other spirit calling +himself Tib carried the remnant away. And she saith, that although +they did eat, they were never the fuller nor better for the same; and +that at their said banquet the said spirits gave them light to see +what they did, although they had neither fire nor candle-light; and +that there be both she-spirits and (he-)devils.' + +In a later chapter I shall have occasion to refer to the confessions +of the various persons implicated in this 'Great Oyer' of witchcraft. +What comes out very strongly in them is the hostility which existed +between the Chattoxes and the Dundikes, and their respective +adherents. In Pendle Forest there were evidently two distinct parties, +one of which sought the favour and sustained the pretensions of Mother +Dundike, the other being not less steadfast in allegiance to Mother +Chattox. As to these two beldams, it is clear enough that they +encouraged the popular credulity, resorted to many ingenious +expedients for the purpose of supporting their influence, and +unscrupulously employed that influence in furtherance of their +personal aims. They knowingly played at a sham game of commerce with +the devil, and enjoyed the fear and awe with which their neighbours +looked up to them. It flattered their vanity; and perhaps they played +the game so long as to deceive themselves. 'Human passions are always +to a certain degree infectious. Perceiving the hatred of their +neighbours, they began to think that they were worthy objects of +detestation and terror, that their imprecations had a real effect, +and their curses killed. The brown horrors of the forest were +favourable to visions, and they sometimes almost believed that they +met the foe of mankind in the night.' To the delusions of the +imagination, especially when suggested by pride and vanity, there are +no means of putting a limit; and it is quite possible that in time +these women gave credence to their own absurd inventions, and saw a +demon or familiar spirit in every hare or black or brown dog that +accidentally crossed their path. + +For awhile the witches created a reign of terror in the forest. But +the interlacing animosities which gradually sprang up between its +inhabitants were the fertile source of so much disorder that, at +length, a county magistrate of more than ordinary energy, Roger +Nowell, Esq., described as a very honest and religious gentleman, +conceived the idea that, by suppressing them, he should do the State +good service. Accordingly he ordered the arrest of Dundike and +Chattox, Alison Device, and Anne Redfern, and each, in the hope of +saving her life, having made a full confession, he committed them to +Lancaster Castle, on April 2, 1612, to take their trials at the next +assizes. + +No attempt was made, however, to search Malkin Tower. This lonely ruin +was regarded with superstitious dread by the peasantry, who durst +never approach it, on account of the strange unearthly noises and the +weird creatures that haunted its wild recesses. James Device, when +examined afterwards by Nowell, deposed that about a month before his +arrest, as he was going towards his mother's house in the twilight, he +met a brown dog coming from it, and, of course, a brown dog was the +disguise of an evil spirit. About two or three nights after, he heard +a great number of children shrieking and crying pitifully in the same +uncanny neighbourhood; and at a later date his ears were shocked by a +loud yelling, 'like unto a great number of cats.' We have heard the +same sounds ourselves, at night, in places which did not profess to be +haunted! It is very possible that Dame Dundike, who was obviously a +crafty old woman, with much knowledge of human nature, had something +to do with these noises and appearances, for it was to her interest to +maintain the eerie reputation of the Tower, and prevent the intrusion +of inquisitive visitors. With all her little secrets, it was natural +enough she should say, '_Procul este, profani_,' while she would +necessarily seize every opportunity of extending and strengthening her +authority. + +It was the general belief that the Malkin Tower was the place where +the witches annually kept their Sabbath on Good Friday, and in 1612, +after Dame Dundike's arrest, they met there as usual, in exceptionally +large numbers, and, after the usual feasting, conferred together on +'the situation'--to use a slang phrase of the present day. Elizabeth +Device presided, and asked their advice as to the best method of +obtaining her mother's release. There must have been some daring +spirits among those old women; for it was proposed--so runs the +record--to kill Lovel, the gaoler of Lancaster Castle, and another +man of the name of Lister, accomplish an informal 'gaol-delivery,' and +blow up the prison! Even with the help of their familiars, they would +have found this a difficult and dangerous enterprise, and we do not +wonder that the proposal met with general disfavour. + +Seldom, if ever, do conspirators meet without a traitor in their +midst; and on this occasion there was a traitor in Malkin Tower in the +person of Janet Device, the youngest daughter of Alison Device, and +grand-daughter of the unfortunate old woman who was lying ill and weak +in Lancaster Gaol. A girl of only nine years of age, she was an +experienced liar and thoroughly unscrupulous; and having been bribed +by Justice Nowell, she informed against the persons present at this +meeting, and secured their arrest. The number of prisoners at +Lancaster was increased to twelve, among whom were Elizabeth Device, +her son James, and Alice Nutter, of Rough Lea, a lady of good family +and fair estate. There is good reason to believe that the last-named +was in no way implicated in the doings of the so-called witches, but +that she was introduced by Janet Device to gratify the greed of some +of her relatives--who, in the event of her death, would inherit her +property--and the ill-feeling of Justice Nowell, whom she had worsted +in a dispute about the boundary of their respective lands. The charges +against her were trivial, and amounted to no more than that she had +been present at the Malkin Tower convention, and had joined with +Mother Dundike and Elizabeth Device in bewitching to death an old man +named Mitton. The only witnesses against her were Janet and Elizabeth +Device, neither of whom was worthy of credence. + +Blind old Mother Dundike escaped the terrible penalty of an +unrighteous law by dying in prison before the day of trial. But +justice must have been well satisfied with its tale of victims. +Foremost among them was Mother Chattox, the head of the anti-Dundike +faction--'a very old, withered, spent, and decrepit creature,' whose +sight was almost gone, and whose lips chattered with the meaningless +babble of senility. When judgment was pronounced upon her, she uttered +a wild, incoherent prayer for Divine mercy, and besought the judge to +have pity upon Anne Redfern, her daughter. The next person for trial +was Elizabeth Device, who is described as having been branded 'with a +preposterous mark in nature, even from her birth, which was her left +eye standing lower than the other; the one looking down, the other +looking up; so strangely deformed that the best that were present in +that honourable assembly and great audience did affirm they had not +often seen the like.' When this woman discovered that the principal +witness against her was her own child, she broke out into such a storm +of curses and reproaches that the proceedings came to a sudden stop, +and she had to be removed from the court before her daughter could +summon up courage to repeat the fictions she had learned or concocted. +The woman was, of course, found guilty, as were also James and Alison +Device, Alice Nutter, Anne Redfern, Katherine Hewit, John and Jane +Balcock, all of Pendle, and Isabel Roby, of Windle, most of whom +strenuously asserted their innocence to the last. On August 13, the +day after their trial, they were burnt 'at the common place of +execution, near to Lancaster'--the unhappy victims of the ignorance, +superstition, and barbarity of the age. + +Janet Device, as King's evidence, obtained a pardon, though she +acknowledged to have taken part in the practices of her parents, and +confessed to having learned from her mother two prayers, one to cure +the bewitched, and the other to get drink. The former, which is +obviously a _pasticcio_ of the old Roman Catholic hymns and +traditional rhymes, runs as follows: + + 'Upon Good Friday, I will fast while I may + Untill I heare them knell + Our Lord's owne bell. + Lord in His messe + With His twelve Apostles good, + What hath He in His hand? + Ligh in leath wand: + What hath He in His other hand? + Heaven's door key. + Open, open, Heaven's door keys! + Stark, stark, hell door. + Let Criznen child + Goe to its mother mild; + What is yonder that crests a light so farrndly? + Thine owne deare Sonne that's nailed to the Tree. + He is naild sore by the heart and hand, + And holy harne panne. + Well is that man + That Fryday spell can, + His child to learne; + A crosse of blew and another of red, + As good Lord was to the Roode. + Gabriel laid him downe to sleepe + Upon the ground of holy weepe; + Good Lord came walking by. + Sleep'st thou, wak'st thou, Gabriel? + No, Lord, I am sted with sticks and stake + That I can neither sleepe nor wake: + Rise up, Gabriel, and goe with me, + The stick nor the stake shall never dure thee. + Sweet Jesus, our Lord. Amen!' + +The other prayer consisted only of the Latin phrase: 'Crucifixus hoc +signum vitam ternam. Amen.'[42] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[40] So in Duclerq's 'Memoires' ('Collect. du Panthon'), p. 141, we +read of a case at Arras, in which the sorcerers were accused of using +such an ointment: 'D'ung oignement que le diable leur avoit baill, +ils oindoient une vergue de bois bien petite, et leurs palmes et leurs +mains, puis mectoient celle virguelte entre leurs jambes, et tantost +ils s'en volvient o ils voullvient estre, purdesseures bonnes villes, +bois et cams; et les portoit le diable au lieu o ils debvoient faire +leur assemble.' + +[41] That is, of sacrificing to the Evil One, of meeting the demon +Robert Artisson, and so on; though it is quite possible that strange +unguents were made and administered to different persons, and that +Dame Alice and her companions played at being sorcerers. Some of the +so-called witches, as we shall see, encouraged the deception on +account of the influence it gave them. + +[42] Thomas Pott's 'Wonderful Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of +Lancashire' (1615), reprinted by the Chetham Society, 1845. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +WITCHCRAFT IN ENGLAND IN THE 17TH CENTURY. + + +The accession of James I., a professed demonologist, and an expert in +all matters relating to witchcraft, gave a great impulse to the +persecution of witches in England. 'Poor old women and girls of tender +age were walked, swum, shaved, and tortured; the gallows creaked and +the fires blazed.' In accordance with the well-known economic law, +that the demand creates the supply, it was found that, in proportion +as trials and tortures increased, so did the number of witches, until +half the old hags in England supposed themselves, or were supposed by +others, to have made compacts with the devil. Legislation then +augmented its severity, and Parliament, in compliance with the wishes +of the new King, passed an Act by which sorcery and witchcraft were +made felony, without benefit of clergy. For some years the country was +witch-ridden, and it is appalling to think of the hundreds of hapless, +ignorant, and innocent creatures who were cruelly done to death under +the influence of this extraordinary mania. + +A remarkable case tried at King's Lynn in 1606 is reported in +Howell's 'State Trials.' I avail myself of the summary furnished by +Mr. Inderwick. + +Marie, wife of Henry Smith, grocer, confessed, under examination, +that, being indignant with some of her neighbours because they +prospered in their trade more than she did, she oftentimes cursed +them; and that once, while she was thus engaged, the devil appeared in +the form of a black man, and willed that she should continue in her +malice, envy, and hatred, banning and cursing, and then he would see +that she was revenged upon all to whom she wished evil. There was, of +course, a compact insisted upon: that she should renounce God, and +embrace the devil and all his works. After this he appeared +frequently--once as a mist, once as a ball of fire, and twice he +visited her in prison with a pair of horns, advising her to make no +confession, but to rely upon him. + +The evidence of the acts of witchcraft was as follows: + +John Oakton, a sailor, having struck her boy, she cursed him roundly, +and hoped his fingers would rot off, which took place, it was said, +two years afterwards. + +She quarrelled with Elizabeth Hancock about a hen, alleging that +Elizabeth had stolen it. When the said Elizabeth denied the theft, she +bade her go indoors, for she would repent it; and that same night +Elizabeth had pains all over her body, and her bed jumped up and down +for the space of an hour or more. Elizabeth then consulted her father, +and was taken by him to a wizard named Drake, who taught her how to +concoct a witch-cake with all the nastiest ingredients imaginable, and +to apply it, with certain words and conjurations, to the afflicted +parts. For the time Elizabeth was cured; but some time afterwards, +when she had been married to one James Scott, a great cat began to go +about her house, and having done some harm, Scott thrust it twice +through with his sword. As it still ran to and fro, he smote it with +all his might upon its head, but could not kill it, for it leaped +upwards almost a yard, and then crept down. Even when put into a bag, +and dragged to the muck-hill, it moved and stirred, and the next +morning was nowhere to be found. And this same cat, it was afterwards +sworn, sat on the chest of Cicely Balye, and nearly suffocated her, +because she had quarrelled with the witch about her manner of sweeping +before her door; and the said witch called the said Cicely 'a +fat-tailed sow,' and said her fatness would shortly be abated, as, +indeed, it was. + +Edmund Newton swore that he had been afflicted with various +sicknesses, and had been banged in the face with dirty cloths, because +he had undersold Marie Smith in Dutch cheeses. She also sent to him a +person clothed in russet, with a little bush beard and a cloven foot, +together with her imps, a toad, and a crab. One of his servants took +the toad and put it into the fire, when it made a groaning noise for a +quarter of an hour before it was consumed, 'during which time Marie +Smith, who sent it, did endure (as was reported) torturing pains, +testifying the grief she felt by the outcries she then made.' + +Upon this evidence--such as it was--and upon her own confession, Marie +Smith was convicted and sentenced to death. On the scaffold she humbly +acknowledged her sins, prayed earnestly that God might forgive her the +wrongs she had done her neighbours, and asked that a hymn of her own +choosing--'Lord, turn not away Thy face'--might be sung. Then she died +calmly. It is, no doubt, a curious fact--if, indeed, it _be_ a fact, +but the evidence is by no means satisfactory--that she confessed to +various acts of witchcraft, and to having made a compact with the +devil; but even this alleged confession cannot receive our credence +when we reflect on the inherent absurdity and impossibility of the +whole affair. + + * * * * * + +In 1619, Joan Flower and her two daughters, Margaretta and Philippa, +formerly servants at Belvoir Castle, were tried before Judges Hobart +and Bromley, on a charge of having bewitched to death two sons of the +sixth Earl of Rutland, and found guilty. The mother died in prison; +the two daughters were executed at Lincoln. + + +THE LANCASHIRE WITCHES. + +My chronological survey next brings me to the famous case of the +Lancashire witches. + +I have already told the story of the Dundikes and the Chattoxes, and +their exploits in Pendle Forest. In the same locality, two-and-twenty +years later, lived a man of the name of Robinson, to whom it occurred +that the prevalent belief in witchcraft might be turned to account +against his neighbours. In this design he made his son--a lad about +eleven years old--his instrument. After he had been properly trained, +he was instructed by his father, on February 10, 1633, to go before +two justices of the peace, and make the following declaration: + +That, on All Saints' Day, while gathering wild plums in Wheatley Lane, +he saw a black greyhound and a brown scamper across the fields. They +came up to him familiarly, and he then discovered that each wore a +collar shining like gold. As no one accompanied them, he concluded +that they had broken loose from their kennels; and as at that moment a +hare started up only a few paces from him, he thought he would set +them to hunt it, but his efforts were all in vain; and in his wrath he +took the strings that hung from their collars, tied both to a little +bush, and then whipped them. Whereupon, in the place of the black +greyhound, started up the wife of a man named Dickinson, and in that +of the brown a little boy. In his amazement, young Robinson (so he +said) would have run away, but he was stayed by Mistress Dickinson, +who pulled out of her pocket 'a piece of silver much like unto a fine +shilling,' and offered it to him, if he promised to be silent. But he +refused, exclaiming: 'Nay, thou art a witch!' Whereupon, she again put +her hand in her pocket, and drew forth a string like a jingling +bridle, which she put over the head of the small boy, and, behold, he +was turned into a white horse, with a change as quick as that of a +scene in a pantomime. Upon this white horse the woman placed, by +force, young Robinson, and rode with him as far as the Hoar-Stones--a +house at which the witches congregated together--where divers persons +stood about the door, while others were riding towards it on horses of +different colours. These dismounted, and, having tied up their horses, +all went into the house, accompanied by their friends, to the number +of threescore. At a blazing fire some meat was roasting, and a young +woman gave Robinson flesh and bread upon a trencher, and drink in a +glass, which, after the first taste, he refused, and would have no +more, saying it was nought. Presently, observing that certain of the +company repaired to an adjoining barn, he followed, and saw six of +them on their knees, pulling at six several ropes which were fastened +to the top of the house, with the result that joints of meat smoking +hot, lumps of butter, and milk 'syleing,' or straining from the said +ropes, fell into basins placed underneath them. When these six were +weary, came other six, and pulled right lustily; and all the time they +were pulling they made such foul faces that they frightened the +peeping lad, so that he was glad to steal out and run home. + +No sooner was his escape discovered than a party of the witches, +including Dickinson's wife, the wife of a man named Loynds, and Janet +Device, took up the pursuit, and over field and scaur hurried +headlong, nearly overtaking him at a spot called Boggard Hole, when +the opportune appearance of a couple of horsemen induced them to +abandon their quarry. But young Robinson was not yet 'out of the +wood.' In the evening he was despatched by his father to bring home +the cattle, and on the way, in a field called the Ollers, he fell in +with a boy who picked a quarrel with him, and they fought together +until the blood flowed from his ears, when, happening to look down, he +saw that his antagonist had cloven feet, and, much affrighted, set off +at full speed to execute his commission. Perceiving a light like that +of a lantern, he hastened towards it, in the belief it was carried by +a neighbour; but on arriving at the place of its shining he found +there a woman whom he recognised as the wife of Loynds, and +immediately turned back. Falling in again with the cloven-footed boy, +he thought it prudent to take to his heels, but not before he had +received a blow on the back which pained him sorely. + +In support of this extraordinary story, the elder Robinson deposed +that he had certainly sent his son to bring in the kine; that, +thinking he was away too long, he had gone in search of him, and +discovered him in such a distracted condition that he knew neither his +father nor where he was, and so continued for very nearly a quarter of +an hour before he came to himself. + +The persons implicated by the boy Robinson were immediately arrested, +and confined in Lancaster Castle. Some of them--for he told various +stories, and in each introduced new characters--he did not know by +name, but he protested that on seeing them he should recognise them, +and for this purpose he was carried about to the churches in the +surrounding district to examine the congregations. The method adopted +is thus described by Webster: 'It came to pass that this said boy was +brought into the church of Kildwick, a large parish church, where I +(being then curate there) was preaching in the afternoon, and was set +upon a stall (he being but about ten or eleven years old) to look +about him, which moved some little disturbance in the congregation for +awhile. And, after prayers, I inquiring what the matter was, the +people told me it was the boy that discovered witches, upon which I +went to the house where he was to stay all night, where I found him +and two very unlikely persons that did conduct him and manage his +business. I desired to have some discourse with the boy in private, +but they utterly refused. Then, in the presence of a great many +people, I took the boy near me and said: "Good boy, tell me truly, and +in earnest, didst thou see and hear such strange things of the meeting +of witches as is reported by many that thou dost relate, or did not +some person teach thee to say such things of thyself?" But the two +men, not giving the boy leave to answer, did pluck him from me, and +said he had been examined by two able justices of the peace, and they +did never ask him such a question; to whom I replied, the persons +accused therefore had the more wrong.' + +In all, some eighteen women, married and single--the charge was +generally made against women, as probably less capable of +self-defence, and more impressionable than men--were brought to trial +at Lancaster Assizes. There was really no evidence against them but +the boy Robinson's, and to sustain it his unfortunate victims were +examined for the _stigmata_, or devil-marks, which, of course, were +found in ample quantity. Against seventeen a verdict of guilty was +returned, one or two being convicted on their own confessions--the +most perplexing incident in the whole case, for as these confessions +were unquestionably false, they who made them were really _lying away +their own lives_. By what impulse of morbid vanity, or diseased +craving for notoriety, or strange mental delusion, were they inspired? +And whence came the wild and even foul ideas which formed the staple +of their delirious narratives? How did these quiet, stolid, unlettered +Lancashire peasant-women become possessed of inventions worthy of the +grimmest of German tales of _diablerie_? It is easier to ask these +questions than to answer them; but when the witch mania was once +kindled in a neighbourhood it seems, like a pestilential atmosphere, +to have stricken with disease every mind that was predisposed to the +reception of unwholesome impressions. + +The confession of Margaret Johnson, made on March 9, 1613, has been +printed before, but it has so strong a psychological interest that I +cannot omit it here. It may be taken as a type of the confessions made +by the victims of credulity under similar circumstances: + + 'Betweene seven or eight yeares since, shee being in her + house at Marsden in greate passion and anger, and + discontented, and withall oppressed with some want, there + appeared unto her a spirit or devill in the similitude and + proportion of a man, apparelled in a suite of black, tied + about with silke pointes, whoe offered her, yff shee would + give him her soule, hee would supply all her wantes, and + bring to her whatsoever shee wanted or needed, and at her + appointment would helpe her to kill and revenge her either of + men or beastes, or what she desired; and, after a + sollicitation or two, shee contracted and condicioned with + the said devill or spiritt for her soule. And the said devill + bad her call him by the name of Memillion, and when shee + called hee would bee ready to doe her will. And she saith + that in all her talke and conference shee called the said + Memillion her god. + + 'And shee further saith that shee was not at the greate + meetinge of the witches at Hare-stones in the forest of + Pendle on All Saintes Day last past, but saith shee was at a + second meetinge the Sunday after All Saintes Day at the place + aforesaid, where there was at that time betweene thirty and + forty witches, which did all ride to the same meetinge. And + thead of the said meetinge was to consult for the killing and + hunting of men and beastes; and that there was one devill or + spiritt that was more greate and grand devill than the rest, + and yff anie witch desired to have such an one, they might + have such an one to kill or hurt anie body. And she further + saith, that _such witches as have sharpe boanes are generally + for the devill to prick them with which have no papps nor + duggs, but raiseth blood from the place pricked with the + boane, which witches are more greate and grand witches than + they which have papps or dugs (!)_. And shee being further + asked what persons were at their last meetinge, she named one + Carpnell and his wife, Rason and his wife, Pickhamer and his + wife, Duffy and his wife, and one Jane Carbonell, whereof + Pickhamer's wife is the most greate, grand, and anorcyent + witch; and that one witch alone can kill a beast, and yf they + bid their spiritt or devill to goe and pricke or hurt anie + man in anie particular place, hee presently will doe it. And + that their spiritts have usually knowledge of their bodies. + And shee further saith the men witches have women spiritts, + and women witches have men spiritts; that Good Friday is one + of their constant daies of their generall meetinge, and that + on Good Friday last they had a meetinge neere Pendle + water-side; and saith that their spirit doeth tell them where + their meetinge must bee, and in what place; and saith that if + a witch desire to be in anie place upon a soddaine, that, on + a dogg, or a tod, or a catt, their spiritt will presently + convey them thither, or into anie room in anie man's house. + + 'But shee saith it is not the substance of their bodies that + doeth goe into anie such roomes, but their spiritts that + assume such shape and forme. And shee further saith that the + devill, after hee begins to sucke, will make a papp or a dug + in a short time, and the matter hee sucketh is blood. And + further saith that the devill can raise foule wether and + stormes, and soe hee did at their meetinges. And shee further + saith that when the devill came to suck her pappe, he came to + her in the likeness of a catt, sometimes of one collour, and + sometimes of another. And since this trouble befell her, her + spirit hath left her, and shee never saw him since.' + +Happily, the judge who presided at the trial of these deluded and +persecuted unfortunates was dissatisfied with the evidence, and +reprieved them until he had time to communicate with the Privy +Council, by whose orders Bridgman, Bishop of Chester, proceeded to +examine into the principal cases. Three of the supposed criminals, +however, had died of anxiety and suffering before the work of +investigation began, and a fourth was sick beyond recovery. The cases +into which the Bishop inquired were those of Margaret Johnson, Frances +Dicconson, or Dickinson, Mary Spencer, and Mrs. Hargrave. Margaret +Johnson the good Bishop describes as a widow of sixty, who was deeply +penitent. 'I will not add,' she said, 'sin to sin. I have already done +enough, yea, too much, and will not increase it. I pray God I may +repent.' This victim of hallucination had confessed herself to be a +witch, as we have seen, and was characterized by the Bishop as 'more +often faulting in the particulars of her actions.' Frances Dicconson, +however, and Mary Spencer, absolutely denied the truth of the +accusations brought against them. Frances, according to the boy +Robinson, had changed herself into a dog; but it transpired that she +had had a quarrel with the elder Robinson. Mary Spencer, a young woman +of twenty, said that Robinson cherished much ill-feeling against her +parents, who had been convicted of witchcraft at the last assizes, and +had since died. She repeated the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' +Creed, and declared that she defied the devil and all his works. A +story had been set afloat that she used to call her pail to follow her +as she ran. The truth was that she often trundled it down-hill, and +called to it in jest to come after her if she outstripped it. She +could have explained every circumstance in court, 'but the wind was so +loud and the throng so great, _that she could not hear the evidence +against her_.' + +This last touch, as Mr. S. R. Gardiner remarks, completes the tragedy +of the situation. 'History,' as he says, 'occupies itself perforce +mainly with the sorrows of the educated classes, whose own peers have +left the records of their wrongs. Into the sufferings of the mass of +the people, except when they have been lashed by long-continued +injustice into frenzy, it is hard to gain a glimpse. For once the veil +is lifted, and we see, as by a lightning flash, the forlorn and +unfriended girl, to whom the inhuman laws of her country denied the +services of an advocate, baffled by the noisy babble around her in her +efforts to speak a word on behalf of her innocence. The very Bishop +who examined her was under the influence of the legal superstition +that every accused person was the enemy of the King. He had heard, he +said, that the father of the boy Robinson had offered, for forty +shillings, to withdraw his charge against Frances Dicconson, "but such +evidence being, as the lawyers speak, against the King," he "thought +it not meet without further authority to examine."' + +The Bishop, however, like the judge, was dissatisfied with the +evidence; and the accused persons were eventually sent up to London, +where they were examined by the King's physicians, the Bishops, the +Privy Council, and by King Charles himself. Some medical men and +midwives reported that Margaret Johnson was deceived in her idea that +she bore on her body a sign or mark that her blood had been sucked. +Doubts as to the truth of the boy Robinson's story being freely +entertained, he was separated from his father, and he then revealed +the whole invention to the King's coachman. He had heard stories told +of witches and their doings, and out of these had concocted his +ghastly fiction to save himself a whipping for having neglected to +bring home his mother's cows. His father, perceiving at once how much +might be made out of the tale, took it up and expanded it; manipulated +it so as to serve his feelings of revenge or avarice, and then taught +the boy how to repeat the enlarged and improved version. It was all a +lie--from beginning to end. The day on which he pretended to have been +carried to the Witches' Sabbath at the Hoar-Stones, he was a mile +distant, gathering plums in a farmer's orchard. The accused were then +admitted to the King's presence, and assured that their lives were +safe. Further than this Charles seems to have been unable to go; for +as late as 1636 these innocent and ill-treated persons were still +lying in Lancaster Castle. It is satisfactory to state, however, that +both the boy Robinson and his father were thrown into prison. + +Fresh cases of witchcraft sprang up in the Pendle district, and early +in 1636 four more women were condemned to death at the Lancaster +Assizes. Bishop Bridgman, who was again directed to make inquiries, +found that two of them had died in gaol, and that of the two others, +one had been convicted on a madman's evidence, and that of a woman of +ill fame; while the only proof alleged against the other was that a +fleshy excrescence of the size of a hazel-nut grew on her right ear, +and the end of it, being bloody, was supposed to have been sucked by a +familiar spirit. The two women seem to have been pardoned; but, as in +the former case, public opinion set too strongly against them to admit +of their being released. + + +THE WITCHES OF SALMESBURY. + +The singular circumstances connected with the supposed outbreak of +witchcraft in Pendle Forest have, to a great extent, obscured the +strange case of the witches of Salmesbury, though it presents several +features worthy of consideration. + +Three persons were accused--Jennet Bierley, Ellen Bierley, and Jane +Southworth--and their supposed victim was one Grace Sowerbutts. In the +language of Mr. Thomas Potts, they were led into error by 'a subtle +practice and conspiracy of a seminary priest, or Jesuit, whereof this +county of Lancaster hath good store, who by reason of the general +entertainment they find, and great maintenance they have, resort +hither, being far from the eye of Justice, and, therefore, _procul a +fulmine_.' At their trial, which took place before Mr. Justice Bromley +at Lancaster, on Wednesday, August 19, the evidence of Grace +Sowerbutts was to the following effect: + +That for the space of _some years past_ (at the time of the trial she +was only fourteen) she had been haunted and vexed by four women, +namely, Jennet Bierley, her grandmother, Ellen Bierley, wife to Henry +Bierley, Jane Southworth, and a certain Old Dorwife. Lately, these +four women drew her by the hair of her head, and laid her on the top +of a hay-mow in the said Henry Bierley's barn. Not long after, Jennet +Bierley met her near her house, first appearing in her own likeness, +and after that as a black dog, and when she, Grace Sowerbutts, went +over a stile, she picked her off. However, she was not hurt, and, +springing to her feet, she continued her way to her aunt's at +Osbaldeston. That evening she told her father what had occurred. On +Saturday, April 4, going towards Salmesbury Butt to meet her mother, +she fell in, at a place called the Two Briggs, with Jennet Bierley, +first in her own shape, and afterwards in the likeness of a two-legged +black dog; and this dog kept close by her side until they came to a +pool of water, when it spake, and endeavoured to persuade her to +drown herself therein, saying it was a fair and an easy death. +Whereupon, she thought there came to her one in a white sheet, and +carried her away from the pool, and in a short space of time both the +white thing and the black dog departed; but after Grace had crossed +two or three fields, the black dog re-appeared, and conveyed her into +Hugh Walshman's barn close at hand, laid her upon the floor, covered +her with straw on her body and hay on her head, and lay down on the +top of the straw--for how long a time Grace was unable to determine; +because, she said, her speech and senses were taken from her. When she +recovered her consciousness, she was lying on a bed in Walshman's +house, having been removed thither by some friends who had found her +in the barn within a few hours of her having been taken there. As it +was Monday night when she came to her senses, she had been in her +trance or swoon, according to her marvellous story, for about +forty-eight hours. + +On the following day, Tuesday, her parents fetched her home; but at +the Two Briggs Jennet and Ellen Bierley appeared in their own shapes, +and she fell down in another trance, remaining unable to speak or walk +until the following Friday. + +All this was remarkable enough, but Grace Sowerbutts--or the person +who had tutored her--felt it was not sufficiently grim or gruesome to +make much impression on a Lancashire jury, accustomed in witch trials +to much more harrowing details. She proceeded, therefore, to recall an +incident of a more attractive character. A good while, she said, +before the trance business occurred, she accompanied her aunt, Ellen +Bierley, and her grandmother, Jennet Bierley, to the house of one +Thomas Walshman. It was night, and all the household were asleep, but +the doors flew open, and the unexpected visitors entered. Grace and +Ellen Bierley remained below, while Jennet made her way to the +sleeping-room of Thomas Walshman and his wife, and thence brought a +little child, which, as Grace supposed, must have been in bed with its +father and mother. Having thrust a nail into its navel, she afterwards +inserted a quill, and sucked for a good while(!); then replaced the +child with its parents, who, of course, had never roused from their +sleep. The child did not cry when it was thus abused, but thenceforth +languished, and soon afterwards died. And on the night after its +burial, the said Jennet and Ellen Bierley, taking Grace Sowerbutts +with them, went to Salmesbury churchyard, took up the body, and +carried it to Jennet's house, where a portion of it was boiled in a +pot, and a portion broiled on the coals. Of both portions Jennet and +Ellen partook, and would have had Grace join them in the ghoul-like +repast, but she refused. Afterwards Jennet and Ellen seethed the bones +in a pot, and with the fat that came from them said they would anoint +their bodies, so that they might sometimes change themselves into +other shapes. + +The next story told by this abandoned girl is too foul and coarse for +these pages, and we pass on to the conclusion of her evidence. On a +certain occasion, she said, Jane Southworth, a widow, met her at the +door of her father's house, carried her to the loft, and laid her upon +the floor, where she was found by her father unconscious, and +unconscious she remained till the next day. The widow Southworth then +visited her again, took her out of bed, and placed her upon the top of +a hayrick, three or four yards from the ground. She was discovered in +this position by a neighbour's wife, and laid in her bed again, but +remained speechless and senseless as before for two or three days. A +week or so after her recovery, Jane Southworth paid her a third visit, +took her away from her home, and laid her in a ditch near the house, +with her face downwards. The usual process followed: she was +discovered and put to bed, but continued unconscious--this time, +however, only for a day and a night. And, further, on the Tuesday +before the trial, the said Jane Southworth came again to her father's +house, took her and carried her into the barn, and thrust her head +amongst 'a company of boards' which were standing there, where she was +soon afterwards found, and, being again placed in a bed, remained in +her old fit until the Thursday night following. + +After Grace Sowerbutts had finished her evidence, Thomas Walshman was +called, who proved that his child died when about a year old, but of +what disease he knew not; and that Grace Sowerbutts had been found in +his father's barn, and afterwards carried into his house, where she +lay till the Monday night 'as if she had been dead.' Then one John +Singleton's deposition was taken: That he had often heard his old +master, Sir John Southworth, say, touching the widow Southworth, that +she was, as he thought, an evil woman and a witch, and that he was +sorry for her husband, who was his kinsman, for he believed she would +kill him. And that the said Sir John, in coming or going between +Preston and his own house at Salmesbury, mostly avoided passing the +old wife's residence, though it was the nearest way, entirely _out of +fear of the said wife_. (Brave Sir John!) + +This evidence, it is clear, failed to prove against the prisoners a +single direct act of witchcraft; but so credulous were judge and jury +in matters of this kind, that, notwithstanding the vague and +suspicious character of the testimony brought forward, it would have +gone hard with the accused, but for an accidental question which +disclosed the fact that the girl, Grace Sowerbutts, had been prompted +in her incoherent narrative, and taught to sham her fits of +unconsciousness, by a Roman priest or Jesuit, named Thompson or +Southworth, who was actuated by motives of fanaticism. + +'How well this project,' exclaims the indignant Potts, 'to take away +the lives of these innocent poor creatures by practice and villainy, +to induce a young scholar to commit perjury, to accuse her own +grandmother, aunt, etc., agrees either with the title of a Jesuit or +the duty of a religious Priest, who should rather profess sincerity +and innocency than practise treachery. But this was lawful, for they +are heretics accursed, to leave the company of priests, to frequent +churches, hear the word of God preached, and profess religion +sincerely.' The horrors which he taught his promising pupil, Thompson +probably gathered from the pages of Bodin and Delrio, or some of the +other demonologists. Potts continues: + +'Who did not condemn these women upon this evidence, and hold them +guilty of this so foul and horrible murder? But Almighty God, who in +His providence had provided means for their deliverance, although the +priest, by the help of the Devil, had provided false witnesses to +accuse them; yet God had prepared and placed in the seat of justice an +upright judge to sit in judgment upon their lives, who after he had +heard all the evidence at large against the prisoners for the King's +Majesty, demanded of them what answer they could make. They humbly +upon their knees, with weeping tears, desired him for God's cause to +examine Grace Sowerbutts, who set her on, or by whose means this +accusation came against them.' + +The countenance of Grace Sowerbutts immediately underwent a great +change, and the witnesses began to quarrel and accuse one another. The +judge put some questions to the girl, who, for the life of her, could +make no direct or intelligible answer, saying, with obvious +hesitation, that she was put to a master to learn, but he had told her +nothing of this. + +'But here,' continues Potts, 'as his lordship's care and pains was +great to discover the practices of those odious witches of the Forest +of Pendle, and other places, now upon their tribunal before him; so +was he desirous to discover this damnable practice to accuse these +poor women and bring their lives in danger, and thereby to deliver the +innocent. + +'And as he openly delivered it upon the bench, in the hearing of a +great audience: That if a Priest or Jesuit had a hand in one end of +it, there would appear to be knavery and practice in the other end of +it. And that it might better appear to the whole world, examined +Thomas Sowerbutts what [the] Master taught his daughter: in general +terms, he denied all. + +'The wench had nothing to say, but her Master told her nothing of +this. In the end, some that were present told his lordship the truth, +and the prisoners informed him how she went to learn with one +Thompson, a Seminary Priest, who had instructed and taught her this +accusation against them, because they were once obstinate Papists, and +now came to Church. Here is the discovery of this Priest, and of his +whole practice. Still this fire increased more and more, and one +witness accusing another, all things were laid open at large. + +'In the end his lordship took away the girl from her father, and +committed her to Mr. Leigh, a very religious preacher, and Mr. +Chisnal, two Justices of the Peace, to be carefully examined.' + +The examination was as follows: + +'Being demanded whether the accusation she laid upon her grandmother, +Jennet Bierley, Ellen Bierley, and Jane Southworth, of witchcraft, +namely, of the killing of the child of Thomas Walshman with a nail in +the navel, the boiling, eating, and oiling, thereby to transform +themselves into divers shapes, was true; she doth utterly deny the +same: or that ever she saw any such practices done by them. + +'She further saith, that one Master Thompson, which she taketh to be +Master Christopher Southworth, to whom she was sent to learn her +prayers, did persuade, counsel, and advise her, to deal as formerly +hath been said against her said Grandmother, Aunt, and Southworth's +wife. + +'And further she confesseth and saith, that she never did know, or saw +any Devils, nor any other Visions, as formerly by her hath been +alleged and informed. + +'Also she confesseth and saith, that she was not thrown or cast upon +the hen-ruff and hay-mow in the barn, but that she went up upon the +Mow herself by the wall-side. + +'Being further demanded whether she ever was at the Church, she saith, +she was not, but promised hereafter to go to the Church, and that very +willingly.' + +The three accused were also examined, and declared their belief that +Grace Sowerbutts had been trained by the priest to accuse them of +witchcraft, because they 'would not be dissuaded from the Church.' + +'These examinations being taken, they were brought into the Court, and +there openly in the presence of this great audience published and +declared to the jury of life and death; and thereupon the gentlemen of +their jury required to consider of them. For although they stood upon +their Trial, for matter of fact of witchcraft, murther, and much more +of the like nature: yet in respect all their accusations did appear to +be practice, they were now to consider of them and to acquit them. +Thus were these poor innocent creatures, by the great care and pains +of this honourable Judge, delivered from the danger of this +conspiracy; this bloody practice of the Priest laid open: of whose +fact I may lawfully say, _Etiam si ego tacuero clamabunt lapides_. + +'These are but ordinary with Priests and Jesuits: no respect of blood, +kindred, or friendship can move them to forbear their conspiracies; +for when he had laboured treacherously to seduce and convert them, and +yet could do no good, then devised he this means. + +'God of His great mercy deliver us all from them and their damnable +conspiracies: and when any of his Majesty's subjects, so free and +innocent as these, shall come in question, grant them as honourable a +trial, as reverend and worthy a judge to sit in judgment upon them, +and in the end as speedy a deliverance. + +'And for that which I have heard of them, seen with my eyes, and taken +pains to read of them, my humble prayer shall be to God Almighty, _Vt +convertantur ne pereant. Aut confundantur ne noceant._'[43] + + * * * * * + +I pass on to a remarkable trial for witchcraft which took place at +Taunton Assizes in August, 1626, one Edward Ball and Joan Greedie +being charged with having practised upon a certain Edward Dinham. + +It seems that the complainant, when under the witch-spell, possessed +no fewer than three voices--namely, his own natural voice, and two +artificial voices, of which one was shrill and pleasant, the other +deadly and hollow. These two voices belonged respectively to the good +and evil spirits which alternately prevailed over him. As it is said +that they spoke without any movement of the lips or tongue, it is +probable the man was a natural ventriloquist, and made use of his gift +to imperil the lives of Ball and Greedie, against whom he may have +entertained a hostile feeling. He gave the following specimen of the +conversation which took place between him and his spirits: + + GOOD SPIRIT. How comes this man to be thus tormented? + + BAD SPIRIT. He is bewitched. + + GOOD. Who hath done it? + + BAD. That I may not tell. + + GOOD. Aske him agayne. + + DINHAM. Come, come, prithee, tell me who hath bewitched me. + + BAD. A woman in greene cloathes and a black hatt, with a + large poll; and a man in a gray suite, with blue stockings. + + GOOD. But where are they? + + BAD. She is at her house, and hee is at a taverne in Yeohall + [Youghal] in Ireland. + + GOOD. But what are their names? + + BAD. Nay, that I will not tell. + + GOOD. Then tell half of their names. + + BAD. The one is Johan, and the other Edward. + + GOOD. Nowe tell me the other half. + + BAD. That I may not. + + GOOD. Aske him agayne. + + DINHAM. Come, come, prithee, tell me the other half. + + BAD. The one is Greedie, and the other Ball. + +This information having been obtained, a messenger is sent to a +certain house, where the unfortunate Joan is straightway arrested. The +conversation, if this absurd rigmarole can be so called, was +afterwards resumed, the man conveniently going into one of his 'fits' +for the purpose: + + GOOD. But are these witches? + + BAD. Yes; that they are. + + GOOD. Howe came they to bee soe? + + BAD. By discent. + + GOOD. But howe by discent? + + BAD. From the grandmother to the mother, and from the mother + to the children. + + GOOD. But howe aree they soe? + + BAD. They aree bound to us, and wee to them. + + GOOD. Lett mee see the bond. + + BAD. Thou shalt not. + + GOOD. Lett mee see it, and if I like I will seale alsoe. + + BAD. Thou shalt, if thou wilt not reveale the contentes + thereof. + + GOOD. I will not. + +As usual, the Good Spirit gets its way, and the bond is produced, +drawing from the Good Spirit an exclamation of anguish: 'Alas! oh, +pittifull, pittifull, pittifull! What? eight seales, bloody +seales--four dead, and four alive? Ah, miserable!' + + DINHAM. Come, come, prithee, tell me, Why did they bewitch + me? + + BAD. Because thou didst call Johane Greedie witche. + + DINHAM. Why, is shee not a witche? + + BAD. Yes; but thou shouldest not have said soe. + + GOOD. But why did Ball bewitche him? + + BAD. Because Greedie was not stronge enough. + +A messenger is now sent after Ball; but on reaching his hiding-place, +he finds that the poor man has just escaped, and he meets with people +who had seen his flight. Dinham and his voices then join in a +discourse, from which it appears that before they bewitched Dinham +they had been guilty of various 'evil practices,' and had compassed +the death of, at least, one of their victims. Six days afterwards +Dinham has another 'fit,' and a second unsuccessful effort is made to +track and arrest Ball. Disgusted with this failure, the Good Spirit +strenuously opposes the Evil Spirit in his resolve to secure Dinham's +soul: + + BAD. I will have him, or else I will torment him eight tymes + more. + + GOOD. Thou shalt not have thy will in all thinges; thou shalt + torment him but four times more. + + BAD. I will have thy soule. + + GOOD. If thou wilt answer me three questions, I will seale + and goe with thee. + + BAD. I will. + + GOOD. Who made the world? + + BAD. God. + + GOOD. Who created mankynde? + + BAD. God. + + GOOD. Wherefore was Christ Jesus His precious blood shed? + + BAD. I'le no more of that. + +Here the patient was seized with the most violent convulsions, foaming +at the mouth, and struggling with clenched hands and contorted limbs. + +Another fit came off a few days afterwards, and in this Dinham was +exposed to a double temptation: + + BAD. If thou wilt give me thy soule, I will give thee gold + enough. + + GOOD. Thy gold will scald my fingers. + + BAD. If thou wilt give me thy soule, I will give thee dice, + and thou shalt winne infinite somes of treasure by play. + + GOOD. If thou canst make every letter in this booke [a + Prayer-book which Dinham held in his hand] a die, I will. + + BAD. That I cannott. + + GOOD. Laudes, laudes, laudes! + + BAD. Thou shalt have _ladies_ enough--ladies, ladies, + ladies!... + + GOOD. If thou canst make every letter in this book a ladie, I + will. + +Here the Bad Spirit made an attempt to cast away the book, but, after +a violent struggle, was defeated; and then the Good Spirit celebrated +his victory in 'the sweetest musicke that ever was heard.' Eventually +Ball was captured, and Dinham then declared that his 'two voices' +ceased to trouble him. Greedie and Ball were both committed for trial, +but no record exists of their execution, and we may hope that they +were acquitted of charges supported by such absurd and fallacious +evidence. + + * * * * * + +Edward Fairfax, a man of ability and culture--the refined and +melodious translator of Tasso's Christian epic--prosecuted six of his +neighbours at York Assizes, in 1622, for practising witchcraft on his +children. The grand jury found a true bill against them, and the +accused were brought to trial. But the judge, who had been privately +furnished with a certificate of their 'sober behaviour,' contrived so +to influence the jury as to obtain a verdict of acquittal. The poet +afterwards published an elaborate defence of his conduct. His folly +may be excused, perhaps, since even such men as Raleigh and Bacon +inclined towards a belief in witchcraft; and the judicious Evelyn +makes it one of his principal complaints against solitude that it +created witches. Hobbes, in his 'Leviathan,' takes, however, a more +enlightened view: 'As for witches,' he says, 'I think not that their +witchcraft is any real power; but yet that they are justly punished +for the false belief they have that they can do such mischief, joined +with their purpose to do it if they can.' + + * * * * * + +Even the stir and tumult of the Civil War did not suspend the +persecuting activity of a degraded superstition. In 1644 eight witches +of Manningtree, in Essex, were accused of holding witches' meetings +every Friday night; were searched for teats and devils' marks, +convicted, and, with twenty-nine of their fellows, hung. In the +following year there were more hangings in Essex; and in Norfolk a +score of witches suffered. In 1650 a woman was hung at the Old Bailey +as a witch. 'She was found to have under her armpits those marks by +which witches are discovered to entertain their familiars.' In April, +1652, Jean Peterson, the witch of Wapping, was hung at Tyburn; and in +July of the same year six witches perished at Maidstone. + +In 1653 Alice Bodenham, a domestic servant, was tried at Salisbury +before Chief Justice Wilde, and convicted. It is not certain, however, +that she was executed. + +In 1658 Jane Brooks was executed for practising witchcraft on a boy of +twelve, named Henry James, at Chard, in Somersetshire; in 1663 Julian +Cox, at Taunton, for a similar offence. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[43] Potts, 'Wonderful Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of +Lancaster' (1613). + + +THE WITCH-FINDER: MATTHEW HOPKINS. + +The severe legislation against witchcraft had thus the effect--which +invariably attends legislation when it becomes unduly repressive--of +increasing the offence it had been designed to exterminate. It was +attended, also, by another result, which is equally common--bringing +to the front a number of informers who, at the cost of many innocent +lives, turned it to their personal advantage. Of these witch-finders, +the most notorious was Matthew Hopkins, of Manningtree, in Essex. When +he first started his infamous trade, I cannot ascertain, but his +success would seem to have been immediate. His earliest victims he +found in his own neighbourhood. But, as his reputation grew, he +extended his operations over the whole of Essex; and in a very short +time, if any case of supposed witchcraft occurred, the neighbours sent +for Matthew Hopkins as an acknowledged expert, whose skill would +infallibly detect the guilty person. + +His first appearance at the assizes was in the spring of 1645, when he +accused an unfortunate old woman, named Elizabeth Clarke. To collect +evidence against her, he watched her by night in a room in a Mr. +Edwards's house, in which she was illegally detained. At her trial he +had the audacity to affirm that, on the third night of his watching, +after he had refused her the society of one of her imps, she confessed +to him that, some six or seven years before, she had given herself +over to the devil, who visited her in the form of 'a proper gentleman, +with a hazel beard.' Soon after this, he said, a little dog came +in--fat, short-legged, and with sandy spots besprinkled on the white +ground-colour of its tub-like body. When he prevented it from +approaching the woman--who declared it was Jacmara, one of her +imps--it straightway vanished. Next came a greyhound, which she called +Vinegar Tom; and next a polecat. Improving in fluent and fertile +mendacity, Hopkins went on to assert that, on returning home that +night, about ten of the clock, accompanied by his own greyhound, he +saw his dog give a leap and a bound, and hark away as if hunting a +hare; and on following him, he espied a little white animal, about the +size of a kitten, and observed that his greyhound stood aloof from it +in fright; and by-and-by this imp or kitten danced about the dog, and, +as he supposed, bit a piece from its shoulder, for the greyhound came +to him shrieking and crying, and bleeding from a great wound. Hopkins +further stated that, going into his yard that same night, he saw a +Black Thing, shaped like a cat, but thrice as big, sitting in a +strawberry-bed, with its eyes fixed upon him. When he approached it, +the Thing leaped over the pale towards him, as he thought, but, on the +contrary, ran quite through the yard, with his greyhound after it, to +a great gate, which was underset 'with a pair of tumbril strings,' +threw it wide open, and then vanished, while his dog returned to him, +shaking and trembling exceedingly. + +In these unholy vigils of his, Hopkins was accompanied by one 'John +Sterne, of Manningtree, gentleman,' who, as a matter of course, +confirmed all his statements, and added the interesting detail that +the third imp was called Sack-and-Sugar. The two wretches forced their +way into the house of another woman, named Rebecca West, from whom +they extracted a confession that the first time she saw the devil, he +came to her at night, told her he must be her husband, and finally +married her! The cruel tortures to which these and so many other +unhappy females were exposed must undoubtedly have told on their +nervous systems, producing a condition of hysteria, and filling their +minds with hallucinations, which, perhaps, may partly have been +suggested by the 'leading questions' of the witch-finders themselves. +It is to be observed that their confessions wore a striking +similarity, and that all the names mentioned of the so-called imps or +familiars were of a ludicrous character, such as Prick-ear, Frog, +Robin, and Sparrow. Then the excitement caused by these trials so +wrought on the public mind that witnesses were easily found to +testify--apparently in good faith--to the evil things done by the +accused, and even to swear that they had seen their familiars. Thus +one man declared that, passing at daybreak by the house of a certain +Anne West, he was surprised to find her door open. Looking in, he +descried three or four Things, like black rabbits, one of which ran +after him. He seized and tried to kill him, but in his hands the Thing +seemed a mere piece of wool, which extended lengthwise without any +apparent injury. Full speed he made for a neighbouring spring, in +which he tried to drown him, but as soon as he put the Thing in the +water, he vanished from his sight. Returning to the house, he saw Anne +West standing at the door 'in her smock,' and asked her why she sent +her imp to trouble him, but received no answer. + +His experiments having proved successful, Hopkins took up +witch-finding as a vocation, one which provided him with the means of +a comfortable livelihood, while it gratified his ambition by making +him the terror of many and the admiration of more, investing him with +just that kind of power which is delightful to a narrow and +commonplace mind. Assuming the title of 'Witch-finder-General,' and +taking with him John Sterne, and a woman, whose business it was to +examine accused females for the devil's marks, he travelled through +the counties of Essex, Norfolk, Huntingdon, and Sussex. + +He was at Bury, in Suffolk, in August, 1645, and there, on the 27th, +no fewer than eighteen witches were executed at once through his +instrumentality. A hundred and twenty more were to have been tried, +but the approach of the royal troops led to the adjournment of the +Assize. In one year this wholesale murderer caused the death of sixty +poor creatures. The 'test' he generally adopted was that of +'swimming,' which James I. recommends with much unction in his +'Demonologie.' The hands and feet of the accused were tied together +crosswise, the thumb of the right hand to the big toe of the left +foot, and _vice vers_. She was then wrapped up in a large sheet or +blanket, and laid upon her back in a pond or river. If she sank, she +was innocent, but established her innocence at the cost of her life; +if she floated, which was generally the case, as her clothes afforded +a temporary support, she was pronounced guilty, and hanged with all +possible expedition. + +Another 'test' was the repetition of the Lord's Prayer, which, it was +believed, no witch could accomplish. Woe to the unfortunate creature +who, in her nervousness, faltered over a syllable or stumbled at a +word! Again she was forced into some awkward and painful attitude, +bound with cords, and kept foodless and sleepless for four-and-twenty +hours. Or she was walked continuously up and down a room, an attendant +holding each arm, until she dropped with fatigue. Sometimes she was +weighed against the church Bible, obtaining her deliverance if she +proved to be heavier. But this last-named test was too lenient for the +Witch-finder-General, who preferred the swimming ordeal. + +One of his victims at Bury was a venerable clergyman, named Lowes, who +had been Vicar of Brandeston, near Framlingham, for fifty years. +'After he was found with the marks,' says Sterne, 'in his +confession'--when made, to whom, or under what circumstances, we are +not informed--'he confessed that in pride of heart to be equal, or +rather above God, the devil took advantage of him, and he covenanted +with the devil, and sealed it with his blood, and had those familiars +or spirits which sucked on the marks found on his body, and did much +harm both by sea and land, especially by sea; for he confessed that +he, being at Lungar Fort [Landguard Fort], in Suffolk, where he +preached, as he walked upon the wall or works there, he saw a great +sail of ships pass by, and that, as they were sailing by, one of his +three imps, namely, his yellow one, forthwith appeared to him, and +asked him what he should do, and he bade him go and sink such a ship, +and showed his imp a new ship among the middle of the rest (as I +remember), one that belonged to Ipswich; so he confessed the imp went +forthwith away, and he stood still and viewed the ships on the sea as +they were a-sailing, and perceived that ship immediately to be in more +trouble and danger than the rest; for he said the water was more +boisterous near that than the rest, tumbling up and down with waves, +as if water had been boiled in a pot, and soon after (he said), in a +short time, it sunk directly down into the sea as he stood and viewed +it, when all the rest sailed down in safety; then he confessed he made +fourteen widows in one quarter of an hour. Then Mr. Hopkins, as he +told me (for he took his confession), asked him if it did not grieve +him to see so many men cast away in a short time, and that he should +be the cause of so many poor widows on a sudden; but he swore by his +Maker he was joyful to see what power his imps had: and so likewise +confessed many other mischiefs, and had a charm to keep him out of the +jail and hanging, as he paraphrased it himself; but therein the devil +deceived him, for he was hanged that Michaelmas time, 1645, at Bury +St. Edmunds.' Poor old man! This so-called confession has a very +dubious air about it, and reads as if it had been invented by Matthew +Hopkins, who, as Sterne navely acknowledges, 'took the confessions,' +apparently without any witness or reporter being present. + +The Witch-finder-General, when on his expeditions of inquiry, assumed +the style of a man of fortune. He put up always at the best inns, and +lived in the most luxurious fashion, which he could well afford to do, +as, when invited to visit a town, he insisted on payment of his +expenses for board and lodging, and a fee of twenty shillings. This +sum he claimed under any circumstances; but if he succeeded in +detecting any witches, he demanded another fee of twenty shillings for +each one brought to execution. Generally his pretensions were admitted +without demur; but occasionally he encountered a sturdy opponent, like +the Rev. Mr. Gaul, of Great Staughton, in Huntingdonshire, who +attacked him in a briskly-written pamphlet as an intolerable nuisance. +Hopkins replied by an angry letter to one of the magistrates of the +town, in which he said: 'I am to come to Kimbolton this week, and it +shall be ten to one but I will come to your town first; but I would +certainly know afore whether your town affords many sticklers for such +cattle [_i.e._ witches], or [is] willing to give and afford us good +welcome and entertainment, as other where I have been, else I shall +waive your shire (not as yet beginning in any part of it myself), and +betake me to such places where I do and may persist without control, +but with thanks and recompense.' + +Neither Mr. Gaul nor the magistrates of Great Staughton showed any +anxiety in regard to the witch-finder's threat. On the contrary, Mr. +Gaul returned to the charge in a second pamphlet, entitled 'Select +Cases of Conscience touching Witches and Witchcraft,' in which, while +admitting the existence of witches--for he was not above the +superstition of his age and country--he vigorously attacked Hopkins +for accusing persons on insufficient evidence, and denounced the +atrocious cruelties of which he and his associates were guilty. I have +no doubt that this manly language helped to bring about a wholesome +change of public opinion. In the eastern counties so bitter a feeling +of resentment arose, that Hopkins found it advisable to seek fresh +woods and pastures new. In the spring of 1647 he was at Worcester, +where four unfortunates were condemned on the evidence of himself and +his associates. But the indignation against him deepened and extended, +and he hastily returned to his native town, trembling for his wretched +life. There he printed a defence of his conduct, under the title of +'The Discovery of Witches, in answer to several queries lately +delivered to the Judge of Assize for the county of Norfolk; published +by Matthew Hopkins, witch-finder, for the benefit of the whole +kingdom.' His death occurred shortly afterwards. According to Sterne, +he died the death of a righteous man, having 'no trouble of conscience +for what he had done, as was falsely reported for him.' But the more +generally accepted account is an instance of 'poetical justice'--of +Nemesis satisfied--which I heartily hope is authentic. It is said that +he was surrounded by a mob in a Suffolk village, and accused of being +himself a wizard, and of having, by his tricks of sorcery, cheated the +devil out of a memorandum-book, in which were entered the names of all +the witches in England. 'Thus,' cried the populace, 'you find out +witches, not by God's name, but by the devil's.' He denied the charge; +but his accusers determined that he should be subjected to his +favourite test. He was stripped; his thumbs and toes were tied +together; he was wrapped in a blanket, and cast into a pond. Whether +he was drowned, or whether he floated, was taken up, tried, sentenced, +and executed, authorities do not agree; but they agree that he never +more disturbed the peace of the realm as a witch-finder. + +Butler has found a niche for this knave, among other knaves, in his +'Hudibras': + + 'Hath not this present Parliament + A lieger to the Devil sent, + Fully empowered to set about + Finding revolted witches out? + And has he not within a year + Hanged threescore of them in one shire? + Some only for not being drowned, + And some for sitting above ground + Whole days and nights upon their breeches, + And, feeling pain, were hanged for witches ... + Who proved himself at length a witch, + And made a rod for his own breech'-- + +the engineer hoist with his own petard--happily a by no means +infrequent mode of retribution. + +Sterne, the witch-finder's colleague, not unnaturally shared in the +public disfavour, and in defence of himself and his deceased partner +gave to the world a 'Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft,' in +which he acknowledges to have been concerned in the detection and +condemnation of some 200 witches in the counties of Essex, Suffolk, +Northampton, Huntingdon, Bedford, Norfolk and Cambridge, and the Isle +of Ely. He adds that 'in many places I never received penny as yet, +nor any like, notwithstanding I have bonds for satisfaction, except I +should sin; but many rather fall upon me for what hath been received, +but I hope such suits will be disannulled, and that when I have been +out of moneys for towns in charges and otherwise, such course will be +taken that I may be satisfied and paid with reason.' One can hardly +admire sufficiently the brazen effrontery of this appeal! + + * * * * * + +The number of persons imprisoned on suspicion of witchcraft grew so +large as to excite the alarm of the Government, who issued stringent +orders to the country magistrates to commit for trial persons brought +before them on this charge, and forbade them to exercise summary +jurisdiction. Eventually a commission was given to the Earl of +Warwick, and others, to hold a gaol-delivery at Chelmsford. Lord +Warwick, who had done good service to the State as Lord High Admiral, +was sagacious and fair-minded. But with him went Dr. Edmund Calamy, +the eminent Puritan divine, to see that no injustice was done to the +parties accused. This proved an unfortunate choice; for Calamy, who, +in his sermon before the judges, had enlarged on the enormity of the +sin of witchcraft, sat on the bench with them, and unhappily +influenced their deliberations in the direction of severity. As a +result, sixteen persons were hanged at Yarmouth, fifteen at +Chelmsford, besides some sixty at various places in Suffolk. + + * * * * * + +Whitlocke, in his 'Memorials,' speaks of many 'witches' as having been +put upon their trial at Newcastle, through the agency of a man whom he +calls 'the Witch-finder.' Another of the imitators of Hopkins, a Mr. +Shaw, parson of Rusock, came to condign humiliation (1660). Having +instigated some bucolic barbarians to put an old woman, named Joan +Bibb, to the water-ordeal, she swam right vigorously in the pool, and +struggled with her assailants so strenuously that she effected her +escape. Afterwards she brought an action against the parson for +instigating the outrage, and obtained 20 damages. + + * * * * * + +In 1664, Elizabeth Styles, of Bayford, Somersetshire, was convicted and +sentenced to death, but died in prison before the day fixed for her +execution. It is said that she made a voluntary confession--without +inducement or torture--in the presence of the magistrates and several +divines--another case (if it be true) of the morbid self-delusion which +in times of popular excitement makes so many victims. + + * * * * * + +One feels the necessity of speaking with some degree of moderation +respecting the credulity of the ignorant and uneducated classes, when +one finds so sound a lawyer and so admirable a Christian as Sir +Matthew Hale infected by the mania. No other blot, I suppose, is to be +found on his fame and character; and that he should have incurred this +indelible stain, and fallen into so pitiable an error, is a problem by +no means easy of solution. + +At the Lent Assize, in 1664, at Bury St. Edmunds, two aged women, +named Rose Cullender and Amy Duny were brought before him on a charge +of having bewitched seven persons. The nature of the evidence on which +it was founded the reader will appreciate from the following examples: + +Samuel Pacey, of Lowestoft, a man of good repute for sobriety and +other homely virtues, having been sworn, said: That on Thursday, +October 10 last, his younger daughter Deborah, about nine years old, +fell suddenly so lame that she could not stand on her feet, and so +continued till the 17th, when she asked to be carried to a bank which +overlooked the sea, and while she was sitting there, Amy Duny came to +the witness's house to buy some herrings, but was denied. Twice more +she called, but being always denied, went away grumbling and +discontented. At this instant of time the child was seized with +terrible fits; complained of a pain in her stomach, as if she were +being pricked with pins, shrieking out 'with a voice like a whelp,' +and thus continuing until the 30th. This witness added that Amy Duny, +being known as a witch, and his child having, in the intervals of her +fits, constantly exclaimed against her as the cause of her sufferings, +saying that the said Amy did appear to her and frighten her, he began +to suspect the said Amy, and accused her in plain terms of injuring +his child, and got her 'set in the stocks.' Two days afterwards, his +daughter Elizabeth was seized with similar fits; and both she and her +sister complained that they were tormented by various persons in the +town of bad character, but more particularly by Amy Duny, and by +another reputed witch, Rose Cullender. + +Another witness deposed that she had heard the two children cry out +against these persons, who, they said, threatened to increase their +torments tenfold if they told tales of them. 'At some times the +children would see Things run up and down the house in the appearance +of mice; and one of them suddenly snapped one with the tongs, and +threw it in 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 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 reach her, the child fell into her +swooning fit, and, at last, with much pain and straining, vomited up a +twopenny nail with a broad head; and after that the child had raised +up the nail she came to her understanding, 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.' + +Such evidence as this failing to satisfy Serjeant Keeling, and +several magistrates who were present, of the guilt of the accused, it +was resolved to resort to demonstration by experiment. The persons +bewitched were brought into court to touch the two old women; and it +was observed (says Hutchinson) that when the former were in the midst +of their fits, and to all men's apprehension wholly deprived of all +sense and understanding, closing their fists in such a manner as that +the strongest man could not force them open, yet, at the least touch +of one of the supposed witches--Rose Cullender, by name--they would +suddenly shriek out, opening their hands, which accident would not +happen at any other person's touch. 'And lest they might privately see +when they were touched by the said Rose Cullender, they were blinded +with their own aprons, and the touching took the same effect as +before. There was an ingenious person that objected there might be a +great fallacy in this experiment, and there ought not to be any stress +put upon this to convict the parties, for the children might +counterfeit this their distemper, and, perceiving what was done to +them, they might in such manner suddenly alter the erection and +gesture of their bodies, on purpose to induce persons to believe that +they were not natural, but wrought strangely by the touch of the +prisoners. Wherefore, 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 gentleman then 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; and Amy Duny +was brought from the bar, and conveyed to the maid. They then put an +apron before her eyes; and then one other person touched her hand, +which produced the same effect as the touch of the witch did in the +court. Whereupon the gentlemen returned, openly protesting that they +did believe the whole transaction of the business was a mere +imposture.' As, in truth, it was. + +It is remarkable that Sir Matthew Hale was still unconvinced. He +invited the opinion of Sir Thomas Browne, a man of great learning and +ability--the author of the 'Religio Medici,' and other justly famous +works--who admitted that the fits were natural, but thought them +'heightened by the devil co-operating with the malice of the witches, +at whose instance he did the villanies.' Sir Matthew then charged the +jury. There were, he said, two questions to be considered: First, +whether or not these children were bewitched? And, second, whether the +prisoners at the bar had been guilty of bewitching them? _That there +were such creatures as witches, he did not doubt_; and he appealed to +the Scriptures, which had affirmed so much, and also to the wisdom of +all nations, which had enacted laws against such persons. Such, too, +he said, had been the judgment of this kingdom, as appeared by that +Act of Parliament which had provided punishment proportionable to the +quality of the offence. He desired them to pay strict attention to the +evidence, and implored the great God of heaven to direct their hearts +in so weighty a matter; for to condemn the innocent, and set free the +guilty, was 'an abomination to the Lord.' + +After a charge of this description, the jury naturally brought in a +verdict of 'Guilty.' Sentence of death was pronounced; and the two +poor old women, protesting to the last their innocence, suffered on +the gallows. Who will not regret the part played by Sir Matthew Hale +in this judicial murder? It is no excuse to say that he did but share +in the popular belief. One expects of such a man that he will rise +superior to the errors of ordinary minds; that he will be guided by +broader and more enlightened views--by more humane and generous +sympathies. Instead of attempting an apology which no act can render +satisfactory, it is better to admit, with Sir Michael Foster, that +'this great and good man was betrayed, notwithstanding the rectitude +of his intentions, into a great mistake, under the strong bias of +early prejudices.' + +Gradually, however, a disbelief in witchcraft grew up in the public +mind, as intellectual inquiry widened its scope, and the relations of +man to the Unseen World came to be better understood. Among the +educated classes the old superstition expired much more rapidly than +among the poorer; and so we find that though convictions became rarer, +committals and trials continued tolerably frequent until the closing +years of the eighteenth century. To the ghastly roll of victims, +however, additions continued to be made. Thus in August, 1682, three +women, named Temperance Lloyd, Susannah Edwards, and Mary Trembles, +were tried at Exeter before Lord Chief Justice North and Mr. Justice +Raymond, convicted of various acts of witchcraft, and sentenced to +death. Before their trial they had confessed to frequent interviews +with the devil, who appeared in the shape of a black man as long (or +as short) as a man's arm; and one of them acknowledged to have caused +the death of four persons by witchcraft. Some portion of these +monstrous fictions they recanted under the gallows; but even on the +brink of the grave they persisted in claiming the character of +witches, and in asserting that they had had personal intercourse with +the devil. + +In March, 1684, Alicia Welland was tried before Chief Baron Montague +at Exeter, convicted, and executed. + +To estimate the extent to which the belief in witchcraft, during the +latter part of the seventeenth century, operated against the lives of +the accused, Mr. Inderwick has searched the records of the Western +Circuit, from 1670 to 1712 inclusive, and ascertained that out of +fifty-two persons tried in that period on various charges of +witchcraft, only seven were convicted, and one of these seven was +reprieved. 'What occurred on the Western,' he remarks, 'probably went +on at each of the several circuits into which the country was then +divided; and one cannot doubt that in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, +Huntingdon, and Lancashire, where the witches mostly abounded, the +charges and convictions were far more numerous than in the West. The +judges appear, however, not to have taken the line of Sir Matthew +Hale, but, as far as possible, to have prevented convictions. Indeed, +Lord Jeffreys--who, when not engaged on political business, was at +least as good a judge as any of his contemporaries--and Chief Justice +Herbert, tried and obtained acquittals of witches in 1685 and 1686 at +the very time that they were engaged on the Bloody Assize in +slaughtering the participators in Monmouth's rebellion. It is also a +remarkable fact that, from 1686 to 1712, when charges of witchcraft +gradually ceased, charges and convictions of malicious injury to +property in burning haystacks, barns, and houses, and malicious +injuries to persons and to cattle, increased enormously, these being +the sort of accusations freely made against the witches before this +date.' + +I think there can be little doubt that many evil-disposed persons +availed themselves of the prevalent belief in witchcraft as a cover +for their depredations on the property of their neighbours, diverting +suspicion from themselves to the poor wretches who, through accidental +circumstances, had acquired notoriety as the devil's accomplices. It +would also seem probable that not a few of the reputed witches +similarly turned to account their bad reputation. It is not +impossible, indeed, that there may be a certain degree of truth in the +tales told of the witches' meetings, and that in some rural +neighbourhoods the individuals suspected of being witches occasionally +assembled at an appointed rendezvous to consult upon their position +and their line of operations. The practices at these gatherings may +not always have been kept within the limits of decency and decorum; +and in this way the loathsome details with which every account of the +witches' meetings are embellished may have had a real foundation. + + * * * * * + +That the judges at length began persistently to discourage convictions +for witchcraft is seen in the action of Lord Chief Justice Holt at the +Bury St. Edmunds Assize in 1694. An old woman, known as Mother +Munnings, of Harks, in Suffolk, was brought before him, and the +witnesses against her retailed the village talk--how that her +landlord, Thomas Purnel, who, to get her out of the house she had +rented from him, had removed the street-door, was told that 'his nose +should lie upward in the churchyard' before the following Saturday; +and how that he was taken ill on the Monday, died on the Tuesday, and +was buried on the Thursday. How that she had a familiar in the shape +of a polecat, and how that a neighbour, peeping in at her window one +night, saw her take out of her basket a couple of imps--the one black, +the other white. And how that a woman, named Sarah Wager, having +quarrelled with her, was stricken dumb and lame. All this +tittle-tattle was brushed aside in his charge by the strong +common-sense of the judge; and the jury, under his direction, +returned a verdict of 'Not guilty.' Dr. Hutchinson remarks: 'Upon +particular inquiry of several in or near the town, I find most are +satisfied that it is a very right judgment. She lived about two years +after, without doing any known harm to anybody, and died declaring her +innocence. Her landlord was a consumptive-spent man, and the words not +exactly as they swore them, and the whole thing seventeen years +before.... The white imp is believed to have been a lock of wool, +taken out of her basket to spin; and its shadow, it is supposed, was +the black one.' + +In the same year (1694) a woman, named Margaret Elmore, was tried at +Ipswich; in 1695 one Mary Gay at Launceston; and in 1696 one Elizabeth +Hume at Exeter; but in each case, under the direction of Chief Justice +Holt, a verdict of acquittal was declared. Thus the seventeenth +century went its way in an unaccustomed atmosphere of justice and +humanity. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE DECLINE OF WITCHCRAFT IN ENGLAND. + + +The honour of discouraging prosecutions for witchcraft belongs in the +first place to France, which abolished them as early as 1672, and for +some years previously had refrained from sending any victims to the +scaffold or the stake. In England, the same effect was partly due, +perhaps, to the cynical humour of the Court of Charles II., where +many, who before ventured only to doubt, no longer hesitated to treat +the subject with ridicule. 'Although,' says Mr. Wright, 'works like +those of Baxter and Glanvil had still their weight with many people, +yet in the controversy which was now carried on through the +instrumentality of the press, those who wrote against the popular +creed had certainly the best of the argument. Still, it happened from +their form and character that the books written to expose the +absurdity of the belief in sorcery were restricted in their +circulation to the more educated classes, while popular tracts in +defence of witchcraft and collections of cases were printed in a +cheaper form, and widely distributed among that class in society where +the belief was most firmly rooted. The effect of these popular +publications has continued in some districts down to the present day. +Thus the press, the natural tendency of which was to enlighten +mankind, was made to increase ignorance by pandering to the credulity +of the multitude.' + +I have spoken of the seventeenth century as going out in an atmosphere +of justice and humanity. But an ancient superstition dies hard, and +the eighteenth century, when it dawned upon the earth, found the +belief in witchcraft still widely extended in England. Even men of +education could not wholly surrender their adhesion to it. We read +with surprise Addison's opinion in _The Spectator_, 'that the +arguments press equally on both sides,' and see him balancing himself +between the two aspects of the subject in a curious state of mental +indecision. 'When I hear the relations that are made from all parts of +the world,' he says, '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. But when I consider,' he adds, 'that the +ignorant and credulous parts of the world abound most in these +relations, and that the persons among us who are supposed to engage in +such an infernal commerce are people of a weak understanding and +crazed imagination, and at the same time reflect upon the many +impostures and delusions of this nature that have been detected in all +ages, I endeavour to suspend my belief till I hear more certain +accounts than any which have yet come to my knowledge.' And then he +comes to a halting and unsatisfactory conclusion, which will seem +almost grotesque to the reader of the preceding pages, with their +details of _succubi_ and _incubi_, imps and familiars, black cats, +pole-cats, goats, and the like: 'In short, when I consider the +question, whether there are such persons in the world as 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 instance of it.' + +Addison goes on to draw the picture of a witch of the period, 'Moll +White,' who lived in the neighbourhood of Sir Roger de Coverley, 'a +wrinkled hag, with age grown double.' This old woman had the +reputation of a witch all over the country; her lips were observed to +be always in motion, and there was not a switch about her house which +her neighbours did not believe had carried her several hundreds of +miles. 'If she chanced to stumble, they always found sticks or straws +that lay in the figure of a cross before her. If she made any mistake +at church, and cried Amen in a wrong place, they never failed to +conclude that she was saying her prayers backwards. There was not a +maid in the parish that would take a pin of her, though she should +offer a bag of money with it.... If the dairy-maid does not make her +butter to come so soon as she would have it, Moll White is at the +bottom of the churn. If a horse sweats in the stable, Moll White has +been upon his back. If a hare makes an unexpected escape from the +hounds, the huntsman curses Moll White.... + +'I have been the more particular in this account,' says Addison, +'because I know there is scarce a village in England that has not a +Moll White in it. When an old woman begins to dote, and grow +chargeable to a parish, she is generally turned into a witch, and +fills the whole country with extravagant fancies, imaginary +distempers, and terrifying dreams. In the meantime, the poor wretch +that is the innocent occasion of so many evils begins to be frighted +at herself, and sometimes confesses secret commerces and familiarities +that her imagination forms in a delirious old age. This frequently +cuts off charity from the greatest objects of compassion, and inspires +people with a malevolence towards those poor decrepit parts of our +species in whom human nature is defaced by infirmity and dotage.' + + * * * * * + +On March 2, 1703, one Richard Hathaway, apprentice to Thomas Wiling, a +blacksmith in Southwark, was tried before Chief Justice Holt at the +Surrey Assizes, as a cheat and an impostor, having pretended that he +had been bewitched by Sarah Morduck, wife of a Thames waterman, so +that he had been unable to eat or drink for the space of ten weeks +together; had suffered various pains; had constantly vomited nails and +crooked pins; had at times been deprived of speech and sight, and all +through the wicked cunning of Sarah Morduck; further, that he was from +time to time relieved of his ailments by scratching the said Sarah, +and drawing blood from her. On these charges Sarah had been committed +by the magistrates, and was tried as a witch at the Guildford Assizes +in February, 1701. It was then proved in her defence that Dr. Martin, +minister, of the parish of Southwark, hearing of Hathaway's troubles +and method of obtaining relief, had resolved to put the matter to a +fair test; and repairing to Hathaway's room, in one of his +semi-conscious and wholly blind intervals, had, in the presence of +many witnesses, pretended to give to the supposed sufferer the arm of +Sarah Morduck, when it was really that of a woman whom he had called +in from the street. Hathaway, in ignorance of the trick played upon +him, scratched the wrong arm, and immediately professed to recover his +sight and senses. On finding his deception discovered, Hathaway looked +greatly ashamed, and attempted no defence or excuse, when Dr. Martin +severely reproached him for his conduct. + +The populace, however, remained unconvinced, and when Dr. Martin and +his friends had departed, accompanied Hathaway to the house of Sarah +Morduck, whom they savagely ill-treated. They then declared that the +woman who had lent herself as a subject for experiment was also a +witch, and loaded her with contumely, while her husband gave her a +beating. It further appeared that, on one occasion, when Hathaway +alleged he had been vomiting crooked pins and nails, he had been +searched, and hundreds of packets of pins and nails found in his +pockets, and on his hands being tied behind him, the vomiting +immediately ceased. Eventually the jury acquitted Sarah Morduck, and +branded Hathaway as a cheat and an impostor. The lower classes, +however, received the verdict with contempt, mobbed Dr. Martin, and +raised a collection for Hathaway as for a man of many virtues whom +fortune had ill-treated. A magistrate, Sir Thomas Lane, who sided with +the mob, summoned Sarah Morduck before him, and after she had been +scratched by Hathaway in his presence, ordered her to be examined for +devil-marks by two women and a doctor. Though none could be detected, +his prejudice was so extreme that he committed her as a witch to the +Wood Street Compter, refusing bail to the extent of 500. Dr. Martin, +with other gentlemen, again came to her assistance, and ultimately she +was released on reasonable surety. + +The Government now thought it time to support the cause of justice, +and, carrying out the verdict of the Guildford jury, indicted Hathaway +as a cheat, and himself and his friends for assaulting Sarah Morduck. +In addition to the evidence previously adduced, it was shown that, +being in bad health, he had been placed in the custody of a Dr. Kenny, +a surgeon, who, desiring to test the truth of his fasting, made holes +in the partition wall of his compartment, and watched his proceedings +for about a fortnight, during which period, while pretending to fast, +he was observed to feed heartily on the food conveyed to him, and +once, having received an extra allowance of whisky, he got tipsy, +played a tune on the tongs, and danced before the fire. At the trial a +Dr. Hamilton was called for the defence; but, Balaam-like, he banned +rather than blessed, for having affirmed that the man's fasting was +the chief evidence of witchcraft, 'Doctor,' said the Chief Justice, +'do you think it possible for a man to fast a fortnight?' 'I think +not,' he replied. 'Can all the devils in hell help a man to fast so +long?' 'No, my lord,' said the doctor; 'I think not.' These answers +were conclusive; and without leaving the box, the jury found Hathaway +guilty, and he was sentenced by Chief Justice Holt to pay a fine of +one hundred marks, to stand in the pillory on the following Sunday for +two hours at Southwark, the same on the Tuesday at the Royal Exchange, +the same on the Wednesday at Temple Bar, the next day to be whipped at +the House of Correction, and afterwards to be imprisoned with hard +labour for six months. + +Two reputed witches, Eleanor Shaw and Mary Phillips, were executed at +Northampton on March 17, 1705; and on July 22, 1712, five +Northamptonshire witches, Agnes Brown, Helen Jenkinson, A...... Bill, +Joan Vaughan, and Mary Barber, suffered at the same place. + +It is generally believed that the last time an English jury brought in +a verdict of guilty in a case of witchcraft was in 1712, when a poor +Hertfordshire peasant woman, named Jane Wenham, was tried before Mr. +Justice Powell, sixteen witnesses, including three clergymen, +supporting the accusation. The evidence was absurd and frivolous; but, +in spite of its frivolousness and absurdity, and the poor woman's +fervent protestations of innocence, and the judge's strong summing-up +in her favour, a Hertfordshire jury convicted her. The judge was +compelled by the law to pronounce sentence of death, but he lost no +time in obtaining from the Queen a pardon for the unfortunate woman. +But, on emerging from her prison, she was treated by the mob with +savage ferocity; and, to save her from being lynched, Colonel Plumer, +of Gilson, took her into his service, in which she continued for many +years, earning and preserving the esteem of all who knew her. + +But there is a record of an execution for witchcraft, that of Mary +Hicks and her daughter, taking place in 1716 (July 28); and though it +is not indubitably established, I do not think its authenticity can +well be doubted. + +In January, 1736, an old woman of Frome, reputed to be a witch, was +dragged from her sick-bed, put astride on a saddle, and kept in a +mill-pond for nearly an hour, in the presence of upwards of 200 +people. The story goes that she swam like a cork, but on being taken +out of the water expired immediately. A coroner's inquest was held on +the body, and three persons were committed for trial for manslaughter; +but it is probable that they escaped punishment, as nobody seems to +have been willing to appear in the witness-box against them. + +Among the vulgar, indeed, the superstition was hard to kill. In the +middle of the last century, a poor man and his wife, of the name of +Osborne, each about seventy years of age, lived at Tring, in +Hertfordshire. On one occasion, Mother Osborne, as she was commonly +called, went to a dairyman, appropriately named Butterfield, and asked +for some buttermilk; but was harshly repulsed, and informed that he +had scarcely enough for his hogs. The woman replied with asperity that +the Pretender (it was in the '45 that this took place) would soon have +him and his hogs. It was customary then to connect the Pretender and +the devil in one's thoughts and aspirations; and the ignorant rustics +soon afterwards, when Butterfield's calves sickened, declared that +Mother Osborne had bewitched them, with the assistance of the devil. +Later, when Butterfield, who had given up his farm and taken to an +ale-house, suffered much from fits, Mother Osborne was again declared +to be the cause (1751), and he was advised to send to Northamptonshire +for an old woman, a white witch, to baffle her spells. The white witch +came, confirmed, of course, the popular prejudice, and advised that +six men, armed with staves and pitchforks, should watch Butterfield's +house by day and night. The affair would here, perhaps, have ended; +but some persons thought they could turn it to their pecuniary +advantage, and, accordingly, made public notification that a witch +would be ducked on April 22. On the appointed day hundreds flocked to +the scene of entertainment. The parish officers had removed the two +Osbornes for safety to the church; and the mob, in revenge, seized the +governor of the workhouse, and, collecting a heap of straw, threatened +to drown him, and set fire to the town, unless they were given up. In +a panic of fear the parish officers gave way, and the two poor +creatures were immediately stripped naked, their thumbs tied to their +toes, and, each being wrapped in a coarse sheet, were dragged a +couple of miles, and then flung into a muddy stream. Colley, a +chimney-sweep, observing that the woman did not sink, stepped into the +pool, and turned her over several times with a stick, until the sheet +fell off, and her nakedness was exposed. In this miserable +state--exhausted with fatigue and terror, sick with shame, half choked +with mud--she was flung upon the bank; and her persecutors--alas for +the cruelty of ignorance!--kicked and beat her until she died. Her +husband also sank under his barbarous maltreatment. It is satisfactory +to know that Colley, as the worst offender, was brought to trial on a +charge of wilful murder, found guilty, and most righteously hanged. +The crowd, however, who witnessed his execution, lamented him as a +martyr, unjustly punished for having delivered the world from one of +Satan's servants, and overwhelmed with execrations the sheriff whose +duty it was to see that the behests of the law were carried out. + +In February, 1759, Susannah Hannaker, of Wingrove, Wilts, was put to +the ordeal of weighing, but fortunately for herself outweighed the +church Bible, against which she was tested. In June, 1760, at +Leicester; in June, 1785, at Northampton; and in April, 1829, at +Monmouth, persons were tried for ducking supposed witches. Similar +cases have occurred in our own time. On September 4, 1863, a paralytic +Frenchman died of an illness induced by his having been ducked as a +wizard in a pond at Castle Hedingham, in Essex. And an aged woman, +named Anne Turner, reputed to be a witch, was killed by a man, +partially insane, at the village of Long Compton, in Warwickshire, on +September 17, 1875. But the reader needs no further illustrations of +the longevity of human error, or the terrible vitality of prejudice, +especially among the uneducated. The thaumaturgist or necromancer, +with his wand, his magic circle, his alembics and crucibles, +disappeared long ago, because, as I have already pointed out, his +support depended upon a class of society whose intelligence was +rapidly developed by the healthy influences of literature and science; +but the sham astrologer and the pseudo-witch linger still in obscure +corners, because they find their prey among the credulous and the +ignorant. The more widely we extend the bounds of knowledge, the more +certainly shall we prevent the recrudescence of such forms of +imposture and aspects of delusion as in the preceding pages I have +attempted to describe. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND. + + +Among the people of Scotland, a more serious-minded and imaginative +race than the English, the superstition of witchcraft was deeply +rooted at an early period. Its development was encouraged not only by +the idiosyncrasies of the national character, but also by the nature +of the country and the climate in which they lived. The lofty +mountains, with their misty summits and shadowy ravines--their deep +obscure glens--were the fitting homes of the wildest fancies, the +eriest legends; and the storm crashing through the forests, and the +surf beating on the rocky shore, suggested to the ear of the peasant +or the fisherman the voices of unseen creatures--of the dread spirits +of the waters and the air. To men who believed in kelpie and wraith +and the second sight, a belief in witch and warlock was easy enough. +And it was not until the Calvinist reformers imported into Scotland +their austere and rigid creed, with its literal interpretation of +Biblical imagery, that witchcraft came to be regarded as a crime. It +was not until 1563 that the Parliament of Scotland passed a statute +constituting 'witchcraft and dealing with witches' a capital offence. +It is true that persons accused of witchcraft had already suffered +death--as the Earl of Mar, brother of James III., who was suspected of +intriguing with witches and sorcerers in order to compass his +brother's death, and Lady Glamis, in 1532, charged with a similar plot +against James V.--but in both these cases it was the _treason_ which +was punished rather than the _sorcery_. + +In the Scottish criminal records the first person who suffered death +for the practice of witchcraft was a Janet Bowman, in 1572. No +particulars of her offence are given; and against her name are written +only the significant words, 'convict and byrnt.' + +A remarkable case, that of Bessie Dunlop, belongs to 1576.[44] She was +the wife of an Ayrshire peasant, Andrew Jack. According to her own +statement, she was going one day from her house to the yard of +Monkcastle, driving her cows to the pasture, and greeting over her +troubles--for she had a milch-cow nigh sick to death, and her husband +and child were lying ill, and she herself had but recently risen from +childbed--when a strange man met her, and saluted her with the words, +'Gude day, Bessie!' She answered civilly, and, in reply to his +questions, acquainted him with her anxieties; whereupon he informed +her that her cow, her two sheep, and her child would die, but that her +gude man would recover. She described this stranger in graphic +language as 'an honest, wele-elderlie man, gray bairdit, and had ane +gray coat with Lumbart slevis of the auld fassoun; ane pair of gray +brekis and quhyte schankis, gartaurt above the knee; ane black bonnet +on his heid, cloise behind and plane before, with silkin laissis +drawin throw the lippis thairof; and ane quhyte wand in his hand.' He +told Bessie that his name was _Thomas Reid_, and that he had been +killed at the Battle of Pinkie. Extraordinary as was this information, +it did not seem improbable to her when she noted the manner of his +disappearance through the yard of Monkcastle: 'I thocht he gait in at +ane narroware hoill of the dyke [wall], nor ony erdlie man culd haif +gaun throw; and swa I was sumthing fleit [terrified].' + +Thomas Reid's sinister predictions were duly fulfilled. Soon +afterwards, he again met Bessie, and boldly invited her to deny her +religion, and the faith in which she was christened, in return for +certain worldly advantages. But Bessie steadfastly refused. + +This visitor of hers was under no fear of the ordinance which is +supposed to limit the mundane excursions of 'spiritual creatures' to +the hours between sunset and cockcrow; for he generally made his +appearance at mid-day. It is not less singular that he made no +objection to the presence of humanity. On one occasion he called at +her house, where she sat conversing with her husband _and three +tailors_, and, invisible to them, plucked her by the apron, and led +her to the door, and thence up the hill-end, where he bade her stand, +and be silent, whatever she might hear or see. And suddenly she beheld +twelve persons, eight women and four men; the men clad in gentlemen's +clothing, and the women with plaids round about them, very seemly to +look at. Thomas was among them. They bade her sit down, and said: +'Welcome, Bessie; wilt thou go with us?' But she made no answer, and +after some conversation among themselves, they disappeared in a +hideous whirlwind. + +When Thomas returned, he informed her that the persons she had seen +were the 'good wights,' who dwell in the Court of Fary, and he +brought her an invitation to accompany them thither--an invitation +which he repeated with much earnestness. She answered, with true +Scotch caution: 'She saw no profit to gang that kind of gates, unless +she knew wherefore.' + +'Seest thou not me,' he rejoined, 'worth meat and worth clothes, and +good enough like in person?' + +The prospect, however, could not beguile her; and she continued firm +in her simple resolve to dwell with her husband and bairns, whom she +had no wish to abandon. Off went Thomas in a storm of anger; but +before long he recovered his temper, and resumed his visits, showing +himself willing to 'fetch and carry' at her request, and always +treating her with the deference due to a wife and mother. The only +benefit she derived from this friendship was, she said, the means of +curing diseases and recovering stolen property, so that her witchcraft +was of the simplest, innocentest kind. There was no compact with the +devil, and it injured nobody--except doctors and thieves. Yet for +yielding to this hallucination--the product of a vivid imagination, +stimulated, we suspect, by much solitary reverie--Bessie Dunlop was +'convyct and byrnt.' Mayhap, as she was led to the death-fire, she may +have dreamed that she had done better to have gone with Thomas Reid to +the Court of Fary! + + * * * * * + +The combination of the fairy folklore with the gloomier inventions of +witchcraft occurs again in the case of Alison Pierson (1588). There +was a certain William Simpson, a great scholar and physician, and a +native of Stirling. While but a child, he was taken away from his +parents 'by a man of Egypt, a giant,' who led him away to Egypt with +him, 'where he remained by the space of twelve years before he came +home again.' On his return, he made the acquaintance of Alison, who +was a near relative, and cured her of certain ailments; but soon +afterwards, less fortunate in treating himself, he died. Some months +had passed when, one day as Alison was lying on her bed, sick and +alone, she was suddenly addressed by a man in green clothes, who told +her that, if she would be faithful, he would do her good. In her first +alarm, she cried for help, but no one hearing, she called upon the +Divine Name, when her visitor immediately disappeared. Before long, he +came to her again, attended by many men and women; and compelling her +to accompany them, they set off in a gay procession to Lothian, where +they found puncheons of wine, with drinking-cups, and enjoyed +themselves right heartily. Thenceforward she was on the friendliest +terms with the 'good neighbours,' even visiting the Fairy Queen at her +court, where, according to her own account, she was made much of, was +treated, indeed, as 'one of themselves,' and allowed to see them +compounding wonderful healing-salves in miniature pans over tiny +fires. + +It would seem that this woman had acquired a considerable knowledge of +'herbs and simples,' and that the medicines she made up effected +remarkable cures. No doubt it was for the purpose of enhancing the +value of her concoctions that she professed to have obtained the +secret of them from the fairies. So great was her repute for medicinal +skill, that the Archbishop of St. Andrews sought her advice in a +dangerous illness, and, by her directions, ate 'a sodden food,' and at +two draughts absorbed a quart of good claret wine, which she had +previously medicated, greatly benefiting thereby. + +Alison had a fertile fancy and a fluent tongue, and told stories of +the fairies and their doings which did credit to her invention. It +does not appear that she injured anybody, except, perhaps, by her +drugs, but, then, even the faculty sometimes do _that_! But, like +Bessie Dunlop, she was convicted of witchcraft, and burned. The +surprising thing about this and similar cases is, that the poor woman +should have assisted in her own condemnation by devising such +extraordinary fictions. What was the use of them? A prisoner on a +charge which, if proved against her, meant a terrible death, what +object did she expect to gain? Was it all done for the sake of the +temporary surprise and astonishment her tale created? that she might +be the heroine of an hour?--Men have, we know, their strange +ambitions, but if this were Alison Pierson's, it was one of the very +strangest. + + * * * * * + +In the next case I shall bring forward, that of Dame Fowlis, we come +upon the trail of actual crime. Dame Fowlis, second wife of the chief +of the clan Munro, was by birth a Roise or Ross, of Balnagown. To +effect the aggrandisement of her own family, she plotted the death of +Robert, her husband's eldest son, in order to marry his wealthy widow +to her brother, George Roise or Ross, laird of Balnagown; but as he, +too, was married, it was necessary to get rid of _his_ wife also. For +this 'double event,' she employed, with little attempt at concealment, +three 'notorious witches'--Agnes Roy, Christian Roy, and Marjory Nayre +MacAllister, alias Loskie Loncart--besides one William MacGillivordam, +and several other persons of dubious reputation. About Midsummer, +1576, Agnes Roy was despatched to bring Loskie Loncart into Dame +Fowlis' presence. The result of this interview was soon apparent. Clay +images of the two doomed individuals were made, and exposed to the +usual sorceries; while MacGillivordam obtained a supply of poison from +Aberdeen, which the cook was bribed to put into a dish intended for +the lady of Balnagown's table. It did not prove mortal, as +anticipated, but afflicted the unfortunate lady with a long and severe +illness. Dame Fowlis, however, felt no remorse, but continued her +plots, gradually widening their scope until she resolved to kill all +her husband's children by his first wife, in order to secure the +inheritance for her own. In May, 1577, she instructed MacGillivordam +to procure a large quantity of poison. He refused, unless his brother +was made privy to the transaction. I suppose this was done, as the +poison was obtained, and proved to be so deadly in its nature that two +persons--a woman and a boy--were killed by accidentally tasting of it. + +Foiled in her scheme, Dame Fowlis resorted to the practices of +witchcraft, and bought, in June, for five shillings, 'an elf +arrow-head'--that is, a rude flint implement--belonging to the +neolithic age. On July 2, she and her accomplices met together in +secret conclave; and having made an image of butter to resemble Robert +Munro, they placed it against the wall; and then, with the elf +arrow-head, Loskie Loncart shot at it for eight times, but each time +without success, a proof that the familiars of the devil, like their +master, could not always hit the mark. Meeting a second time for the +same purpose, they made an image of clay, at which Loskie shot twelve +times in succession, invariably missing, to the great disappointment +of all concerned. The failure was ascribed to the elf arrow-head, and +in August another was procured; two figures of clay were also made, +for Robert Munro and for Lady Balnagown, respectively; at the latter +Dame Fowlis shot twice, and at the former Loskie Loncart shot thrice; +but the shooting was no better than before, and the two images being +accidentally broken, the charm was destroyed. It was proposed to try +poison again, but by this time the authorities had gained information +of what was going on, and towards the end of November, Christian Roy, +who had been present at the third meeting, was arrested. Being put to +the torture, she confessed everything, and, together with some of her +confederates, was convicted of witchcraft and burnt. Dame Fowlis, who +assuredly was not the least guilty person, escaped to Caithness, but, +after remaining in concealment for nine months, was allowed to return +to her home. In 1588, her husband died, and was succeeded in his +estates by Robert Munro, who revived the charge of witchcraft against +his step-mother, and obtained a commission for her examination and +that of her surviving accomplices. Dame Fowlis was put on her trial on +July 22, 1590; but she had money and friends, and contrived to obtain +a verdict of acquittal. + +It is one of the most remarkable features of this remarkable case +that, as soon as her acquittal was pronounced, a new trial was opened, +in which the defendant was her other stepson, Hector Munro,[45] who +had been, only an hour before, the principal witness against her. The +allegations against him were: first, that, during the sore sickness of +his brother, in the summer of 1588, he had consulted with 'three +notorious and common witches' respecting the best means of curing him, +and had sheltered them for several days, until compelled by his father +to send them about their business; and, second, that falling ill +himself, in January, 1559, he had caused a certain Marion MacIngaruch, +'one of the most notorious and rank witches in the whole realm,' to be +brought to him, and who, after administering three draughts of water +out of three stones which she carried with her, declared that his sole +chance of recovery lay in the sacrifice of 'the principal man of his +blood.' After due consultation, they decided that this vicarious +sufferer must be George Munro, his step-brother, the eldest son of +Dame Fowlis. Messengers were accordingly sent in search of him. +Apprehending no evil, he obeyed the call, and five days afterwards +arrived at the house of Hector Munro. Following the directions of the +witch, Hector received his brother in silence, giving him his left +hand, and taking him by the right hand, and uttering no word of +greeting until he had spoken. George, astounded by the chillness of +his reception, which he could not but contrast with the warmth of the +invitations, remained in his brother's sick-room an hour without +speaking. At last he asked Hector how he felt. 'The better that you +have come to visit me,' replied Hector, and then was again silent, for +so the witch had ordained. An hour after midnight appeared Marion +MacIngaruch, with several assistants; and, arming themselves with +spades, they repaired to a nook of ground at the sea-side, situated +between the boundaries of the estates of the two lairds, and there, +removing the turf, they dug a grave of the size of the invalid. + +Marion returned to the house, and gave directions to her confederates +as to the parts they were to play in the startling scene which was yet +to be enacted. It was represented to her that if George died suddenly +suspicions would be aroused, with a result dangerous to all concerned; +and she thereupon undertook that he should be spared until April 17 +next thereafter. Hector was then wrapped up in a couple of blankets, +and carried to the grave in silence. In silence he was deposited in +it, and the turf lightly laid upon him, while Marion stationed herself +by his side. His foster-mother, one Christiana Neill Dayzell, then +took a young lad by the hand, and ran the breadth of nine ridges, +afterwards inquiring of the witch 'who might be her choice,' and +receiving for answer, 'That Hector was her choice to live, and his +brother George to die for him.' This ceremony was thrice repeated, and +the sick man was then taken from the grave, and carried home, the most +absolute silence still being maintained. + +Such an experience on a bitter January night might well have proved +fatal to the subject of it; but, strange to say, Hector Munro +recovered--probably from the effect on his imagination of rites so +peculiar and impressive; whereas, in the month of April, George Munro +was seized with a grievous illness, of which, in the following June, +he died. Grateful for the cure she had effected, Hector received the +witch Marion into high favour, installing her at his uncle's house of +Kildrummadyis, entertaining her 'as if she had been his spouse, and +giving her such pre-eminence in the county that none durst offend +her.' But it is the nature of such unhallowed confederacies to +surrender, sooner or later, their dark, dread secrets. Whispers spread +abroad, gradually shaping themselves into a connected story which +invited judicial investigation. A warrant was issued for the arrest of +Marion MacIngaruch; but for some time Hector Munro contrived to +conceal her, until Dame Fowlis discovered and made known that she was +lying in the house at Fowlis. She was arrested; and, making a full +confession of her actions, was sentenced to death, and burnt. Hector +Munro, however, was more fortunate, and obtained his acquittal. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[44] Pitcairn, 'Criminal Trials,' i. 49-58. This chapter is mainly +founded on the reports in Pitcairn. + +[45] Pitcairn, _ut ante_, i. 192, 202, 285. + + +JAMES I. AND THE WITCHES. + +These, and other cases of witchcraft which, as the mania extended, +occurred in various parts of the country, attracted the attention of +King James, and made a profound impression upon him. Taking up the +study of the subject with enthusiasm, he inquired into the demonology +of France and Germany, where it had been matured into a science; and +this so thoroughly that he became, as already stated, an expert, and +was really entitled to pronounce authoritative decisions. His example, +however, had a disastrous effect, confirming and deepening the popular +credulity to such an extent that the common people, for a time, might +have been divided into two great classes--witches and witch-finders. +That in such circumstances many acts of cruelty should be perpetrated +was inevitable. So complete was the demoralization, that the most +trivial physical or mental peculiarity was held to be an indubitable +witch-mark, and young and old were hurried to the stake like sheep to +the slaughter. + +In August, 1589, King James was married, by proxy, to Princess Anne of +Denmark; and the impatient monarch was eagerly awaiting the arrival of +his bride from Copenhagen, when the unwelcome intelligence reached him +that the vessels conveying her and her suite had been overtaken by a +storm, and, after a narrow escape from destruction, had put into the +port of Upsal, in Norway, with the intention of remaining there until +the following spring. The eager bridegroom, summoning up all his +courage--he had no love for the sea--resolved to go in search of his +queen, and, having found her, to conduct her to her new home. At Upsal +the marriage was duly solemnized; and husband and wife then voyaged to +Copenhagen, where they spent the winter. The homeward voyage was not +undertaken until the following spring; and it was on May Day, 1590, +that James and his Queen landed at Leith, after an experience of the +sea which confirmed James's distaste for it. + +The political disorder of the country, and the hold which the new +superstition had obtained upon the minds of the people, encouraged the +circulation of dark mysterious rumours in connection with the King's +unfavourable passage; and a general belief soon came to be established +that the tempestuous weather which had so seriously affected it was +due to the intervention of supernatural powers, at the instigation of +human treachery. Suspicion fixed at length upon the Earl of Bothwell, +who was arrested and committed to prison; but in June, 1591, contrived +to make his escape, and conceal himself in the remote recesses of the +Highlands. Not long afterwards, some curious circumstances attending +certain cures which a servant girl--Geillis, or Gillies, Duncan--had +performed, led to her being suspected of witchcraft; and this +suspicion opened up a series of investigations, which revealed the +existence of an extraordinary conspiracy against the King's life. + +Geillis Duncan was in the employment of David Seton, deputy-bailiff of +the small town of Tranent, in Haddingtonshire. Unlike the witch of +English rural life, she was young, comely, and fair-complexioned; and +the only ground on which the idea of witchcraft was associated with +her was the wonderful quickness with which she had cured some sick and +diseased persons, the fact being that she was well acquainted with the +healing properties of herbs. When her master severely interrogated +her, she at once denied all knowledge of the mysteries of the black +art. He then, without leave or license, put her to the torture; she +still continued to protest her innocence. It was a popular conviction +that no witch would confess so long as the devil-mark on her body +remained undiscovered. She was subjected to an indecent +examination--the stigma was found (said the examiners) on her throat; +she was again subjected to the torture. The outraged girl's fortitude +then gave way; she acknowledged whatever her persecutors wished to +learn. Yes, she _was_ a _witch_! She had made a compact with the +devil; all her cures had been effected by his assistance--quite a new +feature in the character of Satan, who has not generally been +suspected of any compassionate feeling towards suffering humanity. +That she had done good instead of harm availed the unfortunate Geillis +nothing. She was committed to prison; and the torture being a third +time applied, made a fuller confession, in which she named her +accomplices or confederates, some forty in number, residing in +different parts of Lothian. Their arrest and examination disclosed the +particulars of one of the strangest intrigues ever concocted. + +The principal parties in it were Dr. Fian, or Frain, a reputed wizard, +also known as John Cunningham; a grave matron, named Agnes Sampson; +Euphemia Macalzean, daughter of Lord Cliftonhall; and Barbara Napier. +Fian, or Cunningham, was a schoolmaster of Tranent, and a man of +ability and education; but his life had been evil--he was a vendor of +poisons--and, though innocent of the preposterous crimes alleged +against him, had dabbled in the practices of the so-called sorcery. +When a twisted cord was bound round his bursting temples, he would +confess nothing; and, exasperated by his fortitude, the authorities +subjected him to the terrible torture of 'the boots.' Even this he +endured in silence, until exhausted nature came to his relief with an +interval of unconsciousness. He was then released; restoratives were +applied; and, while he hovered on the border of sensibility, he was +induced to sign 'a full confession.' Being remanded to his prison, he +contrived, two days afterwards, to escape; but was recaptured, and +brought before the High Court of Justiciary, King James himself being +present. Fian strenuously repudiated the so-called confession which +had been foisted upon him in his swoon, declaring that his signature +had been obtained by a fraud. Whereupon King James, enraged at what he +conceived to be the man's stubborn wilfulness, ordered him again to +the torture. His fingernails were torn out with pincers, and long +needles thrust into the quick; but the courageous man made no sign. He +was then subjected once more to the barbarous 'boots,' in which he +continued so long, and endured so many blows, that 'his legs were +crushed and beaten together as small as might be, and the bones and +flesh so bruised, that the blood and marrow spouted forth in great +abundance, whereby they were made unserviceable for ever.' + +As ultimately extorted from the unfortunate Fian, his confession shows +a remarkable mixture of imposture and self-deception--a patchwork of +the falsehoods he believed and those he invented. Singularly grotesque +is his account of his introduction to the devil: He was lodging at +Tranent, in the house of one Thomas Trumbill, who had offended him by +neglecting to 'sparge' or whitewash his chamber, as he had promised; +and, while lying in his bed, meditating how he might be revenged of +the said Thomas, the devil, _clothed in white raiment_, suddenly +appeared, and said: 'Will ye be my servant, and adore me and all my +servants, and ye shall never want?' Never want! The bribe to a poor +Scotch dominie was immense; Fian could not withstand it, and at once +enlisted among 'the Devil's Own.' As his first act of service, he had +the pleasure of burning down Master Trumbill's house. The next night +Beelzebub paid him another visit, and put his mark upon him with a +rod. Thereafter he was found lying in his chamber in a trance, during +which, he said, he was carried in the spirit over many mountains, and +accomplished an arial circumnavigation of the globe. In the future he +attended all the nightly conferences of witches and fiends held +throughout Lothian, displaying so much energy and capacity that the +devil appointed him to be his 'registrar and secretary.' + +The first convention at which he was present assembled in the parish +church of North Berwick, a breezy, picturesque seaport at the mouth of +the Forth, about sixteen miles from Preston Pans. Satan occupied the +pulpit, and delivered 'a sermon of doubtful speeches,' designed for +their encouragement. His servants, he said, should never want, and +should ail nothing, so long as their hairs were on, and they let no +tears fall from their eyes. He bade them spare not to do evil, and +advised them to eat, drink, and be merry: after which edifying +discourse they did homage to him in the usual indecent manner. Fian, +as I have said, was an evil-living man, and needed no exhortation from +the devil to do wicked things. In the course of his testimony he +invented, as was so frequently the strange practice of persons accused +of witchcraft, the most extravagant fictions--as, for instance: One +night he supped at the miller's, a few miles from Tranent; and as it +was late when the revel ended, one of the miller's men carried him +home on horseback. To light them on their way through the dark of +night, Fian raised up four candles on the horse's ears, and one on the +staff which his guide carried; their great brightness made the +midnight appear as noonday; but the miller's man was so terrified by +the phenomenon that, on his return home, he fell dead. + +Let us next turn to the confession of Agnes Sampson, 'the wise wife of +Keith,' as she was popularly called. She was charged with having done +grave injury to persons who had incurred her displeasure; but she +seems, when all fictitious details are thrust aside, to have been +simply a shrewd and sagacious old Scotchwoman, with much force of +character, who made a decent living as a herb-doctor. Archbishop +Spottiswoode describes her as matronly in appearance, and grave of +demeanour, and adds that she was composed in her answers. Yet were +those answers the wildest and most extraordinary utterances +imaginable, and, if they be truly recorded, they convict her of +unscrupulous audacity and unfailing ingenuity. + +She affirmed that her service to the devil began after her husband's +death, when he appeared to her in mortal likeness, and commanded her +to renounce Christ, and obey him as her master. For the sake of the +riches he promised to herself and her children, she consented; and +thereafter he came in the guise of a dog, of which she asked +questions, always receiving appropriate replies. On one occasion, +having been summoned by the Lady Edmaston, who was lying sick, she +went out into the garden at night, and called the devil by his +terrestrial or mundane _alias_ of Elva. He bounded over the stone wall +in the likeness of a dog, and approached her so close that she was +frightened, and charged him by 'the law he believed in' to keep his +distance. She then asked him if the lady would recover; he replied in +the negative. In his turn he inquired where the gentlewomen, her +daughters, were; and being informed that they were to meet her in the +garden, said that one of them should be his leman. 'Not so,' exclaimed +the wise wife undauntedly; and the devil then went away howling, like +a whipped schoolboy, and _hid himself in the well_ until after supper. +The young gentlewomen coming into the bloom and perfumes of the +garden, he suddenly emerged, seized the Lady Torsenye, and attempted +to drag her into the well; but Agnes gripped him firmly, and by her +superior strength delivered her from his clutches. Then, with a +terrible yell, he disappeared. + +Yet another story: Agnes, with Geillis Duncan and other witches, +desiring to be revenged on the deputy bailiff, met on the bridge at +Fowlistruther, and dropped a cord into the river, Agnes Sampson +crying, 'Hail! Holloa!' Immediately they felt the end of the cord +dragged down by a great weight; and on drawing it up, up came the +devil along with it! He inquired if they had all been good servants, +and gave them a charm to blight Seton and his property; but _it was +accidentally diverted in its operation, and fell upon another +person_--a touch of realism worthy of Defoe! + +Euphemia Macalzean, a lady of high social position, daughter and +heiress of Lord Cliftonhall (who was eminent as lawyer, statesman, and +scholar), seems to have been involved in this welter of intrigue, +conspiracy, and deception, through her adherence to Bothwell's +faction, and her devotion to the Roman communion. Her confession was +as grotesque and unveracious as that of any of her associates. She was +made a witch (she said) through the agency of an Irishwoman 'with a +fallen nose,' and, to perfect herself in the craft, had paid another +witch, who resided in St. Ninian's Row, Edinburgh, for 'inaugurating' +her with 'the girth of ane gret bikar,' revolving it 'oft round her +head and neck, and ofttimes round her head.' She was accused of having +administered poison to her husband, her father-in-law, and some other +persons; and whatever may be thought of the allegations of sorcery and +witchcraft, this heavier charge seems to have been well-founded. +Euphemia said that her acquaintance with Agnes Sampson began with her +first accouchement, when she applied to her to mitigate her pains, and +she did so by transferring them to a dog. At her second accouchement, +Agnes transferred them to a cat. + +As a determined enemy of the Protestant religion, Satan was inimical +to King James's marriage with a Protestant princess, and to break up +an alliance which would greatly limit his power for evil, he +determined to sink the ship that carried the newly-married couple on +their homeward voyage. His first device was to hang over the sea a +very dense mist, in the hope that the royal ship would miss her +course, and strike on some dangerous rock. When this device failed, +Dr. Fian was ordered to summon all the witches to meet their master at +the haunted kirk of North Berwick. Accordingly, on All-Hallow-mass +Eve, they assembled there to the number of two hundred; and each one +embarking in 'a riddle,' or sieve,[46] they sailed over the ocean +'very substantially,' carrying with them flagons of wine, and making +merry, and drinking 'by the way.' After sailing about for some time, +they met with their master, bearing in his claws a cat, which had +previously been drawn nine times through the fire. Handing it to one +of the warlocks, he bade him cast it into the sea, and shout 'Hola!' +whereupon the ocean became convulsed, and the waters seethed, and the +billows rose like heaving mountains. On through the storm sailed this +eerie company until they reached the Scottish coast, where they +landed, and, joining hands, danced in procession to the kirk of North +Berwick, Geillis Duncan going before them, playing a reel upon her +Jew's-harp, or trump--formerly a favourite musical instrument with +the Scotch peasantry--and singing: + + 'Cummer, go ye before; cummer, go ye; + Gif ye will not go before, cummer, let me!' + +Having arrived at their rendezvous, they danced round it +'withershins'--that is, in reverse of the apparent motion of the sun. +Dr. Fian then blew into the keyhole of the door, which opened +immediately, and all the witches and warlocks entered in. It was +pitch-dark; but Fian lighted the tapers by merely blowing on them, and +their sudden blaze revealed the devil in the pulpit, attired in a +black gown and hat. The description given of the fiend reveals the +stern imagination of the North, and is characteristic of the 'weird +sisters' of Scotland, who form, as Dr. Burton remarks, so grand a +contrast to 'the vulgar grovelling parochial witches of England.' His +body was hard as iron; his face terrible, with a nose like an eagle's +beak; his eyes glared like fire; his voice was gruff as the sound of +the east wind; his hands and legs were covered with hair, and his +hands and feet were armed with long claws. On beholding him, witches +and warlocks, with one accord, cried: 'All hail, master!' He then +called over their names, and demanded of them severally whether they +had been good and faithful servants, and what measure of success had +attended their operations against the lives of King James and his +bride--which surely he ought to have known! Gray Malkin, a foolish old +warlock, who officiated as beadle or janitor, heedlessly answered, +That nothing ailed the King yet, God be thanked! At which the devil, +in a fury, leaped from the pulpit, and lustily smote him on the ears. +He then resumed his position, and delivered his sermon, commanding +them to act faithfully in their service, and do all the evil they +could. Euphemia Macalzean and Agnes Sampson summoned up courage enough +to ask him whether he had brought an image or picture of the King, +that, by pricking it with pins, they might inflict upon its living +pattern all kinds of pain and disease. The devil was fain to +acknowledge that he had forgotten it, and was soundly rated by +Euphemia for his carelessness, Agnes Sampson and several other women +seizing the opportunity to load him with reproaches on their +respective accounts. + +On another occasion, according to Agnes Sampson, she, Dr. Fian, and a +wizard of some energy, named Robert Grierson, with several others, +left Grierson's house at Preston Pans in a boat, and went out to sea +to 'a tryst.' Embarking on board a ship, they drank copiously of good +wine and ale, after which they sank the ship and her crew, and +returned home. And again, sailing from North Berwick in a boat like a +chimney, they saw the devil--in shape and size resembling a huge +hayrick--rolling over the great waves in front of them. They went on +board a vessel called _The Grace of God_, where they enjoyed, as +before, an abundance of wine and 'other good cheer.' On leaving it, +the devil, who was underneath the ship, raised an evil wind, and it +perished. + +Some of these stories proved to be too highly coloured even for the +credulity of King James; and he rightly enough exclaimed that the +witches were, like their master, 'extraordinary liars.' It is said, +however, that he changed his opinion after Agnes Sampson, in a private +conference which he accorded to her, related the details of a +conversation between himself and the Queen that had taken place under +such circumstances as to ensure inviolable secrecy. It is curious that +a very similar story is told of Jeanne Darc--whom our ancestors burned +as a witch--and King Charles VI. of France. + +Despite the machinations of the devil and the witches, King James and +Queen Anne, as we know, escaped every peril, and reached Leith in +safety. The devil sourly remarked that James was 'a man of God,' and +was evidently inclined to let him alone severely; but the Preston Pans +conspirators, instigated, perhaps, by some powerful personages who +kept prudently in the background, resolved on another attempt against +their sovereign's life. On Lammas Eve (July 31, 1590), nine of the +ringleaders, including Dr. Fian, Agnes Sampson, Euphemia Macalzean, +and Barbara Napier, with some thirty confederates, assembled at the +New Haven, between Musselburgh and Preston Pans, at a spot called the +Fairy Holes, where they were met by the devil in the shape of a black +man, which was 'thought most meet to do the turn for the which they +were convened.' Agnes Sampson at once proposed that they should make a +final effort for the King's destruction. The devil took an +unfavourable view of the prospects of their schemes; but he promised +them a waxen image, and directed them to hang up and roast a toad, and +to lay its drippings--mixed with strong wash, an adder's skin, and +'the thing on the forehead of a new-foaled foal'--in James's path, or +to suspend it in such a position that it might drip upon his body. +This precious injunction was duly obeyed, and the toad hung up where +the dripping would fall upon the King, 'during his Majesty's being at +the Brig of Dee, the day before the common bell rang, for fear the +Earl Bothwell should have entered Edinburgh.' But the devil's +foreboding was fulfilled, and the conspirators missed their aim, the +King happening to take a different route to that by which he had been +expected. + +It is useless to repeat more of these wild and desperate stories, or +to inquire too closely into their origin. Fact and fiction are so +mixed up in them, and the embellishments are so many and so bold, that +it is difficult to get at the nucleus of truth; but, setting aside the +witch or supernatural element, we seem driven to the conclusion that +these persons had combined together for some nefarious purpose. +Whether they intended to compass the King's death by the superstitious +practices which the credulity of the age supposed to be effective, or +whether these practices were intended as a cover for surer means, +cannot now be determined. Nor can we pretend to say whether all who +were implicated in the plot by the confession of Geillis Duncan were +really guilty. Dr. Fian, at all events, protested his innocence to +the last; and with regard to him and others, the evidence adduced was +painfully inadequate. But they were all convicted and sentenced to +death. In the case of Barbara Napier, the majority of the jury at +first acquitted her on the principal charges; but the King was highly +indignant, and threatened them with a trial for 'wilful error upon an +assize.' To avoid the consequences, they threw themselves upon the +King's mercy, and were benevolently 'pardoned.' Poor Barbara Napier +was hanged. So was Dr. Fian, on Castle Hill, Edinburgh (in January, +1592), and burned afterwards. So were Agnes Sampson, Agnes Thomson, +and their real or supposed confederates. The punishment of Euphemia +Macalzean was exceptionally severe. Instead of the ordinary sentence, +directing the criminal to be first strangled and then burnt, it was +ordered that she should be 'bound to a stake, and burned in ashes, +_quick_ to the death.' This fate befell her on June 25, 1591. + +It was an unhappy result of this remarkable trial that it confirmed +King James in his belief that he possessed a rare faculty for the +detection of witches and the discovery of witchcraft. Continuing his +investigation of the subject with fanatical zeal, he published in +Edinburgh, in 1597, the outcome of his researches in his +'Dmonologie'--an elaborate treatise, written in the form of a +dialogue, the spirit of which may be inferred from its author's +prefatory observations: 'The fearful abounding,' he says, 'at this +time and 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 mine own learning and ingene, but only +(moved of conscience) to press thereby, so far as I can, to resolve +the doubting hearts of many, both that such assaults of Satan are most +certainly practised, and that the instrument 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 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 them +impunity, he plainly betrays himself to have been one of that +profession.' + +Not only is King James fully convinced of the existence of witchcraft, +but he is determined to treat it as a capital crime. 'Witches,' he +affirms, 'ought to be put to death, according to the laws of God, the +civil and imperial law, and the municipal law of all Christian +nations; yea, to spare the life, and not strike whom God bids strike, +and so severely punish 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.' Conscious that the evidence brought against the +unfortunate victims was generally of the weakest possible character, +he contends that because the crime is generally abominable, evidence +in proof of it may be accepted which would be refused in other +offences; as, for example, that of young children who are ignorant of +the nature of an oath, and that of persons of notoriously ill-repute. +And the sole chance of escape which he offers to the accused is that +of the ordeal. 'Two good helps,' he says, 'may be used: the one is the +finding of their marks, and the trying the insensibleness thereof; the +other is their floating on the water, for, as in a secret murther, if +the dead carcase be at any time thereafter handled by the murtherer, +it will gush out of blood, as if the blood were raging to the Heaven, +for revenge of the murtherer (God having appointed that secret +supernatural sign for trial of that secret unnatural crime), so that +it appears 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; no, not so much as +their eyes are able to shed tears at every light occasion when they +will; yea, although it were dissembling like the crocodiles, God not +permitting them to dissemble their obstinacy in so horrible a crime.' + + * * * * * + +Encouraged by the practice and teaching of their sovereign, the people +of Scotland, whom the anthropomorphism of their religious creed +naturally predisposed to believe in the personal appearances of the +devil, undertook a regular campaign against those ill-fated +individuals whom malice or ignorance, or their own mental or physical +peculiarities, or other causes, branded as his bond-slaves and +accomplices. Religious animosity, moreover, was a powerful factor in +stimulating and sustaining the mania; and the Scotch Calvinist enjoyed +a double gratification when some poor old woman was burned both as a +witch and a Roman Catholic. It has been calculated that, in the period +of thirty-nine years, between the enactment of the Statute of Queen +Mary and the accession of James to the English throne, the average +number of persons executed for witchcraft was 200 annually, making an +aggregate of nearly 8,000. For the first nine years about 30 or 40 +suffered yearly; but latterly the annual death-roll mounted up to 400 +and 500. James at last grew alarmed at the prevalence of witchcraft in +his kingdom, and seems to have devoted no small portion of his time to +attempts to detect and exterminate it. + +In 1591 the Earl of Bothwell was imprisoned for having conspired the +King's death by sorcery, in conjunction with a warlock named Richie +Graham. Graham was burned on March 8, 1592. Bothwell was not brought +to trial until August 10, 1593, when several witches bore testimony +against him, but he obtained an acquittal. + +In 1597, on November 12, four women were tried by the High Court of +Justiciary, in Edinburgh, on various charges of witchcraft. Their +names are recorded as Christina Livingstone, Janet Stewart, Bessie +Aikin, and Christina Sadler. Their trials, however, present no special +features of interest. + +Passing over half a century, we come to the recrudescence of the +witch-mania, which followed on the restoration of Charles II. Mr. R. +Burns Begg has recently edited for the Society of Antiquaries of +Scotland a report of various witch trials in Forfar and +Kincardineshire, in the opening years of that monarch's reign, which +supplies some further illustrations of the characteristics of Scottish +witchcraft. Here we meet with the strange word 'Covin' or 'Coven' +(apparently connected with 'Covenant' or 'Convention') as applied to +an organization or guild of witches. In 1662 the Judge-General-Depute +for Scotland tried thirteen 'Coviners,' who had been detected by the +efforts of a committee consisting of the ministers and schoolmasters +of the district, together with the 'Laird of Tullibole.' Of these +thirteen unfortunate victims only one was a man. All were found guilty +by the jury, and sentenced to death. Eleven suffered at the stake; one +died before the day of execution, and one was respited on account of +her pregnancy. The evidence was of the usual extraordinary tenor, and +the so-called 'confessions' of the accused were not less puzzling than +in other cases. In Mr. Begg's opinion, which seems to me well founded, +there really _was_ in and around the Crook of Devon a local Covin, or +regularly organized band of so-called witches who acted under the +direction of a person whom they believed to be Satan. He suggests that +at this period there would be many wild and unscrupulous characters, +disbanded soldiers, and others, who found their profit in the +'blinded allegiance' of the witches and warlocks. The difficulty is, +what _was_ this profit? The witches do not seem to have paid anything +in money or in kind. There are allusions which point to acts of +immorality, and in several instances one can understand that personal +enmities were gratified; but on the whole the personators of Satan had +scant reward for all their trouble. And how was it that they were +never denounced by any of their victims? How was it that the vigilance +which detected the witches never tripped up their master? How are we +to explain the diversity of Satan's appearances? At one time he was +'ane bonnie lad;' at another, an 'unco-like man, in black-coloured +clothes and ane blue bonnet;' at another, a 'black iron-hard man;' and +yet again, 'ane little man in rough gray clothes.' Occasionally he +brought with him a piper, and the witches danced together, and the +ground under them was all fireflaughts, and Andrew Watson had his +usual staff in his hand, and although he is a blind man, yet danced he +as nimbly as any of the company, and made also great merriment by +singing his old ballads; and Isabel Shyrrie did sing her song called +'Tinkletum, Tankletum.' Alas, that no obliging pen has transmitted +'Tinkletum, Tankletum' to posterity! One could point to a good many +songs which the world could have better spared. 'Tinkletum, +Tankletum'--there is something amazingly suggestive in the words; +possibilities of humour, perhaps of satire; humour and satire which +might have secured for Isabel Shyrrie a place among Scottish +poetesses, whereas now she comes before us in no more attractive +character than that of a Coviner--a deluded or self-deluding witch. + +Let us next betake ourselves to the East Coast, and make the +acquaintance of Isabel Gowdie, whose 'confessions' are among the most +extraordinary documents to be met with even in the records of Scottish +witchcraft. It is impossible, I think, to overrate their psychological +interest. The first is, perhaps, the most curious; and as no summary +or condensation would do justice to its details, I shall place it +before the reader _in extenso_, with no other alteration than that of +Englishing the spelling. It was made at Auldearn on April 13, 1662, in +presence of the parish minister, the sheriff-depute of Nairn, and nine +lairds and farmers of good position: + +'As I was going betwixt the towns (_i.e._, farmsteadings) of +Drumdeevin and The Heads, I met with the Devil, and there covenanted +in a manner with him; and I promised to meet him, in the night-time, +in the Kirk of Auldearn,[47] which I did. And the first thing I did +there that night, I denied my baptism, and did put the one of my hands +to the crown of my head, and the other to the sole of my foot, and +then renounced all betwixt my two hands over to the Devil. He was in +the Reader's desk, and a black book in his hand. Margaret Brodie, in +Auldearn, held me up to the Devil to be baptized by him, and he marked +me in the shoulder, and sucked out my blood at that mark, and spouted +it in his hand, and, sprinkling it on my head, said, "I baptize thee, +Janet, in my own name!" And within awhile we all removed. The next +time that I met with him was in the New Wards of Inshoch.... He was a +mickle, black, rough [hirsute] man, very cold; and I found his nature +all cold within me as spring-wall-water.[48] Sometimes he had boots, +and sometimes shoes on his feet; but still his feet are forked and +cloven. He would be sometimes with us like a deer or a roe. John +Taylor and Janet Breadhead, his wife, in Belmakeith, ... Douglas, and +I myself, met in the kirkyard of Nairn, and we raised an unchristened +child out of its grave; and at the end of Bradley's cornfieldland, +just opposite to the Mill of Nairn, we took the said child, with the +nails of our fingers and toes, pickles of all sorts of grain, and +blades of kail [colewort], and hacked them all very small, mixed +together; and did put a part thereof among the muck-heaps, and thereby +took away the fruit of his corns, etc., and we parted it among two of +our Covins. When we take corns at Lammas, we take but about two +sheaves, when the corns are full; or two stalks of kail, or thereby, +and that gives us the fruit of the corn-land or kail-yard, where they +grew. And it may be, we will keep it until Yule or Pasche, and then +divide it amongst us. There are thirteen persons [the usual number] in +my Covin. + +'The last time that our Covin met, we, and another Covin, were dancing +at the Hill of Earlseat; and before that, betwixt Moynes and Bowgholl; +and before that we were beyond the Mickle-burn; and the other Covin +being at the Downie-hills, we went from beyond the Mickle-burn, and +went beside them, to the houses at the Wood-End of Inshoch; and within +a while went home to our houses. Before Candlemas we went be-east +Kinloss, and there we yoked a plough of paddocks [frogs]. The Devil +held the plough, and John Young, in Mebestown, our Officer, did drive +the plough. Paddocks did draw the plough as oxen; _quickens wor +sowmes_ [dog-grass served for traces]; a riglon's [ram's] horn was a +coulter, and a piece of a riglon's horn was a sock. We went two +several times about; and all we of the Covin went still up and down +with the plough, praying to the Devil for the fruit of that land, and +that thistles and briars might grow there. + +'When we go to any house, we take meat and drink; and we fill up the +barrels with our own ... again; and we put besoms in our beds with our +husbands, till we return again to them. We were in the Earl of Moray's +house in Darnaway, and we got enough there, and did eat and drink of +the best, and brought part with us. We went in at the windows. I had a +little horse, and would say, "Horse and Hattock, in the Devil's name!" +And then we would fly away, where we would, like as straws would fly +upon a highway. We will fly like straws where we please; wild straws +and corn-straws will be horses to us, and we put them betwixt our feet +and say, "Horse and Hattock, in the Devil's name!" And when any see +these straws in a whirlwind, and do not sanctify themselves, we may +shoot them dead at our pleasure. Any that are shot by us, their souls +will go to Heaven, but their bodies remain with us, and will fly as +horses to us, as small as straws.[49] + +'I was in the Downie Hills, and got meat there from the Queen of +Fairy, more than I could eat. The Queen of Fairy is heavily clothed in +white linen, and in white and lemon clothes, etc.; and the King of +Fairy is a brave man, well favoured, and broad-faced, etc. There were +elf-bulls, routing and skirling up and down there, and they affrighted +me. + +'When we take away any cow's milk, we pull the tail, and twine it and +plait it the wrong way, in the Devil's name; and we draw the tedder +(so made) in betwixt the cow's hinder-feet, and out betwixt the cow's +fore-feet, in the Devil's name, and thereby take with us the cow's +milk. We take sheep's milk even so [in the same manner]. The way to +take or give back the milk again, is to cut that tedder. When we take +away the strength of any person's ale, and give it to another, we +take a little quantity out of each barrel or stand of ale, and put it +in a stoop in the Devil's name, and in his name, with our own hands, +put it amongst another's ale, and give her the strength and substance +and "heall" of her neighbour's ale. And to keep the ale from us, that +we have no power over it, is to sanctify it well. We get all this +power from the Devil; and when we seek it from him, we will him to be +"our Lord." + +'John Taylor, and Janet Breadhead, his wife, in Belmakeith, Bessie +Wilson in Aulderne, and Margaret Wilson, spouse to Donald Callam in +Aulderne, and I, made a picture of clay, to destroy the Laird of +Park's male children. John Taylor brought home the clay in his plaid +nook [the corner of his plaid]; his wife broke it very small, like +meal, and sifted it with a sieve, and poured in water among it, in the +Devil's name, and wrought it very sure, like rye-bout [a stir-about +made of rye-flour]; and made of it a picture of the laird's sons. It +had all the parts and marks of a child, such as head, eyes, nose, +hands, feet, mouth, and little lips. It wanted no mark of a child, and +the hands of it folded down by its sides. It was like a pow [lump of +dough], or a flayed _egrya_ [a sucking-pig, which has been scalded and +scraped]. We laid the face of it to the fire, till it strakned +[shrivelled], and a clear fire round about it, till it was red like a +coal. After that, we would roast it now and then; each other day there +would be a piece of it well roasted. The Laird of Park's whole male +children by it are to suffer, if it be not gotten and brokin, as well +as those that are born and dead already. It was still put in and taken +out of the fire in the Devil's name. It was hung up upon a crock. It +is yet in John Taylor's house, and it has a cradle of clay about it. +Only John Taylor and his wife, Janet Breadhead, Bessie and Margaret +Wilson in Aulderne, and Margaret Brodie, these, and I, were only at +the making of it. All the multitude of our number of witches, of all +the Covins, kent [_kenned_, knew] all of it, at our next meeting after +it was made. And the witches yet that are overtaken have their own +powers, and our powers which we had before we were taken, both. But +now I have no power at all. + +'Margaret Kyllie, in ... is one of the other Covin; Meslie Hirdall, +spouse to Alexander Ross, in Loanhead, is one of them; her skin is +fiery. Isabel Nicol, in Lochley, is one of my Covin. Alexander Elder, +in Earlseat, and Janet Finlay, his spouse, are of my Covin. Margaret +Haslum, in Moynes, is one; Margaret Brodie, in Aulderne, Bessie and +Margaret Wilson there, and Jane Martin there, and Elspet Nishie, +spouse to John Mathew there, are of my Covin. The said Jane Martin is +the Maiden of our Covin. John Young, in Mebestown, is Officer to our +Covin. + +'Elspet Chisholm, and Isabel More, in Aulderne, Maggie Brodie ... and +I, went into Alexander Cumling's litt-house [dye-house], in Aulderne. +I went in, in the likeness of a ken [jackdaw]; the said Elspet +Chisholm was in the shape of a cat. Isabel More was a hare, and Maggie +Brodie a cat, and.... We took a thread of each colour of yarn that +was on the said Alexander Cumling's litt-fatt [dyeing-vat], and did +cast three knots on each thread, in the Devil's name, and did put the +threads in the vat, _withersones_ about in the vat in the Devil's +name, and thereby took the whole strength of the vat away, that it +could litt [dye] nothing but only black, according to the colour of +the Devil, in whose name we took away the strength of the right +colours that were in the vat.' + + * * * * * + +The second confession, made at Aulderne, on May 3, 1662, is not less +remarkable than the foregoing: + +'... After that time there would meet but sometimes a Covin [_i.e._, +thirteen], sometimes more, sometimes less; but a Grand Meeting would +be about the end of each Quarter. There is thirteen persons in each +Covin; and each of us has one Sprite to wait upon us, when we please +to call upon him. I remember not all the Sprites' names, but there is +one called _Swin_, which waits upon the said Margaret Wilson in +Aulderne; he is still [ever] clothed in grass-green; and the said +Margaret Wilson has a nickname, called "Pickle nearest the wind." The +next Sprite is called "Rosie," who waits upon Bessie Wilson, in +Aulderne; he is still clothed in yellow; and her nickname is "Through +the cornyard." ... The third Sprite is called "The Roaring Lion," who +waits upon Isabel Nicol, in Lochlors; and [he is still clothed[50]] in +sea-green; her nickname is "Bessie Rule." The fourth Sprite is called +"Mak Hector," who [waits upon Jane[50]] Martin, daughter to the said +Margaret Wilson; he is a young-like devil, clothed still in +grass-green. [Jane Martin is[50]] Maiden to the Covin that I am of; +and her nickname is "Over the dyke with it," because the Devil [always +takes the[50]] Maiden in his hand nix time we damn "Gillatrypes;" and +when he would leap from ...[50] he and she will say, "Over the dyke +with it!" The name of the fifth Sprite is "Robert the [Rule," and he +is still clothed in[50]] sad-dun, and seems to be a Commander of the +rest of the Sprites; and he waits upon Margaret Brodie, in Aulderne. +[The name of the saxt Sprite] is called "Thief of Hell wait upon +Herself;" and he waits also on the said Bessie Wilson. The name of the +seventh [Sprite is called] "The Read Reiver;" and he is my own Spirit, +that waits on myself, and is still clothed in black. The eighth Spirit +[is called] "Robert the Jackis," still clothed in dun, and seems to be +aged. He is a glaiked, glowked Spirit! The woman's [nickname] that he +waits on is "Able and Stout!" [This was Bessie Hay.] The ninth Spirit +is called "Laing," and the woman's nickname that he waits upon is +"Bessie Bold" [Elspet Nishie]. The tenth Spirit is named "Thomas a +Fiarie," etc. There will be many other Devils, waiting upon [our] +Master Devil; but he is bigger and more awful than the rest of the +Devils, and they all reverence him. I will ken them all, one by one, +from others, when they appear like a man. + +'When we raise the wind, we take a rag of cloth, and wet it in water; +and we take a beetle and knock the rag on a stone, and we say thrice +over: + + '"I knock this rag upon this stane, + To raise the wind, in the Devil's name; + It shall not lie until I please again!" + +When we would lay the wind, we dry the rag, and say (thrice over): + + '"We lay the wind in the Devil's name, + [It shall not] rise while we [or I] like to raise it again!" + +And if the wind will not lie instantly [after we say this], we call +upon our Spirit, and say to him: + + '"Thief! Thief! conjure the wind, and cause it to [lie?...]" + +We have no power of rain, but we will raise the wind when we please. +He made us believe [...] that there was no God beside him. + +'As for Elf arrow-heads, the Devil shapes them with his own hand [and +afterwards delivers them?] to Elf-boys, who "whyttis and dightis" +[shapes and trims] them with a sharp thing like a packing-needle; but +[when I was in Elf-land?] I saw them whytting and dighting them. When +I was in the Elves' houses, they will have very ... them whytting and +dighting; and the Devil gives them to us, each of us so many, when.... +Those that dightis them are little ones, hollow, and boss-backed +[humped-backed]. They speak gowstie [roughly] like. When the Devil +gives them to us, he says: + + '"Shoot these in my name, + And they shall not go heall hame!" + +And when we shoot these arrows (we say): + + '"I shoot you man in the Devil's name, + He shall not win heall hame! + And this shall be always true; + There shall not be one bit of him on lieiw" [on life, alive]. + +'We have no bow to shoot with, but spang [jerk] them from the nails of +our thumbs. Sometimes we will miss; but if they twitch [touch], be it +beast, or man, or woman, it will kill, tho' they had a jack [a coat of +armour] upon them. When we go in the shape of a hare, we say thrice +over: + + '"I shall go into a hare, + With sorrow, and such, and mickle care; + And I shall go in the Devil's name, + Ay, until I come home [again!]." + +And instantly we start in a hare. And when we would be out of that +shape, we will say: + + '"Hare! hare! God send thee care! + I am in a hare's likeness just now, + But I shall be in a woman's likeness even [now]." + +When we would go in the likeness of a cat, we say thrice over: + + '"I shall go [intill ane cat], + [With sorrow, and such, and a black] shot! + And I shall go in the Devil's name, + Ay, until I come home again!" + +And if we [would go in a crow, then] we say thrice over: + + '"I shall go intill a crow, + With sorrow, and such, and a black [thraw! + And I shall go in the Devil's name,] + Ay, until I come home again!" + +And when we would be out of these shapes, we say: + + '"Cat, cat [or crow, crow], God send thee a black shot [or black + thraw!] + I was a cat [or crow] just now, + But I shall be [in a woman's likeness even now]. + Cat, cat" [as _supra_]. + +If we go in the shape of a cat, a crow, a hare, or any other likeness, +etc., to any of our neighbours' houses, being witches, we will say: + + '"[I (or we) conjure] thee go with us [or me]!" + +And presently they become as we are, either cats, hares, crows, etc., +and go [with us whither we would. When] we would ride, we take +windle-straws, or been-stakes [bean-stalks], and put them betwixt our +feet, and say thrice: + + '"Horse and Hattock, horse and go, + Horse and pellatris, ho! ho!" + +And immediately we fly away wherever we would; and lest our husbands +should miss us out of our beds, we put in a besom, or a three-legged +stool, beside them, and say thrice over: + + '"I lay down this besom [or stool] in the Devil's name, + Let it not stir till I come home again!" + +And immediately it seems a woman, by the side of our husband. + +'We cannot turn in[to] the likeness of [a lamb or a dove?] When my +husband sold beef, I used to put a swallow's feather in the head of +the beast, and [say thrice], + + '"[I] put out this beef in the Devil's name, + That mickle silver and good price come hame!" + +'I did even so [whenever I put] forth either horse, nolt [cattle], +webs [of cloth], or any other thing to be sold, and still put in this +feather, and said the [same words thrice] over, to cause the +commodities sell well, and ... thrice over-- + + '"Our Lord to hunting he [is gone] + .......... marble stone, + He sent word to Saint Knitt ..." + +'When we would heal any sore or broken limb, we say thrice over.... + + '"He put the blood to the blood, till all up stood; + The lith to the lith, Till all took nith; + Our Lady charmed her dearly Son, With her tooth and her tongue, + And her ten fingers-- + In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost!" + +'And this we say thrice over, stroking the sore, and it becomes whole. +2ndlie. For the Bean-Shaw [bone-shaw, _i.e._, the sciatica], or pain +in the haunch: "We are here three Maidens charming for the bean-shaw; +the man of the Midle-earth, blew beaver, land-fever, maneris of +stooris, the Lord fleigged (terrified) the Fiend with his holy candles +and yard foot-stone! There she sits, and here she is gone! Let her +never come here again!" 3rdli. For the fevers, we say thrice over, "I +forbid the quaking-fevers, the sea-fevers, the land-fevers, and all +the fevers that God ordained, out of the head, out of the heart, out +of the back, out of the sides, out of the knees, out of the thighs, +from the points of the fingers to the nibs of the toes; net fall the +fevers go, [some] to the hill, some to the heep, some to the stone, +some to the stock. In St. Peter's name, St. Paul's name, and all the +Saints of Heaven. In the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy +Ghost!" And when we took the fruit of the fishes from the fishers, we +went to the shore before the boat would come to it; and we would say, +on the shore-side, three several times over: + + '"The fishers are gone to the sea, + And they will bring home fish to me; + They will bring them home intill the boat, + But they shall get of them but the smaller sort!" + +So we either steal a fish, or buy a fish, or get a fish from them [for +naught], one or more. And with that we have all the fruit of the whole +fishes in the boat, and the fishes that the fishermen themselves will +have will be but froth, etc. + +'The first voyage that ever I went with the rest of our Covins was +[to] Ploughlands; and there we shot a man betwixt the plough-stilts, +and he presently fell to the ground, upon his nose and his mouth; and +then the Devil gave me an arrow, and caused me shoot a woman in that +field; which I did, and she fell down dead.[51] In winter of 1660, +when Mr. Harry Forbes, Minister at Aulderne, was sick, we made a bag +of the galls, flesh, and guts of toads, pickles of barley, parings of +the nails of fingers and toes, the liver of a hare, and bits of +clouts. We steeped all this together, all night among water, all +hacked (or minced up) through other. And when we did put it among the +water, Satan was with us, and learned us the words following, to say +thrice over. They are thus: + + '1st. "He is lying in his bed; he is lying sick and sore; + Let him lie intill his bed two months and [three] days more! + + '2nd. "Let him lie intill his bed; let him lie intill it sick and sore; + Let him lie intill his bed months two and three days more! + + '3rd. "He shall lie intill his bed, he shall lie in it sick and sore; + He shall lie intill his bed two months and three days more!" + +'When we had learned all these words from the Devil, as said is, we +fell all down upon our knees, with our hair down over our shoulders +and eyes, and our hands lifted up, and our eyes [upon] the Devil, and +said the foresaid words thrice over to the Devil, strictly, against +[the recovery of] Master Harry Forbes [from his sickness]. In the +night time we came in to Mr. Harry Forbes's chamber, where he lay, +with our hands all smeared out of the bag, to swing it upon Mr. Harry, +when he was sick in his bed; and in the daytime [one of our] number, +who was most familiar and intimate with him, to wring or swing the bag +[upon the said Mr. Harry, as we could] not prevail in the night time +against him, which was accordingly done. Any of ... comes in to your +houses, or are set to do you evil, they will look uncouth--like, +thrown ... hurly-like, and their clothes standing out. The Maiden of +our Covin, Jane Martin, was [.... We] do no great matter without our +Maiden. + +'And if a child be forespoken [bewitched], we take the cradle ... +through it thrice, and then a dog through it; and then shake the belt +above the fire [... and then cast it] down on the ground, till a dog +or cat go over it, that the sickness may come [... upon the dog or +cat].' + + * * * * * + +With these extended quotations the reader will probably be satisfied, +and in concluding my account of Isabel Gowdie, I must now adopt a +process of condensation. + +Among other freaks and fancies of a disordered imagination, Isabel +declared that she merited to be stretched upon a rack of iron, and +that if torn to pieces by wild horses, the punishment would not exceed +the measure of her iniquities. These iniquities comprehended every act +attributed by the superstition of the time to the servants of the +devil, which had been carefully gathered up by this monomaniac from +contemporary witch-tradition. The cruellest thing was, that she +involved so large a number of innocent persons in the peril into +which she herself had recklessly plunged, naming nearly fifty women, +and I forget how many men, as her associates or accomplices. She +affirmed that they dug up from their graves the bodies of unbaptized +infants, and having dismembered them, made use of the limbs in their +incantations. That when they wished to destroy an enemy's crops, they +yoked toads to his plough; and on the following night the devil, with +this strange team, drove furrows into the land, and blasted it +effectually. The devil, it would seem, was so long and so incessantly +occupied with high affairs in Scotland, that surely the rest of the +world must have escaped meanwhile the evils of his interference! +Witches, added Isabel, were able to assume almost any shape, but their +usual choice was that of a hare, or perhaps a cat. There was some risk +in either assumption. Once it happened that Isabel, in her disguise of +a hare, was hotly pursued by a pack of hounds, and narrowly escaped +with her life. When she reached her cottage-door she could feel the +hot breath of her pursuers on her haunches; but, contriving to slip +behind a chest, she found time to speak the magic words which alone +could restore her to her natural shape, namely: + + 'Hare! hare! God send thee care! + I am in a hare's likeness now; + But I shall be a woman e'en now. + Hare! hare! God send thee care!' + +If witches, while wearing the shape of hare or cat, were bitten by the +dogs, they always retained the marks on their human bodies. When the +devil called a convention of his servants, each proceeded through the +air--like the witches of Lapland and other countries--astride on a +broomstick [or it might be on a corn or bean straw], repeating as they +went the rhyme: + + 'Horse and paddock, horse and go, + Horse and pellatris, ho! ho!' + +They usually left behind them a broom, or three-legged stool, which, +properly charmed and placed in bed, assumed a likeness to themselves +until they returned, and prevented suspicion. This seems to have been +the practice of witches everywhere. Witches specially favoured by +their master were provided with a couple of imps as attendants, who +boasted such very mundane names as 'The Roaring Lion,' 'Thief of +Hell,' 'Ranting Roarer,' and 'Care for Nought'--a great improvement on +the vulgar monosyllables worn by the English imps--and were dressed, +as already described, in distinguishing liveries: sea-green, +pea-green, grass-green, sad-dun, and yellow. The witches were never +allowed--at least, not in the infernal presence--to call themselves, +or one another, by their baptismal names, but were required to use the +appellations bestowed on the devil when he rebaptized them, such as +'Blue Kail,' 'Raise the Wind,' 'Batter-them-down Maggie,' and 'Able +and Stout.' The reader will find in the reports of the trial much more +of this grotesque nonsense--the vapourings of a distempered brain. The +judges, however, took it seriously, and Isabel Gowdie, or Gilbert, +and many of her presumed accomplices, were duly strangled and burned +(in April, 1662). + +FOOTNOTES: + +[46] So the witch in 'Macbeth' (Act I., sc. 3) says: + + 'In a sieve I'll thither sail.' + +[47] It is a singular circumstance, as Pitcairn remarks, that in +almost all the confessions of witches, or at least of the Scottish +witches, their initiation, and many of their meetings, are said to +have taken place within churches, churchyards, and consecrated ground; +and a certain ritual, in imitation, or mockery, of the forms of the +Church, is uniformly said to have been gone through. + +[48] In the Forfarshire reports, alluded to on p. 332, the witches +always speak of the devil's body and kiss as deadly cold. + +[49] Pitcairn remarks, with justice, that the above details are, +perhaps, in all respects the most extraordinary in the history of +witchcraft of this or of any other country. Isabel Gowdie must have +been a woman with a powerful and rank imagination, who, had she lived +in the present day, might, perhaps, have produced a work of fiction of +the school of Zola. + +[50] There are mutilations in the original manuscript, and the +bracketed words are conjectural. + +[51] These, it is needless to say, were pure inventions, and by no +means amusing ones. + + +CASE OF JANET WISHART. + +The case of Janet Wishart, wife of John Leyis, carries us away to the +North of Scotland. It presents some peculiar features, and therefore I +shall put it before the reader, with no more abridgment than is +absolutely needful. It is of much earlier date than the preceding.[52] + +'i. In the month of April, or thereabout, in 1591, in the "gricking" +of the day, [that is, in the dawn,] Janet Wishart, on her way back +from the blockhouse and Fattie, where she had been holding conference +with the devil, pursued Alexander Thomson, mariner, coming forth of +Aberdeen to his ship, ran between him and Alexander Fidler, under the +Castle Hill, as swift, it appeared to him, as an arrow could be shot +forth of a bow, going betwixt him and the sun, and cast her "cantrips" +in his way. Whereupon, the said Alexander Thomson took an immediate +"fear and trembling," and was forced to hasten home, take to his bed, +and lie there for the space of a month, so that none believed he would +live;--one half of the day burning in his body, as if he had been +roasting in an oven, with an extreme feverish thirst, "so that he +could never be satisfied of drink," the other half of the day melting +away his body with an extraordinarily cold sweat. And Thomson, knowing +she had cast this kind of witchcraft upon him, sent his wife to +threaten her, that, unless she at once relieved him, he would see that +she was burnt. And she, fearing lest he should accuse her, sent him by +the two women a certain kind of beer and some other drugs to drink, +after which Thomson mended daily, and recovered his former health.' + +It is to be noted that Janet flatly denied the coming of Mrs. Thomson +on any such errand. + +'ii. Seven years before, on St. Bartholomew's Day, when Andrew Ardes, +webster [weaver], in his play, took a linen towel, and put it about +the said Janet's neck, not fearing any evil from her, or that she +would be offended, Janet, "in a devilish fury and wodnes" [madness], +exclaimed, "Why teasest thou me? Thou shalt die! I shall give bread to +my bairns this towmound [twelvemonth], but thou shalt not bide a month +with thine to give them bread." And immediately after the said +Andrew's departure from her, he took to his bed for the space of eight +days: the one half of the day roasting in his whole body as in a +furnace, and the other half with a vehement sweat melting away; so +that, by her cruel murther and witchcraft, the said Andrew Ardes died +within eight days. And the day after his departure, his widow, +"contracting a high displeasure," took to her bed, and within a month +deceased; so that all their bairns are now begging their meat.' + +This was testified to be true by Elspeth Ewin, spouse to James Mar, +mariner, but was denied by the accused. + +'iii. Twenty-four years ago, in the month of May, when she dwelt on +the School Hill, next to Adam Mair's, she was descried by Andrew +Brabner the younger, John Leslie, of the Gallowgate, Robert Sanders, +wright, Andrew Simson, tailor, and one Johnson, who were then +schoolboys, stealing forth from the said Adam Mair's yard, at two in +the morning, "greyn growand bear;" and instantly, being pointed out by +the said scholars to the wife of the said Adam, she, in her fury, +burst forth upon the scholars: "Well have ye schemed me, but I shall +gar the best of you repent!" And she added that, ere four in the +afternoon, she would make as many wonder at them as should see them. +Upon the same day, between two and three in the afternoon, the said +scholars passed to the Old Watergang in the Links to wash themselves; +and after they had done so, and dried, the said John Leslie and +Johnson took a race beside the Watergang, and desperately threw +themselves into the midst of the Watergang, and were drowned, through +the witchcraft which Janet had cast upon them. And thus, as she had +promised, she did murder them.' + +This was testified by Robert Sanders and Andrew Simson, but was denied +by the accused. + +'iv. Sixteen years since, or thereby, she [the accused] and Malcolm +Carr's wife, having fallen at variance and discord, she openly vowed +that the latter should be confined to her bed for a year and a day, +and should not make for herself a single cake: immediately after which +discord, the said Malcolm's wife went to her own house, sought her +bed, and lay half a year bed-stricken by the witchcraft Janet had cast +upon her, according to her promise; one half of the day burning up her +whole body as in a fiery furnace, the other half melting away her body +with an extraordinary sweat, with a _congealed coldness_.' + +v. She was also accused of lending to Meryann Nasmith a pair of +head-sheets in childbed, into which she put her witchcraft: which +sheets, as soon as she knew they had taken heat about the woman's +head, immediately she went and took them from her; and before she +[Janet] was well out of the house, Meryann went out of her mind, and +was bound hand and foot for three days. + +vi. Three years since, or thereby, James Ailhows, having been a long +time in her service, Janet desired him to continue with her, and on +his refusing, 'Gang where you please,' she said, 'I will see that you +do not earn a single cake of bread for a year and a day.' And as soon +as he quitted her service, he was seized with an extremely heavy +sickness and (wodnes) delirium, with a continual burning heat and cold +sweating, and lay bedfast half a year, according to her promise, +through the devilish witchcraft she had cast upon him. So that he was +compelled to send to Benia for another witch to take the witchcraft +from him: who came to this town and washed him in water _running +south_, and put him through a girth, with some other ceremonies that +she used. And he paid her seventeen marks, and by her help recovered +health again. + +vii. For twenty years past she continually and nightly, after eleven +o'clock, when her husband and servants had gone to their beds, put on +a great fire, and kept it up all night, and sat before it using +witchcraft, altogether contrary to the nature of well-living persons. +And on those nights when she did not make up the fire, she went out of +the house, and stayed away all night where she pleased. + +viii. She caused ...., then in her service, and lately shepherd to Mr. +Alexander Fraser, to take certain drugs of witchcraft made by her, +such as old shoon, and cast them in the fire of John Club, stabler, +her neighbour; since which time, through her witchcraft, the said John +Club has become completely impoverished. + +ix. She and Janet Patton having fallen into variance and discord, +Janet Patton called the witch 'Karling,' to whom she answered that she +would give her to understand if she was a witch, and would try her +skill upon her. And immediately afterwards, Janet Patton [like +everybody else concerned in these mysterious doings] took to her bed, +with a vehement, great, and extraordinary sickness, for one half the +day, from her middle up, burning as in a fiery furnace, with an +insatiable drought, which she could not slake; the other half-day, +melting away with sweat, and from her middle down as cold as ice, so +that through the witchcraft cast upon her she died within a month. + +x. The particulars given of the case of James Lowe, stabler, are +almost the same. He refused to lend his kill and barn, and on the same +day he was seized with this remarkable sickness--half a day burning +hot, and half a day ice-cold. On his death-bed he accused Janet +Wishart of being the cause of his misfortune, saying, "That if he had +lent to her his kill and kilbarn, he wald haf bene ane lewand man." +His wife and only son died of the same kind of disease, and his whole +gear, amounting to more than 3,000, was altogether wracked and thrown +away, so that there was left no memory of the said James, succession +of his body, nor of their gear. + +xi. John Pyet, stabler, is named as another victim. + +xii. There is an air of novelty about the next case, that of John +Allan, cutler, Janet Wishart's son-in-law. Quarrelling with his wife, +he 'dang' her, 'whereupon Mistress Allan complained to her mother, who +immediately betook herself to her son-in-law's house, 'bostit' him, +and promised to gar him repent that ever he saw or kent her. Shortly +afterwards, either she or the devil her master, in the likeness of a +brown tyke, came nightly for five or six weeks to his window, forced +it open, leaped upon the said John, dang and buffeted him, while +always sparing his wife, who lay in bed with him, so that the said +John became half-wod and furious.' And this persecution continued, +until he threatened to inform the ministry and kirk-session. + +xiii. The next case must be given verbatim, it is so striking an +example of ignorant prejudice: + +'Four years since, or thereby, she came in to Walter Mealing's +dwelling-house, in the Castlegate of Aberdeen, to buy wool, which they +refused to sell. Thereafter, she came to the said Walter's bairn, +sitting on her mother's knee, and the said Walter played with her. And +she said, "This is a comely child, a fine child," without any further +words, and would not say "God save her!" And before she reached the +stair-foot, the bairn, by her witchcraft, in presence of both her +father and mother, "cast her gall," changed her colour like dead, and +became as weak as "ane pair of glwffis," and melted continually away +with an extraordinary sweating and extreme drought, which that same +day eight days, at the same hour, she came in first, and then the +bairn departed. And for no request nor command of the said Walter, nor +others whom he directed, she would not come in again to the house to +"visie" the bairn, although she was oft and divers times sent for, +both by the father and mother of the bairn, and so by her witchcraft +she murdered the bairn.' + +xiv. On Yule Eve, in '94, at three in the morning, Janet, remaining in +Gilbert Mackay's stair in the Broadgate, perceived Bessie Schives, +spouse of Robert Blinschell, going forth of her own house to the +dwelling-house of James Davidson, notary, to his wife, who was in +travail. She came down the stair, and cast her cantrips and witchcraft +in her way, and the said Bessie being in perfect health of body, and +as blithe and merry as ever she was in her days, when she went out of +the same James Davidson's house, or ever she could win up her own +stair, took a great fear and trembling that she might scarcely win up +her own stair, and immediately after her up-coming, went to her naked +bed, lay continually for the space of eighteen weeks fast bed-sick, +bewitched by Janet Wishart, the one half-day roasting as in a fiery +furnace, with an extraordinary kind of drought, that she could not be +slaked, and the other half-day in an extraordinary kind of sweating, +melting, and consuming her body, as a white burning candle, which kind +of sickness is a special point of witchcraft; and the said Bessie +Schives saw none other but Janet only, who is holden and reputed a +common witch. + +xv. At Midsummer was a year or thereby, Elspeth Reid, her +daughter-in-law, came into her house at three in the morning, and +found her sitting, mother naked as she was born, at the fireside, and +another old wife siclike mother naked, sitting between her +shoulders[!], making their cantrips, whom the said Elspeth seeing, +after she said 'God speed,' immediately went out of the house; +thereafter, on the same day, returned again, and asked of her, what +she was doing with that old wife? To whom she answered, that she was +charming her. And as soon as the said Elspeth went forth again from +Janet Wishart's house, immediately she took an extraordinary kind of +sickness, and became 'like a dead senseless fool,' and so continued +for half a year. + +xvi. She [Janet] and her daughter, Violet Leyis, desired ... her woman +to go with her said daughter, at twelve o'clock at night, to the +gallows, and cut down the dead man hanging thereon, and take a part of +all his members from him, and burn the corpse, which her servant +would not do, and, therefore, she was instantly sent away. + +xvii. The following deposition is, however, the most singular of all: + +Twelve years since, or thereby, Janet came into Katherine Rattray's, +behind the Tolbooth, and while she was drinking in the said +Katherine's cellar, Katherine reproved her for drinking in her house, +because, she said, she was a witch. Whereupon, she took a cup full of +ale, and cast it in her face, and said that if she were indeed a +witch, the said Katherine should have proof of it; and immediately +after she had quitted the cellar, the barm of the said Katherine's ale +all sank to the bottom of the stand, and no had abaid [a bead] thereon +during the space of sixteen weeks. And the said Katherine finding +herself 'skaithit,' complained to her daughter, Katherine Ewin, who +was then in close acquaintance with Janet, that she had bewitched her +mother's ale; and immediately thereafter the said Katherine Ewin +called on Janet, and said, 'Why bewitched you my mother's ale?' and +requested her to help the same again. Which Janet promised, if +Katherine Ewin obeyed her instructions ... to rise early before the +sun, without commending herself to God, or speaking, and neither +suining herself nor her son sucking on her breast; to go, still +without speaking, to the said Katherine Rattray's house, and not to +cross any water, nor wash her hands; and enter into the said Katherine +Rattray's house, where she would find her servant brewing, and say to +her thrice, 'I to God, and thou to the devil!' and to restore the +same barm where it was again; 'and to take up thrie dwattis on the +southt end of the gauttreyis, and thair scho suld find ane peice of +claithe, fowr newikit, with greyn, red, and blew, and thrie corss of +clewir girss, and cast the same in the fyir; quhilk beand cassin in, +her barm suld be restorit to hir againe, lyik as it was restorit in +effect.' And the said Katherine Ewin, when cracking [gossiping] with +her neighbours, said she could learn them a charm she had gotten from +Janet Wishart, which when the latter heard, she promised to do her an +evil turn, and immediately her son, sucking on her breast, died. And +at her first browst, or brewing, thereafter, the whole wort being +played and put in 'lumes,' the doors fast, and the keys at her own +belt, the whole wort was taken away, and the haill lumes fundin dry, +and the floor dry, and she could never get trial where it yird to. And +when the said Katherine complained to the said Janet Wishart, and dang +herself and her good man both, for injuries done to her by taking of +her son's life and her wort [which Katherine seems to have thought of +about equal value], she promised that all should be well, giving her +her draff for payment. And the said Katherine, with her husband +Ambrose Gordon, being in their beds, could not for the space of twenty +days be quit of a cat, lying nightly in their bed, between the two, +and taking a great bite out of Ambrose's arm, as yet the place +testifies, and when they gave up the draff, the cat went away. + +Some fourteen more charges were brought against her. She was tried on +February 17, 1596, before the Provost and Baillies of Aberdeen, and +found guilty upon eighteen counts of being a common witch and +sorcerer. Sentence of death by burning was recorded against her, and +she suffered on the same day as another reputed witch, Isabel Cocker. +The expenses of their execution are preserved in the account-books of +the Dean of Guild, 1596-1597, and prove that witch-burning was a +luxury scarcely within the reach of the many. + + +JANETT WISCHART AND ISSBEL COCKER. + + _Item._ For twentie loades of peattes to burne + thame xl_sh._ + _Item._ For ane Boile of Coillis xxiiii_sh._ + _Item._ For four Tar barrellis xxvi_sh._ viii_d._ + _Item._ For fyr and Iron barrellis xvi_sh._ viii_d._ + _Item._ For a staik and dressing of it xvi_sh._ + _Item._ For four fudoms [fathoms?] of Towis iiii_sh._ + _Item._ For careing the peittis, coillis, and + barrellis to the Hill viii_sh._ iiii_d._ + _Item._ To on Justice for their execution xiii_sh._ iiii_d._ + -------------------- + cliv _shillings_. + -------------------- + +On several occasions commissions were issued by the King, in favour of +the Provost and some of the Baillies of the burgh, and the Sheriff of +the county, for the purpose of 'haulding Justice Courtis on Witches +and Sorceraris.' These commissioners gave warrants in their turn to +the minister and elders of each parish in the shire, to examine +parties suspected of witchcraft, and to frame a 'dittay' or indictment +against such persons. It was an inevitable result that all the +scandalous gossip of the community was assiduously collected; while +any individual who had become, from whatsoever cause, an object of +jealousy or dislike to her neighbours, was overwhelmed by a mass of +hearsay or fictitious evidence, and by the conscious or unconscious +exaggerations of ignorance, credulity, or malice. + +As an example of the kind of stuff stirred up by this parochial +inquisition, I shall take the return furnished to the commissioners by +Mr. John Ross, minister of Lumphanan: + +'i. _Elspet Strathauchim_, in Wartheil, is indicted to have charmed +Maggie Clarke, spouse to Patrick Bunny, for the fevers, this last +year, with "ane sleipth and ane thrum" [a sleeve and thread]. She is +indicted, this last Hallow e'en, to have brought forth of the house a +burning coal, and buried the same in her own yard. She is indicted to +have bewitched Adam Gordon, in Wark, and to have been the cause of his +death, and that because, she coming out of his service without his +leave, he detained some of her gear, which she promised to do; and +after his death wanted [to have it believed] that she had gotten +"assythment" of him. She is indicted to have said to Marcus Gillam, at +the Burn of Camphil, that none of his bairns should live, because he +would not marry her; which is come to pass, for two of them are dead. +She is indicted continually to have resorted to Margaret Baine her +company. + +'ii. _Isabel Forbes._--She is indicted to have bewitched Gilbert +Makim, in Glen Mallock, with a spindle, a "rok," and a "foil;" as +Isabel Ritchie likewise testified. + +'iii. _James Og_ is indicted to have passed on Rud-day, five years +since, through Alexander Cobain's corn, and have taken nine stones +from his "avine rig" [corn-rick], and cast on the said Alexander's +"rig," and to have taken nine "lokis" [handfuls] of meal from the said +Alexander's "rig," and cast on his own. He is indicted to have +bewitched a cow belonging to the said Alexander, which he bought from +Kristane Burnet, of Cloak; this cow, though his wife had received milk +from her the first night, and the morning thereafter, gave no milk +from that time forth, but died within half a year. He is indicted to +have passed, five years since, on Lammas-Day, through the said +Alexander's corn, and having "gaine nyne span," to have struck the +corn with nine strokes of a white wand, so that nothing grew that year +but "fichakis." He is indicted that, in the year aforesaid or +thereabouts, having corn to dry, he borrowed fire from his neighbour, +haiffing of his avine them presently; and took a "brine" of the corn +on his back, and cast it three times "woodersonis" [or "withersonis," +_ut supra_, that is, west to east, in the direction contrary to the +sun's course] above the "kill." He is indicted that, three years +since, Alexander Cobaine being in Leith, with the Laird of Cors, his +"wittual," he came up early one morning, at the back of the said +Alexander's yard, with a dish full of water in his hand, and to have +cast the water in the gate to the said Alexander's door, and then +perceiving that David Duguid, servant to the said Alexander, was +beholding him, to have fled suddenly; which the said David also +testifies. + +'iv. _Agnes Frew._--She is indicted to have taken three hairs out of +her own cow's tail, and to have cut the same in small pieces, and to +have put them in her cow's throat, which thereafter gave milk, and the +neighbours' none. Also, she is indicted that [she took] William +Browne's calf in her axter, and charmed the same, as, also, she took +the clins [hoofs] from forefeitt aff it, with a piece of "euerry +bing," and caused the said William's wife to "yeird" the same; which +the said William's wife confessed, albeit not in this manner. Also, +she took up Alexander Tailzier's calf, lately [directly] after it was +calved, and carried it three times about the cow. Also, she was seen +casting a horse's fosser on a cow. + +'v. _Isabel Roby._--She is indicted to have bidden her gudeman, when +he went to St. Fergus to buy cattle, that if he bought any before his +home-coming, he should go three times "woodersonis" about them, and +then take three "ruggis" off a dry hillock, and fetch home to her. +Also, that dwelling at Ardmair, there came in a poor man craving alms, +to whom she offered milk, but he refused it, because, as he then +presently said, she had three folks' milk and her own in the pan; and +when Elspet Mackay, then present, wondered at it, he said, "Marvel +not, for she has thy farrow kye's milk also in her pan." Also, she is +commonly seen in the form of a hare, passing through the town, for as +soon as the hare vanishes out of sight, she appears. + +'vi. _Margaret Rianch_, in Green Cottis, was seen in the dawn of the +day by James Stevens embracing every nook of John Donaldson's house +three times, who continually thereafter was diseased, and at last +died. She said to John Ritchie, when he took a tack [a piece of +ground] in the Green Cottis, that his gear from that day forth should +continually decay, and so it came to pass. Also, she cast a number of +stones in a tub, amongst water, which thereafter was seen dancing. +When she clips her sheep, she turns the bowl of the shears three times +in their mouth. Also, James Stevens saw her meeting John Donaldson's +"hoggs" [sheep a year old] in the burn of the Green Cottis, and +casting the water out between her feet backward, in the sheep's face, +and so they all died. Also she confessed to Patrick Gordon, of +Kincragie, and James Gordon, of Drumgase, that the devil was in the +bed between her and William Ritchie, her harlot, and he was upon them +both, and that if she happened to die for witchcraft, that he +[Ritchie] should also die, for if she was a devil, he was too. + +'There are three of these persons, Elspeet Strathauchim, James Og, and +Agnes Frew, whose accusations the Presbytery of Kincardine, within +whose bounds they dwell, counted insufficient, having duly considered +the whole circumstances, always remitted them to the trial of an +assize, if the judges thought it expedient. + + '[Signed] Mr. Jhone Ros, + 'Minister at Lumphanan.' + +It would not be easy to find a more painful exhibition of clerical +ignorance and incapacity. Probably many of the allegations which Mr. +John Ross records are true, as the practice of charms was common +enough among the peasantry both of Scotland and England, and is even +yet not wholly extinct; but, taken altogether, they did not amount to +witchcraft, the very essence of which was a compact with the devil, +and in no one of the preceding cases is such a compact mentioned. And +one must take the existence of the gross superstition and credulity +which is here disclosed to be irrefutable testimony that, as a pastor +and teacher, Mr. John Ross was a signal failure at Lumphanan. + + * * * * * + +I have already alluded to those pathetic instances of self-delusion in +which the reputed witch has been her own enemy, and furnished the +evidence needed for her condemnation in her own confession--a +confession of acts which she must have known had never occurred; +building up a strange fabric of fiction, and perishing beneath its +weight. It would seem as if some of these unfortunate women came to +believe in themselves because they found that others believed in them, +and assumed that they really possessed the powers of witchcraft +because their neighbours insisted that it was so. Nor will this be +thought such an improbable explanation when it is remembered that +history affords more than one example of prophets and founders of new +religions whom the enthusiastic devotion of their followers has +persuaded into a belief in the authenticity of the credentials which +they themselves had originally forged, and the truth of the +revelations which they had invented. + +From this point of view a profound interest attaches to the official +'dittay' or accusation against one Helen Fraser, who was convicted and +sentenced to death in April, 1597, since it shows that she was +condemned principally upon the evidence which she herself supplied: + +'i. John Ramsay, in Newburght, being sick of a consuming disease, sent +to her house, in Aikinshill, to seek relief, and was told by her that +she would do what lay in her power for the recovery of his health; but +bade him keep secret whatever she spake or did, because the world was +evil, and spoke no good of such mediciners. She commanded the said +John to rise early in the morning, to eat "sourrakis" about sunrise, +while the dew was still upon them; also to eat "valcars," and to make +"lavrie" kale and soup. Moreover, to sit down in a door, before the +fowls flew to their roost, and to open his breast, that when the fowls +flew to the roost over him he might receive the wind of their wings +about his breast, for that was very profitable to loose his +heart-pipes, which were closed. But before his departure from her, she +made him sit down, bare-headed, on a stool, and said an orison thrice +upon his head, in which she named the Devil. + +'ii. _Item._--The said Helen publicly confessed in Foverne, after her +apprehension, that she was a common abuser of the people; and that, +further, to sustain herself and her bairns, she pretended knowledge +which she had not, and undertook to do things which she could not. +This was her answer, when she was accused by the minister of Foverne, +for that she abused the people, and when he inquired the cause of her +evil report throughout the whole country. This she confessed upon the +green of Foverne, before the laird, the minister, and reader of +Foverne, Patrick Findlay in Newburght, and James Menzies at the New +Mills of Foverne. + +'iii. _Item._--Janet Ingram, wife to Adam Finnie, dwelling for the +time at the West burn, in Balhelueis, being sick, and affirming +herself to be bewitched, for she herself was esteemed by all men to be +a witch, she sent for the said Helen Frazer to cure her. The said +Helen came, and tarried with her till her departure and burial, and at +her coming assured the said Janet that within a short time she would +be well enough. But the sickness of the said Janet increased, and was +turned into a horrible fury and madness, in such sort that she always +and incessantly blasphemed, and pressed at all times to climb up the +wall after the "heillis" and scraped the wall with her hands. After +that she had been grievously vexed for the space of two days from the +coming of Helen Frazer, her mediciner, to her, she departed this life. +Being dead, her husband went to charge his neighbours to convey her +burial, but before his returning, or the coming of any neighbour to +the carrying of the corpse, the said Helen Frazer, together with two +or three daughters of the said Janet (whereof one yet living, to wit, +Malye Finnie, in the Blairtoun of Balhelueis, is counted a witch), +had taken up the corpse, and had carried her, they alone, the half of +the distance to the kirk, until they came to the Moor of Cowhill; when +the said Adam and others his neighbours came to them, and at their +coming the said Helen fled away through the moss to Aikinshill, and +went no further towards the kirk. + +'iv. _Item._--A horse of Duncan Alexander, in Newburcht, being +bewitched, the said Helen translated the sickness from the horse to a +young cow of the said Duncan; which cow died, and was cast into the +burn of the Newburcht, for no man would eat her. + +'v. _Item._--The said Helen made a compact with certain laxis fishers +of the Newburcht, at the kirk of Foverne, in Mallie Skryne's house, +and promised to cause them to fish well, and to that effect received +of them a piece of salmon to handle at her pleasure for accomplishing +the matter. Upon the morrow she came to the Newburcht, to the house of +John Ferguson, a laxis fisher, and delivered unto him in a closet four +cuts of salmon with a penny; after that she called him out of his own +house, from the company that was there drinking with him, and bade him +put the same in the horn of his coble, and he should have a dozen of +fish at the first shot; which came to pass. + +'vi. _Item._--The said Helen, by witchcraft, enticed Gilbert Davidson, +son to William Davidson, in Lytoune of Meanye, to love and marry +Margaret Strauthachin (in the Hill of Balgrescho) directly against +the will of his parents, to the utter wreck of the said Gilbert. + +'vii. _Item._--At the desire of the said Margaret Strauthachin, by +witchcraft, the said Helen made Catherine Fetchil, wife to William +Davidson, furious, because she was against the marriage, and took the +strength of her left side and arm from her; in the which fury and +feebleness the said Catherine died. + +'viii. _Item._--The said Helen, at the desire of the foresaid Margaret +Strauthachin, bewitched William Hill, dwelling for the time at the +Hill of Balgrescho, through which he died in a fury [_i.e._, a fit of +delirium]. + +'ix. Moreover, at the desire foresaid, the said Helen by witchcraft +slew an ox belonging to the said William; for while Patrick Hill, son +to the said William, and herd to his father, called in the cattle to +the fold, at twelve o'clock, the said Helen was sitting in the yeite, +and immediately after the outcoming of the cattle out of the fold, the +best ox of the whole herd instantly died. + +'x. _Item._--The said Helen counselled Christane Henderson, vulgarly +called mickle Christane, to put one hand to the crown of her head, and +the other to the sole of her foot, and so surrender whatever was +between her hands, and she should want nothing that she could wish or +desire. + +'xi. _Item._--The said Christane Henderson, being henwife in Foverne, +the young fowls died thick; for remedy whereof, the said Helen bade +the said Christane take all the chickens or young fowls, and draw +them through the link of the crook, and take the hindmost, and slay +with a fiery stick, which thing being practised, none died thereafter +that year. + +'xii. _Item._--When the said Helen was dwelling in the Moorhill of +Foverne, there came a hare betimes, and sucked a milch cow pertaining +to William Findlay, at the Mill of the Newburght, whose house was +directly afornent the said Helen's house, on the other side of the +Burn of Foverne, wherethrough the cow pined away, and gave blood +instead of milk. This mischief was by all men attributed to the said +Helen, and she herself cannot deny but she was commonly evil spoken of +for it, and affirmed, after her apprehension at Foverne, that she was +so slandered. + +'xiii. _Item._--When Alexander Hardy, in Aikinshill, departed this +life, it grieved and troubled his conscience very mickle, that he had +been a defender of the said Helen, and especially that he, accompanied +with Malcolm Forbes, travailed, against their conscience, with sundry +of the assessors when she suffered an assize, and especially with the +Chancellor of the Assize, in her favour, he knowing evidently her to +be guilty of death. + +'xiv. _Item._--The said Helen being a domestic in the said Alexander +Hardy's house, disagreed with one of the said Alexander's servants, +named Andrew Skene, and intending to bewitch the said servant, the +evil fell upon Alexander, and he died thereof. + +'xv. _Item._--When Robert Goudyne, now in Balgrescho, was dwelling in +Blairtoun of Balheluies, a discord fell out betwixt Elizabeth +Dempster, nurse to the said Robert for the time, and Christane +Henderson, one of the said Helen's familiars, as her own confession +aforesaid purports, and the country well knows. Upon the which +discord, the said Christane threatened the said Elizabeth with an evil +turn, and to the performing thereof, brought the said Helen Frazer to +the said Robert's house, and caused her to repair oft thereto. After +what time, immediately both the said Elizabeth and the infant to whom +she gave suck, by the devilry of the said Helen, fell into a consuming +sickness, whereof both died. And also Elspet Cheyne, spouse to the +said Robert, fell into the selfsame sickness, and was heavily diseased +thereby for the space of two years before the recovery of his health. + +'xvi. _Item._--By witchcraft the said Helen abstracted and withdrew +the love and affection of Andrew Tilliduff of Rainstoune, from his +spouse Isabel Cheyne, to Margaret Neilson, and so mightily bewitched +him, that he could never be reconciled with his wife, or remove his +affection from the said harlot; and when the said Margaret was +begotten with child, the said Helen conveyed her away to Cromar to +obscure the fact. + +'xvii. _Item._--Wherever the said Helen is known, or has repaired +there many years bygone, she has been, and is reported by all, of +whatsoever estate or sex, to be a common and abominable witch, and to +have learned the same of the late Maly Skene, spouse to the late +Cowper Watson, with whom, during her lifetime, the said Helen had +continual society. The said Maly was bruited to be a rank witch, and +her said husband suffered death for the same crime. + +'xviii. _Item._--When Robert Merchant, in the Newbrucht, had +contracted marriage, and holden house for the space of two years with +the late Christane White, it happened to him to pass to the Moorhill +of Foverne, to sow corn to the late Isabel Bruce, the relict of the +late Alexander Frazer, the said Helen Frazer being familiar and +actually resident in the house of the said Isabel, she was there at +his coming: from the which time forth the said Robert _found his +affection violently and extraordinarily drawn away from the said +Christane to the said Isabel_, a great love being betwixt him and the +said Christane always theretofore, and no break of love, or discord, +falling out or intervening upon either of their parts, which thing the +country supposed and spake to be brought about by the unlawful +travails of the said Helen. + + '[Signed] Thomas Tilideff, + 'Minister, at Fovern, with my hand. + +'_Item._--A common witch by open voice and common fame.' + + * * * * * + +I have given this 'dittay' in full, from a conviction that no summary +would do justice to its terrible simplicity. Upon the evidence which +it afforded, Helen Frazer was brought before the Court of Justiciary, +in Aberdeen, on April 21, 1597, and found guilty in 'fourteen points +of witchcraft and sorcery.' + +The burning of witches went merrily on, so that the authorities of +Aberdeen were compelled to get in an adequate stock of fuel. We note +in the municipal accounts, under the date of March 10, that there was +'bocht be the comptar, and laid in be him in the seller in the +Chappell of the Castel hill, ane chalder of coillis, price thairof, +with the bieing and metting of the same, xvi_lib._ iiii_sh._' As is +usually the case, the frequency of these sad exhibitions whetted at +first the public appetite for them; it grew by what it fed on. One of +the items of expense in the execution of a witch named Margaret Clerk, +is for carrying of 'four sparris, _to withstand the press of the +pepill_, quhairof thair was twa broken, viiis. viiid.' + +Among the victims committed to the flames in 1596-97, we read the +names of 'Katherine Fergus and [Sculdr], Issobel Richie, Margaret Og, +Helene Rodger, Elspet Hendersoun, Katherine Gerard, Christin Reid, +Jenet Grant, Helene Frasser, Katherine Ferrers, Helene Gray, Agnes +Vobster, Jonat Douglas, Agnes Smelie, Katherine Alshensur, and ane +other witche, callit ....'--seventeen in all. That during their +imprisonment they were treated with barbarous rigour, may be inferred +from the following entries: + + _Item._ To Alexander Reid, smyth, for _twa + pair of scheckellis_ to the Witches in the + Stepill xxxii_sh._ + + _Item._ To John Justice, for _burning vpon the + cheik_ of four seurerall personis suspect of + witchcraft and baneschit xxvi_sh._ viii_d._ + + _Item._ Givin to Alexander Home for macking + of _joggis, stapillis, and lockis_ to the + witches, during the haill tyme forsaid xlvi_sh._ viii_d._ + + Expense on Witches aucht-score, xlii_li._ xvii_sh._ iiii_d._ + +On September 21, 1597, the Provost, Baillies and Council of Aberdeen +considered the faithfulness shown by William Dun, the Dean of Guild, +in the discharge of his duty, 'and, besides this, _his extraordinarily +taking pains in the burning of the great number of the witches burnt +this year_, and on the four pirates, and bigging of the port on the +Brig of Dee, repairing of the Grey Friars kirk and steeple thereof, +and thereby has been abstracted from his trade of merchandise, +continually since he was elected in the said office. Therefore, in +recompense of his extraordinary pains, and in satisfaction thereof +(not to induce any preparative to Deans of Guild to crave a recompense +hereafter), but to encourage others to travail as diligently in the +discharge of their office, granted and assigned to him the sum of +forty-seven pounds three shillings and fourpence, owing by him of the +rest of his compt of the unlawis [fines] of the persons convict for +slaying of black fish, and discharged him thereof by their presents +for ever.' + +At length a wholesome reaction took place; the public grew weary of +the number of executions, and, encouraged by this change of +sentiment, persons accused of witchcraft boldly rebutted the charge, +and laid complaints against their accusers for defamation of +character. In official circles, it is true, a belief in the alleged +crime lingered long. As late as 1669, 'the new and old Councils taking +into their serious consideration that many malefices were committed +and done by several persons in this town, who are _mala fama_, and +suspected guilty of witchcraft upon many of the inhabitants of this +town, several ways, and that it will be necessary for suppressing the +like in time coming, and for punishing the said persons who shall be +found guilty; therefore they do unanimously conclude and ordain that +any such person, who is suspect of the like malefices, may be seized +upon, and put in prisoun, and that a Commission be sent for, for +putting of them to trial, that condign justice may be executed upon +them, as the nature of the offence does merit.' No more victims, +however, were sacrificed; nor does it appear that any accusation of +witchcraft was preferred. + +According to Sir Walter Scott, a woman was burnt as a witch in +Scotland as late as 1722, by Captain Ross, sheriff-depute of +Sutherland; but this was, happily, an exceptional barbarity, and for +some years previously the pastime of witch-burning had practically +been extinct. It is a curious fact that educated Scotchmen, as I have +already noted, retained their superstition long after the common +people had abandoned it. In 1730, Professor Forbes, of Glasgow, +published his 'Institutes of the Law of Scotland,' in which he spoke +of witchcraft as 'that black art whereby strange and wonderful things +are wrought by power derived from the devil,' and added: 'Nothing +seems plainer to me than that there may be and have been witches, and +that perhaps such are now actually existing.' Six years later, the +Seceders from the Church of Scotland, who professed to be the true +representatives of its teaching, strongly condemned the repeal of the +laws against witchcraft, as 'contrary,' they said, 'to the express +letter of the law of God.' But they were hopelessly behind the time; +public opinion, as the result of increased intelligence, had numbered +witchcraft among the superstitions of the past, and we may confidently +predict that its revival is impossible. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[52] From the 'Records of the Burgh of Aberdeen,' printed for the +Spalding Club, 1841. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE LITERATURE OF WITCHCRAFT. + + +It should teach us humility when we find a belief in witchcraft and +demonology entertained not only by the uneducated and unintelligent +classes, but also by the men of light and leading, the scholar, the +philosopher, the legislator, who might have been expected to have +risen above so degrading a superstition. It would be manifestly unfair +to direct our reproaches at the credulous prejudices of the multitude +when Francis Bacon, the great apostle of the experimental philosophy, +accepts the crude teaching of his royal master's 'Demonologie,' and +actually discusses the ingredients of the celebrated 'witches' +ointment,' opining that they should all be of a soporiferous +character, such as henbane, hemlock, moonshade, mandrake, opium, +tobacco, and saffron. The weakness of Sir Matthew Hale, to which +reference has been made in a previous chapter, we cannot very strongly +condemn, when we know that it was shared by Sir Thomas Browne, who had +so keen an eye for the errors of the common people, and whose fine and +liberal genius throws so genial a light over the pages of the +'Religio Medici.' In his 'History of the World,' that consummate +statesman, poet, and scholar, Sir Walter Raleigh, gravely supports the +vulgar opinions which nowadays every Board School _alumnus_ would +reject with disdain. Even the philosopher of Malmesbury, the sagacious +author of 'The Leviathan,' Thomas Hobbes, was infected by the +prevalent delusion. Dr. Cudworth, to whom we owe the acute reasoning +of the treatises on 'Moral Good and Evil,' and 'The True Intellectual +System of the Universe,' firmly holds that the guilt of a reputed +witch might be determined by her inability or unwillingness to repeat +the Lord's Prayer. Strangest of it all is it to find the pure and +lofty spirit of Henry More, the founder of the school of English +Platonists, yielding to the general superstition. With large additions +of his own, he republished the Rev. Joseph Glanvill's notorious work, +'Sadducismus Triumphatus'--a pitiful example of the extent to which a +fine intellect may be led astray, though Mr. Lecky thinks it the most +powerful defence of witchcraft ever published. And the sober and +fair-minded Robert Boyle, in the midst of his scientific researches, +found time to listen, with breathless interest, to 'stories of witches +at Oxford, and devils at Muston.' + +Among the Continental authorities on witchcraft, the chief of those +who may be called its advocates are, _Martin Antonio Delrio_ +(1551-1608), who published, in the closing years of the sixteenth +century, his 'Disquisitionarum Magicarum Libri Sex,' a formidable +folio, brimful of credulity and ingenuity, which was translated into +French by Duchesne in 1611, and has been industriously pilfered from +by numerous later writers. Delrio has no pretensions to critical +judgment; he swallows the most monstrous inventions with astounding +facility. + +Reference must also be made to the writings of Remigius, included in +Pez' 'Thesaurus Anecdotorum Novissimus,' and to the great work by H. +Institor and J. Sprenger, 'Malleus Maleficarum,' as well as to Basin, +Molitor ('Dialogus de Lamiis'), and other authors, to be found in the +1582 edition of 'Mallei quorundam Maleficarum,' published at +Frankfort. + +On the same side we find the great philosophical lawyer and historian +_John Bodin_ (1530-1596), the author of the 'Republic,' and the +'Methodus ad facilem Historiarum Cognitionem.' In his 'Demonomanie des +Sorcius' he recommends the burning of witches and wizards with an +earnestness which should have gone far to compensate for his +heterodoxy on other points of belief and practice. He informs us that +from his thirty-seventh year he had been attended by a familiar spirit +or demon, which touched his ear whenever he was about to do anything +of which his conscience disapproved; and he quotes passages from the +Psalms, Job, and Isaiah, to prove that spirits indicate their presence +to men by touching and even pulling their ears, and not only by vocal +utterances. + +Also, _Thomas Erastus_ (1524-1583), physician and controversialist, +who took so busy a part in the theological dissensions of his time. In +1577 he published a tract ('De Lamiis') on the lawfulness of putting +witches to death. It is strange that he should have been mastered by +the gross imposture of witchcraft, when he could expose with trenchant +force the pretensions of alchemists, astrologers, and Rosicrucians. + +Happily, the cause of humanity, truth and tolerance was not without +its eager and capable defenders. The earliest I take to have been the +Dutch physician, _Wierus_, who, in his treatise 'De Prstigiis,' +published at Basel in 1564, vigorously attacked the cruel prejudice +that had doomed so many unhappy creatures to the stake. He did not, +however, deny the _existence_ of witchcraft, but demanded mercy for +those who practised it on the ground that they were the devil's +victims, not his servants. That he should have been wholly devoid of +credulity would have been more than one could rightly have expected of +a disciple of Cornelius Agrippa. + +A stronger and much more successful assailant appeared in _Reginald +Scot_ (died 1599), a younger son of Sir John Scot, of Scot's Hall, +near Smeeth, who published his celebrated 'Discoverie of Witchcraft' +in 1584--a book which, in any age, would have been remarkable for its +sweet humanity, breadth of view, and moderation of tone, as well as +for its literary excellencies. One wonders where this quiet Kentish +gentleman, whose chief occupations appear to have been gardening and +planting, accumulated his erudition, and how, in the face of the +superstitions of his contemporaries, he arrived at such large and +liberal conclusions. The scope of his great work is indicated in its +lengthy title: 'The Discoverie of Witchcraft, wherein the lewd dealing +of Witches and Witchmongers is notablie detected, the knaverie of +conjurers, the impietie of enchanters, the follie of soothsaiers, the +impudent falsehood of couseners, the infidelitie of atheists, the +pestilent practices of Pythonists, the curiositie of figure-casters +[horoscope-makers], the vanitie of dreamers, the beggarlie art of +Alcumystrie, the abhomination of idolatrie, the horrible art of +poisoning, the vertue and power of naturall magike, and all the +conveyances of Legierdemain and juggling are deciphered: and many +other things opened, which have long lain hidden, howbeit verie +necessarie to be knowne. Heerevnto is added a treatise upon the Nature +and Substance of Spirits and Devils, etc.: all latelie written by +Reginald Scot, Esquire. 1 John iv. 1: "Believe not everie spirit, but +trie the spirits, whether they are of God; for many false prophets are +gone out into the world."' + +From a book so well known--a new edition has recently appeared--it is +needless to make extracts; but I transcribe a brief passage in +illustration of the vivacity and manliness of the writer: + +'I, therefore (at this time), do only desire you to consider of my +report concerning the evidence that is commonly brought before you +against them. See first whether the evidence be not frivolous, and +whether the proofs brought against them be not incredible, consisting +of guesses, presumptions, and impossibilities contrary to reason, +Scripture, and nature. See also what persons complain upon them, +whether they be not of the basest, the unwisest, and the most +faithless kind of people. Also, may it please you, to weigh what +accusations and crimes they lay to their charge, namely: She was at my +house of late, she would have had a pot of milk, she departed in a +chafe because she had it not, she railed, she cursed, she mumbled and +whispered; and, finally, she said she would be even with me: and soon +after my child, my cow, my sow, or my pullet died, or was strangely +taken. Nay (if it please your Worship), I have further proof: I was +with a wise woman, and she told me I had an ill neighbour, and that +she would come to my house ere it was long, and so did she; and that +she had a mark about her waist, and so had she: God forgive me, my +stomach hath gone against her a great while. Her mother before her was +counted a witch; she hath been beaten and scratched by the face till +blood was drawn upon her, because she hath been suspected, and +afterwards some of those persons were said to amend. These are the +certainties that I hear in their evidences. + +'Note, also, how easily they may be brought to confess that which they +never did, nor lieth in the power of man to do; and then see whether I +have cause to write as I do. Further, if you shall see that +infidelity, popery, and many other manifest heresies be backed and +shouldered, and their professors animated and heartened, by yielding +to creatures such infinite power as is wrested out of God's hand, and +attributed to witches: finally, if you shall perceive that I have +faithfully and truly delivered and set down the condition and state of +the witch, and also of the witchmonger, and have confuted by reason +and law, and by the Word of God itself, all mine adversary's +objections and arguments; then let me have your countenance against +them that maliciously oppose themselves against me. + +'My greatest adversaries are young ignorance and old custom. For what +folly soever tract of time hath fostered, it is so superstitiously +pursued of some, as though no error could be acquainted with custom. +But if the law of nations would join with such custom, to the +maintenance of ignorance and to the suppressing of knowledge, the +civilest country in the world would soon become barbarous. For as +knowledge and time discovereth errors, so doth superstition and +ignorance in time breed them.' + +In another fine passage Scot says: + +'God that knoweth my heart is witness, and you that read my book shall +see, that my drift and purpose in this enterprise tendeth only to +these respects. First, that the glory and power of God be not so +abridged and abused, as to be thrust into the hand or lip of a lewd +old woman, whereby the work of the Creator should be attributed to the +power of a creature. Secondly, that the religion of the Gospel may be +seen to stand without such peevish trumpery. Thirdly, that lawful +favour and Christian compassion be rather used towards these poor +souls than rigour and extremity. Because they which are commonly +accused of witchcraft are the least sufficient of all other persons to +speak for themselves, as having the most base and simple education of +all others; the extremity of their age giving them leave to dote, +their poverty to beg, their wrongs to chide and threaten (as being +void of any other way of revenge), their humour melancholical to be +full of imaginations, from whence chiefly proceedeth the vanity of +their confessions, as that they can transform themselves and others +into apes, owls, asses, dogs, cats, etc.; that they can fly in the +air, kill children with charms, hinder the coming of butter, etc. + +'And for so much as the mighty help themselves together, and the poor +widow's cry, though it reach to heaven, is scarce heard here upon +earth, I thought good (according to my poor ability) to make +intercession, that some part of common rigour and some points of hasty +judgment may be advised upon. For the world is now at that stay (as +Brentius, in a most godly sermon, in these words affirmeth), that +even, as when the heathen persecuted the Christians, if any were +accused to believe in Christ, the common people cried _Ad leonem_; so +now, of any woman, be she never so honest, be she accused of +witchcraft, they cry _Ad ignem_.' + + * * * * * + +Scot's attack upon the credulity of his contemporaries, strenuous and +capable as it was, did not bear much fruit at the time; while it +exposed him to charges of Atheism and Sadduceeism from several small +critics, who were supported by the authority of James I., and, at a +later date, of Dr. Meric Casaubon. He found a fellow-labourer, +however, in his work of humanity, in the _Rev. George Gifford_, of +Maldon, Essex, who in 1593 published 'A Dialogue concerning Witches +and Witchcraft,' in which 'is layed open how craftily the Divell +deceiveth not only the Witches but Many other, and so leadeth them +awaie into Manie Great Errours.' It will be seen from the title that +the writer does not adopt the uncompromising line of Reginald Scot, +but inclines rather to the standpoint of Wierus. There is, however, a +good deal of ability in his treatment of the question; and some +account of the 'Dialogue' reprinted by the Percy Society in 1842, +should be interesting, I think, to the reader. + + * * * * * + +The interlocutors are named Samuel, Daniel, Samuel's wife, M. B., a +schoolmaster, and the goodwife R. + +The dialogue opens with Samuel and Daniel, the former of whom is a +fanatical believer in witches. 'These evil-favoured old witches,' he +says, 'do trouble me.' He repeats the common rumour that there is +scarcely a town or village in the shire but has one or two witches in +it. 'In good sooth,' he adds, 'I may tell it to you as to my friend, +when I go but into my closes, I am afraid, for I see now and then a +hare, which my conscience giveth me is a witch, or some witch's +spirit, she stareth so upon me. And sometime I see an ugly weasel run +through my yard; and there is a foul, great cat sometimes in my barn, +which I have no liking unto.' Having introduced his friend, who is +less credulous than himself, to his wife and his home, he promotes an +argument between him and another friend, M. B., a schoolmaster, on +this _qustio vexata_. + +M. B. starts with a good deal of fervour: + + 'The word of God doth show plainly that there be witches, and + commandeth they should be put to death. Experience hath + taught too many what harms they do. And if any have the gift + to minister help against them, shall we refuse it?' + +But after some discussion he agrees, at Daniel's instance, to consider +the subject in a spirit of sober argument; and the first question they +take up is: 'Are there witches that work by the Devil?' The +conversation then proceeds as follows: + + DANIEL. It is so evident by the Scriptures, and in all + experience, that there be witches which work by the devil, or + rather, I may say, the devil worketh by them, that such as go + about to prove the contrary, do show themselves but + cavillers. + + M. B. I am glad we agree on that point; I hope we shall in + the rest. What say you to this? That the witches have their + spirits. Some hath one; some hath more, as two, three, four, + or five. Some in one likeness and some in another, as like + cats, weasels, toads, or mice, whom they nourish with milk or + with a chicken, or by letting them suck now and then a drop + of blood, whom they call if they be offended with any, and + send them to hurt them in their bodies, yea, to kill them, + and to kill their cattle. + + DANIEL. Here is great deceit, and great illusion; here the + Devil leadeth the ignorant people into foul errors, by which + he draweth them headlong into many grievous sins. + + M. B. Nay, then, I see you are awry, if you deny these + things, and say they be but illusions.... I did dwell in a + village within these five years where there was a man of good + wealth, and suddenly, within ten days' space, he had three + kine died, his gelding, worth ten pounds, fell lame, he was + himself taken with a great pain in his back, and a child of + seven years old died. He sent to the woman at R. H., and she + said he was plagued by a witch, adding, moreover, that there + were three women witches in that town, and one man witch, + willing him to look whom he most suspected. He suspected an + old woman, and caused her to be carried before a justice of + peace and examined. With much ado at the last she confessed + all, which was this in effect--that she had three spirits, + one like a cat, which she called _Lightfoot_; another like a + toad, which she called _Lunch_; the third like a weasel, + which she called _Makeshift_. This Lightfoot, she said, one + Mother Bailey, of W., sold her above sixteen years ago, for + an oven-cake, and told her the cat would do her good service; + if she would, she might send her of her errands. This cat was + with her but a while, but the weasel and the toad came and + offered their service. The cat would kill kine, the weasel + would kill horses, the toad would plague men in their bodies. + She sent them all three (as she confessed) against this man. + She was committed to the prison, and there she died before + the assizes. + +Daniel then strikes into the conversation, enlarging on the Scriptural +description of devils as 'mighty and terrible spirits, full of rage +and power and cruelty'--principalities and powers, the rulers of the +darkness of this world--and forcibly insisting that if spirits so +awful and potential as these assumed the shapes of such paltry vermin +as cats, mice, toads, and weasels, it must be out of subtilty to cover +and hide the mighty tyranny and power which they exercise over the +hearts of the wicked. And he argues that such spirits would never +deign to be a witch's servant or to do her bidding. M. B. contends, +however, that, although he be lord, yet is he content to serve her +turn; and the witches confess, he says, that they call forth their +demons, and send them on what errands they please, and hire them to +hurt in their bodies and their cattle those against whom they cherish +angry and revengeful feelings. 'I am sorry,' says Daniel mildly, 'you +are so far awry; it is a pity any man should be in such error, +especially a man that hath learning, and should teach others +knowledge.' + +After some further disputation, M. B. is brought to admit that God +giveth the devils power to plague and seduce because of man's +wickedness; but he asks whether a godly, faithful man or woman may not +be bewitched. We see, he says, that the devil had power given him of +old, as over Job. But Daniel will not admit that this is a case in +point, because it is not said that the devil dealt with Job through +the agency of witches. Thereupon Samuel, perceiving the drift of his +argument to be that the devil has no need to act by instruments so +mean and even degraded, and would assuredly never be at their command; +that, consequently, there can be no witchcraft, because there is no +necessity for it, suddenly interposes: + + 'With your leave, M. B., I would ask two or three questions + of my friend. There was but seven miles hence, at W. H., one + M.; the man was of good wealth, and well accounted of among + his neighbours. He pined away with sickness half a year, and + at last died. After he was dead, his wife suspected + ill-dealing. She went to a cunning man, who told her that her + husband died of witchery, and asked her if she did not + suspect any. Yes, there was one woman she did not like, one + Mother W.; her husband and she fell out, and he fell sick + within two days after, and never recovered. He showed her the + woman as plain in a glass as we see one another, and taught + her how she might bring her to confess. Well, she followed + his counsel, went home, caused her to be apprehended and + carried before a justice of peace. He examined her so wisely + that in the end she confessed she killed the man. She was + sent to prison, she was arraigned, condemned, and executed; + and upon the ladder she seemed very penitent, desiring all + the world to forgive her. She said she had a spirit in the + likeness of a yellow dun cat. This cat came unto her, as she + said, as she sat by the fire, when she was fallen out with a + neighbour of hers, and wished that the vengeance of God might + light upon him and his. The cat bade her not be afraid; she + would do her no harm. She had served a dame five years in + Kent that was now dead, and, if she would, she would be her + servant. "And whereas," said the cat, "such a man hath + misused thee, if thou wilt I will plague him in his cattle." + She sent the cat; she killed three hogs and one cow. The man, + suspecting, _burnt a pig alive_, and, as she said, her cat + would never go thither any more. Afterward she fell out with + that M. She sent her cat, who told her that she had given him + that which he should never recover; and, indeed, the man + died. Now, do you not think the woman spoke the truth in all + this? Would the woman accuse herself falsely at her death? + Did not the cat become her servant? Did not she send her? Did + she not plague and kill both man and beast? What should a man + think of this? + + DANIEL. You propound a particular example, and let us examine + everything in it touching the witch. You say the cat came to + her when she was in a great rage with one of her neighbours, + and did curse, wishing the vengeance of God to fall upon him + and his. + + SAM. She said so, indeed. I heard her with my own ears, for I + was at the execution. + + DAN. Then tell me who set her in such a devilish rage, so to + curse and ban, as to wish that the vengeance of God might + light upon him and his? Did not the cat? + + SAM. Truly I think that the devil wrought that in her. + + DAN. Very well. Then, you see, the cat is the beginning of + this play. + + SAM. Call you it a play? It was no play to some. + + DAN. Indeed, the witch at last had better have wrought hard + than been at her play. But I mean Satan did play the juggler; + for doth he not offer his service? Doth he not move her to + send him to plague the man? Tell me, is she so forward to + send, as he is to be sent? Or do you not take it that he + ruleth in her heart, and even wholly directeth it to this + matter? + + SAM. I am fully persuaded he ruleth her heart. + + DAN. _Then was she his drudge, and not he her servant._ He + needeth not to be hired and entreated; for if her heart were + to send him anywhere, unto such as he knoweth he cannot hurt, + nor seeth how to make any show that he hurteth them, he can + quickly turn her from that. Well, the cat goeth and killeth + the man, certain hogs, and a cow. How could she tell that the + cat did it? + + SAM. How could she tell? Why, he told her, man, and she saw + and heard that he lost his cattle. + + DAN. The cat would lie--would she not? for they say such cats + are liars. + + SAM. I do not trust the cat's words, but because the thing + fell out so. + + DAN. Because the hogs and the cow died, are you sure the cat + did kill them? Might they not die of some natural causes, as + you see both men and beasts are well, and die suddenly? + +In this way the dialogue proceeds, with a good deal of ingenuity and +some degree of dramatic spirit; and though the reasoning is not +without its fallacies, yet it is sufficiently clear and forcible, on +the whole, as a protest on the side of liberality and tolerance. + +The next branch of the subject taken up for consideration is 'the help +and remedy' that is sought for against witches 'at the hands of +cunning men;' Daniel contending that, if the cunning men can render +any assistance, it must be through the devil's instrumentality, and, +therefore, Christian men are not justified in availing themselves of +it. The alleged cures performed by witches, Daniel refers to the +influence of the imagination; and in this category he tells an amusing +story. 'There was a person in London,' he say, 'acquainted with the +magician Fento. Now, this Fento had a black dog, whom he called +Bomelius. This party afterwards had a conceit that Bomelius was a +devil, and that he felt him within him. He was in heaviness, and made +his moan to one of his acquaintances, who had a merry head, and told +him he had a friend could remove Bomelius. He bade him prepare a +breakfast, and he would bring him. Then this was the cure: he (the +friend) made him be stripped naked and stand by a good fire, and +though he were fat enough of himself, basted him all over with butter +against the fire, and made him wear a sleek-stone next his skin under +his belly, and the man had immediate relief, and gave him afterwards +great thanks.' + +'The conceit, or imagination, does much,' continues Daniel, 'even when +there is no apparent disease. A man feareth he is bewitched; it +troubleth all the powers of his mind, and that distempereth his body, +making great alterations in it, and bringeth sundry griefs. Now, when +his mind is freed from such imaginations, his bodily griefs, which +flew from the same, are eased. And a multitude of Satan's is of the +same character.' + +The conversation next turns upon the danger of shedding innocent +blood, which is inseparable from the execution of alleged witches; +while juries, says Daniel, must become guilty of shedding innocent +blood by condemning as guilty, and that upon their solemn oath, such +as be suspected upon vain surmises, and imaginations, and illusions, +rising from blindness and infidelity, and fear of Satan which is in +the ignorant sort. + + M. B. If you take it that this is one craft of Satan to bring + many to be guilty of innocent blood, and even upon their + oaths, which is horrible, what would you have the judges and + juries to do, when they are arraigned of suspicion to be + witches? + + DAN. What would I have them do? I would wish them to be most + wary and circumspect that they be not guilty of innocent + blood. And that is, to condemn none but upon sure ground, and + infallible proof; because presumptions shall not warrant or + excuse them before God, if guiltless blood be shed. + +Replying to observations made by the schoolmaster, Daniel continues: + + 'You bring two reasons to prove that in convicting witches + likelihoods and presumptions ought to be of force more than + about thieves or murderers. The first, because their dealing + is secret; the other, because the devil will not let them + confess. Indeed, men, imagining that witches do work strange + mischiefs, burn in desire to have them hanged, as hoping then + to be free; and then, upon such persuasions as you mention, + they suppose it is a very good work to put to death all which + are suspected. But, touching thieves and murderers, let men + take heed how they deal upon presumptions, unless they be + very strong; for we see that juries sometimes do condemn such + as be guiltless, which is a hard thing, especially as they + are upon their oath. And in witches, above all other, the + people had need to be strong, because there is greater + sleight of Satan to pursue the guiltless into death than in + the other. Here is special care and wisdom to be used. And so + likewise for their confessing. Satan doth gain more by their + confession than by their denial, and therefore rather + bewrayeth them himself, and forceth them unto confession + oftener than unto denial.' + +Samuel at first is reluctant to accept this statement. It has always +been his belief that the devil is much angered when witches confess +and betray matters; and in confirmation of this belief, or at least as +some excuse for it, he relates an anecdote. Of course, one woman had +suspected another to be a witch. She prevailed upon a gentleman to +send for the suspected person, and having accused her in his presence, +left him to admonish her with due severity, and to persuade her to +renounce the devil and all his works. While he was thus engaged, and +she was stoutly denying the accusation brought against her, a weasel +or lobster suddenly made its appearance. 'Look,' said the gentleman, +'yonder is thy spirit.' 'Ah, master!' she replied, 'that is a vermin; +there be many of them everywhere.' Well, as they went towards it, it +vanished out of sight; by-and-by it re-appeared, and looked upon them. +'Surely,' said the gentleman, 'it is thy spirit;' but she still +denied, and with that her mouth was drawn awry. Then he pressed her +further, and she confessed all. She confessed she had hurt and killed +by sending her spirit. The gentleman, not being a magistrate, allowed +her to go home, and then disclosed the affair to a justice. When she +reached home another witch accosted her, and said: 'Ah, thou beast, +what hast thou done? Thou hast betrayed us all. What remedy now?' said +she. 'What remedy?' said the other; 'send thy spirit and touch him.' +She sent her spirit, and of a sudden the gentleman had, as it were, a +flash of fire about him: he lifted up his heart to God, and felt no +hurt. The spirit returned, and said he could not hurt him, because he +had faith. 'What then,' said the other witch, 'hath he nothing that +thou mayest touch?' 'He hath a child,' said the other. 'Send thy +spirit,' said she, 'and touch the child.' She sent her spirit; the +child was in great pain, and died. The witches were hanged, and +confessed. + +Daniel, by an ingenious analysis, soon dismisses this absurd story, +which, like all such stories, he takes to be further evidence of +Satan's craft, and no disproof at all of the argument he has laid +down. 'Then,' says Samuel, 'I will tell you of another thing which was +done of late. + +'A woman suspected of being a witch, and of having done harm among +the cattle, was examined and brought to confess that she had a spirit, +which resided in a hollow tree, and spoke to her out of a hole in the +trunk. And whenever she was offended with any persons she went to that +tree and sent her spirit to kill their cattle. She was persuaded to +confess her faults openly, and to promise that she would utterly +forsake such ungodly ways: after she had made this open confession, +the spirit came unto her, being alone. "Ah!" said he, "thou hast +confessed and betrayed all. I could turn it to rend thee in pieces:" +with that she was afraid, and went away, and got her into company. +Within some few weeks after she fell out greatly into anger against +one man. Towards the tree she goeth, and before she came at it--"Oh!" +said the spirit, "wherefore comest thou? Who hath angered thee?" "Such +a man," said the witch. "And what wouldest thou have me do?" said the +spirit. "He hath," saith she, "two horses going yonder; touch them, or +one of them." Well, I think even that night one of the horses died, +and the other was little better. Indeed, they recovered again that one +which was not dead, but in very evil case. Now methinketh it is plain: +he was angry that she had betrayed all. And yet when she came to the +tree he let go all displeasure and went readily.' + +There is much common-sense, as we should nowadays call it, in Daniel's +comments on this extraordinarily wild story. 'Do you think,' he is +represented as saying, 'that Satan lodgeth in a hollow tree? Is he +become so lazy and idle? Hath he left off to be as a roaring lion, +seeking whom he may devour? Hath he put off the bloody and cruel +nature of the fiery dragon, so that he mindeth no harm but when an +angry woman entreats him to go kill a cow or a horse? Is he become so +doting with age that man shall espy his craft--yea, be found craftier +than he is?' + +And now for the winding-up of Parson Gifford's 'Dialogue.' 'Tis to be +wished that all the parsons of his time had been equally sensible and +courageous. + + M. B. I could be content to hear more in these matters; I see + how fondly I have erred. But seeing you must be gone, I hope + we shall meet here again at some other time. God keep you! + + SAM. I am bound to give you great thanks. And, I pray you, + when occasion serveth, that you come this way. Let us see you + at my house. + + M. B. I thought there had not been such subtle practices of + the devil, nor so great sins as he leadeth men into. + + SAM. It is strange to see how many thousands are carried + away, and deceived, yea, many that are very wise men. + + M. B. The devil is too crafty for the wisest, unless they + have the light of God's Word. + + SAMUEL'S WIFE. Husband, yonder cometh the goodwife R. + + SAM. I wish she had come sooner. + + GOODWIFE R. Ho, who is within, by your leave? + + SAMUEL'S WIFE. I would you had come a little sooner; here was + one even now that said you were a witch. + + GOODWIFE R. Was there one said I am a witch? You do but jest. + + SAMUEL'S WIFE. Nay, I promise you he was in good earnest. + + GOODWIFE R. I a witch? I defy him that saith it, though he be + a lord. I would all the witches in the land were hanged, and + their spirits by them. + + M. B. Would you not be glad, if their spirits were hanged up + with them, to have a gown furred with some of their skins? + + GOODWIFE R. Out upon them. There were few! + + SAM. Wife, why didst thou say that the goodwife R. is a + witch? He did not say so. + + SAMUEL'S WIFE. Husband, I did mark his words well enough; he + said she is a witch. + + SAM. He doth not know her, and how could he say she is a + witch? + + SAMUEL'S WIFE. What though he did not know her? Did he not + say that she played the witch that heated the spit red hot, + and thrust it into her cream when the butter would not come? + + SAM. Indeed, wife, thou sayest true. He said that was a thing + taught by the devil, as also the burning of a hen, or of a + hog alive, and all such like devices. + + GOODWIFE R. Is that witchcraft? Some Scripture man hath told + you so. Did the devil teach it? Nay, the good woman at R. H. + taught it my husband: she doth more good in one year than all + those Scripture men will do so long as they live. + + M. B. Who do you think taught it the cunning woman at R. H.? + + GOODWIFE R. It is a gift which God hath given her. I think + the Holy Spirit of God doth teach her. + + M. B. You do not think, then, that the devil doth teach her? + + GOODWIFE R. How should I think that the devil doth teach her? + Did you ever hear that the devil did teach any good thing? + + M. B. Do you know that was a good thing? + + GOODWIFE R. Was it not a good thing to drive the evil spirit + out of any man? + + M. B. Do you think the devil was afraid of your spit? + + GOODWIFE R. I know he was driven away, and we have been rid + of him ever since. + + M. B. Can a spit hurt him? + + GOODWIFE R. It doth hurt him, or it hurteth the witch: one of + them, I am sure: for he cometh no more. Either she can get + him come no more, because it hurteth him: or else she will + let him come no more, because it hurteth her. + + M. B. It is certain that spirits cannot be hurt but with + spiritual weapons: therefore your spit cannot fray nor hurt + the devil. And how can it hurt the witch? You did not think + she was in your cream, did you? + + GOODWIFE R. Some think she is there, and therefore when they + thrust in the spit they say: 'If thou beest here, have at + thine eye.' + + M. B. If she were in your cream, your butter was not very + cleanly. + + GOODWIFE R. You are merrily disposed, M. B. I know you are + of my mind, though you put these questions to me. For I am + sure none hath counselled more to go to the cunning folk than + you. + + M. B. I _was_ of your mind, but I am not now, for I see how + foolish I was. I am sorry that I offended so grievously as to + counsel any for to seek unto devils. + + GOODWIFE R. Why, M. B., who hath schooled you to-day? I am + sure you were of another mind no longer agone than yesterday. + + SAMUEL'S WIFE. Truly, goodwife R., I think my husband is + turned also: here hath been one reasoning with them three or + four hours. + + GOODWIFE R. Is your husband turned, too? I would you might + lose all your hens one after another, and then I would she + would set her spirit upon your ducks and your geese, and + leave you not one alive. Will you come to defend witches?... + + M. B. You think the devil can kill men's cattle, and lame + both man and beast at his pleasure: you think if the witch + entreat him and send him, he will go, and if she will not + have him go, he will not meddle. And you think when he doth + come, you can drive him away with a hot spit, or with burning + a live hen or a pig. + + GOODWIFE R. Never tell me I think so, for you yourself have + thought so; and let them say what they can, all the Scripture + men in the world shall never persuade me otherwise. + + M. B. I do wonder, not so much at your ignorance as at this, + that I was ever of the same mind that you are, and could not + see mine own folly. + + GOODWIFE R. Folly! how wise you are become of a sudden! I + know that their spirits lie lurking, for they foster them; + and when anybody hath angered them, then they call them forth + and send them. And look what they bid them do, or hire them + to do, that shall be done: as when she is angry, the spirit + will ask her, 'What shall I do?' 'Such a man hath misused + me,' saith she; 'go, kill his cow'; by-and-by he goeth and + doeth it. 'Go, kill such a woman's hens'; down go they. And + some of them are not content to do these lesser harms; but + they will say, 'Go, make such a man lame, kill him, or kill + his child.' Then are they ready, and will do anything; and I + think they be happy that can learn to drive them away. + + M. B. If I should reason with you out of the words of God, + you should see that all this is false, which you say. The + devil cannot kill nor hurt anything; no, not so much as a + poor hen. If he had power, who can escape him? Would he tarry + to be sent or entreated by a woman? He is a stirrer up unto + all harms and mischiefs. + + GOODWIFE R. What will you tell me of God's word? Doth not + God's word say there be witches? and do not you think God + doth suffer bad people? Are you a turncoat? Fare you well; I + will no longer talk with you. + + M. B. She is wilful indeed. I will leave you also. + + SAMUEL. I thank you for your good company. + +About the same time that Gifford was endeavouring to teach his +countrymen a more excellent way of dealing with the vexed questions of +demonology and witchcraft, a Dutch minister, named Bekker, scandalized +the orthodox by a frank denial of all power whatsoever to the devil, +and, consequently, to the witches and warlocks who were supposed to be +at one and the same time his servants and yet his employers. His +'Monde Enchant' (originally written in Dutch) consists of four +ponderous volumes, remarkable for prolixity and repetition, as well as +for a certain originality of argument. There was no just ground, +however, as Hallam remarks, for throwing imputations on the author's +religious sincerity. He shared, however, the opprobrium that attaches +to all who deviate in theology from the orthodox path; and it must be +admitted that his Scriptural explanations in the case of the demoniacs +and the like are more ingenious than satisfactory. + + * * * * * + +A violent trumpet-note on the side of intolerance was blown by King +James I. in 1597 in his famous 'Dmonologia.' It is written in the +form of a dialogue, and numbers about eighty closely-printed pages. +James, as the reader has seen, had had ample personal experience of +witches and their 'cantrips,' and had 'got up' the subject with a +commendable amount of thoroughness. He divides witches into eight +classes, who severally work their evil designs against mankind; then he +subdivides into white and black witches, of whom the former are the +more dangerous; and again into 'acted' and 'pacted' witches, the former +depending for their power on their supernatural gifts, and the latter +having made a compact with Satan contrary to 'all rules and orders of +nature, art or grace.' Further, the demons have a classification of +their own; some of the higher ranks of the demonarchy looking down +contemptuously enough on those of the inferior grades, who consist of +'the damned souls of departed conjurers.' These 'damned souls' +discharge all kinds of mean and servile offices--bringing fire from +heaven for the convenience of their employers; conveying bodies through +the air; conjuring corn from one field into another; imparting a show +of life to dead bodies; and raising the wind for witches to sell to +their nautical customers--who received pieces of knotted rope, and, +untying the first knot, secured a favourable breeze, for the second a +moderate wind, and for the third a violent gale. + +After describing the rites in vogue on the conclusion of a compact +between witch and devil, King James enlarges on other points of +ceremonial, such as the making of various magic circles--sometimes +round, sometimes triangular, sometimes quadrangular; the use of holy +water and crosses in ridicule of the papists; and the offer to the +demons of some living animal. He adds that the great witches' meetings +frequently took place in churches: and he says that the witches mutter +and hurriedly mumble through their conjurations 'like a priest +despatching a hunting masse'; and that if they step out of a circle in +a sudden alarm at the horrible appearance assumed by the demon, he +flies off with them body and soul. + +The royal expert proceeds to indicate the means by which you may +detect a witch. 'There are two good helpes that may be used for their +trials; the one is the finding of their marke and the trying the +insensibility thereof. The other is their fleeting on the water: for +as in a secret murther, if the dead carkasse be at any time thereafter +handled by the murtherer, it will gush out of blood, as if the blood +were crying to the heaven for revenge of the murtherer, God having +appoynted that secret supernaturale signe for triale of that secret +unnaturale crime, so it appears that God hath appoynted (for a +supernaturale signe of the monstrous impietie of witches) that the +water shall refuse to receive them in her bosome that have shaken off +them the sacred water of Baptism and willingly refused the benefit +thereof: no, not so much as their eies are able to shed teares +(threaten and torture them as you please) while first they repent (God +not permitting them to dissemble their obstinacie in so horrible a +crime), albeit the womenkind especially be able other waies to shed +teares at every light occasion when they will, yea altho' it were +dissemblingly like the crocodiles.' + +Incidentally, our witch-hunting King offers an explanation of a +peculiarity which, no doubt, our readers have already noted--the great +numerical superiority of witches over warlocks. 'The reason is easie,' +he says; 'for as that sex is frailer than man is, so is it easier to +be intrapped in the grosse snares of the devil,--as was over well +prooved to be true by the serpente deceiving of Eva at the beginning, +which makes him the homelier with that sex sensine [ever since].' + +As regards the external appearance of witches, he remarks that they +are not generally melancholic; 'but some are rich and worldly wise, +some are fat and corpulent, and most part are given over unto the +pleasures of the flesh; and further experience daily proves how loth +they are to confess without torture, which witnesseth their +guiltinesse.' He concludes by asking, 'Who is safe?' and replies that +the only safe person is the magistrate, when assiduously employed in +bringing witches to justice. One Reginald Scot, Esq., however, +hop-grower and brewer of Smeeth, in Kent, a persistent disbeliever in +and ridiculer of witchcraft, who had the courage to break lances with +the King and the bench of Bishops in contemporary pamphlets, and is +called by the King an 'Englishman of damnable opiniones,' irreverently +answered this question by saying that the only safe person was the +King himself, as his sex prevented his being taken for a witch, and +the whole kingdom was satisfied that he was no conjurer. + + * * * * * + +In 1616, John Cotta, a Northampton physician, published a forcibly +written attack on the vulgar delusion, under the title of 'The Trial +of Witchcraft,' which reached a second (and enlarged) edition in 1624. +Cotta was also the author of a fierce blast against quacks--'Discovery +of the Dangers of ignorant Practisers of Physick in England,' 1612; +and of a not less vehement attack on the _aurum potabile_ of the +chemists, entitled, 'Cotta contra Antonium, or An Ant. Anthony,' 1623. + + * * * * * + +There is a lively work by John Gaul, preacher of the Word at Great +Haughton, in the county of Huntingdon--'Select Cases of Conscience +touching Witches and Witchcraft,' 1646, which is worth looking into. +Gaul was a courageous and persevering opponent of the great +witch-finder, Hopkins. + + * * * * * + +The unhappy victims of popular prejudice found a strenuous champion +also in Sir Robert Filmer, who, in 1653, published his 'Advertisement +to the Jurymen of England, touching Witches, together with a +Difference between an English and Hebrew Witch.' Filmer is best known +to students by his 'Patriarcha,' an apology for the paternal +government of kings, which does violence to all constitutional +principles, but has at least the negative merit of obvious sincerity +on the part of its writer. It is somewhat surprising to find a mind +like Filmer's, fettered as it was by so many prejudices and a slavish +adherence to prescription, openly urging the cause of tolerance and +enlightenment, and vigorously demolishing the sham arguments by which +the believers in witchcraft endeavoured to support their grotesque +theories. + + * * * * * + +Three years later followed on the same side a certain Thomas Ady, +M.A., who, with considerable vivacity, fulminated against the +witch-mongers and witch-torturers in his tractate, '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.' The quaintly-worded dedication ran as +follows: + +'To the Prince of the Kings of the Earth. It is the manner of men, O +heavenly King, to dedicate their books to some great men, thereby to +have their works protected and countenanced among them; but Thou only +art able by Thy Holy Spirit of Truth, to defend Thy Truth, and to make +it take impression in the heart and understanding of men. Unto Thee +alone do I dedicate this work, entreating Thy Most High Majesty to +grant that, whoever shall open this book, Thy Holy Spirit may so +possess their understanding as that the Spirit of error may depart +from them, and that they may read and try Thy Truth by the touchstone +of Thy Truth, the Holy Scriptures; and finding that Truth, may embrace +it and forsake their darksome inventions of Anti-Christ, that have +deluded and defiled the nations now and in former ages. Enlighten the +world, Thou art the Light of the World, and let darkness be no more in +the world, now or in any future age; but make all people to walk as +children of the light for ever; and destroy Anti-Christ that hath +deceived the nations, and save us the residue by Thyself alone; and +let not Satan any more delude us, for the Truth is thine for ever.' + + * * * * * + +In 1669 John Wagstaffe published 'The Question of Witchcraft Debated.' +According to Wood, he was the son of John Wagstaffe, a London citizen; +was born in Cheapside; entered as a commoner of Oriel College, Oxford, +towards the end of 1649; took the degrees in Arts, and applied himself +to the study of politics and other learning. 'At length being raised +from an academical life to the inheritance of Hasland by the death of +an uncle, who died without male issue, he spent his life afterwards in +single estate.' He died in 1677. Wood describes him as 'a little +crooked man, and of a despicable presence. He was laughed at by the +boys of this University because, as they said, he himself looked like +a little wizard.' + +His book is illuminated throughout by the generous sympathies of a +large and liberal mind. His peroration has been described, and not +unjustly, as 'lofty' and 'memorable,' and, when animated by a noble +earnestness, the writer's language rises into positive eloquence. 'I +cannot think,' he says, 'without trembling and horror on the vast +numbers of people that in several ages and several countries have +been sacrificed unto this cold opinion. Thousands, ten thousands, are +upon record to have been slain, and many of them not with simple +deaths, but horrid, exquisite tortures. And yet, how many are there +more who have undergone the same fate, of whom we have no memorial +extant? Since therefore the opinion of witchcraft is a mere stranger +unto Scripture, and wholly alien from true religion; since it is +ridiculous by asserting fables and impossibilities; since it appears, +when duly considered, to be all bloody and full of dangerous +consequence unto the lives and safety of men; I hope that with this my +discourse, opposing an absurd and pernicious error, I cannot at all +disoblige any sober, unbiased person, especially if he be of such +ingenuity as to have freed himself from a slavish subjection unto +those prejudicial opinions which custom and education do with too much +tyranny impose. + +'If the doctrine of witchcraft should be carried up to a height, and +the inquisition after it should be entrusted in the hands of +ambitious, covetous, and malicious men, it would prove of far more +fatal consequences unto the lives and safety of mankind than that +ancient heathenish custom of sacrificing men unto idol gods, insomuch +that we stand in need of another Heracles Liberator, who, as the +former freed the world from human sacrifice, should, in like manner, +travel from country to country, and by his all-commanding authority +free it from this evil and base custom of torturing people to confess +themselves witches, and burning them after extorted confessions. +Surely the blood of men ought not to be so cheap, nor so easily to be +shed by those who, under the name of God, do gratify exorbitant +passions and selfish ends; for without question, under this side +heaven, there is nothing so sacred as the life of man, for the +preservation whereof all policies and forms of government, all laws +and magistrates are most especially ordained. Wherefore I presume that +this discourse of mine, attempting to prove the vanity and +impossibility of witchcraft, is so far from any deserved censure and +blame, that it rather deserves commendation and praise, if I can in +the least measure contribute to the saving of the lives of men.' + + * * * * * + +Meric Casaubon, a man of abundant learning and not less abundant +superstition, attempted a reply to Wagstaffe in his treatise 'Of +Credulity and Incredulity in Things Divine and Spiritual' (1670). + + * * * * * + +At Thornton, in the parish of Caswold, Yorkshire, was born, on the 3rd +of February, 1610, one of the ablest and most successful of the +adversaries of the witch-maniacs, John Webster. It is supposed that he +was educated at Cambridge; but the first event in his career of which +we have any certain knowledge is his admission to holy orders in the +Church of England by Dr. Morton, Bishop of Durham. In 1634 we find him +officiating as curate at Kildwick in Craven, and nine years later as +Master of the Free Grammar School at Clitheroe. He seems afterwards to +have held for a time a military chaplaincy, then to have withdrawn +from the Church of England, and taken refuge in some form of Dissent. +In 1653 his new religious views found expression in his 'Saints' +Guide,' and in 1654, in 'The Judgment Set and the Books Opened,' a +series of sermons which he had originally preached at All Hallows' +Church in Lombard Street. It was in this church the incident occurred +which Wood has recorded: 'On the 12th of October, 1653, William +Erbury, with John Webster, sometime a Cambridge scholar, endeavoured +to knock down learning and the ministry both together in a disputation +that they then had against two ministers in a church in Lombard +Street, London. Erbury then declared that the wisest ministers and the +purest churches were at that time befooled, confounded, and defiled by +reason of learning. Another while he said that the ministry were +monsters, beasts, asses, greedy dogs, false prophets, and that they +are the Beast with seven heads and ten horns. The same person also +spoke out and said that Babylon is the Church in her ministers, and +that the Great Whore is the Church in her worship, etc., so that with +him there was an end of ministers and churches and ordinations +altogether. While these things were babbled to and fro, the multitude, +being of various opinions, began to mutter, and many to cry out, and +immediately it came to a meeting or tumult (call it which you please), +wherein the women bore away the bell, but lost some of them their +kerchiefs; and the dispute being hot, there was more danger of pulling +down the church than the ministry.' + +In 1654, our iconoclastic enthusiast strongly--but not without good +reason--assailed the educational system then in vogue at Oxford and +Cambridge in his treatise, 'Academiarum Examen,' which created quite a +sensation in 'polite circles,' fluttering the dove-cots of the rulers +of the two Universities. Very curious, however, are its sympathetic +references to the old Hermetic mysteries, Rosicrucianism, and +astrology, to the fanciful abstractions and dreamy speculations of +Paracelsus, Van Helmont, Fludd, and Dr. Dee. One cannot but wonder +that so acute and vigorous an intellect should have allowed itself to +be entangled in the delusions of the occult sciences. But his study of +the works of the old philosophers was, no doubt, the original motive +of the laborious research which resulted in his 'Metallographia; or, A +History of Metals' (1671). In this learned and comprehensive treatise +are declared 'the signs of Ores and Minerals, both before and after +Digging, the causes and manner of their generations, their kinds, +sorts, and differences; with the description of sundry new Metals, or +Semi-Metals, and many other things pertaining to Mineral Knowledge. As +also the handling and showing of their Vegetability, and the +discussion of the most difficult Questions belonging to Mystical +Chymistry, as of the Philosopher's Gold, their Mercury, the Liquor +Alkahest, Aurum potabile, and such like. Gathered forth of the most +approved Authors that have written in Greek, Latin, or High Dutch, +with some Observations and Discoveries of the Author Himself. By John +Webster, Practitioner in Physick and Chirurgery. "_Qui principia +naturalia in seipso ignoraverit, hic jam multum remotus est ab arte +nostra, quoniam non habet radiam veram super quam intentionem suam +fundit._" Geber, Sum. Perfect., lib. i., p. 21.' + +In 1677, Webster, who had abandoned the cure of souls for that of +bodies, produced the work which entitles him to honourable mention in +these pages. According to the fashion of the day, its title was almost +as long as a table of contents. I transcribe it here _in extenso_: + +'_The Displaying of supposed Witchcraft_, Wherein is affirmed that +there are many sorts of Deceivers and Impostors. And Divers persons +under a passive Delusion of Melancholy and Fancy. But that there is a +Corporeal League made betwixt the Devil and the Witch, Or that he +sucks on the Witches Body, has Carnal Copulation, or that Witches are +turned into Cats or Dogs, raise Tempests or the like, is utterly +denied and disproved. Wherein also is handled the Existence of Angels +and Spirits, the Truth of Apparitions, the Nature of Astral and +Sidereal Spirits, the Force of Charms and Philters; with other +Abstruse Matters. By John Webster, Practitioner in Physic. "_Fals +etenim opiniones Hominum proccupantes, non solum surdos sed ut ccos +faciunt, ita ut videre nequeant, qu aliis perspicua apparent._" +Galen, lib. viii., de Comp. Med. London. Printed by I. M., and are to +be sold by the Booksellers in London, 1677.' + +Webster, who was evidently a man of restless and inquiring intellect, +and independent judgment, died on June 18, 1682, and was buried in +St. Margaret's, Clitheroe, where his monument may still be seen. Its +singular inscription must have been devised by some astrological +sympathizer: + + Qui hanc figuram intelligunt + Me etiam intellexisse, intelligent. + +Here follows a mysterious figure of the sun, with several circles and +much astrological lettering, which it is unnecessary to reproduce. The +inscription continues: + + Hic jacet ignotus mundo mersus que tumultus + Invidi, semper mens tamen qua fecit, + Multa tulit veterum ut sciret secreta sophorum + Ac tandem vires noverit ignis aqu. + + Johannes Hyphantes sive Webster. + In villa Spinosa supermontana, in + Parochia silv cuculat, in agro + Eboracensi, natus 1610, Feb. 3. + Ergastulum anim deposuit 1682, Junii 18. + Annoq. tatis su 72 currente. + Sicq. peroravit moriens mundo huic valedicens, + Aurea pax vivis, requies terna sepultis. + +In 1728, Andrew Millar, at the sign of The Buchanan's Head, against +St. Clement's Church in the Strand, published 'A System of Magick: or, +A History of the Black Art,' by Daniel Defoe; a book which, though it +by no means justifies its title, is one of more than passing interest, +partly from the renown of its author, and partly from the light it +throws on the popularity of magic among the English middle classes in +the earlier years of the eighteenth century. As it has not been +reprinted for the last fifty years, and is not very generally known, +some glimpses of the stuff it is made of may be acceptable to the +curious reader.[53] + +In his preface Defoe lavishes a good deal of contempt on contemporary +pretenders to the character of magician, who by sham magical practices +imposed on a public ignorant, and therefore credulous. Magicians, he +says, in the first ages were wise men; in the middle ages, madmen; in +these latter ages, they are cunning men. In the earliest times they +were honest; in the middle time, rogues; in these last times, fools. +At first they dealt with nature; then with the devil; and now, not +with the devil or with nature either. In the first ages the magicians +were wiser than the people; in the second age wickeder than the +people; and in this later age the people are both worse and wickeder +than the magicians. Like many other generalizations, this one of +Defoe's is more pointed than true; and it is evident that the +so-called magicians could not have flourished had there not been an +ignorant class who readily accepted their pretensions. + +Defoe's account of the origin of magic is so vague as to suggest that +he knew very little of the subject he was writing about. 'I have +traced it,' he says, 'as far back as antiquity gives us any clue to +discover it by: it seems to have its beginning in the ignorance and +curiosity of the darkest ages of the world, when miracle and something +wonderful was expected to confirm every advanced notion; and when the +wise men, having racked their invention to the utmost, called in the +devil to their assistance for want of better help; and those that did +not run into Satan's measures, and give themselves up to the infernal, +yet trod so near, and upon the very verge of Hell, that it was hard to +distinguish between the magician and the devil, and thus they have +gone on ever since: so that almost all the dispute between us and the +magicians is that they say they converse with good spirits, and we say +if they deal with any spirits, it is with the devil.' + +Here the greatness of his theme stimulates Defoe into poetry, which +differs very little, however, from his prose, so that a brief specimen +will content everybody: + + 'Hail! dangerous science, falsely called sublime, + Which treads upon the very brink of crime. + Hell's mimic, Satan's mountebank of state, + Deals with more devils than Heaven did e'er create. + The infernal juggling-box, by Heaven designed, + To put the grand parade upon mankind. + The devil's first game which he in Eden played, + When he harangued to Eve in masquerade.' + +Dividing his treatise into two parts, our author, in the introduction +to Part I., discusses the meaning of the principal terms in magical +lore; who, and what kind of people, the magicians were; and the +meaning originally given to the words 'magic' and 'magician.' As a +matter of course, he strays back to the old Chaldean days, when a +magician, he says, was simply a mathematician, a man of science, who, +stored with knowledge and learning, was a kind of walking dictionary +to other people, instructing the rest of mankind on subjects of which +they were ignorant; a wise man, in fact, who interpreted omens, ill +signs, tokens, and dreams; understood the signs of the times, the face +of the heavens, and the influences of the superior luminaries there. +When all this wisdom became more common, and the magi had communicated +much of their knowledge to the people at large, their successors, +still aspiring to a position above, and apart from, the rest of the +world, were compelled to push their studies further, to inquire into +nature, to view the aspect of the heavens, to calculate the motions of +the stars, and more particularly to dwell upon their influences in +human affairs--thus creating the science of astrology. But these men +neither had, nor pretended to have, any compact or correspondence with +the devil or with any of his works. They were men of thought, or, if +you please, men of deeper thinking than the ordinary sort; they +studied the sciences, inquired into the works of nature and +providence, studied the meaning and end of things, the causes and +events, and consequently were able to see further into the ordinary +course and causes both of things about them, and things above them, +than other men. + +Such were the world's gray forefathers, the magicians of the elder +time, in whom was found 'an excellent spirit of wisdom.' There were +others--not less learned--whose studies took a different direction; +who inquired into the structure and organization of the human body; +who investigated the origin, the progress, and the causes of diseases +and distempers, both in men and women; who sought out the physical or +medicinal virtues of drugs and plants; and as by these means they made +daily discoveries in nature, of which the world, until then, was +ignorant, and by which they performed astonishing cures, they +naturally gained the esteem and reverence of the people. + +Sir Walter Raleigh contends that only the word 'magic,' and not the +magical art, is derived from Simon Magus. He adds that Simon's name +was not Magus, a magician, but Gors, a person familiar with evil +spirits; and that he usurped the title of Simon the Magician simply +because it was then a good and honourable title. Defoe avails himself +of Raleigh's authority to sustain his own opinion, that there is a +manifest difference between _magic_, which is wisdom and supernatural +knowledge, and the witchcraft and conjuring which we now understand by +the word. + +In his second chapter Defoe classifies the magic of the ancients under +three heads: i. _Natural_, which included the knowledge of the stars, +of the motions of the planetary bodies, and their revolutions and +influences; that is to say, the study of nature, of philosophy, and +astronomy; ii. _Artificial_ or _Rational_, in which was included the +knowledge of all judicial astrology, the casting or calculating +nativities, and the cure of diseases--(1) by particular charms and +figures placed in this or that position; (2) by herbs gathered at this +or that particular crisis of time; (3) by saying such and such words +over the patient; (4) by such and such gestures; (5) by striking the +flesh in such and such a manner, and innumerable such-like pieces of +mimicry, working not upon the disease itself, but upon the imagination +of the patient, and so affecting the cure by the power of nature, +though that nature were set in operation by the weakest and simplest +methods imaginable; and, iii. _Diabolical_, which was wrought by and +with the concurrence of the devil, carried on by a correspondence with +evil spirits--with their help, presence, and personal assistance--and +practised chiefly by their priests. Defoe argues that the ancients at +first were acquainted only with the purer form of magic, and that, +therefore, sorcery and witchcraft were of much later development. The +cause and motive of this development he traces in his third chapter +('Of the Reason and Occasion which brought the ancient honest Magi, +whose original study was philosophy, astronomy, and the works of +nature, to turn sorcerers and wizards, and deal with the Devil, and +how their Conversation began'). Egyptologists will find Defoe's +comments upon Egyptian magic refreshingly simple and unhistorical, and +his identifications of the Pyramids with magical practices is wildly +vague and hypothetical. Of the magic which was really taught and +practised among the ancient people of Egypt, Defoe, of course, knows +nothing. He tells us, however, that the Jews learned it from them. He +goes on to speculate as to the time when that close intercourse began +between the devil and his servants on earth which is the foundation +of the later or diabolical magic, and concludes that his first +visible appearance on this mundane stage was as the enemy of Job. +Thence he is led to inquire, in his fourth chapter, what shapes the +devil assumed on his first appearances to the magicians and others, in +the dawn of the world's history, and whether he is or has been allowed +to assume a human shape or no. And he suggests that his earliest +acquaintance with mankind was made through dreams, and that by this +method he contrived to infuse into men's minds an infinite variety of +corrupt imaginations, wicked desires, and abhorrent conclusions and +resolutions, with some ridiculous, foolish, and absurd things at the +same time. + +Defoe then proceeds to tell an Oriental story, which, doubtlessly, is +his own invention: + +Ali Albrahazen, a Persian wizard, had, it is said, this kind of +intercourse with the devil. He was a Sabean by birth, and had obtained +a wonderful reputation for his witchcraft, so that he was sent for by +the King of Persia upon extraordinary occasions, such as the +interpretation of a dream, or of an apparition, like that of +Belshazzar's handwriting, or of some meteor or eclipse, and he never +failed to give the King satisfaction. For whether his utterances were +true or false, he couched them always in such ambiguous terms that +something of what he predicted might certainly be deduced from his +words, and so seem to import that he had effectually revealed it, +whether he had really done so or not. + +This Ali, wandering alone in the desert, and musing much upon the +appearance of a fiery meteor, which, to the great terror of the +country, had flamed in the heavens every night for nearly a month, +sought to apprehend its significance, and what it should portend to +the world; but, failing to do so, he sat down, weary and disheartened, +in the shade of a spreading palm. Breathing to himself a strong desire +that some spirit from the other world would generously assist him to +arrive at the true meaning of a phenomenon so remarkable, he fell +asleep. And, lo! in his sleep he dreamed a dream, and the dream was +this: that a tall man came to him, a tall man of sage and venerable +aspect, with a pleasing smile upon his countenance; and, addressing +him by his name, told him that he was prepared to answer his +questions, and to explain to him the signification of the great and +terrible fire in the air which was terrifying all Arabia and Persia. + +His explanation proved to be of an astronomical character. These fiery +appearances, he said, were collections of vapour exhaled by the +influence of the sun from earth or sea. As to their importance to +human affairs, it was simply this: that sometimes by their propinquity +to the earth, and their power of attraction, or by their dissipation +of aqueous vapours, they occasioned great droughts and insupportable +heats; while, at other times, they distilled heavy and unusual rains, +by condensing, in an extraordinary manner, the vapours they had +absorbed. And he added: 'Go thou and warn thy nation that this fiery +meteor portends an excessive drought and famine; for know that by the +strong exhalation of the vapours of the earth, occasioned by the +meteor's unusual nearness to it, the necessary rains will be withheld, +and to a long drought, as a matter of course, famine and scarcity of +corn succeed. Thus, by judging according to the rules of natural +causes, thou shalt predict what shall certainly come to pass, and +shalt obtain the reputation thou so ardently desirest of being a wise +man and a great magician.' + +'This prediction,' said Ali, 'was all very well as regarded Arabia; +but would it apply also to Persia?' 'No,' replied the devil; for Ali's +interlocutor was no less distinguished a personage--fiery meteors from +the same causes sometimes produced contrary events; and he might +repair to the Persian Court, and predict the advent of excessive rains +and floods, which would greatly injure the fruits of the earth, and +occasion want and scarcity. 'Thus, if either of these succeed, as it +is most probable, thou shalt assuredly be received as a sage magician +in one country, if not in the other; also, to both of them thou mayest +suggest, as a probability only, that the consequence may be a plague +or infection among the people, which is ordinarily the effect as well +of excessive wet as of excessive heat. If this happens, thou shalt +gain the reputation thou desirest; and if not, seeing thou didst not +positively foretell it, thou shalt not incur the ignominy of a false +prediction.' + +Ali was very grateful for the devil's assistance, and failed not to +ask how, at need, he might again secure it. He was told to come again +to the palm-tree, and to go around it fifteen times, calling him +thrice by his name each time: at the end of the fifteenth +circumambulation he would find himself overtaken by drowsiness; +whereupon he should lie down with his face to the south, and he would +receive a visit from him in vision. The devil further told him the +magic name by which he was to summon him. + +The magician's predictions were duly made and duly fulfilled. +Thenceforward he maintained a constant communication with the devil, +who, strange to say, seems not to have exacted anything from him in +return for his valuable, but hazardous, assistance. + +Defoe's fifth chapter contains a further account of the devil's +conduct in imitating divine inspirations; describes the difference +between the genuine and the false; and dwells upon signs and wonders, +fictitious as well as real. In chapter the sixth our author treats of +the first practices of magic and witchcraft as a diabolical art, and +explains how it was handed on to the Egyptians and Phoenicians, by +whom it was openly encouraged. He offers some amusing remarks on the +methods adopted by magicians for summoning the devil, who seems to be +at once their servant and master. In parts of India they go up, he +says, to the summit of some particular mountain, where they call him +with a little kettledrum, just as the good old wives in England hive +their bees, except that they beat it on the wrong side. Then they +pronounce certain words which they call 'charms,' and the devil +appears without fail. + +It is not easy to discover in history what words were used for charms +in Egypt and Arabia for so many ages. It is certain they differed in +different countries; and it is certain they differed as the magicians +acted together or individually. Nor are we less at a loss to +understand what the devil could mean by suffering such words, or any +words at all, to charm, summon, alarm, or arouse him. The Greeks have +left us, he says, a word which was used by the magicians of antiquity +pretty frequently--that famous trine or triangular word, Abracadabra: + + A B R A C A D A B R A + A B R A C A D A B R + A B R A C A D A B + A B R A C A D A + A B R A C A D + A B R A C A + A B R A C + A B R A + A B R + A B + A + +'There is abundance of learned puzzle among the ancients to find out +the signification of this word: the subtle position of the letters +gave a kind of reverence to them, because they read it as it were +every way, upwards and downwards, backwards and forwards, and many +will have it still _that the devil put them together_: nay, they begin +at last to think it was old Legion's surname, and whenever he was +called by that name, he used to come very readily; for which reason +the old women in their chimney-corners would be horribly afraid of +saying it often over together, for if they should say it a certain +number of times, they had a notion it would certainly raise the devil. + +'They say, on the contrary, that it was invented by one Basilides, a +learned Greek; that it contained the great and awful name of the +Divinity; and that it was used for many years for the opposing the +spells and charms of the Pagans; that is, the diabolical spells and +charms of the pagan magicians.' + +In the seventh chapter we read of the practice and progress of magic, +as it is now explained to be a diabolical art; how it spread itself in +the world, and by what degrees it grew up to the height which it has +since attained. + + * * * * * + +The introduction to the second part of Defoe's work is devoted to an +exposition of the Black Art 'as it really is,' and sets forth 'why +there are several differing practices of it in the several parts of +the world, and what those practices are; as, also, what is contained +in it in general.' He defines it as 'a new general term for all the +branches of that correspondence which mankind has maintained, or does, +or can carry on, between himself and the devil, between this and the +infernal world.' And he enumerates these branches as: _Divining_, or +_Soothsaying_; _Observing of Times_; _Using Enchantment_; +_Witchcraft_; _Charming_, or _Setting of Spells_; _Dealing with +Familiar Spirits_; _Wizardising_, or _Sorcery_; and _Necromancy_. + +The first chapter treats of Modern Magic, or the Black Art in its +present practice and perfection. + +In the second chapter the scene is changed: as the devil acted at +first with his Black Art without the magicians, so the magicians seem +now to carry it on without the devil. This is written in Defoe's best +style of sober irony. 'The magicians,' he says, 'were formerly the +devil's servants, but now they are his masters, and that to such a +degree, that it is but drawing a circle, casting a few figures, +muttering a little Arabic, and up comes the devil, as readily as the +drawer at a tavern, with a _D'ye call, sir?_ or like a Scotch caude +[caddie?], with _What's your honour's wull, sir?_ Nay, as the learned +in the art say, he must come, he can't help it: then as to tempting, +he is quite out of doors. And I think, as the Old Parliament did by +the bishops, we may e'en vote him useless. In a word, there is no +manner of occasion for him: mankind are as froward as he can wish and +desire of them; nay, some cunning men tell us we sin faster than the +devil can keep pace with us: as witness the late witty and moderately +wicked Lady ...., who blest her stars that the devil never tempted her +to anything; he understood himself better, for she knew well enough +how to sin without him, and that it would be losing his time to talk +to her.' + +Defoe furnishes an entertaining account of his conversation with a +countryman, who had been to a magician at Oundle. Whether true or +fictitious, the narrative shows that many of the favourite tricks +performed at spiritualistic _sances_ in our own time were well known +in Defoe's: + + COUNTRYMAN. I saw my old gentleman in a great chair, and two + more in chairs at some distance, and three great candles, and + a great sheet of white paper upon the floor between them; + every one of them had a long white wand in their hands, the + lower end of which touched the sheet of paper. + + DEFOE. And were the candles upon the ground too? + + C. Yes, all of them. + + D. There was a great deal of ceremony about you, I assure + you. + + C. I think so, too, but it is not done yet: immediately I + heard the little door stir, as if it was opening, and away I + skipped as softly as I could tread, and got into my chair + again, and sat there as gravely as if I had never stirred out + of it. I was no sooner set, but the door opened indeed, and + the old gentleman came out as before, and turning to me, + said, 'Sit still, don't ye stir;' and at that word the other + two that were with him in the room walked out after him, one + after another, across the room, as if to go out at the other + door where I came in; but at the further end of the room they + stopped, and turned their faces to one another, and talked; + but it was some devil's language of their own, for I could + understand nothing of it. + + D. And now I suppose you were frighted in earnest? + + C. Ay, so I was; but it was worse yet, for they had not stood + long together, but the great elbow-chair, which the old + gentleman sat in at the little table just by me, _began to + stir of itself_; at which the old gentleman, knowing I should + be afraid, came to me, and said, 'Sit still, don't you stir, + all will be well; you shall have no harm;' at which he gave + his chair a kick with his foot, and saith, 'Go!' with some + other words, and other language; _and away went the obedient + chair, sliding, two of its legs on the ground, and the other + two off, as if somebody had dragged it by that part_. + + D. And so, no doubt, they did, though you could not see it. + + C. And as soon as the chair was dragged or moved to the end + of the room, where the three, I know not what to call 'em, + were, two other chairs did the like from the other side of + the room, and so they all sat down, and talked together a + good while; at last the door at that end of the room opened + too, and they all were gone in a moment, without rising out + of their chairs; for I am sure they did not rise to go out, + as other folks do. + + D. What did you think of yourself when you saw the chair stir + so near you? + + C. Think! nay, I did not think; I was dead, to be sure I was + dead, with the fright, and expected I should be carried away, + chair and all, the next moment. Then it was, I say, that my + hair would have lifted off my hat, if it had been on, I am + sure it would. + + D. Well, but when they were all gone, you came to yourself + again, I suppose? + + C. To tell you the truth, master, I am not come to myself + yet. + + D. But go on, let me know how it ended. + + C. Why, after a little while, my old man came in again, + called his man to set the chairs to rights, and then sat him + down at the table, spoke cheerfully to me, and asked me if I + would drink, which I refused, though I was a-dry indeed. I + believe the fright had made me dry; but as I never had been + used to drink with the devil, I didn't know what to think of + it, so I let it alone. + +In his third chapter ('Of the present pretences of the Magicians; how +they defend themselves; and some examples of their practice') Defoe +has a lively account of a contemporary magician, a Dr. Bowman, of +Kent, who seems to have been a firm believer in what is now called +Spiritualism. He was a green old man, who went about in a long black +velvet gown and a cap, with a long beard, and his upper lip trimmed +'with a kind of muschato.' He strongly repudiated any kind of +correspondence or intercourse with the devil; but hinted that he +derived much assistance from the good spirits which people the +invisible world. After dwelling on the follies of the learned, and the +superstitions of the ignorant, this lordly conjurer said: 'You see how +that we, men of art, who have studied the sacred sciences, suffer by +the errors of common fame; they take us all for devil-mongers, damned +rogues, and conjurers.' + +The fourth chapter discusses the doctrine of spirits as it is +understood by the magicians; how far it may be supposed there may be +an intercourse with superior beings, apart from any familiarity with +the devil or the spirits of evil; with a transition to the present +times. + +And so much for the 'Art of Magic' as expounded by Daniel Defoe. + + * * * * * + +In 1718 appeared Bishop Hutchinson's 'Historical Essay concerning +Witchcraft,' a book written in a most liberal and tolerant spirit, +and, at the same time, with so much comprehensiveness and exactitude, +that later writers have availed themselves freely of its stores. + +Reference may also be made to-- + +John Beaumont, 'Treatise of Spirits, Apparitions, Witchcrafts, and +other Magical Practices,' 1705. + +James Braid (of Manchester), 'Magic, Witchcraft, Animal Magnetism, +Hypnotism, and Electro-Biology' (1852), in which there is very little +about witchcraft, but a good deal about the influence of the +imagination. + +J. C. Colquhoun, 'History of Magic, Witchcraft, and Animal Magnetism,' +1851. + +Rev. Joseph Glanvill, 'Sadducismus Triumphatus; or, A full and plain +Evidence concerning Witches and Apparitions,' 1670. + +Sir Walter Scott, 'Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft,' 1831. + +Howard Williams, 'The Superstitions of Witchcraft,' 1865. + +It may be a convenience to the reader if I indicate some of the +principal foreign authorities on this subject. Such as--Institor and +Sprenger's great work, 'Malleus Maleficarum' (Nuremberg, 1494); The +monk Heisterbach's (Csarius) 'Dialogus Miraculorum' (ed. by +Strange), 1851; Cannaert's 'Procs des Sorcires en Belgique,' 1848; +Dr. W. G. Soldan's 'Geschichte der Hexenprocesse' (1843); G. C. +Horst's 'Zauber-Bibliothek, oder die Zauberei, Theurgie und Mantik, +Zauberei, Hexen und Hexenprocessen, Dmonen, Gespenster und +Geistererscheinungen,' in 6 vols., 1821--a most learned and +exhaustive work, brimful of recondite lore; Collin de Plancy's +'Dictionnaire Infernal; ou Rpertoire Universel des Etres, des +Livres, et des Choses qui tiennent aux Apparitions, aux Divinations, + la Magie,' etc., 1844; Michelet's 'La Sorcire' is, of course, +brilliantly written; R. Reuss's 'La Sorcellerie au xvi{e}. et +xvii{e}. Sicle,' 1872; Tartarotti's 'Del Congresso Notturno delle +Lamie,' 1749; F. Perreaud's 'Demonologie, ou Trait des Dmons et +Sorciers,' 1655; H. Boguet's 'Discours des Sorciers,' 1610 (very +rare); and Cotton Mather's 'Wonders of the Invisible World,' 1695--a +monument of credulity, prejudice, and bigotry. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[53] Some authorities doubt the authorship; but the internal evidence +seems to me to justify the claim made for it as Defoe's. + + +BOOKS ON MAGIC. + +It may also be convenient to the reader if I enumerate a few of the +principal authorities on the history of Magic, Sorcery, and Alchemy. A +very exhaustive list will be found in the 'Bibliotheca Magica et +Pneumatica,' by Graessel, 1843; and an 'Alphabetical Catalogue of +Works on Hermetic Philosophy and Alchemy' is appended to the 'Lives of +Alchemystical Philosophers,' by Arthur Edward Waite, 1888. For +ordinary purposes the following will be found sufficient: Langlet du +Fresnoy, 'Histoire de la Philosophie Hermtique,' 1742; Gabriel Naud, +'Apologie pour les Grands Hommes faussement souponns de Magie,' +1625; Martin Antoine Delrio, 'Disquisitionum Magicarum, libri sex,' +1599; L. F. Alfred Maury, 'La Magie et l'Astrologie dans l'Antiquit +et au Moyen Age,' etc., 1860; Eus. Salverte, 'Sciences Occultes,' ed. +by Littr, 1856 (see the English translation, 'Philosophy of Magic,' +with Notes by Dr. A. Todd Thomson, 1846); Abb de Villars, 'Entretiens +du Comte de Gabalis' ('Voyages Imaginaires,' tome 34), Englished as +'The Count de Gabalis: being a diverting History of the Rosicrucian +Doctrine of Spirits,' etc., 1714; Elias Ashmole, 'Theatrum Chemicum +Britannicum;' Roger Bacon, 'Mirror of Alchemy,' 1597; Louis Figuier, +'Histoire de l'Alchimie et les Alchimistes,' 1865; Arthur Edward +Waite, 'The Real History of the Rosicrucians,' 1887; Hargrave +Jennings, 'The Rosicrucians,' new edit.; William Godwin, 'Lives of the +Necromancers,' 1834; Dr. T. Thomson, 'History of Chemistry,' 1831; +'Encyclopdia Britannica,' _in locis_; Dr. Kopp, 'Geschichte der +Chemie;' G. Rodwell, 'Birth of Chemistry,' 1874; Haerfor, 'Histoire de +la Chimie,' etc., etc. + + +BILLING AND SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD. + + + + +Transcriber's Note + +Variations in spelling, hyphenation and accent usage are preserved as +printed. + +Minor punctuation errors have been repaired. + +Page 253 includes the phrase "And thead of the said meetinge was to +consult ...". Another source of the quotation uses 'thend' instead +of 'thead'. Although 'thead' may be a typographic error, as there is +no way to be certain it is preserved as printed. + +The following amendments have been made: + + Page 65--1675 amended to 1575--"One of these royal visits was + made on March 10, 1575, ..." + + Page 142--make amended to made--"... made many impertinent + obliterations, formed many objections, ..." + + Page 143--every amended to ever--"... as any that ever fell + from the lips of the Pythian priestess: ..." + + Page 150--or amended to of--"... (both of which were + translated by Elias Ashmole), ..." + + Page 204--withcraft amended to witchcraft--"... and even + ecclesiastics, have been accused of practising witchcraft." + + Page 272--infalliby amended to infallibly--"... whose skill + would infallibly detect the guilty person." + + Page 310--Macgillivordam amended to MacGillivordam--"she + instructed MacGillivordam to procure a large quantity of + poison." + + Page 314--MacIngurach amended to MacIngaruch--"A warrant was + issued for the arrest of Marion MacIngaruch; ..." + + Page 375--changes amended to change, and person amended to + persons--"... encouraged by this change of sentiment, persons + accused of witchcraft ..." + + Page 428--souponns amended to souponns--"... 'Apologie + pour les Grands Hommes faussement souponns de Magie,' ..." + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Witch, Warlock, and Magician, by +William Henry Davenport Adams + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITCH, WARLOCK, AND MAGICIAN *** + +***** This file should be named 38763-8.txt or 38763-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/7/6/38763/ + +Produced by Irma pehar, Sam W. and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +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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H. Davenport Adams. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + p {margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;} + p.break {margin-top: 2.5em;} /* for thought breaks */ + + h1 {text-align: center; clear: both; font-weight: normal; margin-top: 3em;} + h2,h3 {text-align: center; clear: both; margin-top: 2em;} + h4 {text-align: center; clear: both;} + + div.centered table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + + a {text-decoration: none;} + + img {border: none;} + + em {font-style: italic;} + sup {vertical-align: .3em; font-size: .8em;} + + ins.greek {text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin dotted red;} + /* replace default underline with delicate red line */ + + .hidden {display: none;} + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-style: normal; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;} + + .bb {border-bottom: 1px black solid;} + .bt {border-top: 1px black solid;} + .bbox {border: 2px black solid; padding: 1em; margin-top: 3em; margin-bottom: 3em;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps; font-style: normal;} + .ntext {font-style: normal;} + + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {text-align: left; padding-right: .3em;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: .2em; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none; font-style: normal;} + + div.cpoem1 {width: 22em; margin: auto; max-width: 96%;} + div.cpoem2 {width: 24em; margin: auto; max-width: 96%;} + div.cpoem3 {width: 18em; margin: auto; max-width: 96%;} + div.cpoem4 {width: 26em; margin: auto; max-width: 96%;} + div.cpoem5 {width: 28em; margin: auto; max-width: 96%;} + div.cpoem6 {width: 14em; margin: auto; max-width: 96%;} + div.cpoem7 {width: 30em; margin: auto; max-width: 96%;} + div.cpoem8 {width: 38em; margin: auto; max-width: 96%;} + div.cpoem9 {width: 34em; margin: auto; max-width: 96%;} + .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;} + .poem span.i1 {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i6 {display: block; margin-left: 6em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i10 {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.poet {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + .tdl {text-align: left; vertical-align: top; padding-right: 1.5em;} /* left align cell */ + .tdlb {text-align: left; vertical-align: bottom;} /* left bottom align cell */ + .tdrt {text-align: right; vertical-align: top; padding-right: .5em;} /* right align cell */ + .tdrb {text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;} /* right bottom align cell */ + .tdc {text-align: center; padding-top: 1.5em;} /* centre align cell */ + + .sigright {text-align: right; margin-right: 4em;} /* signature aligned right */ + .sig {margin-left: 35%; text-indent: -4em;} /* author signature at end of letter, move 2nd line right */ + + .vlrgfont {font-size: 175%;} + .lrgfont {font-size: 120%;} + .smlfont {font-size: 85%;} + .vsmlfont {font-size: 75%;} + + .padtop {padding-top: 3em;} + .padbase {padding-bottom: 3em;} + .padleft {padding-left: 14em;} + + .lspace {letter-spacing: .2em; white-space: nowrap;} + .right {text-align: right;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Witch, Warlock, and Magician, by +William Henry Davenport Adams + +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 www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Witch, Warlock, and Magician + Historical Sketches of Magic and Witchcraft in England and Scotland + +Author: William Henry Davenport Adams + +Release Date: February 4, 2012 [EBook #38763] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITCH, WARLOCK, AND MAGICIAN *** + + + + +Produced by Irma pehar, Sam W. and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="bbox"> +<p><b>Transcriber's Note</b></p> + +<p>This book contains Greek and other characters, including an e with +caron, ě, and vowels with macron, ī and ō. If they do not display +properly, you may wish to adjust your browser settings.</p> + +<p>Greek text has been transliterated. To see the transliteration, hover your +mouse over words with a red dotted underline, e.g. <ins class="greek" title="biblos">βιβλος</ins>.</p> +</div> + + +<h1>WITCH, WARLOCK, AND<br /> +MAGICIAN</h1> + +<p class="center lrgfont padtop">Historical Sketches of Magic and Witchcraft<br /> +in England and Scotland</p> + +<p class="center padtop"><span class="vsmlfont">BY</span><br /> +<span class="lrgfont">W. H. DAVENPORT ADAMS</span></p> + + +<p class="center padtop">‘Dreams and the light imaginings of men’<br /> +<span class="smcap padleft">Shelley</span></p> + + +<p class="center padtop">J. W. BOUTON<br /> +706 & 1152 BROADWAY<br /> +NEW YORK<br /> +1889</p> + + + +<p class="padtop"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>v]</a></span></p> + +<h2>PREFACE.</h2> + + +<p>The following pages may be regarded as a contribution +towards that ‘History of Human Error’ which +was undertaken by Mr. Augustine Caxton. I fear +that many minds will have to devote all their energies +to the work, if it is ever to be brought to completion; +and, indeed, it may plausibly be argued that its +completion would be an impossibility, since every +generation adds something to the melancholy record—‘pulveris +exigui parva munera.’ However this may +be, little more remains to be said on the subjects +which I have here considered from the standpoint of +a sympathetic though incredulous observer. Alchemy, +Magic, Witchcraft—how exhaustively they have been +investigated will appear from the list of authorities +which I have drawn up for the reader’s convenience. +They have been studied by ‘adepts,’ and by critics, +as realities and as delusions; and almost the last +word would seem to have been said by Science—though +not on the side of the adepts, who still continue +to dream of the Hermetic philosophy, to lose +themselves in fanciful pictures, theurgic and occult, +and to write about the mysteries of magic with a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>vi]</a></span> +simplicity of faith which we may wonder at, but are +bound to respect.</p> + +<p>It has not been my purpose, in the present volume, +to attempt a general history of magic and alchemy, or +a scientific inquiry into their psychological aspects. I +have confined myself to a sketch of their progress in +England, and to a narrative of the lives of our principal +magicians. This occupies the first part. The +second is devoted to an historical review of witchcraft +in Great Britain, and an examination into the most +remarkable Witch-Trials, in which I have endeavoured +to bring out their peculiar features, presenting much +of the evidence adduced, and in some cases the so-called +confessions of the victims, in the original +language. I believe that the details, notwithstanding +the reticence imposed upon me by considerations of +delicacy and decorum, will surprise the reader, and +that he will readily admit the profound interest +attaching to them, morally and intellectually. I +have added a chapter on the ‘Literature of Witchcraft,’ +which, I hope, is tolerably exhaustive, and now offer +the whole as an effort to present, in a popular and +readable form, the result of careful and conscientious +study extending over many years.</p> + +<p class="sigright">W. H. D. A.</p> + + + +<p class="padtop"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>vii]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of contents"> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="3">INTRODUCTION.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrt"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdrb"><small>PAGE</small></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="2">PROGRESS OF ALCHEMY IN EUROPE</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="3">BOOK I.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="3"><i>THE ENGLISH MAGICIANS.</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrt"><small>CHAPTER</small></td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdrb"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrt">I.</td> + <td class="tdl">ROGER BACON: THE TRUE AND THE LEGENDARY</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_27">27</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrt">II.</td> + <td class="tdl">THE STORY OF DR. JOHN DEE</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_59">59</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrt">III.</td> + <td class="tdl">DR. DEE’S DIARY</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrt">IV.</td> + <td class="tdl">MAGIC AND IMPOSTURE: A COUPLE OF KNAVES</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_102">102</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrt">V.</td> + <td class="tdl">THE LAST OF THE ENGLISH MAGICIANS: WILLIAM LILLY</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_128">128</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrt">VI.</td> + <td class="tdl">ENGLISH ROSICRUCIANS</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_181">181</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="3">BOOK II.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="3"><i>WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT.</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrt">I.</td> + <td class="tdl">EARLY HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT IN ENGLAND</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_203">203</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrt">II.</td> + <td class="tdl">WITCHCRAFT IN ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_244">244</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrt">III.</td> + <td class="tdl">THE DECLINE OF WITCHCRAFT IN ENGLAND</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_292">292</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrt">IV.</td> + <td class="tdl">THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_303">303</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrt">V.</td> + <td class="tdl">THE LITERATURE OF WITCHCRAFT</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_378">378</a></td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + + + + +<p class="padtop"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>1]</a></span></p> + +<p class="center padtop vlrgfont">WITCH, WARLOCK, AND MAGICIAN.</p> + + + + +<h2>INTRODUCTION.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smlfont">PROGRESS OF ALCHEMY IN EUROPE.</span></h2> + +<p>The word <ins class="greek" title="chêmeia">χημεια</ins>—from which we derive our English +word ‘chemistry’—first occurs, it is said, in the +Lexicon of Suidas, a Greek writer who flourished in +the eleventh century. Here is his definition of it:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>‘Chemistry is the art of preparing gold and silver. The books +concerning it were sought out and burnt by Diocletian, on account +of the new plots directed against him by the Egyptians. He +behaved towards them with great cruelty in his search after the +treatises written by the ancients, his purpose being to prevent +them from growing rich by a knowledge of this art, lest, emboldened +by measureless wealth, they should be induced to resist +the Roman supremacy.’</p> +</div> + +<p>Some authorities assert, however, that this art, or +pretended art, is of much greater antiquity than +Suidas knew of; and Scaliger refers to a Greek +manuscript by Zozomen, of the fifth century, which +is entitled ‘A Faithful Description of the Secret and +Divine Art of Making Gold and Silver.’ We may +assume that as soon as mankind had begun to set an +artificial value upon these metals, and had acquired +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>2]</a></span> +some knowledge of chemical elements, their combinations +and permutations, they would entertain a desire +to multiply them in measureless quantities. Dr. +Shaw speaks of no fewer than eighty-nine ancient +manuscripts, scattered through the European libraries, +which are all occupied with ‘the chemical art,’ or +‘the holy art,’ or, as it is sometimes called, ‘the +philosopher’s stone’; and a fair conclusion seems to +be that ‘between the fifth century and the taking of +Constantinople in the fifteenth, the Greeks believed in +the possibility of making gold and silver,’ and called +the supposed process, or processes, <em>chemistry</em>.</p> + +<p>The delusion was taken up by the Arabians when, +under their Abasside Khalifs, they entered upon the +cultivation of scientific knowledge. The Arabians conveyed +it into Spain, whence its diffusion over Christendom +was a simple work of time, sure if gradual. +From the eleventh to the sixteenth century, alchemy +was more or less eagerly studied by the scholars of +Germany, Italy, France, and England; and the +volumes in which they recorded both their learning +and their ignorance, the little they knew and the +more they did not know, compose quite a considerable +library. One hundred and twenty-two are enumerated +in the ‘Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa,’ of Mangetus, a +dry-as-dust kind of compilation, in two huge volumes, +printed at Geneva in 1702. Any individual who +has time and patience to expend <i>ad libitum</i>, cannot +desire a fairer field of exercise than the ‘Bibliotheca.’ +One very natural result of all this vain research and +profitless inquiry was a keen anxiety on the part of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>3]</a></span> +victims to dignify their labours by claiming for their +‘sciences, falsely so-called,’ a venerable and mysterious +origin. They accordingly asserted that the +founder or creator was Hermes Trismegistus, whom +some of them professed to identify with Chanaan, the +son of Ham, whose son Mizraim first occupied and +peopled Egypt. Now, it is clear that any person +might legitimately devote his nights and days to the +pursuit of a science invented, or originally taught, +by no less illustrious an ancient than Hermes +Trismegistus. But to clothe it with the awe of a +still greater antiquity, they affirmed that its principles +had been discovered, engraved in Phœnician characters, +on an emerald tablet which Alexander the +Great exhumed from the philosopher’s tomb. Unfortunately, +as is always the case, the tablet was lost; +but we are expected to believe that two Latin versions +of the inscription had happily been preserved. One +of these may be Englished as hereinunder:</p> + +<p>1. I speak no frivolous things, but only what is +true and most certain.</p> + +<p>2. What is below resembles that which is above, +and what is above resembles that which is below, +to accomplish the one thing of all things most +wonderful.</p> + +<p>3. And as all things proceeded from the meditation +of the One God, so were all things generated +from this one thing by the disposition of Nature.</p> + +<p>4. Its father is <i>Sol</i>, its mother <i>Luna</i>; it was +engendered in the womb by the air, and nourished by +the earth.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>4]</a></span> +5. It is the cause of all the perfection of things +throughout the whole world.</p> + +<p>6. It arrives at the highest perfection of powers if +it be reduced into earth.</p> + +<p>7. Separate the earth from the fire, the subtle from +the gross, acting with great caution.</p> + +<p>8. Ascend with the highest wisdom from earth +to heaven, and thence descend again to earth, and +bind together the powers of things superior and +things inferior. So shall you compass the glory of +the whole world, and divest yourself of the abjectness +of humanity.</p> + +<p>9. This thing has more fortitude than fortitude +itself, since it will overcome everything subtle and +penetrate everything solid.</p> + +<p>10. All that the world contains was created by it.</p> + +<p>11. Hence proceed things wonderful which in this +wise were established.</p> + +<p>12. For this reason the name of Hermes Trismegistus +was bestowed upon me, because I am master +of three parts of the philosophy of the whole world.</p> + +<p>13. This is what I had to say concerning the most +admirable process of the chemical art.</p> + +<p>These oracular utterances are so vague and obscure +that an enthusiast may read into them almost any meaning +he chooses; but there seems a general consensus of +opinion that they refer to the ‘universal medicine’ +of the earlier alchemists. This, however, is of no +great importance, since it is certain they were +invented by some ingenious hand as late as the +fifteenth century. Another forgery of a similar kind +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>5]</a></span> +is the ‘Tractatus Aureus de Lapidis Physici Secretis,’ +also attributed to Hermes; it professes to describe +the process of making this ‘universal medicine,’ or +‘philosopher’s stone,’ and the formulary is thus +translated by Thomson:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>‘Take of moisture an ounce and a half; of meridional redness—that +is, the soul of the sun—a fourth part, that is, half an ounce; +of yellow sage likewise half an ounce; and of auripigmentum +half an ounce; making in all three ounces.’</p> +</div> + +<p>Such a recipe does not seem to help forward an +enthusiastic student to any material extent.</p> + + +<h3>THE EARLIER ALCHEMISTS.</h3> + +<p>It is in the erudite writings of the great Arabian +physician, Gebir—that is, Abu Moussah Djafar, surnamed +<i>Al Sofi</i>, or The Wise—that the science of +alchemy, or chemistry (at first the two were identical), +first assumes a definite shape. Gebir flourished +in the early part of the eighth century, and wrote, it +is said, upwards of five hundred treatises on the +philosopher’s stone and the elixir of life. In reference +to the latter mysterious potion, which possessed the +wonderful power of conferring immortal youth on +those who drank of it, one may remark that it was +the necessary complement of the philosopher’s stone, +for what would be the use of an unlimited faculty of +making gold and silver unless one could be sure of +an immortality in which to enjoy its exercise? +Gebir’s principal work, the ‘Summæ Perfectionis,’ +containing instructions for students in search of the +two great secrets, has been translated into several +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>6]</a></span> +European languages; and an English version, by +Richard Russell, the alchemist, was published in +1686.</p> + +<p>Gebir lays down, as a primary principle, that all +metals are compounds of mercury and sulphur. They +all labour under disease, he says, except gold, which is +the one metal gifted with perfect health. Therefore, a +preparation of it would dispel every ill which flesh is +heir to, as well as the maladies of plants. We may +excuse his extravagances, however, in consideration +of the services he rendered to science by his discovery +of corrosive sublimate, red oxide of mercury, white +oxide of arsenic, nitric acid, oxide of copper, and +nitrate of silver, all of which originally issued from +Gebir’s laboratory.</p> + +<p>Briefly speaking, the hypothesis assumed by the +alchemists was this: all the metals are compounds, +and the baser contain the same elements as gold, +contaminated, indeed, with various impurities, but +capable, when these have been purged away, of assuming +all its properties and characters. The substance +which was to effect this purifying process they +called the philosopher’s stone (<i>lapis philosophorum</i>), +though, as a matter of fact, it is always described +as a <em>powder</em>—a powder red-coloured, and smelling +strongly. Few of the alchemists, however, venture +on a distinct statement that they had discovered or +possessed this substance.</p> + +<p>The arch-quack Paracelsus makes the assertion, of +course; unblushing mendacity was part of his stock-in-trade; +and he pretends even to define the methods +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>7]</a></span> +by which it may be realized. Unfortunately, to +ordinary mortals his description is absolutely unintelligible. +Others there are who affirm that they +had seen it, and seen it in operation, transmuting +lead, quicksilver, and other of the inferior metals into +ruddy gold. One wonders that they did not claim a +share in a process which involved such boundless +potentialities of wealth!</p> + +<p>Helvetius, the physician, though no believer in the +magical art, tells the following wild story in his +‘Vitulus Aureus’:</p> + +<p>On December 26, 1666, a stranger called upon him, +and, after discussing the supposed properties of the +universal medicine, showed him a yellow powder, +which he declared to be the <i>lapis</i>, and also five large +plates of gold, which, he said, were the product of its +action. Naturally enough, Helvetius begged for a +few grains of this marvellous powder, or that the +stranger would at least exhibit its potency in his +presence. He refused, however, but promised that he +would return in six weeks. He kept his promise, +and then, after much entreaty, gave Helvetius a pinch +of the powder—about as much as a rape-seed. The +physician expressed his fear that so minute a quantity +would not convert as much as four grains of lead; +whereupon the stranger broke off one-half, and +declared that the remainder was more than sufficient +for the purpose. During their first conference, +Helvetius had contrived to conceal a little of the +powder beneath his thumb-nail. This he dropped into +some molten lead, but it was nearly all exhaled in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>8]</a></span> +smoke, and the residue was simply of a vitreous +character.</p> + +<p>On mentioning this circumstance to his visitor, he +explained that the powder should have been enclosed +in wax before it was thrown into the molten lead, +to prevent the fumes of the lead from affecting it. +He added that he would come back next day, and +show him how to make the projection; but as he +failed to appear, Helvetius, in the presence of his wife +and son, put six drachms of lead into a crucible, and +as soon as the lead was melted, flung into it the +atoms of powder given to him by his mysterious +visitor, having first rolled them up in a little ball of +wax. At the end of a quarter of an hour he found +the lead transmuted (so he avers) into gold. Its +colour at first was a deep green; but the mixture, +when poured into a conical vessel, turned blood-red, +and, after cooling, acquired the true tint of gold. A +goldsmith who examined it pronounced it to be +genuine. Helvetius requested Purelius, the keeper +of the Dutch Mint, to test its value; and two +drachms, after being exposed to aquafortis, were +found to have increased a couple of scruples in weight—an +increase doubtlessly owing to the silver, which still +remained enveloped in the gold, despite the action of +the aquafortis.</p> + +<p>It is obvious that this narrative is a complete +mystification, and that either the stranger was a +myth or Helvetius was the victim of a deception.</p> + +<p>The recipes that the alchemists formulate—those, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>9]</a></span> +that is, who profess to have discovered the stone, +or to have known somebody who enjoyed so rare a +fortune—are always unintelligible or impracticable. +What is to be understood, for example, of the following +elaborate process, or series of processes, which +are recorded by Mangetus, in his preface to the +ponderous ‘Bibliotheca Chemica’ (to which reference +has already been made)?</p> + +<p>1. Prepare a quantity of spirits of wine, so free +from water as to be wholly combustible, and so +volatile that a drop of it, if let fall, will evaporate +before it reaches the ground. This constitutes the +first menstruum.</p> + +<p>2. Take pure mercury, revived in the usual +manner from cinnabar; put it into a glass vessel +with common salt and distilled vinegar; shake +violently, and when the vinegar turns black, pour it +off, and add fresh vinegar. Shake again, and continue +these repeated shakings and additions until +the mercury no longer turns the vinegar black; +the mercury will then be quite pure and very +brilliant.</p> + +<p>3. Take of this mercury four parts; of sublimed +mercury (<i>mercurii meteoresati</i>—probably corrosive +sublimate), prepared with your own hands, eight +parts; triturate them together in a wooden mortar +with a wooden pestle, till all the grains of running +mercury disappear. (This process is truly described +as ‘tedious and rather difficult.’)</p> + +<p>4. The mixture thus prepared is to be put into a +sand-bath, and exposed to a subliming heat, which +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>10]</a></span> +is to be gradually increased until the whole sublimes. +Collect the sublimed matter, put it again into the +sand-bath, and sublime a second time; this process +must be repeated five times. The product is a very +sweet crystallized sublimate, constituting the <i>sal +sapientum</i>, or wise men’s salt (probably calomel), and +possessing wonderful properties.</p> + +<p>5. Grind it in a wooden mortar, reducing it to +powder; put this powder into a glass retort, and +pour upon it the spirit of wine (see No. 1) till it +stands about three finger-breadths above the powder. +Seal the retort hermetically, and expose it to a very +gentle heat for seventy-four hours, shaking it several +times a day; then distil with a gentle heat, and the +spirit of wine will pass over, together with spirit of +mercury. Keep this liquid in a well-stoppered bottle, +lest it should evaporate. More spirit of wine is to +be poured upon the residual salt, and after digestion +must be distilled off, as before; and this operation +must be repeated until all the salt is dissolved and +given off with the spirit of wine. A great work +will then have been accomplished! For the mercury, +having to some extent been rendered volatile, will +gradually become fit to receive the tincture of gold +and silver. Now return thanks to God, who has +hitherto crowned your wonderful work with success. +Nor is this wonderful work enveloped in Cimmerian +darkness; it is clearer than the sun, though preceding +writers have sought to impose upon us with parables, +hieroglyphs, fables, and enigmas.</p> + +<p>6. Take this mercurial spirit, which contains our +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>11]</a></span> +magical steel in its belly (<i>sic</i>), and put it into a glass +retort, to which a receiver must be well and carefully +adjusted; draw off the spirit by a very gentle +heat, and in the bottom of the retort will remain +the quintessence or soul of mercury. This is to be +sublimed by applying a stronger heat to the retort +that it may become volatile, as all the philosophers +affirm:</p> + +<div class="cpoem1"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘Si fixum solvas faciesque volare solutum,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Et volucrum figas faciet te vivere tutum.’<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>This is our <i>luna</i>, our fountain, in which ‘the king’ +and ‘the queen’ may bathe. Preserve this precious +quintessence of mercury, which is exceedingly volatile, +in a well-closed vessel for further use.</p> + +<p>8. Let us now proceed to the production of common +gold, which we shall communicate clearly and distinctly, +without digression or obscurity, in order +that from this common gold we may obtain our +philosophical gold, just as from common mercury we +have obtained, by the foregoing processes, philosophical +mercury. In the name of God, then, take +common gold, purified in the usual way by antimony, +and reduce it into small grains, which must be +washed with salt and vinegar until they are quite +pure. Take one part of this gold, and pour on it +three parts of the quintessence of mercury: as philosophers +reckon from seven to ten, so do we also +reckon our number as philosophical, and begin with +three and one. Let them be married together, like +husband and wife, to produce children of their own +kind, and you will see the common gold sink and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>12]</a></span> +plainly dissolve. Now the marriage is consummated; +and two things are converted into one. +Thus the philosophical sulphur is at hand, as the +philosophers say: ‘The sulphur being dissolved, the +stone is at hand.’ Take then, in the name of God, +our philosophical vessel, in which the king and +queen embrace each other as in a bedchamber, and +leave it till the water is converted into earth; then +peace is concluded between the water and the fire—then +the elements no longer possess anything contrary +to each other—because, when the elements are +converted into earth, they cease to be antagonistic; +for in earth all elements are at rest. The philosophers +say: ‘When you shall see the water coagulate, believe +that your knowledge is true, and that all your operations +are truly philosophical.’ Our gold is no longer +common, but philosophical, through the processes it +has undergone: at first, it was exceedingly ‘fixed’ +(<i>fixum</i>); then exceedingly volatile; and again, exceedingly +fixed: the entire science depends upon the +change of the elements. The gold, at first a metal, +is now a sulphur, capable of converting all metals +into its own sulphur. And our tincture is wholly +converted into sulphur, which possesses the energy +of curing every disease; this is our universal +medicine against all the most deplorable ills of the +human body. Therefore, return infinite thanks to +Almighty God for all the good things which He hath +bestowed upon us.</p> + +<p>9. In this great work of ours, two methods of +fermentation and projection are wanting, without +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>13]</a></span> +which the uninitiated will not readily follow out our +process. The mode of fermentation: Of the sulphur +already described take one part, and project it upon +three parts of very pure gold fused in a furnace. +In a moment you will see the gold, by the force of +the sulphur, converted into a red sulphur of an +inferior quality to the primary sulphur. Take one +part of this, and project it upon three parts of fused +gold; the whole will again be converted into a +sulphur or a fixable mass; mixing one part of this +with three parts of gold, you will have a malleable +and extensible metal. If you find it so, it is well; if +not, add more sulphur, and it will again pass into a state +of sulphur. Now our sulphur will sufficiently be fermented, +or our medicine brought into a metallic nature.</p> + +<p>10. The method of projection is this: Take of +the fermented sulphur one part, and project it upon +two parts of mercury, heated in a crucible, and you +will have a perfect metal; if its colour be not sufficiently +deep, fuse it again, and add more fermented +sulphur, and thus it will gain colour. If it become +frangible, add a sufficient quantity of mercury, and it +will be perfect.</p> + +<p>Thus, friend, you have a description of the +universal medicine, not only for curing diseases and +prolonging life, but also for transmuting all metals +into gold. Give thanks, therefore, to Almighty +God, who, taking pity on human calamities, hath at +last revealed this inestimable treasure, and made it +known for the common benefit of all.</p> + +<p>Such is the jargon with which these so-called +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>14]</a></span> +philosophers imposed upon their dupes, and, to some +extent perhaps, upon themselves. As Dr. Thomson +points out, the philosopher’s stone prepared by this +elaborate process could hardly have been anything +else than <em>an amalgam of gold</em>. Chloride of gold it +could not have contained, because such a preparation, +instead of acting medicinally, would have +proved a most virulent poison. Of course, amalgam +of gold, if projected into melted lead or tin, and +afterwards cupellated, would leave a portion of gold—that +is, exactly the amount <em>which existed previously +in the amalgam</em>. Impostors may, therefore, have +availed themselves of it to persuade the credulous +that it was really the philosopher’s stone; but the +alchemists who prepared the amalgam must have +known that it contained gold.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>It is well known that the mediæval magicians, +necromancers, conjurers—call them by what name you +will—who adopted alchemy as an instrument of imposition, +and by no means in the spirit of philosophical +inquiry and research which had characterized their +predecessors, resorted to various ingenious devices in +order to maintain their hold upon their victims. +Sometimes they made use of crucibles with false +bottoms—at the real bottom they concealed a portion +of oxide of gold or silver covered with powdered +sulphur, which had been rendered adhesive by a little +gummed water or wax. When heat was applied the +false bottom melted away, and the oxide of gold or +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>15]</a></span> +silver eventually appeared as the product of the +operation at the bottom of the crucible. Sometimes +they made a hole in a lump of charcoal, and +filling it with oxide of gold or silver, stopped up +the orifice with wax; or they soaked charcoal in +a solution of these metals; or they stirred the mixture +in the crucible with hollow rods, containing oxide of +gold or silver, closed up at the bottom with wax. A +faithful representation of the stratagems to which the +pseudo-alchemist resorted, that his dupes might not +recover too soon from their delusion, is furnished by +Ben Jonson in his comedy of ‘The Alchemist,’ and his +masque of ‘Mercury vindicated from the Alchemists.’ +The dramatist was thoroughly conversant with the +technicalities of the pretended science, and also with +the deceptions of its professors. In the masque he +puts into the mouth of Mercury an indignant protest:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>‘The mischief a secret any of them knows, above the consuming +of coals and drawing of usquebagh; howsoever they may +pretend, under the specious names of Gebir, Arnold, Lully, or +Bombast of Hohenheim, to commit miracles in art, and treason +against nature! As if the title of philosopher, that creature of +glory, were to be fetched out of a furnace!’</p> +</div> + +<p>But while the world is full of fools, it is too much +to expect there shall be any lack of knaves to prey +upon them!</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTE</h4> + +<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> +<i>Cf.</i> Stahl, ‘Fundamenta Chimiæ,’ cap. ‘De Lapide Philosophorum’; +and Kircher, ‘Mundus Subterraneus.’</p> +</div> + + +<h3>IN THE MIDDLE AGES.</h3> + +<p>The first of the great European alchemists I take +to have been</p> + +<p><i>Albertus Magnus</i> or <i>Albertus Teutonicus</i> (<i>Frater +Albertus de Colonia</i> and <i>Albertus Grotus</i>, as he is also +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>16]</a></span> +called), a man of remarkable intellectual energy and +exceptional force of character, who has sometimes, +and not without justice, been termed the founder of +the Schoolmen. Neither the place nor the date of his +birth is authentically known, but he was still in his +young manhood when, about 1222, he was appointed +to the chair of theology at Padua, and became a +member of the Dominican Order. He did not long +retain the professorship, and, departing from Padua, +taught with great success in Ratisbon, Köln, Strassburg, +and Paris, residing in the last-named city for +three years, together with his illustrious disciple, +Thomas Aquinas. In 1260 he was appointed to the +See of Ratisbon, though he had not previously held +any ecclesiastical dignity, but soon resigned, on the +ground that its duties interfered vexatiously with his +studies. Twenty years later, at a ripe old age, he +died, leaving behind him, as monuments of his persistent +industry and intellectual subtlety, one-and-twenty +ponderous folios, which include commentaries +on Aristotle, on the Scriptures, and on Dionysius the +Areopagite. Among his minor works occurs a treatise +on alchemy, which seems to show that he was a +devout believer in the science.</p> + +<p>From the marvellous stories of his thaumaturgic +exploits which have come down to us, we may infer +that he had attained a considerable amount of skill in +experimental chemistry. The brazen statue which he +animated, and the garrulity of which was so offensive +that Thomas Aquinas one day seized a hammer, and, +provoked beyond all endurance, smashed it to pieces, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>17]</a></span> +may be a reminiscence of his powers as a ventriloquist. +And the following story may hint at an effective manipulation +of the <i>camera obscura</i>: Count William of +Holland and King of the Romans happening to pass +through Köln, Albertus invited him and his courtiers +to his house to partake of refreshment. It was mid-winter; +but on arriving at the philosopher’s residence +they found the tables spread in the open +garden, where snowdrifts lay several feet in depth. +Indignant at so frugal a reception, they were on the +point of leaving, when Albertus appeared, and by his +courtesies induced them to remain. Immediately the +scene was lighted up with the sunshine of summer, a +warm and balmy air stole through the whispering +boughs, the frost and snow vanished, the melodies of +the lark dropped from the sky like golden rain. But +as soon as the feast came to an end the sunshine +faded, the birds ceased their song, clouds gathered +darkling over the firmament, an icy blast shrieked +through the gibbering branches, and the snow fell in +blinding showers, so that the philosopher’s guests +were glad to fold their cloaks about them and retreat +into the kitchen to grow warm before its blazing fire.</p> + +<p>Was this some clever scenic deception, or is the +whole a fiction?</p> + +<p>A knowledge of the secret of the <i>Elixir Vitæ</i> was +possessed (it is said) by <i>Alain de l’Isle</i>, or Alanus de +Insulis; but either he did not avail himself of it, or +failed to compound a sufficient quantity of the magic +potion, for he died under the sacred roof of Citeaux, +in 1298, at the advanced age of 110.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>18]</a></span> +<i>Arnold de Villeneuve</i>, who attained, in the thirteenth +century, some distinction as a physician, an +astronomer, an astrologer, and an alchemist—and was +really a capable man of science, as science was then +understood—formulates an elaborate recipe for rejuvenating +one’s self, which, however, does not seem to +have been very successful in his own case, since he +died before he was 70. Perhaps he was as disgusted +with the compound as (in the well-known epitaph) +the infant was with this mundane sphere—he ‘liked +it not, and died.’ I think there are many who would +forfeit longevity rather than partake of it.</p> + +<p>‘Twice or thrice a week you must anoint your +body thoroughly with the manna of cassia; and every +night, before going to bed, you must place over your +heart a plaster, composed of a certain quantity (or, +rather, uncertain, for definite and precise proportions +are never particularized) of Oriental saffron, red rose-leaves, +sandal-wood, aloes, and amber, liquefied in oil +of roses and the best white wax. During the day +this must be kept in a leaden casket. You must next +pen up in a court, where the water is sweet and the +air pure, sixteen chickens, if you are of a sanguine +temperament; twenty-five, if phlegmatic; and thirty, +if melancholic. Of these you are to eat one a day, +after they have been fattened in such a manner as to +have absorbed into their system the qualities which +will ensure your longevity; for which purpose they +are first to be kept without food until almost starved, +and then gorged with a broth of serpents and vinegar, +thickened with wheat and beans, for at least two +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>19]</a></span> +months. When they are served at your table you +will drink a moderate quantity of white wine or claret +to assist digestion.’</p> + +<p>I should think it would be needed!</p> + + +<p class="break">Among the alchemists must be included <i>Pietro +d’Apono</i>. He was an eminent physician; but, being +accused of heresy, was thrown into prison and died +there. His ecclesiastical persecutors, however, burned +his bones rather than be entirely disappointed of their +<i>auto da fé</i>. Like most of the mediæval physicians, he +indulged in alchemical and astrological speculations; +but they proved to Pietro d’Apono neither pleasurable +nor profitable. It was reputed of him that he had +summoned a number of evil spirits; and, on their +obeying his call, had shut them up in seven crystal +vases, where he detained them until he had occasion +for their services. In his selection of them he seems +to have displayed a commendably catholic taste and +love of knowledge; for one was an expert in poetry, +another in painting, a third in philosophy, a fourth in +physic, a fifth in astrology, a sixth in music, and a +seventh in alchemy. So that when he required instruction +in either of these arts or sciences, he simply +tapped the proper crystal vase and laid on a spirit.</p> + +<p>The story seems to be a fanciful allusion to the +various acquirements of Pietro d’Apono; but if intended +at first as a kind of allegory, it came in due +time to be accepted literally.</p> + + +<p class="break">I pass on to the great Spanish alchemist and magician, +<i>Raymond Lully</i>, or Lulli, who was scarcely inferior +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>20]</a></span> +in fame, or the qualities which merited fame, even to +Albertus Magnus. He was a man, not only of wide, but +of accurate scholarship; and the two or three hundred +treatises which proceeded from his pen traversed the +entire circle of the learning of his age, dealing with +almost every conceivable subject from medicine to +morals, from astronomy to theology, and from alchemy +to civil and canon law. His life had its romantic +aspects, and his death (in 1315?) was invested with +something of the glory of martyrdom; for while he was +preaching to the Moslems at Bona, the mob fell upon +him with a storm of stones, and though he was still +alive when rescued by some Genoese merchants, and +conveyed on board their vessel, he died of the injuries +he had received before it arrived in a Spanish port.</p> + +<p>There seems little reason to believe that Lulli +visited England about 1312, on the invitation of +Edward II. Dickenson, in his work on ‘The Quintessences +of the Philosophers,’ asserts that his +laboratory was established in Westminster Abbey—that +is, in the cloisters—and that some time after his +return to the Continent a large quantity of gold-dust +was found in the cell he had occupied. Langlet du +Fresnoy contends that it was through the intervention +of John Cremer, Abbot of Westminster, a persevering +seeker after the <i>lapis philosophorum</i>, that he +came to England, Cremer having described him to +King Edward as a man of extraordinary powers. +Robert Constantine, in his ‘Nomenclator Scriptorum +Medicorum’ (1515), professes to have discovered +that Lulli resided for some time in London, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>21]</a></span> +made gold in the Tower, and that he had seen some gold +pieces of his making, which were known in England +as the nobles of Raymond, or rose-nobles. But the +great objections to these very precise statements rests +on two facts pointed out by Mr. Waite, that the rose-noble, +so called because a rose was stamped on each +side of it, was first coined in 1465, in the reign of +Edward IV., and that there never was an Abbot +Cremer of Westminster.</p> + + +<p class="break"><i>Jean de Meung</i> is also included among the alchemists; +but he bequeathed to posterity in his glorious +poem of the ‘Roman de la Rose’ something very +much more precious than would have been any +formula for making gold. In one sense he was indeed +an alchemist, and possessed the secret of the +universal medicine; for in his poem his genius has +transmuted into purest gold the base ore of popular +traditions and legends.</p> + +<p>Some of the stories which Langlet du Fresnoy tells +of <i>Nicholas Flamel</i> were probably invented long after +his death, or else we should have to brand him as a +most audacious knave. One of those amazing narratives +pretends that he bought for a couple of florins +an old and curious volume, the leaves of which—three +times seven (this sounds better than twenty-one) in +number—were made from the bark of trees. Each +seventh leaf bore an allegorical picture—the first representing +a serpent swallowing rods, the second a +cross with a serpent crucified upon it, and the third a +fountain in a desert, surrounded by creeping serpents. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>22]</a></span> +Who, think you, was the author of this mysterious +volume? No less illustrious a person than Abraham +the patriarch, Hebrew, prince, philosopher, priest, +Levite, and magian, who, as it was written in Latin, +must have miraculously acquired his foreknowledge +of a tongue which, in his time, had no existence. A +perusal of its mystic pages convinced Flamel that +he had had the good fortune to discover a complete +manual on the art of transmutation of metals, in +which all the necessary vessels were indicated, and +the processes described. But there was one serious +difficulty to be overcome: the book assumed, as a +matter of course, that the student was already in +possession of that all-important agent of transmutation, +the philosopher’s stone.</p> + +<p>Careful study led Flamel to the conclusion that the +secret of the stone was hidden in certain allegorical +drawings on the fourth and fifth leaves; but, then, to +decipher these was beyond his powers. He submitted +them to all the learned savants and alchemical +adepts he could get hold of: they proved to be no +wiser than himself, while some of them actually +laughed at Abraham’s posthumous publication as +worthless gibberish. Flamel, however, clung fast to +his conviction of the inestimable value of his ‘find,’ +and daily pondered over the two cryptic illustrations, +which may thus be described: On the first page of +the fourth leaf Mercury was contending with a figure, +which might be either Saturn or Time—probably the +latter, as he carried on his head the emblematical +hour-glass, and in his hand the not less emblematical +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>23]</a></span> +scythe. On the second stage a flower upon a mountain-top +presented the unusual combination of a blue +stalk, with red and white blossoms, and leaves of +pure gold. The wind appeared to blow it about very +harshly, and a gruesome company of dragons and +griffins encompassed it.</p> + +<p>Upon the study of these provokingly obscure +designs Flamel fruitlessly expended the leisure time +of thrice seven years: after which, on the advice of +his wife, he repaired to Spain to seek the assistance of +some erudite Jewish rabbi. He had been wandering +from place to place for a couple of years, when he +met, somewhere in Leon, a learned Hebrew physician, +named Canches, who agreed to return with him to +Paris, and there examine Abraham’s volume. +Canches was deeply versed in all the lore of the +Cabala, and Flamel hung with delight on the words +of wisdom that dropped from his eloquent lips. But +at Orleans Canches was taken ill with a malady of +which he died, and Flamel found his way home, a +sadder, if not a wiser, man. He resumed his study +of the book, but for two more years could get no clue +to its meaning. In the third year, recalling some +deliverance of his departed friend, the rabbi, he perceived +that all his experiments had hitherto proceeded +upon erroneous principles. He repeated them upon +a different basis, and in a few months brought them +to a successful issue. On January 13, 1382, he converted +mercury into silver, and on April 25 into +gold. Well might he cry in triumph, ‘Eureka!’ +The great secret, the sublime magistery was his: he +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>24]</a></span> +had discovered the art of transmuting metals into +gold and silver, and, so long as he kept it to himself, +had at his command the source of inexhaustible +wealth.</p> + +<p>At this time Nicholas Flamel, it is said, was about +eighty years old. His admirers assert that he also +discovered the elixir of immortal life; but, as he died +in 1419, at the age (it is alleged) of 116, he must +have been content with the merest sip of it! Why +did he not reveal its ingredients for the general benefit +of our afflicted humanity? His immense wealth he +bequeathed to churches and hospitals, thus making a +better use of it after death than he had made of it in +his lifetime. For it is said that Flamel was a usurer, +and that his philosopher’s stone was ‘cent per cent.’ +It is true enough that he dabbled in alchemy, and probably +he made his alchemical experiments useful in +connection with his usurious transactions.</p> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25"><!-- half title page --></a></span></p> + +<p class="center padtop vlrgfont">BOOK I.<br /> +<br /> +<i>THE ENGLISH MAGICIANS</i></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26"><!-- blank page --></a></span></p> + + + +<p class="padtop"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>27]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER I.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smlfont">ROGER BACON: THE TRUE AND THE LEGENDARY.</span></h2> + + +<p>It was in the early years of the fourteenth century +that the two pseudo-sciences of alchemy and astrology, +the supposititious sisters of chemistry and astronomy, +made their way into England. At first their progress +was by no means so rapid as it had been on the +Continent; for in England, as yet, there was no +educated class prepared to give their leisure to the +work of experimental investigation. A solitary +scholar here and there lighted his torch at the altar-fire +which the Continental philosophers kept burning +with so much diligence and curiosity, and was +generally rewarded for his heterodox enthusiasm by +the persecution of the Church and the prejudice of +the vulgar. But by degrees the new sciences increased +the number of their adherents, and the more +active intellects of the time embraced the theory +of astral influences, and were fascinated by the delusion +of the philosopher’s stone. Many a secret +furnace blazed day and night with the charmed +flames which were to resolve the metals into their +original elements, and place the pale student in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>28]</a></span> +possession of the coveted <i>magisterium</i>, or ‘universal +medicine.’ At length the alchemists became a sufficiently +numerous and important body to draw the +attention of the Government, which regarded their +proceedings with suspicion, from a fear that the +result might injuriously affect the coinage. In 1434 +the Legislature enacted that the making of gold or +silver should be treated as a felony. But the Parliament +was influenced by a very different motive from +that of the King and his Council, its patriotic fears +being awakened lest the Executive, enabled by the +new science to increase without limit the pecuniary +resources of the Crown, should be rendered independent +of Parliamentary control.</p> + +<p>In the course of a few years, however, broader and +more enlightened views prevailed; and it came to +be acknowledged that scientific research ought to +be relieved from legislative interference. In 1455 +Henry VI. issued four patents in succession to certain +knights, London citizens, chemists, monks, mass-priests, +and others, granting them leave and license +to undertake the discovery of the philosopher’s stone, +‘to the great benefit of the realm, and the enabling +the King to pay all the debts of the Crown in <em>real +gold and silver</em>.’ On the remarkable fact that these +patents were issued to ecclesiastics as well as laymen, +Prynne afterwards remarked, with true theological +acridity, that they were so included because they +were ‘such good artists in transubstantiating bread +and wine in the Eucharist, and were, therefore, the +more likely to be able to effect the transmutation of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>29]</a></span> +base metals into better.’ Nothing came of the +patents. The practical common-sense of Englishmen +never took very kindly to the alchemical delusion, +and Chaucer very faithfully describes the contempt +with which it was generally regarded. Enthusiasts +there were, no doubt, who firmly believed in it, and +knaves who made a profit out of it, and dupes who +were preyed upon by the knaves; and so it languished +on through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. +It seems at one time to have amused the shrewd +intellect of Queen Elizabeth, and at another to have +caught the volatile fancy of the second Villiers, Duke +of Buckingham. But alchemy was, in the main, the +<i>modus vivendi</i> of quacks and cheats, of such impostors +as Ben Jonson has drawn so powerfully in his +great comedy—a Subtle, a Face, and a Doll Common, +who, in the Sir Epicure Mammons of the time, found +their appropriate victims. These creatures played +on the greed and credulity of their dupes with successful +audacity, and excited their imaginations by +extravagant promises. Thus, Ben Jonson’s hero runs +riot with glowing anticipations of what the alchemical +<i>magisterium</i> can effect.</p> + +<div class="cpoem2"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘Do you think I fable with you? I assure you,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He that has once the flower of the sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The perfect ruby, which we call <em>Elixir</em>,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not only can do that, but, by its virtue,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Can confer honour, love, respect, long life;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Give safety, valour, yes, and victory,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To whom he will. In eight-and-twenty days<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I’ll make an old man of fourscore a child....<br /></span> +<span class="i10">’Tis the secret<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of nature naturized ’gainst all infections,<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>30]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Cures all diseases coming of all causes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A month’s grief in a day, a year’s in twelve,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And of what age soever in a month.’<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>The English alchemists, however, with a few exceptions, +depended for a livelihood chiefly on their +sale of magic charms, love-philters, and even more +dangerous potions, and on horoscope-casting, and +fortune-telling by the hand or by cards. They acted, +also, as agents in many a dark intrigue and unlawful +project, being generally at the disposal of the highest +bidder, and seldom shrinking from any crime.</p> + + +<p class="break">The earliest name of note on the roll of the English +magicians, necromancers and alchemists is that of</p> + + +<h3>ROGER BACON.</h3> + +<p>This great man has some claim to be considered the +father of experimental philosophy, since it was he +who first laid down the principles upon which physical +investigation should be conducted. Speaking +of science, he says, in language far in advance of his +times: ‘There are two modes of knowing—by argument +and by experiment. Argument winds up a +question, but does not lead us to acquiesce in, or feel +certain of, the contemplation of truth, unless the +truth be proved and confirmed by experience.’ To +Experimental Science he ascribed three differentiating +characters: ‘First, she tests by experiment the grand +conclusions of all other sciences. Next, she discovers, +with reference to the ideas connected with other +sciences, splendid truths, to which these sciences +without assistance are unable to attain. Her third +prerogative is, that, unaided by the other sciences, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>31]</a></span> +and of herself, she can investigate the secrets of +nature.’ These truths, now accepted as trite and +self-evident, ranked, in Roger Bacon’s day, as novel +and important discoveries.</p> + +<p>He was born at Ilchester, in Somersetshire, in 1214. +Of his lineage, parentage, and early education we +know nothing, except that he must have been very +young when he went to Oxford, for he took orders +there before he was twenty. Joining the Franciscan +brotherhood, he applied himself to the study of +Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Arabic; but his genius +chiefly inclined towards the pursuit of the natural +sciences, in which he obtained such a mastery that +his contemporaries accorded to him the flattering +title of ‘The Admirable Doctor.’ His lectures +gathered round him a crowd of admiring disciples; +until the boldness of their speculations aroused the +suspicion of the ecclesiastical authorities, and in 1257 +they were prohibited by the General of his Order. +Then Pope Innocent IV. interfered, interdicting him +from the publication of his writings, and placing him +under close supervision. He remained in this state +of tutelage until Clement IV., a man of more liberal +views, assumed the triple tiara, who not only released +him from his irksome restraints, but desired him to +compose a treatise on the sciences. This was the origin +of Bacon’s ‘Opus Majus,’ ‘Opus Minus’ and ‘Opus +Tertius,’ which he completed in a year and a half, and +despatched to Rome. In 1267 he was allowed to +return to Oxford, where he wrote his ‘Compendium +Studii Philosophiæ.’ His vigorous advocacy of new +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>32]</a></span> +methods of scientific investigation, or, perhaps, his +unsparing exposure of the ignorance and vices of the +monks and the clergy, again brought down upon him +the heavy arm of the ecclesiastical tyranny. His +works were condemned by the General of his Order, +and in 1278, during the pontificate of Nicholas III., +he was thrown into prison, where he was detained for +several years. It is said that he was not released +until 1292, the year in which he published his latest +production, the ‘Compendium Studii Theologiæ.’ +Two years afterwards he died.</p> + +<p>In many respects Bacon was greatly in advance of +his contemporaries, but his general repute ignores his +real and important services to philosophy, and builds +up a glittering fabric upon mechanical discoveries and +inventions to which, it is to be feared, he cannot lay +claim. As Professor Adamson puts it, he certainly +describes a method of constructing a telescope, but +not so as to justify the conclusion that he himself +was in possession of that instrument. The invention +of gunpowder has been attributed to him on the +strength of a passage in one of his works, which, if +fairly interpreted, disposes at once of the pretension; +besides, it was already known to the Arabs. Burning-glasses +were in common use; and there is no proof +that he made spectacles, although he was probably +acquainted with the principle of their construction. +It is not to be denied, however, that in his interesting +treatise on ‘The Secrets of Nature and Art,’<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> he +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>33]</a></span> +exhibits every sign of a far-seeing and lively intelligence, +and foreshadows the possibility of some of our great +modern inventions. But, like so many master-minds +of the Middle Ages, he was unable wholly to resist +the fascinations of alchemy and astrology. He believed +that various parts of the human body were influenced +by the stars, and that the mind was thus stimulated +to particular acts, without any relaxation or interruption +of free will. His ‘Mirror of Alchemy,’ of +which a translation into French was executed by ‘a +Gentleman of Dauphiné,’ and printed in 1507, absolutely +bristles with crude and unfounded theories—as, +for instance, that Nature, in the formation of metallic +veins, tends constantly to the production of gold, but +is impeded by various accidents, and in this way +creates metals in which impurities mingle with the +fundamental substances. The main elements, he says, +are quicksilver and sulphur; and from these all +metals and minerals are compounded. Gold he describes +as a perfect metal, produced from a pure, +fixed, clear, and red quicksilver; and from a sulphur +also pure, fixed, and red, not incandescent and unalloyed. +Iron is unclean and imperfect, because +engendered of a quicksilver which is impure, too +much congealed, earthy, incandescent, white and red, +and of a similar variety of sulphur. The ‘stone,’ or +substance, by which the transmutation of the imperfect +into the perfect metals was to be effected must be +made, in the main, he said, of sulphur and mercury.</p> + +<p>It is not easy to determine how soon an atmosphere +of legend gathered around the figure of ‘the Admirable +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>34]</a></span> +Doctor;’ but undoubtedly it originated quite as much +in his astrological errors as in his scientific experiments. +Some of the myths of which he is the traditional +hero belong to a very much earlier period, as, for +instance, that of his Brazen Head, which appears in the +old romance of ‘Valentine and Orson,’ as well as in +the history of Albertus Magnus. Gower, too, in his +‘Confessio Amantis,’ relates how a Brazen Head was +fabricated by Bishop Grosseteste. It was customary +in those days to ascribe all kinds of marvels to men +who obtained a repute for exceptional learning, and +Bishop Grosseteste’s Brazen Head was as purely a +fiction as Roger Bacon’s. This is Gower’s account:</p> + +<div class="cpoem3"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘For of the gretè clerk Grostest<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I rede how busy that he was<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon the clergie an head of brass<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To forgè; and make it fortelle<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of suchè thingès as befelle.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And seven yerès besinesse<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He laidè, but for the lachèsse<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of half a minute of an hour ...<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He lostè all that he hadde do.’<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Stow tells a story of a Head of Clay, made at +Oxford in the reign of Edward II., which, at an +appointed time, spoke the mysterious words, ‘Caput +decidetur—caput elevabitur. Pedes elevabuntur supra +caput.’ Returning to Roger Bacon’s supposed invention, +we find an ingenious though improbable +explanation suggested by Sir Thomas Browne, in his +‘Vulgar Errors’:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>‘Every one,’ he says, ‘is filled with the story of Friar Bacon, +that made a Brazen Head to speak these words, “<em>Time is</em>.” +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>35]</a></span> +Which, though there went not the like relations, is surely too +literally received, and was but a mystical fable concerning the +philosopher’s great work, wherein he eminently laboured: implying +no more by the copper head, than the vessel wherein it was +wrought; and by the words it spake, than the opportunity to be +watched, about the <i>tempus ortus</i>, or birth of the magical child, or +“philosophical King” of Lullius, the rising of the “terra foliata” +of Arnoldus; when the earth, sufficiently impregnated with the +water, ascendeth white and splendent. Which not observed, the +work is irrecoverably lost.... Now letting slip the critical +opportunity, he missed the intended treasure: which had he +obtained, he might have made out the tradition of making a +brazen wall about England: that is, the most powerful defence or +strongest fortification which gold could have effected.’</p> +</div> + +<p>An interpretation of the popular myth which is +about as ingenious and far-fetched as Lord Bacon’s +expositions of the ‘Fables of the Ancients,’ of which +it may be said that they possess every merit but that +of probability!</p> + +<p>Bacon’s Brazen Head, however, took hold of the +popular fancy. It survived for centuries, and the +allusions to it in our literature are sufficiently +numerous. Cob, in Ben Jonson’s comedy of ‘Every +Man in his Humour,’ exclaims: ‘Oh, an my house +were the Brazen Head now! ’Faith, it would e’en +speak <em>Mo’ fools yet</em>!’ And we read in Greene’s ‘Tu +Quoque’:</p> + +<div class="cpoem4"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i10">‘Look to yourself, sir;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The brazen head has spoke, and I must have you.’<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Lord Bacon used it happily in his ‘Apology to the +Queen,’ when Elizabeth would have punished the +Earl of Essex for his misconduct in Ireland:—‘Whereunto +I said (to the end utterly to divert her), +“Madam, if you will have me speak to you in this +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>36]</a></span> +argument, I must speak to you as Friar Bacon’s head +spake, that said first, ‘<em>Time is</em>,’ and then, ‘<em>Time was</em>,’ +and ‘<em>Time would never be</em>,’ for certainly” (said I) “it +is now far too late; the matter is cold, and hath +taken too much wind.”’ Butler introduces it in his +‘Hudibras’:—‘Quoth he, “My head’s not made of +brass, as Friar Bacon’s noddle was.”’ And Pope, in +‘The Dunciad,’ writes:—‘Bacon trembled for his +brazen head.’ A William Terite, in 1604, gave to +the world some verse, entitled ‘A Piece of Friar +Bacon’s Brazen-head’s Prophecie.’ And, in our own +time, William Blackworth Praed has written ‘The +Chaunt of the Brazen Head,’ which, in his prose +motto, he (in the person of Friar Bacon) addresses +as ‘the brazen companion of his solitary hours.’</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> + +<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> +Epistola Fratris Rogerii Baconis de Secretis Operibus Artis et +Naturæ et de Nullitate Magiæ.</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> +<i>Laches</i>, oversight.</p> +</div> + + +<h3>‘THE FAMOUS HISTORIE OF FRIAR BACON.’</h3> + +<p>Towards the end of the sixteenth century, the +various legends which had taken Friar Bacon as their +central figure were brought together in a connected +form, and wrought, along with other stories of magic +and sorcery, into a continuous narrative, which +became immensely popular. It was entitled, ‘The +Famous Historie of Friar Bacon: Conteyning the +Wonderful Thinges that he Did in his Life; also the +Manner of his Death; with the Lives and Deaths of +the Two Conjurers, Bungye and Vandermast,’ and has +been reprinted by Mr. Thoms, in his ‘Early English +Romances.’</p> + +<p>According to this entertaining authority, the Friar +was ‘born in the West part of England, and was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>37]</a></span> +sonne to a wealthy farmer, who put him to the schoole +to the parson of the towne where he was borne; not +with intent that hee should turne fryer (as hee did), +but to get so much understanding, that he might +manage the better the wealth hee was to leave him. +But young Bacon took his learning so fast, that the +priest could not teach him any more, which made him +desire his master that he would speake to his father +to put him to Oxford, that he might not lose that +little learning that he had gained.... The father +affected to doubt his son’s capacity, and designed him +still to follow the same calling as himself; but the +student had no inclination to drive fat oxen or consort +with unlettered hinds, and stole away to “a cloister” +some twenty miles off, where the monks cordially +welcomed him. Continuing the pursuit of knowledge +with great avidity, he attained to such repute that the +authorities of Oxford University invited him to repair +thither. He accepted the invitation, and grew so +excellent in the secrets of Art and Nature, that not +England only, but all Christendom, admired him.’</p> + +<p>There, in the seclusion of his cell, he made the +Brazen Head on which rests his legendary fame.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>‘Reading one day of the many conquests of England, he +bethought himselfe how he might keepe it hereafter from the +like conquests, and so make himselfe famous hereafter to all +posterities. This, after great study, hee found could be no way +so well done as one; which was to make a head of brasse, and if +he could make this head to speake, and heare it when it speakes, +then might hee be able to wall all England about with brasse.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>38]</a></span> +To this purpose he got one Fryer Bungey to assist him, who was +a great scholar and a magician, but not to bee compared to +Fryer Bacon: these two with great study and paines so framed a +head of brasse, that in the inward parts thereof there was all +things like as in a naturall man’s head. This being done, they +were as farre from perfection of the worke as they were before, +for they knew not how to give those parts that they had made +motion, without which it was impossible that it should speake: +many bookes they read, but yet coulde not finde out any hope of +what they sought, that at the last they concluded to raise a spirit, +and to know of him that which they coulde not attaine to by +their owne studies. To do this they prepared all things ready, +and went one evening to a wood thereby, and after many ceremonies +used, they spake the words of conjuration; which the +Devill straight obeyed, and appeared unto them, asking what +they would? “Know,” said Fryer Bacon, “that wee have made +an artificiall head of brasse, which we would have to speake, to +the furtherance of which wee have raised thee; and being raised, +wee will here keepe thee, unlesse thou tell to us the way and +manner how to make this head to speake.” The Devill told him +that he had not that power of himselfe. “Beginner of lyes,” said +Fryer Bacon, “I know that thou dost dissemble, and therefore +tell it us quickly, or else wee will here bind thee to remaine +during our pleasures.” At these threatenings the Devill consented +to doe it, and told them, that with a continual fume of +the six hottest simples it should have motion, and in one month +space speak; the time of the moneth or day hee knew not: also +hee told them, that if they heard it not before it had done speaking, +all their labour should be lost. They being satisfied, licensed +the spirit for to depart.</p> + +<p>‘Then went these two learned fryers home againe, and prepared +the simples ready, and made the fume, and with continuall +watching attended when this Brazen Head would speake. Thus +watched they for three weekes without any rest, so that they were +so weary and sleepy that they could not any longer refraine from +rest. Then called Fryer Bacon his man Miles, and told him that +it was not unknown to him what paines Fryer Bungey and +himselfe had taken for three weekes space, onely to make and to +heare the Brazen Head speake, which if they did not, then had +they lost all their labour, and all England had a great losse +thereby; therefore hee intreated Miles that he would watch +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>39]</a></span> +whilst that they slept, and call them if the head speake. “Fear +not, good master,” said Miles, “I will not sleepe, but harken and +attend upon the head, and if it doe chance to speake, I will call +you; therefore I pray take you both your rests and let mee alone +for watching this head.” After Fryer Bacon had given him a +great charge the second time, Fryer Bungey and he went to +sleepe, and Miles was lefte alone to watch the Brazen Head. +Miles, to keepe him from sleeping, got a tabor and pipe, and +being merry disposed, with his owne musicke kept from sleeping +at last. After some noyse the head spake these two words, +“<span class="smcap">Time is</span>.” Miles, hearing it to speake no more, thought his +master would be angry if hee waked him for that, and therefore +he let them both sleepe, and began to mocke the head in this +manner: “Thou brazen-faced Head, hath my master tooke all +these paines about thee, and now dost thou requite him with two +words, <span class="smcap">Time is</span>? Had hee watched with a lawyer so long as +hee hath watched with thee, he would have given him more and +better words than thou hast yet. If thou canst speake no wiser, +they shal sleepe till doomes day for me: <span class="smcap">Time is!</span> I know Time +is, and that you shall heare, Goodman Brazen-face.</p> + +<div class="cpoem3"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘“Time is for some to eate,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Time is for some to sleepe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Time is for some to laugh,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Time is for some to weepe.<br /></span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘“Time is for some to sing,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Time is for some to pray,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Time is for some to creepe,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That have drunken all the day.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>‘“Do you tell us, copper-nose, when <span class="smcap">Time is</span>? I hope we +schollers know our times, when to drink drunke, when to kiss +our hostess, when to goe on her score, and when to pay it—that +time comes seldome.” After halfe an houre had passed, the +Head did speake againe, two words, which were these, “<span class="smcap">Time +was</span>.” Miles respected these words as little as he did the former, +and would not wake them, but still scoffed at the Brazen Head +that it had learned no better words, and have such a tutor as his +master: and in scorne of it sung this song:</p> + +<div class="cpoem1"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘“Time was when thou, a kettle,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">wert filled with better matter;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Fryer Bacon did thee spoyle<br /></span> +<span class="i1">when he thy sides did batter.<br /></span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>40]</a></span> +<span class="i0">‘“Time was when conscience dwelled<br /></span> +<span class="i1">with men of occupation;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Time was when lawyers did not thrive<br /></span> +<span class="i1">so well by men’s vexation.<br /></span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘“Time was when kings and beggars<br /></span> +<span class="i1">of one poore stuff had being;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Time was when office kept no knaves—<br /></span> +<span class="i1">that time it was worth seeing.<br /></span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘“Time was a bowle of water<br /></span> +<span class="i1">did give the face reflection;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Time was when women knew no paint,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">which now they call complexion.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>‘“<span class="smcap">Time was!</span> I know that, brazen-face, without your telling; +I know Time was, and I know what things there was when Time +was; and if you speake no wiser, no master shall be waked for +mee.” Thus Miles talked and sung till another halfe-houre was +gone: then the Brazen Head spake again these words, “<span class="smcap">Time is +past</span>;” and therewith fell downe, and presently followed a +terrible noyse, with strange flashes of fire, so that Miles was halfe +dead with feare. At this noyse the two Fryers awaked, and +wondred to see the whole roome so full of smoake; but that +being vanished, they might perceive the Brazen Head broken +and lying on the ground. At this sight they grieved, and called +Miles to know how this came. Miles, halfe dead with feare, +said that it fell doune of itselfe, and that with the noyse and fire +that followed he was almost frighted out of his wits. Fryer Bacon +asked him if hee did not speake? “Yes,” quoth Miles, “it spake, +but to no purpose: He have a parret speake better in that time +that you have been teaching this Brazen Head.”</p> + +<p>‘“Out on thee, villaine!” said Fryer Bacon; “thou hast undone +us both: hadst thou but called us when it did speake, all England +had been walled round about with brasse, to its glory and our +eternal fames. What were the words it spake?” “Very few,” +said Miles, “and those were none of the wisest that I have heard +neither. First he said, ‘<span class="smcap">Time is</span>.’” “Hadst thou called us then,” +said Fryer Bacon, “we had been made for ever.” “Then,” said +Miles, “half-an-hour after it spake againe, and said, ‘<span class="smcap">Time was</span>.’” +“And wouldst thou not call us then?” said Bungey. “Alas!” +said Miles, “I thought hee would have told me some long tale, +and then I purposed to have called you: then half-an-houre after +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>41]</a></span> +he cried, ‘<span class="smcap">Time is past</span>,’ and made such a noyse that hee hath +waked you himselfe, mee thinkes.” At this Fryer Bacon was in +such a rage that hee would have beaten his man, but he was +restrained by Bungey: but neverthelesse, for his punishment, he +with his art struck him dumbe for one whole month’s space. +Thus the greate worke of these learned fryers was overthrown, to +their great griefes, by this simple fellow.’</p> +</div> + +<p>The historian goes on to relate many instances of +Friar Bacon’s thaumaturgical powers. He captures +a town which the king had besieged for three months +without success. He puts to shame a German conjuror +named Vandermast, and he performs wonders +in love affairs; but at length a fatal result to one of +his magical exploits induces him to break to pieces +his wonderful glass and doff his conjurer’s robe. +Then, receiving intelligence of the deaths of Vandermast +and Friar Bungey, he falls into a deep grief, +so that for three days he refuses to partake of food, +and keeps his chamber.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>‘In the time that Fryer Bacon kept his Chamber, hee fell into +divers meditations; sometimes into the vanity of Arts and +Sciences; then would he condemne himselfe for studying of +those things that were so contrary to his Order soules health; +and would say, That magicke made a man a Devill: sometimes +would hee meditate on divinity; then would hee cry out upon +himselfe for neglecting the study of it, and for studying magicke: +sometime would he meditate on the shortnesse of mans life, then +would he condemne himself for spending a time so short, so ill as +he had done his: so would he goe from one thing to another, and +in all condemne his former studies.</p> + +<p>‘And that the world should know how truly he did repent his +wicked life, he caused to be made a great fire; and sending for +many of his friends, schollers, and others, he spake to them after +this manner: My good friends and fellow students, it is not +unknown to you, how that through my Art I have attained to +that credit, that few men living ever had: of the wonders that I +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>42]</a></span> +have done, all England can speak, both King and Commons: I +have unlocked the secrets of Art and Nature, and let the world +see those things that have layen hid since the death of Hermes,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> +that rare and profound philosopher: my studies have found the +secrets of the Starres; the bookes that I have made of them do +serve for precedents to our greatest Doctors, so excellent hath my +judgment been therein. I likewise have found out the secrets of +Trees, Plants, and Stones, with their several uses; yet all this +knowledge of mine I esteeme so lightly, that I wish that I were +ignorant and knew nothing, for the knowledge of these things (as +I have truly found) serveth not to better a man in goodnesse, but +onely to make him proude and thinke too well of himselfe. What +hath all my knowledge of Nature’s secrets gained me? Onely +this, the losse of a better knowledge, the losse of Divine Studies, +which makes the immortal part of man (his soule) blessed. I have +found that my knowledge has beene a heavy burden, and has kept +downe my good thoughts; but I will remove the cause, which are +these Bookes, which I doe purpose here before you all to burne. +They all intreated him to spare the bookes, because in them there +were those things that after-ages might receive great benefit by. +He would not hearken unto them, but threw them all into the +fire, and in that flame burnt the greatest learning in the world. +Then did he dispose of all his goods; some part he gave to poor +schollers, and some he gave to other poore folkes: nothing left he +for himselfe: then caused hee to be made in the Church-Wall a +Cell, where he locked himselfe in, and there remained till his +Death. His time hee spent in prayer, meditation, and such Divine +exercises, and did seeke by all means to perswade men from the +study of Magicke. Thus lived hee some two years space in that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>43]</a></span> +Cell, never comming forth: his meat and drink he received in at +a window, and at that window he had discourse with those that +came to him; his grave he digged with his owne nayles, and was +there layed when he dyed. Thus was the Life and Death of this +famous Fryer, who lived most part of his life a Magician, and +dyed a true Penitent Sinner and Anchorite.’</p> +</div> + +<p>Upon this popular romance Greene, one of the best +of the second-class Elizabethan dramatists, founded +his rattling comedy, entitled ‘The Historye of Fryer +Bacon and Fryer Bungay,’ which was written, it +would seem, in 1589, first acted about 1592, and +published in 1594. He does not servilely follow the +old story-book, but introduces an under-plot of his +own, in which is shown the love of Prince Edward +for Margaret, the ‘Fair Maid of Fressingfield,’ whom +the Prince finally surrenders to the man she loves, +his favourite and friend, Lacy, Earl of Lincoln.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> + +<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> +This patriotic sentiment would seem to show that the book +was written or published about the time of the Spanish Armada.</p> +</div> + +<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> +Hermes Trismegistus (‘thrice great’), a fabulous Chaldean +philosopher, to whom I have already made reference. The +numerous writings which bear his name were really composed by +the Egyptian Platonists; but the mediæval alchemists pretend to +recognise in him the founder of their art. Gower, in his ‘Confessio +Amantis,’ says:</p> + +<div class="cpoem3"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘Of whom if I the namès calle,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hermes was one the first of alle,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To whom this Art is most applied.’<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>The name of Hermes was chosen because of the supposed magical +powers of the god of the caduceus.</p> +</div> + + +<h3>GREENE’S COMEDY.</h3> + +<p>In Scene I., which takes place near Framlingham, +in Suffolk, we find Prince Edward eloquently expatiating +on the charms of the Fair Maid to an audience +of his courtiers, one of whom advises him, if he would +prove successful in his suit, to seek the assistance of +Friar Bacon, a ‘brave necromancer,’ who ‘can make +women of devils, and juggle cats into coster-mongers.’<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> +The Prince acts upon this advice.</p> + +<p>Scene II. introduces us to Friar Bacon’s cell at +Brasenose College, Oxford (an obvious anachronism, +as the college was not founded until long after Bacon’s +time). Enter Bacon and his poor scholar, Miles, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>44]</a></span> +with books under his arm; also three doctors of +Oxford: Burden, Mason, and Clement.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><span class="smcap">Bacon.</span> Miles, where are you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Miles.</span> <i>Hic sum, doctissime et reverendissime Doctor.</i> (Here I am, +most learned and reverend Doctor.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bacon.</span> <i>Attulisti nostros libros meos de necromantia?</i> (Hast thou +brought my books of necromancy?)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Miles.</span> <i>Ecce quam bonum et quam jucundum habitare libros in +unum!</i> (See how good and how pleasant it is to dwell among +books together!)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bacon.</span> Now, masters of our academic state<br /> +That rule in Oxford, viceroys in your place,<br /> +Whose heads contain maps of the liberal arts,<br /> +Spending your time in depths of learnèd skill,<br /> +Why flock you thus to Bacon’s secret cell,<br /> +A friar newly stalled in Brazen-nose?<br /> +Say what’s your mind, that I may make reply.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Burden.</span> Bacon, we hear that long we have suspect,<br /> +That thou art read in Magic’s mystery:<br /> +In pyromancy,<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> to divine by flames;<br /> +To tell by hydromancy, ebbs and tides;<br /> +By aeromancy to discover doubts,—<br /> +To plain out questions, as Apollo did.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bacon.</span> Well, Master Burden, what of all this?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Miles.</span> Marry, sir, he doth but fulfil, by rehearsing of these +names, the fable of the ‘Fox and the Grapes’: that which is +above us pertains nothing to us.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Burd.</span> I tell thee, Bacon, Oxford makes report,<br /> +Nay, England, and the Court of Henry says<br /> +Thou’rt making of a Brazen Head by art,<br /> +Which shall unfold strange doubts and aphorisms,<br /> +And read a lecture in philosophy:<br /> +And, by the help of devils and ghastly fiends,<br /> +Thou mean’st, ere many years or days be past,<br /> +To compass England with a wall of brass.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bacon.</span> And what of this?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Miles.</span> What of this, master! why, he doth speak mystically; +for he knows, if your skill fail to make a Brazen Head, yet +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>45]</a></span> +Master Waters’ strong ale will fit his time to make him have a +copper nose....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bacon.</span> Seeing you come as friends unto the friar,<br /> +Resolve you, doctors, Bacon can by books<br /> +Make storming Boreas thunder from his cave,<br /> +And dim fair Luna to a dark eclipse.<br /> +The great arch-ruler, potentate of hell,<br /> +Tumbles when Bacon bids him, or his fiends<br /> +Bow to the force of his pentageron.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> ...<br /> +I have contrived and framed a head of brass<br /> +(I made Belcephon hammer out the stuff),<br /> +And that by art shall read philosophy:<br /> +And I will strengthen England by my skill,<br /> +That if ten Cæsars lived and reigned in Rome,<br /> +With all the legions Europe doth contain,<br /> +They should not touch a grass of English ground:<br /> +The work that Ninus reared at Babylon,<br /> +The brazen walls framed by Semiramis,<br /> +Carved out like to the portal of the sun,<br /> +Shall not be such as rings the English strand<br /> +From Dover to the market-place of Rye.</p> +</div> + +<p>In this patriotic resolution of the potent friar the +reader will trace the influence of the national enthusiasm +awakened, only a few years before Greene’s +comedy was written and produced, by the menace of +the Spanish Armada.</p> + +<p>It is unnecessary to quote the remainder of this +scene, in which Bacon proves his magical skill at +the expense of the jealous Burden. Scene III. +passes at Harleston Fair, and introduces Lacy, Earl +of Lincoln, disguised as a rustic, and the comely +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>46]</a></span> +Margaret. In Scene IV., at Hampton Court, Henry III. +receives Elinor of Castile, who is betrothed to his son, +Prince Edward, and arranges with her father, the +Emperor, a competition between the great German +magician, Jaques Vandermast, and Friar Bacon, ‘England’s +only flower.’ In Scene V. we pass on to +Oxford, where some comic incidents occur between +Prince Edward (in disguise) and his courtiers; and +in Scene VI. to Friar Bacon’s cell, where the friar +shows the Prince in his ‘glass prospective,’ or magic +mirror, the figures of Margaret, Friar Bungay, and +Earl Lacy, and reveals the progress of Lacy’s suit to +the rustic beauty. Bacon summons Bungay to Oxford—straddling +on a devil’s back—and the scene +then changes to the Regent-house, and degenerates +into the rudest farce. At Fressingfield, in Scene VIII., +we find Prince Edward threatening to slay Earl Lacy +unless he gives up to him the Fair Maid of Fressingfield; +but, after a struggle, his better nature prevails, +and he retires from his suit, leaving Margaret to +become the Countess of Lincoln. Scene IX. carries +us back to Oxford, where Henry III., the Emperor, +and a goodly company have assembled to witness the +trial of skill between the English and the German +magicians—the first international competition on +record!—in which, of course, Vandermast is put to +ridicule.</p> + +<p>Passing over Scene X. as unimportant, we return, +in Scene XI., to Bacon’s cell, where the great magician +is lying on his bed, with a white wand in one hand, a +book in the other, and beside him a lighted lamp. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>47]</a></span> +The Brazen Head is there, with Miles, armed, keeping +watch over it. Here the dramatist closely follows +the old story. The friar falls asleep; the head speaks +once and twice, and Miles fails to wake his master. +It speaks the third time. ‘A lightning flashes forth, +and a hand appears that breaks down the head with a +hammer.’ Bacon awakes to lament over the ruin of +his work, and load the careless Miles with unavailing +reproaches. But the whole scene is characteristic +enough to merit transcription:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Scene XI.</span>—<i>Friar Bacon’s Cell.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><i><span class="smcap">Friar Bacon</span> is discovered lying on a bed, with a white +stick in one hand, a book in the other, and a lamp lighted +beside him; and the <span class="smcap">Brazen Head</span>, and <span class="smcap">Miles</span> with +weapons by him.</i></p> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bacon.</span> Miles, where are you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Miles.</span> Here, sir.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bacon.</span> How chance you tarry so long?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Miles.</span> Think you that the watching of the Brazen Head craves +no furniture? I warrant you, sir, I have so armed myself that if +all your devils come, I will not fear them an inch.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bacon.</span> Miles,<br /> +Thou know’st that I have divèd into hell,<br /> +And sought the darkest palaces of fiends;<br /> +That with my magic spells great Belcephon<br /> +Hath left his lodge and kneelèd at my cell;<br /> +The rafters of the earth rent from the poles,<br /> +And three-form’d Luna hid her silver looks,<br /> +Tumbling upon her concave continent,<br /> +When Bacon read upon his magic book.<br /> +With seven years’ tossing necromantic charms,<br /> +Poring upon dark Hecat’s principles,<br /> +I have framed out a monstrous head of brass,<br /> +That, by the enchanting forces of the devil,<br /> +Shall tell out strange and uncouth aphorisms,<br /> +And girt fair England with a wall of brass.<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>48]</a></span> +Bungay and I have watch’d these threescore days,<br /> +And now our vital spirits crave some rest:<br /> +If Argus lived and had his hundred eyes,<br /> +They could not over-watch Phobetor’s<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> night.<br /> +Now, Miles, in thee rests Friar Bacon’s weal:<br /> +The honour and renown of all his life<br /> +Hangs in the watching of this Brazen Head;<br /> +Therefore I charge thee by the immortal God<br /> +That holds the souls of men within his fist,<br /> +This night thou watch; for ere the morning star<br /> +Sends out his glorious glister on the north<br /> +The Head will speak. Then, Miles, upon thy life<br /> +Wake me; for then by magic art I’ll work<br /> +To end my seven years’ task with excellence.<br /> +If that a wink but shut thy watchful eye,<br /> +Then farewell Bacon’s glory and his fame!<br /> +Draw close the curtains, Miles: now, for thy life,<br /> +Be watchful, and ... (<i>Falls asleep.</i>)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Miles.</span> So; I thought you would talk yourself asleep anon; +and ’tis no marvel, for Bungay on the days, and he on the nights, +have watched just these ten and fifty days: now this is the night, +and ’tis my task, and no more. Now, Jesus bless me, what a +goodly head it is! and a nose! You talk of <i>Nos<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> autem glorificare</i>; +but here’s a nose that I warrant may be called <i>Nos autem +populare</i> for the people of the parish. Well, I am furnished with +weapons: now, sir, I will set me down by a post, and make it as +good as a watchman to wake me, if I chance to slumber. I +thought, Goodman Head, I would call you out of your <i>memento</i>.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> +Passion o’ God, I have almost broke my pate! (<i>A great noise.</i>) +Up, Miles, to your task; take your brown-bill in your hand; +here’s some of your master’s hobgoblins abroad.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Brazen Head</span> (<i>speaks</i>). Time is.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Miles.</span> Time is! Why, Master Brazen-Head, you have such a +capital nose, and answer you with syllables, ‘Time is’? Is this +my master’s cunning, to spend seven years’ study about ‘Time +is’? Well, sir, it may be we shall have some better orations +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>49]</a></span> +of it anon: well, I’ll watch you as narrowly as ever you were +watched, and I’ll play with you as the nightingale with the glow-worm; +I’ll set a prick against my breast.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> Now rest there, +Miles. Lord have mercy upon me, I have almost killed myself. +(<i>A great noise.</i>) Up, Miles; list how they rumble.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Brazen Head</span> (<i>loquitur</i>). Time was.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Miles.</span> Well, Friar Bacon, you have spent your seven years’ +study well, that can make your Head speak but two words at +once, ‘Time was.’ Yea, marry, time was when my master was a +wise man; but that was before he began to make the Brazen +Head. You shall lie while you ache, an your head speak no +better. Well, I will watch, and walk up and down, and be a +peripatetian<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> and a philosopher of Aristotle’s stamp. (<i>A great +noise.</i>) What, a fresh noise? Take thy pistols in hand, Miles. +(<i>A lightning flashes forth, and a Hand appears that breaks down the +<span class="smcap">Head</span> with a hammer.</i>) Master, master, up! Hell’s broken loose! +Your Head speaks; and there’s such a thunder and lightning, +that I warrant all Oxford is up in arms. Out of your bed, and +take a brownbill in your hand; the latter day is come.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bacon.</span> Miles, I come. (<i>Rises and comes forward.</i>)<br /> +O, passing warily watched!<br /> +Bacon will make thee next himself in love.<br /> +When spake the Head?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Miles.</span> When spake the Head? Did you not say that he +should tell strange principles of philosophy? Why, sir, it speaks +but two words at a time.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bacon.</span> Why, villain, hath it spoken oft?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Miles.</span> Oft! ay, marry hath it, thrice; but in all those three +times it hath uttered but seven words.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bacon.</span> As how?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Miles.</span> Marry, sir, the first time he said, ‘Time is,’ as if Fabius +Commentator<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> should have pronounced a sentence; then he said, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>50]</a></span> +‘Time was;’ and the third time, with thunder and lightning, as +in great choler, he said, ‘Time is past.’</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bacon.</span> ’Tis past, indeed. Ah, villain! Time is past;<br /> +My life, my fame, my glory, are all past.<br /> +Bacon,<br /> +The turrets of thy hope are ruined down,<br /> +Thy seven years’ study lieth in the dust:<br /> +Thy Brazen Head lies broken through a slave<br /> +That watched, and would not when the Head did will.<br /> +What said the Head first?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Miles.</span> Even, sir, ‘Time is.’</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bacon.</span> Villain, if thou hadst called to Bacon then,<br /> +If thou hadst watched, and waked the sleepy friar,<br /> +The Brazen Head had uttered aphorisms,<br /> +And England had been circled round with brass:<br /> +But proud Asmenoth,<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> ruler of the North,<br /> +And Demogorgon,<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> master of the Fates,<br /> +Grudge that a mortal man should work so much.<br /> +Hell trembled at my deep-commanding spells,<br /> +Fiends frowned to see a man their over-match;<br /> +Bacon might boast more than a man might boast;<br /> +But now the braves<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> of Bacon have an end,<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>51]</a></span> +Europe’s conceit of Bacon hath an end,<br /> +His seven years’ practice sorteth to ill end:<br /> +And, villain, sith my glory hath an end,<br /> +I will appoint thee to some fatal end.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a><br /> +Villain, avoid! get thee from Bacon’s sight!<br /> +Vagrant, go, roam and range about the world,<br /> +And perish as a vagabond on earth!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Miles.</span> Why, then, sir, you forbid me your service?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bacon.</span> My service, villain, with a fatal curse,<br /> +That direful plagues and mischief fall on thee.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Miles.</span> ’Tis no matter, I am against you with the old proverb, +‘The more the fox is cursed, the better he fares.’ God be with +you, sir: I’ll take but a book in my hand, a wide-sleeved gown +on my back, and a crowned cap<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> on my head, and see if I can +merit promotion.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bacon.</span> Some fiend or ghost haunt on thy weary steps,<br /> +Until they do transport thee quick to Hell!<br /> +For Bacon shall have never any day,<br /> +To lose the fame and honour of his Head.</p> + +<p class="right">[<i>Exeunt.</i></p></div> + +<p>Scene XII. passes in King Henry’s Court, and the +royal consent is given to Earl Lacy’s marriage with +the Fair Maid, which is fixed to take place on the +same day as Prince Edward’s marriage to the Princess +Elinor. In Scene XIII. we again go back to Bacon’s +cell. The friar is bewailing the destruction of his +Brazen Head to Friar Bungay, when two young gentlemen, +named Lambert and Sealsby, enter, in order to +look into the ‘glass prospective,’ and see how their +fathers are faring. Unhappily, at this very moment, +the elder Lambert and Sealsby, having quarrelled, are +engaged ‘in combat hard by Fressingfield,’ and stab +each other to the death, whereupon their sons +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>52]</a></span> +immediately come to blows, with a like fatal result. Bacon, +deeply affected, breaks the magic crystal which has +been the unwitting cause of so sad a catastrophe, +expresses his regret that he ever dabbled in the unholy +science, and announces his resolve to spend the +remainder of his life ‘in pure devotion.’</p> + +<p>At Fressingfield, in Scene XIV., the opportune +arrival of Lacy and his friends prevents Margaret +from carrying out her intention of retiring to the +nunnery at Framlingham, and with obliging readiness +she consents to marry the Earl. Scene XV. shifts to +Bacon’s cell, where a devil complains that the friar +hath raised him from the darkest deep to search about +the world for Miles, his man, and torment him in +punishment for his neglect of orders.</p> + +<p>Miles makes his appearance, and after some comic +dialogue, intended to tickle the ears of the groundlings, +mounts astride the demon’s back, and goes off +to ——! In Scene XVI., and last, we return to the +Court, where royalty makes a splendid show, and the +two brides—the Princess Elinor and the Countess +Margaret—display their rival charms. Of course the +redoubtable friar is present, and in his concluding +speech leaps over a couple of centuries to make a +glowing compliment to Queen Elizabeth, which seems +worth quotation:</p> + +<div class="cpoem5"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘I find by deep prescience of mine art,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which once I tempered in my secret cell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That here where Brute did build his Troynovant,<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a><br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>53]</a></span> +<span class="i0">From forth the royal garden of a King<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall flourish out so rich and fair a bud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose brightness shall deface proud Phœbus’ flower,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And overshadow Albion with her leaves.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till then Mars shall be master of the field,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But then the stormy threats of war shall cease:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The horse shall stamp as careless of the pike,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drums shall be turned to timbrels of delight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With wealthy favours Plenty shall enrich<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The strand that gladded wandering Brute to see,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And peace from heaven shall harbour in these leaves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That gorgeous beautify this matchless flower:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Apollo’s heliotropian<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> then shall stoop,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Venus’ hyacinth<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> shall vail her top;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Juno shall shut her gilliflowers up,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Pallas’ bay shall ’bash her brightest green;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ceres’ carnation, in consort with those,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall stoop and wonder at Diana’s rose.’<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a><br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>So much for Greene’s comedy of ‘Friar Bacon and +Friar Bungay’—not, on the whole, a bad piece of +work.</p> + + +<p class="break">Among the earlier English alchemists I may next +name, in chronological order, George Ripley, canon +of Bridlington, who, in 1471, dedicated to King Edward +III. his once celebrated ‘Compound of Alchemy; +or, The Twelve Gates leading to the Discovery of the +Philosopher’s Stone.’ These ‘gates,’ each of which +he describes in detail, but with little enlightenment to +the uninitiated reader, are:—1. Calcination; 2. Solution; +3. Separation; 4. Conjunction; 5. Putrefaction; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>54]</a></span> +6. Congelation; 7. Cibation; 8. Sublimation; +9. Fermentation; 10. Exaltation; 11. Multiplication; +and 12. Projection. In his old age Ripley learned +wisdom, and frankly acknowledged that he had wasted +his life upon an empty pursuit. He requested all +men, if they met with any of the five-and-twenty +treatises of which he was the author, to consign them +to the flames as absolutely vain and worthless.</p> + +<p>Yet there is a wild story that he actually discovered +the ‘magisterium,’ and was thereby enabled to send a +gift of £100,000 to the Knights of St. John, to assist +them in their defence of Rhodes against the Turks.</p> + + +<p class="break">Thomas Norton, of Bristol, was the author of ‘The +Ordinall of Alchemy’ (printed in London in 1652). +He is said to have been a pupil of Ripley, under +whom (at the age of 28) he studied for forty days, +and in that short time acquired a thorough knowledge +of ‘the perfection of chemistry.’ Ripley, however, +refused to instruct so young a man in the +master-secret of the great science, and the process +from ‘the white’ to ‘the red powder,’ so that Norton +was compelled to rely on his own skill and industry. +Twice in his labours a sad disappointment overtook +him. On one occasion he had almost completed the +tincture, when the servant whom he employed to +look after the furnace decamped with it, supposing +that it was fit for use. On another it was stolen by +the wife of William Canning, Mayor of Bristol, who +immediately sprang into immense wealth, and as some +amends, I suppose, for his ill-gotten gains, built the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>55]</a></span> +beautiful steeple of the church of St. Mary, Redcliffe—the +church afterwards connected with the sad story +of Chatterton. As for Norton, he seems to have lived +in poverty and died in poverty (1477).</p> + +<p>The ‘Ordinall of Alchemy’ is a tedious panegyric +of the science, interspersed with a good deal of the +vague talk about white and red stones and the philosophical +magnesia in which ‘the adepts’ delighted.</p> + + +<p class="break">To Norton we owe our scanty knowledge of Thomas +Dalton, who flourished about the middle of the +fifteenth century. He had the reputation of being a +devout Churchman until he was accused by a certain +Debois of possessing the powder of projection. Debois +roundly asserted that Norton had made him a thousand +pounds of gold (lucky man!) in less than twelve hours. +Whereupon Dalton simply said, ‘Sir, you are forsworn.’ +His explanation was that he had received +the powder from a canon of Lichfield, on undertaking +not to use it until after the canon’s death; and that +since he had been so troubled by his possession of it, +that he had secretly destroyed it. One Thomas Herbert, +a squire of King Edward, waylaid the unfortunate +man, and shut him up in the castle of Gloucester, +putting heavy pressure upon him to make the coveted +tincture. But this Dalton would not and could not +do; and after a captivity of four years, Herbert +ordered him to be brought out and executed in his +presence. He obeyed the harsh summons with great +delight, exclaiming, ‘Blessed art Thou, Lord Jesus! +I have been too long absent from Thee. The science +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>56]</a></span> +Thou gavest me I have kept without ever abusing it; +I have found no one fit to be my heir; wherefore, +sweet Lord, I will restore Thy gift to Thee again.’</p> + +<p>‘Then, after some devout prayer, with a smiling +countenance he desired the executioner to proceed. +Tears gushed from the eyes of Herbert when he +beheld him so willing to die, and saw that no +ingenuity could wrest his secret from him. He gave +orders for his release. His imprisonment and threatened +execution were contrived without the King’s +knowledge to intimidate him into compliance. The +iniquitous devices having failed, Herbert did not dare +to take away his life. Dalton rose from the block +with a heavy countenance, and returned to his abbey, +much grieved at the further prolongation of his +earthly sojourn. Herbert died shortly after this +atrocious act of tyranny, and Debois also came to an +untimely end. His father, Sir John Debois, was slain +at the battle of Tewkesbury, May 4, 1471; and two +days after, as recorded in Stow’s “Annales,” he himself +(James Debois) was taken, with several others of the +Lancastrian party, from a church where they had fled +for sanctuary, and was beheaded on the spot.’</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> + +<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> +That is, costard, or apple, mongers.</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> +See Appendix to the present chapter, p. <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</p> +</div> + +<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> +The pentageron, or pentagramma, is a mystic figure produced +by prolonging the sides of a regular pentagon till they +intersect one another. It can be drawn without a break in the +drawing, and, viewed from five sides, exhibits the form of the +letter A (pent-alpha), or the figure of the fifth proposition in +Euclid’s First Book.</p> +</div> + +<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> +From the Greek <ins class="greek" title="phobos">φόβος</ins>, +fear; <ins class="greek" title="phobêtra">φόβητρα</ins>, bugbears.</p> +</div> + +<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> +Bad puns were evidently common on the stage before the +days of Victorian burlesque.</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> +So Shakespeare, ‘1 Hen. IV.,’ iii. Falstaff says: ‘I make as +good use of it as many a man doth of a death’s head, or a memento +house.’</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> +So in the ‘Passionate Pilgrim’:</p> + +<div class="cpoem3"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘Save the nightingale alone:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She, poor bird, as all forlorn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leaned her breast uptill a thorn.’<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +</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> +A <i>peripatetic</i>, or walking philosopher. Observe the facetiousness +in ‘Aristotle’s <i>stamp</i>.’ Aristotle was the founder of the +Peripatetics.</p> +</div> + +<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> +Fabius <i>Cunctator</i>, or the Delayer, so called from the policy of +delay which he opposed to the vigorous movements of Hannibal. +One would suppose that the humour here, such as it is, would +hardly be perceptible to a theatrical audience.</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> +In the old German ‘Faustbuch,’ the title of ‘Prince of the +North’ is given to Beelzebub.</p> +</div> + +<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> +<i>Demogorgon</i>, or <i>Demiourgos</i>—the creative principle of evil—figures +largely in literature. He is first mentioned by Lactantius, +in the fourth century; then by Boccaccio, Boiardo, Tasso (‘Gierusalemme +Liberata’), and Ariosto (‘Orlando Furioso’). Marlowe +speaks, in ‘Tamburlaine,’ of ‘Gorgon, prince of Hell.’ Spenser, +in ‘The Faery Queen,’ refers to—</p> + +<div class="cpoem5"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘Great Gorgon, prince of darkness and dead night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At which Cocytus quakes, and Styx is put to flight.’<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Milton, in ‘Paradise Lost,’ alludes to ‘the dreaded name of +Demogorgon.’ Dryden says: ‘When the moon arises, and +Demogorgon walks his round.’ And he is one of the <i>dramatis +personæ</i> of Shelley’s ‘Prometheus Unbound’: ‘Demogorgon, a +tremendous gloom.... A mighty Darkness, filling the seat of +power.’</p> +</div> + +<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> +Boasts. So in Peele’s ‘Edward I’: ‘As thou to England +brought’st thy Scottish braves.’</p> +</div> + +<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> +This reiteration of the same final word, for the sake of +emphasis, is found in Shakespeare.</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> +A corner or college cap.</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> +An allusion to the old legend that Brut, or Brutus, great-grandson +of Æneas, founded New Troy (Troynovant), or +London.</p> +</div> + +<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> +Probably the reference is to the sunflower.</p> +</div> + +<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> +The classic writers usually identify the hyacinth with +Apollo.</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> +The rose, that is, of the Virgin Queen—an English Diana—Elizabeth. +In Shakespeare’s ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ (Act iv., +scene 1) we read of ‘Diana’s bud.’</p> +</div> + + +<h3>APPENDIX TO CHAPTER I.</h3> + +<p>The ancient magic included various kinds of divination, of +which the principal may here be catalogued:</p> + +<p><em>Aeromancy</em>, or divination from the air. If the wind blew from +the east, it signified good fortune (which is certainly not the +general opinion!); from the west, evil; from the south, calamity; +from the north, disclosure of what was secret; from all quarters +simultaneously (!), hail and rain.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>57]</a></span> +<em>Axinomancy</em>, practised by the Greeks, more particularly for the +purpose of discovering criminals. An axe poised upon a stake, or +an agate on a red-hot axe, was supposed by its movement to +indicate the offender. Or the names of suspected persons were +called out, and the movement of the axe at a particular name was +understood to certify guilt.</p> + +<p><em>Belomancy</em>, in use among the Arabs, was practised by means of +arrows, which were shot off, with written labels attached to them; +and the inscription on the arrow first picked up was accepted as +prophetic.</p> + +<p><em>Bibliomancy</em>, divining by means of the Bible, survived to a +comparatively recent period. The passage which first caught the +eye, on a Bible being opened haphazard, was supposed to indicate +the future. This was identical with the <i>Sortes Virgilianæ</i>, +the only difference being that in the latter, Virgil took the +place of the Bible. Everybody knows in connection with the +Sortes the story of Charles I. and Lord Falkland.</p> + +<p><em>Botanomancy</em>, divining by means of plants and flowers, can +hardly be said to be extinct even now. In Goethe’s ‘Faust,’ +Gretchen seeks to discover whether Faust returns her affection +by plucking, one after another, the petals of a star-flower (<i>sternblume</i>, +perhaps the china-aster), while she utters the alternate +refrains, ‘He loves me!’ ‘He loves me not!’ as she plucks the +last petal, exclaiming rapturously, ‘He loves me!’ According to +Theocritus, the Greeks used the poppy-flower for this purpose.</p> + +<p><em>Capnomancy</em>, divination by smoke, the ancients practised in two +ways: they threw seeds of jasmine or poppy in the fire, watching +the motion and density of the smoke they emitted, or they +observed the sacrificial smoke. If the smoke was thin, and shot +up in a straight line, it was a good omen.</p> + +<p><em>Cheiromancy</em> (or Palmistry), divination by the hand, was worked +up into an elaborate system by Paracelsus, Cardan, and others. +It has long been practised by the gipsies, by itinerant fortune-tellers, +and other cheats; and recently an attempt has been made to +give it a fashionable character.</p> + +<p><em>Coscinomancy</em> was practised by means of a sieve and a pair of +shears or forceps. The forceps or shears were used to suspend a +sieve, which moved (like the axe in axinomancy) when the name +of a guilty person was mentioned.</p> + +<p><em>Crystallomancy</em>, divining by means of a crystal globe, mirror, or +beryl. Of this science of prediction, Dr. Dee was the great +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>58]</a></span> +English professor; but the reader will doubtless remember the +story of the Earl of Surrey and his fair ‘Geraldine.’</p> + +<p><em>Geomancy</em>, divination by casting pebbles on the ground.</p> + +<p><em>Hydromancy</em>, divination by water, in which the diviner showed +the figure of an absent person. ‘In this you conjure the spirits +into water; there they are constrained to show themselves, as +Marcus Varro testifieth, when he writeth how he had seen a boy +in the water, who announced to him in a hundred and fifty verses +the end of the Mithridatic war.’</p> + +<p><em>Oneiromancy</em>, divination by dreams, is still credited by old +women of both sexes. Absurdly baseless as it is, it found believers +in the old time among men of culture and intellectual +force. Archbishop Laud attached so much importance to his +dreams that he frequently recorded them in his diary; and even +Lord Bacon seems to have thought that a prophetic meaning +was occasionally concealed in them.</p> + +<p><em>Onychomancy</em>, or <em>Onymancy</em>, divination by means of the nails of +an unpolluted boy.</p> + +<p><em>Pyromancy</em>, divination by fire. ‘The wife of Cicero is said, +when, after performing sacrifice, she saw a flame suddenly leap +forth from the ashes, to have prophesied the consulship to her +husband for the same year.’ Others resorted to the blaze of a +torch of pitch, which was painted with certain colours. It was a +good omen if the flame ran into a point; bad when it divided. +A thin-tongued flame announced glory; if it went out, it signified +danger; if it hissed, misfortune.</p> + +<p><em>Rabdomancy</em>, divination by the rod or wand, is mentioned by +Ezekiel. The use of a hazel-rod to trace the existence of water +or of a seam of coal seems a survival of this practice. But +enough of these follies:</p> + +<div class="cpoem5"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘Necro-, pyro-, geo-, hydro-, cheiro-, coscinomancy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With other vain and superstitious sciences.’<br /></span> +<span class="poet">Tomkis, ‘Albumazar,’ ii. 3.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + + + +<p class="padtop"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>59]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER II.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smlfont">THE STORY OF DR. JOHN DEE.</span></h2> + + +<p>The world must always feel curious to know the +exact moment when its great men first drew the +breath of life; and it is satisfactory, therefore, to be +able to state, on the weighty authority of Dr. Thomas +Smith, that Dr. John Dee, the famous magician and +‘philosopher,’ was born at forty minutes past four +o’clock on the morning of July 13, 1527. According +to the picturesque practice of latter-day biographers, +here I ought to describe a glorious summer sunrise, +the golden light spreading over hill and pasture, the +bland warm air stealing into the chamber where lay +the mother and her infant; but I forbear, as, for all I +know, this particular July morning may have been +cloudy, cold, and wet; besides, John, the son of +Rowland Dee, was born in London. From like want +of information I refrain from comments on Master +Dee’s early bringing-up and education. But it is reported +that he gave proof of so exceptional a capacity, +and of such a love of letters, that, at the early age of +fifteen, he was sent to the University of Cambridge, to +study the classics and the old scholastic philosophy. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>60]</a></span> +There, for three years, he was so vehemently bent, he +says, on the acquisition of learning, that he spent +eighteen hours a day on his books, reserving two only +for his meals and recreation, and four for sleep—an +unhealthy division of time, which probably over-stimulated +his cerebral system and predisposed him to +delusions and caprices of the imagination. Having +taken his degree of B.A., he crossed the seas in 1547 +‘to speak and confer’ with certain learned men, chiefly +mathematicians, such as Gemma Frisius, Gerardus +Mercator, Gaspar a Morica, and Antonius Gogara; of +whom the only one now remembered is Mercator, as +the inventor of a method of laying down hydrographical +charts, in which the parallels and meridians +intersect each other at right angles. After spending +some months in the Low Countries he returned home, +bringing with him ‘the first astronomer’s staff of +brass that was made of Gemma Frisius’ devising, the +two great globes of Gerardus Mercator’s making, and +the astronomer’s ring of brass (as Gemma Frisius had +newly framed it).’</p> + +<p>Returning to the classic shades of Granta, he began +to record his observations of ‘the heavenly influences +in this elemental portion of the world;’ and I suppose +it was in recognition of his scientific scholarship that +Henry VIII. appointed him to a fellowship at Trinity +College, and Greek under-reader. In the latter +capacity he superintended, in 1548, the performance +of the <ins class="greek" title="Eirênê">Ἐιρηνη</ins> +of Aristophanes, introducing among +‘the effects’ an artificial scarabæus, which ascended, +with a man and his wallet of provisions on its back, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>61]</a></span> +to Jupiter’s palace. This ingenious bit of mechanism +delighted the spectators, but, after the manner of the +time, was ascribed to Dee’s occultism, and he found it +convenient to retire to the Continent (1548), residing +for awhile at Louvain, and devoting himself to hermetic +researches, and afterwards at Paris (1580), where he +delivered scientific lectures to large and distinguished +audiences. ‘My auditory in Rhemes Colledge,’ he +says, ‘was so great, and the most part older than my +selfe, that the mathematicall schooles could not hold +them; for many were faine, without the schooles, at +the windowes, to be auditors and spectators, as they +best could help themselves thereto. I did also dictate +upon every proposition, beside the first exposition. +And by the first foure principall definitions representing +to the eyes (which by imagination onely are +exactly to be conceived), a greater wonder arose among +the beholders, than of my Aristophanes Scarabæus +mounting up to the top of Trinity-hall in Cambridge.’</p> + +<p>The accomplishments of this brilliant scientific +mountebank being noised abroad over all Europe, the +wonderful story reached the remote Court of the +Muscovite, who offered him, if he would take up his +residence at Moscow, a stipend of £2,000 per annum, +his diet also to be allowed to him free out of ‘the +Emperor’s own kitchen, and his place to be ranked +amongst the highest sort of the nobility there, and of +his privy councillors.’ Was ever scholar so tempted +before or since? In those times, the Russian Court +seems to have held <i>savants</i> and scholars in as +much esteem as nowadays it holds <i>prima-donnas</i> and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>62]</a></span> +<i>ballerines</i>. Dee also received advantageous proposals +from four successive Emperors of Germany (Charles V., +Ferdinand, Maximilian II., and Rudolph II.), but the +Muscovite’s outbade them all. A residence in the +heart of Russia had no attraction, however, for the +Oxford scholar, who, in 1551, returned to England +with a halo of fame playing round his head (to speak +figuratively, as Dee himself loved to do), which +recommended him to the celebrated Greek professor +at Cambridge, Sir John Cheke. Cheke introduced +him to Mr. Secretary Cecil, as well as to Edward VI., +who bestowed upon him a pension of 100 crowns per +annum (speedily exchanged, in 1553, for the Rectory +of Upton-upon-Severn). At first he met with favour +from Queen Mary; but the close correspondence he +maintained with the Princess Elizabeth, who appreciated +his multifarious scholarship, exposed him +to suspicion, and he was accused of practising against +the Queen’s life by divers enchantments. Arrested +and imprisoned (at Hampton Court), he was subjected +to rigorous examinations, and as no charge of treason +could be proved against him, was remitted to Bishop +Bonner as a possible heretic. But his enemies failed +again in their malicious intent, and in 1555 he received +his liberty. Imprisonment and suffering had not +quenched his activity of temper, and almost immediately +upon his release he solicited the Queen’s assent +to a plan for the restoration and preservation of +certain precious manuscripts of classical antiquity. +He solicited in vain.</p> + +<p>When Elizabeth came to the throne, Dee, as a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>63]</a></span> +proficient in the occult arts, was consulted by Dudley +(afterwards Earl of Leicester) as to the most suitable +and auspicious day for her coronation. She +testified to her own belief in his skill by employing +him, when her image in wax had been discovered in +Lincoln’s Inn Fields, to counteract the evil charm. +But he owed her favour, we may assume, much +more to his learning, which was really extensive, +than to his supposed magical powers. He tells us +that, shortly before her coronation, she summoned +him to Whitehall, remarking to his patrons, Dudley +and the Earl of Pembroke, ‘Where my brother hath +given him a crown, I will give him a noble.’ She +was certainly more liberal to Dee than to many of +her servants who were much more deserving. In +December, 1564, she granted him the reversion of +the Deanery of Gloucester. Not long afterwards +his friends recommended him for the Provostship of +Eton College. ‘Favourable answers’ were returned, +but he never received the Provostship. He obtained +permission, however, to hold for ten years the +two rectories of Upton and Long Ledenham. Later +in her reign (July, 1583), when two great nobles +invited themselves to dine with him, he was compelled +to decline the honour on account of his poverty. +The Queen, on being apprised of this incident, sent +him a present of forty angels of gold. We shall come +upon other proofs of her generosity.</p> + +<p>Dee was travelling on the Continent in 1571, and +on his way through Lorraine was seized with a +dangerous sickness; whereupon the Queen not only +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>64]</a></span> +sent ‘carefully and with great speed’ two of her +physicians, but also the honourable Lord Sidney +‘in a manner to tend on him,’ and ‘to discern how +his health bettered, and to comfort him from her +Majesty with divers very pithy speeches and gracious, +and also with divers rarities to eat, to increase his +health and strength.’ Philosophers and men of letters, +when they are ailing, meet with no such pleasant +attentions nowadays! But the list of Elizabeth’s +bounties is not yet ended. The much-travelling +scholar, who saw almost as much of cities and men +and manners as Odysseus himself, had wandered +into the farthest parts of the kingdom of Bohemia; +and that no evil might come to him, or his companion, +or their families, she sent them her most +princely and royal letters of safe-conduct. After +his return home, a little before Christmas, 1589, +hearing that he was unable to keep house as liberally +as became his position and repute, she promised to +assist him with the gift of a hundred pounds, and +once or twice repeated the promise on his coming +into her presence. Fifty pounds he <em>did</em> receive, +with which to keep his Christmas merrily, but what +became of the other moiety he was never able to +discover. A malignant influence frequently interposed, +it would seem, between the Queen’s benevolence +in intention and her charity in action; and the unfortunate +doctor was sometimes tantalized with +promises of good things which failed to be realized. +On the whole, however, I do not think he had much +to complain of; and the reproach of parsimony so +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>65]</a></span> +often levelled at great Gloriana would certainly not +apply to her treatment of Dr. Dee.</p> + +<p>She honoured him with several visits at Mortlake, +where he had a pleasant house close by the riverside, +and a little to the westward of the church—surrounded +by gardens and green fields, with bright +prospects of the shining river. Elizabeth always +came down from Whitehall on horseback, attended +by a brave retinue of courtiers; and as she passed +along, her loyal subjects stood at their doors, or +lined the roadside, making respectful bows and +curtseys, and crying, ‘God save the Queen!’ One +of these royal visits was made on March 10, 1575, +the Queen desiring to see the doctor’s famous +library; but learning that he had buried his wife +only four hours before, she refused to enter the +house. Dee, however, submitted to her inspection +his magic crystal, or ‘black stone,’ and exhibited +some of its marvellous properties; her Majesty, for +the better examination of the same, being taken down +from her horse ‘by the Earl of Leicester, by the +Church wall of Mortlack.’</p> + +<p>She was at Dr. Dee’s again on September 17, +1580. This time she came from Richmond in her +coach, a wonderfully cumbrous vehicle, drawn by +six horses; ‘and when she was against my garden +in the fielde,’ says the doctor, ‘her Majestie staide +there a good while, and then came into the street at +the great gate of the field, where her Majestie +espied me at my dore, making reverent and dutifull +obeysance unto her, and with her hand her Majestie +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>66]</a></span> +beckoned for me to come to her, and I came to her +coach side; her Majestie then very speedily pulled +off her glove, and gave me her hand to kiss; and +to be short, her Majestie wished me to resort +oftener to her Court, and by some of her Privy +Chamber to give her Majestie to wete (know) when I +came there.’</p> + +<p>Another visit took place on October 10, 1580:—‘The +Queenes Majestie to my great comfort (<i>horâ +quintâ</i>) came with her train from the Court, and at +my dore graciously calling me unto her, on horseback +exhorted me briefly to take my mother’s death +patiently; and withal told me, that the Lord +Treasurer had greatly commended my doings for her +title royall, which he had to examine. The which +title in two rolls of velome parchment his Honour +had some houres before brought home, and delivered +to Mr. Hudson for me to receive at my coming from +my mother’s buriall at church. Her Majestie remembered +also then, how at my wives buriall it was +her fortune likewise to call upon me at my house, as +before is noted.’</p> + +<p>Dee’s library—as libraries went then—was not +unworthy of royal inspection. Its proud possessor +computed it to be worth £2,000, which, at the +present value of money, would be equal, I suppose, +to £10,000. It consisted of about 4,000 volumes, +bound and unbound, a fourth part being MSS. He +speaks of four ‘written books’—one in Greek, two +in French, and one in High Dutch—as having cost +him £533, and inquires triumphantly what must +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>67]</a></span> +have been the value of some hundred of the best of +all the other written books, some of which were the +<i>autographia</i> of excellent and seldom-heard-of authors? +He adds that he spent upwards of forty years in +collecting this library from divers places beyond +the seas, and with much research and labour in +England.</p> + +<p>Of the ‘precious books’ thus collected, Dee does +not mention the titles; but he has recorded the rare +and exquisitely made ‘instruments mathematical’ +which belonged to him: An excellent, strong, and +fair quadrant, first made by that famous Richard +Chancellor who boldly carried his discovery-ships +past the Icy Cape, and anchored them in the White +Sea. There was also an excellent <i>radius astronomicus</i>, +of ten feet in length, the staff and cross +very curiously divided into equal parts, after Richard +Chancellor’s quadrant manner. Item, two globes of +Mercator’s best making: on the celestial sphere Dee, +with his own hand, had set down divers comets, +their places and motions, according to his individual +observation. Item, divers other instruments, as +the theorie of the eighth sphere, the ninth and +tenth, with an horizon and meridian of copper, made +by Mercator specially for Dr. Dee. Item, sea-compasses +of different kinds. Item, a magnet-stone, +commonly called a loadstone, of great virtue. +Also an excellent watch-clock, made by one Dibbley, +‘a notable workman, long since dead,’ by which the +time might sensibly be measured in the seconds of +an hour—that is, not to fail the 360th part of an +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>68]</a></span> +hour. We need not dwell upon his store of documents +relating to Irish and Welsh estates, and of +ancient seals of arms; but my curiosity, I confess, +is somewhat stirred by his reference to ‘a great +bladder,’ with about four pounds weight of ‘a very +sweetish thing,’ like a brownish gum, in it, artificially +prepared by thirty times purifying, which the +doctor valued at upwards of a hundred crowns.</p> + + +<p class="break">While engaged in learned studies and correspondence +with learned men, Dee found time to +indulge in those wild semi-mystical, transcendental +visions which engaged the imagination of so many +mediæval students. The secret of ‘the philosopher’s +stone’ led him into fascinating regions of speculation, +and the ecstasies of Rosicrucianism dazzled him +with the idea of holding communication with the +inhabitants of the other world. How far he was +sincere in these pursuits, how far he imparted into +them a spirit of charlatanry, I think it is impossible +to determine. Perhaps one may venture to say +that, if to some small extent an impostor, he was, to +a much larger extent, a dupe; that if he deceived +others, he also deceived himself; nor is he, as +biography teaches, the only striking example of the +credulous enthusiast who mingles with his enthusiasm, +more or less unconsciously, a leaven of +hypocrisy. As early as 1571 he complains, in the +preface to his ‘English Euclid,’ that he is jeered at +by the populace as a conjurer. By degrees, it is +evident, he begins to feel a pride in his magical +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>69]</a></span> +attainments. He records with the utmost gravity +his remarkable dreams, and endeavours to read the +future by them. He insists, moreover, on strange +noises which he hears in his chamber. In those +days a favourite method of summoning the spirits +was to bring them into a glass or stone which had +been prepared for the purpose; and in his diary, +under the date of May 25, 1581, he records—for the +first time—that he had held intercourse in this way +with supra-mundane beings.</p> + +<p>Combining with his hermetico-magical speculations +religious exercises of great fervour, he was thus engaged, +one day in November, 1582, when suddenly +upon his startled vision rose the angel Uriel ‘at the +west window of his laboratory,’ and presented him +with a translucent stone, or crystal, of convex shape, +possessing the wonderful property of introducing its +owner to the closest possible communication with the +world of spirits. It was necessary at times that this +so-called mirror should be turned in different positions +before the observer could secure the right focus; +and then the spirits appeared on its surface, or in +different parts of the room by reason of its action. +Further, only one person, whom Dee calls the <em>skryer</em>, +or seer, could discover the spirits, or hear and interpret +their voices, just as there can be but one medium, +I believe, at a spiritualistic séance of the present day. +But, of course, it was requisite that, while the medium +was absorbed in his all-important task, some person +should be at hand to describe what he saw, or professed +to see, and commit to paper what he heard, or +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>70]</a></span> +professed to hear; and a seer with a lively imagination +and a fluent tongue could go very far in both +directions. This humbler, secondary position Dee reserved +for himself. Probably his invention was not +sufficiently fertile for the part of a medium, or else he +was too much in earnest to practise an intentional +deception. As the crystal showed him nothing, he +himself said so, and looked about for someone more +sympathetic, or less conscientious. His choice fell at +first on a man named Barnabas Saul, and he records +in his diary how, on October 9, 1581, this man ‘was +strangely troubled by a spiritual creature about midnight.’ +In a MS. preserved in the British Museum, +he relates some practices which took place on +December 2, beginning his account with this statement: +‘I willed the skryer, named Saul, to looke into +my great crystalline globe, if God had sent his holy +angel Azrael, or no.’ But Saul was a fellow of small +account, with a very limited inventive faculty, and on +March 6, 1582, he was obliged to confess ‘that he neither +heard nor saw any spiritual creature any more.’ Dee +and his inefficient, unintelligent skryer then quarrelled, +and the latter was dismissed, leaving behind him an +unsavoury reputation.</p> + + +<h3>EDWARD KELLY.</h3> + +<p>Soon afterwards our magician made the acquaintance +of a certain Edward Kelly (or Talbot), who was +in every way fitted for the mediumistic <i>rôle</i>. He was +clever, plausible, impudent, unscrupulous, and a +most accomplished liar. A native of Worcester, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>71]</a></span> +where he was born in 1555, he was bred up, according +to one account, as a druggist, according to +another as a lawyer; but all accounts agree that he +became an adept in every kind of knavery. He was +pilloried, and lost his ears (or at least was condemned +to lose them) at Lancaster, for the offence of coining, +or for forgery; afterwards retired to Wales, assumed +the name of Kelly, and practised as a conjurer and +alchemist. A story is told of him which illustrates the +man’s unhesitating audacity, or, at all events, the +notoriety of his character: that he carried with him +one night into the park of Walton-le-Dale, near +Preston, a man who thirsted after a knowledge of the +future, and, when certain incantations had been completed, +caused his servants to dig up a corpse, interred +only the day before, that he might compel it to +answer his questions.</p> + +<p>How he got introduced to Dr. Dee I do not profess +to know; but I am certainly disinclined to accept the +wonderful narrative which Mr. Waite renders in so +agreeable a style—that Kelly, during his Welsh +sojourn, was shown an old manuscript which his +landlord, an innkeeper, had obtained under peculiar +circumstances. ‘It had been discovered in the tomb +of a bishop who had been buried in a neighbouring +church, and whose tomb had been sacrilegiously up-torn +by some fanatics,’ in the hope of securing the +treasures reported to be concealed within it. They +found nothing, however, but the aforesaid manuscript, +and two small ivory bottles, respectively containing a +ponderous white and red powder. ‘These pearls +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>72]</a></span> +beyond price were rejected by the pigs of apostasy: +one of them was shattered on the spot, and its +ruddy, celestine contents for the most part lost. The +remnant, together with the remaining bottle and the +unintelligible manuscript, were speedily disposed of +to the innkeeper in exchange for a skinful of wine.’ +The innkeeper, in his turn, parted with them for one +pound sterling to Master Edward Kelly, who, believing +he had obtained a hermetic treasure, hastened +to London to submit it to Dr. Dee.</p> + +<p>This accomplished and daring knave was engaged +by the credulous doctor as his skryer, at a salary of +£50 per annum, with ‘board and lodging,’ and all expenses +paid. These were liberal terms; but it must be +admitted that Kelly earned them. Now, indeed, the +crystal began to justify its reputation! Spirits +came as thick as blackberries, and voices as numerous +as those of rumour! Kelly’s amazing fertility of +fancy never failed his employer, upon whose confidence +he established an extraordinary hold, by judiciously +hinting doubts as to the propriety of the work +he had undertaken. How could a man be other than +trustworthy, when he frankly expressed his suspicions +of the <i>mala fides</i> of the spirits who responded +to the summons of the crystal? It was impossible—so +the doctor argued—that so candid a medium +could be an impostor, and while resenting the imputations +cast upon the ‘spiritual creatures,’ he came to +believe all the more strongly in the man who +slandered them. The difference of opinion gave rise, +of course, to an occasional quarrel. On one occasion +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>73]</a></span> +(in April, 1582) Kelly specially provoked his employer +by roundly asserting that the spirits were +demons sent to lure them to their destruction; and +by complaining that he was confined in Dee’s house +as in a prison, and that it would be better for him to +be near Cotsall Plain, where he might walk abroad +without danger.</p> + +<p>Some time in 1583 a certain ‘Lord Lasky,’ that is, +Albert Laski or Alasco, prince or waiwode of Siradia +in Poland, and a guest at Elizabeth’s Court, made +frequent visits to Dee’s house, and was admitted to +the spirit exhibitions of the crystal. It has been suggested +that Kelly had conceived some ambitious projects, +which he hoped to realize through the agency +of this Polish noble, and that he made use of the +crystal to work upon his imagination. Thenceforward +the spirits were continually hinting at great +European revolutions, and uttering vague predictions +of some extraordinary good fortune which was in preparation +for Alasco. On May 28 Dee and Kelly +were sitting in the doctor’s study, discussing the +prince’s affairs, when suddenly appeared—perhaps it +was an optical trick of the ingenious Kelly—‘a +spiritual creature, like a pretty girl of seven or nine +years of age, attired on her head, with her hair rowled +up before, and hanging down very long behind, with +a gown of soy, changeable green and red, and with a +train; she seemed to play up and down, and seemed +to go in and out behind my books, lying in heaps; +and as she should ever go between them, the books +seemed to give place sufficiently, dividing one heap +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>74]</a></span> +from the other while she passed between them. +And so I considered, and heard the diverse reports +which E. K. made unto this pretty maid, and I said, +“Whose maiden are you?”’ Here follows the conversation—inane +and purposeless enough, and yet +deemed worthy of preservation by the credulous +doctor:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>DOCTOR DEE’S CONVERSATION WITH THE SPIRITUAL CREATURE.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">She.</span> Whose man are you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dee.</span> I am the servant of God, both by my bound duty, and +also (I hope) by His adoption.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">A Voice.</span> You shall be beaten if you tell.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">She.</span> Am not I a fine maiden? give me leave to play in your +house; my mother told me she would come and dwell here.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>(<i>She went up and down with most lively gestures of a young +girl playing by herself, and divers times another spake +to her from the corner of my study by a great perspective +glasse, but none was seen beside herself.</i>)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">She.</span> Shall I? I will. (<i>Now she seemed to answer me in the +foresaid corner of my study.</i>) I pray you let me tarry a little? +(<i>Speaking to me in the foresaid corner.</i>)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dee.</span> Tell me what you are.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">She.</span> I pray you let me play with you a little, and I will tell +you who I am.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dee.</span> In the name of Jesus then, tell me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">She.</span> I rejoice in the name of Jesus, and I am a poor little +maiden; I am the last but one of my mother’s children; I have +little baby children at home.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dee.</span> Where is your home?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">She.</span> I dare not tell you where I dwell, I shall be beaten.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dee.</span> You shall not be beaten for telling the truth to them that +love the truth; to the Eternal Truth all creatures must be +obedient.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">She.</span> I warrant you I will be obedient; my sisters say they +must all come and dwell with you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dee.</span> I desire that they who love God should dwell with me, +and I with them.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">She.</span> I love you now you talk of God.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>75]</a></span> +<span class="smcap">Dee.</span> Your eldest sister—her name is Esiměli.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">She.</span> My sister is not so short as you make her.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dee.</span> O, I cry you mercy! she is to be pronounced Esimīli!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kelly.</span> She smileth; one calls her, saying, Come away, +maiden.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">She.</span> I will read over my gentlewomen first; my master Dee +will teach me if I say amiss.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dee.</span> Read over your gentlewomen, as it pleaseth you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">She.</span> I have gentlemen and gentlewomen; look you here.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kelly.</span> She bringeth a little book out of her pocket. She +pointeth to a picture in the book.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">She.</span> Is not this a pretty man?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dee.</span> What is his name?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">She.</span> My (mother) saith his name is Edward: look you, he +hath a crown upon his head; my mother saith that this man was +Duke of York.</p> +</div> + +<p>And so on.</p> + +<p>The question here suggests itself, Was this passage +of nonsense Dr. Dee’s own invention? And has he +compiled it for the deception of posterity? I do not +believe it. It is my firm conviction that he recorded +in perfect good faith—though I own my opinion is +not very complimentary to his intelligence—the extravagant +rigmarole dictated to him by the arch-knave +Kelly, who, very possibly, added to his many +ingenuities some skill in the practices of the ventriloquist. +No great amount of artifice can have been +necessary for successfully deceiving so admirable a +subject for deception as the credulous Dee. It is +probable that Dee may sometimes have suspected he +was being imposed upon; but we may be sure he +was very unwilling to admit it, and that he did his +best to banish from his mind so unwelcome a suspicion. +As for Kelly, it seems clear that he had +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>76]</a></span> +conceived some widely ambitious and daring scheme, +which, as I have said, he hoped to carry out through +the instrumentality of Alasco, whose interest he +endeavoured to stimulate by flattering his vanity, and +representing the spiritual creature as in possession of +a pedigree which traced his descent from the old +Norman family of the Lacys.</p> + +<p>With an easy invention which would have done +credit to the most prolific of romancists, he daily +developed the characters of his pretended visions.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> +Consulting the crystal on June 2, he professed to +see a spirit in the garb of a husbandman, and this +spirit rhodomontaded in mystical language about +the great work Alasco was predestined to accomplish +in the conversion and regeneration of the world. +Before this invisible fictionist retired into his former +obscurity, Dee petitioned him to use his influence on +behalf of a woman who had committed suicide, and +of another who had dreamed of a treasure hidden in a +cellar. Other interviews succeeded, in the course of +which much more was said about the coming purification +of humanity, and it was announced that a new +code of laws, moral and religious, would be entrusted +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>77]</a></span> +to Dee and his companions. What a pity that this +code was never forthcoming! A third spirit, a +maiden named Galerah, made her appearance, all +whose revelations bore upon Alasco, and the greatness +for which he was reserved: ‘I say unto thee, his +name is in the Book of Life. The sun shall not passe +his course before he be a king. His counsel shall +breed alteration of his State, yea, of the whole world. +What wouldst thou know of him?’</p> + +<p>‘If his kingdom shall be of Poland,’ answered Dee, +‘in what land else?’</p> + +<p>‘Of two kingdoms,’ answered Galerah.</p> + +<p>‘Which? I beseech you.’</p> + +<p>‘The one thou hast repeated, and the other he +seeketh as his right.’</p> + +<p>‘God grant him,’ exclaimed the pious doctor, +‘sufficient direction to do all things so as may please +the highest of his calling.’</p> + +<p>‘He shall want no direction,’ replied Galerah, ‘in +anything he desireth.’</p> + +<p>Whether Kelly’s invention began to fail him, or +whether it was a desire to increase his influence over +his dupe, I will not decide; but at this time he +revived his pretended conscientious scruples against +dealing with spirits, whom he calumniously declared +to be ministers of Satan, and intimated his intention +of departing from the unhallowed precincts of Mortlake. +But the doctor could not bear with equanimity +the loss of a skryer who rendered such valuable service, +and watched his movements with the vigilance of +alarm. It was towards the end of June, the month +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>78]</a></span> +made memorable by such important revelations, that +Kelly announced, one day, his design of riding from +Mortlake to Islington, on some private business. +The doctor’s fears were at once awakened, and he fell +into a condition of nervous excitement, which, no +doubt, was exactly what Kelly had hoped to provoke. +‘I asked him,’ says Dee, ‘why he so hasted to +ride thither, and I said if it were to ride to Mr. +Henry Lee, I would go thither also, to be acquainted +with him, seeing now I had so good leisure, being +eased of the book writing. Then he said, that one +told him, the other day, that the Duke (Alasco) did +but flatter him, and told him other things, both +against the Duke and me. I answered for the Duke +and myself, and also said that if the forty pounds’ +annuity which Mr. Lee did offer him was the chief +cause of his minde setting that way (contrary to +many of his former promises to me), that then I +would assure him of fifty pounds yearly, and would +do my best, by following of my suit, to bring it to +pass as soon as I possibly could, and thereupon did +make him promise upon the Bible. Then Edward +Kelly again upon the same Bible did sweare unto me +constant friendship, and never to forsake me; and, +moreover, said that unless this had so fallen out, he +would have gone beyond the seas, taking ship at +Newcastle within eight days next. And so we plight +our faith each to other, taking each other by the +hand upon these points of brotherly and friendly +fidelity during life, which covenant I beseech God +to turn to His honour, glory, and service, and the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>79]</a></span> +comfort of our brethren (His children) here on +earth.’</p> + +<p>This concordat, however, was of brief duration. +Kelly, who seems to have been in fear of arrest,<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> still +threatened to quit Dee’s service; and by adroit +pressure of this kind, and by unlimited promises to +Alasco, succeeded in persuading his two confederates +to leave England clandestinely, and seek an asylum +on Alasco’s Polish estates. Dee took with him his +second wife, Jane Fromond, to whom he had been +married in February, 1578, his son Arthur (then +about four years old), and his children by his first +wife. Kelly was also accompanied by his wife and +family.</p> + +<p>On the night of September 21, 1583, in a storm +of rain and wind, they left Mortlake by water, +and dropped down the river to a point four or five +miles below Gravesend, where they embarked on +board a Danish ship, which they had hired to take +them to Holland. But the violence of the gale was +such that they were glad to transfer themselves, after +a narrow escape from shipwreck, to some fishing-smacks, +which landed them at Queenborough, in the +Isle of Sheppey, in safety. There they remained until +the gale abated, and then crossed the Channel to +Brill on the 30th. Proceeding through Holland and +Friesland to Embden and Bremen, they thence made +their way to Stettin, in Pomerania, arriving on +Christmas Day, and remaining until the middle of +January.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>80]</a></span> +Meanwhile, Kelly was careful not to intermit those +revelations from the crystal which kept alive the +flame of credulous hope in the bosom of his two +dupes, and he was especially careful to stimulate the +ambition of Alasco, whose impoverished finances +could ill bear the burden imposed upon them of +supporting so considerable a company. They reached +Siradia on February 3, 1584, and there the spirits +suddenly changed the tone of their communications; +for Kelly, having unexpectedly discovered that +Alasco’s resources were on the brink of exhaustion, +was accordingly prepared to fling him aside without +remorse. The first spiritual communication +was to the effect that, on account of his sins, he +would no longer be charged with the regeneration of +the world, but he was promised possession of the +Kingdom of Moldavia. The next was an order to +Dee and his companions to leave Siradia, and repair +to Cracow, where Kelly hoped, no doubt, to get rid +of the Polish prince more easily. Then the spirits +began to speak at shorter intervals, their messages +varying greatly in tone and purport, according, I +suppose, as Alasco’s pecuniary supplies increased or +diminished; but eventually, when all had suffered +severely from want of money, for it would seem that +their tinctures and powders never yielded them as +much as an ounce of gold, the spirits summarily +dismissed the unfortunate Alasco, ordered Dee and +Kelly to repair to Prague, and entrusted Dee with a +Divine communication to Rudolph II., the Emperor +of Germany.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>81]</a></span> +Quarrels often occurred between the two adepts +during the Cracow period. In these Kelly was +invariably the prime mover, and his object was +always the same: to confirm his influence over the +man he had so egregiously duped. At Prague, Dee +was received by the Imperial Court with the distinction +due to his well-known scholarship; but no +credence was given to his mission from the spirits, +and his pretensions as a magician were politely +ignored. Nor was he assisted with any pecuniary +benevolences; and the man who through his crystal +and his skryer had apparently unlimited control over +the inhabitants of the spiritual world could not count +with any degree of certainty upon his daily bread. +He failed, moreover, to obtain a second interview +with the Emperor. On attending at the palace, he +was informed that the Emperor had gone to his +country seat, or else that he had just ridden forth to +enjoy the pleasures of the chase, or that his imperfect +acquaintance with the Latin tongue prevented him +from conferring with Dee personally; and eventually, +at the instigation of the Papal nuncio, Dee was ordered +to depart from the Imperial territories (May, 1586).</p> + +<p>The discredited magician then betook himself to +Erfurt, and afterwards to Cassel. He would fain +have visited Italy, where he anticipated a cordial +welcome at those Courts which patronized letters +and the arts, but he was privately warned that at +Rome an accusation of heresy and magic had been +preferred against him, and he had no desire to fall +into the fangs of the Inquisition. In the autumn +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>82]</a></span> +of 1586, the Imperial prohibition having apparently +been withdrawn, he followed Kelly into Bohemia; +and in the following year we find both of them +installed as guests of a wealthy nobleman, named +Rosenberg, at his castle of Trebona. Here they +renewed their intercourse with the spirit world, and +their operations in the transmutation of metals. +Dee records how, on December 9, he reached the +point of projection! Cutting a piece out of a brass +warming-pan, he converted it—by merely heating it +in the fire, and pouring on it a few drops of the +magical elixir—a kind of red oil, according to some +authorities—into solid, shining silver. And there +goes an idle story that he sent both the pan and the +piece of silver to Queen Elizabeth, so that, with her +own eyes, she might see how exactly they tallied, +and that the piece had really been cut out of the +pan! About the same time, it is said, the two +magicians launched into a profuse expenditure,—Kelly, +on one of his maid-servants getting married, +giving away gold rings to the value of £4,000. Yet, +meanwhile, Dee and Kelly were engaged in sharp +contentions, because the spirits fulfilled none of the +promises made by the latter, who, his invention +(I suppose) being exhausted, resolved, in April, +1587, to resign his office of ‘skryer,’ and young +Arthur Dee then made an attempt to act in his +stead.</p> + +<p>The conclusion I have arrived at, after studying +the careers and characters of our two worthies, is +that they were wholly unfitted for each other’s +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>83]</a></span> +society; a barrier of ‘incompatibility’ rose straitly +between them. Dee was in earnest; Kelly was +practising a sham. Dee pursued a shadow which +he believed to be a substance; Kelly knew that the +shadow was nothing more than a shadow. Dee was +a man of rare scholarship and considerable intellectual +power, though of a credulous and superstitious +temper; Kelly was superficial and ignorant, +but clever, astute, and ingenious, and by no means +prone to fall into delusions. The last experiment +which he made on Dee’s simple-mindedness stamps +the man as the rogue and knave he was; while it +illustrates the truth of the preacher’s complaint that +there is nothing new under the sun. The doctrine +of free marriage propounded by American enthusiasts +was a <i>remanet</i> from the ethical system of Mr. Edward +Kelly.</p> + + +<p class="break">Kelly had long been on bad terms with his wife, +and had conceived a passionate attachment towards +Mrs. Dee, who was young and charming, graceful in +person, and attractive in manner. To gratify his +desires, he resorted to his old machinery of the +crystal and the spirits, and soon obtained a revelation +that it was the Divine pleasure he and Dr. Dee +should exchange partners. Demoralized and abased +as Dee had become through his intercourse with +Kelly, he shrank at first from a proposal so contrary +to the teaching and tenor of the religion he professed, +and suggested that the revelation could +mean nothing more than that they ought to live on +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>84]</a></span> +a footing of cordial friendship. But the spirits +insisted on a literal interpretation of their command. +Dee yielded, comparing himself with much +unction to Abraham, who, in obedience to the Divine +will, consented to the sacrifice of Isaac. The parallel, +however, did not hold good, for Abraham saved his +son, whereas Dr. Dee lost his wife!</p> + +<p>It was then Kelly’s turn to affect a superior +morality, and he earnestly protested that the spirits +could not be messengers from heaven, but were +servants of Satan. Whereupon they then declared that +he was no longer worthy to act as their interpreter. +But why dwell longer on this unpleasant farce? By +various means of cajolery and trickery, Kelly contrived +to accomplish his design.</p> + +<p>This communistic arrangement, however, did not +long work satisfactorily—at least, so far as the ladies +were concerned; and one can easily understand that +Mrs. Dee would object to the inferior position she +occupied as Kelly’s paramour. However this may be, +Dee and Kelly parted company in January, 1589; the +former, according to his own account, delivering up to +the latter the mysterious elixir and other substances +which they had made use of in the transmutation of +metals. Dee had begun to turn his eyes wistfully +towards his native country, and welcomed with unfeigned +delight a gracious message from Queen Elizabeth, +assuring him of a friendly reception. In the +spring he took his departure from Trebona; and it +is said that he travelled with a pomp and circumstance +worthy of an ambassador, though it is difficult +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>85]</a></span> +to reconcile this statement with his constant complaints +of poverty. Perhaps, after all, his three +coaches, with four horses to each coach, his two or +three waggons loaded with baggage and stores, +and his hired escort of six to twenty-four soldiers, +whose business it was to protect him from the +enemies he supposed to be lying in wait for him, +existed only, like the philosopher’s stone, in the +imagination! He landed at Gravesend on December +2, was kindly received by the Queen at Richmond +a day or two afterwards, and before the year had run +out was once more quietly settled in his house ‘near +the riverside’ at Mortlake.</p> + +<p>Kelly, whom the Emperor Maximilian II. had +knighted and created Marshal of Bohemia, so strong +a conviction of his hermetic abilities had he impressed +on the Imperial mind, remained in Germany. But +the ingenious, plausible rogue was kept under such +rigid restraint, in order that he might prepare an +adequate quantity of the transmuting stone or +powder, that he wearied of it, and one night endeavoured +to escape. Tearing up the sheets of his +bed, he twisted them into a rope, with which to +lower himself from the tower where he was confined. +But he was a man of some bulk; the rope gave way +beneath his weight, and falling to the ground, he +received such severe injuries that in a few days he +expired (1593).</p> + +<p>Dee’s later life was, as Godwin remarks, ‘bound +in shallows and miseries.’ He had forfeited the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>86]</a></span> +respect of serious-minded men by his unworthy confederacy +with an unscrupulous adventurer. The +Queen still treated him with some degree of consideration, +though she had lost all faith in his +magical powers, and occasionally sent him assistance. +The unfortunate man never ceased to weary her with +the repetition of his trials and troubles, and strongly +complained that he had been deprived of the income +of his two small benefices during his six years’ +residence on the Continent. He related the sad tale +of the destruction of his library and apparatus by +an ignorant mob, which had broken into his house +immediately after his departure from England, excited +by the rumours of his strange magical practices. +He enumerated the expenses of his homeward +journey, arguing that, as it had been undertaken by +the Queen’s command, she ought to reimburse him. +At last (in 1592) the Queen appointed two members +of her Privy Council to inquire into the particulars +of his allegations. These particulars he accordingly +put together in a curious narrative, which bore the +long-winded title of:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>‘The Compendious Rehearsall of John Dee, his dutiful Declaracion +and Proof of the Course and Race of his Studious Lyfe, for +the Space of Halfe an Hundred Yeares, now (by God’s Favour and +Helpe) fully spent, and of the very great Injuries, Damages, and +Indignities, which for those last nyne Years he hath in England +sustained (contrary to Her Majesties very gracious Will and +express Commandment), made unto the Two Honourable Commissioners, +by Her Most Excellent Majesty thereto assigned, +according to the intent of the most humble Supplication of the +said John, exhibited to Her Most Gracious Majestie at Hampton +Court, Anno 1592, November 9.’</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>87]</a></span> +It has been remarked that in this ‘Compendious +Rehearsal’ he alludes neither to his magic crystal, +with its spiritualistic properties, nor to the wonderful +powder or elixir of transmutation. He founds his +claim to the Queen’s patronage solely upon his +intellectual eminence and acknowledged scholarship. +Nor does he allude to his Continental experiences, +except so far as relates to his homeward journey. +But he is careful to recapitulate all his services, and +the encomiastic notices they had drawn from various +quarters, while he details his losses with the most +elaborate minuteness. The quaintest part of his +lamentable and most fervent petition is, however, its +conclusion. Having shown that he has tried and exhausted +every means of raising money for the support +of his family, he concludes:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>‘Therefore, seeing the blinded lady, Fortune, doth not governe +in this commonwealth, but <i>justitia</i> and <i>prudentia</i>, and that in better +order than in Tullie’s “Republica,” or bookes of offices, they are laied +forth to be followed and performed, most reverently and earnestly +(yea, in manner with bloody teares of heart), I and my wife, our +seaven children, and our servants (seaventeene of us in all) do this +day make our petition unto your Honors, that upon all godly, +charitable, and just respects had of all that, which this day you +have seene, heard, and perceived, you will make such report unto +her Most Excellent Majestie (with humble request for speedy +reliefes) that we be not constrained to do or suffer otherwise than +becometh Christians, and true, and faithfull, and obedient subjects +to doe or suffer; and all for want of due mainteynance.’</p> +</div> + +<p>The main object Dee had in view was the mastership +of St. Cross’s Hospital, which Elizabeth had +formerly promised him. This he never received; +but in December, 1594, he was appointed to the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>88]</a></span> +Chancellorship of St. Paul’s Cathedral, which in the +following year he exchanged for the wardenship of +the College at Manchester. He still continued his +researches into supernatural mysteries, employing +several persons in succession as ‘skryers’; but he +found no one so fertile in invention as Kelly, and the +crystal uttered nothing more oracular than answers +to questions about lovers’ quarrels, hidden treasures, +and petty thefts—the common stock-in-trade of the +conjurer. In 1602 or 1604, he retired from his +Manchester appointment, and sought the quiet and +seclusion of his favourite Mortlake. His renown as +‘a magician’ had greatly increased—not a little, it +would seem, to his annoyance; for on June 5, 1604, +we find that he presented a petition to James I. at +Greenwich, soliciting his royal protection against the +wrong done to him by enemies who mocked him as +‘a conjurer, or caller, or invocator of devils,’ and +solemnly asserting that ‘of all the great number of +the very strange and frivolous fables or histories +reported and told of him (as to have been of his +doing) none were true.’ It is said that the treatment +Dee experienced at this time was the primary +cause of the Act passed against personal slander +(1604)—a proof of legislative wisdom which drew +from Dee a versified expression of gratitude—in +which, let us hope, the sincerity of the gratitude is +not to be measured by the quality of the verse. It is +addressed to ‘the Honorable Members of the +Commons in the Present Parliament,’ and here is a +specimen of it, which will show that, though Dee’s +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>89]</a></span> +crystal might summon the spirits, it had no control +over the Muses:</p> + +<div class="cpoem2"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘The honour, due unto you all,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And reverence, to you each one<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I do first yield most spe-ci-all;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Grant me this time to heare my mone.<br /></span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘Now (if you will) full well you may<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Fowle sclaundrous tongues for ever tame;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And helpe the truth to beare some sway<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In just defence of a good name.’<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Thenceforward Dee sinks into almost total obscurity. +His last years were probably spent in great +tribulation; and the man who had dreamed of converting, +Midas-like, all he touched into gold, seems frequently +to have wanted bread. It was a melancholy +ending to a career which might have been both useful +and brilliant, if his various scholarship and mental +energy had not been expended upon a delusion. Unfortunately +for himself, Dee, with all his excellent +gifts, wanted that greatest gift of all, a sound judgment. +His excitable fancy and credulous temper made him +the dupe of his own wishes, and eventually the tool +of a knave far inferior to himself in intellectual power, +but surpassing him in strength of will, in force of +character, in audacity and inventiveness. Both +knave and dupe made but sorry work of their lives. +Kelly, as we have seen, broke his neck in attempting +to escape from a German prison, and Dee expired in +want and dishonour, without a friend to receive his +last sigh.</p> + +<p>He died at Mortlake in 1608, and was buried in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>90]</a></span> +the chancel of Mortlake Church, where, long afterwards, +Aubrey, the gossiping antiquary, was shown +an old marble slab as belonging to his tomb.</p> + +<p>His son Arthur, after acting as physician to the +Czar of Russia and to our own Charles I., established +himself in practice at Norwich, where he died. +Anthony Wood solemnly records that this Arthur, in +his boyhood, had frequently played with quoits of +gold, which his father had cast at Prague by means +of his ‘stone philosophical.’ How often Dee must +have longed for some of those ‘quoits’ in his last sad +days at Mortlake, when he sold his books, one by +one, to keep himself from starvation!</p> + +<p>After Dee’s death, his fame as a magician underwent +an extraordinary revival; and in 1659, when +the country was looking forward to the immediate +restoration of its Stuart line of kings, the learned +Dr. Meric Casaubon thought proper to publish, in +a formidable folio volume, the doctor’s elaborate report +of his—or rather Kelly’s—supposed conferences +with the spirits—a notable book, as being the initial +product of spiritualism in English literature. In +his preface Casaubon remarks that, though Dee’s +‘carriage in certain respects seemed to lay in works of +darkness, yet all was tendered by him to kings and +princes, and by all (England alone excepted) was +listened to for a good while with good respect, and by +some for a long time embraced and entertained.’ +And he adds that ‘the fame of it made the Pope +bestir himself, and filled all, both learned and unlearned, +with great wonder and astonishment.... +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>91]</a></span> +As a whole, it is undoubtedly not to be paralleled in +its kind in any age or country.’</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> + +<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> +‘Adeo viro præ credulo errore jam factus sui impos et +mente captus, et Dæmones, quo arctius horrendis hisce Sacris +adhærescent illius ambitioni vanæ summæ potestatis in Patria +adipiscendæ spe et expectatione lene euntis illum non solius +Poloniæ sed alterius quoque regni, id est primo Poloniæ, deinde +alterius, viz. Moldaviæ Regem fore, et sub quo magnæ universi +mundi mutationes incepturas esse, Judæos convertendos, et ab illo +Saræmos et Ethnicos vexillo crucis superandos, facili ludificarentur.’—Dr. +Thomas Smith, ‘Vitæ Eruditissimorum ac Illustrium +Virorum,’ London, 1707. ‘Vita Joannis Dee,’ p. 25.</p> +</div> + +<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> +He was suspected of coining false money, but Dr. Dee +declares he was innocent. (June, 1583.)</p> +</div> + + +<h3>NOTE.</h3> + +<p>In the curious ‘Apologia’ published by Dee, in 1595, in the +form of a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, ‘containing a +most briefe Discourse Apologeticall, with a plaine Demonstration +and formal Protestation, for the lawfull, sincere, very faithfull +and Christian course of the Philosophicall studies and exercises of +a certaine studious Gentleman, an ancient Servant to her most +excellent Maiesty Royall,’ he furnishes a list of ‘sundry Bookes +and Treatises’ of which he was the author. The best known of +his printed works is the ‘Monas Hieroglyphica, Mathematicè, +Anagogicè que explicata’ (1564), dedicated to the Emperor +Maximilian. Then there are ‘Propæ deumata Aphoristica;’ +‘The British Monarchy,’ otherwise called the ‘Petty Navy +Royall: for the politique security, abundant wealth, and the +triumphant state of this kingdom (with God’s favour) procuring’ +(1576); and ‘Paralaticæ Commentationis, Praxcosque Nucleus +quidam’ (1573). His unpublished manuscripts range over a wide +field of astronomical, philosophical, and logical inquiry. The +most important seem to be ‘The first great volume of famous and +rich Discoveries,’ containing a good deal of speculation about +Solomon and his Ophirian voyage; ‘Prester John, and the first +great Cham;’ ‘The Brytish Complement of the perfect Art of +Navigation;’ ‘The Art of Logicke, in English;’ and ‘De Hominis +Corpore, Spiritu, et Anima: sive Microcosmicum totius Philosophiæ +Naturalis Compendium.’</p> + +<p>The character drawn of Dr. Dee by his learned biographer, Dr. +Thomas Smith, by no means confirms the traditional notion of +him as a crafty and credulous practiser in the Black Art. It is, +on the contrary, the portrait of a just and upright man, grave in +his demeanour, modest in his manners, abstemious in his habits; +a man of studious disposition and benevolent temper; a man held +in such high esteem by his neighbours that he was called upon to +arbitrate when any differences arose between them; a fervent +Christian, attentive to all the offices of the Church, and zealous in +the defence of her faith.</p> + +<p>Here is the original: ‘Si mores exterioremque vitæ cultum +contemplemur, non quicquam ipsi in probrum et ignominium verti +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>92]</a></span> +possit; ut pote sobrius, probus, affectibus sedatis, compositisque +moribus, ab omni luxu et gulâ liber, justi et æqui studiosissimus, +erga pauperes beneficus, vicinis facilis et benignus, +quorum lites, atrisque partibus contendentium ad illum tanquam +ad sapientum arbitrum appellantibus, moderari et desidere solebat: +in publicis sacris cœtibus et in orationibus frequens, articulorum +Christianæ fidei, in quibus omnes Orthodoxi conveniunt, strenuus +assertor, zelo in hæreses, à primitiva Ecclesia damnatas, flagrans, +inqui Peccōrum, qui virginitatem B. Mariæ ante partum Christi +in dubium vocavit, accerimè invectus: licet de controversiis inter +Romanenses et Reformatos circa reliqua doctrinæ capita non adeo +semperosè solicitus, quin sibi in Polonia et Bohemia, ubi religio +ista dominatur, Missæ interesse et communicare licere putaverit, +in Anglia, uti antea, post redditum, omnibus Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ +ritibus conformis.’ It must be admitted that Dr. Smith’s Latin is +not exactly ‘conformed’ to the Ciceronian model.</p> + + + +<p class="padtop"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>93]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER III.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smlfont">DR. DEE’S DIARY.</span></h2> + + +<p>I am not prepared to say, with its modern editor, +that Dr. Dee’s Diary<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> sets the scholar magician’s +character in its true light more clearly than anything +that has yet been printed; but I concede that it +reveals in a very striking and interesting manner the +peculiar features of his character—his superstitious +credulity, and his combination of shrewdness and +simplicity—as well as his interesting habits. I shall +therefore extract a few passages to assist the reader in +forming his opinion of a man who was certainly in +many respects remarkable.</p> + +<p>(i.) I begin with the entries for 1577:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>‘1577, January 16th.—The Erle of Leicester, Mr. Philip Sidney, +Mr. Dyer,<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> etc., came to my house (at Mortlake).</p> + +<p>‘1577, January 22nd.—The Erle of Bedford came to my house.</p> + +<p>‘1577, March 11th.—My fall uppon my right nuckel bone, <i>hora +9 fere mane</i>, wyth oyle of Hypericon (<i>Hypericum</i>, or St. John’s +Wort) in twenty-four howers eased above all hope: God be +thanked for such His goodness of (to?) His creatures.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>94]</a></span> +‘1577, March 24th.—Alexander Simon, the Ninevite, came to +me, and promised me his service into Persia.</p> + +<p>‘1577, May 1st.—I received from Mr. William Harbut of +St. Gillian his notes uppon my “Monas.”<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></p> + +<p>‘1577, May 2nd.—I understode of one Vincent Murfryn his +abbominable misusing me behinde my back; Mr. Thomas Besbich +told me his father is one of the cokes of the Court.</p> + +<p>‘1577, May 20th.—I hyred the barber of Cheswik, Walter +Hooper, to kepe my hedges and knots in as good order as he saw +them then, and that to be done with twice cutting in the yere at +the least, and he to have yerely five shillings, meat and drink.</p> + +<p>‘1577, June 26th.—Elen Lyne gave me a quarter’s warning.</p> + +<p>‘1577, August 19.—The “Hexameron Brytanicum” put to +printing. (Published in 1577 with the title of “General and +Rare Memorials pertayning to the perfect Art of Navigation.”)</p> + +<p>‘1577, November 3rd.—William Rogers of Mortlak about 7 of +the clok in the morning, cut his own throte, <em>by the fiende his +instigator</em>.</p> + +<p>‘1577, November 6th.—Sir Umfrey Gilbert<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> cam to me to +Mortlak.</p> + +<p>‘1577, November 22nd.—I rod to Windsor to the Q. Majestie.</p> + +<p>‘1577, November 25th.—I spake with the Quene <i>hora quinta</i>; +I spoke with Mr. Secretary Walsingham.<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> I declared to the +Quene her title to Greenland, Estotiland, and Friesland.</p> + +<p>‘1577, December 1st.—I spoke with Sir Christopher Hatton; +he was made Knight that day.</p> + +<p>‘1577, December —th.—I went from the Courte at Wyndsore.</p> + +<p>‘1577, December 30th.—Inexplissima illa calumnia de R. +Edwardo, iniquissima aliqua ex parte in me denunciebatur: ante +aliquos elapsos diro, sed ... sua sapientia me innocentem.’</p> +</div> + +<p>I cannot ascertain of what calumny against +Edward VI. Dee had been accused; but it is to be +hoped that his wish was fulfilled, and that he was +acquitted of it before many days had elapsed.</p> + +<p>I have omitted some items relating to moneys +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>95]</a></span> +borrowed. It is sufficiently plain, however, that Dee +never intended his Diary for the curious eyes of the +public, and that it mainly consists of such memoranda +as a man jots down for his private and personal use. +Assuredly, many of these would never have been recorded +if Dee had known or conjectured that an +inquisitive antiquarian, some three centuries later, +would exhume the confidential pages, print them in +imperishable type, and expose them to the world’s +cold gaze. It seems rather hard upon Dr. Dee that +his private affairs should thus have become everybody’s +property! Perhaps, after all, the best thing a +man can do who keeps a diary is to commit it to the +flames before he shuffles off his mortal coil, lest some +laborious editor should eventually lay hands upon it, +and publish it to the housetops with all its sins upon it! +But as in Dr. Dee’s case the offence has been committed, +I will not debar my readers from profiting by it.</p> + +<p>(ii.) 1578-1581.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>‘1578, June 30th.—I told Mr. Daniel Rogers, Mr. Hackluyt of +the Middle Temple being by, that Kyng Arthur and King Maty, +both of them, did conquer Gelindia, lately called Friseland, which +he so noted presently in his written copy of Mon ... thensis (?), +for he had no printed boke thereof.’</p> +</div> + +<p>What a pity Dr. Dee has not recorded his authority +for King Arthur’s Northern conquests! The Mr. +Hackluyt here mentioned is the industrious compiler +of the well-known collection of early voyages.</p> + +<p>Occasionally Dee relates his dreams, as on September +10, 1579: ‘My dream of being naked, and +my skyn all overwrought with work, like some kinde +of tuft mockado, with crosses blue and red; and on +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>96]</a></span> +my left arme, about the arme, in a wreath, this word +I red—<i>sine me nihil potestis facere</i>.’</p> + +<p>Sometimes he resorts to Greek characters while +using English words:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>‘1579, December 9th.—<ins class="greek" title="This nigt mi uuiph dremid that +one kam to ’er and touched ’er, saing, “Mistres Dee, gou ar konkeined +oph child, uos name must be Zacharias; be oph god chere, he sal do uuel as this +doth!”">Θις νιγτ μι +υυιφ δρεμιδ θατ +ονε καμ το ’ερ +ανδ τουχεδ ’ερ, +σαινγ, “Μιστρές +Δεε, γου αρ +κονκεινεδ οφ +χιλδ, ύος ναμε +μυστ βε Ζαχαριας; +βε οφ γοδ χερε, ἑ +σαλ δο υυελ ας +θις δοθ!”</ins></p> + +<p>‘1579, December 28th.—I reveled to Roger Coke the gret +secret of the elixir of the salt <ins class="greek" title="oph aketels, one uppon +a undred">οφ ακετελς, ονε +υππον α υνδρεδ</ins>.’</p> +</div> + +<p>Other entries refer to this Mr. Roger Coke, or +Cooke, who seems to have been Dee’s pupil or apprentice, +and at one time to have enjoyed his confidence. +They quarrelled seriously in 1581.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>‘1581, September 5th.—Roger Cook, who had byn with me +from his 14 years of age till 28, of a melancholik nature, pycking +and devising occasions of just cause to depart on the suddayn, +about 4 of the clok in the afternone requested of me lycense to +depart, wheruppon rose whott words between us; and he, imagining +with himself that he had, the 12 of July, deserved my great +displeasure, and finding himself barred from view of my philosophicall +dealing with Mr. Henrik, thought that he was utterly +recast from intended goodness toward him. Notwithstanding +Roger Cook his unseamely dealing, I promised him, if he used +himself toward me now in his absens, one hundred pounds as +sone as of my own clene hability I myght spare so much; and +moreover, if he used himself well in life toward God and the +world, I promised him some pretty alchimicall experiments, +whereuppon he might honestly live.</p> + +<p>‘1581, September 7th.—Roger Cook went for altogether from +me.’</p> +</div> + +<p>In February, 1601, however, this quarrel was +made up.</p> + +<p>(iii.) Of the learned doctor’s colossal credulity the +Diary supplies some curious proofs:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>‘1581, March 8th.—It was the 8 day, being Wensday, hora +noctis 10-11, the strange noyse in my chamber of knocking; and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>97]</a></span> +the voyce, ten times repeted, somewhat like the shriek of an owle, +but more longly drawn, and more softly, as it were in my +chamber.</p> + +<p>‘1581, August 3rd.—All the night very strange knocking and +rapping in my chamber. August 4th, and this night likewise.</p> + +<p>‘1581, October 9th.—Barnabas Saul, lying in the ... hall, +was strangely trubled by a spirituall creature about mydnight.</p> + +<p>‘1582, May 20th.—Robertus Gardinerus Salopiensis lactum +mihi attulit minimum de materia lapidis, divinitus sibi revelatus +de qua.</p> + +<p>‘1582, May 23rd.—Robert Gardiner declared unto me hora 4½ +a certeyn great philosophicall secret, as he had termed it, of a +spirituall creature, and was this day willed to come to me and +declare it, which was solemnly done, and with common prayer.</p> + +<p>‘1590, August 22nd.—Ann, my nurse, had long been tempted +by a wycked spirit: but this day it was evident how she was +possessed of him. God is, hath byn, and shall be her protector +and deliverer! Amen.</p> + +<p>‘1590, August 25th.—Anne Frank was sorowful, well comforted, +and stayed in God’s mercyes acknowledging.</p> + +<p>‘1590, August 26th.—At night I anoynted (in the name of +Jesus) her brest with the holy oyle.</p> + +<p>‘1590, August 30th.—In the morning she required to be +anoynted, and I did very devoutly prepare myself, and pray for +virtue and powr, and Christ his blessing of the oyle to the expulsion +of the wycked, and then twyce anoynted, the wycked one +did rest a while.’</p> +</div> + +<p>The holy oil, however, proved of no effect. The +poor creature was insane. On September 8 she made +an attempt to drown herself, but was prevented. On +the 29th she eluded the dexterity of her keeper, and +cut her throat.</p> + +<p>(iv.) Occasionally we meet with references to +historic events and names, but, unfortunately, they +are few:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>‘1581, February 23rd.—I made acquayntance with Joannes +Bodonius, in the Chamber of Presence at Westminster, the +ambassador being by from Monsieur.’</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>98]</a></span> +Bodonius, or Bodin, was the well-known writer +upon witchcraft.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>‘1581, March 23rd.—At Mortlak came to me Hugh Smyth, +who had returned from Magellan strayghts and Vaygatz.</p> + +<p>‘1581, July 12th.—The Erle of Leicester fell fowly out with +the Erle of Sussex, Lord Chamberlayn, calling each other trayter, +whereuppon both were commanded to kepe theyr chamber at +Greenwich, wher the court was.’</p> +</div> + +<p>This was the historic quarrel, of which Sir Walter +Scott has made such effective use in his ‘Kenilworth.’</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>‘1583, January 13th.—On Sonday, the stage at Paris Garden +fell down all at once, being full of people beholding the bear-bayting. +Many being killed thereby, more hurt, and all amased. +The godly expownd it as a due plage of God for the wickedness +ther used, and the Sabath day so profanely spent.’</p> +</div> + +<p>This popular Sabbatarian argument, which occasionally +crops up even in our own days, had been +humorously anticipated, half a century before, by Sir +Thomas More, in his ‘Dyalogue’ (1529): ‘At Beverley +late, much of the people being at a bear-baiting, +the church fell suddenly down at evening-time, and +overwhelmed some that were in it. A good fellow +that after heard the tale told—“So,” quoth he, “now +you may see what it is to be at evening prayers when +you should be at the bear-baiting!”’</p> + +<p>The Paris Garden Theatre at Bankside had been +erected expressly for exhibitions of bear-baiting. +The charge for admission was a penny at the gate, a +penny at the entry of the scaffold or platform, and a +penny for ‘quiet standing.’ During the Commonwealth +this cruel sport was prohibited; but it was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>99]</a></span> +revived at the Restoration, and not finally suppressed +until 1835.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>‘1583, January 23rd.—The Ryght Honorable Mr. Secretary +Walsingham came to my howse, where by good luk he found Mr. +Adrian Gilbert (of the famous Devonshire family of seamen), and +so talk was begonne of North West Straights discovery.</p> + +<p>‘1583, February 11th.—The Quene lying at Richmond went to +Mr. Secretary Walsingham to dinner; she coming by my dore, +graciously called me to her, and so I went by her horse side, as +far as where Mr. Hudson dwelt. <ins class="greek" title="Er maiesti axed me obyskyreli +oph mounsieuris state: dixe bisthanatos erit.">Ερ +μαιεστι αξεδ με +οβυσκυρελι οφ +μουνσιευρὶς +στατε: διξὲ +βισθανατος εριτ.</ins></p> + +<p>‘1583, March 6th.—I, and Mr. Adrian Gilbert and John +Davis (the Arctic discoverer), did mete with Mr. Alderman +Barnes, Mr. Tounson, Mr. Young and Mr. Hudson, about the +N. W. voyage.</p> + +<p>‘1583, April 18th.—The Quene went from Richmond toward +Greenwich, and at her going on horsbak, being new up, she called +for me by Mr. Rawly (Sir Walter Raleigh) his putting her in +mynde, and she sayd, “quod defertur non aufertur,” and gave me +her right hand to kiss.</p> + +<p>‘1590, May 18th.—The two gentlemen, the unckle Mr. +Richard Candish (Cavendish), and his nephew, the most famous +Mr. Thomas Candish, who had sayled round about the world, did +visit me at Mortlake.</p> + +<p>‘1590, December 4th.—The Quene’s Majestie called for me at +my dore, circa 3½ a meridie as she passed by, and I met her at +Est Shene gate, where she graciously, putting down her mask, did +say with mery chere, “I thank thee, Dee; there wus never +promisse made, but it was broken or kept.” I understode her +Majesty to mean of the hundred angels she promised to have +sent me this day, as she yesternight told Mr. Richard Candish.</p> + +<p>‘1595, October 9th.—I dyned with Sir Walter Rawlegh at +Durham House.’</p> +</div> + +<p>(v.) Some of the entries which refer to Dee’s connection +with Lasco and Kelly are interesting:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>‘1583, March 18th.—Mr. North from Poland, after he had +byn with the Quene he came to me. I received salutation from +Alaski, Palatine in Poland.</p> + +<p>‘1583, May 13th.—I became acquaynted with Albertus Laski +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>100]</a></span> +at 7½ at night, in the Erle of Leicester his chamber, in the court +at Greenwich.</p> + +<p>‘1583, May 18th.—The Prince Albertus Laski came to me at +Mortlake, with onely two men. He came at afternone, and +tarryed supper, and after sone set.</p> + +<p>‘1583, June 15th.—About 5 of the clok cum the Polonian +prince, Lord Albert Lasky, down from Bisham, where he had +lodged the night before, being returned from Oxford, whither he +had gon of purpose to see the universityes, wher he was very +honorably used and enterteyned. He had in his company Lord +Russell, Sir Philip Sydney, and other gentlemen: he was rowed +by the Quene’s men, he had the barge covered with the Quene’s +cloth, the Quene’s trumpeters, etc. He came of purpose to do +me honour, for which God be praysed!</p> + +<p>‘1583, September 21st.—We went from Mortlake, and so the +Lord Albert Lasky, I, Mr. E. Kelly, our wives, my children and +familie, we went toward our two ships attending for us, seven or +eight myle below Gravesende.</p> + +<p>‘1586, September 14th.—Trebonam venimus.</p> + +<p>‘1586, October 18th.—E. K. recessit a Trebona versus Pragam +curru delatus; mansit hic per tres hebdomadas.</p> + +<p>‘1586, December 19th.—Ad gratificandam Domino Edouardo +Garlando, et Francisco suo fratri, qui Edouardus nuncius mihi +missus erat ab Imperatore Moschoriæ ut ad illum venirem, E. K. +fecit proleolem (?) lapidis in proportione unius ... gravi arenæ +super quod vulgaris oz. et ½ et producta est optimè auri oz. fere: +quod aurum post distribuimus a crucibolo una dedimus Edouardo.</p> + +<p>‘1587, January 18th.—Rediit E. K. a Praga. E. K. brought +with him from the Lord Rosenberg to my wyfe a chayne and +juell estemed at 300 duckettes; 200 the juell stones, and 100 the +gold.</p> + +<p>‘1587, September 28th.—I delivered to Mr. Ed. Kelley +(earnestly requiring it as his part) the half of all the animall +which was made. It is to weigh 20 oz.; he wayed it himself in +my chamber: he bowght his waights purposely for it. My lord +had spoken to me before for some, but Mr. Kelly had not +spoken.</p> + +<p>‘1587, October 28th and 29th.—John Carp did begyn to make +furnaces over the gate, and he used of my rownd bricks, and for +the yron pot was contented now to use the lesser bricks, 60 to +make a furnace.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>101]</a></span> +‘1587, November 8th.—E. K terribilis expostulatio, accusatio, +etc., hora tertia a meridie.</p> + +<p>‘1587, December 12th.—Afternone somewhat, Mr. Ed. Kelly +[did] his lamp overthrow, the spirit of wyne long spent to nere, +and the glas being not stayed with buks about it, as it was wont +to be; and the same glass so flitting on one side, the spirit was +spilled out, and burnt all that was on the table where it stode, +lynnen and written bokes,—as the bok of Zacharias, with the +“Alkanor” that I translated out of French, for some by [boy?] +spirituall could not; “Rowlaschy,” his third boke of waters +philosophicall; the boke called “Angelicum Opus;” all in +pictures of the work from the beginning to the end; the copy of +the man of Badwise “Conclusions for the Transmution of +Metalls;” and 40 leaves in 4to., entitled “Extractiones Dunstat,” +which he himself extracted and noted out of Dunstan his boke, +and the very boke of Dunstan was but cast on the bed hard by +from the table.’</p> +</div> + +<p>This so-called ‘Book of St. Dunstan’ was one +which Kelly professed to have bought from a Welsh +innkeeper, who, it was alleged, had found it among +the ruins of Glastonbury.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>‘1588, February 8th.—Mr. E. K., at nine of the clok, afternone, +sent for me to his laboratory over the gate to see how he distilled +sericon, according as in tyme past and of late he heard of me out +of Ripley. God lend his heart to all charity and virtue!</p> + +<p>‘1588, August 24th.—Vidi divinam aquam demonstratione +magnifici domini et amici mei incomparabilis D[omini] Ed. Kelii +ante meridiem tertia hora.</p> + +<p>‘1588, December 7th.—<ins class="greek" title="great phrendkip promisid phor +mani, and tuuo ounkes phor the thing.">γρεατ +φρενδκιρ προμισιδ +φορ μανι, ανδ +τυυο ουνκες φορ +θε θινγ.</ins>’<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></p> +</div> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> + +<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> +‘The Private Diary of Dr. John Dee,’ edited by J. O. Halliwell +(Phillipps) for the Camden Society, 1842.</p> +</div> + +<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> +This was Sir Edward Dyer, the friend of Spenser and Sidney, +remembered by his poem ‘My Mind to me a Kingdom is.’</p> +</div> + +<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> +The ‘Monas Hieroglyphica.’</p> +</div> + +<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> +The celebrated navigator, whose heroic death is one of our +worthiest traditions.</p> +</div> + +<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> +A warm and steady friend to Dr. Dee.</p> +</div> + +<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> +This Diary, written in a very small and illegible hand on the +margins of old almanacs, was discovered by Mr. W. H. Black in +the Ashmolean Library at Oxford.</p> +</div> + + + + +<p class="padtop"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>102]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER IV.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smlfont">MAGIC AND IMPOSTURE—A COUPLE OF KNAVES.</span></h2> + + +<p>The secrecy, the mystery, and the supernatural pretensions +associated with the so-called occult sciences +necessarily recommended them to the knave and +the cheat as instruments of imposition. If some of +the earlier professors of Hermeticism, the first seekers +after the philosophical stone, were sincere in their +convictions, and actuated by pure and lofty motives, +it is certain that their successors were mostly dishonest +adventurers, bent upon turning to their +personal advantage the credulous weakness of their +fellow-creatures. With some of these the chief object +was money; others may have craved distinction and +influence; others may have sought the gratification +of passions more degrading even than avarice or +ambition. At all events, alchemy became a synonym +for fraud: a magician was accepted as, by right of +his vocation, an impostor; and the poet and the +dramatist pursued him with the whips of satire, +invective, and ridicule, while the law prepared for +him the penalties usually inflicted upon criminals. +These penalties, it is true, he very frequently +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>103]</a></span> +contrived to elude; in many instances, by the exercise of +craft and cunning; in others, by the protection of +powerful personages, to whom he had rendered questionable +services; and again in others, because the +agent of the law did not care to hunt him down so +long as he forbore to bring upon himself the glare of +publicity. Thus it came to pass that generation after +generation saw the alchemist still practising his unwholesome +trade, and probably he retained a good deal +of his old notoriety down to as late a date as the +beginning of the eighteenth century. It must be +admitted, however, that his alchemical pursuits +gradually sank into obscurity, and that it was more +in the character of an astrologer, and as a manufacturer +of love-potions and philtres, of charms and +waxen images—not to say as a pimp and a bawd—that +he looked for clients. In the <i>Spectator</i>, for instance, +that admirable mirror of English social life in +the early part of the eighteenth century, you will find +no reference to alchemy or the alchemist; but in the +<i>Guardian</i> Addison’s light humour plays readily enough +round the delusions or deceptions of the astrologer. +The reader will remember the letter which Addison +pretends to have received with great satisfaction from +an astrologer in Moorfields. And in contemporary +literature generally, it will be found that the august +inquirer into the secrets of nature, who aimed at the +transmutation of metals, and the possession of immortal +youth, had by this time been succeeded by an +obscure and vulgar cheat, who beguiled the ignorant +and weak by his jargon about planetary bodies, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>104]</a></span> +his cheap stock-in-trade of a wig and a gown, a +wand, a horoscope or two, and a few coloured vials. +This ‘modern magician’ is, indeed, a common character +in eighteenth-century fiction.</p> + +<p>But a century earlier the magician retained some +little of the ‘pomp and circumstance’ of the old +magic, and was still the confidant of princes and +nobles, and not seldom the depository of State secrets +involving the reputation and the honour of men and +women of the highest position. So much as this +may be truly asserted of Simon Forman, who +flourished in the dark and criminal period of the +reign of James I., when the foul practices of mediæval +Italy were transferred for the first and last time to an +English Court. Forman was born at Quidham, a +village near Wilton, in Wilts, in 1552. Little is +known of his early years; but he seems to have +received a good education at the Sarum Grammar +School, and afterwards to have been apprenticed to a +druggist in that ancient city. Endowed with considerable +natural gifts and an ambitious temper, he +made his way to Oxford, and was entered at Magdalene +College, but owing to lack of means was unable +to remain as a student for more than two years. To +improve his knowledge of astrology, astronomy, and +medicine, he visited Portugal, the Low Countries, +and the East.</p> + +<p>On his return he began to practise as a physician +in Philpot Lane, London; but, as he held no +diploma, was four times imprisoned and fined as a +quack. Eventually he found himself compelled to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>105]</a></span> +take the degree of M.D. at Cambridge (June 27, +1603); after which he settled in Lambeth, and carried +on the twofold profession of physician and astrologer. +In his comedy of ‘The Silent Woman,’ Ben Jonson +makes one of his characters say: ‘I would say thou +hadst the best philtre in the world, and could do +more than Madam Medea or Doctor Forman,’ whence +we may infer that the medicines he compounded were +not of the orthodox kind or approved by the faculty. +Lovers resorted to him for potions which should +soften obdurate hearts; beauties for powders and +washes which might preserve their waning charms; +married women for drugs to relieve them of the +reproach of sterility; rakes who desired to corrupt +virtue, and impatient heirs who longed for immediate +possession of their fortunes, for compounds which +should enfeeble, or even kill. Such was the character +of Doctor Forman’s sinister ‘practice.’ Among those +who sought his unscrupulous assistance was the infamous +Countess of Essex, though Forman died +before her nefarious schemes reached the stage of +fruition.</p> + +<p>His death, which took place on the 12th of September, +1611, was attended (it is said) by remarkable +circumstances. The Sunday night previous, ‘his +wife and he being at supper in their garden-house, +she being pleasant, told him she had been informed +he could resolve whether man or wife should die +first. “Whether shall I,” quoth she, “bury you or +no?” “Oh, Truais,” for so he called her, “thou shalt +bury me, but thou wilt much repent it.” “Yea, but +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>106]</a></span> +how long first?” “I shall die,” said he, “on Thursday +night.” Monday came; all was well. Tuesday +came, he not sick. Wednesday came, and still he +was well, with which his impertinent wife did much +twit him in his teeth. Thursday came, and dinner +was ended, he very well; he went down to the water-side, +and took a pair of oars to go to some buildings +he was in hand with in Puddle Dock. Being in the +middle of the Thames, he presently fell down, only +saying, “An impost, an impost,” and so died. A +most sad storm of wind immediately following.’</p> + +<p>It seems as if these men could never die without +bringing down upon the earth a grievous storm or +tempest! The preceding story, however, partakes +too much of the marvellous to be very easily accepted.</p> + +<p>According to Anthony Wood, this renowned +magician was ‘a person that in horary questions, +especially theft, was very judicious and fortunate’ +(in other words, he was well served by his spies and +instruments); ‘so, also, in sickness, which was +indeed his masterpiece; and had good success in +resolving questions about marriage, and in other +questions very intricate. He professed to his wife +that there would be much trouble about Sir Robert +Carr, Earl of Somerset, and the Lady Frances, his +wife, who frequently resorted to him, and from whose +company he would sometimes lock himself in his +study one whole day. He had compounded things +upon the desire of Mrs. Anne Turner, to make the +said Sir Robert Carr calid <i>quo ad hanc</i>, and Robert, +Earl of Essex frigid <i>quo ad hanc</i>; that his, to his wife +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>107]</a></span> +the Lady Frances, who had a mind to get rid of him +and be wedded to the said Sir Robert. He had also +certain pictures in wax, representing Sir Robert and +the said Lady, to cause a love between each other, +with other such like things.’</p> + + +<h3>A CAUSE CÉLÈBRE.</h3> + +<p>Lady Frances Howard, second daughter of the +Earl of Suffolk, was married, at the age of thirteen, +to Robert, Earl of Essex, who was only a year older. +The alliance was dictated by political considerations, +and had been recommended by the King, who did +not fail to attend the gorgeous festivities that celebrated +the occasion (January 5th, 1606). As it was +desirable that the boy-bridegroom should be separated +for awhile from his child-wife, the young Earl was sent +to travel on the Continent, and he did not return to +claim his rights as a husband until shortly after +Christmas, 1609, when he had just passed his +eighteenth birthday. In the interval his wife had +developed into one of the most beautiful, and, unfortunately, +one of the most dissolute, women in +England. Naturally impetuous, self-willed, and unscrupulous, +she had received neither firm guidance nor +wise advice at the hands of a coarse and avaricious +mother. Nor was James’s Court a place for the cultivation +of the virtues of modesty and self-restraint. +The young Countess, therefore, placed no control upon +her passions, and had already become notorious for her +disregard of those obligations which her sex usually +esteem as sacred. At one time she intrigued with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>108]</a></span> +Prince Henry, but he dismissed her in angry disgust +at her numerous infidelities. Finally, she crossed +the path of the King’s handsome favourite, Sir Robert +Carr, and a guilty passion sprang up between them. +It is painful to record that it was encouraged by her +great-uncle, Lord Northampton, who hoped through +Carr’s influence to better his position at Court; and +it was probably at his mansion in the Strand that the +plot was framed of which I am about to tell the issue. +But the meetings between the two lovers sometimes +took place at the house of one of Carr’s agents, a +man named Coppinger.</p> + +<p>At first, when Essex returned, the Countess refused +to live with him; but her parents ultimately +compelled her to treat him as her husband, and even +to accompany him to his country seat at Chartley. +There she remained for three years, wretched with an +inconceivable wretchedness, and animated with wild +dreams of escape from the husband she hated to the +paramour she loved.</p> + +<p>For this purpose she sought the assistance of Mrs. +Anne Turner, the widow of a respectable physician, +and a woman of considerable personal charms, who +had become the mistress of Sir Arthur Mainwaring.<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> +Mrs. Turner introduced her to Dr. Simon Forman, +and an agreement was made that Forman should +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>109]</a></span> +exercise his magical powers to fix young Carr’s affections +irrevocably upon the Countess. The intercourse +between the astrologer and the ladies became very +frequent, and the former exercised all his skill to +carry out their desires. At a later period, Mrs. +Forman deposed in court ‘that Mrs. Turner and her +husband would sometimes be locked up in his study +for three or four hours together,’ and the Countess +learned to speak of him as her ‘sweet father.’</p> + +<p>The Countess next conceived the most flagitious +designs against her husband’s health; and, to carry +them out, again sought the assistance of her unscrupulous +quack, who accordingly set to work, +made waxen images, invented new charms, supplied +drugs to be administered in the Earl’s drinks, and +washes in which his linen was to be steeped. These +measures, however, did not prove effectual, and +letters addressed by the Countess at this time to +Mrs. Turner and Dr. Forman complain that ‘my lord +is very well as ever he was,’ while reiterating the sad +story of her hatred towards him, and her design to +be rid of him at all hazards. In the midst of the +intrigue came the sudden death of Dr. Forman, who +seems to have felt no little anxiety as to his share in +it, and, on one occasion, as we have seen, professed +to his wife ‘that there would be much trouble about +Carr and the Countess of Essex, who frequently +resorted unto him, and from whose company he would +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>110]</a></span> +sometimes lock himself in his study a whole day.’ +Mrs. Forman, when, at a later date, examined in +court, deposed ‘that Mrs. Turner came to her house +immediately after her husband’s death, and did demand +certain pictures which were in her husband’s +study, namely, one picture in wax, very mysteriously +apparelled in silk and satin; as also another made in +the form of a naked woman, spreading and laying +forth her hair in a glass, which Mrs. Turner did confidently +affirm to be in a box, and she knew in what +part of the room in the study they were.’ We also +learn that Forman, in reply to the Countess’s reproaches, +averred that the devil, as he was informed, +had no power over the person of the Earl of Essex. +The Countess, however, was not to be diverted from +her object, and, after Forman’s death, employed two +or three other conjurers—one Gresham, and a Doctor +Lavoire, or Savory, being specially mentioned.</p> + +<p>What followed has left a dark and shameful stain +on the record of the reign of James I. The King +personally interfered on behalf of his favourite, and +resolved that Essex should be compelled to surrender +his wife. For this purpose the Countess was instructed +to bring against him a charge of conjugal +incapacity; and a Commission of right reverend prelates +and learned lawyers, under the presidency—one +blushes to write it—of Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, +was appointed to investigate the loathsome +details. A jury of matrons was empanelled to determine +the virginity of Lady Essex, and, as a pure +young girl was substituted in her place, their verdict +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>111]</a></span> +was, of course, in the affirmative! As for the Commission, +it decided, after long debates, by a majority +of seven to five, that the Lady Frances was entitled +to a divorce—the majority being obtained, however, +only by the King’s active exercise of his personal influence +(September, 1613). The lady having thus been +set free from her vows by a most shameless intrigue, +James hurried on a marriage between her and his +favourite, and on St. Stephen’s Day it was celebrated +with great splendour. In the interval Carr +had been raised to the rank and title of Earl of +Somerset, and his wife had previously been made +Viscountess Rochester.</p> + +<p>A strenuous opponent of these unhallowed nuptials +had been found in the person of Sir Thomas Overbury, +a young man of brilliant parts, who stood +towards Somerset in much the same relation that +Somerset stood towards the King. At the outset he +had looked with no disfavour on his patron’s intrigue +with Lady Frances, but had actually composed the +love-letters which went to her in the Earl’s name; +but, for reasons not clearly understood, he assumed a +hostile attitude when the marriage was proposed. As +he had acquired a knowledge of secrets which would +have made him a dangerous witness before the Divorce +Commission, the intriguers felt the necessity of getting +him out of the way. Accordingly, the King pressed +upon him a diplomatic appointment on the Continent, +and when this was refused committed him to the +Tower. There he lingered for some months in failing +health until a dose of poison terminated his sufferings +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>112]</a></span> +on September 13, 1613, rather more than three months +before the completion of the marriage he had striven +ineffectually to prevent. This poison was unquestionably +administered at the instigation of Lady Essex, +though under what circumstances it is not easy to +determine. The most probable supposition seems to +be that an assistant of Lobell, a French apothecary +who attended Overbury, was bribed to administer the +fatal drug.</p> + +<p>For two years the murder thus foully committed +remained unknown, but in the summer of 1615, when +James’s affection for Somerset was rapidly declining, +and a new and more splendid favourite had risen in +the person of George Villiers, some information of the +crime was conveyed to the King by his secretary, +Winwood. How Winwood obtained this information +is still a mystery; but we may, perhaps, conjecture +that he received it from the apothecary’s boy, who, +being taken ill at Flushing, may have sought to +relieve his conscience by confession. A few weeks +afterwards, Helwys, the Lieutenant of the Tower, +under an impression that the whole matter had been +discovered, acknowledged that frequent attempts had +been made to poison Overbury in his food, but that +he had succeeded in defeating them until the apothecary’s +boy eluded his vigilance. Who sent the poison +he did not know. The only person whose name he +had heard in connection with it was Mrs. Turner, and +the agent employed to convey it was, he said, a +certain Richard Weston, a former servant of Mrs. +Turner, who had been admitted into the Tower as a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>113]</a></span> +keeper, and entrusted with the immediate charge of +Overbury.</p> + +<p>On being examined, Weston at first denied all +knowledge of the affair; but eventually he confessed +that, having been rebuked by Helwys, he had thrown +away the medicaments with which he had been entrusted; +and next he accused Lady Somerset of +instigating him to administer to Overbury a poison, +which would be forwarded to him for that purpose. +Then one Rawlins, a servant of the Earl, gave information +that he had been similarly employed. As +soon as Somerset heard that he was implicated, he +wrote to the King protesting his innocence, and declaring +that a conspiracy had been hatched against +him. But many suspicious particulars being discovered, +he was committed to the custody of Sir +Oliver St. John; while Weston, on October 23, was +put on his trial for the murder of Overbury, and +found guilty, though no evidence was adduced against +him which would have satisfied a modern jury.</p> + +<p>On November 7 Mrs. Turner was brought before +the Court. Her trial excited the most profound +curiosity, and Westminster Hall was crowded by an +eager multitude, who shuddered with superstitious +emotion when the instruments employed by Forman +in his magical rites were exposed to view.<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> It would +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>114]</a></span> +seem that Mrs. Turner, when arrested, immediately +sent her maid to Forman’s widow, to urge her to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>115]</a></span> +burn—before the Privy Council sent to search her +house—any of her husband’s papers that might contain +dangerous secrets. She acted on the advice, but +overlooked a few documents of great importance, including +a couple of letters written by Lady Essex to +Mrs. Turner and Forman. The various articles +seized in Forman’s house referred, however, not to +the murder of Overbury, but to the conjurations employed +against the Earls of Somerset and Essex. +‘There was shewed in Court,’ says a contemporary +report, ‘certaine pictures of a man and a woman made +in lead, and also a moulde of brasse wherein they +were cast, a blacke scarfe alsoe full of white crosses, +which Mrs. Turner had in her custody,’ besides ‘inchanted +paps and other pictures.’ There was also a +parcel of Forman’s written charms and incantations. +‘In some of those parchments the devill had particular +names, who were conjured to torment the lord +Somersett and Sir Arthur Mannering, if theire loves +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>116]</a></span> +should not contynue, the one to the Countesse, the +other to Mrs. Turner.’ Visions of a dingy room +haunted by demons, who had been summoned from +the infernal depths by Forman’s potent spells, stimulated +the imagination of the excited crowd until they +came to believe that the fiends were actually there in +the Court, listening in wrath to the exposure of their +agents; and, behold! in the very heat and flush of +this extravagant credulity, a sudden crack was heard +in one of the platforms or scaffolds, causing ‘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.’ The narrator adds that there was also a +note showed in Court, made by Dr. Forman, and +written on parchment, signifying what ladies loved +what lords; but the Lord Chief Justice would not +suffer it to be read openly. This ‘note,’ or book, was a +diary of the doctor’s dealings with the persons named; +and a scandalous tradition affirms that the Lord Chief +Justice would not have it read because his wife’s name +was the first which caught his eye when he glanced +at the contents.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Turner’s conviction followed as a matter of +course upon Weston’s. There was no difficulty in +proving that she had been concerned in his proceedings, +and that if he had committed a crime she +was <i>particeps criminis</i>. Both she and Weston died +with an acknowledgment on their lips that they +were justly punished. Her end, according to all +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>117]</a></span> +accounts, was sufficiently edifying. Bishop Goodman +quotes the narrative of an eye-witness, one +Mr. John Castle, in which we read that, ‘if detestation +of painted pride, lust, malice, powdered hair, +yellow bands, and the rest of the wardrobe of Court +vanities; if deep sighs, tears, confessions, ejaculations +of the soul, admonitions of all sorts of +people to make God and an unspotted conscience +always our friends; if the protestation of faith and +hope to be washed by the same Saviour and the like +mercies that Magdalene was, be signs and demonstrations +of a blessed penitent, then I will tell you +that this poor broken woman went <i>a cruce ad +gloriam</i>, and now enjoys the presence of her and our +Redeemer. Her body being taken down by her +brother, one Norton, servant to the Prince, was in a +coach conveyed to St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields, where, +in the evening of the same day, she had an honest +and a decent burial.’ Her sad fate seems to have +appealed strongly to public sympathy, and to have +drawn a veil of oblivion over the sins and follies +of her misspent life. A contemporary versifier +speaks of her in language worthy of a Lucretia:</p> + +<div class="cpoem5"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘O how the cruel cord did misbecome<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her comely neck! and yet by Law’s just doom<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had been her death. Those locks, like golden thread,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That used in youth to enshrine her globe-like head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hung careless down; and that delightful limb,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her snow-white nimble hand, that used to trim<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Those tresses up, now spitefully did tear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And rend the same; nor did she now forbear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To beat that breast of more than lily-white,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which sometime was the bed of sweet delight.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>118]</a></span> +<span class="i0">From those two springs where joy did whilom dwell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Grief’s pearly drops upon her pale cheek fell.’<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>The next to suffer was an apothecary named +Franklin, from whom the poison had been procured. +‘Before he was executed, he threw out wild hints of +the existence of a plot far exceeding in villainy that +which was in course of investigation. He tried to +induce all who would listen to him to believe that +he knew of a conspiracy in which many great lords +were concerned; and that not only the late Prince +[Henry] had been removed by unfair means, but that +a plan had been made to get rid of the Electress +Palatine and her husband. As, however, all this +was evidently only dictated by a hope of escaping the +gallows, he was allowed to share with the others a +fate which he richly deserved.’</p> + + +<p class="break">After the execution of these smaller culprits, some +months elapsed before Bacon, as Attorney-General, +was directed to proceed against the greater. It was +not until May 24, 1616, that the Countess of +Somerset was put upon her trial before the High +Steward’s Court in Westminster Hall. Contemporary +testimony differs strangely as to her behaviour. +One authority says that, whilst the indictment was +being read, she turned pale and trembled, and when +Weston’s name was mentioned hid her face behind +her fan. Another remarks: ‘She won pity by her +sober demeanour, which, in my opinion,’ he adds, +‘was more curious and confident than was fit for a +lady in such distress, yet she shed, or made show of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>119]</a></span> +some tears, divers times.’ The evidence against her +was too strong to be confuted, and she pleaded guilty. +When the judge asked her if she had anything to +say in arrest of judgment, she replied, in low, +almost inaudible tones, that she could not extenuate +her fault. She implored mercy, and begged that +the lords would intercede with the King on her +behalf. Sentence was then pronounced, and the +prisoner sent back to the Tower, to await the King’s +decision.</p> + +<p>On the following day the Earl was tried. Bacon +again acted as prosecutor, and in his opening speech +he said that the evidence to be brought forward by +the Government would prove four points: 1. That +Somerset bore malice against Overbury before the +latter’s imprisonment; 2. That he devised the plan +by which that imprisonment was effected; 3. That +he actually sent poisons to the Tower; 4. That +he had made strenuous efforts to conceal the proofs +of his guilt. He added that he himself would +undertake the management of the case on the first +two points, leaving his subordinates, Montague and +Crew, to deal with the third and fourth.</p> + +<p>Bacon had chosen for himself a comparatively easy +task. The ill-feeling that had existed between +Overbury and his patron was beyond doubt; while +it was conclusively shown, and, indeed, hardly disputed, +that Somerset had had a hand in Overbury’s +imprisonment, and in the appointment of Helwys +and Weston as his custodians. Passages from Lord +Northampton’s letters to the Earl proved the existence +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>120]</a></span> +of a plot in which both were mixed up, and +that Helwys had expressed an opinion that Overbury’s +death would be a satisfactory termination of +the imbroglio. But he might probably have based +this opinion on the fact that Overbury was seriously +ill, and his recovery more than doubtful.</p> + +<p>When Bacon had concluded his part of the case, +Ellesmere, who presided, urged Somerset to confess +his guilt. ‘No, my lord,’ said the Earl calmly, +‘I came hither with a resolution to defend myself.’</p> + +<p>Montague then endeavoured to demonstrate that +the poison of which Overbury died had been administered +with Somerset’s knowledge. But he could +get no further than this: that Somerset had been +in the habit of sending powders, as well as tarts and +jellies, to Overbury; but he did not, and could not +prove that the powders were poisonous. Nor was +Serjeant Crew able to advance the case beyond the +point reached by Bacon; he could argue only on the +assumption of Somerset’s guilt, which his colleagues +had failed to establish.</p> + +<p>In our own day it would be held that the case for +the prosecution had completely broken down; and I +must add my conviction that Somerset was in no +way privy to Overbury’s murder. He had assented +to his imprisonment, because he was weary of his +importunity; but he still retained a kindly feeling +towards him, and was evidently grieved at the +serious nature of his illness. As a matter of fact, +it was not proved even that Overbury died of +poison, though I admit that this is put beyond +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>121]</a></span> +doubt by collateral circumstances. Somerset’s position, +however, before judges who were more or less +hostilely disposed, with the agents of the Crown bent +on obtaining his conviction, and he himself without +legal advisers, was both difficult and dangerous. He +was embarrassed by the necessity of keeping back +part of his case. He was unable to tell the whole +truth about Overbury’s imprisonment. He could +not make known all that had passed between Lady +Essex and himself before marriage, or that Overbury +had been committed to the Tower to prevent +him from giving evidence which would have certainly +quashed Lady Essex’s proceedings for a divorce. +And, in truth, if he mustered up courage to tell +this tale of shame, he could not hope that the peers, +most of whom were his enemies, would give credence +to it, or that, if they believed it, they would refrain +from delivering an adverse verdict.</p> + +<p>Yet he bore himself with courage and ability, +when, by the flickering light of torches, for the day +had gone down, he rose to make his defence. Acknowledging +that he had consented to Overbury’s +imprisonment in order that he might throw no +obstacles in the way of his marriage with Lady +Essex, he firmly denied that he had known anything +of attempts to poison him. The tarts he had sent +were wholesome, and of a kind to which Overbury +was partial; if any had been tampered with, he was +unaware of it. The powders he had received from +Sir Robert Killigrew, and simply sent them on; and +Overbury had admitted, in a letter which was before +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>122]</a></span> +the Court, that they had done him no mischief. +Here Crew interrupted: The three powders from +Killigrew had been duly accounted for; but there +was a fourth powder, which had not been accounted +for, and had (it was assumed) contained poison. +Now, it was improbable that the Earl could remember +the exact history of every powder sent to +Overbury two years before, and, besides, it was a +mere assumption on the part of the prosecution that +this fourth powder was poison. But Somerset’s +inability to meet this point was made the most of, +and gave the peers a sufficient pretext for declaring +him guilty. The Earl received his sentence with +the composure he had exhibited throughout the +arduous day, which had shown how a nature +enervated by luxury and indulgence can be braced +up by the chill air of adversity, and contented himself +with expressing a hope that the Court would +intercede with the King for mercy.</p> + +<p>I have dwelt at some length on the details of this +celebrated trial because it is the last (in English +jurisprudence) in which men and women of rank +have been mixed up with the secret practices of the +magician; though, for other reasons, it is one of +very unusual interest. In briefly concluding the +recital, I may state that James was greatly relieved +when the trial was over, and he found that nothing +damaging to himself had been disclosed. It is +certain that Somerset was in possession of some +dark secret, the revelation of which was much +dreaded by the King; so that precautions had even +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>123]</a></span> +been taken, or at all events meditated, to remove +him from the Court if he entered upon the dangerous +topic, and to continue the trial in his absence. He +would probably have been silenced by force. The +Earl, however, refrained from hazardous disclosures, +and James could breathe in peace.</p> + +<p>On July 13, the King pardoned Lady Somerset, +who was certainly the guiltiest of all concerned. +The Earl was left in prison, with sentence of death +suspended over him for several years, in order, no +doubt, to terrify him into silence. A few months +before his death, James appears to have satisfied +himself that he had nothing to fear, and ordered the +Earl’s release (January, 1622). Had he lived, he +would probably have restored him to his former influence +and favour.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> + +<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> +This woman has a place in the records of fashion as introducer +of the novelty of yellow-starching the extensive ruffs +which were then generally worn. When Lord Chief Justice +Coke sentenced her to death (as we shall hereafter see) for her +share in the murder of Overbury, he ordered that ‘as she was the +person who had brought yellow-starched ruffs into vogue, she +should be hanged in that dress, that the same might end in shame +and detestation.’ As the hangman was also adorned with yellow +ruffs, it is no wonder that Coke’s prediction was amply fulfilled.</p> +</div> + +<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> +Arthur Wilson, in his ‘Memoirs,’ furnishes a strange account +of the practices in which Lady Essex, Mrs. Turner, and the conjurer +took part. ‘The Countess of Essex,’ he says, ‘to strengthen +her designs, finds out one of her own stamp, Mrs. Turner, a doctor +of physic’s widow, a woman whom prodigality and looseness had +brought low; yet her pride would make her fly any pitch, rather +than fall into the jaws of Want. These two counsel together how +they might stop the current of the Earl’s affection towards his +wife, and make a clear passage for the Viscount in his place. To +effect which, one Dr. Forman, a reputed conjurer (living at +Lambeth) is found out; the women declare to him their grievances; +he promises sudden help, and, to amuse them, frames many little +pictures of brass and wax—some like the Viscount and Countess, +whom he must unite and strengthen, others like the Earl of Essex, +whom he must debilitate and weaken; and then with philtrous +powders, and such drugs, he works upon their persons. And to +practise what effects his arts would produce, Mrs. Turner, that +loved Sir Arthur Manwaring (a gentleman then attending the +Prince), and willing to keep him to her, gave him some of the +powder, which wrought so violently with him, that through a +storm of rain and thunder he rode fifteen miles one dark night +to her house, scarce knowing where he was till he was there. +Such is the devilish and mad rage of lust, heightened with art +and fancy.</p> + +<p>‘These things, matured and ripened by this juggler Forman, +gave them assurance of happy hopes. Her courtly incitements, +that drew the Viscount to observe her, she imputed to the +operation of those drugs he had tasted; and that harshness and +stubborn comportment she expressed to her husband, making +him (weary of such entertainments) to absent himself, she thought +proceeded from the effects of those unknown potions and powders +that were administered to him. So apt is the imagination to take +impressions of those things we are willing to believe.</p> + +<p>‘The good Earl, finding his wife nurseled in the Court, and seeing +no possibility to reduce her to reason till she were estranged from the +relish and taste of the delights she sucked in there, made his condition +again known to her father. The old man, being troubled with +his daughter’s disobedience, embittered her, being near him, with +wearisome and continued chidings, to wean her from the sweets +she doted upon, and with much ado forced her into the country. +But how harsh was the parting, being sent away from the place +where she grew and flourished! Yet she left all her engines and +imps behind her: the old doctor and his confederate, Mrs. Turner, +must be her two supporters. She blazons all her miseries to them +at her depart, and moistens the way with her tears. Chartley +was an hundred miles from her happiness; and a little time thus +lost is her eternity. When she came thither, though in the +pleasantest part of the summer, she shut herself up in her +chamber, not suffering a beam of light to peep upon her dark +thoughts. If she stirred out of her chamber, it was in the dead +of the night, when sleep had taken possession of all others but +those about her. In this implacable, sad, and discontented +humour, she continued some months, always murmuring against, +but never giving the least civil respect to, her husband, which the +good man suffered patiently, being loth to be the divulger of his +own misery; yet, having a manly courage, he would sometimes +break into a little passion to see himself slighted and neglected; +but having never found better from her, it was the easier to bear +with her.’</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> +See ‘The State Trials;’ ‘The Carew Letters;’ Spedding, +‘Life and Letters of Lord Bacon;’ Amos, ‘The Grand Oyer of +Poisoning;’ and S. R. Gardiner, ‘History of England,’ vol. iv., +1607-1616.</p> +</div> + + +<h3>DR. LAMBE.</h3> + +<p>A worthy successor to Simon Forman appeared in +Dr. Lambe, or Lamb, who, in the first two Stuart +reigns, attained a wide celebrity as an astrologer and +a quack doctor. A curious story respecting his pretended +magical powers is related by Richard Baxter +in his ‘Certainty of the World of Spirits’ (1691). +Meeting two acquaintances in the street, who +evidently desired some experience of his skill in the +occult art, he invited them home with him, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>124]</a></span> +ushered them into an inner chamber. There, to their +amazement, a tree sprang up before their eyes in the +middle of the floor. Before they had ceased to +wonder at this sight surprising, three diminutive men +entered, with tiny axes in their hands, and, nimbly +setting to work, soon felled the tree. The doctor +then dismissed his guests, who went away with a +conviction that he was as potent a necromancer as +Roger Bacon or Cornelius Agrippa.</p> + +<p>That same night a tremendous gale arose, so that +the house of one of Lambe’s visitors rocked to and +fro, threatening to topple over with a crash, and bury +the man and his wife in the ruins. In great terror +his wife inquired, ‘Were you not at Dr. Lambe’s +to-day?’ The husband acknowledged that it was so. +‘And did you bring anything away from his house?’ +Yes: when the dwarfs felled the tree, he had been +foolish enough to pick up some of the chips, and put +them in his pocket. Here was the cause of the hurricane! +With all speed he got rid of the chips; the +storm immediately subsided, and the remainder of the +night was spent in undisturbed repose.</p> + +<p>Lambe was notorious for the lewdness of his life +and his evil habits. But his supposed skill and +success as a soothsayer led to his being frequently +consulted by George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, +with the result that each helped to swell the volume +of the other’s unpopularity. The Puritans were +angered at the Duke’s resort to a man of Lambe’s +character and calling; the populace hated Lambe as +the tool and instrument of the Duke. In 1628 the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>125]</a></span> +brilliant favourite of Charles I. was the best-hated +man in England, and every slander was hurled at +him that the resources of political animosity could +supply. The ballads of the time—an indisputably +satisfactory barometer of public opinion—inveighed +bitterly and even furiously against his luxuriousness, +his love of dress, his vanity, his immorality, and his +proved incompetence as soldier and statesman. He +was accused of having poisoned Lords Hamilton, +Lennox, Southampton, Oxford, even James I. himself. +He had sat in his boat, out of the reach of +danger, while his soldiers perished under the guns of +Ré. He had corrupted the chastest women in England +by means of the love-philtre which Dr. Lambe concocted +for him. In a word, the air was full of the +darkest and dreadest accusations.</p> + +<p>Lambe’s connection with the Duke brought on a +catastrophe which his magical art failed to foresee or +prevent. He was returning, one summer evening—it +was June 13—from the play at the Fortune Theatre, +when he was recognised by a company of London +prentices. With a fine scent for the game, they +crowded round the unfortunate magician, and hooted +at him as the Duke’s devil, hustling him to and fro, +and treating him with cruel roughness. To save +himself from further violence, he hired some sailors +to escort him to a tavern in Moorgate Street, where +he supped. On going forth again, he found that +many of his persecutors lingered about the door; and, +bursting into a violent rage, he threatened them with +his vengeance, and told them ‘he would make them +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>126]</a></span> +dance naked.’ Still guarded by his sailors, he +hurried homeward, with the mob close at his heels, +shouting and gesticulating, and increasing every +minute both in numbers and fury. In the Old +Jewry he turned to face them with his protectors; +but this movement of defence, construed into one of +defiance, stimulated the passions of the populace to an +ungovernable pitch; they made a rush at him, from +which he took refuge in the Windmill tavern. A +volley of stones smashed against pane and door; and +with shouts, screams, and yells, they demanded that +he should be given up. But the landlord, a man of +courage and humanity, would not throw the poor +wretch to his pursuers as the huntsman throws the +captured fox to the fangs of his hounds. He detained +him for some time, and then he provided him with a +disguise before he would suffer him to leave. The +precaution was useless, for hate is keen of vision: +the man was recognised; the pursuit was resumed, +and he was hunted through the streets, pale and +trembling with terror, his dress disordered and soiled, +until he again sought an asylum. The master of this +house, however, fell into a paroxysm of alarm, and +dismissed him hastily, with four constables as a bodyguard. +But what could these avail against hundreds? +They were swept aside—the doctor, bleeding and +exhausted, was flung to the ground, and sticks and +stones rained blows upon him until he was no longer +able to ask for mercy. One of his eyes was beaten +out of its socket; and when he was rescued at length +by a posse of constables and soldiers, and conveyed to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>127]</a></span> +the Compter prison, it was a dying man who was +borne unconscious across its threshold.</p> + +<p>Such was the miserable ending of Dr. Lambe. +Charles I. was much affected when he heard of it; +for he saw that it was a terrible indication of the +popular hostility against Lambe’s patron. The +murderers had not scrupled to say that if the Duke +had been there they would have handled him worse; +they would have minced his flesh, so that every one +of them might have had a piece. Summoning to his +presence the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, the King +bade them discover the offenders; and when they +failed in what was an impossible task, he imposed +a heavy fine upon the City.</p> + +<p>The ballad-writers of the day found in the magician’s +fate an occasion for attacking Buckingham: +one of them, commenting on his supposed contempt +for Parliament, puts the following arrogant defiance +into his mouth:</p> + +<div class="cpoem5"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘Meddle with common matters, common wrongs,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To th’ House of Commons common things belong ...<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leave him the oar that best knows how to row<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And State to him that the best State doth know ...<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though Lambe be dead, <em>I’ll</em> stand, and you shall see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I’ll smile at them that can but bark at me.’<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + + + + +<p class="padtop"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>128]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER V.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smlfont">THE LAST OF THE ENGLISH MAGICIANS: WILLIAM LILLY.</span></h2> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>‘Lilly was a prominent, and, in the opinion of many of his +contemporaries, a very important personage in the most eventful +period of English history. He was a principal actor in the +farcical scenes which diversified the bloody tragedy of civil war; +and while the King and the Parliament were striving for mastery +in the field, he was deciding their destinies in the closet. The +weak and the credulous of both parties who sought to be +instructed in “destiny’s dark counsels,” flocked to consult the +“wily Archimagus,” who, with exemplary impartiality, meted out +victory and good fortune to his clients, according to the extent of +their faith and the weight of their purses. A few profane +Cavaliers might make his name the burthen of their malignant +rhymes—a few of the more scrupulous among the saints might +keep aloof in sanctified abhorrence of the “Stygian sophister”—but +the great majority of the people lent a willing and reverential +ear to his prophecies and prognostications. Nothing was too high +or too low, too mighty or too insignificant, for the grasp of his +genius. The stars, his informants, were as communicative on the +most trivial as on the most important subjects. If a scheme was +set on foot to rescue the King, or to retrieve a stray trinket; to +restore the royal authority, or to make a frail damsel an honest +woman; to cure the nation of anarchy, or a lap-dog of a surfeit—William +Lilly was the oracle to be consulted. His almanacks +were spelled over in the tavern, and quoted in the Senate; they +nerved the arm of the soldier, and rounded the period of the +orator. The fashionable beauty, dashing along in her calash from +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>129]</a></span> +St. James’s or the Mall, and the prim starched dame from Watling +Street or Bucklersbury, with a staid foot-boy, in a plush jerkin, +plodding behind her—the reigning toast among “the men of wit +about town,” and the leading groaner in a tabernacle concert—glided +alternately into the study of the trusty wizard, and poured +into his attentive ear strange tales of love, or trade, or treason. +The Roundhead stalked in at one door, whilst the Cavalier was +hurried out at the other.</p> + +<p>‘The confessions of a man so variously consulted and trusted, +if written with the candour of a Cardan or a Rousseau, would +indeed be invaluable. The “Memoirs of William Lilly,” though +deficient in this particular, yet contain a variety of curious and +interesting anecdotes of himself and his contemporaries, which, +when the vanity of the writer or the truth of his art is not concerned, +may be received with implicit credence.</p> + +<p>‘The simplicity and apparent candour of his narrative might +induce a hasty reader of this book to believe him a well-meaning +but somewhat silly personage, the dupe of his own speculations—the +deceiver of himself as well as of others. But an attentive +examination of the events of his life, even as recorded by himself, +will not warrant so favourable an interpretation. His systematic +and successful attention to his own interest, his dexterity in +keeping on “the windy side of the law,” his perfect political +pliability, and his presence of mind and fertility of resources +when entangled in difficulties, indicate an accomplished impostor, +not a crazy enthusiast. It is very possible and probable that, at +the outset of his career, he was a real believer in the truth and +lawfulness of his art, and that he afterwards felt no inclination +to part with so pleasant and so profitable a delusion.... Of his +success in deception, the present narrative exhibits abundant proofs. +The number of his dupes was not confined to the vulgar and illiterate, +but included individuals of real worth and learning, of hostile +parties and sects, who courted his acquaintance and respected his +predictions. His proceedings were deemed of sufficient importance +to be twice made the subject of a Parliamentary inquiry; +and even after the Restoration—when a little more scepticism, if +not more wisdom, might have been expected—we find him +examined by a Committee of the House of Commons respecting +his foreknowledge of the Great Fire of London. We know not +whether it “should more move our anger or our mirth” to see +our assemblage of British Senators—the contemporaries of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>130]</a></span> +Hampden and Falkland, of Milton and Clarendon, in an age +which moved into action so many and such mighty energies—gravely +engaged in ascertaining the cause of a great national +calamity from the prescience of a knavish fortune-teller, and +puzzling their wisdoms to interpret the symbolical flames which +blazed in the misshapen woodcuts of his oracular publications.</p> + +<p>‘As a set-off against these honours may be mentioned the +virulent and unceasing attacks of almost all the party scribblers +of the day; but their abuse he shared in common with men +whose talents and virtues have outlived the malice of their contemporaries.’—<i>Retrospective +Review.</i></p> +</div> + +<p>William Lilly was born at Diseworth, in Leicestershire, +on May 1, 1602. He came of an old and reputable +family of the yeoman class, and his father +was at one time a man of substance, though, from +causes unexplained, he fell into a state of great impoverishment. +William from the first was intended +to be a scholar, and at the age of eleven was sent to +the grammar-school at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, where he +made a fair progress in his classical studies. In his +sixteenth year he began to be much troubled in his +dreams regarding his chances of future salvation, and +felt a large concern for the spiritual welfare of his +parents. He frequently spent the night in weeping +and praying, and in an agony of fear lest his sins +should offend God. That in this exhibition of early +piety he was already preparing for his career of self-hypocrisy +and deception, I will not be censorious +enough to assert; but in after-life his conscience was +certainly much less sensitive, and he ceased to trouble +himself about the souls of any of his kith and kin.</p> + +<p>He was about eighteen when the collapse of his +father’s circumstances compelled him to leave school. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>131]</a></span> +He had used his time and opportunities so well that +he had gained the highest form, and the highest place +on that form. He spoke Latin as readily as his +native tongue; could improvise verses upon any +theme—all kinds of verses, hexameter, pentameter, +phalenciac, iambic, sapphic—so that if any ingenious +youth came from remote schools to hold public disputations, +Lilly was always selected as the Ashby-de-la-Zouch +champion, and in that capacity invariably +won distinction. ‘If any minister came to examine +us,’ he said, ‘I was brought forth against him, nor +would I argue with him unless in the Latin tongue, +which I found few could well speak without breaking +Priscian’s head; which, if once they did, I would +complain to my master, <i>Non bene intelliget linguare +Latinam, nec prorsus loquitur</i>. In the derivation of +words, I found most of them defective; nor, indeed, +were any of them good grammarians. All and every +of those scholars who were of my form and standing +went to Cambridge, and proved excellent divines; +only I, poor William Lilly, was not so happy; +fortune then frowning upon my father’s present condition, +he not in any capacity to maintain me at the +University.’</p> + +<p>The <i>res angustæ domi</i> pressing heavily upon the +quick-witted, ingenious, and active young fellow, he +set forth—as so many Dick Whittingtons have done +before and since—to make his fortune in London +City. His purse held only 20s., with which he purchased +a new suit—hose, doublets, trunk, and the +like—and with a donation from his friends of 10s., he +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>132]</a></span> +took leave of his father (‘then in Leicester gaol for +debt’) on April 4th, and tramping his way to London, +in company with ‘Bradshaw the carrier,’ arrived +there on the 9th. When he had gratified the carrier +and his servants, his capital was reduced to 7s. 6d. +in money, a suit of clothes on his back, two shirts, +three bands, one pair of shoes, and as many stockings. +The master to whom he had been recommended—Leicestershire +born, like himself—a certain Gilbert +Wright, received him kindly, purchasing for him a +new cloak—a welcome addition to Lilly’s scanty +wardrobe; and Lilly then settled down, contentedly +enough, to his laborious duties, though they were +hardly of a kind to gratify the tastes of an earnest +scholar. ‘My work,’ he says, ‘was to go before my +master to church; to attend my master when he +went abroad; to make clean his shoes; sweep the +street; help to drive bucks when he washed; fetch +water in a tub from the Thames (I have helped to +carry eighteen tubs of water in one morning); weed +the garden; all manner of drudgeries I willingly performed; +scrape trenchers,’ etc.</p> + + +<p class="break">In 1624 his mistress (he says) died of cancer in +the breast, and he came into possession—by way of +legacy, I suppose—of a small scarlet bag belonging +to her, which contained some rare and curious things. +Among others, several sigils, amulets, or charms: +some of Jupiter in trine, others of the nature of +Venus; some of iron, and one of gold—pure angel +gold, of the bigness of a thirty-shilling piece of King +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>133]</a></span> +James’s coinage. In the circumference, on one side, +was engraven, <i>Vicit Leo de tribu Judæ Tetragrammaton</i>, +and within the middle a holy lamb. In the +circumference on the obverse side were Amraphel and +three <sup>+</sup><sub>+</sub><sup>+</sup>, and in the centre, <i>Sanctus Petrus Alpha +et Omega</i>.</p> + +<p>According to Lilly, this sigil was framed under the +following circumstances:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>‘His mistress’s former husband travelling into Sussex, happened +to lodge in an inn, and to lie in a chamber thereof, wherein, not +many months before, a country grazier had lain, and in the night +cut his own throat. After this night’s lodging he was perpetually, +and for many years, followed by a spirit, which vocally +and articulately provoked him to cut his throat. He was used +frequently to say, “I defy thee, I defy thee,” and to spit at the +spirit. This spirit followed him many years, he not making anybody +acquainted with it; at last he grew melancholy and discontented, +which being carefully observed by his wife, she many +times hearing him pronounce, “I defy thee,” desired him to +acquaint her with the cause of his distemper, which he then did. +Away she went to Dr. Simon Forman, who lived then in Lambeth, +and acquaints him with it; who having framed this sigil, and +hanged it about his neck, he wearing it continually until he died, +was never more molested by the spirit. I sold the sigil for +thirty-two shillings, but transcribed the words <i>verbatim</i> as I have +related.’</p> +</div> + +<p>Lilly continued some time longer in the service +of Master Gilbert Wright. When the plague broke +out in London in 1625, he, with a fellow-servant, +was left in charge of his employer’s house. He seems +to have taken things easily enough, notwithstanding +the sorrow and suffering that surrounded him on +every side. Purchasing a bass-viol, he hired a master +to instruct him in playing it; the intervals he spent +in bowling in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, with Wat the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>134]</a></span> +Cobbler, Dick the Blacksmith, and such-like companions. +‘We have sometimes been at our work at +six in the morning, and so continued till three or +four in the afternoon, many times without bread or +drink all that while. Sometimes I went to church +and heard funeral sermons, of which there was then +great plenty. At other times I went early to St. +Antholin’s, in London, where there was every morning +a sermon. The most able people of the whole +city and suburbs were out of town; if any remained, +it were such as were engaged by parish officers to +remain; no habit of a gentleman or woman continued; +the woeful calamity of that year was +grievous, people dying in the open fields and in open +streets. At last, in August, the bills of mortality so +increased, that very few people had thoughts of +surviving the contagion. The Sunday before the +great bill came forth, which was of five thousand and +odd hundreds, there was appointed a sacrament at +Clement Danes’; during the distributing whereof I +do very well remember we sang thirteen parts of the +119th Psalm. One Jacob, our minister (for we had +three that day, the communion was so great), fell sick +as he was giving the sacrament, went home, and was +buried of the plague the Thursday following.’</p> + +<p>Having been led by various circumstances to apply +himself to the study of astrology, he sought a guide +and teacher in the person of one Master Evans, whom +he describes as poor, ignorant, boastful, drunken, and +knavish; he had a character, or reputation, however, +for erecting a figure (or horoscope) predicting future +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>135]</a></span> +events, discovering secrets, restoring stolen goods, +and even for raising spirits, when it so pleased him. +Of this crafty cheat he relates an extraordinary story. +Some time before Lilly became acquainted with him, +Lord Bothwell and Sir Kenelm Digby visited him at +his lodgings in the Minories, in order that they +might enjoy what is nowadays called a ‘spiritualistic +séance.’ The magician drew the mysterious circle, +and placed himself and his visitors within it. He +began his invocations; but suddenly Evans was +caught up from the others, and transferred, he knew +not how, to Battersea Fields, near the Thames. Next +morning a countryman discovered him there, fast +asleep, and, having roused him, informed him, in +answer to his inquiries, where he was. Evans in the +afternoon sent a messenger to his wife, to acquaint +her with his safety, and dispel the apprehensions she +might reasonably entertain. Just as the messenger +arrived, Sir Kenelm Digby also arrived, not unnaturally +curious to learn the issue of the preceding +day’s adventure. This monstrous story Evans told +to Lilly, who, I suppose, affected to believe it, and +asked him how such an issue chanced to attend on +his experiment. Because, the knave replied, in performing +the invocation rites, he had carelessly +omitted the necessary suffumigation, and at this +omission the spirit had taken offence. It is evident +that the spirits insist on being treated with due +regard to etiquette.</p> + +<p>Lilly, by the way, records some quaint biographical +particulars respecting the astrologers of his time; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>136]</a></span> +they are not of a nature, however, to elevate our +ideas of the profession. One would almost suppose +that free intercourse with the inhabitants of the +unseen world had an exceptionally bad effect on the +morals and manners of the mortals who enjoyed it; +or else the spirits must have had a penchant for low +society. Lilly speaks of one William Poole, who +was a nibbler at astrological science, and, in addition, +a gardener, an apparitor, a drawer of lime, a plasterer, +a bricklayer; in fact, he bragged of knowing no +fewer than seventeen trades—such was the versatility +of his genius! It is pleasant to know that this wonderfully +clever fellow could condescend to ‘drolling,’ +and even to writing poetry (heaven save the mark!), +of which Lilly, in his desire to astonish posterity, has +preserved a specimen. Master Poole’s rhymes, however, +are much too offensively coarse to be transferred +to these pages.</p> + +<p>This man of many callings died about 1651 or +1652, at St. Mary Overy’s, in Southwark, and Lilly +quotes a portion of his last will and testament:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>‘<i>Item.</i> I give to Dr. Arder all my books, and one manuscript +of my own, worth one hundred of Lilly’s Introduction.</p> + +<p>‘<i>Item.</i> If Dr. Arder gives my wife anything that is mine, I +wish the D—l may fetch him body and soul.’</p> +</div> + +<p>Terrified at this uncompromising malediction, the +doctor handed over all the deceased conjurer’s books +and goods to Lilly, who in his turn handed them +over to the widow; and in this way Poole’s curse +was eluded, and his widow got her rights.</p> + +<p>The true name of this Dr. Arder, it seems, was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>137]</a></span> +Richard Delahay. He had originally practised as an +attorney; but falling into poverty, and being driven +from his Derbyshire home by the Countess of Shrewsbury, +he turned to astrology and physic, and looked +round about him for patients, though with no very +great success. He had at one time known a Charles +Sledd, a friend of Dr. Dee, ‘who used the crystal, +and had a very perfect sight’—in modern parlance, +was a good medium.</p> + +<p>Dr. Arder often declared to Lilly that an angel +had on one occasion offered him a lease of life for a +thousand years, but for some unexplained reasons he +declined the valuable freehold. However, he outlived +the Psalmist’s span, dying at the ripe old age +of eighty.</p> + + +<p class="break">A much more famous magician was John Booker, +who, in 1632 and 1633, gained a great notoriety by +his prediction of a solar eclipse in the nineteenth +degree of Aries, 1633, taken out of ‘Leuitius de Magnis +Conjunctionibus,’ namely, ‘O Reges et Principes,’ etc., +both the King of Bohemia and Gustavus, King of +Sweden, dying during ‘the effects of that eclipse.’</p> + +<p>John Booker was born at Manchester, of good +parentage, in 1601. In his youth he attained a very +considerable proficiency in the Latin tongue. From +his early years we may take it that he was destined +to become an astrologer—he showed so great a +fancy (otherwise inexplicable!) for poring over old +almanacks. In his teens he was despatched to +London to serve his apprenticeship to a haberdasher +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>138]</a></span> +in Lawrence Lane. But whether he contracted a +distaste for the trade, or lacked the capital to start +on his own account, he abandoned it on reaching +manhood, and started as a writing-master at Hadley, +in Middlesex. It is said that he wrote singularly +well, ‘both Secretary and Roman.’ Later in life he +officiated as clerk to Sir Christopher Clithero, Alderman +of London, and Justice of the Peace, and also to +Sir Hugh Hammersley, Alderman, and in these +responsible positions became well known to many +citizens who, like Cowper’s John Gilpin, were ‘of +credit and renown.’</p> + +<p>In star-craft this John Booker was a past master! +His verses upon the months, framed according to their +different astrological significations, ‘being blessed +with success, according to his predictions,’ made him +known all over England. He was a man of ‘great +honesty,’ abhorring any deceit in the art he loved and +studied. So says Lilly; but it is certain that if an +astrologer be in earnest, he must deceive himself, if +he do not deceive others. This Booker had much +good fortune in detecting thefts, and was not less an +adept in resolving love-questions. His knowledge of +astronomy was by no means limited; he understood +a good deal of physic; was a great advocate of the +antimonial cup, whose properties were first discovered +by Basil Valentine; not unskilled in chemistry, +though he did not practise it. He died in the +sweet odour of a good reputation in 1667, leaving +behind him a tolerable library (which was purchased +by Elias Ashmole, the antiquary), a widow, four +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>139]</a></span> +children, and the MSS. of his annual prognostications. +During the Long Parliament period he published +his ‘Bellum Hibernicale,’ which is described +as ‘a very sober and judicious book,’ and, not long +before his death, a small treatise on Easter Day, +wherein he displayed a laudable erudition.</p> + + +<p class="break">Lilly has also something to say about a Master +Nicholas Fiske, licentiate in physic, who came of a +good old family, and was born near Framlingham, in +Suffolk. He was educated for the University, but +preferred staying at home, and studying astrology +and medicine, which he afterwards practised at Colchester, +and at several places in London.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>‘He was a person very studious, laborious, of good apprehension, +and had by his own industry obtained both in astrology, +physic, arithmetic, astronomy, geometry, and algebra, singular +judgment: he would in astrology resolve horary questions very +soundly, but was ever diffident of his own abilities. He was exquisitely +skilful in the art of directions upon nativities, and had +a good genius in performing judgment thereupon; but very unhappy +he was that he had no genius in teaching his scholars, for +he never perfected any. His own son Matthew hath often told +me that when his father did teach any scholars in his time, they +would principally learn of him. <em>He had Scorpio ascending (!)</em>, and +was secretly envious to those he thought had more parts than +himself. However, I must be ingenuous, and do affirm that by +frequent conversation with him I came to know which were the +best authors, and much to enlarge my judgment, especially in the +art of directions: he visited me most days once after I became +acquainted with him, and would communicate his most doubtful +questions unto me, and accept of my judgment therein rather +than his own.’</p> +</div> + +<p>Resuming his own life-story, Lilly records an +important purchase which he made in 1634—the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>140]</a></span> +great astrological treatise, the ‘Ars Notaria,’ a large +parchment volume, enriched with the names and +pictures of those angels which are thought and believed +by wise men to teach and instruct in all the +several liberal sciences—as if heaven were a scientific +academy, with the angels giving lectures as professors +of astrology, medicine, mathematics, and the like! +Next he describes how he sought to extend his fame +as a magician by attempting the discovery of a +quantity of treasure alleged to have been concealed +in the cloister of Westminster Abbey; and having +obtained permission from the authorities, he repaired +thither, one winter night, accompanied by several +gentlemen, and by one John Scott, a supposed expert +in the use of the Mosaical or divining rods. The +hazel rods were duly played round about the cloister, +and on the west side turned one over the other, a +proof that the treasure lay there. The labourers, +after digging to a depth of six feet, came upon a +coffin; but as it was not heavy, Lilly refrained from +opening it, an omission which he afterwards regretted. +From the cloister they proceeded to the Abbey +Church, where, upon a sudden, so fierce, so high, so +blustering and loud a wind burst forth, that they +feared the west end of the church would fall upon +them. Their rods would not move at all; the +candles and torches, all but one, were extinguished, +or burned very dimly. John Scott, Lilly’s partner, +was amazed, turned pale, and knew not what to think +or do, until Lilly gave command to dismiss the +demons. This being done, all was quiet again, and the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>141]</a></span> +party returned home about midnight. ‘I could never +since be induced,’ says Master Lilly, with sublime +impertinence, ‘to join with any in such-like actions. +The true miscarriage of the business,’ he adds, ‘was +by reason of so many people being present at the +operation; for there were about thirty, some laughing, +others deriding, <em>so that if we had not dismissed the +demons, I believe most part of the Abbey Church had +been blown down</em>! Secrecy and intelligent operators,’ +he adds, ‘with a strong confidence and knowledge of +what they are doing, are best for this work.’ They +are, at all events, for conspiracy and collusion.</p> + +<p>In reading a narrative like this, one finds it not +easy to satisfy one’s self how far it has been written in +good faith, or how far it is compounded of credulity +or of conscious deception—how far the writer has +unwittingly imposed upon himself, or is knowingly +imposing upon the reader. That Lilly should gravely +transmit to posterity such a record, if aware that it +was an audacious invention, seems hardly credible; +and yet it is still less credible that a man so shrewd +and keen-witted should believe in the operations of +demons, and in their directing a blast of wind against +the Abbey Church because they resented his search +for a hidden treasure, to which they at least could have +no claim! As great wit to madness nearly is allied, +so is there a dangerous proximity between credulity +and imposture, and the man who begins by being a +dupe often ends by becoming a knave. Perhaps +there are times when the axiom should be reversed.</p> + +<p>Lilly’s astrological pursuits appear to have affected +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>142]</a></span> +his health: he grew lean and haggard, and suffered +much from hypochondria; so that, at length, he +resolved to try the curative effects of country air, +and removed, in the spring of 1636, to Hersham, a +quiet and picturesque hamlet, near Walton-on-the-Thames. +He did not give up his London house, +however, until thirty years later (1665), when he +finally settled at Hersham as a country gentleman, +and a person of no small consideration.</p> + +<p>Having recovered his health in his rural quarters, +our great magician returned to London, and practised +openly his favourite art. But a secret intelligence +apprising him that he was not sufficiently an adept, +he again withdrew into the country, where he +remained for a couple of years, immersed, I suppose, +in occult studies. We may take it that he really +entered on a professional career in 1644, when a +‘happy thought’ inspired him to bring out the first +yearly issue of his prophetical almanac, or ‘Merlinus +Anglicus Junior.’ In his usual abrupt and disjointed +style he gives the following account of +his publication: ‘I had given, one day, the copy +thereof unto the then Mr. [afterwards Sir Bulstrode] +Whitlocke, who by accident was reading +thereof in the House of Commons. Ere the Speaker +took the chair, one looked upon it, and so did many, +and got copies thereof; which, when I heard, I +applied myself to John Booker to license it, for then +he was licenser of all mathematical books.... He +wondered at the book, made many impertinent obliterations, +formed many objections, swore it was not +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>143]</a></span> +possible to distinguish betwixt King and Parliament +[O shrewd John Booker!]; at last licensed it according +to his own fancy. I delivered it unto the printer, +who being an arch Presbyterian, had five of the +ministry to inspect it, <em>who could make nothing of it</em>, +but said that it might be printed, for in that I +meddled not with their Dagon. The first impression +was sold in less than one week. When I presented +some [copies] to the members of Parliament, I complained +of John Booker, the licenser, who had defaced +my book; they gave me order forthwith to reprint it +as I would, and let me know if any durst resist me +in the reprinting or adding what I thought fit: so +the second time it came forth as I would have it.’</p> + +<p>In June, 1644, Lilly published his ‘Supernatural +Sight,’ and also ‘The White King’s Prophecy,’ of +which, in three days, eighteen hundred copies were +sold. He issued the second volume of his ‘Prophetical +Merlin,’ in which he made use of the King’s +nativity, and discovering that <em>his ascendant was +approaching to the quadrature of Mars about June, +1645</em>, delivered himself of this oracular utterance, +as ambiguous as any that ever fell from the lips of +the Pythian priestess:</p> + +<div class="cpoem2"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘If now we fight, a victory stealeth upon us—’<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>which he afterwards boasted to be a clear prediction of +the defeat of Charles I. at Naseby, and, of course, would +equally well have served to have explained a royal +victory. Whitlocke, in his ‘Memorials of Affairs in +his own Times,’ states that he met the astrologer in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>144]</a></span> +the spring of 1645, and jestingly asking him what +events were likely to take place, Lilly repeated this +prophecy of a victory. He remarks that in 1648 +some of Lilly’s prognostications ‘fell out very +strangely, particularly as to the King’s fall from his +horse about this time.’ But it would have been +strange if a man so well informed of public affairs, +and so shrewd, as William Lilly, had never been +right in his forecasts. And a lucky coincidence will +set an astrologer up in credit for a long time, his +numerous failures being forgotten.</p> + +<p>In this same memorable and eventful year he published +his ‘Starry Messenger,’ with an interpretation +of three mock suns, or <i>parhelia</i>, which had been +seen in London on the 29th of May, 1644, King +Charles II.’s birthday. Complaint was immediately +made to the Parliamentary Committee of Examination +that it contained treasonable and scandalous +matter. Lilly was summoned before the Committee, +but several of his friends were upon it, and voted the +charges against him frivolous—as, indeed, they were—so +that he met with his usual good fortune, and came +off with flying colours.</p> + +<p>All the English astrologers of the old school seem +to have been startled and confounded by the innovations +of this dashing young magician, with his +yearly almanacks and political predictions and self-advertisement, +especially a certain Mr. William +Hodges, who lived near Wolverhampton, and candidly +confessed that Lilly did more by astrology than +he himself could do by the crystal, though he understood +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>145]</a></span> +its use as well as any man in England. Though +a strong royalist, he could never strike out any good +fortune for the King’s party—the stars in their +courses fought against Charles Stuart. The angels +whom he interviewed by means of the crystal were +Raphael, Gabriel, and Ariel; but his life was wanting +in the purity and holiness which ought to have been +conspicuous in a man who was favoured by communications +from such high celestial sources.</p> + +<p>A proof of his skill is related by Lilly on the +authority of Lilly’s partner, John Scott.</p> + +<p>Scott had some knowledge of surgery and physic; +so had Will Hodges, who had at one time been a +schoolmaster. Having some business at Wolverhampton, +Scott stayed for a few weeks with Hodges, +and assisted him in dressing wounds, letting blood, +and other chirurgical matters. When on the point +of returning to London, he asked Hodges to show +him the face and figure of the woman he should +marry. Hodges carried him into a field near his +house, pulled out his crystal, bade Scott set his foot +against his, and, after a pause, desired him to look +into the crystal, and describe what he saw there.</p> + +<p>‘I see,’ saith Scott, ‘a ruddy-complexioned wench, +in a red waistcoat, drawing a can of beer.’</p> + +<p>‘She will be your wife,’ cried Hodges.</p> + +<p>‘You are mistaken, sir,’ rejoined Scott. ‘So soon +as I come to London, I am engaged to marry a tall +gentlewoman in the Old Bailey.’</p> + +<p>‘You will marry the red gentlewoman,’ replied +Hodges, with an air of imperturbable assurance.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>146]</a></span> +On returning to London, Scott, to his great +astonishment, found that his tall gentlewoman had +jilted him, and taken to herself another husband. +Two years afterwards, in the course of a Kentish +journey, he refreshed himself at an inn in Canterbury; +fell in love with its ruddy-complexioned barmaid; +and, when he married her, remembered her +red waistcoat, her avocation, and Mr. Hodges ‘his +crystal.’</p> + +<p>An amusing story is told of this man Hodges.</p> + +<p>A neighbour of his, who had lost his horse, recovered +the animal by acting upon the astrologer’s +advice. Some years afterwards he unluckily conceived +the idea of playing upon the wise man a practical joke, +and obtained the co-operation of one of his friends. +He had certainly recovered his horse, he said, in the +way Hodges had shown him, but it was purely a +chance, and would not happen again. ‘So come, let +us play him a trick. I will leave some boy or other +at the town’s end with my horse, and we will then +call on Hodges and put him to the test.’</p> + +<p>This was done, and Hodges said it was true the +horse was lost, and would never be recovered.</p> + +<p>‘I thought what fine skill you had,’ laughed the +gentleman; ‘my horse is walking in a lane at the +town’s end.’</p> + +<p>Whereupon Hodges, with an oath, as was his evil +habit, asserted that the horse was gone, and that his +owner would never see him again. Ridiculing the +wise man without mercy, the gentleman departed, +and hastened to the town’s end, and there, at the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>147]</a></span> +appointed place, the boy lay stretched upon the +ground, fast asleep, with the bridle round his arm, +but the horse was gone!</p> + +<p>Back to Hodges hurried the chap-fallen squire, +ashamed of his incredulity, and eagerly seeking +assistance. But no; the conjurer swore freely—‘Be +gone—be gone about your business; go and look for +your horse.’ He went and he looked, east and west, +and north and south, but his horse saw never more.</p> + + +<p class="break">Let us next hear what Lilly has to tell us of +Dr. Napper, the parson of Great Lindford, in Buckinghamshire, +the advowson of which parish belonged +to him. He sprang from a good old stock, according +to the witness of King James himself. For when his +brother, Robert Napper, an opulent Turkey merchant, +was to be made a baronet in James’s reign, some +dispute arose whether he could prove himself a gentleman +for three or more descents. ‘By my soul,’ +exclaimed the King, ‘I will certify for Napper, that +he is of above three hundred years’ standing in his +family; all of them, by my soul, gentlemen!’ The +parson was legitimately and truly master of arts; +his claim to the title of doctor, however, seems to +have been dubious. Miscarrying one day in the pulpit, +he never after ventured into it, but all his lifetime +kept in his house some excellent scholar to officiate +for him, allowing him a good salary. Lilly speaks +highly of his sanctity of life and knowledge of medicine, +and avers that he cured the falling sickness by +constellated rings, and other diseases by amulets.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>148]</a></span> +The parents of a maid who suffered severely from +the falling sickness applied to him, on one occasion, +for a cure. He fashioned for her a constellated ring, +upon wearing of which she completely recovered. +Her parents chanced to make known the cure to some +scrupulous divines, who immediately protested that +it was done by enchantment. ‘Cast away the ring,’ +they said; ‘it’s diabolical! God cannot bless you, if +you do not cast it away.’ The ring was thrown into +a well, and the maid was again afflicted with her +epilepsy, enduring the old pain and misery for a +weary time. At last the parents caused the well to +be emptied, and regained the ring, which the maid +again made use of, and recovered from her fits. Thus +things went on for a year or two, until the Puritan +divines, hearing that she had resumed the ring, insisted +with her parents until they threw the ring away +altogether; whereupon the fits returned with such +violence that they betook themselves to the doctor, told +their story, acknowledged their fault, and once more +besought his assistance. But he could not be persuaded +to render it, observing that those who despised +God’s mercies were not capable or not worthy of +enjoying them.</p> + +<p>We do not dismiss this story as entirely apocryphal, +knowing that, in the cure or mitigation of nervous +diseases, the imagination exercises a wonderful influence. +There are well-authenticated instances of +‘faith healing’ not a whit less extraordinary than +this case described by Lilly of the maiden and the +ring. It would be trivial, perhaps, to hint that a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>149]</a></span> +good many maidens have been cured of some, at +least, of their ailments by <em>a ring</em>.</p> + + +<p class="break">In 1646 Lilly printed a collection of prophecies, +with the explanation and verification of ‘Aquila; or, +The White King’s Prophecy,’ as also the nativities +of Archbishop Laud and the Earl of Strafford, and a +learned speech, which the latter intended to have +spoken on the scaffold. In the following year he +completed his ‘Introduction unto Astrology,’ or +‘Christian Astrology,’ and was summoned, along +with John Booker, to the head-quarters of Fairfax, +at Windsor. They were conveyed thither in great +pomp and circumstance, with a coach and four +horses, welcomed in hearty fashion, and feasted in +a garden where General Fairfax lodged. In the +course of their interview with the general he said to +them:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>‘That God had blessed the army with many signal victories, +and yet their work was not finished. He hoped God would go +along with them until His work was done. They sought not +themselves, but the welfare and tranquillity of the good people +and whole nation; and, for that end, were resolved to sacrifice +both their lives and their own fortunes. As for the art that Lilly +and Booker studied, he hoped it was lawful and agreeable to +God’s Word: he himself understood it not, but doubted not they +both feared God, and therefore had a good opinion of them both.’</p> +</div> + +<p>Lilly replied:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>‘My lord, I am glad to see you here at this time. Certainly, +both the people of God, and all others of this nation, are very +sensible of God’s mercy, love, and favour unto them, in directing +the Parliament to nominate and elect you General of their armies, +a person so religious, so valiant.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>150]</a></span> +‘The several unexpected victories obtained under your Excellency’s +conduct will eternize the same unto all posterity.</p> + +<p>‘We are confident of God’s going along with you and your +army until the great work, for which He ordained you both, is +fully perfected, which we hope will be the conquering and subversion +of your and the Parliament’s enemies; and then a quiet +settlement and firm peace over all the nation unto God’s glory, +and full satisfaction of tender consciences.</p> + +<p>‘Sir, as for ourselves, we trust in God; and, as Christians, we +believe in Him. We do not study any art but what is lawful +and consonant to the Scriptures, Fathers, and antiquity, which +we humbly desire you to believe.’</p> +</div> + +<p>They afterwards paid a visit to Hugh Peters, the +famous Puritan ecclesiastic, who had lodgings in the +Castle. They found him reading ‘an idle pamphlet,’ +which he had received from London that morning. +‘Lilly, thou art herein,’ he exclaimed. ‘Are not you +there also?’ ‘Yes, that I am,’ he answered.</p> + +<p>The stanza relating to Lilly ran as follows:</p> + +<div class="cpoem1"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘From th’ oracles of the Sibyls so silly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The curst predictions of William Lilly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Dr. Sibbald’s Shoe-Lane Philly,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Good Lord, deliver me.’<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>After much conference with Hugh Peters, and +some private discourse betwixt the two ‘not to be +divulged,’ they parted, and Master Lilly returned to +London.</p> + +<p>In 1647 he published ‘The World’s Catastrophe,’ +‘The Prophecies of Ambrose Merlin’ (both of which +were translated by Elias Ashmole), and ‘Trithemius +of the Government of the World, by the Presiding +Angels’—all three tracts in one volume.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding his services to the Parliamentary +cause, Lilly secretly retained a strong attachment +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>151]</a></span> +towards Charles I., and he was consulted by Mrs. +Whorwood, a lady who enjoyed the royal confidence, +as to the best place for the concealment of the King, +when he escaped from Hampton Court. After the +usual sham of ‘erecting a figure’ had been gone +through, Lilly advised that a safe asylum might be +found in Essex, about twenty miles from London. +‘She liked my judgment very well,’ he says, and +being herself of sharp judgment, remembered a place +in Essex about that distance, where was an excellent +house, and all conveniences for his reception. But, +either guided by an irresistible destiny, or misled by +Ashburnham, whose good faith has been sometimes +doubted, he went away in the night-time westward, +and surrendered himself to Colonel Hammond, in the +Isle of Wight.</p> + +<p>With another unfortunate episode in the King’s +later career, Lilly was also connected. During the +King’s confinement at Carisbrooke the Kentishmen, +in considerable numbers, rose in arms, and joined +with Lord Goring; at the same time many of the +best ships revolted, and a movement on behalf of the +King was begun among the citizens of London. +‘His Majesty then laid his design to escape out of +prison by sawing the iron bar of his chamber +window; a small ship was provided, and anchored +not far from the Castle, to bring him into Sussex; +horses were provided ready to carry him through +Sussex into Kent, so that he might be at the head of +the army in Kent, and from thence to march immediately +to London, where thousands then would have +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>152]</a></span> +armed for him.’ Lilly was brought acquainted with +the plot, and employed a locksmith in Bow Lane to +make a saw for cutting asunder the iron bar, and +also procured a supply of aqua fortis. But, as everybody +knows, the King was unable to force his body +through the narrow casement, even after the removal +of the bar, and the plot failed.</p> + +<p>When the Parliament sent Commissioners into the +Island to negotiate with Charles the terms of a concordat, +of whom Lord Saye was one, Lady Whorwood +again sought Lilly’s assistance and advice. After +perusing his ‘figure,’ he told her the Commissioners +would arrive in the Island on such a date; elected a +day and hour when the King would receive the Commissioners +and their propositions; and as soon as +these were read, advised the King to sign them, and in +all haste to accompany the Commissioners to London. +The army being then far removed from the capital, +and the citizens stoutly enraged against the Parliamentary +leaders, Charles promised he would do so. +But, unfortunately, he allowed Lord Saye to dissuade +him from signing the propositions, on the +assurance that he had a powerful party both in the +House of Lords and the House of Commons, who +would see that he obtained more favourable conditions. +Thus was lost almost his last chance of +retaining his crown, and baffling the designs of his +enemies.</p> + +<p>Whilst the King, in his last days, was at Windsor +Castle, on one occasion, when he was taking the air +upon the leads, he looked through Captain Wharton’s +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>153]</a></span> +‘Almanack.’ ‘My book,’ saith he, ‘speaks well as +to the weather.’ A Master William Allen, who was +standing by, inquired, ‘What saith his antagonist, +Mr. Lilly?’ ‘I do not care for Lilly,’ remarked his +Majesty, ‘he has always been against me,’ infusing +some bitterness into his expressions. ‘Sir,’ observed +Allen, ‘the man is an honest man, and writes but +what his art informs him.’ ‘I believe it,’ said his +Majesty, ‘and that Lilly understands astrology as +well as any man in Europe.’</p> + + +<p class="break">In 1648 the Council of State acknowledged Lilly’s +services with a grant of £50, and a pension of £100 +a year, which, however, he received for two years +only.</p> + +<p>In the following January, while the King lay at +St. James’s House, Lilly began his observations, he +tells us, in the following oracular fashion:</p> + +<p>‘I am serious, I beg and expect justice; either fear +or shame begins to question offenders.</p> + +<p>‘The lofty cedars begin to divine a thundering +hurricane is at hand; God elevates man contemptible.</p> + +<p>‘Our demigods are sensible, we begin to dislike +their actions very much in London; more in the +country.</p> + +<p>‘Blessed be God, who encourages His servants, +makes them valiant, and of undaunted spirit to go on +with His decrees: upon a sudden, great expectations +arise, and men generally believe a quiet and calm +time draws nigh.’</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>154]</a></span> +Our garrulous and egotistical conjurer, who seems +really to have believed that he exercised a considerable +influence upon the course of events, though his position +was no more important than that of the fly upon +the wheel, evidently wished to connect these commonplaces +with the execution of Charles I.:</p> + +<p>‘In Christmas holidays,’ he writes, ‘the Lord Gray +of Groby, and Hugh Peters, sent for me to Somerset +House, with directions to bring them two of my +almanacks. I did so. Peters and he read January’s +observations. “If we are not fools and knaves,” +saith he, “we shall do justice.” Then they whispered. +<em>I understood not their meaning until his Majesty <span class="ntext">was +beheaded</span>.</em> They applied what I wrote of justice to +be understood of his Majesty, <em>which was contrary to +my intention</em>; for Jupiter, the first day of January, +became direct; and Libra is a sign signifying justice. +I implored for justice generally upon such as had +cheated in their places, being treasurers and such-like +officers. I had not then heard the least intimation of +bringing the King unto trial, and yet the first day +thereof I was casually there, it being upon a Saturday. +For going to Westminster every Saturday in the +afternoon, in these times, at Whitehall I casually met +Peters. “Come, Lilly, wilt thou go hear the King +tried?” “When?” said I. “Now—just now; go +with me.” I did so, and was permitted by the guard +of soldiers to pass up to the King’s Bench. Within +one quarter of an hour came the judges; presently +his Majesty, who spoke excellently well, and majestically, +without impediment in the least when he +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>155]</a></span> +spoke. I saw the silver top of his staff unexpectedly +fall to the ground, which was took up by Mr. Rushworth; +and then I heard Bradshaw, the judge, say to +his Majesty: “Sir, instead of answering the Court, +you interrogate their power, which becomes not one +in your condition.” These words pierced my heart +and soul, to hear a subject thus audaciously to reprehend +his Sovereign, who ever and anon replied with +great magnanimity and prudence.’</p> + +<p>Lilly tells us that during the siege of Colchester he +and his fellow-astrologer, Booker, were sent for, to +encourage the soldiers by their vaticinations, and in +this they succeeded, as they assured them the town +would soon be surrendered—which was actually the +case. Our prophet, however, if he could have obtained +leave to enter the town, would have carried all +his sympathies, and all his knowledge of the condition +of affairs in the Parliament’s army, to Sir Charles +Lucas, the Royalist Governor. He had a narrow +escape with his life during his sojourn in the camp of +the besiegers. A couple of guns had been placed so +as to command St. Mary’s Church, and had done +great injury to it. One afternoon he was standing in +the redoubt and talking with the cannoneer, when +the latter cried out for everybody to look to himself, +as he could see through his glass that there was a +piece in the Castle loaded and directed against his +work, and ready to be discharged. Lilly ran in hot +haste under an old ash-tree, and immediately the +cannon-shot came hissing over their heads. ‘No +danger now,’ said the gunner, ‘but begone, for there +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>156]</a></span> +are five more loading!’ And so it was. Two +hours later those cannon were fired, and unluckily +killed the cannoneer who had given Lilly a timely +warning.</p> + +<p>The practice of astrology must have been exceedingly +lucrative, for Lilly is known to have acquired a +considerable fortune. In 1651 he expended £1,030 in +the purchase of fee-farm rents, equal in value to £120 +per annum. And in the following year he bought +his house at Hersham, with some lands and buildings, +for £950. In the same year he published his ‘Annus +Tenebrosus,’ a title which he chose <em>not</em> ‘because of the +great obscurity of the solar eclipse,’ but in allusion to +‘those underhand and clandestine counsels held in +England by the soldiery, of which he would never, +except <em>in generals</em>, give information to any Parliament +man.’ Unfortunately, Lilly’s knowledge was always +embodied ‘in generals,’ and the misty vagueness of +his vaticinations renders it impossible for the reader +to pin them down to any definite meaning. You +may apply them to all events—or to none. Their +elastic indications of things good and evil may be +made to suit the events of the nineteenth century +almost as well as those of the seventeenth.</p> + +<p>Many characters Mr. William Lilly must be owned +to have represented with great success. But that all-essential +one—if we desire to secure the confidence of +our contemporaries, and the respect of posterity—of +<em>an honest man</em>, I fear he was never able to personate +successfully. Of the craft and cunning he could at +times display he records a striking illustration—evidently +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>157]</a></span> +with entire satisfaction to himself, and +apparently never suspecting that it might not be so +favourably regarded by others, and especially by +those plain, commonplace people who make no pretensions +to hermetic learning or occult knowledge, +but have certain unsophisticated ideas as to the laws +of morality and fair dealing.</p> + +<p>In his 1651 ‘Almanack’ he asserted that the Parliament +stood upon tottering foundations, and that +the soldiery and commonalty would combine against +it—a conclusion at which every intelligent onlooker +must by that time have arrived, without ‘erecting a +figure’ or consulting the starry heavens.</p> + +<p>This previous attempt at forecasting the future ‘lay +for a whole week,’ says its author, ‘in the Parliament +House, much criticised by the Presbyterians; one +disliking this sentence, another that, and others disliking +the whole. In the end a motion was made +that it should be examined by a Committee of the +House, with instructions to report concerning its +errors.</p> + +<p>‘A messenger attached me by a warrant from that +Committee. I had private notice ere the messenger +came, and hasted unto Mr. Speaker Lenthall, ever my +friend. He was exceeding glad to see me, told me +what was done, called for “Anglicus,” marked the +passages which tormented the Presbyterians so highly. +I presently sent for Mr. Warren, the printer, an +assured cavalier, obliterated what was most offensive, +put in other more significant words, and desired only +to have six amended against next morning, which +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>158]</a></span> +very honestly he brought me. I told him my design +was to deny the book found fault with, to own only +the six books. I told him I doubted he would be +examined. “Hang them!” said he; “they are all +rogues. I’ll swear myself to the devil ere they shall +have an advantage against you, by my oath.”</p> + +<p>‘The day after, I appeared before the Committee. +At first they showed me the true “Anglicus,” and +asked if I wrote and printed it.’</p> + +<p>Lilly, after pretending to inspect it, denied all +knowledge of it, asserting that it must have been +written with a view to do him injury by some +malicious Presbyterian, at the same time producing +the six amended copies, to the great surprise and perplexity +of the Committee. The majority, however, +were inclined to send him to prison, and some had +proposed Newgate, others the Gate House, when one +Brown, of Sussex, who had been influenced to favour +Lilly, remarked that neither to Newgate nor the Gate +House were the Parliament accustomed to send their +prisoners, and suggested that the most convenient +and legitimate course would be for the Sergeant-at-Arms +to take this Mr. Lilly into custody.</p> + +<p>‘Mr. Strickland, who had for many years been the +Parliament’s ambassador or agent in Holland, when +he saw how they inclined, spoke thus:</p> + +<p>‘“I came purposely into the Committee this day +to see the man who is so famous in those parts where +I have so long continued. I assure you his name is +famous over all Europe. I come to do him justice. +A book is produced by us, and said to be his; he +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>159]</a></span> +denies it; we have not proved it, yet will commit +him. Truly this is great injustice. It is likely he +will write next year, and acquaint the whole world +with our injustice, and so well he may. It is my +opinion, first to prove the book to be his ere he be +committed.”</p> + +<p>‘Another old friend of mine spoke thus:</p> + +<p>‘“You do not know the many services this man +hath done for the Parliament these many years, or +how many times, in our greatest distresses, on applying +unto him, he hath refreshed our languishing +expectations; he never failed us of comfort in our +most unhappy distresses. I assure you his writings +have kept up the spirits both of the soldiery, the +honest people of this nation, and many of us Parliament +men; and at last, for a slip of his pen (if it were +his), to be thus violent against him, I must tell you, +I fear the consequence urged out of the book will +prove effectually true. It is my counsel to admonish +him hereafter to be more wary, and for the present to +dismiss him.”</p> + +<p>‘Notwithstanding anything that was spoken on +my behalf, I was ordered to stand committed to the +Sergeant-at-Arms. The messenger attached my +person said I was his prisoner. As he was carrying +me away, he was called to bring me again. Oliver +Cromwell, Lieutenant-General of the army, having +never seen me, caused me to be produced again, when +he steadfastly beheld me for a good space, and then I +went with the messenger; but instantly a young +clerk of that Committee asks the messenger what he +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>160]</a></span> +did with me. Where is the warrant? Until that is +signed you cannot seize Mr. Lilly, or shall [not]. +Will you have an action of false imprisonment against +you? So I escaped that night, but next day stayed +the warrant. That night Oliver Cromwell went to +Mr. R——, my friend, and said: “What, never a man +to take Lilly’s cause in hand but yourself? None to +take his part but you? He shall not be long there.” +Hugh Peters spoke much in my behalf to the Committee, +but they were resolved to lodge me in the +Sergeant’s custody. One Millington, a drunken +member, was much my enemy, and so was Cawley +and Chichester, a deformed fellow, unto whom I had +done several courtesies.</p> + +<p>‘First thirteen days I was a prisoner, and though +every day of the Committee’s sitting I had a petition +to deliver, yet so many churlish Presbyterians still +appeared I could not get it accepted. The last day +of the thirteen, Mr. Joseph Ash was made chairman, +unto whom my cause being related, he took my petition, +and said I should be bailed in despite of them +all, but desired I would procure as many friends as I +could to be there. Sir Arthur Haselrig and Major +Galloway, a person of excellent parts, appeared for me, +and many more of my old friends came in. After two +whole hours’ arguing of my cause by Sir Arthur and +Major Galloway, and other friends, the matter came +to this point: I should be bailed, and a Committee +nominated to examine the printer. The order of the +Committee being brought afterwards to him who +should be Chairman, he sent me word, do what I +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>161]</a></span> +would, he would see all the knaves hanged, or he +would examine the printer. This is the truth of the +story.’</p> + +<p>Lilly’s biographer, however anxious he may be to +imitate biographers generally, and whitewash his +hero, feels that in this episode of his life the great +seer fell miserably below the heroic standard, and +was guilty of pusillanimous as well as unveracious +and dishonourable conduct. Yet Lilly is evidently +unaware of the unfavourable light in which he has +shown himself, and ambles along in an easy and +well-satisfied mood, as if to the sound of universal +applause.</p> + +<p>On February 26, 1654, Lilly lost his second wife, +and I regret to say he seems to have borne the loss +with astonishing equanimity. On April 20 Cromwell +expelled from the House our astrologer’s great +enemies, the Parliament men, and thereby won his +most cordial applause. He breaks out, indeed, into a +burst of devotional praise—Gloria Patri—as if for +some special and never-to-be-forgotten mercy. A +German physician, then resident in London, sent to +him the following epigram:</p> + +<p class="center"><i>Strophe Alcaica: Generoso Domino Gulielmo Lillio Astrologo, de +dissoluto super Parliamento:</i></p> + +<div class="cpoem3"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘Quod calculasti Sydere prævio,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Miles peregit numine conscio;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gentis videmus nunc Senatum<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Marti togaque gravi leviatum.’<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>His widower’s weeds, if he ever wore them, he +soon discarded, marrying his third wife in October, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>162]</a></span> +eight months after the decease of his second. This, +his latest partner and helpmate, was signified in his +nativity, he says, by <em>Jupiter in Libra</em>, which seems +to have been a great comfort to him, and perhaps to +his wife also. ‘Jupiter in Libra’ sounds as well, +indeed, as ‘that blessed word, Mesopotamia.’</p> + +<p>In reference to the restoration of Charles II., in +1660, Lilly unearths an old prophecy attributed to +Ambrose Merlin, and written, he says, 990 years +before.</p> + +<p>‘He calls King James the Lion of Righteousness, +and saith, when he died, or was dead, there would +reign a noble White King; this was Charles I. +The prophet discovers all his troubles, his flying +up and down, his imprisonment, his death, and +calls him Aquila. What concerns Charles II. is,’ +says Lilly, ‘the subject of our discourse; in the Latin +copy it is thus:</p> + +<p>‘<i>Deinde ab Austro veniet cum Sole super ligneos equos, +et super spumantem inundationem maris, Pullus Aquilæ +navigans in Britanniam.</i></p> + +<p>‘<i>Et applicans statim tunc altam domum Aquilæ +sitiens, et cito aliam sitiet.</i></p> + +<p>‘<i>Deinde Pullus Aquilæ nidificabit in summa rupe +totius Britanniæ: nec juvenis occidet, nec ad senem vivet.</i>’</p> + +<p>This, in an old copy, is Englished thus:</p> + +<p>‘After then shall come through the south with +the sun, on horse of tree, and upon all waves of the +sea, the Chicken of the Eagle, sailing into Britain, +and arriving anon to the house of the Eagle, he shall +show fellowship to these beasts.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>163]</a></span> +‘After, the Chicken of the Eagle shall nestle in the +highest rock of all Britain: nay, he shall nought be +slain young; nay, he nought come old.’</p> + +<p>Master William Lilly then supplies an explanation, +or, as he calls it, a verification, of these venerable +predictions. We shall give it in his own +words:</p> + +<p>‘His Majesty being in the Low Countries when +the Lord-General had restored the secluded members, +the Parliament sent part of the royal navy to bring +him for England, which they did in May, 1660. +Holland is east from England, so he came with the +sun; but he landed at Dover, a port in the south +part of England. Wooden horses are the English +ships.</p> + +<p>‘<i>Tunc nidificabit in summo rupium.</i></p> + +<p>‘The Lord-General, and most of the gentry in +England, met him in Kent, and brought him unto +London, then to White-hall.</p> + +<p>‘Here, by the highest Rooch (some write Rock) +is intended London, being the metropolis of all +England.</p> + +<p>‘Since which time, unto this very day, I write this +story, he hath reigned in England, and long may he +do hereafter.’ (Written on December 20, 1667.)</p> + +<p>Lilly quotes a prophecy, printed in 1588, in Greek +characters, which exactly deciphered, he says, the +long troubles the English nation endured from 1641 +to 1660, but he omits to tell us where he saw it or +who was its author. It ended in the following +mysterious fashion:</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>164]</a></span> +‘And after that shall come a dreadful dead man, +and with him a royal G’ (it is gamma, <ins class="greek" title="G">Γ</ins>, in the +Greek, intending C in the Latin, being the third +letter in the alphabet), ‘of the best blood in the +world, and he shall have the crown, and shall set +England in the right way, and put out all heresies.’</p> + +<p>To a man who could read the secrets of the stars, +and divine the events of the future, there was, of +course, nothing mysterious or obscure in these lines, +and their meaning he had no difficulty in determining. +Monkery having been extinguished above +eighty or ninety years, and the Lord-General’s name +being <em>Monk</em>, what more clear than that he must be +the ‘dead man’? And as for the royal <ins class="greek" title="G">Γ</ins>, or C, who +came of the best blood of the world, it was evident +that he could be no other than Charles II.? The +unlearned reader, who has neither the stars nor +the crystal to assist him, will, nevertheless, arrive at +the conclusion that if prophecies can be interpreted +in this liberal fashion, there is nothing to prevent +even him from assuming the <i>rôle</i> of an interpreter!</p> + +<p>But let it be noted that, according to our brilliant +magicians, ‘these two prophecies were not given +vocally by the angels, but by inspection of the crystal +in types and figures, or by apparition, the circular +way, where, at some distance, the angels appear, +representing by forms, shapes, and motions, what is +demanded. It is very rare, yea, even in our days, +for any operator or master to have the angels speak +articulately; <em>when they do speak, it is like the Irish, +much in the throat</em>.’</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>165]</a></span> +In June, 1660, Lilly was summoned before a +Committee of the House of Commons to answer to +an inquiry concerning the executioner employed to +behead Charles I. Here is his account of the +examination:</p> + +<p>‘God’s providence appeared very much for me that +day, for walking in Westminster Hall, Mr. Richard +Pennington, son to my old friend, Mr. William +Pennington, met me, and inquiring the cause of my +being there, said no more, but walked up and down +the Hall, and related my kindness to his father unto +very many Parliament men of Cheshire and Lancashire, +Yorkshire, Cumberland, and those northern counties, +who numerously came up into the Speaker’s chamber, +and bade me be of good comfort; at last he meets +Mr. Weston, one of the three [the two others were +Mr. Prinn and Colonel King] unto whom my matter +was referred for examination, who told Mr. Pennington +that he came purposely to punish me, and would +be bitter against me; but hearing it related, namely, +my singular kindness and preservation of old Mr. +Pennington’s estate, to the value of £6,000 or +£7,000, “I will do him all the good I can,” says he. +“I thought he had never done any good; let me see +him, and let him stand behind me where I sit.” I +did so. At my first appearance, many of the young +members affronted me highly, and demanded several +scurrilous questions. Mr. Weston held a paper +before his mouth; bade me answer nobody but Mr. +Prinn; I obeyed his command, and saved myself +much trouble thereby; and when Mr. Prinn put any +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>166]</a></span> +difficult or doubtful query unto me, Mr. Weston +prompted me with a fit answer. At last, after +almost one hour’s tugging, I desired to be fully heard +what I could say as to the person who cut Charles I.’s +head off. Liberty being given me to speak, I related +what follows, viz.:</p> + +<p>‘That the next Sunday but one after Charles I. +was beheaded, Robert Spavin, Secretary unto Lieutenant-General +Cromwell at that time, invited himself +to dine with me, and brought Anthony Peirson and +several others along with him to dinner: that their +principal discourse all dinner-time was only who it +was that beheaded the King. One said it was the +common hangman; another, Hugh Peters; others +also were nominated, but none concluded. Robert +Spavin, so soon as dinner was done, took me by the +hand, and carried me to the south window: saith he, +“These are all mistaken, they have not named the +man that did the fact: it was Lieutenant-Colonel +Joyce. I was in the room when he fitted himself for +the work, stood behind him when he did it; when +done, went in again with him. There is no man +knows this but my master, namely, Cromwell, Commissary +Ireton, and myself.” “Doth not Mr. Rushworth +know it?” said I. “No, he doth not know it,” +saith Spavin. The same thing Spavin since had +often related unto me when we were alone. Mr. +Prinn did, with much civility, make a report hereof +in the House; yet Norfolk, the Serjeant, after my +discharge, kept me two days longer in arrest, purposely +to get money of me. He had six pounds, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>167]</a></span> +his messenger forty shillings; and yet I was attached +but upon Sunday, examined on Tuesday, and then +discharged, though the covetous Serjeant detained me +until Thursday. By means of a friend, I cried quittance +with Norfolk, which friend was to pay him his +salary at that time, and abated Norfolk three pounds, +which he spent every penny at one dinner, without +inviting the wretched Serjeant; but in the latter end +of the year, when the King’s Judges were arraigned +at the Old Bailey, Norfolk warned me to attend, +believing I could give information concerning Hugh +Peters. At the Sessions I attended during its continuance, +but was never called or examined. There +I heard Harrison, Scott, Clement, Peters, Harker, +Scroop, and others of the King’s Judges, and Cook +the Solicitor, who excellently defended himself; I +say, I did hear what they could say for themselves, +and after heard the sentence of condemnation pronounced +against them by the incomparably modest +and learned Judge Bridgman, now Lord Keeper of +the Great Seal of England.’</p> + +<p>In spite of Spavin’s circumstantial statement, as +recorded by Lilly, it is now conclusively established +that the executioner of Charles I. was Richard +Brandon, the common executioner, who had previously +beheaded the Earl of Strafford. It is said that +he was afterwards seized with poignant remorse for +the act, and died in great mental suffering. His +body was carried to the grave amid the execrations of +an excited and angry populace.</p> + +<p>Though our astrologer, as we have seen, was at +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>168]</a></span> +heart a Royalist, his services towards the Parliamentary +cause were sufficiently conspicuous to expose +him after the Restoration to a good deal of +persecution; and he found it advisable to sue out his +pardon under the Great Seal, which cost him, as he +takes care to tell us, £13 6s. 8d.</p> + +<p>He claimed to have foreseen the Restoration, and +all the good things which flowed—or were expected +to have flowed—from that ‘auspicious event.’ In +page 111 of his ‘Prophetical Merlin,’ published in +1644, dwelling upon three sextile aspects of Saturn +and Jupiter made in 1659 and 1660, he says: ‘This, +their friendly salutation, comforts us in England: +every man now possesses his own vineyard; our +young youth grow up unto man’s estate, and our old +men live their full years; our nobles and gentlemen +rest again; our yeomanry, many years disconsolated, +now take pleasure in their husbandry. The merchant +sends out ships, and hath prosperous returns; the +mechanic hath quick trading; here is almost a new +world; new laws, new lords. Now any county of +England shall shed no more tears, but rejoice with +and in the many blessings God gives or affords her +annually.’</p> + +<p>He also wrote, he says, to Sir Edward Walker, +Garter King-at-Arms in 1659, when, by the way, the +restoration of Charles II. was an event that loomed in +the near future, and was anticipated by every man of +ordinary political sagacity: ‘Tu, Dominusque vester +videbitis Angliam, infra duos annis’ (You and your +Lord shall see England within two years). ‘For +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>169]</a></span> +in 1662,’ adds the arch impostor, in his strange +astrological jargon, ‘his moon came by direction to +the body of the sun.’</p> + +<p>‘<em>But he came in upon the ascendant directed unto the +trine of Sol and antiscion of Jupiter.</em>’</p> + +<p>No doubt he did. Who would presume to contradict +our English Merlin?</p> + +<p>In 1663 and 1664 he served as churchwarden—surely +the first and last astrologer who filled that respectable +office—of Walton-upon-Thames, settling as +well as he could the affairs of that ‘distracted parish’ +upon his own charges.</p> + +<p>An absurdly frivolous accusation was brought +against him in the year 1666. He was once more summoned +before a Committee of the House of Commons, +because in his book, ‘Monarchy or No Monarchy,’ +published in 1651, he had introduced sixteen plates, +of which the eighth represented persons digging +graves, with coffins and other emblems of mortality, +and the thirteenth a city in flames. Hence it was +inferred that he must have had something to do with +the Great Fire which had destroyed so large a part of +London, if not with the Plague, which had almost +depopulated it. The chairman, Sir Robert Burke, +on his coming into the Committee’s presence, addressed +him thus:</p> + +<p>‘Mr. Lilly, this Committee thought fit to summon +you to appear before them this day, to know if you +can say anything as to the cause of the late Fire, or +whether there might be any design therein. You +are called the rather hither, because in a book of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>170]</a></span> +yours, long since printed, you hinted some such +thing by one of your hieroglyphics.’</p> + +<p>Whereto Mr. Lilly replied, with a firm assumption +of superior wisdom and oracular knowledge:</p> + +<p>‘May it please your Honours,—After the beheading +of the late King, considering that in the three +subsequent years the Parliament acted nothing which +concerned the settlement of the nation in peace; and +seeing the generality of people dissatisfied, the +citizens of London discontented, the soldiery prone +to mutiny, I was desirous, according to the best +knowledge God had given me, to make inquiry by +the art I studied, what might from that time happen +unto the Parliament and nation in general. At last, +having satisfied myself as well as I could, and perfected +my judgment therein, I thought it most convenient +to signify my intentions and conceptions +thereof in Forms, Shapes, Types, Hieroglyphics, etc., +without any commentary, that so my judgment might +be concealed from the vulgar, and made manifest only +unto the wise. I herein imitating the examples of +many wise philosophers who had done the like.’</p> + +<p>‘Sir Robert,’ saith one, ‘Lilly is yet <i>sub vestibulo</i>.’</p> + +<p>‘Having found, sir,’ continued Lilly, ‘that the +city of London should be sadly afflicted with a great +plague, and not long after with an exorbitant Fire, I +framed those two hieroglyphics as represented in the +book, which in effect have proved very true.’</p> + +<p>‘Did you foresee the year?’ inquired a member of +the Committee.</p> + +<p>‘I did not,’ said Lilly, ‘nor was desirous; of that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>171]</a></span> +I made no scrutiny. Now, sir,’ he proceeded, +‘whether there was any design of burning the +city, or any employed to that purpose, I must deal +ingenuously with you, that since the Fire, I have +taken much pains in the search thereof, but cannot +or could not give myself any the least satisfaction +therein. I conclude, that it was the only finger +of God; but what instruments he used thereunto, I +am ignorant.’</p> + + +<p class="break">In 1665 Lilly finally left London, and settling +down at Hersham, applied himself to the study of +medicine, in which he arrived at so competent a +degree of knowledge, assisted by diligent observation +and experiment, that, in October, 1670, on a testimonial +from two physicians of the College in London, +he obtained from the Archbishop of Canterbury a +license to practise. In his new profession this clever, +plausible fellow was, of course, successful. Every +Saturday he rode to Kingston, whither the poorer +sort flocked to him from all the countryside, and he +dispensed his advice and prescriptions freely and +without charge. From those in a better social +position he now and then took a shilling, and sometimes +half a crown, if it were offered to him; but he +never demanded a fee. And, indeed, his charity +towards the poor seems to have been real and +unaffected. He displayed the greatest care in considering +and weighing their particular cases, and in +applying proper remedies for their infirmities—a line +of conduct which gained him deserved popularity.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>172]</a></span> +Gifted with a robust constitution, he enjoyed good +health far on into old age. He seems to have had no +serious illness until he was past his seventy-second +birthday, and from this attack he recovered completely. +In November, 1675, he was less fortunate, +a severe attack of fever reducing him to a condition +of great physical weakness, and so affecting his eyesight +that thenceforward he was compelled to employ +the services of an amanuensis in drawing up his +annual astrological budget. After an attack of +dysentery, in the spring of 1681, he became totally +blind; a few weeks later he was seized with paralysis; +and on June 9 he passed away, ‘without any show +of trouble or pangs.’</p> + +<p>He was buried, on the following evening, in the +chancel of Walton Church, where Elias Ashmole, a +month later, placed a slab of fair black marble (‘which +cost him six pounds four shillings and sixpence’), +with the following epitaph, in honour of his departed +friend: ‘Ne Oblivione conteretur Urna <span class="smcap">Gulielmi +Lillii</span>, Astrologi Peritissimi Qui Fatis cessit, Quinto +Idus Junii, Anno Christi Juliano, <small>MDCLXXXI</small>, Hoc +illi posuit amoris Monumentum <span class="smcap">Elias Ashmole</span>, +Armiger.’ There is a pagan flavour about the +phrases ‘Qui Fatis cessit,’ and ‘Quinto Idus Junii,’ and +they read oddly enough within the walls of a Christian +church.</p> + +<p>There are two sides to every shield. As regards +our astrologer, the last of the English magicians who +held a position of influence, let us first take the silver +side, as presented in the eulogistic verse of Master +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>173]</a></span> +George Smalridge, scholar at Westminster. Thus +it is that he describes his hero’s capacity and +potentiality. ‘Our prophet’s gone,’ he exclaims in +lugubrious tones—</p> + +<div class="cpoem5"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i10">‘No longer may our ears<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be charmed with musick of th’ harmonious spheres:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let sun and moon withdraw, leave gloomy night<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To show their Nuncio’s fate, who gave more light<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To th’ erring world, than all the feeble rays<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of sun or moon; taught us to know those days<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bright Titan makes; followed the hasty sun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through all his circuits; knew the unconstant moon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And more constant ebbings of the flood;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And what is most uncertain, th’ factious brood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flowing in civil broils: by the heavens could date<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The flux and reflux of our dubious state.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He saw the eclipse of sun, and change of moon<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He saw; but seeing would not shun his own:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Eclipsed he was, that he might shine more bright,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And only changed to give a fuller light.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He having viewed the sky, and glorious train<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of gilded stars, scorned longer to remain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In earthly prisons: could he a village love<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom the twelve houses waited for above?’<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>The other side of the shield is turned towards us +by Butler, who, in his ‘Hudibras,’ paints Lilly with +all the dark enduring colours which a keen wit could +place at the disposal of political prejudice. When +Hudibras is unable to solve ‘the problems of his +fate,’ Ralpho, his squire, advises him to apply to the +famous thaumaturgist. He says:</p> + +<div class="cpoem1"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">‘Not far from hence doth dwell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A cunning man, hight Sidrophel,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That deals in Destiny’s dark counsels,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sage opinions of the Moon sells;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To whom all people, far and near,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On deep importances repair:<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>174]</a></span> +<span class="i0">When brass and pewter hap to stray,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And linen slinks out o’ the way;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When geese and pullen are seduced,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sows of sucking pigs are choused;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When cattle feel indisposition,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And need th’ opinion of physician;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When murrain reigns in hogs or sheep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And chickens languish of the pip;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When yeast and outward means do fail,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And have no pow’r to work on ale;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When butter does refuse to come,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And love proves cross and humoursome;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To him with questions, and with urine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They for discov’ry flock, or curing.’<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>After this humorous <i>reductio ad absurdum</i> of Lilly’s +pretensions as an astrologer, the satirist proceeds to +allude to his dealings with the Puritan party:</p> + +<div class="cpoem1"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘Do not our great Reformers use<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This Sidrophel to forebode news;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To write of victories next year,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And castles taken, yet i’ th’ air?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of battles fought at sea, and ships<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sunk, two years hence, the last eclipse?’<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>The satirist then devotes himself to a minute +exposure of Lilly’s pretensions:</p> + +<div class="cpoem1"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘He had been long t’wards mathematics,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Optics, philosophy, and statics;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Magic, horoscopy, astrology,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And was old dog at physiology;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But as a dog that turns the spit<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bestirs himself, and plies his feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To climb the wheel, but all in vain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His own weight brings him down again,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And still he’s in the self-same place<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where at his setting out he was;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So in the circle of the arts<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Did he advance his nat’ral parts ...<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>175]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Whate’er he laboured to appear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His understanding still was clear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet none a deeper knowledge boasted,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Since old Hodge Bacon and Bob Grosted.’<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>(Robert Grostête, Bishop of Lincoln [<i>temp.</i> +Henry III.], whose learning procured him among +the ignorant the reputation of being a conjurer.)</p> + +<div class="cpoem1"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘He had read Dee’s prefaces before<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Dev’l and Euclid o’er and o’er;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all th’ intrigues ’twixt him and Kelly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lascus, and th’ Emperor, would tell ye;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But with the moon was more familiar<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than e’er was almanack well-willer;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her secrets understood so clear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That some believed he had been there;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Knew when she was in fittest mood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For cutting corns or letting blood ...’<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Continuing his enumeration of the conjurer’s +various and versatile achievements, the poet says +he can—</p> + +<div class="cpoem2"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘Cure warts and corns with application<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of med’cines to th’ imagination;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fright agues into dogs, and scare<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With rhymes the toothache and catarrh;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Chase evil spirits away by dint<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of sickle, horse-shoe, hollow flint;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Spit fire out of a walnut-shell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which made the Roman slaves rebel;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fire a mine in China here<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With sympathetic gunpowder.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He knew whats’ever’s to be known,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But much more than he knew would own ...<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How many diff’rent specieses<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of maggots breed in rotten cheese;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And which are next of kin to those<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Engendered in a chandler’s nose;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or those not seen, but understood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That live in vinegar and wood.’<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>176]</a></span> +In the course of the long dialogue that takes place +between Hudibras and the astrologer, Butler contrives +to introduce a clever and trenchant exposure +of the follies and absurdities, the impositions and +assumptions, of the art of magic. With reference to +the pretensions of astrologers, he observes that—</p> + +<div class="cpoem1"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘There’s but the twinkling of a star<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Between a man of peace and war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A thief and justice, fool and knave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A huffing officer and a slave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A crafty lawyer and pick-pocket,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A great philosopher and a blockhead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A formal preacher and a player,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A learn’d physician and man-slayer;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As if men from the stars did suck<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Old age, diseases, and ill-luck,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wit, folly, honour, virtue, vice,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Trade, travel, women, claps, and dice;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And draw, with the first air they breathe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Battle and murder, sudden death.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are not these fine commodities<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To be imported from the skies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And vended here among the rabble,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For staple goods and warrantable?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like money by the Druids borrowed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In th’ other world to be restored.’<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>The character of Lilly is to some extent a problem, +and I confess it is not one of easy or direct solution. +As I have already hinted, it is always difficult to draw +the line between conscious and unconscious imposture—to +determine when a man who has imposed upon +himself begins to impose upon others. But was +Lilly self-deceived? Or was he openly and knowingly +a fraud and a cheat? For myself I cannot answer +either question in the affirmative. I do not think he +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>177]</a></span> +was entirely innocent of deception, but I also believe +that he was not wholly a rogue. I think he had a +lingering confidence in the reality of his horoscopes, +his figures, his stellar prophecies; though at the +same time he did not scruple to trade on the credulity +of his contemporaries by assuming to himself a power +and a capacity which he did not possess, and knew +that he did not possess. Despite his vocation, he +seems to have lived decently, and in good repute. +The activity of his enemies failed to bring against him +any serious charges, and we know that he enjoyed +the support of men of light and leading, who would +have stood aloof from a common charlatan or a vulgar +knave. He was, it is certain, a very shrewd and +quick observer, with a keen eye for the signs of the +times, and a wide knowledge of human nature; and +his success in his peculiar craft was largely due to +this alertness of vision, this practical knowledge, and +to the ingenuity and readiness with which he made +use of all the resources at his command.</p> + + +<h3>NOTE.—DR. DEE’S MAGIC CRYSTAL.</h3> + +<p>Horace Walpole gives an amusing account of Kelly’s famous +crystal, and of the useful part it played in a burglary committed +at his house in Arlington Street in the spring of 1771. At the +time, he was taking his ease at his Strawberry Hill villa, near Teddington, +when a courier brought him news of what had occurred. +Writing to his friend, Sir Horace Mann, March 22, he says:</p> + +<p>‘I was a good quarter of an hour before I recollected that it +was very becoming to have philosophy enough not to care about +what one does care for; if you don’t care, there is no philosophy +in bearing it. I despatched my upper servant, breakfasted, fed +the bantams as usual, and made no more hurry to town than +Cincinnatus would if he had lost a basket of turnips. I left in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>178]</a></span> +my drawers £270 of bank bills and three hundred guineas, not +to mention all my gold and silver coins, some inestimable +miniatures, a little plate, and a good deal of furniture, under no +guard but that of two maidens....</p> + +<p>‘When I arrived, my surprise was by no means diminished. I +found in three different chambers three cabinets, a large chest, and +a glass case of china wide open, the locks not picked, but forced, +and the doors of them broken to pieces. You will wonder that +this should surprise me, when I had been prepared for it. Oh, +the miracle was that I did not find, nor to this time have found, +the least thing missing! In the cabinet of modern medals there +were, and so there are still, a series of English coins, with downright +John Trot guineas, half-guineas, shillings, sixpences, and +every kind of current money. Not a single piece was removed. +Just so in the Roman and Greek cabinet, though in the latter +were some drawers of papers, which they had tumbled and +scattered about the floor. A great exchequer desk, that belonged +to my father, was in the same room. Not being able to force the +lock, the philosophers (for thieves that steal nothing deserve the +title much more than Cincinnatus or I) had wrenched a great +flapper of brass with such violence as to break it into seven +pieces. The trunk contained a new set of chairs of French +tapestry, two screens, rolls of prints, and a suit of silver stuff +that I had made for the King’s wedding. All was turned topsy-turvy, +and nothing stolen. The glass case and cabinet of shells +had been handled as roughly by these impotent gallants. Another +little table with drawers, in which, by the way, the key was left, +had been opened too, and a metal standish, that they ought to +have taken for silver, and a silver hand-candlestick that stood +upon it, were untouched. Some plate in the pantry, and all +my linen just come from the wash, had no more charms for them +than gold or silver. In short, I could not help laughing, especially +as the only two movables neglected were another little table with +drawers and the money, and a writing-box with the bank-notes, +both in the same room where they made the first havoc. In +short, they had broken out a panel in the door of the area, and +unbarred and unbolted it, and gone out at the street-door, which +they left wide open at five o’clock in the morning. A passenger +had found it so, and alarmed the maids, one of whom ran naked +into the street, and by her cries waked my Lord Romney, who +lives opposite. The poor creature was in fits for two days, but at +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>179]</a></span> +first, finding my coachmaker’s apprentice in the street, had sent +him to Mr. Conway, who immediately despatched him to me +before he knew how little damage I had received, the whole +of which consists in repairing the doors and locks of my cabinets +and coffers.</p> + +<p>‘All London is reasoning on this marvellous adventure, and not +one argument presents itself that some other does not contradict. +I insist that I have a talisman. You must know that last winter, +being asked by Lord Vere to assist in settling Lady Betty +Germaine’s auction, I found in an old catalogue of her collection +this article, “<i>The Black Stone into which Dr. Dee used to call his +spirits</i>.” Dr. Dee, you must know, was a great conjurer in the +days of Queen Elizabeth, and has written a folio of the dialogues +he held with his imps. I asked eagerly for this stone; Lord Vere +said he knew of no such thing, but if found, it should certainly +be at my service. Alas, the stone was gone! This winter I was +again employed by Lord Frederick Campbell, for I am an absolute +auctioneer, to do him the same service about his father’s (the +Duke of Argyll’s) collection. Among other odd things, he +produced a round piece of shining black marble in a leathern +case as big as the crown of a hat, and asked me what that possibly +could be? I screamed out, “Oh, Lord! I am the only man in +England that can tell you!... It is Dr. Dee’s ‘Black Stone.’” +It certainly is; Lady Betty had formerly given away or sold, +time out of mind, for she was a thousand years old, that part of +the Peterborough collection which contained natural philosophy. +So, or since, the Black Stone had wandered into an auction, for +the lotted paper was still on it. The Duke of Argyll, who +bought everything, bought it. Lord Frederick [Campbell] gave +it to me; and if it was not this magical stone, which is only of +high-polished coal, that preserved my chattels, in truth I cannot +guess what did.’<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a></p> + +<p>At the great Strawberry Hill sale, in 1842, which dispersed the +Walpole Collection, it was described in the catalogue as ‘a singularly +interesting and curious relic of the superstition of our ancestors—the +celebrated <i>Speculum of Kennel Coal</i>, highly polished, in a +leathern case. It is remarkable for having been used to deceive +the mob (!) by the celebrated Dr. Dee, the conjurer, in the reign +of Queen Elizabeth,’ etc.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>180]</a></span> +The authorities of the British Museum purchased this ‘relic of +the superstition of our ancestors’ for the sum of twelve guineas. +It is neither more nor less than what it has been described, a +polished piece of cannel-coal, and thus explains the allusion in +Butler’s ‘Hudibras’:</p> + +<div class="cpoem1"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘Kelly did all his feats upon<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The devil’s looking-glass—a stone.’<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<h4>FOOTNOTE</h4> + +<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> +Horace Walpole (Earl of Orford), ‘Letters,’ v. 290, <i>et seq.</i></p> +</div> + + + + +<p class="padtop"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>181]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER VI.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smlfont">ENGLISH ROSICRUCIANS.</span></h2> + + +<p>It is not very easy to trace the origin of the Rosicrucian +Brotherhood. It is not easy, indeed, to get at +the true derivation of the name ‘Rosicrucian.’ Some +authorities refer it to that of the ostensible founder of +the society, the mysterious Christian Rosenkreuse, but +who can prove that such an individual ever existed? +Others borrow it from the Latin word <i>ros</i>, dew, and +<i>crux</i>, a cross, and explain it thus: ‘Dew,’ of all +natural bodies, was esteemed the most powerful +solvent of gold; and ‘the cross,’ in the old chemical +language, signified <em>light</em>, because the figure of a cross +exhibits at the same time the three letters which form +the word <i>lux</i>. ‘Now, lux is called the seed, or +menstruum, of the red dragon; or, in other words, +that gross and corporeal light, which, when properly +digested and modified, produces gold.’ So that, +according to this derivation, a Rosicrucian is one who +by the intervention and assistance of the ‘dew’ seeks +for ‘light’—that is, the philosopher’s stone. But such +an etymology is evidently too fanciful, and assumes +too much to be readily accepted, and we try a third +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>182]</a></span> +derivation, namely, from <i>rosa</i> and <i>crux</i>; in support +of which may be adduced the oldest official documents +of the brotherhood, which style it the ‘Broederschafft +des Roosen Creutzes,’ or Rose-Crucians, or +‘Fratres Rosatæ Crucis;’ while the symbol of the +order is ‘a red rose on a cross.’ Both the rose and +the cross possess a copious emblematic history, and +their choice by a secret society, which clothed its +beliefs and fancies in allegorical language, is by no +means difficult to understand. ‘The rose,’ says +Eliphas Levi, in his ‘Histoire de la Magie,’ ‘which +from time immemorial has been the symbol of beauty +and life, of love and pleasure, expressed in a mystical +manner all the protestations of the Renaissance. It +was the flesh revolting against the oppression of the +spirit; it was Nature declaring herself to be, like +Grace, the daughter of God; it was Love refusing to +be stifled by celibacy; it was Life desiring to be no +longer barren; it was Humanity aspiring to a natural +religion, full of love and reason, founded on the revelation +of the harmonies of existence of which the rose +was for initiates the living and blooming symbol....’ +The reunion of the rose and the cross—such was the +problem proposed by supreme initiation, and, in effect, +occult philosophy, being the universal synthesis, +should take into account all the phenomena of Being. +It may be doubted, however, whether this ingenious +symbolism has anything at all to do with Rosicrucianism; +but it is not the less a fact that the rose +and the cross were chosen because they were recognised +emblems. And probably because the rose typified +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>183]</a></span> +secrecy, while the cross was a protest against the +tyranny and superstition of the Papacy.</p> + +<p>We hear nothing of Rosicrucianism until the +beginning of the seventeenth century. The earlier +alchemists knew nothing of its theosophic doctrines; +and the earlier Rosicrucians did not dabble in alchemy. +The connection between the two was established at a +later date; when the quest of the ‘elixir of life’ and the +‘philosopher’s stone’ was grafted upon the mysticism +which had taken up the ancient teaching of the +Alexandrian Platonists, combining with it much of +the allegorical jargon of Paracelsus, and something +of the theology of Luther and the German Reformers. +The antiquity claimed for the brotherhood in the +‘Fama Fraternitatis’ is purely a myth. For my +own part, I must regard as its virtual founder—though +he may not have been its actual initiator—the +celebrated Johann Valentine Andreas, who with +wide and profound learning united a lively imagination, +and was, moreover, a man of pure and lofty +purpose. The regeneration of humanity, the extirpation +of the vices and follies which had sprung up in +the dark shadow of the mediæval Church, was the +dream of his life; and it is beyond doubt that he +hoped to realize it by secret societies bound together +for the purpose of reforming the morals of the age +and inspiring men with a love of wisdom. This is +proved by three of his acknowledged works, namely, +‘Reipublicæ Christianapolitanæ Descriptio,’ ‘Turris +Babel, sive Judiciorum de Fraternitate Rosaceæ +Crucis Chaos,’ and ‘Christianæ Societatis Idea’; and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>184]</a></span> +I venture to think, though Mr. Waite will not have +it so, that the author of these works was also the +author of the ‘Fama,’ as well as of the ‘Confessio +Fraternitatis’ and the ‘Nuptæ Chymicæ,’ in which he +gathered up all the floating dreams and traditions +bearing on his subject, and gave to them a certain +form and order, infusing into them a fascinating +poetical colouring, and inspiring them with his own +idealistic speculations.</p> + +<p>‘Akin to the school of the ancient Fire-Believers,’ +says Ennemoser, ‘and of the magnetists of a later +period, of the same cast as those speculators and +searchers into the mysteries of Nature, drawing from +the same well, are the theosophists of the sixteenth +and seventeenth centuries. These practised chemistry, +by which they asserted they could explore the profoundest +secrets of Nature. As they strove, above all +earthly knowledge, after the Divine, and sought the +Divine light and fire, through which all men can +acquire the true wisdom, they were called the Fire-Philosophers +(<i>philosophi per ignem</i>).’ They were +identical with the Rosicrucians, and in the books of +the later Rosicrucians we meet with the same mysticism +and transcendental philosophy as in theirs.</p> + +<p>Whether we agree in accepting Andreas as the +founder of the order, or as simply its hierophant, we +must admit that the rise of Rosicrucianism dates from +the publication of the ‘Fama’ and the ‘Confessio +Fraternitatis.’ They produced an immense sensation, +passed through several editions, and were devoured +by multitudes of eager readers. ‘In the library at +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>185]</a></span> +Gottingen,’ says De Quincey (adapting from Professor +Buhle), ‘there is a body of letters addressed to the +imaginary order of Father Rosy Cross, from 1614 to +1617, by persons offering themselves as members.... +As certificates of their qualifications, most of +the candidates have enclosed specimens of their skill +in alchemy and cabalism.... Many other literary +persons there were at that day who forbore to write +letters to the society, but threw out small pamphlets +containing their opinions of the order, and of its place +of residence.’</p> + +<p>It is not my business, however, to write a history +of Rosicrucianism. I have desired simply to say so +much about its origin as will serve as a preface to +my account of the principal English members of the +brotherhood. The reader who would know more +about its origin and extension, its pretensions and +professors, may consult Heckethorn’s ‘Secret Societies +of all Ages and Countries,’ Ennemoser’s ‘History +of Magic,’ Thomas de Quincey’s essay on ‘Rosicrucians +and Freemasons,’ and Arthur Edward Waite’s ‘Real +History of the Rosicrucians.’<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a></p> + +<p>The greatest English Rosicrucian, and most distinguished +of the disciples of Paracelsus, was Robert +Fludd (or Flood, or De Fluctibus), a man of singular +erudition, of great though misdirected capacity, and +of a vivid and fertile imagination.</p> + +<p>The second son of Sir Thomas Flood, Treasurer +of War to Queen Elizabeth, he was born at Milgate +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>186]</a></span> +House, in the parish of Bersted, Kent, in the year +1574. At the age of seventeen he was entered of +St. John’s College, Oxford. His father had originally +intended him for a military life, but finding that his +inclinations led him into the peaceful paths of scholarship, +he forbore to oppose them, and the youth entered +upon a particular study of medicine, which drew him, +no doubt, into a pursuit of alchemy and chemistry. +Having graduated both in the arts and sciences, he +went abroad, and for six years travelled over France, +Germany, Italy, and Spain, making the acquaintance +of the principal Continental scholars, as well as of the +enthusiasts who belonged to the theosophic school of +the divine Paracelsus, and the adepts who dabbled in +the secrets of the Cabala. Returning to England in +1605, he became a member of the College of Physicians, +and settled down to practise in Coleman Street, London, +where, about 1616, he was visited by the celebrated +German alchemist, Michael Maier.</p> + +<p>His active imagination stimulated by his knowledge +of the Rosicrucian doctrines, he resolved on +revealing to his countrymen the true light of science +and wisdom. He had already, as a believer in the +theory of magnetism, introduced into England the +celebrated ‘weapon salve’ of Paracelsus, which healed +the severest wound by sympathy—not being applied +to the wound itself, but to the weapon or instrument +that had caused it. The recipe, as formulated by +Paracelsus, would hardly be approved by modern +practitioners: ‘Take of moss growing on the head of +a thief who has been hanged and left in the air, of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>187]</a></span> +real mummy, of human blood still warm, one ounce +each; of human suet, two ounces; of linseed-oil, turpentine, +and Armenian bole, of each two drachms. +Mix together thoroughly in a mortar, and keep the +salve in a narrow oblong urn.’ This, or, I presume, +some similar compound, Fludd tried with success in +several cases, and no wonder; for while the sword +was anointed and put away, the wound was well +washed and carefully bandaged—a process which has +been known to succeed in our own day without the +intervention of any salve whatever! Fludd contended +that every disease might be cured by the magnet if it +were properly applied; but that as every man had, +like the earth, a north pole and a south, magnetism +could be produced only when his body occupied a +boreal position. The salve, at all events, grew into +instant favour. Among other believers in its virtues +was Sir Kenelm Digby, who, however, converted the +salve into a powder, which he named ‘the powder of +sympathy.’ But it had its incredulous opponents, of +whom the most strenuous was a certain Pastor Foster, +who published an invective entitled ‘Hyplocrisma +Spongus; or, A Sponge to Wipe Away the Weapon +Salve,’ and affirmed that it was as bad as witchcraft +to use or recommend such an unguent, that its inventor, +the devil, would at the Last Day claim +every person who had meddled with it. ‘The devil,’ +he said, ‘gave it to Paracelsus, Paracelsus to the +Emperor, the Emperor to a courtier, the courtier to +Baptista Porta, and Baptista Porta to Doctor Fludd, +a doctor of physic, yet living and practising in the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>188]</a></span> +famous city of London, who now stands tooth and +nail for it.’ Tooth and nail Dr. Fludd met his adversary, +and the public were infinitely amused by the +vehemence of his style in his pamphlet, ‘The Spunging +of Parson Foster’s Spunge; wherein the Spunge-carrier’s +immodest Carriage and Behaviour towards +his Brethren is detected; the bitter Flames of his +Slanderous Reports are, by the sharp Vinegar of +Truth, corrected and quite extinguished; and, lastly, +the Virtuous Validity of his Spunge in wiping away +the Weapon Salve, is crushed out and clean abolished.’</p> + +<p>In all the dreams of the mediæval philosophy—in +the philosopher’s stone and the stone philosophic, in +the universal alkahest, in the magical ‘elixir vitæ’—Dr. +Fludd was a serious believer. It was a favourite +hypothesis of his that all things depended on two +principles—<em>condensation</em>, or the boreal principle, and +<em>rarefaction</em>, the southern or austral. The human +body, he averred, was governed by a number of +demons, whom he distributed over a rhomboidal +figure. Further, he taught that every disease had +its own particular demon, the evil influence of which +could be neutralized only by the assistance of the +demon placed opposite to it in the rhomboid. The +doctrines of the Rosicrucian brotherhood he defended +with a charming enthusiasm, and when they had +been attacked by Libavius and others, he set them +forth in what he conceived to be their true light in his +‘Apologia Compendiaria Fraternitatem de Rosea-Cruce +suspicionis et infamiæ Maculis Aspersam,’ etc. +(published at Leyden in 1616)—a work which entitles +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>189]</a></span> +him to be regarded as the high-priest of their mysteries. +It was severely criticised, however, by contemporary +men of science, as by Kepler, Gassendus (in his +‘Epistolica Exercitatio’), and Mersenne, whose searching +analysis of the pretensions of the fraternity provoked +from Fludd an elaborate reply, entitled ‘Summum +Bonum, quod est Magiæ, Cabalæ, Alchemiæ, +Fratrum Roseæ-Crucis verorum, et adversus Mersenium +Calumniatorem.’<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a></p> + +<p>In addition to the foregoing works, Fludd gave to +the world:</p> + +<p>1. ‘Utriusque Cosmi, Majoris et Minoris, Technica +Historia,’ 2 vols., folio, Oppenheim, 1616; 2. ‘Tractatus +Apologeticus Integritatem Societatis de Rosea-Cruce +Defendens,’ Leyden, 1617; 3. ‘Monochordon +Mundi Symphoniacum, seu Replicatio ad Apologiam +Johannis Kepleri,’ Frankfort, 1620; 4. ‘Anatomiæ +Amphitheatrum effigie triplici Designatum,’ Frankfort, +1623; 5. ‘Philosophia Sacra et vere Christiana, +seu Meteorologica Cosmica,’ Frankfort, 1626; 6. +‘Medicina Catholica, seu Mysterium Artis Medicandi +Sacrarium,’ Frankfort, 1631; 7. ‘Integrum Morborum +Mysterium,’ Frankfort, 1631; 8. ‘Clavis Philosophiæ +et Alchymiæ,’ Frankfort, 1633; 9. ‘Philosophia +Mosaica,’ Goudac, 1638; and 10. ‘Pathologia Dæmoniaca,’ +Goudac, 1640.</p> + +<p>The last two treatises were posthumous publications. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>190]</a></span> +Fludd died in London in 1637, and was buried in +Bersted Church, where an imposing monument perpetuates +his memory. It represents him seated, with +his hand on a book, from the perusal of which his +head has just been lifted. Just below are two volumes +(there were eight originally) in marble, inscribed +respectively, ‘Mysterium Cabalisticum’ and ‘Philosophia +Sacra.’ The epitaph runs as follows: ‘viii. +Die Mensis vii. A<sup>o</sup> D<sup>ni</sup>, <small>M.D.C.XXXVII</small>. Odoribvs vana +vaporat crypta tegit cineres nee speciosa tros qvod +mortale minvs tibi. Te committimvs vnvm ingenii +vivent hic monvmenti tvi nam tibi qvi similis scribit +moritvrqve sepvlchrvm pro tota eternvm posteritate +facit. Hoc monvmentvm Thomas Flood Gore Courti +in-coram apud Cantianos armiger infœlicissimum in +charissimi patrvi svi memoriam erexit die Mensis +Avgvsti, <small>M.D.C.XXXVII</small>.’</p> + +<p>I shall not weary the reader with an analysis of +any of Fludd’s elaborately mystical productions. +They are as dead as anything can be, and no power +that I know of could breathe into them the breath of +life. But I may quote a few specimen or sample +sentences, so to speak, which will afford an idea of +their style and tone:</p> + +<p>‘Particulars are frequently fallible, but universal +never. Occult philosophy lays bare Nature in her +complete nakedness, and alone contemplates the wisdom +of universals by the eyes of intelligence. Accustomed +to partake of the rivers which flow from the +Fountain of Life, it is unacquainted with grossness +and with clouded waters.’</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>191]</a></span> +In reference to Music, which he says stands in the +same relation to arithmetic as medicine to natural +philosophy, he revives the Pythagorean idea of the +harmony of the universe: ‘What is this music (of +men) compared with that deep and true music of the +wise, whereby the proportions of natural things are +investigated, the harmonical concord and the qualities +of the whole world are revealed, by which also connected +things are bound together, peace established +between conflicting elements, and whereby each star +is perpetually suspended in its appointed place by its +weight and strength, and by the harmony of its +herent spirit.’</p> + +<p><em>Light.</em>—‘Nothing in this world can be accomplished +without the mediation or divine act of light.’</p> + +<p><em>Magic.</em>—‘That most occult and secret department +of physics, by which the mystical properties of +natural substances are extracted, we term Natural +Magic. The wise kings who (led by the new star +from the east) sought the infant Christ, are called +Magi, because they had attained a perfect knowledge +of natural things, whether celestial or sublunar. This +branch of the Magi also includes Solomon, since he +was versed in the arcane virtues and properties of +all substances, and is said to have understood the +nature of every plant, from the cedar to the hyssop. +Magicians who are proficient in the mathematical +division construct marvellous machines by means of +their geometrical knowledge; such were the flying +dove of Archytas, and the brazen heads of Roger +Bacon and Albertus Magnus, which are said to have +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>192]</a></span> +spoken. Venefic magic is familiar with potions, +philtres, and with the various preparations of poisons; +it is, in a measure, included in the natural division, +because a knowledge of the properties of natural +things is requisite to produce its results. Necromantic +magic is divided into Goëtic, maleficent, and theurgic. +The first consists in diabolical commerce with unclean +spirits, in rites of criminal curiosity, in illicit +songs and invocations, and in the invocation of the +souls of the dead. The second is the adjuration of +the devils by the virtue of Divine names. The third +pretends to be governed by good angels and the +Divine will, but its wonders are most frequently +performed by evil spirits, who assume the names of +God and of the angels. This department of necromancy +can, however, be performed by natural powers, +definite rites and ceremonies, whereby celestial and +Divine virtues are reconciled and drawn to us; the +ancient Magi formulated in their secret books many +rules of this doctrine. The last species of magic is +the thaumaturgic, begetting illusory phenomena; by +this art the Magi produced their phantasms and other +marvels.’</p> + +<p><em>The Creation.</em>—‘According to Fludd’s philosophy,’ +says Mr. Waite, ‘the whole universe was fashioned +after the pattern of an archetypal world which existed +in the Divine ideality, and was framed out of unity +in a threefold manner. The Eternal Monad or Unity, +without any regression from His own central profundity, +compasses complicitly the three cosmical +dimensions, namely, root, square, and cube. If we +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>193]</a></span> +multiply unity as a root, in itself, it will produce +only unity for its square, which being again multiplied +in itself, brings forth a cube, which is one with +root and square. Thus we have three branches +differing in formal progression, yet one unity in +which all things remain potentially, and that after a +most abstruse manner. The archetypal world was +made by the egression of one out of one, and by the +regression of that one, so emitted into itself by +emanation. According to this ideal image, or +archetypal world, our universe was subsequently +fashioned as a true type and exemplar of the Divine +Pattern; for out of unity in His abstract existence, +viz., as it was hidden in the dark chaos, or potential +mass, the bright flame of all formal being did shine +forth, and the spirit of wisdom, proceeding from +them both, conjoined the formal emanation with the +potential matter, so that by the union of the divine +emanation of light, and the substantial darkness, +which was water, the heavens were made of old, and +the whole world.’<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> + +<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> +See also Louis Figuier’s ‘L’Alchimie et les Alchimistes,’ a +popular and agreeable survey; and the more erudite work of Professor +Buhle.</p> +</div> + +<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> +This is sometimes ascribed to Joachim Fritz, but no one can +doubt that virtually it is Fludd’s, who accompanied it with a +defence of his general philosophical teaching, entitled ‘Sophiæ +cum Moriâ Certamen.’ But whose was ‘the Wisdom,’ and whose +‘the Folly’?</p> +</div> + +<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> +Waite, ‘History of the Rosicrucians,’ p. 385.</p> +</div> + + +<h3>THOMAS VAUGHAN.</h3> + +<p>Another English Rosicrucian to whom allusion +must briefly be made is Thomas Vaughan, who in +his writings assumes the more classical appellation of +Eugenius Philalethes (‘truth-lover’), and in his +travels was known as Carnobius in Holland, and +Doctor Zheil in America. He was born about +1612; was educated at Oxford; wandered afterwards +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>194]</a></span> +through many countries; embraced the delusions of +alchemy and the Rosy Cross; accreted round his personality +a number of wild and extravagant stories; and +finally disappeared into such complete oblivion that +the time and place of his death are alike unknown.</p> + +<p>The writings attributed to him are: 1. ‘Anthroposophia +Magica; or, A Discourse of the Nature of +Man and his State after Death;’ and ‘Anima +Magica Abscondita; or, A Discourse of the Universall +Spirit of Nature,’ London, 1650. 2. ‘Magia +Adamica; or, The Antiquities of Magic,’ same place +and date. 3. ‘The Man-Mouse taken in a Trap;’ +a reply to Henry More, who had criticised his +‘Anthroposophia Magica.’ 4. ‘Lumen de Lumine; +or, A New Magicall Light discovered and communicated +to the World,’ London, 1651. 5. ‘The Second +Wash; or, The Moor Scoured Once More, being a +charitable Cure for the Distractions of Abazonomastix’ +[Henry More], London, 1651. 6. ‘The Fame and +Confession of the Fraternity of R. C., with a Preface +annexed thereto, and a short declaration of their +physicall work,’ London, 1652. 7. ‘Euphrates; or, +The Waters of the East, being a Short Discourse of +that Great Fountain whose water flows from Fire, +and carries in it the beams of the Sun and Moon,’ +London, 1656. 8. ‘A Brief Natural History,’ London, +1669. And 9. ‘Introitus Apertus ad Occlusum +Regis Palatium. Philalethæ Tractatus Tres: +i. Metallorum Metamorphosis; ii. Brevis Manductio +ad Rubrium Cœlestem; iii. Fons Chymicæ Veritatis,’ +London, 1678.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>195]</a></span> +Vaughan seems to have led a wandering life, and +to have fallen ‘often into great perplexities and +dangers from the mere suspicion that he possessed +extraordinary secrets.’ The suspicion, I should say, +was abundantly justified, since he made gold at will, +and knew the composition of the wonderful elixir! +On one occasion, he tells us, he went to a goldsmith, +desiring to sell him twelve hundred marks’ worth of +gold; but the goldsmith at first sight pronounced +that it had never come out of any mine, but was the +production of art, seeing that it was not of the +standard of any known kingdom. Vaughan adds +that he was so confounded at this statement—though, +surely, he must have expected it—that he at once +departed, <em>leaving the gold behind him</em>. But the +strangest part of his history is, that a writer in 1749 +speaks of him as living <em>then</em>, at the respectable old +age of 137. ‘A person of great credit at Nuremberg, +in Germany, affirms that he conversed with him but +a year or two ago. Nay, it is further asserted that +this very individual is the president of the Illuminated +in Europe, and that he sits as such in all their +annual meetings.’ Mayhap he is sitting at them +still! Only if he have discovered, not only the secret +of the transmutation of metals, but that of the indefinite +prolongation of life, is it not cruelly selfish of +him to withhold it—we will not say from the world +at large, which deserves to be punished for its +scepticism and incredulity, but from the members +of his own fraternity?</p> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>196]</a></span></p> + + +<h3>JOHN HEYDON.</h3> + +<p>The English Rosicrucians are few in number—<i>rari +gurgite in vasto nantes</i>—and when I have added John +Heydon to Vaughan and Fludd, I shall have named +the most distinguished. Heydon was the author of +‘The Wise Man’s Crown; or, The Glory of the Rosie +Cross’ (1664); ‘The Holy Guide, leading the Way +to Unite Art and Nature, with the Rosie Cross Uncovered’ +(1662); and ‘A New Method of Rosicrucian +Physic; by John Heydon, the Servant of God and +the Secretary of Nature’ (1658). In the last-named +he describes himself as an attorney—who will not pity +his clients, if he had any?—practising at Westminster +Hall all term times as long as he lived, and in the +vacations devoting himself to alchemical and Rosicrucian +speculation. His introduction (‘An Apologue +for an Epilogue’) is full of such outrageous nonsense +as to suggest suspicion of his sanity. He +speaks of Moses, Elias, and Ezekiel as the prophets +and founders of Rosicrucianism. Its present believers, +he says, may be few in number, but their position is +incomparably glorious. They are the eyes and ears +of the great King of the universe, seeing all things +and hearing all things; they are seraphically illuminated; +they belong to the holy company of embodied +souls and immortal angels; they can assume +any shape at will, and possess the power of working +miracles. They can walk in the air, banish epidemics +from stricken cities, pacify the most violent storms, +heal every disease, and turn all metals into gold. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>197]</a></span> +He had known, he says, two illustrious brethren, +named Williams and Walford, and had seen them perform +miracles—a statement which brands him either +as a knave or a dupe. ‘I desired one of them to tell +me,’ he says, ‘whether my complexion were capable +of the society of my good genius. “When I see you +again,” said he (which was when he pleased to come +to me, for I knew not where to go to him), “I will +tell you.” When I saw him afterwards, he said: +“You should pray to God: for a good and holy man +can offer no greater or more acceptable service to +God than the oblation of himself—his soul.” He said +also, that the good genii were the benign eyes of God, +running to and fro in the world, and with love and +pity beholding the innocent endeavours of harmless +and single-hearted men, ever ready to do them good +and to help them.’</p> + +<p>Heydon advocated, without enforcing his precepts +by example, the Rosicrucian dogma, that men could +live without eating and drinking, affirming that all +of us could exist in the same manner as the singular +people dwelling near the source of the Ganges, +described by his namesake, Sir Christopher Heydon<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> +(but certainly by no other traveller), who had no +mouths, and therefore could not eat, but lived by the +breath of their nostrils—except when they went on a +far journey, and then, to recuperate their strength, they +inhaled the scent of flowers. He dilated on the ‘fine +foreign fatness’ which characterized really pure air—the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>198]</a></span> +air being impregnated with it by the sunbeams—and +affirmed that it should suffice for the nourishment of +the majority of mankind. He was not unwilling, +however, that people with gross appetites should eat +animal food, but declared it to be unnecessary for +them, and that a much more efficacious mode would +be to use the meat, nicely cooked, as a plaster on the +pit of the stomach. By adopting this external treatment, +they would incur no risk of introducing +diseases, as they did by the broad and open gate of +the mouth, as anyone might see by the example of +drink; for so long as a man sat in water, he knew +no thirst. He had been acquainted—so he declared—with +many Rosicrucians who, by using wine as a +bath, had fasted from solid food for several years. +And, as a matter of fact, one might fast all one’s life, +though prolonged for 300 years, if one ate no meat, +and so avoided all risk of infection by disease.</p> + +<p>Growing confidential in reference to his imaginary +fraternity, he states that its chiefs always carried +about with them their symbol, the R.C., an ebony +cross, flourished and decked with roses of gold; the +cross typifying Christ’s suffering for the sins of mankind, +and the golden roses the glory and beauty of His +Resurrection. This symbol was carried in succession +to Mecca, Mount Calvary, Mount Sinai, Haran, and +three other places, which I cannot pretend to identify—Casele, +Apamia, and Chaulateau Viciosa Caunuch: +these were the meeting-places of the brotherhood.</p> + +<p>‘The Rosie Crucian Physick or Medicines,’ says +this bravely-mendacious gentleman, ‘I happily and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>199]</a></span> +unexpectedly light upon in Arabia, which will +prove a restoration of health to all that are afflicted +with sickness which we ordinarily call natural, +and all other diseases. These men have no small +insight into the body: Walford, Williams, and +others of the Fraternity now living, may bear up in +the same likely equipage with those noble Divine +Spirits their Predecessors; though the unskilfulness +in men commonly acknowledges more of supernatural +assistance in hot, unsettled fancies, and perplexed +melancholy, than in the calm and distinct use of +reason; yet, for mine own part, I look upon these +Rosie Crucians above all men truly inspired, and +more than any that professed themselves so this +sixteen hundred years, and I am ravished with admiration +of their miracles and transcendant mechanical +inventions, for the solving the Phænomenon of the +world. I may, without offence, therefore, compare +them with Bezaliel, Aholiab, those skilful workers of +the Tabernacle, who, as Moses testifies, were filled +with the Spirit of God, and therefore were of an excellent +understanding to find out all manner of +curious work.’</p> + +<p>The plain fact is that Heydon’s books are <em>fictions</em>—purely +imaginative work, based on some rough and +ready knowledge of the old alchemy and the new +magic; partly allegorical and mystical, such as a +quick invention might readily conceive under the +influence of theosophic study, and partly borrowed +from Henry More, and other writers of the same +stamp. The island inhabited by Rosicrucians, which +he describes in the introduction to ‘The Holy Guide,’ +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>200]</a></span> +was evidently suggested by Sir Thomas More’s +‘Utopia,’ and Bacon’s ‘New Atlantis.’ It would be +easy to point out his obligations elsewhere.</p> + +<p>I may add, in bringing this chapter to a close, that +Dr. Edmund Dickenson, one of Charles II.’s physicians, +professed to be a member of the brotherhood, +and wrote a book upon one of their supposed +doctrines, entitled ‘De Quinta Essentia Philosophorum,’ +which was printed at Oxford in 1686.</p> + + +<p class="break">Whatever may be our opinion of Rosicrucianism, +which, I believe, still finds some believers and adepts +in this country, we must acknowledge that the literature +of poetry and fiction is indebted to it considerably. +The machinery of Pope’s exquisite poem, +‘The Rape of the Lock,’ was borrowed from Paracelsus +and Jacob Böhmen—not directly, it is true, +but through the medium of the Abbé de Villars’ +sparkling romance, ‘Le Comte de Gabalis.’ ‘According +to those gentlemen,’ says Pope, ‘the four elements +are inhabited by spirits, which they call sylphs, +gnomes, nymphs, and salamanders.’</p> + +<p>The Rosicrucian water-nymph supplied La Motte +Fouqué with the idea of that graceful and lovely +creation, ‘Undine,’ and Sir Walter Scott has invested +his ‘White Lady of Avenel’ with some of her attributes.</p> + +<p>William Godwin’s romance of ‘St. Leon’ turns on +the Rosicrucian fancy of immortal life; while Lord +Lytton’s ‘Zanoni’ is practically a Rosicrucian fiction. +The influence of the Rosicrucian writers is also apparent +in the same author’s ‘A Strange Story.’</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTE</h4> + +<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> +Author of ‘A Defence of Judiciall Astrologie,’ printed at +Cambridge in 1603.</p> +</div> + + + + +<p class="padtop"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201"><!-- half title page --></a></span></p> + +<p class="center padtop vlrgfont">BOOK II.<br /> +<br /> +<i>WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT.</i></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202"><!-- blank page --></a></span></p> + + + + +<p class="padtop"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>203]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER I.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smlfont">EARLY HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT IN ENGLAND.</span></h2> + + +<p>To various conspicuous and easily intelligible causes +the witch and the warlock, like the necromancer and +the astrologer, owed their power with the multitude. +First, there was the eager desire which humanity not +unnaturally feels to tear aside the veil of Isis, and +obtain some knowledge of that Other World which is +hidden so completely from it. Next must be taken +into account man’s greed for temporal advantages, +his anxiety to direct the course of events to his +personal benefit; and, lastly, his malice against his +fellows. Thus we see that the influence enjoyed by +the sorcerer and the magician had its origin in the +unlawful passions of humanity, in whose history the +pages that treat of witches and witchcraft are painful +and humiliating reading.</p> + +<p>To define the limit between the special functions of +the magician and the witch is somewhat difficult, +more especially as the position of the witch gradually +decreased in reputation and importance. There is a +great gulf between the witch of Endor, or the witch +of classical antiquity, or the witch of the Norse Sagas, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>204]</a></span> +or the witch of the Saxons, and the English or +Scottish witch of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. +The former were surrounded with an atmosphere +of dread and mystery; the latter was the +creature of vulgar and commonplace traditions. In +the early age of witchcraft, the witch, like the magician, +summoned spirits from the vasty deep, discovered +the hiding-places of concealed treasures, +struck down men or beasts by her spells, or covered +the heavens with clouds and let loose the winds of +destruction and desolation. Both could blight the +promise of the harvest, baffle the plans of their +enemies, or wither the health of their victims. But +while the magician was frequently a man of ability +and learning, and belonged to the cultured classes, +the witch was almost always a woman of the lower +orders, ignorant and uneducated, though occasionally +ladies of high rank, and even ecclesiastics, have been +accused of practising witchcraft.</p> + +<p>While witchcraft was a power in the land, the +witch, or warlock, was popularly supposed to be the +direct instrument, and, indeed, the bond-slave, of the +Evil One, fulfilling his behests in virtue of a compact, +written in letters of blood, by which the witch +made over her soul to the Infernal Power in return +for the enjoyment of supernatural prerogatives for a +fixed period. This treaty having been concluded, +the witch received a mark on some part of the body, +which was thenceforward insensible of pain—the +stigma or devil’s mark, by which he might know his +own again. A familiar imp or spirit was assigned to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>205]</a></span> +her, generally in the form of an animal, and more +particularly in that of a black cat or dog. Round +this general idea were gathered a number of horrible +and unclean conceptions, on which, happily, it will not +be necessary to enlarge. The devil, it was said, resorted +to carnal communication with his servants, +being denominated <em>succubus</em> when the favourite was +a female, and <em>incubus</em> when a male was chosen. It +was alleged, too, that on certain occasions the devil, +with his familiars, and the great company of witches +and warlocks whose souls he had bought, assembled +in the dead of night in some remote and savage +wilderness, to hold that frightful carnival of the +Witches’ Sabbat which Goethe has depicted so powerfully +in the second part of ‘Faust.’ The human +imagination has not invented, I think, any scene +more horrible, more degrading, or more bestial. We +may suppose, however, that it was not conceived by +any single mind, or even people, or in any single +generation, but that it gradually took up additional +details from different nations, at different times, until +it was developed into the terrible whole presented by +the mediæval writers.</p> + +<p>This wild and awful revel was called the Sabbat +because it took place after midnight on Friday; that +is, on the Jewish Sabbath—a curious illustration of +the popular antipathy against the Jews.</p> + +<p>The spot where it was held never bloomed again +with flower or herb; the burning feet of the demons +blighted it for ever.</p> + +<p>Witch or warlock who failed to obey the summons +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>206]</a></span> +of the master was lashed by devils with rods made of +scorpions or serpents, in chastisement of his or her +contumacy.</p> + +<p>The guests repaired thither, according to the belief +entertained in France and England, upon broomsticks; +but in Spain and Italy it was thought that +the devil himself, in the shape of a goat, conveyed +them on his back, which he contracted or elongated +according to the number he carried. The witch, +when starting on her aerial journey, would not quit +her house by door or window; but astride on her +broomstick made her exit by the chimney. During her +absence, to prevent the suspicions of her neighbours +from being aroused, an inferior demon assumed the +semblance of her person, and lay in her bed, pretending +to be ill or asleep.</p> + +<p>A curious story may here be introduced. In +April, 1611, a Provençal curé, named Gaurifidi, was +accused of sorcery before the Parliament of Aix. In +the course of trial much was said in proof of the +power of the demons. Several witnesses asserted +that Gaurifidi, after rubbing himself with a magic +oil, repaired to the Sabbat, and afterwards returned +to his chamber down the chimney. One day, when +this sort of thing was exciting the imagination of the +judges, an extraordinary noise was heard in the +chimney of the hall, terminating suddenly in the +apparition of a tall black man, who shook his head +vigorously. The judges, thinking the devil had +come in person to the rescue of his servant, took to +their heels, with the exception of one Thorm, the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>207]</a></span> +reporter, who was so hemmed in by his desk that he +was unable to move. Terror-stricken at the sight before +him, with his body all of a tremble, and his eyes +starting from his head, he made repeated signs of the +cross, until the supposed fiend was equally alarmed, +since he could not understand the cause of the +reporter’s evident perturbation. On recovering from +his embarrassment he made himself known—he +was a sweep, who had been operating on a chimney +on the roof above, but, when ready to return, had +mistaken the entrance, and thus unwillingly intruded +himself into the chamber of the Parliament.</p> + + +<p class="break">The unclean ceremonies of the Witches’ Sabbat +were ‘inaugurated’ by Satan, who, in his favourite +assumption of a huge he-goat (a suggestion, no +doubt, from Biblical imagery), with one face in front, +and another between his haunches, took his place +upon his throne. After all present had done homage +by kissing him on the posterior face, he appointed a +master of the ceremonies, and, attended by him, made +a personal examination of any guest to ascertain if he +or she bore the stigma, which indicated his right of +ownership. Any who were found without it received +the mark at once from the master of the ceremonies, +while the devil bestowed on them a nickname. +Thereafter all began to dance and sing with wild +extravagance—</p> + +<div class="cpoem1"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘There is no rest to-night for anyone:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When one dance ends another is begun’—<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>until some neophyte arrived, and sought admission +into the circle of the initiated. Silence prevailed +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>208]</a></span> +while the newcomer went through the usual form of +denying her salvation, spitting upon the Bible, kissing +the devil, and swearing obedience to him in all things. +The dancing then renewed its fury, and a hoarse chorus +went up of—</p> + +<div class="cpoem6"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘Alegremos, alegremos,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Que gente va tenemos!’<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>When spent with the violent exercise, they sat +down, and, like the witches in ‘Macbeth,’ related +the evil things each had done since the last Sabbat, +those who had not been sufficiently active being +chastised by Satan himself until they were drenched +in blood. A dance of toads was the next entertainment. +They sprang up out of the earth by thousands, +and danced on their hind-legs while Satan played on +the bagpipes or the trumpet, after which they solicited +the witches to reward them for their exertions by +feeding them <em>with the flesh of unbaptized babes</em>. Was +there ever a more curious mixture of the grotesque +and the horrible? At a stamp from the devil’s foot +they returned to the earth whence they came, and a +banquet was served up, the nature of which the reader +may be left to imagine! Dancing was afterwards +resumed, while those who had no partiality for the +pastime found amusement in burlesquing the sacrament +of baptism, the toads being again summoned +and sprinkled with holy water, while the devil made +the sign of the cross, and the witches cried out in +chorus: ‘In nomine Patricâ, Aragueaco Patrica, +agora, agora! Valentia, jurando gome guito goustia!’ +that is, ‘In the name of Patrick, Patrick of Aragon +now, now, all our ills are over!’</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>209]</a></span> +Sometimes the devil would cause the witches to +strip themselves, and dance before him in their +nakedness, each with a cat tied round her neck, and +another suspended from her body like a tail. At +cockcrow the whole phantasmagoria vanished.</p> + +<p>One cannot help wondering who first conceived +the idea of these horrid saturnalia. Did it spring +from the diseased imagination of some half-mad monk, +brooding in the solitude of his silent cell, who +gathered up all these unclean and grim images and +worked them into so ghastly a picture? They are +partly heathen, partly Christian; partly classical, +partly Teutonic—a strange and unwholesome compound, +as ‘thick and slab’ as the hell-broth mixed by +the hags on ‘the blasted heath’!</p> + +<p>In these pages I am concerned only with our own +‘tight little island,’ into which the superstition was +most certainly introduced by the northern invaders. +It would derive strength and consistency from the +teaching of the Old Testament, which distinctly +recognises the existence of witchcraft. ‘Let not a +witch live!’ is the command given in Exodus +(chapter xxii.); and similar threats against witches, +wizards and the like frequently occur in the books +of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Says Sir William +Blackstone: ‘To deny the possibility, nay, the actual +existence of witchcraft and sorcery, is at once flatly +to contradict the revealed Word of God in various +passages of the Old and New Testaments, and the +thing itself is a truth to which every nation in the +world hath, in its turn, borne testimony, either by +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>210]</a></span> +example seemingly well attested, or by prohibitory +laws, which at least suppose the possibility of a +commerce with evil spirits.’ The Church at a very +early period admitted its existence, and fulminated +against all who practised it. The fourth canon of the +Council of Auxerre, in 525, stringently prohibited all +resort to sorcerers, diviners, augurs, and the like. A +canon of the Council held at Berkhampstead in 696 +condemned to corporal punishment, or mulcted in a +fine, every person who made sacrifices to the evil +spirits. Under the name of <i>sortilegium</i>, the offence +was treated eventually as a kind of heresy, for which, +on the first occasion, the offender, if penitent, was +punished by the Ecclesiastical Courts; but if there +were no abjuration, or a relapse after abjuration, she +was handed over to the secular power to be executed +by authority of the writ <i>de heretico comburendo</i>. At a +later date, statutes against witchcraft were enacted +by Parliament, and the offence was both tried and +punished by the civil power. Such statutes were +passed in the reigns of Henry VIII., Elizabeth, and +James I. Legislation derives its chief support from +public opinion; and these statutes are a proof that +the existence of witchcraft was generally believed in. +‘For centuries in this country,’ says Mr. Inderwick, +‘strange as it may now appear, a denial of the existence +of such demoniacal agency was deemed equal to +a confession of atheism, and to a disbelief in the +Holy Scriptures themselves. Not only did Lord +Chancellors, Lord Keepers, benches of Bishops, and +Parliament after Parliament attest the truth and the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>211]</a></span> +existence of witchcraft, but Addison, writing as late +as 1711, in the pages of the <i>Spectator</i>, after describing +himself as hardly pressed by the arguments on both +sides of this question, expresses his own belief that +there is, and has been, witchcraft in the land.’ At +the same time, it is pleasant to remember that there +have almost always been a few minds, bolder and more +enlightened than the rest, to protest against a credulity +which led to acts of the greatest inhumanity, and +fostered a grotesque and dangerous superstition.</p> + +<p>It is in the twelfth century that we first obtain, in +England, any distinct indications of the nature of +this superstition, and it is then we first meet with +the written compact between the devil and his victim. +The story of the old woman of Berkeley, with which +Southey’s ballad has made everybody familiar, is +related by William of Malmesbury, on the authority +of a friend who professed to have been an eye-witness +of the facts. When the devil, we read, announced to +the witch that the term of her compact had nearly +expired, she summoned to her presence the monks of +the neighbouring monastery and her children, confessed +her sins, acknowledged her criminal compact, +and displayed a curious anxiety lest Satan should +secure her body as well as her soul. ‘Sew me in a +stag’s hide,’ she said, ‘and, placing me in a stone +coffin, shut me in with lead and iron. Load this +with a heavy stone, and fasten down the whole with +three iron chains. Let fifty psalms be sung by night, +and fifty masses be said by day, to baffle the power +of the demons, and if you can thus protect my body +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>212]</a></span> +for three nights, on the fourth day you may safely +bury it in the ground.’ These precautions, though +religiously observed, proved ineffectual. On the first +night the monks bravely resisted the efforts of the +fiends, who, however, on the second night, renewed +the attack with increased vehemence, burst open the +gates of the monastery, and rent asunder two of the +chains which held down the coffin. On the third +night, so terrible was the hurly-burly, that the +monastery shook to its foundations, and the terror-stricken +priests paused, aghast, in the midst of their +ministrations. Then the doors flew apart, and into +the sacred place stalked a demon, who rose head and +shoulders above his fellows. Stopping at the coffin, +he, in a terrible voice, commanded the dead to rise. +The woman answered that she was bound by the +third chain: whereupon the demon put his foot on the +coffin, the chain snapped like a thread, the coffin-lid +fell off, the witch arose, and was hurried to the church-door, +where the demon, mounting a huge black horse, +swung his victim on to the crupper, and galloped +away into the darkness with the swiftness of an arrow, +while her shrieks resounded through the air.</p> + +<p>There are many allusions in the old monastic +chronicles which illustrate the development of public +opinion in reference to witches and their craft. Thus, +John of Salisbury describes the nocturnal assemblies +of the witches, the presence of Satan, the banquet, +and the punishment or reward of the guests according +to the failure or abundance of their zeal. William of +Malmesbury tells us that on the highroad to Rome +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>213]</a></span> +dwelt a couple of beldams, of ill repute, who enticed +the weary traveller into their wretched hovel, and by +their incantations transformed him into a horse, a +dog, or some other animal—similar to the transformations +we read of in Oriental tales—and that this +animal they sold to the first comer, in this way +picking up a tolerable livelihood. One day, a +jongleur, or mountebank, asked for a night’s lodging, +and when he disclosed his vocation to the two hags, +they informed him that they had an ass of remarkable +capacity, which, indeed, could do everything but speak, +and that they were willing to sell it. The sum asked +was large, but the ass displayed such wonderful intelligence +that the jongleur gladly paid it, and departed, +taking with him the ass and a piece of advice +from the old women—not to let the ass go near running +water. For some time all went well, the ass +became an immense attraction, and the jongleur was +growing passing rich, when, in one of his drunken +fits, he allowed the animal to escape. Running directly +to the nearest stream, it plunged in, and immediately +resumed its original shape as a handsome young man, +who explained that he had been transformed by the +spells of the two crones.</p> + +<p>The first trial for witchcraft in England occurred +in the tenth year of King John, when, as recorded in +the ‘Abbreviatio Placitorum,’ Agnes, wife of Ado the +merchant, accused one Gideon of the crime; but he +proved his innocence by the ordeal of red-hot iron. +The first trial which has been reported with any +degree of particularity belongs to the year 1324. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>214]</a></span> +Some citizens of Coventry, it would appear, had +suffered severely at the hands of the prior, who had +been supported in his exactions by the two Despensers, +Edward II.’s unworthy favourites. In revenge, they +plotted the death of the prior, the favourites, and the +King. For this purpose they sought the assistance +of a famous magician of Coventry, named Master +John of Nottingham, and his man, Robert Marshall +of Leicester. The conspiracy was revealed by the +said Robert Marshall, probably because his pecuniary +reward was unsatisfactory, and he averred that John +of Nottingham and himself, having agreed to carry +out the desire of the citizens, the latter, on Sunday, +March 13, brought an instalment of the stipulated +fee, together with seven pounds of wax and two +yards of canvas; that with this wax he and his +master made seven images, representing respectively +the King (with his crown), the two Despensers, the +prior, his caterer, and his steward, and one Richard +de Lowe—the last named being introduced merely +as a lay-figure on which to test the efficacy of the +charm.</p> + +<p>The two wizards retired to an old ruined house at +Shorteley Park, about half a league from Coventry, +where they remained at work for several days, and +about midnight on the Friday following Holy Cross +Day, the said Master John gave to the said Robert a +sharp-pointed leaden branch, and commanded him to +insert it about two inches deep in the forehead of the +image representing Richard de Lowe, this being +intended as an experiment. It was done, and next +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>215]</a></span> +morning Master John sent his servant to Lowe’s +house to inquire after his condition, who found him +screaming and crying ‘Harrow!’ He had lost his +memory, and knew no one, and in this state he continued +until dawn on the Sunday before Ascension, +when Master John withdrew the branch from the +forehead of the image and thrust it into the heart. +There it remained until the following Wednesday, +when the unfortunate man expired. Such was Robert +Marshall’s fable, as told before the judges; but apparently +it met with little credence, and the trial, after +several adjournments, fell to the ground.</p> + +<p>Wonderful stories are told by the later chroniclers +of a certain Eudo de Stella, who had acquired great +notoriety as a sorcerer. William of Newbury says +that his ‘diabolical charms’ collected a large company +of disciples, whom he carried with him from +place to place, adding to their number wherever he +stopped. At times he encamped in the heart of a +wood, where sumptuous tables were suddenly spread +with all kinds of dainty dishes and fragrant wines, +and every wish breathed by the meanest guest was immediately +fulfilled. Some of Eudo’s followers, however, +confided to our authority that there was a strange +want of solidity in these magically-supplied viands, and +that though they ate of them continually, they were +never satisfied. But it appears that whoever once +tasted of the sorcerer’s meats, or received from him a +gift, thereby became enrolled among his followers. +And the chronicler supplies this irrefutable proof: A +knight of his acquaintance paid a visit to the wizard, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>216]</a></span> +and endeavoured to turn him from his evil practices. +When he departed, Eudo presented his squire with +a handsome hawk, which the knight, observing, +advised him to cast away. Not so the squire: he +rejoiced in his high-mettled bird; but they had +scarcely got out of sight of the wizard’s camp before +the hawk’s talons gripped him more and more +closely, and at last it flew away with him, and he was +never more heard of.</p> + +<p>The trial of Dame Alicia Kyteler, or Le Poer, +takes us across the seas, but it furnishes too many +interesting particulars to be entirely ignored. +Hutchinson informs us that, in 1324, Bishop de +Ledrede, of Ossory, in the course of a visitation of +his diocese, came to learn that, in the city of Kilkenny, +there had long resided certain persons +addicted to various kinds of witchcraft; and that the +chief offender among them was a Dame Alicia +Kyteler. As she was a woman of considerable +wealth, which might prove of great benefit to the +Church, the episcopal zeal blazed up strongly, and +she and her accomplices were ordered to be put upon +their trial.</p> + +<p>The accusation against them was divided into +seven distinct heads:</p> + +<p>First: That, in order to give effect to their sorcery, +they were wont altogether to deny the faith of Christ +and of the Church for a year or month, according as +the object to be attained was greater or less, so that +during this longer or shorter period they believed in +nothing that the Church believed, and abstained from +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>217]</a></span> +worshipping Christ’s body, from entering a church, +from hearing Mass, and from participating in the +Sacrament. Second: That they propitiated the +demons with sacrifices of living animals, which they +tore limb from limb, and offered, by scattering them +in cross-roads, to a certain demon, Robert Artisson +(<i>filius Artis</i>), who was ‘one of the poorer class of +hell.’ Third: That by their sorceries they sought +responses and oracles from demons. Fourth: That +they used the ceremonies of the Church in their +nocturnal meetings, pronouncing, with lighted +candles of wax, sentence of excommunication even +against the persons of their own husbands, naming +expressly every member, from the sole of the foot to +the top of the head, and at length extinguishing the +candles with the exclamation, ‘Fi! fi! fi! Amen!’ +Fifth: That with the intestines and other inner +parts of cocks sacrificed to the demons, with ‘certain +horrible worms,’ various herbs, the nails of dead men, +the hair, brains, and clothes of children who had died +unbaptized, and other things too disgusting to +mention, boiled in the skull of a certain robber who +had been beheaded, on a fire made of oak-sticks, +they had invented powders and ointments, and also +candles of fat boiled in the said skull, with certain +charms, which things were to be instrumental in exciting +love or hatred, and in killing or torturing the +bodies of faithful Christians, and for various other +unlawful purposes. Sixth: That the sons and +daughters of the four husbands of the same Dame +Alice had made their complaint to the Bishop, that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>218]</a></span> +she, by such sorcery, had procured the death of her +husbands, and had so beguiled and infatuated them, +that they had given all their property to her and her +son [by her first husband, William Outlawe], to the +perpetual impoverishment of their own sons and heirs: +insomuch that her present [and fourth] husband, Sir +John Le Poer, was reduced to a most miserable condition +of body by her ointments, powders, and other +magical preparations; but, being warned by her +maidservant, he had forcibly taken from his wife the +keys of her house, in which he found a bag filled +with the ‘detestable’ articles above mentioned, which +he had sent to the Bishop. Seventh: That there +existed an unholy connection between the said Lady +Alice and the demon called Robert Artisson, who +sometimes appeared to her in the form of a cat, +sometimes in that of a black shaggy dog, and at +others in the form of a black man, with two tall +companions as black as himself, each carrying in his +hand a rod of iron. Some of the old chroniclers +embroider upon this charge the fanciful details that +her offering to the demon was nine red cocks’ and +nine peacocks’ eyes, which were paid on a certain +stone bridge at a cross-road; that she had a magical +ointment,<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> which she rubbed upon a coulter or +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>219]</a></span> +plough handle, in order that the said coulter might +carry her and her companions whithersoever they +wished to go; that in her house was found a consecrated +wafer, with the devil’s name written upon it; +and that, sweeping the streets of Kilkenny between +complin and twilight, she raked up all the ordure +towards the doors of her son, William Outlawe, +saying to herself:</p> + +<div class="cpoem1"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘To the house of William my son,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hie all the wealth of Kilkenny town.’<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>The lady, rejoicing in powerful friends and +advisers, defied the Bishop and all his works. She +was excommunicated, and her son summoned to +appear before the Bishop for the offence of harbouring +and concealing her; but Dame Alice’s friends retaliated +by throwing the Bishop into prison for +several days. He revenged himself by placing the +whole diocese under an interdict, and again summoning +William Outlawe to appear on a certain day; but +before the day arrived, he in his turn was cited before +the Lord Justice, to answer for having imposed an +interdict on his diocese, and to defend himself against +accusations submitted by the seneschal. The Bishop +pleaded that it was unsafe for him to travel; but the +plea was not allowed, and, to save himself from further +molestation, he recalled the interdict.</p> + +<p>The quarrel was not yet fought out. On the +Monday following the octave of Easter, the seneschal, +Arnold de la Poer, held his judicial court in the +Assize Hall at Kilkenny. Thither repaired the +Bishop, and, though refused admission, he forced his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>220]</a></span> +way in, robed in full pontificals, carrying in his hand +the Host in pyx of gold, and attended by a numerous +train of friars and clergy. But he was received with +a storm of insults and reproaches, which compelled +him to retire. Upon his repeated protests, however, +and at the intercession of some influential personages, +his return was permitted. Being ordered to take +his stand at the criminal’s bar, he exclaimed that +Christ had never been treated so before, since He +stood at the bar before Pontius Pilate; and he loudly +called upon the seneschal to order the arrest of the +persons accused of sorcery, and their deliverance into +his hands. When the seneschal abruptly refused, +he opened the book of the decretals, and saith, ‘You, +Sir Arnold, are a knight, and instructed in letters, +and that you may not have the excuse of ignorance, +we are prepared to prove by these decretals that you +and your officials are bound to obey our order in this +matter, under heavy penalties.’</p> + +<p>‘Go to the church with your decretals,’ replied the +seneschal, ‘and preach there, for none of us here will +listen to you.’</p> + +<p>In the Bishop’s character there must have been a +fine strain of perseverance, for all these rebuffs failed +to baffle him, and he actually succeeded, after a succession +of disappointments and a constant renewal of +difficulties, in obtaining permission to bring the +alleged offenders to trial. Most of them suffered +imprisonment; but Dame Alice escaped him, being +secretly conveyed to England. Of all concerned in +the affair, only one was punished: Petronella of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>221]</a></span> +Meath, who was selected as a scapegoat, probably +because she had neither friends nor means of defence.</p> + +<p>By order of the Bishop she was six times flogged, +after which the poor tortured victim made a confession, +in which she declared not only her own guilt, +but that of everybody against whom the Bishop had +proceeded. She affirmed that in all Britain, nay, +indeed, in the whole world, was no one more skilled +in magical practices than Dame Alice Kyteler. She +was brought to admit the truth—though in her heart +she must have known its absolute falsehood<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a>—of +the episcopal indictment, and pretended that she had +been present at the sacrifices to the Evil One—that +she had assisted in making the unguents with the +unsavoury materials already mentioned, and that +with these unguents different effects were produced +upon different persons—the faces of certain ladies, +for instance, being made to appear horned like goats; +that she had been present at the nocturnal revelries, +and, with her mistress’s assistance, had frequently +pronounced sentence of excommunication against her +own husband, with all due magical rites; that she +had attended Dame Alice in her assignations with +the demon, Robert Artisson, and had seen acts of an +immorality so foul that I dare not allude to it pass +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>222]</a></span> +between them. Having been coerced and tortured +into this amazingly wild and fictitious confession, +the poor woman was declared guilty, sentenced, and +burned alive, the first victim of the witchcraft delusion +in Ireland.</p> + + +<p class="break">It is worthy of observation that the mind of the +public was roused to a much stronger feeling of +hostility against witchcraft than against magic. +Alchemists, astrologers, fortune-tellers, diviners, and +the like, might incur suspicion, and sometimes punishment; +but, on the whole, they were treated with +tolerance, and even with distinction. For this +inequality of treatment two or three reasons suggest +themselves. In the crime of witchcraft the central +feature was the compact with the demon, and it was +natural that men should resent an act which entailed +the eternal loss of the soul. Again, witchcraft, much +more frequently than magic, was the instrument of +personal ill-feeling, and was more generally directed +against the lower classes. The magician seldom used +his power except when liberally paid by an employer; +the witch, it was thought, exercised her skill for the +gratification of her own malice. However this may +be, an imputation of witchcraft became, in the fifteenth +century, a formidable affair, ensuring the death or +ruin of the unfortunate individual against whom it +was made. There was no little difficulty in defending +one’s self; and in truth, once made, it clung to +its victim like a Nessus’s shirt, and with a result as +deadly.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>223]</a></span> +Its value as a political ‘move’ was shown in the +persecution of the Knights Templars, and, in our +own history, in Cardinal Beaufort’s intrigue against +Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, who governed England +as Protector during the minority of Henry VI.</p> + +<p>The Cardinal struck at the Duke through his +beautiful wife, Eleanor Cobham. In July, 1441, two +ecclesiastics, Roger Bolingbroke, and Thomas Southwell, +a canon of St. Stephen’s Chapel, were arrested +on a charge of high treason; ‘for it was said that +the said Master Roger should labour to consume the +King’s person by way of necromancy; and that the +said Master Thomas should say masses upon certain +instruments with the which the said Master Roger +should use his said craft of necromancy.’ Bolingbroke +was a scholar, an adept in natural science, and an +ardent student of astronomy: William of Worcester +describes him as one of the most famous clerks of +the world. One Sunday, after having undergone +rigorous examination, he was conveyed to St. Paul’s +Cross, where he was mounted ‘on a high stage above +all men’s heads in Paul’s Churchyard, whiles the +sermon endured, holding a sword in his right hand +and a sceptre in his left, arrayed in a marvellous +array, wherein he was wont to sit when he wrought +his necromancy.’</p> + +<p>The Duchess of Gloucester, meanwhile, perceiving +that her ruin was intended, fled to sanctuary at +Westminster. Before the King’s Council Bolingbroke +was brought to confess that he had plied his +magical trade at the Duchess’s instigation, ‘to know +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>224]</a></span> +what should fall of her, and to what estate she should +come.’ In other words, he had cast her horoscope, +a proceeding common enough in those days, and one +which had no treasonable complexion. The Cardinal’s +party, however, seized upon Bolingbroke’s confession, +and made such use of it that the unfortunate lady +was cited to appear before an ecclesiastical tribunal +composed of Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury, +Cardinal Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, Cardinal +Kemp, Archbishop of York, and Ayscough, Bishop +of Salisbury, on July 2, ‘to answer to divers articles +of necromancy, of witchcraft or sorcery, of heresy, and +of treason.’ Bolingbroke was brought forward as a +witness, and repeated that the Duchess ‘first stirred +him to labour in his necromancy.’</p> + +<p>After this, he and Southwell were indicted as principals +of treason, and the Duchess as accessory, +though, if his story were true, their positions should +have been reversed. At the same time, a woman +named Margery Goodman, and known as the ‘Witch +of Eye,’ was burned at Smithfield because in former +days she had given potions and philtres to Eleanor +Cobham, to enable her to secure the Duke of Gloucester’s +affections. Roger Bolingbroke was hung, drawn, +and quartered, according to the barbarous custom of +the age; Southwell escaped a similar fate by dying +in the Tower before the day appointed for his trial. +The charge of high treason brought against them +rested entirely on the allegation that, at the Duchess’s +request, they had made a waxen image to resemble +the King, and had placed it before a fire, that, as +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>225]</a></span> +it gradually melted, so might the King gradually +languish away and die. As for the Duchess, she was +sentenced to do penance, which she fulfilled ‘right +meekly, so that the more part of the people had her +in great compassion,’ on Monday, November 13, +1441, walking barefoot, with a lighted taper in her +hand, from Temple Bar to St. Paul’s, where she +offered the taper at the high altar. She repeated the +penance on the Wednesday and Friday following, +walking to St. Paul’s by different routes, and on each +occasion was accompanied by the Lord Mayor, the +sheriffs, and the various guilds, and by a multitude +of people, whom the repute of her beauty and her +sorrows had attracted, so that what was intended for +a humiliation became really a triumph. She was +afterwards imprisoned in Chester Castle, and thence +transferred to the Isle of Man.</p> + + +<p class="break">The charge of sorcery which Richard III. brought +against Lord Hastings, accusing him of having wasted +his left arm, though from his birth it had been fleshless, +dry, and withered, is made the basis of an effective +scene in Shakespeare’s ‘Richard III.’ His brother’s +widow, Queen Elizabeth Woodville, was included in +the charge, and Jane Shore was named as her accomplice. +This frail beauty was brought before the +Council, and accused of having ‘endeavoured the ruin +and destruction of the Protector in several ways,’ and +particularly ‘by witchcraft had decayed his body, +and with the Lord Hastings had contrived to assassinate +him.’ The indictment, however, was not +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>226]</a></span> +sustained, and her offence was reduced to that of lewd +living. Whereupon she was handed over to the +Bishop of London to do public penance for her sin +on Sunday morning in St. Paul’s Cathedral church. +Clothed in a white sheet, with a wax taper in her +hand, and a cross borne before her, she was led in +procession from the episcopal palace to the cathedral, +where she made open confession of her fault. The +moral effect of this exhibition seems to have been +considerably marred by the beauty of the penitent, +which produced upon the multitude an impression +similar to that which the bared bosom of Phryne +produced upon her judges in the days of old.</p> + +<p>In 1480 Pope Innocent VIII. issued a Bull enjoining +the detection, trial, and punishment (by burning) +of witches. This was the first formal recognition +of witchcraft by the head of the Church. In England +the first Act of Parliament levelled at it was passed +in 1541. Ten years later two more statutes were +enacted, one relating to false prophecies, and the +other to conjuration, witchcraft and sorcery. But in +no one of these was witchcraft condemned <i>qua</i> witchcraft; +they were directed against those who, by means +of spells, incantations, or compacts with the devil, +threatened the lives and properties of their neighbours. +When, in 1561, Sir Edward Waldegrave, one +of Mary Stuart’s councillors, was arrested by order of +Secretary Cecil as ‘a mass-monger,’ the Bishop of +London, to whom he was remitted, felt no disposition +to inflict a heavy penalty for hearing or saying +of mass; but, on inquiry, he discovered that the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>227]</a></span> +officiating priest had been concerned in concocting ‘a +love-philtre,’ and he then decided that sorcery would +afford a safer ground for process. He applied, therefore, +to Chief Justice Catlin, to learn what might be +the law in such cases, and was astonished when he +was told that no legal provision had been made for +them. Previously they came before the Church +Courts; but these had been deprived of their powers +by the Reformation, and the only precedent he could +find for moving in the matter belonged to the reign +of Edward III., and was thus entered on the roll:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>‘Ung homme fut prinse en Southwark avec ung teste et ung +visaige dung homme morte avec ung lyvre de sorcerie en son +male et fut amesné en banke du Roy devant Knyvet Justice, mais +nulle indictment fut vers lui, por qui les clerkes luy fierement +jurement que jamais ne feroit sorcerie en après, et fut delyvon +del prison, et le teste et les lyvres furent arses a Totehyll a les +costages du prisonnier.’ (That is: A man was taken in Southwark, +with a dead man’s skull and a book of sorcery in his +wallet, and was brought up at the King’s Bench before Knyvet +Justice; but no indictment was laid against him, for that the +clerks made him swear he would meddle no more with sorcery, +and the head and the books were burnt at Tothill Fields at the +prisoner’s charge.)</p> +</div> + +<p>But in the following year Parliament passed an +Act which defined witchcraft as a capital crime, +whether it was or was not exerted to the injury of the +lives, limbs, and possessions of the lieges. Thenceforward +the persecution of witches took its place +among English institutions. During the latter years +of Elizabeth’s reign several instances occurred. Thus, +on July 25, 1589, three witches were burnt at Chelmsford. +The popular mind was gradually familiarized +with the idea of witchcraft, and led to concentrate its +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>228]</a></span> +attention on the individual marks, or characteristics, +which were supposed to indicate its professors. Even +among the higher classes a belief in its existence +became very general, and it is startling to find a man +like the learned and pious Bishop Jewell, in a sermon +before Queen Elizabeth, saying: ‘It may please your +Grace to understand that witches and sorcerers within +these last four years are marvellously increased within +this your Grace’s realm. Your Grace’s subjects pine +away even unto the death; their colour fadeth; their +flesh rotteth; their speech is benumbed; their senses +are bereft! I pray God they may never practise further +than upon the subject!’ (1598).</p> + + +<p class="break">The witches in ‘Macbeth’—those weird sisters +who met at midnight upon the blasted heath, and in +their caldron brewed so deadly a ‘hell-broth’—partake +of the dignity of the poet’s genius, and belong +to the vast ideal world of his imagination. No such +midnight hags crossed the paths of ordinary mortals. +The Elizabethan witch, who scared her neighbours in +town and village, and flourished on their combined +ignorance and superstition, appears, however, in ‘The +Merry Wives of Windsor,’ where Master Ford describes +‘the fat woman of Brentford’ as ‘a witch, a +quean, an old cozening quean!’ He adds: ‘Have I +not forbid her my house? She comes of errands, +does she? We are simple men; we do not know +what’s brought to pass under the profession of fortune-telling. +She works by charms, by spells, by +the figure; and such daubery as this is beyond our +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>229]</a></span> +element.’ Most of Master Ford’s contemporaries, I +fear, were, in this matter, ‘simple men.’ Even persons +of rank and learning, of position and refinement, +were as credulous as their poorer, more ignorant, and +more vulgar neighbours; were just as ready to believe +that an untaught village crone had made a compact +with the devil, and bartered her soul for the right of +straddling across a broom or changing herself into a +black cat!</p> + + +<p class="break">Near Warboise, in Huntingdonshire, in 1593, lived +two gentlemen of good estate—Mr. Throgmorton and +Sir Samuel Cromwell. The former had five daughters, +of whom the eldest, Joan, was possessed with a lively +imagination, which busied itself constantly with ghosts +and witches. On one occasion, when she passed the +cottage of an old and infirm woman, known as Mother +Samuel, the good dame, with a black cap on her head, +was sitting at her door knitting. Mistress Joan exclaimed +that she was a witch, hurried home, went into +convulsions, and declared that Mother Samuel had +bewitched her. In due course, her sisters followed +her example, and they too laid the blame of their fits +on Mother Samuel. The parents, not less infatuated +than the children, lent ready ears to their wild tales, +and carried them to Lady Cromwell, who, as a friend +of Mrs. Throgmorton, took the matter up right +earnestly, and resolved that the supposed witch +should be put to the ordeal. Sir Samuel was by +no means unwilling; and the children, encouraged +by this prompt credulity, let loose their fertile +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>230]</a></span> +inventions. They declared that Mother Samuel sent a +legion of evil spirits to torment them incessantly. +Strange to say, these spirits had made known their +names, which, though grotesque, had nothing of a +demoniac character about them—‘First Smack,’ +‘Second Smack,’ ‘Third Smack,’ ‘Blue,’ ‘Catch,’ +‘Hardname,’ and ‘Pluck’—names invented, of course, +by the young people themselves.</p> + +<p>At length the aggrieved Throgmorton, summoning +all his courage, repaired to Mother Samuel’s humble +residence, seized upon the unhappy old crone, and +dragged her into his own grounds, where Lady Cromwell +and Mrs. Throgmorton and her children thrust +long pins into her body to see if they could draw +blood. With unmeasured violence, Lady Cromwell +tore the old woman’s cap from her head, and plucked +out a handful of her gray hair, which she gave to +Mrs. Throgmorton to burn, as a charm that would +protect her from all further evil practices. Smarting +under these injuries, the poor old woman, in a moment +of passion, invoked a curse upon her torturers—a +curse afterwards remembered against her, though at +the time she was allowed to depart. For more than +a year her life was made miserable by the incessant +persecution inflicted upon her by the two hostile +families, who, on their part, declared that her demons +brought upon them all kinds of physical ills, prevented +their ewes and cows from bearing, and turned +the milk sour in the dairy-pans. It so happened +that Lady Cromwell was seized with a sudden illness, +of which she died, and though some fifteen months +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>231]</a></span> +had elapsed since the utterance of the curse, on poor +Mother Samuel was placed the responsibility. Sir +Samuel Cromwell, therefore, felt called upon to punish +her for her ill-doing.</p> + +<p>By this time the old woman, partly through listening +to the incessant repetition of the charges against +her, and partly, perhaps, from a weak delight in the +notoriety she had attained, had come to believe, or to +think she believed, that she was really the witch +everybody declared her to be—just as a young +versifier is sometimes deluded into a conviction of +his poetic genius through unwisely crediting the +eulogies of an admiring circle of friends and relatives. +On one occasion, she was forcibly conveyed into Mrs. +Throgmorton’s house when Joan was in one of her +frequently-recurring fits, and ordered to exorcise the +demon that was troubling the maid, with the formula: +‘As I am a witch, and the causer of Lady Cromwell’s +death, I charge thee, fiend, to come out of her!’ The +poor creature did as she was told, and confessed, +besides, that her husband and her daughter were her +associates in witchcraft, and that all three had sold +their souls to the devil. On this confession the whole +family were arrested, and sent to Huntingdon Gaol. +Soon afterwards they were tried before Mr. Justice +Fenner, and put to the torture.</p> + +<p>In her agony the old woman confessed anything +that was required of her—she was a witch, she had +bewitched the Throgmortons, she had caused the +death of Lady Cromwell. Her husband and her +daughter, stronger-minded, resolutely asserted their +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>232]</a></span> +innocence. Ignorance, however, would not be denied +its victims; all three were sentenced to be hanged, +and to have their bodies burned. The daughter, who +was young and comely, was regarded compassionately +by many persons, and advised to gain at least a +respite by pleading pregnancy. She indignantly +refused to sacrifice her good name. They might +falsely call her a witch, she exclaimed, but they +should not be able to say that she had acknowledged +herself to be a harlot. Her old mother, however, +caught at the idea, and openly asserted that she was +with child, the court breaking out into loud laughter, +in which she fatuously joined. The three victims +suffered on April 7, 1595.</p> + +<p>Out of the confiscated property of the Samuels, Sir +Samuel Cromwell, as lord of the manor, received a +sum of £40, which he converted into an annual rent-charge +of 40s. for the endowment of an annual sermon +or lecture on the iniquity of witchcraft, to be delivered +by a D.D. or B.D. of Queen’s College, Cambridge. +This strange memorial of a shameful and ignorant +superstition was discontinued early in the eighteenth +century.</p> + + +<p class="break">In 1594, Ferdinando, Earl of Derby, died in and +from the firm conviction that he was mortally bewitched, +though he had no knowledge of the person +who had so bewitched him.</p> + + +<p class="break">About the same time there lived in an obscure part +of Lancashire, not far from Pendle, two families of +the names of Dundike and Chattox respectively, who +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>233]</a></span> +both pretended to enjoy supernatural privileges, and +were therefore as bitterly antagonistic as if they had +belonged to different political factions. Their neighbours, +however, seem to have believed in the superior +claims of the head of the Dundike family, Mother +Dundike, who pretended that she had enjoyed her +unhallowed powers for half a century. The year in +which occurred the incidents I am about to describe +was, so to speak, her jubilee.</p> + +<p>Mother Dundike must have been a woman of lively +imagination, if we may form conclusions from her +graphic account of the circumstances attending her +initiation into the great army of ‘the devil’s own.’ One +day, when returning from a begging expedition, she +was accosted by a boy, dressed in a parti-coloured garment +of black and white, who proved to be a demon, +or evil spirit, and promised her that, in return for the +gift of her soul, she should have anything and everything +she desired. On inquiring his name, she was +told it was Tib; and here I may note that the +‘princes and potentates’ of the nether world seem to +have had a great predilection for monosyllabic names, +and names of a vulgar and commonplace character. +The upshot of the conversation between Tib and the +woman was the surrender of her soul on the liberal +conditions promised, and for the next five or six years +the said devil frequently appeared unto her ‘about +daylight-gate’ (near evening), and asked what she +would have or do. With wonderful unselfishness she +replied, ‘Nothing.’ Towards the end of the sixth +year, on a quiet Sabbath morning, while she lay +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>234]</a></span> +asleep, Tib came in the shape of a brown dog, forced +himself to her knee, and, as she wore no other garment +than a smock, succeeded in drawing blood. +Awaking suddenly, she exclaimed, ‘Jesu, save my +child!’ but had not the power to say, ‘Jesu, save <em>me</em>!’ +Whereupon the brown dog vanished, and for a space +of eight weeks she was ‘almost stark mad.’</p> + +<p>The matter-of-fact style which distinguishes Mother +Dundike’s confession may also be traced in the statements +of her children and grandchildren, who all +speak as if witchcraft were an everyday reality, and +as if evil spirits in various common disguises went to +and fro in the land with edifying regularity. Let us +turn to the evidence, if such it may be called, of +Alison Device, a girl of about thirteen or fourteen +years of age. Incriminating her grandmother without +scruple, she declared that when they were on the +tramp, the old woman frequently persuaded her to +allow a devil or ‘familiar’ to suck at some part of her +body, after which she might have and do what she +would—though, strange to say, neither she nor anyone +else ever availed themselves of their powers to +improve their material condition, but lingered on in +poverty and privation. James Device, one of Mother +Dundike’s grandsons, said that on Shrove Tuesday +she bade him go to church to receive the sacrament—not, +however, to eat the consecrated bread, but to +bring it away, and deliver it to ‘such a Thing’ as +should meet him on his way homeward. But he disobeyed +the injunction, and ate the sacred bread. On +his way home, when about fifty yards from the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>235]</a></span> +church, he was met by a ‘Thing in the shape of a +hare,’ which asked him whether he had brought the +bread according to his grandmother’s directions. He +answered that he had not; and therefore the Thing +threatened to rend him in pieces, but he got rid of it +by calling upon God.</p> + +<p>Some few days later, hard by the new church in +Pendle, a Thing appeared to him like to a brown dog, +asked him for his soul, and promised in return that +he should be avenged on his enemies. The virtuous +youth replied, somewhat equivocatingly, that his soul +was not his to give, but belonged to his Saviour Jesus +Christ; as much as was his to give, however, he was +contented to dispose of. Two or three days later +James Device had occasion to go to Cave Hall, where +a Mrs. Towneley angrily accused him of having stolen +some of her turf, and drove him from her door with +violence. When the devil next appeared—this time +like a <em>black</em> dog—he found James Device in the right +temper for a deed of wickedness. He was instructed +to make an image of clay like Mrs. Towneley; which +he did, and dried it the same night by the fire, and +daily for a week crumbled away the said image, and +two days after it was all gone Mrs. Towneley died! +In the following Lent, one John Duckworth, of the +Launde, promised him an old shirt; but when young +Device went to his house for the gift, he was denied, +and sent away with contumely. The spirit ‘Dandy’ +then appeared to him, and exclaimed: ‘Thou didst +touch the man Duckworth,’ which he, James Device, +denied; but the spirit persisted: ‘Yes; thou <em>didst</em> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>236]</a></span> +touch him, and therefore he is in my power.’ Device +then agreed with the demon that the said Duckworth +should meet with the same fate as Mrs. Towneley, +and in the following week he died.</p> + + +<p class="break">It is a curious fact that the old woman Chattox, the +head of the rival faction of practitioners in witchcraft, +accused Mother Dundike of having inveigled her into +the ranks of the devil’s servants. This was about 1597 +or 1598. To Mrs. Chattox the Evil One appeared—as +he has appeared to too many of her sex—in the shape +of a man. Time, midnight; place, Elizabeth Dundike’s +tumble-down cottage. He asked, as usual, for +her soul, which she at first refused, but afterwards, at +Mother Dundike’s advice and solicitation, agreed to +part with. ‘Whereupon the said wicked spirit then +said unto her, that he must have one part of her body +for him to suck upon; the which she denied then to +grant unto him; and withal asked him, what part of +her body he would have for that use; who said, he +would have a place of her right side, near to her ribs, +for him to suck upon; whereunto she assented. And +she further said that, at the same time, there was a +Thing in the likeness of a spotted bitch, that came +with the said spirit unto the said Dundike, which did +then speak unto her in Anne Chattox’s hearing, and +said, that she should have gold, silver, and worldly +wealth at her will; and at the same time she saith +there was victuals, viz., flesh, butter, cheese, bread, +and drink, and bid them eat enough. And after their +eating, the devil called Fancy, and the other spirit +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>237]</a></span> +calling himself Tib carried the remnant away. And +she saith, that although they did eat, they were never +the fuller nor better for the same; and that at their +said banquet the said spirits gave them light to see +what they did, although they had neither fire nor +candle-light; and that there be both she-spirits and +(he-)devils.’</p> + +<p>In a later chapter I shall have occasion to refer +to the confessions of the various persons implicated +in this ‘Great Oyer’ of witchcraft. What +comes out very strongly in them is the hostility +which existed between the Chattoxes and the Dundikes, +and their respective adherents. In Pendle +Forest there were evidently two distinct parties, one +of which sought the favour and sustained the pretensions +of Mother Dundike, the other being not less +steadfast in allegiance to Mother Chattox. As to +these two beldams, it is clear enough that they +encouraged the popular credulity, resorted to many +ingenious expedients for the purpose of supporting +their influence, and unscrupulously employed that +influence in furtherance of their personal aims. They +knowingly played at a sham game of commerce with +the devil, and enjoyed the fear and awe with which +their neighbours looked up to them. It flattered +their vanity; and perhaps they played the game so +long as to deceive themselves. ‘Human passions are +always to a certain degree infectious. Perceiving +the hatred of their neighbours, they began to think +that they were worthy objects of detestation and +terror, that their imprecations had a real effect, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>238]</a></span> +their curses killed. The brown horrors of the forest +were favourable to visions, and they sometimes almost +believed that they met the foe of mankind in the +night.’ To the delusions of the imagination, especially +when suggested by pride and vanity, there are no +means of putting a limit; and it is quite possible that +in time these women gave credence to their own absurd +inventions, and saw a demon or familiar spirit in +every hare or black or brown dog that accidentally +crossed their path.</p> + +<p>For awhile the witches created a reign of terror in +the forest. But the interlacing animosities which +gradually sprang up between its inhabitants were the +fertile source of so much disorder that, at length, a +county magistrate of more than ordinary energy, +Roger Nowell, Esq., described as a very honest and +religious gentleman, conceived the idea that, by suppressing +them, he should do the State good service. +Accordingly he ordered the arrest of Dundike and +Chattox, Alison Device, and Anne Redfern, and each, +in the hope of saving her life, having made a full +confession, he committed them to Lancaster Castle, +on April 2, 1612, to take their trials at the next +assizes.</p> + +<p>No attempt was made, however, to search Malkin +Tower. This lonely ruin was regarded with superstitious +dread by the peasantry, who durst never +approach it, on account of the strange unearthly +noises and the weird creatures that haunted its wild +recesses. James Device, when examined afterwards +by Nowell, deposed that about a month before his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>239]</a></span> +arrest, as he was going towards his mother’s house in +the twilight, he met a brown dog coming from it, +and, of course, a brown dog was the disguise of an +evil spirit. About two or three nights after, he +heard a great number of children shrieking and +crying pitifully in the same uncanny neighbourhood; +and at a later date his ears were shocked by a loud +yelling, ‘like unto a great number of cats.’ We +have heard the same sounds ourselves, at night, in +places which did not profess to be haunted! It is +very possible that Dame Dundike, who was obviously +a crafty old woman, with much knowledge of human +nature, had something to do with these noises and +appearances, for it was to her interest to maintain +the eerie reputation of the Tower, and prevent the +intrusion of inquisitive visitors. With all her little +secrets, it was natural enough she should say, ‘<i>Procul +este, profani</i>,’ while she would necessarily seize every +opportunity of extending and strengthening her +authority.</p> + +<p>It was the general belief that the Malkin Tower +was the place where the witches annually kept their +Sabbath on Good Friday, and in 1612, after Dame +Dundike’s arrest, they met there as usual, in exceptionally +large numbers, and, after the usual feasting, +conferred together on ‘the situation’—to use a slang +phrase of the present day. Elizabeth Device presided, +and asked their advice as to the best method +of obtaining her mother’s release. There must have +been some daring spirits among those old women; +for it was proposed—so runs the record—to kill +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>240]</a></span> +Lovel, the gaoler of Lancaster Castle, and another +man of the name of Lister, accomplish an informal +‘gaol-delivery,’ and blow up the prison! Even with +the help of their familiars, they would have found this +a difficult and dangerous enterprise, and we do not +wonder that the proposal met with general disfavour.</p> + +<p>Seldom, if ever, do conspirators meet without a +traitor in their midst; and on this occasion there +was a traitor in Malkin Tower in the person of +Janet Device, the youngest daughter of Alison +Device, and grand-daughter of the unfortunate old +woman who was lying ill and weak in Lancaster +Gaol. A girl of only nine years of age, she was an +experienced liar and thoroughly unscrupulous; and +having been bribed by Justice Nowell, she informed +against the persons present at this meeting, and +secured their arrest. The number of prisoners at +Lancaster was increased to twelve, among whom were +Elizabeth Device, her son James, and Alice Nutter, of +Rough Lea, a lady of good family and fair estate. +There is good reason to believe that the last-named +was in no way implicated in the doings of the so-called +witches, but that she was introduced by Janet +Device to gratify the greed of some of her relatives—who, +in the event of her death, would inherit her +property—and the ill-feeling of Justice Nowell, +whom she had worsted in a dispute about the +boundary of their respective lands. The charges +against her were trivial, and amounted to no more +than that she had been present at the Malkin Tower +convention, and had joined with Mother Dundike and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>241]</a></span> +Elizabeth Device in bewitching to death an old man +named Mitton. The only witnesses against her were +Janet and Elizabeth Device, neither of whom was +worthy of credence.</p> + +<p>Blind old Mother Dundike escaped the terrible +penalty of an unrighteous law by dying in prison +before the day of trial. But justice must have been +well satisfied with its tale of victims. Foremost +among them was Mother Chattox, the head of the +anti-Dundike faction—‘a very old, withered, spent, +and decrepit creature,’ whose sight was almost gone, +and whose lips chattered with the meaningless babble +of senility. When judgment was pronounced upon +her, she uttered a wild, incoherent prayer for Divine +mercy, and besought the judge to have pity upon +Anne Redfern, her daughter. The next person for +trial was Elizabeth Device, who is described as +having been branded ‘with a preposterous mark in +nature, even from her birth, which was her left eye +standing lower than the other; the one looking +down, the other looking up; so strangely deformed +that the best that were present in that honourable +assembly and great audience did affirm they had not +often seen the like.’ When this woman discovered +that the principal witness against her was her own +child, she broke out into such a storm of curses and +reproaches that the proceedings came to a sudden +stop, and she had to be removed from the court +before her daughter could summon up courage to +repeat the fictions she had learned or concocted. +The woman was, of course, found guilty, as were +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>242]</a></span> +also James and Alison Device, Alice Nutter, Anne +Redfern, Katherine Hewit, John and Jane Balcock, +all of Pendle, and Isabel Roby, of Windle, most of +whom strenuously asserted their innocence to the last. +On August 13, the day after their trial, they were +burnt ‘at the common place of execution, near to +Lancaster’—the unhappy victims of the ignorance, +superstition, and barbarity of the age.</p> + +<p>Janet Device, as King’s evidence, obtained a pardon, +though she acknowledged to have taken part in +the practices of her parents, and confessed to having +learned from her mother two prayers, one to cure the +bewitched, and the other to get drink. The former, +which is obviously a <i>pasticcio</i> of the old Roman +Catholic hymns and traditional rhymes, runs as +follows:</p> + +<div class="cpoem4"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘Upon Good Friday, I will fast while I may<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Untill I heare them knell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our Lord’s owne bell.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lord in His messe<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With His twelve Apostles good,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What hath He in His hand?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ligh in leath wand:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What hath He in His other hand?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Heaven’s door key.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Open, open, Heaven’s door keys!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stark, stark, hell door.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let Criznen child<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Goe to its mother mild;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What is yonder that crests a light so farrndly?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thine owne deare Sonne that’s nailed to the Tree.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He is naild sore by the heart and hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And holy harne panne.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Well is that man<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That Fryday spell can,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His child to learne;<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>243]</a></span> +<span class="i0">A crosse of blew and another of red,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As good Lord was to the Roode.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gabriel laid him downe to sleepe<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon the ground of holy weepe;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Good Lord came walking by.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sleep’st thou, wak’st thou, Gabriel?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No, Lord, I am sted with sticks and stake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That I can neither sleepe nor wake:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rise up, Gabriel, and goe with me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The stick nor the stake shall never dure thee.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweet Jesus, our Lord. Amen!’<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>The other prayer consisted only of the Latin +phrase: ‘Crucifixus hoc signum vitam æternam. +Amen.’<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a></p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> + +<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> +So in Duclerq’s ‘Memoires’ (‘Collect. du Panthéon’), p. 141, +we read of a case at Arras, in which the sorcerers were accused of +using such an ointment: ‘D’ung oignement que le diable leur +avoit baillé, ils oindoient une vergue de bois bien petite, et leurs +palmes et leurs mains, puis mectoient celle virguelte entre leurs +jambes, et tantost ils s’en volvient où ils voullvient estre, purdesseures +bonnes villes, bois et cams; et les portoit le diable +au lieu où ils debvoient faire leur assemblée.’</p> +</div> + +<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> +That is, of sacrificing to the Evil One, of meeting the demon +Robert Artisson, and so on; though it is quite possible that +strange unguents were made and administered to different persons, +and that Dame Alice and her companions played at being sorcerers. +Some of the so-called witches, as we shall see, encouraged the +deception on account of the influence it gave them.</p> +</div> + +<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> +Thomas Pott’s ‘Wonderful Discoverie of Witches in the +Countie of Lancashire’ (1615), reprinted by the Chetham +Society, 1845.</p> +</div> + + + + +<p class="padtop"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>244]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER II.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smlfont">WITCHCRAFT IN ENGLAND IN THE 17TH CENTURY.</span></h2> + + +<p>The accession of James I., a professed demonologist, +and an expert in all matters relating to witchcraft, +gave a great impulse to the persecution of witches in +England. ‘Poor old women and girls of tender age +were walked, swum, shaved, and tortured; the +gallows creaked and the fires blazed.’ In accordance +with the well-known economic law, that the demand +creates the supply, it was found that, in proportion +as trials and tortures increased, so did the number +of witches, until half the old hags in England supposed +themselves, or were supposed by others, to +have made compacts with the devil. Legislation +then augmented its severity, and Parliament, in compliance +with the wishes of the new King, passed an +Act by which sorcery and witchcraft were made +felony, without benefit of clergy. For some years +the country was witch-ridden, and it is appalling to +think of the hundreds of hapless, ignorant, and +innocent creatures who were cruelly done to death +under the influence of this extraordinary mania.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>245]</a></span> +A remarkable case tried at King’s Lynn in 1606 +is reported in Howell’s ‘State Trials.’ I avail myself +of the summary furnished by Mr. Inderwick.</p> + +<p>Marie, wife of Henry Smith, grocer, confessed, +under examination, that, being indignant with some +of her neighbours because they prospered in their +trade more than she did, she oftentimes cursed them; +and that once, while she was thus engaged, the devil +appeared in the form of a black man, and willed that +she should continue in her malice, envy, and hatred, +banning and cursing, and then he would see that she +was revenged upon all to whom she wished evil. +There was, of course, a compact insisted upon: that +she should renounce God, and embrace the devil and +all his works. After this he appeared frequently—once +as a mist, once as a ball of fire, and twice he +visited her in prison with a pair of horns, advising +her to make no confession, but to rely upon him.</p> + +<p>The evidence of the acts of witchcraft was as +follows:</p> + +<p>John Oakton, a sailor, having struck her boy, she +cursed him roundly, and hoped his fingers would rot +off, which took place, it was said, two years afterwards.</p> + +<p>She quarrelled with Elizabeth Hancock about a +hen, alleging that Elizabeth had stolen it. When the +said Elizabeth denied the theft, she bade her go indoors, +for she would repent it; and that same night +Elizabeth had pains all over her body, and her bed +jumped up and down for the space of an hour or +more. Elizabeth then consulted her father, and was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>246]</a></span> +taken by him to a wizard named Drake, who taught +her how to concoct a witch-cake with all the nastiest +ingredients imaginable, and to apply it, with certain +words and conjurations, to the afflicted parts. For +the time Elizabeth was cured; but some time afterwards, +when she had been married to one James +Scott, a great cat began to go about her house, and +having done some harm, Scott thrust it twice +through with his sword. As it still ran to and fro, +he smote it with all his might upon its head, but +could not kill it, for it leaped upwards almost a yard, +and then crept down. Even when put into a bag, +and dragged to the muck-hill, it moved and stirred, +and the next morning was nowhere to be found. +And this same cat, it was afterwards sworn, sat on +the chest of Cicely Balye, and nearly suffocated her, +because she had quarrelled with the witch about her +manner of sweeping before her door; and the said +witch called the said Cicely ‘a fat-tailed sow,’ and +said her fatness would shortly be abated, as, indeed, +it was.</p> + +<p>Edmund Newton swore that he had been afflicted +with various sicknesses, and had been banged in the +face with dirty cloths, because he had undersold +Marie Smith in Dutch cheeses. She also sent to him +a person clothed in russet, with a little bush beard +and a cloven foot, together with her imps, a toad, and +a crab. One of his servants took the toad and put +it into the fire, when it made a groaning noise for a +quarter of an hour before it was consumed, ‘during +which time Marie Smith, who sent it, did endure (as +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>247]</a></span> +was reported) torturing pains, testifying the grief +she felt by the outcries she then made.’</p> + +<p>Upon this evidence—such as it was—and upon her +own confession, Marie Smith was convicted and sentenced +to death. On the scaffold she humbly acknowledged +her sins, prayed earnestly that God might +forgive her the wrongs she had done her neighbours, +and asked that a hymn of her own choosing—‘Lord, +turn not away Thy face’—might be sung. Then +she died calmly. It is, no doubt, a curious fact—if, +indeed, it <em>be</em> a fact, but the evidence is by no means +satisfactory—that she confessed to various acts of +witchcraft, and to having made a compact with the +devil; but even this alleged confession cannot receive +our credence when we reflect on the inherent absurdity +and impossibility of the whole affair.</p> + + +<p class="break">In 1619, Joan Flower and her two daughters, +Margaretta and Philippa, formerly servants at Belvoir +Castle, were tried before Judges Hobart and Bromley, +on a charge of having bewitched to death two sons +of the sixth Earl of Rutland, and found guilty. The +mother died in prison; the two daughters were +executed at Lincoln.</p> + + +<h3>THE LANCASHIRE WITCHES.</h3> + +<p>My chronological survey next brings me to the +famous case of the Lancashire witches.</p> + +<p>I have already told the story of the Dundikes and +the Chattoxes, and their exploits in Pendle Forest. +In the same locality, two-and-twenty years later, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>248]</a></span> +lived a man of the name of Robinson, to whom it +occurred that the prevalent belief in witchcraft +might be turned to account against his neighbours. +In this design he made his son—a lad about eleven +years old—his instrument. After he had been +properly trained, he was instructed by his father, on +February 10, 1633, to go before two justices of the +peace, and make the following declaration:</p> + +<p>That, on All Saints’ Day, while gathering wild +plums in Wheatley Lane, he saw a black greyhound +and a brown scamper across the fields. They came +up to him familiarly, and he then discovered that +each wore a collar shining like gold. As no one +accompanied them, he concluded that they had +broken loose from their kennels; and as at that +moment a hare started up only a few paces from him, +he thought he would set them to hunt it, but his +efforts were all in vain; and in his wrath he took the +strings that hung from their collars, tied both to a +little bush, and then whipped them. Whereupon, in +the place of the black greyhound, started up the wife +of a man named Dickinson, and in that of the brown +a little boy. In his amazement, young Robinson (so +he said) would have run away, but he was stayed by +Mistress Dickinson, who pulled out of her pocket ‘a +piece of silver much like unto a fine shilling,’ and offered +it to him, if he promised to be silent. But he refused, +exclaiming: ‘Nay, thou art a witch!’ Whereupon, +she again put her hand in her pocket, and drew forth +a string like a jingling bridle, which she put over the +head of the small boy, and, behold, he was turned +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>249]</a></span> +into a white horse, with a change as quick as that of +a scene in a pantomime. Upon this white horse the +woman placed, by force, young Robinson, and rode +with him as far as the Hoar-Stones—a house at +which the witches congregated together—where +divers persons stood about the door, while others +were riding towards it on horses of different colours. +These dismounted, and, having tied up their horses, +all went into the house, accompanied by their friends, +to the number of threescore. At a blazing fire some +meat was roasting, and a young woman gave Robinson +flesh and bread upon a trencher, and drink in a +glass, which, after the first taste, he refused, and +would have no more, saying it was nought. Presently, +observing that certain of the company repaired +to an adjoining barn, he followed, and saw six +of them on their knees, pulling at six several ropes +which were fastened to the top of the house, with the +result that joints of meat smoking hot, lumps of +butter, and milk ‘syleing,’ or straining from the said +ropes, fell into basins placed underneath them. When +these six were weary, came other six, and pulled +right lustily; and all the time they were pulling they +made such foul faces that they frightened the peeping +lad, so that he was glad to steal out and run +home.</p> + +<p>No sooner was his escape discovered than a party +of the witches, including Dickinson’s wife, the wife of +a man named Loynds, and Janet Device, took up the +pursuit, and over field and scaur hurried headlong, +nearly overtaking him at a spot called Boggard Hole, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>250]</a></span> +when the opportune appearance of a couple of horsemen +induced them to abandon their quarry. But +young Robinson was not yet ‘out of the wood.’ In +the evening he was despatched by his father to bring +home the cattle, and on the way, in a field called the +Ollers, he fell in with a boy who picked a quarrel +with him, and they fought together until the blood +flowed from his ears, when, happening to look down, +he saw that his antagonist had cloven feet, and, much +affrighted, set off at full speed to execute his commission. +Perceiving a light like that of a lantern, he +hastened towards it, in the belief it was carried by a +neighbour; but on arriving at the place of its shining +he found there a woman whom he recognised as the +wife of Loynds, and immediately turned back. Falling +in again with the cloven-footed boy, he thought it +prudent to take to his heels, but not before he had +received a blow on the back which pained him sorely.</p> + +<p>In support of this extraordinary story, the elder +Robinson deposed that he had certainly sent his son +to bring in the kine; that, thinking he was away too +long, he had gone in search of him, and discovered +him in such a distracted condition that he knew +neither his father nor where he was, and so continued +for very nearly a quarter of an hour before he came +to himself.</p> + +<p>The persons implicated by the boy Robinson were +immediately arrested, and confined in Lancaster +Castle. Some of them—for he told various stories, +and in each introduced new characters—he did not +know by name, but he protested that on seeing them +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>251]</a></span> +he should recognise them, and for this purpose he +was carried about to the churches in the surrounding +district to examine the congregations. The method +adopted is thus described by Webster: ‘It came to +pass that this said boy was brought into the church +of Kildwick, a large parish church, where I (being +then curate there) was preaching in the afternoon, +and was set upon a stall (he being but about ten or +eleven years old) to look about him, which moved +some little disturbance in the congregation for awhile. +And, after prayers, I inquiring what the matter was, +the people told me it was the boy that discovered +witches, upon which I went to the house where he +was to stay all night, where I found him and two +very unlikely persons that did conduct him and +manage his business. I desired to have some discourse +with the boy in private, but they utterly +refused. Then, in the presence of a great many +people, I took the boy near me and said: “Good boy, +tell me truly, and in earnest, didst thou see and hear +such strange things of the meeting of witches as is +reported by many that thou dost relate, or did not +some person teach thee to say such things of thyself?” +But the two men, not giving the boy leave to +answer, did pluck him from me, and said he had been +examined by two able justices of the peace, and they +did never ask him such a question; to whom I replied, +the persons accused therefore had the more wrong.’</p> + +<p>In all, some eighteen women, married and single—the +charge was generally made against women, as +probably less capable of self-defence, and more +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>252]</a></span> +impressionable than men—were brought to trial at Lancaster +Assizes. There was really no evidence against +them but the boy Robinson’s, and to sustain it his +unfortunate victims were examined for the <i>stigmata</i>, +or devil-marks, which, of course, were found in ample +quantity. Against seventeen a verdict of guilty was +returned, one or two being convicted on their own +confessions—the most perplexing incident in the +whole case, for as these confessions were unquestionably +false, they who made them were really <em>lying +away their own lives</em>. By what impulse of morbid +vanity, or diseased craving for notoriety, or strange +mental delusion, were they inspired? And whence +came the wild and even foul ideas which formed the +staple of their delirious narratives? How did these +quiet, stolid, unlettered Lancashire peasant-women +become possessed of inventions worthy of the grimmest +of German tales of <i>diablerie</i>? It is easier to ask these +questions than to answer them; but when the witch +mania was once kindled in a neighbourhood it seems, +like a pestilential atmosphere, to have stricken with +disease every mind that was predisposed to the reception +of unwholesome impressions.</p> + +<p>The confession of Margaret Johnson, made on +March 9, 1613, has been printed before, but it has so +strong a psychological interest that I cannot omit it +here. It may be taken as a type of the confessions +made by the victims of credulity under similar circumstances:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>‘Betweene seven or eight yeares since, shee being in her house +at Marsden in greate passion and anger, and discontented, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>253]</a></span> +withall oppressed with some want, there appeared unto her a +spirit or devill in the similitude and proportion of a man, +apparelled in a suite of black, tied about with silke pointes, whoe +offered her, yff shee would give him her soule, hee would supply +all her wantes, and bring to her whatsoever shee wanted or +needed, and at her appointment would helpe her to kill and +revenge her either of men or beastes, or what she desired; and, +after a sollicitation or two, shee contracted and condicioned with +the said devill or spiritt for her soule. And the said devill bad +her call him by the name of Memillion, and when shee called +hee would bee ready to doe her will. And she saith that in all +her talke and conference shee called the said Memillion her god.</p> + +<p>‘And shee further saith that shee was not at the greate +meetinge of the witches at Hare-stones in the forest of Pendle +on All Saintes Day last past, but saith shee was at a second +meetinge the Sunday after All Saintes Day at the place aforesaid, +where there was at that time betweene thirty and forty witches, +which did all ride to the same meetinge. And thead of the said +meetinge was to consult for the killing and hunting of men and +beastes; and that there was one devill or spiritt that was more +greate and grand devill than the rest, and yff anie witch desired +to have such an one, they might have such an one to kill or hurt +anie body. And she further saith, that <em>such witches as have sharpe +boanes are generally for the devill to prick them with which have no +papps nor duggs, but raiseth blood from the place pricked with the +boane, which witches are more greate and grand witches than they which +have papps or dugs (!)</em>. And shee being further asked what +persons were at their last meetinge, she named one Carpnell and +his wife, Rason and his wife, Pickhamer and his wife, Duffy and +his wife, and one Jane Carbonell, whereof Pickhamer’s wife is the +most greate, grand, and anorcyent witch; and that one witch alone +can kill a beast, and yf they bid their spiritt or devill to goe and +pricke or hurt anie man in anie particular place, hee presently will +doe it. And that their spiritts have usually knowledge of their +bodies. And shee further saith the men witches have women +spiritts, and women witches have men spiritts; that Good +Friday is one of their constant daies of their generall meetinge, +and that on Good Friday last they had a meetinge neere Pendle +water-side; and saith that their spirit doeth tell them where +their meetinge must bee, and in what place; and saith that if a +witch desire to be in anie place upon a soddaine, that, on a dogg, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>254]</a></span> +or a tod, or a catt, their spiritt will presently convey them +thither, or into anie room in anie man’s house.</p> + +<p>‘But shee saith it is not the substance of their bodies that +doeth goe into anie such roomes, but their spiritts that assume +such shape and forme. And shee further saith that the devill, +after hee begins to sucke, will make a papp or a dug in a short +time, and the matter hee sucketh is blood. And further saith +that the devill can raise foule wether and stormes, and soe hee did +at their meetinges. And shee further saith that when the devill +came to suck her pappe, he came to her in the likeness of a catt, +sometimes of one collour, and sometimes of another. And since +this trouble befell her, her spirit hath left her, and shee never saw +him since.’</p> +</div> + +<p>Happily, the judge who presided at the trial of +these deluded and persecuted unfortunates was dissatisfied +with the evidence, and reprieved them until +he had time to communicate with the Privy Council, +by whose orders Bridgman, Bishop of Chester, proceeded +to examine into the principal cases. Three of +the supposed criminals, however, had died of anxiety +and suffering before the work of investigation began, +and a fourth was sick beyond recovery. The cases +into which the Bishop inquired were those of Margaret +Johnson, Frances Dicconson, or Dickinson, Mary +Spencer, and Mrs. Hargrave. Margaret Johnson the +good Bishop describes as a widow of sixty, who was +deeply penitent. ‘I will not add,’ she said, ‘sin to sin. +I have already done enough, yea, too much, and will +not increase it. I pray God I may repent.’ This +victim of hallucination had confessed herself to be a +witch, as we have seen, and was characterized by the +Bishop as ‘more often faulting in the particulars of +her actions.’ Frances Dicconson, however, and Mary +Spencer, absolutely denied the truth of the accusations +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>255]</a></span> +brought against them. Frances, according to +the boy Robinson, had changed herself into a dog; +but it transpired that she had had a quarrel with the +elder Robinson. Mary Spencer, a young woman of +twenty, said that Robinson cherished much ill-feeling +against her parents, who had been convicted of witchcraft +at the last assizes, and had since died. She +repeated the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostles’ Creed, +and declared that she defied the devil and all his +works. A story had been set afloat that she used to +call her pail to follow her as she ran. The truth was +that she often trundled it down-hill, and called to it +in jest to come after her if she outstripped it. She +could have explained every circumstance in court, +‘but the wind was so loud and the throng so great, +<em>that she could not hear the evidence against her</em>.’</p> + +<p>This last touch, as Mr. S. R. Gardiner remarks, +completes the tragedy of the situation. ‘History,’ as +he says, ‘occupies itself perforce mainly with the +sorrows of the educated classes, whose own peers +have left the records of their wrongs. Into the +sufferings of the mass of the people, except when +they have been lashed by long-continued injustice +into frenzy, it is hard to gain a glimpse. For once +the veil is lifted, and we see, as by a lightning flash, +the forlorn and unfriended girl, to whom the inhuman +laws of her country denied the services of an advocate, +baffled by the noisy babble around her in her efforts +to speak a word on behalf of her innocence. The +very Bishop who examined her was under the influence +of the legal superstition that every accused +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>256]</a></span> +person was the enemy of the King. He had heard, +he said, that the father of the boy Robinson had +offered, for forty shillings, to withdraw his charge +against Frances Dicconson, “but such evidence being, +as the lawyers speak, against the King,” he “thought +it not meet without further authority to examine.”’</p> + +<p>The Bishop, however, like the judge, was dissatisfied +with the evidence; and the accused persons +were eventually sent up to London, where they were +examined by the King’s physicians, the Bishops, the +Privy Council, and by King Charles himself. Some +medical men and midwives reported that Margaret +Johnson was deceived in her idea that she bore on +her body a sign or mark that her blood had been +sucked. Doubts as to the truth of the boy Robinson’s +story being freely entertained, he was separated from +his father, and he then revealed the whole invention +to the King’s coachman. He had heard stories told +of witches and their doings, and out of these had +concocted his ghastly fiction to save himself a whipping +for having neglected to bring home his mother’s +cows. His father, perceiving at once how much might +be made out of the tale, took it up and expanded it; +manipulated it so as to serve his feelings of revenge or +avarice, and then taught the boy how to repeat the enlarged +and improved version. It was all a lie—from +beginning to end. The day on which he pretended to +have been carried to the Witches’ Sabbath at the Hoar-Stones, +he was a mile distant, gathering plums in a +farmer’s orchard. The accused were then admitted +to the King’s presence, and assured that their lives +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>257]</a></span> +were safe. Further than this Charles seems to have +been unable to go; for as late as 1636 these innocent +and ill-treated persons were still lying in Lancaster +Castle. It is satisfactory to state, however, that both +the boy Robinson and his father were thrown into +prison.</p> + +<p>Fresh cases of witchcraft sprang up in the Pendle +district, and early in 1636 four more women were +condemned to death at the Lancaster Assizes. Bishop +Bridgman, who was again directed to make inquiries, +found that two of them had died in gaol, and that of +the two others, one had been convicted on a madman’s +evidence, and that of a woman of ill fame; +while the only proof alleged against the other was +that a fleshy excrescence of the size of a hazel-nut +grew on her right ear, and the end of it, being bloody, +was supposed to have been sucked by a familiar +spirit. The two women seem to have been pardoned; +but, as in the former case, public opinion set too +strongly against them to admit of their being released.</p> + + +<h3>THE WITCHES OF SALMESBURY.</h3> + +<p>The singular circumstances connected with the +supposed outbreak of witchcraft in Pendle Forest +have, to a great extent, obscured the strange case of +the witches of Salmesbury, though it presents several +features worthy of consideration.</p> + +<p>Three persons were accused—Jennet Bierley, Ellen +Bierley, and Jane Southworth—and their supposed +victim was one Grace Sowerbutts. In the language +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>258]</a></span> +of Mr. Thomas Potts, they were led into error by +‘a subtle practice and conspiracy of a seminary priest, +or Jesuit, whereof this county of Lancaster hath good +store, who by reason of the general entertainment +they find, and great maintenance they have, resort +hither, being far from the eye of Justice, and, therefore, +<i>procul a fulmine</i>.’ At their trial, which took +place before Mr. Justice Bromley at Lancaster, on +Wednesday, August 19, the evidence of Grace Sowerbutts +was to the following effect:</p> + +<p>That for the space of <em>some years past</em> (at the time +of the trial she was only fourteen) she had been +haunted and vexed by four women, namely, Jennet +Bierley, her grandmother, Ellen Bierley, wife to +Henry Bierley, Jane Southworth, and a certain Old +Dorwife. Lately, these four women drew her by the +hair of her head, and laid her on the top of a hay-mow +in the said Henry Bierley’s barn. Not long +after, Jennet Bierley met her near her house, first +appearing in her own likeness, and after that as a +black dog, and when she, Grace Sowerbutts, went +over a stile, she picked her off. However, she was +not hurt, and, springing to her feet, she continued +her way to her aunt’s at Osbaldeston. That evening +she told her father what had occurred. On Saturday, +April 4, going towards Salmesbury Butt to meet her +mother, she fell in, at a place called the Two Briggs, +with Jennet Bierley, first in her own shape, and afterwards +in the likeness of a two-legged black dog; and +this dog kept close by her side until they came to a +pool of water, when it spake, and endeavoured to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>259]</a></span> +persuade her to drown herself therein, saying it +was a fair and an easy death. Whereupon, she +thought there came to her one in a white sheet, and +carried her away from the pool, and in a short space +of time both the white thing and the black dog departed; +but after Grace had crossed two or three +fields, the black dog re-appeared, and conveyed her +into Hugh Walshman’s barn close at hand, laid her +upon the floor, covered her with straw on her body +and hay on her head, and lay down on the top of the +straw—for how long a time Grace was unable to +determine; because, she said, her speech and senses +were taken from her. When she recovered her consciousness, +she was lying on a bed in Walshman’s +house, having been removed thither by some friends +who had found her in the barn within a few hours of +her having been taken there. As it was Monday +night when she came to her senses, she had been in +her trance or swoon, according to her marvellous +story, for about forty-eight hours.</p> + +<p>On the following day, Tuesday, her parents fetched +her home; but at the Two Briggs Jennet and Ellen +Bierley appeared in their own shapes, and she fell +down in another trance, remaining unable to speak or +walk until the following Friday.</p> + +<p>All this was remarkable enough, but Grace Sowerbutts—or +the person who had tutored her—felt it was +not sufficiently grim or gruesome to make much +impression on a Lancashire jury, accustomed in witch +trials to much more harrowing details. She proceeded, +therefore, to recall an incident of a more +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>260]</a></span> +attractive character. A good while, she said, before the +trance business occurred, she accompanied her aunt, +Ellen Bierley, and her grandmother, Jennet Bierley, to +the house of one Thomas Walshman. It was night, +and all the household were asleep, but the doors flew +open, and the unexpected visitors entered. Grace +and Ellen Bierley remained below, while Jennet +made her way to the sleeping-room of Thomas +Walshman and his wife, and thence brought a little +child, which, as Grace supposed, must have been in +bed with its father and mother. Having thrust a +nail into its navel, she afterwards inserted a quill, +and sucked for a good while(!); then replaced the +child with its parents, who, of course, had never +roused from their sleep. The child did not cry when +it was thus abused, but thenceforth languished, and +soon afterwards died. And on the night after its +burial, the said Jennet and Ellen Bierley, taking +Grace Sowerbutts with them, went to Salmesbury +churchyard, took up the body, and carried it to +Jennet’s house, where a portion of it was boiled in a +pot, and a portion broiled on the coals. Of both +portions Jennet and Ellen partook, and would have +had Grace join them in the ghoul-like repast, but she +refused. Afterwards Jennet and Ellen seethed the +bones in a pot, and with the fat that came from them +said they would anoint their bodies, so that they +might sometimes change themselves into other +shapes.</p> + +<p>The next story told by this abandoned girl is too +foul and coarse for these pages, and we pass on to the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>261]</a></span> +conclusion of her evidence. On a certain occasion, +she said, Jane Southworth, a widow, met her at the +door of her father’s house, carried her to the loft, and +laid her upon the floor, where she was found by +her father unconscious, and unconscious she remained +till the next day. The widow Southworth then +visited her again, took her out of bed, and placed her +upon the top of a hayrick, three or four yards from +the ground. She was discovered in this position by +a neighbour’s wife, and laid in her bed again, but +remained speechless and senseless as before for two or +three days. A week or so after her recovery, Jane +Southworth paid her a third visit, took her away +from her home, and laid her in a ditch near the house, +with her face downwards. The usual process +followed: she was discovered and put to bed, but +continued unconscious—this time, however, only for +a day and a night. And, further, on the Tuesday +before the trial, the said Jane Southworth came again +to her father’s house, took her and carried her into +the barn, and thrust her head amongst ‘a company of +boards’ which were standing there, where she was +soon afterwards found, and, being again placed in a +bed, remained in her old fit until the Thursday night +following.</p> + +<p>After Grace Sowerbutts had finished her evidence, +Thomas Walshman was called, who proved that his +child died when about a year old, but of what disease +he knew not; and that Grace Sowerbutts had been +found in his father’s barn, and afterwards carried into +his house, where she lay till the Monday night ‘as if +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>262]</a></span> +she had been dead.’ Then one John Singleton’s +deposition was taken: That he had often heard his +old master, Sir John Southworth, say, touching the +widow Southworth, that she was, as he thought, an +evil woman and a witch, and that he was sorry for +her husband, who was his kinsman, for he believed +she would kill him. And that the said Sir John, in +coming or going between Preston and his own house +at Salmesbury, mostly avoided passing the old wife’s +residence, though it was the nearest way, entirely +<em>out of fear of the said wife</em>. (Brave Sir John!)</p> + +<p>This evidence, it is clear, failed to prove against +the prisoners a single direct act of witchcraft; but so +credulous were judge and jury in matters of this +kind, that, notwithstanding the vague and suspicious +character of the testimony brought forward, it would +have gone hard with the accused, but for an accidental +question which disclosed the fact that the girl, +Grace Sowerbutts, had been prompted in her incoherent +narrative, and taught to sham her fits of +unconsciousness, by a Roman priest or Jesuit, named +Thompson or Southworth, who was actuated by +motives of fanaticism.</p> + +<p>‘How well this project,’ exclaims the indignant +Potts, ‘to take away the lives of these innocent poor +creatures by practice and villainy, to induce a young +scholar to commit perjury, to accuse her own grandmother, +aunt, etc., agrees either with the title of a +Jesuit or the duty of a religious Priest, who should +rather profess sincerity and innocency than practise +treachery. But this was lawful, for they are heretics +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>263]</a></span> +accursed, to leave the company of priests, to frequent +churches, hear the word of God preached, and profess +religion sincerely.’ The horrors which he taught +his promising pupil, Thompson probably gathered +from the pages of Bodin and Delrio, or some of the +other demonologists. Potts continues:</p> + +<p>‘Who did not condemn these women upon this +evidence, and hold them guilty of this so foul and +horrible murder? But Almighty God, who in His +providence had provided means for their deliverance, +although the priest, by the help of the Devil, had +provided false witnesses to accuse them; yet God +had prepared and placed in the seat of justice an +upright judge to sit in judgment upon their lives, +who after he had heard all the evidence at large +against the prisoners for the King’s Majesty, demanded +of them what answer they could make. They humbly +upon their knees, with weeping tears, desired him +for God’s cause to examine Grace Sowerbutts, who +set her on, or by whose means this accusation came +against them.’</p> + +<p>The countenance of Grace Sowerbutts immediately +underwent a great change, and the witnesses began +to quarrel and accuse one another. The judge put +some questions to the girl, who, for the life of her, +could make no direct or intelligible answer, saying, +with obvious hesitation, that she was put to a master +to learn, but he had told her nothing of this.</p> + +<p>‘But here,’ continues Potts, ‘as his lordship’s care +and pains was great to discover the practices of those +odious witches of the Forest of Pendle, and other +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>264]</a></span> +places, now upon their tribunal before him; so was +he desirous to discover this damnable practice to +accuse these poor women and bring their lives in +danger, and thereby to deliver the innocent.</p> + +<p>‘And as he openly delivered it upon the bench, in +the hearing of a great audience: That if a Priest or +Jesuit had a hand in one end of it, there would +appear to be knavery and practice in the other end +of it. And that it might better appear to the whole +world, examined Thomas Sowerbutts what [the] +Master taught his daughter: in general terms, he +denied all.</p> + +<p>‘The wench had nothing to say, but her Master +told her nothing of this. In the end, some that were +present told his lordship the truth, and the prisoners +informed him how she went to learn with one +Thompson, a Seminary Priest, who had instructed +and taught her this accusation against them, because +they were once obstinate Papists, and now came to +Church. Here is the discovery of this Priest, and of +his whole practice. Still this fire increased more and +more, and one witness accusing another, all things +were laid open at large.</p> + +<p>‘In the end his lordship took away the girl from +her father, and committed her to Mr. Leigh, a very +religious preacher, and Mr. Chisnal, two Justices of +the Peace, to be carefully examined.’</p> + +<p>The examination was as follows:</p> + +<p>‘Being demanded whether the accusation she laid +upon her grandmother, Jennet Bierley, Ellen Bierley, +and Jane Southworth, of witchcraft, namely, of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>265]</a></span> +killing of the child of Thomas Walshman with a nail +in the navel, the boiling, eating, and oiling, thereby +to transform themselves into divers shapes, was true; +she doth utterly deny the same: or that ever she saw +any such practices done by them.</p> + +<p>‘She further saith, that one Master Thompson, +which she taketh to be Master Christopher Southworth, +to whom she was sent to learn her prayers, +did persuade, counsel, and advise her, to deal as +formerly hath been said against her said Grandmother, +Aunt, and Southworth’s wife.</p> + +<p>‘And further she confesseth and saith, that she +never did know, or saw any Devils, nor any other +Visions, as formerly by her hath been alleged and +informed.</p> + +<p>‘Also she confesseth and saith, that she was not +thrown or cast upon the hen-ruff and hay-mow in +the barn, but that she went up upon the Mow herself +by the wall-side.</p> + +<p>‘Being further demanded whether she ever was at +the Church, she saith, she was not, but promised hereafter +to go to the Church, and that very willingly.’</p> + +<p>The three accused were also examined, and declared +their belief that Grace Sowerbutts had been trained +by the priest to accuse them of witchcraft, because +they ‘would not be dissuaded from the Church.’</p> + +<p>‘These examinations being taken, they were brought +into the Court, and there openly in the presence of +this great audience published and declared to the +jury of life and death; and thereupon the gentlemen +of their jury required to consider of them. For +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>266]</a></span> +although they stood upon their Trial, for matter of +fact of witchcraft, murther, and much more of the +like nature: yet in respect all their accusations did +appear to be practice, they were now to consider of +them and to acquit them. Thus were these poor +innocent creatures, by the great care and pains of this +honourable Judge, delivered from the danger of this +conspiracy; this bloody practice of the Priest laid +open: of whose fact I may lawfully say, <i>Etiam si ego +tacuero clamabunt lapides</i>.</p> + +<p>‘These are but ordinary with Priests and Jesuits: +no respect of blood, kindred, or friendship can move +them to forbear their conspiracies; for when he had +laboured treacherously to seduce and convert them, +and yet could do no good, then devised he this +means.</p> + +<p>‘God of His great mercy deliver us all from them +and their damnable conspiracies: and when any of his +Majesty’s subjects, so free and innocent as these, shall +come in question, grant them as honourable a trial, +as reverend and worthy a judge to sit in judgment +upon them, and in the end as speedy a deliverance.</p> + +<p>‘And for that which I have heard of them, seen with +my eyes, and taken pains to read of them, my humble +prayer shall be to God Almighty, <i>Vt convertantur +ne pereant. Aut confundantur ne noceant.</i>’<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></p> + + +<p class="break">I pass on to a remarkable trial for witchcraft which +took place at Taunton Assizes in August, 1626, one +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>267]</a></span> +Edward Ball and Joan Greedie being charged with +having practised upon a certain Edward Dinham.</p> + +<p>It seems that the complainant, when under the +witch-spell, possessed no fewer than three voices—namely, +his own natural voice, and two artificial +voices, of which one was shrill and pleasant, the +other deadly and hollow. These two voices belonged +respectively to the good and evil spirits which +alternately prevailed over him. As it is said that +they spoke without any movement of the lips or +tongue, it is probable the man was a natural ventriloquist, +and made use of his gift to imperil the lives of +Ball and Greedie, against whom he may have entertained +a hostile feeling. He gave the following +specimen of the conversation which took place +between him and his spirits:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><span class="smcap">Good Spirit.</span> How comes this man to be thus tormented?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bad Spirit.</span> He is bewitched.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Good.</span> Who hath done it?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bad.</span> That I may not tell.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Good.</span> Aske him agayne.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dinham.</span> Come, come, prithee, tell me who hath bewitched me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bad.</span> A woman in greene cloathes and a black hatt, with a +large poll; and a man in a gray suite, with blue stockings.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Good.</span> But where are they?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bad.</span> She is at her house, and hee is at a taverne in Yeohall +[Youghal] in Ireland.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Good.</span> But what are their names?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bad.</span> Nay, that I will not tell.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Good.</span> Then tell half of their names.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bad.</span> The one is Johan, and the other Edward.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Good.</span> Nowe tell me the other half.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bad.</span> That I may not.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Good.</span> Aske him agayne.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dinham.</span> Come, come, prithee, tell me the other half.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bad.</span> The one is Greedie, and the other Ball.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>268]</a></span> +This information having been obtained, a messenger +is sent to a certain house, where the unfortunate Joan +is straightway arrested. The conversation, if this +absurd rigmarole can be so called, was afterwards +resumed, the man conveniently going into one of his +‘fits’ for the purpose:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><span class="smcap">Good.</span> But are these witches?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bad.</span> Yes; that they are.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Good.</span> Howe came they to bee soe?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bad.</span> By discent.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Good.</span> But howe by discent?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bad.</span> From the grandmother to the mother, and from the +mother to the children.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Good.</span> But howe aree they soe?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bad.</span> They aree bound to us, and wee to them.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Good.</span> Lett mee see the bond.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bad.</span> Thou shalt not.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Good.</span> Lett mee see it, and if I like I will seale alsoe.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bad.</span> Thou shalt, if thou wilt not reveale the contentes +thereof.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Good.</span> I will not.</p> +</div> + +<p>As usual, the Good Spirit gets its way, and the +bond is produced, drawing from the Good Spirit an +exclamation of anguish: ‘Alas! oh, pittifull, pittifull, +pittifull! What? eight seales, bloody seales—four +dead, and four alive? Ah, miserable!’</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><span class="smcap">Dinham.</span> Come, come, prithee, tell me, Why did they bewitch +me?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bad.</span> Because thou didst call Johane Greedie witche.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dinham.</span> Why, is shee not a witche?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bad.</span> Yes; but thou shouldest not have said soe.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Good.</span> But why did Ball bewitche him?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bad.</span> Because Greedie was not stronge enough.</p> +</div> + +<p>A messenger is now sent after Ball; but on reaching +his hiding-place, he finds that the poor man has +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>269]</a></span> +just escaped, and he meets with people who had seen +his flight. Dinham and his voices then join in a +discourse, from which it appears that before they +bewitched Dinham they had been guilty of various +‘evil practices,’ and had compassed the death of, at +least, one of their victims. Six days afterwards +Dinham has another ‘fit,’ and a second unsuccessful +effort is made to track and arrest Ball. Disgusted +with this failure, the Good Spirit strenuously opposes +the Evil Spirit in his resolve to secure Dinham’s +soul:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><span class="smcap">Bad.</span> I will have him, or else I will torment him eight tymes +more.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Good.</span> Thou shalt not have thy will in all thinges; thou shalt +torment him but four times more.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bad.</span> I will have thy soule.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Good.</span> If thou wilt answer me three questions, I will seale and +goe with thee.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bad.</span> I will.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Good.</span> Who made the world?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bad.</span> God.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Good.</span> Who created mankynde?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bad.</span> God.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Good.</span> Wherefore was Christ Jesus His precious blood shed?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bad.</span> I’le no more of that.</p> +</div> + +<p>Here the patient was seized with the most violent +convulsions, foaming at the mouth, and struggling +with clenched hands and contorted limbs.</p> + +<p>Another fit came off a few days afterwards, and in +this Dinham was exposed to a double temptation:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><span class="smcap">Bad.</span> If thou wilt give me thy soule, I will give thee gold +enough.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Good.</span> Thy gold will scald my fingers.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>270]</a></span> +<span class="smcap">Bad.</span> If thou wilt give me thy soule, I will give thee dice, and +thou shalt winne infinite somes of treasure by play.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Good.</span> If thou canst make every letter in this booke [a Prayer-book +which Dinham held in his hand] a die, I will.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bad.</span> That I cannott.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Good.</span> Laudes, laudes, laudes!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bad.</span> Thou shalt have <em>ladies</em> enough—ladies, ladies, ladies!...</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Good.</span> If thou canst make every letter in this book a ladie, I will.</p> +</div> + +<p>Here the Bad Spirit made an attempt to cast away +the book, but, after a violent struggle, was defeated; +and then the Good Spirit celebrated his victory in +‘the sweetest musicke that ever was heard.’ Eventually +Ball was captured, and Dinham then declared +that his ‘two voices’ ceased to trouble him. Greedie +and Ball were both committed for trial, but no record +exists of their execution, and we may hope that they +were acquitted of charges supported by such absurd +and fallacious evidence.</p> + + +<p class="break">Edward Fairfax, a man of ability and culture—the +refined and melodious translator of Tasso’s Christian +epic—prosecuted six of his neighbours at York +Assizes, in 1622, for practising witchcraft on his +children. The grand jury found a true bill against +them, and the accused were brought to trial. But +the judge, who had been privately furnished with a +certificate of their ‘sober behaviour,’ contrived so to +influence the jury as to obtain a verdict of acquittal. +The poet afterwards published an elaborate defence +of his conduct. His folly may be excused, perhaps, +since even such men as Raleigh and Bacon +inclined towards a belief in witchcraft; and the +judicious Evelyn makes it one of his principal +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>271]</a></span> +complaints against solitude that it created witches. +Hobbes, in his ‘Leviathan,’ takes, however, a more +enlightened view: ‘As for witches,’ he says, ‘I +think not that their witchcraft is any real power; but +yet that they are justly punished for the false belief +they have that they can do such mischief, joined +with their purpose to do it if they can.’</p> + + +<p class="break">Even the stir and tumult of the Civil War did not +suspend the persecuting activity of a degraded superstition. +In 1644 eight witches of Manningtree, in +Essex, were accused of holding witches’ meetings +every Friday night; were searched for teats and +devils’ marks, convicted, and, with twenty-nine of +their fellows, hung. In the following year there +were more hangings in Essex; and in Norfolk a +score of witches suffered. In 1650 a woman was +hung at the Old Bailey as a witch. ‘She was found +to have under her armpits those marks by which +witches are discovered to entertain their familiars.’ +In April, 1652, Jean Peterson, the witch of Wapping, +was hung at Tyburn; and in July of the same year +six witches perished at Maidstone.</p> + +<p>In 1653 Alice Bodenham, a domestic servant, was +tried at Salisbury before Chief Justice Wilde, and +convicted. It is not certain, however, that she was +executed.</p> + +<p>In 1658 Jane Brooks was executed for practising +witchcraft on a boy of twelve, named Henry James, +at Chard, in Somersetshire; in 1663 Julian Cox, at +Taunton, for a similar offence.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTE</h4> + +<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> +Potts, ‘Wonderful Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of +Lancaster’ (1613).</p> +</div> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>272]</a></span></p> + +<h3>THE WITCH-FINDER: MATTHEW HOPKINS.</h3> + +<p>The severe legislation against witchcraft had thus +the effect—which invariably attends legislation when +it becomes unduly repressive—of increasing the +offence it had been designed to exterminate. It was +attended, also, by another result, which is equally +common—bringing to the front a number of informers +who, at the cost of many innocent lives, turned it to +their personal advantage. Of these witch-finders, the +most notorious was Matthew Hopkins, of Manningtree, +in Essex. When he first started his infamous +trade, I cannot ascertain, but his success would seem +to have been immediate. His earliest victims he +found in his own neighbourhood. But, as his reputation +grew, he extended his operations over the whole +of Essex; and in a very short time, if any case of +supposed witchcraft occurred, the neighbours sent for +Matthew Hopkins as an acknowledged expert, whose +skill would infallibly detect the guilty person.</p> + +<p>His first appearance at the assizes was in the spring +of 1645, when he accused an unfortunate old woman, +named Elizabeth Clarke. To collect evidence against +her, he watched her by night in a room in a +Mr. Edwards’s house, in which she was illegally +detained. At her trial he had the audacity to affirm +that, on the third night of his watching, after he had +refused her the society of one of her imps, she confessed +to him that, some six or seven years before, she +had given herself over to the devil, who visited her in +the form of ‘a proper gentleman, with a hazel beard.’ +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>273]</a></span> +Soon after this, he said, a little dog came in—fat, +short-legged, and with sandy spots besprinkled on the +white ground-colour of its tub-like body. When he +prevented it from approaching the woman—who +declared it was Jacmara, one of her imps—it straightway +vanished. Next came a greyhound, which she +called Vinegar Tom; and next a polecat. Improving +in fluent and fertile mendacity, Hopkins went on to +assert that, on returning home that night, about ten +of the clock, accompanied by his own greyhound, he +saw his dog give a leap and a bound, and hark +away as if hunting a hare; and on following him, he +espied a little white animal, about the size of a +kitten, and observed that his greyhound stood aloof +from it in fright; and by-and-by this imp or kitten +danced about the dog, and, as he supposed, bit a piece +from its shoulder, for the greyhound came to him +shrieking and crying, and bleeding from a great +wound. Hopkins further stated that, going into his +yard that same night, he saw a Black Thing, shaped +like a cat, but thrice as big, sitting in a strawberry-bed, +with its eyes fixed upon him. When he approached +it, the Thing leaped over the pale towards him, as +he thought, but, on the contrary, ran quite through +the yard, with his greyhound after it, to a great gate, +which was underset ‘with a pair of tumbril strings,’ +threw it wide open, and then vanished, while his dog +returned to him, shaking and trembling exceedingly.</p> + +<p>In these unholy vigils of his, Hopkins was accompanied +by one ‘John Sterne, of Manningtree, gentleman,’ +who, as a matter of course, confirmed all his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>274]</a></span> +statements, and added the interesting detail that the +third imp was called Sack-and-Sugar. The two +wretches forced their way into the house of another +woman, named Rebecca West, from whom they +extracted a confession that the first time she saw the +devil, he came to her at night, told her he must be +her husband, and finally married her! The cruel +tortures to which these and so many other unhappy +females were exposed must undoubtedly have told on +their nervous systems, producing a condition of +hysteria, and filling their minds with hallucinations, +which, perhaps, may partly have been suggested by the +‘leading questions’ of the witch-finders themselves. +It is to be observed that their confessions wore a +striking similarity, and that all the names mentioned of +the so-called imps or familiars were of a ludicrous +character, such as Prick-ear, Frog, Robin, and +Sparrow. Then the excitement caused by these trials +so wrought on the public mind that witnesses were +easily found to testify—apparently in good faith—to +the evil things done by the accused, and even to +swear that they had seen their familiars. Thus one +man declared that, passing at daybreak by the house +of a certain Anne West, he was surprised to find her +door open. Looking in, he descried three or four +Things, like black rabbits, one of which ran after him. +He seized and tried to kill him, but in his hands the +Thing seemed a mere piece of wool, which extended +lengthwise without any apparent injury. Full speed +he made for a neighbouring spring, in which he tried +to drown him, but as soon as he put the Thing in the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>275]</a></span> +water, he vanished from his sight. Returning to the +house, he saw Anne West standing at the door ‘in +her smock,’ and asked her why she sent her imp +to trouble him, but received no answer.</p> + +<p>His experiments having proved successful, Hopkins +took up witch-finding as a vocation, one which provided +him with the means of a comfortable livelihood, +while it gratified his ambition by making him the +terror of many and the admiration of more, investing +him with just that kind of power which is delightful +to a narrow and commonplace mind. Assuming the +title of ‘Witch-finder-General,’ and taking with him +John Sterne, and a woman, whose business it was +to examine accused females for the devil’s marks, +he travelled through the counties of Essex, Norfolk, +Huntingdon, and Sussex.</p> + +<p>He was at Bury, in Suffolk, in August, 1645, and +there, on the 27th, no fewer than eighteen witches +were executed at once through his instrumentality. +A hundred and twenty more were to have been tried, +but the approach of the royal troops led to the +adjournment of the Assize. In one year this wholesale +murderer caused the death of sixty poor creatures. +The ‘test’ he generally adopted was that of ‘swimming,’ +which James I. recommends with much +unction in his ‘Demonologie.’ The hands and feet of +the accused were tied together crosswise, the thumb of +the right hand to the big toe of the left foot, and <i>vice +versâ</i>. She was then wrapped up in a large sheet or +blanket, and laid upon her back in a pond or river. +If she sank, she was innocent, but established her +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>276]</a></span> +innocence at the cost of her life; if she floated, which +was generally the case, as her clothes afforded a +temporary support, she was pronounced guilty, and +hanged with all possible expedition.</p> + +<p>Another ‘test’ was the repetition of the Lord’s +Prayer, which, it was believed, no witch could +accomplish. Woe to the unfortunate creature who, +in her nervousness, faltered over a syllable or stumbled +at a word! Again she was forced into some awkward +and painful attitude, bound with cords, and kept foodless +and sleepless for four-and-twenty hours. Or she +was walked continuously up and down a room, an +attendant holding each arm, until she dropped with +fatigue. Sometimes she was weighed against the +church Bible, obtaining her deliverance if she proved +to be heavier. But this last-named test was too +lenient for the Witch-finder-General, who preferred +the swimming ordeal.</p> + +<p>One of his victims at Bury was a venerable clergyman, +named Lowes, who had been Vicar of Brandeston, +near Framlingham, for fifty years. ‘After he was +found with the marks,’ says Sterne, ‘in his confession’—when +made, to whom, or under what circumstances, +we are not informed—‘he confessed that +in pride of heart to be equal, or rather above God, +the devil took advantage of him, and he covenanted +with the devil, and sealed it with his blood, and had +those familiars or spirits which sucked on the marks +found on his body, and did much harm both by sea +and land, especially by sea; for he confessed that he, +being at Lungar Fort [Landguard Fort], in Suffolk, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>277]</a></span> +where he preached, as he walked upon the wall or +works there, he saw a great sail of ships pass by, and +that, as they were sailing by, one of his three imps, +namely, his yellow one, forthwith appeared to him, +and asked him what he should do, and he bade him go +and sink such a ship, and showed his imp a new ship +among the middle of the rest (as I remember), one +that belonged to Ipswich; so he confessed the imp +went forthwith away, and he stood still and viewed +the ships on the sea as they were a-sailing, and perceived +that ship immediately to be in more trouble +and danger than the rest; for he said the water was +more boisterous near that than the rest, tumbling up +and down with waves, as if water had been boiled in +a pot, and soon after (he said), in a short time, it +sunk directly down into the sea as he stood and +viewed it, when all the rest sailed down in safety; +then he confessed he made fourteen widows in one +quarter of an hour. Then Mr. Hopkins, as he told +me (for he took his confession), asked him if it did +not grieve him to see so many men cast away in a +short time, and that he should be the cause of so +many poor widows on a sudden; but he swore by +his Maker he was joyful to see what power his imps +had: and so likewise confessed many other mischiefs, +and had a charm to keep him out of the jail and +hanging, as he paraphrased it himself; but therein +the devil deceived him, for he was hanged that Michaelmas +time, 1645, at Bury St. Edmunds.’ Poor old +man! This so-called confession has a very dubious +air about it, and reads as if it had been invented by +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>278]</a></span> +Matthew Hopkins, who, as Sterne naïvely acknowledges, +‘took the confessions,’ apparently without +any witness or reporter being present.</p> + +<p>The Witch-finder-General, when on his expeditions +of inquiry, assumed the style of a man of +fortune. He put up always at the best inns, and +lived in the most luxurious fashion, which he could +well afford to do, as, when invited to visit a town, +he insisted on payment of his expenses for board and +lodging, and a fee of twenty shillings. This sum he +claimed under any circumstances; but if he succeeded +in detecting any witches, he demanded another fee of +twenty shillings for each one brought to execution. +Generally his pretensions were admitted without +demur; but occasionally he encountered a sturdy +opponent, like the Rev. Mr. Gaul, of Great Staughton, +in Huntingdonshire, who attacked him in a briskly-written +pamphlet as an intolerable nuisance. Hopkins +replied by an angry letter to one of the magistrates +of the town, in which he said: ‘I am to come to +Kimbolton this week, and it shall be ten to one but I +will come to your town first; but I would certainly +know afore whether your town affords many sticklers +for such cattle [<i>i.e.</i> witches], or [is] willing to give +and afford us good welcome and entertainment, as +other where I have been, else I shall waive your +shire (not as yet beginning in any part of it myself), +and betake me to such places where I do and may +persist without control, but with thanks and recompense.’</p> + +<p>Neither Mr. Gaul nor the magistrates of Great +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>279]</a></span> +Staughton showed any anxiety in regard to the witch-finder’s +threat. On the contrary, Mr. Gaul returned to +the charge in a second pamphlet, entitled ‘Select Cases +of Conscience touching Witches and Witchcraft,’ in +which, while admitting the existence of witches—for +he was not above the superstition of his age and +country—he vigorously attacked Hopkins for accusing +persons on insufficient evidence, and denounced +the atrocious cruelties of which he and his associates +were guilty. I have no doubt that this manly +language helped to bring about a wholesome change +of public opinion. In the eastern counties so bitter a +feeling of resentment arose, that Hopkins found it +advisable to seek fresh woods and pastures new. In +the spring of 1647 he was at Worcester, where four unfortunates +were condemned on the evidence of himself +and his associates. But the indignation against him +deepened and extended, and he hastily returned to +his native town, trembling for his wretched life. +There he printed a defence of his conduct, under the +title of ‘The Discovery of Witches, in answer to +several queries lately delivered to the Judge of Assize +for the county of Norfolk; published by Matthew +Hopkins, witch-finder, for the benefit of the whole +kingdom.’ His death occurred shortly afterwards. +According to Sterne, he died the death of a righteous +man, having ‘no trouble of conscience for what he +had done, as was falsely reported for him.’ But the +more generally accepted account is an instance of +‘poetical justice’—of Nemesis satisfied—which I +heartily hope is authentic. It is said that he was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>280]</a></span> +surrounded by a mob in a Suffolk village, and accused +of being himself a wizard, and of having, by his +tricks of sorcery, cheated the devil out of a memorandum-book, +in which were entered the names of all the +witches in England. ‘Thus,’ cried the populace, +‘you find out witches, not by God’s name, but by +the devil’s.’ He denied the charge; but his accusers +determined that he should be subjected to his +favourite test. He was stripped; his thumbs and toes +were tied together; he was wrapped in a blanket, and +cast into a pond. Whether he was drowned, or +whether he floated, was taken up, tried, sentenced, +and executed, authorities do not agree; but they +agree that he never more disturbed the peace of the +realm as a witch-finder.</p> + +<p>Butler has found a niche for this knave, among +other knaves, in his ‘Hudibras’:</p> + +<div class="cpoem2"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘Hath not this present Parliament<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A lieger to the Devil sent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fully empowered to set about<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Finding revolted witches out?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And has he not within a year<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hanged threescore of them in one shire?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some only for not being drowned,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And some for sitting above ground<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whole days and nights upon their breeches,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, feeling pain, were hanged for witches ...<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who proved himself at length a witch,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And made a rod for his own breech’—<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>the engineer hoist with his own petard—happily a by +no means infrequent mode of retribution.</p> + +<p>Sterne, the witch-finder’s colleague, not unnaturally +shared in the public disfavour, and in defence of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>281]</a></span> +himself and his deceased partner gave to the world a +‘Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft,’ in which +he acknowledges to have been concerned in the detection +and condemnation of some 200 witches in the +counties of Essex, Suffolk, Northampton, Huntingdon, +Bedford, Norfolk and Cambridge, and the Isle of Ely. +He adds that ‘in many places I never received penny +as yet, nor any like, notwithstanding I have bonds +for satisfaction, except I should sin; but many rather +fall upon me for what hath been received, but I hope +such suits will be disannulled, and that when I have +been out of moneys for towns in charges and otherwise, +such course will be taken that I may be satisfied and +paid with reason.’ One can hardly admire sufficiently +the brazen effrontery of this appeal!</p> + + +<p class="break">The number of persons imprisoned on suspicion of +witchcraft grew so large as to excite the alarm of the +Government, who issued stringent orders to the +country magistrates to commit for trial persons +brought before them on this charge, and forbade +them to exercise summary jurisdiction. Eventually +a commission was given to the Earl of Warwick, and +others, to hold a gaol-delivery at Chelmsford. Lord +Warwick, who had done good service to the State as +Lord High Admiral, was sagacious and fair-minded. +But with him went Dr. Edmund Calamy, the eminent +Puritan divine, to see that no injustice was done to +the parties accused. This proved an unfortunate +choice; for Calamy, who, in his sermon before the +judges, had enlarged on the enormity of the sin of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>282]</a></span> +witchcraft, sat on the bench with them, and unhappily +influenced their deliberations in the direction of +severity. As a result, sixteen persons were hanged +at Yarmouth, fifteen at Chelmsford, besides some +sixty at various places in Suffolk.</p> + + +<p class="break">Whitlocke, in his ‘Memorials,’ speaks of many +‘witches’ as having been put upon their trial at +Newcastle, through the agency of a man whom he +calls ‘the Witch-finder.’ Another of the imitators of +Hopkins, a Mr. Shaw, parson of Rusock, came to +condign humiliation (1660). Having instigated some +bucolic barbarians to put an old woman, named Joan +Bibb, to the water-ordeal, she swam right vigorously +in the pool, and struggled with her assailants so +strenuously that she effected her escape. Afterwards +she brought an action against the parson for instigating +the outrage, and obtained £20 damages.</p> + + +<p class="break">In 1664, Elizabeth Styles, of Bayford, Somersetshire, +was convicted and sentenced to death, but +died in prison before the day fixed for her execution. +It is said that she made a voluntary confession—without +inducement or torture—in the presence of +the magistrates and several divines—another case +(if it be true) of the morbid self-delusion which in +times of popular excitement makes so many victims.</p> + + +<p class="break">One feels the necessity of speaking with some +degree of moderation respecting the credulity of the +ignorant and uneducated classes, when one finds so +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>283]</a></span> +sound a lawyer and so admirable a Christian as Sir +Matthew Hale infected by the mania. No other blot, +I suppose, is to be found on his fame and character; +and that he should have incurred this indelible stain, +and fallen into so pitiable an error, is a problem by +no means easy of solution.</p> + +<p>At the Lent Assize, in 1664, at Bury St. Edmunds, +two aged women, named Rose Cullender and Amy +Duny were brought before him on a charge of having +bewitched seven persons. The nature of the evidence +on which it was founded the reader will appreciate +from the following examples:</p> + +<p>Samuel Pacey, of Lowestoft, a man of good repute +for sobriety and other homely virtues, having been +sworn, said: That on Thursday, October 10 last, his +younger daughter Deborah, about nine years old, fell +suddenly so lame that she could not stand on her +feet, and so continued till the 17th, when she asked +to be carried to a bank which overlooked the sea, and +while she was sitting there, Amy Duny came to the +witness’s house to buy some herrings, but was denied. +Twice more she called, but being always denied, went +away grumbling and discontented. At this instant +of time the child was seized with terrible fits; complained +of a pain in her stomach, as if she were being +pricked with pins, shrieking out ‘with a voice like a +whelp,’ and thus continuing until the 30th. This +witness added that Amy Duny, being known as a +witch, and his child having, in the intervals of her +fits, constantly exclaimed against her as the cause of +her sufferings, saying that the said Amy did appear +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>284]</a></span> +to her and frighten her, he began to suspect the said +Amy, and accused her in plain terms of injuring his +child, and got her ‘set in the stocks.’ Two days +afterwards, his daughter Elizabeth was seized with +similar fits; and both she and her sister complained +that they were tormented by various persons in the +town of bad character, but more particularly by +Amy Duny, and by another reputed witch, Rose +Cullender.</p> + +<p>Another witness deposed that she had heard the +two children cry out against these persons, who, they +said, threatened to increase their torments tenfold if +they told tales of them. ‘At some times the children +would see Things run up and down the house in the +appearance of mice; and one of them suddenly +snapped one with the tongs, and threw it in 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 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 reach +her, the child fell into her swooning fit, and, at last, +with much pain and straining, vomited up a twopenny +nail with a broad head; and after that the child had +raised up the nail she came to her understanding, 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.’</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>285]</a></span> +Such evidence as this failing to satisfy Serjeant +Keeling, and several magistrates who were present, +of the guilt of the accused, it was resolved to resort +to demonstration by experiment. The persons bewitched +were brought into court to touch the two +old women; and it was observed (says Hutchinson) +that when the former were in the midst of their fits, +and to all men’s apprehension wholly deprived of all +sense and understanding, closing their fists in such a +manner as that the strongest man could not force +them open, yet, at the least touch of one of the +supposed witches—Rose Cullender, by name—they +would suddenly shriek out, opening their hands, +which accident would not happen at any other +person’s touch. ‘And lest they might privately see +when they were touched by the said Rose Cullender, +they were blinded with their own aprons, and the +touching took the same effect as before. There was +an ingenious person that objected there might be a +great fallacy in this experiment, and there ought not +to be any stress put upon this to convict the parties, +for the children might counterfeit this their distemper, +and, perceiving what was done to them, they +might in such manner suddenly alter the erection +and gesture of their bodies, on purpose to induce +persons to believe that they were not natural, but +wrought strangely by the touch of the prisoners. +Wherefore, 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 gentleman then in court, would attend one of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>286]</a></span> +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; and Amy Duny was +brought from the bar, and conveyed to the maid. +They then put an apron before her eyes; and then +one other person touched her hand, which produced +the same effect as the touch of the witch did in the +court. Whereupon the gentlemen returned, openly +protesting that they did believe the whole transaction +of the business was a mere imposture.’ As, in truth, +it was.</p> + +<p>It is remarkable that Sir Matthew Hale was still +unconvinced. He invited the opinion of Sir Thomas +Browne, a man of great learning and ability—the +author of the ‘Religio Medici,’ and other justly +famous works—who admitted that the fits were +natural, but thought them ‘heightened by the devil +co-operating with the malice of the witches, at whose +instance he did the villanies.’ Sir Matthew then +charged the jury. There were, he said, two questions +to be considered: First, whether or not these +children were bewitched? And, second, whether +the prisoners at the bar had been guilty of bewitching +them? <em>That there were such creatures as witches, he +did not doubt</em>; and he appealed to the Scriptures, +which had affirmed so much, and also to the wisdom +of all nations, which had enacted laws against such +persons. Such, too, he said, had been the judgment +of this kingdom, as appeared by that Act of Parliament +which had provided punishment proportionable +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>287]</a></span> +to the quality of the offence. He desired them to +pay strict attention to the evidence, and implored the +great God of heaven to direct their hearts in so +weighty a matter; for to condemn the innocent, and +set free the guilty, was ‘an abomination to the +Lord.’</p> + +<p>After a charge of this description, the jury +naturally brought in a verdict of ‘Guilty.’ Sentence +of death was pronounced; and the two poor old +women, protesting to the last their innocence, suffered +on the gallows. Who will not regret the part played +by Sir Matthew Hale in this judicial murder? It is +no excuse to say that he did but share in the popular +belief. One expects of such a man that he will rise +superior to the errors of ordinary minds; that he +will be guided by broader and more enlightened +views—by more humane and generous sympathies. +Instead of attempting an apology which no act can +render satisfactory, it is better to admit, with Sir +Michael Foster, that ‘this great and good man was +betrayed, notwithstanding the rectitude of his intentions, +into a great mistake, under the strong bias of +early prejudices.’</p> + +<p>Gradually, however, a disbelief in witchcraft grew +up in the public mind, as intellectual inquiry widened +its scope, and the relations of man to the Unseen +World came to be better understood. Among the +educated classes the old superstition expired much +more rapidly than among the poorer; and so we find +that though convictions became rarer, committals and +trials continued tolerably frequent until the closing +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>288]</a></span> +years of the eighteenth century. To the ghastly roll +of victims, however, additions continued to be made. +Thus in August, 1682, three women, named Temperance +Lloyd, Susannah Edwards, and Mary Trembles, +were tried at Exeter before Lord Chief Justice North +and Mr. Justice Raymond, convicted of various acts +of witchcraft, and sentenced to death. Before their +trial they had confessed to frequent interviews with +the devil, who appeared in the shape of a black man +as long (or as short) as a man’s arm; and one of +them acknowledged to have caused the death of +four persons by witchcraft. Some portion of these +monstrous fictions they recanted under the gallows; +but even on the brink of the grave they persisted in +claiming the character of witches, and in asserting +that they had had personal intercourse with the +devil.</p> + +<p>In March, 1684, Alicia Welland was tried before +Chief Baron Montague at Exeter, convicted, and +executed.</p> + +<p>To estimate the extent to which the belief in +witchcraft, during the latter part of the seventeenth +century, operated against the lives of the accused, +Mr. Inderwick has searched the records of the +Western Circuit, from 1670 to 1712 inclusive, and +ascertained that out of fifty-two persons tried in that +period on various charges of witchcraft, only seven +were convicted, and one of these seven was reprieved. +‘What occurred on the Western,’ he remarks, ‘probably +went on at each of the several circuits into +which the country was then divided; and one cannot +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>289]</a></span> +doubt that in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Huntingdon, +and Lancashire, where the witches mostly abounded, +the charges and convictions were far more numerous +than in the West. The judges appear, however, not +to have taken the line of Sir Matthew Hale, but, as +far as possible, to have prevented convictions. +Indeed, Lord Jeffreys—who, when not engaged on +political business, was at least as good a judge as +any of his contemporaries—and Chief Justice Herbert, +tried and obtained acquittals of witches in 1685 and +1686 at the very time that they were engaged on the +Bloody Assize in slaughtering the participators in +Monmouth’s rebellion. It is also a remarkable fact +that, from 1686 to 1712, when charges of witchcraft +gradually ceased, charges and convictions of malicious +injury to property in burning haystacks, barns, and +houses, and malicious injuries to persons and to +cattle, increased enormously, these being the sort of +accusations freely made against the witches before +this date.’</p> + +<p>I think there can be little doubt that many evil-disposed +persons availed themselves of the prevalent +belief in witchcraft as a cover for their depredations +on the property of their neighbours, diverting suspicion +from themselves to the poor wretches who, +through accidental circumstances, had acquired +notoriety as the devil’s accomplices. It would also +seem probable that not a few of the reputed witches +similarly turned to account their bad reputation. It +is not impossible, indeed, that there may be a certain +degree of truth in the tales told of the witches’ +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>290]</a></span> +meetings, and that in some rural neighbourhoods the +individuals suspected of being witches occasionally +assembled at an appointed rendezvous to consult +upon their position and their line of operations. +The practices at these gatherings may not always +have been kept within the limits of decency and +decorum; and in this way the loathsome details with +which every account of the witches’ meetings are +embellished may have had a real foundation.</p> + + +<p class="break">That the judges at length began persistently to +discourage convictions for witchcraft is seen in the +action of Lord Chief Justice Holt at the Bury St. +Edmunds Assize in 1694. An old woman, known as +Mother Munnings, of Harks, in Suffolk, was brought +before him, and the witnesses against her retailed the +village talk—how that her landlord, Thomas Purnel, +who, to get her out of the house she had rented from +him, had removed the street-door, was told that ‘his +nose should lie upward in the churchyard’ before the +following Saturday; and how that he was taken ill +on the Monday, died on the Tuesday, and was buried +on the Thursday. How that she had a familiar in +the shape of a polecat, and how that a neighbour, +peeping in at her window one night, saw her take +out of her basket a couple of imps—the one black, +the other white. And how that a woman, named +Sarah Wager, having quarrelled with her, was +stricken dumb and lame. All this tittle-tattle was +brushed aside in his charge by the strong common-sense +of the judge; and the jury, under his direction, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>291]</a></span> +returned a verdict of ‘Not guilty.’ Dr. Hutchinson +remarks: ‘Upon particular inquiry of several in or +near the town, I find most are satisfied that it is a +very right judgment. She lived about two years +after, without doing any known harm to anybody, +and died declaring her innocence. Her landlord was +a consumptive-spent man, and the words not exactly +as they swore them, and the whole thing seventeen +years before.... The white imp is believed to have +been a lock of wool, taken out of her basket to +spin; and its shadow, it is supposed, was the black +one.’</p> + +<p>In the same year (1694) a woman, named +Margaret Elmore, was tried at Ipswich; in 1695 one +Mary Gay at Launceston; and in 1696 one Elizabeth +Hume at Exeter; but in each case, under the +direction of Chief Justice Holt, a verdict of acquittal +was declared. Thus the seventeenth century went +its way in an unaccustomed atmosphere of justice +and humanity.</p> + + + + +<p class="padtop"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>292]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER III.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smlfont">THE DECLINE OF WITCHCRAFT IN ENGLAND.</span></h2> + + +<p>The honour of discouraging prosecutions for witchcraft +belongs in the first place to France, which +abolished them as early as 1672, and for some years +previously had refrained from sending any victims to +the scaffold or the stake. In England, the same effect +was partly due, perhaps, to the cynical humour of the +Court of Charles II., where many, who before ventured +only to doubt, no longer hesitated to treat the subject +with ridicule. ‘Although,’ says Mr. Wright, ‘works +like those of Baxter and Glanvil had still their +weight with many people, yet in the controversy +which was now carried on through the instrumentality +of the press, those who wrote against the popular +creed had certainly the best of the argument. Still, it +happened from their form and character that the books +written to expose the absurdity of the belief in +sorcery were restricted in their circulation to the +more educated classes, while popular tracts in defence +of witchcraft and collections of cases were printed in a +cheaper form, and widely distributed among that class +in society where the belief was most firmly rooted. The +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>293]</a></span> +effect of these popular publications has continued in +some districts down to the present day. Thus the +press, the natural tendency of which was to enlighten +mankind, was made to increase ignorance by pandering +to the credulity of the multitude.’</p> + +<p>I have spoken of the seventeenth century as going +out in an atmosphere of justice and humanity. But +an ancient superstition dies hard, and the eighteenth +century, when it dawned upon the earth, found the +belief in witchcraft still widely extended in England. +Even men of education could not wholly surrender +their adhesion to it. We read with surprise Addison’s +opinion in <i>The Spectator</i>, ‘that the arguments +press equally on both sides,’ and see him balancing +himself between the two aspects of the subject in a +curious state of mental indecision. ‘When I hear the +relations that are made from all parts of the world,’ he +says, ‘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. But +when I consider,’ he adds, ‘that the ignorant and +credulous parts of the world abound most in these +relations, and that the persons among us who are +supposed to engage in such an infernal commerce are +people of a weak understanding and crazed imagination, +and at the same time reflect upon the many +impostures and delusions of this nature that have +been detected in all ages, I endeavour to suspend my +belief till I hear more certain accounts than any which +have yet come to my knowledge.’ And then he +comes to a halting and unsatisfactory conclusion, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>294]</a></span> +which will seem almost grotesque to the reader of the +preceding pages, with their details of <i>succubi</i> and +<i>incubi</i>, imps and familiars, black cats, pole-cats, goats, +and the like: ‘In short, when I consider the question, +whether there are such persons in the world as +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 instance of it.’</p> + +<p>Addison goes on to draw the picture of a witch of +the period, ‘Moll White,’ who lived in the neighbourhood +of Sir Roger de Coverley, ‘a wrinkled hag, with +age grown double.’ This old woman had the reputation +of a witch all over the country; her lips were +observed to be always in motion, and there was not a +switch about her house which her neighbours did not +believe had carried her several hundreds of miles. +‘If she chanced to stumble, they always found sticks +or straws that lay in the figure of a cross before her. +If she made any mistake at church, and cried Amen +in a wrong place, they never failed to conclude that +she was saying her prayers backwards. There was +not a maid in the parish that would take a pin of her, +though she should offer a bag of money with it.... +If the dairy-maid does not make her butter to come +so soon as she would have it, Moll White is at the +bottom of the churn. If a horse sweats in the stable, +Moll White has been upon his back. If a hare makes +an unexpected escape from the hounds, the huntsman +curses Moll White....</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>295]</a></span> +‘I have been the more particular in this account,’ +says Addison, ‘because I know there is scarce a +village in England that has not a Moll White in it. +When an old woman begins to dote, and grow +chargeable to a parish, she is generally turned into a +witch, and fills the whole country with extravagant +fancies, imaginary distempers, and terrifying dreams. +In the meantime, the poor wretch that is the innocent +occasion of so many evils begins to be frighted at +herself, and sometimes confesses secret commerces and +familiarities that her imagination forms in a delirious +old age. This frequently cuts off charity from the +greatest objects of compassion, and inspires people +with a malevolence towards those poor decrepit parts +of our species in whom human nature is defaced by +infirmity and dotage.’</p> + + +<p class="break">On March 2, 1703, one Richard Hathaway, apprentice +to Thomas Wiling, a blacksmith in Southwark, was +tried before Chief Justice Holt at the Surrey Assizes, +as a cheat and an impostor, having pretended that he +had been bewitched by Sarah Morduck, wife of a +Thames waterman, so that he had been unable to eat +or drink for the space of ten weeks together; had +suffered various pains; had constantly vomited nails +and crooked pins; had at times been deprived of +speech and sight, and all through the wicked cunning +of Sarah Morduck; further, that he was from time to +time relieved of his ailments by scratching the said +Sarah, and drawing blood from her. On these charges +Sarah had been committed by the magistrates, and was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>296]</a></span> +tried as a witch at the Guildford Assizes in February, +1701. It was then proved in her defence that +Dr. Martin, minister, of the parish of Southwark, +hearing of Hathaway’s troubles and method of obtaining +relief, had resolved to put the matter to a fair +test; and repairing to Hathaway’s room, in one of his +semi-conscious and wholly blind intervals, had, in the +presence of many witnesses, pretended to give to the +supposed sufferer the arm of Sarah Morduck, when it +was really that of a woman whom he had called in +from the street. Hathaway, in ignorance of the trick +played upon him, scratched the wrong arm, and +immediately professed to recover his sight and senses. +On finding his deception discovered, Hathaway looked +greatly ashamed, and attempted no defence or excuse, +when Dr. Martin severely reproached him for his conduct.</p> + +<p>The populace, however, remained unconvinced, and +when Dr. Martin and his friends had departed, accompanied +Hathaway to the house of Sarah Morduck, +whom they savagely ill-treated. They then declared +that the woman who had lent herself as a subject for +experiment was also a witch, and loaded her with +contumely, while her husband gave her a beating. It +further appeared that, on one occasion, when Hathaway +alleged he had been vomiting crooked pins and nails, +he had been searched, and hundreds of packets of +pins and nails found in his pockets, and on his hands +being tied behind him, the vomiting immediately +ceased. Eventually the jury acquitted Sarah Morduck, +and branded Hathaway as a cheat and an +impostor. The lower classes, however, received the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>297]</a></span> +verdict with contempt, mobbed Dr. Martin, and +raised a collection for Hathaway as for a man of +many virtues whom fortune had ill-treated. A magistrate, +Sir Thomas Lane, who sided with the mob, summoned +Sarah Morduck before him, and after she had +been scratched by Hathaway in his presence, ordered +her to be examined for devil-marks by two women +and a doctor. Though none could be detected, his +prejudice was so extreme that he committed her as a +witch to the Wood Street Compter, refusing bail to the +extent of £500. Dr. Martin, with other gentlemen, +again came to her assistance, and ultimately she was +released on reasonable surety.</p> + +<p>The Government now thought it time to support +the cause of justice, and, carrying out the verdict of +the Guildford jury, indicted Hathaway as a cheat, +and himself and his friends for assaulting Sarah +Morduck. In addition to the evidence previously +adduced, it was shown that, being in bad health, he +had been placed in the custody of a Dr. Kenny, a +surgeon, who, desiring to test the truth of his fasting, +made holes in the partition wall of his compartment, +and watched his proceedings for about a fortnight, +during which period, while pretending to fast, he was +observed to feed heartily on the food conveyed to +him, and once, having received an extra allowance of +whisky, he got tipsy, played a tune on the tongs, and +danced before the fire. At the trial a Dr. Hamilton +was called for the defence; but, Balaam-like, he +banned rather than blessed, for having affirmed that +the man’s fasting was the chief evidence of witchcraft, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>298]</a></span> +‘Doctor,’ said the Chief Justice, ‘do you think it +possible for a man to fast a fortnight?’ ‘I think +not,’ he replied. ‘Can all the devils in hell help a +man to fast so long?’ ‘No, my lord,’ said the +doctor; ‘I think not.’ These answers were conclusive; +and without leaving the box, the jury found +Hathaway guilty, and he was sentenced by Chief +Justice Holt to pay a fine of one hundred marks, to +stand in the pillory on the following Sunday for two +hours at Southwark, the same on the Tuesday at the +Royal Exchange, the same on the Wednesday at +Temple Bar, the next day to be whipped at the +House of Correction, and afterwards to be imprisoned +with hard labour for six months.</p> + +<p>Two reputed witches, Eleanor Shaw and Mary +Phillips, were executed at Northampton on March 17, +1705; and on July 22, 1712, five Northamptonshire +witches, Agnes Brown, Helen Jenkinson, A...... Bill, +Joan Vaughan, and Mary Barber, suffered at the same +place.</p> + +<p>It is generally believed that the last time an +English jury brought in a verdict of guilty in a case +of witchcraft was in 1712, when a poor Hertfordshire +peasant woman, named Jane Wenham, was tried +before Mr. Justice Powell, sixteen witnesses, including +three clergymen, supporting the accusation. The +evidence was absurd and frivolous; but, in spite of +its frivolousness and absurdity, and the poor woman’s +fervent protestations of innocence, and the judge’s +strong summing-up in her favour, a Hertfordshire +jury convicted her. The judge was compelled by the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>299]</a></span> +law to pronounce sentence of death, but he lost no +time in obtaining from the Queen a pardon for the +unfortunate woman. But, on emerging from her +prison, she was treated by the mob with savage +ferocity; and, to save her from being lynched, +Colonel Plumer, of Gilson, took her into his service, +in which she continued for many years, earning and +preserving the esteem of all who knew her.</p> + +<p>But there is a record of an execution for witchcraft, +that of Mary Hicks and her daughter, taking place in +1716 (July 28); and though it is not indubitably +established, I do not think its authenticity can well +be doubted.</p> + +<p>In January, 1736, an old woman of Frome, reputed +to be a witch, was dragged from her sick-bed, +put astride on a saddle, and kept in a mill-pond for +nearly an hour, in the presence of upwards of 200 +people. The story goes that she swam like a cork, +but on being taken out of the water expired immediately. +A coroner’s inquest was held on the body, +and three persons were committed for trial for manslaughter; +but it is probable that they escaped punishment, +as nobody seems to have been willing to appear +in the witness-box against them.</p> + +<p>Among the vulgar, indeed, the superstition was +hard to kill. In the middle of the last century, a +poor man and his wife, of the name of Osborne, each +about seventy years of age, lived at Tring, in Hertfordshire. +On one occasion, Mother Osborne, as she +was commonly called, went to a dairyman, appropriately +named Butterfield, and asked for some buttermilk; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>300]</a></span> +but was harshly repulsed, and informed that he +had scarcely enough for his hogs. The woman replied +with asperity that the Pretender (it was in the ’45 that +this took place) would soon have him and his hogs. It +was customary then to connect the Pretender and the +devil in one’s thoughts and aspirations; and the +ignorant rustics soon afterwards, when Butterfield’s +calves sickened, declared that Mother Osborne had +bewitched them, with the assistance of the devil. +Later, when Butterfield, who had given up his farm +and taken to an ale-house, suffered much from fits, +Mother Osborne was again declared to be the cause +(1751), and he was advised to send to Northamptonshire +for an old woman, a white witch, to baffle her +spells. The white witch came, confirmed, of course, +the popular prejudice, and advised that six men, armed +with staves and pitchforks, should watch Butterfield’s +house by day and night. The affair would here, perhaps, +have ended; but some persons thought they +could turn it to their pecuniary advantage, and, +accordingly, made public notification that a witch +would be ducked on April 22. On the appointed +day hundreds flocked to the scene of entertainment. +The parish officers had removed the two Osbornes +for safety to the church; and the mob, in revenge, +seized the governor of the workhouse, and, collecting +a heap of straw, threatened to drown him, and set +fire to the town, unless they were given up. In a +panic of fear the parish officers gave way, and the two +poor creatures were immediately stripped naked, their +thumbs tied to their toes, and, each being wrapped +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>301]</a></span> +in a coarse sheet, were dragged a couple of miles, and +then flung into a muddy stream. Colley, a chimney-sweep, +observing that the woman did not sink, +stepped into the pool, and turned her over several +times with a stick, until the sheet fell off, and her +nakedness was exposed. In this miserable state—exhausted +with fatigue and terror, sick with shame, +half choked with mud—she was flung upon the +bank; and her persecutors—alas for the cruelty of +ignorance!—kicked and beat her until she died. +Her husband also sank under his barbarous maltreatment. +It is satisfactory to know that Colley, as the +worst offender, was brought to trial on a charge of +wilful murder, found guilty, and most righteously +hanged. The crowd, however, who witnessed his +execution, lamented him as a martyr, unjustly +punished for having delivered the world from one of +Satan’s servants, and overwhelmed with execrations +the sheriff whose duty it was to see that the behests +of the law were carried out.</p> + +<p>In February, 1759, Susannah Hannaker, of +Wingrove, Wilts, was put to the ordeal of +weighing, but fortunately for herself outweighed +the church Bible, against which she was tested. +In June, 1760, at Leicester; in June, 1785, at +Northampton; and in April, 1829, at Monmouth, +persons were tried for ducking supposed witches. +Similar cases have occurred in our own time. On +September 4, 1863, a paralytic Frenchman died of +an illness induced by his having been ducked as a +wizard in a pond at Castle Hedingham, in Essex. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>302]</a></span> +And an aged woman, named Anne Turner, reputed +to be a witch, was killed by a man, partially insane, +at the village of Long Compton, in Warwickshire, on +September 17, 1875. But the reader needs no further +illustrations of the longevity of human error, or the +terrible vitality of prejudice, especially among the +uneducated. The thaumaturgist or necromancer, +with his wand, his magic circle, his alembics and +crucibles, disappeared long ago, because, as I have +already pointed out, his support depended upon a +class of society whose intelligence was rapidly +developed by the healthy influences of literature +and science; but the sham astrologer and the pseudo-witch +linger still in obscure corners, because they +find their prey among the credulous and the ignorant. +The more widely we extend the bounds of knowledge, +the more certainly shall we prevent the recrudescence +of such forms of imposture and aspects of delusion as +in the preceding pages I have attempted to describe.</p> + + + + +<p class="padtop"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>303]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER IV.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smlfont">THE WITCHES OF SCOTLAND.</span></h2> + + +<p>Among the people of Scotland, a more serious-minded +and imaginative race than the English, the superstition +of witchcraft was deeply rooted at an early +period. Its development was encouraged not only +by the idiosyncrasies of the national character, but +also by the nature of the country and the climate in +which they lived. The lofty mountains, with their +misty summits and shadowy ravines—their deep +obscure glens—were the fitting homes of the wildest +fancies, the eëriest legends; and the storm crashing +through the forests, and the surf beating on the rocky +shore, suggested to the ear of the peasant or the +fisherman the voices of unseen creatures—of the +dread spirits of the waters and the air. To men who +believed in kelpie and wraith and the second sight, +a belief in witch and warlock was easy enough. And +it was not until the Calvinist reformers imported +into Scotland their austere and rigid creed, with its +literal interpretation of Biblical imagery, that witchcraft +came to be regarded as a crime. It was not +until 1563 that the Parliament of Scotland passed a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>304]</a></span> +statute constituting ‘witchcraft and dealing with +witches’ a capital offence. It is true that persons +accused of witchcraft had already suffered death—as +the Earl of Mar, brother of James III., who was +suspected of intriguing with witches and sorcerers in +order to compass his brother’s death, and Lady +Glamis, in 1532, charged with a similar plot against +James V.—but in both these cases it was the <em>treason</em> +which was punished rather than the <em>sorcery</em>.</p> + +<p>In the Scottish criminal records the first person +who suffered death for the practice of witchcraft was +a Janet Bowman, in 1572. No particulars of her +offence are given; and against her name are written +only the significant words, ‘convict and byrnt.’</p> + +<p>A remarkable case, that of Bessie Dunlop, belongs +to 1576.<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> She was the wife of an Ayrshire peasant, +Andrew Jack. According to her own statement, she +was going one day from her house to the yard of +Monkcastle, driving her cows to the pasture, and +greeting over her troubles—for she had a milch-cow +nigh sick to death, and her husband and child were +lying ill, and she herself had but recently risen from +childbed—when a strange man met her, and saluted her +with the words, ‘Gude day, Bessie!’ She answered +civilly, and, in reply to his questions, acquainted him +with her anxieties; whereupon he informed her that +her cow, her two sheep, and her child would die, but +that her gude man would recover. She described +this stranger in graphic language as ‘an honest, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>305]</a></span> +wele-elderlie man, gray bairdit, and had ane gray coat +with Lumbart slevis of the auld fassoun; ane pair of +gray brekis and quhyte schankis, gartaurt above the +knee; ane black bonnet on his heid, cloise behind +and plane before, with silkin laissis drawin throw the +lippis thairof; and ane quhyte wand in his hand.’ +He told Bessie that his name was <em>Thomas Reid</em>, and +that he had been killed at the Battle of Pinkie. +Extraordinary as was this information, it did not +seem improbable to her when she noted the manner +of his disappearance through the yard of Monkcastle: +‘I thocht he gait in at ane narroware hoill of the +dyke [wall], nor ony erdlie man culd haif gaun +throw; and swa I was sumthing fleit [terrified].’</p> + +<p>Thomas Reid’s sinister predictions were duly fulfilled. +Soon afterwards, he again met Bessie, and +boldly invited her to deny her religion, and the faith +in which she was christened, in return for certain +worldly advantages. But Bessie steadfastly refused.</p> + +<p>This visitor of hers was under no fear of the +ordinance which is supposed to limit the mundane +excursions of ‘spiritual creatures’ to the hours +between sunset and cockcrow; for he generally made +his appearance at mid-day. It is not less singular +that he made no objection to the presence of humanity. +On one occasion he called at her house, where she sat +conversing with her husband <em>and three tailors</em>, and, +invisible to them, plucked her by the apron, and led +her to the door, and thence up the hill-end, where he +bade her stand, and be silent, whatever she might +hear or see. And suddenly she beheld twelve +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>306]</a></span> +persons, eight women and four men; the men clad +in gentlemen’s clothing, and the women with plaids +round about them, very seemly to look at. Thomas +was among them. They bade her sit down, and +said: ‘Welcome, Bessie; wilt thou go with us?’ But +she made no answer, and after some conversation +among themselves, they disappeared in a hideous +whirlwind.</p> + +<p>When Thomas returned, he informed her that the +persons she had seen were the ‘good wights,’ who +dwell in the Court of Faëry, and he brought her an +invitation to accompany them thither—an invitation +which he repeated with much earnestness. She +answered, with true Scotch caution: ‘She saw no +profit to gang that kind of gates, unless she knew +wherefore.’</p> + +<p>‘Seest thou not me,’ he rejoined, ‘worth meat and +worth clothes, and good enough like in person?’</p> + +<p>The prospect, however, could not beguile her; and +she continued firm in her simple resolve to dwell +with her husband and bairns, whom she had no wish +to abandon. Off went Thomas in a storm of anger; +but before long he recovered his temper, and +resumed his visits, showing himself willing to ‘fetch +and carry’ at her request, and always treating her +with the deference due to a wife and mother. The +only benefit she derived from this friendship was, she +said, the means of curing diseases and recovering +stolen property, so that her witchcraft was of the +simplest, innocentest kind. There was no compact +with the devil, and it injured nobody—except doctors +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>307]</a></span> +and thieves. Yet for yielding to this hallucination—the +product of a vivid imagination, stimulated, we +suspect, by much solitary reverie—Bessie Dunlop +was ‘convyct and byrnt.’ Mayhap, as she was led +to the death-fire, she may have dreamed that she had +done better to have gone with Thomas Reid to the +Court of Faëry!</p> + + +<p class="break">The combination of the fairy folklore with the +gloomier inventions of witchcraft occurs again in the +case of Alison Pierson (1588). There was a certain +William Simpson, a great scholar and physician, and +a native of Stirling. While but a child, he was +taken away from his parents ‘by a man of Egypt, a +giant,’ who led him away to Egypt with him, ‘where +he remained by the space of twelve years before he +came home again.’ On his return, he made the +acquaintance of Alison, who was a near relative, and +cured her of certain ailments; but soon afterwards, +less fortunate in treating himself, he died. Some +months had passed when, one day as Alison was +lying on her bed, sick and alone, she was suddenly +addressed by a man in green clothes, who told her +that, if she would be faithful, he would do her good. +In her first alarm, she cried for help, but no one hearing, +she called upon the Divine Name, when her +visitor immediately disappeared. Before long, he +came to her again, attended by many men and +women; and compelling her to accompany them, they +set off in a gay procession to Lothian, where they +found puncheons of wine, with drinking-cups, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>308]</a></span> +enjoyed themselves right heartily. Thenceforward +she was on the friendliest terms with the ‘good neighbours,’ +even visiting the Fairy Queen at her court, +where, according to her own account, she was made +much of, was treated, indeed, as ‘one of themselves,’ +and allowed to see them compounding wonderful +healing-salves in miniature pans over tiny fires.</p> + +<p>It would seem that this woman had acquired a considerable +knowledge of ‘herbs and simples,’ and that +the medicines she made up effected remarkable cures. +No doubt it was for the purpose of enhancing the +value of her concoctions that she professed to have +obtained the secret of them from the fairies. So great +was her repute for medicinal skill, that the Archbishop +of St. Andrews sought her advice in a dangerous +illness, and, by her directions, ate ‘a sodden food,’ +and at two draughts absorbed a quart of good claret +wine, which she had previously medicated, greatly +benefiting thereby.</p> + +<p>Alison had a fertile fancy and a fluent tongue, and +told stories of the fairies and their doings which did +credit to her invention. It does not appear that she +injured anybody, except, perhaps, by her drugs, but, +then, even the faculty sometimes do <em>that</em>! But, like +Bessie Dunlop, she was convicted of witchcraft, and +burned. The surprising thing about this and similar +cases is, that the poor woman should have assisted in +her own condemnation by devising such extraordinary +fictions. What was the use of them? A prisoner on +a charge which, if proved against her, meant a terrible +death, what object did she expect to gain? Was it +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>309]</a></span> +all done for the sake of the temporary surprise and +astonishment her tale created? that she might be +the heroine of an hour?—Men have, we know, their +strange ambitions, but if this were Alison Pierson’s, +it was one of the very strangest.</p> + + +<p class="break">In the next case I shall bring forward, that of +Dame Fowlis, we come upon the trail of actual crime. +Dame Fowlis, second wife of the chief of the clan +Munro, was by birth a Roise or Ross, of Balnagown. +To effect the aggrandisement of her own family, she +plotted the death of Robert, her husband’s eldest son, +in order to marry his wealthy widow to her brother, +George Roise or Ross, laird of Balnagown; but as +he, too, was married, it was necessary to get rid of <em>his</em> +wife also. For this ‘double event,’ she employed, with +little attempt at concealment, three ‘notorious witches’—Agnes +Roy, Christian Roy, and Marjory Nayre +MacAllister, alias Loskie Loncart—besides one William +MacGillivordam, and several other persons of dubious +reputation. About Midsummer, 1576, Agnes Roy +was despatched to bring Loskie Loncart into Dame +Fowlis’ presence. The result of this interview was +soon apparent. Clay images of the two doomed +individuals were made, and exposed to the usual +sorceries; while MacGillivordam obtained a supply of +poison from Aberdeen, which the cook was bribed to +put into a dish intended for the lady of Balnagown’s +table. It did not prove mortal, as anticipated, but +afflicted the unfortunate lady with a long and severe +illness. Dame Fowlis, however, felt no remorse, but +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>310]</a></span> +continued her plots, gradually widening their scope +until she resolved to kill all her husband’s children by +his first wife, in order to secure the inheritance for +her own. In May, 1577, she instructed MacGillivordam +to procure a large quantity of poison. He +refused, unless his brother was made privy to the +transaction. I suppose this was done, as the poison +was obtained, and proved to be so deadly in its nature +that two persons—a woman and a boy—were killed +by accidentally tasting of it.</p> + +<p>Foiled in her scheme, Dame Fowlis resorted to the +practices of witchcraft, and bought, in June, for five +shillings, ‘an elf arrow-head’—that is, a rude flint +implement—belonging to the neolithic age. On +July 2, she and her accomplices met together in +secret conclave; and having made an image of butter +to resemble Robert Munro, they placed it against the +wall; and then, with the elf arrow-head, Loskie +Loncart shot at it for eight times, but each time without +success, a proof that the familiars of the devil, +like their master, could not always hit the mark. +Meeting a second time for the same purpose, they +made an image of clay, at which Loskie shot twelve +times in succession, invariably missing, to the great +disappointment of all concerned. The failure was +ascribed to the elf arrow-head, and in August another +was procured; two figures of clay were also made, for +Robert Munro and for Lady Balnagown, respectively; +at the latter Dame Fowlis shot twice, and at the +former Loskie Loncart shot thrice; but the shooting +was no better than before, and the two images being +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>311]</a></span> +accidentally broken, the charm was destroyed. It +was proposed to try poison again, but by this time +the authorities had gained information of what was +going on, and towards the end of November, Christian +Roy, who had been present at the third meeting, was +arrested. Being put to the torture, she confessed +everything, and, together with some of her confederates, +was convicted of witchcraft and burnt. +Dame Fowlis, who assuredly was not the least guilty +person, escaped to Caithness, but, after remaining in +concealment for nine months, was allowed to return to +her home. In 1588, her husband died, and was +succeeded in his estates by Robert Munro, who +revived the charge of witchcraft against his step-mother, +and obtained a commission for her examination +and that of her surviving accomplices. Dame +Fowlis was put on her trial on July 22, 1590; but she +had money and friends, and contrived to obtain a verdict +of acquittal.</p> + +<p>It is one of the most remarkable features of this remarkable +case that, as soon as her acquittal was pronounced, +a new trial was opened, in which the defendant +was her other stepson, Hector Munro,<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> who had been, +only an hour before, the principal witness against her. +The allegations against him were: first, that, during the +sore sickness of his brother, in the summer of 1588, he +had consulted with ‘three notorious and common +witches’ respecting the best means of curing him, and +had sheltered them for several days, until compelled by +his father to send them about their business; and, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>312]</a></span> +second, that falling ill himself, in January, 1559, he +had caused a certain Marion MacIngaruch, ‘one of the +most notorious and rank witches in the whole realm,’ +to be brought to him, and who, after administering +three draughts of water out of three stones which she +carried with her, declared that his sole chance of +recovery lay in the sacrifice of ‘the principal man of +his blood.’ After due consultation, they decided that +this vicarious sufferer must be George Munro, his +step-brother, the eldest son of Dame Fowlis. +Messengers were accordingly sent in search of him. +Apprehending no evil, he obeyed the call, and five +days afterwards arrived at the house of Hector +Munro. Following the directions of the witch, +Hector received his brother in silence, giving him his +left hand, and taking him by the right hand, and +uttering no word of greeting until he had spoken. +George, astounded by the chillness of his reception, +which he could not but contrast with the warmth of +the invitations, remained in his brother’s sick-room an +hour without speaking. At last he asked Hector how +he felt. ‘The better that you have come to visit +me,’ replied Hector, and then was again silent, for so +the witch had ordained. An hour after midnight +appeared Marion MacIngaruch, with several assistants; +and, arming themselves with spades, they repaired +to a nook of ground at the sea-side, situated +between the boundaries of the estates of the two +lairds, and there, removing the turf, they dug a grave +of the size of the invalid.</p> + +<p>Marion returned to the house, and gave directions +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>313]</a></span> +to her confederates as to the parts they were to play +in the startling scene which was yet to be enacted. +It was represented to her that if George died +suddenly suspicions would be aroused, with a result +dangerous to all concerned; and she thereupon undertook +that he should be spared until April 17 next +thereafter. Hector was then wrapped up in a couple +of blankets, and carried to the grave in silence. In +silence he was deposited in it, and the turf lightly +laid upon him, while Marion stationed herself by his +side. His foster-mother, one Christiana Neill Dayzell, +then took a young lad by the hand, and ran the +breadth of nine ridges, afterwards inquiring of the +witch ‘who might be her choice,’ and receiving for +answer, ‘That Hector was her choice to live, and his +brother George to die for him.’ This ceremony was +thrice repeated, and the sick man was then taken +from the grave, and carried home, the most absolute +silence still being maintained.</p> + +<p>Such an experience on a bitter January night +might well have proved fatal to the subject of it; +but, strange to say, Hector Munro recovered—probably +from the effect on his imagination of rites +so peculiar and impressive; whereas, in the month +of April, George Munro was seized with a grievous +illness, of which, in the following June, he died. +Grateful for the cure she had effected, Hector received +the witch Marion into high favour, installing her at +his uncle’s house of Kildrummadyis, entertaining her +‘as if she had been his spouse, and giving her such +pre-eminence in the county that none durst offend +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>314]</a></span> +her.’ But it is the nature of such unhallowed confederacies +to surrender, sooner or later, their dark, +dread secrets. Whispers spread abroad, gradually +shaping themselves into a connected story which +invited judicial investigation. A warrant was issued +for the arrest of Marion MacIngaruch; but for some +time Hector Munro contrived to conceal her, until +Dame Fowlis discovered and made known that she +was lying in the house at Fowlis. She was arrested; +and, making a full confession of her actions, was +sentenced to death, and burnt. Hector Munro, +however, was more fortunate, and obtained his +acquittal.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> + +<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> +Pitcairn, ‘Criminal Trials,’ i. 49-58. This chapter is mainly +founded on the reports in Pitcairn.</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> +Pitcairn, <i>ut ante</i>, i. 192, 202, 285.</p> +</div> + + +<h3>JAMES I. AND THE WITCHES.</h3> + +<p>These, and other cases of witchcraft which, as the +mania extended, occurred in various parts of the +country, attracted the attention of King James, and +made a profound impression upon him. Taking up +the study of the subject with enthusiasm, he inquired +into the demonology of France and Germany, where +it had been matured into a science; and this so +thoroughly that he became, as already stated, an +expert, and was really entitled to pronounce authoritative +decisions. His example, however, had a disastrous +effect, confirming and deepening the popular +credulity to such an extent that the common people, +for a time, might have been divided into two great +classes—witches and witch-finders. That in such +circumstances many acts of cruelty should be perpetrated +was inevitable. So complete was the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>315]</a></span> +demoralization, that the most trivial physical or mental +peculiarity was held to be an indubitable witch-mark, +and young and old were hurried to the stake like +sheep to the slaughter.</p> + +<p>In August, 1589, King James was married, by +proxy, to Princess Anne of Denmark; and the impatient +monarch was eagerly awaiting the arrival of +his bride from Copenhagen, when the unwelcome +intelligence reached him that the vessels conveying +her and her suite had been overtaken by a storm, +and, after a narrow escape from destruction, had put +into the port of Upsal, in Norway, with the intention +of remaining there until the following spring. The +eager bridegroom, summoning up all his courage—he +had no love for the sea—resolved to go in search +of his queen, and, having found her, to conduct her +to her new home. At Upsal the marriage was duly +solemnized; and husband and wife then voyaged to +Copenhagen, where they spent the winter. The +homeward voyage was not undertaken until the +following spring; and it was on May Day, 1590, +that James and his Queen landed at Leith, after an +experience of the sea which confirmed James’s distaste +for it.</p> + +<p>The political disorder of the country, and the hold +which the new superstition had obtained upon the +minds of the people, encouraged the circulation of +dark mysterious rumours in connection with the +King’s unfavourable passage; and a general belief +soon came to be established that the tempestuous +weather which had so seriously affected it was due to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>316]</a></span> +the intervention of supernatural powers, at the instigation +of human treachery. Suspicion fixed at +length upon the Earl of Bothwell, who was arrested +and committed to prison; but in June, 1591, contrived +to make his escape, and conceal himself in the +remote recesses of the Highlands. Not long afterwards, +some curious circumstances attending certain +cures which a servant girl—Geillis, or Gillies, +Duncan—had performed, led to her being suspected +of witchcraft; and this suspicion opened up a series +of investigations, which revealed the existence of an +extraordinary conspiracy against the King’s life.</p> + +<p>Geillis Duncan was in the employment of David +Seton, deputy-bailiff of the small town of Tranent, +in Haddingtonshire. Unlike the witch of English +rural life, she was young, comely, and fair-complexioned; +and the only ground on which the idea +of witchcraft was associated with her was the +wonderful quickness with which she had cured some +sick and diseased persons, the fact being that she was +well acquainted with the healing properties of herbs. +When her master severely interrogated her, she at +once denied all knowledge of the mysteries of the +black art. He then, without leave or license, put +her to the torture; she still continued to protest her +innocence. It was a popular conviction that no +witch would confess so long as the devil-mark on +her body remained undiscovered. She was subjected +to an indecent examination—the stigma was found +(said the examiners) on her throat; she was again +subjected to the torture. The outraged girl’s fortitude +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>317]</a></span> +then gave way; she acknowledged whatever her +persecutors wished to learn. Yes, she <em>was</em> a <em>witch</em>! +She had made a compact with the devil; all her +cures had been effected by his assistance—quite a +new feature in the character of Satan, who has not +generally been suspected of any compassionate feeling +towards suffering humanity. That she had done +good instead of harm availed the unfortunate Geillis +nothing. She was committed to prison; and the +torture being a third time applied, made a fuller +confession, in which she named her accomplices or +confederates, some forty in number, residing in +different parts of Lothian. Their arrest and examination +disclosed the particulars of one of the +strangest intrigues ever concocted.</p> + +<p>The principal parties in it were Dr. Fian, or Frain, +a reputed wizard, also known as John Cunningham; +a grave matron, named Agnes Sampson; Euphemia +Macalzean, daughter of Lord Cliftonhall; and +Barbara Napier. Fian, or Cunningham, was a +schoolmaster of Tranent, and a man of ability and +education; but his life had been evil—he was a +vendor of poisons—and, though innocent of the preposterous +crimes alleged against him, had dabbled in +the practices of the so-called sorcery. When a +twisted cord was bound round his bursting temples, +he would confess nothing; and, exasperated by his +fortitude, the authorities subjected him to the terrible +torture of ‘the boots.’ Even this he endured in +silence, until exhausted nature came to his relief +with an interval of unconsciousness. He was then +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>318]</a></span> +released; restoratives were applied; and, while he +hovered on the border of sensibility, he was induced +to sign ‘a full confession.’ Being remanded to his +prison, he contrived, two days afterwards, to escape; +but was recaptured, and brought before the High +Court of Justiciary, King James himself being +present. Fian strenuously repudiated the so-called +confession which had been foisted upon him in his +swoon, declaring that his signature had been obtained +by a fraud. Whereupon King James, enraged at +what he conceived to be the man’s stubborn wilfulness, +ordered him again to the torture. His fingernails +were torn out with pincers, and long needles +thrust into the quick; but the courageous man made +no sign. He was then subjected once more to the +barbarous ‘boots,’ in which he continued so long, +and endured so many blows, that ‘his legs were +crushed and beaten together as small as might be, +and the bones and flesh so bruised, that the blood +and marrow spouted forth in great abundance, +whereby they were made unserviceable for ever.’</p> + +<p>As ultimately extorted from the unfortunate Fian, +his confession shows a remarkable mixture of imposture +and self-deception—a patchwork of the falsehoods +he believed and those he invented. Singularly +grotesque is his account of his introduction to the +devil: He was lodging at Tranent, in the house of +one Thomas Trumbill, who had offended him by +neglecting to ‘sparge’ or whitewash his chamber, as +he had promised; and, while lying in his bed, meditating +how he might be revenged of the said Thomas, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>319]</a></span> +the devil, <em>clothed in white raiment</em>, suddenly appeared, +and said: ‘Will ye be my servant, and adore me +and all my servants, and ye shall never want?’ +Never want! The bribe to a poor Scotch dominie +was immense; Fian could not withstand it, and at +once enlisted among ‘the Devil’s Own.’ As his first +act of service, he had the pleasure of burning down +Master Trumbill’s house. The next night Beelzebub +paid him another visit, and put his mark upon him +with a rod. Thereafter he was found lying in his +chamber in a trance, during which, he said, he was +carried in the spirit over many mountains, and +accomplished an aërial circumnavigation of the globe. +In the future he attended all the nightly conferences +of witches and fiends held throughout Lothian, displaying +so much energy and capacity that the devil +appointed him to be his ‘registrar and secretary.’</p> + +<p>The first convention at which he was present +assembled in the parish church of North Berwick, a +breezy, picturesque seaport at the mouth of the Forth, +about sixteen miles from Preston Pans. Satan occupied +the pulpit, and delivered ‘a sermon of doubtful +speeches,’ designed for their encouragement. His +servants, he said, should never want, and should ail +nothing, so long as their hairs were on, and they let +no tears fall from their eyes. He bade them spare +not to do evil, and advised them to eat, drink, and +be merry: after which edifying discourse they did +homage to him in the usual indecent manner. Fian, +as I have said, was an evil-living man, and needed +no exhortation from the devil to do wicked things. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>320]</a></span> +In the course of his testimony he invented, as was so +frequently the strange practice of persons accused of +witchcraft, the most extravagant fictions—as, for +instance: One night he supped at the miller’s, a few +miles from Tranent; and as it was late when the +revel ended, one of the miller’s men carried him home +on horseback. To light them on their way through +the dark of night, Fian raised up four candles on the +horse’s ears, and one on the staff which his guide +carried; their great brightness made the midnight +appear as noonday; but the miller’s man was so +terrified by the phenomenon that, on his return home, +he fell dead.</p> + +<p>Let us next turn to the confession of Agnes +Sampson, ‘the wise wife of Keith,’ as she was +popularly called. She was charged with having +done grave injury to persons who had incurred her +displeasure; but she seems, when all fictitious details +are thrust aside, to have been simply a shrewd and +sagacious old Scotchwoman, with much force of +character, who made a decent living as a herb-doctor. +Archbishop Spottiswoode describes her as matronly +in appearance, and grave of demeanour, and adds +that she was composed in her answers. Yet were +those answers the wildest and most extraordinary +utterances imaginable, and, if they be truly recorded, +they convict her of unscrupulous audacity and unfailing +ingenuity.</p> + +<p>She affirmed that her service to the devil began +after her husband’s death, when he appeared to her +in mortal likeness, and commanded her to renounce +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>321]</a></span> +Christ, and obey him as her master. For the sake of +the riches he promised to herself and her children, +she consented; and thereafter he came in the guise of +a dog, of which she asked questions, always receiving +appropriate replies. On one occasion, having been +summoned by the Lady Edmaston, who was lying +sick, she went out into the garden at night, and +called the devil by his terrestrial or mundane <i>alias</i> +of Elva. He bounded over the stone wall in the +likeness of a dog, and approached her so close that +she was frightened, and charged him by ‘the law he +believed in’ to keep his distance. She then asked +him if the lady would recover; he replied in the +negative. In his turn he inquired where the gentlewomen, +her daughters, were; and being informed +that they were to meet her in the garden, said that +one of them should be his leman. ‘Not so,’ +exclaimed the wise wife undauntedly; and the devil +then went away howling, like a whipped schoolboy, +and <em>hid himself in the well</em> until after supper. The +young gentlewomen coming into the bloom and perfumes +of the garden, he suddenly emerged, seized the +Lady Torsenye, and attempted to drag her into the +well; but Agnes gripped him firmly, and by her +superior strength delivered her from his clutches. +Then, with a terrible yell, he disappeared.</p> + +<p>Yet another story: Agnes, with Geillis Duncan +and other witches, desiring to be revenged on the +deputy bailiff, met on the bridge at Fowlistruther, +and dropped a cord into the river, Agnes Sampson +crying, ‘Hail! Holloa!’ Immediately they felt the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>322]</a></span> +end of the cord dragged down by a great weight; +and on drawing it up, up came the devil along with +it! He inquired if they had all been good servants, +and gave them a charm to blight Seton and his +property; but <em>it was accidentally diverted in its operation, +and fell upon another person</em>—a touch of realism +worthy of Defoe!</p> + +<p>Euphemia Macalzean, a lady of high social position, +daughter and heiress of Lord Cliftonhall (who was +eminent as lawyer, statesman, and scholar), seems to +have been involved in this welter of intrigue, conspiracy, +and deception, through her adherence to +Bothwell’s faction, and her devotion to the Roman +communion. Her confession was as grotesque and +unveracious as that of any of her associates. She was +made a witch (she said) through the agency of an +Irishwoman ‘with a fallen nose,’ and, to perfect herself +in the craft, had paid another witch, who resided +in St. Ninian’s Row, Edinburgh, for ‘inaugurating’ +her with ‘the girth of ane gret bikar,’ revolving it +‘oft round her head and neck, and ofttimes round her +head.’ She was accused of having administered poison +to her husband, her father-in-law, and some other +persons; and whatever may be thought of the allegations +of sorcery and witchcraft, this heavier charge +seems to have been well-founded. Euphemia said +that her acquaintance with Agnes Sampson began +with her first accouchement, when she applied to her +to mitigate her pains, and she did so by transferring +them to a dog. At her second accouchement, Agnes +transferred them to a cat.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>323]</a></span> +As a determined enemy of the Protestant religion, +Satan was inimical to King James’s marriage with a +Protestant princess, and to break up an alliance which +would greatly limit his power for evil, he determined +to sink the ship that carried the newly-married couple +on their homeward voyage. His first device was to +hang over the sea a very dense mist, in the hope that +the royal ship would miss her course, and strike on +some dangerous rock. When this device failed, +Dr. Fian was ordered to summon all the witches to +meet their master at the haunted kirk of North +Berwick. Accordingly, on All-Hallow-mass Eve, +they assembled there to the number of two hundred; +and each one embarking in ‘a riddle,’ or sieve,<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> they +sailed over the ocean ‘very substantially,’ carrying +with them flagons of wine, and making merry, +and drinking ‘by the way.’ After sailing about for +some time, they met with their master, bearing in +his claws a cat, which had previously been drawn +nine times through the fire. Handing it to one of +the warlocks, he bade him cast it into the sea, and +shout ‘Hola!’ whereupon the ocean became convulsed, +and the waters seethed, and the billows rose +like heaving mountains. On through the storm +sailed this eerie company until they reached the +Scottish coast, where they landed, and, joining hands, +danced in procession to the kirk of North Berwick, +Geillis Duncan going before them, playing a reel +upon her Jew’s-harp, or trump—formerly a favourite +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>324]</a></span> +musical instrument with the Scotch peasantry—and +singing:</p> + +<div class="cpoem1"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘Cummer, go ye before; cummer, go ye;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gif ye will not go before, cummer, let me!’<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Having arrived at their rendezvous, they danced +round it ‘withershins’—that is, in reverse of the +apparent motion of the sun. Dr. Fian then blew +into the keyhole of the door, which opened immediately, +and all the witches and warlocks entered +in. It was pitch-dark; but Fian lighted the tapers +by merely blowing on them, and their sudden blaze +revealed the devil in the pulpit, attired in a black +gown and hat. The description given of the fiend +reveals the stern imagination of the North, and is +characteristic of the ‘weird sisters’ of Scotland, +who form, as Dr. Burton remarks, so grand a contrast +to ‘the vulgar grovelling parochial witches of +England.’ His body was hard as iron; his face +terrible, with a nose like an eagle’s beak; his eyes +glared like fire; his voice was gruff as the sound of +the east wind; his hands and legs were covered with +hair, and his hands and feet were armed with long +claws. On beholding him, witches and warlocks, +with one accord, cried: ‘All hail, master!’ He then +called over their names, and demanded of them +severally whether they had been good and faithful +servants, and what measure of success had attended +their operations against the lives of King James and +his bride—which surely he ought to have known! +Gray Malkin, a foolish old warlock, who officiated as +beadle or janitor, heedlessly answered, That nothing +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>325]</a></span> +ailed the King yet, God be thanked! At which the +devil, in a fury, leaped from the pulpit, and lustily +smote him on the ears. He then resumed his +position, and delivered his sermon, commanding +them to act faithfully in their service, and do all the +evil they could. Euphemia Macalzean and Agnes +Sampson summoned up courage enough to ask him +whether he had brought an image or picture of the +King, that, by pricking it with pins, they might +inflict upon its living pattern all kinds of pain and +disease. The devil was fain to acknowledge that he +had forgotten it, and was soundly rated by Euphemia +for his carelessness, Agnes Sampson and several +other women seizing the opportunity to load him +with reproaches on their respective accounts.</p> + +<p>On another occasion, according to Agnes Sampson, +she, Dr. Fian, and a wizard of some energy, named +Robert Grierson, with several others, left Grierson’s +house at Preston Pans in a boat, and went out to sea +to ‘a tryst.’ Embarking on board a ship, they +drank copiously of good wine and ale, after which +they sank the ship and her crew, and returned home. +And again, sailing from North Berwick in a boat like +a chimney, they saw the devil—in shape and size +resembling a huge hayrick—rolling over the great +waves in front of them. They went on board a +vessel called <i>The Grace of God</i>, where they enjoyed, +as before, an abundance of wine and ‘other good +cheer.’ On leaving it, the devil, who was underneath +the ship, raised an evil wind, and it perished.</p> + +<p>Some of these stories proved to be too highly +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>326]</a></span> +coloured even for the credulity of King James; and +he rightly enough exclaimed that the witches were, +like their master, ‘extraordinary liars.’ It is said, +however, that he changed his opinion after Agnes +Sampson, in a private conference which he accorded +to her, related the details of a conversation between +himself and the Queen that had taken place under +such circumstances as to ensure inviolable secrecy. +It is curious that a very similar story is told of +Jeanne Darc—whom our ancestors burned as a witch—and +King Charles VI. of France.</p> + +<p>Despite the machinations of the devil and the +witches, King James and Queen Anne, as we know, +escaped every peril, and reached Leith in safety. The +devil sourly remarked that James was ‘a man of +God,’ and was evidently inclined to let him alone +severely; but the Preston Pans conspirators, instigated, +perhaps, by some powerful personages who +kept prudently in the background, resolved on +another attempt against their sovereign’s life. On +Lammas Eve (July 31, 1590), nine of the ringleaders, +including Dr. Fian, Agnes Sampson, +Euphemia Macalzean, and Barbara Napier, with some +thirty confederates, assembled at the New Haven, +between Musselburgh and Preston Pans, at a spot +called the Fairy Holes, where they were met by the +devil in the shape of a black man, which was +‘thought most meet to do the turn for the which +they were convened.’ Agnes Sampson at once proposed +that they should make a final effort for the +King’s destruction. The devil took an unfavourable +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>327]</a></span> +view of the prospects of their schemes; but he +promised them a waxen image, and directed them +to hang up and roast a toad, and to lay its drippings—mixed +with strong wash, an adder’s skin, and ‘the +thing on the forehead of a new-foaled foal’—in +James’s path, or to suspend it in such a position +that it might drip upon his body. This precious +injunction was duly obeyed, and the toad hung up +where the dripping would fall upon the King, +‘during his Majesty’s being at the Brig of Dee, the +day before the common bell rang, for fear the Earl +Bothwell should have entered Edinburgh.’ But the +devil’s foreboding was fulfilled, and the conspirators +missed their aim, the King happening to take a +different route to that by which he had been expected.</p> + +<p>It is useless to repeat more of these wild and +desperate stories, or to inquire too closely into their +origin. Fact and fiction are so mixed up in them, +and the embellishments are so many and so bold, +that it is difficult to get at the nucleus of truth; but, +setting aside the witch or supernatural element, we +seem driven to the conclusion that these persons had +combined together for some nefarious purpose. +Whether they intended to compass the King’s death +by the superstitious practices which the credulity of +the age supposed to be effective, or whether these +practices were intended as a cover for surer means, +cannot now be determined. Nor can we pretend to +say whether all who were implicated in the plot by +the confession of Geillis Duncan were really guilty. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>328]</a></span> +Dr. Fian, at all events, protested his innocence to the +last; and with regard to him and others, the +evidence adduced was painfully inadequate. But +they were all convicted and sentenced to death. In +the case of Barbara Napier, the majority of the jury +at first acquitted her on the principal charges; but +the King was highly indignant, and threatened them +with a trial for ‘wilful error upon an assize.’ To +avoid the consequences, they threw themselves upon +the King’s mercy, and were benevolently ‘pardoned.’ +Poor Barbara Napier was hanged. So was Dr. +Fian, on Castle Hill, Edinburgh (in January, 1592), +and burned afterwards. So were Agnes Sampson, +Agnes Thomson, and their real or supposed confederates. +The punishment of Euphemia Macalzean +was exceptionally severe. Instead of the ordinary +sentence, directing the criminal to be first strangled +and then burnt, it was ordered that she should be +‘bound to a stake, and burned in ashes, <em>quick</em> to the +death.’ This fate befell her on June 25, 1591.</p> + +<p>It was an unhappy result of this remarkable trial +that it confirmed King James in his belief that he +possessed a rare faculty for the detection of witches +and the discovery of witchcraft. Continuing his investigation +of the subject with fanatical zeal, he +published in Edinburgh, in 1597, the outcome of his +researches in his ‘Dæmonologie’—an elaborate +treatise, written in the form of a dialogue, the spirit +of which may be inferred from its author’s prefatory +observations: ‘The fearful abounding,’ he says, ‘at +this time and in this country, of these detestable +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>329]</a></span> +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 mine own learning +and ingene, but only (moved of conscience) to press +thereby, so far as I can, to resolve the doubting +hearts of many, both that such assaults of Satan are +most certainly practised, and that the instrument +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 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 them impunity, he plainly betrays +himself to have been one of that profession.’</p> + +<p>Not only is King James fully convinced of the +existence of witchcraft, but he is determined to treat +it as a capital crime. ‘Witches,’ he affirms, ‘ought to +be put to death, according to the laws of God, the +civil and imperial law, and the municipal law of all +Christian nations; yea, to spare the life, and not +strike whom God bids strike, and so severely punish +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.’ Conscious that the evidence +brought against the unfortunate victims was generally +of the weakest possible character, he contends that +because the crime is generally abominable, evidence in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>330]</a></span> +proof of it may be accepted which would be refused +in other offences; as, for example, that of young +children who are ignorant of the nature of an oath, +and that of persons of notoriously ill-repute. And +the sole chance of escape which he offers to the +accused is that of the ordeal. ‘Two good helps,’ he +says, ‘may be used: the one is the finding of their +marks, and the trying the insensibleness thereof; the +other is their floating on the water, for, as in a secret +murther, if the dead carcase be at any time thereafter +handled by the murtherer, it will gush out of blood, +as if the blood were raging to the Heaven, for revenge +of the murtherer (God having appointed that secret +supernatural sign for trial of that secret unnatural +crime), so that it appears 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; no, not so much as their eyes are +able to shed tears at every light occasion when they +will; yea, although it were dissembling like the +crocodiles, God not permitting them to dissemble +their obstinacy in so horrible a crime.’</p> + + +<p class="break">Encouraged by the practice and teaching of their +sovereign, the people of Scotland, whom the anthropomorphism +of their religious creed naturally predisposed +to believe in the personal appearances of the +devil, undertook a regular campaign against those ill-fated +individuals whom malice or ignorance, or their +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>331]</a></span> +own mental or physical peculiarities, or other causes, +branded as his bond-slaves and accomplices. Religious +animosity, moreover, was a powerful factor in stimulating +and sustaining the mania; and the Scotch +Calvinist enjoyed a double gratification when some +poor old woman was burned both as a witch and a +Roman Catholic. It has been calculated that, in the +period of thirty-nine years, between the enactment of +the Statute of Queen Mary and the accession of James +to the English throne, the average number of persons +executed for witchcraft was 200 annually, making an +aggregate of nearly 8,000. For the first nine years +about 30 or 40 suffered yearly; but latterly the annual +death-roll mounted up to 400 and 500. James at +last grew alarmed at the prevalence of witchcraft +in his kingdom, and seems to have devoted no small +portion of his time to attempts to detect and exterminate +it.</p> + +<p>In 1591 the Earl of Bothwell was imprisoned for +having conspired the King’s death by sorcery, in +conjunction with a warlock named Richie Graham. +Graham was burned on March 8, 1592. Bothwell +was not brought to trial until August 10, 1593, +when several witches bore testimony against him, +but he obtained an acquittal.</p> + +<p>In 1597, on November 12, four women were tried by +the High Court of Justiciary, in Edinburgh, on various +charges of witchcraft. Their names are recorded as +Christina Livingstone, Janet Stewart, Bessie Aikin, +and Christina Sadler. Their trials, however, present +no special features of interest.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>332]</a></span> +Passing over half a century, we come to the recrudescence +of the witch-mania, which followed on the +restoration of Charles II. Mr. R. Burns Begg has +recently edited for the Society of Antiquaries of +Scotland a report of various witch trials in Forfar +and Kincardineshire, in the opening years of that +monarch’s reign, which supplies some further illustrations +of the characteristics of Scottish witchcraft. +Here we meet with the strange word ‘Covin’ or +‘Coven’ (apparently connected with ‘Covenant’ or +‘Convention’) as applied to an organization or guild +of witches. In 1662 the Judge-General-Depute for +Scotland tried thirteen ‘Coviners,’ who had been +detected by the efforts of a committee consisting of +the ministers and schoolmasters of the district, +together with the ‘Laird of Tullibole.’ Of these +thirteen unfortunate victims only one was a man. +All were found guilty by the jury, and sentenced to +death. Eleven suffered at the stake; one died before +the day of execution, and one was respited on account +of her pregnancy. The evidence was of the usual +extraordinary tenor, and the so-called ‘confessions’ +of the accused were not less puzzling than in other +cases. In Mr. Begg’s opinion, which seems to me +well founded, there really <em>was</em> in and around the +Crook of Devon a local Covin, or regularly organized +band of so-called witches who acted under the direction +of a person whom they believed to be Satan. +He suggests that at this period there would be many +wild and unscrupulous characters, disbanded soldiers, +and others, who found their profit in the ‘blinded +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>333]</a></span> +allegiance’ of the witches and warlocks. The difficulty +is, what <em>was</em> this profit? The witches do not +seem to have paid anything in money or in kind. +There are allusions which point to acts of immorality, +and in several instances one can understand that +personal enmities were gratified; but on the whole +the personators of Satan had scant reward for all their +trouble. And how was it that they were never +denounced by any of their victims? How was it +that the vigilance which detected the witches never +tripped up their master? How are we to explain +the diversity of Satan’s appearances? At one time he +was ‘ane bonnie lad;’ at another, an ‘unco-like man, +in black-coloured clothes and ane blue bonnet;’ at +another, a ‘black iron-hard man;’ and yet again, +‘ane little man in rough gray clothes.’ Occasionally +he brought with him a piper, and the witches danced +together, and the ground under them was all fireflaughts, +and Andrew Watson had his usual staff in +his hand, and although he is a blind man, yet danced +he as nimbly as any of the company, and made also +great merriment by singing his old ballads; and +Isabel Shyrrie did sing her song called ‘Tinkletum, +Tankletum.’ Alas, that no obliging pen has transmitted +‘Tinkletum, Tankletum’ to posterity! One +could point to a good many songs which the world +could have better spared. ‘Tinkletum, Tankletum’—there +is something amazingly suggestive in the +words; possibilities of humour, perhaps of satire; +humour and satire which might have secured for +Isabel Shyrrie a place among Scottish poetesses, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>334]</a></span> +whereas now she comes before us in no more attractive +character than that of a Coviner—a deluded or +self-deluding witch.</p> + +<p>Let us next betake ourselves to the East Coast, +and make the acquaintance of Isabel Gowdie, whose +‘confessions’ are among the most extraordinary +documents to be met with even in the records of +Scottish witchcraft. It is impossible, I think, to +overrate their psychological interest. The first is, +perhaps, the most curious; and as no summary or +condensation would do justice to its details, I shall +place it before the reader <i>in extenso</i>, with no other +alteration than that of Englishing the spelling. It +was made at Auldearn on April 13, 1662, in presence +of the parish minister, the sheriff-depute of Nairn, +and nine lairds and farmers of good position:</p> + +<p>‘As I was going betwixt the towns (<i>i.e.</i>, farmsteadings) +of Drumdeevin and The Heads, I met with the +Devil, and there covenanted in a manner with him; +and I promised to meet him, in the night-time, in the +Kirk of Auldearn,<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> which I did. And the first thing +I did there that night, I denied my baptism, and did +put the one of my hands to the crown of my head, +and the other to the sole of my foot, and then +renounced all betwixt my two hands over to the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>335]</a></span> +Devil. He was in the Reader’s desk, and a black book +in his hand. Margaret Brodie, in Auldearn, held me +up to the Devil to be baptized by him, and he marked +me in the shoulder, and sucked out my blood at that +mark, and spouted it in his hand, and, sprinkling it +on my head, said, “I baptize thee, Janet, in my own +name!” And within awhile we all removed. The +next time that I met with him was in the New +Wards of Inshoch.... He was a mickle, black, +rough [hirsute] man, very cold; and I found his +nature all cold within me as spring-wall-water.<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> +Sometimes he had boots, and sometimes shoes on +his feet; but still his feet are forked and cloven. He +would be sometimes with us like a deer or a roe. +John Taylor and Janet Breadhead, his wife, in +Belmakeith, ... Douglas, and I myself, met in the +kirkyard of Nairn, and we raised an unchristened +child out of its grave; and at the end of Bradley’s +cornfieldland, just opposite to the Mill of Nairn, we +took the said child, with the nails of our fingers and +toes, pickles of all sorts of grain, and blades of kail +[colewort], and hacked them all very small, mixed +together; and did put a part thereof among the +muck-heaps, and thereby took away the fruit of his +corns, etc., and we parted it among two of our Covins. +When we take corns at Lammas, we take but about +two sheaves, when the corns are full; or two stalks of +kail, or thereby, and that gives us the fruit of the +corn-land or kail-yard, where they grew. And it +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>336]</a></span> +may be, we will keep it until Yule or Pasche, and +then divide it amongst us. There are thirteen persons +[the usual number] in my Covin.</p> + +<p>‘The last time that our Covin met, we, and another +Covin, were dancing at the Hill of Earlseat; and +before that, betwixt Moynes and Bowgholl; and +before that we were beyond the Mickle-burn; and the +other Covin being at the Downie-hills, we went from +beyond the Mickle-burn, and went beside them, to the +houses at the Wood-End of Inshoch; and within a +while went home to our houses. Before Candlemas +we went be-east Kinloss, and there we yoked a plough +of paddocks [frogs]. The Devil held the plough, and +John Young, in Mebestown, our Officer, did drive +the plough. Paddocks did draw the plough as oxen; +<em>quickens wor sowmes</em> [dog-grass served for traces]; a +riglon’s [ram’s] horn was a coulter, and a piece of a +riglon’s horn was a sock. We went two several times +about; and all we of the Covin went still up and +down with the plough, praying to the Devil for the +fruit of that land, and that thistles and briars might +grow there.</p> + +<p>‘When we go to any house, we take meat and +drink; and we fill up the barrels with our own ... again; +and we put besoms in our beds with our +husbands, till we return again to them. We were in +the Earl of Moray’s house in Darnaway, and we got +enough there, and did eat and drink of the best, and +brought part with us. We went in at the windows. +I had a little horse, and would say, “Horse and +Hattock, in the Devil’s name!” And then we would +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>337]</a></span> +fly away, where we would, like as straws would fly +upon a highway. We will fly like straws where we +please; wild straws and corn-straws will be horses to +us, and we put them betwixt our feet and say, +“Horse and Hattock, in the Devil’s name!” And +when any see these straws in a whirlwind, and do +not sanctify themselves, we may shoot them dead at +our pleasure. Any that are shot by us, their souls +will go to Heaven, but their bodies remain with us, +and will fly as horses to us, as small as straws.<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a></p> + +<p>‘I was in the Downie Hills, and got meat there from +the Queen of Fairy, more than I could eat. The +Queen of Fairy is heavily clothed in white linen, and +in white and lemon clothes, etc.; and the King of +Fairy is a brave man, well favoured, and broad-faced, +etc. There were elf-bulls, routing and skirling up +and down there, and they affrighted me.</p> + +<p>‘When we take away any cow’s milk, we pull the +tail, and twine it and plait it the wrong way, in the +Devil’s name; and we draw the tedder (so made) in +betwixt the cow’s hinder-feet, and out betwixt the +cow’s fore-feet, in the Devil’s name, and thereby take +with us the cow’s milk. We take sheep’s milk even +so [in the same manner]. The way to take or give +back the milk again, is to cut that tedder. When we +take away the strength of any person’s ale, and give +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>338]</a></span> +it to another, we take a little quantity out of each +barrel or stand of ale, and put it in a stoop in the +Devil’s name, and in his name, with our own hands, +put it amongst another’s ale, and give her the strength +and substance and “heall” of her neighbour’s ale. +And to keep the ale from us, that we have no power +over it, is to sanctify it well. We get all this power +from the Devil; and when we seek it from him, we +will him to be “our Lord.”</p> + +<p>‘John Taylor, and Janet Breadhead, his wife, in +Belmakeith, Bessie Wilson in Aulderne, and Margaret +Wilson, spouse to Donald Callam in Aulderne, and I, +made a picture of clay, to destroy the Laird of Park’s +male children. John Taylor brought home the clay +in his plaid nook [the corner of his plaid]; his wife +broke it very small, like meal, and sifted it with a +sieve, and poured in water among it, in the Devil’s +name, and wrought it very sure, like rye-bout [a stir-about +made of rye-flour]; and made of it a picture of +the laird’s sons. It had all the parts and marks of a +child, such as head, eyes, nose, hands, feet, mouth, +and little lips. It wanted no mark of a child, and +the hands of it folded down by its sides. It was like +a pow [lump of dough], or a flayed <em>egrya</em> [a sucking-pig, +which has been scalded and scraped]. We laid +the face of it to the fire, till it strakned [shrivelled], +and a clear fire round about it, till it was red like a +coal. After that, we would roast it now and then; +each other day there would be a piece of it well +roasted. The Laird of Park’s whole male children +by it are to suffer, if it be not gotten and brokin, as +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>339]</a></span> +well as those that are born and dead already. It was +still put in and taken out of the fire in the Devil’s +name. It was hung up upon a crock. It is yet in +John Taylor’s house, and it has a cradle of clay about +it. Only John Taylor and his wife, Janet Breadhead, +Bessie and Margaret Wilson in Aulderne, and +Margaret Brodie, these, and I, were only at the +making of it. All the multitude of our number of +witches, of all the Covins, kent [<em>kenned</em>, knew] all of +it, at our next meeting after it was made. And the +witches yet that are overtaken have their own powers, +and our powers which we had before we were taken, +both. But now I have no power at all.</p> + +<p>‘Margaret Kyllie, in ... is one of the other +Covin; Meslie Hirdall, spouse to Alexander Ross, in +Loanhead, is one of them; her skin is fiery. Isabel +Nicol, in Lochley, is one of my Covin. Alexander +Elder, in Earlseat, and Janet Finlay, his spouse, are +of my Covin. Margaret Haslum, in Moynes, is one; +Margaret Brodie, in Aulderne, Bessie and Margaret +Wilson there, and Jane Martin there, and Elspet +Nishie, spouse to John Mathew there, are of my +Covin. The said Jane Martin is the Maiden of our +Covin. John Young, in Mebestown, is Officer to +our Covin.</p> + +<p>‘Elspet Chisholm, and Isabel More, in Aulderne, +Maggie Brodie ... and I, went into Alexander +Cumling’s litt-house [dye-house], in Aulderne. I +went in, in the likeness of a ken [jackdaw]; the said +Elspet Chisholm was in the shape of a cat. Isabel +More was a hare, and Maggie Brodie a cat, and.... +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>340]</a></span> +We took a thread of each colour of yarn that was on +the said Alexander Cumling’s litt-fatt [dyeing-vat], +and did cast three knots on each thread, in the Devil’s +name, and did put the threads in the vat, <em>withersones</em> +about in the vat in the Devil’s name, and thereby +took the whole strength of the vat away, that it +could litt [dye] nothing but only black, according to +the colour of the Devil, in whose name we took away +the strength of the right colours that were in the vat.’</p> + + +<p class="break">The second confession, made at Aulderne, on May 3, +1662, is not less remarkable than the foregoing:</p> + +<p>‘... After that time there would meet but sometimes +a Covin [<i>i.e.</i>, thirteen], sometimes more, sometimes +less; but a Grand Meeting would be about the +end of each Quarter. There is thirteen persons in each +Covin; and each of us has one Sprite to wait upon us, +when we please to call upon him. I remember not all +the Sprites’ names, but there is one called <em>Swin</em>, which +waits upon the said Margaret Wilson in Aulderne; he +is still [ever] clothed in grass-green; and the said +Margaret Wilson has a nickname, called “Pickle +nearest the wind.” The next Sprite is called “Rosie,” +who waits upon Bessie Wilson, in Aulderne; he is +still clothed in yellow; and her nickname is “Through +the cornyard.” ... The third Sprite is called “The +Roaring Lion,” who waits upon Isabel Nicol, in +Lochlors; and [he is still clothed<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a>] in sea-green; +her nickname is “Bessie Rule.” The fourth Sprite is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>341]</a></span> +called “Mak Hector,” who [waits upon Jane<a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a>] +Martin, daughter to the said Margaret Wilson; he is a +young-like devil, clothed still in grass-green. [Jane +Martin is<a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a>] Maiden to the Covin that I am of; and +her nickname is “Over the dyke with it,” because the +Devil [always takes the<a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a>] Maiden in his hand nix +time we damn “Gillatrypes;” and when he would leap +from ...<a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> he and she will say, “Over the dyke with +it!” The name of the fifth Sprite is “Robert the +[Rule,” and he is still clothed in<a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a>] sad-dun, and seems +to be a Commander of the rest of the Sprites; and +he waits upon Margaret Brodie, in Aulderne. [The +name of the saxt Sprite] is called “Thief of Hell +wait upon Herself;” and he waits also on the said +Bessie Wilson. The name of the seventh [Sprite is +called] “The Read Reiver;” and he is my own Spirit, +that waits on myself, and is still clothed in black. +The eighth Spirit [is called] “Robert the Jackis,” still +clothed in dun, and seems to be aged. He is a +glaiked, glowked Spirit! The woman’s [nickname] +that he waits on is “Able and Stout!” [This was +Bessie Hay.] The ninth Spirit is called “Laing,” +and the woman’s nickname that he waits upon is +“Bessie Bold” [Elspet Nishie]. The tenth Spirit is +named “Thomas a Fiarie,” etc. There will be many +other Devils, waiting upon [our] Master Devil; but +he is bigger and more awful than the rest of the +Devils, and they all reverence him. I will ken +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>342]</a></span> +them all, one by one, from others, when they appear +like a man.</p> + +<p>‘When we raise the wind, we take a rag of cloth, +and wet it in water; and we take a beetle and knock +the rag on a stone, and we say thrice over:</p> + +<div class="cpoem1"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘“I knock this rag upon this stane,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To raise the wind, in the Devil’s name;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It shall not lie until I please again!”<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>When we would lay the wind, we dry the rag, and +say (thrice over):</p> + +<div class="cpoem5"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘“We lay the wind in the Devil’s name,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">[It shall not] rise while we [or I] like to raise it again!”<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>And if the wind will not lie instantly [after we say +this], we call upon our Spirit, and say to him:</p> + +<div class="cpoem7"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘“Thief! Thief! conjure the wind, and cause it to [lie?...]”<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>We have no power of rain, but we will raise the wind +when we please. He made us believe [...] that +there was no God beside him.</p> + +<p>‘As for Elf arrow-heads, the Devil shapes them +with his own hand [and afterwards delivers them?] +to Elf-boys, who “whyttis and dightis” [shapes and +trims] them with a sharp thing like a packing-needle; +but [when I was in Elf-land?] I saw them whytting +and dighting them. When I was in the Elves’ +houses, they will have very ... them whytting and +dighting; and the Devil gives them to us, each of us +so many, when.... Those that dightis them are +little ones, hollow, and boss-backed [humped-backed]. +They speak gowstie [roughly] like. When the +Devil gives them to us, he says:</p> + +<div class="cpoem3"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>343]</a></span> +<span class="i0">‘“Shoot these in my name,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And they shall not go heall hame!”<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>And when we shoot these arrows (we say):</p> + +<div class="cpoem7"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘“I shoot you man in the Devil’s name,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He shall not win heall hame!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And this shall be always true;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There shall not be one bit of him on lieiw” [on life, alive].<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>‘We have no bow to shoot with, but spang [jerk] +them from the nails of our thumbs. Sometimes we +will miss; but if they twitch [touch], be it beast, or +man, or woman, it will kill, tho’ they had a jack [a +coat of armour] upon them. When we go in the +shape of a hare, we say thrice over:</p> + +<div class="cpoem1"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘“I shall go into a hare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With sorrow, and such, and mickle care;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I shall go in the Devil’s name,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ay, until I come home [again!].”<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>And instantly we start in a hare. And when we +would be out of that shape, we will say:</p> + +<div class="cpoem4"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘“Hare! hare! God send thee care!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I am in a hare’s likeness just now,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But I shall be in a woman’s likeness even [now].”<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>When we would go in the likeness of a cat, we say +thrice over:</p> + +<div class="cpoem1"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘“I shall go [intill ane cat],<br /></span> +<span class="i0">[With sorrow, and such, and a black] shot!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I shall go in the Devil’s name,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ay, until I come home again!”<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>And if we [would go in a crow, then] we say thrice +over:</p> + +<div class="cpoem2"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>344]</a></span> +<span class="i0">‘“I shall go intill a crow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With sorrow, and such, and a black [thraw!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I shall go in the Devil’s name,]<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ay, until I come home again!”<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>And when we would be out of these shapes, we say:</p> + +<div class="cpoem8"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘“Cat, cat [or crow, crow], God send thee a black shot [or black thraw!]<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I was a cat [or crow] just now,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But I shall be [in a woman’s likeness even now].<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cat, cat” [as <i>supra</i>].<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>If we go in the shape of a cat, a crow, a hare, or +any other likeness, etc., to any of our neighbours’ +houses, being witches, we will say:</p> + +<div class="cpoem2"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘“[I (or we) conjure] thee go with us [or me]!”<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>And presently they become as we are, either cats, +hares, crows, etc., and go [with us whither we would. +When] we would ride, we take windle-straws, or +been-stakes [bean-stalks], and put them betwixt our +feet, and say thrice:</p> + +<div class="cpoem1"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘“Horse and Hattock, horse and go,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Horse and pellatris, ho! ho!”<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>And immediately we fly away wherever we would; +and lest our husbands should miss us out of our beds, +we put in a besom, or a three-legged stool, beside +them, and say thrice over:</p> + +<div class="cpoem5"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘“I lay down this besom [or stool] in the Devil’s name,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let it not stir till I come home again!”<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>And immediately it seems a woman, by the side of our +husband.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>345]</a></span> +‘We cannot turn in[to] the likeness of [a lamb or +a dove?] When my husband sold beef, I used to +put a swallow’s feather in the head of the beast, and +[say thrice],</p> + +<div class="cpoem4"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘“[I] put out this beef in the Devil’s name,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That mickle silver and good price come hame!”<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>‘I did even so [whenever I put] forth either horse, +nolt [cattle], webs [of cloth], or any other thing to +be sold, and still put in this feather, and said the +[same words thrice] over, to cause the commodities +sell well, and ... thrice over—</p> + +<div class="cpoem3"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘“Our Lord to hunting he [is gone]<br /></span> +<span class="i0">.......... marble stone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He sent word to Saint Knitt ...”<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>‘When we would heal any sore or broken limb, +we say thrice over....</p> + +<div class="cpoem9"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘“He put the blood to the blood, till all up stood;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The lith to the lith, Till all took nith;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our Lady charmed her dearly Son, With her tooth and her tongue,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And her ten fingers—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost!”<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>‘And this we say thrice over, stroking the sore, +and it becomes whole. 2ndlie. For the Bean-Shaw +[bone-shaw, <i>i.e.</i>, the sciatica], or pain in the haunch: +“We are here three Maidens charming for the bean-shaw; +the man of the Midle-earth, blew beaver, land-fever, +maneris of stooris, the Lord fleigged (terrified) +the Fiend with his holy candles and yard foot-stone! +There she sits, and here she is gone! Let her never +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>346]</a></span> +come here again!” 3rdli. For the fevers, we say +thrice over, “I forbid the quaking-fevers, the sea-fevers, +the land-fevers, and all the fevers that God +ordained, out of the head, out of the heart, out of the +back, out of the sides, out of the knees, out of the +thighs, from the points of the fingers to the nibs of +the toes; net fall the fevers go, [some] to the hill, +some to the heep, some to the stone, some to the +stock. In St. Peter’s name, St. Paul’s name, and all +the Saints of Heaven. In the name of the Father, +the Son, and of the Holy Ghost!” And when we +took the fruit of the fishes from the fishers, we went +to the shore before the boat would come to it; and +we would say, on the shore-side, three several times +over:</p> + +<div class="cpoem4"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘“The fishers are gone to the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And they will bring home fish to me;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They will bring them home intill the boat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But they shall get of them but the smaller sort!”<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>So we either steal a fish, or buy a fish, or get a fish +from them [for naught], one or more. And with +that we have all the fruit of the whole fishes in the +boat, and the fishes that the fishermen themselves will +have will be but froth, etc.</p> + +<p>‘The first voyage that ever I went with the rest of +our Covins was [to] Ploughlands; and there we shot +a man betwixt the plough-stilts, and he presently +fell to the ground, upon his nose and his mouth; and +then the Devil gave me an arrow, and caused me +shoot a woman in that field; which I did, and she fell +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>347]</a></span> +down dead.<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> In winter of 1660, when Mr. Harry +Forbes, Minister at Aulderne, was sick, we made a +bag of the galls, flesh, and guts of toads, pickles of +barley, parings of the nails of fingers and toes, the +liver of a hare, and bits of clouts. We steeped all +this together, all night among water, all hacked (or +minced up) through other. And when we did put it +among the water, Satan was with us, and learned us +the words following, to say thrice over. They are +thus:</p> + +<div class="cpoem9"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘1st. “He is lying in his bed; he is lying sick and sore;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Let him lie intill his bed two months and [three] days more!<br /></span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘2nd. “Let him lie intill his bed; let him lie intill it sick and sore;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Let him lie intill his bed months two and three days more!<br /></span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘3rd. “He shall lie intill his bed, he shall lie in it sick and sore;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He shall lie intill his bed two months and three days more!”<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>‘When we had learned all these words from the +Devil, as said is, we fell all down upon our knees, +with our hair down over our shoulders and eyes, and +our hands lifted up, and our eyes [upon] the Devil, +and said the foresaid words thrice over to the Devil, +strictly, against [the recovery of] Master Harry +Forbes [from his sickness]. In the night time we +came in to Mr. Harry Forbes’s chamber, where he +lay, with our hands all smeared out of the bag, to +swing it upon Mr. Harry, when he was sick in his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>348]</a></span> +bed; and in the daytime [one of our] number, who +was most familiar and intimate with him, to wring or +swing the bag [upon the said Mr. Harry, as we +could] not prevail in the night time against him, +which was accordingly done. Any of ... comes in +to your houses, or are set to do you evil, they will look +uncouth—like, thrown ... hurly-like, and their +clothes standing out. The Maiden of our Covin, +Jane Martin, was [.... We] do no great matter +without our Maiden.</p> + +<p>‘And if a child be forespoken [bewitched], we take +the cradle ... through it thrice, and then a dog +through it; and then shake the belt above the fire +[... and then cast it] down on the ground, till a +dog or cat go over it, that the sickness may come +[... upon the dog or cat].’</p> + + +<p class="break">With these extended quotations the reader will +probably be satisfied, and in concluding my account +of Isabel Gowdie, I must now adopt a process of +condensation.</p> + +<p>Among other freaks and fancies of a disordered +imagination, Isabel declared that she merited to be +stretched upon a rack of iron, and that if torn to +pieces by wild horses, the punishment would not +exceed the measure of her iniquities. These iniquities +comprehended every act attributed by the superstition +of the time to the servants of the devil, which had +been carefully gathered up by this monomaniac from +contemporary witch-tradition. The cruellest thing +was, that she involved so large a number of innocent +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>349]</a></span> +persons in the peril into which she herself had recklessly +plunged, naming nearly fifty women, and I forget +how many men, as her associates or accomplices. +She affirmed that they dug up from their graves the +bodies of unbaptized infants, and having dismembered +them, made use of the limbs in their incantations. +That when they wished to destroy an enemy’s crops, +they yoked toads to his plough; and on the following +night the devil, with this strange team, drove furrows +into the land, and blasted it effectually. The devil, +it would seem, was so long and so incessantly occupied +with high affairs in Scotland, that surely the +rest of the world must have escaped meanwhile the +evils of his interference! Witches, added Isabel, were +able to assume almost any shape, but their usual +choice was that of a hare, or perhaps a cat. There +was some risk in either assumption. Once it happened +that Isabel, in her disguise of a hare, was hotly +pursued by a pack of hounds, and narrowly escaped +with her life. When she reached her cottage-door +she could feel the hot breath of her pursuers on her +haunches; but, contriving to slip behind a chest, she +found time to speak the magic words which alone +could restore her to her natural shape, namely:</p> + +<div class="cpoem3"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘Hare! hare! God send thee care!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I am in a hare’s likeness now;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But I shall be a woman e’en now.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hare! hare! God send thee care!’<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>If witches, while wearing the shape of hare or cat, +were bitten by the dogs, they always retained the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>350]</a></span> +marks on their human bodies. When the devil +called a convention of his servants, each proceeded +through the air—like the witches of Lapland and +other countries—astride on a broomstick [or it +might be on a corn or bean straw], repeating as they +went the rhyme:</p> + +<div class="cpoem3"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘Horse and paddock, horse and go,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Horse and pellatris, ho! ho!’<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>They usually left behind them a broom, or three-legged +stool, which, properly charmed and placed in +bed, assumed a likeness to themselves until they +returned, and prevented suspicion. This seems to +have been the practice of witches everywhere. +Witches specially favoured by their master were provided +with a couple of imps as attendants, who +boasted such very mundane names as ‘The Roaring +Lion,’ ‘Thief of Hell,’ ‘Ranting Roarer,’ and ‘Care for +Nought’—a great improvement on the vulgar monosyllables +worn by the English imps—and were dressed, +as already described, in distinguishing liveries: sea-green, +pea-green, grass-green, sad-dun, and yellow. +The witches were never allowed—at least, not in the +infernal presence—to call themselves, or one another, +by their baptismal names, but were required to use +the appellations bestowed on the devil when he rebaptized +them, such as ‘Blue Kail,’ ‘Raise the Wind,’ +‘Batter-them-down Maggie,’ and ‘Able and Stout.’ +The reader will find in the reports of the trial much +more of this grotesque nonsense—the vapourings of +a distempered brain. The judges, however, took it +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>351]</a></span> +seriously, and Isabel Gowdie, or Gilbert, and many of +her presumed accomplices, were duly strangled and +burned (in April, 1662).</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> + +<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> +So the witch in ‘Macbeth’ (Act I., sc. 3) says:</p> + +<div class="cpoem6"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘In a sieve I’ll thither sail.’<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +</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> +It is a singular circumstance, as Pitcairn remarks, that in +almost all the confessions of witches, or at least of the Scottish +witches, their initiation, and many of their meetings, are said to +have taken place within churches, churchyards, and consecrated +ground; and a certain ritual, in imitation, or mockery, of the +forms of the Church, is uniformly said to have been gone through.</p> +</div> + +<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> +In the Forfarshire reports, alluded to on p. <a href="#Page_332">332</a>, the witches +always speak of the devil’s body and kiss as deadly cold.</p> +</div> + +<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> +Pitcairn remarks, with justice, that the above details are, +perhaps, in all respects the most extraordinary in the history of +witchcraft of this or of any other country. Isabel Gowdie must +have been a woman with a powerful and rank imagination, who, +had she lived in the present day, might, perhaps, have produced +a work of fiction of the school of Zola.</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> +There are mutilations in the original manuscript, and the +bracketed words are conjectural.</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> +These, it is needless to say, were pure inventions, and by no +means amusing ones.</p> +</div> + + +<h3>CASE OF JANET WISHART.</h3> + +<p>The case of Janet Wishart, wife of John Leyis, +carries us away to the North of Scotland. It presents +some peculiar features, and therefore I shall put it +before the reader, with no more abridgment than is +absolutely needful. It is of much earlier date than +the preceding.<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a></p> + +<p>‘i. In the month of April, or thereabout, in 1591, +in the “gricking” of the day, [that is, in the dawn,] +Janet Wishart, on her way back from the blockhouse +and Fattie, where she had been holding conference +with the devil, pursued Alexander Thomson, mariner, +coming forth of Aberdeen to his ship, ran between +him and Alexander Fidler, under the Castle Hill, as +swift, it appeared to him, as an arrow could be shot +forth of a bow, going betwixt him and the sun, and +cast her “cantrips” in his way. Whereupon, the said +Alexander Thomson took an immediate “fear and +trembling,” and was forced to hasten home, take to +his bed, and lie there for the space of a month, so +that none believed he would live;—one half of the +day burning in his body, as if he had been roasting +in an oven, with an extreme feverish thirst, “so that +he could never be satisfied of drink,” the other half of +the day melting away his body with an extraordinarily +cold sweat. And Thomson, knowing she +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>352]</a></span> +had cast this kind of witchcraft upon him, sent his +wife to threaten her, that, unless she at once relieved +him, he would see that she was burnt. And she, +fearing lest he should accuse her, sent him by the two +women a certain kind of beer and some other drugs +to drink, after which Thomson mended daily, and recovered +his former health.’</p> + +<p>It is to be noted that Janet flatly denied the +coming of Mrs. Thomson on any such errand.</p> + +<p>‘ii. Seven years before, on St. Bartholomew’s Day, +when Andrew Ardes, webster [weaver], in his play, +took a linen towel, and put it about the said Janet’s +neck, not fearing any evil from her, or that she would +be offended, Janet, “in a devilish fury and wodnes” +[madness], exclaimed, “Why teasest thou me? +Thou shalt die! I shall give bread to my bairns +this towmound [twelvemonth], but thou shalt not +bide a month with thine to give them bread.” And +immediately after the said Andrew’s departure from +her, he took to his bed for the space of eight days: +the one half of the day roasting in his whole body as +in a furnace, and the other half with a vehement +sweat melting away; so that, by her cruel murther +and witchcraft, the said Andrew Ardes died within +eight days. And the day after his departure, his +widow, “contracting a high displeasure,” took to her +bed, and within a month deceased; so that all their +bairns are now begging their meat.’</p> + +<p>This was testified to be true by Elspeth Ewin, +spouse to James Mar, mariner, but was denied by +the accused.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>353]</a></span> +‘iii. Twenty-four years ago, in the month of May, +when she dwelt on the School Hill, next to Adam +Mair’s, she was descried by Andrew Brabner the +younger, John Leslie, of the Gallowgate, Robert +Sanders, wright, Andrew Simson, tailor, and one +Johnson, who were then schoolboys, stealing forth +from the said Adam Mair’s yard, at two in the morning, +“greyn growand bear;” and instantly, being +pointed out by the said scholars to the wife of the +said Adam, she, in her fury, burst forth upon the +scholars: “Well have ye schemed me, but I shall +gar the best of you repent!” And she added that, +ere four in the afternoon, she would make as many +wonder at them as should see them. Upon the same +day, between two and three in the afternoon, the said +scholars passed to the Old Watergang in the Links to +wash themselves; and after they had done so, and +dried, the said John Leslie and Johnson took a race +beside the Watergang, and desperately threw themselves +into the midst of the Watergang, and were +drowned, through the witchcraft which Janet had +cast upon them. And thus, as she had promised, she +did murder them.’</p> + +<p>This was testified by Robert Sanders and Andrew +Simson, but was denied by the accused.</p> + +<p>‘iv. Sixteen years since, or thereby, she [the accused] +and Malcolm Carr’s wife, having fallen at variance +and discord, she openly vowed that the latter should +be confined to her bed for a year and a day, and +should not make for herself a single cake: immediately +after which discord, the said Malcolm’s wife +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>354]</a></span> +went to her own house, sought her bed, and lay half +a year bed-stricken by the witchcraft Janet had cast +upon her, according to her promise; one half of the +day burning up her whole body as in a fiery furnace, +the other half melting away her body with an extraordinary +sweat, with a <em>congealed coldness</em>.’</p> + +<p>v. She was also accused of lending to Meryann +Nasmith a pair of head-sheets in childbed, into which +she put her witchcraft: which sheets, as soon as she +knew they had taken heat about the woman’s head, +immediately she went and took them from her; and +before she [Janet] was well out of the house, Meryann +went out of her mind, and was bound hand and +foot for three days.</p> + +<p>vi. Three years since, or thereby, James Ailhows, +having been a long time in her service, Janet desired +him to continue with her, and on his refusing, ‘Gang +where you please,’ she said, ‘I will see that you do +not earn a single cake of bread for a year and a day.’ +And as soon as he quitted her service, he was seized +with an extremely heavy sickness and (wodnes) +delirium, with a continual burning heat and cold +sweating, and lay bedfast half a year, according to +her promise, through the devilish witchcraft she had +cast upon him. So that he was compelled to send to +Benia for another witch to take the witchcraft from +him: who came to this town and washed him in +water <em>running south</em>, and put him through a girth, +with some other ceremonies that she used. And he +paid her seventeen marks, and by her help recovered +health again.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>355]</a></span> +vii. For twenty years past she continually and +nightly, after eleven o’clock, when her husband and +servants had gone to their beds, put on a great fire, +and kept it up all night, and sat before it using +witchcraft, altogether contrary to the nature of well-living +persons. And on those nights when she did +not make up the fire, she went out of the house, and +stayed away all night where she pleased.</p> + +<p>viii. She caused ...., then in her service, and +lately shepherd to Mr. Alexander Fraser, to take +certain drugs of witchcraft made by her, such as old +shoon, and cast them in the fire of John Club, stabler, +her neighbour; since which time, through her witchcraft, +the said John Club has become completely impoverished.</p> + +<p>ix. She and Janet Patton having fallen into +variance and discord, Janet Patton called the witch +‘Karling,’ to whom she answered that she would +give her to understand if she was a witch, and would +try her skill upon her. And immediately afterwards, +Janet Patton [like everybody else concerned in these +mysterious doings] took to her bed, with a vehement, +great, and extraordinary sickness, for one half the day, +from her middle up, burning as in a fiery furnace, +with an insatiable drought, which she could not slake; +the other half-day, melting away with sweat, and from +her middle down as cold as ice, so that through the +witchcraft cast upon her she died within a month.</p> + +<p>x. The particulars given of the case of James +Lowe, stabler, are almost the same. He refused to +lend his kill and barn, and on the same day he was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>356]</a></span> +seized with this remarkable sickness—half a day +burning hot, and half a day ice-cold. On his death-bed +he accused Janet Wishart of being the cause of +his misfortune, saying, “That if he had lent to her +his kill and kilbarn, he wald haf bene ane lewand +man.” His wife and only son died of the same kind +of disease, and his whole gear, amounting to more +than £3,000, was altogether wracked and thrown away, +so that there was left no memory of the said James, +succession of his body, nor of their gear.</p> + +<p>xi. John Pyet, stabler, is named as another victim.</p> + +<p>xii. There is an air of novelty about the next case, +that of John Allan, cutler, Janet Wishart’s son-in-law. +Quarrelling with his wife, he ‘dang’ her, ‘whereupon +Mistress Allan complained to her mother, who +immediately betook herself to her son-in-law’s house, +‘bostit’ him, and promised to gar him repent that +ever he saw or kent her. Shortly afterwards, either +she or the devil her master, in the likeness of a brown +tyke, came nightly for five or six weeks to his +window, forced it open, leaped upon the said John, +dang and buffeted him, while always sparing his +wife, who lay in bed with him, so that the said John +became half-wod and furious.’ And this persecution +continued, until he threatened to inform the ministry +and kirk-session.</p> + +<p>xiii. The next case must be given verbatim, it is +so striking an example of ignorant prejudice:</p> + +<p>‘Four years since, or thereby, she came in to Walter +Mealing’s dwelling-house, in the Castlegate of Aberdeen, +to buy wool, which they refused to sell. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>357]</a></span> +Thereafter, she came to the said Walter’s bairn, sitting on +her mother’s knee, and the said Walter played with +her. And she said, “This is a comely child, a fine +child,” without any further words, and would not +say “God save her!” And before she reached the +stair-foot, the bairn, by her witchcraft, in presence of +both her father and mother, “cast her gall,” changed +her colour like dead, and became as weak as “ane +pair of glwffis,” and melted continually away with an +extraordinary sweating and extreme drought, which +that same day eight days, at the same hour, she came +in first, and then the bairn departed. And for no +request nor command of the said Walter, nor others +whom he directed, she would not come in again to +the house to “visie” the bairn, although she was oft +and divers times sent for, both by the father and +mother of the bairn, and so by her witchcraft she +murdered the bairn.’</p> + +<p>xiv. On Yule Eve, in ’94, at three in the morning, +Janet, remaining in Gilbert Mackay’s stair in the +Broadgate, perceived Bessie Schives, spouse of Robert +Blinschell, going forth of her own house to the +dwelling-house of James Davidson, notary, to his +wife, who was in travail. She came down the stair, +and cast her cantrips and witchcraft in her way, and +the said Bessie being in perfect health of body, and +as blithe and merry as ever she was in her days, +when she went out of the same James Davidson’s +house, or ever she could win up her own stair, took a +great fear and trembling that she might scarcely win +up her own stair, and immediately after her +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>358]</a></span> +up-coming, went to her naked bed, lay continually for +the space of eighteen weeks fast bed-sick, bewitched +by Janet Wishart, the one half-day roasting as in a +fiery furnace, with an extraordinary kind of drought, +that she could not be slaked, and the other half-day +in an extraordinary kind of sweating, melting, and +consuming her body, as a white burning candle, +which kind of sickness is a special point of witchcraft; +and the said Bessie Schives saw none other +but Janet only, who is holden and reputed a common +witch.</p> + +<p>xv. At Midsummer was a year or thereby, Elspeth +Reid, her daughter-in-law, came into her house at +three in the morning, and found her sitting, mother +naked as she was born, at the fireside, and another +old wife siclike mother naked, sitting between her +shoulders[!], making their cantrips, whom the said +Elspeth seeing, after she said ‘God speed,’ immediately +went out of the house; thereafter, on the same +day, returned again, and asked of her, what she was +doing with that old wife? To whom she answered, +that she was charming her. And as soon as the said +Elspeth went forth again from Janet Wishart’s house, +immediately she took an extraordinary kind of sickness, +and became ‘like a dead senseless fool,’ and so +continued for half a year.</p> + +<p>xvi. She [Janet] and her daughter, Violet Leyis, +desired ... her woman to go with her said +daughter, at twelve o’clock at night, to the gallows, +and cut down the dead man hanging thereon, and +take a part of all his members from him, and burn +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>359]</a></span> +the corpse, which her servant would not do, and, +therefore, she was instantly sent away.</p> + +<p>xvii. The following deposition is, however, the +most singular of all:</p> + +<p>Twelve years since, or thereby, Janet came into +Katherine Rattray’s, behind the Tolbooth, and while +she was drinking in the said Katherine’s cellar, +Katherine reproved her for drinking in her house, +because, she said, she was a witch. Whereupon, she +took a cup full of ale, and cast it in her face, and said +that if she were indeed a witch, the said Katherine +should have proof of it; and immediately after she +had quitted the cellar, the barm of the said Katherine’s +ale all sank to the bottom of the stand, and no had abaid +[a bead] thereon during the space of sixteen weeks. +And the said Katherine finding herself ‘skaithit,’ +complained to her daughter, Katherine Ewin, who +was then in close acquaintance with Janet, that she +had bewitched her mother’s ale; and immediately +thereafter the said Katherine Ewin called on Janet, +and said, ‘Why bewitched you my mother’s ale?’ and +requested her to help the same again. Which Janet +promised, if Katherine Ewin obeyed her instructions +... to rise early before the sun, without commending +herself to God, or speaking, and neither +suining herself nor her son sucking on her breast; to +go, still without speaking, to the said Katherine +Rattray’s house, and not to cross any water, nor +wash her hands; and enter into the said Katherine +Rattray’s house, where she would find her servant +brewing, and say to her thrice, ‘I to God, and thou +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>360]</a></span> +to the devil!’ and to restore the same barm where it +was again; ‘and to take up thrie dwattis on the +southt end of the gauttreyis, and thair scho suld find +ane peice of claithe, fowr newikit, with greyn, red, +and blew, and thrie corss of clewir girss, and cast the +same in the fyir; quhilk beand cassin in, her barm +suld be restorit to hir againe, lyik as it was restorit +in effect.’ And the said Katherine Ewin, when +cracking [gossiping] with her neighbours, said she +could learn them a charm she had gotten from Janet +Wishart, which when the latter heard, she promised +to do her an evil turn, and immediately her son, sucking +on her breast, died. And at her first browst, or +brewing, thereafter, the whole wort being played and +put in ‘lumes,’ the doors fast, and the keys at her +own belt, the whole wort was taken away, and the +haill lumes fundin dry, and the floor dry, and she +could never get trial where it yird to. And when the +said Katherine complained to the said Janet Wishart, +and dang herself and her good man both, for injuries +done to her by taking of her son’s life and her wort +[which Katherine seems to have thought of about +equal value], she promised that all should be well, +giving her her draff for payment. And the said +Katherine, with her husband Ambrose Gordon, being +in their beds, could not for the space of twenty days +be quit of a cat, lying nightly in their bed, between +the two, and taking a great bite out of Ambrose’s +arm, as yet the place testifies, and when they gave up +the draff, the cat went away.</p> + +<p>Some fourteen more charges were brought against +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>361]</a></span> +her. She was tried on February 17, 1596, before the +Provost and Baillies of Aberdeen, and found guilty +upon eighteen counts of being a common witch and +sorcerer. Sentence of death by burning was recorded +against her, and she suffered on the same day as +another reputed witch, Isabel Cocker. The expenses +of their execution are preserved in the account-books +of the Dean of Guild, 1596-1597, and prove that +witch-burning was a luxury scarcely within the reach +of the many.</p> + + +<p class="center">JANETT WISCHART AND ISSBEL COCKER.</p> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Expenses for burning Janet Wishart and Isabel Cocker"> + <tr> + <td class="tdrt"><i>Item.</i></td> + <td class="tdl">For twentie loades of peattes to burne thame</td> + <td class="tdlb">xl<i>sh.</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrt"><i>Item.</i></td> + <td class="tdl">For ane Boile of Coillis</td> + <td class="tdlb">xxiiii<i>sh.</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrt"><i>Item.</i></td> + <td class="tdl">For four Tar barrellis</td> + <td class="tdlb">xxvi<i>sh.</i> viii<i>d.</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrt"><i>Item.</i></td> + <td class="tdl">For fyr and Iron barrellis</td> + <td class="tdlb">xvi<i>sh.</i> viii<i>d.</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrt"><i>Item.</i></td> + <td class="tdl">For a staik and dressing of it</td> + <td class="tdlb">xvi<i>sh.</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrt"><i>Item.</i></td> + <td class="tdl">For four fudoms [fathoms?] of Towis</td> + <td class="tdlb">iiii<i>sh.</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrt"><i>Item.</i></td> + <td class="tdl">For careing the peittis, coillis, and barrellis to the Hill</td> + <td class="tdlb">viii<i>sh.</i> iiii<i>d.</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrt"><i>Item.</i></td> + <td class="tdl">To on Justice for their execution</td> + <td class="tdlb">xiii<i>sh.</i> iiii<i>d.</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrt"> </td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdlb bt bb">cliv <i>shillings</i>.</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<p>On several occasions commissions were issued by +the King, in favour of the Provost and some of the +Baillies of the burgh, and the Sheriff of the county, +for the purpose of ‘haulding Justice Courtis on +Witches and Sorceraris.’ These commissioners gave +warrants in their turn to the minister and elders of +each parish in the shire, to examine parties suspected +of witchcraft, and to frame a ‘dittay’ or indictment +against such persons. It was an inevitable result that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>362]</a></span> +all the scandalous gossip of the community was +assiduously collected; while any individual who had +become, from whatsoever cause, an object of jealousy +or dislike to her neighbours, was overwhelmed by a +mass of hearsay or fictitious evidence, and by the +conscious or unconscious exaggerations of ignorance, +credulity, or malice.</p> + +<p>As an example of the kind of stuff stirred up by +this parochial inquisition, I shall take the return +furnished to the commissioners by Mr. John Ross, +minister of Lumphanan:</p> + +<p>‘i. <i>Elspet Strathauchim</i>, in Wartheil, is indicted to +have charmed Maggie Clarke, spouse to Patrick +Bunny, for the fevers, this last year, with “ane sleipth +and ane thrum” [a sleeve and thread]. She is indicted, +this last Hallow e’en, to have brought forth of the +house a burning coal, and buried the same in her own +yard. She is indicted to have bewitched Adam +Gordon, in Wark, and to have been the cause of his +death, and that because, she coming out of his service +without his leave, he detained some of her gear, which +she promised to do; and after his death wanted [to +have it believed] that she had gotten “assythment” of +him. She is indicted to have said to Marcus Gillam, +at the Burn of Camphil, that none of his bairns +should live, because he would not marry her; which +is come to pass, for two of them are dead. She is +indicted continually to have resorted to Margaret +Baine her company.</p> + +<p>‘ii. <i>Isabel Forbes.</i>—She is indicted to have +bewitched Gilbert Makim, in Glen Mallock, with a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>363]</a></span> +spindle, a “rok,” and a “foil;” as Isabel Ritchie likewise +testified.</p> + +<p>‘iii. <i>James Og</i> is indicted to have passed on Rud-day, +five years since, through Alexander Cobain’s +corn, and have taken nine stones from his “avine rig” +[corn-rick], and cast on the said Alexander’s “rig,” +and to have taken nine “lokis” [handfuls] of meal +from the said Alexander’s “rig,” and cast on his own. +He is indicted to have bewitched a cow belonging to +the said Alexander, which he bought from Kristane +Burnet, of Cloak; this cow, though his wife had +received milk from her the first night, and the morning +thereafter, gave no milk from that time forth, but +died within half a year. He is indicted to have +passed, five years since, on Lammas-Day, through +the said Alexander’s corn, and having “gaine nyne +span,” to have struck the corn with nine strokes of a +white wand, so that nothing grew that year but +“fichakis.” He is indicted that, in the year aforesaid +or thereabouts, having corn to dry, he borrowed fire +from his neighbour, haiffing of his avine them +presently; and took a “brine” of the corn on his +back, and cast it three times “woodersonis” [or +“withersonis,” <i>ut supra</i>, that is, west to east, in the +direction contrary to the sun’s course] above the +“kill.” He is indicted that, three years since, +Alexander Cobaine being in Leith, with the Laird +of Cors, his “wittual,” he came up early one morning, +at the back of the said Alexander’s yard, with +a dish full of water in his hand, and to have cast the +water in the gate to the said Alexander’s door, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>364]</a></span> +then perceiving that David Duguid, servant to the +said Alexander, was beholding him, to have fled +suddenly; which the said David also testifies.</p> + +<p>‘iv. <i>Agnes Frew.</i>—She is indicted to have taken +three hairs out of her own cow’s tail, and to have cut +the same in small pieces, and to have put them in her +cow’s throat, which thereafter gave milk, and the +neighbours’ none. Also, she is indicted that [she +took] William Browne’s calf in her axter, and +charmed the same, as, also, she took the clins [hoofs] +from forefeitt aff it, with a piece of “euerry bing,” +and caused the said William’s wife to “yeird” the +same; which the said William’s wife confessed, albeit +not in this manner. Also, she took up Alexander +Tailzier’s calf, lately [directly] after it was calved, and +carried it three times about the cow. Also, she was +seen casting a horse’s fosser on a cow.</p> + +<p>‘v. <i>Isabel Roby.</i>—She is indicted to have bidden her +gudeman, when he went to St. Fergus to buy cattle, +that if he bought any before his home-coming, he should +go three times “woodersonis” about them, and then +take three “ruggis” off a dry hillock, and fetch home +to her. Also, that dwelling at Ardmair, there came in +a poor man craving alms, to whom she offered milk, +but he refused it, because, as he then presently said, +she had three folks’ milk and her own in the pan; and +when Elspet Mackay, then present, wondered at it, +he said, “Marvel not, for she has thy farrow kye’s +milk also in her pan.” Also, she is commonly seen +in the form of a hare, passing through the town, for +as soon as the hare vanishes out of sight, she appears.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>365]</a></span> +‘vi. <i>Margaret Rianch</i>, in Green Cottis, was seen in +the dawn of the day by James Stevens embracing +every nook of John Donaldson’s house three times, +who continually thereafter was diseased, and at last +died. She said to John Ritchie, when he took a tack +[a piece of ground] in the Green Cottis, that his gear +from that day forth should continually decay, and so +it came to pass. Also, she cast a number of stones +in a tub, amongst water, which thereafter was seen +dancing. When she clips her sheep, she turns the +bowl of the shears three times in their mouth. Also, +James Stevens saw her meeting John Donaldson’s +“hoggs” [sheep a year old] in the burn of the Green +Cottis, and casting the water out between her feet +backward, in the sheep’s face, and so they all died. +Also she confessed to Patrick Gordon, of Kincragie, +and James Gordon, of Drumgase, that the devil was in +the bed between her and William Ritchie, her harlot, +and he was upon them both, and that if she happened +to die for witchcraft, that he [Ritchie] should also die, +for if she was a devil, he was too.</p> + +<p>‘There are three of these persons, Elspeet Strathauchim, +James Og, and Agnes Frew, whose accusations +the Presbytery of Kincardine, within whose +bounds they dwell, counted insufficient, having duly +considered the whole circumstances, always remitted +them to the trial of an assize, if the judges thought it +expedient.</p> + +<p class="sig">‘[Signed] <span class="smcap">Mr. Jhone Ros</span>,<br /> +‘Minister at Lumphanan.’</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>366]</a></span> +It would not be easy to find a more painful exhibition +of clerical ignorance and incapacity. Probably +many of the allegations which Mr. John Ross records +are true, as the practice of charms was common +enough among the peasantry both of Scotland and +England, and is even yet not wholly extinct; but, +taken altogether, they did not amount to witchcraft, the +very essence of which was a compact with the devil, +and in no one of the preceding cases is such a compact +mentioned. And one must take the existence of the +gross superstition and credulity which is here +disclosed to be irrefutable testimony that, as a pastor +and teacher, Mr. John Ross was a signal failure at +Lumphanan.</p> + + +<p class="break">I have already alluded to those pathetic instances of +self-delusion in which the reputed witch has been her +own enemy, and furnished the evidence needed for her +condemnation in her own confession—a confession of +acts which she must have known had never occurred; +building up a strange fabric of fiction, and perishing +beneath its weight. It would seem as if some of +these unfortunate women came to believe in themselves +because they found that others believed in +them, and assumed that they really possessed the +powers of witchcraft because their neighbours insisted +that it was so. Nor will this be thought such an +improbable explanation when it is remembered that +history affords more than one example of prophets +and founders of new religions whom the enthusiastic +devotion of their followers has persuaded into a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>367]</a></span> +belief in the authenticity of the credentials which +they themselves had originally forged, and the truth +of the revelations which they had invented.</p> + +<p>From this point of view a profound interest +attaches to the official ‘dittay’ or accusation against +one Helen Fraser, who was convicted and sentenced to +death in April, 1597, since it shows that she was +condemned principally upon the evidence which she +herself supplied:</p> + +<p>‘i. John Ramsay, in Newburght, being sick of a +consuming disease, sent to her house, in Aikinshill, +to seek relief, and was told by her that she would do +what lay in her power for the recovery of his health; +but bade him keep secret whatever she spake or did, +because the world was evil, and spoke no good of +such mediciners. She commanded the said John to +rise early in the morning, to eat “sourrakis” about +sunrise, while the dew was still upon them; also to eat +“valcars,” and to make “lavrie” kale and soup. Moreover, +to sit down in a door, before the fowls flew to their +roost, and to open his breast, that when the fowls flew +to the roost over him he might receive the wind of +their wings about his breast, for that was very profitable +to loose his heart-pipes, which were closed. But +before his departure from her, she made him sit down, +bare-headed, on a stool, and said an orison thrice upon +his head, in which she named the Devil.</p> + +<p>‘ii. <i>Item.</i>—The said Helen publicly confessed in +Foverne, after her apprehension, that she was a +common abuser of the people; and that, further, to +sustain herself and her bairns, she pretended +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>368]</a></span> +knowledge which she had not, and undertook to do things +which she could not. This was her answer, when she +was accused by the minister of Foverne, for that she +abused the people, and when he inquired the cause of +her evil report throughout the whole country. This +she confessed upon the green of Foverne, before the +laird, the minister, and reader of Foverne, Patrick +Findlay in Newburght, and James Menzies at the +New Mills of Foverne.</p> + +<p>‘iii. <i>Item.</i>—Janet Ingram, wife to Adam Finnie, +dwelling for the time at the West burn, in Balhelueis, +being sick, and affirming herself to be bewitched, for +she herself was esteemed by all men to be a witch, she +sent for the said Helen Frazer to cure her. The said +Helen came, and tarried with her till her departure +and burial, and at her coming assured the said Janet +that within a short time she would be well enough. +But the sickness of the said Janet increased, and was +turned into a horrible fury and madness, in such sort +that she always and incessantly blasphemed, and +pressed at all times to climb up the wall after the +“heillis” and scraped the wall with her hands. After +that she had been grievously vexed for the space of +two days from the coming of Helen Frazer, her +mediciner, to her, she departed this life. Being dead, +her husband went to charge his neighbours to convey +her burial, but before his returning, or the coming of +any neighbour to the carrying of the corpse, the said +Helen Frazer, together with two or three daughters of +the said Janet (whereof one yet living, to wit, Malye +Finnie, in the Blairtoun of Balhelueis, is counted a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>369]</a></span> +witch), had taken up the corpse, and had carried her, +they alone, the half of the distance to the kirk, until +they came to the Moor of Cowhill; when the said +Adam and others his neighbours came to them, and at +their coming the said Helen fled away through the +moss to Aikinshill, and went no further towards the +kirk.</p> + +<p>‘iv. <i>Item.</i>—A horse of Duncan Alexander, in Newburcht, +being bewitched, the said Helen translated +the sickness from the horse to a young cow of +the said Duncan; which cow died, and was cast +into the burn of the Newburcht, for no man would +eat her.</p> + +<p>‘v. <i>Item.</i>—The said Helen made a compact with +certain laxis fishers of the Newburcht, at the kirk of +Foverne, in Mallie Skryne’s house, and promised to +cause them to fish well, and to that effect received of +them a piece of salmon to handle at her pleasure for +accomplishing the matter. Upon the morrow she +came to the Newburcht, to the house of John +Ferguson, a laxis fisher, and delivered unto him in a +closet four cuts of salmon with a penny; after that +she called him out of his own house, from the company +that was there drinking with him, and bade him +put the same in the horn of his coble, and he should +have a dozen of fish at the first shot; which came to +pass.</p> + +<p>‘vi. <i>Item.</i>—The said Helen, by witchcraft, enticed +Gilbert Davidson, son to William Davidson, in +Lytoune of Meanye, to love and marry Margaret +Strauthachin (in the Hill of Balgrescho) directly +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>370]</a></span> +against the will of his parents, to the utter wreck +of the said Gilbert.</p> + +<p>‘vii. <i>Item.</i>—At the desire of the said Margaret +Strauthachin, by witchcraft, the said Helen made +Catherine Fetchil, wife to William Davidson, furious, +because she was against the marriage, and took +the strength of her left side and arm from her; in +the which fury and feebleness the said Catherine +died.</p> + +<p>‘viii. <i>Item.</i>—The said Helen, at the desire of the +foresaid Margaret Strauthachin, bewitched William +Hill, dwelling for the time at the Hill of Balgrescho, +through which he died in a fury [<i>i.e.</i>, a fit of +delirium].</p> + +<p>‘ix. Moreover, at the desire foresaid, the said Helen +by witchcraft slew an ox belonging to the said William; +for while Patrick Hill, son to the said William, and +herd to his father, called in the cattle to the fold, at +twelve o’clock, the said Helen was sitting in the yeite, +and immediately after the outcoming of the cattle out +of the fold, the best ox of the whole herd instantly died.</p> + +<p>‘x. <i>Item.</i>—The said Helen counselled Christane +Henderson, vulgarly called mickle Christane, to put +one hand to the crown of her head, and the other to +the sole of her foot, and so surrender whatever was +between her hands, and she should want nothing that +she could wish or desire.</p> + +<p>‘xi. <i>Item.</i>—The said Christane Henderson, being +henwife in Foverne, the young fowls died thick; for +remedy whereof, the said Helen bade the said +Christane take all the chickens or young fowls, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>371]</a></span> +draw them through the link of the crook, and take +the hindmost, and slay with a fiery stick, which thing +being practised, none died thereafter that year.</p> + +<p>‘xii. <i>Item.</i>—When the said Helen was dwelling in +the Moorhill of Foverne, there came a hare betimes, +and sucked a milch cow pertaining to William +Findlay, at the Mill of the Newburght, whose house +was directly afornent the said Helen’s house, on the +other side of the Burn of Foverne, wherethrough the +cow pined away, and gave blood instead of milk. +This mischief was by all men attributed to the said +Helen, and she herself cannot deny but she was +commonly evil spoken of for it, and affirmed, after her +apprehension at Foverne, that she was so slandered.</p> + +<p>‘xiii. <i>Item.</i>—When Alexander Hardy, in Aikinshill, +departed this life, it grieved and troubled his conscience +very mickle, that he had been a defender of the +said Helen, and especially that he, accompanied with +Malcolm Forbes, travailed, against their conscience, +with sundry of the assessors when she suffered an +assize, and especially with the Chancellor of the +Assize, in her favour, he knowing evidently her to be +guilty of death.</p> + +<p>‘xiv. <i>Item.</i>—The said Helen being a domestic in +the said Alexander Hardy’s house, disagreed with +one of the said Alexander’s servants, named Andrew +Skene, and intending to bewitch the said servant, the +evil fell upon Alexander, and he died thereof.</p> + +<p>‘xv. <i>Item.</i>—When Robert Goudyne, now in +Balgrescho, was dwelling in Blairtoun of Balheluies, +a discord fell out betwixt Elizabeth Dempster, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>372]</a></span> +nurse to the said Robert for the time, and Christane +Henderson, one of the said Helen’s familiars, as her +own confession aforesaid purports, and the country +well knows. Upon the which discord, the said +Christane threatened the said Elizabeth with an evil +turn, and to the performing thereof, brought the said +Helen Frazer to the said Robert’s house, and caused +her to repair oft thereto. After what time, immediately +both the said Elizabeth and the infant to whom +she gave suck, by the devilry of the said Helen, fell +into a consuming sickness, whereof both died. And +also Elspet Cheyne, spouse to the said Robert, fell into +the selfsame sickness, and was heavily diseased thereby +for the space of two years before the recovery of his +health.</p> + +<p>‘xvi. <i>Item.</i>—By witchcraft the said Helen abstracted +and withdrew the love and affection of Andrew Tilliduff +of Rainstoune, from his spouse Isabel Cheyne, to +Margaret Neilson, and so mightily bewitched him, +that he could never be reconciled with his wife, or +remove his affection from the said harlot; and when +the said Margaret was begotten with child, the said +Helen conveyed her away to Cromar to obscure the +fact.</p> + +<p>‘xvii. <i>Item.</i>—Wherever the said Helen is known, or +has repaired there many years bygone, she has been, +and is reported by all, of whatsoever estate or sex, to +be a common and abominable witch, and to have +learned the same of the late Maly Skene, spouse to +the late Cowper Watson, with whom, during her lifetime, +the said Helen had continual society. The +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>373]</a></span> +said Maly was bruited to be a rank witch, and her +said husband suffered death for the same crime.</p> + +<p>‘xviii. <i>Item.</i>—When Robert Merchant, in the Newbrucht, +had contracted marriage, and holden house +for the space of two years with the late Christane +White, it happened to him to pass to the Moorhill of +Foverne, to sow corn to the late Isabel Bruce, the +relict of the late Alexander Frazer, the said Helen +Frazer being familiar and actually resident in the +house of the said Isabel, she was there at his coming: +from the which time forth the said Robert <em>found his +affection violently and extraordinarily drawn away from +the said Christane to the said Isabel</em>, a great love being +betwixt him and the said Christane always theretofore, +and no break of love, or discord, falling out or +intervening upon either of their parts, which thing +the country supposed and spake to be brought about +by the unlawful travails of the said Helen.</p> + +<p class="sig">‘[Signed] <span class="smcap">Thomas Tilideff</span>,<br /> +‘Minister, at Fovern, with my hand.</p> + +<p>‘<i>Item.</i>—A common witch by open voice and common +fame.’</p> + + +<p class="break">I have given this ‘dittay’ in full, from a conviction +that no summary would do justice to its terrible +simplicity. Upon the evidence which it afforded, +Helen Frazer was brought before the Court of +Justiciary, in Aberdeen, on April 21, 1597, and +found guilty in ‘fourteen points of witchcraft and +sorcery.’</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>374]</a></span> +The burning of witches went merrily on, so that +the authorities of Aberdeen were compelled to get in +an adequate stock of fuel. We note in the municipal +accounts, under the date of March 10, that there +was ‘bocht be the comptar, and laid in be him in +the seller in the Chappell of the Castel hill, ane +chalder of coillis, price thairof, with the bieing and +metting of the same, xvi<i>lib.</i> iiii<i>sh.</i>’ As is usually the +case, the frequency of these sad exhibitions whetted at +first the public appetite for them; it grew by what it +fed on. One of the items of expense in the execution +of a witch named Margaret Clerk, is for carrying of +‘four sparris, <em>to withstand the press of the pepill</em>, +quhairof thair was twa broken, viiis. viiid.’</p> + +<p>Among the victims committed to the flames in +1596-97, we read the names of ‘Katherine Fergus and +[Sculdr], Issobel Richie, Margaret Og, Helene Rodger, +Elspet Hendersoun, Katherine Gerard, Christin Reid, +Jenet Grant, Helene Frasser, Katherine Ferrers, Helene +Gray, Agnes Vobster, Jonat Douglas, Agnes Smelie, +Katherine Alshensur, and ane other witche, callit ....’—seventeen +in all. That during their imprisonment +they were treated with barbarous rigour, +may be inferred from the following entries:</p> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Expenses for torture of suspected witches"> + <tr> + <td class="tdrt"><i>Item.</i></td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="2">To Alexander Reid, smyth, for <em>twa pair of scheckellis</em> to the Witches in the Stepill</td> + <td class="tdlb">xxxii<i>sh.</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrt"><i>Item.</i></td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="2">To John Justice, for <em>burning vpon the cheik</em> of four seurerall personis suspect of witchcraft and baneschit</td> + <td class="tdlb">xxvi<i>sh.</i> viii<i>d.</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrt"><i>Item.</i></td> + <td class="tdl" colspan="2">Givin to Alexander Home for macking of <em>joggis, stapillis, and lockis</em> to the witches, during the haill tyme forsaid</td> + <td class="tdlb">xlvi<i>sh.</i> viii<i>d.</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrt"> </td> + <td class="tdl">Expense on Witches</td> + <td class="tdrb">aucht-score,</td> + <td class="tdlb">xlii<i>li.</i> xvii<i>sh.</i> iiii<i>d.</i></td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>375]</a></span> +On September 21, 1597, the Provost, Baillies +and Council of Aberdeen considered the faithfulness +shown by William Dun, the Dean of Guild, in the +discharge of his duty, ‘and, besides this, <em>his extraordinarily +taking pains in the burning of the great +number of the witches burnt this year</em>, and on the four +pirates, and bigging of the port on the Brig of Dee, +repairing of the Grey Friars kirk and steeple thereof, +and thereby has been abstracted from his trade of +merchandise, continually since he was elected in the +said office. Therefore, in recompense of his extraordinary +pains, and in satisfaction thereof (not to +induce any preparative to Deans of Guild to crave a +recompense hereafter), but to encourage others to +travail as diligently in the discharge of their office, +granted and assigned to him the sum of forty-seven +pounds three shillings and fourpence, owing by him +of the rest of his compt of the unlawis [fines] of the +persons convict for slaying of black fish, and discharged +him thereof by their presents for ever.’</p> + +<p>At length a wholesome reaction took place; the +public grew weary of the number of executions, and, +encouraged by this change of sentiment, persons +accused of witchcraft boldly rebutted the charge, and +laid complaints against their accusers for defamation +of character. In official circles, it is true, a belief in +the alleged crime lingered long. As late as 1669, +‘the new and old Councils taking into their serious +consideration that many malefices were committed +and done by several persons in this town, who are +<i>mala fama</i>, and suspected guilty of witchcraft upon +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>376]</a></span> +many of the inhabitants of this town, several ways, +and that it will be necessary for suppressing the like +in time coming, and for punishing the said persons +who shall be found guilty; therefore they do unanimously +conclude and ordain that any such person, who +is suspect of the like malefices, may be seized upon, +and put in prisoun, and that a Commission be sent +for, for putting of them to trial, that condign justice +may be executed upon them, as the nature of the +offence does merit.’ No more victims, however, were +sacrificed; nor does it appear that any accusation of +witchcraft was preferred.</p> + +<p>According to Sir Walter Scott, a woman was burnt +as a witch in Scotland as late as 1722, by Captain +Ross, sheriff-depute of Sutherland; but this was, +happily, an exceptional barbarity, and for some years +previously the pastime of witch-burning had practically +been extinct. It is a curious fact that educated Scotchmen, +as I have already noted, retained their superstition +long after the common people had abandoned +it. In 1730, Professor Forbes, of Glasgow, published +his ‘Institutes of the Law of Scotland,’ in which he +spoke of witchcraft as ‘that black art whereby strange +and wonderful things are wrought by power derived +from the devil,’ and added: ‘Nothing seems plainer to +me than that there may be and have been witches, +and that perhaps such are now actually existing.’ +Six years later, the Seceders from the Church of +Scotland, who professed to be the true representatives +of its teaching, strongly condemned the repeal of the +laws against witchcraft, as ‘contrary,’ they said, ‘to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>377]</a></span> +the express letter of the law of God.’ But they were +hopelessly behind the time; public opinion, as the +result of increased intelligence, had numbered witchcraft +among the superstitions of the past, and we may +confidently predict that its revival is impossible.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTE</h4> + +<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> +From the ‘Records of the Burgh of Aberdeen,’ printed for the +Spalding Club, 1841.</p> +</div> + + + + +<p class="padtop"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>378]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER V.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smlfont">THE LITERATURE OF WITCHCRAFT.</span></h2> + + +<p>It should teach us humility when we find a belief in +witchcraft and demonology entertained not only by +the uneducated and unintelligent classes, but also by +the men of light and leading, the scholar, the +philosopher, the legislator, who might have been +expected to have risen above so degrading a superstition. +It would be manifestly unfair to direct our +reproaches at the credulous prejudices of the multitude +when Francis Bacon, the great apostle of the experimental +philosophy, accepts the crude teaching of his +royal master’s ‘Demonologie,’ and actually discusses +the ingredients of the celebrated ‘witches’ ointment,’ +opining that they should all be of a soporiferous +character, such as henbane, hemlock, moonshade, +mandrake, opium, tobacco, and saffron. The weakness +of Sir Matthew Hale, to which reference has been +made in a previous chapter, we cannot very strongly +condemn, when we know that it was shared by Sir +Thomas Browne, who had so keen an eye for the +errors of the common people, and whose fine and +liberal genius throws so genial a light over the pages +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>379]</a></span> +of the ‘Religio Medici.’ In his ‘History of the +World,’ that consummate statesman, poet, and scholar, +Sir Walter Raleigh, gravely supports the vulgar +opinions which nowadays every Board School +<i>alumnus</i> would reject with disdain. Even the +philosopher of Malmesbury, the sagacious author of +‘The Leviathan,’ Thomas Hobbes, was infected by +the prevalent delusion. Dr. Cudworth, to whom we +owe the acute reasoning of the treatises on ‘Moral +Good and Evil,’ and ‘The True Intellectual System +of the Universe,’ firmly holds that the guilt of a +reputed witch might be determined by her inability +or unwillingness to repeat the Lord’s Prayer. +Strangest of it all is it to find the pure and lofty +spirit of Henry More, the founder of the school of +English Platonists, yielding to the general superstition. +With large additions of his own, he republished +the Rev. Joseph Glanvill’s notorious work, +‘Sadducismus Triumphatus’—a pitiful example of +the extent to which a fine intellect may be led +astray, though Mr. Lecky thinks it the most powerful +defence of witchcraft ever published. And the +sober and fair-minded Robert Boyle, in the midst of +his scientific researches, found time to listen, with +breathless interest, to ‘stories of witches at Oxford, +and devils at Muston.’</p> + +<p>Among the Continental authorities on witchcraft, +the chief of those who may be called its advocates +are, <i>Martin Antonio Delrio</i> (1551-1608), who published, +in the closing years of the sixteenth century, +his ‘Disquisitionarum Magicarum Libri Sex,’ a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>380]</a></span> +formidable folio, brimful of credulity and ingenuity, +which was translated into French by Duchesne in +1611, and has been industriously pilfered from by +numerous later writers. Delrio has no pretensions +to critical judgment; he swallows the most monstrous +inventions with astounding facility.</p> + +<p>Reference must also be made to the writings of +Remigius, included in Pez’ ‘Thesaurus Anecdotorum +Novissimus,’ and to the great work by H. Institor +and J. Sprenger, ‘Malleus Maleficarum,’ as well as to +Basin, Molitor (‘Dialogus de Lamiis’), and other +authors, to be found in the 1582 edition of ‘Mallei +quorundam Maleficarum,’ published at Frankfort.</p> + +<p>On the same side we find the great philosophical +lawyer and historian <i>John Bodin</i> (1530-1596), the +author of the ‘Republicæ,’ and the ‘Methodus ad +facilem Historiarum Cognitionem.’ In his ‘Demonomanie +des Sorcius’ he recommends the burning of +witches and wizards with an earnestness which should +have gone far to compensate for his heterodoxy on +other points of belief and practice. He informs us +that from his thirty-seventh year he had been attended +by a familiar spirit or demon, which touched his ear +whenever he was about to do anything of which his +conscience disapproved; and he quotes passages from +the Psalms, Job, and Isaiah, to prove that spirits +indicate their presence to men by touching and even +pulling their ears, and not only by vocal utterances.</p> + +<p>Also, <i>Thomas Erastus</i> (1524-1583), physician and +controversialist, who took so busy a part in the +theological dissensions of his time. In 1577 he +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>381]</a></span> +published a tract (‘De Lamiis’) on the lawfulness of +putting witches to death. It is strange that he should +have been mastered by the gross imposture of witchcraft, +when he could expose with trenchant force the +pretensions of alchemists, astrologers, and Rosicrucians.</p> + +<p>Happily, the cause of humanity, truth and tolerance +was not without its eager and capable defenders. +The earliest I take to have been the Dutch physician, +<i>Wierus</i>, who, in his treatise ‘De Præstigiis,’ published +at Basel in 1564, vigorously attacked the cruel +prejudice that had doomed so many unhappy creatures +to the stake. He did not, however, deny the <em>existence</em> +of witchcraft, but demanded mercy for those who +practised it on the ground that they were the devil’s +victims, not his servants. That he should have +been wholly devoid of credulity would have been +more than one could rightly have expected of a +disciple of Cornelius Agrippa.</p> + +<p>A stronger and much more successful assailant +appeared in <i>Reginald Scot</i> (died 1599), a younger +son of Sir John Scot, of Scot’s Hall, near Smeeth, who +published his celebrated ‘Discoverie of Witchcraft’ in +1584—a book which, in any age, would have been +remarkable for its sweet humanity, breadth of view, +and moderation of tone, as well as for its literary +excellencies. One wonders where this quiet Kentish +gentleman, whose chief occupations appear to have +been gardening and planting, accumulated his erudition, +and how, in the face of the superstitions of +his contemporaries, he arrived at such large and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>382]</a></span> +liberal conclusions. The scope of his great work is +indicated in its lengthy title: ‘The Discoverie +of Witchcraft, wherein the lewd dealing of Witches +and Witchmongers is notablie detected, the knaverie +of conjurers, the impietie of enchanters, the follie of +soothsaiers, the impudent falsehood of couseners, the +infidelitie of atheists, the pestilent practices of Pythonists, +the curiositie of figure-casters [horoscope-makers], +the vanitie of dreamers, the beggarlie art +of Alcumystrie, the abhomination of idolatrie, the +horrible art of poisoning, the vertue and power of +naturall magike, and all the conveyances of Legierdemain +and juggling are deciphered: and many other +things opened, which have long lain hidden, howbeit +verie necessarie to be knowne. Heerevnto is added a +treatise upon the Nature and Substance of Spirits and +Devils, etc.: all latelie written by Reginald Scot, +Esquire. 1 John iv. 1: “Believe not everie spirit, +but trie the spirits, whether they are of God; for +many false prophets are gone out into the world.”’</p> + +<p>From a book so well known—a new edition has +recently appeared—it is needless to make extracts; +but I transcribe a brief passage in illustration of the +vivacity and manliness of the writer:</p> + +<p>‘I, therefore (at this time), do only desire you to +consider of my report concerning the evidence that is +commonly brought before you against them. See first +whether the evidence be not frivolous, and whether +the proofs brought against them be not incredible, +consisting of guesses, presumptions, and impossibilities +contrary to reason, Scripture, and nature. See +also what persons complain upon them, whether they +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>383]</a></span> +be not of the basest, the unwisest, and the most faithless +kind of people. Also, may it please you, to weigh +what accusations and crimes they lay to their charge, +namely: She was at my house of late, she would have +had a pot of milk, she departed in a chafe because she +had it not, she railed, she cursed, she mumbled and +whispered; and, finally, she said she would be even +with me: and soon after my child, my cow, my sow, +or my pullet died, or was strangely taken. Nay (if it +please your Worship), I have further proof: I was +with a wise woman, and she told me I had an ill +neighbour, and that she would come to my house ere +it was long, and so did she; and that she had a mark +about her waist, and so had she: God forgive me, +my stomach hath gone against her a great while. +Her mother before her was counted a witch; she hath +been beaten and scratched by the face till blood was +drawn upon her, because she hath been suspected, and +afterwards some of those persons were said to amend. +These are the certainties that I hear in their evidences.</p> + +<p>‘Note, also, how easily they may be brought to +confess that which they never did, nor lieth in the +power of man to do; and then see whether I have +cause to write as I do. Further, if you shall see that +infidelity, popery, and many other manifest heresies +be backed and shouldered, and their professors animated +and heartened, by yielding to creatures such +infinite power as is wrested out of God’s hand, and +attributed to witches: finally, if you shall perceive +that I have faithfully and truly delivered and set +down the condition and state of the witch, and also +of the witchmonger, and have confuted by reason and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>384]</a></span> +law, and by the Word of God itself, all mine adversary’s +objections and arguments; then let me have your +countenance against them that maliciously oppose +themselves against me.</p> + +<p>‘My greatest adversaries are young ignorance and +old custom. For what folly soever tract of time hath +fostered, it is so superstitiously pursued of some, as +though no error could be acquainted with custom. +But if the law of nations would join with such +custom, to the maintenance of ignorance and to the +suppressing of knowledge, the civilest country in +the world would soon become barbarous. For as +knowledge and time discovereth errors, so doth superstition +and ignorance in time breed them.’</p> + +<p>In another fine passage Scot says:</p> + +<p>‘God that knoweth my heart is witness, and +you that read my book shall see, that my drift +and purpose in this enterprise tendeth only to +these respects. First, that the glory and power of +God be not so abridged and abused, as to be thrust +into the hand or lip of a lewd old woman, whereby +the work of the Creator should be attributed to the +power of a creature. Secondly, that the religion of +the Gospel may be seen to stand without such peevish +trumpery. Thirdly, that lawful favour and Christian +compassion be rather used towards these poor souls +than rigour and extremity. Because they which are +commonly accused of witchcraft are the least sufficient +of all other persons to speak for themselves, as having +the most base and simple education of all others; the +extremity of their age giving them leave to dote, their +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>385]</a></span> +poverty to beg, their wrongs to chide and threaten +(as being void of any other way of revenge), their +humour melancholical to be full of imaginations, from +whence chiefly proceedeth the vanity of their confessions, +as that they can transform themselves and +others into apes, owls, asses, dogs, cats, etc.; that +they can fly in the air, kill children with charms, +hinder the coming of butter, etc.</p> + +<p>‘And for so much as the mighty help themselves +together, and the poor widow’s cry, though it reach +to heaven, is scarce heard here upon earth, I thought +good (according to my poor ability) to make intercession, +that some part of common rigour and some +points of hasty judgment may be advised upon. For +the world is now at that stay (as Brentius, in a most +godly sermon, in these words affirmeth), that even, as +when the heathen persecuted the Christians, if any +were accused to believe in Christ, the common people +cried <i>Ad leonem</i>; so now, of any woman, be she never +so honest, be she accused of witchcraft, they cry <i>Ad +ignem</i>.’</p> + + +<p class="break">Scot’s attack upon the credulity of his contemporaries, +strenuous and capable as it was, did not bear +much fruit at the time; while it exposed him to +charges of Atheism and Sadduceeism from several +small critics, who were supported by the authority of +James I., and, at a later date, of Dr. Meric Casaubon. +He found a fellow-labourer, however, in his work of +humanity, in the <i>Rev. George Gifford</i>, of Maldon, +Essex, who in 1593 published ‘A Dialogue concerning +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>386]</a></span> +Witches and Witchcraft,’ in which ‘is layed open +how craftily the Divell deceiveth not only the Witches +but Many other, and so leadeth them awaie into +Manie Great Errours.’ It will be seen from the title +that the writer does not adopt the uncompromising +line of Reginald Scot, but inclines rather to the +standpoint of Wierus. There is, however, a good +deal of ability in his treatment of the question; and +some account of the ‘Dialogue’ reprinted by the Percy +Society in 1842, should be interesting, I think, to the +reader.</p> + + +<p class="break">The interlocutors are named Samuel, Daniel, +Samuel’s wife, M. B., a schoolmaster, and the goodwife +R.</p> + +<p>The dialogue opens with Samuel and Daniel, the +former of whom is a fanatical believer in witches. +‘These evil-favoured old witches,’ he says, ‘do trouble +me.’ He repeats the common rumour that there is +scarcely a town or village in the shire but has one or +two witches in it. ‘In good sooth,’ he adds, ‘I may +tell it to you as to my friend, when I go but into +my closes, I am afraid, for I see now and then a hare, +which my conscience giveth me is a witch, or some +witch’s spirit, she stareth so upon me. And sometime +I see an ugly weasel run through my yard; and there +is a foul, great cat sometimes in my barn, which I +have no liking unto.’ Having introduced his friend, +who is less credulous than himself, to his wife and +his home, he promotes an argument between him and +another friend, M. B., a schoolmaster, on this <i>quæstio +vexata</i>.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>387]</a></span> +M. B. starts with a good deal of fervour:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>‘The word of God doth show plainly that there be witches, +and commandeth they should be put to death. Experience hath +taught too many what harms they do. And if any have the gift +to minister help against them, shall we refuse it?’</p> +</div> + +<p>But after some discussion he agrees, at Daniel’s +instance, to consider the subject in a spirit of sober +argument; and the first question they take up is: +‘Are there witches that work by the Devil?’ The +conversation then proceeds as follows:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><span class="smcap">Daniel.</span> It is so evident by the Scriptures, and in all experience, +that there be witches which work by the devil, or rather, I may +say, the devil worketh by them, that such as go about to prove +the contrary, do show themselves but cavillers.</p> + +<p>M. B. I am glad we agree on that point; I hope we shall in +the rest. What say you to this? That the witches have their +spirits. Some hath one; some hath more, as two, three, four, or +five. Some in one likeness and some in another, as like cats, +weasels, toads, or mice, whom they nourish with milk or with a +chicken, or by letting them suck now and then a drop of blood, +whom they call if they be offended with any, and send them to +hurt them in their bodies, yea, to kill them, and to kill their +cattle.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Daniel.</span> Here is great deceit, and great illusion; here the +Devil leadeth the ignorant people into foul errors, by which he +draweth them headlong into many grievous sins.</p> + +<p>M. B. Nay, then, I see you are awry, if you deny these things, +and say they be but illusions.... I did dwell in a village within +these five years where there was a man of good wealth, and suddenly, +within ten days’ space, he had three kine died, his gelding, +worth ten pounds, fell lame, he was himself taken with a great +pain in his back, and a child of seven years old died. He sent to +the woman at R. H., and she said he was plagued by a witch, +adding, moreover, that there were three women witches in that +town, and one man witch, willing him to look whom he most +suspected. He suspected an old woman, and caused her to be +carried before a justice of peace and examined. With much ado +at the last she confessed all, which was this in effect—that she +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>388]</a></span> +had three spirits, one like a cat, which she called <em>Lightfoot</em>; another +like a toad, which she called <em>Lunch</em>; the third like a weasel, +which she called <em>Makeshift</em>. This Lightfoot, she said, one Mother +Bailey, of W., sold her above sixteen years ago, for an oven-cake, +and told her the cat would do her good service; if she would, she +might send her of her errands. This cat was with her but a +while, but the weasel and the toad came and offered their service. +The cat would kill kine, the weasel would kill horses, the toad +would plague men in their bodies. She sent them all three (as +she confessed) against this man. She was committed to the +prison, and there she died before the assizes.</p> +</div> + +<p>Daniel then strikes into the conversation, enlarging +on the Scriptural description of devils as ‘mighty and +terrible spirits, full of rage and power and cruelty’—principalities +and powers, the rulers of the darkness +of this world—and forcibly insisting that if spirits so +awful and potential as these assumed the shapes of +such paltry vermin as cats, mice, toads, and weasels, +it must be out of subtilty to cover and hide the +mighty tyranny and power which they exercise over +the hearts of the wicked. And he argues that such +spirits would never deign to be a witch’s servant or +to do her bidding. M. B. contends, however, that, +although he be lord, yet is he content to serve her +turn; and the witches confess, he says, that they call +forth their demons, and send them on what errands +they please, and hire them to hurt in their bodies and +their cattle those against whom they cherish angry +and revengeful feelings. ‘I am sorry,’ says Daniel +mildly, ‘you are so far awry; it is a pity any man +should be in such error, especially a man that hath +learning, and should teach others knowledge.’</p> + +<p>After some further disputation, M. B. is brought to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>389]</a></span> +admit that God giveth the devils power to plague and +seduce because of man’s wickedness; but he asks +whether a godly, faithful man or woman may not be +bewitched. We see, he says, that the devil had +power given him of old, as over Job. But Daniel +will not admit that this is a case in point, because it +is not said that the devil dealt with Job through +the agency of witches. Thereupon Samuel, perceiving +the drift of his argument to be that the devil has +no need to act by instruments so mean and even +degraded, and would assuredly never be at their command; +that, consequently, there can be no witchcraft, +because there is no necessity for it, suddenly interposes:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>‘With your leave, M. B., I would ask two or three questions of +my friend. There was but seven miles hence, at W. H., one M.; +the man was of good wealth, and well accounted of among his +neighbours. He pined away with sickness half a year, and at +last died. After he was dead, his wife suspected ill-dealing. She +went to a cunning man, who told her that her husband died of +witchery, and asked her if she did not suspect any. Yes, there +was one woman she did not like, one Mother W.; her husband +and she fell out, and he fell sick within two days after, and never +recovered. He showed her the woman as plain in a glass as we +see one another, and taught her how she might bring her to +confess. Well, she followed his counsel, went home, caused her +to be apprehended and carried before a justice of peace. He +examined her so wisely that in the end she confessed she killed +the man. She was sent to prison, she was arraigned, condemned, +and executed; and upon the ladder she seemed very penitent, +desiring all the world to forgive her. She said she had a spirit in +the likeness of a yellow dun cat. This cat came unto her, as she +said, as she sat by the fire, when she was fallen out with a +neighbour of hers, and wished that the vengeance of God might +light upon him and his. The cat bade her not be afraid; she +would do her no harm. She had served a dame five years in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>390]</a></span> +Kent that was now dead, and, if she would, she would be her +servant. “And whereas,” said the cat, “such a man hath misused +thee, if thou wilt I will plague him in his cattle.” She +sent the cat; she killed three hogs and one cow. The man, +suspecting, <em>burnt a pig alive</em>, and, as she said, her cat would never +go thither any more. Afterward she fell out with that M. She +sent her cat, who told her that she had given him that which he +should never recover; and, indeed, the man died. Now, do you +not think the woman spoke the truth in all this? Would the +woman accuse herself falsely at her death? Did not the cat +become her servant? Did not she send her? Did she not +plague and kill both man and beast? What should a man think +of this?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Daniel.</span> You propound a particular example, and let us +examine everything in it touching the witch. You say the cat +came to her when she was in a great rage with one of her +neighbours, and did curse, wishing the vengeance of God to fall +upon him and his.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sam.</span> She said so, indeed. I heard her with my own ears, for +I was at the execution.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dan.</span> Then tell me who set her in such a devilish rage, so to +curse and ban, as to wish that the vengeance of God might light +upon him and his? Did not the cat?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sam.</span> Truly I think that the devil wrought that in her.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dan.</span> Very well. Then, you see, the cat is the beginning of +this play.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sam.</span> Call you it a play? It was no play to some.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dan.</span> Indeed, the witch at last had better have wrought hard +than been at her play. But I mean Satan did play the juggler; +for doth he not offer his service? Doth he not move her to send +him to plague the man? Tell me, is she so forward to send, as +he is to be sent? Or do you not take it that he ruleth in her +heart, and even wholly directeth it to this matter?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sam.</span> I am fully persuaded he ruleth her heart.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dan.</span> <em>Then was she his drudge, and not he her servant.</em> He +needeth not to be hired and entreated; for if her heart were to +send him anywhere, unto such as he knoweth he cannot hurt, nor +seeth how to make any show that he hurteth them, he can +quickly turn her from that. Well, the cat goeth and killeth the +man, certain hogs, and a cow. How could she tell that the cat +did it?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>391]</a></span> +<span class="smcap">Sam.</span> How could she tell? Why, he told her, man, and she +saw and heard that he lost his cattle.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dan.</span> The cat would lie—would she not? for they say such +cats are liars.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sam.</span> I do not trust the cat’s words, but because the thing fell +out so.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dan.</span> Because the hogs and the cow died, are you sure the cat +did kill them? Might they not die of some natural causes, as +you see both men and beasts are well, and die suddenly?</p> +</div> + +<p>In this way the dialogue proceeds, with a good deal +of ingenuity and some degree of dramatic spirit; and +though the reasoning is not without its fallacies, yet +it is sufficiently clear and forcible, on the whole, as a +protest on the side of liberality and tolerance.</p> + +<p>The next branch of the subject taken up for consideration +is ‘the help and remedy’ that is sought for +against witches ‘at the hands of cunning men;’ +Daniel contending that, if the cunning men can +render any assistance, it must be through the devil’s +instrumentality, and, therefore, Christian men are not +justified in availing themselves of it. The alleged +cures performed by witches, Daniel refers to the +influence of the imagination; and in this category he +tells an amusing story. ‘There was a person in +London,’ he say, ‘acquainted with the magician Fento. +Now, this Fento had a black dog, whom he called +Bomelius. This party afterwards had a conceit that +Bomelius was a devil, and that he felt him within +him. He was in heaviness, and made his moan to +one of his acquaintances, who had a merry head, and +told him he had a friend could remove Bomelius. +He bade him prepare a breakfast, and he would bring +him. Then this was the cure: he (the friend) made +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>392]</a></span> +him be stripped naked and stand by a good fire, and +though he were fat enough of himself, basted him all +over with butter against the fire, and made him wear a +sleek-stone next his skin under his belly, and the man +had immediate relief, and gave him afterwards great +thanks.’</p> + +<p>‘The conceit, or imagination, does much,’ continues +Daniel, ‘even when there is no apparent disease. A +man feareth he is bewitched; it troubleth all the +powers of his mind, and that distempereth his body, +making great alterations in it, and bringeth sundry +griefs. Now, when his mind is freed from such +imaginations, his bodily griefs, which flew from the +same, are eased. And a multitude of Satan’s is of +the same character.’</p> + +<p>The conversation next turns upon the danger of +shedding innocent blood, which is inseparable from +the execution of alleged witches; while juries, says +Daniel, must become guilty of shedding innocent +blood by condemning as guilty, and that upon their +solemn oath, such as be suspected upon vain surmises, +and imaginations, and illusions, rising from +blindness and infidelity, and fear of Satan which is +in the ignorant sort.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>M. B. If you take it that this is one craft of Satan to bring many +to be guilty of innocent blood, and even upon their oaths, which +is horrible, what would you have the judges and juries to do, +when they are arraigned of suspicion to be witches?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dan.</span> What would I have them do? I would wish them to be +most wary and circumspect that they be not guilty of innocent +blood. And that is, to condemn none but upon sure ground, and +infallible proof; because presumptions shall not warrant or excuse +them before God, if guiltless blood be shed.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>393]</a></span> +Replying to observations made by the schoolmaster, +Daniel continues:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>‘You bring two reasons to prove that in convicting witches +likelihoods and presumptions ought to be of force more than +about thieves or murderers. The first, because their dealing is +secret; the other, because the devil will not let them confess. +Indeed, men, imagining that witches do work strange mischiefs, +burn in desire to have them hanged, as hoping then to be free; +and then, upon such persuasions as you mention, they suppose it +is a very good work to put to death all which are suspected. +But, touching thieves and murderers, let men take heed how +they deal upon presumptions, unless they be very strong; for we +see that juries sometimes do condemn such as be guiltless, which +is a hard thing, especially as they are upon their oath. And in +witches, above all other, the people had need to be strong, because +there is greater sleight of Satan to pursue the guiltless into death +than in the other. Here is special care and wisdom to be used. +And so likewise for their confessing. Satan doth gain more by +their confession than by their denial, and therefore rather bewrayeth +them himself, and forceth them unto confession oftener +than unto denial.’</p> +</div> + +<p>Samuel at first is reluctant to accept this statement. +It has always been his belief that the devil is +much angered when witches confess and betray +matters; and in confirmation of this belief, or at +least as some excuse for it, he relates an anecdote. +Of course, one woman had suspected another to be a +witch. She prevailed upon a gentleman to send for +the suspected person, and having accused her in his +presence, left him to admonish her with due severity, +and to persuade her to renounce the devil and all his +works. While he was thus engaged, and she was +stoutly denying the accusation brought against her, +a weasel or lobster suddenly made its appearance. +‘Look,’ said the gentleman, ‘yonder is thy spirit.’ +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>394]</a></span> +‘Ah, master!’ she replied, ‘that is a vermin; there +be many of them everywhere.’ Well, as they went +towards it, it vanished out of sight; by-and-by it re-appeared, +and looked upon them. ‘Surely,’ said the +gentleman, ‘it is thy spirit;’ but she still denied, +and with that her mouth was drawn awry. Then he +pressed her further, and she confessed all. She confessed +she had hurt and killed by sending her spirit. +The gentleman, not being a magistrate, allowed her +to go home, and then disclosed the affair to a justice. +When she reached home another witch accosted her, +and said: ‘Ah, thou beast, what hast thou done? +Thou hast betrayed us all. What remedy now?’ said +she. ‘What remedy?’ said the other; ‘send thy +spirit and touch him.’ She sent her spirit, and of a +sudden the gentleman had, as it were, a flash of fire +about him: he lifted up his heart to God, and felt no +hurt. The spirit returned, and said he could not +hurt him, because he had faith. ‘What then,’ said +the other witch, ‘hath he nothing that thou mayest +touch?’ ‘He hath a child,’ said the other. ‘Send +thy spirit,’ said she, ‘and touch the child.’ She sent +her spirit; the child was in great pain, and died. +The witches were hanged, and confessed.</p> + +<p>Daniel, by an ingenious analysis, soon dismisses this +absurd story, which, like all such stories, he takes +to be further evidence of Satan’s craft, and no disproof +at all of the argument he has laid down. +‘Then,’ says Samuel, ‘I will tell you of another thing +which was done of late.</p> + +<p>‘A woman suspected of being a witch, and of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>395]</a></span> +having done harm among the cattle, was examined +and brought to confess that she had a spirit, which +resided in a hollow tree, and spoke to her out of a +hole in the trunk. And whenever she was offended +with any persons she went to that tree and sent her +spirit to kill their cattle. She was persuaded to +confess her faults openly, and to promise that she +would utterly forsake such ungodly ways: after she +had made this open confession, the spirit came unto +her, being alone. “Ah!” said he, “thou hast confessed +and betrayed all. I could turn it to rend thee in +pieces:” with that she was afraid, and went away, +and got her into company. Within some few weeks +after she fell out greatly into anger against one man. +Towards the tree she goeth, and before she came at +it—“Oh!” said the spirit, “wherefore comest thou? +Who hath angered thee?” “Such a man,” said the +witch. “And what wouldest thou have me do?” +said the spirit. “He hath,” saith she, “two horses +going yonder; touch them, or one of them.” Well, I +think even that night one of the horses died, and the +other was little better. Indeed, they recovered again +that one which was not dead, but in very evil case. +Now methinketh it is plain: he was angry that she +had betrayed all. And yet when she came to the +tree he let go all displeasure and went readily.’</p> + +<p>There is much common-sense, as we should nowadays +call it, in Daniel’s comments on this extraordinarily +wild story. ‘Do you think,’ he is represented +as saying, ‘that Satan lodgeth in a hollow +tree? Is he become so lazy and idle? Hath he +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>396]</a></span> +left off to be as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may +devour? Hath he put off the bloody and cruel +nature of the fiery dragon, so that he mindeth no +harm but when an angry woman entreats him to go +kill a cow or a horse? Is he become so doting with +age that man shall espy his craft—yea, be found +craftier than he is?’</p> + +<p>And now for the winding-up of Parson Gifford’s +‘Dialogue.’ ’Tis to be wished that all the parsons +of his time had been equally sensible and courageous.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>M. B. I could be content to hear more in these matters; I see +how fondly I have erred. But seeing you must be gone, I hope +we shall meet here again at some other time. God keep you!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sam.</span> I am bound to give you great thanks. And, I pray you, +when occasion serveth, that you come this way. Let us see you +at my house.</p> + +<p>M. B. I thought there had not been such subtle practices of +the devil, nor so great sins as he leadeth men into.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sam.</span> It is strange to see how many thousands are carried +away, and deceived, yea, many that are very wise men.</p> + +<p>M. B. The devil is too crafty for the wisest, unless they have +the light of God’s Word.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Samuel’s Wife.</span> Husband, yonder cometh the goodwife R.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sam.</span> I wish she had come sooner.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Goodwife R.</span> Ho, who is within, by your leave?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Samuel’s Wife.</span> I would you had come a little sooner; here +was one even now that said you were a witch.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Goodwife R.</span> Was there one said I am a witch? You do +but jest.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Samuel’s Wife.</span> Nay, I promise you he was in good earnest.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Goodwife R.</span> I a witch? I defy him that saith it, though +he be a lord. I would all the witches in the land were hanged, +and their spirits by them.</p> + +<p>M. B. Would you not be glad, if their spirits were hanged +up with them, to have a gown furred with some of their skins?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Goodwife R.</span> Out upon them. There were few!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sam.</span> Wife, why didst thou say that the goodwife R. is a +witch? He did not say so.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>397]</a></span> +<span class="smcap">Samuel’s Wife.</span> Husband, I did mark his words well enough; +he said she is a witch.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sam.</span> He doth not know her, and how could he say she is a +witch?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Samuel’s Wife.</span> What though he did not know her? Did he +not say that she played the witch that heated the spit red hot, +and thrust it into her cream when the butter would not come?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sam.</span> Indeed, wife, thou sayest true. He said that was a +thing taught by the devil, as also the burning of a hen, or of a +hog alive, and all such like devices.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Goodwife R.</span> Is that witchcraft? Some Scripture man hath +told you so. Did the devil teach it? Nay, the good woman at +R. H. taught it my husband: she doth more good in one year +than all those Scripture men will do so long as they live.</p> + +<p>M. B. Who do you think taught it the cunning woman at +R. H.?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Goodwife R.</span> It is a gift which God hath given her. I +think the Holy Spirit of God doth teach her.</p> + +<p>M. B. You do not think, then, that the devil doth teach her?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Goodwife R.</span> How should I think that the devil doth teach +her? Did you ever hear that the devil did teach any good +thing?</p> + +<p>M. B. Do you know that was a good thing?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Goodwife R.</span> Was it not a good thing to drive the evil spirit +out of any man?</p> + +<p>M. B. Do you think the devil was afraid of your spit?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Goodwife R.</span> I know he was driven away, and we have been +rid of him ever since.</p> + +<p>M. B. Can a spit hurt him?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Goodwife R.</span> It doth hurt him, or it hurteth the witch: one +of them, I am sure: for he cometh no more. Either she can get +him come no more, because it hurteth him: or else she will let +him come no more, because it hurteth her.</p> + +<p>M. B. It is certain that spirits cannot be hurt but with +spiritual weapons: therefore your spit cannot fray nor hurt the +devil. And how can it hurt the witch? You did not think she +was in your cream, did you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Goodwife R.</span> Some think she is there, and therefore when +they thrust in the spit they say: ‘If thou beest here, have at +thine eye.’</p> + +<p>M. B. If she were in your cream, your butter was not very +cleanly.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>398]</a></span> +<span class="smcap">Goodwife R.</span> You are merrily disposed, M. B. I know you +are of my mind, though you put these questions to me. For I +am sure none hath counselled more to go to the cunning folk +than you.</p> + +<p>M. B. I <em>was</em> of your mind, but I am not now, for I see how +foolish I was. I am sorry that I offended so grievously as to +counsel any for to seek unto devils.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Goodwife R.</span> Why, M. B., who hath schooled you to-day? +I am sure you were of another mind no longer agone than yesterday.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Samuel’s Wife.</span> Truly, goodwife R., I think my husband is +turned also: here hath been one reasoning with them three or +four hours.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Goodwife R.</span> Is your husband turned, too? I would you +might lose all your hens one after another, and then I would +she would set her spirit upon your ducks and your geese, and +leave you not one alive. Will you come to defend witches?...</p> + +<p>M. B. You think the devil can kill men’s cattle, and lame both +man and beast at his pleasure: you think if the witch entreat +him and send him, he will go, and if she will not have him go, he +will not meddle. And you think when he doth come, you can +drive him away with a hot spit, or with burning a live hen or a +pig.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Goodwife R.</span> Never tell me I think so, for you yourself have +thought so; and let them say what they can, all the Scripture +men in the world shall never persuade me otherwise.</p> + +<p>M. B. I do wonder, not so much at your ignorance as at this, +that I was ever of the same mind that you are, and could not see +mine own folly.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Goodwife R.</span> Folly! how wise you are become of a sudden! +I know that their spirits lie lurking, for they foster them; and +when anybody hath angered them, then they call them forth and +send them. And look what they bid them do, or hire them to +do, that shall be done: as when she is angry, the spirit will ask +her, ‘What shall I do?’ ‘Such a man hath misused me,’ saith +she; ‘go, kill his cow’; by-and-by he goeth and doeth it. ‘Go, +kill such a woman’s hens’; down go they. And some of them +are not content to do these lesser harms; but they will say, ‘Go, +make such a man lame, kill him, or kill his child.’ Then are +they ready, and will do anything; and I think they be happy +that can learn to drive them away.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>399]</a></span> +M. B. If I should reason with you out of the words of God, +you should see that all this is false, which you say. The devil +cannot kill nor hurt anything; no, not so much as a poor hen. +If he had power, who can escape him? Would he tarry to be +sent or entreated by a woman? He is a stirrer up unto all +harms and mischiefs.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Goodwife R.</span> What will you tell me of God’s word? Doth +not God’s word say there be witches? and do not you think God +doth suffer bad people? Are you a turncoat? Fare you well; I +will no longer talk with you.</p> + +<p>M. B. She is wilful indeed. I will leave you also.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Samuel.</span> I thank you for your good company.</p> +</div> + +<p>About the same time that Gifford was endeavouring +to teach his countrymen a more excellent way of +dealing with the vexed questions of demonology and +witchcraft, a Dutch minister, named Bekker, scandalized +the orthodox by a frank denial of all power +whatsoever to the devil, and, consequently, to the +witches and warlocks who were supposed to be at one +and the same time his servants and yet his employers. +His ‘Monde Enchanté’ (originally written in Dutch) +consists of four ponderous volumes, remarkable for +prolixity and repetition, as well as for a certain +originality of argument. There was no just ground, +however, as Hallam remarks, for throwing imputations +on the author’s religious sincerity. He shared, +however, the opprobrium that attaches to all who +deviate in theology from the orthodox path; and it +must be admitted that his Scriptural explanations in +the case of the demoniacs and the like are more +ingenious than satisfactory.</p> + + +<p class="break">A violent trumpet-note on the side of intolerance +was blown by King James I. in 1597 in his famous +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>400]</a></span> +‘Dæmonologia.’ It is written in the form of a +dialogue, and numbers about eighty closely-printed +pages. James, as the reader has seen, had had ample +personal experience of witches and their ‘cantrips,’ +and had ‘got up’ the subject with a commendable +amount of thoroughness. He divides witches into +eight classes, who severally work their evil designs +against mankind; then he subdivides into white and +black witches, of whom the former are the more +dangerous; and again into ‘acted’ and ‘pacted’ +witches, the former depending for their power on +their supernatural gifts, and the latter having made a +compact with Satan contrary to ‘all rules and orders +of nature, art or grace.’ Further, the demons have a +classification of their own; some of the higher ranks +of the demonarchy looking down contemptuously +enough on those of the inferior grades, who consist +of ‘the damned souls of departed conjurers.’ These +‘damned souls’ discharge all kinds of mean and +servile offices—bringing fire from heaven for the +convenience of their employers; conveying bodies +through the air; conjuring corn from one field into +another; imparting a show of life to dead bodies; +and raising the wind for witches to sell to their +nautical customers—who received pieces of knotted +rope, and, untying the first knot, secured a favourable +breeze, for the second a moderate wind, and for the +third a violent gale.</p> + +<p>After describing the rites in vogue on the conclusion +of a compact between witch and devil, King +James enlarges on other points of ceremonial, such +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>401]</a></span> +as the making of various magic circles—sometimes +round, sometimes triangular, sometimes quadrangular; +the use of holy water and crosses in ridicule of the +papists; and the offer to the demons of some living +animal. He adds that the great witches’ meetings +frequently took place in churches: and he says that +the witches mutter and hurriedly mumble through +their conjurations ‘like a priest despatching a hunting +masse’; and that if they step out of a circle in a +sudden alarm at the horrible appearance assumed by +the demon, he flies off with them body and soul.</p> + +<p>The royal expert proceeds to indicate the means +by which you may detect a witch. ‘There are two +good helpes that may be used for their trials; the +one is the finding of their marke and the trying the +insensibility thereof. The other is their fleeting on +the water: for as in a secret murther, if the dead +carkasse be at any time thereafter handled by the +murtherer, it will gush out of blood, as if the blood +were crying to the heaven for revenge of the +murtherer, God having appoynted that secret supernaturale +signe for triale of that secret unnaturale +crime, so it appears that God hath appoynted (for a +supernaturale signe of the monstrous impietie of +witches) that the water shall refuse to receive them +in her bosome that have shaken off them the sacred +water of Baptism and willingly refused the benefit +thereof: no, not so much as their eies are able to +shed teares (threaten and torture them as you please) +while first they repent (God not permitting them to +dissemble their obstinacie in so horrible a crime), +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>402]</a></span> +albeit the womenkind especially be able other waies +to shed teares at every light occasion when they will, +yea altho’ it were dissemblingly like the crocodiles.’</p> + +<p>Incidentally, our witch-hunting King offers an +explanation of a peculiarity which, no doubt, our +readers have already noted—the great numerical +superiority of witches over warlocks. ‘The reason +is easie,’ he says; ‘for as that sex is frailer than +man is, so is it easier to be intrapped in the grosse +snares of the devil,—as was over well prooved to be +true by the serpente deceiving of Eva at the beginning, +which makes him the homelier with that sex +sensine [ever since].’</p> + +<p>As regards the external appearance of witches, he +remarks that they are not generally melancholic; +‘but some are rich and worldly wise, some are fat +and corpulent, and most part are given over unto the +pleasures of the flesh; and further experience daily +proves how loth they are to confess without torture, +which witnesseth their guiltinesse.’ He concludes +by asking, ‘Who is safe?’ and replies that the only +safe person is the magistrate, when assiduously employed +in bringing witches to justice. One Reginald +Scot, Esq., however, hop-grower and brewer of +Smeeth, in Kent, a persistent disbeliever in and +ridiculer of witchcraft, who had the courage to break +lances with the King and the bench of Bishops in +contemporary pamphlets, and is called by the King +an ‘Englishman of damnable opiniones,’ irreverently +answered this question by saying that the only safe +person was the King himself, as his sex prevented +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>403]</a></span> +his being taken for a witch, and the whole kingdom +was satisfied that he was no conjurer.</p> + + +<p class="break">In 1616, John Cotta, a Northampton physician, +published a forcibly written attack on the vulgar +delusion, under the title of ‘The Trial of Witchcraft,’ +which reached a second (and enlarged) edition in +1624. Cotta was also the author of a fierce blast +against quacks—‘Discovery of the Dangers of +ignorant Practisers of Physick in England,’ 1612; +and of a not less vehement attack on the <i>aurum +potabile</i> of the chemists, entitled, ‘Cotta contra +Antonium, or An Ant. Anthony,’ 1623.</p> + + +<p class="break">There is a lively work by John Gaul, preacher of +the Word at Great Haughton, in the county of +Huntingdon—‘Select Cases of Conscience touching +Witches and Witchcraft,’ 1646, which is worth +looking into. Gaul was a courageous and persevering +opponent of the great witch-finder, Hopkins.</p> + + +<p class="break">The unhappy victims of popular prejudice found a +strenuous champion also in Sir Robert Filmer, who, +in 1653, published his ‘Advertisement to the Jurymen +of England, touching Witches, together with a +Difference between an English and Hebrew Witch.’ +Filmer is best known to students by his ‘Patriarcha,’ +an apology for the paternal government of kings, +which does violence to all constitutional principles, +but has at least the negative merit of obvious sincerity +on the part of its writer. It is somewhat surprising +to find a mind like Filmer’s, fettered as it was by so +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>404]</a></span> +many prejudices and a slavish adherence to prescription, +openly urging the cause of tolerance and +enlightenment, and vigorously demolishing the sham +arguments by which the believers in witchcraft +endeavoured to support their grotesque theories.</p> + + +<p class="break">Three years later followed on the same side a +certain Thomas Ady, M.A., who, with considerable +vivacity, fulminated against the witch-mongers and +witch-torturers in his tractate, ‘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.’ The quaintly-worded +dedication ran as follows:</p> + +<p>‘To the Prince of the Kings of the Earth. It is +the manner of men, O heavenly King, to dedicate +their books to some great men, thereby to have their +works protected and countenanced among them; but +Thou only art able by Thy Holy Spirit of Truth, to +defend Thy Truth, and to make it take impression in +the heart and understanding of men. Unto Thee +alone do I dedicate this work, entreating Thy Most +High Majesty to grant that, whoever shall open this +book, Thy Holy Spirit may so possess their understanding +as that the Spirit of error may depart from +them, and that they may read and try Thy Truth by +the touchstone of Thy Truth, the Holy Scriptures; +and finding that Truth, may embrace it and forsake +their darksome inventions of Anti-Christ, that have +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>405]</a></span> +deluded and defiled the nations now and in former +ages. Enlighten the world, Thou art the Light of +the World, and let darkness be no more in the world, +now or in any future age; but make all people to +walk as children of the light for ever; and destroy +Anti-Christ that hath deceived the nations, and save +us the residue by Thyself alone; and let not Satan +any more delude us, for the Truth is thine for ever.’</p> + + +<p class="break">In 1669 John Wagstaffe published ‘The Question +of Witchcraft Debated.’ According to Wood, he was +the son of John Wagstaffe, a London citizen; was +born in Cheapside; entered as a commoner of Oriel +College, Oxford, towards the end of 1649; took the +degrees in Arts, and applied himself to the study of +politics and other learning. ‘At length being raised +from an academical life to the inheritance of Hasland +by the death of an uncle, who died without male +issue, he spent his life afterwards in single estate.’ +He died in 1677. Wood describes him as ‘a little +crooked man, and of a despicable presence. He was +laughed at by the boys of this University because, as +they said, he himself looked like a little wizard.’</p> + +<p>His book is illuminated throughout by the generous +sympathies of a large and liberal mind. His peroration +has been described, and not unjustly, as ‘lofty’ +and ‘memorable,’ and, when animated by a noble +earnestness, the writer’s language rises into positive +eloquence. ‘I cannot think,’ he says, ‘without +trembling and horror on the vast numbers of people +that in several ages and several countries have been +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>406]</a></span> +sacrificed unto this cold opinion. Thousands, ten +thousands, are upon record to have been slain, and +many of them not with simple deaths, but horrid, +exquisite tortures. And yet, how many are there +more who have undergone the same fate, of whom +we have no memorial extant? Since therefore the +opinion of witchcraft is a mere stranger unto +Scripture, and wholly alien from true religion; since +it is ridiculous by asserting fables and impossibilities; +since it appears, when duly considered, to be all +bloody and full of dangerous consequence unto the +lives and safety of men; I hope that with this my +discourse, opposing an absurd and pernicious error, +I cannot at all disoblige any sober, unbiased person, +especially if he be of such ingenuity as to have freed +himself from a slavish subjection unto those prejudicial +opinions which custom and education do with +too much tyranny impose.</p> + +<p>‘If the doctrine of witchcraft should be carried up +to a height, and the inquisition after it should be +entrusted in the hands of ambitious, covetous, and +malicious men, it would prove of far more fatal consequences +unto the lives and safety of mankind than +that ancient heathenish custom of sacrificing men +unto idol gods, insomuch that we stand in need of +another Heracles Liberator, who, as the former freed +the world from human sacrifice, should, in like +manner, travel from country to country, and by his +all-commanding authority free it from this evil and +base custom of torturing people to confess themselves +witches, and burning them after extorted confessions. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>407]</a></span> +Surely the blood of men ought not to be so cheap, +nor so easily to be shed by those who, under the +name of God, do gratify exorbitant passions and +selfish ends; for without question, under this side +heaven, there is nothing so sacred as the life of man, +for the preservation whereof all policies and forms +of government, all laws and magistrates are most +especially ordained. Wherefore I presume that this +discourse of mine, attempting to prove the vanity +and impossibility of witchcraft, is so far from any +deserved censure and blame, that it rather deserves +commendation and praise, if I can in the least measure +contribute to the saving of the lives of men.’</p> + + +<p class="break">Meric Casaubon, a man of abundant learning and +not less abundant superstition, attempted a reply to +Wagstaffe in his treatise ‘Of Credulity and Incredulity +in Things Divine and Spiritual’ (1670).</p> + + +<p class="break">At Thornton, in the parish of Caswold, Yorkshire, +was born, on the 3rd of February, 1610, one of the +ablest and most successful of the adversaries of the +witch-maniacs, John Webster. It is supposed that +he was educated at Cambridge; but the first event +in his career of which we have any certain knowledge +is his admission to holy orders in the Church of +England by Dr. Morton, Bishop of Durham. In +1634 we find him officiating as curate at Kildwick in +Craven, and nine years later as Master of the Free +Grammar School at Clitheroe. He seems afterwards +to have held for a time a military chaplaincy, then to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>408]</a></span> +have withdrawn from the Church of England, and +taken refuge in some form of Dissent. In 1653 his +new religious views found expression in his ‘Saints’ +Guide,’ and in 1654, in ‘The Judgment Set and the +Books Opened,’ a series of sermons which he had +originally preached at All Hallows’ Church in Lombard +Street. It was in this church the incident +occurred which Wood has recorded: ‘On the 12th of +October, 1653, William Erbury, with John Webster, +sometime a Cambridge scholar, endeavoured to knock +down learning and the ministry both together in a +disputation that they then had against two ministers +in a church in Lombard Street, London. Erbury +then declared that the wisest ministers and the purest +churches were at that time befooled, confounded, and +defiled by reason of learning. Another while he +said that the ministry were monsters, beasts, asses, +greedy dogs, false prophets, and that they are the +Beast with seven heads and ten horns. The same +person also spoke out and said that Babylon is +the Church in her ministers, and that the Great +Whore is the Church in her worship, etc., so that +with him there was an end of ministers and churches +and ordinations altogether. While these things were +babbled to and fro, the multitude, being of various +opinions, began to mutter, and many to cry out, and +immediately it came to a meeting or tumult (call it +which you please), wherein the women bore away the +bell, but lost some of them their kerchiefs; and the +dispute being hot, there was more danger of pulling +down the church than the ministry.’</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>409]</a></span> +In 1654, our iconoclastic enthusiast strongly—but +not without good reason—assailed the educational +system then in vogue at Oxford and Cambridge in +his treatise, ‘Academiarum Examen,’ which created +quite a sensation in ‘polite circles,’ fluttering the +dove-cots of the rulers of the two Universities. Very +curious, however, are its sympathetic references to +the old Hermetic mysteries, Rosicrucianism, and +astrology, to the fanciful abstractions and dreamy +speculations of Paracelsus, Van Helmont, Fludd, and +Dr. Dee. One cannot but wonder that so acute and +vigorous an intellect should have allowed itself to be +entangled in the delusions of the occult sciences. +But his study of the works of the old philosophers +was, no doubt, the original motive of the laborious +research which resulted in his ‘Metallographia; or, +A History of Metals’ (1671). In this learned and +comprehensive treatise are declared ‘the signs of Ores +and Minerals, both before and after Digging, the +causes and manner of their generations, their kinds, +sorts, and differences; with the description of sundry +new Metals, or Semi-Metals, and many other things +pertaining to Mineral Knowledge. As also the handling +and showing of their Vegetability, and the discussion +of the most difficult Questions belonging to +Mystical Chymistry, as of the Philosopher’s Gold, +their Mercury, the Liquor Alkahest, Aurum potabile, +and such like. Gathered forth of the most approved +Authors that have written in Greek, Latin, or High +Dutch, with some Observations and Discoveries of the +Author Himself. By John Webster, Practitioner in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>410]</a></span> +Physick and Chirurgery. “<i>Qui principia naturalia +in seipso ignoraverit, hic jam multum remotus est ab +arte nostra, quoniam non habet radiam veram super +quam intentionem suam fundit.</i>” Geber, Sum. Perfect., +lib. i., p. 21.’</p> + +<p>In 1677, Webster, who had abandoned the cure of +souls for that of bodies, produced the work which +entitles him to honourable mention in these pages. +According to the fashion of the day, its title was +almost as long as a table of contents. I transcribe +it here <i>in extenso</i>:</p> + +<p>‘<i>The Displaying of supposed Witchcraft</i>, Wherein +is affirmed that there are many sorts of Deceivers and +Impostors. And Divers persons under a passive +Delusion of Melancholy and Fancy. But that there +is a Corporeal League made betwixt the Devil and the +Witch, Or that he sucks on the Witches Body, has +Carnal Copulation, or that Witches are turned into +Cats or Dogs, raise Tempests or the like, is utterly +denied and disproved. Wherein also is handled the +Existence of Angels and Spirits, the Truth of Apparitions, +the Nature of Astral and Sidereal Spirits, the +Force of Charms and Philters; with other Abstruse +Matters. By John Webster, Practitioner in Physic. +“<i>Falsæ etenim opiniones Hominum præoccupantes, non +solum surdos sed ut cæcos faciunt, ita ut videre nequeant, +quæ aliis perspicua apparent.</i>” Galen, lib. viii., de +Comp. Med. London. Printed by I. M., and are to +be sold by the Booksellers in London, 1677.’</p> + +<p>Webster, who was evidently a man of restless and +inquiring intellect, and independent judgment, died +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>411]</a></span> +on June 18, 1682, and was buried in St. Margaret’s, +Clitheroe, where his monument may still be seen. Its +singular inscription must have been devised by some +astrological sympathizer:</p> + +<div class="cpoem3"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Qui hanc figuram intelligunt<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Me etiam intellexisse, intelligent.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Here follows a mysterious figure of the sun, with +several circles and much astrological lettering, which +it is unnecessary to reproduce. The inscription continues:</p> + +<div class="cpoem4"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Hic jacet ignotus mundo mersus que tumultus<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Invidiæ, semper mens tamen æqua fecit,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Multa tulit veterum ut sciret secreta sophorum<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ac tandem vires noverit ignis aquæ.<br /></span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Johannes Hyphantes sive Webster.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In villa Spinosa supermontana, in<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Parochia silvæ cuculatæ, in agro<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Eboracensi, natus 1610, Feb. 3.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ergastulum animæ deposuit 1682, Junii 18.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Annoq. ætatis suæ 72 currente.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sicq. peroravit moriens mundo huic valedicens,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Aurea pax vivis, requies æterna sepultis.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>In 1728, Andrew Millar, at the sign of The +Buchanan’s Head, against St. Clement’s Church in +the Strand, published ‘A System of Magick: or, A +History of the Black Art,’ by Daniel Defoe; a book +which, though it by no means justifies its title, is +one of more than passing interest, partly from the +renown of its author, and partly from the light it +throws on the popularity of magic among the English +middle classes in the earlier years of the eighteenth +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>412]</a></span> +century. As it has not been reprinted for the last +fifty years, and is not very generally known, some +glimpses of the stuff it is made of may be acceptable to +the curious reader.<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a></p> + +<p>In his preface Defoe lavishes a good deal of contempt +on contemporary pretenders to the character of +magician, who by sham magical practices imposed on a +public ignorant, and therefore credulous. Magicians, +he says, in the first ages were wise men; in the middle +ages, madmen; in these latter ages, they are cunning +men. In the earliest times they were honest; in the +middle time, rogues; in these last times, fools. At +first they dealt with nature; then with the devil; +and now, not with the devil or with nature either. +In the first ages the magicians were wiser than the +people; in the second age wickeder than the people; +and in this later age the people are both worse and +wickeder than the magicians. Like many other +generalizations, this one of Defoe’s is more pointed +than true; and it is evident that the so-called magicians +could not have flourished had there not been an +ignorant class who readily accepted their pretensions.</p> + +<p>Defoe’s account of the origin of magic is so vague +as to suggest that he knew very little of the subject +he was writing about. ‘I have traced it,’ he says, +‘as far back as antiquity gives us any clue to discover +it by: it seems to have its beginning in the +ignorance and curiosity of the darkest ages of the +world, when miracle and something wonderful was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>413]</a></span> +expected to confirm every advanced notion; and +when the wise men, having racked their invention to +the utmost, called in the devil to their assistance for +want of better help; and those that did not run into +Satan’s measures, and give themselves up to the +infernal, yet trod so near, and upon the very verge +of Hell, that it was hard to distinguish between the +magician and the devil, and thus they have gone +on ever since: so that almost all the dispute between +us and the magicians is that they say they converse +with good spirits, and we say if they deal with any +spirits, it is with the devil.’</p> + +<p>Here the greatness of his theme stimulates Defoe +into poetry, which differs very little, however, from +his prose, so that a brief specimen will content +everybody:</p> + +<div class="cpoem5"> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">‘Hail! dangerous science, falsely called sublime,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which treads upon the very brink of crime.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hell’s mimic, Satan’s mountebank of state,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deals with more devils than Heaven did e’er create.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The infernal juggling-box, by Heaven designed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To put the grand parade upon mankind.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The devil’s first game which he in Eden played,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When he harangued to Eve in masquerade.’<br /></span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Dividing his treatise into two parts, our author, in +the introduction to Part I., discusses the meaning of +the principal terms in magical lore; who, and what +kind of people, the magicians were; and the meaning +originally given to the words ‘magic’ and +‘magician.’ As a matter of course, he strays back +to the old Chaldean days, when a magician, he says, +was simply a mathematician, a man of science, who, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>414]</a></span> +stored with knowledge and learning, was a kind of +walking dictionary to other people, instructing the +rest of mankind on subjects of which they were +ignorant; a wise man, in fact, who interpreted omens, +ill signs, tokens, and dreams; understood the signs +of the times, the face of the heavens, and the +influences of the superior luminaries there. When +all this wisdom became more common, and the magi +had communicated much of their knowledge to the +people at large, their successors, still aspiring to a +position above, and apart from, the rest of the world, +were compelled to push their studies further, to +inquire into nature, to view the aspect of the heavens, +to calculate the motions of the stars, and more particularly +to dwell upon their influences in human +affairs—thus creating the science of astrology. But +these men neither had, nor pretended to have, any +compact or correspondence with the devil or with +any of his works. They were men of thought, or, if +you please, men of deeper thinking than the ordinary +sort; they studied the sciences, inquired into the +works of nature and providence, studied the meaning +and end of things, the causes and events, and consequently +were able to see further into the ordinary +course and causes both of things about them, and +things above them, than other men.</p> + +<p>Such were the world’s gray forefathers, the +magicians of the elder time, in whom was found +‘an excellent spirit of wisdom.’ There were others—not +less learned—whose studies took a different direction; +who inquired into the structure and organization +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>415]</a></span> +of the human body; who investigated the origin, +the progress, and the causes of diseases and distempers, +both in men and women; who sought out +the physical or medicinal virtues of drugs and plants; +and as by these means they made daily discoveries in +nature, of which the world, until then, was ignorant, +and by which they performed astonishing cures, they +naturally gained the esteem and reverence of the +people.</p> + +<p>Sir Walter Raleigh contends that only the word +‘magic,’ and not the magical art, is derived from +Simon Magus. He adds that Simon’s name was not +Magus, a magician, but Gors, a person familiar with +evil spirits; and that he usurped the title of Simon +the Magician simply because it was then a good and +honourable title. Defoe avails himself of Raleigh’s +authority to sustain his own opinion, that there is +a manifest difference between <em>magic</em>, which is wisdom +and supernatural knowledge, and the witchcraft and +conjuring which we now understand by the word.</p> + +<p>In his second chapter Defoe classifies the magic of +the ancients under three heads: i. <em>Natural</em>, which +included the knowledge of the stars, of the motions +of the planetary bodies, and their revolutions and +influences; that is to say, the study of nature, of +philosophy, and astronomy; ii. <em>Artificial</em> or <em>Rational</em>, +in which was included the knowledge of all judicial +astrology, the casting or calculating nativities, and the +cure of diseases—(1) by particular charms and figures +placed in this or that position; (2) by herbs gathered +at this or that particular crisis of time; (3) by saying +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>416]</a></span> +such and such words over the patient; (4) by such +and such gestures; (5) by striking the flesh in such +and such a manner, and innumerable such-like pieces +of mimicry, working not upon the disease itself, but +upon the imagination of the patient, and so affecting +the cure by the power of nature, though that nature +were set in operation by the weakest and simplest +methods imaginable; and, iii. <em>Diabolical</em>, which was +wrought by and with the concurrence of the devil, +carried on by a correspondence with evil spirits—with +their help, presence, and personal assistance—and +practised chiefly by their priests. Defoe argues that +the ancients at first were acquainted only with the +purer form of magic, and that, therefore, sorcery and +witchcraft were of much later development. The +cause and motive of this development he traces in his +third chapter (‘Of the Reason and Occasion which +brought the ancient honest Magi, whose original +study was philosophy, astronomy, and the works of +nature, to turn sorcerers and wizards, and deal +with the Devil, and how their Conversation began’). +Egyptologists will find Defoe’s comments upon +Egyptian magic refreshingly simple and unhistorical, +and his identifications of the Pyramids with magical +practices is wildly vague and hypothetical. Of the +magic which was really taught and practised among +the ancient people of Egypt, Defoe, of course, knows +nothing. He tells us, however, that the Jews learned +it from them. He goes on to speculate as to the time +when that close intercourse began between the devil +and his servants on earth which is the foundation of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>417]</a></span> +the later or diabolical magic, and concludes that his +first visible appearance on this mundane stage was +as the enemy of Job. Thence he is led to inquire, +in his fourth chapter, what shapes the devil assumed +on his first appearances to the magicians and others, +in the dawn of the world’s history, and whether he is +or has been allowed to assume a human shape or no. +And he suggests that his earliest acquaintance with +mankind was made through dreams, and that by this +method he contrived to infuse into men’s minds an +infinite variety of corrupt imaginations, wicked desires, +and abhorrent conclusions and resolutions, with some +ridiculous, foolish, and absurd things at the same +time.</p> + +<p>Defoe then proceeds to tell an Oriental story, which, +doubtlessly, is his own invention:</p> + +<p>Ali Albrahazen, a Persian wizard, had, it is said, +this kind of intercourse with the devil. He was a +Sabean by birth, and had obtained a wonderful reputation +for his witchcraft, so that he was sent for by the +King of Persia upon extraordinary occasions, such as +the interpretation of a dream, or of an apparition, like +that of Belshazzar’s handwriting, or of some meteor +or eclipse, and he never failed to give the King satisfaction. +For whether his utterances were true or +false, he couched them always in such ambiguous +terms that something of what he predicted might +certainly be deduced from his words, and so seem to +import that he had effectually revealed it, whether he +had really done so or not.</p> + +<p>This Ali, wandering alone in the desert, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>418]</a></span> +musing much upon the appearance of a fiery meteor, +which, to the great terror of the country, had flamed +in the heavens every night for nearly a month, sought +to apprehend its significance, and what it should portend +to the world; but, failing to do so, he sat down, +weary and disheartened, in the shade of a spreading +palm. Breathing to himself a strong desire that +some spirit from the other world would generously +assist him to arrive at the true meaning of a phenomenon +so remarkable, he fell asleep. And, lo! in his +sleep he dreamed a dream, and the dream was this: +that a tall man came to him, a tall man of sage and +venerable aspect, with a pleasing smile upon his +countenance; and, addressing him by his name, told +him that he was prepared to answer his questions, and +to explain to him the signification of the great and +terrible fire in the air which was terrifying all Arabia +and Persia.</p> + +<p>His explanation proved to be of an astronomical +character. These fiery appearances, he said, were +collections of vapour exhaled by the influence of the +sun from earth or sea. As to their importance to +human affairs, it was simply this: that sometimes by +their propinquity to the earth, and their power of +attraction, or by their dissipation of aqueous vapours, +they occasioned great droughts and insupportable +heats; while, at other times, they distilled heavy and +unusual rains, by condensing, in an extraordinary +manner, the vapours they had absorbed. And he +added: ‘Go thou and warn thy nation that this fiery +meteor portends an excessive drought and famine; for +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>419]</a></span> +know that by the strong exhalation of the vapours of +the earth, occasioned by the meteor’s unusual nearness +to it, the necessary rains will be withheld, and to a +long drought, as a matter of course, famine and +scarcity of corn succeed. Thus, by judging according +to the rules of natural causes, thou shalt predict +what shall certainly come to pass, and shalt obtain +the reputation thou so ardently desirest of being a +wise man and a great magician.’</p> + +<p>‘This prediction,’ said Ali, ‘was all very well as +regarded Arabia; but would it apply also to Persia?’ +‘No,’ replied the devil; for Ali’s interlocutor was no +less distinguished a personage—fiery meteors from +the same causes sometimes produced contrary events; +and he might repair to the Persian Court, and predict +the advent of excessive rains and floods, which +would greatly injure the fruits of the earth, and occasion +want and scarcity. ‘Thus, if either of these +succeed, as it is most probable, thou shalt assuredly +be received as a sage magician in one country, if not +in the other; also, to both of them thou mayest +suggest, as a probability only, that the consequence +may be a plague or infection among the people, +which is ordinarily the effect as well of excessive +wet as of excessive heat. If this happens, thou shalt +gain the reputation thou desirest; and if not, seeing +thou didst not positively foretell it, thou shalt not +incur the ignominy of a false prediction.’</p> + +<p>Ali was very grateful for the devil’s assistance, and +failed not to ask how, at need, he might again secure +it. He was told to come again to the palm-tree, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>420]</a></span> +to go around it fifteen times, calling him thrice by +his name each time: at the end of the fifteenth circumambulation +he would find himself overtaken by +drowsiness; whereupon he should lie down with his +face to the south, and he would receive a visit from +him in vision. The devil further told him the magic +name by which he was to summon him.</p> + +<p>The magician’s predictions were duly made and +duly fulfilled. Thenceforward he maintained a constant +communication with the devil, who, strange to +say, seems not to have exacted anything from him in +return for his valuable, but hazardous, assistance.</p> + +<p>Defoe’s fifth chapter contains a further account of +the devil’s conduct in imitating divine inspirations; +describes the difference between the genuine and the +false; and dwells upon signs and wonders, fictitious +as well as real. In chapter the sixth our author +treats of the first practices of magic and witchcraft +as a diabolical art, and explains how it was handed +on to the Egyptians and Phœnicians, by whom it was +openly encouraged. He offers some amusing remarks +on the methods adopted by magicians for summoning +the devil, who seems to be at once their servant and +master. In parts of India they go up, he says, to the +summit of some particular mountain, where they call +him with a little kettledrum, just as the good old +wives in England hive their bees, except that they +beat it on the wrong side. Then they pronounce +certain words which they call ‘charms,’ and the devil +appears without fail.</p> + +<p>It is not easy to discover in history what words +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>421]</a></span> +were used for charms in Egypt and Arabia for so +many ages. It is certain they differed in different +countries; and it is certain they differed as the +magicians acted together or individually. Nor are +we less at a loss to understand what the devil could +mean by suffering such words, or any words at all, to +charm, summon, alarm, or arouse him. The Greeks +have left us, he says, a word which was used by the +magicians of antiquity pretty frequently—that famous +trine or triangular word, Abracadabra:</p> + +<p class="center lspace"> +A B R A C A D A B R A<br /> +A B R A C A D A B R<br /> +A B R A C A D A B<br /> +A B R A C A D A<br /> +A B R A C A D<br /> +A B R A C A<br /> +A B R A C<br /> +A B R A<br /> +A B R<br /> +A B<br /> +A</p> + +<p>‘There is abundance of learned puzzle among the +ancients to find out the signification of this word: +the subtle position of the letters gave a kind of +reverence to them, because they read it as it were +every way, upwards and downwards, backwards and +forwards, and many will have it still <em>that the devil +put them together</em>: nay, they begin at last to think it +was old Legion’s surname, and whenever he was +called by that name, he used to come very readily; +for which reason the old women in their chimney-corners +would be horribly afraid of saying it often +over together, for if they should say it a certain +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>422]</a></span> +number of times, they had a notion it would certainly +raise the devil.</p> + +<p>‘They say, on the contrary, that it was invented +by one Basilides, a learned Greek; that it contained +the great and awful name of the Divinity; and that +it was used for many years for the opposing the +spells and charms of the Pagans; that is, the +diabolical spells and charms of the pagan magicians.’</p> + +<p>In the seventh chapter we read of the practice and +progress of magic, as it is now explained to be a +diabolical art; how it spread itself in the world, and +by what degrees it grew up to the height which it +has since attained.</p> + + +<p class="break">The introduction to the second part of Defoe’s +work is devoted to an exposition of the Black Art +‘as it really is,’ and sets forth ‘why there are several +differing practices of it in the several parts of the +world, and what those practices are; as, also, what is +contained in it in general.’ He defines it as ‘a new +general term for all the branches of that correspondence +which mankind has maintained, or does, or +can carry on, between himself and the devil, between +this and the infernal world.’ And he enumerates +these branches as: <em>Divining</em>, or <em>Soothsaying</em>; <em>Observing +of Times</em>; <em>Using Enchantment</em>; <em>Witchcraft</em>; +<em>Charming</em>, or <em>Setting of Spells</em>; <em>Dealing with Familiar +Spirits</em>; <em>Wizardising</em>, or <em>Sorcery</em>; and <em>Necromancy</em>.</p> + +<p>The first chapter treats of Modern Magic, or the +Black Art in its present practice and perfection.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>423]</a></span> +In the second chapter the scene is changed: as the +devil acted at first with his Black Art without the +magicians, so the magicians seem now to carry it on +without the devil. This is written in Defoe’s best +style of sober irony. ‘The magicians,’ he says, +‘were formerly the devil’s servants, but now they +are his masters, and that to such a degree, that it is +but drawing a circle, casting a few figures, muttering +a little Arabic, and up comes the devil, as readily as +the drawer at a tavern, with a <em>D’ye call, sir?</em> or like +a Scotch caude [caddie?], with <em>What’s your honour’s +wull, sir?</em> Nay, as the learned in the art say, he +must come, he can’t help it: then as to tempting, he +is quite out of doors. And I think, as the Old +Parliament did by the bishops, we may e’en vote him +useless. In a word, there is no manner of occasion +for him: mankind are as froward as he can wish and +desire of them; nay, some cunning men tell us we +sin faster than the devil can keep pace with us: as +witness the late witty and moderately wicked Lady +...., who blest her stars that the devil never +tempted her to anything; he understood himself +better, for she knew well enough how to sin without +him, and that it would be losing his time to talk to +her.’</p> + +<p>Defoe furnishes an entertaining account of his +conversation with a countryman, who had been to a +magician at Oundle. Whether true or fictitious, the +narrative shows that many of the favourite tricks +performed at spiritualistic <i>séances</i> in our own time +were well known in Defoe’s:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>424]</a></span> +<span class="smcap">Countryman.</span> I saw my old gentleman in a great chair, and +two more in chairs at some distance, and three great candles, and +a great sheet of white paper upon the floor between them; every +one of them had a long white wand in their hands, the lower end +of which touched the sheet of paper.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Defoe.</span> And were the candles upon the ground too?</p> + +<p>C. Yes, all of them.</p> + +<p>D. There was a great deal of ceremony about you, I assure +you.</p> + +<p>C. I think so, too, but it is not done yet: immediately I heard +the little door stir, as if it was opening, and away I skipped as +softly as I could tread, and got into my chair again, and sat there +as gravely as if I had never stirred out of it. I was no sooner +set, but the door opened indeed, and the old gentleman came out +as before, and turning to me, said, ‘Sit still, don’t ye stir;’ and at +that word the other two that were with him in the room walked +out after him, one after another, across the room, as if to go out +at the other door where I came in; but at the further end of the +room they stopped, and turned their faces to one another, and +talked; but it was some devil’s language of their own, for I could +understand nothing of it.</p> + +<p>D. And now I suppose you were frighted in earnest?</p> + +<p>C. Ay, so I was; but it was worse yet, for they had not stood +long together, but the great elbow-chair, which the old gentleman +sat in at the little table just by me, <em>began to stir of itself</em>; at which +the old gentleman, knowing I should be afraid, came to me, and +said, ‘Sit still, don’t you stir, all will be well; you shall have no +harm;’ at which he gave his chair a kick with his foot, and saith, +‘Go!’ with some other words, and other language; <em>and away went +the obedient chair, sliding, two of its legs on the ground, and the other +two off, as if somebody had dragged it by that part</em>.</p> + +<p>D. And so, no doubt, they did, though you could not see it.</p> + +<p>C. And as soon as the chair was dragged or moved to the end +of the room, where the three, I know not what to call ’em, were, +two other chairs did the like from the other side of the room, and +so they all sat down, and talked together a good while; at last +the door at that end of the room opened too, and they all were +gone in a moment, without rising out of their chairs; for I am +sure they did not rise to go out, as other folks do.</p> + +<p>D. What did you think of yourself when you saw the chair stir +so near you?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>425]</a></span> +C. Think! nay, I did not think; I was dead, to be sure I was +dead, with the fright, and expected I should be carried away, +chair and all, the next moment. Then it was, I say, that my hair +would have lifted off my hat, if it had been on, I am sure it +would.</p> + +<p>D. Well, but when they were all gone, you came to yourself +again, I suppose?</p> + +<p>C. To tell you the truth, master, I am not come to myself yet.</p> + +<p>D. But go on, let me know how it ended.</p> + +<p>C. Why, after a little while, my old man came in again, called +his man to set the chairs to rights, and then sat him down at the +table, spoke cheerfully to me, and asked me if I would drink, +which I refused, though I was a-dry indeed. I believe the fright +had made me dry; but as I never had been used to drink with +the devil, I didn’t know what to think of it, so I let it alone.</p> +</div> + +<p>In his third chapter (‘Of the present pretences of +the Magicians; how they defend themselves; and +some examples of their practice’) Defoe has a lively +account of a contemporary magician, a Dr. Bowman, +of Kent, who seems to have been a firm believer in +what is now called Spiritualism. He was a green old +man, who went about in a long black velvet gown +and a cap, with a long beard, and his upper lip +trimmed ‘with a kind of muschato.’ He strongly +repudiated any kind of correspondence or intercourse +with the devil; but hinted that he derived much +assistance from the good spirits which people the +invisible world. After dwelling on the follies of the +learned, and the superstitions of the ignorant, this +lordly conjurer said: ‘You see how that we, men of +art, who have studied the sacred sciences, suffer by +the errors of common fame; they take us all for +devil-mongers, damned rogues, and conjurers.’</p> + +<p>The fourth chapter discusses the doctrine of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>426]</a></span> +spirits as it is understood by the magicians; how far +it may be supposed there may be an intercourse with +superior beings, apart from any familiarity with the +devil or the spirits of evil; with a transition to the +present times.</p> + +<p>And so much for the ‘Art of Magic’ as expounded +by Daniel Defoe.</p> + + +<p class="break">In 1718 appeared Bishop Hutchinson’s ‘Historical +Essay concerning Witchcraft,’ a book written in a +most liberal and tolerant spirit, and, at the same time, +with so much comprehensiveness and exactitude, that +later writers have availed themselves freely of its +stores.</p> + +<p>Reference may also be made to—</p> + +<p>John Beaumont, ‘Treatise of Spirits, Apparitions, +Witchcrafts, and other Magical Practices,’ 1705.</p> + +<p>James Braid (of Manchester), ‘Magic, Witchcraft, +Animal Magnetism, Hypnotism, and Electro-Biology’ +(1852), in which there is very little about witchcraft, +but a good deal about the influence of the +imagination.</p> + +<p>J. C. Colquhoun, ‘History of Magic, Witchcraft, +and Animal Magnetism,’ 1851.</p> + +<p>Rev. Joseph Glanvill, ‘Sadducismus Triumphatus; +or, A full and plain Evidence concerning Witches and +Apparitions,’ 1670.</p> + +<p>Sir Walter Scott, ‘Letters on Demonology and +Witchcraft,’ 1831.</p> + +<p>Howard Williams, ‘The Superstitions of Witchcraft,’ +1865.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>427]</a></span> +It may be a convenience to the reader if I indicate +some of the principal foreign authorities on this +subject. Such as—Institor and Sprenger’s great +work, ‘Malleus Maleficarum’ (Nuremberg, 1494); +The monk Heisterbach’s (Cæsarius) ‘Dialogus Miraculorum’ +(ed. by Strange), 1851; Cannaert’s +‘Procès des Sorcières en Belgique,’ 1848; Dr. W. G. +Soldan’s ‘Geschichte der Hexenprocesse’ (1843); +G. C. Horst’s ‘Zauber-Bibliothek, oder die Zauberei, +Theurgie und Mantik, Zauberei, Hexen und Hexenprocessen, +Dämonen, Gespenster und Geistererscheinungen,’ +in 6 vols., 1821—a most learned and +exhaustive work, brimful of recondite lore; Collin de +Plancy’s ‘Dictionnaire Infernal; ou Répertoire Universel +des Etres, des Livres, et des Choses qui tiennent +aux Apparitions, aux Divinations, à la Magie,’ etc., +1844; Michelet’s ‘La Sorcière’ is, of course, brilliantly +written; R. Reuss’s ‘La Sorcellerie au xvi<sup>e</sup>. +et xvii<sup>e</sup>. Siècle,’ 1872; Tartarotti’s ‘Del Congresso +Notturno delle Lamie,’ 1749; F. Perreaud’s ‘Demonologie, +ou Traité des Démons et Sorciers,’ +1655; H. Boguet’s ‘Discours des Sorciers,’ 1610 +(very rare); and Cotton Mather’s ‘Wonders of the +Invisible World,’ 1695—a monument of credulity, +prejudice, and bigotry.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTE</h4> + +<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> +Some authorities doubt the authorship; but the internal +evidence seems to me to justify the claim made for it as Defoe’s.</p> +</div> + + +<h3>BOOKS ON MAGIC.</h3> + +<p>It may also be convenient to the reader if I enumerate +a few of the principal authorities on the history of +Magic, Sorcery, and Alchemy. A very exhaustive +list will be found in the ‘Bibliotheca Magica et +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>428]</a></span> +Pneumatica,’ by Graessel, 1843; and an ‘Alphabetical +Catalogue of Works on Hermetic Philosophy and +Alchemy’ is appended to the ‘Lives of Alchemystical +Philosophers,’ by Arthur Edward Waite, 1888. For +ordinary purposes the following will be found sufficient: +Langlet du Fresnoy, ‘Histoire de la Philosophie +Hermétique,’ 1742; Gabriel Naudé, ‘Apologie +pour les Grands Hommes faussement soupçonnés de +Magie,’ 1625; Martin Antoine Delrio, ‘Disquisitionum +Magicarum, libri sex,’ 1599; L. F. Alfred +Maury, ‘La Magie et l’Astrologie dans l’Antiquité et +au Moyen Age,’ etc., 1860; Eus. Salverte, ‘Sciences +Occultes,’ ed. by Littré, 1856 (see the English translation, +‘Philosophy of Magic,’ with Notes by Dr. A. +Todd Thomson, 1846); Abbé de Villars, ‘Entretiens +du Comte de Gabalis’ (‘Voyages Imaginaires,’ tome 34), +Englished as ‘The Count de Gabalis: being a diverting +History of the Rosicrucian Doctrine of Spirits,’ +etc., 1714; Elias Ashmole, ‘Theatrum Chemicum +Britannicum;’ Roger Bacon, ‘Mirror of Alchemy,’ +1597; Louis Figuier, ‘Histoire de l’Alchimie et les +Alchimistes,’ 1865; Arthur Edward Waite, ‘The +Real History of the Rosicrucians,’ 1887; Hargrave +Jennings, ‘The Rosicrucians,’ new edit.; William +Godwin, ‘Lives of the Necromancers,’ 1834; Dr. T. +Thomson, ‘History of Chemistry,’ 1831; ‘Encyclopædia +Britannica,’ <i>in locis</i>; Dr. Kopp, ‘Geschichte +der Chemie;’ G. Rodwell, ‘Birth of Chemistry,’ 1874; +Haerfor, ‘Histoire de la Chimie,’ etc., etc.</p> + + +<p class="center padtop smlfont">BILLING AND SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD.</p> + + + + +<div class="bbox"> +<p><b>Transcriber's Note</b></p> + +<p>Variations in spelling, hyphenation and accent usage are preserved as +printed.</p> + +<p>Minor punctuation errors have been repaired.</p> + +<p>Page <a href="#Page_253">253</a> includes the phrase "And thead of the said meetinge was to +consult ...". Another source of the quotation uses 'thend' instead +of 'thead'. Although 'thead' may be a typographic error, as there is +no way to be certain it is preserved as printed.</p> + +<p>The following amendments have been made:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Page <a href="#Page_65">65</a>—1675 amended to 1575—"One of these royal visits was made on +March 10, 1575, ..."</p> + +<p>Page <a href="#Page_142">142</a>—make amended to made—"... made many impertinent +obliterations, formed many objections, ..."</p> + +<p>Page <a href="#Page_143">143</a>—every amended to ever—"... as any that ever fell from the +lips of the Pythian priestess: ..."</p> + +<p>Page <a href="#Page_150">150</a>—or amended to of—"... (both of which were translated by +Elias Ashmole), ..."</p> + +<p>Page <a href="#Page_204">204</a>—withcraft amended to witchcraft—"... and even +ecclesiastics, have been accused of practising witchcraft."</p> + +<p>Page <a href="#Page_272">272</a>—infalliby amended to infallibly—"... whose skill would +infallibly detect the guilty person."</p> + +<p>Page <a href="#Page_310">310</a>—Macgillivordam amended to MacGillivordam—"she +instructed MacGillivordam to procure a large quantity of poison."</p> + +<p>Page <a href="#Page_314">314</a>—MacIngurach amended to MacIngaruch—"A warrant was issued +for the arrest of Marion MacIngaruch; ..."</p> + +<p>Page <a href="#Page_375">375</a>—changes amended to change, and person amended to +persons—"... encouraged by this change of sentiment, persons +accused of witchcraft ..."</p> + +<p>Page <a href="#Page_428">428</a>—soupçonnès amended to soupçonnés—"... ‘Apologie pour les +Grands Hommes faussement soupçonnés de Magie,’ ..."</p> +</div> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Witch, Warlock, and Magician, by +William Henry Davenport Adams + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITCH, WARLOCK, AND MAGICIAN *** + +***** This file should be named 38763-h.htm or 38763-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/7/6/38763/ + +Produced by Irma pehar, Sam W. and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +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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