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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A History of Witchcraft in England from
+1558 to 1718, by Wallace Notestein
+
+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: A History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718
+
+Author: Wallace Notestein
+
+Release Date: March 5, 2010 [EBook #31511]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITCHCRAFT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Brian Janes, Meredith Bach,
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ PRIZE ESSAYS
+ OF THE
+ AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
+
+ 1909
+
+
+
+ To this Essay was awarded the
+ Herbert Baxter Adams Prize
+ in European History
+ for 1909
+
+
+
+ A HISTORY
+ OF
+ WITCHCRAFT IN ENGLAND
+ FROM 1558 TO 1718
+
+ BY
+ WALLACE NOTESTEIN
+ ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
+
+
+ PUBLISHED BY
+ THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
+ WASHINGTON, 1911
+
+
+
+ COPYRIGHT, 1911
+ BY THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
+ WASHINGTON, D.C.
+
+ THE LORD BALTIMORE PRESS
+ BALTIMORE, M.D., U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+In its original form this essay was the dissertation submitted for a
+doctorate in philosophy conferred by Yale University in 1908. When first
+projected it was the writer's purpose to take up the subject of English
+witchcraft under certain general political and social aspects. It was
+not long, however, before he began to feel that preliminary to such a
+treatment there was necessary a chronological survey of the witch
+trials. Those strange and tragic affairs were so closely involved with
+the politics, literature, and life of the seventeenth century that one
+is surprised to find how few of them have received accurate or complete
+record in history. It may be said, in fact, that few subjects have
+gathered about themselves so large concretions of misinformation as
+English witchcraft. This is largely, of course, because so little
+attention has been given to it by serious students of history. The
+mistakes and misunderstandings of contemporary writers and of the local
+historians have been handed down from county history to county history
+until many of them have crept into general works. For this reason it was
+determined to attempt a chronological treatment which would give a
+narrative history of the more significant trials along with some account
+of the progress of opinion. This plan has been adhered to somewhat
+strictly, sometimes not without regret upon the part of the writer. It
+is his hope later in a series of articles to deal with some of the more
+general phases of the subject, with such topics as the use of torture,
+the part of the physicians, the contagious nature of the witch alarms,
+the relation of Puritanism to persecution, the supposed influence of the
+Royal Society, the general causes for the gradual decline of the belief,
+and other like questions. It will be seen in the course of the narrative
+that some of these matters have been touched upon.
+
+This study of witchcraft has been limited to a period of about one
+hundred and sixty years in English history. The year 1558 has been
+chosen as the starting point because almost immediately after the
+accession of Elizabeth there began the movement for a new law, a
+movement which resulted in the statute of 1563. With that statute the
+history of the persecution of witches gathers importance. The year 1718
+has been selected as a concluding date because that year was marked by
+the publication of Francis Hutchinson's notable attack upon the belief.
+Hutchinson levelled a final and deadly blow at the dying superstition.
+Few men of intelligence dared after that avow any belief in the reality
+of witchcraft; it is probable that very few even secretly cherished such
+a belief. A complete history would of course include a full account both
+of the witch trials from Anglo-Saxon times to Elizabeth's accession and
+of the various witch-swimming incidents of the eighteenth century. The
+latter it has not seemed worth while here to consider. The former would
+involve an examination of all English sources from the earliest times
+and would mean a study of isolated and unrelated trials occurring at
+long intervals (at least, we have record only of such) and chiefly in
+church courts. The writer has not undertaken to treat this earlier
+period; he must confess to but small knowledge of it. In the few pages
+which he has given to it he has attempted nothing more than to sketch
+from the most obvious sources an outline of what is currently known as
+to English witches and witchcraft prior to the days of Elizabeth. It is
+to be hoped that some student of medieval society will at some time make
+a thorough investigation of the history of witchcraft in England to the
+accession of the great Queen.
+
+For the study of the period to be covered in this monograph there exists
+a wealth of material. It would perhaps not be too much to say that
+everything in print and manuscript in England during the last half of
+the sixteenth and the entire seventeenth century should be read or at
+least glanced over. The writer has limited himself to certain kinds of
+material from which he could reasonably expect to glean information.
+These sources fall into seven principal categories. Most important of
+all are the pamphlets, or chapbooks, dealing with the history of
+particular alarms and trials and usually concluding with the details of
+confession and execution. Second only to them in importance are the
+local or municipal records, usually court files, but sometimes merely
+expense accounts. In the memoirs and diaries can be found many mentions
+of trials witnessed by the diarist or described to him. The newspapers
+of the time, in their eagerness to exploit the unusual, seize gloatingly
+upon the stories of witchcraft. The works of local historians and
+antiquarians record in their lists of striking and extraordinary events
+within their counties or boroughs the several trials and hangings for
+the crime. The writers, mainly theologians, who discuss the theory and
+doctrine of witchcraft illustrate the principles they lay down by cases
+that have fallen under their observation. Lastly, the state papers
+contain occasional references to the activities of the Devil and of his
+agents in the realm.
+
+Besides these seven types of material there should be named a few others
+less important. From the pamphlet accounts of the criminal dockets at
+the Old Bailey and Newgate, leaflets which were published at frequent
+intervals after the Restoration, are to be gleaned mentions of perhaps
+half a dozen trials for witchcraft. The plays of Dekker, Heywood, and
+Shadwell must be used by the student, not because they add information
+omitted elsewhere, but because they offer some clue to the way in which
+the witches at Edmonton and Lancaster were regarded by the public. If
+the pamphlet narrative of the witch of Edmonton had been lost, it might
+be possible to reconstruct from the play of Dekker, Ford, and Rowley
+some of the outlines of the story. It would be at best a hazardous
+undertaking. To reconstruct the trials at Lancaster from the plays of
+Heywood and Brome or from that of Shadwell would be quite impossible.
+The ballads present a form of evidence much like that of the plays. Like
+the plays, they happen all to deal with cases about which we are already
+well informed. In general, they seem to follow the narratives and
+depositions faithfully.
+
+No mention has been made of manuscript sources. Those used by the author
+have all belonged to one or other of the types of material described.
+
+It has been remarked that there is current a large body of
+misinformation about English witchcraft. It would be ungrateful of the
+author not to acknowledge that some very good work has been done on the
+theme. The Reverend Francis Hutchinson, as already mentioned, wrote in
+1718 an epoch-making history of the subject, a book which is still
+useful and can never be wholly displaced. In 1851 Thomas Wright brought
+out his _Narratives of Sorcery and Magic_, a work at once entertaining
+and learned. Wright wrote largely from original sources and wrote with a
+good deal of care. Such blunders as he made were the result of haste and
+of the want of those materials which we now possess. Mrs. Lynn Linton's
+_Witch Stories_, published first in 1861, is a better book than might be
+supposed from a casual glance at it. It was written with no more serious
+purpose than to entertain, but it is by no means to be despised. So far
+as it goes, it represents careful work. It would be wrong to pass over
+Lecky's brilliant essay on witchcraft in his _History of Rationalism_,
+valuable of course rather as an interpretation than as an historical
+account. Lecky said many things about witchcraft that needed to be said,
+and said them well. It is my belief that his verdicts as to the
+importance of sundry factors may have to be modified; but, however that
+be, the importance of his essay must always be recognized. One must not
+omit in passing James Russell Lowell's charming essay on the subject.
+Both Lecky and Lowell of course touched English witchcraft but lightly.
+Since Mrs. Lynn Linton's no careful treatment of English witchcraft
+proper has appeared. In 1907, however, Professor Kittredge published his
+_Notes on Witchcraft_, the sixty-seven pages of which with their
+footnotes contain a more scrupulous sifting of the evidence as to
+witchcraft in England than is to be found in any other treatment.
+Professor Kittredge is chiefly interested in English witchcraft as it
+relates itself to witchcraft in New England, but his work contains much
+that is fresh about the belief in England. As to the rôle and the
+importance of various actors in the drama and as to sundry minor
+matters, the writer has found himself forced to divergence of view. He
+recognizes nevertheless the importance of Professor Kittredge's
+contribution to the study of the whole subject and acknowledges his own
+indebtedness to the essay for suggestion and guidance.
+
+The author cannot hope that the work here presented is final.
+Unfortunately there is still hidden away in England an unexplored mass
+of local records. Some of them no doubt contain accounts of witch
+trials. I have used chiefly such printed and manuscript materials as
+were accessible in London and Oxford. Some day perhaps I may find time
+to go the rounds of the English counties and search the masses of gaol
+delivery records and municipal archives. From the really small amount of
+new material on the subject brought to light by the Historical
+Manuscripts Commission and by the publication of many municipal records,
+it seems improbable that such a search would uncover so many unlisted
+trials as seriously to modify the narrative. Nevertheless until such a
+search is made no history of the subject has the right to be counted
+final. Mr. Charles W. Wallace, the student of Shakespeare, tells me that
+in turning over the multitudinous records of the Star Chamber he found a
+few witch cases. Professor Kittredge believes that there is still a
+great deal of such material to be turned up in private collections and
+local archives. Any information on this matter which any student of
+English local history can give me will be gratefully received.
+
+I wish to express my thanks for reading parts of the manuscript to
+William Savage Johnson of Kansas University and to Miss Ada Comstock of
+the University of Minnesota. For general assistance and advice on the
+subject I am under obligations to Professor Wilbur C. Abbott and to
+Professor George Burton Adams of Yale University. It is quite impossible
+to say how very much I owe to Professor George L. Burr of Cornell. From
+cover to cover the book, since the award to it of the Adams Prize, has
+profited from his painstaking criticism and wise suggestion.
+
+
+                                                                 W. N.
+
+Minneapolis, _October 10, 1911_.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                                                  PAGE
+
+ Preface                                                             v
+
+ CHAPTER I.
+
+ The Beginnings of English Witchcraft                                1
+
+ CHAPTER II.
+
+ Witchcraft under Elizabeth                                         33
+
+ CHAPTER III.
+
+ Reginald Scot                                                      57
+
+ CHAPTER IV.
+
+ The Exorcists                                                      73
+
+ CHAPTER V.
+
+ James I and Witchcraft                                             93
+
+ CHAPTER VI.
+
+ Notable Jacobean Cases                                            120
+
+ CHAPTER VII.
+
+ The Lancashire Witches and Charles I                              146
+
+ CHAPTER VIII.
+
+ Matthew Hopkins                                                   164
+
+ CHAPTER IX.
+
+ Witchcraft during the Commonwealth and Protectorate               206
+
+ CHAPTER X.
+
+ The Literature of Witchcraft from 1603 to 1660                    227
+
+ CHAPTER XI.
+
+ Witchcraft under Charles II and James II                          254
+
+ CHAPTER XII.
+
+ Glanvill and Webster and the Literary War over
+ Witchcraft, 1660-1688                                             284
+
+ CHAPTER XIII.
+
+ The Final Decline                                                 313
+
+ CHAPTER XIV.
+
+ The Close of the Literary Controversy                             334
+
+ Appendices                                                        345
+
+ A. Pamphlet Literature                                            345
+
+ B. List of Persons Sentenced to Death for
+ Witchcraft during the Reign of James I                            383
+
+ C. List of Cases of Witchcraft, 1558-1717,
+ with References to Sources and Literature                         384
+
+ Index                                                             421
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT.
+
+
+It has been said by a thoughtful writer that the subject of witchcraft
+has hardly received that place which it deserves in the history of
+opinions. There has been, of course, a reason for this neglect--the fact
+that the belief in witchcraft is no longer existent among intelligent
+people and that its history, in consequence, seems to possess rather an
+antiquarian than a living interest. No one can tell the story of the
+witch trials of sixteenth and seventeenth century England without
+digging up a buried past, and the process of exhumation is not always
+pleasant. Yet the study of English witchcraft is more than an unsightly
+exposure of a forgotten superstition. There were few aspects of
+sixteenth and seventeenth century life that were not affected by the
+ugly belief. It is quite impossible to grasp the social conditions, it
+is impossible to understand the opinions, fears, and hopes of the men
+and women who lived in Elizabethan and Stuart England, without some
+knowledge of the part played in that age by witchcraft. It was a matter
+that concerned all classes from the royal household to the ignorant
+denizens of country villages. Privy councillors anxious about their
+sovereign and thrifty peasants worrying over their crops, clergymen
+alert to detect the Devil in their own parishes, medical quacks eager to
+profit by the fear of evil women, justices of the peace zealous to beat
+down the works of Satan--all classes, indeed--believed more or less
+sincerely in the dangerous powers of human creatures who had
+surrendered themselves to the Evil One.
+
+Witchcraft, in a general and vague sense, was something very old in
+English history. In a more specific and limited sense it is a
+comparatively modern phenomenon. This leads us to a definition of the
+term. It is a definition that can be given adequately only in an
+historical way. A group of closely related and somewhat ill defined
+conceptions went far back. Some of them, indeed, were to be found in the
+Old Testament, many of them in the Latin and Greek writers. The word
+witchcraft itself belonged to Anglo-Saxon days. As early as the seventh
+century Theodore of Tarsus imposed penances upon magicians and
+enchanters, and the laws, from Alfred on, abound with mentions of
+witchcraft.[1] From these passages the meaning of the word witch as used
+by the early English may be fairly deduced. The word was the current
+English term for one who used spells and charms, who was assisted by
+evil spirits to accomplish certain ends. It will be seen that this is by
+no means the whole meaning of the term in later times. Nothing is yet
+said about the transformation of witches into other shapes, and there is
+no mention of a compact, implicit or otherwise, with the Devil; there is
+no allusion to the nocturnal meetings of the Devil's worshippers and to
+the orgies that took place upon those occasions; there is no elaborate
+and systematic theological explanation of human relations with demons.
+
+But these notions were to reach England soon enough. Already there were
+germinating in southern Europe ideas out of which the completer notions
+were to spring. As early as the close of the ninth century certain
+Byzantine traditions were being introduced into the West. There were
+legends of men who had made written compacts with the Devil, men whom he
+promised to assist in this world in return for their souls in the
+next.[2] But, while such stories were current throughout the Middle
+Ages, the notion behind them does not seem to have been connected with
+the other features of what was to make up the idea of witchcraft until
+about the middle of the fourteenth century. It was about that time that
+the belief in the "Sabbat" or nocturnal assembly of the witches made its
+appearance.[3] The belief grew up that witches rode through the air to
+these meetings, that they renounced Christ and engaged in foul forms of
+homage to Satan. Lea tells us that towards the close of the century the
+University of Paris formulated the theory that a pact with Satan was
+inherent in all magic, and judges began to connect this pact with the
+old belief in night riders through the air. The countless confessions
+that resulted from the carefully framed questions of the judges served
+to develop and systematize the theory of the subject. The witch was much
+more than a sorcerer. Sorcerers had been those who, through the aid of
+evil spirits, by the use of certain words or of representations of
+persons or things produced changes above the ordinary course of nature.
+"The witch," says Lea, "has abandoned Christianity, has renounced her
+baptism, has worshipped Satan as her God, has surrendered herself to
+him, body and soul, and exists only to be his instrument in working the
+evil to her fellow creatures which he cannot accomplish without a human
+agent."[4] This was the final and definite notion of a witch. It was the
+conception that controlled European opinion on the subject from the
+latter part of the fourteenth to the close of the seventeenth century.
+It was, as has been seen, an elaborate theological notion that had grown
+out of the comparatively simple and vague ideas to be found in the
+scriptural and classical writers.
+
+It may well be doubted whether this definite and intricate theological
+notion of witchcraft reached England so early as the fourteenth century.
+Certainly not until a good deal later--if negative evidence is at all
+trustworthy--was a clear distinction made between sorcery and
+witchcraft. The witches searched for by Henry IV, the professor of
+divinity, the friar, the clerk, and the witch of Eye, who were hurried
+before the Council of Henry VI, that unfortunate Duchess of Gloucester
+who had to walk the streets of London, the Duchess of Bedford, the
+conspirators against Edward IV who were supposed to use magic, the
+unlucky mistress of Edward IV--none of these who through the course of
+two centuries were charged with magical misdeeds were, so far as we
+know, accused of those dreadful relations with the Devil, the nauseating
+details of which fill out the later narratives of witch history.
+
+The truth seems to be that the idea of witchcraft was not very clearly
+defined and differentiated in the minds of ordinary Englishmen until
+after the beginning of legislation upon the subject. It is not
+impossible that there were English theologians who could have set forth
+the complete philosophy of the belief, but to the average mind sorcery,
+conjuration, enchantment, and witchcraft were but evil ways of mastering
+nature. All that was changed when laws were passed. With legislation
+came greatly increased numbers of accusations; with accusations and
+executions came treatises and theory. Continental writers were
+consulted, and the whole system and science of the subject were soon
+elaborated for all who read.
+
+With the earlier period, which has been sketched merely by way of
+definition, this monograph cannot attempt to deal. It limits itself to a
+narrative of the witch trials, and incidentally of opinion as to
+witchcraft, after there was definite legislation by Parliament. The
+statute of the fifth year of Elizabeth's reign marks a point in the
+history of the judicial persecution at which an account may very
+naturally begin. The year 1558 has been selected as the date because
+from the very opening of the reign which was to be signalized by the
+passing of that statute and was to be characterized by a serious effort
+to enforce it, the persecution was preparing.
+
+Up to that time the crime of sorcery had been dealt with in a few early
+instances by the common-law courts, occasionally (where politics were
+involved) by the privy council, but more usually, it is probable, by the
+church. This, indeed, may easily be illustrated from the works of law.
+Britton and Fleta include an inquiry about sorcerers as one of the
+articles of the sheriff's tourn. A note upon Britton, however, declares
+that it is for the ecclesiastical court to try such offenders and to
+deliver them to be put to death in the king's court, but that the king
+himself may proceed against them if he pleases.[5] While there is some
+overlapping of procedure implied by this, the confusion seems to have
+been yet greater in actual practice. A brief narrative of some cases
+prior to 1558 will illustrate the strangely unsettled state of
+procedure. Pollock and Maitland relate several trials to be found in the
+early pleas. In 1209 one woman accused another of sorcery in the king's
+court and the defendant cleared herself by the ordeal. In 1279 a man
+accused of killing a witch who assaulted him in his house was fined, but
+only because he had fled away. Walter Langton, Bishop of Lichfield and
+treasurer of Edward I, was accused of sorcery and homage to Satan and
+cleared himself with the compurgators. In 1325 more than twenty men were
+indicted and tried by the king's bench for murder by tormenting a waxen
+image. All of them were acquitted. In 1371 there was brought before the
+king's bench an inhabitant of Southwark who was charged with sorcery,
+but he was finally discharged on swearing that he would never be a
+sorcerer.[6]
+
+It will be observed that these early cases were all of them tried in the
+secular courts; but there is no reason to doubt that the ecclesiastical
+courts were quite as active, and their zeal must have been quickened by
+the statute of 1401, which in cases of heresy made the lay power their
+executioner. It was at nearly the same time, however, that the charge of
+sorcery began to be frequently used as a political weapon. In such
+cases, of course, the accused was usually a person of influence and the
+matter was tried in the council. It will be seen, then, that the crime
+was one that might fall either under ecclesiastical or conciliar
+jurisdiction and the particular circumstances usually determined finally
+the jurisdiction. When Henry IV was informed that the diocese of Lincoln
+was full of sorcerers, magicians, enchanters, necromancers, diviners,
+and soothsayers, he sent a letter to the bishop requiring him to search
+for sorcerers and to commit them to prison after conviction, or even
+before, if it should seem expedient.[7] This was entrusting the matter
+to the church, but the order was given by authority of the king, not
+improbably after the matter had been discussed in the council. In the
+reign of Henry VI conciliar and ecclesiastical authorities both took
+part at different times and in different ways. Thomas Northfield, a
+member of the Order of Preachers in Worcester and a professor of
+divinity, was brought before the council, together with all suspected
+matter belonging to him, and especially his books treating of sorcery.
+Pike does not tell us the outcome.[8] In the same year there were
+summoned before the council three humbler sorcerers, Margery Jourdemain,
+John Virley, a cleric, and John Ashwell, a friar of the Order of the
+Holy Cross. It would be hard to say whether the three were in any way
+connected with political intrigue. It is possible that they were
+suspected of sorcery against the sovereign. They were all, however,
+dismissed on giving security.[9] It was only a few years after this
+instance of conciliar jurisdiction that a much more important case was
+turned over to the clergy. The story of Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of
+Gloucester, is a familiar one. It was determined by the enemies of Duke
+Humphrey of Gloucester to attack him through his wife, who was believed
+to be influential with the young king. The first move was made by
+arresting a Roger Bolingbroke who had been connected with the duke and
+the duchess, and who was said to be an astronomer or necromancer. It was
+declared that he had cast the duchess's horoscope with a view to
+ascertaining her chances to the throne. Bolingbroke made confession, and
+Eleanor was then brought before "certayne bisshoppis of the kyngis." In
+the mean time several lords, members of the privy council, were
+authorized to "enquire of al maner tresons, sorcery, and alle othir
+thyngis that myghte in eny wise ... concerne harmfulli the kyngis
+persone."[10] Bolingbroke and a clergyman, Thomas Southwell, were
+indicted of treason with the duchess as accessory. With them was accused
+that Margery Jourdemain who had been released ten years before. Eleanor
+was then reexamined before the Bishops of London, Lincoln, and Norwich,
+she was condemned as guilty, and required to walk barefoot through the
+streets of London, which she "dede righte mekely." The rest of her life
+she spent in a northern prison. Bolingbroke was executed as a traitor,
+and Margery Jourdemain was burnt at Smithfield.[11]
+
+The case of the Duchess of Bedford--another instance of the connection
+between sorcery and political intrigue--fell naturally into the hands of
+the council. It was believed by those who could understand in no other
+way the king's infatuation that he had been bewitched by the mother of
+the queen. The story was whispered from ear to ear until the duchess got
+wind of it and complained to the council against her maligners. The
+council declared her cleared of suspicion and ordered that the decision
+should be "enacted of record."[12]
+
+The charge of sorcery brought by the protector Richard of Gloucester
+against Jane Shore, who had been the mistress of Edward IV, never came
+to trial and in consequence illustrates neither ecclesiastical nor
+conciliar jurisdiction. It is worthy of note however that the accusation
+was preferred by the protector--who was soon to be Richard III--in the
+council chamber.[13]
+
+It will be seen that these cases prove very little as to procedure in
+the matter of sorcery and witchcraft. They are cases that arose in a
+disturbed period and that concerned chiefly people of note. That they
+were tried before the bishops or before the privy council does not mean
+that all such charges were brought into those courts. There must have
+been less important cases that were never brought before the council or
+the great ecclesiastical courts. It seems probable--to reason backward
+from later practice--that less important trials were conducted almost
+exclusively by the minor church courts.[14]
+
+This would at first lead us to suspect that, when the state finally
+began to legislate against witchcraft by statute, it was endeavoring to
+wrest jurisdiction of the crime out of the hands of the church and to
+put it into secular hands. Such a supposition, however, there is nothing
+to justify. It seems probable, on the contrary, that the statute enacted
+in the reign of Henry VIII was passed rather to support the church in
+its struggle against sorcery and witchcraft than to limit its
+jurisdiction in the matter. It was to assist in checking these
+practitioners that the state stepped in. At another point in this
+chapter we shall have occasion to note the great interest in sorcery and
+all kindred subjects that was springing up over England, and we shall at
+times observe some of the manifestations of this interest as well as
+some of the causes for it. Here it is necessary only to urge the
+importance of this interest as accounting for the passage of a
+statute.[15]
+
+Chapter VIII of 33 Henry VIII states its purpose clearly: "Where,"
+reads the preamble, "dyvers and sundrie persones unlawfully have devised
+and practised Invocacions and conjuracions of Sprites, pretendyng by
+suche meanes to understande and get Knowlege for their owne lucre in
+what place treasure of golde and Silver shulde or mought be founde or
+had ... and also have used and occupied wichecraftes, inchauntmentes and
+sorceries to the distruccion of their neighbours persones and goodes." A
+description was given of the methods practised, and it was enacted that
+the use of any invocation or conjuration of spirits, witchcrafts,
+enchantments, or sorceries should be considered felony.[16] It will be
+observed that the law made no graduation of offences. Everything was
+listed as felony. No later piece of legislation on the subject was so
+sweeping in its severity.
+
+The law remained on the statute-book only six years. In the early part
+of the reign of Edward VI, when the protector Somerset was in power, a
+policy of great leniency in respect to felonies was proposed. In
+December of 1547 a bill was introduced into Parliament to repeal certain
+statutes for treason and felony. "This bill being a matter of great
+concern to every subject, a committee was appointed, consisting of the
+Archbishop of Canterbury, the lord chancellor, the lord chamberlain, the
+Marquis of Dorset, the Earls of Shrewsbury and Southampton, the Bishops
+of Ely, Lincoln, and Worcester, the Lords Cobham, Clinton, and
+Wentworth, with certain of the king's learned council; all which
+noblemen were appointed to meet a committee of the Commons ... in order
+to treat and commune on the purport of the said bill."[17] The Commons,
+it seems, had already prepared a bill of their own, but this they were
+willing to drop and the Lords' measure with some amendments was finally
+passed. It was under this wide repeal of felonies that chapter VIII of
+33 Henry VIII was finally annulled. Whether the question of witchcraft
+came up for special consideration or not, we are not informed. We do
+know that the Bishops of London, Durham, Ely, Hereford, and Chichester,
+took exception to some amendments that were inserted in the act of
+repeal,[18] and it is not impossible that they were opposed to repealing
+the act against witchcraft. Certainly there is no reason to suppose that
+the church was resisting the encroachment of the state in the subject.
+
+As a matter of fact it is probable that, in the general question of
+repeal of felonies, the question of witchcraft received scant
+attention. There is indeed an interesting story that seems to point in
+that direction and that deserves repeating also as an illustration of
+the protector's attitude towards the question. Edward Underhill gives
+the narrative in his autobiography: "When we hade dyned, the maior sentt
+to [two] off his offycers with me to seke Alene; whome we mett withalle
+in Poles, and toke hym with us unto his chamber, wheare we founde
+fygures sett to calke the nativetie off the kynge, and a jugementt
+gevyne off his deathe, wheroff this folyshe wreche thoughte hymselfe so
+sure thatt he and his conselars the papistes bruted it all over. The
+kynge laye att Hamtone courte the same tyme, and me lord protector at
+the Syone; unto whome I caryed this Alen, with his bokes off
+conejuracyons, cearkles, and many thynges beloungynge to thatt dyvlyshe
+art, wiche he affyrmed before me lorde was a lawfulle cyens [science],
+for the statute agaynst souche was repealed. 'Thow folyshe knave! (sayde
+me lorde) yff thou and all thatt be off thy cyens telle me what I shalle
+do to-morow, I wylle geve the alle thatt I have'; commaundynge me to
+cary hym unto the Tower." Alen was examined about his science and it was
+discovered that he was "a very unlearned asse, and a sorcerer, for the
+wiche he was worthye hangynge, sayde Mr. Recorde." He was however kept
+in the Tower "about the space off a yere, and then by frendshipe
+delyvered. So scapithe alwayes the weked."[19]
+
+But the wicked were not long to escape. The beginning of Elizabeth's
+reign saw a serious and successful effort to put on the statute-book
+definite and severe penalties for conjuration, sorcery, witchcraft, and
+related crimes. The question was taken up in the very first year of the
+new reign and a bill was draughted.[20] It was not, however, until 1563
+that the statute was finally passed. It was then enacted that those who
+"shall use, practise, or exercise any Witchecrafte, Enchantment, Charme
+or Sorcerie, whereby any person shall happen to bee killed or destroyed,
+... their Concellors and Aidours, ... shall suffer paynes of Deathe as a
+Felon or Felons." It was further declared that those by whose practices
+any person was wasted, consumed, or lamed, should suffer for the first
+offence one year's imprisonment and should be put in the pillory four
+times. For the second offence death was the penalty. It was further
+provided that those who by witchcraft presumed to discover treasure or
+to find stolen property or to "provoke any person to unlawfull love"
+should suffer a year's imprisonment and four appearances in the pillory.
+
+With this law the history of the prosecution of witchcraft in England as
+a secular crime may well begin. The question naturally arises, What was
+the occasion of this law? How did it happen that just at this particular
+time so drastic a measure was passed and put into operation? Fortunately
+part of the evidence exists upon which to frame an answer. The English
+churchmen who had been driven out of England during the Marian
+persecution had many of them sojourned in Zurich and Geneva, where the
+extirpation of witches was in full progress, and had talked over the
+matter with eminent Continental theologians. With the accession of
+Elizabeth these men returned to England in force and became prominent in
+church and state, many of them receiving bishoprics. It is not possible
+to show that they all were influential in putting through the statute of
+the fifth year of Elizabeth. It is clear that one of them spoke out
+plainly on the subject. It can hardly be doubted that he represented the
+opinions of many other ecclesiastics who had come under the same
+influences during their exile.[21] John Jewel was an Anglican of
+Calvinistic sympathies who on his return to England at Elizabeth's
+accession had been appointed Bishop of Salisbury. Within a short time he
+came to occupy a prominent position in the court. He preached before the
+Queen and accompanied her on a visit to Oxford. It was in the course of
+one of his first sermons--somewhere between November of 1559 and March
+of 1560[22]--that he laid before her his convictions on witchcraft. It
+is, he tells her, "the horrible using of your poor subjects," that
+forces him to speak. "This kind of people (I mean witches and sorcerers)
+within these few last years are marvellously increased within this your
+grace's realm. These eyes have seen most evident and manifest marks of
+their wickedness. Your grace's subjects pine away even unto death, their
+colour fadeth, their flesh rotteth, their speech is benumbed, their
+senses are bereft. Wherefore, your poor subjects' most humble petition
+unto your highness is, that the laws touching such malefactors may be
+put in due execution."
+
+The church historian, Strype, conjectures that this sermon was the cause
+of the law passed in the fifth year of Elizabeth's reign, by which
+witchcraft was again made a felony, as it had been in the reign of Henry
+VIII.[23] Whatever weight we may attach to Strype's suggestion, we have
+every right to believe that Jewel introduced foreign opinion on
+witchcraft. Very probably there were many returned exiles as well as
+others who brought back word of the crusade on the Continent; but
+Jewel's words put the matter formally before the queen and her
+government.[24]
+
+We can trace the effect of the ecclesiastic's appeal still further. The
+impression produced by it was responsible probably not only for the
+passage of the law but also for the issue of commissions to the justices
+of the peace to apprehend all the witches they were able to find in
+their jurisdictions.[25]
+
+It can hardly be doubted that the impression produced by the bishop's
+sermon serves in part to explain the beginning of the state's attack
+upon witches. Yet one naturally inquires after some other factor in the
+problem. Is it not likely that there were in England itself certain
+peculiar conditions, certain special circumstances, that served to
+forward the attack? To answer that query, we must recall the situation
+in England when Elizabeth took the throne. Elizabeth was a Protestant,
+and her accession meant the relinquishment of the Catholic hold upon
+England. But it was not long before the claims of Mary, Queen of Scots,
+began to give the English ministers bad dreams. Catholic and Spanish
+plots against the life of Elizabeth kept the government detectives on
+the lookout. Perhaps because it was deemed the hardest to circumvent,
+the use of conjuration against the life of the queen was most feared.
+It was a method too that appealed to conspirators, who never questioned
+its efficacy, and who anticipated little risk of discovery.
+
+To understand why the English government should have been so alarmed at
+the efforts of the conjurers, we shall have to go back to the
+half-century that preceded the reign of the great queen and review
+briefly the rise of those curious traders in mystery. The earlier half
+of the fifteenth century, when the witch fires were already lighted in
+South Germany, saw the coming of conjurers in England. Their numbers
+soon evidenced a growing interest in the supernatural upon the part of
+the English and foreshadowed the growing faith in witchcraft. From the
+scattered local records the facts have been pieced together to show that
+here and there professors of magic powers were beginning to get a
+hearing. As they first appear upon the scene, the conjurers may be
+grouped in two classes, the position seekers and the treasure seekers.
+To the first belong those who used incantations and charms to win the
+favor of the powerful, and so to gain advancement for themselves or for
+their clients.[26] It was a time when there was every encouragement to
+try these means. Men like Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell had risen from
+humble rank to the highest places in the state. Their careers seemed
+inexplicable, if not uncanny. It was easy to believe that unfair and
+unlawful practices had been used. What had been done before could be
+done again. So the dealers in magic may have reasoned. At all events,
+whatever their mental operations, they experimented with charms which
+were to gain the favor of the great, and some of their operations came
+to the ears of the court.
+
+The treasure seekers[27] were more numerous. Every now and then in the
+course of English history treasures have been unearthed, many of them
+buried in Roman times. Stories of lucky finds had of course gained wide
+circulation. Here was the opportunity of the bankrupt adventurer and the
+stranded promoter. The treasures could be found by the science of magic.
+The notion was closely akin to the still current idea that wells can be
+located by the use of hazel wands. But none of the conjurers--and this
+seems a curious fact to one familiar with the English stories of the
+supernatural--ever lit upon the desired treasure. Their efforts hardly
+aroused public interest, least of all alarm. Experimenters, who fifty
+years later would have been hurried before the privy council, were
+allowed to conjure and dig as they pleased. Henry VIII even sold the
+right in one locality, and sold it at a price which showed how lightly
+he regarded it.[28]
+
+Other forms of magic were of course practiced. By the time that
+Elizabeth succeeded to the throne, it is safe to say that the practice
+of forbidden arts had become wide-spread in England. Reginald Scot a
+little later declared that every parish was full of men and women who
+claimed to work miracles.[29] Most of them were women, and their
+performances read like those of the gipsy fortune-tellers today.
+"Cunning women" they called themselves. They were many of them
+semi-medical or pseudo-medical practitioners[30] who used herbs and
+extracts, and, when those failed, charms and enchantments, to heal the
+sick. If they were fairly fortunate, they became known as "good
+witches." Particularly in connection with midwifery were their
+incantations deemed effective.[31] From such functions it was no far
+call to forecast the outcome of love affairs, or to prepare potions
+which would ensure love.[32] They became general helpers to the
+distressed. They could tell where lost property was to be found, an
+undertaking closely related to that of the treasure seekers.[33]
+
+It was usually in the less serious diseases[34] that these cunning folk
+were consulted. They were called upon often indeed--if one fragmentary
+evidence may be trusted--to diagnose the diseases and to account for the
+deaths of domestic animals.[35] It may very easily be that it was from
+the necessity of explaining the deaths of animals that the practitioners
+of magic began to talk about witchcraft and to throw out a hint that
+some witch was at the back of the matter. It would be in line with
+their own pretensions. Were they not good witches? Was it not their
+province to overcome the machinations of the black witches, that is,
+witches who wrought evil rather than good? The disease of an animal was
+hard to prescribe for. A sick horse would hardly respond to the waving
+of hands and a jumble of strange words. The animal was, in all
+probability, bewitched.
+
+At any rate, whether in this particular manner or not, it became shortly
+the duty of the cunning women to recognize the signs of witchcraft, to
+prescribe for it, and if possible to detect the witch. In many cases the
+practitioner wisely enough refused to name any one, but described the
+appearance of the guilty party and set forth a series of operations by
+which to expose her machinations. If certain herbs were plucked and
+treated in certain ways, if such and such words were said, the guilty
+party would appear at the door. At other times the wise woman gave a
+perfectly recognizable description of the guilty one and offered
+remedies that would nullify her maleficent influences. No doubt the
+party indicated as the witch was very often another of the "good
+witches," perhaps a rival. Throughout the records of the superstition
+are scattered examples of wise women upon whom suspicion suddenly
+lighted, and who were arraigned and sent to the gallows. Beyond question
+the suspicion began often with the ill words of a neighbor,[36] perhaps
+of a competitor, words that started an attack upon the woman's
+reputation that she was unable to repel.
+
+It is not to be supposed that the art of cunning was confined to the
+female sex. Throughout the reign of Elizabeth, the realm was alive with
+men who were pretenders to knowledge of mysteries. So closely was the
+occupation allied to that of the physician that no such strict line as
+now exists between reputable physicians and quack doctors separated the
+"good witches" from the regular practicers of medicine. It was so
+customary in Elizabethan times for thoroughly reputable and even eminent
+medical men to explain baffling cases as the results of witchcraft[37]
+that to draw the line of demarcation between them and the pretenders who
+suggested by means of a charm or a glass a maleficent agent would be
+impossible. Granted the phenomena of conjuration and witchcraft as
+facts--and no one had yet disputed them--it was altogether easy to
+believe that good witches who antagonized the works of black witches
+were more dependable than the family physician, who could but suggest
+the cause of sickness. The regular practitioner must often have created
+business for his brother of the cunning arts.
+
+One would like to know what these practicers thought of their own arts.
+Certainly some of them accomplished cures. Mental troubles that baffled
+the ordinary physician would offer the "good witch" a rare field for
+successful endeavor. Such would be able not only to persuade a community
+of their good offices, but to deceive themselves. Not all of them,
+however, by any means, were self-deceived. Conscious fraud played a part
+in a large percentage of cases. One witch was very naive in her
+confession of fraud. When suspected of sorcery and cited to court, she
+was said to have frankly recited her charm:
+
+    "My lofe in my lappe,
+      My penny in my purse,
+    You are never the better,
+      I am never the worse."
+
+She was acquitted and doubtless continued to add penny to penny.[38]
+
+We need not, indeed, be surprised that the state should have been remiss
+in punishing a crime so vague in character and so closely related to an
+honorable profession. Except where conjuration had affected high
+interests of state, it had been practically overlooked by the
+government. Now and then throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth
+centuries there had been isolated plots against the sovereign, in which
+conjury had played a conspicuous part. With these few exceptions the
+crime had been one left to ecclesiastical jurisdiction. But now the
+state was ready to reclaim its jurisdiction over these crimes and to
+assume a very positive attitude of hostility towards them. This came
+about in a way that has already been briefly indicated. The government
+of the queen found itself threatened constantly by plots for making away
+with the queen, plots which their instigators hoped would overturn the
+Protestant regime and bring England back into the fold. Elizabeth had
+hardly mounted her throne when her councillors began to suspect the use
+of sorcery and conjuration against her life. As a result they
+instituted the most painstaking inquiries into all reported cases of the
+sort, especially in and about London and the neighboring counties. Every
+Catholic was suspected. Two cases that were taken up within the first
+year came to nothing, but a third trial proved more serious. In November
+of 1558 Sir Anthony Fortescue,[39] member of a well known Catholic
+family, was arrested, together with several accomplices, upon the charge
+of casting the horoscope of the queen's life. Fortescue was soon
+released, but in 1561 he was again put in custody, this time with two
+brothers-in-law, Edmund and Arthur Pole, nephews of the famous cardinal
+of that name. The plot that came to light had many ramifications. It was
+proposed to marry Mary, Queen of Scots, to Edmund Pole, and from
+Flanders to proclaim her Queen of England. In the meantime Elizabeth was
+to die a natural death--at least so the conspirators claimed--prophesied
+for her by two conjurers, John Prestall and Edmund Cosyn, with the
+assistance of a "wicked spryte." It was discovered that the plot
+involved the French and Spanish ambassadors. Relations between Paris and
+London became strained. The conspirators were tried and sentenced to
+death. Fortescue himself, perhaps because he was a second cousin of the
+queen and brother of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, seems to have
+escaped the gallows.[40]
+
+The Fortescue affair was, however, but one of many conspiracies on foot
+during the time. Throughout the sixties and the seventies the queen's
+councillors were on the lookout. Justices of the peace and other
+prominent men in the counties were kept informed by the privy council of
+reported conjurers, and they were instructed to send in what evidence
+they could gather against them. It is remarkable that three-fourths of
+the cases that came under investigation were from a territory within
+thirty miles of London. Two-thirds of them were from Essex. Not all the
+conjurers were charged with plotting against the queen, but that charge
+was most common. It is safe to suppose that, in the cases where that
+accusation was not preferred, it was nevertheless the alarm of the privy
+council for the life of the queen that had prompted the investigation
+and arrest.
+
+Between 1578 and 1582, critical years in the affairs of the Scottish
+queen, the anxiety of the London authorities was intense[41]--their
+precautions were redoubled. Representatives of the government were sent
+out to search for conjurers and were paid well for their services.[42]
+The Earl of Shrewsbury, a member of the council who had charge of the
+now captive Queen Mary, kept in his employ special detectors of
+conjuring.[43] Nothing about Elizabeth's government was better
+organized than Cecil's detective service, and the state papers show that
+the ferreting out of the conjurers was by no means the least of its
+work. It was a service carried on, of course, as quietly as could be,
+and yet the cases now and again came to light and made clear to the
+public that the government was very fearful of conjurers' attacks upon
+the queen. No doubt the activity of the council put all conjurers under
+public suspicion and in some degree roused public resentment against
+them.
+
+This brings us back to the point: What had the conjurers to do with
+witchcraft? By this time the answer is fairly obvious. The practisers of
+the magic arts, the charmers and enchanters, were responsible for
+developing the notions of witchcraft. The good witch brought in her
+company the black witch. This in itself might never have meant more than
+an increased activity in the church courts. But when Protestant England
+grew suddenly nervous for the life of the queen, when the conjurers
+became a source of danger to the sovereign, and the council commenced
+its campaign against them, the conditions had been created in which
+witchcraft became at once the most dangerous and detested of crimes.
+While the government was busy putting down the conjurers, the aroused
+popular sentiment was compelling the justices of the peace and then the
+assize judges to hang the witches.
+
+This cannot be better illustrated than by the Abingdon affair of
+1578-1579. Word had been carried to the privy council that Sir Henry
+Newell, justice of the peace, had committed some women near Abingdon on
+the charge of making waxen images.[44] The government was at once
+alarmed and sent a message to Sir Henry and to the Dean of Windsor
+instructing them to find out the facts and to discover if the plots were
+directed against the queen. The precaution was unnecessary. There was no
+ground for believing that the designs of the women accused had included
+the queen. Indeed the evidence of guilt of any kind was very flimsy. But
+the excitement of the public had been stirred to the highest pitch. The
+privy council had shown its fear of the women and all four of them went
+to the gallows.[45]
+
+The same situation that brought about the attack upon witchcraft and
+conjuration was no doubt responsible for the transfer of jurisdiction
+over the crime. We have already seen that the practice of conjuration
+had probably been left largely to the episcopal hierarchy for
+punishment.[46] The archdeacons were expected in their visitations to
+inquire into the practice of enchantment and magic within the parishes
+and to make report.[47] In the reign of Elizabeth it became no light
+duty. The church set itself to suppress both the consulter and the
+consulted.[48] By the largest number of recorded cases deal of course
+with the first class. It was very easy when sick or in trouble to go to
+a professed conjurer for help.[49] It was like seeking a physician's
+service, as we have seen. The church frowned upon it, but the danger
+involved in disobeying the church was not deemed great. The cunning man
+or woman was of course the one who ran the great risk. When worst came
+to worst and the ecclesiastical power took cognizance of his profession,
+the best he could do was to plead that he was a "good witch" and
+rendered valuable services to the community.[50] But a good end was in
+the eyes of the church no excuse for an evil means. The good witches
+were dealers with evil spirits and hence to be repressed.
+
+Yet the church was very light in its punishments. In the matter of
+penalties, indeed, consulter and consulted fared nearly alike, and both
+got off easily. Public confession and penance in one or more
+specifically designated churches, usually in the nearest parish church,
+constituted the customary penalty.[51] In a few instances it was
+coupled with the requirement that the criminal should stand in the
+pillory, taper in hand, at several places at stated times.[52] The
+ecclesiastical records are so full of church penances that a student is
+led to wonder how effectual they were in shaming the penitent into
+better conduct. It may well be guessed that most of the criminals were
+not sensitive souls that would suffer profoundly from the disgrace
+incurred.
+
+The control of matters of this kind was in the hands of the church by
+sufferance only. So long as the state was not greatly interested, the
+church was permitted to retain its jurisdiction.[53] Doubtless the kings
+of England would have claimed the state's right of jurisdiction if it
+had become a matter of dispute. The church itself recognized the secular
+power in more important cases.[54] In such cases the archdeacon usually
+acted with the justice of peace in conducting the examination,[55] as in
+rendering sentence. Even then, however, the penalty was as a rule
+ecclesiastical. But, with the second half of the sixteenth century,
+there arose new conditions which resulted in the transfer of this
+control to the state. Henry VIII had broken with Rome and established a
+Church of England around the king as a centre. The power of the church
+belonged to the king, and, if to the king, to his ministers and his
+judges. Hence certain crimes that had been under the control of the
+church fell under the jurisdiction of the king's courts.[56] In a more
+special way the same change came about through the attack of the privy
+council upon the conjurers. What had hitherto been a comparatively
+insignificant offence now became a crime against the state and was so
+dealt with.
+
+The change, of course, was not sudden. It was not accomplished in a
+year, nor in a decade. It was going on throughout the first half of
+Elizabeth's reign. By the beginning of the eighties the church control
+was disappearing. After 1585 the state had practically exclusive
+jurisdiction.[57]
+
+We have now finished the attempt to trace the beginning of the definite
+movement against witchcraft in England. What witchcraft was, what it
+became, how it was to be distinguished from sorcery--these are questions
+that we have tried to answer very briefly. We have dealt in a cursory
+way with a series of cases extending from Anglo-Saxon days down to the
+fifteenth century in order to show how unfixed was the matter of
+jurisdiction. We have sought also to explain how Continental opinion was
+introduced into England through Jewel and other Marian exiles, to show
+what independent forces were operating in England, and to exhibit the
+growing influence of the charmers and their relation to the development
+of witchcraft; and lastly we have aimed to prove that the special danger
+to the queen had no little part in creating the crusade against witches.
+These are conclusions of some moment and a caution must be inserted. We
+have been treating of a period where facts are few and information
+fragmentary. Under such circumstances conclusions can only be tentative.
+Perhaps the most that can be said of them is that they are suggestions.
+
+
+[1] Benjamin Thorpe, _Ancient Laws and Institutes of England_ (London,
+1840), I, 41; Liebermann, _Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen_ (Halle, 1906),
+and passages cited in his _Wörterbuch_ under _wiccan_, _wiccacrćft_;
+Thomas Wright, ed., _A Contemporary Narrative of the Proceedings against
+Dame Alice Kyteler_ (Camden Soc., London, 1843), introd., i-iii.
+
+[2] George L. Burr, "The Literature of Witchcraft," printed in _Papers
+of the Am. Hist. Assoc._, IV (New York, 1890), 244.
+
+[3] Henry C. Lea, _History of the Inquisition in Spain_ (New York,
+1906-1907), IV, 207; _cf._ his _History of the Inquisition of the Middle
+Ages_ (New York, 1888), III, chs. VI, VII. The most elaborate study of
+the rise of the delusion is that by J. Hansen, _Zauberwahn, Inquisition
+und Hexenprozess im Mittelalter_ (Cologne, 1900).
+
+[4] Lea, _Inquisition in Spain_, IV, 206.
+
+[5] Pollock and Maitland, _History of English Law_ (2d ed., Cambridge,
+1898), II, 554.
+
+[6] _Ibid._ See also Wright, ed., _Proceedings against Dame Alice
+Kyteler_, introd., ix.
+
+[7] _Ibid._, x. Lincoln, not Norwich, as Wright's text (followed by
+Pollock and Maitland) has it. See the royal letter itself printed in his
+footnote, and _cf._ Rymer's _Foedera_ (under date of 2 Jan. 1406) and
+the _Calendar of the Patent Rolls_ (Henry IV, vol. III, p. 112). The
+bishop was Philip Repington, late the King's chaplain and confessor.
+
+[8] L. O. Pike, _History of Crime in England_ (London, 1873), I,
+355-356.
+
+[9] _Ibid._ Sir Harris Nicolas, _Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy
+Council_ (London, 1834-1837). IV, 114.
+
+[10] _English Chronicle of the Reigns of Richard II_, etc., edited by J.
+S. Davies (Camden Soc., London, 1856), 57-60.
+
+[11] _Ramsay, Lancaster and York_ (Oxford, 1892), II, 31-35; Wright,
+ed., _Proceedings against Dame Alice Kyteler_, introd., xv-xvi, quoting
+the Chronicle of London; K. H. Vickers, _Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester_
+(London, 1907), 269-279.
+
+[12] Wright, ed., _op. cit._, introd., xvi-xvii.
+
+[13] James Gairdner, _Life and Reign of Richard III_ (2d ed., London,
+1879), 81-89. Jane Shore was finally tried before the court of the
+Bishop of London.
+
+[14] Sir J. F. Stephen, _History of the Criminal Law of England_
+(London, 1883), II, 410, gives five instances from Archdeacon Hale's
+_Ecclesiastical Precedents_; see extracts from Lincoln Episcopal
+Visitations in _Archćologia_ (Soc. of Antiquaries, London), XLVIII,
+254-255, 262; see also articles of visitation, etc., for 1547 and 1559
+in David Wilkins, _Concilia Magnae Britanniae_ (London, 1737), IV, 25,
+186, 190.
+
+[15] An earlier statute had mentioned sorcery and witchcraft in
+connection with medical practitioners. The "Act concerning Phesicions
+and Surgeons" of 3 Henry VIII, ch. XI, was aimed against quacks.
+"Forasmoche as the science and connyng of Physyke and Surgerie to the
+perfecte knowlege wherof bee requisite bothe grete lernyng and ripe
+experience ys daily ... exercised by a grete multitude of ignoraunt
+persones ... soofarfurth that common Artificers as Smythes Wevers and
+Women boldely and custumably take upon theim grete curis and thyngys of
+great difficultie In the which they partely use socery and which crafte
+[_sic_] partely applie such medicyne unto the disease as be verey
+noyous," it was required that every candidate to practice medicine
+should be examined by the bishop of the diocese (in London by either the
+bishop or the Dean of St. Paul's).
+
+[16] Stephen, _History of Criminal Law_, II, 431, says of this act:
+"Hutchinson suggests that this act, which was passed two years after the
+act of the Six Articles, was intended as a 'hank upon the reformers,'
+that the part of it to which importance was attached was the pulling
+down of crosses, which, it seems, was supposed to be practised in
+connection with magic. Hutchinson adds that the act was never put into
+execution either against witches or reformers. The act was certainly
+passed during that period of Henry's reign when he was inclining in the
+Roman Catholic direction." The part of the act to which Hutchinson
+refers reads as follows: "And for execucion of their saide falce devyses
+and practises have made or caused to be made dyvers Images and pictures
+of men, women, childrene, Angelles or develles, beastes or fowles, ...
+and gyving faithe and credit to suche fantasticall practises have dygged
+up and pulled downe an infinite nombre of Crosses within this Realme."
+
+[17] _Parliamentary History_ (London, 1751-1762), III, 229.
+
+[18] _Ibid._
+
+[19] _Autobiography of Edward Underhill_ (in _Narratives of the Days of
+the Reformation_, Camden Soc., London, 1859), 172-175.
+
+[20] The measure in fact reached the engrossing stage in the Commons.
+Both houses, however, adjourned early in April and left it unpassed.
+
+[21] Several of the bishops who were appointed on Elizabeth's accession
+had travelled in South Germany and Switzerland during the Marian period
+and had the opportunity of familiarizing themselves with the propaganda
+in these parts against witches. Thomas Bentham, who was to be bishop of
+Coventry and Lichfield, had retired from England to Zurich and had
+afterwards been preacher to the exiles at Basel. John Parkhurst,
+appointed bishop of Norwich, had settled in Zurich on Mary's accession.
+John Scory, appointed bishop of Hereford, had served as chaplain to the
+exiles in Geneva. Richard Cox, appointed bishop of Ely, had visited
+Frankfort and Strassburg. Edmund Grindall, who was to be the new bishop
+of London, had, during his exile, visited Strassburg, Speier, and
+Frankfort. Miles Coverdale, who had been bishop of Exeter but who was
+not reappointed, had been in Geneva in the course of his exile. There
+were many other churchmen of less importance who at one time or another
+during the Marian period visited Zurich. See Bullinger's _Diarium_
+(Basel, 1904) and Pellican's _Chronikon_ (Basel, 1877), _passim_, as
+also Theodor Vetter, _Relations between England and Zurich during the
+Reformation_ (London, 1904). At Strassburg the persecution raged
+somewhat later; but how thoroughly Bucer and his colleagues approved and
+urged it is clear from a letter of advice addressed by them in 1538 to
+their fellow pastor Schwebel, of Zweibrücken (printed as No. 88 in the
+_Centuria Epistolarum_ appended to Schwebel's _Scripta Theologica_,
+Zweibrücken, 1605). That Bucer while in England (1549-1551) found also
+occasion to utter these views can hardly be doubted. These details I owe
+to Professor Burr.
+
+[22] Various dates have been assigned for Jewel's sermon, but it can be
+determined approximately from a passage in the discourse. In the course
+of the sermon he remarked: "I would wish that once again, as time should
+serve, there might be had a quiet and sober disputation, that each part
+might be required to shew their grounds without self will and without
+affection, not to maintain or breed contention, ... but only that the
+truth may be known.... For, at the last disputation that should have
+been, you know which party gave over and would not meddle." This is
+clearly an allusion to the Westminster disputation of the last of March,
+1559; see John Strype, _Annals of the Reformation_ (London, 1709-1731;
+Oxford, 1824), ed. of 1824, I, pt. i, 128. The sermon therefore was
+preached after that disputation. It may be further inferred that it was
+preached before Jewel's controversy with Cole in March, 1560. The words,
+"For at the last disputation ... you know which party gave over and
+would not meddle," were hardly written after Cole accepted Jewel's
+challenge. It was on the second Sunday before Easter (March 17), 1560,
+that Jewel delivered at court the discourse in which he challenged
+dispute on four points of church doctrine. On the next day Henry Cole
+addressed him a letter in which he asked him why he "yesterday in the
+Court and at all other times at Paul's Cross" offered rather to "dispute
+in these four points than in the chief matters that lie in question
+betwixt the Church of Rome and the Protestants." In replying to Cole on
+the 20th of March Jewel wrote that he stood only upon the negative and
+again mentioned his offer. On the 31st of March he repeated his
+challenge upon the four points, and upon this occasion went very much
+into detail in supporting them. Now, in the sermon which we are trying
+to date, the sermon in which allusion is made to the prevalence of
+witches, the four points are briefly named. It may be reasonably
+conjectured that this sermon anticipated the elaboration of the four
+points as well as the challenging sermon of March 17. It is as certain
+that it was delivered after Jewel's return to London from his visitation
+in the west country. On November 2, 1559, he wrote to Peter Martyr: "I
+have at last returned to London, with a body worn out by a most
+fatiguing journey." See _Zurich Letters_, I (Parker Soc., Cambridge,
+1842), 44. It is interesting and significant that he adds: "We found in
+all places votive relics of saints, nails with which the infatuated
+people dreamed that Christ had been pierced, and I know not what small
+fragments of the sacred cross. The number of witches and sorceresses had
+everywhere become enormous." Jewel was consecrated Bishop of Salisbury
+in the following January, having been nominated in the summer of 1559
+just before his western visitation. The sermon in which he alluded to
+witches may have been preached at any time after he returned from the
+west, November 2, and before March 17. It would be entirely natural that
+in a court sermon delivered by the newly appointed bishop of Salisbury
+the prevalence of witchcraft should be mentioned. It does not seem a
+rash guess that the sermon was preached soon after his return, perhaps
+in December, when the impression of what he had seen in the west was
+still fresh in his memory. But it is not necessary to make this
+supposition. Though the discourse was delivered some time after March
+15, 1559, when the first bill "against Conjurations, Prophecies, etc.,"
+was brought before the Commons (see _Journal of the House of Commons_,
+I, 57), it is not unreasonable to believe that there was some connection
+between the discourse and the fortunes of this bill. That connection
+seems the more probable on a careful reading of the Commons Journals for
+the first sessions of Elizabeth's Parliament. It is evident that the
+Elizabethan legislators were working in close cooperation with the
+ecclesiastical authorities. Jewel's sermon may be found in his _Works_
+(ed. for the Parker Soc., Cambridge, 1845-1850), II, 1025-1034. (For the
+correspondence with Cole see I, 26 ff.)
+
+For assistance in dating this sermon the writer wishes to express his
+special obligation to Professor Burr.
+
+[23] Strype, _Annals of the Reformation_, I, pt. i, 11. He may, indeed,
+mean to ascribe it, not to the sermon, but to the evils alleged by the
+sermon.
+
+[24] In the contemporary account entitled _A True and just Recorde of
+the Information, Examination, and Confession of all the Witches taken at
+St. Oses.... Written ... by W. W._ (1582), next leaf after B 5, we read:
+"there is a man of great cunning and knowledge come over lately unto our
+Queenes Maiestie, which hath advertised her what a companie and number
+of witches be within Englande." This probably refers to Jewel.
+
+[25] See _ibid._, B 5 verso: "I and other of her Justices have received
+commission for the apprehending of as many as are within these limites."
+This was written later, but the event is referred to as following what
+must have been Bishop Jewel's sermon.
+
+[26] Thomas Wright, _Narratives of Sorcery and Magic_ (ed. of N. Y.,
+1852), 126 ff.; see also his _Elizabeth and her Times_ (London, 1838),
+I, 457, letter of Shrewsbury to Burghley.
+
+[27] Wright, _Narratives_, 130 ff.
+
+[28] _Ibid._, 134.
+
+[29] See Reginald Scot, _The Discoverie of Witchcraft_ (London, 1584;
+reprinted, Brinsley Nicholson, ed., London, 1886), 4.
+
+[30] A very typical instance was that in Kent in 1597, see _Archćologia
+Cantiana_ (Kent Archćological Soc., London), XXVI, 21. Several good
+instances are given in the _Hertfordshire County Session Rolls_
+(compiled by W. J. Hardy, London, 1905), I; see also J. Raine, ed.,
+_Depositions respecting the Rebellion of 1569, Witchcraft, and other
+Ecclesiastical Proceedings from the Court of Durham_ (Surtees Soc.,
+London, 1845), 99, 100.
+
+[31] J. Raine, ed., _Injunctions and other Ecclesiastical Proceedings of
+Richard Barnes, Bishop of Durham_ (Surtees Soc., London, 1850), 18; H.
+Owen and J. B. Blakeway, _History of Shrewsbury_ (London, 1825), II,
+364, art. 43.
+
+[32] _Arch. Cant._, XXVI, 19.
+
+[33] _Hertfordshire Co. Sess. Rolls_, I, 3.
+
+[34] See _Depositions ... from the Court of Durham_, 99; _Arch. Cant._,
+XXVI, 21; W. H. Hale, _Precedents_, etc. (London, 1847), 148, 185.
+
+[35] Hale, _op. cit._, 163; _Middlesex County Records_, ed. by J. C.
+Jeaffreson (London, 1892), I, 84, 94.
+
+[36] For an instance of how a "wise woman" feared this very thing, see
+Hale, _op. cit._, 147.
+
+[37] See _Witches taken at St. Oses_, E; also Dr. Barrow's opinion in
+the pamphlet entitled _The most strange and admirable discoverie of the
+three Witches of Warboys, arraigned, convicted and executed at the last
+assizes at Huntingdon...._ (London, 1593).
+
+[38] _Folk Lore Soc. Journal_, II, 157-158, where this story is quoted
+from a work by "Wm. Clouues, Mayster in Chirurgery," published in 1588.
+He only professed to have "reade" of it, so that it is perhaps just a
+pleasant tradition. If it is nothing more than that, it is at least an
+interesting evidence of opinion.
+
+[39] Strype, _Annals of the Reformation_, I, pt. i, 9-10; _Dictionary of
+National Biography_, article on Anthony Fortescue, by G. K. Fortescue.
+
+[40] Strype, _op. cit._, I, pt. i, 546, 555-558; also Wright, _Elizabeth
+and her Times_, I, 121, where a letter from Cecil to Sir Thomas Smith is
+printed.
+
+[41] The interest which the privy council showed in sorcery and
+witchcraft during the earlier part of the reign is indicated in the
+following references: _Acts of the Privy Council_, new series, VII, 6,
+22, 200-201; X, 220, 382; XI, 22, 36, 292, 370-371, 427; XII, 21-22, 23,
+26, 29, 34, 102, 251; _Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1547-1580_,
+137, 142; _id._, _1581-1590_, 29, 220, 246-247; _id._, _Add. 1580-1625_,
+120-121; see also John Strype, _Life of Sir Thomas Smith_ (London, 1698;
+Oxford, 1820), ed. of 1820, 127-129. The case mentioned in _Cal. St. P.,
+Dom., 1581-1590_, 29, was probably a result of the activity of the privy
+council. The case in _id._, _Add., 1580-1625_, 120-121, is an instance
+of where the accused was suspected of both witchcraft and "high treason
+touching the supremacy." Nearly all of the above mentioned references to
+the activity of the privy council refer to the first half of the reign
+and a goodly proportion to the years 1578-1582.
+
+[42] _Acts P. C._, n. s., XI, 292.
+
+[43] Strype, _Sir Thomas Smith_, 127-129.
+
+[44] _A Rehearsall both straung and true of hainous and horrible acts
+committed by Elizabeth Stile_, etc. (for full title see appendix). This
+pamphlet is in black letter. Its account is confirmed by the reference
+in _Acts P. C._, n. s., XI, 22. See also Scot, _Discoverie_, 51, 543.
+
+[45] An aged widow had been committed to gaol on the testimony of her
+neighbors that she was "lewde, malitious, and hurtful to the people." An
+ostler, after he had refused to give her relief, had suffered a pain. So
+far as the account goes, this was the sum of the evidence against the
+woman. Unhappily she waited not on the order of her trial but made
+voluble confession and implicated five others, three of whom were
+without doubt professional enchanters. She had met, she said, with
+Mother Dutten, Mother Devell, and Mother Margaret, and "concluded
+several hainous and vilanous practices." The deaths of five persons whom
+she named were the outcome of their concerted plans. For the death of a
+sixth she avowed entire responsibility. This amazing confession may have
+been suggested to her piece by piece, but it was received at full value.
+That she included others in her guilt was perhaps because she responded
+to the evident interest aroused by such additions, or more likely
+because she had grudges unsatisfied. The women were friendless, three of
+the four were partially dependent upon alms, there was no one to come to
+their help, and they were convicted. The man that had been arraigned, a
+"charmer," seems to have gone free.
+
+[46] _Injunctions ... of ... Bishop of Durham_, 18, 84, 99; Visitations
+of Canterbury, in _Arch. Cant._, XXVI; Hale, _Precedents, 1475-1640_,
+147, etc.
+
+[47] Arch. Cant., XXVI, _passim_; Hale, _op. cit._, 147, 148, 163, 185;
+Mrs. Lynn Linton, _Witch Stories_ (London, 1861; new ed., 1883), 144.
+
+[48] See Hale, _op. cit._, 148, 157.
+
+[49] Hale, _op. cit._, 148; _Depositions ... from the Court of Durham_,
+99; _Arch. Cant._, XXVI, 21.
+
+[50] Hale, _op. cit._, 148, 185.
+
+[51] _Ibid._, 157.
+
+[52] _Denham Tracts_ (Folk Lore Soc., London), II, 332; John Sykes,
+_Local Record ... of Remarkable Events ... in Northumberland, Durham, ..._
+etc. (2d ed., Newcastle, 1833-1852), I, 79.
+
+[53] See, for example, _Acts P. C._, n. s., VII, 32 (1558).
+
+[54] _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1547-1580_, 173. Instance where the Bishop of
+London seems to have examined a case and turned it over to the privy
+council.
+
+[55] Rachel Pinder and Agnes Bridges, who pretended to be possessed by
+the Devil, were examined before the "person of St. Margarets in
+Lothberry," and the Mayor of London, as well as some justices of the
+peace. They later made confession before the Archbishop of Canterbury
+and some justices of the peace. See the black letter pamphlet, _The
+discloysing of a late counterfeyted possession by the devyl in two
+maydens within the Citie of London_ [1574].
+
+[56] Francis Coxe came before the queen rather than the church. He
+narrates his experiences in _A short treatise declaringe the detestable
+wickednesse of magicall sciences, ..._ (1561). Yet John Walsh, a man
+with a similar record, came before the commissary of the Bishop of
+Exeter. See _The Examination of John Walsh before Master Thomas
+Williams, Commissary to the Reverend father in God, William, bishop of
+Excester, upon certayne Interrogatories touchyng Wytch-crafte and
+Sorcerye, in the presence of divers gentlemen and others, the XX of
+August, 1566_.
+
+[57] We say "practically," because instances of church jurisdiction come
+to light now and again throughout the seventeenth century.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+WITCHCRAFT UNDER ELIZABETH.
+
+
+The year 1566 is hardly less interesting in the history of English
+witchcraft than 1563. It has been seen that the new statute passed in
+1563 was the beginning of a vigorous prosecution by the state of the
+detested agents of the evil one. In 1566 occurred the first important
+trial known to us in the new period. That trial deserves note not only
+on its own account, but because it was recorded in the first of the long
+series of witch chap-books--if we may so call them. A very large
+proportion of our information about the execution of the witches is
+derived from these crude pamphlets, briefly recounting the trials. The
+witch chap-book was a distinct species. In the days when the chronicles
+were the only newspapers it was what is now the "extra," brought out to
+catch the public before the sensation had lost its flavor. It was of
+course a partisan document, usually a vindication of the worthy judge
+who had condemned the guilty, with some moral and religious
+considerations by the respectable and righteous author. A terribly
+serious bit of history it was that he had to tell and he told it grimly
+and without pity. Such comedy as lights up the gloomy black-letter pages
+was quite unintentional. He told a story too that was full of details
+trivial enough in themselves, but details that give many glimpses into
+the every-day life of the lower classes in town and country.
+
+The pamphlet of 1566 was brief and compact of information. It was
+entitled _The examination and confession of certaine Wytches at
+Chensforde in the Countie of Essex before the Quenes Maiesties Judges
+the XXVI daye of July anno 1566_. The trial there recorded is one that
+presents some of the most curious and inexplicable features in the
+annals of English witchcraft. The personnel of the "size" court is
+mysterious. At the first examination "Doctor Cole" and "Master Foscue"
+were present. Both men are easily identified. Doctor Cole was the
+Reverend Thomas Cole, who had held several places in Essex and had in
+1564 been presented to the rectory of Stanford Rivers, about ten miles
+from Chelmsford. Master Foscue was unquestionably Sir John Fortescue,
+later Chancellor of the Exchequer, and at this time keeper of the great
+wardrobe. On the second examination Sir Gilbert Gerard, the queen's
+attorney, and John Southcote, justice of the queen's bench, were
+present. Why Southcote should be present is perfectly clear. It is not
+so easy to understand about the others. Was the attorney-general acting
+as presiding officer, or was he conducting the prosecution? The latter
+hypothesis is of course more consistent with his position. But what were
+the rector of Stanford Rivers and the keeper of the great wardrobe doing
+there? Had Doctor Cole been appointed in recognition of the claims of
+the church? And the keeper of the wardrobe, what was the part that he
+played? One cannot easily escape the conclusion that the case was deemed
+one of unusual significance. Perhaps the privy council had heard of
+something that alarmed it and had delegated these four men, all known
+at Elizabeth's court, to examine into the matter in connection with the
+assizes.
+
+The examinations themselves present features of more interest to the
+psychologist than to the historical student. Yet they have some
+importance in the understanding of witchcraft as a social phenomenon.
+Elizabeth Francis, when examined, confessed with readiness to various
+"vilanies." From her grandmother she said she had as a child received a
+white spotted cat, named Sathan, whom she had fed, and who gave her what
+she asked for. "She desired to have one Andrew Byles to her husband,
+which was a man of some welth, and the cat dyd promyse she shold." But
+the promise proved illusory. The man left her without marriage and then
+she "willed Sathan ... to touch his body, whych he forthewith dyd,
+whereof he died." Once again she importuned Satan for a husband. This
+time she gained one "not so rich as the other." She bore a daughter to
+him, but the marriage was an unhappy one. "They lived not so quietly as
+she desyred, beinge stirred to much unquietnes and moved to swearing and
+cursinge." Thereupon she employed the spirit to kill her child and to
+lame her husband. After keeping the cat fifteen years she turned it over
+to Mother Waterhouse, "a pore woman."[1]
+
+Mother Waterhouse was now examined. She had received the cat and kept it
+"a great while in woll in a pot." She had then turned it into a toad.
+She had used it to kill geese, hogs, and cattle of her neighbors. At
+length she had employed it to kill a neighbor whom she disliked, and
+finally her own husband. The woman's eighteen-year-old daughter, Joan,
+was now called to the stand and confirmed the fact that her mother kept
+a toad. She herself had one day been refused a piece of bread and cheese
+by a neighbor's child and had invoked the toad's help. The toad promised
+to assist her if she would surrender her soul. She did so. Then the toad
+haunted the neighbor's girl in the form of a dog with horns. The mother
+was again called to the stand and repeated the curious story told by her
+daughter.
+
+Now the neighbor's child, Agnes Brown, was brought in to testify. Her
+story tallied in some of its details with that of the two Waterhouse
+women; she had been haunted by the horned dog, and she added certain
+descriptions of its conduct that revealed good play of childish
+imagination.[2]
+
+The attorney put some questions, but rather to lead on the witnesses
+than to entangle them. He succeeded, however, in creating a violent
+altercation between the Waterhouses on the one hand, and Agnes Brown on
+the other, over trifling matters of detail.[3] At length he offered to
+release Mother Waterhouse if she would make the spirit appear in the
+court.[4] The offer was waived. The attorney then asked, "When dyd thye
+Cat suck of thy bloud?" "Never," said she. He commanded the jailer to
+lift up the "kercher" on the woman's head. He did so and the spots on
+her face and nose where she had pricked herself for the evil spirit were
+exposed.
+
+The jury retired. Two days later Agnes Waterhouse suffered the penalty
+of the law, not however until she had added to her confessions.[5]
+
+The case is a baffling one. We can be quite sure that the pamphlet
+account is incomplete. One would like to know more about the substance
+of fact behind this evidence. Did the parties that were said to have
+been killed by witchcraft really die at the times specified? Either the
+facts of their deaths were well known in the community and were fitted
+with great cleverness into the story Mother Waterhouse told, or the
+jurors and the judges neglected the first principles of common sense and
+failed to inquire about the facts.[6] The questions asked by the queen's
+attorney reveal hardly more than an unintelligent curiosity to know the
+rest of the story. He shows just one saving glint of skepticism. He
+offered to release Mother Waterhouse if she would materialize her
+spirit.
+
+Mother Waterhouse was her own worst enemy. Her own testimony was the
+principal evidence presented against her, and yet she denied guilt on
+one particular upon which the attorney-general had interrogated her.
+This might lead one to suppose that her answers were the haphazard
+replies of a half-witted woman. But the supposition is by no means
+consistent with the very definite and clear-cut nature of her testimony.
+It is useless to try to unravel the tangles of the case. It is possible
+that under some sort of duress--although there is no evidence of
+this--she had deliberately concocted a story to fit those of Elizabeth
+Francis and Agnes Brown, and that her daughter, hearing her mother's
+narrative in court--a very possible thing in that day--had fitted hers
+into it. It is conceivable too that Mother Waterhouse had yielded merely
+to the wish to amaze her listeners. It is a more probable supposition
+that the questions asked of her by the judge were based upon the
+accusations already made by Agnes Brown and that they suggested to her
+the main outlines of her narrative.
+
+Elizabeth Francis, who had been the first accused and who had accused
+Mother Waterhouse, escaped. Whether it was because she had turned
+state's evidence or because she had influential friends in the
+community, we do not know. It is possible that the judges recognized
+that her confession was unsupported by the testimony of other witnesses.
+Such a supposition, however, credits the court with keener
+discrimination than seems ever to have been exhibited in such cases in
+the sixteenth century.[7]
+
+But, though Elizabeth Francis had escaped, her reputation as a dangerous
+woman in the community was fixed. Thirteen years later she was again put
+on trial before the itinerant justices. This brings us to the second
+trial of witches at Chelmsford in 1579. Mistress Francis's examination
+elicited less than in the first trial. She had cursed a woman "and badde
+a mischief to light uppon her." The woman, she understood, was
+grievously pained. She followed the course that she had taken before
+and began to accuse others. We know very little as to the outcome. At
+least one of the women accused went free because "manslaughter or murder
+was not objected against her."[8] Three women, however, were condemned
+and executed. One of them was almost certainly Elleine Smith, daughter
+of a woman hanged as a witch,--another illustration of the persistence
+of suspicion against the members of a family.
+
+The Chelmsford affair of 1579[9] was not unlike that of 1566. There were
+the same tales of spirits that assumed animal forms. The young son of
+Elleine Smith declared that his mother kept three spirits, Great Dick in
+a wicker bottle, Little Dick in a leathern bottle, and Willet in a
+wool-pack. Goodwife Webb saw "a thyng like a black Dogge goe out of her
+doore." But the general character of the testimony in the second trial
+bore no relation to that in the first. There was no agreement of the
+different witnesses. The evidence was haphazard. The witch and another
+woman had a falling out--fallings out were very common. Next day the
+woman was taken ill. This was the sort of unimpeachable testimony that
+was to be accepted for a century yet. In the affair of 1566 the judges
+had made some attempt at quizzing the witnesses, but in 1579 all
+testimony was seemingly rated at par.[10] In both instances the proof
+rested mainly upon confession. Every woman executed had made
+confessions of guilt. This of course was deemed sufficient. Nevertheless
+the courts were beginning to introduce other methods of proving the
+accused guilty. The marks on Agnes Waterhouse had been uncovered at the
+request of the attorney-general; and at her execution she had been
+questioned about her ability to say the Lord's Prayer and other parts of
+the service. Neither of these matters was emphasized, but the mention of
+them proves that notions were already current that were later to have
+great vogue.
+
+The Chelmsford cases find their greatest significance, however, not as
+illustrations of the use and abuse of evidence, but because they
+exemplify the continuity of the witch movement. That continuity finds
+further illustration in the fact that there was a third alarm at
+Chelmsford in 1589, which resulted in three more executions. But in this
+case the women involved seem, so far as we know, to have had no
+connection with the earlier cases. The fate of Elizabeth Francis and
+that of Elleine Smith are more instructive as proof of the long-standing
+nature of a community suspicion. Elleine could not escape her mother's
+reputation nor Elizabeth her own.
+
+Both these women seem to have been of low character at any rate.
+Elizabeth had admitted illicit amours, and Elleine may very well have
+been guilty on the same count.[11] All of the women involved in the two
+trials were in circumstances of wretched poverty; most, if not all, of
+them were dependent upon begging and the poor relief for support.[12]
+
+It is easy to imagine the excitement in Essex that these trials must
+have produced. The accused had represented a wide territory in the
+county. The women had been fetched to Chelmsford from towns as far apart
+as Hatfield-Peverel and Maldon. It is not remarkable that three years
+later than the affair of 1579 there should have been another outbreak in
+the county, this time in a more aggravated form. St. Oses, or St.
+Osyth's, to the northeast of Chelmsford, was to be the scene of the most
+remarkable affair of its kind in Elizabethan times. The alarm began with
+the formulation of charges against a woman of the community. Ursley Kemp
+was a poor woman of doubtful reputation. She rendered miscellaneous
+services to her neighbors. She acted as midwife, nursed children, and
+added to her income by "unwitching" the diseased. Like other women of
+the sort, she was looked upon with suspicion. Hence, when she had been
+refused the nursing of the child of Grace Thurlow, a servant of that Mr.
+Darcy who was later to try her, and when the child soon afterward fell
+out of its cradle and broke its neck, the mother suspected Ursley of
+witchcraft. Nevertheless she did not refuse her help when she "began to
+have a lameness in her bones." Ursley promised to unwitch her and
+seemingly kept her word, for the lameness disappeared. Then it was that
+the nurse-woman asked for the twelve-pence she had been promised and was
+refused. Grace pleaded that she was a "poore and needie woman." Ursley
+became angry and threatened to be even with her. The lameness reappeared
+and Grace Thurlow was thoroughly convinced that Ursley was to blame.
+When the case was carried before the justices of the peace, the accused
+woman denied that she was guilty of anything more than unwitching the
+afflicted. That she had learned, she said, ten or more years ago from a
+woman now deceased. She was committed to the assizes, and Justice Brian
+Darcy, whose servant Grace Thurlow had started the trouble, took the
+case in hand. He examined her eight-year-old "base son," who gave
+damning evidence against his mother. She fed four imps, Tyffin, Tittey,
+Piggen, and Jacket. The boy's testimony and the judge's promise that if
+she would confess the truth she "would have favour," seemed to break
+down the woman's resolution. "Bursting out with weeping she fell upon
+her knees and confessed that she had four spirits." Two of them she had
+used for laming, two for killing. Not only the details of her son's
+evidence, but all the earlier charges, she confirmed step by step, first
+in private confessions to the judge and then publicly at the court
+sessions. The woman's stories tallied with those of all her accusers[13]
+and displayed no little play of imagination in the orientation of
+details.[14] Not content with thus entangling herself in a fearful web
+of crime, she went on to point out other women guilty of similar
+witchcrafts. Four of those whom she named were haled before the justice.
+Elizabeth Bennett, who spun wool for a cloth-maker, was one of those
+most vehemently accused, but she denied knowledge of any kind of
+witchcraft. It had been charged against her that she kept some wool
+hidden in a pot under some stones in her house. She denied at first the
+possession of this potent and malignant charm; but, influenced by the
+gentle urgings of Justice Darcy,[15] she gave way, as Ursley Kemp had
+done, and, breaking all restraint, poured forth wild stories of devilish
+crimes committed through the assistance of her imps.
+
+But why should we trace out the confessions, charges, and
+counter-charges that followed? The stories that were poured forth
+continued to involve a widening group until sixteen persons were under
+accusation of the most awful crimes, committed by demoniacal agency. As
+at Chelmsford, they were the dregs of the lower classes, women with
+illegitimate children, some of them dependent upon public support. It
+will be seen that in some respects the panic bore a likeness to those
+that had preceded. The spirits, which took extraordinary and bizarre
+forms, were the offspring of the same perverted imaginations, but they
+had assumed new shapes. Ursley Kemp kept a white lamb, a little gray
+cat, a black cat, and a black toad. There were spirits of every sort,
+"two little thyngs like horses, one white, the other black'"; six
+"spirits like cowes ... as big as rattles"; spirits masquerading as
+blackbirds. One spirit strangely enough remained invisible. It will be
+observed by the reader that the spirits almost fitted into a color
+scheme. Very vivid colors were those preferred in their spirits by these
+St. Oses women. The reader can see, too, that the confessions showed the
+influence of the great cat tradition.
+
+We have seen the readiness with which the deluded women made confession.
+Some of the confessions were poured forth as from souls long surcharged
+with guilt. But not all of them came in this way. Margerie Sammon, who
+had testified against one of her neighbors, was finally herself caught
+in the web of accusation in which a sister had also been involved. She
+was accused by her sister. "I defie thee," she answered, "though thou
+art my sister." But her sister drew her aside and "whyspered her in the
+eare," after which, with "great submission and many teares," she made a
+voluble confession. One wonders about that whispered consultation. Had
+her sister perhaps suggested that the justice was offering mercy to
+those who confessed? For Justice Darcy was very liberal with his
+promises of mercy and absolutely unscrupulous about breaking them.[16]
+It is gratifying to be able to record that there was yet a remnant left
+who confessed nothing at all and stood stubborn to the last. One of them
+was Margaret Grevel, who denied the accusations against her. She "saith
+that shee herselfe hath lost severall bruings and bakings of bread, and
+also swine, but she never did complaine thereof: saying that shee wished
+her gere were at a stay and then shee cared not whether shee were hanged
+or burnt or what did become of her." Annis Herd was another who stuck to
+her innocence. She could recall various incidents mentioned by her
+accusers; it was true that she had talked to Andrew West about getting a
+pig, it was true that she had seen Mr. Harrison at his parsonage
+gathering plums and had asked for some and been refused. But she denied
+that she had any imps or that she had killed any one.
+
+The use of evidence in this trial would lead one to suppose that in
+England no rules of evidence were yet in existence. The testimony of
+children ranging in age from six to nine was eagerly received. No
+objection indeed was made to the testimony of a neighbor who professed
+to have overheard what he deemed an incriminating statement. As a matter
+of fact the remark, if made, was harmless enough.[17] Expert evidence
+was introduced in a roundabout way by the statement offered in court
+that a physician had suspected that a certain case was witchcraft.
+Nothing was excluded. The garrulous women had been give free rein to
+pile up their silly accusations against one another. Not until the trial
+was nearing its end does it seem to have occurred to Brian Darcy to warn
+a woman against making false charges.
+
+It will be recalled that in the Chelmsford trials Mother Waterhouse had
+been found to have upon her certain marks, yet little emphasis had been
+laid upon them. In the trials of 1582 the proof drawn from these marks
+was deemed of the first importance and the judge appointed juries of
+women to make examination. No artist has yet dared to paint the picture
+of the gloating female inquisitors grouped around their naked and
+trembling victim, a scene that was to be enacted in many a witch trial.
+And it is well, for the scene would be too repellent and brutal for
+reproduction. In the use of these specially instituted juries there was
+no care to get unbiassed decisions. One of the inquisitors appointed to
+examine Cystley Celles had already served as witness against her.
+
+It is hard to refrain from an indictment of the hopelessly prejudiced
+justice who gathered the evidence.[18] To entrap the defendants seems to
+have been his end. In the account which he wrote[19] he seems to have
+feared lest the public should fail to understand how his cleverness
+ministered to the conviction of the women.[20]
+
+"There is a man," he wrote, "of great cunning and knowledge come over
+lately unto our Queenes Maiestie, which hath advertised her what a
+companie and number of witches be within Englande: whereupon I and other
+of her Justices have received commission for the apprehending of as many
+as are within these limites." No doubt he hoped to attract royal notice
+and win favor by his zeal.
+
+The Chelmsford affairs and that at St. Oses were the three remarkable
+trials of their kind in the first part of Elizabeth's reign. They
+furnish some evidence of the progress of superstition. The procedure in
+1582 reveals considerable advance over that of 1566. The theory of
+diabolic agency had been elaborated. The testimony offered was gaining
+in complexity and in variety. New proofs of guilt were being introduced
+as well as new methods of testing the matter. In the second part of
+Elizabeth's reign we have but one trial of unusual interest, that at
+Warboys in Huntingdonshire. This, we shall see, continued the
+elaboration of the witch procedure. It was a case that attracted
+probably more notice at the time than any other in the sixteenth
+century. The accidental fancy of a child and the pronouncement of a
+baffled physician were in this instance the originating causes of the
+trouble. One of the children of Sir Robert Throckmorton, head of a
+prominent family in Huntingdonshire, was taken ill. It so happened that
+a neighbor, by name Alice Samuel, called at the house and the ailing and
+nervous child took the notion that the woman was a witch and cried out
+against her. "Did you ever see, sayd the child, one more like a witch
+then she is; take off her blacke thrumbd cap, for I cannot abide to
+looke on her." Her parents apparently thought nothing of this at the
+time. When Dr. Barrow, an eminent physician of Cambridge, having treated
+the child for two of the diseases of children, and without success,
+asked the mother and father if any witchcraft were suspected, he was
+answered in the negative. The Throckmortons were by no means quick to
+harbor a suspicion. But when two and then three other children in the
+family fell ill and began in the same way to designate Mother Samuel as
+a witch, the parents were more willing to heed the hint thrown out by
+the physician. The suspected woman was forcibly brought by Gilbert
+Pickering, an uncle of the children, into their presence. The children
+at once fell upon the ground "strangely tormented," and insisted upon
+scratching Mother Samuel's hand. Meantime Lady Cromwell[21] visited at
+the Throckmorton house, and, after an interview with Alice Samuel,
+suffered in her dreams from her till at length she fell ill and died,
+something over a year later. This confirmed what had been suspicion. To
+detail all the steps taken to prove Mother Samuel guilty is unnecessary.
+A degree of caution was used which was remarkable. Henry Pickering, a
+relative, and some of his fellow scholars at Cambridge made an
+investigation into the case, but decided with the others that the woman
+was guilty. Mother Samuel herself laid the whole trouble to the
+children's "wantonness." Again and again she was urged by the children
+to confess. "Such were the heavenly and divine speeches of the children
+in their fits to this old woman ... as that if a man had heard it he
+would not have thought himself better edified at ten sermons." The
+parents pleaded with her to admit her responsibility for the constantly
+recurring sickness of their children, but she denied bitterly that she
+was to blame. She was compelled to live at the Throckmorton house and to
+be a witness constantly to the strange behavior of the children. The
+poor creature was dragged back and forth, watched and experimented upon
+in a dozen ways, until it is little wonder that she grew ill and spent
+her nights in groaning. She was implored to confess and told that all
+might yet be well. For a long time she persisted in her denial, but at
+length in a moment of weakness, when the children had come out of their
+fits at her chance exhortation to them, she became convinced that she
+was guilty and exclaimed, "O sir, I have been the cause of all this
+trouble to your children." The woman, who up to this time had shown some
+spirit, had broken down. She now confessed that she had given her soul
+to the Devil. A clergyman was hastily sent for, who preached a sermon of
+repentance, upon which the distracted woman made a public confession.
+But on the next day, after she had been refreshed by sleep and had been
+in her own home again, she denied her confession. The constable now
+prepared to take the woman as well as her daughter to the Bishop of
+Lincoln, and the frightened creature again made a confession. In the
+presence of the bishop she reiterated her story in detail and gave the
+names of her spirits. She was put in gaol at Huntingdon and with her
+were imprisoned her daughter Agnes and her husband John Samuel, who were
+now accused by the Throckmorton children, and all three were tried at
+the assizes in Huntingdon before Judge Fenner. The facts already
+narrated were given in evidence, the seizures of the children at the
+appearance of any of the Samuel family[22], the certainty with which the
+children could with closed eyes pick Mother Samuel out of a crowd and
+scratch her, the confessions of the crazed creature, all these evidences
+were given to the court. But the strongest proof was that given in the
+presence of the court. The daughter Agnes Samuel was charged to repeat,
+"As I am a witch and consenting to the death of Lady Cromwell, I charge
+thee, come out of her."[23] At this charge the children would at once
+recover from their fits. But a charge phrased negatively, "As I am no
+witch," was ineffectual. And the affirmative charge, when tried by some
+other person, had no result. This was deemed conclusive proof. The woman
+was beyond doubt guilty. The same method was applied with equally
+successful issue to the father. When he refused to use the words of the
+charge he was warned by the judge that he would endanger his life. He
+gave way.
+
+It is needless to say that the grand jury arraigned all three of the
+family and that the "jury of life and death" found them guilty. It
+needed but a five hours' trial.[24] The mother was induced to plead
+pregnancy as a delay to execution, but after an examination by a jury
+was adjudged not pregnant. The daughter had been urged to make the same
+defence, but spiritedly replied, "It shall never be said that I was both
+a witch and a whore." At the execution the mother made another
+confession, in which she implicated her husband, but refused to the end
+to accuse her daughter.
+
+From beginning to end it had been the strong against the weak. Sir
+Robert Throckmorton, Sir Henry Cromwell, William Wickham, Bishop of
+Lincoln, the justices of the peace, Justice Fenner of the king's court,
+the Cambridge scholars, the "Doctor of Divinitie," and two other
+clergymen, all were banded together against this poor but respectable
+family. In some respects the trial reminds us of one that was to take
+place ninety-nine years later in Massachusetts. The part played by the
+children in the two instances was very similar. Mother Samuel had hit
+the nail on the head when she said that the trouble was due to the
+children's "wantonness." Probably the first child had really suffered
+from some slight ailment. The others were imitators eager to gain notice
+and pleased with their success; and this fact was realized by some
+people at the time. "It had been reported by some in the county, those
+that thought themselves wise, that this Mother Samuel ... was an old
+simple woman, and that one might make her by fayre words confesse what
+they would." Moreover the tone of the writer's defense makes it evident
+that others beside Mother Samuel laid the action of the Throckmorton
+children to "wantonness." And six years later Samuel Harsnett, chaplain
+to the Bishop of London and a man already influential, called the
+account of the affair "a very ridiculous booke" and evidently believed
+the children guilty of the same pretences as William Somers, whose
+confessions of imposture he was relating.[25]
+
+We have already observed that the Warboys affair was the only celebrated
+trial of its sort in the last part of Elizabeth's reign--that is, from
+the time of Reginald Scot to the accession of James I. This does not
+mean that the superstition was waning or that the trials were on the
+decrease. The records show that the number of trials was steadily
+increasing. They were more widely distributed. London was still the
+centre of the belief. Chief-Justice Anderson sent Joan Kerke to Tyburn
+and the Middlesex sessions were still occupied with accusations. The
+counties adjacent to it could still claim more than two-thirds of the
+executions. But a far wider area was infected with the superstition.
+Norfolk in East Anglia, Leicester, Nottingham and Derby in the
+Midlands, and York and Northumberland in the North were all involved.
+
+The truth is that there are two tendencies that appear very clearly
+towards the last part of Elizabeth's reign. On the one hand the feeling
+of the people against witchcraft was growing in intensity, while on the
+other the administration at London was inclined to be more lenient.
+Pardons and reprieves were issued to women already condemned,[26] while
+some attempt was made to curb popular excitement. The attitude of the
+queen towards the celebrated John Dee was an instance in point. Dee was
+an eminent alchemist, astrologer, and spiritualist of his time. He has
+left a diary which shows us his half mystic, half scientific pursuits.
+In the earlier part of Mary's reign he had been accused of attempting
+poison or magic against the queen and had been imprisoned and examined
+by the privy council and by the Star Chamber. At Elizabeth's accession
+he had cast the horoscope for her coronation day, and he was said to
+have revealed to the queen who were her enemies at foreign courts. More
+than once afterwards Dee was called upon by the queen to render her
+services when she was ill or when some mysterious design against her
+person was feared. While he dealt with many curious things, he had
+consistently refused to meddle with conjuring. Indeed he had rebuked the
+conjurer Hartley and had refused to help the bewitched Margaret Byrom of
+Cleworth in Lancashire. Sometime about 1590 Dee's enemies--and he had
+many--put in circulation stories of his success as a conjurer. It was
+the more easy to do, because for a long time he had been suspected by
+many of unlawful dealings with spirits. His position became dangerous.
+He appealed to Elizabeth for protection and she gave him assurance that
+he might push on with his studies. Throughout her life the queen
+continued to stand by Dee,[27] and it was not until a new sovereign came
+to the throne that he again came into danger. But the moral of the
+incident is obvious. The privy council, so nervous about the conjurers
+in the days of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Catholic and Spanish plots,
+was now resting easier and refused to be affrighted.
+
+We have already referred to the pardons issued as one of the evidences
+of the more lenient policy of the government. That policy appeared too
+in the lessening rigor of the assize judges. The first half of
+Elizabeth's reign had been marked by few acquittals. Nearly half the
+cases of which we have record in the second part resulted in the
+discharge of the accused. Whether the judges were taking their cue from
+the privy council or whether some of them were feeling the same reaction
+against the cruelty of the prosecutions, it is certain that there was a
+considerable nullifying of the force of the belief. We shall see in the
+chapter on Reginald Scot that his _Discoverie of Witchcraft_ was said to
+have "affected the magistracy and the clergy." It is hard to lay one's
+finger upon influences of this sort, but we can hardly doubt that there
+was some connection between Scot's brave indictment of the witch-triers
+and the lessening severity of court verdicts. When George Gifford, the
+non-conformist clergyman at Maiden, wrote his _Dialogue concerning
+Witches_, in which he earnestly deprecated the conviction of so many
+witches, he dedicated the book "to the Right Worshipful Maister Robert
+Clarke, one of her Maiesties Barons of her Highnesse Court of the
+Exchequer," and wrote that he had been "delighted to heare and see the
+wise and godly course used upon the seate of justice by your worship,
+when such have bene arraigned." Unfortunately there is not much evidence
+of this kind.
+
+One other fact must not be overlooked. A large percentage of the cases
+that went against the accused were in towns judicially independent of
+the assize courts. At Faversham, at Lynn, at Yarmouth, and at
+Leicester[28] the local municipal authorities were to blame for the
+hanging of witches. The regular assize courts had nothing to do with the
+matter. The case at Faversham in Kent was unusual. Joan Cason was
+indicted for bewitching to death a three-year-old child. Eight of her
+neighbors, seven of them women, "poore people," testified against her.
+The woman took up her own cause with great spirit and exposed the
+malicious dealings of her adversaries and also certain controversies
+betwixt her and them. "But although she satisfied the bench," says
+Holinshed, "and all the jurie touching hir innocencie ... she ...
+confessed that a little vermin, being of colour reddish, of stature
+lesse than a rat ... did ... haunt her house." She was willing too to
+admit illicit relations with one Mason, whose housekeeper she had
+been--probably the original cause of her troubles. The jury acquitted
+her of witchcraft, but found her guilty of the "invocation of evil
+spirits," intending to send her to the pillory. While the mayor was
+admonishing her, a lawyer called attention to the point that the
+invocation of evil spirits had been made a felony. The mayor sentenced
+the woman to execution. But, "because there was no matter of invocation
+given in evidence against hir, ... hir execution was staied by the space
+of three daies." Sundry preachers tried to wring confessions from her,
+but to no purpose. Yet she made so godly an end, says the chronicler,
+that "manie now lamented hir death which were before hir utter
+enimies."[29] The case illustrates vividly the clumsiness of municipal
+court procedure. The mayor's court was unfamiliar with the law and
+utterly unable to avert the consequences of its own finding. In the
+regular assize courts, Joan Cason would probably have been sentenced to
+four public appearances in the pillory.
+
+The differences between the first half and the second half of
+Elizabeth's reign have not been deemed wide enough by the writer to
+justify separate treatment. The whole reign was a time when the
+superstition was gaining ground. Yet in the span of years from Reginald
+Scot to the death of Elizabeth there was enough of reaction to justify a
+differentiation of statistics. In both periods, and more particularly in
+the first, we may be sure that some of the records have been lost and
+that a thorough search of local archives would reveal some trials of
+which we have at present no knowledge. It was a time rich in mention of
+witch trials, but a time too when but few cases were fully described.
+Scot's incidental references to the varied experiences of Sir Roger
+Manwood and of his uncle Sir Thomas Scot merely confirm an impression
+gained from the literature of the time that the witch executions were
+becoming, throughout the seventies and early eighties, too common to be
+remarkable. For the second period we have record of probably a larger
+percentage of all the cases. For the whole time from 1563, when the new
+law went into effect, down to 1603, we have records of nearly fifty
+executions. Of these just about two-thirds occurred in the earlier
+period, while of the acquittals two-thirds belong to the later period.
+It would be rash to attach too much significance to these figures. As a
+matter of fact, the records are so incomplete that the actual totals
+have little if any meaning and only the proportions can be
+considered.[30] Yet it looks as if the forces which caused the
+persecution of witches in England were beginning to abate; and it may
+fairly be inquired whether some new factor may not have entered into the
+situation. It is time to speak of Reginald Scot and of the exorcists.
+
+
+[1] Who from a confession made in 1579 seems to have been her sister.
+See the pamphlet _A Detection of damnable driftes, practised by three
+Witches arraigned at Chelmsforde in Essex at the last Assizes there
+holden, which were executed in Aprill, 1579_ (London, 1579).
+
+[2] _E. g._: "I was afearde for he [the dog with horns] skypped and
+leaped to and fro, and satte on the toppe of a nettle."
+
+[3] Whether Agnes Waterhouse had a "daggar's knife" and whether the dog
+had the face of an ape.
+
+[4] An offer which indicates that he was acting as judge.
+
+[5] She was questioned on her church habits. She claimed to be a regular
+attendant; she "prayed right hartely there." She admitted, however, that
+she prayed "in laten" because Sathan would not let her pray in English.
+
+[6] There is of course the further possibility that the pamphlet account
+was largely invented. A critical examination of the pamphlet tends to
+establish its trustworthiness. See appendix A, § 1.
+
+[7] Alice Chandler was probably hanged at this time. The failure to
+mention her name is easily explained when we remember that the pamphlet
+was issued in two parts, as soon as possible after the event. Alice
+Chandler's case probably did not come up for trial until the two parts
+of the pamphlet had already been published. See _A Detection of damnable
+driftes_.
+
+[8] Mother Staunton, who had apparently made some pretensions to the
+practice of magic, was arraigned on several charges. She had been
+refused her requests by several people, who had thereupon suffered some
+ills.
+
+[9] It is possible that the whole affair started from the whim of a sick
+child, who, when she saw Elleine Smith, cried, "Away with the witch."
+
+[10] A caution here. The pamphlets were hastily compiled and perhaps
+left out important facts.
+
+[11] Her eight-year-old boy was probably illegitimate.
+
+[12] Mother Waterhouse's knowledge of Latin, if that is more than the
+fiction of a Protestant pamphleteer, is rather remarkable.
+
+[13] Allowance must be made for a very prejudiced reporter, _i. e._, the
+judge himself.
+
+[14] These details were very probably suggested to her by the judge.
+
+[15] Who promised her also "favour."
+
+[16] The detestable methods of Justice Darcy come out in the case of a
+woman from whom he threatened to remove her imps if she did not confess,
+and by that means trapped her into the incriminating statement, "That
+shal ye not."
+
+[17] William Hooke had heard William Newman "bid the said Ales his wife
+to beate it away." Comparable with this was the evidence of Margerie
+Sammon who "sayeth that the saide widow Hunt did tell her that shee had
+harde the said Joan Pechey, being in her house, verie often to chide and
+vehemently speaking, ... and sayth that shee went in to see, ... shee
+founde no bodie but herselfe alone."
+
+[18] Reginald Scot, _Discoverie of Witchcraft_, 542, says of this trial,
+"In the meane time let anie man with good consideration peruse that
+booke published by W. W. and it shall suffice to satisfie him in all
+that may be required.... See whether the witnesses be not single, of
+what credit, sex, and age they are; namelie lewd miserable and envious
+poore people; most of them which speake to anie purpose being old women
+and children of the age of 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9 yeares."
+
+[19] There can be no doubt that Brian Darcy either wrote the account
+himself or dictated it to "W. W." The frequent use of "me," meaning by
+that pronoun the judge, indicates that he was responsible.
+
+[20] It is some relief in this trial to read the testimony of John
+Tendering about William Byett. He had a cow "in a strange case." He
+could not lift it. He put fire under the cow, she got up and "there
+stood still and fell a byting of stickes larger than any man's finger
+and after lived and did well."
+
+[21] Second wife of Sir Henry Cromwell, who was the grandfather of
+Oliver.
+
+[22] The children were strangely inconsistent. At the first they had
+fits when Mother Samuel appeared. Later they were troubled unless Mother
+Samuel were kept in the house, or unless they were taken to her house.
+
+[23] This device seems to have been originally suggested by the children
+to try Mother Samuel's guilt.
+
+[24] The clergyman, "Doctor Dorrington," had been one of the leaders in
+prosecuting them.
+
+[25] Harsnett, _Discovery of the Fraudulent Practises of John Darrel_
+(London, 1599), 92, 97.
+
+[26] Among the manuscripts on witchcraft in the Bodleian Library are
+three such pardons of witches for their witchcraft--one of Jane Mortimer
+in 1595, one of Rosa Bexwell in 1600, and one of "Alice S.," without
+date but under Elizabeth.
+
+[27] In 1595 he was made warden of the Manchester Collegiate Church. Dee
+has in our days found a biographer. See _John Dee_ (1527-1608), by
+Charlotte Fell Smith (London, 1909).
+
+[28] For the particular case, see Mary Bateson, ed., _Records of the
+Borough of Leicester_ (Cambridge, 1899), III. 335; for the general
+letters patent covering such cases see _id._, II, 365, 366.
+
+[29] For this story see Ralph Holinshed, _Chronicles of England,
+Scotland, and Ireland_ (London, 1577, reprinted 1586-1587 and
+1807-1808), ed. of 1807-1808, IV, 891, 893. Faversham was then
+"Feversham."
+
+[30] Justice Anderson, when sentencing a witch to a year's imprisonment,
+declared that this was the twenty-fifth or twenty-sixth witch he had
+condemned. This is good evidence that the records of many cases have
+been lost. See Brit. Mus., Sloane MS. 831, f. 38.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+REGINALD SCOT.
+
+
+From the chronicling of witch trials we turn aside in this chapter to
+follow the career of the first great English opponent of the
+superstition. We have seen how the attack upon the supposed creatures of
+the Devil was growing stronger throughout the reign of Elizabeth. We
+shall see how that attack was checked, at least in some degree, by the
+resistance of one man. Few men of so quiet and studious life have
+wrought so effectively as Reginald Scot. He came of a family well known
+in Kent, but not politically aggressive. As a young man he studied at
+Hart Hall[1] in Oxford, but left without taking his degree and returned
+to Scots-Hall, where he settled down to the routine duties of managing
+his estate. He gave himself over, we are told, to husbandry and
+gardening and to a solid course of general reading in the obscure
+authors that had "by the generality been neglected." In 1574 his studies
+in horticulture resulted in the publication of _A Perfect Platforme of a
+Hoppe-Garden and necessary instructions for the making and maintaining
+thereof_. That the book ministered to a practical interest was evidenced
+by the call for three editions within five years. Whether he now applied
+himself to the study of that subject which was to be the theme of his
+_Discoverie_, we do not know. It was a matter which had doubtless
+arrested his attention even earlier and had enlisted a growing interest
+upon his part. Not until a decade after his _Hoppe-Garden_, however, did
+he put forth the epoch-making _Discoverie_. Nor does it seem likely that
+he had been engaged for a long period on the actual composition. Rather,
+the style and matter of the book seem to evince traces of hurry in
+preparation. If this theory be true--and Mr. Brinsley Nicholson, his
+modern commentator, has adduced excellent reasons for accepting
+it[2]--there can be but one explanation, the St. Oses affair. That
+tragedy, occurring within a short distance of his own home, had no doubt
+so outraged his sense of justice, that the work which he had perhaps
+long been contemplating he now set himself to complete as soon as
+possible.[3] Even he who runs may read in Scot's strong sentences that
+he was not writing for instruction only, to propound a new doctrine, but
+that he was battling with the single purpose to stop a detestable and
+wicked practice. Something of a dilettante in real life, he became in
+his writing a man with an absorbing mission. That mission sprang not
+indeed from indignation at the St. Oses affair alone. From the days of
+childhood his experience had been of a kind to encourage skepticism. He
+had been reared in a county where Elizabeth Barton, the Holy Maid of
+Kent, first came into prominence, and he had seen the downfall that
+followed her public exposure.[4] In the year after he brought out his
+_Hoppe-garden_, his county was again stirred by performances of a
+supposedly supernatural character. Mildred Norrington, a girl of
+seventeen,[5] used ventriloquism with such skill that she convinced two
+clergymen and all her neighbors that she was possessed. In answer to
+queries, the evil spirit that spoke through Mildred declared that "old
+Alice of Westwell"[6] had sent him to possess the girl. Alice, the
+spirit admitted, stood guilty of terrible witchcrafts. The demon's word
+was taken, and Alice seems to have been "arraigned upon this
+evidence."[7] But, through the justices' adroit management of the trial,
+the fraud of the accuser was exposed. She confessed herself a pretender
+and suffered "condign punishment." This case happened within six miles
+of Scot's home and opened his eyes to the possibility of humbug. In the
+very same year two pretenders, Agnes Bridges and Rachel Pinder, were
+convicted in London. By vomiting pins and straws[8] they had convinced
+many that they were bewitched, but the trickery was soon found out and
+they were compelled to do public penance at St. Paul's.[9] We are not
+told what was the fate of a detestable Mother Baker, who, when consulted
+by the parents of a sick girl at New Romney in Kent, accused a neighbor
+woman.[10] She said that the woman had made a waxen heart and pricked it
+and by this means accomplished her evil purpose. In order to prove her
+accusation, she had in the mean time concealed the wax figure of a heart
+in the house of the woman she accused, and then pretended to find
+it.[11] It is some satisfaction to know that the malicious
+creature--who, during the history of witchcraft, had many imitators--was
+caught and compelled to confess.
+
+Scot learned, indeed, by observing marvels of this sort[12]--what it is
+strange that many others did not learn--to look upon displays of the
+supernatural with a good deal of doubt. How much he had ever believed in
+them we do not know. It is not unlikely that in common with his
+generation he had, as a young man, held a somewhat ill-defined opinion
+about the Devil's use of witches. The belief in that had come down, a
+comparatively innocuous tradition, from a primitive period. It was a
+subject that had not been raised in speculation or for that matter in
+court rooms. But since Scot's early manhood all this had been changed.
+England had been swept by a tidal wave of suspicion. Hazy theological
+notions had been tightened into rigid convictions. Convictions had
+passed into legislative statutes and instructions to judges. The bench,
+which had at first acted on the new laws with caution and a desire to
+detect imposture, became infected with the fear and grew more ready to
+discover witchcraft and to punish it. It is unnecessary to recapitulate
+the progress of a movement already traced in the previous chapter.
+Suffice it to say that the Kentish gentleman, familiarized with accounts
+of imposture, was unwilling to follow the rising current of
+superstition. Of course this is merely another way of saying that Scot
+was unconventional in his mental operations and thought the subject out
+for himself with results variant from those of his own generation. Here
+was a new abuse in England, here was a wrong that he had seen spring up
+within his own lifetime and in his own part of England. He made it his
+mission as far as possible to right the wrong. "For so much," he says,
+"as the mightie helpe themselves together, and the poore widowes crie,
+though it reach to heaven, is scarse heard here upon earth: I thought
+good (according to my poore abilitie) to make intercession, that some
+part of common rigor, and some points of hastie judgement may be advised
+upon."[13]
+
+It was indeed a splendid mission and he was singularly well equipped for
+it. He had the qualifications--scholarly training and the power of
+scientific observation, a background of broad theological and scriptural
+information, a familiarity with legal learning and practice, as well as
+a command of vigorous and incisive language--which were certain to make
+his work effective towards its object.
+
+That he was a scholar is true in more senses than one. In his use of
+deduction from classical writers he was something of a scholastic, in
+his willingness to venture into new fields of thought he was a product
+of the Renaissance, in his thorough use of research he reminds us of a
+modern investigator. He gives in his book a bibliography of the works
+consulted by him and one counts over two hundred Latin and thirty
+English titles. His reading had covered the whole field of superstition.
+To Cornelius Agrippa and to Wierus (Johann Weyer),[14] who had attacked
+the tyranny of superstition upon the Continent, he owed an especial
+debt. He had not, however, borrowed enough from them to impair in any
+serious way the value of his own original contribution.
+
+In respect to law, Scot was less a student than a man of experience. The
+_Discoverie_, however, bristled with references which indicated a legal
+way of thinking. He was almost certainly a man who had used the law.
+Brinsley Nicholson believes that he had been a justice of the peace. In
+any case he had a lawyer's sense of the value of evidence and a lawyer's
+way of putting his case.
+
+No less practical was his knowledge of theology and scripture. Here he
+had to meet the baffling problems of the Witch of Endor. The story of
+the witch who had called up before the frightened King Saul the spirit
+of the dead Samuel and made him speak, stood as a lion in the path of
+all opponents of witch persecution. When Scot dared to explain this Old
+Testament tale as an instance of ventriloquism, and to compare it to the
+celebrated case of Mildred Norrington, he showed a boldness in
+interpretation of the Bible far in advance of his contemporaries.
+
+His anticipation of present-day points of view cropped out perhaps more
+in his scientific spirit than in any other way. For years before he put
+pen to paper he had been conducting investigations into alleged cases of
+conjuring and witchcraft, attending trials,[15] and questioning
+clergymen and magistrates. For such observation he was most favorably
+situated and he used his position in his community to further his
+knowledge. A man almost impertinently curious was this sixteenth-century
+student. When he learned of a conjurer whose sentence of death had been
+remitted by the queen and who professed penitence for his crimes, he
+opened a correspondence and obtained from the man the clear statement
+that his conjuries were all impostures. The prisoner referred him to "a
+booke written in the old Saxon toong by one Sir John Malborne, a divine
+of Oxenford, three hundred yeares past," in which all these trickeries
+are cleared up. Scot put forth his best efforts to procure the work from
+the parson to whom it had been entrusted, but without success.[16] In
+another case he attended the assizes at Rochester, where a woman was on
+trial. One of her accusers was the vicar of the parish, who made several
+charges, not the least of which was that he could not enunciate clearly
+in church owing to enchantment. This explanation Scot carried to her and
+she was able to give him an explanation much less creditable to the
+clergyman of the ailment, an explanation which Scot found confirmed by
+an enquiry among the neighbors. To quiet such rumors in the community
+about the nature of the illness the vicar had to procure from London a
+medical certificate that it was a lung trouble.[17]
+
+Can we wonder that a student at such pains to discover the fact as to a
+wrong done should have used barbed words in the portrayal of injustice?
+Strong convictions spurred on his pen, already taught to shape vigorous
+and incisive sentences. Not a stylist, as measured by the highest
+Elizabethan standards of charm and mellifluence, he possessed a
+clearness and directness which win the modern reader. By his methods of
+analysis he displayed a quality of mind akin to and probably influenced
+by that of Calvin, while his intellectual attitude showed the stimulus
+of the Reformation.
+
+He was indeed in his own restricted field a reformer. He was not only
+the protagonist of a new cause, but a pioneer who had to cut through the
+underbrush of opinion a pathway for speculation to follow. So far as
+England was concerned, Scot found no philosophy of the subject, no
+systematic defences or assaults upon the loosely constructed theory of
+demonic agency. It was for him to state in definite terms the beliefs he
+was seeking to overthrow. The Roman church knew fairly well by this time
+what it meant by witchcraft, but English theologians and philosophers
+would hardly have found common ground on any one tenet about the
+matter.[18] Without exaggeration it may be asserted that Scot by his
+assault all along the front forced the enemy's advance and in some sense
+dictated his line of battle.
+
+The assault was directed indeed against the centre of the opposing
+entrenchments, the belief in the continuance of miracles. Scot declared
+that with Christ and his apostles the age of miracles had passed, an
+opinion which he supported by the authority of Calvin and of St.
+Augustine. What was counted the supernatural assumed two forms--the
+phenomena exhibited by those whom he classed under the wide term of
+"couseners," and the phenomena said to be exhibited by the "poor doting
+women" known as witches. The tricks and deceits of the "couseners" he
+was at great pains to explain. Not less than one-third of his work is
+given up to setting forth the methods of conjurers, card tricks,
+sleight-of-hand performances, illusions of magic, materializations of
+spirits, and the wonders of alchemy and astrology. In the range of his
+information about these subjects, the discoverer was encyclopedic. No
+current form of dabbling with the supernatural was left unexposed.
+
+In his attack upon the phenomena of witchcraft he had a different
+problem. He had to deal with phenomena the so-called facts of which were
+not susceptible of any material explanation. The theory of a Devil who
+had intimate relations with human beings, who controlled them and sent
+them out upon maleficent errands, was in its essence a theological
+conception and could not be absolutely disproved by scientific
+observation. It was necessary instead to attack the idea on its _a
+priori_ grounds. This attack Scot attempted to base on the nature of
+spirits. Spirits and bodies, he urged, are antithetical and
+inconvertible, nor can any one save God give spirit a bodily form. The
+Devil, a something beyond our comprehension, cannot change spirit into
+body, nor can he himself assume a bodily form, nor has he any power save
+that granted him by God for vengeance. This being true, the whole
+belief in the Devil's intercourse with witches is undermined. Such, very
+briefly, were the philosophic bases of Scot's skepticism. Yet the more
+cogent parts of his work were those in which he denied the validity of
+any evidence so far offered for the existence of witches. What is
+witchcraft? he asked; and his answer is worth quoting. "Witchcraft is in
+truth a cousening art, wherin the name of God is abused, prophaned and
+blasphemed, and his power attributed to a vile creature. In estimation
+of the vulgar people, it is a supernaturall worke, contrived betweene a
+corporall old woman, and a spirituall divell. The maner thereof is so
+secret, mysticall, and strange, that to this daie there hath never beene
+any credible witnes thereof."[19] The want of credible evidence was
+indeed a point upon which Scot continually insisted with great force. He
+pictured vividly the course which a witchcraft case often ran: "One sort
+of such as are said to bee witches are women which be commonly old,
+lame, bleare-eied, pale, fowle, and full of wrinkles; ... they are leane
+and deformed, shewing melancholie in their faces; ... they are doting,
+scolds, mad, divelish.... These miserable wretches are so odious unto
+all their neighbors, and so feared, as few dare offend them, or denie
+them anie thing they aske: whereby they take upon them, yea, and
+sometimes thinke, that they can doo such things as are beyond the
+abilitie of humane nature. These go from house to house, and from doore
+to doore for a pot of milke, yest, drinke, pottage, or some such
+releefe; without the which they could hardlie live.... It falleth out
+many times, that neither their necessities, nor their expectation is
+answered.... In tract of time the witch waxeth odious and tedious to hir
+neighbors; ... she cursseth one, and sometimes another; and that from
+the maister of the house, his wife, children, cattell, etc. to the
+little pig that lieth in the stie.... Doubtlesse (at length) some of hir
+neighbours die, or fall sicke."[20] Then they suspect her, says Scot,
+and grow convinced that she is the author of their mishaps. "The witch,
+... seeing things sometimes come to passe according to hir wishes, ...
+being called before a Justice, ... confesseth that she hath brought such
+things to passe. Wherein, not onelie she, but the accuser, and also the
+Justice are fowlie deceived and abused."[21] Such indeed was the epitome
+of many cases. The process from beginning to end was never better
+described; the ease with which confessions were dragged from
+weak-spirited women was never pictured more truly. With quite as keen
+insight he displayed the motives that animated witnesses and described
+the prejudices and fears that worked on jurors and judges. It was,
+indeed, upon these factors that he rested the weight of his argument for
+the negative.[22]
+
+The affirmative opinion was grounded, he believed, upon the ignorance of
+the common people, "assotted and bewitched" by the jesting or serious
+words of poets, by the inventions of "lowd liers and couseners," and by
+"tales they have heard from old doting women, or from their mother's
+maids, and with whatsoever the grandfoole their ghostlie father or anie
+other morrow masse preest had informed them."[23]
+
+By the same method by which he opposed the belief in witchcraft he
+opposed the belief in possession by an evil spirit. The known cases,
+when examined, proved frauds. The instances in the New Testament he
+seemed inclined to explain by the assumption that possession merely
+meant disease.[24]
+
+That Scot should maintain an absolute negative in the face of all
+strange phenomena would have been too much to expect. He seems to have
+believed, though not without some difficulty, that stones had in them
+"certaine proper vertues which are given them of a speciall influence of
+the planets." The unicorn's horn, he thought, had certain curative
+properties. And he had heard "by credible report" and the affirmation of
+"many grave authors" that "the wound of a man murthered reneweth
+bleeding at the presence of a deere freend, or of a mortall enimie."[25]
+
+His credulity in these points may be disappointing to the reader who
+hopes to find in Scot a scientific rationalist. That, of course, he was
+not; and his leaning towards superstition on these points makes one ask,
+What did he really believe about witchcraft? When all the fraud and
+false testimony and self-deception were excluded, what about the
+remaining cases of witchcraft? Scot was very careful never to deny _in
+toto_ the existence of witches. That would have been to deny the Bible.
+What were these witches, then? Doubtless he would have answered that he
+had already classified them under two heads: they were either
+"couseners" or "poor doting women"--and by "couseners" he seems to have
+meant those who used trickery and fraud. In other words, Scot distinctly
+implied that there were no real witches--with powers given them by the
+Devil. Would he have stood by this when pushed into a corner? It is just
+possible that he would have done so, that he understood his own
+implications, but hardly dared to utter a straighforward denial of the
+reality of witchcraft. It is more likely that he had not altogether
+thought himself out.
+
+The immediate impression of Scot's book we know little about. Such
+contemporary comment as we have is neutral.[26] That his book was read
+painstakingly by every later writer on the subject, that it shortly
+became the great support of one party in the controversy, that King
+James deemed it worth while to write an answer, and that on his
+accession to the throne he almost certainly ordered the book to be
+burned by the common hangman,[27] these are better evidence than
+absolutely contemporary notices to show that the _Discoverie_ exerted an
+influence.
+
+We cannot better suggest how radical Scot's position must have seemed to
+his own time than by showing the point of view of another opponent of
+witchcraft, George Gifford, a non-conformist clergyman.[28] He had read
+the _Discoverie_ and probably felt that the theological aspect of the
+subject had been neglected. Moreover it had probably been his fortune,
+as Scot's, to attend the St. Oses trials. Three years after Scot's book
+he brought out _A Discourse of the Subtill Practises of Devilles by
+Witches_, and followed it six years later by _A Dialogue concerning
+Witches_,[29] a book in which he expounded his opinions in somewhat more
+popular fashion. Like Scot, he wrote to end, so far as possible, the
+punishment of innocent women;[30] like Scot, he believed that most of
+the evidence presented against them was worthless.[31] But on other
+points he was far less radical. There were witches. He found them in
+the Bible.[32] To be sure they were nothing more than pawns for the
+Devil. He uses them "onely for a colour,"[33] that is, puts them forward
+to cover his own dealings, and then he deludes them and makes them
+"beleeve things which are nothing so."[34] In consequence they
+frequently at their executions falsely accuse others of dreadful
+witchcrafts. It is all the work of the Devil. But he himself cannot do
+anything except through the power of God,[35] who, sometimes for
+vengeance upon His enemies and sometimes to try His own people,[36]
+permits the Evil One to do harm.[37]
+
+Gifford of course never made the impression that Scot had made.[38] But
+he represented the more conservative position and was the first in a
+long line of writers who deprecated persecution while they accepted the
+current view as to witchcraft; and therefore he furnishes a standard by
+which to measure Scot, who had nothing of the conservative about him.
+Scot had many readers and exerted a strong influence even upon those who
+disagreed with him; but he had few or none to follow in his steps. It
+was not until nearly a century later that there came upon the scene a
+man who dared to speak as Scot had spoken. Few men have been so far
+ahead of their time.
+
+
+[1] Where George Gifford, who wrote a little later on the subject, was
+also a student.
+
+[2] _Discoverie of Witchcraft_, Nicholson ed., introd., xxxv.
+
+[3] That at least a part of it was written in 1583 appears from his own
+words, where he speaks of the treatise of Leonardus Vairus on
+fascination as "now this present yeare 1583 newlie published," _ibid._,
+124.
+
+[4] Elizabeth Barton (1506-1534) suffered from a nervous derangement
+which developed into a religious mania. She was taught by some monks,
+and then professed to be in communion with the Virgin Mary and performed
+miracles at stated times. She denounced Henry VIII's divorce and gained
+wide recognition as a champion of the queen and the Catholic church. She
+was granted interviews by Archbishop Warham, by Thomas More, and by
+Wolsey. She was finally induced by Cranmer to make confession, was
+compelled publicly to repeat her confession in various places, and was
+then executed; see _Dict. Nat. Biog._
+
+[5] Illegitimate child.
+
+[6] That is, very probably, Alice Norrington, the mother of Mildred.
+
+[7] _Discoverie of Witchcraft_, 130.
+
+[8] _Ibid._, 132.
+
+[9] See _The discloysing of a late counterfeyted possession by the devyl
+in two maydens within the Citie of London_; see also Holinshed,
+_Chronicles_, ed. of 1807-1808, IV, 325, and John Stow, _Annals ... of
+England_ (London, 1615), 678.
+
+[10] _Discoverie of Witchcraft_, 258, 259.
+
+[11] The spot she chose for concealing the token of guilt had been
+previously searched.
+
+[12] For another see _Discoverie of Witchcraft_, 132-133.
+
+[13] In his prefatory epistle "to the Readers."
+
+[14] An incidental reference to Weyer in "W. W.'s" account of the
+_Witches taken at St. Oses_ is interesting: "... whom a learned
+Phisitian is not ashamed to avouche innocent, and the Judges that
+denounce sentence of death against them no better than hangmen."
+
+[15] _E. g., Discoverie of Witchcraft_, 5.
+
+[16] _Ibid._, 466-469.
+
+[17] _Ibid._, 5-6.
+
+[18] _Ibid._, 15: "Howbeit you shall understand that few or none are
+throughlie persuaded, resolved, or satisfied, that witches can indeed
+accomplish all these impossibilities; but some one is bewitched in one
+point, and some is coosened in another, untill in fine, all these
+impossibilities, and manie mo, are by severall persons affirmed to be
+true."
+
+[19] _Discoverie_, 472.
+
+[20] _Ibid._, 7-8.
+
+[21] _Ibid._, 8.
+
+[22] It was one of the points made by "witchmongers" that the existence
+of laws against witches proved there were witches. This argument was
+used by Sir Matthew Hale as late as 1664. Scot says on that point: "Yet
+I confesse, the customes and lawes almost of all nations doo declare,
+that all these miraculous works ... were attributed to the power of
+witches. The which lawes, with the executions and judicials thereupon,
+and the witches confessions, have beguiled almost the whole world."
+_Ibid._, 220.
+
+[23] _Discoverie_, 471, 472.
+
+[24] _Ibid._, 512.
+
+[25] _Ibid._, 303.
+
+[26] Thomas Nash in his _Four Letters Confuted_ (London, 1593) refers to
+it in a non-committal way as a work treating of "the diverse natures and
+properties of Divels and Spirits." Gabriel Harvey's _Pierces
+Supererogation_ (London, 1593), has the following mention of it:
+"Scottes discoovery of Witchcraft dismasketh sundry egregious
+impostures, and in certaine principall chapters, and special passages,
+hitteth the nayle on the head with a witnesse; howsoever I could have
+wished he had either dealt somewhat more curteously with Monsieur
+Bodine, or confuted him somewhat more effectually." Professor Burr
+informs me that there is in the British Museum (Harleian MSS. 2302) an
+incomplete and unpublished reply to Scot. Its handwriting shows it
+contemporary or nearly so. It is a series of "Reasons" why witches
+should be believed in--the MS. in its present state beginning with the
+"5th Reason" and breaking off in the midst of the 108th.
+
+[27] See Nicholson's opinion on this, pp. xxxvii-xxxix of his
+introduction to Scot's book.
+
+[28] George Gifford was a Church of England clergyman whose Puritan
+sympathies at length compelled him to identify himself publicly with the
+non-conformist movement in 1584. For two years previous to that time he
+had held the living of Maldon in Essex.
+
+[29] A second edition of this book appeared in 1603. It was reprinted
+for the Percy Society in 1842.
+
+[30] _Dialogue_, ed. of 1603, prefatory letter and L-M 2 verso.
+
+[31] _Discourse_, D 3 verso, G 4 verso; _Dialogue_, ed. of 1603, K 2-K 2
+verso, L-L 2. See also _ibid._, K 4-K 4 verso: "As not long since a
+rugged water spaniell having a chaine, came to a mans doore that had a
+saut bitch, and some espied him in the darke, and said it was a thing as
+bigge as a colt, and had eyes as great as saucers. Hereupon some came to
+charge to him, and did charge him in the name of the Father, the Sonne,
+and the Holy Ghost, to tell what he was. The dogge at the last told
+them, for he spake in his language, and said, bowgh, and thereby they
+did know what he was."
+
+[32] _Discourse_, in the prefatory letter.
+
+[33] _Ibid._, F 4 verso, F 5.
+
+[34] _Dialogue_, ed of 1603, K 2 verso.
+
+[35] _Ibid._, D 3 verso; _Discourse_, G 3 verso, H 3 verso.
+
+[36] _Ibid._, D 2 verso.
+
+[37] Gifford grew very forceful when he described the progress of a case
+against a witch: "Some woman doth fal out bitterly with her neighbour:
+there followeth some great hurt.... There is a suspicion conceived.
+Within fewe yeares after shee is in some jarre with an other. Hee is
+also plagued. This is noted of all. Great fame is spread of the matter.
+Mother W. is a witch.... Wel, mother W. doth begin to bee very odious
+and terrible unto many, her neighbours dare say nothing but yet in their
+heartes they wish shee were hanged. Shortly after an other falleth sicke
+and doth pine.... The neighbors come to visit him. Well neighbour, sayth
+one, do ye not suspect some naughty dealing: did yee never anger mother
+W? truly neighbour (sayth he) I have not liked the woman a long tyme. I
+can not tell how I should displease her, unlesse it were this other day,
+my wife prayed her, and so did I, that shee would keepe her hennes out
+of my garden. Wee spake her as fayre as wee could for our lives. I
+thinke verely she hath bewitched me. Every body sayth now that mother W.
+is a witch in deede.... It is out of all doubt: for there were which saw
+a weasil runne from her housward into his yard even a little before hee
+fell sicke. The sicke man dieth, and taketh it upon his death that he is
+bewitched: then is mother W. apprehended, and sent to prison, shee is
+arrayned and condemned, and being at the gallows, taketh it uppon her
+death that shee is not gylty." _Discourse_, G 4-G 4 verso. And so,
+Gifford explains, the Devil is pleased, for he has put innocent people
+into danger, he has caused witnesses to forswear themselves and jurymen
+to render false verdicts.
+
+[38] But his views were warmly seconded by Henry Holland, who in 1590
+issued at Cambridge _A Treatise against Witchcraft_. Holland, however,
+was chiefly interested in warning "Masters and Fathers of families that
+they may learn the best meanes to purge their houses of all unclean
+spirits." It goes without saying that he found himself at variance with
+Scot, who, he declared, reduced witchcraft to a "cozening or poisoning
+art." In the Scriptures he found the evidence that witches have a real
+"confederacie with Satan himself," but he was frank to admit that the
+proof of bargains of the sort in his own time could not be given.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE EXORCISTS.
+
+
+In the narrative of English witchcraft the story of the exorcists is a
+side-issue. Yet their performances were so closely connected with the
+operations of the Devil and of his agents that they cannot be left out
+of account in any adequate statement of the subject. And it is
+impossible to understand the strength and weakness of the superstition
+without a comprehension of the rôle that the would-be agents for
+expelling evil spirits played. That the reign which had seen pass in
+procession the bands of conjurers and witches should close with the
+exorcists was to be expected. It was their part to complete the cycle of
+superstition. If miracles of magic were possible, if conjurers could use
+a supernatural power of some sort to assist them in performing wonders,
+there was nothing very remarkable about creatures who wrought harm to
+their fellows through the agency of evil spirits. And if witches could
+send evil spirits to do harm, it followed that those spirits could be
+expelled or exorcised by divine assistance. If by prayer to the Devil
+demons could be commanded to enter human beings, they could be driven
+out by prayer to God. The processes of reasoning were perfectly clear;
+and they were easily accepted because they found adequate confirmation
+in the New Testament. The gospels were full of narratives of men
+possessed with evil spirits who had been freed by the invocation of God.
+Of these stories no doubt the most quoted and the one most effective in
+moulding opinion was the account of the dispossessed devils who had
+entered into a herd of swine and plunged over a steep place into the
+sea.
+
+It must not be supposed that exorcism was a result of belief in
+witchcraft. It was as old as the Christian church. It was still made use
+of by the Roman church and, indeed, by certain Protestant groups. And
+just at this time the Roman church found it a most important instrument
+in the struggle against the reformed religions. In England Romanism was
+waging a losing war, and had need of all the miracles that it could
+claim in order to reestablish its waning credit. The hunted priests who
+were being driven out by Whitgift were not unwilling to resort to a
+practice which they hoped would regain for them the allegiance of the
+common people. During the years 1585-1586 they had conducted what they
+considered marvellous works of exorcism in Catholic households of
+Buckinghamshire and Middlesex.[1] Great efforts had been made to keep
+news of these séances from reaching the ears of the government, but
+accounts of them had gained wide circulation and came to the privy
+council. That body was of course stimulated to greater activity against
+the Catholics.[2]
+
+As a phase of a suppressed form of religion the matter might never have
+assumed any significance. Had not a third-rate Puritan clergyman, John
+Darrel, almost by accident hit upon the use of exorcism, the story of
+its use would be hardly worth telling.[3] When this young minister was
+not more than twenty, but already, as he says, reckoned "a man of hope,"
+he was asked to cure a seventeen-year-old girl at Mansfield in
+Nottingham, Katherine Wright.[4] Her disease called for simple medical
+treatment. That was not Darrel's plan of operation. She had an evil
+spirit, he declared. From four o'clock in the morning until noon he
+prayed over her spirit. He either set going of his own initiative the
+opinion that possessed persons could point out witches, or he quickly
+availed himself of such a belief already existing. The evil spirit, he
+declared, could recognize and even name the witch that had sent it as
+well as the witch's confederates. All of this was no doubt suggested to
+the possessed girl and she was soon induced to name the witch that
+troubled her. This was Margaret Roper, a woman with whom she was upon
+bad terms. Margaret Roper was at once taken into custody by the
+constable. She happened to be brought before a justice of the peace
+possessing more than usual discrimination. He not only discharged
+her,[5] but threatened John Darrel with arrest.[6]
+
+This was in 1586. Darrel disappeared from view for ten years or so,
+when he turned up at Burton-upon-Trent, not very far from the scene of
+his first operations. Here he volunteered to cure Thomas Darling. The
+story is a curious one and too long for repetition. Some facts must,
+however, be presented in order to bring the story up to the point at
+which Darrel intervened. Thomas Darling, a young Derbyshire boy, had
+become ill after returning from a hunt. He was afflicted with
+innumerable fits, in which he saw green angels and a green cat. His aunt
+very properly consulted a physician, who at the second consultation
+thought it possible that the child was bewitched. The aunt failed to
+credit the diagnosis. The boy's fits continued and soon took on a
+religious character. Between seizures he conversed with godly people.
+They soon discovered that the reading of the Scriptures brought on
+attacks. This looked very like the Devil's work. The suggestion of the
+physician was more seriously regarded. Meanwhile the boy had overheard
+the discussion of witchcraft and proceeded to relate a story. He had
+met, he said, a "little old woman" in a "gray gown with a black fringe
+about the cape, a broad thrimmed hat, and three warts on her face."[7]
+Very accidentally, as he claimed, he offended her. She angrily said a
+rhyming charm that ended with the words, "I wil goe to heaven, and thou
+shalt goe to hell," and stooped to the ground.
+
+The story produced a sensation. Those who heard it declared at once that
+the woman must have been Elizabeth Wright, or her daughter Alse
+Gooderidge, women long suspected of witchcraft. Alse was fetched to the
+boy. She said she had never seen him, but her presence increased the
+violence of his fits. Mother and daughter were carried before two
+justices of the peace, who examined them together with Alse's husband
+and daughter. The women were searched for special marks in the usual
+revolting manner with the usual outcome, but only Alse herself was sent
+to gaol.[8]
+
+The boy grew no better. It was discovered that the reading of certain
+verses in the first chapter of John invariably set him off.[9] The
+justices of the peace put Alse through several examinations, but with
+little result. Two good witches were consulted, but refused to help
+unless the family of the bewitched came to see them.
+
+Meantime a cunning man appeared who promised to prove Alse a witch. In
+the presence of "manie worshipfull personages" "he put a paire of new
+shooes on her feete, setting her close to the fire till the shooes being
+extreame hot might constrayne her through increase of the paine to
+confesse." "This," says the writer, "was his ridiculous practice." The
+woman "being throghly heated desired a release" and offered to confess,
+but, as soon as her feet were cooled, refused. No doubt the justices of
+the peace would have repudiated the statement that the illegal process
+of torture was used. The methods of the cunning man were really nothing
+else.
+
+The woman was harried day and night by neighbors to bring her to
+confess.[10] At length she gave way and, in a series of reluctant
+confessions, told a crude story of her wrong-doings that bore some
+slight resemblance to the boy's tale, and involved the use of a spirit
+in the form of a dog.
+
+Now it was that John Darrel came upon the ground eager to make a name
+for himself. Darling had been ill for three months and was not
+improving. Even yet some of the boy's relatives and friends doubted if
+he were possessed. Not so Darrel. He at once undertook to pray and fast
+for the boy. According to his own account his efforts were singularly
+blessed. At all events the boy gradually improved and Darrel claimed the
+credit. As for Alse Gooderidge, she was tried at the assizes, convicted
+by the jury, and sentenced by Lord Chief-Justice Anderson to
+imprisonment. She died soon after.[11] This affair undoubtedly widened
+Darrel's reputation.
+
+Not long after, a notable case of possession in Lancashire afforded him
+a new opportunity to attract notice. The case of Nicholas Starchie's
+children provoked so much comment at the time that it is perhaps worth
+while to go back and bring the narrative up to the point where Darrel
+entered.[12] Two of Starchie's children had one day been taken ill most
+mysteriously, the girl "with a dumpish and heavie countenance, and with
+a certaine fearefull starting and pulling together of her body." The boy
+was "compelled to shout" on the way to school. Both grew steadily
+worse[13] and the father consulted Edmund Hartley, a noted conjurer of
+his time. Hartley quieted the children by the use of charms. When he
+realized that his services would be indispensable to the father he made
+a pretence of leaving and so forced a promise from Starchie to pay him
+40 shillings a year. This ruse was so successful that he raised his
+demands. He asked for a house and lot, but was refused. The children
+fell ill again. The perplexed parent now went to a physician of
+Manchester. But the physician "sawe no signe of sicknes." Dr. Dee, the
+famous astrologer and friend of Elizabeth, was summoned. He advised the
+help of "godlie preachers."[14]
+
+Meantime the situation in the afflicted family took a more serious turn.
+Besides Mr. Starchie's children, three young wards of his, a servant,
+and a visitor, were all taken with the mysterious illness. The modern
+reader might suspect that some contagious disease had gripped the
+family, but the irregular and intermittent character of the disease
+precludes that hypothesis. Darrel in his own pamphlet on the matter
+declares that when the parents on one occasion went to a play the
+children were quiet, but that when they were engaged in godly exercise
+they were tormented, a statement that raises a suspicion that the
+disease, like that of the Throckmorton children, was largely imaginary.
+
+But the divines were at work. They had questioned the conjurer, and had
+found that he fumbled "verie ill favouredlie" in the repetition of the
+Lord's Prayer. He was haled before a justice of the peace, who began
+gathering evidence against him and turned him over to the assizes. There
+it came out that he had been wont to kiss the Starchie children, and had
+even attempted, although without success, to kiss a maid servant. In
+this way he had presumably communicated the evil spirit--a new notion.
+The court could find no law, however, upon which to hang him. He had
+bewitched the children, but he had bewitched none of them to death, and
+therefore had not incurred the death penalty. But the father leaped into
+the gap. He remembered that he had seen the conjurer draw a magic circle
+and divide it into four parts and that he had bidden the witness step
+into the quarters one after another. Making such circles was definitely
+mentioned in the law as felony. Hartley denied the charge, but to no
+purpose. He was convicted of felony[15]--so far as we can judge, on this
+unsupported afterthought of a single witness--and was hanged. Sympathy,
+however, would be inappropriate. In the whole history of witchcraft
+there were few victims who came so near to deserving their fate.
+
+This was the story up to the time of Darrel's arrival. With Darrel came
+his assistant, George More, pastor of a church in Derbyshire. The two at
+once recognized the supernatural character of the case they were to
+treat and began religious services for the stricken family. It was to no
+effect. "All or most of them joined together in a strange and
+supernatural loud whupping that the house and grounde did sounde
+therwith again."
+
+But the exorcists were not by any means disheartened. On the following
+day, in company with another minister, they renewed the services and
+were able to expel six of the seven spirits. On the third day they
+stormed and took the last citadel of Satan. Unhappily the capture was
+not permanent. Darrel tells us himself that the woman later became a
+Papist[16] and the evil spirit returned.
+
+The exorcist now turned his skill upon a young apprenticed musician of
+Nottingham. According to Darrel's story of the affair,[17] William
+Somers had nine years before met an old woman who had threatened him.
+Again, more than a year before Darrel came to Nottingham, Somers had had
+two encounters with a strange woman "at a deep cole-pit, hard by the
+way-side." Soon afterwards he "did use such strang and idle kinde of
+gestures in laughing, dancing and such like lighte behaviour, that he
+was suspected to be madd." He began to suffer from bodily distortions
+and to evince other signs of possession which created no little
+excitement in Nottingham.
+
+Darrel had been sent for by this time. He came at once and with his
+usual precipitancy pronounced the case one of possession. Somers, he
+said, was suffering for the sins of Nottingham.[18] It was time that
+something should be done. Prayer and fasting were instituted. For three
+days the youth was preached to and prayed over, while the people of
+Nottingham, or some of them at least, joined in the fast. On the third
+day came what was deemed a most remarkable exhibition. The preacher
+named slowly, one after another, fourteen signs of possession. As he
+named them Somers illustrated in turn each form of possession.[19] Here
+was confirmatory evidence of a high order. The exorcist had outdone
+himself. He now held out promises of deliverance for the subject. For a
+quarter of an hour the boy lay as if dead, and then rose up quite well.
+
+Darrel now took up again the witchfinder's rôle he had once before
+assumed. Somers was encouraged to name the contrivers of his
+bewitchment. Through him, Darrel is said to have boasted, they would
+expose all the witches in England.[20] They made a most excellent start
+at it. Thirteen women were accused by the boy,[21] who would fall into
+fits at the sight of a witch, and a general invitation was extended to
+prefer charges. But the community was becoming a bit incredulous and
+failed to respond. All but two of the accused women were released.
+
+The witch-discoverer, who in the meantime had been chosen preacher at
+St. Mary's in Nottingham, made two serious mistakes. He allowed
+accusations to be preferred against Alice Freeman, sister of an
+alderman,[22] and he let Somers be taken out of his hands. By the
+contrivance of some citizens who doubted the possession, Somers was
+placed in the house of correction, on a trumped-up charge that he had
+bewitched a Mr. Sterland to death.[23] Removed from the clergyman's
+influence, he made confession that his possessions were pretended.[24]
+Darrel, he declared, had taught him how to pretend. The matter had now
+gained wide notoriety and was taken up by the Anglican church. The
+archdeacon of Derby reported the affair to his superiors, and the
+Archbishop of York appointed a commission to examine into the case.[25]
+Whether from alarm or because he had anew come under Darrel's influence,
+Somers refused to confess before the commission and again acted out his
+fits with such success that the commission seems to have been convinced
+of the reality of his possession.[26] This was a notable victory for the
+exorcist.
+
+But Chief-Justice Anderson of the court of common pleas was now
+commencing the assizes at Nottingham and was sitting in judgment on the
+case of Alice Freeman. Anderson was a man of intense convictions. He
+believed in the reality of witchcraft and had earlier sent at least one
+witch to the gallows[27] and one to prison.[28] But he was a man who
+hated Puritanism with all his heart, and would at once have suspected
+Puritan exorcism. Whether because the arch-instigator against Alice
+Freeman was a Puritan, or because the evidence adduced against her was
+flimsy, or because Somers, again summoned to court, acknowledged his
+fraud,[29] or for all these reasons, Anderson not only dismissed the
+case,[30] but he wrote a letter about it to the Archbishop of
+Canterbury. Archbishop Whitgift called Darrel and More before the court
+of high commission, where the Bishop of London, two of the Lord
+Chief-Justices, the master of requests, and other eminent officials
+heard the case. It seems fairly certain that Bancroft, the Bishop of
+London, really took control of this examination and that he acted quite
+as much the part of a prosecutor as that of a judge. One of Darrel's
+friends complained bitterly that the exorcist was not allowed to make
+"his particular defences" but "was still from time to time cut off by
+the Lord Bishop of London."[31] No doubt the bishop may have been
+somewhat arbitrary. It was his privilege under the procedure of the
+high commission court, and he was dealing with one whom he deemed a very
+evident impostor. In fine, a verdict was rendered against the two
+clergymen. They were deposed from the ministry and put in close
+prison.[32] So great was the stir they had caused that in 1599 Samuel
+Harsnett, chaplain to the Bishop of London, published _A Discovery of
+the Fraudulent Practises of John Darrel_, a careful résumé of the entire
+case, with a complete exposure of Darrel's trickery. In this account the
+testimony of Somers was given as to the origin of his possession. He
+testified before the ecclesiastical court that he had known Darrel
+several years before they had met at Nottingham. At their first meeting
+he promised, declared Somers, "to tell me some thinges, wherein if I
+would be ruled by him, I should not be driven to goe so barely as I
+did." Darrel related to Somers the story of Katherine Wright and her
+possession, and remarked, "If thou wilt sweare unto me to keepe my
+counsell, I will teache thee to doe all those trickes which Katherine
+Wright did, and many others that are more straunge." He then illustrated
+some of the tricks for the benefit of his pupil and gave him a written
+paper of directions. From that time on there were meetings between the
+two at various places. The pupil, however, was not altogether successful
+with his fits and was once turned out of service as a pretender. He was
+then apprenticed to the musician already mentioned, and again met
+Darrel, who urged him to go and see Thomas Darling of Burton, "because,"
+says Somers, "that seeing him in his fittes, I might the better learn to
+do them myselfe." Somers met Darrel again and went through with a
+series of tricks of possession. It was after all these meetings and
+practice that Somers began his career as a possessed person in
+Nottingham and was prayed over by Mr. Darrel. Such at least was his
+story as told to the ecclesiastical commission. It would be hazardous to
+say that the narrative was all true. Certainly it was accepted by
+Harsnett, who may be called the official reporter of the proceedings at
+Darrel's trial, as substantially true.[33]
+
+The publication of the _Discovery_ by Harsnett proved indeed to be only
+the beginning of a pamphlet controversy which Darrel and his supporters
+were but too willing to take up.[34] Harsnett himself after his first
+onslaught did not re-enter the contest. The semi-official character of
+his writing rendered it unnecessary to refute the statements of a
+convicted man. At any rate, he was soon occupied with another production
+of similar aim. In 1602 Bishop Bancroft was busily collecting the
+materials, in the form of sworn statements, for the exposure of Catholic
+pretenders. He turned the material over to his chaplain. Whether the
+several examinations of Roman exorcists and their subjects were the
+result of a new interest in exposing exorcism on the part of the powers
+which had sent Darrel to prison, or whether they were merely a phase of
+increased vigilance against the activity of the Roman priests, we cannot
+be sure. The first conclusion does not seem improbable. Be that as it
+may, the court of high commission got hold of evidence enough to
+justify the privy council in authorizing a full publication of the
+testimony.[35] Harsnett was deputed to write the account of the Catholic
+exorcists which was brought out in 1603 under the title of _A
+Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures_. We have not the historical
+materials with which to verify the claims made in the book. On the face
+of it the case against the Roman priests looks bad. A mass of
+examinations was printed which seem to show that the Jesuit Weston and
+his confreres in England had been guilty of a great deal of jugglery and
+pretence. The Jesuits, however, were wiser in their generation than the
+Puritans and had not made charges of witchcraft. For that reason their
+performances may be passed over.
+
+Neither the pretences of the Catholics nor the refutation of them are
+very important for our purposes. The exposure of John Darrel was of
+significance, because it involved the guilt or innocence of the women he
+accused as witches, as well as because the ecclesiastical authorities
+took action against him and thereby levelled a blow directly at exorcism
+and possession[36] and indirectly at loose charges of witchcraft.
+Harsnett's books were the outcome of this affair and the ensuing
+exposures of the Catholics, and they were more significant than
+anything that had gone before. The Church of England had not committed
+itself very definitely on witchcraft, but its spokesman in the attack
+upon the Catholic pretenders took no uncertain ground. He was skeptical
+not only about exorcism but about witchcraft as well. It is refreshing
+and inspiriting to read his hard-flung and pungent words. "Out of
+these," he wrote, "is shaped us the true _Idea_ of a Witch, an old
+weather-beaten Croane, having her chinne and her knees meeting for age,
+walking like a bow leaning on a shaft, hollow-eyed, untoothed, furrowed
+on her face, having her lips trembling with the palsie, going mumbling
+in the streetes, one that hath forgotten her _pater noster_, and hath
+yet a shrewd tongue in her head, to call a drab, a drab. If shee have
+learned of an olde wife in a chimnies end: _Pax, max, fax_, for a spel:
+or can say _Sir John of Grantams_ curse, for the Millers Eeles, that
+were stolne: ... Why then ho, beware, looke about you my neighbours; if
+any of you have a sheepe sicke of the giddies, or an hogge of the
+mumps, or an horse of the staggers, or a knavish boy of the schoole, or
+an idle girle of the wheele, or a young drab of the sullens, and hath
+not fat enough for her porredge, nor her father and mother butter enough
+for their bread; and she have a little helpe of the _Mother_,
+_Epilepsie_, or _Cramp_, ... and then with-all old mother _Nobs_ hath
+called her by chaunce 'idle young huswife,' or bid the devil scratch
+her, then no doubt but mother _Nobs_ is the witch.... _Horace_ the
+Heathen spied long agoe, that a Witch, a Wizard, and a Conjurer were but
+bul-beggers to scare fooles.... And _Geoffry Chaucer_, who had his two
+eyes, wit, and learning in his head, spying that all these brainlesse
+imaginations of witchings, possessings, house-hanting, and the rest,
+were the forgeries, cosenages, Imposturs, and legerdemaine of craftie
+priests, ... writes in good plaine terms."[37]
+
+It meant a good deal that Harsnett took such a stand. Scot had been a
+voice crying in the wilderness. Harsnett was supported by the powers in
+church and state. He was, as has been seen, the chaplain of Bishop
+Bancroft,[38] now--from 1604--to become Archbishop of Canterbury. He was
+himself to become eminent in English history as master of Pembroke Hall
+(Cambridge), vice-chancellor of Cambridge University, Bishop of
+Chichester, Bishop of Norwich, and Archbishop of York.[39] Whatever
+support he had at the time--and it is very clear that he had the backing
+of the English church on the question of exorcism--his later position
+and influence must have given great weight not only to his views on
+exorcism but to his skepticism about witchcraft.[40]
+
+His opinions on the subject, so far as can be judged by his few direct
+statements and by implications, were quite as radical as those of his
+predecessor.[41] As a matter of fact he was a man who read widely[42]
+and had pondered deeply on the superstition, but his thought had been
+colored by Scot.[43] His assault, however, was less direct and studied
+than that of his master. Scot was a man of uncommonly serious
+temperament, a plain, blunt-spoken, church-going Englishman who covered
+the whole ground of superstition without turning one phrase less serious
+than another. His pupil, if so Harsnett may be called, wrote earnestly,
+even aggressively, but with a sarcastic and bitter humor that
+entertained the reader and was much less likely to convince. The curl
+never left his lips. If at times a smile appeared, it was but an
+accented sneer. A writer with a feeling indeed for the delicate effects
+of word combination, if his humor had been less chilled by hate, if his
+wit had been of a lighter and more playful vein, he might have laughed
+superstition out of England. When he described the dreadful power of
+holy water and frankincense and the book of exorcisms "to scald, broyle
+and sizzle the devil," or "the dreadful power of the crosse and
+sacrament of the altar to torment the devill and to make him roare," or
+"the astonishable power of nicknames, reliques and asses ears,"[44] he
+revealed a faculty of fun-making just short of effective humor.
+
+It would not be fair to leave Harsnett without a word on his place as a
+writer. In point of literary distinction his prose style maintains a
+high level. In the use of forceful epithet and vivid phrase he is
+excelled by no Elizabethan prose writer. Because his writings deal so
+largely with dry-as-dust reports of examinations, they have never
+attained to that position in English literature which parts of them
+merit.[45]
+
+Harsnett's book was the last chapter in the story of Elizabethan
+witchcraft and exorcism. It is hardly too much to say that it was the
+first chapter in the literary exploitation of witchcraft. Out of the
+_Declaration_ Shakespeare and Ben Jonson mined those ores which when
+fused and refined by imagination and fancy were shaped into the shining
+forms of art. Shakespearean scholars have pointed out the connection
+between the dramatist and the exposer of exorcism. It has indeed been
+suggested by one student of Shakespeare that the great playwright was
+lending his aid by certain allusions in _Twelfth Night_ to Harsnett's
+attempts to pour ridicule on Puritan exorcism.[46] It would be hard to
+say how much there is in this suggestion. About Ben Jonson we can speak
+more certainly. It is clearly evident that he sneered at Darrel's
+pretended possessions. In the third scene of the fifth act of _The Devil
+is an Ass_ he makes Mere-craft say:
+
+    It is the easiest thing, Sir, to be done.
+    As plaine as fizzling: roule but wi' your eyes,
+    And foame at th' mouth. A little castle-soape
+    Will do 't, to rub your lips: And then a nutshell,
+    With toe and touchwood in it to spit fire,
+    Did you ner'e read, Sir, little _Darrel's_ tricks,
+    With the boy o' _Burton_, and the 7 in _Lancashire_,
+    Sommers at _Nottingham_? All these do teach it.
+    And wee'l give out, Sir, that your wife ha's bewitch'd you.
+
+This is proof enough, not only that Jonson was in sympathy with the
+Anglican assailants of Puritan exorcism, but that he expected to find
+others of like opinion among those who listened to his play. And it was
+not unreasonable that he should expect this. It is clear enough that the
+powers of the Anglican church were behind Harsnett and that their
+influence gave his views weight. We have already observed that there
+were some evidences in the last part of Elizabeth's reign of a reaction
+against witch superstition. Harsnett's book, while directed primarily
+against exorcism, is nevertheless another proof of that reaction.
+
+
+[1] Sir George Peckham of Denham near Uxbridge and Lord Vaux of Hackney
+were two of the most prominent Catholics who opened their homes for
+these performances. See Samuel Harsnett, _Declaration of Egregious
+Popish Impostures_ (London, 1603), 7, 8.
+
+[2] For a discussion of the Catholic exorcists see T. G. Law, "Devil
+Hunting in Elizabethan England," in the _Nineteenth Century_ for March,
+1894. Peckham's other activities in behalf of his church are discussed
+by Dr. R. B. Merriman in "Some Notes on the Treatment of English
+Catholics in the Reign of Elizabeth," in the _Am. Hist. Rev._, April,
+1908. Dr. Merriman errs, however, in supposing that John Darrel
+cooperated with Weston and the Catholic exorcists; _ibid._, note 51.
+Darrel was a Puritan and had nothing to do with the Catholic
+performances.
+
+[3] It is quite possible to suppose, however, that its course would have
+been run in much the same way at a later time.
+
+[4] For Harsnett's account of Katherine Wright see his _Discovery of the
+Fraudulent Practises of John Darrel_ (London, 1599), 297-315. For
+Darrel's story see _The Triall of Maist. Dorrel, or A Collection of
+Defences against Allegations ..._ (1599), 15-21.
+
+[5] See Harsnett, _Discovery_, 310.
+
+[6] Katherine Wright's evil spirit returned later.
+
+[7] "I have seene her begging at our doore," he declared, "as for her
+name I know it not."
+
+[8] Harsnett, _Discovery_, 41, 265, deals briefly with the Darling case
+and Alse Gooderidge. See also John Darrel, _A Detection of that sinnful,
+shamful, lying, and ridiculous discours of Samuel Harshnet_ (1600),
+38-40. But the fullest account is a pamphlet at the Lambeth Palace
+library. It is entitled _The most wonderfull and true Storie of a
+certaine Witch named Alse Gooderidge of Stapenhill.... As also a true
+Report of the strange Torments of Thomas Darling...._ (London, 1597).
+For a discussion of this pamphlet see appendix A, § 1.
+
+[9] The boy was visited by a stranger who tried to persuade him that
+there were no witches. But this Derbyshire disciple of Scot had come to
+the wrong place and his efforts were altogether useless.
+
+[10] Meantime her mother Elizabeth Wright was also being worried. She
+was found on her knees in prayer. No doubt the poor woman was taking
+this method of alleviating her distress; but her devotion was
+interpreted as worship of the Devil.
+
+[11] So Darrel says. The pamphleteer Denison, who put together the story
+of Alse Gooderidge, wrote "she should have been executed but that her
+spirit killed her in prison."
+
+[12] Darrel gives an extended account of this affair in _A True
+Narration of the strange and grevous Vexation by the Devil of seven
+persons in Lancashire_ (1600; reprinted in _Somers Tracts_, III),
+170-179. See also George More, _A true Discourse concerning the certaine
+possession and dispossession of 7 persons in one familie in Lancashire ..._
+(1600), 9 ff.
+
+[13] Certain matters in connection with this case are interesting.
+George More tells us that Mrs. Starchie was an "inheritrix." Some of her
+kindred, Papists, prayed for the perishing of her issue. Four of her
+children pined away. Mrs. Starchie, when told of their prayers, conveyed
+all her property to her husband. She had two children afterwards, the
+two that were stricken. It is possible that all this may present some
+key to the case, but it is hard to see just how. See More, _A true
+Discourse_, 11-12.
+
+[14] George More, _A true Discourse_, 15; Harsnett, _Discovery_, 22.
+While Dee took no part in the affair except that he "sharply reproved
+and straitly examined" Hartley, he lent Mr. Hopwood, the justice of the
+peace before whom Hartley was brought, his copy of the book of Wierus,
+then the collections of exorcisms known as the _Flagellum Dćmonum_ and
+the _Fustis Dćmonum_, and finally the famous _Malleus Maleficarum_. See
+Dee's _Private Diary_ (Camden Soc., London, 1843), entries for March 19,
+April 15, and August 6, 1597.
+
+[15] George More, _A true Discourse_, 21; Darrel, _A True Narration_
+(_Somers Tracts_, III), 175.
+
+[16] Harsnett, _Discovery_, tells us that "certain Seminarie priests"
+got hold of her and carried her up and down the country and thereby
+"wonne great credit."
+
+[17] Darrel's account of this affair is in _A True Narration_ (_Somers
+Tracts_, III), 179-186. Harsnett takes it up in his _Discovery_, 78-264.
+
+[18] See deposition of Cooper, in Harsnett, _Discovery_, 114.
+
+[19] Depositions of Somers and Darrel, _ibid._, 124-125. It must be
+recalled that when this was first tried before a commission they were
+convinced that it was not imposture. A layman cannot refrain from
+suspecting that Darrel had hypnotic control over Somers.
+
+[20] _Ibid._, 141-142.
+
+[21] _Ibid._, 141. Harsnett quotes Darrel for this statement.
+
+[22] _Ibid._, 5; John Darrel, _An Apologie, or defence of the possession
+of William Sommers ..._ (1599?), L verso.
+
+[23] Darrel, _A True Narration_ (_Somers Tracts_, III), 184; see also
+his _A brief Apologie proving the possession of William Sommers ..._
+(1599), 17.
+
+[24] Harsnett, _Discovery_, 7.
+
+[25] _Ibid._
+
+[26] _Ibid._, 8; Darrel, _An Apologie, or defence_, 4; Darrel, _A True
+Narration_ (_Somers Tracts_, III), 185.
+
+[27] _Triall of Maist. Dorrel_, narrative in back of pamphlet.
+
+[28] Darrel, _A Detection of that sinnful ... discours of Samuel
+Harshnet_, 40. And see above, p. 56, note.
+
+[29] Harsnett, _Discovery_, 8.
+
+[30] _Ibid._, 320-322; Darrel, _An Apologie, or defence_, L III, says
+that the third jury acquitted her. Harsnett refers to the fact that he
+was found guilty by the grand inquest.
+
+[31] _The Triall of Maist. Dorrel_, preface "To the Reader."
+
+[32] Harsnett, _Discovery_, 9.
+
+[33] _Ibid._, 78-98.
+
+[34] Yet Darrel must have realized that he had the worst of it. There is
+a pathetic acknowledgment of this in the "Preface to the Reader" of his
+publication, _A Survey of Certaine Dialogical Discourses, written by
+John Deacon and John Walker ..._ (1602): "But like a tried and
+weather-beaten bird [I] wish for quiet corner to rest myself in and to
+drye my feathers in the warme sun."
+
+[35] T. G. Law, "Devil Hunting in Elizabethan England," in _Nineteenth
+Century_, March, 1894.
+
+[36] On the matter of exorcism the position of the Church of England
+became fixed by 1604. The question had been a cause of disagreement
+among the leaders of the Reformation. The Lutherans retained exorcism in
+the baptismal ritual and rivalled the Roman clergy in their exorcism of
+the possessed. It was just at the close of the sixteenth century that
+there arose in Lutheran Germany a hot struggle between the believers in
+exorcism and those who would oust it as a superstition. The Swiss and
+Genevan reformers, unlike Luther, had discarded exorcism, declaring it
+to have belonged only to the early church, and charging modern instances
+to Papist fraud; and with them seem to have agreed their South German
+friends. In England baptismal exorcism was at first retained in the
+ritual under Edward VI, but in 1552, under Bucer's influence, it was
+dropped. Under Elizabeth the yet greater influence of Zurich and Geneva
+must have discredited all exorcism, and one finds abundant evidence of
+this in the writings of Jewel and his followers. An interesting letter
+of Archbishop Parker in 1574 shows his utter incredulity as to
+possession in the case of Agnes Bridges and Rachel Pinder of Lothbury;
+see Parker's _Correspondence_ (Parker Soc., Cambridge, 1856), 465-466.
+His successor, the Calvinistic Whitgift, was almost certainly of the
+same mind. Bancroft, the next archbishop of Canterbury, drew up or at
+least inspired that epoch-making body of canons enacted by Convocation
+in the spring of 1604, the 72d article of which forbids any Anglican
+clergyman, without the express consent of his bishop obtained
+beforehand, to use exorcism in any fashion under any pretext, on pain of
+being counted an impostor and deposed from the ministry. This ended the
+matter so far as the English church was concerned. For this résumé of
+the Protestant and the Anglican attitude toward exorcism I am indebted
+to Professor Burr.
+
+[37] Harsnett, _A Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures_ (London,
+1605), 136-138.
+
+[38] It is not impossible that Harsnett was acting as a mouth-piece for
+Bancroft. Darrel wrote: "There is no doubt but that S. H. stand for
+Samuell Harsnet, chapline to the Bishop of London, but whither he alone,
+or his lord and hee, have discovered this counterfeyting and cosonage
+there is the question. Some thinke the booke to be the Bishops owne
+doing: and many thinke it to be the joynt worke of them both." _A
+Detection of that sinnful ... discours of Samuel Harshnet_, 7, 8.
+
+[39] From 1602 until 1609 he was archdeacon of Essex; see _Victoria
+History of Essex_, II, (London, 1907), 46.
+
+[40] There is a statement by the Reverend John Swan, who wrote in 1603,
+that Harsnett's book had been put into the hands of King James,
+presumably after his coming to England; see John Swan, _A True and
+Breife Report of Mary Glover's Vexation, and of her deliverance ..._
+(1603), "Dedication to the King," 3. One could wish for some
+confirmation of this statement. Certainly James would not at that time
+have sympathized with Harsnett's views about witches, but his attitude
+on several occasions toward those supposed to be possessed by evil
+spirits would indicate that he may very well have been influenced by a
+reading of the _Discovery_.
+
+[41] On page 36 of the _Discovery_ Harsnett wrote: "Whether witches can
+send devils into men and women (as many doe pretende) is a question
+amongst those that write of such matters, and the learneder and sounder
+sort doe hold the negative." One does not need to read far in Harsnett
+to understand what he thought.
+
+[42] His scholarship, evident from his books, is attested by Thomas
+Fuller, who calls him "a man of great learning, strong parts, and stout
+spirit" (_Worthies of England_, ed. of London, 1840, I, 507).
+
+[43] See his _Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures_, 134-136; his
+_Discovery_ also shows the use of Scot.
+
+[44] Harsnett, _Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures_, 98, 123,
+110.
+
+[45] Read _ibid._, 131-140.
+
+[46] Joseph Hunter, _New Illustrations of the Life, Studies and Writings
+of Shakespeare_ (London, 1845), I, 380-390.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+JAMES I AND WITCHCRAFT.
+
+
+Some one has remarked that witchcraft came into England with the Stuarts
+and went out with them. This offhand way of fixing the rise and fall of
+a movement has just enough truth about it to cause misconception.
+Nothing is easier than to glance at the alarms of Elizabeth's reign and
+to see in them accidental outbreaks with little meaning, isolated
+affairs presaging a new movement rather than part of it. As a matter of
+fact, any such view is superficial. In previous chapters the writer has
+endeavored to show just how foreign ideas and conditions at home gave
+the impulse to a movement which within a single reign took very definite
+form.
+
+Yet so much was the movement accelerated, such additional impetus was
+given it by James I, that the view that James set the superstition going
+in England, however superficial, has some truth in it. If Elizabeth had
+ever given the matter thought, she had not at least given it many words.
+James had very definite opinions on the subject and hesitated not at all
+to make them known. His views had weight. It is useless to deny that the
+royal position swayed the courts. James's part in the witch persecution
+cannot be condoned, save on the ground that he was perfectly honest. He
+felt deeply on the matter. It was little wonder. He had grown up in
+Scotland in the very midst of the witch alarms. His own life, he
+believed, had been imperilled by the machinations of witches. He
+believed he had every reason to fear and hate the creatures, and we can
+only wonder that he was so moderate as we shall later find him to have
+been. The story of the affair that stirred up the Scottish king and his
+people has often been told, but it must be included here to make his
+attitude explicable. In 1589 he had arranged for a marriage with the
+Princess Anne of Denmark. The marriage had been performed by proxy in
+July, and it was then provided that the princess was to come to England.
+She set out, but was driven on to the coast of Norway by a violent
+storm, and detained there by the continuance of the storms. James sailed
+to Upsala, and, after a winter in the north of the Continent, brought
+his bride to Scotland in the spring, not without encountering more rough
+weather. To the people of the time it was quite clear that the ocean was
+unfriendly to James's alliance. Had Scotland been ancient Greece, no
+doubt Neptune would have been propitiated by a sacrifice. But it was
+Scotland, and the ever-to-be-feared Satan was not so easily propitiated.
+He had been very active of late in the realm.
+
+Moreover it was a time when Satanic and other conspiracies were likely
+to come to light. The kingdom was unsettled, if not discontented. There
+were plots, and rumors of plots. The effort to expose them, as well as
+to thwart the attacks of the evil one on the king, led to the conception
+and spread of the monstrous story of the conspiracy of Dr. Fian. Dr.
+Fian was nothing less than a Scottish Dr. Faustus. He was a schoolmaster
+by profession. After a dissolute youth he was said to have given soul to
+the Devil. According to the story he gathered around him a motley crowd,
+Catholic women of rank, "wise women," and humble peasant people; but it
+was a crew ready for evil enterprise. It is not very clear why they were
+supposed to have attacked the king; perhaps because of his well known
+piety, perhaps because he was a Protestant. In any case they set about,
+as the story went, to destroy him, and thought to have found their
+opportunity in his trip to Denmark. They would drown him in a storm at
+sea. There was a simple expedient for raising a storm, the throwing of
+cats into the sea. This Scottish method of sacrificing to Neptune was
+duly carried out, and, as we have seen, just fell short of destroying
+the king. It was only the piety of the king, as Dr. Fian admitted in his
+confession, that overmatched the power of the evil one.[1]
+
+Such is the story that stirred Scotland from end to end. It is a story
+that is easily explained. The confessions were wrung from the supposed
+conspirators by the various forms of torture "lately provided for
+witches in that country." Geillis Duncane had been tried with "the
+torture of the pilliwinkes upon her fingers, which is a grievous
+torture, and binding or wrinching her head with a cord or roape." Agnes
+Sampson had suffered terrible tortures and shameful indignities until
+her womanly modesty could no longer endure it and she confessed
+"whatsoever was demanded of her." Dr. Fian was put through the ordinary
+forms of torture and was then "put to the most severe and cruel pain in
+the world, called the bootes," and thereby was at length induced to
+break his silence and to incriminate himself. At another time, when the
+king, who examined him in person, saw that the man was stubborn and
+denied the confessions already made, he ordered him to be tortured
+again. His finger nails were pulled off with a pair of pincers, and
+under what was left of them needles were inserted "up to the heads."
+This was followed by other tortures too terrible to narrate.[2]
+
+It is a little hard to understand how it was that the king "took great
+delight to be present at the examinations," but throughout the whole
+wretched series of trials he was never wanting in zeal. When Barbara
+Napier, sister-in-law to the laird of Carshoggil, was to be executed, a
+postponement had been granted on account of her approaching
+accouchement. Afterwards, "nobody insisting in the pursute of her, she
+was set at libertie." It seems also that the jury that had before
+condemned her had acquitted her of the main charge, that of treasonable
+witchcraft against the king. The king was angered at the default of
+justice, went to the Tolbooth, and made an address on the subject. He
+spoke of "his own impartiality, the use of witchcraft, the enormity of
+the crime, ... the ignorance of thinking such matters mere fantasies,
+the cause of his own interference in the matter, the ignorance of the
+assizes in the late trial, his own opinion of what witches really
+are."[3]
+
+It was only a few years later that James put that opinion into written
+form. All the world knows that the king was a serious student. With
+unremitting zeal he studied this matter, and in 1597, seven years after
+the Dr. Fian affair, he published his _Dćmonologie_.[4] It was expressly
+designed to controvert the "damnable opinions of two principally in our
+age"--Scot, who "is not ashamed in publick Print to deny that there can
+be such a thing as witchcraft," and Wierus, "a German physician," who
+"sets out a publicke apologie for all these craft-folkes whereby ... he
+plainly bewrayes himself to have been one of that profession."
+
+It was to be expected that James would be an exponent of the current
+system of belief. He had read diligently, if not widely, in the
+Continental lore of the subject and had assimilated much of it. He was
+Scotch enough to be interested in theology and Stuart enough to have
+very definite opinions. James had, too, his own way of putting things.
+There was a certain freshness about his treatment, in spite of the fact
+that he was ploughing old fields. Nothing illustrates better his
+combination of adherence to tradition, of credulity, and of originality
+than his views on the transportation of witches, a subject that had long
+engaged the theorists in demonology. Witches could be transported, he
+believed, by natural means, or they could be carried through the air "by
+the force of the spirit which is their conducter," as Habakkuk was
+carried by the angel.[5] This much he could accept. But that they could
+be transformed into a "little beast or foule" and pierce through
+"whatsoever house or Church, though all ordinarie passages be closed,"
+this he refused to believe. So far, however, there was nothing original
+about either his belief or his disbelief. But his suggestion on another
+matter was very probably his own. There had been long discussion as to
+how far through the air witches could go. It was James's opinion that
+they could go only so far as they could retain their breath.
+
+But it was seldom that the royal demonologist wandered far from the
+beaten road. He was a conformist and he felt that the orthodox case
+needed defence: so he set about to answer the objectors. To the argument
+that it was a strange thing that witches were melancholy and solitary
+women (and so, he would have explained, offer the easiest object of
+attack) he interposed a flat denial: they are "some of them rich and
+worldly-wise, some of them fat or corpulent in their bodies." To the
+point that if witches had the power ascribed to them no one but
+themselves would be left alive in the world, he answered that such would
+be the case, were not the power of the Devil bridled by God. To the plea
+that God would not allow his children to be vexed by the Devil, he
+replied that God permits the godly who are sleeping in sin to be
+troubled; that He even allows the Evil One to vex the righteous for his
+own good--a conventional argument that has done service in many a
+theological controversy.
+
+It is a curious circumstance that James seemingly recognized the
+reliability of the Romish exorcisms which the Church of England was
+about that time beginning to attack. His explanation of them is worthy
+of "the wisest fool in Christendom." The Papists could often effect
+cures of the possessed, he thought, because "the divell is content to
+release the bodily hurting of them, ... thereby to obtain the perpetual
+hurt of the soules."
+
+That James should indulge in religious disquisitions rather than in
+points of evidence was to be expected. Although he had given up the
+Scottish theology, he never succeeded in getting it thoroughly out of
+his system. As to the evidence against the accused, the royal writer was
+brief. Two sorts of evidence he thought of value, one "the finding of
+their marke, and the trying the insensiblenes thereof, the other is
+their fleeting [floating] on the water." The latter sign was based, he
+said, on the fact that the water refuses to receive a witch--that is to
+say, the pure element would refuse to receive those who had renounced
+their baptism.[6] We shall see that the influence of the _Dćmonologie_
+can be fairly appraised by measuring the increased use of these two
+tests of guilt within his own reign and that of his son. Hitherto the
+evidence of the mark had been of rather less importance, while the
+ordeal by water was not in use.
+
+The alleged witch-mark on the body had to do with the contracts between
+witches and the Devil. This loathsome side of witch belief we cannot go
+into. Suffice it to say that James insisted on the reality of these
+contracts and consequently upon the punishment that should be meted to
+those who had entered into them. All witches except children should be
+sentenced to death. The king shows a trace of conventional moderation,
+however, and admits that the magistrates should be careful whom they
+condemned. But, while he holds that the innocent should not be
+condemned, he warns officials against the sin of failing to convict the
+guilty.[7] We shall see that throughout his reign in England he pursued
+a course perfectly consistent with these principles.
+
+A critical estimate of James's book it is somewhat hard to give.
+Students of witchcraft have given utterance to the most extravagant but
+widely divergent opinions upon it. The writer confesses that he has not
+that acquaintance with the witch literature of the Continent which would
+enable him to appraise the _Dćmonologie_ as to its originality. So good
+an authority as Thomas Wright has declared that it is "much inferior to
+the other treatises on the subject," and that it was compiled from
+foreign works.[8] Doubtless a study of the Continental literature would
+warrant, at least in part, this opinion. Yet one gets the impression,
+from what may be learned of that great body of writing through the
+historians of witchcraft, that James's opinions were in some respects
+his own. He had, of course, absorbed the current belief, but he did not
+hesitate to give his own interpretation and explanation of phenomena.
+That interpretation is not wanting in shrewdness. It seems to one who
+has wandered through many tedious defences of the belief in witchcraft
+that James's work is as able as any in English prior to the time of
+Joseph Glanvill in 1668. One who should read Glanvill and James together
+would get a very satisfactory understanding of the position of the
+defenders of the superstition. Glanvill insisted upon what he believed
+were well authenticated facts of experience. James grounded his belief
+upon a course of theoretical reasoning.
+
+We have already indicated that James's book was influential in its time.
+It goes without saying that his position as a sovereign greatly enhanced
+its influence. This was particularly true after he took the throne of
+England. The dicta that emanated from the executive of the English
+nation could not fail to find a wide audience, and especially in England
+itself. His work offered a text-book to officials. It was a key to the
+character and methods of the new ruler, and those who hoped for
+promotion were quick to avail themselves of it. To prosecute witches was
+to win the sovereign's approval. The judges were prompted to greater
+activity. Moreover, the sanction of royalty gave to popular outbreaks
+against suspicious women greater consideration at the hands of the
+gentry. And it was in the last analysis the gentry, in the persons of
+the justices of the peace, who decided whether or no neighborhood
+whispering and rumors should be followed up.
+
+But the king's most direct influence was in the passing of a new law.
+His first Parliament had been in session but eight days when steps were
+taken by the House of Lords towards strengthening the statute against
+witchcraft. The law in force, passed in the fifth year of Elizabeth's
+reign, imposed the death penalty for killing by witchcraft, and a year's
+imprisonment for injuring by witchcraft or by allied means. James would
+naturally feel that this law was merely one version of the statute
+against murder and did not touch the horrible crime of contract with the
+Devil and the keeping of imps.[9] Here was a sin beside which the taking
+of life was a light offence. It was needful that those who were guilty
+of it should suffer the severest penalty of the law, even if they had
+not caused the loss of a single life. It was to remedy this defect in
+the criminal code that a new statute was introduced.
+
+It is not worth while to trace the progress of that bill from day to
+day. It can be followed in the journals of the Lords and Commons. The
+bill went to a large committee that included six earls and twelve
+bishops.[10] Perhaps the presence of the bishops was an evidence that
+witchcraft was still looked upon as a sin rather than as a crime. It was
+a matter upon which the opinion of the church had been received before
+and might well be accepted again. It was further arranged that the Lord
+Chief-Justice of the common pleas, Sir Edmund Anderson, and the
+attorney-general, the later so famous Sir Edward Coke, along with other
+eminent jurists, were to act with the committee. Anderson, it will be
+recalled, had presided over numerous trials and had both condemned and
+released witches. As to Coke's attitude towards this subject, we know
+not a thing, save that he served on this committee. The committee seems
+to have found enough to do. At any rate the proposed statute underwent
+revision.[11] Doubtless the privy council had a hand in the matter;[12]
+indeed it is not unlikely that the bill was drawn up under its
+direction. On the 9th of June, about two months and a half after its
+introduction, the statute passed its final reading in the Lords.[13] It
+repealed the statute of Elizabeth's reign and provided that any one who
+"shall use, practise or exercise any Invocation or Conjuration of any
+evill and wicked Spirit, or shall consult, covenant with, entertaine,
+employe, feede, or rewarde any evill and wicked Spirit to or for any
+intent or purpose; or take up any dead man, woman, or child, ... to be
+imployed or used in any manner of Witchcrafte" should suffer death as a
+felon. It further provided that any one who should "take upon him or
+them by Witchcrafte ... to tell or declare in what place any treasure of
+Golde or Silver should or might be founde ... or where Goods or Things
+loste or stollen should be founde or become, or to the intent to provoke
+any person to unlawfull love, or wherebie any Cattell or Goods of any
+person shall be destroyed, wasted, or impaired, or to hurte or destroy
+any person in his or her bodie, although the same be not effected and
+done," should for the first offence suffer one year's imprisonment with
+four appearances in the pillory, and for the second offence, death. The
+law explains itself. Not only the killing of people by the use of evil
+spirits, but even the using of evil spirits in such a way as actually
+to cause hurt was a capital crime. The second clause punished white
+magic and the intent to hurt, even where it "be not effected," by a
+year's imprisonment and the pillory. It can be easily seen that one of
+the things which the framers of the statute were attempting to
+accomplish in their somewhat awkward wording was to make the fact of
+witchcraft as a felony depend chiefly upon a single form of evidence,
+the testimony to the use of evil spirits.
+
+We have seen why people with James's convictions about contracts with
+the Devil might desire to rest the crime upon this kind of proof.[14] It
+can be readily understood, too, how the statute would work in practice.
+Hitherto it had been possible to arraign a witch on the accusations of
+her neighbors, but it was not possible to send her to the gallows unless
+some death in the vicinity could be laid to her charge. The community
+that hustled a suspicious woman to court was likely to suffer the
+expense of her imprisonment for a year. It had no assurance that it
+could be finally rid of her.
+
+Under the new statute it was only necessary to prove that the woman made
+use of evil spirits, and she was put out of the way. It was a simpler
+thing to charge a woman with keeping a "familiar" than to accuse her of
+murder. The stories that the village gossips gathered in their rounds
+had the keeping of "familiars" for their central interest.[15] It was
+only necessary to produce a few of these gossips in court and the woman
+was doomed.
+
+To be sure, this is theory. The practical question is, not how would the
+law operate, but how did it operate? This brings us again into the
+dangerous field of statistics. Now, if we may suppose that the witch
+cases known to us are a safe basis of comparison, the reign of James, as
+has already been intimated, shows a notable increase in witch executions
+over that of Elizabeth. We have records of between forty and fifty
+people who suffered for the crime during the reign of James, all but one
+of them within the first fifteen years. It will be seen that the average
+per year is nearly double that of the executions known to us in the
+first part of Elizabeth's rule, and of course several times that of
+those known in the last part. This increased number we are at once
+inclined to assign to the direct and indirect influence of the new king.
+But it may very fairly be asked whether the new statute passed at the
+king's suggestion had not been in part responsible for the increased
+number. This question can be answered from an examination of those cases
+where we have the charges given. Of thirty-seven such cases in the reign
+of James I, where the capital sentence was given, seventeen were on
+indictments for witchcrafts that had not caused death. In the other
+twenty cases, the accused were charged with murder.[16]
+
+This means that over two-fifths of those who are known to have been
+convicted under the new law would have escaped death under the
+Elizabethan statute. With all due allowance for the incompleteness of
+our statistics, it seems certain that the new law had added very
+considerably to the number of capital sentences. Subtract the seventeen
+death sentences for crimes of witchcraft that were not murder from the
+total number of such sentences, and we have figures not so different
+from those of Elizabeth's reign.
+
+This is a sufficient comment on the effectiveness of the new law as
+respects its particularly novel features. A study of the character of
+the evidence and of the tests of guilt employed at the various trials
+during the reign will show that the phrasing of the law, as well as the
+royal directions for trying guilt, influenced the forms of accusation
+and the verdicts of the juries. In other words the testimony rendered in
+some of the well known trials of the reign offers the best commentary
+upon the statute as well as upon the _Dćmonologie_. This can be
+illustrated from three of the processes employed to determine guilt. The
+king had recommended the water ordeal. Up to this time it had not been
+employed in English witch cases, so far as we know. The first record of
+its use was in 1612, nine years after James ascended the English throne.
+In that year there was a "discoverie" of witches at Northampton. Eight
+or nine women were accused of torturing a man and his sister and of
+laming others. One of them was, at the command of a justice of the
+peace, cast into the water with "her hands and feete bound," but "could
+not sink to the bottome by any meanes." The same experiment was applied
+to Arthur Bill and his parents. He was accused of bewitching a Martha
+Aspine. His father and mother had long been considered witches. But the
+"matter remaining doubtful that it could not be cleerly tryed upon him,"
+he (and his parents) were tied with "their thumbes and great toes ...
+acrosse" and thrown into the water. The suspicion that was before not
+well grounded was now confirmed.[17] To be sure, this was done by the
+justices of the peace and we do not know how much it influenced the
+assize court.[18]
+
+These are the only instances given us by the records of James's reign
+where this test was employed by the authorities. But in the very next
+year after the Northampton affair it was used in the adjoining county of
+Bedford by private parties. A land-owner who had suffered ills, as he
+thought, from two tenants, Mother Sutton and her daughter, took matters
+into his own hands. His men were ordered to strip the two women "in to
+their smocks," to tie their arms together, and to throw them into the
+water. The precaution of a "roape tyed about their middles" was useless,
+for both floated. This was not enough. The mother, tied toe and thumb,
+was thrown into the water again. She "sunke not at all, but sitting upon
+the water turned round about like a wheele.... And then being taken up,
+she as boldly as if she had beene innocent asked them if they could doe
+any more to her."
+
+The use of marks as evidence was not as new as the water ordeal. But it
+is a rather curious thing that in the two series of cases involving
+water ordeal the other process was also emphasized. In these two
+instances it would seem as if the advice of the _Dćmonologie_ had been
+taken very directly by the accusers.[19] There was one other instance of
+this test.[20] The remarkable thing, however, is that in the most
+important trial of the time, that at Lancaster in 1612, there was an
+utter absence, at least so far as the extant record goes, of female
+juries or of reports from them.[21] This method of determining guilt was
+not as yet widely accepted in the courts. We can hardly doubt that it
+had been definitely forbidden at Lancaster.[22] The evidence of the use
+of evil spirits, against which the statute of the first year of James I
+had been especially framed, was employed in such a large proportion of
+trials that it is not worth while to go over the cases in detail.
+
+The law forbade to take up any dead person or the skin, bone, or other
+part thereof for use in witchcraft. Presumably some instance of this
+form of witchcraft had been responsible for the phrase, but we have on
+record no case of the sort until a few years after the passage of the
+statute. It was one of the principal charges against Johanna Harrison
+of Royston in 1606 that the officers found in her possession "all the
+bones due to the Anatomy of man and woman."[23] This discovery brought
+out other charges and she was hanged. At the famous Lancashire trials in
+1612 the arch-witch Chattox was declared to have had in her possession
+three scalps and eight teeth. She was guilty on other counts, but she
+escaped the executioner by death.
+
+These are illustrations of the point that the _Dćmonologie_ and the
+statute of James I find their commentary in the evidence offered at the
+trials. It goes without saying that these illustrations represent only a
+few of the forms of testimony given in the courts. It may not,
+therefore, be amiss to run over some other specimens of the proof that
+characterized the witch trials of the reign. With most of them we are
+already familiar. The requirement that the witch should repeat certain
+words after the justice of the peace was used once in the reign of
+James. It was an unusual method at best.[24] A commoner form of proof
+was that adduced from the finding or seeing clay or waxen images in the
+possession of the accused.[25] The witness who had found such a model on
+the premises of the defendant or had seen the defendant handling it,
+jumped readily to the conclusion that the image represented some
+individual. If it should be asked how we are to account for this sort of
+evidence, the answer is an easy one. Every now and then in the annals of
+witchcraft it came out that a would-be accuser had hidden a waxen or
+clay figure in the house of the person he wished to accuse and had then
+found it. No doubt some cases started in this way. No doubt, too, bitter
+women with grudges to satisfy did experiment with images and were caught
+at it. But this was rare. In the greater number of cases the stories of
+images were pure fabrications. To that category belong almost certainly
+the tales told at Lancaster.[26]
+
+"Spectral evidence" we have met with in the Elizabethan period. That
+reign saw two or three instances of its employment, and there were more
+examples of it in the reign of James. Master Avery of Northampton, who
+with his sister was the principal accuser in the trials there, saw in
+one of his fits a black wart on the body of Agnes Brown, a wart which
+was actually found "upon search."[27] Master Avery saw other spectres,
+but the most curious was that of a bloody man desiring him to have mercy
+on his Mistress Agnes and to cease impeaching her.[28] At Bedford,
+Master Enger's servant had a long story to tell, but the most thrilling
+part concerned a visit which the young Mary Sutton (whom he was
+accusing) made to him. On a "moonshine night" she came in at the window
+in her "accustomed and personall habite and shape" and knitted at his
+side. Then drawing nearer, she offered him terms by which he could be
+restored to his former health, terms which we are to understand the
+virtuous witness refused. It is pleasant to know that Master Enger was
+"distrustfull of the truth" of this tale. One fears that these spectres
+were not the products of overwrought imagination, as were many others,
+but were merely fabrics of elaborate fiction.[29] In any case they were
+not the groundwork of the proof. In the Fairfax prosecutions at York in
+1622 the charges against the six women accused rested entirely upon a
+great tissue of spectral evidence. The three children had talked to the
+spectres, had met them outdoors and at church and in the kitchen. The
+spectres were remarkably wise and named visitors whom the family did not
+know. They struggled with the children, they rolled over them in bed,
+they followed them to the neighbors.
+
+Somewhat akin to the evidence from apparitions was that from the effect
+of a witch's glance. This is uncommonly rare in English witchcraft, but
+the reign of James offers two instances of it. In Royston,
+Hertfordshire, there was "an honest fellow and as boone a companion ...
+one that loved the pot with the long necke almost as well as his
+prayers." One day when he was drinking with four companions Johanna
+Harrison came in and "stood gloating upon them." He went home and at
+once fell sick.[30] At Northampton the twelve-year-old Hugh Lucas had
+looked "stark" upon Jane Lucas at church and gone into convulsions when
+he returned home.[31]
+
+One other form of proof demands notice. In the trial of Jennet Preston
+at York it was testified that the corpse of Mr. Lister, whom she was
+believed to have slain by witchcraft, had bled at her presence. The
+judge did not overlook this in summarizing the evidence. It was one of
+three important counts against the woman, indeed it was, says the
+impressive Mr. Potts, quoting the judge, of more consequence than all
+the rest.[32] Of course Mistress Preston went to the gallows.
+
+It will occur to the reader to ask whether any sort of evidence was
+ruled out or objected to. On this point we have but slight knowledge. In
+reporting the trial of Elizabeth Sawyer of Edmonton in 1621 the Reverend
+Henry Goodcole wrote that a piece of thatch from the accused woman's
+house was plucked and burned, whereupon the woman presently came upon
+the scene.[33] Goodcole characterized this method as an "old ridiculous
+custome" and we may guess that he spoke for the judge too. In the
+Lancashire cases, Justice Altham, whose credulity knew hardly any
+bounds, grew suddenly "suspitious of the accusation of this yong wench,
+Jennet Device," who had been piling up charges against Alice Nutter. The
+girl was sent out of the room, the witches were mixed up, and Jennet was
+required on coming in again to pick out Alice Nutter. Of course that
+proved an easy matter.[34] At another time, when Jennet was glibly
+enumerating the witches that had assembled at the great meeting at
+Malking Tower, the judge suddenly asked her if Joane-a-Downe were there.
+But the little girl failed to rise to the bait and answered negatively,
+much to the satisfaction of everybody, and especially of the righteous
+Mr. Potts.[35]
+
+This is all we know directly about any tendency to question evidence at
+Lancaster in 1612, but a good deal more may be inferred from what is not
+there. A comparison of that trial with other contemporary trials will
+convince any one that Justices Altham and Bromley must have ruled out
+certain forms of evidence. There were no experiments made of any sort
+nor any female juries set inspecting.[36] This, indeed, is not to say
+that all silly testimony was excluded. There is enough and more of sheer
+nonsense in the testimony to prove the contrary.
+
+We turn now from the question of evidence to a brief consideration of
+several less prominent features of Jacobean witchcraft. We shall note
+the character of the sentences, the distribution of the trials, the
+personnel and position in life of the accused, and lastly the question
+of jurisdiction.
+
+We have in another connection indicated the approximate number of
+executions of which we have record in James's reign. That number, we
+saw, was certainly over forty and probably approached fifty. It
+represented, however, not quite half the total number of cases of
+accusation recorded. In consequence the other verdicts and sentences
+have significance. Especially is this true of the acquittals. They
+amounted to thirty, perhaps to forty. When we add the trials of which we
+do not know the outcome, we can guess that the number was close to the
+sum total of executions. Legally only one other outcome of a trial was
+possible, a year's imprisonment with quarterly appearances in the
+pillory. There were three or four instances of this penalty as well as
+one case where bond of good behavior was perhaps substituted for
+imprisonment.[37] Five pardons were issued,[38] three of them by the
+authorities at London, two of them by local powers apparently under
+compulsion.[39]
+
+We come now to consider the personnel, sex, occupations, and positions
+in life of the accused. On certain of these matters it is possible to
+give statistical conclusions, but such conclusions must be accepted with
+great caution. By a count as careful as the insufficient evidence
+permits it would seem that about six times as many women were indicted
+as men. This was to be expected. It is perhaps less in accord with
+tradition that twice as many married women as spinsters seem to have
+figured in the witch trials of the Jacobean era. The proportion of
+widows to unmarried women was about the same, so that the proportion of
+unmarried women among the whole number accused would seem to have been
+small. These results must be accepted guardedly, yet more complete
+statistics would probably show that the proportion of married women was
+even greater.[40]
+
+The position in life of these people was not unlike that of the same
+class in the earlier period. In the account of the Lancashire trials we
+shall see that the two families whose quarrels started the trouble were
+the lowest of low hill-country people, beggars and charmers, lax in
+their morals and cunning in their dealings. The Flower women, mother and
+daughter, had been charged with evil living; it was said that Agnes
+Brown and her daughter of Northampton had very doubtful reputations;
+Mother Sutton of Bedford was alleged to have three illegitimate
+children. The rest of the witches of the time were not, however, quite
+so low in the scale. They were household servants, poor tenants, "hog
+hearders," wives of yeomen, broomsellers, and what not.
+
+Above this motley peasant crew were a few of various higher ranks. A
+schoolmaster who had experimented with sorcery against the king,[41] a
+minister who had been "busy with conjuration in his youth,"[42] a lady
+charged with sorcery but held for other sin,[43] a conjurer who had
+rendered professional services to a passionate countess,[44] these make
+up a strange group of witches, and for that matter an unimportant one.
+None of their cases were illustrations of the working of witch law; they
+were rather stray examples of the connection between superstition, on
+the one hand, and politics and court intrigue on the other. Not so,
+however, the prosecution of Alice Nutter in the Lancashire trials of
+1612. Alice Nutter was a member of a well known county family. "She
+was," says Potts, "a rich woman, had a great estate and children of good
+hope."[45] She was moreover "of good temper, free from envy and malice."
+In spite of all this she was accused of the most desperate crimes and
+went to the gallows. Why family connections and influences could not
+have saved her is a mystery.
+
+In another connection we spoke of two witches pardoned by local
+authorities at the instance of the government. This brings us to the
+question of jurisdiction. The town of Rye had but recently, it would
+seem, been granted a charter and certain judicial rights. But when the
+town authorities sentenced one woman to death and indicted another for
+witchcraft, the Lord Warden interfered with a question as to their
+power.[46] The town, after some correspondence, gave way and both women
+were pardoned. This was, however, the only instance of disputed
+jurisdiction. The local powers in King's Lynn hanged a witch without
+interference,[47] and the vicar-general of the Bishop of Durham
+proceeded against a "common charmer"[48] with impunity, as of course he
+had every right to do.
+
+There is, in fact, a shred of evidence to show that the memory of
+ecclesiastical jurisdiction had not been lost. In the North Riding of
+Yorkshire the quarter sessions sentenced Ralph Milner for "sorcerie,
+witchcraft, inchantment and telling of fortunes" to confess his fault at
+divine service, "that he hath heighlie offended God and deluded men, and
+is heartily sorie."[49] There is nothing, of course, in the statute to
+authorize this form of punishment, and it is only accounted for as a
+reversion to the original ecclesiastical penalty for a crime that seemed
+to belong in church courts.
+
+What we call nowadays mob law had not yet made its appearance--that is,
+in connection with witchcraft. We shall see plenty of it when we come to
+the early part of the eighteenth century. But there was in 1613 one
+significant instance of independence of any jurisdiction, secular or
+ecclesiastical. In the famous case at Bedford, Master Enger, whom we
+have met before, had been "damnified" in his property to the round sum
+of Ł200. He was at length persuaded that Mother Sutton was to blame.
+Without any authority whatsoever he brought her forcibly to his house
+and caused her to be scratched.[50] Not only so, but he threw the woman
+and her daughter, tied and bound, into his mill-pond to prove their
+guilt.[51] In the mean time the wretched creatures had been stripped of
+their clothes and examined for marks, under whose oversight we are not
+told, but Master Enger was responsible. He should have suffered for all
+this, but there is no record of his having done so. On the contrary he
+carried the prosecution of the women to a successful issue and saw them
+both hanged.
+
+We now turn to the question of the distribution of witchcraft in the
+realm during James's reign. From the incidental references already
+given, it will be evident that the trials were distributed over a wide
+area. In number executed, Lancashire led with ten, Leicester had nine,
+Northampton five or more, Middlesex four,[52] Bedford, Lincoln, York,
+Bristol, and Hertford each two; Derby had several, the exact number we
+can not learn. These figures of the more serious trials seem to show
+that the alarm was drifting from the southeast corner of England towards
+the midlands. In the last half of Elizabeth's rule the centre had been
+to the north of London in the southern midlands. Now it seems to have
+progressed to the northern midlands. Leicester, Derby, and Nottingham
+may be selected as the triangle of counties that would fairly represent
+the centre of the movement. If the matter were to be determined with
+mathematical accuracy, the centre would need to be placed perhaps a
+little farther west, for Stafford, Cheshire, Bristol, and the remote
+Welsh Carnarvon all experienced witch alarms. In the north, York and
+Durham had their share of trials.
+
+It will be easier to realize what had happened when we discover that, so
+far as records go, Kent and Essex were entirely quiet during the period,
+and East Anglia almost so. We shall later see that these counties had
+not at all forgotten to believe in witchcraft, but the witchfinders had
+ceased their activities for a while.
+
+To be sure, this reasoning from the distribution of trials is a
+dangerous proceeding. Witch alarms, on they face of things, seem
+haphazard outbursts of excitement. And such no doubt they are in part;
+yet one who goes over many cases in order cannot fail to observe that an
+outbreak in one county was very likely to be followed by one in the next
+county.[53] This is perfectly intelligible to every one familiar with
+the essentially contagious character of these scares. The stories spread
+from village to village as fast as that personified Rumor of the poet
+Vergil, "than which nothing is fleeter"; nor did they halt with the
+sheriffs at the county boundaries.
+
+We have now traced the growth of James's opinions until they found
+effect in English law, have seen the practical operation of that law,
+and have gone over the forms of evidence, as well as some other features
+of the witch trials of his reign. In the next chapter we shall take up
+some of the more famous Jacobean cases in detail as examples of witch
+alarms. We shall seek to find out how they started and what were the
+real causes at work.
+
+
+[1] I have not attempted to give more than a brief résumé of this story,
+and have used Thomas Wright, _Narratives of Sorcery and Magic_ (London,
+1851), I, 181-190, and Mrs. Lynn Linton, _Witch Stories_, 21-34. The
+pamphlet about Dr. Fian is a rare one, but may be found in several
+libraries. It has been reprinted by the _Gentleman's Magazine_, vol.
+XLIX (1779), by the Roxburghe Club (London, 1816), by Robert Pitcairn,
+in his _Criminal Trials in Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1829-1833), vol. I, and
+doubtless in many other places. Pitcairn has also printed a part of the
+records of his trial.
+
+[2] This is all based upon the contemporary accounts mentioned above.
+
+[3] _Register of the Privy Council of Scotland_, IV (Edinburgh, 1881),
+644-645, note.
+
+[4] A fresh edition was brought out at London in 1603. In 1616 it
+appeared again as a part of the handsome collection of his _Workes_
+compiled by the Bishop of Winchester.
+
+[5] This story is to be found in the apocryphal book of Bel and the
+Dragon. It played a great part in the discussions of the writers on
+witchcraft.
+
+[6] H. C. Lea, _Superstition and Force_ (4th ed., Philadelphia, 1892),
+325 ff., gives some facts about the water ordeal on the Continent. A
+sharp dispute over its use in witch cases was just at this time going on
+there.
+
+[7] He recommended torture in finding out the guilty: "And further
+experience daily proves how loth they are to confesse without torture,
+which witnesseth their guiltinesse," _Dćmonologie_, bk. ii, ch. i.
+
+[8] Wright, _Narratives of Sorcery and Magic_, I, 197.
+
+[9] Edward Fairfax, _A Discourse of Witchcraft As it was acted in the
+Family of Mr. Edward Fairfax ... in the year 1621_ (Philobiblon Soc.,
+_Miscellanies_, V, ed. R. Monckton Milnes, London, 1858-1859), "Preface
+to the Reader," 26, explains the king's motive: His "Majesty found a
+defect in the statutes, ... by which none died for Witchcraft but they
+only who by that means killed, so that such were executed rather as
+murderers than as Witches."
+
+[10] _Journals of the House of Lords_, II, 269; Wm. Cobbett,
+_Parliamentary History_, I, 1017, 1018.
+
+[11] _Lords' Journal_, II, 271, 316; _Commons' Journal_, I, 203-204.
+
+[12] _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1603-1610_, 117.
+
+[13] It had passed the third reading in the Commons on June 7; _Commons'
+Journal_, I, 234.
+
+[14] It can hardly be doubted that the change in the wording of the law
+was dictated not only by the desire to simplify the matter of proof but
+by a wish to satisfy those theologians who urged that any use of
+witchcraft was a "covenant with death" and "an agreement with hell"
+(Isaiah xxviii, 18).
+
+[15] See Southworth case in Thomas Potts, _The Wonderfull Discoverie of
+Witches in the countie of Lancaster ..._ (London, 1613; reprinted,
+Chetham Soc., 1845), L 2 verso. Cited hereafter as Potts.
+
+[16] See, below, appendix B. It should be added that six others who had
+been condemned by the judges for bewitching a boy were released at
+James's command.
+
+[17] _The Witches of Northamptonshire ..._ C 2 verso. The writer of this
+pamphlet, who does not tell the story of the ordeal so fully as the
+author of the MS. account, "A briefe abstract of the arraignment of nine
+witches at Northampton, July 21, 1612" (Brit. Mus., Sloane, 972), gives,
+however, proof of the influence of James in the matter. He says that the
+two ways of testing witches are by the marks and "the trying of the
+insensiblenesse thereof," and by "their fleeting on the water," which is
+an exact quotation from James, although not so indicated.
+
+[18] The mother and father were apparently not sent to the assize court.
+
+[19] The female jury was used at Northampton ("women sworn"), also at
+Bedford, but by a private party.
+
+[20] It was used in 1621 on Elizabeth Sawyer of Edmonton. In this case
+it was done clearly at the command of the judge who tried her at the Old
+Bailey.
+
+[21] Elizabeth Device, however, confessed that the "said Devill did get
+blood under her left arme," which raises a suspicion that this
+confession was the result of accusations against her on that score.
+
+[22] See account in next chapter of the trial at Lancaster.
+
+[23] This case must be used with hesitation; see below, appendix A, § 3.
+
+[24] At Warboys the Samuels had been required to repeat: "If I be a
+witch and consenting to the death" of such and such a one. Alice Wilson,
+at Northampton in 1612, was threatened by the justice with execution, if
+she would not say after the minister "I forsake the Devil." She is said
+to have averred that she could not say this. See MS. account of the
+witches of Northampton.
+
+[25] Well known is the practice ascribed to witches of making a waxen
+image, which was then pricked or melted before the fire, in the belief
+that the torments inflicted upon it would be suffered by the individual
+it represented.
+
+[26] Potts, E 3 verso, F 4, G 2; also _The Wonderful Discoverie of the
+Witchcrafts of Margaret and Phillip Flower, ..._ (London, 1619), 21.
+
+[27] See MS. account of the Northampton witches.
+
+[28] _Ibid._: "Sundry other witches appeared to him.... Hee heard many
+of them railing at Jane Lucas, laying the fault on her that they were
+thus accused."
+
+[29] There was practically no spectral evidence in the Lancashire cases.
+Lister on his death-bed had cried out against Jennet Preston, and John
+Law was tormented with a vision of Alizon Device "both day and night";
+Potts, Y 2 verso. But these were exceptional.
+
+[30] See _The Most Cruell and Bloody Murther committed by ... Annis
+Dell.... With the Severall Witch-crafts ... of one Johane Harrison and
+her Daughter_ (London, 1606).
+
+[31] MS. account of the Northampton witches.
+
+[32] See Potts, Z 2.
+
+[33] The dramatist Dekker made use of this; see his _Witch of Edmonton_,
+act IV, scene I (Mermaid edition, London, 1904):
+
+    1st Countreyman.--This thatch is as good as a jury to prove she is a
+    witch.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Justice.--        Come, come: firing her thatch? ridiculous!
+                      Take heed, sirs, what you do; unless your proofs
+                      Come better aimed, instead of turning her
+                      Into a witch, you'll prove yourselves stark fools.
+
+[34] See Potts, P 2.
+
+[35] See _ibid._, Q verso. This, however, was the second time that the
+judge had tried this ruse; see _ibid._, P 2.
+
+[36] See above, note 21.
+
+[37] North Riding Record Soc., _Quarter Sessions Records_ (London, 1883,
+etc.), III, 181.
+
+[38] Two of them, however, were issued to the same woman, one in 1604
+and one in 1610.
+
+[39] _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, XIII, 4 (Rye), pp. 136-137, 139-140,
+144, 147-148.
+
+[40] The term "spinster" was sometimes used of a married woman.
+
+[41] _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1619-1623_, 125, Chamberlain to Carleton,
+February 26, 1620: "Peacock, a schoolmaster, committed to the Tower and
+tortured for practising sorcery upon the King, to infatuate him in Sir
+Thos. Lake's business." This is one of those rare cases in which we know
+certainly that torture was used.
+
+[42] Sir Thomas Lake to Viscount Cranbourne, January 20, 1604, Brit.
+Mus., Add. MSS., 6177, fol. 403.
+
+[43] _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1623-1625_, 474, 485, 497.
+
+[44] T. B. and T. J. Howell, _State Trials_ (London, 1809-1818), II.
+
+[45] See Potts, O 3 verso.
+
+[46] See _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, XIII, 4 (Rye), pp. 136-137,
+139-140, 144, 147-148.
+
+[47] See Alexander Roberts, _A Treatise of Witchcraft ..._ (London,
+1616), dedicated to the "Maior and Aldermen."
+
+[48] M. A. Richardson, _Table Book_ (London, 1841-1846), I, 245.
+
+[49] North Riding Record Soc., _Quarter Sessions Records_, I, 58.
+
+[50] "... neither had they authoritie to compell her to goe without a
+Constable."
+
+[51] Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 36,674, fol. 148. This is a brief
+description of "how to discover a witch." It recommends the water ordeal
+and cites the case of Mr. Enger and Mary Sutton.
+
+[52] In the case of three of these four we know only that they were
+sentenced.
+
+[53] Before the Flower case at Lincoln came the Willimot-Baker cases at
+Leicester. The Bedford trial resembled much the Northampton trial of the
+previous year.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+NOTABLE JACOBEAN CASES.
+
+
+It is possible to sift, to analyze, and to reconstruct the material
+derived from witch trials until some few conclusions about a given
+period can be ventured. A large proportion of cases can be proved to
+belong in this or that category, a certain percentage of the women can
+be shown to possess these or those traits in common. Yet it is quite
+thinkable that one might be armed with a quiver full of generalizations,
+and fail, withal, to comprehend Jacobean witchcraft. If one could have
+asked information on the subject from a Londoner of 1620, he would
+probably have heard little about witchcraft in general, but a very great
+deal about the Lancashire, Northampton, Leicester, Lincoln, and Fairfax
+trials. The Londoner might have been able to tell the stories complete
+of all those famous cases. He would have been but poorly informed could
+he not have related some of them, and the listener would have caught the
+surface drift of those stories. But a witch panic is a subtle thing, not
+to be understood by those who do not follow all its deeper sequences.
+The springs of the movement, the interaction of cause and effect, the
+operation of personal traits, these are factors that must be evaluated,
+and they are not factors that can be fitted into a general scheme,
+labelled and classified.
+
+This does not mean that the cases should be examined in chronological
+sequence. That is not necessary; for the half-dozen cases that we shall
+run over had little or no cause-and-effect connection with one another.
+It is convenient, indeed, to make some classification, and the simplest
+is that by probable origin, especially as it will enable us to emphasize
+that important feature of the trials. Now, by this method the six or
+more trials of note may be grouped under three headings: cases that seem
+to have originated in the actual practice of magic, cases where the
+victims of convulsions and fits started the furor, and cases that were
+simply the last stage of bitter quarrels or the result of grudges.
+
+To the first group belongs the Lancastrian case of 1612, which, however,
+may also be classed under the last heading. No case in the course of the
+superstition in England gained such wide fame. Upon it Shadwell founded
+in part a well-known play, _The Lancashire Witches_, while poets and
+writers of prose have referred to it until the two words have been
+linked in a phrase that has given them lasting association. It was in
+the lonely forest of Pendle among the wild hills of eastern Lancashire
+that there lived two hostile families headed by Elizabeth Southerns, or
+"Old Demdike," and by Anne Chattox. The latter was a wool carder, "a
+very old, withered, spent, and decreped creature," "her lippes ever
+chattering"; the former a blind beggar of four-score years, "a generall
+agent for the Devell in all these partes," and a "wicked fire-brand of
+mischiefe," who had brought up her children and grandchildren to be
+witches. Both families professed supernatural practices. Both families
+no doubt traded on the fear they inspired. Indeed Dame Chattox was said
+to have sold her guarantee to do no harm in return for a fixed annual
+payment of "one aghen-dole of meale."
+
+That there was a feud between the two clans was to be expected. They
+were at once neighbors and competitors, and were engaged in a career in
+which they must plot each against the other, and suspect each other.
+There are hints of other difficulties. Years before there had been a
+quarrel over stolen property. Demdike's daughter had missed clothes and
+food to the value of 20 shillings, and had later found some of the
+clothing in the possession of Chattox's daughter. A more serious
+difficulty involved a third family: a member of the Nutter family,
+well-to-do people in Lancashire, had sought to seduce old Chattox's
+married daughter, and, when repelled, had warned her that when he
+inherited the property where she lived she should be evicted. Chattox
+had retaliated by seeking to kill Nutter by witchcraft, and had been
+further incited thereto by three women, who wished to be rid of Nutter,
+in order that "the women, their coosens, might have the land." As a
+consequence Nutter had died within three months. The quarrel, indeed,
+was three-cornered. It was said that Demdike's daughter had fashioned a
+clay picture of a Nutter woman.[1]
+
+We have all the elements here of a mountain feud; but, in place of the
+revolvers and Kentucky moonshine of to-day, we have clay images and
+Satanic banquets. The battles were to be fought out with imps of Hell as
+participants and with ammunition supplied by the Evil One himself. It
+was this connection with a reservoir of untouched demoniacal powers that
+made the quarrel of the miserable mountaineers the most celebrated
+incident in Lancashire story. Here were charmers and "inchanters,"
+experienced dealers in magic, struggling against one another. Small
+wonder that the community became alarmed and that Roger Nowell, justice
+of the peace, suddenly swooped down upon the Pendle families. It was but
+a short time before he had four women cooped up in Lancaster castle. In
+a few days more he was able to get confessions out of them. They
+admitted acquaintance with the Devil and implicated one another.
+
+Now comes the strange part of the story. According to confessions made
+later, Elizabeth Device, not yet shut up, but likely to be at any time,
+called a meeting on Good Friday of all the witches in Pendle forest.
+They were to come to her home at Malking Tower to plot the delivery of
+the imprisoned women by the blowing up of Lancaster castle.[2] The
+affair took the form of a dinner; and beef, bacon, and roasted mutton
+were served. "All the witches went out of the said House in their owne
+shapes and likenesses. And they all, by that they were forth of the
+dores, gotten on Horsebacke, like unto Foales, some of one colour, some
+of another; and Preston's wife was the last; and, when shee got on
+Horsebacke, they all presently vanished out of ... sight." This was the
+story, and the various witnesses agreed remarkably well as to its main
+details. Those who believed in the "sabbath" of witches must have felt
+their opinions confirmed by the testimony of the witnesses at Lancaster.
+Even the modern reader, with his skepticism, is somewhat daunted by the
+cumulative force of what purports to be the evidence and would fain
+rationalize it by supposing that some sort of a meeting actually did
+take place at Malking Tower and that some Pendle men and women who had
+delved in magic arts till they believed in them did formulate plans for
+revenge. But this is not a probable supposition. The concurring evidence
+in the Malking Tower story is of no more compelling character than that
+to be found in a multitude of Continental stories of witch gatherings
+which have been shown to be the outcome of physical or mental pressure
+and of leading questions. It seems unnecessary to accept even a
+substratum of fact.[3] Probably one of the accused women invented the
+story of the witch feast after the model of others of which she had
+heard, or developed it under the stimulus of suggestive questions from a
+justice. Such a narrative, once started, would spread like wildfire and
+the witnesses and the accused who were persuaded to confess might tell
+approximately the same story. A careful re-reading of all this evidence
+suggests that the various testimonies may indeed have been echoes of the
+first narrative. They seem to lack those characteristic differences
+which would stamp them as independent accounts. Moreover, when the story
+was once started, it is not improbable that the justices and the judges
+would assist the witnesses by framing questions based upon the narrative
+already given. It cannot be said that the evidence exists upon which to
+establish this hypothesis. There is little to show that the witnesses
+were adroitly led into their narratives. But we know from other trials
+that the method was so often adopted that it is not a far cry to suspect
+that it was used at Lancaster.
+
+It is not worth while to trace out the wearisome details that were
+elicited by confession. Those already in prison made confessions that
+implicated others, until the busy justices of the peace had shut up
+sixteen women and four men to be tried at the assizes. Sir Edward
+Bromley and Sir James Altham, who were then on the northern circuit,
+reached Lancaster on the sixteenth of August. In the meantime, "Old
+Demdike," after a confession of most awful crimes, had died in prison.
+All the others were put on trial. Thomas Potts compiled a very careful
+abstract of all the testimony taken, perhaps the most detailed account
+of a witch trial written in the English language, with the possible
+exception of the St. Oses affair. The evidence was in truth of a
+somewhat similar type. Secret interviews with the Evil One, promises of
+worldly riches, a contract sealed with blood, little shapes of dogs,
+cats, and hares, clay pictures that had been dried and had crumpled,
+threats and consequent "languishing" and death, these were the trappings
+of the stories. The tales were old. Only the Malking Tower incident was
+new. But its very novelty gave a plausibility to the stories that were
+woven around it. There was not a single person to interpose a doubt. The
+cross-examinations were nothing more than feeble attempts to bring out
+further charges.
+
+Though there is in the record little suggestion of the use of pressure
+to obtain the confessions, the fact that three were retracted leads to
+a suspicion that they had not been given quite freely. There was
+doubtless something contagious about the impulse to confess. It is,
+nevertheless, a curious circumstance that five members of the two rival
+Pendle families made confession, while all the others whom their
+confessions had involved stuck to it that they were innocent.[4] Among
+those who persisted in denying their guilt Alice Nutter merits special
+note. We have already mentioned her in the last chapter as an example of
+a well-to-do and well connected woman who fell a victim to the
+Lancashire excitement.[5] The evidence against the woman was perhaps the
+flimsiest ever offered to a court. Elizabeth Device, daughter of "Old
+Demdike," and her two children were the chief accusers. Elizabeth had
+seen her present at the Malking Tower meeting. Moreover, she stated that
+Alice had helped her mother ("Old Demdike") bewitch a man to death. Her
+son had heard his grandmother Demdike narrate the incident. This
+testimony and his sister's definite statement that Alice Nutter attended
+the Malking Tower meeting established Mistress Nutter's guilt.[6] The
+judge, indeed, was "very suspitious of the accusation of this yong
+wench, Jennet Device," and, as we have already seen, caused her to be
+sent out of the court room till the accused lady could be placed among
+other prisoners, when the girl was recalled and required before the
+great audience present to pick out the witch, as, of course, she easily
+did, and as easily escaped another transparent trap.[7]
+
+The two children figured prominently from this on. The nine-year-old
+girl gave evidence as to events of three years before, while the young
+man, who could hardly have been out of his teens,[8] recounted what had
+happened twelve years earlier. It was their testimony against their
+mother that roused most interest. Although of a circumstantial
+character, it fitted in most remarkable fashion into the evidence
+already presented.[9] The mother, says the nonchalant pamphleteer,
+indignantly "cryed out against the child," cursing her so outrageously
+that she was removed from the room while the child kept the stand. It is
+useless to waste sympathy upon a mother who was getting at the hands of
+her children the same treatment she had given her own mother Demdike.
+The Chattox family held together better. Mistress Redfearne had been
+carefully shielded in the testimony of her mother Chattox, but she fell
+a victim to the accusations of the opposing family. The course of her
+trial was remarkable. Denying her guilt with great emphasis, she had by
+some wonder been acquitted. But this verdict displeased the people in
+attendance upon the trial. Induced by the cries of the people, the court
+was persuaded to try her again. The charge against her was exactly the
+same, that eighteen years before she had participated in killing
+Christopher Nutter with a clay figure. "Old Demdike" had seen her in the
+act of making the image, and there was offered also the testimony of
+the sister and brother of the dead man, who recalled that Robert Nutter
+on his death-bed had accused Anne of his bewitchment.[10] It does not
+seem to have occurred to the court that the principle that a person
+could not twice be put in jeopardy for the same offence was already an
+old principle in English law.[11] The judges were more concerned with
+appeasing the people than with recalling old precedents, and sent the
+woman to the gallows.
+
+The Pendle cases were interrupted on the third day by the trial of three
+women from Salmesbury, who pleaded not guilty and put themselves "upon
+God and their Countrey." The case against them rested upon the testimony
+of a single young woman, Grace Sowerbutts, who declared that for the
+three years past she had been vexed by the women in question, who "did
+violently draw her by the haire of the head, and layd her on the toppe
+of a Hay-mowe." This delightfully absurd charge was coupled with some
+testimony about the appearances of the accused in animal form. Three men
+attempted to bolster up the story; but no "matter of witchcraft" was
+proved, says the for once incredulous Mr. Potts. The women seized the
+decisive moment. They kneeled before the judge and requested him to
+examine Grace Sowerbutts as to who set her on. The judge--who had
+seemingly not thought of this before--followed the suggestion. The girl
+changed countenance and acknowledged that she had been taught her story.
+At the order of the judge she was questioned by a clergyman and two
+justices of the peace, who found that she had been coached to tell her
+story by a Master Thompson, alias Southworth, a "seminarie priest." So
+ended the charges against the Salmesbury witches.
+
+One would suppose that this verdict might have turned the tide in the
+other cases. But the evidence, as Potts is careful to show, lest the
+reader should draw a wrong conclusion, was of very different character
+in the other trials. They were all finished on the third day of court
+and turned over to the jury. Five of the accused, exclusive of those at
+Salmesbury, were acquitted, one condemned to a year's imprisonment, and
+ten sentenced to death. To this number should be added Jennet Preston,
+who had in the preceding month been tried at York for the killing of a
+Mr. Lister, and who was named by the Lancaster witnesses as one of the
+gang at Malking Tower.
+
+So ended the Lancashire trials of 1612. The most remarkable event of the
+sort in James's reign, they were clearly the outcome of his writings and
+policy. Potts asks pointedly: "What hath the King's Maiestie written and
+published in his Dćmonologie by way of premonition and prevention, which
+hath not here by the first or last beene executed, put in practice, or
+discovered?"
+
+Our second group of cases includes those where convulsive and
+"possessed" persons had started the alarm. The Northampton, Leicester,
+and Lichfield cases were all instances in point. The last two, however,
+may be omitted here because they will come up in another connection. The
+affair at Northampton in 1612, just a month earlier than the Lancashire
+affair, merits notice. Elizabeth Belcher and her brother, "Master
+Avery," were the disturbing agents. Mistress Belcher had long been
+suffering with an illness that baffled diagnosis. It was suggested to
+her that the cause was witchcraft. A list of women reputed to be witches
+was repeated to her. The name of Joan Brown seemed to impress her. "Hath
+shee done it?" she asked.[12] The name was repeated to her and from that
+time she held Joan guilty.[13] Joan and her mother were shut up.
+Meantime Master Avery began to take fits and to aid his sister in making
+accusation. Between them they soon had accused six women for their
+afflictions. The stir brought to the surface the hidden suspicions of
+others. There was a witch panic and the justices of the peace[14]
+scurried hither and thither till they had fourteen witches locked up in
+Northampton. When the trial came off at Northampton, Master Avery was
+the hero. He re-enacted the rôle of the Throckmorton children at Warboys
+with great success. When he came to court--he came in a "coch"--he was
+at once stricken with convulsions. His torments in court were very
+convincing. It is pleasant to know that when he came out of his seizure
+he would talk very "discreetly, christianly, and charitably." Master
+Avery was versatile, however. His evidence against the women rested by
+no means alone on his seizures. He had countless apparitions in which he
+saw the accused;[15] he had been mysteriously thrown from a horse;
+strangest of all, he had foretold at a certain time that if any one
+should go down to the gaol and listen to the voices of the witches, he
+could not understand a word. Whereupon a Master of Arts of Trinity
+College, Oxford, went off to the prison at the uncanny hour of two in
+the morning and "heard a confused noise of much chattering and chiding,
+but could not discover a ready word."
+
+Master Avery had a great deal more to tell, but the jury seem not to
+have fully credited him.[16] They convicted Joan Brown and her mother,
+however, on the charges of Elizabeth and her brother. Three others were
+found guilty upon other counts. None of them, so far as the records go,
+and the records were careful on this point, admitted any guilt.[17] The
+one young man among those who were hanged bitterly resisted his
+conviction from the beginning and died declaring that authority had
+turned to tyranny. He might well feel so. His father and mother had both
+been tortured by the water ordeal, and his mother had been worried till
+she committed suicide in prison.
+
+This brings us to the third sort of cases, those that were the outcome
+of quarrels or grudges. It has already been observed that the Lancashire
+affair could very well be reckoned under this heading. It is no
+exaggeration to say that a goodly percentage of all other witch trials
+in the reign of James could be classified in the same way. Most notable
+among them was the famous trial of the Belvoir witches at Lincoln in
+1618-1619. The trial has received wide notice because it concerned a
+leading family--perhaps the wealthiest in England--the great Catholic
+family of Manners, of which the Earl of Rutland was head. The effort to
+account for the mysterious illness of his young heir and for that which
+had a few years earlier carried off the boy's elder brother led to a
+charge of witchcraft against three humble women of the neighborhood. The
+Rutland affair shows how easily a suspicion of witchcraft might involve
+the fortunes of the lowly with those of the great. Joan Flower and her
+two daughters had been employed as charwomen in Belvoir Castle, the home
+of the Rutlands. One of the daughters, indeed, had been put in charge of
+"the poultrey abroad and the washhouse within dores." But this daughter
+seems not to have given satisfaction to the countess in her work, some
+other causes of disagreement arose which involved Mother Flower, and
+both Mother Flower and her daughter were sent away from the castle. This
+was the beginning of the trouble. Mother Flower "cursed them all that
+were the cause of this discontentment." Naturally little heed was paid
+to her grumblings. Such things were common enough and it did not even
+occur to any one, when the eldest son of the earl sickened and died,
+that the event was in any way connected with the malice of the Flowers.
+It was not until about five years later, when the younger son Francis
+fell sick of an illness to prove fatal, that suspicion seems to have
+lighted upon the three women.[18] The circumstances that led to their
+discharge were then recalled and along with them a mass of idle gossip
+and scandal against the women. It was remembered that Mother Joan was
+"a monstrous malicious woman, full of oathes, curses, and imprecations
+irreligious." Some of her neighbors "dared to affirme that she dealt
+with familiar spirits, and terrified them all with curses and threatning
+of revenge." At length, in February of 1618/19, on the return of the
+earl from attending His Majesty "both at Newmarket before Christmas and
+at Christmas at Whitehall," the women were fetched before justices of
+the peace, who bound them over to the assizes at Lincoln. Mother Flower
+died on the way to Lincoln, but the two daughters were tried there
+before Sir Edward Bromley, who had been judge at the Lancashire trials,
+and before Sir Henry Hobart. The women made a detailed confession of
+weird crimes. There were tales of gloves belonging to the two young sons
+of the earl, gloves that had been found in uncanny places and had been
+put in hot water and rubbed upon Rutterkin the cat--or spirit. There
+were worse stories that will not bear repetition. Needless to say,
+Margaret and Philippa Flower were convicted and hanged.[19]
+
+The Rutland cases have been used to illustrate how the witch accusation
+might arise out of a grudge or quarrel. There were three or four other
+cases that illustrate this origin of the charge. The first is that of
+Johanna Harrison--she has been mentioned in the previous chapter--who
+had an "altercation" with a neighbor. Of course she threatened him, he
+fell ill, and he scratched her.[20] But here the commonplace tale takes
+a new turn. She had him arrested and was awarded five shillings damages
+and her costs of suit. No wonder the man fell sick again. Perhaps--but
+this cannot be certain--it was the same man who was drinking his ale one
+day with his fellows when she entered and stood "gloating" over him. He
+turned and said, "Doe you heare, Witch, looke tother waies." The woman
+berated him with angry words, and, feeling ill the next morning--he had
+been drinking heavily the night before--he dragged her off to the
+justice. A few weeks later she and her daughter were hanged at
+Hertford.[21]
+
+The story of Mother Sutton and Master Enger has been referred to in
+several connections, but it will bear telling in narrative form. Mother
+Sutton was a poor tenant of Master Enger's, "a gentleman of worship,"
+who often bestowed upon her "food and cloathes." On account of her want
+she had been chosen village "hog-heard," and had for twenty years
+fulfilled the duties of her office "not without commendations." But it
+happened that she quarreled one day with her benefactor, and then his
+difficulties began. The tale is almost too trivial for repetition, but
+is nevertheless characteristic. Master Enger's servants were taking some
+corn to market, when they met "a faire black sowe" grazing. The wayward
+beast began turning round "as readily as a Windmill sail at worke; and
+as sodainly their horses fell to starting and drawing some one way, some
+another." They started off with the cart of corn, but broke from it and
+ran away. The servants caught them and went on to Bedford with the load.
+But the sow followed. When the corn had been sold, one of the servants
+went home, the other stayed with his "boone companions." When he rode
+home later, he found the sow grazing outside of town. It ran by his
+side, and the horses ran away again. But the servants watched the sow
+and saw it enter Mother Sutton's house. Master Enger made light of the
+story when it was told to him, and, with remarkable insight for a
+character in a witch story, "supposed they were drunke." But a few days
+later the same servant fell into conversation with Mother Sutton, when a
+beetle came and struck him. He fell into a trance, and then went home
+and told his master. The next night the servant said that Mary Sutton
+entered his room--the vision we have already described.[22]
+
+The rest of the story the reader knows from the last chapter. Mother
+Sutton and her daughter were put to various ordeals and at length
+hanged. Doubtless the imaginative servant, who had in some way, perhaps,
+been involved in the original quarrel, gained favor with his master, and
+standing in the community.[23]
+
+The tale of the Bakewell witches is a very curious one and, though not
+to be confidently depended upon, may suggest how it was possible to
+avail oneself of superstition in order to repay a grudge. A Scotchman
+staying at a lodging-house in Bakewell fell in debt to his landlady, who
+retained some of his clothes as security. He went to London, concealed
+himself in a cellar, and was there found by a watchman, who arrested him
+for being in an unoccupied house with felonious intent. He professed to
+be dazed and declared that he was at Bakewell in Derbyshire at three
+o'clock that morning. He explained it by the fact that he had repeated
+certain words which he had heard his lodging-house keeper and her sister
+say. The judge was amazed, the man's depositions were taken down, and he
+was sent to the justices of Derby.
+
+All that we really know about the Bakewell affair is that several
+witches probably suffered death there in 1607. A local antiquarian has
+given this tale of how the alarm started.[24] While it is unlike any
+other narrative of witchcraft, it is not necessarily without foundation.
+
+The reader has doubtless observed that the cases which we have been
+describing occurred, all of them with one exception, between 1603 and
+1619. In discussing the matter of the distribution of witchcraft in the
+last chapter we noted that not only executions for the crime, but even
+accusations and indictments, were nearly altogether limited to the first
+fifteen years of James's rule. If it is true that there was a rather
+sudden falling off of prosecution in the reign of the zealous James, the
+fact merits explanation. Fortunately the explanation is not far to seek.
+The king's faith in the verity of many of the charges made against
+witches had been rudely shaken. As a matter of fact there had always
+been a grain of skepticism in his make-up. This had come out even before
+he entered England. In 1597 he had become alarmed at the spread of
+trials in Scotland and had revoked all the commissions then in force for
+the trial of the offence.[25] At the very time when he became king of
+England, there were special circumstances that must have had weight with
+him. Throughout the last years of Elizabeth's reign there had been, as
+we have seen, a morbid interest in demoniacal possession, an interest to
+which sensation-mongers were quickly minded to respond. We saw that at
+the end of the sixteenth century the Anglican church stepped in to put
+down the exorcizing of spirits,[26] largely perhaps because it had been
+carried on by Catholics and by a Puritan clergyman. Yet neither
+Harsnett's book nor Darrel's imprisonment quite availed to end a
+practice which offered at all times to all comers a path to notoriety.
+James had not been on the English throne a year when he became
+interested in a case of this kind. Mary Glover, a girl alleged to have
+been bewitched by a Mother Jackson, was at the king's wish examined by a
+skilled physician, Dr. Edward Jorden, who recognized her fits as
+disease, brought the girl to a confession, published an account of the
+matter, and so saved the life of the woman whom she had accused.[27]
+
+In the very next year there was a case at Cambridge that gained royal
+notice. It is not easy to straighten out the facts from the letters on
+the matter, but it seems that two Cambridge maids had a curious disease
+suggesting bewitchment.[28] A Franciscan and a Puritan clergyman were,
+along with others, suspected. The matter was at once referred to the
+king and the government. James directed that examinations be made and
+reported to him. This was done. James wormed out of the "principal" some
+admission of former dealing with conjuration, but turned the whole thing
+over to the courts, where it seems later to have been established that
+the disease of the bewitched maidens was "naturall."
+
+These were but the first of several impostures that interested the king.
+A girl at Windsor, another in Hertfordshire, were possessed by the
+Devil,[29] two maids at Westminster were "in raptures from the Virgin
+Mary and Michael the Archangel,"[30] a priest of Leicestershire was
+"possessed of the Blessed Trinity."[31] Such cases--not to mention the
+Grace Sowerbutts confessions at Lancaster that were like to end so
+tragically--were the excrescences of an intensely religious age. The
+reader of early colonial diaries in America will recognize the
+resemblance of these to the wonders they report. James took such with
+extreme seriousness.[32] The possessed person was summoned to court for
+exhibition, or the king went out of his way to see him. It is a matter
+of common information that James prided himself on his cleverness.
+Having succeeded in detecting certain frauds, he became an expert
+detective. In one instance "he ordered it so that a proper courtier made
+love to one of these bewitched maids"[33] and soon got her over her
+troubles. In another case a woman "strangely affected" by the first
+verse of John's Gospel failed to recognize it when read in Greek,[34]
+proof positive that the omniscient Devil did not possess her.
+
+Three instances of exposure of imposture were most notable, those of
+Grace Sowerbutts, the boy at Leicester, and the "Boy of Bilston." The
+first of these has already been sufficiently discussed in connection
+with the Lancashire trials. The second had nothing remarkable about it.
+A twelve or thirteen-year-old boy had fits which he said were caused by
+spirits sent by several women whom he accused as witches. Nine women
+were hanged, while six more were under arrest and would probably have
+met the same end, had not the king in his northward progress, while
+stopping at Leicester, detected the shamming.[35] Whether or no the boy
+was punished we are not told. It is some satisfaction that the judges
+were disgraced.[36]
+
+The boy of Bilston was, if Webster may be believed,[37] the most famous,
+if not the most successful, fraud of all. The case was heralded over the
+entire realm and thousands came to see. The story is almost an exact
+duplicate of earlier narratives of possession. A thirteen-year-old boy
+of Bilston in Staffordshire, William Perry, began to have fits and to
+accuse a Jane Clarke, whose presence invariably made him worse. He "cast
+out of his mouth rags, thred, straw, crooked pins." These were but
+single deceptions in a repertoire of varied tricks. Doubtless he had
+been trained in his rôle by a Roman priest. At any rate the Catholics
+tried exorcism upon him, but to no purpose. Perhaps some Puritans
+experimented with cures which had like result.[38] The boy continued his
+spasms and his charges against the witch and she was brought into court
+at the July assizes. But Bishop Morton,[39] before whose chancellor the
+boy had first been brought, was present, and the judges turned the boy
+over to him for further investigation.[40] Then, with the help of his
+secretary, he set about to test the boy, and readily exposed his
+deception--in most curious fashion too. The boy, like one we have met
+before, could not endure the first verse of John's Gospel, but failed to
+recognize it when read in the Greek. After that he was secretly watched
+and his somewhat elaborate preparations for his pretences were found
+out. He was persuaded to confess his trickery in court before Sir Peter
+Warburton and Sir Humphrey Winch, "and the face of the County and
+Country there assembled,"[41] as well as to beg forgiveness of the women
+whom he had accused.
+
+It will be seen that the records of imposture were well on their way to
+rival the records of witchcraft, if not in numbers, at least in the
+notice that they received. And the king who had so bitterly arraigned
+Reginald Scot was himself becoming the discoverer-general of
+England.[42] It is not, then, without being forewarned that we read
+Fuller's remarkable statement about the king's change of heart. "The
+frequency of such forged possessions wrought such an alteration upon the
+judgement of King James that he, receding from what he had written in
+his 'Dćmonology,' grew first diffident of, and then flatly to deny, the
+workings of witches and devils, as but falsehoods and delusions."[43] In
+immediate connection with this must be quoted what Francis Osborne has
+to say.[44] He was told, he writes, that the king would have gone as far
+as to deny any such operations, but out of reasons of state and to
+gratify the church.[45]
+
+Such a conversion is so remarkable that we could wish we had absolutely
+contemporary statements of it. As a matter of fact, the statements we
+have quoted establish nothing more than a probability, but they
+certainly do establish that. Fuller, the church historian, responsible
+for the first of the two statements, was a student in Queen's
+College[46] at Cambridge during the last four years of James's reign;
+Osborne was a man of thirty-two when the king died, and had spent a
+part of his young manhood at the court. Their testimony was that of men
+who had every opportunity to know about the king's change of
+opinion.[47] In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, we must
+accept, at least provisionally, their statements.[48] And it is easier
+to do so in view of the marked falling off of prosecutions that we have
+already noted. This indeed is confirmation of a negative sort; but we
+have one interesting bit of affirmative proof, the outcome of the trials
+at York in 1622. In that year the children of Mr. Edward Fairfax, a
+member of the historic Fairfax family of Yorkshire, were seized with
+some strange illness, in which they saw again and again the spectres of
+six different women. These women were examined by the justices of the
+peace and committed to the assizes.[49] In the mean time they had found
+able and vigorous defenders in the community. What happened at the April
+assizes we no not know, but we know that four of the women were
+released, two of them on bond.[50] This was probably a compromise method
+of settling the matter. Fairfax was not satisfied. Probably through his
+influence the women were again brought up at the August assizes.[51]
+Then, at least, as we know beyond a doubt, they were formally tried,
+this time upon indictments preferred by Fairfax himself.[52] The judge
+warned the jury to be very careful, and, after hearing some of the
+evidence, dismissed the women on the ground that the evidence "reached
+not to the point of the statute."[53] This seems significant. A man of a
+well known county family was utterly baffled in pressing charges in a
+case where his own children were involved.[54] It looks as if there were
+judges who were following the king's lead in looking out for
+imposture.[55] In any case there was, in certain quarters, a public
+sentiment against the conviction of witches, a sentiment that made
+itself felt. This we shall have occasion to note again in following out
+the currents and fluctuations of opinions.
+
+
+[1] Of course the proof that some of the accused really made pretensions
+to magic rests upon their own confessions and their accusations of one
+another, and might be a part of an intricate tissue of falsehood. But,
+granting for the moment the absolute untrustworthiness of the
+confessions and accusations there are incidental statements which imply
+the practice of magic. For example, Elizabeth Device's young daughter
+quoted a long charm which she said her mother had taught her and which
+she hardly invented on the spur of the moment. And Demdike was requested
+to "amend a sick cow."
+
+[2] The gunpowder plot, seven years earlier, no doubt gave direction to
+this plan, or, perhaps it would be better to say, gave the idea to those
+who confessed the plan.
+
+[3] James Crossley seems to believe that there was "some scintilla of
+truth" behind the story. See his edition of Potts, notes, p. 40.
+
+[4] Among those who never confessed seems to have been Chattox's
+daughter, Anne Redfearne.
+
+[5] See above, p. 116.
+
+[6] It is a satisfaction to know that Alice died "impenitent," and that
+not even her children could "move her to confesse."
+
+[7] See above, pp. 112-113, and Potts, Q-Q verso.
+
+[8] See Potts, I.
+
+[9] It can hardly be doubted that the children had been thoroughly
+primed with the stories in circulation against their mother.
+
+[10] Other witnesses charged her with "many strange practises."
+
+[11] The principle that a man's life may not twice be put in jeopardy
+for the same offence had been pretty well established before 1612. See
+Darly's Case, 25 Eliz. (1583), Coke's _Reports_ (ed. Thomas and Fraser,
+London, 1826), IV, f. 40; Vaux's Case, 33 Eliz. (1591), _ibid._, f. 45;
+Wrote _vs._ Wiggs, 33 Eliz. (1591), _ibid._, f. 47. This principle had
+been in process of development for several centuries. See Bracton (ed.
+Sir Travers Twiss, London, 1878-1883), II, 417, 433, 437; Britton (ed.
+F. M. Nichols, Oxford, 1865), bk. I, cap. xxiv, 5, f. 44 b.
+
+It must be noted, however, that the statute of 3 Hen. VII, cap. II,
+provides that indictments shall be proceeded in, immediately, at the
+king's suit, for the death of a man, without waiting for bringing an
+appeal; and that the plea of _antefort acquit_ in an indictment shall be
+no bar to the prosecuting of an appeal. This law was passed to get
+around special legal inconvenience and related only to homicide and to
+the single case of prosecution by appeal. In general, then, we may say
+that the former-jeopardy doctrine was part of the common law, (1) an
+appeal of felony being a bar to subsequent appeal or indictment, (2) an
+indictment a bar to a subsequent indictment, and (3) an indictment to a
+subsequent appeal, except so far as the statute of 3 Hen. VII., cap. II,
+changed the law as respects homicides. For this brief statement I am
+indebted to Professor William Underhill Moore of the University of
+Wisconsin.
+
+What Potts has to say about Anne Redfearne's case hardly enables us to
+reach a conclusion about the legal aspect of it.
+
+[12] This is the story in the MS. account (Brit. Mus., Sloane, 972). The
+printed narrative of the origin of the affair is somewhat different.
+Joan had on one occasion been struck by Mistress Belcher for unbecoming
+behavior and had cherished a grudge. No doubt this was a point recalled
+against Joan after suspicion had been directed against her.
+
+[13] In John Cotta's _The Triall of Witchcraft ..._ (London, 1616),
+66-67, there is a very interesting statement which probably refers to
+this case. Cotta, it will be remembered, was a physician at Northampton.
+He wrote: "There is a very rare, but true, description of a Gentlewoman,
+about sixe yeares past, cured of divers kinds of convulsions, ... After
+she was almost cured, ... but the cure not fully accomplished, it was by
+a reputed Wisard whispered ... that the Gentlewoman was meerely
+bewitched, supposed Witches were accused and after executed.... In this
+last past seventh yeare ... fits are critically again returned." Cotta
+says six years ago and the Northampton trials were in 1612, four years
+before. It is quite possible, however, that Mistress Belcher began to be
+afflicted in 1610.
+
+[14] One of these was Sir Gilbert Pickering of Tichmarsh, almost
+certainly the Gilbert Pickering mentioned as an uncle of the
+Throckmorton children at Warboys. See above, pp. 47-48. His hatred of
+witches had no doubt been increased by that affair.
+
+[15] See what is said of spectral evidence in chapter V, above.
+
+[16] At least there is no evidence that Alice Abbott, Catherine
+Gardiner, and Alice Harris, whom he accused, were punished in any way.
+
+[17] It seems, however, that Arthur Bill, while he sturdily denied
+guilt, had been before trapped into some sort of an admission. He had
+"unawares confest that he had certaine spirits at command." But this may
+mean nothing more than that something he had said had been grossly
+misinterpreted.
+
+[18] Three women of Leicestershire, Anne Baker, Joan Willimot, and Ellen
+Greene, who in their confessions implicated the Flowers (they belonged
+to parishes neighbor to that of Belvoir, which lies on the shire border)
+and whose testimony against them figured in their trials, were at the
+same time (Feb.-March, 1618/19) under examination in that county.
+Whether these women were authors or victims of the Belvoir suspicions we
+do not know. As we have their damning confessions, there is small doubt
+as to their fate.
+
+[19] The women were tried in March, 1618/19. Henry, the elder son of the
+earl, was buried at Bottesford, September 26, 1613. John Nichols,
+_History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester_ (London,
+1795-1815), II, pt. i, 49, note 10. Francis, the second, lingered till
+early in 1620. His sister, Lady Katherine, whose delicate health had
+also been ascribed to the witches, was now the heiress, and became in
+that year the bride of Buckingham, the king's favorite. There is one
+aspect of this affair that must not be overlooked. The accusation
+against the Flowers cannot have been unknown to the king, who was a
+frequent visitor at the seat of the Rutlands. It is hard to believe that
+under such circumstances the use of torture, which James had declared
+essential to bring out the guilt of the accused witches, was not after
+some fashion resorted to. The weird and uncanny confessions go far
+towards supporting such an hypothesis.
+
+[20] _The Most Cruell and Bloody Murther committed by ... Annis Dell,
+... with the severall Witch-crafts ... of one Johane Harrison and her
+Daughter_, 63.
+
+[21] This story must be accepted with hesitation; see below, appendix A,
+§3.
+
+[22] See above, pp. 110-111.
+
+[23] The trial of Elizabeth Sawyer at Edmonton in 1621 had to do with
+similar trivialities. Agnes Ratcliffe was washing one day, when a sow
+belonging to Elizabeth licked up a bit of her washing soap. She struck
+it with a "washing beetle." Of course she fell sick, and on her
+death-bed accused Mistress Elizabeth Sawyer, who was afterwards hanged.
+
+[24] See T. Tindall Wildridge, in William Andrews, _Bygone Derbyshire_
+(Derby, 1892), 180-184. It has been impossible to locate the sources of
+this story. J. Charles Cox, who explored the Derby records, seems never
+to have discovered anything about the affair.
+
+[25] See F. Legge, "Witchcraft in Scotland," in the _Scottish Review_,
+XVIII, 264.
+
+[26] See above, ch. IV, especially note 36.
+
+[27] On Mary Glover see also appendix A, § 2. On other impostures see
+Thomas Fuller, _Church History of Britain_ (London, 1655; Oxford, ed. J.
+S. Brewer, 1845), ed. of 1845, V, 450; letters given by Edmund Lodge,
+_Illustrations of British History, Biography and Manners ..._ (London,
+1791), III, 275, 284, 287-288; also _King James, His Apothegms, by B.
+A., Gent._ (London, 1643), 8-10.
+
+[28] _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1603-1610_, 218.
+
+[29] Fuller, _op. cit._, V, 450.
+
+[30] _Ibid._; John Gee, _The Foot out of the Snare, or Detection of
+Practices and Impostures of Priests and Jesuits in England ..._ (London,
+1624), reprinted in _Somers Tracts_, III, 72.
+
+[31] _Ibid._; Fuller, _op. cit._, V, 450.
+
+[32] How much more seriously than his courtiers is suggested by an
+anecdote of Sir John Harington's: James gravely questioned Sir John why
+the Devil did work more with ancient women than with others. "We are
+taught thereof in Scripture," gaily answered Sir John, "where it is told
+that the Devil walketh in dry places." See his _Nugć Antiquć_ (London,
+1769), ed. of London, 1804, I, 368-369.
+
+[33] Fuller, _op. cit._, V, 451.
+
+[34] _Ibid._
+
+[35] The story of the hangings at Leicester in 1616 has to be put
+together from various sources. Our principal authority, however, is in
+two letters written by Robert Heyrick of Leicester to his brother
+William in 1616, which are to be found in John Nichols, _History and
+Antiquities of the County of Leicester_ (London, 1795-1815), II, pt. ii,
+471, and in the _Annual Register_ for 1800. See also William Kelly,
+_Royal Progresses to Leicester_ (Leicester, 1884), 367-369. Probably
+this is the case referred to by Francis Osborne, where the boy was sent
+to the Archbishop of Canterbury for further examination. Osborne, who
+wrote a good deal later than the events, apparently confused the story
+of the Leicester witches with that of the Boy of Bilston--their origins
+were similar--and produced a strange account; see his _Miscellany of
+Sundry Essays, Paradoxes and Problematicall Discourses_ (London,
+1658-1659), 6-9.
+
+[36] For the disgrace of the judges see _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1611-1618_,
+398.
+
+[37] Webster knew Bishop Morton, and also his secretary, Baddeley, who
+had been notary in the case and had written an account of it. See John
+Webster, _The Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft_ (London, 1677), 275.
+
+[38] The Catholics declared that the Puritans tried "syllabub" upon him.
+This was perhaps a sarcastic reference to their attempts to cure him by
+medicine.
+
+[39] Then of Lichfield.
+
+[40] Baddeley, who was Bishop Morton's secretary and who prepared the
+narrative of the affair for the printer, says that the woman was freed
+by the inquest; Ryc. Baddeley, _The Boy of Bilson ..._ (London, 1622),
+61. Arthur Wilson, who tells us that he heard the story "from the
+Bishop's own mouth almost thirty years before it was inserted here,"
+says that the woman was found guilty and condemned to die; Arthur
+Wilson, _Life and Reign of James I_ (London, 1653), 107. It is evident
+that Baddeley's story is the more trustworthy. It is of course possible,
+although not probable, that there were two trials, and that Baddeley
+ignored the second one, the outcome of which would have been less
+creditable to the bishop.
+
+[41] Webster, _Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft_, 275.
+
+[42] See Fairfax, _A Discourse of Witchcraft_ (Philobiblon Soc.): "and
+those whose impostures our wise King so lately laid open." See also an
+interesting letter from James himself in J. O. Halliwell, _Letters of
+the Kings of England_ (London, 1846), II, 124-125.
+
+[43] Fuller, _Church History of Britain_, V, 452 (ch. X, sect. 4). It is
+worthy of note that Peter Heylyn, who, in his _Examen Historicum_
+(London, 1659), sought to pick Fuller to pieces, does not mention this
+point.
+
+[44] See Francis Osborne, _Miscellany_, 4-9. Lucy Aikin, _Memoirs of the
+Court of King James the First_ (London, 1823), II, 398-399, gives about
+the same story as Fuller and Osborne, and, while the wording is slightly
+different, it is probable that they were her sources.
+
+[45] Arthur Wilson, _op. cit._, 111, tells us: "The King took delight by
+the line of his reason to sound the depth of such brutish impostors, and
+he discovered many." A writer to the _Gentleman's Magazine_ (LIV, pt. I,
+246-247), in 1784, says that he has somewhere read that King James on
+his death-bed acknowledged that he had been deceived in his opinion
+respecting witchcraft and expressed his concern that so many innocent
+persons had suffered on that account. But, as he has forgotten where he
+read it, his evidence is of course of small value.
+
+[46] The college where an annual sermon was preached on the subject of
+witchcraft since the Warboys affair.
+
+[47] Osborne's statement should perhaps be discounted a little on
+account of his skepticism. On the other hand he was not such an admirer
+of James I as to have given him undue credit. Fuller's opinion was
+divided.
+
+[48] James still believed in witchcraft in 1613, when the malodorous
+divorce trial of Lady Essex took place. A careful reading of his words
+at that time, however, leaves the impression that he was not nearly so
+certain about the possibilities of witchcraft as he had been when he
+wrote his book. His position was clearly defensive. It must be
+remembered that James in 1613 had a point to be gained and would not
+have allowed a possible doubt as to witchcraft to interfere with his
+wish for the divorce. See Howell, _State Trials_, II, 806.
+
+[49] One of them was publicly searched by command of a justice. See
+Fairfax, _op. cit._, 138-139.
+
+[50] _Ibid._, 205. Two of the women had gone home before, _ibid._, 180.
+
+[51] _Ibid._, 225-234.
+
+[52] _Ibid._, 234.
+
+[53] _Ibid._, 237-238. If the women were tried twice, it seems a clear
+violation of the principle of former jeopardy. See above, note 11. The
+statute of 3 Hen. VII, cap. I, that the plea of _antefort acquit_ was no
+bar to the prosecution of an appeal, would not apply in this instance,
+as that statute was limited to cases of _homicide_.
+
+[54] Fairfax was moreover a man for whom the king had a high personal
+regard.
+
+[55] At the August assizes there had been an effort to show that the
+children were "counterfeiting." See the _Discourse_, 235-237.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE LANCASHIRE WITCHES AND CHARLES I.
+
+
+In his attitude towards superstition, Charles I resembled the later
+rather than the earlier James I. No reign up to the Revolution was
+marked by so few executions. It was a time of comparative quiet. Here
+and there isolated murmurs against suspected creatures of the Devil
+roused the justices of the peace to write letters, and even to make
+inquiries that as often as not resulted in indefinite commitments, or
+brought out the protests of neighbors in favor of the accused. But, if
+there were not many cases, they represented a wide area. Middlesex,
+Wilts, Somerset, Leicestershire, Staffordshire, Lancashire, Durham,
+Yorkshire, and Northumberland were among the counties infested. Yet we
+can count but six executions, and only four of them rest upon secure
+evidence.[1] This is of course to reckon the reign of Charles as not
+extending beyond 1642, when the Civil War broke out and the Puritan
+leaders assumed responsibility for the government.
+
+Up to that time there was but one really notable witch alarm in England.
+But it was one that illustrated again, as in Essex, the continuity of
+the superstition in a given locality. The Lancashire witches of 1633
+were the direct outcome of the Lancashire witches of 1612. The story is
+a weird one. An eleven-year-old boy played truant one day to his
+cattle-herding, and, as he afterwards told the story, went
+plum-gathering. When he came back he had to find a plausible excuse to
+present to his parents. Now, the lad had been brought up in the
+Blackburn forest, close to Pendle Hill; he had overheard stories of
+Malking Tower[2] from the chatter of gossipping women;[3] he had
+shivered as suspected women were pointed out to him; he knew the names
+of some of them. His imagination, in search for an excuse, caught at the
+witch motive[4] and elaborated it with the easy invention of youth.[5]
+He had seen two greyhounds come running towards him. They looked like
+those owned by two of his neighbors. When he saw that no one was
+following them, he set out to hunt with them, and presently a hare rose
+very near before him, at the sight whereof he cried "Loo, Loo," but the
+dogs would not run. Being very angry, he tied them to a little bush in
+the hedge and beat them, and at once, instead of the black greyhound,
+"one Dickonson's wife" stood up, and instead of the brown greyhound "a
+little boy whom this informer knoweth not." He started to run away, but
+the woman stayed him and offered him a piece of silver "much like to a
+faire shillinge" if he would not betray her. The conscientious boy
+answered "Nay, thou art a witch," "whereupon shee put her hand into her
+pocket againe and pulled out a stringe like unto a bridle that gingled,
+which shee put upon the litle boyes heade that stood up in the browne
+greyhounds steade, whereupon the said boy stood up a white horse." In
+true Arabian Nights fashion they mounted and rode away. They came to a
+new house called Hoarstones, where there were three score or more
+people, and horses of several colors, and a fire with meat roasting.
+They had flesh and bread upon a trencher and they drank from glasses.
+After the first taste the boy "refused and would have noe more, and said
+it was nought." There were other refreshments at the feast. The boy was,
+as he afterwards confessed, familiar with the story of the feast at
+Malking Tower.[6]
+
+The names of those present he did not volunteer at first; but, on being
+questioned, he named eighteen[7] whom he had seen. The boy confessed
+that he had been clever enough to make most of his list from those who
+were already suspected by their neighbors.
+
+It needed but a match to set off the flame of witch-hatred in
+Lancashire. The boy's story was quite sufficient. Whether his narrative
+was a spontaneous invention of his own, concocted in emergency, as he
+asserted in his confession at London, or whether it was a carefully
+constructed lie taught him by his father in order to revenge himself
+upon some hated neighbors, and perhaps to exact blackmail, as some of
+the accused later charged, we shall never know. In later life the boy is
+said to have admitted that he had been set on by his father,[8] but the
+narrative possesses certain earmarks of a story struck out by a child's
+imagination.[9] It is easy enough to reconcile the two theories by
+supposing that the boy started the story of his own initiative and that
+his father was too shrewd not to realize the opportunity to make a
+sensation and perhaps some money. He took the boy before justices of the
+peace, who, with the zeal their predecessors had displayed twenty-two
+years before, made many arrests.[10] The boy was exhibited from town to
+town in Lancashire as a great wonder and witch-detector. It was in the
+course of these exhibitions that he was brought to a little town on the
+Lancashire border of Yorkshire and was taken to the afternoon church
+service, where a young minister, who was long afterwards to become a
+famous opponent of the superstition, was discoursing to his
+congregation. The boy was held up by those in charge as if to give him
+the chance to detect witches among the audience. The minister saw him,
+and at the end of the service at once came down to the boy, and without
+parley asked him, "Good boy, tell me truly, and in earnest, didst thou
+see and hear such things of the meeting of the witches as is reported by
+many that thou dost relate?" The boy, as Webster has told the story, was
+not given time for reply by the men in charge of him, who protested
+against such questions. The lad, they said, had been before two justices
+of the peace, and had not been catechized in that fashion.[11]
+
+A lone skeptic had little chance to beat back the wave of excitement
+created by the young Robinson's stories. His success prompted him to
+concoct new tales.[12] He had seen Lloynd's wife sitting on a cross-bar
+in his father's chimney; he had called to her; she had not come down but
+had vanished in the air. Other accounts the boy gave, but none of them
+revealed the clear invention of his first narrative.
+
+He had done his work. The justices of the peace were bringing in the
+accused to the assizes at Lancaster. There Robinson was once more called
+upon to render his now famous testimony. He was supported by his
+father,[13] who gave evidence that on the day he had sent his boy for
+the cattle he had gone after him and as he approached had heard him cry
+and had found him quite "distracted." When the boy recovered himself, he
+had related the story already told. This was the evidence of the father,
+and together with that of the son it constituted the most telling piece
+of testimony presented. But it served, as was usual in such cases, as an
+opening for all those who, for any reason, thought they had grounds of
+suspicion against any of their neighbors. It was recalled by one witness
+that a neighbor girl could bewitch a pail and make it roll towards her.
+We shall later have occasion to note the basis of fact behind this
+curious accusation. There was other testimony of an equally damaging
+character. But in nearly all the cases stress was laid upon the bodily
+marks. In one instance, indeed, nothing else was charged.[14] The reader
+will remember that in the Lancaster cases of 1612 the evidence of marks
+on the body was notably absent, so notably that we were led to suspect
+that it had been ruled out by the judge. That such evidence was now
+reckoned important is proof that this particularly dark feature of the
+witch superstition was receiving increasing emphasis.
+
+How many in all were accused we do not know. Webster, writing later,
+said that seventeen were found guilty.[15] It is possible that even a
+larger number were acquitted. Certainly some were acquitted. A
+distinction of some sort was made in the evidence. This makes it all the
+harder to understand why the truth of Robinson's stories was not tested
+in the same way in which those of Grace Sowerbutts had been tested in
+1612. Did that detection of fraud never occur to the judges, or had they
+never heard of the famous boy at Bilston? Perhaps not they but the
+juries were to blame, for it seems that the court was not altogether
+satisfied with the jury's verdict and delayed sentence. Perhaps, indeed,
+the judges wrote to London about the matter. Be that as it may, the
+privy council decided to take cognizance of an affair that was already
+the talk of the realm.[16] Secretaries Coke and Windebank sent
+instructions to Henry Bridgeman, Bishop of Chester and successor to that
+Morton who had exposed the boy of Bilston, to examine seven of the
+condemned witches and to make a report.[17] Bridgeman doubtless knew of
+his predecessor's success in exposing fraudulent accusations. Before the
+bishop was ready to report, His Majesty sent orders that three or four
+of the accused should be brought up to London by a writ of habeas
+corpus. Owing to a neglect to insert definite names, there was a
+delay.[18] It was during this interval, probably, that Bishop Bridgeman
+was able to make his examination. He found three of the seven already
+dead and one hopelessly ill. The other three he questioned with great
+care. Two of them, Mary Spencer, a girl of twenty, and Frances
+Dickonson, the first whom Robinson had accused, made spirited denials.
+Mary Spencer avowed that her accusers had been actuated by malice
+against her and her parents for several years. At the trial, she had
+been unable, she said, to answer for herself, because the noise of the
+crowd had been so great as to prevent her from hearing the evidence
+against her. As for the charge of bewitching a pail so that it came
+running towards her of its own accord, she declared that she used as a
+child to roll a pail down-hill and to call it after her as she ran, a
+perfectly natural piece of child's play. Frances Dickonson, too, charged
+malice upon her accusers, especially upon the father of Edmund Robinson.
+Her husband, she said, had been unwilling to sell him a cow without
+surety and had so gained his ill-will. She went on to assert that the
+elder Robinson had volunteered to withdraw the charges against her if
+her husband would pay him forty shillings. This counter charge was
+supported by another witness and seemed to make a good deal of an
+impression on the ecclesiastic.
+
+The third woman to be examined by the bishop was a widow of sixty, who
+had not been numbered among the original seventeen witches. She
+acknowledged that she was a witch, but was, wrote the bishop, "more
+often faulting in the particulars of her actions as one having a strong
+imagination of the former, but of too weak a memory to retain or relate
+the latter." The woman told a commonplace story of a man in black attire
+who had come to her six years before and made the usual contract. But
+very curiously she could name only one other witch, and professed to
+know none of those already in gaol.
+
+Such were the results of the examinations sent in by the bishop. In the
+letter which he sent along, he expressed doubt about the whole matter.
+"Conceit and malice," he wrote, "are so powerful with many in those
+parts that they will easily afford an oath to work revenge upon their
+neighbour." He would, he intimated, have gone further in examining the
+counter charges brought by the accused, had it not been that he
+hesitated to proceed against the king, that is, the prosecution.
+
+This report doubtless confirmed the fears of the government. The writs
+to the sheriff of Lancaster were redirected, and four of the women were
+brought up to London and carried to the "Ship Tavern" at Greenwich,
+close to one of the royal residences.[19] Two of His Majesty's surgeons,
+Alexander Baker and Sir William Knowles, the latter of whom was
+accustomed to examine candidates for the king's touch, together with
+five other surgeons and ten certificated midwives, were now ordered to
+make a bodily examination of the women, under the direction of the
+eminent Harvey,[20] the king's physician, who was later to discover the
+circulation of the blood. In the course of this chapter we shall see
+that Harvey had long cherished misgivings about witchcraft. Probably by
+this time he had come to disbelieve it. One can but wonder if Charles,
+already probably aware of Harvey's views, had not intended from his
+first step in the Lancashire case to give his physician a chance to
+assert his opinion. In any case his report and that of his subordinates
+was entirely in favor of the women, except that in the case of Margaret
+Johnson (who had confessed) they had found a mark, but one to which they
+attached little significance.[21] The women seem to have been carried
+before the king himself.[22] We do not know, however, that he expressed
+any opinion on the matter.
+
+The whole affair has one aspect that has been entirely overlooked.
+Whatever the verdict of the privy council and of the king may have
+been--and it was evidently one of caution--they gave authorization from
+the highest quarters for the use of the test of marks on the body. That
+proof of witchcraft had been long known in England and had slowly won
+its way into judicial procedure until now it was recognized by the
+highest powers in the kingdom. To be sure, it was probably their purpose
+to annul the reckless convictions in Lancashire, and to break down the
+evidence of the female juries; but in doing so they furnished a
+precedent for the witch procedure of the civil-war period.
+
+In the mean time, while the surgeons and midwives were busy over these
+four women, the Robinsons, father and son, had come to London at the
+summons of the privy council.[23] There the boy was separated from his
+father. To a Middlesex justice of the peace appointed by Secretary
+Windebank to take his statements he confessed that his entire story was
+an invention and had no basis of fact whatever.[24] Both father and son
+were imprisoned and proceedings seem to have been instituted against
+them by one of the now repentant jurymen who had tried the case.[25] How
+long they were kept in prison we do not know.
+
+One would naturally suppose that the women would be released on their
+return to Lancaster, but the sheriff's records show that two years later
+there were still nine witches in gaol.[26] Three of them bore the same
+names as those whom Robinson pretended to have seen at Hoarstones. At
+least one other of the nine had been convicted in 1634, probably more.
+Margaret Johnson, the single one to confess, so far as we know, was not
+there. She had probably died in prison in the mean time. We have no clue
+as to why the women were not released. Perhaps public sentiment at home
+made the sheriff unwilling to do it, perhaps the wretched creatures
+spent two or more years in prison--for we do not know when they got
+out--as a result of judicial negligence, a negligence of which there are
+too many examples in the records of the time. More likely the king and
+the privy council, while doubting the charges against the women, had
+been reluctant to antagonize public sentiment by declaring them
+innocent.
+
+It is disagreeable to have to state that Lancaster was not yet through
+with its witches. Early in the next year the Bishop of Chester was again
+called upon by the privy council to look into the cases of four women.
+There was some delay, during which a dispute took place between the
+bishop and the sheriff as to where the bishop should examine the
+witches, whether at Wigan, as he proposed, or at Lancaster.[27] One
+suspects that the civil authorities of the Duchy of Lancaster may have
+resented the bishop's part in the affair. When Bridgeman arrived in
+Lancaster he found two of the women already dead. Of the other two, the
+one, he wrote, was accused by a man formerly "distracted and lunatic"
+and by a woman who was a common beggar; the other had been long reputed
+a witch, but he saw no reason to believe it. He had, he admitted, found
+a small lump of flesh on her right ear.[28] Alas that the Bishop of
+Chester, like the king and the privy council, however much he discounted
+the accusations of witchcraft, had not yet wholly rid himself of one of
+the darkest and most disagreeable forms of the belief that the Evil One
+had bodily communication with his subjects.
+
+In one respect the affair of 1633-1634 in northern England was singular.
+The social and moral character of those accused was distinctly high. Not
+that they belonged to any but the peasant class, but that they
+represented a good type of farming people. Frances Dickonson's husband
+evidently had some property. Mary Spencer insisted that she was
+accustomed to go to church and to repeat the sermon to her parents, and
+that she was not afraid of death, for she hoped it would make an
+entrance for her into heaven. Margaret Johnson was persuaded that a man
+and his wife who were in the gaol on Robinson's charges were not
+witches, because the man "daily prays and reads and seems a godly man."
+With this evidence of religious life, which must have meant something as
+to the status of the people in the community, should be coupled the
+entire absence of stories of threats at beggars and of quarrels between
+bad-tempered and loose-lived women, stories that fill so many dreary
+pages of witchcraft records. Nor is there any mention of the practice of
+pretended magic.
+
+In previous chapters we have had occasion to observe the continuity of
+superstition in certain localities. It is obvious that Lancashire offers
+one of the best illustrations of that principle. The connection between
+the alarms of 1612 and 1633-1634 is not a matter of theory, but can be
+established by definite proof. It is perhaps not out of order to
+inquire, then, why Lancashire should have been so infested with
+witches. It is the more necessary when we consider that there were other
+witch cases in the country. Nicholas Starchie's children gave rise to
+the first of the scares. It seems likely that a certain Utley was hanged
+at Lancaster in 1630 for bewitching a gentleman's child.[29] During
+Commonwealth days, as we shall find, there was an alarm at Lancaster
+that probably cost two witches their lives. No county in England except
+Essex had a similar record. No explanation can be offered for the
+records of these two counties save that both had been early infected
+with a hatred of witches, and that the witches came to be connected, in
+tradition, with certain localities within the counties and with certain
+families living there. This is, indeed, an explanation that does not
+explain. It all comes back to the continuity of superstition.
+
+We have already referred to the widespread interest in the Lancashire
+witches. There are two good illustrations of this interest. When Sir
+William Brereton was travelling in Holland in June of 1634, a little
+while before the four women had been brought to London, he met King
+Charles's sister, the Queen of Bohemia, and at once, apparently, they
+began to talk about the great Lancashire discovery.[30] The other
+instance of comment on the case was in England. It is one which shows
+that playwrights were quite as eager then as now to be abreast of
+current topics. Before final judgment had been given on the Lancashire
+women, Thomas Heywood and Richard Brome, well known dramatists, had
+written a play on the subject which was at once published and "acted at
+the Globe on the Bankside by His Majesty's Actors." By some it has been
+supposed that this play was an older play founded on the Lancashire
+affair of 1612 and warmed over in 1634; but the main incidents and the
+characters of the play are so fully copied from the depositions of the
+young Robinson and from the charges preferred against Mary Spencer,
+Frances Dickonson, and Margaret Johnson, that a layman would at once
+pronounce it a play written entirely to order from the affair of 1634.
+Nothing unique in the stories was left out. The pail incident--of course
+without its rational explanation--was grafted into the play and put upon
+the stage. Indeed, a marriage that afforded the hook upon which to hang
+a bundle of indecencies, and the story of a virtuous husband who
+discovers his wife to be a witch, were the only added motives of
+importance. For our purpose the significance of the play lies of course
+in its testimony to the general interest--the people of London were
+obviously familiar with the details, even, of the charges--and its
+probable reflection of London opinion about the case. Throughout the
+five acts there were those who maintained that there were no witches, a
+recognition of the existence of such an opinion. Of course in the play
+they were all, before the curtain fell, convinced of their error. The
+authors, who no doubt catered to public sentiment, were not as earnest
+as the divines of their day, but they were almost as superstitious.
+Heywood showed himself in another work, _The Hierarchie of the Blessed
+Angels_,[31] a sincere believer in witchcraft and backed his belief by
+the Warboys case. Probably he had read Scot, but he was not at all the
+type of man to set himself against the tide. _The late Lancashire
+Witches_ no doubt expressed quite accurately London opinion. It was
+written, it will be remembered, before the final outcome of the case
+could be foreseen. Perhaps Heywood foresaw it, more probably he was
+sailing close to the wind of opinion when he wrote in the epilogue,
+
+              ... "Perhaps great mercy may,
+    After just condemnation, give them day
+    Of longer life."
+
+It is easy in discussing the Lancashire affair to miss a central figure.
+Frances Dickonson, Mary Spencer, and the others, could they have known
+it, owed their lives in all probability to the intellectual independence
+of William Harvey. There is a precious story about Harvey in an old
+manuscript letter by an unknown writer, that, if trustworthy, throws a
+light on the physician's conduct in the case. The letter seems to have
+been written by a justice of the peace in southwestern England about
+1685.[32] He had had some experience with witches--we have mentioned
+them in another connection--and he was prompted by them to tell a story
+of Dr. Harvey, with whom he was "very familiarly acquainted." "I once
+asked him what his opinion was concerning witchcraft; whether there was
+any such thing. Hee told mee he believed there was not." Asked the
+reasons for his doubt, Harvey told him that "when he was at Newmercat
+with the King [Charles I] he heard there was a woman who dwelt at a lone
+house on the borders of the Heath who was reputed a Witch, that he went
+alone to her, and found her alone at home.... Hee said shee was very
+distrustful at first, but when hee told her he was a vizard, and came
+purposely to converse with her in their common trade, then shee easily
+believed him; for say'd hee to mee, 'You know I have a very magicall
+face.'" The physician asked her where her familiar was and desired to
+see him, upon which she brought out a dish of milk and made a chuckling
+noise, as toads do, at which a toad came from under the chest and drank
+some of the milk. Harvey now laid a plan to get rid of the woman. He
+suggested that as fellow witches they ought to drink together, and that
+she procure some ale. She went out to a neighboring ale-house, half a
+mile away, and Harvey availed himself of her absence to take up the toad
+and cut it open. Out came the milk. On a thorough examination he
+concluded that the toad "no ways differed from other toades," but that
+the melancholy old woman had brought it home some evening and had tamed
+it by feeding and had so come to believe it a spirit and her familiar.
+When the woman returned and found her "familiar" cut in pieces, she
+"flew like a Tigris" at his face. The physician offered her money and
+tried to persuade her that her familiar was nothing more than a toad.
+When he found that this did not pacify her he took another tack and told
+her that he was the king's physician, sent to discover if she were a
+witch, and, in case she were, to have her apprehended. With this
+explanation, Harvey was able to get away. He related the story to the
+king, whose leave he had to go on the expedition. The narrator adds: "I
+am certayne this for an argument against spirits or witchcraft is the
+best and most experimentall I ever heard."
+
+Who the justice of the peace was that penned this letter, we are unable
+even to guess, nor do we know upon whose authority it was published. We
+cannot, therefore, rest upon it with absolute certainty, but we can say
+that it possesses several characteristics of a _bona fide_ letter.[33]
+If it is such, it gives a new clue to Harvey's conduct in 1634. We of
+course cannot be sure that the toad incident happened before that time;
+quite possibly it was after the interest aroused by that affair that the
+physician made his investigation. At all events, here was a man who had
+a scientific way of looking into superstition.
+
+The advent of such a man was most significant in the history of
+witchcraft, perhaps the most significant fact of its kind in the reign
+of Charles I. That reign, in spite of the Lancashire affair, was
+characterized by the continuance and growth of the witch skepticism,[34]
+so prevalent in the last years of the previous reign. Disbelief was not
+yet aggressive, it did not block prosecutions, but it hindered their
+effectiveness. The gallows was not yet done away with, but its use had
+been greatly restrained by the central government. Superstition was
+still a bird of prey, but its wings were being clipped.[35]
+
+
+[1] The writer of the _Collection of Modern Relations_ (London, 1693)
+speaks of an execution at Oxford, but there is nothing to substantiate
+it in the voluminous publications about Oxford; a Middlesex case rests
+also on doubtful evidence (see appendix C, 1641).
+
+[2] _Cal. St. P., Dom._, 1634-1635, 152.
+
+[3] _Ibid._, 141.
+
+[4] This is of course theory; _cf._ Daudet's story of his childhood in
+"_Le Pape est mort_."
+
+[5] There seem to be five different sources for the original deposition
+of young Robinson. Thomas D. Whitaker, _History ... of Whalley_ (3d ed.,
+1818), 213, has an imperfect transcript of the deposition as given in
+the Bodleian, Dodsworth MSS., 61, ff. 45-46. James Crossley in his
+introduction to Potts, _Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the countie
+of Lancaster_ (Chetham Soc.), lix-lxxii, has copied the deposition given
+by Whitaker. Thomas Wright, _Narratives of Sorcery and Magic_, II,
+112-114, has given the story from a copy of this and of other
+depositions in Lord Londesborough's MSS. Webster prints a third copy,
+_Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft_, 347-349. A fourth is in Edward
+Baines, _History of the ... county ... of Lancaster_, ed. of 1836, I,
+604, and is taken from Brit. Mus., Harleian MSS., cod. 6854, f. 26 b. A
+fifth is in the Bodleian, Rawlinson MSS., D, 399, f. 211. Wright's
+source we have not in detail, but the other four, while differing
+slightly as to punctuation, spelling, and names, agree remarkably well
+as to the details of the story.
+
+[6] _Cal. St. P., Dom._, 1634-1635, 152.
+
+[7] John Stearne, _A Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft ...
+together with the Confessions of many of those executed since May 1645_
+(London, 1648), 11, says that in Lancashire "nineteene assembled."
+Robinson's deposition as printed by Webster, _Displaying of Supposed
+Witchcraft_, gives nineteen names.
+
+[8] Webster, _op. cit._, 277.
+
+[9] The boy, in his first examinations at London, said he had made up
+the story himself.
+
+[10] It is a curious thing that one of the justices of the peace was
+John Starchie, who had been one of the bewitched boys of the Starchie
+family at Cleworth in 1597. See above, ch. IV. See Baines, _Lancaster_,
+ed. of 1868-1870, I, 204.
+
+[11] This incident is related by Webster, _op. cit._, 276-278. Webster
+tells us that the boy was yet living when he wrote, and that he himself
+had heard the whole story from his mouth more than once. He appends to
+his volume the original deposition of the lad (at Padiham, February 10
+1633/4).
+
+[12] These are given in the same deposition, but the deposition probably
+represents the boy's statement at the assizes.
+
+[13] The father had been a witness at the Lancashire trials in 1612. See
+Baines, _Lancaster_, ed. of 1868-1870, I, 204-205.
+
+[14] That is, of course, so far as we have evidence. It is a little
+dangerous to hold to absolute negatives.
+
+[15] Webster, _op. cit._, 277. Pelham on May 16, 1634, wrote: "It is
+said that 19 are condemned and ... 60 already discovered." _Cal. St. P.,
+Dom._, 1634-1635, 26.
+
+[16] It had been reported in London that witches had raised a storm from
+which Charles had suffered at sea. Pelham's letter, _ibid._
+
+[17] _Ibid._, 77. See also Council Register (MS.), Charles I, vol. IV,
+p. 658.
+
+[18] _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, XII, 2, p. 53. The chancellor of the
+Duchy of Lancaster wrote in the meantime that the judges had been to see
+him. What was to be done with the witches?
+
+[19] See _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, X, 2, p. 147; and _Cal. St. P.,
+Dom., 1634-1635_, 98.
+
+[20] _Cal. St. P., Dom._, 1634-1635, 98, 129. See also Council Register
+(MS.), Chas. I, vol. V, p. 56.
+
+[21] _Cal. St. P., Dom._, 1634-1635, 129.
+
+[22] Webster, _op. cit._, 277, says that they were examined "after by
+His Majesty and the Council."
+
+[23] See Council Register (MS.), Charles I, vol. IV, p. 657.
+
+[24] _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1634-1635_, 141.
+
+[25] _Ibid._, 152.
+
+[26] _Farington Papers_ (Chetham Soc, no. 39, 1856), 27.
+
+[27] _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, XII, 2, p. 77.
+
+[28] _Ibid._, p. 80.
+
+[29] Baines, _Lancaster_, ed. of 1868-1870, II, 12. Utley, who was a
+professed conjurer, was alleged to have bewitched to death one Assheton.
+
+[30] _Travels in Holland, the United Provinces, England, Scotland and
+Ireland, 1634-1635, by Sir William Brereton, Bart._ (Chetham Soc., no.
+1. 1844), 33.
+
+[31] (London, 1635.) As to Heywood see also chapter X.
+
+[32] The correspondent who sent a copy of the MS. to the _Gentleman's
+Magazine_ signs himself "B. C. T." I have been unable to identify him.
+For his account of the MS. and for its contents see _Gentleman's
+Magazine_, 1832, pt. I, 405-410, 489-492.
+
+[33] John Aubrey, _Letters written by Eminent Persons_ (London, 1813),
+II, 379, says that Harvey "had made dissections of froggs, toads and a
+number of other animals, and had curious observations on them." This
+fits in well with the story, and in some measure goes to confirm it.
+
+[34] For example, in 1637 the Bishop of Bath and Wells sent Joice
+Hunniman to Lord Wrottesley to examine her and exonerate her. He did so,
+and the bishop wrote thanking him and abusing "certain apparitors who go
+about frightening the people." See _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, II, app.,
+p. 48. For a case of the acquittal of a witch and the exposure of the
+pretended convulsions of her accuser, see _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1635_,
+477. For example of suits for slander see North Riding Rec. Soc, IV,
+182, session July 9, 1640.
+
+[35] A solitary pamphlet of this period must be mentioned. It was
+entitled: _Fearefull Newes from Coventry, or A true Relation and
+Lamentable Story of one Thomas Holt of Coventry a Musitian who through
+Covetousnesse and immoderate love of money, sold himselfe to the Devill,
+with whom he had made a contract for certaine yeares--And also of his
+Lamentable end and death, on the 16 day of February 1641_ (London,
+1642). The "sad subject of this little treatise" was a musician with
+nineteen children. Fearing that he would not be able to provide for
+them, he is alleged to have made a contract with the Devil, who finally
+broke his neck.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+MATTHEW HOPKINS.
+
+
+In the annals of English witchcraft Matthew Hopkins occupies a place by
+himself. For more than two years he was the arch-instigator in
+prosecutions which, at least in the numbers of those executed, mark the
+high tide of the delusion. His name was one hardly known by his
+contemporaries, but he has since become a figure in the annals of
+English roguery. Very recently his life has found record among those of
+"Twelve Bad Men."[1]
+
+What we know of him up to the time of his first appearance in his
+successful rôle about March of 1644/5 is soon told. He was the son of
+James Hopkins, minister of Wenham[2] in Suffolk. He was "a lawyer of but
+little note" at Ipswich, thence removing to Manningtree. Whether he may
+have been the Matthew Hopkins of Southwark who complained in 1644 of
+inability to pay the taxes[3] is more than doubtful, but there is reason
+enough to believe that he found the law no very remunerative profession.
+He was ready for some new venture and an accidental circumstance in
+Manningtree turned him into a wholly new field of endeavor. He assumed
+the rôle of a witchfinder and is said to have taken the title of
+witchfinder-general.[4]
+
+He had made little or no preparation for the work that now came to his
+hand. King James's famous _Dćmonologie_ he was familiar with, but he may
+have studied it after his first experiences at Manningtree. It seems
+somewhat probable, too, that he had read, and indeed been much
+influenced by, the account of the Lancashire witches of 1612, as well as
+by Richard Bernard's _Advice to Grand Jurymen_. But, if he read the
+latter book, he seems altogether to have misinterpreted it. As to his
+general information and education, we have no data save the hints to be
+gained from his own writings. His letter to John Gaule and the little
+brochure which he penned in self-defence reveal a man able to express
+himself with some clearness and with a great deal of vigor. There were
+force of character and nervous energy behind his defiant words. It is no
+exaggeration, as we shall see in following his career, to say that the
+witch crusader was a man of action, who might in another field have made
+his mark.
+
+To know something of his religious proclivities would be extremely
+interesting. On this point, however, he gives us no clue. But his fellow
+worker, John Stearne, was clearly a Puritan[5] and Hopkins was surely of
+the same faith. It can hardly be proved, however, that religious zeal
+prompted him in his campaign. For a time of spiritual earnestness his
+utterances seem rather lukewarm.
+
+It was in his own town that his attention was first directed towards the
+dangers of witchcraft. The witches, he tells us, were accustomed to hold
+their meetings near his house. During one of their assemblies he
+overheard a witch bid her imps to go to another witch. The other witch,
+whose name was thus revealed to him--Elizabeth Clarke, a poor one-legged
+creature--was promptly taken into custody on Hopkins's charge.[6] Other
+accusations poured in. John Rivet had consulted a cunning woman about
+the illness of his wife, and had learned that two neighbors were
+responsible. One of these, he was told, dwelt a little above his own
+home; "whereupon he beleeved his said wife was bewitched by ...
+Elizabeth Clarke, ... for that the said Elizabeth's mother and some
+other of her kinsfolke did suffer death for witchcraft." The justices
+of the peace[7] accordingly had her "searched by women who had for many
+yeares known the Devill's marks," and, when these were found on her,
+they bade her custodians "keep her from sleep two or three nights,
+expecting in that time to see her familiars."[8]
+
+Torture is unknown to English law; but, in our day of the "third
+degree," nobody needs to be told that what is put out at the door may
+steal in at the window. It may be that, in the seventeenth century, the
+pious English justices had no suspicion that enforced sleeplessness is a
+form of physical torture more nerve-racking and irresistible than the
+thumb-screw. Three days and nights of "watching" brought Elizabeth
+Clarke to "confess many things"; and when, on the fourth night, her
+townsmen Hopkins and Stearne dropped in to fill out from her own lips
+the warrants against those she had named as accomplices, she told them
+that, if they would stay and do her no hurt, she would call one of her
+imps.
+
+Hopkins told her that he would not allow it, but he stayed. Within a
+quarter of an hour the imps appeared, six of them, one after another.
+The first was a "white thing in the likeness of a Cat, but not
+altogether so big," the second a white dog with some sandy spots and
+very short legs, the third, Vinegar Tom, was a greyhound with long legs.
+We need not go further into the story. The court records give the
+testimony of Hopkins and Stearne. Both have related the affair in their
+pamphlets.[9] Six others, four of whom were women, made oath to the
+appearances of the imps. In this respect the trial is unique among all
+in English history. Eight people testified that they had seen the
+imps.[10] Two of them referred elsewhere to what they had seen, and
+their accounts agreed substantially.[11] It may be doubted if the
+supporting evidence offered at any trial in the seventeenth century in
+England went so far towards establishing the actual appearance of the
+so-called imps of the witches.
+
+How are we to account for these phenomena? What was the nature of the
+delusion seemingly shared by eight people? It is for the psychologist to
+answer. Two explanations occur to the layman. It is not inconceivable
+that there were rodents in the gaol--the terrible conditions in the
+gaols of the time are too well known to need description--and that the
+creatures running about in the dark were easily mistaken by excited
+people for something more than natural. It is possible, too, that all
+the appearances were the fabric of imagination or invention. The
+spectators were all in a state of high expectation of supernatural
+appearances. What the over-alert leaders declared they had seen the
+others would be sure to have seen. Whether those leaders were themselves
+deceived, or easily duped the others by calling out the description of
+what they claimed to see, would be hard to guess. To the writer the
+latter theory seems less plausible. The accounts of the two are so
+clearly independent and yet agree so well in fact that they seem to
+weaken the case for collusive imposture. With that a layman may be
+permitted to leave the matter. What hypnotic possibilities are inherent
+in the story he cannot profess to know. Certainly the accused woman was
+not a professed dealer in magic and it is not easy to suspect her of
+having hypnotized the watchers.
+
+Upon Elizabeth Clarke's confessions five other women--"the old beldam"
+Anne West, who had "been suspected as a witch many yeers since, and
+suffered imprisonment for the same,"[12] her daughter Rebecca,[13] Anne
+Leech, her daughter Helen Clarke, and Elizabeth Gooding--were arrested.
+As in the case of the first, there was soon abundance of evidence
+offered about them. One Richard Edwards bethought himself and remembered
+that while crossing a bridge he had heard a cry, "much like the shrieke
+of a Polcat," and had been nearly thrown from his horse. He had also
+lost some cattle by a mysterious disease. Moreover his child had been
+nursed by a goodwife who lived near to Elizabeth Clarke and Elizabeth
+Gooding. The child fell sick, "rowling the eyes," and died. He believed
+that Anne Leech and Elizabeth Gooding were the cause of its death. His
+belief, however, which was offered as an independent piece of
+testimony, seems to have rested on Anne Leech's confession, which had
+been made before this time and was soon given to the justices of the
+peace. Robert Taylor charged Elizabeth Gooding with the death of his
+horse, but he too had the suggestion from other witnesses. Prudence Hart
+declared that, being in her bed in the night, "something fell down on
+her right side." "Being dark she cannot tell in what shape it was, but
+she believeth Rebecca West and Anne West the cause of her pains."
+
+But the accusers could hardly outdo the accused. No sooner was a crime
+suggested than they took it upon themselves. It seemed as if the witches
+were running a race for position as high criminal. With the exception of
+Elizabeth Gooding, who stuck to it that she was not guilty, they
+cheerfully confessed that they had lamed their victims, caused them to
+"languish," and even killed them. The meetings at Elizabeth Clarke's
+house were recalled. Anne Leech remembered that there was a book read
+"wherein shee thinks there was no goodnesse."[14]
+
+So the web of charges and counter-charges was spun until twenty-three or
+more women were caught in its meshes. No less than twelve of them
+confessed to a share in the most revolting crimes. But there was one
+who, in court, retracted her confession.[15] At least five utterly
+denied their guilt. Among them was a poor woman who had aroused
+suspicion chiefly because a young hare had been seen in front of her
+house. She was ready to admit that she had seen the hare, but denied
+all the more serious charges.[16] Another of those who would not plead
+guilty sought to ward off charges against herself by adding to the
+charges accumulated against her mother. Hers was a damning accusation.
+Her mother had threatened her and the next night she "felt something
+come into the bed about her legges, ... but could not finde anything."
+This was as serious evidence as that of one of the justices of the
+peace, who testified from the bench that a very honest friend of his had
+seen three or four imps come out of Anne West's house in the moonlight.
+Hopkins was not to be outshone by the other accusers. He had visited
+Colchester castle to interview Rebecca West and had gained her
+confession that she had gone through a wedding ceremony with the Devil.
+
+But why go into details? The evidence was all of a kind. The female
+juries figured, as in the trials at Lancaster in 1633, and gave the
+results of their harrowing examinations. What with their verdicts and
+the mass of accusations and confessions, the justices of the peace were
+busy during March, April, and May of 1645. It was not until the
+twenty-ninth of July that the trial took place. It was held at
+Chelmsford before the justices of the peace and Robert Rich, Earl of
+Warwick. Warwick was not an itinerant justice, nor was he, so far as we
+know, in any way connected with the judicial system. One of the most
+prominent Presbyterians in England, he had in April of this year, as a
+result of the "self-denying ordinance," laid down his commission as head
+of the navy. He disappears from view until August, when he was again
+given work to do. In the mean time occurred the Chelmsford trial. We can
+only guess that the earl, who was appointed head of the Eastern
+Association less than a month later[17] (August 27), acted in this
+instance in a military capacity. The assizes had been suspended. No
+doubt some of the justices of the peace pressed upon him the urgency of
+the cases to be tried. We may guess that he sat with them in the quarter
+sessions, but he seems to have played the rôle of an itinerant justice.
+
+No narrative account of the trial proper is extant. Some one who signs
+himself "H. F." copied out and printed the evidence taken by the
+justices of the peace and inserted in the margins the verdicts. In this
+way we know that at least sixteen were condemned, probably two more, and
+possibly eleven or twelve more.[18] Of the original sixteen, one was
+reprieved, one died before execution, four were hanged at Manningtree
+and ten at Chelmsford.
+
+The cases excited some comment, and it is comment that must not be
+passed over, for it will prove of some use later in analyzing the causes
+of the outbreak. Arthur Wilson, whom we have mentioned as an historian
+of the time, has left his verdict on the trial. "There is nothing," he
+wrote, "so crosse to my temper as putting so many witches to death." He
+saw nothing, in the women condemned at Chelmsford, "other than poore
+mellenchollie ... ill-dieted atrabilious constitutions, whose fancies
+working by grosse fumes and vapors might make the imagination readie to
+take any impression." Wilson wrestled long with his God over the matter
+of witches and came at length to the conclusion that "it did not consist
+with the infinite goodnes of the Almightie God to let Satan loose in so
+ravenous a way."
+
+The opinion of a parliamentary journal in London on the twenty-fourth of
+July, three days before the Essex executions, shows that the Royalists
+were inclined to remark the number of witches in the counties friendly
+to Parliament: "It is the ordinary mirth of the Malignants in this City
+to discourse of the Association of Witches in the Associated Counties,
+but by this they shall understand the truth of the old Proverbe, which
+is that where God hath his Church, the Devill hath his Chappell." The
+writer goes on, "I am sory to informe you that one of the cheifest of
+them was a Parsons Wife (this will be good news with the Papists)....
+Her name was Weight.... This Woman (as I heare) was the first
+apprehended."[19] It seems, however, that Mrs. "Weight" escaped. Social
+and religious influences were not without value. A later pamphleteer
+tells us that the case of Mrs. Wayt, a minister's wife, was a "palpable
+mistake, for it is well knowne that she is a gentle-woman of a very
+godly and religious life."[20]
+
+Meantime Hopkins had extended his operations into Suffolk. Elizabeth
+Clarke and Anne Leech had implicated certain women in that county. Their
+charges were carried before the justices of the peace and were the
+beginning of a panic which spread like wildfire over the county.
+
+The methods which the witchfinder-general used are illuminating. Four
+searchers were appointed for the county, two men and two women.[21] "In
+what Town soever ... there be any person or persons suspected to be
+witch or Witches, thither they send for two or all of the said
+searchers, who take the partie or parties so suspected into a Roome and
+strip him, her, or them, starke naked."[22] The clergyman Gaule has
+given us further particulars:[23] "Having taken the suspected Witch,
+shee is placed in the middle of a room upon a stool, or Table,
+crosse-legg'd, or in some other uneasie posture, to which if she submits
+not, she is then bound with cords; there is she watcht and kept without
+meat or sleep for the space of 24 hours.... A little hole is likewise
+made in the door for the Impe to come in at; and lest it might come in
+some lesse discernible shape, they that watch are taught to be ever and
+anon sweeping the room, and if they see any spiders or flyes, to kill
+them. And if they cannot kill them, then they may be sure they are her
+Impes."[24] Hutchinson tells a story of one woman, who, after having
+been kept long fasting and without sleep, confessed to keeping an imp
+called Nan. But a "very learned ingenious gentleman having indignation
+at the thing" drove the people from the house, gave the woman some food,
+and sent her to bed. Next morning she knew of no Nan but a pullet she
+had.
+
+The most sensational discovery in Suffolk was that John Lowes, pastor of
+Brandeston, was a witch. The case was an extraordinary one and throws a
+light on the witch alarms of the time. Lowes was eighty years old, and
+had been pastor in the same place for fifty years. He got into trouble,
+undoubtedly as a result of his inability to get along with those around
+him. As a young man he had been summoned to appear before the synod at
+Ipswich for not conforming to the rites of the Established Church.[25]
+In the first year of Charles's reign he had been indicted for refusing
+to exhibit his musket,[26] and he had twice later been indicted for
+witchcraft and once as a common imbarritor.[27] The very fact that he
+had been charged with witchcraft before would give color to the charge
+when made in 1645. We have indeed a clue to the motives for this
+accusation. A parishioner and a neighboring divine afterwards gave it as
+their opinion that "Mr. Lowes, being a litigious man, made his
+parishioners (too tenacious of their customs) very uneasy, so that they
+were glad to take the opportunity of those wicked times to get him
+hanged, rather than not get rid of him." Hopkins had afforded them the
+opportunity. The witchfinder had taken the parson in hand. He had caused
+him to be kept awake several nights together, and had run him backwards
+and forwards about the room until he was out of breath. "Then they
+rested him a little and then ran him again, and this they did for
+several days and nights together, till he was weary of his life and
+scarce sensible of what he said or did."[28] He had, when first accused,
+denied all charges and challenged proof, but after he had been subjected
+to these rigorous methods he made a full confession. He had, he said,
+sunk a sailing vessel of Ipswich, making fourteen widows in a quarter of
+an hour. The witchfinder had asked him if it did not grieve him to see
+so many men cast away in a short time, and he answered: "No, he was
+joyfull to see what power his Impes had."[29] He had, he boasted, a
+charm to keep him out of gaol and from the gallows. It is too bad that
+the crazed man's confidence in his charm was misplaced. His whole wild
+confession is an illustration of the effectiveness of the torture. His
+fate is indicative of the hysteria of the times and of the advantages
+taken of it by malicious people. It was his hostility to the
+ecclesiastical and political sympathies of his community that caused his
+fall.
+
+The dementia induced by the torture in Lowes's case showed itself in the
+case of others, who made confessions of long careers of murder. "These
+and all the rest confessed that cruell malice ... was their chiefe
+delight." The accused were being forced by cruel torture to lend their
+help to a panic which exceeded any before or after in England. From one
+hundred and thirty to two hundred people[30] were soon under accusation
+and shut up in Bury gaol.
+
+News of this reached a Parliament in London that was very much engrossed
+with other matters. We cannot do better than to quote the Puritan
+biographer Clarke.[31] "A report was carried to the Parliament ... as
+if some busie men had made use of some ill Arts to extort such
+confession; ... thereupon a special Commission of Oyer and Terminer was
+granted for the trial of these Witches." Care was to be used, in
+gathering evidence, that confessions should be voluntary and should be
+backed by "many collateral circumstances." There were to be no
+convictions except upon proof of express compact with the Devil, or upon
+evidence of the use of imps, which implied the same thing. Samuel
+Fairclough and Edmund Calamy (the elder), both of them Non-Conformist
+clergymen of Suffolk,[32] together with Serjeant John Godbolt and the
+justices of the peace, were to compose this special court. The court met
+about the end of August, a month after the sessions under Warwick at
+Chelmsford, and was opened by two sermons preached by Mr. Fairclough in
+Bury church. One of the first things done by the special court, quite
+possibly at the instigation of the two clergymen, was to put an end to
+the swimming test,[33] which had been used on several of the accused,
+doubtless by the authority of the justices of the peace. This was of
+course in some sense a blow at Hopkins. Nevertheless a great deal of the
+evidence which he had gathered must have been taken into account.
+Eighteen persons, including two men,[34] were condemned to be
+hanged.[35] On the night before their execution, they were confined in a
+barn, where they made an agreement not to confess a word at the gallows
+the following day, and sang a psalm in confirmation. Next day they
+"dyed ... very desperately."[36] But there were still one hundred and
+twenty others in gaol[37] awaiting trial. No doubt many forthwith would
+have met the same end, had it not been for a lucky chance of the wars.
+The king's forces were approaching and the court hastened to adjourn its
+sessions.[38]
+
+But this danger was soon over, and within three weeks' time the court
+seems to have resumed its duties.[39] Of this second session we know
+nothing at all, save that probably forty or fifty more witches were
+condemned, and doubtless executed.[40] What became of the others we can
+only guess. Perhaps some were released, some left in gaol indefinitely.
+
+These things were not done in a corner. Yet so great was the distraction
+in England that, if we can trust negative evidence, they excited not a
+great deal of notice. Such comments as there were, however, were
+indicative of a division of opinion. During the interval between the two
+sessions, the _Moderate Intelligencer_, a parliamentary organ that had
+sprung up in the time of the Civil War, came out in an editorial on the
+affair. "But whence is it that Devils should choose to be conversant
+with silly Women that know not their right hands from their left, is the
+great wonder.... They will meddle with none but poore old Women: as
+appears by what we received this day from Bury.... Divers are condemned
+and some executed and more like to be. Life is precious and there is
+need of great inquisition before it is taken away."[41]
+
+This was the sole newspaper reference of which we know, as well as the
+only absolutely contemporary mention of these trials. What other
+expressions of opinion there were came later. James Howell, a popular
+essayist of his time, mentioned the trials in his correspondence as new
+proof of the reality of witchcraft.[42] The pious Bishop Hall saw in
+them the "prevalency of Satan in these times."[43] Thomas Ady, who in
+1656 issued his _Candle in the Dark_, mentioned the "Berry Assizes"[44]
+and remarked that some credulous people had published a book about it.
+He thought criticism deserved for taking the evidence of the gaoler,
+whose profit lay in having the greatest possible number executed.[45]
+
+We have already described Hopkins as a man of action. Nothing is better
+evidence of it than the way in which he hurried back and forth over the
+eastern counties. During the last part of May he had probably been
+occupied with collecting the evidence against the accused at Bury. Long
+before they were tried he was busy elsewhere. We can trace his movements
+in outline only, but we know enough of them to appreciate his tremendous
+energy. Some time about the beginning of June he must have gone to
+Norfolk. Before the twenty-sixth of July twenty witches had been
+executed in that county.[46] None of the details of these trials have
+been left us. From the rapidity with which they were carried to
+completion we may feel fairly certain that the justices of the peace,
+seeing no probability of assize sessions in the near future, went ahead
+to try cases on their own initiative.[47] On the fifteenth of August the
+corporation of Great Yarmouth, at the southern extremity of the Norfolk
+coast line, voted to send for Mr. Hopkins, and that he should have his
+fee and allowance for his pains,[48] "as he hath in other places." He
+came at two different times, once in September and once in December.
+Probably the burden of the work was turned over to the four female
+assistants, who were granted a shilling a day apiece.[49] Six women were
+condemned, one of whom was respited.[50] Later three other women and one
+man were indicted, but by this time the furor against them seems to
+have abated, and they probably went free.[51]
+
+Hopkins's further course can be traced with some degree of certainty.
+From Yarmouth he probably went to Ipswich, where Mother Lakeland was
+burned on September 9 at the instance of the justices of the peace.[52]
+Mother Lakeland's death by burning is the second instance we have,
+during the Hopkins panic,[53] of this form of sentence. It is explained
+by the fact that it was the law in England to burn women who murdered
+their husbands. The chief charge against Mother Lakeland, who, by the
+way, was a woman quite above the class from which witches were
+ordinarily recruited,[54] was that she had bewitched her husband to
+death.[55] The crime was "petty treason."
+
+It is not a wild guess that Hopkins paused long enough in his active
+career to write an account of the affair, so well were his principles of
+detection presented in a pamphlet soon issued from a London press.[56]
+But, at any rate, before Mother Lakeland had been burned he was on his
+way to Aldeburgh, where he was already at work on the eighth of
+September collecting evidence.[57] Here also he had an assistant, Goody
+Phillips, who no doubt continued the work after he left. He was back
+again in Aldeburgh on the twentieth of December and the seventh of
+January, and the grand result of his work was summarized in the brief
+account: "Paid ... eleven shillings for hanging seven witches."[58]
+
+From Aldeburgh, Hopkins may have journeyed to Stowmarket. We do not know
+how many servants of the evil one he discovered here; but, as he was
+paid twenty-three pounds[59] for his services, and had received but six
+pounds in Aldeburgh, the presumption is that his work here was very
+fruitful in results.
+
+We now lose track of the witchfinder's movements for a while. Probably
+he was doubling on his track and attending court sessions. In December
+we know that he made his second visit to Yarmouth. From there he may
+have gone to King's Lynn, where two witches were hanged this year, and
+from there perhaps returned early in January to Aldeburgh and other
+places in Suffolk. It is not to be supposed for a moment that his
+activities were confined to the towns named. At least fifteen other
+places in Suffolk are mentioned by Stearne in his stories of the
+witches' confessions.[60] While Hopkins's subordinates probably
+represented him in some of the villages, we cannot doubt that the
+witchfinder himself visited many towns.
+
+From East Anglia Hopkins went westward into Cambridgeshire. His arrival
+there must have been during either January or February. His reputation,
+indeed, had gone ahead of him, and the witches were reported to have
+taken steps in advance to prevent detection.[61] But their efforts were
+vain. The witchfinder found not less than four or five of the detested
+creatures,[62] probably more. We know, however, of only one execution,
+that of a woman who fell under suspicion because she kept a tame
+frog.[63]
+
+From Cambridgeshire, Hopkins's course took him, perhaps in March of
+1645/6, into Northamptonshire. There he found at least two villages
+infested, and he turned up some remarkable evidence. So far in his
+crusade, the keeping of imps had been the test infallible upon which the
+witchfinder insisted. But at Northampton spectral evidence seems to have
+played a considerable part.[64] Hopkins never expresses his opinion on
+this variety of evidence, but his co-worker declares that it should be
+used with great caution, because "apparitions may proceed from the
+phantasie of such as the party use to fear or at least suspect."
+
+But it was a case in Northamptonshire of a different type that seems to
+have made the most lasting impression on Stearne. Cherrie of Thrapston,
+"a very aged man," had in a quarrel uttered the wish that his neighbor's
+tongue might rot out. The neighbor thereupon suffered from something
+which we should probably call cancer of the tongue. Perhaps as yet the
+possibilities of suggestion have not been so far sounded that we can
+absolutely discredit the physical effects of a malicious wish. It is
+much easier, however, to believe the reported utterance imagined after
+its supposed effect. At all events, Cherrie was forced to confess that
+he had been guilty and he further admitted that he had injured Sir John
+Washington, who had been his benefactor at various times.[65] He was
+indicted by the grand jury, but died in gaol, very probably by suicide,
+on the day when he was to have been tried.[66]
+
+From Northamptonshire Hopkins's course led him into Huntingdonshire,[67]
+a county that seems to have been untroubled by witch alarms since the
+Warboys affair of 1593. The justices of the peace took up the quest
+eagerly. The evidence that they gathered had but little that was
+unusual.[68] Mary Chandler had despatched her imp, Beelzebub, to injure
+a neighbor who had failed to invite her to a party. An accused witch who
+was questioned about other possible witches offered in evidence a
+peculiar piece of testimony. He had a conversation with "Clarke's sonne
+of Keiston," who had said to him (the witness): "I doe not beleeve you
+die a Witch, for I never saw you at our meetings." This would seem to
+have been a clever fiction to ward off charges against himself. But,
+strangely enough, the witness declared that he answered "that perhaps
+their meetings were at severall places."
+
+Hopkins did not find it all smooth sailing in the county of Huntingdon.
+A clergyman of Great Staughton became outraged at his work and preached
+against it. The witchfinder had been invited to visit the town and
+hesitated. Meantime he wrote this blustering letter to one of John
+Gaule's parishioners.
+
+    "My service to your Worship presented, I have this day received a
+    Letter, &c.--to come to a Towne called Great Staughton to search
+    for evil disposed persons called Witches (though I heare your
+    Minister is farre against us through ignorance) I intend to come
+    (God willing) the sooner to heare his singular Judgment on the
+    behalfe of such parties; I have known a Minister in Suffolke preach
+    as much against their discovery in a Pulpit, and forc'd to recant
+    it (by the Committee) in the same place. I much marvaile such evill
+    Members[69] should have any (much more any of the Clergy) who
+    should daily preach Terrour to convince such Offenders, stand up to
+    take their parts against such as are Complainants for the King, and
+    sufferers themselves with their Families and Estates. I intend to
+    give your Towne a Visite suddenly, I am to come to Kimbolton this
+    weeke, and it shall bee tenne to one but I will come to your Town
+    first, but I would certainely know afore whether your Town affords
+    many Sticklers for such Cattell, or willing to give and afford us
+    good welcome and entertainment, as other where I have beene, else I
+    shall wave your Shire (not as yet beginning in any part of it my
+    selfe) And betake me to such places where I doe and may persist
+    without controle, but with thankes and recompence."[70]
+
+This stirred the fighting spirit of the vicar of Great Staughton, and he
+answered the witchfinder in a little book which he published shortly
+after, and which he dedicated to Colonel Walton of the House of Commons.
+We shall have occasion in another chapter to note its point of view.
+
+In spite of opposition, Hopkins's work in Huntingdonshire prospered. The
+justices of the peace were occupied with examinations during March and
+April. Perhaps as many as twenty were accused.[71] At least half that
+number were examined. Several were executed--we do not know the exact
+number--almost certainly at the instance of the justices of the
+peace.[72] It is pleasant to know that one was acquitted, even if it was
+after she had been twice searched and once put through the swimming
+ordeal.[73]
+
+From Huntingdonshire it is likely that Hopkins and Stearne made their
+next excursion into Bedfordshire. We know very little about their
+success here. In two villages it would seem that they were able to track
+their prey.[74] But they left to others the search which they had
+begun.[75]
+
+The witchfinder had been active for a little over a year. But during the
+last months of that time his discoveries had not been so notable. Was
+there a falling off in interest? Or was he meeting with increased
+opposition among the people? Or did the assize courts, which resumed
+their proceedings in the summer of 1646, frown upon him? It is hard to
+answer the question without more evidence. But at any rate it is clear
+that during the summer and autumn of 1646 he was not actively engaged in
+his profession. It is quite possible, indeed, that he was already
+suffering from the consumption which was to carry him off in the
+following year. And, with the retirement of its moving spirit, the witch
+crusade soon came to a close. Almost a twelvemonth later there was a
+single[76] discovery of witches. It was in the island of Ely; and the
+church courts,[77] the justices of the peace,[78] and the assize
+courts,[79] which had now been revived, were able, between them, to hang
+a few witches.[80]
+
+We do not know whether Hopkins participated in the Ely affair or not. It
+seems certain that his co-worker, Stearne, had some share in it. But, if
+so, it was his last discovery. The work of the two men was ended. They
+had been pursuing the pack of witches in the eastern counties since
+March of 1644/5. Even the execrations of those who opposed them could
+not mar the pleasure they felt in what they had done. Nay, when they
+were called upon to defend themselves, they could hardly refrain from
+exulting in their achievements. They had indeed every right to exult.
+When we come to make up the roll of their victims, we shall see that
+their record as witch discoverers surpassed the combined records of all
+others.
+
+It is a mistake to suppose that they had acted in any haphazard way. The
+conduct of both men had been based upon perfectly logical deductions
+from certain premises. King James's _Dćmonologie_ had been their
+catechism, the statute against the feeding of imps their book of rules.
+Both men started with one fundamental notion, that witchcraft is the
+keeping of imps. But this was a thing that could be detected by marks on
+the bodies.[81] Both were willing to admit that mistakes could be made
+and were often made in assuming that natural bodily marks were the
+Devil's marks. There were, however, special indications by which the
+difference between the two could be recognized.[82] And the two
+witchfinders, of course, possessed that "insight"[83] which was
+necessary to make the distinction. The theories upon which they worked
+we need not enter into. Suffice it to say that when once they had
+proved, as they thought, the keeping of imps, the next step was to watch
+those accused of it.[84] "For the watching," says Stearne,[85] "it is
+not to use violence or extremity to force them to confesse, but onely
+the keeping is, first to see whether any of their spirits, or familiars
+come to or neere them." It is clear that both Hopkins and Stearne
+recognized the fact that confessions wrung from women by torture are
+worthless and were by this explanation defending themselves against the
+charge of having used actual torture. There seems to be no adequate
+reason for doubting the sincerity of their explanation. Stearne tells us
+that the keeping the witches separate is "also to the end that Godly
+Divines might discourse with them." "For if any of their society come to
+them to discourse with them, they will never confesse."[86] Here,
+indeed, is a clue to many confessions. Several men arrayed against one
+solitary and weak woman could break her resolution and get from her very
+much what they pleased.
+
+As for starving the witches and keeping them from sleep, Stearne
+maintained that these things were done by them only at first. Hopkins
+bore the same testimony. "After they had beat their heads together in
+the Gaole, and after this use was not allowed of by the Judges and other
+Magistrates, it was never since used, which is a yeare and a halfe
+since."[87] In other words, the two men had given up the practice
+because the parliamentary commission had compelled them to do so.
+
+The confessions must be received with great caution, Hopkins himself
+declared.[88] It is so easy to put words into the witch's mouth. "You
+have foure Imps, have you not? She answers affirmatively. 'Yes'.... 'Are
+not their names so and so'? 'Yes,' saith she. 'Did you not send such an
+Impe to kill my child'? 'Yes,' saith she." This sort of thing has been
+too often done, asserted the virtuous witchfinder. He earnestly did
+desire that "all Magistrates and Jurors would, a little more than ever
+they did, examine witnesses about the interrogated confessions." What a
+cautious, circumspect man was this famous witchfinder! The confessions,
+he wrote, in which confidence may be placed are when the woman, without
+any "hard usages or questions put to her, doth of her owne accord
+declare what was the occasion of the Devil's appearing to her."[89]
+
+The swimming test had been employed by both men in the earlier stages of
+their work. "That hath been used," wrote Stearne, "and I durst not goe
+about to cleere my selfe of it, because formerly I used it, but it was
+at such time of the yeare as when none tooke any harme by it, neither
+did I ever doe it but upon their owne request."[90] A thoughtful man was
+this Stearne! Latterly he had given up the test--since "Judge Corbolt"
+stopped it[91]--and he had come to believe that it was a way of
+"distrusting of God's providence."
+
+It can be seen that the men who had conducted the witch crusade were
+able to present a consistent philosophy of their conduct. It was, of
+course, a philosophy constructed to meet an attack the force of which
+they had to recognize. Hopkins's pamphlet and Stearne's _Confirmation_
+were avowedly written to put their authors right in the eyes of a public
+which had turned against them.[92] It seems that this opposition had
+first shown itself at their home in Essex. A woman who was undergoing
+inquisition had found supporters, and, though she was condemned in spite
+of their efforts, was at length reprieved.[93] Her friends turned the
+tables by indicting Stearne and some forty others of conspiracy, and
+apparently succeeded in driving them from the county.[94] In Bury the
+forces of the opposition had appealed to Parliament, and the Commission
+of Oyer and Terminer, which, it will be noticed, is never mentioned by
+the witchfinders, was sent out to limit their activities. In
+Huntingdonshire, we have seen how Hopkins roused a protesting clergyman,
+John Gaule. If we may judge from the letter he wrote to one of Gaule's
+parishioners, Hopkins had by this time met with enough opposition to
+know when it was best to keep out of the way. His boldness was assumed
+to cover his fear.
+
+But it was in Norfolk that the opposition to the witchfinders reached
+culmination. There most pungent "queries" were put to Hopkins through
+the judges of assize. He was charged with all those cruelties, which, as
+we have seen, he attempts to defend. He was further accused of fleecing
+the country for his own profit.[95] Hopkins's answer was that he took
+the great sum of twenty shillings a town "to maintaine his companie with
+3 horses."[96] That this was untrue is sufficiently proved by the
+records of Stowmarket where he received twenty-three pounds and his
+traveling expenses. At such a rate for the discoveries, we can hardly
+doubt that the two men between them cleared from three hundred to a
+thousand pounds, not an untidy sum in that day, when a day's work
+brought six pence.
+
+What further action was taken in the matter of the queries "delivered to
+the Judges of assize" we do not know. Both Hopkins and Stearne, as we
+have seen, went into retirement and set to work to exonerate themselves.
+Within the year Hopkins died at his old home in Manningtree. Stearne
+says that he died "peaceably, after a long sicknesse of a Consumption."
+But tradition soon had it otherwise. Hutchinson says that the story, in
+his time, was that Hopkins was finally put to the swimming test himself,
+and drowned. According to another tale, which seems to have lingered in
+Suffolk, he offered to show the Devil's roll of all the witches in
+England and so was detected.[97] Butler, in his _Hudibras_, said of him:
+
+    "Who after proved himself a witch,
+    And made a rod for his own breech."
+
+Butler's lines appeared only fifteen years after Hopkin's death, and his
+statement is evidence enough that such a tradition was already current.
+The tradition is significant. It probably means, not that Hopkins really
+paid such a penalty for his career--Stearne's word is good enough proof
+to the contrary--but that within his own generation his name had become
+an object of detestation.
+
+John Stearne did not return to Manningtree--he may have been afraid
+to--but settled down near Bury, the scene of his greatest successes.
+
+If the epitaphs of these two men were to be written, their deeds could
+be compressed into homely statistics. And this leads us to inquire what
+was the sum of their achievement. It has been variously estimated. It is
+not an uncommon statement that thirty thousand witches were hanged in
+England during the rule of Parliament, and this wild guess has been
+copied by reputable authors. In other works the number has been
+estimated at three thousand, but this too is careless guesswork. Stearne
+himself boasted that he knew of two hundred executions, and Stearne
+ought to have known. It is indeed possible that his estimate was too
+high. He had a careless habit of confusing condemnations with executions
+that makes us suspect that in this estimate he may have been thinking
+rather of the number of convictions than of the hangings. Yet his
+figures are those of a man who was on the ground, and cannot be lightly
+discounted. Moreover, James Howell, writing in 1648, says that "within
+the compass of two years, near upon three hundred Witches were arraign'd
+and the major part executed in Essex and Suffolk only."[98] If these
+estimates be correct--or even if they approach correctness--a remarkable
+fact appears. Hopkins and Stearne, in fourteen months' time, sent to the
+gallows more witches than all the other witch-hunters of England can be
+proved--so far as our present records go--to have hung in the hundred
+and sixty years during which the persecution nourished in England. It
+must occur to the reader that this crusade was extraordinary. Certainly
+it calls for explanation.
+
+So far as the writer is aware, but one explanation has been offered. It
+has been repeated until it has become a commonplace in the history of
+witchcraft that the Hopkins crusade was one of the expressions of the
+intolerant zeal of the Presbyterian party during its control of
+Parliament. This notion is largely due to Francis Hutchinson, who wrote
+the first history of English witchcraft. Hutchinson was an Anglican
+clergyman, but we need not charge him with partisanship in accusing the
+Presbyterians. There was no inconsiderable body of evidence to support
+his point of view. The idea was developed by Sir Walter Scott in his
+_Letters on Demonology_, but it was left to Lecky, in his classic essay
+on witchcraft, to put the case against the Presbyterian Parliament in
+its most telling form.[99] His interpretation of the facts has found
+general acceptance since.
+
+It is not hard to understand how this explanation grew up. At a time
+when Hutchinson was making his study, Richard Baxter, the most eminent
+Puritan of his time, was still a great name among the defenders of
+witchcraft.[100] In his pages Hutchinson read how Puritan divines
+accompanied the witch-magistrates on their rounds and how a "reading
+parson" was one of their victims. Gaule, who opposed them, he seems to
+have counted an Anglican. He clearly put some faith in the lines of
+_Hudibras_. Probably, however, none of these points weighed so much with
+him as the general fact of coincidence in time between the great witch
+persecution and Presbyterian rule. It was hard to escape the conclusion
+that these two unusual situations must in some way have been connected.
+
+Neither Hutchinson nor those who followed have called attention to a
+point in support of their case which is quite as good proof of their
+contention as anything adduced. It was in the eastern counties, where
+the Eastern Association had flourished and where Parliament, as well as
+the army, found its strongest backing--the counties that stood
+consistently against the king--in those counties it was that Hopkins and
+Stearne carried on their work.[101]
+
+It may seem needless in the light of these facts to suggest any other
+explanation of the witch crusade. Yet the whole truth has not by any
+means been told. It has already been noticed that Hutchinson made some
+mistakes. Parson Lowes, who was hanged as a witch at the instance of his
+dissatisfied parishioners, was not hanged because he was an
+Anglican.[102] And the Presbyterian Parliament had not sent down into
+Suffolk a commission to hang witches, but to check the indiscriminate
+proceedings that were going on there against witches. Moreover, while it
+is true that East Anglia and the counties adjacent, the stronghold of
+the Puritans, were the scene of Hopkins's operations, it is quite as
+true that in those counties arose that powerful opposition which forced
+the witchfinders into retirement. We have noticed in another connection
+that the "malignants" were inclined to mock at the number of witches in
+the counties friendly to Parliament, but there is nothing to show that
+the mockers disbelieved the reality of the witchcrafts.[103]
+
+It is easy enough to turn some of Hutchinson's reasoning against him, as
+well as to weaken the force of other arguments that may be presented on
+his side. But, when we have done all this, we still have to face the
+unpleasant facts that the witch persecution coincided in time with
+Presbyterian rule and in place with Puritan communities. It is very hard
+to get around these facts. Nor does the writer believe that they can be
+altogether avoided, even if their edge can be somewhat blunted. It was a
+time of bitter struggle. The outcome could not yet be forecast. Party
+feeling was at a high pitch. The situation may not unfairly be compared
+with that in the summer of 1863 during the American civil war. Then the
+outbreaks in New York revealed the public tension. The case in 1645 in
+the eastern counties was similar. Every energy was directed towards the
+prosecution of the war. The strain might very well have shown itself in
+other forms than in hunting down the supposed agents of the Devil. As a
+matter of fact, the apparitions and devils, the knockings and strange
+noises, that filled up the pages of the popular literature were the
+indications of an overwrought public mind. Religious belief grew
+terribly literal under the tension of the war. The Anglicans were
+fighting for their king, the Puritans for their religion. That
+religious fervor which very easily deepens into dementia was highly
+accentuated.[104]
+
+Nevertheless, too much importance may have been given to the part played
+by Presbyterianism. There is no evidence which makes it certain that the
+morbidity of the public would have taken the form of witch-hanging, had
+it not been for the leadership of Hopkins and Stearne. The Manningtree
+affair started very much as a score of others in other times. It had
+just this difference, that two pushing men took the matter up and made
+of it an opportunity. The reader who has followed the career of these
+men has seen how they seem the backbone of the entire movement. It is
+true that the town of Yarmouth invited them of its own initiative to
+take up the work there, but not until they had already made themselves
+famous in all East Anglia. There is, indeed, too much evidence that
+their visits were in nearly every case the result of their own
+deliberate purpose to widen the field of their labors. In brief, two
+aggressive men had taken advantage of a time of popular excitement and
+alarm. They were fortunate in the state of the public mind, but they
+seem to have owed more to their own exertions.
+
+But perhaps to neither factor was their success due so much as to the
+want of government in England at this time. We have seen in an earlier
+chapter that Charles I and his privy council had put an end to a witch
+panic that bade fair to end very tragically. Not that they interfered
+with random executions here and there. It was when the numbers involved
+became too large that the government stepped in to revise verdicts.
+This was what the government of Parliament failed to do. And the reasons
+are not far to seek. Parliament was intensely occupied with the war. The
+writer believes that it can be proved that, except in so far as
+concerned the war, the government of Parliament and the Committee of
+Both Kingdoms paid little or no attention to the affairs of the realm.
+It is certainly true that they allowed judicial business to go by the
+board. The assizes seem to have been almost, if not entirely, suspended
+during the last half of the year 1645 and the first half of 1646.[105]
+The justices of the peace, who had always shown themselves ready to hunt
+down witches, were suffered to go their own gait.[106] To be sure, there
+were exceptions. The Earl of Warwick held a court at Chelmsford, but he
+was probably acting in a military capacity, and, inexperienced in court
+procedure, doubtless depended largely upon the justices of the peace,
+who, gathered in quarter sessions, were assisting him. It is true too
+that Parliament had sent down a Commission of Oyer and Terminer to Bury,
+a commission made up of a serjeant and two clergymen. But these two
+cases are, so far as we can discover, the sole instances during these
+two years when the justices of the peace were not left to their own
+devices. This is significant. Except in Middlesex and in the chartered
+towns of England, we have, excepting during this time of war, no records
+that witches were ever sentenced to death, save by the judges of assize.
+
+To put it in a nutshell, England was in a state of judicial
+anarchy.[107] Local authorities were in control. But local authorities
+had too often been against witches. The coming of Hopkins and Stearne
+gave them their chance, and there was no one to say stop.
+
+This explanation fits in well with the fact, to which we shall advert in
+another chapter, that no small proportion of English witch trials took
+place in towns possessing separate rights of jurisdiction. This was
+especially true in the seventeenth century. The cases in Yarmouth,
+King's Lynn, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Berwick, and Canterbury, are all
+instances in point. Indeed, the solitary prosecution in Hopkins's own
+time in which he had no hand was in one of those towns, Faversham in
+Kent. There the mayor and "local jurators" sent not less than three to
+the gallows.[108]
+
+One other aspect of the Hopkins crusade deserves further attention. It
+has been shown in the course of the chapter that the practice of torture
+was in evidence again and again during this period. The methods were
+peculiarly harrowing. At the same time they were methods which the
+rationale of the witch belief justified. The theory need hardly be
+repeated. It was believed that the witches, bound by a pact with the
+Devil, made use of spirits that took animal forms. These imps, as they
+were called, were accustomed to visit their mistress once in twenty-four
+hours. If the witch, said her persecutors, could be put naked upon a
+chair in the middle of the room and kept awake, the imps could not
+approach her. Herein lay the supposed reasonableness of the methods in
+vogue. And the authorities who were offering this excuse for their use
+of torture were not loth to go further. It was, they said, necessary to
+walk the creatures in order to keep them awake. It was soon discovered
+that the enforced sleeplessness and the walking would after two or three
+days and nights produce confessions. Stearne himself describes the
+matter graphically: "For the watching," he writes, "it is not to use
+violence or extremity to force them to confesse, but onely the keeping
+is, first, to see whether any of their spirits or familiars come to or
+neere them; for I have found that if the time be come, the spirit or
+Impe so called should come, it will be either visible or invisible, if
+visible, then it may be discerned by those in the Roome, if invisible,
+then by the party. Secondly, it is for this end also, that if the
+parties which watch them, be so carefull that none come visible nor
+invisible but that may be discerned, if they follow their directions
+then the party presently after the time their Familiars should have
+come, if they faile, will presently confesse, for then they thinke they
+will either come no more or have forsaken them. Thirdly it is also to
+the end, that Godly Divines and others might discourse with them, for if
+any of their society come to them to discourse with them, they will
+never confesse.... But if honest godly people discourse with them,
+laying the hainousnesse of their sins to them, and in what condition
+they are in without Repentance, and telling them the subtilties of the
+Devil, and the mercies of God, these ways will bring them to Confession
+without extremity, it will make them break into confession hoping for
+mercy."[109]
+
+Hopkins tells us more about the walking of the witches. In answer to the
+objection that the accused were "extraordinarily walked till their feet
+were blistered, and so forced through that cruelty to confesse," "he
+answered that the purpose was only to keepe them waking: and the reason
+was this, when they did lye or sit in a chaire, if they did offer to
+couch downe, then the watchers were only to desire them to sit up and
+walke about."
+
+Now, the inference might be drawn from these descriptions that the use
+of torture was a new feature of the witchcraft persecutions
+characteristic of the Civil War period. There is little evidence that
+before that time such methods were in use. A schoolmaster who was
+supposed to have used magic against James I had been put to the rack.
+There were other cases in which it is conjectured that the method may
+have been tried. There is, however, little if any proof of such trial.
+
+Such an inference would, however, be altogether unjustified. The
+absence of evidence of the use of torture by no means establishes the
+absence of the practice. It may rather be said that the evidence of the
+practice we possess in the Hopkins cases is of such a sort as to lead us
+to suspect that it was frequently resorted to. If for these cases we had
+only such evidence as in most previous cases has made up our entire sum
+of information, we should know nothing of the terrible sufferings
+undergone by the poor creatures of Chelmsford and Bury. The confessions
+are given in full, as in the accounts of other trials, but no word is
+said of the causes that led to them. The difference between these cases
+of 1645 and other cases is this, that Hopkins and Stearne accused so
+large a body of witches that they stirred up opposition. It is through
+those who opposed them and their own replies that we learn about the
+tortures inflicted upon the supposed agents of the Devil.
+
+The significance of this cannot be insisted upon too strongly. A chance
+has preserved for us the fact of the tortures of this time. It is
+altogether possible--it is almost probable--that, if we had all the
+facts, we should find that similar or equally severe methods had been
+practised in many other witch cases.
+
+We have been very minute in our descriptions of the Hopkins crusade, and
+by no means brief in our attempt to account for it. But it is safe to
+say that it is easily the most important episode in that series of
+episodes which makes up the history of English witchcraft. None of them
+belong, of course, in the larger progress of historical events. It may
+seem to some that we have magnified the point at which they touched the
+wider interests of the time. Let it not be forgotten that Hopkins was a
+factor in his day and that, however little he may have affected the
+larger issues of the times, he was affected by them. It was only the
+unusual conditions produced by the Civil Wars that made the great
+witchfinder possible.
+
+
+[1] See J. O. Jones, "Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder," in Thomas
+Seccombe's _Twelve Bad Men_ (London, 1894).
+
+[2] See _Notes and Queries_, 1854, II, 285, where a quotation from a
+parish register of Mistley-cum-Manningtree is given: "Matthew Hopkins,
+son of Mr. James Hopkins, Minister of Wenham, was buried at Mistley
+August 12, 1647." See also John Stearne, _A Confirmation and Discovery
+of Witchcraft_, 61 (cited hereafter as "Stearne").
+
+[3] _Calendar of the Proceedings of the Committee for Advance of Money,
+1642-1656_, I, 457. _Cf. Notes and Queries_, 1850, II, 413.
+
+[4] The oft-repeated statement that he had been given a commission by
+Parliament to detect witches seems to rest only on the mocking words of
+Butler's _Hudibras_:
+
+    "Hath not this present Parliament
+    A Ledger to the Devil sent,
+    Fully empower'd to treat about
+    Finding revolted Witches out?"
+
+                            (_Hudibras_, pt. ii, canto 3.)
+
+To these lines an early editor added the note: "The Witch-finder in
+Suffolk, who in the Presbyterian Times had a Commission to discover
+Witches." But he names no authority, and none can be found. It is
+probably a confusion with the Commission appointed for the trial of the
+witches in Suffolk (see below, p. 178). Even his use of the title
+"witch-finder-general" is very doubtful. "Witch-finder" he calls himself
+in his book; only the frontispiece has "Witch Finder Generall." Nor is
+this title given him by Stearne, Gaule, or any contemporary record. It
+is perhaps only a misunderstanding of the phrase of Hopkins's
+title-page, "for the benefit of the whole kingdome"--a phrase which, as
+the punctuation shows, describes, not the witch-finder, but his book.
+Yet in _County Folk Lore, Suffolk_ (Folk Lore Soc., 1893), 178, there is
+an extract about John Lowes from a Brandeston MS.: "His chief accuser
+was one Hopkins, who called himself Witchfinder-General." But this is of
+uncertain date, and may rest on Hutchinson.
+
+[5] This is evident enough from his incessant use of Scripture and from
+the Calvinistic stamp of his theology; but he leaves us no doubt when
+(p. 54) he describes the Puritan Fairclough as "an able Orthodox
+Divine."
+
+[6] Matthew Hopkins, _The Discovery of Witches_ (London, 1647), 2--cited
+hereafter as "Hopkins."
+
+[7] One of them was Sir Harbottle Grimston, a baronet of Puritan
+ancestry, who had been active in the Long Parliament, but who as a
+"moderate man" fell now somewhat into the background. The other was Sir
+Thomas Bowes. Both figure a little later as Presbyterian elders.
+
+[8] Hopkins, 3.
+
+[9] Hopkins, 2; Stearne, 14-16.
+
+[10] It must, however, be noted that the oaths of the four women are put
+together, and that one of the men deposed merely that he confirmed
+Stearne's particulars.
+
+[11] Although Hopkins omitted in his testimony the first animal seen by
+Stearne. He mentioned it later, calling it Holt. Stearne called it
+Lought. See Hopkins, 2; Stearne, 15. But Stearne calls it Hoult in his
+testimony as reproduced in the _True and exact Relation of the severall
+Informations, Examinations and Confessions of the Late Witches ... at
+Chelmesford ..._ (London, 1645), 3-4.
+
+[12] Despite this record Anne West is described by Stearne (p. 39) as
+one of the very religious people who make an outward show "as if they
+had been Saints on earth."
+
+[13] The confession of Rebecca West is indeed dated "21" March 1645, the
+very day of Elizabeth Clarke's arrest; but all the context suggests that
+this is an error. In spite of her confessions, which were of the most
+damaging, Rebecca West was eventually acquitted.
+
+[14] It must not for a moment, however, be forgotten that these
+confessions had been wrung from tortured creatures.
+
+[15] Richard Carter and Henry Cornwall had testified that Margaret Moone
+confessed to them. Probably she did, as she was doubtless at that time
+under torture.
+
+[16] The evidence offered against her well suggests on what slender
+grounds a witch might be accused. "This Informant saith that the house
+where this Informante and the said Mary did dwell together, was haunted
+with a Leveret, which did usually sit before the dore: And this
+Informant knowing that one Anthony Shalock had an excellent Greyhound
+that had killed many Hares; and having heard that a childe of the said
+Anthony was much haunted and troubled, and that the mother of the childe
+suspected the said Mary to be the cause of it: This Informant went to
+the said Anthony Shalock and acquainted him that a Leveret did usually
+come and sit before the dore, where this Informant and the said Mary
+Greenleife lived, and desired the said Anthony to bring downe his
+Greyhound to see if he could kill the said Leveret; and the next day the
+said Anthony did accordingly bring his Greyhound, and coursed it, but
+whether the dog killed it this Informant knows not: But being a little
+before coursed by Good-man Merrils dog, the dog ran at it, but the
+Leveret never stirred, and just when the dog came at it, he skipped over
+it, and turned about and stood still, and looked on it, and shortly
+after that dog languished and dyed."
+
+[17] See Bulstrode Whitelocke, _Memorials of English Affairs ..._
+(London, 1682; Oxford, 1853), ed. of 1853, I, 501.
+
+[18] "H. F."'s publication is the _True and exact Relation_ cited above
+(note 11). He seems to have written it in the last of May, but inserted
+verdicts later in the margin. Arthur Wilson, who was present, says that
+18 were executed; Francis Peck, _Desiderata Curiosa_ (London, 1732-1735;
+1779), ed. of 1779, II, 476. But Hopkins writes that 29 were condemned
+at once and Stearne says about 28; quite possibly there were two trials
+at Chelmsford. There is only one other supposition, _i. e._, that
+Hopkins and Stearne confused the number originally accused with the
+number hanged. For further discussion of the somewhat conflicting
+evidence as to the number of these Essex witches and the dates of their
+trial see appendix C, under 1645.
+
+[19] _A Diary or an Exact Journall_, July 24-31, 1645, pp. 5-6.
+
+[20] _A True Relation of the Araignment of eighteene Witches at St.
+Edmundsbury ..._ (London, 1645), 9.
+
+[21] _Ibid._, 6.
+
+[22] _Ibid._
+
+[23] John Gaule, _Select Cases of Conscience Touching Witches and
+Witchcrafts_ (London, 1646), 78, 79.
+
+[24] Queries 8 and 9 answered by Hopkins to the Norfolk assizes confirm
+Gaule's description. See Hopkins, 5. "Query 8. When these ... are fully
+discovered, yet that will not serve sufficiently to convict them, but
+they must be tortured and kept from sleep two or three nights, to
+distract them, and make them say anything; which is a way to tame a
+wilde Colt, or Hawke." "Query 9. Beside that unreasonable watching, they
+were extraordinarily walked, till their feet were blistered, and so
+forced through that cruelty to confess." Hopkins himself admitted the
+keeping of Elizabeth Clarke from sleep, but is careful to insert "upon
+command from the Justice." Hopkins, 2-3. On p. 5 he again refers to this
+point. Stearne, 61, uses the phrase "with consent of the justices."
+
+[25] Suffolk Institute of Archćology, _Proceedings_, X, 378. Baxter
+seems to have started the notion that Lowes was a "reading parson," or
+Anglican.
+
+[26] _Ibid._
+
+[27] See _A Magazine of Scandall, or a heape of wickednesse of two
+infamous Ministers_ (London, 1642), where there is a deposition, dated
+August 4, 1641, that Lowes had been twice indicted and once arraigned
+for witchcraft, and convicted by law as "a common Barrettor" at the
+assizes in Suffolk. Stearne, 23, says he was charged as a "common
+imbarritor" over thirty years before.
+
+[28] This account of the torture is given, in a letter to Hutchinson, by
+a Mr. Rivet, who had "heard it from them that watched with him." It is
+in some measure confirmed by the MS. history of Brandeston quoted in
+_County Folk Lore, Suffolk_ (Folk Lore Soc.), 178, which adds the
+above-quoted testimony as to his litigiousness.
+
+[29] Stearne, 24.
+
+[30] _A True Relation of the Araignment of eighteene Witches_, 5;
+_Moderate Intelligencer_, September 4-11, 1645.
+
+[31] See Samuel Clarke, _Lives of sundry Eminent Persons ..._ (London,
+1683), 172. In writing the life of Samuel Fairclough, Clarke used
+Fairclough's papers; see _ibid._, 163.
+
+[32] Fairclough was a Non-Conformist, but not actively sympathetic with
+Presbyterianism. Calamy was counted a Presbyterian.
+
+[33] Hopkins, 5-6; Stearne, 18.
+
+[34] One of these was Lowes.
+
+[35] _A True Relation of the Araignment of eighteene Witches._
+
+[36] Stearne, 14.
+
+[37] _A True Relation of the Araignment of eighteene Witches_, 5.
+
+[38] _Ibid._; Stearne, 25.
+
+[39] Hutchinson speaks of repeated sessions. Stearne, 25, says: "by
+reason of an Allarum at Cambridge, the gaol delivery at Burie St.
+Edmunds was adjourned for about three weeks." As a matter of fact, the
+king's forces seem not to have got farther east than Bedford and
+Cambridge. See Whitelocke, _Memorials_, I, 501.
+
+[40] Stearne, 11, speaks of 68 condemnations. On p. 14 he tells of 18
+who were executed at Bury, but this may have referred to the first group
+only. A MS. history of Brandeston quoted in _County Folk Lore, Suffolk_
+(Folk Lore Soc.), 178, says that Lowes was executed with 59 more. It is
+not altogether certain, however, that this testimony is independent.
+Nevertheless, it contains pieces of information not in the other
+accounts, and so cannot be ignored.
+
+[41] _Moderate Intelligencer_, September 4-11, 1645.
+
+[42] Howell, _Familiar Letters_ (I use the ed. of Joseph Jacobs, London
+1890-1892) II, 506, 515, 551. The letters quoted are dated as of Feb.,
+1646 (1647), and Feb., 1647 (1648 of our calendar); but, as is well
+known, Howell's dates cannot be trusted. The first was printed in the
+volume of his letters published in 1647, the others in that published in
+1650.
+
+[43] Joseph Hall, _Soliloquies_ (London, 1651), 52-53.
+
+[44] Thomas Ady, _Candle in the Dark_ (London, 1656), 101-105.
+
+[45] The Rev. John Worthington attended the trial. In mentioning it in
+his diary, he made no comment. _Diary and Correspondence of Dr. John
+Worthington_, I (Chetham Soc., no. 13, 1847), 22.
+
+[46] So, at least, says Whitelocke, _Memorials_, I, 487.
+
+[47] J. G. Nall, _Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft_ (London, 1867), 92,
+note, quotes from the Yarmouth assembly book. Nall makes very careless
+statements, but his quotations from the assembly book may be depended
+upon.
+
+[48] _Ibid._
+
+[49] _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, IX, pt. i, 320.
+
+[50] The _Collection of Modern Relations_ says that sixteen were hanged,
+but this compilation was published forty-seven years after the events:
+the number 6 had been changed to 16. One witch seems to have suffered
+later, see Stearne, 53. The statement about the 16 witches hanged at
+Yarmouth may be found in practically all accounts of English witchcraft,
+_e. g._, see the recent essay on Hopkins by J. O. Jones, in Seccombe's
+_Twelve Bad Men_, 60. They can all be traced back through various lines
+to this source.
+
+[51] H. Manship, _History of Great Yarmouth_, continued by C. J. Palmer
+(Great Yarmouth, 1854-1856), where the Yarmouth records about Hopkins
+are given in full. See also H. Harrod, in _Norfolk Archćology_ (Norfolk
+and Norwich Arch. Soc., 1847-1864), IV, 249.
+
+[52] _The Lawes against Witches and Conjuration ..._ (London, 1645), 4.
+J. O. Jones, in his account of Hopkins, _loc. cit._, says that "many
+were hanged or burned in Ipswich." I believe that no authority can be
+cited for this statement.
+
+[53] The first is in, _A True Relation of the Araignment of eighteene
+Witches_, 5. We of course do not know that the sentence was carried out.
+
+[54] The master of a ship had been "sutor" for her grandchild; _The
+Lawes against Witches_, 8. She was a "professour of Religion, a constant
+hearer of the Word for these many years."
+
+[55] _Ibid._
+
+[56] _I. e., The Lawes against Witches_ (London, 1645). See below,
+appendix A, § 4.
+
+[57] N. F. Hele, _Notes or Jottings about Aldeburgh_ (Ipswich, 1890),
+43-44.
+
+[58] This was doubtless the fee to the executioner. Mr. Richard Browne
+and Mr. Newgate, who were either the justices of the peace or the local
+magistrates, received Ł4 apiece for their services in trying the
+witches.
+
+[59] A. G. Hollingsworth, _History of Stowmarket_ (Ipswich, 1844), 170.
+
+[60] For a list of these towns, see below, appendix C, under 1645,
+Suffolk.
+
+[61] Stearne, 45, two instances.
+
+[62] _Ibid._, 37, 39, 45.
+
+[63] Thomas Ady, _A Candle in the Dark_, 135.
+
+[64] Stearne, 39.
+
+[65] His whole confession reads like the utterance of a tortured man.
+
+[66] He had previously been found with a rope around his neck. This was
+of course attributed to witchcraft. Stearne, 35.
+
+[67] _Ibid._, 11.
+
+[68] John Wynnick and Joane Wallis made effective confessions. The
+first, when in the heat of passion at the loss of a purse, had signed
+his soul away (Stearne, 20-21; see also the pamphlet, the dedication of
+which is signed by John Davenport, entitled, _The Witches of Huntingdon,
+their Examinations and Confessions ..._ London, 1646, 3). The latter
+maintained a troop of imps, among whom Blackeman, Grissell, and
+Greedigut figured most prominently. The half-witted creature could not
+recall the names on the repetition of her confessions, but this failing
+does not seem to have awakened any doubt of her guilt. Stearne could not
+avoid noticing that some of those who suffered were very religious. One
+woman, who had kept an imp for twenty-one years, "did resort to church
+and had a desire to be rid of her unhappy burden."
+
+[69] _I. e._, witches.
+
+[70] This letter is printed by Gaule at the opening of his _Select Cases
+of Conscience Touching Witches and Witchcrafts_.
+
+[71] Stearne, 11; _cf._ below, appendix C, 1646 (pp. 405-406).
+
+[72] That it was done by the justices of the peace is a probable
+conclusion from Stearne's language. See his account of Joane Wallis, p.
+13, also his account of John Wynnick, pp. 20-21. That the examinations
+were in March and April (see John Davenport's account, _The Witches of
+Huntingdon_) and the executions in May is a fact confirmatory of this;
+see Stearne, 11. But it is more to the point that John Davenport
+dedicates his pamphlet to the justices of the peace for the county of
+Huntingdon, and says: "You were present, and Judges at the Tryall and
+Conviction of them."
+
+[73] The swimming ordeal was perhaps unofficial; see Stearne, 19.
+Another case was that of Elizabeth Chandler, who was "duckt"; _Witches
+of Huntingdon_, 8.
+
+[74] Tilbrooke-bushes, Stearne, 11; Risden, _ibid._, 31.
+
+[75] This may be inferred from Stearne's words: "but afterward I heard
+that she made a very large confession," _ibid._, 31.
+
+[76] Thomas Wright, John Ashton, J. O. Jones, and the other writers who
+have dealt with Hopkins, speak of the Worcester trials, in 1647, in
+which four women are said to have been hanged. Their statements are all
+based upon a pamphlet, _The Full Tryals, Examination, and Condemnation
+of Four Notorious Witches at the Assizes held at Worcester on Tuseday
+the 4th of March.... Printed for I. W._ What seems to have been the
+first edition of this brochure bears no date. In 1700 another edition
+was printed for "J. M." in Fleet Street. Some writer on witchcraft
+gained the notion that this pamphlet belonged in the year 1647 and dealt
+with events in that year. Wright, John Ashton, and W. H. Davenport Adams
+(_Witch, Warlock, and Magician_, London, 1889), all accept this date. An
+examination of the pamphlet shows that it was cleverly put together from
+the _True and Exact Relation_ of 1645. The four accused bear the names
+of four of those accused at Chelmsford, and make, with a few
+differences, the same confessions. See below, appendix A, § 4, for a
+further discussion of this pamphlet. It is strange that so careful a
+student as Thomas Wright should have been deceived by this pamphlet,
+especially since he noticed that the confessions were "imitations" of
+those in Essex.
+
+[77] A. Gibbons, ed., _Ely Episcopal Records_ (Lincoln, 1891), 112-113.
+
+[78] Stearne, 37.
+
+[79] That there were assizes is proved by the statement that "Moore's
+wife" confessed before the "Judge, Bench, and Country," _ibid._, 21-22,
+as well as by the reference in the _Ely Episcopal Records_, 113, to the
+"assizes."
+
+[80] Stearne, 17, 21-22.
+
+[81] For a clear statement of this point of view, see _ibid._, 40-50.
+
+[82] Stearne, 46-47.
+
+[83] _Ibid._, 50.
+
+[84] _Ibid._, 17.
+
+[85] _Ibid._, 13.
+
+[86] _Ibid._, 14.
+
+[87] Hopkins, 5. But Hopkins was not telling the exact truth here. When
+he was at Aldeburgh in September (8th) the accused were watched day and
+night. See chamberlain's accounts, in N. F. Hele, _Notes or Jottings
+about Aldeburgh_, 43.
+
+[88] Hopkins, 7.
+
+[89] Hopkins, 9.
+
+[90] Stearne, 18. Hopkins did not attempt to deny the use of the ordeal.
+He supported himself by quoting James; see Hopkins, 6.
+
+[91] Stearne, 18. He means, of course, Serjeant Godbolt.
+
+[92] See Stearne, in his preface to the reader, also p. 61; and see also
+the complete title of Hopkins's book as given in appendix A (p. 362).
+
+[93] A similar case was that of Anne Binkes, to whom Stearne refers on
+p. 54. He says she confessed to him her guilt. "Was this woman fitting
+to live?... I am sure she was living not long since, and acquitted upon
+her trial."
+
+[94] Not until after Stearne was already busy elsewhere. Stearne, 58.
+
+[95] It would seem, too, that Stearne was sued for recovery of sums paid
+him. "Many rather fall upon me for what hath been received; but I hope
+such suits will be disannulled." Stearne, 60.
+
+[96] Hopkins, 11.
+
+[97] _County Folk Lore, Suffolk_ (Folk Lore Soc.) 176, quoting from J.
+T. Varden in the _East Anglian Handbook_ for 1885, p. 89.
+
+[98] James Howell, _Familiar Letters_, II, 551. Howell, of course, may
+easily have counted convictions as executions. Moreover, it was a time
+when rumors were flying about, and Howell would not have taken the pains
+to sift them. Yet his agreement with Stearne in numbers is remarkable.
+Somewhat earlier, (the letter is dated February 3, 1646/7) Howell had
+written that "in Essex and Suffolk there were above two hundred indicted
+within these two years and above the one half executed" (_ibid._, 506).
+But, as noted above, his dates are not to be trusted.
+
+[99] See his _History of Rationalism_.
+
+[100] A name no greater, however, than that of Glanvill, who was a
+prominent Anglican.
+
+[101] It does not belong in this connection, but it should be stated,
+that one of the strongest reasons for supposing the Presbyterian party
+largely responsible for the persecution of witches lies in the large
+number of witches in Scotland throughout the whole period of that
+party's ascendancy. This is an argument that can hardly be successfully
+answered. Yet it is a legitimate question whether the witch-hunting
+proclivities of the north were not as much the outcome of Scottish laws
+and manners as of Scottish religion.
+
+[102] The _Magazine of Scandall_, speaking of Lowes and another man,
+says: "Their Religion is either none, or else as the wind blows: If the
+ceremonies be tending to Popery, none so forward as they, and if there
+be orders cleane contrary they shall exceed any Round-head in the Ile of
+great Brittain." See also above, pp. 175-177.
+
+[103] Yet it must not be overlooked that Stearne himself, who must have
+known well the religious sympathies of his opponents, asks, p. 58, "And
+who are they that have been against the prosecution ... but onely such
+as (without offence I may speak it) be enemies to the Church of God?" He
+dares not mention names, "not onely for fear of offence, but also for
+suits of Law."
+
+[104] Scott has pictured this very well in _Woodstock_. For a good
+example of it see _The [D]Ivell in Kent, or His strange Delusions at
+Sandwitch_ (London, 1647).
+
+[105] See below, note 107.
+
+[106] The witches of Aldeburgh were tried at the "sessions," N. F. Hele,
+_op. cit._, 43-44. Mother Lakeland was probably condemned by the
+justices of the peace; see _The Lawes against Witches_. The witches of
+Huntingdon were tried by the justices of the peace; see above, note 73.
+As for the trials in Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, and
+Cambridgeshire, it is fairly safe to reason that they were conducted by
+the justices of the peace from other evidence which we have that there
+were no assizes during the last half of 1645 and the first five months
+of 1646; see Whitelocke, _Memorials_, II, 31, 44, 64.
+
+[107] For a few of the evidences of this situation during these years
+see James Thompson, _Leicester_ (Leicester, 1849), 401; _Hist. MSS.
+Comm. Reports, Various_, I, 109-110, 322; XIII, 4, p. 216 (note gaps in
+the records); Whitelocke, _Memorials_, I, 436; II, 31, 44, 64, 196; III,
+152. Innumerable other references could be added to prove this point. F.
+A. Inderwick in his _Interregnum_ (London, 1891), 153, goes so far as to
+say that "from the autumn of 1642 to the autumn of 1646 no judges went
+the circuits." This seems rather a sweeping statement.
+
+[108] See _The Examination, Confession_, etc. (London, 1645). Joan
+Williford, Joan Cariden, and Jane Hott were tried. The first two quickly
+confessed to the keeping of imps. Not so Jane Hott, who urged the others
+to confess and "stoode to it very perversely that she was cleare." When
+put to the swimming test she floated, and is said to have then declared
+that the Devil "had sat upon a Cross beame and laughed at her."
+Elizabeth Harris was examined, and gave some damaging evidence against
+herself. She named several goodwives who had very loose tongues.
+
+[109] Stearne, 13, 14.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+WITCHCRAFT DURING THE COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE.
+
+
+We have, in the last chapter, traced the history of witchcraft in
+England through the Hopkins episode of 1645-1647. From the trials at Ely
+in the autumn of 1647 to the discoveries at Berwick in the summer of
+1649 there was a lull in the witch alarms. Then an epidemic broke out in
+the north of England. We shall, in this chapter, describe that epidemic
+and shall carry the narrative of the important cases from that time to
+the Restoration. In doing this we shall mark off two periods, one from
+1649 to 1653, when the executions were still numerous, and a second from
+1653 to 1659 when there was a rapid falling off, not only in death
+penalties for witchcraft, but even in accusations. To be sure, this
+division is somewhat artificial, for there was a gradual decline of the
+attack throughout the two periods, but the year 1653 more nearly than
+any other marks the year when that decline became visible.
+
+The epidemic of 1649 came from Scotland. Throughout the year the
+northern kingdom had been "infested."[1] From one end of that realm to
+the other the witch fires had been burning. It was not to be supposed
+that they should be suddenly extinguished when they reached the border.
+In July the guild of Berwick had invited a Scotchman who had gained
+great fame as a "pricker" to come to Berwick, and had promised him
+immunity from all violence.[2] He came and proceeded to apply his
+methods of detection. They rested upon the assumption that a witch had
+insensible spots on her body, and that these could be found by driving
+in a pin. By such processes he discovered thirty witches, who were sent
+to gaol. Some of them made confessions but refused to admit that they
+had injured any one.[3] On the contrary, they had assisted Cromwell, so
+some of the more ingenious of them claimed, at the battle of Preston.[4]
+Whether this helped their case we do not know, for we are not told the
+outcome. It seems almost certain, however, that few, if any, of them
+suffered death. But the pricker went back to Scotland with thirty
+pounds, the arrangement having been that he was to receive twenty
+shillings a witch.
+
+He was soon called upon again. In December of the same year the town of
+Newcastle underwent a scare. Two citizens, probably serjeants, applied
+the test with such success that in March (1649/50) a body of citizens
+petitioned the common council that some definite steps be taken about
+the witches. The council accepted the suggestion and despatched two
+serjeants, doubtless the men already engaged in the work, to Scotland to
+engage the witch-pricker. He was brought to Newcastle with the definite
+contract that he was to have his passage going and coming and twenty
+shillings apiece for every witch he found. The magistrates did
+everything possible to help him. On his arrival in Newcastle they sent
+the bellman through the town inviting every one to make complaints.[5]
+In this business-like way they collected thirty women at the town hall,
+stripped them, and put them to the pricking test. This cruel, not to say
+indelicate, process was carried on with additions that must have proved
+highly diverting to the base-minded prickers and onlookers.[6] Fourteen
+women and one man were tried (Gardiner says by the assizes) and found
+guilty. Without exception they asserted their innocence; but this
+availed not. In August of 1650 they were executed on the town moor[7] of
+Newcastle.[8]
+
+The witchfinder continued his activities in the north, but a storm was
+rising against him. Henry Ogle, a late member of Parliament, caused him
+to be jailed and put under bond to answer the sessions.[9] Unfortunately
+the man got away to Scotland, where he later suffered death for his
+deeds, probably during the Cromwellian regime in that country.[10]
+
+We have seen that Henry Ogle had driven the Scotch pricker out of the
+country. He participated in another witch affair during this same period
+which is quite as much to his credit. The children of George Muschamp,
+in Northumberland, had been troubled for two years (1645-1647) with
+strange convulsions.[11] The family suspected Dorothy Swinow, who was
+the wife of Colonel Swinow. It seems that the colonel's wife had, at
+some time, spoken harshly to one of the children. No doubt the sick
+little girl heard what they said. At any rate her ravings began to take
+the form of accusations against the suspected woman. The family
+consulted John Hulton, "who could do more then God allowed," and he
+accused Colonel Swinow's wife. But unfortunately for him the child had
+been much better during his presence, and he too was suspected. The
+mother of the children now rode to a justice of the peace, who sent for
+Hulton, but not for Mistress Swinow. Then the woman appealed to the
+assizes, but the judge, "falsely informed," took no action. Mrs.
+Muschamp was persistent, and in the town of Berwick she was able, at
+length, to procure the arrest of the woman she feared. But Dorothy
+Swinow was not without friends, who interfered successfully in her
+behalf. Mrs. Muschamp now went to a "counsellor," who refused to meddle
+with the matter, and then to a judge, who directed her to go to Durham.
+She did so and got a warrant; but it was not obeyed. She then procured a
+second warrant, and apparently succeeded in getting an indictment. But
+it did her little good: Dorothy Swinow was not apprehended.
+
+One can hardly refrain from smiling a little at the unhappy Mrs.
+Muschamp and her zealous assistants, the "physician" and the two
+clergymen. But her poor daughters grew worse, and the sick child, who
+had before seen angels in her convulsions, now saw the colonel's wife
+and cried out in her ravings against the remiss judge.[12] The case is
+at once pathetic and amusing, but it has withal a certain significance.
+It was not only Mrs. Swinow's social position that saved her, though
+that doubtless carried weight. It was the reluctance of the
+north-country justices to follow up accusations. Not that they had done
+with trials. Two capital sentences at Durham and another at Gateshead,
+although perhaps after-effects of the Scotch pricker's activity, showed
+that the witch was still feared; but such cases were exceptions. In
+general, the cases resulted in acquittals. We shall see, in another
+chapter, that the discovery which alarmed Yorkshire and Northumberland
+in 1673 almost certainly had this outcome; and the cases tried at that
+time formed the last chapter in northern witchcraft.
+
+But, if hanging witches was not easy in the north, there were still
+districts in the southwest of England where it could be done, with few
+to say nay. Anne Bodenham,[13] of Fisherton Anger in Wiltshire, had not
+the social position of Dorothy Swinow, but she was the wife of a
+clothier who had lived "in good fashion," and in her old age she taught
+children to read. She had, it seems, been in earlier life an apt pupil
+of Dr. Lambe, and had learned from him the practice of magic lore. She
+drew magic circles, saw visions of people in a glass, possessed numerous
+charms and incantations, and, above all, kept a wonderful magic book.
+She attempted to find lost money, to tell the future, and to cure
+disease; indeed, she had a varied repertoire of occult performances.
+
+Now, Mistress Bodenham did all these things for money and roused no
+antagonism in her community until she was unfortunate enough to have
+dealings with a maid-servant in a Wiltshire family. It is impossible to
+get behind the few hints given us by the cautious writer. The members of
+the family, evidently one of some standing in Wiltshire, became involved
+in a quarrel among themselves. It was believed, indeed, by neighbors
+that there had been a conspiracy on the part of some of the family to
+poison the mother-in-law. At all events, a maid in the family was
+imprisoned for participation in such a plot. It was then that Anne
+Bodenham first came into the story. The maid, to judge from the few data
+we have, in order to distract attention from her own doings, made a
+confession that she had signed a book of the Devil's with her own blood,
+all at the instigation of Anne Bodenham. Moreover, Anne, she said, had
+offered to send her to London in two hours. This was communicated to a
+justice of the peace, who promptly took the accused woman into custody.
+The maid-servant, successful thus far, began to simulate fits and to lay
+the blame for them on Mistress Anne. Questioned as to what she conceived
+her condition, she replied, "Oh very damnable, very wretched." She could
+see the Devil, she said, on the housetop looking at her. These fancies
+passed as facts, and the accused woman was put to the usual
+humiliations. She was searched, examined, and urged to confess. The
+narrator of the story made effort after effort to wring from her an
+admission of her guilt, but she slipped out of all his traps. Against
+her accuser she was very bitter. "She hath undone me ... that am an
+honest woman, 'twill break my Husband's heart, he grieves to see me in
+these Irons: I did once live in good fashion."
+
+The case was turned over by the justices of the peace to the assizes at
+Salisbury, where Chief Baron John Wylde of the exchequer presided.[14]
+The testimony of the maid was brought in, as well as the other
+proofs.[15] All we know of the trial is that Anne was condemned, and
+that Judge Wylde was so well satisfied with his work that he urged
+Edmund Bower, who had begun an account of the case, but had hesitated to
+expose himself to "this Censorious Age," to go on with his booklet. That
+detestable individual had followed the case closely. After the
+condemnation he labored with the woman to make her confess. But no
+acknowledgment of guilt could be wrung from the high-spirited Mistress
+Bodenham, even when the would-be father confessor held out to her the
+false hope of mercy. She made a will giving gifts to thirty people,
+declared she had been robbed by her maids in prison, lamented over her
+husband's sorrow, and requested that she be buried under the gallows.
+Like the McPherson who danced so wantonly and rantingly beneath the
+gallows tree, she remained brave-hearted to the end. When the officer
+told her she must go with him to the place of execution, she replied,
+"Be you ready, I am ready." The narrator closes the account with some
+moral reflections. We may close with the observation that there is no
+finer instance of womanly courage in the annals of witchcraft than that
+of Anne Bodenham. Doubtless she had used charms, and experimented with
+glasses; it had been done by those of higher rank than she.
+
+As for the maid, she had got herself well out of trouble. When Mistress
+Bodenham had been hanged, the fits ceased, and she professed great
+thankfulness to God and a desire to serve him.
+
+The case of Joan Peterson, who was tried at the Old Bailey in 1652, is
+another instance of the struggle of a spirited woman against too great
+odds. Joan, like Mistress Bodenham, kept various kinds of powders and
+prescribed physic for ailing neighbors.[16] It was, however, if we may
+believe her defender, not on account of her prescriptions, but rather on
+account of her refusal to swear falsely, that her downfall came. One
+would be glad to know the name of the vigorous defender who after her
+execution issued _A Declaration in Answer to severall lying Pamphlets
+concerning the Witch of Wapping_. His narrative of the plot against the
+accused woman offers a plausible explanation of the affair and is not
+improbably trustworthy. As he tells the story, there were certain
+relatives of Lady Powell who had been disappointed that her estate had
+been bequeathed to Mrs. Anne Levingston. They conspired to get rid of
+the heiress, went to a cunning woman, and offered to pay her liberally
+if she would swear that Mrs. Levingston had used sorcery to take away
+the life of Lady Powell. Unfortunately for the conspirators, the cunning
+woman betrayed their schemes. Not discouraged, however, they employed
+another woman, who, as their representative, went to Joan Peterson and
+offered her a hundred pounds to swear that Mrs. Levingston had procured
+from her "certain powders and bags of seeds." Joan refused the
+proposition, and the plotters, fearing a second exposure of their plans,
+determined that Mistress Peterson should also be put out of the way.
+They were able to procure a warrant to have her arrested and searched.
+Great pressure was put upon her to confess enough to implicate Mrs.
+Levingston and she was given to understand that if she would do so she
+would herself be spared. But Joan refused their proffers and went to her
+trial. If the narrative may be at all trusted there was little effort to
+give her a fair hearing. Witnesses against her were purchased in
+advance, strangers were offered money to testify against her, and those
+who were to have given evidence on her side were most of them
+intimidated into staying away from the trial. Four physicians and two
+surgeons signed a certificate that Lady Powell had died from perfectly
+natural causes. It was of no avail. Joan was convicted and died bravely,
+denying her guilt to the end.[17] Her defender avers that some of the
+magistrates in the case were involved in the conspiracy against her. One
+of these was Sir John Danvers, a member of Cromwell's council. In the
+margin of his account the pamphleteer writes: "Sir John Danvers came and
+dined at the Sessions house and had much private discourse with the
+Recorder and many of the Justices and came and sate upon the Bench at
+her Trial, where he hath seldom or never been for these many years."
+
+In July of 1652 occurred another trial that attracted notice in its own
+time. Six Kentish women were tried at the assizes at Maidstone before
+Peter Warburton.[18] We know almost nothing of the evidence offered by
+the prosecution save that there was exhibited in the Swan Inn at
+Maidstone a piece of flesh which the Devil was said to have given to one
+of the accused, and that a waxen image of a little girl figured in the
+evidence. Some of the accused confessed that they had used it in order
+to kill the child. Search was instituted for it, and it was found, if
+the narrator may be trusted, under the door where the witches had said
+it would be.[19] The six were all condemned and suffered execution.
+Several others were arraigned, but probably escaped trial.
+
+If the age was as "censorious" of things of this nature as Edmund Bower
+had believed it to be, it is rather remarkable that "these proceedings,"
+which were within a short distance of London, excited so little stir in
+that metropolis. Elias Ashmole, founder of the Ashmolean Museum at
+Oxford and delver in astrology, attended the trials, with John
+Tradescant, traveller and gardener.[20] He left no comments. The
+_Faithful Scout_, in its issue of July 30-August 7, mentioned the trial
+and the confessions, but refrained from any expression of opinion.
+
+There were other trials in this period; but they must be passed over
+rapidly. The physicians were quite as busy as ever in suggesting
+witchcraft. We can detect the hand of a physician in the attribution of
+the strange illness of a girl who discharged great quantities of stones
+to the contrivance of Catherine Huxley, who was, in consequence, hanged
+at Worcester.[21] In a case at Exeter the physician was only indirectly
+responsible. When Grace Matthews had consulted him about her husband's
+illness, he had apparently given up the case, and directed her to a wise
+woman.[22] The wise woman had warned Mistress Matthews of a neighbor
+"tall of stature and of a pale face and blinking eye," against whom it
+would be well to use certain prescribed remedies. Mrs. Matthews did so,
+and roused out the witch, who proved to be a butcher's wife, Joan Baker.
+When the witch found her spells thwarted, she turned them against Mrs.
+Matthews's maid-servant, who in consequence died. This was part of the
+evidence against Joan, and it was confirmed by her own kinsfolk: her
+father-in-law had seen her handling toads. She was committed, but we
+hear no more of the case.
+
+That random accusations were not feared as they had been was evidenced
+by the boldness of suspected parties in bringing action against their
+accusers, even if boldness was sometimes misjudged. We have two actions
+of this sort.
+
+Joan Read of Devizes had been reported to be a witch, and on that
+account had been refused by the bakers the privilege of using their
+bakeries for her dough.[23] She threw down the glove to her accusers by
+demanding that they should be brought by warrant to accuse her. No doubt
+she realized that she had good support in her community, and that her
+challenge was not likely to be accepted. But a woman near Land's End in
+Cornwall seems to have overestimated the support upon which she could
+count. She had procured a warrant against her accusers to call the case
+before the mayor. The court sided with the accusers and the woman was
+brought to trial. Caught herself, she proceeded to ensnare others. As a
+result, eight persons were sent to Launceston,[24] and some probably
+suffered death.[25]
+
+We have already seen what a tangled web Mrs. Muschamp wove when she set
+out to imprison a colonel's wife. It would be easy to cite cases to show
+the same reluctance to follow up prosecution. Four women at Leicester
+searched Ann Chettle and found no evidence of guilt.[26] In Durham a
+case came up before Justice Henry Tempest.[27] Mary Sykes was accused.
+Sara Rodes, a child, awakening from sleep in a fright, had declared to
+her mother that "Sikes' wife" had come in "att a hole att the bedd
+feete" and taken her by the throat. Of course Sara Rodes fell ill.
+Moreover, the witch had been seen riding at midnight on the back of a
+cow and at another time flying out of a "mistall windowe." But the
+woman, in spite of the unfavorable opinion of the women searchers, went
+free. There were cases that seem to have ended the same way at York, at
+Leeds, and at Scarborough. They were hints of what we have already
+noticed, that the northern counties were changing their attitude.[28]
+But a case in Derbyshire deserves more attention because the justice,
+Gervase Bennett, was one of the members of Cromwell's council. The case
+itself was not in any way unusual. A beggar woman, who had been
+liberally supported by those who feared her, was on trial for
+witchcraft. Because of Bennett's close relation to the government, we
+should be glad to know what he did with the case, but the fact that the
+woman's conviction is not among the records makes it probable that she
+was not bound over to the assizes.[29]
+
+We come now to examine the second of the sub-periods into which we have
+divided the Interregnum. We have been dealing with the interval between
+the war and the establishment of the Protectorate, a time that shaded
+off from the dark shadows of internecine struggle towards the high light
+of steady peace and security. By 1653 the equilibrium of England had
+been restored. Cromwell's government was beginning to run smoothly. The
+courts were in full swing. None of those conditions to which we have
+attributed the spread of the witch alarms of the Civil Wars were any
+longer in operation. It is not surprising, then, that the Protectorate
+was one of the most quiet periods in the annals of witchcraft. While the
+years 1648-1653 had witnessed thirty executions in England, the period
+of the Protectorate saw but half a dozen, and three of these fell within
+the somewhat disturbed rule of Richard Cromwell.[30] In other words,
+there was a very marked falling off of convictions for witchcraft, a
+falling off that had indeed begun before the year 1653. Yet this
+diminution of capital sentences does not by any means signify that the
+realm was rid of superstition. In Middlesex, in Somerset and Devon, in
+York, Northumberland, and Cumberland, the attack upon witches on the
+part of the people was going on with undiminished vigor. If no great
+discoveries were made, if no nests of the pestilent creatures were
+unearthed, the justices of the peace were kept quite as busy with
+examinations as ever before.
+
+To be sure, an analysis of cases proves that a larger proportion of
+those haled to court were light offenders, "good witches" whose healing
+arts had perhaps been unsuccessful, dealers in magic who had aroused
+envy or fear. The court records of Middlesex and York are full of
+complaints against the professional enchanters. In most instances they
+were dismissed. Now and then a woman was sent to the house of
+correction,[31] but even this punishment was the exception.
+
+Two other kinds of cases appeared with less frequency. We have one very
+clear instance at Wakefield, in York, where a quarrel between two tenant
+farmers over their highway rights became so bitter that a chance threat
+uttered by the loser of the lawsuit, "It shall be a dear day's work for
+you," occasioned an accusation of witchcraft.[32] In another instance
+the debt of a penny seems to have been the beginning of a hatred between
+two impecunious creatures, and this brought on a charge.[33]
+
+The most common type of case, of course, was that where strange disease
+or death played a part. In Yorkshire, in Hertfordshire, and in Cornwall
+there were trials based upon a sort of evidence with which the reader is
+already quite familiar. It was easy for the morbid mother of a dead
+child to recall or imagine angry words spoken to her shortly before the
+death of her offspring. It was quite as natural for a sick child to be
+alarmed at the sight of a visitor and go into spasms. There was no fixed
+rule, however, governing the relation of the afflicted children and the
+possible witches. When William Wade was named, Elizabeth Mallory would
+fly into fits.[34] When Jane Brooks entered the room, a bewitched youth
+of Chard would become hysterical.[35] It was the opposite way with a
+victim in Exeter,[36] who remained well only so long as the witch who
+caused the trouble stayed with him.[37]
+
+Closely related to these types of evidence was what has been denominated
+spectral evidence, a form of evidence recurrent throughout the history
+of English witchcraft. In the time of the Protectorate we have at least
+three cases of the kind. The accused woman appeared to the afflicted
+individual now in her own form, again in other shapes, as a cat, as a
+bee, or as a dog.[38] The identification of a particular face in the
+head of a bee must have been a matter of some difficulty, but there is
+no ground for supposing that any objection was made to this evidence in
+court. At all events, the testimony went down on the official records in
+Yorkshire. In Somerset the Jane Brooks case,[39] already referred to,
+called forth spectral evidence in a form that must really have been very
+convincing. When the bewitched boy cried out that he saw the witch on
+the wall, his cousin struck at the place, upon which the boy cried out,
+"O Father, Coz Gibson hath cut Jane Brooks's hand, and 'tis bloody."
+Now, according to the story, the constable proceeded to the woman's
+house and found her hand cut.
+
+As to the social status of the people involved in the Protectorate
+trials there is little to say, other than has been said of many earlier
+cases. By far the larger number of those accused, as we have already
+pointed out, were charmers and enchanters, people who made a penny here
+and twopence there, but who had at best a precarious existence. Some of
+them, no doubt, traded on the fear they inspired in their communities
+and begged now a loaf of bread and now a pot of beer. They were the same
+people who, when begging and enchanting failed, resorted to
+stealing.[40] In one of the Yorkshire depositions we have perhaps a hint
+of another class from which the witches were recruited. Katherine Earle
+struck a Mr. Frank between the shoulders and said, "You are a pretty
+gentleman; will you kisse me?" When the man happened to die this
+solicitation assumed a serious aspect.[41]
+
+Witchcraft was indeed so often the outcome of lower-class bickering that
+trials involving the upper classes seem worthy of special record. During
+the Protectorate there were two rather remarkable trials. In 1656
+William and Mary Wade were accused of bewitching the fourteen-year-old
+daughter of Elizabeth Mallory of Studley Hall. The Mallorys were a
+prominent family in Yorkshire. The grandfather of the accusing child had
+been a member of Parliament and was a well known Royalist colonel. When
+Mistress Elizabeth declared that her fits would not cease until Mary
+Wade had said that she had done her wrong, Mary Wade was persuaded to
+say the words. Elizabeth was well at once, but Mary withdrew her
+admission and Elizabeth resumed her fits, indeed "she was paste
+holdinge, her extreamaty was such." She now demanded that the two Wades
+should be imprisoned, and when they were "both in holde" she became well
+again. They were examined by a justice of the peace, but were probably
+let off.[42]
+
+The story of Diana Crosse at Exeter is a more pathetic one. Mrs. Crosse
+had once kept a girls' school--could it be that there was some
+connection between teaching and witchcraft?[43]--had met with
+misfortune, and had at length been reduced to beggary. We have no means
+of knowing whether the suspicion of witchcraft antedated her extreme
+poverty or not, but it seems quite clear that the former school-teacher
+had gained an ill name in the community. She resented bitterly the
+attitude of the people, and at one time seems to have appealed to the
+mayor. It was perhaps by this very act that she focussed the suspicion
+of her neighbors. To go over the details of the trial is not worth
+while. Diana Crosse probably escaped execution to eke out the remainder
+of her life in beggary.[44]
+
+The districts of England affected by the delusion during this period
+have already been indicated. While there were random cases in Suffolk,
+Hertfordshire, Wiltshire, Somerset, Cumberland, and Northumberland, by
+far the greatest activity seems to have been in Middlesex, Cornwall, and
+Yorkshire. To a layman it looks as if the north of England had produced
+the greater part of its folk-lore. Certain it is that the witch stories
+of Yorkshire, as those of Lancaster at another time, by their mysterious
+and romantic elements made the trials of the south seem flat, stale, and
+unprofitable. Yet they rarely had as serious results.
+
+To the historian the Middlesex cases must be more interesting because
+they should afford some index of the attitude of the central government.
+Unhappily we do not know the fate of the Yorkshire witches, though it
+has been surmised, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, that they
+all escaped execution.[45] In Middlesex we know that during this period
+only one woman, so far as our extant records go, was adjudged guilty.
+All the rest were let go free. Now, this may be significant and it may
+not. It does not seem unreasonable to suppose that the Middlesex quarter
+sessions were in harmony with the central government. Yet this can be no
+more than a guess. It is not easy to take bearings which will locate the
+position of the Cromwellian government. The protector himself was
+occupied with weightier matters, and, so far as we know, never uttered a
+word on the subject. He was almost certainly responsible for the pardon
+of Margaret Gyngell at Salisbury in 1655,[46] yet we cannot be sure that
+he was not guided in that case by special circumstances as well as by
+the recommendation of subordinates.
+
+We have but little more evidence as to the attitude of his council of
+state. It was three years before the Protectorate was put into operation
+that the hesitating sheriff of Cumberland, who had some witches on his
+hands, was authorized to go ahead and carry out the law.[47] But on the
+other hand it was in the same period that the English commissioners in
+Scotland put a quietus on the witch alarms in that kingdom. In fact, one
+of their first acts was to take over the accused women from the church
+courts and demand the proof against them.[48] When it was found that
+they had been tortured into confessions, the commission resolved upon
+an enquiry into the conduct of the sheriff, ministers, and tormentors
+who had been involved. Several women had been accused. Not one was
+condemned. The matter was referred to the council of state, where it
+seems likely that the action of the commissioners was ratified. Seven or
+eight years later, in the administration of Richard Cromwell, there was
+an instance where the council, apparently of its own initiative, ordered
+a party of soldiers to arrest a Rutlandshire witch. The case was,
+however, dismissed later.[49]
+
+To draw a definite conclusion from these bits of evidence would be rash.
+We can perhaps reason somewhat from the general attitude of the
+government. Throughout the Protectorate there was a tendency, which
+Cromwell encouraged, to mollify the rigor of the criminal law. Great
+numbers of pardons were issued; and when Whitelocke suggested that no
+offences should be capital except murder, treason, and rebellion, no one
+arose in holy horror to point out the exception of witchcraft,[50] and
+the suggestion, though never acted upon, was favorably considered.[51]
+
+When we consider this general attitude towards crime in connection with
+what we have already indicated about the rapid decline in numbers of
+witch convictions, it seems a safe guess that the Cromwellian
+government, while not greatly interested in witchcraft, was, so far as
+interested, inclined towards leniency.
+
+
+[1] Whitelocke, _Memorials_, III, 63, 97, 99, 113.
+
+[2] See an extract from the Guild Hall Books in John Fuller, _History of
+Berwick_ (Edinburgh, 1799), 155-156.
+
+[3] Thomas Widdrington's letter to Whitelocke (Whitelocke, _Memorials_,
+III, 99). Widdrington said the man professed himself "an artist that
+way." The writer was evidently somewhat skeptical.
+
+[4] _Ibid._
+
+[5] Ralph Gardiner, _England's Grievance Discovered in Relation to the
+Coal Trade_ (London, 1655), 108.
+
+[6] _Ibid._
+
+[7] See John Brand, _History and Antiquities of ... Newcastle_ (London,
+1789), II, 478, or the _Chronicon Mirabile_ (London, 1841), 92, for an
+extract from the parish registers, giving the names. A witch of rural
+Northumberland was executed with them.
+
+[8] The witches of 1649 were not confined to the north. Two are said to
+have been executed at St. Albans, a man and a woman; one woman was tried
+in Worcestershire, one at Gloucester, and two in Middlesex. John Palmer
+and Elizabeth Knott, who suffered at St. Albans, had gained some
+notoriety. Palmer had contracted with the Devil and had persuaded his
+kinswoman to assist him in procuring the death of a woman by the use of
+clay pictures. Both were probably practitioners in magic. Palmer, even
+when in prison, claimed the power of transforming men into beasts. The
+woman seems to have been put to the swimming test. Both were condemned.
+Palmer, at his execution, gave information about a "whole colledge of
+witches," most of them, no doubt, practisers like himself, but his
+random accusations were probably passed over. See _The Divels Delusions
+or A faithfull relation of John Palmer and Elizabeth Knott ..._ (1649).
+
+[9] Ralph Gardiner, _op. cit._, 109.
+
+[10] See _ibid._ At his execution, Gardiner says, he confessed that he
+had been the death of 220 witches in Scotland and England. Either the
+man was guilty of unseemly and boastful lying, which is very likely, or
+Scotland was indeed badly "infested." See above, note 1.
+
+[11] This narrative is contained in _Wonderfull News from the North, Or
+a True Relation of the Sad and Grievous Torments Inflicted upon ...
+three Children of Mr. George Muschamp ..._ (London, 1650).
+
+[12] The story of the case was sent down to London and there published,
+where it soon became a classic among the witch-believing clergy.
+
+[13] See the two pamphlets by Edmond Bower described below in appendix
+A, § 5, and Henry More, _Antidote against Atheisme_, bk. III, ch. VII.
+
+[14] Wylde was not well esteemed as a judge. On the institution of the
+protectorate he was not reappointed by Cromwell.
+
+[15] Aubrey (who had it from an eye-witness) tells us that "the crowd of
+spectators made such a noise that the judge could not heare the
+prisoner, nor the prisoner the judge; but the words were handed from one
+to the other by Mr. R. Chandler and sometimes not truly repeated." John
+Aubrey, _Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme ..._ (ed. J. Britten, _Folk
+Lore Soc. Publications_, IV, 1881), 261.
+
+[16] For the case see _The Tryall and Examinations of Mrs. Joan Peterson
+..._; _The Witch of Wapping, or an Exact ... Relation of the ...
+Practises of Joan Peterson ..._; _A Declaration in Answer to severall
+lying Pamphlets concerning the Witch of Wapping ..._, (as to these
+pamphlets, all printed at London in 1652, see below, appendix A, § 5);
+_French Intelligencer_, April 6-13, 1652; _Weekly Intelligencer_, April
+6-13, 1652; _The Faithful Scout_, April 9-16, 1652; _Mercurius
+Democritus_, April 7-17, 1652.
+
+[17] The _French Intelligencer_ tells us the story of her execution:
+"She seemed to be much dejected, having a melancholy aspect; she seemed
+not to be much above 40 years of age, and was not in the least outwardly
+deformed, as those kind of creatures usually are."
+
+[18] For an account of this affair see _A Prodigious and Tragicall
+History of the ... Condemnation of six Witches at Maidstone ..._
+(London, 1652).
+
+[19] It was "supposed," says the narrator, that nine children, besides a
+man and a woman, had suffered at their hands, Ł500 worth of cattle had
+been lost, and much corn wrecked at sea. Two of the women made
+confession, but not to these things.
+
+[20] See Ashmole's diary as given in Charles Burman, _Lives of Elias
+Ashmole, Esq., and Mr. William Lilly, written by themselves ..._
+(London, 1774), 316.
+
+[21] In his _Certainty of the World of Spirits_ (London, 1691), 44, 45,
+Richard Baxter, who is by no means absolutely reliable, tells us about
+this case. It should be understood that it is only a guess of the writer
+that the physician was to blame for the accusation; but it much
+resembles other cases where the physician started the trouble.
+
+[22] William Cotton, _Gleanings from the Municipal and Cathedral Records
+Relative to the History of the City of Exeter_ (Exeter, 1877), 149-150.
+
+[23] _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports, Various_, I, 127.
+
+[24] _Mercurius Politicus_, November 24-December 2, 1653. One of these
+witches was perhaps the one mentioned as from Launceston in Cornwall in
+R. and O. B. Peter, _The Histories of Launceston and Dunheved_
+(Plymouth, 1885), 285: "the grave in w^ch the wich was buryed."
+
+[25] Richard Burthogge, _An Essay upon Reason and the Nature of Spirits_
+(London, 1694), 196, writes that he has the confessions in MS. of "a
+great number of Witches (some of which were Executed) that were taken by
+a Justice of Peace in Cornwall above thirty Years agoe." It does not
+seem impossible that this is a reference to the same affair as that
+mentioned by the Launceston record.
+
+[26] _Leicestershire and Rutland Notes and Queries_ (Leicester, 1891,
+etc.), I, 247.
+
+[27] James Raine, ed., _A Selection from the Depositions in Criminal
+Cases taken before the Northern Magistrates, from the Originals
+preserved in York Castle_ (Surtees Soc., no. 40, 1861), 28-30. Cited
+hereafter as _York Depositions_.
+
+[28] Yet in 1650 there had been a scare at Gateshead which cost the rate
+payers Ł2, of which a significant item was 6 d. for a "grave for a
+witch." _Denham Tracts_ (Folk Lore Soc.), II, 338. At Durham, in 1652,
+two persons were executed. Richardson, _Table Book_ (London, 1841), I,
+286.
+
+[29] J. C. Cox, _Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals_ (London, 1890),
+II, 88. Cox, however, thinks it probable that she was punished.
+
+[30] It is of course not altogether safe to reason from the absence of
+recorded executions, and it is least safe in the time of the Civil Wars
+and the years of recovery.
+
+[31] _Middlesex County Records_, ed. by J. C. Jeaffreson (London, 1892),
+III, 295; _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports, Various_, I, 129.
+
+[32] _York Depositions_, 74.
+
+[33] _Hertfordshire County Sessions Rolls_, compiled by W. J. Hardy
+(Hertford, 1905), I, 126. It is not absolutely certain in the second
+case that the committal was to the house of correction.
+
+[34] _York Depositions_, 76-77.
+
+[35] Joseph Glanvill, _Sadducismus Triumphatus_ (London, 1681), pt. ii,
+122.
+
+[36] Cotton, _Gleanings ... relative to the History of ... Exeter_, 152.
+
+[37] In the famous Warboys case of 1593 it was the witch's presence that
+relieved the bewitched of their ailments.
+
+[38] _York Depositions_, 64-67.
+
+[39] Glanvill, _Sadducismus Triumphatus_, pt. ii, 120-121.
+
+[40] _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports, Various_, I, 120.
+
+[41] _York Depositions_, 69.
+
+[42] _Ibid._, 75-78.
+
+[43] See the story of Anne Bodenham.
+
+[44] Cotton, _Gleanings ... Relative to the History of ... Exeter_,
+150-152.
+
+[45] James Raine, editor of _York Depositions_, writes that he has found
+no instance of the conviction of a witch. Preface, xxx. _The Criminal
+Chronology of York Castle, with a Register of Criminals capitally
+Convicted and Executed_ (York, 1867), contains not a single execution
+for witchcraft.
+
+[46] Inderwick, _Interregnum_, 188-189.
+
+[47] _Cal. St. P., Dom._, 1650, 159.
+
+[48] There are several secondary accounts of this affair. See F. Legge
+in _Scottish Review_, XVIII, 267. But a most important primary source is
+a letter from Clarke to Speaker Lenthall, published by the Scottish
+History Society in its volume on _Scotland and the Commonwealth_
+(Edinburgh, 1895), 367-369. See also a tract in Brit. Mus. Thomason
+collection, _Two Terrible Sea Fights_ (London, 1652). See, too, the
+words of Thomas Ady, _A Candle in the Dark_, 105.
+
+[49] _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1658-1659_, 169.
+
+[50] When the council of state, however, in 1652 had issued an act of
+general pardon, witchcraft had been specifically reserved, along with
+murder, treason, piracy, etc. _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1651-1652_, 106.
+
+[51] Inderwick, _Interregnum_, 231.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE LITERATURE OF WITCHCRAFT FROM 1603 TO 1660.
+
+
+No small part of our story has been devoted to the writings of Scot,
+Gifford, Harsnett, and King James. It is impossible to understand the
+significance of the prosecutions without some acquaintance with the
+course of opinion on the subject. In this chapter we shall go back as
+far as the opening of the reign of James and follow up to the end of the
+Commonwealth the special discussions of witchcraft, as well as some of
+the more interesting incidental references. It will be recalled that
+James's _Dćmonologie_ had come out several years before its author
+ascended the English throne. With the coming of the Scottish king to
+Westminster the work was republished at London. But, while James by
+virtue of his position was easily first among those who were writing on
+the subject, he by no means occupied the stage alone. Not less than four
+other men gained a hearing within the reign and for that reason deserve
+consideration. They were Perkins, Cotta, Roberts, and Cooper.
+
+William Perkins's _Discourse of the Damned Art of Witchcraft_ came first
+in order, indeed it was written during the last years of Elizabeth's
+reign; but it was not published until 1608, six years after the author's
+death.[1] William Perkins was a fellow of Christ's College at Cambridge
+and an eminent preacher in that university. He holds a high place among
+Puritan divines. His sermons may still be found in the libraries of
+older clergymen and citations from them are abundant in commentaries. It
+was in the course of one of his university sermons that he took up the
+matter of witchcraft. In what year this sermon was preached cannot
+definitely be said. That he seems to have read Scot,[2] that however he
+does not mention King James's book,[3] are data which lead us to guess
+that he may have uttered the discourse between 1584 and 1597. His point
+of view was strictly theological and his convictions grounded--as might
+be expected--upon scriptural texts. Yet it seems not unfair to suppose
+that he was an exponent of opinion at Cambridge, where we have already
+seen evidences of strong faith in the reality of witchcraft. It seems no
+less likely that a perusal of Reginald Scot's _Discoverie_ prompted the
+sermon. Witches nowadays, he admitted, have their patrons. His argument
+for the existence of witches was so thoroughly biblical that we need not
+go over it. He did not, however, hold to all current conceptions of
+them. The power of the evil one to transform human beings into other
+shapes he utterly repudiated. The scratching of witches[4] and the
+testing of them by water he thought of no value.[5] In this respect it
+will be seen that he was in advance of his royal contemporary. About
+the bodily marks, the significance of which James so emphasized, Perkins
+seems to have been less decided. He believed in the death penalty,[6]
+but he warned juries to be very careful as to evidence.[7] Evidence
+based upon the accusations of "good witches," upon the statements of the
+dying, or upon the charges of those who had suffered ill after threats,
+he thought ought to be used with great caution. It is evident that
+Perkins--though he doubtless would not have admitted it himself--was
+affected by the reading of Scot. Yet it is disappointing to find him
+condoning the use of torture[8] in extreme instances.[9]
+
+A Cambridge man who wrote about a score of years after Perkins put forth
+opinions a good deal farther advanced. John Cotta was a "Doctor in
+Physicke" at Northampton who had taken his B. A. at Cambridge in 1595,
+his M. A. the following year, and his M. D. in 1603. Nine years after
+leaving Cambridge he had published _A Short Discoverie of the Unobserved
+Dangers_, in which he had devoted a very thoughtful chapter to the
+relation between witchcraft and sickness. In 1616 he elaborated his
+notions in _The Triall of Witchcraft_,[10] published at London. Like
+Perkins he disapproved of the trial by water.[11] He discredited, too,
+the evidence of marks, but believed in contracts with the Devil, and
+cited as illustrious instances the cases of Merlin and "that infamous
+woman," Joan of Arc.[12] But his point of view was of course mainly that
+of a medical man. A large number of accusations of witchcraft were due
+to the want of medical examination. Many so-called possessions could be
+perfectly diagnosed by a physician. He referred to a case where the
+supposed witches had been executed and their victim had nevertheless
+fallen ill again.[13] Probably this was the case of Mistress Belcher, on
+whose account two women had been hanged at Northampton.[14]
+
+Yet Cotta believed that there were real witches and arraigned Scot for
+failing to distinguish the impostors from the true.[15] It was indeed,
+he admitted, very hard to discover, except by confession; and even
+confession, as he had pointed out in his first work, might be a "meane,
+poore and uncertain proofe," because of the Devil's power to induce
+false confession.[16] Here the theologian--it was hard for a
+seventeenth-century writer not to be a theologian--was cropping out. But
+the scientific spirit came to the front again when he made the point
+that imagination was too apt to color observations made upon bewitched
+and witch.[17] The suggestion that coincidence explained many of the
+alleged fulfillments of witch predictions[18] was equally in advance of
+his times.
+
+How, then, were real cases of bewitchment to be recognized? The best
+assurance on such matters, Cotta answered, came "whensoever ... the
+Physicion shall truely discover a manifest transcending power."[19] In
+other words, the Northampton physician believed that his own profession
+could best determine these vexed matters. One who has seen the sorry
+part played by the physicians up to this time can hardly believe that
+their judgment on this point was saner than that of men in other
+professions. It may even be questioned if they were more to be depended
+upon than the so superstitious clergy.
+
+In the same year as Cotta's second book, Alexander Roberts, "minister of
+God's word at King's Lynn" in Norfolk, brought out _A Treatise of
+Witchcraft_ as a sort of introduction to his account of the trial of
+Mary Smith of that town and as a justification of her punishment. The
+work is merely a restatement of the conventional theology of that time
+as applied to witches, exactly such a presentation of it as was to be
+expected from an up-country parson who had read Reginald Scot, and could
+wield the Scripture against him.[20]
+
+The following year saw the publication of a work equally theological,
+_The Mystery of Witchcraft_, by the Reverend Thomas Cooper, who felt
+that his part in discovering "the practise of Anti-Christ in that
+hellish Plot of the Gunpowder-treason" enabled him to bring to light
+other operations of the Devil. He had indeed some experience in this
+work,[21] as well as some acquaintance with the writers on the subject.
+But he adds nothing to the discussion unless it be the coupling of the
+disbelief in witchcraft with the "Atheisme and Irreligion that overflows
+the land." Five years later the book was brought out again under another
+title, _Sathan transformed into an Angell of Light, ... [ex]emplified
+specially in the Doctrine of Witchcraft_.
+
+In the account of the trials for witchcraft in the reign of James I the
+divorce case of the Countess of Essex was purposely omitted, because in
+it the question of witchcraft was after all a subordinate matter. In the
+history of opinion, however, the views about witchcraft expressed by the
+court that passed upon the divorce can by no means be ignored. It is not
+worth while to rehearse the malodorous details of that singular affair.
+The petitioner for divorce made the claim that her husband was unable to
+consummate the marriage with her and left it to be inferred that he was
+bewitched. It will be remembered that King James, anxious to further the
+plans of his favorite, Carr, was too willing to have the marriage
+annulled and brought great pressure to bear upon the members of the
+court. Archbishop Abbot from the beginning of the trial showed himself
+unfavorable to the petition of the countess, and James deemed it
+necessary to resolve his doubts on the general grounds of the
+divorce.[22] On the matter of witchcraft in particular the king wrote:
+"for as sure as God is, there be Devils, and some Devils must have some
+power, and their power is in this world.... That the Devil's power is
+not so universal against us, that I freely confess; but that it is
+utterly restrained _quoad nos_, how was then a minister of Geneva
+bewitched to death, and were the witches daily punished by our law. If
+they can harm none but the papists, we are too charitable for avenging
+of them only." This was James's opinion in 1613, and it is worthy of
+note that he was much less certain of his ground and much more on the
+defensive about witchcraft than the author of the _Dćmonologie_ had
+been. It can hardly be doubted that he had already been affected by the
+more liberal views of the ecclesiastics who surrounded him. Archbishop
+Bancroft, who had waged through his chaplain the war on the exorcists,
+was not long dead. That chaplain was now Bishop of Chichester and soon
+to become Archbishop of York. It would be strange if James had not been
+affected to some degree by their opinions. Moreover, by this time he had
+begun his career as a discoverer of impostors.
+
+The change in the king's position must, however, not be overrated. He
+maintained his belief in witches and seemed somewhat apprehensive lest
+others should doubt it. Archbishop Abbot, whom he was trying to win over
+to the divorce, would not have denied James's theories, but he was
+exceedingly cautious in his own use of the term _maleficium_. Abbot was
+wholly familiar with the history of the Anglican attitude towards
+exorcism. There can be little doubt that he was in sympathy with the
+policy of his predecessor. It is therefore interesting to read his
+carefully worded statement as to the alleged bewitchment of the Earl of
+Essex. In his speech defending his refusal and that of three colleagues
+to assent to the divorce, he wrote: "One of my lords (my lord of
+Winchester) hath avowed it, that he dislikes that _maleficium_; that he
+hath read Del Rio, the Jesuit, writing upon that argument, and doth hold
+him an idle and fabulous fellow.... Another of my lords (my lord of Ely)
+hath assented thereunto, and _maleficium_ must be gone. Now I for my
+part will not absolutely deny that witches by God's permission may have
+a power over men, to hurt all, or part in them, as by God they shall be
+limited; but how shall it appear that this is such a thing in the person
+of a man." This was not, of course, an expression of disbelief in the
+reality or culpability of witchcraft. It was an expression of great
+reluctance to lay much stress upon charges of witchcraft--an expression
+upon the part of the highest ecclesiastical authority in England.
+
+In the reign of Charles I prior to the Civil Wars we have to analyze but
+a single contribution to the literature of our subject, that made by
+Richard Bernard. Bernard had preached in Nottinghamshire and had gone
+from there to Batcombe in Somerset. While yet in Nottinghamshire, in the
+early years of James's reign, he had seen something of the
+exorcizers.[23] Later he had had to do with the Taunton cases of 1626;
+indeed, he seems to have had a prominent part in this affair.[24]
+Presumably he had displayed some anxiety lest the witches should not
+receive fair treatment, for in his _Guide to Grand-Jurymen ... in cases
+of Witchcraft_, published in 1627, he explained the book as a "plaine
+countrey Minister's testimony." Owing to his "upright meaning" in his
+"painstaking" with one of the witches, a rumor had spread that he
+favored witches or "were of Master Scots erroneous opinion that Witches
+were silly Melancholikes."[25] He had undertaken in consequence to
+familiarize himself with the whole subject and had read nearly all the
+discussions in English, as well as all the accounts of trials published
+up to that time. His work he dedicated to the two judges at Taunton, Sir
+John Walter and Sir John Denham, and to the archdeacon of Wells and the
+chancellor of the Bishop of Bath and Wells. The book was, indeed, a
+truly remarkable patchwork. All shades of opinion from that of the
+earnestly disbelieving Scot to that of the earnestly believing Roberts
+were embodied. Nevertheless Bernard had a wholesome distrust of
+possessions and followed Cotta in thinking that catalepsy and other
+related diseases accounted for many of them.[26] He thought, too, that
+the Devil very often acted as his own agent without any
+intermediary.[27] Like Cotta, he was skeptical as to the water
+ordeal;[28] but, strange to say, he accepted the use of a magical glass
+to discover "the suspected."[29] He was inclined to believe that the
+"apparition of the party suspected, whom the afflicted in their fits
+seem to see," was a ground for suspicion. The main aim of his discourse
+was, indeed, to warn judges and jurors to be very careful by their
+questions and methods of inquiring to separate the innocent from the
+guilty.[30] In this contention, indeed in his whole attitude, he was
+very nearly the mouthpiece of an age which, while clinging to a belief,
+was becoming increasingly cautious of carrying that belief too far into
+judicial trial and punishment.[31]
+
+It is a jump of seventeen years from Bernard of Batcombe to John Gaule.
+It cannot be said that Gaule marks a distinct step in the progress of
+opinion beyond Bernard. His general position was much the same as that
+of his predecessor. His warnings were perhaps more earnest, his
+skepticism a little more apparent. In an earlier chapter we have
+observed the bold way in which the indignant clergyman of
+Huntingdonshire took up Hopkins's challenge in 1646. It was the Hopkins
+crusade that called forth his treatise.[32] His little book was in large
+part a plea for more caution in the use of evidence. Suspicion was too
+lightly entertained against "every poore and peevish olde Creature."
+Whenever there was an extraordinary accident, whenever there was a
+disease that could not be explained, it was imputed to witchcraft. Such
+"Tokens of Tryall" he deemed "altogether unwarrantable, as proceeding
+from ignorance, humor, superstition." There were other more reliable
+indications by which witches could sometimes be detected, but those
+indications were to be used with exceeding caution. Neither the evidence
+of the fact--that is, of a league with the Devil--without confession
+nor "confession without fact" was to be accounted as certain proof. On
+the matter of confession Gaule was extraordinarily skeptical for his
+time. It was to be considered whether the party confessing were not
+diabolically deluded, whether the confession were not forced, or whether
+it were not the result of melancholy. Gaule went even a little further.
+Not only was he inclined to suspect confession, but he had serious
+doubts about a great part of witch lore. There were stories of
+metamorphoses, there were narratives of "tedious journeys upon broomes,"
+and a hundred other tales from old authors, which the wise Christian
+would, he believed, leave with the writers. To believe nothing of them,
+however, would be to belittle the Divine attributes. As a matter of fact
+there was a very considerable part of the witch theory that Gaule
+accepted. His creed came to this: it was unsafe to pronounce such and
+such to be witches. While not one in ten was guilty, the tenth was still
+to be accounted for.[33] The physician Cotta would have turned the
+matter over to the physicians; the clergyman Gaule believed that it
+belonged to the province of the "Magistracy and Ministery."[34]
+
+During the period of the Commonwealth one would have supposed that
+intellectual men would be entirely preoccupied with more weighty
+matters than the guilt of witches. But the many executions that followed
+in the wake of Hopkins and Stearne had invested the subject with a new
+interest and brought new warriors into the fray. Half a dozen writers
+took up the controversy. On the conservative side three names deserve
+mention, two of them not unknown in other connections, Henry More and
+Meric Casaubon. For the defence of the accused witches appeared two men
+hardly so well known in their time, Robert Filmer and Thomas Ady.
+
+More was a young Cambridge scholar and divine who was to take rank among
+the English philosophers of the seventeenth century. Grounded in Plato
+and impregnated with Descartes, he became a little later thoroughly
+infected with the Cabalistic philosophy that had entered Europe from the
+East. It was the point of view that he acquired in the study of this
+mystic Oriental system that gave the peculiar turn to his witchcraft
+notions, a turn which through his own writings and those of Glanvill
+found wide acceptance. It was in 1653 that More issued _An Antidote to
+Atheisme_. The phenomena of witchcraft he reckoned as part of the
+evidence for the reality of the spirit world and used them to support
+religion, quite in the same manner as Sir Oliver Lodge or Professor
+Hyslop would today use psychical research to establish immortality. More
+had made investigations for himself, probably at Maidstone. In his own
+town of Cambridge there was a story--doubtless a college joke, but he
+referred to it in all seriousness--of "Old Strangridge," who "was
+carried over Shelford Steeple upon a black Hogge and tore his breeches
+upon the weather-cock."[35] He believed that he had absolute proof of
+the "nocturnal conventicles" of witches.[36] He had, however, none of
+that instinct for scientific observation that had distinguished Scot,
+and his researches did not prevent his being easily duped. His
+observations are not by any means so entertaining as are his theories.
+His effort to account for the instantaneous transportation of witches is
+one of the bright spots in the prosy reasonings of the demonologists.
+More was a thoroughgoing dualist. Mind and matter were the two separate
+entities. Now, the problem that arose at once was this: How can the
+souls of witches leave their bodies? "I conceive," he says, "the Divell
+gets into their body and by his subtile substance more operative and
+searching than any fire or putrifying liquor, melts the yielding
+Campages of the body to such a consistency ... and makes it plyable to
+his imagination: and then it is as easy for him to work it into what
+shape he pleaseth."[37] If he could do that, much more could he enable
+men to leave their bodies. Then arose the problem: How does this process
+differ from death? The writer was puzzled apparently at his own
+question, but reasoned that death was the result of the unfitness of the
+body to contain the soul.[38] But no such condition existed when the
+Devil was operating; and no doubt the body could be anointed in such
+fashion that the soul could leave and return.
+
+Meric Casaubon, son of the eminent classical scholar and himself a well
+known student, was skeptical as to the stories told about the aerial
+journeys of witches which More had been at such pains to explain. It was
+a matter, he wrote in his _Treatise concerning Enthusiasme_,[39] of much
+dispute among learned men. The confessions made were hard to account
+for, but he would feel it very wrong to condemn the accused upon that
+evidence. We shall meet with Casaubon again.[40]
+
+Nathaniel Homes, who wrote from his pastoral study at Mary Stayning's in
+London, and dedicated his work[41] to Francis Rous, member of
+Parliament, was no halfway man. He was a thoroughgoing disciple of
+Perkins. His utmost admission--the time had come when one had to make
+some concessions--was that evil spirits performed many of their wonders
+by tricks of juggling.[42] But he swallowed without effort all the
+nonsense about covenants, and was inclined to see in the activities of
+the Devil a presage of the last days.[43]
+
+The reader can readily see that More, Casaubon, and Homes were all on
+the defensive. They were compelled to offer explanations of the
+mysteries of witchcraft, they were ready enough to make admissions; but
+they were nevertheless sticking closely to the main doctrines. It is a
+pleasure to turn to the writings of two men of somewhat bolder stamp,
+Robert Filmer and Thomas Ady. Sir Robert Filmer was a Kentish knight of
+strong royalist views who had written against the limitations of
+monarchy and was not afraid to cross swords with Milton and Hobbes on
+the origin of government. In 1652 he had attended the Maidstone trials,
+where, it will be remembered, six women had been convicted. As Scot had
+been stirred by the St. Oses trials, so Filmer was wrought up by what he
+had seen at Maidstone,[44] and in the following year he published his
+_Advertisement to the Jurymen of England_. He set out to overturn the
+treatise of Perkins. As a consequence he dealt with Scripture and the
+interpretation of the well known passages in the Old Testament. The
+Hebrew witch, Filmer declared, was guilty of nothing more than "lying
+prophecies." The Witch of Endor probably used "hollow speaking." In this
+suggestion Filmer was following his famous Kentish predecessor.[45] But
+Filmer's main interest, like Bernard's and Gaule's before him, was to
+warn those who had to try cases to be exceedingly careful. He felt that
+a great part of the evidence used was worth little or nothing.
+
+Thomas Ady's _Candle in the Dark_ was published three years later.[48]
+Even more than Filmer, Ady was a disciple of Scot. But he was, indeed, a
+student of all English writers on the subject and set about to answer
+them one by one. King James, whose book he persistently refused to
+believe the king's own handiwork, Cooper, who was a "bloudy persecutor,"
+Gifford, who "had more of the spirit of truth in him than many,"
+Perkins, the arch-enemy, Gaule, whose "intentions were godly," but who
+was too far "swayed by the common tradition of men,"[47] all of them
+were one after another disposed of. Ady stood eminently for good sense.
+It was from that point of view that he ridiculed the water ordeal and
+the evidence of marks,[48] and that he attacked the cause and effect
+relation between threats and illness. "They that make this Objection
+must dwell very remote from Neighbours."[49]
+
+Yet not even Ady was a downright disbeliever. He defended Scot from the
+report "that he held an opinion that Witches are not, for it was neither
+his Tenent nor is it mine." Alas, Ady does not enlighten us as to just
+what was his opinion. Certainly his witches were creatures without
+power.[50] What, then, were they? Were they harmless beings with
+malevolent minds? Mr. Ady does not answer.
+
+A hundred years of witchcraft history had not brought to light a man who
+was willing to deny in a printed work the existence of witches.
+Doubtless such denial might often have been heard in the closet, but it
+was never proclaimed on the housetop. Scot had not been so bold--though
+one imagines that if he had been quietly questioned in a corner he might
+have denied the thing _in toto_--and those who had followed in his steps
+never ventured beyond him.
+
+The controversy, indeed, was waged in most of its aspects along the
+lines laid down by the first aggressor. Gifford, Cotta, and Ady had
+brought in a few new arguments to be used in attacking superstition, but
+in general the assailants looked to Scot. On the other side, only
+Perkins and More had contributed anything worth while to the defence
+that had been built up. Yet, the reader will notice that there had been
+progress. The centre of struggle had shifted to a point within the outer
+walls. The water ordeal and the evidence of marks were given up by most,
+if not all. The struggle now was over the transportation of witches
+through the air and the battle was going badly for the defenders.
+
+We turn now to the incidental indications of the shifting of opinion. In
+one sense this sort of evidence means more than the formal literature.
+Yet its fragmentary character at best precludes putting any great stress
+upon it.
+
+If one were to include all the references to witchcraft in the drama of
+the period, this discussion might widen out into a long chapter. Over
+the passages in the playwrights we must pass with haste; but certain
+points must be noted. Shakespeare, in _Macbeth_, which scholars have
+usually placed at about 1606, used a great body of witch lore. He used
+it, too, with apparent good faith, though to conclude therefrom that he
+believed in it himself would be a most dangerous step.[51] Thomas
+Middleton, whose _Witch_ probably was written somewhat later, and who is
+thought to have drawn on Shakespeare for some of his witch material,
+gives absolutely no indication in that play that he did not credit those
+tales of witch performances of which he availed himself. The same may be
+said of Dekker and of those who collaborated with him in writing _The
+Witch of Edmonton_.[52]
+
+We may go further and say that in none of these three plays is there any
+hint that there were disbelievers. But when we come to Ben Jonson we
+have a different story. His various plays we cannot here take up.
+Suffice it to say, on the authority of careful commentators, that he
+openly or covertly ridiculed all the supposedly supernatural phenomena
+of his time.[53] Perhaps a search through the obscurer dramatists of the
+period might reveal other evidences of skepticism. Such a search we
+cannot make. It must, however, be pointed out that Thomas Heywood, in
+_The late Lancashire Witches_[54] a play which is described at some
+length in an earlier chapter, makes a character say:[55] "It seemes then
+you are of opinion that there are witches. For mine own part I can
+hardly be induc'd to think there is any such kinde of people."[56] The
+speech is the more notable because Heywood's own belief in witchcraft,
+as has been observed in another connection, seems beyond doubt.
+
+The interest in witchcraft among literary men was not confined to the
+dramatists. Three prose writers eminent in their time dealt with the
+question. Burton, in his _Anatomy of Melancholy_[57] admits that "many
+deny witches at all, or, if there be any, they can do no harm." But he
+says that on the other side are grouped most "Lawyers, Divines,
+Physitians, Philosophers." James Howell, famous letter-writer of the
+mid-century, had a similar reverence for authority: "I say ... that he
+who denies there are such busy Spirits and such poor passive Creatures
+upon whom they work, which commonly are call'd Witches ... shews that he
+himself hath a Spirit of Contradiction in him."[58] There are, he says,
+laws against witches, laws by Parliament and laws in the Holy Codex.
+
+Francis Osborne, a literary man whose reputation hardly survived his
+century, but an essayist of great fame in his own time,[59] was a man
+who made his fortune by sailing against rather than with the wind. It
+was conventional to believe in witches and Osborne would not for any
+consideration be conventional. He assumed the skeptical attitude,[60]
+and perhaps was as influential as any one man in making that attitude
+fashionable.
+
+From these lesser lights of the literary world we may pass to notice the
+attitude assumed by three men of influence in their own day, whose
+reputations have hardly been dimmed by time, Bacon, Selden, and Hobbes.
+Not that their views would be representative of their times, for each of
+the three men thought in his own way, and all three were in many
+respects in advance of their day. At some time in the reign of James I
+Francis Bacon wrote his _Sylva Sylvarum_ and rather incidentally touched
+upon witchcraft. He warned judges to be wary about believing the
+confessions of witches and the evidence against them. "For the witches
+themselves are imaginative and believe oft-times they do that which they
+do not; and people are credulous in that point, and ready to impute
+accidents and natural operations to witchcraft. It is worthy the
+observing, that ... the great wonders which they tell, of carrying in
+the air, transporting themselves into other bodies, &c., are still
+reported to be wrought, not by incantations, or ceremonies, but by
+ointments, and anointing themselves all over. This may justly move a man
+to think that these fables are the effects of imagination."[61]
+
+Surely all this has a skeptical sound. Yet largely on the strength of
+another passage, which has been carelessly read, the great Bacon has
+been tearfully numbered among the blindest leaders of the blind.[62] A
+careful comparison of his various allusions to witchcraft will convince
+one that, while he assumed a belief in the practice,[63] partly perhaps
+in deference to James's views,[64] he inclined to explain many reported
+phenomena from the effects of the imagination[65] and from the operation
+of "natural causes" as yet unknown.[66]
+
+Bacon, though a lawyer and man of affairs, had the point of view of a
+philosopher. With John Selden we get more directly the standpoint of a
+legal man. In his _Table Talk_[67] that eminent jurist wrote a paragraph
+on witches. "The Law against Witches," he declared, "does not prove
+there be any; but it punishes the Malice of those people that use such
+means to take away mens Lives. If one should profess that by turning his
+Hat thrice and crying Buz, he could take away a man's life (though in
+truth he could do no such thing) yet this were a just Law made by the
+State, that whosoever should turn his Hat thrice and cry Buz, with an
+intention to take away a man's life, shall be put to death."[68] As to
+the merits of this legal quip the less said the better; but it is
+exceedingly hard to see in the passage anything but downright skepticism
+as to the witch's power.[69]
+
+It is not without interest that Selden's point of view was exactly that
+of the philosopher Hobbes. There is no man of the seventeenth century,
+unless it be Oliver Cromwell or John Milton, whose opinion on this
+subject we would rather know than that of Hobbes. In 1651 Hobbes had
+issued his great _Leviathan_. It is unnecessary here to insist upon the
+widespread influence of that work. Let it be said, however, that Hobbes
+was not only to set in motion new philosophies, but that he had been
+tutor to Prince Charles[70] and was to become a figure in the reign of
+that prince.[71] Hobbes's work was directed against superstition in many
+forms, but we need only notice his statement about witchcraft, a
+statement that did not by any means escape his contemporaries. "As for
+Witches," he wrote, "I think not that their witchcraft is any reall
+power; but yet that they are justly punished for the false beliefe they
+have that they can do such mischief, joined with their purpose to do it
+if they can."[72] Perhaps the great philosopher had in mind those
+pretenders to diabolic arts who had suffered punishment, and was so
+defending the community that had rid itself of a preying class. In any
+case, while he defended the law, he put himself among the disbelievers
+in witchcraft.
+
+From these opinions of the great we may turn to mark the more trivial
+indications of the shifting of opinion to be found in the pamphlet
+literature. It goes without saying that the pamphlet-writers believed in
+that whereof they spoke. It is not in their outspoken faith that we are
+interested, but rather in their mention of those opponents at whose
+numbers they marvelled, and whose incredulity they undertook to shake.
+Nowhere better than in the prefaces of the pamphleteers can evidence be
+found of the growing skepticism. The narrator of the Northampton cases
+in 1612 avowed it his purpose in writing to convince the "many that
+remaine yet in doubt whether there be any Witches or no."[73] That
+ardent busybody, Mr. Potts, who reported the Lancaster cases of 1612,
+very incidentally lets us know that the kinsfolk and friends of Jennet
+Preston, who, it will be remembered, suffered at York, declared the
+whole prosecution to be an act of malice.[74] The Yorkshire poet and
+gentleman, Edward Fairfax, who made such an ado about the sickness of
+his two daughters in 1622 and would have sent six creatures to the
+gallows for it, was very frank in describing the opposition he met. The
+accused women found supporters among the "best able and most
+understanding."[75] There were, he thought, three kinds of people who
+were doubters in these matters: those who attributed too much to natural
+causes and who were content to call clear cases of bewitchment
+convulsions, those who when witchcraft was broached talked about fairies
+and "walking ghosts," and lastly those who believed there were no
+witches. "Of this opinion I hear and see there be many, some of them men
+of worth, religious and honest."[76]
+
+The pamphlet-writers of James's reign had adjusted themselves to meet
+opposition. Those of the Civil Wars and the Commonwealth were prepared
+to meet ridicule.[77] "There are some," says the narrator of a Yorkshire
+story, "who are of opinion that there are no Divells nor any witches....
+Men in this Age are grown so wicked, that they are apt to believe there
+are no greater Divells than themselves."[78] Another writer, to bolster
+up his story before a skeptical public, declares that he is "very chary
+and hard enough to believe passages of this nature."[79]
+
+We have said that the narrators of witch stories fortified themselves
+against ridicule. That ridicule obviously must have found frequent
+expression in conversation, but sometimes it even crept into the
+newspapers and tracts of the day. The Civil Wars had developed a regular
+London press. We have already met with expressions of serious opinion
+from it.[80] But not all were of that sort. In 1654 the _Mercurius
+Democritus_, the _Punch_ of its time, took occasion to make fun of the
+stories of the supernatural then in circulation. There was, it declared,
+a strange story of a trance and apparition, a ghost was said to be
+abroad, a woman had hanged herself in a tobacco pipe. With very broad
+humor the journal took off the strange reports of the time and concluded
+with the warning that in "these distempered times" it was not safe for
+an "idle-pated woman" to look up at the skies.[81]
+
+The same mocking incredulity had manifested itself in 1648 in a little
+brochure entitled, _The Devil seen at St. Albans, Being a true Relation
+how the Devill was seen there in a Cellar, in the likeness of a Ram; and
+how a Butcher came and cut his throat, and sold some of it, and dressed
+the rest for himselfe, inviting many to supper, who did eat of it_.[82]
+The story was a clever parody of the demon tracts that had come out so
+frequently in the exciting times of the wars. The writer made his point
+clear when he declared that his story was of equal value with anything
+that "Britannicus" ever wrote.[83] The importance of these indications
+may be overestimated. But they do mean that there were those bold enough
+to make fun. A decade or two later ridicule became a two-edged knife,
+cutting superstition right and left. But even under the terribly serious
+Puritans skepticism began to avail itself of that weapon, a weapon of
+which it could hardly be disarmed.
+
+In following the history of opinion we must needs mention again some of
+the incidents of certain cases dealt with in earlier chapters, incidents
+that indicate the growing force of doubt. The reader has hardly
+forgotten the outcome of the Lancashire cases in 1633. There Bishop
+Bridgeman and the king, if they did not discredit witchcraft,
+discredited its manifestation in the particular instance.[84] As for
+William Harvey, he had probably given up his faith in the whole business
+after the little incident at Newmarket.[85] When we come to the time of
+the Civil Wars we cannot forget that Stearne and Hopkins met
+opposition, not alone from the Huntingdon minister, but from a large
+party in Norfolk, who finally forced the witchfinder to defend himself
+in court. Nor can we forget the witch-pricker of Berwick who was sent
+a-flying back to his native northern soil, nor the persistent Mrs.
+Muschamp who tramped over Northumberland seeking a warrant and finding
+none.
+
+The course of opinion is a circuitous one. We have followed its windings
+in and out through more than half a century. We have listened as
+respectfully as possible to the vagaries of country parsons and
+university preachers, we have heard from scholars, from gentlemen, from
+jurists and men of affairs, from physicians and philosophers. It matters
+little now what they thought or said, but it did matter then. We have
+seen how easy a thing it was to fall into the error that a middle course
+was nearest truth. Broad was the way and many there were that walked
+therein. Yet even those who travelled that highway found their direction
+shifting. For there was progress in opinion. With every decade the
+travellers, as well those who strayed aside as those who followed the
+crowd, were getting a little nearer to truth.
+
+
+[1] "Printed by Cantrel Legge, Printer to the Universitie of Cambridge"
+(1608, 1610).
+
+[2] See _Discourse of the Damned Art of Witchcraft_, ch. VII, sect. I.
+
+[3] His literary executor, Thomas Pickering, late of Emmanuel College,
+Cambridge, and now "Minister of Finchingfield in Essex," who prepared
+the _Discourse_ for the press (both in its separate form and as a part
+of Perkins's collected works), and who dedicates it to Sir Edward Coke,
+is, however, equally silent as to James, though in his preface he
+mentions Scot by name.
+
+[4] _Ibid._, ch. IV, sect. I. See also ch. II.
+
+[5] _Ibid._, ch. VII, sect. II.
+
+[6] _Ibid._, ch. VI.
+
+[7] _Ibid._, ch. VII, sect. II.
+
+[8] _Ibid._, ch. VII, sect. II.
+
+[9] James Mason, "Master of Artes," whose _Anatomie of Sorcerie_
+("printed at London by John Legatte, Printer to the Universitie of
+Cambridge," 1612), puts him next to Perkins in chronological order,
+needs only mention in passing. He takes the reality of sorcery for
+granted, and devotes himself to argument against its use.
+
+[10] _... Shewing the True and Right Methode of the Discovery._ Cotta
+was familiar with the more important trials of his time. He knew of the
+Warboys, Lancaster, and York trials and he probably had come into close
+contact with the Northampton cases. He had read, too, several of the
+books on the subject, such as Scot, Wier, and Perkins. His omission of
+King James's work is therefore not only curious but significant. A
+second edition of his book was published in 1625.
+
+[11] See _Triall of Witchcraft_, ch. XIV.
+
+[12] See _ibid._, p. 48.
+
+[13] _Ibid._, 66-67.
+
+[14] See _ibid._, ch. VI. Cotta speaks of the case as six years earlier.
+
+[15] _Ibid._, 62, 66.
+
+[16] _A Short Discoverie_, 70.
+
+[17] _Triall of Witchcraft_, 83-84.
+
+[18] _A Short Discoverie_, 51-53.
+
+[19] _Triall of Witchcraft_, 70.
+
+[20] Roberts's explanation of the proneness of women to witchcraft
+deserves mention in passing. Women are more credulous, more curious,
+"their complection is softer," they have "greater facility to fall,"
+greater desire for revenge, and "are of a slippery tongue." _Treatise of
+Witchcraft_, 42-43.
+
+[21] "In Cheshire and Coventry," he tells us. "Hath not Coventrie," he
+asks (p. 16), "beene usually haunted by these hellish Sorcerers, where
+it was confessed by one of them, that no lesse than three-score were of
+that confedracie?... And was I not there enjoyned by a necessity to the
+discoverie of this Brood?"
+
+[22] For the whole case see Howell, _State Trials_, II.
+
+[23] See article on Bernard in _Dict. Nat. Biog._
+
+[24] See below, appendix C, list of witch cases, under 1626.
+
+[25] See _Guide to Grand-Jurymen_, Dedication.
+
+[26] _Ibid._, 11-12.
+
+[27] _Ibid._, 53.
+
+[28] _Ibid._, 214.
+
+[29] This he did on the authority of a repentant Mr. Edmonds, of
+Cambridge, who had once been questioned by the University authorities
+for witchcraft. _Ibid._, 136-138.
+
+[30] _Guide to Grand-Jurymen_, 22-28.
+
+[31] He was "for the law, but agin' its enforcement."
+
+[32] _Select Cases of Conscience Touching Witches and Witchcraft_
+(London, 1646).
+
+[33] _Ibid._, 92.
+
+[34] _Ibid._, 94, 97. That Gaule was a Puritan, as has been asserted,
+appears from nothing in his book. If he dedicated his _Select Cases_ to
+his townsman Colonel Walton, a brother-in-law of Cromwell, and his
+_Mag-astro-mancer_ (a later diatribe against current superstitions) to
+Oliver himself, there is nothing in his prefatory letters to show him of
+their party. Nor does the tone of his writings suggest a Calvinist. That
+in 1649 we find Gaule chosen to preach before the assizes of Huntingdon
+points perhaps only to his popularity as a leader of the reaction
+against the work of Hopkins.
+
+[35] _Antidote to Atheisme_, 129.
+
+[36] _Ibid._, 127-130.
+
+[37] _Ibid._, ch. VIII, 134.
+
+[38] _Ibid._, 135.
+
+[39] See p. 118. This _Treatise_ was first published in 1655. Four years
+later, in 1659, he published _A True and faithful Relation of what
+passed ... between Dr. John Dee, ... and some spirits_. In the preface
+to this he announced his intention of writing the work which he later
+published as _Of Credulity and Incredulity_.
+
+[40] In passing we must mention Richard Farnworth, who in 1655 issued a
+pamphlet called _Witchcraft Cast out from the Religious Seed and Israel
+of God_. Farnworth was a Quaker, and wrote merely to warn his brethren
+against magic and sorcery. He never questioned for a moment the facts of
+witchcraft and sorcery, nor the Devil's share in them. As for the
+witches, they were doomed everlastingly to the lake of fire.
+
+[41] _Dćmonologie and Theologie. The first, the Malady ..., The Second,
+The Remedy_ (London, 1650).
+
+[42] _Ibid._, 42.
+
+[43] _Ibid._, 16.
+
+[44] See the Introduction to the _Advertisement_.
+
+[45] Filmer noted further that the Septuagint translates the Hebrew word
+for witch as "an Apothecary, a Druggister, one that compounds poysons."
+
+[46] London, 1656.
+
+[47] In Ady's second edition, _A Perfect Discovery of Witches_ (1661),
+134, Gaule's book having meanwhile come into his hands, he speaks of
+Gaule as "much inclining to the Truth" and yet swayed by traditions and
+the authority of the learned. He adds, "Mr. Gaule, if this work of mine
+shall come to your hand, as yours hath come to mine, be not angry with
+me for writing God's Truth."
+
+[48] "... few men or women being tied hand and feet together can sink
+quite away till they be drowned" (_Candle in the Dark_, 100); "... very
+few people in the World are without privie Marks" (_Ibid._, 127).
+
+[49] _Ibid._, 129.
+
+[50] In giving "The Reason of the Book" he wrote, "The Grand Errour of
+these latter Ages is ascribing power to Witches."
+
+[51] See a recent discussion of a nearly related topic by Professor
+Elmer Stoll in the _Publications_ of the Modern Language Association,
+XXII, 201-233. Of the attitude of the English dramatists before
+Shakespeare something may be learned from Mr. L. W. Cushman's _The Devil
+and the Vice in the English Dramatic Literature before Shakespeare_
+(Halle, 1900).
+
+[52] About 1622 or soon after.
+
+[53] See, for instance, Mr. W. S. Johnson's introduction to his edition
+of _The Devil is an Ass_ (New York, 1905).
+
+[54] 1634. This play was written, of course, in cooperation with Brome;
+see above, pp. 158-160. For other expressions of Heywood's opinions on
+witchcraft see his _Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels_, 598, and his
+[Greek: GYNAIKEION]: _or Nine Books of Various History concerning Women_
+(London, 1624), lib. viii, 399, 407, etc.
+
+[55] Act I, scene 1.
+
+[56] In another part of the same scene: "They that thinke so dreame,"
+_i. e._ they who believe in witchcraft.
+
+[57] First published in 1621--I use, however, Shilleto's ed. of London,
+1893, which follows that of 1651-1652; see pt. I, sect. II, memb. I,
+sub-sect. 3.
+
+[58] James Howell, _Familiar Letters_, II, 548.
+
+[59] His _Advice to a Son_, first published in 1656-1658, went through
+edition after edition. It is very entertaining. His strongly enforced
+advice not to marry made a sensation among young Oxford men.
+
+[60] _Works of Francis Osborne_ (London, 1673), 551-553.
+
+[61] _Works of Bacon_ (ed. Spedding, London, 1857-1858), II, 642-643.
+
+[62] "The ointment that witches use is reported to be made of the fat of
+children digged out of their graves; of the juices of smallage,
+wolf-bane, and cinque-foil, mingled with the meal of fine wheat; but I
+suppose that the soporiferous medicines are likest to do it." See _Sylva
+Sylvarum_, cent. X, 975, in _Works_, ed. Spedding, II, 664. But even
+this passage shows Bacon a skeptic. His suggestion that the soporiferous
+medicines are likest to do it means that he thinks the delusions of
+witches subjective and produced by drugs. For other references to the
+subject see _Works_, II, 658, 660; VII, 738.
+
+[63] _De Argumentis_, bk. II, ch. II, in _Works_, IV, 296; see also
+_ibid._, III, 490.
+
+[64] _Advancement of Learning_, bk. II; _ibid._, III, 490.
+
+[65] _Works_, IV, 400-401.
+
+[66] _Ibid._, IV, 296.
+
+[67] Selden, _Table Talk_ (London, 1689). The book is supposed to have
+been written during the last twenty years of Selden's life, that is,
+between 1634 and 1654.
+
+[68] Selden, _Table Talk_, _s. v._ "Witches."
+
+[69] Nor did Selden believe in possessions. See his essay on Devils in
+the _Table Talk_.
+
+[70] See article on Hobbes in _Dict. Nat. Biog._
+
+[71] See, for example, Bishop Burnet's _History of his Own Time_
+(Oxford, 1823), I, 172, 322-323.
+
+[72] _Leviathan_ (1651), 7. See also his _Dialogue of the Common Laws of
+England_, in _Works_ (ed. of London, 1750), 626: "But I desire not to
+discourse of that subject; for, though without doubt there is some great
+Wickedness signified by those Crimes, yet have I ever found myself too
+dull to conceive the nature of them, or how the Devil hath power to do
+many things which Witches have been accused of." See also his chapter on
+Dćmonology in the _Leviathan_, in _Works_, 384.
+
+[73] He continues, "Some doe maintaine (but how wisely let the wiser
+judge) that all Witchcraft spoken of either by holy writers, or
+testified by other writers to have beene among the heathen or in later
+daies, hath beene and is no more but either meere Cousinage [he had been
+reading Scot], or Collusion, so that in the opinion of those men, the
+Devill hath never done, nor can do anything by Witches." _The Witches of
+Northamptonshire, ..._ A 4.
+
+[74] Potts, _The Wonderfull Discoverie ..._, X 4 verso.
+
+[75] Fairfax, _A Discourse of Witchcraft_ (Philobiblon Soc.), 12.
+
+[76] _Ibid._, 20.
+
+[77] One notable instance must be mentioned. "H. F.," the narrator of
+the Essex affair of 1645 (_A true and exact Relation_) not only
+recognized the strong position of those who doubted, but was by no means
+extreme himself. "I doubt not," he wrote, "but these things may seeme as
+incredible unto some, as they are matter of admiration unto others....
+The greatest doubt and question will be, whether it be in the power of
+the Devil to perform such asportation and locall translation of the
+bodies of Witches.... And whether these supernaturall works, which are
+above the power of man to do, and proper only to Spirits, whether they
+are reall or only imaginary and fained." The writer concludes that the
+Devil has power to dispose and transport bodies, but, as to changing
+them into animals, he thinks these are "but jugling transmutations."
+
+[78] _The most true and wonderfull Narration of two women bewitched in
+Yorkshire; ..._ (1658).
+
+[79] "Relation of a Memorable Piece of Witchcraft at Welton near
+Daventry," in Glanvill, _Sadducismus Triumphatus_ (London, 1681), pt.
+ii, 263-268.
+
+[80] See above, pp. 179-180, for an expression about the persecution in
+1645.
+
+[81] _Mercurius Democritus_, February 8-15, 1654.
+
+[82] 1648. This must be distinguished from _The Divels Delusion ..._,
+1649, (see above, ch. IX, note 8), which deals with two witches executed
+at St. Alban's.
+
+[83] The truth is that the newspapers, pamphlets, etc., were full of
+such stories. And they were believed by many intelligent men. He who
+runs through Whitelocke's _Memorials_ may read that the man was
+exceeding superstitious. Whether it be the report of the horseman seen
+in the air or the stories of witches at Berwick, Whitelocke was equally
+interested. While he was merely recording the reports of others, there
+is not a sign of skepticism.
+
+[84] See above, pp. 152-157.
+
+[85] See above, pp. 160-162.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+WITCHCRAFT UNDER CHARLES II AND JAMES II.
+
+
+No period of English history saw a wider interest in both the theory and
+the practice of witchcraft than the years that followed the Restoration.
+Throughout the course of the twenty-eight years that spanned the second
+rule of the Stuarts, the Devil manifested himself in many forms and with
+unusual frequency. Especially within the first half of that régime his
+appearances were so thrilling in character that the enemies of the new
+king might very well have said that the Evil One, like Charles, had come
+to his own again. All over the realm the witches were popping up. If the
+total number of trials and of executions did not foot up to the figures
+of James I's reign or to those of the Civil War, the alarm was
+nevertheless more widely distributed than ever before. In no less than
+twenty counties of England witches were discovered and fetched to court.
+Up to this time, so far at any rate as the printed records show, the
+southwestern counties had been but little troubled. Now Somerset, Devon,
+and Cornwall were the storm centre of the panic. In the north Yorkshire
+began to win for itself the reputation as a centre of activity that had
+long been held by Lancashire. Not that the witch was a new criminal in
+Yorkshire courts. During the Civil Wars and the troubled years that
+followed the discoverers had been active. But with the reign of Charles
+II their zeal increased mightily. Yet, if they had never before fetched
+in so many "suspected parties" to the court of the justice of the
+peace, they had never before been so often baffled by the outcome. Among
+the many such cases known to us during this time there is no mention of
+a conviction.[1] In Kent there was a flickering revival of the old
+hatred of witches. In the year that Charles gained the throne the city
+of Canterbury sent some women to the gibbet. Not so in Essex. In that
+county not a single case during this period has been left on record. In
+Middlesex, a county which from the days of Elizabeth through to the
+Restoration had maintained a very even pace--a stray conviction now and
+then among many acquittals--the reign of Charles II saw nothing more
+serious than some commitments and releases upon bail. In the Midland
+counties, where superstition had flourished in the days of James I,
+there were now occasional tales of possession and vague charges which
+rarely reached the ears of the assize judges. Northampton, where an
+incendiary witch was sentenced, constituted the single exception. In
+East Anglia there was just enough stir to prove that the days of Matthew
+Hopkins had not been forgotten.
+
+It needs no pointing out that a large proportion of the cases were but a
+repetition of earlier trials. If a difference is discernible, it is in
+the increased number of accusations that took their start in strange
+diseases called possessions. Since the close of the sixteenth century
+and the end of John Darrel's activities, the accounts of possession had
+fallen off sensibly, but the last third of the seventeenth century saw a
+distinct revival of this tendency to assign certain forms of disease to
+the operation of the Devil. We have references to many cases, but only
+in exceptional instances are the details given. Oliver Heywood, one of
+the eminent Dissenters of northern England, fasted and prayed with his
+co-workers over the convulsive and hysterical boys and girls in the West
+Riding. Nathan Dodgson was left after long fastings in "a very sensible
+melting frame,"[2] but the troubles returned and led, as we shall see in
+another connection, to very tragic results. The Puritan clergymen do not
+seem, however, to have had any highly developed method of exorcism or to
+have looked upon cases of possession in a light very different from that
+in which they would have looked upon ordinary illnesses.
+
+Among the Baptists of Yorkshire there was a possession that roused wide
+comment. Mary Hall of Little Gaddesden in Hertfordshire, daughter of a
+smith, was possessed in the fall of 1663 with two spirits who were said
+to have come to her riding down the chimney upon a stick. The spirits
+declared through the girl that Goodwife Harwood had sent them, and when
+that suspected woman was brought into the girl's presence the spirits
+cried out, "Oh, Goodwife Harwood, are you come?--that is well; ... we
+have endeavored to choak her but cannot," and, when Mistress Harwood
+left, the spirits begged to go with her.[3]
+
+In Southwark James Barrow, the son of John Barrow, was long possessed,
+and neither "doctors, astrologers, nor apothecaries" could help him. He
+was taken to the Catholics, but to no purpose. Finally he was cast among
+a "poor dispirited people whom the Lord owned as instruments in his hand
+to do this great work."[4] By the "poor dispirited people" the Baptists
+were almost certainly meant.[5] By their assistance he seems to have
+been cured. So also was Hannah Crump of Warwick, who had been afflicted
+by witchcraft and put in a London hospital. Through prayer and fasting
+she was entirely recovered.
+
+Mary Hall had been taken to Doctor Woodhouse of Berkhampstead, "a man
+famous for curing bewitched persons." Woodhouse's name comes up now and
+again in the records of his time. He was in fact a very typical specimen
+of the witch doctor. When Mary Hall's case had been submitted to him he
+had cut off the ends of her nails and "with somewhat he added" hung them
+in the chimney over night before making a diagnosis.[6] He professed to
+find stolen goods as well and fell foul of the courts in one instance,
+probably because the woman who consulted him could not pay the shilling
+fee.[7] He was arraigned and spent a term in prison. No doubt many of
+the witch physicians knew the inside of prisons and had returned
+afterwards to successful practice. Redman, "whom some say is a
+Conjurer, others say, He is an honest and able phisitian," had been in
+prison, but nevertheless he had afterwards "abundance of Practice" and
+was much talked about "in remote parts," all this in spite of the fact
+that he was "unlearned in the languages."[8]
+
+Usually, of course, the witch doctor was a poor woman who was very happy
+to get a penny fee now and then, but who ran a greater risk of the
+gallows than her male competitors. Her reputation, which brought her a
+little money from the sick and from those who had lost valuables, made
+her at the same time a successful beggar. Those whom she importuned were
+afraid to refuse her. But she was in constant peril. If she resented ill
+treatment, if she gave in ill wishes as much as she took, she was sure
+to hear from it before a stern justice of the peace. It can hardly be
+doubted that a large proportion, after the Restoration as in every other
+period, of those finally hanged for witchcraft, had in fact made claims
+to skill in magic arts. Without question some of them had even traded on
+the fear they inspired. Not a few of the wretched creatures fetched to
+York castle to be tried were "inchanters."
+
+Very often, indeed, a woman who was nothing more than a midwife, with
+some little knowledge of medicine perhaps, would easily be classed by
+the public among the regular witch doctors and so come to have a bad
+name. Whether she lived up to her name or not--and the temptation to do
+so would be great--she would from that time be subject to suspicion, and
+might at length become a prey to the justice of the peace. Mrs. Pepper
+was no more than a midwife who made also certain simple medical
+examinations, but when one of her patients was "strangely handled" she
+was taken to court.[9] Margaret Stothard was probably, so far as we can
+piece together her story, a woman who had been successful in calming
+fretful children and had so gained for herself a reputation as a witch.
+Doubtless she had acquired in time a few of the charmer's tricks that
+enhanced her reputation and increased her practice. This was all very
+well until one of her patients happened to die. Then she was carried to
+Newcastle and would probably have suffered death, had it not been for a
+wise judge.[10]
+
+These are typical cases. The would-be healer of the sick ran a risk, and
+it was not always alone from failure to cure. If a witch doctor found
+himself unable to bring relief to a patient, it was easy to suggest that
+some other witch doctor--and such were usually women--was bewitching the
+patient. There are many instances, and they are not confined to the
+particular period with which we are dealing, in which one "good witch"
+started the run on the other's reputation. Even the regular physician
+may sometimes have yielded to the temptation to crush competition.
+
+Of course, when all the cases are considered, only a very small part of
+the "good witches" ever fell into the clutches of the law. The law
+prescribed very definite penalties for their operations, but in most
+instances no action was taken until after a long accumulation of
+"suspicious circumstances," and, even if action was taken, the chances,
+as we have seen, were by this time distinctly in favor of the accused.
+
+This is not to say, by any means, that the judges and juries of England
+had come over to the side of the witch. The period with which we are
+dealing was marked by a variety of decision which betrays the perplexity
+of judges and juries. It is true, indeed, that out of from eighty to one
+hundred cases where accusations are on record less than twenty witches
+were hanged. This does not mean that six times out of every seven the
+courts were ruling against the fact of witchcraft. In the case of the
+six released there was no very large body of evidence against them to be
+considered, or perhaps no strong popular current to be stemmed. In
+general, it may be said that the courts were still backing up the law of
+James I.
+
+To show this, it is only necessary to run over some of the leading
+trials of the period. We shall briefly take up four trials conducted
+respectively by Justice Archer, Chief Baron Hale, Justice Rainsford, and
+Justice Raymond.
+
+Julian Cox, who was but one of the "pestilent brood" of witches ferreted
+out in Somerset by the aggressive justice, Robert Hunt, was tried in
+1663 at Taunton before Justice Archer.[11] The charges against her
+indeed excited such interest all over England, and elicited, upon the
+part of disbelievers, so much derision, that it will be worth our while
+to go over the principal points of evidence. The chief witness against
+her was a huntsman who told a strange tale. He had started a hare and
+chased it behind a bush. But when he came to the bush he had found
+Julian Cox there, stooped over and quite out of breath. Another witness
+had a strange story to tell about her. She had invited him to come up on
+her porch and take a pipe of tobacco with her. While he was with her,
+smoking, he saw a toad between his legs. On going home he had taken out
+a pipe and smoked again and had again seen what looked to be the same
+toad between his legs. "He took the Toad out to kill it, and to his
+thinking cut it in several pieces, but returning to his Pipe the Toad
+still appeared.... At length the Toad cryed, and vanish'd." A third
+witness had seen the accused fly in at her window "in her full
+proportion." This tissue of evidence was perhaps the absurdest ever used
+against even a witch, but the jury brought in a verdict of guilty. It is
+not unpleasant to know that Justice Archer met with a good deal of
+criticism for his part in the affair.
+
+In the following year occurred the trials at Bury St. Edmunds, which
+derive their interest and importance largely from the position of the
+presiding judge, Sir Matthew Hale, who was at this time chief baron of
+the exchequer, and was later to be chief justice of the king's bench. He
+was allowed, according to the admission of one none too friendly to him,
+"on all hands to be the most profound lawyer of his time."[12] Hale had
+been a Puritan from his youth, though not of the rigid or theologically
+minded sort. In the Civil Wars and the events that followed he had
+remained non-partisan. He accepted office from Cromwell, though without
+doubt mildly sympathizing with the king. One of those who had assisted
+in recalling Charles II, he rose shortly to be chief baron of the
+exchequer. Famous for his careful and reasoned interpretation of law, he
+was to leave behind him a high reputation for his justice and for the
+exceptional precision of his judgments. It is not too much to say that
+he was one of the greatest legal figures of his century and that his
+decisions served in no small degree to fix the law.
+
+We should like to know how far he had been brought into contact with the
+subject of witchcraft, but we can do no more than guess. His early
+career had been moulded in no small degree by Selden, who, as has been
+noted in an earlier chapter, believed in the punishment of those who
+claimed to be witches. It is not unreasonable to suppose that the
+Puritans with whom he had been thrown were all of them ready to quote
+Scripture against the minions of Satan. We know that he had read some of
+the works of Henry More,[13] and, whether or not familiar with his
+chapters on witchcraft, would have deduced from that writer's general
+philosophy of spirits the particular application.
+
+The trial concerned two women of Lowestoft, Amy Duny and Rose Cullender.
+The first had been reputed a witch and a "person of very evil
+behaviour." She was in all probability related to some of those women
+who had suffered at the hands of Hopkins, and to that connection owed
+her ill name. Some six or seven years before the date of the trial she
+had got herself into trouble while taking care of the child of a
+tradesman in Lowestoft. It would seem that, contrary to the orders of
+the mother, she had suckled the child. The child had that same night
+been attacked by fits, and a witch doctor of Yarmouth, who was
+consulted, had prescribed for it. The reader will note that this
+"suspicious circumstance" happened seven years earlier, and a large part
+of the evidence presented in court concerned what had occurred from five
+to seven years before.
+
+We can not go into the details of a trial which abounded in curious bits
+of evidence. The main plot indeed was an old one. The accused woman,
+after she had been discharged from employment and reproved, had been
+heard to mutter threats, close upon which the children of those she
+cursed, who were now the witnesses against her, had fallen ill. Two of
+the children had suffered severely and were still afflicted. They had
+thrown up pins and even a two-penny nail. The nail, which was duly
+offered as an exhibit in court, had been brought to one of the children
+by a bee and had been forced into the child's mouth, upon which she
+expelled it. This narrative was on a level with the other, that flies
+brought crooked pins to the child. Both flies and bee, it will be
+understood, were the witches in other form. A similar sort of evidence
+was that a toad, which had been found as the result of the witch
+doctor's directions, had been thrown into the fire, upon which a sharp
+crackling noise ensued. When this incident was testified to in the court
+the judge interrupted to ask if after the explosion the substance of the
+toad was not to be seen in the fire. He was answered in the negative. On
+the next day Amy Duny was found to have her face and body all scorched.
+She said to the witness that "she might thank her for it." There can be
+no doubt in the world that this testimony of the coincident burning of
+the woman and the toad was regarded as damning proof, nor is there any
+reason to believe that the court deemed it necessary to go behind the
+mere say-so of a single witness for the fact. Along with this sort of
+unsubstantial testimony there was presented a monotonous mass of
+spectral evidence. Apparitions of the witches were the constant
+occasions for the paroxysms of the children. In another connection it
+will be observed that this form of proof was becoming increasingly
+common in the last part of the seventeenth century. It can hardly be
+doubted that in one way or another the use of such evidence at Bury
+influenced other trials and more particularly the Salem cases in the New
+World, where great importance was attached to evidence of this sort.
+
+The usual nauseating evidence as to the Devil's marks was introduced by
+the testimony of the mother of one of the children bewitched. She had
+been, a month before, a member of a jury of matrons appointed by a
+justice of the peace to examine the body of the accused. Most damning
+proof against the woman had been found. It is very hard for us to
+understand why Hale allowed to testify, as one of the jury of examining
+matrons, a woman who was at the same time mother of one of the bewitched
+children upon whom the prosecution largely depended.
+
+So far the case for the prosecution had been very strong, but it was in
+the final experiments in court, which were expected to clinch the
+evidence, that a very serious mishap occurred. A bewitched child, eleven
+years old, had been fetched into court. With eyes closed and head
+reclining upon the bar she had remained quiet until one of the accused
+was brought up, when she at once became frantic in her effort to scratch
+her. This was tried again and again and in every instance produced the
+same result. The performance must have had telling effect. But there
+happened to be present at the trial three Serjeants of the law. One of
+them, Serjeant John Kelyng, a few years later to become chief justice of
+the king's bench, was "much dissatisfied." He urged the point that the
+mere fact that the children were bewitched did not establish their claim
+to designate the authors of their misfortune. There were others present
+who agreed with Kelyng in suspecting the actions of the girl on the
+stand. Baron Hale was induced, at length, to appoint a committee of
+several gentlemen, including Serjeant Kelyng, to make trial of the girl
+with her eyes covered. An outside party was brought up to her and
+touched her hand. The girl was expecting that Amy Duny would be brought
+up and flew into the usual paroxysms. This was what the committee had
+expected, and they declared their belief that the whole transaction was
+a mere imposture. One would have supposed that every one else must come
+to the same conclusion, but Mr. Pacy, the girl's father, offered an
+explanation of her mistake that seems to have found favor. The maid, he
+said, "might be deceived by a suspicion that the Witch touched her when
+she did not." One would suppose that this subtle suggestion would have
+broken the spell, and that Mr. Pacy would have been laughed out of
+court. Alas for the rarity of humor in seventeenth-century court rooms!
+Not only was the explanation received seriously, but it was, says the
+court reporter, afterwards found to be true.
+
+In the mean time expert opinion had been called in. It is hard to say
+whether Dr. Browne had been requisitioned for the case or merely
+happened to be present. At all events, he was called upon to render his
+opinion as a medical man. The name of Thomas Browne is one eminent in
+English literature and not unknown in the annals of English medicine and
+science. More than twenty years earlier he had expressed faith in the
+reality of witchcraft.[14] In his _Commonplace Book_, a series of
+jottings made throughout his life, he reiterated his belief, but uttered
+a doubt as to the connection between possession and witchcraft.[15]
+
+We should be glad to know at what time Browne wrote this deliverance;
+for, when called upon at Bury, he made no application of his principles
+of caution. He gave it as his opinion that the bewitchment of the two
+girls was genuine. The vomiting of needles and nails reminded him very
+much of a recent case in Denmark. For the moment the physician spoke,
+when he said that "these swounding Fits were Natural." But it was the
+student of seventeenth-century theology who went on: they were
+"heightened to a great excess by the subtilty of the Devil, co-operating
+with the Malice of these which we term Witches, at whose Instance he
+doth these Villanies."
+
+No doubt Browne's words confirmed the sentiment of the court room and
+strengthened the case of the prosecution. But it will not be overlooked
+by the careful reader that he did not by any means commit himself as to
+the guilt of the parties at the bar.
+
+When the judge found that the prisoners had "nothing material" to say
+for themselves he addressed the jury. Perhaps because he was not
+altogether clear in his own mind about the merits of the case, he
+refused to sum up the evidence. It is impossible for us to understand
+why he did not carry further the tests which had convinced Kelyng of the
+fraud, or why he did not ask questions which would have uncovered the
+weakness of the testimony. One cannot but suspect that North's criticism
+of him, that he had a "leaning towards the Popular" and that he had
+gained such "transcendent" authority as not easily to bear
+contradiction,[16] was altogether accurate. At all events he passed over
+the evidence and went on to declare that there were two problems before
+the jury: (1) were these children bewitched, (2) were the prisoners at
+the bar guilty of it? As to the existence of witches, he never doubted
+it. The Scriptures affirmed it, and all nations provided laws against
+such persons.
+
+On the following Sunday Baron Hale composed a meditation upon the
+subject. Unfortunately it was simply a dissertation on Scripture texts
+and touched upon the law at no point.
+
+It is obvious enough to the most casual student that Sir Matthew Hale
+had a chance to anticipate the work of Chief Justice Holt and missed it.
+In the nineties of the seventeenth century, as we shall see, there was a
+man in the chief justiceship who dared to nullify the law of James I. It
+is not too much to say that Matthew Hale by a different charge to the
+jury could as easily have made the current of judicial decisions run in
+favor of accused witches all over England. His weight was thrown in the
+other direction, and the witch-triers for a half-century to come invoked
+the name of Hale.[17]
+
+There is an interesting though hardly trustworthy story told by Speaker
+Onslow[18]--writing a century later--that Hale "was afterwards much
+altered in his notions as to this matter, and had great concern upon him
+for what had befallen these persons." This seems the more doubtful
+because there is not a shred of proof that Hale's decisions occasioned a
+word of criticism among his contemporaries.[19] So great, indeed, was
+the spell of his name that not even a man like John Webster dared to
+comment upon his decision. Not indeed until nearly the middle of the
+eighteenth century does anyone seem to have felt that the decision
+called for apology.
+
+The third noteworthy ruling in this period anent the crime of witchcraft
+was made a few years later in Wiltshire by Justice Rainsford. The story,
+as he himself told it to a colleague, was this: "A Witch was brought to
+Salisbury and tried before him. Sir James Long came to his Chamber, and
+made a heavy Complaint of this Witch, and said that if she escaped, his
+Estate would not be worth any Thing; for all the People would go away.
+It happen'd that the Witch was acquitted, and the Knight continued
+extremely concern'd; therefore the Judge, to save the poor Gentleman's
+Estate, order'd the Woman to be kept in Gaol, and that the Town should
+allow her 2s. 6d. per Week; for which he was very thankful. The very
+next Assizes, he came to the Judge to desire his lordship would let her
+come back to the Town. And why? They could keep her for 1s. 6d. there;
+and, in the Gaol, she cost them a shilling more."[20] Another case
+before Justice Rainsford showed him less lenient. By a mere chance we
+have a letter, written at the time by one of the justices of the peace
+in Malmesbury, which sheds no little light on this affair and on the
+legal status of witchcraft at that time.[21] A certain Ann Tilling had
+been taken into custody on the complaint of Mrs. Webb of Malmesbury. The
+latter's son had swooning fits in which he accused Ann of bewitching
+him. Ann Tilling made voluble confession, implicating Elizabeth Peacock
+and Judith Witchell, who had, she declared, inveigled her into the
+practice of their evil arts. Other witches were named, and in a short
+time twelve women and two men were under accusation. But the alderman
+of Malmesbury, who was the chief magistrate of that town, deemed it wise
+before going further to call in four of the justices of the peace in
+that subdivision of the county. Three of these justices of the peace
+came and listened to the confessions, and were about to make out a
+mittimus for sending eleven of the accused to Salisbury, when the fourth
+justice arrived, the man who has given us the story. He was, according
+to his own account, not "very credulous in matters of Witchcraft," and
+he made a speech to the other justices. "Gentlemen, what is done at this
+place, a Borough remote from the centre of this large County, and almost
+forty miles from Salisbury, will be expended [_sic_] both by the
+Reverend Judges, the learned Counsayle there ..., and the Gentry of the
+body of the County, so that if anything be done here rashly, it will be
+severely censured." He went on to urge the danger that the boy whose
+fits were the cause of so much excitement might be an impostor, and that
+Ann Tilling, who had freely confessed, might be in confederacy with the
+parents. The skeptical justice, who in spite of his boasted incredulity
+was a believer in the reality of witchcraft, was successful with his
+colleagues. All the accused were dismissed save Tilling, Peacock, and
+Witchell. They were sent to Salisbury and tried before Sir Richard
+Rainsford. Elizabeth Peacock, who had been tried on similar charges
+before, was dismissed. The other two were sentenced to be hanged.[22]
+
+Ten years later came a fourth remarkable ruling against witchcraft, this
+time by Justice Raymond at Exeter. During the intervening years there
+had been cases a-plenty in England and a few hangings, but none that had
+attracted comment. It was not until the summer of 1682, when three
+Devonshire women were arraigned, tried, and sent to the gallows by
+Justice Raymond,[23] that the public again realized that witchcraft was
+still upheld by the courts.
+
+The trials in themselves had no very striking features. At least two of
+the three women had been beggars; the other, who had been the first
+accused and who had in all probability involved her two companions, had
+on two different occasions before been arraigned but let off. The
+evidence submitted against them consisted of the usual sworn statements
+made by neighbors to the justice of the peace, as well as of hardly
+coherent confessions by the accused. The repetition of the Lord's Prayer
+was gone through with and the results of examinations by a female jury
+were detailed _ad nauseam_. The poor creatures on trial were remarkably
+stupid, even for beings of their grade. Their several confessions
+tallied with one another in hardly a single point.
+
+Sir Thomas Raymond and Sir Francis North were the judges present at the
+Exeter assizes. Happily the latter has left his impressions of this
+trial.[24] He admits that witch trials worried him because the evidence
+was usually slight, but the people very intent upon a verdict of guilty.
+He was very glad that at Exeter his colleague who sat upon the "crown
+side" had to bear the responsibilities.[25] The two women (he seems to
+have known of no more) were scarce alive as to sense and understanding,
+but were "overwhelm'd with melancholy and waking Dreams." Barring
+confessions, the other evidence he considered trifling, and he cites the
+testimony of a witness that "he saw a cat leap in at her (the old
+woman's) window, when it was twilight; and this Informant farther saith
+that he verily believeth the said Cat to be the Devil, and more saith
+not." Raymond, declares his colleague, made no nice distinctions as to
+the possibility of melancholy women contracting an opinion of themselves
+that was false, but left the matter to the jury.[26]
+
+We have already intimated that the rulings of the courts were by no
+means all of them adverse to the witches. Almost contemporaneous with
+the far-reaching sentence of Sir Matthew Hale at Bury were the trials in
+Somerset, where flies and nails and needles played a similar part, but
+where the outcome was very different. A zealous justice of the peace,
+Robert Hunt, had for the last eight years been on the lookout for
+witches. In 1663 he had turned Julian Cox over to the tender mercies of
+Justice Archer. By 1664 he had uncovered a "hellish knot" of the wicked
+women and was taking depositions against them, wringing confessions from
+them and sending them to gaol with all possible speed.[27] The women
+were of the usual class, a herd of poor quarrelsome, bickering females
+who went from house to house seeking alms. In the numbers of the accused
+the discovery resembled that at Lancaster in 1633-1634, as indeed it did
+in other ways. A witch meeting or conventicle was confessed to. The
+county was being terrified and entertained by the most horrible tales,
+when suddenly a quietus was put upon the affair "by some of them in
+authority." A witch chase, which during the Civil Wars would have led to
+a tragedy, was cut short, probably through the agency of a privy council
+less fearful of popular sentiment than the assize judges.
+
+The Mompesson case[28] was of no less importance in its time, although
+it belongs rather in the annals of trickery than in those of
+witchcraft. But the sensation which it caused in England and the
+controversy waged over it between the upholders of witchcraft and the
+"Sadducees," give the story a considerable interest and render the
+outcome of the trial significant. The only case of its sort in its time,
+it was nevertheless most typical of the superstition of the time. A
+little town in Wiltshire had been disturbed by a stray drummer. The
+self-constituted noise-maker was called to account by a stranger in the
+village, a Mr. Mompesson of Tedworth, who on examining the man's license
+saw that it had been forged and took it away from him. This, at any
+rate, was Mr. Mompesson's story as to how he had incurred the ill will
+of the man. The drummer took his revenge in a singular way. Within a few
+days the Mompesson family at Tedworth began to be annoyed at night by
+strange noises or drummings on the roofs. All the phenomena and
+manifestations which we associate with a modern haunted-house story were
+observed by this alarmed family of the seventeenth century. The little
+girls were knocked about in their beds at night, a stout servant was
+forcibly held hand and foot, the children's shoes were thrown about, the
+chairs glided about the room. It would seem that all this bold
+horse-play must soon have been exposed, but it went on merrily. Whenever
+any tune was called for, it was given on the drum. The family Bible was
+thrown upside down into the ashes. For three weeks, however, the spirits
+ceased operations during the lying-in of Mrs. Mompesson. But they
+sedulously avoided the family servants, especially when those retainers
+happened to be armed with swords. Well they might, for we are told that
+on one occasion, after a pistol shot had been fired at the place where
+they were heard, blood was found on the spot. In another instance,
+according to Mr. Mompesson's own account, there were seen figures, "in
+the shape of Men, who, as soon as a Gun was discharg'd, would shuffle
+away together into an Arbour."
+
+It is clear enough that a somewhat clumsy fraud was being imposed upon
+Mr. Mompesson. A contemporary writer tells us he was told that it was
+done by "two Young Women in the House with a design to scare thence Mr.
+Mompesson's Mother."[29] From other sources it is quite certain that the
+injured drummer had a hand in the affair. A very similar game had been
+played at Woodstock in 1649, and formed a comedy situation of which
+Scott makes brilliant use in his novel of that name. Indeed, it is quite
+possible that the drummer, who had been a soldier of Cromwell's, was
+inspired by a memory of that affair.
+
+But there was no one to detect the fraud, as at Woodstock. Tedworth
+became a Mecca for those interested in the supernatural. One of the
+visitors was Joseph Glanvill, at this time a young man of twenty-seven,
+later to become a member of the Royal Society and chaplain in ordinary
+to the king. The spirits were less noisy; they were always somewhat
+restrained before visitors, but scratched on bed sheets and panted in
+dog fashion, till Glanvill was thoroughly taken in. For the rest of his
+life this psychic experimenter fought a literary war over this case with
+those who made fun of it. While we cannot prove it, we may guess with
+some confidence that this episode was the beginning of the special
+interest in the supernatural upon Glanvill's part which was later to
+make him the arch-defender of the witchcraft superstition in his
+generation.
+
+How wide an interest the matter evoked may be judged from the warm
+discussions upon it at Cambridge, and from the royal interest in it
+which induced Charles to send down a committee of investigation.
+Curiously enough, the spirits were singularly and most extraordinarily
+quiet when the royal investigators were at work, a fact to which
+delighted skeptics pointed with satisfaction.
+
+One wonders that the drummer, who must have known that his name would be
+connected with the affair, failed to realize the risk he was running
+from the witch hunters. He was indicted on minor felonies of another
+sort, but the charges which Mompesson brought against him seem to have
+been passed over. The man was condemned for stealing and was
+transported. With his departure the troubles at Tedworth ceased. But the
+drummer, in some way, escaped and returned to England. The angry
+Mompesson now brought him to the assizes as a felon on the strength of
+the statute of James I. Unhappily we have no details of this trial, nor
+do we know even the name of the judge; but we do know that the jury gave
+a verdict of acquittal.
+
+In 1671 Cornwall was stirred up over a witch whose crimes were said to
+be directed against the state. She had hindered the English fleet in
+their war against the Dutch, she had caused a bull to kill one of the
+enemies in Parliament of the Non-Conformists, she had been responsible
+for the barrenness of the queen. And for all these political crimes the
+chief evidence was that some cats had been seen playing ("dancing") near
+her house. She was committed, along with several other women who were
+accused. Although at the assizes they were all proved to have had cats
+and rats about them, they went free.[30]
+
+In 1682, the same year in which the three women of Devonshire had been
+condemned, there was a trial at Southwark, just outside of London, which
+resulted in a verdict of acquittal. The case had many of the usual
+features, but in two points was unique. Joan Butts was accused of having
+bewitched a child that had been taken with fits.[31] Nineteen or twenty
+witnesses testified against the witch. One of the witnesses heard her
+say that, if she had not bewitched the child, if all the devils in hell
+could help her, she would bewitch it. Joan admitted the words, but said
+that she had spoken them in passion. She then turned on one of the
+witnesses and declared that he had given himself to the Devil, body and
+soul. Chief Justice Pemberton was presiding, and he called her to order
+for this attack on a witness, and then catechized her as to her means of
+knowing the fact. The woman had thoughtlessly laid herself open by her
+own words to the most serious suspicion. In spite of this, however, the
+jury brought her in not guilty, "to the great amazement of some, ... yet
+others who consider the great difficulty in proving a Witch, thought the
+jury could do no less than acquit her."
+
+This was, during the period, the one trial in or near London of which we
+have details. There can be no doubt that the courts in London and the
+vicinity were beginning to ignore cases of witchcraft. After 1670 there
+were no more trials of the sort in Middlesex.
+
+The reader will remember that Justice North had questioned the equity of
+Justice Raymond's decision at Exeter. He has told us the story of a
+trial at Taunton-Dean, where he himself had to try a witch.[32] A
+ten-year-old girl, who was taking strange fits and spitting out pins,
+was the witness against an old man whom she accused of bewitching her.
+The defendant made "a Defence as orderly and well expressed as I ever
+heard spoke." The judge then asked the justice of the peace who had
+committed the man his opinion. He said that he believed the girl,
+"doubling herself in her Fit, as being convulsed, bent her Head down
+close to her Stomacher, and with her Mouth, took Pins out of the Edge of
+that, and then, righting herself a little, spit them into some
+By-stander's Hands." "The Sum of it was Malice, Threatening, and
+Circumstances of Imposture in the Girl." As the judge went downstairs
+after the man had been acquitted, "an hideous old woman" cried to him,
+"My Lord, Forty Years ago they would have hang'd me for a Witch, and
+they could not; and now they would have hang'd my poor Son."
+
+The five cases we have cited, while not so celebrated as those on the
+other side, were quite as representative of what was going on in
+England. It is to be regretted that we have not the records by which to
+compute the acquittals of this period. In a large number of cases where
+we have depositions we have no statement of the outcome. This is
+particularly true of Yorkshire. As has been pointed out in the earlier
+part of the chapter, we can be sure that most of these cases were
+dismissed or were never brought to trial.
+
+When we come to the question of the forms of evidence presented during
+this period, we have a story that has been told before. Female juries,
+convulsive children or child pretenders, we have met them all before.
+Two or three differences may nevertheless be noted. The use of spectral
+evidence was becoming increasingly common. The spectres, as always,
+assumed weird forms. Nicholas Rames's wife (at Longwitton, in the north)
+saw Elizabeth Fenwick and the Devil dancing together.[33] A sick boy in
+Cornwall saw a "Woman in a blue Jerkin and Red Petticoat with Yellow and
+Green patches," who was quickly identified and put in hold.[34]
+Sometimes the spectres were more material. Jane Milburne of Newcastle
+testified that Dorothy Stranger, in the form of a cat, had leaped upon
+her and held her to the ground for a quarter of an hour.[35] A "Barber's
+boy" in Cambridge had escaped from a spectral woman in the isle of Ely,
+but she followed him to Cambridge and killed him with a blow. "He had
+the exact mark in his forehead, being dead, where the Spiritual Woman
+did hit him alive."[36] It is unnecessary to multiply cases. The
+_Collection of Modern Relations_ is full of the same sort of evidence.
+
+It has been seen that in nearly every epoch of witch history the
+voluntary and involuntary confessions of the accused had greatly
+simplified the difficulties of prosecution. The witches whom Matthew
+Hopkins discovered were too ready to confess to enormous and unnatural
+crimes. In this respect there is a marked change in the period of the
+later Stuarts. Elizabeth Style of Somerset in 1663 and the three
+Devonshire witches of 1682 were the only ones who made confessions.
+Elizabeth Style[37] had probably been "watched," in spite of Glanvill's
+statement to the contrary, perhaps somewhat in the same torturing way as
+the Suffolk witches whom Hopkins "discovered," and her wild confession
+showed the effect. The Devonshire women were half-witted creatures, of
+the type that had always been most voluble in confession; but such were
+now exceptions.
+
+This means one of two things. Either the witches of the Restoration were
+by some chance a more intelligent set, or they were showing more spirit
+than ever before because they had more supporters and fairer treatment
+in court. It is quite possible that both suppositions have in them some
+elements of truth. As the belief in the powers of witches developed in
+form and theory, it came to draw within its radius more groups of
+people. In its earlier stages the attack upon the witch had been in part
+the community's way of ridding itself of a disreputable member. By the
+time that the process of attack had been developed for a century, it had
+become less impersonal. Personal hatreds were now more often the
+occasion of accusation. Individual malice was playing a larger rôle. In
+consequence those who were accused were more often those who were
+capable of fighting for themselves or who had friends to back them. And
+those friends were more numerous and zealous because the attitude of the
+public and of the courts was more friendly to the accused witch. This
+explanation is at best, however, nothing more than a suggestion. We have
+not the material for confident generalization.
+
+One other form of evidence must be mentioned. The town of Newcastle,
+which in 1649 had sent to Scotland for a witchfinder, was able in 1673
+to make use of home-grown talent. In this instance it was a woman, Ann
+Armstrong, who implicated a score of her neighbors and at length went
+around pointing out witches. She was a smooth-witted woman who was
+probably taking a shrewd method of turning off charges against herself.
+Her testimony dealt with witch gatherings or conventicles held at
+various times and places. She told whom she had seen there and what they
+had said about their crimes. She told of their feasts and of their
+dances. Poor woman, she had herself been compelled to sing for them
+while they danced. Nor was this the worst. She had been terribly
+misused. She had been often turned into a horse, then bridled and
+ridden.[38]
+
+It would not be worth while to go further into Ann Armstrong's stories.
+It is enough to remark that she offered details, as to harm done to
+certain individuals in certain ways, which tallied closely with the
+sworn statements of those individuals as to what had happened to them at
+the times specified. The conclusion cannot be avoided that the female
+witchfinder had been at no small pains to get even such minute details
+in exact form. She had gathered together all the witch stories of that
+part of Northumberland and had embodied them in her account of the
+confessions made at the "conventicles."
+
+What was the ruling of the court on all this evidence we do not know. We
+have only one instance in which any evidence was ruled out. That was at
+the trial of Julian Cox in 1663. Justice Archer tried an experiment in
+that trial, but before doing so he explained to the court that no
+account was to be taken of the result in making up their verdict. He had
+heard that a witch could not repeat the petition in the Lord's Prayer,
+"Lead us not into temptation." The witch indeed failed to meet the
+test.[39]
+
+In the course of this period we have two trials that reveal a connection
+between witchcraft and other crimes. Perhaps it would be fairer to say
+that the charge of witchcraft was sometimes made when other crimes were
+suspected, but could not be proved. The first case concerned a rich
+farmer in Northamptonshire who had gained the ill will of a woman named
+Ann Foster. Thirty of his sheep were found dead with their "Leggs broke
+in pieces, and their Bones all shattered in their Skins." A little later
+his house and barns were set on fire. Ann Foster was brought to trial
+for using witchcraft against him, confessed to it, and was hanged.[40]
+
+The other case was at Brightling in Sussex, not far from London. There a
+woman who was suspected as the one who had told a servant that Joseph
+Cruther's house would be burned--a prophecy which came true very
+shortly--was accused as a witch. She had been accused years before at
+the Maidstone assizes, but had gone free. This time she was "watched"
+for twenty-four hours and four ministers kept a fast over the
+affair.[41]
+
+These cases are worth something as an indication that the charge of
+witchcraft was still a method of getting rid of people whom the
+community feared.
+
+At the beginning of this chapter the years 1660 to 1688 were marked off
+as constituting a single epoch in the history of the superstition. Yet
+those years were by no means characterized by the same sort of court
+verdicts. The sixties saw a decided increase over the years of the
+Commonwealth in the number of trials and in the number of executions.
+The seventies witnessed a rapid dropping off in both figures. Even more
+so the eighties. By the close of the eighties the accounts of witchcraft
+were exceedingly rare. The decisions of the courts in the matter were in
+a state of fluctuation. Two things were happening. The justices of the
+peace were growing much more reluctant to send accused witches to the
+assize courts; and the itinerant judges as a body were, in spite of the
+decisions of Hale and Raymond, more careful in witch trials than ever
+before, and more likely to withstand public sentiment.
+
+The changes of opinion, as reflected in the literature of the time,
+especially in the literature of the subject, will show the same
+tendencies. We shall take them up in the next chapter.
+
+
+[1] See Raine, ed., _York Depositions_ (Surtees Soc.), preface, xxx.
+
+[2] Joseph Hunter, _Life of Heywood_ (London, 1842), 167, and Heywood's
+_Diaries_, ed. J. H. Turner (Brighouse, 1881-1885), I, 199; III, 100.
+Heywood, who was one of the leading Dissenters of his time, must not be
+credited with extreme superstition. In noting the death of a boy whom
+his parents believed bewitched, he wrote, "Oh that they saw the lords
+hand." _Diary_, I, 287.
+
+[3] William Drage, _Daimonomageia_ (London, 1665), 32-38.
+
+[4] _The Lord's Arm Stretched Out, ... or a True Relation of the
+wonderful Deliverance of James Barrow ..._ (London, 1664).
+
+[5] Compare Drage, _op. cit._, 36, 39, 42, with _The Lord's Arm
+Stretched Out_, 17. Mary Hall, whose cure Drage celebrates, had friends
+among the Baptists. Drage seems to connect her case with those of Barrow
+and Hannah Crump, both of whom were helped by that "dispirited people"
+whom the author of _The Lord's Arm Stretched Out_ exalts.
+
+[6] Drage, _op. cit._, 34.
+
+[7] _Yorkshire Notes and Queries_, I (Bradford, 1885), 26. But a
+physician in Winchester Park, whom Hannah Crump had consulted, had asked
+five pounds to unbewitch her.
+
+[8] Drage, _op. cit._, 39.
+
+[9] _York Depositions_, 127.
+
+[10] See E. Mackenzie, _History of Northumberland_ (Newcastle, 1825),
+II, 33-36. We do not know that the woman was excused, but the case was
+before Henry Ogle and we may fairly guess the outcome.
+
+[11] Glanvill, _Sadducismus Triumphatus_, pt. ii, 191-209.
+
+[12] This is the estimate of him by North, who adds: "and he knew it."
+Roger North, _Life of the Rt. Hon. Francis North, Baron of Guilford ..._
+(London, 1742), 62-63.
+
+[13] _Diary and Correspondence of Dr. John Worthington_, II, pt. I
+(Chetham Soc., no. 36, 1855), 155.
+
+[14] In his _Religio Medici_. See _Sir Thomas Browne's Works_ (ed. S.
+Wilkin, London, 1851-1852), II, 43.
+
+[15] _Ibid._, IV, 389.
+
+[16] Roger North, _op. cit._, 61.
+
+[17] Inderwick has given a good illustration of Hale's weakness of
+character: "I confess," he says, "to a feeling of pain at finding him in
+October, 1660, sitting as a judge at the Old Bailey, trying and
+condemning to death batches of the regicides, men under whose orders he
+had himself acted, who had been his colleagues in parliament, with whom
+he had sat on committees to alter the law." _Interregnum_, 217-218.
+
+[18] _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, XIV, 9, p. 480.
+
+[19] Bishop Burnet, in his _Life and Death of Sir Matthew Hale_ (London,
+1682), does not seem to have felt called upon to mention the Bury trial
+at all. See also Lord Campbell, _Lives of the Chief Justices_ (London,
+1849), I, 563-567.
+
+[20] Roger North, _op. cit._, 130, 131. The story, as here told,
+ascribes the event to the year preceding Lord Guilford's first western
+circuit--_i. e._, to 1674. But this perhaps need not be taken too
+exactly, and the witch was probably that Elizabeth Peacock who was
+acquitted in 1670 and again in the case of 1672 described above. At
+least the list of "Indictments for witchcraft on the Western Circuit
+from 1670 to 1712," published by Inderwick in his _Sidelights on the
+Stuarts_ (London, 1888), shows no other acquittal in Wiltshire during
+this decade.
+
+[21] For this letter see the _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1832, pt. I,
+405-410, 489-402. The story is confirmed in part by Inderwick's finds in
+the western Gaol Delivery records. As to the trustworthiness of this
+unknown justice of the peace, see above, pp. 160, 162, and notes.
+
+[22] That the judge was Sir Richard Rainsford appears from Inderwick's
+list, mentioned above, note 20.
+
+[23] _A True and Impartial Relation of the Informations against ...
+Temperance Lloyd, Mary Trembles, and Susanna Edwards_ (London, 1682).
+And _The Tryal, Condemnation and Execution of Three Witches ..._
+(London, 1682). See also below, note 26, and appendix A, § 6.
+
+[24] Roger North, _op. cit._, 130.
+
+[25] At a trial at the York assizes in 1687 Sir John Reresby seems to
+have played about the same part that North played at Exeter. Serjeant
+Powell, later to be chief justice, was presiding over the case. "An old
+woman was condemned for a witch. Those who were more credulous in points
+of this nature than myself, conceived the evidence to be very strong
+against her. The boy she was said to have bewitched fell down on a
+sudden before all the court when he saw her, and would then as suddenly
+return to himself again, and very distinctly relate the several injuries
+she had done him: but in all this it was observed the boy was free from
+any distortion; that he did not foam at the mouth, and that his fits did
+not leave him gradually, but all at once; so that, upon the whole, the
+judge thought it proper to reprieve her." _Memoirs and Travels of Sir
+John Reresby_ (London, 1813), 329.
+
+[26] There is indeed some evidence that Raymond wished not to condemn
+the women, but yielded nevertheless to public opinion. In a pamphlet
+published five years later it is stated that the judge "in his charge to
+the jury gave his Opinion that these three poor Women (as he supposed)
+were weary of their Lives, and that he thought it proper for them to be
+carryed to the Parish from whence they came, and that the Parish should
+be charged with their Maintainance; for he thought their oppressing
+Poverty had constrained them to wish for Death." Unhappily the neighbors
+made such an outcry that the women were found guilty and sentenced. This
+is from a later and somewhat untrustworthy account, but it fits in well
+with what North says of the case. _The Life and Conversation of
+Temperance Floyd, Mary Lloyd_ [sic], _and Susanna Edwards: ..._ (London,
+1687).
+
+[27] The second part of Glanvill's _Sadducismus Triumphatus_ is full of
+these depositions.
+
+[28] For a full account of this affair see Glanvill's _Sadducismus
+Triumphatus_, pt. ii, preface and Relation I. Glanvill had investigated
+the matter and had diligently collected all the evidence. He was
+familiar also with what the "deriders" had to say, and we can discover
+their point of view from his answers. See also John Beaumont, _An
+Historical, Physiological and Theological Treatise of Spirits,
+Apparitions, Witchcrafts, and other Magical Practices_ (London, 1705),
+307-309.
+
+[29] _Ibid._, 309.
+
+[30] _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1671_, 105, 171.
+
+[31] We have two accounts of this affair: _Strange and Wonderful News
+from Yowell in Surry_ (1681), and _An Account of the Tryal and
+Examination of Joan Buts_ (1682).
+
+[32] Roger North, _op. cit._, 131-132.
+
+[33] _York Depositions_, 247.
+
+[34] _A True Account ... of one John Tonken, of Pensans in Cornwall ..._
+(1686). For other examples of spectral evidence see _York Depositions_,
+88; Roberts, _Southern Counties_ (London, 1856), 525-526; _Gentleman's
+Magazine_, 1832, pt. II, 489.
+
+[35] _York Depositions_, 112, 113.
+
+[36] Drage, _Daimonomageia_, 12.
+
+[37] For an account of her case, see Glanvill, _Sadducismus
+Triumphatus_, pt. ii, 127-146.
+
+[38] _York Depositions_, 191-201.
+
+[39] For a complete account of the Julian Cox case see Glanvill,
+_Sadducismus Triumphatus_, pt. ii, 191-209.
+
+[40] _A Full and True Relation of the Tryal ... of Ann Foster ..._
+(London, 1674).
+
+[41] _Sussex Archaeological Collections_, XVIII, 111-113.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+GLANVILL AND WEBSTER AND THE LITERARY WAR OVER WITCHCRAFT, 1660-1688.
+
+
+In an earlier chapter we followed the progress of opinion from James I
+to the Restoration. We saw that in the course of little more than a
+half-century the centre of the controversy had been considerably
+shifted: we noted that there was a growing body of intelligent men who
+discredited the stories of witchcraft and were even inclined to laugh at
+them. It is now our purpose to go on with the history of opinion from
+the point at which we left off to the revolution of 1688. We shall
+discover that the body of literature on the subject was enormously
+increased. We shall see that a larger and more representative group of
+men were expressing themselves on the matter. The controversialists were
+no longer bushwhackers, but crafty warriors who joined battle after
+looking over the field and measuring their forces. The groundworks of
+philosophy were tested, the bases of religious faith examined. The days
+of skirmishing about the ordeal of water and the test of the Devil's
+marks were gone by. The combatants were now to fight over the reality or
+unreality of supernatural phenomena. We shall observe that the battle
+was less one-sided than ever before and that the assailants of
+superstition, who up to this time had been outnumbered, now fought on at
+least even terms with their enemies. We shall see too that the
+non-participants and onlookers were more ready than ever before to join
+themselves to the party of attack.
+
+The struggle was indeed a miniature war and in the main was fought very
+fairly. But it was natural that those who disbelieved should resort to
+ridicule. It was a form of attack to which their opponents exposed
+themselves by their faith in the utterly absurd stories of silly women.
+Cervantes with his Don Quixote laughed chivalry out of Europe, and there
+was a class in society that would willingly have laughed witchcraft out
+of England. Their onslaught was one most difficult to repel.
+Nevertheless the defenders of witchcraft met the challenge squarely.
+With unwearying patience and absolute confidence in their cause they
+collected the testimonies for their narratives and then said to those
+who laughed: Here are the facts; what are you going to do about them?
+
+The last chapter told of the alarms in Somerset and in Wilts and showed
+what a stir they produced in England. In connection with those affairs
+was mentioned the name of that brave researcher, Mr. Glanvill. The
+history of the witch literature of this period is little more than an
+account of Joseph Glanvill, of his opinions, of his controversies, of
+his disciples and his opponents. It is not too much to say that in
+Glanvill the superstition found its ablest advocate. In acuteness of
+logical distinction, in the cleverness and brilliance of his
+intellectual sword-play, he excelled all others before and after who
+sought to defend the belief in witchcraft. He was a man entitled to
+speak with some authority. A member of Exeter College at Oxford, he had
+been in 1664 elected a fellow of the recently founded Royal Society and
+was in sympathy with its point of view. At the same time he was a
+philosopher of no small influence in his generation.
+
+His intellectual position is not difficult to determine. He was an
+opponent of the Oxford scholasticism and inclined towards a school of
+thought represented by Robert Fludd, the two Vaughans, Henry More, and
+Van Helmont,[1] men who had drunk deeply of the cabalistic writers,
+disciples of Paracelsus and Pico della Mirandola. It would be foolhardy
+indeed for a layman to attempt an elucidation of the subtleties either
+of this philosophy or of the processes of Glanvill's philosophical
+reasoning. His point of view was partially unfolded in the _Scepsis
+Scientifica_, published in 1665[2] and dedicated to the Royal Society.
+In this treatise he pointed out our present ignorance of phenomena and
+our inability to determine their real character, owing to the
+subjectivity of our perceptions of them, and insisted consequently upon
+the danger of dogmatism. He himself had drawn but a cockle-shell of
+water from the ocean of knowledge. His notion of spirit--if his works on
+witchcraft may be trusted--seems to have been that it is a light and
+invisible form of matter capable of detachment from or infusion into
+more solid substances--precisely the idea of Henry More. Religiously, it
+would not be far wrong to call him a reconstructionist--to use a much
+abused and exceedingly modern term. He did not, indeed, admit the
+existence of any gap between religion and science that needed bridging
+over, but the trend of his teaching, though he would hardly have
+admitted it, was to show that the mysteries of revealed religion belong
+in the field of unexplored science.[3] It was his confidence in the far
+possibilities opened by investigation in that field, together with the
+cabalistic notions he had absorbed, which rendered him so willing to
+become a student of psychical phenomena.
+
+Little wonder, then, that he found the Mompesson and Somerset cases
+material to his hand and that he seized upon them eagerly as irrefutable
+proof of demoniacal agency. His first task, indeed, was to prove the
+alleged facts; these once established, they could be readily fitted into
+a comprehensive scheme of reasoning. In 1666 he issued a small volume,
+_Some Philosophical Considerations touching Witches and Witchcraft_.
+Most of the first edition was burned in the fire of London, but the book
+was reprinted. Already by 1668 it had reached a fourth impression.[4] In
+this edition the work took the new title _A Blow at Modern Sadducism_,
+and it was republished again in 1681 with further additions as
+_Sadducismus Triumphatus_, which might be translated "Unbelief
+Conquered."[5] The work continued to be called for faster than the
+publisher could supply the demand, and went through several more
+revisions and reimpressions. One of the most popular books of the
+generation, it proved to be Glanvill's greatest title to contemporary
+fame. The success of the work was no doubt due in large measure to the
+collection of witch stories; but these had been inserted by the author
+as the groundwork of his argument. He recognized, as no one on his side
+of the controversy had done before, the force of the arguments made by
+the opposition. They were good points, but to them all he offered one
+short answer--the evidence of proved fact.[6] That such transformations
+as were ascribed to the witches were ridiculous, that contracts between
+the Devil and agents who were already under his control were absurd,
+that the Devil would never put himself at the nod and beck of miserable
+women, and that Providence would not permit His children to be thus
+buffeted by the evil one: these were the current objections;[7] and to
+them all Glanvill replied that one positive fact is worth a thousand
+negative arguments. Innumerable frauds had been exposed. Yes, he knew
+it,[8] but here were well authenticated cases that were not fraud.
+Glanvill put the issue squarely. His confidence in his case at once wins
+admiration. He was thoroughly sincere. The fly in the ointment was of
+course that his best authenticated cases could not stand any careful
+criticism. He had been furnished the narratives which he used by "honest
+and honourable friends." Yet, if this scientific investigator could be
+duped, as he had been at Tedworth, much more those worthy but credulous
+friends whom he quoted.
+
+From a simple assertion that he was presenting facts Glanvill went on to
+make a plea used often nowadays in another connection by defenders of
+miracles. If the ordinary mind, he said, could not understand "every
+thing done by Mathematics and Mechanical Artifice,"[9] how much more
+would even the most knowing of us fail to understand the power of
+witches. This proposition, the reader can see, was nothing more than a
+working out of one of the principles of his philosophy. There can be no
+doubt that he would have taken the same ground about miracles,[10] a
+position that must have alarmed many of his contemporaries.
+
+In spite of his emphasis of fact, Glanvill was as ready as any to enter
+into a theological disquisition. Into those rarefied regions of thought
+we shall not follow him. It will perhaps not be out of order, however,
+to note two or three points that were thoroughly typical of his
+reasoning. To the contention that, if a wicked spirit could work harm by
+the use of a witch, it should be able to do so without any intermediary
+and so to harass all of mankind all of the time, he answered that the
+designs of demons are levelled at the soul and can in consequence best
+be carried on in secret.[11] To the argument that when one considers the
+"vileness of men" one would expect that the evil spirits would practise
+their arts not on a few but on a great many, he replied that men are not
+liable to be troubled by them till they have forfeited the "tutelary
+care and oversight of the better spirits," and, furthermore, spirits
+find it difficult to assume such shapes as are necessary for "their
+Correspondencie with Witches." It is a hard thing for spirits "to force
+their thin and tenuious bodies into a visible consistence.... For, in
+this Action, their Bodies must needs be exceedingly compress'd."[12] To
+the objection that the belief in evil beings makes it plausible that the
+miracles of the Bible were wrought by the agency of devils,[13] he
+replied that the miracles of the Gospel are notoriously contrary to the
+tendency, aims, and interests of the kingdom of darkness.[14] The
+suggestion that witches would not renounce eternal happiness for short
+and trivial pleasures here,[15] he silenced by saying that "Mankind acts
+sometimes to prodigious degrees of brutishness."
+
+It is needless to go further in quoting his arguments. Doubtless both
+questions and answers seem quibbles to the present-day reader, but the
+force of Glanvill's replies from the point of view of his contemporaries
+must not be underestimated. He was indeed the first defender of
+witchcraft who in any reasoned manner tried to clear up the problems
+proposed by the opposition. His answers were without question the best
+that could be given.
+
+It is easy for us to forget the theological background of
+seventeenth-century English thought. Given a personal Devil who is
+constantly intriguing against the kingdom of God (and who would then
+have dared to deny such a premise?), grant that the Devil has
+supernatural powers (and there were Scripture texts to prove it), and
+it was but a short step to the belief in witches. The truth is that
+Glanvill's theories were much more firmly grounded on the bedrock of
+seventeenth-century theology than those of his opponents. His opponents
+were attempting to use common sense, but it was a sort of common sense
+which, however little they saw it, must undermine the current religious
+convictions.
+
+Glanvill was indeed exceedingly up-to-date in his own time. Not but that
+he had read the learned old authors. He was familiar with what "the
+great Episcopius" had to say, he had dipped into Reginald Scot and
+deemed him too "ridiculous" to answer.[16] But he cared far more about
+the arguments that he heard advanced in every-day conversation. These
+were the arguments that he attempted to answer. His work reflected the
+current discussions of the subject. It was, indeed, the growing
+opposition among those whom he met that stirred him most. Not without
+sadness he recognized that "most of the looser Gentry and small
+pretenders to Philosophy and Wit are generally deriders of the belief of
+Witches and Apparitions."[17] Like an animal at bay, he turned fiercely
+on them. "Let them enjoy the Opinion of their own Superlative
+Judgements" and run madly after Scot, Hobbes, and Osborne. It was, in
+truth, a danger to religion that he was trying to ward off. One of the
+fundamentals of religion was at stake. The denial of witchcraft was a
+phase of prevalent atheism. Those that give up the belief in witches,
+give up that in the Devil, then that in the immortality of the
+soul.[18] The question at issue was the reality of the spirit world.
+
+It can be seen why the man was tremendously in earnest. One may indeed
+wonder if his intensity of feeling on the matter was not responsible for
+his accepting as _bona fide_ narratives those which his common sense
+should have made him reject. In defending the authenticity of the
+remarkable stories told by the accusers of Julian Cox,[19] he was guilty
+of a degree of credulity that passes belief. Perhaps the reader will
+recall the incident of the hunted rabbit that vanished behind a bush and
+was transformed into a panting woman, no other than the accused Julian
+Cox. This tale must indeed have strained Glanvill's utmost capacity of
+belief. Yet he rose bravely to the occasion. Determined not to give up
+any well-supported fact, he urged that probably the Devil had sent a
+spirit to take the apparent form of the hare while he had hurried the
+woman to the bush and had presumably kept her invisible until she was
+found by the boy. It was the Nemesis of a bad cause that its greatest
+defender should have let himself indulge in such absurdities.
+
+In truth we may be permitted to wonder if the philosopher was altogether
+true to his own position. In his _Scepsis Scientifica_ he had talked
+hopefully about the possibility that science might explain what as yet
+seemed supernatural.[20] This came perilously near to saying that the
+realms of the supernatural, when explored, would turn out to be natural
+and subject to natural law. If this were true, what would become of all
+those bulwarks of religion furnished by the wonders of witchcraft? It
+looks very much as if Glanvill had let an inconsistency creep into his
+philosophy.
+
+It was two years after Glanvill's first venture that Meric Casaubon
+issued his work entitled _Of Credulity and Incredulity in Things
+Natural, Civil, and Divine_.[21] On account of illness, however, as he
+tells the reader in his preface, he had been unable to complete the
+book, and it dealt only with "Things Natural" and "Things Civil."
+"Things Divine" became the theme of a separate volume, which appeared in
+1670 under the title _Of Credulity and Incredulity in Things Divine and
+Spiritual: wherein ... the business of Witches and Witchcraft, against a
+late Writer, [is] fully Argued and Disputed_. The interest of this
+scholar in the subject of witchcraft was, as we have seen, by no means
+recent. When a young rector in Somerset he had attended a trial of
+witches, quite possibly the identical trial that had moved Bernard to
+appeal to grand jurymen. We have noted in an earlier chapter[22] that
+Casaubon in 1654, writing on _Enthusiasm_, had touched lightly upon the
+subject. It will be recalled that he had come very near to questioning
+the value of confessions. Five years later, in prefacing a _Relation of
+what passed between Dr. Dee and some Spirits_, he had anticipated the
+conclusions of his _Credulity and Incredulity_. Those conclusions were
+mainly in accord with Glanvill. With a good will he admitted that the
+denying of witches was a "very plausible cause." Nothing was more liable
+to be fraud than the exhibitions given at trials, nothing less
+trustworthy than the accounts of what witches had done. Too many cases
+originated in the ignorance of ministers who were on the look-out "in
+every wild notion or phansie" for a "suggestion of the Devil."[23] But,
+like Glanvill, and indeed like the spiritualists of to-day, he insisted
+that many cases of fraud do not establish a negative. There is a very
+large body of narratives so authentic that to doubt them would be
+evidence of infidelity. Casaubon rarely doubted, although he sought to
+keep the doubting spirit. It was hard for him not to believe what he had
+read or had been told. He was naturally credulous, particularly when he
+read the stories of the classical writers. For this attitude of mind he
+was hardly to be censured. Criticism was but beginning to be applied to
+the tales of Roman and Greek writers. Their works were full of stories
+of magic and enchantment, and it was not easy for a seventeenth-century
+student to shake himself free from their authority. Nor would Casaubon
+have wished to do so. He belonged to the past both by religion and
+raining, and he must be reckoned among the upholders of
+superstition.[24]
+
+In the next year, 1669, John Wagstaffe, a graduate of Oriel College who
+had applied himself to "the study of learning and politics," issued a
+little book, _The Question of Witchcraft Debated_. Wagstaffe was a
+university man of no reputation. "A little crooked man and of a
+despicable presence," he was dubbed by the Oxford wags the little
+wizard.[25] Nevertheless he had something to say and he gained no small
+hearing. Many of his arguments were purely theological and need not be
+repeated. But he made two good points. The notions about witches find
+their origin in "heathen fables." This was an undercutting blow at those
+who insisted on the belief in witchcraft as an essential of Christian
+faith; and Wagstaffe, moreover, made good his case. His second argument
+was one which no less needed to be emphasized. Coincidence, he believed,
+accounts for a great deal of the inexplicable in witchcraft
+narratives.[26]
+
+Within two years the book appeared again, much enlarged, and it was
+later translated into German. It was answered by two men--by Casaubon in
+the second part of his Credulity[27] and by an author who signed himself
+"R. T."[28] Casaubon added nothing new, nor did "R. T.," who threshed
+over old theological straw. The same can hardly be said of Lodowick
+Muggleton, a seventeenth-century Dowie who would fain have been a
+prophet of a new dispensation. He put out an exposition of the Witch of
+Endor that was entirely rationalistic.[29] Witches, he maintained, had
+no spirits but their own wicked imaginations. Saul was simply the dupe
+of a woman pretender.
+
+An antidote to this serious literature may be mentioned in passing.
+There was published at London, in 1673,[30] _A Pleasant Treatise of
+Witches_, in which a delightful prospect was opened to the reader: "You
+shall find nothing here of those Vulgar, Fabulous, and Idle Tales that
+are not worth the lending an ear to, nor of those hideous Sawcer-eyed
+and Cloven-Footed Divels, that Grandmas affright their children withal,
+but only the pleasant and well grounded discourses of the Learned as an
+object adequate to thy wise understanding." An outline was offered, but
+it was nothing more than a thread upon which to hang good stories. They
+were tales of a distant past. There were witches once, of course there
+were, but that was in the good old days. Such was the author's
+implication.
+
+Alas that such light treatment was so rare! The subject was, in the
+minds of most, not one for laughter. It called for serious
+consideration. That point of view came to its own again in _The Doctrine
+of Devils proved to be the grand apostacy of these later Times_.[31] The
+Dutch translator of this book tells us that it was written by a New
+England clergyman.[32] If that be true, the writer must have been one of
+the least provincial New Englanders of his century, for he evinces a
+remarkable knowledge of the witch alarms and witch discussions in
+England. Some of his opinions betray the influence of Scot, as for
+instance his interpretation of Christ's casting out of devils.[33] The
+term "having a devil" was but a phrase for one distracted. The author
+made, however, some new points. He believed that the importance of the
+New Testament miracles would be overshadowed by the greater miracles
+wrought by the Devil.[34] A more telling argument, at least to a modern
+reader, was that the solidarity of society would be endangered by a
+belief that made every man afraid of his neighbor.[35] The writer
+commends Wagstaffe's work, and writes of Casaubon, "If any one could
+possibly have bewitcht me into the Belief of Witchcraft, this reverend
+person, of all others, was most like to have done it." He decries the
+"proletarian Rabble," and "the great Philosophers" (More and Glanvill,
+doubtless), who call themselves Christians and yet hold "an Opinion that
+Butchers up Men and Women without Fear or Witt, Sense or Reason, Care or
+Conscience, by droves;" but he praises "the reverend judges of England,
+now ... much wiser than before," who "give small or no encouragement to
+such accusations."
+
+We come now to the second great figure among the witch-ologists of the
+Restoration, John Webster. Glanvill and Webster were protagonist and
+antagonist in a drama where the others played somewhat the rôle of the
+Greek chorus. It was in 1677 that Webster put forth _The Displaying of
+Supposed Witchcraft_.[36] A Non-Conformist clergyman in his earlier
+life, he seems to have turned in later years to the practice of
+medicine. From young manhood he had been interested in the subject of
+witchcraft. Probably that interest dates from an experience of his one
+Sunday afternoon over forty years before he published his book. It will
+be recalled that the boy Robinson, accuser of the Lancashire women in
+1634, had been brought into his Yorkshire congregation at an afternoon
+service and had come off very poorly when cross-questioned by the
+curious minister. From that time Webster had been a doubter. Now and
+again in the course of his Yorkshire and Lancashire pastorates he had
+come into contact with superstition. He was no philosopher, this
+Yorkshire doctor of souls and bodies, nor was he more than a country
+scientist, and his reasoning against witchcraft fell short--as Professor
+Kittredge has clearly pointed out[37]--of scientific rationalism. That
+was a high mark and few there were in the seventeenth century who
+attained unto it. But it is not too much to say that John Webster was
+the heir and successor to Scot. He carried weight by the force of his
+attack, if not by its brilliancy.[38] He was by no means always
+consistent, but he struck sturdy blows. He was seldom original, but he
+felled his opponents.
+
+Many of his strongest arguments, of course, were old. It was nothing new
+that the Witch of Endor was an impostor. It was Muggleton's notion, and
+it went back indeed to Scot. The emphasizing of the part played by
+imagination was as old as the oldest English opponent of witch
+persecution. The explanation of certain strange phenomena
+as ventriloquism--a matter that Webster had investigated
+painstakingly--this had been urged before. Webster himself did not
+believe that new arguments were needed. He had felt that the "impious
+and Popish opinions of the too much magnified powers of Demons and
+Witches, in this Nation were pretty well quashed and silenced" by
+various writers and by the "grave proceedings of many learned judges."
+But it was when he found that two "beneficed Ministers," Casaubon and
+Glanvill, had "afresh espoused so bad a cause" that he had been impelled
+to review their grounds.
+
+As the reader may already have guessed, Webster, like so many of his
+predecessors, dealt largely in theological and scriptural arguments. It
+was along this line, indeed, that he made his most important
+contribution to the controversy then going on. Glanvill had urged that
+disbelief in witchcraft was but one step in the path to atheism. No
+witches, no spirits, no immortality, no God, were the sequences of
+Glanvill's reasoning. In answer Webster urged that the denial of the
+existence of witches--_i. e._, of creatures endued with power from the
+Devil to perform supernatural wonders--had nothing to do with the
+existence of angels or spirits. We must rely upon other grounds for a
+belief in the spirit world. Stories of apparitions are no proof, because
+we cannot be sure that those apparitions are made or caused by spirits.
+We have no certain ground for believing in a spirit world but the
+testimony of Scripture.[39]
+
+But if we grant the existence of spirits--to modernize the form of
+Webster's argument--we do not thereby prove the existence of witches.
+The New Testament tells of various sorts of "deceiving Imposters,
+Diviners, or Witches," but amongst them all "there were none that had
+made a visible league with the Devil." There was no mention of
+transformation into cats, dogs, or wolves.[40] It is hard to see how the
+most literal students of the Scriptures could have evaded this argument.
+The Scriptures said a great deal about the Devil, about demoniacs, and
+about witches and magicians--whatever they might mean by those terms.
+Why did they not speak at all of the compacts between the Devil and
+witches? Why did they leave out the very essential of the witch-monger's
+lore?
+
+All this needed to be urged at a time when the advocates of witchcraft
+were crying "Wolf! wolf!" to the Christian people of England. In other
+words, Webster was rendering it possible for the purely orthodox to give
+up what Glanvill had called a bulwark of religion and still to cling to
+their orthodoxy.
+
+It is much to the credit of Webster that he spoke out plainly concerning
+the obscenity of what was extorted from the witches. No one who has not
+read for himself can have any notion of the vile character of the
+charges and confessions embodied in the witch pamphlets. It is an aspect
+of the question which has not been discussed in these pages. Webster
+states the facts without exaggeration:[41] "For the most of them are not
+credible, by reason of their obscenity and filthiness; for chast ears
+would tingle to hear such bawdy and immodest lyes; and what pure and
+sober minds would not nauseate and startle to understand such unclean
+stories ...? Surely even the impurity of it may be sufficient to
+overthrow the credibility of it, especially among Christians." Professor
+Burr has said that "it was, indeed, no small part of the evil of the
+matter, that it so long debauched the imagination of Christendom."[42]
+
+We have said that Webster denied the existence of witches, that is, of
+those who performed supernatural deeds. But, like Scot, he explicitly
+refrained from denying the existence of witches _in toto_. He was, in
+fact, much more satisfactory than Scot; for he explained just what was
+his residuum of belief. He believed that witches were evil-minded
+creatures inspired by the Devil, who by the use of poisons and natural
+means unknown to most men harmed and killed their fellow-beings.[43] Of
+course he would have insisted that a large proportion of all those
+charged with being such were mere dealers in fraud or the victims of
+false accusation, but the remainder of the cases he would have explained
+in this purely natural way.
+
+Now, if this was not scientific rationalism, it was at least
+straight-out skepticism as to the supernatural in witchcraft. Moreover
+there are cases enough in the annals of witchcraft that look very much
+as if poison were used. The drawback of course is that Webster, like
+Scot, had not disabused his mind of all superstition. Professor
+Kittredge in his discussion of Webster has pointed this out carefully.
+Webster believed that the bodies of those that had been murdered bleed
+at the touch of the murderer. He believed, too, in a sort of "astral
+spirit,"[44] and he seems to have been convinced of the truth of
+apparitions.[45] These were phenomena that he believed to be
+substantiated by experience. On different grounds, by _a priori_
+reasoning from scriptural premises, he arrived at the conclusion that
+God makes use of evil angels "as the executioners of his justice to
+chasten the godly, and to restrain or destroy the wicked."[46]
+
+This is and was essentially a theological conception. But there was no
+small gap between this and the notion that spirits act in supernatural
+ways in our every-day world. And there was nothing more inconsistent in
+failing to bridge this gap than in the position of the Christian people
+today who believe in a spirit world and yet discredit without
+examination all that is offered as new evidence of its existence.
+
+The truth is that Webster was too busy at destroying the fortifications
+of his opponents to take the trouble to build up defences for himself.
+But it is not too much to call him the most effective of the seventeenth
+century assailants of witch persecution in England.[47] He had this
+advantage over all who had gone before, that a large and increasing body
+of intelligent people were with him. He spoke in full consciousness of
+strong support. It was for his opponents to assume the defensive.
+
+We have called John Webster's a great name in the literature of our
+subject, and we have given our reasons for so thinking. Yet it would be
+a mistake to suppose that he created any such sensation in his time as
+did his arch-opponent, Glanvill. His work never went into a second
+edition. There are but few references to it in the writings of the time,
+and those are in works devoted to the defence of the belief. Benjamin
+Camfield, a Leicestershire rector, wrote an unimportant book on _Angels
+and their Ministries_,[48] and in an appendix assailed Webster. Joseph
+Glanvill turned fiercely upon him with new proofs of what he called
+facts, and bequeathed the work at his death to Henry More, who in the
+several following editions of the _Sadducismus Triumphatus_ attacked him
+with no little bitterness.
+
+We may skip over three lesser writers on witchcraft. During the early
+eighties John Brinley, Henry Hallywell, and Richard Bovet launched their
+little boats into the sea of controversy. Brinley was a bold plagiarist
+of Bernard, Hallywell a logical but dull reasoner from the Bible, Bovet
+a weakened solution of Glanvill.[49]
+
+We turn now from the special literature of witchcraft to a sketch of the
+incidental evidences of opinion. Of these we have a larger body than
+ever before, too large indeed to handle in detail. It would be idle to
+quote from the chap-books on witch episodes their _raisons d'ętre_. It
+all comes to this: they were written to confute disbelievers. They refer
+slightingly and even bitterly to those who oppose belief, not however
+without admitting their numbers and influence. It will be more to our
+purpose to examine the opinions of men as they uttered them on the
+bench, in the pulpit, and in the other walks of practical life.
+
+We have already had occasion to learn what the judges were thinking. We
+listened to Matthew Hale while he uttered the pronouncement that was
+heard all over England and even in the North American colonies. The
+existence of witches, he affirmed solemnly, is proved by Scripture and
+by the universality of laws against them. Justice Rainsford in the
+following years and Justice Raymond about twenty years later seem to
+have taken Hale's view of the matter. On the other side were to be
+reckoned Sir John Reresby and Francis North. Neither of them was quite
+outspoken, fearing the rage of the people and the charge of atheism.
+Both sought to save the victims of persecution, but rather by exposing
+the deceptions of the accusers than by denying witchcraft itself. From
+the vast number of acquittals in the seventies and the sudden dropping
+off in the number of witch trials in the eighties we know that there
+must have been many other judges who were acquitting witches or quietly
+ignoring the charges against them. Doubtless Kelyng, who, as a spectator
+at Bury, had shown his skepticism as to the accusations, had when he
+later became a chief justice been one of those who refused to condemn
+witches.
+
+From scientific men there were few utterances. Although we shall in
+another connection show that a goodly number from the Royal Society
+cherished very definite beliefs--or disbeliefs--on the subject, we have
+the opinions of but two men who were professionally scientists, Sir
+Thomas Browne and Sir Robert Boyle. Browne we have already met at the
+Bury trial. It may reasonably be questioned whether he was really a man
+of science. Certainly he was a physician of eminence. The attitude he
+took when an expert witness at Bury, it will be recalled, was quite
+consistent with the opinion given in his _Commonplace Book_. "We are
+noways doubtful," he wrote, "that there are witches, but have not always
+been satisfied in the application of their witchcrafts."[50] So spoke
+the famous physician of Norwich. But a man whose opinion was of much
+more consequence was Sir Robert Boyle. Boyle was a chemist and "natural
+philosopher." He was the discoverer of the air pump, was elected
+president of the Royal Society, and was altogether one of the greatest
+non-political figures in the reign of Charles II. While he never, so far
+as we know, discussed witchcraft in the abstract, he fathered a French
+story that was brought into England, the story of the Demon of Mascon.
+He turned the story over to Glanvill to be used in his list of authentic
+narratives; and, when it was later reported that he had pronounced the
+demon story an imposture, he took pains to deny the report in a letter
+to Glanvill.[51]
+
+Of literary men we have, as of scientists, but two. Aubrey, the
+"delitescent" antiquarian and Will Wimble of his time, still credited
+witchcraft, as he credited all sorts of narratives of ghosts and
+apparitions. It was less a matter of reason than of sentiment. The
+dramatist Shadwell had the same feeling for literary values. In his
+preface to the play, _The Lancashire Witches_, he explained that he
+pictured the witches as real lest the people should want "diversion,"
+and lest he should be called "atheistical by a prevailing party who take
+it ill that the power of the Devil should be lessen'd."[52] But
+Shadwell, although not seriously interested in any side of the subject
+save in its use as literary material, included himself among the group
+who had given up belief.
+
+What philosophers thought we may guess from the all-pervading influence
+of Hobbes in this generation. We have already seen, however, that Henry
+More,[53] whose influence in his time was not to be despised, wrote
+earnestly and often in support of belief. One other philosopher may be
+mentioned. Ralph Cudworth, in his _True Intellectual System_, touched on
+confederacies with the Devil and remarked in passing that "there hath
+been so full an attestation" of these things "that those our so
+confident Exploders of them, in this present Age, can hardly escape the
+suspicion of having some Hankring towards Atheism."[54] This was
+Glanvill over again. It remains to notice the opinions of clergymen. The
+history of witch literature has been in no small degree the record of
+clerical opinion. Glanvill, Casaubon, Muggleton, Camfield, and Hallywell
+were all clergymen. Fortunately we have the opinions of at least half a
+dozen other churchmen. It will be remembered that Oliver Heywood, the
+famous Non-Conformist preacher of Lancashire, believed, though not too
+implicitly, in witchcraft.[55] So did Samuel Clarke, Puritan divine and
+hagiographer.[56] On the same side must be reckoned Nathaniel Wanley,
+compiler of a curious work on _The Wonders of the Little World_.[57] A
+greater name was that of Isaac Barrow, master of Trinity, teacher of
+Isaac Newton, and one of the best preachers of his time. He declared
+that to suppose all witch stories fictions was to "charge the world with
+both extreme Vanity and Malignity."[58] We can cite only one divine on
+the other side. This was Samuel Parker, who in his time played many
+parts, but who is chiefly remembered as the Bishop of Oxford during the
+troubles of James II with the university. Parker was one of the most
+disliked ecclesiastics of his time, but he deserves praise at any rate
+for his stand as to witchcraft. We do not know the details of his
+opinions; indeed we have nothing more than the fact that in a
+correspondence with Glanvill he questioned the opinions of that
+distinguished protagonist of witchcraft.[59]
+
+By this time it must be clear that there is possible no hard and fast
+discrimination by groups between those that believed in witchcraft and
+those that did not. We may say cautiously that through the seventies and
+eighties the judges, and probably too the justices of the peace,[60]
+were coming to disbelieve. With even greater caution we may venture the
+assertion that the clergy, both Anglican and Non-Conformist, were still
+clinging to the superstition. Further generalization would be extremely
+hazardous. It looks, however, from the evidence already presented, as
+well as from some to be given in another connection--in discussing the
+Royal Society[61]--as if the scientists had not taken such a stand as
+was to be expected of them.
+
+When we examine the attitude of those who scoffed at the stories vouched
+for by Glanvill and More it becomes evident that they assumed that
+practically all thinking men were with them. In other words, they
+believed that their group comprised the intellectual men of the time.
+Now, it would be easy to rush to the conclusion that all men who thought
+in conventional ways would favor witchcraft, and that those who took
+unconventional views would be arrayed on the other side, but this would
+be a mistake. Glanvill was an exceedingly original man, while Muggleton
+was uncommonly commonplace; and there were numbered among those who held
+to the old opinion men of high intelligence and brilliant talents.
+
+We must search, then, for some other basis of classification. Glanvill
+gives us an interesting suggestion. In withering tone he speaks of the
+"looser gentry and lesser pretenders to wit." Here is a possible line of
+cleavage. Might it be that the more worldly-minded among the county
+families, that those too who comprised what we may call, in the absence
+of a better term, the "smart set," and the literary sets of London, were
+especially the "deriders" of superstition? It is not hard to believe
+that Shadwell, the worldly Bishop Parker, and the polished Sir William
+Temple[62] would fairly reflect the opinions of that class. So too the
+diarist Pepys, who found Glanvill "not very convincing." We can conceive
+how the ridicule of the supernatural might have become the fad of a
+certain social group. The Mompesson affair undoubtedly possessed
+elements of humor; the wild tales about Amy Duny and Rose Cullender
+would have been uncommonly diverting, had they not produced such tragic
+results. With the stories spun about Julian Cox the witch accusers could
+go no farther. They had reached the culmination of nonsense. Now, it is
+conceivable that the clergyman might not see the humor of it, nor the
+philosopher, nor the scholar; but the worldly-minded Londoner, who cared
+less about texts in Leviticus than did his father, who knew more about
+coffee-houses and plays, and who cultivated clever people with
+assiduity, had a better developed sense of humor. It was not strange
+that he should smile quizzically when told these weird stories from the
+country. He may not have pondered very deeply on the abstract question
+nor read widely--perhaps he had seen Ady's book or glanced over
+Scot's--but, when he met keen men in his group who were laughing quietly
+at narratives of witchcraft, he laughed too. And so, quite
+unobtrusively, without blare of trumpets, skepticism would slip into
+society. It would be useless for Glanvill and More to call aloud, or for
+the people to rage. The classes who mingled in the worldly life of the
+capital would scoff; and the country gentry who took their cue from them
+would follow suit.
+
+Of course this is theory. It would require a larger body of evidence
+than we can hope to gather on this subject to prove that the change of
+opinion that was surely taking place spread at first through the higher
+social strata and was to reach the lower levels only by slow filtration.
+Yet such an hypothesis fits in nicely with certain facts. It has
+already been seen that the trials for witchcraft dropped off very
+suddenly towards the end of the period we are considering. The drop was
+accounted for by the changed attitude of judges and of justices of the
+peace. The judges avoided trying witches,[63] the justices were less
+diligent in discovering them. But the evidence that we had about men of
+other occupations was less encouraging. It looked as if those who
+dispensed justice were in advance of the clergy, of the scholars,
+physicians, and scientists of their time. Had the Master of Trinity, or
+the physician of Norwich, or the discoverer of the air pump been the
+justices of the peace for England, it is not incredible that
+superstition would have flourished for another generation. Was it
+because the men of the law possessed more of the matter-of-factness
+supposed to be a heritage of every Englishman? Was it because their
+special training gave them a saner outlook? No doubt both elements help
+to explain the difference. But is it not possible to believe that the
+social grouping of these men had an influence? The itinerant justices
+and the justices of the peace were recruited from the gentry, as none of
+the other classes were. Men like Reresby and North inherited the
+traditions of their class; they spent part of the year in London and
+knew the talk of the town. Can we doubt that their decisions were
+influenced by that fact? The country justice of the peace was removed
+often enough from metropolitan influences, but he was usually quick to
+catch the feelings of his own class.
+
+If our theory be true that the jurists were in advance of other
+professions and that they were sprung of a higher stock, it is of course
+some confirmation of the larger theory that witchcraft was first
+discredited among the gentry. Yet, as we have said before, this is at
+best a guess as to how the decline of belief took place and must be
+accepted only provisionally. We have seen that there are other
+assertions about the progress of thought in this period that may be
+ventured with much confidence. There had been great changes of opinion.
+It would not be fair to say that the movement towards skepticism had
+been accelerated. Rather, the movement which had its inception back in
+the days of Reginald Scot and had found in the last days of James I a
+second impulse, which had been quietly gaining force in the thirties,
+forties, and fifties, was now under full headway. Common sense was
+coming into its own.
+
+
+[1] Ferris Greenslet, _Joseph Glanvill_ (New York, 1900), 153. The
+writer wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness to Mr. Greenslet's
+excellent book on Glanvill.
+
+[2] The _Scepsis Scientifica_ was really _The Vanity of Dogmatising_
+(1661) recast.
+
+[3] See, for example, the introductory essay by John Owen in his edition
+(London, 1885), of the _Scepsis Scientifica_, xxvii, xxix. See also
+_Sadducismus Triumphatus_ (citations are all from the edition of 1681),
+7, 13.
+
+[4] So at least says Leslie Stephen, _Dict. Nat. Biog._ Glanvill
+himself, in _Essays on Several Important Subjects_ (1676), says that the
+sixth essay, "Philosophical Considerations against Modern Sadducism,"
+had been printed four times already, _i. e._, before 1676. The edition
+of 1668 had been revised.
+
+[5] This edition was dedicated to Charles, Duke of Richmond and Lenox,
+since His Grace had been "pleased to commend the first and more
+imperfect Edition."
+
+[6] _Sadducismus Triumphatus_, Preface, F 3 verso, F 4; see also p. 10.
+In the second part see Preface, Aa 2--Aa 3. In several other places he
+has insisted upon this point.
+
+[7] See _ibid._, 9 ff., 18 ff., 21 ff., 34 ff.
+
+[8] _Ibid._, 32, 34.
+
+[9] _Ibid._, 11-13.
+
+[10] See, for example, _ibid._, 88-89.
+
+[11] _Ibid._, 25-27.
+
+[12] _Sadducismus Triumphatus_, 39.
+
+[13] _Ibid._, 52-53.
+
+[14] To the argument that witches are not mentioned in the New Testament
+he retorted that neither is North America (_ibid._, 82).
+
+[15] _Ibid._, 78.
+
+[16] Nevertheless he took up some of Scot's points.
+
+[17] _Sadducismus Triumphatus_, Preface.
+
+[18] _Sadducismus Triumphatus_, pt. ii, 3.
+
+[19] See _ibid._, pt. ii, Relation VIII.
+
+[20] _Scepsis Scientifica_ (ed. of 1885), 179.
+
+[21] London, 1668. It was reprinted in 1672 with the title _A Treatise
+proving Spirits, Witches, and Supernatural Operations by pregnant
+instances and evidences_.
+
+[22] See above, pp. 239-240.
+
+[23] _Of Credulity and Incredulity_, 29, 30.
+
+[24] He characterizes Reginald Scot as an illiterate wretch, but admits
+that he had never read him. It was Wierus whom he chiefly sought to
+confute.
+
+[25] He was given also to "strong and high tasted liquors." Anthony ŕ
+Wood, _Athenae Oxonienses_ (London, 1691-1692; 3d ed., with additions,
+London, 1813-1820), ed. of 1813-1820, III, 11-14.
+
+[26] _The Question of Witchcraft Debated_ (London, 1669), 64.
+
+[27] 1670 (see above, p. 293).
+
+[28] _The Opinion of Witchcraft Vindicated. In an Answer to a Book
+Intituled The Question of Witchcraft Debated_ (London, 1670).
+
+[29] _A True Interpretation of the Witch of Endor_ (London, 1669).
+
+[30] "By a Pen neer the Convent of Eluthery."
+
+[31] London, 1676.
+
+[32] To Professor Burr I owe my knowledge of this ascription. The
+translator (the English Quaker, William Sewel, all his life a resident
+of Holland), calls him "N. Orchard, Predikant in Nieuw-Engeland."
+
+[33] See _Doctrine of Devils_, chaps. VII, VIII, and _cf._ Scot,
+_Discoverie of Witchcraft_, 512-514.
+
+[34] Glanvill had answered a somewhat similar argument, that the
+miracles of the Bible were wrought by the agency of the Devil.
+
+[35] He said also that, if the Devil could take on "men's shapes, forms,
+habits, countenances, tones, gates, statures, ages, complexions ... and
+act in the shape assumed," there could be absolutely no certainty about
+the proceedings of justice.
+
+[36] The book had been written four years earlier.
+
+[37] See G. L. Kittredge, "Notes on Witchcraft," in American Antiquarian
+Soc., _Proceedings_, n. s., XVIII (1906-1907), 169-176.
+
+[38] There is, however, no little brilliance and insight in some of
+Webster's reasoning.
+
+[39] _Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft_, 38-41.
+
+[40] _Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft_, 53.
+
+[41] _Ibid._, 68.
+
+[42] _The Witch-Persecutions_ (University of Pennsylvania Translations
+and Reprints, vol. III, no. 4), revised ed. (Philadelphia, 1903), p. 1.
+
+[43] _Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft_, 247-248.
+
+[44] _Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft_, 308, 312 ff. The astral spirit
+which he conceived was not unlike More's and Glanvill's "thin and
+tenuous substance."
+
+[45] _Ibid._, 294 ff.
+
+[46] _Ibid._, 219-228.
+
+[47] The author of _The Doctrine of Devils_ (see above, note 32), was
+thorough-going enough, but his work seems to have attracted much less
+attention.
+
+[48] London, 1678.
+
+[49] John Brinley, "Gentleman," brought out in 1680 _A Discovery of the
+Impostures of Witches and Astrologers_. Portions of his book would pass
+for good thinking until one awakens to the feeling that he has read
+something like this before. As a matter of fact Brinley had stolen the
+line of thought and much of the phrasing from Richard Bernard (1627, see
+above, pp. 234-236), and without giving any credit. A second edition of
+Brinley's work was issued in 1686. It was the same in every respect save
+that the dedication was omitted and the title changed to _A Discourse
+Proving by Scripture and Reason and the Best Authors Ancient and Modern
+that there are Witches_.
+
+Henry Hallywell, a Cambridge master of arts and sometime fellow of
+Christ's College, issued in 1681 _Melampronoea, or a Discourse of the
+Polity and Kingdom of Darkness, Together with a Solution of the chiefest
+Objections brought against the Being of Witches_. Hallywell was another
+in the long list of Cambridge men who defended superstition. He set
+about to assail the "over-confident Exploders of Immaterial Substances"
+by a course of logical deductions from Scripture. His treatise is slow
+reading.
+
+Richard Bovet, "Gentleman," gave the world in 1684 _Pandćmonium, or the
+Devil's Cloyster; being a further Blow to Modern Sadduceism_. There was
+nothing new about his discussion, which he dedicates to Dr. Henry More.
+His attitude was defensive in the extreme. He was consumed with
+indignation at disbelievers: "They oppose their simple _ipse dixit_
+against the most unquestionable Testimonies"; they even dare to "affront
+that relation of the Dćmon of Tedworth." He was indeed cast down over
+the situation. He himself relates a very patent instance of witchcraft
+in Somerset; yet, despite the fact that numerous physicians agreed on
+the matter, no "justice was applyed." One of Bovet's chief purposes in
+his work was to show "the Confederacy of several Popes and Roman Priests
+with the Devil." He makes one important admission in regard to
+witchcraft; namely, that the confessions of witches might sometimes be
+the result of "a Deep Melancholy, or some Terrour that they may have
+been under."
+
+[50] _Works_, ed. of 1835-1836, IV, 389.
+
+[51] For Boyle's opinions see also Webster, _Displaying of Supposed
+Witchcraft_, 248.
+
+[52] He says also: "For my part I am ... somewhat cotive of belief. The
+evidences I have represented are natural, viz., slight, and frivolous,
+such as poor old women were wont to be hang'd upon." The play may be
+found in all editions of Shadwell's works. I have used the rare
+privately printed volume in which, under the title of _The Poetry of
+Witchcraft_ (Brixton Hill, 1853), J. O. Halliwell [-Phillips] united
+this play of Shadwell's with that of Heywood and Brome on _The late
+Lancashire Witches_. These two plays, so similar in title, that of
+Heywood and Brome in 1634, based on the case of 1633, and that of
+Shadwell in 1682, based on the affair of 1612, must not be confused. See
+above pp. 121, 158-160, 244-245.
+
+[53] See above, pp. 238-239.
+
+[54] _The True Intellectual System of the Universe_ (London, 1678), 702.
+
+[55] See above, p. 256 and note.
+
+[56] See his _Lives of Sundry Eminent Persons_ (London, 1683), 172; also
+his _Mirrour or Looking Glass, Both for Saints and Sinners_ (London,
+1657-1671), I, 35-38; II, 159-183.
+
+[57] London, 1678; see pp. 515-518.
+
+[58] _Works_ (ed. of Edinburgh, 1841), II, 162.
+
+[59] Glanvill, _Sadducismus Triumphatus_, 80.
+
+[60] By the eighties it is very clear that the justices were ceasing to
+press charges against witches.
+
+[61] In an article to be published separately.
+
+[62] See his essay "Of Poetry" in his _Works_ (London, 1814), III,
+430-431.
+
+[63] Justice Jeffreys and Justice Herbert both acquitted witches
+according to F. A. Inderwick, _Sidelights on the Stuarts_ (2d ed.,
+London, 1891), 174.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE FINAL DECLINE.
+
+
+In the history of witchcraft the years from 1688 to 1718 may be grouped
+together as comprising a period. This is not to say that the year of the
+Revolution marked any transition in the course of the superstition. It
+did not. But we have ventured to employ it as a convenient date with
+which to bound the influences of the Restoration. The year 1718 derives
+its importance for us from the publication, in that year, of Francis
+Hutchinson's _Historical Essay on Witchcraft_, a book which, it is not
+too much to say, gave the final blow to the belief in England.[1]
+
+We speak of fixing a date by which to bound the influences of the
+Restoration. Now, as a matter of fact, there is something arbitrary
+about any date. The influences at work during the previous period went
+steadily on. The heathen raged, and the people imagined a vain thing.
+The great proletariat hated witches as much as ever. But the justices of
+the peace and the itinerant judges were getting over their fear of
+popular opinion and were refusing to listen to the accusations that were
+brought before them. The situation was in some respects the same as it
+had been in the later seventies and throughout the eighties. Yet there
+were certain features that distinguished the period. One of them was the
+increased use of exorcism. The expelling of evil spirits had been a
+subject of great controversy almost a century before. The practice had
+by no means been forgotten in the mean time, but it had gained little
+public notice. Now the dispossessors of the Devil came to the front
+again long enough to whet the animosity between Puritans and Anglicans
+in Lancashire. But this never became more than a pamphlet controversy.
+The other feature of the period was far more significant. The last
+executions for witchcraft in England were probably those at Exeter in
+1682.[2] For a whole generation the courts had been frowning on witch
+prosecution. Now there arose in England judges who definitely nullified
+the law on the statute-book. By the decisions of Powell and Parker, and
+most of all by those of Holt, the statute of the first year of James I
+was practically made obsolete twenty-five or fifty years before its
+actual repeal in 1736. We shall see that the gradual breaking down of
+the law by the judges did not take place without a struggle. At the
+famous trial in Hertford in 1712 the whole subject of the Devil and his
+relation to witches came up again in its most definite form, and was
+fought out in the court room and at the bar of public opinion. It was,
+however, but the last rallying and counter-charging on a battle-field
+where Webster and Glanvill had led the hosts at mid-day. The issue,
+indeed, was now very specific. Over the abstract question of witchcraft
+there was nothing new to be said. Here, however, was a specific
+instance. What was to be done with it? Over that there was waged a merry
+war. Of course the conclusion was foregone. It had indeed been
+anticipated by the action of the bench.
+
+We shall see that with the nullification of the law the common people
+began to take the law into their own hands. We shall note that, as a
+consequence, there was an increase in the number of swimming ordeals and
+other illegal procedures.
+
+The story of the Lancashire demonomania is not unlike the story of
+William Somers in Nottingham a century before. In this case there was no
+John Darrel, and the exorcists were probably honest but deluded men. The
+affair started at the village of Surey, near to the superstition-brewing
+Pendle Forest. The possessed boy, Richard Dugdale, was a gardener and
+servant about nineteen years of age.[3] In April, 1689, he was seized
+with fits in which he was asserted to speak Latin and Greek and to
+preach against the sins of the place. Whatever his pretensions were, he
+seemed a good subject for exorcism. Some of the Catholics are said to
+have tampered with him, and then several Puritan clergymen of the
+community took him in hand. For eight months they held weekly fasts for
+his recovery; but their efforts were not so successful as they had
+hoped. They began to suspect witchcraft[4] and were about to take steps
+towards the prosecution of the party suspected.[5] This came to
+nothing, but Dugdale at length grew better. He was relieved of his fits;
+and the clergymen, who had never entirely given up their efforts to cure
+him, hastened to claim the credit. More than a dozen of the dissenting
+preachers, among them Richard Frankland, Oliver Heywood,[6] and other
+well known Puritan leaders in northern England, had lent their support
+to Thomas Jollie, who had taken the leading part in the praying and
+fasting. From London, Richard Baxter, perhaps the best known Puritan of
+his time, had sent a request for some account of the wonder, in order to
+insert it in his forthcoming book on the spirit world. This led to a
+plan for printing a complete narrative of what had happened; but the
+plan was allowed to lapse with the death of Baxter.[7] Meantime,
+however, the publication in London of the Mathers' accounts of the New
+England trials of 1692[8] caused a new call for the story of Richard
+Dugdale. It was prepared and sent to London; and there in some
+mysterious way the manuscript was lost.[9] It was, however, rewritten
+and appeared in 1697 as _The Surey Demoniack, or an Account of Strange
+and Dreadful Actings in and about the Body of Richard Dugdale_. The
+preface was signed by six ministers, including those already named; but
+the book was probably written by Thomas Jollie and John Carrington.[10]
+The reality of the possession was attested by depositions taken before
+two Lancashire justices of the peace. The aim of the work was, of
+course, to add one more contemporary link to the chain of evidence for
+the supernatural. It was clear to the divines who strove with the
+possessed boy that his case was of exactly the same sort as those in the
+New Testament. Moreover, his recovery was a proof of the power of
+prayer.
+
+Now Non-Conformity was strong in Lancashire, and the Anglican church as
+well as the government had for many years been at no little pains to put
+it down. Here was a chance to strike the Puritans at one of their
+weakest spots, and the Church of England was not slow to use its
+opportunity. Zachary Taylor, rector of Wigan and chaplain to the Bishop
+of Chester, had already familiarized himself with the methods of the
+exorcists. In the previous year he had attacked the Catholics of
+Lancashire for an exorcism which they claimed to have accomplished
+within his parish.[11] Pleased with his new rôle, he found in Thomas
+Jollie a sheep ready for the shearing.[12] He hastened to publish _The
+Surey Impostor_,[13] in which, with a very good will, he made an assault
+upon the reality of Dugdale's fits, charged that he had been
+pre-instructed by the Catholics, and that the Non-Conformist clergymen
+were seeking a rich harvest from the miracles they should work.
+Self-glorification was their aim. He made fun of the several divines
+engaged in the affair, and accused them of trickery and presumption in
+their conduct of the case.[14]
+
+Of course Taylor was answered, and with a bitterness equal to his own.
+Thomas Jollie replied in _A Vindication of the Surey Demoniack_. "I will
+not foul my Paper," wrote the mild Jollie, "and offend my reader with
+those scurrilous and ridiculous Passages in this Page. O, the
+Eructations of an exulcerated Heart! How desperately wicked is the Heart
+of Man!"[15]
+
+We shall not go into the details of the controversy, which really
+degenerated into a sectarian squabble.[16] The only discussion of the
+subject that approached fairness was by an anonymous writer,[17] who
+professed himself impartial and of a different religious persuasion from
+Jollie. To be sure, he was a man who believed in possession by spirits.
+It may be questioned, too, whether his assumption of fair dealing
+towards the Church of England was altogether justified. But, at any
+rate, his work was free from invective and displayed moderation. He felt
+that the Dissenting clergymen were probably somewhat deluded. But they
+had acted, he believed, under good motives in attempting to help one who
+had appealed to them. Some of them were not only "serious good Men," but
+men well known in the nation. This, indeed, was true. The Dissenters had
+laid themselves open to attack, and doubtless some of them saw and
+regretted their mistake. At least, it seems not without significance
+that neither Oliver Heywood nor Richard Frankland nor any other of the
+Dissenters was sure enough of his ground to support Jollie in the
+controversy into which he had been led.[18]
+
+We have gone into some detail about the Dugdale affair because of its
+importance in its time, and because it was so essentially characteristic
+of the last era of the struggle over the power of the Devil. There were
+cases of possession not only in Lancashire but in Somersetshire and in
+and around London. Not without a struggle was His Satanic Majesty
+surrendering his hold.
+
+We turn from this controversy to follow the decisions of those eminent
+judges who were nullifying the statute against witches. We have already
+mentioned three names, those of Holt, Powell, and Parker. This is not
+because they were the only jurists who were giving verdicts of
+acquittal--we know that there must have been others--but because their
+names are linked with significant decisions. Without doubt Chief Justice
+Holt did more than any other man in English history to end the
+prosecution of witches. Justice Powell was not so brave a man, but he
+happened to preside over one of the most bitterly contested of all
+trials, and his verdict served to reaffirm the precedents set by Holt.
+It was Justice Parker's fortune to try the last case of witchcraft in
+England.
+
+Holt became chief justice of the king's bench on the accession of
+William and Mary. Not one of the great names in English judicial rolls,
+his decided stand against superstition makes him great in the history of
+witchcraft. Where and when he had acquired his skeptical attitude we do
+not know. The time was past when such an attitude was unusual. In any
+case, from the moment he assumed the chief justiceship he set himself
+directly against the punishment of witchcraft. As premier of the English
+judiciary his example meant quite as much as his own rulings. And their
+cumulative effect was not slight. We know of no less than eleven trials
+where as presiding officer he was instrumental in securing a verdict of
+acquittal. In London, at Ipswich, at Bury, at Exeter, in Cornwall, and
+in other parts of the realm, these verdicts were rendered, and they
+could not fail to influence opinion and to affect the decisions of other
+judges. Three of the trials we shall go over briefly--those at Bury,
+Exeter, and Southwark.
+
+In 1694 he tried Mother Munnings at Bury St. Edmunds,[19] where his
+great predecessor Hale had condemned two women. Mother Munnings had
+declared that a landlord should lie nose upward in the church-yard
+before the next Saturday, and, sure enough, her prophecy had come true.
+Nevertheless, in spite of this and other testimony, she was acquitted.
+Two years later Holt tried Elizabeth Horner at Exeter, where Raymond had
+condemned three women in 1682. Bishop Trelawny of Exeter had sent his
+sub-dean, Launcelot Blackburne (later to be Archbishop of York), to look
+into the case, and his report adds something to the account which
+Hutchinson has given us.[20] Elizabeth was seen "three nights together
+upon a large down in the same place, as if rising out of the ground." It
+was certified against her by a witness that she had driven a red-hot
+nail "into the witche's left foot-step, upon which she went lame, and,
+being search'd, her leg and foot appear'd to be red and fiery." These
+testimonies were the "most material against her," as well as the
+evidence of the mother of some possessed children, who declared that her
+daughter had walked up a wall nine feet high four or five times
+backwards and forwards, her face and the fore part of her body parallel
+to the ceiling, saying that Betty Horner carried her up. In closing the
+narrative the archdeacon wrote without comment: "My Lord Chief Justice
+by his questions and manner of hemming up the evidence seem'd to me to
+believe nothing of witchery at all, and to disbelieve the fact of
+walking up the wall which was sworn by the mother." He added, "the jury
+brought her in not guilty."
+
+The case of Sarah Moordike of London _versus_ Richard Hathaway[21] makes
+even clearer the attitude of Holt. Sarah Moordike, or Morduck, had been
+accused years before by a Richard Hathaway of causing his illness. On
+several occasions he had scratched her. Persecuted by the rabble, she
+had betaken herself from Southwark to London. Thither Richard Hathaway
+followed her and soon had several churches praying for his recovery. She
+had appealed to a magistrate for protection, had been refused, and had
+been tried at the assizes in Guildford, where she was acquitted. By this
+time, however, a good many people had begun to think Hathaway a cheat.
+He was arrested and put under the care of a surgeon, who watched him
+closely and soon discovered that the fasts which were a feature of his
+pretended fits were false. This was not the first time that he had been
+proved an impostor. On an earlier occasion he had been trapped into
+scratching a woman whom he erroneously supposed to be Sarah Morduck. In
+spite of all exposures, however, he stuck to his pretended fits and was
+at length brought before the assizes at Southwark on the charge of
+attempting to take away the life of Sarah Moordike for being a witch. It
+is refreshing to know that a clergyman, Dr. Martin, had espoused the
+cause of the witch and had aided in bringing Hathaway to judgment. Chief
+Justice Holt and Baron Hatsell presided over the court,[22] and there
+seems to have been no doubt about the outcome. The jury "without going
+from the bar" brought Hathaway in guilty.[23] The verdict was
+significant. Pretenders had got themselves into trouble before, but were
+soon out. The Boy of Bilston had been reproved; the young Robinson, who
+would have sent to the gallows a dozen fellow-creatures, thought it hard
+that he was kept a few months confined in London.[24] A series of cases
+in the reign of Charles I had shown that it was next to impossible to
+recover damages for being slandered as a witch, though in the time of
+the Commonwealth one woman had come out of a suit with five shillings to
+her credit. Of course, when a man of distinction was slandered,
+circumstances were altered. At some time very close to the trial of
+Hathaway, Elizabeth Hole of Derbyshire was summoned to the assizes for
+accusing Sir Henry Hemloke, a well known baronet, of witchcraft.[25]
+Such a charge against a man of position was a serious matter. But the
+Moordike-Hathaway case was on a plane entirely different from any of
+these cases. Sarah Morduck was not a woman of position, yet her accuser
+was punished, probably by a long imprisonment. It was a precedent that
+would be a greater safeguard to supposed witches than many acquittals.
+
+Justice Powell was not to wield the authority of Holt: yet he made one
+decision the effects of which were far-reaching. It was in the trial of
+Jane Wenham at Hertford in 1712. The trial of this woman was in a sense
+her own doing. She was a widow who had done washing by the day. For a
+long time she had been suspected of witchcraft by a neighboring farmer,
+so much so that, when a servant of his began to act queerly, he at once
+laid the blame on the widow. Jane applied to Sir Henry Chauncy, justice
+of the peace, for a warrant against her accuser. He was let off with a
+fine of a shilling, and she was instructed by Mr. Gardiner, the
+clergyman, to live more peaceably.[26] So ended the first act. In the
+next scene of this dramatic case a female servant of the Reverend Mr.
+Gardiner's, a maid just getting well of a broken knee, was discovered
+alone in a room undressed "to her shift" and holding a bundle of sticks.
+When asked to account for her condition by Mrs. Gardiner, she had a
+curious story to tell. "When she was left alone she found a strange
+Roaming in her head, ... her Mind ran upon Jane Wenham and she thought
+she must run some whither ... she climbed over a Five-Bar-Gate, and ran
+along the Highway up a Hill ... as far as a Place called Hackney-Lane,
+where she look'd behind her, and saw a little Old Woman Muffled in a
+Riding-hood." This dame had asked whither she was going, had told her to
+pluck some sticks from an oak tree, had bade her bundle them in her
+gown, and, last and most wonderful, had given her a large crooked
+pin.[27] Mrs. Gardiner, so the account goes, took the sticks and threw
+them into the fire. Presto! Jane Wenham came into the room, pretending
+an errand. It was afterwards found out that the errand was fictitious.
+
+All this raised a stir. The tale was absolutely original, it was no less
+remarkable. A maid with a broken knee had run a half-mile and back in
+seven minutes, very good time considering the circumstances. On the next
+day the maid, despite the knee and the fits she had meantime contracted,
+was sent out on an errand. She met Jane Wenham and that woman quite
+properly berated her for the stories she had set going, whereupon the
+maid's fits were worse than ever. Then, while several people carefully
+watched her, she repeated her former long distance run, leaping over a
+five-bar gate "as nimbly as a greyhound."
+
+Jane Wenham was now imprisoned by the justice of the peace, who
+collected with all speed the evidence against her. In this he was aided
+by the Reverend Francis Bragge, rector of Walkerne, and the Reverend
+Mr. Strutt, vicar of Audley. The wretched woman asked the justice to
+let her submit to the ordeal of water,[28] but he refused, pronouncing
+it illegal and unjustifiable. Meantime, the Rev. Mr. Strutt used the
+test of the Lord's Prayer,[29] a test that had been discarded for half a
+century. She failed to say the prayer aright, and alleged in excuse that
+"she was much disturbed in her head," as well she might be. But other
+evidence came in against her rapidly. She had been caught stealing
+turnips, and had quite submissively begged pardon, saying that she had
+no victuals that day and no money to buy any.[30] On the very next day
+the man who gave this evidence had lost one of his sheep and found
+another "taken strangely, skipping and standing upon its head."[31]
+There were other equally silly scraps of testimony. We need not go into
+them. The two officious clergymen busied themselves with her until one
+of them was able to wring some sort of a confession from her. It was a
+narrative in which she tried to account for the strange conduct of Anne
+Thorne and made a failure of it.[32] A few days later, in the presence
+of three clergymen and a justice of the peace, she was urged to repeat
+her confession but was "full of Equivocations and Evasions," and when
+pressed told her examiners that they "lay in wait for her Life."
+
+Bragge and Strutt had shown a great deal of energy in collecting
+evidence. Yet, when the case came to trial, the woman was accused only
+of dealing with a spirit in the shape of a cat.[33] This was done on the
+advice of a lawyer. Unfortunately we have no details about his reasons,
+but it would look very much as if the lawyer recognized that the
+testimony collected by the ministers would no longer influence the
+court, and believed that the one charge of using a cat as a spirit might
+be substantiated. The assizes were largely attended. "So vast a number
+of People," writes an eye-witness, "have not been together at the
+Assizes in the memory of Man."[34] Besides the evidence brought in by
+the justice of the peace, who led the prosecution with vigor, the Rev.
+Mr. Bragge, who was not to be repressed because the charges had been
+limited, gave some most remarkable testimony about the stuffing of Anne
+Thorne's pillow. It was full of cakes of small feathers fastened
+together with some viscous matter resembling much the "ointment made of
+dead men's flesh" mentioned by Mr. Glanvill. Bragge had done a piece of
+research upon the stuff and discovered that the particles were arranged
+in geometrical forms with equal numbers in each part.[35] Justice Powell
+called for the pillow, but had to be content with the witness's word,
+for the pillow had been burnt. Arthur Chauncy, who was probably a
+relative of the justice of the peace, offered to show the judge pins
+taken from Anne Thorne. It was needless, replied the judge, he supposed
+they were crooked pins.[36] The leaders of the prosecution seem to have
+felt that the judge was sneering at them throughout the trial. When Anne
+Thorne was in a fit, and the Reverend Mr. Chishull, being permitted to
+pray over her, read the office for the visitation of the sick, Justice
+Powell mockingly commented "That he had heard there were Forms of
+Exorcism in the Romish Liturgy, but knew not that we had any in our
+Church."[37] It must have been a great disappointment to these Anglican
+clergymen that Powell took the case so lightly. When it was testified
+against the accused that she was accustomed to fly, Powell is said to
+have said to her, "You may, there is no law against flying."[38] This
+indeed is quite in keeping with the man as described by Swift: "an old
+fellow with grey hairs, who was the merriest old gentleman I ever saw,
+spoke pleasing things, and chuckled till he cried again."
+
+In spite of Powell's obvious opinion on the trial, he could not hinder a
+conviction. No doubt the jury were greatly swayed by the crowds. The
+judge seems to have gone through the form of condemning the woman, but
+took pains to see that she was reprieved.[39] In the mean time her
+affair, like that of Richard Dugdale, had become a matter of sectarian
+quarrel. It was stated by the enemies of Jane Wenham that she was
+supported in prison by the Dissenters,[40] although they said that up to
+this time she had never been a church-going woman. It was the Dugdale
+case over again, save that the parties were reversed. Then Puritans had
+been arrayed on the side of superstition; now some of the Anglicans seem
+to have espoused that cause.[41] Of course the stir produced was
+greater. Mistress Jane found herself "the discourse of the town" in
+London, and a pamphlet controversy ensued that was quite as heated as
+that between Thomas Jollie and Zachary Taylor. No less than ten
+brochures were issued. The justice of the peace allowed his story of the
+case to be published and the Reverend Mr. Bragge rushed into print with
+a book that went through five editions. Needless to say, the defenders
+of Jane Wenham and of the judge who released her were not hesitant in
+replying. A physician who did not sign his name directed crushing
+ridicule against the whole affair,[42] while a defender of Justice
+Powell considered the case in a mild-mannered fashion: he did not deny
+the possibility of witchcraft, but made a keen impeachment of the
+trustworthiness of the witnesses against the woman.[43]
+
+But we cannot linger over the details of this controversy. Justice
+Powell had stirred up a hornets' nest of opposition, but it meant
+little.[44] The insects could buzz; but their stingers were drawn.
+
+The last trial for witchcraft was conducted in 1717 at Leicester by
+Justice Parker.[45] Curiously enough, the circumstances connected with
+it make it evident that crudest forms of superstition were still alive.
+Decency forbids that we should narrate the details of the methods used
+to demonstrate the guilt of the suspected parties. No less than
+twenty-five people banded themselves against "Old woman Norton and
+daughter" and put them through tests of the most approved character. It
+need hardly be said that the swimming ordeal was tried and that both
+creatures "swam like a cork." The persecutors then set to work to "fetch
+blood of the witches." In this they had "good success," but the witches
+"would be so stubborn, that they were often forced to call the constable
+to bring assistance of a number of persons to hold them by force to be
+blooded."[46] The "old witch" was also stripped and searched "publickly
+before a great number of good women." The most brutal and illegal of all
+forms of witch procedure had been revived, as if to celebrate the last
+appearance of the Devil. But the rest of the story is pleasanter. When
+the case came before the grand jury at the assizes, over which Justice
+Parker was presiding, "the bill was not found."
+
+With this the story of English trials comes to an end. The statute of
+James I had been practically quashed, and, though it was not to be taken
+from the law books for nineteen years, it now meant nothing. It was very
+hard for the great common people to realize what had happened. As the
+law was breaking down they had shown an increasing tendency to take
+justice into their own hands. In the case with which we have just been
+dealing we have seen the accusers infringing the personal rights of the
+individual, and calling in the constables to help them in their utterly
+unlawful performances. This was not new. As early as 1691, if Hutchinson
+may be trusted, there were "several tried by swimming in Suffolk, Essex,
+Cambridgeshire, and Northamptonshire and some were drowned." It would be
+easy to add other and later accounts,[47] but we must be content with
+one.[48] The widow Coman, in Essex, had recently lost her husband; and
+her pastor, the Reverend Mr. Boys, went to cheer her in her melancholy.
+Because he had heard her accounted a witch he questioned her closely and
+received a nonchalant admission of relations with the Devil. That
+astounded him. When he sought to inquire more closely, he was put off.
+"Butter is eight pence a pound and Cheese a groat a pound," murmured the
+woman, and the clergyman left in bewilderment. But he came back in the
+afternoon, and she raved so wildly that he concluded her confession was
+but "a distraction in her head." Two women, however, worried from her
+further and more startling confessions. The minister returned, bringing
+with him "Mr. Goldsmith and Mr. Grimes," two of the disbelieving "sparks
+of the age." The rest of the story may be told as it is given in another
+account, a diary of the time. "July 3d, 1699, the widow Coman was put
+into the river to see if she would sinke, ... and she did not sinke but
+swim, ... and she was tryed again July 19, and then she swam again. July
+24 the widow was tryed a third time by putting her into the river and
+she swam. December 27. The widow Coman that was counted a witch was
+buried." The intervening links need hardly be supplied, but the Reverend
+Mr. Boys has given them: "whether by the cold she got in the water, or
+by some other means, she fell very ill and dyed."
+
+It must have been very diverting, this experimentation by water, and it
+had become so popular by the beginning of the eighteenth century that
+Chief Justice Holt[49] is said to have ruled that in the future, where
+swimming had fatal results, those responsible would be prosecuted for
+murder. Such a declaration perhaps caused some disuse of the method for
+a time, but it was revived in the second third of the eighteenth
+century.
+
+Popular feeling still arrayed itself against the witch. If the
+increasing use of the swimming ordeal was the answer to the
+non-enforcement of the Jacobean statute, it was the answer of the
+ignorant classes. Their influence was bound to diminish. But another
+possible consequence of the breaking down of the law may be suggested.
+Mr. Inderwick, who has looked much into English witchcraft, says that
+"from 1686 to 1712 ... the charges and convictions of malicious injury
+to property in burning haystacks, barns, and houses, and malicious
+injuries to persons and to cattle increased enormously."[50] This is
+very interesting, if true, and it seems quite in accord with the history
+of witchcraft that it should be true. Again and again we have seen that
+the charge of witchcraft was a weapon of prosecutors who could not prove
+other suspected crimes. As the charges of witchcraft fell off,
+accusations for other crimes would naturally be multiplied; and, now
+that it was no longer easy to lay everything to the witch of a
+community, the number of the accused would also grow.
+
+We are now at the end of the witch trials. In another chapter we shall
+trace the history of opinion through this last period. With the
+dismissal of the Norton women at Leicester, the courts were through with
+witch trials.
+
+
+[1] See below, pp. 342-343.
+
+[2] We are assuming that the cases at Northampton in 1705 and at
+Huntingdon in 1716 have no basis of fact. At Northampton two women,
+according to the pamphlet account, had been hanged and burnt; at
+Huntingdon, according to another account, a woman and her daughter. It
+is possible that these pamphlets deal with historical events; but the
+probabilities are all against that supposition. For a discussion of the
+matter in detail see below, appendix A, § 10.
+
+[3] For his early history see _The Surey Demoniack, ... or, an Account
+of Satan's ... Actings, In and about the Body of Richard Dugdale...._
+(London, 1697).
+
+[4] The Catholics do not seem, so far as the account goes, to have said
+anything about witchcraft.
+
+[5] _The Surey Demoniack_, 49; Zachary Taylor, _The Surey Impostor,
+being an answer to a ... Pamphlet, Entituled The Surey Demoniack_
+(London, 1697), 21-22.
+
+[6] "N. N.," _The Lancashire Levite Rebuked, or a Vindication of the
+Dissenters from Popery...._ (London, 1698), 3-4; see also the preface of
+_The Surey Demoniack_.
+
+[7] _Ibid._
+
+[8] _The Wonders of the Invisible World: being an Account of the Tryals
+of ... Witches ... in New England_ (London, 1693), by Cotton Mather, and
+_A Further Account of the Tryals of the New-England Witches_ (London,
+1693), by Increase Mather. See preface to _The Surey Demoniack_.
+
+[9] Thomas Jollie told a curious tale about how the manuscript had been
+forcibly taken from the man who was carrying it to the press by a group
+of armed men on the Strand. See _ibid._
+
+[10] Alexander Gordon in his article on Thomas Jollie, _Dict. Nat.
+Biog._, says that the pamphlet was drafted by Jollie and expanded by
+Carrington. Zachary Taylor, in his answer to it (_The Surey Impostor_),
+constantly names Mr. Carrington as the author. "N. N.," in _The
+Lancashire Levite Rebuked_, also assumes that Carrington was the author.
+
+[11] _The Devil Turned Casuist, or the Cheats of Rome Laid open in the
+Exorcism of a Despairing Devil...._ By Zachary Taylor, ... (London,
+1696).
+
+[12] It is interesting that Zachary Taylor's father was a
+Non-Conformist; see _The Lancashire Levite Rebuked_, 2.
+
+[13] London, 1697.
+
+[14] _The Devil Turned Casuist._
+
+[15] _A Vindication of the Surey Demoniack_, 17.
+
+[16] Taylor replied to Jollie's _Vindication of the Surey Demoniack_ in
+1698 with a pamphlet entitled _Popery, Superstition, Ignorance and
+Knavery ... very fully proved ... in the Surey Imposture_. Then came
+_The Lancashire Levite Rebuked_, by the unknown writer, "N. N.," whose
+views we give in the text. Taylor seems to have answered in a letter to
+"N. N." which called forth a scathing reply (1698) in _The Lancashire
+Levite Rebuked, or a Farther Vindication of the Dissenters...._ Taylor's
+reply, which came out in 1699, was entitled _Popery, Superstition,
+Ignorance, and Knavery Confess'd and fully Proved on the Surey
+Dissenters...._
+
+[17] "N. N." _The Lancashire Levite Rebuked_. The Rev. Alexander Gordon,
+in his article on Zachary Taylor, _Dict. Nat. Biog._, says that
+Carrington probably wrote this book. This seems impossible. The author
+of the book, in speaking of Mr. Jollie, Mr. R. Fr. [Frankland], and Mr.
+O. H. [Oliver Heywood], refers to Mr. C. as having "exposed himself in
+so many insignificant Fopperies foisted into his Narrative"--proof
+enough that Carrington did not write _The Lancashire Levite Rebuked_.
+
+[18] Several dissenting clergymen had opposed the publication of _The
+Surey Demoniack_, and had sought to have it suppressed. See _The
+Lancashire Levite Rebuked_, 2.
+
+[19] For an account of this case see Francis Hutchinson, _Historical
+Essay on Witchcraft_ (London, 1718), 43. Hutchinson had made an
+investigation of the case when in Bury, and he had also Holt's notes of
+the trial.
+
+[20] Hutchinson had Holt's notes on this case, as on the preceding;
+_ibid._, 45. Blackburne's letter is printed in _Notes and Queries_, 1st
+series, XI, 498-499, and reprinted in Brand, _Popular Antiquities_
+(1905), II, 648-649.
+
+[21] See _The Tryal of Richard Hathaway, ... For endeavouring to take
+away the Life of Sarah Morduck, For being a Witch ..._ (London, 1702),
+and _A Full and True Account of the Apprehending and Taking of Mrs.
+Sarah Moordike, ... accused ... for having Bewitched one Richard
+Hetheway ..._; see also Hutchinson, _op. cit._, 224-228.
+
+[22] _Ibid._, 226.
+
+[23] A somewhat similar case at Hammersmith met with the same treatment,
+if the pamphlet account may be trusted. Susanna Fowles pretended to be
+possessed in such a way that she could not use the name of God or
+Christ. The application of a red-hot iron to her head in the midst of
+her fits was drastic but effectual. She cried out "Oh Lord," and so
+proved herself a "notorious Lyar." She was sent to the house of
+correction, where, reports the unfeeling pamphleteer, "She is now
+beating hemp." Another pamphlet, however, gives a very different
+version. According to this account, Susan, under Papist influences,
+pretended to be possessed in such a way that she was continually
+blaspheming. She was indicted for blasphemy, fined, and sentenced to
+stand in the pillory. (For the graphic titles of these contradictory
+pamphlets and of a folio broadside on the same subject, see appendix A,
+§ 7).
+
+[24] Probably not by any court verdict, but through the privy council.
+
+[25] See J. C. Cox, _Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals_ (London,
+1890), II, 90.
+
+[26] _Jane Wenham_ (broadside); see also _A Full and Impartial Account
+of the Discovery of Sorcery and Witchcraft, Practis'd by Jane Wenham
+..._ (London, 1712).
+
+[27] This narrative is given in great detail in _A Full and Impartial
+Account_. It is of course referred to in nearly all the other pamphlets.
+
+[28] Jane Wenham (broadside) see also _A Full and Impartial Account_,
+12.
+
+[29] Jane Wenham (broadside); see also _A Full and Impartial Account_,
+10.
+
+[30] Jane Wenham (broadside); see also _A Full and Impartial Account_,
+14.
+
+[31] _Ibid._, 14.
+
+[32] It was suggested by some who did not believe Jane guilty, that she
+confessed from unhappiness and a desire to be out of the world,
+_Witchcraft Farther Display'd. Containing (I) An Account of the
+Witchcraft practis'd by Jane Wenham, ... An Answer to ... Objections
+against the Being and Power of Witches ..._ (London, 1712), 37.
+
+[33] _A Full and Impartial Account_, 24.
+
+[34] _An Account of the Tryal, Examination and Condemnation of Jane
+Wenham._
+
+[35] _A Full and Impartial Account_, 27.
+
+[36] _A Full and Impartial Account_, 26.
+
+[37] _Ibid._, 25.
+
+[38] For this story I have found no contemporary testimony. The earliest
+source that I can find is Alexander Chalmers's _Biographical Dictionary_
+(London, 1812-1827), XXV, 248 (_s. v._ Powell).
+
+[39] After her release she was taken under the protection of Colonel
+Plummer of Gilston, who had followed the trial. Hutchinson, _Historical
+Essay on Witchcraft_, 130. On his death she was supported by the Earl
+and Countess of Cowper, and lived until 1730. Robert Clutterbuck,
+_History and Antiquities of the County of Hertford_ (London, 1815-1827),
+II, 461, note.
+
+[40] _Witchcraft Farther Displayed_, introduction.
+
+[41] See the dedication to Justice Powell in _The Case of the
+Hertfordshire Witchcraft Consider'd_ (London, 1712).
+
+[42] _A Full Confutation of Witchcraft: More particularly of the
+Depositions against Jane Wenham.... In a Letter from a Physician in
+Hertfordshire, to his Friend in London_ (London, 1712).
+
+[43] _The Case of the Hertfordshire Witchcraft Consider'd._ For more as
+to these discussions see below, ch. XIV.
+
+[44] It seems, however, that the efforts of Lady Frances ---- to bring
+about Jane's execution in spite of the judge were feared by Jane's
+friends. See _The Impossibility of Witchcraft, ... In which the
+Depositions against Jane Wenham ... are Confuted ..._ (London, 1712), 2d
+ed. (in the Bodleian), 36.
+
+[45] See Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 35,838, f. 404.
+
+[46] They could "get no blood of them by Scratching so they used great
+pins and such Instruments for that purpose."
+
+[47] See _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports, Various_, I, 160; see also C. J.
+Bilson, _County Folk Lore, Leicestershire and Rutland_ (Folk Lore Soc.,
+1895), 51-52.
+
+[48] _The Case of Witchcraft at Coggeshall, Essex, in the year 1699.
+Being the narrative of the Rev. J. Boys ..._ (London, 1901).
+
+[49] By some Parker is given the credit. I cannot find the original
+authority.
+
+[50] Inderwick, _Sidelights on the Stuarts_, 174, 175.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE CLOSE OF THE LITERARY CONTROVERSY.
+
+
+In the last chapter we mentioned the controversy over Jane Wenham. In
+attempting in this chapter to show the currents and cross-currents of
+opinion during the last period of witch history in England, we cannot
+omit some account of the pamphlet war over the Hertfordshire witch. It
+will not be worth while, however, to take up in detail the arguments of
+the upholders of the superstition. The Rev. Mr. Bragge was clearly on
+the defensive. There were, he admitted sadly, "several gentlemen who
+would not believe that there are any witches since the time of our
+Saviour Jesus Christ." He struck the same note when he spoke of those
+who disbelieved "on the prejudices of education only." With great
+satisfaction the clergyman quoted the decision of Sir Matthew Hale in
+1664.[1]
+
+The opinions of the opposition are more entertaining, if their works did
+not have so wide a sale. The physician who wrote to his friend in London
+poked fun at the witchmongers. It was dangerous to do so, he admitted,
+"especially in the Country, where to make the least Doubt is a Badge of
+Infidelity."[2] As for him, he envied the privileges of the town. He
+proceeded to take up the case of Anne Thorne. Her seven-minute mile run
+with a broken knee was certainly puzzling. "If it was only a violent
+Extention of the Rotula, something might be allow'd: but it is hard to
+tell what this was, your Country Bone-Setters seldom plaguing their
+heads with Distinctions."[3] The "Viciousness of Anne Thorn's
+opticks,"[4] the silly character of the clergyman's evidence, and the
+spiritual juggles at exorcism,[5] all these things roused his merriment.
+As for Jane's confession, it was the result of ensnaring questions.[6]
+He seemed to hold the clergy particularly responsible for witch cases
+and advised them to be more conversant with the history of diseases and
+to inquire more narrowly into the physical causes of things.
+
+A defender of Justice Powell, probably Henry Stebbing, later an eminent
+divine but now a young Cambridge master of arts, entered the
+controversy. He was not altogether a skeptic about witchcraft in
+general, but his purpose was to show that the evidence against Jane
+Wenham was weak. The two chief witnesses, Matthew Gilston and Anne
+Thorne, were "much disturbed in their Imaginations." There were many
+absurdities in their stories. He cited the story of Anne Thorne's mile
+run in seven minutes. Who knew that it was seven minutes? There was no
+one timing her when she started. How was it known that she went half a
+mile? And, supposing these narratives were true, would they prove
+anything? The writer took up piece after piece of the evidence in this
+way and showed its absurdity. Some of his criticisms are amusing--he
+attacked silly testimony in such a solemn way--yet he had, too, his
+sense of fun. It had been alleged, he wrote, that the witch's flesh,
+when pricked, emitted no blood, but a thin watery matter. "Mr. Chauncy,
+it is like, expected that Jane Wenham's Blood shou'd have been as rich
+and as florid as that of Anne Thorne's, or of any other Virgin of about
+16. He makes no difference, I see, between the Beef and Mutton Regimen,
+and that of Turnips and Water-gruel."[7] Moreover, he urges, it is well
+known that fright congeals the blood.[8]
+
+We need not go further into this discussion. Mr. Bragge and his friends
+re-entered the fray at once, and then another writer proved with
+elaborate argument that there had never been such a thing as witchcraft.
+The controversy was growing dull, but it had not been without value. It
+had been, on the whole, an unconventional discussion of the subject and
+had shown very clearly the street-corner point of view. But we must turn
+to the more formal treatises. Only three of them need be noticed, those
+of Richard Baxter, John Beaumont, and Richard Boulton. All of these
+writers had been affected by the accounts of the Salem witchcraft in New
+England. The opinions of Glanvill and Matthew Hale had been carried to
+America and now were brought back to fortify belief in England. Richard
+Baxter was most clearly influenced by the accounts of what had happened
+in the New World. The Mathers were his friends and fellow Puritans, and
+their testimony was not to be doubted for a minute. But Baxter needed no
+convincing. He had long preached and written about the danger of
+witches. In a sermon on the Holy Ghost in the fifties he had shown a
+wide acquaintance with foreign works on demonology.[9] In a _Defence of
+the Christian Religion_,[10] written several years later, he recognized
+that the malice of the accusers and the melancholy of the accused were
+responsible for some cases, but such cases were exceptions. If any one
+doubted that there were _bona fide_ cases, let him talk to the judges
+and ministers yet living in Suffolk, Norfolk, and Essex. They could tell
+him of many of the confessions made in the Hopkins period. Baxter had
+not only talked on witchcraft with Puritan ministers, but had
+corresponded as well with Glanvill, with whom, although Glanvill was an
+Anglican, he seems to have been on very friendly terms.[11] Nor is it
+likely that in the many conversations he held with his neighbor, Sir
+Matthew Hale,[12] the evidence from witchcraft for a spiritual world had
+been neglected. The subject must have come up in his conversations with
+another friend, Robert Boyle.[13] Boyle's interest in such matters was
+of course a scientific one. Baxter, like Glanvill, looked at them from a
+religious point of view. In the classic _Saint's Everlasting Rest_ he
+drew his fourth argument for the future happiness and misery of man
+from the Devil's compact with witches.[14] To this point he reverted in
+his _Dying Thoughts_. His _Certainty of the World of Spirits_, in which
+he took up the subject of witchcraft in more detail, was written but a
+few months before his death. "When God first awakened me, to think with
+preparing seriousness of my Condition after Death, I had not any
+observed Doubts of the Reality of Spirits.... But, when God had given me
+peace of Conscience, Satan Assaulted me with those worse Temptations....
+I found that my Faith of Supernatural Revelation must be more than a
+Believing Man and that if it had not a firm foundation, ... even sure
+Evidence of Verity, ... it was not like ... to make my Death to be safe
+and comfortable.... I tell the Reader, that he may see why I have taken
+this Subject as so necessary, why I am ending my Life with the
+publication of these Historical Letters and Collections, which I dare
+say have such Evidence as will leave every Sadduce that readeth them,
+either convinced, or utterly without excuse."[15]
+
+By the "Collection" he meant, of course, the narratives brought out in
+his _Certainty of the World of Spirits_--published in 1691. It is
+unnecessary to review its arguments here. They were an elaboration of
+those already used in earlier works. Too much has been made of this
+book. Baxter had the fever for publication. It was a lean year when he
+dashed off less than two works. His wife told him once that he would
+write better if he wrote less. Probably she was thinking of his style,
+and she was doubtless right. But it was true, too, of his thinking; and
+none of his productions show this more than his hurried book on, spirits
+and witches.[16]
+
+Beaumont and Boulton may be passed over quickly. Beaumont[17] had read
+widely in the witch literature of England and other countries;[18] he
+had read indeed with some care, as is evidenced by the fact that he had
+compared Hopkins's and Stearne's accounts of the same events and found
+them not altogether consistent. Nevertheless Beaumont never thought of
+questioning the reality of witchcraft phenomena, and his chief aim in
+writing was to answer _The World Bewitched_, the great work of a Dutch
+theologian, Balthazar Bekker, "who laughs at all these things of this
+Nature as done by Humane contrivance."[19] Bekker's bold book was
+indeed gaining wide notice; but this reply to it was entirely
+commonplace. Richard Boulton, sometime of Brasenose College, published
+ten years later, in 1715, _A Compleat History of Magic_. It was a book
+thrown together in a haphazard way from earlier authors, and was written
+rather to sell than to convince. Seven years later a second edition was
+brought out, in which the writer inserted an answer to Hutchinson.
+
+Before taking up Hutchinson's work we shall turn aside to collect those
+stray fragments of opinion that indicate in which direction the wind was
+blowing. Among those who wrote on nearly related topics, one
+comparatively obscure name deserves mention. Dr. Richard Burthogge
+published in 1694 an _Essay upon Reason and the Nature of Spirits_, a
+book which was dedicated to John Locke. He touched on witchcraft in
+passing. "Most of the relations," he wrote, "do, upon impartial
+Examination, prove either Impostures of Malicious, or Mistakes of
+Ignorant and Superstitious persons; yet some come so well Attested that
+it were to bid defiance to all Human Testimony to refuse them
+belief."[20]
+
+This was the last stand of those who still believed. Shall we, they
+asked, discredit all human testimony? It was practically the belief of
+Bishop William Lloyd of Worcester, who, while he urged his clergy to
+give up their notions about witches, was inclined to believe that the
+Devil still operates in the Gentile world and among the Pagans.[21]
+Joseph Addison was equally unwilling to take a radical view. "There
+are," he wrote in the _Spectator_ for July 14, 1711, "some opinions in
+which a man should stand neuter.... It is with this temper of mind that
+I consider the subject of witchcraft.... I endeavour to suspend my
+belief till I hear more certain accounts.... 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."[22] The force of
+credulity among the country people he fully recognized. His Sir Roger de
+Coverley, who was a justice of the peace, and his chaplain were, he
+said, too often compelled to put an end to the witch-swimming
+experiments of the people.
+
+If this was belief, it was at least a harmless sort. It was almost
+exactly the position of James Johnstone, former secretary for Scotland,
+who, writing from London to the chancellor of Scotland, declared his
+belief in the existence of witches, but called attention to the fact
+that the parliaments of France and other judicatories had given up the
+trying of them because it was impossible to distinguish possession from
+"nature in disorder."[23]
+
+But there were those who were ready to assert a downright negative. The
+Marquis of Halifax in the _Political, Moral and Miscellaneous Thoughts
+and Reflections_ which he wrote (or, at least, completed) in 1694, noted
+"It is a fundamental ... that there were witches--much shaken of
+late."[24] Secretary of State Vernon and the Duke of Shrewsbury were
+both of them skeptical about the confessions of witches.[25] Sir
+Richard Steele lampooned the belief. "Three young ladies of our town,"
+he makes his correspondent relate, "were indicted for witchcraft. One by
+spirits locked in a bottle and magic herbs drew hundreds of men to her;
+the second cut off by night the limbs of dead bodies and, muttering
+words, buried them; the third moulded pieces of dough into the shapes of
+men, women, and children and then heated them." They "had nothing to say
+in their own defence but downright denying the facts, which," the writer
+remarks, "is like to avail very little when they come upon their
+trials." "The parson," he continued, "will believe nothing of all this;
+so that the whole town cries out: 'Shame! that one of his cast should be
+such an atheist.'"[26]
+
+The parson had at length assimilated the skepticism of the jurists and
+the gentry. It was, as has been said, an Anglican clergyman who
+administered the last great blow to the superstition. Francis
+Hutchinson's _Historical Essay on Witchcraft_, published in 1718 (and
+again, enlarged, in 1720), must rank with Reginald Scot's _Discoverie_
+as one of the great classics of English witch literature. Hutchinson had
+read all the accounts of trials in England--so far as he could find
+them--and had systematized them in chronological order, so as to give a
+conspectus of the whole subject. So nearly was his point of view that of
+our own day that it would be idle to rehearse his arguments. A man with
+warm sympathies for the oppressed, he had been led probably by the case
+of Jane Wenham, with whom he had talked, to make a personal
+investigation of all cases that came at all within the ken of those
+living. Whoever shall write the final story of English witchcraft will
+find himself still dependent upon this eighteenth-century historian.
+
+Hutchinson's work was the last chapter in the witch controversy. There
+was nothing more to say.
+
+
+[1] _Witchcraft Farther Displayed._
+
+[2] _A Full Confutation of Witchcraft_, 4.
+
+[3] _Ibid._, 11.
+
+[4] _Ibid._, 38.
+
+[5] _Ibid._, 5.
+
+[6] _Ibid._, 23-24.
+
+[7] _The Case of the Hertfordshire Witchcraft Consider'd_, 72.
+
+[8] If certain phrases may be trusted, this writer was interested in the
+case largely because it had become a cause of sectarian combat and he
+hoped to strike at the church.
+
+[9] See Baxter's _Works_ (London, 1827-1830), XX, 255-271.
+
+[10] See _ibid._, XXI, 87.
+
+[11] W. Orme in his _Life of Richard Baxter_ (London, 1830), I, 435,
+says that the Baxter MSS. contain several letters from Glanvill to
+Baxter.
+
+[12] _See Memoirs of Richard Baxter_ by Dr. Bates (in _Biographical
+Collections, or Lives and Characters from the Works of the Reverend Mr.
+Baxter and Dr. Bates_, 1760), II, 51, 73.
+
+[13] _Ibid._, 26; see also Baxter's _Dying Thoughts_, in _Works_, XVIII,
+284, where he refers to the Demon of Mascon, a story for which Boyle, as
+we have seen, had stood sponsor in England.
+
+[14] Ch. VII, sect. iv, in _Works_, XXII, 327.
+
+[15] _Certainty of the World of Spirits_ (London, 1691), preface.
+
+[16] Two other collectors of witch stories deserve perhaps a note here,
+for each prefaced his collection with a discussion of witchcraft. The
+London publisher Nathaniel Crouch, who wrote much for his own press
+under the pseudonym of "R. B." (later expanded to "Richard Burton"),
+published as early as 1688 (not 1706, as says the _Dict. Nat. Biog._)
+_The Kingdom of Darkness: or The History of Dćmons, Specters, Witches,
+... Containing near Fourscore memorable Relations, ... Together with a
+Preface obviating the common Objections and Allegations of the Sadduces
+[sic] and Atheists of the Age, ... with Pictures._ Edward Stephens,
+first lawyer, then clergyman, but always a pamphleteer, brought out in
+1693 _A Collection of Modern Relations concerning Witches and
+Witchcraft_, to which was prefaced Sir Matthew Hale's _Meditations
+concerning the Mercy of God in preserving us from the Malice and Power
+of Evil Angels_ and a dissertation of his own on _Questions concerning
+Witchcraft_.
+
+[17] _An Historical, Physiological, and Theological Treatise of Spirits,
+Apparitions, Witchcraft and other Magical Practices_ (London, 1705).
+Dedicated to "John, Earl of Carbury."
+
+[18] See for example, _ibid._, 63, 70, 71, 75, 130-135, 165, 204, 289,
+306.
+
+[19] Balthazar Bekker's _De Betoverde Weereld_ (Leeuwarden and
+Amsterdam, 1691-1693), was a most telling attack upon the reality of
+witchcraft, and, through various translations, was read all over Europe.
+The first part was translated and published in London in 1695 as _The
+World Bewitched_, and was republished in 1700 as _The World Turn'd
+upside down_.
+
+[20] _Essay upon Reason and the Nature of Spirits_, 195.
+
+[21] G. P. R. James, ed., _Letters Illustrative of the Reign of William
+III, ... addressed to the Duke of Shrewsbury, by James Vernon, Esq._
+(London, 1841), II, 302-303.
+
+[22] _Spectator_, no. 117.
+
+[23] _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, XIV, 3, p. 132.
+
+[24] H. C. Foxcroft, ed., _Life and Letters of Sir George Savile,
+Marquis of Halifax_ (London, 1898), II, 493.
+
+[25] G. P. R. James, ed., _op. cit._, II, 300. Shrewsbury's opinion may
+be inferred from Vernon's reply to him.
+
+[26] See the _Tatler_, no. 21, May 28, 1709.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDICES.
+
+
+
+
+A.--PAMPHLET LITERATURE.
+
+
+§ 1.--Witchcraft under Elizabeth (see ch. II).
+
+A large part of the evidence for the trials of Elizabeth's reign is
+derived from the pamphlets issued soon after the trials. These pamphlets
+furnish a peculiar species of historical material, and it is a species
+so common throughout the history of English witchcraft that it deserves
+a brief examination in passing. The pamphlets were written of course by
+credulous people who easily accepted what was told them and whose own
+powers of observation were untrained. To get at the facts behind their
+marvellous accounts demands the greatest care and discrimination. Not
+only must the miraculous be ruled out, but the prejudices of the
+observer must be taken into account. Did the pamphleteer himself hear
+and see what he recorded, or was his account at second hand? Did he
+write soon after the events, when they were fresh in his memory? Does
+his narrative seem to be that of a painstaking, careful man or
+otherwise? These are questions to be answered. In many instances,
+however, the pamphlets were not narrative in form, but were merely
+abstracts of the court proceedings and testimony. In this case, too,
+care must be taken in using them, for the testimony damaging to the
+accused was likely to be accented, while the evidence on the other side,
+if not suppressed, was not emphasized. In general, however, these
+records of depositions are sources whose residuum of fact it is not
+difficult to discover. Both in this and in the narrative material the
+most valuable points may be gleaned from the incidental references and
+statements. The writer has made much use of this incidental matter. The
+position of the witch in her community, the real ground of the feeling
+against her upon the part of her neighbors, the way in which the alarm
+spread, the processes used to elicit confession--inferences of this
+sort may, the writer believes, be often made with a good deal of
+confidence. We have taken for granted that the pamphlets possess a
+substratum of truth. This may not always be the case. The pamphleteer
+was writing to sell. A fictitious narrative of witchcraft or of a witch
+trial was almost as likely to sell as a true narrative. More than once
+in the history of witch literature absolutely imaginary stories were
+foisted upon the public. It is necessary to be constantly on guard
+against this type of pamphlet. Fortunately nine-tenths of the witch
+accounts are corroborated from other sources. The absence of such
+corroboration does not mean that an account should be barred out, but
+that it should be subjected to the methods of historical criticism, and
+that it should be used cautiously even if it pass that test. Happily for
+us, the plan of making a witch story to order does not seem to have
+occurred to the Elizabethan pamphleteers. So far as we know, all the
+pamphlets of that time rest upon actual events. We shall take them up
+briefly in order.
+
+The first was _The examination and confession of certaine Wytches at
+Chensforde in the Countie of Essex before the Quenes maiesties Judges,
+the XXVI daye of July Anno 1566_. The only original copy of this
+pamphlet is in the Lambeth Palace library at London and its binding
+bears the initials of R. B. [Richard Bancroft]. The versified
+introduction is signed by John Phillips, who presumably was the author.
+The pamphlet--a black letter one--was issued, in three parts, from the
+press of William Powell at London, two of them on August 13, the third
+on August 23, 1566. It has since been reprinted by H. Beigel for the
+Philobiblon Society, London, 1864-1865. It gives abstracts of the
+confessions and an account of the court interrogatories. There is every
+reason to believe that it is in the main an accurate account of what
+happened at the Chelmsford trials in 1566. Justice Southcote, Dr. Cole,
+Master Foscue, and Attorney-General Gerard are all names we can
+identify. Moreover, the one execution narrated is confirmed by the
+pamphlet dealing with the trials at Chelmsford in 1579.
+
+The second pamphlet, also in black letter, deals with the Abingdon cases
+of 1579. It is entitled _A Rehearsall both straung and true of hainous
+and horrible actes committed by Elizabeth Stile, alias Rockingham,
+Mother Dutten, Mother Devell, Mother Margaret. Fower notorious Witches
+apprehended at Winsore in the Countie of Barks, and at Abington
+arraigned, condemned and executed on the 28 daye of Februarie last anno
+1579_. This pamphlet finds confirmation by a reference in the privy
+council records to the same event (_Acts P. C._, n. s., XI, 22).
+Reginald Scot, in his _Discoverie of Witchcraft_, 17, 543, mentions
+another, a book of "Richard Gallis of Windesor" "about certaine witches
+of Windsore executed at Abington." This would seem to have been a
+different account of the Abingdon affair, because Scot also on p. 51
+speaks of some details of the Abingdon affair as to be found "in a
+little pamphlet of the acts and hanging of foure witches in anno 1579."
+It is perhaps the one described by Lowndes, _Bibliographer's Manual of
+English Literature_ (p. 2959) under the title _The horrible Acts of
+Eliz. Style, alias Rockingham, Mother Dutton, Mother Dovell, and Mother
+Margaret, 4 Witches executed at Abingdon, 26 Feb. upon Richard Galis_
+(London, 1579) or that mentioned in the Stationers' _Registers_, II
+(London, 1875), 352, under date of May 4, 1579, as _A brief treatise
+conteyninge the most strange and horrible crueltye of Elizabeth Sule_
+[sic] _alias Bockingham_ [sic] _and hir confederates executed at
+Abingdon upon Richard Galis etc._
+
+The second Chelmsford trials were also in 1579. The pamphlet account was
+called _A Detection of damnable driftes, practised by three Witches
+arraigned at Chelmsforde in Essex at the last Assizes there holden,
+whiche were executed in Aprill 1579_. There are three references in this
+pamphlet to people mentioned in the earlier Chelmsford pamphlet, so that
+the two confirm each other.
+
+The third Chelmsford trials came in 1589 and were narrated in a pamphlet
+entitled _The apprehension and confession of three notorious Witches
+arraigned and by Justice condemnede in the Countye of Essex the 5 day of
+Julye last past_. Joan Cunny was convicted, largely on the evidence of
+the two bastard sons of one of her "lewde" daughters. The eldest of
+these boys, who was not over ten or twelve, told the court that he had
+seen his grandmother cause an oak to be blown up by the roots during a
+calm. The charges against Joan Upney concerned chiefly her dealings
+with toads, those against Joan Prentice, who lived in an Essex
+almshouse, had to do with ferrets. The three women seem to have been
+brought first before justices of the peace and were then tried together
+and condemned by the "judge of the circuit." This narrative has no
+outside confirmation, but the internal evidence for its authenticity is
+good. Three men mentioned as sheriff, justice, and landowner can all be
+identified as holding those respective positions in the county.
+
+The narrative of the St. Oses case appeared in 1582. It was called _A
+True and just Recorde of the Information, Examination and Confession of
+all the Witches taken at St. Oses in the countie of Essex: whereof some
+were executed, and other some entreated according to the determination
+of Lawe.... Written orderly, as the cases were tryed by evidence, by W.
+W._ The pamphlet is merely a record of examinations. It is dedicated to
+Justice Darcy; and from slips, where the judge in describing his action
+breaks into the first person, it is evident that it was written by the
+judge himself. Scot, who wrote two years later, had read this pamphlet,
+and knew of the case (_Discoverie_, 49, 542). There are many references
+to the case by later writers on witchcraft.
+
+Eleven years later came the trials which brought out the pamphlet: _The
+most strange and admirable discoverie of the three Witches of Warboys,
+arraigned, convicted and executed at the last assises at Huntingdon ..._,
+London, 1593. Its contents are reprinted by Richard Boulton, in
+his _Compleat History of Magick, Sorcery, and Witchcraft_ (London,
+1715), I, 49-152. There can be no doubt as to the historical character
+of this pamphlet. The Throckmortons, the Cromwells, and the Pickerings
+were all well known in Huntingdonshire. An agreement is still preserved
+in the archives of the Huntingdon corporation providing that the
+corporation shall pay Ł40 to Queen's College, Cambridge, in order that a
+sermon shall be preached on witchcraft at Huntingdon each Lady day. This
+was continued for over two hundred years. One of the last sermons on
+this endowment was preached in 1795 and attacked the belief in
+witchcraft. The record of the contract is still kept in Queen's College,
+Brit. Mus. MSS., 5,849, fol. 254. For mention of the affair see Darrel,
+_Detection of that sinnful ... discours of Samuel Harshnet_, 36, 39,
+110; also Harsnett, _Discovery of the Fraudulent Practises_, 93, 97.
+Several Jacobean writers refer to the case. What seems to be another
+edition is in the Bodleian: _A True and Particular Observation of a
+notable Piece of Witchcraft_--which is the inside heading of the first
+edition. The text is the same, but there are differences in the paging.
+
+Perhaps the most curious of all Elizabethan witch pamphlets is entitled
+_The most wonderfull and true Storie of a certaine Witch named Alse
+Gooderidge of Stapenhill, who was arraigned and convicted at Darbie, at
+the Assizes there. As also a true Report of the strange Torments of
+Thomas Darling, a boy of thirteen years of age, that was possessed by
+the Devill, with his horrible Fittes and terrible apparitions by him
+uttered at Burton upon Trent, in the Countie of Stafford, and of his
+marvellous deliverance_, London, 1597. There are two copies of this--the
+only ones of which the writer knows--in Lambeth Palace library. They are
+exactly alike, page for page, except for the last four lines of the last
+page, where the wording differs. The pamphlet is clearly one written by
+John Denison as an abstract of an account by Jesse Bee. Harsnett,
+_Discovery of the Fraudulent Practices of John Darrel_, 266-269, tells
+how these two books were written. Denison is quoted as to certain
+insertions made in his manuscript after it left his hands, insertions
+which are to be found, he says, on pages 15 and 39. The insertions
+complained of by Denison are indeed to be found on the pages indicated
+of _The most wonderfull and true Storie of ... Alse Gooderidge_, thus
+establishing his authorship of the pamphlet. The account by Bee, of
+which this is an abstract, I have not seen. Alse Gooderidge was put
+through many examinations and finally died in prison. "She should have
+been executed, but that her spirit killed her in prison." John Darrel
+was one of those who sought to help the boy who had been bewitched by
+Alice. Darrel, however, receives only passing mention from the author of
+this pamphlet. The narrative does not agree very well in matters of
+detail with the Darrel tracts, although in the main outlines it is
+similar to them. It is very crudely put together, and, while it was
+doubtless a sincere effort to present the truth, must not be too
+implicitly depended upon.
+
+Two pamphlets are hidden away in the back of the _Triall of Maist.
+Dorrel_ (see below, § 2). The first (pp. 92-98) deals with the trial of
+Doll Bartham of Shadbrook in Suffolk. She was tried by the chief justice
+and hanged the 12th of July, 1599. The second (pp. 99-103) narrates the
+trial of Anne Kerke before "Lorde Anderson," the 30th of December, 1599.
+She also went to the gallows.
+
+There are other pamphlets referred to in Lowndes, etc., which we have
+been unable to find. One of them is _The Arraignment and Execution of 3
+detestable Witches, John Newell, Joane his wife, and Hellen Calles; two
+executed at Barnett, and one at Braynford, 1 Dec. 1595_. A second bears
+the title _The severall Facts of Witchcrafte approved on Margaret
+Haskett of Stanmore_. 1585. Black letter. Another pamphlet in the same
+year deals with what is doubtless the same case. It is _An Account of
+Margaret Hacket, a notorious Witch, who consumed a young Man to Death,
+rotted his Bowells and back bone asunder, who was executed at Tiborn, 19
+Feb. 1585_. London, 1585. A fourth pamphlet is _The Examination and
+Confession of a notorious Witch named Mother Arnold, alias Whitecote,
+alias Glastonbury, at the Assise of Burntwood in July, 1574: who was
+hanged for Witchcraft at Barking_. 1575.
+
+The title _The case of Agnes Bridges and Rachel Pinder_, created by
+Hazlitt, _Collections and Notes_, 1867-1876, out of the mention by
+Holinshed of a printed account, means but _The discloysing_, etc. (see
+p. 351). The case--see Holinshed, _Chronicles_ (London, 1808), IV, 325,
+and Stow, Annales (London, 1631), p. 678, who put the affair in
+1574--was not of witchcraft, but of pretended possession. See above, p.
+59.
+
+To this period must belong also _A true report of three Straunge
+Witches, lately found at Newnham Regis_, mentioned by Hazlitt
+(_Handbook_, p. 230). I have not seen it; but the printer is given as
+"J. Charlewood," and Charlewood printed between 1562 and 1593. The
+_Stationers' Registers_, 1570-1587 (London; Shakespeare Soc., 1849), II,
+32, mention also the licensing in 1577 of _The Booke of
+Witches_--whatever that may have been.
+
+Among pamphlets dealing with affairs nearly related to witchcraft may be
+mentioned the following:
+
+_A short treatise declaringe the detestable wickednesse of magicall
+sciences, as Necromancie, Coniuration of Spirites, Curiouse Astrologie
+and such lyke.... Made by Francis Coxe._ [London, 1561.] Black letter.
+Coxe had been pardoned by the Queen.
+
+_The Examination of John Walsh, before Master Thomas Williams,
+Commissary to the Reverend father in God, William, bishop of Excester,
+upon certayne Interrogatories touchyng Wytch-crafte and Sorcerye, in the
+presence of divers gentlemen and others, the XX of August, 1566._ 1566.
+Black letter. John Ashton (_The Devil in Britain and America_, London,
+1896, p. 202) has called this the "earliest English printed book on
+witchcraft pure and simple"; but it did not deal with witches and it was
+preceded by the first Chelmsford pamphlet.
+
+_The discloysing of a late counterfeyted possession by the devyl in two
+maydens within the Citie of London._ [1574.] Black letter. The case is
+that of Agnes Bridges and Rachel Pinder, mentioned above (pp. 59, 351).
+
+_The Wonderfull Worke of God shewed upon a Chylde, whose name is William
+Withers, being in the Towne of Walsam ... Suffolk, who, being Eleven
+Yeeres of age, laye in a Traunce the Space of Tenne Days ... and hath
+continued the Space of Three Weeks_, London, 1581. Written by John
+Phillips. This pamphlet is mentioned by Sidney Lee in his article on
+John Phillips in the _Dict. Nat. Biog._
+
+_A Most Wicked worke of a Wretched Witch (the like whereof none can
+record these manie yeares in England) wrought on the Person of one
+Richard Burt, servant to Maister Edling of Woodhall in the Parrish of
+Pinner in the Countie of Myddlesex, a myle beyond Harrow. Latelie
+committed in March last, An. 1592 and newly recognized acording to the
+truth. By G. B. maister of Artes._ [London, 1593.] See Hazlitt,
+Collections and Notes, 1867-1877. The pamphlet may be found in the
+library of Lambeth Palace. The story is a curious one; no action seems
+to have been taken.
+
+_A defensative against the poyson of supposed prophecies, not hitherto
+confuted by the penne of any man; which being eyther uppon the warrant
+and authority of old paynted bookes, expositions of dreames, oracles,
+revelations, invocations of damned spirits ... have been causes of great
+disorder in the commonwealth and chiefly among the simple and unlearned
+people._ Henry Howard, afterwards Earl of Northampton, was the author of
+this "defensative." It appeared about 1581-1583, and was revised and
+reissued in 1621.
+
+Three Elizabethan ballads on witches are noted by Hazlitt,
+_Bibliographical Collections and Notes_, 2d series (London, 1882): _A
+warnynge to wytches_, published in 1585, _The scratchinge of the
+wytches_, published in 1579, and _A lamentable songe of Three Wytches of
+Warbos, and executed at Huntingdon_, published in 1593. Already in
+1562-3 "a boke intituled _A poosye in forme of a visyon, agaynste wytche
+Crafte, and Sosyrye_," written "in myter" by John Hall, had been
+published (_Stationers' Registers_, 1557-1570, p. 78).
+
+Some notion of the first step in the Elizabethan procedure against a
+witch may be gathered from the specimens of "indictments" given in the
+old formula book of William West, _Simboleography_ (pt. ii, first
+printed in 1594). Three specimens are given; two are of indictments "For
+killing a man by witchcraft upon the statute of Anno 5. of the Queene,"
+the third is "For bewitching a Horse, whereby he wasted and became
+worse." As the documents in such bodies of models are usually genuine
+papers with only a suppression of the names, it is probable that the
+dates assigned to the indictments noted--the 34th and 35th years of
+Elizabeth--are the true ones, and that the initials given, "S. B. de C.
+in comit. H. vidua," "Marg' L. de A. in com' E. Spinster," and "Sara B.
+de C. in comitatu Eb. vidua," are those of the actual culprits and of
+their residences. Yorkshire is clearly one of the counties meant. It
+was, moreover, West's own county.
+
+
+§ 2.--The Exorcists (see ch. IV).
+
+The account of Elizabethan exorcism which we have given is necessarily
+one-sided. It deals only with the Puritan movement--if Darrel's work may
+be so called--and does not treat the Catholic exorcists. We have omitted
+the performances of Father Weston and his coadjutors because they had
+little or no relation to the subject of witchcraft. Those who wish to
+follow up this subject can find a readable discussion of it by T. G. Law
+in the _Nineteenth Century_ for March, 1894, "Devil Hunting in
+Elizabethan England."
+
+It is a rather curious fact that the Puritan exorcist has never, except
+for a few pages by S. R. Maitland, in his _Puritan Thaumaturgy_ (London,
+1842), been made a study. Without doubt he, his supporters, and his
+enemies were able between them to make a noise in their own time. To be
+convinced of that one need only read the early seventeenth-century
+dramatists. It may possibly be that Darrel was not the mere impostor his
+enemies pictured him. Despite his trickery it may be that he had really
+a certain hypnotic control over William Somers and perhaps over
+Katherine Wright.
+
+Whatever else Darrel may have been, he was a ready pamphleteer. His
+career may easily be traced in the various brochures put forth, most of
+them from his own pen. Fortunately we have the other side presented by
+Samuel Harsnett, and by two obscure clergymen, John Deacon and John
+Walker. The following is a tentative list of the printed pamphlets
+dealing with the subject:
+
+_A Breife Narration of the possession, dispossession, and repossession
+of William Sommers: and of some proceedings against Mr. John Dorrel
+preacher, with aunsweres to such objections.... Together with certaine
+depositions taken at Nottingham ..., 1598._ Black letter. This was
+written either by Darrel or at his instigation.
+
+_An Apologie, or defence of the possession of William Sommers, a yong
+man of the towne of Nottingham.... By John Darrell, Minister of Christ
+Jesus...._ [1599?] Black letter. This work is undated, but, to judge
+from the preface, it was probably written soon after both Darrel and
+More were imprisoned. It is quite clear too that it was written before
+Harsnett's _Discovery of the Fraudulent Practices of John Darrel_, for
+Darrel says that he hears that the Bishop of London is writing a book
+against him.
+
+_The Triall of Maist. Dorrel, or A Collection of Defences against
+Allegations.... 1599._ This seems written by Darrel himself; but the
+Huth catalogue (V, 1643) ascribes it to James Bamford.
+
+_A brief Apologie proving the possession of William Sommers. Written by
+John Dorrel, a faithful Minister of the Gospell, but published without
+his knowledge.... 1599._
+
+_A Discovery of the Fraudulent Practises of John Darrel, Bacheler of
+Artes ..._, London, 1599. The "Epistle to the Reader" is signed "S. H.,"
+_i. e._, Samuel Harsnett, then chaplain to the Bishop of London. The
+book is an exposure, in 324 pages, of Darrel's various impostures, and
+is based mainly on the depositions given in his trial at Lambeth.
+
+_A True Narration of the strange and grevous Vexation by the Devil of
+seven persons in Lancashire ..., 1600._ Written by Darrel. Reprinted in
+1641 with the title _A True Relation of the grievous handling of William
+Somers of Nottingham_. It is again reprinted in the _Somers Tracts_,
+III, and is the best known of the pamphlets.
+
+_A True Discourse concerning the certaine possession and dispossession
+of 7 persons in one familie in Lancashire, which also may serve as part
+of an Answere to a fayned and false Discoverie.... By George More,
+Minister and Preacher of the Worde of God ..., 1600._ More was Darrel's
+associate in the Cleworth performances and suffered imprisonment with
+him.
+
+_A Detection of that sinnful, shamful, lying, and ridiculous discours of
+Samuel Harshnet._ 1600. This is Darrel's most abusive work. He takes up
+Harsnett's points one by one and attempts to answer them.
+
+_Dialogicall Discourses of Spirits and Divels by John Deacon [and] John
+Walker, Preachers_, London, 1601.
+
+_A Summarie Answere to al the Material Points in any of Master Darel his
+bookes, More especiallie to that one Booke of his, intituled, the
+Doctrine of the Possession and Dispossession of Demoniaks out of the
+word of God. By John Deacon [and] John Walker, Preachers_, London, 1601.
+The "one Booke" now answered is a part of Darrel's _A True Narration_.
+The _Discourses_ are dedicated to Sir Edmund Anderson and other men
+eminent in the government and offer in excuse that "the late bred
+broyles ... doe mightilie over-runne the whole Realme."
+
+_A Survey of Certaine Dialogical Discourses, written by John Deacon and
+John Walker ... By John Darrell, minister of the gospel ..., 1602._
+
+_The Replie of John Darrell, to the Answer of John Deacon, and John
+Walker concerning the doctrine of the Possession and Dispossession of
+Demoniakes ..., 1602._
+
+Harsnett's second work must not be omitted from our account. In his
+famous _Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures_, 1603 and 1605, he
+shows to even better advantage than in the earlier work his remarkable
+talents as an exposer and gives freer play to his wicked humor.
+
+_A True and Breife Report of Mary Glover's Vexation, and of her
+deliverance by the meanes of fastinge and prayer.... By John Swan,
+student in Divinitie ..., 1603._
+
+This narrates another exorcism in which a number of clergymen
+participated. Swan, the author, in his dedication to the king, takes up
+the cudgels vigorously against Harsnett. Elizabeth Jackson was accused
+of having bewitched her, and was indicted. Justice Anderson tried the
+case and showed himself a confirmed believer in witchcraft. But the king
+was of another mind and sent, to examine the girl, a physician, Dr.
+Edward Jorden, who detected her imposture and explained it in his
+pamphlet, _A briefe discourse of a disease called the Suffocation of the
+Mother, Written uppon occasion which hath beene of late taken thereby,
+to suspect possession of an evill spirit...._ (London, 1603). He was
+opposed by the author of a book still unprinted, "Mary Glover's late
+woefull case ... by Stephen Bradwell.... 1603" (Brit. Mus., Sloane,
+831). But see also below, appendix C, under 1602-1603.
+
+One other pamphlet dealing with this same episode must be mentioned.
+Hutchinson, _Historical Essay on Witchcraft_, and George Sinclar,
+_Satan's Invisible World Discovered_ (Edinburgh, 1685), had seen an
+account by the Rev. Lewis Hughes (in his _Certaine Grievances_) of the
+case of Mother Jackson, who was accused of bewitching Mary Glover.
+Although Hughes's tale was not here published until 1641-2, the events
+with which it deals must all have taken place in 1602 or 1603. Sir John
+Crook is mentioned as recorder of London and Sir Edmund Anderson as
+chief justice. "R. B.," in _The Kingdom of Darkness_ (London, 1688),
+gives the story in detail, although misled, like Hutchinson, into
+assigning it to 1642.
+
+It remains to mention certain exorcist pamphlets of which we possess
+only the titles:
+
+_A history of the case of Catherine Wright._ No date; written presumably
+by Darrel and given by him to Mrs. Foljambe, afterwards Lady Bowes. See
+C. H. and T. Cooper, _Athenae Cantabrigienses_ (Cambridge, 1858-1861),
+II, 381.
+
+Darrel says that there was a book printed about "Margaret Harrison of
+Burnham-Ulpe in Norfolk and her vexation by Sathan." See _Detection of
+that sinnfull ... discours of Samuel Harshnet_, 36, and _Survey of
+Certaine Dialogical Discourses_, 54.
+
+_The strange Newes out of Sommersetshire, Anno 1584, tearmed, a
+dreadfull discourse of the dispossessing of one Margaret Cooper at
+Ditchet, from a devill in the likenes of a headlesse beare._ Referred to
+by Harsnett, _Discovery of the Fraudulent Practises of John Darrel_, 17.
+
+A ballad seems to have been written about the Somers case. Extracts from
+it are given by Harsnett, _ibid._, 34, 120.
+
+
+§ 3.--James I and Witchcraft and Notable Jacobean Cases (see chs. V,
+VI).
+
+_The Most Cruell and Bloody Murther committed by an Innkeepers Wife
+called Annis Dell, and her Sonne George Dell, Foure Yeares since....
+With the severall Witch-crafts and most damnable practices of one Iohane
+Harrison and her Daughter, upon several persons men and women at
+Royston, who were all executed at Hartford the 4 of August last past
+1606._ So far as the writer knows, there is no contemporary reference to
+confirm the executions mentioned in this pamphlet. The story itself is a
+rather curious one with a certain literary flavor. This, however, need
+not weigh against it. It seems possible rather than probable that the
+narrative is a fabrication.
+
+_The severall notorious and lewd Cosenages of Iohn West and Alice West,
+falsely called the King and Queene of Fayries ... convicted ... 1613_,
+London, 1613. This might pass in catalogues as a witch pamphlet. It is
+an account of two clever swindlers and of their punishment.
+
+_The Witches of Northamptonshire._
+
+ _Agnes Browne_ } _Arthur Bill_     }
+ _Joane Vaughan_} _Hellen Jenkenson_} _Witches._
+           _Mary Barber_            }
+
+_Who were all executed at Northampton the 22. of July last. 1612._
+
+Concerning this same affair there is an account in MS., "A briefe
+abstract of the arraignment of nine witches at Northampton, July 21,
+1621" (Brit. Mus., Sloane, 972). This narrative has, in common with the
+printed narrative, the story of Mistress Belcher's and Master Avery's
+sufferings from witchcraft. It mentions also Agnes Brown and Joan Brown
+(or Vaughan) who, according to the other account, were hanged. All the
+other names are different. But it is nevertheless not hard to reconcile
+the two accounts. The "briefe abstract" deals with the testimony taken
+before the justices of the peace on two charges; the _Witches of
+Northamptonshire_ with the final outcome at the assizes. Three of those
+finally hanged were not concerned in the first accusations and were
+brought in from outlying districts. On the other hand, most of those who
+were first accused by Belcher and Avery seem not to have been indicted.
+
+_The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the countie of Lancaster. With
+the Arraignement and Triall of Nineteene notorious Witches, at the
+Assizes and generall Gaole deliverie, holden at the Castle of Lancaster,
+upon Munday, the seventeenth of August last, 1612. Before Sir James
+Altham, and Sir Edward Bromley.... Together with the Arraignement and
+Triall of Jennet Preston, at the Assizes holden at the Castle of Yorke,
+the seven and twentieth day of Julie last past.... Published and set
+forth by commandement of his Majesties Justices of Assize in the North
+Parts. By Thomas Potts, Esq._ London, 1613. Reprinted by the Chetham
+Soc, J. Crossley, ed., 1845. Thomas Potts has given us in this book the
+fullest of all English witch accounts. No other narrative offers such an
+opportunity to examine the character of evidence as well as the court
+procedure. Potts was very superstitious, but his account is in good
+faith.
+
+_Witches Apprehended, Examined and Executed, for notable villanies by
+them committed both by Land and Water. With a strange and most true
+trial how to know whether a woman be a Witch or not._ London, 1613.
+Bodleian.
+
+_A Booke of the Wytches Lately condemned and executed at Bedford,
+1612-1613._ I have seen no copy of this pamphlet, the title of which is
+given by Edward Arber, _Transcript of the Registers of the Company of
+Stationers of London, 1554-1640_ (London, 1875-1894), III, 234b.... The
+story is without doubt the same as that told in the preceding pamphlet.
+We have no absolutely contemporary reference to this case. Edward
+Fairfax, who wrote in 1622, had heard of the case--probably, however,
+from the pamphlet itself. But we can be quite certain that the narrative
+was based on an actual trial and conviction. Some of the incidental
+details given are such as no fabricator would insert.
+
+In the MS., "How to discover a witch," Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 36,674, f.
+148, there is a reference to a detail of Mother Sutton's ordeal not
+given in the pamphlet I have used.
+
+_A Treatise of Witchcraft.... With a true Narration of the Witchcrafts
+which Mary Smith, wife of Henry Smith, Glover, did practise ... and
+lastly, of her death and execution ... By Alexander Roberts, B. D. and
+Preacher of Gods Word at Kings-Linne in Norffolke._ London, 1616. The
+case of Mary Smith is taken up at p. 45. This account was dedicated to
+the "Maior" and aldermen, etc., of "Kings Linne" and was no doubt
+semi-official. It is reprinted in Howell, _State Trials_, II.
+
+_The Wonderful Discoverie of the Witchcrafts of Margaret and Phillip
+Flower, daughters of Joan Flower neere Bever Castle: executed at
+Lincolne, March 11, 1618. Who were specially arraigned and condemned
+before Sir Henry Hobart and Sir Edward Bromley, Judges of Assize, for
+confessing themselves actors in the destruction of Henry, Lord Rosse,
+with their damnable practises against others the Children of the Right
+Honourable Francis Earle of Rutland. Together with the severall
+Examinations and Confessions of Anne Baker, Joan Willimot, and Ellen
+Greene, Witches in Leicestershire_, London, 1619. For confirmation of
+the Rutlandshire witchcraft see _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1619-1623_, 129;
+_Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports, Rutland_, IV, 514. See also _Gentleman's
+Magazine_, LXXIV, pt. ii, 909: "On the monument of Francis, sixth earl
+of Rutland, in Bottesford church, Leicestershire, it is recorded that by
+his second lady he had 'two Sons, both which died in their infancy by
+wicked practices and sorcery.'"
+
+Another pamphlet seems to have been issued about the affair: _Strange
+and wonderfull Witchcrafts, discovering the damnable Practises of seven
+Witches against the Lives of certain noble Personages and others of this
+Kingdom; with an approved Triall how to find out either Witch or any
+Apprentise to Witchcraft, 1621._ Another edition in 1635; see Lowndes.
+
+_The Wonderfull discoverie of Elizabeth Sawyer ... late of Edmonton, her
+conviction, condemnation and Death.... Written by Henry Goodcole,
+Minister of the word of God, and her continuall Visiter in the Gaole of
+Newgate.... 1621._ The Reverend Mr. Goodcole wrote a plain,
+unimaginative story, the main facts of which we cannot doubt. They are
+supported moreover by Dekker and Ford's play, _The Witch of Edmonton_,
+which appeared within a year. Goodcole refers to the "ballets" written
+about this case.
+
+_The Boy of Bilson: or A True Discovery of the Late Notorious Impostures
+of Certaine Romish Priests in their pretended Exorcisme, or expulsion of
+the Divell out of a young Boy, named William Perry...._ London, 1622.
+Preface signed by Ryc. Baddeley. This is an account of a famous
+imposture. It is really a pamphlet against the Catholic exorcists. On
+pp. 45-54 is given a reprint of the Catholic account of the affair; on
+pp. 55-75 the exposure of the imposture is related. We can confirm this
+account by Arthur Wilson, _Life and Reign of James I_, 107-111, and by
+John Webster, _Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft_, 274.
+
+_A Discourse of Witchcraft As it was acted in the Family of Mr. Edward
+Fairfax of Fuystone in the County of York, in the year 1621._ Edited by
+R. Monckton Milnes (the later Lord Houghton) for vol. V of _Miscellanies
+of the Philobiblon Soc._ (London, 1858-1859, 299 pages). The editor says
+the original MS. is still in existence. Edward Fairfax was a natural
+brother of Sir Thomas Fairfax of Denton. He translated into English
+verse Tasso's _Jerusalem Delivered_, and accomplished other poetic
+feats. His account of his children's bewitchment and of their trances is
+very detailed. The book was again published at Harrogate in 1882, under
+the title of _Dćmonologia: a Discourse on Witchcraft_, with an
+introduction and notes by William Grainge.
+
+
+§ 4.--Matthew Hopkins (see ch. VIII).
+
+_A Most certain, strange and true Discovery of a Witch, Being overtaken
+by some of the Parliament Forces, as she was standing on a small
+Planck-board and sayling on it over the River of Newbury, Together with
+the strange and true manner of her death._ 1643. The tale told here is a
+curious one. The soldiers saw a woman crossing the river on a plank,
+decided that she was a witch, and resolved to shoot her. "She caught
+their bullets in her hands and chew'd them." When the "veines that
+crosse the temples of the head" were scratched so as to bleed, she lost
+her power and was killed by a pistol shot just below the ear. It is not
+improbable that this distorted tale was based on an actual happening in
+the war. See _Mercurius Civicus_, September 21-28, 1643.
+
+_A Confirmation and Discovery of Witch-craft ... together with the
+Confessions of many of those executed since May 1645.... By John Stearne
+..._ London, 1648.
+
+_The Examination, Confession, Triall, and Execution of Joane Williford,
+Joan Cariden and Jane Hott: who were executed at Feversham, in Kent ...
+all attested under the hand of Robert Greenstreet, Maior of Feversham._
+London, 1645. This pamphlet has no outside evidence to confirm its
+statements, but it has every appearance of being a true record of
+examinations.
+
+_A true and exact Relation of the severall Informations, Examinations,
+and Confessions of the late Witches arraigned and executed in the County
+of Essex. Who were arraigned and condemned at the late Sessions, holden
+at Chelmesford before the Right Honorable Robert, Earle of Warwicke, and
+severall of his Majesties Justices of Peace, the 29 of July 1645...._
+London, 1645. Reprinted London, 1837; also embodied in Howell, _State
+Trials_. This is a very careful statement of the court examinations,
+drawn up by "H. F." In names and details it has points of coincidence
+with the _True Relation_ about the Bury affair; see next paragraph
+below. It is supported, too, by Arthur Wilson's account of the affair;
+see Francis Peck, _Desiderata Curiosa_ (ed. of London, 1779), II, 476.
+
+_A True Relation of the Araignment of eighteene Witches at St.
+Edmundsbury, 27th August 1645.... As also a List of the names of those
+that were executed._ London, 1645. There is abundance of corroborative
+evidence for the details given in this pamphlet. It fits in with the
+account of the Essex witches; its details are amplified by Stearne,
+_Confirmation of Witchcraft_, Clarke, _Lives of sundry Eminent Persons_,
+John Walker, _Suffering of the Clergy ... in the Grand Rebellion_
+(London, 1714), and others. The narrative was written in the interim
+between the first and second trials at Bury.
+
+_Strange and fearfull newes from Plaisto in the parish of Westham neere
+Bow foure miles from London_, London, 1645. Unimportant.
+
+_The Lawes against Witches and Conjuration, and Some brief Notes and
+Observations for the Discovery of Witches. Being very Usefull for these
+Times wherein the Devil reignes and prevailes.... Also The Confession of
+Mother Lakeland, who was arraigned and condemned for a Witch at Ipswich
+in Suffolke.... By authority._ London, 1645. The writer of this pamphlet
+acknowledges his indebtedness to Potts, _Discoverie of Witches in the
+countie of Lancaster_ (1613), and to Bernard, _Guide to Grand Jurymen_
+(1627). These books had been used by Stearne and doubtless by Hopkins.
+This pamphlet expresses Hopkins's ideas, it is written in Hopkins's
+style--so far as we know it--and it may have been the work of the
+witchfinder himself. That might explain, too, the "by authority" of the
+title.
+
+_Signes and Wonders from Heaven.... Likewise a new discovery of Witches
+in Stepney Parish. And how 20. Witches more were executed in Suffolk
+this last Assise. Also how the Divell came to Soffarn to a Farmers house
+in the habit of a Gentlewoman on horse backe._ London, [1645]. Mentions
+the Chelmsford, Suffolk, and Norfolk trials.
+
+_The Witches of Huntingdon, their Examinations and Confessions ..._,
+London, 1646. This work is dedicated to the justices of the peace for
+the county of Huntingdon; the dedication is signed by John Davenport.
+Three of the witches whose accusations are here presented are mentioned
+by Stearne (_Confirmation of Witchcraft_, 11, 13, 20-21, 42).
+
+_The Discovery of Witches: in answer to severall Queries, lately
+Delivered to the Judges of Assize for the County of Norfolk. And now
+published by Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder. For the Benefit of the Whole
+Kingdome...._ London, 1647. Hopkins's and Stearne's accounts fit into
+each other and are the two best sources for ch. VIII.
+
+_The [D]Ivell in Kent, or His strange Delusions at Sandwitch_, London,
+1647. Has nothing to do with witches; shows the spirit of the times.
+
+_A strange and true Relation of a Young Woman possest with the Devill.
+By name Joyce Dovey dwelling at Bewdley neer Worcester ... as it was
+certified in a Letter from Mr. James Dalton unto Mr. Tho. Groome,
+Ironmonger over against Sepulchres Church in London.... Also a Letter
+from Cambridge, wherein is related the late conference between the Devil
+(in the shape of a Mr. of Arts) and one Ashbourner, a Scholler of S.
+Johns Colledge ... who was afterwards carried away by him and never
+heard of since onely his Gown found in the River_, London, 1647. In the
+first narrative a woman after hearing a sermon fell into fits. The
+second narrative was probably based upon a combination of facts and
+rumor.
+
+_The Full Tryals, Examination and Condemnation of Four Notorious
+Witches, At the Assizes held in Worcester on Tuseday the 4th of March
+... As also Their Confessions and last Dying Speeches at the place of
+Execution, with other Amazing Particulars ..._, London, printed by "I.
+W.," no date. Another edition of this pamphlet (in the Bodleian) bears
+the date 1700 and was printed for "J. M." in Fleet street. This is a
+most interesting example of a made-to-order witch pamphlet. The preface
+makes one suspect its character: "the following narrative coming to my
+hand." The accused were Rebecca West, Margaret Landis, Susan Cook, and
+Rose Hallybread. Now, all these women were tried at Chelmsford in 1645,
+and their examinations and confessions printed in _A true and exact
+Relation_. The wording has been changed a little, several things have
+been added, but the facts are similar; see _A true and exact
+Relation_,10, 11, 13-15, 27. When the author of the Worcester pamphlet
+came to narrate the execution he wandered away from his text and
+invented some new particulars. The women were "burnt at the stak." They
+made a "yelling and howling." Two of them were very "stubborn and
+refractory." _Cf._ below, § 10.
+
+_The Devill seen at St. Albans, Being a true Relation How the Devill was
+seen there in a Cellar, in the likenesse of a Ram; and how a Butcher
+came and cut his throat, and sold some of it, and dressed the rest for
+himselfe, inviting many to supper_ ..., 1648. A clever lampoon.
+
+
+§ 5.--Commonwealth and Protectorate (see ch. IX).
+
+_The Divels Delusions or A faithfull relation of John Palmer and
+Elizabeth Knott two notorious Witches lately condemned at the Sessions
+of Oyer and Terminer in St. Albans ..._, 1649. The narrative purports to
+be taken from a letter sent from St. Alban's. It deals with the
+practices of two good witches who were finally discovered to be black
+witches. The tale has no outside confirmation.
+
+_Wonderfull News from the North, Or a True Relation of the Sad and
+Grievous Torments Inflicted upon the Bodies of three Children of Mr.
+George Muschamp, late of the County of Northumberland, by Witchcraft,
+... As also the prosecution of the sayd Witches, as by Oaths, and their
+own Confessions will appear and by the Indictment found by the Jury
+against one of them, at the Sessions of the Peace held at Alnwick, the
+24 day of April 1650_, London, 1650. Preface signed: "Thine, Mary
+Moore." This pamphlet bears all through the marks of a true narrative.
+It is written evidently by a friend of the Mistress Muschamp who had
+such difficulty in persuading the north country justices, judges, and
+sheriffs to act. The names and the circumstances fit in with other known
+facts.
+
+_The strange Witch at Greenwich haunting a Wench_, 1650. Unimportant.
+
+_A Strange Witch at Greenwich_, 1650.
+
+The last two pamphlets are mentioned by Lowndes. The second pamphlet I
+have not seen; as, however, Lowndes cites the title of the first
+incorrectly, it is very possible that he has given two titles for the
+same pamphlet.
+
+_The Witch of Wapping, or an Exact and Perfect Relation of the Life and
+Devilish Practises of Joan Peterson, who dwelt in Spruce Island, near
+Wapping; Who was condemned for practising Witchcraft, and sentenced to
+be Hanged at Tyburn, on Munday the 11th of April 1652_, London, 1652.
+
+_A Declaration in Answer to several lying Pamphlets concerning the Witch
+of Wapping, ... shewing the Bloudy Plot and wicked Conspiracy of one
+Abraham Vandenhemde, Thomas Crompton, Thomas Collet, and others_,
+London, 1652. This pamphlet is described above, pp. 214-215.
+
+_The Tryall and Examinations of Mrs. Joan Peterson before the Honourable
+Bench at the Sessions house in the Old Bayley yesterday._ [1652]. This
+states the case against Mistress Joan in the title, but (unless the
+British Museum copy is imperfect) gives no details.
+
+_Doctor Lamb's Darling, or Strange and terrible News from Salisbury;
+Being A true, exact, and perfect Relation of the great and wonderful
+Contract and Engagement made between the Devil, and Mistris Anne
+Bodenham; with the manner how she could transform herself into the shape
+of a Mastive Dog, a black Lyon, a white Bear, a Woolf, a Bull, and a
+Cat.... The Tryal, Examinations, and Confession ... before the Lord
+Chief Baron Wild.... By James [Edmond?] Bower, Cleric_, London, 1653.
+This is the first account of the affair and is a rather crude one.
+
+_Doctor Lamb Revived, or, Witchcraft condemn'd in Anne Bodenham ... who
+was Arraigned and Executed the Lent Assizes last at Salisbury, before
+the Right Honourable the Lord Chief Baron Wild, Judge of the Assize....
+By Edmond Bower, an eye and ear Witness of her Examination and
+Confession_, London, 1653. Bower's second and more detailed account. It
+is dedicated to the judge by the writer, who had a large part in the
+affair and frequently interviewed the witch. He does not present a
+record of examinations, but gives a detailed narrative of the entire
+affair. He throws out hints about certain phases of the case and rouses
+curiosity without satisfying it. His story of Anne Bodenham is, however,
+clear and interesting. The celebrated Aubrey refers to the case in his
+_Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme_, 261. His account, which tallies
+well with that of Bower, he seems to have derived from Anthony Ettrick
+"of the Middle Temple," who was a "curious observer of the whole
+triall."
+
+_A Prodigious and Tragicall History of the Arraignment, Tryall,
+Confession, and Condemnation of six Witches at Maidstone, in Kent, at
+the Assizes there held in July, Fryday 30, this present year, 1652.
+Before the Right Honourable, Peter Warburton.... Collected from the
+Observations of E. G. Gent, a learned person, present at their
+Conviction and Condemnation, and digested by H. F. Gent._, London, 1652.
+It is a pity that the digesting was not omitted. The account, however,
+is trustworthy. Mention is made of this trial by Elias Ashmole in his
+_Diary_ (London, 1717) and by _The Faithful Scout_, July 30-August 7,
+1652.
+
+_The most true and wonderfull Narration of two women bewitched in
+Yorkshire: Who camming to the Assizes at York to give in Evidence
+against the Witch after a most horrible noise to the terror and
+amazement of all the beholders, did vomit forth before the Judges, Pins,
+wool.... Also a most true Relation of a young Maid ... who ... did ...
+vomit forth wadds of straw, with pins a crosse in them, iron Nails,
+Needles, ... as it is attested under the hand of that most famour
+Phisitian Doctor Henry Heers, ... 1658._ In the Bodleian. The writer of
+this pamphlet had little information to give and seems to have got it at
+second or third hand.
+
+_A more Exact Relation of the most lamentable and horrid Contract which
+Lydia Rogers, living in Pump-Ally in Wapping, made with the Divel....
+Together with the great pains and prayers of many eminent Divines, ...
+1658._ In the Bodleian. This is a "Relation of a woman who heretofore
+professing Religion in the purity thereof fel afterwards to be a
+sectary, and then to be acquainted with Astrologers, and afterwards with
+the Divel himself." A poor woman "naturally inclin'd to melancholy"
+believed she had made a contract with the Devil. "Many Ministers are
+dayly with her."
+
+_The Snare of the Devill Discovered: Or, A True and perfect Relation of
+the sad and deplorable Condition of Lydia the Wife of John Rogers House
+Carpenter, living in Greenbank in Pumpe alley in Wappin.... Also her
+Examination by Mr. Johnson the Minister of Wappin, and her Confession.
+As also in what a sad Condition she continues...._ London, 1658. Another
+tract against the Baptists. In spite of Lydia Rogers's supposed contract
+with the Devil, she does not seem to have been brought into court.
+
+_Strange and Terrible Newes from Cambridge, being A true Relation of the
+Quakers bewitching of Mary Philips ... into the shape of a Bay Mare,
+riding her from Dinton towards the University. With the manner how she
+became visible again ... in her own Likeness and Shape, with her sides
+all rent and torn, as if they had been spur-galled, ... and the Names of
+the Quakers brought to tryal on Friday last at the Assises held at
+Cambridge ..._, London, 1659. This is mentioned by John Ashton in the
+bibliographical appendix to his _The Devil in Britain and America_.
+
+_The Just Devil of Woodstock, or a true narrative of the severall
+apparitions, the frights and punishments inflicted upon the Rumpish
+commissioners sent thither to survey the manors and houses belonging to
+His Majesty._ 1660. Wood, _Athenae Oxonienses_ (ed. of 1817), III, 398,
+ascribes this to Thomas Widdowes. It was on the affair described in this
+pamphlet that Walter Scott based his novel _Woodstock_. The story given
+in the pamphlet may be found in Sinclar's _Satan's Invisible World
+Discovered_. The writer has not seen the original pamphlet.
+
+
+§ 6.--Charles II and James II (see ch. XI).
+
+_The Power of Witchcraft, Being a most strange but true Relation of the
+most miraculous and wonderful deliverance of one Mr. William Harrison of
+Cambden in the County of Gloucester, Steward to the Lady Nowel ..._,
+London, 1662.
+
+_A True and Perfect Account of the Examination, Confession, Tryal,
+Condemnation and Execution of Joan Perry and her two Sons ... for the
+supposed murder of William Harrison, Gent ..._, London, 1676. These are
+really not witchcraft pamphlets. Mr. Harrison disappears, three people
+are charged with his murder and hanged. Mr. Harrison comes back from
+Turkey in two years and tells a story of his disappearance which leads
+to the supposition that he was transported thither by witchcraft.
+
+_A Tryal of Witches at the assizes held at Bury St. Edmonds for the
+County of Suffolk; on the tenth day of March, 1664_, London, 1682;
+another edition, 1716. The writer of this tract writes in introducing
+it: "This Tryal of Witches hath lain a long time in a private
+Gentleman's Hands in the Country, it being given to him by the Person
+that took it in the Court for his own satisfaction." This is the much
+quoted case before Sir Matthew Hale. The pamphlet presents one of the
+most detailed accounts of the court procedure in a witch case.
+
+_The Lord's Arm Stretched Out in an Answer of Prayer or a True Relation
+of the wonderful Deliverance of James Barrow, the Son of John Barrow of
+Olaves Southwark_, London, 1664. This seems to be a Baptist pamphlet.
+
+_The wonder of Suffolke, being a true relation of one that reports he
+made a league with the Devil for three years, to do mischief, and now
+breaks open houses, robs people daily, ... and can neither be shot nor
+taken, but leaps over walls fifteen feet high, runs five or six miles in
+a quarter of an hour, and sometimes vanishes in the midst of multitudes
+that go to take him. Faithfully written in a letter from a solemn
+person, dated not long since, to a friend in Ship-yard, near Temple-bar,
+and ready to be attested by hundreds ..._, London, 1677. This is
+mentioned in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1829, pt. ii, 584. I have not
+seen a copy of the pamphlet.
+
+_Daimonomageia: a small Treatise of Sicknesses and Diseases from
+Witchcraft and Supernatural Causes.... Being useful to others besides
+Physicians, in that it confutes Atheistical, Sadducistical, and
+Sceptical Principles and Imaginations ..._, London, 1665. Though its
+title-page bears no name, the author was undoubtedly that "William
+Drage, D. P. [Doctor of Physic] at Hitchin," in Hertfordshire, to whose
+larger treatise on medicine (first printed in 1664 as _A Physical
+Nosonomy_, then in 1666 as _The Practice of Physick_, and again in 1668
+as _Physical Experiments_) it seems to be a usual appendage. It is so,
+at least, in the Cornell copy of the first edition and in the Harvard
+copy of the third, and is so described by the _Dict. Nat. Biog._ and by
+the British Museum catalogue.
+
+_Hartford-shire Wonder. Or, Strange News from Ware, Being an Exact and
+true Relation of one Jane Stretton ... who hath been visited in a
+strange kind of manner by extraordinary and unusual fits ..._, London,
+1669. The title gives the clue to this story. The narrator makes it
+clear that a certain woman was suspected of the bewitchment.
+
+_A Magicall Vision, Or a Perfect Discovery of the Fallacies of
+Witchcraft, As it was lately represented in a pleasant sweet Dream to a
+Holysweet Sister, a faithful and pretious Assertor of the Family of the
+Stand-Hups, for preservation of the Saints from being tainted with the
+heresies of the Congregation of the Doe-Littles_, London, 1673. I have
+not seen this. It is mentioned by Hazlitt, _Bibliographical
+Collections_, fourth series, _s. v._ Witchcraft.
+
+_A Full and True Relation of The Tryal, Condemnation, and Execution of
+Ann Foster ... at the place of Execution at Northampton. With the Manner
+how she by her Malice and Witchcraft set all the Barns and Corn on Fire
+... and bewitched a whole Flock of Sheep ..._, London, 1674. This
+narrative has no confirmation from other sources, yet its details are so
+susceptible of natural explanation that they warrant a presumption of
+its truth.
+
+_Strange News from Arpington near Bexby in Kent: Being a True Narrative
+of a yong Maid who was Possest with several Devils ..._, London, 1679.
+
+_Strange and Wonderful News from Yowell in Surry; Giving a True and Just
+Account of One Elisabeth Burgess, Who was most strangely Bewitched and
+Tortured at a sad rate_, London, 1681.
+
+_An Account of the Tryal and Examination of Joan Buts, for being a
+Common Witch and Inchantress, before the Right Honourable Sir Francis
+Pemberton, Lord Chief Justice, at the Assizes ... 1682._ Single leaf.
+
+The four brochures next to be described deal with the same affair and
+substantially agree.
+
+_The Tryal, Condemnation, and Execution of Three Witches, viz.
+Temperance Floyd, Mary Floyd, and Susanna Edwards. Who were Arraigned at
+Exeter on the 18th of August, 1682...._ London, 1682. Confirmed by the
+records of the gaol deliveries examined by Mr. Inderwick (_Side-Lights
+on the Stuarts_, p. 192).
+
+_A True and Impartial Relation of the Informations against Three
+Witches, viz. Temperance Lloyd, Mary Trembles, and Susanna Edwards, who
+were Indicted, Arraigned, and Convicted at the Assizes holden ... at ...
+Exon, Aug. 14, 1682. With their several Confessions ... as also Their
+... Behaviour, at the ... Execution on the Twenty fifth of the said
+Month_, London, 1682. This, the fullest account (40 pp.), gives
+correctly the names of these three women, whom I still believe the last
+put to death for witchcraft in England.
+
+_Witchcraft discovered and punished. Or the Tryals and Condemnation of
+three Notorious Witches, who were Tryed the last Assizes, holden at the
+Castle of Exeter ... where they received sentence of Death, for
+bewitching severall Persons, destroying Ships at Sea, and Cattel by
+Land. To the Tune of Doctor Faustus; or Fortune my Foe._ In the
+Roxburghe Collection at the British Museum. Broadside. A ballad of 17
+stanzas (4 lines each) giving the story of the affair.
+
+_The Life and Conversation of Temperance Floyd, Mary Lloyd and Susanna
+Edwards ...; Lately Condemned at Exeter Assizes; together with a full
+Account of their first Agreement with the Devil: With the manner how
+they prosecuted their devilish Sorceries ..._, London, 1687.
+
+_A Full and True Account of the Proceedings at the Sessions of Oyer and
+Terminer ... which began at the Sessions House in the Old Bayley on
+Thursday, June 1st, and Ended on Fryday, June 2nd, 1682. Wherein is
+Contained the Tryal of many notorious Malefactors ... but more
+especially the Tryall of Jane Kent for Witchcraft_. This pamphlet is a
+brief summary of several cases just finished and has every evidence of
+being a faithful account. It is to be found in the library of Lincoln's
+Inn.
+
+_Strange and Dreadful News from the Town of Deptford in the County of
+Kent, Being a Full, True, and Sad Relation of one Anne Arthur._ 1684/5.
+One leaf, folio.
+
+_Strange newes from Shadwell, being a ... relation of the death of Alice
+Fowler, who had for many years been accounted a witch._ London, 1685. 4
+pp. In the library of the Earl of Crawford. I have not seen it.
+
+_A True Account of a Strange and Wonderful Relation of one John Tonken,
+of Pensans in Cornwall, said to be Bewitched by some Women: two of which
+on Suspition are committed to Prison_, London, 1686. In the Bodleian.
+This narrative is confirmed by Inderwick's records.
+
+_News from Panier Alley; or a True Relation of Some Pranks the Devil
+hath lately play'd with a Plaster Pot there_, London, 1687. In the
+Bodleian. A curious tract. No trial.
+
+
+§ 7.--The Final Decline, Miscellaneous Pamphlets (see ch. XIII).
+
+_A faithful narrative of the ... fits which ... Thomas Spatchet ... was
+under by witchcraft ..., 1693._ Unimportant.
+
+_The Second Part of the Boy of Bilson, Or a True and Particular Relation
+of the Imposter Susanna Fowles, wife of John Fowles of Hammersmith in
+the Co. of Midd., who pretended herself to be possessed_, London, 1698.
+
+_A Full and True Account Both of the Life: And also the Manner and
+Method of carrying on the Delusions, Blasphemies, and Notorious Cheats
+of Susan Fowls, as the same was Contrived, Plotted, Invented, and
+Managed by wicked Popish Priests and other Papists._
+
+_The trial of Susannah Fowles, of Hammersmith, for blaspheming Jesus
+Christ, and cursing the Lord's Prayer ..._, London, 1698.
+
+These three pamphlets tell the story of a woman who was "an impostor and
+Notorious Lyar"; they have little to do with witchcraft. See above, ch.
+XIII, note 23.
+
+_The Case of Witchcraft at Coggeshall, Essex, in the year 1699. Being
+the Narrative of the Rev. J. Boys, Minister of the Parish._ Printed from
+his manuscript in the possession of the publisher (A. Russell Smith),
+London, 1901.
+
+_A True and Impartial Account of the Dark and Hellish Power of
+Witchcraft, Lately Exercised on the Body of the Reverend Mr. Wood,
+Minister of Bodmyn. In a Letter from a Gentleman there, to his Friend in
+Exon, in Confirmation thereof_, Exeter, 1700.
+
+_A Full and True Account of the Apprehending and Taking of Mrs. Sarah
+Moordike, Who is accused for a Witch, Being taken near Paul's Wharf ...
+for haveing Bewitched one Richard Hetheway.... With her Examination
+before the Right Worshipful Sir Thomas Lane, Sir Owen Buckingham, and
+Dr. Hambleton in Bowe-lane._ 1701. This account can be verified and
+filled out from the records of the trial of Hathaway, printed in Howell,
+_State Trials_, XIV, 639-696.
+
+_A short Account of the Trial held at Surry Assizes, in the Borough of
+Southwark; on an Information against Richard Hathway ... for Riot and
+Assault_, London, 1702.
+
+_The Tryal of Richard Hathaway, upon an Information For being a Cheat
+and Impostor, For endeavouring to take away The Life of Sarah Morduck,
+For being a Witch at Surry Assizes ..._, London, 1702.
+
+_A Full and True Account of the Discovering, Apprehending and taking of
+a Notorious Witch, who was carried before Justice Bateman in Well-Close
+on Sunday, July the 23. Together with her Examination and Commitment to
+Bridewel, Clerkenwel_, London, 1704. Signed at the end, "Tho. Greenwel."
+Single page.
+
+_An Account of the Tryals, Examination, and Condemnation of Elinor Shaw
+and Mary Phillips ..., 1705._
+
+_The Northamptonshire Witches ..., 1705._
+
+The second of these is the completer account. They are by the same
+author and are probably fabrications; see below, § 10.
+
+_The Whole Trial of Mrs. Mary Hicks and her Daughter Elizabeth ...,
+1716._ See below, § 10.
+
+
+§ 8.--The Surey Pamphlets (see ch. XIII).
+
+_The Devil Turned Casuist, or the Cheats of Rome Laid open in the
+Exorcism of a Despairing Devil at the House of Thomas Pennington in
+Oriel.... By Zachary Taylor, M. A., Chaplain to the Right reverend
+Father in God, Nicholas, Lord Bishop of Chester, and Rector of Wigan_,
+London, 1696.
+
+_The Surey Demoniack, Or an Account of Satan's Strange and Dreadful
+Actings, In and about the Body of Richard Dugdale of Surey, near Whalley
+in Lancashire. And How he was Dispossest by Gods blessing on the
+Fastings and Prayers of divers Ministers and People_, London, 1697.
+Fishwick, _Notebook of Jollie_ (Chetham Soc.), p. xxiv says this was
+written by Thomas Jollie and John Carrington. The preface is signed by
+"Thomas Jolly" and five other clergymen. Probably Jollie wrote the
+pamphlet and Carrington revised it. See above, ch. XIII, note 10. Jollie
+disclaimed the sole responsibility for it. See his _Vindication_, 7.
+Taylor in _The Surey Impostor_ assumes that Carrington wrote _The Surey
+Demoniack_; see _e. g._ p. 21.
+
+_The Surey Imposter, being an answer to a late Fanatical Pamphlet,
+entituled The Surey Demoniack._ By Zachary Taylor. London, 1697.
+
+_A Vindication of the Surey Demoniack as no Imposter: Or, A Reply to a
+certain Pamphlet publish'd by Mr. Zach. Taylor, called The Surey
+Imposter...._ By T. J., London, 1698. Written by Jollie.
+
+_Popery, Superstition, Ignorance and Knavery very unjustly by a letter
+in the general pretended; but as far as was charg'd very fully proved
+upon the Dissenters that were concerned in the Surey Imposture._ 1698.
+Written by Zachary Taylor.
+
+_The Lancashire Levite Rebuked, or a Vindication of the Dissenters from
+Popery, Superstition, Ignorance, and Knavery, unjustly Charged on them
+by Mr. Zachary Taylor...._ London, 1698. Signed "N. N.;" see above ch.
+XIII, note 17.
+
+_The Lancashire Levite Rebuked, or a Farther Vindication_, 1698. This
+seems to have been an answer to a "letter to Mr. N. N." which Taylor had
+published. We have, however, no other mention of such a letter.
+
+_Popery, Superstition, Ignorance, and Knavery, Confess'd and fully
+Proved on the Surey Dissenters, from a Second Letter of an Apostate
+Friend, to Zach. Taylor. To which is added a Refutation of T. Jollie's
+Vindication ..._, London, 1699. Written by Zachary Taylor.
+
+_A Refutation of Mr. T. Jolly's Vindication of the Devil in Dugdale; Or,
+The Surey Demoniack_, London, 1699.
+
+It is not worth while to give any critical appraisement of these
+pamphlets. They were all controversial and all dealt with the case of
+Richard Dugdale. Zachary Taylor had the best of it. The Puritan
+clergymen who backed up Thomas Jollie in his claims seem gradually to
+have withdrawn their support.
+
+
+§ 9.--The Wenham Pamphlets (see ch. XIII).
+
+_An Account of the Tryal, Examination, and Condemnation of Jane Wenham,
+on an Indictment of Witchcraft, for Bewitching of Matthew Gilston and
+Anne Thorne of Walcorne, in the County of Hertford.... Before the Right
+Honourable Mr. Justice Powell, and is ordered for Execution on Saturday
+come Sevennight the 15th._ One page.
+
+_A Full and Impartial Account of the Discovery of Sorcery and
+Witchcraft, Practis'd by Jane Wenham of Walkerne in Hertfordshire, upon
+the bodies of Anne Thorn, Anne Street, &c.... till she ... receiv'd
+Sentence of Death for the same, March 4, 1711-12_, London, 1712.
+Anonymous, but confessedly written by Francis Bragge. 1st ed. in Cornell
+library and Brit. Mus.; 2d ed. in Brit. Mus.; 3d ed. in Brit. Mus.
+(Sloane, 3,943), and Bodleian; 4th ed. in Brit. Mus.; 5th ed. in Harvard
+library: all published within the year.
+
+_Witchcraft Farther Display'd. Containing (I) An Account of the
+Witchcraft practis'd by Jane Wenham of Walkerne, in Hertfordshire, since
+her Condemnation, upon the bodies of Anne Thorne and Anne Street....
+(II) An Answer to the most general Objections against the Being and
+Power of Witches: With some Remarks upon the Case of Jane Wenham in
+particular, and on Mr. Justice Powel's procedure therein...._ London,
+1712. Introduction signed by "F. B." [Francis Bragge], who was the
+author.
+
+_A Full Confutation of Witchcraft: More particularly of the Depositions
+against Jane Wenham, Lately Condemned for a Witch; at Hertford. In which
+the Modern Notions of Witches are overthrown, and the Ill Consequences
+of such Doctrines are exposed by Arguments; proving that, Witchcraft is
+Priestcraft.... In a Letter from a Physician in Hertfordshire, to his
+Friend in London._ London, 1712.
+
+_The Impossibility of Witchcraft, Plainly Proving, From Scripture and
+Reason, That there never was a Witch; and that it is both Irrational and
+Impious to believe there ever was. In which the Depositions against Jane
+Wenham, Lately Try'd and Condemn'd for a Witch, at Hertford, are
+Confuted and Expos'd_, London, 1712. 1st ed. in Brit. Mus.; 2d ed.,
+containing additional material, in the Bodleian. The author of this
+pamphlet in his preface intimates that its substance had earlier been
+published by him in the _Protestant Post Boy_.
+
+_The Belief of Witchcraft Vindicated: proving from Scripture, there have
+been Witches; and from Reason, that there may be Such still. In answer
+to a late Pamphlet, Intituled, The Impossibility of Witchcraft ..._, By
+G. R., A. M., London, 1712.
+
+_The Case of the Hertfordshire Witchcraft Consider'd. Being an
+Examination of a Book entitl'd, A Full and Impartial Account ..._,
+London, 1712. Dedicated to Sir John Powell. In the Cornell copy of this
+booklet a manuscript note on the title-page, in an eighteenth century
+hand, ascribes it to "The Rector of Therfield in Hertfordshire, or his
+Curate," while at the end of the dedication what seems the same hand has
+signed the names, "Henry Stebbing or Thomas Sherlock." But Stebbing was
+in 1712 still a fellow at Cambridge, and Sherlock, later Bishop of
+London, was Master of the Temple and Chaplain to Queen Anne. See _Dict.
+Nat. Biog._
+
+_A Defense of the Proceedings against Jane Wenham, wherein the
+Possibility and Reality of Witchcraft are Demonstrated from
+Scripture.... In Answer to Two Pamphlets, Entituled: (I) The
+Impossibility of Witchcraft, etc. (II) A Full Confutation of
+Witchcraft_, By Francis Bragge, A. B., ... London, 1712.
+
+_The Impossibility of Witchcraft Further Demonstrated, Both from
+Scripture and Reason ... with some Cursory Remarks on two trifling
+Pamphlets in Defence of the existence of Witches_. By the Author of _The
+Impossibility of Witchcraft_, 1712. In the Bodleian.
+
+_Jane Wenham_. Broadside. The writer of this leaflet claims to have
+transcribed his account from an account in "Judge Chancy's own hand".
+Chauncy was the justice of the peace who with Bragge stood behind the
+prosecution.
+
+It is very hard to straighten out the authorship of these various
+pamphlets. The Rev. Mr. Bragge wrote several. The Rev. Mr. Gardiner and
+the Rev. Mr. Strutt, who were active in the case, may have written two
+of them. The topographer Gough, writing about 1780, declared that the
+late Dr. Stebbing had as a young man participated in the controversy.
+Francis Hutchinson was an interested spectator, but probably did not
+contribute to the literature of the subject.
+
+A short secondary account is that of W. B. Gerish, _A Hertfordshire
+Witch; or the Story of Jane Wenham, the "Wise Woman of Walkern_."
+
+In the Brit. Mus., Sloane MSS., 3,943, there is a continuation of the
+pamphlet discussion, based chiefly, however, upon Glanvill and other
+writers.
+
+
+§ 10.--Criticism of the Northampton and Huntingdon Pamphlets of 1705 and
+1716 (see ch. XIII, note 10).
+
+_An Account of The Tryals, Examination and Condemnation of Elinor Shaw
+and Mary Phillips (Two notorious Witches) on Wednesday the 7th of March
+1705, for Bewitching a Woman, and two children.... With an Account of
+their strange Confessions._ This is signed, at the end, "Ralph Davis,
+March 8, 1705." It was followed very shortly by a completer account,
+written after the execution, and entitled:
+
+_The Northamptonshire Witches, Being a true and faithful account of the
+Births, Educations, Lives, and Conversations of Elinor Shaw and Mary
+Phillips (The two notorious Witches) That were Executed at Northampton
+on Saturday, March the 17th, 1705 ... with their full Confession to the
+Minister, and last Dying Speeches at the place of Execution, the like
+never before heard of.... Communicated in a Letter last Post, from Mr.
+Ralph Davis of Northampton, to Mr. William Simons, Merchantt in London_,
+London, 1705.
+
+With these two pamphlets we wish to compare another, which was
+apparently published in 1716 and was entitled: _The Whole Trial and
+Examination of Mrs. Mary Hicks and her Daughter Elizabeth, But of Nine
+Years of Age, who were Condemn'd the last Assizes held at Huntingdon
+for Witchcraft, and there Executed on Saturday, the 28th of July 1716
+... the like never heard before; their Behaviour with several Divines
+who came to converse with 'em whilst under their sentence of Death; and
+last Dying Speeches and Confession at the place of execution_, London,
+1716. There is a copy in the Bodleian Library.
+
+The two Northamptonshire pamphlets and the Huntingdonshire pamphlet have
+been set by themselves because they appear to have been written by one
+hand. Moreover, it looks very much as if they were downright
+fabrications foisted upon the public by a man who had already in 1700
+made to order an unhistorical pamphlet. To show this, it will be
+necessary to review briefly the facts about the Worcester pamphlet
+described above, § 4. What seems to be the second edition of a pamphlet
+entitled _The full Tryalls, Examinations and Condemnations of Four
+Notorious Witches, At the Assizes held at Worcester on Tuseday the 4th
+of March_, was published at London with the date 1700. It purports to
+tell the story of one of the cases that came up during Matthew Hopkins's
+career in 1645-1647. It has been universally accepted--even by Thomas
+Wright, Ashton, W. H. D. Adams, and Inderwick. An examination shows,
+however, that it was made over from the Chelmsford pamphlet of 1645. The
+author shows little ingenuity, for he steals not only the confessions of
+four witches at that trial, but their names as well. Rebecca West,
+Margaret Landis, Susan Cock, and Rose Hallybread had all been hanged at
+Chelmsford and could hardly have been rehanged at Worcester. Practically
+all that the writer of the Worcester pamphlet did was to touch over the
+confessions and add thrilling details about their executions.
+
+Now, it looks very much as if the same writer had composed the
+Northamptonshire pamphlets of 1705 and the Huntingdonshire pamphlets of
+1716. The verbal resemblances are nothing less than remarkable. The
+Worcester pamphlet, in its title, tells of "their Confessions and Last
+Dying Speeches at the place of execution." The second of the two
+Northamptonshire pamphlets (the first was issued before the execution)
+speaks of "their full Confession to the Minister, and last Dying
+Speeches at the place of Execution." The Huntingdonshire pamphlet closes
+the title with "last Dying Speeches and Confession at the place of
+Execution." The Worcester pamphlet uses the phrase "with other amazing
+Particulars"; the Northamptonshire pamphlet the phrase "the particulars
+of their amazing Pranks." The Huntingdon pamphlet has in this case no
+similar phrase but the Huntingdon and Northamptonshire pamphlets have
+another phrase in common. The Northamptonshire pamphlet says: "the like
+never before heard of"; the Huntingdon pamphlet says: "the like never
+heard before."
+
+These resemblances are in the titles. The Northampton and the fabricated
+Worcester pamphlets show other similarities in their accounts. The
+Northampton women were so "hardened in their Wickedness that they
+Publickly boasted that their Master (meaning the Devil) would not suffer
+them to be Executed but they found him a Lyer." The Worcester writer
+speaks of the "Devil who told them to the Last that he would secure them
+from Publick Punishment, but now too late they found him a Lyer as he
+was from the beginning of the World." In concluding their narratives the
+Northamptonshire and Worcestershire pamphleteers show an interesting
+similarity of treatment. The Northampton witches made a "howling and
+lamentable noise" on receiving their sentences, the Worcester women made
+a "yelling and howling at their executions."
+
+These resemblances may be fairly characterized as striking. If it be
+asked whether the phrases quoted are not conventional in witch
+pamphlets, the answer must be in the negative. So far as the writer
+knows, these phrases occur in no other of the fifty or more witch
+pamphlets. The word "notorious," which occurs in the titles of the
+Worcester and Northampton pamphlets, is a common one and would signify
+nothing. The other phrases mentioned are characteristic and distinctive.
+This similarity suggests that the three pamphlets were written by the
+same hand. Since we know that one of the three is a fabrication, we are
+led to suspect the credibility of the other two.
+
+There are, indeed, other reasons for doubting the historicity of these
+two. A close scrutiny of the Northampton pamphlet shows that the
+witchcrafts there described have the peculiar characteristics of the
+witchcrafts in the palmy days of Matthew Hopkins and that the wording of
+the descriptions is much the same. The Northampton pamphlet tells of a
+"tall black man," who appeared to the two women. A tall black man had
+appeared to Rebecca West at Chelmsford in 1645. A much more important
+point is that the prisoners at Northampton had been watched at night in
+order to keep their imps from coming in. This night-watching was a
+process that had never, so far as our records go, been used since the
+Hopkins alarm, of which it had been the characteristic feature. Were
+there no other resemblance between the Northampton cases and those at
+Chelmsford, this similarity would alone lead us to suspect the
+credibility of the Northampton pamphlet. Unfortunately the indiscreet
+writer of the Northampton narrative lets other phrases belonging to 1645
+creep into his account.
+
+When the Northampton women were watched, a "little white thing about the
+bigness of a Cat" had appeared. But a "white thing about the bignesse of
+a Cat" had appeared to the watchers at Chelmsford in 1645. This is not
+all. The Northampton witches are said to have killed their victims by
+roasting and pricking images, a charge which had once been common, but
+which, so far as the writer can recall, had not been used since the
+Somerset cases of 1663. It was a charge very commonly used against the
+Chelmsford witches whom Matthew Hopkins prosecuted. Moreover the
+Northampton witches boasted that "their Master would not suffer them to
+be executed." No Chelmsford witch had made that boast; but Mr. Lowes,
+who was executed at Bury St. Edmunds (the Bury trial was closely
+connected with that at Chelmsford, so closely that the writer who had
+read of one would probably have read of the other), had declared that he
+had a charm to keep him from the gallows.
+
+It will be seen that these are close resemblances both in characteristic
+features and in wording. But the most perfect resemblance is in a
+confession. The two Northampton women describing their imps--creatures,
+by the way, that had figured largely in the Hopkins trials--said that
+"if the Imps were not constantly imploy'd to do Mischief, they [the
+witches] had not their healths; but when they were imploy'd they were
+very Heathful and Well." This was almost exactly what Anne Leech had
+confessed at Chelmsford. Her words were: "And that when This Examinant
+did not send and employ them abroad to do mischief, she had not her
+health, but when they were imploy'd, she was healthfull and well."
+
+We cannot point out the same similarity between the Huntingdonshire
+witchcrafts of 1716 and the Chelmsford cases. The narrative of the
+Huntingdon case is, however, somewhat remarkable. Mr. Hicks was taking
+his nine-year-old daughter to Ipswich one day, when she, seeing a sail
+at sea, took a "basin of water," stirred it up, and thereby provoked a
+storm that was like to have sunk the ship, had not the father made the
+child cease. On the way home, the two passed a "very fine Field of
+Corn." "Quoth the child again, 'Father, I can consume all this Corn in
+the twinkling of an Eye.' The Father supposing it not in her Power to do
+so, he bid to shew her infernal skill." The child did so, and presently
+"all the Corn in the Field became Stubble." He questioned her and found
+that she had learned witchcraft from her mother. The upshot of it was
+that at Mr. Hicks's instance his wife and child were prosecuted and
+hanged. The story has been called remarkable. Yet it is not altogether
+unique. In 1645 at Bury St. Edmunds just after the Chelmsford trial
+there were eighteen witches condemned, and one of them, it will be
+remembered, was Parson Lowes of Brandeston in Suffolk, who confessed
+that "he bewitched a ship near Harwidge; so that with the extreme
+tempestuous Seas raised by blusterous windes the said ship was cast
+away, wherein were many passengers, who were by this meanes swallowed up
+by the merciless waves." It will be observed that the two stories are
+not altogether similar. The Huntingdon narrative is a better tale, and
+it would be hardly safe to assert that it drew its inspiration from the
+earlier story. Yet, when it is remembered how unusual is the story in
+English witch-lore, the supposition gains in probability. There is a
+further resemblance in the accounts. The Hicks child had bewitched a
+field of corn. One of the Bury witches, in the narrative which tells of
+parson Lowes, "confessed that She usually bewitcht standing corne,
+whereby there came great loss to the owners thereof." The resemblance is
+hardly close enough to merit notice in itself. When taken, however, in
+connection with the other resemblances it gives cumulative force to the
+supposition that the writer of the Huntingdon pamphlet had gone to the
+narratives of the Hopkins cases for his sources.
+
+There are, however, other reasons for doubting the Huntingdon story. A
+writer in _Notes and Queries_, 2d series, V, 503-504, long ago
+questioned the narrative because of the mention of a "Judge Wilmot," and
+showed that there was no such judge on the bench before 1755. An
+examination of the original pamphlet makes it clear, however, that in
+this form the objection is worth nothing. The tract speaks only of a
+"_Justice_ Wilmot," who, from the wording of the narrative, would seem
+to have conducted the examination preliminary to the assizes as a
+justice of the peace would. A justice of the peace would doubtless,
+however, have belonged to some Huntingdonshire county family. Now, the
+writer has searched the various records and histories of
+Huntingdonshire--unfortunately they are but too few--and among the
+several hundred Huntingdonshire names he has found no Wilmots (and, for
+that matter, no Hickes either). This would seem to make the story more
+improbable.
+
+In an earlier number of _Notes and Queries_ (1st series, V, 514), James
+Crossley, whose authority as to matters relating to witchcraft is of the
+highest, gives cogent reasons why the Huntingdonshire narrative could
+not be true. He recalls the fact that Hutchinson, who made a
+chronological table of cases, published his work in 1718. Now Hutchinson
+had the help of two chief-justices, Parker and King, and of Chief-Baron
+Bury in collecting his cases; and yet he says that the last execution
+for the crime in England was in 1682. Crossley makes the further strong
+point that the case of Jane Wenham in 1712 attracted wide attention and
+was the occasion of numerous pamphlets. "It is scarcely possible," he
+continues, "that in four years after two persons, one only nine years
+old, ... should have been tried and executed for witchcraft without
+public attention being called to the circumstance." He adds that
+neither the _Historical Register_ for 1716 nor the files of two London
+newspapers for that year, though they enumerate other convictions on the
+circuit, record the supposed cases.
+
+It will be seen that exactly the same arguments apply to the Northampton
+trials of 1705. Hutchinson had been at extraordinary pains to find out
+not only about Jane Wenham, but about the Moordike case of 1702. It is
+inconceivable that he should have quite overlooked the execution of two
+women at Northampton.
+
+We have observed that the Northampton, Huntingdon, and Worcester
+pamphlets have curious resemblances in wording to one another
+(resemblances that point to a common authorship), that the Worcester
+narrative can be proved to be fictitious, and that the Huntingdon
+narrative almost certainly belongs in the same category. We have shown,
+further, that the Northampton and Huntingdon stories present features of
+witchcraft characteristic of the Chelmsford and Bury cases of 1645, from
+the first of which the material of the Worcester pamphlet is drawn; and
+this fact points not only to the common authorship of the three tracts,
+but to the imaginary character of the Huntingdon and Northampton cases.
+
+Against these facts there is to be presented what at first blush seems a
+very important piece of evidence. In the _Northamptonshire Historical
+Collections_, 1st series (Northampton, 1896), there is a chapter on
+witchcraft in Northamptonshire, copied from the _Northamptonshire
+Handbook_ for 1867. That chapter goes into the trials of 1705 in detail,
+making copious extracts from the pamphlets. In a footnote the writers
+say: "To show that the burning actually took place in 1705, it may be
+important to mention that there is an item of expense entered in the
+overseers' accounts for St. Giles parish for faggots bought for the
+purpose." This in itself seems convincing. It seems to dispose of the
+whole question at once. There is, however, one fact that instantly casts
+a doubt upon this seemingly conclusive evidence. In England, witches
+were hanged, not burned. There are not a half-dozen recorded exceptions
+to this rule. Mother Lakeland in 1645 was burned. That is easy to
+explain. Mother Lakeland had by witchcraft killed her husband. Burning
+was the method of execution prescribed by English law for a woman who
+killed her husband. The other cases where burnings are said to have
+taken place were almost certainly cases that came under this rule. But
+it does not seem possible that the Northampton cases came under the
+rule. The two women seem to have had no husbands. "Ralph Davis," the
+ostensible writer of the account, who professed to have known them from
+their early years, and who was apparently glad to defame them in every
+possible way, accused them of loose living, but not of adultery, as he
+would certainly have done, had he conceived of them as married. It is
+hard to avoid the conclusion that they could not have been burned.
+
+There is a more decisive answer to this argument for the authenticity of
+the pamphlet. The supposed confirmation of it in the St. Giles parish
+register is probably a blunder. The Reverend R. M. Serjeantson of St.
+Peter's Rectory has been kind enough to examine for the writer the
+parish register of St. Giles Church. He writes: "The St. Giles accounts
+briefly state that _wood_ was bought from time to time--probably for
+melting the lead. There is _no_ mention of _faggots_ nor witches in the
+Church wardens' overseers-for-the-poor accounts. I carefully turned out
+the whole contents of the parish chest." Mr. Serjeantson adds at the
+close this extract: "1705 P'd for wood 5/ For taking up the old lead
+5/." It goes without saying that Mr. Serjeantson's examination does not
+prove that there never was a mention of the faggots bought for burning
+witches; but, when all the other evidence is taken into consideration,
+this negative evidence does establish a very strong presumption to that
+effect. Certainly the supposed passage from the overseers' accounts can
+no longer be used to confirm the testimony of the pamphlet. It looks
+very much as if the compilers of the _Northamptonshire Handbook_ for
+1867 had been careless in their handling of records.
+
+It seems probable, then, that the pamphlet of 1705 dealing with the
+execution of Mary Phillips and Elinor Shaw is a purely fictitious
+narrative. The matter derives its importance from the fact that, if the
+two executions in 1705 be disproved, the last known execution in England
+is put back to 1682, ten years before the Salem affair in Massachusetts.
+This would of course have some bearing on a recent contention (G. L.
+Kittredge, "Notes on Witchcraft," Am. Antiq. Soc., _Proc._, XVIII), that
+"convictions and executions for witchcraft occurred in England after
+they had come to an end in Massachusetts."
+
+
+
+
+B.--LIST OF PERSONS SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR WITCHCRAFT DURING THE REIGN
+OF JAMES I.
+
+
+1.--Charged with Causing Death.
+
+ 1603. Yorkshire.
+         Mary Pannel.
+ 1606. Hertford.
+         Johanna Harrison and her daughter.
+ 1612. Northampton.
+         Helen Jenkinson, Arthur Bill, Mary Barber.
+ 1612. Lancaster.
+         Chattox, Eliz. Device, James Device, Alice Nutter, Katherine
+         Hewitt, Anne Redfearne.
+ 1612. York.
+         Jennet Preston.
+ 1613. Bedford.
+         Mother Sutton and Mary Sutton.
+ 1616. Middlesex.
+         Elizabeth Rutter.
+ 1616. Middlesex.
+         Joan Hunt.
+ 1619. Lincoln.
+         Margaret and Philippa Flower.
+ 1621. Edmonton.
+         Elizabeth Sawyer.
+
+
+2.--Not Charged with Causing Death (so far as shown by records).
+
+ 1607. Rye, Kent.
+         Two women entertained spirits, "to gain wealth."
+ 1612. Lancaster.
+         John and Jane Bulcock, making to waste away. It
+         was testified against them that at Malking Tower they
+         consented to murder, but this was apparently not in the
+         indictment. Acquitted, but later convicted.
+         Alizon Device, caused to waste away.
+         Isabel Robey, caused illness.
+ 1616. Enfield, Middlesex.
+         Agnes Berrye, laming and causing to languish.
+ 1616. King's Lynn.
+         Mary Smith, hanged for causing four people to languish.
+ 1616. Leicester.
+         Nine women hanged for bewitching a boy. Six more
+         condemned on same charge, but pardoned by command
+         of king.
+
+
+Mixed Cases.
+
+ 1607. Bakewell.
+         Our evidence as to the Bakewell witches is too incomplete
+         to assure us that they were not accused of killing
+         by witchcraft.
+ 1612. Northampton.
+         Agnes Brown and Joane Vaughan were indicted for
+         bewitching Master Avery and Mistress Belcher, "together
+         with the body of a young child to the death."
+
+
+
+
+C.--LIST OF CASES OF WITCHCRAFT, 1558-1718, WITH REFERENCES TO SOURCES
+AND LITERATURE.[1]
+
+
+ 1558. John Thirkle, "taylour, detected of conjuringe," to be
+         examined. _Acts of Privy Council_, n. s., VII, 6.
+
+ ----  Several persons in London charged with conjuration to
+         be sent to the Bishop of London for examination.
+         _Ibid._, 22.
+
+ 1559. Westminster. Certain persons examined on suspicion,
+         including probably Lady Frances Throgmorton. _Cal.
+         St. P., Dom., 1547-1580_, 142.
+
+ c. 1559. Lady Chandos's daughter accused and imprisoned
+         with George Throgmorton. Brit Mus., Add. MSS.,
+         32,091, fol. 176.
+
+ 1560. Kent. Mother Buske of St. John's suspected by the
+         church authorities. Visitations of Canterbury in
+         _Archćologia Cantiana_, XXVI, 31.
+
+ 1561. Coxe, alias Devon, a Romish priest, examined for magic
+         and conjuration, and for celebrating mass. Cal. St.
+         _P., Dom., 1547-1580_, 173.
+
+ ---- London. Ten men brought before the queen and council
+         on charge of "trespass, contempt, conjuration and
+         sorceries." Punished with the pillory and required
+         to renounce such practices for the future. From an
+         extract quoted in Brit. Mus., Sloane MSS., 3,943,
+         fol. 19.
+
+ 1565. Dorset. Agnes Mondaye to be apprehended for bewitching
+         Mistress Chettell. _Acts P. C._, n. s., VII,
+         200-201.
+
+ 1565-1573. Durham. Jennet Pereson accused to the church
+         authorities. _Depositions ... from ... Durham_ (Surtees
+         Soc.), 99.
+
+ 1566. Chelmsford, Essex. Mother Waterhouse hanged; Alice
+         Chandler hanged, probably at this time; Elizabeth
+         Francis probably acquitted. _The examination and
+         confession of certaine Wytches at Chensforde._ For
+         the cases of Elizabeth Francis and Alice Chandler
+         see also _A detection of damnable driftes,_ A iv, A
+         v, verso.
+
+ ---- Essex. "Boram's wief" probably examined by the
+         archdeacon. W. H. Hale, _A Series of Precedents
+         and Proceedings in Criminal Causes, 1475-1640,
+         extracted from the Act Books of Ecclesiastical
+         Courts in the Diocese of London_ (London, 1847),
+         147.
+
+ 1569. Lyme, Dorset. Ellen Walker accused. Roberts, _Southern
+         Counties_, 523.
+
+ 1570. Essex. Malter's wife of Theydon Mount and Anne
+         Vicars of Navestock examined by Sir Thomas Smith.
+         John Strype, _Life of Sir Thomas Smith_ (ed. of Oxford,
+         1820), 97-100.
+
+ 1570-1571. Canterbury. Several witches imprisoned. Mother
+         Dungeon presented by the grand jury. _Hist. MSS.
+         Comm. Reports_, IX, pt. 1, 156 b; Wm. Welfitt,
+         "Civis," _Minutes collected from the Ancient Records
+         of Canterbury_ (Canterbury, 1801-1802), no. VI.
+
+ ---- ---- Folkestone, Kent. Margaret Browne, accused of
+         "unlawful practices," banished from town for seven
+         years, and to be whipped at the cart's tail if found
+         within six or seven miles of town. S. J. Mackie,
+         _Descriptive and Historical Account of Folkestone_
+         (Folkestone, 1883), 319.
+
+ 1574. Westwell, Kent. "Old Alice" [Norrington?] arraigned
+         and convicted. Reginald Scot, _Discoverie of Witchcraft_,
+         130-131.
+
+ ---- Middlesex. Joan Ellyse of Westminster convicted on
+         several indictments for witchcraft and sentenced to
+         be hanged. _Middlesex County Records_, I, 84.
+
+ c. 1574. Jane Thorneton accused by Rachel Pinder, who
+         however confessed to fraud. _Discloysing of a late
+         counterfeyted possession._
+
+ 1575. Burntwood, Staffordshire. Mother Arnold hanged at
+         Barking. From the title of a pamphlet mentioned
+         by Lowndes: _The Examination and Confession of a
+         notorious Witch named Mother Arnold, alias Whitecote,
+         alias Glastonbury, at the Assise of Burntwood
+         in July, 1574; who was hanged for Witchcraft at
+         Barking, 1575._ Mrs. Linton, Witch Stories, 153,
+         says that many were hanged at this time, but I cannot
+         find authority for the statement.
+
+ ---- Middlesex. Elizabeth Ducke of Harmondsworth
+         acquitted. _Middlesex County Records_, I, 94.
+
+ ---- Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Katharine Smythe acquitted.
+         Henry Harrod, "Notes on the Records of the Corporation
+         of Great Yarmouth," in _Norfolk Archćology_,
+         IV, 248.
+
+ 1577. Seaford, Sussex. Joan Wood presented by the grand
+         jury. M. A. Lower, "Memorials of Seaford," in
+         Sussex Archćological Soc., _Collections_, VII, 98.
+
+ ---- Middlesex. Helen Beriman of Laleham acquitted.
+         _Middlesex County Records_, I, 103.
+
+ ---- Essex. Henry Chittam of Much Barfield to be tried
+         for coining false money and conjuring. _Acts P. C._,
+         n. s., IX, 391; X, 8, 62.
+
+ 1578. Prescall, Sanford, and "one Emerson, a preiste," suspected
+         of conjuration against the queen. The first
+         two committed. _Id._, X, 382; see also 344, 373.
+
+ ---- Evidence of the use of sorcery against the queen discovered.
+         _Cal. St. P., Spanish, 1568-1579_, 611; see
+         also note to Ben Jonson's _Masque of Queenes_ (London,
+         Shakespeare Soc., 1848), 71.
+
+ ---- Sussex. "One Tree, bailiff of Lewes, and one Smith
+         of Chinting" to be examined. _Acts P. C._, n. s., X, 220.
+
+ 1579. Chelmsford, Essex. Three women executed. Mother
+         Staunton released because "no manslaughter objected
+         against her." _A Detection of damnable driftes._
+
+ ---- Abingdon, Berks. Four women hanged; at least two
+         others and probably more were apprehended. _A
+         Rehearsall both straung and true of ... acts committed
+         by Elisabeth Stile ..._; _Acts P. C._, n. s.,
+         XI, 22; Scot, _Discoverie of Witchcraft_, 10, 51, 543.
+
+ ---- Certain persons suspected of sorcery to be examined
+         by the Bishop of London. _Acts P. C._, n. s., XI, 36.
+
+ ---- Salop, Worcester, and Montgomery. Samuel Cocwra
+         paid for "searching for certen persons suspected
+         for conjuracion." _Ibid._, 292.
+
+ ---- Southwark. Simon Pembroke, a conjurer, brought to the
+         parish church of St. Saviour's to be tried by the
+         "ordinarie judge for those parties," but falls dead
+         before the opening of the trial. Holinshed, _Chronicles_
+         (ed. of 1586-1587), III, 1271.
+
+ ---- Southampton. Widow Walker tried by the leet jury,
+         outcome unknown. J. S. Davies, _History of Southampton_
+         (Southampton, 1883), 236.
+
+ 1579-1580. Shropshire. Mother Garve punished in the corn
+         market. Owen and Blakeway, _History of Shrewsbury_,
+         I, 562.
+
+ 1580. Stanhope, Durham. Ann Emerson accused by the
+         church officials. _Injunctions ... of ... Bishop of
+         Durham_ (Surtees Soc.), 126.
+
+ ---- Bucks. John Coleman and his wife examined by four
+         justices of the peace at the command of the privy
+         council. They were probably released. _Acts P. C._, n.
+         s., XI, 427; XII, 29.
+
+ ---- Kent. Several persons to be apprehended for conjuration.
+         _Id._, XII, 21-23.
+
+ ---- Somerset. Henry Harrison and Thomas Wadham, suspected
+         of conjuration, to appear before the privy
+         council. _Ibid._, 22-23.
+
+ ---- Somerset. Henry Fize of Westpenner, detected in conjuration,
+         brought before the privy council. _Ibid._, 34.
+
+ ---- Essex. "Sondery persones" charged with sorceries and
+         conjuration. _Acts P. C._, XII, 29, 34.
+
+ 1581. Randoll and four others accused for "conjuring to
+         know where treasure was hid in the earth." Randoll
+         and three others found guilty. Randoll alone
+         executed. Holinshed, _Chronicles_ (London, 1808),
+         IV, 433.
+
+ 1581. Padstow, Cornwall. Anne Piers accused of witchcraft.
+         Examination of witnesses. _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1581-1590_,
+         29. See also _Acts P. C._, n. s., XIII, 228.
+
+ 1581. Rochester, Kent. Margaret Simmons acquitted. Scot,
+         _Discoverie_, 5.
+
+ 1581-82. Colchester, Essex. Annis Herd accused before the
+         "spiritual Courte." _Witches taken at St. Oses_, 1582.
+
+ 1582. St. Osyth, Essex. Sixteen accused, one of whom was a
+         man. How many were executed uncertain. It seems
+         to have been a tradition that thirteen were executed.
+         Scot wrote that seventeen or eighteen were executed.
+         _Witches taken at St. Oses_, 1582; Scot, _Discoverie_, 543.
+
+ 1582 (or before). "T. E., Maister of Art and practiser both of
+         physicke, and also in times past, of certeine vaine
+         sciences," condemned for conjuration, but reprieved.
+         Scot, _Discoverie_, 466-469.
+
+ 1582. Middlesex. Margery Androwes of Clerkenwell held in
+         bail. _Middlesex County Records_, I, 133.
+
+ 1582. Durham. Alison Lawe of Hart compelled to do penance.
+         _Denham Tracts_ (Folk-Lore Soc.), II, 332.
+
+ 1582. Kent. Goodwife Swane of St. John's suspected by the
+         church authorities. _Archćol. Cant._, XXVI, 19.
+
+ 1582-83. Nottingham. A certain Batte examined before the
+         "Meare" of Nottingham. _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_,
+         XII, pt. 4, 147.
+
+ 1582-83. King's Lynn. Mother Gabley probably hanged. Excerpt
+         from parish register of Wells in Norfolk, in
+         the _Gentleman's Magazine_, LXII (1792), 904.
+
+ 1583. Kingston-upon-Hull, Yorkshire. Three women tried,
+         one sentenced to a year's imprisonment and the pillory.
+         J. J. Sheahan, _History of Kingston-upon-Hull_
+         (London, 1864), 86.
+
+ 1583. Colchester, Essex. Two women sentenced to a year
+         in prison and to four appearances in the pillory. E.
+         L. Cutts, Colchester (London, 1888), 151. Henry
+         Harrod, _Report on the Records of Colchester_ (Colchester,
+         1865), 17; App., 14.
+
+ 1583. St. Peter's, Kent. Ellen Bamfield suspected by the
+         church authorities. _Archćol. Cant._, XXVI, 45.
+
+ 1584. Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Elizabeth Butcher (punished
+         before) and Joan Lingwood condemned to be
+         hanged. C. J. Palmer, _History of Great Yarmouth_,
+         I, 273.
+
+ 1584. Staffordshire. An indictment preferred against Jeffrey
+         Leach. _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1581-1590_, 206.
+
+ 1584. "The oulde witche of Ramsbury" and several other
+         "oulde witches and sorcerers" suspected. _Cal. St.
+         P., Dom., 1581-1590_, 220.
+
+ 1584. York. Woman, indicted for witchcraft and "high
+        treason touching the supremacy," condemned. _Cal.
+        St. P., Dom., Add. 1580-1625_, 120-121.
+
+ 1584. Middlesex. Elizabeth Bartell of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields
+         acquitted. _Middlesex County Records_, I, 145.
+
+ 1585. Middlesex. Margaret Hackett of Stanmore executed.
+         From titles of two pamphlets mentioned by Lowndes,
+         _The severall Facts of Witchcrafte approved on Margaret
+         Haskett ..._ 1585, and _An Account of Margaret
+         Hacket, a notorious Witch ..._ 1585.
+
+ 1585. Middlesex. Joan Barringer of "Harroweelde" (Harrow
+          Weald) acquitted. _Middlesex County Records_,
+          I, 157.
+
+ 1585. Dorset. John Meere examined. _Cal. St. P., Dom.,
+         1581-90_, 246-247.
+
+ 1585-86. Alnwick, Northumberland. Two men and two women
+         committed to prison on suspicion of killing a sheriff.
+         _Denham Tracts_, II, 332; _Cal. S. P., Dom., Add. 1580-1625_, 168.
+
+ 1586. Eckington, Derbyshire. Margaret Roper accused. Discharged.
+         Harsnett, _Discovery of the Fraudulent
+         Practises of John Darrel_, 310.
+
+ 1586. Faversham, Kent. Jone Cason [Carson] tried before
+         the mayor, executed. Holinshed, _Chronicles_ (1586-1587),
+         III, 1560.
+
+ 1587. Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Helena Gill indicted. C. J.
+         Palmer, _History of Great Yarmouth_, 273. H. Harrod
+         in _Norfolk Archćology_, IV, 248, assigns this to
+         1597, but it is probably a mistake.
+
+ c. 1588. A woman at R. H. said to have been imprisoned and
+         to have died before the assizes. Gifford, _Dialogue_
+         (London, 1603), C.
+
+ 1589. Chelmsford, Essex. Three women hanged. _The apprehension
+         and confession of three notorious Witches._
+
+ 1589. Several persons to be examined about their dealings in
+         conjuration with an Italian friar. _Acts P. C._, n. s.,
+         XVII, 31-32.
+
+ 1589. Mrs. Deir brought into question for sorcery against
+         the queen. Charge dismissed. Strype, _Annals of
+         the Reformation_ (London, 1709-1731), IV, 7-8.
+
+ 1590. Mrs. Dewse suspected of attempting to make use of conjurors.
+         _Cal. St. P., Dom._, 1581-1590, 644.
+
+ 1590. John Bourne, a "sorcerer and seducer," arrested. _Acts
+         P. C._, n. s., XVIII, 373.
+
+ 1590. Berwick. A Scottish witch imprisoned. John Scott,
+         _History of Berwick_ (London, 1888), 180; _Archćologia_,
+         XXX, 172.
+
+ 1590. Norfolk. Margaret Grame accused before justice of the
+         peace. Neighbors petition in her behalf. _Hist. MSS.
+         Comm. Reports, Various_, II, 243-244.
+
+ 1590. King's Lynn. Margaret Read burnt. Benjamin Mackerell,
+         _History and Antiquities ... of King's Lynn_,
+         (London, 1738), 231.
+
+ 1590. Edmonton, Middlesex. Certain men taken for witchcraft
+         and conjuring. Bloodhound used in pursuit
+         of them. _Cal. St. P., Dom._, 1581-1590, 689.
+
+ 1590-91. Hertfordshire. Indictment of Joan White for killing.
+         _Hertfordshire County Session Rolls_, I, 4.
+
+ 1591. John Prestall suspected. _Cal. St. P., Dom._, 1591-1594,
+         17-19.
+
+ 1591. Middlesex. Stephen Trefulback of Westminster given
+         penalty of statute, _i. e._, probably pillory. _Middlesex
+         County Records_, I, 197.
+
+ 1592. Colchester, Essex. Margaret Rand indicted by grand
+         jury. Brit. Mus., Stowe MSS., 840, fol. 42.
+
+ 1592. Yorkshire. "Sara B. de C." examined. West, _Symboleography_,
+         pt. II (London, 1594), ed. of 1611, fol.
+         134 verso (reprinted in _County Folk-Lore_, Folk-Lore
+         Soc., 135). Whether the "S. B. de C. in comit.
+         H." whose indictment in the same year is printed
+         also by West may possibly be the same woman can
+         not be determined.
+
+ 1592. Yorkshire. Margaret L. de A. examined. _Ibid._
+
+ 1593. Warboys, Huntingdonshire. Mother, daughter and
+         father Samuel executed. _The most strange and
+         admirable discoverie of the three Witches of Warboys._
+         1593. See also John Darrel, _A Detection of
+         that sinnful ... discours of Samuel Harshnet_, 20-21,
+         39-40, 110. Harsnett, _Discovery of the Fraudulent
+         Practises of John Darrel_, 93, 97.
+
+ 1594. Jane Shelley examined for using sorcerers to find the
+         time of the queen's death. _Hist. MSS. Comm., Cecil._, pt. V, 25.
+
+ 1595. St. Peter's Kent. Two women presented by the church
+         authorities. Still suspected in 1599. _Archćol. Cant._, XXVI, 46.
+
+ 1595. Woodbridge, Suffolk. Witches put in the pillory.
+          _County Folk-Lore, Suffolk_ (Folk-Lore Soc., London, 1895), 193.
+
+ 1595. Jane Mortimer pardoned for witchcraft. Bodleian,
+         Tanner MSS., CLXVIII, fol. 29.
+
+ 1595. Near Bristol, Somerset. Severall committed for the
+         Earl of Derby's death. _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_,
+         IV, app., 366 b. See also E. Baines's _Lancaster_
+         (London, 1870), 273-274 and note.
+
+ 1595. Barnet and Braynford, Herts. Three witches executed.
+         From title of pamphlet mentioned by Lowndes,
+         _The Arraignment and Execution of 3 detestable
+         Witches, John Newell, Joane his wife, and Hellen
+         Calles: two executed at Barnett and one at Braynford_,
+         1 Dec. 1595.
+
+ 1596 (or before). Derbyshire. Elizabeth Wright (mother
+         of Alice Gooderidge) several times summoned before
+         the justice of the peace on suspicion. _The
+         most wonderfull and true Storie of ... Alse Gooderidge_
+         (1597).
+
+ 1596. Burton-upon-Trent, Derbyshire. Alice Gooderidge tried
+         at Derby, convicted. Died in prison. Harsnett, _Discovery
+         of the fraudulent Practises of John Darrel;
+         John Darrel, Detection of that sinnful ... discours
+         of Samuel Harshnet_, 38, 40; _The most wonderfull
+         and true Storie of ... Alse Gooderidge_ (1597).
+
+ 1596-1597. Leicester. Mother Cooke hanged. Mary Bateson,
+         _Records of the Borough of Leicester_ (Cambridge,
+         1899), III, 335.
+
+ 1596-1597. Lancaster. Hartley condemned and executed.
+         John Darrel, _True Narration_ (in the _Somers Tracts_,
+         III), 175, 176; George More, _A True Discourse
+         concerning the certaine possession ... of 7 persons
+         ... in Lancashire_, 18-22; John Darrel, _Detection
+         of that sinnful ... discours of Samuel Harshnet_, 40.
+
+ 1597. Nottingham. Thirteen or more accused by Somers, at
+         least eight of whom were put in gaol. All but two
+         discharged. Alice Freeman tried at the assizes and
+         finally acquitted. John Darrel, _Detection of that
+         sinnful ... discours of Samuel Harshnet_, 109-111;
+         _An Apologie or defence of the possession of William
+         Sommers_, L-L 3; Samuel Harsnett, _Discovery
+         of the Fraudulent Practises of John Darrel_, 5, 102,
+         140-141, 320-322.
+
+ 1597. St. Lawrence, Kent. Sibilla Ferris suspected by the
+         church authorities. _Archćol. Cant._, XXVI, 12.
+
+ 1597. Nottingham. William Somers accused of witchcraft as
+         a ruse to get him into the house of correction.
+         Darrel, _A True Narration of the ... Vexation ...
+         of seven persons in Lancashire_, in _Somers Tracts_,
+         III, 184; also his _Brief Apologie_ (1599), 17.
+
+ 1597. Yorkshire. Elizabeth Melton of Collingham condemned,
+         pardoned. _Cal. St. P., Dom._, 1595-1597, 400.
+
+ 1597. Lancashire. Alice Brerely of Castleton condemned,
+         pardoned. _Ibid._, 406.
+
+ 1597. Middlesex. Agnes Godfrey of Enfield held by the justice
+         of the peace on Ł10 bail. _Middlesex County Records_, I, 237.
+
+ 1597. St. Andrew's in Holborne, Middlesex. Josia Ryley
+         arraigned. "Po se mortuus in facie curie," _i. e._
+         _Posuit se moriturum._ _Ibid._, 225.
+
+ 1597. Middlesex. Helen Spokes of St. Giles-in-the-Fields
+         acquitted. _Ibid._, 239.
+
+ 1598. Berwick. Richard Swynbourne's wife accused. John
+         Scott, _History of Berwick_ (London, 1888), 180.
+
+ 1598. St. Peter's, Kent. Two women suspected by the church
+         officials; one of them presented again the next year.
+         _Archćol. Cant._, XXVI, 46.
+
+ 1598. King's Lynn. Elizabeth Housegoe executed. Mackerell,
+         _History and Antiquities of King's Lynn_, 232.
+
+ 1599. Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Jone Jordan of Shadbrook
+         tried. Darrel, _A Survey of Certaine Dialogical
+         Discourses_, 54.
+
+ 1599. Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Joane Nayler tried. _Ibid._
+
+ 1599. Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Oliffe Bartham of Shadbrook
+         executed. _The Triall of Maist. Dorrel_, 92-98.
+
+ 1599. London. Anne Kerke of Bokes-wharfe executed at
+         "Tiburn." _The Triall of Maist. Dorrel_, 99-103.
+
+ 1600. Hertford. A "notable witch" committed to the gaol
+         at Hertford. _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports, Cecil
+         MSS._, pt. X, 310.
+
+ 1600. Rosa Bexwell pardoned. Bodleian, Tanner MSS.,
+         CLXVIII, fol. 104.
+
+ 1600. Norfolk. Margaret Fraunces committed for a long
+         time. Probably released by justice of the peace on
+         new evidence. _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, X, pt.
+         II (Gawdy MSS.), 71. See also below, pp. 400, 401.
+
+ 1600. Ipswich, Suffolk. Several conjurers suspected. _Cal.
+         St. P., Dom._, 1598-1601, 523.
+
+ 1601. Bishop Burton, York. Two women apprehended for
+         bewitching a boy. Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 32,496,
+         fol. 42 b.
+
+ 1601. Middlesex. Richard Nelson of St. Katharine's arraigned.
+         _Middlesex County Records_, I, 260.
+
+ 1601. Nottingham. Ellen Bark presented at the sessions.
+         _Records of the Borough of Nottingham_, IV, 260-261.
+
+ 1602. Middlesex. Elizabeth Roberts of West Drayton indicted
+         on three charges, acquitted. _Middlesex
+         County Records_, I, 212.
+
+ 1602. Saffron Walden, Essex. Alice Bentley tried before the
+         quarter sessions. Case probably dismissed. Darrel,
+         _A Survey of Certaine Dialogical Discourses_, 54.
+
+ temp. Eliz. Northfleet, Kent. Pardon to Alice S. for bewitching
+         a cow and pigs. Bodleian, Rawlinson MSS., C 404, fol. 205 b.
+
+ temp. Eliz. Woman condemned to prison and pillory. Gifford,
+         _Dialogue concerning Witches_ (1603), L 4 verso.
+
+ temp. Eliz. Cambridge. Two women perhaps hanged at this
+         time. Henry More, _Antidote to Atheisme_, III. But
+         see 1605, Cambridge.
+
+ temp. Eliz. Mother W. of W. H. said to have been executed.
+         Gifford, _Dialogue concerning Witches_, D 4 verso--E.
+
+ temp. Eliz. Mother W. of Great T. said to have been hanged.
+         _Ibid._, C 4.
+
+ temp. Eliz. Woman said to have been hanged. _Ibid._, L 3-L 3 verso.
+
+ temp. Eliz. Two women said to have been hanged. _Ibid._, I 3 verso.
+
+ 1602-1603. London. Elizabeth Jackson sentenced, for bewitching
+         Mary Glover, to four appearances in the pillory
+         and a year in prison. John Swan, _A True and Breife
+         Report of Mary Glover's Vexation_; E. Jorden, _A
+         briefe discourse of ... the Suffocation of the
+         Mother_, 1603; also a MS., _Marie Glover's late woefull
+         case ... upon occasion of Doctor Jordens discourse
+         of the Mother, wherein hee covertly taxeth,
+         first the Phisitiones which judged her sicknes a vexation
+         of Sathan and consequently the sentence of
+         Lawe and proceeding against the Witche who was
+         discovered to be a meanes thereof, with A defence
+         of the truthe against D. J. his scandalous Impugnations_,
+         by Stephen Bradwell, 1603. Brit. Mus., Sloane
+         MSS., 831. An account by Lewis Hughes, appended
+         to his _Certaine Grievances_ (1641-2), is quoted
+         by Sinclar, _Satan's Invisible World Discovered_
+         (Edinburgh, 1685), 95-100; and hence Burton (_The
+         Kingdom of Darkness_) and Hutchinson (_Historical
+         Essay concerning Witchcraft_) assign a wrong date.
+
+ 1603. Yorkshire. Mary Pannel executed for killing in 1593.
+         Mayhall, _Annals of Yorkshire_ (London, 1878), I,
+         58. See also E. Fairfax, _A Discourse of Witchcraft_,
+         179-180.
+
+ 1603. Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Ales Moore in gaol on suspicion.
+         C. J. Palmer, _History of Great Yarmouth_, II, 70.
+
+ 1604. Wooler, Northumberland. Katherine Thompson and
+         Anne Nevelson proceeded against by the Vicar General
+         of the Bishop of Durham. Richardson, _Table
+         Book_, I, 245; J. Raine, _York Depositions_, 127, note.
+
+ 1605. Cambridge. A witch alarm. Letters of Sir Thomas
+         Lake to Viscount Cranbourne, January 18, 1604/5,
+         and of Sir Edward Coke to Viscount Craybourne,
+         Jan. 29, 1604/5, both in Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 6177,
+         fol. 403. This probably is the affair referred to in
+         _Cal. St. P., Dom._, 1603-1610, 218. Nor is it impossible
+         that Henry More had this affair in mind when
+         he told of two women who were executed in Cambridge
+         in the time of Elizabeth (see above, temp.
+         Eliz., Cambridge) and was two or three years astray
+         in his reckoning.
+
+ 1605. Doncaster, York. Jone Jurdie of Rossington examined.
+         Depositions in _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1857, pt. I, 593-595.
+
+ 1606. Louth, Lincolnshire. "An Indictment against a Witche."
+         R. W. Goulding, _Louth Old Corporation Records_
+         (Louth, 1891), 54.
+
+ 1606. Hertford. Johanna Harrison and her daughter said to
+         have been executed. This rests upon the pamphlet
+         _The Most Cruell and Bloody Murther_, ... See appendix
+         A, § 3.
+
+ 1606. Richmond, Yorkshire. Ralph Milner ordered by quarter
+         sessions to make his submission at Mewkarr
+         Church. _North Riding Record Society_, I, 58.
+
+ 1607. Middlesex. Alice Bradley of Hampstead arraigned on
+         four bills, acquitted. _Middlesex County Records_,
+         II, 8.
+
+ 1607. Middlesex. Rose Mersam of Whitecrosse Street acquitted.
+         _Ibid._, II, 20.
+
+ 1607. Bakewell, Derby. Several women said to have been executed
+         here. See Robert Simpson, _A Collection of
+         Fragments illustrative of the History and Antiquities
+         of Derby_ (Derby, 1826), 90; Glover, _History of
+         Derby_ (ed. Thos. Noble, 1833), pt. I, vol. II, p. 613;
+         J. C. Cox, _Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals_,
+         II, 88. For what purports to be a detailed account
+         of the affair see W. Andrews, _Bygone Derbyshire_,
+         180-184.
+
+ 1607-11. Rye, Sussex. Two women condemned by local
+         authorities probably discharged upon interference
+         from London. _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, XIII,
+         pt. 4, 136-137, 139-140, 147-148.
+
+ 1608. Simon Read pardoned. _Cal. St. P., Dom._, 1603-1610, 406.
+
+ 1610. Norfolk. Christian[a] Weech, pardoned in 1604, now
+         again pardoned. _Ibid._, 96, 598. Was this the Christiana
+         Weekes of Cleves Pepper, Wilts, who in 1651
+         and 1654 was again and again accused of telling
+         where lost goods were? See _Hist. MSS. Comm.
+         Reports, Various_, I, 120.
+
+ 1610. Middlesex. Agnes Godfrey of Enfield, with four bills
+         against her, acquitted on three, found guilty of killing.
+         File containing sentence lost. _Middlesex County
+         Records_, II, 57-58. Acquitted again in 1621. _Ibid._,
+         79, 80.
+
+ 1610. Leicestershire. Depositions taken by the sheriff concerning
+         Randall and other witches. _Hist. MSS.
+         Comm. Reports_, XII, pt. 4 (_MSS. of the Duke of
+         Rutland_), I, 422.
+
+ 1611. Carnarvon. Story of witchcraft "committed on six
+         young maids." Privy Council orders the Bishop of
+         Bangor and the assize judges to look into it. _Cal.
+         St. P., Dom., 1611-1618_, 53.
+
+ 1611. Wm. Bate, indicted twenty years before for practising
+         invocation, etc., for finding treasure, pardoned. _Ibid._, 29.
+
+ 1611. Thirsk, Yorkshire. Elizabeth Cooke presented by quarter
+         sessions for slight crime related to witchcraft.
+         _North Riding Record Soc._, I, 213.
+
+ 1612. Lancaster. Margaret Pearson, who in 1612 was sentenced
+         to a year's imprisonment and the pillory, had
+         been twice tried before, once for killing, and once for
+         bewitching a neighbor. Potts, _Wonderfull Discoverie
+         of Witches in the countie of Lancaster_
+         (Chetham Soc., 1845).
+
+ 1612. Lancaster. Ten persons of Pendle sentenced to death,
+         one to a year's imprisonment; eight acquitted including
+         three women of Salmesbury. Potts, _Wonderfull
+         Discoverie of Witches_, Chetham Soc., 1845.
+         But _cf._ Cooper's words (_Mystery of Witchcraft,
+         1617_), 15.
+
+ 1612. York. Jennet Preston sentenced to death. Potts,
+         _Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches_.
+
+ 1612. Northampton. At least four women and one man
+         hanged. Many others accused, one of whom died in
+         gaol. _The Witches of Northamptonshire_, 1612; also
+         Brit Mus., Sloane MSS., 972, fol. 7.
+
+ 1613. Bedford. Mother Sutton and Mary Sutton, her daughter,
+         of Milton Miles hanged. _Witches Apprehended,
+         Examined and Executed_, 1613. See app. A, § 3,
+         for mention of another pamphlet on the same subject,
+         _A Booke of the Wytches lately condemned and
+         executed_. See also _The Wonderful Discoverie of ...
+         Margaret and Phillip Flower_, preface, and Richard
+         Bernard, _Guide to Grand Jurymen_, III.
+
+ 1613. Wilts. Margaret Pilton of Warminster, accused at
+         quarter sessions, probably released. _Hist. MSS.
+         Comm. Reports, Various_, I, 86-87.
+
+ 1614. Middlesex. Dorothy Magick of St. Andrew's in Holborn
+         sentenced to a year's imprisonment and four
+         appearances in the pillory. _Middlesex County Records_,
+         II, 91, 218.
+
+ 1615. Middlesex. Joan Hunt of Hampstead, who had been,
+         along with her husband, twice tried and acquitted,
+         and whose accuser had been ordered to ask forgiveness,
+         sentenced to be hanged. _Middlesex County
+         Records_, II, lii, 95, 110, 217-218.
+
+ 1616. Leicester. Nine women hanged on the accusation of a
+         boy. Six others accused, one of whom died in prison,
+         five released after the king's examination of the
+         boy. Robert Heyrick's letters from Leicester, July
+         16 and October 15, 1616, reprinted in the _Annual
+         Register_, 1800, p. 405. See also _Cal. S. P., Dom.,
+         1611-1618_, 398, and William Kelly, _Royal Progresses
+         in Leicester_ (Leicester, 1855), pt. II, 15.
+
+ 1616. King's Lynn, Norfolk. Mary Smith hanged. Alexander
+         Roberts, _Treatise of Witchcraft_ (London, 1616);
+         Mackerell, _History and Antiquities of King's Lynn_, 233.
+
+ 1616. Middlesex. Elizabeth Rutter of Finchley, for laming
+         and killing three persons, sentenced to be hanged.
+         _Middlesex County Records_, II, 108, 218.
+
+ 1616. Middlesex. Margaret Wellan of London accused "upon
+         suspition to be a witch." Andrew Camfield held in
+         Ł40 bail to appear against her. _Middlesex County
+         Records_, II, 124-125.
+
+ 1617. Middlesex. Agnes Berrye of Enfield sentenced to be
+         hanged. _Ibid._, 116, 219.
+
+ 1617. Middlesex. Anne Branche of Tottenham arraigned on
+         four counts, acquitted. _Ibid._, 219.
+
+ 1618. Middlesex. Bridget Meakins acquitted. _Ibid._, 225.
+
+ 1619. Lincoln. Margaret and Philippa Flower hanged. Their
+         mother, Joan Flower, died on the way to prison.
+         _The Wonderful Discoverie of the Witchcrafts of
+         Margaret and Phillip Flower_; J. Nichols, _History
+         and Antiquities of the County of Leicester_ (1795-1815),
+         II, pt. I, 49; _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1619-1623_, 129;
+         _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports, Rutland MSS._, IV, 514.
+
+ 1619. Leicester. Three women, Anne Baker, Joan Willimot,
+         Ellen Green, accused and confessed. Doubtless executed.
+         _The Wonderful Discoverie of the Witchcrafts
+         of Margaret and Phillip Flower_.
+
+ 1619. Middlesex. Agnes Miller of Finchley acquitted. _Middlesex
+         County Records_, II, 143-144.
+
+ 1620. London. "One Peacock, sometime a schoolmaster and
+         minister," for bewitching the king, committed to the
+         Tower and tortured. Williams, _Court and Times
+         of James I_, II, 202; _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1619-1623_, 125.
+
+ 1620. Leicester. Gilbert Smith, rector of Swithland, accused of
+         witchcraft among other things. _Leicestershire and
+         Rutland Notes and Queries_, I, 247.
+
+ 1620. Padiham, Lancashire. Witches in prison. _House and
+         Farm Accounts of the Shuttleworths_, pt. II. (Chetham
+         Soc., 1856), 240.
+
+ 1620. Staffordshire. Woman accused on charges of the "boy
+         of Bilson" acquitted. _The Boy of Bilson_ (London,
+         1622); Arthur Wilson, _Life and Reign of James I_,
+         107-112; Webster, _Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft_,
+         274-275.
+
+ 1621. Edmonton, Middlesex. Elizabeth Sawyer hanged. _The
+         wonderfull discoverie of Elizabeth Sawyer_, by
+         Henry Goodcole (1621).
+
+ 1621. Middlesex. Anne Beaver, accused of murder on six
+         counts, acquitted. _Middlesex County Records_, II,
+         72-73. Acquitted again in 1625. _Ibid._, III, 2.
+
+ 1622. York. Six women indicted for bewitching Edward Fairfax's
+         children. At April assizes two were released
+         upon bond, two and probably four discharged. At
+         the August assizes they were again acquitted. Fairfax,
+         _A Discourse of Witchcraft_ (Philobiblon Soc.,
+         London, 1858-1859).
+
+ 1622. Middlesex. Margaret Russel, alias "Countess," committed
+         to Newgate by Sir Wm. Slingsby on a charge
+         by Lady Jennings of injuring her daughter. Dr. Napier
+         diagnosed the daughter's illness as epilepsy.
+         Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 36,674, fol. 134.
+
+ 1623. Yorkshire. Elizabeth Crearey of North Allerton sentenced
+         to be set in the pillory once a quarter. Thirsk
+         Quarter Sessions Records in _North Riding Record
+         Society_ (London, 1885), III, 177, 181.
+
+ 1624. Bristol. Two witches said to have been executed. John
+         Latimer, _The Annals of Bristol in the Seventeenth
+         Century_ (Bristol, 1900), 91. Latimer quotes from
+         another "annalist."
+
+ temp. Jac. I? Two women said to have been hanged. Story
+         doubtful. Edward Poeton, _Winnowing of White
+         Witchcraft_ (Brit. Mus., Sloane MSS., 1,954), 41-42.
+
+ temp. Jac. I. Norfolk. Joane Harvey accused for scratching
+         "an olde witche" there, "Mother Francis nowe
+         deade." Mother Francis had before been imprisoned
+         at Norwich. Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 28,223, fol. 15.
+
+ temp. Jac. I. Warwickshire. Coventry haunted by "hellish sorcerers."
+         "The pestilent brood" also in Cheshire.
+         Thomas Cooper, _The Mystery of Witchcraft_ (1617),13, 16.
+
+ temp. Jac. I. Norwich. Witches probably accused for illness
+         of a child. Possibly Mother Francis was one of
+         them. Cooper, _ibid._, "Epistle Dedicatorie."
+
+ 1626. Taunton, Somerset. Edmund Bull and Joan Greedie
+         accused. Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 36,674, fol. 189;
+         Wright, _Narratives of Sorcery and Magic_, II, 139-143.
+         See also Richard Bernard, _Guide to Grand
+         Jurymen_, "Epistle Dedicatorie."
+
+ 1627. Durham. Sara Hathericke and Jane Urwen accused
+         before the Consistory Court. _Folk-Lore Journal_
+         (London, 1887), V, 158. Quoted by Edward Peacock
+         from the records of the Consistory Court of Durham.
+
+ 1627. Linneston, Lancaster. Elizabeth Londesdale accused.
+         Certificate of neighbors in her favor. _Hist. MSS.
+         Comm. Reports_, XIV, pt. 4 (_Kenyon MSS._), 36.
+
+ 1628. Leepish, Northumberland. Jane Robson committed.
+         Mackenzie, _History of Northumberland_ (Newcastle,
+         1825), 36. Mackenzie copies from the Mickleton MS.
+
+ 1630. Lancaster. A certain Utley said to have been hanged
+         for bewitching Richard Assheton. E. Baines, _Lancaster_
+         (ed. of 1868-1870), II, 12.
+
+ 1630. Sandwich, Kent. Woman hanged. Wm. Boys, _Collections
+         for an History of Sandwich in Kent_ (Canterbury,
+         1792), 707.
+
+ c. 1630. Wilts. "John Barlowes wife" said to have been executed.
+         MS. letter of 1685-86 printed in the _Gentleman's
+         Magazine_, 1832, pt. I, 405-410.
+
+ 1633. Louth, Lincolnshire. Witch alarm; two searchers appointed.
+         One witch indicted. Goulding, _Louth
+         Old Corporation Records_, 54.
+
+ c. 1633. Lancaster. The father and mother of Mary Spencer
+         condemned. _Cal. S. P., Dom., 1634-1635_, 79.
+
+ 1633. Norfolk. Woman accused. No arrest made. _Hist.
+         MSS. Comm. Reports_, X, pt. 2 (_Gawdy MSS._), p. 144.
+
+ 1633-34. Lancaster. Several witches, probably seventeen,
+         tried and condemned. Reprieved by the king. For
+         the many references to this affair see above, chap.
+         VII, footnotes.
+
+ 1634. Yorkshire. Four women of West Ayton presented for
+         telling "per veneficationem vel incantationem"
+         where certain stolen clothes were to be found.
+         Thirsk Quarter Sessions Records in _North Riding
+         Record Society_, IV, 20.
+
+ 1635. Lancaster. Four witches condemned. Privy Council
+         orders Bishop Bridgeman to examine them. Two
+         died in gaol. The others probably reprieved. _Hist.
+         MSS. Comm. Reports_, XII, 2 (_Cowper MSS._, II),
+         77, 80.
+
+ 1635. Leicester. Agnes Tedsall acquitted. _Leicestershire and
+         Rutland Notes and Queries_, I, 247.
+
+ 1635. ----. Mary Prowting, who was a plaintiff before the
+         Star Chamber, accused of witchcraft. Accuser, who
+         was one of the defendants, exposed. _Cal. St. P.,
+         Dom., 1635_, 476-477.
+
+ c. 1637. Bedford. Goodwife Rose "ducked," probably by officials.
+         Wm. Drage, _Daimonomageia_ (London, 1665), 41.
+
+ 1637. Staffordshire. Joice Hunniman committed, almost certainly
+         released. _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, II, App., 48 b.
+
+ 1637-38. Lathom, Lancashire. Anne Spencer examined and
+         probably committed. _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_,
+         XIV, 4 (_Kenyon MSS._), 55.
+
+ 1638. Middlesex. Alice Bastard arraigned on two charges.
+         Acquitted. _Middlesex County Records_, III, 112-113.
+
+ 1641. Middlesex. One Hammond of Westminster tried and
+         perhaps hanged. John Aubrey, _Remaines of Gentilisme
+         and Judaisme_ (Folk-Lore Soc.), 61.
+
+ temp. Carol I. Oxford. Woman perhaps executed. This
+         story is given at third hand in _A Collection of Modern
+         Relations_ (London, 1693), 48-49.
+
+ temp. Carol, I. Somerset. One or more hanged. Later the
+         bewitched person, who may have been Edmund Bull
+         (see above, _s. v._ 1626, Taunton), hanged also as a
+         witch. Meric Casaubon, _Of Credulity and Incredulity_
+         (London, 1668), 170-171.
+
+ temp. Carol. I? Taunton Dean. Woman acquitted. North,
+         _Life of North_, 131.
+
+ 1642. Middlesex. Nicholas Culpepper of St. Leonard's, Shoreditch,
+         acquitted. _Middlesex County Records_, III, 85.
+
+ 1643. Newbury, Berks. A woman supposed to be a witch
+         probably shot here by the parliament forces. _A
+         Most certain, strange and true Discovery of a Witch_
+         ... 1643; _Mercurius Aulicus_, Oct. 1-8, 1643; _Mercurius
+         Civicus_, Sept. 21-28, 1643; _Certaine Informations_,
+         Sept. 25-Oct. 2, 1643; _Mercurius Britannicus_,
+         Oct. 10-17, 1643.
+
+ 1644. Sandwich, Kent. "The widow Drew hanged for a
+         witch." W. Boys, _Collections for an History of
+         Sandwich_, 714.
+
+ 1645 (July). Chelmsford, Essex. Sixteen certainly condemned,
+         probably two more. Possibly eleven or twelve more
+         at another assize. _A true and exact Relation ...
+         of ... the late Witches ... at Chelmesford_ (1645);
+         Arthur Wilson, in Peck, _Desiderata Curiosa_, II,
+         76; Hopkins, _Discovery of Witches_, 2-3; Stearne,
+         _Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft_, 14, 16,
+         36, 38, 58, etc.; _Signes and Wonders from Heaven_
+         (1645), 2; "R. B." _The Kingdom of Darkness_
+         (London, 1688). The fate of the several Essex
+         witches is recorded by the _True and Exact Relation_
+         in marginal notes printed opposite their depositions
+         (but omitted in the reprint of that pamphlet in Howell's
+         _State Trials_). "R. B.," in _The Kingdom of
+         Darkness_, though his knowledge of the Essex cases
+         is ascribed to the pamphlet, gives details as to the
+         time and place of the executions which are often in
+         strange conflict with its testimony.
+
+ 1645 (July). Norfolk. Twenty witches said to have been
+         executed. Whitelocke, _Memorials_, I, 487. _A Perfect
+         Diurnal_ (July 21-28, 1645) says that there has been
+         a "tryall of the Norfolke witches, about 40 of them
+         and 20 already executed." _Signes and Wonders from
+         Heaven_ says that "there were 40 witches arraigned
+         for their lives and 20 executed."
+
+ 1645. Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Sixteen women and two
+         men executed Aug. 27. Forty or fifty more probably
+         executed a few weeks later. A very large number
+         arraigned. A manuscript (Brit. Mus., Add.
+         MSS., 27,402, fol. 104 ff.) mentions over forty true
+         bills and fifteen or more bills not found. _A True
+         Relation of the Araignment of eighteene Witches at
+         St. Edmundsbury_ (1645); Clarke, _Lives of Sundry
+         Eminent Persons_, 172; _County Folk-Lore, Suffolk_
+         (Folk-Lore Soc.), 178; Ady, _A Candle in the Dark_,
+         104-105, 114; _Moderate Intelligencer_, Sept. 4-11,
+         1645; _Scottish Dove_, Aug. 29-Sept. 6, 1645.
+
+ Stearne mentions several names not mentioned in
+         the _True Relation_--names probably belonging to
+         those in the second group of the accused. Of
+         most of them he has quoted the confession without
+         stating the outcome of the cases. They are
+         Hempstead of Creeting, Ratcliffe of Shelley, Randall
+         of Lavenham, Bedford of Rattlesden, Wright
+         of Hitcham, Ruceulver of Powstead, Greenliefe of
+         Barton, Bush of Barton, Cricke of Hitcham, Richmond
+         of Bramford, Hammer of Needham, Boreham
+         of Sudbury, Scarfe of Rattlesden, King of
+         Acton, Bysack of Waldingfield, Binkes of Haverhill.
+         In addition to these Stearne speaks of Elizabeth
+         Hubbard of Stowmarket. Two others from
+         Stowmarket were tried, "Goody Mils" and "Goody
+         Low." Hollingsworth, _History of Stowmarket_
+         (Ipswich, 1844), 171.
+
+ 1645. Melford, Suffolk. Alexander Sussums made confession.
+         Stearne, 36.
+
+ 1645. Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. At least nine women indicted,
+         five of whom were condemned. Three women
+         acquitted and one man. Many others presented. C.
+         J. Palmer, _History of Great Yarmouth_, I, 273-274.
+         _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, IX, App., pt. I, 320 a;
+         Henry Harrod in _Norfolk Archćol._, IV, 249-251.
+
+ 1645. Cornwall. Anne Jeffries confined in Bodmin gaol and
+         starved by order of a justice of the peace. She
+         was said to be intimate with the "airy people" and
+         to cause marvellous cures. We do not know the
+         charge against her. Finally discharged. William
+         Turner, _Remarkable Providences_ (London, 1697),
+         ch. 82.
+
+ 1645. Ipswich, Suffolk. Mother Lakeland burnt. _The Lawes
+         against Witches_ (1645).
+
+ 1645. King's Lynn, Norfolk. Dorothy Lee and Grace Wright
+         hanged. Mackerell, _History and Antiquities of
+         King's Lynn_, 236.
+
+ 1645. Aldeburgh, Norfolk. Seven witches hanged. Quotations
+         from the chamberlain's accounts in N. F.
+         Hele, _Notes or Jottings about Aldeburgh_, 43-44.
+
+ 1645. Faversham, Kent. Three women hanged, a fourth tried,
+         by the local authorities. _The Examination, Confession,
+         Triall and Execution of Joane Williford, Joan
+         Cariden and Jane Hott_ (1645).
+
+ 1645. Rye, Sussex. Martha Bruff and Anne Howsell ordered
+         by the "mayor of Rye and others" to be put to the
+         ordeal of water. _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, XIII,
+         pt. 4, 216.
+
+ 1645. Middlesex. Several witches of Stepney accused. _Signes
+         and Wonders from Heaven_, 2-3.
+
+ 1645-46. Cambridgeshire. Several accused, at least one or
+         two of whom were executed. Ady, _Candle in the
+         Dark_, 135; Stearne, 39, 45; H. More, _Antidote
+         against Atheisme_, 128-129. This may have been
+         what is referred to in Glanvill's _Sadducismus Triumphatus_,
+         pt. ii, 208-209.
+
+ 1646. Northamptonshire. Several witches hanged. One died
+         in prison. Stearne, 11, 23, 34-35.
+
+ 1646. Huntingdonshire. Many accused, of whom at least
+         ten were examined and several executed, among
+         them John Wynnick. One woman swam and was
+         released. John Davenport, _Witches of Huntingdon_
+         (London, 1646); H. More, _Antidote against Atheisme_,
+         125; Stearne, 11, 13, 17, 19, 20-21, 39, 42.
+
+ 1646. Bedfordshire. Elizabeth Gurrey of Risden made confession.
+         Stearne says a Huntingdonshire witch confessed
+         that "at Tilbrooke bushes in Bedfordshier
+         ... there met above twenty at one time." Huntingdonshire
+         witches seem meant, but perhaps not alone.
+         Stearne, 11, 31.
+
+ c. 1646. Yarmouth, Norfolk. Stearne mentions a woman
+         who suffered here. Stearne, 53.
+
+ 1646. Heptenstall, Yorkshire. Elizabeth Crossley, Mary
+         Midgley, and two other women examined before two
+         justices of the peace. _York Depositions_, 6-9.
+
+ 1647. Ely, Cambridgeshire. Stearne mentions "those executed
+         at Elie, a little before Michaelmas last, ...
+         also one at Chatterish there, one at March there,
+         and another at Wimblington there, now lately found,
+         still to be tryed"; and again "one Moores wife of
+         Sutton, in the Isle of Elie," who "confessed her
+         selfe guilty" and was executed; and yet again "one
+         at Heddenham in the Isle of Ely," who "made a
+         very large Confession" and must have paid the
+         penalty. Stearne, 17, 21, 37; Gibbons, _Ely Episcopal
+         Records_ (Lincoln, 1891), 112-113.
+
+ 1647. Middlesex. Helen Howson acquitted. _Middlesex County
+         Records_, III, 124.
+
+ 1648. Middlesex. Bill against Katharine Fisher of Stratford-at-Bow
+         ignored. _Middlesex County Records_, III, 102.
+
+ 1648. Norwich, Norfolk. Two women burnt. P. Browne,
+         _History of Norwich_ (Norwich, 1814), 38.
+
+ 1649. Worcester. A Lancashire witch said to have been tried;
+         perhaps remanded to Lancashire. _A Collection of
+         Modern Relations._ The writer says that he received
+         the account from a "Person of Quality" who
+         attended the trial.
+
+ 1649. Middlesex. Elizabeth Smythe of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields
+         acquitted. _Middlesex County Records_, III, 191.
+
+ 1649. Middlesex. Dorothy Brumley acquitted. _Ibid._
+
+ 1649. St. Albans. John Palmer and Elizabeth Knott said to
+         have been hanged for witches. _The Divels Delusion_ (1649).
+
+ 1649. Berwick. Thirty women, examined on the accusation
+         of a Scotch witch-finder, committed to prison.
+         Whitelocke, _Memorials_, III, 99; John Fuller, _History
+         of Berwick_ (Edinburgh, 1799), 155-156, giving extracts
+         from the Guild Hall Books; John Sykes,
+         _Local Records_ (Newcastle, 1833), I, 103-105.
+
+ 1649. Gloucester. Witch tried at the assizes. _A Collection of
+         Modern Relations_, 52.
+
+ 1649-50. Yorkshire. Mary Sykes and Susan Beaumont committed
+         and searched. The former acquitted, bill
+         against the latter ignored. _York Depositions_, 28.
+
+ 1649-50. Durham. Several witches at Gateshead examined,
+         and carried to Durham for trial; "a grave for a
+         witch." Sykes, _Local Records_, I, 105; or _Denham
+         Tracts_ (Folk-Lore Soc.), II, 338.
+
+ 1649-50. Newcastle. Thirty witches accused. Fourteen
+         women and one man hanged, together with a witch
+         from the county of Northumberland. Ralph Gardiner,
+         _England's Grievance_ (London, 1655), 108;
+         Sykes, _Local Records_, I, 103; John Brand, _History
+         and Antiquities of Newcastle_ (London, 1789), II,
+         477-478; Whitelocke, _Memorials_, III, 128; _Chronicon
+         Mirabile_ (London, 1841), 92.
+
+ 1650. Yorkshire. Ann Hudson of Skipsey charged. _York
+         Depositions_, 38, note.
+
+ 1650. Cumberland. A "discovery of witches." Sheriff perplexed.
+         _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1650_, 159.
+
+ 1650. Derbyshire. Ann Wagg of Ilkeston committed for
+         trial. J. C. Cox, _Three Centuries of Derbyshire
+         Annals_, II, 88.
+
+ 1650. Middlesex. Joan Roberts acquitted. _Middlesex County
+         Records_, III, 284.
+
+ 1650. Stratford-at-Bow, Middlesex. Witch said to have been
+         apprehended, but "escaped the law." Glanvill,
+         _Sadducismus Triumphatus_, pt. ii, Relation XX.
+
+ 1650. Middlesex. Joan Allen sentenced to be hanged. _Middlesex
+         County Records_, III, 284. _The Weekly Intelligencer_,
+         Oct. 7, 1650, refers to the hanging of a witch
+         at the Old Bailey, probably Joan.
+
+ 1650. Leicester. Anne Chettle searched and acquitted. Tried
+         again two years later. Result unknown. _Leicestershire
+         and Rutland Notes and Queries_, I, 247; James
+         Thompson, _Leicester_ (Leicester, 1849), 406.
+
+ 1650. Alnwick. Dorothy Swinow, wife of a colonel, indicted.
+         Nothing further came of it. _Wonderfull News from
+         the North_ (1650).
+
+ 1650. Middlesex. Elizabeth Smith acquitted. _Middlesex
+         County Records_, III, 284.
+
+ c. 1650-60. St. Alban's, Herts. Two witches suspected and
+         probably tried. Drage, _Daimonomageia_ (1665), 40-41.
+
+ 1651. Yorkshire. Margaret Morton acquitted. _York Depositions_, 38.
+
+ 1651. Middlesex. Elizabeth Lanam of Stepney acquitted.
+         _Middlesex County Records_, III, 202, 285.
+
+ 1651. Colchester, Essex. John Lock sentenced to one year's
+         imprisonment and four appearances in the pillory.
+         Brit. Mus., Stowe MSS., 840, fol. 43.
+
+ 1652. Yorkshire. Hester France of Huddersfield accused before
+         the justice of the peace. _York Depositions_, 51.
+
+ 1652. Maidstone, Kent. Six women hanged, others indicted.
+         _A Prodigious and Tragicall History of the Arraignment
+         ... of six Witches at Maidstone ..._ by
+         "H. F. Gent.," 1652; _The Faithful Scout_, July 30-Aug.
+         7, 1652; Ashmole's Diary in _Lives of Ashmole
+         and Lilly_ (London, 1774), 316.
+
+ 1652. Middlesex. Joan Peterson of Wapping acquitted on
+         one charge, found guilty on another, and hanged.
+         _Middlesex County Records_, III, 287; _The Witch of
+         Wapping_; _A Declaration in Answer to several lying
+         Pamphlets concerning the Witch of Wapping_; _The
+         Tryall and Examinations of Mrs. Joan Peterson_;
+         _French Intelligencer_, Apr. 6-13, 1652; _Mercurius
+         Democritus_, Apr. 7-14, 1652; _Weekly Intelligencer_,
+         April 6-13, 1652; _Faithful Scout_, Apr. 9-16, 1652.
+
+ 1652. London. Susan Simpson acquitted. _A True and Perfect
+         List of the Names of those Prisoners in Newgate_
+         (London, 1652).
+
+ 1652. Worcester. Catherine Huxley of Evesham, charged
+         with bewitching a nine-year-old girl, hanged. Baxter,
+         _Certainty of the World of Spirits_ (London, 1691),
+         44-45. Baxter's narrative was sent him by "the now
+         Minister of the place."
+
+ 1652. Middlesex. Temperance Fossett of Whitechapel acquitted.
+         _Middlesex County Records_, III, 208, 288.
+
+ 1652. Middlesex. Margery Scott of St Martin's-in-the-Fields
+         acquitted. _Ibid._, 209.
+
+ 1652. Scarborough, Yorkshire. Anne Marchant or Hunnam
+         accused and searched. J. B. Baker, _History of
+         Scarborough_ (London, 1882), 481, using local
+         records.
+
+ 1652. Durham. Francis Adamson and ---- Powle executed.
+         Richardson, _Table Book_, I, 286.
+
+ 1652. Exeter, Devonshire. Joan Baker committed. Cotton,
+         _Gleanings ... Relative to the History of ... Exeter_
+         (Exeter, 1877), 149.
+
+ 1652. Wilts. William Starr accused and searched. _Hist.
+         MSS. Comm. Reports_, _Various_, I, 127.
+
+ 1652-53. Cornwall. A witch near Land's End accused, and
+         accuses others. Eight sent to Launceston gaol. Some
+         probably executed (see above, p. 218 and footnotes
+         24, 25). _Mercurius Politicus_, Nov. 24-Dec. 2,
+         1653; R. and O. B. Peter, _The Histories of Launceston
+         and Dunheved_ (Plymouth, 1885), 285. See
+         also Burthogge, _Essay upon Reason and the Nature
+         of Spirits_ (London, 1694), 196.
+
+ 1653. Wilts. Joan Baker of the Devizes makes complaint
+         because two persons have reported her to be a witch.
+         _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, _Various_, I, 127. Is this
+         the Joan Baker of Exeter mentioned a few lines
+         above?
+
+ 1653. Wilts. Joan Price of Malmesbury and Elizabeth Beeman
+         of the Devizes indicted, the latter committed
+         to the assizes. _Ibid._
+
+ 1653. Yorkshire. Elizabeth Lambe accused. _York Depositions_, 58.
+
+ 1653. Middlesex. Elizabeth Newman of Whitechapel acquitted
+         on one charge, found guilty on another, and
+         sentenced to be hanged. _Middlesex County Records_,
+         III, 217, 218, 289.
+
+ 1653. Middlesex. Barbara Bartle of Stepney acquitted. _Ibid._, 216.
+
+ 1653. Leeds, Yorkshire. Isabel Emott indicted for witchcraft
+         upon cattle. _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, IX, pt. 1, 325 b.
+
+ 1653. Salisbury, Wilts. Anne Bodenham of Fisherton Anger
+         hanged. _Doctor Lamb Revived_; _Doctor Lamb's
+         Darling_; _Aubrey, Folk-Lore and Gentilisme_ (Folk-Lore
+         Soc.), 261; Henry More, _An Antidote against
+         Atheisme_, bk. III, chap. VII.
+
+ 1654. Yorkshire. Anne Greene of Gargrave examined. _York
+         Depositions_, 64-65.
+
+ 1654. Yorkshire. Elizabeth Roberts of Beverley examined.
+         _Ibid._, 67.
+
+ 1654. Wilts. Christiana Weekes of Cleves Pepper, who had
+         been twice before accused in recent sessions, charged
+         with telling where lost goods could be found.
+         "Other conjurers" charged at the same time.
+         _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, _Various_, I, 120. See
+         above, 1610, Norfolk.
+
+ 1654. Exeter. Diana Crosse committed. Cotton, _Gleanings
+         ... Relative to the History of ... Exeter_, 150.
+
+ 1654. Wilts. Elizabeth Loudon committed on suspicion.
+         _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, _Various_, I, 129.
+
+ 1654. Whitechapel, Middlesex. Grace Boxe, arraigned on three
+         charges, acquitted. Acquitted again in 1656. _Middlesex
+         County Records_, III, 223, 293.
+
+ 1655. Yorkshire. Katherine Earle committed and searched.
+         _York Depositions_, 69.
+
+ 1655. Salisbury. Margaret Gyngell convicted. Pardoned by
+         the Lord Protector. F. A. Inderwick, _The Interregnum_,
+         188-189.
+
+ 1655. Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Mother and daughter
+         Boram said to have been hanged. Hutchinson, _An
+         Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft_, 38.
+
+ 1656. Yorkshire. Jennet and George Benton of Wakefield
+         examined. _York Depositions_, 74.
+
+ 1656. Yorkshire. William and Mary Wade committed for
+         bewitching the daughter of Lady Mallory. _York
+         Depositions_, 75-78.
+
+ 1657. Middlesex. Katharine Evans of Fulham acquitted.
+         _Middlesex County Records_, III, 263.
+
+ 1657. Middlesex. Elizabeth Crowley of Stepney acquitted,
+         but detained in the house of correction. _Middlesex
+         County Records_, III, 266, 295.
+
+ 1657. Gisborough, Yorkshire. Robert Conyers, "gent.," accused.
+         _North Riding Record Society_, V, 259.
+
+ 1658. Exeter. Thomas Harvey of Oakham, Rutlandshire,
+         "apprehended by order of Council by a party of
+         soldiers," acquitted at Exeter assizes, but detained
+         in custody. _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1658-1659_, 169.
+
+ 1658. Chard, Somerset. Jane Brooks of Shepton Mallet
+         hanged. Glanvill, _Sadducismus Triumphatus_ (1681),
+         pt. ii, 120-122. (Glanvill used Hunt's book of
+         examinations). J. E. Farbrother, _Shepton Mallet;
+         notes on its history, ancient, descriptive and natural_
+         (1860), 141.
+
+ 1658. Exeter. Joan Furnace accused. Cotton, _Gleanings ...
+         Relative to the History of ... Exeter_, 152.
+
+ 1658. Yorkshire. Some women said to have been accused by
+         two maids. The woman "cast" by the jury. The
+         judges gave a "respite." Story not entirely trustworthy.
+         _The most true and wonderfull Narration
+         of two women bewitched in Yorkshire ..._ (1658).
+
+ 1658. Wapping, Middlesex. Lydia Rogers accused. _A More
+         Exact Relation of the most lamentable and horrid
+         Contract which Lydia Rogers ... made with the
+         Divel_ (1658). See app. A, § 5, for another tract.
+
+ 1658. Northamptonshire. Some witches of Welton said to
+         have been examined. Glanvill, _Sadducismus Triumphatus_
+         (1681), pt. ii, 263-268.
+
+ 1658. Salisbury, Wilts. The widow Orchard said to have
+         been executed. From a MS. letter of 1685-86,
+         printed in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1832, pt. I,
+         405-410.
+
+ 1659. Norwich, Norfolk. Mary Oliver burnt. P. Brown,
+         _History of Norwich_, 39. Francis Blomefield, _An
+         Essay towards a Topographical History of the
+         County of Norfolk_ (London, 1805-1810), III, 401.
+
+ 1659. Middlesex. Elizabeth Kennett of Stepney accused. _Middlesex
+         County Records_, III, 278, 299.
+
+ 1659. Hertfordshire. "Goody Free" accused of killing by
+         witchcraft. _Hertfordshire County Sessions Rolls_,
+         I, 126, 129.
+
+ 1659-1660. Northumberland. Elizabeth Simpson of Tynemouth
+         accused. _York Depositions_, 82.
+
+ 1660. Worcester. Joan Bibb of Rushock received Ł20 damages
+         for being ducked. _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1856,
+         pt. I, 39, from a letter of J. Noake of Worcester,
+         who used the Townshend MSS.
+
+ 1660. Worcester. A widow and her two daughters, and a
+         man, from Kidderminster, tried. "Little proved."
+         Copied from the Townshend MSS. by Nash, in his
+         _Collections for the History of Worcestershire_ (1781-1799),
+         II, 38.
+
+ 1660. Newcastle. Two suspected women detained in prison.
+         Extracts from the Municipal Accounts of Newcastle-upon-Tyne
+         in M. A. Richardson, _Reprints of Rare
+         Tracts ... illustrative of the History of the Northern
+         Counties_ (Newcastle, 1843-1847), III, 57.
+
+ 1660. Canterbury, Kent. Several witches said to have been
+         executed. W. Welfitt ("Civis"), _Minutes of Canterbury_
+         (Canterbury, 1801-1802), no. X.
+
+ c. 1660. Sussex. A woman who had been formerly tried at
+         Maidstone watched and searched. MS. quoted in
+         _Sussex Archćol. Collections_, XVIII, 111-113; see
+         also Samuel Clarke, _A Mirrour or Looking Glasse
+         both for Saints and Sinners_, II, 593-596.
+
+ 1661. Hertfordshire. Frances Bailey of Broxbourn complained
+         of abuse by those who believed her a witch.
+         _Hertfordshire County Sessions Rolls_, I, 137.
+
+ 1661. Newcastle. Jane Watson examined before the mayor.
+         _York Depositions_, 92-93.
+
+ 1661. Newcastle. Margaret Catherwood and two other
+         women examined before the mayor. _Ibid._, 88.
+
+ 1663. Somerset. Elizabeth Style died before execution. Glanvill,
+         _Sadducismus Triumphatus_, pt. ii, 127-146. For
+         copies of three depositions about Elizabeth Style,
+         see _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1837, pt. ii, 256-257.
+
+ 1663. Taunton, Somerset. Julian Cox hanged. Glanvill,
+         _Sadducismus Triumphatus_, pt. ii, 191-198.
+
+ 1663-64. Newcastle. Dorothy Stranger accused before the
+         mayor. _York Depositions_, 112-114.
+
+ 1664. Somerset. A "hellish knot" of witches (Hutchinson
+         says twelve) accused before justice of the peace
+         Robert Hunt. His discovery stopped by "some of
+         them in authority." Glanvill, _Sadducismus Triumphatus_,
+         pt. ii, 256-257. But see case of Elizabeth Style above.
+
+ 1664. Somerset. A witch condemned at the assizes. She may
+         have been one of those brought before Hunt. _Cal.
+         St. P., Dom., 1663-1664_, 552.
+
+ 1664. Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Rose Cullender and Amy
+         Duny condemned. _A Tryal of Witches at ... Bury
+         St. Edmunds_ (1682).
+
+ 1664. Newcastle. Jane Simpson, Isabell Atcheson and Katharine
+         Curry accused before the mayor. _York Depositions_, 124.
+
+ 1664. York. Alice Huson and Doll Dilby tried. Both made
+         confessions. Copied for _A Collection of Modern Relations_
+         (see p. 52) from a paper written by the justice
+         of the peace, Corbet.
+
+ 1665. Wilts. Jone Mereweather of Weeke in Bishop's Cannings
+         committed. _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, _Various_, I, 147.
+
+ 1665. Newcastle. Mrs. Pepper accused before the mayor.
+         _York Depositions_, 127.
+
+ 1665. Three persons convicted of murder and executed for
+         killing a supposed witch. Joseph Hunter, _Life of
+         Heywood_ (London, 1842), 167-168, note.
+
+ 1666. Lancashire. Four witches of Haigh examined, two
+         committed but probably acquitted. _Cal. St. P., Dom.,
+         1665-1666_, 225.
+
+ 1667. Newcastle, Northumberland. Emmy Gaskin of Landgate
+         accused before the mayor. _York Depositions_, 154.
+
+ 1667. Norfolk. A fortune-teller or conjuror condemned to
+         imprisonment. _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1667_, 30.
+
+ 1667. Ipswich, Suffolk. Two witches possibly imprisoned.
+         Story doubtful. _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1667-1668_, 4.
+
+ 1667. Devizes, Wilts. "An old woman" imprisoned, charged
+         with bewitching by making and pricking an image.
+         Blagrave, _Astrological Practice_ (London 1689),
+         90, 103.
+
+ 1667. Lancashire. Widow Bridge and her sister, Margaret
+         Loy, both of Liverpool, accused. _The Moore Rental_
+         (Chetham Soc., 1847), 59-60.
+
+ 1668. Durham. Alice Armstrong of Strotton tried, but almost
+         certainly acquitted. Tried twice again in the next
+         year with the same result. Sykes, _Local Records_, II, 369.
+
+ 1668. Warwick. Many witches "said to be in hold." _Cal. St.
+         P., Dom., 1668-1669_, 25.
+
+ 1669. Hertfordshire. John Allen of Stondon indicted for calling
+         Joan Mills a witch. _Hertfordshire County Sessions Rolls_, I, 217.
+
+ 1670. Yorkshire. Anne Wilkinson acquitted. _York Depositions_,
+         176 and note.
+
+ 1670. Latton Wilts. Jane Townshend accused. _Hist. MSS.
+         Comm. Reports, Various_. I, 150-151.
+
+ 1670. Wilts. Elizabeth Peacock acquitted. See Inderwick's
+         list of witch trials in the western circuit, in his
+         _Sidelights on the Stuarts_ (London, 1888), 190-194.
+         Hereafter the reference "Inderwick" will mean
+         this list. See also above, p. 269, note.
+
+ 1670. Devonshire. Elizabeth Eburye and Aliena Walter acquitted.
+         Inderwick.
+
+ 1670. Somerset. Anne Slade acquitted on two indictments.
+         Inderwick.
+
+ 1670. Bucks. Ann Clarke reprieved. _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1670_, 388.
+
+ 1671. Devonshire. Johanna Elford acquitted. Inderwick.
+
+ 1671. Devonshire. Margaret Heddon acquitted on two indictments.
+         Inderwick.
+
+ 1671. Falmouth. Several witches acquitted. _Cal. St. P., Dom.,
+         1671_, 105, 171. Perhaps identical with the three, two
+         men and a woman, mentioned by Inderwick as acquitted
+         in Cornwall.
+
+ 1672. Somerset. Margaret Stevens acquitted on two indictments.
+         Inderwick.
+
+ 1672. Devonshire. Phelippa Bruen acquitted on four indictments.
+         Inderwick.
+
+ 1672. Wilts. Elizabeth Mills acquitted on two indictments.
+         Inderwick.
+
+ 1672. Wilts. Elizabeth Peacock, who had been acquitted two
+         years before, acquitted on five indictments. Judith
+         Witchell acquitted on two, found guilty on a third.
+         She and Ann Tilling sentenced to execution. They
+         must have been reprieved. Inderwick; _Gentleman's
+         Magazine_, 1832, pt. II, p. 489-492.
+
+ 1673. Yorkshire, Northumberland, and Durham. At least
+         twenty-three women and six men accused to various
+         justices of the peace by Ann Armstrong, who confessed
+         to being present at witch meetings, and who
+         acted as a witch discoverer. Some of those whom
+         she accused were accused by others. Margaret Milburne,
+         whom she seems not to have mentioned, also
+         accused, _York Depositions_, 191-202.
+
+ 1674. Northampton. Ann Foster said to have been hanged
+         for destroying sheep and burning barns by witchcraft.
+         _A Full and True Relation of The Tryal, Condemnation,
+         and Execution of Ann Foster_ (1674).
+
+ 1674. Middlesex. Elizabeth Row of Hackney held in bail for
+         her appearance at Quarter Sessions. _Middlesex
+         County Records_, IV, 42-43.
+
+ 1674. Southton, Somerset. John and Agnes Knipp acquitted.
+         Inderwick.
+
+ 1674? (see above, p. 269, note). Salisbury. Woman acquitted,
+         but kept in gaol. North, _Life of North_, 130, 131.
+
+ 1674-75. Lancashire. Joseph Hinchcliffe and his wife bound
+         over to appear at the assizes. He committed suicide
+         and his wife died soon after. _York Depositions_,
+         208; Oliver Heywood's _Diary_ (1881-1885), I, 362.
+
+ 1675. Southton, Somerset. Martha Rylens acquitted on five
+         indictments. Inderwick.
+
+ 1676. Devonshire. Susannah Daye acquitted. Inderwick.
+
+ 1676. Cornwall. Mary Clarkson acquitted. Inderwick.
+
+ c. 1679. Ely, Cambridgeshire. Witch condemned, but reprieved.
+         Hutchinson, _Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft_, 41.
+
+ c. 1680. Somerset. Anna Rawlins acquitted. Inderwick.
+
+ c. 1680. Derbyshire. Elizabeth Hole of Wingerworth accused
+         and committed for charging a baronet with witchcraft.
+         J. C. Cox, _Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals_, II, 90.
+
+ 1680. Yorkshire, Elizabeth Fenwick of Longwitton acquitted.
+         _York Depositions_, 247.
+
+ 1682. London. Jane Kent acquitted. _A Full and True Account
+         ... but more especially the Tryall of Jane Kent for
+         Witchcraft_ (1682).
+
+ 1682. Surrey. Joan Butts acquitted. _Strange and Wonderfull
+         News from Yowell in Surry_ (1681); _An Account
+         of the Tryal and Examination of Joan Buts_ (1682).
+
+ 1682. Devonshire. Temperance Lloyd acquitted on one indictment,
+         found guilty on another. Susanna Edwards
+         and Mary Trembles found guilty. All three executed.
+         Inderwick; North, _Life of North_, 130; see
+         also app. A, § 6, above.
+
+ 1682-88. Northumberland. Margaret Stothard of Edlingham
+         accused. E. Mackenzie, _History of Northumberland_,
+         II, 33-36.
+
+ 1683. London. Jane Dodson acquitted. _An Account of the
+         Whole Proceedings at the Sessions Holden at the
+         Sessions House in the Old Baily ..._ (1683).
+
+ 1683. Somerset. Elenora, Susannah, and Marie Harris, and
+         Anna Clarke acquitted. Inderwick.
+
+ 1684. Devonshire. Alicia Molland found guilty. Inderwick.
+
+ 1685. Devonshire. Jane Vallet acquitted on three indictments.
+         Inderwick.
+
+ temp. Carol. II. Devonshire. Agnes Ryder of Woodbury accused,
+         probably committed. A. H. A. Hamilton,
+         _Quarter Sessions chiefly in Devon_ (London, 1878), 220.
+
+ temp. Carol. II. Ipswich, Suffolk. A woman in prison. William
+         Drage, _Daimonomageia_, 11.
+
+ temp. Carol. II. Herts. Two suspected witches of Baldock
+         ducked. _Ibid._, 40.
+
+ temp. Carol. II. St. Albans, Herts. Man and woman imprisoned.
+         Woman ducked. _Ibid._
+
+ temp. Carol. II. Taunton Dean, Somerset. Man acquitted.
+         North, _Life of North_, 131.
+
+ 1685-86. Malmesbury, Wilts. Fourteen persons accused, among
+         whom were the three women, Peacock, Tilling and
+         Witchell, who had been tried in 1672. Eleven set at
+         liberty; Peacock, Tilling and Witchell kept in prison
+         awhile, probably released eventually. _Gentleman's
+         Magazine_, 1832, pt. I, 489-492.
+
+ 1686. Somerset. Honora Phippan acquitted on two indictments.
+         Inderwick.
+
+ 1686. Cornwall. Jane Noal, alias Nickless, alias Nicholas,
+         and Betty Seeze committed to Launceston gaol for
+         bewitching a fifteen-year-old boy. We know from
+         Inderwick that Jane Nicholas was acquitted. _A
+         True Account of ... John Tonken of Pensans in
+         Cornwall_ (1686).
+
+ 1687. York. Witch condemned, probably reprieved. _Memoirs
+         and Travels of Sir John Reresby_ (London, 1812), 329.
+
+ 1687. Dorset. Dewnes Knumerton and Elizabeth Hengler acquitted.
+         Inderwick. For examination of first see
+         Roberts, _Southern Counties_, 525-526.
+
+ 1687. Wilts. M. Parle acquitted. Inderwick.
+
+ 1687. Devonshire. Abigail Handford acquitted. Inderwick.
+
+ 1689. Wilts. Margareta Young condemned but reprieved.
+         Christiana Dunne acquitted. Inderwick.
+
+ 1690. Taunton, Somerset. Elizabeth Farrier (Carrier), Margaret
+         Coombes and Ann Moore committed. Coombes
+         died in prison at Brewton. The other two acquitted
+         at the assizes. Inderwick; Baxter, _Certainty
+         of the World of Spirits_, 74-75.
+
+ 1692. Wilts. Woman committed. _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_,
+         _Various_, I, 160.
+
+ 1693. Suffolk. Widow Chambers of Upaston committed, died
+         in gaol. Hutchinson, _Historical Essay concerning
+         Witchcraft_, 42.
+
+ 1693-94. Devonshire. Dorothy Case acquitted on three indictments.
+         Inderwick.
+
+ 1693-94. Devonshire. Katherine Williams acquitted. Inderwick.
+
+ 1694. Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Mother Munnings of Hartis
+         acquitted. Hutchinson, _op. cit._, 43.
+
+ 1694. Somerset. Action brought against three men for swimming
+         Margaret Waddam. _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, _Various_, I, 160.
+
+ 1694. Ipswich, Suffolk. Margaret Elnore acquitted. Hutchinson, 44.
+
+ 1694. Kent. Ann Hart of Sandwich convicted, but went free
+         under a general act of pardon. W. Boys, _Collections
+         for an History of Sandwich_, 718.
+
+ 1694-95. Devonshire. Clara Roach acquitted. Inderwick.
+
+ 1695. Launceston, Cornwall. Mary Guy or Daye acquitted.
+         Hutchinson, 44-45; Inderwick gives the name as
+         Maria Daye (or Guy) and puts the trial in Devonshire
+         in 1696.
+
+ 1696. Devonshire. Elizabeth Horner acquitted on three indictments,
+         Hutchinson, 45; Inderwick. See also
+         letter from sub-dean Blackburne to the Bishop of
+         Exeter in Brand, _Popular Antiquities_ (ed. of 1905),
+         II, 648-649.
+
+ 1698-99. Wilts. Ruth Young acquitted. Inderwick.
+
+ 1700. Dorset. Anne Grantly and Margaretta Way acquitted.
+         Inderwick.
+
+ 1700-10. Lancashire. A woman of Chowbent searched and
+         committed. Died before the assizes. MS. quoted by
+         Harland and Wilkinson, _Lancashire Folk-Lore_
+         (London, 1867), 207; also E. Baines, _Lancaster_,
+         II, 203.
+
+ 1701. Southwark. Sarah Morduck, who had been before acquitted
+         at Guildford, and who had unsuccessfully appealed
+         to a justice in London against her persecutor,
+         tried and acquitted. Hutchinson, 46. _The
+         Tryal of Richard Hathaway_ (1702); _A Full and
+         True Account of the Apprehending and Taking of
+         Mrs. Sarah Moordike_ (1701); _A short Account of
+         the Trial held at Surry Assizes, in the Borough of
+         Southwark_ (1702). See above, app. A, § 7.
+
+ 1701. Kingston, Surrey. Woman acquitted. _Notes and
+         Queries_ (April 10, 1909), quoting from the _London
+         Post_ of Aug. 1-4, 1701.
+
+ 1701-02. Devonshire. Susanna Hanover acquitted. Inderwick.
+
+ 1702-03. Wilts. Joanna Tanner acquitted. Inderwick.
+
+ 1704. Middlesex. Sarah Griffiths committed to Bridewell.
+         _A Full and True Account ... of a Notorious Witch_
+         (London, 1704).
+
+ 1705. Northampton. Two women said to have been burned
+         here. Story improbable. See above, appendix A, § 10.
+
+ 1707. Somerset. Maria Stevens acquitted. Inderwick.
+
+ 1712. Hertford. Jane Wenham condemned, but reprieved.
+         See footnotes to chapter XIII and app. A, § 9.
+
+ 1716. Huntingdon. Two witches, a mother and daughter,
+         said to have been executed here. Story improbable.
+         See above, app. A, § 10.
+
+ 1717. Leicester. Jane Clark and her daughter said to have
+         been tried. _Leicestershire and Rutland Notes and
+         Queries_, I, 247.
+
+ 1717. Leicester. Mother Norton and her daughter acquitted.
+         Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 35,838, fol. 404.
+
+
+I am unwilling to close this work without an expression of my gratitude
+to the libraries, on both sides of the sea, which have so generously
+welcomed me to the use of their books and pamphlets on English
+witchcraft--many of them excessively rare and precious. They have made
+possible this study. My debt is especially great to the libraries of the
+British Museum and of Lambeth Palace at London, to the Bodleian Library
+at Oxford, and in America to the Boston Athenćum and to the university
+libraries of Yale and Harvard. To the unrivalled White collection at
+Cornell my obligation is deepest of all.
+
+
+[1] The references in this list, together with the account, in appendix
+A, of the pamphlet literature of witchcraft, are designed to take the
+place of a formal bibliography. That the list of cases here given is
+complete can hardly be hoped. Crude though its materials compel it to
+be, the author believes it may prove useful. He hopes in the course of
+time to make it more complete, and to that end will gladly welcome
+information respecting other trials.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+ Abbot, George, Archbishop of Canterbury, 141 n., 233-234
+
+ Abbott, Alice, 132 n.
+
+ Abingdon, 27, 347, 387
+
+ _Account of the ... Proceedings ... in the Old Baily_, cited, 416
+
+ Acton, 404
+
+ _Acts of the Privy Council_, cited, 26 n., 28 n., 30 n., 347, 384, 385,
+ 388, 390
+
+ Adams, W. H. Davenport, cited, 188 n., 376
+
+ Adamson, Francis, 409
+
+ Addison, Joseph, 340-341
+
+ Ady, Thomas, 238, 241-242, 310.
+   Cited, 180, 184 n., 225 n., 404
+
+ Agrippa, Cornelius, 62
+
+ Aikin, Lucy, cited, 143 n.
+
+ Aldeburgh, 182, 183, 191 n., 193, 200 n., 405
+
+ Alene, case of, 13
+
+ Alfred the Great, 2
+
+ Allen, Joan, 408, 414
+
+ Alnwick, 390, 408
+
+ Altham, Sir James, 112, 113, 125
+
+ Anderson, Sir Edmund, 51, 56 n., 78, 84, 102, 350, 354, 355
+
+ Andrews, William, cited, 137 n., 396
+
+ Anne, Princess of Denmark, her marriage to James I, 94
+
+ _Annual Register_, cited, 141 n., 398
+
+ _Archćologia_, cited, 10 n., 391
+
+ _Archćologia Cantiana_, cited, 21 n., 29 n., 385, 389, 392, 393
+
+ Archer, John, 273, 282;
+   conducts Cox trial, 260-261
+
+ Armstrong, Ann, 281-282, 415
+
+ Arnold, Mother, 386
+
+ Ashmole, Elias, cited, 216, 365, 408
+
+ Ashmolean Museum, at Oxford, 216
+
+ Ashton, John, cited, 188 n., 351, 366, 376
+
+ Ashwell, John, 7
+
+ Aspine, Martha, 107
+
+ Assembly, the witch. _See_ Sabbath
+
+ Assheton, R., 158 n., 401
+
+ Atcheson, Isabell, 413
+
+ Aubrey, John, his credulity, 306.
+   Cited, 162 n., 212 n., 365, 402, 410
+
+ Audley, vicar of, 326
+
+ _Autobiography of Edward Underhill_, cited, 13 n.
+
+ Avery, "Master," 110, 130-132, 357, 384
+
+
+ B., R. _See_ Burton, Richard.
+
+ Bacon, Francis, 246-247.
+   Cited, 246 n., 247 n.
+
+ Baddeley, Richard, 141 n., 142 n., 359
+
+ Bailey, Frances, 412
+
+ Bailey, the Old, 108 n.
+
+ Baines, Edward, cited, 147 n., 149 n., 150 n., 158 n., 392, 401, 419
+
+ Baker, Alexander, 154
+
+ Baker, Anne, 133 n., 399
+
+ Baker, J. B., cited, 409
+
+ Baker, Joan, of Devizes, 217, 409
+
+ Baker, Joan, of Exeter, 409
+
+ Baker, Mother, 59-60
+
+ Bakewell, affair of, 137, 384, 396
+
+ Baldock, 417
+
+ Bamfield, Ellen, 389
+
+ Bamford, James, 353
+
+ Bancroft, Richard, as Bishop of London, 84-89;
+   as Archbishop of Canterbury, 88 n., 89, 233, 346, 353
+
+ Bangor, Bishop of, 397
+
+ Barber, Mary, 383
+
+ Bark, Ellen, 394
+
+ Barking, 386
+
+ Barlowe, wife of John, 401
+
+ Barnet, 392
+
+ Barringer, Joan, 390
+
+ Barrow, Dr., of Cambridge, 47
+
+ Barrow, Isaac, 308 and n., 311
+
+ Barrow, James, 256-237
+
+ Barrow, John, 256
+
+ Bartell, Elizabeth, 389
+
+ Bartham, Doll, 350
+
+ Bartham, Oliffe, 394
+
+ Bartle, Barbara, 410
+
+ Barton, 404
+
+ Barton, Elizabeth, the "Holy Maid of Kent," 58
+
+ Basel, 15 n.
+
+ Bastard, Alice, 402
+
+ Batcombe, 34, 236
+
+ Bate, William, 397
+
+ Bates, Dr., cited, 337 n.
+
+ Bateson, Mary, cited, 392
+
+ Bath and Wells, Bishop of, 162 n.
+
+ Bath and Wells, chancellor of the Bishop of, 235
+
+ Batte, 38
+
+ Baxter, Richard, 196, 316, 336-339.
+   Cited, 216 n., 337 n., 409, 418
+
+ Beaumont, John, 336, 339.
+   Cited, 273 n., 275 n.
+
+ Beaumont, Susan, 407
+
+ Beaver, Anne, 400
+
+ Bedford, Duchess of, 4, 9, 49
+
+ Bedford, trials at, no, 117, 135-136, 383, 398, 402, 404
+
+ Bedfordshire, 107, 115, 118, 119, 179 n., 187, 200 n., 406
+
+ Bee, Jesse, 349
+
+ Beeman, Elizabeth, 409
+
+ Beigel, H., 346
+
+ Bekker, Balthazar, 339
+
+ Bel and the Dragon, book of, 97
+
+ Belcher, Elizabeth, 130-132, 230, 357, 384
+
+ Belvoir Castle, witchcraft at, 132-134
+
+ Bennett, Elizabeth, 42-43
+
+ Bennett, Gervase, 219
+
+ Bentham, Thomas, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, 15 n.
+
+ Bentley, Alice, 394
+
+ Benton, George, 411
+
+ Benton, Jennet, 411
+
+ Beriman, Helen, 387
+
+ Berkhampstead, 257
+
+ Berks, 387, 403
+
+ Bernard, Richard, 165, 234-236, 241, 293, 303 n., 361, 401.
+   Cited, 398
+
+ Berrye, Agnes, 384, 399
+
+ Berwick, 201, 206, 207, 209, 252 n., 253, 391, 393, 407
+
+ Beverley, 410
+
+ Bexwell, Rosa, 52 n., 394
+
+ Bibb, Joan, 412
+
+ Bill, Arthur, 106-107, 132 n., 383
+
+ Bilson, boy of. _See_ Bilston
+
+ Bilson, Thomas, Bishop of Winchester, 234
+
+ Bilston, boy of, 140, 141-142, 151, 152, 323, 400
+
+ Binkes, Anne, 192 n., 404
+
+ Bishop Burton, 394
+
+ Bishop's Cannings, 413
+
+ Blackburne, Launcelot, 321, 418
+
+ Blackmail, charge of, 149, 153
+
+ Blagrave, Joseph, cited, 414
+
+ Blomefield, Francis, cited, 412
+
+ Bodenham, Anne, trial of, 210-213, 363, 410
+
+ Bodine (Bodin), 69 n.
+
+ Bodmin, 405
+
+ Bohemia, Queen of, 158
+
+ Bokes-wharfe, 394
+
+ Bolingbroke, Roger, 8, 9
+
+ Boram, mother and daughter, 411
+
+ Boram, wife of, 385
+
+ Boreham of Sudbury, 404
+
+ Bottesford, 134 n.
+
+ Boulton, Richard, 336, 339-340, 348
+
+ Bourne, John, 390
+
+ Bovet, Richard, 303 and n.
+
+ Bower, Edmond, 212, 216, 364, 365
+
+ Bowes, Lady, 356
+
+ Bowes, Sir Thomas, 167 n.
+
+ Boxe, Grace, 410
+
+ Boyle, Sir Robert, 337 and n.;
+   opinions of, 305-306 and n.
+
+ Boys, the Rev. Mr., 331-332
+
+ Boys, William, cited 401, 403, 418
+
+ Bracton, cited, 128 n.
+
+ Bradley, Alice, 396
+
+ Bradwell, Stephen, cited, 395
+
+ Bragge, Francis, 325-336, 373-375
+
+ Bramford, 404
+
+ Branche, Anne, 399
+
+ Brand, John, cited, 208 n., 321 n., 407
+
+ Brandeston, 175, 179 n., 379
+
+ Braynford, 392
+
+ Brerely, Alice, 393
+
+ Brereton, Sir William, 158.
+   Cited, 158 n.
+
+ Brewton, 418
+
+ Bridewell, 419
+
+ Bridge, widow, 414
+
+ Bridgeman, Henry, Bishop of Chester, 152-157, 402
+
+ Bridges, Agnes, 30 n., 59, 88 n., 351
+
+ Brightling, 282
+
+ Brinley, John, 303
+
+ Bristol, 118, 392, 400
+
+ Britannicus, 252
+
+ Britton, 5, 6.
+   Cited, 128
+
+ Brome, Richard, 159, 244, 306
+
+ Bromley, Sir Edward, 113, 125, 134
+
+ Brooks, Jane, 221, 222, 411
+
+ Brown, Agnes, trial of, 35, 36, 110, 115, 357, 384
+
+ Brown, Joan, 130, 131, 132, 357
+
+ Browne, Margaret, 386
+
+ Browne, P., cited, 406
+
+ Browne, Richard, 183 n.
+
+ Browne, Sir Thomas, 266-267, 305, 311
+
+ Broxbourn, 412
+
+ Bruen, Philippa, 415
+
+ Bruff, Martha, 405
+
+ Brumley, Dorothy, 406
+
+ Bucer, Martin, 15 n., 88 n.
+
+ Buckingham, George Villiers, Duke of, 134 n.
+
+ Buckinghamshire, 74, 388, 415
+
+ Bulcock, Jane and John, 383
+
+ Bull, Edmund, 401, 402
+
+ Bullinger, 15 n.
+
+ Burghley, William Cecil, Lord, 19 n., 25 n., 27
+
+ Burman, Charles, cited, 216 n.
+
+ Burnet, Bishop Gilbert, 248 n.
+   Cited, 268 n.
+
+ Burnham-Ulpe, 356
+
+ Burntwood, 386
+
+ Burr, George L., cited, 3 n.
+
+ Burthogge, Richard, 340.
+   Cited, 218 n., 409
+
+ Burton, Richard ("R. B."), 339 n.
+   Cited, 395, 403
+
+ Burton, Robert, 245
+
+ Burton, boy of, named by Ben Jonson, 92.
+   _See also_ Darling, Thomas
+
+ Burton-upon-Trent, 76, 85, 392
+
+ Bury, Thomas, 380
+
+ Bury St. Edmunds, 177-181, 192, 194, 200, 204, 261-267, 305, 321, 361,
+ 378, 379, 393, 394, 404, 411, 413, 418
+
+ Bush, of Barton, 404
+
+ Buske, Mother, 385
+
+ Butcher, Elizabeth, 389
+
+ Butler's _Hudibras_ on Matthew Hopkins, 165, 194
+
+ Butts, Joan, trial of, 277, 416
+
+ Byett, William, 46 n.
+
+ Byles, Andrew, 35
+
+ Byrom, Margaret, 52
+
+ Bysack, of Waldingfield, 404
+
+
+ Calamy, Edmund, the elder, 178
+
+ _Calendar of Patent Rolls_, cited, 7 n.
+
+ _Calendar of the Proceedings of the Committee for the Advance of Money_,
+ cited, 164 n.
+
+ _Calendars of State Papers_, cited, 26 n. and _passim_
+
+ Calvin, 64, 65, 87 n.
+
+ Cambridge, 139, 179 n., 279, 396
+
+ Cambridge University, 48, 89, 228, 229, 235, 238, 276, 374;
+   Queen's College, 143, 348;
+   Christ's College, 227;
+   Emmanuel College, 228 n.;
+   Trinity College, 308
+
+ Cambridgeshire, 111, 184, 200 n., 331, 405, 406, 416
+
+ Camfield, Andrew, 399
+
+ Camfield, Benjamin, 303, 307
+
+ Canterbury, 201, 255, 385, 386, 412
+
+ Canterbury, Archbishop of.
+   _See_ Warham, William;
+   Cranmer, Thomas;
+   Parker, Matthew;
+   Grindall, Edmund;
+   Whitgift, John;
+   Bancroft, Richard;
+   Abbot, George
+
+ Carbury, John, Earl of, 339 n.
+
+ Cariden, Joan, 201 n., 405
+
+ Carnarvon, 118, 397
+
+ Carr, Robert, 232
+
+ Carrier, Elizabeth, 418
+
+ Carrington, John, 317, 319 n., 372
+
+ Carshoggil, laird of, 96
+
+ Carter, Richard, 170 n.
+
+ Casaubon, Meric, 238-240, 293-299, 307.
+   Cited, 240 n., 293 n., 294 n., 403
+
+ Cason, Joan, trial of, 54, 390
+
+ Castleton, 393
+
+ Cecil, William, Lord Burghley. _See_ Burghley
+
+ Celles, Cystley, 45
+
+ _Certaine Informations_, cited, 403
+
+ Chalmers, Alexander, cited, 328 n.
+
+ Chamberlain, letter of, 115 n.
+
+ Chambers, widow, 418
+
+ Chandler, Alice, case of, 38 n., 385
+
+ Chandler, Elizabeth, 187 n.
+
+ Chandler, Mary, 185
+
+ Chandler, R., 212
+
+ Chandos, daughter of Lady, 385
+
+ Chapbook, the witch, 33
+
+ Chard, 221, 411
+
+ Charles I, 146, 152, 154, 158, 161, 199, 234, 323;
+   growth of skepticism as to witches in his reign, 162-163
+
+ Charles II, 248, 254, 262, 276, 306;
+   witchcraft in his reign, 255
+
+ Charlewood, J., 350
+
+ Chatterish, 406
+
+ Chattox, Anne, 109, 121-122, 126 n., 127, 383
+
+ Chaucer, Geoffrey, 89
+
+ Chauncy, Arthur, 327
+
+ Chauncy, Sir Henry, 324, 326, 375
+
+ Chelmsford, 34-41, 43, 46, 166-174, 178, 188 n., 200, 204, 346, 363, 376,
+ 378, 385, 387, 390, 400, 403;
+   trials of 1566 at, 34-38, 385;
+   trials of 1579 at, 38-40, 387;
+   trials of 1589 at, 40, 390;
+   trials of 1645 at, 166-174, 403
+
+ Cherrie, of Thrapston, case of, 184-185
+
+ Cheshire, 118, 232 n.
+
+ Chester, Bishop of. _See_ Bridgeman, Henry
+
+ Chettell, "Mistress," 385
+
+ Chettle, Anne, 218, 408
+
+ Chichester, Bishop of, 12.
+   _See also_ Harsnett, Samuel
+
+ Chinting, 387
+
+ Chishull, the Rev. Mr., 328
+
+ Chittam, Henry, 387
+
+ Chowbent, 419
+
+ Christ's College, Cambridge, 227
+
+ _Chronicon Mirabile_, cited, 208 n., 407
+
+ Church, the trials for sorcery under, 6-8;
+   statute of Henry VIII not aimed to limit, 10;
+   state ready to reclaim jurisdiction from, 24;
+   penalties under, 28, 30;
+   gradual transfer to state of witchcraft cases, 30-31
+
+ Clarke, of Keiston, 185-186
+
+ Clarke, Ann, 415, 417
+
+ Clarke, Elizabeth, 166-175
+
+ Clarke, Helen, 169
+
+ Clarke, Jane, 141-142, 419
+
+ Clarke, Sir Robert, 54
+
+ Clarke, Samuel, cited, 177, 307, 361, 404, 412
+
+ Clarke, William, his letter to Speaker Lenthall, 225 n.
+
+ Clarkson, Mary, 416
+
+ Clerkenwell, 389
+
+ Cleves, Pepper, 397, 410
+
+ Cleworth, 52, 149 n.
+
+ Clinton, Lord, 12
+
+ Clouues, William, 24 n.
+
+ Clutterbuck, Robert, cited, 328 n.
+
+ Cobbett, William, cited, 102 n.
+
+ Cobham, Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester, 4, 8
+
+ Cobham, Lord, 12
+
+ Cock, Susan, 362, 376
+
+ Cocwra, Samuel, 387
+
+ Coke, Sir Edward, 102, 152, 228.
+   Cited, 128 n., 396
+
+ Colchester, 388, 389, 391, 408
+
+ Cole, Henry, Jewel's controversy with, 16 n.
+
+ Cole, Thomas, 34, 346
+
+ Coleman, John, 388
+
+ _Collection of Modern Relations_, 279, 339 n.
+   Cited, 146 n., 181 n., 402, 406, 407, 413
+
+ Collingham, 393
+
+ Coman, widow, case of, 331-332
+
+ Commission of Oyer and Terminer, 178, 192, 200
+
+ Committee of Both Kingdoms, 200
+
+ Commons' _Journal_, cited, 17 n., 103 n.
+
+ Conyers, Robert, 411
+
+ Cooke, Elizabeth, 397
+
+ Cooke, Mother, 392
+
+ Coombes, Margaret, 418
+
+ Cooper, C. H. and T., cited, 356
+
+ Cooper, John, 82 n.
+
+ Cooper, Thomas, 227, 231-232, 242.
+   Cited, 398, 401
+
+ Corbet, 413
+
+ Corbolt. _See_ Godbolt
+
+ Cornwall, 217, 218, 221, 224, 254, 276-277, 279, 320, 388, 405, 409, 415,
+ 416, 417, 418
+
+ Cornwall, Henry, 170 n.
+
+ Cosyn, Edmund, 25
+
+ Cotta, John, 227, 229-231, 235, 237, 243.
+   Cited, 130 n., 230 n., 231 n.
+
+ Cotton, William, cited, 217 n., 221 n., 224 n., 409, 410, 411
+
+ Council of State, 215, 219, 225, 226
+
+ _Council Register_, cited, 152 n., 154 n., 155 n.
+
+ "Countess" (Margaret Russel), 400
+
+ _County Folk Lore, Suffolk_, cited, 165 n., 176 n., 179 n., 194 n., 392,
+ 404
+
+ Court of High Commission, 84, 86-87
+
+ Coventry, 232 n., 400
+
+ Coventry and Lichfield, Bishop of. _See_ Bentham, Thomas
+
+ Coverdale, Miles, 15 n.
+
+ Coverley, Sir Roger de, 341
+
+ Cowper, Earl and Countess of, 328 n.
+
+ Cox, John Charles, cited, 137 n., 219 n., 324 n., 396
+
+ Cox, Julian, trial of, 260-261, 273, 282, 292, 310, 413
+
+ Cox, Richard, 15 n.
+
+ Coxe, Francis, trial of, 31 n., 351, 385
+
+ Cranbourne, Viscount, 115 n., 396
+
+ Cranmer, Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, 12, 58 n.
+
+ Crearey, Elizabeth, 400
+
+ Creeting, 404
+
+ Cricke, 404
+
+ _Criminal Chronology of York Castle_, cited, 224
+
+ Cromwell, Sir Henry, 48, 50
+
+ Cromwell, Lady, 48
+
+ Cromwell, Oliver, 48 n., 207, 212 n., 215, 219, 226, 237 n., 275
+
+ Cromwell, Richard, 220, 226
+
+ Cromwell, Thomas, 19
+
+ Crosse, Diana, 223-224, 410
+
+ Crossley, Elizabeth, 406, 411
+
+ Crossley, James, cited, 124 n., 147 n., 357, 380
+
+ Crouch, Nathaniel, 339 n.
+
+ Crump, Hannah, 257
+
+ Cruther, Joseph, 282
+
+ Cudworth, Ralph, 307
+
+ Cullender, Rose, 262, 310, 413
+
+ Culpepper, Nicholas, 403
+
+ Cumberland, 220, 224, 225, 407
+
+ Cunny, Joan, 347
+
+ Curry, Katharine, 413
+
+ Cushman, L. W., cited, 244 n.
+
+
+ Damages awarded accused, 324
+
+ Danvers, Sir John, 215
+
+ Darcy, Brian, 41, 42, 44 n., 45, 46 n., 348
+
+ Darling, Thomas, 76-78, 80, 85
+
+ Darrel, John, 74-87, 92, 138, 255, 315, 349, 352-356.
+   Cited, 391, 392, 393, 394
+
+ Davenport, John, 187 n., 362
+
+ Daventry, 251
+
+ Davies, J. S., cited, 8 n.
+
+ Davis, Ralph, 375, 382
+
+ Daye, Mary, 418
+
+ Daye, Susannah, 416
+
+ Deacon, John, 353, 354
+
+ Dee, John, 52-53, 79
+
+ Deir, Mrs., 390
+
+ Dekker, Thomas, 244.
+   Cited, 112 n., 359
+
+ Del Rio, 234
+
+ Demdike, Old (Elizabeth Southerns), 121-128
+
+ Denham, 74 n.
+
+ Denham, Sir John, 235
+
+ _Denham Tracts_, cited, 30 n., 219 n., 389, 390, 407
+
+ Denison, John, 78 n., 349
+
+ Denton, 360
+
+ Derby, 392
+
+ Derby, Archdeacon of, 83
+
+ Derby, Earl of, 392
+
+ Derbyshire, 52, 81, 118, 137, 219, 324, 390, 392, 396, 407
+
+ Descartes, 238
+
+ Devell, Mother, 28 n.
+
+ Device, Alizon, 111 n., 384
+
+ Device, Elizabeth, 108 n., 122-126, 383
+
+ Device, James, 126-127, 383
+
+ Device, Jennet, 113, 126-127
+
+ Devizes, 217, 409, 414
+
+ Devonshire, 254, 277, 409, 414-419
+
+ Dewse, Mrs., 390
+
+ _Diary, A, or an Exact Journall_, cited, 174 n.
+
+ Dickonson, Frances, 147, 152-160
+
+ Dilby, Doll, 413
+
+ Distribution of witchcraft, 118-119, 146, 224, 254-255
+
+ _Doctrine of Devils, The_, 296-297, 302 n.
+
+ Dodgson, Nathan, 256
+
+ Dodson, Jane, 416
+
+ Doncaster, 396
+
+ Dorrington, Doctor, 50 n.
+
+ Dorset, 385, 390, 417, 419
+
+ Dorset, Marquis of, 12
+
+ Drage, William, 367.
+   Cited, 256-258 n., 279 n., 402, 408, 417
+
+ Drew, widow, 403
+
+ Ducke, Elizabeth, 386
+
+ Dugdale, Richard, 315-320, 329, 373
+
+ Duncane, Geillis, torture of, 95
+
+ Dungeon, Mother, 386
+
+ Dunne, Christiana, 418
+
+ Duny, Amy, trial of, 262-267, 310, 413
+
+ Durham, 119, 146, 210, 218, 219 n., 388, 389, 395, 401, 407, 409, 414, 415
+
+ Durham, Bishop of, 12;
+   his _Injunctions,_ cited, 388
+
+ _Durham, Depositions ... from the Court of_, cited, 21 n., 29 n., 385
+
+ Durham, vicar-general of the Bishop of, 117
+
+ Dutten, Mother, 28 n.
+
+
+ E., T., "Maister of Art," 388
+
+ Earle, Katherine, 223, 410
+
+ East Anglia, 51, 119, 184, 197, 255
+
+ Eburye, Elizabeth, 414
+
+ Eckington, 390
+
+ Edlingham, 416
+
+ Edmonds, Mr., 235 n.
+
+ Edmonton, 108, 112, 136 n., 383, 391, 400
+
+ Edward I, 6
+
+ Edward IV, 4, 9
+
+ Edward VI, 12, 88
+
+ Edwards, Richard, 169-170
+
+ Edwards, Susanna, 271-272, 368-369, 416
+
+ Elford, Johanna, 415
+
+ Elizabeth, 35-92, 93;
+   number of executions in her reign compared with number under James,
+   105-106;
+   spectral evidence in her reign, 110;
+   distribution of witch cases, 118
+
+ Ellyse, Joan, 386
+
+ Elnore, Margaret, 418
+
+ Ely, 189, 279, 406, 416
+
+ Ely, Bishop of, 12, 15 n., 234
+
+ Emerson, a priest, 387
+
+ Emerson, Ann, 388
+
+ Emott, Isabel, 410
+
+ Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 228 n.
+
+ Endor, witch of, Scot's explanation of, 62;
+   Filmer's explanation of, 241;
+   Muggleton's explanation of, 295;
+   Webster's explanation of, 298
+
+ Enfield, 384, 393, 399
+
+ Enger, Master, 110-111, 117, 118 and n., 135-136
+
+ Essex, 26, 41, 70 n., 90 n., 119, 146, 158, 166-174, 192, 195, 228 n.,
+ 331-332, 337, 385, 387, 388, 389, 390, 391, 394, 403, 408
+
+ Essex, Countess of, 144 n., 232-234
+
+ Essex, Earl of, 234
+
+ Ettrick, Anthony, 365
+
+ Evans, Katharine, 411
+
+ Evesham, 409
+
+ Exeter, 31 n., 216, 221, 223, 270-272, 278, 320-321, 409, 410, 411
+
+ Exeter, Bishop of, 418
+
+ Exeter College, Oxford, 285
+
+ Eye, witch of, 4
+
+
+ F., H., 172, 361
+
+ Fairclough, Samuel, 166 n., 177, 178
+
+ Fairfax, Edward, 111, 144-145, 249-250, 358, 359.
+   Cited, 102 n., 142 n., 250 n., 395, 400
+
+ Fairfax, Sir Thomas, 360
+
+ _Faithful Scout, The_, cited, 213 n., 216, 365, 408
+
+ Falmouth, 415
+
+ Farbrother, J. E., cited, 411
+
+ _Farington Papers_, cited, 155 n.
+
+ Farnworth, Richard, 240 n.
+
+ Farrier, Elizabeth, 118
+
+ Faversham, 54, 201, 390, 405
+
+ Female juries, 108, 113, 171, 264, 271, 279, 330
+
+ Fenner, Edward, in Warboys trials, 49-50
+
+ Fenwick, Elizabeth, 279, 416
+
+ Ferris, Sibilla, 393
+
+ Fian, Dr., 94-96
+
+ Filmer, Sir Robert, 238, 241.
+   Cited, 241 n.
+
+ Finchingfield, 228 n.
+
+ Finchley, 399
+
+ Fisher, Katharine, 406
+
+ Fisherton-Anger, 211, 410
+
+ Fishwick, cited, 372
+
+ Fize, Henry, 388
+
+ _Flagellum Dćmonum_, 79 n.
+
+ Fleta, 5
+
+ Flower, Joan and her daughters (Margaret and Philippa), case of, 115,
+ 119 n., 132-134, 383, 399
+
+ Fludd, Robert, 286
+
+ Foljambe, Mrs. _See_ Bowes, Lady
+
+ _Folk Lore Journal, The_, cited, 24 n., 401
+
+ Folkestone, 386
+
+ Ford, John, 359
+
+ Fortescue, Sir Anthony, case of, 25
+
+ Fortescue, Sir John, 34, 346
+
+ "Foscue, Master." _See_ Fortescue, Sir John
+
+ Fossett, Temperance, 409
+
+ Foster, Ann, trial of, 282, 415
+
+ Fowles, Susanna, case of, 323 n.
+
+ Foxcroft, H. C., cited, 341 n.
+
+ France, Hester, 408
+
+ Francis, Elizabeth, her two trials, 35-40, 385
+
+ Francis, Mother, 400, 401
+
+ Frankfort, 15 n.
+
+ Frankland, Richard, 316, 319
+
+ Fraunces, Margaret, 394
+
+ Free, Goody, 412
+
+ Freeman, Alice, 84, 393
+
+ Freeman, Mary, 83
+
+ _French Intelligencer_, cited, 213 n., 215 n., 408
+
+ Fulham, 411
+
+ Fuller, John, cited, 207 n., 407
+
+ Fuller, Thomas, cited, 90 n., 139 n., 140 n., 143, 144
+
+ _Fustis Dćmonum_, cited, 79 n.
+
+
+ Gabley, Mother, 389
+
+ Gaddesden, Little, 256
+
+ Gairdner, James, cited, 9 n.
+
+ Gallis, Richard, 347
+
+ Gardiner, Mr. and Mrs., 324
+
+ Gardiner, the Rev. Mr., 375
+
+ Gardiner, Catherine, 132 n.
+
+ Gardiner, Ralph, cited, 208, 209 n., 407
+
+ Gargrave, 410
+
+ Garve, Mother, 387
+
+ Gaskin, Emmy, 414
+
+ Gateshead, 210, 219 n., 407
+
+ Gaule, John, 165, 174-175, 186-187, 192, 196, 236-237, 241, 242
+
+ Gee, John, cited, 139 n.
+
+ Geneva, 14, 15, 87 n., 233
+
+ _Gentleman's Magazine_, cited, 95 n., 143 n., 160 n., 269 n., 279 n., 359,
+ 367, 389, 396, 401, 412, 413, 415, 417
+
+ Gerard, Sir Gilbert, 34, 346
+
+ Gerish, W. B., cited, 375
+
+ Gibbons, A., cited, 189 n., 406
+
+ Gibson, "Coz.," 222
+
+ Gifford, George, 54, 57 n., 70-72, 242, 243.
+   Cited, 390, 394, 395
+
+ Gill, Helena, 390
+
+ Gilston, 328 n.
+
+ Gilston, Matthew, 335
+
+ Gisborough, 411
+
+ Glance of a witch, instances of, 111, 112, 135
+
+ Glanvill, Joseph, 101, 196 n., 238, 273-276, 285-293, 297, 299, 300, 303,
+ 306, 307, 309, 310, 314, 327, 336, 337.
+   Cited, 221 n., 222 n., 251 n., 260 n., 308 n., 405, 408, 411, 413
+
+ Globe theatre, The, 159
+
+ Gloucester, 208, 407
+
+ Gloucester, Duchess of, 4, 8
+
+ Gloucester, Richard of, 9
+
+ Glover, Mary, 138, 355, 395
+
+ Glover, Stephen, cited, 396
+
+ Godbolt, John, 178, 192
+
+ Godfrey, Agnes, 393, 397
+
+ Goldsmith, Mr., 332
+
+ "Good Witches," 21-27, 29, 220, 229, 259-260
+
+ Goodcole, Henry, 112, 359
+
+ Gooderidge, Alse, 76-78, 349, 392
+
+ Gooding, Elizabeth, 169-170
+
+ Gough, Richard, 375
+
+ Goulding, R. W., cited, 396, 401
+
+ Gordon, Rev. Alexander, cited, 317 n., 319 n.
+
+ Grainge, William, 360
+
+ Grame, Margaret, 391
+
+ "Grantam's curse," 88
+
+ Grantly, Anne, 419
+
+ Great Staughton, 186-187
+
+ "Great T.," "Mother W. of," 395
+
+ Great Yarmouth, 181, 386.
+   _See also_ Yarmouth
+
+ Greedie, Joan, 401
+
+ Green, Ellen, 399
+
+ Greene, Anne, 410
+
+ Greene, Ellen, 133 n.
+
+ Greenleife, Mary (of Alresford), 170-171
+
+ "Greenliefe of Barton," 404
+
+ Greenslet, Ferris, cited, 286 n.
+
+ Greenwel, Thomas, 371
+
+ Greenwich, 154
+
+ Grevell, Margaret, 44
+
+ Griffiths, Sarah, 419
+
+ Grimes, Mr., 332
+
+ Grimston, Sir Harbottle, 167 n.
+
+ Grindall, Edmund, Bp. of London, then Abp. of Canterbury, 15 n.
+
+ Guildford, 322
+
+ Guilford, Baron. _See_ Francis North
+
+ Gunpowder Plot, 123, 232
+
+ Gurney, Elizabeth, 406
+
+ Guy, Mary, 418
+
+ Gyngell, Margaret, 225, 410
+
+
+ Habakkuk, transportation of, 97
+
+ Hackett, Margaret, 390
+
+ Hackney, 415
+
+ Haigh, 414
+
+ Hale, Sir Matthew, 67, 261-268, 283, 304, 321, 334, 336, 337, 339 n., 367
+
+ Hale, William H., cited, 10 n., 21 n., 22 n., 29 n., 385
+
+ Halifax, Marquis of, opinion of, 341
+
+ Hall, John, 352
+
+ Hall, Joseph, Bishop, 180
+
+ Hall, Mary, 256, 257
+
+ Halliwell-Phillips, J. O., 142 n., 306 n.
+
+ Hallybread, Rose, 362, 376
+
+ Hallywell, Henry, 303 and n., 304, 307
+
+ Hamilton, A. H. A., cited, 417
+
+ Hammer, 404
+
+ Hammersmith, case at, 323 n.
+
+ Hammond, of Westminster, 402
+
+ Hampstead, 396, 398
+
+ Hampton Court, 13
+
+ Handford, Abigail, 418
+
+ Hanover, Susanna, 419
+
+ Hansen, J., cited, 3 n.
+
+ Harington, Sir John, 140 n.
+
+ Harland and Wilkinson, cited, 419
+
+ Harmondsworth, 386
+
+ Harris, Alice, 132 n.
+
+ Harris, Eleonora, 417
+
+ Harris, Elizabeth, 201 n.
+
+ Harris, Marie, 417
+
+ Harris, Susannah, 419
+
+ Harrison, Mr., 44
+
+ Harrison, Henry, 388
+
+ Harrison, Johanna, of Royston, 108-109, 111, 135, 383, 396
+
+ Harrison, Margaret, 356
+
+ Harrison, William, 367
+
+ Harrod, H., cited, 182 n., 386, 389, 390, 405
+
+ Harrogate, 360
+
+ Harrow, Weald, 390
+
+ Harsnett, Samuel, later Abp. of York, 12, 51, 85-92, 138, 227, 233, 349,
+ 353-356.
+   Cited, 390-393
+
+ Hart, 389
+
+ Hart, Anne, 418
+
+ Hart, Prudence, 170
+
+ Hart Hall, Oxford, 57
+
+ Hartis, 418
+
+ Hartley, Edmund, 52, 79-80, 392
+
+ Harvey, Gabriel, 69 n.
+
+ Harvey, Joane, 400
+
+ Harvey, Thomas, 411
+
+ Harvey, William, 154, 160-162
+
+ Harwood, Goodwife, 256
+
+ Hatfield Peverel, 41
+
+ Hathaway, Richard, 322-324, 371
+
+ Hathericke, Sara, 401
+
+ Hatsell, Sir Henry, 323
+
+ Haverhill, 404
+
+ Hazlitt, W. C., cited, 350-352, 368
+
+ Heddenham, 406
+
+ Heddon, Margaret, 415
+
+ Hele, N. F., cited, 183 n., 191 n., 200 n., 405
+
+ Hemloke, Sir Henry, 324
+
+ Hempstead, 404
+
+ Hengler, Elizabeth, 417
+
+ Henry IV, 4, 7
+
+ Henry VI, 4, 7
+
+ Henry VIII, 20, 30, 58 n.
+   _See also_ Statutes.
+
+ Heptenstall, 406
+
+ Herbert, Sir Edward, 311 n.
+
+ Herd, Annis, 44, 388
+
+ Hereford, Bishop of, 12, 15 n.
+
+ Hertford, trials at 134-135, 314, 324-330, 383, 394, 396, 419
+
+ Hertfordshire, 118, 367, 374, 391, 392, 408, 412, 414, 417
+
+ _Hertfordshire County Sessions, Rolls_, cited, 21 n., 221 n., 391, 412,
+ 414
+
+ Hewitt, Katherine, 383
+
+ Heylyn, Peter, cited, 143 n.
+
+ Heyrick, Robert, 141, 398
+
+ Heywood, Oliver, 256, 307, 316, 319.
+   Cited, 416
+
+ Heywood, Thomas, 306 n.;
+   play of, 158-159;
+   opinions expressed in play of, 244-245.
+   Cited, 244 n.
+
+ Hicke, Mr., 379
+
+ Hinchcliffe, Joseph, 416
+
+ _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, cited, 114 n., and _passim_ thereafter
+
+ Hitcham, 404
+
+ Hitchin, 367
+
+ Hoarstones, 148, 156
+
+ Hobart, Sir Henry, 134
+
+ Hobbes, Thomas, 241, 246-249, 291, 307
+
+ Holborn, 393, 398
+
+ Hole, Elizabeth, case of, 324
+
+ Holinshed, cited, 54-55, 59 n., 350, 387, 388, 390
+
+ Holland, Henry, 72 n.
+
+ Hollingsworth, A. G., cited, 183 n., 404
+
+ Holt, Sir John, 267;
+   nullified statute of James I;
+   gave repeated acquittals, 320-323;
+   his ruling on the water ordeal, 332
+
+ Homes, Nathaniel, opinions of, 240.
+   Cited, 240 n.
+
+ Hooke, William, 45 n.
+
+ Hopkins, James, 164
+
+ Hopkins, Matthew, 164-205, 339, 376, 378
+
+ Hopwood, Mr., 79 n.
+
+ Horace, 89
+
+ Horner, Elizabeth, 321-322, 418
+
+ Hott, Jane, 201 n., 405
+
+ Houghton, Lord, 359
+
+ Housegoe, Elizabeth, 393
+
+ Howard, Henry, later Earl of Northampton, 352
+
+ Howell, James, 180, 195, 245
+
+ Howell, T. B. and T. J., cited, 116 n., 144 n., 233 n.
+
+ Howsell, Anne, 405
+
+ Howson, Helen, 406
+
+ Hubbard, Elizabeth, 404
+
+ Huddersfield, 408
+
+ Hudson, Ann, 407
+
+ Hughes, Lewis, 355, 395
+
+ Hulton, John, 209
+
+ Humphrey, of Gloucester, Duke, 8
+
+ Hunnam, Anne, 409
+
+ Hunniman, Joice, 162 n., 402
+
+ Hunt, widow, 45 n.
+
+ Hunt, Joan, 383, 398
+
+ Hunt, Robert, 260, 273, 411, 413
+
+ Hunter, Joseph, cited, 92 n., 256 n., 413
+
+ Huntingdon, 49-51, 185 n., 200 n., 237 n., 314 n., 348, 362, 375, 383, 419
+
+ Huntingdonshire, 47-51, 185-187, 192, 236, 348, 375-383, 405
+
+ Huson, Alice, 413
+
+ Hutchinson, Francis, 175, 195-198, 313, 321, 331, 340-343, 355, 375, 380,
+ 381.
+   Cited, 11 n., 179 n., 321-323 n., 328 n., 395, 411, 413, 416, 418
+
+ Huxley, Catherine, 216, 409
+
+
+ Ilkeston, 407
+
+ Images, alleged use of in witchcraft, 6, 59-60, 109-110, 125-127
+
+ Incendiarism ascribed to witchcraft, 282-283, 333
+
+ Inderwick, F. A., cited, 201 n., 225 n., 226 n., 268 n., 269 n., 270 n.,
+ 311 n., 333, 376, 410, 414-419
+
+ Ipswich, 164, 175, 182, 320, 394, 405, 414, 417, 418
+
+
+ Jackson, Elizabeth, 138, 355, 395
+
+ James I, 69, 90 n., 93-119, 130, 132, 134, 137-145, 146, 165, 189, 203,
+ 227, 228, 229 n., 232, 234, 241-242, 247, 250, 254, 255, 260, 267, 276,
+ 312, 314, 331.
+   His Scottish experience, 93-96;
+   his _Dćmonologie_, 97-101;
+   his statute and its effect, 101-109;
+   distribution of witchcraft in his realm, 118-119;
+   his changing attitude, 138-145
+
+ James II, 308
+
+ James, G. P. R., cited, 340 n., 342 n.
+
+ Jeffreys, George, Baron, 311 n.
+
+ Jeffries, Anne, 405
+
+ Jenkinson, Helen, 383
+
+ Jennings, Lady, 400
+
+ Jeopardy, neglect of legal restriction on, 128 and n., 145 n.
+
+ Jewel, John, Bishop of Salisbury, 15-17
+
+ Joan of Arc, 230
+
+ Johnson, Margaret, 154, 156, 157, 159
+
+ Johnson, W. S., cited, 244 n.
+
+ Johnstone, James, 341
+
+ Jollie, Thomas, 316-319, 329, 372-373
+
+ Jones, J. O., cited, 164 n., 181 n., 182 n., 188 n.
+
+ Jonson, Ben, 91-92, 244, 387
+
+ Jordan, Jane, 393
+
+ Jorden, Dr. Edward, 138, 355, 395
+
+ Jourdemain, Margery, 7-9
+
+ Jurdie, Jone, 396
+
+
+ Keiston, 185
+
+ Kelly, William, cited, 141 n., 398
+
+ Kelyng, Sir John, 265, 267, 305
+
+ Kemp, Ursley, trial of, 41, 43
+
+ Kennet, Elizabeth, 412
+
+ Kent, 21 n., 54, 57, 60, 119, 201, 255, 350, 383, 385, 386, 388, 389, 390,
+ 392, 393, 394, 401, 403, 405, 408, 412, 416, 418
+
+ Kent, Holy Maid of. _See_ Barton, Elizabeth
+
+ Kerke, Anne, 394
+
+ Kerke, Joan, 51
+
+ Kidderminster, 412
+
+ Kimbolton, 186
+
+ King, of Acton, 404
+
+ King, Peter, 380
+
+ King's Lynn, 54, 116-117, 183, 231, 358, 384, 389, 391, 393, 399, 405
+
+ Kingston, 419
+
+ Kingston-upon-Hull, 389
+
+ Kittredge, G. L., cited, 298, 301, 383
+
+ Knipp, Agnes and John, 415
+
+ Knott, Elizabeth, 208 n., 407
+
+ Knowles, Sir William, 154
+
+ Knumerton, Dewnes, 417
+
+
+ Lake, Sir Thomas, 115 n., 396
+
+ Lakeland, Mother, 182, 200 n., 381, 405
+
+ Laleham, 387
+
+ Lambe, Dr., 211
+
+ Lambe, Elizabeth, 410
+
+ Lambeth, 354
+
+ Lanam, Elizabeth, 408
+
+ Lancashire, 52, 78-81, 92, 108-113, 115-116, 118, 120-130, 146-160,
+ 307, 314-319, 393, 399, 402, 406, 414, 416, 419;
+   Starchie affair, 78-81, 92;
+   trials of 1612, 120-130;
+   trials of 1634, 146-156;
+   Dugdale affair of 1689, 315-319
+
+ Lancaster, 120, 151, 156, 158, 171, 224, 229 n., 273, 383, 392, 397, 401, 402
+
+ Lancaster, chancellor of the Duchy of, 152 n.
+
+ Landgate, 414
+
+ Landis, Margaret, 362, 376
+
+ Land's End, 217-218, 409
+
+ Langton, Walter, 6
+
+ Lathom, 402
+
+ Latimer, John, cited, 400
+
+ Latton, 414
+
+ Launceston, 218 n., 409, 418
+
+ Lavenham, 404
+
+ Law, John, 111 n.
+
+ Law, T. G., cited, 74 n., 87 n., 353
+
+ Lawe, Alison, 389
+
+ Lea, H. C., his definition of a witch, 4.
+   Cited, 3 n., 99 n.
+
+ Leach, Jeffrey, 389
+
+ Lecky, W. E. H., 196
+
+ Lee, Dorothy, 405
+
+ Leech, Anne, 170, 174, 379
+
+ Leeds, 219, 410
+
+ Leepish, 401
+
+ Legge, cited, 138 n., 225 n.
+
+ Leicester, 54, 119 n., 120, 140-141, 218, 330-331, 384, 392, 398, 399,
+ 402, 408, 419
+
+ _Leicester, Records of the Borough of_, cited, 54 n.
+
+ Leicestershire, 51, 118, 133 n., 146, 359, 397
+
+ _Leicestershire and Rutland, Notes and Queries_, cited, 218 n., 399, 402,
+ 408, 419
+
+ Levingston, Anne, 214
+
+ Lewes, 387
+
+ Lichfield, Bishop of (Walter Langton), 6;
+   (Thomas Morton), 141-142, 152
+
+ Liebermann, F., cited, 2 n.
+
+ Lincoln, 118, 119 n., 120;
+   trials of 1618-1619, 132, 383, 399
+
+ Lincoln, Bishop of, 7, 8, 12, 49, 50
+
+ Lincolnshire, 396, 401
+
+ Lingwood, Joan, 389
+
+ Linneston, 401
+
+ Linton, Mrs. Lynn, cited, 29 n., 95 n., 386
+
+ Lister, Mr., 111 note, 112, 129
+
+ Little Gaddesden, 256
+
+ Liverpool, 414
+
+ Lloyd, Temperance, 271-272, 368-369, 416
+
+ Lloyd, William, Bishop of Worcester, 340
+
+ Lloynd's wife, 150
+
+ Lock, John, 408
+
+ Locke, John, 340
+
+ Lodge, Edmund, cited, 139 n.
+
+ Lodge, Sir Oliver, 238
+
+ Londesdale, Elizabeth, 401
+
+ London, 9, 25, 26, 30 n., 51, 59, 154, 159, 160, 173, 177, 210 n., 216,
+ 277-278, 309, 320, 322, 323, 329, 384, 385, 394, 395, 399, 409, 416
+
+ London, Bishop of, 8, 9 n., 12, 30 n., 84, 384, 387.
+   _See also_ Grindall, E.; Bancroft, R.
+
+ _London Post_, cited, 419
+
+ Long, Sir James, 268
+
+ Longwitton, 279, 416
+
+ Lords' _Journal_, cited, 102 n., 103 n.
+
+ Lord's Prayer, testing of witches by, 40, 80, 271, 282, 326
+
+ Lothbury, 30 n., 88 n.
+
+ Loudon, Elizabeth, 410
+
+ Louth, 396, 401
+
+ Low, Goody, 404
+
+ Lower, M. A., cited, 386
+
+ Lowes, John, case of, 165 n., 175-179, 197, 378, 379
+
+ Lowestoft, 262, 263
+
+ Lowndes, cited, 347, 350, 359, 364, 386, 390, 392
+
+ Loy, Margaret, 414
+
+ Lucas, Hugh, 112
+
+ Lucas, Jane, 110 n., 112
+
+ Luther, Martin, attitude of, towards exorcism, 87 n.
+
+ Lyme, 385
+
+ Lynn. _See_ King's Lynn
+
+
+ Mackenzie, E., cited, 259 n., 401, 416
+
+ Mackerell, Benjamin, cited, 391, 393, 399, 405
+
+ Mackie, S. J., cited, 386
+
+ _Magazine of Scandall_, cited, 176 n., 197 n.
+
+ Magick, Dorothy, 398
+
+ Maidstone, cases at, 215-216, 238, 241, 283, 408, 412
+
+ Maitland, S. R., cited, 353
+
+ Malborne, Sir John, book of, 63
+
+ Maldon, 41, 54, 70 n.
+
+ Malking Tower, meeting of witches at, 113, 123-129, 147, 148, 383
+
+ Mallory, Lady Elizabeth, 223, 411
+
+ Malmesbury, alarm at, 269-270, 409, 417
+
+ Malter, wife of, 385
+
+ Manchester, 79
+
+ Manners, Francis, Earl of Rutland, 132-134, 359
+
+ Manners, Lord Francis, 133, 134 n.
+
+ Manners, Lord Henry, 134 n.
+
+ Manners, Lady Katherine, 134 n.
+
+ Manningtree, 164, 165, 173, 193, 194
+
+ Mansfield, 75
+
+ Manship, cited, 182 n.
+
+ Manwood, Sir Roger, 56
+
+ Marchant, Anne, 409
+
+ Margaret, Mother, 28 n.
+
+ Marks, use of as a test of witchcraft, 36, 40, 45, 77, 99, 108, 151,
+ 154-155, 156-157, 167, 190, 218, 229, 230, 242, 243, 264, 284, 330
+
+ Martin, Dr., 323
+
+ Mary I, 14, 15 n., 52
+
+ Mary, Queen of Scots, 18, 25, 26, 53
+
+ Mascon, Demon of, 306, 337 n.
+
+ Mason, of Faversham, 54
+
+ Mason, James, and his opinions, 229 n.
+
+ Massachusetts, trials in, 50, 264, 316, 382
+
+ Mathers, the (Cotton and Increase), 316, 336
+
+ Matthews, Grace, 216-217
+
+ Mayhall, John, cited, 395
+
+ Meakins, Bridget, 399
+
+ Meere, John, 390
+
+ Melford, 404
+
+ Melton, Elizabeth, 393
+
+ _Mercurius Aulicus_, cited, 403
+
+ _Mercurius Civicus_, cited, 360, 403
+
+ _Mercurius Democritus_, cited, 213 n., 251 n., 408
+
+ _Mercurius Politicus_, cited, 218 n., 409
+
+ Mereweather, Jone, 413
+
+ Merlin, 230
+
+ Merril, Goodman, 171 n.
+
+ Merriman, R. B., cited, 74 n.
+
+ Mersam, Rose, 396
+
+ Mewkarr Church, 396
+
+ Middlesex, 51, 74, 118, 146, 174, 201, 208 n., 220, 224, 225, 278,
+ 383-387, 389-394, 396-400, 402, 403, 405-412, 415, 419
+
+ _Middlesex County Records_, cited, 21 n., 220 n., 386, and _passim_
+ thereafter
+
+ Middleton, Thomas, 244
+
+ Midgley, Mary, 406
+
+ Midwife as a witch, 21 and n., 41, 258-259
+
+ Milburne, Jane, 279
+
+ Milburne, Margaret, 415
+
+ Miller, Agnes, 399
+
+ Mills, Elizabeth, 415
+
+ Mills, Joan, 414
+
+ Milner, Ralph, 117, 396
+
+ Milnes, R. Monckton, 102 n., 359
+
+ Mils, Goody, 404
+
+ Milton, John, 241, 278
+
+ Milton, Miles, 398
+
+ Mistley-cum-Manningtree, 164 n.
+
+ Mob law, 117, 315
+
+ _Moderate Intelligencer_, its opinion of the Bury executions in 1645,
+ 179-180.
+   Cited, 177 n., 180 n., 404
+
+ Molland, Alicia, 417
+
+ Mompesson affair, 273, 276, 310
+
+ Mondaye, Agnes, 385
+
+ Montague, James, Bp. of Winchester, 97 n.
+
+ Montgomery, 387
+
+ Moone, Margaret, 170 n.
+
+ Moordike, Sarah, case of, 322-324, 419
+
+ Moore, wife of, 189 n., 406
+
+ Moore, Ales, 395
+
+ Moore, Ann, 418
+
+ Moore, Mary, 363
+
+ _Moore Rental, The_, cited, 414
+
+ Morduck, Sarah. _See_ Moordike
+
+ More, George, 81, 84-85, 353, 354.
+   Cited, 78 n., 79 n., 80 n., 392
+
+ More, Henry, 238-240, 243, 262, 286, 297, 303, 307, 309, 310.
+   Cited, 211 n., 239, 394, 396, 405, 410
+
+ More, Sir Thomas, 59 n.
+
+ Mortimer, Jane, 52 n., 392
+
+ Morton, Margaret, 408
+
+ Morton, Thomas, Bishop of Lichfield, 141 n., 142, 152
+
+ Much, Barfield, 387
+
+ Muggleton, Lodowick, and witchcraft, 295, 298, 307, 309.
+   Cited, 295 n.
+
+ Munnings, Mother, trial of, 321, 418
+
+ Muschamp, Mrs., 210, 218, 253, 363
+
+ Muschamp, George, 209, 210
+
+
+ N., N., 318 n., 372
+
+ Nall, J. G., cited, 181 n.
+
+ Napier, Dr., 400
+
+ Napier, Barbara, 96
+
+ Nash, J. R., cited, 412
+
+ Nash, Thomas, cited, 69 n.
+
+ Navestock, 385
+
+ Naylor, Joane, 394
+
+ Needham, 404
+
+ Nelson, Richard, 394
+
+ Nevelson, Anne, 395
+
+ New England. _See_ Massachusetts
+
+ New Romney, 59
+
+ Newbury, 403
+
+ Newcastle, 201, 207-208, 259, 279, 281, 407, 412, 413, 414
+
+ Newell, Sir Henry, 27, 28
+
+ Newgate, 183 n., 400
+
+ _Newgate, A True and Perfect List of the Prisoners in_, cited, 409
+
+ Newman, Ales, 45 n.
+
+ Newman, Elizabeth, 410
+
+ Newman, William, 45 n.
+
+ Newmarket, 134, 161
+
+ Newton, Isaac, 308
+
+ Nicholas (or Nickless), Jane, 417
+
+ Nichols, John, cited, 134 n., 141 n., 399
+
+ Nicholson, Brinsley, 58, 62, 70 n.
+
+ Nicolas, Sir Harris, cited, 8 n.
+
+ Noake, J., 412
+
+ Noal, Jane, 417
+
+ Norfolk, 193, 200 n., 231, 253, 337, 356, 386, 389-391, 394, 395, 397,
+ 399-401, 403-406, 410, 412, 414
+
+ _Norfolk Archćology_, cited, 182, 386, 390, 405
+
+ Norrington, Alice, 59, 386
+
+ Norrington, Mildred, 59, 62
+
+ North, Francis, Baron Guilford, 269 n., 271, 272, 278, 305, 311
+
+ North, Roger, 267.
+   Cited, 261 n., 269 n., 271 n., 278 n., 403, 416, 417
+
+ North Allerton, 400
+
+ North Riding (of Yorkshire), 117
+
+ North Riding Record Society, 114 n., 117 n., 162 n.
+
+ Northampton, 106-112, 115, 118, 119 n., 120, 130-132, 184, 229, 230, 255,
+ 314 n., 357, 375-383, 415, 419
+
+ Northampton, Henry Howard, Earl of, 352
+
+ Northamptonshire, 184, 200 n., 282, 331, 405, 411
+
+ _Northamptonshire Handbook_, 381-382
+
+ _Northamptonshire Historical Collections_, 381
+
+ Northfield, Thomas, 7
+
+ Northfleet, 394
+
+ Northumberland, 52, 146, 208 n., 209, 210, 220, 224, 282, 390, 395, 401,
+ 407, 412, 414, 415, 416
+
+ Norton, mother and daughter, 330, 333, 419
+
+ Norwich, 7 n., 400, 401, 406, 412
+
+ Norwich, Bishop of, 7 n., 8, 15 n., 89
+
+ _Notes and Queries_, cited, 164 n., 321 n., 380, 418, 419
+
+ Nottingham, 75, 81-86, 118, 315, 389, 393, 394
+
+ _Nottingham, Records of the Borough of_, cited, 394
+
+ Nottinghamshire, 51, 234
+
+ Nowell, Roger, 123
+
+ Nutter, Alice, trial of, 113, 116, 126-127, 383
+
+ Nutter, Christopher, 127
+
+ Nutter, Robert, 128
+
+
+ Oakham, 411
+
+ Ogle, Henry, 208, 209, 259 n.
+
+ Old Bailey, 108 n., 213
+
+ Oliver, Mary, 412
+
+ Onslow, Speaker, 268
+
+ Orchard, widow, 412
+
+ Orchard, N., 296 n.
+
+ Oriel College, Oxford, 294
+
+ Orme, W., cited, 337 n.
+
+ Osborne, Francis, 143-144, 245-246, 291.
+   Cited, 141 n., 143, 246 n.
+
+ Owen, John, cited, 287 n.
+
+ Owen, and Blakeway, cited, 21 n., 387
+
+ Oxford, Samuel Parker, Bishop of, 308, 309
+
+ Oxford, 15, 63, 146 n., 216, 285, 402
+
+ Oxford University, 131, 216, 285;
+   Hart Hall, 57;
+   Oriel College, 294;
+   Trinity College, 131-132
+
+
+ Pacy, Mr., 265
+
+ Padiham, 150 n., 399
+
+ Padston, 388
+
+ Palmer, C. J., cited, 182 n., 389, 390
+
+ Palmer, John, 208 n.
+
+ Pannel, Mary, 383, 395
+
+ Paracelsus, 286
+
+ Paris, University of, formulated theory concerning pacts with Satan, 3
+
+ Parker, Matthew, Archbishop of Canterbury, 30, 88 n.
+
+ Parker, Samuel, Bishop of Oxford, 308, 309
+
+ Parker, Thomas, Earl of Macclesfield, 314, 320, 330-331, 332 n., 380
+
+ Parkhurst, John, Bishop of Norwich, 15 n.
+
+ Parle, M., 417
+
+ _Parliamentary History_, cited, 12 n., 102 n.
+
+ Peacock, a schoolmaster, tortured, 115 n., 399
+
+ Peacock, Edward, 401
+
+ Peacock, Elizabeth, 269, 270, 414, 415, 417
+
+ Pearson, Margaret, 397
+
+ Pechey, Joan, 45 n.
+
+ Peck, Francis, cited, 172 n., 403
+
+ Peckham, Sir George, 74 n.
+
+ Pelham, 151 n.
+
+ Pellican, cited, 15 n.
+
+ Pemberton, Sir Francis, 277
+
+ Pembroke, Simon, 387
+
+ Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, 89
+
+ Pendle Hill, or Forest, 121, 147, 315, 397
+
+ Pepper, Mrs., 259, 413
+
+ Pepys, Samuel, 309
+
+ Pereson, Jennet, 385
+
+ _Perfect Diurnal, A_, cited, 403
+
+ Perkins, William, 227-230, 240, 241, 242, 243
+
+ Perry, William, the "boy of Bilston," 140-142
+
+ Peter Martyr, 16 n.
+
+ Peter, R. and O. B., cited, 218 n., 409
+
+ Peterson, Joan, case of, 213-215, 408
+
+ Petty treason, its penalty not to be confused with that of witchcraft, 182
+
+ Phillips, Goody, 183
+
+ Phillips, John, 346, 351
+
+ Phillips, Mary, 382
+
+ Phippan, Honora, 417
+
+ Pickering, Gilbert, 47, 131 n.
+
+ Pickering, Sir Gilbert, 131 n.
+
+ Pickering, Henry, 48
+
+ Pickering, Thomas, 228 n.
+
+ Pickerings, the, 348
+
+ Pico della Mirandola, 286
+
+ Piers, Anne, 388
+
+ Pike, L. O., cited, 7
+
+ Pillory, punishment of, 30, 55, 104, 114
+
+ Pilton, Margaret, 398
+
+ Pinder, Rachel, 30 n., 59, 88, 351, 386
+
+ Pitcairn, Robert, cited, 95 n.
+
+ Plato, 238
+
+ _Pleasant Treatise of Witches, A_, 296
+
+ Plummer, Colonel, 328 n.
+
+ Poeton, Edward, cited, 400
+
+ Pole, Arthur, 25
+
+ Pole, Edmund, 25
+
+ Pollock and Maitland, cited, 6 and n., 7 n.
+
+ Popham, Sir John, 354
+
+ Potts, Thomas, 112, 113, 116, 125, 129, 130, 249, 357-358, 361.
+   Cited, 105-128 n., _passim_, 397, 398
+
+ Powell, Sir John, 272 n., 314, 320, 324, 327-328, 329, 330, 335, 374
+
+ Powell, Lady, 214-215
+
+ Powell, William, 346
+
+ Powle, ----, 409
+
+ Powstead, 404
+
+ Pregnancy, plea of, in delay of execution, 50, 96
+
+ Prentice, Joan, 348
+
+ Presbyterian party, its part in Hopkins crusade, 195-201
+
+ Prestall, John, 25, 387, 397
+
+ Preston, Jennet, 111 n., 112, 129, 249, 383, 398
+
+ Price, Joan, 409
+
+ Privy Council, its dealings with sorcerers, in the later Middle Ages,
+ 4-10;
+   its campaign against conjurers under Elizabeth, 26-27;
+   the Abingdon trials, 27-28, 30 n.;
+   the Chelmsford trials, 34;
+   Dee's case, 53-54;
+   Darrel's, 87;
+   its part in the statute of James I, 103;
+   in the Lancashire trials of 1633, 152, 155, 156;
+   in the Somerset cases of 1664, 273.
+   _See also Acts of the Privy Council_ and _Council Register_.
+
+ _Protestant Post Boy, The_, 374
+
+ Prowting, Mary, 402
+
+
+ Queen's College, Cambridge, 143, 348
+
+
+ R., G., 374
+
+ R., H., 390
+
+ Rainsford, Sir Richard, 260, 268-269, 269-270, 304
+
+ Rames, Nicholas, wife of, 279
+
+ Ramsay, Sir J. R., cited, 9 n.
+
+ Ramsbury, 389
+
+ Rand, Margaret, 391
+
+ Randall, 397
+
+ Randall, of Lavenham, 404
+
+ Randoll, 388
+
+ Ratcliffe, 404
+
+ Ratcliffe, Agnes, 136 n.
+
+ Rattlesden, 404
+
+ Rawlins, Anna, 416
+
+ Raymond, Sir Thomas, 260, 270-271, 271-272, 278, 283, 304, 321
+
+ Read, Joan, 217
+
+ Read, Margaret, 391
+
+ Read, Simon, 397
+
+ Redfearne, Anne, 126 n., 127-128, 383
+
+ Redman, 258
+
+ Repington, Philip, Bp. of Lincoln, 7
+
+ Reresby, Sir John, 272 n., 305, 311.
+   Cited, 417
+
+ Rhymes, Witch, 24, 76
+
+ Rich, Robert, Earl of Warwick, 172, 178, 200
+
+ Richard III, 9
+
+ Richardson, M. A., cited, 117 n., 219 n., 395, 409, 412
+
+ Richmond, of Bramford, 404
+
+ Richmond (Yorkshire), 396
+
+ Richmond and Lenox, Duke of, 287
+
+ Risden, 188 n., 406
+
+ Rivet, John, 166
+
+ Roach, Clara, 418
+
+ Roberts, Alexander, 227, 231, 235.
+   Cited, 117 n., 231 n., 399.
+
+ Roberts, Elizabeth, 394, 410
+
+ Roberts, George, cited, 279 n., 385, 417
+
+ Roberts, Joan, 407
+
+ Robey, Isabel, 384
+
+ Robinson, Edmund, 146-157, 298, 323
+
+ Robson, Jane, 401
+
+ Rochester, 63, 388
+
+ Rodes, Sara, 218
+
+ Rogers, Lydia, 366, 411
+
+ Roper, Margaret, 75, 390
+
+ Rose, Goodwife, 402
+
+ Rossington, 396
+
+ Rous, Francis, 240
+
+ Row, Elizabeth, 415
+
+ Roxburghe Club, cited, 95 n.
+
+ Royal Society, the, 275, 285, 286, 305, 306, 308-309
+
+ Royston, 109, 111
+
+ Ruceulver, 404
+
+ Rushock, 412
+
+ Russel, Margaret, 400
+
+ Rutland, Earl of. _See_ Manners
+
+ Rutlandshire, 411
+
+ Rutter, Elizabeth, 383, 399
+
+ Ryder, Agnes, 417
+
+ Rye, 116, 383, 397, 405
+
+ Rylens, Martha, 416
+
+ Ryley, Josia, 393
+
+ Rymer, cited, 7
+
+
+ S., Alice, 52 n., 394
+
+ Sabbath, the Witch, 3, 113, 123-124, 148, 166, 170, 186, 239, 273, 281-282
+
+ Saffron Walden, 394
+
+ Saint Alban's, 208 n., 252 n., 363, 407, 408, 417
+
+ Saint Andrew's in Holborne, 393, 398
+
+ Saint Giles's, Northampton, 382
+
+ Saint Giles-in-the-Fields, 393
+
+ Saint John's, Kent, 385, 389
+
+ Saint Katharine's, 394
+
+ Saint Lawrence, 393
+
+ Saint Leonard's, Shoreditch, 403
+
+ Saint Martin's-in-the-Fields, 389, 406, 409
+
+ Saint Mary's, Nottingham, 83
+
+ Saint Osyth's, 41-46, 58, 70, 125, 388
+
+ Saint Paul's, 13;
+   public penance in, 59
+
+ Saint Paul's, Dean of, 11 n.
+
+ Saint Peter's, Kent, 389, 392, 393
+
+ Saint Saviour's, Southwark, 387
+
+ Salem. _See_ Massachusetts
+
+ Salisbury, 212, 225, 268, 270-271, 410, 412
+
+ Salisbury, Bishop of. _See_ Jewel, John
+
+ Salmesbury, witches of, 128-129, 398
+
+ Salop (Shropshire), 387
+
+ Sammon, Margerie, 43, 44, 45 n.
+
+ Sampson, Agnes, torture of, 95
+
+ Samuel, Agnes, 49
+
+ Samuel, Alice, trial of, 47-51
+
+ Samuel, John, 49
+
+ Samuel, Mother. _See_ Alice Samuel
+
+ Samuels, the (of Warboys), 109, 391
+
+ Sandwich, 401, 403, 418
+
+ Sanford, 387
+
+ Sawyer, Elizabeth, trial of, 108 n., 112, 136 n., 383, 400
+
+ Scarborough, 219, 409
+
+ Scarfe, of Rattlesden, 404
+
+ Schwebel, Johann, 15 n.
+
+ Scory, John, Bishop of Hereford, 15 n.
+
+ Scot, Margery, 409
+
+ Scot, Reginald, 51, 55, 57-72, 89, 90, 97, 142, 160, 227, 228-231, 235,
+ 239, 241, 242, 243, 249, 291, 294 n., 296, 298, 301, 310, 312, 342.
+   Cited, 20 n., 28 n., 46 n., 296 n., 347, 348, 386, 387, 388
+
+ Scot, Sir Thomas, 56
+
+ _Scotland, Register of the Privy Council of_, cited 96 n.
+
+ _Scotland and the Commonwealth_, cited, 225
+
+ Scots-Hall, 57
+
+ Scott, John, cited, 391, 393
+
+ Scott, Sir Walter, 196, 275.
+   Cited, 199 n., 366
+
+ _Scottish Dove, The_, cited, 404
+
+ Seaford, 386
+
+ Seccombe, Thomas, cited, 164 n., 181 n.
+
+ Seeze, Betty, 417
+
+ Selden, John, 246-248, 262.
+   Cited, 247 n., 248 n.
+
+ Serjeantson, Rev. R. M., 382
+
+ Sewel, William, 296 n.
+
+ Shadbrook, 350, 393, 394
+
+ Shadwell, Thomas, 121, 309;
+   his opinions, 306-307
+
+ Shakespeare, William, used Harsnett, 91;
+   allusions in _Twelfth Night_ of, 92;
+   his witch-lore, 243
+
+ Shalock, Anthony, 171 n.
+
+ Shaw, Elinor, 382
+
+ Sheahan, J. J., cited, 389
+
+ Shelley, 404
+
+ Shelley, Jane, 391
+
+ Shepton, Mallet, 411
+
+ Sherlock, Thomas, 374
+
+ Ship Tavern, at Greenwich, 154
+
+ Shore, Jane, 9
+
+ Shoreditch, 403
+
+ Shrewsbury, Earl of, 12, 19 n., 26
+
+ Shrewsbury, Duke of, 341
+
+ Shropshire (Salop), 387
+
+ _Shuttleworths, House and Farm Accounts of the_, cited, 399
+
+ Simmons, Margaret, 388
+
+ Simpson, Elizabeth, 412
+
+ Simpson, Jane, 413
+
+ Simpson, Robert, cited, 396
+
+ Simpson, Susan, 409
+
+ Sinclar (or Sinclair), George, cited, 355, 366, 395
+
+ Skipsey, 407
+
+ Slade, Anne, 414
+
+ Slingsby, Sir William, 400
+
+ Smith, of Chinting, 387
+
+ Smith, Charlotte Fell, cited, 53 n.
+
+ Smith, Elizabeth, 408
+
+ Smith, Elleine, 39 n., 40
+
+ Smith, Gilbert, 399
+
+ Smith, Mary, 231, 358, 384, 399
+
+ Smith, Sir Thomas, 25 n., 385
+
+ Smithfield, 9
+
+ Smythe, Elizabeth, 406
+
+ Smythe, Katharine, 386
+
+ Somers, William, 51, 81-86, 92, 315, 353, 393
+
+ Somerset, 146, 220, 222, 224, 234, 254, 260, 273, 280, 285, 293, 320, 388,
+ 392, 393, 401, 402, 411, 413-419
+
+ Somerset, the protector, repeal of felonies during his protectorate, 12;
+   attitude of, 13
+
+ Sorcery, distinguished from witchcraft, 3-4
+
+ Southampton, 387
+
+ Southampton, Earl of, 12
+
+ Southcole, Justice, 346
+
+ Southcote, John, 34
+
+ Southerns, Elizabeth. _See_ Demdike
+
+ Southton, 415, 416
+
+ Southwark, 164, 256, 277, 321, 323, 387, 419
+
+ Southwell, Thomas, 8
+
+ Southworth. _See_ Master Thompson
+
+ Sowerbutts, Grace, part in Salmesbury cases, 128-129, 139, 140, 151
+
+ _Spectator, The_, 341 n.
+
+ Spectral evidence, 110-111, 131 n., 184, 218, 221-222, 235-236, 263-264,
+ 279, 279 n.
+
+ Speier, 15 n.
+
+ Spencer, Anne, 402
+
+ Spencer, Mary, 152, 157, 159, 160, 401
+
+ Spokes, Helen, 393
+
+ Staffordshire, 118, 141, 146, 386, 389, 400, 402
+
+ Stanford Rivers, 34
+
+ Stanhope, 388
+
+ Stanmore, 390
+
+ Star Chamber, Dee examined by the, 52
+
+ Starchie, Mrs., 79 n.
+
+ Starchie, John, 149 n.
+
+ Starchie, Nicholas, children of, 78-81, 158
+
+ Starr, William, 409
+
+ Stationers' _Registers_, cited, 347, 350, 352, 358
+
+ Statutes:
+   1 Edward VI, cap. xii (repeal of felonies), 12;
+   3 Henry VIII, cap. xi, 10 n.;
+   33 Henry VIII, cap. viii, 10-12;
+   5 Elizabeth, cap. xvi, 5, 14, 15, 17, 101-102;
+   1 James I, cap. xii, 102-104, 314
+
+ Staunton, Mother, 39 n., 387
+
+ Stearne, John, 164-205 _passim_ (in text and notes), 339, 361, 362, 404.
+   Cited, 403-406.
+
+ Stebbing, Henry, 335, 374, 375
+
+ Steele, Sir Richard, 342
+
+ Stephen, Sir J. F., cited, 10 n., 11 n.
+
+ Stephen, Leslie, cited, 287 n.
+
+ Stephens, Edward, 339 n.
+
+ Stepney, 405, 408, 410, 411, 412
+
+ Sterland, Mr., 83
+
+ Stevens, Margaret, 415
+
+ Stevens, Maria, 419
+
+ Stoll, Elmer, cited, 244 n.
+
+ Stonden, 414
+
+ Stothard, Margaret, 259, 416
+
+ Stow, John, cited, 59 n., 350
+
+ Stowmarket, 183, 404
+
+ Stranger, Dorothy, 279, 413
+
+ Strangridge, Old, 238
+
+ Strassburg, 15 n.
+
+ Stratford-at-Bow, 406, 407
+
+ Strotton, 414
+
+ Strutt, the Rev. Mr., 326, 327, 375
+
+ Strype, John, cited, 16 n., 17 n., 25 n., 26 n., 27 n., 385, 390
+
+ Stuart, Charles, Duke of Richmond and Lenox, 287
+
+ Studley Hall, 223
+
+ Style, Elizabeth, 280, 413
+
+ Sudbury, 404
+
+ Suffolk, 164, 165 n., 175, 176 n., 183, 194, 195, 197, 224, 337, 350, 379,
+ 392, 393, 394, 404, 405, 411, 413, 414, 417, 418
+
+ _Suffolk Institute of Archćology, Proceedings of_, 176 n.
+
+ Surey, affair of. _See_ Dugdale
+
+ Surrey, 416, 419
+
+ Sussex, 282, 386, 387, 397, 405, 412
+
+ _Sussex Archćological Collections_, 283 n., 386, 412
+
+ Sussums, Alexander, 404
+
+ Sutton, 406
+
+ Sutton, Mary, 110-111, 118 n., 136, 383, 398
+
+ Sutton, Mother, 107-108, 115, 117, 135-136, 358, 383, 398
+
+ Swan, John, 90 n., 355.
+   Cited, 395
+
+ Swan Inn, Maidstone, 215
+
+ Swane, Goodwife, 389
+
+ Swinow, Colonel, 209
+
+ Swinow, Dorothy, 209-210, 211, 408
+
+ Swithland, 399
+
+ Swynbourne, Richard, wife of, 393
+
+ Sykes, John, cited, 30 n., 407, 414
+
+ Sykes, Mary, 218, 407
+
+
+ T., R., 295
+
+ Talbot, Charles, Duke of Shrewsbury, 341-342
+
+ Talbot, George, Earl of Shrewsbury, 19 n., 26
+
+ Tanner, Joanna, 419
+
+ _Tatler, The_, 342 n.
+
+ Taunton, 234, 235, 260, 401, 403, 413, 417, 418
+
+ Taunton-Dean, 278, 417
+
+ Taylor, Robert, 170
+
+ Taylor, Zachary, 317-318, 329, 372, 373
+
+ Tedsall, Agnes, 402
+
+ Tedworth, affair of, 274-276, 303 n.
+
+ Tempest, Henry, 218
+
+ Temple, Sir William, 309
+
+ Tendering, John, 46 n.
+
+ Test of bleeding of dead body, 112, 301;
+   of repetition of certain words, 49, 109;
+   of thatch-burning, 112;
+   of swimming (see Water, ordeal of)
+
+ Theodore of Tarsus, 2
+
+ Therfield, 374
+
+ Theydon, Mount, 385
+
+ Thievery and Witchcraft, 122, 222, 326
+
+ Thirple, 374
+
+ Thirsk, 397
+
+ Thompson, James, cited, 201 n., 408
+
+ Thompson, Katherine, 395
+
+ Thompson, Master, 129
+
+ Thorne, Anne, accuser of Jane Wenham, 324-330, 334-336
+
+ Thorneton, Jane, 386
+
+ Thorpe, Benjamin, cited, 2 n.
+
+ Thrapston, 184-185
+
+ Throckmorton, Sir Robert, 47, 50
+
+ Throckmortons, the, 348
+
+ Throgmorton, George, 385
+
+ Throgmorton, Lady Frances, 384
+
+ Thurlow, Grace, 41, 42
+
+ Tichmarsh, 131 n.
+
+ Tilbrooke-bushes, 188 n.
+
+ Tilling, Ann, 269-270, 415, 417
+
+ Tolbooth, the, 96
+
+ Torture, of Alse Gooderidge, 77;
+   by the bootes, 96;
+   of Peacock, 115 n., 203;
+   perhaps used at Lincoln, 134;
+   unknown to English law, 167;
+   of Lowes, by walking, 176-177;
+   Hopkins's and Stearne's theory and practice as to, 202-204;
+   advocated by Perkins, 229;
+   by scratching, 330;
+   by swimming (see Water, ordeal of)
+
+ Tottenham, 399
+
+ Towns, independent jurisdiction of, 54-55, 116-117, 201
+
+ Townshend, Jane, 414
+
+ Tradescant, John, 216
+
+ Transportation of witches through the air, 3, 97, 239, 246
+
+ Treasure-seekers, 20
+
+ Tree, 387
+
+ Trefulback, Stephen, 391
+
+ Trelawny, Sir Jonathan, Bishop of Exeter, 321
+
+ Trembles, Mary, 271-272, 368-369, 416
+
+ Trinity College, Oxford, 131-132;
+   Master of. _See_ Isaac Barrow
+
+ Turner, William, cited, 405
+
+ _Twelfth Night_, allusions in, 92
+
+ _Two Terrible Sea-Fights_, cited, 225 n.
+
+ Tyburn, 51, 394
+
+ Tynemouth, 412
+
+
+ _Underhill, Edward, Autobiography of_, cited, 13
+
+ Upaston, 418
+
+ Upney, Joan, 347
+
+ Upsala, 94
+
+ Urwen, Jane, 401
+
+ Utley, hanged at Lancaster, 158, 401
+
+ Uxbridge, 74 n.
+
+
+ Vairus, Leonardus, 58 n.
+
+ Vallet, Jane, 417
+
+ Van Helmont, 286
+
+ Varden, J. T., cited, 194 n.
+
+ Vaughan, Joan, 384
+
+ Vaughans, the two (Henry and Thomas), 286
+
+ Vaux, Lord, 74 n.
+
+ Vernon, James, 341-342
+
+ Vetter, Theodor, cited, 15 n.
+
+ Vicars, Anne, 383
+
+ Vickers, K. H., cited, 9 n.
+
+ _Victoria History of Essex_, cited, 90 n.
+
+ Virley, John, 7
+
+
+ W., Mother, of Great T., 395
+
+ W., Mother, of W. H., 395
+
+ "W. W." and the St. Osyth's pamphlet, 46, 62 n.
+
+ Waddam, Margaret, 418
+
+ Wade, Mary, 223, 411
+
+ Wade, William, 221, 223, 411
+
+ Wadham, Thomas, 388
+
+ Wagg, Ann, 407
+
+ Wagstaffe, John, 294-295, 297
+
+ Wakefield, 220-221, 411
+
+ Waldingfield, 404
+
+ Walker, widow, 387
+
+ Walker, Ellen, 385
+
+ Walker, John, 353, 354
+
+ Walker, John (another), cited, 361
+
+ Walkerne, 325
+
+ Wallis, Joane, 185 n., 187 n.
+
+ Walsh, John, trial of, 31 n.
+
+ Walter, Aliena, 414
+
+ Walter, Sir John, 235
+
+ Walton, Colonel Valentine, 187, 237 n.
+
+ Wanley, Nathaniel, 307.
+   Cited, 308 n.
+
+ Wapping, 408, 411
+
+ Warboys, trials at, 47-51, 109 n., 131, 143, 160, 185, 221, 229 n., 391
+
+ Warburton, Sir Peter, 142
+
+ Warburton, Peter, 215
+
+ Warden of the Cinque Ports, 116
+
+ Warham, William, Abp. of Canterbury, 58 n.
+
+ Warminster, 398
+
+ Warwick, 257, 414
+
+ Warwick, Earl of. _See_ Rich
+
+ Washington, Sir John, 185
+
+ "Watching" of witches, practised by Hopkins and Stearne, 167;
+   Gaule's description, 175;
+   Stearne's explanation, 190;
+   Stearne's description, 202;
+   probably practised on Elizabeth Style, 280;
+   practised on a Sussex woman, 283
+
+ Water, ordeal of, James recommends it, 99;
+   its use on the Continent, 99 n.;
+   in reign of James, 106-108, 118 n., 132;
+   stopped in Suffolk, 178;
+   in Huntingdonshire, 187;
+   its use by Hopkins and Stearne, 191-192;
+   story that Hopkins was put to it, 194;
+   use at Faversham, 201 n.;
+   Perkins's opinion, 228;
+   Cotta's, 230;
+   Bernard's, 235;
+   Ady's, 242;
+   its decline, 243, 284;
+   increased use of it as an illegal process, 315, 331;
+   forbidden in Jane Wenham's case, 326;
+   at Leicester, 330;
+   in Essex, 331-332;
+   by Holt or Parker, 332;
+   by Addison's Sir Roger de Coverley and his chaplain, 341
+
+ Waterhouse, Mother Agnes, trial of, 35-38, 40 n., 45, 385
+
+ Waterhouse, Joan, 36
+
+ Watson, Jane, 413
+
+ Way, Margaretta, 419
+
+ Wayt, Mrs., 174
+
+ Webb, Mrs., 269
+
+ Webb, Goodwife, 39
+
+ Webster, John, 141, 147 n., 148-151, 151, 268, 297-303, 314.
+   Cited, 306 n., 359, 400
+
+ Weech, Christian, 397
+
+ Weeke, 413
+
+ Weekes, Christiana, 397, 410
+
+ _Weekly Intelligencer_, cited, 213 n., 408
+
+ Weight, Mrs., 174
+
+ Welfitt, William, cited, 412
+
+ Wellam, Margaret, 399
+
+ Wells, 389
+
+ Wells, Archdeacon of, 235
+
+ Welton, 251, 411
+
+ Wenham, 164
+
+ Wenham, Jane, trial of, 324-330, 380, 381, 419;
+   controversy over, 334-336;
+   her trial the occasion of Hutchinson's book, 342-343
+
+ Wentworth, Lord, 12
+
+ West, Andrew, 44
+
+ West, Anne, 169, and n., 171
+
+ West, Rebecca, 169, 170, 171, 362, 376
+
+ West, William, cited, 352, 391
+
+ West Ayton, 402
+
+ West Drayton, 394
+
+ West Riding, Yorkshire, 256
+
+ Westminster, disputation of, 16 n.;
+   cases at, 139, 384, 386, 391, 402
+
+ Weston, Father, 74 n., 87, 352
+
+ Westpenner, 388
+
+ Westwell, Old Alice of, 59, 386
+
+ Weyer (Wier, Wierus), Johann, 62, 79 n., 97, 229 n.
+
+ Whitaker, Thomas D., cited, 147 n.
+
+ White, Joan, 391
+
+ Whitechapel, 409-410
+
+ Whitecrosse Street, 396
+
+ Whitgift, John, Archbishop of Canterbury, 74, 84, 88 n.
+
+ Whitehall, 134
+
+ Whitelocke, Bulstrode, 226, 252 n.
+   Cited, 172 n., 179 n., 181 n., 201 n., 206 n., 207 n., 403, 407
+
+ Wickham, William, Bishop of Lincoln, 50
+
+ Widdowes, Thomas, cited, 366
+
+ Widdrington, Thomas, 207 n.
+
+ Wier, Wierus. _See_ Weyer
+
+ Wigan, 156
+
+ Wildridge, T. T., cited, 137 n.
+
+ Wilkins, David, cited, 10 n.
+
+ Wilkinson, Anne, 414
+
+ Williams, Katherine, 418
+
+ Williams, Robert, cited, 399
+
+ Williford, Joan, 201 n., 405
+
+ Willimot, Joan, 119 n., 133 n., 399
+
+ Wilson, Alice, 109 n.
+
+ Wilson, Arthur, 143 n., 172 n., 173.
+   Cited, 359, 400, 403
+
+ Wilts, 146, 211, 224, 268, 269 n., 274, 285, 397, 398, 401, 409, 410,
+ 412-414, 417-419
+
+ Wimblington, 406
+
+ Winch, Sir Humphrey, 142
+
+ Winchester, Bishop of. _See_ Thomas Bilson, and James Montague
+
+ Winchester Park, 257 n.
+
+ Windebank, Secretary, 152, 155
+
+ Windsor, 139, 347
+
+ Windsor, Dean of, and Abingdon trials, 28
+
+ Wingerworth, 416
+
+ Witchall, Judith, 269, 270, 415, 417
+
+ Witchfinder, Darrel as a, 75-83;
+   Hopkins as a, 165-205;
+   a Scotch pricker as a, 206-208;
+   Ann Armstrong as a, 281-282
+
+ Wolsey, Thomas, Abp. of York, 19, 59 n.
+
+ Women, proportion of to men in indictments for witchcraft, 114;
+   of wives to spinsters and to widows, 114-115
+
+ Wood, Anthony ŕ, cited, 295 n., 366
+
+ Wood, Joan, 386
+
+ Woodbridge, 392
+
+ Woodbury, 417
+
+ Woodhouse, Doctor, 257
+
+ Woodstock, 275
+
+ Wooler, 395
+
+ Worcester, 7, 216, 376, 387, 406, 409, 412
+
+ Worcester, Bishop of, 12, 340
+
+ Worcestershire, 208 n.
+
+ Worthington, John, cited, 180 n.
+
+ Wright, Elizabeth, 76, 78 n., 392
+
+ Wright, Grace, 405
+
+ Wright, Katherine, 75, 85, 353
+
+ Wright, Thomas, 100, 188 n., 376.
+   Cited, 2 n., 6 n., 7 n., 9 n., 19 n., 25 n., 95 n., 100 n., 147 n., 401
+
+ Wrottesley, Lord, 162 n.
+
+ Wylde, John, 212
+
+ Wynnick, John, 185 n., 187 n., 405
+
+
+ Yarmouth, 54, 181, 183, 199, 201, 263, 406.
+   _See also_ Yarmouth, Great
+
+ Yarmouth, Great, 389, 390, 395, 404
+
+ York, 111, 112, 119, 129, 144, 218, 220, 229 n., 249, 383, 389, 394, 398,
+ 400, 413, 417
+
+ York, Archbishop of, 83
+
+ York Castle, 258
+
+ _York Depositions_, 218 n.
+   Cited, _passim_ thereafter
+
+ Yorkshire, 52, 118, 144, 146, 149-150, 210, 221, 222, 223, 254, 256, 278,
+ 352, 383, 389, 391, 393, 395-397, 400, 402, 406-411, 414-416
+
+ _Yorkshire Notes and Queries_, cited, 257 n.
+
+ Young, Margareta, 418
+
+ Young, Ruth, 418
+
+
+ Zurich, 14, 15 n., 87 n.
+
+ _Zurich Letters_, cited, 17 n.
+
+ Zweibrücken, 15 n.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A History of Witchcraft in England
+from 1558 to 1718, by Wallace Notestein
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A History of Witchcraft in England from
+1558 to 1718, by Wallace Notestein
+
+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: A History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718
+
+Author: Wallace Notestein
+
+Release Date: March 5, 2010 [EBook #31511]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITCHCRAFT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Brian Janes, Meredith Bach,
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="minispace">&nbsp;</div>
+<h2>PRIZE ESSAYS<br />
+<small>OF THE</small><br />
+AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION</h2>
+
+<hr style="width: 5%; margin-bottom: -.5em;" />
+<h2>1909</h2>
+
+<hr class="front" />
+
+<h3>To this Essay was awarded the<br />
+<span class="smcap">Herbert Baxter Adams Prize<br />
+in European History</span><br />
+for 1909</h3>
+
+
+
+<hr class="front" />
+<h1>A HISTORY<br />
+<small>OF</small><br />
+WITCHCRAFT IN ENGLAND<br />
+<small>FROM 1558 TO 1718</small></h1>
+
+<div class="microspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<h3><small>BY</small><br />
+WALLACE NOTESTEIN<br />
+<small>ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA</small></h3>
+
+<div class="minispace">&nbsp;</div>
+<div class="minispace">&nbsp;</div>
+<h3><small>PUBLISHED BY</small><br />
+THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION<br />
+<small><span class="smcap">Washington</span>, 1911</small></h3>
+
+
+
+<hr class="front" />
+<h4><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1911<br />
+By The American Historical Association<br />
+Washington, D.C.</span></h4>
+
+<div class="microspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<hr style="width: 22%; margin-bottom: -.5em;" />
+<h4>THE LORD BALTIMORE PRESS<br />
+BALTIMORE, M.D., U.S.A.</h4>
+
+
+
+<hr class="front" />
+
+<h2 class="chapter"><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>In its original form this essay was the dissertation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span>
+submitted for a doctorate in philosophy conferred by
+Yale University in 1908. When first projected it was the
+writer's purpose to take up the subject of English
+witchcraft under certain general political and social
+aspects. It was not long, however, before he began to
+feel that preliminary to such a treatment there was
+necessary a chronological survey of the witch trials.
+Those strange and tragic affairs were so closely involved
+with the politics, literature, and life of the
+seventeenth century that one is surprised to find how
+few of them have received accurate or complete record
+in history. It may be said, in fact, that few subjects have
+gathered about themselves so large concretions of misinformation
+as English witchcraft. This is largely, of
+course, because so little attention has been given to it
+by serious students of history. The mistakes and misunderstandings
+of contemporary writers and of the
+local historians have been handed down from county
+history to county history until many of them have crept
+into general works. For this reason it was determined
+to attempt a chronological treatment which would
+give a narrative history of the more significant trials
+along with some account of the progress of opinion.
+This plan has been adhered to somewhat strictly, sometimes
+not without regret upon the part of the writer. It
+is his hope later in a series of articles to deal with some
+of the more general phases of the subject, with such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span>
+topics as the use of torture, the part of the physicians,
+the contagious nature of the witch alarms, the relation
+of Puritanism to persecution, the supposed influence of
+the Royal Society, the general causes for the gradual
+decline of the belief, and other like questions. It will
+be seen in the course of the narrative that some of these
+matters have been touched upon.</p>
+
+<p>This study of witchcraft has been limited to a period
+of about one hundred and sixty years in English history.
+The year 1558 has been chosen as the starting
+point because almost immediately after the accession of
+Elizabeth there began the movement for a new law, a
+movement which resulted in the statute of 1563. With
+that statute the history of the persecution of witches
+gathers importance. The year 1718 has been selected
+as a concluding date because that year was marked by
+the publication of Francis Hutchinson's notable attack
+upon the belief. Hutchinson levelled a final and deadly
+blow at the dying superstition. Few men of intelligence
+dared after that avow any belief in the reality of witchcraft;
+it is probable that very few even secretly cherished
+such a belief. A complete history would of course
+include a full account both of the witch trials from Anglo-Saxon
+times to Elizabeth's accession and of the
+various witch-swimming incidents of the eighteenth
+century. The latter it has not seemed worth while here
+to consider. The former would involve an examination
+of all English sources from the earliest times and would
+mean a study of isolated and unrelated trials occurring
+at long intervals (at least, we have record only of such)
+and chiefly in church courts. The writer has not undertaken
+to treat this earlier period; he must confess to
+but small knowledge of it. In the few pages which he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span>
+has given to it he has attempted nothing more than to
+sketch from the most obvious sources an outline of
+what is currently known as to English witches and
+witchcraft prior to the days of Elizabeth. It is to be
+hoped that some student of medieval society will at
+some time make a thorough investigation of the history
+of witchcraft in England to the accession of the great
+Queen.</p>
+
+<p>For the study of the period to be covered in this
+monograph there exists a wealth of material. It would
+perhaps not be too much to say that everything in print
+and manuscript in England during the last half of the
+sixteenth and the entire seventeenth century should be
+read or at least glanced over. The writer has limited
+himself to certain kinds of material from which he could
+reasonably expect to glean information. These sources
+fall into seven principal categories. Most important of
+all are the pamphlets, or chapbooks, dealing with the
+history of particular alarms and trials and usually concluding
+with the details of confession and execution.
+Second only to them in importance are the local or
+municipal records, usually court files, but sometimes
+merely expense accounts. In the memoirs and diaries can
+be found many mentions of trials witnessed by the diarist
+or described to him. The newspapers of the time, in
+their eagerness to exploit the unusual, seize gloatingly
+upon the stories of witchcraft. The works of local
+historians and antiquarians record in their lists of
+striking and extraordinary events within their counties
+or boroughs the several trials and hangings for the
+crime. The writers, mainly theologians, who discuss
+the theory and doctrine of witchcraft illustrate the principles
+they lay down by cases that have fallen under<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span>
+their observation. Lastly, the state papers contain occasional
+references to the activities of the Devil and of
+his agents in the realm.</p>
+
+<p>Besides these seven types of material there should
+be named a few others less important. From the pamphlet
+accounts of the criminal dockets at the Old Bailey
+and Newgate, leaflets which were published at frequent
+intervals after the Restoration, are to be gleaned mentions
+of perhaps half a dozen trials for witchcraft. The
+plays of Dekker, Heywood, and Shadwell must be used
+by the student, not because they add information
+omitted elsewhere, but because they offer some clue to
+the way in which the witches at Edmonton and Lancaster
+were regarded by the public. If the pamphlet
+narrative of the witch of Edmonton had been lost, it
+might be possible to reconstruct from the play of Dekker,
+Ford, and Rowley some of the outlines of the story.
+It would be at best a hazardous undertaking. To reconstruct
+the trials at Lancaster from the plays of Heywood
+and Brome or from that of Shadwell would be
+quite impossible. The ballads present a form of evidence
+much like that of the plays. Like the plays, they
+happen all to deal with cases about which we are
+already well informed. In general, they seem to follow
+the narratives and depositions faithfully.</p>
+
+<p>No mention has been made of manuscript sources.
+Those used by the author have all belonged to one or
+other of the types of material described.</p>
+
+<p>It has been remarked that there is current a large
+body of misinformation about English witchcraft.
+It would be ungrateful of the author not to acknowledge
+that some very good work has been done on the
+theme. The Reverend Francis Hutchinson, as already<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span>
+mentioned, wrote in 1718 an epoch-making history of
+the subject, a book which is still useful and can never be
+wholly displaced. In 1851 Thomas Wright brought out
+his <i>Narratives of Sorcery and Magic</i>, a work at once
+entertaining and learned. Wright wrote largely from
+original sources and wrote with a good deal of care.
+Such blunders as he made were the result of haste
+and of the want of those materials which we now
+possess. Mrs. Lynn Linton's <i>Witch Stories</i>, published
+first in 1861, is a better book than might be supposed
+from a casual glance at it. It was written with no more
+serious purpose than to entertain, but it is by no means
+to be despised. So far as it goes, it represents careful
+work. It would be wrong to pass over Lecky's brilliant
+essay on witchcraft in his <i>History of Rationalism</i>, valuable
+of course rather as an interpretation than as an
+historical account. Lecky said many things about
+witchcraft that needed to be said, and said them well.
+It is my belief that his verdicts as to the importance
+of sundry factors may have to be modified; but,
+however that be, the importance of his essay must
+always be recognized. One must not omit in passing
+James Russell Lowell's charming essay on the subject.
+Both Lecky and Lowell of course touched English
+witchcraft but lightly. Since Mrs. Lynn Linton's no
+careful treatment of English witchcraft proper has appeared.
+In 1907, however, Professor Kittredge published
+his <i>Notes on Witchcraft</i>, the sixty-seven pages of
+which with their footnotes contain a more scrupulous
+sifting of the evidence as to witchcraft in England than
+is to be found in any other treatment. Professor Kittredge
+is chiefly interested in English witchcraft as it
+relates itself to witchcraft in New England, but his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span>
+work contains much that is fresh about the belief in England.
+As to the rôle and the importance of various
+actors in the drama and as to sundry minor matters,
+the writer has found himself forced to divergence of
+view. He recognizes nevertheless the importance
+of Professor Kittredge's contribution to the study
+of the whole subject and acknowledges his own indebtedness
+to the essay for suggestion and guidance.</p>
+
+<p>The author cannot hope that the work here presented
+is final. Unfortunately there is still hidden away in
+England an unexplored mass of local records. Some of
+them no doubt contain accounts of witch trials. I have
+used chiefly such printed and manuscript materials as
+were accessible in London and Oxford. Some day perhaps
+I may find time to go the rounds of the English
+counties and search the masses of gaol delivery records
+and municipal archives. From the really small amount
+of new material on the subject brought to light
+by the Historical Manuscripts Commission and by the
+publication of many municipal records, it seems improbable
+that such a search would uncover so many
+unlisted trials as seriously to modify the narrative.
+Nevertheless until such a search is made no history of
+the subject has the right to be counted final. Mr.
+Charles W. Wallace, the student of Shakespeare, tells
+me that in turning over the multitudinous records of
+the Star Chamber he found a few witch cases. Professor
+Kittredge believes that there is still a great deal
+of such material to be turned up in private collections
+and local archives. Any information on this matter
+which any student of English local history can give me
+will be gratefully received.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I wish to express my thanks for reading parts of the
+manuscript to William Savage Johnson of Kansas University
+and to Miss Ada Comstock of the University of
+Minnesota. For general assistance and advice on the
+subject I am under obligations to Professor Wilbur C.
+Abbott and to Professor George Burton Adams of Yale
+University. It is quite impossible to say how very much
+I owe to Professor George L. Burr of Cornell. From
+cover to cover the book, since the award to it of the
+Adams Prize, has profited from his painstaking criticism
+and wise suggestion.</p>
+
+
+<div class="right">W. N.</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Minneapolis</span>, <i>October 10, 1911</i>.</p>
+<div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[xii]</a></span></div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr class="front" />
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+
+<div class="minispace">&nbsp;</div>
+<div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</a></span></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="6" summary="table of contents" width="60%">
+<tr><td></td><td align="right">PAGE</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Preface</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#PREFACE">v</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER I.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">The Beginnings of English Witchcraft</td><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">1</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER II.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Witchcraft under Elizabeth</td><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">33</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER III.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Reginald Scot</td><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">57</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER IV.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">The Exorcists</td><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">73</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER V.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">James I and Witchcraft</td><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">93</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER VI.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Notable Jacobean Cases</td><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">120</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER VII.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">The Lancashire Witches and Charles I</td><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">146</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER VIII.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Matthew Hopkins</td><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">164</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[xiv]</a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER IX.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Witchcraft during the Commonwealth and Protectorate</td><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">206</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER X.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">The Literature of Witchcraft from 1603 to 1660</td><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">227</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER XI.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Witchcraft under Charles II and James II</td><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">254</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER XII.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Glanvill and Webster and the Literary War over Witchcraft, 1660-1688</td><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">284</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER XIII.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">The Final Decline</td><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">313</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER XIV.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">The Close of the Literary Controversy</td><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">334</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Appendices</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#APPENDIX">345</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">A. Pamphlet Literature</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#APPENDIX_A">345</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">B. List of Persons Sentenced to Death for Witchcraft during the Reign of James I</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#APPENDIX_B">383</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">C. List of Cases of Witchcraft, 1558-1717, with References to Sources and Literature</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#APPENDIX_C">384</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Index</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#INDEX">421</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<hr class="front" />
+<h2 class="chapter"><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<h3 class="chapter2">The Beginnings of English Witchcraft.</h3>
+
+
+<p>It has been said by a thoughtful writer that the subject<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span>
+of witchcraft has hardly received that place which
+it deserves in the history of opinions. There has been,
+of course, a reason for this neglect&mdash;the fact that the belief
+in witchcraft is no longer existent among intelligent
+people and that its history, in consequence, seems to
+possess rather an antiquarian than a living interest. No
+one can tell the story of the witch trials of sixteenth
+and seventeenth century England without digging up
+a buried past, and the process of exhumation is not
+always pleasant. Yet the study of English witchcraft
+is more than an unsightly exposure of a forgotten
+superstition. There were few aspects of sixteenth and
+seventeenth century life that were not affected by the
+ugly belief. It is quite impossible to grasp the social conditions,
+it is impossible to understand the opinions, fears,
+and hopes of the men and women who lived in Elizabethan
+and Stuart England, without some knowledge
+of the part played in that age by witchcraft. It was a
+matter that concerned all classes from the royal household
+to the ignorant denizens of country villages. Privy
+councillors anxious about their sovereign and thrifty
+peasants worrying over their crops, clergymen alert to
+detect the Devil in their own parishes, medical quacks
+eager to profit by the fear of evil women, justices of the
+peace zealous to beat down the works of Satan&mdash;all
+classes, indeed&mdash;believed more or less sincerely in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span>
+dangerous powers of human creatures who had surrendered
+themselves to the Evil One.</p>
+
+<p>Witchcraft, in a general and vague sense, was something
+very old in English history. In a more specific
+and limited sense it is a comparatively modern phenomenon.
+This leads us to a definition of the term. It
+is a definition that can be given adequately only in an
+historical way. A group of closely related and somewhat
+ill defined conceptions went far back. Some of
+them, indeed, were to be found in the Old Testament,
+many of them in the Latin and Greek writers. The
+word witchcraft itself belonged to Anglo-Saxon days.
+As early as the seventh century Theodore of Tarsus
+imposed penances upon magicians and enchanters, and
+the laws, from Alfred on, abound with mentions of
+witchcraft.<a name="FNanchor_2-1_1" id="FNanchor_2-1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_2-1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> From these passages the meaning of the
+word witch as used by the early English may be fairly
+deduced. The word was the current English term for
+one who used spells and charms, who was assisted by
+evil spirits to accomplish certain ends. It will be seen
+that this is by no means the whole meaning of the term
+in later times. Nothing is yet said about the transformation
+of witches into other shapes, and there is no
+mention of a compact, implicit or otherwise, with the
+Devil; there is no allusion to the nocturnal meetings of
+the Devil's worshippers and to the orgies that took place
+upon those occasions; there is no elaborate and systematic
+theological explanation of human relations with
+demons.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p><p>But these notions were to reach England soon enough.
+Already there were germinating in southern Europe
+ideas out of which the completer notions were to spring.
+As early as the close of the ninth century certain Byzantine
+traditions were being introduced into the
+West. There were legends of men who had made written
+compacts with the Devil, men whom he promised to
+assist in this world in return for their souls in the next.<a name="FNanchor_3-1_2" id="FNanchor_3-1_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_3-1_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>
+But, while such stories were current throughout the
+Middle Ages, the notion behind them does not seem to
+have been connected with the other features of what
+was to make up the idea of witchcraft until about the
+middle of the fourteenth century. It was about that
+time that the belief in the "Sabbat" or nocturnal assembly
+of the witches made its appearance.<a name="FNanchor_3-2_3" id="FNanchor_3-2_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3-2_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> The
+belief grew up that witches rode through the air to these
+meetings, that they renounced Christ and engaged in
+foul forms of homage to Satan. Lea tells us that towards
+the close of the century the University of Paris
+formulated the theory that a pact with Satan was inherent
+in all magic, and judges began to connect this
+pact with the old belief in night riders through the air.
+The countless confessions that resulted from the carefully
+framed questions of the judges served to develop
+and systematize the theory of the subject. The witch
+was much more than a sorcerer. Sorcerers had been
+those who, through the aid of evil spirits, by the use
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>of certain words or of representations of persons or
+things produced changes above the ordinary course of
+nature. "The witch," says Lea, "has abandoned
+Christianity, has renounced her baptism, has worshipped
+Satan as her God, has surrendered herself to
+him, body and soul, and exists only to be his instrument
+in working the evil to her fellow creatures which he cannot
+accomplish without a human agent."<a name="FNanchor_4-1_4" id="FNanchor_4-1_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4-1_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> This was the
+final and definite notion of a witch. It was the conception
+that controlled European opinion on the subject
+from the latter part of the fourteenth to the close of the
+seventeenth century. It was, as has been seen, an
+elaborate theological notion that had grown out of the
+comparatively simple and vague ideas to be found in the
+scriptural and classical writers.</p>
+
+<p>It may well be doubted whether this definite and intricate
+theological notion of witchcraft reached England
+so early as the fourteenth century. Certainly not until
+a good deal later&mdash;if negative evidence is at all trustworthy&mdash;was
+a clear distinction made between sorcery
+and witchcraft. The witches searched for by Henry
+IV, the professor of divinity, the friar, the clerk, and
+the witch of Eye, who were hurried before the Council
+of Henry VI, that unfortunate Duchess of Gloucester
+who had to walk the streets of London, the Duchess
+of Bedford, the conspirators against Edward IV who
+were supposed to use magic, the unlucky mistress of
+Edward IV&mdash;none of these who through the course of
+two centuries were charged with magical misdeeds
+were, so far as we know, accused of those dreadful relations
+with the Devil, the nauseating details of which
+fill out the later narratives of witch history.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p><p>The truth seems to be that the idea of witchcraft was
+not very clearly defined and differentiated in the minds
+of ordinary Englishmen until after the beginning of
+legislation upon the subject. It is not impossible that
+there were English theologians who could have set forth
+the complete philosophy of the belief, but to the average
+mind sorcery, conjuration, enchantment, and witchcraft
+were but evil ways of mastering nature. All that was
+changed when laws were passed. With legislation came
+greatly increased numbers of accusations; with accusations
+and executions came treatises and theory. Continental
+writers were consulted, and the whole system
+and science of the subject were soon elaborated for all
+who read.</p>
+
+<p>With the earlier period, which has been sketched
+merely by way of definition, this monograph cannot
+attempt to deal. It limits itself to a narrative of the
+witch trials, and incidentally of opinion as to witchcraft,
+after there was definite legislation by Parliament. The
+statute of the fifth year of Elizabeth's reign marks a
+point in the history of the judicial persecution at which
+an account may very naturally begin. The year 1558
+has been selected as the date because from the very
+opening of the reign which was to be signalized by the
+passing of that statute and was to be characterized by a
+serious effort to enforce it, the persecution was preparing.</p>
+
+<p>Up to that time the crime of sorcery had been dealt
+with in a few early instances by the common-law courts,
+occasionally (where politics were involved) by the
+privy council, but more usually, it is probable, by the
+church. This, indeed, may easily be illustrated from
+the works of law. Britton and Fleta include an inquiry<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>
+about sorcerers as one of the articles of the sheriff's
+tourn. A note upon Britton, however, declares that it
+is for the ecclesiastical court to try such offenders and to
+deliver them to be put to death in the king's court, but
+that the king himself may proceed against them if he
+pleases.<a name="FNanchor_6-1_5" id="FNanchor_6-1_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_6-1_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> While there is some overlapping of procedure
+implied by this, the confusion seems to have been yet
+greater in actual practice. A brief narrative of some cases
+prior to 1558 will illustrate the strangely unsettled state
+of procedure. Pollock and Maitland relate several
+trials to be found in the early pleas. In 1209 one woman
+accused another of sorcery in the king's court and
+the defendant cleared herself by the ordeal. In 1279
+a man accused of killing a witch who assaulted him in
+his house was fined, but only because he had fled away.
+Walter Langton, Bishop of Lichfield and treasurer of
+Edward I, was accused of sorcery and homage to Satan
+and cleared himself with the compurgators. In 1325
+more than twenty men were indicted and tried by the
+king's bench for murder by tormenting a waxen image.
+All of them were acquitted. In 1371 there was
+brought before the king's bench an inhabitant of Southwark
+who was charged with sorcery, but he was finally
+discharged on swearing that he would never be a sorcerer.<a name="FNanchor_6-2_6" id="FNanchor_6-2_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6-2_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+<p>It will be observed that these early cases were all of
+them tried in the secular courts; but there is no reason
+to doubt that the ecclesiastical courts were quite as active,
+and their zeal must have been quickened by the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>statute of 1401, which in cases of heresy made the lay
+power their executioner. It was at nearly the same
+time, however, that the charge of sorcery began to be
+frequently used as a political weapon. In such cases,
+of course, the accused was usually a person of influence
+and the matter was tried in the council. It will be seen,
+then, that the crime was one that might fall either under
+ecclesiastical or conciliar jurisdiction and the particular
+circumstances usually determined finally the jurisdiction.
+When Henry IV was informed that the diocese
+of Lincoln was full of sorcerers, magicians, enchanters,
+necromancers, diviners, and soothsayers, he
+sent a letter to the bishop requiring him to search for
+sorcerers and to commit them to prison after conviction,
+or even before, if it should seem expedient.<a name="FNanchor_7-1_7" id="FNanchor_7-1_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7-1_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> This was
+entrusting the matter to the church, but the order was
+given by authority of the king, not improbably after
+the matter had been discussed in the council. In the
+reign of Henry VI conciliar and ecclesiastical authorities
+both took part at different times and in different
+ways. Thomas Northfield, a member of the Order of
+Preachers in Worcester and a professor of divinity,
+was brought before the council, together with all suspected
+matter belonging to him, and especially his books
+treating of sorcery. Pike does not tell us the outcome.<a name="FNanchor_7-2_8" id="FNanchor_7-2_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_7-2_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a>
+In the same year there were summoned before the council
+three humbler sorcerers, Margery Jourdemain, John
+Virley, a cleric, and John Ashwell, a friar of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>Order of the Holy Cross. It would be hard to say
+whether the three were in any way connected with
+political intrigue. It is possible that they were suspected
+of sorcery against the sovereign. They were all,
+however, dismissed on giving security.<a name="FNanchor_8-1_9" id="FNanchor_8-1_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_8-1_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> It was only a
+few years after this instance of conciliar jurisdiction
+that a much more important case was turned over to
+the clergy. The story of Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of
+Gloucester, is a familiar one. It was determined by the
+enemies of Duke Humphrey of Gloucester to attack
+him through his wife, who was believed to be influential
+with the young king. The first move was made by arresting
+a Roger Bolingbroke who had been connected
+with the duke and the duchess, and who was said to be
+an astronomer or necromancer. It was declared that
+he had cast the duchess's horoscope with a view to ascertaining
+her chances to the throne. Bolingbroke made
+confession, and Eleanor was then brought before "certayne
+bisshoppis of the kyngis." In the mean time
+several lords, members of the privy council, were authorized
+to "enquire of al maner tresons, sorcery, and
+alle othir thyngis that myghte in eny wise ... concerne
+harmfulli the kyngis persone."<a name="FNanchor_8-2_10" id="FNanchor_8-2_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_8-2_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> Bolingbroke and a
+clergyman, Thomas Southwell, were indicted of treason
+with the duchess as accessory. With them was accused
+that Margery Jourdemain who had been released
+ten years before. Eleanor was then reexamined before
+the Bishops of London, Lincoln, and Norwich, she was
+condemned as guilty, and required to walk barefoot
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>through the streets of London, which she "dede righte
+mekely." The rest of her life she spent in a northern
+prison. Bolingbroke was executed as a traitor, and
+Margery Jourdemain was burnt at Smithfield.<a name="FNanchor_9-1_11" id="FNanchor_9-1_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_9-1_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p>
+
+<p>The case of the Duchess of Bedford&mdash;another instance
+of the connection between sorcery and political
+intrigue&mdash;fell naturally into the hands of the council.
+It was believed by those who could understand in no
+other way the king's infatuation that he had been bewitched
+by the mother of the queen. The story was
+whispered from ear to ear until the duchess got wind
+of it and complained to the council against her maligners.
+The council declared her cleared of suspicion
+and ordered that the decision should be "enacted of
+record."<a name="FNanchor_9-2_12" id="FNanchor_9-2_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_9-2_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p>
+
+<p>The charge of sorcery brought by the protector Richard
+of Gloucester against Jane Shore, who had been the
+mistress of Edward IV, never came to trial and in
+consequence illustrates neither ecclesiastical nor conciliar
+jurisdiction. It is worthy of note however that the
+accusation was preferred by the protector&mdash;who was
+soon to be Richard III&mdash;in the council chamber.<a name="FNanchor_9-3_13" id="FNanchor_9-3_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_9-3_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p>
+
+<p>It will be seen that these cases prove very little as to
+procedure in the matter of sorcery and witchcraft.
+They are cases that arose in a disturbed period and that
+concerned chiefly people of note. That they were tried
+before the bishops or before the privy council does not
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>mean that all such charges were brought into those
+courts. There must have been less important cases that
+were never brought before the council or the great
+ecclesiastical courts. It seems probable&mdash;to reason
+backward from later practice&mdash;that less important
+trials were conducted almost exclusively by the minor
+church courts.<a name="FNanchor_10-1_14" id="FNanchor_10-1_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_10-1_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p>
+
+<p>This would at first lead us to suspect that, when the
+state finally began to legislate against witchcraft by
+statute, it was endeavoring to wrest jurisdiction of the
+crime out of the hands of the church and to put it into
+secular hands. Such a supposition, however, there is
+nothing to justify. It seems probable, on the contrary,
+that the statute enacted in the reign of Henry VIII was
+passed rather to support the church in its struggle
+against sorcery and witchcraft than to limit its jurisdiction
+in the matter. It was to assist in checking these
+practitioners that the state stepped in. At another
+point in this chapter we shall have occasion to note the
+great interest in sorcery and all kindred subjects that
+was springing up over England, and we shall at times
+observe some of the manifestations of this interest as
+well as some of the causes for it. Here it is necessary
+only to urge the importance of this interest as accounting
+for the passage of a statute.<a name="FNanchor_10-2_15" id="FNanchor_10-2_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_10-2_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p><p>Chapter VIII of 33 Henry VIII states its purpose
+clearly: "Where," reads the preamble, "dyvers and
+sundrie persones unlawfully have devised and practised
+Invocacions and conjuracions of Sprites, pretendyng
+by suche meanes to understande and get Knowlege for
+their owne lucre in what place treasure of golde and Silver
+shulde or mought be founde or had ... and also
+have used and occupied wichecraftes, inchauntmentes
+and sorceries to the distruccion of their neighbours persones
+and goodes." A description was given of the
+methods practised, and it was enacted that the use of
+any invocation or conjuration of spirits, witchcrafts,
+enchantments, or sorceries should be considered felony.<a name="FNanchor_11-1_16" id="FNanchor_11-1_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_11-1_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a>
+It will be observed that the law made no graduation of
+offences. Everything was listed as felony. No later
+piece of legislation on the subject was so sweeping in
+its severity.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span></p><p>The law remained on the statute-book only six years.
+In the early part of the reign of Edward VI, when the
+protector Somerset was in power, a policy of great
+leniency in respect to felonies was proposed. In December
+of 1547 a bill was introduced into Parliament
+to repeal certain statutes for treason and felony. "This
+bill being a matter of great concern to every subject, a
+committee was appointed, consisting of the Archbishop
+of Canterbury, the lord chancellor, the lord chamberlain,
+the Marquis of Dorset, the Earls of Shrewsbury
+and Southampton, the Bishops of Ely, Lincoln, and
+Worcester, the Lords Cobham, Clinton, and Wentworth,
+with certain of the king's learned council; all which
+noblemen were appointed to meet a committee of the
+Commons ... in order to treat and commune on the
+purport of the said bill."<a name="FNanchor_12-1_17" id="FNanchor_12-1_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_12-1_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> The Commons, it seems,
+had already prepared a bill of their own, but this they
+were willing to drop and the Lords' measure with some
+amendments was finally passed. It was under this wide
+repeal of felonies that chapter VIII of 33 Henry VIII
+was finally annulled. Whether the question of witchcraft
+came up for special consideration or not, we are
+not informed. We do know that the Bishops of London,
+Durham, Ely, Hereford, and Chichester, took exception
+to some amendments that were inserted in the
+act of repeal,<a name="FNanchor_12-2_18" id="FNanchor_12-2_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_12-2_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> and it is not impossible that they were
+opposed to repealing the act against witchcraft. Certainly
+there is no reason to suppose that the church was
+resisting the encroachment of the state in the subject.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact it is probable that, in the general
+question of repeal of felonies, the question of witch<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>craft
+received scant attention. There is indeed an interesting
+story that seems to point in that direction
+and that deserves repeating also as an illustration of
+the protector's attitude towards the question. Edward
+Underhill gives the narrative in his autobiography:
+"When we hade dyned, the maior sentt to [two] off his
+offycers with me to seke Alene; whome we mett withalle
+in Poles, and toke hym with us unto his chamber,
+wheare we founde fygures sett to calke the nativetie
+off the kynge, and a jugementt gevyne off his deathe,
+wheroff this folyshe wreche thoughte hymselfe so sure
+thatt he and his conselars the papistes bruted it all
+over. The kynge laye att Hamtone courte the same
+tyme, and me lord protector at the Syone; unto whome
+I caryed this Alen, with his bokes off conejuracyons,
+cearkles, and many thynges beloungynge to thatt dyvlyshe
+art, wiche he affyrmed before me lorde was a lawfulle
+cyens [science], for the statute agaynst souche
+was repealed. 'Thow folyshe knave! (sayde me lorde)
+yff thou and all thatt be off thy cyens telle me what I
+shalle do to-morow, I wylle geve the alle thatt I have';
+commaundynge me to cary hym unto the Tower." Alen
+was examined about his science and it was discovered
+that he was "a very unlearned asse, and a sorcerer, for
+the wiche he was worthye hangynge, sayde Mr. Recorde."
+He was however kept in the Tower "about the
+space off a yere, and then by frendshipe delyvered.
+So scapithe alwayes the weked."<a name="FNanchor_13-1_19" id="FNanchor_13-1_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_13-1_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p>
+
+<p>But the wicked were not long to escape. The beginning
+of Elizabeth's reign saw a serious and successful
+effort to put on the statute-book definite and severe
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>penalties for conjuration, sorcery, witchcraft, and related
+crimes. The question was taken up in the very
+first year of the new reign and a bill was draughted.<a name="FNanchor_14-1_20" id="FNanchor_14-1_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_14-1_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a>
+It was not, however, until 1563 that the statute was
+finally passed. It was then enacted that those who
+"shall use, practise, or exercise any Witchecrafte,
+Enchantment, Charme or Sorcerie, whereby any person
+shall happen to bee killed or destroyed, ...
+their Concellors and Aidours, ... shall suffer paynes
+of Deathe as a Felon or Felons." It was further declared
+that those by whose practices any person was
+wasted, consumed, or lamed, should suffer for the first
+offence one year's imprisonment and should be put in
+the pillory four times. For the second offence death
+was the penalty. It was further provided that those
+who by witchcraft presumed to discover treasure or
+to find stolen property or to "provoke any person to
+unlawfull love" should suffer a year's imprisonment
+and four appearances in the pillory.</p>
+
+<p>With this law the history of the prosecution of witchcraft
+in England as a secular crime may well begin.
+The question naturally arises, What was the occasion
+of this law? How did it happen that just at this particular
+time so drastic a measure was passed and put
+into operation? Fortunately part of the evidence exists
+upon which to frame an answer. The English churchmen
+who had been driven out of England during the
+Marian persecution had many of them sojourned in
+Zurich and Geneva, where the extirpation of witches
+was in full progress, and had talked over the matter
+with eminent Continental theologians. With the acces<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>sion
+of Elizabeth these men returned to England in
+force and became prominent in church and state, many
+of them receiving bishoprics. It is not possible to
+show that they all were influential in putting through
+the statute of the fifth year of Elizabeth. It is clear
+that one of them spoke out plainly on the subject. It
+can hardly be doubted that he represented the opinions
+of many other ecclesiastics who had come under the
+same influences during their exile.<a name="FNanchor_15-1_21" id="FNanchor_15-1_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_15-1_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> John Jewel was
+an Anglican of Calvinistic sympathies who on his return
+to England at Elizabeth's accession had been appointed
+Bishop of Salisbury. Within a short time he
+came to occupy a prominent position in the court. He
+preached before the Queen and accompanied her on a
+visit to Oxford. It was in the course of one of his first
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>sermons&mdash;somewhere between November of 1559 and
+March of 1560<a name="FNanchor_16-1_22" id="FNanchor_16-1_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_16-1_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a>&mdash;that he laid before her his convictions
+on witchcraft. It is, he tells her, "the horrible using of
+your poor subjects," that forces him to speak. "This
+kind of people (I mean witches and sorcerers) within
+these few last years are marvellously increased within
+this your grace's realm. These eyes have seen most
+evident and manifest marks of their wickedness. Your
+grace's subjects pine away even unto death, their colour
+fadeth, their flesh rotteth, their speech is benumbed,
+their senses are bereft. Wherefore, your poor subjects'
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>most humble petition unto your highness is, that the
+laws touching such malefactors may be put in due execution."</p>
+
+<p>The church historian, Strype, conjectures that this
+sermon was the cause of the law passed in the fifth year
+of Elizabeth's reign, by which witchcraft was again
+made a felony, as it had been in the reign of Henry
+VIII.<a name="FNanchor_17-1_23" id="FNanchor_17-1_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_17-1_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> Whatever weight we may attach to Strype's
+suggestion, we have every right to believe that Jewel
+introduced foreign opinion on witchcraft. Very probably
+there were many returned exiles as well as others
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>who brought back word of the crusade on the Continent;
+but Jewel's words put the matter formally before
+the queen and her government.<a name="FNanchor_18-1_24" id="FNanchor_18-1_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_18-1_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p>
+
+<p>We can trace the effect of the ecclesiastic's appeal
+still further. The impression produced by it was responsible
+probably not only for the passage of the law
+but also for the issue of commissions to the justices of
+the peace to apprehend all the witches they were able to
+find in their jurisdictions.<a name="FNanchor_18-2_25" id="FNanchor_18-2_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_18-2_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p>
+
+<p>It can hardly be doubted that the impression produced
+by the bishop's sermon serves in part to explain
+the beginning of the state's attack upon witches. Yet
+one naturally inquires after some other factor in the
+problem. Is it not likely that there were in England
+itself certain peculiar conditions, certain special circumstances,
+that served to forward the attack? To
+answer that query, we must recall the situation in
+England when Elizabeth took the throne. Elizabeth
+was a Protestant, and her accession meant the relinquishment
+of the Catholic hold upon England. But it
+was not long before the claims of Mary, Queen of
+Scots, began to give the English ministers bad dreams.
+Catholic and Spanish plots against the life of Elizabeth
+kept the government detectives on the lookout. Perhaps
+because it was deemed the hardest to circumvent,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>the use of conjuration against the life of the queen was
+most feared. It was a method too that appealed to conspirators,
+who never questioned its efficacy, and who
+anticipated little risk of discovery.</p>
+
+<p>To understand why the English government should
+have been so alarmed at the efforts of the conjurers,
+we shall have to go back to the half-century that preceded
+the reign of the great queen and review briefly
+the rise of those curious traders in mystery. The earlier
+half of the fifteenth century, when the witch fires were
+already lighted in South Germany, saw the coming of
+conjurers in England. Their numbers soon evidenced
+a growing interest in the supernatural upon the part
+of the English and foreshadowed the growing faith in
+witchcraft. From the scattered local records the facts
+have been pieced together to show that here and there
+professors of magic powers were beginning to get a
+hearing. As they first appear upon the scene, the conjurers
+may be grouped in two classes, the position
+seekers and the treasure seekers. To the first belong
+those who used incantations and charms to win the
+favor of the powerful, and so to gain advancement for
+themselves or for their clients.<a name="FNanchor_19-1_26" id="FNanchor_19-1_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_19-1_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> It was a time when
+there was every encouragement to try these means.
+Men like Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell had risen from
+humble rank to the highest places in the state. Their
+careers seemed inexplicable, if not uncanny. It was
+easy to believe that unfair and unlawful practices had
+been used. What had been done before could be done
+again. So the dealers in magic may have reasoned.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
+At all events, whatever their mental operations, they
+experimented with charms which were to gain the favor
+of the great, and some of their operations came to
+the ears of the court.</p>
+
+<p>The treasure seekers<a name="FNanchor_20-1_27" id="FNanchor_20-1_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_20-1_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> were more numerous. Every
+now and then in the course of English history treasures
+have been unearthed, many of them buried in Roman
+times. Stories of lucky finds had of course gained wide
+circulation. Here was the opportunity of the bankrupt
+adventurer and the stranded promoter. The treasures
+could be found by the science of magic. The notion
+was closely akin to the still current idea that wells
+can be located by the use of hazel wands. But none
+of the conjurers&mdash;and this seems a curious fact to one
+familiar with the English stories of the supernatural&mdash;ever
+lit upon the desired treasure. Their efforts hardly
+aroused public interest, least of all alarm. Experimenters,
+who fifty years later would have been hurried
+before the privy council, were allowed to conjure and
+dig as they pleased. Henry VIII even sold the right in
+one locality, and sold it at a price which showed how
+lightly he regarded it.<a name="FNanchor_20-2_28" id="FNanchor_20-2_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_20-2_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></p>
+
+<p>Other forms of magic were of course practiced. By
+the time that Elizabeth succeeded to the throne, it is
+safe to say that the practice of forbidden arts had become
+wide-spread in England. Reginald Scot a little
+later declared that every parish was full of men and
+women who claimed to work miracles.<a name="FNanchor_20-3_29" id="FNanchor_20-3_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_20-3_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> Most of them
+were women, and their performances read like those
+of the gipsy fortune-tellers today. "Cunning women"
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>they called themselves. They were many of them
+semi-medical or pseudo-medical practitioners<a name="FNanchor_21-1_30" id="FNanchor_21-1_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_21-1_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> who
+used herbs and extracts, and, when those failed, charms
+and enchantments, to heal the sick. If they were fairly
+fortunate, they became known as "good witches." Particularly
+in connection with midwifery were their incantations
+deemed effective.<a name="FNanchor_21-2_31" id="FNanchor_21-2_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_21-2_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> From such functions it
+was no far call to forecast the outcome of love affairs,
+or to prepare potions which would ensure love.<a name="FNanchor_21-3_32" id="FNanchor_21-3_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_21-3_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> They
+became general helpers to the distressed. They could
+tell where lost property was to be found, an undertaking
+closely related to that of the treasure seekers.<a name="FNanchor_21-4_33" id="FNanchor_21-4_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_21-4_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p>
+
+<p>It was usually in the less serious diseases<a name="FNanchor_21-5_34" id="FNanchor_21-5_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_21-5_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> that these
+cunning folk were consulted. They were called upon
+often indeed&mdash;if one fragmentary evidence may be
+trusted&mdash;to diagnose the diseases and to account for the
+deaths of domestic animals.<a name="FNanchor_21-6_35" id="FNanchor_21-6_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_21-6_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> It may very easily be that
+it was from the necessity of explaining the deaths of animals
+that the practitioners of magic began to talk
+about witchcraft and to throw out a hint that some
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>witch was at the back of the matter. It would be in line
+with their own pretensions. Were they not good
+witches? Was it not their province to overcome the
+machinations of the black witches, that is, witches who
+wrought evil rather than good? The disease of an
+animal was hard to prescribe for. A sick horse would
+hardly respond to the waving of hands and a jumble
+of strange words. The animal was, in all probability,
+bewitched.</p>
+
+<p>At any rate, whether in this particular manner or not,
+it became shortly the duty of the cunning women to
+recognize the signs of witchcraft, to prescribe for it,
+and if possible to detect the witch. In many cases the
+practitioner wisely enough refused to name any one,
+but described the appearance of the guilty party and
+set forth a series of operations by which to expose her
+machinations. If certain herbs were plucked and
+treated in certain ways, if such and such words were
+said, the guilty party would appear at the door. At
+other times the wise woman gave a perfectly recognizable
+description of the guilty one and offered remedies
+that would nullify her maleficent influences. No
+doubt the party indicated as the witch was very often
+another of the "good witches," perhaps a rival.
+Throughout the records of the superstition are scattered
+examples of wise women upon whom suspicion
+suddenly lighted, and who were arraigned and sent to
+the gallows. Beyond question the suspicion began often
+with the ill words of a neighbor,<a name="FNanchor_22-1_36" id="FNanchor_22-1_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_22-1_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> perhaps of a competitor,
+words that started an attack upon the woman's
+reputation that she was unable to repel.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span></p><p>It is not to be supposed that the art of cunning was
+confined to the female sex. Throughout the reign of
+Elizabeth, the realm was alive with men who were
+pretenders to knowledge of mysteries. So closely was
+the occupation allied to that of the physician that no such
+strict line as now exists between reputable physicians
+and quack doctors separated the "good witches" from
+the regular practicers of medicine. It was so customary
+in Elizabethan times for thoroughly reputable
+and even eminent medical men to explain baffling cases
+as the results of witchcraft<a name="FNanchor_23-1_37" id="FNanchor_23-1_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_23-1_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> that to draw the line of demarcation
+between them and the pretenders who suggested
+by means of a charm or a glass a maleficent
+agent would be impossible. Granted the phenomena of
+conjuration and witchcraft as facts&mdash;and no one had
+yet disputed them&mdash;it was altogether easy to believe
+that good witches who antagonized the works of black
+witches were more dependable than the family physician,
+who could but suggest the cause of sickness. The
+regular practitioner must often have created business
+for his brother of the cunning arts.</p>
+
+<p>One would like to know what these practicers
+thought of their own arts. Certainly some of them accomplished
+cures. Mental troubles that baffled the ordinary
+physician would offer the "good witch" a rare
+field for successful endeavor. Such would be able not
+only to persuade a community of their good offices, but
+to deceive themselves. Not all of them, however, by any
+means, were self-deceived. Conscious fraud played a
+part in a large percentage of cases. One witch was
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>very naive in her confession of fraud. When suspected
+of sorcery and cited to court, she was said to
+have frankly recited her charm:</p>
+
+<div class="block"><div class="poem">
+<span class="i0">"My lofe in my lappe,</span><br />
+<span class="i2">My penny in my purse,</span><br />
+<span class="i0">You are never the better,</span><br />
+<span class="i2">I am never the worse."</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>She was acquitted and doubtless continued to add penny
+to penny.<a name="FNanchor_24-1_38" id="FNanchor_24-1_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_24-1_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></p>
+
+<p>We need not, indeed, be surprised that the state
+should have been remiss in punishing a crime so vague
+in character and so closely related to an honorable profession.
+Except where conjuration had affected high
+interests of state, it had been practically overlooked by
+the government. Now and then throughout the fourteenth
+and fifteenth centuries there had been isolated
+plots against the sovereign, in which conjury had
+played a conspicuous part. With these few exceptions
+the crime had been one left to ecclesiastical jurisdiction.
+But now the state was ready to reclaim its jurisdiction
+over these crimes and to assume a very positive attitude
+of hostility towards them. This came about in
+a way that has already been briefly indicated. The
+government of the queen found itself threatened constantly
+by plots for making away with the queen, plots
+which their instigators hoped would overturn the Protestant
+regime and bring England back into the fold.
+Elizabeth had hardly mounted her throne when her
+councillors began to suspect the use of sorcery and con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>juration
+against her life. As a result they instituted
+the most painstaking inquiries into all reported cases of
+the sort, especially in and about London and the neighboring
+counties. Every Catholic was suspected. Two
+cases that were taken up within the first year came to
+nothing, but a third trial proved more serious. In November
+of 1558 Sir Anthony Fortescue,<a name="FNanchor_25-1_39" id="FNanchor_25-1_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_25-1_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> member of
+a well known Catholic family, was arrested, together
+with several accomplices, upon the charge of casting the
+horoscope of the queen's life. Fortescue was soon released,
+but in 1561 he was again put in custody, this
+time with two brothers-in-law, Edmund and Arthur
+Pole, nephews of the famous cardinal of that name.
+The plot that came to light had many ramifications. It
+was proposed to marry Mary, Queen of Scots, to Edmund
+Pole, and from Flanders to proclaim her Queen
+of England. In the meantime Elizabeth was to die a
+natural death&mdash;at least so the conspirators claimed&mdash;prophesied
+for her by two conjurers, John Prestall and
+Edmund Cosyn, with the assistance of a "wicked
+spryte." It was discovered that the plot involved the
+French and Spanish ambassadors. Relations between
+Paris and London became strained. The conspirators
+were tried and sentenced to death. Fortescue himself,
+perhaps because he was a second cousin of the queen
+and brother of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, seems
+to have escaped the gallows.<a name="FNanchor_25-2_40" id="FNanchor_25-2_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_25-2_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p>
+
+<p>The Fortescue affair was, however, but one of many
+conspiracies on foot during the time. Throughout the
+sixties and the seventies the queen's councillors were
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>on the lookout. Justices of the peace and other prominent
+men in the counties were kept informed by the
+privy council of reported conjurers, and they were instructed
+to send in what evidence they could gather
+against them. It is remarkable that three-fourths of
+the cases that came under investigation were from a
+territory within thirty miles of London. Two-thirds
+of them were from Essex. Not all the conjurers were
+charged with plotting against the queen, but that charge
+was most common. It is safe to suppose that, in the
+cases where that accusation was not preferred, it was
+nevertheless the alarm of the privy council for the life
+of the queen that had prompted the investigation and
+arrest.</p>
+
+<p>Between 1578 and 1582, critical years in the affairs
+of the Scottish queen, the anxiety of the London
+authorities was intense<a name="FNanchor_26-1_41" id="FNanchor_26-1_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_26-1_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a>&mdash;their precautions were redoubled.
+Representatives of the government were
+sent out to search for conjurers and were paid well for
+their services.<a name="FNanchor_26-2_42" id="FNanchor_26-2_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_26-2_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> The Earl of Shrewsbury, a member
+of the council who had charge of the now captive
+Queen Mary, kept in his employ special detectors of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>conjuring.<a name="FNanchor_27-1_43" id="FNanchor_27-1_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_27-1_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> Nothing about Elizabeth's government
+was better organized than Cecil's detective service, and
+the state papers show that the ferreting out of the conjurers
+was by no means the least of its work. It was
+a service carried on, of course, as quietly as could
+be, and yet the cases now and again came to light and
+made clear to the public that the government was very
+fearful of conjurers' attacks upon the queen. No
+doubt the activity of the council put all conjurers under
+public suspicion and in some degree roused public resentment
+against them.</p>
+
+<p>This brings us back to the point: What had the conjurers
+to do with witchcraft? By this time the answer
+is fairly obvious. The practisers of the magic arts,
+the charmers and enchanters, were responsible for developing
+the notions of witchcraft. The good witch
+brought in her company the black witch. This in itself
+might never have meant more than an increased activity
+in the church courts. But when Protestant England
+grew suddenly nervous for the life of the queen,
+when the conjurers became a source of danger to the
+sovereign, and the council commenced its campaign
+against them, the conditions had been created in which
+witchcraft became at once the most dangerous and detested
+of crimes. While the government was busy
+putting down the conjurers, the aroused popular sentiment
+was compelling the justices of the peace and then
+the assize judges to hang the witches.</p>
+
+<p>This cannot be better illustrated than by the Abingdon
+affair of 1578-1579. Word had been carried to the
+privy council that Sir Henry Newell, justice of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>peace, had committed some women near Abingdon on
+the charge of making waxen images.<a name="FNanchor_28-1_44" id="FNanchor_28-1_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_28-1_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> The government
+was at once alarmed and sent a message to Sir Henry
+and to the Dean of Windsor instructing them to find
+out the facts and to discover if the plots were directed
+against the queen. The precaution was unnecessary.
+There was no ground for believing that the designs of
+the women accused had included the queen. Indeed
+the evidence of guilt of any kind was very flimsy. But
+the excitement of the public had been stirred to the
+highest pitch. The privy council had shown its fear
+of the women and all four of them went to the gallows.<a name="FNanchor_28-2_45" id="FNanchor_28-2_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_28-2_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a></p>
+
+<p>The same situation that brought about the attack
+upon witchcraft and conjuration was no doubt responsible
+for the transfer of jurisdiction over the crime.
+We have already seen that the practice of conjuration
+had probably been left largely to the episcopal hierarchy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
+for punishment.<a name="FNanchor_29-1_46" id="FNanchor_29-1_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_29-1_46" class="fnanchor"></a> The archdeacons were expected
+in their visitations to inquire into the practice
+of enchantment and magic within the parishes and to
+make report.<a name="FNanchor_29-2_47" id="FNanchor_29-2_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_29-2_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> In the reign of Elizabeth it became no
+light duty. The church set itself to suppress both the
+consulter and the consulted.<a name="FNanchor_29-3_48" id="FNanchor_29-3_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_29-3_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> By the largest number
+of recorded cases deal of course with the first class. It
+was very easy when sick or in trouble to go to a professed
+conjurer for help.<a name="FNanchor_29-4_49" id="FNanchor_29-4_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_29-4_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> It was like seeking a physician's
+service, as we have seen. The church frowned
+upon it, but the danger involved in disobeying the
+church was not deemed great. The cunning man or
+woman was of course the one who ran the great risk.
+When worst came to worst and the ecclesiastical power
+took cognizance of his profession, the best he could do
+was to plead that he was a "good witch" and rendered
+valuable services to the community.<a name="FNanchor_29-5_50" id="FNanchor_29-5_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_29-5_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> But a good end
+was in the eyes of the church no excuse for an evil
+means. The good witches were dealers with evil
+spirits and hence to be repressed.</p>
+
+<p>Yet the church was very light in its punishments.
+In the matter of penalties, indeed, consulter and consulted
+fared nearly alike, and both got off easily. Public
+confession and penance in one or more specifically
+designated churches, usually in the nearest parish
+church, constituted the customary penalty.<a name="FNanchor_29-6_51" id="FNanchor_29-6_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_29-6_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> In a few
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>instances it was coupled with the requirement that the
+criminal should stand in the pillory, taper in hand, at
+several places at stated times.<a name="FNanchor_30-1_52" id="FNanchor_30-1_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_30-1_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> The ecclesiastical records
+are so full of church penances that a student is
+led to wonder how effectual they were in shaming the
+penitent into better conduct. It may well be guessed
+that most of the criminals were not sensitive souls that
+would suffer profoundly from the disgrace incurred.</p>
+
+<p>The control of matters of this kind was in the hands
+of the church by sufferance only. So long as the state
+was not greatly interested, the church was permitted to
+retain its jurisdiction.<a name="FNanchor_30-2_53" id="FNanchor_30-2_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_30-2_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> Doubtless the kings of England
+would have claimed the state's right of jurisdiction
+if it had become a matter of dispute. The church itself
+recognized the secular power in more important cases.<a name="FNanchor_30-3_54" id="FNanchor_30-3_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_30-3_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a>
+In such cases the archdeacon usually acted with the
+justice of peace in conducting the examination,<a name="FNanchor_30-4_55" id="FNanchor_30-4_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_30-4_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> as
+in rendering sentence. Even then, however, the penalty
+was as a rule ecclesiastical. But, with the second half
+of the sixteenth century, there arose new conditions
+which resulted in the transfer of this control to the
+state. Henry VIII had broken with Rome and established
+a Church of England around the king as a centre.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>The power of the church belonged to the king, and,
+if to the king, to his ministers and his judges. Hence
+certain crimes that had been under the control of the
+church fell under the jurisdiction of the king's courts.<a name="FNanchor_31-1_56" id="FNanchor_31-1_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_31-1_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a>
+In a more special way the same change came about
+through the attack of the privy council upon the conjurers.
+What had hitherto been a comparatively insignificant
+offence now became a crime against the state
+and was so dealt with.</p>
+
+<p>The change, of course, was not sudden. It was not
+accomplished in a year, nor in a decade. It was going
+on throughout the first half of Elizabeth's reign. By
+the beginning of the eighties the church control was
+disappearing. After 1585 the state had practically exclusive
+jurisdiction.<a name="FNanchor_31-2_57" id="FNanchor_31-2_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_31-2_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a></p>
+
+<p>We have now finished the attempt to trace the beginning
+of the definite movement against witchcraft in
+England. What witchcraft was, what it became, how
+it was to be distinguished from sorcery&mdash;these are questions
+that we have tried to answer very briefly. We
+have dealt in a cursory way with a series of cases extending
+from Anglo-Saxon days down to the fifteenth
+century in order to show how unfixed was the matter
+of jurisdiction. We have sought also to explain how
+Continental opinion was introduced into England
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>through Jewel and other Marian exiles, to show what
+independent forces were operating in England, and to
+exhibit the growing influence of the charmers and
+their relation to the development of witchcraft; and
+lastly we have aimed to prove that the special danger
+to the queen had no little part in creating the crusade
+against witches. These are conclusions of some moment
+and a caution must be inserted. We have been
+treating of a period where facts are few and information
+fragmentary. Under such circumstances conclusions
+can only be tentative. Perhaps the most that
+can be said of them is that they are suggestions.</p>
+
+<hr class="foot" />
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2-1_1" id="Footnote_2-1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2-1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Benjamin Thorpe, <i>Ancient Laws and Institutes of England</i> (London,
+1840), I, 41; Liebermann, <i>Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen</i> (Halle, 1906),
+and passages cited in his <i>Wörterbuch</i> under <i>wiccan</i>, <i>wiccacrćft</i>; Thomas
+Wright, ed., <i>A Contemporary Narrative of the Proceedings against Dame
+Alice Kyteler</i> (Camden Soc., London, 1843), introd., i-iii.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3-1_2" id="Footnote_3-1_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3-1_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> George L. Burr, "The Literature of Witchcraft," printed in <i>Papers
+of the Am. Hist. Assoc.</i>, IV (New York, 1890), 244.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3-2_3" id="Footnote_3-2_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3-2_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Henry C. Lea, <i>History of the Inquisition in Spain</i> (New York, 1906-1907),
+IV, 207; <i>cf.</i> his <i>History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages</i>
+(New York, 1888), III, chs. VI, VII. The most elaborate study of the
+rise of the delusion is that by J. Hansen, <i>Zauberwahn, Inquisition und
+Hexenprozess im Mittelalter</i> (Cologne, 1900).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4-1_4" id="Footnote_4-1_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4-1_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Lea, <i>Inquisition in Spain</i>, IV, 206.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6-1_5" id="Footnote_6-1_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6-1_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Pollock and Maitland, <i>History of English Law</i> (2d ed., Cambridge,
+1898), II, 554.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6-2_6" id="Footnote_6-2_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6-2_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> See also Wright, ed., <i>Proceedings against Dame Alice Kyteler</i>,
+introd., ix.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7-1_7" id="Footnote_7-1_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7-1_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, x. Lincoln, not Norwich, as Wright's text (followed by Pollock
+and Maitland) has it. See the royal letter itself printed in his
+footnote, and <i>cf.</i> Rymer's <i>Foedera</i> (under date of 2 Jan. 1406) and the
+<i>Calendar of the Patent Rolls</i> (Henry IV, vol. III, p. 112). The bishop
+was Philip Repington, late the King's chaplain and confessor.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7-2_8" id="Footnote_7-2_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7-2_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> L. O. Pike, <i>History of Crime in England</i> (London, 1873), I, 355-356.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8-1_9" id="Footnote_8-1_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8-1_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> Sir Harris Nicolas, <i>Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy
+Council</i> (London, 1834-1837). IV, 114.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8-2_10" id="Footnote_8-2_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8-2_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> <i>English Chronicle of the Reigns of Richard II</i>, etc., edited by J. S.
+Davies (Camden Soc., London, 1856), 57-60.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9-1_11" id="Footnote_9-1_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9-1_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> <i>Ramsay, Lancaster and York</i> (Oxford, 1892), II, 31-35; Wright, ed.,
+<i>Proceedings against Dame Alice Kyteler</i>, introd., xv-xvi, quoting the
+Chronicle of London; K. H. Vickers, <i>Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester</i>
+(London, 1907), 269-279.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9-2_12" id="Footnote_9-2_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9-2_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Wright, ed., <i>op. cit.</i>, introd., xvi-xvii.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9-3_13" id="Footnote_9-3_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9-3_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> James Gairdner, <i>Life and Reign of Richard III</i> (2d ed., London,
+1879), 81-89. Jane Shore was finally tried before the court of the Bishop
+of London.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10-1_14" id="Footnote_10-1_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10-1_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Sir J. F. Stephen, <i>History of the Criminal Law of England</i> (London,
+1883), II, 410, gives five instances from Archdeacon Hale's <i>Ecclesiastical
+Precedents</i>; see extracts from Lincoln Episcopal Visitations in <i>Archćologia</i>
+(Soc. of Antiquaries, London), XLVIII, 254-255, 262; see also
+articles of visitation, etc., for 1547 and 1559 in David Wilkins, <i>Concilia
+Magnae Britanniae</i> (London, 1737), IV, 25, 186, 190.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10-2_15" id="Footnote_10-2_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10-2_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> An earlier statute had mentioned sorcery and witchcraft in connection
+with medical practitioners. The "Act concerning Phesicions and Surgeons"
+of 3 Henry VIII, ch. XI, was aimed against quacks. "Forasmoche
+as the science and connyng of Physyke and Surgerie to the perfecte
+knowlege wherof bee requisite bothe grete lernyng and ripe experience
+ys daily ... exercised by a grete multitude of ignoraunt
+persones ... soofarfurth that common Artificers as Smythes Wevers
+and Women boldely and custumably take upon theim grete curis and
+thyngys of great difficultie In the which they partely use socery and
+which crafte [<i>sic</i>] partely applie such medicyne unto the disease as be
+verey noyous," it was required that every candidate to practice medicine
+should be examined by the bishop of the diocese (in London by either
+the bishop or the Dean of St. Paul's).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11-1_16" id="Footnote_11-1_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11-1_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Stephen, <i>History of Criminal Law</i>, II, 431, says of this act: "Hutchinson
+suggests that this act, which was passed two years after the act
+of the Six Articles, was intended as a 'hank upon the reformers,' that
+the part of it to which importance was attached was the pulling down of
+crosses, which, it seems, was supposed to be practised in connection with
+magic. Hutchinson adds that the act was never put into execution
+either against witches or reformers. The act was certainly passed during
+that period of Henry's reign when he was inclining in the Roman Catholic
+direction." The part of the act to which Hutchinson refers reads
+as follows: "And for execucion of their saide falce devyses and practises
+have made or caused to be made dyvers Images and pictures of men,
+women, childrene, Angelles or develles, beastes or fowles, ... and
+gyving faithe and credit to suche fantasticall practises have dygged up
+and pulled downe an infinite nombre of Crosses within this Realme."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12-1_17" id="Footnote_12-1_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12-1_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> <i>Parliamentary History</i> (London, 1751-1762), III, 229.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12-2_18" id="Footnote_12-2_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12-2_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13-1_19" id="Footnote_13-1_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13-1_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> <i>Autobiography of Edward Underhill</i> (in <i>Narratives of the Days of
+the Reformation</i>, Camden Soc., London, 1859), 172-175.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14-1_20" id="Footnote_14-1_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14-1_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> The measure in fact reached the engrossing stage in the Commons.
+Both houses, however, adjourned early in April and left it unpassed.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15-1_21" id="Footnote_15-1_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15-1_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Several of the bishops who were appointed on Elizabeth's accession
+had travelled in South Germany and Switzerland during the Marian
+period and had the opportunity of familiarizing themselves with the propaganda
+in these parts against witches. Thomas Bentham, who was to be
+bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, had retired from England to Zurich
+and had afterwards been preacher to the exiles at Basel. John Parkhurst,
+appointed bishop of Norwich, had settled in Zurich on Mary's accession.
+John Scory, appointed bishop of Hereford, had served as chaplain to the
+exiles in Geneva. Richard Cox, appointed bishop of Ely, had visited
+Frankfort and Strassburg. Edmund Grindall, who was to be the new
+bishop of London, had, during his exile, visited Strassburg, Speier, and
+Frankfort. Miles Coverdale, who had been bishop of Exeter but who
+was not reappointed, had been in Geneva in the course of his exile.
+There were many other churchmen of less importance who at one time or
+another during the Marian period visited Zurich. See Bullinger's
+<i>Diarium</i> (Basel, 1904) and Pellican's <i>Chronikon</i> (Basel, 1877), <i>passim</i>,
+as also Theodor Vetter, <i>Relations between England and Zurich during
+the Reformation</i> (London, 1904). At Strassburg the persecution raged
+somewhat later; but how thoroughly Bucer and his colleagues approved
+and urged it is clear from a letter of advice addressed by them in 1538
+to their fellow pastor Schwebel, of Zweibrücken (printed as No. 88 in
+the <i>Centuria Epistolarum</i> appended to Schwebel's <i>Scripta Theologica</i>,
+Zweibrücken, 1605). That Bucer while in England (1549-1551) found
+also occasion to utter these views can hardly be doubted. These details
+I owe to Professor Burr.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16-1_22" id="Footnote_16-1_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16-1_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Various dates have been assigned for Jewel's sermon, but it can be
+determined approximately from a passage in the discourse. In the
+course of the sermon he remarked: "I would wish that once again, as
+time should serve, there might be had a quiet and sober disputation, that
+each part might be required to shew their grounds without self will and
+without affection, not to maintain or breed contention, ... but only
+that the truth may be known.... For, at the last disputation that should
+have been, you know which party gave over and would not meddle."
+This is clearly an allusion to the Westminster disputation of the last of
+March, 1559; see John Strype, <i>Annals of the Reformation</i> (London, 1709-1731;
+Oxford, 1824), ed. of 1824, I, pt. i, 128. The sermon therefore
+was preached after that disputation. It may be further inferred that it
+was preached before Jewel's controversy with Cole in March, 1560. The
+words, "For at the last disputation ... you know which party gave
+over and would not meddle," were hardly written after Cole accepted
+Jewel's challenge. It was on the second Sunday before Easter (March
+17), 1560, that Jewel delivered at court the discourse in which he challenged
+dispute on four points of church doctrine. On the next day
+Henry Cole addressed him a letter in which he asked him why he "yesterday
+in the Court and at all other times at Paul's Cross" offered rather
+to "dispute in these four points than in the chief matters that lie in
+question betwixt the Church of Rome and the Protestants." In replying
+to Cole on the 20th of March Jewel wrote that he stood only upon the
+negative and again mentioned his offer. On the 31st of March he
+repeated his challenge upon the four points, and upon this occasion went
+very much into detail in supporting them. Now, in the sermon which
+we are trying to date, the sermon in which allusion is made to the prevalence
+of witches, the four points are briefly named. It may be reasonably
+conjectured that this sermon anticipated the elaboration of the four
+points as well as the challenging sermon of March 17. It is as certain
+that it was delivered after Jewel's return to London from his visitation
+in the west country. On November 2, 1559, he wrote to Peter Martyr:
+"I have at last returned to London, with a body worn out by a most
+fatiguing journey." See <i>Zurich Letters</i>, I (Parker Soc., Cambridge,
+1842), 44. It is interesting and significant that he adds: "We found in
+all places votive relics of saints, nails with which the infatuated people
+dreamed that Christ had been pierced, and I know not what small fragments
+of the sacred cross. The number of witches and sorceresses
+had everywhere become enormous." Jewel was consecrated Bishop of
+Salisbury in the following January, having been nominated in the summer
+of 1559 just before his western visitation. The sermon in which he alluded
+to witches may have been preached at any time after he returned
+from the west, November 2, and before March 17. It would be entirely
+natural that in a court sermon delivered by the newly appointed bishop
+of Salisbury the prevalence of witchcraft should be mentioned. It does
+not seem a rash guess that the sermon was preached soon after his
+return, perhaps in December, when the impression of what he had seen
+in the west was still fresh in his memory. But it is not necessary to make
+this supposition. Though the discourse was delivered some time after
+March 15, 1559, when the first bill "against Conjurations, Prophecies,
+etc.," was brought before the Commons (see <i>Journal of the House of Commons</i>,
+I, 57), it is not unreasonable to believe that there was some connection
+between the discourse and the fortunes of this bill. That connection
+seems the more probable on a careful reading of the Commons
+Journals for the first sessions of Elizabeth's Parliament. It is evident that
+the Elizabethan legislators were working in close cooperation with the
+ecclesiastical authorities. Jewel's sermon may be found in his <i>Works</i>
+(ed. for the Parker Soc., Cambridge, 1845-1850), II, 1025-1034. (For
+the correspondence with Cole see I, 26 ff.)
+</p><p>
+For assistance in dating this sermon the writer wishes to express his
+special obligation to Professor Burr.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17-1_23" id="Footnote_17-1_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17-1_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Strype, <i>Annals of the Reformation</i>, I, pt. i, 11. He may, indeed,
+mean to ascribe it, not to the sermon, but to the evils alleged by the
+sermon.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18-1_24" id="Footnote_18-1_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18-1_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> In the contemporary account entitled <i>A True and just Recorde of
+the Information, Examination, and Confession of all the Witches taken
+at St. Oses.... Written ... by W. W.</i> (1582), next leaf after
+B 5, we read: "there is a man of great cunning and knowledge come
+over lately unto our Queenes Maiestie, which hath advertised her what
+a companie and number of witches be within Englande." This probably
+refers to Jewel.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18-2_25" id="Footnote_18-2_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18-2_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> See <i>ibid.</i>, B 5 verso: "I and other of her Justices have received commission
+for the apprehending of as many as are within these limites."
+This was written later, but the event is referred to as following what
+must have been Bishop Jewel's sermon.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19-1_26" id="Footnote_19-1_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19-1_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Thomas Wright, <i>Narratives of Sorcery and Magic</i> (ed. of N. Y., 1852),
+126 ff.; see also his <i>Elizabeth and her Times</i> (London, 1838), I, 457,
+letter of Shrewsbury to Burghley.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20-1_27" id="Footnote_20-1_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20-1_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Wright, <i>Narratives</i>, 130 ff.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20-2_28" id="Footnote_20-2_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20-2_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 134.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20-3_29" id="Footnote_20-3_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20-3_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> See Reginald Scot, <i>The Discoverie of Witchcraft</i> (London, 1584;
+reprinted, Brinsley Nicholson, ed., London, 1886), 4.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21-1_30" id="Footnote_21-1_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21-1_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> A very typical instance was that in Kent in 1597, see <i>Archćologia
+Cantiana</i> (Kent Archćological Soc., London), XXVI, 21. Several good
+instances are given in the <i>Hertfordshire County Session Rolls</i> (compiled
+by W. J. Hardy, London, 1905), I; see also J. Raine, ed., <i>Depositions
+respecting the Rebellion of 1569, Witchcraft, and other Ecclesiastical Proceedings
+from the Court of Durham</i> (Surtees Soc., London, 1845), 99,
+100.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21-2_31" id="Footnote_21-2_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21-2_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> J. Raine, ed., <i>Injunctions and other Ecclesiastical Proceedings of
+Richard Barnes, Bishop of Durham</i> (Surtees Soc., London, 1850), 18;
+H. Owen and J. B. Blakeway, <i>History of Shrewsbury</i> (London, 1825),
+II, 364, art. 43.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21-3_32" id="Footnote_21-3_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21-3_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> <i>Arch. Cant.</i>, XXVI, 19.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21-4_33" id="Footnote_21-4_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21-4_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> <i>Hertfordshire Co. Sess. Rolls</i>, I, 3.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21-5_34" id="Footnote_21-5_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21-5_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> See <i>Depositions ... from the Court of Durham</i>, 99; <i>Arch. Cant.</i>,
+XXVI, 21; W. H. Hale, <i>Precedents</i>, etc. (London, 1847), 148, 185.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21-6_35" id="Footnote_21-6_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21-6_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> Hale, <i>op. cit.</i>, 163; <i>Middlesex County Records</i>, ed. by J. C. Jeaffreson
+(London, 1892), I, 84, 94.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22-1_36" id="Footnote_22-1_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22-1_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> For an instance of how a "wise woman" feared this very thing,
+see Hale, <i>op. cit.</i>, 147.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23-1_37" id="Footnote_23-1_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23-1_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> See <i>Witches taken at St. Oses</i>, E; also Dr. Barrow's opinion in the
+pamphlet entitled <i>The most strange and admirable discoverie of the three
+Witches of Warboys, arraigned, convicted and executed at the last assizes
+at Huntingdon....</i> (London, 1593).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24-1_38" id="Footnote_24-1_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24-1_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> <i>Folk Lore Soc. Journal</i>, II, 157-158, where this story is quoted
+from a work by "Wm. Clouues, Mayster in Chirurgery," published in
+1588. He only professed to have "reade" of it, so that it is perhaps just
+a pleasant tradition. If it is nothing more than that, it is at least an
+interesting evidence of opinion.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25-1_39" id="Footnote_25-1_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25-1_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> Strype, <i>Annals of the Reformation</i>, I, pt. i, 9-10; <i>Dictionary of
+National Biography</i>, article on Anthony Fortescue, by G. K. Fortescue.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25-2_40" id="Footnote_25-2_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25-2_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> Strype, <i>op. cit.</i>, I, pt. i, 546, 555-558; also Wright, <i>Elizabeth and her
+Times</i>, I, 121, where a letter from Cecil to Sir Thomas Smith is printed.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26-1_41" id="Footnote_26-1_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26-1_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> The interest which the privy council showed in sorcery and witchcraft
+during the earlier part of the reign is indicated in the following
+references: <i>Acts of the Privy Council</i>, new series, VII, 6, 22, 200-201;
+X, 220, 382; XI, 22, 36, 292, 370-371, 427; XII, 21-22, 23, 26, 29, 34,
+102, 251; <i>Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1547-1580</i>, 137, 142; <i>id.</i>,
+<i>1581-1590</i>, 29, 220, 246-247; <i>id.</i>, <i>Add. 1580-1625</i>, 120-121; see also John
+Strype, <i>Life of Sir Thomas Smith</i> (London, 1698; Oxford, 1820), ed.
+of 1820, 127-129. The case mentioned in <i>Cal. St. P., Dom., 1581-1590</i>, 29,
+was probably a result of the activity of the privy council. The case in <i>id.</i>,
+<i>Add., 1580-1625</i>, 120-121, is an instance of where the accused was suspected
+of both witchcraft and "high treason touching the supremacy."
+Nearly all of the above mentioned references to the activity of the privy
+council refer to the first half of the reign and a goodly proportion to the
+years 1578-1582.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26-2_42" id="Footnote_26-2_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26-2_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> <i>Acts P. C.</i>, n. s., XI, 292.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27-1_43" id="Footnote_27-1_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27-1_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> Strype, <i>Sir Thomas Smith</i>, 127-129.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28-1_44" id="Footnote_28-1_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28-1_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> <i>A Rehearsall both straung and true of hainous and horrible acts
+committed by Elizabeth Stile</i>, etc. (for full title see appendix). This
+pamphlet is in black letter. Its account is confirmed by the reference
+in <i>Acts P. C.</i>, n. s., XI, 22. See also Scot, <i>Discoverie</i>, 51, 543.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28-2_45" id="Footnote_28-2_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28-2_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> An aged widow had been committed to gaol on the testimony of
+her neighbors that she was "lewde, malitious, and hurtful to the people."
+An ostler, after he had refused to give her relief, had suffered a pain.
+So far as the account goes, this was the sum of the evidence against the
+woman. Unhappily she waited not on the order of her trial but made
+voluble confession and implicated five others, three of whom were without
+doubt professional enchanters. She had met, she said, with Mother
+Dutten, Mother Devell, and Mother Margaret, and "concluded several
+hainous and vilanous practices." The deaths of five persons whom she
+named were the outcome of their concerted plans. For the death of
+a sixth she avowed entire responsibility. This amazing confession may
+have been suggested to her piece by piece, but it was received at full
+value. That she included others in her guilt was perhaps because she
+responded to the evident interest aroused by such additions, or more
+likely because she had grudges unsatisfied. The women were friendless,
+three of the four were partially dependent upon alms, there was no
+one to come to their help, and they were convicted. The man that had
+been arraigned, a "charmer," seems to have gone free.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29-1_46" id="Footnote_29-1_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29-1_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> <i>Injunctions ... of ... Bishop of Durham</i>, 18, 84, 99; Visitations
+of Canterbury, in <i>Arch. Cant.</i>, XXVI; Hale, <i>Precedents, 1475-1640</i>,
+147, etc.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29-2_47" id="Footnote_29-2_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29-2_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> Arch. Cant., XXVI, <i>passim</i>; Hale, <i>op. cit.</i>, 147, 148, 163, 185; Mrs.
+Lynn Linton, <i>Witch Stories</i> (London, 1861; new ed., 1883), 144.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29-3_48" id="Footnote_29-3_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29-3_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> See Hale, <i>op. cit.</i>, 148, 157.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29-4_49" id="Footnote_29-4_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29-4_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> Hale, <i>op. cit.</i>, 148; <i>Depositions ... from the Court of Durham</i>,
+99; <i>Arch. Cant.</i>, XXVI, 21.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29-5_50" id="Footnote_29-5_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29-5_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> Hale, <i>op. cit.</i>, 148, 185.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29-6_51" id="Footnote_29-6_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29-6_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 157.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30-1_52" id="Footnote_30-1_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30-1_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> <i>Denham Tracts</i> (Folk Lore Soc., London), II, 332; John Sykes,
+<i>Local Record ... of Remarkable Events ... in Northumberland, Durham,
+...</i> etc. (2d ed., Newcastle, 1833-1852), I, 79.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30-2_53" id="Footnote_30-2_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30-2_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> See, for example, <i>Acts P. C.</i>, n. s., VII, 32 (1558).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30-3_54" id="Footnote_30-3_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30-3_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> <i>Cal. St. P., Dom., 1547-1580</i>, 173. Instance where the Bishop of London
+seems to have examined a case and turned it over to the privy
+council.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30-4_55" id="Footnote_30-4_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30-4_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> Rachel Pinder and Agnes Bridges, who pretended to be possessed by
+the Devil, were examined before the "person of St. Margarets in Lothberry,"
+and the Mayor of London, as well as some justices of the peace.
+They later made confession before the Archbishop of Canterbury and
+some justices of the peace. See the black letter pamphlet, <i>The discloysing
+of a late counterfeyted possession by the devyl in two maydens within
+the Citie of London</i> [1574].</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31-1_56" id="Footnote_31-1_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31-1_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> Francis Coxe came before the queen rather than the church. He
+narrates his experiences in <i>A short treatise declaringe the detestable
+wickednesse of magicall sciences, ...</i> (1561). Yet John Walsh,
+a man with a similar record, came before the commissary of the Bishop
+of Exeter. See <i>The Examination of John Walsh before Master Thomas
+Williams, Commissary to the Reverend father in God, William, bishop
+of Excester, upon certayne Interrogatories touchyng Wytch-crafte and
+Sorcerye, in the presence of divers gentlemen and others, the XX of
+August, 1566</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31-2_57" id="Footnote_31-2_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31-2_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> We say "practically," because instances of church jurisdiction come
+to light now and again throughout the seventeenth century.</p></div>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2 class="chapter"><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<h3 class="chapter2">Witchcraft under Elizabeth.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The year 1566 is hardly less interesting in the history<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
+of English witchcraft than 1563. It has been seen that
+the new statute passed in 1563 was the beginning of a
+vigorous prosecution by the state of the detested agents
+of the evil one. In 1566 occurred the first important
+trial known to us in the new period. That trial deserves
+note not only on its own account, but because it
+was recorded in the first of the long series of witch
+chap-books&mdash;if we may so call them. A very large
+proportion of our information about the execution of
+the witches is derived from these crude pamphlets,
+briefly recounting the trials. The witch chap-book was a
+distinct species. In the days when the chronicles were
+the only newspapers it was what is now the "extra,"
+brought out to catch the public before the sensation
+had lost its flavor. It was of course a partisan document,
+usually a vindication of the worthy judge who
+had condemned the guilty, with some moral and religious
+considerations by the respectable and righteous
+author. A terribly serious bit of history it was that he
+had to tell and he told it grimly and without pity. Such
+comedy as lights up the gloomy black-letter pages was
+quite unintentional. He told a story too that was full
+of details trivial enough in themselves, but details that
+give many glimpses into the every-day life of the lower
+classes in town and country.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The pamphlet of 1566 was brief and compact of information.
+It was entitled <i>The examination and confession
+of certaine Wytches at Chensforde in the Countie
+of Essex before the Quenes Maiesties Judges the
+XXVI daye of July anno 1566</i>. The trial there recorded
+is one that presents some of the most curious
+and inexplicable features in the annals of English
+witchcraft. The personnel of the "size" court is mysterious.
+At the first examination "Doctor Cole" and
+"Master Foscue" were present. Both men are easily
+identified. Doctor Cole was the Reverend Thomas
+Cole, who had held several places in Essex and had in
+1564 been presented to the rectory of Stanford Rivers,
+about ten miles from Chelmsford. Master Foscue was
+unquestionably Sir John Fortescue, later Chancellor of
+the Exchequer, and at this time keeper of the great
+wardrobe. On the second examination Sir Gilbert Gerard,
+the queen's attorney, and John Southcote, justice
+of the queen's bench, were present. Why Southcote
+should be present is perfectly clear. It is not so easy
+to understand about the others. Was the attorney-general
+acting as presiding officer, or was he conducting
+the prosecution? The latter hypothesis is of course
+more consistent with his position. But what were the
+rector of Stanford Rivers and the keeper of the great
+wardrobe doing there? Had Doctor Cole been appointed
+in recognition of the claims of the church? And
+the keeper of the wardrobe, what was the part that he
+played? One cannot easily escape the conclusion that
+the case was deemed one of unusual significance. Perhaps
+the privy council had heard of something that
+alarmed it and had delegated these four men, all known<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>
+at Elizabeth's court, to examine into the matter in connection
+with the assizes.</p>
+
+<p>The examinations themselves present features of
+more interest to the psychologist than to the historical
+student. Yet they have some importance in the understanding
+of witchcraft as a social phenomenon. Elizabeth
+Francis, when examined, confessed with readiness
+to various "vilanies." From her grandmother she said
+she had as a child received a white spotted cat, named
+Sathan, whom she had fed, and who gave her what she
+asked for. "She desired to have one Andrew Byles
+to her husband, which was a man of some welth, and
+the cat dyd promyse she shold." But the promise
+proved illusory. The man left her without marriage
+and then she "willed Sathan ... to touch his body,
+whych he forthewith dyd, whereof he died." Once
+again she importuned Satan for a husband. This time
+she gained one "not so rich as the other." She bore a
+daughter to him, but the marriage was an unhappy one.
+"They lived not so quietly as she desyred, beinge stirred
+to much unquietnes and moved to swearing and cursinge."
+Thereupon she employed the spirit to kill her
+child and to lame her husband. After keeping the cat
+fifteen years she turned it over to Mother Waterhouse,
+"a pore woman."<a name="FNanchor_35-1_1" id="FNanchor_35-1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_35-1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>Mother Waterhouse was now examined. She had
+received the cat and kept it "a great while in woll in
+a pot." She had then turned it into a toad. She had
+used it to kill geese, hogs, and cattle of her neighbors.
+At length she had employed it to kill a neighbor whom
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>she disliked, and finally her own husband. The woman's
+eighteen-year-old daughter, Joan, was now called
+to the stand and confirmed the fact that her mother
+kept a toad. She herself had one day been refused a
+piece of bread and cheese by a neighbor's child and had
+invoked the toad's help. The toad promised to assist
+her if she would surrender her soul. She did so. Then
+the toad haunted the neighbor's girl in the form of a dog
+with horns. The mother was again called to the stand
+and repeated the curious story told by her daughter.</p>
+
+<p>Now the neighbor's child, Agnes Brown, was brought
+in to testify. Her story tallied in some of its details
+with that of the two Waterhouse women; she had been
+haunted by the horned dog, and she added certain descriptions
+of its conduct that revealed good play of
+childish imagination.<a name="FNanchor_36-1_2" id="FNanchor_36-1_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_36-1_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p>The attorney put some questions, but rather to lead
+on the witnesses than to entangle them. He succeeded,
+however, in creating a violent altercation between the
+Waterhouses on the one hand, and Agnes Brown on the
+other, over trifling matters of detail.<a name="FNanchor_36-2_3" id="FNanchor_36-2_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_36-2_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> At length he offered
+to release Mother Waterhouse if she would make
+the spirit appear in the court.<a name="FNanchor_36-3_4" id="FNanchor_36-3_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_36-3_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> The offer was waived.
+The attorney then asked, "When dyd thye Cat suck
+of thy bloud?" "Never," said she. He commanded
+the jailer to lift up the "kercher" on the woman's
+head. He did so and the spots on her face and nose
+where she had pricked herself for the evil spirit were
+exposed.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></p><p>The jury retired. Two days later Agnes Waterhouse
+suffered the penalty of the law, not however until she
+had added to her confessions.<a name="FNanchor_37-1_5" id="FNanchor_37-1_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_37-1_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<p>The case is a baffling one. We can be quite sure that
+the pamphlet account is incomplete. One would like
+to know more about the substance of fact behind this
+evidence. Did the parties that were said to have been
+killed by witchcraft really die at the times specified?
+Either the facts of their deaths were well known in the
+community and were fitted with great cleverness into
+the story Mother Waterhouse told, or the jurors and
+the judges neglected the first principles of common
+sense and failed to inquire about the facts.<a name="FNanchor_37-2_6" id="FNanchor_37-2_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_37-2_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> The questions
+asked by the queen's attorney reveal hardly more
+than an unintelligent curiosity to know the rest of the
+story. He shows just one saving glint of skepticism.
+He offered to release Mother Waterhouse if she would
+materialize her spirit.</p>
+
+<p>Mother Waterhouse was her own worst enemy. Her
+own testimony was the principal evidence presented
+against her, and yet she denied guilt on one particular
+upon which the attorney-general had interrogated her.
+This might lead one to suppose that her answers were
+the haphazard replies of a half-witted woman. But the
+supposition is by no means consistent with the very
+definite and clear-cut nature of her testimony. It is
+useless to try to unravel the tangles of the case. It is
+possible that under some sort of duress&mdash;although there
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>is no evidence of this&mdash;she had deliberately concocted
+a story to fit those of Elizabeth Francis and Agnes
+Brown, and that her daughter, hearing her mother's
+narrative in court&mdash;a very possible thing in that day&mdash;had
+fitted hers into it. It is conceivable too that Mother
+Waterhouse had yielded merely to the wish to amaze
+her listeners. It is a more probable supposition that
+the questions asked of her by the judge were based upon
+the accusations already made by Agnes Brown and that
+they suggested to her the main outlines of her narrative.</p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth Francis, who had been the first accused and
+who had accused Mother Waterhouse, escaped.
+Whether it was because she had turned state's evidence
+or because she had influential friends in the community,
+we do not know. It is possible that the judges recognized
+that her confession was unsupported by the testimony
+of other witnesses. Such a supposition, however,
+credits the court with keener discrimination than seems
+ever to have been exhibited in such cases in the sixteenth
+century.<a name="FNanchor_38-1_7" id="FNanchor_38-1_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_38-1_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+<p>But, though Elizabeth Francis had escaped, her reputation
+as a dangerous woman in the community was
+fixed. Thirteen years later she was again put on trial
+before the itinerant justices. This brings us to the
+second trial of witches at Chelmsford in 1579. Mistress
+Francis's examination elicited less than in the first trial.
+She had cursed a woman "and badde a mischief to
+light uppon her." The woman, she understood, was
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>grievously pained. She followed the course that she
+had taken before and began to accuse others. We
+know very little as to the outcome. At least one of the
+women accused went free because "manslaughter or
+murder was not objected against her."<a name="FNanchor_39-1_8" id="FNanchor_39-1_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_39-1_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> Three women,
+however, were condemned and executed. One of them
+was almost certainly Elleine Smith, daughter of a woman
+hanged as a witch,&mdash;another illustration of the persistence
+of suspicion against the members of a family.</p>
+
+<p>The Chelmsford affair of 1579<a name="FNanchor_39-2_9" id="FNanchor_39-2_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_39-2_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> was not unlike that
+of 1566. There were the same tales of spirits that assumed
+animal forms. The young son of Elleine Smith
+declared that his mother kept three spirits, Great Dick
+in a wicker bottle, Little Dick in a leathern bottle, and
+Willet in a wool-pack. Goodwife Webb saw "a thyng
+like a black Dogge goe out of her doore." But the general
+character of the testimony in the second trial bore
+no relation to that in the first. There was no agreement
+of the different witnesses. The evidence was haphazard.
+The witch and another woman had a falling out&mdash;fallings
+out were very common. Next day the woman
+was taken ill. This was the sort of unimpeachable testimony
+that was to be accepted for a century yet. In
+the affair of 1566 the judges had made some attempt at
+quizzing the witnesses, but in 1579 all testimony was
+seemingly rated at par.<a name="FNanchor_39-3_10" id="FNanchor_39-3_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_39-3_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> In both instances the proof
+rested mainly upon confession. Every woman executed
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>had made confessions of guilt. This of course was
+deemed sufficient. Nevertheless the courts were beginning
+to introduce other methods of proving the accused
+guilty. The marks on Agnes Waterhouse had been uncovered
+at the request of the attorney-general; and at
+her execution she had been questioned about her ability
+to say the Lord's Prayer and other parts of the service.
+Neither of these matters was emphasized, but the mention
+of them proves that notions were already current
+that were later to have great vogue.</p>
+
+<p>The Chelmsford cases find their greatest significance,
+however, not as illustrations of the use and abuse of evidence,
+but because they exemplify the continuity of the
+witch movement. That continuity finds further illustration
+in the fact that there was a third alarm at
+Chelmsford in 1589, which resulted in three more executions.
+But in this case the women involved seem,
+so far as we know, to have had no connection with the
+earlier cases. The fate of Elizabeth Francis and that
+of Elleine Smith are more instructive as proof of the
+long-standing nature of a community suspicion. Elleine
+could not escape her mother's reputation nor Elizabeth
+her own.</p>
+
+<p>Both these women seem to have been of low character
+at any rate. Elizabeth had admitted illicit amours,
+and Elleine may very well have been guilty on the same
+count.<a name="FNanchor_40-1_11" id="FNanchor_40-1_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_40-1_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> All of the women involved in the two trials
+were in circumstances of wretched poverty; most, if
+not all, of them were dependent upon begging and the
+poor relief for support.<a name="FNanchor_40-2_12" id="FNanchor_40-2_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_40-2_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span></p>
+<p>It is easy to imagine the excitement in Essex that
+these trials must have produced. The accused had represented
+a wide territory in the county. The women
+had been fetched to Chelmsford from towns as far
+apart as Hatfield-Peverel and Maldon. It is not remarkable
+that three years later than the affair of 1579
+there should have been another outbreak in the county,
+this time in a more aggravated form. St. Oses, or St.
+Osyth's, to the northeast of Chelmsford, was to be the
+scene of the most remarkable affair of its kind in Elizabethan
+times. The alarm began with the formulation of
+charges against a woman of the community. Ursley
+Kemp was a poor woman of doubtful reputation. She
+rendered miscellaneous services to her neighbors. She
+acted as midwife, nursed children, and added to her
+income by "unwitching" the diseased. Like other
+women of the sort, she was looked upon with suspicion.
+Hence, when she had been refused the nursing of the
+child of Grace Thurlow, a servant of that Mr. Darcy
+who was later to try her, and when the child soon afterward
+fell out of its cradle and broke its neck, the mother
+suspected Ursley of witchcraft. Nevertheless she did
+not refuse her help when she "began to have a lameness
+in her bones." Ursley promised to unwitch her and
+seemingly kept her word, for the lameness disappeared.
+Then it was that the nurse-woman asked for the twelve-pence
+she had been promised and was refused. Grace
+pleaded that she was a "poore and needie woman."
+Ursley became angry and threatened to be even with
+her. The lameness reappeared and Grace Thurlow
+was thoroughly convinced that Ursley was to blame.
+When the case was carried before the justices of the
+peace, the accused woman denied that she was guilty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>
+of anything more than unwitching the afflicted. That
+she had learned, she said, ten or more years ago from a
+woman now deceased. She was committed to the assizes,
+and Justice Brian Darcy, whose servant Grace
+Thurlow had started the trouble, took the case in hand.
+He examined her eight-year-old "base son," who gave
+damning evidence against his mother. She fed four
+imps, Tyffin, Tittey, Piggen, and Jacket. The boy's
+testimony and the judge's promise that if she would
+confess the truth she "would have favour," seemed
+to break down the woman's resolution. "Bursting out
+with weeping she fell upon her knees and confessed
+that she had four spirits." Two of them she had used
+for laming, two for killing. Not only the details of her
+son's evidence, but all the earlier charges, she confirmed
+step by step, first in private confessions to the judge
+and then publicly at the court sessions. The woman's
+stories tallied with those of all her accusers<a name="FNanchor_42-1_13" id="FNanchor_42-1_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_42-1_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> and displayed
+no little play of imagination in the orientation of
+details.<a name="FNanchor_42-2_14" id="FNanchor_42-2_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_42-2_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> Not content with thus entangling herself in a
+fearful web of crime, she went on to point out other
+women guilty of similar witchcrafts. Four of those
+whom she named were haled before the justice. Elizabeth
+Bennett, who spun wool for a cloth-maker, was
+one of those most vehemently accused, but she denied
+knowledge of any kind of witchcraft. It had been
+charged against her that she kept some wool hidden in a
+pot under some stones in her house. She denied at
+first the possession of this potent and malignant charm;
+but, influenced by the gentle urgings of Justice Darcy,<a name="FNanchor_42-3_15" id="FNanchor_42-3_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_42-3_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>she gave way, as Ursley Kemp had done, and, breaking
+all restraint, poured forth wild stories of devilish crimes
+committed through the assistance of her imps.</p>
+
+<p>But why should we trace out the confessions, charges,
+and counter-charges that followed? The stories that
+were poured forth continued to involve a widening
+group until sixteen persons were under accusation of
+the most awful crimes, committed by demoniacal
+agency. As at Chelmsford, they were the dregs of the
+lower classes, women with illegitimate children, some
+of them dependent upon public support. It will be
+seen that in some respects the panic bore a likeness to
+those that had preceded. The spirits, which took extraordinary
+and bizarre forms, were the offspring of the
+same perverted imaginations, but they had assumed new
+shapes. Ursley Kemp kept a white lamb, a little gray
+cat, a black cat, and a black toad. There were spirits
+of every sort, "two little thyngs like horses, one white,
+the other black'"; six "spirits like cowes ... as
+big as rattles"; spirits masquerading as blackbirds.
+One spirit strangely enough remained invisible. It will
+be observed by the reader that the spirits almost fitted
+into a color scheme. Very vivid colors were those
+preferred in their spirits by these St. Oses women.
+The reader can see, too, that the confessions showed
+the influence of the great cat tradition.</p>
+
+<p>We have seen the readiness with which the deluded
+women made confession. Some of the confessions
+were poured forth as from souls long surcharged with
+guilt. But not all of them came in this way. Margerie
+Sammon, who had testified against one of her neighbors,
+was finally herself caught in the web of accusation
+in which a sister had also been involved. She was ac<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>cused
+by her sister. "I defie thee," she answered,
+"though thou art my sister." But her sister drew her
+aside and "whyspered her in the eare," after which,
+with "great submission and many teares," she made
+a voluble confession. One wonders about that whispered
+consultation. Had her sister perhaps suggested
+that the justice was offering mercy to those who confessed?
+For Justice Darcy was very liberal with his
+promises of mercy and absolutely unscrupulous about
+breaking them.<a name="FNanchor_44-1_16" id="FNanchor_44-1_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_44-1_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> It is gratifying to be able to record
+that there was yet a remnant left who confessed nothing
+at all and stood stubborn to the last. One of them
+was Margaret Grevel, who denied the accusations
+against her. She "saith that shee herselfe hath lost
+severall bruings and bakings of bread, and also swine,
+but she never did complaine thereof: saying that shee
+wished her gere were at a stay and then shee cared
+not whether shee were hanged or burnt or what did
+become of her." Annis Herd was another who stuck
+to her innocence. She could recall various incidents
+mentioned by her accusers; it was true that she had
+talked to Andrew West about getting a pig, it was true
+that she had seen Mr. Harrison at his parsonage gathering
+plums and had asked for some and been refused.
+But she denied that she had any imps or that she had
+killed any one.</p>
+
+<p>The use of evidence in this trial would lead one to
+suppose that in England no rules of evidence were
+yet in existence. The testimony of children ranging
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>in age from six to nine was eagerly received. No objection
+indeed was made to the testimony of a neighbor
+who professed to have overheard what he deemed an
+incriminating statement. As a matter of fact the remark,
+if made, was harmless enough.<a name="FNanchor_45-1_17" id="FNanchor_45-1_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_45-1_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> Expert evidence
+was introduced in a roundabout way by the statement
+offered in court that a physician had suspected
+that a certain case was witchcraft. Nothing was excluded.
+The garrulous women had been give free rein
+to pile up their silly accusations against one another.
+Not until the trial was nearing its end does it seem to
+have occurred to Brian Darcy to warn a woman against
+making false charges.</p>
+
+<p>It will be recalled that in the Chelmsford trials
+Mother Waterhouse had been found to have upon her
+certain marks, yet little emphasis had been laid upon
+them. In the trials of 1582 the proof drawn from these
+marks was deemed of the first importance and the
+judge appointed juries of women to make examination.
+No artist has yet dared to paint the picture of the gloating
+female inquisitors grouped around their naked and
+trembling victim, a scene that was to be enacted in many
+a witch trial. And it is well, for the scene would be too
+repellent and brutal for reproduction. In the use of
+these specially instituted juries there was no care to get
+unbiassed decisions. One of the inquisitors appointed
+to examine Cystley Celles had already served as witness
+against her.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span></p><p>It is hard to refrain from an indictment of the hopelessly
+prejudiced justice who gathered the evidence.<a name="FNanchor_46-1_18" id="FNanchor_46-1_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_46-1_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a>
+To entrap the defendants seems to have been his end.
+In the account which he wrote<a name="FNanchor_46-2_19" id="FNanchor_46-2_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_46-2_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> he seems to have feared
+lest the public should fail to understand how his cleverness
+ministered to the conviction of the women.<a name="FNanchor_46-3_20" id="FNanchor_46-3_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_46-3_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p>
+
+<p>"There is a man," he wrote, "of great cunning and
+knowledge come over lately unto our Queenes Maiestie,
+which hath advertised her what a companie and number
+of witches be within Englande: whereupon I and other
+of her Justices have received commission for the apprehending
+of as many as are within these limites." No
+doubt he hoped to attract royal notice and win favor by
+his zeal.</p>
+
+<p>The Chelmsford affairs and that at St. Oses were the
+three remarkable trials of their kind in the first part of
+Elizabeth's reign. They furnish some evidence of the
+progress of superstition. The procedure in 1582 reveals
+considerable advance over that of 1566. The theory of
+diabolic agency had been elaborated. The testimony
+offered was gaining in complexity and in variety. New
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>proofs of guilt were being introduced as well as new
+methods of testing the matter. In the second part of
+Elizabeth's reign we have but one trial of unusual interest,
+that at Warboys in Huntingdonshire. This, we
+shall see, continued the elaboration of the witch procedure.
+It was a case that attracted probably more notice
+at the time than any other in the sixteenth century.
+The accidental fancy of a child and the pronouncement
+of a baffled physician were in this instance the originating
+causes of the trouble. One of the children of Sir
+Robert Throckmorton, head of a prominent family in
+Huntingdonshire, was taken ill. It so happened that a
+neighbor, by name Alice Samuel, called at the house and
+the ailing and nervous child took the notion that the
+woman was a witch and cried out against her. "Did you
+ever see, sayd the child, one more like a witch then she
+is; take off her blacke thrumbd cap, for I cannot abide
+to looke on her." Her parents apparently thought
+nothing of this at the time. When Dr. Barrow, an eminent
+physician of Cambridge, having treated the child
+for two of the diseases of children, and without success,
+asked the mother and father if any witchcraft were
+suspected, he was answered in the negative. The
+Throckmortons were by no means quick to harbor a suspicion.
+But when two and then three other children in
+the family fell ill and began in the same way to designate
+Mother Samuel as a witch, the parents were more
+willing to heed the hint thrown out by the physician.
+The suspected woman was forcibly brought by Gilbert
+Pickering, an uncle of the children, into their presence.
+The children at once fell upon the ground "strangely
+tormented," and insisted upon scratching Mother Samuel's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>
+hand. Meantime Lady Cromwell<a name="FNanchor_48-1_21" id="FNanchor_48-1_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_48-1_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> visited at the
+Throckmorton house, and, after an interview with Alice
+Samuel, suffered in her dreams from her till at length
+she fell ill and died, something over a year later. This
+confirmed what had been suspicion. To detail all the
+steps taken to prove Mother Samuel guilty is unnecessary.
+A degree of caution was used which was remarkable.
+Henry Pickering, a relative, and some of
+his fellow scholars at Cambridge made an investigation
+into the case, but decided with the others that the
+woman was guilty. Mother Samuel herself laid the
+whole trouble to the children's "wantonness." Again
+and again she was urged by the children to confess.
+"Such were the heavenly and divine speeches of the
+children in their fits to this old woman ... as that if a
+man had heard it he would not have thought himself
+better edified at ten sermons." The parents pleaded
+with her to admit her responsibility for the constantly
+recurring sickness of their children, but she denied
+bitterly that she was to blame. She was compelled to
+live at the Throckmorton house and to be a witness
+constantly to the strange behavior of the children. The
+poor creature was dragged back and forth, watched and
+experimented upon in a dozen ways, until it is little
+wonder that she grew ill and spent her nights in groaning.
+She was implored to confess and told that all
+might yet be well. For a long time she persisted in her
+denial, but at length in a moment of weakness, when
+the children had come out of their fits at her chance
+exhortation to them, she became convinced that she was
+guilty and exclaimed, "O sir, I have been the cause
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>of all this trouble to your children." The woman, who
+up to this time had shown some spirit, had broken
+down. She now confessed that she had given her soul
+to the Devil. A clergyman was hastily sent for, who
+preached a sermon of repentance, upon which the distracted
+woman made a public confession. But on the
+next day, after she had been refreshed by sleep and
+had been in her own home again, she denied her confession.
+The constable now prepared to take the woman
+as well as her daughter to the Bishop of Lincoln, and
+the frightened creature again made a confession. In
+the presence of the bishop she reiterated her story in
+detail and gave the names of her spirits. She was put in
+gaol at Huntingdon and with her were imprisoned her
+daughter Agnes and her husband John Samuel, who
+were now accused by the Throckmorton children, and
+all three were tried at the assizes in Huntingdon before
+Judge Fenner. The facts already narrated were given
+in evidence, the seizures of the children at the appearance
+of any of the Samuel family<a name="FNanchor_49-1_22" id="FNanchor_49-1_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_49-1_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a>, the certainty with
+which the children could with closed eyes pick Mother
+Samuel out of a crowd and scratch her, the confessions
+of the crazed creature, all these evidences were given
+to the court. But the strongest proof was that given
+in the presence of the court. The daughter Agnes
+Samuel was charged to repeat, "As I am a witch and
+consenting to the death of Lady Cromwell, I charge
+thee, come out of her."<a name="FNanchor_49-2_23" id="FNanchor_49-2_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_49-2_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> At this charge the children
+would at once recover from their fits. But a charge
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>phrased negatively, "As I am no witch," was ineffectual.
+And the affirmative charge, when tried by
+some other person, had no result. This was deemed
+conclusive proof. The woman was beyond doubt guilty.
+The same method was applied with equally successful
+issue to the father. When he refused to use the words
+of the charge he was warned by the judge that he would
+endanger his life. He gave way.</p>
+
+<p>It is needless to say that the grand jury arraigned
+all three of the family and that the "jury of life and
+death" found them guilty. It needed but a five hours'
+trial.<a name="FNanchor_50-1_24" id="FNanchor_50-1_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_50-1_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> The mother was induced to plead pregnancy as
+a delay to execution, but after an examination by a
+jury was adjudged not pregnant. The daughter had
+been urged to make the same defence, but spiritedly
+replied, "It shall never be said that I was both a witch
+and a whore." At the execution the mother made another
+confession, in which she implicated her husband,
+but refused to the end to accuse her daughter.</p>
+
+<p>From beginning to end it had been the strong against
+the weak. Sir Robert Throckmorton, Sir Henry Cromwell,
+William Wickham, Bishop of Lincoln, the justices
+of the peace, Justice Fenner of the king's court, the Cambridge
+scholars, the "Doctor of Divinitie," and two
+other clergymen, all were banded together against this
+poor but respectable family. In some respects the trial
+reminds us of one that was to take place ninety-nine
+years later in Massachusetts. The part played by the
+children in the two instances was very similar. Mother
+Samuel had hit the nail on the head when she said that
+the trouble was due to the children's "wantonness."
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>Probably the first child had really suffered from some
+slight ailment. The others were imitators eager to gain
+notice and pleased with their success; and this fact was
+realized by some people at the time. "It had been reported
+by some in the county, those that thought themselves
+wise, that this Mother Samuel ... was an old
+simple woman, and that one might make her by fayre
+words confesse what they would." Moreover the tone of
+the writer's defense makes it evident that others beside
+Mother Samuel laid the action of the Throckmorton
+children to "wantonness." And six years later Samuel
+Harsnett, chaplain to the Bishop of London and a
+man already influential, called the account of the affair
+"a very ridiculous booke" and evidently believed the
+children guilty of the same pretences as William Somers,
+whose confessions of imposture he was relating.<a name="FNanchor_51-1_25" id="FNanchor_51-1_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_51-1_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p>
+
+<p>We have already observed that the Warboys affair
+was the only celebrated trial of its sort in the last part
+of Elizabeth's reign&mdash;that is, from the time of Reginald
+Scot to the accession of James I. This does not mean
+that the superstition was waning or that the trials were
+on the decrease. The records show that the number
+of trials was steadily increasing. They were more
+widely distributed. London was still the centre of
+the belief. Chief-Justice Anderson sent Joan Kerke
+to Tyburn and the Middlesex sessions were still occupied
+with accusations. The counties adjacent to it
+could still claim more than two-thirds of the executions.
+But a far wider area was infected with the superstition.
+Norfolk in East Anglia, Leicester, Nottingham and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>Derby in the Midlands, and York and Northumberland
+in the North were all involved.</p>
+
+<p>The truth is that there are two tendencies that appear
+very clearly towards the last part of Elizabeth's reign.
+On the one hand the feeling of the people against
+witchcraft was growing in intensity, while on the other
+the administration at London was inclined to be more
+lenient. Pardons and reprieves were issued to women
+already condemned,<a name="FNanchor_52-1_26" id="FNanchor_52-1_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_52-1_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> while some attempt was made
+to curb popular excitement. The attitude of the queen
+towards the celebrated John Dee was an instance in
+point. Dee was an eminent alchemist, astrologer, and
+spiritualist of his time. He has left a diary which
+shows us his half mystic, half scientific pursuits. In
+the earlier part of Mary's reign he had been accused of
+attempting poison or magic against the queen and had
+been imprisoned and examined by the privy council
+and by the Star Chamber. At Elizabeth's accession he
+had cast the horoscope for her coronation day, and he
+was said to have revealed to the queen who were her
+enemies at foreign courts. More than once afterwards
+Dee was called upon by the queen to render her services
+when she was ill or when some mysterious design
+against her person was feared. While he dealt with
+many curious things, he had consistently refused to meddle
+with conjuring. Indeed he had rebuked the conjurer
+Hartley and had refused to help the bewitched Margaret
+Byrom of Cleworth in Lancashire. Sometime
+about 1590 Dee's enemies&mdash;and he had many&mdash;put in
+circulation stories of his success as a conjurer. It was
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>the more easy to do, because for a long time he had
+been suspected by many of unlawful dealings with
+spirits. His position became dangerous. He appealed
+to Elizabeth for protection and she gave him assurance
+that he might push on with his studies. Throughout
+her life the queen continued to stand by Dee,<a name="FNanchor_53-1_27" id="FNanchor_53-1_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_53-1_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> and it
+was not until a new sovereign came to the throne that
+he again came into danger. But the moral of the incident
+is obvious. The privy council, so nervous about
+the conjurers in the days of Mary, Queen of Scots,
+and the Catholic and Spanish plots, was now resting
+easier and refused to be affrighted.</p>
+
+<p>We have already referred to the pardons issued as one
+of the evidences of the more lenient policy of the government.
+That policy appeared too in the lessening
+rigor of the assize judges. The first half of Elizabeth's
+reign had been marked by few acquittals. Nearly half
+the cases of which we have record in the second part
+resulted in the discharge of the accused. Whether the
+judges were taking their cue from the privy council
+or whether some of them were feeling the same reaction
+against the cruelty of the prosecutions, it is certain
+that there was a considerable nullifying of the
+force of the belief. We shall see in the chapter on
+Reginald Scot that his <i>Discoverie of Witchcraft</i> was
+said to have "affected the magistracy and the clergy."
+It is hard to lay one's finger upon influences of this
+sort, but we can hardly doubt that there was some connection
+between Scot's brave indictment of the witch-triers
+and the lessening severity of court verdicts.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>When George Gifford, the non-conformist clergyman
+at Maiden, wrote his <i>Dialogue concerning Witches</i>, in
+which he earnestly deprecated the conviction of so
+many witches, he dedicated the book "to the Right
+Worshipful Maister Robert Clarke, one of her Maiesties
+Barons of her Highnesse Court of the Exchequer,"
+and wrote that he had been "delighted to heare and see
+the wise and godly course used upon the seate of justice
+by your worship, when such have bene arraigned."
+Unfortunately there is not much evidence of this kind.</p>
+
+<p>One other fact must not be overlooked. A large percentage
+of the cases that went against the accused were
+in towns judicially independent of the assize courts.
+At Faversham, at Lynn, at Yarmouth, and at Leicester<a name="FNanchor_54-1_28" id="FNanchor_54-1_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_54-1_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a>
+the local municipal authorities were to blame for
+the hanging of witches. The regular assize courts had
+nothing to do with the matter. The case at Faversham
+in Kent was unusual. Joan Cason was indicted for bewitching
+to death a three-year-old child. Eight of her
+neighbors, seven of them women, "poore people,"
+testified against her. The woman took up her own
+cause with great spirit and exposed the malicious dealings
+of her adversaries and also certain controversies
+betwixt her and them. "But although she satisfied
+the bench," says Holinshed, "and all the jurie touching
+hir innocencie ... she ... confessed that a little vermin,
+being of colour reddish, of stature lesse than a rat
+... did ... haunt her house." She was willing too to
+admit illicit relations with one Mason, whose housekeeper
+she had been&mdash;probably the original cause of her
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>troubles. The jury acquitted her of witchcraft, but
+found her guilty of the "invocation of evil spirits," intending
+to send her to the pillory. While the mayor
+was admonishing her, a lawyer called attention to the
+point that the invocation of evil spirits had been made
+a felony. The mayor sentenced the woman to execution.
+But, "because there was no matter of invocation
+given in evidence against hir, ... hir execution was
+staied by the space of three daies." Sundry preachers
+tried to wring confessions from her, but to no purpose.
+Yet she made so godly an end, says the chronicler, that
+"manie now lamented hir death which were before hir
+utter enimies."<a name="FNanchor_55-1_29" id="FNanchor_55-1_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_55-1_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> The case illustrates vividly the clumsiness
+of municipal court procedure. The mayor's
+court was unfamiliar with the law and utterly unable
+to avert the consequences of its own finding. In the
+regular assize courts, Joan Cason would probably have
+been sentenced to four public appearances in the
+pillory.</p>
+
+<p>The differences between the first half and the second
+half of Elizabeth's reign have not been deemed
+wide enough by the writer to justify separate treatment.
+The whole reign was a time when the superstition
+was gaining ground. Yet in the span of years
+from Reginald Scot to the death of Elizabeth there was
+enough of reaction to justify a differentiation of statistics.
+In both periods, and more particularly in the first,
+we may be sure that some of the records have been
+lost and that a thorough search of local archives
+would reveal some trials of which we have at present
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>no knowledge. It was a time rich in mention of witch
+trials, but a time too when but few cases were fully described.
+Scot's incidental references to the varied experiences
+of Sir Roger Manwood and of his uncle Sir
+Thomas Scot merely confirm an impression gained
+from the literature of the time that the witch executions
+were becoming, throughout the seventies and early
+eighties, too common to be remarkable. For the second
+period we have record of probably a larger percentage
+of all the cases. For the whole time from 1563,
+when the new law went into effect, down to 1603, we
+have records of nearly fifty executions. Of these just
+about two-thirds occurred in the earlier period, while
+of the acquittals two-thirds belong to the later period.
+It would be rash to attach too much significance to these
+figures. As a matter of fact, the records are so incomplete
+that the actual totals have little if any meaning
+and only the proportions can be considered.<a name="FNanchor_56-1_30" id="FNanchor_56-1_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_56-1_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> Yet it
+looks as if the forces which caused the persecution of
+witches in England were beginning to abate; and it may
+fairly be inquired whether some new factor may not
+have entered into the situation. It is time to speak of
+Reginald Scot and of the exorcists.</p>
+
+<hr class="foot" />
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35-1_1" id="Footnote_35-1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35-1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Who from a confession made in 1579 seems to have been her sister.
+See the pamphlet <i>A Detection of damnable driftes, practised by three
+Witches arraigned at Chelmsforde in Essex at the last Assizes there
+holden, which were executed in Aprill, 1579</i> (London, 1579).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36-1_2" id="Footnote_36-1_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36-1_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> <i>E. g.</i>: "I was afearde for he [the dog with horns] skypped and
+leaped to and fro, and satte on the toppe of a nettle."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36-2_3" id="Footnote_36-2_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36-2_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Whether Agnes Waterhouse had a "daggar's knife" and whether
+the dog had the face of an ape.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36-3_4" id="Footnote_36-3_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36-3_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> An offer which indicates that he was acting as judge.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37-1_5" id="Footnote_37-1_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37-1_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> She was questioned on her church habits. She claimed to be a regular
+attendant; she "prayed right hartely there." She admitted, however,
+that she prayed "in laten" because Sathan would not let her pray in
+English.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37-2_6" id="Footnote_37-2_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37-2_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> There is of course the further possibility that the pamphlet account
+was largely invented. A critical examination of the pamphlet tends to
+establish its trustworthiness. See appendix A, § 1.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38-1_7" id="Footnote_38-1_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38-1_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Alice Chandler was probably hanged at this time. The failure to
+mention her name is easily explained when we remember that the
+pamphlet was issued in two parts, as soon as possible after the event.
+Alice Chandler's case probably did not come up for trial until the two
+parts of the pamphlet had already been published. See <i>A Detection of
+damnable driftes</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39-1_8" id="Footnote_39-1_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39-1_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Mother Staunton, who had apparently made some pretensions to the
+practice of magic, was arraigned on several charges. She had been
+refused her requests by several people, who had thereupon suffered some
+ills.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39-2_9" id="Footnote_39-2_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39-2_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> It is possible that the whole affair started from the whim of a sick
+child, who, when she saw Elleine Smith, cried, "Away with the witch."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39-3_10" id="Footnote_39-3_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39-3_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> A caution here. The pamphlets were hastily compiled and perhaps
+left out important facts.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40-1_11" id="Footnote_40-1_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40-1_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Her eight-year-old boy was probably illegitimate.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40-2_12" id="Footnote_40-2_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40-2_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Mother Waterhouse's knowledge of Latin, if that is more than the
+fiction of a Protestant pamphleteer, is rather remarkable.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42-1_13" id="Footnote_42-1_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42-1_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Allowance must be made for a very prejudiced reporter, <i>i. e.</i>, the
+judge himself.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42-2_14" id="Footnote_42-2_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42-2_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> These details were very probably suggested to her by the judge.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42-3_15" id="Footnote_42-3_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42-3_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Who promised her also "favour."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44-1_16" id="Footnote_44-1_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44-1_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> The detestable methods of Justice Darcy come out in the case of a
+woman from whom he threatened to remove her imps if she did not
+confess, and by that means trapped her into the incriminating statement,
+"That shal ye not."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45-1_17" id="Footnote_45-1_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45-1_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> William Hooke had heard William Newman "bid the said Ales his
+wife to beate it away." Comparable with this was the evidence of
+Margerie Sammon who "sayeth that the saide widow Hunt did tell her
+that shee had harde the said Joan Pechey, being in her house, verie often
+to chide and vehemently speaking, ... and sayth that shee went in to
+see, ... shee founde no bodie but herselfe alone."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46-1_18" id="Footnote_46-1_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46-1_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Reginald Scot, <i>Discoverie of Witchcraft</i>, 542, says of this trial, "In
+the meane time let anie man with good consideration peruse that booke
+published by W. W. and it shall suffice to satisfie him in all that may
+be required.... See whether the witnesses be not single, of what
+credit, sex, and age they are; namelie lewd miserable and envious poore
+people; most of them which speake to anie purpose being old women and
+children of the age of 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9 yeares."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46-2_19" id="Footnote_46-2_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46-2_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> There can be no doubt that Brian Darcy either wrote the account
+himself or dictated it to "W. W." The frequent use of "me," meaning
+by that pronoun the judge, indicates that he was responsible.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46-3_20" id="Footnote_46-3_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46-3_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> It is some relief in this trial to read the testimony of John Tendering
+about William Byett. He had a cow "in a strange case." He could not
+lift it. He put fire under the cow, she got up and "there stood still
+and fell a byting of stickes larger than any man's finger and after lived
+and did well."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48-1_21" id="Footnote_48-1_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48-1_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Second wife of Sir Henry Cromwell, who was the grandfather of
+Oliver.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49-1_22" id="Footnote_49-1_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49-1_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> The children were strangely inconsistent. At the first they had fits
+when Mother Samuel appeared. Later they were troubled unless Mother
+Samuel were kept in the house, or unless they were taken to her house.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49-2_23" id="Footnote_49-2_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49-2_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> This device seems to have been originally suggested by the children
+to try Mother Samuel's guilt.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50-1_24" id="Footnote_50-1_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50-1_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> The clergyman, "Doctor Dorrington," had been one of the leaders
+in prosecuting them.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51-1_25" id="Footnote_51-1_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51-1_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Harsnett, <i>Discovery of the Fraudulent Practises of John Darrel</i>
+(London, 1599), 92, 97.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52-1_26" id="Footnote_52-1_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52-1_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Among the manuscripts on witchcraft in the Bodleian Library are
+three such pardons of witches for their witchcraft&mdash;one of Jane Mortimer
+in 1595, one of Rosa Bexwell in 1600, and one of "Alice S.,"
+without date but under Elizabeth.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53-1_27" id="Footnote_53-1_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53-1_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> In 1595 he was made warden of the Manchester Collegiate Church.
+Dee has in our days found a biographer. See <i>John Dee</i> (1527-1608), by
+Charlotte Fell Smith (London, 1909).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54-1_28" id="Footnote_54-1_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54-1_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> For the particular case, see Mary Bateson, ed., <i>Records of the
+Borough of Leicester</i> (Cambridge, 1899), III. 335; for the general letters
+patent covering such cases see <i>id.</i>, II, 365, 366.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55-1_29" id="Footnote_55-1_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55-1_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> For this story see Ralph Holinshed, <i>Chronicles of England, Scotland,
+and Ireland</i> (London, 1577, reprinted 1586-1587 and 1807-1808), ed. of
+1807-1808, IV, 891, 893. Faversham was then "Feversham."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56-1_30" id="Footnote_56-1_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56-1_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Justice Anderson, when sentencing a witch to a year's imprisonment,
+declared that this was the twenty-fifth or twenty-sixth witch he had
+condemned. This is good evidence that the records of many cases have
+been lost. See Brit. Mus., Sloane MS. 831, f. 38.</p></div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2 class="chapter"><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<h3 class="chapter2">Reginald Scot.</h3>
+
+
+<p>From the chronicling of witch trials we turn aside<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>
+in this chapter to follow the career of the first great
+English opponent of the superstition. We have seen
+how the attack upon the supposed creatures of the
+Devil was growing stronger throughout the reign of
+Elizabeth. We shall see how that attack was checked,
+at least in some degree, by the resistance of one man.
+Few men of so quiet and studious life have wrought so
+effectively as Reginald Scot. He came of a family well
+known in Kent, but not politically aggressive. As a
+young man he studied at Hart Hall<a name="FNanchor_57-1_1" id="FNanchor_57-1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_57-1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> in Oxford, but
+left without taking his degree and returned to Scots-Hall,
+where he settled down to the routine duties of
+managing his estate. He gave himself over, we are
+told, to husbandry and gardening and to a solid course
+of general reading in the obscure authors that had "by
+the generality been neglected." In 1574 his studies in
+horticulture resulted in the publication of <i>A Perfect
+Platforme of a Hoppe-Garden and necessary instructions
+for the making and maintaining thereof</i>. That
+the book ministered to a practical interest was evidenced
+by the call for three editions within five years.
+Whether he now applied himself to the study of that
+subject which was to be the theme of his <i>Discoverie</i>,
+we do not know. It was a matter which had doubtless
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>arrested his attention even earlier and had enlisted a
+growing interest upon his part. Not until a decade
+after his <i>Hoppe-Garden</i>, however, did he put forth the
+epoch-making <i>Discoverie</i>. Nor does it seem likely that
+he had been engaged for a long period on the actual
+composition. Rather, the style and matter of the book
+seem to evince traces of hurry in preparation. If this
+theory be true&mdash;and Mr. Brinsley Nicholson, his modern
+commentator, has adduced excellent reasons for accepting
+it<a name="FNanchor_58-1_2" id="FNanchor_58-1_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_58-1_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>&mdash;there can be but one explanation, the St.
+Oses affair. That tragedy, occurring within a short
+distance of his own home, had no doubt so outraged
+his sense of justice, that the work which he had perhaps
+long been contemplating he now set himself to
+complete as soon as possible.<a name="FNanchor_58-2_3" id="FNanchor_58-2_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_58-2_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> Even he who runs may
+read in Scot's strong sentences that he was not writing
+for instruction only, to propound a new doctrine, but
+that he was battling with the single purpose to stop a
+detestable and wicked practice. Something of a dilettante
+in real life, he became in his writing a man with
+an absorbing mission. That mission sprang not indeed
+from indignation at the St. Oses affair alone. From the
+days of childhood his experience had been of a kind to
+encourage skepticism. He had been reared in a county
+where Elizabeth Barton, the Holy Maid of Kent, first
+came into prominence, and he had seen the downfall
+that followed her public exposure.<a name="FNanchor_58-3_4" id="FNanchor_58-3_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_58-3_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> In the year after he
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>brought out his <i>Hoppe-garden</i>, his county was again
+stirred by performances of a supposedly supernatural
+character. Mildred Norrington, a girl of seventeen,<a name="FNanchor_59-1_5" id="FNanchor_59-1_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_59-1_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> used
+ventriloquism with such skill that she convinced two
+clergymen and all her neighbors that she was possessed.
+In answer to queries, the evil spirit that spoke through
+Mildred declared that "old Alice of Westwell"<a name="FNanchor_59-2_6" id="FNanchor_59-2_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_59-2_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> had sent
+him to possess the girl. Alice, the spirit admitted, stood
+guilty of terrible witchcrafts. The demon's word was
+taken, and Alice seems to have been "arraigned upon
+this evidence."<a name="FNanchor_59-3_7" id="FNanchor_59-3_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_59-3_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> But, through the justices' adroit management
+of the trial, the fraud of the accuser was exposed.
+She confessed herself a pretender and suffered
+"condign punishment." This case happened within six
+miles of Scot's home and opened his eyes to the possibility
+of humbug. In the very same year two pretenders,
+Agnes Bridges and Rachel Pinder, were convicted
+in London. By vomiting pins and straws<a name="FNanchor_59-4_8" id="FNanchor_59-4_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_59-4_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> they
+had convinced many that they were bewitched, but the
+trickery was soon found out and they were compelled
+to do public penance at St. Paul's.<a name="FNanchor_59-5_9" id="FNanchor_59-5_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_59-5_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> We are not told
+what was the fate of a detestable Mother Baker, who,
+when consulted by the parents of a sick girl at New
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>Romney in Kent, accused a neighbor woman.<a name="FNanchor_60-1_10" id="FNanchor_60-1_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_60-1_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> She
+said that the woman had made a waxen heart and
+pricked it and by this means accomplished her evil purpose.
+In order to prove her accusation, she had in the
+mean time concealed the wax figure of a heart in the
+house of the woman she accused, and then pretended
+to find it.<a name="FNanchor_60-2_11" id="FNanchor_60-2_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_60-2_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> It is some satisfaction to know that the malicious
+creature&mdash;who, during the history of witchcraft,
+had many imitators&mdash;was caught and compelled to
+confess.</p>
+
+<p>Scot learned, indeed, by observing marvels of this
+sort<a name="FNanchor_60-3_12" id="FNanchor_60-3_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_60-3_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a>&mdash;what it is strange that many others did not
+learn&mdash;to look upon displays of the supernatural with
+a good deal of doubt. How much he had ever believed
+in them we do not know. It is not unlikely that in common
+with his generation he had, as a young man, held
+a somewhat ill-defined opinion about the Devil's use of
+witches. The belief in that had come down, a comparatively
+innocuous tradition, from a primitive period. It
+was a subject that had not been raised in speculation or
+for that matter in court rooms. But since Scot's early
+manhood all this had been changed. England had been
+swept by a tidal wave of suspicion. Hazy theological
+notions had been tightened into rigid convictions. Convictions
+had passed into legislative statutes and instructions
+to judges. The bench, which had at first
+acted on the new laws with caution and a desire to detect
+imposture, became infected with the fear and grew
+more ready to discover witchcraft and to punish it. It
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>is unnecessary to recapitulate the progress of a movement
+already traced in the previous chapter. Suffice it
+to say that the Kentish gentleman, familiarized with
+accounts of imposture, was unwilling to follow the rising
+current of superstition. Of course this is merely
+another way of saying that Scot was unconventional
+in his mental operations and thought the subject out
+for himself with results variant from those of his own
+generation. Here was a new abuse in England, here
+was a wrong that he had seen spring up within his own
+lifetime and in his own part of England. He made it
+his mission as far as possible to right the wrong. "For
+so much," he says, "as the mightie helpe themselves
+together, and the poore widowes crie, though it reach to
+heaven, is scarse heard here upon earth: I thought
+good (according to my poore abilitie) to make intercession,
+that some part of common rigor, and some
+points of hastie judgement may be advised upon."<a name="FNanchor_61-1_13" id="FNanchor_61-1_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_61-1_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p>
+
+<p>It was indeed a splendid mission and he was singularly
+well equipped for it. He had the qualifications&mdash;scholarly
+training and the power of scientific observation,
+a background of broad theological and scriptural
+information, a familiarity with legal learning and practice,
+as well as a command of vigorous and incisive language&mdash;which
+were certain to make his work effective
+towards its object.</p>
+
+<p>That he was a scholar is true in more senses than one.
+In his use of deduction from classical writers he was
+something of a scholastic, in his willingness to venture
+into new fields of thought he was a product of the Renaissance,
+in his thorough use of research he reminds us
+of a modern investigator. He gives in his book a bib<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>liography
+of the works consulted by him and one counts
+over two hundred Latin and thirty English titles. His
+reading had covered the whole field of superstition. To
+Cornelius Agrippa and to Wierus (Johann Weyer),<a name="FNanchor_62-1_14" id="FNanchor_62-1_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_62-1_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a>
+who had attacked the tyranny of superstition upon the
+Continent, he owed an especial debt. He had not, however,
+borrowed enough from them to impair in any
+serious way the value of his own original contribution.</p>
+
+<p>In respect to law, Scot was less a student than a man
+of experience. The <i>Discoverie</i>, however, bristled with
+references which indicated a legal way of thinking. He
+was almost certainly a man who had used the law.
+Brinsley Nicholson believes that he had been a justice
+of the peace. In any case he had a lawyer's sense of the
+value of evidence and a lawyer's way of putting his
+case.</p>
+
+<p>No less practical was his knowledge of theology and
+scripture. Here he had to meet the baffling problems
+of the Witch of Endor. The story of the witch who
+had called up before the frightened King Saul the
+spirit of the dead Samuel and made him speak, stood as
+a lion in the path of all opponents of witch persecution.
+When Scot dared to explain this Old Testament tale
+as an instance of ventriloquism, and to compare it to
+the celebrated case of Mildred Norrington, he showed
+a boldness in interpretation of the Bible far in advance
+of his contemporaries.</p>
+
+<p>His anticipation of present-day points of view
+cropped out perhaps more in his scientific spirit than in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>any other way. For years before he put pen to paper
+he had been conducting investigations into alleged cases
+of conjuring and witchcraft, attending trials,<a name="FNanchor_63-1_15" id="FNanchor_63-1_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_63-1_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> and
+questioning clergymen and magistrates. For such observation
+he was most favorably situated and he used his
+position in his community to further his knowledge. A
+man almost impertinently curious was this sixteenth-century
+student. When he learned of a conjurer whose
+sentence of death had been remitted by the queen and
+who professed penitence for his crimes, he opened a
+correspondence and obtained from the man the clear
+statement that his conjuries were all impostures. The
+prisoner referred him to "a booke written in the old
+Saxon toong by one Sir John Malborne, a divine of
+Oxenford, three hundred yeares past," in which all
+these trickeries are cleared up. Scot put forth his best
+efforts to procure the work from the parson to whom it
+had been entrusted, but without success.<a name="FNanchor_63-2_16" id="FNanchor_63-2_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_63-2_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> In another
+case he attended the assizes at Rochester, where a
+woman was on trial. One of her accusers was the vicar
+of the parish, who made several charges, not the least
+of which was that he could not enunciate clearly in
+church owing to enchantment. This explanation Scot
+carried to her and she was able to give him an explanation
+much less creditable to the clergyman of the
+ailment, an explanation which Scot found confirmed
+by an enquiry among the neighbors. To quiet such
+rumors in the community about the nature of the illness
+the vicar had to procure from London a medical
+certificate that it was a lung trouble.<a name="FNanchor_63-3_17" id="FNanchor_63-3_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_63-3_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span></p><p>Can we wonder that a student at such pains to discover
+the fact as to a wrong done should have used
+barbed words in the portrayal of injustice? Strong
+convictions spurred on his pen, already taught to shape
+vigorous and incisive sentences. Not a stylist, as measured
+by the highest Elizabethan standards of charm and
+mellifluence, he possessed a clearness and directness
+which win the modern reader. By his methods of analysis
+he displayed a quality of mind akin to and probably
+influenced by that of Calvin, while his intellectual
+attitude showed the stimulus of the Reformation.</p>
+
+<p>He was indeed in his own restricted field a reformer.
+He was not only the protagonist of a new cause, but a
+pioneer who had to cut through the underbrush of
+opinion a pathway for speculation to follow. So far
+as England was concerned, Scot found no philosophy
+of the subject, no systematic defences or assaults upon
+the loosely constructed theory of demonic agency.
+It was for him to state in definite terms the beliefs he
+was seeking to overthrow. The Roman church knew
+fairly well by this time what it meant by witchcraft,
+but English theologians and philosophers would
+hardly have found common ground on any one tenet
+about the matter.<a name="FNanchor_64-1_18" id="FNanchor_64-1_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_64-1_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> Without exaggeration it may be
+asserted that Scot by his assault all along the front
+forced the enemy's advance and in some sense dictated
+his line of battle.</p>
+
+<p>The assault was directed indeed against the centre
+of the opposing entrenchments, the belief in the con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>tinuance
+of miracles. Scot declared that with Christ
+and his apostles the age of miracles had passed, an
+opinion which he supported by the authority of Calvin
+and of St. Augustine. What was counted the supernatural
+assumed two forms&mdash;the phenomena exhibited
+by those whom he classed under the wide term of
+"couseners," and the phenomena said to be exhibited
+by the "poor doting women" known as witches. The
+tricks and deceits of the "couseners" he was at great
+pains to explain. Not less than one-third of his work
+is given up to setting forth the methods of conjurers,
+card tricks, sleight-of-hand performances, illusions of
+magic, materializations of spirits, and the wonders of
+alchemy and astrology. In the range of his information
+about these subjects, the discoverer was encyclopedic.
+No current form of dabbling with the supernatural
+was left unexposed.</p>
+
+<p>In his attack upon the phenomena of witchcraft he
+had a different problem. He had to deal with phenomena
+the so-called facts of which were not susceptible
+of any material explanation. The theory of a Devil
+who had intimate relations with human beings, who
+controlled them and sent them out upon maleficent
+errands, was in its essence a theological conception
+and could not be absolutely disproved by scientific
+observation. It was necessary instead to attack the
+idea on its <i>a priori</i> grounds. This attack Scot attempted
+to base on the nature of spirits. Spirits and
+bodies, he urged, are antithetical and inconvertible,
+nor can any one save God give spirit a bodily form.
+The Devil, a something beyond our comprehension,
+cannot change spirit into body, nor can he himself
+assume a bodily form, nor has he any power save that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>
+granted him by God for vengeance. This being true,
+the whole belief in the Devil's intercourse with witches
+is undermined. Such, very briefly, were the philosophic
+bases of Scot's skepticism. Yet the more cogent
+parts of his work were those in which he denied the
+validity of any evidence so far offered for the existence
+of witches. What is witchcraft? he asked; and
+his answer is worth quoting. "Witchcraft is in truth
+a cousening art, wherin the name of God is abused,
+prophaned and blasphemed, and his power attributed
+to a vile creature. In estimation of the vulgar people,
+it is a supernaturall worke, contrived betweene a corporall
+old woman, and a spirituall divell. The maner
+thereof is so secret, mysticall, and strange, that to this
+daie there hath never beene any credible witnes
+thereof."<a name="FNanchor_66-1_19" id="FNanchor_66-1_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_66-1_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> The want of credible evidence was indeed
+a point upon which Scot continually insisted
+with great force. He pictured vividly the course which
+a witchcraft case often ran: "One sort of such as are
+said to bee witches are women which be commonly
+old, lame, bleare-eied, pale, fowle, and full of wrinkles;
+... they are leane and deformed, shewing melancholie
+in their faces; ... they are doting, scolds, mad, divelish....
+These miserable wretches are so odious unto all
+their neighbors, and so feared, as few dare offend them,
+or denie them anie thing they aske: whereby they take
+upon them, yea, and sometimes thinke, that they can
+doo such things as are beyond the abilitie of humane
+nature. These go from house to house, and from doore
+to doore for a pot of milke, yest, drinke, pottage, or
+some such releefe; without the which they could hardlie
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>live.... It falleth out many times, that neither their
+necessities, nor their expectation is answered.... In
+tract of time the witch waxeth odious and tedious to
+hir neighbors; ... she cursseth one, and sometimes another;
+and that from the maister of the house, his wife,
+children, cattell, etc. to the little pig that lieth in the
+stie.... Doubtlesse (at length) some of hir neighbours
+die, or fall sicke."<a name="FNanchor_67-1_20" id="FNanchor_67-1_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_67-1_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> Then they suspect her, says
+Scot, and grow convinced that she is the author of their
+mishaps. "The witch, ... seeing things sometimes
+come to passe according to hir wishes, ... being called
+before a Justice, ... confesseth that she hath brought
+such things to passe. Wherein, not onelie she, but the
+accuser, and also the Justice are fowlie deceived and
+abused."<a name="FNanchor_67-2_21" id="FNanchor_67-2_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_67-2_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> Such indeed was the epitome of many
+cases. The process from beginning to end was never
+better described; the ease with which confessions were
+dragged from weak-spirited women was never pictured
+more truly. With quite as keen insight he displayed
+the motives that animated witnesses and described
+the prejudices and fears that worked on jurors and
+judges. It was, indeed, upon these factors that he
+rested the weight of his argument for the negative.<a name="FNanchor_67-3_22" id="FNanchor_67-3_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_67-3_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p>
+
+<p>The affirmative opinion was grounded, he believed,
+upon the ignorance of the common people, "assotted
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>and bewitched" by the jesting or serious words of
+poets, by the inventions of "lowd liers and couseners,"
+and by "tales they have heard from old doting women,
+or from their mother's maids, and with whatsoever the
+grandfoole their ghostlie father or anie other morrow
+masse preest had informed them."<a name="FNanchor_68-1_23" id="FNanchor_68-1_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_68-1_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></p>
+
+<p>By the same method by which he opposed the belief
+in witchcraft he opposed the belief in possession by an
+evil spirit. The known cases, when examined, proved
+frauds. The instances in the New Testament he
+seemed inclined to explain by the assumption that possession
+merely meant disease.<a name="FNanchor_68-2_24" id="FNanchor_68-2_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_68-2_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p>
+
+<p>That Scot should maintain an absolute negative in
+the face of all strange phenomena would have been too
+much to expect. He seems to have believed, though
+not without some difficulty, that stones had in them
+"certaine proper vertues which are given them of a
+speciall influence of the planets." The unicorn's horn,
+he thought, had certain curative properties. And he
+had heard "by credible report" and the affirmation of
+"many grave authors" that "the wound of a man
+murthered reneweth bleeding at the presence of a deere
+freend, or of a mortall enimie."<a name="FNanchor_68-3_25" id="FNanchor_68-3_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_68-3_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p>
+
+<p>His credulity in these points may be disappointing
+to the reader who hopes to find in Scot a scientific
+rationalist. That, of course, he was not; and his leaning
+towards superstition on these points makes one
+ask, What did he really believe about witchcraft?
+When all the fraud and false testimony and self-deception
+were excluded, what about the remaining cases
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>of witchcraft? Scot was very careful never to deny <i>in
+toto</i> the existence of witches. That would have been
+to deny the Bible. What were these witches, then?
+Doubtless he would have answered that he had already
+classified them under two heads: they were either
+"couseners" or "poor doting women"&mdash;and by
+"couseners" he seems to have meant those who used
+trickery and fraud. In other words, Scot distinctly
+implied that there were no real witches&mdash;with powers
+given them by the Devil. Would he have stood by this
+when pushed into a corner? It is just possible that he
+would have done so, that he understood his own implications,
+but hardly dared to utter a straighforward
+denial of the reality of witchcraft. It is more likely
+that he had not altogether thought himself out.</p>
+
+<p>The immediate impression of Scot's book we know
+little about. Such contemporary comment as we have
+is neutral.<a name="FNanchor_69-1_26" id="FNanchor_69-1_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_69-1_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> That his book was read painstakingly by
+every later writer on the subject, that it shortly became
+the great support of one party in the controversy, that
+King James deemed it worth while to write an answer,
+and that on his accession to the throne he almost certainly
+ordered the book to be burned by the common
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>hangman,<a name="FNanchor_70-1_27" id="FNanchor_70-1_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_70-1_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> these are better evidence than absolutely
+contemporary notices to show that the <i>Discoverie</i> exerted
+an influence.</p>
+
+<p>We cannot better suggest how radical Scot's position
+must have seemed to his own time than by showing
+the point of view of another opponent of witchcraft,
+George Gifford, a non-conformist clergyman.<a name="FNanchor_70-2_28" id="FNanchor_70-2_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_70-2_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> He
+had read the <i>Discoverie</i> and probably felt that the theological
+aspect of the subject had been neglected.
+Moreover it had probably been his fortune, as Scot's,
+to attend the St. Oses trials. Three years after Scot's
+book he brought out <i>A Discourse of the Subtill Practises
+of Devilles by Witches</i>, and followed it six years
+later by <i>A Dialogue concerning Witches</i>,<a name="FNanchor_70-3_29" id="FNanchor_70-3_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_70-3_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> a book in
+which he expounded his opinions in somewhat more
+popular fashion. Like Scot, he wrote to end, so far as
+possible, the punishment of innocent women;<a name="FNanchor_70-4_30" id="FNanchor_70-4_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_70-4_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> like
+Scot, he believed that most of the evidence presented
+against them was worthless.<a name="FNanchor_70-5_31" id="FNanchor_70-5_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_70-5_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> But on other points he
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>was far less radical. There were witches. He found
+them in the Bible.<a name="FNanchor_71-1_32" id="FNanchor_71-1_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_71-1_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> To be sure they were nothing more
+than pawns for the Devil. He uses them "onely for a
+colour,"<a name="FNanchor_71-2_33" id="FNanchor_71-2_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_71-2_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> that is, puts them forward to cover his own
+dealings, and then he deludes them and makes them
+"beleeve things which are nothing so."<a name="FNanchor_71-3_34" id="FNanchor_71-3_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_71-3_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> In consequence
+they frequently at their executions falsely accuse
+others of dreadful witchcrafts. It is all the work
+of the Devil. But he himself cannot do anything except
+through the power of God,<a name="FNanchor_71-4_35" id="FNanchor_71-4_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_71-4_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> who, sometimes for
+vengeance upon His enemies and sometimes to try His
+own people,<a name="FNanchor_71-5_36" id="FNanchor_71-5_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_71-5_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> permits the Evil One to do harm.<a name="FNanchor_71-6_37" id="FNanchor_71-6_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_71-6_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span></p><p>Gifford of course never made the impression that
+Scot had made.<a name="FNanchor_72-1_38" id="FNanchor_72-1_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_72-1_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> But he represented the more conservative
+position and was the first in a long line of
+writers who deprecated persecution while they accepted
+the current view as to witchcraft; and therefore he furnishes
+a standard by which to measure Scot, who had
+nothing of the conservative about him. Scot had
+many readers and exerted a strong influence even upon
+those who disagreed with him; but he had few or none
+to follow in his steps. It was not until nearly a century
+later that there came upon the scene a man who dared
+to speak as Scot had spoken. Few men have been so
+far ahead of their time.</p>
+
+<hr class="foot" />
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57-1_1" id="Footnote_57-1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57-1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Where George Gifford, who wrote a little later on the subject, was
+also a student.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58-1_2" id="Footnote_58-1_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58-1_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> <i>Discoverie of Witchcraft</i>, Nicholson ed., introd., xxxv.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58-2_3" id="Footnote_58-2_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58-2_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> That at least a part of it was written in 1583 appears from his own
+words, where he speaks of the treatise of Leonardus Vairus on fascination
+as "now this present yeare 1583 newlie published," <i>ibid.</i>, 124.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58-3_4" id="Footnote_58-3_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58-3_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Elizabeth Barton (1506-1534) suffered from a nervous derangement
+which developed into a religious mania. She was taught by some monks,
+and then professed to be in communion with the Virgin Mary and performed
+miracles at stated times. She denounced Henry VIII's divorce
+and gained wide recognition as a champion of the queen and the Catholic
+church. She was granted interviews by Archbishop Warham, by Thomas
+More, and by Wolsey. She was finally induced by Cranmer to make
+confession, was compelled publicly to repeat her confession in various
+places, and was then executed; see <i>Dict. Nat. Biog.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59-1_5" id="Footnote_59-1_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59-1_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Illegitimate child.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59-2_6" id="Footnote_59-2_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59-2_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> That is, very probably, Alice Norrington, the mother of Mildred.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59-3_7" id="Footnote_59-3_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59-3_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> <i>Discoverie of Witchcraft</i>, 130.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59-4_8" id="Footnote_59-4_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59-4_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 132.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59-5_9" id="Footnote_59-5_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59-5_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> See <i>The discloysing of a late counterfeyted possession by the devyl
+in two maydens within the Citie of London</i>; see also Holinshed, <i>Chronicles</i>,
+ed. of 1807-1808, IV, 325, and John Stow, <i>Annals ... of England</i>
+(London, 1615), 678.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60-1_10" id="Footnote_60-1_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60-1_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> <i>Discoverie of Witchcraft</i>, 258, 259.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60-2_11" id="Footnote_60-2_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60-2_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> The spot she chose for concealing the token of guilt had been previously
+searched.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60-3_12" id="Footnote_60-3_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60-3_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> For another see <i>Discoverie of Witchcraft</i>, 132-133.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61-1_13" id="Footnote_61-1_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61-1_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> In his prefatory epistle "to the Readers."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62-1_14" id="Footnote_62-1_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62-1_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> An incidental reference to Weyer in "W. W.'s" account of the
+<i>Witches taken at St. Oses</i> is interesting: "... whom a learned Phisitian
+is not ashamed to avouche innocent, and the Judges that denounce sentence
+of death against them no better than hangmen."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63-1_15" id="Footnote_63-1_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63-1_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> <i>E. g., Discoverie of Witchcraft</i>, 5.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63-2_16" id="Footnote_63-2_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63-2_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 466-469.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63-3_17" id="Footnote_63-3_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63-3_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 5-6.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64-1_18" id="Footnote_64-1_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64-1_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 15: "Howbeit you shall understand that few or none are
+throughlie persuaded, resolved, or satisfied, that witches can indeed accomplish
+all these impossibilities; but some one is bewitched in one
+point, and some is coosened in another, untill in fine, all these impossibilities,
+and manie mo, are by severall persons affirmed to be true."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66-1_19" id="Footnote_66-1_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66-1_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> <i>Discoverie</i>, 472.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67-1_20" id="Footnote_67-1_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67-1_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 7-8.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67-2_21" id="Footnote_67-2_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67-2_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 8.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67-3_22" id="Footnote_67-3_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67-3_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> It was one of the points made by "witchmongers" that the existence
+of laws against witches proved there were witches. This argument was
+used by Sir Matthew Hale as late as 1664. Scot says on that point: "Yet
+I confesse, the customes and lawes almost of all nations doo declare, that
+all these miraculous works ... were attributed to the power of witches.
+The which lawes, with the executions and judicials thereupon, and
+the witches confessions, have beguiled almost the whole world." <i>Ibid.</i>,
+220.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68-1_23" id="Footnote_68-1_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68-1_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> <i>Discoverie</i>, 471, 472.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68-2_24" id="Footnote_68-2_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68-2_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 512.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68-3_25" id="Footnote_68-3_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68-3_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 303.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69-1_26" id="Footnote_69-1_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69-1_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Thomas Nash in his <i>Four Letters Confuted</i> (London, 1593) refers
+to it in a non-committal way as a work treating of "the diverse natures
+and properties of Divels and Spirits." Gabriel Harvey's <i>Pierces Supererogation</i>
+(London, 1593), has the following mention of it: "Scottes
+discoovery of Witchcraft dismasketh sundry egregious impostures, and in
+certaine principall chapters, and special passages, hitteth the nayle on the
+head with a witnesse; howsoever I could have wished he had either dealt
+somewhat more curteously with Monsieur Bodine, or confuted him somewhat
+more effectually." Professor Burr informs me that there is in the
+British Museum (Harleian MSS. 2302) an incomplete and unpublished
+reply to Scot. Its handwriting shows it contemporary or nearly so. It
+is a series of "Reasons" why witches should be believed in&mdash;the
+MS. in its present state beginning with the "5th Reason" and
+breaking off in the midst of the 108th.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70-1_27" id="Footnote_70-1_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70-1_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> See Nicholson's opinion on this, pp. xxxvii-xxxix of his introduction
+to Scot's book.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70-2_28" id="Footnote_70-2_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70-2_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> George Gifford was a Church of England clergyman whose Puritan
+sympathies at length compelled him to identify himself publicly with the
+non-conformist movement in 1584. For two years previous to that time
+he had held the living of Maldon in Essex.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70-3_29" id="Footnote_70-3_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70-3_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> A second edition of this book appeared in 1603. It was reprinted for
+the Percy Society in 1842.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70-4_30" id="Footnote_70-4_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70-4_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> <i>Dialogue</i>, ed. of 1603, prefatory letter and L-M 2 verso.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70-5_31" id="Footnote_70-5_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70-5_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> <i>Discourse</i>, D 3 verso, G 4 verso; <i>Dialogue</i>, ed. of 1603, K 2-K 2
+verso, L-L 2. See also <i>ibid.</i>, K 4-K 4 verso: "As not long since a rugged
+water spaniell having a chaine, came to a mans doore that had a saut
+bitch, and some espied him in the darke, and said it was a thing as
+bigge as a colt, and had eyes as great as saucers. Hereupon some came
+to charge to him, and did charge him in the name of the Father, the
+Sonne, and the Holy Ghost, to tell what he was. The dogge at the last
+told them, for he spake in his language, and said, bowgh, and thereby
+they did know what he was."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71-1_32" id="Footnote_71-1_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71-1_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> <i>Discourse</i>, in the prefatory letter.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71-2_33" id="Footnote_71-2_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71-2_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, F 4 verso, F 5.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71-3_34" id="Footnote_71-3_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71-3_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> <i>Dialogue</i>, ed of 1603, K 2 verso.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71-4_35" id="Footnote_71-4_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71-4_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, D 3 verso; <i>Discourse</i>, G 3 verso, H 3 verso.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71-5_36" id="Footnote_71-5_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71-5_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, D 2 verso.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71-6_37" id="Footnote_71-6_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71-6_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> Gifford grew very forceful when he described the progress of a case
+against a witch: "Some woman doth fal out bitterly with her neighbour:
+there followeth some great hurt.... There is a suspicion conceived.
+Within fewe yeares after shee is in some jarre with an other. Hee is
+also plagued. This is noted of all. Great fame is spread of the matter.
+Mother W. is a witch.... Wel, mother W. doth begin to bee very odious
+and terrible unto many, her neighbours dare say nothing but yet in their
+heartes they wish shee were hanged. Shortly after an other falleth
+sicke and doth pine.... The neighbors come to visit him. Well
+neighbour, sayth one, do ye not suspect some naughty dealing: did yee
+never anger mother W? truly neighbour (sayth he) I have not liked the
+woman a long tyme. I can not tell how I should displease her, unlesse
+it were this other day, my wife prayed her, and so did I, that shee
+would keepe her hennes out of my garden. Wee spake her as fayre as
+wee could for our lives. I thinke verely she hath bewitched me. Every
+body sayth now that mother W. is a witch in deede.... It is out of
+all doubt: for there were which saw a weasil runne from her housward
+into his yard even a little before hee fell sicke. The sicke man dieth,
+and taketh it upon his death that he is bewitched: then is mother W.
+apprehended, and sent to prison, shee is arrayned and condemned, and
+being at the gallows, taketh it uppon her death that shee is not gylty."
+<i>Discourse</i>, G 4-G 4 verso. And so, Gifford explains, the Devil is pleased,
+for he has put innocent people into danger, he has caused witnesses to
+forswear themselves and jurymen to render false verdicts.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72-1_38" id="Footnote_72-1_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72-1_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> But his views were warmly seconded by Henry Holland, who in
+1590 issued at Cambridge <i>A Treatise against Witchcraft</i>. Holland,
+however, was chiefly interested in warning "Masters and Fathers of families
+that they may learn the best meanes to purge their houses of all unclean
+spirits." It goes without saying that he found himself at variance
+with Scot, who, he declared, reduced witchcraft to a "cozening or
+poisoning art." In the Scriptures he found the evidence that witches
+have a real "confederacie with Satan himself," but he was frank to admit
+that the proof of bargains of the sort in his own time could not be
+given.</p></div>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2 class="chapter"><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<h3 class="chapter2">The Exorcists.</h3>
+
+
+<p>In the narrative of English witchcraft the story of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>
+the exorcists is a side-issue. Yet their performances
+were so closely connected with the operations of the
+Devil and of his agents that they cannot be left out of
+account in any adequate statement of the subject. And
+it is impossible to understand the strength and weakness
+of the superstition without a comprehension of the rôle
+that the would-be agents for expelling evil spirits
+played. That the reign which had seen pass in procession
+the bands of conjurers and witches should
+close with the exorcists was to be expected. It was
+their part to complete the cycle of superstition. If
+miracles of magic were possible, if conjurers could use
+a supernatural power of some sort to assist them in
+performing wonders, there was nothing very remarkable
+about creatures who wrought harm to their fellows
+through the agency of evil spirits. And if witches
+could send evil spirits to do harm, it followed that those
+spirits could be expelled or exorcised by divine assistance.
+If by prayer to the Devil demons could be
+commanded to enter human beings, they could be driven
+out by prayer to God. The processes of reasoning
+were perfectly clear; and they were easily accepted
+because they found adequate confirmation in the New
+Testament. The gospels were full of narratives of men
+possessed with evil spirits who had been freed by the
+invocation of God. Of these stories no doubt the most
+quoted and the one most effective in moulding opinion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>
+was the account of the dispossessed devils who had
+entered into a herd of swine and plunged over a steep
+place into the sea.</p>
+
+<p>It must not be supposed that exorcism was a result
+of belief in witchcraft. It was as old as the Christian
+church. It was still made use of by the Roman
+church and, indeed, by certain Protestant groups. And
+just at this time the Roman church found it a most
+important instrument in the struggle against the reformed
+religions. In England Romanism was waging
+a losing war, and had need of all the miracles that it
+could claim in order to reestablish its waning credit.
+The hunted priests who were being driven out by Whitgift
+were not unwilling to resort to a practice which
+they hoped would regain for them the allegiance of the
+common people. During the years 1585-1586 they had
+conducted what they considered marvellous works of
+exorcism in Catholic households of Buckinghamshire
+and Middlesex.<a name="FNanchor_74-1_1" id="FNanchor_74-1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_74-1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Great efforts had been made to keep
+news of these séances from reaching the ears of the
+government, but accounts of them had gained wide
+circulation and came to the privy council. That body
+was of course stimulated to greater activity against the
+Catholics.<a name="FNanchor_74-2_2" id="FNanchor_74-2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_74-2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span></p><p>As a phase of a suppressed form of religion the matter
+might never have assumed any significance. Had not
+a third-rate Puritan clergyman, John Darrel, almost
+by accident hit upon the use of exorcism, the story of
+its use would be hardly worth telling.<a name="FNanchor_75-1_3" id="FNanchor_75-1_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_75-1_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> When this
+young minister was not more than twenty, but already,
+as he says, reckoned "a man of hope," he was asked to
+cure a seventeen-year-old girl at Mansfield in Nottingham,
+Katherine Wright.<a name="FNanchor_75-2_4" id="FNanchor_75-2_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_75-2_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> Her disease called for simple
+medical treatment. That was not Darrel's plan of
+operation. She had an evil spirit, he declared. From
+four o'clock in the morning until noon he prayed over
+her spirit. He either set going of his own initiative
+the opinion that possessed persons could point out
+witches, or he quickly availed himself of such a belief
+already existing. The evil spirit, he declared, could
+recognize and even name the witch that had sent it as
+well as the witch's confederates. All of this was no
+doubt suggested to the possessed girl and she was soon
+induced to name the witch that troubled her. This was
+Margaret Roper, a woman with whom she was upon
+bad terms. Margaret Roper was at once taken into
+custody by the constable. She happened to be brought
+before a justice of the peace possessing more than usual
+discrimination. He not only discharged her,<a name="FNanchor_75-3_5" id="FNanchor_75-3_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_75-3_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> but
+threatened John Darrel with arrest.<a name="FNanchor_75-4_6" id="FNanchor_75-4_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_75-4_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+<p>This was in 1586. Darrel disappeared from view
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>for ten years or so, when he turned up at Burton-upon-Trent,
+not very far from the scene of his first operations.
+Here he volunteered to cure Thomas Darling. The
+story is a curious one and too long for repetition. Some
+facts must, however, be presented in order to bring the
+story up to the point at which Darrel intervened.
+Thomas Darling, a young Derbyshire boy, had become
+ill after returning from a hunt. He was afflicted with
+innumerable fits, in which he saw green angels and a
+green cat. His aunt very properly consulted a physician,
+who at the second consultation thought it possible
+that the child was bewitched. The aunt failed
+to credit the diagnosis. The boy's fits continued and
+soon took on a religious character. Between seizures
+he conversed with godly people. They soon discovered
+that the reading of the Scriptures brought on attacks.
+This looked very like the Devil's work. The suggestion
+of the physician was more seriously regarded.
+Meanwhile the boy had overheard the discussion of
+witchcraft and proceeded to relate a story. He had
+met, he said, a "little old woman" in a "gray gown with
+a black fringe about the cape, a broad thrimmed hat,
+and three warts on her face."<a name="FNanchor_76-1_7" id="FNanchor_76-1_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_76-1_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> Very accidentally, as he
+claimed, he offended her. She angrily said a rhyming
+charm that ended with the words, "I wil goe to heaven,
+and thou shalt goe to hell," and stooped to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>The story produced a sensation. Those who heard it
+declared at once that the woman must have been Elizabeth
+Wright, or her daughter Alse Gooderidge, women
+long suspected of witchcraft. Alse was fetched to the
+boy. She said she had never seen him, but her pres<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>ence
+increased the violence of his fits. Mother and
+daughter were carried before two justices of the peace,
+who examined them together with Alse's husband and
+daughter. The women were searched for special marks
+in the usual revolting manner with the usual outcome,
+but only Alse herself was sent to gaol.<a name="FNanchor_77-1_8" id="FNanchor_77-1_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_77-1_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p>
+
+<p>The boy grew no better. It was discovered that the
+reading of certain verses in the first chapter of John
+invariably set him off.<a name="FNanchor_77-2_9" id="FNanchor_77-2_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_77-2_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> The justices of the peace put
+Alse through several examinations, but with little result.
+Two good witches were consulted, but refused to help
+unless the family of the bewitched came to see them.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime a cunning man appeared who promised
+to prove Alse a witch. In the presence of "manie
+worshipfull personages" "he put a paire of new shooes
+on her feete, setting her close to the fire till the shooes
+being extreame hot might constrayne her through increase
+of the paine to confesse." "This," says the
+writer, "was his ridiculous practice." The woman
+"being throghly heated desired a release" and offered
+to confess, but, as soon as her feet were cooled, refused.
+No doubt the justices of the peace would have repudiated
+the statement that the illegal process of torture
+was used. The methods of the cunning man were really
+nothing else.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span></p><p>The woman was harried day and night by neighbors
+to bring her to confess.<a name="FNanchor_78-1_10" id="FNanchor_78-1_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_78-1_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> At length she gave way and,
+in a series of reluctant confessions, told a crude story
+of her wrong-doings that bore some slight resemblance
+to the boy's tale, and involved the use of a spirit in the
+form of a dog.</p>
+
+<p>Now it was that John Darrel came upon the ground
+eager to make a name for himself. Darling had been
+ill for three months and was not improving. Even yet
+some of the boy's relatives and friends doubted if he
+were possessed. Not so Darrel. He at once undertook
+to pray and fast for the boy. According to his own
+account his efforts were singularly blessed. At all
+events the boy gradually improved and Darrel claimed
+the credit. As for Alse Gooderidge, she was tried at
+the assizes, convicted by the jury, and sentenced by
+Lord Chief-Justice Anderson to imprisonment. She
+died soon after.<a name="FNanchor_78-2_11" id="FNanchor_78-2_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_78-2_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> This affair undoubtedly widened
+Darrel's reputation.</p>
+
+<p>Not long after, a notable case of possession in Lancashire
+afforded him a new opportunity to attract notice.
+The case of Nicholas Starchie's children provoked
+so much comment at the time that it is perhaps
+worth while to go back and bring the narrative up to
+the point where Darrel entered.<a name="FNanchor_78-3_12" id="FNanchor_78-3_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_78-3_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> Two of Starchie's
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>children had one day been taken ill most mysteriously,
+the girl "with a dumpish and heavie countenance, and
+with a certaine fearefull starting and pulling together
+of her body." The boy was "compelled to
+shout" on the way to school. Both grew steadily
+worse<a name="FNanchor_79-1_13" id="FNanchor_79-1_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_79-1_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> and the father consulted Edmund Hartley, a
+noted conjurer of his time. Hartley quieted the children
+by the use of charms. When he realized that his
+services would be indispensable to the father he made
+a pretence of leaving and so forced a promise from
+Starchie to pay him 40 shillings a year. This ruse was
+so successful that he raised his demands. He asked
+for a house and lot, but was refused. The children fell
+ill again. The perplexed parent now went to a physician
+of Manchester. But the physician "sawe no signe
+of sicknes." Dr. Dee, the famous astrologer and
+friend of Elizabeth, was summoned. He advised the
+help of "godlie preachers."<a name="FNanchor_79-2_14" id="FNanchor_79-2_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_79-2_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p>
+
+<p>Meantime the situation in the afflicted family took a
+more serious turn. Besides Mr. Starchie's children,
+three young wards of his, a servant, and a visitor, were
+all taken with the mysterious illness. The modern
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>reader might suspect that some contagious disease had
+gripped the family, but the irregular and intermittent
+character of the disease precludes that hypothesis. Darrel
+in his own pamphlet on the matter declares that
+when the parents on one occasion went to a play the
+children were quiet, but that when they were engaged
+in godly exercise they were tormented, a statement
+that raises a suspicion that the disease, like that of the
+Throckmorton children, was largely imaginary.</p>
+
+<p>But the divines were at work. They had questioned
+the conjurer, and had found that he fumbled "verie
+ill favouredlie" in the repetition of the Lord's Prayer.
+He was haled before a justice of the peace, who began
+gathering evidence against him and turned him over
+to the assizes. There it came out that he had been
+wont to kiss the Starchie children, and had even attempted,
+although without success, to kiss a maid servant.
+In this way he had presumably communicated
+the evil spirit&mdash;a new notion. The court could find no
+law, however, upon which to hang him. He had bewitched
+the children, but he had bewitched none of
+them to death, and therefore had not incurred the
+death penalty. But the father leaped into the gap.
+He remembered that he had seen the conjurer draw a
+magic circle and divide it into four parts and that he
+had bidden the witness step into the quarters one after
+another. Making such circles was definitely mentioned
+in the law as felony. Hartley denied the charge, but to
+no purpose. He was convicted of felony<a name="FNanchor_80-1_15" id="FNanchor_80-1_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_80-1_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a>&mdash;so far as
+we can judge, on this unsupported afterthought of a
+single witness&mdash;and was hanged. Sympathy, however,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>would be inappropriate. In the whole history of witchcraft
+there were few victims who came so near to deserving
+their fate.</p>
+
+<p>This was the story up to the time of Darrel's arrival.
+With Darrel came his assistant, George More, pastor
+of a church in Derbyshire. The two at once recognized
+the supernatural character of the case they were
+to treat and began religious services for the stricken
+family. It was to no effect. "All or most of them
+joined together in a strange and supernatural loud
+whupping that the house and grounde did sounde therwith
+again."</p>
+
+<p>But the exorcists were not by any means disheartened.
+On the following day, in company with another
+minister, they renewed the services and were able to
+expel six of the seven spirits. On the third day they
+stormed and took the last citadel of Satan. Unhappily
+the capture was not permanent. Darrel tells us himself
+that the woman later became a Papist<a name="FNanchor_81-1_16" id="FNanchor_81-1_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_81-1_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> and the
+evil spirit returned.</p>
+
+<p>The exorcist now turned his skill upon a young apprenticed
+musician of Nottingham. According to Darrel's
+story of the affair,<a name="FNanchor_81-2_17" id="FNanchor_81-2_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_81-2_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> William Somers had nine
+years before met an old woman who had threatened
+him. Again, more than a year before Darrel came to
+Nottingham, Somers had had two encounters with a
+strange woman "at a deep cole-pit, hard by the way-side."
+Soon afterwards he "did use such strang
+and idle kinde of gestures in laughing, dancing and such
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>like lighte behaviour, that he was suspected to be
+madd." He began to suffer from bodily distortions
+and to evince other signs of possession which created
+no little excitement in Nottingham.</p>
+
+<p>Darrel had been sent for by this time. He came at
+once and with his usual precipitancy pronounced the
+case one of possession. Somers, he said, was suffering
+for the sins of Nottingham.<a name="FNanchor_82-1_18" id="FNanchor_82-1_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_82-1_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> It was time that
+something should be done. Prayer and fasting were
+instituted. For three days the youth was preached to
+and prayed over, while the people of Nottingham, or
+some of them at least, joined in the fast. On the third
+day came what was deemed a most remarkable exhibition.
+The preacher named slowly, one after another,
+fourteen signs of possession. As he named them
+Somers illustrated in turn each form of possession.<a name="FNanchor_82-2_19" id="FNanchor_82-2_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_82-2_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a>
+Here was confirmatory evidence of a high order. The
+exorcist had outdone himself. He now held out promises
+of deliverance for the subject. For a quarter
+of an hour the boy lay as if dead, and then rose up
+quite well.</p>
+
+<p>Darrel now took up again the witchfinder's rôle he
+had once before assumed. Somers was encouraged to
+name the contrivers of his bewitchment. Through
+him, Darrel is said to have boasted, they would expose
+all the witches in England.<a name="FNanchor_82-3_20" id="FNanchor_82-3_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_82-3_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> They made a most excellent
+start at it. Thirteen women were accused by the
+boy,<a name="FNanchor_82-4_21" id="FNanchor_82-4_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_82-4_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> who would fall into fits at the sight of a witch,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>and a general invitation was extended to prefer charges.
+But the community was becoming a bit incredulous
+and failed to respond. All but two of the accused
+women were released.</p>
+
+<p>The witch-discoverer, who in the meantime had been
+chosen preacher at St. Mary's in Nottingham, made two
+serious mistakes. He allowed accusations to be preferred
+against Alice Freeman, sister of an alderman,<a name="FNanchor_83-1_22" id="FNanchor_83-1_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_83-1_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a>
+and he let Somers be taken out of his hands. By the
+contrivance of some citizens who doubted the possession,
+Somers was placed in the house of correction, on
+a trumped-up charge that he had bewitched a Mr. Sterland
+to death.<a name="FNanchor_83-2_23" id="FNanchor_83-2_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_83-2_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> Removed from the clergyman's influence,
+he made confession that his possessions were
+pretended.<a name="FNanchor_83-3_24" id="FNanchor_83-3_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_83-3_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> Darrel, he declared, had taught him how
+to pretend. The matter had now gained wide notoriety
+and was taken up by the Anglican church. The archdeacon
+of Derby reported the affair to his superiors,
+and the Archbishop of York appointed a commission
+to examine into the case.<a name="FNanchor_83-4_25" id="FNanchor_83-4_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_83-4_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> Whether from alarm or
+because he had anew come under Darrel's influence,
+Somers refused to confess before the commission and
+again acted out his fits with such success that the commission
+seems to have been convinced of the reality of
+his possession.<a name="FNanchor_83-5_26" id="FNanchor_83-5_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_83-5_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> This was a notable victory for the
+exorcist.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span></p><p>But Chief-Justice Anderson of the court of common
+pleas was now commencing the assizes at Nottingham
+and was sitting in judgment on the case of
+Alice Freeman. Anderson was a man of intense convictions.
+He believed in the reality of witchcraft and
+had earlier sent at least one witch to the gallows<a name="FNanchor_84-1_27" id="FNanchor_84-1_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_84-1_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> and
+one to prison.<a name="FNanchor_84-2_28" id="FNanchor_84-2_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_84-2_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> But he was a man who hated Puritanism
+with all his heart, and would at once have suspected
+Puritan exorcism. Whether because the arch-instigator
+against Alice Freeman was a Puritan, or because
+the evidence adduced against her was flimsy, or
+because Somers, again summoned to court, acknowledged
+his fraud,<a name="FNanchor_84-3_29" id="FNanchor_84-3_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_84-3_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> or for all these reasons, Anderson
+not only dismissed the case,<a name="FNanchor_84-4_30" id="FNanchor_84-4_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_84-4_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> but he wrote a letter about
+it to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Archbishop
+Whitgift called Darrel and More before the court of
+high commission, where the Bishop of London, two
+of the Lord Chief-Justices, the master of requests,
+and other eminent officials heard the case. It seems fairly
+certain that Bancroft, the Bishop of London, really
+took control of this examination and that he acted quite
+as much the part of a prosecutor as that of a judge.
+One of Darrel's friends complained bitterly that the
+exorcist was not allowed to make "his particular defences"
+but "was still from time to time cut off by the
+Lord Bishop of London."<a name="FNanchor_84-5_31" id="FNanchor_84-5_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_84-5_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> No doubt the bishop may
+have been somewhat arbitrary. It was his privilege
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>under the procedure of the high commission court, and
+he was dealing with one whom he deemed a very evident
+impostor. In fine, a verdict was rendered against
+the two clergymen. They were deposed from the ministry
+and put in close prison.<a name="FNanchor_85-1_32" id="FNanchor_85-1_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_85-1_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> So great was the stir
+they had caused that in 1599 Samuel Harsnett, chaplain
+to the Bishop of London, published <i>A Discovery of
+the Fraudulent Practises of John Darrel</i>, a careful
+résumé of the entire case, with a complete exposure of
+Darrel's trickery. In this account the testimony of
+Somers was given as to the origin of his possession.
+He testified before the ecclesiastical court that he had
+known Darrel several years before they had met at
+Nottingham. At their first meeting he promised, declared
+Somers, "to tell me some thinges, wherein if
+I would be ruled by him, I should not be driven to goe
+so barely as I did." Darrel related to Somers the
+story of Katherine Wright and her possession, and
+remarked, "If thou wilt sweare unto me to keepe my
+counsell, I will teache thee to doe all those trickes which
+Katherine Wright did, and many others that are more
+straunge." He then illustrated some of the tricks for the
+benefit of his pupil and gave him a written paper of
+directions. From that time on there were meetings
+between the two at various places. The pupil, however,
+was not altogether successful with his fits and was
+once turned out of service as a pretender. He was
+then apprenticed to the musician already mentioned,
+and again met Darrel, who urged him to go and see
+Thomas Darling of Burton, "because," says Somers,
+"that seeing him in his fittes, I might the better learn to
+do them myselfe." Somers met Darrel again and went
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>through with a series of tricks of possession. It was
+after all these meetings and practice that Somers began
+his career as a possessed person in Nottingham and
+was prayed over by Mr. Darrel. Such at least was
+his story as told to the ecclesiastical commission. It
+would be hazardous to say that the narrative was all
+true. Certainly it was accepted by Harsnett, who may
+be called the official reporter of the proceedings at Darrel's
+trial, as substantially true.<a name="FNanchor_86-1_33" id="FNanchor_86-1_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_86-1_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p>
+
+<p>The publication of the <i>Discovery</i> by Harsnett proved
+indeed to be only the beginning of a pamphlet controversy
+which Darrel and his supporters were but too
+willing to take up.<a name="FNanchor_86-2_34" id="FNanchor_86-2_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_86-2_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> Harsnett himself after his first
+onslaught did not re-enter the contest. The semi-official
+character of his writing rendered it unnecessary to
+refute the statements of a convicted man. At any rate,
+he was soon occupied with another production of similar
+aim. In 1602 Bishop Bancroft was busily collecting
+the materials, in the form of sworn statements, for the
+exposure of Catholic pretenders. He turned the material
+over to his chaplain. Whether the several examinations
+of Roman exorcists and their subjects were
+the result of a new interest in exposing exorcism on
+the part of the powers which had sent Darrel to prison,
+or whether they were merely a phase of increased vigilance
+against the activity of the Roman priests, we cannot
+be sure. The first conclusion does not seem improbable.
+Be that as it may, the court of high com<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>mission
+got hold of evidence enough to justify the privy
+council in authorizing a full publication of the testimony.<a name="FNanchor_87-1_35" id="FNanchor_87-1_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_87-1_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a>
+Harsnett was deputed to write the account
+of the Catholic exorcists which was brought out in
+1603 under the title of <i>A Declaration of Egregious
+Popish Impostures</i>. We have not the historical materials
+with which to verify the claims made in the book.
+On the face of it the case against the Roman priests
+looks bad. A mass of examinations was printed which
+seem to show that the Jesuit Weston and his confreres
+in England had been guilty of a great deal of
+jugglery and pretence. The Jesuits, however, were
+wiser in their generation than the Puritans and had
+not made charges of witchcraft. For that reason their
+performances may be passed over.</p>
+
+<p>Neither the pretences of the Catholics nor the refutation
+of them are very important for our purposes.
+The exposure of John Darrel was of significance, because
+it involved the guilt or innocence of the women
+he accused as witches, as well as because the ecclesiastical
+authorities took action against him and thereby
+levelled a blow directly at exorcism and possession<a name="FNanchor_87-2_36" id="FNanchor_87-2_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_87-2_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> and
+indirectly at loose charges of witchcraft. Harsnett's
+books were the outcome of this affair and the ensuing
+exposures of the Catholics, and they were more sig<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>nificant
+than anything that had gone before. The
+Church of England had not committed itself very
+definitely on witchcraft, but its spokesman in the attack
+upon the Catholic pretenders took no uncertain
+ground. He was skeptical not only about exorcism but
+about witchcraft as well. It is refreshing and inspiriting
+to read his hard-flung and pungent words.
+"Out of these," he wrote, "is shaped us the true <i>Idea</i>
+of a Witch, an old weather-beaten Croane, having her
+chinne and her knees meeting for age, walking like a
+bow leaning on a shaft, hollow-eyed, untoothed, furrowed
+on her face, having her lips trembling with the
+palsie, going mumbling in the streetes, one that hath
+forgotten her <i>pater noster</i>, and hath yet a shrewd
+tongue in her head, to call a drab, a drab. If shee have
+learned of an olde wife in a chimnies end: <i>Pax, max,
+fax</i>, for a spel: or can say <i>Sir John of Grantams</i> curse,
+for the Millers Eeles, that were stolne: ... Why then
+ho, beware, looke about you my neighbours; if any of
+you have a sheepe sicke of the giddies, or an hogge of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>the mumps, or an horse of the staggers, or a knavish
+boy of the schoole, or an idle girle of the wheele, or a
+young drab of the sullens, and hath not fat enough for
+her porredge, nor her father and mother butter enough
+for their bread; and she have a little helpe of the
+<i>Mother</i>, <i>Epilepsie</i>, or <i>Cramp</i>, ... and then with-all
+old mother <i>Nobs</i> hath called her by chaunce 'idle young
+huswife,' or bid the devil scratch her, then no doubt
+but mother <i>Nobs</i> is the witch.... <i>Horace</i> the Heathen
+spied long agoe, that a Witch, a Wizard, and a Conjurer
+were but bul-beggers to scare fooles.... And
+<i>Geoffry Chaucer</i>, who had his two eyes, wit, and learning
+in his head, spying that all these brainlesse imaginations
+of witchings, possessings, house-hanting, and
+the rest, were the forgeries, cosenages, Imposturs, and
+legerdemaine of craftie priests, ... writes in good
+plaine terms."<a name="FNanchor_89-1_37" id="FNanchor_89-1_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_89-1_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a></p>
+
+<p>It meant a good deal that Harsnett took such a stand.
+Scot had been a voice crying in the wilderness. Harsnett
+was supported by the powers in church and state.
+He was, as has been seen, the chaplain of Bishop Bancroft,<a name="FNanchor_89-2_38" id="FNanchor_89-2_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_89-2_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a>
+now&mdash;from 1604&mdash;to become Archbishop of
+Canterbury. He was himself to become eminent in
+English history as master of Pembroke Hall (Cambridge),
+vice-chancellor of Cambridge University,
+Bishop of Chichester, Bishop of Norwich, and Arch<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>bishop
+of York.<a name="FNanchor_90-1_39" id="FNanchor_90-1_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_90-1_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> Whatever support he had at the
+time&mdash;and it is very clear that he had the backing of
+the English church on the question of exorcism&mdash;his
+later position and influence must have given great
+weight not only to his views on exorcism but to his
+skepticism about witchcraft.<a name="FNanchor_90-2_40" id="FNanchor_90-2_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_90-2_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p>
+
+<p>His opinions on the subject, so far as can be judged
+by his few direct statements and by implications, were
+quite as radical as those of his predecessor.<a name="FNanchor_90-3_41" id="FNanchor_90-3_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_90-3_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> As a
+matter of fact he was a man who read widely<a name="FNanchor_90-4_42" id="FNanchor_90-4_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_90-4_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> and
+had pondered deeply on the superstition, but his thought
+had been colored by Scot.<a name="FNanchor_90-5_43" id="FNanchor_90-5_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_90-5_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> His assault, however, was
+less direct and studied than that of his master. Scot
+was a man of uncommonly serious temperament, a
+plain, blunt-spoken, church-going Englishman who
+covered the whole ground of superstition without
+turning one phrase less serious than another. His pupil,
+if so Harsnett may be called, wrote earnestly, even ag<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>gressively,
+but with a sarcastic and bitter humor that
+entertained the reader and was much less likely to convince.
+The curl never left his lips. If at times a smile
+appeared, it was but an accented sneer. A writer with
+a feeling indeed for the delicate effects of word combination,
+if his humor had been less chilled by hate, if
+his wit had been of a lighter and more playful vein,
+he might have laughed superstition out of England.
+When he described the dreadful power of holy water
+and frankincense and the book of exorcisms "to scald,
+broyle and sizzle the devil," or "the dreadful power of
+the crosse and sacrament of the altar to torment the
+devill and to make him roare," or "the astonishable
+power of nicknames, reliques and asses ears,"<a name="FNanchor_91-1_44" id="FNanchor_91-1_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_91-1_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> he
+revealed a faculty of fun-making just short of effective
+humor.</p>
+
+<p>It would not be fair to leave Harsnett without a
+word on his place as a writer. In point of literary distinction
+his prose style maintains a high level. In the
+use of forceful epithet and vivid phrase he is excelled
+by no Elizabethan prose writer. Because his writings
+deal so largely with dry-as-dust reports of examinations,
+they have never attained to that position in English
+literature which parts of them merit.<a name="FNanchor_91-2_45" id="FNanchor_91-2_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_91-2_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a></p>
+
+<p>Harsnett's book was the last chapter in the story of
+Elizabethan witchcraft and exorcism. It is hardly too
+much to say that it was the first chapter in the literary
+exploitation of witchcraft. Out of the <i>Declaration</i>
+Shakespeare and Ben Jonson mined those ores which
+when fused and refined by imagination and fancy
+were shaped into the shining forms of art. Shake<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>spearean
+scholars have pointed out the connection between
+the dramatist and the exposer of exorcism. It
+has indeed been suggested by one student of Shakespeare
+that the great playwright was lending his aid by
+certain allusions in <i>Twelfth Night</i> to Harsnett's attempts
+to pour ridicule on Puritan exorcism.<a name="FNanchor_92-1_46" id="FNanchor_92-1_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_92-1_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> It would
+be hard to say how much there is in this suggestion.
+About Ben Jonson we can speak more certainly. It is
+clearly evident that he sneered at Darrel's pretended
+possessions. In the third scene of the fifth act of <i>The
+Devil is an Ass</i> he makes Mere-craft say:</p>
+
+<div class="block" style="width: 40%;"><div class="poem">
+It is the easiest thing, Sir, to be done.<br />
+As plaine as fizzling: roule but wi' your eyes,<br />
+And foame at th' mouth. A little castle-soape<br />
+Will do 't, to rub your lips: And then a nutshell,<br />
+With toe and touchwood in it to spit fire,<br />
+Did you ner'e read, Sir, little <i>Darrel's</i> tricks,<br />
+With the boy o' <i>Burton</i>, and the 7 in <i>Lancashire</i>,<br />
+Sommers at <i>Nottingham</i>? All these do teach it.<br />
+And wee'l give out, Sir, that your wife ha's bewitch'd you.<br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>This is proof enough, not only that Jonson was in
+sympathy with the Anglican assailants of Puritan exorcism,
+but that he expected to find others of like opinion
+among those who listened to his play. And it was
+not unreasonable that he should expect this. It is clear
+enough that the powers of the Anglican church were
+behind Harsnett and that their influence gave his views
+weight. We have already observed that there were
+some evidences in the last part of Elizabeth's reign of
+a reaction against witch superstition. Harsnett's
+book, while directed primarily against exorcism, is
+nevertheless another proof of that reaction.</p>
+
+<hr class="foot" />
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74-1_1" id="Footnote_74-1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74-1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Sir George Peckham of Denham near Uxbridge and Lord Vaux of
+Hackney were two of the most prominent Catholics who opened their
+homes for these performances. See Samuel Harsnett, <i>Declaration of
+Egregious Popish Impostures</i> (London, 1603), 7, 8.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74-2_2" id="Footnote_74-2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74-2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> For a discussion of the Catholic exorcists see T. G. Law, "Devil
+Hunting in Elizabethan England," in the <i>Nineteenth Century</i> for March,
+1894. Peckham's other activities in behalf of his church are discussed
+by Dr. R. B. Merriman in "Some Notes on the Treatment of English
+Catholics in the Reign of Elizabeth," in the <i>Am. Hist. Rev.</i>, April, 1908.
+Dr. Merriman errs, however, in supposing that John Darrel cooperated
+with Weston and the Catholic exorcists; <i>ibid.</i>, note 51. Darrel was a
+Puritan and had nothing to do with the Catholic performances.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75-1_3" id="Footnote_75-1_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75-1_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> It is quite possible to suppose, however, that its course would have
+been run in much the same way at a later time.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75-2_4" id="Footnote_75-2_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75-2_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> For Harsnett's account of Katherine Wright see his <i>Discovery of
+the Fraudulent Practises of John Darrel</i> (London, 1599), 297-315. For
+Darrel's story see <i>The Triall of Maist. Dorrel, or A Collection of Defences
+against Allegations ...</i> (1599), 15-21.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75-3_5" id="Footnote_75-3_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75-3_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> See Harsnett, <i>Discovery</i>, 310.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75-4_6" id="Footnote_75-4_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75-4_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Katherine Wright's evil spirit returned later.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76-1_7" id="Footnote_76-1_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76-1_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> "I have seene her begging at our doore," he declared, "as for
+her name I know it not."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77-1_8" id="Footnote_77-1_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77-1_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Harsnett, <i>Discovery</i>, 41, 265, deals briefly with the Darling case and
+Alse Gooderidge. See also John Darrel, <i>A Detection of that sinnful,
+shamful, lying, and ridiculous discours of Samuel Harshnet</i> (1600),
+38-40. But the fullest account is a pamphlet at the Lambeth Palace
+library. It is entitled <i>The most wonderfull and true Storie of a certaine
+Witch named Alse Gooderidge of Stapenhill.... As also a true Report
+of the strange Torments of Thomas Darling....</i> (London, 1597). For
+a discussion of this pamphlet see appendix A, § 1.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77-2_9" id="Footnote_77-2_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77-2_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> The boy was visited by a stranger who tried to persuade him that
+there were no witches. But this Derbyshire disciple of Scot had come
+to the wrong place and his efforts were altogether useless.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78-1_10" id="Footnote_78-1_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78-1_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Meantime her mother Elizabeth Wright was also being worried. She
+was found on her knees in prayer. No doubt the poor woman was taking
+this method of alleviating her distress; but her devotion was interpreted
+as worship of the Devil.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78-2_11" id="Footnote_78-2_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78-2_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> So Darrel says. The pamphleteer Denison, who put together the
+story of Alse Gooderidge, wrote "she should have been executed but
+that her spirit killed her in prison."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78-3_12" id="Footnote_78-3_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78-3_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Darrel gives an extended account of this affair in <i>A True Narration
+of the strange and grevous Vexation by the Devil of seven persons in
+Lancashire</i> (1600; reprinted in <i>Somers Tracts</i>, III), 170-179. See also
+George More, <i>A true Discourse concerning the certaine possession and
+dispossession of 7 persons in one familie in Lancashire ...</i> (1600), 9 ff.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79-1_13" id="Footnote_79-1_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79-1_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Certain matters in connection with this case are interesting. George
+More tells us that Mrs. Starchie was an "inheritrix." Some of her kindred,
+Papists, prayed for the perishing of her issue. Four of her children
+pined away. Mrs. Starchie, when told of their prayers, conveyed all
+her property to her husband. She had two children afterwards, the two
+that were stricken. It is possible that all this may present some key
+to the case, but it is hard to see just how. See More, <i>A true Discourse</i>,
+11-12.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79-2_14" id="Footnote_79-2_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79-2_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> George More, <i>A true Discourse</i>, 15; Harsnett, <i>Discovery</i>, 22. While
+Dee took no part in the affair except that he "sharply reproved and
+straitly examined" Hartley, he lent Mr. Hopwood, the justice of the
+peace before whom Hartley was brought, his copy of the book of Wierus,
+then the collections of exorcisms known as the <i>Flagellum Dćmonum</i> and
+the <i>Fustis Dćmonum</i>, and finally the famous <i>Malleus Maleficarum</i>. See
+Dee's <i>Private Diary</i> (Camden Soc., London, 1843), entries for March
+19, April 15, and August 6, 1597.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80-1_15" id="Footnote_80-1_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80-1_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> George More, <i>A true Discourse</i>, 21; Darrel, <i>A True Narration</i>
+(<i>Somers Tracts</i>, III), 175.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81-1_16" id="Footnote_81-1_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81-1_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Harsnett, <i>Discovery</i>, tells us that "certain Seminarie priests" got
+hold of her and carried her up and down the country and thereby
+"wonne great credit."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81-2_17" id="Footnote_81-2_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81-2_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Darrel's account of this affair is in <i>A True Narration</i> (<i>Somers
+Tracts</i>, III), 179-186. Harsnett takes it up in his <i>Discovery</i>, 78-264.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82-1_18" id="Footnote_82-1_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82-1_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> See deposition of Cooper, in Harsnett, <i>Discovery</i>, 114.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82-2_19" id="Footnote_82-2_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82-2_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Depositions of Somers and Darrel, <i>ibid.</i>, 124-125. It must be recalled
+that when this was first tried before a commission they were
+convinced that it was not imposture. A layman cannot refrain from
+suspecting that Darrel had hypnotic control over Somers.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82-3_20" id="Footnote_82-3_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82-3_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 141-142.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82-4_21" id="Footnote_82-4_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82-4_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 141. Harsnett quotes Darrel for this statement.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83-1_22" id="Footnote_83-1_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83-1_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 5; John Darrel, <i>An Apologie, or defence of the possession of
+William Sommers ...</i> (1599?), L verso.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83-2_23" id="Footnote_83-2_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83-2_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Darrel, <i>A True Narration</i> (<i>Somers Tracts</i>, III), 184; see also his
+<i>A brief Apologie proving the possession of William Sommers ...</i> (1599),
+17.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83-3_24" id="Footnote_83-3_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83-3_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Harsnett, <i>Discovery</i>, 7.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83-4_25" id="Footnote_83-4_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83-4_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83-5_26" id="Footnote_83-5_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83-5_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 8; Darrel, <i>An Apologie, or defence</i>, 4; Darrel, <i>A True Narration</i>
+(<i>Somers Tracts</i>, III), 185.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84-1_27" id="Footnote_84-1_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84-1_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> <i>Triall of Maist. Dorrel</i>, narrative in back of pamphlet.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84-2_28" id="Footnote_84-2_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84-2_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Darrel, <i>A Detection of that sinnful ... discours of Samuel Harshnet</i>,
+40. And see above, p. 56, note.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84-3_29" id="Footnote_84-3_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84-3_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Harsnett, <i>Discovery</i>, 8.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84-4_30" id="Footnote_84-4_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84-4_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 320-322; Darrel, <i>An Apologie, or defence</i>, L III, says that
+the third jury acquitted her. Harsnett refers to the fact that he was
+found guilty by the grand inquest.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84-5_31" id="Footnote_84-5_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84-5_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> <i>The Triall of Maist. Dorrel</i>, preface "To the Reader."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85-1_32" id="Footnote_85-1_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85-1_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> Harsnett, <i>Discovery</i>, 9.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_86-1_33" id="Footnote_86-1_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86-1_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 78-98.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_86-2_34" id="Footnote_86-2_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86-2_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Yet Darrel must have realized that he had the worst of it. There is
+a pathetic acknowledgment of this in the "Preface to the Reader"
+of his publication, <i>A Survey of Certaine Dialogical Discourses, written
+by John Deacon and John Walker ...</i> (1602): "But like a tried
+and weather-beaten bird [I] wish for quiet corner to rest myself in and
+to drye my feathers in the warme sun."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_87-1_35" id="Footnote_87-1_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87-1_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> T. G. Law, "Devil Hunting in Elizabethan England," in <i>Nineteenth
+Century</i>, March, 1894.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_87-2_36" id="Footnote_87-2_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87-2_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> On the matter of exorcism the position of the Church of England
+became fixed by 1604. The question had been a cause of disagreement
+among the leaders of the Reformation. The Lutherans retained exorcism
+in the baptismal ritual and rivalled the Roman clergy in their exorcism
+of the possessed. It was just at the close of the sixteenth century
+that there arose in Lutheran Germany a hot struggle between the believers
+in exorcism and those who would oust it as a superstition. The
+Swiss and Genevan reformers, unlike Luther, had discarded exorcism,
+declaring it to have belonged only to the early church, and charging
+modern instances to Papist fraud; and with them seem to have agreed
+their South German friends. In England baptismal exorcism was at first
+retained in the ritual under Edward VI, but in 1552, under Bucer's
+influence, it was dropped. Under Elizabeth the yet greater influence of
+Zurich and Geneva must have discredited all exorcism, and one finds
+abundant evidence of this in the writings of Jewel and his followers.
+An interesting letter of Archbishop Parker in 1574 shows his utter
+incredulity as to possession in the case of Agnes Bridges and Rachel
+Pinder of Lothbury; see Parker's <i>Correspondence</i> (Parker Soc., Cambridge,
+1856), 465-466. His successor, the Calvinistic Whitgift, was
+almost certainly of the same mind. Bancroft, the next archbishop of
+Canterbury, drew up or at least inspired that epoch-making body of
+canons enacted by Convocation in the spring of 1604, the 72d article of
+which forbids any Anglican clergyman, without the express consent of
+his bishop obtained beforehand, to use exorcism in any fashion under
+any pretext, on pain of being counted an impostor and deposed from
+the ministry. This ended the matter so far as the English church was
+concerned. For this résumé of the Protestant and the Anglican attitude
+toward exorcism I am indebted to Professor Burr.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_89-1_37" id="Footnote_89-1_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89-1_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> Harsnett, <i>A Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures</i> (London,
+1605), 136-138.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_89-2_38" id="Footnote_89-2_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89-2_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> It is not impossible that Harsnett was acting as a mouth-piece for
+Bancroft. Darrel wrote: "There is no doubt but that S. H. stand for
+Samuell Harsnet, chapline to the Bishop of London, but whither he
+alone, or his lord and hee, have discovered this counterfeyting and cosonage
+there is the question. Some thinke the booke to be the Bishops owne
+doing: and many thinke it to be the joynt worke of them both." <i>A
+Detection of that sinnful ... discours of Samuel Harshnet</i>, 7, 8.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_90-1_39" id="Footnote_90-1_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90-1_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> From 1602 until 1609 he was archdeacon of Essex; see <i>Victoria
+History of Essex</i>, II, (London, 1907), 46.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_90-2_40" id="Footnote_90-2_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90-2_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> There is a statement by the Reverend John Swan, who wrote in
+1603, that Harsnett's book had been put into the hands of King James,
+presumably after his coming to England; see John Swan, <i>A True and
+Breife Report of Mary Glover's Vexation, and of her deliverance ...</i>
+(1603), "Dedication to the King," 3. One could wish for some confirmation
+of this statement. Certainly James would not at that time have
+sympathized with Harsnett's views about witches, but his attitude on
+several occasions toward those supposed to be possessed by evil spirits
+would indicate that he may very well have been influenced by a reading
+of the <i>Discovery</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_90-3_41" id="Footnote_90-3_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90-3_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> On page 36 of the <i>Discovery</i> Harsnett wrote: "Whether witches can
+send devils into men and women (as many doe pretende) is a question
+amongst those that write of such matters, and the learneder and sounder
+sort doe hold the negative." One does not need to read far in Harsnett
+to understand what he thought.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_90-4_42" id="Footnote_90-4_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90-4_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> His scholarship, evident from his books, is attested by Thomas
+Fuller, who calls him "a man of great learning, strong parts, and stout
+spirit" (<i>Worthies of England</i>, ed. of London, 1840, I, 507).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_90-5_43" id="Footnote_90-5_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90-5_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> See his <i>Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures</i>, 134-136; his
+<i>Discovery</i> also shows the use of Scot.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_91-1_44" id="Footnote_91-1_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_91-1_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> Harsnett, <i>Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures</i>, 98, 123, 110.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_91-2_45" id="Footnote_91-2_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_91-2_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> Read <i>ibid.</i>, 131-140.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_92-1_46" id="Footnote_92-1_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_92-1_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> Joseph Hunter, <i>New Illustrations of the Life, Studies and Writings
+of Shakespeare</i> (London, 1845), I, 380-390.</p></div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2 class="chapter"><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<h3 class="chapter2">James I and Witchcraft.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Some one has remarked that witchcraft came into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>
+England with the Stuarts and went out with them.
+This offhand way of fixing the rise and fall of a movement
+has just enough truth about it to cause misconception.
+Nothing is easier than to glance at the alarms
+of Elizabeth's reign and to see in them accidental outbreaks
+with little meaning, isolated affairs presaging
+a new movement rather than part of it. As a matter
+of fact, any such view is superficial. In previous chapters
+the writer has endeavored to show just how foreign
+ideas and conditions at home gave the impulse
+to a movement which within a single reign took very
+definite form.</p>
+
+<p>Yet so much was the movement accelerated, such
+additional impetus was given it by James I, that the
+view that James set the superstition going in England,
+however superficial, has some truth in it. If Elizabeth
+had ever given the matter thought, she had not at least
+given it many words. James had very definite opinions
+on the subject and hesitated not at all to make them
+known. His views had weight. It is useless to deny
+that the royal position swayed the courts. James's part
+in the witch persecution cannot be condoned, save on
+the ground that he was perfectly honest. He felt
+deeply on the matter. It was little wonder. He had
+grown up in Scotland in the very midst of the witch
+alarms. His own life, he believed, had been imperilled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>
+by the machinations of witches. He believed he had
+every reason to fear and hate the creatures, and we can
+only wonder that he was so moderate as we shall later
+find him to have been. The story of the affair that
+stirred up the Scottish king and his people has often been
+told, but it must be included here to make his attitude
+explicable. In 1589 he had arranged for a marriage
+with the Princess Anne of Denmark. The marriage
+had been performed by proxy in July, and it was then
+provided that the princess was to come to England.
+She set out, but was driven on to the coast of Norway
+by a violent storm, and detained there by the continuance
+of the storms. James sailed to Upsala, and, after
+a winter in the north of the Continent, brought his
+bride to Scotland in the spring, not without encountering
+more rough weather. To the people of the time
+it was quite clear that the ocean was unfriendly to
+James's alliance. Had Scotland been ancient Greece,
+no doubt Neptune would have been propitiated by a
+sacrifice. But it was Scotland, and the ever-to-be-feared
+Satan was not so easily propitiated. He had
+been very active of late in the realm.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover it was a time when Satanic and other conspiracies
+were likely to come to light. The kingdom
+was unsettled, if not discontented. There were plots, and
+rumors of plots. The effort to expose them, as well
+as to thwart the attacks of the evil one on the king,
+led to the conception and spread of the monstrous story
+of the conspiracy of Dr. Fian. Dr. Fian was nothing
+less than a Scottish Dr. Faustus. He was a schoolmaster
+by profession. After a dissolute youth he was said
+to have given soul to the Devil. According to the story
+he gathered around him a motley crowd, Catholic women<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>
+of rank, "wise women," and humble peasant people;
+but it was a crew ready for evil enterprise. It is not
+very clear why they were supposed to have attacked
+the king; perhaps because of his well known piety,
+perhaps because he was a Protestant. In any case they
+set about, as the story went, to destroy him, and thought
+to have found their opportunity in his trip to Denmark.
+They would drown him in a storm at sea. There was
+a simple expedient for raising a storm, the throwing of
+cats into the sea. This Scottish method of sacrificing
+to Neptune was duly carried out, and, as we have seen,
+just fell short of destroying the king. It was only the
+piety of the king, as Dr. Fian admitted in his confession,
+that overmatched the power of the evil one.<a name="FNanchor_95-1_1" id="FNanchor_95-1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_95-1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>Such is the story that stirred Scotland from end to
+end. It is a story that is easily explained. The confessions
+were wrung from the supposed conspirators
+by the various forms of torture "lately provided for
+witches in that country." Geillis Duncane had been
+tried with "the torture of the pilliwinkes upon her
+fingers, which is a grievous torture, and binding or
+wrinching her head with a cord or roape." Agnes
+Sampson had suffered terrible tortures and shameful
+indignities until her womanly modesty could no longer
+endure it and she confessed "whatsoever was demanded
+of her." Dr. Fian was put through the or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>dinary
+forms of torture and was then "put to the most
+severe and cruel pain in the world, called the bootes,"
+and thereby was at length induced to break his silence
+and to incriminate himself. At another time, when the
+king, who examined him in person, saw that the man
+was stubborn and denied the confessions already made,
+he ordered him to be tortured again. His finger nails
+were pulled off with a pair of pincers, and under what
+was left of them needles were inserted "up to the
+heads." This was followed by other tortures too terrible
+to narrate.<a name="FNanchor_96-1_2" id="FNanchor_96-1_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_96-1_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p>It is a little hard to understand how it was that the
+king "took great delight to be present at the examinations,"
+but throughout the whole wretched series of
+trials he was never wanting in zeal. When Barbara
+Napier, sister-in-law to the laird of Carshoggil, was to
+be executed, a postponement had been granted on account
+of her approaching accouchement. Afterwards,
+"nobody insisting in the pursute of her, she was set at
+libertie." It seems also that the jury that had before
+condemned her had acquitted her of the main charge,
+that of treasonable witchcraft against the king. The
+king was angered at the default of justice, went to the
+Tolbooth, and made an address on the subject. He
+spoke of "his own impartiality, the use of witchcraft,
+the enormity of the crime, ... the ignorance of thinking
+such matters mere fantasies, the cause of his own
+interference in the matter, the ignorance of the assizes
+in the late trial, his own opinion of what witches really
+are."<a name="FNanchor_96-2_3" id="FNanchor_96-2_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_96-2_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></p><p>It was only a few years later that James put that
+opinion into written form. All the world knows that
+the king was a serious student. With unremitting zeal
+he studied this matter, and in 1597, seven years after
+the Dr. Fian affair, he published his <i>Dćmonologie</i>.<a name="FNanchor_97-1_4" id="FNanchor_97-1_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_97-1_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> It
+was expressly designed to controvert the "damnable
+opinions of two principally in our age"&mdash;Scot, who
+"is not ashamed in publick Print to deny that there
+can be such a thing as witchcraft," and Wierus, "a
+German physician," who "sets out a publicke apologie
+for all these craft-folkes whereby ... he plainly bewrayes
+himself to have been one of that profession."</p>
+
+<p>It was to be expected that James would be an exponent
+of the current system of belief. He had read
+diligently, if not widely, in the Continental lore of the
+subject and had assimilated much of it. He was Scotch
+enough to be interested in theology and Stuart enough
+to have very definite opinions. James had, too, his
+own way of putting things. There was a certain freshness
+about his treatment, in spite of the fact that he was
+ploughing old fields. Nothing illustrates better his combination
+of adherence to tradition, of credulity, and of
+originality than his views on the transportation of
+witches, a subject that had long engaged the theorists
+in demonology. Witches could be transported, he believed,
+by natural means, or they could be carried
+through the air "by the force of the spirit which is
+their conducter," as Habakkuk was carried by the
+angel.<a name="FNanchor_97-2_5" id="FNanchor_97-2_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_97-2_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> This much he could accept. But that they
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>could be transformed into a "little beast or foule"
+and pierce through "whatsoever house or Church,
+though all ordinarie passages be closed," this he
+refused to believe. So far, however, there was nothing
+original about either his belief or his disbelief. But
+his suggestion on another matter was very probably his
+own. There had been long discussion as to how far
+through the air witches could go. It was James's
+opinion that they could go only so far as they could
+retain their breath.</p>
+
+<p>But it was seldom that the royal demonologist wandered
+far from the beaten road. He was a conformist
+and he felt that the orthodox case needed defence: so
+he set about to answer the objectors. To the argument
+that it was a strange thing that witches were melancholy
+and solitary women (and so, he would have explained,
+offer the easiest object of attack) he interposed a flat
+denial: they are "some of them rich and worldly-wise,
+some of them fat or corpulent in their bodies."
+To the point that if witches had the power ascribed to
+them no one but themselves would be left alive in the
+world, he answered that such would be the case, were
+not the power of the Devil bridled by God. To the
+plea that God would not allow his children to be vexed
+by the Devil, he replied that God permits the godly
+who are sleeping in sin to be troubled; that He even
+allows the Evil One to vex the righteous for his own
+good&mdash;a conventional argument that has done service
+in many a theological controversy.</p>
+
+<p>It is a curious circumstance that James seemingly
+recognized the reliability of the Romish exorcisms
+which the Church of England was about that time beginning
+to attack. His explanation of them is worthy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>
+of "the wisest fool in Christendom." The Papists
+could often effect cures of the possessed, he thought,
+because "the divell is content to release the bodily
+hurting of them, ... thereby to obtain the perpetual
+hurt of the soules."</p>
+
+<p>That James should indulge in religious disquisitions
+rather than in points of evidence was to be expected.
+Although he had given up the Scottish theology, he
+never succeeded in getting it thoroughly out of his system.
+As to the evidence against the accused, the royal
+writer was brief. Two sorts of evidence he thought
+of value, one "the finding of their marke, and the
+trying the insensiblenes thereof, the other is their fleeting
+[floating] on the water." The latter sign was based,
+he said, on the fact that the water refuses to receive
+a witch&mdash;that is to say, the pure element would refuse
+to receive those who had renounced their baptism.<a name="FNanchor_99-1_6" id="FNanchor_99-1_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_99-1_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a>
+We shall see that the influence of the <i>Dćmonologie</i> can
+be fairly appraised by measuring the increased use of
+these two tests of guilt within his own reign and that of
+his son. Hitherto the evidence of the mark had been of
+rather less importance, while the ordeal by water was
+not in use.</p>
+
+<p>The alleged witch-mark on the body had to do with
+the contracts between witches and the Devil. This
+loathsome side of witch belief we cannot go into. Suffice
+it to say that James insisted on the reality of these
+contracts and consequently upon the punishment that
+should be meted to those who had entered into them.
+All witches except children should be sentenced to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>death. The king shows a trace of conventional moderation,
+however, and admits that the magistrates
+should be careful whom they condemned. But, while
+he holds that the innocent should not be condemned,
+he warns officials against the sin of failing to convict
+the guilty.<a name="FNanchor_100-1_7" id="FNanchor_100-1_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_100-1_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> We shall see that throughout his reign in
+England he pursued a course perfectly consistent with
+these principles.</p>
+
+<p>A critical estimate of James's book it is somewhat
+hard to give. Students of witchcraft have given utterance
+to the most extravagant but widely divergent
+opinions upon it. The writer confesses that he has
+not that acquaintance with the witch literature of the
+Continent which would enable him to appraise the
+<i>Dćmonologie</i> as to its originality. So good an authority
+as Thomas Wright has declared that it is "much
+inferior to the other treatises on the subject," and that
+it was compiled from foreign works.<a name="FNanchor_100-2_8" id="FNanchor_100-2_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_100-2_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> Doubtless a
+study of the Continental literature would warrant, at
+least in part, this opinion. Yet one gets the impression,
+from what may be learned of that great body of writing
+through the historians of witchcraft, that James's
+opinions were in some respects his own. He had, of
+course, absorbed the current belief, but he did not hesitate
+to give his own interpretation and explanation of
+phenomena. That interpretation is not wanting in
+shrewdness. It seems to one who has wandered through
+many tedious defences of the belief in witchcraft that
+James's work is as able as any in English prior to the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>time of Joseph Glanvill in 1668. One who should read
+Glanvill and James together would get a very satisfactory
+understanding of the position of the defenders
+of the superstition. Glanvill insisted upon what he believed
+were well authenticated facts of experience.
+James grounded his belief upon a course of theoretical
+reasoning.</p>
+
+<p>We have already indicated that James's book was
+influential in its time. It goes without saying that
+his position as a sovereign greatly enhanced its influence.
+This was particularly true after he took the
+throne of England. The dicta that emanated from
+the executive of the English nation could not fail to
+find a wide audience, and especially in England itself.
+His work offered a text-book to officials. It was
+a key to the character and methods of the new ruler,
+and those who hoped for promotion were quick to
+avail themselves of it. To prosecute witches was to
+win the sovereign's approval. The judges were
+prompted to greater activity. Moreover, the sanction
+of royalty gave to popular outbreaks against suspicious
+women greater consideration at the hands of the gentry.
+And it was in the last analysis the gentry, in the
+persons of the justices of the peace, who decided
+whether or no neighborhood whispering and rumors
+should be followed up.</p>
+
+<p>But the king's most direct influence was in the passing
+of a new law. His first Parliament had been in
+session but eight days when steps were taken by the
+House of Lords towards strengthening the statute
+against witchcraft. The law in force, passed in the
+fifth year of Elizabeth's reign, imposed the death penalty
+for killing by witchcraft, and a year's imprison<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>ment
+for injuring by witchcraft or by allied means.
+James would naturally feel that this law was merely
+one version of the statute against murder and did not
+touch the horrible crime of contract with the Devil
+and the keeping of imps.<a name="FNanchor_102-1_9" id="FNanchor_102-1_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_102-1_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> Here was a sin beside which
+the taking of life was a light offence. It was needful
+that those who were guilty of it should suffer the severest
+penalty of the law, even if they had not caused
+the loss of a single life. It was to remedy this defect
+in the criminal code that a new statute was introduced.</p>
+
+<p>It is not worth while to trace the progress of that
+bill from day to day. It can be followed in the journals
+of the Lords and Commons. The bill went to a large
+committee that included six earls and twelve bishops.<a name="FNanchor_102-2_10" id="FNanchor_102-2_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_102-2_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a>
+Perhaps the presence of the bishops was an evidence
+that witchcraft was still looked upon as a sin rather
+than as a crime. It was a matter upon which the opinion
+of the church had been received before and might
+well be accepted again. It was further arranged that
+the Lord Chief-Justice of the common pleas, Sir Edmund
+Anderson, and the attorney-general, the later so
+famous Sir Edward Coke, along with other eminent
+jurists, were to act with the committee. Anderson, it
+will be recalled, had presided over numerous trials and
+had both condemned and released witches. As to
+Coke's attitude towards this subject, we know not a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>thing, save that he served on this committee. The
+committee seems to have found enough to do. At any
+rate the proposed statute underwent revision.<a name="FNanchor_103-1_11" id="FNanchor_103-1_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_103-1_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> Doubtless
+the privy council had a hand in the matter;<a name="FNanchor_103-2_12" id="FNanchor_103-2_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_103-2_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> indeed
+it is not unlikely that the bill was drawn up under
+its direction. On the 9th of June, about two months and
+a half after its introduction, the statute passed its final
+reading in the Lords.<a name="FNanchor_103-3_13" id="FNanchor_103-3_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_103-3_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> It repealed the statute of Elizabeth's
+reign and provided that any one who "shall
+use, practise or exercise any Invocation or Conjuration
+of any evill and wicked Spirit, or shall consult, covenant
+with, entertaine, employe, feede, or rewarde any
+evill and wicked Spirit to or for any intent or purpose;
+or take up any dead man, woman, or child, ... to be imployed
+or used in any manner of Witchcrafte" should
+suffer death as a felon. It further provided that any one
+who should "take upon him or them by Witchcrafte ...
+to tell or declare in what place any treasure of
+Golde or Silver should or might be founde ... or
+where Goods or Things loste or stollen should be
+founde or become, or to the intent to provoke any
+person to unlawfull love, or wherebie any Cattell or
+Goods of any person shall be destroyed, wasted, or
+impaired, or to hurte or destroy any person in his or her
+bodie, although the same be not effected and done,"
+should for the first offence suffer one year's imprisonment
+with four appearances in the pillory, and for the
+second offence, death. The law explains itself. Not
+only the killing of people by the use of evil spirits, but
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>even the using of evil spirits in such a way as actually
+to cause hurt was a capital crime. The second clause
+punished white magic and the intent to hurt, even where
+it "be not effected," by a year's imprisonment and the
+pillory. It can be easily seen that one of the things
+which the framers of the statute were attempting to
+accomplish in their somewhat awkward wording was
+to make the fact of witchcraft as a felony depend
+chiefly upon a single form of evidence, the testimony
+to the use of evil spirits.</p>
+
+<p>We have seen why people with James's convictions
+about contracts with the Devil might desire to rest
+the crime upon this kind of proof.<a name="FNanchor_104-1_14" id="FNanchor_104-1_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_104-1_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> It can be readily
+understood, too, how the statute would work in practice.
+Hitherto it had been possible to arraign a witch
+on the accusations of her neighbors, but it was not possible
+to send her to the gallows unless some death in
+the vicinity could be laid to her charge. The community
+that hustled a suspicious woman to court was
+likely to suffer the expense of her imprisonment for a
+year. It had no assurance that it could be finally rid of
+her.</p>
+
+<p>Under the new statute it was only necessary to prove
+that the woman made use of evil spirits, and she was
+put out of the way. It was a simpler thing to charge
+a woman with keeping a "familiar" than to accuse
+her of murder. The stories that the village gossips
+gathered in their rounds had the keeping of "fa<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>miliars"
+for their central interest.<a name="FNanchor_105-1_15" id="FNanchor_105-1_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_105-1_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> It was only necessary
+to produce a few of these gossips in court and the
+woman was doomed.</p>
+
+<p>To be sure, this is theory. The practical question is,
+not how would the law operate, but how did it operate?
+This brings us again into the dangerous field of statistics.
+Now, if we may suppose that the witch cases
+known to us are a safe basis of comparison, the reign
+of James, as has already been intimated, shows a notable
+increase in witch executions over that of Elizabeth.
+We have records of between forty and fifty people who
+suffered for the crime during the reign of James, all but
+one of them within the first fifteen years. It will be
+seen that the average per year is nearly double that of
+the executions known to us in the first part of Elizabeth's
+rule, and of course several times that of those
+known in the last part. This increased number we
+are at once inclined to assign to the direct and indirect
+influence of the new king. But it may very fairly be
+asked whether the new statute passed at the king's
+suggestion had not been in part responsible for the increased
+number. This question can be answered from
+an examination of those cases where we have the
+charges given. Of thirty-seven such cases in the reign
+of James I, where the capital sentence was given,
+seventeen were on indictments for witchcrafts that had
+not caused death. In the other twenty cases, the accused
+were charged with murder.<a name="FNanchor_105-2_16" id="FNanchor_105-2_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_105-2_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span></p><p>This means that over two-fifths of those who are
+known to have been convicted under the new law would
+have escaped death under the Elizabethan statute.
+With all due allowance for the incompleteness of our
+statistics, it seems certain that the new law had added
+very considerably to the number of capital sentences.
+Subtract the seventeen death sentences for crimes of
+witchcraft that were not murder from the total number
+of such sentences, and we have figures not so different
+from those of Elizabeth's reign.</p>
+
+<p>This is a sufficient comment on the effectiveness of
+the new law as respects its particularly novel features.
+A study of the character of the evidence and of the
+tests of guilt employed at the various trials during the
+reign will show that the phrasing of the law, as well
+as the royal directions for trying guilt, influenced the
+forms of accusation and the verdicts of the juries. In
+other words the testimony rendered in some of the
+well known trials of the reign offers the best commentary
+upon the statute as well as upon the <i>Dćmonologie</i>.
+This can be illustrated from three of the processes
+employed to determine guilt. The king had recommended
+the water ordeal. Up to this time it had not
+been employed in English witch cases, so far as we
+know. The first record of its use was in 1612, nine
+years after James ascended the English throne. In
+that year there was a "discoverie" of witches at
+Northampton. Eight or nine women were accused of
+torturing a man and his sister and of laming others.
+One of them was, at the command of a justice of the
+peace, cast into the water with "her hands and feete
+bound," but "could not sink to the bottome by any
+meanes." The same experiment was applied to Arthur<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>
+Bill and his parents. He was accused of bewitching a
+Martha Aspine. His father and mother had long been
+considered witches. But the "matter remaining doubtful
+that it could not be cleerly tryed upon him," he (and
+his parents) were tied with "their thumbes and great
+toes ... acrosse" and thrown into the water. The
+suspicion that was before not well grounded was now
+confirmed.<a name="FNanchor_107-1_17" id="FNanchor_107-1_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_107-1_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> To be sure, this was done by the justices
+of the peace and we do not know how much it influenced
+the assize court.<a name="FNanchor_107-2_18" id="FNanchor_107-2_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_107-2_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p>
+
+<p>These are the only instances given us by the records
+of James's reign where this test was employed by the
+authorities. But in the very next year after the Northampton
+affair it was used in the adjoining county of
+Bedford by private parties. A land-owner who had
+suffered ills, as he thought, from two tenants, Mother
+Sutton and her daughter, took matters into his own
+hands. His men were ordered to strip the two women
+"in to their smocks," to tie their arms together, and
+to throw them into the water. The precaution of a
+"roape tyed about their middles" was useless, for
+both floated. This was not enough. The mother, tied
+toe and thumb, was thrown into the water again. She
+"sunke not at all, but sitting upon the water turned
+round about like a wheele.... And then being taken
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>up, she as boldly as if she had beene innocent asked
+them if they could doe any more to her."</p>
+
+<p>The use of marks as evidence was not as new as the
+water ordeal. But it is a rather curious thing that in
+the two series of cases involving water ordeal the other
+process was also emphasized. In these two instances it
+would seem as if the advice of the <i>Dćmonologie</i> had
+been taken very directly by the accusers.<a name="FNanchor_108-1_19" id="FNanchor_108-1_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_108-1_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> There was
+one other instance of this test.<a name="FNanchor_108-2_20" id="FNanchor_108-2_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_108-2_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> The remarkable
+thing, however, is that in the most important trial of
+the time, that at Lancaster in 1612, there was an utter
+absence, at least so far as the extant record goes, of
+female juries or of reports from them.<a name="FNanchor_108-3_21" id="FNanchor_108-3_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_108-3_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> This method
+of determining guilt was not as yet widely accepted in
+the courts. We can hardly doubt that it had been
+definitely forbidden at Lancaster.<a name="FNanchor_108-4_22" id="FNanchor_108-4_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_108-4_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> The evidence of the
+use of evil spirits, against which the statute of the first
+year of James I had been especially framed, was employed
+in such a large proportion of trials that it is not
+worth while to go over the cases in detail.</p>
+
+<p>The law forbade to take up any dead person or the
+skin, bone, or other part thereof for use in witchcraft.
+Presumably some instance of this form of
+witchcraft had been responsible for the phrase, but
+we have on record no case of the sort until a few
+years after the passage of the statute. It was one of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>the principal charges against Johanna Harrison of
+Royston in 1606 that the officers found in her possession
+"all the bones due to the Anatomy of man and
+woman."<a name="FNanchor_109-1_23" id="FNanchor_109-1_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_109-1_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> This discovery brought out other charges
+and she was hanged. At the famous Lancashire trials
+in 1612 the arch-witch Chattox was declared to have
+had in her possession three scalps and eight teeth. She
+was guilty on other counts, but she escaped the executioner
+by death.</p>
+
+<p>These are illustrations of the point that the <i>Dćmonologie</i>
+and the statute of James I find their commentary
+in the evidence offered at the trials. It goes without
+saying that these illustrations represent only a few
+of the forms of testimony given in the courts. It may
+not, therefore, be amiss to run over some other specimens
+of the proof that characterized the witch trials
+of the reign. With most of them we are already familiar.
+The requirement that the witch should repeat certain
+words after the justice of the peace was used once
+in the reign of James. It was an unusual method at
+best.<a name="FNanchor_109-2_24" id="FNanchor_109-2_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_109-2_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> A commoner form of proof was that adduced
+from the finding or seeing clay or waxen images in the
+possession of the accused.<a name="FNanchor_109-3_25" id="FNanchor_109-3_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_109-3_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> The witness who had
+found such a model on the premises of the defendant
+or had seen the defendant handling it, jumped readily
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>to the conclusion that the image represented some individual.
+If it should be asked how we are to account
+for this sort of evidence, the answer is an easy one.
+Every now and then in the annals of witchcraft it came
+out that a would-be accuser had hidden a waxen or
+clay figure in the house of the person he wished to accuse
+and had then found it. No doubt some cases started
+in this way. No doubt, too, bitter women with grudges
+to satisfy did experiment with images and were caught
+at it. But this was rare. In the greater number of
+cases the stories of images were pure fabrications. To
+that category belong almost certainly the tales told at
+Lancaster.<a name="FNanchor_110-1_26" id="FNanchor_110-1_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_110-1_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></p>
+
+<p>"Spectral evidence" we have met with in the Elizabethan
+period. That reign saw two or three instances
+of its employment, and there were more examples of it
+in the reign of James. Master Avery of Northampton,
+who with his sister was the principal accuser in the
+trials there, saw in one of his fits a black wart on the
+body of Agnes Brown, a wart which was actually found
+"upon search."<a name="FNanchor_110-2_27" id="FNanchor_110-2_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_110-2_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> Master Avery saw other spectres,
+but the most curious was that of a bloody man desiring
+him to have mercy on his Mistress Agnes and to cease
+impeaching her.<a name="FNanchor_110-3_28" id="FNanchor_110-3_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_110-3_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> At Bedford, Master Enger's servant
+had a long story to tell, but the most thrilling part concerned
+a visit which the young Mary Sutton (whom
+he was accusing) made to him. On a "moonshine
+night" she came in at the window in her "accustomed
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>and personall habite and shape" and knitted at his
+side. Then drawing nearer, she offered him terms by
+which he could be restored to his former health, terms
+which we are to understand the virtuous witness refused.
+It is pleasant to know that Master Enger was
+"distrustfull of the truth" of this tale. One fears that
+these spectres were not the products of overwrought
+imagination, as were many others, but were merely
+fabrics of elaborate fiction.<a name="FNanchor_111-1_29" id="FNanchor_111-1_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_111-1_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> In any case they were
+not the groundwork of the proof. In the Fairfax prosecutions
+at York in 1622 the charges against the six
+women accused rested entirely upon a great tissue
+of spectral evidence. The three children had talked
+to the spectres, had met them outdoors and at church
+and in the kitchen. The spectres were remarkably
+wise and named visitors whom the family did not know.
+They struggled with the children, they rolled over them
+in bed, they followed them to the neighbors.</p>
+
+<p>Somewhat akin to the evidence from apparitions was
+that from the effect of a witch's glance. This is uncommonly
+rare in English witchcraft, but the reign of James
+offers two instances of it. In Royston, Hertfordshire,
+there was "an honest fellow and as boone a
+companion ... one that loved the pot with the long
+necke almost as well as his prayers." One day when
+he was drinking with four companions Johanna Harrison
+came in and "stood gloating upon them." He went
+home and at once fell sick.<a name="FNanchor_111-2_30" id="FNanchor_111-2_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_111-2_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> At Northampton the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>twelve-year-old Hugh Lucas had looked "stark" upon
+Jane Lucas at church and gone into convulsions when
+he returned home.<a name="FNanchor_112-1_31" id="FNanchor_112-1_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_112-1_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></p>
+
+<p>One other form of proof demands notice. In the
+trial of Jennet Preston at York it was testified that the
+corpse of Mr. Lister, whom she was believed to have
+slain by witchcraft, had bled at her presence. The judge
+did not overlook this in summarizing the evidence. It
+was one of three important counts against the woman,
+indeed it was, says the impressive Mr. Potts, quoting
+the judge, of more consequence than all the rest.<a name="FNanchor_112-2_32" id="FNanchor_112-2_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_112-2_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> Of
+course Mistress Preston went to the gallows.</p>
+
+<p>It will occur to the reader to ask whether any sort
+of evidence was ruled out or objected to. On this
+point we have but slight knowledge. In reporting the
+trial of Elizabeth Sawyer of Edmonton in 1621 the
+Reverend Henry Goodcole wrote that a piece of thatch
+from the accused woman's house was plucked and
+burned, whereupon the woman presently came upon
+the scene.<a name="FNanchor_112-3_33" id="FNanchor_112-3_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_112-3_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> Goodcole characterized this method as an
+"old ridiculous custome" and we may guess that he
+spoke for the judge too. In the Lancashire cases, Justice
+Altham, whose credulity knew hardly any bounds,
+grew suddenly "suspitious of the accusation of this
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>yong wench, Jennet Device," who had been piling up
+charges against Alice Nutter. The girl was sent out
+of the room, the witches were mixed up, and Jennet
+was required on coming in again to pick out Alice Nutter.
+Of course that proved an easy matter.<a name="FNanchor_113-1_34" id="FNanchor_113-1_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_113-1_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> At another
+time, when Jennet was glibly enumerating the
+witches that had assembled at the great meeting at
+Malking Tower, the judge suddenly asked her if Joane-a-Downe
+were there. But the little girl failed to rise
+to the bait and answered negatively, much to the satisfaction
+of everybody, and especially of the righteous
+Mr. Potts.<a name="FNanchor_113-2_35" id="FNanchor_113-2_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_113-2_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a></p>
+
+<p>This is all we know directly about any tendency to
+question evidence at Lancaster in 1612, but a good deal
+more may be inferred from what is not there. A comparison
+of that trial with other contemporary trials
+will convince any one that Justices Altham and Bromley
+must have ruled out certain forms of evidence. There
+were no experiments made of any sort nor any female
+juries set inspecting.<a name="FNanchor_113-3_36" id="FNanchor_113-3_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_113-3_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> This, indeed, is not to say that
+all silly testimony was excluded. There is enough and
+more of sheer nonsense in the testimony to prove the
+contrary.</p>
+
+<p>We turn now from the question of evidence to a
+brief consideration of several less prominent features
+of Jacobean witchcraft. We shall note the character
+of the sentences, the distribution of the trials, the personnel
+and position in life of the accused, and lastly the
+question of jurisdiction.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span></p><p>We have in another connection indicated the approximate
+number of executions of which we have
+record in James's reign. That number, we saw, was
+certainly over forty and probably approached fifty.
+It represented, however, not quite half the total number
+of cases of accusation recorded. In consequence
+the other verdicts and sentences have significance. Especially
+is this true of the acquittals. They amounted
+to thirty, perhaps to forty. When we add the trials
+of which we do not know the outcome, we can guess
+that the number was close to the sum total of executions.
+Legally only one other outcome of a trial was possible,
+a year's imprisonment with quarterly appearances in
+the pillory. There were three or four instances of this
+penalty as well as one case where bond of good behavior
+was perhaps substituted for imprisonment.<a name="FNanchor_114-1_37" id="FNanchor_114-1_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_114-1_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a>
+Five pardons were issued,<a name="FNanchor_114-2_38" id="FNanchor_114-2_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_114-2_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> three of them by the authorities
+at London, two of them by local powers apparently
+under compulsion.<a name="FNanchor_114-3_39" id="FNanchor_114-3_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_114-3_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p>
+
+<p>We come now to consider the personnel, sex, occupations,
+and positions in life of the accused. On certain
+of these matters it is possible to give statistical conclusions,
+but such conclusions must be accepted with
+great caution. By a count as careful as the insufficient
+evidence permits it would seem that about six times as
+many women were indicted as men. This was to be
+expected. It is perhaps less in accord with tradition
+that twice as many married women as spinsters seem to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>have figured in the witch trials of the Jacobean era.
+The proportion of widows to unmarried women was
+about the same, so that the proportion of unmarried
+women among the whole number accused would seem
+to have been small. These results must be accepted
+guardedly, yet more complete statistics would probably
+show that the proportion of married women was even
+greater.<a name="FNanchor_115-1_40" id="FNanchor_115-1_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_115-1_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p>
+
+<p>The position in life of these people was not unlike
+that of the same class in the earlier period. In the
+account of the Lancashire trials we shall see that the
+two families whose quarrels started the trouble were
+the lowest of low hill-country people, beggars and
+charmers, lax in their morals and cunning in their dealings.
+The Flower women, mother and daughter, had
+been charged with evil living; it was said that Agnes
+Brown and her daughter of Northampton had very
+doubtful reputations; Mother Sutton of Bedford was
+alleged to have three illegitimate children. The rest
+of the witches of the time were not, however, quite so
+low in the scale. They were household servants, poor
+tenants, "hog hearders," wives of yeomen, broomsellers,
+and what not.</p>
+
+<p>Above this motley peasant crew were a few of various
+higher ranks. A schoolmaster who had experimented
+with sorcery against the king,<a name="FNanchor_115-2_41" id="FNanchor_115-2_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_115-2_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> a minister who
+had been "busy with conjuration in his youth,"<a name="FNanchor_115-3_42" id="FNanchor_115-3_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_115-3_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>lady charged with sorcery but held for other sin,<a name="FNanchor_116-1_43" id="FNanchor_116-1_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_116-1_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> a conjurer
+who had rendered professional services to a passionate
+countess,<a name="FNanchor_116-2_44" id="FNanchor_116-2_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_116-2_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> these make up a strange group of
+witches, and for that matter an unimportant one. None
+of their cases were illustrations of the working of
+witch law; they were rather stray examples of the connection
+between superstition, on the one hand, and
+politics and court intrigue on the other. Not so, however,
+the prosecution of Alice Nutter in the Lancashire
+trials of 1612. Alice Nutter was a member of a well
+known county family. "She was," says Potts, "a
+rich woman, had a great estate and children of good
+hope."<a name="FNanchor_116-3_45" id="FNanchor_116-3_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_116-3_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> She was moreover "of good temper, free
+from envy and malice." In spite of all this she was accused
+of the most desperate crimes and went to the
+gallows. Why family connections and influences
+could not have saved her is a mystery.</p>
+
+<p>In another connection we spoke of two witches pardoned
+by local authorities at the instance of the government.
+This brings us to the question of jurisdiction.
+The town of Rye had but recently, it would seem, been
+granted a charter and certain judicial rights. But when
+the town authorities sentenced one woman to death and
+indicted another for witchcraft, the Lord Warden interfered
+with a question as to their power.<a name="FNanchor_116-4_46" id="FNanchor_116-4_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_116-4_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> The town,
+after some correspondence, gave way and both women
+were pardoned. This was, however, the only instance
+of disputed jurisdiction. The local powers in King's
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>Lynn hanged a witch without interference,<a name="FNanchor_117-1_47" id="FNanchor_117-1_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_117-1_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> and the
+vicar-general of the Bishop of Durham proceeded
+against a "common charmer"<a name="FNanchor_117-2_48" id="FNanchor_117-2_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_117-2_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> with impunity, as of
+course he had every right to do.</p>
+
+<p>There is, in fact, a shred of evidence to show that
+the memory of ecclesiastical jurisdiction had not been
+lost. In the North Riding of Yorkshire the quarter
+sessions sentenced Ralph Milner for "sorcerie, witchcraft,
+inchantment and telling of fortunes" to confess
+his fault at divine service, "that he hath heighlie offended
+God and deluded men, and is heartily sorie."<a name="FNanchor_117-3_49" id="FNanchor_117-3_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_117-3_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a>
+There is nothing, of course, in the statute to authorize
+this form of punishment, and it is only accounted for
+as a reversion to the original ecclesiastical penalty for
+a crime that seemed to belong in church courts.</p>
+
+<p>What we call nowadays mob law had not yet made its
+appearance&mdash;that is, in connection with witchcraft. We
+shall see plenty of it when we come to the early part
+of the eighteenth century. But there was in 1613 one
+significant instance of independence of any jurisdiction,
+secular or ecclesiastical. In the famous case at
+Bedford, Master Enger, whom we have met before, had
+been "damnified" in his property to the round sum of
+Ł200. He was at length persuaded that Mother Sutton
+was to blame. Without any authority whatsoever he
+brought her forcibly to his house and caused her to
+be scratched.<a name="FNanchor_117-4_50" id="FNanchor_117-4_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_117-4_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> Not only so, but he threw the woman
+and her daughter, tied and bound, into his mill-pond
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>to prove their guilt.<a name="FNanchor_118-1_51" id="FNanchor_118-1_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_118-1_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> In the mean time the wretched
+creatures had been stripped of their clothes and examined
+for marks, under whose oversight we are not
+told, but Master Enger was responsible. He should
+have suffered for all this, but there is no record of his
+having done so. On the contrary he carried the prosecution
+of the women to a successful issue and saw them
+both hanged.</p>
+
+<p>We now turn to the question of the distribution of
+witchcraft in the realm during James's reign. From
+the incidental references already given, it will be evident
+that the trials were distributed over a wide area.
+In number executed, Lancashire led with ten, Leicester
+had nine, Northampton five or more, Middlesex
+four,<a name="FNanchor_118-2_52" id="FNanchor_118-2_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_118-2_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> Bedford, Lincoln, York, Bristol, and Hertford
+each two; Derby had several, the exact number we can
+not learn. These figures of the more serious trials
+seem to show that the alarm was drifting from the
+southeast corner of England towards the midlands. In
+the last half of Elizabeth's rule the centre had been to
+the north of London in the southern midlands. Now
+it seems to have progressed to the northern midlands.
+Leicester, Derby, and Nottingham may be selected as
+the triangle of counties that would fairly represent the
+centre of the movement. If the matter were to be
+determined with mathematical accuracy, the centre
+would need to be placed perhaps a little farther west,
+for Stafford, Cheshire, Bristol, and the remote Welsh
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>Carnarvon all experienced witch alarms. In the north,
+York and Durham had their share of trials.</p>
+
+<p>It will be easier to realize what had happened when
+we discover that, so far as records go, Kent and Essex
+were entirely quiet during the period, and East Anglia
+almost so. We shall later see that these counties had
+not at all forgotten to believe in witchcraft, but the
+witchfinders had ceased their activities for a while.</p>
+
+<p>To be sure, this reasoning from the distribution of
+trials is a dangerous proceeding. Witch alarms, on they
+face of things, seem haphazard outbursts of excitement.
+And such no doubt they are in part; yet one who
+goes over many cases in order cannot fail to observe
+that an outbreak in one county was very likely to be
+followed by one in the next county.<a name="FNanchor_119-1_53" id="FNanchor_119-1_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_119-1_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> This is perfectly
+intelligible to every one familiar with the essentially
+contagious character of these scares. The stories
+spread from village to village as fast as that personified
+Rumor of the poet Vergil, "than which nothing
+is fleeter"; nor did they halt with the sheriffs at the
+county boundaries.</p>
+
+<p>We have now traced the growth of James's opinions
+until they found effect in English law, have seen the
+practical operation of that law, and have gone over
+the forms of evidence, as well as some other features
+of the witch trials of his reign. In the next chapter we
+shall take up some of the more famous Jacobean cases in
+detail as examples of witch alarms. We shall seek
+to find out how they started and what were the real
+causes at work.</p>
+
+<hr class="foot" />
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_95-1_1" id="Footnote_95-1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_95-1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> I have not attempted to give more than a brief résumé of this
+story, and have used Thomas Wright, <i>Narratives of Sorcery and Magic</i>
+(London, 1851), I, 181-190, and Mrs. Lynn Linton, <i>Witch Stories</i>, 21-34.
+The pamphlet about Dr. Fian is a rare one, but may be found in several
+libraries. It has been reprinted by the <i>Gentleman's Magazine</i>, vol. XLIX
+(1779), by the Roxburghe Club (London, 1816), by Robert Pitcairn, in
+his <i>Criminal Trials in Scotland</i> (Edinburgh, 1829-1833), vol. I, and
+doubtless in many other places. Pitcairn has also printed a part of the
+records of his trial.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_96-1_2" id="Footnote_96-1_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_96-1_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> This is all based upon the contemporary accounts mentioned above.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_96-2_3" id="Footnote_96-2_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_96-2_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> <i>Register of the Privy Council of Scotland</i>, IV (Edinburgh, 1881), 644-645,
+note.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_97-1_4" id="Footnote_97-1_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_97-1_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> A fresh edition was brought out at London in 1603. In 1616 it appeared
+again as a part of the handsome collection of his <i>Workes</i> compiled
+by the Bishop of Winchester.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_97-2_5" id="Footnote_97-2_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_97-2_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> This story is to be found in the apocryphal book of Bel and the
+Dragon. It played a great part in the discussions of the writers on
+witchcraft.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_99-1_6" id="Footnote_99-1_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_99-1_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> H. C. Lea, <i>Superstition and Force</i> (4th ed., Philadelphia, 1892), 325
+ff., gives some facts about the water ordeal on the Continent. A sharp
+dispute over its use in witch cases was just at this time going on there.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_100-1_7" id="Footnote_100-1_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_100-1_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> He recommended torture in finding out the guilty: "And further
+experience daily proves how loth they are to confesse without torture,
+which witnesseth their guiltinesse," <i>Dćmonologie</i>, bk. ii, ch. i.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_100-2_8" id="Footnote_100-2_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_100-2_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Wright, <i>Narratives of Sorcery and Magic</i>, I, 197.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_102-1_9" id="Footnote_102-1_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_102-1_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Edward Fairfax, <i>A Discourse of Witchcraft As it was acted in the
+Family of Mr. Edward Fairfax ... in the year 1621</i> (Philobiblon Soc.,
+<i>Miscellanies</i>, V, ed. R. Monckton Milnes, London, 1858-1859), "Preface
+to the Reader," 26, explains the king's motive: His "Majesty found a
+defect in the statutes, ... by which none died for Witchcraft but they
+only who by that means killed, so that such were executed rather as
+murderers than as Witches."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_102-2_10" id="Footnote_102-2_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_102-2_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> <i>Journals of the House of Lords</i>, II, 269; Wm. Cobbett, <i>Parliamentary
+History</i>, I, 1017, 1018.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_103-1_11" id="Footnote_103-1_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_103-1_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> <i>Lords' Journal</i>, II, 271, 316; <i>Commons' Journal</i>, I, 203-204.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_103-2_12" id="Footnote_103-2_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_103-2_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> <i>Cal. St. P., Dom., 1603-1610</i>, 117.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_103-3_13" id="Footnote_103-3_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_103-3_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> It had passed the third reading in the Commons on June 7; <i>Commons'
+Journal</i>, I, 234.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_104-1_14" id="Footnote_104-1_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_104-1_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> It can hardly be doubted that the change in the wording of the law
+was dictated not only by the desire to simplify the matter of proof but
+by a wish to satisfy those theologians who urged that any use of witchcraft
+was a "covenant with death" and "an agreement with hell"
+(Isaiah xxviii, 18).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_105-1_15" id="Footnote_105-1_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_105-1_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> See Southworth case in Thomas Potts, <i>The Wonderfull Discoverie of
+Witches in the countie of Lancaster ...</i> (London, 1613; reprinted,
+Chetham Soc., 1845), L 2 verso. Cited hereafter as Potts.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_105-2_16" id="Footnote_105-2_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_105-2_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> See, below, appendix B. It should be added that six others who had
+been condemned by the judges for bewitching a boy were released at
+James's command.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_107-1_17" id="Footnote_107-1_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_107-1_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> <i>The Witches of Northamptonshire ...</i> C 2 verso. The writer
+of this pamphlet, who does not tell the story of the ordeal so fully as the
+author of the MS. account, "A briefe abstract of the arraignment of
+nine witches at Northampton, July 21, 1612" (Brit. Mus., Sloane, 972),
+gives, however, proof of the influence of James in the matter. He says
+that the two ways of testing witches are by the marks and "the trying
+of the insensiblenesse thereof," and by "their fleeting on the water,"
+which is an exact quotation from James, although not so indicated.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_107-2_18" id="Footnote_107-2_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_107-2_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> The mother and father were apparently not sent to the assize court.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_108-1_19" id="Footnote_108-1_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_108-1_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> The female jury was used at Northampton ("women sworn"), also at
+Bedford, but by a private party.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_108-2_20" id="Footnote_108-2_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_108-2_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> It was used in 1621 on Elizabeth Sawyer of Edmonton. In this case
+it was done clearly at the command of the judge who tried her at the Old
+Bailey.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_108-3_21" id="Footnote_108-3_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_108-3_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Elizabeth Device, however, confessed that the "said Devill did get
+blood under her left arme," which raises a suspicion that this confession
+was the result of accusations against her on that score.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_108-4_22" id="Footnote_108-4_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_108-4_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> See account in next chapter of the trial at Lancaster.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_109-1_23" id="Footnote_109-1_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_109-1_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> This case must be used with hesitation; see below, appendix A, § 3.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_109-2_24" id="Footnote_109-2_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_109-2_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> At Warboys the Samuels had been required to repeat: "If I be a
+witch and consenting to the death" of such and such a one. Alice
+Wilson, at Northampton in 1612, was threatened by the justice with execution,
+if she would not say after the minister "I forsake the Devil."
+She is said to have averred that she could not say this. See MS. account
+of the witches of Northampton.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_109-3_25" id="Footnote_109-3_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_109-3_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Well known is the practice ascribed to witches of making a waxen
+image, which was then pricked or melted before the fire, in the belief that
+the torments inflicted upon it would be suffered by the individual it
+represented.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_110-1_26" id="Footnote_110-1_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_110-1_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Potts, E 3 verso, F 4, G 2; also <i>The Wonderful Discoverie of the
+Witchcrafts of Margaret and Phillip Flower, ...</i> (London, 1619), 21.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_110-2_27" id="Footnote_110-2_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_110-2_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> See MS. account of the Northampton witches.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_110-3_28" id="Footnote_110-3_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_110-3_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>: "Sundry other witches appeared to him.... Hee heard many
+of them railing at Jane Lucas, laying the fault on her that they were
+thus accused."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_111-1_29" id="Footnote_111-1_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_111-1_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> There was practically no spectral evidence in the Lancashire cases.
+Lister on his death-bed had cried out against Jennet Preston, and John
+Law was tormented with a vision of Alizon Device "both day and night";
+Potts, Y 2 verso. But these were exceptional.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_111-2_30" id="Footnote_111-2_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_111-2_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> See <i>The Most Cruell and Bloody Murther committed by ...
+Annis Dell.... With the Severall Witch-crafts ... of one Johane
+Harrison and her Daughter</i> (London, 1606).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_112-1_31" id="Footnote_112-1_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_112-1_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> MS. account of the Northampton witches.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_112-2_32" id="Footnote_112-2_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_112-2_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> See Potts, Z 2.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_112-3_33" id="Footnote_112-3_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_112-3_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> The dramatist Dekker made use of this; see his <i>Witch of Edmonton</i>,
+act IV, scene I (Mermaid edition, London, 1904):
+</p><p>
+1st Countreyman.&mdash;This thatch is as good as a jury to prove she is a witch.
+</p>
+<div style="letter-spacing: 2em;">* * * * * * * *</div>
+<p>
+Justice.&mdash;<span style="margin-left: 4.2em;">Come, come: firing her thatch? ridiculous!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Take heed, sirs, what you do; unless your proofs</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Come better aimed, instead of turning her</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Into a witch, you'll prove yourselves stark fools.</span><br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_113-1_34" id="Footnote_113-1_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_113-1_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> See Potts, P 2.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_113-2_35" id="Footnote_113-2_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_113-2_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> See <i>ibid.</i>, Q verso. This, however, was the second time that the
+judge had tried this ruse; see <i>ibid.</i>, P 2.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_113-3_36" id="Footnote_113-3_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_113-3_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> See above, note 21.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_114-1_37" id="Footnote_114-1_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_114-1_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> North Riding Record Soc., <i>Quarter Sessions Records</i> (London, 1883,
+etc.), III, 181.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_114-2_38" id="Footnote_114-2_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_114-2_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Two of them, however, were issued to the same woman, one in
+1604 and one in 1610.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_114-3_39" id="Footnote_114-3_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_114-3_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> <i>Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports</i>, XIII, 4 (Rye), pp. 136-137, 139-140, 144,
+147-148.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_115-1_40" id="Footnote_115-1_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_115-1_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> The term "spinster" was sometimes used of a married woman.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_115-2_41" id="Footnote_115-2_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_115-2_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> <i>Cal. St. P., Dom., 1619-1623</i>, 125, Chamberlain to Carleton, February
+26, 1620: "Peacock, a schoolmaster, committed to the Tower and tortured
+for practising sorcery upon the King, to infatuate him in Sir Thos.
+Lake's business." This is one of those rare cases in which we know
+certainly that torture was used.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_115-3_42" id="Footnote_115-3_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_115-3_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> Sir Thomas Lake to Viscount Cranbourne, January 20, 1604, Brit.
+Mus., Add. MSS., 6177, fol. 403.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_116-1_43" id="Footnote_116-1_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_116-1_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> <i>Cal. St. P., Dom., 1623-1625</i>, 474, 485, 497.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_116-2_44" id="Footnote_116-2_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_116-2_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> T. B. and T. J. Howell, <i>State Trials</i> (London, 1809-1818), II.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_116-3_45" id="Footnote_116-3_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_116-3_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> See Potts, O 3 verso.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_116-4_46" id="Footnote_116-4_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_116-4_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> See <i>Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports</i>, XIII, 4 (Rye), pp. 136-137, 139-140,
+144, 147-148.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_117-1_47" id="Footnote_117-1_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_117-1_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> See Alexander Roberts, <i>A Treatise of Witchcraft ...</i> (London,
+1616), dedicated to the "Maior and Aldermen."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_117-2_48" id="Footnote_117-2_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_117-2_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> M. A. Richardson, <i>Table Book</i> (London, 1841-1846), I, 245.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_117-3_49" id="Footnote_117-3_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_117-3_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> North Riding Record Soc., <i>Quarter Sessions Records</i>, I, 58.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_117-4_50" id="Footnote_117-4_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_117-4_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> "... neither had they authoritie to compell her to goe without a
+Constable."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_118-1_51" id="Footnote_118-1_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_118-1_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 36,674, fol. 148. This is a brief description
+of "how to discover a witch." It recommends the water ordeal and
+cites the case of Mr. Enger and Mary Sutton.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_118-2_52" id="Footnote_118-2_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_118-2_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> In the case of three of these four we know only that they were
+sentenced.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_119-1_53" id="Footnote_119-1_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_119-1_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> Before the Flower case at Lincoln came the Willimot-Baker cases at
+Leicester. The Bedford trial resembled much the Northampton trial of
+the previous year.</p></div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2 class="chapter"><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<h3 class="chapter2">Notable Jacobean Cases.</h3>
+
+
+<p>It is possible to sift, to analyze, and to reconstruct<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>
+the material derived from witch trials until some few
+conclusions about a given period can be ventured. A
+large proportion of cases can be proved to belong in this
+or that category, a certain percentage of the women
+can be shown to possess these or those traits in common.
+Yet it is quite thinkable that one might be armed
+with a quiver full of generalizations, and fail, withal,
+to comprehend Jacobean witchcraft. If one could have
+asked information on the subject from a Londoner
+of 1620, he would probably have heard little about
+witchcraft in general, but a very great deal about the
+Lancashire, Northampton, Leicester, Lincoln, and
+Fairfax trials. The Londoner might have been able to
+tell the stories complete of all those famous cases. He
+would have been but poorly informed could he not have
+related some of them, and the listener would have
+caught the surface drift of those stories. But a witch
+panic is a subtle thing, not to be understood by those
+who do not follow all its deeper sequences. The springs
+of the movement, the interaction of cause and effect,
+the operation of personal traits, these are factors that
+must be evaluated, and they are not factors that can be
+fitted into a general scheme, labelled and classified.</p>
+
+<p>This does not mean that the cases should be examined
+in chronological sequence. That is not necessary; for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>
+the half-dozen cases that we shall run over had little or
+no cause-and-effect connection with one another. It
+is convenient, indeed, to make some classification, and
+the simplest is that by probable origin, especially as it
+will enable us to emphasize that important feature of
+the trials. Now, by this method the six or more trials
+of note may be grouped under three headings: cases
+that seem to have originated in the actual practice of
+magic, cases where the victims of convulsions and fits
+started the furor, and cases that were simply the last
+stage of bitter quarrels or the result of grudges.</p>
+
+<p>To the first group belongs the Lancastrian case of
+1612, which, however, may also be classed under the
+last heading. No case in the course of the superstition
+in England gained such wide fame. Upon it Shadwell
+founded in part a well-known play, <i>The Lancashire
+Witches</i>, while poets and writers of prose have referred
+to it until the two words have been linked in a phrase
+that has given them lasting association. It was in the
+lonely forest of Pendle among the wild hills of
+eastern Lancashire that there lived two hostile families
+headed by Elizabeth Southerns, or "Old Demdike,"
+and by Anne Chattox. The latter was a wool carder,
+"a very old, withered, spent, and decreped creature,"
+"her lippes ever chattering"; the former a blind beggar
+of four-score years, "a generall agent for the Devell
+in all these partes," and a "wicked fire-brand of mischiefe,"
+who had brought up her children and grandchildren
+to be witches. Both families professed supernatural
+practices. Both families no doubt traded on the
+fear they inspired. Indeed Dame Chattox was said to
+have sold her guarantee to do no harm in return for a
+fixed annual payment of "one aghen-dole of meale."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>That there was a feud between the two clans was to
+be expected. They were at once neighbors and competitors,
+and were engaged in a career in which they
+must plot each against the other, and suspect each other.
+There are hints of other difficulties. Years before there
+had been a quarrel over stolen property. Demdike's
+daughter had missed clothes and food to the value of
+20 shillings, and had later found some of the clothing
+in the possession of Chattox's daughter. A more serious
+difficulty involved a third family: a member of the
+Nutter family, well-to-do people in Lancashire, had
+sought to seduce old Chattox's married daughter, and,
+when repelled, had warned her that when he inherited
+the property where she lived she should be evicted.
+Chattox had retaliated by seeking to kill Nutter by
+witchcraft, and had been further incited thereto by
+three women, who wished to be rid of Nutter, in order
+that "the women, their coosens, might have the land."
+As a consequence Nutter had died within three months.
+The quarrel, indeed, was three-cornered. It was said
+that Demdike's daughter had fashioned a clay picture
+of a Nutter woman.<a name="FNanchor_122-1_1" id="FNanchor_122-1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_122-1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>We have all the elements here of a mountain feud;
+but, in place of the revolvers and Kentucky moonshine
+of to-day, we have clay images and Satanic banquets.
+The battles were to be fought out with imps of Hell as
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>participants and with ammunition supplied by the Evil
+One himself. It was this connection with a reservoir
+of untouched demoniacal powers that made the quarrel
+of the miserable mountaineers the most celebrated incident
+in Lancashire story. Here were charmers and
+"inchanters," experienced dealers in magic, struggling
+against one another. Small wonder that the community
+became alarmed and that Roger Nowell, justice of the
+peace, suddenly swooped down upon the Pendle families.
+It was but a short time before he had four women
+cooped up in Lancaster castle. In a few days more he
+was able to get confessions out of them. They admitted
+acquaintance with the Devil and implicated one another.</p>
+
+<p>Now comes the strange part of the story. According
+to confessions made later, Elizabeth Device, not yet
+shut up, but likely to be at any time, called a meeting
+on Good Friday of all the witches in Pendle forest.
+They were to come to her home at Malking Tower to
+plot the delivery of the imprisoned women by the
+blowing up of Lancaster castle.<a name="FNanchor_123-1_2" id="FNanchor_123-1_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_123-1_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> The affair took the
+form of a dinner; and beef, bacon, and roasted mutton
+were served. "All the witches went out of the said
+House in their owne shapes and likenesses. And they
+all, by that they were forth of the dores, gotten on
+Horsebacke, like unto Foales, some of one colour, some
+of another; and Preston's wife was the last; and, when
+shee got on Horsebacke, they all presently vanished
+out of ... sight." This was the story, and the various
+witnesses agreed remarkably well as to its main details.
+Those who believed in the "sabbath" of witches
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>must have felt their opinions confirmed by the testimony
+of the witnesses at Lancaster. Even the modern
+reader, with his skepticism, is somewhat daunted by the
+cumulative force of what purports to be the evidence
+and would fain rationalize it by supposing that some
+sort of a meeting actually did take place at Malking
+Tower and that some Pendle men and women who had
+delved in magic arts till they believed in them did formulate
+plans for revenge. But this is not a probable
+supposition. The concurring evidence in the Malking
+Tower story is of no more compelling character than
+that to be found in a multitude of Continental stories
+of witch gatherings which have been shown to be the
+outcome of physical or mental pressure and of leading
+questions. It seems unnecessary to accept even a substratum
+of fact.<a name="FNanchor_124-1_3" id="FNanchor_124-1_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_124-1_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> Probably one of the accused women
+invented the story of the witch feast after the model
+of others of which she had heard, or developed it under
+the stimulus of suggestive questions from a justice.
+Such a narrative, once started, would spread like wildfire
+and the witnesses and the accused who were persuaded
+to confess might tell approximately the same
+story. A careful re-reading of all this evidence suggests
+that the various testimonies may indeed have been
+echoes of the first narrative. They seem to lack those
+characteristic differences which would stamp them as
+independent accounts. Moreover, when the story was
+once started, it is not improbable that the justices and
+the judges would assist the witnesses by framing questions
+based upon the narrative already given. It cannot
+be said that the evidence exists upon which to es<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>tablish
+this hypothesis. There is little to show that
+the witnesses were adroitly led into their narratives.
+But we know from other trials that the method was so
+often adopted that it is not a far cry to suspect that it
+was used at Lancaster.</p>
+
+<p>It is not worth while to trace out the wearisome
+details that were elicited by confession. Those already
+in prison made confessions that implicated others, until
+the busy justices of the peace had shut up sixteen women
+and four men to be tried at the assizes. Sir Edward
+Bromley and Sir James Altham, who were then on the
+northern circuit, reached Lancaster on the sixteenth of
+August. In the meantime, "Old Demdike," after a
+confession of most awful crimes, had died in prison.
+All the others were put on trial. Thomas Potts compiled
+a very careful abstract of all the testimony taken, perhaps
+the most detailed account of a witch trial written
+in the English language, with the possible exception of
+the St. Oses affair. The evidence was in truth of a
+somewhat similar type. Secret interviews with the
+Evil One, promises of worldly riches, a contract sealed
+with blood, little shapes of dogs, cats, and hares, clay
+pictures that had been dried and had crumpled, threats
+and consequent "languishing" and death, these were
+the trappings of the stories. The tales were old. Only
+the Malking Tower incident was new. But its very
+novelty gave a plausibility to the stories that were
+woven around it. There was not a single person to
+interpose a doubt. The cross-examinations were nothing
+more than feeble attempts to bring out further
+charges.</p>
+
+<p>Though there is in the record little suggestion of the
+use of pressure to obtain the confessions, the fact that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>
+three were retracted leads to a suspicion that they had
+not been given quite freely. There was doubtless something
+contagious about the impulse to confess. It is,
+nevertheless, a curious circumstance that five members
+of the two rival Pendle families made confession, while
+all the others whom their confessions had involved
+stuck to it that they were innocent.<a name="FNanchor_126-1_4" id="FNanchor_126-1_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_126-1_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> Among those who
+persisted in denying their guilt Alice Nutter merits
+special note. We have already mentioned her in the last
+chapter as an example of a well-to-do and well connected
+woman who fell a victim to the Lancashire excitement.<a name="FNanchor_126-2_5" id="FNanchor_126-2_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_126-2_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a>
+The evidence against the woman was perhaps
+the flimsiest ever offered to a court. Elizabeth
+Device, daughter of "Old Demdike," and her two
+children were the chief accusers. Elizabeth had seen
+her present at the Malking Tower meeting. Moreover,
+she stated that Alice had helped her mother ("Old
+Demdike") bewitch a man to death. Her son had
+heard his grandmother Demdike narrate the incident.
+This testimony and his sister's definite statement that
+Alice Nutter attended the Malking Tower meeting established
+Mistress Nutter's guilt.<a name="FNanchor_126-3_6" id="FNanchor_126-3_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_126-3_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> The judge, indeed,
+was "very suspitious of the accusation of this yong
+wench, Jennet Device," and, as we have already seen,
+caused her to be sent out of the court room till the accused
+lady could be placed among other prisoners,
+when the girl was recalled and required before the
+great audience present to pick out the witch, as, of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>course, she easily did, and as easily escaped another
+transparent trap.<a name="FNanchor_127-1_7" id="FNanchor_127-1_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_127-1_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+<p>The two children figured prominently from this on.
+The nine-year-old girl gave evidence as to events of
+three years before, while the young man, who could
+hardly have been out of his teens,<a name="FNanchor_127-2_8" id="FNanchor_127-2_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_127-2_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> recounted what had
+happened twelve years earlier. It was their testimony
+against their mother that roused most interest. Although
+of a circumstantial character, it fitted in most
+remarkable fashion into the evidence already presented.<a name="FNanchor_127-3_9" id="FNanchor_127-3_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_127-3_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a>
+The mother, says the nonchalant pamphleteer,
+indignantly "cryed out against the child," cursing her
+so outrageously that she was removed from the room
+while the child kept the stand. It is useless to waste
+sympathy upon a mother who was getting at the hands
+of her children the same treatment she had given her
+own mother Demdike. The Chattox family held together
+better. Mistress Redfearne had been carefully
+shielded in the testimony of her mother Chattox, but
+she fell a victim to the accusations of the opposing family.
+The course of her trial was remarkable. Denying
+her guilt with great emphasis, she had by some wonder
+been acquitted. But this verdict displeased the people
+in attendance upon the trial. Induced by the cries of
+the people, the court was persuaded to try her again.
+The charge against her was exactly the same, that
+eighteen years before she had participated in killing
+Christopher Nutter with a clay figure. "Old Demdike"
+had seen her in the act of making the image, and there
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>was offered also the testimony of the sister and brother
+of the dead man, who recalled that Robert Nutter on
+his death-bed had accused Anne of his bewitchment.<a name="FNanchor_128-1_10" id="FNanchor_128-1_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_128-1_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a>
+It does not seem to have occurred to the court that the
+principle that a person could not twice be put in jeopardy
+for the same offence was already an old principle
+in English law.<a name="FNanchor_128-2_11" id="FNanchor_128-2_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_128-2_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> The judges were more concerned
+with appeasing the people than with recalling old precedents,
+and sent the woman to the gallows.</p>
+
+<p>The Pendle cases were interrupted on the third day
+by the trial of three women from Salmesbury, who
+pleaded not guilty and put themselves "upon God and
+their Countrey." The case against them rested upon the
+testimony of a single young woman, Grace Sowerbutts,
+who declared that for the three years past she
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>had been vexed by the women in question, who "did
+violently draw her by the haire of the head, and layd her
+on the toppe of a Hay-mowe." This delightfully absurd
+charge was coupled with some testimony about the
+appearances of the accused in animal form. Three
+men attempted to bolster up the story; but no "matter
+of witchcraft" was proved, says the for once incredulous
+Mr. Potts. The women seized the decisive moment.
+They kneeled before the judge and requested
+him to examine Grace Sowerbutts as to who set her on.
+The judge&mdash;who had seemingly not thought of this before&mdash;followed
+the suggestion. The girl changed
+countenance and acknowledged that she had been taught
+her story. At the order of the judge she was questioned
+by a clergyman and two justices of the peace, who
+found that she had been coached to tell her story by a
+Master Thompson, alias Southworth, a "seminarie
+priest." So ended the charges against the Salmesbury
+witches.</p>
+
+<p>One would suppose that this verdict might have
+turned the tide in the other cases. But the evidence, as
+Potts is careful to show, lest the reader should draw a
+wrong conclusion, was of very different character in
+the other trials. They were all finished on the third
+day of court and turned over to the jury. Five of the
+accused, exclusive of those at Salmesbury, were acquitted,
+one condemned to a year's imprisonment, and
+ten sentenced to death. To this number should be
+added Jennet Preston, who had in the preceding month
+been tried at York for the killing of a Mr. Lister, and
+who was named by the Lancaster witnesses as one of
+the gang at Malking Tower.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>So ended the Lancashire trials of 1612. The most
+remarkable event of the sort in James's reign, they were
+clearly the outcome of his writings and policy. Potts
+asks pointedly: "What hath the King's Maiestie written
+and published in his Dćmonologie by way of premonition
+and prevention, which hath not here by the
+first or last beene executed, put in practice, or discovered?"</p>
+
+<p>Our second group of cases includes those where
+convulsive and "possessed" persons had started the
+alarm. The Northampton, Leicester, and Lichfield
+cases were all instances in point. The last two, however,
+may be omitted here because they will come up in
+another connection. The affair at Northampton in
+1612, just a month earlier than the Lancashire affair,
+merits notice. Elizabeth Belcher and her brother,
+"Master Avery," were the disturbing agents. Mistress
+Belcher had long been suffering with an illness that
+baffled diagnosis. It was suggested to her that the
+cause was witchcraft. A list of women reputed to be
+witches was repeated to her. The name of Joan Brown
+seemed to impress her. "Hath shee done it?" she
+asked.<a name="FNanchor_130-1_12" id="FNanchor_130-1_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_130-1_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> The name was repeated to her and from that
+time she held Joan guilty.<a name="FNanchor_130-2_13" id="FNanchor_130-2_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_130-2_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> Joan and her mother were
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>shut up. Meantime Master Avery began to take fits
+and to aid his sister in making accusation. Between
+them they soon had accused six women for their afflictions.
+The stir brought to the surface the hidden
+suspicions of others. There was a witch panic and the
+justices of the peace<a name="FNanchor_131-1_14" id="FNanchor_131-1_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_131-1_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> scurried hither and thither till
+they had fourteen witches locked up in Northampton.
+When the trial came off at Northampton, Master Avery
+was the hero. He re-enacted the rôle of the Throckmorton
+children at Warboys with great success. When
+he came to court&mdash;he came in a "coch"&mdash;he was at
+once stricken with convulsions. His torments in court
+were very convincing. It is pleasant to know that
+when he came out of his seizure he would talk very
+"discreetly, christianly, and charitably." Master Avery
+was versatile, however. His evidence against the
+women rested by no means alone on his seizures. He
+had countless apparitions in which he saw the accused;<a name="FNanchor_131-2_15" id="FNanchor_131-2_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_131-2_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a>
+he had been mysteriously thrown from a horse; strangest
+of all, he had foretold at a certain time that if any
+one should go down to the gaol and listen to the voices
+of the witches, he could not understand a word. Whereupon
+a Master of Arts of Trinity College, Oxford,
+went off to the prison at the uncanny hour of two in
+the morning and "heard a confused noise of much
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>chattering and chiding, but could not discover a ready
+word."</p>
+
+<p>Master Avery had a great deal more to tell, but the
+jury seem not to have fully credited him.<a name="FNanchor_132-1_16" id="FNanchor_132-1_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_132-1_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> They convicted
+Joan Brown and her mother, however, on the
+charges of Elizabeth and her brother. Three others
+were found guilty upon other counts. None of them,
+so far as the records go, and the records were careful
+on this point, admitted any guilt.<a name="FNanchor_132-2_17" id="FNanchor_132-2_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_132-2_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> The one young man
+among those who were hanged bitterly resisted his
+conviction from the beginning and died declaring that
+authority had turned to tyranny. He might well feel
+so. His father and mother had both been tortured by
+the water ordeal, and his mother had been worried till
+she committed suicide in prison.</p>
+
+<p>This brings us to the third sort of cases, those that
+were the outcome of quarrels or grudges. It has
+already been observed that the Lancashire affair could
+very well be reckoned under this heading. It is no exaggeration
+to say that a goodly percentage of all other
+witch trials in the reign of James could be classified
+in the same way. Most notable among them was the
+famous trial of the Belvoir witches at Lincoln in 1618-1619.
+The trial has received wide notice because it
+concerned a leading family&mdash;perhaps the wealthiest in
+England&mdash;the great Catholic family of Manners, of
+which the Earl of Rutland was head. The effort to account
+for the mysterious illness of his young heir and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>for that which had a few years earlier carried off the
+boy's elder brother led to a charge of witchcraft against
+three humble women of the neighborhood. The Rutland
+affair shows how easily a suspicion of witchcraft might
+involve the fortunes of the lowly with those of the
+great. Joan Flower and her two daughters had been employed
+as charwomen in Belvoir Castle, the home of the
+Rutlands. One of the daughters, indeed, had been put
+in charge of "the poultrey abroad and the washhouse
+within dores." But this daughter seems not
+to have given satisfaction to the countess in her
+work, some other causes of disagreement arose which
+involved Mother Flower, and both Mother Flower and
+her daughter were sent away from the castle. This
+was the beginning of the trouble. Mother Flower
+"cursed them all that were the cause of this discontentment."
+Naturally little heed was paid to her
+grumblings. Such things were common enough and it
+did not even occur to any one, when the eldest son of
+the earl sickened and died, that the event was in any
+way connected with the malice of the Flowers. It
+was not until about five years later, when the younger
+son Francis fell sick of an illness to prove fatal, that
+suspicion seems to have lighted upon the three women.<a name="FNanchor_133-1_18" id="FNanchor_133-1_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_133-1_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a>
+The circumstances that led to their discharge were
+then recalled and along with them a mass of idle gossip
+and scandal against the women. It was remembered
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>that Mother Joan was "a monstrous malicious woman,
+full of oathes, curses, and imprecations irreligious."
+Some of her neighbors "dared to affirme that she dealt
+with familiar spirits, and terrified them all with curses
+and threatning of revenge." At length, in February of
+1618/19, on the return of the earl from attending His
+Majesty "both at Newmarket before Christmas and at
+Christmas at Whitehall," the women were fetched before
+justices of the peace, who bound them over to the
+assizes at Lincoln. Mother Flower died on the way to
+Lincoln, but the two daughters were tried there before
+Sir Edward Bromley, who had been judge at the Lancashire
+trials, and before Sir Henry Hobart. The
+women made a detailed confession of weird crimes.
+There were tales of gloves belonging to the two young
+sons of the earl, gloves that had been found in uncanny
+places and had been put in hot water and rubbed upon
+Rutterkin the cat&mdash;or spirit. There were worse stories
+that will not bear repetition. Needless to say, Margaret
+and Philippa Flower were convicted and hanged.<a name="FNanchor_134-1_19" id="FNanchor_134-1_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_134-1_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p>
+
+<p>The Rutland cases have been used to illustrate how
+the witch accusation might arise out of a grudge or
+quarrel. There were three or four other cases that
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>illustrate this origin of the charge. The first is that
+of Johanna Harrison&mdash;she has been mentioned in the
+previous chapter&mdash;who had an "altercation" with a
+neighbor. Of course she threatened him, he fell ill,
+and he scratched her.<a name="FNanchor_135-1_20" id="FNanchor_135-1_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_135-1_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> But here the commonplace tale
+takes a new turn. She had him arrested and was
+awarded five shillings damages and her costs of suit.
+No wonder the man fell sick again. Perhaps&mdash;but this
+cannot be certain&mdash;it was the same man who was drinking
+his ale one day with his fellows when she entered
+and stood "gloating" over him. He turned and said,
+"Doe you heare, Witch, looke tother waies." The
+woman berated him with angry words, and, feeling
+ill the next morning&mdash;he had been drinking heavily
+the night before&mdash;he dragged her off to the justice.
+A few weeks later she and her daughter were hanged
+at Hertford.<a name="FNanchor_135-2_21" id="FNanchor_135-2_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_135-2_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p>
+
+<p>The story of Mother Sutton and Master Enger has
+been referred to in several connections, but it will bear
+telling in narrative form. Mother Sutton was a poor
+tenant of Master Enger's, "a gentleman of worship,"
+who often bestowed upon her "food and cloathes." On
+account of her want she had been chosen village "hog-heard,"
+and had for twenty years fulfilled the duties
+of her office "not without commendations." But it
+happened that she quarreled one day with her benefactor,
+and then his difficulties began. The tale is almost
+too trivial for repetition, but is nevertheless characteristic.
+Master Enger's servants were taking some
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>corn to market, when they met "a faire black sowe"
+grazing. The wayward beast began turning round "as
+readily as a Windmill sail at worke; and as sodainly
+their horses fell to starting and drawing some one way,
+some another." They started off with the cart of corn,
+but broke from it and ran away. The servants caught
+them and went on to Bedford with the load. But the
+sow followed. When the corn had been sold, one of
+the servants went home, the other stayed with his
+"boone companions." When he rode home later, he
+found the sow grazing outside of town. It ran by
+his side, and the horses ran away again. But the
+servants watched the sow and saw it enter Mother
+Sutton's house. Master Enger made light of the story
+when it was told to him, and, with remarkable insight
+for a character in a witch story, "supposed they were
+drunke." But a few days later the same servant fell
+into conversation with Mother Sutton, when a beetle
+came and struck him. He fell into a trance, and then
+went home and told his master. The next night the
+servant said that Mary Sutton entered his room&mdash;the
+vision we have already described.<a name="FNanchor_136-1_22" id="FNanchor_136-1_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_136-1_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p>
+
+<p>The rest of the story the reader knows from the last
+chapter. Mother Sutton and her daughter were put
+to various ordeals and at length hanged. Doubtless the
+imaginative servant, who had in some way, perhaps,
+been involved in the original quarrel, gained favor with
+his master, and standing in the community.<a name="FNanchor_136-2_23" id="FNanchor_136-2_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_136-2_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span></p><p>The tale of the Bakewell witches is a very curious
+one and, though not to be confidently depended upon,
+may suggest how it was possible to avail oneself
+of superstition in order to repay a grudge. A Scotchman
+staying at a lodging-house in Bakewell fell in debt
+to his landlady, who retained some of his clothes as security.
+He went to London, concealed himself in a
+cellar, and was there found by a watchman, who arrested
+him for being in an unoccupied house with felonious
+intent. He professed to be dazed and declared
+that he was at Bakewell in Derbyshire at three o'clock
+that morning. He explained it by the fact that he had
+repeated certain words which he had heard his lodging-house
+keeper and her sister say. The judge was amazed,
+the man's depositions were taken down, and he was
+sent to the justices of Derby.</p>
+
+<p>All that we really know about the Bakewell affair is
+that several witches probably suffered death there in
+1607. A local antiquarian has given this tale of how
+the alarm started.<a name="FNanchor_137-1_24" id="FNanchor_137-1_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_137-1_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> While it is unlike any other narrative
+of witchcraft, it is not necessarily without
+foundation.</p>
+
+<p>The reader has doubtless observed that the cases
+which we have been describing occurred, all of them
+with one exception, between 1603 and 1619. In discussing
+the matter of the distribution of witchcraft
+in the last chapter we noted that not only executions
+for the crime, but even accusations and indictments,
+were nearly altogether limited to the first fifteen years
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>of James's rule. If it is true that there was a rather
+sudden falling off of prosecution in the reign of the
+zealous James, the fact merits explanation. Fortunately
+the explanation is not far to seek. The king's
+faith in the verity of many of the charges made against
+witches had been rudely shaken. As a matter of fact
+there had always been a grain of skepticism in his
+make-up. This had come out even before he entered
+England. In 1597 he had become alarmed at the spread
+of trials in Scotland and had revoked all the commissions
+then in force for the trial of the offence.<a name="FNanchor_138-1_25" id="FNanchor_138-1_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_138-1_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> At
+the very time when he became king of England, there
+were special circumstances that must have had weight
+with him. Throughout the last years of Elizabeth's
+reign there had been, as we have seen, a morbid interest
+in demoniacal possession, an interest to which sensation-mongers
+were quickly minded to respond. We
+saw that at the end of the sixteenth century the Anglican
+church stepped in to put down the exorcizing of
+spirits,<a name="FNanchor_138-2_26" id="FNanchor_138-2_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_138-2_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> largely perhaps because it had been carried on
+by Catholics and by a Puritan clergyman. Yet neither
+Harsnett's book nor Darrel's imprisonment quite
+availed to end a practice which offered at all times to
+all comers a path to notoriety. James had not been on
+the English throne a year when he became interested
+in a case of this kind. Mary Glover, a girl alleged to
+have been bewitched by a Mother Jackson, was at the
+king's wish examined by a skilled physician, Dr. Edward
+Jorden, who recognized her fits as disease, brought the
+girl to a confession, published an account of the matter,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>and so saved the life of the woman whom she had
+accused.<a name="FNanchor_139-1_27" id="FNanchor_139-1_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_139-1_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></p>
+
+<p>In the very next year there was a case at Cambridge
+that gained royal notice. It is not easy to straighten
+out the facts from the letters on the matter, but it
+seems that two Cambridge maids had a curious disease
+suggesting bewitchment.<a name="FNanchor_139-2_28" id="FNanchor_139-2_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_139-2_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> A Franciscan and a Puritan
+clergyman were, along with others, suspected. The
+matter was at once referred to the king and the government.
+James directed that examinations be made
+and reported to him. This was done. James wormed
+out of the "principal" some admission of former
+dealing with conjuration, but turned the whole thing
+over to the courts, where it seems later to have been
+established that the disease of the bewitched maidens
+was "naturall."</p>
+
+<p>These were but the first of several impostures that
+interested the king. A girl at Windsor, another in Hertfordshire,
+were possessed by the Devil,<a name="FNanchor_139-3_29" id="FNanchor_139-3_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_139-3_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> two maids at
+Westminster were "in raptures from the Virgin Mary
+and Michael the Archangel,"<a name="FNanchor_139-4_30" id="FNanchor_139-4_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_139-4_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> a priest of Leicestershire
+was "possessed of the Blessed Trinity."<a name="FNanchor_139-5_31" id="FNanchor_139-5_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_139-5_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> Such cases&mdash;not
+to mention the Grace Sowerbutts confessions at
+Lancaster that were like to end so tragically&mdash;were
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>the excrescences of an intensely religious age. The
+reader of early colonial diaries in America will recognize
+the resemblance of these to the wonders they report.
+James took such with extreme seriousness.<a name="FNanchor_140-1_32" id="FNanchor_140-1_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_140-1_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a>
+The possessed person was summoned to court for exhibition,
+or the king went out of his way to see him. It
+is a matter of common information that James prided
+himself on his cleverness. Having succeeded in detecting
+certain frauds, he became an expert detective.
+In one instance "he ordered it so that a proper courtier
+made love to one of these bewitched maids"<a name="FNanchor_140-2_33" id="FNanchor_140-2_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_140-2_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> and
+soon got her over her troubles. In another case a
+woman "strangely affected" by the first verse of John's
+Gospel failed to recognize it when read in Greek,<a name="FNanchor_140-3_34" id="FNanchor_140-3_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_140-3_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a>
+proof positive that the omniscient Devil did not possess
+her.</p>
+
+<p>Three instances of exposure of imposture were most
+notable, those of Grace Sowerbutts, the boy at Leicester,
+and the "Boy of Bilston." The first of these has already
+been sufficiently discussed in connection with the Lancashire
+trials. The second had nothing remarkable about
+it. A twelve or thirteen-year-old boy had fits which he
+said were caused by spirits sent by several women whom
+he accused as witches. Nine women were hanged, while
+six more were under arrest and would probably have
+met the same end, had not the king in his northward
+progress, while stopping at Leicester, detected the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>shamming.<a name="FNanchor_141-1_35" id="FNanchor_141-1_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_141-1_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> Whether or no the boy was punished we
+are not told. It is some satisfaction that the judges
+were disgraced.<a name="FNanchor_141-2_36" id="FNanchor_141-2_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_141-2_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a></p>
+
+<p>The boy of Bilston was, if Webster may be believed,<a name="FNanchor_141-3_37" id="FNanchor_141-3_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_141-3_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a>
+the most famous, if not the most successful, fraud of
+all. The case was heralded over the entire realm and
+thousands came to see. The story is almost an exact
+duplicate of earlier narratives of possession. A thirteen-year-old
+boy of Bilston in Staffordshire, William
+Perry, began to have fits and to accuse a Jane Clarke,
+whose presence invariably made him worse. He "cast
+out of his mouth rags, thred, straw, crooked pins."
+These were but single deceptions in a repertoire of
+varied tricks. Doubtless he had been trained in his rôle
+by a Roman priest. At any rate the Catholics tried exorcism
+upon him, but to no purpose. Perhaps some Puritans
+experimented with cures which had like result.<a name="FNanchor_141-4_38" id="FNanchor_141-4_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_141-4_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a>
+The boy continued his spasms and his charges against
+the witch and she was brought into court at the July
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>assizes. But Bishop Morton,<a name="FNanchor_142-1_39" id="FNanchor_142-1_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_142-1_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> before whose chancellor
+the boy had first been brought, was present, and the
+judges turned the boy over to him for further investigation.<a name="FNanchor_142-2_40" id="FNanchor_142-2_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_142-2_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a>
+Then, with the help of his secretary, he set
+about to test the boy, and readily exposed his deception&mdash;in
+most curious fashion too. The boy, like one we
+have met before, could not endure the first verse of
+John's Gospel, but failed to recognize it when read in
+the Greek. After that he was secretly watched and his
+somewhat elaborate preparations for his pretences were
+found out. He was persuaded to confess his trickery
+in court before Sir Peter Warburton and Sir Humphrey
+Winch, "and the face of the County and Country
+there assembled,"<a name="FNanchor_142-3_41" id="FNanchor_142-3_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_142-3_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> as well as to beg forgiveness of the
+women whom he had accused.</p>
+
+<p>It will be seen that the records of imposture were well
+on their way to rival the records of witchcraft, if not
+in numbers, at least in the notice that they received.
+And the king who had so bitterly arraigned Reginald
+Scot was himself becoming the discoverer-general of
+England.<a name="FNanchor_142-4_42" id="FNanchor_142-4_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_142-4_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> It is not, then, without being forewarned
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>that we read Fuller's remarkable statement about the
+king's change of heart. "The frequency of such forged
+possessions wrought such an alteration upon the judgement
+of King James that he, receding from what he had
+written in his 'Dćmonology,' grew first diffident of, and
+then flatly to deny, the workings of witches and devils,
+as but falsehoods and delusions."<a name="FNanchor_143-1_43" id="FNanchor_143-1_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_143-1_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> In immediate connection
+with this must be quoted what Francis Osborne
+has to say.<a name="FNanchor_143-2_44" id="FNanchor_143-2_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_143-2_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> He was told, he writes, that the
+king would have gone as far as to deny any such operations,
+but out of reasons of state and to gratify the
+church.<a name="FNanchor_143-3_45" id="FNanchor_143-3_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_143-3_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a></p>
+
+<p>Such a conversion is so remarkable that we could
+wish we had absolutely contemporary statements of it.
+As a matter of fact, the statements we have quoted
+establish nothing more than a probability, but they
+certainly do establish that. Fuller, the church historian,
+responsible for the first of the two statements, was a
+student in Queen's College<a name="FNanchor_143-4_46" id="FNanchor_143-4_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_143-4_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> at Cambridge during the
+last four years of James's reign; Osborne was a man
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>of thirty-two when the king died, and had spent a part
+of his young manhood at the court. Their testimony
+was that of men who had every opportunity to know
+about the king's change of opinion.<a name="FNanchor_144-1_47" id="FNanchor_144-1_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_144-1_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> In the absence
+of any evidence to the contrary, we must accept, at
+least provisionally, their statements.<a name="FNanchor_144-2_48" id="FNanchor_144-2_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_144-2_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> And it is easier
+to do so in view of the marked falling off of prosecutions
+that we have already noted. This indeed is confirmation
+of a negative sort; but we have one interesting
+bit of affirmative proof, the outcome of the trials at
+York in 1622. In that year the children of Mr. Edward
+Fairfax, a member of the historic Fairfax family of
+Yorkshire, were seized with some strange illness, in
+which they saw again and again the spectres of six
+different women. These women were examined by the
+justices of the peace and committed to the assizes.<a name="FNanchor_144-3_49" id="FNanchor_144-3_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_144-3_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> In
+the mean time they had found able and vigorous defenders
+in the community. What happened at the April
+assizes we no not know, but we know that four of the
+women were released, two of them on bond.<a name="FNanchor_144-4_50" id="FNanchor_144-4_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_144-4_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> This was
+probably a compromise method of settling the matter.
+Fairfax was not satisfied. Probably through his influence
+the women were again brought up at the August
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>assizes.<a name="FNanchor_145-1_51" id="FNanchor_145-1_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_145-1_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> Then, at least, as we know beyond a doubt,
+they were formally tried, this time upon indictments
+preferred by Fairfax himself.<a name="FNanchor_145-2_52" id="FNanchor_145-2_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_145-2_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> The judge
+warned the jury to be very careful, and, after hearing
+some of the evidence, dismissed the women on the
+ground that the evidence "reached not to the point
+of the statute."<a name="FNanchor_145-3_53" id="FNanchor_145-3_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_145-3_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> This seems significant. A man
+of a well known county family was utterly baffled
+in pressing charges in a case where his own children
+were involved.<a name="FNanchor_145-4_54" id="FNanchor_145-4_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_145-4_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> It looks as if there were judges
+who were following the king's lead in looking out
+for imposture.<a name="FNanchor_145-5_55" id="FNanchor_145-5_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_145-5_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> In any case there was, in certain
+quarters, a public sentiment against the conviction of
+witches, a sentiment that made itself felt. This we
+shall have occasion to note again in following out the
+currents and fluctuations of opinions.</p>
+
+<hr class="foot" />
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_122-1_1" id="Footnote_122-1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_122-1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Of course the proof that some of the accused really made pretensions
+to magic rests upon their own confessions and their accusations of one
+another, and might be a part of an intricate tissue of falsehood. But,
+granting for the moment the absolute untrustworthiness of the confessions
+and accusations there are incidental statements which imply the practice
+of magic. For example, Elizabeth Device's young daughter quoted a
+long charm which she said her mother had taught her and which she
+hardly invented on the spur of the moment. And Demdike was requested
+to "amend a sick cow."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_123-1_2" id="Footnote_123-1_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_123-1_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The gunpowder plot, seven years earlier, no doubt gave direction to
+this plan, or, perhaps it would be better to say, gave the idea to those who
+confessed the plan.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_124-1_3" id="Footnote_124-1_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_124-1_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> James Crossley seems to believe that there was "some scintilla of
+truth" behind the story. See his edition of Potts, notes, p. 40.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_126-1_4" id="Footnote_126-1_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_126-1_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Among those who never confessed seems to have been Chattox's
+daughter, Anne Redfearne.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_126-2_5" id="Footnote_126-2_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_126-2_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> See above, p. 116.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_126-3_6" id="Footnote_126-3_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_126-3_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> It is a satisfaction to know that Alice died "impenitent," and that not
+even her children could "move her to confesse."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_127-1_7" id="Footnote_127-1_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_127-1_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> See above, pp. 112-113, and Potts, Q-Q verso.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_127-2_8" id="Footnote_127-2_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_127-2_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> See Potts, I.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_127-3_9" id="Footnote_127-3_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_127-3_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> It can hardly be doubted that the children had been thoroughly
+primed with the stories in circulation against their mother.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_128-1_10" id="Footnote_128-1_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_128-1_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Other witnesses charged her with "many strange practises."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_128-2_11" id="Footnote_128-2_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_128-2_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> The principle that a man's life may not twice be put in jeopardy
+for the same offence had been pretty well established before 1612. See
+Darly's Case, 25 Eliz. (1583), Coke's <i>Reports</i> (ed. Thomas and Fraser,
+London, 1826), IV, f. 40; Vaux's Case, 33 Eliz. (1591), <i>ibid.</i>, f. 45;
+Wrote <i>vs.</i> Wiggs, 33 Eliz. (1591), <i>ibid.</i>, f. 47. This principle had been
+in process of development for several centuries. See Bracton (ed. Sir
+Travers Twiss, London, 1878-1883), II, 417, 433, 437; Britton (ed. F. M.
+Nichols, Oxford, 1865), bk. I, cap. xxiv, 5, f. 44 b.
+</p><p>
+It must be noted, however, that the statute of 3 Hen. VII, cap. II,
+provides that indictments shall be proceeded in, immediately, at the
+king's suit, for the death of a man, without waiting for bringing an
+appeal; and that the plea of <i>antefort acquit</i> in an indictment shall be
+no bar to the prosecuting of an appeal. This law was passed to get
+around special legal inconvenience and related only to homicide and to
+the single case of prosecution by appeal. In general, then, we may say
+that the former-jeopardy doctrine was part of the common law, (1)
+an appeal of felony being a bar to subsequent appeal or indictment, (2)
+an indictment a bar to a subsequent indictment, and (3) an indictment to
+a subsequent appeal, except so far as the statute of 3 Hen. VII., cap.
+II, changed the law as respects homicides. For this brief statement I am
+indebted to Professor William Underhill Moore of the University of
+Wisconsin.
+</p><p>
+What Potts has to say about Anne Redfearne's case hardly enables us
+to reach a conclusion about the legal aspect of it.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_130-1_12" id="Footnote_130-1_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_130-1_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> This is the story in the MS. account (Brit. Mus., Sloane, 972). The
+printed narrative of the origin of the affair is somewhat different.
+Joan had on one occasion been struck by Mistress Belcher for unbecoming
+behavior and had cherished a grudge. No doubt this was a point
+recalled against Joan after suspicion had been directed against her.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_130-2_13" id="Footnote_130-2_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_130-2_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> In John Cotta's <i>The Triall of Witchcraft ...</i> (London, 1616), 66-67,
+there is a very interesting statement which probably refers to this
+case. Cotta, it will be remembered, was a physician at Northampton.
+He wrote: "There is a very rare, but true, description of a Gentlewoman,
+about sixe yeares past, cured of divers kinds of convulsions, ...
+After she was almost cured, ... but the cure not fully accomplished,
+it was by a reputed Wisard whispered ... that the Gentlewoman was
+meerely bewitched, supposed Witches were accused and after executed....
+In this last past seventh yeare ... fits are critically again returned."
+Cotta says six years ago and the Northampton trials were in 1612, four
+years before. It is quite possible, however, that Mistress Belcher began
+to be afflicted in 1610.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_131-1_14" id="Footnote_131-1_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_131-1_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> One of these was Sir Gilbert Pickering of Tichmarsh, almost certainly
+the Gilbert Pickering mentioned as an uncle of the Throckmorton
+children at Warboys. See above, pp. 47-48. His hatred of witches had
+no doubt been increased by that affair.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_131-2_15" id="Footnote_131-2_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_131-2_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> See what is said of spectral evidence in chapter V, above.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_132-1_16" id="Footnote_132-1_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_132-1_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> At least there is no evidence that Alice Abbott, Catherine Gardiner,
+and Alice Harris, whom he accused, were punished in any way.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_132-2_17" id="Footnote_132-2_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_132-2_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> It seems, however, that Arthur Bill, while he sturdily denied guilt,
+had been before trapped into some sort of an admission. He had "unawares
+confest that he had certaine spirits at command." But this
+may mean nothing more than that something he had said had been
+grossly misinterpreted.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_133-1_18" id="Footnote_133-1_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_133-1_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Three women of Leicestershire, Anne Baker, Joan Willimot, and
+Ellen Greene, who in their confessions implicated the Flowers (they
+belonged to parishes neighbor to that of Belvoir, which lies on the shire
+border) and whose testimony against them figured in their trials, were
+at the same time (Feb.-March, 1618/19) under examination in that
+county. Whether these women were authors or victims of the Belvoir
+suspicions we do not know. As we have their damning confessions, there
+is small doubt as to their fate.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_134-1_19" id="Footnote_134-1_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_134-1_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> The women were tried in March, 1618/19. Henry, the elder son of
+the earl, was buried at Bottesford, September 26, 1613. John Nichols,
+<i>History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester</i> (London, 1795-1815),
+II, pt. i, 49, note 10. Francis, the second, lingered till early in 1620.
+His sister, Lady Katherine, whose delicate health had also been ascribed
+to the witches, was now the heiress, and became in that year the bride
+of Buckingham, the king's favorite. There is one aspect of this affair
+that must not be overlooked. The accusation against the Flowers cannot
+have been unknown to the king, who was a frequent visitor at the
+seat of the Rutlands. It is hard to believe that under such circumstances
+the use of torture, which James had declared essential to bring out the
+guilt of the accused witches, was not after some fashion resorted to.
+The weird and uncanny confessions go far towards supporting such an
+hypothesis.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_135-1_20" id="Footnote_135-1_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_135-1_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> <i>The Most Cruell and Bloody Murther committed by ... Annis
+Dell, ... with the severall Witch-crafts ... of one Johane Harrison
+and her Daughter</i>, 63.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_135-2_21" id="Footnote_135-2_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_135-2_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> This story must be accepted with hesitation; see below, appendix A,
+§3.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_136-1_22" id="Footnote_136-1_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_136-1_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> See above, pp. 110-111.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_136-2_23" id="Footnote_136-2_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_136-2_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> The trial of Elizabeth Sawyer at Edmonton in 1621 had to do with
+similar trivialities. Agnes Ratcliffe was washing one day, when a sow
+belonging to Elizabeth licked up a bit of her washing soap. She struck
+it with a "washing beetle." Of course she fell sick, and on her death-bed
+accused Mistress Elizabeth Sawyer, who was afterwards hanged.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_137-1_24" id="Footnote_137-1_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_137-1_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> See T. Tindall Wildridge, in William Andrews, <i>Bygone Derbyshire</i>
+(Derby, 1892), 180-184. It has been impossible to locate the sources of
+this story. J. Charles Cox, who explored the Derby records, seems never
+to have discovered anything about the affair.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_138-1_25" id="Footnote_138-1_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_138-1_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> See F. Legge, "Witchcraft in Scotland," in the <i>Scottish Review</i>,
+XVIII, 264.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_138-2_26" id="Footnote_138-2_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_138-2_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> See above, ch. IV, especially note 36.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_139-1_27" id="Footnote_139-1_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_139-1_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> On Mary Glover see also appendix A, § 2. On other impostures
+see Thomas Fuller, <i>Church History of Britain</i> (London, 1655;
+Oxford, ed. J. S. Brewer, 1845), ed. of 1845, V, 450; letters given by
+Edmund Lodge, <i>Illustrations of British History, Biography and Manners ...</i> (London,
+1791), III, 275, 284, 287-288; also <i>King James, His
+Apothegms, by B. A., Gent.</i> (London, 1643), 8-10.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_139-2_28" id="Footnote_139-2_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_139-2_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> <i>Cal. St. P., Dom., 1603-1610</i>, 218.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_139-3_29" id="Footnote_139-3_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_139-3_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Fuller, <i>op. cit.</i>, V, 450.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_139-4_30" id="Footnote_139-4_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_139-4_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>; John Gee, <i>The Foot out of the Snare, or Detection of Practices
+and Impostures of Priests and Jesuits in England ...</i> (London,
+1624), reprinted in <i>Somers Tracts</i>, III, 72.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_139-5_31" id="Footnote_139-5_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_139-5_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>; Fuller, <i>op. cit.</i>, V, 450.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_140-1_32" id="Footnote_140-1_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_140-1_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> How much more seriously than his courtiers is suggested by an
+anecdote of Sir John Harington's: James gravely questioned Sir John
+why the Devil did work more with ancient women than with others. "We
+are taught thereof in Scripture," gaily answered Sir John, "where it is
+told that the Devil walketh in dry places." See his <i>Nugć Antiquć</i> (London,
+1769), ed. of London, 1804, I, 368-369.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_140-2_33" id="Footnote_140-2_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_140-2_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Fuller, <i>op. cit.</i>, V, 451.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_140-3_34" id="Footnote_140-3_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_140-3_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_141-1_35" id="Footnote_141-1_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_141-1_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> The story of the hangings at Leicester in 1616 has to be put together
+from various sources. Our principal authority, however, is in two letters
+written by Robert Heyrick of Leicester to his brother William in 1616,
+which are to be found in John Nichols, <i>History and Antiquities of the
+County of Leicester</i> (London, 1795-1815), II, pt. ii, 471, and in the
+<i>Annual Register</i> for 1800. See also William Kelly, <i>Royal Progresses to
+Leicester</i> (Leicester, 1884), 367-369. Probably this is the case referred
+to by Francis Osborne, where the boy was sent to the Archbishop of
+Canterbury for further examination. Osborne, who wrote a good deal
+later than the events, apparently confused the story of the Leicester
+witches with that of the Boy of Bilston&mdash;their origins were similar&mdash;and
+produced a strange account; see his <i>Miscellany of Sundry Essays, Paradoxes
+and Problematicall Discourses</i> (London, 1658-1659), 6-9.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_141-2_36" id="Footnote_141-2_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_141-2_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> For the disgrace of the judges see <i>Cal. St. P., Dom., 1611-1618</i>, 398.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_141-3_37" id="Footnote_141-3_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_141-3_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> Webster knew Bishop Morton, and also his secretary, Baddeley, who
+had been notary in the case and had written an account of it. See John
+Webster, <i>The Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft</i> (London, 1677), 275.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_141-4_38" id="Footnote_141-4_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_141-4_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> The Catholics declared that the Puritans tried "syllabub" upon
+him. This was perhaps a sarcastic reference to their attempts to cure
+him by medicine.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_142-1_39" id="Footnote_142-1_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_142-1_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> Then of Lichfield.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_142-2_40" id="Footnote_142-2_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_142-2_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> Baddeley, who was Bishop Morton's secretary and who prepared the
+narrative of the affair for the printer, says that the woman was freed
+by the inquest; Ryc. Baddeley, <i>The Boy of Bilson ...</i> (London, 1622), 61.
+Arthur Wilson, who tells us that he heard the story "from the
+Bishop's own mouth almost thirty years before it was inserted here,"
+says that the woman was found guilty and condemned to die; Arthur
+Wilson, <i>Life and Reign of James I</i> (London, 1653), 107. It is evident
+that Baddeley's story is the more trustworthy. It is of course possible,
+although not probable, that there were two trials, and that Baddeley
+ignored the second one, the outcome of which would have been less
+creditable to the bishop.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_142-3_41" id="Footnote_142-3_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_142-3_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> Webster, <i>Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft</i>, 275.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_142-4_42" id="Footnote_142-4_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_142-4_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> See Fairfax, <i>A Discourse of Witchcraft</i> (Philobiblon Soc.): "and
+those whose impostures our wise King so lately laid open." See also
+an interesting letter from James himself in J. O. Halliwell, <i>Letters of
+the Kings of England</i> (London, 1846), II, 124-125.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_143-1_43" id="Footnote_143-1_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_143-1_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> Fuller, <i>Church History of Britain</i>, V, 452 (ch. X, sect. 4). It is
+worthy of note that Peter Heylyn, who, in his <i>Examen Historicum</i>
+(London, 1659), sought to pick Fuller to pieces, does not mention this
+point.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_143-2_44" id="Footnote_143-2_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_143-2_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> See Francis Osborne, <i>Miscellany</i>, 4-9. Lucy Aikin, <i>Memoirs of the
+Court of King James the First</i> (London, 1823), II, 398-399, gives about
+the same story as Fuller and Osborne, and, while the wording is slightly
+different, it is probable that they were her sources.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_143-3_45" id="Footnote_143-3_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_143-3_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> Arthur Wilson, <i>op. cit.</i>, 111, tells us: "The King took delight by the
+line of his reason to sound the depth of such brutish impostors, and he
+discovered many." A writer to the <i>Gentleman's Magazine</i> (LIV, pt. I,
+246-247), in 1784, says that he has somewhere read that King James on
+his death-bed acknowledged that he had been deceived in his opinion
+respecting witchcraft and expressed his concern that so many innocent
+persons had suffered on that account. But, as he has forgotten where he
+read it, his evidence is of course of small value.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_143-4_46" id="Footnote_143-4_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_143-4_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> The college where an annual sermon was preached on the subject
+of witchcraft since the Warboys affair.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_144-1_47" id="Footnote_144-1_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_144-1_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> Osborne's statement should perhaps be discounted a little on account
+of his skepticism. On the other hand he was not such an admirer of
+James I as to have given him undue credit. Fuller's opinion was divided.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_144-2_48" id="Footnote_144-2_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_144-2_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> James still believed in witchcraft in 1613, when the malodorous
+divorce trial of Lady Essex took place. A careful reading of his words
+at that time, however, leaves the impression that he was not nearly so
+certain about the possibilities of witchcraft as he had been when he wrote
+his book. His position was clearly defensive. It must be remembered
+that James in 1613 had a point to be gained and would not have
+allowed a possible doubt as to witchcraft to interfere with his wish for the
+divorce. See Howell, <i>State Trials</i>, II, 806.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_144-3_49" id="Footnote_144-3_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_144-3_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> One of them was publicly searched by command of a justice. See
+Fairfax, <i>op. cit.</i>, 138-139.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_144-4_50" id="Footnote_144-4_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_144-4_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 205. Two of the women had gone home before, <i>ibid.</i>, 180.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_145-1_51" id="Footnote_145-1_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_145-1_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 225-234.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_145-2_52" id="Footnote_145-2_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_145-2_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 234.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_145-3_53" id="Footnote_145-3_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_145-3_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 237-238. If the women were tried twice, it seems a clear
+violation of the principle of former jeopardy. See above, note 11. The
+statute of 3 Hen. VII, cap. I, that the plea of <i>antefort acquit</i> was no bar
+to the prosecution of an appeal, would not apply in this instance, as
+that statute was limited to cases of <i>homicide</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_145-4_54" id="Footnote_145-4_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_145-4_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> Fairfax was moreover a man for whom the king had a high personal
+regard.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_145-5_55" id="Footnote_145-5_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_145-5_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> At the August assizes there had been an effort to show that the
+children were "counterfeiting." See the <i>Discourse</i>, 235-237.</p></div>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2 class="chapter"><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+<h3 class="chapter2">The Lancashire Witches and Charles I.</h3>
+
+
+<p>In his attitude towards superstition, Charles I resembled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>
+the later rather than the earlier James I. No
+reign up to the Revolution was marked by so few executions.
+It was a time of comparative quiet. Here
+and there isolated murmurs against suspected creatures
+of the Devil roused the justices of the peace to
+write letters, and even to make inquiries that as often
+as not resulted in indefinite commitments, or brought
+out the protests of neighbors in favor of the accused.
+But, if there were not many cases, they represented a
+wide area. Middlesex, Wilts, Somerset, Leicestershire,
+Staffordshire, Lancashire, Durham, Yorkshire,
+and Northumberland were among the counties infested.
+Yet we can count but six executions, and only four
+of them rest upon secure evidence.<a name="FNanchor_146-1_1" id="FNanchor_146-1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_146-1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> This is of course
+to reckon the reign of Charles as not extending beyond
+1642, when the Civil War broke out and the Puritan
+leaders assumed responsibility for the government.</p>
+
+<p>Up to that time there was but one really notable
+witch alarm in England. But it was one that illustrated
+again, as in Essex, the continuity of the superstition
+in a given locality. The Lancashire witches of 1633
+were the direct outcome of the Lancashire witches of
+1612. The story is a weird one. An eleven-year-old
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>boy played truant one day to his cattle-herding, and, as
+he afterwards told the story, went plum-gathering.
+When he came back he had to find a plausible excuse
+to present to his parents. Now, the lad had been
+brought up in the Blackburn forest, close to Pendle
+Hill; he had overheard stories of Malking Tower<a name="FNanchor_147-1_2" id="FNanchor_147-1_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_147-1_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>
+from the chatter of gossipping women;<a name="FNanchor_147-2_3" id="FNanchor_147-2_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_147-2_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> he had shivered
+as suspected women were pointed out to him; he
+knew the names of some of them. His imagination,
+in search for an excuse, caught at the witch motive<a name="FNanchor_147-3_4" id="FNanchor_147-3_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_147-3_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a>
+and elaborated it with the easy invention of youth.<a name="FNanchor_147-4_5" id="FNanchor_147-4_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_147-4_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> He
+had seen two greyhounds come running towards him.
+They looked like those owned by two of his neighbors.
+When he saw that no one was following them, he set
+out to hunt with them, and presently a hare rose very
+near before him, at the sight whereof he cried "Loo,
+Loo," but the dogs would not run. Being very angry,
+he tied them to a little bush in the hedge and beat them,
+and at once, instead of the black greyhound, "one Dick<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>onson's
+wife" stood up, and instead of the brown
+greyhound "a little boy whom this informer knoweth
+not." He started to run away, but the woman stayed
+him and offered him a piece of silver "much like to a
+faire shillinge" if he would not betray her. The conscientious
+boy answered "Nay, thou art a witch,"
+"whereupon shee put her hand into her pocket againe
+and pulled out a stringe like unto a bridle that gingled,
+which shee put upon the litle boyes heade that stood up
+in the browne greyhounds steade, whereupon the said
+boy stood up a white horse." In true Arabian Nights
+fashion they mounted and rode away. They came to a
+new house called Hoarstones, where there were three
+score or more people, and horses of several colors, and
+a fire with meat roasting. They had flesh and bread
+upon a trencher and they drank from glasses. After
+the first taste the boy "refused and would have noe
+more, and said it was nought." There were other refreshments
+at the feast. The boy was, as he afterwards
+confessed, familiar with the story of the feast at Malking
+Tower.<a name="FNanchor_148-1_6" id="FNanchor_148-1_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_148-1_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+<p>The names of those present he did not volunteer at
+first; but, on being questioned, he named eighteen<a name="FNanchor_148-2_7" id="FNanchor_148-2_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_148-2_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a>
+whom he had seen. The boy confessed that he had been
+clever enough to make most of his list from those who
+were already suspected by their neighbors.</p>
+
+<p>It needed but a match to set off the flame of witch-hatred
+in Lancashire. The boy's story was quite suf<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>ficient.
+Whether his narrative was a spontaneous invention
+of his own, concocted in emergency, as he asserted
+in his confession at London, or whether it was
+a carefully constructed lie taught him by his father in
+order to revenge himself upon some hated neighbors,
+and perhaps to exact blackmail, as some of the accused
+later charged, we shall never know. In later life the
+boy is said to have admitted that he had been set on by
+his father,<a name="FNanchor_149-1_8" id="FNanchor_149-1_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_149-1_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> but the narrative possesses certain earmarks
+of a story struck out by a child's imagination.<a name="FNanchor_149-2_9" id="FNanchor_149-2_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_149-2_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> It is
+easy enough to reconcile the two theories by supposing
+that the boy started the story of his own initiative and
+that his father was too shrewd not to realize the opportunity
+to make a sensation and perhaps some money.
+He took the boy before justices of the peace, who, with
+the zeal their predecessors had displayed twenty-two
+years before, made many arrests.<a name="FNanchor_149-3_10" id="FNanchor_149-3_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_149-3_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> The boy was exhibited
+from town to town in Lancashire as a great
+wonder and witch-detector. It was in the course of
+these exhibitions that he was brought to a little town
+on the Lancashire border of Yorkshire and was taken
+to the afternoon church service, where a young minister,
+who was long afterwards to become a famous opponent
+of the superstition, was discoursing to his congregation.
+The boy was held up by those in charge as
+if to give him the chance to detect witches among the
+audience. The minister saw him, and at the end of the
+service at once came down to the boy, and without par<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>ley
+asked him, "Good boy, tell me truly, and in earnest,
+didst thou see and hear such things of the meeting of
+the witches as is reported by many that thou dost relate?"
+The boy, as Webster has told the story, was not
+given time for reply by the men in charge of him, who
+protested against such questions. The lad, they said,
+had been before two justices of the peace, and had not
+been catechized in that fashion.<a name="FNanchor_150-1_11" id="FNanchor_150-1_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_150-1_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p>
+
+<p>A lone skeptic had little chance to beat back the wave
+of excitement created by the young Robinson's stories.
+His success prompted him to concoct new tales.<a name="FNanchor_150-2_12" id="FNanchor_150-2_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_150-2_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> He
+had seen Lloynd's wife sitting on a cross-bar in his
+father's chimney; he had called to her; she had not
+come down but had vanished in the air. Other accounts
+the boy gave, but none of them revealed the
+clear invention of his first narrative.</p>
+
+<p>He had done his work. The justices of the peace
+were bringing in the accused to the assizes at Lancaster.
+There Robinson was once more called upon to
+render his now famous testimony. He was supported
+by his father,<a name="FNanchor_150-3_13" id="FNanchor_150-3_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_150-3_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> who gave evidence that on the day he
+had sent his boy for the cattle he had gone after him
+and as he approached had heard him cry and had found
+him quite "distracted." When the boy recovered himself,
+he had related the story already told. This was
+the evidence of the father, and together with that of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>son it constituted the most telling piece of testimony
+presented. But it served, as was usual in such cases,
+as an opening for all those who, for any reason, thought
+they had grounds of suspicion against any of their
+neighbors. It was recalled by one witness that a
+neighbor girl could bewitch a pail and make it roll towards
+her. We shall later have occasion to note the
+basis of fact behind this curious accusation. There
+was other testimony of an equally damaging character.
+But in nearly all the cases stress was laid upon
+the bodily marks. In one instance, indeed, nothing
+else was charged.<a name="FNanchor_151-1_14" id="FNanchor_151-1_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_151-1_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> The reader will remember that in
+the Lancaster cases of 1612 the evidence of marks on
+the body was notably absent, so notably that we were
+led to suspect that it had been ruled out by the judge.
+That such evidence was now reckoned important is
+proof that this particularly dark feature of the witch
+superstition was receiving increasing emphasis.</p>
+
+<p>How many in all were accused we do not know.
+Webster, writing later, said that seventeen were found
+guilty.<a name="FNanchor_151-2_15" id="FNanchor_151-2_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_151-2_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> It is possible that even a larger number were acquitted.
+Certainly some were acquitted. A distinction
+of some sort was made in the evidence. This makes
+it all the harder to understand why the truth of Robinson's
+stories was not tested in the same way in which
+those of Grace Sowerbutts had been tested in 1612.
+Did that detection of fraud never occur to the judges,
+or had they never heard of the famous boy at Bilston?
+Perhaps not they but the juries were to blame, for it
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>seems that the court was not altogether satisfied with
+the jury's verdict and delayed sentence. Perhaps, indeed,
+the judges wrote to London about the matter.
+Be that as it may, the privy council decided to take
+cognizance of an affair that was already the talk of the
+realm.<a name="FNanchor_152-1_16" id="FNanchor_152-1_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_152-1_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> Secretaries Coke and Windebank sent instructions
+to Henry Bridgeman, Bishop of Chester and successor
+to that Morton who had exposed the boy of Bilston,
+to examine seven of the condemned witches and
+to make a report.<a name="FNanchor_152-2_17" id="FNanchor_152-2_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_152-2_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> Bridgeman doubtless knew of his
+predecessor's success in exposing fraudulent accusations.
+Before the bishop was ready to report, His Majesty
+sent orders that three or four of the accused should
+be brought up to London by a writ of habeas corpus.
+Owing to a neglect to insert definite names, there was a
+delay.<a name="FNanchor_152-3_18" id="FNanchor_152-3_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_152-3_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> It was during this interval, probably, that
+Bishop Bridgeman was able to make his examination.
+He found three of the seven already dead and one
+hopelessly ill. The other three he questioned with great
+care. Two of them, Mary Spencer, a girl of twenty,
+and Frances Dickonson, the first whom Robinson had
+accused, made spirited denials. Mary Spencer avowed
+that her accusers had been actuated by malice against
+her and her parents for several years. At the trial, she
+had been unable, she said, to answer for herself, because
+the noise of the crowd had been so great as to
+prevent her from hearing the evidence against her. As
+for the charge of bewitching a pail so that it came run<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>ning
+towards her of its own accord, she declared that
+she used as a child to roll a pail down-hill and to call it
+after her as she ran, a perfectly natural piece of child's
+play. Frances Dickonson, too, charged malice upon her
+accusers, especially upon the father of Edmund Robinson.
+Her husband, she said, had been unwilling to
+sell him a cow without surety and had so gained his
+ill-will. She went on to assert that the elder Robinson
+had volunteered to withdraw the charges against her if
+her husband would pay him forty shillings. This
+counter charge was supported by another witness and
+seemed to make a good deal of an impression on the
+ecclesiastic.</p>
+
+<p>The third woman to be examined by the bishop was
+a widow of sixty, who had not been numbered among
+the original seventeen witches. She acknowledged that
+she was a witch, but was, wrote the bishop, "more often
+faulting in the particulars of her actions as one having
+a strong imagination of the former, but of too weak a
+memory to retain or relate the latter." The woman told
+a commonplace story of a man in black attire who had
+come to her six years before and made the usual contract.
+But very curiously she could name only one
+other witch, and professed to know none of those
+already in gaol.</p>
+
+<p>Such were the results of the examinations sent in by
+the bishop. In the letter which he sent along, he expressed
+doubt about the whole matter. "Conceit and
+malice," he wrote, "are so powerful with many in those
+parts that they will easily afford an oath to work revenge
+upon their neighbour." He would, he intimated,
+have gone further in examining the counter charges
+brought by the accused, had it not been that he hesi<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>tated
+to proceed against the king, that is, the
+prosecution.</p>
+
+<p>This report doubtless confirmed the fears of the
+government. The writs to the sheriff of Lancaster
+were redirected, and four of the women were brought
+up to London and carried to the "Ship Tavern" at
+Greenwich, close to one of the royal residences.<a name="FNanchor_154-1_19" id="FNanchor_154-1_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_154-1_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> Two
+of His Majesty's surgeons, Alexander Baker and Sir
+William Knowles, the latter of whom was accustomed
+to examine candidates for the king's touch, together
+with five other surgeons and ten certificated midwives,
+were now ordered to make a bodily examination of the
+women, under the direction of the eminent Harvey,<a name="FNanchor_154-2_20" id="FNanchor_154-2_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_154-2_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> the
+king's physician, who was later to discover the circulation
+of the blood. In the course of this chapter we
+shall see that Harvey had long cherished misgivings
+about witchcraft. Probably by this time he had come
+to disbelieve it. One can but wonder if Charles, already
+probably aware of Harvey's views, had not intended
+from his first step in the Lancashire case to give his
+physician a chance to assert his opinion. In any case
+his report and that of his subordinates was entirely in
+favor of the women, except that in the case of Margaret
+Johnson (who had confessed) they had found
+a mark, but one to which they attached little significance.<a name="FNanchor_154-3_21" id="FNanchor_154-3_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_154-3_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a>
+The women seem to have been carried before
+the king himself.<a name="FNanchor_154-4_22" id="FNanchor_154-4_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_154-4_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> We do not know, however, that he
+expressed any opinion on the matter.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span></p>
+<p>The whole affair has one aspect that has been entirely
+overlooked. Whatever the verdict of the privy council
+and of the king may have been&mdash;and it was evidently
+one of caution&mdash;they gave authorization from the highest
+quarters for the use of the test of marks on the
+body. That proof of witchcraft had been long known
+in England and had slowly won its way into judicial
+procedure until now it was recognized by the highest
+powers in the kingdom. To be sure, it was probably
+their purpose to annul the reckless convictions in Lancashire,
+and to break down the evidence of the female
+juries; but in doing so they furnished a precedent for
+the witch procedure of the civil-war period.</p>
+
+<p>In the mean time, while the surgeons and midwives
+were busy over these four women, the Robinsons,
+father and son, had come to London at the summons of
+the privy council.<a name="FNanchor_155-1_23" id="FNanchor_155-1_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_155-1_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> There the boy was separated from
+his father. To a Middlesex justice of the peace appointed
+by Secretary Windebank to take his statements
+he confessed that his entire story was an invention and
+had no basis of fact whatever.<a name="FNanchor_155-2_24" id="FNanchor_155-2_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_155-2_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> Both father and son
+were imprisoned and proceedings seem to have been instituted
+against them by one of the now repentant jurymen
+who had tried the case.<a name="FNanchor_155-3_25" id="FNanchor_155-3_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_155-3_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> How long they were
+kept in prison we do not know.</p>
+
+<p>One would naturally suppose that the women would
+be released on their return to Lancaster, but the sheriff's
+records show that two years later there were still
+nine witches in gaol.<a name="FNanchor_155-4_26" id="FNanchor_155-4_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_155-4_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> Three of them bore the same
+names as those whom Robinson pretended to have seen
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>at Hoarstones. At least one other of the nine had been
+convicted in 1634, probably more. Margaret Johnson,
+the single one to confess, so far as we know, was not
+there. She had probably died in prison in the mean
+time. We have no clue as to why the women were not
+released. Perhaps public sentiment at home made the
+sheriff unwilling to do it, perhaps the wretched creatures
+spent two or more years in prison&mdash;for we do
+not know when they got out&mdash;as a result of judicial
+negligence, a negligence of which there are too many
+examples in the records of the time. More likely the
+king and the privy council, while doubting the charges
+against the women, had been reluctant to antagonize
+public sentiment by declaring them innocent.</p>
+
+<p>It is disagreeable to have to state that Lancaster was
+not yet through with its witches. Early in the next
+year the Bishop of Chester was again called upon by
+the privy council to look into the cases of four women.
+There was some delay, during which a dispute took
+place between the bishop and the sheriff as to where
+the bishop should examine the witches, whether at
+Wigan, as he proposed, or at Lancaster.<a name="FNanchor_156-1_27" id="FNanchor_156-1_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_156-1_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> One suspects
+that the civil authorities of the Duchy of Lancaster
+may have resented the bishop's part in the affair. When
+Bridgeman arrived in Lancaster he found two of the
+women already dead. Of the other two, the one, he
+wrote, was accused by a man formerly "distracted and
+lunatic" and by a woman who was a common beggar;
+the other had been long reputed a witch, but he saw
+no reason to believe it. He had, he admitted, found a
+small lump of flesh on her right ear.<a name="FNanchor_156-2_28" id="FNanchor_156-2_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_156-2_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> Alas that the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>Bishop of Chester, like the king and the privy council,
+however much he discounted the accusations of witchcraft,
+had not yet wholly rid himself of one of the darkest
+and most disagreeable forms of the belief that the
+Evil One had bodily communication with his subjects.</p>
+
+<p>In one respect the affair of 1633-1634 in northern
+England was singular. The social and moral character
+of those accused was distinctly high. Not that
+they belonged to any but the peasant class, but that they
+represented a good type of farming people. Frances
+Dickonson's husband evidently had some property.
+Mary Spencer insisted that she was accustomed to go
+to church and to repeat the sermon to her parents, and
+that she was not afraid of death, for she hoped it would
+make an entrance for her into heaven. Margaret Johnson
+was persuaded that a man and his wife who were
+in the gaol on Robinson's charges were not witches,
+because the man "daily prays and reads and seems
+a godly man." With this evidence of religious life,
+which must have meant something as to the status of
+the people in the community, should be coupled the entire
+absence of stories of threats at beggars and of
+quarrels between bad-tempered and loose-lived women,
+stories that fill so many dreary pages of witchcraft
+records. Nor is there any mention of the practice of pretended
+magic.</p>
+
+<p>In previous chapters we have had occasion to observe
+the continuity of superstition in certain localities.
+It is obvious that Lancashire offers one of the best illustrations
+of that principle. The connection between
+the alarms of 1612 and 1633-1634 is not a matter of
+theory, but can be established by definite proof. It is
+perhaps not out of order to inquire, then, why Lan<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>cashire
+should have been so infested with witches. It
+is the more necessary when we consider that there were
+other witch cases in the country. Nicholas Starchie's
+children gave rise to the first of the scares. It seems
+likely that a certain Utley was hanged at Lancaster
+in 1630 for bewitching a gentleman's child.<a name="FNanchor_158-1_29" id="FNanchor_158-1_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_158-1_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> During
+Commonwealth days, as we shall find, there was an
+alarm at Lancaster that probably cost two witches
+their lives. No county in England except Essex had
+a similar record. No explanation can be offered for
+the records of these two counties save that both had
+been early infected with a hatred of witches, and that
+the witches came to be connected, in tradition, with
+certain localities within the counties and with certain
+families living there. This is, indeed, an explanation
+that does not explain. It all comes back to the continuity
+of superstition.</p>
+
+<p>We have already referred to the widespread interest
+in the Lancashire witches. There are two good
+illustrations of this interest. When Sir William Brereton
+was travelling in Holland in June of 1634, a little
+while before the four women had been brought to London,
+he met King Charles's sister, the Queen of Bohemia,
+and at once, apparently, they began to talk about
+the great Lancashire discovery.<a name="FNanchor_158-2_30" id="FNanchor_158-2_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_158-2_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> The other instance
+of comment on the case was in England. It is one which
+shows that playwrights were quite as eager then as now
+to be abreast of current topics. Before final judgment
+had been given on the Lancashire women, Thomas
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>Heywood and Richard Brome, well known dramatists,
+had written a play on the subject which was at once
+published and "acted at the Globe on the Bankside by
+His Majesty's Actors." By some it has been supposed
+that this play was an older play founded on the Lancashire
+affair of 1612 and warmed over in 1634; but
+the main incidents and the characters of the play are so
+fully copied from the depositions of the young Robinson
+and from the charges preferred against Mary
+Spencer, Frances Dickonson, and Margaret Johnson,
+that a layman would at once pronounce it a play written
+entirely to order from the affair of 1634. Nothing
+unique in the stories was left out. The pail incident&mdash;of
+course without its rational explanation&mdash;was grafted
+into the play and put upon the stage. Indeed, a marriage
+that afforded the hook upon which to hang a
+bundle of indecencies, and the story of a virtuous husband
+who discovers his wife to be a witch, were the
+only added motives of importance. For our purpose
+the significance of the play lies of course in its testimony
+to the general interest&mdash;the people of London
+were obviously familiar with the details, even, of the
+charges&mdash;and its probable reflection of London opinion
+about the case. Throughout the five acts there
+were those who maintained that there were no witches,
+a recognition of the existence of such an opinion. Of
+course in the play they were all, before the curtain fell,
+convinced of their error. The authors, who no doubt
+catered to public sentiment, were not as earnest as the
+divines of their day, but they were almost as superstitious.
+Heywood showed himself in another work,
+<i>The Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels</i>,<a name="FNanchor_159-1_31" id="FNanchor_159-1_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_159-1_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> a sincere be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span>liever
+in witchcraft and backed his belief by the Warboys
+case. Probably he had read Scot, but he was
+not at all the type of man to set himself against the
+tide. <i>The late Lancashire Witches</i> no doubt expressed
+quite accurately London opinion. It was written, it
+will be remembered, before the final outcome of the
+case could be foreseen. Perhaps Heywood foresaw it,
+more probably he was sailing close to the wind of opinion
+when he wrote in the epilogue,</p>
+
+<div class="block"><div class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">... "Perhaps great mercy may,</span><br />
+After just condemnation, give them day<br />
+Of longer life."<br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>It is easy in discussing the Lancashire affair to miss
+a central figure. Frances Dickonson, Mary Spencer,
+and the others, could they have known it, owed their
+lives in all probability to the intellectual independence
+of William Harvey. There is a precious story about
+Harvey in an old manuscript letter by an unknown
+writer, that, if trustworthy, throws a light on the physician's
+conduct in the case. The letter seems to have
+been written by a justice of the peace in southwestern
+England about 1685.<a name="FNanchor_160-1_32" id="FNanchor_160-1_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_160-1_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> He had had some experience with
+witches&mdash;we have mentioned them in another connection&mdash;and
+he was prompted by them to tell a story
+of Dr. Harvey, with whom he was "very familiarly acquainted."
+"I once asked him what his opinion was
+concerning witchcraft; whether there was any such
+thing. Hee told mee he believed there was not." Asked
+the reasons for his doubt, Harvey told him that "when
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>he was at Newmercat with the King [Charles I] he heard
+there was a woman who dwelt at a lone house on the
+borders of the Heath who was reputed a Witch, that
+he went alone to her, and found her alone at home....
+Hee said shee was very distrustful at first, but when
+hee told her he was a vizard, and came purposely to
+converse with her in their common trade, then shee
+easily believed him; for say'd hee to mee, 'You know
+I have a very magicall face.'" The physician asked
+her where her familiar was and desired to see him,
+upon which she brought out a dish of milk and made
+a chuckling noise, as toads do, at which a toad came
+from under the chest and drank some of the milk. Harvey
+now laid a plan to get rid of the woman. He suggested
+that as fellow witches they ought to drink together,
+and that she procure some ale. She went out to
+a neighboring ale-house, half a mile away, and Harvey
+availed himself of her absence to take up the toad and
+cut it open. Out came the milk. On a thorough examination
+he concluded that the toad "no ways differed
+from other toades," but that the melancholy old woman
+had brought it home some evening and had tamed it by
+feeding and had so come to believe it a spirit and her
+familiar. When the woman returned and found her
+"familiar" cut in pieces, she "flew like a Tigris" at his
+face. The physician offered her money and tried to
+persuade her that her familiar was nothing more than
+a toad. When he found that this did not pacify her
+he took another tack and told her that he was the
+king's physician, sent to discover if she were a witch,
+and, in case she were, to have her apprehended. With
+this explanation, Harvey was able to get away. He
+related the story to the king, whose leave he had to go<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>
+on the expedition. The narrator adds: "I am certayne
+this for an argument against spirits or witchcraft is
+the best and most experimentall I ever heard."</p>
+
+<p>Who the justice of the peace was that penned this
+letter, we are unable even to guess, nor do we know
+upon whose authority it was published. We cannot,
+therefore, rest upon it with absolute certainty, but we
+can say that it possesses several characteristics of a
+<i>bona fide</i> letter.<a name="FNanchor_162-1_33" id="FNanchor_162-1_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_162-1_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> If it is such, it gives a new clue to
+Harvey's conduct in 1634. We of course cannot be
+sure that the toad incident happened before that time;
+quite possibly it was after the interest aroused by that
+affair that the physician made his investigation. At
+all events, here was a man who had a scientific way of
+looking into superstition.</p>
+
+<p>The advent of such a man was most significant in the
+history of witchcraft, perhaps the most significant fact
+of its kind in the reign of Charles I. That reign, in
+spite of the Lancashire affair, was characterized by
+the continuance and growth of the witch skepticism,<a name="FNanchor_162-2_34" id="FNanchor_162-2_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_162-2_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a>
+so prevalent in the last years of the previous reign.
+Disbelief was not yet aggressive, it did not block prosecutions,
+but it hindered their effectiveness. The gallows
+was not yet done away with, but its use had been
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>greatly restrained by the central government. Superstition
+was still a bird of prey, but its wings were being
+clipped.<a name="FNanchor_163-1_35" id="FNanchor_163-1_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_163-1_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a></p>
+
+<hr class="foot" />
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_146-1_1" id="Footnote_146-1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_146-1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The writer of the <i>Collection of Modern Relations</i> (London, 1693)
+speaks of an execution at Oxford, but there is nothing to substantiate
+it in the voluminous publications about Oxford; a Middlesex case rests
+also on doubtful evidence (see appendix C, 1641).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_147-1_2" id="Footnote_147-1_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_147-1_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> <i>Cal. St. P., Dom.</i>, 1634-1635, 152.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_147-2_3" id="Footnote_147-2_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_147-2_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 141.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_147-3_4" id="Footnote_147-3_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_147-3_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> This is of course theory; <i>cf.</i> Daudet's story of his childhood in "<i>Le
+Pape est mort</i>."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_147-4_5" id="Footnote_147-4_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_147-4_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> There seem to be five different sources for the original deposition of
+young Robinson. Thomas D. Whitaker, <i>History ... of Whalley</i> (3d
+ed., 1818), 213, has an imperfect transcript of the deposition as given in
+the Bodleian, Dodsworth MSS., 61, ff. 45-46. James Crossley in his introduction
+to Potts, <i>Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the countie of
+Lancaster</i> (Chetham Soc.), lix-lxxii, has copied the deposition given by
+Whitaker. Thomas Wright, <i>Narratives of Sorcery and Magic</i>, II, 112-114,
+has given the story from a copy of this and of other depositions in Lord
+Londesborough's MSS. Webster prints a third copy, <i>Displaying of Supposed
+Witchcraft</i>, 347-349. A fourth is in Edward Baines, <i>History of the
+... county ... of Lancaster</i>, ed. of 1836, I, 604, and is taken from Brit.
+Mus., Harleian MSS., cod. 6854, f. 26 b. A fifth is in the Bodleian,
+Rawlinson MSS., D, 399, f. 211. Wright's source we have not in detail,
+but the other four, while differing slightly as to punctuation, spelling,
+and names, agree remarkably well as to the details of the story.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_148-1_6" id="Footnote_148-1_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_148-1_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> <i>Cal. St. P., Dom.</i>, 1634-1635, 152.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_148-2_7" id="Footnote_148-2_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_148-2_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> John Stearne, <i>A Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft ...
+together with the Confessions of many of those executed since May
+1645</i> (London, 1648), 11, says that in Lancashire "nineteene assembled."
+Robinson's deposition as printed by Webster, <i>Displaying of Supposed
+Witchcraft</i>, gives nineteen names.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_149-1_8" id="Footnote_149-1_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_149-1_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Webster, <i>op. cit.</i>, 277.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_149-2_9" id="Footnote_149-2_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_149-2_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> The boy, in his first examinations at London, said he had made up the
+story himself.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_149-3_10" id="Footnote_149-3_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_149-3_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> It is a curious thing that one of the justices of the peace was John
+Starchie, who had been one of the bewitched boys of the Starchie family
+at Cleworth in 1597. See above, ch. IV. See Baines, <i>Lancaster</i>, ed. of
+1868-1870, I, 204.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_150-1_11" id="Footnote_150-1_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_150-1_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> This incident is related by Webster, <i>op. cit.</i>, 276-278. Webster tells
+us that the boy was yet living when he wrote, and that he himself had
+heard the whole story from his mouth more than once. He appends to his
+volume the original deposition of the lad (at Padiham, February 10
+1633/4).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_150-2_12" id="Footnote_150-2_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_150-2_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> These are given in the same deposition, but the deposition probably
+represents the boy's statement at the assizes.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_150-3_13" id="Footnote_150-3_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_150-3_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> The father had been a witness at the Lancashire trials in 1612. See
+Baines, <i>Lancaster</i>, ed. of 1868-1870, I, 204-205.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_151-1_14" id="Footnote_151-1_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_151-1_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> That is, of course, so far as we have evidence. It is a little dangerous
+to hold to absolute negatives.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_151-2_15" id="Footnote_151-2_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_151-2_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Webster, <i>op. cit.</i>, 277. Pelham on May 16, 1634, wrote: "It is said
+that 19 are condemned and ... 60 already discovered." <i>Cal. St. P.,
+Dom.</i>, 1634-1635, 26.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_152-1_16" id="Footnote_152-1_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_152-1_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> It had been reported in London that witches had raised a storm from
+which Charles had suffered at sea. Pelham's letter, <i>ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_152-2_17" id="Footnote_152-2_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_152-2_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 77. See also Council Register (MS.), Charles I, vol. IV, p. 658.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_152-3_18" id="Footnote_152-3_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_152-3_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> <i>Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports</i>, XII, 2, p. 53. The chancellor of the
+Duchy of Lancaster wrote in the meantime that the judges had been to
+see him. What was to be done with the witches?</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_154-1_19" id="Footnote_154-1_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_154-1_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> See <i>Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports</i>, X, 2, p. 147; and <i>Cal. St. P., Dom.,
+1634-1635</i>, 98.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_154-2_20" id="Footnote_154-2_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_154-2_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> <i>Cal. St. P., Dom.</i>, 1634-1635, 98, 129. See also Council Register
+(MS.), Chas. I, vol. V, p. 56.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_154-3_21" id="Footnote_154-3_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_154-3_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> <i>Cal. St. P., Dom.</i>, 1634-1635, 129.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_154-4_22" id="Footnote_154-4_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_154-4_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Webster, <i>op. cit.</i>, 277, says that they were examined "after by His
+Majesty and the Council."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_155-1_23" id="Footnote_155-1_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_155-1_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> See Council Register (MS.), Charles I, vol. IV, p. 657.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_155-2_24" id="Footnote_155-2_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_155-2_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> <i>Cal. St. P., Dom., 1634-1635</i>, 141.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_155-3_25" id="Footnote_155-3_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_155-3_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 152.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_155-4_26" id="Footnote_155-4_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_155-4_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> <i>Farington Papers</i> (Chetham Soc, no. 39, 1856), 27.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_156-1_27" id="Footnote_156-1_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_156-1_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> <i>Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports</i>, XII, 2, p. 77.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_156-2_28" id="Footnote_156-2_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_156-2_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 80.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_158-1_29" id="Footnote_158-1_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_158-1_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Baines, <i>Lancaster</i>, ed. of 1868-1870, II, 12. Utley, who was a professed
+conjurer, was alleged to have bewitched to death one Assheton.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_158-2_30" id="Footnote_158-2_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_158-2_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> <i>Travels in Holland, the United Provinces, England, Scotland and
+Ireland, 1634-1635, by Sir William Brereton, Bart.</i> (Chetham Soc., no. 1.
+1844), 33.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_159-1_31" id="Footnote_159-1_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_159-1_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> (London, 1635.) As to Heywood see also chapter X.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_160-1_32" id="Footnote_160-1_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_160-1_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> The correspondent who sent a copy of the MS. to the <i>Gentleman's
+Magazine</i> signs himself "B. C. T." I have been unable to identify
+him. For his account of the MS. and for its contents see <i>Gentleman's
+Magazine</i>, 1832, pt. I, 405-410, 489-492.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_162-1_33" id="Footnote_162-1_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_162-1_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> John Aubrey, <i>Letters written by Eminent Persons</i> (London, 1813),
+II, 379, says that Harvey "had made dissections of froggs, toads and a
+number of other animals, and had curious observations on them." This
+fits in well with the story, and in some measure goes to confirm it.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_162-2_34" id="Footnote_162-2_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_162-2_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> For example, in 1637 the Bishop of Bath and Wells sent Joice Hunniman
+to Lord Wrottesley to examine her and exonerate her. He did so,
+and the bishop wrote thanking him and abusing "certain apparitors who
+go about frightening the people." See <i>Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports</i>, II,
+app., p. 48. For a case of the acquittal of a witch and the exposure of the
+pretended convulsions of her accuser, see <i>Cal. St. P., Dom., 1635</i>, 477.
+For example of suits for slander see North Riding Rec. Soc, IV, 182,
+session July 9, 1640.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_163-1_35" id="Footnote_163-1_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_163-1_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> A solitary pamphlet of this period must be mentioned. It was entitled:
+<i>Fearefull Newes from Coventry, or A true Relation and Lamentable
+Story of one Thomas Holt of Coventry a Musitian who through
+Covetousnesse and immoderate love of money, sold himselfe to the
+Devill, with whom he had made a contract for certaine yeares&mdash;And also
+of his Lamentable end and death, on the 16 day of February 1641</i>
+(London, 1642). The "sad subject of this little treatise" was a musician
+with nineteen children. Fearing that he would not be able to provide
+for them, he is alleged to have made a contract with the Devil, who finally
+broke his neck.</p></div>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2 class="chapter"><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+<h3 class="chapter2">Matthew Hopkins.</h3>
+
+
+<p>In the annals of English witchcraft Matthew Hopkins<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>
+occupies a place by himself. For more than two
+years he was the arch-instigator in prosecutions which,
+at least in the numbers of those executed, mark the
+high tide of the delusion. His name was one hardly
+known by his contemporaries, but he has since become
+a figure in the annals of English roguery. Very recently
+his life has found record among those of "Twelve
+Bad Men."<a name="FNanchor_164-1_1" id="FNanchor_164-1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_164-1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>What we know of him up to the time of his first appearance
+in his successful rôle about March of 1644/5
+is soon told. He was the son of James Hopkins,
+minister of Wenham<a name="FNanchor_164-2_2" id="FNanchor_164-2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_164-2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> in Suffolk. He was "a lawyer of
+but little note" at Ipswich, thence removing to Manningtree.
+Whether he may have been the Matthew Hopkins
+of Southwark who complained in 1644 of inability
+to pay the taxes<a name="FNanchor_164-3_3" id="FNanchor_164-3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_164-3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> is more than doubtful, but there is
+reason enough to believe that he found the law no very
+remunerative profession. He was ready for some
+new venture and an accidental circumstance in Manningtree
+turned him into a wholly new field of endeavor.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>He assumed the rôle of a witchfinder and is said to have
+taken the title of witchfinder-general.<a name="FNanchor_165-1_4" id="FNanchor_165-1_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_165-1_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p>He had made little or no preparation for the work
+that now came to his hand. King James's famous
+<i>Dćmonologie</i> he was familiar with, but he may have
+studied it after his first experiences at Manningtree.
+It seems somewhat probable, too, that he had read, and
+indeed been much influenced by, the account of the
+Lancashire witches of 1612, as well as by Richard
+Bernard's <i>Advice to Grand Jurymen</i>. But, if he read
+the latter book, he seems altogether to have misinterpreted
+it. As to his general information and education,
+we have no data save the hints to be gained from his
+own writings. His letter to John Gaule and the little
+brochure which he penned in self-defence reveal a man
+able to express himself with some clearness and with
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>a great deal of vigor. There were force of character
+and nervous energy behind his defiant words. It is no
+exaggeration, as we shall see in following his career, to
+say that the witch crusader was a man of action, who
+might in another field have made his mark.</p>
+
+<p>To know something of his religious proclivities would
+be extremely interesting. On this point, however, he
+gives us no clue. But his fellow worker, John Stearne,
+was clearly a Puritan<a name="FNanchor_166-1_5" id="FNanchor_166-1_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_166-1_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> and Hopkins was surely of the
+same faith. It can hardly be proved, however, that
+religious zeal prompted him in his campaign. For a
+time of spiritual earnestness his utterances seem rather
+lukewarm.</p>
+
+<p>It was in his own town that his attention was first
+directed towards the dangers of witchcraft. The
+witches, he tells us, were accustomed to hold their
+meetings near his house. During one of their assemblies
+he overheard a witch bid her imps to go to another
+witch. The other witch, whose name was thus revealed
+to him&mdash;Elizabeth Clarke, a poor one-legged creature&mdash;was
+promptly taken into custody on Hopkins's charge.<a name="FNanchor_166-2_6" id="FNanchor_166-2_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_166-2_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a>
+Other accusations poured in. John Rivet had consulted
+a cunning woman about the illness of his wife, and had
+learned that two neighbors were responsible. One of
+these, he was told, dwelt a little above his own home;
+"whereupon he beleeved his said wife was bewitched
+by ... Elizabeth Clarke, ... for that the said Elizabeth's
+mother and some other of her kinsfolke did suffer
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>death for witchcraft." The justices of the peace<a name="FNanchor_167-1_7" id="FNanchor_167-1_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_167-1_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> accordingly
+had her "searched by women who had for
+many yeares known the Devill's marks," and, when
+these were found on her, they bade her custodians "keep
+her from sleep two or three nights, expecting in that
+time to see her familiars."<a name="FNanchor_167-2_8" id="FNanchor_167-2_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_167-2_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p>
+
+<p>Torture is unknown to English law; but, in our day
+of the "third degree," nobody needs to be told that
+what is put out at the door may steal in at the window.
+It may be that, in the seventeenth century, the pious
+English justices had no suspicion that enforced sleeplessness
+is a form of physical torture more nerve-racking
+and irresistible than the thumb-screw. Three
+days and nights of "watching" brought Elizabeth
+Clarke to "confess many things"; and when, on the
+fourth night, her townsmen Hopkins and Stearne dropped
+in to fill out from her own lips the warrants against
+those she had named as accomplices, she told them that,
+if they would stay and do her no hurt, she would call
+one of her imps.</p>
+
+<p>Hopkins told her that he would not allow it, but he
+stayed. Within a quarter of an hour the imps appeared,
+six of them, one after another. The first was
+a "white thing in the likeness of a Cat, but not altogether
+so big," the second a white dog with some sandy
+spots and very short legs, the third, Vinegar Tom, was a
+greyhound with long legs. We need not go further into
+the story. The court records give the testimony of
+Hopkins and Stearne. Both have related the affair in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>their pamphlets.<a name="FNanchor_168-1_9" id="FNanchor_168-1_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_168-1_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> Six others, four of whom were
+women, made oath to the appearances of the imps. In
+this respect the trial is unique among all in English
+history. Eight people testified that they had seen the
+imps.<a name="FNanchor_168-2_10" id="FNanchor_168-2_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_168-2_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> Two of them referred elsewhere to what they
+had seen, and their accounts agreed substantially.<a name="FNanchor_168-3_11" id="FNanchor_168-3_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_168-3_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> It
+may be doubted if the supporting evidence offered at
+any trial in the seventeenth century in England went
+so far towards establishing the actual appearance of
+the so-called imps of the witches.</p>
+
+<p>How are we to account for these phenomena? What
+was the nature of the delusion seemingly shared by
+eight people? It is for the psychologist to answer.
+Two explanations occur to the layman. It is not inconceivable
+that there were rodents in the gaol&mdash;the
+terrible conditions in the gaols of the time are too well
+known to need description&mdash;and that the creatures running
+about in the dark were easily mistaken by excited
+people for something more than natural. It is possible,
+too, that all the appearances were the fabric of imagination
+or invention. The spectators were all in a state
+of high expectation of supernatural appearances. What
+the over-alert leaders declared they had seen the others
+would be sure to have seen. Whether those leaders
+were themselves deceived, or easily duped the others
+by calling out the description of what they claimed to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>see, would be hard to guess. To the writer the latter
+theory seems less plausible. The accounts of the two
+are so clearly independent and yet agree so well in fact
+that they seem to weaken the case for collusive imposture.
+With that a layman may be permitted to leave
+the matter. What hypnotic possibilities are inherent
+in the story he cannot profess to know. Certainly the
+accused woman was not a professed dealer in magic
+and it is not easy to suspect her of having hypnotized
+the watchers.</p>
+
+<p>Upon Elizabeth Clarke's confessions five other
+women&mdash;"the old beldam" Anne West, who had "been
+suspected as a witch many yeers since, and suffered imprisonment
+for the same,"<a name="FNanchor_169-1_12" id="FNanchor_169-1_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_169-1_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> her daughter Rebecca,<a name="FNanchor_169-2_13" id="FNanchor_169-2_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_169-2_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a>
+Anne Leech, her daughter Helen Clarke, and Elizabeth
+Gooding&mdash;were arrested. As in the case of the
+first, there was soon abundance of evidence offered about
+them. One Richard Edwards bethought himself and
+remembered that while crossing a bridge he had heard
+a cry, "much like the shrieke of a Polcat," and had
+been nearly thrown from his horse. He had also lost
+some cattle by a mysterious disease. Moreover his
+child had been nursed by a goodwife who lived near to
+Elizabeth Clarke and Elizabeth Gooding. The child
+fell sick, "rowling the eyes," and died. He believed
+that Anne Leech and Elizabeth Gooding were the cause
+of its death. His belief, however, which was offered
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span>as an independent piece of testimony, seems to have
+rested on Anne Leech's confession, which had been
+made before this time and was soon given to the justices
+of the peace. Robert Taylor charged Elizabeth
+Gooding with the death of his horse, but he too had
+the suggestion from other witnesses. Prudence Hart
+declared that, being in her bed in the night, "something
+fell down on her right side." "Being dark she
+cannot tell in what shape it was, but she believeth
+Rebecca West and Anne West the cause of her pains."</p>
+
+<p>But the accusers could hardly outdo the accused. No
+sooner was a crime suggested than they took it upon
+themselves. It seemed as if the witches were running
+a race for position as high criminal. With the exception
+of Elizabeth Gooding, who stuck to it that she was not
+guilty, they cheerfully confessed that they had lamed
+their victims, caused them to "languish," and even
+killed them. The meetings at Elizabeth Clarke's house
+were recalled. Anne Leech remembered that there was
+a book read "wherein shee thinks there was no goodnesse."<a name="FNanchor_170-1_14" id="FNanchor_170-1_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_170-1_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p>
+
+<p>So the web of charges and counter-charges was spun
+until twenty-three or more women were caught in its
+meshes. No less than twelve of them confessed to a
+share in the most revolting crimes. But there was one
+who, in court, retracted her confession.<a name="FNanchor_170-2_15" id="FNanchor_170-2_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_170-2_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> At least
+five utterly denied their guilt. Among them was a
+poor woman who had aroused suspicion chiefly because
+a young hare had been seen in front of her house. She
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span>was ready to admit that she had seen the hare, but denied
+all the more serious charges.<a name="FNanchor_171-1_16" id="FNanchor_171-1_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_171-1_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> Another of those
+who would not plead guilty sought to ward off charges
+against herself by adding to the charges accumulated
+against her mother. Hers was a damning accusation.
+Her mother had threatened her and the next night she
+"felt something come into the bed about her legges,
+... but could not finde anything." This was as serious
+evidence as that of one of the justices of the
+peace, who testified from the bench that a very honest
+friend of his had seen three or four imps come out
+of Anne West's house in the moonlight. Hopkins was
+not to be outshone by the other accusers. He had visited
+Colchester castle to interview Rebecca West and had
+gained her confession that she had gone through a
+wedding ceremony with the Devil.</p>
+
+<p>But why go into details? The evidence was all of a
+kind. The female juries figured, as in the trials at
+Lancaster in 1633, and gave the results of their harrowing
+examinations. What with their verdicts and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>the mass of accusations and confessions, the justices of
+the peace were busy during March, April, and May of
+1645. It was not until the twenty-ninth of July that
+the trial took place. It was held at Chelmsford before
+the justices of the peace and Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick.
+Warwick was not an itinerant justice, nor was
+he, so far as we know, in any way connected with the
+judicial system. One of the most prominent Presbyterians
+in England, he had in April of this year, as
+a result of the "self-denying ordinance," laid down
+his commission as head of the navy. He disappears
+from view until August, when he was again given work
+to do. In the mean time occurred the Chelmsford trial.
+We can only guess that the earl, who was appointed
+head of the Eastern Association less than a month
+later<a name="FNanchor_172-1_17" id="FNanchor_172-1_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_172-1_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> (August 27), acted in this instance in a military
+capacity. The assizes had been suspended. No doubt
+some of the justices of the peace pressed upon him the
+urgency of the cases to be tried. We may guess that
+he sat with them in the quarter sessions, but he seems to
+have played the rôle of an itinerant justice.</p>
+
+<p>No narrative account of the trial proper is extant.
+Some one who signs himself "H. F." copied out and
+printed the evidence taken by the justices of the peace
+and inserted in the margins the verdicts. In this
+way we know that at least sixteen were condemned,
+probably two more, and possibly eleven or twelve
+more.<a name="FNanchor_172-2_18" id="FNanchor_172-2_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_172-2_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> Of the original sixteen, one was reprieved, one
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>died before execution, four were hanged at Manningtree
+and ten at Chelmsford.</p>
+
+<p>The cases excited some comment, and it is comment
+that must not be passed over, for it will prove of some
+use later in analyzing the causes of the outbreak. Arthur
+Wilson, whom we have mentioned as an historian
+of the time, has left his verdict on the trial. "There is
+nothing," he wrote, "so crosse to my temper as putting
+so many witches to death." He saw nothing, in the
+women condemned at Chelmsford, "other than poore
+mellenchollie ... ill-dieted atrabilious constitutions,
+whose fancies working by grosse fumes and vapors
+might make the imagination readie to take any impression."
+Wilson wrestled long with his God over the
+matter of witches and came at length to the conclusion
+that "it did not consist with the infinite goodnes of
+the Almightie God to let Satan loose in so ravenous a
+way."</p>
+
+<p>The opinion of a parliamentary journal in London
+on the twenty-fourth of July, three days before the
+Essex executions, shows that the Royalists were inclined
+to remark the number of witches in the counties
+friendly to Parliament: "It is the ordinary mirth of the
+Malignants in this City to discourse of the Association
+of Witches in the Associated Counties, but by this they
+shall understand the truth of the old Proverbe, which
+is that where God hath his Church, the Devill hath his
+Chappell." The writer goes on, "I am sory to informe
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>you that one of the cheifest of them was a Parsons
+Wife (this will be good news with the Papists)....
+Her name was Weight.... This Woman (as I heare)
+was the first apprehended."<a name="FNanchor_174-1_19" id="FNanchor_174-1_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_174-1_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> It seems, however, that
+Mrs. "Weight" escaped. Social and religious influences
+were not without value. A later pamphleteer tells
+us that the case of Mrs. Wayt, a minister's wife, was a
+"palpable mistake, for it is well knowne that she is a
+gentle-woman of a very godly and religious life."<a name="FNanchor_174-2_20" id="FNanchor_174-2_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_174-2_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p>
+
+<p>Meantime Hopkins had extended his operations
+into Suffolk. Elizabeth Clarke and Anne Leech had
+implicated certain women in that county. Their charges
+were carried before the justices of the peace and were
+the beginning of a panic which spread like wildfire
+over the county.</p>
+
+<p>The methods which the witchfinder-general used
+are illuminating. Four searchers were appointed for
+the county, two men and two women.<a name="FNanchor_174-3_21" id="FNanchor_174-3_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_174-3_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> "In what
+Town soever ... there be any person or persons suspected
+to be witch or Witches, thither they send for two
+or all of the said searchers, who take the partie or parties
+so suspected into a Roome and strip him, her, or
+them, starke naked."<a name="FNanchor_174-4_22" id="FNanchor_174-4_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_174-4_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> The clergyman Gaule has given
+us further particulars:<a name="FNanchor_174-5_23" id="FNanchor_174-5_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_174-5_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> "Having taken the suspected
+Witch, shee is placed in the middle of a room upon a
+stool, or Table, crosse-legg'd, or in some other uneasie
+posture, to which if she submits not, she is then bound
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>with cords; there is she watcht and kept without meat or
+sleep for the space of 24 hours.... A little hole is likewise
+made in the door for the Impe to come in at; and
+lest it might come in some lesse discernible shape, they
+that watch are taught to be ever and anon sweeping the
+room, and if they see any spiders or flyes, to kill them.
+And if they cannot kill them, then they may be sure
+they are her Impes."<a name="FNanchor_175-1_24" id="FNanchor_175-1_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_175-1_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> Hutchinson tells a story of one
+woman, who, after having been kept long fasting and
+without sleep, confessed to keeping an imp called Nan.
+But a "very learned ingenious gentleman having indignation
+at the thing" drove the people from the
+house, gave the woman some food, and sent her to bed.
+Next morning she knew of no Nan but a pullet she
+had.</p>
+
+<p>The most sensational discovery in Suffolk was that
+John Lowes, pastor of Brandeston, was a witch. The
+case was an extraordinary one and throws a light on
+the witch alarms of the time. Lowes was eighty years
+old, and had been pastor in the same place for fifty
+years. He got into trouble, undoubtedly as a result of
+his inability to get along with those around him. As a
+young man he had been summoned to appear before
+the synod at Ipswich for not conforming to the rites
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>of the Established Church.<a name="FNanchor_176-1_25" id="FNanchor_176-1_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_176-1_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> In the first year of
+Charles's reign he had been indicted for refusing to exhibit
+his musket,<a name="FNanchor_176-2_26" id="FNanchor_176-2_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_176-2_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> and he had twice later been indicted
+for witchcraft and once as a common imbarritor.<a name="FNanchor_176-3_27" id="FNanchor_176-3_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_176-3_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> The
+very fact that he had been charged with witchcraft
+before would give color to the charge when made in
+1645. We have indeed a clue to the motives for this
+accusation. A parishioner and a neighboring divine
+afterwards gave it as their opinion that "Mr. Lowes,
+being a litigious man, made his parishioners (too tenacious
+of their customs) very uneasy, so that they were
+glad to take the opportunity of those wicked times to
+get him hanged, rather than not get rid of him."
+Hopkins had afforded them the opportunity. The
+witchfinder had taken the parson in hand. He had
+caused him to be kept awake several nights together,
+and had run him backwards and forwards about the
+room until he was out of breath. "Then they rested
+him a little and then ran him again, and this they did
+for several days and nights together, till he was weary
+of his life and scarce sensible of what he said or did."<a name="FNanchor_176-4_28" id="FNanchor_176-4_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_176-4_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a>
+He had, when first accused, denied all charges and
+challenged proof, but after he had been subjected to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>these rigorous methods he made a full confession. He
+had, he said, sunk a sailing vessel of Ipswich, making
+fourteen widows in a quarter of an hour. The witchfinder
+had asked him if it did not grieve him to see
+so many men cast away in a short time, and he answered:
+"No, he was joyfull to see what power his
+Impes had."<a name="FNanchor_177-1_29" id="FNanchor_177-1_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_177-1_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> He had, he boasted, a charm to keep
+him out of gaol and from the gallows. It is too bad
+that the crazed man's confidence in his charm was misplaced.
+His whole wild confession is an illustration of
+the effectiveness of the torture. His fate is indicative
+of the hysteria of the times and of the advantages taken
+of it by malicious people. It was his hostility to the
+ecclesiastical and political sympathies of his community
+that caused his fall.</p>
+
+<p>The dementia induced by the torture in Lowes's
+case showed itself in the case of others, who made confessions
+of long careers of murder. "These and all
+the rest confessed that cruell malice ... was their
+chiefe delight." The accused were being forced by
+cruel torture to lend their help to a panic which exceeded
+any before or after in England. From one hundred
+and thirty to two hundred people<a name="FNanchor_177-2_30" id="FNanchor_177-2_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_177-2_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> were soon under
+accusation and shut up in Bury gaol.</p>
+
+<p>News of this reached a Parliament in London that
+was very much engrossed with other matters. We
+cannot do better than to quote the Puritan biographer
+Clarke.<a name="FNanchor_177-3_31" id="FNanchor_177-3_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_177-3_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> "A report was carried to the Parliament
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>... as if some busie men had made use of some ill
+Arts to extort such confession; ... thereupon a special
+Commission of Oyer and Terminer was granted for the
+trial of these Witches." Care was to be used, in gathering
+evidence, that confessions should be voluntary
+and should be backed by "many collateral circumstances."
+There were to be no convictions except
+upon proof of express compact with the Devil, or upon
+evidence of the use of imps, which implied the same
+thing. Samuel Fairclough and Edmund Calamy (the
+elder), both of them Non-Conformist clergymen of
+Suffolk,<a name="FNanchor_178-1_32" id="FNanchor_178-1_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_178-1_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> together with Serjeant John Godbolt and the
+justices of the peace, were to compose this special
+court. The court met about the end of August, a month
+after the sessions under Warwick at Chelmsford, and
+was opened by two sermons preached by Mr. Fairclough
+in Bury church. One of the first things done
+by the special court, quite possibly at the instigation
+of the two clergymen, was to put an end to the swimming
+test,<a name="FNanchor_178-2_33" id="FNanchor_178-2_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_178-2_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> which had been used on several of the accused,
+doubtless by the authority of the justices of the
+peace. This was of course in some sense a blow at
+Hopkins. Nevertheless a great deal of the evidence
+which he had gathered must have been taken into account.
+Eighteen persons, including two men,<a name="FNanchor_178-3_34" id="FNanchor_178-3_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_178-3_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> were
+condemned to be hanged.<a name="FNanchor_178-4_35" id="FNanchor_178-4_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_178-4_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> On the night before their
+execution, they were confined in a barn, where they
+made an agreement not to confess a word at the gallows
+the following day, and sang a psalm in confirma<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>tion.
+Next day they "dyed ... very desperately."<a name="FNanchor_179-1_36" id="FNanchor_179-1_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_179-1_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a>
+But there were still one hundred and twenty others in
+gaol<a name="FNanchor_179-2_37" id="FNanchor_179-2_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_179-2_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> awaiting trial. No doubt many forthwith would
+have met the same end, had it not been for a lucky
+chance of the wars. The king's forces were approaching
+and the court hastened to adjourn its sessions.<a name="FNanchor_179-3_38" id="FNanchor_179-3_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_179-3_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></p>
+
+<p>But this danger was soon over, and within three
+weeks' time the court seems to have resumed its duties.<a name="FNanchor_179-4_39" id="FNanchor_179-4_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_179-4_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a>
+Of this second session we know nothing at all, save that
+probably forty or fifty more witches were condemned,
+and doubtless executed.<a name="FNanchor_179-5_40" id="FNanchor_179-5_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_179-5_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> What became of the others
+we can only guess. Perhaps some were released, some
+left in gaol indefinitely.</p>
+
+<p>These things were not done in a corner. Yet so
+great was the distraction in England that, if we can
+trust negative evidence, they excited not a great deal
+of notice. Such comments as there were, however,
+were indicative of a division of opinion. During the interval
+between the two sessions, the <i>Moderate Intelligencer</i>,
+a parliamentary organ that had sprung up in
+the time of the Civil War, came out in an editorial on
+the affair. "But whence is it that Devils should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>
+choose to be conversant with silly Women that know
+not their right hands from their left, is the great wonder....
+They will meddle with none but poore old
+Women: as appears by what we received this day
+from Bury.... Divers are condemned and some executed
+and more like to be. Life is precious and there
+is need of great inquisition before it is taken away."<a name="FNanchor_180-1_41" id="FNanchor_180-1_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_180-1_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a></p>
+
+<p>This was the sole newspaper reference of which we
+know, as well as the only absolutely contemporary
+mention of these trials. What other expressions of
+opinion there were came later. James Howell, a popular
+essayist of his time, mentioned the trials in his correspondence
+as new proof of the reality of witchcraft.<a name="FNanchor_180-2_42" id="FNanchor_180-2_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_180-2_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a>
+The pious Bishop Hall saw in them the "prevalency
+of Satan in these times."<a name="FNanchor_180-3_43" id="FNanchor_180-3_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_180-3_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> Thomas Ady, who in 1656
+issued his <i>Candle in the Dark</i>, mentioned the "Berry
+Assizes"<a name="FNanchor_180-4_44" id="FNanchor_180-4_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_180-4_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> and remarked that some credulous people
+had published a book about it. He thought criticism
+deserved for taking the evidence of the gaoler, whose
+profit lay in having the greatest possible number executed.<a name="FNanchor_180-5_45" id="FNanchor_180-5_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_180-5_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a></p>
+
+<p>We have already described Hopkins as a man
+of action. Nothing is better evidence of it than the
+way in which he hurried back and forth over the eastern
+counties. During the last part of May he had
+probably been occupied with collecting the evidence
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>against the accused at Bury. Long before they were
+tried he was busy elsewhere. We can trace his movements
+in outline only, but we know enough of them to
+appreciate his tremendous energy. Some time about
+the beginning of June he must have gone to Norfolk.
+Before the twenty-sixth of July twenty witches had
+been executed in that county.<a name="FNanchor_181-1_46" id="FNanchor_181-1_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_181-1_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> None of the details of
+these trials have been left us. From the rapidity with
+which they were carried to completion we may feel
+fairly certain that the justices of the peace, seeing no
+probability of assize sessions in the near future, went
+ahead to try cases on their own initiative.<a name="FNanchor_181-2_47" id="FNanchor_181-2_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_181-2_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> On the
+fifteenth of August the corporation of Great Yarmouth,
+at the southern extremity of the Norfolk coast line,
+voted to send for Mr. Hopkins, and that he should have
+his fee and allowance for his pains,<a name="FNanchor_181-3_48" id="FNanchor_181-3_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_181-3_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> "as he hath in
+other places." He came at two different times, once
+in September and once in December. Probably the
+burden of the work was turned over to the four female
+assistants, who were granted a shilling a day apiece.<a name="FNanchor_181-4_49" id="FNanchor_181-4_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_181-4_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a>
+Six women were condemned, one of whom was respited.<a name="FNanchor_181-5_50" id="FNanchor_181-5_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_181-5_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a>
+Later three other women and one man were
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>indicted, but by this time the furor against them seems
+to have abated, and they probably went free.<a name="FNanchor_182-1_51" id="FNanchor_182-1_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_182-1_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a></p>
+
+<p>Hopkins's further course can be traced with some degree
+of certainty. From Yarmouth he probably went
+to Ipswich, where Mother Lakeland was burned on
+September 9 at the instance of the justices of the
+peace.<a name="FNanchor_182-2_52" id="FNanchor_182-2_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_182-2_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> Mother Lakeland's death by burning is the second
+instance we have, during the Hopkins panic,<a name="FNanchor_182-3_53" id="FNanchor_182-3_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_182-3_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> of
+this form of sentence. It is explained by the fact that
+it was the law in England to burn women who murdered
+their husbands. The chief charge against Mother
+Lakeland, who, by the way, was a woman quite above
+the class from which witches were ordinarily recruited,<a name="FNanchor_182-4_54" id="FNanchor_182-4_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_182-4_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a>
+was that she had bewitched her husband to
+death.<a name="FNanchor_182-5_55" id="FNanchor_182-5_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_182-5_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> The crime was "petty treason."</p>
+
+<p>It is not a wild guess that Hopkins paused long
+enough in his active career to write an account of the
+affair, so well were his principles of detection presented
+in a pamphlet soon issued from a London press.<a name="FNanchor_182-6_56" id="FNanchor_182-6_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_182-6_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> But,
+at any rate, before Mother Lakeland had been burned
+he was on his way to Aldeburgh, where he was already
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span>at work on the eighth of September collecting evidence.<a name="FNanchor_183-1_57" id="FNanchor_183-1_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_183-1_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a>
+Here also he had an assistant, Goody Phillips,
+who no doubt continued the work after he left. He was
+back again in Aldeburgh on the twentieth of December
+and the seventh of January, and the grand result
+of his work was summarized in the brief account:
+"Paid ... eleven shillings for hanging seven witches."<a name="FNanchor_183-2_58" id="FNanchor_183-2_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_183-2_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a></p>
+
+<p>From Aldeburgh, Hopkins may have journeyed to
+Stowmarket. We do not know how many servants of
+the evil one he discovered here; but, as he was paid
+twenty-three pounds<a name="FNanchor_183-3_59" id="FNanchor_183-3_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_183-3_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> for his services, and had received
+but six pounds in Aldeburgh, the presumption is
+that his work here was very fruitful in results.</p>
+
+<p>We now lose track of the witchfinder's movements
+for a while. Probably he was doubling on his track
+and attending court sessions. In December we know
+that he made his second visit to Yarmouth. From there
+he may have gone to King's Lynn, where two witches
+were hanged this year, and from there perhaps returned
+early in January to Aldeburgh and other places
+in Suffolk. It is not to be supposed for a moment that
+his activities were confined to the towns named. At
+least fifteen other places in Suffolk are mentioned by
+Stearne in his stories of the witches' confessions.<a name="FNanchor_183-4_60" id="FNanchor_183-4_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_183-4_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a>
+While Hopkins's subordinates probably represented
+him in some of the villages, we cannot doubt that the
+witchfinder himself visited many towns.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>From East Anglia Hopkins went westward into Cambridgeshire.
+His arrival there must have been during
+either January or February. His reputation, indeed,
+had gone ahead of him, and the witches were reported
+to have taken steps in advance to prevent detection.<a name="FNanchor_184-1_61" id="FNanchor_184-1_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_184-1_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a>
+But their efforts were vain. The witchfinder found not
+less than four or five of the detested creatures,<a name="FNanchor_184-2_62" id="FNanchor_184-2_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_184-2_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> probably
+more. We know, however, of only one execution,
+that of a woman who fell under suspicion because she
+kept a tame frog.<a name="FNanchor_184-3_63" id="FNanchor_184-3_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_184-3_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a></p>
+
+<p>From Cambridgeshire, Hopkins's course took him,
+perhaps in March of 1645/6, into Northamptonshire.
+There he found at least two villages infested, and he
+turned up some remarkable evidence. So far in his
+crusade, the keeping of imps had been the test infallible
+upon which the witchfinder insisted. But at
+Northampton spectral evidence seems to have played
+a considerable part.<a name="FNanchor_184-4_64" id="FNanchor_184-4_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_184-4_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> Hopkins never expresses his
+opinion on this variety of evidence, but his co-worker
+declares that it should be used with great caution, because
+"apparitions may proceed from the phantasie
+of such as the party use to fear or at least suspect."</p>
+
+<p>But it was a case in Northamptonshire of a different
+type that seems to have made the most lasting impression
+on Stearne. Cherrie of Thrapston, "a very aged
+man," had in a quarrel uttered the wish that his neighbor's
+tongue might rot out. The neighbor thereupon
+suffered from something which we should probably
+call cancer of the tongue. Perhaps as yet the possibilities<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span>
+of suggestion have not been so far sounded
+that we can absolutely discredit the physical effects of a
+malicious wish. It is much easier, however, to believe
+the reported utterance imagined after its supposed effect.
+At all events, Cherrie was forced to confess that
+he had been guilty and he further admitted that he had
+injured Sir John Washington, who had been his benefactor
+at various times.<a name="FNanchor_185-1_65" id="FNanchor_185-1_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_185-1_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> He was indicted by the grand
+jury, but died in gaol, very probably by suicide, on
+the day when he was to have been tried.<a name="FNanchor_185-2_66" id="FNanchor_185-2_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_185-2_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a></p>
+
+<p>From Northamptonshire Hopkins's course led him
+into Huntingdonshire,<a name="FNanchor_185-3_67" id="FNanchor_185-3_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_185-3_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> a county that seems to have
+been untroubled by witch alarms since the Warboys
+affair of 1593. The justices of the peace took up the
+quest eagerly. The evidence that they gathered had
+but little that was unusual.<a name="FNanchor_185-4_68" id="FNanchor_185-4_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_185-4_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> Mary Chandler had despatched
+her imp, Beelzebub, to injure a neighbor who
+had failed to invite her to a party. An accused witch
+who was questioned about other possible witches offered
+in evidence a peculiar piece of testimony. He
+had a conversation with "Clarke's sonne of Keiston,"
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span>who had said to him (the witness): "I doe not beleeve
+you die a Witch, for I never saw you at our meetings."
+This would seem to have been a clever fiction to ward
+off charges against himself. But, strangely enough, the
+witness declared that he answered "that perhaps their
+meetings were at severall places."</p>
+
+<p>Hopkins did not find it all smooth sailing in the
+county of Huntingdon. A clergyman of Great Staughton
+became outraged at his work and preached against
+it. The witchfinder had been invited to visit the town
+and hesitated. Meantime he wrote this blustering letter
+to one of John Gaule's parishioners.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquote"><p>"My service to your Worship presented, I have this
+day received a Letter, &amp;c.&mdash;to come to a Towne called
+Great Staughton to search for evil disposed persons
+called Witches (though I heare your Minister is farre
+against us through ignorance) I intend to come (God
+willing) the sooner to heare his singular Judgment on
+the behalfe of such parties; I have known a Minister in
+Suffolke preach as much against their discovery in a
+Pulpit, and forc'd to recant it (by the Committee) in
+the same place. I much marvaile such evill Members<a name="FNanchor_186-1_69" id="FNanchor_186-1_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_186-1_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a>
+should have any (much more any of the Clergy) who
+should daily preach Terrour to convince such Offenders,
+stand up to take their parts against such as
+are Complainants for the King, and sufferers themselves
+with their Families and Estates. I intend to give
+your Towne a Visite suddenly, I am to come to Kimbolton
+this weeke, and it shall bee tenne to one but I will
+come to your Town first, but I would certainely know
+afore whether your Town affords many Sticklers for
+such Cattell, or willing to give and afford us good welcome
+and entertainment, as other where I have beene,
+else I shall wave your Shire (not as yet beginning in any
+part of it my selfe) And betake me to such places where
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>I doe and may persist without controle, but with
+thankes and recompence."<a name="FNanchor_187-1_70" id="FNanchor_187-1_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_187-1_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>This stirred the fighting spirit of the vicar of Great
+Staughton, and he answered the witchfinder in a little
+book which he published shortly after, and which he
+dedicated to Colonel Walton of the House of Commons.
+We shall have occasion in another chapter to
+note its point of view.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of opposition, Hopkins's work in Huntingdonshire
+prospered. The justices of the peace were
+occupied with examinations during March and April.
+Perhaps as many as twenty were accused.<a name="FNanchor_187-2_71" id="FNanchor_187-2_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_187-2_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a> At least
+half that number were examined. Several were executed&mdash;we
+do not know the exact number&mdash;almost certainly
+at the instance of the justices of the peace.<a name="FNanchor_187-3_72" id="FNanchor_187-3_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_187-3_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> It is
+pleasant to know that one was acquitted, even if it was
+after she had been twice searched and once put through
+the swimming ordeal.<a name="FNanchor_187-4_73" id="FNanchor_187-4_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_187-4_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a></p>
+
+<p>From Huntingdonshire it is likely that Hopkins and
+Stearne made their next excursion into Bedfordshire.
+We know very little about their success here. In two
+villages it would seem that they were able to track their
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>prey.<a name="FNanchor_188-1_74" id="FNanchor_188-1_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_188-1_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a> But they left to others the search which they
+had begun.<a name="FNanchor_188-2_75" id="FNanchor_188-2_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_188-2_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a></p>
+
+<p>The witchfinder had been active for a little over a
+year. But during the last months of that time his discoveries
+had not been so notable. Was there a falling
+off in interest? Or was he meeting with increased opposition
+among the people? Or did the assize courts,
+which resumed their proceedings in the summer of 1646,
+frown upon him? It is hard to answer the question
+without more evidence. But at any rate it is clear that
+during the summer and autumn of 1646 he was not
+actively engaged in his profession. It is quite possible,
+indeed, that he was already suffering from the consumption
+which was to carry him off in the following
+year. And, with the retirement of its moving spirit,
+the witch crusade soon came to a close. Almost a
+twelvemonth later there was a single<a name="FNanchor_188-3_76" id="FNanchor_188-3_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_188-3_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a> discovery of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>witches. It was in the island of Ely; and the church
+courts,<a name="FNanchor_189-1_77" id="FNanchor_189-1_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_189-1_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a> the justices of the peace,<a name="FNanchor_189-2_78" id="FNanchor_189-2_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_189-2_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a> and the assize
+courts,<a name="FNanchor_189-3_79" id="FNanchor_189-3_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_189-3_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a> which had now been revived, were able, between
+them, to hang a few witches.<a name="FNanchor_189-4_80" id="FNanchor_189-4_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_189-4_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a></p>
+
+<p>We do not know whether Hopkins participated in the
+Ely affair or not. It seems certain that his co-worker,
+Stearne, had some share in it. But, if so, it was his
+last discovery. The work of the two men was ended.
+They had been pursuing the pack of witches in the
+eastern counties since March of 1644/5. Even the execrations
+of those who opposed them could not mar the
+pleasure they felt in what they had done. Nay, when
+they were called upon to defend themselves, they could
+hardly refrain from exulting in their achievements.
+They had indeed every right to exult. When we come
+to make up the roll of their victims, we shall see that
+their record as witch discoverers surpassed the combined
+records of all others.</p>
+
+<p>It is a mistake to suppose that they had acted in any
+haphazard way. The conduct of both men had been
+based upon perfectly logical deductions from certain
+premises. King James's <i>Dćmonologie</i> had been their
+catechism, the statute against the feeding of imps their
+book of rules. Both men started with one fundamental
+notion, that witchcraft is the keeping of imps. But
+this was a thing that could be detected by marks on the
+bodies.<a name="FNanchor_189-5_81" id="FNanchor_189-5_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_189-5_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> Both were willing to admit that mistakes could
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>be made and were often made in assuming that natural
+bodily marks were the Devil's marks. There were,
+however, special indications by which the difference
+between the two could be recognized.<a name="FNanchor_190-1_82" id="FNanchor_190-1_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_190-1_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a> And the two
+witchfinders, of course, possessed that "insight"<a name="FNanchor_190-2_83" id="FNanchor_190-2_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_190-2_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a>
+which was necessary to make the distinction. The theories
+upon which they worked we need not enter into.
+Suffice it to say that when once they had proved, as they
+thought, the keeping of imps, the next step was to
+watch those accused of it.<a name="FNanchor_190-3_84" id="FNanchor_190-3_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_190-3_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a> "For the watching," says
+Stearne,<a name="FNanchor_190-4_85" id="FNanchor_190-4_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_190-4_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a> "it is not to use violence or extremity to
+force them to confesse, but onely the keeping is, first
+to see whether any of their spirits, or familiars come to
+or neere them." It is clear that both Hopkins and
+Stearne recognized the fact that confessions wrung
+from women by torture are worthless and were by
+this explanation defending themselves against the
+charge of having used actual torture. There seems to
+be no adequate reason for doubting the sincerity of
+their explanation. Stearne tells us that the keeping
+the witches separate is "also to the end that Godly
+Divines might discourse with them." "For if any of
+their society come to them to discourse with them, they
+will never confesse."<a name="FNanchor_190-5_86" id="FNanchor_190-5_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_190-5_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a> Here, indeed, is a clue to many
+confessions. Several men arrayed against one solitary
+and weak woman could break her resolution and get
+from her very much what they pleased.</p>
+
+<p>As for starving the witches and keeping them from
+sleep, Stearne maintained that these things were done
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>by them only at first. Hopkins bore the same testimony.
+"After they had beat their heads together in the Gaole,
+and after this use was not allowed of by the Judges and
+other Magistrates, it was never since used, which is a
+yeare and a halfe since."<a name="FNanchor_191-1_87" id="FNanchor_191-1_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_191-1_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a> In other words, the two men
+had given up the practice because the parliamentary
+commission had compelled them to do so.</p>
+
+<p>The confessions must be received with great caution,
+Hopkins himself declared.<a name="FNanchor_191-2_88" id="FNanchor_191-2_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_191-2_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a> It is so easy to put words
+into the witch's mouth. "You have foure Imps, have
+you not? She answers affirmatively. 'Yes'.... 'Are
+not their names so and so'? 'Yes,' saith she. 'Did
+you not send such an Impe to kill my child'? 'Yes,'
+saith she." This sort of thing has been too often done,
+asserted the virtuous witchfinder. He earnestly did
+desire that "all Magistrates and Jurors would, a little
+more than ever they did, examine witnesses about the
+interrogated confessions." What a cautious, circumspect
+man was this famous witchfinder! The confessions,
+he wrote, in which confidence may be placed
+are when the woman, without any "hard usages or
+questions put to her, doth of her owne accord declare
+what was the occasion of the Devil's appearing to her."<a name="FNanchor_191-3_89" id="FNanchor_191-3_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_191-3_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a></p>
+
+<p>The swimming test had been employed by both men
+in the earlier stages of their work. "That hath been
+used," wrote Stearne, "and I durst not goe about to
+cleere my selfe of it, because formerly I used it, but it
+was at such time of the yeare as when none tooke any
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>harme by it, neither did I ever doe it but upon their
+owne request."<a name="FNanchor_192-1_90" id="FNanchor_192-1_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_192-1_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a> A thoughtful man was this Stearne!
+Latterly he had given up the test&mdash;since "Judge Corbolt"
+stopped it<a name="FNanchor_192-2_91" id="FNanchor_192-2_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_192-2_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a>&mdash;and he had come to believe that it
+was a way of "distrusting of God's providence."</p>
+
+<p>It can be seen that the men who had conducted the
+witch crusade were able to present a consistent philosophy
+of their conduct. It was, of course, a philosophy
+constructed to meet an attack the force of which they
+had to recognize. Hopkins's pamphlet and Stearne's
+<i>Confirmation</i> were avowedly written to put their
+authors right in the eyes of a public which had turned
+against them.<a name="FNanchor_192-3_92" id="FNanchor_192-3_92"></a><a href="#Footnote_192-3_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a> It seems that this opposition had first
+shown itself at their home in Essex. A woman who
+was undergoing inquisition had found supporters, and,
+though she was condemned in spite of their efforts, was
+at length reprieved.<a name="FNanchor_192-4_93" id="FNanchor_192-4_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_192-4_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a> Her friends turned the tables by
+indicting Stearne and some forty others of conspiracy,
+and apparently succeeded in driving them from the
+county.<a name="FNanchor_192-5_94" id="FNanchor_192-5_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_192-5_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a> In Bury the forces of the opposition had
+appealed to Parliament, and the Commission of Oyer
+and Terminer, which, it will be noticed, is never
+mentioned by the witchfinders, was sent out to limit
+their activities. In Huntingdonshire, we have seen how
+Hopkins roused a protesting clergyman, John Gaule.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>If we may judge from the letter he wrote to one of
+Gaule's parishioners, Hopkins had by this time met
+with enough opposition to know when it was best to
+keep out of the way. His boldness was assumed to
+cover his fear.</p>
+
+<p>But it was in Norfolk that the opposition to the
+witchfinders reached culmination. There most pungent
+"queries" were put to Hopkins through the judges of
+assize. He was charged with all those cruelties, which,
+as we have seen, he attempts to defend. He was further
+accused of fleecing the country for his own
+profit.<a name="FNanchor_193-1_95" id="FNanchor_193-1_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_193-1_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a> Hopkins's answer was that he took the great
+sum of twenty shillings a town "to maintaine his companie
+with 3 horses."<a name="FNanchor_193-2_96" id="FNanchor_193-2_96"></a><a href="#Footnote_193-2_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a> That this was untrue is sufficiently
+proved by the records of Stowmarket where he
+received twenty-three pounds and his traveling expenses.
+At such a rate for the discoveries, we can
+hardly doubt that the two men between them cleared
+from three hundred to a thousand pounds, not an
+untidy sum in that day, when a day's work brought
+six pence.</p>
+
+<p>What further action was taken in the matter of the
+queries "delivered to the Judges of assize" we do not
+know. Both Hopkins and Stearne, as we have seen,
+went into retirement and set to work to exonerate themselves.
+Within the year Hopkins died at his old home
+in Manningtree. Stearne says that he died "peaceably,
+after a long sicknesse of a Consumption." But
+tradition soon had it otherwise. Hutchinson says
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>that the story, in his time, was that Hopkins was finally
+put to the swimming test himself, and drowned. According
+to another tale, which seems to have lingered
+in Suffolk, he offered to show the Devil's roll of all the
+witches in England and so was detected.<a name="FNanchor_194-1_97" id="FNanchor_194-1_97"></a><a href="#Footnote_194-1_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a> Butler, in his
+<i>Hudibras</i>, said of him:</p>
+
+<div class="block"><div class="poem">
+"Who after proved himself a witch,<br />
+And made a rod for his own breech."<br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Butler's lines appeared only fifteen years after Hopkin's
+death, and his statement is evidence enough that
+such a tradition was already current. The tradition is
+significant. It probably means, not that Hopkins really
+paid such a penalty for his career&mdash;Stearne's word is
+good enough proof to the contrary&mdash;but that within his
+own generation his name had become an object of detestation.</p>
+
+<p>John Stearne did not return to Manningtree&mdash;he may
+have been afraid to&mdash;but settled down near Bury, the
+scene of his greatest successes.</p>
+
+<p>If the epitaphs of these two men were to be written,
+their deeds could be compressed into homely statistics.
+And this leads us to inquire what was the sum of their
+achievement. It has been variously estimated. It is
+not an uncommon statement that thirty thousand
+witches were hanged in England during the rule of
+Parliament, and this wild guess has been copied by
+reputable authors. In other works the number has been
+estimated at three thousand, but this too is careless
+guesswork. Stearne himself boasted that he knew of
+two hundred executions, and Stearne ought to have
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>known. It is indeed possible that his estimate was too
+high. He had a careless habit of confusing condemnations
+with executions that makes us suspect that in
+this estimate he may have been thinking rather of the
+number of convictions than of the hangings. Yet his
+figures are those of a man who was on the ground, and
+cannot be lightly discounted. Moreover, James Howell,
+writing in 1648, says that "within the compass
+of two years, near upon three hundred Witches were
+arraign'd and the major part executed in Essex and
+Suffolk only."<a name="FNanchor_195-1_98" id="FNanchor_195-1_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_195-1_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a> If these estimates be correct&mdash;or even
+if they approach correctness&mdash;a remarkable fact appears.
+Hopkins and Stearne, in fourteen months' time,
+sent to the gallows more witches than all the other witch-hunters
+of England can be proved&mdash;so far as our present
+records go&mdash;to have hung in the hundred and sixty
+years during which the persecution nourished in England.
+It must occur to the reader that this crusade was
+extraordinary. Certainly it calls for explanation.</p>
+
+<p>So far as the writer is aware, but one explanation
+has been offered. It has been repeated until it has
+become a commonplace in the history of witchcraft
+that the Hopkins crusade was one of the expressions
+of the intolerant zeal of the Presbyterian party during
+its control of Parliament. This notion is largely due to
+Francis Hutchinson, who wrote the first history of Eng<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>lish
+witchcraft. Hutchinson was an Anglican clergyman,
+but we need not charge him with partisanship in
+accusing the Presbyterians. There was no inconsiderable
+body of evidence to support his point of view. The
+idea was developed by Sir Walter Scott in his <i>Letters
+on Demonology</i>, but it was left to Lecky, in his classic
+essay on witchcraft, to put the case against the Presbyterian
+Parliament in its most telling form.<a name="FNanchor_196-1_99" id="FNanchor_196-1_99"></a><a href="#Footnote_196-1_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a> His interpretation
+of the facts has found general acceptance
+since.</p>
+
+<p>It is not hard to understand how this explanation
+grew up. At a time when Hutchinson was making his
+study, Richard Baxter, the most eminent Puritan of his
+time, was still a great name among the defenders of
+witchcraft.<a name="FNanchor_196-2_100" id="FNanchor_196-2_100"></a><a href="#Footnote_196-2_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a> In his pages Hutchinson read how Puritan
+divines accompanied the witch-magistrates on their
+rounds and how a "reading parson" was one of their
+victims. Gaule, who opposed them, he seems to have
+counted an Anglican. He clearly put some faith in the
+lines of <i>Hudibras</i>. Probably, however, none of these
+points weighed so much with him as the general fact
+of coincidence in time between the great witch persecution
+and Presbyterian rule. It was hard to escape
+the conclusion that these two unusual situations must
+in some way have been connected.</p>
+
+<p>Neither Hutchinson nor those who followed have
+called attention to a point in support of their case
+which is quite as good proof of their contention as anything
+adduced. It was in the eastern counties, where
+the Eastern Association had flourished and where
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>Parliament, as well as the army, found its strongest
+backing&mdash;the counties that stood consistently against
+the king&mdash;in those counties it was that Hopkins and
+Stearne carried on their work.<a name="FNanchor_197-1_101" id="FNanchor_197-1_101"></a><a href="#Footnote_197-1_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a></p>
+
+<p>It may seem needless in the light of these facts to
+suggest any other explanation of the witch crusade. Yet
+the whole truth has not by any means been told. It
+has already been noticed that Hutchinson made some
+mistakes. Parson Lowes, who was hanged as a witch
+at the instance of his dissatisfied parishioners, was not
+hanged because he was an Anglican.<a name="FNanchor_197-2_102" id="FNanchor_197-2_102"></a><a href="#Footnote_197-2_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a> And the Presbyterian
+Parliament had not sent down into Suffolk a
+commission to hang witches, but to check the indiscriminate
+proceedings that were going on there against
+witches. Moreover, while it is true that East Anglia
+and the counties adjacent, the stronghold of the Puritans,
+were the scene of Hopkins's operations, it is quite
+as true that in those counties arose that powerful opposition
+which forced the witchfinders into retirement.
+We have noticed in another connection that the "malignants"
+were inclined to mock at the number of
+witches in the counties friendly to Parliament, but there
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>is nothing to show that the mockers disbelieved the
+reality of the witchcrafts.<a name="FNanchor_198-1_103" id="FNanchor_198-1_103"></a><a href="#Footnote_198-1_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a></p>
+
+<p>It is easy enough to turn some of Hutchinson's
+reasoning against him, as well as to weaken the force
+of other arguments that may be presented on his side.
+But, when we have done all this, we still have to face
+the unpleasant facts that the witch persecution coincided
+in time with Presbyterian rule and in place with
+Puritan communities. It is very hard to get around
+these facts. Nor does the writer believe that they can be
+altogether avoided, even if their edge can be somewhat
+blunted. It was a time of bitter struggle. The outcome
+could not yet be forecast. Party feeling was at a high
+pitch. The situation may not unfairly be compared
+with that in the summer of 1863 during the American
+civil war. Then the outbreaks in New York revealed
+the public tension. The case in 1645 in the eastern
+counties was similar. Every energy was directed towards
+the prosecution of the war. The strain might
+very well have shown itself in other forms than in
+hunting down the supposed agents of the Devil. As
+a matter of fact, the apparitions and devils, the knockings
+and strange noises, that filled up the pages of the
+popular literature were the indications of an overwrought
+public mind. Religious belief grew terribly
+literal under the tension of the war. The Anglicans
+were fighting for their king, the Puritans for their re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span>ligion.
+That religious fervor which very easily deepens
+into dementia was highly accentuated.<a name="FNanchor_199-1_104" id="FNanchor_199-1_104"></a><a href="#Footnote_199-1_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a></p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, too much importance may have been
+given to the part played by Presbyterianism. There is
+no evidence which makes it certain that the morbidity
+of the public would have taken the form of witch-hanging,
+had it not been for the leadership of Hopkins and
+Stearne. The Manningtree affair started very much
+as a score of others in other times. It had just this
+difference, that two pushing men took the matter up
+and made of it an opportunity. The reader who has
+followed the career of these men has seen how they seem
+the backbone of the entire movement. It is true that the
+town of Yarmouth invited them of its own initiative
+to take up the work there, but not until they had already
+made themselves famous in all East Anglia. There is,
+indeed, too much evidence that their visits were in
+nearly every case the result of their own deliberate purpose
+to widen the field of their labors. In brief, two
+aggressive men had taken advantage of a time of popular
+excitement and alarm. They were fortunate in
+the state of the public mind, but they seem to have owed
+more to their own exertions.</p>
+
+<p>But perhaps to neither factor was their success
+due so much as to the want of government in England
+at this time. We have seen in an earlier chapter that
+Charles I and his privy council had put an end to a
+witch panic that bade fair to end very tragically. Not
+that they interfered with random executions here and
+there. It was when the numbers involved became too
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>large that the government stepped in to revise verdicts.
+This was what the government of Parliament failed to
+do. And the reasons are not far to seek. Parliament
+was intensely occupied with the war. The writer believes
+that it can be proved that, except in so far as
+concerned the war, the government of Parliament and
+the Committee of Both Kingdoms paid little or no attention
+to the affairs of the realm. It is certainly true
+that they allowed judicial business to go by the board.
+The assizes seem to have been almost, if not entirely,
+suspended during the last half of the year 1645 and the
+first half of 1646.<a name="FNanchor_200-1_105" id="FNanchor_200-1_105"></a><a href="#Footnote_200-1_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a> The justices of the peace, who had
+always shown themselves ready to hunt down witches,
+were suffered to go their own gait.<a name="FNanchor_200-2_106" id="FNanchor_200-2_106"></a><a href="#Footnote_200-2_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a> To be sure, there
+were exceptions. The Earl of Warwick held a court
+at Chelmsford, but he was probably acting in a military
+capacity, and, inexperienced in court procedure, doubtless
+depended largely upon the justices of the peace,
+who, gathered in quarter sessions, were assisting him.
+It is true too that Parliament had sent down a Commission
+of Oyer and Terminer to Bury, a commission
+made up of a serjeant and two clergymen. But these
+two cases are, so far as we can discover, the sole instances
+during these two years when the justices of the
+peace were not left to their own devices. This is sig<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>nificant.
+Except in Middlesex and in the chartered
+towns of England, we have, excepting during this time
+of war, no records that witches were ever sentenced to
+death, save by the judges of assize.</p>
+
+<p>To put it in a nutshell, England was in a state of judicial
+anarchy.<a name="FNanchor_201-1_107" id="FNanchor_201-1_107"></a><a href="#Footnote_201-1_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a> Local authorities were in control. But
+local authorities had too often been against witches. The
+coming of Hopkins and Stearne gave them their chance,
+and there was no one to say stop.</p>
+
+<p>This explanation fits in well with the fact, to which
+we shall advert in another chapter, that no small proportion
+of English witch trials took place in towns possessing
+separate rights of jurisdiction. This was especially
+true in the seventeenth century. The cases in
+Yarmouth, King's Lynn, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Berwick,
+and Canterbury, are all instances in point. Indeed,
+the solitary prosecution in Hopkins's own time in
+which he had no hand was in one of those towns, Faversham
+in Kent. There the mayor and "local jurators"
+sent not less than three to the gallows.<a name="FNanchor_201-2_108" id="FNanchor_201-2_108"></a><a href="#Footnote_201-2_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span></p><p>One other aspect of the Hopkins crusade deserves
+further attention. It has been shown in the course of
+the chapter that the practice of torture was in evidence
+again and again during this period. The methods were
+peculiarly harrowing. At the same time they were
+methods which the rationale of the witch belief justified.
+The theory need hardly be repeated. It was believed
+that the witches, bound by a pact with the Devil,
+made use of spirits that took animal forms. These
+imps, as they were called, were accustomed to visit
+their mistress once in twenty-four hours. If the witch,
+said her persecutors, could be put naked upon a chair
+in the middle of the room and kept awake, the imps
+could not approach her. Herein lay the supposed reasonableness
+of the methods in vogue. And the authorities
+who were offering this excuse for their use of torture
+were not loth to go further. It was, they said,
+necessary to walk the creatures in order to keep them
+awake. It was soon discovered that the enforced
+sleeplessness and the walking would after two or three
+days and nights produce confessions. Stearne himself
+describes the matter graphically: "For the watching,"
+he writes, "it is not to use violence or extremity to
+force them to confesse, but onely the keeping is, first,
+to see whether any of their spirits or familiars come to
+or neere them; for I have found that if the time be
+come, the spirit or Impe so called should come, it will
+be either visible or invisible, if visible, then it may be
+discerned by those in the Roome, if invisible, then by the
+party. Secondly, it is for this end also, that if the
+parties which watch them, be so carefull that none come
+visible nor invisible but that may be discerned, if they
+follow their directions then the party presently after the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span>
+time their Familiars should have come, if they faile,
+will presently confesse, for then they thinke they will
+either come no more or have forsaken them. Thirdly
+it is also to the end, that Godly Divines and others might
+discourse with them, for if any of their society come
+to them to discourse with them, they will never confesse.... But
+if honest godly people discourse with
+them, laying the hainousnesse of their sins to them, and
+in what condition they are in without Repentance, and
+telling them the subtilties of the Devil, and the mercies
+of God, these ways will bring them to Confession without
+extremity, it will make them break into confession
+hoping for mercy."<a name="FNanchor_203-1_109" id="FNanchor_203-1_109"></a><a href="#Footnote_203-1_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a></p>
+
+<p>Hopkins tells us more about the walking of the
+witches. In answer to the objection that the accused
+were "extraordinarily walked till their feet were blistered,
+and so forced through that cruelty to confesse,"
+"he answered that the purpose was only to keepe
+them waking: and the reason was this, when they did
+lye or sit in a chaire, if they did offer to couch downe,
+then the watchers were only to desire them to sit up and
+walke about."</p>
+
+<p>Now, the inference might be drawn from these descriptions
+that the use of torture was a new feature
+of the witchcraft persecutions characteristic of the
+Civil War period. There is little evidence that before
+that time such methods were in use. A schoolmaster
+who was supposed to have used magic against James I
+had been put to the rack. There were other cases in
+which it is conjectured that the method may have been
+tried. There is, however, little if any proof of such
+trial.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span></p><p>Such an inference would, however, be altogether unjustified.
+The absence of evidence of the use of torture
+by no means establishes the absence of the practice.
+It may rather be said that the evidence of the
+practice we possess in the Hopkins cases is of such a
+sort as to lead us to suspect that it was frequently resorted
+to. If for these cases we had only such evidence
+as in most previous cases has made up our entire
+sum of information, we should know nothing of the terrible
+sufferings undergone by the poor creatures of
+Chelmsford and Bury. The confessions are given in
+full, as in the accounts of other trials, but no word is
+said of the causes that led to them. The difference between
+these cases of 1645 and other cases is this, that
+Hopkins and Stearne accused so large a body of witches
+that they stirred up opposition. It is through those who
+opposed them and their own replies that we learn about
+the tortures inflicted upon the supposed agents of the
+Devil.</p>
+
+<p>The significance of this cannot be insisted upon too
+strongly. A chance has preserved for us the fact of the
+tortures of this time. It is altogether possible&mdash;it is
+almost probable&mdash;that, if we had all the facts, we should
+find that similar or equally severe methods had been
+practised in many other witch cases.</p>
+
+<p>We have been very minute in our descriptions of the
+Hopkins crusade, and by no means brief in our attempt
+to account for it. But it is safe to say that it is easily
+the most important episode in that series of episodes
+which makes up the history of English witchcraft.
+None of them belong, of course, in the larger progress
+of historical events. It may seem to some that we have
+magnified the point at which they touched the wider<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>
+interests of the time. Let it not be forgotten that Hopkins
+was a factor in his day and that, however little he
+may have affected the larger issues of the times, he was
+affected by them. It was only the unusual conditions
+produced by the Civil Wars that made the great witchfinder
+possible.</p>
+
+<hr class="foot" />
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_164-1_1" id="Footnote_164-1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_164-1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> See J. O. Jones, "Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder," in Thomas Seccombe's
+<i>Twelve Bad Men</i> (London, 1894).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_164-2_2" id="Footnote_164-2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_164-2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> See <i>Notes and Queries</i>, 1854, II, 285, where a quotation from a
+parish register of Mistley-cum-Manningtree is given: "Matthew Hopkins,
+son of Mr. James Hopkins, Minister of Wenham, was buried at Mistley
+August 12, 1647." See also John Stearne, <i>A Confirmation and Discovery
+of Witchcraft</i>, 61 (cited hereafter as "Stearne").</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_164-3_3" id="Footnote_164-3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_164-3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> <i>Calendar of the Proceedings of the Committee for Advance of Money,
+1642-1656</i>, I, 457. <i>Cf. Notes and Queries</i>, 1850, II, 413.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_165-1_4" id="Footnote_165-1_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_165-1_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> The oft-repeated statement that he had been given a commission by
+Parliament to detect witches seems to rest only on the mocking words
+of Butler's <i>Hudibras</i>:
+</p>
+
+<div class="block"><div class="poem">
+"Hath not this present Parliament<br />
+A Ledger to the Devil sent,<br />
+Fully empower'd to treat about<br />
+Finding revolted Witches out?"<br />
+</div></div>
+<div class="center" style="margin-left: 8em;">(<i>Hudibras</i>, pt. ii, canto 3.)</div>
+<p>
+To these lines an early editor added the note: "The Witch-finder in
+Suffolk, who in the Presbyterian Times had a Commission to discover
+Witches." But he names no authority, and none can be found. It is
+probably a confusion with the Commission appointed for the trial of the
+witches in Suffolk (see below, p. 178). Even his use of the title "witch-finder-general"
+is very doubtful. "Witch-finder" he calls himself in
+his book; only the frontispiece has "Witch Finder Generall." Nor is
+this title given him by Stearne, Gaule, or any contemporary record. It
+is perhaps only a misunderstanding of the phrase of Hopkins's title-page,
+"for the benefit of the whole kingdome"&mdash;a phrase which, as
+the punctuation shows, describes, not the witch-finder, but his book. Yet
+in <i>County Folk Lore, Suffolk</i> (Folk Lore Soc., 1893), 178, there is
+an extract about John Lowes from a Brandeston MS.: "His chief accuser
+was one Hopkins, who called himself Witchfinder-General." But
+this is of uncertain date, and may rest on Hutchinson.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_166-1_5" id="Footnote_166-1_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_166-1_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> This is evident enough from his incessant use of Scripture and from
+the Calvinistic stamp of his theology; but he leaves us no doubt when
+(p. 54) he describes the Puritan Fairclough as "an able Orthodox
+Divine."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_166-2_6" id="Footnote_166-2_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_166-2_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Matthew Hopkins, <i>The Discovery of Witches</i> (London, 1647), 2&mdash;cited
+hereafter as "Hopkins."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_167-1_7" id="Footnote_167-1_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_167-1_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> One of them was Sir Harbottle Grimston, a baronet of Puritan
+ancestry, who had been active in the Long Parliament, but who as a
+"moderate man" fell now somewhat into the background. The other was
+Sir Thomas Bowes. Both figure a little later as Presbyterian elders.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_167-2_8" id="Footnote_167-2_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_167-2_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Hopkins, 3.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_168-1_9" id="Footnote_168-1_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_168-1_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Hopkins, 2; Stearne, 14-16.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_168-2_10" id="Footnote_168-2_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_168-2_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> It must, however, be noted that the oaths of the four women are put
+together, and that one of the men deposed merely that he confirmed
+Stearne's particulars.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_168-3_11" id="Footnote_168-3_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_168-3_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Although Hopkins omitted in his testimony the first animal seen
+by Stearne. He mentioned it later, calling it Holt. Stearne called it
+Lought. See Hopkins, 2; Stearne, 15. But Stearne calls it Hoult in his
+testimony as reproduced in the <i>True and exact Relation of the severall
+Informations, Examinations and Confessions of the Late Witches ... at
+Chelmesford ...</i> (London, 1645), 3-4.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_169-1_12" id="Footnote_169-1_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_169-1_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Despite this record Anne West is described by Stearne (p. 39) as
+one of the very religious people who make an outward show "as if
+they had been Saints on earth."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_169-2_13" id="Footnote_169-2_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_169-2_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> The confession of Rebecca West is indeed dated "21" March 1645,
+the very day of Elizabeth Clarke's arrest; but all the context suggests
+that this is an error. In spite of her confessions, which were of the
+most damaging, Rebecca West was eventually acquitted.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_170-1_14" id="Footnote_170-1_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_170-1_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> It must not for a moment, however, be forgotten that these confessions
+had been wrung from tortured creatures.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_170-2_15" id="Footnote_170-2_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_170-2_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Richard Carter and Henry Cornwall had testified that Margaret
+Moone confessed to them. Probably she did, as she was doubtless at
+that time under torture.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_171-1_16" id="Footnote_171-1_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_171-1_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> The evidence offered against her well suggests on what slender
+grounds a witch might be accused. "This Informant saith that the house
+where this Informante and the said Mary did dwell together, was haunted
+with a Leveret, which did usually sit before the dore: And this Informant
+knowing that one Anthony Shalock had an excellent Greyhound that had
+killed many Hares; and having heard that a childe of the said Anthony was
+much haunted and troubled, and that the mother of the childe suspected
+the said Mary to be the cause of it: This Informant went to the said
+Anthony Shalock and acquainted him that a Leveret did usually come
+and sit before the dore, where this Informant and the said Mary Greenleife
+lived, and desired the said Anthony to bring downe his Greyhound
+to see if he could kill the said Leveret; and the next day the said Anthony
+did accordingly bring his Greyhound, and coursed it, but whether
+the dog killed it this Informant knows not: But being a little before
+coursed by Good-man Merrils dog, the dog ran at it, but the Leveret never
+stirred, and just when the dog came at it, he skipped over it, and turned
+about and stood still, and looked on it, and shortly after that dog
+languished and dyed."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_172-1_17" id="Footnote_172-1_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_172-1_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> See Bulstrode Whitelocke, <i>Memorials of English Affairs ...</i> (London,
+1682; Oxford, 1853), ed. of 1853, I, 501.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_172-2_18" id="Footnote_172-2_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_172-2_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> "H. F."'s publication is the <i>True and exact Relation</i> cited above
+(note 11). He seems to have written it in the last of May, but inserted
+verdicts later in the margin. Arthur Wilson, who was present, says
+that 18 were executed; Francis Peck, <i>Desiderata Curiosa</i> (London, 1732-1735;
+1779), ed. of 1779, II, 476. But Hopkins writes that 29 were condemned
+at once and Stearne says about 28; quite possibly there were
+two trials at Chelmsford. There is only one other supposition, <i>i. e.</i>, that
+Hopkins and Stearne confused the number originally accused with the
+number hanged. For further discussion of the somewhat conflicting
+evidence as to the number of these Essex witches and the dates of their
+trial see appendix C, under 1645.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_174-1_19" id="Footnote_174-1_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_174-1_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> <i>A Diary or an Exact Journall</i>, July 24-31, 1645, pp. 5-6.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_174-2_20" id="Footnote_174-2_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_174-2_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> <i>A True Relation of the Araignment of eighteene Witches at St.
+Edmundsbury ...</i> (London, 1645), 9.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_174-3_21" id="Footnote_174-3_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_174-3_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 6.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_174-4_22" id="Footnote_174-4_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_174-4_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_174-5_23" id="Footnote_174-5_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_174-5_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> John Gaule, <i>Select Cases of Conscience Touching Witches and
+Witchcrafts</i> (London, 1646), 78, 79.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_175-1_24" id="Footnote_175-1_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_175-1_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Queries 8 and 9 answered by Hopkins to the Norfolk assizes confirm
+Gaule's description. See Hopkins, 5. "Query 8. When these ...
+are fully discovered, yet that will not serve sufficiently to convict them,
+but they must be tortured and kept from sleep two or three nights, to
+distract them, and make them say anything; which is a way to tame a
+wilde Colt, or Hawke." "Query 9. Beside that unreasonable watching,
+they were extraordinarily walked, till their feet were blistered, and so
+forced through that cruelty to confess." Hopkins himself admitted the
+keeping of Elizabeth Clarke from sleep, but is careful to insert "upon
+command from the Justice." Hopkins, 2-3. On p. 5 he again refers to
+this point. Stearne, 61, uses the phrase "with consent of the justices."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_176-1_25" id="Footnote_176-1_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_176-1_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Suffolk Institute of Archćology, <i>Proceedings</i>, X, 378. Baxter seems
+to have started the notion that Lowes was a "reading parson," or
+Anglican.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_176-2_26" id="Footnote_176-2_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_176-2_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_176-3_27" id="Footnote_176-3_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_176-3_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> See <i>A Magazine of Scandall, or a heape of wickednesse of two infamous
+Ministers</i> (London, 1642), where there is a deposition, dated
+August 4, 1641, that Lowes had been twice indicted and once arraigned
+for witchcraft, and convicted by law as "a common Barrettor" at the
+assizes in Suffolk. Stearne, 23, says he was charged as a "common imbarritor"
+over thirty years before.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_176-4_28" id="Footnote_176-4_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_176-4_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> This account of the torture is given, in a letter to Hutchinson, by a
+Mr. Rivet, who had "heard it from them that watched with him." It
+is in some measure confirmed by the MS. history of Brandeston quoted
+in <i>County Folk Lore, Suffolk</i> (Folk Lore Soc.), 178, which adds the
+above-quoted testimony as to his litigiousness.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_177-1_29" id="Footnote_177-1_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_177-1_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Stearne, 24.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_177-2_30" id="Footnote_177-2_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_177-2_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> <i>A True Relation of the Araignment of eighteene Witches</i>, 5; <i>Moderate
+Intelligencer</i>, September 4-11, 1645.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_177-3_31" id="Footnote_177-3_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_177-3_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> See Samuel Clarke, <i>Lives of sundry Eminent Persons ...</i> (London,
+1683), 172. In writing the life of Samuel Fairclough, Clarke used Fairclough's
+papers; see <i>ibid.</i>, 163.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_178-1_32" id="Footnote_178-1_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_178-1_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> Fairclough was a Non-Conformist, but not actively sympathetic with
+Presbyterianism. Calamy was counted a Presbyterian.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_178-2_33" id="Footnote_178-2_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_178-2_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Hopkins, 5-6; Stearne, 18.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_178-3_34" id="Footnote_178-3_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_178-3_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> One of these was Lowes.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_178-4_35" id="Footnote_178-4_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_178-4_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> <i>A True Relation of the Araignment of eighteene Witches.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_179-1_36" id="Footnote_179-1_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_179-1_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> Stearne, 14.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_179-2_37" id="Footnote_179-2_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_179-2_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> <i>A True Relation of the Araignment of eighteene Witches</i>, 5.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_179-3_38" id="Footnote_179-3_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_179-3_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>; Stearne, 25.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_179-4_39" id="Footnote_179-4_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_179-4_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> Hutchinson speaks of repeated sessions. Stearne, 25, says: "by
+reason of an Allarum at Cambridge, the gaol delivery at Burie St. Edmunds
+was adjourned for about three weeks." As a matter of fact, the
+king's forces seem not to have got farther east than Bedford and Cambridge.
+See Whitelocke, <i>Memorials</i>, I, 501.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_179-5_40" id="Footnote_179-5_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_179-5_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> Stearne, 11, speaks of 68 condemnations. On p. 14 he tells of 18
+who were executed at Bury, but this may have referred to the first group
+only. A MS. history of Brandeston quoted in <i>County Folk Lore, Suffolk</i>
+(Folk Lore Soc.), 178, says that Lowes was executed with 59 more.
+It is not altogether certain, however, that this testimony is independent.
+Nevertheless, it contains pieces of information not in the other accounts,
+and so cannot be ignored.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_180-1_41" id="Footnote_180-1_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_180-1_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> <i>Moderate Intelligencer</i>, September 4-11, 1645.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_180-2_42" id="Footnote_180-2_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_180-2_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> Howell, <i>Familiar Letters</i> (I use the ed. of Joseph Jacobs, London
+1890-1892) II, 506, 515, 551. The letters quoted are dated as of Feb.,
+1646 (1647), and Feb., 1647 (1648 of our calendar); but, as is well known,
+Howell's dates cannot be trusted. The first was printed in the volume
+of his letters published in 1647, the others in that published in 1650.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_180-3_43" id="Footnote_180-3_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_180-3_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> Joseph Hall, <i>Soliloquies</i> (London, 1651), 52-53.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_180-4_44" id="Footnote_180-4_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_180-4_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> Thomas Ady, <i>Candle in the Dark</i> (London, 1656), 101-105.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_180-5_45" id="Footnote_180-5_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_180-5_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> The Rev. John Worthington attended the trial. In mentioning it in
+his diary, he made no comment. <i>Diary and Correspondence of Dr. John
+Worthington</i>, I (Chetham Soc., no. 13, 1847), 22.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_181-1_46" id="Footnote_181-1_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_181-1_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> So, at least, says Whitelocke, <i>Memorials</i>, I, 487.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_181-2_47" id="Footnote_181-2_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_181-2_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> J. G. Nall, <i>Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft</i> (London, 1867), 92, note,
+quotes from the Yarmouth assembly book. Nall makes very careless
+statements, but his quotations from the assembly book may be
+depended upon.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_181-3_48" id="Footnote_181-3_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_181-3_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_181-4_49" id="Footnote_181-4_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_181-4_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> <i>Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports</i>, IX, pt. i, 320.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_181-5_50" id="Footnote_181-5_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_181-5_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> The <i>Collection of Modern Relations</i> says that sixteen were hanged,
+but this compilation was published forty-seven years after the events:
+the number 6 had been changed to 16. One witch seems to have suffered
+later, see Stearne, 53. The statement about the 16 witches hanged
+at Yarmouth may be found in practically all accounts of English witchcraft,
+<i>e. g.</i>, see the recent essay on Hopkins by J. O. Jones, in Seccombe's
+<i>Twelve Bad Men</i>, 60. They can all be traced back through various
+lines to this source.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_182-1_51" id="Footnote_182-1_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_182-1_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> H. Manship, <i>History of Great Yarmouth</i>, continued by C. J. Palmer
+(Great Yarmouth, 1854-1856), where the Yarmouth records about Hopkins
+are given in full. See also H. Harrod, in <i>Norfolk Archćology</i>
+(Norfolk and Norwich Arch. Soc., 1847-1864), IV, 249.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_182-2_52" id="Footnote_182-2_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_182-2_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> <i>The Lawes against Witches and Conjuration ...</i> (London, 1645),
+4. J. O. Jones, in his account of Hopkins, <i>loc. cit.</i>, says that "many
+were hanged or burned in Ipswich." I believe that no authority
+can be cited for this statement.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_182-3_53" id="Footnote_182-3_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_182-3_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> The first is in, <i>A True Relation of the Araignment of eighteene
+Witches</i>, 5. We of course do not know that the sentence was carried
+out.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_182-4_54" id="Footnote_182-4_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_182-4_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> The master of a ship had been "sutor" for her grandchild; <i>The
+Lawes against Witches</i>, 8. She was a "professour of Religion, a constant
+hearer of the Word for these many years."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_182-5_55" id="Footnote_182-5_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_182-5_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_182-6_56" id="Footnote_182-6_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_182-6_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> <i>I. e., The Lawes against Witches</i> (London, 1645). See below, appendix
+A, § 4.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_183-1_57" id="Footnote_183-1_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_183-1_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> N. F. Hele, <i>Notes or Jottings about Aldeburgh</i> (Ipswich, 1890), 43-44.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_183-2_58" id="Footnote_183-2_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_183-2_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> This was doubtless the fee to the executioner. Mr. Richard Browne
+and Mr. Newgate, who were either the justices of the peace or the
+local magistrates, received Ł4 apiece for their services in trying the
+witches.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_183-3_59" id="Footnote_183-3_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_183-3_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> A. G. Hollingsworth, <i>History of Stowmarket</i> (Ipswich, 1844), 170.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_183-4_60" id="Footnote_183-4_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_183-4_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> For a list of these towns, see below, appendix C, under 1645, Suffolk.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_184-1_61" id="Footnote_184-1_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_184-1_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> Stearne, 45, two instances.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_184-2_62" id="Footnote_184-2_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_184-2_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 37, 39, 45.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_184-3_63" id="Footnote_184-3_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_184-3_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> Thomas Ady, <i>A Candle in the Dark</i>, 135.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_184-4_64" id="Footnote_184-4_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_184-4_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> Stearne, 39.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_185-1_65" id="Footnote_185-1_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_185-1_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> His whole confession reads like the utterance of a tortured man.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_185-2_66" id="Footnote_185-2_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_185-2_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> He had previously been found with a rope around his neck. This
+was of course attributed to witchcraft. Stearne, 35.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_185-3_67" id="Footnote_185-3_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_185-3_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 11.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_185-4_68" id="Footnote_185-4_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_185-4_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> John Wynnick and Joane Wallis made effective confessions. The
+first, when in the heat of passion at the loss of a purse, had signed
+his soul away (Stearne, 20-21; see also the pamphlet, the dedication of
+which is signed by John Davenport, entitled, <i>The Witches of Huntingdon,
+their Examinations and Confessions ...</i> London, 1646, 3).
+The latter maintained a troop of imps, among whom Blackeman, Grissell,
+and Greedigut figured most prominently. The half-witted creature
+could not recall the names on the repetition of her confessions,
+but this failing does not seem to have awakened any doubt of her
+guilt. Stearne could not avoid noticing that some of those who suffered
+were very religious. One woman, who had kept an imp for twenty-one
+years, "did resort to church and had a desire to be rid of her
+unhappy burden."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_186-1_69" id="Footnote_186-1_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_186-1_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> <i>I. e.</i>, witches.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_187-1_70" id="Footnote_187-1_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_187-1_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> This letter is printed by Gaule at the opening of his <i>Select Cases
+of Conscience Touching Witches and Witchcrafts</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_187-2_71" id="Footnote_187-2_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_187-2_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> Stearne, 11; <i>cf.</i> below, appendix C, 1646 (pp. 405-406).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_187-3_72" id="Footnote_187-3_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_187-3_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> That it was done by the justices of the peace is a probable conclusion
+from Stearne's language. See his account of Joane Wallis,
+p. 13, also his account of John Wynnick, pp. 20-21. That the examinations
+were in March and April (see John Davenport's account, <i>The
+Witches of Huntingdon</i>) and the executions in May is a fact confirmatory
+of this; see Stearne, 11. But it is more to the point that John
+Davenport dedicates his pamphlet to the justices of the peace for the
+county of Huntingdon, and says: "You were present, and Judges at
+the Tryall and Conviction of them."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_187-4_73" id="Footnote_187-4_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_187-4_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> The swimming ordeal was perhaps unofficial; see Stearne, 19.
+Another case was that of Elizabeth Chandler, who was "duckt";
+<i>Witches of Huntingdon</i>, 8.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_188-1_74" id="Footnote_188-1_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_188-1_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> Tilbrooke-bushes, Stearne, 11; Risden, <i>ibid.</i>, 31.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_188-2_75" id="Footnote_188-2_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_188-2_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> This may be inferred from Stearne's words: "but afterward I
+heard that she made a very large confession," <i>ibid.</i>, 31.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_188-3_76" id="Footnote_188-3_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_188-3_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> Thomas Wright, John Ashton, J. O. Jones, and the other writers
+who have dealt with Hopkins, speak of the Worcester trials, in
+1647, in which four women are said to have been hanged. Their
+statements are all based upon a pamphlet, <i>The Full Tryals, Examination,
+and Condemnation of Four Notorious Witches at the Assizes
+held at Worcester on Tuseday the 4th of March.... Printed for I.
+W.</i> What seems to have been the first edition of this brochure bears
+no date. In 1700 another edition was printed for "J. M." in Fleet
+Street. Some writer on witchcraft gained the notion that this pamphlet
+belonged in the year 1647 and dealt with events in that year.
+Wright, John Ashton, and W. H. Davenport Adams (<i>Witch, Warlock,
+and Magician</i>, London, 1889), all accept this date. An examination
+of the pamphlet shows that it was cleverly put together from the <i>True
+and Exact Relation</i> of 1645. The four accused bear the names of four
+of those accused at Chelmsford, and make, with a few differences, the
+same confessions. See below, appendix A, § 4, for a further discussion
+of this pamphlet. It is strange that so careful a student as Thomas
+Wright should have been deceived by this pamphlet, especially since
+he noticed that the confessions were "imitations" of those in Essex.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_189-1_77" id="Footnote_189-1_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_189-1_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> A. Gibbons, ed., <i>Ely Episcopal Records</i> (Lincoln, 1891), 112-113.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_189-2_78" id="Footnote_189-2_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_189-2_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> Stearne, 37.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_189-3_79" id="Footnote_189-3_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_189-3_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> That there were assizes is proved by the statement that "Moore's
+wife" confessed before the "Judge, Bench, and Country," <i>ibid.</i>,
+21-22, as well as by the reference in the <i>Ely Episcopal Records</i>, 113,
+to the "assizes."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_189-4_80" id="Footnote_189-4_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_189-4_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> Stearne, 17, 21-22.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_189-5_81" id="Footnote_189-5_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_189-5_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> For a clear statement of this point of view, see <i>ibid.</i>, 40-50.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_190-1_82" id="Footnote_190-1_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_190-1_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> Stearne, 46-47.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_190-2_83" id="Footnote_190-2_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_190-2_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 50.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_190-3_84" id="Footnote_190-3_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_190-3_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 17.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_190-4_85" id="Footnote_190-4_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_190-4_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 13.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_190-5_86" id="Footnote_190-5_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_190-5_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 14.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_191-1_87" id="Footnote_191-1_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_191-1_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> Hopkins, 5. But Hopkins was not telling the exact truth here.
+When he was at Aldeburgh in September (8th) the accused were watched
+day and night. See chamberlain's accounts, in N. F. Hele, <i>Notes or
+Jottings about Aldeburgh</i>, 43.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_191-2_88" id="Footnote_191-2_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_191-2_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> Hopkins, 7.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_191-3_89" id="Footnote_191-3_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_191-3_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> Hopkins, 9.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_192-1_90" id="Footnote_192-1_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor_192-1_90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> Stearne, 18. Hopkins did not attempt to deny the use of the
+ordeal. He supported himself by quoting James; see Hopkins, 6.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_192-2_91" id="Footnote_192-2_91"></a><a href="#FNanchor_192-2_91"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> Stearne, 18. He means, of course, Serjeant Godbolt.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_192-3_92" id="Footnote_192-3_92"></a><a href="#FNanchor_192-3_92"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> See Stearne, in his preface to the reader, also p. 61; and see also
+the complete title of Hopkins's book as given in appendix A (p. 362).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_192-4_93" id="Footnote_192-4_93"></a><a href="#FNanchor_192-4_93"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> A similar case was that of Anne Binkes, to whom Stearne refers on
+p. 54. He says she confessed to him her guilt. "Was this woman
+fitting to live?... I am sure she was living not long since, and acquitted
+upon her trial."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_192-5_94" id="Footnote_192-5_94"></a><a href="#FNanchor_192-5_94"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> Not until after Stearne was already busy elsewhere. Stearne, 58.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_193-1_95" id="Footnote_193-1_95"></a><a href="#FNanchor_193-1_95"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> It would seem, too, that Stearne was sued for recovery of sums
+paid him. "Many rather fall upon me for what hath been received;
+but I hope such suits will be disannulled." Stearne, 60.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_193-2_96" id="Footnote_193-2_96"></a><a href="#FNanchor_193-2_96"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> Hopkins, 11.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_194-1_97" id="Footnote_194-1_97"></a><a href="#FNanchor_194-1_97"><span class="label">[97]</span></a> <i>County Folk Lore, Suffolk</i> (Folk Lore Soc.) 176, quoting from J. T.
+Varden in the <i>East Anglian Handbook</i> for 1885, p. 89.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_195-1_98" id="Footnote_195-1_98"></a><a href="#FNanchor_195-1_98"><span class="label">[98]</span></a> James Howell, <i>Familiar Letters</i>, II, 551. Howell, of course, may
+easily have counted convictions as executions. Moreover, it was a
+time when rumors were flying about, and Howell would not have taken
+the pains to sift them. Yet his agreement with Stearne in numbers is
+remarkable. Somewhat earlier, (the letter is dated February 3, 1646/7)
+Howell had written that "in Essex and Suffolk there were above two
+hundred indicted within these two years and above the one half executed"
+(<i>ibid.</i>, 506). But, as noted above, his dates are not to be trusted.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_196-1_99" id="Footnote_196-1_99"></a><a href="#FNanchor_196-1_99"><span class="label">[99]</span></a> See his <i>History of Rationalism</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_196-2_100" id="Footnote_196-2_100"></a><a href="#FNanchor_196-2_100"><span class="label">[100]</span></a> A name no greater, however, than that of Glanvill, who was a
+prominent Anglican.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_197-1_101" id="Footnote_197-1_101"></a><a href="#FNanchor_197-1_101"><span class="label">[101]</span></a> It does not belong in this connection, but it should be stated,
+that one of the strongest reasons for supposing the Presbyterian party
+largely responsible for the persecution of witches lies in the large number
+of witches in Scotland throughout the whole period of that party's
+ascendancy. This is an argument that can hardly be successfully answered.
+Yet it is a legitimate question whether the witch-hunting
+proclivities of the north were not as much the outcome of Scottish laws
+and manners as of Scottish religion.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_197-2_102" id="Footnote_197-2_102"></a><a href="#FNanchor_197-2_102"><span class="label">[102]</span></a> The <i>Magazine of Scandall</i>, speaking of Lowes and another man,
+says: "Their Religion is either none, or else as the wind blows: If
+the ceremonies be tending to Popery, none so forward as they, and if
+there be orders cleane contrary they shall exceed any Round-head in the
+Ile of great Brittain." See also above, pp. 175-177.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_198-1_103" id="Footnote_198-1_103"></a><a href="#FNanchor_198-1_103"><span class="label">[103]</span></a> Yet it must not be overlooked that Stearne himself, who must
+have known well the religious sympathies of his opponents, asks, p. 58,
+"And who are they that have been against the prosecution ... but
+onely such as (without offence I may speak it) be enemies to the
+Church of God?" He dares not mention names, "not onely for fear of
+offence, but also for suits of Law."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_199-1_104" id="Footnote_199-1_104"></a><a href="#FNanchor_199-1_104"><span class="label">[104]</span></a> Scott has pictured this very well in <i>Woodstock</i>. For a good example
+of it see <i>The [D]Ivell in Kent, or His strange Delusions at
+Sandwitch</i> (London, 1647).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_200-1_105" id="Footnote_200-1_105"></a><a href="#FNanchor_200-1_105"><span class="label">[105]</span></a> See below, note 107.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_200-2_106" id="Footnote_200-2_106"></a><a href="#FNanchor_200-2_106"><span class="label">[106]</span></a> The witches of Aldeburgh were tried at the "sessions," N. F.
+Hele, <i>op. cit.</i>, 43-44. Mother Lakeland was probably condemned by the
+justices of the peace; see <i>The Lawes against Witches</i>. The witches
+of Huntingdon were tried by the justices of the peace; see above, note
+73. As for the trials in Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, and
+Cambridgeshire, it is fairly safe to reason that they were conducted by
+the justices of the peace from other evidence which we have that there
+were no assizes during the last half of 1645 and the first five months of
+1646; see Whitelocke, <i>Memorials</i>, II, 31, 44, 64.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_201-1_107" id="Footnote_201-1_107"></a><a href="#FNanchor_201-1_107"><span class="label">[107]</span></a> For a few of the evidences of this situation during these years see
+James Thompson, <i>Leicester</i> (Leicester, 1849), 401; <i>Hist. MSS. Comm.
+Reports, Various</i>, I, 109-110, 322; XIII, 4, p. 216 (note gaps in the
+records); Whitelocke, <i>Memorials</i>, I, 436; II, 31, 44, 64, 196; III, 152.
+Innumerable other references could be added to prove this point. F. A.
+Inderwick in his <i>Interregnum</i> (London, 1891), 153, goes so far as to
+say that "from the autumn of 1642 to the autumn of 1646 no judges
+went the circuits." This seems rather a sweeping statement.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_201-2_108" id="Footnote_201-2_108"></a><a href="#FNanchor_201-2_108"><span class="label">[108]</span></a> See <i>The Examination, Confession</i>, etc. (London, 1645). Joan
+Williford, Joan Cariden, and Jane Hott were tried. The first two quickly
+confessed to the keeping of imps. Not so Jane Hott, who urged the others
+to confess and "stoode to it very perversely that she was cleare." When
+put to the swimming test she floated, and is said to have then declared
+that the Devil "had sat upon a Cross beame and laughed at her."
+Elizabeth Harris was examined, and gave some damaging evidence
+against herself. She named several goodwives who had very loose
+tongues.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_203-1_109" id="Footnote_203-1_109"></a><a href="#FNanchor_203-1_109"><span class="label">[109]</span></a> Stearne, 13, 14.</p></div>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2 class="chapter"><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+<h3 class="chapter2">Witchcraft during the Commonwealth and
+Protectorate.</h3>
+
+
+<p>We have, in the last chapter, traced the history of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>
+witchcraft in England through the Hopkins episode
+of 1645-1647. From the trials at Ely in the autumn of
+1647 to the discoveries at Berwick in the summer of
+1649 there was a lull in the witch alarms. Then an epidemic
+broke out in the north of England. We shall,
+in this chapter, describe that epidemic and shall carry
+the narrative of the important cases from that time to
+the Restoration. In doing this we shall mark off two
+periods, one from 1649 to 1653, when the executions
+were still numerous, and a second from 1653 to 1659
+when there was a rapid falling off, not only in death
+penalties for witchcraft, but even in accusations. To
+be sure, this division is somewhat artificial, for there
+was a gradual decline of the attack throughout the two
+periods, but the year 1653 more nearly than any other
+marks the year when that decline became visible.</p>
+
+<p>The epidemic of 1649 came from Scotland. Throughout
+the year the northern kingdom had been "infested."<a name="FNanchor_206-1_1" id="FNanchor_206-1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_206-1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>
+From one end of that realm to the other the witch fires
+had been burning. It was not to be supposed that they
+should be suddenly extinguished when they reached the
+border. In July the guild of Berwick had invited a
+Scotchman who had gained great fame as a "pricker"
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>to come to Berwick, and had promised him immunity
+from all violence.<a name="FNanchor_207-1_2" id="FNanchor_207-1_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_207-1_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> He came and proceeded to apply
+his methods of detection. They rested upon the assumption
+that a witch had insensible spots on her body,
+and that these could be found by driving in a pin. By
+such processes he discovered thirty witches, who were
+sent to gaol. Some of them made confessions but refused
+to admit that they had injured any one.<a name="FNanchor_207-2_3" id="FNanchor_207-2_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_207-2_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> On
+the contrary, they had assisted Cromwell, so some of
+the more ingenious of them claimed, at the battle of
+Preston.<a name="FNanchor_207-3_4" id="FNanchor_207-3_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_207-3_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> Whether this helped their case we do not
+know, for we are not told the outcome. It seems almost
+certain, however, that few, if any, of them suffered
+death. But the pricker went back to Scotland with
+thirty pounds, the arrangement having been that he
+was to receive twenty shillings a witch.</p>
+
+<p>He was soon called upon again. In December of the
+same year the town of Newcastle underwent a scare.
+Two citizens, probably serjeants, applied the test with
+such success that in March (1649/50) a body of citizens
+petitioned the common council that some definite
+steps be taken about the witches. The council accepted
+the suggestion and despatched two serjeants, doubtless
+the men already engaged in the work, to Scotland to
+engage the witch-pricker. He was brought to Newcastle
+with the definite contract that he was to have his
+passage going and coming and twenty shillings apiece
+for every witch he found. The magistrates did every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>thing
+possible to help him. On his arrival in Newcastle
+they sent the bellman through the town inviting
+every one to make complaints.<a name="FNanchor_208-1_5" id="FNanchor_208-1_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_208-1_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> In this business-like
+way they collected thirty women at the town hall,
+stripped them, and put them to the pricking test. This
+cruel, not to say indelicate, process was carried on with
+additions that must have proved highly diverting to the
+base-minded prickers and onlookers.<a name="FNanchor_208-2_6" id="FNanchor_208-2_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_208-2_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> Fourteen women
+and one man were tried (Gardiner says by the assizes)
+and found guilty. Without exception they asserted
+their innocence; but this availed not. In August of 1650
+they were executed on the town moor<a name="FNanchor_208-3_7" id="FNanchor_208-3_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_208-3_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> of Newcastle.<a name="FNanchor_208-4_8" id="FNanchor_208-4_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_208-4_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p>
+
+<p>The witchfinder continued his activities in the north,
+but a storm was rising against him. Henry Ogle,
+a late member of Parliament, caused him to be jailed
+and put under bond to answer the sessions.<a name="FNanchor_208-5_9" id="FNanchor_208-5_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_208-5_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> Unfortunately
+the man got away to Scotland, where he later
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>suffered death for his deeds, probably during the Cromwellian
+regime in that country.<a name="FNanchor_209-1_10" id="FNanchor_209-1_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_209-1_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p>
+
+<p>We have seen that Henry Ogle had driven the
+Scotch pricker out of the country. He participated in
+another witch affair during this same period which is
+quite as much to his credit. The children of George
+Muschamp, in Northumberland, had been troubled for
+two years (1645-1647) with strange convulsions.<a name="FNanchor_209-2_11" id="FNanchor_209-2_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_209-2_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> The
+family suspected Dorothy Swinow, who was the wife
+of Colonel Swinow. It seems that the colonel's wife
+had, at some time, spoken harshly to one of the children.
+No doubt the sick little girl heard what they said. At
+any rate her ravings began to take the form of accusations
+against the suspected woman. The family consulted
+John Hulton, "who could do more then God
+allowed," and he accused Colonel Swinow's wife. But
+unfortunately for him the child had been much better
+during his presence, and he too was suspected. The
+mother of the children now rode to a justice of the
+peace, who sent for Hulton, but not for Mistress
+Swinow. Then the woman appealed to the assizes, but
+the judge, "falsely informed," took no action. Mrs.
+Muschamp was persistent, and in the town of Berwick
+she was able, at length, to procure the arrest of the
+woman she feared. But Dorothy Swinow was not without
+friends, who interfered successfully in her behalf.
+Mrs. Muschamp now went to a "counsellor," who re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>fused
+to meddle with the matter, and then to a judge,
+who directed her to go to Durham. She did so and got
+a warrant; but it was not obeyed. She then procured
+a second warrant, and apparently succeeded in getting
+an indictment. But it did her little good: Dorothy
+Swinow was not apprehended.</p>
+
+<p>One can hardly refrain from smiling a little at the
+unhappy Mrs. Muschamp and her zealous assistants,
+the "physician" and the two clergymen. But her poor
+daughters grew worse, and the sick child, who had before
+seen angels in her convulsions, now saw the colonel's
+wife and cried out in her ravings against the remiss
+judge.<a name="FNanchor_210-1_12" id="FNanchor_210-1_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_210-1_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> The case is at once pathetic and amusing,
+but it has withal a certain significance. It was not only
+Mrs. Swinow's social position that saved her, though
+that doubtless carried weight. It was the reluctance of
+the north-country justices to follow up accusations.
+Not that they had done with trials. Two capital sentences
+at Durham and another at Gateshead, although
+perhaps after-effects of the Scotch pricker's activity,
+showed that the witch was still feared; but such cases
+were exceptions. In general, the cases resulted in acquittals.
+We shall see, in another chapter, that the
+discovery which alarmed Yorkshire and Northumberland
+in 1673 almost certainly had this outcome; and the
+cases tried at that time formed the last chapter in
+northern witchcraft.</p>
+
+<p>But, if hanging witches was not easy in the north,
+there were still districts in the southwest of England
+where it could be done, with few to say nay. Anne
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>Bodenham,<a name="FNanchor_211-1_13" id="FNanchor_211-1_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_211-1_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> of Fisherton Anger in Wiltshire, had not
+the social position of Dorothy Swinow, but she was the
+wife of a clothier who had lived "in good fashion,"
+and in her old age she taught children to read. She
+had, it seems, been in earlier life an apt pupil of Dr.
+Lambe, and had learned from him the practice of magic
+lore. She drew magic circles, saw visions of people in
+a glass, possessed numerous charms and incantations,
+and, above all, kept a wonderful magic book. She attempted
+to find lost money, to tell the future, and to
+cure disease; indeed, she had a varied repertoire of
+occult performances.</p>
+
+<p>Now, Mistress Bodenham did all these things for
+money and roused no antagonism in her community
+until she was unfortunate enough to have dealings with
+a maid-servant in a Wiltshire family. It is impossible
+to get behind the few hints given us by the cautious
+writer. The members of the family, evidently one of
+some standing in Wiltshire, became involved in a quarrel
+among themselves. It was believed, indeed, by
+neighbors that there had been a conspiracy on the part
+of some of the family to poison the mother-in-law. At
+all events, a maid in the family was imprisoned for participation
+in such a plot. It was then that Anne Bodenham
+first came into the story. The maid, to judge from
+the few data we have, in order to distract attention
+from her own doings, made a confession that she had
+signed a book of the Devil's with her own blood, all at
+the instigation of Anne Bodenham. Moreover, Anne,
+she said, had offered to send her to London in two
+hours. This was communicated to a justice of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>peace, who promptly took the accused woman into
+custody. The maid-servant, successful thus far, began
+to simulate fits and to lay the blame for them on Mistress
+Anne. Questioned as to what she conceived
+her condition, she replied, "Oh very damnable, very
+wretched." She could see the Devil, she said, on the
+housetop looking at her. These fancies passed as facts,
+and the accused woman was put to the usual humiliations.
+She was searched, examined, and urged to confess.
+The narrator of the story made effort after
+effort to wring from her an admission of her guilt, but
+she slipped out of all his traps. Against her accuser
+she was very bitter. "She hath undone me ... that
+am an honest woman, 'twill break my Husband's heart,
+he grieves to see me in these Irons: I did once live in
+good fashion."</p>
+
+<p>The case was turned over by the justices of the peace
+to the assizes at Salisbury, where Chief Baron John
+Wylde of the exchequer presided.<a name="FNanchor_212-1_14" id="FNanchor_212-1_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_212-1_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> The testimony
+of the maid was brought in, as well as the other proofs.<a name="FNanchor_212-2_15" id="FNanchor_212-2_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_212-2_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a>
+All we know of the trial is that Anne was condemned,
+and that Judge Wylde was so well satisfied with his
+work that he urged Edmund Bower, who had begun an
+account of the case, but had hesitated to expose himself
+to "this Censorious Age," to go on with his booklet.
+That detestable individual had followed the case closely.
+After the condemnation he labored with the woman to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>make her confess. But no acknowledgment of guilt
+could be wrung from the high-spirited Mistress Bodenham,
+even when the would-be father confessor held
+out to her the false hope of mercy. She made a will
+giving gifts to thirty people, declared she had been
+robbed by her maids in prison, lamented over her husband's
+sorrow, and requested that she be buried under
+the gallows. Like the McPherson who danced so wantonly
+and rantingly beneath the gallows tree, she remained
+brave-hearted to the end. When the officer told
+her she must go with him to the place of execution, she
+replied, "Be you ready, I am ready." The narrator
+closes the account with some moral reflections. We
+may close with the observation that there is no finer
+instance of womanly courage in the annals of witchcraft
+than that of Anne Bodenham. Doubtless she had
+used charms, and experimented with glasses; it had
+been done by those of higher rank than she.</p>
+
+<p>As for the maid, she had got herself well out of
+trouble. When Mistress Bodenham had been hanged,
+the fits ceased, and she professed great thankfulness
+to God and a desire to serve him.</p>
+
+<p>The case of Joan Peterson, who was tried at the
+Old Bailey in 1652, is another instance of the struggle
+of a spirited woman against too great odds. Joan, like
+Mistress Bodenham, kept various kinds of powders
+and prescribed physic for ailing neighbors.<a name="FNanchor_213-1_16" id="FNanchor_213-1_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_213-1_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> It was,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>however, if we may believe her defender, not on account
+of her prescriptions, but rather on account of her refusal
+to swear falsely, that her downfall came. One would
+be glad to know the name of the vigorous defender who
+after her execution issued <i>A Declaration in Answer to
+severall lying Pamphlets concerning the Witch of Wapping</i>.
+His narrative of the plot against the accused
+woman offers a plausible explanation of the affair and
+is not improbably trustworthy. As he tells the story,
+there were certain relatives of Lady Powell who had
+been disappointed that her estate had been bequeathed
+to Mrs. Anne Levingston. They conspired to get rid
+of the heiress, went to a cunning woman, and offered
+to pay her liberally if she would swear that Mrs. Levingston
+had used sorcery to take away the life of Lady
+Powell. Unfortunately for the conspirators, the cunning
+woman betrayed their schemes. Not discouraged,
+however, they employed another woman, who,
+as their representative, went to Joan Peterson and
+offered her a hundred pounds to swear that Mrs. Levingston
+had procured from her "certain powders and
+bags of seeds." Joan refused the proposition, and the
+plotters, fearing a second exposure of their plans, determined
+that Mistress Peterson should also be put
+out of the way. They were able to procure a warrant
+to have her arrested and searched. Great pressure
+was put upon her to confess enough to implicate Mrs.
+Levingston and she was given to understand that if she
+would do so she would herself be spared. But Joan
+refused their proffers and went to her trial. If the
+narrative may be at all trusted there was little effort
+to give her a fair hearing. Witnesses against her were
+purchased in advance, strangers were offered money<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>
+to testify against her, and those who were to have given
+evidence on her side were most of them intimidated
+into staying away from the trial. Four physicians and
+two surgeons signed a certificate that Lady Powell had
+died from perfectly natural causes. It was of no
+avail. Joan was convicted and died bravely, denying
+her guilt to the end.<a name="FNanchor_215-1_17" id="FNanchor_215-1_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_215-1_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> Her defender avers that some
+of the magistrates in the case were involved in the
+conspiracy against her. One of these was Sir John
+Danvers, a member of Cromwell's council. In the
+margin of his account the pamphleteer writes: "Sir
+John Danvers came and dined at the Sessions house
+and had much private discourse with the Recorder and
+many of the Justices and came and sate upon the Bench
+at her Trial, where he hath seldom or never been for
+these many years."</p>
+
+<p>In July of 1652 occurred another trial that attracted
+notice in its own time. Six Kentish women were tried
+at the assizes at Maidstone before Peter Warburton.<a name="FNanchor_215-2_18" id="FNanchor_215-2_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_215-2_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a>
+We know almost nothing of the evidence offered
+by the prosecution save that there was exhibited in the
+Swan Inn at Maidstone a piece of flesh which the
+Devil was said to have given to one of the accused,
+and that a waxen image of a little girl figured in the
+evidence. Some of the accused confessed that they had
+used it in order to kill the child. Search was instituted
+for it, and it was found, if the narrator may be trusted,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>under the door where the witches had said it would be.<a name="FNanchor_216-1_19" id="FNanchor_216-1_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_216-1_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a>
+The six were all condemned and suffered execution.
+Several others were arraigned, but probably escaped
+trial.</p>
+
+<p>If the age was as "censorious" of things of this
+nature as Edmund Bower had believed it to be, it is
+rather remarkable that "these proceedings," which
+were within a short distance of London, excited so little
+stir in that metropolis. Elias Ashmole, founder of
+the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford and delver in astrology,
+attended the trials, with John Tradescant,
+traveller and gardener.<a name="FNanchor_216-2_20" id="FNanchor_216-2_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_216-2_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> He left no comments. The
+<i>Faithful Scout</i>, in its issue of July 30-August 7, mentioned
+the trial and the confessions, but refrained from
+any expression of opinion.</p>
+
+<p>There were other trials in this period; but they must
+be passed over rapidly. The physicians were quite as
+busy as ever in suggesting witchcraft. We can detect
+the hand of a physician in the attribution of the
+strange illness of a girl who discharged great quantities
+of stones to the contrivance of Catherine Huxley,
+who was, in consequence, hanged at Worcester.<a name="FNanchor_216-3_21" id="FNanchor_216-3_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_216-3_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a>
+In a case at Exeter the physician was only indirectly
+responsible. When Grace Matthews had consulted him
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>about her husband's illness, he had apparently given up
+the case, and directed her to a wise woman.<a name="FNanchor_217-1_22" id="FNanchor_217-1_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_217-1_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> The wise
+woman had warned Mistress Matthews of a neighbor
+"tall of stature and of a pale face and blinking eye,"
+against whom it would be well to use certain prescribed
+remedies. Mrs. Matthews did so, and roused out the
+witch, who proved to be a butcher's wife, Joan Baker.
+When the witch found her spells thwarted, she turned
+them against Mrs. Matthews's maid-servant, who in
+consequence died. This was part of the evidence against
+Joan, and it was confirmed by her own kinsfolk: her
+father-in-law had seen her handling toads. She was
+committed, but we hear no more of the case.</p>
+
+<p>That random accusations were not feared as they had
+been was evidenced by the boldness of suspected parties
+in bringing action against their accusers, even if boldness
+was sometimes misjudged. We have two actions
+of this sort.</p>
+
+<p>Joan Read of Devizes had been reported to be a
+witch, and on that account had been refused by the
+bakers the privilege of using their bakeries for her
+dough.<a name="FNanchor_217-2_23" id="FNanchor_217-2_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_217-2_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> She threw down the glove to her accusers by
+demanding that they should be brought by warrant to
+accuse her. No doubt she realized that she had good
+support in her community, and that her challenge was
+not likely to be accepted. But a woman near Land's
+End in Cornwall seems to have overestimated the support
+upon which she could count. She had procured
+a warrant against her accusers to call the case before
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>the mayor. The court sided with the accusers and the
+woman was brought to trial. Caught herself, she proceeded
+to ensnare others. As a result, eight persons
+were sent to Launceston,<a name="FNanchor_218-1_24" id="FNanchor_218-1_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_218-1_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> and some probably suffered
+death.<a name="FNanchor_218-2_25" id="FNanchor_218-2_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_218-2_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p>
+
+<p>We have already seen what a tangled web Mrs. Muschamp
+wove when she set out to imprison a colonel's
+wife. It would be easy to cite cases to show the same reluctance
+to follow up prosecution. Four women at Leicester
+searched Ann Chettle and found no evidence of
+guilt.<a name="FNanchor_218-3_26" id="FNanchor_218-3_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_218-3_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> In Durham a case came up before Justice Henry
+Tempest.<a name="FNanchor_218-4_27" id="FNanchor_218-4_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_218-4_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> Mary Sykes was accused. Sara Rodes, a
+child, awakening from sleep in a fright, had declared to
+her mother that "Sikes' wife" had come in "att a hole
+att the bedd feete" and taken her by the throat. Of
+course Sara Rodes fell ill. Moreover, the witch had
+been seen riding at midnight on the back of a cow and
+at another time flying out of a "mistall windowe."
+But the woman, in spite of the unfavorable opinion of
+the women searchers, went free. There were cases
+that seem to have ended the same way at York, at
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>Leeds, and at Scarborough. They were hints of what
+we have already noticed, that the northern counties
+were changing their attitude.<a name="FNanchor_219-1_28" id="FNanchor_219-1_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_219-1_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> But a case in Derbyshire
+deserves more attention because the justice,
+Gervase Bennett, was one of the members of Cromwell's
+council. The case itself was not in any way unusual.
+A beggar woman, who had been liberally supported by
+those who feared her, was on trial for witchcraft. Because
+of Bennett's close relation to the government, we
+should be glad to know what he did with the case, but
+the fact that the woman's conviction is not among the
+records makes it probable that she was not bound over
+to the assizes.<a name="FNanchor_219-2_29" id="FNanchor_219-2_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_219-2_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p>
+
+<p>We come now to examine the second of the sub-periods
+into which we have divided the Interregnum.
+We have been dealing with the interval between the war
+and the establishment of the Protectorate, a time
+that shaded off from the dark shadows of internecine
+struggle towards the high light of steady peace and
+security. By 1653 the equilibrium of England had been
+restored. Cromwell's government was beginning to
+run smoothly. The courts were in full swing. None of
+those conditions to which we have attributed the spread
+of the witch alarms of the Civil Wars were any longer
+in operation. It is not surprising, then, that the Protectorate
+was one of the most quiet periods in the annals
+of witchcraft. While the years 1648-1653 had wit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>nessed
+thirty executions in England, the period of the
+Protectorate saw but half a dozen, and three of these
+fell within the somewhat disturbed rule of Richard
+Cromwell.<a name="FNanchor_220-1_30" id="FNanchor_220-1_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_220-1_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> In other words, there was a very marked
+falling off of convictions for witchcraft, a falling off
+that had indeed begun before the year 1653. Yet this
+diminution of capital sentences does not by any means
+signify that the realm was rid of superstition. In Middlesex,
+in Somerset and Devon, in York, Northumberland,
+and Cumberland, the attack upon witches on the
+part of the people was going on with undiminished
+vigor. If no great discoveries were made, if no nests
+of the pestilent creatures were unearthed, the justices
+of the peace were kept quite as busy with examinations
+as ever before.</p>
+
+<p>To be sure, an analysis of cases proves that a larger
+proportion of those haled to court were light offenders,
+"good witches" whose healing arts had perhaps been
+unsuccessful, dealers in magic who had aroused envy
+or fear. The court records of Middlesex and York
+are full of complaints against the professional enchanters.
+In most instances they were dismissed. Now
+and then a woman was sent to the house of correction,<a name="FNanchor_220-2_31" id="FNanchor_220-2_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_220-2_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a>
+but even this punishment was the exception.</p>
+
+<p>Two other kinds of cases appeared with less frequency.
+We have one very clear instance at Wakefield,
+in York, where a quarrel between two tenant farmers
+over their highway rights became so bitter that a chance
+threat uttered by the loser of the lawsuit, "It shall be
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>a dear day's work for you," occasioned an accusation
+of witchcraft.<a name="FNanchor_221-1_32" id="FNanchor_221-1_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_221-1_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> In another instance the debt of a
+penny seems to have been the beginning of a hatred
+between two impecunious creatures, and this brought
+on a charge.<a name="FNanchor_221-2_33" id="FNanchor_221-2_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_221-2_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p>
+
+<p>The most common type of case, of course, was that
+where strange disease or death played a part. In Yorkshire,
+in Hertfordshire, and in Cornwall there were
+trials based upon a sort of evidence with which the
+reader is already quite familiar. It was easy for the
+morbid mother of a dead child to recall or imagine
+angry words spoken to her shortly before the death of
+her offspring. It was quite as natural for a sick child
+to be alarmed at the sight of a visitor and go into
+spasms. There was no fixed rule, however, governing the
+relation of the afflicted children and the possible witches.
+When William Wade was named, Elizabeth Mallory
+would fly into fits.<a name="FNanchor_221-3_34" id="FNanchor_221-3_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_221-3_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> When Jane Brooks entered the
+room, a bewitched youth of Chard would become hysterical.<a name="FNanchor_221-4_35" id="FNanchor_221-4_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_221-4_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a>
+It was the opposite way with a victim in Exeter,<a name="FNanchor_221-5_36" id="FNanchor_221-5_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_221-5_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a>
+who remained well only so long as the witch who
+caused the trouble stayed with him.<a name="FNanchor_221-6_37" id="FNanchor_221-6_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_221-6_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a></p>
+
+<p>Closely related to these types of evidence was what
+has been denominated spectral evidence, a form of evidence
+recurrent throughout the history of English
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>witchcraft. In the time of the Protectorate we have
+at least three cases of the kind. The accused woman appeared
+to the afflicted individual now in her own form,
+again in other shapes, as a cat, as a bee, or as a dog.<a name="FNanchor_222-1_38" id="FNanchor_222-1_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_222-1_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> The
+identification of a particular face in the head of a bee
+must have been a matter of some difficulty, but there
+is no ground for supposing that any objection was
+made to this evidence in court. At all events, the testimony
+went down on the official records in Yorkshire.
+In Somerset the Jane Brooks case,<a name="FNanchor_222-2_39" id="FNanchor_222-2_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_222-2_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> already referred
+to, called forth spectral evidence in a form that must
+really have been very convincing. When the bewitched
+boy cried out that he saw the witch on the wall, his
+cousin struck at the place, upon which the boy cried
+out, "O Father, Coz Gibson hath cut Jane Brooks's
+hand, and 'tis bloody." Now, according to the story,
+the constable proceeded to the woman's house and
+found her hand cut.</p>
+
+<p>As to the social status of the people involved in the
+Protectorate trials there is little to say, other than
+has been said of many earlier cases. By far the larger
+number of those accused, as we have already pointed
+out, were charmers and enchanters, people who made a
+penny here and twopence there, but who had at best
+a precarious existence. Some of them, no doubt, traded
+on the fear they inspired in their communities and begged
+now a loaf of bread and now a pot of beer. They
+were the same people who, when begging and enchanting
+failed, resorted to stealing.<a name="FNanchor_222-3_40" id="FNanchor_222-3_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_222-3_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> In one of the Yorkshire
+depositions we have perhaps a hint of another
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>class from which the witches were recruited. Katherine
+Earle struck a Mr. Frank between the shoulders
+and said, "You are a pretty gentleman; will you kisse
+me?" When the man happened to die this solicitation
+assumed a serious aspect.<a name="FNanchor_223-1_41" id="FNanchor_223-1_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_223-1_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a></p>
+
+<p>Witchcraft was indeed so often the outcome of lower-class
+bickering that trials involving the upper classes
+seem worthy of special record. During the Protectorate
+there were two rather remarkable trials. In
+1656 William and Mary Wade were accused of bewitching
+the fourteen-year-old daughter of Elizabeth
+Mallory of Studley Hall. The Mallorys were a prominent
+family in Yorkshire. The grandfather of the
+accusing child had been a member of Parliament and
+was a well known Royalist colonel. When Mistress
+Elizabeth declared that her fits would not cease until
+Mary Wade had said that she had done her wrong,
+Mary Wade was persuaded to say the words. Elizabeth
+was well at once, but Mary withdrew her admission
+and Elizabeth resumed her fits, indeed "she was
+paste holdinge, her extreamaty was such." She now
+demanded that the two Wades should be imprisoned,
+and when they were "both in holde" she became well
+again. They were examined by a justice of the peace,
+but were probably let off.<a name="FNanchor_223-2_42" id="FNanchor_223-2_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_223-2_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a></p>
+
+<p>The story of Diana Crosse at Exeter is a more pathetic
+one. Mrs. Crosse had once kept a girls' school&mdash;could
+it be that there was some connection between
+teaching and witchcraft?<a name="FNanchor_223-3_43" id="FNanchor_223-3_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_223-3_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a>&mdash;had met with misfortune,
+and had at length been reduced to beggary. We have
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>no means of knowing whether the suspicion of witchcraft
+antedated her extreme poverty or not, but it seems
+quite clear that the former school-teacher had gained
+an ill name in the community. She resented bitterly
+the attitude of the people, and at one time seems to have
+appealed to the mayor. It was perhaps by this very
+act that she focussed the suspicion of her neighbors.
+To go over the details of the trial is not worth while.
+Diana Crosse probably escaped execution to eke out
+the remainder of her life in beggary.<a name="FNanchor_224-1_44" id="FNanchor_224-1_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_224-1_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a></p>
+
+<p>The districts of England affected by the delusion during
+this period have already been indicated. While
+there were random cases in Suffolk, Hertfordshire,
+Wiltshire, Somerset, Cumberland, and Northumberland,
+by far the greatest activity seems to have been
+in Middlesex, Cornwall, and Yorkshire. To a layman
+it looks as if the north of England had produced the
+greater part of its folk-lore. Certain it is that the
+witch stories of Yorkshire, as those of Lancaster at
+another time, by their mysterious and romantic elements
+made the trials of the south seem flat, stale, and
+unprofitable. Yet they rarely had as serious results.</p>
+
+<p>To the historian the Middlesex cases must be more
+interesting because they should afford some index of
+the attitude of the central government. Unhappily we
+do not know the fate of the Yorkshire witches, though
+it has been surmised, in the absence of evidence to the
+contrary, that they all escaped execution.<a name="FNanchor_224-2_45" id="FNanchor_224-2_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_224-2_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> In Middle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>sex
+we know that during this period only one woman,
+so far as our extant records go, was adjudged guilty.
+All the rest were let go free. Now, this may be significant
+and it may not. It does not seem unreasonable
+to suppose that the Middlesex quarter sessions were in
+harmony with the central government. Yet this can
+be no more than a guess. It is not easy to take bearings
+which will locate the position of the Cromwellian
+government. The protector himself was occupied with
+weightier matters, and, so far as we know, never uttered
+a word on the subject. He was almost certainly
+responsible for the pardon of Margaret Gyngell at
+Salisbury in 1655,<a name="FNanchor_225-1_46" id="FNanchor_225-1_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_225-1_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> yet we cannot be sure that he was
+not guided in that case by special circumstances as well
+as by the recommendation of subordinates.</p>
+
+<p>We have but little more evidence as to the attitude of
+his council of state. It was three years before the Protectorate
+was put into operation that the hesitating
+sheriff of Cumberland, who had some witches on his
+hands, was authorized to go ahead and carry out the
+law.<a name="FNanchor_225-2_47" id="FNanchor_225-2_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_225-2_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> But on the other hand it was in the same period
+that the English commissioners in Scotland put a
+quietus on the witch alarms in that kingdom. In fact,
+one of their first acts was to take over the accused
+women from the church courts and demand the proof
+against them.<a name="FNanchor_225-3_48" id="FNanchor_225-3_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_225-3_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> When it was found that they had been
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span>tortured into confessions, the commission resolved upon
+an enquiry into the conduct of the sheriff, ministers,
+and tormentors who had been involved. Several women
+had been accused. Not one was condemned. The matter
+was referred to the council of state, where it seems
+likely that the action of the commissioners was ratified.
+Seven or eight years later, in the administration of
+Richard Cromwell, there was an instance where the
+council, apparently of its own initiative, ordered a
+party of soldiers to arrest a Rutlandshire witch. The
+case was, however, dismissed later.<a name="FNanchor_226-1_49" id="FNanchor_226-1_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_226-1_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a></p>
+
+<p>To draw a definite conclusion from these bits of evidence
+would be rash. We can perhaps reason somewhat
+from the general attitude of the government.
+Throughout the Protectorate there was a tendency,
+which Cromwell encouraged, to mollify the rigor of the
+criminal law. Great numbers of pardons were issued;
+and when Whitelocke suggested that no offences should
+be capital except murder, treason, and rebellion, no one
+arose in holy horror to point out the exception of
+witchcraft,<a name="FNanchor_226-2_50" id="FNanchor_226-2_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_226-2_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> and the suggestion, though never acted
+upon, was favorably considered.<a name="FNanchor_226-3_51" id="FNanchor_226-3_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_226-3_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a></p>
+
+<p>When we consider this general attitude towards crime
+in connection with what we have already indicated
+about the rapid decline in numbers of witch convictions,
+it seems a safe guess that the Cromwellian government,
+while not greatly interested in witchcraft, was, so far
+as interested, inclined towards leniency.</p>
+
+<hr class="foot" />
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_206-1_1" id="Footnote_206-1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_206-1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Whitelocke, <i>Memorials</i>, III, 63, 97, 99, 113.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_207-1_2" id="Footnote_207-1_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_207-1_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> See an extract from the Guild Hall Books in John Fuller, <i>History
+of Berwick</i> (Edinburgh, 1799), 155-156.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_207-2_3" id="Footnote_207-2_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_207-2_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Thomas Widdrington's letter to Whitelocke (Whitelocke, <i>Memorials</i>,
+III, 99). Widdrington said the man professed himself "an artist that
+way." The writer was evidently somewhat skeptical.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_207-3_4" id="Footnote_207-3_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_207-3_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_208-1_5" id="Footnote_208-1_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_208-1_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Ralph Gardiner, <i>England's Grievance Discovered in Relation to the
+Coal Trade</i> (London, 1655), 108.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_208-2_6" id="Footnote_208-2_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_208-2_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_208-3_7" id="Footnote_208-3_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_208-3_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> See John Brand, <i>History and Antiquities of ... Newcastle</i> (London,
+1789), II, 478, or the <i>Chronicon Mirabile</i> (London, 1841), 92, for
+an extract from the parish registers, giving the names. A witch of
+rural Northumberland was executed with them.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_208-4_8" id="Footnote_208-4_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_208-4_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> The witches of 1649 were not confined to the north. Two are said
+to have been executed at St. Albans, a man and a woman; one woman
+was tried in Worcestershire, one at Gloucester, and two in Middlesex.
+John Palmer and Elizabeth Knott, who suffered at St. Albans,
+had gained some notoriety. Palmer had contracted with the Devil and
+had persuaded his kinswoman to assist him in procuring the death of a
+woman by the use of clay pictures. Both were probably practitioners
+in magic. Palmer, even when in prison, claimed the power of transforming
+men into beasts. The woman seems to have been put to the
+swimming test. Both were condemned. Palmer, at his execution, gave
+information about a "whole colledge of witches," most of them, no
+doubt, practisers like himself, but his random accusations were probably
+passed over. See <i>The Divels Delusions or A faithfull relation
+of John Palmer and Elizabeth Knott ...</i> (1649).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_208-5_9" id="Footnote_208-5_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_208-5_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Ralph Gardiner, <i>op. cit.</i>, 109.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_209-1_10" id="Footnote_209-1_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_209-1_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> See <i>ibid.</i> At his execution, Gardiner says, he confessed that he had
+been the death of 220 witches in Scotland and England. Either the
+man was guilty of unseemly and boastful lying, which is very likely,
+or Scotland was indeed badly "infested." See above, note 1.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_209-2_11" id="Footnote_209-2_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_209-2_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> This narrative is contained in <i>Wonderfull News from the North,
+Or a True Relation of the Sad and Grievous Torments Inflicted upon ... three
+Children of Mr. George Muschamp ...</i> (London, 1650).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_210-1_12" id="Footnote_210-1_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_210-1_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> The story of the case was sent down to London and there published,
+where it soon became a classic among the witch-believing clergy.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_211-1_13" id="Footnote_211-1_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_211-1_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> See the two pamphlets by Edmond Bower described below in appendix
+A, § 5, and Henry More, <i>Antidote against Atheisme</i>, bk. III,
+ch. VII.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_212-1_14" id="Footnote_212-1_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_212-1_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Wylde was not well esteemed as a judge. On the institution of the
+protectorate he was not reappointed by Cromwell.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_212-2_15" id="Footnote_212-2_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_212-2_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Aubrey (who had it from an eye-witness) tells us that "the
+crowd of spectators made such a noise that the judge could not heare
+the prisoner, nor the prisoner the judge; but the words were handed
+from one to the other by Mr. R. Chandler and sometimes not truly repeated."
+John Aubrey, <i>Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme ...</i>
+(ed. J. Britten, <i>Folk Lore Soc. Publications</i>, IV, 1881), 261.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_213-1_16" id="Footnote_213-1_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_213-1_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> For the case see <i>The Tryall and Examinations of Mrs. Joan Peterson ...</i>;
+<i>The Witch of Wapping, or an Exact ... Relation of
+the ... Practises
+of Joan Peterson ...</i>; <i>A Declaration in Answer to severall
+lying Pamphlets concerning the Witch of Wapping ...</i>, (as to these
+pamphlets, all printed at London in 1652, see below, appendix A, § 5);
+<i>French Intelligencer</i>, April 6-13, 1652; <i>Weekly Intelligencer</i>, April 6-13,
+1652; <i>The Faithful Scout</i>, April 9-16, 1652; <i>Mercurius Democritus</i>, April
+7-17, 1652.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_215-1_17" id="Footnote_215-1_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_215-1_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> The <i>French Intelligencer</i> tells us the story of her execution: "She
+seemed to be much dejected, having a melancholy aspect; she seemed
+not to be much above 40 years of age, and was not in the least outwardly
+deformed, as those kind of creatures usually are."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_215-2_18" id="Footnote_215-2_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_215-2_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> For an account of this affair see <i>A Prodigious and Tragicall History
+of the ... Condemnation of six Witches at Maidstone ...</i> (London,
+1652).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_216-1_19" id="Footnote_216-1_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_216-1_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> It was "supposed," says the narrator, that nine children, besides
+a man and a woman, had suffered at their hands, Ł500 worth of cattle
+had been lost, and much corn wrecked at sea. Two of the women made
+confession, but not to these things.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_216-2_20" id="Footnote_216-2_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_216-2_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> See Ashmole's diary as given in Charles Burman, <i>Lives of Elias
+Ashmole, Esq., and Mr. William Lilly, written by themselves ...</i> (London,
+1774), 316.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_216-3_21" id="Footnote_216-3_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_216-3_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> In his <i>Certainty of the World of Spirits</i> (London, 1691), 44, 45,
+Richard Baxter, who is by no means absolutely reliable, tells us about
+this case. It should be understood that it is only a guess of the writer
+that the physician was to blame for the accusation; but it much resembles
+other cases where the physician started the trouble.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_217-1_22" id="Footnote_217-1_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_217-1_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> William Cotton, <i>Gleanings from the Municipal and Cathedral Records
+Relative to the History of the City of Exeter</i> (Exeter, 1877),
+149-150.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_217-2_23" id="Footnote_217-2_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_217-2_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> <i>Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports, Various</i>, I, 127.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_218-1_24" id="Footnote_218-1_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_218-1_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> <i>Mercurius Politicus</i>, November 24-December 2, 1653. One of these
+witches was perhaps the one mentioned as from Launceston in Cornwall
+in R. and O. B. Peter, <i>The Histories of Launceston and Dunheved</i>
+(Plymouth, 1885), 285: "the grave in w<sup>ch</sup> the wich was buryed."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_218-2_25" id="Footnote_218-2_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_218-2_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Richard Burthogge, <i>An Essay upon Reason and the Nature of
+Spirits</i> (London, 1694), 196, writes that he has the confessions in MS.
+of "a great number of Witches (some of which were Executed) that
+were taken by a Justice of Peace in Cornwall above thirty Years agoe."
+It does not seem impossible that this is a reference to the same affair
+as that mentioned by the Launceston record.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_218-3_26" id="Footnote_218-3_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_218-3_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> <i>Leicestershire and Rutland Notes and Queries</i> (Leicester, 1891,
+etc.), I, 247.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_218-4_27" id="Footnote_218-4_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_218-4_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> James Raine, ed., <i>A Selection from the Depositions in Criminal
+Cases taken before the Northern Magistrates, from the Originals preserved
+in York Castle</i> (Surtees Soc., no. 40, 1861), 28-30. Cited hereafter
+as <i>York Depositions</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_219-1_28" id="Footnote_219-1_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_219-1_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Yet in 1650 there had been a scare at Gateshead which cost the rate
+payers Ł2, of which a significant item was 6 d. for a "grave for a
+witch." <i>Denham Tracts</i> (Folk Lore Soc.), II, 338. At Durham, in
+1652, two persons were executed. Richardson, <i>Table Book</i> (London,
+1841), I, 286.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_219-2_29" id="Footnote_219-2_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_219-2_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> J. C. Cox, <i>Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals</i> (London, 1890),
+II, 88. Cox, however, thinks it probable that she was punished.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_220-1_30" id="Footnote_220-1_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_220-1_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> It is of course not altogether safe to reason from the absence of
+recorded executions, and it is least safe in the time of the Civil Wars
+and the years of recovery.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_220-2_31" id="Footnote_220-2_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_220-2_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> <i>Middlesex County Records</i>, ed. by J. C. Jeaffreson (London, 1892),
+III, 295; <i>Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports, Various</i>, I, 129.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_221-1_32" id="Footnote_221-1_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_221-1_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> <i>York Depositions</i>, 74.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_221-2_33" id="Footnote_221-2_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_221-2_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> <i>Hertfordshire County Sessions Rolls</i>, compiled by W. J. Hardy (Hertford,
+1905), I, 126. It is not absolutely certain in the second case that the
+committal was to the house of correction.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_221-3_34" id="Footnote_221-3_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_221-3_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> <i>York Depositions</i>, 76-77.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_221-4_35" id="Footnote_221-4_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_221-4_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> Joseph Glanvill, <i>Sadducismus Triumphatus</i> (London, 1681), pt.
+ii, 122.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_221-5_36" id="Footnote_221-5_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_221-5_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> Cotton, <i>Gleanings ... relative to the History of ... Exeter</i>, 152.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_221-6_37" id="Footnote_221-6_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_221-6_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> In the famous Warboys case of 1593 it was the witch's presence
+that relieved the bewitched of their ailments.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_222-1_38" id="Footnote_222-1_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_222-1_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> <i>York Depositions</i>, 64-67.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_222-2_39" id="Footnote_222-2_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_222-2_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> Glanvill, <i>Sadducismus Triumphatus</i>, pt. ii, 120-121.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_222-3_40" id="Footnote_222-3_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_222-3_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> <i>Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports, Various</i>, I, 120.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_223-1_41" id="Footnote_223-1_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_223-1_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> <i>York Depositions</i>, 69.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_223-2_42" id="Footnote_223-2_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_223-2_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 75-78.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_223-3_43" id="Footnote_223-3_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_223-3_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> See the story of Anne Bodenham.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_224-1_44" id="Footnote_224-1_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_224-1_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> Cotton, <i>Gleanings ... Relative to the History of ... Exeter</i>, 150-152.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_224-2_45" id="Footnote_224-2_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_224-2_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> James Raine, editor of <i>York Depositions</i>, writes that he has found no
+instance of the conviction of a witch. Preface, xxx. <i>The Criminal
+Chronology of York Castle, with a Register of Criminals capitally Convicted
+and Executed</i> (York, 1867), contains not a single execution for
+witchcraft.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_225-1_46" id="Footnote_225-1_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_225-1_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> Inderwick, <i>Interregnum</i>, 188-189.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_225-2_47" id="Footnote_225-2_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_225-2_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> <i>Cal. St. P., Dom.</i>, 1650, 159.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_225-3_48" id="Footnote_225-3_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_225-3_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> There are several secondary accounts of this affair. See F. Legge in
+<i>Scottish Review</i>, XVIII, 267. But a most important primary source
+is a letter from Clarke to Speaker Lenthall, published by the Scottish
+History Society in its volume on <i>Scotland and the Commonwealth</i> (Edinburgh,
+1895), 367-369. See also a tract in Brit. Mus. Thomason collection,
+<i>Two Terrible Sea Fights</i> (London, 1652). See, too, the words
+of Thomas Ady, <i>A Candle in the Dark</i>, 105.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_226-1_49" id="Footnote_226-1_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_226-1_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> <i>Cal. St. P., Dom., 1658-1659</i>, 169.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_226-2_50" id="Footnote_226-2_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_226-2_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> When the council of state, however, in 1652 had issued an act of
+general pardon, witchcraft had been specifically reserved, along with
+murder, treason, piracy, etc. <i>Cal. St. P., Dom., 1651-1652</i>, 106.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_226-3_51" id="Footnote_226-3_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_226-3_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> Inderwick, <i>Interregnum</i>, 231.</p></div>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2 class="chapter"><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+<h3 class="chapter2">The Literature of Witchcraft from 1603 to 1660.</h3>
+
+
+<p>No small part of our story has been devoted to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span>
+writings of Scot, Gifford, Harsnett, and King James.
+It is impossible to understand the significance of the
+prosecutions without some acquaintance with the course
+of opinion on the subject. In this chapter we shall go
+back as far as the opening of the reign of James and
+follow up to the end of the Commonwealth the special
+discussions of witchcraft, as well as some of the more
+interesting incidental references. It will be recalled that
+James's <i>Dćmonologie</i> had come out several years before
+its author ascended the English throne. With the coming
+of the Scottish king to Westminster the work was republished
+at London. But, while James by virtue of
+his position was easily first among those who were
+writing on the subject, he by no means occupied the
+stage alone. Not less than four other men gained a
+hearing within the reign and for that reason deserve
+consideration. They were Perkins, Cotta, Roberts,
+and Cooper.</p>
+
+<p>William Perkins's <i>Discourse of the Damned Art
+of Witchcraft</i> came first in order, indeed it was written
+during the last years of Elizabeth's reign; but it was
+not published until 1608, six years after the author's
+death.<a name="FNanchor_227-1_1" id="FNanchor_227-1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_227-1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> William Perkins was a fellow of Christ's College
+at Cambridge and an eminent preacher in that uni<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>versity.
+He holds a high place among Puritan divines.
+His sermons may still be found in the libraries of older
+clergymen and citations from them are abundant in
+commentaries. It was in the course of one of his university
+sermons that he took up the matter of witchcraft.
+In what year this sermon was preached cannot
+definitely be said. That he seems to have read Scot,<a name="FNanchor_228-1_2" id="FNanchor_228-1_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_228-1_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>
+that however he does not mention King James's book,<a name="FNanchor_228-2_3" id="FNanchor_228-2_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_228-2_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a>
+are data which lead us to guess that he may have uttered
+the discourse between 1584 and 1597. His point of
+view was strictly theological and his convictions
+grounded&mdash;as might be expected&mdash;upon scriptural
+texts. Yet it seems not unfair to suppose that he was
+an exponent of opinion at Cambridge, where we have
+already seen evidences of strong faith in the reality
+of witchcraft. It seems no less likely that a perusal
+of Reginald Scot's <i>Discoverie</i> prompted the sermon.
+Witches nowadays, he admitted, have their patrons.
+His argument for the existence of witches was so
+thoroughly biblical that we need not go over it. He
+did not, however, hold to all current conceptions of
+them. The power of the evil one to transform human
+beings into other shapes he utterly repudiated. The
+scratching of witches<a name="FNanchor_228-3_4" id="FNanchor_228-3_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_228-3_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> and the testing of them by
+water he thought of no value.<a name="FNanchor_228-4_5" id="FNanchor_228-4_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_228-4_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> In this respect it will
+be seen that he was in advance of his royal contempor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span>ary.
+About the bodily marks, the significance of which
+James so emphasized, Perkins seems to have been less
+decided. He believed in the death penalty,<a name="FNanchor_229-1_6" id="FNanchor_229-1_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_229-1_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> but he
+warned juries to be very careful as to evidence.<a name="FNanchor_229-2_7" id="FNanchor_229-2_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_229-2_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a>
+Evidence based upon the accusations of "good
+witches," upon the statements of the dying, or upon the
+charges of those who had suffered ill after threats, he
+thought ought to be used with great caution. It is evident
+that Perkins&mdash;though he doubtless would not have
+admitted it himself&mdash;was affected by the reading of
+Scot. Yet it is disappointing to find him condoning
+the use of torture<a name="FNanchor_229-3_8" id="FNanchor_229-3_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_229-3_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> in extreme instances.<a name="FNanchor_229-4_9" id="FNanchor_229-4_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_229-4_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p>
+
+<p>A Cambridge man who wrote about a score of years
+after Perkins put forth opinions a good deal farther
+advanced. John Cotta was a "Doctor in Physicke" at
+Northampton who had taken his B. A. at Cambridge
+in 1595, his M. A. the following year, and his M. D. in
+1603. Nine years after leaving Cambridge he had published
+<i>A Short Discoverie of the Unobserved Dangers</i>,
+in which he had devoted a very thoughtful chapter to
+the relation between witchcraft and sickness. In 1616
+he elaborated his notions in <i>The Triall of Witchcraft</i>,<a name="FNanchor_229-5_10" id="FNanchor_229-5_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_229-5_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span>published at London. Like Perkins he disapproved
+of the trial by water.<a name="FNanchor_230-1_11" id="FNanchor_230-1_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_230-1_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> He discredited, too, the evidence
+of marks, but believed in contracts with the Devil, and
+cited as illustrious instances the cases of Merlin and
+"that infamous woman," Joan of Arc.<a name="FNanchor_230-2_12" id="FNanchor_230-2_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_230-2_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> But his point
+of view was of course mainly that of a medical man.
+A large number of accusations of witchcraft were due
+to the want of medical examination. Many so-called
+possessions could be perfectly diagnosed by a physician.
+He referred to a case where the supposed witches had
+been executed and their victim had nevertheless fallen
+ill again.<a name="FNanchor_230-3_13" id="FNanchor_230-3_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_230-3_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> Probably this was the case of Mistress
+Belcher, on whose account two women had been hanged
+at Northampton.<a name="FNanchor_230-4_14" id="FNanchor_230-4_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_230-4_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p>
+
+<p>Yet Cotta believed that there were real witches and
+arraigned Scot for failing to distinguish the impostors
+from the true.<a name="FNanchor_230-5_15" id="FNanchor_230-5_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_230-5_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> It was indeed, he admitted, very hard
+to discover, except by confession; and even confession,
+as he had pointed out in his first work, might be a
+"meane, poore and uncertain proofe," because of the
+Devil's power to induce false confession.<a name="FNanchor_230-6_16" id="FNanchor_230-6_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_230-6_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> Here the
+theologian&mdash;it was hard for a seventeenth-century
+writer not to be a theologian&mdash;was cropping out. But
+the scientific spirit came to the front again when he
+made the point that imagination was too apt to color
+observations made upon bewitched and witch.<a name="FNanchor_230-7_17" id="FNanchor_230-7_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_230-7_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> The
+suggestion that coincidence explained many of the alleged<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>
+fulfillments of witch predictions<a name="FNanchor_231-1_18" id="FNanchor_231-1_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_231-1_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> was equally in
+advance of his times.</p>
+
+<p>How, then, were real cases of bewitchment to be
+recognized? The best assurance on such matters, Cotta
+answered, came "whensoever ... the Physicion shall
+truely discover a manifest transcending power."<a name="FNanchor_231-2_19" id="FNanchor_231-2_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_231-2_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> In
+other words, the Northampton physician believed that
+his own profession could best determine these vexed
+matters. One who has seen the sorry part played by the
+physicians up to this time can hardly believe that their
+judgment on this point was saner than that of men in
+other professions. It may even be questioned if they
+were more to be depended upon than the so superstitious
+clergy.</p>
+
+<p>In the same year as Cotta's second book, Alexander
+Roberts, "minister of God's word at King's Lynn" in
+Norfolk, brought out <i>A Treatise of Witchcraft</i> as a
+sort of introduction to his account of the trial of Mary
+Smith of that town and as a justification of her punishment.
+The work is merely a restatement of the conventional
+theology of that time as applied to witches,
+exactly such a presentation of it as was to be expected
+from an up-country parson who had read Reginald
+Scot, and could wield the Scripture against him.<a name="FNanchor_231-3_20" id="FNanchor_231-3_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_231-3_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p>
+
+<p>The following year saw the publication of a work
+equally theological, <i>The Mystery of Witchcraft</i>, by the
+Reverend Thomas Cooper, who felt that his part in dis<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span>covering
+"the practise of Anti-Christ in that hellish
+Plot of the Gunpowder-treason" enabled him to bring
+to light other operations of the Devil. He had indeed
+some experience in this work,<a name="FNanchor_232-1_21" id="FNanchor_232-1_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_232-1_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> as well as some acquaintance
+with the writers on the subject. But he
+adds nothing to the discussion unless it be the coupling
+of the disbelief in witchcraft with the "Atheisme
+and Irreligion that overflows the land." Five years
+later the book was brought out again under another
+title, <i>Sathan transformed into an Angell of Light, ...
+[ex]emplified specially in the Doctrine of Witchcraft</i>.</p>
+
+<p>In the account of the trials for witchcraft in the reign
+of James I the divorce case of the Countess of Essex
+was purposely omitted, because in it the question of
+witchcraft was after all a subordinate matter. In the
+history of opinion, however, the views about witchcraft
+expressed by the court that passed upon the divorce
+can by no means be ignored. It is not worth while to
+rehearse the malodorous details of that singular affair.
+The petitioner for divorce made the claim that her husband
+was unable to consummate the marriage with her
+and left it to be inferred that he was bewitched. It will
+be remembered that King James, anxious to further the
+plans of his favorite, Carr, was too willing to have the
+marriage annulled and brought great pressure to bear
+upon the members of the court. Archbishop Abbot
+from the beginning of the trial showed himself unfavorable
+to the petition of the countess, and James
+deemed it necessary to resolve his doubts on the general
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>grounds of the divorce.<a name="FNanchor_233-1_22" id="FNanchor_233-1_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_233-1_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> On the matter of witchcraft
+in particular the king wrote: "for as sure as God is,
+there be Devils, and some Devils must have some power,
+and their power is in this world.... That the Devil's
+power is not so universal against us, that I freely confess;
+but that it is utterly restrained <i>quoad nos</i>, how
+was then a minister of Geneva bewitched to death, and
+were the witches daily punished by our law. If they
+can harm none but the papists, we are too charitable
+for avenging of them only." This was James's opinion
+in 1613, and it is worthy of note that he was much less
+certain of his ground and much more on the defensive
+about witchcraft than the author of the <i>Dćmonologie</i>
+had been. It can hardly be doubted that he had already
+been affected by the more liberal views of the ecclesiastics
+who surrounded him. Archbishop Bancroft,
+who had waged through his chaplain the war on the
+exorcists, was not long dead. That chaplain was now
+Bishop of Chichester and soon to become Archbishop
+of York. It would be strange if James had not been
+affected to some degree by their opinions. Moreover,
+by this time he had begun his career as a discoverer of
+impostors.</p>
+
+<p>The change in the king's position must, however,
+not be overrated. He maintained his belief in witches
+and seemed somewhat apprehensive lest others should
+doubt it. Archbishop Abbot, whom he was trying
+to win over to the divorce, would not have denied
+James's theories, but he was exceedingly cautious
+in his own use of the term <i>maleficium</i>. Abbot was
+wholly familiar with the history of the Anglican atti<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span>tude
+towards exorcism. There can be little doubt that
+he was in sympathy with the policy of his predecessor.
+It is therefore interesting to read his carefully worded
+statement as to the alleged bewitchment of the Earl of
+Essex. In his speech defending his refusal and that
+of three colleagues to assent to the divorce, he wrote:
+"One of my lords (my lord of Winchester) hath avowed
+it, that he dislikes that <i>maleficium</i>; that he hath read
+Del Rio, the Jesuit, writing upon that argument, and
+doth hold him an idle and fabulous fellow.... Another
+of my lords (my lord of Ely) hath assented thereunto,
+and <i>maleficium</i> must be gone. Now I for my part will
+not absolutely deny that witches by God's permission
+may have a power over men, to hurt all, or part in them,
+as by God they shall be limited; but how shall it appear
+that this is such a thing in the person of a man."
+This was not, of course, an expression of disbelief in
+the reality or culpability of witchcraft. It was an expression
+of great reluctance to lay much stress upon
+charges of witchcraft&mdash;an expression upon the part of
+the highest ecclesiastical authority in England.</p>
+
+<p>In the reign of Charles I prior to the Civil Wars we
+have to analyze but a single contribution to the literature
+of our subject, that made by Richard Bernard. Bernard
+had preached in Nottinghamshire and had gone
+from there to Batcombe in Somerset. While yet in
+Nottinghamshire, in the early years of James's reign,
+he had seen something of the exorcizers.<a name="FNanchor_234-1_23" id="FNanchor_234-1_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_234-1_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> Later he
+had had to do with the Taunton cases of 1626; indeed,
+he seems to have had a prominent part in this affair.<a name="FNanchor_234-2_24" id="FNanchor_234-2_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_234-2_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a>
+Presumably he had displayed some anxiety lest the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span>witches should not receive fair treatment, for in his
+<i>Guide to Grand-Jurymen ... in cases of Witchcraft</i>, published
+in 1627, he explained the book as a "plaine
+countrey Minister's testimony." Owing to his "upright
+meaning" in his "painstaking" with one of the witches,
+a rumor had spread that he favored witches or "were of
+Master Scots erroneous opinion that Witches were silly
+Melancholikes."<a name="FNanchor_235-1_25" id="FNanchor_235-1_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_235-1_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> He had undertaken in consequence
+to familiarize himself with the whole subject and had
+read nearly all the discussions in English, as well as
+all the accounts of trials published up to that time.
+His work he dedicated to the two judges at Taunton,
+Sir John Walter and Sir John Denham, and to the
+archdeacon of Wells and the chancellor of the Bishop
+of Bath and Wells. The book was, indeed, a truly
+remarkable patchwork. All shades of opinion from
+that of the earnestly disbelieving Scot to that of the
+earnestly believing Roberts were embodied. Nevertheless
+Bernard had a wholesome distrust of possessions
+and followed Cotta in thinking that catalepsy
+and other related diseases accounted for many of
+them.<a name="FNanchor_235-2_26" id="FNanchor_235-2_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_235-2_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> He thought, too, that the Devil very often
+acted as his own agent without any intermediary.<a name="FNanchor_235-3_27" id="FNanchor_235-3_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_235-3_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a>
+Like Cotta, he was skeptical as to the water ordeal;<a name="FNanchor_235-4_28" id="FNanchor_235-4_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_235-4_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a>
+but, strange to say, he accepted the use of a magical
+glass to discover "the suspected."<a name="FNanchor_235-5_29" id="FNanchor_235-5_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_235-5_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> He was inclined to
+believe that the "apparition of the party suspected,
+whom the afflicted in their fits seem to see," was a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span>ground for suspicion. The main aim of his discourse
+was, indeed, to warn judges and jurors to be very careful
+by their questions and methods of inquiring to separate
+the innocent from the guilty.<a name="FNanchor_236-1_30" id="FNanchor_236-1_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_236-1_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> In this contention,
+indeed in his whole attitude, he was very nearly the
+mouthpiece of an age which, while clinging to a belief,
+was becoming increasingly cautious of carrying that
+belief too far into judicial trial and punishment.<a name="FNanchor_236-2_31" id="FNanchor_236-2_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_236-2_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></p>
+
+<p>It is a jump of seventeen years from Bernard of
+Batcombe to John Gaule. It cannot be said that Gaule
+marks a distinct step in the progress of opinion beyond
+Bernard. His general position was much the same as
+that of his predecessor. His warnings were perhaps
+more earnest, his skepticism a little more apparent. In
+an earlier chapter we have observed the bold way in
+which the indignant clergyman of Huntingdonshire
+took up Hopkins's challenge in 1646. It was the Hopkins
+crusade that called forth his treatise.<a name="FNanchor_236-3_32" id="FNanchor_236-3_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_236-3_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> His little book
+was in large part a plea for more caution in the use of
+evidence. Suspicion was too lightly entertained against
+"every poore and peevish olde Creature." Whenever
+there was an extraordinary accident, whenever there
+was a disease that could not be explained, it was imputed
+to witchcraft. Such "Tokens of Tryall" he
+deemed "altogether unwarrantable, as proceeding from
+ignorance, humor, superstition." There were other
+more reliable indications by which witches could sometimes
+be detected, but those indications were to be used
+with exceeding caution. Neither the evidence of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>
+fact&mdash;that is, of a league with the Devil&mdash;without confession
+nor "confession without fact" was to be accounted
+as certain proof. On the matter of confession
+Gaule was extraordinarily skeptical for his time. It was
+to be considered whether the party confessing were not
+diabolically deluded, whether the confession were not
+forced, or whether it were not the result of melancholy.
+Gaule went even a little further. Not only was
+he inclined to suspect confession, but he had serious
+doubts about a great part of witch lore. There were
+stories of metamorphoses, there were narratives of
+"tedious journeys upon broomes," and a hundred other
+tales from old authors, which the wise Christian would,
+he believed, leave with the writers. To believe nothing
+of them, however, would be to belittle the Divine
+attributes. As a matter of fact there was a very considerable
+part of the witch theory that Gaule accepted.
+His creed came to this: it was unsafe to pronounce such
+and such to be witches. While not one in ten was guilty,
+the tenth was still to be accounted for.<a name="FNanchor_237-1_33" id="FNanchor_237-1_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_237-1_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> The physician
+Cotta would have turned the matter over to the physicians;
+the clergyman Gaule believed that it belonged
+to the province of the "Magistracy and Ministery."<a name="FNanchor_237-2_34" id="FNanchor_237-2_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_237-2_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></p>
+
+<p>During the period of the Commonwealth one would
+have supposed that intellectual men would be entirely
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>preoccupied with more weighty matters than the guilt
+of witches. But the many executions that followed in
+the wake of Hopkins and Stearne had invested the
+subject with a new interest and brought new warriors
+into the fray. Half a dozen writers took up the controversy.
+On the conservative side three names deserve
+mention, two of them not unknown in other connections,
+Henry More and Meric Casaubon. For the defence
+of the accused witches appeared two men hardly
+so well known in their time, Robert Filmer and Thomas
+Ady.</p>
+
+<p>More was a young Cambridge scholar and divine
+who was to take rank among the English philosophers
+of the seventeenth century. Grounded in Plato and
+impregnated with Descartes, he became a little later
+thoroughly infected with the Cabalistic philosophy that
+had entered Europe from the East. It was the point
+of view that he acquired in the study of this mystic
+Oriental system that gave the peculiar turn to his witchcraft
+notions, a turn which through his own writings
+and those of Glanvill found wide acceptance. It was
+in 1653 that More issued <i>An Antidote to Atheisme</i>.
+The phenomena of witchcraft he reckoned as part of
+the evidence for the reality of the spirit world and
+used them to support religion, quite in the same manner
+as Sir Oliver Lodge or Professor Hyslop would today
+use psychical research to establish immortality. More
+had made investigations for himself, probably at Maidstone.
+In his own town of Cambridge there was a
+story&mdash;doubtless a college joke, but he referred to it
+in all seriousness&mdash;of "Old Strangridge," who "was
+carried over Shelford Steeple upon a black Hogge and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>
+tore his breeches upon the weather-cock."<a name="FNanchor_239-1_35" id="FNanchor_239-1_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_239-1_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> He believed
+that he had absolute proof of the "nocturnal
+conventicles" of witches.<a name="FNanchor_239-2_36" id="FNanchor_239-2_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_239-2_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> He had, however, none of
+that instinct for scientific observation that had distinguished
+Scot, and his researches did not prevent his
+being easily duped. His observations are not by any
+means so entertaining as are his theories. His effort to
+account for the instantaneous transportation of witches
+is one of the bright spots in the prosy reasonings of the
+demonologists. More was a thoroughgoing dualist. Mind
+and matter were the two separate entities. Now, the
+problem that arose at once was this: How can the souls
+of witches leave their bodies? "I conceive," he says,
+"the Divell gets into their body and by his subtile substance
+more operative and searching than any fire or
+putrifying liquor, melts the yielding Campages of the
+body to such a consistency ... and makes it plyable
+to his imagination: and then it is as easy for him to
+work it into what shape he pleaseth."<a name="FNanchor_239-3_37" id="FNanchor_239-3_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_239-3_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> If he could do
+that, much more could he enable men to leave their
+bodies. Then arose the problem: How does this process
+differ from death? The writer was puzzled apparently
+at his own question, but reasoned that death
+was the result of the unfitness of the body to contain
+the soul.<a name="FNanchor_239-4_38" id="FNanchor_239-4_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_239-4_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> But no such condition existed when the
+Devil was operating; and no doubt the body could be
+anointed in such fashion that the soul could leave and
+return.</p>
+
+<p>Meric Casaubon, son of the eminent classical scholar
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span>and himself a well known student, was skeptical as to
+the stories told about the aerial journeys of witches
+which More had been at such pains to explain. It was a
+matter, he wrote in his <i>Treatise concerning Enthusiasme</i>,<a name="FNanchor_240-1_39" id="FNanchor_240-1_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_240-1_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a>
+of much dispute among learned men. The confessions
+made were hard to account for, but he would
+feel it very wrong to condemn the accused upon that
+evidence. We shall meet with Casaubon again.<a name="FNanchor_240-2_40" id="FNanchor_240-2_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_240-2_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p>
+
+<p>Nathaniel Homes, who wrote from his pastoral study
+at Mary Stayning's in London, and dedicated his
+work<a name="FNanchor_240-3_41" id="FNanchor_240-3_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_240-3_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> to Francis Rous, member of Parliament, was no
+halfway man. He was a thoroughgoing disciple of
+Perkins. His utmost admission&mdash;the time had come
+when one had to make some concessions&mdash;was that evil
+spirits performed many of their wonders by tricks of
+juggling.<a name="FNanchor_240-4_42" id="FNanchor_240-4_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_240-4_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> But he swallowed without effort all the
+nonsense about covenants, and was inclined to see in the
+activities of the Devil a presage of the last days.<a name="FNanchor_240-5_43" id="FNanchor_240-5_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_240-5_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></p>
+
+<p>The reader can readily see that More, Casaubon, and
+Homes were all on the defensive. They were compelled
+to offer explanations of the mysteries of witchcraft,
+they were ready enough to make admissions; but
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span>they were nevertheless sticking closely to the main doctrines.
+It is a pleasure to turn to the writings of two
+men of somewhat bolder stamp, Robert Filmer and
+Thomas Ady. Sir Robert Filmer was a Kentish knight
+of strong royalist views who had written against the
+limitations of monarchy and was not afraid to cross
+swords with Milton and Hobbes on the origin of government.
+In 1652 he had attended the Maidstone
+trials, where, it will be remembered, six women had
+been convicted. As Scot had been stirred by the St.
+Oses trials, so Filmer was wrought up by what he had
+seen at Maidstone,<a name="FNanchor_241-1_44" id="FNanchor_241-1_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_241-1_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> and in the following year he published
+his <i>Advertisement to the Jurymen of England</i>.
+He set out to overturn the treatise of Perkins. As a consequence
+he dealt with Scripture and the interpretation
+of the well known passages in the Old Testament. The
+Hebrew witch, Filmer declared, was guilty of nothing
+more than "lying prophecies." The Witch of Endor
+probably used "hollow speaking." In this suggestion
+Filmer was following his famous Kentish predecessor.<a name="FNanchor_241-2_45" id="FNanchor_241-2_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_241-2_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a>
+But Filmer's main interest, like Bernard's and
+Gaule's before him, was to warn those who had to try
+cases to be exceedingly careful. He felt that a great
+part of the evidence used was worth little or nothing.</p>
+
+<p>Thomas Ady's <i>Candle in the Dark</i> was published
+three years later.<a name="FNanchor_241-3_46" id="FNanchor_241-3_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_241-3_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> Even more than Filmer, Ady was a
+disciple of Scot. But he was, indeed, a student of all
+English writers on the subject and set about to answer
+them one by one. King James, whose book he persistently<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span>
+refused to believe the king's own handiwork,
+Cooper, who was a "bloudy persecutor," Gifford,
+who "had more of the spirit of truth in him than many,"
+Perkins, the arch-enemy, Gaule, whose "intentions
+were godly," but who was too far "swayed by the common
+tradition of men,"<a name="FNanchor_242-1_47" id="FNanchor_242-1_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_242-1_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> all of them were one after
+another disposed of. Ady stood eminently for good
+sense. It was from that point of view that he ridiculed
+the water ordeal and the evidence of marks,<a name="FNanchor_242-2_48" id="FNanchor_242-2_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_242-2_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> and that
+he attacked the cause and effect relation between
+threats and illness. "They that make this Objection
+must dwell very remote from Neighbours."<a name="FNanchor_242-3_49" id="FNanchor_242-3_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_242-3_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a></p>
+
+<p>Yet not even Ady was a downright disbeliever. He
+defended Scot from the report "that he held an opinion
+that Witches are not, for it was neither his Tenent
+nor is it mine." Alas, Ady does not enlighten us as to
+just what was his opinion. Certainly his witches were
+creatures without power.<a name="FNanchor_242-4_50" id="FNanchor_242-4_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_242-4_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> What, then, were they?
+Were they harmless beings with malevolent minds?
+Mr. Ady does not answer.</p>
+
+<p>A hundred years of witchcraft history had not
+brought to light a man who was willing to deny in a
+printed work the existence of witches. Doubtless such
+denial might often have been heard in the closet, but it
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>was never proclaimed on the housetop. Scot had not
+been so bold&mdash;though one imagines that if he had been
+quietly questioned in a corner he might have denied
+the thing <i>in toto</i>&mdash;and those who had followed in his
+steps never ventured beyond him.</p>
+
+<p>The controversy, indeed, was waged in most of its
+aspects along the lines laid down by the first aggressor.
+Gifford, Cotta, and Ady had brought in a few new arguments
+to be used in attacking superstition, but in general
+the assailants looked to Scot. On the other side,
+only Perkins and More had contributed anything
+worth while to the defence that had been built up. Yet,
+the reader will notice that there had been progress.
+The centre of struggle had shifted to a point within the
+outer walls. The water ordeal and the evidence of
+marks were given up by most, if not all. The struggle
+now was over the transportation of witches through
+the air and the battle was going badly for the defenders.</p>
+
+<p>We turn now to the incidental indications of the
+shifting of opinion. In one sense this sort of evidence
+means more than the formal literature. Yet its fragmentary
+character at best precludes putting any great
+stress upon it.</p>
+
+<p>If one were to include all the references to witchcraft
+in the drama of the period, this discussion might
+widen out into a long chapter. Over the passages in the
+playwrights we must pass with haste; but certain
+points must be noted. Shakespeare, in <i>Macbeth</i>, which
+scholars have usually placed at about 1606, used a
+great body of witch lore. He used it, too, with apparent
+good faith, though to conclude therefrom that
+he believed in it himself would be a most dangerous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span>
+step.<a name="FNanchor_244-1_51" id="FNanchor_244-1_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_244-1_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> Thomas Middleton, whose <i>Witch</i> probably
+was written somewhat later, and who is thought to
+have drawn on Shakespeare for some of his witch
+material, gives absolutely no indication in that play
+that he did not credit those tales of witch performances
+of which he availed himself. The same may be
+said of Dekker and of those who collaborated with him
+in writing <i>The Witch of Edmonton</i>.<a name="FNanchor_244-2_52" id="FNanchor_244-2_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_244-2_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a></p>
+
+<p>We may go further and say that in none of these
+three plays is there any hint that there were disbelievers.
+But when we come to Ben Jonson we have
+a different story. His various plays we cannot here
+take up. Suffice it to say, on the authority of careful
+commentators, that he openly or covertly ridiculed
+all the supposedly supernatural phenomena of his
+time.<a name="FNanchor_244-3_53" id="FNanchor_244-3_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_244-3_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> Perhaps a search through the obscurer dramatists
+of the period might reveal other evidences of
+skepticism. Such a search we cannot make. It must,
+however, be pointed out that Thomas Heywood, in
+<i>The late Lancashire Witches</i><a name="FNanchor_244-4_54" id="FNanchor_244-4_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_244-4_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> a play which is described
+at some length in an earlier chapter, makes a
+character say:<a name="FNanchor_244-5_55" id="FNanchor_244-5_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_244-5_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> "It seemes then you are of opinion
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span>that there are witches. For mine own part I can hardly
+be induc'd to think there is any such kinde of people."<a name="FNanchor_245-1_56" id="FNanchor_245-1_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_245-1_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a>
+The speech is the more notable because Heywood's
+own belief in witchcraft, as has been observed in another
+connection, seems beyond doubt.</p>
+
+<p>The interest in witchcraft among literary men was
+not confined to the dramatists. Three prose writers
+eminent in their time dealt with the question. Burton,
+in his <i>Anatomy of Melancholy</i><a name="FNanchor_245-2_57" id="FNanchor_245-2_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_245-2_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> admits that "many
+deny witches at all, or, if there be any, they can do no
+harm." But he says that on the other side are grouped
+most "Lawyers, Divines, Physitians, Philosophers."
+James Howell, famous letter-writer of the mid-century,
+had a similar reverence for authority: "I say ... that
+he who denies there are such busy Spirits and such poor
+passive Creatures upon whom they work, which commonly
+are call'd Witches ... shews that he himself
+hath a Spirit of Contradiction in him."<a name="FNanchor_245-3_58" id="FNanchor_245-3_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_245-3_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> There are,
+he says, laws against witches, laws by Parliament and
+laws in the Holy Codex.</p>
+
+<p>Francis Osborne, a literary man whose reputation
+hardly survived his century, but an essayist of great
+fame in his own time,<a name="FNanchor_245-4_59" id="FNanchor_245-4_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_245-4_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> was a man who made his fortune
+by sailing against rather than with the wind. It
+was conventional to believe in witches and Osborne
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span>would not for any consideration be conventional. He
+assumed the skeptical attitude,<a name="FNanchor_246-1_60" id="FNanchor_246-1_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_246-1_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> and perhaps was as
+influential as any one man in making that attitude
+fashionable.</p>
+
+<p>From these lesser lights of the literary world we
+may pass to notice the attitude assumed by three men
+of influence in their own day, whose reputations have
+hardly been dimmed by time, Bacon, Selden, and
+Hobbes. Not that their views would be representative
+of their times, for each of the three men thought in
+his own way, and all three were in many respects in
+advance of their day. At some time in the reign of
+James I Francis Bacon wrote his <i>Sylva Sylvarum</i> and
+rather incidentally touched upon witchcraft. He
+warned judges to be wary about believing the confessions
+of witches and the evidence against them. "For
+the witches themselves are imaginative and believe oft-times
+they do that which they do not; and people are
+credulous in that point, and ready to impute accidents
+and natural operations to witchcraft. It is worthy the
+observing, that ... the great wonders which they tell,
+of carrying in the air, transporting themselves into
+other bodies, &amp;c., are still reported to be wrought, not
+by incantations, or ceremonies, but by ointments, and
+anointing themselves all over. This may justly move
+a man to think that these fables are the effects of imagination."<a name="FNanchor_246-2_61" id="FNanchor_246-2_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_246-2_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a></p>
+
+<p>Surely all this has a skeptical sound. Yet largely on
+the strength of another passage, which has been carelessly
+read, the great Bacon has been tearfully num<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span>bered
+among the blindest leaders of the blind.<a name="FNanchor_247-1_62" id="FNanchor_247-1_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_247-1_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> A
+careful comparison of his various allusions to witchcraft
+will convince one that, while he assumed a belief
+in the practice,<a name="FNanchor_247-2_63" id="FNanchor_247-2_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_247-2_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> partly perhaps in deference to
+James's views,<a name="FNanchor_247-3_64" id="FNanchor_247-3_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_247-3_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> he inclined to explain many reported
+phenomena from the effects of the imagination<a name="FNanchor_247-4_65" id="FNanchor_247-4_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_247-4_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> and
+from the operation of "natural causes" as yet unknown.<a name="FNanchor_247-5_66" id="FNanchor_247-5_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_247-5_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a></p>
+
+<p>Bacon, though a lawyer and man of affairs, had the
+point of view of a philosopher. With John Selden
+we get more directly the standpoint of a legal man. In
+his <i>Table Talk</i><a name="FNanchor_247-6_67" id="FNanchor_247-6_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_247-6_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> that eminent jurist wrote a paragraph
+on witches. "The Law against Witches," he declared,
+"does not prove there be any; but it punishes the
+Malice of those people that use such means to take away
+mens Lives. If one should profess that by turning his
+Hat thrice and crying Buz, he could take away a man's
+life (though in truth he could do no such thing) yet
+this were a just Law made by the State, that whosoever
+should turn his Hat thrice and cry Buz, with an
+intention to take away a man's life, shall be put to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span>death."<a name="FNanchor_248-1_68" id="FNanchor_248-1_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_248-1_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> As to the merits of this legal quip the less
+said the better; but it is exceedingly hard to see in the
+passage anything but downright skepticism as to the
+witch's power.<a name="FNanchor_248-2_69" id="FNanchor_248-2_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_248-2_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a></p>
+
+<p>It is not without interest that Selden's point of view
+was exactly that of the philosopher Hobbes. There
+is no man of the seventeenth century, unless it be Oliver
+Cromwell or John Milton, whose opinion on this
+subject we would rather know than that of Hobbes.
+In 1651 Hobbes had issued his great <i>Leviathan</i>. It is
+unnecessary here to insist upon the widespread influence
+of that work. Let it be said, however, that
+Hobbes was not only to set in motion new philosophies,
+but that he had been tutor to Prince Charles<a name="FNanchor_248-3_70" id="FNanchor_248-3_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_248-3_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> and
+was to become a figure in the reign of that prince.<a name="FNanchor_248-4_71" id="FNanchor_248-4_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_248-4_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a>
+Hobbes's work was directed against superstition in
+many forms, but we need only notice his statement
+about witchcraft, a statement that did not by any
+means escape his contemporaries. "As for Witches,"
+he wrote, "I think not that their witchcraft is any reall
+power; but yet that they are justly punished for the
+false beliefe they have that they can do such mischief,
+joined with their purpose to do it if they can."<a name="FNanchor_248-5_72" id="FNanchor_248-5_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_248-5_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> Perhaps
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>the great philosopher had in mind those pretenders to
+diabolic arts who had suffered punishment, and was so
+defending the community that had rid itself of a preying
+class. In any case, while he defended the law, he
+put himself among the disbelievers in witchcraft.</p>
+
+<p>From these opinions of the great we may turn to
+mark the more trivial indications of the shifting of
+opinion to be found in the pamphlet literature. It
+goes without saying that the pamphlet-writers believed
+in that whereof they spoke. It is not in their outspoken
+faith that we are interested, but rather in their
+mention of those opponents at whose numbers they
+marvelled, and whose incredulity they undertook to
+shake. Nowhere better than in the prefaces of the
+pamphleteers can evidence be found of the growing
+skepticism. The narrator of the Northampton cases
+in 1612 avowed it his purpose in writing to convince the
+"many that remaine yet in doubt whether there be
+any Witches or no."<a name="FNanchor_249-1_73" id="FNanchor_249-1_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_249-1_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a> That ardent busybody, Mr.
+Potts, who reported the Lancaster cases of 1612, very
+incidentally lets us know that the kinsfolk and friends
+of Jennet Preston, who, it will be remembered, suffered
+at York, declared the whole prosecution to be an
+act of malice.<a name="FNanchor_249-2_74" id="FNanchor_249-2_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_249-2_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a> The Yorkshire poet and gentleman,
+Edward Fairfax, who made such an ado about the
+sickness of his two daughters in 1622 and would have
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span>sent six creatures to the gallows for it, was very frank
+in describing the opposition he met. The accused
+women found supporters among the "best able and
+most understanding."<a name="FNanchor_250-1_75" id="FNanchor_250-1_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_250-1_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a> There were, he thought, three
+kinds of people who were doubters in these matters:
+those who attributed too much to natural causes and
+who were content to call clear cases of bewitchment
+convulsions, those who when witchcraft was broached
+talked about fairies and "walking ghosts," and lastly
+those who believed there were no witches. "Of this
+opinion I hear and see there be many, some of them
+men of worth, religious and honest."<a name="FNanchor_250-2_76" id="FNanchor_250-2_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_250-2_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a></p>
+
+<p>The pamphlet-writers of James's reign had adjusted
+themselves to meet opposition. Those of the Civil
+Wars and the Commonwealth were prepared to meet
+ridicule.<a name="FNanchor_250-3_77" id="FNanchor_250-3_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_250-3_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a> "There are some," says the narrator of a
+Yorkshire story, "who are of opinion that there are
+no Divells nor any witches.... Men in this Age are
+grown so wicked, that they are apt to believe there
+are no greater Divells than themselves."<a name="FNanchor_250-4_78" id="FNanchor_250-4_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_250-4_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a> Another
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span>writer, to bolster up his story before a skeptical public,
+declares that he is "very chary and hard enough to believe
+passages of this nature."<a name="FNanchor_251-1_79" id="FNanchor_251-1_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_251-1_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a></p>
+
+<p>We have said that the narrators of witch stories
+fortified themselves against ridicule. That ridicule
+obviously must have found frequent expression in
+conversation, but sometimes it even crept into the
+newspapers and tracts of the day. The Civil Wars
+had developed a regular London press. We have
+already met with expressions of serious opinion from
+it.<a name="FNanchor_251-2_80" id="FNanchor_251-2_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_251-2_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a> But not all were of that sort. In 1654 the <i>Mercurius
+Democritus</i>, the <i>Punch</i> of its time, took occasion
+to make fun of the stories of the supernatural then
+in circulation. There was, it declared, a strange story
+of a trance and apparition, a ghost was said to be
+abroad, a woman had hanged herself in a tobacco
+pipe. With very broad humor the journal took off the
+strange reports of the time and concluded with the
+warning that in "these distempered times" it was not
+safe for an "idle-pated woman" to look up at the
+skies.<a name="FNanchor_251-3_81" id="FNanchor_251-3_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_251-3_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a></p>
+
+<p>The same mocking incredulity had manifested itself
+in 1648 in a little brochure entitled, <i>The Devil seen at
+St. Albans, Being a true Relation how the Devill was
+seen there in a Cellar, in the likeness of a Ram; and
+how a Butcher came and cut his throat, and sold some
+of it, and dressed the rest for himselfe, inviting many
+to supper, who did eat of it</i>.<a name="FNanchor_252-1_82" id="FNanchor_252-1_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_252-1_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a> The story was a clever<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>
+parody of the demon tracts that had come out so
+frequently in the exciting times of the wars. The
+writer made his point clear when he declared that his
+story was of equal value with anything that "Britannicus"
+ever wrote.<a name="FNanchor_252-2_83" id="FNanchor_252-2_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_252-2_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a> The importance of these indications
+may be overestimated. But they do mean that
+there were those bold enough to make fun. A decade
+or two later ridicule became a two-edged knife, cutting
+superstition right and left. But even under the terribly
+serious Puritans skepticism began to avail itself
+of that weapon, a weapon of which it could hardly be
+disarmed.</p>
+
+<p>In following the history of opinion we must needs
+mention again some of the incidents of certain cases
+dealt with in earlier chapters, incidents that indicate
+the growing force of doubt. The reader has hardly
+forgotten the outcome of the Lancashire cases in 1633.
+There Bishop Bridgeman and the king, if they did not
+discredit witchcraft, discredited its manifestation in
+the particular instance.<a name="FNanchor_252-3_84" id="FNanchor_252-3_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_252-3_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a> As for William Harvey, he
+had probably given up his faith in the whole business
+after the little incident at Newmarket.<a name="FNanchor_252-4_85" id="FNanchor_252-4_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_252-4_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a> When we
+come to the time of the Civil Wars we cannot forget
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>that Stearne and Hopkins met opposition, not alone
+from the Huntingdon minister, but from a large party
+in Norfolk, who finally forced the witchfinder to defend
+himself in court. Nor can we forget the witch-pricker
+of Berwick who was sent a-flying back to his
+native northern soil, nor the persistent Mrs. Muschamp
+who tramped over Northumberland seeking a warrant
+and finding none.</p>
+
+<p>The course of opinion is a circuitous one. We have
+followed its windings in and out through more than
+half a century. We have listened as respectfully as
+possible to the vagaries of country parsons and university
+preachers, we have heard from scholars, from
+gentlemen, from jurists and men of affairs, from physicians
+and philosophers. It matters little now what
+they thought or said, but it did matter then. We have
+seen how easy a thing it was to fall into the error that
+a middle course was nearest truth. Broad was the
+way and many there were that walked therein. Yet
+even those who travelled that highway found their
+direction shifting. For there was progress in opinion.
+With every decade the travellers, as well those who
+strayed aside as those who followed the crowd, were
+getting a little nearer to truth.</p>
+
+<hr class="foot" />
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_227-1_1" id="Footnote_227-1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_227-1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> "Printed by Cantrel Legge, Printer to the Universitie of Cambridge"
+(1608, 1610).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_228-1_2" id="Footnote_228-1_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_228-1_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> See <i>Discourse of the Damned Art of Witchcraft</i>, ch. VII, sect. I.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_228-2_3" id="Footnote_228-2_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_228-2_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> His literary executor, Thomas Pickering, late of Emmanuel College,
+Cambridge, and now "Minister of Finchingfield in Essex," who prepared
+the <i>Discourse</i> for the press (both in its separate form and as a
+part of Perkins's collected works), and who dedicates it to Sir Edward
+Coke, is, however, equally silent as to James, though in his preface he
+mentions Scot by name.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_228-3_4" id="Footnote_228-3_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_228-3_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, ch. IV, sect. I. See also ch. II.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_228-4_5" id="Footnote_228-4_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_228-4_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, ch. VII, sect. II.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_229-1_6" id="Footnote_229-1_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_229-1_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, ch. VI.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_229-2_7" id="Footnote_229-2_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_229-2_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, ch. VII, sect. II.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_229-3_8" id="Footnote_229-3_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_229-3_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, ch. VII, sect. II.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_229-4_9" id="Footnote_229-4_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_229-4_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> James Mason, "Master of Artes," whose <i>Anatomie of Sorcerie</i>
+("printed at London by John Legatte, Printer to the Universitie of
+Cambridge," 1612), puts him next to Perkins in chronological order,
+needs only mention in passing. He takes the reality of sorcery for
+granted, and devotes himself to argument against its use.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_229-5_10" id="Footnote_229-5_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_229-5_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> <i>... Shewing the True and Right Methode of the Discovery.</i>
+Cotta was familiar with the more important trials of his time. He
+knew of the Warboys, Lancaster, and York trials and he probably had
+come into close contact with the Northampton cases. He had read,
+too, several of the books on the subject, such as Scot, Wier, and Perkins.
+His omission of King James's work is therefore not only curious but
+significant. A second edition of his book was published in 1625.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_230-1_11" id="Footnote_230-1_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_230-1_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> See <i>Triall of Witchcraft</i>, ch. XIV.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_230-2_12" id="Footnote_230-2_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_230-2_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> See <i>ibid.</i>, p. 48.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_230-3_13" id="Footnote_230-3_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_230-3_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 66-67.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_230-4_14" id="Footnote_230-4_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_230-4_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> See <i>ibid.</i>, ch. VI. Cotta speaks of the case as six years earlier.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_230-5_15" id="Footnote_230-5_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_230-5_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 62, 66.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_230-6_16" id="Footnote_230-6_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_230-6_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> <i>A Short Discoverie</i>, 70.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_230-7_17" id="Footnote_230-7_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_230-7_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> <i>Triall of Witchcraft</i>, 83-84.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_231-1_18" id="Footnote_231-1_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_231-1_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> <i>A Short Discoverie</i>, 51-53.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_231-2_19" id="Footnote_231-2_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_231-2_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> <i>Triall of Witchcraft</i>, 70.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_231-3_20" id="Footnote_231-3_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_231-3_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Roberts's explanation of the proneness of women to witchcraft
+deserves mention in passing. Women are more credulous, more curious,
+"their complection is softer," they have "greater facility to fall,"
+greater desire for revenge, and "are of a slippery tongue." <i>Treatise of
+Witchcraft</i>, 42-43.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_232-1_21" id="Footnote_232-1_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_232-1_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> "In Cheshire and Coventry," he tells us. "Hath not Coventrie,"
+he asks (p. 16), "beene usually haunted by these hellish Sorcerers,
+where it was confessed by one of them, that no lesse than three-score
+were of that confedracie?... And was I not there enjoyned by a
+necessity to the discoverie of this Brood?"</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_233-1_22" id="Footnote_233-1_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_233-1_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> For the whole case see Howell, <i>State Trials</i>, II.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_234-1_23" id="Footnote_234-1_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_234-1_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> See article on Bernard in <i>Dict. Nat. Biog.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_234-2_24" id="Footnote_234-2_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_234-2_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> See below, appendix C, list of witch cases, under 1626.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_235-1_25" id="Footnote_235-1_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_235-1_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> See <i>Guide to Grand-Jurymen</i>, Dedication.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_235-2_26" id="Footnote_235-2_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_235-2_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 11-12.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_235-3_27" id="Footnote_235-3_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_235-3_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 53.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_235-4_28" id="Footnote_235-4_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_235-4_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 214.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_235-5_29" id="Footnote_235-5_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_235-5_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> This he did on the authority of a repentant Mr. Edmonds, of
+Cambridge, who had once been questioned by the University authorities
+for witchcraft. <i>Ibid.</i>, 136-138.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_236-1_30" id="Footnote_236-1_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_236-1_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> <i>Guide to Grand-Jurymen</i>, 22-28.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_236-2_31" id="Footnote_236-2_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_236-2_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> He was "for the law, but agin' its enforcement."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_236-3_32" id="Footnote_236-3_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_236-3_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> <i>Select Cases of Conscience Touching Witches and Witchcraft</i> (London,
+1646).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_237-1_33" id="Footnote_237-1_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_237-1_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 92.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_237-2_34" id="Footnote_237-2_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_237-2_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 94, 97. That Gaule was a Puritan, as has been asserted, appears
+from nothing in his book. If he dedicated his <i>Select Cases</i> to his
+townsman Colonel Walton, a brother-in-law of Cromwell, and his <i>Mag-astro-mancer</i>
+(a later diatribe against current superstitions) to Oliver
+himself, there is nothing in his prefatory letters to show him of their
+party. Nor does the tone of his writings suggest a Calvinist. That
+in 1649 we find Gaule chosen to preach before the assizes of Huntingdon
+points perhaps only to his popularity as a leader of the reaction against
+the work of Hopkins.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_239-1_35" id="Footnote_239-1_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_239-1_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> <i>Antidote to Atheisme</i>, 129.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_239-2_36" id="Footnote_239-2_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_239-2_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 127-130.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_239-3_37" id="Footnote_239-3_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_239-3_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, ch. VIII, 134.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_239-4_38" id="Footnote_239-4_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_239-4_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 135.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_240-1_39" id="Footnote_240-1_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_240-1_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> See p. 118. This <i>Treatise</i> was first published in 1655. Four years
+later, in 1659, he published <i>A True and faithful Relation of what
+passed ... between Dr. John Dee, ... and some spirits</i>. In the
+preface to this he announced his intention of writing the work which
+he later published as <i>Of Credulity and Incredulity</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_240-2_40" id="Footnote_240-2_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_240-2_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> In passing we must mention Richard Farnworth, who in 1655 issued
+a pamphlet called <i>Witchcraft Cast out from the Religious Seed and
+Israel of God</i>. Farnworth was a Quaker, and wrote merely to warn his
+brethren against magic and sorcery. He never questioned for a moment
+the facts of witchcraft and sorcery, nor the Devil's share in them.
+As for the witches, they were doomed everlastingly to the lake of fire.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_240-3_41" id="Footnote_240-3_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_240-3_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> <i>Dćmonologie and Theologie. The first, the Malady ..., The Second,
+The Remedy</i> (London, 1650).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_240-4_42" id="Footnote_240-4_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_240-4_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 42.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_240-5_43" id="Footnote_240-5_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_240-5_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 16.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_241-1_44" id="Footnote_241-1_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_241-1_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> See the Introduction to the <i>Advertisement</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_241-2_45" id="Footnote_241-2_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_241-2_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> Filmer noted further that the Septuagint translates the Hebrew
+word for witch as "an Apothecary, a Druggister, one that compounds
+poysons."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_241-3_46" id="Footnote_241-3_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_241-3_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> London, 1656.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_242-1_47" id="Footnote_242-1_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_242-1_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> In Ady's second edition, <i>A Perfect Discovery of Witches</i> (1661),
+134, Gaule's book having meanwhile come into his hands, he speaks of
+Gaule as "much inclining to the Truth" and yet swayed by traditions
+and the authority of the learned. He adds, "Mr. Gaule, if this work of
+mine shall come to your hand, as yours hath come to mine, be not angry
+with me for writing God's Truth."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_242-2_48" id="Footnote_242-2_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_242-2_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> "... few men or women being tied hand and feet together can sink
+quite away till they be drowned" (<i>Candle in the Dark</i>, 100); "... very
+few people in the World are without privie Marks" (<i>Ibid.</i>, 127).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_242-3_49" id="Footnote_242-3_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_242-3_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 129.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_242-4_50" id="Footnote_242-4_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_242-4_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> In giving "The Reason of the Book" he wrote, "The Grand Errour
+of these latter Ages is ascribing power to Witches."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_244-1_51" id="Footnote_244-1_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_244-1_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> See a recent discussion of a nearly related topic by Professor Elmer
+Stoll in the <i>Publications</i> of the Modern Language Association, XXII,
+201-233. Of the attitude of the English dramatists before Shakespeare
+something may be learned from Mr. L. W. Cushman's <i>The Devil and
+the Vice in the English Dramatic Literature before Shakespeare</i> (Halle,
+1900).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_244-2_52" id="Footnote_244-2_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_244-2_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> About 1622 or soon after.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_244-3_53" id="Footnote_244-3_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_244-3_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> See, for instance, Mr. W. S. Johnson's introduction to his edition
+of <i>The Devil is an Ass</i> (New York, 1905).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_244-4_54" id="Footnote_244-4_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_244-4_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> 1634. This play was written, of course, in cooperation with Brome;
+see above, pp. 158-160. For other expressions of Heywood's opinions
+on witchcraft see his <i>Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels</i>, 598, and his
+<ins title="GYNAIKEION">&#915;&#933;&#925;&#913;&#921;&#922;&#917;&#921;&#927;&#925;</ins>: <i>or Nine Books of Various History concerning Women</i>
+(London, 1624), lib. viii, 399, 407, etc.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_244-5_55" id="Footnote_244-5_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_244-5_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> Act I, scene 1.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_245-1_56" id="Footnote_245-1_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_245-1_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> In another part of the same scene: "They that thinke so dreame,"
+<i>i. e.</i> they who believe in witchcraft.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_245-2_57" id="Footnote_245-2_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_245-2_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> First published in 1621&mdash;I use, however, Shilleto's ed. of London,
+1893, which follows that of 1651-1652; see pt. I, sect. II, memb. I, sub-sect.
+3.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_245-3_58" id="Footnote_245-3_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_245-3_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> James Howell, <i>Familiar Letters</i>, II, 548.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_245-4_59" id="Footnote_245-4_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_245-4_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> His <i>Advice to a Son</i>, first published in 1656-1658, went through
+edition after edition. It is very entertaining. His strongly enforced
+advice not to marry made a sensation among young Oxford men.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_246-1_60" id="Footnote_246-1_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_246-1_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> <i>Works of Francis Osborne</i> (London, 1673), 551-553.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_246-2_61" id="Footnote_246-2_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_246-2_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> <i>Works of Bacon</i> (ed. Spedding, London, 1857-1858), II, 642-643.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_247-1_62" id="Footnote_247-1_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_247-1_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> "The ointment that witches use is reported to be made of the fat
+of children digged out of their graves; of the juices of smallage, wolf-bane,
+and cinque-foil, mingled with the meal of fine wheat; but I suppose
+that the soporiferous medicines are likest to do it." See <i>Sylva
+Sylvarum</i>, cent. X, 975, in <i>Works</i>, ed. Spedding, II, 664. But even this
+passage shows Bacon a skeptic. His suggestion that the soporiferous
+medicines are likest to do it means that he thinks the delusions of
+witches subjective and produced by drugs. For other references to the
+subject see <i>Works</i>, II, 658, 660; VII, 738.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_247-2_63" id="Footnote_247-2_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_247-2_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> <i>De Argumentis</i>, bk. II, ch. II, in <i>Works</i>, IV, 296; see also <i>ibid.</i>,
+III, 490.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_247-3_64" id="Footnote_247-3_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_247-3_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> <i>Advancement of Learning</i>, bk. II; <i>ibid.</i>, III, 490.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_247-4_65" id="Footnote_247-4_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_247-4_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> <i>Works</i>, IV, 400-401.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_247-5_66" id="Footnote_247-5_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_247-5_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, IV, 296.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_247-6_67" id="Footnote_247-6_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_247-6_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> Selden, <i>Table Talk</i> (London, 1689). The book is supposed to have
+been written during the last twenty years of Selden's life, that is,
+between 1634 and 1654.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_248-1_68" id="Footnote_248-1_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_248-1_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> Selden, <i>Table Talk</i>, <i>s. v.</i> "Witches."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_248-2_69" id="Footnote_248-2_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_248-2_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> Nor did Selden believe in possessions. See his essay on Devils in
+the <i>Table Talk</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_248-3_70" id="Footnote_248-3_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_248-3_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> See article on Hobbes in <i>Dict. Nat. Biog.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_248-4_71" id="Footnote_248-4_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_248-4_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> See, for example, Bishop Burnet's <i>History of his Own Time</i> (Oxford,
+1823), I, 172, 322-323.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_248-5_72" id="Footnote_248-5_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_248-5_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> <i>Leviathan</i> (1651), 7. See also his <i>Dialogue of the Common Laws
+of England</i>, in <i>Works</i> (ed. of London, 1750), 626: "But I desire not
+to discourse of that subject; for, though without doubt there is some
+great Wickedness signified by those Crimes, yet have I ever found myself
+too dull to conceive the nature of them, or how the Devil hath power
+to do many things which Witches have been accused of." See also
+his chapter on Dćmonology in the <i>Leviathan</i>, in <i>Works</i>, 384.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_249-1_73" id="Footnote_249-1_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_249-1_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> He continues, "Some doe maintaine (but how wisely let the wiser
+judge) that all Witchcraft spoken of either by holy writers, or testified by
+other writers to have beene among the heathen or in later daies, hath
+beene and is no more but either meere Cousinage [he had been reading
+Scot], or Collusion, so that in the opinion of those men, the Devill hath
+never done, nor can do anything by Witches." <i>The Witches of Northamptonshire, ...</i> A
+4.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_249-2_74" id="Footnote_249-2_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_249-2_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> Potts, <i>The Wonderfull Discoverie ...</i>, X 4 verso.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_250-1_75" id="Footnote_250-1_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_250-1_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> Fairfax, <i>A Discourse of Witchcraft</i> (Philobiblon Soc.), 12.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_250-2_76" id="Footnote_250-2_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_250-2_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 20.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_250-3_77" id="Footnote_250-3_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_250-3_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> One notable instance must be mentioned. "H. F.," the narrator
+of the Essex affair of 1645 (<i>A true and exact Relation</i>) not only recognized
+the strong position of those who doubted, but was by no means
+extreme himself. "I doubt not," he wrote, "but these things may
+seeme as incredible unto some, as they are matter of admiration unto
+others.... The greatest doubt and question will be, whether it be in
+the power of the Devil to perform such asportation and locall translation
+of the bodies of Witches.... And whether these supernaturall
+works, which are above the power of man to do, and proper only to
+Spirits, whether they are reall or only imaginary and fained." The
+writer concludes that the Devil has power to dispose and transport
+bodies, but, as to changing them into animals, he thinks these are
+"but jugling transmutations."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_250-4_78" id="Footnote_250-4_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_250-4_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> <i>The most true and wonderfull Narration of two women bewitched
+in Yorkshire; ...</i> (1658).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_251-1_79" id="Footnote_251-1_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_251-1_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> "Relation of a Memorable Piece of Witchcraft at Welton near
+Daventry," in Glanvill, <i>Sadducismus Triumphatus</i> (London, 1681), pt.
+ii, 263-268.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_251-2_80" id="Footnote_251-2_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_251-2_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> See above, pp. 179-180, for an expression about the persecution in
+1645.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_251-3_81" id="Footnote_251-3_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_251-3_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> <i>Mercurius Democritus</i>, February 8-15, 1654.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_252-1_82" id="Footnote_252-1_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_252-1_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> 1648. This must be distinguished from <i>The Divels Delusion ...</i>,
+1649, (see above, ch. IX, note 8), which deals with two witches executed
+at St. Alban's.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_252-2_83" id="Footnote_252-2_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_252-2_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> The truth is that the newspapers, pamphlets, etc., were full of such
+stories. And they were believed by many intelligent men. He who runs
+through Whitelocke's <i>Memorials</i> may read that the man was exceeding
+superstitious. Whether it be the report of the horseman seen in the air
+or the stories of witches at Berwick, Whitelocke was equally interested.
+While he was merely recording the reports of others, there is not a
+sign of skepticism.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_252-3_84" id="Footnote_252-3_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_252-3_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> See above, pp. 152-157.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_252-4_85" id="Footnote_252-4_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_252-4_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> See above, pp. 160-162.</p></div>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2 class="chapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+<h3 class="chapter2">Witchcraft under Charles II and James II.</h3>
+
+
+<p>No period of English history saw a wider interest in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span>
+both the theory and the practice of witchcraft than the
+years that followed the Restoration. Throughout the
+course of the twenty-eight years that spanned the second
+rule of the Stuarts, the Devil manifested himself
+in many forms and with unusual frequency. Especially
+within the first half of that régime his appearances were
+so thrilling in character that the enemies of the new
+king might very well have said that the Evil One, like
+Charles, had come to his own again. All over the realm
+the witches were popping up. If the total number of
+trials and of executions did not foot up to the figures
+of James I's reign or to those of the Civil War, the
+alarm was nevertheless more widely distributed than
+ever before. In no less than twenty counties of England
+witches were discovered and fetched to court. Up
+to this time, so far at any rate as the printed records
+show, the southwestern counties had been but little
+troubled. Now Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall were
+the storm centre of the panic. In the north Yorkshire
+began to win for itself the reputation as a centre of activity
+that had long been held by Lancashire. Not that
+the witch was a new criminal in Yorkshire courts. During
+the Civil Wars and the troubled years that followed
+the discoverers had been active. But with the reign of
+Charles II their zeal increased mightily. Yet, if they
+had never before fetched in so many "suspected<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span>
+parties" to the court of the justice of the peace, they
+had never before been so often baffled by the outcome.
+Among the many such cases known to us during this
+time there is no mention of a conviction.<a name="FNanchor_255-1_1" id="FNanchor_255-1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_255-1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> In Kent there
+was a flickering revival of the old hatred of witches. In
+the year that Charles gained the throne the city of Canterbury
+sent some women to the gibbet. Not so in Essex.
+In that county not a single case during this period
+has been left on record. In Middlesex, a county which
+from the days of Elizabeth through to the Restoration
+had maintained a very even pace&mdash;a stray conviction
+now and then among many acquittals&mdash;the reign of
+Charles II saw nothing more serious than some commitments
+and releases upon bail. In the Midland counties,
+where superstition had flourished in the days of
+James I, there were now occasional tales of possession
+and vague charges which rarely reached the ears of the
+assize judges. Northampton, where an incendiary
+witch was sentenced, constituted the single exception.
+In East Anglia there was just enough stir to prove that
+the days of Matthew Hopkins had not been forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>It needs no pointing out that a large proportion of the
+cases were but a repetition of earlier trials. If a difference
+is discernible, it is in the increased number of
+accusations that took their start in strange diseases
+called possessions. Since the close of the sixteenth
+century and the end of John Darrel's activities, the
+accounts of possession had fallen off sensibly, but the
+last third of the seventeenth century saw a distinct revival
+of this tendency to assign certain forms of disease
+to the operation of the Devil. We have references
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span>to many cases, but only in exceptional instances are the
+details given. Oliver Heywood, one of the eminent Dissenters
+of northern England, fasted and prayed with
+his co-workers over the convulsive and hysterical boys
+and girls in the West Riding. Nathan Dodgson was
+left after long fastings in "a very sensible melting
+frame,"<a name="FNanchor_256-1_2" id="FNanchor_256-1_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_256-1_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> but the troubles returned and led, as we shall
+see in another connection, to very tragic results. The
+Puritan clergymen do not seem, however, to have had
+any highly developed method of exorcism or to have
+looked upon cases of possession in a light very different
+from that in which they would have looked upon ordinary
+illnesses.</p>
+
+<p>Among the Baptists of Yorkshire there was a possession
+that roused wide comment. Mary Hall of Little
+Gaddesden in Hertfordshire, daughter of a smith, was
+possessed in the fall of 1663 with two spirits who were
+said to have come to her riding down the chimney upon
+a stick. The spirits declared through the girl that Goodwife
+Harwood had sent them, and when that suspected
+woman was brought into the girl's presence the spirits
+cried out, "Oh, Goodwife Harwood, are you come?&mdash;that
+is well; ... we have endeavored to choak her but
+cannot," and, when Mistress Harwood left, the spirits
+begged to go with her.<a name="FNanchor_256-2_3" id="FNanchor_256-2_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_256-2_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>In Southwark James Barrow, the son of John Barrow,
+was long possessed, and neither "doctors, astrolo<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span>gers,
+nor apothecaries" could help him. He was taken
+to the Catholics, but to no purpose. Finally he was
+cast among a "poor dispirited people whom the Lord
+owned as instruments in his hand to do this great
+work."<a name="FNanchor_257-1_4" id="FNanchor_257-1_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_257-1_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> By the "poor dispirited people" the Baptists
+were almost certainly meant.<a name="FNanchor_257-2_5" id="FNanchor_257-2_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_257-2_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> By their assistance he
+seems to have been cured. So also was Hannah Crump
+of Warwick, who had been afflicted by witchcraft and
+put in a London hospital. Through prayer and fasting
+she was entirely recovered.</p>
+
+<p>Mary Hall had been taken to Doctor Woodhouse of
+Berkhampstead, "a man famous for curing bewitched
+persons." Woodhouse's name comes up now and again
+in the records of his time. He was in fact a very typical
+specimen of the witch doctor. When Mary Hall's
+case had been submitted to him he had cut off the ends
+of her nails and "with somewhat he added" hung them
+in the chimney over night before making a diagnosis.<a name="FNanchor_257-3_6" id="FNanchor_257-3_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_257-3_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a>
+He professed to find stolen goods as well and fell foul
+of the courts in one instance, probably because the
+woman who consulted him could not pay the shilling
+fee.<a name="FNanchor_257-4_7" id="FNanchor_257-4_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_257-4_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> He was arraigned and spent a term in prison. No
+doubt many of the witch physicians knew the inside of
+prisons and had returned afterwards to successful
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span>practice. Redman, "whom some say is a Conjurer,
+others say, He is an honest and able phisitian," had
+been in prison, but nevertheless he had afterwards
+"abundance of Practice" and was much talked about
+"in remote parts," all this in spite of the fact that he
+was "unlearned in the languages."<a name="FNanchor_258-1_8" id="FNanchor_258-1_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_258-1_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p>
+
+<p>Usually, of course, the witch doctor was a poor
+woman who was very happy to get a penny fee now
+and then, but who ran a greater risk of the gallows
+than her male competitors. Her reputation, which
+brought her a little money from the sick and from
+those who had lost valuables, made her at the same
+time a successful beggar. Those whom she importuned
+were afraid to refuse her. But she was in constant
+peril. If she resented ill treatment, if she gave in ill
+wishes as much as she took, she was sure to hear from
+it before a stern justice of the peace. It can hardly be
+doubted that a large proportion, after the Restoration
+as in every other period, of those finally hanged for
+witchcraft, had in fact made claims to skill in magic
+arts. Without question some of them had even traded
+on the fear they inspired. Not a few of the wretched
+creatures fetched to York castle to be tried were "inchanters."</p>
+
+<p>Very often, indeed, a woman who was nothing more
+than a midwife, with some little knowledge of medicine
+perhaps, would easily be classed by the public among
+the regular witch doctors and so come to have a bad
+name. Whether she lived up to her name or not&mdash;and
+the temptation to do so would be great&mdash;she would
+from that time be subject to suspicion, and might at
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span>length become a prey to the justice of the peace. Mrs.
+Pepper was no more than a midwife who made also
+certain simple medical examinations, but when one of
+her patients was "strangely handled" she was taken
+to court.<a name="FNanchor_259-1_9" id="FNanchor_259-1_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_259-1_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> Margaret Stothard was probably, so far as
+we can piece together her story, a woman who had
+been successful in calming fretful children and had so
+gained for herself a reputation as a witch. Doubtless
+she had acquired in time a few of the charmer's tricks
+that enhanced her reputation and increased her practice.
+This was all very well until one of her patients
+happened to die. Then she was carried to Newcastle
+and would probably have suffered death, had it not
+been for a wise judge.<a name="FNanchor_259-2_10" id="FNanchor_259-2_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_259-2_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p>
+
+<p>These are typical cases. The would-be healer of the
+sick ran a risk, and it was not always alone from failure
+to cure. If a witch doctor found himself unable
+to bring relief to a patient, it was easy to suggest that
+some other witch doctor&mdash;and such were usually
+women&mdash;was bewitching the patient. There are many
+instances, and they are not confined to the particular
+period with which we are dealing, in which one "good
+witch" started the run on the other's reputation. Even
+the regular physician may sometimes have yielded to
+the temptation to crush competition.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, when all the cases are considered, only a
+very small part of the "good witches" ever fell into the
+clutches of the law. The law prescribed very definite
+penalties for their operations, but in most instances no
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span>action was taken until after a long accumulation of "suspicious
+circumstances," and, even if action was taken,
+the chances, as we have seen, were by this time distinctly
+in favor of the accused.</p>
+
+<p>This is not to say, by any means, that the judges and
+juries of England had come over to the side of the
+witch. The period with which we are dealing was
+marked by a variety of decision which betrays the perplexity
+of judges and juries. It is true, indeed, that
+out of from eighty to one hundred cases where accusations
+are on record less than twenty witches were
+hanged. This does not mean that six times out of
+every seven the courts were ruling against the fact of
+witchcraft. In the case of the six released there was
+no very large body of evidence against them to be considered,
+or perhaps no strong popular current to be
+stemmed. In general, it may be said that the courts
+were still backing up the law of James I.</p>
+
+<p>To show this, it is only necessary to run over some
+of the leading trials of the period. We shall briefly
+take up four trials conducted respectively by Justice
+Archer, Chief Baron Hale, Justice Rainsford, and Justice
+Raymond.</p>
+
+<p>Julian Cox, who was but one of the "pestilent
+brood" of witches ferreted out in Somerset by the aggressive
+justice, Robert Hunt, was tried in 1663 at
+Taunton before Justice Archer.<a name="FNanchor_260-1_11" id="FNanchor_260-1_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_260-1_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> The charges against
+her indeed excited such interest all over England, and
+elicited, upon the part of disbelievers, so much derision,
+that it will be worth our while to go over the principal
+points of evidence. The chief witness against her was
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span>a huntsman who told a strange tale. He had started a
+hare and chased it behind a bush. But when he came
+to the bush he had found Julian Cox there, stooped
+over and quite out of breath. Another witness had
+a strange story to tell about her. She had invited him
+to come up on her porch and take a pipe of tobacco
+with her. While he was with her, smoking, he saw
+a toad between his legs. On going home he had taken
+out a pipe and smoked again and had again seen what
+looked to be the same toad between his legs. "He took
+the Toad out to kill it, and to his thinking cut it in several
+pieces, but returning to his Pipe the Toad still appeared....
+At length the Toad cryed, and vanish'd."
+A third witness had seen the accused fly in at her window
+"in her full proportion." This tissue of evidence
+was perhaps the absurdest ever used against even a
+witch, but the jury brought in a verdict of guilty. It is
+not unpleasant to know that Justice Archer met with a
+good deal of criticism for his part in the affair.</p>
+
+<p>In the following year occurred the trials at Bury St.
+Edmunds, which derive their interest and importance
+largely from the position of the presiding judge, Sir
+Matthew Hale, who was at this time chief baron of the
+exchequer, and was later to be chief justice of the
+king's bench. He was allowed, according to the admission
+of one none too friendly to him, "on all hands
+to be the most profound lawyer of his time."<a name="FNanchor_261-1_12" id="FNanchor_261-1_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_261-1_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> Hale
+had been a Puritan from his youth, though not of the
+rigid or theologically minded sort. In the Civil Wars
+and the events that followed he had remained non-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span>partisan.
+He accepted office from Cromwell, though
+without doubt mildly sympathizing with the king. One
+of those who had assisted in recalling Charles II, he
+rose shortly to be chief baron of the exchequer. Famous
+for his careful and reasoned interpretation of law,
+he was to leave behind him a high reputation for his justice
+and for the exceptional precision of his judgments.
+It is not too much to say that he was one of the
+greatest legal figures of his century and that his decisions
+served in no small degree to fix the law.</p>
+
+<p>We should like to know how far he had been brought
+into contact with the subject of witchcraft, but we can
+do no more than guess. His early career had been
+moulded in no small degree by Selden, who, as has
+been noted in an earlier chapter, believed in the punishment
+of those who claimed to be witches. It is not unreasonable
+to suppose that the Puritans with whom he
+had been thrown were all of them ready to quote
+Scripture against the minions of Satan. We know that
+he had read some of the works of Henry More,<a name="FNanchor_262-1_13" id="FNanchor_262-1_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_262-1_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> and,
+whether or not familiar with his chapters on witchcraft,
+would have deduced from that writer's general philosophy
+of spirits the particular application.</p>
+
+<p>The trial concerned two women of Lowestoft, Amy
+Duny and Rose Cullender. The first had been reputed
+a witch and a "person of very evil behaviour." She
+was in all probability related to some of those women
+who had suffered at the hands of Hopkins, and to that
+connection owed her ill name. Some six or seven
+years before the date of the trial she had got herself
+into trouble while taking care of the child of a trades<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span>man
+in Lowestoft. It would seem that, contrary to the
+orders of the mother, she had suckled the child. The
+child had that same night been attacked by fits, and a
+witch doctor of Yarmouth, who was consulted, had
+prescribed for it. The reader will note that this "suspicious
+circumstance" happened seven years earlier,
+and a large part of the evidence presented in court concerned
+what had occurred from five to seven years
+before.</p>
+
+<p>We can not go into the details of a trial which
+abounded in curious bits of evidence. The main plot
+indeed was an old one. The accused woman, after she
+had been discharged from employment and reproved,
+had been heard to mutter threats, close upon which the
+children of those she cursed, who were now the witnesses
+against her, had fallen ill. Two of the children
+had suffered severely and were still afflicted. They
+had thrown up pins and even a two-penny nail. The
+nail, which was duly offered as an exhibit in court, had
+been brought to one of the children by a bee and had
+been forced into the child's mouth, upon which she expelled
+it. This narrative was on a level with the other,
+that flies brought crooked pins to the child. Both flies
+and bee, it will be understood, were the witches in
+other form. A similar sort of evidence was that a
+toad, which had been found as the result of the witch
+doctor's directions, had been thrown into the fire, upon
+which a sharp crackling noise ensued. When this incident
+was testified to in the court the judge interrupted
+to ask if after the explosion the substance of the
+toad was not to be seen in the fire. He was answered
+in the negative. On the next day Amy Duny was found
+to have her face and body all scorched. She said to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span>
+witness that "she might thank her for it." There can
+be no doubt in the world that this testimony of the coincident
+burning of the woman and the toad was regarded
+as damning proof, nor is there any reason to
+believe that the court deemed it necessary to go behind
+the mere say-so of a single witness for the fact.
+Along with this sort of unsubstantial testimony there
+was presented a monotonous mass of spectral evidence.
+Apparitions of the witches were the constant occasions
+for the paroxysms of the children. In another connection
+it will be observed that this form of proof was
+becoming increasingly common in the last part of the
+seventeenth century. It can hardly be doubted that in
+one way or another the use of such evidence at Bury
+influenced other trials and more particularly the Salem
+cases in the New World, where great importance was
+attached to evidence of this sort.</p>
+
+<p>The usual nauseating evidence as to the Devil's
+marks was introduced by the testimony of the mother
+of one of the children bewitched. She had been, a
+month before, a member of a jury of matrons appointed
+by a justice of the peace to examine the body of
+the accused. Most damning proof against the woman
+had been found. It is very hard for us to understand
+why Hale allowed to testify, as one of the jury of examining
+matrons, a woman who was at the same time
+mother of one of the bewitched children upon whom
+the prosecution largely depended.</p>
+
+<p>So far the case for the prosecution had been very
+strong, but it was in the final experiments in court,
+which were expected to clinch the evidence, that a very
+serious mishap occurred. A bewitched child, eleven
+years old, had been fetched into court. With eyes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span>
+closed and head reclining upon the bar she had remained
+quiet until one of the accused was brought up,
+when she at once became frantic in her effort to
+scratch her. This was tried again and again and in
+every instance produced the same result. The performance
+must have had telling effect. But there happened
+to be present at the trial three Serjeants of the
+law. One of them, Serjeant John Kelyng, a few years
+later to become chief justice of the king's bench, was
+"much dissatisfied." He urged the point that the mere
+fact that the children were bewitched did not establish
+their claim to designate the authors of their misfortune.
+There were others present who agreed with
+Kelyng in suspecting the actions of the girl on the
+stand. Baron Hale was induced, at length, to appoint
+a committee of several gentlemen, including Serjeant
+Kelyng, to make trial of the girl with her eyes covered.
+An outside party was brought up to her and touched her
+hand. The girl was expecting that Amy Duny would
+be brought up and flew into the usual paroxysms. This
+was what the committee had expected, and they declared
+their belief that the whole transaction was a
+mere imposture. One would have supposed that every
+one else must come to the same conclusion, but Mr.
+Pacy, the girl's father, offered an explanation of her
+mistake that seems to have found favor. The maid,
+he said, "might be deceived by a suspicion that the
+Witch touched her when she did not." One would suppose
+that this subtle suggestion would have broken
+the spell, and that Mr. Pacy would have been laughed
+out of court. Alas for the rarity of humor in seventeenth-century
+court rooms! Not only was the explana<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span>tion
+received seriously, but it was, says the court reporter,
+afterwards found to be true.</p>
+
+<p>In the mean time expert opinion had been called in.
+It is hard to say whether Dr. Browne had been requisitioned
+for the case or merely happened to be present.
+At all events, he was called upon to render his opinion
+as a medical man. The name of Thomas Browne is
+one eminent in English literature and not unknown in
+the annals of English medicine and science. More than
+twenty years earlier he had expressed faith in the
+reality of witchcraft.<a name="FNanchor_266-1_14" id="FNanchor_266-1_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_266-1_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> In his <i>Commonplace Book</i>, a
+series of jottings made throughout his life, he reiterated
+his belief, but uttered a doubt as to the connection
+between possession and witchcraft.<a name="FNanchor_266-2_15" id="FNanchor_266-2_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_266-2_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p>
+
+<p>We should be glad to know at what time Browne
+wrote this deliverance; for, when called upon at Bury,
+he made no application of his principles of caution. He
+gave it as his opinion that the bewitchment of the two
+girls was genuine. The vomiting of needles and nails
+reminded him very much of a recent case in Denmark.
+For the moment the physician spoke, when he said that
+"these swounding Fits were Natural." But it was the
+student of seventeenth-century theology who went on:
+they were "heightened to a great excess by the subtilty
+of the Devil, co-operating with the Malice of these
+which we term Witches, at whose Instance he doth
+these Villanies."</p>
+
+<p>No doubt Browne's words confirmed the sentiment
+of the court room and strengthened the case of the
+prosecution. But it will not be overlooked by the care<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span>ful
+reader that he did not by any means commit himself
+as to the guilt of the parties at the bar.</p>
+
+<p>When the judge found that the prisoners had "nothing
+material" to say for themselves he addressed the
+jury. Perhaps because he was not altogether clear in
+his own mind about the merits of the case, he refused
+to sum up the evidence. It is impossible for us to understand
+why he did not carry further the tests which
+had convinced Kelyng of the fraud, or why he did not
+ask questions which would have uncovered the weakness
+of the testimony. One cannot but suspect that
+North's criticism of him, that he had a "leaning towards
+the Popular" and that he had gained such
+"transcendent" authority as not easily to bear contradiction,<a name="FNanchor_267-1_16" id="FNanchor_267-1_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_267-1_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a>
+was altogether accurate. At all events he
+passed over the evidence and went on to declare that
+there were two problems before the jury: (1) were
+these children bewitched, (2) were the prisoners at the
+bar guilty of it? As to the existence of witches, he
+never doubted it. The Scriptures affirmed it, and all
+nations provided laws against such persons.</p>
+
+<p>On the following Sunday Baron Hale composed a
+meditation upon the subject. Unfortunately it was
+simply a dissertation on Scripture texts and touched
+upon the law at no point.</p>
+
+<p>It is obvious enough to the most casual student that
+Sir Matthew Hale had a chance to anticipate the work
+of Chief Justice Holt and missed it. In the nineties of the
+seventeenth century, as we shall see, there was a man in
+the chief justiceship who dared to nullify the law of
+James I. It is not too much to say that Matthew Hale
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span>by a different charge to the jury could as easily have
+made the current of judicial decisions run in favor of
+accused witches all over England. His weight was
+thrown in the other direction, and the witch-triers for a
+half-century to come invoked the name of Hale.<a name="FNanchor_268-1_17" id="FNanchor_268-1_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_268-1_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p>
+
+<p>There is an interesting though hardly trustworthy
+story told by Speaker Onslow<a name="FNanchor_268-2_18" id="FNanchor_268-2_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_268-2_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a>&mdash;writing a century
+later&mdash;that Hale "was afterwards much altered in his
+notions as to this matter, and had great concern upon
+him for what had befallen these persons." This seems
+the more doubtful because there is not a shred of proof
+that Hale's decisions occasioned a word of criticism
+among his contemporaries.<a name="FNanchor_268-3_19" id="FNanchor_268-3_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_268-3_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> So great, indeed, was the
+spell of his name that not even a man like John Webster
+dared to comment upon his decision. Not indeed until
+nearly the middle of the eighteenth century does anyone
+seem to have felt that the decision called for
+apology.</p>
+
+<p>The third noteworthy ruling in this period anent
+the crime of witchcraft was made a few years later in
+Wiltshire by Justice Rainsford. The story, as he himself
+told it to a colleague, was this: "A Witch was
+brought to Salisbury and tried before him. Sir James
+Long came to his Chamber, and made a heavy Com<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span>plaint
+of this Witch, and said that if she escaped, his
+Estate would not be worth any Thing; for all the People
+would go away. It happen'd that the Witch was
+acquitted, and the Knight continued extremely concern'd;
+therefore the Judge, to save the poor Gentleman's
+Estate, order'd the Woman to be kept in Gaol,
+and that the Town should allow her 2s. 6d. per Week;
+for which he was very thankful. The very next Assizes,
+he came to the Judge to desire his lordship would
+let her come back to the Town. And why? They
+could keep her for 1s. 6d. there; and, in the Gaol, she
+cost them a shilling more."<a name="FNanchor_269-1_20" id="FNanchor_269-1_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_269-1_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> Another case before Justice
+Rainsford showed him less lenient. By a mere
+chance we have a letter, written at the time by one of the
+justices of the peace in Malmesbury, which sheds no little
+light on this affair and on the legal status of witchcraft
+at that time.<a name="FNanchor_269-2_21" id="FNanchor_269-2_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_269-2_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> A certain Ann Tilling had been
+taken into custody on the complaint of Mrs. Webb of
+Malmesbury. The latter's son had swooning fits in
+which he accused Ann of bewitching him. Ann Tilling
+made voluble confession, implicating Elizabeth Peacock
+and Judith Witchell, who had, she declared, inveigled
+her into the practice of their evil arts. Other
+witches were named, and in a short time twelve women
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span>and two men were under accusation. But the alderman
+of Malmesbury, who was the chief magistrate of
+that town, deemed it wise before going further to call
+in four of the justices of the peace in that subdivision
+of the county. Three of these justices of the peace came
+and listened to the confessions, and were about to make
+out a mittimus for sending eleven of the accused to
+Salisbury, when the fourth justice arrived, the man
+who has given us the story. He was, according to his
+own account, not "very credulous in matters of Witchcraft,"
+and he made a speech to the other justices.
+"Gentlemen, what is done at this place, a Borough
+remote from the centre of this large County, and almost
+forty miles from Salisbury, will be expended [<i>sic</i>]
+both by the Reverend Judges, the learned Counsayle
+there ..., and the Gentry of the body of the County,
+so that if anything be done here rashly, it will be severely
+censured." He went on to urge the danger that
+the boy whose fits were the cause of so much excitement
+might be an impostor, and that Ann Tilling, who
+had freely confessed, might be in confederacy with the
+parents. The skeptical justice, who in spite of his
+boasted incredulity was a believer in the reality of
+witchcraft, was successful with his colleagues. All
+the accused were dismissed save Tilling, Peacock, and
+Witchell. They were sent to Salisbury and tried before
+Sir Richard Rainsford. Elizabeth Peacock, who
+had been tried on similar charges before, was dismissed.
+The other two were sentenced to be hanged.<a name="FNanchor_270-1_22" id="FNanchor_270-1_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_270-1_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p>
+
+<p>Ten years later came a fourth remarkable ruling
+against witchcraft, this time by Justice Raymond at
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span>Exeter. During the intervening years there had been
+cases a-plenty in England and a few hangings, but none
+that had attracted comment. It was not until the summer
+of 1682, when three Devonshire women were arraigned,
+tried, and sent to the gallows by Justice Raymond,<a name="FNanchor_271-1_23" id="FNanchor_271-1_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_271-1_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a>
+that the public again realized that witchcraft
+was still upheld by the courts.</p>
+
+<p>The trials in themselves had no very striking features.
+At least two of the three women had been beggars;
+the other, who had been the first accused and who
+had in all probability involved her two companions,
+had on two different occasions before been arraigned
+but let off. The evidence submitted against them
+consisted of the usual sworn statements made by neighbors
+to the justice of the peace, as well as of hardly coherent
+confessions by the accused. The repetition of
+the Lord's Prayer was gone through with and the results
+of examinations by a female jury were detailed
+<i>ad nauseam</i>. The poor creatures on trial were remarkably
+stupid, even for beings of their grade. Their several
+confessions tallied with one another in hardly a
+single point.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Thomas Raymond and Sir Francis North were
+the judges present at the Exeter assizes. Happily the
+latter has left his impressions of this trial.<a name="FNanchor_271-2_24" id="FNanchor_271-2_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_271-2_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> He admits
+that witch trials worried him because the evidence was
+usually slight, but the people very intent upon a verdict
+of guilty. He was very glad that at Exeter his
+colleague who sat upon the "crown side" had to bear
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span>the responsibilities.<a name="FNanchor_272-1_25" id="FNanchor_272-1_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_272-1_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> The two women (he seems to have
+known of no more) were scarce alive as to sense and
+understanding, but were "overwhelm'd with melancholy
+and waking Dreams." Barring confessions, the
+other evidence he considered trifling, and he cites the
+testimony of a witness that "he saw a cat leap in at
+her (the old woman's) window, when it was twilight;
+and this Informant farther saith that he verily believeth
+the said Cat to be the Devil, and more saith not."
+Raymond, declares his colleague, made no nice distinctions
+as to the possibility of melancholy women
+contracting an opinion of themselves that was false,
+but left the matter to the jury.<a name="FNanchor_272-2_26" id="FNanchor_272-2_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_272-2_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></p>
+
+<p>We have already intimated that the rulings of the
+courts were by no means all of them adverse to the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span>witches. Almost contemporaneous with the far-reaching
+sentence of Sir Matthew Hale at Bury were the
+trials in Somerset, where flies and nails and needles
+played a similar part, but where the outcome was very
+different. A zealous justice of the peace, Robert Hunt,
+had for the last eight years been on the lookout for
+witches. In 1663 he had turned Julian Cox over to the
+tender mercies of Justice Archer. By 1664 he had uncovered
+a "hellish knot" of the wicked women and
+was taking depositions against them, wringing confessions
+from them and sending them to gaol with all
+possible speed.<a name="FNanchor_273-1_27" id="FNanchor_273-1_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_273-1_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> The women were of the usual class,
+a herd of poor quarrelsome, bickering females who
+went from house to house seeking alms. In the numbers
+of the accused the discovery resembled that at
+Lancaster in 1633-1634, as indeed it did in other ways.
+A witch meeting or conventicle was confessed to. The
+county was being terrified and entertained by the most
+horrible tales, when suddenly a quietus was put upon
+the affair "by some of them in authority." A witch
+chase, which during the Civil Wars would have led to a
+tragedy, was cut short, probably through the agency
+of a privy council less fearful of popular sentiment
+than the assize judges.</p>
+
+<p>The Mompesson case<a name="FNanchor_273-2_28" id="FNanchor_273-2_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_273-2_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> was of no less importance in
+its time, although it belongs rather in the annals of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span>trickery than in those of witchcraft. But the sensation
+which it caused in England and the controversy
+waged over it between the upholders of witchcraft
+and the "Sadducees," give the story a considerable interest
+and render the outcome of the trial significant.
+The only case of its sort in its time, it was nevertheless
+most typical of the superstition of the time. A little
+town in Wiltshire had been disturbed by a stray drummer.
+The self-constituted noise-maker was called to
+account by a stranger in the village, a Mr. Mompesson
+of Tedworth, who on examining the man's license saw
+that it had been forged and took it away from him.
+This, at any rate, was Mr. Mompesson's story as to
+how he had incurred the ill will of the man. The
+drummer took his revenge in a singular way. Within
+a few days the Mompesson family at Tedworth began
+to be annoyed at night by strange noises or drummings
+on the roofs. All the phenomena and manifestations
+which we associate with a modern haunted-house story
+were observed by this alarmed family of the seventeenth
+century. The little girls were knocked about in
+their beds at night, a stout servant was forcibly held
+hand and foot, the children's shoes were thrown about,
+the chairs glided about the room. It would seem
+that all this bold horse-play must soon have been exposed,
+but it went on merrily. Whenever any tune was
+called for, it was given on the drum. The family
+Bible was thrown upside down into the ashes. For
+three weeks, however, the spirits ceased operations
+during the lying-in of Mrs. Mompesson. But they
+sedulously avoided the family servants, especially when
+those retainers happened to be armed with swords.
+Well they might, for we are told that on one occasion,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span>
+after a pistol shot had been fired at the place where
+they were heard, blood was found on the spot. In
+another instance, according to Mr. Mompesson's own
+account, there were seen figures, "in the shape of
+Men, who, as soon as a Gun was discharg'd, would
+shuffle away together into an Arbour."</p>
+
+<p>It is clear enough that a somewhat clumsy fraud
+was being imposed upon Mr. Mompesson. A contemporary
+writer tells us he was told that it was done by
+"two Young Women in the House with a design to
+scare thence Mr. Mompesson's Mother."<a name="FNanchor_275-1_29" id="FNanchor_275-1_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_275-1_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> From
+other sources it is quite certain that the injured drummer
+had a hand in the affair. A very similar game had
+been played at Woodstock in 1649, and formed a comedy
+situation of which Scott makes brilliant use in his
+novel of that name. Indeed, it is quite possible that the
+drummer, who had been a soldier of Cromwell's, was
+inspired by a memory of that affair.</p>
+
+<p>But there was no one to detect the fraud, as at Woodstock.
+Tedworth became a Mecca for those interested
+in the supernatural. One of the visitors was Joseph
+Glanvill, at this time a young man of twenty-seven,
+later to become a member of the Royal Society and
+chaplain in ordinary to the king. The spirits were less
+noisy; they were always somewhat restrained before
+visitors, but scratched on bed sheets and panted in dog
+fashion, till Glanvill was thoroughly taken in. For the
+rest of his life this psychic experimenter fought a literary
+war over this case with those who made fun of it.
+While we cannot prove it, we may guess with some
+confidence that this episode was the beginning of the
+special interest in the supernatural upon Glanvill's
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span>part which was later to make him the arch-defender
+of the witchcraft superstition in his generation.</p>
+
+<p>How wide an interest the matter evoked may be
+judged from the warm discussions upon it at Cambridge,
+and from the royal interest in it which induced
+Charles to send down a committee of investigation.
+Curiously enough, the spirits were singularly and most
+extraordinarily quiet when the royal investigators were
+at work, a fact to which delighted skeptics pointed
+with satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>One wonders that the drummer, who must have
+known that his name would be connected with the
+affair, failed to realize the risk he was running from
+the witch hunters. He was indicted on minor felonies
+of another sort, but the charges which Mompesson
+brought against him seem to have been passed over.
+The man was condemned for stealing and was transported.
+With his departure the troubles at Tedworth
+ceased. But the drummer, in some way, escaped and
+returned to England. The angry Mompesson now
+brought him to the assizes as a felon on the strength
+of the statute of James I. Unhappily we have no details
+of this trial, nor do we know even the name of the
+judge; but we do know that the jury gave a verdict of
+acquittal.</p>
+
+<p>In 1671 Cornwall was stirred up over a witch whose
+crimes were said to be directed against the state. She
+had hindered the English fleet in their war against the
+Dutch, she had caused a bull to kill one of the enemies
+in Parliament of the Non-Conformists, she had been
+responsible for the barrenness of the queen. And for
+all these political crimes the chief evidence was that
+some cats had been seen playing ("dancing") near her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span>
+house. She was committed, along with several other
+women who were accused. Although at the assizes
+they were all proved to have had cats and rats about
+them, they went free.<a name="FNanchor_277-1_30" id="FNanchor_277-1_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_277-1_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></p>
+
+<p>In 1682, the same year in which the three women
+of Devonshire had been condemned, there was a trial
+at Southwark, just outside of London, which resulted
+in a verdict of acquittal. The case had many of the
+usual features, but in two points was unique. Joan
+Butts was accused of having bewitched a child that
+had been taken with fits.<a name="FNanchor_277-2_31" id="FNanchor_277-2_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_277-2_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> Nineteen or twenty witnesses
+testified against the witch. One of the witnesses
+heard her say that, if she had not bewitched the
+child, if all the devils in hell could help her, she would
+bewitch it. Joan admitted the words, but said that
+she had spoken them in passion. She then turned on
+one of the witnesses and declared that he had given
+himself to the Devil, body and soul. Chief Justice
+Pemberton was presiding, and he called her to order
+for this attack on a witness, and then catechized her as
+to her means of knowing the fact. The woman had
+thoughtlessly laid herself open by her own words to
+the most serious suspicion. In spite of this, however,
+the jury brought her in not guilty, "to the great amazement
+of some, ... yet others who consider the great
+difficulty in proving a Witch, thought the jury could do
+no less than acquit her."</p>
+
+<p>This was, during the period, the one trial in or near
+London of which we have details. There can be no
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span>doubt that the courts in London and the vicinity were
+beginning to ignore cases of witchcraft. After 1670
+there were no more trials of the sort in Middlesex.</p>
+
+<p>The reader will remember that Justice North had
+questioned the equity of Justice Raymond's decision at
+Exeter. He has told us the story of a trial at Taunton-Dean,
+where he himself had to try a witch.<a name="FNanchor_278-1_32" id="FNanchor_278-1_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_278-1_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> A ten-year-old
+girl, who was taking strange fits and spitting
+out pins, was the witness against an old man whom
+she accused of bewitching her. The defendant made
+"a Defence as orderly and well expressed as I ever
+heard spoke." The judge then asked the justice of the
+peace who had committed the man his opinion. He
+said that he believed the girl, "doubling herself in her
+Fit, as being convulsed, bent her Head down close to
+her Stomacher, and with her Mouth, took Pins out of
+the Edge of that, and then, righting herself a little,
+spit them into some By-stander's Hands." "The Sum
+of it was Malice, Threatening, and Circumstances of
+Imposture in the Girl." As the judge went downstairs
+after the man had been acquitted, "an hideous old
+woman" cried to him, "My Lord, Forty Years ago
+they would have hang'd me for a Witch, and they could
+not; and now they would have hang'd my poor Son."</p>
+
+<p>The five cases we have cited, while not so celebrated
+as those on the other side, were quite as representative
+of what was going on in England. It is to be regretted
+that we have not the records by which to compute the
+acquittals of this period. In a large number of cases
+where we have depositions we have no statement of the
+outcome. This is particularly true of Yorkshire. As
+has been pointed out in the earlier part of the chapter,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span>we can be sure that most of these cases were dismissed
+or were never brought to trial.</p>
+
+<p>When we come to the question of the forms of evidence
+presented during this period, we have a story
+that has been told before. Female juries, convulsive
+children or child pretenders, we have met them all
+before. Two or three differences may nevertheless be
+noted. The use of spectral evidence was becoming increasingly
+common. The spectres, as always, assumed
+weird forms. Nicholas Rames's wife (at Longwitton,
+in the north) saw Elizabeth Fenwick and the Devil
+dancing together.<a name="FNanchor_279-1_33" id="FNanchor_279-1_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_279-1_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> A sick boy in Cornwall saw a
+"Woman in a blue Jerkin and Red Petticoat with Yellow
+and Green patches," who was quickly identified
+and put in hold.<a name="FNanchor_279-2_34" id="FNanchor_279-2_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_279-2_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> Sometimes the spectres were more
+material. Jane Milburne of Newcastle testified that
+Dorothy Stranger, in the form of a cat, had leaped upon
+her and held her to the ground for a quarter of an
+hour.<a name="FNanchor_279-3_35" id="FNanchor_279-3_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_279-3_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> A "Barber's boy" in Cambridge had escaped
+from a spectral woman in the isle of Ely, but she followed
+him to Cambridge and killed him with a blow.
+"He had the exact mark in his forehead, being dead,
+where the Spiritual Woman did hit him alive."<a name="FNanchor_279-4_36" id="FNanchor_279-4_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_279-4_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> It is unnecessary
+to multiply cases. The <i>Collection of Modern
+Relations</i> is full of the same sort of evidence.</p>
+
+<p>It has been seen that in nearly every epoch of witch
+history the voluntary and involuntary confessions of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span>the accused had greatly simplified the difficulties of
+prosecution. The witches whom Matthew Hopkins
+discovered were too ready to confess to enormous and
+unnatural crimes. In this respect there is a marked
+change in the period of the later Stuarts. Elizabeth
+Style of Somerset in 1663 and the three Devonshire
+witches of 1682 were the only ones who made
+confessions. Elizabeth Style<a name="FNanchor_280-1_37" id="FNanchor_280-1_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_280-1_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> had probably been
+"watched," in spite of Glanvill's statement to the contrary,
+perhaps somewhat in the same torturing way as
+the Suffolk witches whom Hopkins "discovered," and
+her wild confession showed the effect. The Devonshire
+women were half-witted creatures, of the type that had
+always been most voluble in confession; but such were
+now exceptions.</p>
+
+<p>This means one of two things. Either the witches
+of the Restoration were by some chance a more intelligent
+set, or they were showing more spirit than ever
+before because they had more supporters and fairer
+treatment in court. It is quite possible that both suppositions
+have in them some elements of truth. As the
+belief in the powers of witches developed in form and
+theory, it came to draw within its radius more groups
+of people. In its earlier stages the attack upon the
+witch had been in part the community's way of ridding
+itself of a disreputable member. By the time that
+the process of attack had been developed for a century,
+it had become less impersonal. Personal hatreds
+were now more often the occasion of accusation. Individual
+malice was playing a larger rôle. In consequence
+those who were accused were more often those
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span>who were capable of fighting for themselves or who
+had friends to back them. And those friends were
+more numerous and zealous because the attitude of
+the public and of the courts was more friendly to the
+accused witch. This explanation is at best, however,
+nothing more than a suggestion. We have not the material
+for confident generalization.</p>
+
+<p>One other form of evidence must be mentioned. The
+town of Newcastle, which in 1649 had sent to Scotland
+for a witchfinder, was able in 1673 to make use of
+home-grown talent. In this instance it was a woman,
+Ann Armstrong, who implicated a score of her neighbors
+and at length went around pointing out witches.
+She was a smooth-witted woman who was probably
+taking a shrewd method of turning off charges against
+herself. Her testimony dealt with witch gatherings
+or conventicles held at various times and places. She
+told whom she had seen there and what they had said
+about their crimes. She told of their feasts and of their
+dances. Poor woman, she had herself been compelled
+to sing for them while they danced. Nor was this the
+worst. She had been terribly misused. She had been
+often turned into a horse, then bridled and ridden.<a name="FNanchor_281-1_38" id="FNanchor_281-1_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_281-1_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></p>
+
+<p>It would not be worth while to go further into Ann
+Armstrong's stories. It is enough to remark that she
+offered details, as to harm done to certain individuals
+in certain ways, which tallied closely with the sworn
+statements of those individuals as to what had happened
+to them at the times specified. The conclusion
+cannot be avoided that the female witchfinder had been
+at no small pains to get even such minute details in exact
+form. She had gathered together all the witch
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span>stories of that part of Northumberland and had embodied
+them in her account of the confessions made at
+the "conventicles."</p>
+
+<p>What was the ruling of the court on all this evidence
+we do not know. We have only one instance in which
+any evidence was ruled out. That was at the trial of
+Julian Cox in 1663. Justice Archer tried an experiment
+in that trial, but before doing so he explained to
+the court that no account was to be taken of the result
+in making up their verdict. He had heard that a witch
+could not repeat the petition in the Lord's Prayer,
+"Lead us not into temptation." The witch indeed
+failed to meet the test.<a name="FNanchor_282-1_39" id="FNanchor_282-1_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_282-1_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p>
+
+<p>In the course of this period we have two trials that
+reveal a connection between witchcraft and other
+crimes. Perhaps it would be fairer to say that the
+charge of witchcraft was sometimes made when other
+crimes were suspected, but could not be proved. The
+first case concerned a rich farmer in Northamptonshire
+who had gained the ill will of a woman named Ann
+Foster. Thirty of his sheep were found dead with
+their "Leggs broke in pieces, and their Bones all shattered
+in their Skins." A little later his house and barns
+were set on fire. Ann Foster was brought to trial for
+using witchcraft against him, confessed to it, and was
+hanged.<a name="FNanchor_282-2_40" id="FNanchor_282-2_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_282-2_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p>
+
+<p>The other case was at Brightling in Sussex, not far
+from London. There a woman who was suspected as
+the one who had told a servant that Joseph Cruther's
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span>house would be burned&mdash;a prophecy which came true
+very shortly&mdash;was accused as a witch. She had been
+accused years before at the Maidstone assizes, but had
+gone free. This time she was "watched" for twenty-four
+hours and four ministers kept a fast over the
+affair.<a name="FNanchor_283-1_41" id="FNanchor_283-1_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_283-1_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a></p>
+
+<p>These cases are worth something as an indication that
+the charge of witchcraft was still a method of getting
+rid of people whom the community feared.</p>
+
+<p>At the beginning of this chapter the years 1660 to
+1688 were marked off as constituting a single epoch in
+the history of the superstition. Yet those years
+were by no means characterized by the same sort of
+court verdicts. The sixties saw a decided increase over
+the years of the Commonwealth in the number of trials
+and in the number of executions. The seventies witnessed
+a rapid dropping off in both figures. Even more
+so the eighties. By the close of the eighties the accounts
+of witchcraft were exceedingly rare. The decisions
+of the courts in the matter were in a state of
+fluctuation. Two things were happening. The justices
+of the peace were growing much more reluctant
+to send accused witches to the assize courts; and the
+itinerant judges as a body were, in spite of the decisions
+of Hale and Raymond, more careful in witch trials
+than ever before, and more likely to withstand public
+sentiment.</p>
+
+<p>The changes of opinion, as reflected in the literature
+of the time, especially in the literature of the subject,
+will show the same tendencies. We shall take them up
+in the next chapter.</p>
+
+<hr class="foot" />
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_255-1_1" id="Footnote_255-1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_255-1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> See Raine, ed., <i>York Depositions</i> (Surtees Soc.), preface, xxx.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_256-1_2" id="Footnote_256-1_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_256-1_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Joseph Hunter, <i>Life of Heywood</i> (London, 1842), 167, and Heywood's
+<i>Diaries</i>, ed. J. H. Turner (Brighouse, 1881-1885), I, 199; III,
+100. Heywood, who was one of the leading Dissenters of his time,
+must not be credited with extreme superstition. In noting the death of
+a boy whom his parents believed bewitched, he wrote, "Oh that they
+saw the lords hand." <i>Diary</i>, I, 287.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_256-2_3" id="Footnote_256-2_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_256-2_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> William Drage, <i>Daimonomageia</i> (London, 1665), 32-38.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_257-1_4" id="Footnote_257-1_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_257-1_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> <i>The Lord's Arm Stretched Out, ... or a True Relation of the wonderful
+Deliverance of James Barrow ...</i> (London, 1664).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_257-2_5" id="Footnote_257-2_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_257-2_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Compare Drage, <i>op. cit.</i>, 36, 39, 42, with <i>The Lord's Arm Stretched
+Out</i>, 17. Mary Hall, whose cure Drage celebrates, had friends among
+the Baptists. Drage seems to connect her case with those of Barrow
+and Hannah Crump, both of whom were helped by that "dispirited
+people" whom the author of <i>The Lord's Arm Stretched Out</i> exalts.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_257-3_6" id="Footnote_257-3_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_257-3_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Drage, <i>op. cit.</i>, 34.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_257-4_7" id="Footnote_257-4_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_257-4_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> <i>Yorkshire Notes and Queries</i>, I (Bradford, 1885), 26. But a
+physician in Winchester Park, whom Hannah Crump had consulted,
+had asked five pounds to unbewitch her.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_258-1_8" id="Footnote_258-1_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_258-1_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Drage, <i>op. cit.</i>, 39.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_259-1_9" id="Footnote_259-1_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_259-1_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> <i>York Depositions</i>, 127.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_259-2_10" id="Footnote_259-2_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_259-2_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> See E. Mackenzie, <i>History of Northumberland</i> (Newcastle, 1825),
+II, 33-36. We do not know that the woman was excused, but the case
+was before Henry Ogle and we may fairly guess the outcome.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_260-1_11" id="Footnote_260-1_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_260-1_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Glanvill, <i>Sadducismus Triumphatus</i>, pt. ii, 191-209.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_261-1_12" id="Footnote_261-1_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_261-1_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> This is the estimate of him by North, who adds: "and he knew it."
+Roger North, <i>Life of the Rt. Hon. Francis North, Baron of Guilford ...</i>
+(London, 1742), 62-63.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_262-1_13" id="Footnote_262-1_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_262-1_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> <i>Diary and Correspondence of Dr. John Worthington</i>, II, pt. I
+(Chetham Soc., no. 36, 1855), 155.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_266-1_14" id="Footnote_266-1_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_266-1_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> In his <i>Religio Medici</i>. See <i>Sir Thomas Browne's Works</i> (ed. S.
+Wilkin, London, 1851-1852), II, 43.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_266-2_15" id="Footnote_266-2_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_266-2_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, IV, 389.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_267-1_16" id="Footnote_267-1_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_267-1_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Roger North, <i>op. cit.</i>, 61.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_268-1_17" id="Footnote_268-1_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_268-1_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Inderwick has given a good illustration of Hale's weakness of
+character: "I confess," he says, "to a feeling of pain at finding him in
+October, 1660, sitting as a judge at the Old Bailey, trying and condemning
+to death batches of the regicides, men under whose orders he
+had himself acted, who had been his colleagues in parliament, with
+whom he had sat on committees to alter the law." <i>Interregnum</i>, 217-218.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_268-2_18" id="Footnote_268-2_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_268-2_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> <i>Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports</i>, XIV, 9, p. 480.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_268-3_19" id="Footnote_268-3_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_268-3_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Bishop Burnet, in his <i>Life and Death of Sir Matthew Hale</i> (London,
+1682), does not seem to have felt called upon to mention the Bury
+trial at all. See also Lord Campbell, <i>Lives of the Chief Justices</i> (London,
+1849), I, 563-567.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_269-1_20" id="Footnote_269-1_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_269-1_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Roger North, <i>op. cit.</i>, 130, 131. The story, as here told, ascribes
+the event to the year preceding Lord Guilford's first western circuit&mdash;<i>i. e.</i>,
+to 1674. But this perhaps need not be taken too exactly, and the
+witch was probably that Elizabeth Peacock who was acquitted in 1670
+and again in the case of 1672 described above. At least the list of
+"Indictments for witchcraft on the Western Circuit from 1670 to 1712,"
+published by Inderwick in his <i>Sidelights on the Stuarts</i> (London, 1888),
+shows no other acquittal in Wiltshire during this decade.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_269-2_21" id="Footnote_269-2_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_269-2_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> For this letter see the <i>Gentleman's Magazine</i>, 1832, pt. I, 405-410,
+489-402. The story is confirmed in part by Inderwick's finds in the
+western Gaol Delivery records. As to the trustworthiness of this unknown
+justice of the peace, see above, pp. 160, 162, and notes.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_270-1_22" id="Footnote_270-1_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_270-1_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> That the judge was Sir Richard Rainsford appears from Inderwick's
+list, mentioned above, note 20.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_271-1_23" id="Footnote_271-1_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_271-1_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> <i>A True and Impartial Relation of the Informations against ...
+Temperance Lloyd, Mary Trembles, and Susanna Edwards</i> (London,
+1682). And <i>The Tryal, Condemnation and Execution of Three Witches ...</i>
+(London, 1682). See also below, note 26, and appendix A, § 6.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_271-2_24" id="Footnote_271-2_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_271-2_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Roger North, <i>op. cit.</i>, 130.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_272-1_25" id="Footnote_272-1_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_272-1_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> At a trial at the York assizes in 1687 Sir John Reresby seems to
+have played about the same part that North played at Exeter. Serjeant
+Powell, later to be chief justice, was presiding over the case. "An
+old woman was condemned for a witch. Those who were more credulous
+in points of this nature than myself, conceived the evidence to be very
+strong against her. The boy she was said to have bewitched fell
+down on a sudden before all the court when he saw her, and would
+then as suddenly return to himself again, and very distinctly relate
+the several injuries she had done him: but in all this it was observed
+the boy was free from any distortion; that he did not foam at the
+mouth, and that his fits did not leave him gradually, but all at once;
+so that, upon the whole, the judge thought it proper to reprieve her."
+<i>Memoirs and Travels of Sir John Reresby</i> (London, 1813), 329.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_272-2_26" id="Footnote_272-2_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_272-2_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> There is indeed some evidence that Raymond wished not to condemn
+the women, but yielded nevertheless to public opinion. In a pamphlet
+published five years later it is stated that the judge "in his charge
+to the jury gave his Opinion that these three poor Women (as he supposed)
+were weary of their Lives, and that he thought it proper for
+them to be carryed to the Parish from whence they came, and that the
+Parish should be charged with their Maintainance; for he thought their
+oppressing Poverty had constrained them to wish for Death." Unhappily
+the neighbors made such an outcry that the women were found
+guilty and sentenced. This is from a later and somewhat untrustworthy
+account, but it fits in well with what North says of the case.
+<i>The Life and Conversation of Temperance Floyd, Mary Lloyd</i> [sic],
+<i>and Susanna Edwards: ...</i> (London, 1687).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_273-1_27" id="Footnote_273-1_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_273-1_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> The second part of Glanvill's <i>Sadducismus Triumphatus</i> is full of
+these depositions.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_273-2_28" id="Footnote_273-2_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_273-2_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> For a full account of this affair see Glanvill's <i>Sadducismus Triumphatus</i>,
+pt. ii, preface and Relation I. Glanvill had investigated the
+matter and had diligently collected all the evidence. He was familiar
+also with what the "deriders" had to say, and we can discover their
+point of view from his answers. See also John Beaumont, <i>An Historical,
+Physiological and Theological Treatise of Spirits, Apparitions,
+Witchcrafts, and other Magical Practices</i> (London, 1705), 307-309.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_275-1_29" id="Footnote_275-1_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_275-1_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 309.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_277-1_30" id="Footnote_277-1_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_277-1_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> <i>Cal. St. P., Dom., 1671</i>, 105, 171.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_277-2_31" id="Footnote_277-2_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_277-2_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> We have two accounts of this affair: <i>Strange and Wonderful News
+from Yowell in Surry</i> (1681), and <i>An Account of the Tryal and Examination
+of Joan Buts</i> (1682).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_278-1_32" id="Footnote_278-1_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_278-1_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> Roger North, <i>op. cit.</i>, 131-132.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_279-1_33" id="Footnote_279-1_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_279-1_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> <i>York Depositions</i>, 247.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_279-2_34" id="Footnote_279-2_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_279-2_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> <i>A True Account ... of one John Tonken, of Pensans in Cornwall
+...</i> (1686). For other examples of spectral evidence see <i>York Depositions</i>,
+88; Roberts, <i>Southern Counties</i> (London, 1856), 525-526; <i>Gentleman's
+Magazine</i>, 1832, pt. II, 489.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_279-3_35" id="Footnote_279-3_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_279-3_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> <i>York Depositions</i>, 112, 113.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_279-4_36" id="Footnote_279-4_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_279-4_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> Drage, <i>Daimonomageia</i>, 12.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_280-1_37" id="Footnote_280-1_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_280-1_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> For an account of her case, see Glanvill, <i>Sadducismus Triumphatus</i>,
+pt. ii, 127-146.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_281-1_38" id="Footnote_281-1_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_281-1_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> <i>York Depositions</i>, 191-201.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_282-1_39" id="Footnote_282-1_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_282-1_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> For a complete account of the Julian Cox case see Glanvill, <i>Sadducismus
+Triumphatus</i>, pt. ii, 191-209.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_282-2_40" id="Footnote_282-2_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_282-2_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> <i>A Full and True Relation of the Tryal ... of Ann Foster ...</i> (London,
+1674).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_283-1_41" id="Footnote_283-1_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_283-1_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> <i>Sussex Archaeological Collections</i>, XVIII, 111-113.</p></div>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2 class="chapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+<h3 class="chapter2">Glanvill and Webster and the Literary War over
+Witchcraft, 1660-1688.</h3>
+
+
+<p>In an earlier chapter we followed the progress of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span>
+opinion from James I to the Restoration. We saw
+that in the course of little more than a half-century
+the centre of the controversy had been considerably
+shifted: we noted that there was a growing body of
+intelligent men who discredited the stories of witchcraft
+and were even inclined to laugh at them. It is
+now our purpose to go on with the history of opinion
+from the point at which we left off to the revolution
+of 1688. We shall discover that the body of literature
+on the subject was enormously increased. We shall
+see that a larger and more representative group of men
+were expressing themselves on the matter. The controversialists
+were no longer bushwhackers, but crafty
+warriors who joined battle after looking over the field
+and measuring their forces. The groundworks of philosophy
+were tested, the bases of religious faith examined.
+The days of skirmishing about the ordeal
+of water and the test of the Devil's marks were gone
+by. The combatants were now to fight over the reality
+or unreality of supernatural phenomena. We shall
+observe that the battle was less one-sided than ever
+before and that the assailants of superstition, who up
+to this time had been outnumbered, now fought on at
+least even terms with their enemies. We shall see too
+that the non-participants and onlookers were more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span>
+ready than ever before to join themselves to the party
+of attack.</p>
+
+<p>The struggle was indeed a miniature war and in the
+main was fought very fairly. But it was natural that
+those who disbelieved should resort to ridicule. It was
+a form of attack to which their opponents exposed
+themselves by their faith in the utterly absurd stories
+of silly women. Cervantes with his Don Quixote
+laughed chivalry out of Europe, and there was a class
+in society that would willingly have laughed witchcraft
+out of England. Their onslaught was one most
+difficult to repel. Nevertheless the defenders of witchcraft
+met the challenge squarely. With unwearying
+patience and absolute confidence in their cause they
+collected the testimonies for their narratives and then
+said to those who laughed: Here are the facts; what
+are you going to do about them?</p>
+
+<p>The last chapter told of the alarms in Somerset and
+in Wilts and showed what a stir they produced in England.
+In connection with those affairs was mentioned
+the name of that brave researcher, Mr. Glanvill. The
+history of the witch literature of this period is little
+more than an account of Joseph Glanvill, of his opinions,
+of his controversies, of his disciples and his opponents.
+It is not too much to say that in Glanvill the
+superstition found its ablest advocate. In acuteness
+of logical distinction, in the cleverness and brilliance
+of his intellectual sword-play, he excelled all
+others before and after who sought to defend the belief
+in witchcraft. He was a man entitled to speak with
+some authority. A member of Exeter College at Oxford,
+he had been in 1664 elected a fellow of the recently
+founded Royal Society and was in sympathy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span>
+with its point of view. At the same time he was a philosopher
+of no small influence in his generation.</p>
+
+<p>His intellectual position is not difficult to determine.
+He was an opponent of the Oxford scholasticism and
+inclined towards a school of thought represented by
+Robert Fludd, the two Vaughans, Henry More, and
+Van Helmont,<a name="FNanchor_286-1_1" id="FNanchor_286-1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_286-1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> men who had drunk deeply of the cabalistic
+writers, disciples of Paracelsus and Pico della
+Mirandola. It would be foolhardy indeed for a layman
+to attempt an elucidation of the subtleties either of this
+philosophy or of the processes of Glanvill's philosophical
+reasoning. His point of view was partially unfolded
+in the <i>Scepsis Scientifica</i>, published in 1665<a name="FNanchor_286-2_2" id="FNanchor_286-2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_286-2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> and
+dedicated to the Royal Society. In this treatise he
+pointed out our present ignorance of phenomena and
+our inability to determine their real character, owing
+to the subjectivity of our perceptions of them, and
+insisted consequently upon the danger of dogmatism.
+He himself had drawn but a cockle-shell of water
+from the ocean of knowledge. His notion of spirit&mdash;if
+his works on witchcraft may be trusted&mdash;seems to
+have been that it is a light and invisible form of matter
+capable of detachment from or infusion into more
+solid substances&mdash;precisely the idea of Henry More.
+Religiously, it would not be far wrong to call him a
+reconstructionist&mdash;to use a much abused and exceedingly
+modern term. He did not, indeed, admit the existence
+of any gap between religion and science that
+needed bridging over, but the trend of his teaching,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span>though he would hardly have admitted it, was to show
+that the mysteries of revealed religion belong in the
+field of unexplored science.<a name="FNanchor_287-1_3" id="FNanchor_287-1_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_287-1_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> It was his confidence in
+the far possibilities opened by investigation in that field,
+together with the cabalistic notions he had absorbed,
+which rendered him so willing to become a student of
+psychical phenomena.</p>
+
+<p>Little wonder, then, that he found the Mompesson
+and Somerset cases material to his hand and that he
+seized upon them eagerly as irrefutable proof of demoniacal
+agency. His first task, indeed, was to prove
+the alleged facts; these once established, they could be
+readily fitted into a comprehensive scheme of reasoning.
+In 1666 he issued a small volume, <i>Some Philosophical
+Considerations touching Witches and Witchcraft</i>.
+Most of the first edition was burned in the fire of London,
+but the book was reprinted. Already by 1668 it
+had reached a fourth impression.<a name="FNanchor_287-2_4" id="FNanchor_287-2_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_287-2_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> In this edition the
+work took the new title <i>A Blow at Modern Sadducism</i>,
+and it was republished again in 1681 with further additions
+as <i>Sadducismus Triumphatus</i>, which might be
+translated "Unbelief Conquered."<a name="FNanchor_287-3_5" id="FNanchor_287-3_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_287-3_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> The work continued
+to be called for faster than the publisher could
+supply the demand, and went through several more
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span>revisions and reimpressions. One of the most popular
+books of the generation, it proved to be Glanvill's greatest
+title to contemporary fame. The success of the
+work was no doubt due in large measure to the collection
+of witch stories; but these had been inserted by the
+author as the groundwork of his argument. He recognized,
+as no one on his side of the controversy had done
+before, the force of the arguments made by the opposition.
+They were good points, but to them all he offered
+one short answer&mdash;the evidence of proved fact.<a name="FNanchor_288-1_6" id="FNanchor_288-1_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_288-1_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a>
+That such transformations as were ascribed to the
+witches were ridiculous, that contracts between the
+Devil and agents who were already under his control
+were absurd, that the Devil would never put himself
+at the nod and beck of miserable women, and that
+Providence would not permit His children to be thus
+buffeted by the evil one: these were the current objections;<a name="FNanchor_288-2_7" id="FNanchor_288-2_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_288-2_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a>
+and to them all Glanvill replied that one positive
+fact is worth a thousand negative arguments. Innumerable
+frauds had been exposed. Yes, he knew it,<a name="FNanchor_288-3_8" id="FNanchor_288-3_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_288-3_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a>
+but here were well authenticated cases that were not
+fraud. Glanvill put the issue squarely. His confidence
+in his case at once wins admiration. He was thoroughly
+sincere. The fly in the ointment was of course
+that his best authenticated cases could not stand any
+careful criticism. He had been furnished the narratives
+which he used by "honest and honourable
+friends." Yet, if this scientific investigator could be
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span>duped, as he had been at Tedworth, much more those
+worthy but credulous friends whom he quoted.</p>
+
+<p>From a simple assertion that he was presenting facts
+Glanvill went on to make a plea used often nowadays
+in another connection by defenders of miracles. If the
+ordinary mind, he said, could not understand "every
+thing done by Mathematics and Mechanical Artifice,"<a name="FNanchor_289-1_9" id="FNanchor_289-1_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_289-1_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a>
+how much more would even the most knowing of us
+fail to understand the power of witches. This proposition,
+the reader can see, was nothing more than a
+working out of one of the principles of his philosophy.
+There can be no doubt that he would have taken the
+same ground about miracles,<a name="FNanchor_289-2_10" id="FNanchor_289-2_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_289-2_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> a position that must
+have alarmed many of his contemporaries.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of his emphasis of fact, Glanvill was as ready
+as any to enter into a theological disquisition. Into
+those rarefied regions of thought we shall not follow
+him. It will perhaps not be out of order, however,
+to note two or three points that were thoroughly typical
+of his reasoning. To the contention that, if a wicked
+spirit could work harm by the use of a witch, it should
+be able to do so without any intermediary and so to
+harass all of mankind all of the time, he answered that
+the designs of demons are levelled at the soul and
+can in consequence best be carried on in secret.<a name="FNanchor_289-3_11" id="FNanchor_289-3_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_289-3_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> To
+the argument that when one considers the "vileness of
+men" one would expect that the evil spirits would practise
+their arts not on a few but on a great many, he
+replied that men are not liable to be troubled by them
+till they have forfeited the "tutelary care and oversight
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span>of the better spirits," and, furthermore, spirits find it
+difficult to assume such shapes as are necessary for
+"their Correspondencie with Witches." It is a hard
+thing for spirits "to force their thin and tenuious
+bodies into a visible consistence.... For, in this Action,
+their Bodies must needs be exceedingly compress'd."<a name="FNanchor_290-1_12" id="FNanchor_290-1_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_290-1_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a>
+To the objection that the belief in evil beings makes it
+plausible that the miracles of the Bible were wrought
+by the agency of devils,<a name="FNanchor_290-2_13" id="FNanchor_290-2_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_290-2_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> he replied that the miracles
+of the Gospel are notoriously contrary to the tendency,
+aims, and interests of the kingdom of darkness.<a name="FNanchor_290-3_14" id="FNanchor_290-3_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_290-3_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> The
+suggestion that witches would not renounce eternal
+happiness for short and trivial pleasures here,<a name="FNanchor_290-4_15" id="FNanchor_290-4_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_290-4_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> he silenced
+by saying that "Mankind acts sometimes to prodigious
+degrees of brutishness."</p>
+
+<p>It is needless to go further in quoting his arguments.
+Doubtless both questions and answers seem quibbles
+to the present-day reader, but the force of Glanvill's
+replies from the point of view of his contemporaries
+must not be underestimated. He was indeed the first
+defender of witchcraft who in any reasoned manner
+tried to clear up the problems proposed by the opposition.
+His answers were without question the best that
+could be given.</p>
+
+<p>It is easy for us to forget the theological background
+of seventeenth-century English thought. Given a personal
+Devil who is constantly intriguing against the
+kingdom of God (and who would then have dared to
+deny such a premise?), grant that the Devil has
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span>supernatural powers (and there were Scripture texts
+to prove it), and it was but a short step to the
+belief in witches. The truth is that Glanvill's
+theories were much more firmly grounded on the bedrock
+of seventeenth-century theology than those of his
+opponents. His opponents were attempting to use
+common sense, but it was a sort of common sense
+which, however little they saw it, must undermine the
+current religious convictions.</p>
+
+<p>Glanvill was indeed exceedingly up-to-date in his
+own time. Not but that he had read the learned old
+authors. He was familiar with what "the great Episcopius"
+had to say, he had dipped into Reginald Scot
+and deemed him too "ridiculous" to answer.<a name="FNanchor_291-1_16" id="FNanchor_291-1_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_291-1_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> But he
+cared far more about the arguments that he heard advanced
+in every-day conversation. These were the
+arguments that he attempted to answer. His work reflected
+the current discussions of the subject. It was,
+indeed, the growing opposition among those whom he
+met that stirred him most. Not without sadness he
+recognized that "most of the looser Gentry and small
+pretenders to Philosophy and Wit are generally deriders
+of the belief of Witches and Apparitions."<a name="FNanchor_291-2_17" id="FNanchor_291-2_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_291-2_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a>
+Like an animal at bay, he turned fiercely on them.
+"Let them enjoy the Opinion of their own Superlative
+Judgements" and run madly after Scot, Hobbes, and
+Osborne. It was, in truth, a danger to religion that he
+was trying to ward off. One of the fundamentals of
+religion was at stake. The denial of witchcraft was a
+phase of prevalent atheism. Those that give up the
+belief in witches, give up that in the Devil, then that
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span>in the immortality of the soul.<a name="FNanchor_292-1_18" id="FNanchor_292-1_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_292-1_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> The question at issue
+was the reality of the spirit world.</p>
+
+<p>It can be seen why the man was tremendously in
+earnest. One may indeed wonder if his intensity of
+feeling on the matter was not responsible for his accepting
+as <i>bona fide</i> narratives those which his common
+sense should have made him reject. In defending
+the authenticity of the remarkable stories told by the
+accusers of Julian Cox,<a name="FNanchor_292-2_19" id="FNanchor_292-2_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_292-2_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> he was guilty of a degree of
+credulity that passes belief. Perhaps the reader will
+recall the incident of the hunted rabbit that vanished
+behind a bush and was transformed into a panting
+woman, no other than the accused Julian Cox. This
+tale must indeed have strained Glanvill's utmost capacity
+of belief. Yet he rose bravely to the occasion.
+Determined not to give up any well-supported fact, he
+urged that probably the Devil had sent a spirit to take
+the apparent form of the hare while he had hurried
+the woman to the bush and had presumably kept her
+invisible until she was found by the boy. It was the
+Nemesis of a bad cause that its greatest defender
+should have let himself indulge in such absurdities.</p>
+
+<p>In truth we may be permitted to wonder if the philosopher
+was altogether true to his own position. In
+his <i>Scepsis Scientifica</i> he had talked hopefully about the
+possibility that science might explain what as yet
+seemed supernatural.<a name="FNanchor_292-3_20" id="FNanchor_292-3_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_292-3_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> This came perilously near to
+saying that the realms of the supernatural, when explored,
+would turn out to be natural and subject to
+natural law. If this were true, what would become of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span>all those bulwarks of religion furnished by the wonders
+of witchcraft? It looks very much as if Glanvill had
+let an inconsistency creep into his philosophy.</p>
+
+<p>It was two years after Glanvill's first venture that
+Meric Casaubon issued his work entitled <i>Of Credulity
+and Incredulity in Things Natural, Civil, and Divine</i>.<a name="FNanchor_293-1_21" id="FNanchor_293-1_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_293-1_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a>
+On account of illness, however, as he tells the reader in
+his preface, he had been unable to complete the book,
+and it dealt only with "Things Natural" and "Things
+Civil." "Things Divine" became the theme of a
+separate volume, which appeared in 1670 under the
+title <i>Of Credulity and Incredulity in Things Divine
+and Spiritual: wherein ... the business of Witches and
+Witchcraft, against a late Writer, [is] fully Argued
+and Disputed</i>. The interest of this scholar in the subject
+of witchcraft was, as we have seen, by no means
+recent. When a young rector in Somerset he had attended
+a trial of witches, quite possibly the identical
+trial that had moved Bernard to appeal to grand jurymen.
+We have noted in an earlier chapter<a name="FNanchor_293-2_22" id="FNanchor_293-2_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_293-2_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> that Casaubon
+in 1654, writing on <i>Enthusiasm</i>, had touched
+lightly upon the subject. It will be recalled that he had
+come very near to questioning the value of confessions.
+Five years later, in prefacing a <i>Relation of what passed
+between Dr. Dee and some Spirits</i>, he had anticipated
+the conclusions of his <i>Credulity and Incredulity</i>. Those
+conclusions were mainly in accord with Glanvill. With
+a good will he admitted that the denying of witches
+was a "very plausible cause." Nothing was more liable
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span>to be fraud than the exhibitions given at trials, nothing
+less trustworthy than the accounts of what witches
+had done. Too many cases originated in the ignorance
+of ministers who were on the look-out "in every wild
+notion or phansie" for a "suggestion of the Devil."<a name="FNanchor_294-1_23" id="FNanchor_294-1_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_294-1_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a>
+But, like Glanvill, and indeed like the spiritualists of
+to-day, he insisted that many cases of fraud do not
+establish a negative. There is a very large body of narratives
+so authentic that to doubt them would be evidence
+of infidelity. Casaubon rarely doubted, although
+he sought to keep the doubting spirit. It was hard for
+him not to believe what he had read or had been told.
+He was naturally credulous, particularly when he read
+the stories of the classical writers. For this attitude
+of mind he was hardly to be censured. Criticism was
+but beginning to be applied to the tales of Roman and
+Greek writers. Their works were full of stories of
+magic and enchantment, and it was not easy for a seventeenth-century
+student to shake himself free from
+their authority. Nor would Casaubon have wished to
+do so. He belonged to the past both by religion and
+raining, and he must be reckoned among the upholders
+of superstition.<a name="FNanchor_294-2_24" id="FNanchor_294-2_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_294-2_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p>
+
+<p>In the next year, 1669, John Wagstaffe, a graduate
+of Oriel College who had applied himself to "the study
+of learning and politics," issued a little book, <i>The Question
+of Witchcraft Debated</i>. Wagstaffe was a university
+man of no reputation. "A little crooked man and
+of a despicable presence," he was dubbed by the Ox<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span>ford
+wags the little wizard.<a name="FNanchor_295-1_25" id="FNanchor_295-1_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_295-1_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> Nevertheless he had
+something to say and he gained no small hearing. Many
+of his arguments were purely theological and need
+not be repeated. But he made two good points. The
+notions about witches find their origin in "heathen
+fables." This was an undercutting blow at those who
+insisted on the belief in witchcraft as an essential of
+Christian faith; and Wagstaffe, moreover, made good
+his case. His second argument was one which no less
+needed to be emphasized. Coincidence, he believed,
+accounts for a great deal of the inexplicable in witchcraft
+narratives.<a name="FNanchor_295-2_26" id="FNanchor_295-2_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_295-2_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></p>
+
+<p>Within two years the book appeared again, much enlarged,
+and it was later translated into German. It
+was answered by two men&mdash;by Casaubon in the second
+part of his Credulity<a name="FNanchor_295-3_27" id="FNanchor_295-3_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_295-3_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> and by an author who signed
+himself "R. T."<a name="FNanchor_295-4_28" id="FNanchor_295-4_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_295-4_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> Casaubon added nothing new, nor
+did "R. T.," who threshed over old theological straw.
+The same can hardly be said of Lodowick Muggleton,
+a seventeenth-century Dowie who would fain have been
+a prophet of a new dispensation. He put out an exposition
+of the Witch of Endor that was entirely rationalistic.<a name="FNanchor_295-5_29" id="FNanchor_295-5_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_295-5_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a>
+Witches, he maintained, had no spirits but
+their own wicked imaginations. Saul was simply the
+dupe of a woman pretender.</p>
+
+<p>An antidote to this serious literature may be mentioned
+in passing. There was published at London, in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span>1673,<a name="FNanchor_296-1_30" id="FNanchor_296-1_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_296-1_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> <i>A Pleasant Treatise of Witches</i>, in which a delightful
+prospect was opened to the reader: "You shall
+find nothing here of those Vulgar, Fabulous, and Idle
+Tales that are not worth the lending an ear to, nor of
+those hideous Sawcer-eyed and Cloven-Footed Divels,
+that Grandmas affright their children withal, but only
+the pleasant and well grounded discourses of the
+Learned as an object adequate to thy wise understanding."
+An outline was offered, but it was nothing
+more than a thread upon which to hang good stories.
+They were tales of a distant past. There were witches
+once, of course there were, but that was in the good old
+days. Such was the author's implication.</p>
+
+<p>Alas that such light treatment was so rare! The subject
+was, in the minds of most, not one for laughter. It
+called for serious consideration. That point of view
+came to its own again in <i>The Doctrine of Devils proved
+to be the grand apostacy of these later Times</i>.<a name="FNanchor_296-2_31" id="FNanchor_296-2_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_296-2_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> The
+Dutch translator of this book tells us that it was
+written by a New England clergyman.<a name="FNanchor_296-3_32" id="FNanchor_296-3_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_296-3_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> If that be
+true, the writer must have been one of the least provincial
+New Englanders of his century, for he evinces a
+remarkable knowledge of the witch alarms and witch
+discussions in England. Some of his opinions betray
+the influence of Scot, as for instance his interpretation
+of Christ's casting out of devils.<a name="FNanchor_296-4_33" id="FNanchor_296-4_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_296-4_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> The term "having a
+devil" was but a phrase for one distracted. The author
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span>made, however, some new points. He believed that the
+importance of the New Testament miracles would be
+overshadowed by the greater miracles wrought by the
+Devil.<a name="FNanchor_297-1_34" id="FNanchor_297-1_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_297-1_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> A more telling argument, at least to a modern
+reader, was that the solidarity of society would be endangered
+by a belief that made every man afraid of
+his neighbor.<a name="FNanchor_297-2_35" id="FNanchor_297-2_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_297-2_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> The writer commends Wagstaffe's
+work, and writes of Casaubon, "If any one could possibly
+have bewitcht me into the Belief of Witchcraft,
+this reverend person, of all others, was most like to have
+done it." He decries the "proletarian Rabble," and
+"the great Philosophers" (More and Glanvill, doubtless),
+who call themselves Christians and yet hold "an
+Opinion that Butchers up Men and Women without
+Fear or Witt, Sense or Reason, Care or Conscience, by
+droves;" but he praises "the reverend judges of England,
+now ... much wiser than before," who "give
+small or no encouragement to such accusations."</p>
+
+<p>We come now to the second great figure among the
+witch-ologists of the Restoration, John Webster. Glanvill
+and Webster were protagonist and antagonist in
+a drama where the others played somewhat the rôle
+of the Greek chorus. It was in 1677 that Webster put
+forth <i>The Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft</i>.<a name="FNanchor_297-3_36" id="FNanchor_297-3_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_297-3_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> A
+Non-Conformist clergyman in his earlier life, he seems
+to have turned in later years to the practice of medicine.
+From young manhood he had been interested in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span>the subject of witchcraft. Probably that interest dates
+from an experience of his one Sunday afternoon over
+forty years before he published his book. It will be recalled
+that the boy Robinson, accuser of the Lancashire
+women in 1634, had been brought into his Yorkshire
+congregation at an afternoon service and had come
+off very poorly when cross-questioned by the curious
+minister. From that time Webster had been a
+doubter. Now and again in the course of his Yorkshire
+and Lancashire pastorates he had come into contact
+with superstition. He was no philosopher, this Yorkshire
+doctor of souls and bodies, nor was he more than a
+country scientist, and his reasoning against witchcraft
+fell short&mdash;as Professor Kittredge has clearly pointed
+out<a name="FNanchor_298-1_37" id="FNanchor_298-1_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_298-1_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a>&mdash;of scientific rationalism. That was a high mark
+and few there were in the seventeenth century who
+attained unto it. But it is not too much to say that
+John Webster was the heir and successor to Scot. He
+carried weight by the force of his attack, if not by its
+brilliancy.<a name="FNanchor_298-2_38" id="FNanchor_298-2_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_298-2_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> He was by no means always consistent,
+but he struck sturdy blows. He was seldom original,
+but he felled his opponents.</p>
+
+<p>Many of his strongest arguments, of course, were
+old. It was nothing new that the Witch of Endor was
+an impostor. It was Muggleton's notion, and it went
+back indeed to Scot. The emphasizing of the part
+played by imagination was as old as the oldest English
+opponent of witch persecution. The explanation of
+certain strange phenomena as ventriloquism&mdash;a matter
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span>that Webster had investigated painstakingly&mdash;this had
+been urged before. Webster himself did not believe
+that new arguments were needed. He had felt that the
+"impious and Popish opinions of the too much magnified
+powers of Demons and Witches, in this Nation
+were pretty well quashed and silenced" by various
+writers and by the "grave proceedings of many
+learned judges." But it was when he found that two
+"beneficed Ministers," Casaubon and Glanvill, had
+"afresh espoused so bad a cause" that he had been
+impelled to review their grounds.</p>
+
+<p>As the reader may already have guessed, Webster,
+like so many of his predecessors, dealt largely in theological
+and scriptural arguments. It was along this
+line, indeed, that he made his most important contribution
+to the controversy then going on. Glanvill had
+urged that disbelief in witchcraft was but one step in
+the path to atheism. No witches, no spirits, no immortality,
+no God, were the sequences of Glanvill's reasoning.
+In answer Webster urged that the denial of the
+existence of witches&mdash;<i>i. e.</i>, of creatures endued with
+power from the Devil to perform supernatural wonders&mdash;had
+nothing to do with the existence of angels
+or spirits. We must rely upon other grounds for a belief
+in the spirit world. Stories of apparitions are no
+proof, because we cannot be sure that those apparitions
+are made or caused by spirits. We have no certain
+ground for believing in a spirit world but the testimony
+of Scripture.<a name="FNanchor_299-1_39" id="FNanchor_299-1_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_299-1_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p>
+
+<p>But if we grant the existence of spirits&mdash;to modernize
+the form of Webster's argument&mdash;we do not there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span>by
+prove the existence of witches. The New Testament
+tells of various sorts of "deceiving Imposters,
+Diviners, or Witches," but amongst them all "there
+were none that had made a visible league with the
+Devil." There was no mention of transformation into
+cats, dogs, or wolves.<a name="FNanchor_300-1_40" id="FNanchor_300-1_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_300-1_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> It is hard to see how the most
+literal students of the Scriptures could have evaded
+this argument. The Scriptures said a great deal about
+the Devil, about demoniacs, and about witches and
+magicians&mdash;whatever they might mean by those terms.
+Why did they not speak at all of the compacts between
+the Devil and witches? Why did they leave out the
+very essential of the witch-monger's lore?</p>
+
+<p>All this needed to be urged at a time when the
+advocates of witchcraft were crying "Wolf! wolf!"
+to the Christian people of England. In other words,
+Webster was rendering it possible for the purely orthodox
+to give up what Glanvill had called a bulwark
+of religion and still to cling to their orthodoxy.</p>
+
+<p>It is much to the credit of Webster that he spoke
+out plainly concerning the obscenity of what was extorted
+from the witches. No one who has not read for
+himself can have any notion of the vile character of the
+charges and confessions embodied in the witch pamphlets.
+It is an aspect of the question which has not been
+discussed in these pages. Webster states the facts without
+exaggeration:<a name="FNanchor_300-2_41" id="FNanchor_300-2_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_300-2_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> "For the most of them are not
+credible, by reason of their obscenity and filthiness;
+for chast ears would tingle to hear such bawdy and
+immodest lyes; and what pure and sober minds would
+not nauseate and startle to understand such unclean
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span>stories ...? Surely even the impurity of it may be
+sufficient to overthrow the credibility of it, especially
+among Christians." Professor Burr has said that "it
+was, indeed, no small part of the evil of the matter,
+that it so long debauched the imagination of Christendom."<a name="FNanchor_301-1_42" id="FNanchor_301-1_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_301-1_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a></p>
+
+<p>We have said that Webster denied the existence of
+witches, that is, of those who performed supernatural
+deeds. But, like Scot, he explicitly refrained from
+denying the existence of witches <i>in toto</i>. He was,
+in fact, much more satisfactory than Scot; for he explained
+just what was his residuum of belief. He believed
+that witches were evil-minded creatures inspired
+by the Devil, who by the use of poisons and natural
+means unknown to most men harmed and killed their
+fellow-beings.<a name="FNanchor_301-2_43" id="FNanchor_301-2_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_301-2_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> Of course he would have insisted
+that a large proportion of all those charged with being
+such were mere dealers in fraud or the victims of false
+accusation, but the remainder of the cases he would
+have explained in this purely natural way.</p>
+
+<p>Now, if this was not scientific rationalism, it was
+at least straight-out skepticism as to the supernatural
+in witchcraft. Moreover there are cases
+enough in the annals of witchcraft that look very much
+as if poison were used. The drawback of course is
+that Webster, like Scot, had not disabused his mind
+of all superstition. Professor Kittredge in his discussion
+of Webster has pointed this out carefully.
+Webster believed that the bodies of those that had
+been murdered bleed at the touch of the murderer. He
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span>believed, too, in a sort of "astral spirit,"<a name="FNanchor_302-1_44" id="FNanchor_302-1_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_302-1_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> and he
+seems to have been convinced of the truth of apparitions.<a name="FNanchor_302-2_45" id="FNanchor_302-2_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_302-2_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a>
+These were phenomena that he believed to be
+substantiated by experience. On different grounds,
+by <i>a priori</i> reasoning from scriptural premises, he arrived
+at the conclusion that God makes use of evil
+angels "as the executioners of his justice to chasten
+the godly, and to restrain or destroy the wicked."<a name="FNanchor_302-3_46" id="FNanchor_302-3_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_302-3_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a></p>
+
+<p>This is and was essentially a theological conception.
+But there was no small gap between this and the notion
+that spirits act in supernatural ways in our every-day
+world. And there was nothing more inconsistent
+in failing to bridge this gap than in the position of the
+Christian people today who believe in a spirit world
+and yet discredit without examination all that is offered
+as new evidence of its existence.</p>
+
+<p>The truth is that Webster was too busy at destroying
+the fortifications of his opponents to take the trouble to
+build up defences for himself. But it is not too much
+to call him the most effective of the seventeenth century
+assailants of witch persecution in England.<a name="FNanchor_302-4_47" id="FNanchor_302-4_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_302-4_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> He had
+this advantage over all who had gone before, that a
+large and increasing body of intelligent people were
+with him. He spoke in full consciousness of strong
+support. It was for his opponents to assume the defensive.</p>
+
+<p>We have called John Webster's a great name in the
+literature of our subject, and we have given our rea<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span>sons
+for so thinking. Yet it would be a mistake to
+suppose that he created any such sensation in his time
+as did his arch-opponent, Glanvill. His work never
+went into a second edition. There are but few references
+to it in the writings of the time, and those are in
+works devoted to the defence of the belief. Benjamin
+Camfield, a Leicestershire rector, wrote an unimportant
+book on <i>Angels and their Ministries</i>,<a name="FNanchor_303-1_48" id="FNanchor_303-1_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_303-1_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> and in
+an appendix assailed Webster. Joseph Glanvill turned
+fiercely upon him with new proofs of what he called
+facts, and bequeathed the work at his death to Henry
+More, who in the several following editions of the <i>Sadducismus
+Triumphatus</i> attacked him with no little bitterness.</p>
+
+<p>We may skip over three lesser writers on witchcraft.
+During the early eighties John Brinley, Henry Hallywell,
+and Richard Bovet launched their little boats into
+the sea of controversy. Brinley was a bold plagiarist
+of Bernard, Hallywell a logical but dull reasoner from
+the Bible, Bovet a weakened solution of Glanvill.<a name="FNanchor_303-2_49" id="FNanchor_303-2_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_303-2_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a></p>
+
+<p>We turn now from the special literature of witchcraft
+to a sketch of the incidental evidences of opinion.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span>Of these we have a larger body than ever before, too
+large indeed to handle in detail. It would be idle
+to quote from the chap-books on witch episodes their
+<i>raisons d'ętre</i>. It all comes to this: they were written
+to confute disbelievers. They refer slightingly and
+even bitterly to those who oppose belief, not however
+without admitting their numbers and influence. It will
+be more to our purpose to examine the opinions of
+men as they uttered them on the bench, in the pulpit,
+and in the other walks of practical life.</p>
+
+<p>We have already had occasion to learn what the
+judges were thinking. We listened to Matthew Hale
+while he uttered the pronouncement that was heard all
+over England and even in the North American colonies.
+The existence of witches, he affirmed solemnly, is
+proved by Scripture and by the universality of laws
+against them. Justice Rainsford in the following years
+and Justice Raymond about twenty years later seem
+to have taken Hale's view of the matter. On the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span>other side were to be reckoned Sir John Reresby and
+Francis North. Neither of them was quite outspoken,
+fearing the rage of the people and the charge of atheism.
+Both sought to save the victims of persecution,
+but rather by exposing the deceptions of the accusers
+than by denying witchcraft itself. From the vast number
+of acquittals in the seventies and the sudden dropping
+off in the number of witch trials in the eighties
+we know that there must have been many other judges
+who were acquitting witches or quietly ignoring the
+charges against them. Doubtless Kelyng, who, as a
+spectator at Bury, had shown his skepticism as to the accusations,
+had when he later became a chief justice
+been one of those who refused to condemn witches.</p>
+
+<p>From scientific men there were few utterances.
+Although we shall in another connection show that
+a goodly number from the Royal Society cherished
+very definite beliefs&mdash;or disbeliefs&mdash;on the subject,
+we have the opinions of but two men who were professionally
+scientists, Sir Thomas Browne and Sir
+Robert Boyle. Browne we have already met at the
+Bury trial. It may reasonably be questioned whether
+he was really a man of science. Certainly he was a
+physician of eminence. The attitude he took when an
+expert witness at Bury, it will be recalled, was quite
+consistent with the opinion given in his <i>Commonplace
+Book</i>. "We are noways doubtful," he wrote, "that
+there are witches, but have not always been satisfied
+in the application of their witchcrafts."<a name="FNanchor_305-1_50" id="FNanchor_305-1_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_305-1_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> So spoke
+the famous physician of Norwich. But a man whose
+opinion was of much more consequence was Sir Rob<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span>ert
+Boyle. Boyle was a chemist and "natural philosopher."
+He was the discoverer of the air pump, was
+elected president of the Royal Society, and was altogether
+one of the greatest non-political figures in the
+reign of Charles II. While he never, so far as we
+know, discussed witchcraft in the abstract, he fathered
+a French story that was brought into England, the
+story of the Demon of Mascon. He turned the story
+over to Glanvill to be used in his list of authentic
+narratives; and, when it was later reported that he had
+pronounced the demon story an imposture, he took
+pains to deny the report in a letter to Glanvill.<a name="FNanchor_306-1_51" id="FNanchor_306-1_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_306-1_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a></p>
+
+<p>Of literary men we have, as of scientists, but two.
+Aubrey, the "delitescent" antiquarian and Will Wimble
+of his time, still credited witchcraft, as he credited
+all sorts of narratives of ghosts and apparitions. It
+was less a matter of reason than of sentiment. The
+dramatist Shadwell had the same feeling for literary
+values. In his preface to the play, <i>The Lancashire
+Witches</i>, he explained that he pictured the witches as
+real lest the people should want "diversion," and lest
+he should be called "atheistical by a prevailing party
+who take it ill that the power of the Devil should be
+lessen'd."<a name="FNanchor_306-2_52" id="FNanchor_306-2_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_306-2_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> But Shadwell, although not seriously in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span>terested
+in any side of the subject save in its use as literary
+material, included himself among the group who
+had given up belief.</p>
+
+<p>What philosophers thought we may guess from the
+all-pervading influence of Hobbes in this generation.
+We have already seen, however, that Henry More,<a name="FNanchor_307-1_53" id="FNanchor_307-1_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_307-1_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a>
+whose influence in his time was not to be despised,
+wrote earnestly and often in support of belief. One
+other philosopher may be mentioned. Ralph Cudworth,
+in his <i>True Intellectual System</i>, touched on confederacies
+with the Devil and remarked in passing that
+"there hath been so full an attestation" of these
+things "that those our so confident Exploders of them,
+in this present Age, can hardly escape the suspicion
+of having some Hankring towards Atheism."<a name="FNanchor_307-2_54" id="FNanchor_307-2_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_307-2_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> This
+was Glanvill over again. It remains to notice the opinions
+of clergymen. The history of witch literature has
+been in no small degree the record of clerical opinion.
+Glanvill, Casaubon, Muggleton, Camfield, and Hallywell
+were all clergymen. Fortunately we have the opinions
+of at least half a dozen other churchmen. It will
+be remembered that Oliver Heywood, the famous Non-Conformist
+preacher of Lancashire, believed, though
+not too implicitly, in witchcraft.<a name="FNanchor_307-3_55" id="FNanchor_307-3_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_307-3_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> So did Samuel
+Clarke, Puritan divine and hagiographer.<a name="FNanchor_307-4_56" id="FNanchor_307-4_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_307-4_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> On the
+same side must be reckoned Nathaniel Wanley, compiler
+of a curious work on <i>The Wonders of the Little
+World</i>.<a name="FNanchor_308-1_57" id="FNanchor_308-1_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_308-1_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> A greater name was that of Isaac Barrow,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span>
+master of Trinity, teacher of Isaac Newton, and one
+of the best preachers of his time. He declared that
+to suppose all witch stories fictions was to "charge
+the world with both extreme Vanity and Malignity."<a name="FNanchor_308-2_58" id="FNanchor_308-2_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_308-2_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a>
+We can cite only one divine on the other side. This
+was Samuel Parker, who in his time played many
+parts, but who is chiefly remembered as the Bishop of
+Oxford during the troubles of James II with the university.
+Parker was one of the most disliked ecclesiastics
+of his time, but he deserves praise at any rate
+for his stand as to witchcraft. We do not know the
+details of his opinions; indeed we have nothing more
+than the fact that in a correspondence with Glanvill
+he questioned the opinions of that distinguished protagonist
+of witchcraft.<a name="FNanchor_308-3_59" id="FNanchor_308-3_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_308-3_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a></p>
+
+<p>By this time it must be clear that there is possible no
+hard and fast discrimination by groups between those
+that believed in witchcraft and those that did not. We
+may say cautiously that through the seventies and
+eighties the judges, and probably too the justices of the
+peace,<a name="FNanchor_308-4_60" id="FNanchor_308-4_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_308-4_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> were coming to disbelieve. With even greater
+caution we may venture the assertion that the clergy,
+both Anglican and Non-Conformist, were still clinging
+to the superstition. Further generalization would be
+extremely hazardous. It looks, however, from the
+evidence already presented, as well as from some to
+be given in another connection&mdash;in discussing the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span>Royal Society<a name="FNanchor_309-1_61" id="FNanchor_309-1_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_309-1_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a>&mdash;as if the scientists had not taken
+such a stand as was to be expected of them.</p>
+
+<p>When we examine the attitude of those who scoffed
+at the stories vouched for by Glanvill and More it becomes
+evident that they assumed that practically all
+thinking men were with them. In other words, they
+believed that their group comprised the intellectual
+men of the time. Now, it would be easy to rush to the
+conclusion that all men who thought in conventional
+ways would favor witchcraft, and that those who took
+unconventional views would be arrayed on the other
+side, but this would be a mistake. Glanvill was an exceedingly
+original man, while Muggleton was uncommonly
+commonplace; and there were numbered among
+those who held to the old opinion men of high intelligence
+and brilliant talents.</p>
+
+<p>We must search, then, for some other basis of classification.
+Glanvill gives us an interesting suggestion.
+In withering tone he speaks of the "looser gentry and
+lesser pretenders to wit." Here is a possible line of
+cleavage. Might it be that the more worldly-minded
+among the county families, that those too who comprised
+what we may call, in the absence of a better term,
+the "smart set," and the literary sets of London, were
+especially the "deriders" of superstition? It is not
+hard to believe that Shadwell, the worldly Bishop
+Parker, and the polished Sir William Temple<a name="FNanchor_309-2_62" id="FNanchor_309-2_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_309-2_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> would
+fairly reflect the opinions of that class. So too the
+diarist Pepys, who found Glanvill "not very convincing."
+We can conceive how the ridicule of the super<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span>natural
+might have become the fad of a certain social
+group. The Mompesson affair undoubtedly possessed
+elements of humor; the wild tales about Amy Duny
+and Rose Cullender would have been uncommonly
+diverting, had they not produced such tragic results.
+With the stories spun about Julian Cox the witch accusers
+could go no farther. They had reached the culmination
+of nonsense. Now, it is conceivable that the
+clergyman might not see the humor of it, nor the philosopher,
+nor the scholar; but the worldly-minded Londoner,
+who cared less about texts in Leviticus than did
+his father, who knew more about coffee-houses and
+plays, and who cultivated clever people with assiduity,
+had a better developed sense of humor. It was not
+strange that he should smile quizzically when told
+these weird stories from the country. He may not
+have pondered very deeply on the abstract question
+nor read widely&mdash;perhaps he had seen Ady's book or
+glanced over Scot's&mdash;but, when he met keen men in
+his group who were laughing quietly at narratives of
+witchcraft, he laughed too. And so, quite unobtrusively,
+without blare of trumpets, skepticism would
+slip into society. It would be useless for Glanvill and
+More to call aloud, or for the people to rage. The
+classes who mingled in the worldly life of the capital
+would scoff; and the country gentry who took their cue
+from them would follow suit.</p>
+
+<p>Of course this is theory. It would require a larger
+body of evidence than we can hope to gather on this
+subject to prove that the change of opinion that was
+surely taking place spread at first through the higher
+social strata and was to reach the lower levels only by
+slow filtration. Yet such an hypothesis fits in nicely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span>
+with certain facts. It has already been seen that the
+trials for witchcraft dropped off very suddenly towards
+the end of the period we are considering. The
+drop was accounted for by the changed attitude of
+judges and of justices of the peace. The judges avoided
+trying witches,<a name="FNanchor_311-1_63" id="FNanchor_311-1_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_311-1_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> the justices were less diligent in discovering
+them. But the evidence that we had about
+men of other occupations was less encouraging. It
+looked as if those who dispensed justice were in advance
+of the clergy, of the scholars, physicians, and
+scientists of their time. Had the Master of Trinity,
+or the physician of Norwich, or the discoverer of the
+air pump been the justices of the peace for England, it
+is not incredible that superstition would have flourished
+for another generation. Was it because the men
+of the law possessed more of the matter-of-factness
+supposed to be a heritage of every Englishman? Was
+it because their special training gave them a saner outlook?
+No doubt both elements help to explain the
+difference. But is it not possible to believe that the
+social grouping of these men had an influence? The
+itinerant justices and the justices of the peace were recruited
+from the gentry, as none of the other classes
+were. Men like Reresby and North inherited the traditions
+of their class; they spent part of the year in
+London and knew the talk of the town. Can we doubt
+that their decisions were influenced by that fact? The
+country justice of the peace was removed often enough
+from metropolitan influences, but he was usually quick
+to catch the feelings of his own class.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span>If our theory be true that the jurists were in advance
+of other professions and that they were sprung
+of a higher stock, it is of course some confirmation of
+the larger theory that witchcraft was first discredited
+among the gentry. Yet, as we have said before, this
+is at best a guess as to how the decline of belief took
+place and must be accepted only provisionally. We
+have seen that there are other assertions about the
+progress of thought in this period that may be ventured
+with much confidence. There had been great changes
+of opinion. It would not be fair to say that the movement
+towards skepticism had been accelerated. Rather,
+the movement which had its inception back in the days
+of Reginald Scot and had found in the last days of
+James I a second impulse, which had been quietly
+gaining force in the thirties, forties, and fifties, was
+now under full headway. Common sense was coming
+into its own.</p>
+
+<hr class="foot" />
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_286-1_1" id="Footnote_286-1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_286-1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Ferris Greenslet, <i>Joseph Glanvill</i> (New York, 1900), 153. The
+writer wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness to Mr. Greenslet's excellent
+book on Glanvill.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_286-2_2" id="Footnote_286-2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_286-2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The <i>Scepsis Scientifica</i> was really <i>The Vanity of Dogmatising</i> (1661)
+recast.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_287-1_3" id="Footnote_287-1_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_287-1_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> See, for example, the introductory essay by John Owen in his
+edition (London, 1885), of the <i>Scepsis Scientifica</i>, xxvii, xxix. See also
+<i>Sadducismus Triumphatus</i> (citations are all from the edition of 1681),
+7, 13.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_287-2_4" id="Footnote_287-2_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_287-2_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> So at least says Leslie Stephen, <i>Dict. Nat. Biog.</i> Glanvill himself,
+in <i>Essays on Several Important Subjects</i> (1676), says that the sixth
+essay, "Philosophical Considerations against Modern Sadducism," had
+been printed four times already, <i>i. e.</i>, before 1676. The edition of 1668
+had been revised.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_287-3_5" id="Footnote_287-3_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_287-3_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> This edition was dedicated to Charles, Duke of Richmond and Lenox,
+since His Grace had been "pleased to commend the first and more
+imperfect Edition."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_288-1_6" id="Footnote_288-1_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_288-1_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> <i>Sadducismus Triumphatus</i>, Preface, F 3 verso, F 4; see also p. 10.
+In the second part see Preface, Aa 2&mdash;Aa 3. In several other places
+he has insisted upon this point.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_288-2_7" id="Footnote_288-2_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_288-2_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> See <i>ibid.</i>, 9 ff., 18 ff., 21 ff., 34 ff.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_288-3_8" id="Footnote_288-3_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_288-3_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 32, 34.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_289-1_9" id="Footnote_289-1_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_289-1_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 11-13.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_289-2_10" id="Footnote_289-2_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_289-2_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> See, for example, <i>ibid.</i>, 88-89.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_289-3_11" id="Footnote_289-3_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_289-3_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 25-27.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_290-1_12" id="Footnote_290-1_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_290-1_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> <i>Sadducismus Triumphatus</i>, 39.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_290-2_13" id="Footnote_290-2_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_290-2_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 52-53.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_290-3_14" id="Footnote_290-3_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_290-3_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> To the argument that witches are not mentioned in the New
+Testament he retorted that neither is North America (<i>ibid.</i>, 82).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_290-4_15" id="Footnote_290-4_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_290-4_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 78.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_291-1_16" id="Footnote_291-1_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_291-1_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Nevertheless he took up some of Scot's points.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_291-2_17" id="Footnote_291-2_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_291-2_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> <i>Sadducismus Triumphatus</i>, Preface.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_292-1_18" id="Footnote_292-1_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_292-1_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> <i>Sadducismus Triumphatus</i>, pt. ii, 3.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_292-2_19" id="Footnote_292-2_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_292-2_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> See <i>ibid.</i>, pt. ii, Relation VIII.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_292-3_20" id="Footnote_292-3_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_292-3_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> <i>Scepsis Scientifica</i> (ed. of 1885), 179.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_293-1_21" id="Footnote_293-1_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_293-1_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> London, 1668. It was reprinted in 1672 with the title <i>A Treatise
+proving Spirits, Witches, and Supernatural Operations by pregnant
+instances and evidences</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_293-2_22" id="Footnote_293-2_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_293-2_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> See above, pp. 239-240.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_294-1_23" id="Footnote_294-1_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_294-1_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> <i>Of Credulity and Incredulity</i>, 29, 30.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_294-2_24" id="Footnote_294-2_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_294-2_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> He characterizes Reginald Scot as an illiterate wretch, but admits
+that he had never read him. It was Wierus whom he chiefly sought
+to confute.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_295-1_25" id="Footnote_295-1_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_295-1_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> He was given also to "strong and high tasted liquors." Anthony
+ŕ Wood, <i>Athenae Oxonienses</i> (London, 1691-1692; 3d ed., with additions,
+London, 1813-1820), ed. of 1813-1820, III, 11-14.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_295-2_26" id="Footnote_295-2_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_295-2_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> <i>The Question of Witchcraft Debated</i> (London, 1669), 64.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_295-3_27" id="Footnote_295-3_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_295-3_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> 1670 (see above, p. 293).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_295-4_28" id="Footnote_295-4_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_295-4_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> <i>The Opinion of Witchcraft Vindicated. In an Answer to a Book
+Intituled The Question of Witchcraft Debated</i> (London, 1670).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_295-5_29" id="Footnote_295-5_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_295-5_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> <i>A True Interpretation of the Witch of Endor</i> (London, 1669).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_296-1_30" id="Footnote_296-1_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_296-1_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> "By a Pen neer the Convent of Eluthery."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_296-2_31" id="Footnote_296-2_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_296-2_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> London, 1676.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_296-3_32" id="Footnote_296-3_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_296-3_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> To Professor Burr I owe my knowledge of this ascription. The
+translator (the English Quaker, William Sewel, all his life a resident
+of Holland), calls him "N. Orchard, Predikant in Nieuw-Engeland."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_296-4_33" id="Footnote_296-4_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_296-4_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> See <i>Doctrine of Devils</i>, chaps. VII, VIII, and <i>cf.</i> Scot, <i>Discoverie of
+Witchcraft</i>, 512-514.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_297-1_34" id="Footnote_297-1_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_297-1_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Glanvill had answered a somewhat similar argument, that the miracles
+of the Bible were wrought by the agency of the Devil.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_297-2_35" id="Footnote_297-2_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_297-2_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> He said also that, if the Devil could take on "men's shapes, forms,
+habits, countenances, tones, gates, statures, ages, complexions ... and
+act in the shape assumed," there could be absolutely no certainty
+about the proceedings of justice.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_297-3_36" id="Footnote_297-3_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_297-3_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> The book had been written four years earlier.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_298-1_37" id="Footnote_298-1_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_298-1_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> See G. L. Kittredge, "Notes on Witchcraft," in American Antiquarian
+Soc., <i>Proceedings</i>, n. s., XVIII (1906-1907), 169-176.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_298-2_38" id="Footnote_298-2_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_298-2_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> There is, however, no little brilliance and insight in some of
+Webster's reasoning.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_299-1_39" id="Footnote_299-1_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_299-1_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> <i>Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft</i>, 38-41.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_300-1_40" id="Footnote_300-1_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_300-1_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> <i>Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft</i>, 53.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_300-2_41" id="Footnote_300-2_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_300-2_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 68.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_301-1_42" id="Footnote_301-1_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_301-1_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> <i>The Witch-Persecutions</i> (University of Pennsylvania Translations
+and Reprints, vol. III, no. 4), revised ed. (Philadelphia, 1903), p. 1.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_301-2_43" id="Footnote_301-2_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_301-2_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> <i>Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft</i>, 247-248.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_302-1_44" id="Footnote_302-1_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_302-1_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> <i>Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft</i>, 308, 312 ff. The astral spirit
+which he conceived was not unlike More's and Glanvill's "thin and
+tenuous substance."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_302-2_45" id="Footnote_302-2_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_302-2_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 294 ff.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_302-3_46" id="Footnote_302-3_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_302-3_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 219-228.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_302-4_47" id="Footnote_302-4_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_302-4_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> The author of <i>The Doctrine of Devils</i> (see above, note 32), was
+thorough-going enough, but his work seems to have attracted much less
+attention.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_303-1_48" id="Footnote_303-1_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_303-1_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> London, 1678.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_303-2_49" id="Footnote_303-2_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_303-2_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> John Brinley, "Gentleman," brought out in 1680 <i>A Discovery of
+the Impostures of Witches and Astrologers</i>. Portions of his book
+would pass for good thinking until one awakens to the feeling that he
+has read something like this before. As a matter of fact Brinley had
+stolen the line of thought and much of the phrasing from Richard Bernard
+(1627, see above, pp. 234-236), and without giving any credit. A
+second edition of Brinley's work was issued in 1686. It was the same
+in every respect save that the dedication was omitted and the title
+changed to <i>A Discourse Proving by Scripture and Reason and the Best
+Authors Ancient and Modern that there are Witches</i>.
+</p><p>
+Henry Hallywell, a Cambridge master of arts and sometime fellow
+of Christ's College, issued in 1681 <i>Melampronoea, or a Discourse of the
+Polity and Kingdom of Darkness, Together with a Solution of the chiefest
+Objections brought against the Being of Witches</i>. Hallywell was
+another in the long list of Cambridge men who defended superstition.
+He set about to assail the "over-confident Exploders of Immaterial
+Substances" by a course of logical deductions from Scripture. His
+treatise is slow reading.
+</p><p>
+Richard Bovet, "Gentleman," gave the world in 1684 <i>Pandćmonium,
+or the Devil's Cloyster; being a further Blow to Modern Sadduceism</i>.
+There was nothing new about his discussion, which he dedicates to Dr.
+Henry More. His attitude was defensive in the extreme. He was consumed
+with indignation at disbelievers: "They oppose their simple <i>ipse
+dixit</i> against the most unquestionable Testimonies"; they even dare
+to "affront that relation of the Dćmon of Tedworth." He was indeed
+cast down over the situation. He himself relates a very patent instance
+of witchcraft in Somerset; yet, despite the fact that numerous
+physicians agreed on the matter, no "justice was applyed." One of
+Bovet's chief purposes in his work was to show "the Confederacy of
+several Popes and Roman Priests with the Devil." He makes one important
+admission in regard to witchcraft; namely, that the confessions
+of witches might sometimes be the result of "a Deep Melancholy, or
+some Terrour that they may have been under."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_305-1_50" id="Footnote_305-1_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_305-1_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> <i>Works</i>, ed. of 1835-1836, IV, 389.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_306-1_51" id="Footnote_306-1_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_306-1_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> For Boyle's opinions see also Webster, <i>Displaying of Supposed
+Witchcraft</i>, 248.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_306-2_52" id="Footnote_306-2_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_306-2_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> He says also: "For my part I am ... somewhat cotive of belief.
+The evidences I have represented are natural, viz., slight, and
+frivolous, such as poor old women were wont to be hang'd upon." The
+play may be found in all editions of Shadwell's works. I have
+used the rare privately printed volume in which, under the title of
+<i>The Poetry of Witchcraft</i> (Brixton Hill, 1853), J. O. Halliwell [-Phillips]
+united this play of Shadwell's with that of Heywood and Brome on
+<i>The late Lancashire Witches</i>. These two plays, so similar in title, that
+of Heywood and Brome in 1634, based on the case of 1633, and that of
+Shadwell in 1682, based on the affair of 1612, must not be confused.
+See above pp. 121, 158-160, 244-245.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_307-1_53" id="Footnote_307-1_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_307-1_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> See above, pp. 238-239.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_307-2_54" id="Footnote_307-2_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_307-2_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> <i>The True Intellectual System of the Universe</i> (London, 1678),
+702.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_307-3_55" id="Footnote_307-3_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_307-3_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> See above, p. 256 and note.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_307-4_56" id="Footnote_307-4_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_307-4_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> See his <i>Lives of Sundry Eminent Persons</i> (London, 1683), 172; also
+his <i>Mirrour or Looking Glass, Both for Saints and Sinners</i> (London,
+1657-1671), I, 35-38; II, 159-183.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_308-1_57" id="Footnote_308-1_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_308-1_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> London, 1678; see pp. 515-518.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_308-2_58" id="Footnote_308-2_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_308-2_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> <i>Works</i> (ed. of Edinburgh, 1841), II, 162.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_308-3_59" id="Footnote_308-3_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_308-3_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> Glanvill, <i>Sadducismus Triumphatus</i>, 80.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_308-4_60" id="Footnote_308-4_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_308-4_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> By the eighties it is very clear that the justices were ceasing to
+press charges against witches.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_309-1_61" id="Footnote_309-1_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_309-1_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> In an article to be published separately.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_309-2_62" id="Footnote_309-2_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_309-2_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> See his essay "Of Poetry" in his <i>Works</i> (London, 1814), III,
+430-431.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_311-1_63" id="Footnote_311-1_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_311-1_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> Justice Jeffreys and Justice Herbert both acquitted witches according
+to F. A. Inderwick, <i>Sidelights on the Stuarts</i> (2d ed., London, 1891),
+174.</p></div>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2 class="chapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+
+<h3 class="chapter2">The Final Decline.</h3>
+
+
+<p>In the history of witchcraft the years from 1688 to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span>
+1718 may be grouped together as comprising a period.
+This is not to say that the year of the Revolution
+marked any transition in the course of the superstition.
+It did not. But we have ventured to employ it
+as a convenient date with which to bound the influences
+of the Restoration. The year 1718 derives its importance
+for us from the publication, in that year, of Francis
+Hutchinson's <i>Historical Essay on Witchcraft</i>, a
+book which, it is not too much to say, gave the final
+blow to the belief in England.<a name="FNanchor_313-1_1" id="FNanchor_313-1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_313-1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>We speak of fixing a date by which to bound the influences
+of the Restoration. Now, as a matter of fact,
+there is something arbitrary about any date. The
+influences at work during the previous period went
+steadily on. The heathen raged, and the people imagined
+a vain thing. The great proletariat hated witches as
+much as ever. But the justices of the peace and the
+itinerant judges were getting over their fear of popular
+opinion and were refusing to listen to the accusations
+that were brought before them. The situation
+was in some respects the same as it had been in the
+later seventies and throughout the eighties. Yet there
+were certain features that distinguished the period.
+One of them was the increased use of exorcism. The
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span>expelling of evil spirits had been a subject of great
+controversy almost a century before. The practice
+had by no means been forgotten in the mean time, but
+it had gained little public notice. Now the dispossessors
+of the Devil came to the front again long
+enough to whet the animosity between Puritans and
+Anglicans in Lancashire. But this never became more
+than a pamphlet controversy. The other feature of
+the period was far more significant. The last executions
+for witchcraft in England were probably those
+at Exeter in 1682.<a name="FNanchor_314-1_2" id="FNanchor_314-1_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_314-1_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> For a whole generation the courts
+had been frowning on witch prosecution. Now there
+arose in England judges who definitely nullified
+the law on the statute-book. By the decisions of Powell
+and Parker, and most of all by those of Holt, the
+statute of the first year of James I was practically
+made obsolete twenty-five or fifty years before its actual
+repeal in 1736. We shall see that the gradual
+breaking down of the law by the judges did not take
+place without a struggle. At the famous trial in Hertford
+in 1712 the whole subject of the Devil and his
+relation to witches came up again in its most definite
+form, and was fought out in the court room and at
+the bar of public opinion. It was, however, but the
+last rallying and counter-charging on a battle-field
+where Webster and Glanvill had led the hosts at mid-day.
+The issue, indeed, was now very specific. Over
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span>the abstract question of witchcraft there was nothing
+new to be said. Here, however, was a specific instance.
+What was to be done with it? Over that there was
+waged a merry war. Of course the conclusion was
+foregone. It had indeed been anticipated by the action
+of the bench.</p>
+
+<p>We shall see that with the nullification of the law
+the common people began to take the law into their
+own hands. We shall note that, as a consequence,
+there was an increase in the number of swimming ordeals
+and other illegal procedures.</p>
+
+<p>The story of the Lancashire demonomania is not
+unlike the story of William Somers in Nottingham a
+century before. In this case there was no John Darrel,
+and the exorcists were probably honest but deluded
+men. The affair started at the village of Surey, near
+to the superstition-brewing Pendle Forest. The possessed
+boy, Richard Dugdale, was a gardener and servant
+about nineteen years of age.<a name="FNanchor_315-1_3" id="FNanchor_315-1_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_315-1_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> In April, 1689, he
+was seized with fits in which he was asserted to speak
+Latin and Greek and to preach against the sins of the
+place. Whatever his pretensions were, he seemed
+a good subject for exorcism. Some of the Catholics
+are said to have tampered with him, and then several
+Puritan clergymen of the community took him in
+hand. For eight months they held weekly fasts for
+his recovery; but their efforts were not so successful
+as they had hoped. They began to suspect witchcraft<a name="FNanchor_315-2_4" id="FNanchor_315-2_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_315-2_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a>
+and were about to take steps towards the prosecution
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span>of the party suspected.<a name="FNanchor_316-1_5" id="FNanchor_316-1_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_316-1_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> This came to nothing, but
+Dugdale at length grew better. He was relieved of his
+fits; and the clergymen, who had never entirely given
+up their efforts to cure him, hastened to claim the
+credit. More than a dozen of the dissenting preachers,
+among them Richard Frankland, Oliver Heywood,<a name="FNanchor_316-2_6" id="FNanchor_316-2_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_316-2_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a>
+and other well known Puritan leaders in northern
+England, had lent their support to Thomas Jollie, who
+had taken the leading part in the praying and fasting.
+From London, Richard Baxter, perhaps the best known
+Puritan of his time, had sent a request for some account
+of the wonder, in order to insert it in his forthcoming
+book on the spirit world. This led to a plan
+for printing a complete narrative of what had happened;
+but the plan was allowed to lapse with the death
+of Baxter.<a name="FNanchor_316-3_7" id="FNanchor_316-3_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_316-3_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> Meantime, however, the publication in
+London of the Mathers' accounts of the New England
+trials of 1692<a name="FNanchor_316-4_8" id="FNanchor_316-4_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_316-4_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> caused a new call for the story of Richard
+Dugdale. It was prepared and sent to London;
+and there in some mysterious way the manuscript was
+lost.<a name="FNanchor_316-5_9" id="FNanchor_316-5_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_316-5_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> It was, however, rewritten and appeared in 1697
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span>as <i>The Surey Demoniack, or an Account of Strange
+and Dreadful Actings in and about the Body of Richard
+Dugdale</i>. The preface was signed by six ministers,
+including those already named; but the book was
+probably written by Thomas Jollie and John Carrington.<a name="FNanchor_317-1_10" id="FNanchor_317-1_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_317-1_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a>
+The reality of the possession was attested by
+depositions taken before two Lancashire justices of the
+peace. The aim of the work was, of course, to add one
+more contemporary link to the chain of evidence for
+the supernatural. It was clear to the divines who
+strove with the possessed boy that his case was of
+exactly the same sort as those in the New Testament.
+Moreover, his recovery was a proof of the power of
+prayer.</p>
+
+<p>Now Non-Conformity was strong in Lancashire,
+and the Anglican church as well as the government
+had for many years been at no little pains to put it
+down. Here was a chance to strike the Puritans at
+one of their weakest spots, and the Church of England
+was not slow to use its opportunity. Zachary Taylor,
+rector of Wigan and chaplain to the Bishop of Chester,
+had already familiarized himself with the methods
+of the exorcists. In the previous year he had attacked
+the Catholics of Lancashire for an exorcism which
+they claimed to have accomplished within his parish.<a name="FNanchor_317-2_11" id="FNanchor_317-2_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_317-2_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a>
+Pleased with his new rôle, he found in Thomas Jollie
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span>a sheep ready for the shearing.<a name="FNanchor_318-1_12" id="FNanchor_318-1_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_318-1_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> He hastened to publish
+<i>The Surey Impostor</i>,<a name="FNanchor_318-2_13" id="FNanchor_318-2_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_318-2_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> in which, with a very good
+will, he made an assault upon the reality of Dugdale's
+fits, charged that he had been pre-instructed by the
+Catholics, and that the Non-Conformist clergymen
+were seeking a rich harvest from the miracles they
+should work. Self-glorification was their aim. He
+made fun of the several divines engaged in the affair,
+and accused them of trickery and presumption in their
+conduct of the case.<a name="FNanchor_318-3_14" id="FNanchor_318-3_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_318-3_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p>
+
+<p>Of course Taylor was answered, and with a bitterness
+equal to his own. Thomas Jollie replied in <i>A
+Vindication of the Surey Demoniack</i>. "I will not
+foul my Paper," wrote the mild Jollie, "and offend
+my reader with those scurrilous and ridiculous Passages
+in this Page. O, the Eructations of an exulcerated
+Heart! How desperately wicked is the Heart
+of Man!"<a name="FNanchor_318-4_15" id="FNanchor_318-4_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_318-4_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p>
+
+<p>We shall not go into the details of the controversy,
+which really degenerated into a sectarian squabble.<a name="FNanchor_318-5_16" id="FNanchor_318-5_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_318-5_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a>
+The only discussion of the subject that approached
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span>fairness was by an anonymous writer,<a name="FNanchor_319-1_17" id="FNanchor_319-1_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_319-1_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> who professed
+himself impartial and of a different religious
+persuasion from Jollie. To be sure, he was a man
+who believed in possession by spirits. It may be questioned,
+too, whether his assumption of fair dealing
+towards the Church of England was altogether justified.
+But, at any rate, his work was free from invective
+and displayed moderation. He felt that the Dissenting
+clergymen were probably somewhat deluded.
+But they had acted, he believed, under good motives
+in attempting to help one who had appealed to them.
+Some of them were not only "serious good Men," but
+men well known in the nation. This, indeed, was true.
+The Dissenters had laid themselves open to attack,
+and doubtless some of them saw and regretted their
+mistake. At least, it seems not without significance
+that neither Oliver Heywood nor Richard Frankland
+nor any other of the Dissenters was sure enough of his
+ground to support Jollie in the controversy into which
+he had been led.<a name="FNanchor_319-2_18" id="FNanchor_319-2_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_319-2_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p>
+
+<p>We have gone into some detail about the Dugdale
+affair because of its importance in its time, and because
+it was so essentially characteristic of the last era
+of the struggle over the power of the Devil. There
+were cases of possession not only in Lancashire but
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span>in Somersetshire and in and around London. Not
+without a struggle was His Satanic Majesty surrendering
+his hold.</p>
+
+<p>We turn from this controversy to follow the decisions
+of those eminent judges who were nullifying the
+statute against witches. We have already mentioned
+three names, those of Holt, Powell, and Parker. This
+is not because they were the only jurists who were
+giving verdicts of acquittal&mdash;we know that there must
+have been others&mdash;but because their names are linked
+with significant decisions. Without doubt Chief Justice
+Holt did more than any other man in English
+history to end the prosecution of witches. Justice
+Powell was not so brave a man, but he happened to
+preside over one of the most bitterly contested of all
+trials, and his verdict served to reaffirm the precedents
+set by Holt. It was Justice Parker's fortune to try the
+last case of witchcraft in England.</p>
+
+<p>Holt became chief justice of the king's bench on the
+accession of William and Mary. Not one of the great
+names in English judicial rolls, his decided stand
+against superstition makes him great in the history of
+witchcraft. Where and when he had acquired his skeptical
+attitude we do not know. The time was past
+when such an attitude was unusual. In any case, from
+the moment he assumed the chief justiceship he set
+himself directly against the punishment of witchcraft.
+As premier of the English judiciary his example meant
+quite as much as his own rulings. And their cumulative
+effect was not slight. We know of no less than
+eleven trials where as presiding officer he was instrumental
+in securing a verdict of acquittal. In London,
+at Ipswich, at Bury, at Exeter, in Cornwall, and in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span>
+other parts of the realm, these verdicts were rendered,
+and they could not fail to influence opinion and to
+affect the decisions of other judges. Three of the
+trials we shall go over briefly&mdash;those at Bury, Exeter,
+and Southwark.</p>
+
+<p>In 1694 he tried Mother Munnings at Bury St. Edmunds,<a name="FNanchor_321-1_19" id="FNanchor_321-1_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_321-1_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a>
+where his great predecessor Hale had condemned
+two women. Mother Munnings had declared
+that a landlord should lie nose upward in the church-yard
+before the next Saturday, and, sure enough, her
+prophecy had come true. Nevertheless, in spite of this
+and other testimony, she was acquitted. Two years
+later Holt tried Elizabeth Horner at Exeter, where
+Raymond had condemned three women in 1682.
+Bishop Trelawny of Exeter had sent his sub-dean,
+Launcelot Blackburne (later to be Archbishop of
+York), to look into the case, and his report adds something
+to the account which Hutchinson has given us.<a name="FNanchor_321-2_20" id="FNanchor_321-2_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_321-2_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a>
+Elizabeth was seen "three nights together upon a large
+down in the same place, as if rising out of the ground."
+It was certified against her by a witness that she had
+driven a red-hot nail "into the witche's left foot-step,
+upon which she went lame, and, being search'd, her
+leg and foot appear'd to be red and fiery." These
+testimonies were the "most material against her," as
+well as the evidence of the mother of some possessed
+children, who declared that her daughter had walked
+up a wall nine feet high four or five times backwards
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span>and forwards, her face and the fore part of her body
+parallel to the ceiling, saying that Betty Horner
+carried her up. In closing the narrative the archdeacon
+wrote without comment: "My Lord Chief
+Justice by his questions and manner of hemming up
+the evidence seem'd to me to believe nothing of witchery
+at all, and to disbelieve the fact of walking up the
+wall which was sworn by the mother." He added,
+"the jury brought her in not guilty."</p>
+
+<p>The case of Sarah Moordike of London <i>versus</i>
+Richard Hathaway<a name="FNanchor_322-1_21" id="FNanchor_322-1_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_322-1_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> makes even clearer the attitude
+of Holt. Sarah Moordike, or Morduck, had been
+accused years before by a Richard Hathaway of causing
+his illness. On several occasions he had scratched
+her. Persecuted by the rabble, she had betaken herself
+from Southwark to London. Thither Richard Hathaway
+followed her and soon had several churches praying
+for his recovery. She had appealed to a magistrate
+for protection, had been refused, and had been tried at
+the assizes in Guildford, where she was acquitted. By
+this time, however, a good many people had begun to
+think Hathaway a cheat. He was arrested and put
+under the care of a surgeon, who watched him closely
+and soon discovered that the fasts which were a feature
+of his pretended fits were false. This was not
+the first time that he had been proved an impostor.
+On an earlier occasion he had been trapped into
+scratching a woman whom he erroneously supposed
+to be Sarah Morduck. In spite of all exposures, how<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span>ever,
+he stuck to his pretended fits and was at length
+brought before the assizes at Southwark on the charge
+of attempting to take away the life of Sarah Moordike
+for being a witch. It is refreshing to know that
+a clergyman, Dr. Martin, had espoused the cause of
+the witch and had aided in bringing Hathaway to
+judgment. Chief Justice Holt and Baron Hatsell
+presided over the court,<a name="FNanchor_323-1_22" id="FNanchor_323-1_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_323-1_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> and there seems to have been
+no doubt about the outcome. The jury "without going
+from the bar" brought Hathaway in guilty.<a name="FNanchor_323-2_23" id="FNanchor_323-2_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_323-2_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> The
+verdict was significant. Pretenders had got themselves
+into trouble before, but were soon out. The Boy of
+Bilston had been reproved; the young Robinson, who
+would have sent to the gallows a dozen fellow-creatures,
+thought it hard that he was kept a few months
+confined in London.<a name="FNanchor_323-3_24" id="FNanchor_323-3_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_323-3_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> A series of cases in the reign
+of Charles I had shown that it was next to impossible
+to recover damages for being slandered as a witch,
+though in the time of the Commonwealth one woman
+had come out of a suit with five shillings to her credit.
+Of course, when a man of distinction was slandered,
+circumstances were altered. At some time very close
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span>to the trial of Hathaway, Elizabeth Hole of Derbyshire
+was summoned to the assizes for accusing Sir
+Henry Hemloke, a well known baronet, of witchcraft.<a name="FNanchor_324-1_25" id="FNanchor_324-1_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_324-1_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a>
+Such a charge against a man of position was a serious
+matter. But the Moordike-Hathaway case was on a
+plane entirely different from any of these cases. Sarah
+Morduck was not a woman of position, yet her
+accuser was punished, probably by a long imprisonment.
+It was a precedent that would be a greater safeguard
+to supposed witches than many acquittals.</p>
+
+<p>Justice Powell was not to wield the authority of Holt:
+yet he made one decision the effects of which were far-reaching.
+It was in the trial of Jane Wenham at Hertford
+in 1712. The trial of this woman was in a sense
+her own doing. She was a widow who had done washing
+by the day. For a long time she had been suspected
+of witchcraft by a neighboring farmer, so much so
+that, when a servant of his began to act queerly, he
+at once laid the blame on the widow. Jane applied to
+Sir Henry Chauncy, justice of the peace, for a warrant
+against her accuser. He was let off with a fine
+of a shilling, and she was instructed by Mr. Gardiner,
+the clergyman, to live more peaceably.<a name="FNanchor_324-2_26" id="FNanchor_324-2_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_324-2_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> So ended
+the first act. In the next scene of this dramatic case a
+female servant of the Reverend Mr. Gardiner's, a maid
+just getting well of a broken knee, was discovered
+alone in a room undressed "to her shift" and holding
+a bundle of sticks. When asked to account for her
+condition by Mrs. Gardiner, she had a curious story
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span>to tell. "When she was left alone she found a strange
+Roaming in her head, ... her Mind ran upon Jane
+Wenham and she thought she must run some whither
+... she climbed over a Five-Bar-Gate, and ran along
+the Highway up a Hill ... as far as a Place called
+Hackney-Lane, where she look'd behind her, and saw
+a little Old Woman Muffled in a Riding-hood." This
+dame had asked whither she was going, had told her to
+pluck some sticks from an oak tree, had bade her
+bundle them in her gown, and, last and most wonderful,
+had given her a large crooked pin.<a name="FNanchor_325-1_27" id="FNanchor_325-1_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_325-1_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> Mrs. Gardiner,
+so the account goes, took the sticks and threw
+them into the fire. Presto! Jane Wenham came into
+the room, pretending an errand. It was afterwards
+found out that the errand was fictitious.</p>
+
+<p>All this raised a stir. The tale was absolutely original,
+it was no less remarkable. A maid with a
+broken knee had run a half-mile and back in seven
+minutes, very good time considering the circumstances.
+On the next day the maid, despite the knee and the
+fits she had meantime contracted, was sent out on an
+errand. She met Jane Wenham and that woman quite
+properly berated her for the stories she had set going,
+whereupon the maid's fits were worse than ever. Then,
+while several people carefully watched her, she repeated
+her former long distance run, leaping over a
+five-bar gate "as nimbly as a greyhound."</p>
+
+<p>Jane Wenham was now imprisoned by the justice
+of the peace, who collected with all speed the evidence
+against her. In this he was aided by the Reverend
+Francis Bragge, rector of Walkerne, and the Reverend
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span>Mr. Strutt, vicar of Audley. The wretched woman
+asked the justice to let her submit to the ordeal of
+water,<a name="FNanchor_326-1_28" id="FNanchor_326-1_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_326-1_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> but he refused, pronouncing it illegal and unjustifiable.
+Meantime, the Rev. Mr. Strutt used the
+test of the Lord's Prayer,<a name="FNanchor_326-2_29" id="FNanchor_326-2_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_326-2_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> a test that had been discarded
+for half a century. She failed to say the prayer
+aright, and alleged in excuse that "she was much disturbed
+in her head," as well she might be. But other
+evidence came in against her rapidly. She had been
+caught stealing turnips, and had quite submissively
+begged pardon, saying that she had no victuals that
+day and no money to buy any.<a name="FNanchor_326-3_30" id="FNanchor_326-3_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_326-3_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> On the very next day
+the man who gave this evidence had lost one of his
+sheep and found another "taken strangely, skipping
+and standing upon its head."<a name="FNanchor_326-4_31" id="FNanchor_326-4_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_326-4_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> There were other equally
+silly scraps of testimony. We need not go into them.
+The two officious clergymen busied themselves with
+her until one of them was able to wring some sort of
+a confession from her. It was a narrative in which
+she tried to account for the strange conduct of Anne
+Thorne and made a failure of it.<a name="FNanchor_326-5_32" id="FNanchor_326-5_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_326-5_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> A few days later,
+in the presence of three clergymen and a justice of
+the peace, she was urged to repeat her confession
+but was "full of Equivocations and Evasions," and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span>when pressed told her examiners that they "lay in wait
+for her Life."</p>
+
+<p>Bragge and Strutt had shown a great deal of energy
+in collecting evidence. Yet, when the case came to
+trial, the woman was accused only of dealing with a
+spirit in the shape of a cat.<a name="FNanchor_327-1_33" id="FNanchor_327-1_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_327-1_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> This was done on the
+advice of a lawyer. Unfortunately we have no details
+about his reasons, but it would look very much as if
+the lawyer recognized that the testimony collected by
+the ministers would no longer influence the court, and
+believed that the one charge of using a cat as a spirit
+might be substantiated. The assizes were largely attended.
+"So vast a number of People," writes an eye-witness,
+"have not been together at the Assizes in the
+memory of Man."<a name="FNanchor_327-2_34" id="FNanchor_327-2_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_327-2_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> Besides the evidence brought in
+by the justice of the peace, who led the prosecution with
+vigor, the Rev. Mr. Bragge, who was not to be repressed
+because the charges had been limited, gave
+some most remarkable testimony about the stuffing
+of Anne Thorne's pillow. It was full of cakes of
+small feathers fastened together with some viscous
+matter resembling much the "ointment made of dead
+men's flesh" mentioned by Mr. Glanvill. Bragge
+had done a piece of research upon the stuff and discovered
+that the particles were arranged in geometrical
+forms with equal numbers in each part.<a name="FNanchor_327-3_35" id="FNanchor_327-3_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_327-3_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> Justice
+Powell called for the pillow, but had to be content
+with the witness's word, for the pillow had been
+burnt. Arthur Chauncy, who was probably a relative
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span>of the justice of the peace, offered to show the judge
+pins taken from Anne Thorne. It was needless, replied
+the judge, he supposed they were crooked pins.<a name="FNanchor_328-1_36" id="FNanchor_328-1_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_328-1_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> The
+leaders of the prosecution seem to have felt that the
+judge was sneering at them throughout the trial. When
+Anne Thorne was in a fit, and the Reverend Mr. Chishull,
+being permitted to pray over her, read the office
+for the visitation of the sick, Justice Powell mockingly
+commented "That he had heard there were Forms of
+Exorcism in the Romish Liturgy, but knew not that we
+had any in our Church."<a name="FNanchor_328-2_37" id="FNanchor_328-2_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_328-2_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> It must have been a great
+disappointment to these Anglican clergymen that Powell
+took the case so lightly. When it was testified against
+the accused that she was accustomed to fly, Powell is
+said to have said to her, "You may, there is no law
+against flying."<a name="FNanchor_328-3_38" id="FNanchor_328-3_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_328-3_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> This indeed is quite in keeping with
+the man as described by Swift: "an old fellow with
+grey hairs, who was the merriest old gentleman I ever
+saw, spoke pleasing things, and chuckled till he cried
+again."</p>
+
+<p>In spite of Powell's obvious opinion on the trial,
+he could not hinder a conviction. No doubt the jury
+were greatly swayed by the crowds. The judge seems
+to have gone through the form of condemning the
+woman, but took pains to see that she was reprieved.<a name="FNanchor_328-4_39" id="FNanchor_328-4_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_328-4_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span>In the mean time her affair, like that of Richard Dugdale,
+had become a matter of sectarian quarrel. It was
+stated by the enemies of Jane Wenham that she was
+supported in prison by the Dissenters,<a name="FNanchor_329-1_40" id="FNanchor_329-1_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_329-1_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> although they
+said that up to this time she had never been a church-going
+woman. It was the Dugdale case over again,
+save that the parties were reversed. Then Puritans
+had been arrayed on the side of superstition; now
+some of the Anglicans seem to have espoused that
+cause.<a name="FNanchor_329-2_41" id="FNanchor_329-2_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_329-2_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> Of course the stir produced was greater. Mistress
+Jane found herself "the discourse of the town"
+in London, and a pamphlet controversy ensued that
+was quite as heated as that between Thomas Jollie
+and Zachary Taylor. No less than ten brochures were
+issued. The justice of the peace allowed his story of the
+case to be published and the Reverend Mr. Bragge
+rushed into print with a book that went through five
+editions. Needless to say, the defenders of Jane Wenham
+and of the judge who released her were not hesitant
+in replying. A physician who did not sign his
+name directed crushing ridicule against the whole affair,<a name="FNanchor_329-3_42" id="FNanchor_329-3_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_329-3_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a>
+while a defender of Justice Powell considered
+the case in a mild-mannered fashion: he did not deny
+the possibility of witchcraft, but made a keen impeachment
+of the trustworthiness of the witnesses
+against the woman.<a name="FNanchor_329-4_43" id="FNanchor_329-4_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_329-4_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span></p><p>But we cannot linger over the details of this controversy.
+Justice Powell had stirred up a hornets' nest of
+opposition, but it meant little.<a name="FNanchor_330-1_44" id="FNanchor_330-1_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_330-1_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> The insects could buzz;
+but their stingers were drawn.</p>
+
+<p>The last trial for witchcraft was conducted in 1717
+at Leicester by Justice Parker.<a name="FNanchor_330-2_45" id="FNanchor_330-2_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_330-2_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> Curiously enough, the
+circumstances connected with it make it evident that
+crudest forms of superstition were still alive. Decency
+forbids that we should narrate the details of the
+methods used to demonstrate the guilt of the suspected
+parties. No less than twenty-five people banded themselves
+against "Old woman Norton and daughter"
+and put them through tests of the most approved
+character. It need hardly be said that the swimming
+ordeal was tried and that both creatures "swam like
+a cork." The persecutors then set to work to "fetch
+blood of the witches." In this they had "good success,"
+but the witches "would be so stubborn, that
+they were often forced to call the constable to bring
+assistance of a number of persons to hold them by
+force to be blooded."<a name="FNanchor_330-3_46" id="FNanchor_330-3_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_330-3_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> The "old witch" was also
+stripped and searched "publickly before a great number
+of good women." The most brutal and illegal of
+all forms of witch procedure had been revived, as if
+to celebrate the last appearance of the Devil. But the
+rest of the story is pleasanter. When the case came
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span>before the grand jury at the assizes, over which Justice
+Parker was presiding, "the bill was not found."</p>
+
+<p>With this the story of English trials comes to an end.
+The statute of James I had been practically quashed,
+and, though it was not to be taken from the law books
+for nineteen years, it now meant nothing. It was
+very hard for the great common people to realize what
+had happened. As the law was breaking down they
+had shown an increasing tendency to take justice into
+their own hands. In the case with which we have
+just been dealing we have seen the accusers infringing
+the personal rights of the individual, and calling in the
+constables to help them in their utterly unlawful performances.
+This was not new. As early as 1691, if
+Hutchinson may be trusted, there were "several tried
+by swimming in Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, and
+Northamptonshire and some were drowned." It
+would be easy to add other and later accounts,<a name="FNanchor_331-1_47" id="FNanchor_331-1_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_331-1_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> but we
+must be content with one.<a name="FNanchor_331-2_48" id="FNanchor_331-2_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_331-2_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> The widow Coman, in
+Essex, had recently lost her husband; and her pastor,
+the Reverend Mr. Boys, went to cheer her in her melancholy.
+Because he had heard her accounted a witch
+he questioned her closely and received a nonchalant
+admission of relations with the Devil. That astounded
+him. When he sought to inquire more closely, he was
+put off. "Butter is eight pence a pound and Cheese
+a groat a pound," murmured the woman, and the
+clergyman left in bewilderment. But he came back in
+the afternoon, and she raved so wildly that he con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span>cluded
+her confession was but "a distraction in her
+head." Two women, however, worried from her further
+and more startling confessions. The minister
+returned, bringing with him "Mr. Goldsmith and Mr.
+Grimes," two of the disbelieving "sparks of the age."
+The rest of the story may be told as it is given in another
+account, a diary of the time. "July 3d, 1699, the
+widow Coman was put into the river to see if she
+would sinke, ... and she did not sinke but swim, ...
+and she was tryed again July 19, and then she swam
+again. July 24 the widow was tryed a third time by
+putting her into the river and she swam. December 27.
+The widow Coman that was counted a witch was
+buried." The intervening links need hardly be supplied,
+but the Reverend Mr. Boys has given them:
+"whether by the cold she got in the water, or by some
+other means, she fell very ill and dyed."</p>
+
+<p>It must have been very diverting, this experimentation
+by water, and it had become so popular by the beginning
+of the eighteenth century that Chief Justice Holt<a name="FNanchor_332-1_49" id="FNanchor_332-1_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_332-1_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a>
+is said to have ruled that in the future, where swimming
+had fatal results, those responsible would be prosecuted
+for murder. Such a declaration perhaps caused
+some disuse of the method for a time, but it was revived
+in the second third of the eighteenth century.</p>
+
+<p>Popular feeling still arrayed itself against the witch.
+If the increasing use of the swimming ordeal was the
+answer to the non-enforcement of the Jacobean statute,
+it was the answer of the ignorant classes. Their
+influence was bound to diminish. But another possible
+consequence of the breaking down of the law may be
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span>suggested. Mr. Inderwick, who has looked much into
+English witchcraft, says that "from 1686 to 1712 ... the
+charges and convictions of malicious injury to property
+in burning haystacks, barns, and houses, and malicious
+injuries to persons and to cattle increased enormously."<a name="FNanchor_333-1_50" id="FNanchor_333-1_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_333-1_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a>
+This is very interesting, if true, and it seems
+quite in accord with the history of witchcraft that it
+should be true. Again and again we have seen that the
+charge of witchcraft was a weapon of prosecutors who
+could not prove other suspected crimes. As the charges
+of witchcraft fell off, accusations for other crimes
+would naturally be multiplied; and, now that it was no
+longer easy to lay everything to the witch of a community,
+the number of the accused would also grow.</p>
+
+<p>We are now at the end of the witch trials. In
+another chapter we shall trace the history of opinion
+through this last period. With the dismissal of the
+Norton women at Leicester, the courts were through
+with witch trials.</p>
+
+<hr class="foot" />
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_313-1_1" id="Footnote_313-1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_313-1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> See below, pp. 342-343.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_314-1_2" id="Footnote_314-1_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_314-1_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> We are assuming that the cases at Northampton in 1705 and at
+Huntingdon in 1716 have no basis of fact. At Northampton two
+women, according to the pamphlet account, had been hanged and burnt;
+at Huntingdon, according to another account, a woman and her daughter.
+It is possible that these pamphlets deal with historical events; but the
+probabilities are all against that supposition. For a discussion of the
+matter in detail see below, appendix A, § 10.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_315-1_3" id="Footnote_315-1_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_315-1_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> For his early history see <i>The Surey Demoniack, ... or, an Account
+of Satan's ... Actings, In and about the Body of Richard Dugdale....</i>
+(London, 1697).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_315-2_4" id="Footnote_315-2_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_315-2_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> The Catholics do not seem, so far as the account goes, to have said
+anything about witchcraft.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_316-1_5" id="Footnote_316-1_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_316-1_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> <i>The Surey Demoniack</i>, 49; Zachary Taylor, <i>The Surey Impostor,
+being an answer to a ... Pamphlet, Entituled The Surey Demoniack</i>
+(London, 1697), 21-22.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_316-2_6" id="Footnote_316-2_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_316-2_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> "N. N.," <i>The Lancashire Levite Rebuked, or a Vindication of the
+Dissenters from Popery....</i> (London, 1698), 3-4; see also the preface
+of <i>The Surey Demoniack</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_316-3_7" id="Footnote_316-3_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_316-3_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_316-4_8" id="Footnote_316-4_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_316-4_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> <i>The Wonders of the Invisible World: being an Account of the Tryals
+of ... Witches ... in New England</i> (London, 1693), by Cotton Mather,
+and <i>A Further Account of the Tryals of the New-England Witches</i>
+(London, 1693), by Increase Mather. See preface to <i>The Surey
+Demoniack</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_316-5_9" id="Footnote_316-5_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_316-5_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Thomas Jollie told a curious tale about how the manuscript had
+been forcibly taken from the man who was carrying it to the press by
+a group of armed men on the Strand. See <i>ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_317-1_10" id="Footnote_317-1_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_317-1_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Alexander Gordon in his article on Thomas Jollie, <i>Dict. Nat. Biog.</i>,
+says that the pamphlet was drafted by Jollie and expanded by Carrington.
+Zachary Taylor, in his answer to it (<i>The Surey Impostor</i>), constantly
+names Mr. Carrington as the author. "N. N.," in <i>The Lancashire
+Levite Rebuked</i>, also assumes that Carrington was the author.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_317-2_11" id="Footnote_317-2_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_317-2_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> <i>The Devil Turned Casuist, or the Cheats of Rome Laid open in the
+Exorcism of a Despairing Devil....</i> By Zachary Taylor, ... (London,
+1696).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_318-1_12" id="Footnote_318-1_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_318-1_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> It is interesting that Zachary Taylor's father was a Non-Conformist;
+see <i>The Lancashire Levite Rebuked</i>, 2.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_318-2_13" id="Footnote_318-2_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_318-2_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> London, 1697.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_318-3_14" id="Footnote_318-3_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_318-3_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> <i>The Devil Turned Casuist.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_318-4_15" id="Footnote_318-4_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_318-4_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> <i>A Vindication of the Surey Demoniack</i>, 17.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_318-5_16" id="Footnote_318-5_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_318-5_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Taylor replied to Jollie's <i>Vindication of the Surey Demoniack</i> in
+1698 with a pamphlet entitled <i>Popery, Superstition, Ignorance and
+Knavery ... very fully proved ... in the Surey Imposture</i>. Then
+came <i>The Lancashire Levite Rebuked</i>, by the unknown writer, "N. N.,"
+whose views we give in the text. Taylor seems to have answered in
+a letter to "N. N." which called forth a scathing reply (1698) in <i>The
+Lancashire Levite Rebuked, or a Farther Vindication of the Dissenters....</i>
+Taylor's reply, which came out in 1699, was entitled <i>Popery, Superstition,
+Ignorance, and Knavery Confess'd and fully Proved on the
+Surey Dissenters....</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_319-1_17" id="Footnote_319-1_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_319-1_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> "N. N." <i>The Lancashire Levite Rebuked</i>. The Rev. Alexander
+Gordon, in his article on Zachary Taylor, <i>Dict. Nat. Biog.</i>, says that
+Carrington probably wrote this book. This seems impossible. The
+author of the book, in speaking of Mr. Jollie, Mr. R. Fr. [Frankland],
+and Mr. O. H. [Oliver Heywood], refers to Mr. C. as having "exposed
+himself in so many insignificant Fopperies foisted into his Narrative"&mdash;proof
+enough that Carrington did not write <i>The Lancashire Levite Rebuked</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_319-2_18" id="Footnote_319-2_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_319-2_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Several dissenting clergymen had opposed the publication of <i>The
+Surey Demoniack</i>, and had sought to have it suppressed. See <i>The Lancashire
+Levite Rebuked</i>, 2.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_321-1_19" id="Footnote_321-1_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_321-1_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> For an account of this case see Francis Hutchinson, <i>Historical Essay
+on Witchcraft</i> (London, 1718), 43. Hutchinson had made an investigation
+of the case when in Bury, and he had also Holt's notes of the
+trial.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_321-2_20" id="Footnote_321-2_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_321-2_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Hutchinson had Holt's notes on this case, as on the preceding; <i>ibid.</i>,
+45. Blackburne's letter is printed in <i>Notes and Queries</i>, 1st series, XI,
+498-499, and reprinted in Brand, <i>Popular Antiquities</i> (1905), II, 648-649.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_322-1_21" id="Footnote_322-1_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_322-1_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> See <i>The Tryal of Richard Hathaway, ... For endeavouring to
+take away the Life of Sarah Morduck, For being a Witch ...</i> (London,
+1702), and <i>A Full and True Account of the Apprehending and
+Taking of Mrs. Sarah Moordike, ... accused ... for having Bewitched
+one Richard Hetheway ...</i>; see also Hutchinson, <i>op. cit.</i>, 224-228.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_323-1_22" id="Footnote_323-1_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_323-1_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 226.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_323-2_23" id="Footnote_323-2_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_323-2_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> A somewhat similar case at Hammersmith met with the same treatment,
+if the pamphlet account may be trusted. Susanna Fowles pretended
+to be possessed in such a way that she could not use the name of
+God or Christ. The application of a red-hot iron to her head in the
+midst of her fits was drastic but effectual. She cried out "Oh Lord,"
+and so proved herself a "notorious Lyar." She was sent to the house
+of correction, where, reports the unfeeling pamphleteer, "She is now
+beating hemp." Another pamphlet, however, gives a very different
+version. According to this account, Susan, under Papist influences,
+pretended to be possessed in such a way that she was continually blaspheming.
+She was indicted for blasphemy, fined, and sentenced to
+stand in the pillory. (For the graphic titles of these contradictory pamphlets
+and of a folio broadside on the same subject, see appendix A, § 7).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_323-3_24" id="Footnote_323-3_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_323-3_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Probably not by any court verdict, but through the privy council.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_324-1_25" id="Footnote_324-1_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_324-1_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> See J. C. Cox, <i>Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals</i> (London,
+1890), II, 90.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_324-2_26" id="Footnote_324-2_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_324-2_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> <i>Jane Wenham</i> (broadside); see also <i>A Full and Impartial Account
+of the Discovery of Sorcery and Witchcraft, Practis'd by Jane Wenham
+...</i> (London, 1712).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_325-1_27" id="Footnote_325-1_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_325-1_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> This narrative is given in great detail in <i>A Full and Impartial Account</i>.
+It is of course referred to in nearly all the other pamphlets.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_326-1_28" id="Footnote_326-1_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_326-1_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Jane Wenham (broadside) see also <i>A Full and Impartial Account</i>,
+12.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_326-2_29" id="Footnote_326-2_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_326-2_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Jane Wenham (broadside); see also <i>A Full and Impartial Account</i>,
+10.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_326-3_30" id="Footnote_326-3_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_326-3_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Jane Wenham (broadside); see also <i>A Full and Impartial Account</i>,
+14.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_326-4_31" id="Footnote_326-4_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_326-4_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 14.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_326-5_32" id="Footnote_326-5_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_326-5_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> It was suggested by some who did not believe Jane guilty, that she
+confessed from unhappiness and a desire to be out of the world, <i>Witchcraft
+Farther Display'd. Containing (I) An Account of the Witchcraft
+practis'd by Jane Wenham, ... An Answer to ... Objections against
+the Being and Power of Witches ...</i> (London, 1712), 37.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_327-1_33" id="Footnote_327-1_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_327-1_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> <i>A Full and Impartial Account</i>, 24.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_327-2_34" id="Footnote_327-2_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_327-2_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> <i>An Account of the Tryal, Examination and Condemnation of Jane
+Wenham.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_327-3_35" id="Footnote_327-3_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_327-3_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> <i>A Full and Impartial Account</i>, 27.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_328-1_36" id="Footnote_328-1_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_328-1_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> <i>A Full and Impartial Account</i>, 26.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_328-2_37" id="Footnote_328-2_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_328-2_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 25.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_328-3_38" id="Footnote_328-3_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_328-3_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> For this story I have found no contemporary testimony. The earliest
+source that I can find is Alexander Chalmers's <i>Biographical Dictionary</i>
+(London, 1812-1827), XXV, 248 (<i>s. v.</i> Powell).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_328-4_39" id="Footnote_328-4_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_328-4_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> After her release she was taken under the protection of Colonel
+Plummer of Gilston, who had followed the trial. Hutchinson, <i>Historical
+Essay on Witchcraft</i>, 130. On his death she was supported by the
+Earl and Countess of Cowper, and lived until 1730. Robert Clutterbuck,
+<i>History and Antiquities of the County of Hertford</i> (London,
+1815-1827), II, 461, note.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_329-1_40" id="Footnote_329-1_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_329-1_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> <i>Witchcraft Farther Displayed</i>, introduction.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_329-2_41" id="Footnote_329-2_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_329-2_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> See the dedication to Justice Powell in <i>The Case of the Hertfordshire
+Witchcraft Consider'd</i> (London, 1712).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_329-3_42" id="Footnote_329-3_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_329-3_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> <i>A Full Confutation of Witchcraft: More particularly of the Depositions
+against Jane Wenham.... In a Letter from a Physician in
+Hertfordshire, to his Friend in London</i> (London, 1712).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_329-4_43" id="Footnote_329-4_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_329-4_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> <i>The Case of the Hertfordshire Witchcraft Consider'd.</i> For more as
+to these discussions see below, ch. XIV.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_330-1_44" id="Footnote_330-1_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_330-1_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> It seems, however, that the efforts of Lady Frances &mdash;&mdash; to
+bring about Jane's execution in spite of the judge were feared by Jane's
+friends. See <i>The Impossibility of Witchcraft, ... In which the Depositions
+against Jane Wenham ... are Confuted ...</i> (London, 1712),
+2d ed. (in the Bodleian), 36.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_330-2_45" id="Footnote_330-2_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_330-2_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> See Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 35,838, f. 404.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_330-3_46" id="Footnote_330-3_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_330-3_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> They could "get no blood of them by Scratching so they used great
+pins and such Instruments for that purpose."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_331-1_47" id="Footnote_331-1_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_331-1_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> See <i>Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports, Various</i>, I, 160; see also C. J.
+Bilson, <i>County Folk Lore, Leicestershire and Rutland</i> (Folk Lore Soc.,
+1895), 51-52.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_331-2_48" id="Footnote_331-2_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_331-2_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> <i>The Case of Witchcraft at Coggeshall, Essex, in the year 1699.
+Being the narrative of the Rev. J. Boys ...</i> (London, 1901).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_332-1_49" id="Footnote_332-1_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_332-1_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> By some Parker is given the credit. I cannot find the original
+authority.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_333-1_50" id="Footnote_333-1_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_333-1_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> Inderwick, <i>Sidelights on the Stuarts</i>, 174, 175.</p></div>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2 class="chapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+
+<h3 class="chapter2">The Close of the Literary Controversy.</h3>
+
+
+<p>In the last chapter we mentioned the controversy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span>
+over Jane Wenham. In attempting in this chapter to
+show the currents and cross-currents of opinion during
+the last period of witch history in England, we cannot
+omit some account of the pamphlet war over the Hertfordshire
+witch. It will not be worth while, however,
+to take up in detail the arguments of the upholders
+of the superstition. The Rev. Mr. Bragge was clearly
+on the defensive. There were, he admitted sadly,
+"several gentlemen who would not believe that there are
+any witches since the time of our Saviour Jesus Christ."
+He struck the same note when he spoke of those who
+disbelieved "on the prejudices of education only."
+With great satisfaction the clergyman quoted the decision
+of Sir Matthew Hale in 1664.<a name="FNanchor_334-1_1" id="FNanchor_334-1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_334-1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>The opinions of the opposition are more entertaining,
+if their works did not have so wide a sale. The physician
+who wrote to his friend in London poked fun
+at the witchmongers. It was dangerous to do so, he admitted,
+"especially in the Country, where to make the
+least Doubt is a Badge of Infidelity."<a name="FNanchor_334-2_2" id="FNanchor_334-2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_334-2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> As for him, he
+envied the privileges of the town. He proceeded to
+take up the case of Anne Thorne. Her seven-minute
+mile run with a broken knee was certainly puzzling.
+"If it was only a violent Extention of the Rotula,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span>something might be allow'd: but it is hard to tell what
+this was, your Country Bone-Setters seldom plaguing
+their heads with Distinctions."<a name="FNanchor_335-1_3" id="FNanchor_335-1_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_335-1_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> The "Viciousness of
+Anne Thorn's opticks,"<a name="FNanchor_335-2_4" id="FNanchor_335-2_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_335-2_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> the silly character of the
+clergyman's evidence, and the spiritual juggles at exorcism,<a name="FNanchor_335-3_5" id="FNanchor_335-3_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_335-3_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a>
+all these things roused his merriment. As
+for Jane's confession, it was the result of ensnaring
+questions.<a name="FNanchor_335-4_6" id="FNanchor_335-4_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_335-4_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> He seemed to hold the clergy particularly
+responsible for witch cases and advised them to be
+more conversant with the history of diseases and to
+inquire more narrowly into the physical causes of
+things.</p>
+
+<p>A defender of Justice Powell, probably Henry Stebbing,
+later an eminent divine but now a young Cambridge
+master of arts, entered the controversy. He
+was not altogether a skeptic about witchcraft in general,
+but his purpose was to show that the evidence
+against Jane Wenham was weak. The two chief witnesses,
+Matthew Gilston and Anne Thorne, were
+"much disturbed in their Imaginations." There were
+many absurdities in their stories. He cited the story
+of Anne Thorne's mile run in seven minutes. Who
+knew that it was seven minutes? There was no one
+timing her when she started. How was it known that
+she went half a mile? And, supposing these narratives
+were true, would they prove anything? The
+writer took up piece after piece of the evidence in this
+way and showed its absurdity. Some of his criticisms
+are amusing&mdash;he attacked silly testimony in such a
+solemn way&mdash;yet he had, too, his sense of fun. It had
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span>been alleged, he wrote, that the witch's flesh, when
+pricked, emitted no blood, but a thin watery matter.
+"Mr. Chauncy, it is like, expected that Jane Wenham's
+Blood shou'd have been as rich and as florid as
+that of Anne Thorne's, or of any other Virgin of about
+16. He makes no difference, I see, between the Beef
+and Mutton Regimen, and that of Turnips and Water-gruel."<a name="FNanchor_336-1_7" id="FNanchor_336-1_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_336-1_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a>
+Moreover, he urges, it is well known that
+fright congeals the blood.<a name="FNanchor_336-2_8" id="FNanchor_336-2_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_336-2_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p>
+
+<p>We need not go further into this discussion. Mr.
+Bragge and his friends re-entered the fray at once, and
+then another writer proved with elaborate argument
+that there had never been such a thing as witchcraft.
+The controversy was growing dull, but it had not been
+without value. It had been, on the whole, an unconventional
+discussion of the subject and had shown very
+clearly the street-corner point of view. But we must
+turn to the more formal treatises. Only three of them
+need be noticed, those of Richard Baxter, John
+Beaumont, and Richard Boulton. All of these writers
+had been affected by the accounts of the Salem witchcraft
+in New England. The opinions of Glanvill and
+Matthew Hale had been carried to America and now
+were brought back to fortify belief in England. Richard
+Baxter was most clearly influenced by the accounts
+of what had happened in the New World. The Mathers
+were his friends and fellow Puritans, and their testimony
+was not to be doubted for a minute. But
+Baxter needed no convincing. He had long preached
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span>and written about the danger of witches. In a sermon
+on the Holy Ghost in the fifties he had shown a wide
+acquaintance with foreign works on demonology.<a name="FNanchor_337-1_9" id="FNanchor_337-1_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_337-1_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> In
+a <i>Defence of the Christian Religion</i>,<a name="FNanchor_337-2_10" id="FNanchor_337-2_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_337-2_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> written several
+years later, he recognized that the malice of the accusers
+and the melancholy of the accused were
+responsible for some cases, but such cases were
+exceptions. If any one doubted that there were
+<i>bona fide</i> cases, let him talk to the judges and ministers
+yet living in Suffolk, Norfolk, and Essex. They could
+tell him of many of the confessions made in the Hopkins
+period. Baxter had not only talked on witchcraft
+with Puritan ministers, but had corresponded as well
+with Glanvill, with whom, although Glanvill was an
+Anglican, he seems to have been on very friendly
+terms.<a name="FNanchor_337-3_11" id="FNanchor_337-3_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_337-3_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> Nor is it likely that in the many conversations
+he held with his neighbor, Sir Matthew Hale,<a name="FNanchor_337-4_12" id="FNanchor_337-4_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_337-4_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> the evidence
+from witchcraft for a spiritual world had been
+neglected. The subject must have come up in his
+conversations with another friend, Robert Boyle.<a name="FNanchor_337-5_13" id="FNanchor_337-5_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_337-5_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a>
+Boyle's interest in such matters was of course a scientific
+one. Baxter, like Glanvill, looked at them from
+a religious point of view. In the classic <i>Saint's Everlasting
+Rest</i> he drew his fourth argument for the fu<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span>ture
+happiness and misery of man from the Devil's
+compact with witches.<a name="FNanchor_338-1_14" id="FNanchor_338-1_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_338-1_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> To this point he reverted in
+his <i>Dying Thoughts</i>. His <i>Certainty of the World of
+Spirits</i>, in which he took up the subject of witchcraft
+in more detail, was written but a few months before
+his death. "When God first awakened me, to think
+with preparing seriousness of my Condition after
+Death, I had not any observed Doubts of the Reality
+of Spirits.... But, when God had given me peace
+of Conscience, Satan Assaulted me with those worse
+Temptations.... I found that my Faith of Supernatural
+Revelation must be more than a Believing
+Man and that if it had not a firm foundation, ...
+even sure Evidence of Verity, ... it was not like ...
+to make my Death to be safe and comfortable....
+I tell the Reader, that he may see why I have taken
+this Subject as so necessary, why I am ending my Life
+with the publication of these Historical Letters and
+Collections, which I dare say have such Evidence as
+will leave every Sadduce that readeth them, either
+convinced, or utterly without excuse."<a name="FNanchor_338-2_15" id="FNanchor_338-2_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_338-2_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p>
+
+<p>By the "Collection" he meant, of course, the narratives
+brought out in his <i>Certainty of the World of
+Spirits</i>&mdash;published in 1691. It is unnecessary to review
+its arguments here. They were an elaboration of those
+already used in earlier works. Too much has been
+made of this book. Baxter had the fever for publication.
+It was a lean year when he dashed off less
+than two works. His wife told him once that he
+would write better if he wrote less. Probably she
+was thinking of his style, and she was doubtless right.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span>But it was true, too, of his thinking; and none of his
+productions show this more than his hurried book on,
+spirits and witches.<a name="FNanchor_339-1_16" id="FNanchor_339-1_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_339-1_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p>
+
+<p>Beaumont and Boulton may be passed over quickly.
+Beaumont<a name="FNanchor_339-2_17" id="FNanchor_339-2_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_339-2_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> had read widely in the witch literature of
+England and other countries;<a name="FNanchor_339-3_18" id="FNanchor_339-3_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_339-3_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> he had read indeed
+with some care, as is evidenced by the fact that he had
+compared Hopkins's and Stearne's accounts of the
+same events and found them not altogether consistent.
+Nevertheless Beaumont never thought of questioning
+the reality of witchcraft phenomena, and his chief aim
+in writing was to answer <i>The World Bewitched</i>, the
+great work of a Dutch theologian, Balthazar Bekker,
+"who laughs at all these things of this Nature as done
+by Humane contrivance."<a name="FNanchor_339-4_19" id="FNanchor_339-4_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_339-4_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> Bekker's bold book was
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span>indeed gaining wide notice; but this reply to it was
+entirely commonplace. Richard Boulton, sometime of
+Brasenose College, published ten years later, in 1715,
+<i>A Compleat History of Magic</i>. It was a book thrown
+together in a haphazard way from earlier authors, and
+was written rather to sell than to convince. Seven
+years later a second edition was brought out, in which
+the writer inserted an answer to Hutchinson.</p>
+
+<p>Before taking up Hutchinson's work we shall turn
+aside to collect those stray fragments of opinion that
+indicate in which direction the wind was blowing.
+Among those who wrote on nearly related topics, one
+comparatively obscure name deserves mention. Dr.
+Richard Burthogge published in 1694 an <i>Essay upon
+Reason and the Nature of Spirits</i>, a book which was
+dedicated to John Locke. He touched on witchcraft
+in passing. "Most of the relations," he wrote, "do,
+upon impartial Examination, prove either Impostures
+of Malicious, or Mistakes of Ignorant and Superstitious
+persons; yet some come so well Attested that it
+were to bid defiance to all Human Testimony to refuse
+them belief."<a name="FNanchor_340-1_20" id="FNanchor_340-1_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_340-1_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p>
+
+<p>This was the last stand of those who still believed.
+Shall we, they asked, discredit all human testimony?
+It was practically the belief of Bishop William Lloyd
+of Worcester, who, while he urged his clergy to give
+up their notions about witches, was inclined to believe
+that the Devil still operates in the Gentile world and
+among the Pagans.<a name="FNanchor_340-2_21" id="FNanchor_340-2_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_340-2_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> Joseph Addison was equally
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span>unwilling to take a radical view. "There are," he wrote
+in the <i>Spectator</i> for July 14, 1711, "some opinions
+in which a man should stand neuter.... It is with this
+temper of mind that I consider the subject of witchcraft....
+I endeavour to suspend my belief till I hear
+more certain accounts.... 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."<a name="FNanchor_341-1_22" id="FNanchor_341-1_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_341-1_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> The force of credulity among the
+country people he fully recognized. His Sir Roger de
+Coverley, who was a justice of the peace, and his chaplain
+were, he said, too often compelled to put an end
+to the witch-swimming experiments of the people.</p>
+
+<p>If this was belief, it was at least a harmless sort.
+It was almost exactly the position of James Johnstone,
+former secretary for Scotland, who, writing from
+London to the chancellor of Scotland, declared his belief
+in the existence of witches, but called attention to
+the fact that the parliaments of France and other judicatories
+had given up the trying of them because it
+was impossible to distinguish possession from "nature
+in disorder."<a name="FNanchor_341-2_23" id="FNanchor_341-2_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_341-2_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></p>
+
+<p>But there were those who were ready to assert a
+downright negative. The Marquis of Halifax in the
+<i>Political, Moral and Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections</i>
+which he wrote (or, at least, completed) in 1694,
+noted "It is a fundamental ... that there were witches&mdash;much
+shaken of late."<a name="FNanchor_341-3_24" id="FNanchor_341-3_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_341-3_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> Secretary of State Vernon
+and the Duke of Shrewsbury were both of them skep<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span>tical
+about the confessions of witches.<a name="FNanchor_342-1_25" id="FNanchor_342-1_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_342-1_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> Sir Richard
+Steele lampooned the belief. "Three young ladies of
+our town," he makes his correspondent relate, "were
+indicted for witchcraft. One by spirits locked in a
+bottle and magic herbs drew hundreds of men to her;
+the second cut off by night the limbs of dead bodies
+and, muttering words, buried them; the third moulded
+pieces of dough into the shapes of men, women, and
+children and then heated them." They "had nothing
+to say in their own defence but downright denying the
+facts, which," the writer remarks, "is like to avail
+very little when they come upon their trials." "The
+parson," he continued, "will believe nothing of all this;
+so that the whole town cries out: 'Shame! that one of
+his cast should be such an atheist.'"<a name="FNanchor_342-2_26" id="FNanchor_342-2_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_342-2_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></p>
+
+<p>The parson had at length assimilated the skepticism
+of the jurists and the gentry. It was, as has been said, an
+Anglican clergyman who administered the last great
+blow to the superstition. Francis Hutchinson's <i>Historical
+Essay on Witchcraft</i>, published in 1718 (and
+again, enlarged, in 1720), must rank with Reginald
+Scot's <i>Discoverie</i> as one of the great classics of English
+witch literature. Hutchinson had read all the accounts
+of trials in England&mdash;so far as he could find them&mdash;and
+had systematized them in chronological order, so
+as to give a conspectus of the whole subject. So nearly
+was his point of view that of our own day that it would
+be idle to rehearse his arguments. A man with warm
+sympathies for the oppressed, he had been led probably
+by the case of Jane Wenham, with whom he had
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span>talked, to make a personal investigation of all cases
+that came at all within the ken of those living. Whoever
+shall write the final story of English witchcraft
+will find himself still dependent upon this eighteenth-century
+historian.</p>
+
+<p>Hutchinson's work was the last chapter in the witch
+controversy. There was nothing more to say.</p>
+
+<hr class="foot" />
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_334-1_1" id="Footnote_334-1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_334-1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> <i>Witchcraft Farther Displayed.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_334-2_2" id="Footnote_334-2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_334-2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> <i>A Full Confutation of Witchcraft</i>, 4.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_335-1_3" id="Footnote_335-1_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_335-1_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 11.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_335-2_4" id="Footnote_335-2_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_335-2_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 38.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_335-3_5" id="Footnote_335-3_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_335-3_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 5.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_335-4_6" id="Footnote_335-4_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_335-4_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 23-24.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_336-1_7" id="Footnote_336-1_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_336-1_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> <i>The Case of the Hertfordshire Witchcraft Consider'd</i>, 72.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_336-2_8" id="Footnote_336-2_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_336-2_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> If certain phrases may be trusted, this writer was interested in the
+case largely because it had become a cause of sectarian combat and he
+hoped to strike at the church.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_337-1_9" id="Footnote_337-1_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_337-1_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> See Baxter's <i>Works</i> (London, 1827-1830), XX, 255-271.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_337-2_10" id="Footnote_337-2_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_337-2_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> See <i>ibid.</i>, XXI, 87.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_337-3_11" id="Footnote_337-3_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_337-3_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> W. Orme in his <i>Life of Richard Baxter</i> (London, 1830), I, 435,
+says that the Baxter MSS. contain several letters from Glanvill to
+Baxter.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_337-4_12" id="Footnote_337-4_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_337-4_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> <i>See Memoirs of Richard Baxter</i> by Dr. Bates (in <i>Biographical
+Collections, or Lives and Characters from the Works of the Reverend
+Mr. Baxter and Dr. Bates</i>, 1760), II, 51, 73.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_337-5_13" id="Footnote_337-5_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_337-5_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 26; see also Baxter's <i>Dying Thoughts</i>, in <i>Works</i>, XVIII, 284,
+where he refers to the Demon of Mascon, a story for which Boyle, as
+we have seen, had stood sponsor in England.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_338-1_14" id="Footnote_338-1_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_338-1_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Ch. VII, sect. iv, in <i>Works</i>, XXII, 327.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_338-2_15" id="Footnote_338-2_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_338-2_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> <i>Certainty of the World of Spirits</i> (London, 1691), preface.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_339-1_16" id="Footnote_339-1_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_339-1_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Two other collectors of witch stories deserve perhaps a note here,
+for each prefaced his collection with a discussion of witchcraft. The
+London publisher Nathaniel Crouch, who wrote much for his own press
+under the pseudonym of "R. B." (later expanded to "Richard Burton"),
+published as early as 1688 (not 1706, as says the <i>Dict. Nat.
+Biog.</i>) <i>The Kingdom of Darkness: or The History of Dćmons, Specters,
+Witches, ... Containing near Fourscore memorable Relations, ... Together
+with a Preface obviating the common Objections and Allegations
+of the Sadduces [sic] and Atheists of the Age, ... with Pictures.</i>
+Edward Stephens, first lawyer, then clergyman, but always a pamphleteer,
+brought out in 1693 <i>A Collection of Modern Relations concerning
+Witches and Witchcraft</i>, to which was prefaced Sir Matthew Hale's
+<i>Meditations concerning the Mercy of God in preserving us from the
+Malice and Power of Evil Angels</i> and a dissertation of his own on
+<i>Questions concerning Witchcraft</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_339-2_17" id="Footnote_339-2_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_339-2_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> <i>An Historical, Physiological, and Theological Treatise of Spirits,
+Apparitions, Witchcraft and other Magical Practices</i> (London, 1705).
+Dedicated to "John, Earl of Carbury."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_339-3_18" id="Footnote_339-3_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_339-3_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> See for example, <i>ibid.</i>, 63, 70, 71, 75, 130-135, 165, 204, 289, 306.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_339-4_19" id="Footnote_339-4_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_339-4_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Balthazar Bekker's <i>De Betoverde Weereld</i> (Leeuwarden and Amsterdam,
+1691-1693), was a most telling attack upon the reality of witchcraft,
+and, through various translations, was read all over Europe.
+The first part was translated and published in London in 1695 as
+<i>The World Bewitched</i>, and was republished in 1700 as <i>The World
+Turn'd upside down</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_340-1_20" id="Footnote_340-1_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_340-1_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> <i>Essay upon Reason and the Nature of Spirits</i>, 195.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_340-2_21" id="Footnote_340-2_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_340-2_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> G. P. R. James, ed., <i>Letters Illustrative of the Reign of William
+III, ... addressed to the Duke of Shrewsbury, by James Vernon, Esq.</i>
+(London, 1841), II, 302-303.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_341-1_22" id="Footnote_341-1_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_341-1_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> <i>Spectator</i>, no. 117.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_341-2_23" id="Footnote_341-2_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_341-2_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> <i>Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports</i>, XIV, 3, p. 132.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_341-3_24" id="Footnote_341-3_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_341-3_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> H. C. Foxcroft, ed., <i>Life and Letters of Sir George Savile, Marquis
+of Halifax</i> (London, 1898), II, 493.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_342-1_25" id="Footnote_342-1_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_342-1_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> G. P. R. James, ed., <i>op. cit.</i>, II, 300. Shrewsbury's opinion may be
+inferred from Vernon's reply to him.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_342-2_26" id="Footnote_342-2_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_342-2_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> See the <i>Tatler</i>, no. 21, May 28, 1709.</p></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span></div>
+<h2 class="chapter3"><a name="APPENDIX" id="APPENDIX"></a>APPENDICES.</h2>
+
+
+<h2 class="chapter"><a name="APPENDIX_A" id="APPENDIX_A"></a>A.&mdash;PAMPHLET LITERATURE.</h2>
+
+
+<h3 class="chapter2">§ 1.&mdash;Witchcraft under Elizabeth (<span style="font-variant: normal;">see ch. II</span>).</h3>
+
+<p>A large part of the evidence for the trials of Elizabeth's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span>
+reign is derived from the pamphlets issued soon after the
+trials. These pamphlets furnish a peculiar species of historical
+material, and it is a species so common throughout the history
+of English witchcraft that it deserves a brief examination
+in passing. The pamphlets were written of course by
+credulous people who easily accepted what was told them and
+whose own powers of observation were untrained. To get
+at the facts behind their marvellous accounts demands the
+greatest care and discrimination. Not only must the miraculous
+be ruled out, but the prejudices of the observer must
+be taken into account. Did the pamphleteer himself hear
+and see what he recorded, or was his account at second hand?
+Did he write soon after the events, when they were fresh in
+his memory? Does his narrative seem to be that of a painstaking,
+careful man or otherwise? These are questions to
+be answered. In many instances, however, the pamphlets were
+not narrative in form, but were merely abstracts of the court
+proceedings and testimony. In this case, too, care must be
+taken in using them, for the testimony damaging to the accused
+was likely to be accented, while the evidence on the other
+side, if not suppressed, was not emphasized. In general, however,
+these records of depositions are sources whose residuum
+of fact it is not difficult to discover. Both in this and in the
+narrative material the most valuable points may be gleaned
+from the incidental references and statements. The writer
+has made much use of this incidental matter. The position
+of the witch in her community, the real ground of the feeling
+against her upon the part of her neighbors, the way in which
+the alarm spread, the processes used to elicit confession&mdash;in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span>ferences
+of this sort may, the writer believes, be often made
+with a good deal of confidence. We have taken for granted
+that the pamphlets possess a substratum of truth. This may
+not always be the case. The pamphleteer was writing to sell.
+A fictitious narrative of witchcraft or of a witch trial was
+almost as likely to sell as a true narrative. More than once
+in the history of witch literature absolutely imaginary stories
+were foisted upon the public. It is necessary to be constantly
+on guard against this type of pamphlet. Fortunately nine-tenths
+of the witch accounts are corroborated from other
+sources. The absence of such corroboration does not mean
+that an account should be barred out, but that it should be subjected
+to the methods of historical criticism, and that it should
+be used cautiously even if it pass that test. Happily for us, the
+plan of making a witch story to order does not seem to have
+occurred to the Elizabethan pamphleteers. So far as we know,
+all the pamphlets of that time rest upon actual events. We
+shall take them up briefly in order.</p>
+
+<p>The first was <i>The examination and confession of certaine
+Wytches at Chensforde in the Countie of Essex before the
+Quenes maiesties Judges, the XXVI daye of July Anno 1566</i>.
+The only original copy of this pamphlet is in the Lambeth
+Palace library at London and its binding bears the initials of
+R. B. [Richard Bancroft]. The versified introduction is signed
+by John Phillips, who presumably was the author. The pamphlet&mdash;a
+black letter one&mdash;was issued, in three parts, from the
+press of William Powell at London, two of them on August
+13, the third on August 23, 1566. It has since been reprinted
+by H. Beigel for the Philobiblon Society, London, 1864-1865.
+It gives abstracts of the confessions and an account of the
+court interrogatories. There is every reason to believe that
+it is in the main an accurate account of what happened at the
+Chelmsford trials in 1566. Justice Southcote, Dr. Cole, Master
+Foscue, and Attorney-General Gerard are all names we can
+identify. Moreover, the one execution narrated is confirmed
+by the pamphlet dealing with the trials at Chelmsford in 1579.</p>
+
+<p>The second pamphlet, also in black letter, deals with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[347]</a></span>
+Abingdon cases of 1579. It is entitled <i>A Rehearsall both
+straung and true of hainous and horrible actes committed by
+Elizabeth Stile, alias Rockingham, Mother Dutten, Mother
+Devell, Mother Margaret. Fower notorious Witches apprehended
+at Winsore in the Countie of Barks, and at Abington
+arraigned, condemned and executed on the 28 daye of Februarie
+last anno 1579</i>. This pamphlet finds confirmation by a
+reference in the privy council records to the same event (<i>Acts
+P. C.</i>, n. s., XI, 22). Reginald Scot, in his <i>Discoverie of Witchcraft</i>,
+17, 543, mentions another, a book of "Richard Gallis
+of Windesor" "about certaine witches of Windsore executed
+at Abington." This would seem to have been a different account
+of the Abingdon affair, because Scot also on p. 51 speaks
+of some details of the Abingdon affair as to be found "in a
+little pamphlet of the acts and hanging of foure witches in
+anno 1579." It is perhaps the one described by Lowndes, <i>Bibliographer's
+Manual of English Literature</i> (p. 2959) under the
+title <i>The horrible Acts of Eliz. Style, alias Rockingham, Mother
+Dutton, Mother Dovell, and Mother Margaret, 4 Witches executed
+at Abingdon, 26 Feb. upon Richard Galis</i> (London,
+1579) or that mentioned in the Stationers' <i>Registers</i>, II (London,
+1875), 352, under date of May 4, 1579, as <i>A brief treatise
+conteyninge the most strange and horrible crueltye of Elizabeth
+Sule</i> [sic] <i>alias Bockingham</i> [sic] <i>and hir confederates
+executed at Abingdon upon Richard Galis etc.</i></p>
+
+<p>The second Chelmsford trials were also in 1579. The pamphlet
+account was called <i>A Detection of damnable driftes, practised
+by three Witches arraigned at Chelmsforde in Essex at
+the last Assizes there holden, whiche were executed in Aprill
+1579</i>. There are three references in this pamphlet to people
+mentioned in the earlier Chelmsford pamphlet, so that the two
+confirm each other.</p>
+
+<p>The third Chelmsford trials came in 1589 and were narrated
+in a pamphlet entitled <i>The apprehension and confession of
+three notorious Witches arraigned and by Justice condemnede
+in the Countye of Essex the 5 day of Julye last past</i>. Joan
+Cunny was convicted, largely on the evidence of the two
+bastard sons of one of her "lewde" daughters. The eldest
+of these boys, who was not over ten or twelve, told the court
+that he had seen his grandmother cause an oak to be blown
+up by the roots during a calm. The charges against Joan<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span>
+Upney concerned chiefly her dealings with toads, those against
+Joan Prentice, who lived in an Essex almshouse, had to do
+with ferrets. The three women seem to have been brought first
+before justices of the peace and were then tried together and
+condemned by the "judge of the circuit." This narrative has
+no outside confirmation, but the internal evidence for its
+authenticity is good. Three men mentioned as sheriff, justice,
+and landowner can all be identified as holding those respective
+positions in the county.</p>
+
+<p>The narrative of the St. Oses case appeared in 1582. It
+was called <i>A True and just Recorde of the Information, Examination
+and Confession of all the Witches taken at St. Oses
+in the countie of Essex: whereof some were executed, and
+other some entreated according to the determination of Lawe....
+Written orderly, as the cases were tryed by evidence, by
+W. W.</i> The pamphlet is merely a record of examinations. It
+is dedicated to Justice Darcy; and from slips, where the judge
+in describing his action breaks into the first person, it is evident
+that it was written by the judge himself. Scot, who wrote
+two years later, had read this pamphlet, and knew of the case
+(<i>Discoverie</i>, 49, 542). There are many references to the case by
+later writers on witchcraft.</p>
+
+<p>Eleven years later came the trials which brought out the
+pamphlet: <i>The most strange and admirable discoverie of the
+three Witches of Warboys, arraigned, convicted and executed
+at the last assises at Huntingdon ...</i>, London, 1593. Its contents
+are reprinted by Richard Boulton, in his <i>Compleat History
+of Magick, Sorcery, and Witchcraft</i> (London, 1715), I, 49-152.
+There can be no doubt as to the historical character of
+this pamphlet. The Throckmortons, the Cromwells, and the
+Pickerings were all well known in Huntingdonshire. An agreement
+is still preserved in the archives of the Huntingdon corporation
+providing that the corporation shall pay Ł40 to
+Queen's College, Cambridge, in order that a sermon shall be
+preached on witchcraft at Huntingdon each Lady day. This
+was continued for over two hundred years. One of the last sermons
+on this endowment was preached in 1795 and attacked
+the belief in witchcraft. The record of the contract is still
+kept in Queen's College, Brit. Mus. MSS., 5,849, fol. 254. For<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span>
+mention of the affair see Darrel, <i>Detection of that sinnful
+... discours of Samuel Harshnet</i>, 36, 39, 110; also Harsnett,
+<i>Discovery of the Fraudulent Practises</i>, 93, 97. Several Jacobean
+writers refer to the case. What seems to be another edition
+is in the Bodleian: <i>A True and Particular Observation of a
+notable Piece of Witchcraft</i>&mdash;which is the inside heading of the
+first edition. The text is the same, but there are differences in
+the paging.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the most curious of all Elizabethan witch pamphlets
+is entitled <i>The most wonderfull and true Storie of a certaine
+Witch named Alse Gooderidge of Stapenhill, who was arraigned
+and convicted at Darbie, at the Assizes there. As
+also a true Report of the strange Torments of Thomas Darling,
+a boy of thirteen years of age, that was possessed by the
+Devill, with his horrible Fittes and terrible apparitions by him
+uttered at Burton upon Trent, in the Countie of Stafford, and
+of his marvellous deliverance</i>, London, 1597. There are two
+copies of this&mdash;the only ones of which the writer knows&mdash;in
+Lambeth Palace library. They are exactly alike, page for
+page, except for the last four lines of the last page, where the
+wording differs. The pamphlet is clearly one written by John
+Denison as an abstract of an account by Jesse Bee. Harsnett,
+<i>Discovery of the Fraudulent Practices of John Darrel</i>, 266-269,
+tells how these two books were written. Denison is quoted
+as to certain insertions made in his manuscript after it left
+his hands, insertions which are to be found, he says, on pages
+15 and 39. The insertions complained of by Denison are indeed
+to be found on the pages indicated of <i>The most wonderfull
+and true Storie of ... Alse Gooderidge</i>, thus establishing his
+authorship of the pamphlet. The account by Bee, of which
+this is an abstract, I have not seen. Alse Gooderidge was put
+through many examinations and finally died in prison. "She
+should have been executed, but that her spirit killed her in
+prison." John Darrel was one of those who sought to help
+the boy who had been bewitched by Alice. Darrel, however,
+receives only passing mention from the author of this pamphlet.
+The narrative does not agree very well in matters
+of detail with the Darrel tracts, although in the main outlines
+it is similar to them. It is very crudely put together, and,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span>
+while it was doubtless a sincere effort to present the truth,
+must not be too implicitly depended upon.</p>
+
+<p>Two pamphlets are hidden away in the back of the <i>Triall of
+Maist. Dorrel</i> (see below, § 2). The first (pp. 92-98) deals
+with the trial of Doll Bartham of Shadbrook in Suffolk. She
+was tried by the chief justice and hanged the 12th of July,
+1599. The second (pp. 99-103) narrates the trial of Anne
+Kerke before "Lorde Anderson," the 30th of December, 1599.
+She also went to the gallows.</p>
+
+<p>There are other pamphlets referred to in Lowndes, etc.,
+which we have been unable to find. One of them is <i>The Arraignment
+and Execution of 3 detestable Witches, John Newell,
+Joane his wife, and Hellen Calles; two executed at Barnett,
+and one at Braynford, 1 Dec. 1595</i>. A second bears the
+title <i>The severall Facts of Witchcrafte approved on Margaret
+Haskett of Stanmore</i>. 1585. Black letter. Another pamphlet
+in the same year deals with what is doubtless the same case.
+It is <i>An Account of Margaret Hacket, a notorious Witch, who
+consumed a young Man to Death, rotted his Bowells and back
+bone asunder, who was executed at Tiborn, 19 Feb. 1585</i>.
+London, 1585. A fourth pamphlet is <i>The Examination and
+Confession of a notorious Witch named Mother Arnold, alias
+Whitecote, alias Glastonbury, at the Assise of Burntwood in
+July, 1574: who was hanged for Witchcraft at Barking</i>. 1575.</p>
+
+<p>The title <i>The case of Agnes Bridges and Rachel Pinder</i>,
+created by Hazlitt, <i>Collections and Notes</i>, 1867-1876, out of the
+mention by Holinshed of a printed account, means but <i>The
+discloysing</i>, etc. (see p. 351). The case&mdash;see Holinshed,
+<i>Chronicles</i> (London, 1808), IV, 325, and Stow, Annales (London,
+1631), p. 678, who put the affair in 1574&mdash;was not of
+witchcraft, but of pretended possession. See above, p. 59.</p>
+
+<p>To this period must belong also <i>A true report of three
+Straunge Witches, lately found at Newnham Regis</i>, mentioned
+by Hazlitt (<i>Handbook</i>, p. 230). I have not seen it; but the
+printer is given as "J. Charlewood," and Charlewood printed
+between 1562 and 1593. The <i>Stationers' Registers</i>, 1570-1587
+(London; Shakespeare Soc., 1849), II, 32, mention also the
+licensing in 1577 of <i>The Booke of Witches</i>&mdash;whatever that
+may have been.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[351]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Among pamphlets dealing with affairs nearly related to
+witchcraft may be mentioned the following:</p>
+
+<p><i>A short treatise declaringe the detestable wickednesse of
+magicall sciences, as Necromancie, Coniuration of Spirites, Curiouse
+Astrologie and such lyke.... Made by Francis Coxe.</i> [London,
+1561.] Black letter. Coxe had been pardoned by the Queen.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Examination of John Walsh, before Master Thomas
+Williams, Commissary to the Reverend father in God, William,
+bishop of Excester, upon certayne Interrogatories touchyng
+Wytch-crafte and Sorcerye, in the presence of divers
+gentlemen and others, the XX of August, 1566.</i> 1566. Black
+letter. John Ashton (<i>The Devil in Britain and America</i>, London,
+1896, p. 202) has called this the "earliest English printed
+book on witchcraft pure and simple"; but it did not deal with
+witches and it was preceded by the first Chelmsford pamphlet.</p>
+
+<p><i>The discloysing of a late counterfeyted possession by the
+devyl in two maydens within the Citie of London.</i> [1574.]
+Black letter. The case is that of Agnes Bridges and Rachel
+Pinder, mentioned above (pp. 59, 351).</p>
+
+<p><i>The Wonderfull Worke of God shewed upon a Chylde,
+whose name is William Withers, being in the Towne of Walsam
+... Suffolk, who, being Eleven Yeeres of age, laye in a
+Traunce the Space of Tenne Days ... and hath continued the
+Space of Three Weeks</i>, London, 1581. Written by John Phillips.
+This pamphlet is mentioned by Sidney Lee in his article
+on John Phillips in the <i>Dict. Nat. Biog.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>A Most Wicked worke of a Wretched Witch (the like
+whereof none can record these manie yeares in England)
+wrought on the Person of one Richard Burt, servant to
+Maister Edling of Woodhall in the Parrish of Pinner in the
+Countie of Myddlesex, a myle beyond Harrow. Latelie committed
+in March last, An. 1592 and newly recognized acording
+to the truth. By G. B. maister of Artes.</i> [London, 1593.]
+See Hazlitt, Collections and Notes, 1867-1877. The pamphlet
+may be found in the library of Lambeth Palace. The story
+is a curious one; no action seems to have been taken.</p>
+
+<p><i>A defensative against the poyson of supposed prophecies,
+not hitherto confuted by the penne of any man; which being
+eyther uppon the warrant and authority of old paynted bookes,
+expositions of dreames, oracles, revelations, invocations of
+damned spirits ... have been causes of great disorder in the
+commonwealth and chiefly among the simple and unlearned
+people.</i> Henry Howard, afterwards Earl of Northampton,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span>
+was the author of this "defensative." It appeared about 1581-1583,
+and was revised and reissued in 1621.</p>
+
+<p>Three Elizabethan ballads on witches are noted by Hazlitt,
+<i>Bibliographical Collections and Notes</i>, 2d series (London,
+1882): <i>A warnynge to wytches</i>, published in 1585, <i>The scratchinge
+of the wytches</i>, published in 1579, and <i>A lamentable songe
+of Three Wytches of Warbos, and executed at Huntingdon</i>,
+published in 1593. Already in 1562-3 "a boke intituled <i>A
+poosye in forme of a visyon, agaynste wytche Crafte, and
+Sosyrye</i>," written "in myter" by John Hall, had been published
+(<i>Stationers' Registers</i>, 1557-1570, p. 78).</p>
+
+<p>Some notion of the first step in the Elizabethan procedure
+against a witch may be gathered from the specimens of "indictments"
+given in the old formula book of William West,
+<i>Simboleography</i> (pt. ii, first printed in 1594). Three specimens
+are given; two are of indictments "For killing a man by
+witchcraft upon the statute of Anno 5. of the Queene," the
+third is "For bewitching a Horse, whereby he wasted and became
+worse." As the documents in such bodies of models are
+usually genuine papers with only a suppression of the names,
+it is probable that the dates assigned to the indictments noted&mdash;the
+34th and 35th years of Elizabeth&mdash;are the true ones, and
+that the initials given, "S. B. de C. in comit. H. vidua,"
+"Marg' L. de A. in com' E. Spinster," and "Sara B. de C.
+in comitatu Eb. vidua," are those of the actual culprits and
+of their residences. Yorkshire is clearly one of the counties
+meant. It was, moreover, West's own county.</p>
+
+<div class="microspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<h3 class="chapter2">§ 2.&mdash;The Exorcists (<span style="font-variant: normal;">see ch. IV</span>).</h3>
+
+<p>The account of Elizabethan exorcism which we have given
+is necessarily one-sided. It deals only with the Puritan movement&mdash;if
+Darrel's work may be so called&mdash;and does not treat
+the Catholic exorcists. We have omitted the performances of
+Father Weston and his coadjutors because they had little or no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[353]</a></span>
+relation to the subject of witchcraft. Those who wish to
+follow up this subject can find a readable discussion of it by
+T. G. Law in the <i>Nineteenth Century</i> for March, 1894, "Devil
+Hunting in Elizabethan England."</p>
+
+<p>It is a rather curious fact that the Puritan exorcist has
+never, except for a few pages by S. R. Maitland, in his <i>Puritan
+Thaumaturgy</i> (London, 1842), been made a study. Without
+doubt he, his supporters, and his enemies were able between
+them to make a noise in their own time. To be convinced of
+that one need only read the early seventeenth-century dramatists.
+It may possibly be that Darrel was not the mere impostor
+his enemies pictured him. Despite his trickery it may be
+that he had really a certain hypnotic control over William
+Somers and perhaps over Katherine Wright.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever else Darrel may have been, he was a ready pamphleteer.
+His career may easily be traced in the various
+brochures put forth, most of them from his own pen. Fortunately
+we have the other side presented by Samuel Harsnett,
+and by two obscure clergymen, John Deacon and John Walker.
+The following is a tentative list of the printed pamphlets dealing
+with the subject:</p>
+
+<p><i>A Breife Narration of the possession, dispossession, and
+repossession of William Sommers: and of some proceedings
+against Mr. John Dorrel preacher, with aunsweres to such
+objections.... Together with certaine depositions taken at
+Nottingham ..., 1598.</i> Black letter. This was written either
+by Darrel or at his instigation.</p>
+
+<p><i>An Apologie, or defence of the possession of William Sommers,
+a yong man of the towne of Nottingham.... By John
+Darrell, Minister of Christ Jesus....</i> [1599?] Black letter.
+This work is undated, but, to judge from the preface, it was
+probably written soon after both Darrel and More were imprisoned.
+It is quite clear too that it was written before Harsnett's
+<i>Discovery of the Fraudulent Practices of John Darrel</i>,
+for Darrel says that he hears that the Bishop of London is
+writing a book against him.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Triall of Maist. Dorrel, or A Collection of Defences
+against Allegations.... 1599.</i> This seems written by Darrel
+himself; but the Huth catalogue (V, 1643) ascribes it to James
+Bamford.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[354]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>A brief Apologie proving the possession of William Sommers.
+Written by John Dorrel, a faithful Minister of the
+Gospell, but published without his knowledge.... 1599.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>A Discovery of the Fraudulent Practises of John Darrel,
+Bacheler of Artes ...</i>, London, 1599. The "Epistle to the
+Reader" is signed "S. H.," <i>i. e.</i>, Samuel Harsnett, then chaplain
+to the Bishop of London. The book is an exposure, in 324
+pages, of Darrel's various impostures, and is based mainly on
+the depositions given in his trial at Lambeth.</p>
+
+<p><i>A True Narration of the strange and grevous Vexation by
+the Devil of seven persons in Lancashire ..., 1600.</i> Written by
+Darrel. Reprinted in 1641 with the title <i>A True Relation of
+the grievous handling of William Somers of Nottingham</i>.
+It is again reprinted in the <i>Somers Tracts</i>, III, and is the
+best known of the pamphlets.</p>
+
+<p><i>A True Discourse concerning the certaine possession and
+dispossession of 7 persons in one familie in Lancashire, which
+also may serve as part of an Answere to a fayned and false
+Discoverie.... By George More, Minister and Preacher of
+the Worde of God ..., 1600.</i> More was Darrel's associate
+in the Cleworth performances and suffered imprisonment with
+him.</p>
+
+<p><i>A Detection of that sinnful, shamful, lying, and ridiculous
+discours of Samuel Harshnet.</i> 1600. This is Darrel's most
+abusive work. He takes up Harsnett's points one by one and
+attempts to answer them.</p>
+
+<p><i>Dialogicall Discourses of Spirits and Divels by John Deacon
+[and] John Walker, Preachers</i>, London, 1601.</p>
+
+<p><i>A Summarie Answere to al the Material Points in any of
+Master Darel his bookes, More especiallie to that one Booke
+of his, intituled, the Doctrine of the Possession and Dispossession
+of Demoniaks out of the word of God. By John Deacon
+[and] John Walker, Preachers</i>, London, 1601. The "one
+Booke" now answered is a part of Darrel's <i>A True Narration</i>.
+The <i>Discourses</i> are dedicated to Sir Edmund Anderson and
+other men eminent in the government and offer in excuse that
+"the late bred broyles ... doe mightilie over-runne the whole
+Realme."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[355]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>A Survey of Certaine Dialogical Discourses, written by
+John Deacon and John Walker ... By John Darrell, minister
+of the gospel ..., 1602.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>The Replie of John Darrell, to the Answer of John Deacon,
+and John Walker concerning the doctrine of the Possession
+and Dispossession of Demoniakes ..., 1602.</i></p>
+
+<p>Harsnett's second work must not be omitted from our account.
+In his famous <i>Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures</i>,
+1603 and 1605, he shows to even better advantage than
+in the earlier work his remarkable talents as an exposer and
+gives freer play to his wicked humor.</p>
+
+<p><i>A True and Breife Report of Mary Glover's Vexation, and
+of her deliverance by the meanes of fastinge and prayer....
+By John Swan, student in Divinitie ..., 1603.</i></p>
+
+<p>This narrates another exorcism in which a number of clergymen
+participated. Swan, the author, in his dedication to the
+king, takes up the cudgels vigorously against Harsnett. Elizabeth
+Jackson was accused of having bewitched her, and was
+indicted. Justice Anderson tried the case and showed himself
+a confirmed believer in witchcraft. But the king was of
+another mind and sent, to examine the girl, a physician, Dr.
+Edward Jorden, who detected her imposture and explained
+it in his pamphlet, <i>A briefe discourse of a disease called the
+Suffocation of the Mother, Written uppon occasion which
+hath beene of late taken thereby, to suspect possession of an
+evill spirit....</i> (London, 1603). He was opposed by the
+author of a book still unprinted, "Mary Glover's late woefull
+case ... by Stephen Bradwell.... 1603" (Brit. Mus., Sloane,
+831). But see also below, appendix C, under 1602-1603.</p>
+
+<p>One other pamphlet dealing with this same episode must
+be mentioned. Hutchinson, <i>Historical Essay on Witchcraft</i>,
+and George Sinclar, <i>Satan's Invisible World Discovered</i> (Edinburgh,
+1685), had seen an account by the Rev. Lewis Hughes
+(in his <i>Certaine Grievances</i>) of the case of Mother Jackson, who
+was accused of bewitching Mary Glover. Although Hughes's
+tale was not here published until 1641-2, the events with which
+it deals must all have taken place in 1602 or 1603. Sir John
+Crook is mentioned as recorder of London and Sir Edmund
+Anderson as chief justice. "R. B.," in <i>The Kingdom of Darkness</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[356]</a></span>
+(London, 1688), gives the story in detail, although misled,
+like Hutchinson, into assigning it to 1642.</p>
+
+<p>It remains to mention certain exorcist pamphlets of which
+we possess only the titles:</p>
+
+<p><i>A history of the case of Catherine Wright.</i> No date; written
+presumably by Darrel and given by him to Mrs. Foljambe,
+afterwards Lady Bowes. See C. H. and T. Cooper, <i>Athenae
+Cantabrigienses</i> (Cambridge, 1858-1861), II, 381.</p>
+
+<p>Darrel says that there was a book printed about "Margaret
+Harrison of Burnham-Ulpe in Norfolk and her vexation by
+Sathan." See <i>Detection of that sinnfull ... discours of Samuel
+Harshnet</i>, 36, and <i>Survey of Certaine Dialogical Discourses</i>, 54.</p>
+
+<p><i>The strange Newes out of Sommersetshire, Anno 1584,
+tearmed, a dreadfull discourse of the dispossessing of one
+Margaret Cooper at Ditchet, from a devill in the likenes of a
+headlesse beare.</i> Referred to by Harsnett, <i>Discovery of the
+Fraudulent Practises of John Darrel</i>, 17.</p>
+
+<p>A ballad seems to have been written about the Somers
+case. Extracts from it are given by Harsnett, <i>ibid.</i>, 34, 120.</p>
+
+<div class="microspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<h3 class="chapter2">§ 3.&mdash;James I and Witchcraft and Notable Jacobean Cases
+(<span style="font-variant: normal;">see chs. V, VI</span>).</h3>
+
+<p><i>The Most Cruell and Bloody Murther committed by an Innkeepers
+Wife called Annis Dell, and her Sonne George Dell,
+Foure Yeares since.... With the severall Witch-crafts and
+most damnable practices of one Iohane Harrison and her
+Daughter, upon several persons men and women at Royston,
+who were all executed at Hartford the 4 of August last past
+1606.</i> So far as the writer knows, there is no contemporary
+reference to confirm the executions mentioned in this pamphlet.
+The story itself is a rather curious one with a certain
+literary flavor. This, however, need not weigh against it. It
+seems possible rather than probable that the narrative is a
+fabrication.</p>
+
+<p><i>The severall notorious and lewd Cosenages of Iohn West
+and Alice West, falsely called the King and Queene of Fayries
+... convicted ... 1613</i>, London, 1613. This might pass in catalogues<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[357]</a></span>
+as a witch pamphlet. It is an account of two clever
+swindlers and of their punishment.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Witches of Northamptonshire.</i></p>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="witches">
+<tr>
+<td><i>Agnes Browne</i><br />
+<i>Joane Vaughan</i></td>
+<td><span style="font-size: 200%;">}</span></td>
+<td><i>Arthur Bill</i><br />
+<i>Hellen Jenkenson</i></td>
+<td><span style="font-size: 400%;">}</span></td>
+<td><i>Witches.</i></td>
+</tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="center" style="margin-right: 7em; margin-top: -1.5em;"><i>Mary Barber</i></div>
+<div class="nanospace">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p><i>Who were all executed at Northampton the 22. of
+July last. 1612.</i></p>
+
+<p>Concerning this same affair there is an account in MS.,
+"A briefe abstract of the arraignment of nine witches at
+Northampton, July 21, 1621" (Brit. Mus., Sloane, 972). This
+narrative has, in common with the printed narrative, the story
+of Mistress Belcher's and Master Avery's sufferings from
+witchcraft. It mentions also Agnes Brown and Joan Brown
+(or Vaughan) who, according to the other account, were
+hanged. All the other names are different. But it is nevertheless
+not hard to reconcile the two accounts. The "briefe
+abstract" deals with the testimony taken before the justices
+of the peace on two charges; the <i>Witches of Northamptonshire</i>
+with the final outcome at the assizes. Three of those finally
+hanged were not concerned in the first accusations and were
+brought in from outlying districts. On the other hand, most
+of those who were first accused by Belcher and Avery seem
+not to have been indicted.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the countie of Lancaster.
+With the Arraignement and Triall of Nineteene notorious
+Witches, at the Assizes and generall Gaole deliverie, holden
+at the Castle of Lancaster, upon Munday, the seventeenth of
+August last, 1612. Before Sir James Altham, and Sir Edward
+Bromley.... Together with the Arraignement and Triall of
+Jennet Preston, at the Assizes holden at the Castle of Yorke, the
+seven and twentieth day of Julie last past.... Published and
+set forth by commandement of his Majesties Justices of Assize
+in the North Parts. By Thomas Potts, Esq.</i> London, 1613.
+Reprinted by the Chetham Soc, J. Crossley, ed., 1845. Thomas
+Potts has given us in this book the fullest of all English witch
+accounts. No other narrative offers such an opportunity to
+examine the character of evidence as well as the court pro<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[358]</a></span>cedure.
+Potts was very superstitious, but his account is in
+good faith.</p>
+
+<p><i>Witches Apprehended, Examined and Executed, for notable
+villanies by them committed both by Land and Water. With
+a strange and most true trial how to know whether a woman
+be a Witch or not.</i> London, 1613. Bodleian.</p>
+
+<p><i>A Booke of the Wytches Lately condemned and executed at
+Bedford, 1612-1613.</i> I have seen no copy of this pamphlet,
+the title of which is given by Edward Arber, <i>Transcript of
+the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London, 1554-1640</i>
+(London, 1875-1894), III, 234b.... The story is without
+doubt the same as that told in the preceding pamphlet. We
+have no absolutely contemporary reference to this case. Edward
+Fairfax, who wrote in 1622, had heard of the case&mdash;probably,
+however, from the pamphlet itself. But we can be quite
+certain that the narrative was based on an actual trial and
+conviction. Some of the incidental details given are such as
+no fabricator would insert.</p>
+
+<p>In the MS., "How to discover a witch," Brit. Mus., Add.
+MSS., 36,674, f. 148, there is a reference to a detail of Mother
+Sutton's ordeal not given in the pamphlet I have used.</p>
+
+<p><i>A Treatise of Witchcraft.... With a true Narration of the
+Witchcrafts which Mary Smith, wife of Henry Smith, Glover,
+did practise ... and lastly, of her death and execution ... By
+Alexander Roberts, B. D. and Preacher of Gods Word at Kings-Linne
+in Norffolke.</i> London, 1616. The case of Mary Smith
+is taken up at p. 45. This account was dedicated to the
+"Maior" and aldermen, etc., of "Kings Linne" and was no
+doubt semi-official. It is reprinted in Howell, <i>State Trials</i>, II.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Wonderful Discoverie of the Witchcrafts of Margaret
+and Phillip Flower, daughters of Joan Flower neere Bever
+Castle: executed at Lincolne, March 11, 1618. Who were specially
+arraigned and condemned before Sir Henry Hobart and
+Sir Edward Bromley, Judges of Assize, for confessing themselves
+actors in the destruction of Henry, Lord Rosse, with
+their damnable practises against others the Children of the
+Right Honourable Francis Earle of Rutland. Together with
+the severall Examinations and Confessions of Anne Baker,
+Joan Willimot, and Ellen Greene, Witches in Leicestershire</i>,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[359]</a></span>
+London, 1619. For confirmation of the Rutlandshire witchcraft
+see <i>Cal. St. P., Dom., 1619-1623</i>, 129; <i>Hist. MSS. Comm.
+Reports, Rutland</i>, IV, 514. See also <i>Gentleman's Magazine</i>,
+LXXIV, pt. ii, 909: "On the monument of Francis, sixth earl
+of Rutland, in Bottesford church, Leicestershire, it is recorded
+that by his second lady he had 'two Sons, both which died
+in their infancy by wicked practices and sorcery.'"</p>
+
+<p>Another pamphlet seems to have been issued about the affair:
+<i>Strange and wonderfull Witchcrafts, discovering the
+damnable Practises of seven Witches against the Lives of certain
+noble Personages and others of this Kingdom; with an approved
+Triall how to find out either Witch or any Apprentise
+to Witchcraft, 1621.</i> Another edition in 1635; see Lowndes.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Wonderfull discoverie of Elizabeth Sawyer ... late of
+Edmonton, her conviction, condemnation and Death....
+Written by Henry Goodcole, Minister of the word of God,
+and her continuall Visiter in the Gaole of Newgate.... 1621.</i>
+The Reverend Mr. Goodcole wrote a plain, unimaginative story,
+the main facts of which we cannot doubt. They are supported
+moreover by Dekker and Ford's play, <i>The Witch of Edmonton</i>,
+which appeared within a year. Goodcole refers to the
+"ballets" written about this case.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Boy of Bilson: or A True Discovery of the Late Notorious
+Impostures of Certaine Romish Priests in their pretended
+Exorcisme, or expulsion of the Divell out of a young Boy,
+named William Perry....</i> London, 1622. Preface signed by
+Ryc. Baddeley. This is an account of a famous imposture.
+It is really a pamphlet against the Catholic exorcists. On pp.
+45-54 is given a reprint of the Catholic account of the affair;
+on pp. 55-75 the exposure of the imposture is related. We can
+confirm this account by Arthur Wilson, <i>Life and Reign of
+James I</i>, 107-111, and by John Webster, <i>Displaying of Supposed
+Witchcraft</i>, 274.</p>
+
+<p><i>A Discourse of Witchcraft As it was acted in the Family
+of Mr. Edward Fairfax of Fuystone in the County of York,
+in the year 1621.</i> Edited by R. Monckton Milnes (the later
+Lord Houghton) for vol. V of <i>Miscellanies of the Philobiblon
+Soc.</i> (London, 1858-1859, 299 pages). The editor says
+the original MS. is still in existence. Edward Fairfax was a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[360]</a></span>
+natural brother of Sir Thomas Fairfax of Denton. He translated
+into English verse Tasso's <i>Jerusalem Delivered</i>, and
+accomplished other poetic feats. His account of his children's
+bewitchment and of their trances is very detailed. The book
+was again published at Harrogate in 1882, under the title of
+<i>Dćmonologia: a Discourse on Witchcraft</i>, with an introduction
+and notes by William Grainge.</p>
+
+<div class="microspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<h3 class="chapter2">§ 4.&mdash;Matthew Hopkins (<span style="font-variant: normal;">see ch. VIII</span>).</h3>
+
+<p><i>A Most certain, strange and true Discovery of a Witch, Being
+overtaken by some of the Parliament Forces, as she was
+standing on a small Planck-board and sayling on it over the
+River of Newbury, Together with the strange and true manner
+of her death.</i> 1643. The tale told here is a curious one. The soldiers
+saw a woman crossing the river on a plank, decided that
+she was a witch, and resolved to shoot her. "She caught
+their bullets in her hands and chew'd them." When the
+"veines that crosse the temples of the head" were scratched
+so as to bleed, she lost her power and was killed by a pistol
+shot just below the ear. It is not improbable that this distorted
+tale was based on an actual happening in the war. See
+<i>Mercurius Civicus</i>, September 21-28, 1643.</p>
+
+<p><i>A Confirmation and Discovery of Witch-craft ... together
+with the Confessions of many of those executed since May
+1645.... By John Stearne ...</i> London, 1648.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Examination, Confession, Triall, and Execution of
+Joane Williford, Joan Cariden and Jane Hott: who were executed
+at Feversham, in Kent ... all attested under the hand
+of Robert Greenstreet, Maior of Feversham.</i> London, 1645.
+This pamphlet has no outside evidence to confirm its statements,
+but it has every appearance of being a true record of
+examinations.</p>
+
+<p><i>A true and exact Relation of the severall Informations,
+Examinations, and Confessions of the late Witches arraigned
+and executed in the County of Essex. Who were arraigned
+and condemned at the late Sessions, holden at Chelmesford before
+the Right Honorable Robert, Earle of Warwicke, and
+severall of his Majesties Justices of Peace, the 29 of July 1645....</i>
+London, 1645. Reprinted London, 1837; also embodied<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[361]</a></span>
+in Howell, <i>State Trials</i>. This is a very careful statement of the
+court examinations, drawn up by "H. F." In names and details
+it has points of coincidence with the <i>True Relation</i> about
+the Bury affair; see next paragraph below. It is supported,
+too, by Arthur Wilson's account of the affair; see Francis
+Peck, <i>Desiderata Curiosa</i> (ed. of London, 1779), II, 476.</p>
+
+<p><i>A True Relation of the Araignment of eighteene Witches
+at St. Edmundsbury, 27th August 1645.... As also a List of
+the names of those that were executed.</i> London, 1645. There
+is abundance of corroborative evidence for the details given
+in this pamphlet. It fits in with the account of the Essex
+witches; its details are amplified by Stearne, <i>Confirmation
+of Witchcraft</i>, Clarke, <i>Lives of sundry Eminent Persons</i>, John
+Walker, <i>Suffering of the Clergy ... in the Grand Rebellion</i>
+(London, 1714), and others. The narrative was written in the
+interim between the first and second trials at Bury.</p>
+
+<p><i>Strange and fearfull newes from Plaisto in the parish of
+Westham neere Bow foure miles from London</i>, London, 1645.
+Unimportant.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Lawes against Witches and Conjuration, and Some brief
+Notes and Observations for the Discovery of Witches. Being
+very Usefull for these Times wherein the Devil reignes and
+prevailes.... Also The Confession of Mother Lakeland, who
+was arraigned and condemned for a Witch at Ipswich in Suffolke....
+By authority.</i> London, 1645. The writer of this pamphlet
+acknowledges his indebtedness to Potts, <i>Discoverie of
+Witches in the countie of Lancaster</i> (1613), and to Bernard,
+<i>Guide to Grand Jurymen</i> (1627). These books had been used
+by Stearne and doubtless by Hopkins. This pamphlet expresses
+Hopkins's ideas, it is written in Hopkins's style&mdash;so far as we
+know it&mdash;and it may have been the work of the witchfinder
+himself. That might explain, too, the "by authority" of the
+title.</p>
+
+<p><i>Signes and Wonders from Heaven.... Likewise a new discovery
+of Witches in Stepney Parish. And how 20. Witches
+more were executed in Suffolk this last Assise. Also how the
+Divell came to Soffarn to a Farmers house in the habit of a
+Gentlewoman on horse backe.</i> London, [1645]. Mentions the
+Chelmsford, Suffolk, and Norfolk trials.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[362]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>The Witches of Huntingdon, their Examinations and Confessions ...</i>,
+London, 1646. This work is dedicated to the
+justices of the peace for the county of Huntingdon; the dedication
+is signed by John Davenport. Three of the witches whose
+accusations are here presented are mentioned by Stearne (<i>Confirmation
+of Witchcraft</i>, 11, 13, 20-21, 42).</p>
+
+<p><i>The Discovery of Witches: in answer to severall Queries,
+lately Delivered to the Judges of Assize for the County of
+Norfolk. And now published by Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder.
+For the Benefit of the Whole Kingdome....</i> London,
+1647. Hopkins's and Stearne's accounts fit into each other and
+are the two best sources for ch. VIII.</p>
+
+<p><i>The [D]Ivell in Kent, or His strange Delusions at Sandwitch</i>,
+London, 1647. Has nothing to do with witches; shows
+the spirit of the times.</p>
+
+<p><i>A strange and true Relation of a Young Woman possest
+with the Devill. By name Joyce Dovey dwelling at Bewdley
+neer Worcester ... as it was certified in a Letter from Mr.
+James Dalton unto Mr. Tho. Groome, Ironmonger over against
+Sepulchres Church in London.... Also a Letter from Cambridge,
+wherein is related the late conference between the
+Devil (in the shape of a Mr. of Arts) and one Ashbourner,
+a Scholler of S. Johns Colledge ... who was afterwards
+carried away by him and never heard of since onely his Gown
+found in the River</i>, London, 1647. In the first narrative a
+woman after hearing a sermon fell into fits. The second narrative
+was probably based upon a combination of facts and
+rumor.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Full Tryals, Examination and Condemnation of Four
+Notorious Witches, At the Assizes held in Worcester on Tuseday
+the 4th of March ... As also Their Confessions and last
+Dying Speeches at the place of Execution, with other Amazing
+Particulars ...</i>, London, printed by "I. W.," no date.
+Another edition of this pamphlet (in the Bodleian) bears
+the date 1700 and was printed for "J. M." in Fleet street. This
+is a most interesting example of a made-to-order witch pamphlet.
+The preface makes one suspect its character: "the
+following narrative coming to my hand." The accused were
+Rebecca West, Margaret Landis, Susan Cook, and Rose Hal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span>lybread.
+Now, all these women were tried at Chelmsford in
+1645, and their examinations and confessions printed in <i>A
+true and exact Relation</i>. The wording has been changed a
+little, several things have been added, but the facts are similar;
+see <i>A true and exact Relation</i>,10, 11, 13-15, 27. When
+the author of the Worcester pamphlet came to narrate the
+execution he wandered away from his text and invented some
+new particulars. The women were "burnt at the stak." They
+made a "yelling and howling." Two of them were very
+"stubborn and refractory." <i>Cf.</i> below, § 10.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Devill seen at St. Albans, Being a true Relation How
+the Devill was seen there in a Cellar, in the likenesse of a Ram;
+and how a Butcher came and cut his throat, and sold some of
+it, and dressed the rest for himselfe, inviting many to supper</i>
+..., 1648. A clever lampoon.</p>
+
+<div class="microspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<h3 class="chapter2">§ 5.&mdash;Commonwealth and Protectorate (<span style="font-variant: normal;">see ch. IX</span>).</h3>
+
+<p><i>The Divels Delusions or A faithfull relation of John Palmer
+and Elizabeth Knott two notorious Witches lately condemned
+at the Sessions of Oyer and Terminer in St. Albans ...</i>, 1649.
+The narrative purports to be taken from a letter sent from
+St. Alban's. It deals with the practices of two good witches
+who were finally discovered to be black witches. The tale has
+no outside confirmation.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wonderfull News from the North, Or a True Relation of
+the Sad and Grievous Torments Inflicted upon the Bodies of
+three Children of Mr. George Muschamp, late of the County of
+Northumberland, by Witchcraft, ... As also the prosecution
+of the sayd Witches, as by Oaths, and their own Confessions
+will appear and by the Indictment found by the Jury against
+one of them, at the Sessions of the Peace held at Alnwick,
+the 24 day of April 1650</i>, London, 1650. Preface signed:
+"Thine, Mary Moore." This pamphlet bears all through the
+marks of a true narrative. It is written evidently by a friend
+of the Mistress Muschamp who had such difficulty in persuading
+the north country justices, judges, and sheriffs to act.
+The names and the circumstances fit in with other known facts.</p>
+
+<p><i>The strange Witch at Greenwich haunting a Wench</i>, 1650.
+Unimportant.</p>
+
+<p><i>A Strange Witch at Greenwich</i>, 1650.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[364]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The last two pamphlets are mentioned by Lowndes. The
+second pamphlet I have not seen; as, however, Lowndes cites
+the title of the first incorrectly, it is very possible that he has
+given two titles for the same pamphlet.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Witch of Wapping, or an Exact and Perfect Relation
+of the Life and Devilish Practises of Joan Peterson, who dwelt
+in Spruce Island, near Wapping; Who was condemned for
+practising Witchcraft, and sentenced to be Hanged at Tyburn,
+on Munday the 11th of April 1652</i>, London, 1652.</p>
+
+<p><i>A Declaration in Answer to several lying Pamphlets concerning
+the Witch of Wapping, ... shewing the Bloudy Plot
+and wicked Conspiracy of one Abraham Vandenhemde, Thomas
+Crompton, Thomas Collet, and others</i>, London, 1652. This
+pamphlet is described above, pp. 214-215.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Tryall and Examinations of Mrs. Joan Peterson before
+the Honourable Bench at the Sessions house in the Old Bayley
+yesterday.</i> [1652]. This states the case against Mistress Joan
+in the title, but (unless the British Museum copy is imperfect)
+gives no details.</p>
+
+<p><i>Doctor Lamb's Darling, or Strange and terrible News from
+Salisbury; Being A true, exact, and perfect Relation of the
+great and wonderful Contract and Engagement made between
+the Devil, and Mistris Anne Bodenham; with the manner
+how she could transform herself into the shape of a Mastive
+Dog, a black Lyon, a white Bear, a Woolf, a Bull, and a Cat....
+The Tryal, Examinations, and Confession ... before the
+Lord Chief Baron Wild.... By James [Edmond?] Bower,
+Cleric</i>, London, 1653. This is the first account of the affair and
+is a rather crude one.</p>
+
+<p><i>Doctor Lamb Revived, or, Witchcraft condemn'd in Anne
+Bodenham ... who was Arraigned and Executed the Lent
+Assizes last at Salisbury, before the Right Honourable the
+Lord Chief Baron Wild, Judge of the Assize.... By Edmond
+Bower, an eye and ear Witness of her Examination and
+Confession</i>, London, 1653. Bower's second and more detailed
+account. It is dedicated to the judge by the writer, who
+had a large part in the affair and frequently interviewed the
+witch. He does not present a record of examinations, but
+gives a detailed narrative of the entire affair. He throws out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[365]</a></span>
+hints about certain phases of the case and rouses curiosity
+without satisfying it. His story of Anne Bodenham is, however,
+clear and interesting. The celebrated Aubrey refers to
+the case in his <i>Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme</i>, 261.
+His account, which tallies well with that of Bower, he seems
+to have derived from Anthony Ettrick "of the Middle Temple,"
+who was a "curious observer of the whole triall."</p>
+
+<p><i>A Prodigious and Tragicall History of the Arraignment,
+Tryall, Confession, and Condemnation of six Witches at
+Maidstone, in Kent, at the Assizes there held in July, Fryday
+30, this present year, 1652. Before the Right Honourable,
+Peter Warburton.... Collected from the Observations of E.
+G. Gent, a learned person, present at their Conviction and
+Condemnation, and digested by H. F. Gent.</i>, London, 1652.
+It is a pity that the digesting was not omitted. The account,
+however, is trustworthy. Mention is made of this trial by
+Elias Ashmole in his <i>Diary</i> (London, 1717) and by <i>The Faithful
+Scout</i>, July 30-August 7, 1652.</p>
+
+<p><i>The most true and wonderfull Narration of two women
+bewitched in Yorkshire: Who camming to the Assizes at York
+to give in Evidence against the Witch after a most horrible
+noise to the terror and amazement of all the beholders, did
+vomit forth before the Judges, Pins, wool.... Also a most
+true Relation of a young Maid ... who ... did ... vomit
+forth wadds of straw, with pins a crosse in them, iron Nails,
+Needles, ... as it is attested under the hand of that most famour
+Phisitian Doctor Henry Heers, ... 1658.</i> In the Bodleian.
+The writer of this pamphlet had little information to
+give and seems to have got it at second or third hand.</p>
+
+<p><i>A more Exact Relation of the most lamentable and horrid
+Contract which Lydia Rogers, living in Pump-Ally in Wapping,
+made with the Divel.... Together with the great pains
+and prayers of many eminent Divines, ... 1658.</i> In the Bodleian.
+This is a "Relation of a woman who heretofore professing
+Religion in the purity thereof fel afterwards to be a
+sectary, and then to be acquainted with Astrologers, and afterwards
+with the Divel himself." A poor woman "naturally
+inclin'd to melancholy" believed she had made a contract with
+the Devil. "Many Ministers are dayly with her."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[366]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>The Snare of the Devill Discovered: Or, A True and perfect
+Relation of the sad and deplorable Condition of Lydia
+the Wife of John Rogers House Carpenter, living in Greenbank
+in Pumpe alley in Wappin.... Also her Examination
+by Mr. Johnson the Minister of Wappin, and her Confession.
+As also in what a sad Condition she continues....</i> London,
+1658. Another tract against the Baptists. In spite of Lydia
+Rogers's supposed contract with the Devil, she does not seem
+to have been brought into court.</p>
+
+<p><i>Strange and Terrible Newes from Cambridge, being A true
+Relation of the Quakers bewitching of Mary Philips ... into
+the shape of a Bay Mare, riding her from Dinton towards the
+University. With the manner how she became visible again
+... in her own Likeness and Shape, with her sides all rent and
+torn, as if they had been spur-galled, ... and the Names of the
+Quakers brought to tryal on Friday last at the Assises held at
+Cambridge ...</i>, London, 1659. This is mentioned by John
+Ashton in the bibliographical appendix to his <i>The Devil in
+Britain and America</i>.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Just Devil of Woodstock, or a true narrative of the severall
+apparitions, the frights and punishments inflicted upon the
+Rumpish commissioners sent thither to survey the manors
+and houses belonging to His Majesty.</i> 1660. Wood, <i>Athenae
+Oxonienses</i> (ed. of 1817), III, 398, ascribes this to Thomas
+Widdowes. It was on the affair described in this pamphlet
+that Walter Scott based his novel <i>Woodstock</i>. The story
+given in the pamphlet may be found in Sinclar's <i>Satan's Invisible
+World Discovered</i>. The writer has not seen the original
+pamphlet.</p>
+
+
+<div class="microspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<h3 class="chapter2">§ 6.&mdash;Charles II and James II (<span style="font-variant: normal;">see ch. XI</span>).</h3>
+
+<p><i>The Power of Witchcraft, Being a most strange but true
+Relation of the most miraculous and wonderful deliverance of
+one Mr. William Harrison of Cambden in the County of
+Gloucester, Steward to the Lady Nowel ...</i>, London, 1662.</p>
+
+<p><i>A True and Perfect Account of the Examination, Confession,
+Tryal, Condemnation and Execution of Joan Perry and
+her two Sons ... for the supposed murder of William Harrison,
+Gent ...</i>, London, 1676. These are really not witchcraft<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[367]</a></span>
+pamphlets. Mr. Harrison disappears, three people are charged
+with his murder and hanged. Mr. Harrison comes back from
+Turkey in two years and tells a story of his disappearance
+which leads to the supposition that he was transported thither
+by witchcraft.</p>
+
+<p><i>A Tryal of Witches at the assizes held at Bury St. Edmonds
+for the County of Suffolk; on the tenth day of March, 1664</i>,
+London, 1682; another edition, 1716. The writer of this tract
+writes in introducing it: "This Tryal of Witches hath lain a
+long time in a private Gentleman's Hands in the Country, it
+being given to him by the Person that took it in the Court for
+his own satisfaction." This is the much quoted case before
+Sir Matthew Hale. The pamphlet presents one of the most
+detailed accounts of the court procedure in a witch case.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Lord's Arm Stretched Out in an Answer of Prayer or a
+True Relation of the wonderful Deliverance of James Barrow,
+the Son of John Barrow of Olaves Southwark</i>, London, 1664.
+This seems to be a Baptist pamphlet.</p>
+
+<p><i>The wonder of Suffolke, being a true relation of one that
+reports he made a league with the Devil for three years, to do
+mischief, and now breaks open houses, robs people daily, ...
+and can neither be shot nor taken, but leaps over walls fifteen feet
+high, runs five or six miles in a quarter of an hour, and sometimes
+vanishes in the midst of multitudes that go to take him.
+Faithfully written in a letter from a solemn person, dated not
+long since, to a friend in Ship-yard, near Temple-bar, and
+ready to be attested by hundreds ...</i>, London, 1677. This
+is mentioned in the <i>Gentleman's Magazine</i>, 1829, pt. ii, 584. I
+have not seen a copy of the pamphlet.</p>
+
+<p><i>Daimonomageia: a small Treatise of Sicknesses and Diseases
+from Witchcraft and Supernatural Causes.... Being useful
+to others besides Physicians, in that it confutes Atheistical,
+Sadducistical, and Sceptical Principles and Imaginations ...</i>,
+London, 1665. Though its title-page bears no name, the author
+was undoubtedly that "William Drage, D. P. [Doctor of
+Physic] at Hitchin," in Hertfordshire, to whose larger treatise
+on medicine (first printed in 1664 as <i>A Physical Nosonomy</i>,
+then in 1666 as <i>The Practice of Physick</i>, and again in 1668 as
+<i>Physical Experiments</i>) it seems to be a usual appendage. It is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[368]</a></span>
+so, at least, in the Cornell copy of the first edition and in the
+Harvard copy of the third, and is so described by the <i>Dict.
+Nat. Biog.</i> and by the British Museum catalogue.</p>
+
+<p><i>Hartford-shire Wonder. Or, Strange News from Ware,
+Being an Exact and true Relation of one Jane Stretton ...
+who hath been visited in a strange kind of manner by extraordinary
+and unusual fits ...</i>, London, 1669. The title
+gives the clue to this story. The narrator makes it clear that
+a certain woman was suspected of the bewitchment.</p>
+
+<p><i>A Magicall Vision, Or a Perfect Discovery of the Fallacies
+of Witchcraft, As it was lately represented in a pleasant sweet
+Dream to a Holysweet Sister, a faithful and pretious Assertor
+of the Family of the Stand-Hups, for preservation of the
+Saints from being tainted with the heresies of the Congregation
+of the Doe-Littles</i>, London, 1673. I have not seen this.
+It is mentioned by Hazlitt, <i>Bibliographical Collections</i>, fourth
+series, <i>s. v.</i> Witchcraft.</p>
+
+<p><i>A Full and True Relation of The Tryal, Condemnation, and
+Execution of Ann Foster ... at the place of Execution at
+Northampton. With the Manner how she by her Malice and
+Witchcraft set all the Barns and Corn on Fire ... and bewitched
+a whole Flock of Sheep ...</i>, London, 1674. This
+narrative has no confirmation from other sources, yet its details
+are so susceptible of natural explanation that they warrant
+a presumption of its truth.</p>
+
+<p><i>Strange News from Arpington near Bexby in Kent: Being
+a True Narrative of a yong Maid who was Possest with several
+Devils ...</i>, London, 1679.</p>
+
+<p><i>Strange and Wonderful News from Yowell in Surry; Giving
+a True and Just Account of One Elisabeth Burgess, Who
+was most strangely Bewitched and Tortured at a sad rate</i>,
+London, 1681.</p>
+
+<p><i>An Account of the Tryal and Examination of Joan Buts,
+for being a Common Witch and Inchantress, before the Right
+Honourable Sir Francis Pemberton, Lord Chief Justice, at
+the Assizes ... 1682.</i> Single leaf.</p>
+
+<p>The four brochures next to be described deal with the same
+affair and substantially agree.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Tryal, Condemnation, and Execution of Three Witches,
+viz. Temperance Floyd, Mary Floyd, and Susanna Edwards.
+Who were Arraigned at Exeter on the 18th of August, 1682....</i>
+London, 1682. Confirmed by the records of the gaol deliveries<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[369]</a></span>
+examined by Mr. Inderwick (<i>Side-Lights on the Stuarts</i>,
+p. 192).</p>
+
+<p><i>A True and Impartial Relation of the Informations against
+Three Witches, viz. Temperance Lloyd, Mary Trembles, and
+Susanna Edwards, who were Indicted, Arraigned, and Convicted
+at the Assizes holden ... at ... Exon, Aug. 14, 1682. With
+their several Confessions ... as also Their ... Behaviour, at
+the ... Execution on the Twenty fifth of the said Month</i>, London,
+1682. This, the fullest account (40 pp.), gives correctly the
+names of these three women, whom I still believe the last put
+to death for witchcraft in England.</p>
+
+<p><i>Witchcraft discovered and punished. Or the Tryals and
+Condemnation of three Notorious Witches, who were Tryed
+the last Assizes, holden at the Castle of Exeter ... where they
+received sentence of Death, for bewitching severall Persons,
+destroying Ships at Sea, and Cattel by Land. To the Tune of
+Doctor Faustus; or Fortune my Foe.</i> In the Roxburghe Collection
+at the British Museum. Broadside. A ballad of 17
+stanzas (4 lines each) giving the story of the affair.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Life and Conversation of Temperance Floyd, Mary
+Lloyd and Susanna Edwards ...; Lately Condemned at
+Exeter Assizes; together with a full Account of their first
+Agreement with the Devil: With the manner how they prosecuted
+their devilish Sorceries ...</i>, London, 1687.</p>
+
+<p><i>A Full and True Account of the Proceedings at the Sessions
+of Oyer and Terminer ... which began at the Sessions House
+in the Old Bayley on Thursday, June 1st, and Ended on Fryday,
+June 2nd, 1682. Wherein is Contained the Tryal of many
+notorious Malefactors ... but more especially the Tryall of
+Jane Kent for Witchcraft.</i> This pamphlet is a brief summary
+of several cases just finished and has every evidence of being
+a faithful account. It is to be found in the library of Lincoln's
+Inn.</p>
+
+<p><i>Strange and Dreadful News from the Town of Deptford in
+the County of Kent, Being a Full, True, and Sad Relation of
+one Anne Arthur.</i> 1684/5. One leaf, folio.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[370]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Strange newes from Shadwell, being a ... relation of the
+death of Alice Fowler, who had for many years been accounted
+a witch.</i> London, 1685. 4 pp. In the library of the Earl of
+Crawford. I have not seen it.</p>
+
+<p><i>A True Account of a Strange and Wonderful Relation of
+one John Tonken, of Pensans in Cornwall, said to be Bewitched
+by some Women: two of which on Suspition are committed
+to Prison</i>, London, 1686. In the Bodleian. This narrative
+is confirmed by Inderwick's records.</p>
+
+<p><i>News from Panier Alley; or a True Relation of Some
+Pranks the Devil hath lately play'd with a Plaster Pot there</i>,
+London, 1687. In the Bodleian. A curious tract. No trial.</p>
+
+
+<div class="microspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<h3 class="chapter2">§ 7.&mdash;The Final Decline, Miscellaneous Pamphlets (<span style="font-variant: normal;">see
+ch. XIII</span>).</h3>
+
+<p><i>A faithful narrative of the ... fits which ... Thomas
+Spatchet ... was under by witchcraft ..., 1693.</i> Unimportant.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Second Part of the Boy of Bilson, Or a True and Particular
+Relation of the Imposter Susanna Fowles, wife of John
+Fowles of Hammersmith in the Co. of Midd., who pretended
+herself to be possessed</i>, London, 1698.</p>
+
+<p><i>A Full and True Account Both of the Life: And also the
+Manner and Method of carrying on the Delusions, Blasphemies,
+and Notorious Cheats of Susan Fowls, as the same
+was Contrived, Plotted, Invented, and Managed by wicked
+Popish Priests and other Papists.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>The trial of Susannah Fowles, of Hammersmith, for blaspheming
+Jesus Christ, and cursing the Lord's Prayer ...</i>, London,
+1698.</p>
+
+<p>These three pamphlets tell the story of a woman who was
+"an impostor and Notorious Lyar"; they have little to do
+with witchcraft. See above, ch. XIII, note 23.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Case of Witchcraft at Coggeshall, Essex, in the year
+1699. Being the Narrative of the Rev. J. Boys, Minister of
+the Parish.</i> Printed from his manuscript in the possession of
+the publisher (A. Russell Smith), London, 1901.</p>
+
+<p><i>A True and Impartial Account of the Dark and Hellish
+Power of Witchcraft, Lately Exercised on the Body of the
+Reverend Mr. Wood, Minister of Bodmyn. In a Letter from
+a Gentleman there, to his Friend in Exon, in Confirmation
+thereof</i>, Exeter, 1700.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[371]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>A Full and True Account of the Apprehending and Taking
+of Mrs. Sarah Moordike, Who is accused for a Witch, Being
+taken near Paul's Wharf ... for haveing Bewitched one Richard
+Hetheway.... With her Examination before the Right
+Worshipful Sir Thomas Lane, Sir Owen Buckingham, and
+Dr. Hambleton in Bowe-lane.</i> 1701. This account can be verified
+and filled out from the records of the trial of Hathaway, printed
+in Howell, <i>State Trials</i>, XIV, 639-696.</p>
+
+<p><i>A short Account of the Trial held at Surry Assizes, in the
+Borough of Southwark; on an Information against Richard
+Hathway ... for Riot and Assault</i>, London, 1702.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Tryal of Richard Hathaway, upon an Information For
+being a Cheat and Impostor, For endeavouring to take away
+The Life of Sarah Morduck, For being a Witch at Surry
+Assizes ...</i>, London, 1702.</p>
+
+<p><i>A Full and True Account of the Discovering, Apprehending
+and taking of a Notorious Witch, who was carried before
+Justice Bateman in Well-Close on Sunday, July the 23. Together
+with her Examination and Commitment to Bridewel,
+Clerkenwel</i>, London, 1704. Signed at the end, "Tho. Greenwel."
+Single page.</p>
+
+<p><i>An Account of the Tryals, Examination, and Condemnation
+of Elinor Shaw and Mary Phillips ..., 1705.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>The Northamptonshire Witches ..., 1705.</i></p>
+
+<p>The second of these is the completer account. They are by
+the same author and are probably fabrications; see below, § 10.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Whole Trial of Mrs. Mary Hicks and her Daughter
+Elizabeth ..., 1716.</i> See below, § 10.</p>
+
+
+<div class="microspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<h3 class="chapter2">§ 8.&mdash;The Surey Pamphlets (<span style="font-variant: normal;">see ch. XIII</span>).</h3>
+
+<p><i>The Devil Turned Casuist, or the Cheats of Rome Laid open
+in the Exorcism of a Despairing Devil at the House of Thomas
+Pennington in Oriel.... By Zachary Taylor, M. A., Chaplain
+to the Right reverend Father in God, Nicholas, Lord Bishop
+of Chester, and Rector of Wigan</i>, London, 1696.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[372]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>The Surey Demoniack, Or an Account of Satan's Strange
+and Dreadful Actings, In and about the Body of Richard Dugdale
+of Surey, near Whalley in Lancashire. And How he was
+Dispossest by Gods blessing on the Fastings and Prayers of
+divers Ministers and People</i>, London, 1697. Fishwick, <i>Notebook
+of Jollie</i> (Chetham Soc.), p. xxiv says this was written
+by Thomas Jollie and John Carrington. The preface is signed
+by "Thomas Jolly" and five other clergymen. Probably Jollie
+wrote the pamphlet and Carrington revised it. See above, ch.
+XIII, note 10. Jollie disclaimed the sole responsibility for it.
+See his <i>Vindication</i>, 7. Taylor in <i>The Surey Impostor</i> assumes
+that Carrington wrote <i>The Surey Demoniack</i>; see <i>e. g.</i>
+p. 21.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Surey Imposter, being an answer to a late Fanatical
+Pamphlet, entituled The Surey Demoniack.</i> By Zachary Taylor.
+London, 1697.</p>
+
+<p><i>A Vindication of the Surey Demoniack as no Imposter: Or,
+A Reply to a certain Pamphlet publish'd by Mr. Zach. Taylor,
+called The Surey Imposter....</i> By T. J., London, 1698. Written
+by Jollie.</p>
+
+<p><i>Popery, Superstition, Ignorance and Knavery very unjustly
+by a letter in the general pretended; but as far as was charg'd
+very fully proved upon the Dissenters that were concerned in
+the Surey Imposture.</i> 1698. Written by Zachary Taylor.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Lancashire Levite Rebuked, or a Vindication of the
+Dissenters from Popery, Superstition, Ignorance, and Knavery,
+unjustly Charged on them by Mr. Zachary Taylor....</i> London,
+1698. Signed "N. N.;" see above ch. XIII, note 17.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Lancashire Levite Rebuked, or a Farther Vindication</i>,
+1698. This seems to have been an answer to a "letter to Mr.
+N. N." which Taylor had published. We have, however, no
+other mention of such a letter.</p>
+
+<p><i>Popery, Superstition, Ignorance, and Knavery, Confess'd
+and fully Proved on the Surey Dissenters, from a Second
+Letter of an Apostate Friend, to Zach. Taylor. To which is
+added a Refutation of T. Jollie's Vindication ...</i>, London,
+1699. Written by Zachary Taylor.</p>
+
+<p><i>A Refutation of Mr. T. Jolly's Vindication of the Devil in
+Dugdale; Or, The Surey Demoniack</i>, London, 1699.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[373]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It is not worth while to give any critical appraisement of
+these pamphlets. They were all controversial and all dealt with
+the case of Richard Dugdale. Zachary Taylor had the best
+of it. The Puritan clergymen who backed up Thomas Jollie
+in his claims seem gradually to have withdrawn their support.</p>
+
+
+<div class="microspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<h3 class="chapter2">§ 9.&mdash;The Wenham Pamphlets (<span style="font-variant: normal;">see ch. XIII</span>).</h3>
+
+<p><i>An Account of the Tryal, Examination, and Condemnation
+of Jane Wenham, on an Indictment of Witchcraft, for Bewitching
+of Matthew Gilston and Anne Thorne of Walcorne,
+in the County of Hertford.... Before the Right Honourable
+Mr. Justice Powell, and is ordered for Execution on Saturday
+come Sevennight the 15th.</i> One page.</p>
+
+<p><i>A Full and Impartial Account of the Discovery of Sorcery
+and Witchcraft, Practis'd by Jane Wenham of Walkerne in
+Hertfordshire, upon the bodies of Anne Thorn, Anne Street,
+&amp;c.... till she ... receiv'd Sentence of Death for the same,
+March 4, 1711-12</i>, London, 1712. Anonymous, but confessedly
+written by Francis Bragge. 1st ed. in Cornell library and
+Brit. Mus.; 2d ed. in Brit. Mus.; 3d ed. in Brit. Mus. (Sloane,
+3,943), and Bodleian; 4th ed. in Brit. Mus.; 5th ed. in Harvard
+library: all published within the year.</p>
+
+<p><i>Witchcraft Farther Display'd. Containing (I) An Account
+of the Witchcraft practis'd by Jane Wenham of Walkerne, in
+Hertfordshire, since her Condemnation, upon the bodies of
+Anne Thorne and Anne Street.... (II) An Answer to the
+most general Objections against the Being and Power of
+Witches: With some Remarks upon the Case of Jane Wenham
+in particular, and on Mr. Justice Powel's procedure therein....</i>
+London, 1712. Introduction signed by "F. B." [Francis
+Bragge], who was the author.</p>
+
+<p><i>A Full Confutation of Witchcraft: More particularly of the
+Depositions against Jane Wenham, Lately Condemned for a
+Witch; at Hertford. In which the Modern Notions of Witches
+are overthrown, and the Ill Consequences of such Doctrines
+are exposed by Arguments; proving that, Witchcraft is Priestcraft....
+In a Letter from a Physician in Hertfordshire, to
+his Friend in London.</i> London, 1712.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[374]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>The Impossibility of Witchcraft, Plainly Proving, From
+Scripture and Reason, That there never was a Witch; and
+that it is both Irrational and Impious to believe there ever
+was. In which the Depositions against Jane Wenham, Lately
+Try'd and Condemn'd for a Witch, at Hertford, are Confuted
+and Expos'd</i>, London, 1712. 1st ed. in Brit. Mus.; 2d ed.,
+containing additional material, in the Bodleian. The author
+of this pamphlet in his preface intimates that its substance had
+earlier been published by him in the <i>Protestant Post Boy</i>.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Belief of Witchcraft Vindicated: proving from Scripture,
+there have been Witches; and from Reason, that there
+may be Such still. In answer to a late Pamphlet, Intituled,
+The Impossibility of Witchcraft ...</i>, By G. R., A. M., London,
+1712.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Case of the Hertfordshire Witchcraft Consider'd. Being
+an Examination of a Book entitl'd, A Full and Impartial
+Account ...</i>, London, 1712. Dedicated to Sir John Powell.
+In the Cornell copy of this booklet a manuscript note on the
+title-page, in an eighteenth century hand, ascribes it to "The
+Rector of Therfield in Hertfordshire, or his Curate," while
+at the end of the dedication what seems the same hand has
+signed the names, "Henry Stebbing or Thomas Sherlock."
+But Stebbing was in 1712 still a fellow at Cambridge, and
+Sherlock, later Bishop of London, was Master of the Temple
+and Chaplain to Queen Anne. See <i>Dict. Nat. Biog.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>A Defense of the Proceedings against Jane Wenham, wherein
+the Possibility and Reality of Witchcraft are Demonstrated
+from Scripture.... In Answer to Two Pamphlets, Entituled:
+(I) The Impossibility of Witchcraft, etc. (II) A Full Confutation
+of Witchcraft</i>, By Francis Bragge, A. B., ... London,
+1712.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Impossibility of Witchcraft Further Demonstrated,
+Both from Scripture and Reason ... with some Cursory
+Remarks on two trifling Pamphlets in Defence of the existence
+of Witches</i>. By the Author of <i>The Impossibility of Witchcraft</i>,
+1712. In the Bodleian.</p>
+
+<p><i>Jane Wenham</i>. Broadside. The writer of this leaflet
+claims to have transcribed his account from an account in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[375]</a></span>
+"Judge Chancy's own hand". Chauncy was the justice of
+the peace who with Bragge stood behind the prosecution.</p>
+
+<p>It is very hard to straighten out the authorship of these various
+pamphlets. The Rev. Mr. Bragge wrote several. The Rev.
+Mr. Gardiner and the Rev. Mr. Strutt, who were active in the
+case, may have written two of them. The topographer Gough,
+writing about 1780, declared that the late Dr. Stebbing had as
+a young man participated in the controversy. Francis
+Hutchinson was an interested spectator, but probably did not
+contribute to the literature of the subject.</p>
+
+<p>A short secondary account is that of W. B. Gerish, <i>A Hertfordshire
+Witch; or the Story of Jane Wenham, the "Wise
+Woman of Walkern</i>."</p>
+
+<p>In the Brit. Mus., Sloane MSS., 3,943, there is a continuation
+of the pamphlet discussion, based chiefly, however, upon
+Glanvill and other writers.</p>
+
+
+<div class="microspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<h3 class="chapter2">§ 10.&mdash;Criticism of the Northampton and Huntingdon Pamphlets
+of 1705 and 1716 (<span style="font-variant: normal;">see ch. XIII, note 10</span>).</h3>
+
+<p><i>An Account of The Tryals, Examination and Condemnation
+of Elinor Shaw and Mary Phillips (Two notorious Witches)
+on Wednesday the 7th of March 1705, for Bewitching a
+Woman, and two children.... With an Account of their
+strange Confessions.</i> This is signed, at the end, "Ralph Davis,
+March 8, 1705." It was followed very shortly by a completer
+account, written after the execution, and entitled:</p>
+
+<p><i>The Northamptonshire Witches, Being a true and faithful
+account of the Births, Educations, Lives, and Conversations
+of Elinor Shaw and Mary Phillips (The two notorious
+Witches) That were Executed at Northampton on Saturday,
+March the 17th, 1705 ... with their full Confession to the
+Minister, and last Dying Speeches at the place of Execution,
+the like never before heard of.... Communicated in a Letter
+last Post, from Mr. Ralph Davis of Northampton, to Mr.
+William Simons, Merchantt in London</i>, London, 1705.</p>
+
+<p>With these two pamphlets we wish to compare another,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[376]</a></span>
+which was apparently published in 1716 and was entitled: <i>The
+Whole Trial and Examination of Mrs. Mary Hicks and her
+Daughter Elizabeth, But of Nine Years of Age, who were
+Condemn'd the last Assizes held at Huntingdon for Witchcraft,
+and there Executed on Saturday, the 28th of July 1716
+... the like never heard before; their Behaviour with several
+Divines who came to converse with 'em whilst under their
+sentence of Death; and last Dying Speeches and Confession at
+the place of execution</i>, London, 1716. There is a copy in the
+Bodleian Library.</p>
+
+<p>The two Northamptonshire pamphlets and the Huntingdonshire
+pamphlet have been set by themselves because they appear
+to have been written by one hand. Moreover, it looks very
+much as if they were downright fabrications foisted upon the
+public by a man who had already in 1700 made to order an
+unhistorical pamphlet. To show this, it will be necessary to
+review briefly the facts about the Worcester pamphlet described
+above, § 4. What seems to be the second edition of a
+pamphlet entitled <i>The full Tryalls, Examinations and Condemnations
+of Four Notorious Witches, At the Assizes held
+at Worcester on Tuseday the 4th of March</i>, was published at
+London with the date 1700. It purports to tell the story of one
+of the cases that came up during Matthew Hopkins's career in
+1645-1647. It has been universally accepted&mdash;even by Thomas
+Wright, Ashton, W. H. D. Adams, and Inderwick. An examination
+shows, however, that it was made over from the
+Chelmsford pamphlet of 1645. The author shows little ingenuity,
+for he steals not only the confessions of four witches at
+that trial, but their names as well. Rebecca West, Margaret
+Landis, Susan Cock, and Rose Hallybread had all been hanged
+at Chelmsford and could hardly have been rehanged at Worcester.
+Practically all that the writer of the Worcester pamphlet
+did was to touch over the confessions and add thrilling
+details about their executions.</p>
+
+<p>Now, it looks very much as if the same writer had composed
+the Northamptonshire pamphlets of 1705 and the Huntingdonshire
+pamphlets of 1716. The verbal resemblances are
+nothing less than remarkable. The Worcester pamphlet, in
+its title, tells of "their Confessions and Last Dying Speeches
+at the place of execution." The second of the two Northamptonshire
+pamphlets (the first was issued before the execution)
+speaks of "their full Confession to the Minister, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span>
+last Dying Speeches at the place of Execution." The Huntingdonshire
+pamphlet closes the title with "last Dying Speeches
+and Confession at the place of Execution." The Worcester
+pamphlet uses the phrase "with other amazing Particulars";
+the Northamptonshire pamphlet the phrase "the particulars of
+their amazing Pranks." The Huntingdon pamphlet has in this
+case no similar phrase but the Huntingdon and Northamptonshire
+pamphlets have another phrase in common. The Northamptonshire
+pamphlet says: "the like never before heard of";
+the Huntingdon pamphlet says: "the like never heard before."</p>
+
+<p>These resemblances are in the titles. The Northampton
+and the fabricated Worcester pamphlets show other similarities
+in their accounts. The Northampton women were so
+"hardened in their Wickedness that they Publickly boasted
+that their Master (meaning the Devil) would not suffer them
+to be Executed but they found him a Lyer." The Worcester
+writer speaks of the "Devil who told them to the Last that
+he would secure them from Publick Punishment, but now too
+late they found him a Lyer as he was from the beginning of
+the World." In concluding their narratives the Northamptonshire
+and Worcestershire pamphleteers show an interesting
+similarity of treatment. The Northampton witches made a
+"howling and lamentable noise" on receiving their sentences,
+the Worcester women made a "yelling and howling at their
+executions."</p>
+
+<p>These resemblances may be fairly characterized as striking.
+If it be asked whether the phrases quoted are not conventional
+in witch pamphlets, the answer must be in the negative. So
+far as the writer knows, these phrases occur in no other of the
+fifty or more witch pamphlets. The word "notorious," which
+occurs in the titles of the Worcester and Northampton pamphlets,
+is a common one and would signify nothing. The
+other phrases mentioned are characteristic and distinctive.
+This similarity suggests that the three pamphlets were written
+by the same hand. Since we know that one of the three is a
+fabrication, we are led to suspect the credibility of the other
+two.</p>
+
+<p>There are, indeed, other reasons for doubting the historicity
+of these two. A close scrutiny of the Northampton<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[378]</a></span>
+pamphlet shows that the witchcrafts there described have the
+peculiar characteristics of the witchcrafts in the palmy days of
+Matthew Hopkins and that the wording of the descriptions is
+much the same. The Northampton pamphlet tells of a "tall
+black man," who appeared to the two women. A tall black
+man had appeared to Rebecca West at Chelmsford in 1645.
+A much more important point is that the prisoners at Northampton
+had been watched at night in order to keep their imps
+from coming in. This night-watching was a process that had
+never, so far as our records go, been used since the Hopkins
+alarm, of which it had been the characteristic feature. Were
+there no other resemblance between the Northampton cases
+and those at Chelmsford, this similarity would alone lead us to
+suspect the credibility of the Northampton pamphlet. Unfortunately
+the indiscreet writer of the Northampton narrative
+lets other phrases belonging to 1645 creep into his account.</p>
+
+<p>When the Northampton women were watched, a "little
+white thing about the bigness of a Cat" had appeared. But
+a "white thing about the bignesse of a Cat" had appeared to
+the watchers at Chelmsford in 1645. This is not all. The
+Northampton witches are said to have killed their victims by
+roasting and pricking images, a charge which had once been
+common, but which, so far as the writer can recall, had not
+been used since the Somerset cases of 1663. It was a charge
+very commonly used against the Chelmsford witches whom
+Matthew Hopkins prosecuted. Moreover the Northampton
+witches boasted that "their Master would not suffer them to
+be executed." No Chelmsford witch had made that boast; but
+Mr. Lowes, who was executed at Bury St. Edmunds (the
+Bury trial was closely connected with that at Chelmsford, so
+closely that the writer who had read of one would probably
+have read of the other), had declared that he had a charm to
+keep him from the gallows.</p>
+
+<p>It will be seen that these are close resemblances both in
+characteristic features and in wording. But the most perfect
+resemblance is in a confession. The two Northampton women
+describing their imps&mdash;creatures, by the way, that had figured
+largely in the Hopkins trials&mdash;said that "if the Imps were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[379]</a></span>
+not constantly imploy'd to do Mischief, they [the witches]
+had not their healths; but when they were imploy'd they
+were very Heathful and Well." This was almost exactly
+what Anne Leech had confessed at Chelmsford. Her words
+were: "And that when This Examinant did not send and
+employ them abroad to do mischief, she had not her health,
+but when they were imploy'd, she was healthfull and well."</p>
+
+<p>We cannot point out the same similarity between the Huntingdonshire
+witchcrafts of 1716 and the Chelmsford cases. The
+narrative of the Huntingdon case is, however, somewhat remarkable.
+Mr. Hicks was taking his nine-year-old daughter
+to Ipswich one day, when she, seeing a sail at sea, took a
+"basin of water," stirred it up, and thereby provoked a storm
+that was like to have sunk the ship, had not the father made
+the child cease. On the way home, the two passed a "very
+fine Field of Corn." "Quoth the child again, 'Father, I can
+consume all this Corn in the twinkling of an Eye.' The Father
+supposing it not in her Power to do so, he bid to shew her infernal
+skill." The child did so, and presently "all the Corn in
+the Field became Stubble." He questioned her and found that
+she had learned witchcraft from her mother. The upshot of
+it was that at Mr. Hicks's instance his wife and child were
+prosecuted and hanged. The story has been called remarkable.
+Yet it is not altogether unique. In 1645 at Bury St. Edmunds
+just after the Chelmsford trial there were eighteen witches
+condemned, and one of them, it will be remembered, was Parson
+Lowes of Brandeston in Suffolk, who confessed that "he
+bewitched a ship near Harwidge; so that with the extreme
+tempestuous Seas raised by blusterous windes the said ship
+was cast away, wherein were many passengers, who were by
+this meanes swallowed up by the merciless waves." It will be
+observed that the two stories are not altogether similar. The
+Huntingdon narrative is a better tale, and it would be hardly
+safe to assert that it drew its inspiration from the earlier
+story. Yet, when it is remembered how unusual is the story
+in English witch-lore, the supposition gains in probability.
+There is a further resemblance in the accounts. The Hicks
+child had bewitched a field of corn. One of the Bury witches,
+in the narrative which tells of parson Lowes, "confessed that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[380]</a></span>
+She usually bewitcht standing corne, whereby there came great
+loss to the owners thereof." The resemblance is hardly close
+enough to merit notice in itself. When taken, however, in connection
+with the other resemblances it gives cumulative force
+to the supposition that the writer of the Huntingdon pamphlet
+had gone to the narratives of the Hopkins cases for his
+sources.</p>
+
+<p>There are, however, other reasons for doubting the Huntingdon
+story. A writer in <i>Notes and Queries</i>, 2d series, V,
+503-504, long ago questioned the narrative because of the
+mention of a "Judge Wilmot," and showed that there was no
+such judge on the bench before 1755. An examination of
+the original pamphlet makes it clear, however, that in this
+form the objection is worth nothing. The tract speaks only
+of a "<i>Justice</i> Wilmot," who, from the wording of the narrative,
+would seem to have conducted the examination preliminary
+to the assizes as a justice of the peace would. A justice
+of the peace would doubtless, however, have belonged to
+some Huntingdonshire county family. Now, the writer has
+searched the various records and histories of Huntingdonshire&mdash;unfortunately
+they are but too few&mdash;and among the several
+hundred Huntingdonshire names he has found no Wilmots
+(and, for that matter, no Hickes either). This would seem to
+make the story more improbable.</p>
+
+<p>In an earlier number of <i>Notes and Queries</i> (1st series, V,
+514), James Crossley, whose authority as to matters relating
+to witchcraft is of the highest, gives cogent reasons why
+the Huntingdonshire narrative could not be true. He recalls
+the fact that Hutchinson, who made a chronological table of
+cases, published his work in 1718. Now Hutchinson had the
+help of two chief-justices, Parker and King, and of Chief-Baron
+Bury in collecting his cases; and yet he says that the
+last execution for the crime in England was in 1682. Crossley
+makes the further strong point that the case of Jane Wenham
+in 1712 attracted wide attention and was the occasion of numerous
+pamphlets. "It is scarcely possible," he continues, "that
+in four years after two persons, one only nine years old, ...
+should have been tried and executed for witchcraft without
+public attention being called to the circumstance." He adds<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[381]</a></span>
+that neither the <i>Historical Register</i> for 1716 nor the files of
+two London newspapers for that year, though they enumerate
+other convictions on the circuit, record the supposed cases.</p>
+
+<p>It will be seen that exactly the same arguments apply to the
+Northampton trials of 1705. Hutchinson had been at extraordinary
+pains to find out not only about Jane Wenham,
+but about the Moordike case of 1702. It is inconceivable that
+he should have quite overlooked the execution of two women
+at Northampton.</p>
+
+<p>We have observed that the Northampton, Huntingdon, and
+Worcester pamphlets have curious resemblances in wording to
+one another (resemblances that point to a common authorship),
+that the Worcester narrative can be proved to be fictitious,
+and that the Huntingdon narrative almost certainly belongs
+in the same category. We have shown, further, that the
+Northampton and Huntingdon stories present features of witchcraft
+characteristic of the Chelmsford and Bury cases of 1645,
+from the first of which the material of the Worcester pamphlet
+is drawn; and this fact points not only to the common authorship
+of the three tracts, but to the imaginary character of the
+Huntingdon and Northampton cases.</p>
+
+<p>Against these facts there is to be presented what at first
+blush seems a very important piece of evidence. In the <i>Northamptonshire
+Historical Collections</i>, 1st series (Northampton,
+1896), there is a chapter on witchcraft in Northamptonshire,
+copied from the <i>Northamptonshire Handbook</i> for 1867. That
+chapter goes into the trials of 1705 in detail, making copious
+extracts from the pamphlets. In a footnote the writers say:
+"To show that the burning actually took place in 1705, it may
+be important to mention that there is an item of expense entered
+in the overseers' accounts for St. Giles parish for faggots
+bought for the purpose." This in itself seems convincing.
+It seems to dispose of the whole question at once. There is,
+however, one fact that instantly casts a doubt upon this
+seemingly conclusive evidence. In England, witches were
+hanged, not burned. There are not a half-dozen recorded
+exceptions to this rule. Mother Lakeland in 1645 was burned.
+That is easy to explain. Mother Lakeland had by witchcraft
+killed her husband. Burning was the method of execution<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[382]</a></span>
+prescribed by English law for a woman who killed her husband.
+The other cases where burnings are said to have taken
+place were almost certainly cases that came under this rule.
+But it does not seem possible that the Northampton cases
+came under the rule. The two women seem to have had no
+husbands. "Ralph Davis," the ostensible writer of the account,
+who professed to have known them from their early years,
+and who was apparently glad to defame them in every possible
+way, accused them of loose living, but not of adultery, as he
+would certainly have done, had he conceived of them as married.
+It is hard to avoid the conclusion that they could not
+have been burned.</p>
+
+<p>There is a more decisive answer to this argument for the
+authenticity of the pamphlet. The supposed confirmation of it
+in the St. Giles parish register is probably a blunder. The Reverend
+R. M. Serjeantson of St. Peter's Rectory has been
+kind enough to examine for the writer the parish register of
+St. Giles Church. He writes: "The St. Giles accounts briefly
+state that <i>wood</i> was bought from time to time&mdash;probably for
+melting the lead. There is <i>no</i> mention of <i>faggots</i> nor witches
+in the Church wardens' overseers-for-the-poor accounts. I
+carefully turned out the whole contents of the parish chest."
+Mr. Serjeantson adds at the close this extract: "1705 P'd
+for wood 5/ For taking up the old lead 5/." It goes without
+saying that Mr. Serjeantson's examination does not prove that
+there never was a mention of the faggots bought for burning
+witches; but, when all the other evidence is taken into consideration,
+this negative evidence does establish a very strong
+presumption to that effect. Certainly the supposed passage
+from the overseers' accounts can no longer be used to confirm
+the testimony of the pamphlet. It looks very much as if
+the compilers of the <i>Northamptonshire Handbook</i> for 1867
+had been careless in their handling of records.</p>
+
+<p>It seems probable, then, that the pamphlet of 1705 dealing
+with the execution of Mary Phillips and Elinor Shaw is a
+purely fictitious narrative. The matter derives its importance
+from the fact that, if the two executions in 1705 be disproved,
+the last known execution in England is put back to 1682, ten
+years before the Salem affair in Massachusetts. This would of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[383]</a></span>
+course have some bearing on a recent contention (G. L.
+Kittredge, "Notes on Witchcraft," Am. Antiq. Soc., <i>Proc.</i>,
+XVIII), that "convictions and executions for witchcraft occurred
+in England after they had come to an end in Massachusetts."</p>
+
+<div class="minispace">&nbsp;</div>
+<div class="microspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<h2 class="chapter"><a name="APPENDIX_B" id="APPENDIX_B"></a>B.&mdash;LIST OF PERSONS SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR
+WITCHCRAFT DURING THE REIGN
+OF JAMES I.</h2>
+
+<h3 class="chapter2">1.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Charged with Causing Death.</span></h3>
+<p>
+1603. Yorkshire.<br />
+<span class="i3">Mary Pannel.</span><br />
+1606. Hertford.<br />
+<span class="i3">Johanna Harrison and her daughter.</span><br />
+1612. Northampton.<br />
+<span class="i3">Helen Jenkinson, Arthur Bill, Mary Barber.</span><br />
+1612. Lancaster.<br />
+<span class="i3">Chattox, Eliz. Device, James Device, Alice Nutter, Katherine Hewitt, Anne Redfearne.</span><br />
+1612. York.<br />
+<span class="i3">Jennet Preston.</span><br />
+1613. Bedford.<br />
+<span class="i3">Mother Sutton and Mary Sutton.</span><br />
+1616. Middlesex.<br />
+<span class="i3">Elizabeth Rutter.</span><br />
+1616. Middlesex.<br />
+<span class="i3">Joan Hunt.</span><br />
+1619. Lincoln.<br />
+<span class="i3">Margaret and Philippa Flower.</span><br />
+1621. Edmonton.<br />
+<span class="i3">Elizabeth Sawyer.</span>
+</p>
+
+<div class="microspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<h3 class="chapter2">2.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Not Charged with Causing Death</span> (so far as shown by
+records).</h3>
+
+<p>
+1607. Rye, Kent.<br />
+<span class="i3">Two women entertained spirits, "to gain wealth."</span><br />
+1612. Lancaster.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[384]</a></span><br />
+<span class="i3">John and Jane Bulcock, making to waste away. It
+was testified against them that at Malking Tower they
+consented to murder, but this was apparently not in the
+indictment. Acquitted, but later convicted.</span><br />
+<span class="i3">Alizon Device, caused to waste away.</span><br />
+<span class="i3">Isabel Robey, caused illness.</span><br />
+1616. Enfield, Middlesex.<br />
+<span class="i3">Agnes Berrye, laming and causing to languish.</span><br />
+1616. King's Lynn.<br />
+<span class="i3">Mary Smith, hanged for causing four people to languish.</span><br />
+1616. Leicester.<br />
+<span class="i3">Nine women hanged for bewitching a boy. Six more
+condemned on same charge, but pardoned by command
+of king.</span>
+</p>
+
+<div class="microspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<h3 class="chapter2"><span class="smcap">Mixed Cases.</span></h3>
+
+<p>1607. Bakewell.<br />
+<span class="i3">Our evidence as to the Bakewell witches is too incomplete
+to assure us that they were not accused of killing
+by witchcraft.</span><br />
+1612. Northampton.<br />
+<span class="i3">Agnes Brown and Joane Vaughan were indicted for
+bewitching Master Avery and Mistress Belcher, "together
+with the body of a young child to the death."</span></p>
+
+<div class="minispace">&nbsp;</div>
+<div class="microspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<h2 class="chapter"><a name="APPENDIX_C" id="APPENDIX_C">C.&mdash;LIST OF CASES OF WITCHCRAFT, 1558-1718, WITH
+REFERENCES TO SOURCES AND LITERATURE.</a><a name="FNanchor_384-1_1" id="FNanchor_384-1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_384-1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></h2>
+
+<p>1558. John Thirkle, "taylour, detected of conjuringe," to be
+examined. <i>Acts of Privy Council</i>, n. s., VII, 6.
+---- Several persons in London charged with conjuration to
+be sent to the Bishop of London for examination.
+<i>Ibid.</i>, 22.</p>
+<p>1559. Westminster. Certain persons examined on suspicion,
+including probably Lady Frances Throgmorton. <i>Cal.
+St. P., Dom., 1547-1580</i>, 142.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[385]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>c. 1559. Lady Chandos's daughter accused and imprisoned
+with George Throgmorton. Brit Mus., Add. MSS.,
+32,091, fol. 176.</p>
+
+<p>1560. Kent. Mother Buske of St. John's suspected by the
+church authorities. Visitations of Canterbury in
+<i>Archćologia Cantiana</i>, XXVI, 31.</p>
+
+<p>1561. Coxe, alias Devon, a Romish priest, examined for magic
+and conjuration, and for celebrating mass. Cal. St.
+<i>P., Dom., 1547-1580</i>, 173.</p>
+
+<p>---- London. Ten men brought before the queen and council
+on charge of "trespass, contempt, conjuration and
+sorceries." Punished with the pillory and required
+to renounce such practices for the future. From an
+extract quoted in Brit. Mus., Sloane MSS., 3,943,
+fol. 19.</p>
+
+<p>1565. Dorset. Agnes Mondaye to be apprehended for bewitching
+Mistress Chettell. <i>Acts P. C.</i>, n. s., VII,
+200-201.</p>
+
+<p>1565-1573. Durham. Jennet Pereson accused to the church
+authorities. <i>Depositions ... from ... Durham</i> (Surtees
+Soc.), 99.</p>
+
+<p>1566. Chelmsford, Essex. Mother Waterhouse hanged; Alice
+Chandler hanged, probably at this time; Elizabeth
+Francis probably acquitted. <i>The examination and
+confession of certaine Wytches at Chensforde.</i> For
+the cases of Elizabeth Francis and Alice Chandler
+see also <i>A detection of damnable driftes,</i> A iv, A
+v, verso.</p>
+
+<p>---- Essex. "Boram's wief" probably examined by the
+archdeacon. W. H. Hale, <i>A Series of Precedents
+and Proceedings in Criminal Causes, 1475-1640,
+extracted from the Act Books of Ecclesiastical
+Courts in the Diocese of London</i> (London, 1847),
+147.</p>
+
+<p>1569. Lyme, Dorset. Ellen Walker accused. Roberts, <i>Southern
+Counties</i>, 523.</p>
+
+<p>1570. Essex. Malter's wife of Theydon Mount and Anne
+Vicars of Navestock examined by Sir Thomas Smith.
+John Strype, <i>Life of Sir Thomas Smith</i> (ed. of Oxford,
+1820), 97-100.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[386]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>1570-1571. Canterbury. Several witches imprisoned. Mother
+Dungeon presented by the grand jury. <i>Hist. MSS.
+Comm. Reports</i>, IX, pt. 1, 156 b; Wm. Welfitt,
+"Civis," <i>Minutes collected from the Ancient Records
+of Canterbury</i> (Canterbury, 1801-1802), no.
+VI.</p>
+
+<p>---- &mdash;&mdash; Folkestone, Kent. Margaret Browne, accused of
+"unlawful practices," banished from town for seven
+years, and to be whipped at the cart's tail if found
+within six or seven miles of town. S. J. Mackie,
+<i>Descriptive and Historical Account of Folkestone</i>
+(Folkestone, 1883), 319.</p>
+
+<p>1574. Westwell, Kent. "Old Alice" [Norrington?] arraigned
+and convicted. Reginald Scot, <i>Discoverie of Witchcraft</i>,
+130-131.</p>
+
+<p>---- Middlesex. Joan Ellyse of Westminster convicted on
+several indictments for witchcraft and sentenced to
+be hanged. <i>Middlesex County Records</i>, I, 84.</p>
+
+<p>c. 1574. Jane Thorneton accused by Rachel Pinder, who
+however confessed to fraud. <i>Discloysing of a late
+counterfeyted possession.</i></p>
+
+<p>1575. Burntwood, Staffordshire. Mother Arnold hanged at
+Barking. From the title of a pamphlet mentioned
+by Lowndes: <i>The Examination and Confession of a
+notorious Witch named Mother Arnold, alias Whitecote,
+alias Glastonbury, at the Assise of Burntwood
+in July, 1574; who was hanged for Witchcraft at
+Barking, 1575.</i> Mrs. Linton, Witch Stories, 153,
+says that many were hanged at this time, but I cannot
+find authority for the statement.</p>
+
+<p>---- Middlesex. Elizabeth Ducke of Harmondsworth
+acquitted. <i>Middlesex County Records</i>, I, 94.</p>
+
+<p>---- Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Katharine Smythe acquitted.
+Henry Harrod, "Notes on the Records of the Corporation
+of Great Yarmouth," in <i>Norfolk Archćology</i>,
+IV, 248.</p>
+
+<p>1577. Seaford, Sussex. Joan Wood presented by the grand
+jury. M. A. Lower, "Memorials of Seaford," in
+Sussex Archćological Soc., <i>Collections</i>, VII, 98.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[387]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>---- Middlesex. Helen Beriman of Laleham acquitted.
+<i>Middlesex County Records</i>, I, 103.</p>
+
+<p>---- Essex. Henry Chittam of Much Barfield to be tried
+for coining false money and conjuring. <i>Acts P. C.</i>,
+n. s., IX, 391; X, 8, 62.</p>
+
+<p>1578. Prescall, Sanford, and "one Emerson, a preiste," suspected
+of conjuration against the queen. The first
+two committed. <i>Id.</i>, X, 382; see also 344, 373.</p>
+
+<p>---- Evidence of the use of sorcery against the queen discovered.
+<i>Cal. St. P., Spanish, 1568-1579</i>, 611; see
+also note to Ben Jonson's <i>Masque of Queenes</i> (London,
+Shakespeare Soc., 1848), 71.</p>
+
+<p>---- Sussex. "One Tree, bailiff of Lewes, and one Smith
+of Chinting" to be examined. <i>Acts P. C.</i>, n. s., X,
+220.</p>
+
+<p>1579. Chelmsford, Essex. Three women executed. Mother
+Staunton released because "no manslaughter objected
+against her." <i>A Detection of damnable driftes.</i></p>
+
+<p>---- Abingdon, Berks. Four women hanged; at least two
+others and probably more were apprehended. <i>A
+Rehearsall both straung and true of ... acts committed
+by Elisabeth Stile ...</i>; <i>Acts P. C.</i>, n. s.,
+XI, 22; Scot, <i>Discoverie of Witchcraft</i>, 10, 51, 543.</p>
+
+<p>---- Certain persons suspected of sorcery to be examined
+by the Bishop of London. <i>Acts P. C.</i>, n. s., XI, 36.</p>
+
+<p>---- Salop, Worcester, and Montgomery. Samuel Cocwra
+paid for "searching for certen persons suspected
+for conjuracion." <i>Ibid.</i>, 292.</p>
+
+<p>---- Southwark. Simon Pembroke, a conjurer, brought to the
+parish church of St. Saviour's to be tried by the
+"ordinarie judge for those parties," but falls dead
+before the opening of the trial. Holinshed, <i>Chronicles</i>
+(ed. of 1586-1587), III, 1271.</p>
+
+<p>---- Southampton. Widow Walker tried by the leet jury,
+outcome unknown. J. S. Davies, <i>History of Southampton</i>
+(Southampton, 1883), 236.</p>
+
+<p>1579-1580. Shropshire. Mother Garve punished in the corn
+market. Owen and Blakeway, <i>History of Shrewsbury</i>,
+I, 562.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[388]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>1580. Stanhope, Durham. Ann Emerson accused by the
+church officials. <i>Injunctions ... of ... Bishop of
+Durham</i> (Surtees Soc.), 126.</p>
+
+<p>---- Bucks. John Coleman and his wife examined by four
+justices of the peace at the command of the privy
+council. They were probably released. <i>Acts P. C.</i>, n.
+s., XI, 427; XII, 29.</p>
+
+<p>---- Kent. Several persons to be apprehended for conjuration.
+<i>Id.</i>, XII, 21-23.</p>
+
+<p>---- Somerset. Henry Harrison and Thomas Wadham, suspected
+of conjuration, to appear before the privy
+council. <i>Ibid.</i>, 22-23.</p>
+
+<p>---- Somerset. Henry Fize of Westpenner, detected in conjuration,
+brought before the privy council. <i>Ibid.</i>, 34.</p>
+
+<p>---- Essex. "Sondery persones" charged with sorceries and
+conjuration. <i>Acts P. C.</i>, XII, 29, 34.</p>
+
+<p>1581. Randoll and four others accused for "conjuring to
+know where treasure was hid in the earth." Randoll
+and three others found guilty. Randoll alone
+executed. Holinshed, <i>Chronicles</i> (London, 1808),
+IV, 433.</p>
+
+<p>1581. Padstow, Cornwall. Anne Piers accused of witchcraft.
+Examination of witnesses. <i>Cal. St. P., Dom., 1581-1590</i>,
+29. See also <i>Acts P. C.</i>, n. s., XIII, 228.</p>
+
+<p>1581. Rochester, Kent. Margaret Simmons acquitted. Scot,
+<i>Discoverie</i>, 5.</p>
+
+<p>1581-82. Colchester, Essex. Annis Herd accused before the
+"spiritual Courte." <i>Witches taken at St. Oses</i>, 1582.</p>
+
+<p>1582. St. Osyth, Essex. Sixteen accused, one of whom was a
+man. How many were executed uncertain. It seems
+to have been a tradition that thirteen were executed.
+Scot wrote that seventeen or eighteen were executed.
+<i>Witches taken at St. Oses</i>, 1582; Scot, <i>Discoverie</i>,
+543.</p>
+
+<p>1582 (or before). "T. E., Maister of Art and practiser both of
+physicke, and also in times past, of certeine vaine
+sciences," condemned for conjuration, but reprieved.
+Scot, <i>Discoverie</i>, 466-469.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[389]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>1582. Middlesex. Margery Androwes of Clerkenwell held in
+bail. <i>Middlesex County Records</i>, I, 133.</p>
+
+<p>1582. Durham. Alison Lawe of Hart compelled to do penance.
+<i>Denham Tracts</i> (Folk-Lore Soc.), II, 332.</p>
+
+<p>1582. Kent. Goodwife Swane of St. John's suspected by the
+church authorities. <i>Archćol. Cant.</i>, XXVI, 19.</p>
+
+<p>1582-83. Nottingham. A certain Batte examined before the
+"Meare" of Nottingham. <i>Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports</i>,
+XII, pt. 4, 147.</p>
+
+<p>1582-83. King's Lynn. Mother Gabley probably hanged. Excerpt
+from parish register of Wells in Norfolk, in
+the <i>Gentleman's Magazine</i>, LXII (1792), 904.</p>
+
+<p>1583. Kingston-upon-Hull, Yorkshire. Three women tried,
+one sentenced to a year's imprisonment and the pillory.
+J. J. Sheahan, <i>History of Kingston-upon-Hull</i>
+(London, 1864), 86.</p>
+
+<p>1583. Colchester, Essex. Two women sentenced to a year
+in prison and to four appearances in the pillory. E.
+L. Cutts, Colchester (London, 1888), 151. Henry
+Harrod, <i>Report on the Records of Colchester</i> (Colchester,
+1865), 17; App., 14.</p>
+
+<p>1583. St. Peter's, Kent. Ellen Bamfield suspected by the
+church authorities. <i>Archćol. Cant.</i>, XXVI, 45.</p>
+
+<p>1584. Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Elizabeth Butcher (punished
+before) and Joan Lingwood condemned to be
+hanged. C. J. Palmer, <i>History of Great Yarmouth</i>,
+I, 273.</p>
+
+<p>1584. Staffordshire. An indictment preferred against Jeffrey
+Leach. <i>Cal. St. P., Dom., 1581-1590</i>, 206.</p>
+
+<p>1584. "The oulde witche of Ramsbury" and several other
+"oulde witches and sorcerers" suspected. <i>Cal. St.
+P., Dom., 1581-1590</i>, 220.</p>
+
+<p>1584. York. Woman, indicted for witchcraft and "high
+treason touching the supremacy," condemned. <i>Cal.
+St. P., Dom., Add. 1580-1625</i>, 120-121.</p>
+
+<p>1584. Middlesex. Elizabeth Bartell of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields
+acquitted. <i>Middlesex County Records</i>, I,
+145.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[390]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>1585. Middlesex. Margaret Hackett of Stanmore executed.
+From titles of two pamphlets mentioned by Lowndes,
+<i>The severall Facts of Witchcrafte approved on Margaret
+Haskett ...</i> 1585, and <i>An Account of Margaret
+Hacket, a notorious Witch ...</i> 1585.</p>
+
+<p>1585. Middlesex. Joan Barringer of "Harroweelde" (Harrow
+Weald) acquitted. <i>Middlesex County Records</i>,
+I, 157.</p>
+
+<p>1585. Dorset. John Meere examined. <i>Cal. St. P., Dom.,
+1581-90</i>, 246-247.</p>
+
+<p>1585-86. Alnwick, Northumberland. Two men and two women
+committed to prison on suspicion of killing a sheriff.
+<i>Denham Tracts</i>, II, 332; <i>Cal. S. P., Dom., Add. 1580-1625</i>,
+168.</p>
+
+<p>1586. Eckington, Derbyshire. Margaret Roper accused. Discharged.
+Harsnett, <i>Discovery of the Fraudulent
+Practises of John Darrel</i>, 310.</p>
+
+<p>1586. Faversham, Kent. Jone Cason [Carson] tried before
+the mayor, executed. Holinshed, <i>Chronicles</i> (1586-1587),
+III, 1560.</p>
+
+<p>1587. Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Helena Gill indicted. C. J.
+Palmer, <i>History of Great Yarmouth</i>, 273. H. Harrod
+in <i>Norfolk Archćology</i>, IV, 248, assigns this to
+1597, but it is probably a mistake.</p>
+
+<p>c. 1588. A woman at R. H. said to have been imprisoned and
+to have died before the assizes. Gifford, <i>Dialogue</i>
+(London, 1603), C.</p>
+
+<p>1589. Chelmsford, Essex. Three women hanged. <i>The apprehension
+and confession of three notorious
+Witches.</i></p>
+
+<p>1589. Several persons to be examined about their dealings in
+conjuration with an Italian friar. <i>Acts P. C.</i>, n. s.,
+XVII, 31-32.</p>
+
+<p>1589. Mrs. Deir brought into question for sorcery against
+the queen. Charge dismissed. Strype, <i>Annals of
+the Reformation</i> (London, 1709-1731), IV, 7-8.</p>
+
+<p>1590. Mrs. Dewse suspected of attempting to make use of conjurors.
+<i>Cal. St. P., Dom.</i>, 1581-1590, 644.</p>
+
+<p>1590. John Bourne, a "sorcerer and seducer," arrested. <i>Acts
+P. C.</i>, n. s., XVIII, 373.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[391]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>1590. Berwick. A Scottish witch imprisoned. John Scott,
+<i>History of Berwick</i> (London, 1888), 180; <i>Archćologia</i>,
+XXX, 172.</p>
+
+<p>1590. Norfolk. Margaret Grame accused before justice of the
+peace. Neighbors petition in her behalf. <i>Hist. MSS.
+Comm. Reports, Various</i>, II, 243-244.</p>
+
+<p>1590. King's Lynn. Margaret Read burnt. Benjamin Mackerell,
+<i>History and Antiquities ... of King's Lynn</i>,
+(London, 1738), 231.</p>
+
+<p>1590. Edmonton, Middlesex. Certain men taken for witchcraft
+and conjuring. Bloodhound used in pursuit
+of them. <i>Cal. St. P., Dom.</i>, 1581-1590, 689.</p>
+
+<p>1590-91. Hertfordshire. Indictment of Joan White for killing.
+<i>Hertfordshire County Session Rolls</i>, I, 4.</p>
+
+<p>1591. John Prestall suspected. <i>Cal. St. P., Dom.</i>, 1591-1594,
+17-19.</p>
+
+<p>1591. Middlesex. Stephen Trefulback of Westminster given
+penalty of statute, <i>i. e.</i>, probably pillory. <i>Middlesex
+County Records</i>, I, 197.</p>
+
+<p>1592. Colchester, Essex. Margaret Rand indicted by grand
+jury. Brit. Mus., Stowe MSS., 840, fol. 42.</p>
+
+<p>1592. Yorkshire. "Sara B. de C." examined. West, <i>Symboleography</i>,
+pt. II (London, 1594), ed. of 1611, fol.
+134 verso (reprinted in <i>County Folk-Lore</i>, Folk-Lore
+Soc., 135). Whether the "S. B. de C. in comit.
+H." whose indictment in the same year is printed
+also by West may possibly be the same woman can
+not be determined.</p>
+
+<p>1592. Yorkshire. Margaret L. de A. examined. <i>Ibid.</i></p>
+
+<p>1593. Warboys, Huntingdonshire. Mother, daughter and
+father Samuel executed. <i>The most strange and
+admirable discoverie of the three Witches of Warboys.</i>
+1593. See also John Darrel, <i>A Detection of
+that sinnful ... discours of Samuel Harshnet</i>, 20-21,
+39-40, 110. Harsnett, <i>Discovery of the Fraudulent
+Practises of John Darrel</i>, 93, 97.</p>
+
+<p>1594. Jane Shelley examined for using sorcerers to find the
+time of the queen's death. <i>Hist. MSS. Comm.,
+Cecil.</i>, pt. V, 25.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[392]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>1595. St. Peter's Kent. Two women presented by the church
+authorities. Still suspected in 1599. <i>Archćol. Cant.</i>,
+XXVI, 46.</p>
+
+<p>1595. Woodbridge, Suffolk. Witches put in the pillory.
+<i>County Folk-Lore, Suffolk</i> (Folk-Lore Soc., London,
+1895), 193.</p>
+
+<p>1595. Jane Mortimer pardoned for witchcraft. Bodleian,
+Tanner MSS., CLXVIII, fol. 29.</p>
+
+<p>1595. Near Bristol, Somerset. Severall committed for the
+Earl of Derby's death. <i>Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports</i>,
+IV, app., 366 b. See also E. Baines's <i>Lancaster</i>
+(London, 1870), 273-274 and note.</p>
+
+<p>1595. Barnet and Braynford, Herts. Three witches executed.
+From title of pamphlet mentioned by Lowndes,
+<i>The Arraignment and Execution of 3 detestable
+Witches, John Newell, Joane his wife, and Hellen
+Calles: two executed at Barnett and one at Braynford</i>,
+1 Dec. 1595.</p>
+
+<p>1596 (or before). Derbyshire. Elizabeth Wright (mother
+of Alice Gooderidge) several times summoned before
+the justice of the peace on suspicion. <i>The
+most wonderfull and true Storie of ... Alse Gooderidge</i>
+(1597).</p>
+
+<p>1596. Burton-upon-Trent, Derbyshire. Alice Gooderidge tried
+at Derby, convicted. Died in prison. Harsnett, <i>Discovery
+of the fraudulent Practises of John Darrel;
+John Darrel, Detection of that sinnful ... discours
+of Samuel Harshnet</i>, 38, 40; <i>The most wonderfull
+and true Storie of ... Alse Gooderidge</i> (1597).</p>
+
+<p>1596-1597. Leicester. Mother Cooke hanged. Mary Bateson,
+<i>Records of the Borough of Leicester</i> (Cambridge,
+1899), III, 335.</p>
+
+<p>1596-1597. Lancaster. Hartley condemned and executed.
+John Darrel, <i>True Narration</i> (in the <i>Somers Tracts</i>,
+III), 175, 176; George More, <i>A True Discourse
+concerning the certaine possession ... of 7 persons
+... in Lancashire</i>, 18-22; John Darrel, <i>Detection
+of that sinnful ... discours of Samuel Harshnet</i>, 40.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[393]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>1597. Nottingham. Thirteen or more accused by Somers, at
+least eight of whom were put in gaol. All but two
+discharged. Alice Freeman tried at the assizes and
+finally acquitted. John Darrel, <i>Detection of that
+sinnful ... discours of Samuel Harshnet</i>, 109-111;
+<i>An Apologie or defence of the possession of William
+Sommers</i>, L-L 3; Samuel Harsnett, <i>Discovery
+of the Fraudulent Practises of John Darrel</i>, 5, 102,
+140-141, 320-322.</p>
+
+<p>1597. St. Lawrence, Kent. Sibilla Ferris suspected by the
+church authorities. <i>Archćol. Cant.</i>, XXVI, 12.</p>
+
+<p>1597. Nottingham. William Somers accused of witchcraft as
+a ruse to get him into the house of correction.
+Darrel, <i>A True Narration of the ... Vexation ...
+of seven persons in Lancashire</i>, in <i>Somers Tracts</i>,
+III, 184; also his <i>Brief Apologie</i> (1599), 17.</p>
+
+<p>1597. Yorkshire. Elizabeth Melton of Collingham condemned,
+pardoned. <i>Cal. St. P., Dom.</i>, 1595-1597,
+400.</p>
+
+<p>1597. Lancashire. Alice Brerely of Castleton condemned,
+pardoned. <i>Ibid.</i>, 406.</p>
+
+<p>1597. Middlesex. Agnes Godfrey of Enfield held by the justice
+of the peace on Ł10 bail. <i>Middlesex County
+Records</i>, I, 237.</p>
+
+<p>1597. St. Andrew's in Holborne, Middlesex. Josia Ryley
+arraigned. "Po se mortuus in facie curie," <i>i. e.</i>
+<i>Posuit se moriturum.</i> <i>Ibid.</i>, 225.</p>
+
+<p>1597. Middlesex. Helen Spokes of St. Giles-in-the-Fields
+acquitted. <i>Ibid.</i>, 239.</p>
+
+<p>1598. Berwick. Richard Swynbourne's wife accused. John
+Scott, <i>History of Berwick</i> (London, 1888), 180.</p>
+
+<p>1598. St. Peter's, Kent. Two women suspected by the church
+officials; one of them presented again the next year.
+<i>Archćol. Cant.</i>, XXVI, 46.</p>
+
+<p>1598. King's Lynn. Elizabeth Housegoe executed. Mackerell,
+<i>History and Antiquities of King's Lynn</i>, 232.</p>
+
+<p>1599. Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Jone Jordan of Shadbrook
+tried. Darrel, <i>A Survey of Certaine Dialogical
+Discourses</i>, 54.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[394]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>1599. Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Joane Nayler tried. <i>Ibid.</i></p>
+
+<p>1599. Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Oliffe Bartham of Shadbrook
+executed. <i>The Triall of Maist. Dorrel</i>, 92-98.</p>
+
+<p>1599. London. Anne Kerke of Bokes-wharfe executed at
+"Tiburn." <i>The Triall of Maist. Dorrel</i>, 99-103.</p>
+
+<p>1600. Hertford. A "notable witch" committed to the gaol
+at Hertford. <i>Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports, Cecil
+MSS.</i>, pt. X, 310.</p>
+
+<p>1600. Rosa Bexwell pardoned. Bodleian, Tanner MSS.,
+CLXVIII, fol. 104.</p>
+
+<p>1600. Norfolk. Margaret Fraunces committed for a long
+time. Probably released by justice of the peace on
+new evidence. <i>Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports</i>, X, pt.
+II (Gawdy MSS.), 71. See also below, pp. 400, 401.</p>
+
+<p>1600. Ipswich, Suffolk. Several conjurers suspected. <i>Cal.
+St. P., Dom.</i>, 1598-1601, 523.</p>
+
+<p>1601. Bishop Burton, York. Two women apprehended for
+bewitching a boy. Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 32,496,
+fol. 42 b.</p>
+
+<p>1601. Middlesex. Richard Nelson of St. Katharine's arraigned.
+<i>Middlesex County Records</i>, I, 260.</p>
+
+<p>1601. Nottingham. Ellen Bark presented at the sessions.
+<i>Records of the Borough of Nottingham</i>, IV, 260-261.</p>
+
+<p>1602. Middlesex. Elizabeth Roberts of West Drayton indicted
+on three charges, acquitted. <i>Middlesex
+County Records</i>, I, 212.</p>
+
+<p>1602. Saffron Walden, Essex. Alice Bentley tried before the
+quarter sessions. Case probably dismissed. Darrel,
+<i>A Survey of Certaine Dialogical Discourses</i>, 54.</p>
+
+<p>temp. Eliz. Northfleet, Kent. Pardon to Alice S. for bewitching
+a cow and pigs. Bodleian, Rawlinson
+MSS., C 404, fol. 205 b.</p>
+
+<p>temp. Eliz. Woman condemned to prison and pillory. Gifford,
+<i>Dialogue concerning Witches</i> (1603), L 4 verso.</p>
+
+<p>temp. Eliz. Cambridge. Two women perhaps hanged at this
+time. Henry More, <i>Antidote to Atheisme</i>, III. But
+see 1605, Cambridge.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[395]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>temp. Eliz. Mother W. of W. H. said to have been executed.
+Gifford, <i>Dialogue concerning Witches</i>, D 4 verso&mdash;E.</p>
+
+<p>temp. Eliz. Mother W. of Great T. said to have been hanged.
+<i>Ibid.</i>, C 4.</p>
+
+<p>temp. Eliz. Woman said to have been hanged. <i>Ibid.</i>, L 3-L 3
+verso.</p>
+
+<p>temp. Eliz. Two women said to have been hanged. <i>Ibid.</i>,
+I 3 verso.</p>
+
+<p>1602-1603. London. Elizabeth Jackson sentenced, for bewitching
+Mary Glover, to four appearances in the pillory
+and a year in prison. John Swan, <i>A True and Breife
+Report of Mary Glover's Vexation</i>; E. Jorden, <i>A
+briefe discourse of ... the Suffocation of the
+Mother</i>, 1603; also a MS., <i>Marie Glover's late woefull
+case ... upon occasion of Doctor Jordens discourse
+of the Mother, wherein hee covertly taxeth,
+first the Phisitiones which judged her sicknes a vexation
+of Sathan and consequently the sentence of
+Lawe and proceeding against the Witche who was
+discovered to be a meanes thereof, with A defence
+of the truthe against D. J. his scandalous Impugnations</i>,
+by Stephen Bradwell, 1603. Brit. Mus., Sloane
+MSS., 831. An account by Lewis Hughes, appended
+to his <i>Certaine Grievances</i> (1641-2), is quoted
+by Sinclar, <i>Satan's Invisible World Discovered</i>
+(Edinburgh, 1685), 95-100; and hence Burton (<i>The
+Kingdom of Darkness</i>) and Hutchinson (<i>Historical
+Essay concerning Witchcraft</i>) assign a wrong date.</p>
+
+<p>1603. Yorkshire. Mary Pannel executed for killing in 1593.
+Mayhall, <i>Annals of Yorkshire</i> (London, 1878), I,
+58. See also E. Fairfax, <i>A Discourse of Witchcraft</i>,
+179-180.</p>
+
+<p>1603. Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Ales Moore in gaol on suspicion.
+C. J. Palmer, <i>History of Great Yarmouth</i>,
+II, 70.</p>
+
+<p>1604. Wooler, Northumberland. Katherine Thompson and
+Anne Nevelson proceeded against by the Vicar General
+of the Bishop of Durham. Richardson, <i>Table
+Book</i>, I, 245; J. Raine, <i>York Depositions</i>, 127, note.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[396]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>1605. Cambridge. A witch alarm. Letters of Sir Thomas
+Lake to Viscount Cranbourne, January 18, 1604/5,
+and of Sir Edward Coke to Viscount Craybourne,
+Jan. 29, 1604/5, both in Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 6177,
+fol. 403. This probably is the affair referred to in
+<i>Cal. St. P., Dom.</i>, 1603-1610, 218. Nor is it impossible
+that Henry More had this affair in mind when
+he told of two women who were executed in Cambridge
+in the time of Elizabeth (see above, temp.
+Eliz., Cambridge) and was two or three years astray
+in his reckoning.</p>
+
+<p>1605. Doncaster, York. Jone Jurdie of Rossington examined.
+Depositions in <i>Gentleman's Magazine</i>, 1857, pt. I,
+593-595.</p>
+
+<p>1606. Louth, Lincolnshire. "An Indictment against a Witche."
+R. W. Goulding, <i>Louth Old Corporation Records</i>
+(Louth, 1891), 54.</p>
+
+<p>1606. Hertford. Johanna Harrison and her daughter said to
+have been executed. This rests upon the pamphlet
+<i>The Most Cruell and Bloody Murther</i>, ... See appendix
+A, § 3.</p>
+
+<p>1606. Richmond, Yorkshire. Ralph Milner ordered by quarter
+sessions to make his submission at Mewkarr
+Church. <i>North Riding Record Society</i>, I, 58.</p>
+
+<p>1607. Middlesex. Alice Bradley of Hampstead arraigned on
+four bills, acquitted. <i>Middlesex County Records</i>,
+II, 8.</p>
+
+<p>1607. Middlesex. Rose Mersam of Whitecrosse Street acquitted.
+<i>Ibid.</i>, II, 20.</p>
+
+<p>1607. Bakewell, Derby. Several women said to have been executed
+here. See Robert Simpson, <i>A Collection of
+Fragments illustrative of the History and Antiquities
+of Derby</i> (Derby, 1826), 90; Glover, <i>History of
+Derby</i> (ed. Thos. Noble, 1833), pt. I, vol. II, p. 613;
+J. C. Cox, <i>Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals</i>,
+II, 88. For what purports to be a detailed account
+of the affair see W. Andrews, <i>Bygone Derbyshire</i>,
+180-184.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[397]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>1607-11. Rye, Sussex. Two women condemned by local
+authorities probably discharged upon interference
+from London. <i>Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports</i>, XIII,
+pt. 4, 136-137, 139-140, 147-148.</p>
+
+<p>1608. Simon Read pardoned. <i>Cal. St. P., Dom.</i>, 1603-1610,
+406.</p>
+
+<p>1610. Norfolk. Christian[a] Weech, pardoned in 1604, now
+again pardoned. <i>Ibid.</i>, 96, 598. Was this the Christiana
+Weekes of Cleves Pepper, Wilts, who in 1651
+and 1654 was again and again accused of telling
+where lost goods were? See <i>Hist. MSS. Comm.
+Reports, Various</i>, I, 120.</p>
+
+<p>1610. Middlesex. Agnes Godfrey of Enfield, with four bills
+against her, acquitted on three, found guilty of killing.
+File containing sentence lost. <i>Middlesex County
+Records</i>, II, 57-58. Acquitted again in 1621. <i>Ibid.</i>,
+79, 80.</p>
+
+<p>1610. Leicestershire. Depositions taken by the sheriff concerning
+Randall and other witches. <i>Hist. MSS.
+Comm. Reports</i>, XII, pt. 4 (<i>MSS. of the Duke of
+Rutland</i>), I, 422.</p>
+
+<p>1611. Carnarvon. Story of witchcraft "committed on six
+young maids." Privy Council orders the Bishop of
+Bangor and the assize judges to look into it. <i>Cal.
+St. P., Dom., 1611-1618</i>, 53.</p>
+
+<p>1611. Wm. Bate, indicted twenty years before for practising
+invocation, etc., for finding treasure, pardoned. <i>Ibid.</i>,
+29.</p>
+
+<p>1611. Thirsk, Yorkshire. Elizabeth Cooke presented by quarter
+sessions for slight crime related to witchcraft.
+<i>North Riding Record Soc.</i>, I, 213.</p>
+
+<p>1612. Lancaster. Margaret Pearson, who in 1612 was sentenced
+to a year's imprisonment and the pillory, had
+been twice tried before, once for killing, and once for
+bewitching a neighbor. Potts, <i>Wonderfull Discoverie
+of Witches in the countie of Lancaster</i>
+(Chetham Soc., 1845).</p>
+
+<p>1612. Lancaster. Ten persons of Pendle sentenced to death,
+one to a year's imprisonment; eight acquitted in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[398]</a></span>cluding
+three women of Salmesbury. Potts, <i>Wonderfull
+Discoverie of Witches</i>, Chetham Soc., 1845.
+But <i>cf.</i> Cooper's words (<i>Mystery of Witchcraft,
+1617</i>), 15.</p>
+
+<p>1612. York. Jennet Preston sentenced to death. Potts,
+<i>Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches</i>.</p>
+
+<p>1612. Northampton. At least four women and one man
+hanged. Many others accused, one of whom died in
+gaol. <i>The Witches of Northamptonshire</i>, 1612; also
+Brit Mus., Sloane MSS., 972, fol. 7.</p>
+
+<p>1613. Bedford. Mother Sutton and Mary Sutton, her daughter,
+of Milton Miles hanged. <i>Witches Apprehended,
+Examined and Executed</i>, 1613. See app. A, § 3,
+for mention of another pamphlet on the same subject,
+<i>A Booke of the Wytches lately condemned and
+executed</i>. See also <i>The Wonderful Discoverie of ...
+Margaret and Phillip Flower</i>, preface, and Richard
+Bernard, <i>Guide to Grand Jurymen</i>, <span class="smcap">iii</span>.</p>
+
+<p>1613. Wilts. Margaret Pilton of Warminster, accused at
+quarter sessions, probably released. <i>Hist. MSS.
+Comm. Reports, Various</i>, I, 86-87.</p>
+
+<p>1614. Middlesex. Dorothy Magick of St. Andrew's in Holborn
+sentenced to a year's imprisonment and four
+appearances in the pillory. <i>Middlesex County Records</i>,
+II, 91, 218.</p>
+
+<p>1615. Middlesex. Joan Hunt of Hampstead, who had been,
+along with her husband, twice tried and acquitted,
+and whose accuser had been ordered to ask forgiveness,
+sentenced to be hanged. <i>Middlesex County
+Records</i>, II, lii, 95, 110, 217-218.</p>
+
+<p>1616. Leicester. Nine women hanged on the accusation of a
+boy. Six others accused, one of whom died in prison,
+five released after the king's examination of the
+boy. Robert Heyrick's letters from Leicester, July
+16 and October 15, 1616, reprinted in the <i>Annual
+Register</i>, 1800, p. 405. See also <i>Cal. S. P., Dom.,
+1611-1618</i>, 398, and William Kelly, <i>Royal Progresses
+in Leicester</i> (Leicester, 1855), pt. II, 15.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[399]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>1616. King's Lynn, Norfolk. Mary Smith hanged. Alexander
+Roberts, <i>Treatise of Witchcraft</i> (London, 1616);
+Mackerell, <i>History and Antiquities of King's Lynn</i>,
+233.</p>
+
+<p>1616. Middlesex. Elizabeth Rutter of Finchley, for laming
+and killing three persons, sentenced to be hanged.
+<i>Middlesex County Records</i>, II, 108, 218.</p>
+
+<p>1616. Middlesex. Margaret Wellan of London accused "upon
+suspition to be a witch." Andrew Camfield held in
+Ł40 bail to appear against her. <i>Middlesex County
+Records</i>, II, 124-125.</p>
+
+<p>1617. Middlesex. Agnes Berrye of Enfield sentenced to be
+hanged. <i>Ibid.</i>, 116, 219.</p>
+
+<p>1617. Middlesex. Anne Branche of Tottenham arraigned on
+four counts, acquitted. <i>Ibid.</i>, 219.</p>
+
+<p>1618. Middlesex. Bridget Meakins acquitted. <i>Ibid.</i>, 225.</p>
+
+<p>1619. Lincoln. Margaret and Philippa Flower hanged. Their
+mother, Joan Flower, died on the way to prison.
+<i>The Wonderful Discoverie of the Witchcrafts of
+Margaret and Phillip Flower</i>; J. Nichols, <i>History
+and Antiquities of the County of Leicester</i> (1795-1815),
+II, pt. I, 49; <i>Cal. St. P., Dom., 1619-1623</i>, 129;
+<i>Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports, Rutland MSS.</i>, IV, 514.</p>
+
+<p>1619. Leicester. Three women, Anne Baker, Joan Willimot,
+Ellen Green, accused and confessed. Doubtless executed.
+<i>The Wonderful Discoverie of the Witchcrafts
+of Margaret and Phillip Flower</i>.</p>
+
+<p>1619. Middlesex. Agnes Miller of Finchley acquitted. <i>Middlesex
+County Records</i>, II, 143-144.</p>
+
+<p>1620. London. "One Peacock, sometime a schoolmaster and
+minister," for bewitching the king, committed to the
+Tower and tortured. Williams, <i>Court and Times
+of James I</i>, II, 202; <i>Cal. St. P., Dom., 1619-1623</i>, 125.</p>
+
+<p>1620. Leicester. Gilbert Smith, rector of Swithland, accused of
+witchcraft among other things. <i>Leicestershire and
+Rutland Notes and Queries</i>, I, 247.</p>
+
+<p>1620. Padiham, Lancashire. Witches in prison. <i>House and
+Farm Accounts of the Shuttleworths</i>, pt. II. (Chetham
+Soc., 1856), 240.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[400]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>1620. Staffordshire. Woman accused on charges of the "boy
+of Bilson" acquitted. <i>The Boy of Bilson</i> (London,
+1622); Arthur Wilson, <i>Life and Reign of James I</i>,
+107-112; Webster, <i>Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft</i>,
+274-275.</p>
+
+<p>1621. Edmonton, Middlesex. Elizabeth Sawyer hanged. <i>The
+wonderfull discoverie of Elizabeth Sawyer</i>, by
+Henry Goodcole (1621).</p>
+
+<p>1621. Middlesex. Anne Beaver, accused of murder on six
+counts, acquitted. <i>Middlesex County Records</i>, II,
+72-73. Acquitted again in 1625. <i>Ibid.</i>, III, 2.</p>
+
+<p>1622. York. Six women indicted for bewitching Edward Fairfax's
+children. At April assizes two were released
+upon bond, two and probably four discharged. At
+the August assizes they were again acquitted. Fairfax,
+<i>A Discourse of Witchcraft</i> (Philobiblon Soc.,
+London, 1858-1859).</p>
+
+<p>1622. Middlesex. Margaret Russel, alias "Countess," committed
+to Newgate by Sir Wm. Slingsby on a charge
+by Lady Jennings of injuring her daughter. Dr. Napier
+diagnosed the daughter's illness as epilepsy.
+Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 36,674, fol. 134.</p>
+
+<p>1623. Yorkshire. Elizabeth Crearey of North Allerton sentenced
+to be set in the pillory once a quarter. Thirsk
+Quarter Sessions Records in <i>North Riding Record
+Society</i> (London, 1885), III, 177, 181.</p>
+
+<p>1624. Bristol. Two witches said to have been executed. John
+Latimer, <i>The Annals of Bristol in the Seventeenth
+Century</i> (Bristol, 1900), 91. Latimer quotes from
+another "annalist."</p>
+
+<p>temp. Jac. I? Two women said to have been hanged. Story
+doubtful. Edward Poeton, <i>Winnowing of White
+Witchcraft</i> (Brit. Mus., Sloane MSS., 1,954), 41-42.</p>
+
+<p>temp. Jac. I. Norfolk. Joane Harvey accused for scratching
+"an olde witche" there, "Mother Francis nowe
+deade." Mother Francis had before been imprisoned
+at Norwich. Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 28,223, fol. 15.</p>
+
+<p>temp. Jac. I. Warwickshire. Coventry haunted by "hellish sorcerers."
+"The pestilent brood" also in Cheshire.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[401]</a></span>
+Thomas Cooper, <i>The Mystery of Witchcraft</i> (1617),
+13, 16.</p>
+
+<p>temp. Jac. I. Norwich. Witches probably accused for illness
+of a child. Possibly Mother Francis was one of
+them. Cooper, <i>ibid.</i>, "Epistle Dedicatorie."</p>
+
+<p>1626. Taunton, Somerset. Edmund Bull and Joan Greedie
+accused. Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 36,674, fol. 189;
+Wright, <i>Narratives of Sorcery and Magic</i>, II, 139-143.
+See also Richard Bernard, <i>Guide to Grand
+Jurymen</i>, "Epistle Dedicatorie."</p>
+
+<p>1627. Durham. Sara Hathericke and Jane Urwen accused
+before the Consistory Court. <i>Folk-Lore Journal</i>
+(London, 1887), V, 158. Quoted by Edward Peacock
+from the records of the Consistory Court of
+Durham.</p>
+
+<p>1627. Linneston, Lancaster. Elizabeth Londesdale accused.
+Certificate of neighbors in her favor. <i>Hist. MSS.
+Comm. Reports</i>, XIV, pt. 4 (<i>Kenyon MSS.</i>), 36.</p>
+
+<p>1628. Leepish, Northumberland. Jane Robson committed.
+Mackenzie, <i>History of Northumberland</i> (Newcastle,
+1825), 36. Mackenzie copies from the Mickleton
+MS.</p>
+
+<p>1630. Lancaster. A certain Utley said to have been hanged
+for bewitching Richard Assheton. E. Baines, <i>Lancaster</i>
+(ed. of 1868-1870), II, 12.</p>
+
+<p>1630. Sandwich, Kent. Woman hanged. Wm. Boys, <i>Collections
+for an History of Sandwich in Kent</i> (Canterbury,
+1792), 707.</p>
+
+<p>c. 1630. Wilts. "John Barlowes wife" said to have been executed.
+MS. letter of 1685-86 printed in the <i>Gentleman's
+Magazine</i>, 1832, pt. I, 405-410.</p>
+
+<p>1633. Louth, Lincolnshire. Witch alarm; two searchers appointed.
+One witch indicted. Goulding, <i>Louth
+Old Corporation Records</i>, 54.</p>
+
+<p>c. 1633. Lancaster. The father and mother of Mary Spencer
+condemned. <i>Cal. S. P., Dom., 1634-1635</i>, 79.</p>
+
+<p>1633. Norfolk. Woman accused. No arrest made. <i>Hist.
+MSS. Comm. Reports</i>, X, pt. 2 (<i>Gawdy MSS.</i>), p.
+144.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[402]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>1633-34. Lancaster. Several witches, probably seventeen,
+tried and condemned. Reprieved by the king. For
+the many references to this affair see above, chap.
+VII, footnotes.</p>
+
+<p>1634. Yorkshire. Four women of West Ayton presented for
+telling "per veneficationem vel incantationem"
+where certain stolen clothes were to be found.
+Thirsk Quarter Sessions Records in <i>North Riding
+Record Society</i>, IV, 20.</p>
+
+<p>1635. Lancaster. Four witches condemned. Privy Council
+orders Bishop Bridgeman to examine them. Two
+died in gaol. The others probably reprieved. <i>Hist.
+MSS. Comm. Reports</i>, XII, 2 (<i>Cowper MSS.</i>, II),
+77, 80.</p>
+
+<p>1635. Leicester. Agnes Tedsall acquitted. <i>Leicestershire and
+Rutland Notes and Queries</i>, I, 247.</p>
+
+<p>1635. &mdash;&mdash;. Mary Prowting, who was a plaintiff before the
+Star Chamber, accused of witchcraft. Accuser, who
+was one of the defendants, exposed. <i>Cal. St. P.,
+Dom., 1635</i>, 476-477.</p>
+
+<p>c. 1637. Bedford. Goodwife Rose "ducked," probably by officials.
+Wm. Drage, <i>Daimonomageia</i> (London,
+1665), 41.</p>
+
+<p>1637. Staffordshire. Joice Hunniman committed, almost certainly
+released. <i>Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports</i>, II,
+App., 48 b.</p>
+
+<p>1637-38. Lathom, Lancashire. Anne Spencer examined and
+probably committed. <i>Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports</i>,
+XIV, 4 (<i>Kenyon MSS.</i>), 55.</p>
+
+<p>1638. Middlesex. Alice Bastard arraigned on two charges.
+Acquitted. <i>Middlesex County Records</i>, III, 112-113.</p>
+
+<p>1641. Middlesex. One Hammond of Westminster tried and
+perhaps hanged. John Aubrey, <i>Remaines of Gentilisme
+and Judaisme</i> (Folk-Lore Soc.), 61.</p>
+
+<p>temp. Carol I. Oxford. Woman perhaps executed. This
+story is given at third hand in <i>A Collection of Modern
+Relations</i> (London, 1693), 48-49.</p>
+
+<p>temp. Carol, I. Somerset. One or more hanged. Later the
+bewitched person, who may have been Edmund Bull<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[403]</a></span>
+(see above, <i>s. v.</i> 1626, Taunton), hanged also as a
+witch. Meric Casaubon, <i>Of Credulity and Incredulity</i>
+(London, 1668), 170-171.</p>
+
+<p>temp. Carol. I? Taunton Dean. Woman acquitted. North,
+<i>Life of North</i>, 131.</p>
+
+<p>1642. Middlesex. Nicholas Culpepper of St. Leonard's, Shoreditch,
+acquitted. <i>Middlesex County Records</i>, III,
+85.</p>
+
+<p>1643. Newbury, Berks. A woman supposed to be a witch
+probably shot here by the parliament forces. <i>A
+Most certain, strange and true Discovery of a Witch</i>
+... 1643; <i>Mercurius Aulicus</i>, Oct. 1-8, 1643; <i>Mercurius
+Civicus</i>, Sept. 21-28, 1643; <i>Certaine Informations</i>,
+Sept. 25-Oct. 2, 1643; <i>Mercurius Britannicus</i>,
+Oct. 10-17, 1643.</p>
+
+<p>1644. Sandwich, Kent. "The widow Drew hanged for a
+witch." W. Boys, <i>Collections for an History of
+Sandwich</i>, 714.</p>
+
+<p>1645 (July). Chelmsford, Essex. Sixteen certainly condemned,
+probably two more. Possibly eleven or twelve more
+at another assize. <i>A true and exact Relation ...
+of ... the late Witches ... at Chelmesford</i> (1645);
+Arthur Wilson, in Peck, <i>Desiderata Curiosa</i>, II,
+76; Hopkins, <i>Discovery of Witches</i>, 2-3; Stearne,
+<i>Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft</i>, 14, 16,
+36, 38, 58, etc.; <i>Signes and Wonders from Heaven</i>
+(1645), 2; "R. B." <i>The Kingdom of Darkness</i>
+(London, 1688). The fate of the several Essex
+witches is recorded by the <i>True and Exact Relation</i>
+in marginal notes printed opposite their depositions
+(but omitted in the reprint of that pamphlet in Howell's
+<i>State Trials</i>). "R. B.," in <i>The Kingdom of
+Darkness</i>, though his knowledge of the Essex cases
+is ascribed to the pamphlet, gives details as to the
+time and place of the executions which are often in
+strange conflict with its testimony.</p>
+
+<p>1645 (July). Norfolk. Twenty witches said to have been
+executed. Whitelocke, <i>Memorials</i>, I, 487. <i>A Perfect
+Diurnal</i> (July 21-28, 1645) says that there has been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[404]</a></span>
+a "tryall of the Norfolke witches, about 40 of them
+and 20 already executed." <i>Signes and Wonders from
+Heaven</i> says that "there were 40 witches arraigned
+for their lives and 20 executed."</p>
+
+<p>1645. Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Sixteen women and two
+men executed Aug. 27. Forty or fifty more probably
+executed a few weeks later. A very large number
+arraigned. A manuscript (Brit. Mus., Add.
+MSS., 27,402, fol. 104 ff.) mentions over forty true
+bills and fifteen or more bills not found. <i>A True
+Relation of the Araignment of eighteene Witches at
+St. Edmundsbury</i> (1645); Clarke, <i>Lives of Sundry
+Eminent Persons</i>, 172; <i>County Folk-Lore, Suffolk</i>
+(Folk-Lore Soc.), 178; Ady, <i>A Candle in the Dark</i>,
+104-105, 114; <i>Moderate Intelligencer</i>, Sept. 4-11,
+1645; <i>Scottish Dove</i>, Aug. 29-Sept. 6, 1645.</p>
+
+<p>Stearne mentions several names not mentioned in
+the <i>True Relation</i>&mdash;names probably belonging to
+those in the second group of the accused. Of
+most of them he has quoted the confession without
+stating the outcome of the cases. They are
+Hempstead of Creeting, Ratcliffe of Shelley, Randall
+of Lavenham, Bedford of Rattlesden, Wright
+of Hitcham, Ruceulver of Powstead, Greenliefe of
+Barton, Bush of Barton, Cricke of Hitcham, Richmond
+of Bramford, Hammer of Needham, Boreham
+of Sudbury, Scarfe of Rattlesden, King of
+Acton, Bysack of Waldingfield, Binkes of Haverhill.
+In addition to these Stearne speaks of Elizabeth
+Hubbard of Stowmarket. Two others from
+Stowmarket were tried, "Goody Mils" and "Goody
+Low." Hollingsworth, <i>History of Stowmarket</i>
+(Ipswich, 1844), 171.</p>
+
+<p>1645. Melford, Suffolk. Alexander Sussums made confession.
+Stearne, 36.</p>
+
+<p>1645. Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. At least nine women indicted,
+five of whom were condemned. Three women
+acquitted and one man. Many others presented. C.
+J. Palmer, <i>History of Great Yarmouth</i>, I, 273-274.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[405]</a></span>
+<i>Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports</i>, IX, App., pt. I, 320 a;
+Henry Harrod in <i>Norfolk Archćol.</i>, IV, 249-251.</p>
+
+<p>1645. Cornwall. Anne Jeffries confined in Bodmin gaol and
+starved by order of a justice of the peace. She
+was said to be intimate with the "airy people" and
+to cause marvellous cures. We do not know the
+charge against her. Finally discharged. William
+Turner, <i>Remarkable Providences</i> (London, 1697),
+ch. 82.</p>
+
+<p>1645. Ipswich, Suffolk. Mother Lakeland burnt. <i>The Lawes
+against Witches</i> (1645).</p>
+
+<p>1645. King's Lynn, Norfolk. Dorothy Lee and Grace Wright
+hanged. Mackerell, <i>History and Antiquities of
+King's Lynn</i>, 236.</p>
+
+<p>1645. Aldeburgh, Norfolk. Seven witches hanged. Quotations
+from the chamberlain's accounts in N. F.
+Hele, <i>Notes or Jottings about Aldeburgh</i>, 43-44.</p>
+
+<p>1645. Faversham, Kent. Three women hanged, a fourth tried,
+by the local authorities. <i>The Examination, Confession,
+Triall and Execution of Joane Williford, Joan
+Cariden and Jane Hott</i> (1645).</p>
+
+<p>1645. Rye, Sussex. Martha Bruff and Anne Howsell ordered
+by the "mayor of Rye and others" to be put to the
+ordeal of water. <i>Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports</i>, XIII,
+pt. 4, 216.</p>
+
+<p>1645. Middlesex. Several witches of Stepney accused. <i>Signes
+and Wonders from Heaven</i>, 2-3.</p>
+
+<p>1645-46. Cambridgeshire. Several accused, at least one or
+two of whom were executed. Ady, <i>Candle in the
+Dark</i>, 135; Stearne, 39, 45; H. More, <i>Antidote
+against Atheisme</i>, 128-129. This may have been
+what is referred to in Glanvill's <i>Sadducismus Triumphatus</i>,
+pt. ii, 208-209.</p>
+
+<p>1646. Northamptonshire. Several witches hanged. One died
+in prison. Stearne, 11, 23, 34-35.</p>
+
+<p>1646. Huntingdonshire. Many accused, of whom at least
+ten were examined and several executed, among
+them John Wynnick. One woman swam and was
+released. John Davenport, <i>Witches of Huntingdon</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[406]</a></span>
+(London, 1646); H. More, <i>Antidote against Atheisme</i>,
+125; Stearne, 11, 13, 17, 19, 20-21, 39, 42.</p>
+
+<p>1646. Bedfordshire. Elizabeth Gurrey of Risden made confession.
+Stearne says a Huntingdonshire witch confessed
+that "at Tilbrooke bushes in Bedfordshier
+... there met above twenty at one time." Huntingdonshire
+witches seem meant, but perhaps not alone.
+Stearne, 11, 31.</p>
+
+<p>c. 1646. Yarmouth, Norfolk. Stearne mentions a woman
+who suffered here. Stearne, 53.</p>
+
+<p>1646. Heptenstall, Yorkshire. Elizabeth Crossley, Mary
+Midgley, and two other women examined before two
+justices of the peace. <i>York Depositions</i>, 6-9.</p>
+
+<p>1647. Ely, Cambridgeshire. Stearne mentions "those executed
+at Elie, a little before Michaelmas last, ...
+also one at Chatterish there, one at March there,
+and another at Wimblington there, now lately found,
+still to be tryed"; and again "one Moores wife of
+Sutton, in the Isle of Elie," who "confessed her
+selfe guilty" and was executed; and yet again "one
+at Heddenham in the Isle of Ely," who "made a
+very large Confession" and must have paid the
+penalty. Stearne, 17, 21, 37; Gibbons, <i>Ely Episcopal
+Records</i> (Lincoln, 1891), 112-113.</p>
+
+<p>1647. Middlesex. Helen Howson acquitted. <i>Middlesex County
+Records</i>, III, 124.</p>
+
+<p>1648. Middlesex. Bill against Katharine Fisher of Stratford-at-Bow
+ignored. <i>Middlesex County Records</i>, III,
+102.</p>
+
+<p>1648. Norwich, Norfolk. Two women burnt. P. Browne,
+<i>History of Norwich</i> (Norwich, 1814), 38.</p>
+
+<p>1649. Worcester. A Lancashire witch said to have been tried;
+perhaps remanded to Lancashire. <i>A Collection of
+Modern Relations.</i> The writer says that he received
+the account from a "Person of Quality" who
+attended the trial.</p>
+
+<p>1649. Middlesex. Elizabeth Smythe of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields
+acquitted. <i>Middlesex County Records</i>, III, 191.</p>
+
+<p>1649. Middlesex. Dorothy Brumley acquitted. <i>Ibid.</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[407]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>1649. St. Albans. John Palmer and Elizabeth Knott said to
+have been hanged for witches. <i>The Divels Delusion</i>
+(1649).</p>
+
+<p>1649. Berwick. Thirty women, examined on the accusation
+of a Scotch witch-finder, committed to prison.
+Whitelocke, <i>Memorials</i>, III, 99; John Fuller, <i>History
+of Berwick</i> (Edinburgh, 1799), 155-156, giving extracts
+from the Guild Hall Books; John Sykes,
+<i>Local Records</i> (Newcastle, 1833), I, 103-105.</p>
+
+<p>1649. Gloucester. Witch tried at the assizes. <i>A Collection of
+Modern Relations</i>, 52.</p>
+
+<p>1649-50. Yorkshire. Mary Sykes and Susan Beaumont committed
+and searched. The former acquitted, bill
+against the latter ignored. <i>York Depositions</i>, 28.</p>
+
+<p>1649-50. Durham. Several witches at Gateshead examined,
+and carried to Durham for trial; "a grave for a
+witch." Sykes, <i>Local Records</i>, I, 105; or <i>Denham
+Tracts</i> (Folk-Lore Soc.), II, 338.</p>
+
+<p>1649-50. Newcastle. Thirty witches accused. Fourteen
+women and one man hanged, together with a witch
+from the county of Northumberland. Ralph Gardiner,
+<i>England's Grievance</i> (London, 1655), 108;
+Sykes, <i>Local Records</i>, I, 103; John Brand, <i>History
+and Antiquities of Newcastle</i> (London, 1789), II,
+477-478; Whitelocke, <i>Memorials</i>, III, 128; <i>Chronicon
+Mirabile</i> (London, 1841), 92.</p>
+
+<p>1650. Yorkshire. Ann Hudson of Skipsey charged. <i>York
+Depositions</i>, 38, note.</p>
+
+<p>1650. Cumberland. A "discovery of witches." Sheriff perplexed.
+<i>Cal. St. P., Dom., 1650</i>, 159.</p>
+
+<p>1650. Derbyshire. Ann Wagg of Ilkeston committed for
+trial. J. C. Cox, <i>Three Centuries of Derbyshire
+Annals</i>, II, 88.</p>
+
+<p>1650. Middlesex. Joan Roberts acquitted. <i>Middlesex County
+Records</i>, III, 284.</p>
+
+<p>1650. Stratford-at-Bow, Middlesex. Witch said to have been
+apprehended, but "escaped the law." Glanvill,
+<i>Sadducismus Triumphatus</i>, pt. ii, Relation XX.</p>
+
+<p>1650. Middlesex. Joan Allen sentenced to be hanged. <i>Middlesex
+County Records</i>, III, 284. <i>The Weekly Intelligencer</i>,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[408]</a></span>
+Oct. 7, 1650, refers to the hanging of a witch
+at the Old Bailey, probably Joan.</p>
+
+<p>1650. Leicester. Anne Chettle searched and acquitted. Tried
+again two years later. Result unknown. <i>Leicestershire
+and Rutland Notes and Queries</i>, I, 247; James
+Thompson, <i>Leicester</i> (Leicester, 1849), 406.</p>
+
+<p>1650. Alnwick. Dorothy Swinow, wife of a colonel, indicted.
+Nothing further came of it. <i>Wonderfull News from
+the North</i> (1650).</p>
+
+<p>1650. Middlesex. Elizabeth Smith acquitted. <i>Middlesex
+County Records</i>, III, 284.</p>
+
+<p>c. 1650-60. St. Alban's, Herts. Two witches suspected and
+probably tried. Drage, <i>Daimonomageia</i> (1665), 40-41.</p>
+
+<p>1651. Yorkshire. Margaret Morton acquitted. <i>York Depositions</i>,
+38.</p>
+
+<p>1651. Middlesex. Elizabeth Lanam of Stepney acquitted.
+<i>Middlesex County Records</i>, III, 202, 285.</p>
+
+<p>1651. Colchester, Essex. John Lock sentenced to one year's
+imprisonment and four appearances in the pillory.
+Brit. Mus., Stowe MSS., 840, fol. 43.</p>
+
+<p>1652. Yorkshire. Hester France of Huddersfield accused before
+the justice of the peace. <i>York Depositions</i>, 51.</p>
+
+<p>1652. Maidstone, Kent. Six women hanged, others indicted.
+<i>A Prodigious and Tragicall History of the Arraignment
+... of six Witches at Maidstone ...</i> by
+"H. F. Gent.," 1652; <i>The Faithful Scout</i>, July 30-Aug.
+7, 1652; Ashmole's Diary in <i>Lives of Ashmole
+and Lilly</i> (London, 1774), 316.</p>
+
+<p>1652. Middlesex. Joan Peterson of Wapping acquitted on
+one charge, found guilty on another, and hanged.
+<i>Middlesex County Records</i>, III, 287; <i>The Witch of
+Wapping</i>; <i>A Declaration in Answer to several lying
+Pamphlets concerning the Witch of Wapping</i>; <i>The
+Tryall and Examinations of Mrs. Joan Peterson</i>;
+<i>French Intelligencer</i>, Apr. 6-13, 1652; <i>Mercurius
+Democritus</i>, Apr. 7-14, 1652; <i>Weekly Intelligencer</i>,
+April 6-13, 1652; <i>Faithful Scout</i>, Apr. 9-16, 1652.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[409]</a></span></p>
+<p>1652. London. Susan Simpson acquitted. <i>A True and Perfect
+List of the Names of those Prisoners in Newgate</i>
+(London, 1652).</p>
+
+<p>1652. Worcester. Catherine Huxley of Evesham, charged
+with bewitching a nine-year-old girl, hanged. Baxter,
+<i>Certainty of the World of Spirits</i> (London, 1691),
+44-45. Baxter's narrative was sent him by "the now
+Minister of the place."</p>
+
+<p>1652. Middlesex. Temperance Fossett of Whitechapel acquitted.
+<i>Middlesex County Records</i>, III, 208, 288.</p>
+
+<p>1652. Middlesex. Margery Scott of St Martin's-in-the-Fields
+acquitted. <i>Ibid.</i>, 209.</p>
+
+<p>1652. Scarborough, Yorkshire. Anne Marchant or Hunnam
+accused and searched. J. B. Baker, <i>History of
+Scarborough</i> (London, 1882), 481, using local
+records.</p>
+
+<p>1652. Durham. Francis Adamson and &mdash;&mdash; Powle executed.
+Richardson, <i>Table Book</i>, I, 286.</p>
+
+<p>1652. Exeter, Devonshire. Joan Baker committed. Cotton,
+<i>Gleanings ... Relative to the History of ... Exeter</i>
+(Exeter, 1877), 149.</p>
+
+<p>1652. Wilts. William Starr accused and searched. <i>Hist.
+MSS. Comm. Reports</i>, <i>Various</i>, I, 127.</p>
+
+<p>1652-53. Cornwall. A witch near Land's End accused, and
+accuses others. Eight sent to Launceston gaol. Some
+probably executed (see above, p. 218 and footnotes
+24, 25). <i>Mercurius Politicus</i>, Nov. 24-Dec. 2,
+1653; R. and O. B. Peter, <i>The Histories of Launceston
+and Dunheved</i> (Plymouth, 1885), 285. See
+also Burthogge, <i>Essay upon Reason and the Nature
+of Spirits</i> (London, 1694), 196.</p>
+
+<p>1653. Wilts. Joan Baker of the Devizes makes complaint
+because two persons have reported her to be a witch.
+<i>Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports</i>, <i>Various</i>, I, 127. Is this
+the Joan Baker of Exeter mentioned a few lines
+above?</p>
+
+<p>1653. Wilts. Joan Price of Malmesbury and Elizabeth Beeman
+of the Devizes indicted, the latter committed
+to the assizes. <i>Ibid.</i></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[410]</a></span></p>
+<p>1653. Yorkshire. Elizabeth Lambe accused. <i>York Depositions</i>,
+58.</p>
+
+<p>1653. Middlesex. Elizabeth Newman of Whitechapel acquitted
+on one charge, found guilty on another, and
+sentenced to be hanged. <i>Middlesex County Records</i>,
+III, 217, 218, 289.</p>
+
+<p>1653. Middlesex. Barbara Bartle of Stepney acquitted. <i>Ibid.</i>,
+216.</p>
+
+<p>1653. Leeds, Yorkshire. Isabel Emott indicted for witchcraft
+upon cattle. <i>Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports</i>, IX, pt.
+1, 325 b.</p>
+
+<p>1653. Salisbury, Wilts. Anne Bodenham of Fisherton Anger
+hanged. <i>Doctor Lamb Revived</i>; <i>Doctor Lamb's
+Darling</i>; <i>Aubrey, Folk-Lore and Gentilisme</i> (Folk-Lore
+Soc.), 261; Henry More, <i>An Antidote against
+Atheisme</i>, bk. III, chap. VII.</p>
+
+<p>1654. Yorkshire. Anne Greene of Gargrave examined. <i>York
+Depositions</i>, 64-65.</p>
+
+<p>1654. Yorkshire. Elizabeth Roberts of Beverley examined.
+<i>Ibid.</i>, 67.</p>
+
+<p>1654. Wilts. Christiana Weekes of Cleves Pepper, who had
+been twice before accused in recent sessions, charged
+with telling where lost goods could be found.
+"Other conjurers" charged at the same time.
+<i>Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports</i>, <i>Various</i>, I, 120. See
+above, 1610, Norfolk.</p>
+
+<p>1654. Exeter. Diana Crosse committed. Cotton, <i>Gleanings
+... Relative to the History of ... Exeter</i>, 150.</p>
+
+<p>1654. Wilts. Elizabeth Loudon committed on suspicion.
+<i>Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports</i>, <i>Various</i>, I, 129.</p>
+
+<p>1654. Whitechapel, Middlesex. Grace Boxe, arraigned on three
+charges, acquitted. Acquitted again in 1656. <i>Middlesex
+County Records</i>, III, 223, 293.</p>
+
+<p>1655. Yorkshire. Katherine Earle committed and searched.
+<i>York Depositions</i>, 69.</p>
+
+<p>1655. Salisbury. Margaret Gyngell convicted. Pardoned by
+the Lord Protector. F. A. Inderwick, <i>The Interregnum</i>,
+188-189.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[411]</a></span></p>
+<p>1655. Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Mother and daughter
+Boram said to have been hanged. Hutchinson, <i>An
+Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft</i>, 38.</p>
+
+<p>1656. Yorkshire. Jennet and George Benton of Wakefield
+examined. <i>York Depositions</i>, 74.</p>
+
+<p>1656. Yorkshire. William and Mary Wade committed for
+bewitching the daughter of Lady Mallory. <i>York
+Depositions</i>, 75-78.</p>
+
+<p>1657. Middlesex. Katharine Evans of Fulham acquitted.
+<i>Middlesex County Records</i>, III, 263.</p>
+
+<p>1657. Middlesex. Elizabeth Crowley of Stepney acquitted,
+but detained in the house of correction. <i>Middlesex
+County Records</i>, III, 266, 295.</p>
+
+<p>1657. Gisborough, Yorkshire. Robert Conyers, "gent.," accused.
+<i>North Riding Record Society</i>, V, 259.</p>
+
+<p>1658. Exeter. Thomas Harvey of Oakham, Rutlandshire,
+"apprehended by order of Council by a party of
+soldiers," acquitted at Exeter assizes, but detained
+in custody. <i>Cal. St. P., Dom., 1658-1659</i>, 169.</p>
+
+<p>1658. Chard, Somerset. Jane Brooks of Shepton Mallet
+hanged. Glanvill, <i>Sadducismus Triumphatus</i> (1681),
+pt. ii, 120-122. (Glanvill used Hunt's book of
+examinations). J. E. Farbrother, <i>Shepton Mallet;
+notes on its history, ancient, descriptive and natural</i>
+(1860), 141.</p>
+
+<p>1658. Exeter. Joan Furnace accused. Cotton, <i>Gleanings ...
+Relative to the History of ... Exeter</i>, 152.</p>
+
+<p>1658. Yorkshire. Some women said to have been accused by
+two maids. The woman "cast" by the jury. The
+judges gave a "respite." Story not entirely trustworthy.
+<i>The most true and wonderfull Narration
+of two women bewitched in Yorkshire ...</i> (1658).</p>
+
+<p>1658. Wapping, Middlesex. Lydia Rogers accused. <i>A More
+Exact Relation of the most lamentable and horrid
+Contract which Lydia Rogers ... made with the
+Divel</i> (1658). See app. A, § 5, for another tract.</p>
+
+<p>1658. Northamptonshire. Some witches of Welton said to
+have been examined. Glanvill, <i>Sadducismus Triumphatus</i>
+(1681), pt. ii, 263-268.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[412]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>1658. Salisbury, Wilts. The widow Orchard said to have
+been executed. From a MS. letter of 1685-86,
+printed in the <i>Gentleman's Magazine</i>, 1832, pt. I,
+405-410.</p>
+
+<p>1659. Norwich, Norfolk. Mary Oliver burnt. P. Brown,
+<i>History of Norwich</i>, 39. Francis Blomefield, <i>An
+Essay towards a Topographical History of the
+County of Norfolk</i> (London, 1805-1810), III, 401.</p>
+
+<p>1659. Middlesex. Elizabeth Kennett of Stepney accused. <i>Middlesex
+County Records</i>, III, 278, 299.</p>
+
+<p>1659. Hertfordshire. "Goody Free" accused of killing by
+witchcraft. <i>Hertfordshire County Sessions Rolls</i>,
+I, 126, 129.</p>
+
+<p>1659-1660. Northumberland. Elizabeth Simpson of Tynemouth
+accused. <i>York Depositions</i>, 82.</p>
+
+<p>1660. Worcester. Joan Bibb of Rushock received Ł20 damages
+for being ducked. <i>Gentleman's Magazine</i>, 1856,
+pt. I, 39, from a letter of J. Noake of Worcester,
+who used the Townshend MSS.</p>
+
+<p>1660. Worcester. A widow and her two daughters, and a
+man, from Kidderminster, tried. "Little proved."
+Copied from the Townshend MSS. by Nash, in his
+<i>Collections for the History of Worcestershire</i> (1781-1799),
+II, 38.</p>
+
+<p>1660. Newcastle. Two suspected women detained in prison.
+Extracts from the Municipal Accounts of Newcastle-upon-Tyne
+in M. A. Richardson, <i>Reprints of Rare
+Tracts ... illustrative of the History of the Northern
+Counties</i> (Newcastle, 1843-1847), III, 57.</p>
+
+<p>1660. Canterbury, Kent. Several witches said to have been
+executed. W. Welfitt ("Civis"), <i>Minutes of Canterbury</i>
+(Canterbury, 1801-1802), no. X.</p>
+
+<p>c. 1660. Sussex. A woman who had been formerly tried at
+Maidstone watched and searched. MS. quoted in
+<i>Sussex Archćol. Collections</i>, XVIII, 111-113; see
+also Samuel Clarke, <i>A Mirrour or Looking Glasse
+both for Saints and Sinners</i>, II, 593-596.</p>
+
+<p>1661. Hertfordshire. Frances Bailey of Broxbourn complained
+of abuse by those who believed her a witch.
+<i>Hertfordshire County Sessions Rolls</i>, I, 137.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[413]</a></span></p>
+<p>1661. Newcastle. Jane Watson examined before the mayor.
+<i>York Depositions</i>, 92-93.</p>
+
+<p>1661. Newcastle. Margaret Catherwood and two other
+women examined before the mayor. <i>Ibid.</i>, 88.</p>
+
+<p>1663. Somerset. Elizabeth Style died before execution. Glanvill,
+<i>Sadducismus Triumphatus</i>, pt. ii, 127-146. For
+copies of three depositions about Elizabeth Style,
+see <i>Gentleman's Magazine</i>, 1837, pt. ii, 256-257.</p>
+
+<p>1663. Taunton, Somerset. Julian Cox hanged. Glanvill,
+<i>Sadducismus Triumphatus</i>, pt. ii, 191-198.</p>
+
+<p>1663-64. Newcastle. Dorothy Stranger accused before the
+mayor. <i>York Depositions</i>, 112-114.</p>
+
+<p>1664. Somerset. A "hellish knot" of witches (Hutchinson
+says twelve) accused before justice of the peace
+Robert Hunt. His discovery stopped by "some of
+them in authority." Glanvill, <i>Sadducismus Triumphatus</i>,
+pt. ii, 256-257. But see case of Elizabeth
+Style above.</p>
+
+<p>1664. Somerset. A witch condemned at the assizes. She may
+have been one of those brought before Hunt. <i>Cal.
+St. P., Dom., 1663-1664</i>, 552.</p>
+
+<p>1664. Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Rose Cullender and Amy
+Duny condemned. <i>A Tryal of Witches at ... Bury
+St. Edmunds</i> (1682).</p>
+
+<p>1664. Newcastle. Jane Simpson, Isabell Atcheson and Katharine
+Curry accused before the mayor. <i>York Depositions</i>,
+124.</p>
+
+<p>1664. York. Alice Huson and Doll Dilby tried. Both made
+confessions. Copied for <i>A Collection of Modern Relations</i>
+(see p. 52) from a paper written by the justice
+of the peace, Corbet.</p>
+
+<p>1665. Wilts. Jone Mereweather of Weeke in Bishop's Cannings
+committed. <i>Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports</i>, <i>Various</i>,
+I, 147.</p>
+
+<p>1665. Newcastle. Mrs. Pepper accused before the mayor.
+<i>York Depositions</i>, 127.</p>
+
+<p>1665. Three persons convicted of murder and executed for
+killing a supposed witch. Joseph Hunter, <i>Life of
+Heywood</i> (London, 1842), 167-168, note.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[414]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>1666. Lancashire. Four witches of Haigh examined, two
+committed but probably acquitted. <i>Cal. St. P., Dom.,
+1665-1666</i>, 225.</p>
+
+<p>1667. Newcastle, Northumberland. Emmy Gaskin of Landgate
+accused before the mayor. <i>York Depositions</i>,
+154.</p>
+
+<p>1667. Norfolk. A fortune-teller or conjuror condemned to
+imprisonment. <i>Cal. St. P., Dom., 1667</i>, 30.</p>
+
+<p>1667. Ipswich, Suffolk. Two witches possibly imprisoned.
+Story doubtful. <i>Cal. St. P., Dom., 1667-1668</i>, 4.</p>
+
+<p>1667. Devizes, Wilts. "An old woman" imprisoned, charged
+with bewitching by making and pricking an image.
+Blagrave, <i>Astrological Practice</i> (London 1689),
+90, 103.</p>
+
+<p>1667. Lancashire. Widow Bridge and her sister, Margaret
+Loy, both of Liverpool, accused. <i>The Moore Rental</i>
+(Chetham Soc., 1847), 59-60.</p>
+
+<p>1668. Durham. Alice Armstrong of Strotton tried, but almost
+certainly acquitted. Tried twice again in the next
+year with the same result. Sykes, <i>Local Records</i>, II,
+369.</p>
+
+<p>1668. Warwick. Many witches "said to be in hold." <i>Cal. St.
+P., Dom., 1668-1669</i>, 25.</p>
+
+<p>1669. Hertfordshire. John Allen of Stondon indicted for calling
+Joan Mills a witch. <i>Hertfordshire County Sessions
+Rolls</i>, I, 217.</p>
+
+<p>1670. Yorkshire. Anne Wilkinson acquitted. <i>York Depositions</i>,
+176 and note.</p>
+
+<p>1670. Latton Wilts. Jane Townshend accused. <i>Hist. MSS.
+Comm. Reports, Various</i>. I, 150-151.</p>
+
+<p>1670. Wilts. Elizabeth Peacock acquitted. See Inderwick's
+list of witch trials in the western circuit, in his
+<i>Sidelights on the Stuarts</i> (London, 1888), 190-194.
+Hereafter the reference "Inderwick" will mean
+this list. See also above, p. 269, note.</p>
+
+<p>1670. Devonshire. Elizabeth Eburye and Aliena Walter acquitted.
+Inderwick.</p>
+
+<p>1670. Somerset. Anne Slade acquitted on two indictments.
+Inderwick.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[415]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>1670. Bucks. Ann Clarke reprieved. <i>Cal. St. P., Dom., 1670</i>,
+388.</p>
+
+<p>1671. Devonshire. Johanna Elford acquitted. Inderwick.</p>
+
+<p>1671. Devonshire. Margaret Heddon acquitted on two indictments.
+Inderwick.</p>
+
+<p>1671. Falmouth. Several witches acquitted. <i>Cal. St. P., Dom.,
+1671</i>, 105, 171. Perhaps identical with the three, two
+men and a woman, mentioned by Inderwick as acquitted
+in Cornwall.</p>
+
+<p>1672. Somerset. Margaret Stevens acquitted on two indictments.
+Inderwick.</p>
+
+<p>1672. Devonshire. Phelippa Bruen acquitted on four indictments.
+Inderwick.</p>
+
+<p>1672. Wilts. Elizabeth Mills acquitted on two indictments.
+Inderwick.</p>
+
+<p>1672. Wilts. Elizabeth Peacock, who had been acquitted two
+years before, acquitted on five indictments. Judith
+Witchell acquitted on two, found guilty on a third.
+She and Ann Tilling sentenced to execution. They
+must have been reprieved. Inderwick; <i>Gentleman's
+Magazine</i>, 1832, pt. II, p. 489-492.</p>
+
+<p>1673. Yorkshire, Northumberland, and Durham. At least
+twenty-three women and six men accused to various
+justices of the peace by Ann Armstrong, who confessed
+to being present at witch meetings, and who
+acted as a witch discoverer. Some of those whom
+she accused were accused by others. Margaret Milburne,
+whom she seems not to have mentioned, also
+accused, <i>York Depositions</i>, 191-202.</p>
+
+<p>1674. Northampton. Ann Foster said to have been hanged
+for destroying sheep and burning barns by witchcraft.
+<i>A Full and True Relation of The Tryal, Condemnation,
+and Execution of Ann Foster</i> (1674).</p>
+
+<p>1674. Middlesex. Elizabeth Row of Hackney held in bail for
+her appearance at Quarter Sessions. <i>Middlesex
+County Records</i>, IV, 42-43.</p>
+
+<p>1674. Southton, Somerset. John and Agnes Knipp acquitted.
+Inderwick.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[416]</a></span></p>
+<p>1674? (see above, p. 269, note). Salisbury. Woman acquitted,
+but kept in gaol. North, <i>Life of North</i>, 130, 131.</p>
+
+<p>1674-75. Lancashire. Joseph Hinchcliffe and his wife bound
+over to appear at the assizes. He committed suicide
+and his wife died soon after. <i>York Depositions</i>,
+208; Oliver Heywood's <i>Diary</i> (1881-1885), I, 362.</p>
+
+<p>1675. Southton, Somerset. Martha Rylens acquitted on five
+indictments. Inderwick.</p>
+
+<p>1676. Devonshire. Susannah Daye acquitted. Inderwick.</p>
+
+<p>1676. Cornwall. Mary Clarkson acquitted. Inderwick.</p>
+
+<p>c. 1679. Ely, Cambridgeshire. Witch condemned, but reprieved.
+Hutchinson, <i>Historical Essay concerning
+Witchcraft</i>, 41.</p>
+
+<p>c. 1680. Somerset. Anna Rawlins acquitted. Inderwick.</p>
+
+<p>c. 1680. Derbyshire. Elizabeth Hole of Wingerworth accused
+and committed for charging a baronet with witchcraft.
+J. C. Cox, <i>Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals</i>,
+II, 90.</p>
+
+<p>1680. Yorkshire, Elizabeth Fenwick of Longwitton acquitted.
+<i>York Depositions</i>, 247.</p>
+
+<p>1682. London. Jane Kent acquitted. <i>A Full and True Account
+... but more especially the Tryall of Jane Kent for
+Witchcraft</i> (1682).</p>
+
+<p>1682. Surrey. Joan Butts acquitted. <i>Strange and Wonderfull
+News from Yowell in Surry</i> (1681); <i>An Account
+of the Tryal and Examination of Joan Buts</i> (1682).</p>
+
+<p>1682. Devonshire. Temperance Lloyd acquitted on one indictment,
+found guilty on another. Susanna Edwards
+and Mary Trembles found guilty. All three executed.
+Inderwick; North, <i>Life of North</i>, 130; see
+also app. A, § 6, above.</p>
+
+<p>1682-88. Northumberland. Margaret Stothard of Edlingham
+accused. E. Mackenzie, <i>History of Northumberland</i>,
+II, 33-36.</p>
+
+<p>1683. London. Jane Dodson acquitted. <i>An Account of the
+Whole Proceedings at the Sessions Holden at the
+Sessions House in the Old Baily ...</i> (1683).</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[417]</a></span></p>
+<p>1683. Somerset. Elenora, Susannah, and Marie Harris, and
+Anna Clarke acquitted. Inderwick.</p>
+
+<p>1684. Devonshire. Alicia Molland found guilty. Inderwick.</p>
+
+<p>1685. Devonshire. Jane Vallet acquitted on three indictments.
+Inderwick.</p>
+
+<p>temp. Carol. II. Devonshire. Agnes Ryder of Woodbury accused,
+probably committed. A. H. A. Hamilton,
+<i>Quarter Sessions chiefly in Devon</i> (London, 1878),
+220.</p>
+
+<p>temp. Carol. II. Ipswich, Suffolk. A woman in prison. William
+Drage, <i>Daimonomageia</i>, 11.</p>
+
+<p>temp. Carol. II. Herts. Two suspected witches of Baldock
+ducked. <i>Ibid.</i>, 40.</p>
+
+<p>temp. Carol. II. St. Albans, Herts. Man and woman imprisoned.
+Woman ducked. <i>Ibid.</i></p>
+
+<p>temp. Carol. II. Taunton Dean, Somerset. Man acquitted.
+North, <i>Life of North</i>, 131.</p>
+
+<p>1685-86. Malmesbury, Wilts. Fourteen persons accused, among
+whom were the three women, Peacock, Tilling and
+Witchell, who had been tried in 1672. Eleven set at
+liberty; Peacock, Tilling and Witchell kept in prison
+awhile, probably released eventually. <i>Gentleman's
+Magazine</i>, 1832, pt. I, 489-492.</p>
+
+<p>1686. Somerset. Honora Phippan acquitted on two indictments.
+Inderwick.</p>
+
+<p>1686. Cornwall. Jane Noal, alias Nickless, alias Nicholas,
+and Betty Seeze committed to Launceston gaol for
+bewitching a fifteen-year-old boy. We know from
+Inderwick that Jane Nicholas was acquitted. <i>A
+True Account of ... John Tonken of Pensans in
+Cornwall</i> (1686).</p>
+
+<p>1687. York. Witch condemned, probably reprieved. <i>Memoirs
+and Travels of Sir John Reresby</i> (London,
+1812), 329.</p>
+
+<p>1687. Dorset. Dewnes Knumerton and Elizabeth Hengler acquitted.
+Inderwick. For examination of first see
+Roberts, <i>Southern Counties</i>, 525-526.</p>
+
+<p>1687. Wilts. M. Parle acquitted. Inderwick.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[418]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>1687. Devonshire. Abigail Handford acquitted. Inderwick.</p>
+
+<p>1689. Wilts. Margareta Young condemned but reprieved.
+Christiana Dunne acquitted. Inderwick.</p>
+
+<p>1690. Taunton, Somerset. Elizabeth Farrier (Carrier), Margaret
+Coombes and Ann Moore committed. Coombes
+died in prison at Brewton. The other two acquitted
+at the assizes. Inderwick; Baxter, <i>Certainty
+of the World of Spirits</i>, 74-75.</p>
+
+<p>1692. Wilts. Woman committed. <i>Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports</i>,
+<i>Various</i>, I, 160.</p>
+
+<p>1693. Suffolk. Widow Chambers of Upaston committed, died
+in gaol. Hutchinson, <i>Historical Essay concerning
+Witchcraft</i>, 42.</p>
+
+<p>1693-94. Devonshire. Dorothy Case acquitted on three indictments.
+Inderwick.</p>
+
+<p>1693-94. Devonshire. Katherine Williams acquitted. Inderwick.</p>
+
+<p>1694. Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Mother Munnings of Hartis
+acquitted. Hutchinson, <i>op. cit.</i>, 43.</p>
+
+<p>1694. Somerset. Action brought against three men for swimming
+Margaret Waddam. <i>Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports</i>,
+<i>Various</i>, I, 160.</p>
+
+<p>1694. Ipswich, Suffolk. Margaret Elnore acquitted. Hutchinson,
+44.</p>
+
+<p>1694. Kent. Ann Hart of Sandwich convicted, but went free
+under a general act of pardon. W. Boys, <i>Collections
+for an History of Sandwich</i>, 718.</p>
+
+<p>1694-95. Devonshire. Clara Roach acquitted. Inderwick.</p>
+
+<p>1695. Launceston, Cornwall. Mary Guy or Daye acquitted.
+Hutchinson, 44-45; Inderwick gives the name as
+Maria Daye (or Guy) and puts the trial in Devonshire
+in 1696.</p>
+
+<p>1696. Devonshire. Elizabeth Horner acquitted on three indictments,
+Hutchinson, 45; Inderwick. See also
+letter from sub-dean Blackburne to the Bishop of
+Exeter in Brand, <i>Popular Antiquities</i> (ed. of 1905),
+II, 648-649.</p>
+
+<p>1698-99. Wilts. Ruth Young acquitted. Inderwick.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[419]</a></span></p>
+<p>1700. Dorset. Anne Grantly and Margaretta Way acquitted.
+Inderwick.</p>
+
+<p>1700-10. Lancashire. A woman of Chowbent searched and
+committed. Died before the assizes. MS. quoted by
+Harland and Wilkinson, <i>Lancashire Folk-Lore</i>
+(London, 1867), 207; also E. Baines, <i>Lancaster</i>,
+II, 203.</p>
+
+<p>1701. Southwark. Sarah Morduck, who had been before acquitted
+at Guildford, and who had unsuccessfully appealed
+to a justice in London against her persecutor,
+tried and acquitted. Hutchinson, 46. <i>The
+Tryal of Richard Hathaway</i> (1702); <i>A Full and
+True Account of the Apprehending and Taking of
+Mrs. Sarah Moordike</i> (1701); <i>A short Account of
+the Trial held at Surry Assizes, in the Borough of
+Southwark</i> (1702). See above, app. A, § 7.</p>
+
+<p>1701. Kingston, Surrey. Woman acquitted. <i>Notes and
+Queries</i> (April 10, 1909), quoting from the <i>London
+Post</i> of Aug. 1-4, 1701.</p>
+
+<p>1701-02. Devonshire. Susanna Hanover acquitted. Inderwick.</p>
+
+<p>1702-03. Wilts. Joanna Tanner acquitted. Inderwick.</p>
+
+<p>1704. Middlesex. Sarah Griffiths committed to Bridewell.
+<i>A Full and True Account ... of a Notorious Witch</i>
+(London, 1704).</p>
+
+<p>1705. Northampton. Two women said to have been burned
+here. Story improbable. See above, appendix A,
+§ 10.</p>
+
+<p>1707. Somerset. Maria Stevens acquitted. Inderwick.</p>
+
+<p>1712. Hertford. Jane Wenham condemned, but reprieved.
+See footnotes to chapter XIII and app. A, § 9.</p>
+
+<p>1716. Huntingdon. Two witches, a mother and daughter,
+said to have been executed here. Story improbable.
+See above, app. A, § 10.</p>
+
+<p>1717. Leicester. Jane Clark and her daughter said to have
+been tried. <i>Leicestershire and Rutland Notes and
+Queries</i>, I, 247.</p>
+
+<p>1717. Leicester. Mother Norton and her daughter acquitted.
+Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 35,838, fol. 404.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[420]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="microspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p>I am unwilling to close this work without an expression of
+my gratitude to the libraries, on both sides of the sea, which
+have so generously welcomed me to the use of their books
+and pamphlets on English witchcraft&mdash;many of them excessively
+rare and precious. They have made possible this
+study. My debt is especially great to the libraries of the British
+Museum and of Lambeth Palace at London, to the Bodleian
+Library at Oxford, and in America to the Boston
+Athenćum and to the university libraries of Yale and Harvard.
+To the unrivalled White collection at Cornell my obligation is
+deepest of all.</p>
+
+<hr class="foot" />
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_384-1_1" id="Footnote_384-1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_384-1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The references in this list, together with the account, in appendix A,
+of the pamphlet literature of witchcraft, are designed to take the place
+of a formal bibliography. That the list of cases here given is complete
+can hardly be hoped. Crude though its materials compel it to be,
+the author believes it may prove useful. He hopes in the course of
+time to make it more complete, and to that end will gladly welcome
+information respecting other trials.</p></div>
+
+
+
+<hr class="front" />
+<h2><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX.</h2>
+<div class="minispace">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[421]</a></span></div>
+
+<p><a name="abbot" id="abbot"></a>Abbot, George, Archbishop of Canterbury, <a href="#Footnote_141-1_35">141 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>-<a href="#Page_234">234</a></p>
+
+<p>Abbott, Alice, <a href="#Footnote_132-1_16">132 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Abingdon, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Account of the ... Proceedings ... in the Old Baily</i>, cited, <a href="#Page_416">416</a></p>
+
+<p>Acton, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="acts" id="acts"></a><i>Acts of the Privy Council</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_26-1_41">26 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_28-1_44">28 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_30-2_53">30 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a></p>
+
+<p>Adams, W. H. Davenport, cited, <a href="#Footnote_188-3_76">188 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376</a></p>
+
+<p>Adamson, Francis, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></p>
+
+<p>Addison, Joseph, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>-<a href="#Page_341">341</a></p>
+
+<p>Ady, Thomas, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>-<a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Footnote_184-3_63">184 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_225-3_48">225 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Agrippa, Cornelius, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></p>
+
+<p>Aikin, Lucy, cited, <a href="#Footnote_143-2_44">143 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Aldeburgh, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Footnote_191-1_87">191 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Footnote_200-2_106">200 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a></p>
+
+<p>Alene, case of, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></p>
+
+<p>Alfred the Great, <a href="#Page_2">2</a></p>
+
+<p>Allen, Joan, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a></p>
+
+<p>Alnwick, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a></p>
+
+<p>Altham, Sir James, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></p>
+
+<p>Anderson, Sir Edmund, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Footnote_56-1_30">56 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a></p>
+
+<p>Andrews, William, cited, <a href="#Footnote_137-1_24">137 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a></p>
+
+<p>Anne, Princess of Denmark, her marriage to James I, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Annual Register</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_141-1_35">141 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Archćologia</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_10-1_14">10 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Archćologia Cantiana</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_21-3_32">21 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_29-1_46">29 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a></p>
+
+<p>Archer, John, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conducts Cox trial, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>-<a href="#Page_261">261</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Armstrong, Ann, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>-<a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a></p>
+
+<p>Arnold, Mother, <a href="#Page_386">386</a></p>
+
+<p>Ashmole, Elias, cited, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a></p>
+
+<p>Ashmolean Museum, at Oxford, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></p>
+
+<p>Ashton, John, cited, <a href="#Footnote_188-3_76">188 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376</a></p>
+
+<p>Ashwell, John, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></p>
+
+<p>Aspine, Martha, <a href="#Page_107">107</a></p>
+
+<p>Assembly, the witch. <i>See</i> <a href="#sabbath">Sabbath</a></p>
+
+<p>Assheton, R., <a href="#Footnote_158-1_29">158 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a></p>
+
+<p>Atcheson, Isabell, <a href="#Page_413">413</a></p>
+
+<p>Aubrey, John, his credulity, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_162-1_33">162 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_212-2_15">212 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Audley, vicar of, <a href="#Page_326">326</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Autobiography of Edward Underhill</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_13-1_19">13 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Avery, "Master," <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>-<a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<p>B., R. <i>See</i> <a href="#burton">Burton, Richard</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Bacon, Francis, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>-<a href="#Page_247">247</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_246-2_61">246 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_247-1_62">247 n.</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Baddeley, Richard, <a href="#Footnote_141-3_37">141 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_142-2_40">142 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a></p>
+
+<p>Bailey, Frances, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></p>
+
+<p>Bailey, the Old, <a href="#Footnote_108-2_20">108 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Baines, Edward, cited, <a href="#Footnote_147-4_5">147 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_149-3_10">149 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_150-3_13">150 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_158-1_29">158 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></p>
+
+<p>Baker, Alexander, <a href="#Page_154">154</a></p>
+
+<p>Baker, Anne, <a href="#Footnote_133-1_18">133 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a></p>
+
+<p>Baker, J. B., cited, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></p>
+
+<p>Baker, Joan, of Devizes, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></p>
+
+<p>Baker, Joan, of Exeter, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></p>
+
+<p>Baker, Mother, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>-<a href="#Page_60">60</a></p>
+
+<p>Bakewell, affair of, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a></p>
+
+<p>Baldock, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></p>
+
+<p>Bamfield, Ellen, <a href="#Page_389">389</a></p>
+
+<p>Bamford, James, <a href="#Page_353">353</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="bancroft" id="bancroft"></a>Bancroft, Richard, as Bishop of London, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>-<a href="#Page_89">89</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as Archbishop of Canterbury, <a href="#Footnote_87-2_36">88 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Bangor, Bishop of, <a href="#Page_397">397</a></p>
+
+<p>Barber, Mary, <a href="#Page_383">383</a></p>
+
+<p>Bark, Ellen, <a href="#Page_394">394</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[422]</a></span></p>
+<p>Barking, <a href="#Page_386">386</a></p>
+
+<p>Barlowe, wife of John, <a href="#Page_401">401</a></p>
+
+<p>Barnet, <a href="#Page_392">392</a></p>
+
+<p>Barringer, Joan, <a href="#Page_390">390</a></p>
+
+<p>Barrow, Dr., of Cambridge, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="barrow" id="barrow"></a>Barrow, Isaac, <a href="#Page_308">308</a> and <a href="#Footnote_308-2_58">n.</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a></p>
+
+<p>Barrow, James, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>-<a href="#Page_237">237</a></p>
+
+<p>Barrow, John, <a href="#Page_256">256</a></p>
+
+<p>Bartell, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_389">389</a></p>
+
+<p>Bartham, Doll, <a href="#Page_350">350</a></p>
+
+<p>Bartham, Oliffe, <a href="#Page_394">394</a></p>
+
+<p>Bartle, Barbara, <a href="#Page_410">410</a></p>
+
+<p>Barton, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="barton" id="barton"></a>Barton, Elizabeth, the "Holy Maid of Kent," <a href="#Page_58">58</a></p>
+
+<p>Basel, <a href="#Footnote_15-1_21">15 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Bastard, Alice, <a href="#Page_402">402</a></p>
+
+<p>Batcombe, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a></p>
+
+<p>Bate, William, <a href="#Page_397">397</a></p>
+
+<p>Bates, Dr., cited, <a href="#Footnote_337-4_12">337 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Bateson, Mary, cited, <a href="#Page_392">392</a></p>
+
+<p>Bath and Wells, Bishop of, <a href="#Footnote_162-2_34">162 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Bath and Wells, chancellor of the Bishop of, <a href="#Page_235">235</a></p>
+
+<p>Batte, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></p>
+
+<p>Baxter, Richard, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>-<a href="#Page_339">339</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_216-3_21">216 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_337-3_11">337 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Beaumont, John, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_273-2_28">273 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_275-1_29">275 n.</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Beaumont, Susan, <a href="#Page_407">407</a></p>
+
+<p>Beaver, Anne, <a href="#Page_400">400</a></p>
+
+<p>Bedford, Duchess of, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></p>
+
+<p>Bedford, trials at, no, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>-<a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>Bedfordshire, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Footnote_179-4_39">179 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Footnote_200-2_106">200 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a></p>
+
+<p>Bee, Jesse, <a href="#Page_349">349</a></p>
+
+<p>Beeman, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></p>
+
+<p>Beigel, H., <a href="#Page_346">346</a></p>
+
+<p>Bekker, Balthazar, <a href="#Page_339">339</a></p>
+
+<p>Bel and the Dragon, book of, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></p>
+
+<p>Belcher, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>-<a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a></p>
+
+<p>Belvoir Castle, witchcraft at, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>-<a href="#Page_134">134</a></p>
+
+<p>Bennett, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>-<a href="#Page_43">43</a></p>
+
+<p>Bennett, Gervase, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="bentham" id="bentham"></a>Bentham, Thomas, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, <a href="#Footnote_15-1_21">15 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Bentley, Alice, <a href="#Page_394">394</a></p>
+
+<p>Benton, George, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></p>
+
+<p>Benton, Jennet, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></p>
+
+<p>Beriman, Helen, <a href="#Page_387">387</a></p>
+
+<p>Berkhampstead, <a href="#Page_257">257</a></p>
+
+<p>Berks, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a></p>
+
+<p>Bernard, Richard, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>-<a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Footnote_303-2_49">303 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Page_398">398</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Berrye, Agnes, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a></p>
+
+<p>Berwick, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Footnote_252-2_83">252 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a></p>
+
+<p>Beverley, <a href="#Page_410">410</a></p>
+
+<p>Bexwell, Rosa, <a href="#Footnote_52-1_26">52 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a></p>
+
+<p>Bibb, Joan, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></p>
+
+<p>Bill, Arthur, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>-<a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Footnote_132-2_17">132 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a></p>
+
+<p>Bilson, boy of. <i>See</i> <a href="#bilston">Bilston</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="bilson" id="bilson"></a>Bilson, Thomas, Bishop of Winchester, <a href="#Page_234">234</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="bilston" id="bilston"></a>Bilston, boy of, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>-<a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a></p>
+
+<p>Binkes, Anne, <a href="#Footnote_192-4_93">192 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>Bishop Burton, <a href="#Page_394">394</a></p>
+
+<p>Bishop's Cannings, <a href="#Page_413">413</a></p>
+
+<p>Blackburne, Launcelot, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></p>
+
+<p>Blackmail, charge of, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a></p>
+
+<p>Blagrave, Joseph, cited, <a href="#Page_414">414</a></p>
+
+<p>Blomefield, Francis, cited, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></p>
+
+<p>Bodenham, Anne, trial of, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>-<a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a></p>
+
+<p>Bodine (Bodin), <a href="#Footnote_69-1_26">69 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Bodmin, <a href="#Page_405">405</a></p>
+
+<p>Bohemia, Queen of, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></p>
+
+<p>Bokes-wharfe, <a href="#Page_394">394</a></p>
+
+<p>Bolingbroke, Roger, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></p>
+
+<p>Boram, mother and daughter, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></p>
+
+<p>Boram, wife of, <a href="#Page_385">385</a></p>
+
+<p>Boreham of Sudbury, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>Bottesford, <a href="#Footnote_134-1_19">134 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Boulton, Richard, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>-<a href="#Page_340">340</a>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a></p>
+
+<p>Bourne, John, <a href="#Page_390">390</a></p>
+
+<p>Bovet, Richard, <a href="#Page_303">303</a> and <a href="#Footnote_303-2_49">n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Bower, Edmond, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>, <a href="#Page_365">365</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="bowes" id="bowes"></a>Bowes, Lady, <a href="#Page_356">356</a></p>
+
+<p>Bowes, Sir Thomas, <a href="#Footnote_167-1_7">167 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Boxe, Grace, <a href="#Page_410">410</a></p>
+
+<p>Boyle, Sir Robert, <a href="#Page_337">337</a> and <a href="#Footnote_337-5_13">n.</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opinions of, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>-<a href="#Page_306">306</a> and <a href="#Footnote_306-1_51">n.</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Boys, the Rev. Mr., <a href="#Page_331">331</a>-<a href="#Page_332">332</a></p>
+
+<p>Boys, William, cited <a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[423]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Bracton, cited, <a href="#Footnote_128-2_11">128 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Bradley, Alice, <a href="#Page_396">396</a></p>
+
+<p>Bradwell, Stephen, cited, <a href="#Page_395">395</a></p>
+
+<p>Bragge, Francis, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>-<a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>-<a href="#Page_375">375</a></p>
+
+<p>Bramford, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>Branche, Anne, <a href="#Page_399">399</a></p>
+
+<p>Brand, John, cited, <a href="#Footnote_208-3_7">208 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_321-2_20">321 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a></p>
+
+<p>Brandeston, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Footnote_179-5_40">179 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_379">379</a></p>
+
+<p>Braynford, <a href="#Page_392">392</a></p>
+
+<p>Brerely, Alice, <a href="#Page_393">393</a></p>
+
+<p>Brereton, Sir William, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_158-2_30">158 n.</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Brewton, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></p>
+
+<p>Bridewell, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></p>
+
+<p>Bridge, widow, <a href="#Page_414">414</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="bridgeman" id="bridgeman"></a>Bridgeman, Henry, Bishop of Chester, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>-<a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a></p>
+
+<p>Bridges, Agnes, <a href="#Footnote_30-4_55">30 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Footnote_87-2_36">88 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_351">351</a></p>
+
+<p>Brightling, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></p>
+
+<p>Brinley, John, <a href="#Page_303">303</a></p>
+
+<p>Bristol, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a></p>
+
+<p>Britannicus, <a href="#Page_252">252</a></p>
+
+<p>Britton, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Brome, Richard, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a></p>
+
+<p>Bromley, Sir Edward, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></p>
+
+<p>Brooks, Jane, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></p>
+
+<p>Brown, Agnes, trial of, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a></p>
+
+<p>Brown, Joan, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_357">357</a></p>
+
+<p>Browne, Margaret, <a href="#Page_386">386</a></p>
+
+<p>Browne, P., cited, <a href="#Page_406">406</a></p>
+
+<p>Browne, Richard, <a href="#Footnote_183-2_58">183 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Browne, Sir Thomas, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>-<a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a></p>
+
+<p>Broxbourn, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></p>
+
+<p>Bruen, Philippa, <a href="#Page_415">415</a></p>
+
+<p>Bruff, Martha, <a href="#Page_405">405</a></p>
+
+<p>Brumley, Dorothy, <a href="#Page_406">406</a></p>
+
+<p>Bucer, Martin, <a href="#Footnote_15-1_21">15 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_87-2_36">88 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Buckingham, George Villiers, Duke of, <a href="#Footnote_134-1_19">134 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Buckinghamshire, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a></p>
+
+<p>Bulcock, Jane and John, <a href="#Page_383">383</a></p>
+
+<p>Bull, Edmund, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a></p>
+
+<p>Bullinger, <a href="#Footnote_15-1_21">15 n.</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="burghley" id="burghley"></a>Burghley, William Cecil, Lord, <a href="#Footnote_19-1_26">19 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_25-2_40">25 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></p>
+
+<p>Burman, Charles, cited, <a href="#Footnote_216-2_20">216 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Burnet, Bishop Gilbert, <a href="#Footnote_248-4_71">248 n.</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_268-3_19">268 n.</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Burnham-Ulpe, <a href="#Page_356">356</a></p>
+
+<p>Burntwood, <a href="#Page_386">386</a></p>
+
+<p>Burr, George L., cited, <a href="#Footnote_3-1_2">3 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Burthogge, Richard, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_218-2_25">218 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></span></p>
+
+<p><a name="burton" id="burton"></a>Burton, Richard ("R. B."), <a href="#Footnote_339-1_16">339 n.</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Burton, Robert, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></p>
+
+<p>Burton, boy of, named by Ben Jonson, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See also</i> <a href="#darling">Darling, Thomas</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Burton-upon-Trent, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a></p>
+
+<p>Bury, Thomas, <a href="#Page_380">380</a></p>
+
+<p>Bury St. Edmunds, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>-<a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>-<a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></p>
+
+<p>Bush, of Barton, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>Buske, Mother, <a href="#Page_385">385</a></p>
+
+<p>Butcher, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_389">389</a></p>
+
+<p>Butler's <i>Hudibras</i> on Matthew Hopkins, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a></p>
+
+<p>Butts, Joan, trial of, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416</a></p>
+
+<p>Byett, William, <a href="#Footnote_46-3_20">46 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Byles, Andrew, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></p>
+
+<p>Byrom, Margaret, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></p>
+
+<p>Bysack, of Waldingfield, <a href="#Page_404">404</a><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<p>Calamy, Edmund, the elder, <a href="#Page_178">178</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Calendar of Patent Rolls</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_7-1_7">7 n.</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Calendar of the Proceedings of the Committee for the Advance of Money</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_164-3_3">164 n.</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Calendars of State Papers</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_26-1_41">26 n.</a> and <i>passim</i></p>
+
+<p>Calvin, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Footnote_87-2_36">87 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Cambridge, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Footnote_179-4_39">179 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a></p>
+
+<p>Cambridge University, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Queen's College, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Christ's College, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Emmanuel College, <a href="#Footnote_228-2_3">228 n.</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Trinity College, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Cambridgeshire, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Footnote_200-2_106">200 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416</a></p>
+
+<p>Camfield, Andrew, <a href="#Page_399">399</a></p>
+
+<p>Camfield, Benjamin, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[424]</a></span></p>
+<p>Canterbury, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></p>
+
+<p>Canterbury, Archbishop of.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See</i> <a href="#warham">Warham, William</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#cranmer">Cranmer, Thomas</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#parker">Parker, Matthew</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#grindall">Grindall, Edmund</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#whitgift">Whitgift, John</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#bancroft">Bancroft, Richard</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#abbot">Abbot, George</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Carbury, John, Earl of, <a href="#Footnote_339-2_17">339 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Cariden, Joan, <a href="#Footnote_201-2_108">201 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a></p>
+
+<p>Carnarvon, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_397">397</a></p>
+
+<p>Carr, Robert, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></p>
+
+<p>Carrier, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></p>
+
+<p>Carrington, John, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a href="#Footnote_319-1_17">319 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_372">372</a></p>
+
+<p>Carshoggil, laird of, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></p>
+
+<p>Carter, Richard, <a href="#Footnote_170-2_15">170 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Casaubon, Meric, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>-<a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>-<a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_240-1_39">240 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_293-1_21">293 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_294-1_23">294 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Cason, Joan, trial of, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a></p>
+
+<p>Castleton, <a href="#Page_393">393</a></p>
+
+<p>Cecil, William, Lord Burghley. <i>See</i> <a href="#burghley">Burghley</a></p>
+
+<p>Celles, Cystley, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Certaine Informations</i>, cited, <a href="#Page_403">403</a></p>
+
+<p>Chalmers, Alexander, cited, <a href="#Footnote_328-3_38">328 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Chamberlain, letter of, <a href="#Footnote_115-2_41">115 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Chambers, widow, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></p>
+
+<p>Chandler, Alice, case of, <a href="#Footnote_38-1_7">38 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a></p>
+
+<p>Chandler, Elizabeth, <a href="#Footnote_187-4_73">187 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Chandler, Mary, <a href="#Page_185">185</a></p>
+
+<p>Chandler, R., <a href="#Page_212">212</a></p>
+
+<p>Chandos, daughter of Lady, <a href="#Page_385">385</a></p>
+
+<p>Chapbook, the witch, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></p>
+
+<p>Chard, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></p>
+
+<p>Charles I, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">growth of skepticism as to witches in his reign, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>-<a href="#Page_163">163</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Charles II, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">witchcraft in his reign, <a href="#Page_255">255</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Charlewood, J., <a href="#Page_350">350</a></p>
+
+<p>Chatterish, <a href="#Page_406">406</a></p>
+
+<p>Chattox, Anne, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>-<a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Footnote_126-1_4">126 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a></p>
+
+<p>Chaucer, Geoffrey, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></p>
+
+<p>Chauncy, Arthur, <a href="#Page_327">327</a></p>
+
+<p>Chauncy, Sir Henry, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a href="#Page_375">375</a></p>
+
+<p>Chelmsford, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>-<a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>-<a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Footnote_188-3_76">188 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">trials of 1566 at, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>-<a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">trials of 1579 at, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>-<a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">trials of 1589 at, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">trials of 1645 at, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>-<a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Cherrie, of Thrapston, case of, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>-<a href="#Page_185">185</a></p>
+
+<p>Cheshire, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Footnote_232-1_21">232 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Chester, Bishop of. <i>See</i> <a href="#bridgeman">Bridgeman, Henry</a></p>
+
+<p>Chettell, "Mistress," <a href="#Page_385">385</a></p>
+
+<p>Chettle, Anne, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a></p>
+
+<p>Chichester, Bishop of, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See also</i> <a href="#harsnett">Harsnett, Samuel</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Chinting, <a href="#Page_387">387</a></p>
+
+<p>Chishull, the Rev. Mr., <a href="#Page_328">328</a></p>
+
+<p>Chittam, Henry, <a href="#Page_387">387</a></p>
+
+<p>Chowbent, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></p>
+
+<p>Christ's College, Cambridge, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Chronicon Mirabile</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_208-3_7">208 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a></p>
+
+<p>Church, the trials for sorcery under, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>-<a href="#Page_8">8</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">statute of Henry VIII not aimed to limit, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">state ready to reclaim jurisdiction from, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">penalties under, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gradual transfer to state of witchcraft cases, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>-<a href="#Page_31">31</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Clarke, of Keiston, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>-<a href="#Page_186">186</a></p>
+
+<p>Clarke, Ann, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></p>
+
+<p>Clarke, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>-<a href="#Page_175">175</a></p>
+
+<p>Clarke, Helen, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></p>
+
+<p>Clarke, Jane, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>-<a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></p>
+
+<p>Clarke, Sir Robert, <a href="#Page_54">54</a></p>
+
+<p>Clarke, Samuel, cited, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></p>
+
+<p>Clarke, William, his letter to Speaker Lenthall, <a href="#Footnote_225-3_48">225 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Clarkson, Mary, <a href="#Page_416">416</a></p>
+
+<p>Clerkenwell, <a href="#Page_389">389</a></p>
+
+<p>Cleves, Pepper, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a></p>
+
+<p>Cleworth, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Footnote_149-3_10">149 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Clinton, Lord, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></p>
+
+<p>Clouues, William, <a href="#Footnote_24-1_38">24 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Clutterbuck, Robert, cited, <a href="#Footnote_328-4_39">328 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Cobbett, William, cited, <a href="#Footnote_102-2_10">102 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Cobham, Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></p>
+
+<p>Cobham, Lord, <a href="#Page_12">12</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[425]</a></span></p>
+<p>Cock, Susan, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376</a></p>
+
+<p>Cocwra, Samuel, <a href="#Page_387">387</a></p>
+
+<p>Coke, Sir Edward, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_128-2_11">128 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Colchester, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a></p>
+
+<p>Cole, Henry, Jewel's controversy with, <a href="#Footnote_16-1_22">16 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Cole, Thomas, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a></p>
+
+<p>Coleman, John, <a href="#Page_388">388</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Collection of Modern Relations</i>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Footnote_339-1_16">339 n.</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_146-1_1">146 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_181-5_50">181 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Collingham, <a href="#Page_393">393</a></p>
+
+<p>Coman, widow, case of, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>-<a href="#Page_332">332</a></p>
+
+<p>Commission of Oyer and Terminer, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></p>
+
+<p>Committee of Both Kingdoms, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></p>
+
+<p>Commons' <i>Journal</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_16-1_22">17 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_103-1_11">103 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Conyers, Robert, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></p>
+
+<p>Cooke, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_397">397</a></p>
+
+<p>Cooke, Mother, <a href="#Page_392">392</a></p>
+
+<p>Coombes, Margaret, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></p>
+
+<p>Cooper, C. H. and T., cited, <a href="#Page_356">356</a></p>
+
+<p>Cooper, John, <a href="#Footnote_82-1_18">82 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Cooper, Thomas, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>-<a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Corbet, <a href="#Page_413">413</a></p>
+
+<p>Corbolt. <i>See</i> <a href="#godbolt">Godbolt</a></p>
+
+<p>Cornwall, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>-<a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></p>
+
+<p>Cornwall, Henry, <a href="#Footnote_170-2_15">170 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Cosyn, Edmund, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></p>
+
+<p>Cotta, John, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>-<a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_130-2_13">130 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_230-4_14">230 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_231-2_19">231 n.</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Cotton, William, cited, <a href="#Footnote_217-1_22">217 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_221-5_36">221 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_224-1_44">224 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></p>
+
+<p>Council of State, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="council" id="council"></a><i>Council Register</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_152-2_17">152 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_154-2_20">154 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_155-1_23">155 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>"Countess" (Margaret Russel), <a href="#Page_400">400</a></p>
+
+<p><i>County Folk Lore, Suffolk</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_165-1_4">165 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_176-4_28">176 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_179-5_40">179 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_194-1_97">194 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>Court of High Commission, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>-<a href="#Page_87">87</a></p>
+
+<p>Coventry, <a href="#Footnote_232-1_21">232 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a></p>
+
+<p>Coventry and Lichfield, Bishop of. <i>See</i> <a href="#bentham">Bentham, Thomas</a></p>
+
+<p>Coverdale, Miles, <a href="#Footnote_15-1_21">15 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Coverley, Sir Roger de, <a href="#Page_341">341</a></p>
+
+<p>Cowper, Earl and Countess of, <a href="#Footnote_328-4_39">328 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Cox, John Charles, cited, <a href="#Footnote_137-1_24">137 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_219-2_29">219 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_324-1_25">324 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a></p>
+
+<p>Cox, Julian, trial of, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>-<a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a></p>
+
+<p>Cox, Richard, <a href="#Footnote_15-1_21">15 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Coxe, Francis, trial of, <a href="#Footnote_31-1_56">31 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a></p>
+
+<p>Cranbourne, Viscount, <a href="#Footnote_115-3_42">115 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="cranmer" id="cranmer"></a>Cranmer, Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Footnote_58-3_4">58 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Crearey, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_400">400</a></p>
+
+<p>Creeting, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>Cricke, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Criminal Chronology of York Castle</i>, cited, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></p>
+
+<p>Cromwell, Sir Henry, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></p>
+
+<p>Cromwell, Lady, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></p>
+
+<p>Cromwell, Oliver, <a href="#Footnote_48-1_21">48 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Footnote_212-1_14">212 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Footnote_237-2_34">237 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></p>
+
+<p>Cromwell, Richard, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></p>
+
+<p>Cromwell, Thomas, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></p>
+
+<p>Crosse, Diana, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>-<a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a></p>
+
+<p>Crossley, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></p>
+
+<p>Crossley, James, cited, <a href="#Footnote_124-1_3">124 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_147-4_5">147 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>, <a href="#Page_380">380</a></p>
+
+<p>Crouch, Nathaniel, <a href="#Footnote_339-1_16">339 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Crump, Hannah, <a href="#Page_257">257</a></p>
+
+<p>Cruther, Joseph, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></p>
+
+<p>Cudworth, Ralph, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></p>
+
+<p>Cullender, Rose, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a></p>
+
+<p>Culpepper, Nicholas, <a href="#Page_403">403</a></p>
+
+<p>Cumberland, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a></p>
+
+<p>Cunny, Joan, <a href="#Page_347">347</a></p>
+
+<p>Curry, Katharine, <a href="#Page_413">413</a></p>
+
+<p>Cushman, L. W., cited, <a href="#Footnote_244-1_51">244 n.</a><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<p>Damages awarded accused, <a href="#Page_324">324</a></p>
+
+<p>Danvers, Sir John, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></p>
+
+<p>Darcy, Brian, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Footnote_44-1_16">44 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Footnote_46-2_19">46 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="darling" id="darling"></a>Darling, Thomas, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>-<a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[426]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Darrel, John, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>-<a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>-<a href="#Page_356">356</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Davenport, John, <a href="#Footnote_187-3_72">187 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_362">362</a></p>
+
+<p>Daventry, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></p>
+
+<p>Davies, J. S., cited, <a href="#Footnote_8-2_10">8 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Davis, Ralph, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>, <a href="#Page_382">382</a></p>
+
+<p>Daye, Mary, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></p>
+
+<p>Daye, Susannah, <a href="#Page_416">416</a></p>
+
+<p>Deacon, John, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>, <a href="#Page_354">354</a></p>
+
+<p>Dee, John, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>-<a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></p>
+
+<p>Deir, Mrs., <a href="#Page_390">390</a></p>
+
+<p>Dekker, Thomas, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_112-3_33">112 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Del Rio, <a href="#Page_234">234</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="demdike" id="demdike"></a>Demdike, Old (Elizabeth Southerns), <a href="#Page_121">121</a>-<a href="#Page_128">128</a></p>
+
+<p>Denham, <a href="#Footnote_74-1_1">74 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Denham, Sir John, <a href="#Page_235">235</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Denham Tracts</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_30-1_52">30 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_219-1_28">219 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a></p>
+
+<p>Denison, John, <a href="#Footnote_78-2_11">78 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a></p>
+
+<p>Denton, <a href="#Page_360">360</a></p>
+
+<p>Derby, <a href="#Page_392">392</a></p>
+
+<p>Derby, Archdeacon of, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></p>
+
+<p>Derby, Earl of, <a href="#Page_392">392</a></p>
+
+<p>Derbyshire, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a></p>
+
+<p>Descartes, <a href="#Page_238">238</a></p>
+
+<p>Devell, Mother, <a href="#Footnote_28-2_45">28 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Device, Alizon, <a href="#Footnote_111-1_29">111 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a></p>
+
+<p>Device, Elizabeth, <a href="#Footnote_108-3_21">108 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>-<a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a></p>
+
+<p>Device, James, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>-<a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a></p>
+
+<p>Device, Jennet, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>-<a href="#Page_127">127</a></p>
+
+<p>Devizes, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a></p>
+
+<p>Devonshire, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>-<a href="#Page_419">419</a></p>
+
+<p>Dewse, Mrs., <a href="#Page_390">390</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Diary, A, or an Exact Journall</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_174-1_19">174 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Dickonson, Frances, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>-<a href="#Page_160">160</a></p>
+
+<p>Dilby, Doll, <a href="#Page_413">413</a></p>
+
+<p>Distribution of witchcraft, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>-<a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>-<a href="#Page_255">255</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Doctrine of Devils, The</i>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>-<a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Footnote_302-4_47">302 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Dodgson, Nathan, <a href="#Page_256">256</a></p>
+
+<p>Dodson, Jane, <a href="#Page_416">416</a></p>
+
+<p>Doncaster, <a href="#Page_396">396</a></p>
+
+<p>Dorrington, Doctor, <a href="#Footnote_50-1_24">50 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Dorset, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></p>
+
+<p>Dorset, Marquis of, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></p>
+
+<p>Drage, William, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_256-2_3">256</a>-<a href="#Footnote_258-1_8">258 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_279-4_36">279 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Drew, widow, <a href="#Page_403">403</a></p>
+
+<p>Ducke, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_386">386</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="dugdale" id="dugdale"></a>Dugdale, Richard, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>-<a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_373">373</a></p>
+
+<p>Duncane, Geillis, torture of, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></p>
+
+<p>Dungeon, Mother, <a href="#Page_386">386</a></p>
+
+<p>Dunne, Christiana, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></p>
+
+<p>Duny, Amy, trial of, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>-<a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a></p>
+
+<p>Durham, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Footnote_219-1_28">219 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a></p>
+
+<p>Durham, Bishop of, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his <i>Injunctions,</i> cited, <a href="#Page_388">388</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Durham, Depositions ... from the Court of</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_21-1_30">21 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_29-4_49">29 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a></p>
+
+<p>Durham, vicar-general of the Bishop of, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></p>
+
+<p>Dutten, Mother, <a href="#Footnote_28-2_45">28 n.</a><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<p>E., T., "Maister of Art," <a href="#Page_388">388</a></p>
+
+<p>Earle, Katherine, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a></p>
+
+<p>East Anglia, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a></p>
+
+<p>Eburye, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_414">414</a></p>
+
+<p>Eckington, <a href="#Page_390">390</a></p>
+
+<p>Edlingham, <a href="#Page_416">416</a></p>
+
+<p>Edmonds, Mr., <a href="#Footnote_235-5_29">235 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Edmonton, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Footnote_136-2_23">136 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a></p>
+
+<p>Edward I, <a href="#Page_6">6</a></p>
+
+<p>Edward IV, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></p>
+
+<p>Edward VI, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></p>
+
+<p>Edwards, Richard, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>-<a href="#Page_170">170</a></p>
+
+<p>Edwards, Susanna, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>-<a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>-<a href="#Page_369">369</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416</a></p>
+
+<p>Elford, Johanna, <a href="#Page_415">415</a></p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>-<a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">number of executions in her reign compared with number under James, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>-<a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">spectral evidence in her reign, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">distribution of witch cases, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Ellyse, Joan, <a href="#Page_386">386</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[427]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Elnore, Margaret, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></p>
+
+<p>Ely, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416</a></p>
+
+<p>Ely, Bishop of, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Footnote_15-1_21">15 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a></p>
+
+<p>Emerson, a priest, <a href="#Page_387">387</a></p>
+
+<p>Emerson, Ann, <a href="#Page_388">388</a></p>
+
+<p>Emott, Isabel, <a href="#Page_410">410</a></p>
+
+<p>Emmanuel College, Cambridge, <a href="#Footnote_228-2_3">228 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Endor, witch of, Scot's explanation of, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Filmer's explanation of, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Muggleton's explanation of, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Webster's explanation of, <a href="#Page_298">298</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Enfield, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a></p>
+
+<p>Enger, Master, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>-<a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a> and <a href="#Footnote_118-1_51">n.</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>-<a href="#Page_136">136</a></p>
+
+<p>Essex, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Footnote_70-2_28">70 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_90-1_39">90 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>-<a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Footnote_228-2_3">228 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>-<a href="#Page_332">332</a>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a></p>
+
+<p>Essex, Countess of, <a href="#Footnote_144-2_48">144 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>-<a href="#Page_234">234</a></p>
+
+<p>Essex, Earl of, <a href="#Page_234">234</a></p>
+
+<p>Ettrick, Anthony, <a href="#Page_365">365</a></p>
+
+<p>Evans, Katharine, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></p>
+
+<p>Evesham, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></p>
+
+<p>Exeter, <a href="#Footnote_31-1_56">31 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>-<a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>-<a href="#Page_321">321</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></p>
+
+<p>Exeter, Bishop of, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></p>
+
+<p>Exeter College, Oxford, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></p>
+
+<p>Eye, witch of, <a href="#Page_4">4</a><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<p>F., H., <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a></p>
+
+<p>Fairclough, Samuel, <a href="#Footnote_166-1_5">166 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a></p>
+
+<p>Fairfax, Edward, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>-<a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>-<a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_102-1_9">102 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_142-4_42">142 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_250-1_75">250 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Fairfax, Sir Thomas, <a href="#Page_360">360</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Faithful Scout, The</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_213-1_16">213 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a></p>
+
+<p>Falmouth, <a href="#Page_415">415</a></p>
+
+<p>Farbrother, J. E., cited, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Farington Papers</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_155-4_26">155 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Farnworth, Richard, <a href="#Footnote_240-2_40">240 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Farrier, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></p>
+
+<p>Faversham, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a></p>
+
+<p>Female juries, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></p>
+
+<p>Fenner, Edward, in Warboys trials, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>-<a href="#Page_50">50</a></p>
+
+<p>Fenwick, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416</a></p>
+
+<p>Ferris, Sibilla, <a href="#Page_393">393</a></p>
+
+<p>Fian, Dr., <a href="#Page_94">94</a>-<a href="#Page_96">96</a></p>
+
+<p>Filmer, Sir Robert, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_241-2_45">241 n.</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Finchingfield, <a href="#Footnote_228-2_3">228 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Finchley, <a href="#Page_399">399</a></p>
+
+<p>Fisher, Katharine, <a href="#Page_406">406</a></p>
+
+<p>Fisherton-Anger, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a></p>
+
+<p>Fishwick, cited, <a href="#Page_372">372</a></p>
+
+<p>Fize, Henry, <a href="#Page_388">388</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Flagellum Dćmonum</i>, <a href="#Footnote_79-2_14">79 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Fleta, <a href="#Page_5">5</a></p>
+
+<p>Flower, Joan and her daughters (Margaret and Philippa), case of, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Footnote_119-1_53">119 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>-<a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a></p>
+
+<p>Fludd, Robert, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></p>
+
+<p>Foljambe, Mrs. <i>See</i> <a href="#bowes">Bowes, Lady</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Folk Lore Journal, The</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_24-1_38">24 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a></p>
+
+<p>Folkestone, <a href="#Page_386">386</a></p>
+
+<p>Ford, John, <a href="#Page_359">359</a></p>
+
+<p>Fortescue, Sir Anthony, case of, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="fortescue" id="fortescue"></a>Fortescue, Sir John, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a></p>
+
+<p>"Foscue, Master." <i>See</i> <a href="#fortescue">Fortescue, Sir John</a></p>
+
+<p>Fossett, Temperance, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></p>
+
+<p>Foster, Ann, trial of, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a></p>
+
+<p>Fowles, Susanna, case of, <a href="#Footnote_323-2_23">323 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Foxcroft, H. C., cited, <a href="#Footnote_341-3_24">341 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>France, Hester, <a href="#Page_408">408</a></p>
+
+<p>Francis, Elizabeth, her two trials, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>-<a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a></p>
+
+<p>Francis, Mother, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a></p>
+
+<p>Frankfort, <a href="#Footnote_15-1_21">15 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Frankland, Richard, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a></p>
+
+<p>Fraunces, Margaret, <a href="#Page_394">394</a></p>
+
+<p>Free, Goody, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></p>
+
+<p>Freeman, Alice, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a></p>
+
+<p>Freeman, Mary, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></p>
+
+<p><i>French Intelligencer</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_213-1_16">213 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_215-1_17">215 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a></p>
+
+<p>Fulham, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></p>
+
+<p>Fuller, John, cited, <a href="#Footnote_207-1_2">207 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[428]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Fuller, Thomas, cited, <a href="#Footnote_90-4_42">90 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_139-5_31">139 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_140-2_33">140 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Fustis Dćmonum</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_79-2_14">79 n.</a><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<p>Gabley, Mother, <a href="#Page_389">389</a></p>
+
+<p>Gaddesden, Little, <a href="#Page_256">256</a></p>
+
+<p>Gairdner, James, cited, <a href="#Footnote_9-3_13">9 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Gallis, Richard, <a href="#Page_347">347</a></p>
+
+<p>Gardiner, Mr. and Mrs., <a href="#Page_324">324</a></p>
+
+<p>Gardiner, the Rev. Mr., <a href="#Page_375">375</a></p>
+
+<p>Gardiner, Catherine, <a href="#Footnote_132-1_16">132 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Gardiner, Ralph, cited, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Footnote_209-1_10">209 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a></p>
+
+<p>Gargrave, <a href="#Page_410">410</a></p>
+
+<p>Garve, Mother, <a href="#Page_387">387</a></p>
+
+<p>Gaskin, Emmy, <a href="#Page_414">414</a></p>
+
+<p>Gateshead, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Footnote_219-1_28">219 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a></p>
+
+<p>Gaule, John, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>-<a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>-<a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>-<a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></p>
+
+<p>Gee, John, cited, <a href="#Footnote_139-4_30">139 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Geneva, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Footnote_87-2_36">87 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Gentleman's Magazine</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_95-1_1">95 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_143-3_45">143 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_160-1_32">160 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_269-2_21">269 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_279-2_34">279 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></p>
+
+<p>Gerard, Sir Gilbert, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a></p>
+
+<p>Gerish, W. B., cited, <a href="#Page_375">375</a></p>
+
+<p>Gibbons, A., cited, <a href="#Footnote_189-1_77">189 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a></p>
+
+<p>Gibson, "Coz.," <a href="#Page_222">222</a></p>
+
+<p>Gifford, George, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Footnote_57-1_1">57 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>-<a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Gill, Helena, <a href="#Page_390">390</a></p>
+
+<p>Gilston, <a href="#Footnote_328-4_39">328 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Gilston, Matthew, <a href="#Page_335">335</a></p>
+
+<p>Gisborough, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></p>
+
+<p>Glance of a witch, instances of, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></p>
+
+<p>Glanvill, Joseph, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Footnote_196-2_100">196 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>-<a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>-<a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_221-4_35">221 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_222-2_39">222 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_251-1_79">251 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_260-1_11">260 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_308-3_59">308 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Globe theatre, The, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></p>
+
+<p>Gloucester, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a></p>
+
+<p>Gloucester, Duchess of, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></p>
+
+<p>Gloucester, Richard of, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></p>
+
+<p>Glover, Mary, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a></p>
+
+<p>Glover, Stephen, cited, <a href="#Page_396">396</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="godbolt" id="godbolt"></a>Godbolt, John, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a></p>
+
+<p>Godfrey, Agnes, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>, <a href="#Page_397">397</a></p>
+
+<p>Goldsmith, Mr., <a href="#Page_332">332</a></p>
+
+<p>"Good Witches," <a href="#Page_21">21</a>-<a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>-<a href="#Page_260">260</a></p>
+
+<p>Goodcole, Henry, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a></p>
+
+<p>Gooderidge, Alse, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>-<a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a></p>
+
+<p>Gooding, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>-<a href="#Page_170">170</a></p>
+
+<p>Gough, Richard, <a href="#Page_375">375</a></p>
+
+<p>Goulding, R. W., cited, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a></p>
+
+<p>Gordon, Rev. Alexander, cited, <a href="#Footnote_317-1_10">317 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_319-1_17">319 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Grainge, William, <a href="#Page_360">360</a></p>
+
+<p>Grame, Margaret, <a href="#Page_391">391</a></p>
+
+<p>"Grantam's curse," <a href="#Page_88">88</a></p>
+
+<p>Grantly, Anne, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></p>
+
+<p>Great Staughton, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>-<a href="#Page_187">187</a></p>
+
+<p>"Great T.," "Mother W. of," <a href="#Page_395">395</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="great" id="great"></a>Great Yarmouth, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See also</i> <a href="#yarmouth">Yarmouth</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Greedie, Joan, <a href="#Page_401">401</a></p>
+
+<p>Green, Ellen, <a href="#Page_399">399</a></p>
+
+<p>Greene, Anne, <a href="#Page_410">410</a></p>
+
+<p>Greene, Ellen, <a href="#Footnote_133-1_18">133 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Greenleife, Mary (of Alresford), <a href="#Page_170">170</a>-<a href="#Page_171">171</a></p>
+
+<p>"Greenliefe of Barton," <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>Greenslet, Ferris, cited, <a href="#Footnote_286-1_1">286 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Greenwel, Thomas, <a href="#Page_371">371</a></p>
+
+<p>Greenwich, <a href="#Page_154">154</a></p>
+
+<p>Grevell, Margaret, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></p>
+
+<p>Griffiths, Sarah, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></p>
+
+<p>Grimes, Mr., <a href="#Page_332">332</a></p>
+
+<p>Grimston, Sir Harbottle, <a href="#Footnote_167-1_7">167 n.</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="grindall" id="grindall"></a>Grindall, Edmund, Bp. of London, then Abp. of Canterbury, <a href="#Footnote_15-1_21">15 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Guildford, <a href="#Page_322">322</a></p>
+
+<p>Guilford, Baron. <i>See</i> <a href="#north">Francis North</a></p>
+
+<p>Gunpowder Plot, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></p>
+
+<p>Gurney, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_406">406</a></p>
+
+<p>Guy, Mary, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></p>
+
+<p>Gyngell, Margaret, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<p>Habakkuk, transportation of, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></p>
+
+<p>Hackett, Margaret, <a href="#Page_390">390</a></p>
+
+<p>Hackney, <a href="#Page_415">415</a></p>
+
+<p>Haigh, <a href="#Page_414">414</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[429]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Hale, Sir Matthew, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>-<a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>, <a href="#Footnote_339-1_16">339 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_367">367</a></p>
+
+<p>Hale, William H., cited, <a href="#Footnote_10-1_14">10 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_21-5_34">21 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_22-1_36">22 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_29-1_46">29 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a></p>
+
+<p>Halifax, Marquis of, opinion of, <a href="#Page_341">341</a></p>
+
+<p>Hall, John, <a href="#Page_352">352</a></p>
+
+<p>Hall, Joseph, Bishop, <a href="#Page_180">180</a></p>
+
+<p>Hall, Mary, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a></p>
+
+<p>Halliwell-Phillips, J. O., <a href="#Footnote_142-4_42">142 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_306-2_52">306 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Hallybread, Rose, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376</a></p>
+
+<p>Hallywell, Henry, <a href="#Page_303">303</a> and <a href="#Footnote_303-2_49">n.</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></p>
+
+<p>Hamilton, A. H. A., cited, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></p>
+
+<p>Hammer, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>Hammersmith, case at, <a href="#Footnote_323-2_23">323 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Hammond, of Westminster, <a href="#Page_402">402</a></p>
+
+<p>Hampstead, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a></p>
+
+<p>Hampton Court, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></p>
+
+<p>Handford, Abigail, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></p>
+
+<p>Hanover, Susanna, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></p>
+
+<p>Hansen, J., cited, <a href="#Footnote_3-2_3">3 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Harington, Sir John, <a href="#Footnote_140-1_32">140 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Harland and Wilkinson, cited, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></p>
+
+<p>Harmondsworth, <a href="#Page_386">386</a></p>
+
+<p>Harris, Alice, <a href="#Footnote_132-1_16">132 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Harris, Eleonora, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></p>
+
+<p>Harris, Elizabeth, <a href="#Footnote_201-2_108">201 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Harris, Marie, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></p>
+
+<p>Harris, Susannah, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></p>
+
+<p>Harrison, Mr., <a href="#Page_44">44</a></p>
+
+<p>Harrison, Henry, <a href="#Page_388">388</a></p>
+
+<p>Harrison, Johanna, of Royston, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>-<a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a></p>
+
+<p>Harrison, Margaret, <a href="#Page_356">356</a></p>
+
+<p>Harrison, William, <a href="#Page_367">367</a></p>
+
+<p>Harrod, H., cited, <a href="#Footnote_182-1_51">182 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a></p>
+
+<p>Harrogate, <a href="#Page_360">360</a></p>
+
+<p>Harrow, Weald, <a href="#Page_390">390</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="harsnett" id="harsnett"></a>Harsnett, Samuel, later Abp. of York, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>-<a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>-<a href="#Page_356">356</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>-<a href="#Page_393">393</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Hart, <a href="#Page_389">389</a></p>
+
+<p>Hart, Anne, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></p>
+
+<p>Hart, Prudence, <a href="#Page_170">170</a></p>
+
+<p>Hart Hall, Oxford, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></p>
+
+<p>Hartis, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></p>
+
+<p>Hartley, Edmund, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>-<a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a></p>
+
+<p>Harvey, Gabriel, <a href="#Footnote_69-1_26">69 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Harvey, Joane, <a href="#Page_400">400</a></p>
+
+<p>Harvey, Thomas, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></p>
+
+<p>Harvey, William, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>-<a href="#Page_162">162</a></p>
+
+<p>Harwood, Goodwife, <a href="#Page_256">256</a></p>
+
+<p>Hatfield Peverel, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></p>
+
+<p>Hathaway, Richard, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>-<a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_371">371</a></p>
+
+<p>Hathericke, Sara, <a href="#Page_401">401</a></p>
+
+<p>Hatsell, Sir Henry, <a href="#Page_323">323</a></p>
+
+<p>Haverhill, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>Hazlitt, W. C., cited, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>-<a href="#Page_352">352</a>, <a href="#Page_368">368</a></p>
+
+<p>Heddenham, <a href="#Page_406">406</a></p>
+
+<p>Heddon, Margaret, <a href="#Page_415">415</a></p>
+
+<p>Hele, N. F., cited, <a href="#Footnote_183-1_57">183 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_191-1_87">191 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_200-2_106">200 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a></p>
+
+<p>Hemloke, Sir Henry, <a href="#Page_324">324</a></p>
+
+<p>Hempstead, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>Hengler, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></p>
+
+<p>Henry IV, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></p>
+
+<p>Henry VI, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></p>
+
+<p>Henry VIII, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Footnote_58-3_4">58 n.</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See also</i> <a href="#statutes">Statutes</a>.</span></p>
+
+<p>Heptenstall, <a href="#Page_406">406</a></p>
+
+<p>Herbert, Sir Edward, <a href="#Footnote_311-1_63">311 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Herd, Annis, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_388">388</a></p>
+
+<p>Hereford, Bishop of, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Footnote_15-1_21">15 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Hertford, trials at <a href="#Page_134">134</a>-<a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>-<a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></p>
+
+<p>Hertfordshire, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Hertfordshire County Sessions, Rolls</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_21-1_30">21 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_221-2_33">221 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a></p>
+
+<p>Hewitt, Katherine, <a href="#Page_383">383</a></p>
+
+<p>Heylyn, Peter, cited, <a href="#Footnote_143-1_43">143 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Heyrick, Robert, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a></p>
+
+<p>Heywood, Oliver, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Page_416">416</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Heywood, Thomas, <a href="#Footnote_306-2_52">306 n.</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">play of, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>-<a href="#Page_159">159</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opinions expressed in play of, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>-<a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_244-4_54">244 n.</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Hicke, Mr., <a href="#Page_379">379</a></p>
+
+<p>Hinchcliffe, Joseph, <a href="#Page_416">416</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_114-3_39">114 n.</a>, and <i>passim</i> thereafter</p>
+
+<p>Hitcham, <a href="#Page_404">404</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[430]</a></span></p>
+<p>Hitchin, <a href="#Page_367">367</a></p>
+
+<p>Hoarstones, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></p>
+
+<p>Hobart, Sir Henry, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></p>
+
+<p>Hobbes, Thomas, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>-<a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></p>
+
+<p>Holborn, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a></p>
+
+<p>Hole, Elizabeth, case of, <a href="#Page_324">324</a></p>
+
+<p>Holinshed, cited, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>-<a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Footnote_59-5_9">59 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a></p>
+
+<p>Holland, Henry, <a href="#Footnote_72-1_38">72 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Hollingsworth, A. G., cited, <a href="#Footnote_183-3_59">183 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>Holt, Sir John, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nullified statute of James I;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gave repeated acquittals, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>-<a href="#Page_323">323</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his ruling on the water ordeal, <a href="#Page_332">332</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Homes, Nathaniel, opinions of, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_240-3_41">240 n.</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Hooke, William, <a href="#Footnote_45-1_17">45 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Hopkins, James, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></p>
+
+<p>Hopkins, Matthew, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>-<a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>, <a href="#Page_378">378</a></p>
+
+<p>Hopwood, Mr., <a href="#Footnote_79-2_14">79 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Horace, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></p>
+
+<p>Horner, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>-<a href="#Page_322">322</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></p>
+
+<p>Hott, Jane, <a href="#Footnote_201-2_108">201 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a></p>
+
+<p>Houghton, Lord, <a href="#Page_359">359</a></p>
+
+<p>Housegoe, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_393">393</a></p>
+
+<p>Howard, Henry, later Earl of Northampton, <a href="#Page_352">352</a></p>
+
+<p>Howell, James, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></p>
+
+<p>Howell, T. B. and T. J., cited, <a href="#Footnote_116-2_44">116 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_144-2_48">144 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_233-1_22">233 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Howsell, Anne, <a href="#Page_405">405</a></p>
+
+<p>Howson, Helen, <a href="#Page_406">406</a></p>
+
+<p>Hubbard, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>Huddersfield, <a href="#Page_408">408</a></p>
+
+<p>Hudson, Ann, <a href="#Page_407">407</a></p>
+
+<p>Hughes, Lewis, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a></p>
+
+<p>Hulton, John, <a href="#Page_209">209</a></p>
+
+<p>Humphrey, of Gloucester, Duke, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></p>
+
+<p>Hunnam, Anne, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></p>
+
+<p>Hunniman, Joice, <a href="#Footnote_162-2_34">162 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a></p>
+
+<p>Hunt, widow, <a href="#Footnote_45-1_17">45 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Hunt, Joan, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a></p>
+
+<p>Hunt, Robert, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a></p>
+
+<p>Hunter, Joseph, cited, <a href="#Footnote_92-1_46">92 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_256-1_2">256 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a></p>
+
+<p>Huntingdon, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>-<a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Footnote_185-4_68">185 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_200-2_106">200 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_237-2_34">237 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_314-1_2">314 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></p>
+
+<p>Huntingdonshire, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>-<a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>-<a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>-<a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a></p>
+
+<p>Huson, Alice, <a href="#Page_413">413</a></p>
+
+<p>Hutchinson, Francis, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>-<a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>-<a href="#Page_343">343</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_11-1_16">11 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_179-4_39">179 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_321-2_20">321</a>-<a href="#Footnote_323-1_22">323 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_328-4_39">328 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Huxley, Catherine, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<p>Ilkeston, <a href="#Page_407">407</a></p>
+
+<p>Images, alleged use of in witchcraft, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>-<a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>-<a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>-<a href="#Page_127">127</a></p>
+
+<p>Incendiarism ascribed to witchcraft, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>-<a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a></p>
+
+<p>Inderwick, F. A., cited, <a href="#Footnote_201-1_107">201 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_225-1_46">225 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_226-3_51">226 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_268-1_17">268 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_269-1_20">269 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_270-1_22">270 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_311-1_63">311 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>-<a href="#Page_419">419</a></p>
+
+<p>Ipswich, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<p>Jackson, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a></p>
+
+<p>James I, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Footnote_90-2_40">90 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>-<a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>-<a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Footnote_229-5_10">229 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>-<a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His Scottish experience, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>-<a href="#Page_96">96</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his <i>Dćmonologie</i>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>-<a href="#Page_101">101</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his statute and its effect, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>-<a href="#Page_109">109</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">distribution of witchcraft in his realm, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>-<a href="#Page_119">119</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his changing attitude, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>-<a href="#Page_145">145</a></span></p>
+
+<p>James II, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></p>
+
+<p>James, G. P. R., cited, <a href="#Footnote_340-2_21">340 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_342-1_25">342 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Jeffreys, George, Baron, <a href="#Footnote_311-1_63">311 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Jeffries, Anne, <a href="#Page_405">405</a></p>
+
+<p>Jenkinson, Helen, <a href="#Page_383">383</a></p>
+
+<p>Jennings, Lady, <a href="#Page_400">400</a></p>
+
+<p>Jeopardy, neglect of legal restriction on, <a href="#Page_128">128</a> and <a href="#Footnote_128-2_11">n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_145-3_53">145 n.</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="jewel" id="jewel"></a>Jewel, John, Bishop of Salisbury, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>-<a href="#Page_17">17</a></p>
+
+<p>Joan of Arc, <a href="#Page_230">230</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[431]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Johnson, Margaret, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></p>
+
+<p>Johnson, W. S., cited, <a href="#Footnote_244-3_53">244 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Johnstone, James, <a href="#Page_341">341</a></p>
+
+<p>Jollie, Thomas, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>-<a href="#Page_319">319</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>-<a href="#Page_373">373</a></p>
+
+<p>Jones, J. O., cited, <a href="#Footnote_164-1_1">164 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_181-5_50">181 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_182-2_52">182 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_188-3_76">188 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Jonson, Ben, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>-<a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a></p>
+
+<p>Jordan, Jane, <a href="#Page_393">393</a></p>
+
+<p>Jorden, Dr. Edward, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a></p>
+
+<p>Jourdemain, Margery, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>-<a href="#Page_9">9</a></p>
+
+<p>Jurdie, Jone, <a href="#Page_396">396</a><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<p>Keiston, <a href="#Page_185">185</a></p>
+
+<p>Kelly, William, cited, <a href="#Footnote_141-1_35">141 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a></p>
+
+<p>Kelyng, Sir John, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_305">305</a></p>
+
+<p>Kemp, Ursley, trial of, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></p>
+
+<p>Kennet, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></p>
+
+<p>Kent, <a href="#Footnote_21-1_30">21 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></p>
+
+<p>Kent, Holy Maid of. <i>See</i> <a href="#barton">Barton, Elizabeth</a></p>
+
+<p>Kerke, Anne, <a href="#Page_394">394</a></p>
+
+<p>Kerke, Joan, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></p>
+
+<p>Kidderminster, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></p>
+
+<p>Kimbolton, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></p>
+
+<p>King, of Acton, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>King, Peter, <a href="#Page_380">380</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="lynn" id="lynn"></a>King's Lynn, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>-<a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a></p>
+
+<p>Kingston, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></p>
+
+<p>Kingston-upon-Hull, <a href="#Page_389">389</a></p>
+
+<p>Kittredge, G. L., cited, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a></p>
+
+<p>Knipp, Agnes and John, <a href="#Page_415">415</a></p>
+
+<p>Knott, Elizabeth, <a href="#Footnote_208-4_8">208 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a></p>
+
+<p>Knowles, Sir William, <a href="#Page_154">154</a></p>
+
+<p>Knumerton, Dewnes, <a href="#Page_417">417</a><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<p>Lake, Sir Thomas, <a href="#Footnote_115-3_42">115 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a></p>
+
+<p>Lakeland, Mother, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Footnote_200-2_106">200 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a></p>
+
+<p>Laleham, <a href="#Page_387">387</a></p>
+
+<p>Lambe, Dr., <a href="#Page_211">211</a></p>
+
+<p>Lambe, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_410">410</a></p>
+
+<p>Lambeth, <a href="#Page_354">354</a></p>
+
+<p>Lanam, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_408">408</a></p>
+
+<p>Lancashire, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>-<a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>-<a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>-<a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>-<a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>-<a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>-<a href="#Page_319">319</a>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>, <a href="#Page_419">419</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Starchie affair, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>-<a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">trials of 1612, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>-<a href="#Page_130">130</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">trials of 1634, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>-<a href="#Page_156">156</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dugdale affair of 1689, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>-<a href="#Page_319">319</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Lancaster, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Footnote_229-5_10">229 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a></p>
+
+<p>Lancaster, chancellor of the Duchy of, <a href="#Footnote_152-3_18">152 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Landgate, <a href="#Page_414">414</a></p>
+
+<p>Landis, Margaret, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376</a></p>
+
+<p>Land's End, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>-<a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></p>
+
+<p>Langton, Walter, <a href="#Page_6">6</a></p>
+
+<p>Lathom, <a href="#Page_402">402</a></p>
+
+<p>Latimer, John, cited, <a href="#Page_400">400</a></p>
+
+<p>Latton, <a href="#Page_414">414</a></p>
+
+<p>Launceston, <a href="#Footnote_218-1_24">218 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></p>
+
+<p>Lavenham, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>Law, John, <a href="#Footnote_111-1_29">111 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Law, T. G., cited, <a href="#Footnote_74-2_2">74 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_87-1_35">87 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a></p>
+
+<p>Lawe, Alison, <a href="#Page_389">389</a></p>
+
+<p>Lea, H. C., his definition of a witch, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_3-2_3">3 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_99-1_6">99 n.</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Leach, Jeffrey, <a href="#Page_389">389</a></p>
+
+<p>Lecky, W. E. H., <a href="#Page_196">196</a></p>
+
+<p>Lee, Dorothy, <a href="#Page_405">405</a></p>
+
+<p>Leech, Anne, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_379">379</a></p>
+
+<p>Leeds, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a></p>
+
+<p>Leepish, <a href="#Page_401">401</a></p>
+
+<p>Legge, cited, <a href="#Footnote_138-1_25">138 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_225-3_48">225 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Leicester, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Footnote_119-1_53">119 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>-<a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>-<a href="#Page_331">331</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Leicester, Records of the Borough of</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_54-1_28">54 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Leicestershire, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Footnote_133-1_18">133 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>, <a href="#Page_397">397</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Leicestershire and Rutland, Notes and Queries</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_218-3_26">218 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></p>
+
+<p>Levingston, Anne, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></p>
+
+<p>Lewes, <a href="#Page_387">387</a></p>
+
+<p>Lichfield, Bishop of (Walter Langton), <a href="#Page_6">6</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Thomas Morton), <a href="#Page_141">141</a>-<a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[432]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Liebermann, F., cited, <a href="#Footnote_2-1_1">2 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Lincoln, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Footnote_119-1_53">119 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">trials of 1618-1619, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Lincoln, Bishop of, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></p>
+
+<p>Lincolnshire, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a></p>
+
+<p>Lingwood, Joan, <a href="#Page_389">389</a></p>
+
+<p>Linneston, <a href="#Page_401">401</a></p>
+
+<p>Linton, Mrs. Lynn, cited, <a href="#Footnote_29-2_47">29 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_95-1_1">95 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a></p>
+
+<p>Lister, Mr., <a href="#Footnote_111-1_29">111 note</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></p>
+
+<p>Little Gaddesden, <a href="#Page_256">256</a></p>
+
+<p>Liverpool, <a href="#Page_414">414</a></p>
+
+<p>Lloyd, Temperance, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>-<a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>-<a href="#Page_369">369</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416</a></p>
+
+<p>Lloyd, William, Bishop of Worcester, <a href="#Page_340">340</a></p>
+
+<p>Lloynd's wife, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></p>
+
+<p>Lock, John, <a href="#Page_408">408</a></p>
+
+<p>Locke, John, <a href="#Page_340">340</a></p>
+
+<p>Lodge, Edmund, cited, <a href="#Footnote_139-1_27">139 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Lodge, Sir Oliver, <a href="#Page_238">238</a></p>
+
+<p>Londesdale, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_401">401</a></p>
+
+<p>London, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Footnote_30-4_55">30 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Footnote_210-1_12">210 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>-<a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416</a></p>
+
+<p>London, Bishop of, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Footnote_9-3_13">9 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Footnote_30-3_54">30 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See also</i> <a href="#grindall">Grindall, E.</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><a href="#bancroft">Bancroft, R.</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>London Post</i>, cited, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></p>
+
+<p>Long, Sir James, <a href="#Page_268">268</a></p>
+
+<p>Longwitton, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416</a></p>
+
+<p>Lords' <i>Journal</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_102-2_10">102 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_103-1_11">103 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Lord's Prayer, testing of witches by, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a></p>
+
+<p>Lothbury, <a href="#Footnote_30-4_55">30 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_87-2_36">88 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Loudon, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_410">410</a></p>
+
+<p>Louth, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a></p>
+
+<p>Low, Goody, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>Lower, M. A., cited, <a href="#Page_386">386</a></p>
+
+<p>Lowes, John, case of, <a href="#Footnote_165-1_4">165 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>-<a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>, <a href="#Page_379">379</a></p>
+
+<p>Lowestoft, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a></p>
+
+<p>Lowndes, cited, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a></p>
+
+<p>Loy, Margaret, <a href="#Page_414">414</a></p>
+
+<p>Lucas, Hugh, <a href="#Page_112">112</a></p>
+
+<p>Lucas, Jane, <a href="#Footnote_110-3_28">110 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a></p>
+
+<p>Luther, Martin, attitude of, towards exorcism, <a href="#Footnote_87-2_36">87 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Lyme, <a href="#Page_385">385</a></p>
+
+<p>Lynn. <i>See</i> <a href="#lynn">King's Lynn</a><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<p>Mackenzie, E., cited, <a href="#Footnote_259-2_10">259 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416</a></p>
+
+<p>Mackerell, Benjamin, cited, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a></p>
+
+<p>Mackie, S. J., cited, <a href="#Page_386">386</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Magazine of Scandall</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_176-3_27">176 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_197-2_102">197 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Magick, Dorothy, <a href="#Page_398">398</a></p>
+
+<p>Maidstone, cases at, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>-<a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></p>
+
+<p>Maitland, S. R., cited, <a href="#Page_353">353</a></p>
+
+<p>Malborne, Sir John, book of, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></p>
+
+<p>Maldon, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Footnote_70-2_28">70 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Malking Tower, meeting of witches at, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>-<a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a></p>
+
+<p>Mallory, Lady Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></p>
+
+<p>Malmesbury, alarm at, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>-<a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></p>
+
+<p>Malter, wife of, <a href="#Page_385">385</a></p>
+
+<p>Manchester, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="manners" id="manners"></a>Manners, Francis, Earl of Rutland, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>-<a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a></p>
+
+<p>Manners, Lord Francis, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Footnote_134-1_19">134 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Manners, Lord Henry, <a href="#Footnote_134-1_19">134 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Manners, Lady Katherine, <a href="#Footnote_134-1_19">134 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Manningtree, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a></p>
+
+<p>Mansfield, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></p>
+
+<p>Manship, cited, <a href="#Footnote_182-1_51">182 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Manwood, Sir Roger, <a href="#Page_56">56</a></p>
+
+<p>Marchant, Anne, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></p>
+
+<p>Margaret, Mother, <a href="#Footnote_28-2_45">28 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Marks, use of as a test of witchcraft, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>-<a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>-<a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></p>
+
+<p>Martin, Dr., <a href="#Page_323">323</a></p>
+
+<p>Mary I, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Footnote_15-1_21">15 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></p>
+
+<p>Mary, Queen of Scots, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></p>
+
+<p>Mascon, Demon of, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Footnote_337-5_13">337 n.</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[433]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mason, of Faversham, <a href="#Page_54">54</a></p>
+
+<p>Mason, James, and his opinions, <a href="#Footnote_229-4_9">229 n.</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="massachusetts" id="massachusetts"></a>Massachusetts, trials in, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_382">382</a></p>
+
+<p>Mathers, the (Cotton and Increase), <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a></p>
+
+<p>Matthews, Grace, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>-<a href="#Page_217">217</a></p>
+
+<p>Mayhall, John, cited, <a href="#Page_395">395</a></p>
+
+<p>Meakins, Bridget, <a href="#Page_399">399</a></p>
+
+<p>Meere, John, <a href="#Page_390">390</a></p>
+
+<p>Melford, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>Melton, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_393">393</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Mercurius Aulicus</i>, cited, <a href="#Page_403">403</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Mercurius Civicus</i>, cited, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Mercurius Democritus</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_213-1_16">213 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_251-3_81">251 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Mercurius Politicus</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_218-1_24">218 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></p>
+
+<p>Mereweather, Jone, <a href="#Page_413">413</a></p>
+
+<p>Merlin, <a href="#Page_230">230</a></p>
+
+<p>Merril, Goodman, <a href="#Footnote_171-1_16">171 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Merriman, R. B., cited, <a href="#Footnote_74-2_2">74 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Mersam, Rose, <a href="#Page_396">396</a></p>
+
+<p>Mewkarr Church, <a href="#Page_396">396</a></p>
+
+<p>Middlesex, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Footnote_208-4_8">208 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>-<a href="#Page_387">387</a>, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>-<a href="#Page_394">394</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>-<a href="#Page_400">400</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>-<a href="#Page_412">412</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Middlesex County Records</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_21-6_35">21 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_220-2_31">220 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>, and <i>passim</i> thereafter</p>
+
+<p>Middleton, Thomas, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></p>
+
+<p>Midgley, Mary, <a href="#Page_406">406</a></p>
+
+<p>Midwife as a witch, <a href="#Page_21">21</a> and <a href="#Footnote_21-2_31">n.</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>-<a href="#Page_259">259</a></p>
+
+<p>Milburne, Jane, <a href="#Page_279">279</a></p>
+
+<p>Milburne, Margaret, <a href="#Page_415">415</a></p>
+
+<p>Miller, Agnes, <a href="#Page_399">399</a></p>
+
+<p>Mills, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_415">415</a></p>
+
+<p>Mills, Joan, <a href="#Page_414">414</a></p>
+
+<p>Milner, Ralph, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a></p>
+
+<p>Milnes, R. Monckton, <a href="#Footnote_102-1_9">102 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a></p>
+
+<p>Mils, Goody, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>Milton, John, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a></p>
+
+<p>Milton, Miles, <a href="#Page_398">398</a></p>
+
+<p>Mistley-cum-Manningtree, <a href="#Footnote_164-2_2">164 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Mob law, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Moderate Intelligencer</i>, its opinion of the Bury executions in 1645, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>-<a href="#Page_180">180</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_177-2_30">177 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_180-1_41">180 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Molland, Alicia, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></p>
+
+<p>Mompesson affair, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a></p>
+
+<p>Mondaye, Agnes, <a href="#Page_385">385</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="montague" id="montague"></a>Montague, James, Bp. of Winchester, <a href="#Footnote_97-1_4">97 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Montgomery, <a href="#Page_387">387</a></p>
+
+<p>Moone, Margaret, <a href="#Footnote_170-2_15">170 n.</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="moordike" id="moordike"></a>Moordike, Sarah, case of, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>-<a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></p>
+
+<p>Moore, wife of, <a href="#Footnote_189-3_79">189 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a></p>
+
+<p>Moore, Ales, <a href="#Page_395">395</a></p>
+
+<p>Moore, Ann, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></p>
+
+<p>Moore, Mary, <a href="#Page_363">363</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Moore Rental, The</i>, cited, <a href="#Page_414">414</a></p>
+
+<p>Morduck, Sarah. <i>See</i> <a href="#moordike">Moordike</a></p>
+
+<p>More, George, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>-<a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_78-3_12">78 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_79-1_13">79 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_80-1_15">80 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a></span></p>
+
+<p>More, Henry, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>-<a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_211-1_13">211 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a></span></p>
+
+<p>More, Sir Thomas, <a href="#Footnote_58-3_4">59 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Mortimer, Jane, <a href="#Footnote_52-1_26">52 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a></p>
+
+<p>Morton, Margaret, <a href="#Page_408">408</a></p>
+
+<p>Morton, Thomas, Bishop of Lichfield, <a href="#Footnote_141-3_37">141 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></p>
+
+<p>Much, Barfield, <a href="#Page_387">387</a></p>
+
+<p>Muggleton, Lodowick, and witchcraft, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_295-5_29">295 n.</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Munnings, Mother, trial of, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></p>
+
+<p>Muschamp, Mrs., <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a></p>
+
+<p>Muschamp, George, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<p>N., N., <a href="#Footnote_318-5_16">318 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_372">372</a></p>
+
+<p>Nall, J. G., cited, <a href="#Footnote_181-2_47">181 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Napier, Dr., <a href="#Page_400">400</a></p>
+
+<p>Napier, Barbara, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></p>
+
+<p>Nash, J. R., cited, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></p>
+
+<p>Nash, Thomas, cited, <a href="#Footnote_69-1_26">69 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Navestock, <a href="#Page_385">385</a></p>
+
+<p>Naylor, Joane, <a href="#Page_394">394</a></p>
+
+<p>Needham, <a href="#Page_404">404</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[434]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Nelson, Richard, <a href="#Page_394">394</a></p>
+
+<p>Nevelson, Anne, <a href="#Page_395">395</a></p>
+
+<p>New England. <i>See</i> <a href="#massachusetts">Massachusetts</a></p>
+
+<p>New Romney, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></p>
+
+<p>Newbury, <a href="#Page_403">403</a></p>
+
+<p>Newcastle, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>-<a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a></p>
+
+<p>Newell, Sir Henry, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></p>
+
+<p>Newgate, <a href="#Footnote_183-2_58">183 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Newgate, A True and Perfect List of the Prisoners in</i>, cited, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></p>
+
+<p>Newman, Ales, <a href="#Footnote_45-1_17">45 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Newman, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_410">410</a></p>
+
+<p>Newman, William, <a href="#Footnote_45-1_17">45 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Newmarket, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a></p>
+
+<p>Newton, Isaac, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></p>
+
+<p>Nicholas (or Nickless), Jane, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></p>
+
+<p>Nichols, John, cited, <a href="#Footnote_134-1_19">134 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_141-1_35">141 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a></p>
+
+<p>Nicholson, Brinsley, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Footnote_70-1_27">70 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Nicolas, Sir Harris, cited, <a href="#Footnote_8-1_9">8 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Noake, J., <a href="#Page_412">412</a></p>
+
+<p>Noal, Jane, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></p>
+
+<p>Norfolk, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Footnote_200-2_106">200 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>-<a href="#Page_391">391</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>-<a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>-<a href="#Page_406">406</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Norfolk Archćology</i>, cited, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a></p>
+
+<p>Norrington, Alice, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a></p>
+
+<p>Norrington, Mildred, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="north" id="north"></a>North, Francis, Baron Guilford, <a href="#Footnote_269-1_20">269 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a></p>
+
+<p>North, Roger, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_261-1_12">261 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_269-1_20">269 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_271-2_24">271 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_278-1_32">278 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></span></p>
+
+<p>North Allerton, <a href="#Page_400">400</a></p>
+
+<p>North Riding (of Yorkshire), <a href="#Page_117">117</a></p>
+
+<p>North Riding Record Society, <a href="#Footnote_114-1_37">114 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_117-3_49">117 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_162-2_34">162 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Northampton, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>-<a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Footnote_119-1_53">119 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>-<a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Footnote_314-1_2">314 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>-<a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></p>
+
+<p>Northampton, Henry Howard, Earl of, <a href="#Page_352">352</a></p>
+
+<p>Northamptonshire, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Footnote_200-2_106">200 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Northamptonshire Handbook</i>, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>-<a href="#Page_382">382</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Northamptonshire Historical Collections</i>, <a href="#Page_381">381</a></p>
+
+<p>Northfield, Thomas, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></p>
+
+<p>Northfleet, <a href="#Page_394">394</a></p>
+
+<p>Northumberland, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Footnote_208-3_7">208 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416</a></p>
+
+<p>Norton, mother and daughter, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></p>
+
+<p>Norwich, <a href="#Footnote_7-1_7">7 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></p>
+
+<p>Norwich, Bishop of, <a href="#Footnote_7-1_7">7 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Footnote_15-1_21">15 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Notes and Queries</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_164-2_2">164 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_321-2_20">321 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></p>
+
+<p>Nottingham, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>-<a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Nottingham, Records of the Borough of</i>, cited, <a href="#Page_394">394</a></p>
+
+<p>Nottinghamshire, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a></p>
+
+<p>Nowell, Roger, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></p>
+
+<p>Nutter, Alice, trial of, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>-<a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a></p>
+
+<p>Nutter, Christopher, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></p>
+
+<p>Nutter, Robert, <a href="#Page_128">128</a><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<p>Oakham, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></p>
+
+<p>Ogle, Henry, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Footnote_259-2_10">259 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Old Bailey, <a href="#Footnote_108-2_20">108 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a></p>
+
+<p>Oliver, Mary, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></p>
+
+<p>Onslow, Speaker, <a href="#Page_268">268</a></p>
+
+<p>Orchard, widow, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></p>
+
+<p>Orchard, N., <a href="#Footnote_296-3_32">296 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Oriel College, Oxford, <a href="#Page_294">294</a></p>
+
+<p>Orme, W., cited, <a href="#Footnote_337-3_11">337 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Osborne, Francis, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>-<a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>-<a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_141-1_35">141 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Footnote_246-1_60">246 n.</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Owen, John, cited, <a href="#Footnote_287-1_3">287 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Owen, and Blakeway, cited, <a href="#Footnote_21-2_31">21 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a></p>
+
+<p>Oxford, Samuel Parker, Bishop of, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a></p>
+
+<p>Oxford, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Footnote_146-1_1">146 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[435]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Oxford University, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hart Hall, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Oriel College, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Trinity College, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>-<a href="#Page_132">132</a></span><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<p>Pacy, Mr., <a href="#Page_265">265</a></p>
+
+<p>Padiham, <a href="#Footnote_150-1_11">150 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a></p>
+
+<p>Padston, <a href="#Page_388">388</a></p>
+
+<p>Palmer, C. J., cited, <a href="#Footnote_182-1_51">182 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a></p>
+
+<p>Palmer, John, <a href="#Footnote_208-4_8">208 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Pannel, Mary, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a></p>
+
+<p>Paracelsus, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></p>
+
+<p>Paris, University of, formulated theory concerning pacts with Satan, <a href="#Page_3">3</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="parker" id="parker"></a>Parker, Matthew, Archbishop of Canterbury, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Footnote_87-2_36">88 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Parker, Samuel, Bishop of Oxford, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a></p>
+
+<p>Parker, Thomas, Earl of Macclesfield, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>-<a href="#Page_331">331</a>, <a href="#Footnote_332-1_49">332 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_380">380</a></p>
+
+<p>Parkhurst, John, Bishop of Norwich, <a href="#Footnote_15-1_21">15 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Parle, M., <a href="#Page_417">417</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Parliamentary History</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_12-1_17">12 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_102-2_10">102 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Peacock, a schoolmaster, tortured, <a href="#Footnote_115-2_41">115 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a></p>
+
+<p>Peacock, Edward, <a href="#Page_401">401</a></p>
+
+<p>Peacock, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></p>
+
+<p>Pearson, Margaret, <a href="#Page_397">397</a></p>
+
+<p>Pechey, Joan, <a href="#Footnote_45-1_17">45 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Peck, Francis, cited, <a href="#Footnote_172-2_18">172 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a></p>
+
+<p>Peckham, Sir George, <a href="#Footnote_74-1_1">74 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Pelham, <a href="#Footnote_151-2_15">151 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Pellican, cited, <a href="#Footnote_15-1_21">15 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Pemberton, Sir Francis, <a href="#Page_277">277</a></p>
+
+<p>Pembroke, Simon, <a href="#Page_387">387</a></p>
+
+<p>Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></p>
+
+<p>Pendle Hill, or Forest, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_397">397</a></p>
+
+<p>Pepper, Mrs., <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a></p>
+
+<p>Pepys, Samuel, <a href="#Page_309">309</a></p>
+
+<p>Pereson, Jennet, <a href="#Page_385">385</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Perfect Diurnal, A</i>, cited, <a href="#Page_403">403</a></p>
+
+<p>Perkins, William, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>-<a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a></p>
+
+<p>Perry, William, the "boy of Bilston," <a href="#Page_140">140</a>-<a href="#Page_142">142</a></p>
+
+<p>Peter Martyr, <a href="#Footnote_16-1_22">16 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Peter, R. and O. B., cited, <a href="#Footnote_218-1_24">218 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></p>
+
+<p>Peterson, Joan, case of, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>-<a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a></p>
+
+<p>Petty treason, its penalty not to be confused with that of witchcraft, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></p>
+
+<p>Phillips, Goody, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></p>
+
+<p>Phillips, John, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>, <a href="#Page_351">351</a></p>
+
+<p>Phillips, Mary, <a href="#Page_382">382</a></p>
+
+<p>Phippan, Honora, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></p>
+
+<p>Pickering, Gilbert, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Footnote_131-1_14">131 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Pickering, Sir Gilbert, <a href="#Footnote_131-1_14">131 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Pickering, Henry, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></p>
+
+<p>Pickering, Thomas, <a href="#Footnote_228-2_3">228 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Pickerings, the, <a href="#Page_348">348</a></p>
+
+<p>Pico della Mirandola, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></p>
+
+<p>Piers, Anne, <a href="#Page_388">388</a></p>
+
+<p>Pike, L. O., cited, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></p>
+
+<p>Pillory, punishment of, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a></p>
+
+<p>Pilton, Margaret, <a href="#Page_398">398</a></p>
+
+<p>Pinder, Rachel, <a href="#Footnote_30-4_55">30 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a></p>
+
+<p>Pitcairn, Robert, cited, <a href="#Footnote_95-1_1">95 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Plato, <a href="#Page_238">238</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Pleasant Treatise of Witches, A</i>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></p>
+
+<p>Plummer, Colonel, <a href="#Footnote_328-4_39">328 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Poeton, Edward, cited, <a href="#Page_400">400</a></p>
+
+<p>Pole, Arthur, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></p>
+
+<p>Pole, Edmund, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></p>
+
+<p>Pollock and Maitland, cited, <a href="#Page_6">6</a> and <a href="#Footnote_6-1_5">n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_7-1_7">7 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Popham, Sir John, <a href="#Page_354">354</a></p>
+
+<p>Potts, Thomas, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>-<a href="#Page_358">358</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_105-1_15">105</a>-<a href="#Footnote_128-2_11">128 n.</a>, <i>passim</i>, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Powell, Sir John, <a href="#Footnote_272-1_25">272 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>-<a href="#Page_328">328</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>, <a href="#Page_374">374</a></p>
+
+<p>Powell, Lady, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>-<a href="#Page_215">215</a></p>
+
+<p>Powell, William, <a href="#Page_346">346</a></p>
+
+<p>Powle, &mdash;&mdash;, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></p>
+
+<p>Powstead, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>Pregnancy, plea of, in delay of execution, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></p>
+
+<p>Prentice, Joan, <a href="#Page_348">348</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[436]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Presbyterian party, its part in Hopkins crusade, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>-<a href="#Page_201">201</a></p>
+
+<p>Prestall, John, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>, <a href="#Page_397">397</a></p>
+
+<p>Preston, Jennet, <a href="#Footnote_111-1_29">111 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a></p>
+
+<p>Price, Joan, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></p>
+
+<p>Privy Council, its dealings with sorcerers, in the later Middle Ages, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>-<a href="#Page_10">10</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its campaign against conjurers under Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>-<a href="#Page_27">27</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Abingdon trials, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>-<a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Footnote_30-2_53">30 n.</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Chelmsford trials, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dee's case, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>-<a href="#Page_54">54</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Darrel's, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its part in the statute of James I, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in the Lancashire trials of 1633, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in the Somerset cases of 1664, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See also <a href="#acts">Acts of the Privy Council</a></i> and <a href="#council"><i>Council Register</i></a>.</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Protestant Post Boy, The</i>, <a href="#Page_374">374</a></p>
+
+<p>Prowting, Mary, <a href="#Page_402">402</a><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<p>Queen's College, Cambridge, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<p>R., G., <a href="#Page_374">374</a></p>
+
+<p>R., H., <a href="#Page_390">390</a></p>
+
+<p>Rainsford, Sir Richard, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>-<a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>-<a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></p>
+
+<p>Rames, Nicholas, wife of, <a href="#Page_279">279</a></p>
+
+<p>Ramsay, Sir J. R., cited, <a href="#Footnote_9-1_11">9 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Ramsbury, <a href="#Page_389">389</a></p>
+
+<p>Rand, Margaret, <a href="#Page_391">391</a></p>
+
+<p>Randall, <a href="#Page_397">397</a></p>
+
+<p>Randall, of Lavenham, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>Randoll, <a href="#Page_388">388</a></p>
+
+<p>Ratcliffe, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>Ratcliffe, Agnes, <a href="#Footnote_136-2_23">136 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Rattlesden, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>Rawlins, Anna, <a href="#Page_416">416</a></p>
+
+<p>Raymond, Sir Thomas, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>-<a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>-<a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a></p>
+
+<p>Read, Joan, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></p>
+
+<p>Read, Margaret, <a href="#Page_391">391</a></p>
+
+<p>Read, Simon, <a href="#Page_397">397</a></p>
+
+<p>Redfearne, Anne, <a href="#Footnote_126-1_4">126 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>-<a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a></p>
+
+<p>Redman, <a href="#Page_258">258</a></p>
+
+<p>Repington, Philip, Bp. of Lincoln, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></p>
+
+<p>Reresby, Sir John, <a href="#Footnote_272-1_25">272 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Rhymes, Witch, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="rich" id="rich"></a>Rich, Robert, Earl of Warwick, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></p>
+
+<p>Richard III, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></p>
+
+<p>Richardson, M. A., cited, <a href="#Footnote_117-2_48">117 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_219-1_28">219 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></p>
+
+<p>Richmond, of Bramford, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>Richmond (Yorkshire), <a href="#Page_396">396</a></p>
+
+<p>Richmond and Lenox, Duke of, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></p>
+
+<p>Risden, <a href="#Footnote_188-1_74">188 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a></p>
+
+<p>Rivet, John, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></p>
+
+<p>Roach, Clara, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></p>
+
+<p>Roberts, Alexander, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_117-1_47">117 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_231-3_20">231 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.</span></p>
+
+<p>Roberts, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a></p>
+
+<p>Roberts, George, cited, <a href="#Footnote_279-2_34">279 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></p>
+
+<p>Roberts, Joan, <a href="#Page_407">407</a></p>
+
+<p>Robey, Isabel, <a href="#Page_384">384</a></p>
+
+<p>Robinson, Edmund, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>-<a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a></p>
+
+<p>Robson, Jane, <a href="#Page_401">401</a></p>
+
+<p>Rochester, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_388">388</a></p>
+
+<p>Rodes, Sara, <a href="#Page_218">218</a></p>
+
+<p>Rogers, Lydia, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></p>
+
+<p>Roper, Margaret, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a></p>
+
+<p>Rose, Goodwife, <a href="#Page_402">402</a></p>
+
+<p>Rossington, <a href="#Page_396">396</a></p>
+
+<p>Rous, Francis, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></p>
+
+<p>Row, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_415">415</a></p>
+
+<p>Roxburghe Club, cited, <a href="#Footnote_95-1_1">95 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Royal Society, the, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>-<a href="#Page_309">309</a></p>
+
+<p>Royston, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></p>
+
+<p>Ruceulver, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>Rushock, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></p>
+
+<p>Russel, Margaret, <a href="#Page_400">400</a></p>
+
+<p>Rutland, Earl of. <i>See</i> <a href="#manners">Manners</a></p>
+
+<p>Rutlandshire, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></p>
+
+<p>Rutter, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a></p>
+
+<p>Ryder, Agnes, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></p>
+
+<p>Rye, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a></p>
+
+<p>Rylens, Martha, <a href="#Page_416">416</a></p>
+
+<p>Ryley, Josia, <a href="#Page_393">393</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[437]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Rymer, cited, <a href="#Page_7">7</a><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<p>S., Alice, <a href="#Footnote_52-1_26">52 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="sabbath" id="sabbath"></a>Sabbath, the Witch, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>,<a href="#Page_123">123</a>-<a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>-<a href="#Page_282">282</a></p>
+
+<p>Saffron Walden, <a href="#Page_394">394</a></p>
+
+<p>Saint Alban's, <a href="#Footnote_208-4_8">208 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_252-1_82">252 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></p>
+
+<p>Saint Andrew's in Holborne, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a></p>
+
+<p>Saint Giles's, Northampton, <a href="#Page_382">382</a></p>
+
+<p>Saint Giles-in-the-Fields, <a href="#Page_393">393</a></p>
+
+<p>Saint John's, Kent, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>, <a href="#Page_389">389</a></p>
+
+<p>Saint Katharine's, <a href="#Page_394">394</a></p>
+
+<p>Saint Lawrence, <a href="#Page_393">393</a></p>
+
+<p>Saint Leonard's, Shoreditch, <a href="#Page_403">403</a></p>
+
+<p>Saint Martin's-in-the-Fields, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></p>
+
+<p>Saint Mary's, Nottingham, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></p>
+
+<p>Saint Osyth's, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>-<a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_388">388</a></p>
+
+<p>Saint Paul's, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">public penance in, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Saint Paul's, Dean of, <a href="#Footnote_10-2_15">11 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Saint Peter's, Kent, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a></p>
+
+<p>Saint Saviour's, Southwark, <a href="#Page_387">387</a></p>
+
+<p>Salem. <i>See</i> <a href="#massachusetts">Massachusetts</a></p>
+
+<p>Salisbury, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>-<a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></p>
+
+<p>Salisbury, Bishop of. <i>See</i> <a href="#jewel">Jewel, John</a></p>
+
+<p>Salmesbury, witches of, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>-<a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a></p>
+
+<p>Salop (Shropshire), <a href="#Page_387">387</a></p>
+
+<p>Sammon, Margerie, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Footnote_45-1_17">45 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Sampson, Agnes, torture of, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></p>
+
+<p>Samuel, Agnes, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="samuel" id="samuel"></a>Samuel, Alice, trial of, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>-<a href="#Page_51">51</a></p>
+
+<p>Samuel, John, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></p>
+
+<p>Samuel, Mother. <i>See</i> <a href="#samuel">Alice Samuel</a></p>
+
+<p>Samuels, the (of Warboys), <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a></p>
+
+<p>Sandwich, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></p>
+
+<p>Sanford, <a href="#Page_387">387</a></p>
+
+<p>Sawyer, Elizabeth, trial of, <a href="#Footnote_108-2_20">108 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Footnote_136-2_23">136 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a></p>
+
+<p>Scarborough, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></p>
+
+<p>Scarfe, of Rattlesden, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>Schwebel, Johann, <a href="#Footnote_15-1_21">15 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Scory, John, Bishop of Hereford, <a href="#Footnote_15-1_21">15 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Scot, Margery, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></p>
+
+<p>Scot, Reginald, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>-<a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>-<a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Footnote_294-2_24">294 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_20-3_29">20 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_28-1_44">28 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_46-1_18">46 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_296-4_33">296 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>, <a href="#Page_388">388</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Scot, Sir Thomas, <a href="#Page_56">56</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Scotland, Register of the Privy Council of</i>, cited <a href="#Footnote_96-2_3">96 n.</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Scotland and the Commonwealth</i>, cited, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></p>
+
+<p>Scots-Hall, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></p>
+
+<p>Scott, John, cited, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a></p>
+
+<p>Scott, Sir Walter, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_199-1_104">199 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_366">366</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Scottish Dove, The</i>, cited, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>Seaford, <a href="#Page_386">386</a></p>
+
+<p>Seccombe, Thomas, cited, <a href="#Footnote_164-1_1">164 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_181-5_50">181 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Seeze, Betty, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></p>
+
+<p>Selden, John, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>-<a href="#Page_248">248</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_247-6_67">247 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_248-1_68">248 n.</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Serjeantson, Rev. R. M., <a href="#Page_382">382</a></p>
+
+<p>Sewel, William, <a href="#Footnote_296-3_32">296 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Shadbrook, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a></p>
+
+<p>Shadwell, Thomas, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his opinions, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>-<a href="#Page_307">307</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Shakespeare, William, used Harsnett, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">allusions in <i>Twelfth Night</i> of, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his witch-lore, <a href="#Page_243">243</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Shalock, Anthony, <a href="#Footnote_171-1_16">171 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Shaw, Elinor, <a href="#Page_382">382</a></p>
+
+<p>Sheahan, J. J., cited, <a href="#Page_389">389</a></p>
+
+<p>Shelley, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>Shelley, Jane, <a href="#Page_391">391</a></p>
+
+<p>Shepton, Mallet, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></p>
+
+<p>Sherlock, Thomas, <a href="#Page_374">374</a></p>
+
+<p>Ship Tavern, at Greenwich, <a href="#Page_154">154</a></p>
+
+<p>Shore, Jane, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></p>
+
+<p>Shoreditch, <a href="#Page_403">403</a></p>
+
+<p>Shrewsbury, Earl of, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Footnote_19-1_26">19 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></p>
+
+<p>Shrewsbury, Duke of, <a href="#Page_341">341</a></p>
+
+<p>Shropshire (Salop), <a href="#Page_387">387</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Shuttleworths, House and Farm Accounts of the</i>, cited, <a href="#Page_399">399</a></p>
+
+<p>Simmons, Margaret, <a href="#Page_388">388</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[438]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Simpson, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></p>
+
+<p>Simpson, Jane, <a href="#Page_413">413</a></p>
+
+<p>Simpson, Robert, cited, <a href="#Page_396">396</a></p>
+
+<p>Simpson, Susan, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></p>
+
+<p>Sinclar (or Sinclair), George, cited, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a></p>
+
+<p>Skipsey, <a href="#Page_407">407</a></p>
+
+<p>Slade, Anne, <a href="#Page_414">414</a></p>
+
+<p>Slingsby, Sir William, <a href="#Page_400">400</a></p>
+
+<p>Smith, of Chinting, <a href="#Page_387">387</a></p>
+
+<p>Smith, Charlotte Fell, cited, <a href="#Footnote_53-1_27">53 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Smith, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_408">408</a></p>
+
+<p>Smith, Elleine, <a href="#Footnote_39-2_9">39 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></p>
+
+<p>Smith, Gilbert, <a href="#Page_399">399</a></p>
+
+<p>Smith, Mary, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a></p>
+
+<p>Smith, Sir Thomas, <a href="#Footnote_25-2_40">25 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a></p>
+
+<p>Smithfield, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></p>
+
+<p>Smythe, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_406">406</a></p>
+
+<p>Smythe, Katharine, <a href="#Page_386">386</a></p>
+
+<p>Somers, William, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>-<a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a></p>
+
+<p>Somerset, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>-<a href="#Page_419">419</a></p>
+
+<p>Somerset, the protector, repeal of felonies during his protectorate, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attitude of, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Sorcery, distinguished from witchcraft, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>-<a href="#Page_4">4</a></p>
+
+<p>Southampton, <a href="#Page_387">387</a></p>
+
+<p>Southampton, Earl of, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></p>
+
+<p>Southcole, Justice, <a href="#Page_346">346</a></p>
+
+<p>Southcote, John, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></p>
+
+<p>Southerns, Elizabeth. <i>See</i> <a href="#demdike">Demdike</a></p>
+
+<p>Southton, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416</a></p>
+
+<p>Southwark, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></p>
+
+<p>Southwell, Thomas, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></p>
+
+<p>Southworth. <i>See</i> <a href="#thompson">Master Thompson</a></p>
+
+<p>Sowerbutts, Grace, part in Salmesbury cases, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>-<a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Spectator, The</i>, <a href="#Footnote_341-1_22">341 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Spectral evidence, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>-<a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Footnote_131-2_15">131 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>-<a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>-<a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>-<a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Footnote_279-2_34">279 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Speier, <a href="#Footnote_15-1_21">15 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Spencer, Anne, <a href="#Page_402">402</a></p>
+
+<p>Spencer, Mary, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a></p>
+
+<p>Spokes, Helen, <a href="#Page_393">393</a></p>
+
+<p>Staffordshire, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a></p>
+
+<p>Stanford Rivers, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></p>
+
+<p>Stanhope, <a href="#Page_388">388</a></p>
+
+<p>Stanmore, <a href="#Page_390">390</a></p>
+
+<p>Star Chamber, Dee examined by the, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></p>
+
+<p>Starchie, Mrs., <a href="#Footnote_79-1_13">79 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Starchie, John, <a href="#Footnote_149-3_10">149 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Starchie, Nicholas, children of, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>-<a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></p>
+
+<p>Starr, William, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></p>
+
+<p>Stationers' <i>Registers</i>, cited, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="statutes" id="statutes"></a>Statutes:<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">1 Edward VI, cap. xii (repeal of felonies), <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">3 Henry VIII, cap. xi, <a href="#Footnote_10-2_15">10 n.</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">33 Henry VIII, cap. viii, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>-<a href="#Page_12">12</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">5 Elizabeth, cap. xvi, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>-<a href="#Page_102">102</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">1 James I, cap. xii, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>-<a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Staunton, Mother, <a href="#Footnote_39-1_8">39 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a></p>
+
+<p>Stearne, John, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>-<a href="#Page_205">205</a> <i>passim</i> (in text and <a href="#Footnote_164-2_2">notes</a>), <a href="#Page_339">339</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>-<a href="#Page_406">406</a>.</span></p>
+
+<p>Stebbing, Henry, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>, <a href="#Page_375">375</a></p>
+
+<p>Steele, Sir Richard, <a href="#Page_342">342</a></p>
+
+<p>Stephen, Sir J. F., cited, <a href="#Footnote_10-1_14">10 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_11-1_16">11 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Stephen, Leslie, cited, <a href="#Footnote_287-2_4">287 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Stephens, Edward, <a href="#Footnote_339-1_16">339 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Stepney, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></p>
+
+<p>Sterland, Mr., <a href="#Page_83">83</a></p>
+
+<p>Stevens, Margaret, <a href="#Page_415">415</a></p>
+
+<p>Stevens, Maria, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></p>
+
+<p>Stoll, Elmer, cited, <a href="#Footnote_244-1_51">244 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Stonden, <a href="#Page_414">414</a></p>
+
+<p>Stothard, Margaret, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416</a></p>
+
+<p>Stow, John, cited, <a href="#Footnote_59-5_9">59 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a></p>
+
+<p>Stowmarket, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>Stranger, Dorothy, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a></p>
+
+<p>Strangridge, Old, <a href="#Page_238">238</a></p>
+
+<p>Strassburg, <a href="#Footnote_15-1_21">15 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Stratford-at-Bow, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[439]</a></span></p>
+<p>Strotton, <a href="#Page_414">414</a></p>
+
+<p>Strutt, the Rev. Mr., <a href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_375">375</a></p>
+
+<p>Strype, John, cited, <a href="#Footnote_16-1_22">16 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_17-1_23">17 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_25-1_39">25 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_26-1_41">26 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_27-1_43">27 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a></p>
+
+<p>Stuart, Charles, Duke of Richmond and Lenox, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></p>
+
+<p>Studley Hall, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></p>
+
+<p>Style, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a></p>
+
+<p>Sudbury, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>Suffolk, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Footnote_165-1_4">165 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Footnote_176-1_25">176 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Suffolk Institute of Archćology, Proceedings of</i>, <a href="#Footnote_176-1_25">176 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Surey, affair of. <i>See</i> <a href="#dugdale">Dugdale</a></p>
+
+<p>Surrey, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></p>
+
+<p>Sussex, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Sussex Archćological Collections</i>, <a href="#Footnote_283-1_41">283 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></p>
+
+<p>Sussums, Alexander, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>Sutton, <a href="#Page_406">406</a></p>
+
+<p>Sutton, Mary, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>-<a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Footnote_118-1_51">118 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a></p>
+
+<p>Sutton, Mother, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>-<a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>-<a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a></p>
+
+<p>Swan, John, <a href="#Footnote_90-2_40">90 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Page_395">395</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Swan Inn, Maidstone, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></p>
+
+<p>Swane, Goodwife, <a href="#Page_389">389</a></p>
+
+<p>Swinow, Colonel, <a href="#Page_209">209</a></p>
+
+<p>Swinow, Dorothy, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>-<a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a></p>
+
+<p>Swithland, <a href="#Page_399">399</a></p>
+
+<p>Swynbourne, Richard, wife of, <a href="#Page_393">393</a></p>
+
+<p>Sykes, John, cited, <a href="#Footnote_30-1_52">30 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a></p>
+
+<p>Sykes, Mary, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<p>T., R., <a href="#Page_295">295</a></p>
+
+<p>Talbot, Charles, Duke of Shrewsbury, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>-<a href="#Page_342">342</a></p>
+
+<p>Talbot, George, Earl of Shrewsbury, <a href="#Footnote_19-1_26">19 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></p>
+
+<p>Tanner, Joanna, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Tatler, The</i>, <a href="#Footnote_342-2_26">342 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Taunton, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></p>
+
+<p>Taunton-Dean, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></p>
+
+<p>Taylor, Robert, <a href="#Page_170">170</a></p>
+
+<p>Taylor, Zachary, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>-<a href="#Page_318">318</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>, <a href="#Page_373">373</a></p>
+
+<p>Tedsall, Agnes, <a href="#Page_402">402</a></p>
+
+<p>Tedworth, affair of, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>-<a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Footnote_303-2_49">303 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Tempest, Henry, <a href="#Page_218">218</a></p>
+
+<p>Temple, Sir William, <a href="#Page_309">309</a></p>
+
+<p>Tendering, John, <a href="#Footnote_46-3_20">46 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Test of bleeding of dead body, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of repetition of certain words, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of thatch-burning, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of swimming (see <a href="#water">Water, ordeal of</a>)</span></p>
+
+<p>Theodore of Tarsus, <a href="#Page_2">2</a></p>
+
+<p>Therfield, <a href="#Page_374">374</a></p>
+
+<p>Theydon, Mount, <a href="#Page_385">385</a></p>
+
+<p>Thievery and Witchcraft, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a></p>
+
+<p>Thirple, <a href="#Page_374">374</a></p>
+
+<p>Thirsk, <a href="#Page_397">397</a></p>
+
+<p>Thompson, James, cited, <a href="#Footnote_201-1_107">201 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a></p>
+
+<p>Thompson, Katherine, <a href="#Page_395">395</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="thompson" id="thompson"></a>Thompson, Master, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></p>
+
+<p>Thorne, Anne, accuser of Jane Wenham, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>-<a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>-<a href="#Page_336">336</a></p>
+
+<p>Thorneton, Jane, <a href="#Page_386">386</a></p>
+
+<p>Thorpe, Benjamin, cited, <a href="#Footnote_2-1_1">2 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Thrapston, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>-<a href="#Page_185">185</a></p>
+
+<p>Throckmorton, Sir Robert, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></p>
+
+<p>Throckmortons, the, <a href="#Page_348">348</a></p>
+
+<p>Throgmorton, George, <a href="#Page_385">385</a></p>
+
+<p>Throgmorton, Lady Frances, <a href="#Page_384">384</a></p>
+
+<p>Thurlow, Grace, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></p>
+
+<p>Tichmarsh, <a href="#Footnote_131-1_14">131 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Tilbrooke-bushes, <a href="#Footnote_188-1_74">188 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Tilling, Ann, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>-<a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></p>
+
+<p>Tolbooth, the, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></p>
+
+<p>Torture, of Alse Gooderidge, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">by the bootes, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of Peacock, <a href="#Footnote_115-2_41">115 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">perhaps used at Lincoln, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">unknown to English law, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of Lowes, by walking, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>-<a href="#Page_177">177</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hopkins's and Stearne's theory and practice as to, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>-<a href="#Page_204">204</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">advocated by Perkins, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">by scratching, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">by swimming (see <a href="#water">Water, ordeal of</a>)</span></p>
+
+<p>Tottenham, <a href="#Page_399">399</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[440]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Towns, independent jurisdiction of, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>-<a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>-<a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></p>
+
+<p>Townshend, Jane, <a href="#Page_414">414</a></p>
+
+<p>Tradescant, John, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></p>
+
+<p>Transportation of witches through the air, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></p>
+
+<p>Treasure-seekers, <a href="#Page_20">20</a></p>
+
+<p>Tree, <a href="#Page_387">387</a></p>
+
+<p>Trefulback, Stephen, <a href="#Page_391">391</a></p>
+
+<p>Trelawny, Sir Jonathan, Bishop of Exeter, <a href="#Page_321">321</a></p>
+
+<p>Trembles, Mary, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>-<a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>-<a href="#Page_369">369</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416</a></p>
+
+<p>Trinity College, Oxford, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>-<a href="#Page_132">132</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Master of. <i>See</i> <a href="#barrow">Isaac Barrow</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Turner, William, cited, <a href="#Page_405">405</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Twelfth Night</i>, allusions in, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Two Terrible Sea-Fights</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_225-3_48">225 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Tyburn, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a></p>
+
+<p>Tynemouth, <a href="#Page_412">412</a><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<p><i>Underhill, Edward, Autobiography of</i>, cited, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></p>
+
+<p>Upaston, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></p>
+
+<p>Upney, Joan, <a href="#Page_347">347</a></p>
+
+<p>Upsala, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></p>
+
+<p>Urwen, Jane, <a href="#Page_401">401</a></p>
+
+<p>Utley, hanged at Lancaster, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a></p>
+
+<p>Uxbridge, <a href="#Footnote_74-1_1">74 n.</a><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<p>Vairus, Leonardus, <a href="#Footnote_58-2_3">58 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Vallet, Jane, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></p>
+
+<p>Van Helmont, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></p>
+
+<p>Varden, J. T., cited, <a href="#Footnote_194-1_97">194 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Vaughan, Joan, <a href="#Page_384">384</a></p>
+
+<p>Vaughans, the two (Henry and Thomas), <a href="#Page_286">286</a></p>
+
+<p>Vaux, Lord, <a href="#Footnote_74-1_1">74 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Vernon, James, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>-<a href="#Page_342">342</a></p>
+
+<p>Vetter, Theodor, cited, <a href="#Footnote_15-1_21">15 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Vicars, Anne, <a href="#Page_383">383</a></p>
+
+<p>Vickers, K. H., cited, <a href="#Footnote_9-1_11">9 n.</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Victoria History of Essex</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_90-1_39">90 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Virley, John, <a href="#Page_7">7</a><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<p>W., Mother, of Great T., <a href="#Page_395">395</a></p>
+
+<p>W., Mother, of W. H., <a href="#Page_395">395</a></p>
+
+<p>"W. W." and the St. Osyth's pamphlet, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Footnote_62-1_14">62 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Waddam, Margaret, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></p>
+
+<p>Wade, Mary, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></p>
+
+<p>Wade, William, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></p>
+
+<p>Wadham, Thomas, <a href="#Page_388">388</a></p>
+
+<p>Wagg, Ann, <a href="#Page_407">407</a></p>
+
+<p>Wagstaffe, John, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>-<a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a></p>
+
+<p>Wakefield, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>-<a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></p>
+
+<p>Waldingfield, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>Walker, widow, <a href="#Page_387">387</a></p>
+
+<p>Walker, Ellen, <a href="#Page_385">385</a></p>
+
+<p>Walker, John, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>, <a href="#Page_354">354</a></p>
+
+<p>Walker, John (another), cited, <a href="#Page_361">361</a></p>
+
+<p>Walkerne, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></p>
+
+<p>Wallis, Joane, <a href="#Footnote_185-4_68">185 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_187-3_72">187 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Walsh, John, trial of, <a href="#Footnote_31-1_56">31 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Walter, Aliena, <a href="#Page_414">414</a></p>
+
+<p>Walter, Sir John, <a href="#Page_235">235</a></p>
+
+<p>Walton, Colonel Valentine, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Footnote_237-2_34">237 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Wanley, Nathaniel, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_308-1_57">308 n.</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Wapping, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></p>
+
+<p>Warboys, trials at, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>-<a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Footnote_109-2_24">109 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Footnote_229-5_10">229 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a></p>
+
+<p>Warburton, Sir Peter, <a href="#Page_142">142</a></p>
+
+<p>Warburton, Peter, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></p>
+
+<p>Warden of the Cinque Ports, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="warham" id="warham"></a>Warham, William, Abp. of Canterbury, <a href="#Footnote_58-3_4">58 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Warminster, <a href="#Page_398">398</a></p>
+
+<p>Warwick, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a></p>
+
+<p>Warwick, Earl of. <i>See</i> <a href="#rich">Rich</a></p>
+
+<p>Washington, Sir John, <a href="#Page_185">185</a></p>
+
+<p>"Watching" of witches, practised by Hopkins and Stearne, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gaule's description, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stearne's explanation, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stearne's description, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">probably practised on Elizabeth Style, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">practised on a Sussex woman, <a href="#Page_283">283</a></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[441]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><a name="water" id="water"></a>Water, ordeal of, James recommends it, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its use on the Continent, <a href="#Footnote_99-1_6">99 n.</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in reign of James, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>-<a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Footnote_118-1_51">118 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">stopped in Suffolk, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Huntingdonshire, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its use by Hopkins and Stearne, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>-<a href="#Page_192">192</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">story that Hopkins was put to it, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">use at Faversham, <a href="#Footnote_201-2_108">201 n.</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Perkins's opinion, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cotta's, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bernard's, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ady's, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its decline, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">increased use of it as an illegal process, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">forbidden in Jane Wenham's case, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Leicester, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Essex, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>-<a href="#Page_332">332</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">by Holt or Parker, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">by Addison's Sir Roger de Coverley and his chaplain, <a href="#Page_341">341</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Waterhouse, Mother Agnes, trial of, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>-<a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Footnote_40-2_12">40 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a></p>
+
+<p>Waterhouse, Joan, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></p>
+
+<p>Watson, Jane, <a href="#Page_413">413</a></p>
+
+<p>Way, Margaretta, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></p>
+
+<p>Wayt, Mrs., <a href="#Page_174">174</a></p>
+
+<p>Webb, Mrs., <a href="#Page_269">269</a></p>
+
+<p>Webb, Goodwife, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></p>
+
+<p>Webster, John, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Footnote_147-4_5">147 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>-<a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>-<a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_306-1_51">306 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Weech, Christian, <a href="#Page_397">397</a></p>
+
+<p>Weeke, <a href="#Page_413">413</a></p>
+
+<p>Weekes, Christiana, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Weekly Intelligencer</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_213-1_16">213 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a></p>
+
+<p>Weight, Mrs., <a href="#Page_174">174</a></p>
+
+<p>Welfitt, William, cited, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></p>
+
+<p>Wellam, Margaret, <a href="#Page_399">399</a></p>
+
+<p>Wells, <a href="#Page_389">389</a></p>
+
+<p>Wells, Archdeacon of, <a href="#Page_235">235</a></p>
+
+<p>Welton, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></p>
+
+<p>Wenham, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></p>
+
+<p>Wenham, Jane, trial of, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>-<a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>, <a href="#Page_419">419</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">controversy over, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>-<a href="#Page_336">336</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her trial the occasion of Hutchinson's book, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>-<a href="#Page_343">343</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Wentworth, Lord, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></p>
+
+<p>West, Andrew, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></p>
+
+<p>West, Anne, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, and <a href="#Footnote_169-1_12">n.</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a></p>
+
+<p>West, Rebecca, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376</a></p>
+
+<p>West, William, cited, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a></p>
+
+<p>West Ayton, <a href="#Page_402">402</a></p>
+
+<p>West Drayton, <a href="#Page_394">394</a></p>
+
+<p>West Riding, Yorkshire, <a href="#Page_256">256</a></p>
+
+<p>Westminster, disputation of, <a href="#Footnote_16-1_22">16 n.</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">cases at, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Weston, Father, <a href="#Footnote_74-2_2">74 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a></p>
+
+<p>Westpenner, <a href="#Page_388">388</a></p>
+
+<p>Westwell, Old Alice of, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="weyer" id="weyer"></a>Weyer (Wier, Wierus), Johann, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Footnote_79-2_14">79 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Footnote_229-5_10">229 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Whitaker, Thomas D., cited, <a href="#Footnote_147-4_5">147 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>White, Joan, <a href="#Page_391">391</a></p>
+
+<p>Whitechapel, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>-<a href="#Page_410">410</a></p>
+
+<p>Whitecrosse Street, <a href="#Page_396">396</a></p>
+
+<p><a name="whitgift" id="whitgift"></a>Whitgift, John, Archbishop of Canterbury, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Footnote_87-2_36">88 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Whitehall, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></p>
+
+<p>Whitelocke, Bulstrode, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Footnote_252-2_83">252 n.</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_172-1_17">172 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_179-4_39">179 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_181-1_46">181 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_201-1_107">201 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_206-1_1">206 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_207-2_3">207 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Wickham, William, Bishop of Lincoln, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></p>
+
+<p>Widdowes, Thomas, cited, <a href="#Page_366">366</a></p>
+
+<p>Widdrington, Thomas, <a href="#Footnote_207-2_3">207 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Wier, Wierus. <i>See</i> <a href="#weyer">Weyer</a></p>
+
+<p>Wigan, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></p>
+
+<p>Wildridge, T. T., cited, <a href="#Footnote_137-1_24">137 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Wilkins, David, cited, <a href="#Footnote_10-1_14">10 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Wilkinson, Anne, <a href="#Page_414">414</a></p>
+
+<p>Williams, Katherine, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></p>
+
+<p>Williams, Robert, cited, <a href="#Page_399">399</a></p>
+
+<p>Williford, Joan, <a href="#Footnote_201-2_108">201 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a></p>
+
+<p>Willimot, Joan, <a href="#Footnote_119-1_53">119 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_133-1_18">133 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a></p>
+
+<p>Wilson, Alice, <a href="#Footnote_109-2_24">109 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Wilson, Arthur, <a href="#Footnote_143-3_45">143 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_172-2_18">172 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Wilts, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Footnote_269-1_20">269 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>-<a href="#Page_414">414</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>-<a href="#Page_419">419</a></p>
+
+<p>Wimblington, <a href="#Page_406">406</a></p>
+
+<p>Winch, Sir Humphrey, <a href="#Page_142">142</a></p>
+
+<p>Winchester, Bishop of. <i>See</i> <a href="#bilson">Thomas Bilson</a>, and <a href="#montague">James Montague</a></p>
+
+<p>Winchester Park, <a href="#Footnote_257-4_7">257 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Windebank, Secretary, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a></p>
+
+<p>Windsor, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a></p>
+
+<p>Windsor, Dean of, and Abingdon trials, <a href="#Page_28">28</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[442]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Wingerworth, <a href="#Page_416">416</a></p>
+
+<p>Witchall, Judith, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></p>
+
+<p>Witchfinder, Darrel as a, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>-<a href="#Page_83">83</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hopkins as a, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>-<a href="#Page_205">205</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a Scotch pricker as a, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>-<a href="#Page_208">208</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ann Armstrong as a, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>-<a href="#Page_282">282</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Wolsey, Thomas, Abp. of York, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Footnote_58-3_4">59 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Women, proportion of to men in indictments for witchcraft, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of wives to spinsters and to widows, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>-<a href="#Page_115">115</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Wood, Anthony ŕ, cited, <a href="#Footnote_295-1_25">295 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_366">366</a></p>
+
+<p>Wood, Joan, <a href="#Page_386">386</a></p>
+
+<p>Woodbridge, <a href="#Page_392">392</a></p>
+
+<p>Woodbury, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></p>
+
+<p>Woodhouse, Doctor, <a href="#Page_257">257</a></p>
+
+<p>Woodstock, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></p>
+
+<p>Wooler, <a href="#Page_395">395</a></p>
+
+<p>Worcester, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></p>
+
+<p>Worcester, Bishop of, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a></p>
+
+<p>Worcestershire, <a href="#Footnote_208-4_8">208 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Worthington, John, cited, <a href="#Footnote_180-5_45">180 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Wright, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Footnote_78-1_10">78 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a></p>
+
+<p>Wright, Grace, <a href="#Page_405">405</a></p>
+
+<p>Wright, Katherine, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a></p>
+
+<p>Wright, Thomas, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Footnote_188-3_76">188 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <a href="#Footnote_2-1_1">2 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_6-2_6">6 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_7-1_7">7 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_9-1_11">9 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_19-1_26">19 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_25-2_40">25 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_95-1_1">95 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_100-2_8">100 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_147-4_5">147 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Wrottesley, Lord, <a href="#Footnote_162-2_34">162 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Wylde, John, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></p>
+
+<p>Wynnick, John, <a href="#Footnote_185-4_68">185 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_187-3_72">187 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<p><a name="yarmouth" id="yarmouth"></a>Yarmouth, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See also</i> <a href="#great">Yarmouth, Great</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Yarmouth, Great, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></p>
+
+<p>York, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Footnote_229-5_10">229 n.</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></p>
+
+<p>York, Archbishop of, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></p>
+
+<p>York Castle, <a href="#Page_258">258</a></p>
+
+<p><i>York Depositions</i>, <a href="#Footnote_218-4_27">218 n.</a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cited, <i>passim</i> thereafter</span></p>
+
+<p>Yorkshire, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>-<a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>-<a href="#Page_397">397</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>-<a href="#Page_411">411</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>-<a href="#Page_416">416</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Yorkshire Notes and Queries</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_257-4_7">257 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Young, Margareta, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></p>
+
+<p>Young, Ruth, <a href="#Page_418">418</a><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<p>Zurich, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Footnote_15-1_21">15 n.</a>, <a href="#Footnote_87-2_36">87 n.</a></p>
+
+<p><i>Zurich Letters</i>, cited, <a href="#Footnote_16-1_22">17 n.</a></p>
+
+<p>Zweibrücken, <a href="#Footnote_15-1_21">15 n.</a></p>
+
+<div class="microspace">&nbsp;</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A History of Witchcraft in England
+from 1558 to 1718, by Wallace Notestein
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITCHCRAFT ***
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A History of Witchcraft in England from
+1558 to 1718, by Wallace Notestein
+
+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: A History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718
+
+Author: Wallace Notestein
+
+Release Date: March 5, 2010 [EBook #31511]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITCHCRAFT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Brian Janes, Meredith Bach,
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ PRIZE ESSAYS
+ OF THE
+ AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
+
+ 1909
+
+
+
+ To this Essay was awarded the
+ Herbert Baxter Adams Prize
+ in European History
+ for 1909
+
+
+
+ A HISTORY
+ OF
+ WITCHCRAFT IN ENGLAND
+ FROM 1558 TO 1718
+
+ BY
+ WALLACE NOTESTEIN
+ ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
+
+
+ PUBLISHED BY
+ THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
+ WASHINGTON, 1911
+
+
+
+ COPYRIGHT, 1911
+ BY THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
+ WASHINGTON, D.C.
+
+ THE LORD BALTIMORE PRESS
+ BALTIMORE, M.D., U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+In its original form this essay was the dissertation submitted for a
+doctorate in philosophy conferred by Yale University in 1908. When first
+projected it was the writer's purpose to take up the subject of English
+witchcraft under certain general political and social aspects. It was
+not long, however, before he began to feel that preliminary to such a
+treatment there was necessary a chronological survey of the witch
+trials. Those strange and tragic affairs were so closely involved with
+the politics, literature, and life of the seventeenth century that one
+is surprised to find how few of them have received accurate or complete
+record in history. It may be said, in fact, that few subjects have
+gathered about themselves so large concretions of misinformation as
+English witchcraft. This is largely, of course, because so little
+attention has been given to it by serious students of history. The
+mistakes and misunderstandings of contemporary writers and of the local
+historians have been handed down from county history to county history
+until many of them have crept into general works. For this reason it was
+determined to attempt a chronological treatment which would give a
+narrative history of the more significant trials along with some account
+of the progress of opinion. This plan has been adhered to somewhat
+strictly, sometimes not without regret upon the part of the writer. It
+is his hope later in a series of articles to deal with some of the more
+general phases of the subject, with such topics as the use of torture,
+the part of the physicians, the contagious nature of the witch alarms,
+the relation of Puritanism to persecution, the supposed influence of the
+Royal Society, the general causes for the gradual decline of the belief,
+and other like questions. It will be seen in the course of the narrative
+that some of these matters have been touched upon.
+
+This study of witchcraft has been limited to a period of about one
+hundred and sixty years in English history. The year 1558 has been
+chosen as the starting point because almost immediately after the
+accession of Elizabeth there began the movement for a new law, a
+movement which resulted in the statute of 1563. With that statute the
+history of the persecution of witches gathers importance. The year 1718
+has been selected as a concluding date because that year was marked by
+the publication of Francis Hutchinson's notable attack upon the belief.
+Hutchinson levelled a final and deadly blow at the dying superstition.
+Few men of intelligence dared after that avow any belief in the reality
+of witchcraft; it is probable that very few even secretly cherished such
+a belief. A complete history would of course include a full account both
+of the witch trials from Anglo-Saxon times to Elizabeth's accession and
+of the various witch-swimming incidents of the eighteenth century. The
+latter it has not seemed worth while here to consider. The former would
+involve an examination of all English sources from the earliest times
+and would mean a study of isolated and unrelated trials occurring at
+long intervals (at least, we have record only of such) and chiefly in
+church courts. The writer has not undertaken to treat this earlier
+period; he must confess to but small knowledge of it. In the few pages
+which he has given to it he has attempted nothing more than to sketch
+from the most obvious sources an outline of what is currently known as
+to English witches and witchcraft prior to the days of Elizabeth. It is
+to be hoped that some student of medieval society will at some time make
+a thorough investigation of the history of witchcraft in England to the
+accession of the great Queen.
+
+For the study of the period to be covered in this monograph there exists
+a wealth of material. It would perhaps not be too much to say that
+everything in print and manuscript in England during the last half of
+the sixteenth and the entire seventeenth century should be read or at
+least glanced over. The writer has limited himself to certain kinds of
+material from which he could reasonably expect to glean information.
+These sources fall into seven principal categories. Most important of
+all are the pamphlets, or chapbooks, dealing with the history of
+particular alarms and trials and usually concluding with the details of
+confession and execution. Second only to them in importance are the
+local or municipal records, usually court files, but sometimes merely
+expense accounts. In the memoirs and diaries can be found many mentions
+of trials witnessed by the diarist or described to him. The newspapers
+of the time, in their eagerness to exploit the unusual, seize gloatingly
+upon the stories of witchcraft. The works of local historians and
+antiquarians record in their lists of striking and extraordinary events
+within their counties or boroughs the several trials and hangings for
+the crime. The writers, mainly theologians, who discuss the theory and
+doctrine of witchcraft illustrate the principles they lay down by cases
+that have fallen under their observation. Lastly, the state papers
+contain occasional references to the activities of the Devil and of his
+agents in the realm.
+
+Besides these seven types of material there should be named a few others
+less important. From the pamphlet accounts of the criminal dockets at
+the Old Bailey and Newgate, leaflets which were published at frequent
+intervals after the Restoration, are to be gleaned mentions of perhaps
+half a dozen trials for witchcraft. The plays of Dekker, Heywood, and
+Shadwell must be used by the student, not because they add information
+omitted elsewhere, but because they offer some clue to the way in which
+the witches at Edmonton and Lancaster were regarded by the public. If
+the pamphlet narrative of the witch of Edmonton had been lost, it might
+be possible to reconstruct from the play of Dekker, Ford, and Rowley
+some of the outlines of the story. It would be at best a hazardous
+undertaking. To reconstruct the trials at Lancaster from the plays of
+Heywood and Brome or from that of Shadwell would be quite impossible.
+The ballads present a form of evidence much like that of the plays. Like
+the plays, they happen all to deal with cases about which we are already
+well informed. In general, they seem to follow the narratives and
+depositions faithfully.
+
+No mention has been made of manuscript sources. Those used by the author
+have all belonged to one or other of the types of material described.
+
+It has been remarked that there is current a large body of
+misinformation about English witchcraft. It would be ungrateful of the
+author not to acknowledge that some very good work has been done on the
+theme. The Reverend Francis Hutchinson, as already mentioned, wrote in
+1718 an epoch-making history of the subject, a book which is still
+useful and can never be wholly displaced. In 1851 Thomas Wright brought
+out his _Narratives of Sorcery and Magic_, a work at once entertaining
+and learned. Wright wrote largely from original sources and wrote with a
+good deal of care. Such blunders as he made were the result of haste and
+of the want of those materials which we now possess. Mrs. Lynn Linton's
+_Witch Stories_, published first in 1861, is a better book than might be
+supposed from a casual glance at it. It was written with no more serious
+purpose than to entertain, but it is by no means to be despised. So far
+as it goes, it represents careful work. It would be wrong to pass over
+Lecky's brilliant essay on witchcraft in his _History of Rationalism_,
+valuable of course rather as an interpretation than as an historical
+account. Lecky said many things about witchcraft that needed to be said,
+and said them well. It is my belief that his verdicts as to the
+importance of sundry factors may have to be modified; but, however that
+be, the importance of his essay must always be recognized. One must not
+omit in passing James Russell Lowell's charming essay on the subject.
+Both Lecky and Lowell of course touched English witchcraft but lightly.
+Since Mrs. Lynn Linton's no careful treatment of English witchcraft
+proper has appeared. In 1907, however, Professor Kittredge published his
+_Notes on Witchcraft_, the sixty-seven pages of which with their
+footnotes contain a more scrupulous sifting of the evidence as to
+witchcraft in England than is to be found in any other treatment.
+Professor Kittredge is chiefly interested in English witchcraft as it
+relates itself to witchcraft in New England, but his work contains much
+that is fresh about the belief in England. As to the role and the
+importance of various actors in the drama and as to sundry minor
+matters, the writer has found himself forced to divergence of view. He
+recognizes nevertheless the importance of Professor Kittredge's
+contribution to the study of the whole subject and acknowledges his own
+indebtedness to the essay for suggestion and guidance.
+
+The author cannot hope that the work here presented is final.
+Unfortunately there is still hidden away in England an unexplored mass
+of local records. Some of them no doubt contain accounts of witch
+trials. I have used chiefly such printed and manuscript materials as
+were accessible in London and Oxford. Some day perhaps I may find time
+to go the rounds of the English counties and search the masses of gaol
+delivery records and municipal archives. From the really small amount of
+new material on the subject brought to light by the Historical
+Manuscripts Commission and by the publication of many municipal records,
+it seems improbable that such a search would uncover so many unlisted
+trials as seriously to modify the narrative. Nevertheless until such a
+search is made no history of the subject has the right to be counted
+final. Mr. Charles W. Wallace, the student of Shakespeare, tells me that
+in turning over the multitudinous records of the Star Chamber he found a
+few witch cases. Professor Kittredge believes that there is still a
+great deal of such material to be turned up in private collections and
+local archives. Any information on this matter which any student of
+English local history can give me will be gratefully received.
+
+I wish to express my thanks for reading parts of the manuscript to
+William Savage Johnson of Kansas University and to Miss Ada Comstock of
+the University of Minnesota. For general assistance and advice on the
+subject I am under obligations to Professor Wilbur C. Abbott and to
+Professor George Burton Adams of Yale University. It is quite impossible
+to say how very much I owe to Professor George L. Burr of Cornell. From
+cover to cover the book, since the award to it of the Adams Prize, has
+profited from his painstaking criticism and wise suggestion.
+
+
+                                                                 W. N.
+
+Minneapolis, _October 10, 1911_.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                                                  PAGE
+
+ Preface                                                             v
+
+ CHAPTER I.
+
+ The Beginnings of English Witchcraft                                1
+
+ CHAPTER II.
+
+ Witchcraft under Elizabeth                                         33
+
+ CHAPTER III.
+
+ Reginald Scot                                                      57
+
+ CHAPTER IV.
+
+ The Exorcists                                                      73
+
+ CHAPTER V.
+
+ James I and Witchcraft                                             93
+
+ CHAPTER VI.
+
+ Notable Jacobean Cases                                            120
+
+ CHAPTER VII.
+
+ The Lancashire Witches and Charles I                              146
+
+ CHAPTER VIII.
+
+ Matthew Hopkins                                                   164
+
+ CHAPTER IX.
+
+ Witchcraft during the Commonwealth and Protectorate               206
+
+ CHAPTER X.
+
+ The Literature of Witchcraft from 1603 to 1660                    227
+
+ CHAPTER XI.
+
+ Witchcraft under Charles II and James II                          254
+
+ CHAPTER XII.
+
+ Glanvill and Webster and the Literary War over
+ Witchcraft, 1660-1688                                             284
+
+ CHAPTER XIII.
+
+ The Final Decline                                                 313
+
+ CHAPTER XIV.
+
+ The Close of the Literary Controversy                             334
+
+ Appendices                                                        345
+
+ A. Pamphlet Literature                                            345
+
+ B. List of Persons Sentenced to Death for
+ Witchcraft during the Reign of James I                            383
+
+ C. List of Cases of Witchcraft, 1558-1717,
+ with References to Sources and Literature                         384
+
+ Index                                                             421
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT.
+
+
+It has been said by a thoughtful writer that the subject of witchcraft
+has hardly received that place which it deserves in the history of
+opinions. There has been, of course, a reason for this neglect--the fact
+that the belief in witchcraft is no longer existent among intelligent
+people and that its history, in consequence, seems to possess rather an
+antiquarian than a living interest. No one can tell the story of the
+witch trials of sixteenth and seventeenth century England without
+digging up a buried past, and the process of exhumation is not always
+pleasant. Yet the study of English witchcraft is more than an unsightly
+exposure of a forgotten superstition. There were few aspects of
+sixteenth and seventeenth century life that were not affected by the
+ugly belief. It is quite impossible to grasp the social conditions, it
+is impossible to understand the opinions, fears, and hopes of the men
+and women who lived in Elizabethan and Stuart England, without some
+knowledge of the part played in that age by witchcraft. It was a matter
+that concerned all classes from the royal household to the ignorant
+denizens of country villages. Privy councillors anxious about their
+sovereign and thrifty peasants worrying over their crops, clergymen
+alert to detect the Devil in their own parishes, medical quacks eager to
+profit by the fear of evil women, justices of the peace zealous to beat
+down the works of Satan--all classes, indeed--believed more or less
+sincerely in the dangerous powers of human creatures who had
+surrendered themselves to the Evil One.
+
+Witchcraft, in a general and vague sense, was something very old in
+English history. In a more specific and limited sense it is a
+comparatively modern phenomenon. This leads us to a definition of the
+term. It is a definition that can be given adequately only in an
+historical way. A group of closely related and somewhat ill defined
+conceptions went far back. Some of them, indeed, were to be found in the
+Old Testament, many of them in the Latin and Greek writers. The word
+witchcraft itself belonged to Anglo-Saxon days. As early as the seventh
+century Theodore of Tarsus imposed penances upon magicians and
+enchanters, and the laws, from Alfred on, abound with mentions of
+witchcraft.[1] From these passages the meaning of the word witch as used
+by the early English may be fairly deduced. The word was the current
+English term for one who used spells and charms, who was assisted by
+evil spirits to accomplish certain ends. It will be seen that this is by
+no means the whole meaning of the term in later times. Nothing is yet
+said about the transformation of witches into other shapes, and there is
+no mention of a compact, implicit or otherwise, with the Devil; there is
+no allusion to the nocturnal meetings of the Devil's worshippers and to
+the orgies that took place upon those occasions; there is no elaborate
+and systematic theological explanation of human relations with demons.
+
+But these notions were to reach England soon enough. Already there were
+germinating in southern Europe ideas out of which the completer notions
+were to spring. As early as the close of the ninth century certain
+Byzantine traditions were being introduced into the West. There were
+legends of men who had made written compacts with the Devil, men whom he
+promised to assist in this world in return for their souls in the
+next.[2] But, while such stories were current throughout the Middle
+Ages, the notion behind them does not seem to have been connected with
+the other features of what was to make up the idea of witchcraft until
+about the middle of the fourteenth century. It was about that time that
+the belief in the "Sabbat" or nocturnal assembly of the witches made its
+appearance.[3] The belief grew up that witches rode through the air to
+these meetings, that they renounced Christ and engaged in foul forms of
+homage to Satan. Lea tells us that towards the close of the century the
+University of Paris formulated the theory that a pact with Satan was
+inherent in all magic, and judges began to connect this pact with the
+old belief in night riders through the air. The countless confessions
+that resulted from the carefully framed questions of the judges served
+to develop and systematize the theory of the subject. The witch was much
+more than a sorcerer. Sorcerers had been those who, through the aid of
+evil spirits, by the use of certain words or of representations of
+persons or things produced changes above the ordinary course of nature.
+"The witch," says Lea, "has abandoned Christianity, has renounced her
+baptism, has worshipped Satan as her God, has surrendered herself to
+him, body and soul, and exists only to be his instrument in working the
+evil to her fellow creatures which he cannot accomplish without a human
+agent."[4] This was the final and definite notion of a witch. It was the
+conception that controlled European opinion on the subject from the
+latter part of the fourteenth to the close of the seventeenth century.
+It was, as has been seen, an elaborate theological notion that had grown
+out of the comparatively simple and vague ideas to be found in the
+scriptural and classical writers.
+
+It may well be doubted whether this definite and intricate theological
+notion of witchcraft reached England so early as the fourteenth century.
+Certainly not until a good deal later--if negative evidence is at all
+trustworthy--was a clear distinction made between sorcery and
+witchcraft. The witches searched for by Henry IV, the professor of
+divinity, the friar, the clerk, and the witch of Eye, who were hurried
+before the Council of Henry VI, that unfortunate Duchess of Gloucester
+who had to walk the streets of London, the Duchess of Bedford, the
+conspirators against Edward IV who were supposed to use magic, the
+unlucky mistress of Edward IV--none of these who through the course of
+two centuries were charged with magical misdeeds were, so far as we
+know, accused of those dreadful relations with the Devil, the nauseating
+details of which fill out the later narratives of witch history.
+
+The truth seems to be that the idea of witchcraft was not very clearly
+defined and differentiated in the minds of ordinary Englishmen until
+after the beginning of legislation upon the subject. It is not
+impossible that there were English theologians who could have set forth
+the complete philosophy of the belief, but to the average mind sorcery,
+conjuration, enchantment, and witchcraft were but evil ways of mastering
+nature. All that was changed when laws were passed. With legislation
+came greatly increased numbers of accusations; with accusations and
+executions came treatises and theory. Continental writers were
+consulted, and the whole system and science of the subject were soon
+elaborated for all who read.
+
+With the earlier period, which has been sketched merely by way of
+definition, this monograph cannot attempt to deal. It limits itself to a
+narrative of the witch trials, and incidentally of opinion as to
+witchcraft, after there was definite legislation by Parliament. The
+statute of the fifth year of Elizabeth's reign marks a point in the
+history of the judicial persecution at which an account may very
+naturally begin. The year 1558 has been selected as the date because
+from the very opening of the reign which was to be signalized by the
+passing of that statute and was to be characterized by a serious effort
+to enforce it, the persecution was preparing.
+
+Up to that time the crime of sorcery had been dealt with in a few early
+instances by the common-law courts, occasionally (where politics were
+involved) by the privy council, but more usually, it is probable, by the
+church. This, indeed, may easily be illustrated from the works of law.
+Britton and Fleta include an inquiry about sorcerers as one of the
+articles of the sheriff's tourn. A note upon Britton, however, declares
+that it is for the ecclesiastical court to try such offenders and to
+deliver them to be put to death in the king's court, but that the king
+himself may proceed against them if he pleases.[5] While there is some
+overlapping of procedure implied by this, the confusion seems to have
+been yet greater in actual practice. A brief narrative of some cases
+prior to 1558 will illustrate the strangely unsettled state of
+procedure. Pollock and Maitland relate several trials to be found in the
+early pleas. In 1209 one woman accused another of sorcery in the king's
+court and the defendant cleared herself by the ordeal. In 1279 a man
+accused of killing a witch who assaulted him in his house was fined, but
+only because he had fled away. Walter Langton, Bishop of Lichfield and
+treasurer of Edward I, was accused of sorcery and homage to Satan and
+cleared himself with the compurgators. In 1325 more than twenty men were
+indicted and tried by the king's bench for murder by tormenting a waxen
+image. All of them were acquitted. In 1371 there was brought before the
+king's bench an inhabitant of Southwark who was charged with sorcery,
+but he was finally discharged on swearing that he would never be a
+sorcerer.[6]
+
+It will be observed that these early cases were all of them tried in the
+secular courts; but there is no reason to doubt that the ecclesiastical
+courts were quite as active, and their zeal must have been quickened by
+the statute of 1401, which in cases of heresy made the lay power their
+executioner. It was at nearly the same time, however, that the charge of
+sorcery began to be frequently used as a political weapon. In such
+cases, of course, the accused was usually a person of influence and the
+matter was tried in the council. It will be seen, then, that the crime
+was one that might fall either under ecclesiastical or conciliar
+jurisdiction and the particular circumstances usually determined finally
+the jurisdiction. When Henry IV was informed that the diocese of Lincoln
+was full of sorcerers, magicians, enchanters, necromancers, diviners,
+and soothsayers, he sent a letter to the bishop requiring him to search
+for sorcerers and to commit them to prison after conviction, or even
+before, if it should seem expedient.[7] This was entrusting the matter
+to the church, but the order was given by authority of the king, not
+improbably after the matter had been discussed in the council. In the
+reign of Henry VI conciliar and ecclesiastical authorities both took
+part at different times and in different ways. Thomas Northfield, a
+member of the Order of Preachers in Worcester and a professor of
+divinity, was brought before the council, together with all suspected
+matter belonging to him, and especially his books treating of sorcery.
+Pike does not tell us the outcome.[8] In the same year there were
+summoned before the council three humbler sorcerers, Margery Jourdemain,
+John Virley, a cleric, and John Ashwell, a friar of the Order of the
+Holy Cross. It would be hard to say whether the three were in any way
+connected with political intrigue. It is possible that they were
+suspected of sorcery against the sovereign. They were all, however,
+dismissed on giving security.[9] It was only a few years after this
+instance of conciliar jurisdiction that a much more important case was
+turned over to the clergy. The story of Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of
+Gloucester, is a familiar one. It was determined by the enemies of Duke
+Humphrey of Gloucester to attack him through his wife, who was believed
+to be influential with the young king. The first move was made by
+arresting a Roger Bolingbroke who had been connected with the duke and
+the duchess, and who was said to be an astronomer or necromancer. It was
+declared that he had cast the duchess's horoscope with a view to
+ascertaining her chances to the throne. Bolingbroke made confession, and
+Eleanor was then brought before "certayne bisshoppis of the kyngis." In
+the mean time several lords, members of the privy council, were
+authorized to "enquire of al maner tresons, sorcery, and alle othir
+thyngis that myghte in eny wise ... concerne harmfulli the kyngis
+persone."[10] Bolingbroke and a clergyman, Thomas Southwell, were
+indicted of treason with the duchess as accessory. With them was accused
+that Margery Jourdemain who had been released ten years before. Eleanor
+was then reexamined before the Bishops of London, Lincoln, and Norwich,
+she was condemned as guilty, and required to walk barefoot through the
+streets of London, which she "dede righte mekely." The rest of her life
+she spent in a northern prison. Bolingbroke was executed as a traitor,
+and Margery Jourdemain was burnt at Smithfield.[11]
+
+The case of the Duchess of Bedford--another instance of the connection
+between sorcery and political intrigue--fell naturally into the hands of
+the council. It was believed by those who could understand in no other
+way the king's infatuation that he had been bewitched by the mother of
+the queen. The story was whispered from ear to ear until the duchess got
+wind of it and complained to the council against her maligners. The
+council declared her cleared of suspicion and ordered that the decision
+should be "enacted of record."[12]
+
+The charge of sorcery brought by the protector Richard of Gloucester
+against Jane Shore, who had been the mistress of Edward IV, never came
+to trial and in consequence illustrates neither ecclesiastical nor
+conciliar jurisdiction. It is worthy of note however that the accusation
+was preferred by the protector--who was soon to be Richard III--in the
+council chamber.[13]
+
+It will be seen that these cases prove very little as to procedure in
+the matter of sorcery and witchcraft. They are cases that arose in a
+disturbed period and that concerned chiefly people of note. That they
+were tried before the bishops or before the privy council does not mean
+that all such charges were brought into those courts. There must have
+been less important cases that were never brought before the council or
+the great ecclesiastical courts. It seems probable--to reason backward
+from later practice--that less important trials were conducted almost
+exclusively by the minor church courts.[14]
+
+This would at first lead us to suspect that, when the state finally
+began to legislate against witchcraft by statute, it was endeavoring to
+wrest jurisdiction of the crime out of the hands of the church and to
+put it into secular hands. Such a supposition, however, there is nothing
+to justify. It seems probable, on the contrary, that the statute enacted
+in the reign of Henry VIII was passed rather to support the church in
+its struggle against sorcery and witchcraft than to limit its
+jurisdiction in the matter. It was to assist in checking these
+practitioners that the state stepped in. At another point in this
+chapter we shall have occasion to note the great interest in sorcery and
+all kindred subjects that was springing up over England, and we shall at
+times observe some of the manifestations of this interest as well as
+some of the causes for it. Here it is necessary only to urge the
+importance of this interest as accounting for the passage of a
+statute.[15]
+
+Chapter VIII of 33 Henry VIII states its purpose clearly: "Where,"
+reads the preamble, "dyvers and sundrie persones unlawfully have devised
+and practised Invocacions and conjuracions of Sprites, pretendyng by
+suche meanes to understande and get Knowlege for their owne lucre in
+what place treasure of golde and Silver shulde or mought be founde or
+had ... and also have used and occupied wichecraftes, inchauntmentes and
+sorceries to the distruccion of their neighbours persones and goodes." A
+description was given of the methods practised, and it was enacted that
+the use of any invocation or conjuration of spirits, witchcrafts,
+enchantments, or sorceries should be considered felony.[16] It will be
+observed that the law made no graduation of offences. Everything was
+listed as felony. No later piece of legislation on the subject was so
+sweeping in its severity.
+
+The law remained on the statute-book only six years. In the early part
+of the reign of Edward VI, when the protector Somerset was in power, a
+policy of great leniency in respect to felonies was proposed. In
+December of 1547 a bill was introduced into Parliament to repeal certain
+statutes for treason and felony. "This bill being a matter of great
+concern to every subject, a committee was appointed, consisting of the
+Archbishop of Canterbury, the lord chancellor, the lord chamberlain, the
+Marquis of Dorset, the Earls of Shrewsbury and Southampton, the Bishops
+of Ely, Lincoln, and Worcester, the Lords Cobham, Clinton, and
+Wentworth, with certain of the king's learned council; all which
+noblemen were appointed to meet a committee of the Commons ... in order
+to treat and commune on the purport of the said bill."[17] The Commons,
+it seems, had already prepared a bill of their own, but this they were
+willing to drop and the Lords' measure with some amendments was finally
+passed. It was under this wide repeal of felonies that chapter VIII of
+33 Henry VIII was finally annulled. Whether the question of witchcraft
+came up for special consideration or not, we are not informed. We do
+know that the Bishops of London, Durham, Ely, Hereford, and Chichester,
+took exception to some amendments that were inserted in the act of
+repeal,[18] and it is not impossible that they were opposed to repealing
+the act against witchcraft. Certainly there is no reason to suppose that
+the church was resisting the encroachment of the state in the subject.
+
+As a matter of fact it is probable that, in the general question of
+repeal of felonies, the question of witchcraft received scant
+attention. There is indeed an interesting story that seems to point in
+that direction and that deserves repeating also as an illustration of
+the protector's attitude towards the question. Edward Underhill gives
+the narrative in his autobiography: "When we hade dyned, the maior sentt
+to [two] off his offycers with me to seke Alene; whome we mett withalle
+in Poles, and toke hym with us unto his chamber, wheare we founde
+fygures sett to calke the nativetie off the kynge, and a jugementt
+gevyne off his deathe, wheroff this folyshe wreche thoughte hymselfe so
+sure thatt he and his conselars the papistes bruted it all over. The
+kynge laye att Hamtone courte the same tyme, and me lord protector at
+the Syone; unto whome I caryed this Alen, with his bokes off
+conejuracyons, cearkles, and many thynges beloungynge to thatt dyvlyshe
+art, wiche he affyrmed before me lorde was a lawfulle cyens [science],
+for the statute agaynst souche was repealed. 'Thow folyshe knave! (sayde
+me lorde) yff thou and all thatt be off thy cyens telle me what I shalle
+do to-morow, I wylle geve the alle thatt I have'; commaundynge me to
+cary hym unto the Tower." Alen was examined about his science and it was
+discovered that he was "a very unlearned asse, and a sorcerer, for the
+wiche he was worthye hangynge, sayde Mr. Recorde." He was however kept
+in the Tower "about the space off a yere, and then by frendshipe
+delyvered. So scapithe alwayes the weked."[19]
+
+But the wicked were not long to escape. The beginning of Elizabeth's
+reign saw a serious and successful effort to put on the statute-book
+definite and severe penalties for conjuration, sorcery, witchcraft, and
+related crimes. The question was taken up in the very first year of the
+new reign and a bill was draughted.[20] It was not, however, until 1563
+that the statute was finally passed. It was then enacted that those who
+"shall use, practise, or exercise any Witchecrafte, Enchantment, Charme
+or Sorcerie, whereby any person shall happen to bee killed or destroyed,
+... their Concellors and Aidours, ... shall suffer paynes of Deathe as a
+Felon or Felons." It was further declared that those by whose practices
+any person was wasted, consumed, or lamed, should suffer for the first
+offence one year's imprisonment and should be put in the pillory four
+times. For the second offence death was the penalty. It was further
+provided that those who by witchcraft presumed to discover treasure or
+to find stolen property or to "provoke any person to unlawfull love"
+should suffer a year's imprisonment and four appearances in the pillory.
+
+With this law the history of the prosecution of witchcraft in England as
+a secular crime may well begin. The question naturally arises, What was
+the occasion of this law? How did it happen that just at this particular
+time so drastic a measure was passed and put into operation? Fortunately
+part of the evidence exists upon which to frame an answer. The English
+churchmen who had been driven out of England during the Marian
+persecution had many of them sojourned in Zurich and Geneva, where the
+extirpation of witches was in full progress, and had talked over the
+matter with eminent Continental theologians. With the accession of
+Elizabeth these men returned to England in force and became prominent in
+church and state, many of them receiving bishoprics. It is not possible
+to show that they all were influential in putting through the statute of
+the fifth year of Elizabeth. It is clear that one of them spoke out
+plainly on the subject. It can hardly be doubted that he represented the
+opinions of many other ecclesiastics who had come under the same
+influences during their exile.[21] John Jewel was an Anglican of
+Calvinistic sympathies who on his return to England at Elizabeth's
+accession had been appointed Bishop of Salisbury. Within a short time he
+came to occupy a prominent position in the court. He preached before the
+Queen and accompanied her on a visit to Oxford. It was in the course of
+one of his first sermons--somewhere between November of 1559 and March
+of 1560[22]--that he laid before her his convictions on witchcraft. It
+is, he tells her, "the horrible using of your poor subjects," that
+forces him to speak. "This kind of people (I mean witches and sorcerers)
+within these few last years are marvellously increased within this your
+grace's realm. These eyes have seen most evident and manifest marks of
+their wickedness. Your grace's subjects pine away even unto death, their
+colour fadeth, their flesh rotteth, their speech is benumbed, their
+senses are bereft. Wherefore, your poor subjects' most humble petition
+unto your highness is, that the laws touching such malefactors may be
+put in due execution."
+
+The church historian, Strype, conjectures that this sermon was the cause
+of the law passed in the fifth year of Elizabeth's reign, by which
+witchcraft was again made a felony, as it had been in the reign of Henry
+VIII.[23] Whatever weight we may attach to Strype's suggestion, we have
+every right to believe that Jewel introduced foreign opinion on
+witchcraft. Very probably there were many returned exiles as well as
+others who brought back word of the crusade on the Continent; but
+Jewel's words put the matter formally before the queen and her
+government.[24]
+
+We can trace the effect of the ecclesiastic's appeal still further. The
+impression produced by it was responsible probably not only for the
+passage of the law but also for the issue of commissions to the justices
+of the peace to apprehend all the witches they were able to find in
+their jurisdictions.[25]
+
+It can hardly be doubted that the impression produced by the bishop's
+sermon serves in part to explain the beginning of the state's attack
+upon witches. Yet one naturally inquires after some other factor in the
+problem. Is it not likely that there were in England itself certain
+peculiar conditions, certain special circumstances, that served to
+forward the attack? To answer that query, we must recall the situation
+in England when Elizabeth took the throne. Elizabeth was a Protestant,
+and her accession meant the relinquishment of the Catholic hold upon
+England. But it was not long before the claims of Mary, Queen of Scots,
+began to give the English ministers bad dreams. Catholic and Spanish
+plots against the life of Elizabeth kept the government detectives on
+the lookout. Perhaps because it was deemed the hardest to circumvent,
+the use of conjuration against the life of the queen was most feared.
+It was a method too that appealed to conspirators, who never questioned
+its efficacy, and who anticipated little risk of discovery.
+
+To understand why the English government should have been so alarmed at
+the efforts of the conjurers, we shall have to go back to the
+half-century that preceded the reign of the great queen and review
+briefly the rise of those curious traders in mystery. The earlier half
+of the fifteenth century, when the witch fires were already lighted in
+South Germany, saw the coming of conjurers in England. Their numbers
+soon evidenced a growing interest in the supernatural upon the part of
+the English and foreshadowed the growing faith in witchcraft. From the
+scattered local records the facts have been pieced together to show that
+here and there professors of magic powers were beginning to get a
+hearing. As they first appear upon the scene, the conjurers may be
+grouped in two classes, the position seekers and the treasure seekers.
+To the first belong those who used incantations and charms to win the
+favor of the powerful, and so to gain advancement for themselves or for
+their clients.[26] It was a time when there was every encouragement to
+try these means. Men like Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell had risen from
+humble rank to the highest places in the state. Their careers seemed
+inexplicable, if not uncanny. It was easy to believe that unfair and
+unlawful practices had been used. What had been done before could be
+done again. So the dealers in magic may have reasoned. At all events,
+whatever their mental operations, they experimented with charms which
+were to gain the favor of the great, and some of their operations came
+to the ears of the court.
+
+The treasure seekers[27] were more numerous. Every now and then in the
+course of English history treasures have been unearthed, many of them
+buried in Roman times. Stories of lucky finds had of course gained wide
+circulation. Here was the opportunity of the bankrupt adventurer and the
+stranded promoter. The treasures could be found by the science of magic.
+The notion was closely akin to the still current idea that wells can be
+located by the use of hazel wands. But none of the conjurers--and this
+seems a curious fact to one familiar with the English stories of the
+supernatural--ever lit upon the desired treasure. Their efforts hardly
+aroused public interest, least of all alarm. Experimenters, who fifty
+years later would have been hurried before the privy council, were
+allowed to conjure and dig as they pleased. Henry VIII even sold the
+right in one locality, and sold it at a price which showed how lightly
+he regarded it.[28]
+
+Other forms of magic were of course practiced. By the time that
+Elizabeth succeeded to the throne, it is safe to say that the practice
+of forbidden arts had become wide-spread in England. Reginald Scot a
+little later declared that every parish was full of men and women who
+claimed to work miracles.[29] Most of them were women, and their
+performances read like those of the gipsy fortune-tellers today.
+"Cunning women" they called themselves. They were many of them
+semi-medical or pseudo-medical practitioners[30] who used herbs and
+extracts, and, when those failed, charms and enchantments, to heal the
+sick. If they were fairly fortunate, they became known as "good
+witches." Particularly in connection with midwifery were their
+incantations deemed effective.[31] From such functions it was no far
+call to forecast the outcome of love affairs, or to prepare potions
+which would ensure love.[32] They became general helpers to the
+distressed. They could tell where lost property was to be found, an
+undertaking closely related to that of the treasure seekers.[33]
+
+It was usually in the less serious diseases[34] that these cunning folk
+were consulted. They were called upon often indeed--if one fragmentary
+evidence may be trusted--to diagnose the diseases and to account for the
+deaths of domestic animals.[35] It may very easily be that it was from
+the necessity of explaining the deaths of animals that the practitioners
+of magic began to talk about witchcraft and to throw out a hint that
+some witch was at the back of the matter. It would be in line with
+their own pretensions. Were they not good witches? Was it not their
+province to overcome the machinations of the black witches, that is,
+witches who wrought evil rather than good? The disease of an animal was
+hard to prescribe for. A sick horse would hardly respond to the waving
+of hands and a jumble of strange words. The animal was, in all
+probability, bewitched.
+
+At any rate, whether in this particular manner or not, it became shortly
+the duty of the cunning women to recognize the signs of witchcraft, to
+prescribe for it, and if possible to detect the witch. In many cases the
+practitioner wisely enough refused to name any one, but described the
+appearance of the guilty party and set forth a series of operations by
+which to expose her machinations. If certain herbs were plucked and
+treated in certain ways, if such and such words were said, the guilty
+party would appear at the door. At other times the wise woman gave a
+perfectly recognizable description of the guilty one and offered
+remedies that would nullify her maleficent influences. No doubt the
+party indicated as the witch was very often another of the "good
+witches," perhaps a rival. Throughout the records of the superstition
+are scattered examples of wise women upon whom suspicion suddenly
+lighted, and who were arraigned and sent to the gallows. Beyond question
+the suspicion began often with the ill words of a neighbor,[36] perhaps
+of a competitor, words that started an attack upon the woman's
+reputation that she was unable to repel.
+
+It is not to be supposed that the art of cunning was confined to the
+female sex. Throughout the reign of Elizabeth, the realm was alive with
+men who were pretenders to knowledge of mysteries. So closely was the
+occupation allied to that of the physician that no such strict line as
+now exists between reputable physicians and quack doctors separated the
+"good witches" from the regular practicers of medicine. It was so
+customary in Elizabethan times for thoroughly reputable and even eminent
+medical men to explain baffling cases as the results of witchcraft[37]
+that to draw the line of demarcation between them and the pretenders who
+suggested by means of a charm or a glass a maleficent agent would be
+impossible. Granted the phenomena of conjuration and witchcraft as
+facts--and no one had yet disputed them--it was altogether easy to
+believe that good witches who antagonized the works of black witches
+were more dependable than the family physician, who could but suggest
+the cause of sickness. The regular practitioner must often have created
+business for his brother of the cunning arts.
+
+One would like to know what these practicers thought of their own arts.
+Certainly some of them accomplished cures. Mental troubles that baffled
+the ordinary physician would offer the "good witch" a rare field for
+successful endeavor. Such would be able not only to persuade a community
+of their good offices, but to deceive themselves. Not all of them,
+however, by any means, were self-deceived. Conscious fraud played a part
+in a large percentage of cases. One witch was very naive in her
+confession of fraud. When suspected of sorcery and cited to court, she
+was said to have frankly recited her charm:
+
+    "My lofe in my lappe,
+      My penny in my purse,
+    You are never the better,
+      I am never the worse."
+
+She was acquitted and doubtless continued to add penny to penny.[38]
+
+We need not, indeed, be surprised that the state should have been remiss
+in punishing a crime so vague in character and so closely related to an
+honorable profession. Except where conjuration had affected high
+interests of state, it had been practically overlooked by the
+government. Now and then throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth
+centuries there had been isolated plots against the sovereign, in which
+conjury had played a conspicuous part. With these few exceptions the
+crime had been one left to ecclesiastical jurisdiction. But now the
+state was ready to reclaim its jurisdiction over these crimes and to
+assume a very positive attitude of hostility towards them. This came
+about in a way that has already been briefly indicated. The government
+of the queen found itself threatened constantly by plots for making away
+with the queen, plots which their instigators hoped would overturn the
+Protestant regime and bring England back into the fold. Elizabeth had
+hardly mounted her throne when her councillors began to suspect the use
+of sorcery and conjuration against her life. As a result they
+instituted the most painstaking inquiries into all reported cases of the
+sort, especially in and about London and the neighboring counties. Every
+Catholic was suspected. Two cases that were taken up within the first
+year came to nothing, but a third trial proved more serious. In November
+of 1558 Sir Anthony Fortescue,[39] member of a well known Catholic
+family, was arrested, together with several accomplices, upon the charge
+of casting the horoscope of the queen's life. Fortescue was soon
+released, but in 1561 he was again put in custody, this time with two
+brothers-in-law, Edmund and Arthur Pole, nephews of the famous cardinal
+of that name. The plot that came to light had many ramifications. It was
+proposed to marry Mary, Queen of Scots, to Edmund Pole, and from
+Flanders to proclaim her Queen of England. In the meantime Elizabeth was
+to die a natural death--at least so the conspirators claimed--prophesied
+for her by two conjurers, John Prestall and Edmund Cosyn, with the
+assistance of a "wicked spryte." It was discovered that the plot
+involved the French and Spanish ambassadors. Relations between Paris and
+London became strained. The conspirators were tried and sentenced to
+death. Fortescue himself, perhaps because he was a second cousin of the
+queen and brother of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, seems to have
+escaped the gallows.[40]
+
+The Fortescue affair was, however, but one of many conspiracies on foot
+during the time. Throughout the sixties and the seventies the queen's
+councillors were on the lookout. Justices of the peace and other
+prominent men in the counties were kept informed by the privy council of
+reported conjurers, and they were instructed to send in what evidence
+they could gather against them. It is remarkable that three-fourths of
+the cases that came under investigation were from a territory within
+thirty miles of London. Two-thirds of them were from Essex. Not all the
+conjurers were charged with plotting against the queen, but that charge
+was most common. It is safe to suppose that, in the cases where that
+accusation was not preferred, it was nevertheless the alarm of the privy
+council for the life of the queen that had prompted the investigation
+and arrest.
+
+Between 1578 and 1582, critical years in the affairs of the Scottish
+queen, the anxiety of the London authorities was intense[41]--their
+precautions were redoubled. Representatives of the government were sent
+out to search for conjurers and were paid well for their services.[42]
+The Earl of Shrewsbury, a member of the council who had charge of the
+now captive Queen Mary, kept in his employ special detectors of
+conjuring.[43] Nothing about Elizabeth's government was better
+organized than Cecil's detective service, and the state papers show that
+the ferreting out of the conjurers was by no means the least of its
+work. It was a service carried on, of course, as quietly as could be,
+and yet the cases now and again came to light and made clear to the
+public that the government was very fearful of conjurers' attacks upon
+the queen. No doubt the activity of the council put all conjurers under
+public suspicion and in some degree roused public resentment against
+them.
+
+This brings us back to the point: What had the conjurers to do with
+witchcraft? By this time the answer is fairly obvious. The practisers of
+the magic arts, the charmers and enchanters, were responsible for
+developing the notions of witchcraft. The good witch brought in her
+company the black witch. This in itself might never have meant more than
+an increased activity in the church courts. But when Protestant England
+grew suddenly nervous for the life of the queen, when the conjurers
+became a source of danger to the sovereign, and the council commenced
+its campaign against them, the conditions had been created in which
+witchcraft became at once the most dangerous and detested of crimes.
+While the government was busy putting down the conjurers, the aroused
+popular sentiment was compelling the justices of the peace and then the
+assize judges to hang the witches.
+
+This cannot be better illustrated than by the Abingdon affair of
+1578-1579. Word had been carried to the privy council that Sir Henry
+Newell, justice of the peace, had committed some women near Abingdon on
+the charge of making waxen images.[44] The government was at once
+alarmed and sent a message to Sir Henry and to the Dean of Windsor
+instructing them to find out the facts and to discover if the plots were
+directed against the queen. The precaution was unnecessary. There was no
+ground for believing that the designs of the women accused had included
+the queen. Indeed the evidence of guilt of any kind was very flimsy. But
+the excitement of the public had been stirred to the highest pitch. The
+privy council had shown its fear of the women and all four of them went
+to the gallows.[45]
+
+The same situation that brought about the attack upon witchcraft and
+conjuration was no doubt responsible for the transfer of jurisdiction
+over the crime. We have already seen that the practice of conjuration
+had probably been left largely to the episcopal hierarchy for
+punishment.[46] The archdeacons were expected in their visitations to
+inquire into the practice of enchantment and magic within the parishes
+and to make report.[47] In the reign of Elizabeth it became no light
+duty. The church set itself to suppress both the consulter and the
+consulted.[48] By the largest number of recorded cases deal of course
+with the first class. It was very easy when sick or in trouble to go to
+a professed conjurer for help.[49] It was like seeking a physician's
+service, as we have seen. The church frowned upon it, but the danger
+involved in disobeying the church was not deemed great. The cunning man
+or woman was of course the one who ran the great risk. When worst came
+to worst and the ecclesiastical power took cognizance of his profession,
+the best he could do was to plead that he was a "good witch" and
+rendered valuable services to the community.[50] But a good end was in
+the eyes of the church no excuse for an evil means. The good witches
+were dealers with evil spirits and hence to be repressed.
+
+Yet the church was very light in its punishments. In the matter of
+penalties, indeed, consulter and consulted fared nearly alike, and both
+got off easily. Public confession and penance in one or more
+specifically designated churches, usually in the nearest parish church,
+constituted the customary penalty.[51] In a few instances it was
+coupled with the requirement that the criminal should stand in the
+pillory, taper in hand, at several places at stated times.[52] The
+ecclesiastical records are so full of church penances that a student is
+led to wonder how effectual they were in shaming the penitent into
+better conduct. It may well be guessed that most of the criminals were
+not sensitive souls that would suffer profoundly from the disgrace
+incurred.
+
+The control of matters of this kind was in the hands of the church by
+sufferance only. So long as the state was not greatly interested, the
+church was permitted to retain its jurisdiction.[53] Doubtless the kings
+of England would have claimed the state's right of jurisdiction if it
+had become a matter of dispute. The church itself recognized the secular
+power in more important cases.[54] In such cases the archdeacon usually
+acted with the justice of peace in conducting the examination,[55] as in
+rendering sentence. Even then, however, the penalty was as a rule
+ecclesiastical. But, with the second half of the sixteenth century,
+there arose new conditions which resulted in the transfer of this
+control to the state. Henry VIII had broken with Rome and established a
+Church of England around the king as a centre. The power of the church
+belonged to the king, and, if to the king, to his ministers and his
+judges. Hence certain crimes that had been under the control of the
+church fell under the jurisdiction of the king's courts.[56] In a more
+special way the same change came about through the attack of the privy
+council upon the conjurers. What had hitherto been a comparatively
+insignificant offence now became a crime against the state and was so
+dealt with.
+
+The change, of course, was not sudden. It was not accomplished in a
+year, nor in a decade. It was going on throughout the first half of
+Elizabeth's reign. By the beginning of the eighties the church control
+was disappearing. After 1585 the state had practically exclusive
+jurisdiction.[57]
+
+We have now finished the attempt to trace the beginning of the definite
+movement against witchcraft in England. What witchcraft was, what it
+became, how it was to be distinguished from sorcery--these are questions
+that we have tried to answer very briefly. We have dealt in a cursory
+way with a series of cases extending from Anglo-Saxon days down to the
+fifteenth century in order to show how unfixed was the matter of
+jurisdiction. We have sought also to explain how Continental opinion was
+introduced into England through Jewel and other Marian exiles, to show
+what independent forces were operating in England, and to exhibit the
+growing influence of the charmers and their relation to the development
+of witchcraft; and lastly we have aimed to prove that the special danger
+to the queen had no little part in creating the crusade against witches.
+These are conclusions of some moment and a caution must be inserted. We
+have been treating of a period where facts are few and information
+fragmentary. Under such circumstances conclusions can only be tentative.
+Perhaps the most that can be said of them is that they are suggestions.
+
+
+[1] Benjamin Thorpe, _Ancient Laws and Institutes of England_ (London,
+1840), I, 41; Liebermann, _Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen_ (Halle, 1906),
+and passages cited in his _Woerterbuch_ under _wiccan_, _wiccacraeft_;
+Thomas Wright, ed., _A Contemporary Narrative of the Proceedings against
+Dame Alice Kyteler_ (Camden Soc., London, 1843), introd., i-iii.
+
+[2] George L. Burr, "The Literature of Witchcraft," printed in _Papers
+of the Am. Hist. Assoc._, IV (New York, 1890), 244.
+
+[3] Henry C. Lea, _History of the Inquisition in Spain_ (New York,
+1906-1907), IV, 207; _cf._ his _History of the Inquisition of the Middle
+Ages_ (New York, 1888), III, chs. VI, VII. The most elaborate study of
+the rise of the delusion is that by J. Hansen, _Zauberwahn, Inquisition
+und Hexenprozess im Mittelalter_ (Cologne, 1900).
+
+[4] Lea, _Inquisition in Spain_, IV, 206.
+
+[5] Pollock and Maitland, _History of English Law_ (2d ed., Cambridge,
+1898), II, 554.
+
+[6] _Ibid._ See also Wright, ed., _Proceedings against Dame Alice
+Kyteler_, introd., ix.
+
+[7] _Ibid._, x. Lincoln, not Norwich, as Wright's text (followed by
+Pollock and Maitland) has it. See the royal letter itself printed in his
+footnote, and _cf._ Rymer's _Foedera_ (under date of 2 Jan. 1406) and
+the _Calendar of the Patent Rolls_ (Henry IV, vol. III, p. 112). The
+bishop was Philip Repington, late the King's chaplain and confessor.
+
+[8] L. O. Pike, _History of Crime in England_ (London, 1873), I,
+355-356.
+
+[9] _Ibid._ Sir Harris Nicolas, _Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy
+Council_ (London, 1834-1837). IV, 114.
+
+[10] _English Chronicle of the Reigns of Richard II_, etc., edited by J.
+S. Davies (Camden Soc., London, 1856), 57-60.
+
+[11] _Ramsay, Lancaster and York_ (Oxford, 1892), II, 31-35; Wright,
+ed., _Proceedings against Dame Alice Kyteler_, introd., xv-xvi, quoting
+the Chronicle of London; K. H. Vickers, _Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester_
+(London, 1907), 269-279.
+
+[12] Wright, ed., _op. cit._, introd., xvi-xvii.
+
+[13] James Gairdner, _Life and Reign of Richard III_ (2d ed., London,
+1879), 81-89. Jane Shore was finally tried before the court of the
+Bishop of London.
+
+[14] Sir J. F. Stephen, _History of the Criminal Law of England_
+(London, 1883), II, 410, gives five instances from Archdeacon Hale's
+_Ecclesiastical Precedents_; see extracts from Lincoln Episcopal
+Visitations in _Archaeologia_ (Soc. of Antiquaries, London), XLVIII,
+254-255, 262; see also articles of visitation, etc., for 1547 and 1559
+in David Wilkins, _Concilia Magnae Britanniae_ (London, 1737), IV, 25,
+186, 190.
+
+[15] An earlier statute had mentioned sorcery and witchcraft in
+connection with medical practitioners. The "Act concerning Phesicions
+and Surgeons" of 3 Henry VIII, ch. XI, was aimed against quacks.
+"Forasmoche as the science and connyng of Physyke and Surgerie to the
+perfecte knowlege wherof bee requisite bothe grete lernyng and ripe
+experience ys daily ... exercised by a grete multitude of ignoraunt
+persones ... soofarfurth that common Artificers as Smythes Wevers and
+Women boldely and custumably take upon theim grete curis and thyngys of
+great difficultie In the which they partely use socery and which crafte
+[_sic_] partely applie such medicyne unto the disease as be verey
+noyous," it was required that every candidate to practice medicine
+should be examined by the bishop of the diocese (in London by either the
+bishop or the Dean of St. Paul's).
+
+[16] Stephen, _History of Criminal Law_, II, 431, says of this act:
+"Hutchinson suggests that this act, which was passed two years after the
+act of the Six Articles, was intended as a 'hank upon the reformers,'
+that the part of it to which importance was attached was the pulling
+down of crosses, which, it seems, was supposed to be practised in
+connection with magic. Hutchinson adds that the act was never put into
+execution either against witches or reformers. The act was certainly
+passed during that period of Henry's reign when he was inclining in the
+Roman Catholic direction." The part of the act to which Hutchinson
+refers reads as follows: "And for execucion of their saide falce devyses
+and practises have made or caused to be made dyvers Images and pictures
+of men, women, childrene, Angelles or develles, beastes or fowles, ...
+and gyving faithe and credit to suche fantasticall practises have dygged
+up and pulled downe an infinite nombre of Crosses within this Realme."
+
+[17] _Parliamentary History_ (London, 1751-1762), III, 229.
+
+[18] _Ibid._
+
+[19] _Autobiography of Edward Underhill_ (in _Narratives of the Days of
+the Reformation_, Camden Soc., London, 1859), 172-175.
+
+[20] The measure in fact reached the engrossing stage in the Commons.
+Both houses, however, adjourned early in April and left it unpassed.
+
+[21] Several of the bishops who were appointed on Elizabeth's accession
+had travelled in South Germany and Switzerland during the Marian period
+and had the opportunity of familiarizing themselves with the propaganda
+in these parts against witches. Thomas Bentham, who was to be bishop of
+Coventry and Lichfield, had retired from England to Zurich and had
+afterwards been preacher to the exiles at Basel. John Parkhurst,
+appointed bishop of Norwich, had settled in Zurich on Mary's accession.
+John Scory, appointed bishop of Hereford, had served as chaplain to the
+exiles in Geneva. Richard Cox, appointed bishop of Ely, had visited
+Frankfort and Strassburg. Edmund Grindall, who was to be the new bishop
+of London, had, during his exile, visited Strassburg, Speier, and
+Frankfort. Miles Coverdale, who had been bishop of Exeter but who was
+not reappointed, had been in Geneva in the course of his exile. There
+were many other churchmen of less importance who at one time or another
+during the Marian period visited Zurich. See Bullinger's _Diarium_
+(Basel, 1904) and Pellican's _Chronikon_ (Basel, 1877), _passim_, as
+also Theodor Vetter, _Relations between England and Zurich during the
+Reformation_ (London, 1904). At Strassburg the persecution raged
+somewhat later; but how thoroughly Bucer and his colleagues approved and
+urged it is clear from a letter of advice addressed by them in 1538 to
+their fellow pastor Schwebel, of Zweibruecken (printed as No. 88 in the
+_Centuria Epistolarum_ appended to Schwebel's _Scripta Theologica_,
+Zweibruecken, 1605). That Bucer while in England (1549-1551) found also
+occasion to utter these views can hardly be doubted. These details I owe
+to Professor Burr.
+
+[22] Various dates have been assigned for Jewel's sermon, but it can be
+determined approximately from a passage in the discourse. In the course
+of the sermon he remarked: "I would wish that once again, as time should
+serve, there might be had a quiet and sober disputation, that each part
+might be required to shew their grounds without self will and without
+affection, not to maintain or breed contention, ... but only that the
+truth may be known.... For, at the last disputation that should have
+been, you know which party gave over and would not meddle." This is
+clearly an allusion to the Westminster disputation of the last of March,
+1559; see John Strype, _Annals of the Reformation_ (London, 1709-1731;
+Oxford, 1824), ed. of 1824, I, pt. i, 128. The sermon therefore was
+preached after that disputation. It may be further inferred that it was
+preached before Jewel's controversy with Cole in March, 1560. The words,
+"For at the last disputation ... you know which party gave over and
+would not meddle," were hardly written after Cole accepted Jewel's
+challenge. It was on the second Sunday before Easter (March 17), 1560,
+that Jewel delivered at court the discourse in which he challenged
+dispute on four points of church doctrine. On the next day Henry Cole
+addressed him a letter in which he asked him why he "yesterday in the
+Court and at all other times at Paul's Cross" offered rather to "dispute
+in these four points than in the chief matters that lie in question
+betwixt the Church of Rome and the Protestants." In replying to Cole on
+the 20th of March Jewel wrote that he stood only upon the negative and
+again mentioned his offer. On the 31st of March he repeated his
+challenge upon the four points, and upon this occasion went very much
+into detail in supporting them. Now, in the sermon which we are trying
+to date, the sermon in which allusion is made to the prevalence of
+witches, the four points are briefly named. It may be reasonably
+conjectured that this sermon anticipated the elaboration of the four
+points as well as the challenging sermon of March 17. It is as certain
+that it was delivered after Jewel's return to London from his visitation
+in the west country. On November 2, 1559, he wrote to Peter Martyr: "I
+have at last returned to London, with a body worn out by a most
+fatiguing journey." See _Zurich Letters_, I (Parker Soc., Cambridge,
+1842), 44. It is interesting and significant that he adds: "We found in
+all places votive relics of saints, nails with which the infatuated
+people dreamed that Christ had been pierced, and I know not what small
+fragments of the sacred cross. The number of witches and sorceresses had
+everywhere become enormous." Jewel was consecrated Bishop of Salisbury
+in the following January, having been nominated in the summer of 1559
+just before his western visitation. The sermon in which he alluded to
+witches may have been preached at any time after he returned from the
+west, November 2, and before March 17. It would be entirely natural that
+in a court sermon delivered by the newly appointed bishop of Salisbury
+the prevalence of witchcraft should be mentioned. It does not seem a
+rash guess that the sermon was preached soon after his return, perhaps
+in December, when the impression of what he had seen in the west was
+still fresh in his memory. But it is not necessary to make this
+supposition. Though the discourse was delivered some time after March
+15, 1559, when the first bill "against Conjurations, Prophecies, etc.,"
+was brought before the Commons (see _Journal of the House of Commons_,
+I, 57), it is not unreasonable to believe that there was some connection
+between the discourse and the fortunes of this bill. That connection
+seems the more probable on a careful reading of the Commons Journals for
+the first sessions of Elizabeth's Parliament. It is evident that the
+Elizabethan legislators were working in close cooperation with the
+ecclesiastical authorities. Jewel's sermon may be found in his _Works_
+(ed. for the Parker Soc., Cambridge, 1845-1850), II, 1025-1034. (For the
+correspondence with Cole see I, 26 ff.)
+
+For assistance in dating this sermon the writer wishes to express his
+special obligation to Professor Burr.
+
+[23] Strype, _Annals of the Reformation_, I, pt. i, 11. He may, indeed,
+mean to ascribe it, not to the sermon, but to the evils alleged by the
+sermon.
+
+[24] In the contemporary account entitled _A True and just Recorde of
+the Information, Examination, and Confession of all the Witches taken at
+St. Oses.... Written ... by W. W._ (1582), next leaf after B 5, we read:
+"there is a man of great cunning and knowledge come over lately unto our
+Queenes Maiestie, which hath advertised her what a companie and number
+of witches be within Englande." This probably refers to Jewel.
+
+[25] See _ibid._, B 5 verso: "I and other of her Justices have received
+commission for the apprehending of as many as are within these limites."
+This was written later, but the event is referred to as following what
+must have been Bishop Jewel's sermon.
+
+[26] Thomas Wright, _Narratives of Sorcery and Magic_ (ed. of N. Y.,
+1852), 126 ff.; see also his _Elizabeth and her Times_ (London, 1838),
+I, 457, letter of Shrewsbury to Burghley.
+
+[27] Wright, _Narratives_, 130 ff.
+
+[28] _Ibid._, 134.
+
+[29] See Reginald Scot, _The Discoverie of Witchcraft_ (London, 1584;
+reprinted, Brinsley Nicholson, ed., London, 1886), 4.
+
+[30] A very typical instance was that in Kent in 1597, see _Archaeologia
+Cantiana_ (Kent Archaeological Soc., London), XXVI, 21. Several good
+instances are given in the _Hertfordshire County Session Rolls_
+(compiled by W. J. Hardy, London, 1905), I; see also J. Raine, ed.,
+_Depositions respecting the Rebellion of 1569, Witchcraft, and other
+Ecclesiastical Proceedings from the Court of Durham_ (Surtees Soc.,
+London, 1845), 99, 100.
+
+[31] J. Raine, ed., _Injunctions and other Ecclesiastical Proceedings of
+Richard Barnes, Bishop of Durham_ (Surtees Soc., London, 1850), 18; H.
+Owen and J. B. Blakeway, _History of Shrewsbury_ (London, 1825), II,
+364, art. 43.
+
+[32] _Arch. Cant._, XXVI, 19.
+
+[33] _Hertfordshire Co. Sess. Rolls_, I, 3.
+
+[34] See _Depositions ... from the Court of Durham_, 99; _Arch. Cant._,
+XXVI, 21; W. H. Hale, _Precedents_, etc. (London, 1847), 148, 185.
+
+[35] Hale, _op. cit._, 163; _Middlesex County Records_, ed. by J. C.
+Jeaffreson (London, 1892), I, 84, 94.
+
+[36] For an instance of how a "wise woman" feared this very thing, see
+Hale, _op. cit._, 147.
+
+[37] See _Witches taken at St. Oses_, E; also Dr. Barrow's opinion in
+the pamphlet entitled _The most strange and admirable discoverie of the
+three Witches of Warboys, arraigned, convicted and executed at the last
+assizes at Huntingdon...._ (London, 1593).
+
+[38] _Folk Lore Soc. Journal_, II, 157-158, where this story is quoted
+from a work by "Wm. Clouues, Mayster in Chirurgery," published in 1588.
+He only professed to have "reade" of it, so that it is perhaps just a
+pleasant tradition. If it is nothing more than that, it is at least an
+interesting evidence of opinion.
+
+[39] Strype, _Annals of the Reformation_, I, pt. i, 9-10; _Dictionary of
+National Biography_, article on Anthony Fortescue, by G. K. Fortescue.
+
+[40] Strype, _op. cit._, I, pt. i, 546, 555-558; also Wright, _Elizabeth
+and her Times_, I, 121, where a letter from Cecil to Sir Thomas Smith is
+printed.
+
+[41] The interest which the privy council showed in sorcery and
+witchcraft during the earlier part of the reign is indicated in the
+following references: _Acts of the Privy Council_, new series, VII, 6,
+22, 200-201; X, 220, 382; XI, 22, 36, 292, 370-371, 427; XII, 21-22, 23,
+26, 29, 34, 102, 251; _Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1547-1580_,
+137, 142; _id._, _1581-1590_, 29, 220, 246-247; _id._, _Add. 1580-1625_,
+120-121; see also John Strype, _Life of Sir Thomas Smith_ (London, 1698;
+Oxford, 1820), ed. of 1820, 127-129. The case mentioned in _Cal. St. P.,
+Dom., 1581-1590_, 29, was probably a result of the activity of the privy
+council. The case in _id._, _Add., 1580-1625_, 120-121, is an instance
+of where the accused was suspected of both witchcraft and "high treason
+touching the supremacy." Nearly all of the above mentioned references to
+the activity of the privy council refer to the first half of the reign
+and a goodly proportion to the years 1578-1582.
+
+[42] _Acts P. C._, n. s., XI, 292.
+
+[43] Strype, _Sir Thomas Smith_, 127-129.
+
+[44] _A Rehearsall both straung and true of hainous and horrible acts
+committed by Elizabeth Stile_, etc. (for full title see appendix). This
+pamphlet is in black letter. Its account is confirmed by the reference
+in _Acts P. C._, n. s., XI, 22. See also Scot, _Discoverie_, 51, 543.
+
+[45] An aged widow had been committed to gaol on the testimony of her
+neighbors that she was "lewde, malitious, and hurtful to the people." An
+ostler, after he had refused to give her relief, had suffered a pain. So
+far as the account goes, this was the sum of the evidence against the
+woman. Unhappily she waited not on the order of her trial but made
+voluble confession and implicated five others, three of whom were
+without doubt professional enchanters. She had met, she said, with
+Mother Dutten, Mother Devell, and Mother Margaret, and "concluded
+several hainous and vilanous practices." The deaths of five persons whom
+she named were the outcome of their concerted plans. For the death of a
+sixth she avowed entire responsibility. This amazing confession may have
+been suggested to her piece by piece, but it was received at full value.
+That she included others in her guilt was perhaps because she responded
+to the evident interest aroused by such additions, or more likely
+because she had grudges unsatisfied. The women were friendless, three of
+the four were partially dependent upon alms, there was no one to come to
+their help, and they were convicted. The man that had been arraigned, a
+"charmer," seems to have gone free.
+
+[46] _Injunctions ... of ... Bishop of Durham_, 18, 84, 99; Visitations
+of Canterbury, in _Arch. Cant._, XXVI; Hale, _Precedents, 1475-1640_,
+147, etc.
+
+[47] Arch. Cant., XXVI, _passim_; Hale, _op. cit._, 147, 148, 163, 185;
+Mrs. Lynn Linton, _Witch Stories_ (London, 1861; new ed., 1883), 144.
+
+[48] See Hale, _op. cit._, 148, 157.
+
+[49] Hale, _op. cit._, 148; _Depositions ... from the Court of Durham_,
+99; _Arch. Cant._, XXVI, 21.
+
+[50] Hale, _op. cit._, 148, 185.
+
+[51] _Ibid._, 157.
+
+[52] _Denham Tracts_ (Folk Lore Soc., London), II, 332; John Sykes,
+_Local Record ... of Remarkable Events ... in Northumberland, Durham, ..._
+etc. (2d ed., Newcastle, 1833-1852), I, 79.
+
+[53] See, for example, _Acts P. C._, n. s., VII, 32 (1558).
+
+[54] _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1547-1580_, 173. Instance where the Bishop of
+London seems to have examined a case and turned it over to the privy
+council.
+
+[55] Rachel Pinder and Agnes Bridges, who pretended to be possessed by
+the Devil, were examined before the "person of St. Margarets in
+Lothberry," and the Mayor of London, as well as some justices of the
+peace. They later made confession before the Archbishop of Canterbury
+and some justices of the peace. See the black letter pamphlet, _The
+discloysing of a late counterfeyted possession by the devyl in two
+maydens within the Citie of London_ [1574].
+
+[56] Francis Coxe came before the queen rather than the church. He
+narrates his experiences in _A short treatise declaringe the detestable
+wickednesse of magicall sciences, ..._ (1561). Yet John Walsh, a man
+with a similar record, came before the commissary of the Bishop of
+Exeter. See _The Examination of John Walsh before Master Thomas
+Williams, Commissary to the Reverend father in God, William, bishop of
+Excester, upon certayne Interrogatories touchyng Wytch-crafte and
+Sorcerye, in the presence of divers gentlemen and others, the XX of
+August, 1566_.
+
+[57] We say "practically," because instances of church jurisdiction come
+to light now and again throughout the seventeenth century.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+WITCHCRAFT UNDER ELIZABETH.
+
+
+The year 1566 is hardly less interesting in the history of English
+witchcraft than 1563. It has been seen that the new statute passed in
+1563 was the beginning of a vigorous prosecution by the state of the
+detested agents of the evil one. In 1566 occurred the first important
+trial known to us in the new period. That trial deserves note not only
+on its own account, but because it was recorded in the first of the long
+series of witch chap-books--if we may so call them. A very large
+proportion of our information about the execution of the witches is
+derived from these crude pamphlets, briefly recounting the trials. The
+witch chap-book was a distinct species. In the days when the chronicles
+were the only newspapers it was what is now the "extra," brought out to
+catch the public before the sensation had lost its flavor. It was of
+course a partisan document, usually a vindication of the worthy judge
+who had condemned the guilty, with some moral and religious
+considerations by the respectable and righteous author. A terribly
+serious bit of history it was that he had to tell and he told it grimly
+and without pity. Such comedy as lights up the gloomy black-letter pages
+was quite unintentional. He told a story too that was full of details
+trivial enough in themselves, but details that give many glimpses into
+the every-day life of the lower classes in town and country.
+
+The pamphlet of 1566 was brief and compact of information. It was
+entitled _The examination and confession of certaine Wytches at
+Chensforde in the Countie of Essex before the Quenes Maiesties Judges
+the XXVI daye of July anno 1566_. The trial there recorded is one that
+presents some of the most curious and inexplicable features in the
+annals of English witchcraft. The personnel of the "size" court is
+mysterious. At the first examination "Doctor Cole" and "Master Foscue"
+were present. Both men are easily identified. Doctor Cole was the
+Reverend Thomas Cole, who had held several places in Essex and had in
+1564 been presented to the rectory of Stanford Rivers, about ten miles
+from Chelmsford. Master Foscue was unquestionably Sir John Fortescue,
+later Chancellor of the Exchequer, and at this time keeper of the great
+wardrobe. On the second examination Sir Gilbert Gerard, the queen's
+attorney, and John Southcote, justice of the queen's bench, were
+present. Why Southcote should be present is perfectly clear. It is not
+so easy to understand about the others. Was the attorney-general acting
+as presiding officer, or was he conducting the prosecution? The latter
+hypothesis is of course more consistent with his position. But what were
+the rector of Stanford Rivers and the keeper of the great wardrobe doing
+there? Had Doctor Cole been appointed in recognition of the claims of
+the church? And the keeper of the wardrobe, what was the part that he
+played? One cannot easily escape the conclusion that the case was deemed
+one of unusual significance. Perhaps the privy council had heard of
+something that alarmed it and had delegated these four men, all known
+at Elizabeth's court, to examine into the matter in connection with the
+assizes.
+
+The examinations themselves present features of more interest to the
+psychologist than to the historical student. Yet they have some
+importance in the understanding of witchcraft as a social phenomenon.
+Elizabeth Francis, when examined, confessed with readiness to various
+"vilanies." From her grandmother she said she had as a child received a
+white spotted cat, named Sathan, whom she had fed, and who gave her what
+she asked for. "She desired to have one Andrew Byles to her husband,
+which was a man of some welth, and the cat dyd promyse she shold." But
+the promise proved illusory. The man left her without marriage and then
+she "willed Sathan ... to touch his body, whych he forthewith dyd,
+whereof he died." Once again she importuned Satan for a husband. This
+time she gained one "not so rich as the other." She bore a daughter to
+him, but the marriage was an unhappy one. "They lived not so quietly as
+she desyred, beinge stirred to much unquietnes and moved to swearing and
+cursinge." Thereupon she employed the spirit to kill her child and to
+lame her husband. After keeping the cat fifteen years she turned it over
+to Mother Waterhouse, "a pore woman."[1]
+
+Mother Waterhouse was now examined. She had received the cat and kept it
+"a great while in woll in a pot." She had then turned it into a toad.
+She had used it to kill geese, hogs, and cattle of her neighbors. At
+length she had employed it to kill a neighbor whom she disliked, and
+finally her own husband. The woman's eighteen-year-old daughter, Joan,
+was now called to the stand and confirmed the fact that her mother kept
+a toad. She herself had one day been refused a piece of bread and cheese
+by a neighbor's child and had invoked the toad's help. The toad promised
+to assist her if she would surrender her soul. She did so. Then the toad
+haunted the neighbor's girl in the form of a dog with horns. The mother
+was again called to the stand and repeated the curious story told by her
+daughter.
+
+Now the neighbor's child, Agnes Brown, was brought in to testify. Her
+story tallied in some of its details with that of the two Waterhouse
+women; she had been haunted by the horned dog, and she added certain
+descriptions of its conduct that revealed good play of childish
+imagination.[2]
+
+The attorney put some questions, but rather to lead on the witnesses
+than to entangle them. He succeeded, however, in creating a violent
+altercation between the Waterhouses on the one hand, and Agnes Brown on
+the other, over trifling matters of detail.[3] At length he offered to
+release Mother Waterhouse if she would make the spirit appear in the
+court.[4] The offer was waived. The attorney then asked, "When dyd thye
+Cat suck of thy bloud?" "Never," said she. He commanded the jailer to
+lift up the "kercher" on the woman's head. He did so and the spots on
+her face and nose where she had pricked herself for the evil spirit were
+exposed.
+
+The jury retired. Two days later Agnes Waterhouse suffered the penalty
+of the law, not however until she had added to her confessions.[5]
+
+The case is a baffling one. We can be quite sure that the pamphlet
+account is incomplete. One would like to know more about the substance
+of fact behind this evidence. Did the parties that were said to have
+been killed by witchcraft really die at the times specified? Either the
+facts of their deaths were well known in the community and were fitted
+with great cleverness into the story Mother Waterhouse told, or the
+jurors and the judges neglected the first principles of common sense and
+failed to inquire about the facts.[6] The questions asked by the queen's
+attorney reveal hardly more than an unintelligent curiosity to know the
+rest of the story. He shows just one saving glint of skepticism. He
+offered to release Mother Waterhouse if she would materialize her
+spirit.
+
+Mother Waterhouse was her own worst enemy. Her own testimony was the
+principal evidence presented against her, and yet she denied guilt on
+one particular upon which the attorney-general had interrogated her.
+This might lead one to suppose that her answers were the haphazard
+replies of a half-witted woman. But the supposition is by no means
+consistent with the very definite and clear-cut nature of her testimony.
+It is useless to try to unravel the tangles of the case. It is possible
+that under some sort of duress--although there is no evidence of
+this--she had deliberately concocted a story to fit those of Elizabeth
+Francis and Agnes Brown, and that her daughter, hearing her mother's
+narrative in court--a very possible thing in that day--had fitted hers
+into it. It is conceivable too that Mother Waterhouse had yielded merely
+to the wish to amaze her listeners. It is a more probable supposition
+that the questions asked of her by the judge were based upon the
+accusations already made by Agnes Brown and that they suggested to her
+the main outlines of her narrative.
+
+Elizabeth Francis, who had been the first accused and who had accused
+Mother Waterhouse, escaped. Whether it was because she had turned
+state's evidence or because she had influential friends in the
+community, we do not know. It is possible that the judges recognized
+that her confession was unsupported by the testimony of other witnesses.
+Such a supposition, however, credits the court with keener
+discrimination than seems ever to have been exhibited in such cases in
+the sixteenth century.[7]
+
+But, though Elizabeth Francis had escaped, her reputation as a dangerous
+woman in the community was fixed. Thirteen years later she was again put
+on trial before the itinerant justices. This brings us to the second
+trial of witches at Chelmsford in 1579. Mistress Francis's examination
+elicited less than in the first trial. She had cursed a woman "and badde
+a mischief to light uppon her." The woman, she understood, was
+grievously pained. She followed the course that she had taken before
+and began to accuse others. We know very little as to the outcome. At
+least one of the women accused went free because "manslaughter or murder
+was not objected against her."[8] Three women, however, were condemned
+and executed. One of them was almost certainly Elleine Smith, daughter
+of a woman hanged as a witch,--another illustration of the persistence
+of suspicion against the members of a family.
+
+The Chelmsford affair of 1579[9] was not unlike that of 1566. There were
+the same tales of spirits that assumed animal forms. The young son of
+Elleine Smith declared that his mother kept three spirits, Great Dick in
+a wicker bottle, Little Dick in a leathern bottle, and Willet in a
+wool-pack. Goodwife Webb saw "a thyng like a black Dogge goe out of her
+doore." But the general character of the testimony in the second trial
+bore no relation to that in the first. There was no agreement of the
+different witnesses. The evidence was haphazard. The witch and another
+woman had a falling out--fallings out were very common. Next day the
+woman was taken ill. This was the sort of unimpeachable testimony that
+was to be accepted for a century yet. In the affair of 1566 the judges
+had made some attempt at quizzing the witnesses, but in 1579 all
+testimony was seemingly rated at par.[10] In both instances the proof
+rested mainly upon confession. Every woman executed had made
+confessions of guilt. This of course was deemed sufficient. Nevertheless
+the courts were beginning to introduce other methods of proving the
+accused guilty. The marks on Agnes Waterhouse had been uncovered at the
+request of the attorney-general; and at her execution she had been
+questioned about her ability to say the Lord's Prayer and other parts of
+the service. Neither of these matters was emphasized, but the mention of
+them proves that notions were already current that were later to have
+great vogue.
+
+The Chelmsford cases find their greatest significance, however, not as
+illustrations of the use and abuse of evidence, but because they
+exemplify the continuity of the witch movement. That continuity finds
+further illustration in the fact that there was a third alarm at
+Chelmsford in 1589, which resulted in three more executions. But in this
+case the women involved seem, so far as we know, to have had no
+connection with the earlier cases. The fate of Elizabeth Francis and
+that of Elleine Smith are more instructive as proof of the long-standing
+nature of a community suspicion. Elleine could not escape her mother's
+reputation nor Elizabeth her own.
+
+Both these women seem to have been of low character at any rate.
+Elizabeth had admitted illicit amours, and Elleine may very well have
+been guilty on the same count.[11] All of the women involved in the two
+trials were in circumstances of wretched poverty; most, if not all, of
+them were dependent upon begging and the poor relief for support.[12]
+
+It is easy to imagine the excitement in Essex that these trials must
+have produced. The accused had represented a wide territory in the
+county. The women had been fetched to Chelmsford from towns as far apart
+as Hatfield-Peverel and Maldon. It is not remarkable that three years
+later than the affair of 1579 there should have been another outbreak in
+the county, this time in a more aggravated form. St. Oses, or St.
+Osyth's, to the northeast of Chelmsford, was to be the scene of the most
+remarkable affair of its kind in Elizabethan times. The alarm began with
+the formulation of charges against a woman of the community. Ursley Kemp
+was a poor woman of doubtful reputation. She rendered miscellaneous
+services to her neighbors. She acted as midwife, nursed children, and
+added to her income by "unwitching" the diseased. Like other women of
+the sort, she was looked upon with suspicion. Hence, when she had been
+refused the nursing of the child of Grace Thurlow, a servant of that Mr.
+Darcy who was later to try her, and when the child soon afterward fell
+out of its cradle and broke its neck, the mother suspected Ursley of
+witchcraft. Nevertheless she did not refuse her help when she "began to
+have a lameness in her bones." Ursley promised to unwitch her and
+seemingly kept her word, for the lameness disappeared. Then it was that
+the nurse-woman asked for the twelve-pence she had been promised and was
+refused. Grace pleaded that she was a "poore and needie woman." Ursley
+became angry and threatened to be even with her. The lameness reappeared
+and Grace Thurlow was thoroughly convinced that Ursley was to blame.
+When the case was carried before the justices of the peace, the accused
+woman denied that she was guilty of anything more than unwitching the
+afflicted. That she had learned, she said, ten or more years ago from a
+woman now deceased. She was committed to the assizes, and Justice Brian
+Darcy, whose servant Grace Thurlow had started the trouble, took the
+case in hand. He examined her eight-year-old "base son," who gave
+damning evidence against his mother. She fed four imps, Tyffin, Tittey,
+Piggen, and Jacket. The boy's testimony and the judge's promise that if
+she would confess the truth she "would have favour," seemed to break
+down the woman's resolution. "Bursting out with weeping she fell upon
+her knees and confessed that she had four spirits." Two of them she had
+used for laming, two for killing. Not only the details of her son's
+evidence, but all the earlier charges, she confirmed step by step, first
+in private confessions to the judge and then publicly at the court
+sessions. The woman's stories tallied with those of all her accusers[13]
+and displayed no little play of imagination in the orientation of
+details.[14] Not content with thus entangling herself in a fearful web
+of crime, she went on to point out other women guilty of similar
+witchcrafts. Four of those whom she named were haled before the justice.
+Elizabeth Bennett, who spun wool for a cloth-maker, was one of those
+most vehemently accused, but she denied knowledge of any kind of
+witchcraft. It had been charged against her that she kept some wool
+hidden in a pot under some stones in her house. She denied at first the
+possession of this potent and malignant charm; but, influenced by the
+gentle urgings of Justice Darcy,[15] she gave way, as Ursley Kemp had
+done, and, breaking all restraint, poured forth wild stories of devilish
+crimes committed through the assistance of her imps.
+
+But why should we trace out the confessions, charges, and
+counter-charges that followed? The stories that were poured forth
+continued to involve a widening group until sixteen persons were under
+accusation of the most awful crimes, committed by demoniacal agency. As
+at Chelmsford, they were the dregs of the lower classes, women with
+illegitimate children, some of them dependent upon public support. It
+will be seen that in some respects the panic bore a likeness to those
+that had preceded. The spirits, which took extraordinary and bizarre
+forms, were the offspring of the same perverted imaginations, but they
+had assumed new shapes. Ursley Kemp kept a white lamb, a little gray
+cat, a black cat, and a black toad. There were spirits of every sort,
+"two little thyngs like horses, one white, the other black'"; six
+"spirits like cowes ... as big as rattles"; spirits masquerading as
+blackbirds. One spirit strangely enough remained invisible. It will be
+observed by the reader that the spirits almost fitted into a color
+scheme. Very vivid colors were those preferred in their spirits by these
+St. Oses women. The reader can see, too, that the confessions showed the
+influence of the great cat tradition.
+
+We have seen the readiness with which the deluded women made confession.
+Some of the confessions were poured forth as from souls long surcharged
+with guilt. But not all of them came in this way. Margerie Sammon, who
+had testified against one of her neighbors, was finally herself caught
+in the web of accusation in which a sister had also been involved. She
+was accused by her sister. "I defie thee," she answered, "though thou
+art my sister." But her sister drew her aside and "whyspered her in the
+eare," after which, with "great submission and many teares," she made a
+voluble confession. One wonders about that whispered consultation. Had
+her sister perhaps suggested that the justice was offering mercy to
+those who confessed? For Justice Darcy was very liberal with his
+promises of mercy and absolutely unscrupulous about breaking them.[16]
+It is gratifying to be able to record that there was yet a remnant left
+who confessed nothing at all and stood stubborn to the last. One of them
+was Margaret Grevel, who denied the accusations against her. She "saith
+that shee herselfe hath lost severall bruings and bakings of bread, and
+also swine, but she never did complaine thereof: saying that shee wished
+her gere were at a stay and then shee cared not whether shee were hanged
+or burnt or what did become of her." Annis Herd was another who stuck to
+her innocence. She could recall various incidents mentioned by her
+accusers; it was true that she had talked to Andrew West about getting a
+pig, it was true that she had seen Mr. Harrison at his parsonage
+gathering plums and had asked for some and been refused. But she denied
+that she had any imps or that she had killed any one.
+
+The use of evidence in this trial would lead one to suppose that in
+England no rules of evidence were yet in existence. The testimony of
+children ranging in age from six to nine was eagerly received. No
+objection indeed was made to the testimony of a neighbor who professed
+to have overheard what he deemed an incriminating statement. As a matter
+of fact the remark, if made, was harmless enough.[17] Expert evidence
+was introduced in a roundabout way by the statement offered in court
+that a physician had suspected that a certain case was witchcraft.
+Nothing was excluded. The garrulous women had been give free rein to
+pile up their silly accusations against one another. Not until the trial
+was nearing its end does it seem to have occurred to Brian Darcy to warn
+a woman against making false charges.
+
+It will be recalled that in the Chelmsford trials Mother Waterhouse had
+been found to have upon her certain marks, yet little emphasis had been
+laid upon them. In the trials of 1582 the proof drawn from these marks
+was deemed of the first importance and the judge appointed juries of
+women to make examination. No artist has yet dared to paint the picture
+of the gloating female inquisitors grouped around their naked and
+trembling victim, a scene that was to be enacted in many a witch trial.
+And it is well, for the scene would be too repellent and brutal for
+reproduction. In the use of these specially instituted juries there was
+no care to get unbiassed decisions. One of the inquisitors appointed to
+examine Cystley Celles had already served as witness against her.
+
+It is hard to refrain from an indictment of the hopelessly prejudiced
+justice who gathered the evidence.[18] To entrap the defendants seems to
+have been his end. In the account which he wrote[19] he seems to have
+feared lest the public should fail to understand how his cleverness
+ministered to the conviction of the women.[20]
+
+"There is a man," he wrote, "of great cunning and knowledge come over
+lately unto our Queenes Maiestie, which hath advertised her what a
+companie and number of witches be within Englande: whereupon I and other
+of her Justices have received commission for the apprehending of as many
+as are within these limites." No doubt he hoped to attract royal notice
+and win favor by his zeal.
+
+The Chelmsford affairs and that at St. Oses were the three remarkable
+trials of their kind in the first part of Elizabeth's reign. They
+furnish some evidence of the progress of superstition. The procedure in
+1582 reveals considerable advance over that of 1566. The theory of
+diabolic agency had been elaborated. The testimony offered was gaining
+in complexity and in variety. New proofs of guilt were being introduced
+as well as new methods of testing the matter. In the second part of
+Elizabeth's reign we have but one trial of unusual interest, that at
+Warboys in Huntingdonshire. This, we shall see, continued the
+elaboration of the witch procedure. It was a case that attracted
+probably more notice at the time than any other in the sixteenth
+century. The accidental fancy of a child and the pronouncement of a
+baffled physician were in this instance the originating causes of the
+trouble. One of the children of Sir Robert Throckmorton, head of a
+prominent family in Huntingdonshire, was taken ill. It so happened that
+a neighbor, by name Alice Samuel, called at the house and the ailing and
+nervous child took the notion that the woman was a witch and cried out
+against her. "Did you ever see, sayd the child, one more like a witch
+then she is; take off her blacke thrumbd cap, for I cannot abide to
+looke on her." Her parents apparently thought nothing of this at the
+time. When Dr. Barrow, an eminent physician of Cambridge, having treated
+the child for two of the diseases of children, and without success,
+asked the mother and father if any witchcraft were suspected, he was
+answered in the negative. The Throckmortons were by no means quick to
+harbor a suspicion. But when two and then three other children in the
+family fell ill and began in the same way to designate Mother Samuel as
+a witch, the parents were more willing to heed the hint thrown out by
+the physician. The suspected woman was forcibly brought by Gilbert
+Pickering, an uncle of the children, into their presence. The children
+at once fell upon the ground "strangely tormented," and insisted upon
+scratching Mother Samuel's hand. Meantime Lady Cromwell[21] visited at
+the Throckmorton house, and, after an interview with Alice Samuel,
+suffered in her dreams from her till at length she fell ill and died,
+something over a year later. This confirmed what had been suspicion. To
+detail all the steps taken to prove Mother Samuel guilty is unnecessary.
+A degree of caution was used which was remarkable. Henry Pickering, a
+relative, and some of his fellow scholars at Cambridge made an
+investigation into the case, but decided with the others that the woman
+was guilty. Mother Samuel herself laid the whole trouble to the
+children's "wantonness." Again and again she was urged by the children
+to confess. "Such were the heavenly and divine speeches of the children
+in their fits to this old woman ... as that if a man had heard it he
+would not have thought himself better edified at ten sermons." The
+parents pleaded with her to admit her responsibility for the constantly
+recurring sickness of their children, but she denied bitterly that she
+was to blame. She was compelled to live at the Throckmorton house and to
+be a witness constantly to the strange behavior of the children. The
+poor creature was dragged back and forth, watched and experimented upon
+in a dozen ways, until it is little wonder that she grew ill and spent
+her nights in groaning. She was implored to confess and told that all
+might yet be well. For a long time she persisted in her denial, but at
+length in a moment of weakness, when the children had come out of their
+fits at her chance exhortation to them, she became convinced that she
+was guilty and exclaimed, "O sir, I have been the cause of all this
+trouble to your children." The woman, who up to this time had shown some
+spirit, had broken down. She now confessed that she had given her soul
+to the Devil. A clergyman was hastily sent for, who preached a sermon of
+repentance, upon which the distracted woman made a public confession.
+But on the next day, after she had been refreshed by sleep and had been
+in her own home again, she denied her confession. The constable now
+prepared to take the woman as well as her daughter to the Bishop of
+Lincoln, and the frightened creature again made a confession. In the
+presence of the bishop she reiterated her story in detail and gave the
+names of her spirits. She was put in gaol at Huntingdon and with her
+were imprisoned her daughter Agnes and her husband John Samuel, who were
+now accused by the Throckmorton children, and all three were tried at
+the assizes in Huntingdon before Judge Fenner. The facts already
+narrated were given in evidence, the seizures of the children at the
+appearance of any of the Samuel family[22], the certainty with which the
+children could with closed eyes pick Mother Samuel out of a crowd and
+scratch her, the confessions of the crazed creature, all these evidences
+were given to the court. But the strongest proof was that given in the
+presence of the court. The daughter Agnes Samuel was charged to repeat,
+"As I am a witch and consenting to the death of Lady Cromwell, I charge
+thee, come out of her."[23] At this charge the children would at once
+recover from their fits. But a charge phrased negatively, "As I am no
+witch," was ineffectual. And the affirmative charge, when tried by some
+other person, had no result. This was deemed conclusive proof. The woman
+was beyond doubt guilty. The same method was applied with equally
+successful issue to the father. When he refused to use the words of the
+charge he was warned by the judge that he would endanger his life. He
+gave way.
+
+It is needless to say that the grand jury arraigned all three of the
+family and that the "jury of life and death" found them guilty. It
+needed but a five hours' trial.[24] The mother was induced to plead
+pregnancy as a delay to execution, but after an examination by a jury
+was adjudged not pregnant. The daughter had been urged to make the same
+defence, but spiritedly replied, "It shall never be said that I was both
+a witch and a whore." At the execution the mother made another
+confession, in which she implicated her husband, but refused to the end
+to accuse her daughter.
+
+From beginning to end it had been the strong against the weak. Sir
+Robert Throckmorton, Sir Henry Cromwell, William Wickham, Bishop of
+Lincoln, the justices of the peace, Justice Fenner of the king's court,
+the Cambridge scholars, the "Doctor of Divinitie," and two other
+clergymen, all were banded together against this poor but respectable
+family. In some respects the trial reminds us of one that was to take
+place ninety-nine years later in Massachusetts. The part played by the
+children in the two instances was very similar. Mother Samuel had hit
+the nail on the head when she said that the trouble was due to the
+children's "wantonness." Probably the first child had really suffered
+from some slight ailment. The others were imitators eager to gain notice
+and pleased with their success; and this fact was realized by some
+people at the time. "It had been reported by some in the county, those
+that thought themselves wise, that this Mother Samuel ... was an old
+simple woman, and that one might make her by fayre words confesse what
+they would." Moreover the tone of the writer's defense makes it evident
+that others beside Mother Samuel laid the action of the Throckmorton
+children to "wantonness." And six years later Samuel Harsnett, chaplain
+to the Bishop of London and a man already influential, called the
+account of the affair "a very ridiculous booke" and evidently believed
+the children guilty of the same pretences as William Somers, whose
+confessions of imposture he was relating.[25]
+
+We have already observed that the Warboys affair was the only celebrated
+trial of its sort in the last part of Elizabeth's reign--that is, from
+the time of Reginald Scot to the accession of James I. This does not
+mean that the superstition was waning or that the trials were on the
+decrease. The records show that the number of trials was steadily
+increasing. They were more widely distributed. London was still the
+centre of the belief. Chief-Justice Anderson sent Joan Kerke to Tyburn
+and the Middlesex sessions were still occupied with accusations. The
+counties adjacent to it could still claim more than two-thirds of the
+executions. But a far wider area was infected with the superstition.
+Norfolk in East Anglia, Leicester, Nottingham and Derby in the
+Midlands, and York and Northumberland in the North were all involved.
+
+The truth is that there are two tendencies that appear very clearly
+towards the last part of Elizabeth's reign. On the one hand the feeling
+of the people against witchcraft was growing in intensity, while on the
+other the administration at London was inclined to be more lenient.
+Pardons and reprieves were issued to women already condemned,[26] while
+some attempt was made to curb popular excitement. The attitude of the
+queen towards the celebrated John Dee was an instance in point. Dee was
+an eminent alchemist, astrologer, and spiritualist of his time. He has
+left a diary which shows us his half mystic, half scientific pursuits.
+In the earlier part of Mary's reign he had been accused of attempting
+poison or magic against the queen and had been imprisoned and examined
+by the privy council and by the Star Chamber. At Elizabeth's accession
+he had cast the horoscope for her coronation day, and he was said to
+have revealed to the queen who were her enemies at foreign courts. More
+than once afterwards Dee was called upon by the queen to render her
+services when she was ill or when some mysterious design against her
+person was feared. While he dealt with many curious things, he had
+consistently refused to meddle with conjuring. Indeed he had rebuked the
+conjurer Hartley and had refused to help the bewitched Margaret Byrom of
+Cleworth in Lancashire. Sometime about 1590 Dee's enemies--and he had
+many--put in circulation stories of his success as a conjurer. It was
+the more easy to do, because for a long time he had been suspected by
+many of unlawful dealings with spirits. His position became dangerous.
+He appealed to Elizabeth for protection and she gave him assurance that
+he might push on with his studies. Throughout her life the queen
+continued to stand by Dee,[27] and it was not until a new sovereign came
+to the throne that he again came into danger. But the moral of the
+incident is obvious. The privy council, so nervous about the conjurers
+in the days of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Catholic and Spanish plots,
+was now resting easier and refused to be affrighted.
+
+We have already referred to the pardons issued as one of the evidences
+of the more lenient policy of the government. That policy appeared too
+in the lessening rigor of the assize judges. The first half of
+Elizabeth's reign had been marked by few acquittals. Nearly half the
+cases of which we have record in the second part resulted in the
+discharge of the accused. Whether the judges were taking their cue from
+the privy council or whether some of them were feeling the same reaction
+against the cruelty of the prosecutions, it is certain that there was a
+considerable nullifying of the force of the belief. We shall see in the
+chapter on Reginald Scot that his _Discoverie of Witchcraft_ was said to
+have "affected the magistracy and the clergy." It is hard to lay one's
+finger upon influences of this sort, but we can hardly doubt that there
+was some connection between Scot's brave indictment of the witch-triers
+and the lessening severity of court verdicts. When George Gifford, the
+non-conformist clergyman at Maiden, wrote his _Dialogue concerning
+Witches_, in which he earnestly deprecated the conviction of so many
+witches, he dedicated the book "to the Right Worshipful Maister Robert
+Clarke, one of her Maiesties Barons of her Highnesse Court of the
+Exchequer," and wrote that he had been "delighted to heare and see the
+wise and godly course used upon the seate of justice by your worship,
+when such have bene arraigned." Unfortunately there is not much evidence
+of this kind.
+
+One other fact must not be overlooked. A large percentage of the cases
+that went against the accused were in towns judicially independent of
+the assize courts. At Faversham, at Lynn, at Yarmouth, and at
+Leicester[28] the local municipal authorities were to blame for the
+hanging of witches. The regular assize courts had nothing to do with the
+matter. The case at Faversham in Kent was unusual. Joan Cason was
+indicted for bewitching to death a three-year-old child. Eight of her
+neighbors, seven of them women, "poore people," testified against her.
+The woman took up her own cause with great spirit and exposed the
+malicious dealings of her adversaries and also certain controversies
+betwixt her and them. "But although she satisfied the bench," says
+Holinshed, "and all the jurie touching hir innocencie ... she ...
+confessed that a little vermin, being of colour reddish, of stature
+lesse than a rat ... did ... haunt her house." She was willing too to
+admit illicit relations with one Mason, whose housekeeper she had
+been--probably the original cause of her troubles. The jury acquitted
+her of witchcraft, but found her guilty of the "invocation of evil
+spirits," intending to send her to the pillory. While the mayor was
+admonishing her, a lawyer called attention to the point that the
+invocation of evil spirits had been made a felony. The mayor sentenced
+the woman to execution. But, "because there was no matter of invocation
+given in evidence against hir, ... hir execution was staied by the space
+of three daies." Sundry preachers tried to wring confessions from her,
+but to no purpose. Yet she made so godly an end, says the chronicler,
+that "manie now lamented hir death which were before hir utter
+enimies."[29] The case illustrates vividly the clumsiness of municipal
+court procedure. The mayor's court was unfamiliar with the law and
+utterly unable to avert the consequences of its own finding. In the
+regular assize courts, Joan Cason would probably have been sentenced to
+four public appearances in the pillory.
+
+The differences between the first half and the second half of
+Elizabeth's reign have not been deemed wide enough by the writer to
+justify separate treatment. The whole reign was a time when the
+superstition was gaining ground. Yet in the span of years from Reginald
+Scot to the death of Elizabeth there was enough of reaction to justify a
+differentiation of statistics. In both periods, and more particularly in
+the first, we may be sure that some of the records have been lost and
+that a thorough search of local archives would reveal some trials of
+which we have at present no knowledge. It was a time rich in mention of
+witch trials, but a time too when but few cases were fully described.
+Scot's incidental references to the varied experiences of Sir Roger
+Manwood and of his uncle Sir Thomas Scot merely confirm an impression
+gained from the literature of the time that the witch executions were
+becoming, throughout the seventies and early eighties, too common to be
+remarkable. For the second period we have record of probably a larger
+percentage of all the cases. For the whole time from 1563, when the new
+law went into effect, down to 1603, we have records of nearly fifty
+executions. Of these just about two-thirds occurred in the earlier
+period, while of the acquittals two-thirds belong to the later period.
+It would be rash to attach too much significance to these figures. As a
+matter of fact, the records are so incomplete that the actual totals
+have little if any meaning and only the proportions can be
+considered.[30] Yet it looks as if the forces which caused the
+persecution of witches in England were beginning to abate; and it may
+fairly be inquired whether some new factor may not have entered into the
+situation. It is time to speak of Reginald Scot and of the exorcists.
+
+
+[1] Who from a confession made in 1579 seems to have been her sister.
+See the pamphlet _A Detection of damnable driftes, practised by three
+Witches arraigned at Chelmsforde in Essex at the last Assizes there
+holden, which were executed in Aprill, 1579_ (London, 1579).
+
+[2] _E. g._: "I was afearde for he [the dog with horns] skypped and
+leaped to and fro, and satte on the toppe of a nettle."
+
+[3] Whether Agnes Waterhouse had a "daggar's knife" and whether the dog
+had the face of an ape.
+
+[4] An offer which indicates that he was acting as judge.
+
+[5] She was questioned on her church habits. She claimed to be a regular
+attendant; she "prayed right hartely there." She admitted, however, that
+she prayed "in laten" because Sathan would not let her pray in English.
+
+[6] There is of course the further possibility that the pamphlet account
+was largely invented. A critical examination of the pamphlet tends to
+establish its trustworthiness. See appendix A, Sec. 1.
+
+[7] Alice Chandler was probably hanged at this time. The failure to
+mention her name is easily explained when we remember that the pamphlet
+was issued in two parts, as soon as possible after the event. Alice
+Chandler's case probably did not come up for trial until the two parts
+of the pamphlet had already been published. See _A Detection of damnable
+driftes_.
+
+[8] Mother Staunton, who had apparently made some pretensions to the
+practice of magic, was arraigned on several charges. She had been
+refused her requests by several people, who had thereupon suffered some
+ills.
+
+[9] It is possible that the whole affair started from the whim of a sick
+child, who, when she saw Elleine Smith, cried, "Away with the witch."
+
+[10] A caution here. The pamphlets were hastily compiled and perhaps
+left out important facts.
+
+[11] Her eight-year-old boy was probably illegitimate.
+
+[12] Mother Waterhouse's knowledge of Latin, if that is more than the
+fiction of a Protestant pamphleteer, is rather remarkable.
+
+[13] Allowance must be made for a very prejudiced reporter, _i. e._, the
+judge himself.
+
+[14] These details were very probably suggested to her by the judge.
+
+[15] Who promised her also "favour."
+
+[16] The detestable methods of Justice Darcy come out in the case of a
+woman from whom he threatened to remove her imps if she did not confess,
+and by that means trapped her into the incriminating statement, "That
+shal ye not."
+
+[17] William Hooke had heard William Newman "bid the said Ales his wife
+to beate it away." Comparable with this was the evidence of Margerie
+Sammon who "sayeth that the saide widow Hunt did tell her that shee had
+harde the said Joan Pechey, being in her house, verie often to chide and
+vehemently speaking, ... and sayth that shee went in to see, ... shee
+founde no bodie but herselfe alone."
+
+[18] Reginald Scot, _Discoverie of Witchcraft_, 542, says of this trial,
+"In the meane time let anie man with good consideration peruse that
+booke published by W. W. and it shall suffice to satisfie him in all
+that may be required.... See whether the witnesses be not single, of
+what credit, sex, and age they are; namelie lewd miserable and envious
+poore people; most of them which speake to anie purpose being old women
+and children of the age of 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9 yeares."
+
+[19] There can be no doubt that Brian Darcy either wrote the account
+himself or dictated it to "W. W." The frequent use of "me," meaning by
+that pronoun the judge, indicates that he was responsible.
+
+[20] It is some relief in this trial to read the testimony of John
+Tendering about William Byett. He had a cow "in a strange case." He
+could not lift it. He put fire under the cow, she got up and "there
+stood still and fell a byting of stickes larger than any man's finger
+and after lived and did well."
+
+[21] Second wife of Sir Henry Cromwell, who was the grandfather of
+Oliver.
+
+[22] The children were strangely inconsistent. At the first they had
+fits when Mother Samuel appeared. Later they were troubled unless Mother
+Samuel were kept in the house, or unless they were taken to her house.
+
+[23] This device seems to have been originally suggested by the children
+to try Mother Samuel's guilt.
+
+[24] The clergyman, "Doctor Dorrington," had been one of the leaders in
+prosecuting them.
+
+[25] Harsnett, _Discovery of the Fraudulent Practises of John Darrel_
+(London, 1599), 92, 97.
+
+[26] Among the manuscripts on witchcraft in the Bodleian Library are
+three such pardons of witches for their witchcraft--one of Jane Mortimer
+in 1595, one of Rosa Bexwell in 1600, and one of "Alice S.," without
+date but under Elizabeth.
+
+[27] In 1595 he was made warden of the Manchester Collegiate Church. Dee
+has in our days found a biographer. See _John Dee_ (1527-1608), by
+Charlotte Fell Smith (London, 1909).
+
+[28] For the particular case, see Mary Bateson, ed., _Records of the
+Borough of Leicester_ (Cambridge, 1899), III. 335; for the general
+letters patent covering such cases see _id._, II, 365, 366.
+
+[29] For this story see Ralph Holinshed, _Chronicles of England,
+Scotland, and Ireland_ (London, 1577, reprinted 1586-1587 and
+1807-1808), ed. of 1807-1808, IV, 891, 893. Faversham was then
+"Feversham."
+
+[30] Justice Anderson, when sentencing a witch to a year's imprisonment,
+declared that this was the twenty-fifth or twenty-sixth witch he had
+condemned. This is good evidence that the records of many cases have
+been lost. See Brit. Mus., Sloane MS. 831, f. 38.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+REGINALD SCOT.
+
+
+From the chronicling of witch trials we turn aside in this chapter to
+follow the career of the first great English opponent of the
+superstition. We have seen how the attack upon the supposed creatures of
+the Devil was growing stronger throughout the reign of Elizabeth. We
+shall see how that attack was checked, at least in some degree, by the
+resistance of one man. Few men of so quiet and studious life have
+wrought so effectively as Reginald Scot. He came of a family well known
+in Kent, but not politically aggressive. As a young man he studied at
+Hart Hall[1] in Oxford, but left without taking his degree and returned
+to Scots-Hall, where he settled down to the routine duties of managing
+his estate. He gave himself over, we are told, to husbandry and
+gardening and to a solid course of general reading in the obscure
+authors that had "by the generality been neglected." In 1574 his studies
+in horticulture resulted in the publication of _A Perfect Platforme of a
+Hoppe-Garden and necessary instructions for the making and maintaining
+thereof_. That the book ministered to a practical interest was evidenced
+by the call for three editions within five years. Whether he now applied
+himself to the study of that subject which was to be the theme of his
+_Discoverie_, we do not know. It was a matter which had doubtless
+arrested his attention even earlier and had enlisted a growing interest
+upon his part. Not until a decade after his _Hoppe-Garden_, however, did
+he put forth the epoch-making _Discoverie_. Nor does it seem likely that
+he had been engaged for a long period on the actual composition. Rather,
+the style and matter of the book seem to evince traces of hurry in
+preparation. If this theory be true--and Mr. Brinsley Nicholson, his
+modern commentator, has adduced excellent reasons for accepting
+it[2]--there can be but one explanation, the St. Oses affair. That
+tragedy, occurring within a short distance of his own home, had no doubt
+so outraged his sense of justice, that the work which he had perhaps
+long been contemplating he now set himself to complete as soon as
+possible.[3] Even he who runs may read in Scot's strong sentences that
+he was not writing for instruction only, to propound a new doctrine, but
+that he was battling with the single purpose to stop a detestable and
+wicked practice. Something of a dilettante in real life, he became in
+his writing a man with an absorbing mission. That mission sprang not
+indeed from indignation at the St. Oses affair alone. From the days of
+childhood his experience had been of a kind to encourage skepticism. He
+had been reared in a county where Elizabeth Barton, the Holy Maid of
+Kent, first came into prominence, and he had seen the downfall that
+followed her public exposure.[4] In the year after he brought out his
+_Hoppe-garden_, his county was again stirred by performances of a
+supposedly supernatural character. Mildred Norrington, a girl of
+seventeen,[5] used ventriloquism with such skill that she convinced two
+clergymen and all her neighbors that she was possessed. In answer to
+queries, the evil spirit that spoke through Mildred declared that "old
+Alice of Westwell"[6] had sent him to possess the girl. Alice, the
+spirit admitted, stood guilty of terrible witchcrafts. The demon's word
+was taken, and Alice seems to have been "arraigned upon this
+evidence."[7] But, through the justices' adroit management of the trial,
+the fraud of the accuser was exposed. She confessed herself a pretender
+and suffered "condign punishment." This case happened within six miles
+of Scot's home and opened his eyes to the possibility of humbug. In the
+very same year two pretenders, Agnes Bridges and Rachel Pinder, were
+convicted in London. By vomiting pins and straws[8] they had convinced
+many that they were bewitched, but the trickery was soon found out and
+they were compelled to do public penance at St. Paul's.[9] We are not
+told what was the fate of a detestable Mother Baker, who, when consulted
+by the parents of a sick girl at New Romney in Kent, accused a neighbor
+woman.[10] She said that the woman had made a waxen heart and pricked it
+and by this means accomplished her evil purpose. In order to prove her
+accusation, she had in the mean time concealed the wax figure of a heart
+in the house of the woman she accused, and then pretended to find
+it.[11] It is some satisfaction to know that the malicious
+creature--who, during the history of witchcraft, had many imitators--was
+caught and compelled to confess.
+
+Scot learned, indeed, by observing marvels of this sort[12]--what it is
+strange that many others did not learn--to look upon displays of the
+supernatural with a good deal of doubt. How much he had ever believed in
+them we do not know. It is not unlikely that in common with his
+generation he had, as a young man, held a somewhat ill-defined opinion
+about the Devil's use of witches. The belief in that had come down, a
+comparatively innocuous tradition, from a primitive period. It was a
+subject that had not been raised in speculation or for that matter in
+court rooms. But since Scot's early manhood all this had been changed.
+England had been swept by a tidal wave of suspicion. Hazy theological
+notions had been tightened into rigid convictions. Convictions had
+passed into legislative statutes and instructions to judges. The bench,
+which had at first acted on the new laws with caution and a desire to
+detect imposture, became infected with the fear and grew more ready to
+discover witchcraft and to punish it. It is unnecessary to recapitulate
+the progress of a movement already traced in the previous chapter.
+Suffice it to say that the Kentish gentleman, familiarized with accounts
+of imposture, was unwilling to follow the rising current of
+superstition. Of course this is merely another way of saying that Scot
+was unconventional in his mental operations and thought the subject out
+for himself with results variant from those of his own generation. Here
+was a new abuse in England, here was a wrong that he had seen spring up
+within his own lifetime and in his own part of England. He made it his
+mission as far as possible to right the wrong. "For so much," he says,
+"as the mightie helpe themselves together, and the poore widowes crie,
+though it reach to heaven, is scarse heard here upon earth: I thought
+good (according to my poore abilitie) to make intercession, that some
+part of common rigor, and some points of hastie judgement may be advised
+upon."[13]
+
+It was indeed a splendid mission and he was singularly well equipped for
+it. He had the qualifications--scholarly training and the power of
+scientific observation, a background of broad theological and scriptural
+information, a familiarity with legal learning and practice, as well as
+a command of vigorous and incisive language--which were certain to make
+his work effective towards its object.
+
+That he was a scholar is true in more senses than one. In his use of
+deduction from classical writers he was something of a scholastic, in
+his willingness to venture into new fields of thought he was a product
+of the Renaissance, in his thorough use of research he reminds us of a
+modern investigator. He gives in his book a bibliography of the works
+consulted by him and one counts over two hundred Latin and thirty
+English titles. His reading had covered the whole field of superstition.
+To Cornelius Agrippa and to Wierus (Johann Weyer),[14] who had attacked
+the tyranny of superstition upon the Continent, he owed an especial
+debt. He had not, however, borrowed enough from them to impair in any
+serious way the value of his own original contribution.
+
+In respect to law, Scot was less a student than a man of experience. The
+_Discoverie_, however, bristled with references which indicated a legal
+way of thinking. He was almost certainly a man who had used the law.
+Brinsley Nicholson believes that he had been a justice of the peace. In
+any case he had a lawyer's sense of the value of evidence and a lawyer's
+way of putting his case.
+
+No less practical was his knowledge of theology and scripture. Here he
+had to meet the baffling problems of the Witch of Endor. The story of
+the witch who had called up before the frightened King Saul the spirit
+of the dead Samuel and made him speak, stood as a lion in the path of
+all opponents of witch persecution. When Scot dared to explain this Old
+Testament tale as an instance of ventriloquism, and to compare it to the
+celebrated case of Mildred Norrington, he showed a boldness in
+interpretation of the Bible far in advance of his contemporaries.
+
+His anticipation of present-day points of view cropped out perhaps more
+in his scientific spirit than in any other way. For years before he put
+pen to paper he had been conducting investigations into alleged cases of
+conjuring and witchcraft, attending trials,[15] and questioning
+clergymen and magistrates. For such observation he was most favorably
+situated and he used his position in his community to further his
+knowledge. A man almost impertinently curious was this sixteenth-century
+student. When he learned of a conjurer whose sentence of death had been
+remitted by the queen and who professed penitence for his crimes, he
+opened a correspondence and obtained from the man the clear statement
+that his conjuries were all impostures. The prisoner referred him to "a
+booke written in the old Saxon toong by one Sir John Malborne, a divine
+of Oxenford, three hundred yeares past," in which all these trickeries
+are cleared up. Scot put forth his best efforts to procure the work from
+the parson to whom it had been entrusted, but without success.[16] In
+another case he attended the assizes at Rochester, where a woman was on
+trial. One of her accusers was the vicar of the parish, who made several
+charges, not the least of which was that he could not enunciate clearly
+in church owing to enchantment. This explanation Scot carried to her and
+she was able to give him an explanation much less creditable to the
+clergyman of the ailment, an explanation which Scot found confirmed by
+an enquiry among the neighbors. To quiet such rumors in the community
+about the nature of the illness the vicar had to procure from London a
+medical certificate that it was a lung trouble.[17]
+
+Can we wonder that a student at such pains to discover the fact as to a
+wrong done should have used barbed words in the portrayal of injustice?
+Strong convictions spurred on his pen, already taught to shape vigorous
+and incisive sentences. Not a stylist, as measured by the highest
+Elizabethan standards of charm and mellifluence, he possessed a
+clearness and directness which win the modern reader. By his methods of
+analysis he displayed a quality of mind akin to and probably influenced
+by that of Calvin, while his intellectual attitude showed the stimulus
+of the Reformation.
+
+He was indeed in his own restricted field a reformer. He was not only
+the protagonist of a new cause, but a pioneer who had to cut through the
+underbrush of opinion a pathway for speculation to follow. So far as
+England was concerned, Scot found no philosophy of the subject, no
+systematic defences or assaults upon the loosely constructed theory of
+demonic agency. It was for him to state in definite terms the beliefs he
+was seeking to overthrow. The Roman church knew fairly well by this time
+what it meant by witchcraft, but English theologians and philosophers
+would hardly have found common ground on any one tenet about the
+matter.[18] Without exaggeration it may be asserted that Scot by his
+assault all along the front forced the enemy's advance and in some sense
+dictated his line of battle.
+
+The assault was directed indeed against the centre of the opposing
+entrenchments, the belief in the continuance of miracles. Scot declared
+that with Christ and his apostles the age of miracles had passed, an
+opinion which he supported by the authority of Calvin and of St.
+Augustine. What was counted the supernatural assumed two forms--the
+phenomena exhibited by those whom he classed under the wide term of
+"couseners," and the phenomena said to be exhibited by the "poor doting
+women" known as witches. The tricks and deceits of the "couseners" he
+was at great pains to explain. Not less than one-third of his work is
+given up to setting forth the methods of conjurers, card tricks,
+sleight-of-hand performances, illusions of magic, materializations of
+spirits, and the wonders of alchemy and astrology. In the range of his
+information about these subjects, the discoverer was encyclopedic. No
+current form of dabbling with the supernatural was left unexposed.
+
+In his attack upon the phenomena of witchcraft he had a different
+problem. He had to deal with phenomena the so-called facts of which were
+not susceptible of any material explanation. The theory of a Devil who
+had intimate relations with human beings, who controlled them and sent
+them out upon maleficent errands, was in its essence a theological
+conception and could not be absolutely disproved by scientific
+observation. It was necessary instead to attack the idea on its _a
+priori_ grounds. This attack Scot attempted to base on the nature of
+spirits. Spirits and bodies, he urged, are antithetical and
+inconvertible, nor can any one save God give spirit a bodily form. The
+Devil, a something beyond our comprehension, cannot change spirit into
+body, nor can he himself assume a bodily form, nor has he any power save
+that granted him by God for vengeance. This being true, the whole
+belief in the Devil's intercourse with witches is undermined. Such, very
+briefly, were the philosophic bases of Scot's skepticism. Yet the more
+cogent parts of his work were those in which he denied the validity of
+any evidence so far offered for the existence of witches. What is
+witchcraft? he asked; and his answer is worth quoting. "Witchcraft is in
+truth a cousening art, wherin the name of God is abused, prophaned and
+blasphemed, and his power attributed to a vile creature. In estimation
+of the vulgar people, it is a supernaturall worke, contrived betweene a
+corporall old woman, and a spirituall divell. The maner thereof is so
+secret, mysticall, and strange, that to this daie there hath never beene
+any credible witnes thereof."[19] The want of credible evidence was
+indeed a point upon which Scot continually insisted with great force. He
+pictured vividly the course which a witchcraft case often ran: "One sort
+of such as are said to bee witches are women which be commonly old,
+lame, bleare-eied, pale, fowle, and full of wrinkles; ... they are leane
+and deformed, shewing melancholie in their faces; ... they are doting,
+scolds, mad, divelish.... These miserable wretches are so odious unto
+all their neighbors, and so feared, as few dare offend them, or denie
+them anie thing they aske: whereby they take upon them, yea, and
+sometimes thinke, that they can doo such things as are beyond the
+abilitie of humane nature. These go from house to house, and from doore
+to doore for a pot of milke, yest, drinke, pottage, or some such
+releefe; without the which they could hardlie live.... It falleth out
+many times, that neither their necessities, nor their expectation is
+answered.... In tract of time the witch waxeth odious and tedious to hir
+neighbors; ... she cursseth one, and sometimes another; and that from
+the maister of the house, his wife, children, cattell, etc. to the
+little pig that lieth in the stie.... Doubtlesse (at length) some of hir
+neighbours die, or fall sicke."[20] Then they suspect her, says Scot,
+and grow convinced that she is the author of their mishaps. "The witch,
+... seeing things sometimes come to passe according to hir wishes, ...
+being called before a Justice, ... confesseth that she hath brought such
+things to passe. Wherein, not onelie she, but the accuser, and also the
+Justice are fowlie deceived and abused."[21] Such indeed was the epitome
+of many cases. The process from beginning to end was never better
+described; the ease with which confessions were dragged from
+weak-spirited women was never pictured more truly. With quite as keen
+insight he displayed the motives that animated witnesses and described
+the prejudices and fears that worked on jurors and judges. It was,
+indeed, upon these factors that he rested the weight of his argument for
+the negative.[22]
+
+The affirmative opinion was grounded, he believed, upon the ignorance of
+the common people, "assotted and bewitched" by the jesting or serious
+words of poets, by the inventions of "lowd liers and couseners," and by
+"tales they have heard from old doting women, or from their mother's
+maids, and with whatsoever the grandfoole their ghostlie father or anie
+other morrow masse preest had informed them."[23]
+
+By the same method by which he opposed the belief in witchcraft he
+opposed the belief in possession by an evil spirit. The known cases,
+when examined, proved frauds. The instances in the New Testament he
+seemed inclined to explain by the assumption that possession merely
+meant disease.[24]
+
+That Scot should maintain an absolute negative in the face of all
+strange phenomena would have been too much to expect. He seems to have
+believed, though not without some difficulty, that stones had in them
+"certaine proper vertues which are given them of a speciall influence of
+the planets." The unicorn's horn, he thought, had certain curative
+properties. And he had heard "by credible report" and the affirmation of
+"many grave authors" that "the wound of a man murthered reneweth
+bleeding at the presence of a deere freend, or of a mortall enimie."[25]
+
+His credulity in these points may be disappointing to the reader who
+hopes to find in Scot a scientific rationalist. That, of course, he was
+not; and his leaning towards superstition on these points makes one ask,
+What did he really believe about witchcraft? When all the fraud and
+false testimony and self-deception were excluded, what about the
+remaining cases of witchcraft? Scot was very careful never to deny _in
+toto_ the existence of witches. That would have been to deny the Bible.
+What were these witches, then? Doubtless he would have answered that he
+had already classified them under two heads: they were either
+"couseners" or "poor doting women"--and by "couseners" he seems to have
+meant those who used trickery and fraud. In other words, Scot distinctly
+implied that there were no real witches--with powers given them by the
+Devil. Would he have stood by this when pushed into a corner? It is just
+possible that he would have done so, that he understood his own
+implications, but hardly dared to utter a straighforward denial of the
+reality of witchcraft. It is more likely that he had not altogether
+thought himself out.
+
+The immediate impression of Scot's book we know little about. Such
+contemporary comment as we have is neutral.[26] That his book was read
+painstakingly by every later writer on the subject, that it shortly
+became the great support of one party in the controversy, that King
+James deemed it worth while to write an answer, and that on his
+accession to the throne he almost certainly ordered the book to be
+burned by the common hangman,[27] these are better evidence than
+absolutely contemporary notices to show that the _Discoverie_ exerted an
+influence.
+
+We cannot better suggest how radical Scot's position must have seemed to
+his own time than by showing the point of view of another opponent of
+witchcraft, George Gifford, a non-conformist clergyman.[28] He had read
+the _Discoverie_ and probably felt that the theological aspect of the
+subject had been neglected. Moreover it had probably been his fortune,
+as Scot's, to attend the St. Oses trials. Three years after Scot's book
+he brought out _A Discourse of the Subtill Practises of Devilles by
+Witches_, and followed it six years later by _A Dialogue concerning
+Witches_,[29] a book in which he expounded his opinions in somewhat more
+popular fashion. Like Scot, he wrote to end, so far as possible, the
+punishment of innocent women;[30] like Scot, he believed that most of
+the evidence presented against them was worthless.[31] But on other
+points he was far less radical. There were witches. He found them in
+the Bible.[32] To be sure they were nothing more than pawns for the
+Devil. He uses them "onely for a colour,"[33] that is, puts them forward
+to cover his own dealings, and then he deludes them and makes them
+"beleeve things which are nothing so."[34] In consequence they
+frequently at their executions falsely accuse others of dreadful
+witchcrafts. It is all the work of the Devil. But he himself cannot do
+anything except through the power of God,[35] who, sometimes for
+vengeance upon His enemies and sometimes to try His own people,[36]
+permits the Evil One to do harm.[37]
+
+Gifford of course never made the impression that Scot had made.[38] But
+he represented the more conservative position and was the first in a
+long line of writers who deprecated persecution while they accepted the
+current view as to witchcraft; and therefore he furnishes a standard by
+which to measure Scot, who had nothing of the conservative about him.
+Scot had many readers and exerted a strong influence even upon those who
+disagreed with him; but he had few or none to follow in his steps. It
+was not until nearly a century later that there came upon the scene a
+man who dared to speak as Scot had spoken. Few men have been so far
+ahead of their time.
+
+
+[1] Where George Gifford, who wrote a little later on the subject, was
+also a student.
+
+[2] _Discoverie of Witchcraft_, Nicholson ed., introd., xxxv.
+
+[3] That at least a part of it was written in 1583 appears from his own
+words, where he speaks of the treatise of Leonardus Vairus on
+fascination as "now this present yeare 1583 newlie published," _ibid._,
+124.
+
+[4] Elizabeth Barton (1506-1534) suffered from a nervous derangement
+which developed into a religious mania. She was taught by some monks,
+and then professed to be in communion with the Virgin Mary and performed
+miracles at stated times. She denounced Henry VIII's divorce and gained
+wide recognition as a champion of the queen and the Catholic church. She
+was granted interviews by Archbishop Warham, by Thomas More, and by
+Wolsey. She was finally induced by Cranmer to make confession, was
+compelled publicly to repeat her confession in various places, and was
+then executed; see _Dict. Nat. Biog._
+
+[5] Illegitimate child.
+
+[6] That is, very probably, Alice Norrington, the mother of Mildred.
+
+[7] _Discoverie of Witchcraft_, 130.
+
+[8] _Ibid._, 132.
+
+[9] See _The discloysing of a late counterfeyted possession by the devyl
+in two maydens within the Citie of London_; see also Holinshed,
+_Chronicles_, ed. of 1807-1808, IV, 325, and John Stow, _Annals ... of
+England_ (London, 1615), 678.
+
+[10] _Discoverie of Witchcraft_, 258, 259.
+
+[11] The spot she chose for concealing the token of guilt had been
+previously searched.
+
+[12] For another see _Discoverie of Witchcraft_, 132-133.
+
+[13] In his prefatory epistle "to the Readers."
+
+[14] An incidental reference to Weyer in "W. W.'s" account of the
+_Witches taken at St. Oses_ is interesting: "... whom a learned
+Phisitian is not ashamed to avouche innocent, and the Judges that
+denounce sentence of death against them no better than hangmen."
+
+[15] _E. g., Discoverie of Witchcraft_, 5.
+
+[16] _Ibid._, 466-469.
+
+[17] _Ibid._, 5-6.
+
+[18] _Ibid._, 15: "Howbeit you shall understand that few or none are
+throughlie persuaded, resolved, or satisfied, that witches can indeed
+accomplish all these impossibilities; but some one is bewitched in one
+point, and some is coosened in another, untill in fine, all these
+impossibilities, and manie mo, are by severall persons affirmed to be
+true."
+
+[19] _Discoverie_, 472.
+
+[20] _Ibid._, 7-8.
+
+[21] _Ibid._, 8.
+
+[22] It was one of the points made by "witchmongers" that the existence
+of laws against witches proved there were witches. This argument was
+used by Sir Matthew Hale as late as 1664. Scot says on that point: "Yet
+I confesse, the customes and lawes almost of all nations doo declare,
+that all these miraculous works ... were attributed to the power of
+witches. The which lawes, with the executions and judicials thereupon,
+and the witches confessions, have beguiled almost the whole world."
+_Ibid._, 220.
+
+[23] _Discoverie_, 471, 472.
+
+[24] _Ibid._, 512.
+
+[25] _Ibid._, 303.
+
+[26] Thomas Nash in his _Four Letters Confuted_ (London, 1593) refers to
+it in a non-committal way as a work treating of "the diverse natures and
+properties of Divels and Spirits." Gabriel Harvey's _Pierces
+Supererogation_ (London, 1593), has the following mention of it:
+"Scottes discoovery of Witchcraft dismasketh sundry egregious
+impostures, and in certaine principall chapters, and special passages,
+hitteth the nayle on the head with a witnesse; howsoever I could have
+wished he had either dealt somewhat more curteously with Monsieur
+Bodine, or confuted him somewhat more effectually." Professor Burr
+informs me that there is in the British Museum (Harleian MSS. 2302) an
+incomplete and unpublished reply to Scot. Its handwriting shows it
+contemporary or nearly so. It is a series of "Reasons" why witches
+should be believed in--the MS. in its present state beginning with the
+"5th Reason" and breaking off in the midst of the 108th.
+
+[27] See Nicholson's opinion on this, pp. xxxvii-xxxix of his
+introduction to Scot's book.
+
+[28] George Gifford was a Church of England clergyman whose Puritan
+sympathies at length compelled him to identify himself publicly with the
+non-conformist movement in 1584. For two years previous to that time he
+had held the living of Maldon in Essex.
+
+[29] A second edition of this book appeared in 1603. It was reprinted
+for the Percy Society in 1842.
+
+[30] _Dialogue_, ed. of 1603, prefatory letter and L-M 2 verso.
+
+[31] _Discourse_, D 3 verso, G 4 verso; _Dialogue_, ed. of 1603, K 2-K 2
+verso, L-L 2. See also _ibid._, K 4-K 4 verso: "As not long since a
+rugged water spaniell having a chaine, came to a mans doore that had a
+saut bitch, and some espied him in the darke, and said it was a thing as
+bigge as a colt, and had eyes as great as saucers. Hereupon some came to
+charge to him, and did charge him in the name of the Father, the Sonne,
+and the Holy Ghost, to tell what he was. The dogge at the last told
+them, for he spake in his language, and said, bowgh, and thereby they
+did know what he was."
+
+[32] _Discourse_, in the prefatory letter.
+
+[33] _Ibid._, F 4 verso, F 5.
+
+[34] _Dialogue_, ed of 1603, K 2 verso.
+
+[35] _Ibid._, D 3 verso; _Discourse_, G 3 verso, H 3 verso.
+
+[36] _Ibid._, D 2 verso.
+
+[37] Gifford grew very forceful when he described the progress of a case
+against a witch: "Some woman doth fal out bitterly with her neighbour:
+there followeth some great hurt.... There is a suspicion conceived.
+Within fewe yeares after shee is in some jarre with an other. Hee is
+also plagued. This is noted of all. Great fame is spread of the matter.
+Mother W. is a witch.... Wel, mother W. doth begin to bee very odious
+and terrible unto many, her neighbours dare say nothing but yet in their
+heartes they wish shee were hanged. Shortly after an other falleth sicke
+and doth pine.... The neighbors come to visit him. Well neighbour, sayth
+one, do ye not suspect some naughty dealing: did yee never anger mother
+W? truly neighbour (sayth he) I have not liked the woman a long tyme. I
+can not tell how I should displease her, unlesse it were this other day,
+my wife prayed her, and so did I, that shee would keepe her hennes out
+of my garden. Wee spake her as fayre as wee could for our lives. I
+thinke verely she hath bewitched me. Every body sayth now that mother W.
+is a witch in deede.... It is out of all doubt: for there were which saw
+a weasil runne from her housward into his yard even a little before hee
+fell sicke. The sicke man dieth, and taketh it upon his death that he is
+bewitched: then is mother W. apprehended, and sent to prison, shee is
+arrayned and condemned, and being at the gallows, taketh it uppon her
+death that shee is not gylty." _Discourse_, G 4-G 4 verso. And so,
+Gifford explains, the Devil is pleased, for he has put innocent people
+into danger, he has caused witnesses to forswear themselves and jurymen
+to render false verdicts.
+
+[38] But his views were warmly seconded by Henry Holland, who in 1590
+issued at Cambridge _A Treatise against Witchcraft_. Holland, however,
+was chiefly interested in warning "Masters and Fathers of families that
+they may learn the best meanes to purge their houses of all unclean
+spirits." It goes without saying that he found himself at variance with
+Scot, who, he declared, reduced witchcraft to a "cozening or poisoning
+art." In the Scriptures he found the evidence that witches have a real
+"confederacie with Satan himself," but he was frank to admit that the
+proof of bargains of the sort in his own time could not be given.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE EXORCISTS.
+
+
+In the narrative of English witchcraft the story of the exorcists is a
+side-issue. Yet their performances were so closely connected with the
+operations of the Devil and of his agents that they cannot be left out
+of account in any adequate statement of the subject. And it is
+impossible to understand the strength and weakness of the superstition
+without a comprehension of the role that the would-be agents for
+expelling evil spirits played. That the reign which had seen pass in
+procession the bands of conjurers and witches should close with the
+exorcists was to be expected. It was their part to complete the cycle of
+superstition. If miracles of magic were possible, if conjurers could use
+a supernatural power of some sort to assist them in performing wonders,
+there was nothing very remarkable about creatures who wrought harm to
+their fellows through the agency of evil spirits. And if witches could
+send evil spirits to do harm, it followed that those spirits could be
+expelled or exorcised by divine assistance. If by prayer to the Devil
+demons could be commanded to enter human beings, they could be driven
+out by prayer to God. The processes of reasoning were perfectly clear;
+and they were easily accepted because they found adequate confirmation
+in the New Testament. The gospels were full of narratives of men
+possessed with evil spirits who had been freed by the invocation of God.
+Of these stories no doubt the most quoted and the one most effective in
+moulding opinion was the account of the dispossessed devils who had
+entered into a herd of swine and plunged over a steep place into the
+sea.
+
+It must not be supposed that exorcism was a result of belief in
+witchcraft. It was as old as the Christian church. It was still made use
+of by the Roman church and, indeed, by certain Protestant groups. And
+just at this time the Roman church found it a most important instrument
+in the struggle against the reformed religions. In England Romanism was
+waging a losing war, and had need of all the miracles that it could
+claim in order to reestablish its waning credit. The hunted priests who
+were being driven out by Whitgift were not unwilling to resort to a
+practice which they hoped would regain for them the allegiance of the
+common people. During the years 1585-1586 they had conducted what they
+considered marvellous works of exorcism in Catholic households of
+Buckinghamshire and Middlesex.[1] Great efforts had been made to keep
+news of these seances from reaching the ears of the government, but
+accounts of them had gained wide circulation and came to the privy
+council. That body was of course stimulated to greater activity against
+the Catholics.[2]
+
+As a phase of a suppressed form of religion the matter might never have
+assumed any significance. Had not a third-rate Puritan clergyman, John
+Darrel, almost by accident hit upon the use of exorcism, the story of
+its use would be hardly worth telling.[3] When this young minister was
+not more than twenty, but already, as he says, reckoned "a man of hope,"
+he was asked to cure a seventeen-year-old girl at Mansfield in
+Nottingham, Katherine Wright.[4] Her disease called for simple medical
+treatment. That was not Darrel's plan of operation. She had an evil
+spirit, he declared. From four o'clock in the morning until noon he
+prayed over her spirit. He either set going of his own initiative the
+opinion that possessed persons could point out witches, or he quickly
+availed himself of such a belief already existing. The evil spirit, he
+declared, could recognize and even name the witch that had sent it as
+well as the witch's confederates. All of this was no doubt suggested to
+the possessed girl and she was soon induced to name the witch that
+troubled her. This was Margaret Roper, a woman with whom she was upon
+bad terms. Margaret Roper was at once taken into custody by the
+constable. She happened to be brought before a justice of the peace
+possessing more than usual discrimination. He not only discharged
+her,[5] but threatened John Darrel with arrest.[6]
+
+This was in 1586. Darrel disappeared from view for ten years or so,
+when he turned up at Burton-upon-Trent, not very far from the scene of
+his first operations. Here he volunteered to cure Thomas Darling. The
+story is a curious one and too long for repetition. Some facts must,
+however, be presented in order to bring the story up to the point at
+which Darrel intervened. Thomas Darling, a young Derbyshire boy, had
+become ill after returning from a hunt. He was afflicted with
+innumerable fits, in which he saw green angels and a green cat. His aunt
+very properly consulted a physician, who at the second consultation
+thought it possible that the child was bewitched. The aunt failed to
+credit the diagnosis. The boy's fits continued and soon took on a
+religious character. Between seizures he conversed with godly people.
+They soon discovered that the reading of the Scriptures brought on
+attacks. This looked very like the Devil's work. The suggestion of the
+physician was more seriously regarded. Meanwhile the boy had overheard
+the discussion of witchcraft and proceeded to relate a story. He had
+met, he said, a "little old woman" in a "gray gown with a black fringe
+about the cape, a broad thrimmed hat, and three warts on her face."[7]
+Very accidentally, as he claimed, he offended her. She angrily said a
+rhyming charm that ended with the words, "I wil goe to heaven, and thou
+shalt goe to hell," and stooped to the ground.
+
+The story produced a sensation. Those who heard it declared at once that
+the woman must have been Elizabeth Wright, or her daughter Alse
+Gooderidge, women long suspected of witchcraft. Alse was fetched to the
+boy. She said she had never seen him, but her presence increased the
+violence of his fits. Mother and daughter were carried before two
+justices of the peace, who examined them together with Alse's husband
+and daughter. The women were searched for special marks in the usual
+revolting manner with the usual outcome, but only Alse herself was sent
+to gaol.[8]
+
+The boy grew no better. It was discovered that the reading of certain
+verses in the first chapter of John invariably set him off.[9] The
+justices of the peace put Alse through several examinations, but with
+little result. Two good witches were consulted, but refused to help
+unless the family of the bewitched came to see them.
+
+Meantime a cunning man appeared who promised to prove Alse a witch. In
+the presence of "manie worshipfull personages" "he put a paire of new
+shooes on her feete, setting her close to the fire till the shooes being
+extreame hot might constrayne her through increase of the paine to
+confesse." "This," says the writer, "was his ridiculous practice." The
+woman "being throghly heated desired a release" and offered to confess,
+but, as soon as her feet were cooled, refused. No doubt the justices of
+the peace would have repudiated the statement that the illegal process
+of torture was used. The methods of the cunning man were really nothing
+else.
+
+The woman was harried day and night by neighbors to bring her to
+confess.[10] At length she gave way and, in a series of reluctant
+confessions, told a crude story of her wrong-doings that bore some
+slight resemblance to the boy's tale, and involved the use of a spirit
+in the form of a dog.
+
+Now it was that John Darrel came upon the ground eager to make a name
+for himself. Darling had been ill for three months and was not
+improving. Even yet some of the boy's relatives and friends doubted if
+he were possessed. Not so Darrel. He at once undertook to pray and fast
+for the boy. According to his own account his efforts were singularly
+blessed. At all events the boy gradually improved and Darrel claimed the
+credit. As for Alse Gooderidge, she was tried at the assizes, convicted
+by the jury, and sentenced by Lord Chief-Justice Anderson to
+imprisonment. She died soon after.[11] This affair undoubtedly widened
+Darrel's reputation.
+
+Not long after, a notable case of possession in Lancashire afforded him
+a new opportunity to attract notice. The case of Nicholas Starchie's
+children provoked so much comment at the time that it is perhaps worth
+while to go back and bring the narrative up to the point where Darrel
+entered.[12] Two of Starchie's children had one day been taken ill most
+mysteriously, the girl "with a dumpish and heavie countenance, and with
+a certaine fearefull starting and pulling together of her body." The boy
+was "compelled to shout" on the way to school. Both grew steadily
+worse[13] and the father consulted Edmund Hartley, a noted conjurer of
+his time. Hartley quieted the children by the use of charms. When he
+realized that his services would be indispensable to the father he made
+a pretence of leaving and so forced a promise from Starchie to pay him
+40 shillings a year. This ruse was so successful that he raised his
+demands. He asked for a house and lot, but was refused. The children
+fell ill again. The perplexed parent now went to a physician of
+Manchester. But the physician "sawe no signe of sicknes." Dr. Dee, the
+famous astrologer and friend of Elizabeth, was summoned. He advised the
+help of "godlie preachers."[14]
+
+Meantime the situation in the afflicted family took a more serious turn.
+Besides Mr. Starchie's children, three young wards of his, a servant,
+and a visitor, were all taken with the mysterious illness. The modern
+reader might suspect that some contagious disease had gripped the
+family, but the irregular and intermittent character of the disease
+precludes that hypothesis. Darrel in his own pamphlet on the matter
+declares that when the parents on one occasion went to a play the
+children were quiet, but that when they were engaged in godly exercise
+they were tormented, a statement that raises a suspicion that the
+disease, like that of the Throckmorton children, was largely imaginary.
+
+But the divines were at work. They had questioned the conjurer, and had
+found that he fumbled "verie ill favouredlie" in the repetition of the
+Lord's Prayer. He was haled before a justice of the peace, who began
+gathering evidence against him and turned him over to the assizes. There
+it came out that he had been wont to kiss the Starchie children, and had
+even attempted, although without success, to kiss a maid servant. In
+this way he had presumably communicated the evil spirit--a new notion.
+The court could find no law, however, upon which to hang him. He had
+bewitched the children, but he had bewitched none of them to death, and
+therefore had not incurred the death penalty. But the father leaped into
+the gap. He remembered that he had seen the conjurer draw a magic circle
+and divide it into four parts and that he had bidden the witness step
+into the quarters one after another. Making such circles was definitely
+mentioned in the law as felony. Hartley denied the charge, but to no
+purpose. He was convicted of felony[15]--so far as we can judge, on this
+unsupported afterthought of a single witness--and was hanged. Sympathy,
+however, would be inappropriate. In the whole history of witchcraft
+there were few victims who came so near to deserving their fate.
+
+This was the story up to the time of Darrel's arrival. With Darrel came
+his assistant, George More, pastor of a church in Derbyshire. The two at
+once recognized the supernatural character of the case they were to
+treat and began religious services for the stricken family. It was to no
+effect. "All or most of them joined together in a strange and
+supernatural loud whupping that the house and grounde did sounde
+therwith again."
+
+But the exorcists were not by any means disheartened. On the following
+day, in company with another minister, they renewed the services and
+were able to expel six of the seven spirits. On the third day they
+stormed and took the last citadel of Satan. Unhappily the capture was
+not permanent. Darrel tells us himself that the woman later became a
+Papist[16] and the evil spirit returned.
+
+The exorcist now turned his skill upon a young apprenticed musician of
+Nottingham. According to Darrel's story of the affair,[17] William
+Somers had nine years before met an old woman who had threatened him.
+Again, more than a year before Darrel came to Nottingham, Somers had had
+two encounters with a strange woman "at a deep cole-pit, hard by the
+way-side." Soon afterwards he "did use such strang and idle kinde of
+gestures in laughing, dancing and such like lighte behaviour, that he
+was suspected to be madd." He began to suffer from bodily distortions
+and to evince other signs of possession which created no little
+excitement in Nottingham.
+
+Darrel had been sent for by this time. He came at once and with his
+usual precipitancy pronounced the case one of possession. Somers, he
+said, was suffering for the sins of Nottingham.[18] It was time that
+something should be done. Prayer and fasting were instituted. For three
+days the youth was preached to and prayed over, while the people of
+Nottingham, or some of them at least, joined in the fast. On the third
+day came what was deemed a most remarkable exhibition. The preacher
+named slowly, one after another, fourteen signs of possession. As he
+named them Somers illustrated in turn each form of possession.[19] Here
+was confirmatory evidence of a high order. The exorcist had outdone
+himself. He now held out promises of deliverance for the subject. For a
+quarter of an hour the boy lay as if dead, and then rose up quite well.
+
+Darrel now took up again the witchfinder's role he had once before
+assumed. Somers was encouraged to name the contrivers of his
+bewitchment. Through him, Darrel is said to have boasted, they would
+expose all the witches in England.[20] They made a most excellent start
+at it. Thirteen women were accused by the boy,[21] who would fall into
+fits at the sight of a witch, and a general invitation was extended to
+prefer charges. But the community was becoming a bit incredulous and
+failed to respond. All but two of the accused women were released.
+
+The witch-discoverer, who in the meantime had been chosen preacher at
+St. Mary's in Nottingham, made two serious mistakes. He allowed
+accusations to be preferred against Alice Freeman, sister of an
+alderman,[22] and he let Somers be taken out of his hands. By the
+contrivance of some citizens who doubted the possession, Somers was
+placed in the house of correction, on a trumped-up charge that he had
+bewitched a Mr. Sterland to death.[23] Removed from the clergyman's
+influence, he made confession that his possessions were pretended.[24]
+Darrel, he declared, had taught him how to pretend. The matter had now
+gained wide notoriety and was taken up by the Anglican church. The
+archdeacon of Derby reported the affair to his superiors, and the
+Archbishop of York appointed a commission to examine into the case.[25]
+Whether from alarm or because he had anew come under Darrel's influence,
+Somers refused to confess before the commission and again acted out his
+fits with such success that the commission seems to have been convinced
+of the reality of his possession.[26] This was a notable victory for the
+exorcist.
+
+But Chief-Justice Anderson of the court of common pleas was now
+commencing the assizes at Nottingham and was sitting in judgment on the
+case of Alice Freeman. Anderson was a man of intense convictions. He
+believed in the reality of witchcraft and had earlier sent at least one
+witch to the gallows[27] and one to prison.[28] But he was a man who
+hated Puritanism with all his heart, and would at once have suspected
+Puritan exorcism. Whether because the arch-instigator against Alice
+Freeman was a Puritan, or because the evidence adduced against her was
+flimsy, or because Somers, again summoned to court, acknowledged his
+fraud,[29] or for all these reasons, Anderson not only dismissed the
+case,[30] but he wrote a letter about it to the Archbishop of
+Canterbury. Archbishop Whitgift called Darrel and More before the court
+of high commission, where the Bishop of London, two of the Lord
+Chief-Justices, the master of requests, and other eminent officials
+heard the case. It seems fairly certain that Bancroft, the Bishop of
+London, really took control of this examination and that he acted quite
+as much the part of a prosecutor as that of a judge. One of Darrel's
+friends complained bitterly that the exorcist was not allowed to make
+"his particular defences" but "was still from time to time cut off by
+the Lord Bishop of London."[31] No doubt the bishop may have been
+somewhat arbitrary. It was his privilege under the procedure of the
+high commission court, and he was dealing with one whom he deemed a very
+evident impostor. In fine, a verdict was rendered against the two
+clergymen. They were deposed from the ministry and put in close
+prison.[32] So great was the stir they had caused that in 1599 Samuel
+Harsnett, chaplain to the Bishop of London, published _A Discovery of
+the Fraudulent Practises of John Darrel_, a careful resume of the entire
+case, with a complete exposure of Darrel's trickery. In this account the
+testimony of Somers was given as to the origin of his possession. He
+testified before the ecclesiastical court that he had known Darrel
+several years before they had met at Nottingham. At their first meeting
+he promised, declared Somers, "to tell me some thinges, wherein if I
+would be ruled by him, I should not be driven to goe so barely as I
+did." Darrel related to Somers the story of Katherine Wright and her
+possession, and remarked, "If thou wilt sweare unto me to keepe my
+counsell, I will teache thee to doe all those trickes which Katherine
+Wright did, and many others that are more straunge." He then illustrated
+some of the tricks for the benefit of his pupil and gave him a written
+paper of directions. From that time on there were meetings between the
+two at various places. The pupil, however, was not altogether successful
+with his fits and was once turned out of service as a pretender. He was
+then apprenticed to the musician already mentioned, and again met
+Darrel, who urged him to go and see Thomas Darling of Burton, "because,"
+says Somers, "that seeing him in his fittes, I might the better learn to
+do them myselfe." Somers met Darrel again and went through with a
+series of tricks of possession. It was after all these meetings and
+practice that Somers began his career as a possessed person in
+Nottingham and was prayed over by Mr. Darrel. Such at least was his
+story as told to the ecclesiastical commission. It would be hazardous to
+say that the narrative was all true. Certainly it was accepted by
+Harsnett, who may be called the official reporter of the proceedings at
+Darrel's trial, as substantially true.[33]
+
+The publication of the _Discovery_ by Harsnett proved indeed to be only
+the beginning of a pamphlet controversy which Darrel and his supporters
+were but too willing to take up.[34] Harsnett himself after his first
+onslaught did not re-enter the contest. The semi-official character of
+his writing rendered it unnecessary to refute the statements of a
+convicted man. At any rate, he was soon occupied with another production
+of similar aim. In 1602 Bishop Bancroft was busily collecting the
+materials, in the form of sworn statements, for the exposure of Catholic
+pretenders. He turned the material over to his chaplain. Whether the
+several examinations of Roman exorcists and their subjects were the
+result of a new interest in exposing exorcism on the part of the powers
+which had sent Darrel to prison, or whether they were merely a phase of
+increased vigilance against the activity of the Roman priests, we cannot
+be sure. The first conclusion does not seem improbable. Be that as it
+may, the court of high commission got hold of evidence enough to
+justify the privy council in authorizing a full publication of the
+testimony.[35] Harsnett was deputed to write the account of the Catholic
+exorcists which was brought out in 1603 under the title of _A
+Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures_. We have not the historical
+materials with which to verify the claims made in the book. On the face
+of it the case against the Roman priests looks bad. A mass of
+examinations was printed which seem to show that the Jesuit Weston and
+his confreres in England had been guilty of a great deal of jugglery and
+pretence. The Jesuits, however, were wiser in their generation than the
+Puritans and had not made charges of witchcraft. For that reason their
+performances may be passed over.
+
+Neither the pretences of the Catholics nor the refutation of them are
+very important for our purposes. The exposure of John Darrel was of
+significance, because it involved the guilt or innocence of the women he
+accused as witches, as well as because the ecclesiastical authorities
+took action against him and thereby levelled a blow directly at exorcism
+and possession[36] and indirectly at loose charges of witchcraft.
+Harsnett's books were the outcome of this affair and the ensuing
+exposures of the Catholics, and they were more significant than
+anything that had gone before. The Church of England had not committed
+itself very definitely on witchcraft, but its spokesman in the attack
+upon the Catholic pretenders took no uncertain ground. He was skeptical
+not only about exorcism but about witchcraft as well. It is refreshing
+and inspiriting to read his hard-flung and pungent words. "Out of
+these," he wrote, "is shaped us the true _Idea_ of a Witch, an old
+weather-beaten Croane, having her chinne and her knees meeting for age,
+walking like a bow leaning on a shaft, hollow-eyed, untoothed, furrowed
+on her face, having her lips trembling with the palsie, going mumbling
+in the streetes, one that hath forgotten her _pater noster_, and hath
+yet a shrewd tongue in her head, to call a drab, a drab. If shee have
+learned of an olde wife in a chimnies end: _Pax, max, fax_, for a spel:
+or can say _Sir John of Grantams_ curse, for the Millers Eeles, that
+were stolne: ... Why then ho, beware, looke about you my neighbours; if
+any of you have a sheepe sicke of the giddies, or an hogge of the
+mumps, or an horse of the staggers, or a knavish boy of the schoole, or
+an idle girle of the wheele, or a young drab of the sullens, and hath
+not fat enough for her porredge, nor her father and mother butter enough
+for their bread; and she have a little helpe of the _Mother_,
+_Epilepsie_, or _Cramp_, ... and then with-all old mother _Nobs_ hath
+called her by chaunce 'idle young huswife,' or bid the devil scratch
+her, then no doubt but mother _Nobs_ is the witch.... _Horace_ the
+Heathen spied long agoe, that a Witch, a Wizard, and a Conjurer were but
+bul-beggers to scare fooles.... And _Geoffry Chaucer_, who had his two
+eyes, wit, and learning in his head, spying that all these brainlesse
+imaginations of witchings, possessings, house-hanting, and the rest,
+were the forgeries, cosenages, Imposturs, and legerdemaine of craftie
+priests, ... writes in good plaine terms."[37]
+
+It meant a good deal that Harsnett took such a stand. Scot had been a
+voice crying in the wilderness. Harsnett was supported by the powers in
+church and state. He was, as has been seen, the chaplain of Bishop
+Bancroft,[38] now--from 1604--to become Archbishop of Canterbury. He was
+himself to become eminent in English history as master of Pembroke Hall
+(Cambridge), vice-chancellor of Cambridge University, Bishop of
+Chichester, Bishop of Norwich, and Archbishop of York.[39] Whatever
+support he had at the time--and it is very clear that he had the backing
+of the English church on the question of exorcism--his later position
+and influence must have given great weight not only to his views on
+exorcism but to his skepticism about witchcraft.[40]
+
+His opinions on the subject, so far as can be judged by his few direct
+statements and by implications, were quite as radical as those of his
+predecessor.[41] As a matter of fact he was a man who read widely[42]
+and had pondered deeply on the superstition, but his thought had been
+colored by Scot.[43] His assault, however, was less direct and studied
+than that of his master. Scot was a man of uncommonly serious
+temperament, a plain, blunt-spoken, church-going Englishman who covered
+the whole ground of superstition without turning one phrase less serious
+than another. His pupil, if so Harsnett may be called, wrote earnestly,
+even aggressively, but with a sarcastic and bitter humor that
+entertained the reader and was much less likely to convince. The curl
+never left his lips. If at times a smile appeared, it was but an
+accented sneer. A writer with a feeling indeed for the delicate effects
+of word combination, if his humor had been less chilled by hate, if his
+wit had been of a lighter and more playful vein, he might have laughed
+superstition out of England. When he described the dreadful power of
+holy water and frankincense and the book of exorcisms "to scald, broyle
+and sizzle the devil," or "the dreadful power of the crosse and
+sacrament of the altar to torment the devill and to make him roare," or
+"the astonishable power of nicknames, reliques and asses ears,"[44] he
+revealed a faculty of fun-making just short of effective humor.
+
+It would not be fair to leave Harsnett without a word on his place as a
+writer. In point of literary distinction his prose style maintains a
+high level. In the use of forceful epithet and vivid phrase he is
+excelled by no Elizabethan prose writer. Because his writings deal so
+largely with dry-as-dust reports of examinations, they have never
+attained to that position in English literature which parts of them
+merit.[45]
+
+Harsnett's book was the last chapter in the story of Elizabethan
+witchcraft and exorcism. It is hardly too much to say that it was the
+first chapter in the literary exploitation of witchcraft. Out of the
+_Declaration_ Shakespeare and Ben Jonson mined those ores which when
+fused and refined by imagination and fancy were shaped into the shining
+forms of art. Shakespearean scholars have pointed out the connection
+between the dramatist and the exposer of exorcism. It has indeed been
+suggested by one student of Shakespeare that the great playwright was
+lending his aid by certain allusions in _Twelfth Night_ to Harsnett's
+attempts to pour ridicule on Puritan exorcism.[46] It would be hard to
+say how much there is in this suggestion. About Ben Jonson we can speak
+more certainly. It is clearly evident that he sneered at Darrel's
+pretended possessions. In the third scene of the fifth act of _The Devil
+is an Ass_ he makes Mere-craft say:
+
+    It is the easiest thing, Sir, to be done.
+    As plaine as fizzling: roule but wi' your eyes,
+    And foame at th' mouth. A little castle-soape
+    Will do 't, to rub your lips: And then a nutshell,
+    With toe and touchwood in it to spit fire,
+    Did you ner'e read, Sir, little _Darrel's_ tricks,
+    With the boy o' _Burton_, and the 7 in _Lancashire_,
+    Sommers at _Nottingham_? All these do teach it.
+    And wee'l give out, Sir, that your wife ha's bewitch'd you.
+
+This is proof enough, not only that Jonson was in sympathy with the
+Anglican assailants of Puritan exorcism, but that he expected to find
+others of like opinion among those who listened to his play. And it was
+not unreasonable that he should expect this. It is clear enough that the
+powers of the Anglican church were behind Harsnett and that their
+influence gave his views weight. We have already observed that there
+were some evidences in the last part of Elizabeth's reign of a reaction
+against witch superstition. Harsnett's book, while directed primarily
+against exorcism, is nevertheless another proof of that reaction.
+
+
+[1] Sir George Peckham of Denham near Uxbridge and Lord Vaux of Hackney
+were two of the most prominent Catholics who opened their homes for
+these performances. See Samuel Harsnett, _Declaration of Egregious
+Popish Impostures_ (London, 1603), 7, 8.
+
+[2] For a discussion of the Catholic exorcists see T. G. Law, "Devil
+Hunting in Elizabethan England," in the _Nineteenth Century_ for March,
+1894. Peckham's other activities in behalf of his church are discussed
+by Dr. R. B. Merriman in "Some Notes on the Treatment of English
+Catholics in the Reign of Elizabeth," in the _Am. Hist. Rev._, April,
+1908. Dr. Merriman errs, however, in supposing that John Darrel
+cooperated with Weston and the Catholic exorcists; _ibid._, note 51.
+Darrel was a Puritan and had nothing to do with the Catholic
+performances.
+
+[3] It is quite possible to suppose, however, that its course would have
+been run in much the same way at a later time.
+
+[4] For Harsnett's account of Katherine Wright see his _Discovery of the
+Fraudulent Practises of John Darrel_ (London, 1599), 297-315. For
+Darrel's story see _The Triall of Maist. Dorrel, or A Collection of
+Defences against Allegations ..._ (1599), 15-21.
+
+[5] See Harsnett, _Discovery_, 310.
+
+[6] Katherine Wright's evil spirit returned later.
+
+[7] "I have seene her begging at our doore," he declared, "as for her
+name I know it not."
+
+[8] Harsnett, _Discovery_, 41, 265, deals briefly with the Darling case
+and Alse Gooderidge. See also John Darrel, _A Detection of that sinnful,
+shamful, lying, and ridiculous discours of Samuel Harshnet_ (1600),
+38-40. But the fullest account is a pamphlet at the Lambeth Palace
+library. It is entitled _The most wonderfull and true Storie of a
+certaine Witch named Alse Gooderidge of Stapenhill.... As also a true
+Report of the strange Torments of Thomas Darling...._ (London, 1597).
+For a discussion of this pamphlet see appendix A, Sec. 1.
+
+[9] The boy was visited by a stranger who tried to persuade him that
+there were no witches. But this Derbyshire disciple of Scot had come to
+the wrong place and his efforts were altogether useless.
+
+[10] Meantime her mother Elizabeth Wright was also being worried. She
+was found on her knees in prayer. No doubt the poor woman was taking
+this method of alleviating her distress; but her devotion was
+interpreted as worship of the Devil.
+
+[11] So Darrel says. The pamphleteer Denison, who put together the story
+of Alse Gooderidge, wrote "she should have been executed but that her
+spirit killed her in prison."
+
+[12] Darrel gives an extended account of this affair in _A True
+Narration of the strange and grevous Vexation by the Devil of seven
+persons in Lancashire_ (1600; reprinted in _Somers Tracts_, III),
+170-179. See also George More, _A true Discourse concerning the certaine
+possession and dispossession of 7 persons in one familie in Lancashire ..._
+(1600), 9 ff.
+
+[13] Certain matters in connection with this case are interesting.
+George More tells us that Mrs. Starchie was an "inheritrix." Some of her
+kindred, Papists, prayed for the perishing of her issue. Four of her
+children pined away. Mrs. Starchie, when told of their prayers, conveyed
+all her property to her husband. She had two children afterwards, the
+two that were stricken. It is possible that all this may present some
+key to the case, but it is hard to see just how. See More, _A true
+Discourse_, 11-12.
+
+[14] George More, _A true Discourse_, 15; Harsnett, _Discovery_, 22.
+While Dee took no part in the affair except that he "sharply reproved
+and straitly examined" Hartley, he lent Mr. Hopwood, the justice of the
+peace before whom Hartley was brought, his copy of the book of Wierus,
+then the collections of exorcisms known as the _Flagellum Daemonum_ and
+the _Fustis Daemonum_, and finally the famous _Malleus Maleficarum_. See
+Dee's _Private Diary_ (Camden Soc., London, 1843), entries for March 19,
+April 15, and August 6, 1597.
+
+[15] George More, _A true Discourse_, 21; Darrel, _A True Narration_
+(_Somers Tracts_, III), 175.
+
+[16] Harsnett, _Discovery_, tells us that "certain Seminarie priests"
+got hold of her and carried her up and down the country and thereby
+"wonne great credit."
+
+[17] Darrel's account of this affair is in _A True Narration_ (_Somers
+Tracts_, III), 179-186. Harsnett takes it up in his _Discovery_, 78-264.
+
+[18] See deposition of Cooper, in Harsnett, _Discovery_, 114.
+
+[19] Depositions of Somers and Darrel, _ibid._, 124-125. It must be
+recalled that when this was first tried before a commission they were
+convinced that it was not imposture. A layman cannot refrain from
+suspecting that Darrel had hypnotic control over Somers.
+
+[20] _Ibid._, 141-142.
+
+[21] _Ibid._, 141. Harsnett quotes Darrel for this statement.
+
+[22] _Ibid._, 5; John Darrel, _An Apologie, or defence of the possession
+of William Sommers ..._ (1599?), L verso.
+
+[23] Darrel, _A True Narration_ (_Somers Tracts_, III), 184; see also
+his _A brief Apologie proving the possession of William Sommers ..._
+(1599), 17.
+
+[24] Harsnett, _Discovery_, 7.
+
+[25] _Ibid._
+
+[26] _Ibid._, 8; Darrel, _An Apologie, or defence_, 4; Darrel, _A True
+Narration_ (_Somers Tracts_, III), 185.
+
+[27] _Triall of Maist. Dorrel_, narrative in back of pamphlet.
+
+[28] Darrel, _A Detection of that sinnful ... discours of Samuel
+Harshnet_, 40. And see above, p. 56, note.
+
+[29] Harsnett, _Discovery_, 8.
+
+[30] _Ibid._, 320-322; Darrel, _An Apologie, or defence_, L III, says
+that the third jury acquitted her. Harsnett refers to the fact that he
+was found guilty by the grand inquest.
+
+[31] _The Triall of Maist. Dorrel_, preface "To the Reader."
+
+[32] Harsnett, _Discovery_, 9.
+
+[33] _Ibid._, 78-98.
+
+[34] Yet Darrel must have realized that he had the worst of it. There is
+a pathetic acknowledgment of this in the "Preface to the Reader" of his
+publication, _A Survey of Certaine Dialogical Discourses, written by
+John Deacon and John Walker ..._ (1602): "But like a tried and
+weather-beaten bird [I] wish for quiet corner to rest myself in and to
+drye my feathers in the warme sun."
+
+[35] T. G. Law, "Devil Hunting in Elizabethan England," in _Nineteenth
+Century_, March, 1894.
+
+[36] On the matter of exorcism the position of the Church of England
+became fixed by 1604. The question had been a cause of disagreement
+among the leaders of the Reformation. The Lutherans retained exorcism in
+the baptismal ritual and rivalled the Roman clergy in their exorcism of
+the possessed. It was just at the close of the sixteenth century that
+there arose in Lutheran Germany a hot struggle between the believers in
+exorcism and those who would oust it as a superstition. The Swiss and
+Genevan reformers, unlike Luther, had discarded exorcism, declaring it
+to have belonged only to the early church, and charging modern instances
+to Papist fraud; and with them seem to have agreed their South German
+friends. In England baptismal exorcism was at first retained in the
+ritual under Edward VI, but in 1552, under Bucer's influence, it was
+dropped. Under Elizabeth the yet greater influence of Zurich and Geneva
+must have discredited all exorcism, and one finds abundant evidence of
+this in the writings of Jewel and his followers. An interesting letter
+of Archbishop Parker in 1574 shows his utter incredulity as to
+possession in the case of Agnes Bridges and Rachel Pinder of Lothbury;
+see Parker's _Correspondence_ (Parker Soc., Cambridge, 1856), 465-466.
+His successor, the Calvinistic Whitgift, was almost certainly of the
+same mind. Bancroft, the next archbishop of Canterbury, drew up or at
+least inspired that epoch-making body of canons enacted by Convocation
+in the spring of 1604, the 72d article of which forbids any Anglican
+clergyman, without the express consent of his bishop obtained
+beforehand, to use exorcism in any fashion under any pretext, on pain of
+being counted an impostor and deposed from the ministry. This ended the
+matter so far as the English church was concerned. For this resume of
+the Protestant and the Anglican attitude toward exorcism I am indebted
+to Professor Burr.
+
+[37] Harsnett, _A Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures_ (London,
+1605), 136-138.
+
+[38] It is not impossible that Harsnett was acting as a mouth-piece for
+Bancroft. Darrel wrote: "There is no doubt but that S. H. stand for
+Samuell Harsnet, chapline to the Bishop of London, but whither he alone,
+or his lord and hee, have discovered this counterfeyting and cosonage
+there is the question. Some thinke the booke to be the Bishops owne
+doing: and many thinke it to be the joynt worke of them both." _A
+Detection of that sinnful ... discours of Samuel Harshnet_, 7, 8.
+
+[39] From 1602 until 1609 he was archdeacon of Essex; see _Victoria
+History of Essex_, II, (London, 1907), 46.
+
+[40] There is a statement by the Reverend John Swan, who wrote in 1603,
+that Harsnett's book had been put into the hands of King James,
+presumably after his coming to England; see John Swan, _A True and
+Breife Report of Mary Glover's Vexation, and of her deliverance ..._
+(1603), "Dedication to the King," 3. One could wish for some
+confirmation of this statement. Certainly James would not at that time
+have sympathized with Harsnett's views about witches, but his attitude
+on several occasions toward those supposed to be possessed by evil
+spirits would indicate that he may very well have been influenced by a
+reading of the _Discovery_.
+
+[41] On page 36 of the _Discovery_ Harsnett wrote: "Whether witches can
+send devils into men and women (as many doe pretende) is a question
+amongst those that write of such matters, and the learneder and sounder
+sort doe hold the negative." One does not need to read far in Harsnett
+to understand what he thought.
+
+[42] His scholarship, evident from his books, is attested by Thomas
+Fuller, who calls him "a man of great learning, strong parts, and stout
+spirit" (_Worthies of England_, ed. of London, 1840, I, 507).
+
+[43] See his _Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures_, 134-136; his
+_Discovery_ also shows the use of Scot.
+
+[44] Harsnett, _Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures_, 98, 123,
+110.
+
+[45] Read _ibid._, 131-140.
+
+[46] Joseph Hunter, _New Illustrations of the Life, Studies and Writings
+of Shakespeare_ (London, 1845), I, 380-390.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+JAMES I AND WITCHCRAFT.
+
+
+Some one has remarked that witchcraft came into England with the Stuarts
+and went out with them. This offhand way of fixing the rise and fall of
+a movement has just enough truth about it to cause misconception.
+Nothing is easier than to glance at the alarms of Elizabeth's reign and
+to see in them accidental outbreaks with little meaning, isolated
+affairs presaging a new movement rather than part of it. As a matter of
+fact, any such view is superficial. In previous chapters the writer has
+endeavored to show just how foreign ideas and conditions at home gave
+the impulse to a movement which within a single reign took very definite
+form.
+
+Yet so much was the movement accelerated, such additional impetus was
+given it by James I, that the view that James set the superstition going
+in England, however superficial, has some truth in it. If Elizabeth had
+ever given the matter thought, she had not at least given it many words.
+James had very definite opinions on the subject and hesitated not at all
+to make them known. His views had weight. It is useless to deny that the
+royal position swayed the courts. James's part in the witch persecution
+cannot be condoned, save on the ground that he was perfectly honest. He
+felt deeply on the matter. It was little wonder. He had grown up in
+Scotland in the very midst of the witch alarms. His own life, he
+believed, had been imperilled by the machinations of witches. He
+believed he had every reason to fear and hate the creatures, and we can
+only wonder that he was so moderate as we shall later find him to have
+been. The story of the affair that stirred up the Scottish king and his
+people has often been told, but it must be included here to make his
+attitude explicable. In 1589 he had arranged for a marriage with the
+Princess Anne of Denmark. The marriage had been performed by proxy in
+July, and it was then provided that the princess was to come to England.
+She set out, but was driven on to the coast of Norway by a violent
+storm, and detained there by the continuance of the storms. James sailed
+to Upsala, and, after a winter in the north of the Continent, brought
+his bride to Scotland in the spring, not without encountering more rough
+weather. To the people of the time it was quite clear that the ocean was
+unfriendly to James's alliance. Had Scotland been ancient Greece, no
+doubt Neptune would have been propitiated by a sacrifice. But it was
+Scotland, and the ever-to-be-feared Satan was not so easily propitiated.
+He had been very active of late in the realm.
+
+Moreover it was a time when Satanic and other conspiracies were likely
+to come to light. The kingdom was unsettled, if not discontented. There
+were plots, and rumors of plots. The effort to expose them, as well as
+to thwart the attacks of the evil one on the king, led to the conception
+and spread of the monstrous story of the conspiracy of Dr. Fian. Dr.
+Fian was nothing less than a Scottish Dr. Faustus. He was a schoolmaster
+by profession. After a dissolute youth he was said to have given soul to
+the Devil. According to the story he gathered around him a motley crowd,
+Catholic women of rank, "wise women," and humble peasant people; but it
+was a crew ready for evil enterprise. It is not very clear why they were
+supposed to have attacked the king; perhaps because of his well known
+piety, perhaps because he was a Protestant. In any case they set about,
+as the story went, to destroy him, and thought to have found their
+opportunity in his trip to Denmark. They would drown him in a storm at
+sea. There was a simple expedient for raising a storm, the throwing of
+cats into the sea. This Scottish method of sacrificing to Neptune was
+duly carried out, and, as we have seen, just fell short of destroying
+the king. It was only the piety of the king, as Dr. Fian admitted in his
+confession, that overmatched the power of the evil one.[1]
+
+Such is the story that stirred Scotland from end to end. It is a story
+that is easily explained. The confessions were wrung from the supposed
+conspirators by the various forms of torture "lately provided for
+witches in that country." Geillis Duncane had been tried with "the
+torture of the pilliwinkes upon her fingers, which is a grievous
+torture, and binding or wrinching her head with a cord or roape." Agnes
+Sampson had suffered terrible tortures and shameful indignities until
+her womanly modesty could no longer endure it and she confessed
+"whatsoever was demanded of her." Dr. Fian was put through the ordinary
+forms of torture and was then "put to the most severe and cruel pain in
+the world, called the bootes," and thereby was at length induced to
+break his silence and to incriminate himself. At another time, when the
+king, who examined him in person, saw that the man was stubborn and
+denied the confessions already made, he ordered him to be tortured
+again. His finger nails were pulled off with a pair of pincers, and
+under what was left of them needles were inserted "up to the heads."
+This was followed by other tortures too terrible to narrate.[2]
+
+It is a little hard to understand how it was that the king "took great
+delight to be present at the examinations," but throughout the whole
+wretched series of trials he was never wanting in zeal. When Barbara
+Napier, sister-in-law to the laird of Carshoggil, was to be executed, a
+postponement had been granted on account of her approaching
+accouchement. Afterwards, "nobody insisting in the pursute of her, she
+was set at libertie." It seems also that the jury that had before
+condemned her had acquitted her of the main charge, that of treasonable
+witchcraft against the king. The king was angered at the default of
+justice, went to the Tolbooth, and made an address on the subject. He
+spoke of "his own impartiality, the use of witchcraft, the enormity of
+the crime, ... the ignorance of thinking such matters mere fantasies,
+the cause of his own interference in the matter, the ignorance of the
+assizes in the late trial, his own opinion of what witches really
+are."[3]
+
+It was only a few years later that James put that opinion into written
+form. All the world knows that the king was a serious student. With
+unremitting zeal he studied this matter, and in 1597, seven years after
+the Dr. Fian affair, he published his _Daemonologie_.[4] It was expressly
+designed to controvert the "damnable opinions of two principally in our
+age"--Scot, who "is not ashamed in publick Print to deny that there can
+be such a thing as witchcraft," and Wierus, "a German physician," who
+"sets out a publicke apologie for all these craft-folkes whereby ... he
+plainly bewrayes himself to have been one of that profession."
+
+It was to be expected that James would be an exponent of the current
+system of belief. He had read diligently, if not widely, in the
+Continental lore of the subject and had assimilated much of it. He was
+Scotch enough to be interested in theology and Stuart enough to have
+very definite opinions. James had, too, his own way of putting things.
+There was a certain freshness about his treatment, in spite of the fact
+that he was ploughing old fields. Nothing illustrates better his
+combination of adherence to tradition, of credulity, and of originality
+than his views on the transportation of witches, a subject that had long
+engaged the theorists in demonology. Witches could be transported, he
+believed, by natural means, or they could be carried through the air "by
+the force of the spirit which is their conducter," as Habakkuk was
+carried by the angel.[5] This much he could accept. But that they could
+be transformed into a "little beast or foule" and pierce through
+"whatsoever house or Church, though all ordinarie passages be closed,"
+this he refused to believe. So far, however, there was nothing original
+about either his belief or his disbelief. But his suggestion on another
+matter was very probably his own. There had been long discussion as to
+how far through the air witches could go. It was James's opinion that
+they could go only so far as they could retain their breath.
+
+But it was seldom that the royal demonologist wandered far from the
+beaten road. He was a conformist and he felt that the orthodox case
+needed defence: so he set about to answer the objectors. To the argument
+that it was a strange thing that witches were melancholy and solitary
+women (and so, he would have explained, offer the easiest object of
+attack) he interposed a flat denial: they are "some of them rich and
+worldly-wise, some of them fat or corpulent in their bodies." To the
+point that if witches had the power ascribed to them no one but
+themselves would be left alive in the world, he answered that such would
+be the case, were not the power of the Devil bridled by God. To the plea
+that God would not allow his children to be vexed by the Devil, he
+replied that God permits the godly who are sleeping in sin to be
+troubled; that He even allows the Evil One to vex the righteous for his
+own good--a conventional argument that has done service in many a
+theological controversy.
+
+It is a curious circumstance that James seemingly recognized the
+reliability of the Romish exorcisms which the Church of England was
+about that time beginning to attack. His explanation of them is worthy
+of "the wisest fool in Christendom." The Papists could often effect
+cures of the possessed, he thought, because "the divell is content to
+release the bodily hurting of them, ... thereby to obtain the perpetual
+hurt of the soules."
+
+That James should indulge in religious disquisitions rather than in
+points of evidence was to be expected. Although he had given up the
+Scottish theology, he never succeeded in getting it thoroughly out of
+his system. As to the evidence against the accused, the royal writer was
+brief. Two sorts of evidence he thought of value, one "the finding of
+their marke, and the trying the insensiblenes thereof, the other is
+their fleeting [floating] on the water." The latter sign was based, he
+said, on the fact that the water refuses to receive a witch--that is to
+say, the pure element would refuse to receive those who had renounced
+their baptism.[6] We shall see that the influence of the _Daemonologie_
+can be fairly appraised by measuring the increased use of these two
+tests of guilt within his own reign and that of his son. Hitherto the
+evidence of the mark had been of rather less importance, while the
+ordeal by water was not in use.
+
+The alleged witch-mark on the body had to do with the contracts between
+witches and the Devil. This loathsome side of witch belief we cannot go
+into. Suffice it to say that James insisted on the reality of these
+contracts and consequently upon the punishment that should be meted to
+those who had entered into them. All witches except children should be
+sentenced to death. The king shows a trace of conventional moderation,
+however, and admits that the magistrates should be careful whom they
+condemned. But, while he holds that the innocent should not be
+condemned, he warns officials against the sin of failing to convict the
+guilty.[7] We shall see that throughout his reign in England he pursued
+a course perfectly consistent with these principles.
+
+A critical estimate of James's book it is somewhat hard to give.
+Students of witchcraft have given utterance to the most extravagant but
+widely divergent opinions upon it. The writer confesses that he has not
+that acquaintance with the witch literature of the Continent which would
+enable him to appraise the _Daemonologie_ as to its originality. So good
+an authority as Thomas Wright has declared that it is "much inferior to
+the other treatises on the subject," and that it was compiled from
+foreign works.[8] Doubtless a study of the Continental literature would
+warrant, at least in part, this opinion. Yet one gets the impression,
+from what may be learned of that great body of writing through the
+historians of witchcraft, that James's opinions were in some respects
+his own. He had, of course, absorbed the current belief, but he did not
+hesitate to give his own interpretation and explanation of phenomena.
+That interpretation is not wanting in shrewdness. It seems to one who
+has wandered through many tedious defences of the belief in witchcraft
+that James's work is as able as any in English prior to the time of
+Joseph Glanvill in 1668. One who should read Glanvill and James together
+would get a very satisfactory understanding of the position of the
+defenders of the superstition. Glanvill insisted upon what he believed
+were well authenticated facts of experience. James grounded his belief
+upon a course of theoretical reasoning.
+
+We have already indicated that James's book was influential in its time.
+It goes without saying that his position as a sovereign greatly enhanced
+its influence. This was particularly true after he took the throne of
+England. The dicta that emanated from the executive of the English
+nation could not fail to find a wide audience, and especially in England
+itself. His work offered a text-book to officials. It was a key to the
+character and methods of the new ruler, and those who hoped for
+promotion were quick to avail themselves of it. To prosecute witches was
+to win the sovereign's approval. The judges were prompted to greater
+activity. Moreover, the sanction of royalty gave to popular outbreaks
+against suspicious women greater consideration at the hands of the
+gentry. And it was in the last analysis the gentry, in the persons of
+the justices of the peace, who decided whether or no neighborhood
+whispering and rumors should be followed up.
+
+But the king's most direct influence was in the passing of a new law.
+His first Parliament had been in session but eight days when steps were
+taken by the House of Lords towards strengthening the statute against
+witchcraft. The law in force, passed in the fifth year of Elizabeth's
+reign, imposed the death penalty for killing by witchcraft, and a year's
+imprisonment for injuring by witchcraft or by allied means. James would
+naturally feel that this law was merely one version of the statute
+against murder and did not touch the horrible crime of contract with the
+Devil and the keeping of imps.[9] Here was a sin beside which the taking
+of life was a light offence. It was needful that those who were guilty
+of it should suffer the severest penalty of the law, even if they had
+not caused the loss of a single life. It was to remedy this defect in
+the criminal code that a new statute was introduced.
+
+It is not worth while to trace the progress of that bill from day to
+day. It can be followed in the journals of the Lords and Commons. The
+bill went to a large committee that included six earls and twelve
+bishops.[10] Perhaps the presence of the bishops was an evidence that
+witchcraft was still looked upon as a sin rather than as a crime. It was
+a matter upon which the opinion of the church had been received before
+and might well be accepted again. It was further arranged that the Lord
+Chief-Justice of the common pleas, Sir Edmund Anderson, and the
+attorney-general, the later so famous Sir Edward Coke, along with other
+eminent jurists, were to act with the committee. Anderson, it will be
+recalled, had presided over numerous trials and had both condemned and
+released witches. As to Coke's attitude towards this subject, we know
+not a thing, save that he served on this committee. The committee seems
+to have found enough to do. At any rate the proposed statute underwent
+revision.[11] Doubtless the privy council had a hand in the matter;[12]
+indeed it is not unlikely that the bill was drawn up under its
+direction. On the 9th of June, about two months and a half after its
+introduction, the statute passed its final reading in the Lords.[13] It
+repealed the statute of Elizabeth's reign and provided that any one who
+"shall use, practise or exercise any Invocation or Conjuration of any
+evill and wicked Spirit, or shall consult, covenant with, entertaine,
+employe, feede, or rewarde any evill and wicked Spirit to or for any
+intent or purpose; or take up any dead man, woman, or child, ... to be
+imployed or used in any manner of Witchcrafte" should suffer death as a
+felon. It further provided that any one who should "take upon him or
+them by Witchcrafte ... to tell or declare in what place any treasure of
+Golde or Silver should or might be founde ... or where Goods or Things
+loste or stollen should be founde or become, or to the intent to provoke
+any person to unlawfull love, or wherebie any Cattell or Goods of any
+person shall be destroyed, wasted, or impaired, or to hurte or destroy
+any person in his or her bodie, although the same be not effected and
+done," should for the first offence suffer one year's imprisonment with
+four appearances in the pillory, and for the second offence, death. The
+law explains itself. Not only the killing of people by the use of evil
+spirits, but even the using of evil spirits in such a way as actually
+to cause hurt was a capital crime. The second clause punished white
+magic and the intent to hurt, even where it "be not effected," by a
+year's imprisonment and the pillory. It can be easily seen that one of
+the things which the framers of the statute were attempting to
+accomplish in their somewhat awkward wording was to make the fact of
+witchcraft as a felony depend chiefly upon a single form of evidence,
+the testimony to the use of evil spirits.
+
+We have seen why people with James's convictions about contracts with
+the Devil might desire to rest the crime upon this kind of proof.[14] It
+can be readily understood, too, how the statute would work in practice.
+Hitherto it had been possible to arraign a witch on the accusations of
+her neighbors, but it was not possible to send her to the gallows unless
+some death in the vicinity could be laid to her charge. The community
+that hustled a suspicious woman to court was likely to suffer the
+expense of her imprisonment for a year. It had no assurance that it
+could be finally rid of her.
+
+Under the new statute it was only necessary to prove that the woman made
+use of evil spirits, and she was put out of the way. It was a simpler
+thing to charge a woman with keeping a "familiar" than to accuse her of
+murder. The stories that the village gossips gathered in their rounds
+had the keeping of "familiars" for their central interest.[15] It was
+only necessary to produce a few of these gossips in court and the woman
+was doomed.
+
+To be sure, this is theory. The practical question is, not how would the
+law operate, but how did it operate? This brings us again into the
+dangerous field of statistics. Now, if we may suppose that the witch
+cases known to us are a safe basis of comparison, the reign of James, as
+has already been intimated, shows a notable increase in witch executions
+over that of Elizabeth. We have records of between forty and fifty
+people who suffered for the crime during the reign of James, all but one
+of them within the first fifteen years. It will be seen that the average
+per year is nearly double that of the executions known to us in the
+first part of Elizabeth's rule, and of course several times that of
+those known in the last part. This increased number we are at once
+inclined to assign to the direct and indirect influence of the new king.
+But it may very fairly be asked whether the new statute passed at the
+king's suggestion had not been in part responsible for the increased
+number. This question can be answered from an examination of those cases
+where we have the charges given. Of thirty-seven such cases in the reign
+of James I, where the capital sentence was given, seventeen were on
+indictments for witchcrafts that had not caused death. In the other
+twenty cases, the accused were charged with murder.[16]
+
+This means that over two-fifths of those who are known to have been
+convicted under the new law would have escaped death under the
+Elizabethan statute. With all due allowance for the incompleteness of
+our statistics, it seems certain that the new law had added very
+considerably to the number of capital sentences. Subtract the seventeen
+death sentences for crimes of witchcraft that were not murder from the
+total number of such sentences, and we have figures not so different
+from those of Elizabeth's reign.
+
+This is a sufficient comment on the effectiveness of the new law as
+respects its particularly novel features. A study of the character of
+the evidence and of the tests of guilt employed at the various trials
+during the reign will show that the phrasing of the law, as well as the
+royal directions for trying guilt, influenced the forms of accusation
+and the verdicts of the juries. In other words the testimony rendered in
+some of the well known trials of the reign offers the best commentary
+upon the statute as well as upon the _Daemonologie_. This can be
+illustrated from three of the processes employed to determine guilt. The
+king had recommended the water ordeal. Up to this time it had not been
+employed in English witch cases, so far as we know. The first record of
+its use was in 1612, nine years after James ascended the English throne.
+In that year there was a "discoverie" of witches at Northampton. Eight
+or nine women were accused of torturing a man and his sister and of
+laming others. One of them was, at the command of a justice of the
+peace, cast into the water with "her hands and feete bound," but "could
+not sink to the bottome by any meanes." The same experiment was applied
+to Arthur Bill and his parents. He was accused of bewitching a Martha
+Aspine. His father and mother had long been considered witches. But the
+"matter remaining doubtful that it could not be cleerly tryed upon him,"
+he (and his parents) were tied with "their thumbes and great toes ...
+acrosse" and thrown into the water. The suspicion that was before not
+well grounded was now confirmed.[17] To be sure, this was done by the
+justices of the peace and we do not know how much it influenced the
+assize court.[18]
+
+These are the only instances given us by the records of James's reign
+where this test was employed by the authorities. But in the very next
+year after the Northampton affair it was used in the adjoining county of
+Bedford by private parties. A land-owner who had suffered ills, as he
+thought, from two tenants, Mother Sutton and her daughter, took matters
+into his own hands. His men were ordered to strip the two women "in to
+their smocks," to tie their arms together, and to throw them into the
+water. The precaution of a "roape tyed about their middles" was useless,
+for both floated. This was not enough. The mother, tied toe and thumb,
+was thrown into the water again. She "sunke not at all, but sitting upon
+the water turned round about like a wheele.... And then being taken up,
+she as boldly as if she had beene innocent asked them if they could doe
+any more to her."
+
+The use of marks as evidence was not as new as the water ordeal. But it
+is a rather curious thing that in the two series of cases involving
+water ordeal the other process was also emphasized. In these two
+instances it would seem as if the advice of the _Daemonologie_ had been
+taken very directly by the accusers.[19] There was one other instance of
+this test.[20] The remarkable thing, however, is that in the most
+important trial of the time, that at Lancaster in 1612, there was an
+utter absence, at least so far as the extant record goes, of female
+juries or of reports from them.[21] This method of determining guilt was
+not as yet widely accepted in the courts. We can hardly doubt that it
+had been definitely forbidden at Lancaster.[22] The evidence of the use
+of evil spirits, against which the statute of the first year of James I
+had been especially framed, was employed in such a large proportion of
+trials that it is not worth while to go over the cases in detail.
+
+The law forbade to take up any dead person or the skin, bone, or other
+part thereof for use in witchcraft. Presumably some instance of this
+form of witchcraft had been responsible for the phrase, but we have on
+record no case of the sort until a few years after the passage of the
+statute. It was one of the principal charges against Johanna Harrison
+of Royston in 1606 that the officers found in her possession "all the
+bones due to the Anatomy of man and woman."[23] This discovery brought
+out other charges and she was hanged. At the famous Lancashire trials in
+1612 the arch-witch Chattox was declared to have had in her possession
+three scalps and eight teeth. She was guilty on other counts, but she
+escaped the executioner by death.
+
+These are illustrations of the point that the _Daemonologie_ and the
+statute of James I find their commentary in the evidence offered at the
+trials. It goes without saying that these illustrations represent only a
+few of the forms of testimony given in the courts. It may not,
+therefore, be amiss to run over some other specimens of the proof that
+characterized the witch trials of the reign. With most of them we are
+already familiar. The requirement that the witch should repeat certain
+words after the justice of the peace was used once in the reign of
+James. It was an unusual method at best.[24] A commoner form of proof
+was that adduced from the finding or seeing clay or waxen images in the
+possession of the accused.[25] The witness who had found such a model on
+the premises of the defendant or had seen the defendant handling it,
+jumped readily to the conclusion that the image represented some
+individual. If it should be asked how we are to account for this sort of
+evidence, the answer is an easy one. Every now and then in the annals of
+witchcraft it came out that a would-be accuser had hidden a waxen or
+clay figure in the house of the person he wished to accuse and had then
+found it. No doubt some cases started in this way. No doubt, too, bitter
+women with grudges to satisfy did experiment with images and were caught
+at it. But this was rare. In the greater number of cases the stories of
+images were pure fabrications. To that category belong almost certainly
+the tales told at Lancaster.[26]
+
+"Spectral evidence" we have met with in the Elizabethan period. That
+reign saw two or three instances of its employment, and there were more
+examples of it in the reign of James. Master Avery of Northampton, who
+with his sister was the principal accuser in the trials there, saw in
+one of his fits a black wart on the body of Agnes Brown, a wart which
+was actually found "upon search."[27] Master Avery saw other spectres,
+but the most curious was that of a bloody man desiring him to have mercy
+on his Mistress Agnes and to cease impeaching her.[28] At Bedford,
+Master Enger's servant had a long story to tell, but the most thrilling
+part concerned a visit which the young Mary Sutton (whom he was
+accusing) made to him. On a "moonshine night" she came in at the window
+in her "accustomed and personall habite and shape" and knitted at his
+side. Then drawing nearer, she offered him terms by which he could be
+restored to his former health, terms which we are to understand the
+virtuous witness refused. It is pleasant to know that Master Enger was
+"distrustfull of the truth" of this tale. One fears that these spectres
+were not the products of overwrought imagination, as were many others,
+but were merely fabrics of elaborate fiction.[29] In any case they were
+not the groundwork of the proof. In the Fairfax prosecutions at York in
+1622 the charges against the six women accused rested entirely upon a
+great tissue of spectral evidence. The three children had talked to the
+spectres, had met them outdoors and at church and in the kitchen. The
+spectres were remarkably wise and named visitors whom the family did not
+know. They struggled with the children, they rolled over them in bed,
+they followed them to the neighbors.
+
+Somewhat akin to the evidence from apparitions was that from the effect
+of a witch's glance. This is uncommonly rare in English witchcraft, but
+the reign of James offers two instances of it. In Royston,
+Hertfordshire, there was "an honest fellow and as boone a companion ...
+one that loved the pot with the long necke almost as well as his
+prayers." One day when he was drinking with four companions Johanna
+Harrison came in and "stood gloating upon them." He went home and at
+once fell sick.[30] At Northampton the twelve-year-old Hugh Lucas had
+looked "stark" upon Jane Lucas at church and gone into convulsions when
+he returned home.[31]
+
+One other form of proof demands notice. In the trial of Jennet Preston
+at York it was testified that the corpse of Mr. Lister, whom she was
+believed to have slain by witchcraft, had bled at her presence. The
+judge did not overlook this in summarizing the evidence. It was one of
+three important counts against the woman, indeed it was, says the
+impressive Mr. Potts, quoting the judge, of more consequence than all
+the rest.[32] Of course Mistress Preston went to the gallows.
+
+It will occur to the reader to ask whether any sort of evidence was
+ruled out or objected to. On this point we have but slight knowledge. In
+reporting the trial of Elizabeth Sawyer of Edmonton in 1621 the Reverend
+Henry Goodcole wrote that a piece of thatch from the accused woman's
+house was plucked and burned, whereupon the woman presently came upon
+the scene.[33] Goodcole characterized this method as an "old ridiculous
+custome" and we may guess that he spoke for the judge too. In the
+Lancashire cases, Justice Altham, whose credulity knew hardly any
+bounds, grew suddenly "suspitious of the accusation of this yong wench,
+Jennet Device," who had been piling up charges against Alice Nutter. The
+girl was sent out of the room, the witches were mixed up, and Jennet was
+required on coming in again to pick out Alice Nutter. Of course that
+proved an easy matter.[34] At another time, when Jennet was glibly
+enumerating the witches that had assembled at the great meeting at
+Malking Tower, the judge suddenly asked her if Joane-a-Downe were there.
+But the little girl failed to rise to the bait and answered negatively,
+much to the satisfaction of everybody, and especially of the righteous
+Mr. Potts.[35]
+
+This is all we know directly about any tendency to question evidence at
+Lancaster in 1612, but a good deal more may be inferred from what is not
+there. A comparison of that trial with other contemporary trials will
+convince any one that Justices Altham and Bromley must have ruled out
+certain forms of evidence. There were no experiments made of any sort
+nor any female juries set inspecting.[36] This, indeed, is not to say
+that all silly testimony was excluded. There is enough and more of sheer
+nonsense in the testimony to prove the contrary.
+
+We turn now from the question of evidence to a brief consideration of
+several less prominent features of Jacobean witchcraft. We shall note
+the character of the sentences, the distribution of the trials, the
+personnel and position in life of the accused, and lastly the question
+of jurisdiction.
+
+We have in another connection indicated the approximate number of
+executions of which we have record in James's reign. That number, we
+saw, was certainly over forty and probably approached fifty. It
+represented, however, not quite half the total number of cases of
+accusation recorded. In consequence the other verdicts and sentences
+have significance. Especially is this true of the acquittals. They
+amounted to thirty, perhaps to forty. When we add the trials of which we
+do not know the outcome, we can guess that the number was close to the
+sum total of executions. Legally only one other outcome of a trial was
+possible, a year's imprisonment with quarterly appearances in the
+pillory. There were three or four instances of this penalty as well as
+one case where bond of good behavior was perhaps substituted for
+imprisonment.[37] Five pardons were issued,[38] three of them by the
+authorities at London, two of them by local powers apparently under
+compulsion.[39]
+
+We come now to consider the personnel, sex, occupations, and positions
+in life of the accused. On certain of these matters it is possible to
+give statistical conclusions, but such conclusions must be accepted with
+great caution. By a count as careful as the insufficient evidence
+permits it would seem that about six times as many women were indicted
+as men. This was to be expected. It is perhaps less in accord with
+tradition that twice as many married women as spinsters seem to have
+figured in the witch trials of the Jacobean era. The proportion of
+widows to unmarried women was about the same, so that the proportion of
+unmarried women among the whole number accused would seem to have been
+small. These results must be accepted guardedly, yet more complete
+statistics would probably show that the proportion of married women was
+even greater.[40]
+
+The position in life of these people was not unlike that of the same
+class in the earlier period. In the account of the Lancashire trials we
+shall see that the two families whose quarrels started the trouble were
+the lowest of low hill-country people, beggars and charmers, lax in
+their morals and cunning in their dealings. The Flower women, mother and
+daughter, had been charged with evil living; it was said that Agnes
+Brown and her daughter of Northampton had very doubtful reputations;
+Mother Sutton of Bedford was alleged to have three illegitimate
+children. The rest of the witches of the time were not, however, quite
+so low in the scale. They were household servants, poor tenants, "hog
+hearders," wives of yeomen, broomsellers, and what not.
+
+Above this motley peasant crew were a few of various higher ranks. A
+schoolmaster who had experimented with sorcery against the king,[41] a
+minister who had been "busy with conjuration in his youth,"[42] a lady
+charged with sorcery but held for other sin,[43] a conjurer who had
+rendered professional services to a passionate countess,[44] these make
+up a strange group of witches, and for that matter an unimportant one.
+None of their cases were illustrations of the working of witch law; they
+were rather stray examples of the connection between superstition, on
+the one hand, and politics and court intrigue on the other. Not so,
+however, the prosecution of Alice Nutter in the Lancashire trials of
+1612. Alice Nutter was a member of a well known county family. "She
+was," says Potts, "a rich woman, had a great estate and children of good
+hope."[45] She was moreover "of good temper, free from envy and malice."
+In spite of all this she was accused of the most desperate crimes and
+went to the gallows. Why family connections and influences could not
+have saved her is a mystery.
+
+In another connection we spoke of two witches pardoned by local
+authorities at the instance of the government. This brings us to the
+question of jurisdiction. The town of Rye had but recently, it would
+seem, been granted a charter and certain judicial rights. But when the
+town authorities sentenced one woman to death and indicted another for
+witchcraft, the Lord Warden interfered with a question as to their
+power.[46] The town, after some correspondence, gave way and both women
+were pardoned. This was, however, the only instance of disputed
+jurisdiction. The local powers in King's Lynn hanged a witch without
+interference,[47] and the vicar-general of the Bishop of Durham
+proceeded against a "common charmer"[48] with impunity, as of course he
+had every right to do.
+
+There is, in fact, a shred of evidence to show that the memory of
+ecclesiastical jurisdiction had not been lost. In the North Riding of
+Yorkshire the quarter sessions sentenced Ralph Milner for "sorcerie,
+witchcraft, inchantment and telling of fortunes" to confess his fault at
+divine service, "that he hath heighlie offended God and deluded men, and
+is heartily sorie."[49] There is nothing, of course, in the statute to
+authorize this form of punishment, and it is only accounted for as a
+reversion to the original ecclesiastical penalty for a crime that seemed
+to belong in church courts.
+
+What we call nowadays mob law had not yet made its appearance--that is,
+in connection with witchcraft. We shall see plenty of it when we come to
+the early part of the eighteenth century. But there was in 1613 one
+significant instance of independence of any jurisdiction, secular or
+ecclesiastical. In the famous case at Bedford, Master Enger, whom we
+have met before, had been "damnified" in his property to the round sum
+of L200. He was at length persuaded that Mother Sutton was to blame.
+Without any authority whatsoever he brought her forcibly to his house
+and caused her to be scratched.[50] Not only so, but he threw the woman
+and her daughter, tied and bound, into his mill-pond to prove their
+guilt.[51] In the mean time the wretched creatures had been stripped of
+their clothes and examined for marks, under whose oversight we are not
+told, but Master Enger was responsible. He should have suffered for all
+this, but there is no record of his having done so. On the contrary he
+carried the prosecution of the women to a successful issue and saw them
+both hanged.
+
+We now turn to the question of the distribution of witchcraft in the
+realm during James's reign. From the incidental references already
+given, it will be evident that the trials were distributed over a wide
+area. In number executed, Lancashire led with ten, Leicester had nine,
+Northampton five or more, Middlesex four,[52] Bedford, Lincoln, York,
+Bristol, and Hertford each two; Derby had several, the exact number we
+can not learn. These figures of the more serious trials seem to show
+that the alarm was drifting from the southeast corner of England towards
+the midlands. In the last half of Elizabeth's rule the centre had been
+to the north of London in the southern midlands. Now it seems to have
+progressed to the northern midlands. Leicester, Derby, and Nottingham
+may be selected as the triangle of counties that would fairly represent
+the centre of the movement. If the matter were to be determined with
+mathematical accuracy, the centre would need to be placed perhaps a
+little farther west, for Stafford, Cheshire, Bristol, and the remote
+Welsh Carnarvon all experienced witch alarms. In the north, York and
+Durham had their share of trials.
+
+It will be easier to realize what had happened when we discover that, so
+far as records go, Kent and Essex were entirely quiet during the period,
+and East Anglia almost so. We shall later see that these counties had
+not at all forgotten to believe in witchcraft, but the witchfinders had
+ceased their activities for a while.
+
+To be sure, this reasoning from the distribution of trials is a
+dangerous proceeding. Witch alarms, on they face of things, seem
+haphazard outbursts of excitement. And such no doubt they are in part;
+yet one who goes over many cases in order cannot fail to observe that an
+outbreak in one county was very likely to be followed by one in the next
+county.[53] This is perfectly intelligible to every one familiar with
+the essentially contagious character of these scares. The stories spread
+from village to village as fast as that personified Rumor of the poet
+Vergil, "than which nothing is fleeter"; nor did they halt with the
+sheriffs at the county boundaries.
+
+We have now traced the growth of James's opinions until they found
+effect in English law, have seen the practical operation of that law,
+and have gone over the forms of evidence, as well as some other features
+of the witch trials of his reign. In the next chapter we shall take up
+some of the more famous Jacobean cases in detail as examples of witch
+alarms. We shall seek to find out how they started and what were the
+real causes at work.
+
+
+[1] I have not attempted to give more than a brief resume of this story,
+and have used Thomas Wright, _Narratives of Sorcery and Magic_ (London,
+1851), I, 181-190, and Mrs. Lynn Linton, _Witch Stories_, 21-34. The
+pamphlet about Dr. Fian is a rare one, but may be found in several
+libraries. It has been reprinted by the _Gentleman's Magazine_, vol.
+XLIX (1779), by the Roxburghe Club (London, 1816), by Robert Pitcairn,
+in his _Criminal Trials in Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1829-1833), vol. I, and
+doubtless in many other places. Pitcairn has also printed a part of the
+records of his trial.
+
+[2] This is all based upon the contemporary accounts mentioned above.
+
+[3] _Register of the Privy Council of Scotland_, IV (Edinburgh, 1881),
+644-645, note.
+
+[4] A fresh edition was brought out at London in 1603. In 1616 it
+appeared again as a part of the handsome collection of his _Workes_
+compiled by the Bishop of Winchester.
+
+[5] This story is to be found in the apocryphal book of Bel and the
+Dragon. It played a great part in the discussions of the writers on
+witchcraft.
+
+[6] H. C. Lea, _Superstition and Force_ (4th ed., Philadelphia, 1892),
+325 ff., gives some facts about the water ordeal on the Continent. A
+sharp dispute over its use in witch cases was just at this time going on
+there.
+
+[7] He recommended torture in finding out the guilty: "And further
+experience daily proves how loth they are to confesse without torture,
+which witnesseth their guiltinesse," _Daemonologie_, bk. ii, ch. i.
+
+[8] Wright, _Narratives of Sorcery and Magic_, I, 197.
+
+[9] Edward Fairfax, _A Discourse of Witchcraft As it was acted in the
+Family of Mr. Edward Fairfax ... in the year 1621_ (Philobiblon Soc.,
+_Miscellanies_, V, ed. R. Monckton Milnes, London, 1858-1859), "Preface
+to the Reader," 26, explains the king's motive: His "Majesty found a
+defect in the statutes, ... by which none died for Witchcraft but they
+only who by that means killed, so that such were executed rather as
+murderers than as Witches."
+
+[10] _Journals of the House of Lords_, II, 269; Wm. Cobbett,
+_Parliamentary History_, I, 1017, 1018.
+
+[11] _Lords' Journal_, II, 271, 316; _Commons' Journal_, I, 203-204.
+
+[12] _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1603-1610_, 117.
+
+[13] It had passed the third reading in the Commons on June 7; _Commons'
+Journal_, I, 234.
+
+[14] It can hardly be doubted that the change in the wording of the law
+was dictated not only by the desire to simplify the matter of proof but
+by a wish to satisfy those theologians who urged that any use of
+witchcraft was a "covenant with death" and "an agreement with hell"
+(Isaiah xxviii, 18).
+
+[15] See Southworth case in Thomas Potts, _The Wonderfull Discoverie of
+Witches in the countie of Lancaster ..._ (London, 1613; reprinted,
+Chetham Soc., 1845), L 2 verso. Cited hereafter as Potts.
+
+[16] See, below, appendix B. It should be added that six others who had
+been condemned by the judges for bewitching a boy were released at
+James's command.
+
+[17] _The Witches of Northamptonshire ..._ C 2 verso. The writer of this
+pamphlet, who does not tell the story of the ordeal so fully as the
+author of the MS. account, "A briefe abstract of the arraignment of nine
+witches at Northampton, July 21, 1612" (Brit. Mus., Sloane, 972), gives,
+however, proof of the influence of James in the matter. He says that the
+two ways of testing witches are by the marks and "the trying of the
+insensiblenesse thereof," and by "their fleeting on the water," which is
+an exact quotation from James, although not so indicated.
+
+[18] The mother and father were apparently not sent to the assize court.
+
+[19] The female jury was used at Northampton ("women sworn"), also at
+Bedford, but by a private party.
+
+[20] It was used in 1621 on Elizabeth Sawyer of Edmonton. In this case
+it was done clearly at the command of the judge who tried her at the Old
+Bailey.
+
+[21] Elizabeth Device, however, confessed that the "said Devill did get
+blood under her left arme," which raises a suspicion that this
+confession was the result of accusations against her on that score.
+
+[22] See account in next chapter of the trial at Lancaster.
+
+[23] This case must be used with hesitation; see below, appendix A, Sec. 3.
+
+[24] At Warboys the Samuels had been required to repeat: "If I be a
+witch and consenting to the death" of such and such a one. Alice Wilson,
+at Northampton in 1612, was threatened by the justice with execution, if
+she would not say after the minister "I forsake the Devil." She is said
+to have averred that she could not say this. See MS. account of the
+witches of Northampton.
+
+[25] Well known is the practice ascribed to witches of making a waxen
+image, which was then pricked or melted before the fire, in the belief
+that the torments inflicted upon it would be suffered by the individual
+it represented.
+
+[26] Potts, E 3 verso, F 4, G 2; also _The Wonderful Discoverie of the
+Witchcrafts of Margaret and Phillip Flower, ..._ (London, 1619), 21.
+
+[27] See MS. account of the Northampton witches.
+
+[28] _Ibid._: "Sundry other witches appeared to him.... Hee heard many
+of them railing at Jane Lucas, laying the fault on her that they were
+thus accused."
+
+[29] There was practically no spectral evidence in the Lancashire cases.
+Lister on his death-bed had cried out against Jennet Preston, and John
+Law was tormented with a vision of Alizon Device "both day and night";
+Potts, Y 2 verso. But these were exceptional.
+
+[30] See _The Most Cruell and Bloody Murther committed by ... Annis
+Dell.... With the Severall Witch-crafts ... of one Johane Harrison and
+her Daughter_ (London, 1606).
+
+[31] MS. account of the Northampton witches.
+
+[32] See Potts, Z 2.
+
+[33] The dramatist Dekker made use of this; see his _Witch of Edmonton_,
+act IV, scene I (Mermaid edition, London, 1904):
+
+    1st Countreyman.--This thatch is as good as a jury to prove she is a
+    witch.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Justice.--        Come, come: firing her thatch? ridiculous!
+                      Take heed, sirs, what you do; unless your proofs
+                      Come better aimed, instead of turning her
+                      Into a witch, you'll prove yourselves stark fools.
+
+[34] See Potts, P 2.
+
+[35] See _ibid._, Q verso. This, however, was the second time that the
+judge had tried this ruse; see _ibid._, P 2.
+
+[36] See above, note 21.
+
+[37] North Riding Record Soc., _Quarter Sessions Records_ (London, 1883,
+etc.), III, 181.
+
+[38] Two of them, however, were issued to the same woman, one in 1604
+and one in 1610.
+
+[39] _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, XIII, 4 (Rye), pp. 136-137, 139-140,
+144, 147-148.
+
+[40] The term "spinster" was sometimes used of a married woman.
+
+[41] _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1619-1623_, 125, Chamberlain to Carleton,
+February 26, 1620: "Peacock, a schoolmaster, committed to the Tower and
+tortured for practising sorcery upon the King, to infatuate him in Sir
+Thos. Lake's business." This is one of those rare cases in which we know
+certainly that torture was used.
+
+[42] Sir Thomas Lake to Viscount Cranbourne, January 20, 1604, Brit.
+Mus., Add. MSS., 6177, fol. 403.
+
+[43] _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1623-1625_, 474, 485, 497.
+
+[44] T. B. and T. J. Howell, _State Trials_ (London, 1809-1818), II.
+
+[45] See Potts, O 3 verso.
+
+[46] See _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, XIII, 4 (Rye), pp. 136-137,
+139-140, 144, 147-148.
+
+[47] See Alexander Roberts, _A Treatise of Witchcraft ..._ (London,
+1616), dedicated to the "Maior and Aldermen."
+
+[48] M. A. Richardson, _Table Book_ (London, 1841-1846), I, 245.
+
+[49] North Riding Record Soc., _Quarter Sessions Records_, I, 58.
+
+[50] "... neither had they authoritie to compell her to goe without a
+Constable."
+
+[51] Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 36,674, fol. 148. This is a brief
+description of "how to discover a witch." It recommends the water ordeal
+and cites the case of Mr. Enger and Mary Sutton.
+
+[52] In the case of three of these four we know only that they were
+sentenced.
+
+[53] Before the Flower case at Lincoln came the Willimot-Baker cases at
+Leicester. The Bedford trial resembled much the Northampton trial of the
+previous year.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+NOTABLE JACOBEAN CASES.
+
+
+It is possible to sift, to analyze, and to reconstruct the material
+derived from witch trials until some few conclusions about a given
+period can be ventured. A large proportion of cases can be proved to
+belong in this or that category, a certain percentage of the women can
+be shown to possess these or those traits in common. Yet it is quite
+thinkable that one might be armed with a quiver full of generalizations,
+and fail, withal, to comprehend Jacobean witchcraft. If one could have
+asked information on the subject from a Londoner of 1620, he would
+probably have heard little about witchcraft in general, but a very great
+deal about the Lancashire, Northampton, Leicester, Lincoln, and Fairfax
+trials. The Londoner might have been able to tell the stories complete
+of all those famous cases. He would have been but poorly informed could
+he not have related some of them, and the listener would have caught the
+surface drift of those stories. But a witch panic is a subtle thing, not
+to be understood by those who do not follow all its deeper sequences.
+The springs of the movement, the interaction of cause and effect, the
+operation of personal traits, these are factors that must be evaluated,
+and they are not factors that can be fitted into a general scheme,
+labelled and classified.
+
+This does not mean that the cases should be examined in chronological
+sequence. That is not necessary; for the half-dozen cases that we shall
+run over had little or no cause-and-effect connection with one another.
+It is convenient, indeed, to make some classification, and the simplest
+is that by probable origin, especially as it will enable us to emphasize
+that important feature of the trials. Now, by this method the six or
+more trials of note may be grouped under three headings: cases that seem
+to have originated in the actual practice of magic, cases where the
+victims of convulsions and fits started the furor, and cases that were
+simply the last stage of bitter quarrels or the result of grudges.
+
+To the first group belongs the Lancastrian case of 1612, which, however,
+may also be classed under the last heading. No case in the course of the
+superstition in England gained such wide fame. Upon it Shadwell founded
+in part a well-known play, _The Lancashire Witches_, while poets and
+writers of prose have referred to it until the two words have been
+linked in a phrase that has given them lasting association. It was in
+the lonely forest of Pendle among the wild hills of eastern Lancashire
+that there lived two hostile families headed by Elizabeth Southerns, or
+"Old Demdike," and by Anne Chattox. The latter was a wool carder, "a
+very old, withered, spent, and decreped creature," "her lippes ever
+chattering"; the former a blind beggar of four-score years, "a generall
+agent for the Devell in all these partes," and a "wicked fire-brand of
+mischiefe," who had brought up her children and grandchildren to be
+witches. Both families professed supernatural practices. Both families
+no doubt traded on the fear they inspired. Indeed Dame Chattox was said
+to have sold her guarantee to do no harm in return for a fixed annual
+payment of "one aghen-dole of meale."
+
+That there was a feud between the two clans was to be expected. They
+were at once neighbors and competitors, and were engaged in a career in
+which they must plot each against the other, and suspect each other.
+There are hints of other difficulties. Years before there had been a
+quarrel over stolen property. Demdike's daughter had missed clothes and
+food to the value of 20 shillings, and had later found some of the
+clothing in the possession of Chattox's daughter. A more serious
+difficulty involved a third family: a member of the Nutter family,
+well-to-do people in Lancashire, had sought to seduce old Chattox's
+married daughter, and, when repelled, had warned her that when he
+inherited the property where she lived she should be evicted. Chattox
+had retaliated by seeking to kill Nutter by witchcraft, and had been
+further incited thereto by three women, who wished to be rid of Nutter,
+in order that "the women, their coosens, might have the land." As a
+consequence Nutter had died within three months. The quarrel, indeed,
+was three-cornered. It was said that Demdike's daughter had fashioned a
+clay picture of a Nutter woman.[1]
+
+We have all the elements here of a mountain feud; but, in place of the
+revolvers and Kentucky moonshine of to-day, we have clay images and
+Satanic banquets. The battles were to be fought out with imps of Hell as
+participants and with ammunition supplied by the Evil One himself. It
+was this connection with a reservoir of untouched demoniacal powers that
+made the quarrel of the miserable mountaineers the most celebrated
+incident in Lancashire story. Here were charmers and "inchanters,"
+experienced dealers in magic, struggling against one another. Small
+wonder that the community became alarmed and that Roger Nowell, justice
+of the peace, suddenly swooped down upon the Pendle families. It was but
+a short time before he had four women cooped up in Lancaster castle. In
+a few days more he was able to get confessions out of them. They
+admitted acquaintance with the Devil and implicated one another.
+
+Now comes the strange part of the story. According to confessions made
+later, Elizabeth Device, not yet shut up, but likely to be at any time,
+called a meeting on Good Friday of all the witches in Pendle forest.
+They were to come to her home at Malking Tower to plot the delivery of
+the imprisoned women by the blowing up of Lancaster castle.[2] The
+affair took the form of a dinner; and beef, bacon, and roasted mutton
+were served. "All the witches went out of the said House in their owne
+shapes and likenesses. And they all, by that they were forth of the
+dores, gotten on Horsebacke, like unto Foales, some of one colour, some
+of another; and Preston's wife was the last; and, when shee got on
+Horsebacke, they all presently vanished out of ... sight." This was the
+story, and the various witnesses agreed remarkably well as to its main
+details. Those who believed in the "sabbath" of witches must have felt
+their opinions confirmed by the testimony of the witnesses at Lancaster.
+Even the modern reader, with his skepticism, is somewhat daunted by the
+cumulative force of what purports to be the evidence and would fain
+rationalize it by supposing that some sort of a meeting actually did
+take place at Malking Tower and that some Pendle men and women who had
+delved in magic arts till they believed in them did formulate plans for
+revenge. But this is not a probable supposition. The concurring evidence
+in the Malking Tower story is of no more compelling character than that
+to be found in a multitude of Continental stories of witch gatherings
+which have been shown to be the outcome of physical or mental pressure
+and of leading questions. It seems unnecessary to accept even a
+substratum of fact.[3] Probably one of the accused women invented the
+story of the witch feast after the model of others of which she had
+heard, or developed it under the stimulus of suggestive questions from a
+justice. Such a narrative, once started, would spread like wildfire and
+the witnesses and the accused who were persuaded to confess might tell
+approximately the same story. A careful re-reading of all this evidence
+suggests that the various testimonies may indeed have been echoes of the
+first narrative. They seem to lack those characteristic differences
+which would stamp them as independent accounts. Moreover, when the story
+was once started, it is not improbable that the justices and the judges
+would assist the witnesses by framing questions based upon the narrative
+already given. It cannot be said that the evidence exists upon which to
+establish this hypothesis. There is little to show that the witnesses
+were adroitly led into their narratives. But we know from other trials
+that the method was so often adopted that it is not a far cry to suspect
+that it was used at Lancaster.
+
+It is not worth while to trace out the wearisome details that were
+elicited by confession. Those already in prison made confessions that
+implicated others, until the busy justices of the peace had shut up
+sixteen women and four men to be tried at the assizes. Sir Edward
+Bromley and Sir James Altham, who were then on the northern circuit,
+reached Lancaster on the sixteenth of August. In the meantime, "Old
+Demdike," after a confession of most awful crimes, had died in prison.
+All the others were put on trial. Thomas Potts compiled a very careful
+abstract of all the testimony taken, perhaps the most detailed account
+of a witch trial written in the English language, with the possible
+exception of the St. Oses affair. The evidence was in truth of a
+somewhat similar type. Secret interviews with the Evil One, promises of
+worldly riches, a contract sealed with blood, little shapes of dogs,
+cats, and hares, clay pictures that had been dried and had crumpled,
+threats and consequent "languishing" and death, these were the trappings
+of the stories. The tales were old. Only the Malking Tower incident was
+new. But its very novelty gave a plausibility to the stories that were
+woven around it. There was not a single person to interpose a doubt. The
+cross-examinations were nothing more than feeble attempts to bring out
+further charges.
+
+Though there is in the record little suggestion of the use of pressure
+to obtain the confessions, the fact that three were retracted leads to
+a suspicion that they had not been given quite freely. There was
+doubtless something contagious about the impulse to confess. It is,
+nevertheless, a curious circumstance that five members of the two rival
+Pendle families made confession, while all the others whom their
+confessions had involved stuck to it that they were innocent.[4] Among
+those who persisted in denying their guilt Alice Nutter merits special
+note. We have already mentioned her in the last chapter as an example of
+a well-to-do and well connected woman who fell a victim to the
+Lancashire excitement.[5] The evidence against the woman was perhaps the
+flimsiest ever offered to a court. Elizabeth Device, daughter of "Old
+Demdike," and her two children were the chief accusers. Elizabeth had
+seen her present at the Malking Tower meeting. Moreover, she stated that
+Alice had helped her mother ("Old Demdike") bewitch a man to death. Her
+son had heard his grandmother Demdike narrate the incident. This
+testimony and his sister's definite statement that Alice Nutter attended
+the Malking Tower meeting established Mistress Nutter's guilt.[6] The
+judge, indeed, was "very suspitious of the accusation of this yong
+wench, Jennet Device," and, as we have already seen, caused her to be
+sent out of the court room till the accused lady could be placed among
+other prisoners, when the girl was recalled and required before the
+great audience present to pick out the witch, as, of course, she easily
+did, and as easily escaped another transparent trap.[7]
+
+The two children figured prominently from this on. The nine-year-old
+girl gave evidence as to events of three years before, while the young
+man, who could hardly have been out of his teens,[8] recounted what had
+happened twelve years earlier. It was their testimony against their
+mother that roused most interest. Although of a circumstantial
+character, it fitted in most remarkable fashion into the evidence
+already presented.[9] The mother, says the nonchalant pamphleteer,
+indignantly "cryed out against the child," cursing her so outrageously
+that she was removed from the room while the child kept the stand. It is
+useless to waste sympathy upon a mother who was getting at the hands of
+her children the same treatment she had given her own mother Demdike.
+The Chattox family held together better. Mistress Redfearne had been
+carefully shielded in the testimony of her mother Chattox, but she fell
+a victim to the accusations of the opposing family. The course of her
+trial was remarkable. Denying her guilt with great emphasis, she had by
+some wonder been acquitted. But this verdict displeased the people in
+attendance upon the trial. Induced by the cries of the people, the court
+was persuaded to try her again. The charge against her was exactly the
+same, that eighteen years before she had participated in killing
+Christopher Nutter with a clay figure. "Old Demdike" had seen her in the
+act of making the image, and there was offered also the testimony of
+the sister and brother of the dead man, who recalled that Robert Nutter
+on his death-bed had accused Anne of his bewitchment.[10] It does not
+seem to have occurred to the court that the principle that a person
+could not twice be put in jeopardy for the same offence was already an
+old principle in English law.[11] The judges were more concerned with
+appeasing the people than with recalling old precedents, and sent the
+woman to the gallows.
+
+The Pendle cases were interrupted on the third day by the trial of three
+women from Salmesbury, who pleaded not guilty and put themselves "upon
+God and their Countrey." The case against them rested upon the testimony
+of a single young woman, Grace Sowerbutts, who declared that for the
+three years past she had been vexed by the women in question, who "did
+violently draw her by the haire of the head, and layd her on the toppe
+of a Hay-mowe." This delightfully absurd charge was coupled with some
+testimony about the appearances of the accused in animal form. Three men
+attempted to bolster up the story; but no "matter of witchcraft" was
+proved, says the for once incredulous Mr. Potts. The women seized the
+decisive moment. They kneeled before the judge and requested him to
+examine Grace Sowerbutts as to who set her on. The judge--who had
+seemingly not thought of this before--followed the suggestion. The girl
+changed countenance and acknowledged that she had been taught her story.
+At the order of the judge she was questioned by a clergyman and two
+justices of the peace, who found that she had been coached to tell her
+story by a Master Thompson, alias Southworth, a "seminarie priest." So
+ended the charges against the Salmesbury witches.
+
+One would suppose that this verdict might have turned the tide in the
+other cases. But the evidence, as Potts is careful to show, lest the
+reader should draw a wrong conclusion, was of very different character
+in the other trials. They were all finished on the third day of court
+and turned over to the jury. Five of the accused, exclusive of those at
+Salmesbury, were acquitted, one condemned to a year's imprisonment, and
+ten sentenced to death. To this number should be added Jennet Preston,
+who had in the preceding month been tried at York for the killing of a
+Mr. Lister, and who was named by the Lancaster witnesses as one of the
+gang at Malking Tower.
+
+So ended the Lancashire trials of 1612. The most remarkable event of the
+sort in James's reign, they were clearly the outcome of his writings and
+policy. Potts asks pointedly: "What hath the King's Maiestie written and
+published in his Daemonologie by way of premonition and prevention, which
+hath not here by the first or last beene executed, put in practice, or
+discovered?"
+
+Our second group of cases includes those where convulsive and
+"possessed" persons had started the alarm. The Northampton, Leicester,
+and Lichfield cases were all instances in point. The last two, however,
+may be omitted here because they will come up in another connection. The
+affair at Northampton in 1612, just a month earlier than the Lancashire
+affair, merits notice. Elizabeth Belcher and her brother, "Master
+Avery," were the disturbing agents. Mistress Belcher had long been
+suffering with an illness that baffled diagnosis. It was suggested to
+her that the cause was witchcraft. A list of women reputed to be witches
+was repeated to her. The name of Joan Brown seemed to impress her. "Hath
+shee done it?" she asked.[12] The name was repeated to her and from that
+time she held Joan guilty.[13] Joan and her mother were shut up.
+Meantime Master Avery began to take fits and to aid his sister in making
+accusation. Between them they soon had accused six women for their
+afflictions. The stir brought to the surface the hidden suspicions of
+others. There was a witch panic and the justices of the peace[14]
+scurried hither and thither till they had fourteen witches locked up in
+Northampton. When the trial came off at Northampton, Master Avery was
+the hero. He re-enacted the role of the Throckmorton children at Warboys
+with great success. When he came to court--he came in a "coch"--he was
+at once stricken with convulsions. His torments in court were very
+convincing. It is pleasant to know that when he came out of his seizure
+he would talk very "discreetly, christianly, and charitably." Master
+Avery was versatile, however. His evidence against the women rested by
+no means alone on his seizures. He had countless apparitions in which he
+saw the accused;[15] he had been mysteriously thrown from a horse;
+strangest of all, he had foretold at a certain time that if any one
+should go down to the gaol and listen to the voices of the witches, he
+could not understand a word. Whereupon a Master of Arts of Trinity
+College, Oxford, went off to the prison at the uncanny hour of two in
+the morning and "heard a confused noise of much chattering and chiding,
+but could not discover a ready word."
+
+Master Avery had a great deal more to tell, but the jury seem not to
+have fully credited him.[16] They convicted Joan Brown and her mother,
+however, on the charges of Elizabeth and her brother. Three others were
+found guilty upon other counts. None of them, so far as the records go,
+and the records were careful on this point, admitted any guilt.[17] The
+one young man among those who were hanged bitterly resisted his
+conviction from the beginning and died declaring that authority had
+turned to tyranny. He might well feel so. His father and mother had both
+been tortured by the water ordeal, and his mother had been worried till
+she committed suicide in prison.
+
+This brings us to the third sort of cases, those that were the outcome
+of quarrels or grudges. It has already been observed that the Lancashire
+affair could very well be reckoned under this heading. It is no
+exaggeration to say that a goodly percentage of all other witch trials
+in the reign of James could be classified in the same way. Most notable
+among them was the famous trial of the Belvoir witches at Lincoln in
+1618-1619. The trial has received wide notice because it concerned a
+leading family--perhaps the wealthiest in England--the great Catholic
+family of Manners, of which the Earl of Rutland was head. The effort to
+account for the mysterious illness of his young heir and for that which
+had a few years earlier carried off the boy's elder brother led to a
+charge of witchcraft against three humble women of the neighborhood. The
+Rutland affair shows how easily a suspicion of witchcraft might involve
+the fortunes of the lowly with those of the great. Joan Flower and her
+two daughters had been employed as charwomen in Belvoir Castle, the home
+of the Rutlands. One of the daughters, indeed, had been put in charge of
+"the poultrey abroad and the washhouse within dores." But this daughter
+seems not to have given satisfaction to the countess in her work, some
+other causes of disagreement arose which involved Mother Flower, and
+both Mother Flower and her daughter were sent away from the castle. This
+was the beginning of the trouble. Mother Flower "cursed them all that
+were the cause of this discontentment." Naturally little heed was paid
+to her grumblings. Such things were common enough and it did not even
+occur to any one, when the eldest son of the earl sickened and died,
+that the event was in any way connected with the malice of the Flowers.
+It was not until about five years later, when the younger son Francis
+fell sick of an illness to prove fatal, that suspicion seems to have
+lighted upon the three women.[18] The circumstances that led to their
+discharge were then recalled and along with them a mass of idle gossip
+and scandal against the women. It was remembered that Mother Joan was
+"a monstrous malicious woman, full of oathes, curses, and imprecations
+irreligious." Some of her neighbors "dared to affirme that she dealt
+with familiar spirits, and terrified them all with curses and threatning
+of revenge." At length, in February of 1618/19, on the return of the
+earl from attending His Majesty "both at Newmarket before Christmas and
+at Christmas at Whitehall," the women were fetched before justices of
+the peace, who bound them over to the assizes at Lincoln. Mother Flower
+died on the way to Lincoln, but the two daughters were tried there
+before Sir Edward Bromley, who had been judge at the Lancashire trials,
+and before Sir Henry Hobart. The women made a detailed confession of
+weird crimes. There were tales of gloves belonging to the two young sons
+of the earl, gloves that had been found in uncanny places and had been
+put in hot water and rubbed upon Rutterkin the cat--or spirit. There
+were worse stories that will not bear repetition. Needless to say,
+Margaret and Philippa Flower were convicted and hanged.[19]
+
+The Rutland cases have been used to illustrate how the witch accusation
+might arise out of a grudge or quarrel. There were three or four other
+cases that illustrate this origin of the charge. The first is that of
+Johanna Harrison--she has been mentioned in the previous chapter--who
+had an "altercation" with a neighbor. Of course she threatened him, he
+fell ill, and he scratched her.[20] But here the commonplace tale takes
+a new turn. She had him arrested and was awarded five shillings damages
+and her costs of suit. No wonder the man fell sick again. Perhaps--but
+this cannot be certain--it was the same man who was drinking his ale one
+day with his fellows when she entered and stood "gloating" over him. He
+turned and said, "Doe you heare, Witch, looke tother waies." The woman
+berated him with angry words, and, feeling ill the next morning--he had
+been drinking heavily the night before--he dragged her off to the
+justice. A few weeks later she and her daughter were hanged at
+Hertford.[21]
+
+The story of Mother Sutton and Master Enger has been referred to in
+several connections, but it will bear telling in narrative form. Mother
+Sutton was a poor tenant of Master Enger's, "a gentleman of worship,"
+who often bestowed upon her "food and cloathes." On account of her want
+she had been chosen village "hog-heard," and had for twenty years
+fulfilled the duties of her office "not without commendations." But it
+happened that she quarreled one day with her benefactor, and then his
+difficulties began. The tale is almost too trivial for repetition, but
+is nevertheless characteristic. Master Enger's servants were taking some
+corn to market, when they met "a faire black sowe" grazing. The wayward
+beast began turning round "as readily as a Windmill sail at worke; and
+as sodainly their horses fell to starting and drawing some one way, some
+another." They started off with the cart of corn, but broke from it and
+ran away. The servants caught them and went on to Bedford with the load.
+But the sow followed. When the corn had been sold, one of the servants
+went home, the other stayed with his "boone companions." When he rode
+home later, he found the sow grazing outside of town. It ran by his
+side, and the horses ran away again. But the servants watched the sow
+and saw it enter Mother Sutton's house. Master Enger made light of the
+story when it was told to him, and, with remarkable insight for a
+character in a witch story, "supposed they were drunke." But a few days
+later the same servant fell into conversation with Mother Sutton, when a
+beetle came and struck him. He fell into a trance, and then went home
+and told his master. The next night the servant said that Mary Sutton
+entered his room--the vision we have already described.[22]
+
+The rest of the story the reader knows from the last chapter. Mother
+Sutton and her daughter were put to various ordeals and at length
+hanged. Doubtless the imaginative servant, who had in some way, perhaps,
+been involved in the original quarrel, gained favor with his master, and
+standing in the community.[23]
+
+The tale of the Bakewell witches is a very curious one and, though not
+to be confidently depended upon, may suggest how it was possible to
+avail oneself of superstition in order to repay a grudge. A Scotchman
+staying at a lodging-house in Bakewell fell in debt to his landlady, who
+retained some of his clothes as security. He went to London, concealed
+himself in a cellar, and was there found by a watchman, who arrested him
+for being in an unoccupied house with felonious intent. He professed to
+be dazed and declared that he was at Bakewell in Derbyshire at three
+o'clock that morning. He explained it by the fact that he had repeated
+certain words which he had heard his lodging-house keeper and her sister
+say. The judge was amazed, the man's depositions were taken down, and he
+was sent to the justices of Derby.
+
+All that we really know about the Bakewell affair is that several
+witches probably suffered death there in 1607. A local antiquarian has
+given this tale of how the alarm started.[24] While it is unlike any
+other narrative of witchcraft, it is not necessarily without foundation.
+
+The reader has doubtless observed that the cases which we have been
+describing occurred, all of them with one exception, between 1603 and
+1619. In discussing the matter of the distribution of witchcraft in the
+last chapter we noted that not only executions for the crime, but even
+accusations and indictments, were nearly altogether limited to the first
+fifteen years of James's rule. If it is true that there was a rather
+sudden falling off of prosecution in the reign of the zealous James, the
+fact merits explanation. Fortunately the explanation is not far to seek.
+The king's faith in the verity of many of the charges made against
+witches had been rudely shaken. As a matter of fact there had always
+been a grain of skepticism in his make-up. This had come out even before
+he entered England. In 1597 he had become alarmed at the spread of
+trials in Scotland and had revoked all the commissions then in force for
+the trial of the offence.[25] At the very time when he became king of
+England, there were special circumstances that must have had weight with
+him. Throughout the last years of Elizabeth's reign there had been, as
+we have seen, a morbid interest in demoniacal possession, an interest to
+which sensation-mongers were quickly minded to respond. We saw that at
+the end of the sixteenth century the Anglican church stepped in to put
+down the exorcizing of spirits,[26] largely perhaps because it had been
+carried on by Catholics and by a Puritan clergyman. Yet neither
+Harsnett's book nor Darrel's imprisonment quite availed to end a
+practice which offered at all times to all comers a path to notoriety.
+James had not been on the English throne a year when he became
+interested in a case of this kind. Mary Glover, a girl alleged to have
+been bewitched by a Mother Jackson, was at the king's wish examined by a
+skilled physician, Dr. Edward Jorden, who recognized her fits as
+disease, brought the girl to a confession, published an account of the
+matter, and so saved the life of the woman whom she had accused.[27]
+
+In the very next year there was a case at Cambridge that gained royal
+notice. It is not easy to straighten out the facts from the letters on
+the matter, but it seems that two Cambridge maids had a curious disease
+suggesting bewitchment.[28] A Franciscan and a Puritan clergyman were,
+along with others, suspected. The matter was at once referred to the
+king and the government. James directed that examinations be made and
+reported to him. This was done. James wormed out of the "principal" some
+admission of former dealing with conjuration, but turned the whole thing
+over to the courts, where it seems later to have been established that
+the disease of the bewitched maidens was "naturall."
+
+These were but the first of several impostures that interested the king.
+A girl at Windsor, another in Hertfordshire, were possessed by the
+Devil,[29] two maids at Westminster were "in raptures from the Virgin
+Mary and Michael the Archangel,"[30] a priest of Leicestershire was
+"possessed of the Blessed Trinity."[31] Such cases--not to mention the
+Grace Sowerbutts confessions at Lancaster that were like to end so
+tragically--were the excrescences of an intensely religious age. The
+reader of early colonial diaries in America will recognize the
+resemblance of these to the wonders they report. James took such with
+extreme seriousness.[32] The possessed person was summoned to court for
+exhibition, or the king went out of his way to see him. It is a matter
+of common information that James prided himself on his cleverness.
+Having succeeded in detecting certain frauds, he became an expert
+detective. In one instance "he ordered it so that a proper courtier made
+love to one of these bewitched maids"[33] and soon got her over her
+troubles. In another case a woman "strangely affected" by the first
+verse of John's Gospel failed to recognize it when read in Greek,[34]
+proof positive that the omniscient Devil did not possess her.
+
+Three instances of exposure of imposture were most notable, those of
+Grace Sowerbutts, the boy at Leicester, and the "Boy of Bilston." The
+first of these has already been sufficiently discussed in connection
+with the Lancashire trials. The second had nothing remarkable about it.
+A twelve or thirteen-year-old boy had fits which he said were caused by
+spirits sent by several women whom he accused as witches. Nine women
+were hanged, while six more were under arrest and would probably have
+met the same end, had not the king in his northward progress, while
+stopping at Leicester, detected the shamming.[35] Whether or no the boy
+was punished we are not told. It is some satisfaction that the judges
+were disgraced.[36]
+
+The boy of Bilston was, if Webster may be believed,[37] the most famous,
+if not the most successful, fraud of all. The case was heralded over the
+entire realm and thousands came to see. The story is almost an exact
+duplicate of earlier narratives of possession. A thirteen-year-old boy
+of Bilston in Staffordshire, William Perry, began to have fits and to
+accuse a Jane Clarke, whose presence invariably made him worse. He "cast
+out of his mouth rags, thred, straw, crooked pins." These were but
+single deceptions in a repertoire of varied tricks. Doubtless he had
+been trained in his role by a Roman priest. At any rate the Catholics
+tried exorcism upon him, but to no purpose. Perhaps some Puritans
+experimented with cures which had like result.[38] The boy continued his
+spasms and his charges against the witch and she was brought into court
+at the July assizes. But Bishop Morton,[39] before whose chancellor the
+boy had first been brought, was present, and the judges turned the boy
+over to him for further investigation.[40] Then, with the help of his
+secretary, he set about to test the boy, and readily exposed his
+deception--in most curious fashion too. The boy, like one we have met
+before, could not endure the first verse of John's Gospel, but failed to
+recognize it when read in the Greek. After that he was secretly watched
+and his somewhat elaborate preparations for his pretences were found
+out. He was persuaded to confess his trickery in court before Sir Peter
+Warburton and Sir Humphrey Winch, "and the face of the County and
+Country there assembled,"[41] as well as to beg forgiveness of the women
+whom he had accused.
+
+It will be seen that the records of imposture were well on their way to
+rival the records of witchcraft, if not in numbers, at least in the
+notice that they received. And the king who had so bitterly arraigned
+Reginald Scot was himself becoming the discoverer-general of
+England.[42] It is not, then, without being forewarned that we read
+Fuller's remarkable statement about the king's change of heart. "The
+frequency of such forged possessions wrought such an alteration upon the
+judgement of King James that he, receding from what he had written in
+his 'Daemonology,' grew first diffident of, and then flatly to deny, the
+workings of witches and devils, as but falsehoods and delusions."[43] In
+immediate connection with this must be quoted what Francis Osborne has
+to say.[44] He was told, he writes, that the king would have gone as far
+as to deny any such operations, but out of reasons of state and to
+gratify the church.[45]
+
+Such a conversion is so remarkable that we could wish we had absolutely
+contemporary statements of it. As a matter of fact, the statements we
+have quoted establish nothing more than a probability, but they
+certainly do establish that. Fuller, the church historian, responsible
+for the first of the two statements, was a student in Queen's
+College[46] at Cambridge during the last four years of James's reign;
+Osborne was a man of thirty-two when the king died, and had spent a
+part of his young manhood at the court. Their testimony was that of men
+who had every opportunity to know about the king's change of
+opinion.[47] In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, we must
+accept, at least provisionally, their statements.[48] And it is easier
+to do so in view of the marked falling off of prosecutions that we have
+already noted. This indeed is confirmation of a negative sort; but we
+have one interesting bit of affirmative proof, the outcome of the trials
+at York in 1622. In that year the children of Mr. Edward Fairfax, a
+member of the historic Fairfax family of Yorkshire, were seized with
+some strange illness, in which they saw again and again the spectres of
+six different women. These women were examined by the justices of the
+peace and committed to the assizes.[49] In the mean time they had found
+able and vigorous defenders in the community. What happened at the April
+assizes we no not know, but we know that four of the women were
+released, two of them on bond.[50] This was probably a compromise method
+of settling the matter. Fairfax was not satisfied. Probably through his
+influence the women were again brought up at the August assizes.[51]
+Then, at least, as we know beyond a doubt, they were formally tried,
+this time upon indictments preferred by Fairfax himself.[52] The judge
+warned the jury to be very careful, and, after hearing some of the
+evidence, dismissed the women on the ground that the evidence "reached
+not to the point of the statute."[53] This seems significant. A man of a
+well known county family was utterly baffled in pressing charges in a
+case where his own children were involved.[54] It looks as if there were
+judges who were following the king's lead in looking out for
+imposture.[55] In any case there was, in certain quarters, a public
+sentiment against the conviction of witches, a sentiment that made
+itself felt. This we shall have occasion to note again in following out
+the currents and fluctuations of opinions.
+
+
+[1] Of course the proof that some of the accused really made pretensions
+to magic rests upon their own confessions and their accusations of one
+another, and might be a part of an intricate tissue of falsehood. But,
+granting for the moment the absolute untrustworthiness of the
+confessions and accusations there are incidental statements which imply
+the practice of magic. For example, Elizabeth Device's young daughter
+quoted a long charm which she said her mother had taught her and which
+she hardly invented on the spur of the moment. And Demdike was requested
+to "amend a sick cow."
+
+[2] The gunpowder plot, seven years earlier, no doubt gave direction to
+this plan, or, perhaps it would be better to say, gave the idea to those
+who confessed the plan.
+
+[3] James Crossley seems to believe that there was "some scintilla of
+truth" behind the story. See his edition of Potts, notes, p. 40.
+
+[4] Among those who never confessed seems to have been Chattox's
+daughter, Anne Redfearne.
+
+[5] See above, p. 116.
+
+[6] It is a satisfaction to know that Alice died "impenitent," and that
+not even her children could "move her to confesse."
+
+[7] See above, pp. 112-113, and Potts, Q-Q verso.
+
+[8] See Potts, I.
+
+[9] It can hardly be doubted that the children had been thoroughly
+primed with the stories in circulation against their mother.
+
+[10] Other witnesses charged her with "many strange practises."
+
+[11] The principle that a man's life may not twice be put in jeopardy
+for the same offence had been pretty well established before 1612. See
+Darly's Case, 25 Eliz. (1583), Coke's _Reports_ (ed. Thomas and Fraser,
+London, 1826), IV, f. 40; Vaux's Case, 33 Eliz. (1591), _ibid._, f. 45;
+Wrote _vs._ Wiggs, 33 Eliz. (1591), _ibid._, f. 47. This principle had
+been in process of development for several centuries. See Bracton (ed.
+Sir Travers Twiss, London, 1878-1883), II, 417, 433, 437; Britton (ed.
+F. M. Nichols, Oxford, 1865), bk. I, cap. xxiv, 5, f. 44 b.
+
+It must be noted, however, that the statute of 3 Hen. VII, cap. II,
+provides that indictments shall be proceeded in, immediately, at the
+king's suit, for the death of a man, without waiting for bringing an
+appeal; and that the plea of _antefort acquit_ in an indictment shall be
+no bar to the prosecuting of an appeal. This law was passed to get
+around special legal inconvenience and related only to homicide and to
+the single case of prosecution by appeal. In general, then, we may say
+that the former-jeopardy doctrine was part of the common law, (1) an
+appeal of felony being a bar to subsequent appeal or indictment, (2) an
+indictment a bar to a subsequent indictment, and (3) an indictment to a
+subsequent appeal, except so far as the statute of 3 Hen. VII., cap. II,
+changed the law as respects homicides. For this brief statement I am
+indebted to Professor William Underhill Moore of the University of
+Wisconsin.
+
+What Potts has to say about Anne Redfearne's case hardly enables us to
+reach a conclusion about the legal aspect of it.
+
+[12] This is the story in the MS. account (Brit. Mus., Sloane, 972). The
+printed narrative of the origin of the affair is somewhat different.
+Joan had on one occasion been struck by Mistress Belcher for unbecoming
+behavior and had cherished a grudge. No doubt this was a point recalled
+against Joan after suspicion had been directed against her.
+
+[13] In John Cotta's _The Triall of Witchcraft ..._ (London, 1616),
+66-67, there is a very interesting statement which probably refers to
+this case. Cotta, it will be remembered, was a physician at Northampton.
+He wrote: "There is a very rare, but true, description of a Gentlewoman,
+about sixe yeares past, cured of divers kinds of convulsions, ... After
+she was almost cured, ... but the cure not fully accomplished, it was by
+a reputed Wisard whispered ... that the Gentlewoman was meerely
+bewitched, supposed Witches were accused and after executed.... In this
+last past seventh yeare ... fits are critically again returned." Cotta
+says six years ago and the Northampton trials were in 1612, four years
+before. It is quite possible, however, that Mistress Belcher began to be
+afflicted in 1610.
+
+[14] One of these was Sir Gilbert Pickering of Tichmarsh, almost
+certainly the Gilbert Pickering mentioned as an uncle of the
+Throckmorton children at Warboys. See above, pp. 47-48. His hatred of
+witches had no doubt been increased by that affair.
+
+[15] See what is said of spectral evidence in chapter V, above.
+
+[16] At least there is no evidence that Alice Abbott, Catherine
+Gardiner, and Alice Harris, whom he accused, were punished in any way.
+
+[17] It seems, however, that Arthur Bill, while he sturdily denied
+guilt, had been before trapped into some sort of an admission. He had
+"unawares confest that he had certaine spirits at command." But this may
+mean nothing more than that something he had said had been grossly
+misinterpreted.
+
+[18] Three women of Leicestershire, Anne Baker, Joan Willimot, and Ellen
+Greene, who in their confessions implicated the Flowers (they belonged
+to parishes neighbor to that of Belvoir, which lies on the shire border)
+and whose testimony against them figured in their trials, were at the
+same time (Feb.-March, 1618/19) under examination in that county.
+Whether these women were authors or victims of the Belvoir suspicions we
+do not know. As we have their damning confessions, there is small doubt
+as to their fate.
+
+[19] The women were tried in March, 1618/19. Henry, the elder son of the
+earl, was buried at Bottesford, September 26, 1613. John Nichols,
+_History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester_ (London,
+1795-1815), II, pt. i, 49, note 10. Francis, the second, lingered till
+early in 1620. His sister, Lady Katherine, whose delicate health had
+also been ascribed to the witches, was now the heiress, and became in
+that year the bride of Buckingham, the king's favorite. There is one
+aspect of this affair that must not be overlooked. The accusation
+against the Flowers cannot have been unknown to the king, who was a
+frequent visitor at the seat of the Rutlands. It is hard to believe that
+under such circumstances the use of torture, which James had declared
+essential to bring out the guilt of the accused witches, was not after
+some fashion resorted to. The weird and uncanny confessions go far
+towards supporting such an hypothesis.
+
+[20] _The Most Cruell and Bloody Murther committed by ... Annis Dell,
+... with the severall Witch-crafts ... of one Johane Harrison and her
+Daughter_, 63.
+
+[21] This story must be accepted with hesitation; see below, appendix A,
+Sec.3.
+
+[22] See above, pp. 110-111.
+
+[23] The trial of Elizabeth Sawyer at Edmonton in 1621 had to do with
+similar trivialities. Agnes Ratcliffe was washing one day, when a sow
+belonging to Elizabeth licked up a bit of her washing soap. She struck
+it with a "washing beetle." Of course she fell sick, and on her
+death-bed accused Mistress Elizabeth Sawyer, who was afterwards hanged.
+
+[24] See T. Tindall Wildridge, in William Andrews, _Bygone Derbyshire_
+(Derby, 1892), 180-184. It has been impossible to locate the sources of
+this story. J. Charles Cox, who explored the Derby records, seems never
+to have discovered anything about the affair.
+
+[25] See F. Legge, "Witchcraft in Scotland," in the _Scottish Review_,
+XVIII, 264.
+
+[26] See above, ch. IV, especially note 36.
+
+[27] On Mary Glover see also appendix A, Sec. 2. On other impostures see
+Thomas Fuller, _Church History of Britain_ (London, 1655; Oxford, ed. J.
+S. Brewer, 1845), ed. of 1845, V, 450; letters given by Edmund Lodge,
+_Illustrations of British History, Biography and Manners ..._ (London,
+1791), III, 275, 284, 287-288; also _King James, His Apothegms, by B.
+A., Gent._ (London, 1643), 8-10.
+
+[28] _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1603-1610_, 218.
+
+[29] Fuller, _op. cit._, V, 450.
+
+[30] _Ibid._; John Gee, _The Foot out of the Snare, or Detection of
+Practices and Impostures of Priests and Jesuits in England ..._ (London,
+1624), reprinted in _Somers Tracts_, III, 72.
+
+[31] _Ibid._; Fuller, _op. cit._, V, 450.
+
+[32] How much more seriously than his courtiers is suggested by an
+anecdote of Sir John Harington's: James gravely questioned Sir John why
+the Devil did work more with ancient women than with others. "We are
+taught thereof in Scripture," gaily answered Sir John, "where it is told
+that the Devil walketh in dry places." See his _Nugae Antiquae_ (London,
+1769), ed. of London, 1804, I, 368-369.
+
+[33] Fuller, _op. cit._, V, 451.
+
+[34] _Ibid._
+
+[35] The story of the hangings at Leicester in 1616 has to be put
+together from various sources. Our principal authority, however, is in
+two letters written by Robert Heyrick of Leicester to his brother
+William in 1616, which are to be found in John Nichols, _History and
+Antiquities of the County of Leicester_ (London, 1795-1815), II, pt. ii,
+471, and in the _Annual Register_ for 1800. See also William Kelly,
+_Royal Progresses to Leicester_ (Leicester, 1884), 367-369. Probably
+this is the case referred to by Francis Osborne, where the boy was sent
+to the Archbishop of Canterbury for further examination. Osborne, who
+wrote a good deal later than the events, apparently confused the story
+of the Leicester witches with that of the Boy of Bilston--their origins
+were similar--and produced a strange account; see his _Miscellany of
+Sundry Essays, Paradoxes and Problematicall Discourses_ (London,
+1658-1659), 6-9.
+
+[36] For the disgrace of the judges see _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1611-1618_,
+398.
+
+[37] Webster knew Bishop Morton, and also his secretary, Baddeley, who
+had been notary in the case and had written an account of it. See John
+Webster, _The Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft_ (London, 1677), 275.
+
+[38] The Catholics declared that the Puritans tried "syllabub" upon him.
+This was perhaps a sarcastic reference to their attempts to cure him by
+medicine.
+
+[39] Then of Lichfield.
+
+[40] Baddeley, who was Bishop Morton's secretary and who prepared the
+narrative of the affair for the printer, says that the woman was freed
+by the inquest; Ryc. Baddeley, _The Boy of Bilson ..._ (London, 1622),
+61. Arthur Wilson, who tells us that he heard the story "from the
+Bishop's own mouth almost thirty years before it was inserted here,"
+says that the woman was found guilty and condemned to die; Arthur
+Wilson, _Life and Reign of James I_ (London, 1653), 107. It is evident
+that Baddeley's story is the more trustworthy. It is of course possible,
+although not probable, that there were two trials, and that Baddeley
+ignored the second one, the outcome of which would have been less
+creditable to the bishop.
+
+[41] Webster, _Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft_, 275.
+
+[42] See Fairfax, _A Discourse of Witchcraft_ (Philobiblon Soc.): "and
+those whose impostures our wise King so lately laid open." See also an
+interesting letter from James himself in J. O. Halliwell, _Letters of
+the Kings of England_ (London, 1846), II, 124-125.
+
+[43] Fuller, _Church History of Britain_, V, 452 (ch. X, sect. 4). It is
+worthy of note that Peter Heylyn, who, in his _Examen Historicum_
+(London, 1659), sought to pick Fuller to pieces, does not mention this
+point.
+
+[44] See Francis Osborne, _Miscellany_, 4-9. Lucy Aikin, _Memoirs of the
+Court of King James the First_ (London, 1823), II, 398-399, gives about
+the same story as Fuller and Osborne, and, while the wording is slightly
+different, it is probable that they were her sources.
+
+[45] Arthur Wilson, _op. cit._, 111, tells us: "The King took delight by
+the line of his reason to sound the depth of such brutish impostors, and
+he discovered many." A writer to the _Gentleman's Magazine_ (LIV, pt. I,
+246-247), in 1784, says that he has somewhere read that King James on
+his death-bed acknowledged that he had been deceived in his opinion
+respecting witchcraft and expressed his concern that so many innocent
+persons had suffered on that account. But, as he has forgotten where he
+read it, his evidence is of course of small value.
+
+[46] The college where an annual sermon was preached on the subject of
+witchcraft since the Warboys affair.
+
+[47] Osborne's statement should perhaps be discounted a little on
+account of his skepticism. On the other hand he was not such an admirer
+of James I as to have given him undue credit. Fuller's opinion was
+divided.
+
+[48] James still believed in witchcraft in 1613, when the malodorous
+divorce trial of Lady Essex took place. A careful reading of his words
+at that time, however, leaves the impression that he was not nearly so
+certain about the possibilities of witchcraft as he had been when he
+wrote his book. His position was clearly defensive. It must be
+remembered that James in 1613 had a point to be gained and would not
+have allowed a possible doubt as to witchcraft to interfere with his
+wish for the divorce. See Howell, _State Trials_, II, 806.
+
+[49] One of them was publicly searched by command of a justice. See
+Fairfax, _op. cit._, 138-139.
+
+[50] _Ibid._, 205. Two of the women had gone home before, _ibid._, 180.
+
+[51] _Ibid._, 225-234.
+
+[52] _Ibid._, 234.
+
+[53] _Ibid._, 237-238. If the women were tried twice, it seems a clear
+violation of the principle of former jeopardy. See above, note 11. The
+statute of 3 Hen. VII, cap. I, that the plea of _antefort acquit_ was no
+bar to the prosecution of an appeal, would not apply in this instance,
+as that statute was limited to cases of _homicide_.
+
+[54] Fairfax was moreover a man for whom the king had a high personal
+regard.
+
+[55] At the August assizes there had been an effort to show that the
+children were "counterfeiting." See the _Discourse_, 235-237.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE LANCASHIRE WITCHES AND CHARLES I.
+
+
+In his attitude towards superstition, Charles I resembled the later
+rather than the earlier James I. No reign up to the Revolution was
+marked by so few executions. It was a time of comparative quiet. Here
+and there isolated murmurs against suspected creatures of the Devil
+roused the justices of the peace to write letters, and even to make
+inquiries that as often as not resulted in indefinite commitments, or
+brought out the protests of neighbors in favor of the accused. But, if
+there were not many cases, they represented a wide area. Middlesex,
+Wilts, Somerset, Leicestershire, Staffordshire, Lancashire, Durham,
+Yorkshire, and Northumberland were among the counties infested. Yet we
+can count but six executions, and only four of them rest upon secure
+evidence.[1] This is of course to reckon the reign of Charles as not
+extending beyond 1642, when the Civil War broke out and the Puritan
+leaders assumed responsibility for the government.
+
+Up to that time there was but one really notable witch alarm in England.
+But it was one that illustrated again, as in Essex, the continuity of
+the superstition in a given locality. The Lancashire witches of 1633
+were the direct outcome of the Lancashire witches of 1612. The story is
+a weird one. An eleven-year-old boy played truant one day to his
+cattle-herding, and, as he afterwards told the story, went
+plum-gathering. When he came back he had to find a plausible excuse to
+present to his parents. Now, the lad had been brought up in the
+Blackburn forest, close to Pendle Hill; he had overheard stories of
+Malking Tower[2] from the chatter of gossipping women;[3] he had
+shivered as suspected women were pointed out to him; he knew the names
+of some of them. His imagination, in search for an excuse, caught at the
+witch motive[4] and elaborated it with the easy invention of youth.[5]
+He had seen two greyhounds come running towards him. They looked like
+those owned by two of his neighbors. When he saw that no one was
+following them, he set out to hunt with them, and presently a hare rose
+very near before him, at the sight whereof he cried "Loo, Loo," but the
+dogs would not run. Being very angry, he tied them to a little bush in
+the hedge and beat them, and at once, instead of the black greyhound,
+"one Dickonson's wife" stood up, and instead of the brown greyhound "a
+little boy whom this informer knoweth not." He started to run away, but
+the woman stayed him and offered him a piece of silver "much like to a
+faire shillinge" if he would not betray her. The conscientious boy
+answered "Nay, thou art a witch," "whereupon shee put her hand into her
+pocket againe and pulled out a stringe like unto a bridle that gingled,
+which shee put upon the litle boyes heade that stood up in the browne
+greyhounds steade, whereupon the said boy stood up a white horse." In
+true Arabian Nights fashion they mounted and rode away. They came to a
+new house called Hoarstones, where there were three score or more
+people, and horses of several colors, and a fire with meat roasting.
+They had flesh and bread upon a trencher and they drank from glasses.
+After the first taste the boy "refused and would have noe more, and said
+it was nought." There were other refreshments at the feast. The boy was,
+as he afterwards confessed, familiar with the story of the feast at
+Malking Tower.[6]
+
+The names of those present he did not volunteer at first; but, on being
+questioned, he named eighteen[7] whom he had seen. The boy confessed
+that he had been clever enough to make most of his list from those who
+were already suspected by their neighbors.
+
+It needed but a match to set off the flame of witch-hatred in
+Lancashire. The boy's story was quite sufficient. Whether his narrative
+was a spontaneous invention of his own, concocted in emergency, as he
+asserted in his confession at London, or whether it was a carefully
+constructed lie taught him by his father in order to revenge himself
+upon some hated neighbors, and perhaps to exact blackmail, as some of
+the accused later charged, we shall never know. In later life the boy is
+said to have admitted that he had been set on by his father,[8] but the
+narrative possesses certain earmarks of a story struck out by a child's
+imagination.[9] It is easy enough to reconcile the two theories by
+supposing that the boy started the story of his own initiative and that
+his father was too shrewd not to realize the opportunity to make a
+sensation and perhaps some money. He took the boy before justices of the
+peace, who, with the zeal their predecessors had displayed twenty-two
+years before, made many arrests.[10] The boy was exhibited from town to
+town in Lancashire as a great wonder and witch-detector. It was in the
+course of these exhibitions that he was brought to a little town on the
+Lancashire border of Yorkshire and was taken to the afternoon church
+service, where a young minister, who was long afterwards to become a
+famous opponent of the superstition, was discoursing to his
+congregation. The boy was held up by those in charge as if to give him
+the chance to detect witches among the audience. The minister saw him,
+and at the end of the service at once came down to the boy, and without
+parley asked him, "Good boy, tell me truly, and in earnest, didst thou
+see and hear such things of the meeting of the witches as is reported by
+many that thou dost relate?" The boy, as Webster has told the story, was
+not given time for reply by the men in charge of him, who protested
+against such questions. The lad, they said, had been before two justices
+of the peace, and had not been catechized in that fashion.[11]
+
+A lone skeptic had little chance to beat back the wave of excitement
+created by the young Robinson's stories. His success prompted him to
+concoct new tales.[12] He had seen Lloynd's wife sitting on a cross-bar
+in his father's chimney; he had called to her; she had not come down but
+had vanished in the air. Other accounts the boy gave, but none of them
+revealed the clear invention of his first narrative.
+
+He had done his work. The justices of the peace were bringing in the
+accused to the assizes at Lancaster. There Robinson was once more called
+upon to render his now famous testimony. He was supported by his
+father,[13] who gave evidence that on the day he had sent his boy for
+the cattle he had gone after him and as he approached had heard him cry
+and had found him quite "distracted." When the boy recovered himself, he
+had related the story already told. This was the evidence of the father,
+and together with that of the son it constituted the most telling piece
+of testimony presented. But it served, as was usual in such cases, as an
+opening for all those who, for any reason, thought they had grounds of
+suspicion against any of their neighbors. It was recalled by one witness
+that a neighbor girl could bewitch a pail and make it roll towards her.
+We shall later have occasion to note the basis of fact behind this
+curious accusation. There was other testimony of an equally damaging
+character. But in nearly all the cases stress was laid upon the bodily
+marks. In one instance, indeed, nothing else was charged.[14] The reader
+will remember that in the Lancaster cases of 1612 the evidence of marks
+on the body was notably absent, so notably that we were led to suspect
+that it had been ruled out by the judge. That such evidence was now
+reckoned important is proof that this particularly dark feature of the
+witch superstition was receiving increasing emphasis.
+
+How many in all were accused we do not know. Webster, writing later,
+said that seventeen were found guilty.[15] It is possible that even a
+larger number were acquitted. Certainly some were acquitted. A
+distinction of some sort was made in the evidence. This makes it all the
+harder to understand why the truth of Robinson's stories was not tested
+in the same way in which those of Grace Sowerbutts had been tested in
+1612. Did that detection of fraud never occur to the judges, or had they
+never heard of the famous boy at Bilston? Perhaps not they but the
+juries were to blame, for it seems that the court was not altogether
+satisfied with the jury's verdict and delayed sentence. Perhaps, indeed,
+the judges wrote to London about the matter. Be that as it may, the
+privy council decided to take cognizance of an affair that was already
+the talk of the realm.[16] Secretaries Coke and Windebank sent
+instructions to Henry Bridgeman, Bishop of Chester and successor to that
+Morton who had exposed the boy of Bilston, to examine seven of the
+condemned witches and to make a report.[17] Bridgeman doubtless knew of
+his predecessor's success in exposing fraudulent accusations. Before the
+bishop was ready to report, His Majesty sent orders that three or four
+of the accused should be brought up to London by a writ of habeas
+corpus. Owing to a neglect to insert definite names, there was a
+delay.[18] It was during this interval, probably, that Bishop Bridgeman
+was able to make his examination. He found three of the seven already
+dead and one hopelessly ill. The other three he questioned with great
+care. Two of them, Mary Spencer, a girl of twenty, and Frances
+Dickonson, the first whom Robinson had accused, made spirited denials.
+Mary Spencer avowed that her accusers had been actuated by malice
+against her and her parents for several years. At the trial, she had
+been unable, she said, to answer for herself, because the noise of the
+crowd had been so great as to prevent her from hearing the evidence
+against her. As for the charge of bewitching a pail so that it came
+running towards her of its own accord, she declared that she used as a
+child to roll a pail down-hill and to call it after her as she ran, a
+perfectly natural piece of child's play. Frances Dickonson, too, charged
+malice upon her accusers, especially upon the father of Edmund Robinson.
+Her husband, she said, had been unwilling to sell him a cow without
+surety and had so gained his ill-will. She went on to assert that the
+elder Robinson had volunteered to withdraw the charges against her if
+her husband would pay him forty shillings. This counter charge was
+supported by another witness and seemed to make a good deal of an
+impression on the ecclesiastic.
+
+The third woman to be examined by the bishop was a widow of sixty, who
+had not been numbered among the original seventeen witches. She
+acknowledged that she was a witch, but was, wrote the bishop, "more
+often faulting in the particulars of her actions as one having a strong
+imagination of the former, but of too weak a memory to retain or relate
+the latter." The woman told a commonplace story of a man in black attire
+who had come to her six years before and made the usual contract. But
+very curiously she could name only one other witch, and professed to
+know none of those already in gaol.
+
+Such were the results of the examinations sent in by the bishop. In the
+letter which he sent along, he expressed doubt about the whole matter.
+"Conceit and malice," he wrote, "are so powerful with many in those
+parts that they will easily afford an oath to work revenge upon their
+neighbour." He would, he intimated, have gone further in examining the
+counter charges brought by the accused, had it not been that he
+hesitated to proceed against the king, that is, the prosecution.
+
+This report doubtless confirmed the fears of the government. The writs
+to the sheriff of Lancaster were redirected, and four of the women were
+brought up to London and carried to the "Ship Tavern" at Greenwich,
+close to one of the royal residences.[19] Two of His Majesty's surgeons,
+Alexander Baker and Sir William Knowles, the latter of whom was
+accustomed to examine candidates for the king's touch, together with
+five other surgeons and ten certificated midwives, were now ordered to
+make a bodily examination of the women, under the direction of the
+eminent Harvey,[20] the king's physician, who was later to discover the
+circulation of the blood. In the course of this chapter we shall see
+that Harvey had long cherished misgivings about witchcraft. Probably by
+this time he had come to disbelieve it. One can but wonder if Charles,
+already probably aware of Harvey's views, had not intended from his
+first step in the Lancashire case to give his physician a chance to
+assert his opinion. In any case his report and that of his subordinates
+was entirely in favor of the women, except that in the case of Margaret
+Johnson (who had confessed) they had found a mark, but one to which they
+attached little significance.[21] The women seem to have been carried
+before the king himself.[22] We do not know, however, that he expressed
+any opinion on the matter.
+
+The whole affair has one aspect that has been entirely overlooked.
+Whatever the verdict of the privy council and of the king may have
+been--and it was evidently one of caution--they gave authorization from
+the highest quarters for the use of the test of marks on the body. That
+proof of witchcraft had been long known in England and had slowly won
+its way into judicial procedure until now it was recognized by the
+highest powers in the kingdom. To be sure, it was probably their purpose
+to annul the reckless convictions in Lancashire, and to break down the
+evidence of the female juries; but in doing so they furnished a
+precedent for the witch procedure of the civil-war period.
+
+In the mean time, while the surgeons and midwives were busy over these
+four women, the Robinsons, father and son, had come to London at the
+summons of the privy council.[23] There the boy was separated from his
+father. To a Middlesex justice of the peace appointed by Secretary
+Windebank to take his statements he confessed that his entire story was
+an invention and had no basis of fact whatever.[24] Both father and son
+were imprisoned and proceedings seem to have been instituted against
+them by one of the now repentant jurymen who had tried the case.[25] How
+long they were kept in prison we do not know.
+
+One would naturally suppose that the women would be released on their
+return to Lancaster, but the sheriff's records show that two years later
+there were still nine witches in gaol.[26] Three of them bore the same
+names as those whom Robinson pretended to have seen at Hoarstones. At
+least one other of the nine had been convicted in 1634, probably more.
+Margaret Johnson, the single one to confess, so far as we know, was not
+there. She had probably died in prison in the mean time. We have no clue
+as to why the women were not released. Perhaps public sentiment at home
+made the sheriff unwilling to do it, perhaps the wretched creatures
+spent two or more years in prison--for we do not know when they got
+out--as a result of judicial negligence, a negligence of which there are
+too many examples in the records of the time. More likely the king and
+the privy council, while doubting the charges against the women, had
+been reluctant to antagonize public sentiment by declaring them
+innocent.
+
+It is disagreeable to have to state that Lancaster was not yet through
+with its witches. Early in the next year the Bishop of Chester was again
+called upon by the privy council to look into the cases of four women.
+There was some delay, during which a dispute took place between the
+bishop and the sheriff as to where the bishop should examine the
+witches, whether at Wigan, as he proposed, or at Lancaster.[27] One
+suspects that the civil authorities of the Duchy of Lancaster may have
+resented the bishop's part in the affair. When Bridgeman arrived in
+Lancaster he found two of the women already dead. Of the other two, the
+one, he wrote, was accused by a man formerly "distracted and lunatic"
+and by a woman who was a common beggar; the other had been long reputed
+a witch, but he saw no reason to believe it. He had, he admitted, found
+a small lump of flesh on her right ear.[28] Alas that the Bishop of
+Chester, like the king and the privy council, however much he discounted
+the accusations of witchcraft, had not yet wholly rid himself of one of
+the darkest and most disagreeable forms of the belief that the Evil One
+had bodily communication with his subjects.
+
+In one respect the affair of 1633-1634 in northern England was singular.
+The social and moral character of those accused was distinctly high. Not
+that they belonged to any but the peasant class, but that they
+represented a good type of farming people. Frances Dickonson's husband
+evidently had some property. Mary Spencer insisted that she was
+accustomed to go to church and to repeat the sermon to her parents, and
+that she was not afraid of death, for she hoped it would make an
+entrance for her into heaven. Margaret Johnson was persuaded that a man
+and his wife who were in the gaol on Robinson's charges were not
+witches, because the man "daily prays and reads and seems a godly man."
+With this evidence of religious life, which must have meant something as
+to the status of the people in the community, should be coupled the
+entire absence of stories of threats at beggars and of quarrels between
+bad-tempered and loose-lived women, stories that fill so many dreary
+pages of witchcraft records. Nor is there any mention of the practice of
+pretended magic.
+
+In previous chapters we have had occasion to observe the continuity of
+superstition in certain localities. It is obvious that Lancashire offers
+one of the best illustrations of that principle. The connection between
+the alarms of 1612 and 1633-1634 is not a matter of theory, but can be
+established by definite proof. It is perhaps not out of order to
+inquire, then, why Lancashire should have been so infested with
+witches. It is the more necessary when we consider that there were other
+witch cases in the country. Nicholas Starchie's children gave rise to
+the first of the scares. It seems likely that a certain Utley was hanged
+at Lancaster in 1630 for bewitching a gentleman's child.[29] During
+Commonwealth days, as we shall find, there was an alarm at Lancaster
+that probably cost two witches their lives. No county in England except
+Essex had a similar record. No explanation can be offered for the
+records of these two counties save that both had been early infected
+with a hatred of witches, and that the witches came to be connected, in
+tradition, with certain localities within the counties and with certain
+families living there. This is, indeed, an explanation that does not
+explain. It all comes back to the continuity of superstition.
+
+We have already referred to the widespread interest in the Lancashire
+witches. There are two good illustrations of this interest. When Sir
+William Brereton was travelling in Holland in June of 1634, a little
+while before the four women had been brought to London, he met King
+Charles's sister, the Queen of Bohemia, and at once, apparently, they
+began to talk about the great Lancashire discovery.[30] The other
+instance of comment on the case was in England. It is one which shows
+that playwrights were quite as eager then as now to be abreast of
+current topics. Before final judgment had been given on the Lancashire
+women, Thomas Heywood and Richard Brome, well known dramatists, had
+written a play on the subject which was at once published and "acted at
+the Globe on the Bankside by His Majesty's Actors." By some it has been
+supposed that this play was an older play founded on the Lancashire
+affair of 1612 and warmed over in 1634; but the main incidents and the
+characters of the play are so fully copied from the depositions of the
+young Robinson and from the charges preferred against Mary Spencer,
+Frances Dickonson, and Margaret Johnson, that a layman would at once
+pronounce it a play written entirely to order from the affair of 1634.
+Nothing unique in the stories was left out. The pail incident--of course
+without its rational explanation--was grafted into the play and put upon
+the stage. Indeed, a marriage that afforded the hook upon which to hang
+a bundle of indecencies, and the story of a virtuous husband who
+discovers his wife to be a witch, were the only added motives of
+importance. For our purpose the significance of the play lies of course
+in its testimony to the general interest--the people of London were
+obviously familiar with the details, even, of the charges--and its
+probable reflection of London opinion about the case. Throughout the
+five acts there were those who maintained that there were no witches, a
+recognition of the existence of such an opinion. Of course in the play
+they were all, before the curtain fell, convinced of their error. The
+authors, who no doubt catered to public sentiment, were not as earnest
+as the divines of their day, but they were almost as superstitious.
+Heywood showed himself in another work, _The Hierarchie of the Blessed
+Angels_,[31] a sincere believer in witchcraft and backed his belief by
+the Warboys case. Probably he had read Scot, but he was not at all the
+type of man to set himself against the tide. _The late Lancashire
+Witches_ no doubt expressed quite accurately London opinion. It was
+written, it will be remembered, before the final outcome of the case
+could be foreseen. Perhaps Heywood foresaw it, more probably he was
+sailing close to the wind of opinion when he wrote in the epilogue,
+
+              ... "Perhaps great mercy may,
+    After just condemnation, give them day
+    Of longer life."
+
+It is easy in discussing the Lancashire affair to miss a central figure.
+Frances Dickonson, Mary Spencer, and the others, could they have known
+it, owed their lives in all probability to the intellectual independence
+of William Harvey. There is a precious story about Harvey in an old
+manuscript letter by an unknown writer, that, if trustworthy, throws a
+light on the physician's conduct in the case. The letter seems to have
+been written by a justice of the peace in southwestern England about
+1685.[32] He had had some experience with witches--we have mentioned
+them in another connection--and he was prompted by them to tell a story
+of Dr. Harvey, with whom he was "very familiarly acquainted." "I once
+asked him what his opinion was concerning witchcraft; whether there was
+any such thing. Hee told mee he believed there was not." Asked the
+reasons for his doubt, Harvey told him that "when he was at Newmercat
+with the King [Charles I] he heard there was a woman who dwelt at a lone
+house on the borders of the Heath who was reputed a Witch, that he went
+alone to her, and found her alone at home.... Hee said shee was very
+distrustful at first, but when hee told her he was a vizard, and came
+purposely to converse with her in their common trade, then shee easily
+believed him; for say'd hee to mee, 'You know I have a very magicall
+face.'" The physician asked her where her familiar was and desired to
+see him, upon which she brought out a dish of milk and made a chuckling
+noise, as toads do, at which a toad came from under the chest and drank
+some of the milk. Harvey now laid a plan to get rid of the woman. He
+suggested that as fellow witches they ought to drink together, and that
+she procure some ale. She went out to a neighboring ale-house, half a
+mile away, and Harvey availed himself of her absence to take up the toad
+and cut it open. Out came the milk. On a thorough examination he
+concluded that the toad "no ways differed from other toades," but that
+the melancholy old woman had brought it home some evening and had tamed
+it by feeding and had so come to believe it a spirit and her familiar.
+When the woman returned and found her "familiar" cut in pieces, she
+"flew like a Tigris" at his face. The physician offered her money and
+tried to persuade her that her familiar was nothing more than a toad.
+When he found that this did not pacify her he took another tack and told
+her that he was the king's physician, sent to discover if she were a
+witch, and, in case she were, to have her apprehended. With this
+explanation, Harvey was able to get away. He related the story to the
+king, whose leave he had to go on the expedition. The narrator adds: "I
+am certayne this for an argument against spirits or witchcraft is the
+best and most experimentall I ever heard."
+
+Who the justice of the peace was that penned this letter, we are unable
+even to guess, nor do we know upon whose authority it was published. We
+cannot, therefore, rest upon it with absolute certainty, but we can say
+that it possesses several characteristics of a _bona fide_ letter.[33]
+If it is such, it gives a new clue to Harvey's conduct in 1634. We of
+course cannot be sure that the toad incident happened before that time;
+quite possibly it was after the interest aroused by that affair that the
+physician made his investigation. At all events, here was a man who had
+a scientific way of looking into superstition.
+
+The advent of such a man was most significant in the history of
+witchcraft, perhaps the most significant fact of its kind in the reign
+of Charles I. That reign, in spite of the Lancashire affair, was
+characterized by the continuance and growth of the witch skepticism,[34]
+so prevalent in the last years of the previous reign. Disbelief was not
+yet aggressive, it did not block prosecutions, but it hindered their
+effectiveness. The gallows was not yet done away with, but its use had
+been greatly restrained by the central government. Superstition was
+still a bird of prey, but its wings were being clipped.[35]
+
+
+[1] The writer of the _Collection of Modern Relations_ (London, 1693)
+speaks of an execution at Oxford, but there is nothing to substantiate
+it in the voluminous publications about Oxford; a Middlesex case rests
+also on doubtful evidence (see appendix C, 1641).
+
+[2] _Cal. St. P., Dom._, 1634-1635, 152.
+
+[3] _Ibid._, 141.
+
+[4] This is of course theory; _cf._ Daudet's story of his childhood in
+"_Le Pape est mort_."
+
+[5] There seem to be five different sources for the original deposition
+of young Robinson. Thomas D. Whitaker, _History ... of Whalley_ (3d ed.,
+1818), 213, has an imperfect transcript of the deposition as given in
+the Bodleian, Dodsworth MSS., 61, ff. 45-46. James Crossley in his
+introduction to Potts, _Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the countie
+of Lancaster_ (Chetham Soc.), lix-lxxii, has copied the deposition given
+by Whitaker. Thomas Wright, _Narratives of Sorcery and Magic_, II,
+112-114, has given the story from a copy of this and of other
+depositions in Lord Londesborough's MSS. Webster prints a third copy,
+_Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft_, 347-349. A fourth is in Edward
+Baines, _History of the ... county ... of Lancaster_, ed. of 1836, I,
+604, and is taken from Brit. Mus., Harleian MSS., cod. 6854, f. 26 b. A
+fifth is in the Bodleian, Rawlinson MSS., D, 399, f. 211. Wright's
+source we have not in detail, but the other four, while differing
+slightly as to punctuation, spelling, and names, agree remarkably well
+as to the details of the story.
+
+[6] _Cal. St. P., Dom._, 1634-1635, 152.
+
+[7] John Stearne, _A Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft ...
+together with the Confessions of many of those executed since May 1645_
+(London, 1648), 11, says that in Lancashire "nineteene assembled."
+Robinson's deposition as printed by Webster, _Displaying of Supposed
+Witchcraft_, gives nineteen names.
+
+[8] Webster, _op. cit._, 277.
+
+[9] The boy, in his first examinations at London, said he had made up
+the story himself.
+
+[10] It is a curious thing that one of the justices of the peace was
+John Starchie, who had been one of the bewitched boys of the Starchie
+family at Cleworth in 1597. See above, ch. IV. See Baines, _Lancaster_,
+ed. of 1868-1870, I, 204.
+
+[11] This incident is related by Webster, _op. cit._, 276-278. Webster
+tells us that the boy was yet living when he wrote, and that he himself
+had heard the whole story from his mouth more than once. He appends to
+his volume the original deposition of the lad (at Padiham, February 10
+1633/4).
+
+[12] These are given in the same deposition, but the deposition probably
+represents the boy's statement at the assizes.
+
+[13] The father had been a witness at the Lancashire trials in 1612. See
+Baines, _Lancaster_, ed. of 1868-1870, I, 204-205.
+
+[14] That is, of course, so far as we have evidence. It is a little
+dangerous to hold to absolute negatives.
+
+[15] Webster, _op. cit._, 277. Pelham on May 16, 1634, wrote: "It is
+said that 19 are condemned and ... 60 already discovered." _Cal. St. P.,
+Dom._, 1634-1635, 26.
+
+[16] It had been reported in London that witches had raised a storm from
+which Charles had suffered at sea. Pelham's letter, _ibid._
+
+[17] _Ibid._, 77. See also Council Register (MS.), Charles I, vol. IV,
+p. 658.
+
+[18] _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, XII, 2, p. 53. The chancellor of the
+Duchy of Lancaster wrote in the meantime that the judges had been to see
+him. What was to be done with the witches?
+
+[19] See _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, X, 2, p. 147; and _Cal. St. P.,
+Dom., 1634-1635_, 98.
+
+[20] _Cal. St. P., Dom._, 1634-1635, 98, 129. See also Council Register
+(MS.), Chas. I, vol. V, p. 56.
+
+[21] _Cal. St. P., Dom._, 1634-1635, 129.
+
+[22] Webster, _op. cit._, 277, says that they were examined "after by
+His Majesty and the Council."
+
+[23] See Council Register (MS.), Charles I, vol. IV, p. 657.
+
+[24] _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1634-1635_, 141.
+
+[25] _Ibid._, 152.
+
+[26] _Farington Papers_ (Chetham Soc, no. 39, 1856), 27.
+
+[27] _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, XII, 2, p. 77.
+
+[28] _Ibid._, p. 80.
+
+[29] Baines, _Lancaster_, ed. of 1868-1870, II, 12. Utley, who was a
+professed conjurer, was alleged to have bewitched to death one Assheton.
+
+[30] _Travels in Holland, the United Provinces, England, Scotland and
+Ireland, 1634-1635, by Sir William Brereton, Bart._ (Chetham Soc., no.
+1. 1844), 33.
+
+[31] (London, 1635.) As to Heywood see also chapter X.
+
+[32] The correspondent who sent a copy of the MS. to the _Gentleman's
+Magazine_ signs himself "B. C. T." I have been unable to identify him.
+For his account of the MS. and for its contents see _Gentleman's
+Magazine_, 1832, pt. I, 405-410, 489-492.
+
+[33] John Aubrey, _Letters written by Eminent Persons_ (London, 1813),
+II, 379, says that Harvey "had made dissections of froggs, toads and a
+number of other animals, and had curious observations on them." This
+fits in well with the story, and in some measure goes to confirm it.
+
+[34] For example, in 1637 the Bishop of Bath and Wells sent Joice
+Hunniman to Lord Wrottesley to examine her and exonerate her. He did so,
+and the bishop wrote thanking him and abusing "certain apparitors who go
+about frightening the people." See _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, II, app.,
+p. 48. For a case of the acquittal of a witch and the exposure of the
+pretended convulsions of her accuser, see _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1635_,
+477. For example of suits for slander see North Riding Rec. Soc, IV,
+182, session July 9, 1640.
+
+[35] A solitary pamphlet of this period must be mentioned. It was
+entitled: _Fearefull Newes from Coventry, or A true Relation and
+Lamentable Story of one Thomas Holt of Coventry a Musitian who through
+Covetousnesse and immoderate love of money, sold himselfe to the Devill,
+with whom he had made a contract for certaine yeares--And also of his
+Lamentable end and death, on the 16 day of February 1641_ (London,
+1642). The "sad subject of this little treatise" was a musician with
+nineteen children. Fearing that he would not be able to provide for
+them, he is alleged to have made a contract with the Devil, who finally
+broke his neck.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+MATTHEW HOPKINS.
+
+
+In the annals of English witchcraft Matthew Hopkins occupies a place by
+himself. For more than two years he was the arch-instigator in
+prosecutions which, at least in the numbers of those executed, mark the
+high tide of the delusion. His name was one hardly known by his
+contemporaries, but he has since become a figure in the annals of
+English roguery. Very recently his life has found record among those of
+"Twelve Bad Men."[1]
+
+What we know of him up to the time of his first appearance in his
+successful role about March of 1644/5 is soon told. He was the son of
+James Hopkins, minister of Wenham[2] in Suffolk. He was "a lawyer of but
+little note" at Ipswich, thence removing to Manningtree. Whether he may
+have been the Matthew Hopkins of Southwark who complained in 1644 of
+inability to pay the taxes[3] is more than doubtful, but there is reason
+enough to believe that he found the law no very remunerative profession.
+He was ready for some new venture and an accidental circumstance in
+Manningtree turned him into a wholly new field of endeavor. He assumed
+the role of a witchfinder and is said to have taken the title of
+witchfinder-general.[4]
+
+He had made little or no preparation for the work that now came to his
+hand. King James's famous _Daemonologie_ he was familiar with, but he may
+have studied it after his first experiences at Manningtree. It seems
+somewhat probable, too, that he had read, and indeed been much
+influenced by, the account of the Lancashire witches of 1612, as well as
+by Richard Bernard's _Advice to Grand Jurymen_. But, if he read the
+latter book, he seems altogether to have misinterpreted it. As to his
+general information and education, we have no data save the hints to be
+gained from his own writings. His letter to John Gaule and the little
+brochure which he penned in self-defence reveal a man able to express
+himself with some clearness and with a great deal of vigor. There were
+force of character and nervous energy behind his defiant words. It is no
+exaggeration, as we shall see in following his career, to say that the
+witch crusader was a man of action, who might in another field have made
+his mark.
+
+To know something of his religious proclivities would be extremely
+interesting. On this point, however, he gives us no clue. But his fellow
+worker, John Stearne, was clearly a Puritan[5] and Hopkins was surely of
+the same faith. It can hardly be proved, however, that religious zeal
+prompted him in his campaign. For a time of spiritual earnestness his
+utterances seem rather lukewarm.
+
+It was in his own town that his attention was first directed towards the
+dangers of witchcraft. The witches, he tells us, were accustomed to hold
+their meetings near his house. During one of their assemblies he
+overheard a witch bid her imps to go to another witch. The other witch,
+whose name was thus revealed to him--Elizabeth Clarke, a poor one-legged
+creature--was promptly taken into custody on Hopkins's charge.[6] Other
+accusations poured in. John Rivet had consulted a cunning woman about
+the illness of his wife, and had learned that two neighbors were
+responsible. One of these, he was told, dwelt a little above his own
+home; "whereupon he beleeved his said wife was bewitched by ...
+Elizabeth Clarke, ... for that the said Elizabeth's mother and some
+other of her kinsfolke did suffer death for witchcraft." The justices
+of the peace[7] accordingly had her "searched by women who had for many
+yeares known the Devill's marks," and, when these were found on her,
+they bade her custodians "keep her from sleep two or three nights,
+expecting in that time to see her familiars."[8]
+
+Torture is unknown to English law; but, in our day of the "third
+degree," nobody needs to be told that what is put out at the door may
+steal in at the window. It may be that, in the seventeenth century, the
+pious English justices had no suspicion that enforced sleeplessness is a
+form of physical torture more nerve-racking and irresistible than the
+thumb-screw. Three days and nights of "watching" brought Elizabeth
+Clarke to "confess many things"; and when, on the fourth night, her
+townsmen Hopkins and Stearne dropped in to fill out from her own lips
+the warrants against those she had named as accomplices, she told them
+that, if they would stay and do her no hurt, she would call one of her
+imps.
+
+Hopkins told her that he would not allow it, but he stayed. Within a
+quarter of an hour the imps appeared, six of them, one after another.
+The first was a "white thing in the likeness of a Cat, but not
+altogether so big," the second a white dog with some sandy spots and
+very short legs, the third, Vinegar Tom, was a greyhound with long legs.
+We need not go further into the story. The court records give the
+testimony of Hopkins and Stearne. Both have related the affair in their
+pamphlets.[9] Six others, four of whom were women, made oath to the
+appearances of the imps. In this respect the trial is unique among all
+in English history. Eight people testified that they had seen the
+imps.[10] Two of them referred elsewhere to what they had seen, and
+their accounts agreed substantially.[11] It may be doubted if the
+supporting evidence offered at any trial in the seventeenth century in
+England went so far towards establishing the actual appearance of the
+so-called imps of the witches.
+
+How are we to account for these phenomena? What was the nature of the
+delusion seemingly shared by eight people? It is for the psychologist to
+answer. Two explanations occur to the layman. It is not inconceivable
+that there were rodents in the gaol--the terrible conditions in the
+gaols of the time are too well known to need description--and that the
+creatures running about in the dark were easily mistaken by excited
+people for something more than natural. It is possible, too, that all
+the appearances were the fabric of imagination or invention. The
+spectators were all in a state of high expectation of supernatural
+appearances. What the over-alert leaders declared they had seen the
+others would be sure to have seen. Whether those leaders were themselves
+deceived, or easily duped the others by calling out the description of
+what they claimed to see, would be hard to guess. To the writer the
+latter theory seems less plausible. The accounts of the two are so
+clearly independent and yet agree so well in fact that they seem to
+weaken the case for collusive imposture. With that a layman may be
+permitted to leave the matter. What hypnotic possibilities are inherent
+in the story he cannot profess to know. Certainly the accused woman was
+not a professed dealer in magic and it is not easy to suspect her of
+having hypnotized the watchers.
+
+Upon Elizabeth Clarke's confessions five other women--"the old beldam"
+Anne West, who had "been suspected as a witch many yeers since, and
+suffered imprisonment for the same,"[12] her daughter Rebecca,[13] Anne
+Leech, her daughter Helen Clarke, and Elizabeth Gooding--were arrested.
+As in the case of the first, there was soon abundance of evidence
+offered about them. One Richard Edwards bethought himself and remembered
+that while crossing a bridge he had heard a cry, "much like the shrieke
+of a Polcat," and had been nearly thrown from his horse. He had also
+lost some cattle by a mysterious disease. Moreover his child had been
+nursed by a goodwife who lived near to Elizabeth Clarke and Elizabeth
+Gooding. The child fell sick, "rowling the eyes," and died. He believed
+that Anne Leech and Elizabeth Gooding were the cause of its death. His
+belief, however, which was offered as an independent piece of
+testimony, seems to have rested on Anne Leech's confession, which had
+been made before this time and was soon given to the justices of the
+peace. Robert Taylor charged Elizabeth Gooding with the death of his
+horse, but he too had the suggestion from other witnesses. Prudence Hart
+declared that, being in her bed in the night, "something fell down on
+her right side." "Being dark she cannot tell in what shape it was, but
+she believeth Rebecca West and Anne West the cause of her pains."
+
+But the accusers could hardly outdo the accused. No sooner was a crime
+suggested than they took it upon themselves. It seemed as if the witches
+were running a race for position as high criminal. With the exception of
+Elizabeth Gooding, who stuck to it that she was not guilty, they
+cheerfully confessed that they had lamed their victims, caused them to
+"languish," and even killed them. The meetings at Elizabeth Clarke's
+house were recalled. Anne Leech remembered that there was a book read
+"wherein shee thinks there was no goodnesse."[14]
+
+So the web of charges and counter-charges was spun until twenty-three or
+more women were caught in its meshes. No less than twelve of them
+confessed to a share in the most revolting crimes. But there was one
+who, in court, retracted her confession.[15] At least five utterly
+denied their guilt. Among them was a poor woman who had aroused
+suspicion chiefly because a young hare had been seen in front of her
+house. She was ready to admit that she had seen the hare, but denied
+all the more serious charges.[16] Another of those who would not plead
+guilty sought to ward off charges against herself by adding to the
+charges accumulated against her mother. Hers was a damning accusation.
+Her mother had threatened her and the next night she "felt something
+come into the bed about her legges, ... but could not finde anything."
+This was as serious evidence as that of one of the justices of the
+peace, who testified from the bench that a very honest friend of his had
+seen three or four imps come out of Anne West's house in the moonlight.
+Hopkins was not to be outshone by the other accusers. He had visited
+Colchester castle to interview Rebecca West and had gained her
+confession that she had gone through a wedding ceremony with the Devil.
+
+But why go into details? The evidence was all of a kind. The female
+juries figured, as in the trials at Lancaster in 1633, and gave the
+results of their harrowing examinations. What with their verdicts and
+the mass of accusations and confessions, the justices of the peace were
+busy during March, April, and May of 1645. It was not until the
+twenty-ninth of July that the trial took place. It was held at
+Chelmsford before the justices of the peace and Robert Rich, Earl of
+Warwick. Warwick was not an itinerant justice, nor was he, so far as we
+know, in any way connected with the judicial system. One of the most
+prominent Presbyterians in England, he had in April of this year, as a
+result of the "self-denying ordinance," laid down his commission as head
+of the navy. He disappears from view until August, when he was again
+given work to do. In the mean time occurred the Chelmsford trial. We can
+only guess that the earl, who was appointed head of the Eastern
+Association less than a month later[17] (August 27), acted in this
+instance in a military capacity. The assizes had been suspended. No
+doubt some of the justices of the peace pressed upon him the urgency of
+the cases to be tried. We may guess that he sat with them in the quarter
+sessions, but he seems to have played the role of an itinerant justice.
+
+No narrative account of the trial proper is extant. Some one who signs
+himself "H. F." copied out and printed the evidence taken by the
+justices of the peace and inserted in the margins the verdicts. In this
+way we know that at least sixteen were condemned, probably two more, and
+possibly eleven or twelve more.[18] Of the original sixteen, one was
+reprieved, one died before execution, four were hanged at Manningtree
+and ten at Chelmsford.
+
+The cases excited some comment, and it is comment that must not be
+passed over, for it will prove of some use later in analyzing the causes
+of the outbreak. Arthur Wilson, whom we have mentioned as an historian
+of the time, has left his verdict on the trial. "There is nothing," he
+wrote, "so crosse to my temper as putting so many witches to death." He
+saw nothing, in the women condemned at Chelmsford, "other than poore
+mellenchollie ... ill-dieted atrabilious constitutions, whose fancies
+working by grosse fumes and vapors might make the imagination readie to
+take any impression." Wilson wrestled long with his God over the matter
+of witches and came at length to the conclusion that "it did not consist
+with the infinite goodnes of the Almightie God to let Satan loose in so
+ravenous a way."
+
+The opinion of a parliamentary journal in London on the twenty-fourth of
+July, three days before the Essex executions, shows that the Royalists
+were inclined to remark the number of witches in the counties friendly
+to Parliament: "It is the ordinary mirth of the Malignants in this City
+to discourse of the Association of Witches in the Associated Counties,
+but by this they shall understand the truth of the old Proverbe, which
+is that where God hath his Church, the Devill hath his Chappell." The
+writer goes on, "I am sory to informe you that one of the cheifest of
+them was a Parsons Wife (this will be good news with the Papists)....
+Her name was Weight.... This Woman (as I heare) was the first
+apprehended."[19] It seems, however, that Mrs. "Weight" escaped. Social
+and religious influences were not without value. A later pamphleteer
+tells us that the case of Mrs. Wayt, a minister's wife, was a "palpable
+mistake, for it is well knowne that she is a gentle-woman of a very
+godly and religious life."[20]
+
+Meantime Hopkins had extended his operations into Suffolk. Elizabeth
+Clarke and Anne Leech had implicated certain women in that county. Their
+charges were carried before the justices of the peace and were the
+beginning of a panic which spread like wildfire over the county.
+
+The methods which the witchfinder-general used are illuminating. Four
+searchers were appointed for the county, two men and two women.[21] "In
+what Town soever ... there be any person or persons suspected to be
+witch or Witches, thither they send for two or all of the said
+searchers, who take the partie or parties so suspected into a Roome and
+strip him, her, or them, starke naked."[22] The clergyman Gaule has
+given us further particulars:[23] "Having taken the suspected Witch,
+shee is placed in the middle of a room upon a stool, or Table,
+crosse-legg'd, or in some other uneasie posture, to which if she submits
+not, she is then bound with cords; there is she watcht and kept without
+meat or sleep for the space of 24 hours.... A little hole is likewise
+made in the door for the Impe to come in at; and lest it might come in
+some lesse discernible shape, they that watch are taught to be ever and
+anon sweeping the room, and if they see any spiders or flyes, to kill
+them. And if they cannot kill them, then they may be sure they are her
+Impes."[24] Hutchinson tells a story of one woman, who, after having
+been kept long fasting and without sleep, confessed to keeping an imp
+called Nan. But a "very learned ingenious gentleman having indignation
+at the thing" drove the people from the house, gave the woman some food,
+and sent her to bed. Next morning she knew of no Nan but a pullet she
+had.
+
+The most sensational discovery in Suffolk was that John Lowes, pastor of
+Brandeston, was a witch. The case was an extraordinary one and throws a
+light on the witch alarms of the time. Lowes was eighty years old, and
+had been pastor in the same place for fifty years. He got into trouble,
+undoubtedly as a result of his inability to get along with those around
+him. As a young man he had been summoned to appear before the synod at
+Ipswich for not conforming to the rites of the Established Church.[25]
+In the first year of Charles's reign he had been indicted for refusing
+to exhibit his musket,[26] and he had twice later been indicted for
+witchcraft and once as a common imbarritor.[27] The very fact that he
+had been charged with witchcraft before would give color to the charge
+when made in 1645. We have indeed a clue to the motives for this
+accusation. A parishioner and a neighboring divine afterwards gave it as
+their opinion that "Mr. Lowes, being a litigious man, made his
+parishioners (too tenacious of their customs) very uneasy, so that they
+were glad to take the opportunity of those wicked times to get him
+hanged, rather than not get rid of him." Hopkins had afforded them the
+opportunity. The witchfinder had taken the parson in hand. He had caused
+him to be kept awake several nights together, and had run him backwards
+and forwards about the room until he was out of breath. "Then they
+rested him a little and then ran him again, and this they did for
+several days and nights together, till he was weary of his life and
+scarce sensible of what he said or did."[28] He had, when first accused,
+denied all charges and challenged proof, but after he had been subjected
+to these rigorous methods he made a full confession. He had, he said,
+sunk a sailing vessel of Ipswich, making fourteen widows in a quarter of
+an hour. The witchfinder had asked him if it did not grieve him to see
+so many men cast away in a short time, and he answered: "No, he was
+joyfull to see what power his Impes had."[29] He had, he boasted, a
+charm to keep him out of gaol and from the gallows. It is too bad that
+the crazed man's confidence in his charm was misplaced. His whole wild
+confession is an illustration of the effectiveness of the torture. His
+fate is indicative of the hysteria of the times and of the advantages
+taken of it by malicious people. It was his hostility to the
+ecclesiastical and political sympathies of his community that caused his
+fall.
+
+The dementia induced by the torture in Lowes's case showed itself in the
+case of others, who made confessions of long careers of murder. "These
+and all the rest confessed that cruell malice ... was their chiefe
+delight." The accused were being forced by cruel torture to lend their
+help to a panic which exceeded any before or after in England. From one
+hundred and thirty to two hundred people[30] were soon under accusation
+and shut up in Bury gaol.
+
+News of this reached a Parliament in London that was very much engrossed
+with other matters. We cannot do better than to quote the Puritan
+biographer Clarke.[31] "A report was carried to the Parliament ... as
+if some busie men had made use of some ill Arts to extort such
+confession; ... thereupon a special Commission of Oyer and Terminer was
+granted for the trial of these Witches." Care was to be used, in
+gathering evidence, that confessions should be voluntary and should be
+backed by "many collateral circumstances." There were to be no
+convictions except upon proof of express compact with the Devil, or upon
+evidence of the use of imps, which implied the same thing. Samuel
+Fairclough and Edmund Calamy (the elder), both of them Non-Conformist
+clergymen of Suffolk,[32] together with Serjeant John Godbolt and the
+justices of the peace, were to compose this special court. The court met
+about the end of August, a month after the sessions under Warwick at
+Chelmsford, and was opened by two sermons preached by Mr. Fairclough in
+Bury church. One of the first things done by the special court, quite
+possibly at the instigation of the two clergymen, was to put an end to
+the swimming test,[33] which had been used on several of the accused,
+doubtless by the authority of the justices of the peace. This was of
+course in some sense a blow at Hopkins. Nevertheless a great deal of the
+evidence which he had gathered must have been taken into account.
+Eighteen persons, including two men,[34] were condemned to be
+hanged.[35] On the night before their execution, they were confined in a
+barn, where they made an agreement not to confess a word at the gallows
+the following day, and sang a psalm in confirmation. Next day they
+"dyed ... very desperately."[36] But there were still one hundred and
+twenty others in gaol[37] awaiting trial. No doubt many forthwith would
+have met the same end, had it not been for a lucky chance of the wars.
+The king's forces were approaching and the court hastened to adjourn its
+sessions.[38]
+
+But this danger was soon over, and within three weeks' time the court
+seems to have resumed its duties.[39] Of this second session we know
+nothing at all, save that probably forty or fifty more witches were
+condemned, and doubtless executed.[40] What became of the others we can
+only guess. Perhaps some were released, some left in gaol indefinitely.
+
+These things were not done in a corner. Yet so great was the distraction
+in England that, if we can trust negative evidence, they excited not a
+great deal of notice. Such comments as there were, however, were
+indicative of a division of opinion. During the interval between the two
+sessions, the _Moderate Intelligencer_, a parliamentary organ that had
+sprung up in the time of the Civil War, came out in an editorial on the
+affair. "But whence is it that Devils should choose to be conversant
+with silly Women that know not their right hands from their left, is the
+great wonder.... They will meddle with none but poore old Women: as
+appears by what we received this day from Bury.... Divers are condemned
+and some executed and more like to be. Life is precious and there is
+need of great inquisition before it is taken away."[41]
+
+This was the sole newspaper reference of which we know, as well as the
+only absolutely contemporary mention of these trials. What other
+expressions of opinion there were came later. James Howell, a popular
+essayist of his time, mentioned the trials in his correspondence as new
+proof of the reality of witchcraft.[42] The pious Bishop Hall saw in
+them the "prevalency of Satan in these times."[43] Thomas Ady, who in
+1656 issued his _Candle in the Dark_, mentioned the "Berry Assizes"[44]
+and remarked that some credulous people had published a book about it.
+He thought criticism deserved for taking the evidence of the gaoler,
+whose profit lay in having the greatest possible number executed.[45]
+
+We have already described Hopkins as a man of action. Nothing is better
+evidence of it than the way in which he hurried back and forth over the
+eastern counties. During the last part of May he had probably been
+occupied with collecting the evidence against the accused at Bury. Long
+before they were tried he was busy elsewhere. We can trace his movements
+in outline only, but we know enough of them to appreciate his tremendous
+energy. Some time about the beginning of June he must have gone to
+Norfolk. Before the twenty-sixth of July twenty witches had been
+executed in that county.[46] None of the details of these trials have
+been left us. From the rapidity with which they were carried to
+completion we may feel fairly certain that the justices of the peace,
+seeing no probability of assize sessions in the near future, went ahead
+to try cases on their own initiative.[47] On the fifteenth of August the
+corporation of Great Yarmouth, at the southern extremity of the Norfolk
+coast line, voted to send for Mr. Hopkins, and that he should have his
+fee and allowance for his pains,[48] "as he hath in other places." He
+came at two different times, once in September and once in December.
+Probably the burden of the work was turned over to the four female
+assistants, who were granted a shilling a day apiece.[49] Six women were
+condemned, one of whom was respited.[50] Later three other women and one
+man were indicted, but by this time the furor against them seems to
+have abated, and they probably went free.[51]
+
+Hopkins's further course can be traced with some degree of certainty.
+From Yarmouth he probably went to Ipswich, where Mother Lakeland was
+burned on September 9 at the instance of the justices of the peace.[52]
+Mother Lakeland's death by burning is the second instance we have,
+during the Hopkins panic,[53] of this form of sentence. It is explained
+by the fact that it was the law in England to burn women who murdered
+their husbands. The chief charge against Mother Lakeland, who, by the
+way, was a woman quite above the class from which witches were
+ordinarily recruited,[54] was that she had bewitched her husband to
+death.[55] The crime was "petty treason."
+
+It is not a wild guess that Hopkins paused long enough in his active
+career to write an account of the affair, so well were his principles of
+detection presented in a pamphlet soon issued from a London press.[56]
+But, at any rate, before Mother Lakeland had been burned he was on his
+way to Aldeburgh, where he was already at work on the eighth of
+September collecting evidence.[57] Here also he had an assistant, Goody
+Phillips, who no doubt continued the work after he left. He was back
+again in Aldeburgh on the twentieth of December and the seventh of
+January, and the grand result of his work was summarized in the brief
+account: "Paid ... eleven shillings for hanging seven witches."[58]
+
+From Aldeburgh, Hopkins may have journeyed to Stowmarket. We do not know
+how many servants of the evil one he discovered here; but, as he was
+paid twenty-three pounds[59] for his services, and had received but six
+pounds in Aldeburgh, the presumption is that his work here was very
+fruitful in results.
+
+We now lose track of the witchfinder's movements for a while. Probably
+he was doubling on his track and attending court sessions. In December
+we know that he made his second visit to Yarmouth. From there he may
+have gone to King's Lynn, where two witches were hanged this year, and
+from there perhaps returned early in January to Aldeburgh and other
+places in Suffolk. It is not to be supposed for a moment that his
+activities were confined to the towns named. At least fifteen other
+places in Suffolk are mentioned by Stearne in his stories of the
+witches' confessions.[60] While Hopkins's subordinates probably
+represented him in some of the villages, we cannot doubt that the
+witchfinder himself visited many towns.
+
+From East Anglia Hopkins went westward into Cambridgeshire. His arrival
+there must have been during either January or February. His reputation,
+indeed, had gone ahead of him, and the witches were reported to have
+taken steps in advance to prevent detection.[61] But their efforts were
+vain. The witchfinder found not less than four or five of the detested
+creatures,[62] probably more. We know, however, of only one execution,
+that of a woman who fell under suspicion because she kept a tame
+frog.[63]
+
+From Cambridgeshire, Hopkins's course took him, perhaps in March of
+1645/6, into Northamptonshire. There he found at least two villages
+infested, and he turned up some remarkable evidence. So far in his
+crusade, the keeping of imps had been the test infallible upon which the
+witchfinder insisted. But at Northampton spectral evidence seems to have
+played a considerable part.[64] Hopkins never expresses his opinion on
+this variety of evidence, but his co-worker declares that it should be
+used with great caution, because "apparitions may proceed from the
+phantasie of such as the party use to fear or at least suspect."
+
+But it was a case in Northamptonshire of a different type that seems to
+have made the most lasting impression on Stearne. Cherrie of Thrapston,
+"a very aged man," had in a quarrel uttered the wish that his neighbor's
+tongue might rot out. The neighbor thereupon suffered from something
+which we should probably call cancer of the tongue. Perhaps as yet the
+possibilities of suggestion have not been so far sounded that we can
+absolutely discredit the physical effects of a malicious wish. It is
+much easier, however, to believe the reported utterance imagined after
+its supposed effect. At all events, Cherrie was forced to confess that
+he had been guilty and he further admitted that he had injured Sir John
+Washington, who had been his benefactor at various times.[65] He was
+indicted by the grand jury, but died in gaol, very probably by suicide,
+on the day when he was to have been tried.[66]
+
+From Northamptonshire Hopkins's course led him into Huntingdonshire,[67]
+a county that seems to have been untroubled by witch alarms since the
+Warboys affair of 1593. The justices of the peace took up the quest
+eagerly. The evidence that they gathered had but little that was
+unusual.[68] Mary Chandler had despatched her imp, Beelzebub, to injure
+a neighbor who had failed to invite her to a party. An accused witch who
+was questioned about other possible witches offered in evidence a
+peculiar piece of testimony. He had a conversation with "Clarke's sonne
+of Keiston," who had said to him (the witness): "I doe not beleeve you
+die a Witch, for I never saw you at our meetings." This would seem to
+have been a clever fiction to ward off charges against himself. But,
+strangely enough, the witness declared that he answered "that perhaps
+their meetings were at severall places."
+
+Hopkins did not find it all smooth sailing in the county of Huntingdon.
+A clergyman of Great Staughton became outraged at his work and preached
+against it. The witchfinder had been invited to visit the town and
+hesitated. Meantime he wrote this blustering letter to one of John
+Gaule's parishioners.
+
+    "My service to your Worship presented, I have this day received a
+    Letter, &c.--to come to a Towne called Great Staughton to search
+    for evil disposed persons called Witches (though I heare your
+    Minister is farre against us through ignorance) I intend to come
+    (God willing) the sooner to heare his singular Judgment on the
+    behalfe of such parties; I have known a Minister in Suffolke preach
+    as much against their discovery in a Pulpit, and forc'd to recant
+    it (by the Committee) in the same place. I much marvaile such evill
+    Members[69] should have any (much more any of the Clergy) who
+    should daily preach Terrour to convince such Offenders, stand up to
+    take their parts against such as are Complainants for the King, and
+    sufferers themselves with their Families and Estates. I intend to
+    give your Towne a Visite suddenly, I am to come to Kimbolton this
+    weeke, and it shall bee tenne to one but I will come to your Town
+    first, but I would certainely know afore whether your Town affords
+    many Sticklers for such Cattell, or willing to give and afford us
+    good welcome and entertainment, as other where I have beene, else I
+    shall wave your Shire (not as yet beginning in any part of it my
+    selfe) And betake me to such places where I doe and may persist
+    without controle, but with thankes and recompence."[70]
+
+This stirred the fighting spirit of the vicar of Great Staughton, and he
+answered the witchfinder in a little book which he published shortly
+after, and which he dedicated to Colonel Walton of the House of Commons.
+We shall have occasion in another chapter to note its point of view.
+
+In spite of opposition, Hopkins's work in Huntingdonshire prospered. The
+justices of the peace were occupied with examinations during March and
+April. Perhaps as many as twenty were accused.[71] At least half that
+number were examined. Several were executed--we do not know the exact
+number--almost certainly at the instance of the justices of the
+peace.[72] It is pleasant to know that one was acquitted, even if it was
+after she had been twice searched and once put through the swimming
+ordeal.[73]
+
+From Huntingdonshire it is likely that Hopkins and Stearne made their
+next excursion into Bedfordshire. We know very little about their
+success here. In two villages it would seem that they were able to track
+their prey.[74] But they left to others the search which they had
+begun.[75]
+
+The witchfinder had been active for a little over a year. But during the
+last months of that time his discoveries had not been so notable. Was
+there a falling off in interest? Or was he meeting with increased
+opposition among the people? Or did the assize courts, which resumed
+their proceedings in the summer of 1646, frown upon him? It is hard to
+answer the question without more evidence. But at any rate it is clear
+that during the summer and autumn of 1646 he was not actively engaged in
+his profession. It is quite possible, indeed, that he was already
+suffering from the consumption which was to carry him off in the
+following year. And, with the retirement of its moving spirit, the witch
+crusade soon came to a close. Almost a twelvemonth later there was a
+single[76] discovery of witches. It was in the island of Ely; and the
+church courts,[77] the justices of the peace,[78] and the assize
+courts,[79] which had now been revived, were able, between them, to hang
+a few witches.[80]
+
+We do not know whether Hopkins participated in the Ely affair or not. It
+seems certain that his co-worker, Stearne, had some share in it. But, if
+so, it was his last discovery. The work of the two men was ended. They
+had been pursuing the pack of witches in the eastern counties since
+March of 1644/5. Even the execrations of those who opposed them could
+not mar the pleasure they felt in what they had done. Nay, when they
+were called upon to defend themselves, they could hardly refrain from
+exulting in their achievements. They had indeed every right to exult.
+When we come to make up the roll of their victims, we shall see that
+their record as witch discoverers surpassed the combined records of all
+others.
+
+It is a mistake to suppose that they had acted in any haphazard way. The
+conduct of both men had been based upon perfectly logical deductions
+from certain premises. King James's _Daemonologie_ had been their
+catechism, the statute against the feeding of imps their book of rules.
+Both men started with one fundamental notion, that witchcraft is the
+keeping of imps. But this was a thing that could be detected by marks on
+the bodies.[81] Both were willing to admit that mistakes could be made
+and were often made in assuming that natural bodily marks were the
+Devil's marks. There were, however, special indications by which the
+difference between the two could be recognized.[82] And the two
+witchfinders, of course, possessed that "insight"[83] which was
+necessary to make the distinction. The theories upon which they worked
+we need not enter into. Suffice it to say that when once they had
+proved, as they thought, the keeping of imps, the next step was to watch
+those accused of it.[84] "For the watching," says Stearne,[85] "it is
+not to use violence or extremity to force them to confesse, but onely
+the keeping is, first to see whether any of their spirits, or familiars
+come to or neere them." It is clear that both Hopkins and Stearne
+recognized the fact that confessions wrung from women by torture are
+worthless and were by this explanation defending themselves against the
+charge of having used actual torture. There seems to be no adequate
+reason for doubting the sincerity of their explanation. Stearne tells us
+that the keeping the witches separate is "also to the end that Godly
+Divines might discourse with them." "For if any of their society come to
+them to discourse with them, they will never confesse."[86] Here,
+indeed, is a clue to many confessions. Several men arrayed against one
+solitary and weak woman could break her resolution and get from her very
+much what they pleased.
+
+As for starving the witches and keeping them from sleep, Stearne
+maintained that these things were done by them only at first. Hopkins
+bore the same testimony. "After they had beat their heads together in
+the Gaole, and after this use was not allowed of by the Judges and other
+Magistrates, it was never since used, which is a yeare and a halfe
+since."[87] In other words, the two men had given up the practice
+because the parliamentary commission had compelled them to do so.
+
+The confessions must be received with great caution, Hopkins himself
+declared.[88] It is so easy to put words into the witch's mouth. "You
+have foure Imps, have you not? She answers affirmatively. 'Yes'.... 'Are
+not their names so and so'? 'Yes,' saith she. 'Did you not send such an
+Impe to kill my child'? 'Yes,' saith she." This sort of thing has been
+too often done, asserted the virtuous witchfinder. He earnestly did
+desire that "all Magistrates and Jurors would, a little more than ever
+they did, examine witnesses about the interrogated confessions." What a
+cautious, circumspect man was this famous witchfinder! The confessions,
+he wrote, in which confidence may be placed are when the woman, without
+any "hard usages or questions put to her, doth of her owne accord
+declare what was the occasion of the Devil's appearing to her."[89]
+
+The swimming test had been employed by both men in the earlier stages of
+their work. "That hath been used," wrote Stearne, "and I durst not goe
+about to cleere my selfe of it, because formerly I used it, but it was
+at such time of the yeare as when none tooke any harme by it, neither
+did I ever doe it but upon their owne request."[90] A thoughtful man was
+this Stearne! Latterly he had given up the test--since "Judge Corbolt"
+stopped it[91]--and he had come to believe that it was a way of
+"distrusting of God's providence."
+
+It can be seen that the men who had conducted the witch crusade were
+able to present a consistent philosophy of their conduct. It was, of
+course, a philosophy constructed to meet an attack the force of which
+they had to recognize. Hopkins's pamphlet and Stearne's _Confirmation_
+were avowedly written to put their authors right in the eyes of a public
+which had turned against them.[92] It seems that this opposition had
+first shown itself at their home in Essex. A woman who was undergoing
+inquisition had found supporters, and, though she was condemned in spite
+of their efforts, was at length reprieved.[93] Her friends turned the
+tables by indicting Stearne and some forty others of conspiracy, and
+apparently succeeded in driving them from the county.[94] In Bury the
+forces of the opposition had appealed to Parliament, and the Commission
+of Oyer and Terminer, which, it will be noticed, is never mentioned by
+the witchfinders, was sent out to limit their activities. In
+Huntingdonshire, we have seen how Hopkins roused a protesting clergyman,
+John Gaule. If we may judge from the letter he wrote to one of Gaule's
+parishioners, Hopkins had by this time met with enough opposition to
+know when it was best to keep out of the way. His boldness was assumed
+to cover his fear.
+
+But it was in Norfolk that the opposition to the witchfinders reached
+culmination. There most pungent "queries" were put to Hopkins through
+the judges of assize. He was charged with all those cruelties, which, as
+we have seen, he attempts to defend. He was further accused of fleecing
+the country for his own profit.[95] Hopkins's answer was that he took
+the great sum of twenty shillings a town "to maintaine his companie with
+3 horses."[96] That this was untrue is sufficiently proved by the
+records of Stowmarket where he received twenty-three pounds and his
+traveling expenses. At such a rate for the discoveries, we can hardly
+doubt that the two men between them cleared from three hundred to a
+thousand pounds, not an untidy sum in that day, when a day's work
+brought six pence.
+
+What further action was taken in the matter of the queries "delivered to
+the Judges of assize" we do not know. Both Hopkins and Stearne, as we
+have seen, went into retirement and set to work to exonerate themselves.
+Within the year Hopkins died at his old home in Manningtree. Stearne
+says that he died "peaceably, after a long sicknesse of a Consumption."
+But tradition soon had it otherwise. Hutchinson says that the story, in
+his time, was that Hopkins was finally put to the swimming test himself,
+and drowned. According to another tale, which seems to have lingered in
+Suffolk, he offered to show the Devil's roll of all the witches in
+England and so was detected.[97] Butler, in his _Hudibras_, said of him:
+
+    "Who after proved himself a witch,
+    And made a rod for his own breech."
+
+Butler's lines appeared only fifteen years after Hopkin's death, and his
+statement is evidence enough that such a tradition was already current.
+The tradition is significant. It probably means, not that Hopkins really
+paid such a penalty for his career--Stearne's word is good enough proof
+to the contrary--but that within his own generation his name had become
+an object of detestation.
+
+John Stearne did not return to Manningtree--he may have been afraid
+to--but settled down near Bury, the scene of his greatest successes.
+
+If the epitaphs of these two men were to be written, their deeds could
+be compressed into homely statistics. And this leads us to inquire what
+was the sum of their achievement. It has been variously estimated. It is
+not an uncommon statement that thirty thousand witches were hanged in
+England during the rule of Parliament, and this wild guess has been
+copied by reputable authors. In other works the number has been
+estimated at three thousand, but this too is careless guesswork. Stearne
+himself boasted that he knew of two hundred executions, and Stearne
+ought to have known. It is indeed possible that his estimate was too
+high. He had a careless habit of confusing condemnations with executions
+that makes us suspect that in this estimate he may have been thinking
+rather of the number of convictions than of the hangings. Yet his
+figures are those of a man who was on the ground, and cannot be lightly
+discounted. Moreover, James Howell, writing in 1648, says that "within
+the compass of two years, near upon three hundred Witches were arraign'd
+and the major part executed in Essex and Suffolk only."[98] If these
+estimates be correct--or even if they approach correctness--a remarkable
+fact appears. Hopkins and Stearne, in fourteen months' time, sent to the
+gallows more witches than all the other witch-hunters of England can be
+proved--so far as our present records go--to have hung in the hundred
+and sixty years during which the persecution nourished in England. It
+must occur to the reader that this crusade was extraordinary. Certainly
+it calls for explanation.
+
+So far as the writer is aware, but one explanation has been offered. It
+has been repeated until it has become a commonplace in the history of
+witchcraft that the Hopkins crusade was one of the expressions of the
+intolerant zeal of the Presbyterian party during its control of
+Parliament. This notion is largely due to Francis Hutchinson, who wrote
+the first history of English witchcraft. Hutchinson was an Anglican
+clergyman, but we need not charge him with partisanship in accusing the
+Presbyterians. There was no inconsiderable body of evidence to support
+his point of view. The idea was developed by Sir Walter Scott in his
+_Letters on Demonology_, but it was left to Lecky, in his classic essay
+on witchcraft, to put the case against the Presbyterian Parliament in
+its most telling form.[99] His interpretation of the facts has found
+general acceptance since.
+
+It is not hard to understand how this explanation grew up. At a time
+when Hutchinson was making his study, Richard Baxter, the most eminent
+Puritan of his time, was still a great name among the defenders of
+witchcraft.[100] In his pages Hutchinson read how Puritan divines
+accompanied the witch-magistrates on their rounds and how a "reading
+parson" was one of their victims. Gaule, who opposed them, he seems to
+have counted an Anglican. He clearly put some faith in the lines of
+_Hudibras_. Probably, however, none of these points weighed so much with
+him as the general fact of coincidence in time between the great witch
+persecution and Presbyterian rule. It was hard to escape the conclusion
+that these two unusual situations must in some way have been connected.
+
+Neither Hutchinson nor those who followed have called attention to a
+point in support of their case which is quite as good proof of their
+contention as anything adduced. It was in the eastern counties, where
+the Eastern Association had flourished and where Parliament, as well as
+the army, found its strongest backing--the counties that stood
+consistently against the king--in those counties it was that Hopkins and
+Stearne carried on their work.[101]
+
+It may seem needless in the light of these facts to suggest any other
+explanation of the witch crusade. Yet the whole truth has not by any
+means been told. It has already been noticed that Hutchinson made some
+mistakes. Parson Lowes, who was hanged as a witch at the instance of his
+dissatisfied parishioners, was not hanged because he was an
+Anglican.[102] And the Presbyterian Parliament had not sent down into
+Suffolk a commission to hang witches, but to check the indiscriminate
+proceedings that were going on there against witches. Moreover, while it
+is true that East Anglia and the counties adjacent, the stronghold of
+the Puritans, were the scene of Hopkins's operations, it is quite as
+true that in those counties arose that powerful opposition which forced
+the witchfinders into retirement. We have noticed in another connection
+that the "malignants" were inclined to mock at the number of witches in
+the counties friendly to Parliament, but there is nothing to show that
+the mockers disbelieved the reality of the witchcrafts.[103]
+
+It is easy enough to turn some of Hutchinson's reasoning against him, as
+well as to weaken the force of other arguments that may be presented on
+his side. But, when we have done all this, we still have to face the
+unpleasant facts that the witch persecution coincided in time with
+Presbyterian rule and in place with Puritan communities. It is very hard
+to get around these facts. Nor does the writer believe that they can be
+altogether avoided, even if their edge can be somewhat blunted. It was a
+time of bitter struggle. The outcome could not yet be forecast. Party
+feeling was at a high pitch. The situation may not unfairly be compared
+with that in the summer of 1863 during the American civil war. Then the
+outbreaks in New York revealed the public tension. The case in 1645 in
+the eastern counties was similar. Every energy was directed towards the
+prosecution of the war. The strain might very well have shown itself in
+other forms than in hunting down the supposed agents of the Devil. As a
+matter of fact, the apparitions and devils, the knockings and strange
+noises, that filled up the pages of the popular literature were the
+indications of an overwrought public mind. Religious belief grew
+terribly literal under the tension of the war. The Anglicans were
+fighting for their king, the Puritans for their religion. That
+religious fervor which very easily deepens into dementia was highly
+accentuated.[104]
+
+Nevertheless, too much importance may have been given to the part played
+by Presbyterianism. There is no evidence which makes it certain that the
+morbidity of the public would have taken the form of witch-hanging, had
+it not been for the leadership of Hopkins and Stearne. The Manningtree
+affair started very much as a score of others in other times. It had
+just this difference, that two pushing men took the matter up and made
+of it an opportunity. The reader who has followed the career of these
+men has seen how they seem the backbone of the entire movement. It is
+true that the town of Yarmouth invited them of its own initiative to
+take up the work there, but not until they had already made themselves
+famous in all East Anglia. There is, indeed, too much evidence that
+their visits were in nearly every case the result of their own
+deliberate purpose to widen the field of their labors. In brief, two
+aggressive men had taken advantage of a time of popular excitement and
+alarm. They were fortunate in the state of the public mind, but they
+seem to have owed more to their own exertions.
+
+But perhaps to neither factor was their success due so much as to the
+want of government in England at this time. We have seen in an earlier
+chapter that Charles I and his privy council had put an end to a witch
+panic that bade fair to end very tragically. Not that they interfered
+with random executions here and there. It was when the numbers involved
+became too large that the government stepped in to revise verdicts.
+This was what the government of Parliament failed to do. And the reasons
+are not far to seek. Parliament was intensely occupied with the war. The
+writer believes that it can be proved that, except in so far as
+concerned the war, the government of Parliament and the Committee of
+Both Kingdoms paid little or no attention to the affairs of the realm.
+It is certainly true that they allowed judicial business to go by the
+board. The assizes seem to have been almost, if not entirely, suspended
+during the last half of the year 1645 and the first half of 1646.[105]
+The justices of the peace, who had always shown themselves ready to hunt
+down witches, were suffered to go their own gait.[106] To be sure, there
+were exceptions. The Earl of Warwick held a court at Chelmsford, but he
+was probably acting in a military capacity, and, inexperienced in court
+procedure, doubtless depended largely upon the justices of the peace,
+who, gathered in quarter sessions, were assisting him. It is true too
+that Parliament had sent down a Commission of Oyer and Terminer to Bury,
+a commission made up of a serjeant and two clergymen. But these two
+cases are, so far as we can discover, the sole instances during these
+two years when the justices of the peace were not left to their own
+devices. This is significant. Except in Middlesex and in the chartered
+towns of England, we have, excepting during this time of war, no records
+that witches were ever sentenced to death, save by the judges of assize.
+
+To put it in a nutshell, England was in a state of judicial
+anarchy.[107] Local authorities were in control. But local authorities
+had too often been against witches. The coming of Hopkins and Stearne
+gave them their chance, and there was no one to say stop.
+
+This explanation fits in well with the fact, to which we shall advert in
+another chapter, that no small proportion of English witch trials took
+place in towns possessing separate rights of jurisdiction. This was
+especially true in the seventeenth century. The cases in Yarmouth,
+King's Lynn, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Berwick, and Canterbury, are all
+instances in point. Indeed, the solitary prosecution in Hopkins's own
+time in which he had no hand was in one of those towns, Faversham in
+Kent. There the mayor and "local jurators" sent not less than three to
+the gallows.[108]
+
+One other aspect of the Hopkins crusade deserves further attention. It
+has been shown in the course of the chapter that the practice of torture
+was in evidence again and again during this period. The methods were
+peculiarly harrowing. At the same time they were methods which the
+rationale of the witch belief justified. The theory need hardly be
+repeated. It was believed that the witches, bound by a pact with the
+Devil, made use of spirits that took animal forms. These imps, as they
+were called, were accustomed to visit their mistress once in twenty-four
+hours. If the witch, said her persecutors, could be put naked upon a
+chair in the middle of the room and kept awake, the imps could not
+approach her. Herein lay the supposed reasonableness of the methods in
+vogue. And the authorities who were offering this excuse for their use
+of torture were not loth to go further. It was, they said, necessary to
+walk the creatures in order to keep them awake. It was soon discovered
+that the enforced sleeplessness and the walking would after two or three
+days and nights produce confessions. Stearne himself describes the
+matter graphically: "For the watching," he writes, "it is not to use
+violence or extremity to force them to confesse, but onely the keeping
+is, first, to see whether any of their spirits or familiars come to or
+neere them; for I have found that if the time be come, the spirit or
+Impe so called should come, it will be either visible or invisible, if
+visible, then it may be discerned by those in the Roome, if invisible,
+then by the party. Secondly, it is for this end also, that if the
+parties which watch them, be so carefull that none come visible nor
+invisible but that may be discerned, if they follow their directions
+then the party presently after the time their Familiars should have
+come, if they faile, will presently confesse, for then they thinke they
+will either come no more or have forsaken them. Thirdly it is also to
+the end, that Godly Divines and others might discourse with them, for if
+any of their society come to them to discourse with them, they will
+never confesse.... But if honest godly people discourse with them,
+laying the hainousnesse of their sins to them, and in what condition
+they are in without Repentance, and telling them the subtilties of the
+Devil, and the mercies of God, these ways will bring them to Confession
+without extremity, it will make them break into confession hoping for
+mercy."[109]
+
+Hopkins tells us more about the walking of the witches. In answer to the
+objection that the accused were "extraordinarily walked till their feet
+were blistered, and so forced through that cruelty to confesse," "he
+answered that the purpose was only to keepe them waking: and the reason
+was this, when they did lye or sit in a chaire, if they did offer to
+couch downe, then the watchers were only to desire them to sit up and
+walke about."
+
+Now, the inference might be drawn from these descriptions that the use
+of torture was a new feature of the witchcraft persecutions
+characteristic of the Civil War period. There is little evidence that
+before that time such methods were in use. A schoolmaster who was
+supposed to have used magic against James I had been put to the rack.
+There were other cases in which it is conjectured that the method may
+have been tried. There is, however, little if any proof of such trial.
+
+Such an inference would, however, be altogether unjustified. The
+absence of evidence of the use of torture by no means establishes the
+absence of the practice. It may rather be said that the evidence of the
+practice we possess in the Hopkins cases is of such a sort as to lead us
+to suspect that it was frequently resorted to. If for these cases we had
+only such evidence as in most previous cases has made up our entire sum
+of information, we should know nothing of the terrible sufferings
+undergone by the poor creatures of Chelmsford and Bury. The confessions
+are given in full, as in the accounts of other trials, but no word is
+said of the causes that led to them. The difference between these cases
+of 1645 and other cases is this, that Hopkins and Stearne accused so
+large a body of witches that they stirred up opposition. It is through
+those who opposed them and their own replies that we learn about the
+tortures inflicted upon the supposed agents of the Devil.
+
+The significance of this cannot be insisted upon too strongly. A chance
+has preserved for us the fact of the tortures of this time. It is
+altogether possible--it is almost probable--that, if we had all the
+facts, we should find that similar or equally severe methods had been
+practised in many other witch cases.
+
+We have been very minute in our descriptions of the Hopkins crusade, and
+by no means brief in our attempt to account for it. But it is safe to
+say that it is easily the most important episode in that series of
+episodes which makes up the history of English witchcraft. None of them
+belong, of course, in the larger progress of historical events. It may
+seem to some that we have magnified the point at which they touched the
+wider interests of the time. Let it not be forgotten that Hopkins was a
+factor in his day and that, however little he may have affected the
+larger issues of the times, he was affected by them. It was only the
+unusual conditions produced by the Civil Wars that made the great
+witchfinder possible.
+
+
+[1] See J. O. Jones, "Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder," in Thomas
+Seccombe's _Twelve Bad Men_ (London, 1894).
+
+[2] See _Notes and Queries_, 1854, II, 285, where a quotation from a
+parish register of Mistley-cum-Manningtree is given: "Matthew Hopkins,
+son of Mr. James Hopkins, Minister of Wenham, was buried at Mistley
+August 12, 1647." See also John Stearne, _A Confirmation and Discovery
+of Witchcraft_, 61 (cited hereafter as "Stearne").
+
+[3] _Calendar of the Proceedings of the Committee for Advance of Money,
+1642-1656_, I, 457. _Cf. Notes and Queries_, 1850, II, 413.
+
+[4] The oft-repeated statement that he had been given a commission by
+Parliament to detect witches seems to rest only on the mocking words of
+Butler's _Hudibras_:
+
+    "Hath not this present Parliament
+    A Ledger to the Devil sent,
+    Fully empower'd to treat about
+    Finding revolted Witches out?"
+
+                            (_Hudibras_, pt. ii, canto 3.)
+
+To these lines an early editor added the note: "The Witch-finder in
+Suffolk, who in the Presbyterian Times had a Commission to discover
+Witches." But he names no authority, and none can be found. It is
+probably a confusion with the Commission appointed for the trial of the
+witches in Suffolk (see below, p. 178). Even his use of the title
+"witch-finder-general" is very doubtful. "Witch-finder" he calls himself
+in his book; only the frontispiece has "Witch Finder Generall." Nor is
+this title given him by Stearne, Gaule, or any contemporary record. It
+is perhaps only a misunderstanding of the phrase of Hopkins's
+title-page, "for the benefit of the whole kingdome"--a phrase which, as
+the punctuation shows, describes, not the witch-finder, but his book.
+Yet in _County Folk Lore, Suffolk_ (Folk Lore Soc., 1893), 178, there is
+an extract about John Lowes from a Brandeston MS.: "His chief accuser
+was one Hopkins, who called himself Witchfinder-General." But this is of
+uncertain date, and may rest on Hutchinson.
+
+[5] This is evident enough from his incessant use of Scripture and from
+the Calvinistic stamp of his theology; but he leaves us no doubt when
+(p. 54) he describes the Puritan Fairclough as "an able Orthodox
+Divine."
+
+[6] Matthew Hopkins, _The Discovery of Witches_ (London, 1647), 2--cited
+hereafter as "Hopkins."
+
+[7] One of them was Sir Harbottle Grimston, a baronet of Puritan
+ancestry, who had been active in the Long Parliament, but who as a
+"moderate man" fell now somewhat into the background. The other was Sir
+Thomas Bowes. Both figure a little later as Presbyterian elders.
+
+[8] Hopkins, 3.
+
+[9] Hopkins, 2; Stearne, 14-16.
+
+[10] It must, however, be noted that the oaths of the four women are put
+together, and that one of the men deposed merely that he confirmed
+Stearne's particulars.
+
+[11] Although Hopkins omitted in his testimony the first animal seen by
+Stearne. He mentioned it later, calling it Holt. Stearne called it
+Lought. See Hopkins, 2; Stearne, 15. But Stearne calls it Hoult in his
+testimony as reproduced in the _True and exact Relation of the severall
+Informations, Examinations and Confessions of the Late Witches ... at
+Chelmesford ..._ (London, 1645), 3-4.
+
+[12] Despite this record Anne West is described by Stearne (p. 39) as
+one of the very religious people who make an outward show "as if they
+had been Saints on earth."
+
+[13] The confession of Rebecca West is indeed dated "21" March 1645, the
+very day of Elizabeth Clarke's arrest; but all the context suggests that
+this is an error. In spite of her confessions, which were of the most
+damaging, Rebecca West was eventually acquitted.
+
+[14] It must not for a moment, however, be forgotten that these
+confessions had been wrung from tortured creatures.
+
+[15] Richard Carter and Henry Cornwall had testified that Margaret Moone
+confessed to them. Probably she did, as she was doubtless at that time
+under torture.
+
+[16] The evidence offered against her well suggests on what slender
+grounds a witch might be accused. "This Informant saith that the house
+where this Informante and the said Mary did dwell together, was haunted
+with a Leveret, which did usually sit before the dore: And this
+Informant knowing that one Anthony Shalock had an excellent Greyhound
+that had killed many Hares; and having heard that a childe of the said
+Anthony was much haunted and troubled, and that the mother of the childe
+suspected the said Mary to be the cause of it: This Informant went to
+the said Anthony Shalock and acquainted him that a Leveret did usually
+come and sit before the dore, where this Informant and the said Mary
+Greenleife lived, and desired the said Anthony to bring downe his
+Greyhound to see if he could kill the said Leveret; and the next day the
+said Anthony did accordingly bring his Greyhound, and coursed it, but
+whether the dog killed it this Informant knows not: But being a little
+before coursed by Good-man Merrils dog, the dog ran at it, but the
+Leveret never stirred, and just when the dog came at it, he skipped over
+it, and turned about and stood still, and looked on it, and shortly
+after that dog languished and dyed."
+
+[17] See Bulstrode Whitelocke, _Memorials of English Affairs ..._
+(London, 1682; Oxford, 1853), ed. of 1853, I, 501.
+
+[18] "H. F."'s publication is the _True and exact Relation_ cited above
+(note 11). He seems to have written it in the last of May, but inserted
+verdicts later in the margin. Arthur Wilson, who was present, says that
+18 were executed; Francis Peck, _Desiderata Curiosa_ (London, 1732-1735;
+1779), ed. of 1779, II, 476. But Hopkins writes that 29 were condemned
+at once and Stearne says about 28; quite possibly there were two trials
+at Chelmsford. There is only one other supposition, _i. e._, that
+Hopkins and Stearne confused the number originally accused with the
+number hanged. For further discussion of the somewhat conflicting
+evidence as to the number of these Essex witches and the dates of their
+trial see appendix C, under 1645.
+
+[19] _A Diary or an Exact Journall_, July 24-31, 1645, pp. 5-6.
+
+[20] _A True Relation of the Araignment of eighteene Witches at St.
+Edmundsbury ..._ (London, 1645), 9.
+
+[21] _Ibid._, 6.
+
+[22] _Ibid._
+
+[23] John Gaule, _Select Cases of Conscience Touching Witches and
+Witchcrafts_ (London, 1646), 78, 79.
+
+[24] Queries 8 and 9 answered by Hopkins to the Norfolk assizes confirm
+Gaule's description. See Hopkins, 5. "Query 8. When these ... are fully
+discovered, yet that will not serve sufficiently to convict them, but
+they must be tortured and kept from sleep two or three nights, to
+distract them, and make them say anything; which is a way to tame a
+wilde Colt, or Hawke." "Query 9. Beside that unreasonable watching, they
+were extraordinarily walked, till their feet were blistered, and so
+forced through that cruelty to confess." Hopkins himself admitted the
+keeping of Elizabeth Clarke from sleep, but is careful to insert "upon
+command from the Justice." Hopkins, 2-3. On p. 5 he again refers to this
+point. Stearne, 61, uses the phrase "with consent of the justices."
+
+[25] Suffolk Institute of Archaeology, _Proceedings_, X, 378. Baxter
+seems to have started the notion that Lowes was a "reading parson," or
+Anglican.
+
+[26] _Ibid._
+
+[27] See _A Magazine of Scandall, or a heape of wickednesse of two
+infamous Ministers_ (London, 1642), where there is a deposition, dated
+August 4, 1641, that Lowes had been twice indicted and once arraigned
+for witchcraft, and convicted by law as "a common Barrettor" at the
+assizes in Suffolk. Stearne, 23, says he was charged as a "common
+imbarritor" over thirty years before.
+
+[28] This account of the torture is given, in a letter to Hutchinson, by
+a Mr. Rivet, who had "heard it from them that watched with him." It is
+in some measure confirmed by the MS. history of Brandeston quoted in
+_County Folk Lore, Suffolk_ (Folk Lore Soc.), 178, which adds the
+above-quoted testimony as to his litigiousness.
+
+[29] Stearne, 24.
+
+[30] _A True Relation of the Araignment of eighteene Witches_, 5;
+_Moderate Intelligencer_, September 4-11, 1645.
+
+[31] See Samuel Clarke, _Lives of sundry Eminent Persons ..._ (London,
+1683), 172. In writing the life of Samuel Fairclough, Clarke used
+Fairclough's papers; see _ibid._, 163.
+
+[32] Fairclough was a Non-Conformist, but not actively sympathetic with
+Presbyterianism. Calamy was counted a Presbyterian.
+
+[33] Hopkins, 5-6; Stearne, 18.
+
+[34] One of these was Lowes.
+
+[35] _A True Relation of the Araignment of eighteene Witches._
+
+[36] Stearne, 14.
+
+[37] _A True Relation of the Araignment of eighteene Witches_, 5.
+
+[38] _Ibid._; Stearne, 25.
+
+[39] Hutchinson speaks of repeated sessions. Stearne, 25, says: "by
+reason of an Allarum at Cambridge, the gaol delivery at Burie St.
+Edmunds was adjourned for about three weeks." As a matter of fact, the
+king's forces seem not to have got farther east than Bedford and
+Cambridge. See Whitelocke, _Memorials_, I, 501.
+
+[40] Stearne, 11, speaks of 68 condemnations. On p. 14 he tells of 18
+who were executed at Bury, but this may have referred to the first group
+only. A MS. history of Brandeston quoted in _County Folk Lore, Suffolk_
+(Folk Lore Soc.), 178, says that Lowes was executed with 59 more. It is
+not altogether certain, however, that this testimony is independent.
+Nevertheless, it contains pieces of information not in the other
+accounts, and so cannot be ignored.
+
+[41] _Moderate Intelligencer_, September 4-11, 1645.
+
+[42] Howell, _Familiar Letters_ (I use the ed. of Joseph Jacobs, London
+1890-1892) II, 506, 515, 551. The letters quoted are dated as of Feb.,
+1646 (1647), and Feb., 1647 (1648 of our calendar); but, as is well
+known, Howell's dates cannot be trusted. The first was printed in the
+volume of his letters published in 1647, the others in that published in
+1650.
+
+[43] Joseph Hall, _Soliloquies_ (London, 1651), 52-53.
+
+[44] Thomas Ady, _Candle in the Dark_ (London, 1656), 101-105.
+
+[45] The Rev. John Worthington attended the trial. In mentioning it in
+his diary, he made no comment. _Diary and Correspondence of Dr. John
+Worthington_, I (Chetham Soc., no. 13, 1847), 22.
+
+[46] So, at least, says Whitelocke, _Memorials_, I, 487.
+
+[47] J. G. Nall, _Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft_ (London, 1867), 92,
+note, quotes from the Yarmouth assembly book. Nall makes very careless
+statements, but his quotations from the assembly book may be depended
+upon.
+
+[48] _Ibid._
+
+[49] _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, IX, pt. i, 320.
+
+[50] The _Collection of Modern Relations_ says that sixteen were hanged,
+but this compilation was published forty-seven years after the events:
+the number 6 had been changed to 16. One witch seems to have suffered
+later, see Stearne, 53. The statement about the 16 witches hanged at
+Yarmouth may be found in practically all accounts of English witchcraft,
+_e. g._, see the recent essay on Hopkins by J. O. Jones, in Seccombe's
+_Twelve Bad Men_, 60. They can all be traced back through various lines
+to this source.
+
+[51] H. Manship, _History of Great Yarmouth_, continued by C. J. Palmer
+(Great Yarmouth, 1854-1856), where the Yarmouth records about Hopkins
+are given in full. See also H. Harrod, in _Norfolk Archaeology_ (Norfolk
+and Norwich Arch. Soc., 1847-1864), IV, 249.
+
+[52] _The Lawes against Witches and Conjuration ..._ (London, 1645), 4.
+J. O. Jones, in his account of Hopkins, _loc. cit._, says that "many
+were hanged or burned in Ipswich." I believe that no authority can be
+cited for this statement.
+
+[53] The first is in, _A True Relation of the Araignment of eighteene
+Witches_, 5. We of course do not know that the sentence was carried out.
+
+[54] The master of a ship had been "sutor" for her grandchild; _The
+Lawes against Witches_, 8. She was a "professour of Religion, a constant
+hearer of the Word for these many years."
+
+[55] _Ibid._
+
+[56] _I. e., The Lawes against Witches_ (London, 1645). See below,
+appendix A, Sec. 4.
+
+[57] N. F. Hele, _Notes or Jottings about Aldeburgh_ (Ipswich, 1890),
+43-44.
+
+[58] This was doubtless the fee to the executioner. Mr. Richard Browne
+and Mr. Newgate, who were either the justices of the peace or the local
+magistrates, received L4 apiece for their services in trying the
+witches.
+
+[59] A. G. Hollingsworth, _History of Stowmarket_ (Ipswich, 1844), 170.
+
+[60] For a list of these towns, see below, appendix C, under 1645,
+Suffolk.
+
+[61] Stearne, 45, two instances.
+
+[62] _Ibid._, 37, 39, 45.
+
+[63] Thomas Ady, _A Candle in the Dark_, 135.
+
+[64] Stearne, 39.
+
+[65] His whole confession reads like the utterance of a tortured man.
+
+[66] He had previously been found with a rope around his neck. This was
+of course attributed to witchcraft. Stearne, 35.
+
+[67] _Ibid._, 11.
+
+[68] John Wynnick and Joane Wallis made effective confessions. The
+first, when in the heat of passion at the loss of a purse, had signed
+his soul away (Stearne, 20-21; see also the pamphlet, the dedication of
+which is signed by John Davenport, entitled, _The Witches of Huntingdon,
+their Examinations and Confessions ..._ London, 1646, 3). The latter
+maintained a troop of imps, among whom Blackeman, Grissell, and
+Greedigut figured most prominently. The half-witted creature could not
+recall the names on the repetition of her confessions, but this failing
+does not seem to have awakened any doubt of her guilt. Stearne could not
+avoid noticing that some of those who suffered were very religious. One
+woman, who had kept an imp for twenty-one years, "did resort to church
+and had a desire to be rid of her unhappy burden."
+
+[69] _I. e._, witches.
+
+[70] This letter is printed by Gaule at the opening of his _Select Cases
+of Conscience Touching Witches and Witchcrafts_.
+
+[71] Stearne, 11; _cf._ below, appendix C, 1646 (pp. 405-406).
+
+[72] That it was done by the justices of the peace is a probable
+conclusion from Stearne's language. See his account of Joane Wallis, p.
+13, also his account of John Wynnick, pp. 20-21. That the examinations
+were in March and April (see John Davenport's account, _The Witches of
+Huntingdon_) and the executions in May is a fact confirmatory of this;
+see Stearne, 11. But it is more to the point that John Davenport
+dedicates his pamphlet to the justices of the peace for the county of
+Huntingdon, and says: "You were present, and Judges at the Tryall and
+Conviction of them."
+
+[73] The swimming ordeal was perhaps unofficial; see Stearne, 19.
+Another case was that of Elizabeth Chandler, who was "duckt"; _Witches
+of Huntingdon_, 8.
+
+[74] Tilbrooke-bushes, Stearne, 11; Risden, _ibid._, 31.
+
+[75] This may be inferred from Stearne's words: "but afterward I heard
+that she made a very large confession," _ibid._, 31.
+
+[76] Thomas Wright, John Ashton, J. O. Jones, and the other writers who
+have dealt with Hopkins, speak of the Worcester trials, in 1647, in
+which four women are said to have been hanged. Their statements are all
+based upon a pamphlet, _The Full Tryals, Examination, and Condemnation
+of Four Notorious Witches at the Assizes held at Worcester on Tuseday
+the 4th of March.... Printed for I. W._ What seems to have been the
+first edition of this brochure bears no date. In 1700 another edition
+was printed for "J. M." in Fleet Street. Some writer on witchcraft
+gained the notion that this pamphlet belonged in the year 1647 and dealt
+with events in that year. Wright, John Ashton, and W. H. Davenport Adams
+(_Witch, Warlock, and Magician_, London, 1889), all accept this date. An
+examination of the pamphlet shows that it was cleverly put together from
+the _True and Exact Relation_ of 1645. The four accused bear the names
+of four of those accused at Chelmsford, and make, with a few
+differences, the same confessions. See below, appendix A, Sec. 4, for a
+further discussion of this pamphlet. It is strange that so careful a
+student as Thomas Wright should have been deceived by this pamphlet,
+especially since he noticed that the confessions were "imitations" of
+those in Essex.
+
+[77] A. Gibbons, ed., _Ely Episcopal Records_ (Lincoln, 1891), 112-113.
+
+[78] Stearne, 37.
+
+[79] That there were assizes is proved by the statement that "Moore's
+wife" confessed before the "Judge, Bench, and Country," _ibid._, 21-22,
+as well as by the reference in the _Ely Episcopal Records_, 113, to the
+"assizes."
+
+[80] Stearne, 17, 21-22.
+
+[81] For a clear statement of this point of view, see _ibid._, 40-50.
+
+[82] Stearne, 46-47.
+
+[83] _Ibid._, 50.
+
+[84] _Ibid._, 17.
+
+[85] _Ibid._, 13.
+
+[86] _Ibid._, 14.
+
+[87] Hopkins, 5. But Hopkins was not telling the exact truth here. When
+he was at Aldeburgh in September (8th) the accused were watched day and
+night. See chamberlain's accounts, in N. F. Hele, _Notes or Jottings
+about Aldeburgh_, 43.
+
+[88] Hopkins, 7.
+
+[89] Hopkins, 9.
+
+[90] Stearne, 18. Hopkins did not attempt to deny the use of the ordeal.
+He supported himself by quoting James; see Hopkins, 6.
+
+[91] Stearne, 18. He means, of course, Serjeant Godbolt.
+
+[92] See Stearne, in his preface to the reader, also p. 61; and see also
+the complete title of Hopkins's book as given in appendix A (p. 362).
+
+[93] A similar case was that of Anne Binkes, to whom Stearne refers on
+p. 54. He says she confessed to him her guilt. "Was this woman fitting
+to live?... I am sure she was living not long since, and acquitted upon
+her trial."
+
+[94] Not until after Stearne was already busy elsewhere. Stearne, 58.
+
+[95] It would seem, too, that Stearne was sued for recovery of sums paid
+him. "Many rather fall upon me for what hath been received; but I hope
+such suits will be disannulled." Stearne, 60.
+
+[96] Hopkins, 11.
+
+[97] _County Folk Lore, Suffolk_ (Folk Lore Soc.) 176, quoting from J.
+T. Varden in the _East Anglian Handbook_ for 1885, p. 89.
+
+[98] James Howell, _Familiar Letters_, II, 551. Howell, of course, may
+easily have counted convictions as executions. Moreover, it was a time
+when rumors were flying about, and Howell would not have taken the pains
+to sift them. Yet his agreement with Stearne in numbers is remarkable.
+Somewhat earlier, (the letter is dated February 3, 1646/7) Howell had
+written that "in Essex and Suffolk there were above two hundred indicted
+within these two years and above the one half executed" (_ibid._, 506).
+But, as noted above, his dates are not to be trusted.
+
+[99] See his _History of Rationalism_.
+
+[100] A name no greater, however, than that of Glanvill, who was a
+prominent Anglican.
+
+[101] It does not belong in this connection, but it should be stated,
+that one of the strongest reasons for supposing the Presbyterian party
+largely responsible for the persecution of witches lies in the large
+number of witches in Scotland throughout the whole period of that
+party's ascendancy. This is an argument that can hardly be successfully
+answered. Yet it is a legitimate question whether the witch-hunting
+proclivities of the north were not as much the outcome of Scottish laws
+and manners as of Scottish religion.
+
+[102] The _Magazine of Scandall_, speaking of Lowes and another man,
+says: "Their Religion is either none, or else as the wind blows: If the
+ceremonies be tending to Popery, none so forward as they, and if there
+be orders cleane contrary they shall exceed any Round-head in the Ile of
+great Brittain." See also above, pp. 175-177.
+
+[103] Yet it must not be overlooked that Stearne himself, who must have
+known well the religious sympathies of his opponents, asks, p. 58, "And
+who are they that have been against the prosecution ... but onely such
+as (without offence I may speak it) be enemies to the Church of God?" He
+dares not mention names, "not onely for fear of offence, but also for
+suits of Law."
+
+[104] Scott has pictured this very well in _Woodstock_. For a good
+example of it see _The [D]Ivell in Kent, or His strange Delusions at
+Sandwitch_ (London, 1647).
+
+[105] See below, note 107.
+
+[106] The witches of Aldeburgh were tried at the "sessions," N. F. Hele,
+_op. cit._, 43-44. Mother Lakeland was probably condemned by the
+justices of the peace; see _The Lawes against Witches_. The witches of
+Huntingdon were tried by the justices of the peace; see above, note 73.
+As for the trials in Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, and
+Cambridgeshire, it is fairly safe to reason that they were conducted by
+the justices of the peace from other evidence which we have that there
+were no assizes during the last half of 1645 and the first five months
+of 1646; see Whitelocke, _Memorials_, II, 31, 44, 64.
+
+[107] For a few of the evidences of this situation during these years
+see James Thompson, _Leicester_ (Leicester, 1849), 401; _Hist. MSS.
+Comm. Reports, Various_, I, 109-110, 322; XIII, 4, p. 216 (note gaps in
+the records); Whitelocke, _Memorials_, I, 436; II, 31, 44, 64, 196; III,
+152. Innumerable other references could be added to prove this point. F.
+A. Inderwick in his _Interregnum_ (London, 1891), 153, goes so far as to
+say that "from the autumn of 1642 to the autumn of 1646 no judges went
+the circuits." This seems rather a sweeping statement.
+
+[108] See _The Examination, Confession_, etc. (London, 1645). Joan
+Williford, Joan Cariden, and Jane Hott were tried. The first two quickly
+confessed to the keeping of imps. Not so Jane Hott, who urged the others
+to confess and "stoode to it very perversely that she was cleare." When
+put to the swimming test she floated, and is said to have then declared
+that the Devil "had sat upon a Cross beame and laughed at her."
+Elizabeth Harris was examined, and gave some damaging evidence against
+herself. She named several goodwives who had very loose tongues.
+
+[109] Stearne, 13, 14.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+WITCHCRAFT DURING THE COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE.
+
+
+We have, in the last chapter, traced the history of witchcraft in
+England through the Hopkins episode of 1645-1647. From the trials at Ely
+in the autumn of 1647 to the discoveries at Berwick in the summer of
+1649 there was a lull in the witch alarms. Then an epidemic broke out in
+the north of England. We shall, in this chapter, describe that epidemic
+and shall carry the narrative of the important cases from that time to
+the Restoration. In doing this we shall mark off two periods, one from
+1649 to 1653, when the executions were still numerous, and a second from
+1653 to 1659 when there was a rapid falling off, not only in death
+penalties for witchcraft, but even in accusations. To be sure, this
+division is somewhat artificial, for there was a gradual decline of the
+attack throughout the two periods, but the year 1653 more nearly than
+any other marks the year when that decline became visible.
+
+The epidemic of 1649 came from Scotland. Throughout the year the
+northern kingdom had been "infested."[1] From one end of that realm to
+the other the witch fires had been burning. It was not to be supposed
+that they should be suddenly extinguished when they reached the border.
+In July the guild of Berwick had invited a Scotchman who had gained
+great fame as a "pricker" to come to Berwick, and had promised him
+immunity from all violence.[2] He came and proceeded to apply his
+methods of detection. They rested upon the assumption that a witch had
+insensible spots on her body, and that these could be found by driving
+in a pin. By such processes he discovered thirty witches, who were sent
+to gaol. Some of them made confessions but refused to admit that they
+had injured any one.[3] On the contrary, they had assisted Cromwell, so
+some of the more ingenious of them claimed, at the battle of Preston.[4]
+Whether this helped their case we do not know, for we are not told the
+outcome. It seems almost certain, however, that few, if any, of them
+suffered death. But the pricker went back to Scotland with thirty
+pounds, the arrangement having been that he was to receive twenty
+shillings a witch.
+
+He was soon called upon again. In December of the same year the town of
+Newcastle underwent a scare. Two citizens, probably serjeants, applied
+the test with such success that in March (1649/50) a body of citizens
+petitioned the common council that some definite steps be taken about
+the witches. The council accepted the suggestion and despatched two
+serjeants, doubtless the men already engaged in the work, to Scotland to
+engage the witch-pricker. He was brought to Newcastle with the definite
+contract that he was to have his passage going and coming and twenty
+shillings apiece for every witch he found. The magistrates did
+everything possible to help him. On his arrival in Newcastle they sent
+the bellman through the town inviting every one to make complaints.[5]
+In this business-like way they collected thirty women at the town hall,
+stripped them, and put them to the pricking test. This cruel, not to say
+indelicate, process was carried on with additions that must have proved
+highly diverting to the base-minded prickers and onlookers.[6] Fourteen
+women and one man were tried (Gardiner says by the assizes) and found
+guilty. Without exception they asserted their innocence; but this
+availed not. In August of 1650 they were executed on the town moor[7] of
+Newcastle.[8]
+
+The witchfinder continued his activities in the north, but a storm was
+rising against him. Henry Ogle, a late member of Parliament, caused him
+to be jailed and put under bond to answer the sessions.[9] Unfortunately
+the man got away to Scotland, where he later suffered death for his
+deeds, probably during the Cromwellian regime in that country.[10]
+
+We have seen that Henry Ogle had driven the Scotch pricker out of the
+country. He participated in another witch affair during this same period
+which is quite as much to his credit. The children of George Muschamp,
+in Northumberland, had been troubled for two years (1645-1647) with
+strange convulsions.[11] The family suspected Dorothy Swinow, who was
+the wife of Colonel Swinow. It seems that the colonel's wife had, at
+some time, spoken harshly to one of the children. No doubt the sick
+little girl heard what they said. At any rate her ravings began to take
+the form of accusations against the suspected woman. The family
+consulted John Hulton, "who could do more then God allowed," and he
+accused Colonel Swinow's wife. But unfortunately for him the child had
+been much better during his presence, and he too was suspected. The
+mother of the children now rode to a justice of the peace, who sent for
+Hulton, but not for Mistress Swinow. Then the woman appealed to the
+assizes, but the judge, "falsely informed," took no action. Mrs.
+Muschamp was persistent, and in the town of Berwick she was able, at
+length, to procure the arrest of the woman she feared. But Dorothy
+Swinow was not without friends, who interfered successfully in her
+behalf. Mrs. Muschamp now went to a "counsellor," who refused to meddle
+with the matter, and then to a judge, who directed her to go to Durham.
+She did so and got a warrant; but it was not obeyed. She then procured a
+second warrant, and apparently succeeded in getting an indictment. But
+it did her little good: Dorothy Swinow was not apprehended.
+
+One can hardly refrain from smiling a little at the unhappy Mrs.
+Muschamp and her zealous assistants, the "physician" and the two
+clergymen. But her poor daughters grew worse, and the sick child, who
+had before seen angels in her convulsions, now saw the colonel's wife
+and cried out in her ravings against the remiss judge.[12] The case is
+at once pathetic and amusing, but it has withal a certain significance.
+It was not only Mrs. Swinow's social position that saved her, though
+that doubtless carried weight. It was the reluctance of the
+north-country justices to follow up accusations. Not that they had done
+with trials. Two capital sentences at Durham and another at Gateshead,
+although perhaps after-effects of the Scotch pricker's activity, showed
+that the witch was still feared; but such cases were exceptions. In
+general, the cases resulted in acquittals. We shall see, in another
+chapter, that the discovery which alarmed Yorkshire and Northumberland
+in 1673 almost certainly had this outcome; and the cases tried at that
+time formed the last chapter in northern witchcraft.
+
+But, if hanging witches was not easy in the north, there were still
+districts in the southwest of England where it could be done, with few
+to say nay. Anne Bodenham,[13] of Fisherton Anger in Wiltshire, had not
+the social position of Dorothy Swinow, but she was the wife of a
+clothier who had lived "in good fashion," and in her old age she taught
+children to read. She had, it seems, been in earlier life an apt pupil
+of Dr. Lambe, and had learned from him the practice of magic lore. She
+drew magic circles, saw visions of people in a glass, possessed numerous
+charms and incantations, and, above all, kept a wonderful magic book.
+She attempted to find lost money, to tell the future, and to cure
+disease; indeed, she had a varied repertoire of occult performances.
+
+Now, Mistress Bodenham did all these things for money and roused no
+antagonism in her community until she was unfortunate enough to have
+dealings with a maid-servant in a Wiltshire family. It is impossible to
+get behind the few hints given us by the cautious writer. The members of
+the family, evidently one of some standing in Wiltshire, became involved
+in a quarrel among themselves. It was believed, indeed, by neighbors
+that there had been a conspiracy on the part of some of the family to
+poison the mother-in-law. At all events, a maid in the family was
+imprisoned for participation in such a plot. It was then that Anne
+Bodenham first came into the story. The maid, to judge from the few data
+we have, in order to distract attention from her own doings, made a
+confession that she had signed a book of the Devil's with her own blood,
+all at the instigation of Anne Bodenham. Moreover, Anne, she said, had
+offered to send her to London in two hours. This was communicated to a
+justice of the peace, who promptly took the accused woman into custody.
+The maid-servant, successful thus far, began to simulate fits and to lay
+the blame for them on Mistress Anne. Questioned as to what she conceived
+her condition, she replied, "Oh very damnable, very wretched." She could
+see the Devil, she said, on the housetop looking at her. These fancies
+passed as facts, and the accused woman was put to the usual
+humiliations. She was searched, examined, and urged to confess. The
+narrator of the story made effort after effort to wring from her an
+admission of her guilt, but she slipped out of all his traps. Against
+her accuser she was very bitter. "She hath undone me ... that am an
+honest woman, 'twill break my Husband's heart, he grieves to see me in
+these Irons: I did once live in good fashion."
+
+The case was turned over by the justices of the peace to the assizes at
+Salisbury, where Chief Baron John Wylde of the exchequer presided.[14]
+The testimony of the maid was brought in, as well as the other
+proofs.[15] All we know of the trial is that Anne was condemned, and
+that Judge Wylde was so well satisfied with his work that he urged
+Edmund Bower, who had begun an account of the case, but had hesitated to
+expose himself to "this Censorious Age," to go on with his booklet. That
+detestable individual had followed the case closely. After the
+condemnation he labored with the woman to make her confess. But no
+acknowledgment of guilt could be wrung from the high-spirited Mistress
+Bodenham, even when the would-be father confessor held out to her the
+false hope of mercy. She made a will giving gifts to thirty people,
+declared she had been robbed by her maids in prison, lamented over her
+husband's sorrow, and requested that she be buried under the gallows.
+Like the McPherson who danced so wantonly and rantingly beneath the
+gallows tree, she remained brave-hearted to the end. When the officer
+told her she must go with him to the place of execution, she replied,
+"Be you ready, I am ready." The narrator closes the account with some
+moral reflections. We may close with the observation that there is no
+finer instance of womanly courage in the annals of witchcraft than that
+of Anne Bodenham. Doubtless she had used charms, and experimented with
+glasses; it had been done by those of higher rank than she.
+
+As for the maid, she had got herself well out of trouble. When Mistress
+Bodenham had been hanged, the fits ceased, and she professed great
+thankfulness to God and a desire to serve him.
+
+The case of Joan Peterson, who was tried at the Old Bailey in 1652, is
+another instance of the struggle of a spirited woman against too great
+odds. Joan, like Mistress Bodenham, kept various kinds of powders and
+prescribed physic for ailing neighbors.[16] It was, however, if we may
+believe her defender, not on account of her prescriptions, but rather on
+account of her refusal to swear falsely, that her downfall came. One
+would be glad to know the name of the vigorous defender who after her
+execution issued _A Declaration in Answer to severall lying Pamphlets
+concerning the Witch of Wapping_. His narrative of the plot against the
+accused woman offers a plausible explanation of the affair and is not
+improbably trustworthy. As he tells the story, there were certain
+relatives of Lady Powell who had been disappointed that her estate had
+been bequeathed to Mrs. Anne Levingston. They conspired to get rid of
+the heiress, went to a cunning woman, and offered to pay her liberally
+if she would swear that Mrs. Levingston had used sorcery to take away
+the life of Lady Powell. Unfortunately for the conspirators, the cunning
+woman betrayed their schemes. Not discouraged, however, they employed
+another woman, who, as their representative, went to Joan Peterson and
+offered her a hundred pounds to swear that Mrs. Levingston had procured
+from her "certain powders and bags of seeds." Joan refused the
+proposition, and the plotters, fearing a second exposure of their plans,
+determined that Mistress Peterson should also be put out of the way.
+They were able to procure a warrant to have her arrested and searched.
+Great pressure was put upon her to confess enough to implicate Mrs.
+Levingston and she was given to understand that if she would do so she
+would herself be spared. But Joan refused their proffers and went to her
+trial. If the narrative may be at all trusted there was little effort to
+give her a fair hearing. Witnesses against her were purchased in
+advance, strangers were offered money to testify against her, and those
+who were to have given evidence on her side were most of them
+intimidated into staying away from the trial. Four physicians and two
+surgeons signed a certificate that Lady Powell had died from perfectly
+natural causes. It was of no avail. Joan was convicted and died bravely,
+denying her guilt to the end.[17] Her defender avers that some of the
+magistrates in the case were involved in the conspiracy against her. One
+of these was Sir John Danvers, a member of Cromwell's council. In the
+margin of his account the pamphleteer writes: "Sir John Danvers came and
+dined at the Sessions house and had much private discourse with the
+Recorder and many of the Justices and came and sate upon the Bench at
+her Trial, where he hath seldom or never been for these many years."
+
+In July of 1652 occurred another trial that attracted notice in its own
+time. Six Kentish women were tried at the assizes at Maidstone before
+Peter Warburton.[18] We know almost nothing of the evidence offered by
+the prosecution save that there was exhibited in the Swan Inn at
+Maidstone a piece of flesh which the Devil was said to have given to one
+of the accused, and that a waxen image of a little girl figured in the
+evidence. Some of the accused confessed that they had used it in order
+to kill the child. Search was instituted for it, and it was found, if
+the narrator may be trusted, under the door where the witches had said
+it would be.[19] The six were all condemned and suffered execution.
+Several others were arraigned, but probably escaped trial.
+
+If the age was as "censorious" of things of this nature as Edmund Bower
+had believed it to be, it is rather remarkable that "these proceedings,"
+which were within a short distance of London, excited so little stir in
+that metropolis. Elias Ashmole, founder of the Ashmolean Museum at
+Oxford and delver in astrology, attended the trials, with John
+Tradescant, traveller and gardener.[20] He left no comments. The
+_Faithful Scout_, in its issue of July 30-August 7, mentioned the trial
+and the confessions, but refrained from any expression of opinion.
+
+There were other trials in this period; but they must be passed over
+rapidly. The physicians were quite as busy as ever in suggesting
+witchcraft. We can detect the hand of a physician in the attribution of
+the strange illness of a girl who discharged great quantities of stones
+to the contrivance of Catherine Huxley, who was, in consequence, hanged
+at Worcester.[21] In a case at Exeter the physician was only indirectly
+responsible. When Grace Matthews had consulted him about her husband's
+illness, he had apparently given up the case, and directed her to a wise
+woman.[22] The wise woman had warned Mistress Matthews of a neighbor
+"tall of stature and of a pale face and blinking eye," against whom it
+would be well to use certain prescribed remedies. Mrs. Matthews did so,
+and roused out the witch, who proved to be a butcher's wife, Joan Baker.
+When the witch found her spells thwarted, she turned them against Mrs.
+Matthews's maid-servant, who in consequence died. This was part of the
+evidence against Joan, and it was confirmed by her own kinsfolk: her
+father-in-law had seen her handling toads. She was committed, but we
+hear no more of the case.
+
+That random accusations were not feared as they had been was evidenced
+by the boldness of suspected parties in bringing action against their
+accusers, even if boldness was sometimes misjudged. We have two actions
+of this sort.
+
+Joan Read of Devizes had been reported to be a witch, and on that
+account had been refused by the bakers the privilege of using their
+bakeries for her dough.[23] She threw down the glove to her accusers by
+demanding that they should be brought by warrant to accuse her. No doubt
+she realized that she had good support in her community, and that her
+challenge was not likely to be accepted. But a woman near Land's End in
+Cornwall seems to have overestimated the support upon which she could
+count. She had procured a warrant against her accusers to call the case
+before the mayor. The court sided with the accusers and the woman was
+brought to trial. Caught herself, she proceeded to ensnare others. As a
+result, eight persons were sent to Launceston,[24] and some probably
+suffered death.[25]
+
+We have already seen what a tangled web Mrs. Muschamp wove when she set
+out to imprison a colonel's wife. It would be easy to cite cases to show
+the same reluctance to follow up prosecution. Four women at Leicester
+searched Ann Chettle and found no evidence of guilt.[26] In Durham a
+case came up before Justice Henry Tempest.[27] Mary Sykes was accused.
+Sara Rodes, a child, awakening from sleep in a fright, had declared to
+her mother that "Sikes' wife" had come in "att a hole att the bedd
+feete" and taken her by the throat. Of course Sara Rodes fell ill.
+Moreover, the witch had been seen riding at midnight on the back of a
+cow and at another time flying out of a "mistall windowe." But the
+woman, in spite of the unfavorable opinion of the women searchers, went
+free. There were cases that seem to have ended the same way at York, at
+Leeds, and at Scarborough. They were hints of what we have already
+noticed, that the northern counties were changing their attitude.[28]
+But a case in Derbyshire deserves more attention because the justice,
+Gervase Bennett, was one of the members of Cromwell's council. The case
+itself was not in any way unusual. A beggar woman, who had been
+liberally supported by those who feared her, was on trial for
+witchcraft. Because of Bennett's close relation to the government, we
+should be glad to know what he did with the case, but the fact that the
+woman's conviction is not among the records makes it probable that she
+was not bound over to the assizes.[29]
+
+We come now to examine the second of the sub-periods into which we have
+divided the Interregnum. We have been dealing with the interval between
+the war and the establishment of the Protectorate, a time that shaded
+off from the dark shadows of internecine struggle towards the high light
+of steady peace and security. By 1653 the equilibrium of England had
+been restored. Cromwell's government was beginning to run smoothly. The
+courts were in full swing. None of those conditions to which we have
+attributed the spread of the witch alarms of the Civil Wars were any
+longer in operation. It is not surprising, then, that the Protectorate
+was one of the most quiet periods in the annals of witchcraft. While the
+years 1648-1653 had witnessed thirty executions in England, the period
+of the Protectorate saw but half a dozen, and three of these fell within
+the somewhat disturbed rule of Richard Cromwell.[30] In other words,
+there was a very marked falling off of convictions for witchcraft, a
+falling off that had indeed begun before the year 1653. Yet this
+diminution of capital sentences does not by any means signify that the
+realm was rid of superstition. In Middlesex, in Somerset and Devon, in
+York, Northumberland, and Cumberland, the attack upon witches on the
+part of the people was going on with undiminished vigor. If no great
+discoveries were made, if no nests of the pestilent creatures were
+unearthed, the justices of the peace were kept quite as busy with
+examinations as ever before.
+
+To be sure, an analysis of cases proves that a larger proportion of
+those haled to court were light offenders, "good witches" whose healing
+arts had perhaps been unsuccessful, dealers in magic who had aroused
+envy or fear. The court records of Middlesex and York are full of
+complaints against the professional enchanters. In most instances they
+were dismissed. Now and then a woman was sent to the house of
+correction,[31] but even this punishment was the exception.
+
+Two other kinds of cases appeared with less frequency. We have one very
+clear instance at Wakefield, in York, where a quarrel between two tenant
+farmers over their highway rights became so bitter that a chance threat
+uttered by the loser of the lawsuit, "It shall be a dear day's work for
+you," occasioned an accusation of witchcraft.[32] In another instance
+the debt of a penny seems to have been the beginning of a hatred between
+two impecunious creatures, and this brought on a charge.[33]
+
+The most common type of case, of course, was that where strange disease
+or death played a part. In Yorkshire, in Hertfordshire, and in Cornwall
+there were trials based upon a sort of evidence with which the reader is
+already quite familiar. It was easy for the morbid mother of a dead
+child to recall or imagine angry words spoken to her shortly before the
+death of her offspring. It was quite as natural for a sick child to be
+alarmed at the sight of a visitor and go into spasms. There was no fixed
+rule, however, governing the relation of the afflicted children and the
+possible witches. When William Wade was named, Elizabeth Mallory would
+fly into fits.[34] When Jane Brooks entered the room, a bewitched youth
+of Chard would become hysterical.[35] It was the opposite way with a
+victim in Exeter,[36] who remained well only so long as the witch who
+caused the trouble stayed with him.[37]
+
+Closely related to these types of evidence was what has been denominated
+spectral evidence, a form of evidence recurrent throughout the history
+of English witchcraft. In the time of the Protectorate we have at least
+three cases of the kind. The accused woman appeared to the afflicted
+individual now in her own form, again in other shapes, as a cat, as a
+bee, or as a dog.[38] The identification of a particular face in the
+head of a bee must have been a matter of some difficulty, but there is
+no ground for supposing that any objection was made to this evidence in
+court. At all events, the testimony went down on the official records in
+Yorkshire. In Somerset the Jane Brooks case,[39] already referred to,
+called forth spectral evidence in a form that must really have been very
+convincing. When the bewitched boy cried out that he saw the witch on
+the wall, his cousin struck at the place, upon which the boy cried out,
+"O Father, Coz Gibson hath cut Jane Brooks's hand, and 'tis bloody."
+Now, according to the story, the constable proceeded to the woman's
+house and found her hand cut.
+
+As to the social status of the people involved in the Protectorate
+trials there is little to say, other than has been said of many earlier
+cases. By far the larger number of those accused, as we have already
+pointed out, were charmers and enchanters, people who made a penny here
+and twopence there, but who had at best a precarious existence. Some of
+them, no doubt, traded on the fear they inspired in their communities
+and begged now a loaf of bread and now a pot of beer. They were the same
+people who, when begging and enchanting failed, resorted to
+stealing.[40] In one of the Yorkshire depositions we have perhaps a hint
+of another class from which the witches were recruited. Katherine Earle
+struck a Mr. Frank between the shoulders and said, "You are a pretty
+gentleman; will you kisse me?" When the man happened to die this
+solicitation assumed a serious aspect.[41]
+
+Witchcraft was indeed so often the outcome of lower-class bickering that
+trials involving the upper classes seem worthy of special record. During
+the Protectorate there were two rather remarkable trials. In 1656
+William and Mary Wade were accused of bewitching the fourteen-year-old
+daughter of Elizabeth Mallory of Studley Hall. The Mallorys were a
+prominent family in Yorkshire. The grandfather of the accusing child had
+been a member of Parliament and was a well known Royalist colonel. When
+Mistress Elizabeth declared that her fits would not cease until Mary
+Wade had said that she had done her wrong, Mary Wade was persuaded to
+say the words. Elizabeth was well at once, but Mary withdrew her
+admission and Elizabeth resumed her fits, indeed "she was paste
+holdinge, her extreamaty was such." She now demanded that the two Wades
+should be imprisoned, and when they were "both in holde" she became well
+again. They were examined by a justice of the peace, but were probably
+let off.[42]
+
+The story of Diana Crosse at Exeter is a more pathetic one. Mrs. Crosse
+had once kept a girls' school--could it be that there was some
+connection between teaching and witchcraft?[43]--had met with
+misfortune, and had at length been reduced to beggary. We have no means
+of knowing whether the suspicion of witchcraft antedated her extreme
+poverty or not, but it seems quite clear that the former school-teacher
+had gained an ill name in the community. She resented bitterly the
+attitude of the people, and at one time seems to have appealed to the
+mayor. It was perhaps by this very act that she focussed the suspicion
+of her neighbors. To go over the details of the trial is not worth
+while. Diana Crosse probably escaped execution to eke out the remainder
+of her life in beggary.[44]
+
+The districts of England affected by the delusion during this period
+have already been indicated. While there were random cases in Suffolk,
+Hertfordshire, Wiltshire, Somerset, Cumberland, and Northumberland, by
+far the greatest activity seems to have been in Middlesex, Cornwall, and
+Yorkshire. To a layman it looks as if the north of England had produced
+the greater part of its folk-lore. Certain it is that the witch stories
+of Yorkshire, as those of Lancaster at another time, by their mysterious
+and romantic elements made the trials of the south seem flat, stale, and
+unprofitable. Yet they rarely had as serious results.
+
+To the historian the Middlesex cases must be more interesting because
+they should afford some index of the attitude of the central government.
+Unhappily we do not know the fate of the Yorkshire witches, though it
+has been surmised, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, that they
+all escaped execution.[45] In Middlesex we know that during this period
+only one woman, so far as our extant records go, was adjudged guilty.
+All the rest were let go free. Now, this may be significant and it may
+not. It does not seem unreasonable to suppose that the Middlesex quarter
+sessions were in harmony with the central government. Yet this can be no
+more than a guess. It is not easy to take bearings which will locate the
+position of the Cromwellian government. The protector himself was
+occupied with weightier matters, and, so far as we know, never uttered a
+word on the subject. He was almost certainly responsible for the pardon
+of Margaret Gyngell at Salisbury in 1655,[46] yet we cannot be sure that
+he was not guided in that case by special circumstances as well as by
+the recommendation of subordinates.
+
+We have but little more evidence as to the attitude of his council of
+state. It was three years before the Protectorate was put into operation
+that the hesitating sheriff of Cumberland, who had some witches on his
+hands, was authorized to go ahead and carry out the law.[47] But on the
+other hand it was in the same period that the English commissioners in
+Scotland put a quietus on the witch alarms in that kingdom. In fact, one
+of their first acts was to take over the accused women from the church
+courts and demand the proof against them.[48] When it was found that
+they had been tortured into confessions, the commission resolved upon
+an enquiry into the conduct of the sheriff, ministers, and tormentors
+who had been involved. Several women had been accused. Not one was
+condemned. The matter was referred to the council of state, where it
+seems likely that the action of the commissioners was ratified. Seven or
+eight years later, in the administration of Richard Cromwell, there was
+an instance where the council, apparently of its own initiative, ordered
+a party of soldiers to arrest a Rutlandshire witch. The case was,
+however, dismissed later.[49]
+
+To draw a definite conclusion from these bits of evidence would be rash.
+We can perhaps reason somewhat from the general attitude of the
+government. Throughout the Protectorate there was a tendency, which
+Cromwell encouraged, to mollify the rigor of the criminal law. Great
+numbers of pardons were issued; and when Whitelocke suggested that no
+offences should be capital except murder, treason, and rebellion, no one
+arose in holy horror to point out the exception of witchcraft,[50] and
+the suggestion, though never acted upon, was favorably considered.[51]
+
+When we consider this general attitude towards crime in connection with
+what we have already indicated about the rapid decline in numbers of
+witch convictions, it seems a safe guess that the Cromwellian
+government, while not greatly interested in witchcraft, was, so far as
+interested, inclined towards leniency.
+
+
+[1] Whitelocke, _Memorials_, III, 63, 97, 99, 113.
+
+[2] See an extract from the Guild Hall Books in John Fuller, _History of
+Berwick_ (Edinburgh, 1799), 155-156.
+
+[3] Thomas Widdrington's letter to Whitelocke (Whitelocke, _Memorials_,
+III, 99). Widdrington said the man professed himself "an artist that
+way." The writer was evidently somewhat skeptical.
+
+[4] _Ibid._
+
+[5] Ralph Gardiner, _England's Grievance Discovered in Relation to the
+Coal Trade_ (London, 1655), 108.
+
+[6] _Ibid._
+
+[7] See John Brand, _History and Antiquities of ... Newcastle_ (London,
+1789), II, 478, or the _Chronicon Mirabile_ (London, 1841), 92, for an
+extract from the parish registers, giving the names. A witch of rural
+Northumberland was executed with them.
+
+[8] The witches of 1649 were not confined to the north. Two are said to
+have been executed at St. Albans, a man and a woman; one woman was tried
+in Worcestershire, one at Gloucester, and two in Middlesex. John Palmer
+and Elizabeth Knott, who suffered at St. Albans, had gained some
+notoriety. Palmer had contracted with the Devil and had persuaded his
+kinswoman to assist him in procuring the death of a woman by the use of
+clay pictures. Both were probably practitioners in magic. Palmer, even
+when in prison, claimed the power of transforming men into beasts. The
+woman seems to have been put to the swimming test. Both were condemned.
+Palmer, at his execution, gave information about a "whole colledge of
+witches," most of them, no doubt, practisers like himself, but his
+random accusations were probably passed over. See _The Divels Delusions
+or A faithfull relation of John Palmer and Elizabeth Knott ..._ (1649).
+
+[9] Ralph Gardiner, _op. cit._, 109.
+
+[10] See _ibid._ At his execution, Gardiner says, he confessed that he
+had been the death of 220 witches in Scotland and England. Either the
+man was guilty of unseemly and boastful lying, which is very likely, or
+Scotland was indeed badly "infested." See above, note 1.
+
+[11] This narrative is contained in _Wonderfull News from the North, Or
+a True Relation of the Sad and Grievous Torments Inflicted upon ...
+three Children of Mr. George Muschamp ..._ (London, 1650).
+
+[12] The story of the case was sent down to London and there published,
+where it soon became a classic among the witch-believing clergy.
+
+[13] See the two pamphlets by Edmond Bower described below in appendix
+A, Sec. 5, and Henry More, _Antidote against Atheisme_, bk. III, ch. VII.
+
+[14] Wylde was not well esteemed as a judge. On the institution of the
+protectorate he was not reappointed by Cromwell.
+
+[15] Aubrey (who had it from an eye-witness) tells us that "the crowd of
+spectators made such a noise that the judge could not heare the
+prisoner, nor the prisoner the judge; but the words were handed from one
+to the other by Mr. R. Chandler and sometimes not truly repeated." John
+Aubrey, _Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme ..._ (ed. J. Britten, _Folk
+Lore Soc. Publications_, IV, 1881), 261.
+
+[16] For the case see _The Tryall and Examinations of Mrs. Joan Peterson
+..._; _The Witch of Wapping, or an Exact ... Relation of the ...
+Practises of Joan Peterson ..._; _A Declaration in Answer to severall
+lying Pamphlets concerning the Witch of Wapping ..._, (as to these
+pamphlets, all printed at London in 1652, see below, appendix A, Sec. 5);
+_French Intelligencer_, April 6-13, 1652; _Weekly Intelligencer_, April
+6-13, 1652; _The Faithful Scout_, April 9-16, 1652; _Mercurius
+Democritus_, April 7-17, 1652.
+
+[17] The _French Intelligencer_ tells us the story of her execution:
+"She seemed to be much dejected, having a melancholy aspect; she seemed
+not to be much above 40 years of age, and was not in the least outwardly
+deformed, as those kind of creatures usually are."
+
+[18] For an account of this affair see _A Prodigious and Tragicall
+History of the ... Condemnation of six Witches at Maidstone ..._
+(London, 1652).
+
+[19] It was "supposed," says the narrator, that nine children, besides a
+man and a woman, had suffered at their hands, L500 worth of cattle had
+been lost, and much corn wrecked at sea. Two of the women made
+confession, but not to these things.
+
+[20] See Ashmole's diary as given in Charles Burman, _Lives of Elias
+Ashmole, Esq., and Mr. William Lilly, written by themselves ..._
+(London, 1774), 316.
+
+[21] In his _Certainty of the World of Spirits_ (London, 1691), 44, 45,
+Richard Baxter, who is by no means absolutely reliable, tells us about
+this case. It should be understood that it is only a guess of the writer
+that the physician was to blame for the accusation; but it much
+resembles other cases where the physician started the trouble.
+
+[22] William Cotton, _Gleanings from the Municipal and Cathedral Records
+Relative to the History of the City of Exeter_ (Exeter, 1877), 149-150.
+
+[23] _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports, Various_, I, 127.
+
+[24] _Mercurius Politicus_, November 24-December 2, 1653. One of these
+witches was perhaps the one mentioned as from Launceston in Cornwall in
+R. and O. B. Peter, _The Histories of Launceston and Dunheved_
+(Plymouth, 1885), 285: "the grave in w^ch the wich was buryed."
+
+[25] Richard Burthogge, _An Essay upon Reason and the Nature of Spirits_
+(London, 1694), 196, writes that he has the confessions in MS. of "a
+great number of Witches (some of which were Executed) that were taken by
+a Justice of Peace in Cornwall above thirty Years agoe." It does not
+seem impossible that this is a reference to the same affair as that
+mentioned by the Launceston record.
+
+[26] _Leicestershire and Rutland Notes and Queries_ (Leicester, 1891,
+etc.), I, 247.
+
+[27] James Raine, ed., _A Selection from the Depositions in Criminal
+Cases taken before the Northern Magistrates, from the Originals
+preserved in York Castle_ (Surtees Soc., no. 40, 1861), 28-30. Cited
+hereafter as _York Depositions_.
+
+[28] Yet in 1650 there had been a scare at Gateshead which cost the rate
+payers L2, of which a significant item was 6 d. for a "grave for a
+witch." _Denham Tracts_ (Folk Lore Soc.), II, 338. At Durham, in 1652,
+two persons were executed. Richardson, _Table Book_ (London, 1841), I,
+286.
+
+[29] J. C. Cox, _Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals_ (London, 1890),
+II, 88. Cox, however, thinks it probable that she was punished.
+
+[30] It is of course not altogether safe to reason from the absence of
+recorded executions, and it is least safe in the time of the Civil Wars
+and the years of recovery.
+
+[31] _Middlesex County Records_, ed. by J. C. Jeaffreson (London, 1892),
+III, 295; _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports, Various_, I, 129.
+
+[32] _York Depositions_, 74.
+
+[33] _Hertfordshire County Sessions Rolls_, compiled by W. J. Hardy
+(Hertford, 1905), I, 126. It is not absolutely certain in the second
+case that the committal was to the house of correction.
+
+[34] _York Depositions_, 76-77.
+
+[35] Joseph Glanvill, _Sadducismus Triumphatus_ (London, 1681), pt. ii,
+122.
+
+[36] Cotton, _Gleanings ... relative to the History of ... Exeter_, 152.
+
+[37] In the famous Warboys case of 1593 it was the witch's presence that
+relieved the bewitched of their ailments.
+
+[38] _York Depositions_, 64-67.
+
+[39] Glanvill, _Sadducismus Triumphatus_, pt. ii, 120-121.
+
+[40] _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports, Various_, I, 120.
+
+[41] _York Depositions_, 69.
+
+[42] _Ibid._, 75-78.
+
+[43] See the story of Anne Bodenham.
+
+[44] Cotton, _Gleanings ... Relative to the History of ... Exeter_,
+150-152.
+
+[45] James Raine, editor of _York Depositions_, writes that he has found
+no instance of the conviction of a witch. Preface, xxx. _The Criminal
+Chronology of York Castle, with a Register of Criminals capitally
+Convicted and Executed_ (York, 1867), contains not a single execution
+for witchcraft.
+
+[46] Inderwick, _Interregnum_, 188-189.
+
+[47] _Cal. St. P., Dom._, 1650, 159.
+
+[48] There are several secondary accounts of this affair. See F. Legge
+in _Scottish Review_, XVIII, 267. But a most important primary source is
+a letter from Clarke to Speaker Lenthall, published by the Scottish
+History Society in its volume on _Scotland and the Commonwealth_
+(Edinburgh, 1895), 367-369. See also a tract in Brit. Mus. Thomason
+collection, _Two Terrible Sea Fights_ (London, 1652). See, too, the
+words of Thomas Ady, _A Candle in the Dark_, 105.
+
+[49] _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1658-1659_, 169.
+
+[50] When the council of state, however, in 1652 had issued an act of
+general pardon, witchcraft had been specifically reserved, along with
+murder, treason, piracy, etc. _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1651-1652_, 106.
+
+[51] Inderwick, _Interregnum_, 231.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE LITERATURE OF WITCHCRAFT FROM 1603 TO 1660.
+
+
+No small part of our story has been devoted to the writings of Scot,
+Gifford, Harsnett, and King James. It is impossible to understand the
+significance of the prosecutions without some acquaintance with the
+course of opinion on the subject. In this chapter we shall go back as
+far as the opening of the reign of James and follow up to the end of the
+Commonwealth the special discussions of witchcraft, as well as some of
+the more interesting incidental references. It will be recalled that
+James's _Daemonologie_ had come out several years before its author
+ascended the English throne. With the coming of the Scottish king to
+Westminster the work was republished at London. But, while James by
+virtue of his position was easily first among those who were writing on
+the subject, he by no means occupied the stage alone. Not less than four
+other men gained a hearing within the reign and for that reason deserve
+consideration. They were Perkins, Cotta, Roberts, and Cooper.
+
+William Perkins's _Discourse of the Damned Art of Witchcraft_ came first
+in order, indeed it was written during the last years of Elizabeth's
+reign; but it was not published until 1608, six years after the author's
+death.[1] William Perkins was a fellow of Christ's College at Cambridge
+and an eminent preacher in that university. He holds a high place among
+Puritan divines. His sermons may still be found in the libraries of
+older clergymen and citations from them are abundant in commentaries. It
+was in the course of one of his university sermons that he took up the
+matter of witchcraft. In what year this sermon was preached cannot
+definitely be said. That he seems to have read Scot,[2] that however he
+does not mention King James's book,[3] are data which lead us to guess
+that he may have uttered the discourse between 1584 and 1597. His point
+of view was strictly theological and his convictions grounded--as might
+be expected--upon scriptural texts. Yet it seems not unfair to suppose
+that he was an exponent of opinion at Cambridge, where we have already
+seen evidences of strong faith in the reality of witchcraft. It seems no
+less likely that a perusal of Reginald Scot's _Discoverie_ prompted the
+sermon. Witches nowadays, he admitted, have their patrons. His argument
+for the existence of witches was so thoroughly biblical that we need not
+go over it. He did not, however, hold to all current conceptions of
+them. The power of the evil one to transform human beings into other
+shapes he utterly repudiated. The scratching of witches[4] and the
+testing of them by water he thought of no value.[5] In this respect it
+will be seen that he was in advance of his royal contemporary. About
+the bodily marks, the significance of which James so emphasized, Perkins
+seems to have been less decided. He believed in the death penalty,[6]
+but he warned juries to be very careful as to evidence.[7] Evidence
+based upon the accusations of "good witches," upon the statements of the
+dying, or upon the charges of those who had suffered ill after threats,
+he thought ought to be used with great caution. It is evident that
+Perkins--though he doubtless would not have admitted it himself--was
+affected by the reading of Scot. Yet it is disappointing to find him
+condoning the use of torture[8] in extreme instances.[9]
+
+A Cambridge man who wrote about a score of years after Perkins put forth
+opinions a good deal farther advanced. John Cotta was a "Doctor in
+Physicke" at Northampton who had taken his B. A. at Cambridge in 1595,
+his M. A. the following year, and his M. D. in 1603. Nine years after
+leaving Cambridge he had published _A Short Discoverie of the Unobserved
+Dangers_, in which he had devoted a very thoughtful chapter to the
+relation between witchcraft and sickness. In 1616 he elaborated his
+notions in _The Triall of Witchcraft_,[10] published at London. Like
+Perkins he disapproved of the trial by water.[11] He discredited, too,
+the evidence of marks, but believed in contracts with the Devil, and
+cited as illustrious instances the cases of Merlin and "that infamous
+woman," Joan of Arc.[12] But his point of view was of course mainly that
+of a medical man. A large number of accusations of witchcraft were due
+to the want of medical examination. Many so-called possessions could be
+perfectly diagnosed by a physician. He referred to a case where the
+supposed witches had been executed and their victim had nevertheless
+fallen ill again.[13] Probably this was the case of Mistress Belcher, on
+whose account two women had been hanged at Northampton.[14]
+
+Yet Cotta believed that there were real witches and arraigned Scot for
+failing to distinguish the impostors from the true.[15] It was indeed,
+he admitted, very hard to discover, except by confession; and even
+confession, as he had pointed out in his first work, might be a "meane,
+poore and uncertain proofe," because of the Devil's power to induce
+false confession.[16] Here the theologian--it was hard for a
+seventeenth-century writer not to be a theologian--was cropping out. But
+the scientific spirit came to the front again when he made the point
+that imagination was too apt to color observations made upon bewitched
+and witch.[17] The suggestion that coincidence explained many of the
+alleged fulfillments of witch predictions[18] was equally in advance of
+his times.
+
+How, then, were real cases of bewitchment to be recognized? The best
+assurance on such matters, Cotta answered, came "whensoever ... the
+Physicion shall truely discover a manifest transcending power."[19] In
+other words, the Northampton physician believed that his own profession
+could best determine these vexed matters. One who has seen the sorry
+part played by the physicians up to this time can hardly believe that
+their judgment on this point was saner than that of men in other
+professions. It may even be questioned if they were more to be depended
+upon than the so superstitious clergy.
+
+In the same year as Cotta's second book, Alexander Roberts, "minister of
+God's word at King's Lynn" in Norfolk, brought out _A Treatise of
+Witchcraft_ as a sort of introduction to his account of the trial of
+Mary Smith of that town and as a justification of her punishment. The
+work is merely a restatement of the conventional theology of that time
+as applied to witches, exactly such a presentation of it as was to be
+expected from an up-country parson who had read Reginald Scot, and could
+wield the Scripture against him.[20]
+
+The following year saw the publication of a work equally theological,
+_The Mystery of Witchcraft_, by the Reverend Thomas Cooper, who felt
+that his part in discovering "the practise of Anti-Christ in that
+hellish Plot of the Gunpowder-treason" enabled him to bring to light
+other operations of the Devil. He had indeed some experience in this
+work,[21] as well as some acquaintance with the writers on the subject.
+But he adds nothing to the discussion unless it be the coupling of the
+disbelief in witchcraft with the "Atheisme and Irreligion that overflows
+the land." Five years later the book was brought out again under another
+title, _Sathan transformed into an Angell of Light, ... [ex]emplified
+specially in the Doctrine of Witchcraft_.
+
+In the account of the trials for witchcraft in the reign of James I the
+divorce case of the Countess of Essex was purposely omitted, because in
+it the question of witchcraft was after all a subordinate matter. In the
+history of opinion, however, the views about witchcraft expressed by the
+court that passed upon the divorce can by no means be ignored. It is not
+worth while to rehearse the malodorous details of that singular affair.
+The petitioner for divorce made the claim that her husband was unable to
+consummate the marriage with her and left it to be inferred that he was
+bewitched. It will be remembered that King James, anxious to further the
+plans of his favorite, Carr, was too willing to have the marriage
+annulled and brought great pressure to bear upon the members of the
+court. Archbishop Abbot from the beginning of the trial showed himself
+unfavorable to the petition of the countess, and James deemed it
+necessary to resolve his doubts on the general grounds of the
+divorce.[22] On the matter of witchcraft in particular the king wrote:
+"for as sure as God is, there be Devils, and some Devils must have some
+power, and their power is in this world.... That the Devil's power is
+not so universal against us, that I freely confess; but that it is
+utterly restrained _quoad nos_, how was then a minister of Geneva
+bewitched to death, and were the witches daily punished by our law. If
+they can harm none but the papists, we are too charitable for avenging
+of them only." This was James's opinion in 1613, and it is worthy of
+note that he was much less certain of his ground and much more on the
+defensive about witchcraft than the author of the _Daemonologie_ had
+been. It can hardly be doubted that he had already been affected by the
+more liberal views of the ecclesiastics who surrounded him. Archbishop
+Bancroft, who had waged through his chaplain the war on the exorcists,
+was not long dead. That chaplain was now Bishop of Chichester and soon
+to become Archbishop of York. It would be strange if James had not been
+affected to some degree by their opinions. Moreover, by this time he had
+begun his career as a discoverer of impostors.
+
+The change in the king's position must, however, not be overrated. He
+maintained his belief in witches and seemed somewhat apprehensive lest
+others should doubt it. Archbishop Abbot, whom he was trying to win over
+to the divorce, would not have denied James's theories, but he was
+exceedingly cautious in his own use of the term _maleficium_. Abbot was
+wholly familiar with the history of the Anglican attitude towards
+exorcism. There can be little doubt that he was in sympathy with the
+policy of his predecessor. It is therefore interesting to read his
+carefully worded statement as to the alleged bewitchment of the Earl of
+Essex. In his speech defending his refusal and that of three colleagues
+to assent to the divorce, he wrote: "One of my lords (my lord of
+Winchester) hath avowed it, that he dislikes that _maleficium_; that he
+hath read Del Rio, the Jesuit, writing upon that argument, and doth hold
+him an idle and fabulous fellow.... Another of my lords (my lord of Ely)
+hath assented thereunto, and _maleficium_ must be gone. Now I for my
+part will not absolutely deny that witches by God's permission may have
+a power over men, to hurt all, or part in them, as by God they shall be
+limited; but how shall it appear that this is such a thing in the person
+of a man." This was not, of course, an expression of disbelief in the
+reality or culpability of witchcraft. It was an expression of great
+reluctance to lay much stress upon charges of witchcraft--an expression
+upon the part of the highest ecclesiastical authority in England.
+
+In the reign of Charles I prior to the Civil Wars we have to analyze but
+a single contribution to the literature of our subject, that made by
+Richard Bernard. Bernard had preached in Nottinghamshire and had gone
+from there to Batcombe in Somerset. While yet in Nottinghamshire, in the
+early years of James's reign, he had seen something of the
+exorcizers.[23] Later he had had to do with the Taunton cases of 1626;
+indeed, he seems to have had a prominent part in this affair.[24]
+Presumably he had displayed some anxiety lest the witches should not
+receive fair treatment, for in his _Guide to Grand-Jurymen ... in cases
+of Witchcraft_, published in 1627, he explained the book as a "plaine
+countrey Minister's testimony." Owing to his "upright meaning" in his
+"painstaking" with one of the witches, a rumor had spread that he
+favored witches or "were of Master Scots erroneous opinion that Witches
+were silly Melancholikes."[25] He had undertaken in consequence to
+familiarize himself with the whole subject and had read nearly all the
+discussions in English, as well as all the accounts of trials published
+up to that time. His work he dedicated to the two judges at Taunton, Sir
+John Walter and Sir John Denham, and to the archdeacon of Wells and the
+chancellor of the Bishop of Bath and Wells. The book was, indeed, a
+truly remarkable patchwork. All shades of opinion from that of the
+earnestly disbelieving Scot to that of the earnestly believing Roberts
+were embodied. Nevertheless Bernard had a wholesome distrust of
+possessions and followed Cotta in thinking that catalepsy and other
+related diseases accounted for many of them.[26] He thought, too, that
+the Devil very often acted as his own agent without any
+intermediary.[27] Like Cotta, he was skeptical as to the water
+ordeal;[28] but, strange to say, he accepted the use of a magical glass
+to discover "the suspected."[29] He was inclined to believe that the
+"apparition of the party suspected, whom the afflicted in their fits
+seem to see," was a ground for suspicion. The main aim of his discourse
+was, indeed, to warn judges and jurors to be very careful by their
+questions and methods of inquiring to separate the innocent from the
+guilty.[30] In this contention, indeed in his whole attitude, he was
+very nearly the mouthpiece of an age which, while clinging to a belief,
+was becoming increasingly cautious of carrying that belief too far into
+judicial trial and punishment.[31]
+
+It is a jump of seventeen years from Bernard of Batcombe to John Gaule.
+It cannot be said that Gaule marks a distinct step in the progress of
+opinion beyond Bernard. His general position was much the same as that
+of his predecessor. His warnings were perhaps more earnest, his
+skepticism a little more apparent. In an earlier chapter we have
+observed the bold way in which the indignant clergyman of
+Huntingdonshire took up Hopkins's challenge in 1646. It was the Hopkins
+crusade that called forth his treatise.[32] His little book was in large
+part a plea for more caution in the use of evidence. Suspicion was too
+lightly entertained against "every poore and peevish olde Creature."
+Whenever there was an extraordinary accident, whenever there was a
+disease that could not be explained, it was imputed to witchcraft. Such
+"Tokens of Tryall" he deemed "altogether unwarrantable, as proceeding
+from ignorance, humor, superstition." There were other more reliable
+indications by which witches could sometimes be detected, but those
+indications were to be used with exceeding caution. Neither the evidence
+of the fact--that is, of a league with the Devil--without confession
+nor "confession without fact" was to be accounted as certain proof. On
+the matter of confession Gaule was extraordinarily skeptical for his
+time. It was to be considered whether the party confessing were not
+diabolically deluded, whether the confession were not forced, or whether
+it were not the result of melancholy. Gaule went even a little further.
+Not only was he inclined to suspect confession, but he had serious
+doubts about a great part of witch lore. There were stories of
+metamorphoses, there were narratives of "tedious journeys upon broomes,"
+and a hundred other tales from old authors, which the wise Christian
+would, he believed, leave with the writers. To believe nothing of them,
+however, would be to belittle the Divine attributes. As a matter of fact
+there was a very considerable part of the witch theory that Gaule
+accepted. His creed came to this: it was unsafe to pronounce such and
+such to be witches. While not one in ten was guilty, the tenth was still
+to be accounted for.[33] The physician Cotta would have turned the
+matter over to the physicians; the clergyman Gaule believed that it
+belonged to the province of the "Magistracy and Ministery."[34]
+
+During the period of the Commonwealth one would have supposed that
+intellectual men would be entirely preoccupied with more weighty
+matters than the guilt of witches. But the many executions that followed
+in the wake of Hopkins and Stearne had invested the subject with a new
+interest and brought new warriors into the fray. Half a dozen writers
+took up the controversy. On the conservative side three names deserve
+mention, two of them not unknown in other connections, Henry More and
+Meric Casaubon. For the defence of the accused witches appeared two men
+hardly so well known in their time, Robert Filmer and Thomas Ady.
+
+More was a young Cambridge scholar and divine who was to take rank among
+the English philosophers of the seventeenth century. Grounded in Plato
+and impregnated with Descartes, he became a little later thoroughly
+infected with the Cabalistic philosophy that had entered Europe from the
+East. It was the point of view that he acquired in the study of this
+mystic Oriental system that gave the peculiar turn to his witchcraft
+notions, a turn which through his own writings and those of Glanvill
+found wide acceptance. It was in 1653 that More issued _An Antidote to
+Atheisme_. The phenomena of witchcraft he reckoned as part of the
+evidence for the reality of the spirit world and used them to support
+religion, quite in the same manner as Sir Oliver Lodge or Professor
+Hyslop would today use psychical research to establish immortality. More
+had made investigations for himself, probably at Maidstone. In his own
+town of Cambridge there was a story--doubtless a college joke, but he
+referred to it in all seriousness--of "Old Strangridge," who "was
+carried over Shelford Steeple upon a black Hogge and tore his breeches
+upon the weather-cock."[35] He believed that he had absolute proof of
+the "nocturnal conventicles" of witches.[36] He had, however, none of
+that instinct for scientific observation that had distinguished Scot,
+and his researches did not prevent his being easily duped. His
+observations are not by any means so entertaining as are his theories.
+His effort to account for the instantaneous transportation of witches is
+one of the bright spots in the prosy reasonings of the demonologists.
+More was a thoroughgoing dualist. Mind and matter were the two separate
+entities. Now, the problem that arose at once was this: How can the
+souls of witches leave their bodies? "I conceive," he says, "the Divell
+gets into their body and by his subtile substance more operative and
+searching than any fire or putrifying liquor, melts the yielding
+Campages of the body to such a consistency ... and makes it plyable to
+his imagination: and then it is as easy for him to work it into what
+shape he pleaseth."[37] If he could do that, much more could he enable
+men to leave their bodies. Then arose the problem: How does this process
+differ from death? The writer was puzzled apparently at his own
+question, but reasoned that death was the result of the unfitness of the
+body to contain the soul.[38] But no such condition existed when the
+Devil was operating; and no doubt the body could be anointed in such
+fashion that the soul could leave and return.
+
+Meric Casaubon, son of the eminent classical scholar and himself a well
+known student, was skeptical as to the stories told about the aerial
+journeys of witches which More had been at such pains to explain. It was
+a matter, he wrote in his _Treatise concerning Enthusiasme_,[39] of much
+dispute among learned men. The confessions made were hard to account
+for, but he would feel it very wrong to condemn the accused upon that
+evidence. We shall meet with Casaubon again.[40]
+
+Nathaniel Homes, who wrote from his pastoral study at Mary Stayning's in
+London, and dedicated his work[41] to Francis Rous, member of
+Parliament, was no halfway man. He was a thoroughgoing disciple of
+Perkins. His utmost admission--the time had come when one had to make
+some concessions--was that evil spirits performed many of their wonders
+by tricks of juggling.[42] But he swallowed without effort all the
+nonsense about covenants, and was inclined to see in the activities of
+the Devil a presage of the last days.[43]
+
+The reader can readily see that More, Casaubon, and Homes were all on
+the defensive. They were compelled to offer explanations of the
+mysteries of witchcraft, they were ready enough to make admissions; but
+they were nevertheless sticking closely to the main doctrines. It is a
+pleasure to turn to the writings of two men of somewhat bolder stamp,
+Robert Filmer and Thomas Ady. Sir Robert Filmer was a Kentish knight of
+strong royalist views who had written against the limitations of
+monarchy and was not afraid to cross swords with Milton and Hobbes on
+the origin of government. In 1652 he had attended the Maidstone trials,
+where, it will be remembered, six women had been convicted. As Scot had
+been stirred by the St. Oses trials, so Filmer was wrought up by what he
+had seen at Maidstone,[44] and in the following year he published his
+_Advertisement to the Jurymen of England_. He set out to overturn the
+treatise of Perkins. As a consequence he dealt with Scripture and the
+interpretation of the well known passages in the Old Testament. The
+Hebrew witch, Filmer declared, was guilty of nothing more than "lying
+prophecies." The Witch of Endor probably used "hollow speaking." In this
+suggestion Filmer was following his famous Kentish predecessor.[45] But
+Filmer's main interest, like Bernard's and Gaule's before him, was to
+warn those who had to try cases to be exceedingly careful. He felt that
+a great part of the evidence used was worth little or nothing.
+
+Thomas Ady's _Candle in the Dark_ was published three years later.[48]
+Even more than Filmer, Ady was a disciple of Scot. But he was, indeed, a
+student of all English writers on the subject and set about to answer
+them one by one. King James, whose book he persistently refused to
+believe the king's own handiwork, Cooper, who was a "bloudy persecutor,"
+Gifford, who "had more of the spirit of truth in him than many,"
+Perkins, the arch-enemy, Gaule, whose "intentions were godly," but who
+was too far "swayed by the common tradition of men,"[47] all of them
+were one after another disposed of. Ady stood eminently for good sense.
+It was from that point of view that he ridiculed the water ordeal and
+the evidence of marks,[48] and that he attacked the cause and effect
+relation between threats and illness. "They that make this Objection
+must dwell very remote from Neighbours."[49]
+
+Yet not even Ady was a downright disbeliever. He defended Scot from the
+report "that he held an opinion that Witches are not, for it was neither
+his Tenent nor is it mine." Alas, Ady does not enlighten us as to just
+what was his opinion. Certainly his witches were creatures without
+power.[50] What, then, were they? Were they harmless beings with
+malevolent minds? Mr. Ady does not answer.
+
+A hundred years of witchcraft history had not brought to light a man who
+was willing to deny in a printed work the existence of witches.
+Doubtless such denial might often have been heard in the closet, but it
+was never proclaimed on the housetop. Scot had not been so bold--though
+one imagines that if he had been quietly questioned in a corner he might
+have denied the thing _in toto_--and those who had followed in his steps
+never ventured beyond him.
+
+The controversy, indeed, was waged in most of its aspects along the
+lines laid down by the first aggressor. Gifford, Cotta, and Ady had
+brought in a few new arguments to be used in attacking superstition, but
+in general the assailants looked to Scot. On the other side, only
+Perkins and More had contributed anything worth while to the defence
+that had been built up. Yet, the reader will notice that there had been
+progress. The centre of struggle had shifted to a point within the outer
+walls. The water ordeal and the evidence of marks were given up by most,
+if not all. The struggle now was over the transportation of witches
+through the air and the battle was going badly for the defenders.
+
+We turn now to the incidental indications of the shifting of opinion. In
+one sense this sort of evidence means more than the formal literature.
+Yet its fragmentary character at best precludes putting any great stress
+upon it.
+
+If one were to include all the references to witchcraft in the drama of
+the period, this discussion might widen out into a long chapter. Over
+the passages in the playwrights we must pass with haste; but certain
+points must be noted. Shakespeare, in _Macbeth_, which scholars have
+usually placed at about 1606, used a great body of witch lore. He used
+it, too, with apparent good faith, though to conclude therefrom that he
+believed in it himself would be a most dangerous step.[51] Thomas
+Middleton, whose _Witch_ probably was written somewhat later, and who is
+thought to have drawn on Shakespeare for some of his witch material,
+gives absolutely no indication in that play that he did not credit those
+tales of witch performances of which he availed himself. The same may be
+said of Dekker and of those who collaborated with him in writing _The
+Witch of Edmonton_.[52]
+
+We may go further and say that in none of these three plays is there any
+hint that there were disbelievers. But when we come to Ben Jonson we
+have a different story. His various plays we cannot here take up.
+Suffice it to say, on the authority of careful commentators, that he
+openly or covertly ridiculed all the supposedly supernatural phenomena
+of his time.[53] Perhaps a search through the obscurer dramatists of the
+period might reveal other evidences of skepticism. Such a search we
+cannot make. It must, however, be pointed out that Thomas Heywood, in
+_The late Lancashire Witches_[54] a play which is described at some
+length in an earlier chapter, makes a character say:[55] "It seemes then
+you are of opinion that there are witches. For mine own part I can
+hardly be induc'd to think there is any such kinde of people."[56] The
+speech is the more notable because Heywood's own belief in witchcraft,
+as has been observed in another connection, seems beyond doubt.
+
+The interest in witchcraft among literary men was not confined to the
+dramatists. Three prose writers eminent in their time dealt with the
+question. Burton, in his _Anatomy of Melancholy_[57] admits that "many
+deny witches at all, or, if there be any, they can do no harm." But he
+says that on the other side are grouped most "Lawyers, Divines,
+Physitians, Philosophers." James Howell, famous letter-writer of the
+mid-century, had a similar reverence for authority: "I say ... that he
+who denies there are such busy Spirits and such poor passive Creatures
+upon whom they work, which commonly are call'd Witches ... shews that he
+himself hath a Spirit of Contradiction in him."[58] There are, he says,
+laws against witches, laws by Parliament and laws in the Holy Codex.
+
+Francis Osborne, a literary man whose reputation hardly survived his
+century, but an essayist of great fame in his own time,[59] was a man
+who made his fortune by sailing against rather than with the wind. It
+was conventional to believe in witches and Osborne would not for any
+consideration be conventional. He assumed the skeptical attitude,[60]
+and perhaps was as influential as any one man in making that attitude
+fashionable.
+
+From these lesser lights of the literary world we may pass to notice the
+attitude assumed by three men of influence in their own day, whose
+reputations have hardly been dimmed by time, Bacon, Selden, and Hobbes.
+Not that their views would be representative of their times, for each of
+the three men thought in his own way, and all three were in many
+respects in advance of their day. At some time in the reign of James I
+Francis Bacon wrote his _Sylva Sylvarum_ and rather incidentally touched
+upon witchcraft. He warned judges to be wary about believing the
+confessions of witches and the evidence against them. "For the witches
+themselves are imaginative and believe oft-times they do that which they
+do not; and people are credulous in that point, and ready to impute
+accidents and natural operations to witchcraft. It is worthy the
+observing, that ... the great wonders which they tell, of carrying in
+the air, transporting themselves into other bodies, &c., are still
+reported to be wrought, not by incantations, or ceremonies, but by
+ointments, and anointing themselves all over. This may justly move a man
+to think that these fables are the effects of imagination."[61]
+
+Surely all this has a skeptical sound. Yet largely on the strength of
+another passage, which has been carelessly read, the great Bacon has
+been tearfully numbered among the blindest leaders of the blind.[62] A
+careful comparison of his various allusions to witchcraft will convince
+one that, while he assumed a belief in the practice,[63] partly perhaps
+in deference to James's views,[64] he inclined to explain many reported
+phenomena from the effects of the imagination[65] and from the operation
+of "natural causes" as yet unknown.[66]
+
+Bacon, though a lawyer and man of affairs, had the point of view of a
+philosopher. With John Selden we get more directly the standpoint of a
+legal man. In his _Table Talk_[67] that eminent jurist wrote a paragraph
+on witches. "The Law against Witches," he declared, "does not prove
+there be any; but it punishes the Malice of those people that use such
+means to take away mens Lives. If one should profess that by turning his
+Hat thrice and crying Buz, he could take away a man's life (though in
+truth he could do no such thing) yet this were a just Law made by the
+State, that whosoever should turn his Hat thrice and cry Buz, with an
+intention to take away a man's life, shall be put to death."[68] As to
+the merits of this legal quip the less said the better; but it is
+exceedingly hard to see in the passage anything but downright skepticism
+as to the witch's power.[69]
+
+It is not without interest that Selden's point of view was exactly that
+of the philosopher Hobbes. There is no man of the seventeenth century,
+unless it be Oliver Cromwell or John Milton, whose opinion on this
+subject we would rather know than that of Hobbes. In 1651 Hobbes had
+issued his great _Leviathan_. It is unnecessary here to insist upon the
+widespread influence of that work. Let it be said, however, that Hobbes
+was not only to set in motion new philosophies, but that he had been
+tutor to Prince Charles[70] and was to become a figure in the reign of
+that prince.[71] Hobbes's work was directed against superstition in many
+forms, but we need only notice his statement about witchcraft, a
+statement that did not by any means escape his contemporaries. "As for
+Witches," he wrote, "I think not that their witchcraft is any reall
+power; but yet that they are justly punished for the false beliefe they
+have that they can do such mischief, joined with their purpose to do it
+if they can."[72] Perhaps the great philosopher had in mind those
+pretenders to diabolic arts who had suffered punishment, and was so
+defending the community that had rid itself of a preying class. In any
+case, while he defended the law, he put himself among the disbelievers
+in witchcraft.
+
+From these opinions of the great we may turn to mark the more trivial
+indications of the shifting of opinion to be found in the pamphlet
+literature. It goes without saying that the pamphlet-writers believed in
+that whereof they spoke. It is not in their outspoken faith that we are
+interested, but rather in their mention of those opponents at whose
+numbers they marvelled, and whose incredulity they undertook to shake.
+Nowhere better than in the prefaces of the pamphleteers can evidence be
+found of the growing skepticism. The narrator of the Northampton cases
+in 1612 avowed it his purpose in writing to convince the "many that
+remaine yet in doubt whether there be any Witches or no."[73] That
+ardent busybody, Mr. Potts, who reported the Lancaster cases of 1612,
+very incidentally lets us know that the kinsfolk and friends of Jennet
+Preston, who, it will be remembered, suffered at York, declared the
+whole prosecution to be an act of malice.[74] The Yorkshire poet and
+gentleman, Edward Fairfax, who made such an ado about the sickness of
+his two daughters in 1622 and would have sent six creatures to the
+gallows for it, was very frank in describing the opposition he met. The
+accused women found supporters among the "best able and most
+understanding."[75] There were, he thought, three kinds of people who
+were doubters in these matters: those who attributed too much to natural
+causes and who were content to call clear cases of bewitchment
+convulsions, those who when witchcraft was broached talked about fairies
+and "walking ghosts," and lastly those who believed there were no
+witches. "Of this opinion I hear and see there be many, some of them men
+of worth, religious and honest."[76]
+
+The pamphlet-writers of James's reign had adjusted themselves to meet
+opposition. Those of the Civil Wars and the Commonwealth were prepared
+to meet ridicule.[77] "There are some," says the narrator of a Yorkshire
+story, "who are of opinion that there are no Divells nor any witches....
+Men in this Age are grown so wicked, that they are apt to believe there
+are no greater Divells than themselves."[78] Another writer, to bolster
+up his story before a skeptical public, declares that he is "very chary
+and hard enough to believe passages of this nature."[79]
+
+We have said that the narrators of witch stories fortified themselves
+against ridicule. That ridicule obviously must have found frequent
+expression in conversation, but sometimes it even crept into the
+newspapers and tracts of the day. The Civil Wars had developed a regular
+London press. We have already met with expressions of serious opinion
+from it.[80] But not all were of that sort. In 1654 the _Mercurius
+Democritus_, the _Punch_ of its time, took occasion to make fun of the
+stories of the supernatural then in circulation. There was, it declared,
+a strange story of a trance and apparition, a ghost was said to be
+abroad, a woman had hanged herself in a tobacco pipe. With very broad
+humor the journal took off the strange reports of the time and concluded
+with the warning that in "these distempered times" it was not safe for
+an "idle-pated woman" to look up at the skies.[81]
+
+The same mocking incredulity had manifested itself in 1648 in a little
+brochure entitled, _The Devil seen at St. Albans, Being a true Relation
+how the Devill was seen there in a Cellar, in the likeness of a Ram; and
+how a Butcher came and cut his throat, and sold some of it, and dressed
+the rest for himselfe, inviting many to supper, who did eat of it_.[82]
+The story was a clever parody of the demon tracts that had come out so
+frequently in the exciting times of the wars. The writer made his point
+clear when he declared that his story was of equal value with anything
+that "Britannicus" ever wrote.[83] The importance of these indications
+may be overestimated. But they do mean that there were those bold enough
+to make fun. A decade or two later ridicule became a two-edged knife,
+cutting superstition right and left. But even under the terribly serious
+Puritans skepticism began to avail itself of that weapon, a weapon of
+which it could hardly be disarmed.
+
+In following the history of opinion we must needs mention again some of
+the incidents of certain cases dealt with in earlier chapters, incidents
+that indicate the growing force of doubt. The reader has hardly
+forgotten the outcome of the Lancashire cases in 1633. There Bishop
+Bridgeman and the king, if they did not discredit witchcraft,
+discredited its manifestation in the particular instance.[84] As for
+William Harvey, he had probably given up his faith in the whole business
+after the little incident at Newmarket.[85] When we come to the time of
+the Civil Wars we cannot forget that Stearne and Hopkins met
+opposition, not alone from the Huntingdon minister, but from a large
+party in Norfolk, who finally forced the witchfinder to defend himself
+in court. Nor can we forget the witch-pricker of Berwick who was sent
+a-flying back to his native northern soil, nor the persistent Mrs.
+Muschamp who tramped over Northumberland seeking a warrant and finding
+none.
+
+The course of opinion is a circuitous one. We have followed its windings
+in and out through more than half a century. We have listened as
+respectfully as possible to the vagaries of country parsons and
+university preachers, we have heard from scholars, from gentlemen, from
+jurists and men of affairs, from physicians and philosophers. It matters
+little now what they thought or said, but it did matter then. We have
+seen how easy a thing it was to fall into the error that a middle course
+was nearest truth. Broad was the way and many there were that walked
+therein. Yet even those who travelled that highway found their direction
+shifting. For there was progress in opinion. With every decade the
+travellers, as well those who strayed aside as those who followed the
+crowd, were getting a little nearer to truth.
+
+
+[1] "Printed by Cantrel Legge, Printer to the Universitie of Cambridge"
+(1608, 1610).
+
+[2] See _Discourse of the Damned Art of Witchcraft_, ch. VII, sect. I.
+
+[3] His literary executor, Thomas Pickering, late of Emmanuel College,
+Cambridge, and now "Minister of Finchingfield in Essex," who prepared
+the _Discourse_ for the press (both in its separate form and as a part
+of Perkins's collected works), and who dedicates it to Sir Edward Coke,
+is, however, equally silent as to James, though in his preface he
+mentions Scot by name.
+
+[4] _Ibid._, ch. IV, sect. I. See also ch. II.
+
+[5] _Ibid._, ch. VII, sect. II.
+
+[6] _Ibid._, ch. VI.
+
+[7] _Ibid._, ch. VII, sect. II.
+
+[8] _Ibid._, ch. VII, sect. II.
+
+[9] James Mason, "Master of Artes," whose _Anatomie of Sorcerie_
+("printed at London by John Legatte, Printer to the Universitie of
+Cambridge," 1612), puts him next to Perkins in chronological order,
+needs only mention in passing. He takes the reality of sorcery for
+granted, and devotes himself to argument against its use.
+
+[10] _... Shewing the True and Right Methode of the Discovery._ Cotta
+was familiar with the more important trials of his time. He knew of the
+Warboys, Lancaster, and York trials and he probably had come into close
+contact with the Northampton cases. He had read, too, several of the
+books on the subject, such as Scot, Wier, and Perkins. His omission of
+King James's work is therefore not only curious but significant. A
+second edition of his book was published in 1625.
+
+[11] See _Triall of Witchcraft_, ch. XIV.
+
+[12] See _ibid._, p. 48.
+
+[13] _Ibid._, 66-67.
+
+[14] See _ibid._, ch. VI. Cotta speaks of the case as six years earlier.
+
+[15] _Ibid._, 62, 66.
+
+[16] _A Short Discoverie_, 70.
+
+[17] _Triall of Witchcraft_, 83-84.
+
+[18] _A Short Discoverie_, 51-53.
+
+[19] _Triall of Witchcraft_, 70.
+
+[20] Roberts's explanation of the proneness of women to witchcraft
+deserves mention in passing. Women are more credulous, more curious,
+"their complection is softer," they have "greater facility to fall,"
+greater desire for revenge, and "are of a slippery tongue." _Treatise of
+Witchcraft_, 42-43.
+
+[21] "In Cheshire and Coventry," he tells us. "Hath not Coventrie," he
+asks (p. 16), "beene usually haunted by these hellish Sorcerers, where
+it was confessed by one of them, that no lesse than three-score were of
+that confedracie?... And was I not there enjoyned by a necessity to the
+discoverie of this Brood?"
+
+[22] For the whole case see Howell, _State Trials_, II.
+
+[23] See article on Bernard in _Dict. Nat. Biog._
+
+[24] See below, appendix C, list of witch cases, under 1626.
+
+[25] See _Guide to Grand-Jurymen_, Dedication.
+
+[26] _Ibid._, 11-12.
+
+[27] _Ibid._, 53.
+
+[28] _Ibid._, 214.
+
+[29] This he did on the authority of a repentant Mr. Edmonds, of
+Cambridge, who had once been questioned by the University authorities
+for witchcraft. _Ibid._, 136-138.
+
+[30] _Guide to Grand-Jurymen_, 22-28.
+
+[31] He was "for the law, but agin' its enforcement."
+
+[32] _Select Cases of Conscience Touching Witches and Witchcraft_
+(London, 1646).
+
+[33] _Ibid._, 92.
+
+[34] _Ibid._, 94, 97. That Gaule was a Puritan, as has been asserted,
+appears from nothing in his book. If he dedicated his _Select Cases_ to
+his townsman Colonel Walton, a brother-in-law of Cromwell, and his
+_Mag-astro-mancer_ (a later diatribe against current superstitions) to
+Oliver himself, there is nothing in his prefatory letters to show him of
+their party. Nor does the tone of his writings suggest a Calvinist. That
+in 1649 we find Gaule chosen to preach before the assizes of Huntingdon
+points perhaps only to his popularity as a leader of the reaction
+against the work of Hopkins.
+
+[35] _Antidote to Atheisme_, 129.
+
+[36] _Ibid._, 127-130.
+
+[37] _Ibid._, ch. VIII, 134.
+
+[38] _Ibid._, 135.
+
+[39] See p. 118. This _Treatise_ was first published in 1655. Four years
+later, in 1659, he published _A True and faithful Relation of what
+passed ... between Dr. John Dee, ... and some spirits_. In the preface
+to this he announced his intention of writing the work which he later
+published as _Of Credulity and Incredulity_.
+
+[40] In passing we must mention Richard Farnworth, who in 1655 issued a
+pamphlet called _Witchcraft Cast out from the Religious Seed and Israel
+of God_. Farnworth was a Quaker, and wrote merely to warn his brethren
+against magic and sorcery. He never questioned for a moment the facts of
+witchcraft and sorcery, nor the Devil's share in them. As for the
+witches, they were doomed everlastingly to the lake of fire.
+
+[41] _Daemonologie and Theologie. The first, the Malady ..., The Second,
+The Remedy_ (London, 1650).
+
+[42] _Ibid._, 42.
+
+[43] _Ibid._, 16.
+
+[44] See the Introduction to the _Advertisement_.
+
+[45] Filmer noted further that the Septuagint translates the Hebrew word
+for witch as "an Apothecary, a Druggister, one that compounds poysons."
+
+[46] London, 1656.
+
+[47] In Ady's second edition, _A Perfect Discovery of Witches_ (1661),
+134, Gaule's book having meanwhile come into his hands, he speaks of
+Gaule as "much inclining to the Truth" and yet swayed by traditions and
+the authority of the learned. He adds, "Mr. Gaule, if this work of mine
+shall come to your hand, as yours hath come to mine, be not angry with
+me for writing God's Truth."
+
+[48] "... few men or women being tied hand and feet together can sink
+quite away till they be drowned" (_Candle in the Dark_, 100); "... very
+few people in the World are without privie Marks" (_Ibid._, 127).
+
+[49] _Ibid._, 129.
+
+[50] In giving "The Reason of the Book" he wrote, "The Grand Errour of
+these latter Ages is ascribing power to Witches."
+
+[51] See a recent discussion of a nearly related topic by Professor
+Elmer Stoll in the _Publications_ of the Modern Language Association,
+XXII, 201-233. Of the attitude of the English dramatists before
+Shakespeare something may be learned from Mr. L. W. Cushman's _The Devil
+and the Vice in the English Dramatic Literature before Shakespeare_
+(Halle, 1900).
+
+[52] About 1622 or soon after.
+
+[53] See, for instance, Mr. W. S. Johnson's introduction to his edition
+of _The Devil is an Ass_ (New York, 1905).
+
+[54] 1634. This play was written, of course, in cooperation with Brome;
+see above, pp. 158-160. For other expressions of Heywood's opinions on
+witchcraft see his _Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels_, 598, and his
+[Greek: GYNAIKEION]: _or Nine Books of Various History concerning Women_
+(London, 1624), lib. viii, 399, 407, etc.
+
+[55] Act I, scene 1.
+
+[56] In another part of the same scene: "They that thinke so dreame,"
+_i. e._ they who believe in witchcraft.
+
+[57] First published in 1621--I use, however, Shilleto's ed. of London,
+1893, which follows that of 1651-1652; see pt. I, sect. II, memb. I,
+sub-sect. 3.
+
+[58] James Howell, _Familiar Letters_, II, 548.
+
+[59] His _Advice to a Son_, first published in 1656-1658, went through
+edition after edition. It is very entertaining. His strongly enforced
+advice not to marry made a sensation among young Oxford men.
+
+[60] _Works of Francis Osborne_ (London, 1673), 551-553.
+
+[61] _Works of Bacon_ (ed. Spedding, London, 1857-1858), II, 642-643.
+
+[62] "The ointment that witches use is reported to be made of the fat of
+children digged out of their graves; of the juices of smallage,
+wolf-bane, and cinque-foil, mingled with the meal of fine wheat; but I
+suppose that the soporiferous medicines are likest to do it." See _Sylva
+Sylvarum_, cent. X, 975, in _Works_, ed. Spedding, II, 664. But even
+this passage shows Bacon a skeptic. His suggestion that the soporiferous
+medicines are likest to do it means that he thinks the delusions of
+witches subjective and produced by drugs. For other references to the
+subject see _Works_, II, 658, 660; VII, 738.
+
+[63] _De Argumentis_, bk. II, ch. II, in _Works_, IV, 296; see also
+_ibid._, III, 490.
+
+[64] _Advancement of Learning_, bk. II; _ibid._, III, 490.
+
+[65] _Works_, IV, 400-401.
+
+[66] _Ibid._, IV, 296.
+
+[67] Selden, _Table Talk_ (London, 1689). The book is supposed to have
+been written during the last twenty years of Selden's life, that is,
+between 1634 and 1654.
+
+[68] Selden, _Table Talk_, _s. v._ "Witches."
+
+[69] Nor did Selden believe in possessions. See his essay on Devils in
+the _Table Talk_.
+
+[70] See article on Hobbes in _Dict. Nat. Biog._
+
+[71] See, for example, Bishop Burnet's _History of his Own Time_
+(Oxford, 1823), I, 172, 322-323.
+
+[72] _Leviathan_ (1651), 7. See also his _Dialogue of the Common Laws of
+England_, in _Works_ (ed. of London, 1750), 626: "But I desire not to
+discourse of that subject; for, though without doubt there is some great
+Wickedness signified by those Crimes, yet have I ever found myself too
+dull to conceive the nature of them, or how the Devil hath power to do
+many things which Witches have been accused of." See also his chapter on
+Daemonology in the _Leviathan_, in _Works_, 384.
+
+[73] He continues, "Some doe maintaine (but how wisely let the wiser
+judge) that all Witchcraft spoken of either by holy writers, or
+testified by other writers to have beene among the heathen or in later
+daies, hath beene and is no more but either meere Cousinage [he had been
+reading Scot], or Collusion, so that in the opinion of those men, the
+Devill hath never done, nor can do anything by Witches." _The Witches of
+Northamptonshire, ..._ A 4.
+
+[74] Potts, _The Wonderfull Discoverie ..._, X 4 verso.
+
+[75] Fairfax, _A Discourse of Witchcraft_ (Philobiblon Soc.), 12.
+
+[76] _Ibid._, 20.
+
+[77] One notable instance must be mentioned. "H. F.," the narrator of
+the Essex affair of 1645 (_A true and exact Relation_) not only
+recognized the strong position of those who doubted, but was by no means
+extreme himself. "I doubt not," he wrote, "but these things may seeme as
+incredible unto some, as they are matter of admiration unto others....
+The greatest doubt and question will be, whether it be in the power of
+the Devil to perform such asportation and locall translation of the
+bodies of Witches.... And whether these supernaturall works, which are
+above the power of man to do, and proper only to Spirits, whether they
+are reall or only imaginary and fained." The writer concludes that the
+Devil has power to dispose and transport bodies, but, as to changing
+them into animals, he thinks these are "but jugling transmutations."
+
+[78] _The most true and wonderfull Narration of two women bewitched in
+Yorkshire; ..._ (1658).
+
+[79] "Relation of a Memorable Piece of Witchcraft at Welton near
+Daventry," in Glanvill, _Sadducismus Triumphatus_ (London, 1681), pt.
+ii, 263-268.
+
+[80] See above, pp. 179-180, for an expression about the persecution in
+1645.
+
+[81] _Mercurius Democritus_, February 8-15, 1654.
+
+[82] 1648. This must be distinguished from _The Divels Delusion ..._,
+1649, (see above, ch. IX, note 8), which deals with two witches executed
+at St. Alban's.
+
+[83] The truth is that the newspapers, pamphlets, etc., were full of
+such stories. And they were believed by many intelligent men. He who
+runs through Whitelocke's _Memorials_ may read that the man was
+exceeding superstitious. Whether it be the report of the horseman seen
+in the air or the stories of witches at Berwick, Whitelocke was equally
+interested. While he was merely recording the reports of others, there
+is not a sign of skepticism.
+
+[84] See above, pp. 152-157.
+
+[85] See above, pp. 160-162.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+WITCHCRAFT UNDER CHARLES II AND JAMES II.
+
+
+No period of English history saw a wider interest in both the theory and
+the practice of witchcraft than the years that followed the Restoration.
+Throughout the course of the twenty-eight years that spanned the second
+rule of the Stuarts, the Devil manifested himself in many forms and with
+unusual frequency. Especially within the first half of that regime his
+appearances were so thrilling in character that the enemies of the new
+king might very well have said that the Evil One, like Charles, had come
+to his own again. All over the realm the witches were popping up. If the
+total number of trials and of executions did not foot up to the figures
+of James I's reign or to those of the Civil War, the alarm was
+nevertheless more widely distributed than ever before. In no less than
+twenty counties of England witches were discovered and fetched to court.
+Up to this time, so far at any rate as the printed records show, the
+southwestern counties had been but little troubled. Now Somerset, Devon,
+and Cornwall were the storm centre of the panic. In the north Yorkshire
+began to win for itself the reputation as a centre of activity that had
+long been held by Lancashire. Not that the witch was a new criminal in
+Yorkshire courts. During the Civil Wars and the troubled years that
+followed the discoverers had been active. But with the reign of Charles
+II their zeal increased mightily. Yet, if they had never before fetched
+in so many "suspected parties" to the court of the justice of the
+peace, they had never before been so often baffled by the outcome. Among
+the many such cases known to us during this time there is no mention of
+a conviction.[1] In Kent there was a flickering revival of the old
+hatred of witches. In the year that Charles gained the throne the city
+of Canterbury sent some women to the gibbet. Not so in Essex. In that
+county not a single case during this period has been left on record. In
+Middlesex, a county which from the days of Elizabeth through to the
+Restoration had maintained a very even pace--a stray conviction now and
+then among many acquittals--the reign of Charles II saw nothing more
+serious than some commitments and releases upon bail. In the Midland
+counties, where superstition had flourished in the days of James I,
+there were now occasional tales of possession and vague charges which
+rarely reached the ears of the assize judges. Northampton, where an
+incendiary witch was sentenced, constituted the single exception. In
+East Anglia there was just enough stir to prove that the days of Matthew
+Hopkins had not been forgotten.
+
+It needs no pointing out that a large proportion of the cases were but a
+repetition of earlier trials. If a difference is discernible, it is in
+the increased number of accusations that took their start in strange
+diseases called possessions. Since the close of the sixteenth century
+and the end of John Darrel's activities, the accounts of possession had
+fallen off sensibly, but the last third of the seventeenth century saw a
+distinct revival of this tendency to assign certain forms of disease to
+the operation of the Devil. We have references to many cases, but only
+in exceptional instances are the details given. Oliver Heywood, one of
+the eminent Dissenters of northern England, fasted and prayed with his
+co-workers over the convulsive and hysterical boys and girls in the West
+Riding. Nathan Dodgson was left after long fastings in "a very sensible
+melting frame,"[2] but the troubles returned and led, as we shall see in
+another connection, to very tragic results. The Puritan clergymen do not
+seem, however, to have had any highly developed method of exorcism or to
+have looked upon cases of possession in a light very different from that
+in which they would have looked upon ordinary illnesses.
+
+Among the Baptists of Yorkshire there was a possession that roused wide
+comment. Mary Hall of Little Gaddesden in Hertfordshire, daughter of a
+smith, was possessed in the fall of 1663 with two spirits who were said
+to have come to her riding down the chimney upon a stick. The spirits
+declared through the girl that Goodwife Harwood had sent them, and when
+that suspected woman was brought into the girl's presence the spirits
+cried out, "Oh, Goodwife Harwood, are you come?--that is well; ... we
+have endeavored to choak her but cannot," and, when Mistress Harwood
+left, the spirits begged to go with her.[3]
+
+In Southwark James Barrow, the son of John Barrow, was long possessed,
+and neither "doctors, astrologers, nor apothecaries" could help him. He
+was taken to the Catholics, but to no purpose. Finally he was cast among
+a "poor dispirited people whom the Lord owned as instruments in his hand
+to do this great work."[4] By the "poor dispirited people" the Baptists
+were almost certainly meant.[5] By their assistance he seems to have
+been cured. So also was Hannah Crump of Warwick, who had been afflicted
+by witchcraft and put in a London hospital. Through prayer and fasting
+she was entirely recovered.
+
+Mary Hall had been taken to Doctor Woodhouse of Berkhampstead, "a man
+famous for curing bewitched persons." Woodhouse's name comes up now and
+again in the records of his time. He was in fact a very typical specimen
+of the witch doctor. When Mary Hall's case had been submitted to him he
+had cut off the ends of her nails and "with somewhat he added" hung them
+in the chimney over night before making a diagnosis.[6] He professed to
+find stolen goods as well and fell foul of the courts in one instance,
+probably because the woman who consulted him could not pay the shilling
+fee.[7] He was arraigned and spent a term in prison. No doubt many of
+the witch physicians knew the inside of prisons and had returned
+afterwards to successful practice. Redman, "whom some say is a
+Conjurer, others say, He is an honest and able phisitian," had been in
+prison, but nevertheless he had afterwards "abundance of Practice" and
+was much talked about "in remote parts," all this in spite of the fact
+that he was "unlearned in the languages."[8]
+
+Usually, of course, the witch doctor was a poor woman who was very happy
+to get a penny fee now and then, but who ran a greater risk of the
+gallows than her male competitors. Her reputation, which brought her a
+little money from the sick and from those who had lost valuables, made
+her at the same time a successful beggar. Those whom she importuned were
+afraid to refuse her. But she was in constant peril. If she resented ill
+treatment, if she gave in ill wishes as much as she took, she was sure
+to hear from it before a stern justice of the peace. It can hardly be
+doubted that a large proportion, after the Restoration as in every other
+period, of those finally hanged for witchcraft, had in fact made claims
+to skill in magic arts. Without question some of them had even traded on
+the fear they inspired. Not a few of the wretched creatures fetched to
+York castle to be tried were "inchanters."
+
+Very often, indeed, a woman who was nothing more than a midwife, with
+some little knowledge of medicine perhaps, would easily be classed by
+the public among the regular witch doctors and so come to have a bad
+name. Whether she lived up to her name or not--and the temptation to do
+so would be great--she would from that time be subject to suspicion, and
+might at length become a prey to the justice of the peace. Mrs. Pepper
+was no more than a midwife who made also certain simple medical
+examinations, but when one of her patients was "strangely handled" she
+was taken to court.[9] Margaret Stothard was probably, so far as we can
+piece together her story, a woman who had been successful in calming
+fretful children and had so gained for herself a reputation as a witch.
+Doubtless she had acquired in time a few of the charmer's tricks that
+enhanced her reputation and increased her practice. This was all very
+well until one of her patients happened to die. Then she was carried to
+Newcastle and would probably have suffered death, had it not been for a
+wise judge.[10]
+
+These are typical cases. The would-be healer of the sick ran a risk, and
+it was not always alone from failure to cure. If a witch doctor found
+himself unable to bring relief to a patient, it was easy to suggest that
+some other witch doctor--and such were usually women--was bewitching the
+patient. There are many instances, and they are not confined to the
+particular period with which we are dealing, in which one "good witch"
+started the run on the other's reputation. Even the regular physician
+may sometimes have yielded to the temptation to crush competition.
+
+Of course, when all the cases are considered, only a very small part of
+the "good witches" ever fell into the clutches of the law. The law
+prescribed very definite penalties for their operations, but in most
+instances no action was taken until after a long accumulation of
+"suspicious circumstances," and, even if action was taken, the chances,
+as we have seen, were by this time distinctly in favor of the accused.
+
+This is not to say, by any means, that the judges and juries of England
+had come over to the side of the witch. The period with which we are
+dealing was marked by a variety of decision which betrays the perplexity
+of judges and juries. It is true, indeed, that out of from eighty to one
+hundred cases where accusations are on record less than twenty witches
+were hanged. This does not mean that six times out of every seven the
+courts were ruling against the fact of witchcraft. In the case of the
+six released there was no very large body of evidence against them to be
+considered, or perhaps no strong popular current to be stemmed. In
+general, it may be said that the courts were still backing up the law of
+James I.
+
+To show this, it is only necessary to run over some of the leading
+trials of the period. We shall briefly take up four trials conducted
+respectively by Justice Archer, Chief Baron Hale, Justice Rainsford, and
+Justice Raymond.
+
+Julian Cox, who was but one of the "pestilent brood" of witches ferreted
+out in Somerset by the aggressive justice, Robert Hunt, was tried in
+1663 at Taunton before Justice Archer.[11] The charges against her
+indeed excited such interest all over England, and elicited, upon the
+part of disbelievers, so much derision, that it will be worth our while
+to go over the principal points of evidence. The chief witness against
+her was a huntsman who told a strange tale. He had started a hare and
+chased it behind a bush. But when he came to the bush he had found
+Julian Cox there, stooped over and quite out of breath. Another witness
+had a strange story to tell about her. She had invited him to come up on
+her porch and take a pipe of tobacco with her. While he was with her,
+smoking, he saw a toad between his legs. On going home he had taken out
+a pipe and smoked again and had again seen what looked to be the same
+toad between his legs. "He took the Toad out to kill it, and to his
+thinking cut it in several pieces, but returning to his Pipe the Toad
+still appeared.... At length the Toad cryed, and vanish'd." A third
+witness had seen the accused fly in at her window "in her full
+proportion." This tissue of evidence was perhaps the absurdest ever used
+against even a witch, but the jury brought in a verdict of guilty. It is
+not unpleasant to know that Justice Archer met with a good deal of
+criticism for his part in the affair.
+
+In the following year occurred the trials at Bury St. Edmunds, which
+derive their interest and importance largely from the position of the
+presiding judge, Sir Matthew Hale, who was at this time chief baron of
+the exchequer, and was later to be chief justice of the king's bench. He
+was allowed, according to the admission of one none too friendly to him,
+"on all hands to be the most profound lawyer of his time."[12] Hale had
+been a Puritan from his youth, though not of the rigid or theologically
+minded sort. In the Civil Wars and the events that followed he had
+remained non-partisan. He accepted office from Cromwell, though without
+doubt mildly sympathizing with the king. One of those who had assisted
+in recalling Charles II, he rose shortly to be chief baron of the
+exchequer. Famous for his careful and reasoned interpretation of law, he
+was to leave behind him a high reputation for his justice and for the
+exceptional precision of his judgments. It is not too much to say that
+he was one of the greatest legal figures of his century and that his
+decisions served in no small degree to fix the law.
+
+We should like to know how far he had been brought into contact with the
+subject of witchcraft, but we can do no more than guess. His early
+career had been moulded in no small degree by Selden, who, as has been
+noted in an earlier chapter, believed in the punishment of those who
+claimed to be witches. It is not unreasonable to suppose that the
+Puritans with whom he had been thrown were all of them ready to quote
+Scripture against the minions of Satan. We know that he had read some of
+the works of Henry More,[13] and, whether or not familiar with his
+chapters on witchcraft, would have deduced from that writer's general
+philosophy of spirits the particular application.
+
+The trial concerned two women of Lowestoft, Amy Duny and Rose Cullender.
+The first had been reputed a witch and a "person of very evil
+behaviour." She was in all probability related to some of those women
+who had suffered at the hands of Hopkins, and to that connection owed
+her ill name. Some six or seven years before the date of the trial she
+had got herself into trouble while taking care of the child of a
+tradesman in Lowestoft. It would seem that, contrary to the orders of
+the mother, she had suckled the child. The child had that same night
+been attacked by fits, and a witch doctor of Yarmouth, who was
+consulted, had prescribed for it. The reader will note that this
+"suspicious circumstance" happened seven years earlier, and a large part
+of the evidence presented in court concerned what had occurred from five
+to seven years before.
+
+We can not go into the details of a trial which abounded in curious bits
+of evidence. The main plot indeed was an old one. The accused woman,
+after she had been discharged from employment and reproved, had been
+heard to mutter threats, close upon which the children of those she
+cursed, who were now the witnesses against her, had fallen ill. Two of
+the children had suffered severely and were still afflicted. They had
+thrown up pins and even a two-penny nail. The nail, which was duly
+offered as an exhibit in court, had been brought to one of the children
+by a bee and had been forced into the child's mouth, upon which she
+expelled it. This narrative was on a level with the other, that flies
+brought crooked pins to the child. Both flies and bee, it will be
+understood, were the witches in other form. A similar sort of evidence
+was that a toad, which had been found as the result of the witch
+doctor's directions, had been thrown into the fire, upon which a sharp
+crackling noise ensued. When this incident was testified to in the court
+the judge interrupted to ask if after the explosion the substance of the
+toad was not to be seen in the fire. He was answered in the negative. On
+the next day Amy Duny was found to have her face and body all scorched.
+She said to the witness that "she might thank her for it." There can be
+no doubt in the world that this testimony of the coincident burning of
+the woman and the toad was regarded as damning proof, nor is there any
+reason to believe that the court deemed it necessary to go behind the
+mere say-so of a single witness for the fact. Along with this sort of
+unsubstantial testimony there was presented a monotonous mass of
+spectral evidence. Apparitions of the witches were the constant
+occasions for the paroxysms of the children. In another connection it
+will be observed that this form of proof was becoming increasingly
+common in the last part of the seventeenth century. It can hardly be
+doubted that in one way or another the use of such evidence at Bury
+influenced other trials and more particularly the Salem cases in the New
+World, where great importance was attached to evidence of this sort.
+
+The usual nauseating evidence as to the Devil's marks was introduced by
+the testimony of the mother of one of the children bewitched. She had
+been, a month before, a member of a jury of matrons appointed by a
+justice of the peace to examine the body of the accused. Most damning
+proof against the woman had been found. It is very hard for us to
+understand why Hale allowed to testify, as one of the jury of examining
+matrons, a woman who was at the same time mother of one of the bewitched
+children upon whom the prosecution largely depended.
+
+So far the case for the prosecution had been very strong, but it was in
+the final experiments in court, which were expected to clinch the
+evidence, that a very serious mishap occurred. A bewitched child, eleven
+years old, had been fetched into court. With eyes closed and head
+reclining upon the bar she had remained quiet until one of the accused
+was brought up, when she at once became frantic in her effort to scratch
+her. This was tried again and again and in every instance produced the
+same result. The performance must have had telling effect. But there
+happened to be present at the trial three Serjeants of the law. One of
+them, Serjeant John Kelyng, a few years later to become chief justice of
+the king's bench, was "much dissatisfied." He urged the point that the
+mere fact that the children were bewitched did not establish their claim
+to designate the authors of their misfortune. There were others present
+who agreed with Kelyng in suspecting the actions of the girl on the
+stand. Baron Hale was induced, at length, to appoint a committee of
+several gentlemen, including Serjeant Kelyng, to make trial of the girl
+with her eyes covered. An outside party was brought up to her and
+touched her hand. The girl was expecting that Amy Duny would be brought
+up and flew into the usual paroxysms. This was what the committee had
+expected, and they declared their belief that the whole transaction was
+a mere imposture. One would have supposed that every one else must come
+to the same conclusion, but Mr. Pacy, the girl's father, offered an
+explanation of her mistake that seems to have found favor. The maid, he
+said, "might be deceived by a suspicion that the Witch touched her when
+she did not." One would suppose that this subtle suggestion would have
+broken the spell, and that Mr. Pacy would have been laughed out of
+court. Alas for the rarity of humor in seventeenth-century court rooms!
+Not only was the explanation received seriously, but it was, says the
+court reporter, afterwards found to be true.
+
+In the mean time expert opinion had been called in. It is hard to say
+whether Dr. Browne had been requisitioned for the case or merely
+happened to be present. At all events, he was called upon to render his
+opinion as a medical man. The name of Thomas Browne is one eminent in
+English literature and not unknown in the annals of English medicine and
+science. More than twenty years earlier he had expressed faith in the
+reality of witchcraft.[14] In his _Commonplace Book_, a series of
+jottings made throughout his life, he reiterated his belief, but uttered
+a doubt as to the connection between possession and witchcraft.[15]
+
+We should be glad to know at what time Browne wrote this deliverance;
+for, when called upon at Bury, he made no application of his principles
+of caution. He gave it as his opinion that the bewitchment of the two
+girls was genuine. The vomiting of needles and nails reminded him very
+much of a recent case in Denmark. For the moment the physician spoke,
+when he said that "these swounding Fits were Natural." But it was the
+student of seventeenth-century theology who went on: they were
+"heightened to a great excess by the subtilty of the Devil, co-operating
+with the Malice of these which we term Witches, at whose Instance he
+doth these Villanies."
+
+No doubt Browne's words confirmed the sentiment of the court room and
+strengthened the case of the prosecution. But it will not be overlooked
+by the careful reader that he did not by any means commit himself as to
+the guilt of the parties at the bar.
+
+When the judge found that the prisoners had "nothing material" to say
+for themselves he addressed the jury. Perhaps because he was not
+altogether clear in his own mind about the merits of the case, he
+refused to sum up the evidence. It is impossible for us to understand
+why he did not carry further the tests which had convinced Kelyng of the
+fraud, or why he did not ask questions which would have uncovered the
+weakness of the testimony. One cannot but suspect that North's criticism
+of him, that he had a "leaning towards the Popular" and that he had
+gained such "transcendent" authority as not easily to bear
+contradiction,[16] was altogether accurate. At all events he passed over
+the evidence and went on to declare that there were two problems before
+the jury: (1) were these children bewitched, (2) were the prisoners at
+the bar guilty of it? As to the existence of witches, he never doubted
+it. The Scriptures affirmed it, and all nations provided laws against
+such persons.
+
+On the following Sunday Baron Hale composed a meditation upon the
+subject. Unfortunately it was simply a dissertation on Scripture texts
+and touched upon the law at no point.
+
+It is obvious enough to the most casual student that Sir Matthew Hale
+had a chance to anticipate the work of Chief Justice Holt and missed it.
+In the nineties of the seventeenth century, as we shall see, there was a
+man in the chief justiceship who dared to nullify the law of James I. It
+is not too much to say that Matthew Hale by a different charge to the
+jury could as easily have made the current of judicial decisions run in
+favor of accused witches all over England. His weight was thrown in the
+other direction, and the witch-triers for a half-century to come invoked
+the name of Hale.[17]
+
+There is an interesting though hardly trustworthy story told by Speaker
+Onslow[18]--writing a century later--that Hale "was afterwards much
+altered in his notions as to this matter, and had great concern upon him
+for what had befallen these persons." This seems the more doubtful
+because there is not a shred of proof that Hale's decisions occasioned a
+word of criticism among his contemporaries.[19] So great, indeed, was
+the spell of his name that not even a man like John Webster dared to
+comment upon his decision. Not indeed until nearly the middle of the
+eighteenth century does anyone seem to have felt that the decision
+called for apology.
+
+The third noteworthy ruling in this period anent the crime of witchcraft
+was made a few years later in Wiltshire by Justice Rainsford. The story,
+as he himself told it to a colleague, was this: "A Witch was brought to
+Salisbury and tried before him. Sir James Long came to his Chamber, and
+made a heavy Complaint of this Witch, and said that if she escaped, his
+Estate would not be worth any Thing; for all the People would go away.
+It happen'd that the Witch was acquitted, and the Knight continued
+extremely concern'd; therefore the Judge, to save the poor Gentleman's
+Estate, order'd the Woman to be kept in Gaol, and that the Town should
+allow her 2s. 6d. per Week; for which he was very thankful. The very
+next Assizes, he came to the Judge to desire his lordship would let her
+come back to the Town. And why? They could keep her for 1s. 6d. there;
+and, in the Gaol, she cost them a shilling more."[20] Another case
+before Justice Rainsford showed him less lenient. By a mere chance we
+have a letter, written at the time by one of the justices of the peace
+in Malmesbury, which sheds no little light on this affair and on the
+legal status of witchcraft at that time.[21] A certain Ann Tilling had
+been taken into custody on the complaint of Mrs. Webb of Malmesbury. The
+latter's son had swooning fits in which he accused Ann of bewitching
+him. Ann Tilling made voluble confession, implicating Elizabeth Peacock
+and Judith Witchell, who had, she declared, inveigled her into the
+practice of their evil arts. Other witches were named, and in a short
+time twelve women and two men were under accusation. But the alderman
+of Malmesbury, who was the chief magistrate of that town, deemed it wise
+before going further to call in four of the justices of the peace in
+that subdivision of the county. Three of these justices of the peace
+came and listened to the confessions, and were about to make out a
+mittimus for sending eleven of the accused to Salisbury, when the fourth
+justice arrived, the man who has given us the story. He was, according
+to his own account, not "very credulous in matters of Witchcraft," and
+he made a speech to the other justices. "Gentlemen, what is done at this
+place, a Borough remote from the centre of this large County, and almost
+forty miles from Salisbury, will be expended [_sic_] both by the
+Reverend Judges, the learned Counsayle there ..., and the Gentry of the
+body of the County, so that if anything be done here rashly, it will be
+severely censured." He went on to urge the danger that the boy whose
+fits were the cause of so much excitement might be an impostor, and that
+Ann Tilling, who had freely confessed, might be in confederacy with the
+parents. The skeptical justice, who in spite of his boasted incredulity
+was a believer in the reality of witchcraft, was successful with his
+colleagues. All the accused were dismissed save Tilling, Peacock, and
+Witchell. They were sent to Salisbury and tried before Sir Richard
+Rainsford. Elizabeth Peacock, who had been tried on similar charges
+before, was dismissed. The other two were sentenced to be hanged.[22]
+
+Ten years later came a fourth remarkable ruling against witchcraft, this
+time by Justice Raymond at Exeter. During the intervening years there
+had been cases a-plenty in England and a few hangings, but none that had
+attracted comment. It was not until the summer of 1682, when three
+Devonshire women were arraigned, tried, and sent to the gallows by
+Justice Raymond,[23] that the public again realized that witchcraft was
+still upheld by the courts.
+
+The trials in themselves had no very striking features. At least two of
+the three women had been beggars; the other, who had been the first
+accused and who had in all probability involved her two companions, had
+on two different occasions before been arraigned but let off. The
+evidence submitted against them consisted of the usual sworn statements
+made by neighbors to the justice of the peace, as well as of hardly
+coherent confessions by the accused. The repetition of the Lord's Prayer
+was gone through with and the results of examinations by a female jury
+were detailed _ad nauseam_. The poor creatures on trial were remarkably
+stupid, even for beings of their grade. Their several confessions
+tallied with one another in hardly a single point.
+
+Sir Thomas Raymond and Sir Francis North were the judges present at the
+Exeter assizes. Happily the latter has left his impressions of this
+trial.[24] He admits that witch trials worried him because the evidence
+was usually slight, but the people very intent upon a verdict of guilty.
+He was very glad that at Exeter his colleague who sat upon the "crown
+side" had to bear the responsibilities.[25] The two women (he seems to
+have known of no more) were scarce alive as to sense and understanding,
+but were "overwhelm'd with melancholy and waking Dreams." Barring
+confessions, the other evidence he considered trifling, and he cites the
+testimony of a witness that "he saw a cat leap in at her (the old
+woman's) window, when it was twilight; and this Informant farther saith
+that he verily believeth the said Cat to be the Devil, and more saith
+not." Raymond, declares his colleague, made no nice distinctions as to
+the possibility of melancholy women contracting an opinion of themselves
+that was false, but left the matter to the jury.[26]
+
+We have already intimated that the rulings of the courts were by no
+means all of them adverse to the witches. Almost contemporaneous with
+the far-reaching sentence of Sir Matthew Hale at Bury were the trials in
+Somerset, where flies and nails and needles played a similar part, but
+where the outcome was very different. A zealous justice of the peace,
+Robert Hunt, had for the last eight years been on the lookout for
+witches. In 1663 he had turned Julian Cox over to the tender mercies of
+Justice Archer. By 1664 he had uncovered a "hellish knot" of the wicked
+women and was taking depositions against them, wringing confessions from
+them and sending them to gaol with all possible speed.[27] The women
+were of the usual class, a herd of poor quarrelsome, bickering females
+who went from house to house seeking alms. In the numbers of the accused
+the discovery resembled that at Lancaster in 1633-1634, as indeed it did
+in other ways. A witch meeting or conventicle was confessed to. The
+county was being terrified and entertained by the most horrible tales,
+when suddenly a quietus was put upon the affair "by some of them in
+authority." A witch chase, which during the Civil Wars would have led to
+a tragedy, was cut short, probably through the agency of a privy council
+less fearful of popular sentiment than the assize judges.
+
+The Mompesson case[28] was of no less importance in its time, although
+it belongs rather in the annals of trickery than in those of
+witchcraft. But the sensation which it caused in England and the
+controversy waged over it between the upholders of witchcraft and the
+"Sadducees," give the story a considerable interest and render the
+outcome of the trial significant. The only case of its sort in its time,
+it was nevertheless most typical of the superstition of the time. A
+little town in Wiltshire had been disturbed by a stray drummer. The
+self-constituted noise-maker was called to account by a stranger in the
+village, a Mr. Mompesson of Tedworth, who on examining the man's license
+saw that it had been forged and took it away from him. This, at any
+rate, was Mr. Mompesson's story as to how he had incurred the ill will
+of the man. The drummer took his revenge in a singular way. Within a few
+days the Mompesson family at Tedworth began to be annoyed at night by
+strange noises or drummings on the roofs. All the phenomena and
+manifestations which we associate with a modern haunted-house story were
+observed by this alarmed family of the seventeenth century. The little
+girls were knocked about in their beds at night, a stout servant was
+forcibly held hand and foot, the children's shoes were thrown about, the
+chairs glided about the room. It would seem that all this bold
+horse-play must soon have been exposed, but it went on merrily. Whenever
+any tune was called for, it was given on the drum. The family Bible was
+thrown upside down into the ashes. For three weeks, however, the spirits
+ceased operations during the lying-in of Mrs. Mompesson. But they
+sedulously avoided the family servants, especially when those retainers
+happened to be armed with swords. Well they might, for we are told that
+on one occasion, after a pistol shot had been fired at the place where
+they were heard, blood was found on the spot. In another instance,
+according to Mr. Mompesson's own account, there were seen figures, "in
+the shape of Men, who, as soon as a Gun was discharg'd, would shuffle
+away together into an Arbour."
+
+It is clear enough that a somewhat clumsy fraud was being imposed upon
+Mr. Mompesson. A contemporary writer tells us he was told that it was
+done by "two Young Women in the House with a design to scare thence Mr.
+Mompesson's Mother."[29] From other sources it is quite certain that the
+injured drummer had a hand in the affair. A very similar game had been
+played at Woodstock in 1649, and formed a comedy situation of which
+Scott makes brilliant use in his novel of that name. Indeed, it is quite
+possible that the drummer, who had been a soldier of Cromwell's, was
+inspired by a memory of that affair.
+
+But there was no one to detect the fraud, as at Woodstock. Tedworth
+became a Mecca for those interested in the supernatural. One of the
+visitors was Joseph Glanvill, at this time a young man of twenty-seven,
+later to become a member of the Royal Society and chaplain in ordinary
+to the king. The spirits were less noisy; they were always somewhat
+restrained before visitors, but scratched on bed sheets and panted in
+dog fashion, till Glanvill was thoroughly taken in. For the rest of his
+life this psychic experimenter fought a literary war over this case with
+those who made fun of it. While we cannot prove it, we may guess with
+some confidence that this episode was the beginning of the special
+interest in the supernatural upon Glanvill's part which was later to
+make him the arch-defender of the witchcraft superstition in his
+generation.
+
+How wide an interest the matter evoked may be judged from the warm
+discussions upon it at Cambridge, and from the royal interest in it
+which induced Charles to send down a committee of investigation.
+Curiously enough, the spirits were singularly and most extraordinarily
+quiet when the royal investigators were at work, a fact to which
+delighted skeptics pointed with satisfaction.
+
+One wonders that the drummer, who must have known that his name would be
+connected with the affair, failed to realize the risk he was running
+from the witch hunters. He was indicted on minor felonies of another
+sort, but the charges which Mompesson brought against him seem to have
+been passed over. The man was condemned for stealing and was
+transported. With his departure the troubles at Tedworth ceased. But the
+drummer, in some way, escaped and returned to England. The angry
+Mompesson now brought him to the assizes as a felon on the strength of
+the statute of James I. Unhappily we have no details of this trial, nor
+do we know even the name of the judge; but we do know that the jury gave
+a verdict of acquittal.
+
+In 1671 Cornwall was stirred up over a witch whose crimes were said to
+be directed against the state. She had hindered the English fleet in
+their war against the Dutch, she had caused a bull to kill one of the
+enemies in Parliament of the Non-Conformists, she had been responsible
+for the barrenness of the queen. And for all these political crimes the
+chief evidence was that some cats had been seen playing ("dancing") near
+her house. She was committed, along with several other women who were
+accused. Although at the assizes they were all proved to have had cats
+and rats about them, they went free.[30]
+
+In 1682, the same year in which the three women of Devonshire had been
+condemned, there was a trial at Southwark, just outside of London, which
+resulted in a verdict of acquittal. The case had many of the usual
+features, but in two points was unique. Joan Butts was accused of having
+bewitched a child that had been taken with fits.[31] Nineteen or twenty
+witnesses testified against the witch. One of the witnesses heard her
+say that, if she had not bewitched the child, if all the devils in hell
+could help her, she would bewitch it. Joan admitted the words, but said
+that she had spoken them in passion. She then turned on one of the
+witnesses and declared that he had given himself to the Devil, body and
+soul. Chief Justice Pemberton was presiding, and he called her to order
+for this attack on a witness, and then catechized her as to her means of
+knowing the fact. The woman had thoughtlessly laid herself open by her
+own words to the most serious suspicion. In spite of this, however, the
+jury brought her in not guilty, "to the great amazement of some, ... yet
+others who consider the great difficulty in proving a Witch, thought the
+jury could do no less than acquit her."
+
+This was, during the period, the one trial in or near London of which we
+have details. There can be no doubt that the courts in London and the
+vicinity were beginning to ignore cases of witchcraft. After 1670 there
+were no more trials of the sort in Middlesex.
+
+The reader will remember that Justice North had questioned the equity of
+Justice Raymond's decision at Exeter. He has told us the story of a
+trial at Taunton-Dean, where he himself had to try a witch.[32] A
+ten-year-old girl, who was taking strange fits and spitting out pins,
+was the witness against an old man whom she accused of bewitching her.
+The defendant made "a Defence as orderly and well expressed as I ever
+heard spoke." The judge then asked the justice of the peace who had
+committed the man his opinion. He said that he believed the girl,
+"doubling herself in her Fit, as being convulsed, bent her Head down
+close to her Stomacher, and with her Mouth, took Pins out of the Edge of
+that, and then, righting herself a little, spit them into some
+By-stander's Hands." "The Sum of it was Malice, Threatening, and
+Circumstances of Imposture in the Girl." As the judge went downstairs
+after the man had been acquitted, "an hideous old woman" cried to him,
+"My Lord, Forty Years ago they would have hang'd me for a Witch, and
+they could not; and now they would have hang'd my poor Son."
+
+The five cases we have cited, while not so celebrated as those on the
+other side, were quite as representative of what was going on in
+England. It is to be regretted that we have not the records by which to
+compute the acquittals of this period. In a large number of cases where
+we have depositions we have no statement of the outcome. This is
+particularly true of Yorkshire. As has been pointed out in the earlier
+part of the chapter, we can be sure that most of these cases were
+dismissed or were never brought to trial.
+
+When we come to the question of the forms of evidence presented during
+this period, we have a story that has been told before. Female juries,
+convulsive children or child pretenders, we have met them all before.
+Two or three differences may nevertheless be noted. The use of spectral
+evidence was becoming increasingly common. The spectres, as always,
+assumed weird forms. Nicholas Rames's wife (at Longwitton, in the north)
+saw Elizabeth Fenwick and the Devil dancing together.[33] A sick boy in
+Cornwall saw a "Woman in a blue Jerkin and Red Petticoat with Yellow and
+Green patches," who was quickly identified and put in hold.[34]
+Sometimes the spectres were more material. Jane Milburne of Newcastle
+testified that Dorothy Stranger, in the form of a cat, had leaped upon
+her and held her to the ground for a quarter of an hour.[35] A "Barber's
+boy" in Cambridge had escaped from a spectral woman in the isle of Ely,
+but she followed him to Cambridge and killed him with a blow. "He had
+the exact mark in his forehead, being dead, where the Spiritual Woman
+did hit him alive."[36] It is unnecessary to multiply cases. The
+_Collection of Modern Relations_ is full of the same sort of evidence.
+
+It has been seen that in nearly every epoch of witch history the
+voluntary and involuntary confessions of the accused had greatly
+simplified the difficulties of prosecution. The witches whom Matthew
+Hopkins discovered were too ready to confess to enormous and unnatural
+crimes. In this respect there is a marked change in the period of the
+later Stuarts. Elizabeth Style of Somerset in 1663 and the three
+Devonshire witches of 1682 were the only ones who made confessions.
+Elizabeth Style[37] had probably been "watched," in spite of Glanvill's
+statement to the contrary, perhaps somewhat in the same torturing way as
+the Suffolk witches whom Hopkins "discovered," and her wild confession
+showed the effect. The Devonshire women were half-witted creatures, of
+the type that had always been most voluble in confession; but such were
+now exceptions.
+
+This means one of two things. Either the witches of the Restoration were
+by some chance a more intelligent set, or they were showing more spirit
+than ever before because they had more supporters and fairer treatment
+in court. It is quite possible that both suppositions have in them some
+elements of truth. As the belief in the powers of witches developed in
+form and theory, it came to draw within its radius more groups of
+people. In its earlier stages the attack upon the witch had been in part
+the community's way of ridding itself of a disreputable member. By the
+time that the process of attack had been developed for a century, it had
+become less impersonal. Personal hatreds were now more often the
+occasion of accusation. Individual malice was playing a larger role. In
+consequence those who were accused were more often those who were
+capable of fighting for themselves or who had friends to back them. And
+those friends were more numerous and zealous because the attitude of the
+public and of the courts was more friendly to the accused witch. This
+explanation is at best, however, nothing more than a suggestion. We have
+not the material for confident generalization.
+
+One other form of evidence must be mentioned. The town of Newcastle,
+which in 1649 had sent to Scotland for a witchfinder, was able in 1673
+to make use of home-grown talent. In this instance it was a woman, Ann
+Armstrong, who implicated a score of her neighbors and at length went
+around pointing out witches. She was a smooth-witted woman who was
+probably taking a shrewd method of turning off charges against herself.
+Her testimony dealt with witch gatherings or conventicles held at
+various times and places. She told whom she had seen there and what they
+had said about their crimes. She told of their feasts and of their
+dances. Poor woman, she had herself been compelled to sing for them
+while they danced. Nor was this the worst. She had been terribly
+misused. She had been often turned into a horse, then bridled and
+ridden.[38]
+
+It would not be worth while to go further into Ann Armstrong's stories.
+It is enough to remark that she offered details, as to harm done to
+certain individuals in certain ways, which tallied closely with the
+sworn statements of those individuals as to what had happened to them at
+the times specified. The conclusion cannot be avoided that the female
+witchfinder had been at no small pains to get even such minute details
+in exact form. She had gathered together all the witch stories of that
+part of Northumberland and had embodied them in her account of the
+confessions made at the "conventicles."
+
+What was the ruling of the court on all this evidence we do not know. We
+have only one instance in which any evidence was ruled out. That was at
+the trial of Julian Cox in 1663. Justice Archer tried an experiment in
+that trial, but before doing so he explained to the court that no
+account was to be taken of the result in making up their verdict. He had
+heard that a witch could not repeat the petition in the Lord's Prayer,
+"Lead us not into temptation." The witch indeed failed to meet the
+test.[39]
+
+In the course of this period we have two trials that reveal a connection
+between witchcraft and other crimes. Perhaps it would be fairer to say
+that the charge of witchcraft was sometimes made when other crimes were
+suspected, but could not be proved. The first case concerned a rich
+farmer in Northamptonshire who had gained the ill will of a woman named
+Ann Foster. Thirty of his sheep were found dead with their "Leggs broke
+in pieces, and their Bones all shattered in their Skins." A little later
+his house and barns were set on fire. Ann Foster was brought to trial
+for using witchcraft against him, confessed to it, and was hanged.[40]
+
+The other case was at Brightling in Sussex, not far from London. There a
+woman who was suspected as the one who had told a servant that Joseph
+Cruther's house would be burned--a prophecy which came true very
+shortly--was accused as a witch. She had been accused years before at
+the Maidstone assizes, but had gone free. This time she was "watched"
+for twenty-four hours and four ministers kept a fast over the
+affair.[41]
+
+These cases are worth something as an indication that the charge of
+witchcraft was still a method of getting rid of people whom the
+community feared.
+
+At the beginning of this chapter the years 1660 to 1688 were marked off
+as constituting a single epoch in the history of the superstition. Yet
+those years were by no means characterized by the same sort of court
+verdicts. The sixties saw a decided increase over the years of the
+Commonwealth in the number of trials and in the number of executions.
+The seventies witnessed a rapid dropping off in both figures. Even more
+so the eighties. By the close of the eighties the accounts of witchcraft
+were exceedingly rare. The decisions of the courts in the matter were in
+a state of fluctuation. Two things were happening. The justices of the
+peace were growing much more reluctant to send accused witches to the
+assize courts; and the itinerant judges as a body were, in spite of the
+decisions of Hale and Raymond, more careful in witch trials than ever
+before, and more likely to withstand public sentiment.
+
+The changes of opinion, as reflected in the literature of the time,
+especially in the literature of the subject, will show the same
+tendencies. We shall take them up in the next chapter.
+
+
+[1] See Raine, ed., _York Depositions_ (Surtees Soc.), preface, xxx.
+
+[2] Joseph Hunter, _Life of Heywood_ (London, 1842), 167, and Heywood's
+_Diaries_, ed. J. H. Turner (Brighouse, 1881-1885), I, 199; III, 100.
+Heywood, who was one of the leading Dissenters of his time, must not be
+credited with extreme superstition. In noting the death of a boy whom
+his parents believed bewitched, he wrote, "Oh that they saw the lords
+hand." _Diary_, I, 287.
+
+[3] William Drage, _Daimonomageia_ (London, 1665), 32-38.
+
+[4] _The Lord's Arm Stretched Out, ... or a True Relation of the
+wonderful Deliverance of James Barrow ..._ (London, 1664).
+
+[5] Compare Drage, _op. cit._, 36, 39, 42, with _The Lord's Arm
+Stretched Out_, 17. Mary Hall, whose cure Drage celebrates, had friends
+among the Baptists. Drage seems to connect her case with those of Barrow
+and Hannah Crump, both of whom were helped by that "dispirited people"
+whom the author of _The Lord's Arm Stretched Out_ exalts.
+
+[6] Drage, _op. cit._, 34.
+
+[7] _Yorkshire Notes and Queries_, I (Bradford, 1885), 26. But a
+physician in Winchester Park, whom Hannah Crump had consulted, had asked
+five pounds to unbewitch her.
+
+[8] Drage, _op. cit._, 39.
+
+[9] _York Depositions_, 127.
+
+[10] See E. Mackenzie, _History of Northumberland_ (Newcastle, 1825),
+II, 33-36. We do not know that the woman was excused, but the case was
+before Henry Ogle and we may fairly guess the outcome.
+
+[11] Glanvill, _Sadducismus Triumphatus_, pt. ii, 191-209.
+
+[12] This is the estimate of him by North, who adds: "and he knew it."
+Roger North, _Life of the Rt. Hon. Francis North, Baron of Guilford ..._
+(London, 1742), 62-63.
+
+[13] _Diary and Correspondence of Dr. John Worthington_, II, pt. I
+(Chetham Soc., no. 36, 1855), 155.
+
+[14] In his _Religio Medici_. See _Sir Thomas Browne's Works_ (ed. S.
+Wilkin, London, 1851-1852), II, 43.
+
+[15] _Ibid._, IV, 389.
+
+[16] Roger North, _op. cit._, 61.
+
+[17] Inderwick has given a good illustration of Hale's weakness of
+character: "I confess," he says, "to a feeling of pain at finding him in
+October, 1660, sitting as a judge at the Old Bailey, trying and
+condemning to death batches of the regicides, men under whose orders he
+had himself acted, who had been his colleagues in parliament, with whom
+he had sat on committees to alter the law." _Interregnum_, 217-218.
+
+[18] _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, XIV, 9, p. 480.
+
+[19] Bishop Burnet, in his _Life and Death of Sir Matthew Hale_ (London,
+1682), does not seem to have felt called upon to mention the Bury trial
+at all. See also Lord Campbell, _Lives of the Chief Justices_ (London,
+1849), I, 563-567.
+
+[20] Roger North, _op. cit._, 130, 131. The story, as here told,
+ascribes the event to the year preceding Lord Guilford's first western
+circuit--_i. e._, to 1674. But this perhaps need not be taken too
+exactly, and the witch was probably that Elizabeth Peacock who was
+acquitted in 1670 and again in the case of 1672 described above. At
+least the list of "Indictments for witchcraft on the Western Circuit
+from 1670 to 1712," published by Inderwick in his _Sidelights on the
+Stuarts_ (London, 1888), shows no other acquittal in Wiltshire during
+this decade.
+
+[21] For this letter see the _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1832, pt. I,
+405-410, 489-402. The story is confirmed in part by Inderwick's finds in
+the western Gaol Delivery records. As to the trustworthiness of this
+unknown justice of the peace, see above, pp. 160, 162, and notes.
+
+[22] That the judge was Sir Richard Rainsford appears from Inderwick's
+list, mentioned above, note 20.
+
+[23] _A True and Impartial Relation of the Informations against ...
+Temperance Lloyd, Mary Trembles, and Susanna Edwards_ (London, 1682).
+And _The Tryal, Condemnation and Execution of Three Witches ..._
+(London, 1682). See also below, note 26, and appendix A, Sec. 6.
+
+[24] Roger North, _op. cit._, 130.
+
+[25] At a trial at the York assizes in 1687 Sir John Reresby seems to
+have played about the same part that North played at Exeter. Serjeant
+Powell, later to be chief justice, was presiding over the case. "An old
+woman was condemned for a witch. Those who were more credulous in points
+of this nature than myself, conceived the evidence to be very strong
+against her. The boy she was said to have bewitched fell down on a
+sudden before all the court when he saw her, and would then as suddenly
+return to himself again, and very distinctly relate the several injuries
+she had done him: but in all this it was observed the boy was free from
+any distortion; that he did not foam at the mouth, and that his fits did
+not leave him gradually, but all at once; so that, upon the whole, the
+judge thought it proper to reprieve her." _Memoirs and Travels of Sir
+John Reresby_ (London, 1813), 329.
+
+[26] There is indeed some evidence that Raymond wished not to condemn
+the women, but yielded nevertheless to public opinion. In a pamphlet
+published five years later it is stated that the judge "in his charge to
+the jury gave his Opinion that these three poor Women (as he supposed)
+were weary of their Lives, and that he thought it proper for them to be
+carryed to the Parish from whence they came, and that the Parish should
+be charged with their Maintainance; for he thought their oppressing
+Poverty had constrained them to wish for Death." Unhappily the neighbors
+made such an outcry that the women were found guilty and sentenced. This
+is from a later and somewhat untrustworthy account, but it fits in well
+with what North says of the case. _The Life and Conversation of
+Temperance Floyd, Mary Lloyd_ [sic], _and Susanna Edwards: ..._ (London,
+1687).
+
+[27] The second part of Glanvill's _Sadducismus Triumphatus_ is full of
+these depositions.
+
+[28] For a full account of this affair see Glanvill's _Sadducismus
+Triumphatus_, pt. ii, preface and Relation I. Glanvill had investigated
+the matter and had diligently collected all the evidence. He was
+familiar also with what the "deriders" had to say, and we can discover
+their point of view from his answers. See also John Beaumont, _An
+Historical, Physiological and Theological Treatise of Spirits,
+Apparitions, Witchcrafts, and other Magical Practices_ (London, 1705),
+307-309.
+
+[29] _Ibid._, 309.
+
+[30] _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1671_, 105, 171.
+
+[31] We have two accounts of this affair: _Strange and Wonderful News
+from Yowell in Surry_ (1681), and _An Account of the Tryal and
+Examination of Joan Buts_ (1682).
+
+[32] Roger North, _op. cit._, 131-132.
+
+[33] _York Depositions_, 247.
+
+[34] _A True Account ... of one John Tonken, of Pensans in Cornwall ..._
+(1686). For other examples of spectral evidence see _York Depositions_,
+88; Roberts, _Southern Counties_ (London, 1856), 525-526; _Gentleman's
+Magazine_, 1832, pt. II, 489.
+
+[35] _York Depositions_, 112, 113.
+
+[36] Drage, _Daimonomageia_, 12.
+
+[37] For an account of her case, see Glanvill, _Sadducismus
+Triumphatus_, pt. ii, 127-146.
+
+[38] _York Depositions_, 191-201.
+
+[39] For a complete account of the Julian Cox case see Glanvill,
+_Sadducismus Triumphatus_, pt. ii, 191-209.
+
+[40] _A Full and True Relation of the Tryal ... of Ann Foster ..._
+(London, 1674).
+
+[41] _Sussex Archaeological Collections_, XVIII, 111-113.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+GLANVILL AND WEBSTER AND THE LITERARY WAR OVER WITCHCRAFT, 1660-1688.
+
+
+In an earlier chapter we followed the progress of opinion from James I
+to the Restoration. We saw that in the course of little more than a
+half-century the centre of the controversy had been considerably
+shifted: we noted that there was a growing body of intelligent men who
+discredited the stories of witchcraft and were even inclined to laugh at
+them. It is now our purpose to go on with the history of opinion from
+the point at which we left off to the revolution of 1688. We shall
+discover that the body of literature on the subject was enormously
+increased. We shall see that a larger and more representative group of
+men were expressing themselves on the matter. The controversialists were
+no longer bushwhackers, but crafty warriors who joined battle after
+looking over the field and measuring their forces. The groundworks of
+philosophy were tested, the bases of religious faith examined. The days
+of skirmishing about the ordeal of water and the test of the Devil's
+marks were gone by. The combatants were now to fight over the reality or
+unreality of supernatural phenomena. We shall observe that the battle
+was less one-sided than ever before and that the assailants of
+superstition, who up to this time had been outnumbered, now fought on at
+least even terms with their enemies. We shall see too that the
+non-participants and onlookers were more ready than ever before to join
+themselves to the party of attack.
+
+The struggle was indeed a miniature war and in the main was fought very
+fairly. But it was natural that those who disbelieved should resort to
+ridicule. It was a form of attack to which their opponents exposed
+themselves by their faith in the utterly absurd stories of silly women.
+Cervantes with his Don Quixote laughed chivalry out of Europe, and there
+was a class in society that would willingly have laughed witchcraft out
+of England. Their onslaught was one most difficult to repel.
+Nevertheless the defenders of witchcraft met the challenge squarely.
+With unwearying patience and absolute confidence in their cause they
+collected the testimonies for their narratives and then said to those
+who laughed: Here are the facts; what are you going to do about them?
+
+The last chapter told of the alarms in Somerset and in Wilts and showed
+what a stir they produced in England. In connection with those affairs
+was mentioned the name of that brave researcher, Mr. Glanvill. The
+history of the witch literature of this period is little more than an
+account of Joseph Glanvill, of his opinions, of his controversies, of
+his disciples and his opponents. It is not too much to say that in
+Glanvill the superstition found its ablest advocate. In acuteness of
+logical distinction, in the cleverness and brilliance of his
+intellectual sword-play, he excelled all others before and after who
+sought to defend the belief in witchcraft. He was a man entitled to
+speak with some authority. A member of Exeter College at Oxford, he had
+been in 1664 elected a fellow of the recently founded Royal Society and
+was in sympathy with its point of view. At the same time he was a
+philosopher of no small influence in his generation.
+
+His intellectual position is not difficult to determine. He was an
+opponent of the Oxford scholasticism and inclined towards a school of
+thought represented by Robert Fludd, the two Vaughans, Henry More, and
+Van Helmont,[1] men who had drunk deeply of the cabalistic writers,
+disciples of Paracelsus and Pico della Mirandola. It would be foolhardy
+indeed for a layman to attempt an elucidation of the subtleties either
+of this philosophy or of the processes of Glanvill's philosophical
+reasoning. His point of view was partially unfolded in the _Scepsis
+Scientifica_, published in 1665[2] and dedicated to the Royal Society.
+In this treatise he pointed out our present ignorance of phenomena and
+our inability to determine their real character, owing to the
+subjectivity of our perceptions of them, and insisted consequently upon
+the danger of dogmatism. He himself had drawn but a cockle-shell of
+water from the ocean of knowledge. His notion of spirit--if his works on
+witchcraft may be trusted--seems to have been that it is a light and
+invisible form of matter capable of detachment from or infusion into
+more solid substances--precisely the idea of Henry More. Religiously, it
+would not be far wrong to call him a reconstructionist--to use a much
+abused and exceedingly modern term. He did not, indeed, admit the
+existence of any gap between religion and science that needed bridging
+over, but the trend of his teaching, though he would hardly have
+admitted it, was to show that the mysteries of revealed religion belong
+in the field of unexplored science.[3] It was his confidence in the far
+possibilities opened by investigation in that field, together with the
+cabalistic notions he had absorbed, which rendered him so willing to
+become a student of psychical phenomena.
+
+Little wonder, then, that he found the Mompesson and Somerset cases
+material to his hand and that he seized upon them eagerly as irrefutable
+proof of demoniacal agency. His first task, indeed, was to prove the
+alleged facts; these once established, they could be readily fitted into
+a comprehensive scheme of reasoning. In 1666 he issued a small volume,
+_Some Philosophical Considerations touching Witches and Witchcraft_.
+Most of the first edition was burned in the fire of London, but the book
+was reprinted. Already by 1668 it had reached a fourth impression.[4] In
+this edition the work took the new title _A Blow at Modern Sadducism_,
+and it was republished again in 1681 with further additions as
+_Sadducismus Triumphatus_, which might be translated "Unbelief
+Conquered."[5] The work continued to be called for faster than the
+publisher could supply the demand, and went through several more
+revisions and reimpressions. One of the most popular books of the
+generation, it proved to be Glanvill's greatest title to contemporary
+fame. The success of the work was no doubt due in large measure to the
+collection of witch stories; but these had been inserted by the author
+as the groundwork of his argument. He recognized, as no one on his side
+of the controversy had done before, the force of the arguments made by
+the opposition. They were good points, but to them all he offered one
+short answer--the evidence of proved fact.[6] That such transformations
+as were ascribed to the witches were ridiculous, that contracts between
+the Devil and agents who were already under his control were absurd,
+that the Devil would never put himself at the nod and beck of miserable
+women, and that Providence would not permit His children to be thus
+buffeted by the evil one: these were the current objections;[7] and to
+them all Glanvill replied that one positive fact is worth a thousand
+negative arguments. Innumerable frauds had been exposed. Yes, he knew
+it,[8] but here were well authenticated cases that were not fraud.
+Glanvill put the issue squarely. His confidence in his case at once wins
+admiration. He was thoroughly sincere. The fly in the ointment was of
+course that his best authenticated cases could not stand any careful
+criticism. He had been furnished the narratives which he used by "honest
+and honourable friends." Yet, if this scientific investigator could be
+duped, as he had been at Tedworth, much more those worthy but credulous
+friends whom he quoted.
+
+From a simple assertion that he was presenting facts Glanvill went on to
+make a plea used often nowadays in another connection by defenders of
+miracles. If the ordinary mind, he said, could not understand "every
+thing done by Mathematics and Mechanical Artifice,"[9] how much more
+would even the most knowing of us fail to understand the power of
+witches. This proposition, the reader can see, was nothing more than a
+working out of one of the principles of his philosophy. There can be no
+doubt that he would have taken the same ground about miracles,[10] a
+position that must have alarmed many of his contemporaries.
+
+In spite of his emphasis of fact, Glanvill was as ready as any to enter
+into a theological disquisition. Into those rarefied regions of thought
+we shall not follow him. It will perhaps not be out of order, however,
+to note two or three points that were thoroughly typical of his
+reasoning. To the contention that, if a wicked spirit could work harm by
+the use of a witch, it should be able to do so without any intermediary
+and so to harass all of mankind all of the time, he answered that the
+designs of demons are levelled at the soul and can in consequence best
+be carried on in secret.[11] To the argument that when one considers the
+"vileness of men" one would expect that the evil spirits would practise
+their arts not on a few but on a great many, he replied that men are not
+liable to be troubled by them till they have forfeited the "tutelary
+care and oversight of the better spirits," and, furthermore, spirits
+find it difficult to assume such shapes as are necessary for "their
+Correspondencie with Witches." It is a hard thing for spirits "to force
+their thin and tenuious bodies into a visible consistence.... For, in
+this Action, their Bodies must needs be exceedingly compress'd."[12] To
+the objection that the belief in evil beings makes it plausible that the
+miracles of the Bible were wrought by the agency of devils,[13] he
+replied that the miracles of the Gospel are notoriously contrary to the
+tendency, aims, and interests of the kingdom of darkness.[14] The
+suggestion that witches would not renounce eternal happiness for short
+and trivial pleasures here,[15] he silenced by saying that "Mankind acts
+sometimes to prodigious degrees of brutishness."
+
+It is needless to go further in quoting his arguments. Doubtless both
+questions and answers seem quibbles to the present-day reader, but the
+force of Glanvill's replies from the point of view of his contemporaries
+must not be underestimated. He was indeed the first defender of
+witchcraft who in any reasoned manner tried to clear up the problems
+proposed by the opposition. His answers were without question the best
+that could be given.
+
+It is easy for us to forget the theological background of
+seventeenth-century English thought. Given a personal Devil who is
+constantly intriguing against the kingdom of God (and who would then
+have dared to deny such a premise?), grant that the Devil has
+supernatural powers (and there were Scripture texts to prove it), and
+it was but a short step to the belief in witches. The truth is that
+Glanvill's theories were much more firmly grounded on the bedrock of
+seventeenth-century theology than those of his opponents. His opponents
+were attempting to use common sense, but it was a sort of common sense
+which, however little they saw it, must undermine the current religious
+convictions.
+
+Glanvill was indeed exceedingly up-to-date in his own time. Not but that
+he had read the learned old authors. He was familiar with what "the
+great Episcopius" had to say, he had dipped into Reginald Scot and
+deemed him too "ridiculous" to answer.[16] But he cared far more about
+the arguments that he heard advanced in every-day conversation. These
+were the arguments that he attempted to answer. His work reflected the
+current discussions of the subject. It was, indeed, the growing
+opposition among those whom he met that stirred him most. Not without
+sadness he recognized that "most of the looser Gentry and small
+pretenders to Philosophy and Wit are generally deriders of the belief of
+Witches and Apparitions."[17] Like an animal at bay, he turned fiercely
+on them. "Let them enjoy the Opinion of their own Superlative
+Judgements" and run madly after Scot, Hobbes, and Osborne. It was, in
+truth, a danger to religion that he was trying to ward off. One of the
+fundamentals of religion was at stake. The denial of witchcraft was a
+phase of prevalent atheism. Those that give up the belief in witches,
+give up that in the Devil, then that in the immortality of the
+soul.[18] The question at issue was the reality of the spirit world.
+
+It can be seen why the man was tremendously in earnest. One may indeed
+wonder if his intensity of feeling on the matter was not responsible for
+his accepting as _bona fide_ narratives those which his common sense
+should have made him reject. In defending the authenticity of the
+remarkable stories told by the accusers of Julian Cox,[19] he was guilty
+of a degree of credulity that passes belief. Perhaps the reader will
+recall the incident of the hunted rabbit that vanished behind a bush and
+was transformed into a panting woman, no other than the accused Julian
+Cox. This tale must indeed have strained Glanvill's utmost capacity of
+belief. Yet he rose bravely to the occasion. Determined not to give up
+any well-supported fact, he urged that probably the Devil had sent a
+spirit to take the apparent form of the hare while he had hurried the
+woman to the bush and had presumably kept her invisible until she was
+found by the boy. It was the Nemesis of a bad cause that its greatest
+defender should have let himself indulge in such absurdities.
+
+In truth we may be permitted to wonder if the philosopher was altogether
+true to his own position. In his _Scepsis Scientifica_ he had talked
+hopefully about the possibility that science might explain what as yet
+seemed supernatural.[20] This came perilously near to saying that the
+realms of the supernatural, when explored, would turn out to be natural
+and subject to natural law. If this were true, what would become of all
+those bulwarks of religion furnished by the wonders of witchcraft? It
+looks very much as if Glanvill had let an inconsistency creep into his
+philosophy.
+
+It was two years after Glanvill's first venture that Meric Casaubon
+issued his work entitled _Of Credulity and Incredulity in Things
+Natural, Civil, and Divine_.[21] On account of illness, however, as he
+tells the reader in his preface, he had been unable to complete the
+book, and it dealt only with "Things Natural" and "Things Civil."
+"Things Divine" became the theme of a separate volume, which appeared in
+1670 under the title _Of Credulity and Incredulity in Things Divine and
+Spiritual: wherein ... the business of Witches and Witchcraft, against a
+late Writer, [is] fully Argued and Disputed_. The interest of this
+scholar in the subject of witchcraft was, as we have seen, by no means
+recent. When a young rector in Somerset he had attended a trial of
+witches, quite possibly the identical trial that had moved Bernard to
+appeal to grand jurymen. We have noted in an earlier chapter[22] that
+Casaubon in 1654, writing on _Enthusiasm_, had touched lightly upon the
+subject. It will be recalled that he had come very near to questioning
+the value of confessions. Five years later, in prefacing a _Relation of
+what passed between Dr. Dee and some Spirits_, he had anticipated the
+conclusions of his _Credulity and Incredulity_. Those conclusions were
+mainly in accord with Glanvill. With a good will he admitted that the
+denying of witches was a "very plausible cause." Nothing was more liable
+to be fraud than the exhibitions given at trials, nothing less
+trustworthy than the accounts of what witches had done. Too many cases
+originated in the ignorance of ministers who were on the look-out "in
+every wild notion or phansie" for a "suggestion of the Devil."[23] But,
+like Glanvill, and indeed like the spiritualists of to-day, he insisted
+that many cases of fraud do not establish a negative. There is a very
+large body of narratives so authentic that to doubt them would be
+evidence of infidelity. Casaubon rarely doubted, although he sought to
+keep the doubting spirit. It was hard for him not to believe what he had
+read or had been told. He was naturally credulous, particularly when he
+read the stories of the classical writers. For this attitude of mind he
+was hardly to be censured. Criticism was but beginning to be applied to
+the tales of Roman and Greek writers. Their works were full of stories
+of magic and enchantment, and it was not easy for a seventeenth-century
+student to shake himself free from their authority. Nor would Casaubon
+have wished to do so. He belonged to the past both by religion and
+raining, and he must be reckoned among the upholders of
+superstition.[24]
+
+In the next year, 1669, John Wagstaffe, a graduate of Oriel College who
+had applied himself to "the study of learning and politics," issued a
+little book, _The Question of Witchcraft Debated_. Wagstaffe was a
+university man of no reputation. "A little crooked man and of a
+despicable presence," he was dubbed by the Oxford wags the little
+wizard.[25] Nevertheless he had something to say and he gained no small
+hearing. Many of his arguments were purely theological and need not be
+repeated. But he made two good points. The notions about witches find
+their origin in "heathen fables." This was an undercutting blow at those
+who insisted on the belief in witchcraft as an essential of Christian
+faith; and Wagstaffe, moreover, made good his case. His second argument
+was one which no less needed to be emphasized. Coincidence, he believed,
+accounts for a great deal of the inexplicable in witchcraft
+narratives.[26]
+
+Within two years the book appeared again, much enlarged, and it was
+later translated into German. It was answered by two men--by Casaubon in
+the second part of his Credulity[27] and by an author who signed himself
+"R. T."[28] Casaubon added nothing new, nor did "R. T.," who threshed
+over old theological straw. The same can hardly be said of Lodowick
+Muggleton, a seventeenth-century Dowie who would fain have been a
+prophet of a new dispensation. He put out an exposition of the Witch of
+Endor that was entirely rationalistic.[29] Witches, he maintained, had
+no spirits but their own wicked imaginations. Saul was simply the dupe
+of a woman pretender.
+
+An antidote to this serious literature may be mentioned in passing.
+There was published at London, in 1673,[30] _A Pleasant Treatise of
+Witches_, in which a delightful prospect was opened to the reader: "You
+shall find nothing here of those Vulgar, Fabulous, and Idle Tales that
+are not worth the lending an ear to, nor of those hideous Sawcer-eyed
+and Cloven-Footed Divels, that Grandmas affright their children withal,
+but only the pleasant and well grounded discourses of the Learned as an
+object adequate to thy wise understanding." An outline was offered, but
+it was nothing more than a thread upon which to hang good stories. They
+were tales of a distant past. There were witches once, of course there
+were, but that was in the good old days. Such was the author's
+implication.
+
+Alas that such light treatment was so rare! The subject was, in the
+minds of most, not one for laughter. It called for serious
+consideration. That point of view came to its own again in _The Doctrine
+of Devils proved to be the grand apostacy of these later Times_.[31] The
+Dutch translator of this book tells us that it was written by a New
+England clergyman.[32] If that be true, the writer must have been one of
+the least provincial New Englanders of his century, for he evinces a
+remarkable knowledge of the witch alarms and witch discussions in
+England. Some of his opinions betray the influence of Scot, as for
+instance his interpretation of Christ's casting out of devils.[33] The
+term "having a devil" was but a phrase for one distracted. The author
+made, however, some new points. He believed that the importance of the
+New Testament miracles would be overshadowed by the greater miracles
+wrought by the Devil.[34] A more telling argument, at least to a modern
+reader, was that the solidarity of society would be endangered by a
+belief that made every man afraid of his neighbor.[35] The writer
+commends Wagstaffe's work, and writes of Casaubon, "If any one could
+possibly have bewitcht me into the Belief of Witchcraft, this reverend
+person, of all others, was most like to have done it." He decries the
+"proletarian Rabble," and "the great Philosophers" (More and Glanvill,
+doubtless), who call themselves Christians and yet hold "an Opinion that
+Butchers up Men and Women without Fear or Witt, Sense or Reason, Care or
+Conscience, by droves;" but he praises "the reverend judges of England,
+now ... much wiser than before," who "give small or no encouragement to
+such accusations."
+
+We come now to the second great figure among the witch-ologists of the
+Restoration, John Webster. Glanvill and Webster were protagonist and
+antagonist in a drama where the others played somewhat the role of the
+Greek chorus. It was in 1677 that Webster put forth _The Displaying of
+Supposed Witchcraft_.[36] A Non-Conformist clergyman in his earlier
+life, he seems to have turned in later years to the practice of
+medicine. From young manhood he had been interested in the subject of
+witchcraft. Probably that interest dates from an experience of his one
+Sunday afternoon over forty years before he published his book. It will
+be recalled that the boy Robinson, accuser of the Lancashire women in
+1634, had been brought into his Yorkshire congregation at an afternoon
+service and had come off very poorly when cross-questioned by the
+curious minister. From that time Webster had been a doubter. Now and
+again in the course of his Yorkshire and Lancashire pastorates he had
+come into contact with superstition. He was no philosopher, this
+Yorkshire doctor of souls and bodies, nor was he more than a country
+scientist, and his reasoning against witchcraft fell short--as Professor
+Kittredge has clearly pointed out[37]--of scientific rationalism. That
+was a high mark and few there were in the seventeenth century who
+attained unto it. But it is not too much to say that John Webster was
+the heir and successor to Scot. He carried weight by the force of his
+attack, if not by its brilliancy.[38] He was by no means always
+consistent, but he struck sturdy blows. He was seldom original, but he
+felled his opponents.
+
+Many of his strongest arguments, of course, were old. It was nothing new
+that the Witch of Endor was an impostor. It was Muggleton's notion, and
+it went back indeed to Scot. The emphasizing of the part played by
+imagination was as old as the oldest English opponent of witch
+persecution. The explanation of certain strange phenomena
+as ventriloquism--a matter that Webster had investigated
+painstakingly--this had been urged before. Webster himself did not
+believe that new arguments were needed. He had felt that the "impious
+and Popish opinions of the too much magnified powers of Demons and
+Witches, in this Nation were pretty well quashed and silenced" by
+various writers and by the "grave proceedings of many learned judges."
+But it was when he found that two "beneficed Ministers," Casaubon and
+Glanvill, had "afresh espoused so bad a cause" that he had been impelled
+to review their grounds.
+
+As the reader may already have guessed, Webster, like so many of his
+predecessors, dealt largely in theological and scriptural arguments. It
+was along this line, indeed, that he made his most important
+contribution to the controversy then going on. Glanvill had urged that
+disbelief in witchcraft was but one step in the path to atheism. No
+witches, no spirits, no immortality, no God, were the sequences of
+Glanvill's reasoning. In answer Webster urged that the denial of the
+existence of witches--_i. e._, of creatures endued with power from the
+Devil to perform supernatural wonders--had nothing to do with the
+existence of angels or spirits. We must rely upon other grounds for a
+belief in the spirit world. Stories of apparitions are no proof, because
+we cannot be sure that those apparitions are made or caused by spirits.
+We have no certain ground for believing in a spirit world but the
+testimony of Scripture.[39]
+
+But if we grant the existence of spirits--to modernize the form of
+Webster's argument--we do not thereby prove the existence of witches.
+The New Testament tells of various sorts of "deceiving Imposters,
+Diviners, or Witches," but amongst them all "there were none that had
+made a visible league with the Devil." There was no mention of
+transformation into cats, dogs, or wolves.[40] It is hard to see how the
+most literal students of the Scriptures could have evaded this argument.
+The Scriptures said a great deal about the Devil, about demoniacs, and
+about witches and magicians--whatever they might mean by those terms.
+Why did they not speak at all of the compacts between the Devil and
+witches? Why did they leave out the very essential of the witch-monger's
+lore?
+
+All this needed to be urged at a time when the advocates of witchcraft
+were crying "Wolf! wolf!" to the Christian people of England. In other
+words, Webster was rendering it possible for the purely orthodox to give
+up what Glanvill had called a bulwark of religion and still to cling to
+their orthodoxy.
+
+It is much to the credit of Webster that he spoke out plainly concerning
+the obscenity of what was extorted from the witches. No one who has not
+read for himself can have any notion of the vile character of the
+charges and confessions embodied in the witch pamphlets. It is an aspect
+of the question which has not been discussed in these pages. Webster
+states the facts without exaggeration:[41] "For the most of them are not
+credible, by reason of their obscenity and filthiness; for chast ears
+would tingle to hear such bawdy and immodest lyes; and what pure and
+sober minds would not nauseate and startle to understand such unclean
+stories ...? Surely even the impurity of it may be sufficient to
+overthrow the credibility of it, especially among Christians." Professor
+Burr has said that "it was, indeed, no small part of the evil of the
+matter, that it so long debauched the imagination of Christendom."[42]
+
+We have said that Webster denied the existence of witches, that is, of
+those who performed supernatural deeds. But, like Scot, he explicitly
+refrained from denying the existence of witches _in toto_. He was, in
+fact, much more satisfactory than Scot; for he explained just what was
+his residuum of belief. He believed that witches were evil-minded
+creatures inspired by the Devil, who by the use of poisons and natural
+means unknown to most men harmed and killed their fellow-beings.[43] Of
+course he would have insisted that a large proportion of all those
+charged with being such were mere dealers in fraud or the victims of
+false accusation, but the remainder of the cases he would have explained
+in this purely natural way.
+
+Now, if this was not scientific rationalism, it was at least
+straight-out skepticism as to the supernatural in witchcraft. Moreover
+there are cases enough in the annals of witchcraft that look very much
+as if poison were used. The drawback of course is that Webster, like
+Scot, had not disabused his mind of all superstition. Professor
+Kittredge in his discussion of Webster has pointed this out carefully.
+Webster believed that the bodies of those that had been murdered bleed
+at the touch of the murderer. He believed, too, in a sort of "astral
+spirit,"[44] and he seems to have been convinced of the truth of
+apparitions.[45] These were phenomena that he believed to be
+substantiated by experience. On different grounds, by _a priori_
+reasoning from scriptural premises, he arrived at the conclusion that
+God makes use of evil angels "as the executioners of his justice to
+chasten the godly, and to restrain or destroy the wicked."[46]
+
+This is and was essentially a theological conception. But there was no
+small gap between this and the notion that spirits act in supernatural
+ways in our every-day world. And there was nothing more inconsistent in
+failing to bridge this gap than in the position of the Christian people
+today who believe in a spirit world and yet discredit without
+examination all that is offered as new evidence of its existence.
+
+The truth is that Webster was too busy at destroying the fortifications
+of his opponents to take the trouble to build up defences for himself.
+But it is not too much to call him the most effective of the seventeenth
+century assailants of witch persecution in England.[47] He had this
+advantage over all who had gone before, that a large and increasing body
+of intelligent people were with him. He spoke in full consciousness of
+strong support. It was for his opponents to assume the defensive.
+
+We have called John Webster's a great name in the literature of our
+subject, and we have given our reasons for so thinking. Yet it would be
+a mistake to suppose that he created any such sensation in his time as
+did his arch-opponent, Glanvill. His work never went into a second
+edition. There are but few references to it in the writings of the time,
+and those are in works devoted to the defence of the belief. Benjamin
+Camfield, a Leicestershire rector, wrote an unimportant book on _Angels
+and their Ministries_,[48] and in an appendix assailed Webster. Joseph
+Glanvill turned fiercely upon him with new proofs of what he called
+facts, and bequeathed the work at his death to Henry More, who in the
+several following editions of the _Sadducismus Triumphatus_ attacked him
+with no little bitterness.
+
+We may skip over three lesser writers on witchcraft. During the early
+eighties John Brinley, Henry Hallywell, and Richard Bovet launched their
+little boats into the sea of controversy. Brinley was a bold plagiarist
+of Bernard, Hallywell a logical but dull reasoner from the Bible, Bovet
+a weakened solution of Glanvill.[49]
+
+We turn now from the special literature of witchcraft to a sketch of the
+incidental evidences of opinion. Of these we have a larger body than
+ever before, too large indeed to handle in detail. It would be idle to
+quote from the chap-books on witch episodes their _raisons d'etre_. It
+all comes to this: they were written to confute disbelievers. They refer
+slightingly and even bitterly to those who oppose belief, not however
+without admitting their numbers and influence. It will be more to our
+purpose to examine the opinions of men as they uttered them on the
+bench, in the pulpit, and in the other walks of practical life.
+
+We have already had occasion to learn what the judges were thinking. We
+listened to Matthew Hale while he uttered the pronouncement that was
+heard all over England and even in the North American colonies. The
+existence of witches, he affirmed solemnly, is proved by Scripture and
+by the universality of laws against them. Justice Rainsford in the
+following years and Justice Raymond about twenty years later seem to
+have taken Hale's view of the matter. On the other side were to be
+reckoned Sir John Reresby and Francis North. Neither of them was quite
+outspoken, fearing the rage of the people and the charge of atheism.
+Both sought to save the victims of persecution, but rather by exposing
+the deceptions of the accusers than by denying witchcraft itself. From
+the vast number of acquittals in the seventies and the sudden dropping
+off in the number of witch trials in the eighties we know that there
+must have been many other judges who were acquitting witches or quietly
+ignoring the charges against them. Doubtless Kelyng, who, as a spectator
+at Bury, had shown his skepticism as to the accusations, had when he
+later became a chief justice been one of those who refused to condemn
+witches.
+
+From scientific men there were few utterances. Although we shall in
+another connection show that a goodly number from the Royal Society
+cherished very definite beliefs--or disbeliefs--on the subject, we have
+the opinions of but two men who were professionally scientists, Sir
+Thomas Browne and Sir Robert Boyle. Browne we have already met at the
+Bury trial. It may reasonably be questioned whether he was really a man
+of science. Certainly he was a physician of eminence. The attitude he
+took when an expert witness at Bury, it will be recalled, was quite
+consistent with the opinion given in his _Commonplace Book_. "We are
+noways doubtful," he wrote, "that there are witches, but have not always
+been satisfied in the application of their witchcrafts."[50] So spoke
+the famous physician of Norwich. But a man whose opinion was of much
+more consequence was Sir Robert Boyle. Boyle was a chemist and "natural
+philosopher." He was the discoverer of the air pump, was elected
+president of the Royal Society, and was altogether one of the greatest
+non-political figures in the reign of Charles II. While he never, so far
+as we know, discussed witchcraft in the abstract, he fathered a French
+story that was brought into England, the story of the Demon of Mascon.
+He turned the story over to Glanvill to be used in his list of authentic
+narratives; and, when it was later reported that he had pronounced the
+demon story an imposture, he took pains to deny the report in a letter
+to Glanvill.[51]
+
+Of literary men we have, as of scientists, but two. Aubrey, the
+"delitescent" antiquarian and Will Wimble of his time, still credited
+witchcraft, as he credited all sorts of narratives of ghosts and
+apparitions. It was less a matter of reason than of sentiment. The
+dramatist Shadwell had the same feeling for literary values. In his
+preface to the play, _The Lancashire Witches_, he explained that he
+pictured the witches as real lest the people should want "diversion,"
+and lest he should be called "atheistical by a prevailing party who take
+it ill that the power of the Devil should be lessen'd."[52] But
+Shadwell, although not seriously interested in any side of the subject
+save in its use as literary material, included himself among the group
+who had given up belief.
+
+What philosophers thought we may guess from the all-pervading influence
+of Hobbes in this generation. We have already seen, however, that Henry
+More,[53] whose influence in his time was not to be despised, wrote
+earnestly and often in support of belief. One other philosopher may be
+mentioned. Ralph Cudworth, in his _True Intellectual System_, touched on
+confederacies with the Devil and remarked in passing that "there hath
+been so full an attestation" of these things "that those our so
+confident Exploders of them, in this present Age, can hardly escape the
+suspicion of having some Hankring towards Atheism."[54] This was
+Glanvill over again. It remains to notice the opinions of clergymen. The
+history of witch literature has been in no small degree the record of
+clerical opinion. Glanvill, Casaubon, Muggleton, Camfield, and Hallywell
+were all clergymen. Fortunately we have the opinions of at least half a
+dozen other churchmen. It will be remembered that Oliver Heywood, the
+famous Non-Conformist preacher of Lancashire, believed, though not too
+implicitly, in witchcraft.[55] So did Samuel Clarke, Puritan divine and
+hagiographer.[56] On the same side must be reckoned Nathaniel Wanley,
+compiler of a curious work on _The Wonders of the Little World_.[57] A
+greater name was that of Isaac Barrow, master of Trinity, teacher of
+Isaac Newton, and one of the best preachers of his time. He declared
+that to suppose all witch stories fictions was to "charge the world with
+both extreme Vanity and Malignity."[58] We can cite only one divine on
+the other side. This was Samuel Parker, who in his time played many
+parts, but who is chiefly remembered as the Bishop of Oxford during the
+troubles of James II with the university. Parker was one of the most
+disliked ecclesiastics of his time, but he deserves praise at any rate
+for his stand as to witchcraft. We do not know the details of his
+opinions; indeed we have nothing more than the fact that in a
+correspondence with Glanvill he questioned the opinions of that
+distinguished protagonist of witchcraft.[59]
+
+By this time it must be clear that there is possible no hard and fast
+discrimination by groups between those that believed in witchcraft and
+those that did not. We may say cautiously that through the seventies and
+eighties the judges, and probably too the justices of the peace,[60]
+were coming to disbelieve. With even greater caution we may venture the
+assertion that the clergy, both Anglican and Non-Conformist, were still
+clinging to the superstition. Further generalization would be extremely
+hazardous. It looks, however, from the evidence already presented, as
+well as from some to be given in another connection--in discussing the
+Royal Society[61]--as if the scientists had not taken such a stand as
+was to be expected of them.
+
+When we examine the attitude of those who scoffed at the stories vouched
+for by Glanvill and More it becomes evident that they assumed that
+practically all thinking men were with them. In other words, they
+believed that their group comprised the intellectual men of the time.
+Now, it would be easy to rush to the conclusion that all men who thought
+in conventional ways would favor witchcraft, and that those who took
+unconventional views would be arrayed on the other side, but this would
+be a mistake. Glanvill was an exceedingly original man, while Muggleton
+was uncommonly commonplace; and there were numbered among those who held
+to the old opinion men of high intelligence and brilliant talents.
+
+We must search, then, for some other basis of classification. Glanvill
+gives us an interesting suggestion. In withering tone he speaks of the
+"looser gentry and lesser pretenders to wit." Here is a possible line of
+cleavage. Might it be that the more worldly-minded among the county
+families, that those too who comprised what we may call, in the absence
+of a better term, the "smart set," and the literary sets of London, were
+especially the "deriders" of superstition? It is not hard to believe
+that Shadwell, the worldly Bishop Parker, and the polished Sir William
+Temple[62] would fairly reflect the opinions of that class. So too the
+diarist Pepys, who found Glanvill "not very convincing." We can conceive
+how the ridicule of the supernatural might have become the fad of a
+certain social group. The Mompesson affair undoubtedly possessed
+elements of humor; the wild tales about Amy Duny and Rose Cullender
+would have been uncommonly diverting, had they not produced such tragic
+results. With the stories spun about Julian Cox the witch accusers could
+go no farther. They had reached the culmination of nonsense. Now, it is
+conceivable that the clergyman might not see the humor of it, nor the
+philosopher, nor the scholar; but the worldly-minded Londoner, who cared
+less about texts in Leviticus than did his father, who knew more about
+coffee-houses and plays, and who cultivated clever people with
+assiduity, had a better developed sense of humor. It was not strange
+that he should smile quizzically when told these weird stories from the
+country. He may not have pondered very deeply on the abstract question
+nor read widely--perhaps he had seen Ady's book or glanced over
+Scot's--but, when he met keen men in his group who were laughing quietly
+at narratives of witchcraft, he laughed too. And so, quite
+unobtrusively, without blare of trumpets, skepticism would slip into
+society. It would be useless for Glanvill and More to call aloud, or for
+the people to rage. The classes who mingled in the worldly life of the
+capital would scoff; and the country gentry who took their cue from them
+would follow suit.
+
+Of course this is theory. It would require a larger body of evidence
+than we can hope to gather on this subject to prove that the change of
+opinion that was surely taking place spread at first through the higher
+social strata and was to reach the lower levels only by slow filtration.
+Yet such an hypothesis fits in nicely with certain facts. It has
+already been seen that the trials for witchcraft dropped off very
+suddenly towards the end of the period we are considering. The drop was
+accounted for by the changed attitude of judges and of justices of the
+peace. The judges avoided trying witches,[63] the justices were less
+diligent in discovering them. But the evidence that we had about men of
+other occupations was less encouraging. It looked as if those who
+dispensed justice were in advance of the clergy, of the scholars,
+physicians, and scientists of their time. Had the Master of Trinity, or
+the physician of Norwich, or the discoverer of the air pump been the
+justices of the peace for England, it is not incredible that
+superstition would have flourished for another generation. Was it
+because the men of the law possessed more of the matter-of-factness
+supposed to be a heritage of every Englishman? Was it because their
+special training gave them a saner outlook? No doubt both elements help
+to explain the difference. But is it not possible to believe that the
+social grouping of these men had an influence? The itinerant justices
+and the justices of the peace were recruited from the gentry, as none of
+the other classes were. Men like Reresby and North inherited the
+traditions of their class; they spent part of the year in London and
+knew the talk of the town. Can we doubt that their decisions were
+influenced by that fact? The country justice of the peace was removed
+often enough from metropolitan influences, but he was usually quick to
+catch the feelings of his own class.
+
+If our theory be true that the jurists were in advance of other
+professions and that they were sprung of a higher stock, it is of course
+some confirmation of the larger theory that witchcraft was first
+discredited among the gentry. Yet, as we have said before, this is at
+best a guess as to how the decline of belief took place and must be
+accepted only provisionally. We have seen that there are other
+assertions about the progress of thought in this period that may be
+ventured with much confidence. There had been great changes of opinion.
+It would not be fair to say that the movement towards skepticism had
+been accelerated. Rather, the movement which had its inception back in
+the days of Reginald Scot and had found in the last days of James I a
+second impulse, which had been quietly gaining force in the thirties,
+forties, and fifties, was now under full headway. Common sense was
+coming into its own.
+
+
+[1] Ferris Greenslet, _Joseph Glanvill_ (New York, 1900), 153. The
+writer wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness to Mr. Greenslet's
+excellent book on Glanvill.
+
+[2] The _Scepsis Scientifica_ was really _The Vanity of Dogmatising_
+(1661) recast.
+
+[3] See, for example, the introductory essay by John Owen in his edition
+(London, 1885), of the _Scepsis Scientifica_, xxvii, xxix. See also
+_Sadducismus Triumphatus_ (citations are all from the edition of 1681),
+7, 13.
+
+[4] So at least says Leslie Stephen, _Dict. Nat. Biog._ Glanvill
+himself, in _Essays on Several Important Subjects_ (1676), says that the
+sixth essay, "Philosophical Considerations against Modern Sadducism,"
+had been printed four times already, _i. e._, before 1676. The edition
+of 1668 had been revised.
+
+[5] This edition was dedicated to Charles, Duke of Richmond and Lenox,
+since His Grace had been "pleased to commend the first and more
+imperfect Edition."
+
+[6] _Sadducismus Triumphatus_, Preface, F 3 verso, F 4; see also p. 10.
+In the second part see Preface, Aa 2--Aa 3. In several other places he
+has insisted upon this point.
+
+[7] See _ibid._, 9 ff., 18 ff., 21 ff., 34 ff.
+
+[8] _Ibid._, 32, 34.
+
+[9] _Ibid._, 11-13.
+
+[10] See, for example, _ibid._, 88-89.
+
+[11] _Ibid._, 25-27.
+
+[12] _Sadducismus Triumphatus_, 39.
+
+[13] _Ibid._, 52-53.
+
+[14] To the argument that witches are not mentioned in the New Testament
+he retorted that neither is North America (_ibid._, 82).
+
+[15] _Ibid._, 78.
+
+[16] Nevertheless he took up some of Scot's points.
+
+[17] _Sadducismus Triumphatus_, Preface.
+
+[18] _Sadducismus Triumphatus_, pt. ii, 3.
+
+[19] See _ibid._, pt. ii, Relation VIII.
+
+[20] _Scepsis Scientifica_ (ed. of 1885), 179.
+
+[21] London, 1668. It was reprinted in 1672 with the title _A Treatise
+proving Spirits, Witches, and Supernatural Operations by pregnant
+instances and evidences_.
+
+[22] See above, pp. 239-240.
+
+[23] _Of Credulity and Incredulity_, 29, 30.
+
+[24] He characterizes Reginald Scot as an illiterate wretch, but admits
+that he had never read him. It was Wierus whom he chiefly sought to
+confute.
+
+[25] He was given also to "strong and high tasted liquors." Anthony a
+Wood, _Athenae Oxonienses_ (London, 1691-1692; 3d ed., with additions,
+London, 1813-1820), ed. of 1813-1820, III, 11-14.
+
+[26] _The Question of Witchcraft Debated_ (London, 1669), 64.
+
+[27] 1670 (see above, p. 293).
+
+[28] _The Opinion of Witchcraft Vindicated. In an Answer to a Book
+Intituled The Question of Witchcraft Debated_ (London, 1670).
+
+[29] _A True Interpretation of the Witch of Endor_ (London, 1669).
+
+[30] "By a Pen neer the Convent of Eluthery."
+
+[31] London, 1676.
+
+[32] To Professor Burr I owe my knowledge of this ascription. The
+translator (the English Quaker, William Sewel, all his life a resident
+of Holland), calls him "N. Orchard, Predikant in Nieuw-Engeland."
+
+[33] See _Doctrine of Devils_, chaps. VII, VIII, and _cf._ Scot,
+_Discoverie of Witchcraft_, 512-514.
+
+[34] Glanvill had answered a somewhat similar argument, that the
+miracles of the Bible were wrought by the agency of the Devil.
+
+[35] He said also that, if the Devil could take on "men's shapes, forms,
+habits, countenances, tones, gates, statures, ages, complexions ... and
+act in the shape assumed," there could be absolutely no certainty about
+the proceedings of justice.
+
+[36] The book had been written four years earlier.
+
+[37] See G. L. Kittredge, "Notes on Witchcraft," in American Antiquarian
+Soc., _Proceedings_, n. s., XVIII (1906-1907), 169-176.
+
+[38] There is, however, no little brilliance and insight in some of
+Webster's reasoning.
+
+[39] _Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft_, 38-41.
+
+[40] _Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft_, 53.
+
+[41] _Ibid._, 68.
+
+[42] _The Witch-Persecutions_ (University of Pennsylvania Translations
+and Reprints, vol. III, no. 4), revised ed. (Philadelphia, 1903), p. 1.
+
+[43] _Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft_, 247-248.
+
+[44] _Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft_, 308, 312 ff. The astral spirit
+which he conceived was not unlike More's and Glanvill's "thin and
+tenuous substance."
+
+[45] _Ibid._, 294 ff.
+
+[46] _Ibid._, 219-228.
+
+[47] The author of _The Doctrine of Devils_ (see above, note 32), was
+thorough-going enough, but his work seems to have attracted much less
+attention.
+
+[48] London, 1678.
+
+[49] John Brinley, "Gentleman," brought out in 1680 _A Discovery of the
+Impostures of Witches and Astrologers_. Portions of his book would pass
+for good thinking until one awakens to the feeling that he has read
+something like this before. As a matter of fact Brinley had stolen the
+line of thought and much of the phrasing from Richard Bernard (1627, see
+above, pp. 234-236), and without giving any credit. A second edition of
+Brinley's work was issued in 1686. It was the same in every respect save
+that the dedication was omitted and the title changed to _A Discourse
+Proving by Scripture and Reason and the Best Authors Ancient and Modern
+that there are Witches_.
+
+Henry Hallywell, a Cambridge master of arts and sometime fellow of
+Christ's College, issued in 1681 _Melampronoea, or a Discourse of the
+Polity and Kingdom of Darkness, Together with a Solution of the chiefest
+Objections brought against the Being of Witches_. Hallywell was another
+in the long list of Cambridge men who defended superstition. He set
+about to assail the "over-confident Exploders of Immaterial Substances"
+by a course of logical deductions from Scripture. His treatise is slow
+reading.
+
+Richard Bovet, "Gentleman," gave the world in 1684 _Pandaemonium, or the
+Devil's Cloyster; being a further Blow to Modern Sadduceism_. There was
+nothing new about his discussion, which he dedicates to Dr. Henry More.
+His attitude was defensive in the extreme. He was consumed with
+indignation at disbelievers: "They oppose their simple _ipse dixit_
+against the most unquestionable Testimonies"; they even dare to "affront
+that relation of the Daemon of Tedworth." He was indeed cast down over
+the situation. He himself relates a very patent instance of witchcraft
+in Somerset; yet, despite the fact that numerous physicians agreed on
+the matter, no "justice was applyed." One of Bovet's chief purposes in
+his work was to show "the Confederacy of several Popes and Roman Priests
+with the Devil." He makes one important admission in regard to
+witchcraft; namely, that the confessions of witches might sometimes be
+the result of "a Deep Melancholy, or some Terrour that they may have
+been under."
+
+[50] _Works_, ed. of 1835-1836, IV, 389.
+
+[51] For Boyle's opinions see also Webster, _Displaying of Supposed
+Witchcraft_, 248.
+
+[52] He says also: "For my part I am ... somewhat cotive of belief. The
+evidences I have represented are natural, viz., slight, and frivolous,
+such as poor old women were wont to be hang'd upon." The play may be
+found in all editions of Shadwell's works. I have used the rare
+privately printed volume in which, under the title of _The Poetry of
+Witchcraft_ (Brixton Hill, 1853), J. O. Halliwell [-Phillips] united
+this play of Shadwell's with that of Heywood and Brome on _The late
+Lancashire Witches_. These two plays, so similar in title, that of
+Heywood and Brome in 1634, based on the case of 1633, and that of
+Shadwell in 1682, based on the affair of 1612, must not be confused. See
+above pp. 121, 158-160, 244-245.
+
+[53] See above, pp. 238-239.
+
+[54] _The True Intellectual System of the Universe_ (London, 1678), 702.
+
+[55] See above, p. 256 and note.
+
+[56] See his _Lives of Sundry Eminent Persons_ (London, 1683), 172; also
+his _Mirrour or Looking Glass, Both for Saints and Sinners_ (London,
+1657-1671), I, 35-38; II, 159-183.
+
+[57] London, 1678; see pp. 515-518.
+
+[58] _Works_ (ed. of Edinburgh, 1841), II, 162.
+
+[59] Glanvill, _Sadducismus Triumphatus_, 80.
+
+[60] By the eighties it is very clear that the justices were ceasing to
+press charges against witches.
+
+[61] In an article to be published separately.
+
+[62] See his essay "Of Poetry" in his _Works_ (London, 1814), III,
+430-431.
+
+[63] Justice Jeffreys and Justice Herbert both acquitted witches
+according to F. A. Inderwick, _Sidelights on the Stuarts_ (2d ed.,
+London, 1891), 174.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE FINAL DECLINE.
+
+
+In the history of witchcraft the years from 1688 to 1718 may be grouped
+together as comprising a period. This is not to say that the year of the
+Revolution marked any transition in the course of the superstition. It
+did not. But we have ventured to employ it as a convenient date with
+which to bound the influences of the Restoration. The year 1718 derives
+its importance for us from the publication, in that year, of Francis
+Hutchinson's _Historical Essay on Witchcraft_, a book which, it is not
+too much to say, gave the final blow to the belief in England.[1]
+
+We speak of fixing a date by which to bound the influences of the
+Restoration. Now, as a matter of fact, there is something arbitrary
+about any date. The influences at work during the previous period went
+steadily on. The heathen raged, and the people imagined a vain thing.
+The great proletariat hated witches as much as ever. But the justices of
+the peace and the itinerant judges were getting over their fear of
+popular opinion and were refusing to listen to the accusations that were
+brought before them. The situation was in some respects the same as it
+had been in the later seventies and throughout the eighties. Yet there
+were certain features that distinguished the period. One of them was the
+increased use of exorcism. The expelling of evil spirits had been a
+subject of great controversy almost a century before. The practice had
+by no means been forgotten in the mean time, but it had gained little
+public notice. Now the dispossessors of the Devil came to the front
+again long enough to whet the animosity between Puritans and Anglicans
+in Lancashire. But this never became more than a pamphlet controversy.
+The other feature of the period was far more significant. The last
+executions for witchcraft in England were probably those at Exeter in
+1682.[2] For a whole generation the courts had been frowning on witch
+prosecution. Now there arose in England judges who definitely nullified
+the law on the statute-book. By the decisions of Powell and Parker, and
+most of all by those of Holt, the statute of the first year of James I
+was practically made obsolete twenty-five or fifty years before its
+actual repeal in 1736. We shall see that the gradual breaking down of
+the law by the judges did not take place without a struggle. At the
+famous trial in Hertford in 1712 the whole subject of the Devil and his
+relation to witches came up again in its most definite form, and was
+fought out in the court room and at the bar of public opinion. It was,
+however, but the last rallying and counter-charging on a battle-field
+where Webster and Glanvill had led the hosts at mid-day. The issue,
+indeed, was now very specific. Over the abstract question of witchcraft
+there was nothing new to be said. Here, however, was a specific
+instance. What was to be done with it? Over that there was waged a merry
+war. Of course the conclusion was foregone. It had indeed been
+anticipated by the action of the bench.
+
+We shall see that with the nullification of the law the common people
+began to take the law into their own hands. We shall note that, as a
+consequence, there was an increase in the number of swimming ordeals and
+other illegal procedures.
+
+The story of the Lancashire demonomania is not unlike the story of
+William Somers in Nottingham a century before. In this case there was no
+John Darrel, and the exorcists were probably honest but deluded men. The
+affair started at the village of Surey, near to the superstition-brewing
+Pendle Forest. The possessed boy, Richard Dugdale, was a gardener and
+servant about nineteen years of age.[3] In April, 1689, he was seized
+with fits in which he was asserted to speak Latin and Greek and to
+preach against the sins of the place. Whatever his pretensions were, he
+seemed a good subject for exorcism. Some of the Catholics are said to
+have tampered with him, and then several Puritan clergymen of the
+community took him in hand. For eight months they held weekly fasts for
+his recovery; but their efforts were not so successful as they had
+hoped. They began to suspect witchcraft[4] and were about to take steps
+towards the prosecution of the party suspected.[5] This came to
+nothing, but Dugdale at length grew better. He was relieved of his fits;
+and the clergymen, who had never entirely given up their efforts to cure
+him, hastened to claim the credit. More than a dozen of the dissenting
+preachers, among them Richard Frankland, Oliver Heywood,[6] and other
+well known Puritan leaders in northern England, had lent their support
+to Thomas Jollie, who had taken the leading part in the praying and
+fasting. From London, Richard Baxter, perhaps the best known Puritan of
+his time, had sent a request for some account of the wonder, in order to
+insert it in his forthcoming book on the spirit world. This led to a
+plan for printing a complete narrative of what had happened; but the
+plan was allowed to lapse with the death of Baxter.[7] Meantime,
+however, the publication in London of the Mathers' accounts of the New
+England trials of 1692[8] caused a new call for the story of Richard
+Dugdale. It was prepared and sent to London; and there in some
+mysterious way the manuscript was lost.[9] It was, however, rewritten
+and appeared in 1697 as _The Surey Demoniack, or an Account of Strange
+and Dreadful Actings in and about the Body of Richard Dugdale_. The
+preface was signed by six ministers, including those already named; but
+the book was probably written by Thomas Jollie and John Carrington.[10]
+The reality of the possession was attested by depositions taken before
+two Lancashire justices of the peace. The aim of the work was, of
+course, to add one more contemporary link to the chain of evidence for
+the supernatural. It was clear to the divines who strove with the
+possessed boy that his case was of exactly the same sort as those in the
+New Testament. Moreover, his recovery was a proof of the power of
+prayer.
+
+Now Non-Conformity was strong in Lancashire, and the Anglican church as
+well as the government had for many years been at no little pains to put
+it down. Here was a chance to strike the Puritans at one of their
+weakest spots, and the Church of England was not slow to use its
+opportunity. Zachary Taylor, rector of Wigan and chaplain to the Bishop
+of Chester, had already familiarized himself with the methods of the
+exorcists. In the previous year he had attacked the Catholics of
+Lancashire for an exorcism which they claimed to have accomplished
+within his parish.[11] Pleased with his new role, he found in Thomas
+Jollie a sheep ready for the shearing.[12] He hastened to publish _The
+Surey Impostor_,[13] in which, with a very good will, he made an assault
+upon the reality of Dugdale's fits, charged that he had been
+pre-instructed by the Catholics, and that the Non-Conformist clergymen
+were seeking a rich harvest from the miracles they should work.
+Self-glorification was their aim. He made fun of the several divines
+engaged in the affair, and accused them of trickery and presumption in
+their conduct of the case.[14]
+
+Of course Taylor was answered, and with a bitterness equal to his own.
+Thomas Jollie replied in _A Vindication of the Surey Demoniack_. "I will
+not foul my Paper," wrote the mild Jollie, "and offend my reader with
+those scurrilous and ridiculous Passages in this Page. O, the
+Eructations of an exulcerated Heart! How desperately wicked is the Heart
+of Man!"[15]
+
+We shall not go into the details of the controversy, which really
+degenerated into a sectarian squabble.[16] The only discussion of the
+subject that approached fairness was by an anonymous writer,[17] who
+professed himself impartial and of a different religious persuasion from
+Jollie. To be sure, he was a man who believed in possession by spirits.
+It may be questioned, too, whether his assumption of fair dealing
+towards the Church of England was altogether justified. But, at any
+rate, his work was free from invective and displayed moderation. He felt
+that the Dissenting clergymen were probably somewhat deluded. But they
+had acted, he believed, under good motives in attempting to help one who
+had appealed to them. Some of them were not only "serious good Men," but
+men well known in the nation. This, indeed, was true. The Dissenters had
+laid themselves open to attack, and doubtless some of them saw and
+regretted their mistake. At least, it seems not without significance
+that neither Oliver Heywood nor Richard Frankland nor any other of the
+Dissenters was sure enough of his ground to support Jollie in the
+controversy into which he had been led.[18]
+
+We have gone into some detail about the Dugdale affair because of its
+importance in its time, and because it was so essentially characteristic
+of the last era of the struggle over the power of the Devil. There were
+cases of possession not only in Lancashire but in Somersetshire and in
+and around London. Not without a struggle was His Satanic Majesty
+surrendering his hold.
+
+We turn from this controversy to follow the decisions of those eminent
+judges who were nullifying the statute against witches. We have already
+mentioned three names, those of Holt, Powell, and Parker. This is not
+because they were the only jurists who were giving verdicts of
+acquittal--we know that there must have been others--but because their
+names are linked with significant decisions. Without doubt Chief Justice
+Holt did more than any other man in English history to end the
+prosecution of witches. Justice Powell was not so brave a man, but he
+happened to preside over one of the most bitterly contested of all
+trials, and his verdict served to reaffirm the precedents set by Holt.
+It was Justice Parker's fortune to try the last case of witchcraft in
+England.
+
+Holt became chief justice of the king's bench on the accession of
+William and Mary. Not one of the great names in English judicial rolls,
+his decided stand against superstition makes him great in the history of
+witchcraft. Where and when he had acquired his skeptical attitude we do
+not know. The time was past when such an attitude was unusual. In any
+case, from the moment he assumed the chief justiceship he set himself
+directly against the punishment of witchcraft. As premier of the English
+judiciary his example meant quite as much as his own rulings. And their
+cumulative effect was not slight. We know of no less than eleven trials
+where as presiding officer he was instrumental in securing a verdict of
+acquittal. In London, at Ipswich, at Bury, at Exeter, in Cornwall, and
+in other parts of the realm, these verdicts were rendered, and they
+could not fail to influence opinion and to affect the decisions of other
+judges. Three of the trials we shall go over briefly--those at Bury,
+Exeter, and Southwark.
+
+In 1694 he tried Mother Munnings at Bury St. Edmunds,[19] where his
+great predecessor Hale had condemned two women. Mother Munnings had
+declared that a landlord should lie nose upward in the church-yard
+before the next Saturday, and, sure enough, her prophecy had come true.
+Nevertheless, in spite of this and other testimony, she was acquitted.
+Two years later Holt tried Elizabeth Horner at Exeter, where Raymond had
+condemned three women in 1682. Bishop Trelawny of Exeter had sent his
+sub-dean, Launcelot Blackburne (later to be Archbishop of York), to look
+into the case, and his report adds something to the account which
+Hutchinson has given us.[20] Elizabeth was seen "three nights together
+upon a large down in the same place, as if rising out of the ground." It
+was certified against her by a witness that she had driven a red-hot
+nail "into the witche's left foot-step, upon which she went lame, and,
+being search'd, her leg and foot appear'd to be red and fiery." These
+testimonies were the "most material against her," as well as the
+evidence of the mother of some possessed children, who declared that her
+daughter had walked up a wall nine feet high four or five times
+backwards and forwards, her face and the fore part of her body parallel
+to the ceiling, saying that Betty Horner carried her up. In closing the
+narrative the archdeacon wrote without comment: "My Lord Chief Justice
+by his questions and manner of hemming up the evidence seem'd to me to
+believe nothing of witchery at all, and to disbelieve the fact of
+walking up the wall which was sworn by the mother." He added, "the jury
+brought her in not guilty."
+
+The case of Sarah Moordike of London _versus_ Richard Hathaway[21] makes
+even clearer the attitude of Holt. Sarah Moordike, or Morduck, had been
+accused years before by a Richard Hathaway of causing his illness. On
+several occasions he had scratched her. Persecuted by the rabble, she
+had betaken herself from Southwark to London. Thither Richard Hathaway
+followed her and soon had several churches praying for his recovery. She
+had appealed to a magistrate for protection, had been refused, and had
+been tried at the assizes in Guildford, where she was acquitted. By this
+time, however, a good many people had begun to think Hathaway a cheat.
+He was arrested and put under the care of a surgeon, who watched him
+closely and soon discovered that the fasts which were a feature of his
+pretended fits were false. This was not the first time that he had been
+proved an impostor. On an earlier occasion he had been trapped into
+scratching a woman whom he erroneously supposed to be Sarah Morduck. In
+spite of all exposures, however, he stuck to his pretended fits and was
+at length brought before the assizes at Southwark on the charge of
+attempting to take away the life of Sarah Moordike for being a witch. It
+is refreshing to know that a clergyman, Dr. Martin, had espoused the
+cause of the witch and had aided in bringing Hathaway to judgment. Chief
+Justice Holt and Baron Hatsell presided over the court,[22] and there
+seems to have been no doubt about the outcome. The jury "without going
+from the bar" brought Hathaway in guilty.[23] The verdict was
+significant. Pretenders had got themselves into trouble before, but were
+soon out. The Boy of Bilston had been reproved; the young Robinson, who
+would have sent to the gallows a dozen fellow-creatures, thought it hard
+that he was kept a few months confined in London.[24] A series of cases
+in the reign of Charles I had shown that it was next to impossible to
+recover damages for being slandered as a witch, though in the time of
+the Commonwealth one woman had come out of a suit with five shillings to
+her credit. Of course, when a man of distinction was slandered,
+circumstances were altered. At some time very close to the trial of
+Hathaway, Elizabeth Hole of Derbyshire was summoned to the assizes for
+accusing Sir Henry Hemloke, a well known baronet, of witchcraft.[25]
+Such a charge against a man of position was a serious matter. But the
+Moordike-Hathaway case was on a plane entirely different from any of
+these cases. Sarah Morduck was not a woman of position, yet her accuser
+was punished, probably by a long imprisonment. It was a precedent that
+would be a greater safeguard to supposed witches than many acquittals.
+
+Justice Powell was not to wield the authority of Holt: yet he made one
+decision the effects of which were far-reaching. It was in the trial of
+Jane Wenham at Hertford in 1712. The trial of this woman was in a sense
+her own doing. She was a widow who had done washing by the day. For a
+long time she had been suspected of witchcraft by a neighboring farmer,
+so much so that, when a servant of his began to act queerly, he at once
+laid the blame on the widow. Jane applied to Sir Henry Chauncy, justice
+of the peace, for a warrant against her accuser. He was let off with a
+fine of a shilling, and she was instructed by Mr. Gardiner, the
+clergyman, to live more peaceably.[26] So ended the first act. In the
+next scene of this dramatic case a female servant of the Reverend Mr.
+Gardiner's, a maid just getting well of a broken knee, was discovered
+alone in a room undressed "to her shift" and holding a bundle of sticks.
+When asked to account for her condition by Mrs. Gardiner, she had a
+curious story to tell. "When she was left alone she found a strange
+Roaming in her head, ... her Mind ran upon Jane Wenham and she thought
+she must run some whither ... she climbed over a Five-Bar-Gate, and ran
+along the Highway up a Hill ... as far as a Place called Hackney-Lane,
+where she look'd behind her, and saw a little Old Woman Muffled in a
+Riding-hood." This dame had asked whither she was going, had told her to
+pluck some sticks from an oak tree, had bade her bundle them in her
+gown, and, last and most wonderful, had given her a large crooked
+pin.[27] Mrs. Gardiner, so the account goes, took the sticks and threw
+them into the fire. Presto! Jane Wenham came into the room, pretending
+an errand. It was afterwards found out that the errand was fictitious.
+
+All this raised a stir. The tale was absolutely original, it was no less
+remarkable. A maid with a broken knee had run a half-mile and back in
+seven minutes, very good time considering the circumstances. On the next
+day the maid, despite the knee and the fits she had meantime contracted,
+was sent out on an errand. She met Jane Wenham and that woman quite
+properly berated her for the stories she had set going, whereupon the
+maid's fits were worse than ever. Then, while several people carefully
+watched her, she repeated her former long distance run, leaping over a
+five-bar gate "as nimbly as a greyhound."
+
+Jane Wenham was now imprisoned by the justice of the peace, who
+collected with all speed the evidence against her. In this he was aided
+by the Reverend Francis Bragge, rector of Walkerne, and the Reverend
+Mr. Strutt, vicar of Audley. The wretched woman asked the justice to
+let her submit to the ordeal of water,[28] but he refused, pronouncing
+it illegal and unjustifiable. Meantime, the Rev. Mr. Strutt used the
+test of the Lord's Prayer,[29] a test that had been discarded for half a
+century. She failed to say the prayer aright, and alleged in excuse that
+"she was much disturbed in her head," as well she might be. But other
+evidence came in against her rapidly. She had been caught stealing
+turnips, and had quite submissively begged pardon, saying that she had
+no victuals that day and no money to buy any.[30] On the very next day
+the man who gave this evidence had lost one of his sheep and found
+another "taken strangely, skipping and standing upon its head."[31]
+There were other equally silly scraps of testimony. We need not go into
+them. The two officious clergymen busied themselves with her until one
+of them was able to wring some sort of a confession from her. It was a
+narrative in which she tried to account for the strange conduct of Anne
+Thorne and made a failure of it.[32] A few days later, in the presence
+of three clergymen and a justice of the peace, she was urged to repeat
+her confession but was "full of Equivocations and Evasions," and when
+pressed told her examiners that they "lay in wait for her Life."
+
+Bragge and Strutt had shown a great deal of energy in collecting
+evidence. Yet, when the case came to trial, the woman was accused only
+of dealing with a spirit in the shape of a cat.[33] This was done on the
+advice of a lawyer. Unfortunately we have no details about his reasons,
+but it would look very much as if the lawyer recognized that the
+testimony collected by the ministers would no longer influence the
+court, and believed that the one charge of using a cat as a spirit might
+be substantiated. The assizes were largely attended. "So vast a number
+of People," writes an eye-witness, "have not been together at the
+Assizes in the memory of Man."[34] Besides the evidence brought in by
+the justice of the peace, who led the prosecution with vigor, the Rev.
+Mr. Bragge, who was not to be repressed because the charges had been
+limited, gave some most remarkable testimony about the stuffing of Anne
+Thorne's pillow. It was full of cakes of small feathers fastened
+together with some viscous matter resembling much the "ointment made of
+dead men's flesh" mentioned by Mr. Glanvill. Bragge had done a piece of
+research upon the stuff and discovered that the particles were arranged
+in geometrical forms with equal numbers in each part.[35] Justice Powell
+called for the pillow, but had to be content with the witness's word,
+for the pillow had been burnt. Arthur Chauncy, who was probably a
+relative of the justice of the peace, offered to show the judge pins
+taken from Anne Thorne. It was needless, replied the judge, he supposed
+they were crooked pins.[36] The leaders of the prosecution seem to have
+felt that the judge was sneering at them throughout the trial. When Anne
+Thorne was in a fit, and the Reverend Mr. Chishull, being permitted to
+pray over her, read the office for the visitation of the sick, Justice
+Powell mockingly commented "That he had heard there were Forms of
+Exorcism in the Romish Liturgy, but knew not that we had any in our
+Church."[37] It must have been a great disappointment to these Anglican
+clergymen that Powell took the case so lightly. When it was testified
+against the accused that she was accustomed to fly, Powell is said to
+have said to her, "You may, there is no law against flying."[38] This
+indeed is quite in keeping with the man as described by Swift: "an old
+fellow with grey hairs, who was the merriest old gentleman I ever saw,
+spoke pleasing things, and chuckled till he cried again."
+
+In spite of Powell's obvious opinion on the trial, he could not hinder a
+conviction. No doubt the jury were greatly swayed by the crowds. The
+judge seems to have gone through the form of condemning the woman, but
+took pains to see that she was reprieved.[39] In the mean time her
+affair, like that of Richard Dugdale, had become a matter of sectarian
+quarrel. It was stated by the enemies of Jane Wenham that she was
+supported in prison by the Dissenters,[40] although they said that up to
+this time she had never been a church-going woman. It was the Dugdale
+case over again, save that the parties were reversed. Then Puritans had
+been arrayed on the side of superstition; now some of the Anglicans seem
+to have espoused that cause.[41] Of course the stir produced was
+greater. Mistress Jane found herself "the discourse of the town" in
+London, and a pamphlet controversy ensued that was quite as heated as
+that between Thomas Jollie and Zachary Taylor. No less than ten
+brochures were issued. The justice of the peace allowed his story of the
+case to be published and the Reverend Mr. Bragge rushed into print with
+a book that went through five editions. Needless to say, the defenders
+of Jane Wenham and of the judge who released her were not hesitant in
+replying. A physician who did not sign his name directed crushing
+ridicule against the whole affair,[42] while a defender of Justice
+Powell considered the case in a mild-mannered fashion: he did not deny
+the possibility of witchcraft, but made a keen impeachment of the
+trustworthiness of the witnesses against the woman.[43]
+
+But we cannot linger over the details of this controversy. Justice
+Powell had stirred up a hornets' nest of opposition, but it meant
+little.[44] The insects could buzz; but their stingers were drawn.
+
+The last trial for witchcraft was conducted in 1717 at Leicester by
+Justice Parker.[45] Curiously enough, the circumstances connected with
+it make it evident that crudest forms of superstition were still alive.
+Decency forbids that we should narrate the details of the methods used
+to demonstrate the guilt of the suspected parties. No less than
+twenty-five people banded themselves against "Old woman Norton and
+daughter" and put them through tests of the most approved character. It
+need hardly be said that the swimming ordeal was tried and that both
+creatures "swam like a cork." The persecutors then set to work to "fetch
+blood of the witches." In this they had "good success," but the witches
+"would be so stubborn, that they were often forced to call the constable
+to bring assistance of a number of persons to hold them by force to be
+blooded."[46] The "old witch" was also stripped and searched "publickly
+before a great number of good women." The most brutal and illegal of all
+forms of witch procedure had been revived, as if to celebrate the last
+appearance of the Devil. But the rest of the story is pleasanter. When
+the case came before the grand jury at the assizes, over which Justice
+Parker was presiding, "the bill was not found."
+
+With this the story of English trials comes to an end. The statute of
+James I had been practically quashed, and, though it was not to be taken
+from the law books for nineteen years, it now meant nothing. It was very
+hard for the great common people to realize what had happened. As the
+law was breaking down they had shown an increasing tendency to take
+justice into their own hands. In the case with which we have just been
+dealing we have seen the accusers infringing the personal rights of the
+individual, and calling in the constables to help them in their utterly
+unlawful performances. This was not new. As early as 1691, if Hutchinson
+may be trusted, there were "several tried by swimming in Suffolk, Essex,
+Cambridgeshire, and Northamptonshire and some were drowned." It would be
+easy to add other and later accounts,[47] but we must be content with
+one.[48] The widow Coman, in Essex, had recently lost her husband; and
+her pastor, the Reverend Mr. Boys, went to cheer her in her melancholy.
+Because he had heard her accounted a witch he questioned her closely and
+received a nonchalant admission of relations with the Devil. That
+astounded him. When he sought to inquire more closely, he was put off.
+"Butter is eight pence a pound and Cheese a groat a pound," murmured the
+woman, and the clergyman left in bewilderment. But he came back in the
+afternoon, and she raved so wildly that he concluded her confession was
+but "a distraction in her head." Two women, however, worried from her
+further and more startling confessions. The minister returned, bringing
+with him "Mr. Goldsmith and Mr. Grimes," two of the disbelieving "sparks
+of the age." The rest of the story may be told as it is given in another
+account, a diary of the time. "July 3d, 1699, the widow Coman was put
+into the river to see if she would sinke, ... and she did not sinke but
+swim, ... and she was tryed again July 19, and then she swam again. July
+24 the widow was tryed a third time by putting her into the river and
+she swam. December 27. The widow Coman that was counted a witch was
+buried." The intervening links need hardly be supplied, but the Reverend
+Mr. Boys has given them: "whether by the cold she got in the water, or
+by some other means, she fell very ill and dyed."
+
+It must have been very diverting, this experimentation by water, and it
+had become so popular by the beginning of the eighteenth century that
+Chief Justice Holt[49] is said to have ruled that in the future, where
+swimming had fatal results, those responsible would be prosecuted for
+murder. Such a declaration perhaps caused some disuse of the method for
+a time, but it was revived in the second third of the eighteenth
+century.
+
+Popular feeling still arrayed itself against the witch. If the
+increasing use of the swimming ordeal was the answer to the
+non-enforcement of the Jacobean statute, it was the answer of the
+ignorant classes. Their influence was bound to diminish. But another
+possible consequence of the breaking down of the law may be suggested.
+Mr. Inderwick, who has looked much into English witchcraft, says that
+"from 1686 to 1712 ... the charges and convictions of malicious injury
+to property in burning haystacks, barns, and houses, and malicious
+injuries to persons and to cattle increased enormously."[50] This is
+very interesting, if true, and it seems quite in accord with the history
+of witchcraft that it should be true. Again and again we have seen that
+the charge of witchcraft was a weapon of prosecutors who could not prove
+other suspected crimes. As the charges of witchcraft fell off,
+accusations for other crimes would naturally be multiplied; and, now
+that it was no longer easy to lay everything to the witch of a
+community, the number of the accused would also grow.
+
+We are now at the end of the witch trials. In another chapter we shall
+trace the history of opinion through this last period. With the
+dismissal of the Norton women at Leicester, the courts were through with
+witch trials.
+
+
+[1] See below, pp. 342-343.
+
+[2] We are assuming that the cases at Northampton in 1705 and at
+Huntingdon in 1716 have no basis of fact. At Northampton two women,
+according to the pamphlet account, had been hanged and burnt; at
+Huntingdon, according to another account, a woman and her daughter. It
+is possible that these pamphlets deal with historical events; but the
+probabilities are all against that supposition. For a discussion of the
+matter in detail see below, appendix A, Sec. 10.
+
+[3] For his early history see _The Surey Demoniack, ... or, an Account
+of Satan's ... Actings, In and about the Body of Richard Dugdale...._
+(London, 1697).
+
+[4] The Catholics do not seem, so far as the account goes, to have said
+anything about witchcraft.
+
+[5] _The Surey Demoniack_, 49; Zachary Taylor, _The Surey Impostor,
+being an answer to a ... Pamphlet, Entituled The Surey Demoniack_
+(London, 1697), 21-22.
+
+[6] "N. N.," _The Lancashire Levite Rebuked, or a Vindication of the
+Dissenters from Popery...._ (London, 1698), 3-4; see also the preface of
+_The Surey Demoniack_.
+
+[7] _Ibid._
+
+[8] _The Wonders of the Invisible World: being an Account of the Tryals
+of ... Witches ... in New England_ (London, 1693), by Cotton Mather, and
+_A Further Account of the Tryals of the New-England Witches_ (London,
+1693), by Increase Mather. See preface to _The Surey Demoniack_.
+
+[9] Thomas Jollie told a curious tale about how the manuscript had been
+forcibly taken from the man who was carrying it to the press by a group
+of armed men on the Strand. See _ibid._
+
+[10] Alexander Gordon in his article on Thomas Jollie, _Dict. Nat.
+Biog._, says that the pamphlet was drafted by Jollie and expanded by
+Carrington. Zachary Taylor, in his answer to it (_The Surey Impostor_),
+constantly names Mr. Carrington as the author. "N. N.," in _The
+Lancashire Levite Rebuked_, also assumes that Carrington was the author.
+
+[11] _The Devil Turned Casuist, or the Cheats of Rome Laid open in the
+Exorcism of a Despairing Devil...._ By Zachary Taylor, ... (London,
+1696).
+
+[12] It is interesting that Zachary Taylor's father was a
+Non-Conformist; see _The Lancashire Levite Rebuked_, 2.
+
+[13] London, 1697.
+
+[14] _The Devil Turned Casuist._
+
+[15] _A Vindication of the Surey Demoniack_, 17.
+
+[16] Taylor replied to Jollie's _Vindication of the Surey Demoniack_ in
+1698 with a pamphlet entitled _Popery, Superstition, Ignorance and
+Knavery ... very fully proved ... in the Surey Imposture_. Then came
+_The Lancashire Levite Rebuked_, by the unknown writer, "N. N.," whose
+views we give in the text. Taylor seems to have answered in a letter to
+"N. N." which called forth a scathing reply (1698) in _The Lancashire
+Levite Rebuked, or a Farther Vindication of the Dissenters...._ Taylor's
+reply, which came out in 1699, was entitled _Popery, Superstition,
+Ignorance, and Knavery Confess'd and fully Proved on the Surey
+Dissenters...._
+
+[17] "N. N." _The Lancashire Levite Rebuked_. The Rev. Alexander Gordon,
+in his article on Zachary Taylor, _Dict. Nat. Biog._, says that
+Carrington probably wrote this book. This seems impossible. The author
+of the book, in speaking of Mr. Jollie, Mr. R. Fr. [Frankland], and Mr.
+O. H. [Oliver Heywood], refers to Mr. C. as having "exposed himself in
+so many insignificant Fopperies foisted into his Narrative"--proof
+enough that Carrington did not write _The Lancashire Levite Rebuked_.
+
+[18] Several dissenting clergymen had opposed the publication of _The
+Surey Demoniack_, and had sought to have it suppressed. See _The
+Lancashire Levite Rebuked_, 2.
+
+[19] For an account of this case see Francis Hutchinson, _Historical
+Essay on Witchcraft_ (London, 1718), 43. Hutchinson had made an
+investigation of the case when in Bury, and he had also Holt's notes of
+the trial.
+
+[20] Hutchinson had Holt's notes on this case, as on the preceding;
+_ibid._, 45. Blackburne's letter is printed in _Notes and Queries_, 1st
+series, XI, 498-499, and reprinted in Brand, _Popular Antiquities_
+(1905), II, 648-649.
+
+[21] See _The Tryal of Richard Hathaway, ... For endeavouring to take
+away the Life of Sarah Morduck, For being a Witch ..._ (London, 1702),
+and _A Full and True Account of the Apprehending and Taking of Mrs.
+Sarah Moordike, ... accused ... for having Bewitched one Richard
+Hetheway ..._; see also Hutchinson, _op. cit._, 224-228.
+
+[22] _Ibid._, 226.
+
+[23] A somewhat similar case at Hammersmith met with the same treatment,
+if the pamphlet account may be trusted. Susanna Fowles pretended to be
+possessed in such a way that she could not use the name of God or
+Christ. The application of a red-hot iron to her head in the midst of
+her fits was drastic but effectual. She cried out "Oh Lord," and so
+proved herself a "notorious Lyar." She was sent to the house of
+correction, where, reports the unfeeling pamphleteer, "She is now
+beating hemp." Another pamphlet, however, gives a very different
+version. According to this account, Susan, under Papist influences,
+pretended to be possessed in such a way that she was continually
+blaspheming. She was indicted for blasphemy, fined, and sentenced to
+stand in the pillory. (For the graphic titles of these contradictory
+pamphlets and of a folio broadside on the same subject, see appendix A,
+Sec. 7).
+
+[24] Probably not by any court verdict, but through the privy council.
+
+[25] See J. C. Cox, _Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals_ (London,
+1890), II, 90.
+
+[26] _Jane Wenham_ (broadside); see also _A Full and Impartial Account
+of the Discovery of Sorcery and Witchcraft, Practis'd by Jane Wenham
+..._ (London, 1712).
+
+[27] This narrative is given in great detail in _A Full and Impartial
+Account_. It is of course referred to in nearly all the other pamphlets.
+
+[28] Jane Wenham (broadside) see also _A Full and Impartial Account_,
+12.
+
+[29] Jane Wenham (broadside); see also _A Full and Impartial Account_,
+10.
+
+[30] Jane Wenham (broadside); see also _A Full and Impartial Account_,
+14.
+
+[31] _Ibid._, 14.
+
+[32] It was suggested by some who did not believe Jane guilty, that she
+confessed from unhappiness and a desire to be out of the world,
+_Witchcraft Farther Display'd. Containing (I) An Account of the
+Witchcraft practis'd by Jane Wenham, ... An Answer to ... Objections
+against the Being and Power of Witches ..._ (London, 1712), 37.
+
+[33] _A Full and Impartial Account_, 24.
+
+[34] _An Account of the Tryal, Examination and Condemnation of Jane
+Wenham._
+
+[35] _A Full and Impartial Account_, 27.
+
+[36] _A Full and Impartial Account_, 26.
+
+[37] _Ibid._, 25.
+
+[38] For this story I have found no contemporary testimony. The earliest
+source that I can find is Alexander Chalmers's _Biographical Dictionary_
+(London, 1812-1827), XXV, 248 (_s. v._ Powell).
+
+[39] After her release she was taken under the protection of Colonel
+Plummer of Gilston, who had followed the trial. Hutchinson, _Historical
+Essay on Witchcraft_, 130. On his death she was supported by the Earl
+and Countess of Cowper, and lived until 1730. Robert Clutterbuck,
+_History and Antiquities of the County of Hertford_ (London, 1815-1827),
+II, 461, note.
+
+[40] _Witchcraft Farther Displayed_, introduction.
+
+[41] See the dedication to Justice Powell in _The Case of the
+Hertfordshire Witchcraft Consider'd_ (London, 1712).
+
+[42] _A Full Confutation of Witchcraft: More particularly of the
+Depositions against Jane Wenham.... In a Letter from a Physician in
+Hertfordshire, to his Friend in London_ (London, 1712).
+
+[43] _The Case of the Hertfordshire Witchcraft Consider'd._ For more as
+to these discussions see below, ch. XIV.
+
+[44] It seems, however, that the efforts of Lady Frances ---- to bring
+about Jane's execution in spite of the judge were feared by Jane's
+friends. See _The Impossibility of Witchcraft, ... In which the
+Depositions against Jane Wenham ... are Confuted ..._ (London, 1712), 2d
+ed. (in the Bodleian), 36.
+
+[45] See Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 35,838, f. 404.
+
+[46] They could "get no blood of them by Scratching so they used great
+pins and such Instruments for that purpose."
+
+[47] See _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports, Various_, I, 160; see also C. J.
+Bilson, _County Folk Lore, Leicestershire and Rutland_ (Folk Lore Soc.,
+1895), 51-52.
+
+[48] _The Case of Witchcraft at Coggeshall, Essex, in the year 1699.
+Being the narrative of the Rev. J. Boys ..._ (London, 1901).
+
+[49] By some Parker is given the credit. I cannot find the original
+authority.
+
+[50] Inderwick, _Sidelights on the Stuarts_, 174, 175.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE CLOSE OF THE LITERARY CONTROVERSY.
+
+
+In the last chapter we mentioned the controversy over Jane Wenham. In
+attempting in this chapter to show the currents and cross-currents of
+opinion during the last period of witch history in England, we cannot
+omit some account of the pamphlet war over the Hertfordshire witch. It
+will not be worth while, however, to take up in detail the arguments of
+the upholders of the superstition. The Rev. Mr. Bragge was clearly on
+the defensive. There were, he admitted sadly, "several gentlemen who
+would not believe that there are any witches since the time of our
+Saviour Jesus Christ." He struck the same note when he spoke of those
+who disbelieved "on the prejudices of education only." With great
+satisfaction the clergyman quoted the decision of Sir Matthew Hale in
+1664.[1]
+
+The opinions of the opposition are more entertaining, if their works did
+not have so wide a sale. The physician who wrote to his friend in London
+poked fun at the witchmongers. It was dangerous to do so, he admitted,
+"especially in the Country, where to make the least Doubt is a Badge of
+Infidelity."[2] As for him, he envied the privileges of the town. He
+proceeded to take up the case of Anne Thorne. Her seven-minute mile run
+with a broken knee was certainly puzzling. "If it was only a violent
+Extention of the Rotula, something might be allow'd: but it is hard to
+tell what this was, your Country Bone-Setters seldom plaguing their
+heads with Distinctions."[3] The "Viciousness of Anne Thorn's
+opticks,"[4] the silly character of the clergyman's evidence, and the
+spiritual juggles at exorcism,[5] all these things roused his merriment.
+As for Jane's confession, it was the result of ensnaring questions.[6]
+He seemed to hold the clergy particularly responsible for witch cases
+and advised them to be more conversant with the history of diseases and
+to inquire more narrowly into the physical causes of things.
+
+A defender of Justice Powell, probably Henry Stebbing, later an eminent
+divine but now a young Cambridge master of arts, entered the
+controversy. He was not altogether a skeptic about witchcraft in
+general, but his purpose was to show that the evidence against Jane
+Wenham was weak. The two chief witnesses, Matthew Gilston and Anne
+Thorne, were "much disturbed in their Imaginations." There were many
+absurdities in their stories. He cited the story of Anne Thorne's mile
+run in seven minutes. Who knew that it was seven minutes? There was no
+one timing her when she started. How was it known that she went half a
+mile? And, supposing these narratives were true, would they prove
+anything? The writer took up piece after piece of the evidence in this
+way and showed its absurdity. Some of his criticisms are amusing--he
+attacked silly testimony in such a solemn way--yet he had, too, his
+sense of fun. It had been alleged, he wrote, that the witch's flesh,
+when pricked, emitted no blood, but a thin watery matter. "Mr. Chauncy,
+it is like, expected that Jane Wenham's Blood shou'd have been as rich
+and as florid as that of Anne Thorne's, or of any other Virgin of about
+16. He makes no difference, I see, between the Beef and Mutton Regimen,
+and that of Turnips and Water-gruel."[7] Moreover, he urges, it is well
+known that fright congeals the blood.[8]
+
+We need not go further into this discussion. Mr. Bragge and his friends
+re-entered the fray at once, and then another writer proved with
+elaborate argument that there had never been such a thing as witchcraft.
+The controversy was growing dull, but it had not been without value. It
+had been, on the whole, an unconventional discussion of the subject and
+had shown very clearly the street-corner point of view. But we must turn
+to the more formal treatises. Only three of them need be noticed, those
+of Richard Baxter, John Beaumont, and Richard Boulton. All of these
+writers had been affected by the accounts of the Salem witchcraft in New
+England. The opinions of Glanvill and Matthew Hale had been carried to
+America and now were brought back to fortify belief in England. Richard
+Baxter was most clearly influenced by the accounts of what had happened
+in the New World. The Mathers were his friends and fellow Puritans, and
+their testimony was not to be doubted for a minute. But Baxter needed no
+convincing. He had long preached and written about the danger of
+witches. In a sermon on the Holy Ghost in the fifties he had shown a
+wide acquaintance with foreign works on demonology.[9] In a _Defence of
+the Christian Religion_,[10] written several years later, he recognized
+that the malice of the accusers and the melancholy of the accused were
+responsible for some cases, but such cases were exceptions. If any one
+doubted that there were _bona fide_ cases, let him talk to the judges
+and ministers yet living in Suffolk, Norfolk, and Essex. They could tell
+him of many of the confessions made in the Hopkins period. Baxter had
+not only talked on witchcraft with Puritan ministers, but had
+corresponded as well with Glanvill, with whom, although Glanvill was an
+Anglican, he seems to have been on very friendly terms.[11] Nor is it
+likely that in the many conversations he held with his neighbor, Sir
+Matthew Hale,[12] the evidence from witchcraft for a spiritual world had
+been neglected. The subject must have come up in his conversations with
+another friend, Robert Boyle.[13] Boyle's interest in such matters was
+of course a scientific one. Baxter, like Glanvill, looked at them from a
+religious point of view. In the classic _Saint's Everlasting Rest_ he
+drew his fourth argument for the future happiness and misery of man
+from the Devil's compact with witches.[14] To this point he reverted in
+his _Dying Thoughts_. His _Certainty of the World of Spirits_, in which
+he took up the subject of witchcraft in more detail, was written but a
+few months before his death. "When God first awakened me, to think with
+preparing seriousness of my Condition after Death, I had not any
+observed Doubts of the Reality of Spirits.... But, when God had given me
+peace of Conscience, Satan Assaulted me with those worse Temptations....
+I found that my Faith of Supernatural Revelation must be more than a
+Believing Man and that if it had not a firm foundation, ... even sure
+Evidence of Verity, ... it was not like ... to make my Death to be safe
+and comfortable.... I tell the Reader, that he may see why I have taken
+this Subject as so necessary, why I am ending my Life with the
+publication of these Historical Letters and Collections, which I dare
+say have such Evidence as will leave every Sadduce that readeth them,
+either convinced, or utterly without excuse."[15]
+
+By the "Collection" he meant, of course, the narratives brought out in
+his _Certainty of the World of Spirits_--published in 1691. It is
+unnecessary to review its arguments here. They were an elaboration of
+those already used in earlier works. Too much has been made of this
+book. Baxter had the fever for publication. It was a lean year when he
+dashed off less than two works. His wife told him once that he would
+write better if he wrote less. Probably she was thinking of his style,
+and she was doubtless right. But it was true, too, of his thinking; and
+none of his productions show this more than his hurried book on, spirits
+and witches.[16]
+
+Beaumont and Boulton may be passed over quickly. Beaumont[17] had read
+widely in the witch literature of England and other countries;[18] he
+had read indeed with some care, as is evidenced by the fact that he had
+compared Hopkins's and Stearne's accounts of the same events and found
+them not altogether consistent. Nevertheless Beaumont never thought of
+questioning the reality of witchcraft phenomena, and his chief aim in
+writing was to answer _The World Bewitched_, the great work of a Dutch
+theologian, Balthazar Bekker, "who laughs at all these things of this
+Nature as done by Humane contrivance."[19] Bekker's bold book was
+indeed gaining wide notice; but this reply to it was entirely
+commonplace. Richard Boulton, sometime of Brasenose College, published
+ten years later, in 1715, _A Compleat History of Magic_. It was a book
+thrown together in a haphazard way from earlier authors, and was written
+rather to sell than to convince. Seven years later a second edition was
+brought out, in which the writer inserted an answer to Hutchinson.
+
+Before taking up Hutchinson's work we shall turn aside to collect those
+stray fragments of opinion that indicate in which direction the wind was
+blowing. Among those who wrote on nearly related topics, one
+comparatively obscure name deserves mention. Dr. Richard Burthogge
+published in 1694 an _Essay upon Reason and the Nature of Spirits_, a
+book which was dedicated to John Locke. He touched on witchcraft in
+passing. "Most of the relations," he wrote, "do, upon impartial
+Examination, prove either Impostures of Malicious, or Mistakes of
+Ignorant and Superstitious persons; yet some come so well Attested that
+it were to bid defiance to all Human Testimony to refuse them
+belief."[20]
+
+This was the last stand of those who still believed. Shall we, they
+asked, discredit all human testimony? It was practically the belief of
+Bishop William Lloyd of Worcester, who, while he urged his clergy to
+give up their notions about witches, was inclined to believe that the
+Devil still operates in the Gentile world and among the Pagans.[21]
+Joseph Addison was equally unwilling to take a radical view. "There
+are," he wrote in the _Spectator_ for July 14, 1711, "some opinions in
+which a man should stand neuter.... It is with this temper of mind that
+I consider the subject of witchcraft.... I endeavour to suspend my
+belief till I hear more certain accounts.... 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."[22] The force of
+credulity among the country people he fully recognized. His Sir Roger de
+Coverley, who was a justice of the peace, and his chaplain were, he
+said, too often compelled to put an end to the witch-swimming
+experiments of the people.
+
+If this was belief, it was at least a harmless sort. It was almost
+exactly the position of James Johnstone, former secretary for Scotland,
+who, writing from London to the chancellor of Scotland, declared his
+belief in the existence of witches, but called attention to the fact
+that the parliaments of France and other judicatories had given up the
+trying of them because it was impossible to distinguish possession from
+"nature in disorder."[23]
+
+But there were those who were ready to assert a downright negative. The
+Marquis of Halifax in the _Political, Moral and Miscellaneous Thoughts
+and Reflections_ which he wrote (or, at least, completed) in 1694, noted
+"It is a fundamental ... that there were witches--much shaken of
+late."[24] Secretary of State Vernon and the Duke of Shrewsbury were
+both of them skeptical about the confessions of witches.[25] Sir
+Richard Steele lampooned the belief. "Three young ladies of our town,"
+he makes his correspondent relate, "were indicted for witchcraft. One by
+spirits locked in a bottle and magic herbs drew hundreds of men to her;
+the second cut off by night the limbs of dead bodies and, muttering
+words, buried them; the third moulded pieces of dough into the shapes of
+men, women, and children and then heated them." They "had nothing to say
+in their own defence but downright denying the facts, which," the writer
+remarks, "is like to avail very little when they come upon their
+trials." "The parson," he continued, "will believe nothing of all this;
+so that the whole town cries out: 'Shame! that one of his cast should be
+such an atheist.'"[26]
+
+The parson had at length assimilated the skepticism of the jurists and
+the gentry. It was, as has been said, an Anglican clergyman who
+administered the last great blow to the superstition. Francis
+Hutchinson's _Historical Essay on Witchcraft_, published in 1718 (and
+again, enlarged, in 1720), must rank with Reginald Scot's _Discoverie_
+as one of the great classics of English witch literature. Hutchinson had
+read all the accounts of trials in England--so far as he could find
+them--and had systematized them in chronological order, so as to give a
+conspectus of the whole subject. So nearly was his point of view that of
+our own day that it would be idle to rehearse his arguments. A man with
+warm sympathies for the oppressed, he had been led probably by the case
+of Jane Wenham, with whom he had talked, to make a personal
+investigation of all cases that came at all within the ken of those
+living. Whoever shall write the final story of English witchcraft will
+find himself still dependent upon this eighteenth-century historian.
+
+Hutchinson's work was the last chapter in the witch controversy. There
+was nothing more to say.
+
+
+[1] _Witchcraft Farther Displayed._
+
+[2] _A Full Confutation of Witchcraft_, 4.
+
+[3] _Ibid._, 11.
+
+[4] _Ibid._, 38.
+
+[5] _Ibid._, 5.
+
+[6] _Ibid._, 23-24.
+
+[7] _The Case of the Hertfordshire Witchcraft Consider'd_, 72.
+
+[8] If certain phrases may be trusted, this writer was interested in the
+case largely because it had become a cause of sectarian combat and he
+hoped to strike at the church.
+
+[9] See Baxter's _Works_ (London, 1827-1830), XX, 255-271.
+
+[10] See _ibid._, XXI, 87.
+
+[11] W. Orme in his _Life of Richard Baxter_ (London, 1830), I, 435,
+says that the Baxter MSS. contain several letters from Glanvill to
+Baxter.
+
+[12] _See Memoirs of Richard Baxter_ by Dr. Bates (in _Biographical
+Collections, or Lives and Characters from the Works of the Reverend Mr.
+Baxter and Dr. Bates_, 1760), II, 51, 73.
+
+[13] _Ibid._, 26; see also Baxter's _Dying Thoughts_, in _Works_, XVIII,
+284, where he refers to the Demon of Mascon, a story for which Boyle, as
+we have seen, had stood sponsor in England.
+
+[14] Ch. VII, sect. iv, in _Works_, XXII, 327.
+
+[15] _Certainty of the World of Spirits_ (London, 1691), preface.
+
+[16] Two other collectors of witch stories deserve perhaps a note here,
+for each prefaced his collection with a discussion of witchcraft. The
+London publisher Nathaniel Crouch, who wrote much for his own press
+under the pseudonym of "R. B." (later expanded to "Richard Burton"),
+published as early as 1688 (not 1706, as says the _Dict. Nat. Biog._)
+_The Kingdom of Darkness: or The History of Daemons, Specters, Witches,
+... Containing near Fourscore memorable Relations, ... Together with a
+Preface obviating the common Objections and Allegations of the Sadduces
+[sic] and Atheists of the Age, ... with Pictures._ Edward Stephens,
+first lawyer, then clergyman, but always a pamphleteer, brought out in
+1693 _A Collection of Modern Relations concerning Witches and
+Witchcraft_, to which was prefaced Sir Matthew Hale's _Meditations
+concerning the Mercy of God in preserving us from the Malice and Power
+of Evil Angels_ and a dissertation of his own on _Questions concerning
+Witchcraft_.
+
+[17] _An Historical, Physiological, and Theological Treatise of Spirits,
+Apparitions, Witchcraft and other Magical Practices_ (London, 1705).
+Dedicated to "John, Earl of Carbury."
+
+[18] See for example, _ibid._, 63, 70, 71, 75, 130-135, 165, 204, 289,
+306.
+
+[19] Balthazar Bekker's _De Betoverde Weereld_ (Leeuwarden and
+Amsterdam, 1691-1693), was a most telling attack upon the reality of
+witchcraft, and, through various translations, was read all over Europe.
+The first part was translated and published in London in 1695 as _The
+World Bewitched_, and was republished in 1700 as _The World Turn'd
+upside down_.
+
+[20] _Essay upon Reason and the Nature of Spirits_, 195.
+
+[21] G. P. R. James, ed., _Letters Illustrative of the Reign of William
+III, ... addressed to the Duke of Shrewsbury, by James Vernon, Esq._
+(London, 1841), II, 302-303.
+
+[22] _Spectator_, no. 117.
+
+[23] _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, XIV, 3, p. 132.
+
+[24] H. C. Foxcroft, ed., _Life and Letters of Sir George Savile,
+Marquis of Halifax_ (London, 1898), II, 493.
+
+[25] G. P. R. James, ed., _op. cit._, II, 300. Shrewsbury's opinion may
+be inferred from Vernon's reply to him.
+
+[26] See the _Tatler_, no. 21, May 28, 1709.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDICES.
+
+
+
+
+A.--PAMPHLET LITERATURE.
+
+
+Sec. 1.--Witchcraft under Elizabeth (see ch. II).
+
+A large part of the evidence for the trials of Elizabeth's reign is
+derived from the pamphlets issued soon after the trials. These pamphlets
+furnish a peculiar species of historical material, and it is a species
+so common throughout the history of English witchcraft that it deserves
+a brief examination in passing. The pamphlets were written of course by
+credulous people who easily accepted what was told them and whose own
+powers of observation were untrained. To get at the facts behind their
+marvellous accounts demands the greatest care and discrimination. Not
+only must the miraculous be ruled out, but the prejudices of the
+observer must be taken into account. Did the pamphleteer himself hear
+and see what he recorded, or was his account at second hand? Did he
+write soon after the events, when they were fresh in his memory? Does
+his narrative seem to be that of a painstaking, careful man or
+otherwise? These are questions to be answered. In many instances,
+however, the pamphlets were not narrative in form, but were merely
+abstracts of the court proceedings and testimony. In this case, too,
+care must be taken in using them, for the testimony damaging to the
+accused was likely to be accented, while the evidence on the other side,
+if not suppressed, was not emphasized. In general, however, these
+records of depositions are sources whose residuum of fact it is not
+difficult to discover. Both in this and in the narrative material the
+most valuable points may be gleaned from the incidental references and
+statements. The writer has made much use of this incidental matter. The
+position of the witch in her community, the real ground of the feeling
+against her upon the part of her neighbors, the way in which the alarm
+spread, the processes used to elicit confession--inferences of this
+sort may, the writer believes, be often made with a good deal of
+confidence. We have taken for granted that the pamphlets possess a
+substratum of truth. This may not always be the case. The pamphleteer
+was writing to sell. A fictitious narrative of witchcraft or of a witch
+trial was almost as likely to sell as a true narrative. More than once
+in the history of witch literature absolutely imaginary stories were
+foisted upon the public. It is necessary to be constantly on guard
+against this type of pamphlet. Fortunately nine-tenths of the witch
+accounts are corroborated from other sources. The absence of such
+corroboration does not mean that an account should be barred out, but
+that it should be subjected to the methods of historical criticism, and
+that it should be used cautiously even if it pass that test. Happily for
+us, the plan of making a witch story to order does not seem to have
+occurred to the Elizabethan pamphleteers. So far as we know, all the
+pamphlets of that time rest upon actual events. We shall take them up
+briefly in order.
+
+The first was _The examination and confession of certaine Wytches at
+Chensforde in the Countie of Essex before the Quenes maiesties Judges,
+the XXVI daye of July Anno 1566_. The only original copy of this
+pamphlet is in the Lambeth Palace library at London and its binding
+bears the initials of R. B. [Richard Bancroft]. The versified
+introduction is signed by John Phillips, who presumably was the author.
+The pamphlet--a black letter one--was issued, in three parts, from the
+press of William Powell at London, two of them on August 13, the third
+on August 23, 1566. It has since been reprinted by H. Beigel for the
+Philobiblon Society, London, 1864-1865. It gives abstracts of the
+confessions and an account of the court interrogatories. There is every
+reason to believe that it is in the main an accurate account of what
+happened at the Chelmsford trials in 1566. Justice Southcote, Dr. Cole,
+Master Foscue, and Attorney-General Gerard are all names we can
+identify. Moreover, the one execution narrated is confirmed by the
+pamphlet dealing with the trials at Chelmsford in 1579.
+
+The second pamphlet, also in black letter, deals with the Abingdon cases
+of 1579. It is entitled _A Rehearsall both straung and true of hainous
+and horrible actes committed by Elizabeth Stile, alias Rockingham,
+Mother Dutten, Mother Devell, Mother Margaret. Fower notorious Witches
+apprehended at Winsore in the Countie of Barks, and at Abington
+arraigned, condemned and executed on the 28 daye of Februarie last anno
+1579_. This pamphlet finds confirmation by a reference in the privy
+council records to the same event (_Acts P. C._, n. s., XI, 22).
+Reginald Scot, in his _Discoverie of Witchcraft_, 17, 543, mentions
+another, a book of "Richard Gallis of Windesor" "about certaine witches
+of Windsore executed at Abington." This would seem to have been a
+different account of the Abingdon affair, because Scot also on p. 51
+speaks of some details of the Abingdon affair as to be found "in a
+little pamphlet of the acts and hanging of foure witches in anno 1579."
+It is perhaps the one described by Lowndes, _Bibliographer's Manual of
+English Literature_ (p. 2959) under the title _The horrible Acts of
+Eliz. Style, alias Rockingham, Mother Dutton, Mother Dovell, and Mother
+Margaret, 4 Witches executed at Abingdon, 26 Feb. upon Richard Galis_
+(London, 1579) or that mentioned in the Stationers' _Registers_, II
+(London, 1875), 352, under date of May 4, 1579, as _A brief treatise
+conteyninge the most strange and horrible crueltye of Elizabeth Sule_
+[sic] _alias Bockingham_ [sic] _and hir confederates executed at
+Abingdon upon Richard Galis etc._
+
+The second Chelmsford trials were also in 1579. The pamphlet account was
+called _A Detection of damnable driftes, practised by three Witches
+arraigned at Chelmsforde in Essex at the last Assizes there holden,
+whiche were executed in Aprill 1579_. There are three references in this
+pamphlet to people mentioned in the earlier Chelmsford pamphlet, so that
+the two confirm each other.
+
+The third Chelmsford trials came in 1589 and were narrated in a pamphlet
+entitled _The apprehension and confession of three notorious Witches
+arraigned and by Justice condemnede in the Countye of Essex the 5 day of
+Julye last past_. Joan Cunny was convicted, largely on the evidence of
+the two bastard sons of one of her "lewde" daughters. The eldest of
+these boys, who was not over ten or twelve, told the court that he had
+seen his grandmother cause an oak to be blown up by the roots during a
+calm. The charges against Joan Upney concerned chiefly her dealings
+with toads, those against Joan Prentice, who lived in an Essex
+almshouse, had to do with ferrets. The three women seem to have been
+brought first before justices of the peace and were then tried together
+and condemned by the "judge of the circuit." This narrative has no
+outside confirmation, but the internal evidence for its authenticity is
+good. Three men mentioned as sheriff, justice, and landowner can all be
+identified as holding those respective positions in the county.
+
+The narrative of the St. Oses case appeared in 1582. It was called _A
+True and just Recorde of the Information, Examination and Confession of
+all the Witches taken at St. Oses in the countie of Essex: whereof some
+were executed, and other some entreated according to the determination
+of Lawe.... Written orderly, as the cases were tryed by evidence, by W.
+W._ The pamphlet is merely a record of examinations. It is dedicated to
+Justice Darcy; and from slips, where the judge in describing his action
+breaks into the first person, it is evident that it was written by the
+judge himself. Scot, who wrote two years later, had read this pamphlet,
+and knew of the case (_Discoverie_, 49, 542). There are many references
+to the case by later writers on witchcraft.
+
+Eleven years later came the trials which brought out the pamphlet: _The
+most strange and admirable discoverie of the three Witches of Warboys,
+arraigned, convicted and executed at the last assises at Huntingdon ..._,
+London, 1593. Its contents are reprinted by Richard Boulton, in
+his _Compleat History of Magick, Sorcery, and Witchcraft_ (London,
+1715), I, 49-152. There can be no doubt as to the historical character
+of this pamphlet. The Throckmortons, the Cromwells, and the Pickerings
+were all well known in Huntingdonshire. An agreement is still preserved
+in the archives of the Huntingdon corporation providing that the
+corporation shall pay L40 to Queen's College, Cambridge, in order that a
+sermon shall be preached on witchcraft at Huntingdon each Lady day. This
+was continued for over two hundred years. One of the last sermons on
+this endowment was preached in 1795 and attacked the belief in
+witchcraft. The record of the contract is still kept in Queen's College,
+Brit. Mus. MSS., 5,849, fol. 254. For mention of the affair see Darrel,
+_Detection of that sinnful ... discours of Samuel Harshnet_, 36, 39,
+110; also Harsnett, _Discovery of the Fraudulent Practises_, 93, 97.
+Several Jacobean writers refer to the case. What seems to be another
+edition is in the Bodleian: _A True and Particular Observation of a
+notable Piece of Witchcraft_--which is the inside heading of the first
+edition. The text is the same, but there are differences in the paging.
+
+Perhaps the most curious of all Elizabethan witch pamphlets is entitled
+_The most wonderfull and true Storie of a certaine Witch named Alse
+Gooderidge of Stapenhill, who was arraigned and convicted at Darbie, at
+the Assizes there. As also a true Report of the strange Torments of
+Thomas Darling, a boy of thirteen years of age, that was possessed by
+the Devill, with his horrible Fittes and terrible apparitions by him
+uttered at Burton upon Trent, in the Countie of Stafford, and of his
+marvellous deliverance_, London, 1597. There are two copies of this--the
+only ones of which the writer knows--in Lambeth Palace library. They are
+exactly alike, page for page, except for the last four lines of the last
+page, where the wording differs. The pamphlet is clearly one written by
+John Denison as an abstract of an account by Jesse Bee. Harsnett,
+_Discovery of the Fraudulent Practices of John Darrel_, 266-269, tells
+how these two books were written. Denison is quoted as to certain
+insertions made in his manuscript after it left his hands, insertions
+which are to be found, he says, on pages 15 and 39. The insertions
+complained of by Denison are indeed to be found on the pages indicated
+of _The most wonderfull and true Storie of ... Alse Gooderidge_, thus
+establishing his authorship of the pamphlet. The account by Bee, of
+which this is an abstract, I have not seen. Alse Gooderidge was put
+through many examinations and finally died in prison. "She should have
+been executed, but that her spirit killed her in prison." John Darrel
+was one of those who sought to help the boy who had been bewitched by
+Alice. Darrel, however, receives only passing mention from the author of
+this pamphlet. The narrative does not agree very well in matters of
+detail with the Darrel tracts, although in the main outlines it is
+similar to them. It is very crudely put together, and, while it was
+doubtless a sincere effort to present the truth, must not be too
+implicitly depended upon.
+
+Two pamphlets are hidden away in the back of the _Triall of Maist.
+Dorrel_ (see below, Sec. 2). The first (pp. 92-98) deals with the trial of
+Doll Bartham of Shadbrook in Suffolk. She was tried by the chief justice
+and hanged the 12th of July, 1599. The second (pp. 99-103) narrates the
+trial of Anne Kerke before "Lorde Anderson," the 30th of December, 1599.
+She also went to the gallows.
+
+There are other pamphlets referred to in Lowndes, etc., which we have
+been unable to find. One of them is _The Arraignment and Execution of 3
+detestable Witches, John Newell, Joane his wife, and Hellen Calles; two
+executed at Barnett, and one at Braynford, 1 Dec. 1595_. A second bears
+the title _The severall Facts of Witchcrafte approved on Margaret
+Haskett of Stanmore_. 1585. Black letter. Another pamphlet in the same
+year deals with what is doubtless the same case. It is _An Account of
+Margaret Hacket, a notorious Witch, who consumed a young Man to Death,
+rotted his Bowells and back bone asunder, who was executed at Tiborn, 19
+Feb. 1585_. London, 1585. A fourth pamphlet is _The Examination and
+Confession of a notorious Witch named Mother Arnold, alias Whitecote,
+alias Glastonbury, at the Assise of Burntwood in July, 1574: who was
+hanged for Witchcraft at Barking_. 1575.
+
+The title _The case of Agnes Bridges and Rachel Pinder_, created by
+Hazlitt, _Collections and Notes_, 1867-1876, out of the mention by
+Holinshed of a printed account, means but _The discloysing_, etc. (see
+p. 351). The case--see Holinshed, _Chronicles_ (London, 1808), IV, 325,
+and Stow, Annales (London, 1631), p. 678, who put the affair in
+1574--was not of witchcraft, but of pretended possession. See above, p.
+59.
+
+To this period must belong also _A true report of three Straunge
+Witches, lately found at Newnham Regis_, mentioned by Hazlitt
+(_Handbook_, p. 230). I have not seen it; but the printer is given as
+"J. Charlewood," and Charlewood printed between 1562 and 1593. The
+_Stationers' Registers_, 1570-1587 (London; Shakespeare Soc., 1849), II,
+32, mention also the licensing in 1577 of _The Booke of
+Witches_--whatever that may have been.
+
+Among pamphlets dealing with affairs nearly related to witchcraft may be
+mentioned the following:
+
+_A short treatise declaringe the detestable wickednesse of magicall
+sciences, as Necromancie, Coniuration of Spirites, Curiouse Astrologie
+and such lyke.... Made by Francis Coxe._ [London, 1561.] Black letter.
+Coxe had been pardoned by the Queen.
+
+_The Examination of John Walsh, before Master Thomas Williams,
+Commissary to the Reverend father in God, William, bishop of Excester,
+upon certayne Interrogatories touchyng Wytch-crafte and Sorcerye, in the
+presence of divers gentlemen and others, the XX of August, 1566._ 1566.
+Black letter. John Ashton (_The Devil in Britain and America_, London,
+1896, p. 202) has called this the "earliest English printed book on
+witchcraft pure and simple"; but it did not deal with witches and it was
+preceded by the first Chelmsford pamphlet.
+
+_The discloysing of a late counterfeyted possession by the devyl in two
+maydens within the Citie of London._ [1574.] Black letter. The case is
+that of Agnes Bridges and Rachel Pinder, mentioned above (pp. 59, 351).
+
+_The Wonderfull Worke of God shewed upon a Chylde, whose name is William
+Withers, being in the Towne of Walsam ... Suffolk, who, being Eleven
+Yeeres of age, laye in a Traunce the Space of Tenne Days ... and hath
+continued the Space of Three Weeks_, London, 1581. Written by John
+Phillips. This pamphlet is mentioned by Sidney Lee in his article on
+John Phillips in the _Dict. Nat. Biog._
+
+_A Most Wicked worke of a Wretched Witch (the like whereof none can
+record these manie yeares in England) wrought on the Person of one
+Richard Burt, servant to Maister Edling of Woodhall in the Parrish of
+Pinner in the Countie of Myddlesex, a myle beyond Harrow. Latelie
+committed in March last, An. 1592 and newly recognized acording to the
+truth. By G. B. maister of Artes._ [London, 1593.] See Hazlitt,
+Collections and Notes, 1867-1877. The pamphlet may be found in the
+library of Lambeth Palace. The story is a curious one; no action seems
+to have been taken.
+
+_A defensative against the poyson of supposed prophecies, not hitherto
+confuted by the penne of any man; which being eyther uppon the warrant
+and authority of old paynted bookes, expositions of dreames, oracles,
+revelations, invocations of damned spirits ... have been causes of great
+disorder in the commonwealth and chiefly among the simple and unlearned
+people._ Henry Howard, afterwards Earl of Northampton, was the author of
+this "defensative." It appeared about 1581-1583, and was revised and
+reissued in 1621.
+
+Three Elizabethan ballads on witches are noted by Hazlitt,
+_Bibliographical Collections and Notes_, 2d series (London, 1882): _A
+warnynge to wytches_, published in 1585, _The scratchinge of the
+wytches_, published in 1579, and _A lamentable songe of Three Wytches of
+Warbos, and executed at Huntingdon_, published in 1593. Already in
+1562-3 "a boke intituled _A poosye in forme of a visyon, agaynste wytche
+Crafte, and Sosyrye_," written "in myter" by John Hall, had been
+published (_Stationers' Registers_, 1557-1570, p. 78).
+
+Some notion of the first step in the Elizabethan procedure against a
+witch may be gathered from the specimens of "indictments" given in the
+old formula book of William West, _Simboleography_ (pt. ii, first
+printed in 1594). Three specimens are given; two are of indictments "For
+killing a man by witchcraft upon the statute of Anno 5. of the Queene,"
+the third is "For bewitching a Horse, whereby he wasted and became
+worse." As the documents in such bodies of models are usually genuine
+papers with only a suppression of the names, it is probable that the
+dates assigned to the indictments noted--the 34th and 35th years of
+Elizabeth--are the true ones, and that the initials given, "S. B. de C.
+in comit. H. vidua," "Marg' L. de A. in com' E. Spinster," and "Sara B.
+de C. in comitatu Eb. vidua," are those of the actual culprits and of
+their residences. Yorkshire is clearly one of the counties meant. It
+was, moreover, West's own county.
+
+
+Sec. 2.--The Exorcists (see ch. IV).
+
+The account of Elizabethan exorcism which we have given is necessarily
+one-sided. It deals only with the Puritan movement--if Darrel's work may
+be so called--and does not treat the Catholic exorcists. We have omitted
+the performances of Father Weston and his coadjutors because they had
+little or no relation to the subject of witchcraft. Those who wish to
+follow up this subject can find a readable discussion of it by T. G. Law
+in the _Nineteenth Century_ for March, 1894, "Devil Hunting in
+Elizabethan England."
+
+It is a rather curious fact that the Puritan exorcist has never, except
+for a few pages by S. R. Maitland, in his _Puritan Thaumaturgy_ (London,
+1842), been made a study. Without doubt he, his supporters, and his
+enemies were able between them to make a noise in their own time. To be
+convinced of that one need only read the early seventeenth-century
+dramatists. It may possibly be that Darrel was not the mere impostor his
+enemies pictured him. Despite his trickery it may be that he had really
+a certain hypnotic control over William Somers and perhaps over
+Katherine Wright.
+
+Whatever else Darrel may have been, he was a ready pamphleteer. His
+career may easily be traced in the various brochures put forth, most of
+them from his own pen. Fortunately we have the other side presented by
+Samuel Harsnett, and by two obscure clergymen, John Deacon and John
+Walker. The following is a tentative list of the printed pamphlets
+dealing with the subject:
+
+_A Breife Narration of the possession, dispossession, and repossession
+of William Sommers: and of some proceedings against Mr. John Dorrel
+preacher, with aunsweres to such objections.... Together with certaine
+depositions taken at Nottingham ..., 1598._ Black letter. This was
+written either by Darrel or at his instigation.
+
+_An Apologie, or defence of the possession of William Sommers, a yong
+man of the towne of Nottingham.... By John Darrell, Minister of Christ
+Jesus...._ [1599?] Black letter. This work is undated, but, to judge
+from the preface, it was probably written soon after both Darrel and
+More were imprisoned. It is quite clear too that it was written before
+Harsnett's _Discovery of the Fraudulent Practices of John Darrel_, for
+Darrel says that he hears that the Bishop of London is writing a book
+against him.
+
+_The Triall of Maist. Dorrel, or A Collection of Defences against
+Allegations.... 1599._ This seems written by Darrel himself; but the
+Huth catalogue (V, 1643) ascribes it to James Bamford.
+
+_A brief Apologie proving the possession of William Sommers. Written by
+John Dorrel, a faithful Minister of the Gospell, but published without
+his knowledge.... 1599._
+
+_A Discovery of the Fraudulent Practises of John Darrel, Bacheler of
+Artes ..._, London, 1599. The "Epistle to the Reader" is signed "S. H.,"
+_i. e._, Samuel Harsnett, then chaplain to the Bishop of London. The
+book is an exposure, in 324 pages, of Darrel's various impostures, and
+is based mainly on the depositions given in his trial at Lambeth.
+
+_A True Narration of the strange and grevous Vexation by the Devil of
+seven persons in Lancashire ..., 1600._ Written by Darrel. Reprinted in
+1641 with the title _A True Relation of the grievous handling of William
+Somers of Nottingham_. It is again reprinted in the _Somers Tracts_,
+III, and is the best known of the pamphlets.
+
+_A True Discourse concerning the certaine possession and dispossession
+of 7 persons in one familie in Lancashire, which also may serve as part
+of an Answere to a fayned and false Discoverie.... By George More,
+Minister and Preacher of the Worde of God ..., 1600._ More was Darrel's
+associate in the Cleworth performances and suffered imprisonment with
+him.
+
+_A Detection of that sinnful, shamful, lying, and ridiculous discours of
+Samuel Harshnet._ 1600. This is Darrel's most abusive work. He takes up
+Harsnett's points one by one and attempts to answer them.
+
+_Dialogicall Discourses of Spirits and Divels by John Deacon [and] John
+Walker, Preachers_, London, 1601.
+
+_A Summarie Answere to al the Material Points in any of Master Darel his
+bookes, More especiallie to that one Booke of his, intituled, the
+Doctrine of the Possession and Dispossession of Demoniaks out of the
+word of God. By John Deacon [and] John Walker, Preachers_, London, 1601.
+The "one Booke" now answered is a part of Darrel's _A True Narration_.
+The _Discourses_ are dedicated to Sir Edmund Anderson and other men
+eminent in the government and offer in excuse that "the late bred
+broyles ... doe mightilie over-runne the whole Realme."
+
+_A Survey of Certaine Dialogical Discourses, written by John Deacon and
+John Walker ... By John Darrell, minister of the gospel ..., 1602._
+
+_The Replie of John Darrell, to the Answer of John Deacon, and John
+Walker concerning the doctrine of the Possession and Dispossession of
+Demoniakes ..., 1602._
+
+Harsnett's second work must not be omitted from our account. In his
+famous _Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures_, 1603 and 1605, he
+shows to even better advantage than in the earlier work his remarkable
+talents as an exposer and gives freer play to his wicked humor.
+
+_A True and Breife Report of Mary Glover's Vexation, and of her
+deliverance by the meanes of fastinge and prayer.... By John Swan,
+student in Divinitie ..., 1603._
+
+This narrates another exorcism in which a number of clergymen
+participated. Swan, the author, in his dedication to the king, takes up
+the cudgels vigorously against Harsnett. Elizabeth Jackson was accused
+of having bewitched her, and was indicted. Justice Anderson tried the
+case and showed himself a confirmed believer in witchcraft. But the king
+was of another mind and sent, to examine the girl, a physician, Dr.
+Edward Jorden, who detected her imposture and explained it in his
+pamphlet, _A briefe discourse of a disease called the Suffocation of the
+Mother, Written uppon occasion which hath beene of late taken thereby,
+to suspect possession of an evill spirit...._ (London, 1603). He was
+opposed by the author of a book still unprinted, "Mary Glover's late
+woefull case ... by Stephen Bradwell.... 1603" (Brit. Mus., Sloane,
+831). But see also below, appendix C, under 1602-1603.
+
+One other pamphlet dealing with this same episode must be mentioned.
+Hutchinson, _Historical Essay on Witchcraft_, and George Sinclar,
+_Satan's Invisible World Discovered_ (Edinburgh, 1685), had seen an
+account by the Rev. Lewis Hughes (in his _Certaine Grievances_) of the
+case of Mother Jackson, who was accused of bewitching Mary Glover.
+Although Hughes's tale was not here published until 1641-2, the events
+with which it deals must all have taken place in 1602 or 1603. Sir John
+Crook is mentioned as recorder of London and Sir Edmund Anderson as
+chief justice. "R. B.," in _The Kingdom of Darkness_ (London, 1688),
+gives the story in detail, although misled, like Hutchinson, into
+assigning it to 1642.
+
+It remains to mention certain exorcist pamphlets of which we possess
+only the titles:
+
+_A history of the case of Catherine Wright._ No date; written presumably
+by Darrel and given by him to Mrs. Foljambe, afterwards Lady Bowes. See
+C. H. and T. Cooper, _Athenae Cantabrigienses_ (Cambridge, 1858-1861),
+II, 381.
+
+Darrel says that there was a book printed about "Margaret Harrison of
+Burnham-Ulpe in Norfolk and her vexation by Sathan." See _Detection of
+that sinnfull ... discours of Samuel Harshnet_, 36, and _Survey of
+Certaine Dialogical Discourses_, 54.
+
+_The strange Newes out of Sommersetshire, Anno 1584, tearmed, a
+dreadfull discourse of the dispossessing of one Margaret Cooper at
+Ditchet, from a devill in the likenes of a headlesse beare._ Referred to
+by Harsnett, _Discovery of the Fraudulent Practises of John Darrel_, 17.
+
+A ballad seems to have been written about the Somers case. Extracts from
+it are given by Harsnett, _ibid._, 34, 120.
+
+
+Sec. 3.--James I and Witchcraft and Notable Jacobean Cases (see chs. V,
+VI).
+
+_The Most Cruell and Bloody Murther committed by an Innkeepers Wife
+called Annis Dell, and her Sonne George Dell, Foure Yeares since....
+With the severall Witch-crafts and most damnable practices of one Iohane
+Harrison and her Daughter, upon several persons men and women at
+Royston, who were all executed at Hartford the 4 of August last past
+1606._ So far as the writer knows, there is no contemporary reference to
+confirm the executions mentioned in this pamphlet. The story itself is a
+rather curious one with a certain literary flavor. This, however, need
+not weigh against it. It seems possible rather than probable that the
+narrative is a fabrication.
+
+_The severall notorious and lewd Cosenages of Iohn West and Alice West,
+falsely called the King and Queene of Fayries ... convicted ... 1613_,
+London, 1613. This might pass in catalogues as a witch pamphlet. It is
+an account of two clever swindlers and of their punishment.
+
+_The Witches of Northamptonshire._
+
+ _Agnes Browne_ } _Arthur Bill_     }
+ _Joane Vaughan_} _Hellen Jenkenson_} _Witches._
+           _Mary Barber_            }
+
+_Who were all executed at Northampton the 22. of July last. 1612._
+
+Concerning this same affair there is an account in MS., "A briefe
+abstract of the arraignment of nine witches at Northampton, July 21,
+1621" (Brit. Mus., Sloane, 972). This narrative has, in common with the
+printed narrative, the story of Mistress Belcher's and Master Avery's
+sufferings from witchcraft. It mentions also Agnes Brown and Joan Brown
+(or Vaughan) who, according to the other account, were hanged. All the
+other names are different. But it is nevertheless not hard to reconcile
+the two accounts. The "briefe abstract" deals with the testimony taken
+before the justices of the peace on two charges; the _Witches of
+Northamptonshire_ with the final outcome at the assizes. Three of those
+finally hanged were not concerned in the first accusations and were
+brought in from outlying districts. On the other hand, most of those who
+were first accused by Belcher and Avery seem not to have been indicted.
+
+_The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the countie of Lancaster. With
+the Arraignement and Triall of Nineteene notorious Witches, at the
+Assizes and generall Gaole deliverie, holden at the Castle of Lancaster,
+upon Munday, the seventeenth of August last, 1612. Before Sir James
+Altham, and Sir Edward Bromley.... Together with the Arraignement and
+Triall of Jennet Preston, at the Assizes holden at the Castle of Yorke,
+the seven and twentieth day of Julie last past.... Published and set
+forth by commandement of his Majesties Justices of Assize in the North
+Parts. By Thomas Potts, Esq._ London, 1613. Reprinted by the Chetham
+Soc, J. Crossley, ed., 1845. Thomas Potts has given us in this book the
+fullest of all English witch accounts. No other narrative offers such an
+opportunity to examine the character of evidence as well as the court
+procedure. Potts was very superstitious, but his account is in good
+faith.
+
+_Witches Apprehended, Examined and Executed, for notable villanies by
+them committed both by Land and Water. With a strange and most true
+trial how to know whether a woman be a Witch or not._ London, 1613.
+Bodleian.
+
+_A Booke of the Wytches Lately condemned and executed at Bedford,
+1612-1613._ I have seen no copy of this pamphlet, the title of which is
+given by Edward Arber, _Transcript of the Registers of the Company of
+Stationers of London, 1554-1640_ (London, 1875-1894), III, 234b.... The
+story is without doubt the same as that told in the preceding pamphlet.
+We have no absolutely contemporary reference to this case. Edward
+Fairfax, who wrote in 1622, had heard of the case--probably, however,
+from the pamphlet itself. But we can be quite certain that the narrative
+was based on an actual trial and conviction. Some of the incidental
+details given are such as no fabricator would insert.
+
+In the MS., "How to discover a witch," Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 36,674, f.
+148, there is a reference to a detail of Mother Sutton's ordeal not
+given in the pamphlet I have used.
+
+_A Treatise of Witchcraft.... With a true Narration of the Witchcrafts
+which Mary Smith, wife of Henry Smith, Glover, did practise ... and
+lastly, of her death and execution ... By Alexander Roberts, B. D. and
+Preacher of Gods Word at Kings-Linne in Norffolke._ London, 1616. The
+case of Mary Smith is taken up at p. 45. This account was dedicated to
+the "Maior" and aldermen, etc., of "Kings Linne" and was no doubt
+semi-official. It is reprinted in Howell, _State Trials_, II.
+
+_The Wonderful Discoverie of the Witchcrafts of Margaret and Phillip
+Flower, daughters of Joan Flower neere Bever Castle: executed at
+Lincolne, March 11, 1618. Who were specially arraigned and condemned
+before Sir Henry Hobart and Sir Edward Bromley, Judges of Assize, for
+confessing themselves actors in the destruction of Henry, Lord Rosse,
+with their damnable practises against others the Children of the Right
+Honourable Francis Earle of Rutland. Together with the severall
+Examinations and Confessions of Anne Baker, Joan Willimot, and Ellen
+Greene, Witches in Leicestershire_, London, 1619. For confirmation of
+the Rutlandshire witchcraft see _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1619-1623_, 129;
+_Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports, Rutland_, IV, 514. See also _Gentleman's
+Magazine_, LXXIV, pt. ii, 909: "On the monument of Francis, sixth earl
+of Rutland, in Bottesford church, Leicestershire, it is recorded that by
+his second lady he had 'two Sons, both which died in their infancy by
+wicked practices and sorcery.'"
+
+Another pamphlet seems to have been issued about the affair: _Strange
+and wonderfull Witchcrafts, discovering the damnable Practises of seven
+Witches against the Lives of certain noble Personages and others of this
+Kingdom; with an approved Triall how to find out either Witch or any
+Apprentise to Witchcraft, 1621._ Another edition in 1635; see Lowndes.
+
+_The Wonderfull discoverie of Elizabeth Sawyer ... late of Edmonton, her
+conviction, condemnation and Death.... Written by Henry Goodcole,
+Minister of the word of God, and her continuall Visiter in the Gaole of
+Newgate.... 1621._ The Reverend Mr. Goodcole wrote a plain,
+unimaginative story, the main facts of which we cannot doubt. They are
+supported moreover by Dekker and Ford's play, _The Witch of Edmonton_,
+which appeared within a year. Goodcole refers to the "ballets" written
+about this case.
+
+_The Boy of Bilson: or A True Discovery of the Late Notorious Impostures
+of Certaine Romish Priests in their pretended Exorcisme, or expulsion of
+the Divell out of a young Boy, named William Perry...._ London, 1622.
+Preface signed by Ryc. Baddeley. This is an account of a famous
+imposture. It is really a pamphlet against the Catholic exorcists. On
+pp. 45-54 is given a reprint of the Catholic account of the affair; on
+pp. 55-75 the exposure of the imposture is related. We can confirm this
+account by Arthur Wilson, _Life and Reign of James I_, 107-111, and by
+John Webster, _Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft_, 274.
+
+_A Discourse of Witchcraft As it was acted in the Family of Mr. Edward
+Fairfax of Fuystone in the County of York, in the year 1621._ Edited by
+R. Monckton Milnes (the later Lord Houghton) for vol. V of _Miscellanies
+of the Philobiblon Soc._ (London, 1858-1859, 299 pages). The editor says
+the original MS. is still in existence. Edward Fairfax was a natural
+brother of Sir Thomas Fairfax of Denton. He translated into English
+verse Tasso's _Jerusalem Delivered_, and accomplished other poetic
+feats. His account of his children's bewitchment and of their trances is
+very detailed. The book was again published at Harrogate in 1882, under
+the title of _Daemonologia: a Discourse on Witchcraft_, with an
+introduction and notes by William Grainge.
+
+
+Sec. 4.--Matthew Hopkins (see ch. VIII).
+
+_A Most certain, strange and true Discovery of a Witch, Being overtaken
+by some of the Parliament Forces, as she was standing on a small
+Planck-board and sayling on it over the River of Newbury, Together with
+the strange and true manner of her death._ 1643. The tale told here is a
+curious one. The soldiers saw a woman crossing the river on a plank,
+decided that she was a witch, and resolved to shoot her. "She caught
+their bullets in her hands and chew'd them." When the "veines that
+crosse the temples of the head" were scratched so as to bleed, she lost
+her power and was killed by a pistol shot just below the ear. It is not
+improbable that this distorted tale was based on an actual happening in
+the war. See _Mercurius Civicus_, September 21-28, 1643.
+
+_A Confirmation and Discovery of Witch-craft ... together with the
+Confessions of many of those executed since May 1645.... By John Stearne
+..._ London, 1648.
+
+_The Examination, Confession, Triall, and Execution of Joane Williford,
+Joan Cariden and Jane Hott: who were executed at Feversham, in Kent ...
+all attested under the hand of Robert Greenstreet, Maior of Feversham._
+London, 1645. This pamphlet has no outside evidence to confirm its
+statements, but it has every appearance of being a true record of
+examinations.
+
+_A true and exact Relation of the severall Informations, Examinations,
+and Confessions of the late Witches arraigned and executed in the County
+of Essex. Who were arraigned and condemned at the late Sessions, holden
+at Chelmesford before the Right Honorable Robert, Earle of Warwicke, and
+severall of his Majesties Justices of Peace, the 29 of July 1645...._
+London, 1645. Reprinted London, 1837; also embodied in Howell, _State
+Trials_. This is a very careful statement of the court examinations,
+drawn up by "H. F." In names and details it has points of coincidence
+with the _True Relation_ about the Bury affair; see next paragraph
+below. It is supported, too, by Arthur Wilson's account of the affair;
+see Francis Peck, _Desiderata Curiosa_ (ed. of London, 1779), II, 476.
+
+_A True Relation of the Araignment of eighteene Witches at St.
+Edmundsbury, 27th August 1645.... As also a List of the names of those
+that were executed._ London, 1645. There is abundance of corroborative
+evidence for the details given in this pamphlet. It fits in with the
+account of the Essex witches; its details are amplified by Stearne,
+_Confirmation of Witchcraft_, Clarke, _Lives of sundry Eminent Persons_,
+John Walker, _Suffering of the Clergy ... in the Grand Rebellion_
+(London, 1714), and others. The narrative was written in the interim
+between the first and second trials at Bury.
+
+_Strange and fearfull newes from Plaisto in the parish of Westham neere
+Bow foure miles from London_, London, 1645. Unimportant.
+
+_The Lawes against Witches and Conjuration, and Some brief Notes and
+Observations for the Discovery of Witches. Being very Usefull for these
+Times wherein the Devil reignes and prevailes.... Also The Confession of
+Mother Lakeland, who was arraigned and condemned for a Witch at Ipswich
+in Suffolke.... By authority._ London, 1645. The writer of this pamphlet
+acknowledges his indebtedness to Potts, _Discoverie of Witches in the
+countie of Lancaster_ (1613), and to Bernard, _Guide to Grand Jurymen_
+(1627). These books had been used by Stearne and doubtless by Hopkins.
+This pamphlet expresses Hopkins's ideas, it is written in Hopkins's
+style--so far as we know it--and it may have been the work of the
+witchfinder himself. That might explain, too, the "by authority" of the
+title.
+
+_Signes and Wonders from Heaven.... Likewise a new discovery of Witches
+in Stepney Parish. And how 20. Witches more were executed in Suffolk
+this last Assise. Also how the Divell came to Soffarn to a Farmers house
+in the habit of a Gentlewoman on horse backe._ London, [1645]. Mentions
+the Chelmsford, Suffolk, and Norfolk trials.
+
+_The Witches of Huntingdon, their Examinations and Confessions ..._,
+London, 1646. This work is dedicated to the justices of the peace for
+the county of Huntingdon; the dedication is signed by John Davenport.
+Three of the witches whose accusations are here presented are mentioned
+by Stearne (_Confirmation of Witchcraft_, 11, 13, 20-21, 42).
+
+_The Discovery of Witches: in answer to severall Queries, lately
+Delivered to the Judges of Assize for the County of Norfolk. And now
+published by Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder. For the Benefit of the Whole
+Kingdome...._ London, 1647. Hopkins's and Stearne's accounts fit into
+each other and are the two best sources for ch. VIII.
+
+_The [D]Ivell in Kent, or His strange Delusions at Sandwitch_, London,
+1647. Has nothing to do with witches; shows the spirit of the times.
+
+_A strange and true Relation of a Young Woman possest with the Devill.
+By name Joyce Dovey dwelling at Bewdley neer Worcester ... as it was
+certified in a Letter from Mr. James Dalton unto Mr. Tho. Groome,
+Ironmonger over against Sepulchres Church in London.... Also a Letter
+from Cambridge, wherein is related the late conference between the Devil
+(in the shape of a Mr. of Arts) and one Ashbourner, a Scholler of S.
+Johns Colledge ... who was afterwards carried away by him and never
+heard of since onely his Gown found in the River_, London, 1647. In the
+first narrative a woman after hearing a sermon fell into fits. The
+second narrative was probably based upon a combination of facts and
+rumor.
+
+_The Full Tryals, Examination and Condemnation of Four Notorious
+Witches, At the Assizes held in Worcester on Tuseday the 4th of March
+... As also Their Confessions and last Dying Speeches at the place of
+Execution, with other Amazing Particulars ..._, London, printed by "I.
+W.," no date. Another edition of this pamphlet (in the Bodleian) bears
+the date 1700 and was printed for "J. M." in Fleet street. This is a
+most interesting example of a made-to-order witch pamphlet. The preface
+makes one suspect its character: "the following narrative coming to my
+hand." The accused were Rebecca West, Margaret Landis, Susan Cook, and
+Rose Hallybread. Now, all these women were tried at Chelmsford in 1645,
+and their examinations and confessions printed in _A true and exact
+Relation_. The wording has been changed a little, several things have
+been added, but the facts are similar; see _A true and exact
+Relation_,10, 11, 13-15, 27. When the author of the Worcester pamphlet
+came to narrate the execution he wandered away from his text and
+invented some new particulars. The women were "burnt at the stak." They
+made a "yelling and howling." Two of them were very "stubborn and
+refractory." _Cf._ below, Sec. 10.
+
+_The Devill seen at St. Albans, Being a true Relation How the Devill was
+seen there in a Cellar, in the likenesse of a Ram; and how a Butcher
+came and cut his throat, and sold some of it, and dressed the rest for
+himselfe, inviting many to supper_ ..., 1648. A clever lampoon.
+
+
+Sec. 5.--Commonwealth and Protectorate (see ch. IX).
+
+_The Divels Delusions or A faithfull relation of John Palmer and
+Elizabeth Knott two notorious Witches lately condemned at the Sessions
+of Oyer and Terminer in St. Albans ..._, 1649. The narrative purports to
+be taken from a letter sent from St. Alban's. It deals with the
+practices of two good witches who were finally discovered to be black
+witches. The tale has no outside confirmation.
+
+_Wonderfull News from the North, Or a True Relation of the Sad and
+Grievous Torments Inflicted upon the Bodies of three Children of Mr.
+George Muschamp, late of the County of Northumberland, by Witchcraft,
+... As also the prosecution of the sayd Witches, as by Oaths, and their
+own Confessions will appear and by the Indictment found by the Jury
+against one of them, at the Sessions of the Peace held at Alnwick, the
+24 day of April 1650_, London, 1650. Preface signed: "Thine, Mary
+Moore." This pamphlet bears all through the marks of a true narrative.
+It is written evidently by a friend of the Mistress Muschamp who had
+such difficulty in persuading the north country justices, judges, and
+sheriffs to act. The names and the circumstances fit in with other known
+facts.
+
+_The strange Witch at Greenwich haunting a Wench_, 1650. Unimportant.
+
+_A Strange Witch at Greenwich_, 1650.
+
+The last two pamphlets are mentioned by Lowndes. The second pamphlet I
+have not seen; as, however, Lowndes cites the title of the first
+incorrectly, it is very possible that he has given two titles for the
+same pamphlet.
+
+_The Witch of Wapping, or an Exact and Perfect Relation of the Life and
+Devilish Practises of Joan Peterson, who dwelt in Spruce Island, near
+Wapping; Who was condemned for practising Witchcraft, and sentenced to
+be Hanged at Tyburn, on Munday the 11th of April 1652_, London, 1652.
+
+_A Declaration in Answer to several lying Pamphlets concerning the Witch
+of Wapping, ... shewing the Bloudy Plot and wicked Conspiracy of one
+Abraham Vandenhemde, Thomas Crompton, Thomas Collet, and others_,
+London, 1652. This pamphlet is described above, pp. 214-215.
+
+_The Tryall and Examinations of Mrs. Joan Peterson before the Honourable
+Bench at the Sessions house in the Old Bayley yesterday._ [1652]. This
+states the case against Mistress Joan in the title, but (unless the
+British Museum copy is imperfect) gives no details.
+
+_Doctor Lamb's Darling, or Strange and terrible News from Salisbury;
+Being A true, exact, and perfect Relation of the great and wonderful
+Contract and Engagement made between the Devil, and Mistris Anne
+Bodenham; with the manner how she could transform herself into the shape
+of a Mastive Dog, a black Lyon, a white Bear, a Woolf, a Bull, and a
+Cat.... The Tryal, Examinations, and Confession ... before the Lord
+Chief Baron Wild.... By James [Edmond?] Bower, Cleric_, London, 1653.
+This is the first account of the affair and is a rather crude one.
+
+_Doctor Lamb Revived, or, Witchcraft condemn'd in Anne Bodenham ... who
+was Arraigned and Executed the Lent Assizes last at Salisbury, before
+the Right Honourable the Lord Chief Baron Wild, Judge of the Assize....
+By Edmond Bower, an eye and ear Witness of her Examination and
+Confession_, London, 1653. Bower's second and more detailed account. It
+is dedicated to the judge by the writer, who had a large part in the
+affair and frequently interviewed the witch. He does not present a
+record of examinations, but gives a detailed narrative of the entire
+affair. He throws out hints about certain phases of the case and rouses
+curiosity without satisfying it. His story of Anne Bodenham is, however,
+clear and interesting. The celebrated Aubrey refers to the case in his
+_Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme_, 261. His account, which tallies
+well with that of Bower, he seems to have derived from Anthony Ettrick
+"of the Middle Temple," who was a "curious observer of the whole
+triall."
+
+_A Prodigious and Tragicall History of the Arraignment, Tryall,
+Confession, and Condemnation of six Witches at Maidstone, in Kent, at
+the Assizes there held in July, Fryday 30, this present year, 1652.
+Before the Right Honourable, Peter Warburton.... Collected from the
+Observations of E. G. Gent, a learned person, present at their
+Conviction and Condemnation, and digested by H. F. Gent._, London, 1652.
+It is a pity that the digesting was not omitted. The account, however,
+is trustworthy. Mention is made of this trial by Elias Ashmole in his
+_Diary_ (London, 1717) and by _The Faithful Scout_, July 30-August 7,
+1652.
+
+_The most true and wonderfull Narration of two women bewitched in
+Yorkshire: Who camming to the Assizes at York to give in Evidence
+against the Witch after a most horrible noise to the terror and
+amazement of all the beholders, did vomit forth before the Judges, Pins,
+wool.... Also a most true Relation of a young Maid ... who ... did ...
+vomit forth wadds of straw, with pins a crosse in them, iron Nails,
+Needles, ... as it is attested under the hand of that most famour
+Phisitian Doctor Henry Heers, ... 1658._ In the Bodleian. The writer of
+this pamphlet had little information to give and seems to have got it at
+second or third hand.
+
+_A more Exact Relation of the most lamentable and horrid Contract which
+Lydia Rogers, living in Pump-Ally in Wapping, made with the Divel....
+Together with the great pains and prayers of many eminent Divines, ...
+1658._ In the Bodleian. This is a "Relation of a woman who heretofore
+professing Religion in the purity thereof fel afterwards to be a
+sectary, and then to be acquainted with Astrologers, and afterwards with
+the Divel himself." A poor woman "naturally inclin'd to melancholy"
+believed she had made a contract with the Devil. "Many Ministers are
+dayly with her."
+
+_The Snare of the Devill Discovered: Or, A True and perfect Relation of
+the sad and deplorable Condition of Lydia the Wife of John Rogers House
+Carpenter, living in Greenbank in Pumpe alley in Wappin.... Also her
+Examination by Mr. Johnson the Minister of Wappin, and her Confession.
+As also in what a sad Condition she continues...._ London, 1658. Another
+tract against the Baptists. In spite of Lydia Rogers's supposed contract
+with the Devil, she does not seem to have been brought into court.
+
+_Strange and Terrible Newes from Cambridge, being A true Relation of the
+Quakers bewitching of Mary Philips ... into the shape of a Bay Mare,
+riding her from Dinton towards the University. With the manner how she
+became visible again ... in her own Likeness and Shape, with her sides
+all rent and torn, as if they had been spur-galled, ... and the Names of
+the Quakers brought to tryal on Friday last at the Assises held at
+Cambridge ..._, London, 1659. This is mentioned by John Ashton in the
+bibliographical appendix to his _The Devil in Britain and America_.
+
+_The Just Devil of Woodstock, or a true narrative of the severall
+apparitions, the frights and punishments inflicted upon the Rumpish
+commissioners sent thither to survey the manors and houses belonging to
+His Majesty._ 1660. Wood, _Athenae Oxonienses_ (ed. of 1817), III, 398,
+ascribes this to Thomas Widdowes. It was on the affair described in this
+pamphlet that Walter Scott based his novel _Woodstock_. The story given
+in the pamphlet may be found in Sinclar's _Satan's Invisible World
+Discovered_. The writer has not seen the original pamphlet.
+
+
+Sec. 6.--Charles II and James II (see ch. XI).
+
+_The Power of Witchcraft, Being a most strange but true Relation of the
+most miraculous and wonderful deliverance of one Mr. William Harrison of
+Cambden in the County of Gloucester, Steward to the Lady Nowel ..._,
+London, 1662.
+
+_A True and Perfect Account of the Examination, Confession, Tryal,
+Condemnation and Execution of Joan Perry and her two Sons ... for the
+supposed murder of William Harrison, Gent ..._, London, 1676. These are
+really not witchcraft pamphlets. Mr. Harrison disappears, three people
+are charged with his murder and hanged. Mr. Harrison comes back from
+Turkey in two years and tells a story of his disappearance which leads
+to the supposition that he was transported thither by witchcraft.
+
+_A Tryal of Witches at the assizes held at Bury St. Edmonds for the
+County of Suffolk; on the tenth day of March, 1664_, London, 1682;
+another edition, 1716. The writer of this tract writes in introducing
+it: "This Tryal of Witches hath lain a long time in a private
+Gentleman's Hands in the Country, it being given to him by the Person
+that took it in the Court for his own satisfaction." This is the much
+quoted case before Sir Matthew Hale. The pamphlet presents one of the
+most detailed accounts of the court procedure in a witch case.
+
+_The Lord's Arm Stretched Out in an Answer of Prayer or a True Relation
+of the wonderful Deliverance of James Barrow, the Son of John Barrow of
+Olaves Southwark_, London, 1664. This seems to be a Baptist pamphlet.
+
+_The wonder of Suffolke, being a true relation of one that reports he
+made a league with the Devil for three years, to do mischief, and now
+breaks open houses, robs people daily, ... and can neither be shot nor
+taken, but leaps over walls fifteen feet high, runs five or six miles in
+a quarter of an hour, and sometimes vanishes in the midst of multitudes
+that go to take him. Faithfully written in a letter from a solemn
+person, dated not long since, to a friend in Ship-yard, near Temple-bar,
+and ready to be attested by hundreds ..._, London, 1677. This is
+mentioned in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1829, pt. ii, 584. I have not
+seen a copy of the pamphlet.
+
+_Daimonomageia: a small Treatise of Sicknesses and Diseases from
+Witchcraft and Supernatural Causes.... Being useful to others besides
+Physicians, in that it confutes Atheistical, Sadducistical, and
+Sceptical Principles and Imaginations ..._, London, 1665. Though its
+title-page bears no name, the author was undoubtedly that "William
+Drage, D. P. [Doctor of Physic] at Hitchin," in Hertfordshire, to whose
+larger treatise on medicine (first printed in 1664 as _A Physical
+Nosonomy_, then in 1666 as _The Practice of Physick_, and again in 1668
+as _Physical Experiments_) it seems to be a usual appendage. It is so,
+at least, in the Cornell copy of the first edition and in the Harvard
+copy of the third, and is so described by the _Dict. Nat. Biog._ and by
+the British Museum catalogue.
+
+_Hartford-shire Wonder. Or, Strange News from Ware, Being an Exact and
+true Relation of one Jane Stretton ... who hath been visited in a
+strange kind of manner by extraordinary and unusual fits ..._, London,
+1669. The title gives the clue to this story. The narrator makes it
+clear that a certain woman was suspected of the bewitchment.
+
+_A Magicall Vision, Or a Perfect Discovery of the Fallacies of
+Witchcraft, As it was lately represented in a pleasant sweet Dream to a
+Holysweet Sister, a faithful and pretious Assertor of the Family of the
+Stand-Hups, for preservation of the Saints from being tainted with the
+heresies of the Congregation of the Doe-Littles_, London, 1673. I have
+not seen this. It is mentioned by Hazlitt, _Bibliographical
+Collections_, fourth series, _s. v._ Witchcraft.
+
+_A Full and True Relation of The Tryal, Condemnation, and Execution of
+Ann Foster ... at the place of Execution at Northampton. With the Manner
+how she by her Malice and Witchcraft set all the Barns and Corn on Fire
+... and bewitched a whole Flock of Sheep ..._, London, 1674. This
+narrative has no confirmation from other sources, yet its details are so
+susceptible of natural explanation that they warrant a presumption of
+its truth.
+
+_Strange News from Arpington near Bexby in Kent: Being a True Narrative
+of a yong Maid who was Possest with several Devils ..._, London, 1679.
+
+_Strange and Wonderful News from Yowell in Surry; Giving a True and Just
+Account of One Elisabeth Burgess, Who was most strangely Bewitched and
+Tortured at a sad rate_, London, 1681.
+
+_An Account of the Tryal and Examination of Joan Buts, for being a
+Common Witch and Inchantress, before the Right Honourable Sir Francis
+Pemberton, Lord Chief Justice, at the Assizes ... 1682._ Single leaf.
+
+The four brochures next to be described deal with the same affair and
+substantially agree.
+
+_The Tryal, Condemnation, and Execution of Three Witches, viz.
+Temperance Floyd, Mary Floyd, and Susanna Edwards. Who were Arraigned at
+Exeter on the 18th of August, 1682...._ London, 1682. Confirmed by the
+records of the gaol deliveries examined by Mr. Inderwick (_Side-Lights
+on the Stuarts_, p. 192).
+
+_A True and Impartial Relation of the Informations against Three
+Witches, viz. Temperance Lloyd, Mary Trembles, and Susanna Edwards, who
+were Indicted, Arraigned, and Convicted at the Assizes holden ... at ...
+Exon, Aug. 14, 1682. With their several Confessions ... as also Their
+... Behaviour, at the ... Execution on the Twenty fifth of the said
+Month_, London, 1682. This, the fullest account (40 pp.), gives
+correctly the names of these three women, whom I still believe the last
+put to death for witchcraft in England.
+
+_Witchcraft discovered and punished. Or the Tryals and Condemnation of
+three Notorious Witches, who were Tryed the last Assizes, holden at the
+Castle of Exeter ... where they received sentence of Death, for
+bewitching severall Persons, destroying Ships at Sea, and Cattel by
+Land. To the Tune of Doctor Faustus; or Fortune my Foe._ In the
+Roxburghe Collection at the British Museum. Broadside. A ballad of 17
+stanzas (4 lines each) giving the story of the affair.
+
+_The Life and Conversation of Temperance Floyd, Mary Lloyd and Susanna
+Edwards ...; Lately Condemned at Exeter Assizes; together with a full
+Account of their first Agreement with the Devil: With the manner how
+they prosecuted their devilish Sorceries ..._, London, 1687.
+
+_A Full and True Account of the Proceedings at the Sessions of Oyer and
+Terminer ... which began at the Sessions House in the Old Bayley on
+Thursday, June 1st, and Ended on Fryday, June 2nd, 1682. Wherein is
+Contained the Tryal of many notorious Malefactors ... but more
+especially the Tryall of Jane Kent for Witchcraft_. This pamphlet is a
+brief summary of several cases just finished and has every evidence of
+being a faithful account. It is to be found in the library of Lincoln's
+Inn.
+
+_Strange and Dreadful News from the Town of Deptford in the County of
+Kent, Being a Full, True, and Sad Relation of one Anne Arthur._ 1684/5.
+One leaf, folio.
+
+_Strange newes from Shadwell, being a ... relation of the death of Alice
+Fowler, who had for many years been accounted a witch._ London, 1685. 4
+pp. In the library of the Earl of Crawford. I have not seen it.
+
+_A True Account of a Strange and Wonderful Relation of one John Tonken,
+of Pensans in Cornwall, said to be Bewitched by some Women: two of which
+on Suspition are committed to Prison_, London, 1686. In the Bodleian.
+This narrative is confirmed by Inderwick's records.
+
+_News from Panier Alley; or a True Relation of Some Pranks the Devil
+hath lately play'd with a Plaster Pot there_, London, 1687. In the
+Bodleian. A curious tract. No trial.
+
+
+Sec. 7.--The Final Decline, Miscellaneous Pamphlets (see ch. XIII).
+
+_A faithful narrative of the ... fits which ... Thomas Spatchet ... was
+under by witchcraft ..., 1693._ Unimportant.
+
+_The Second Part of the Boy of Bilson, Or a True and Particular Relation
+of the Imposter Susanna Fowles, wife of John Fowles of Hammersmith in
+the Co. of Midd., who pretended herself to be possessed_, London, 1698.
+
+_A Full and True Account Both of the Life: And also the Manner and
+Method of carrying on the Delusions, Blasphemies, and Notorious Cheats
+of Susan Fowls, as the same was Contrived, Plotted, Invented, and
+Managed by wicked Popish Priests and other Papists._
+
+_The trial of Susannah Fowles, of Hammersmith, for blaspheming Jesus
+Christ, and cursing the Lord's Prayer ..._, London, 1698.
+
+These three pamphlets tell the story of a woman who was "an impostor and
+Notorious Lyar"; they have little to do with witchcraft. See above, ch.
+XIII, note 23.
+
+_The Case of Witchcraft at Coggeshall, Essex, in the year 1699. Being
+the Narrative of the Rev. J. Boys, Minister of the Parish._ Printed from
+his manuscript in the possession of the publisher (A. Russell Smith),
+London, 1901.
+
+_A True and Impartial Account of the Dark and Hellish Power of
+Witchcraft, Lately Exercised on the Body of the Reverend Mr. Wood,
+Minister of Bodmyn. In a Letter from a Gentleman there, to his Friend in
+Exon, in Confirmation thereof_, Exeter, 1700.
+
+_A Full and True Account of the Apprehending and Taking of Mrs. Sarah
+Moordike, Who is accused for a Witch, Being taken near Paul's Wharf ...
+for haveing Bewitched one Richard Hetheway.... With her Examination
+before the Right Worshipful Sir Thomas Lane, Sir Owen Buckingham, and
+Dr. Hambleton in Bowe-lane._ 1701. This account can be verified and
+filled out from the records of the trial of Hathaway, printed in Howell,
+_State Trials_, XIV, 639-696.
+
+_A short Account of the Trial held at Surry Assizes, in the Borough of
+Southwark; on an Information against Richard Hathway ... for Riot and
+Assault_, London, 1702.
+
+_The Tryal of Richard Hathaway, upon an Information For being a Cheat
+and Impostor, For endeavouring to take away The Life of Sarah Morduck,
+For being a Witch at Surry Assizes ..._, London, 1702.
+
+_A Full and True Account of the Discovering, Apprehending and taking of
+a Notorious Witch, who was carried before Justice Bateman in Well-Close
+on Sunday, July the 23. Together with her Examination and Commitment to
+Bridewel, Clerkenwel_, London, 1704. Signed at the end, "Tho. Greenwel."
+Single page.
+
+_An Account of the Tryals, Examination, and Condemnation of Elinor Shaw
+and Mary Phillips ..., 1705._
+
+_The Northamptonshire Witches ..., 1705._
+
+The second of these is the completer account. They are by the same
+author and are probably fabrications; see below, Sec. 10.
+
+_The Whole Trial of Mrs. Mary Hicks and her Daughter Elizabeth ...,
+1716._ See below, Sec. 10.
+
+
+Sec. 8.--The Surey Pamphlets (see ch. XIII).
+
+_The Devil Turned Casuist, or the Cheats of Rome Laid open in the
+Exorcism of a Despairing Devil at the House of Thomas Pennington in
+Oriel.... By Zachary Taylor, M. A., Chaplain to the Right reverend
+Father in God, Nicholas, Lord Bishop of Chester, and Rector of Wigan_,
+London, 1696.
+
+_The Surey Demoniack, Or an Account of Satan's Strange and Dreadful
+Actings, In and about the Body of Richard Dugdale of Surey, near Whalley
+in Lancashire. And How he was Dispossest by Gods blessing on the
+Fastings and Prayers of divers Ministers and People_, London, 1697.
+Fishwick, _Notebook of Jollie_ (Chetham Soc.), p. xxiv says this was
+written by Thomas Jollie and John Carrington. The preface is signed by
+"Thomas Jolly" and five other clergymen. Probably Jollie wrote the
+pamphlet and Carrington revised it. See above, ch. XIII, note 10. Jollie
+disclaimed the sole responsibility for it. See his _Vindication_, 7.
+Taylor in _The Surey Impostor_ assumes that Carrington wrote _The Surey
+Demoniack_; see _e. g._ p. 21.
+
+_The Surey Imposter, being an answer to a late Fanatical Pamphlet,
+entituled The Surey Demoniack._ By Zachary Taylor. London, 1697.
+
+_A Vindication of the Surey Demoniack as no Imposter: Or, A Reply to a
+certain Pamphlet publish'd by Mr. Zach. Taylor, called The Surey
+Imposter...._ By T. J., London, 1698. Written by Jollie.
+
+_Popery, Superstition, Ignorance and Knavery very unjustly by a letter
+in the general pretended; but as far as was charg'd very fully proved
+upon the Dissenters that were concerned in the Surey Imposture._ 1698.
+Written by Zachary Taylor.
+
+_The Lancashire Levite Rebuked, or a Vindication of the Dissenters from
+Popery, Superstition, Ignorance, and Knavery, unjustly Charged on them
+by Mr. Zachary Taylor...._ London, 1698. Signed "N. N.;" see above ch.
+XIII, note 17.
+
+_The Lancashire Levite Rebuked, or a Farther Vindication_, 1698. This
+seems to have been an answer to a "letter to Mr. N. N." which Taylor had
+published. We have, however, no other mention of such a letter.
+
+_Popery, Superstition, Ignorance, and Knavery, Confess'd and fully
+Proved on the Surey Dissenters, from a Second Letter of an Apostate
+Friend, to Zach. Taylor. To which is added a Refutation of T. Jollie's
+Vindication ..._, London, 1699. Written by Zachary Taylor.
+
+_A Refutation of Mr. T. Jolly's Vindication of the Devil in Dugdale; Or,
+The Surey Demoniack_, London, 1699.
+
+It is not worth while to give any critical appraisement of these
+pamphlets. They were all controversial and all dealt with the case of
+Richard Dugdale. Zachary Taylor had the best of it. The Puritan
+clergymen who backed up Thomas Jollie in his claims seem gradually to
+have withdrawn their support.
+
+
+Sec. 9.--The Wenham Pamphlets (see ch. XIII).
+
+_An Account of the Tryal, Examination, and Condemnation of Jane Wenham,
+on an Indictment of Witchcraft, for Bewitching of Matthew Gilston and
+Anne Thorne of Walcorne, in the County of Hertford.... Before the Right
+Honourable Mr. Justice Powell, and is ordered for Execution on Saturday
+come Sevennight the 15th._ One page.
+
+_A Full and Impartial Account of the Discovery of Sorcery and
+Witchcraft, Practis'd by Jane Wenham of Walkerne in Hertfordshire, upon
+the bodies of Anne Thorn, Anne Street, &c.... till she ... receiv'd
+Sentence of Death for the same, March 4, 1711-12_, London, 1712.
+Anonymous, but confessedly written by Francis Bragge. 1st ed. in Cornell
+library and Brit. Mus.; 2d ed. in Brit. Mus.; 3d ed. in Brit. Mus.
+(Sloane, 3,943), and Bodleian; 4th ed. in Brit. Mus.; 5th ed. in Harvard
+library: all published within the year.
+
+_Witchcraft Farther Display'd. Containing (I) An Account of the
+Witchcraft practis'd by Jane Wenham of Walkerne, in Hertfordshire, since
+her Condemnation, upon the bodies of Anne Thorne and Anne Street....
+(II) An Answer to the most general Objections against the Being and
+Power of Witches: With some Remarks upon the Case of Jane Wenham in
+particular, and on Mr. Justice Powel's procedure therein...._ London,
+1712. Introduction signed by "F. B." [Francis Bragge], who was the
+author.
+
+_A Full Confutation of Witchcraft: More particularly of the Depositions
+against Jane Wenham, Lately Condemned for a Witch; at Hertford. In which
+the Modern Notions of Witches are overthrown, and the Ill Consequences
+of such Doctrines are exposed by Arguments; proving that, Witchcraft is
+Priestcraft.... In a Letter from a Physician in Hertfordshire, to his
+Friend in London._ London, 1712.
+
+_The Impossibility of Witchcraft, Plainly Proving, From Scripture and
+Reason, That there never was a Witch; and that it is both Irrational and
+Impious to believe there ever was. In which the Depositions against Jane
+Wenham, Lately Try'd and Condemn'd for a Witch, at Hertford, are
+Confuted and Expos'd_, London, 1712. 1st ed. in Brit. Mus.; 2d ed.,
+containing additional material, in the Bodleian. The author of this
+pamphlet in his preface intimates that its substance had earlier been
+published by him in the _Protestant Post Boy_.
+
+_The Belief of Witchcraft Vindicated: proving from Scripture, there have
+been Witches; and from Reason, that there may be Such still. In answer
+to a late Pamphlet, Intituled, The Impossibility of Witchcraft ..._, By
+G. R., A. M., London, 1712.
+
+_The Case of the Hertfordshire Witchcraft Consider'd. Being an
+Examination of a Book entitl'd, A Full and Impartial Account ..._,
+London, 1712. Dedicated to Sir John Powell. In the Cornell copy of this
+booklet a manuscript note on the title-page, in an eighteenth century
+hand, ascribes it to "The Rector of Therfield in Hertfordshire, or his
+Curate," while at the end of the dedication what seems the same hand has
+signed the names, "Henry Stebbing or Thomas Sherlock." But Stebbing was
+in 1712 still a fellow at Cambridge, and Sherlock, later Bishop of
+London, was Master of the Temple and Chaplain to Queen Anne. See _Dict.
+Nat. Biog._
+
+_A Defense of the Proceedings against Jane Wenham, wherein the
+Possibility and Reality of Witchcraft are Demonstrated from
+Scripture.... In Answer to Two Pamphlets, Entituled: (I) The
+Impossibility of Witchcraft, etc. (II) A Full Confutation of
+Witchcraft_, By Francis Bragge, A. B., ... London, 1712.
+
+_The Impossibility of Witchcraft Further Demonstrated, Both from
+Scripture and Reason ... with some Cursory Remarks on two trifling
+Pamphlets in Defence of the existence of Witches_. By the Author of _The
+Impossibility of Witchcraft_, 1712. In the Bodleian.
+
+_Jane Wenham_. Broadside. The writer of this leaflet claims to have
+transcribed his account from an account in "Judge Chancy's own hand".
+Chauncy was the justice of the peace who with Bragge stood behind the
+prosecution.
+
+It is very hard to straighten out the authorship of these various
+pamphlets. The Rev. Mr. Bragge wrote several. The Rev. Mr. Gardiner and
+the Rev. Mr. Strutt, who were active in the case, may have written two
+of them. The topographer Gough, writing about 1780, declared that the
+late Dr. Stebbing had as a young man participated in the controversy.
+Francis Hutchinson was an interested spectator, but probably did not
+contribute to the literature of the subject.
+
+A short secondary account is that of W. B. Gerish, _A Hertfordshire
+Witch; or the Story of Jane Wenham, the "Wise Woman of Walkern_."
+
+In the Brit. Mus., Sloane MSS., 3,943, there is a continuation of the
+pamphlet discussion, based chiefly, however, upon Glanvill and other
+writers.
+
+
+Sec. 10.--Criticism of the Northampton and Huntingdon Pamphlets of 1705 and
+1716 (see ch. XIII, note 10).
+
+_An Account of The Tryals, Examination and Condemnation of Elinor Shaw
+and Mary Phillips (Two notorious Witches) on Wednesday the 7th of March
+1705, for Bewitching a Woman, and two children.... With an Account of
+their strange Confessions._ This is signed, at the end, "Ralph Davis,
+March 8, 1705." It was followed very shortly by a completer account,
+written after the execution, and entitled:
+
+_The Northamptonshire Witches, Being a true and faithful account of the
+Births, Educations, Lives, and Conversations of Elinor Shaw and Mary
+Phillips (The two notorious Witches) That were Executed at Northampton
+on Saturday, March the 17th, 1705 ... with their full Confession to the
+Minister, and last Dying Speeches at the place of Execution, the like
+never before heard of.... Communicated in a Letter last Post, from Mr.
+Ralph Davis of Northampton, to Mr. William Simons, Merchantt in London_,
+London, 1705.
+
+With these two pamphlets we wish to compare another, which was
+apparently published in 1716 and was entitled: _The Whole Trial and
+Examination of Mrs. Mary Hicks and her Daughter Elizabeth, But of Nine
+Years of Age, who were Condemn'd the last Assizes held at Huntingdon
+for Witchcraft, and there Executed on Saturday, the 28th of July 1716
+... the like never heard before; their Behaviour with several Divines
+who came to converse with 'em whilst under their sentence of Death; and
+last Dying Speeches and Confession at the place of execution_, London,
+1716. There is a copy in the Bodleian Library.
+
+The two Northamptonshire pamphlets and the Huntingdonshire pamphlet have
+been set by themselves because they appear to have been written by one
+hand. Moreover, it looks very much as if they were downright
+fabrications foisted upon the public by a man who had already in 1700
+made to order an unhistorical pamphlet. To show this, it will be
+necessary to review briefly the facts about the Worcester pamphlet
+described above, Sec. 4. What seems to be the second edition of a pamphlet
+entitled _The full Tryalls, Examinations and Condemnations of Four
+Notorious Witches, At the Assizes held at Worcester on Tuseday the 4th
+of March_, was published at London with the date 1700. It purports to
+tell the story of one of the cases that came up during Matthew Hopkins's
+career in 1645-1647. It has been universally accepted--even by Thomas
+Wright, Ashton, W. H. D. Adams, and Inderwick. An examination shows,
+however, that it was made over from the Chelmsford pamphlet of 1645. The
+author shows little ingenuity, for he steals not only the confessions of
+four witches at that trial, but their names as well. Rebecca West,
+Margaret Landis, Susan Cock, and Rose Hallybread had all been hanged at
+Chelmsford and could hardly have been rehanged at Worcester. Practically
+all that the writer of the Worcester pamphlet did was to touch over the
+confessions and add thrilling details about their executions.
+
+Now, it looks very much as if the same writer had composed the
+Northamptonshire pamphlets of 1705 and the Huntingdonshire pamphlets of
+1716. The verbal resemblances are nothing less than remarkable. The
+Worcester pamphlet, in its title, tells of "their Confessions and Last
+Dying Speeches at the place of execution." The second of the two
+Northamptonshire pamphlets (the first was issued before the execution)
+speaks of "their full Confession to the Minister, and last Dying
+Speeches at the place of Execution." The Huntingdonshire pamphlet closes
+the title with "last Dying Speeches and Confession at the place of
+Execution." The Worcester pamphlet uses the phrase "with other amazing
+Particulars"; the Northamptonshire pamphlet the phrase "the particulars
+of their amazing Pranks." The Huntingdon pamphlet has in this case no
+similar phrase but the Huntingdon and Northamptonshire pamphlets have
+another phrase in common. The Northamptonshire pamphlet says: "the like
+never before heard of"; the Huntingdon pamphlet says: "the like never
+heard before."
+
+These resemblances are in the titles. The Northampton and the fabricated
+Worcester pamphlets show other similarities in their accounts. The
+Northampton women were so "hardened in their Wickedness that they
+Publickly boasted that their Master (meaning the Devil) would not suffer
+them to be Executed but they found him a Lyer." The Worcester writer
+speaks of the "Devil who told them to the Last that he would secure them
+from Publick Punishment, but now too late they found him a Lyer as he
+was from the beginning of the World." In concluding their narratives the
+Northamptonshire and Worcestershire pamphleteers show an interesting
+similarity of treatment. The Northampton witches made a "howling and
+lamentable noise" on receiving their sentences, the Worcester women made
+a "yelling and howling at their executions."
+
+These resemblances may be fairly characterized as striking. If it be
+asked whether the phrases quoted are not conventional in witch
+pamphlets, the answer must be in the negative. So far as the writer
+knows, these phrases occur in no other of the fifty or more witch
+pamphlets. The word "notorious," which occurs in the titles of the
+Worcester and Northampton pamphlets, is a common one and would signify
+nothing. The other phrases mentioned are characteristic and distinctive.
+This similarity suggests that the three pamphlets were written by the
+same hand. Since we know that one of the three is a fabrication, we are
+led to suspect the credibility of the other two.
+
+There are, indeed, other reasons for doubting the historicity of these
+two. A close scrutiny of the Northampton pamphlet shows that the
+witchcrafts there described have the peculiar characteristics of the
+witchcrafts in the palmy days of Matthew Hopkins and that the wording of
+the descriptions is much the same. The Northampton pamphlet tells of a
+"tall black man," who appeared to the two women. A tall black man had
+appeared to Rebecca West at Chelmsford in 1645. A much more important
+point is that the prisoners at Northampton had been watched at night in
+order to keep their imps from coming in. This night-watching was a
+process that had never, so far as our records go, been used since the
+Hopkins alarm, of which it had been the characteristic feature. Were
+there no other resemblance between the Northampton cases and those at
+Chelmsford, this similarity would alone lead us to suspect the
+credibility of the Northampton pamphlet. Unfortunately the indiscreet
+writer of the Northampton narrative lets other phrases belonging to 1645
+creep into his account.
+
+When the Northampton women were watched, a "little white thing about the
+bigness of a Cat" had appeared. But a "white thing about the bignesse of
+a Cat" had appeared to the watchers at Chelmsford in 1645. This is not
+all. The Northampton witches are said to have killed their victims by
+roasting and pricking images, a charge which had once been common, but
+which, so far as the writer can recall, had not been used since the
+Somerset cases of 1663. It was a charge very commonly used against the
+Chelmsford witches whom Matthew Hopkins prosecuted. Moreover the
+Northampton witches boasted that "their Master would not suffer them to
+be executed." No Chelmsford witch had made that boast; but Mr. Lowes,
+who was executed at Bury St. Edmunds (the Bury trial was closely
+connected with that at Chelmsford, so closely that the writer who had
+read of one would probably have read of the other), had declared that he
+had a charm to keep him from the gallows.
+
+It will be seen that these are close resemblances both in characteristic
+features and in wording. But the most perfect resemblance is in a
+confession. The two Northampton women describing their imps--creatures,
+by the way, that had figured largely in the Hopkins trials--said that
+"if the Imps were not constantly imploy'd to do Mischief, they [the
+witches] had not their healths; but when they were imploy'd they were
+very Heathful and Well." This was almost exactly what Anne Leech had
+confessed at Chelmsford. Her words were: "And that when This Examinant
+did not send and employ them abroad to do mischief, she had not her
+health, but when they were imploy'd, she was healthfull and well."
+
+We cannot point out the same similarity between the Huntingdonshire
+witchcrafts of 1716 and the Chelmsford cases. The narrative of the
+Huntingdon case is, however, somewhat remarkable. Mr. Hicks was taking
+his nine-year-old daughter to Ipswich one day, when she, seeing a sail
+at sea, took a "basin of water," stirred it up, and thereby provoked a
+storm that was like to have sunk the ship, had not the father made the
+child cease. On the way home, the two passed a "very fine Field of
+Corn." "Quoth the child again, 'Father, I can consume all this Corn in
+the twinkling of an Eye.' The Father supposing it not in her Power to do
+so, he bid to shew her infernal skill." The child did so, and presently
+"all the Corn in the Field became Stubble." He questioned her and found
+that she had learned witchcraft from her mother. The upshot of it was
+that at Mr. Hicks's instance his wife and child were prosecuted and
+hanged. The story has been called remarkable. Yet it is not altogether
+unique. In 1645 at Bury St. Edmunds just after the Chelmsford trial
+there were eighteen witches condemned, and one of them, it will be
+remembered, was Parson Lowes of Brandeston in Suffolk, who confessed
+that "he bewitched a ship near Harwidge; so that with the extreme
+tempestuous Seas raised by blusterous windes the said ship was cast
+away, wherein were many passengers, who were by this meanes swallowed up
+by the merciless waves." It will be observed that the two stories are
+not altogether similar. The Huntingdon narrative is a better tale, and
+it would be hardly safe to assert that it drew its inspiration from the
+earlier story. Yet, when it is remembered how unusual is the story in
+English witch-lore, the supposition gains in probability. There is a
+further resemblance in the accounts. The Hicks child had bewitched a
+field of corn. One of the Bury witches, in the narrative which tells of
+parson Lowes, "confessed that She usually bewitcht standing corne,
+whereby there came great loss to the owners thereof." The resemblance is
+hardly close enough to merit notice in itself. When taken, however, in
+connection with the other resemblances it gives cumulative force to the
+supposition that the writer of the Huntingdon pamphlet had gone to the
+narratives of the Hopkins cases for his sources.
+
+There are, however, other reasons for doubting the Huntingdon story. A
+writer in _Notes and Queries_, 2d series, V, 503-504, long ago
+questioned the narrative because of the mention of a "Judge Wilmot," and
+showed that there was no such judge on the bench before 1755. An
+examination of the original pamphlet makes it clear, however, that in
+this form the objection is worth nothing. The tract speaks only of a
+"_Justice_ Wilmot," who, from the wording of the narrative, would seem
+to have conducted the examination preliminary to the assizes as a
+justice of the peace would. A justice of the peace would doubtless,
+however, have belonged to some Huntingdonshire county family. Now, the
+writer has searched the various records and histories of
+Huntingdonshire--unfortunately they are but too few--and among the
+several hundred Huntingdonshire names he has found no Wilmots (and, for
+that matter, no Hickes either). This would seem to make the story more
+improbable.
+
+In an earlier number of _Notes and Queries_ (1st series, V, 514), James
+Crossley, whose authority as to matters relating to witchcraft is of the
+highest, gives cogent reasons why the Huntingdonshire narrative could
+not be true. He recalls the fact that Hutchinson, who made a
+chronological table of cases, published his work in 1718. Now Hutchinson
+had the help of two chief-justices, Parker and King, and of Chief-Baron
+Bury in collecting his cases; and yet he says that the last execution
+for the crime in England was in 1682. Crossley makes the further strong
+point that the case of Jane Wenham in 1712 attracted wide attention and
+was the occasion of numerous pamphlets. "It is scarcely possible," he
+continues, "that in four years after two persons, one only nine years
+old, ... should have been tried and executed for witchcraft without
+public attention being called to the circumstance." He adds that
+neither the _Historical Register_ for 1716 nor the files of two London
+newspapers for that year, though they enumerate other convictions on the
+circuit, record the supposed cases.
+
+It will be seen that exactly the same arguments apply to the Northampton
+trials of 1705. Hutchinson had been at extraordinary pains to find out
+not only about Jane Wenham, but about the Moordike case of 1702. It is
+inconceivable that he should have quite overlooked the execution of two
+women at Northampton.
+
+We have observed that the Northampton, Huntingdon, and Worcester
+pamphlets have curious resemblances in wording to one another
+(resemblances that point to a common authorship), that the Worcester
+narrative can be proved to be fictitious, and that the Huntingdon
+narrative almost certainly belongs in the same category. We have shown,
+further, that the Northampton and Huntingdon stories present features of
+witchcraft characteristic of the Chelmsford and Bury cases of 1645, from
+the first of which the material of the Worcester pamphlet is drawn; and
+this fact points not only to the common authorship of the three tracts,
+but to the imaginary character of the Huntingdon and Northampton cases.
+
+Against these facts there is to be presented what at first blush seems a
+very important piece of evidence. In the _Northamptonshire Historical
+Collections_, 1st series (Northampton, 1896), there is a chapter on
+witchcraft in Northamptonshire, copied from the _Northamptonshire
+Handbook_ for 1867. That chapter goes into the trials of 1705 in detail,
+making copious extracts from the pamphlets. In a footnote the writers
+say: "To show that the burning actually took place in 1705, it may be
+important to mention that there is an item of expense entered in the
+overseers' accounts for St. Giles parish for faggots bought for the
+purpose." This in itself seems convincing. It seems to dispose of the
+whole question at once. There is, however, one fact that instantly casts
+a doubt upon this seemingly conclusive evidence. In England, witches
+were hanged, not burned. There are not a half-dozen recorded exceptions
+to this rule. Mother Lakeland in 1645 was burned. That is easy to
+explain. Mother Lakeland had by witchcraft killed her husband. Burning
+was the method of execution prescribed by English law for a woman who
+killed her husband. The other cases where burnings are said to have
+taken place were almost certainly cases that came under this rule. But
+it does not seem possible that the Northampton cases came under the
+rule. The two women seem to have had no husbands. "Ralph Davis," the
+ostensible writer of the account, who professed to have known them from
+their early years, and who was apparently glad to defame them in every
+possible way, accused them of loose living, but not of adultery, as he
+would certainly have done, had he conceived of them as married. It is
+hard to avoid the conclusion that they could not have been burned.
+
+There is a more decisive answer to this argument for the authenticity of
+the pamphlet. The supposed confirmation of it in the St. Giles parish
+register is probably a blunder. The Reverend R. M. Serjeantson of St.
+Peter's Rectory has been kind enough to examine for the writer the
+parish register of St. Giles Church. He writes: "The St. Giles accounts
+briefly state that _wood_ was bought from time to time--probably for
+melting the lead. There is _no_ mention of _faggots_ nor witches in the
+Church wardens' overseers-for-the-poor accounts. I carefully turned out
+the whole contents of the parish chest." Mr. Serjeantson adds at the
+close this extract: "1705 P'd for wood 5/ For taking up the old lead
+5/." It goes without saying that Mr. Serjeantson's examination does not
+prove that there never was a mention of the faggots bought for burning
+witches; but, when all the other evidence is taken into consideration,
+this negative evidence does establish a very strong presumption to that
+effect. Certainly the supposed passage from the overseers' accounts can
+no longer be used to confirm the testimony of the pamphlet. It looks
+very much as if the compilers of the _Northamptonshire Handbook_ for
+1867 had been careless in their handling of records.
+
+It seems probable, then, that the pamphlet of 1705 dealing with the
+execution of Mary Phillips and Elinor Shaw is a purely fictitious
+narrative. The matter derives its importance from the fact that, if the
+two executions in 1705 be disproved, the last known execution in England
+is put back to 1682, ten years before the Salem affair in Massachusetts.
+This would of course have some bearing on a recent contention (G. L.
+Kittredge, "Notes on Witchcraft," Am. Antiq. Soc., _Proc._, XVIII), that
+"convictions and executions for witchcraft occurred in England after
+they had come to an end in Massachusetts."
+
+
+
+
+B.--LIST OF PERSONS SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR WITCHCRAFT DURING THE REIGN
+OF JAMES I.
+
+
+1.--Charged with Causing Death.
+
+ 1603. Yorkshire.
+         Mary Pannel.
+ 1606. Hertford.
+         Johanna Harrison and her daughter.
+ 1612. Northampton.
+         Helen Jenkinson, Arthur Bill, Mary Barber.
+ 1612. Lancaster.
+         Chattox, Eliz. Device, James Device, Alice Nutter, Katherine
+         Hewitt, Anne Redfearne.
+ 1612. York.
+         Jennet Preston.
+ 1613. Bedford.
+         Mother Sutton and Mary Sutton.
+ 1616. Middlesex.
+         Elizabeth Rutter.
+ 1616. Middlesex.
+         Joan Hunt.
+ 1619. Lincoln.
+         Margaret and Philippa Flower.
+ 1621. Edmonton.
+         Elizabeth Sawyer.
+
+
+2.--Not Charged with Causing Death (so far as shown by records).
+
+ 1607. Rye, Kent.
+         Two women entertained spirits, "to gain wealth."
+ 1612. Lancaster.
+         John and Jane Bulcock, making to waste away. It
+         was testified against them that at Malking Tower they
+         consented to murder, but this was apparently not in the
+         indictment. Acquitted, but later convicted.
+         Alizon Device, caused to waste away.
+         Isabel Robey, caused illness.
+ 1616. Enfield, Middlesex.
+         Agnes Berrye, laming and causing to languish.
+ 1616. King's Lynn.
+         Mary Smith, hanged for causing four people to languish.
+ 1616. Leicester.
+         Nine women hanged for bewitching a boy. Six more
+         condemned on same charge, but pardoned by command
+         of king.
+
+
+Mixed Cases.
+
+ 1607. Bakewell.
+         Our evidence as to the Bakewell witches is too incomplete
+         to assure us that they were not accused of killing
+         by witchcraft.
+ 1612. Northampton.
+         Agnes Brown and Joane Vaughan were indicted for
+         bewitching Master Avery and Mistress Belcher, "together
+         with the body of a young child to the death."
+
+
+
+
+C.--LIST OF CASES OF WITCHCRAFT, 1558-1718, WITH REFERENCES TO SOURCES
+AND LITERATURE.[1]
+
+
+ 1558. John Thirkle, "taylour, detected of conjuringe," to be
+         examined. _Acts of Privy Council_, n. s., VII, 6.
+
+ ----  Several persons in London charged with conjuration to
+         be sent to the Bishop of London for examination.
+         _Ibid._, 22.
+
+ 1559. Westminster. Certain persons examined on suspicion,
+         including probably Lady Frances Throgmorton. _Cal.
+         St. P., Dom., 1547-1580_, 142.
+
+ c. 1559. Lady Chandos's daughter accused and imprisoned
+         with George Throgmorton. Brit Mus., Add. MSS.,
+         32,091, fol. 176.
+
+ 1560. Kent. Mother Buske of St. John's suspected by the
+         church authorities. Visitations of Canterbury in
+         _Archaeologia Cantiana_, XXVI, 31.
+
+ 1561. Coxe, alias Devon, a Romish priest, examined for magic
+         and conjuration, and for celebrating mass. Cal. St.
+         _P., Dom., 1547-1580_, 173.
+
+ ---- London. Ten men brought before the queen and council
+         on charge of "trespass, contempt, conjuration and
+         sorceries." Punished with the pillory and required
+         to renounce such practices for the future. From an
+         extract quoted in Brit. Mus., Sloane MSS., 3,943,
+         fol. 19.
+
+ 1565. Dorset. Agnes Mondaye to be apprehended for bewitching
+         Mistress Chettell. _Acts P. C._, n. s., VII,
+         200-201.
+
+ 1565-1573. Durham. Jennet Pereson accused to the church
+         authorities. _Depositions ... from ... Durham_ (Surtees
+         Soc.), 99.
+
+ 1566. Chelmsford, Essex. Mother Waterhouse hanged; Alice
+         Chandler hanged, probably at this time; Elizabeth
+         Francis probably acquitted. _The examination and
+         confession of certaine Wytches at Chensforde._ For
+         the cases of Elizabeth Francis and Alice Chandler
+         see also _A detection of damnable driftes,_ A iv, A
+         v, verso.
+
+ ---- Essex. "Boram's wief" probably examined by the
+         archdeacon. W. H. Hale, _A Series of Precedents
+         and Proceedings in Criminal Causes, 1475-1640,
+         extracted from the Act Books of Ecclesiastical
+         Courts in the Diocese of London_ (London, 1847),
+         147.
+
+ 1569. Lyme, Dorset. Ellen Walker accused. Roberts, _Southern
+         Counties_, 523.
+
+ 1570. Essex. Malter's wife of Theydon Mount and Anne
+         Vicars of Navestock examined by Sir Thomas Smith.
+         John Strype, _Life of Sir Thomas Smith_ (ed. of Oxford,
+         1820), 97-100.
+
+ 1570-1571. Canterbury. Several witches imprisoned. Mother
+         Dungeon presented by the grand jury. _Hist. MSS.
+         Comm. Reports_, IX, pt. 1, 156 b; Wm. Welfitt,
+         "Civis," _Minutes collected from the Ancient Records
+         of Canterbury_ (Canterbury, 1801-1802), no. VI.
+
+ ---- ---- Folkestone, Kent. Margaret Browne, accused of
+         "unlawful practices," banished from town for seven
+         years, and to be whipped at the cart's tail if found
+         within six or seven miles of town. S. J. Mackie,
+         _Descriptive and Historical Account of Folkestone_
+         (Folkestone, 1883), 319.
+
+ 1574. Westwell, Kent. "Old Alice" [Norrington?] arraigned
+         and convicted. Reginald Scot, _Discoverie of Witchcraft_,
+         130-131.
+
+ ---- Middlesex. Joan Ellyse of Westminster convicted on
+         several indictments for witchcraft and sentenced to
+         be hanged. _Middlesex County Records_, I, 84.
+
+ c. 1574. Jane Thorneton accused by Rachel Pinder, who
+         however confessed to fraud. _Discloysing of a late
+         counterfeyted possession._
+
+ 1575. Burntwood, Staffordshire. Mother Arnold hanged at
+         Barking. From the title of a pamphlet mentioned
+         by Lowndes: _The Examination and Confession of a
+         notorious Witch named Mother Arnold, alias Whitecote,
+         alias Glastonbury, at the Assise of Burntwood
+         in July, 1574; who was hanged for Witchcraft at
+         Barking, 1575._ Mrs. Linton, Witch Stories, 153,
+         says that many were hanged at this time, but I cannot
+         find authority for the statement.
+
+ ---- Middlesex. Elizabeth Ducke of Harmondsworth
+         acquitted. _Middlesex County Records_, I, 94.
+
+ ---- Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Katharine Smythe acquitted.
+         Henry Harrod, "Notes on the Records of the Corporation
+         of Great Yarmouth," in _Norfolk Archaeology_,
+         IV, 248.
+
+ 1577. Seaford, Sussex. Joan Wood presented by the grand
+         jury. M. A. Lower, "Memorials of Seaford," in
+         Sussex Archaeological Soc., _Collections_, VII, 98.
+
+ ---- Middlesex. Helen Beriman of Laleham acquitted.
+         _Middlesex County Records_, I, 103.
+
+ ---- Essex. Henry Chittam of Much Barfield to be tried
+         for coining false money and conjuring. _Acts P. C._,
+         n. s., IX, 391; X, 8, 62.
+
+ 1578. Prescall, Sanford, and "one Emerson, a preiste," suspected
+         of conjuration against the queen. The first
+         two committed. _Id._, X, 382; see also 344, 373.
+
+ ---- Evidence of the use of sorcery against the queen discovered.
+         _Cal. St. P., Spanish, 1568-1579_, 611; see
+         also note to Ben Jonson's _Masque of Queenes_ (London,
+         Shakespeare Soc., 1848), 71.
+
+ ---- Sussex. "One Tree, bailiff of Lewes, and one Smith
+         of Chinting" to be examined. _Acts P. C._, n. s., X, 220.
+
+ 1579. Chelmsford, Essex. Three women executed. Mother
+         Staunton released because "no manslaughter objected
+         against her." _A Detection of damnable driftes._
+
+ ---- Abingdon, Berks. Four women hanged; at least two
+         others and probably more were apprehended. _A
+         Rehearsall both straung and true of ... acts committed
+         by Elisabeth Stile ..._; _Acts P. C._, n. s.,
+         XI, 22; Scot, _Discoverie of Witchcraft_, 10, 51, 543.
+
+ ---- Certain persons suspected of sorcery to be examined
+         by the Bishop of London. _Acts P. C._, n. s., XI, 36.
+
+ ---- Salop, Worcester, and Montgomery. Samuel Cocwra
+         paid for "searching for certen persons suspected
+         for conjuracion." _Ibid._, 292.
+
+ ---- Southwark. Simon Pembroke, a conjurer, brought to the
+         parish church of St. Saviour's to be tried by the
+         "ordinarie judge for those parties," but falls dead
+         before the opening of the trial. Holinshed, _Chronicles_
+         (ed. of 1586-1587), III, 1271.
+
+ ---- Southampton. Widow Walker tried by the leet jury,
+         outcome unknown. J. S. Davies, _History of Southampton_
+         (Southampton, 1883), 236.
+
+ 1579-1580. Shropshire. Mother Garve punished in the corn
+         market. Owen and Blakeway, _History of Shrewsbury_,
+         I, 562.
+
+ 1580. Stanhope, Durham. Ann Emerson accused by the
+         church officials. _Injunctions ... of ... Bishop of
+         Durham_ (Surtees Soc.), 126.
+
+ ---- Bucks. John Coleman and his wife examined by four
+         justices of the peace at the command of the privy
+         council. They were probably released. _Acts P. C._, n.
+         s., XI, 427; XII, 29.
+
+ ---- Kent. Several persons to be apprehended for conjuration.
+         _Id._, XII, 21-23.
+
+ ---- Somerset. Henry Harrison and Thomas Wadham, suspected
+         of conjuration, to appear before the privy
+         council. _Ibid._, 22-23.
+
+ ---- Somerset. Henry Fize of Westpenner, detected in conjuration,
+         brought before the privy council. _Ibid._, 34.
+
+ ---- Essex. "Sondery persones" charged with sorceries and
+         conjuration. _Acts P. C._, XII, 29, 34.
+
+ 1581. Randoll and four others accused for "conjuring to
+         know where treasure was hid in the earth." Randoll
+         and three others found guilty. Randoll alone
+         executed. Holinshed, _Chronicles_ (London, 1808),
+         IV, 433.
+
+ 1581. Padstow, Cornwall. Anne Piers accused of witchcraft.
+         Examination of witnesses. _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1581-1590_,
+         29. See also _Acts P. C._, n. s., XIII, 228.
+
+ 1581. Rochester, Kent. Margaret Simmons acquitted. Scot,
+         _Discoverie_, 5.
+
+ 1581-82. Colchester, Essex. Annis Herd accused before the
+         "spiritual Courte." _Witches taken at St. Oses_, 1582.
+
+ 1582. St. Osyth, Essex. Sixteen accused, one of whom was a
+         man. How many were executed uncertain. It seems
+         to have been a tradition that thirteen were executed.
+         Scot wrote that seventeen or eighteen were executed.
+         _Witches taken at St. Oses_, 1582; Scot, _Discoverie_, 543.
+
+ 1582 (or before). "T. E., Maister of Art and practiser both of
+         physicke, and also in times past, of certeine vaine
+         sciences," condemned for conjuration, but reprieved.
+         Scot, _Discoverie_, 466-469.
+
+ 1582. Middlesex. Margery Androwes of Clerkenwell held in
+         bail. _Middlesex County Records_, I, 133.
+
+ 1582. Durham. Alison Lawe of Hart compelled to do penance.
+         _Denham Tracts_ (Folk-Lore Soc.), II, 332.
+
+ 1582. Kent. Goodwife Swane of St. John's suspected by the
+         church authorities. _Archaeol. Cant._, XXVI, 19.
+
+ 1582-83. Nottingham. A certain Batte examined before the
+         "Meare" of Nottingham. _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_,
+         XII, pt. 4, 147.
+
+ 1582-83. King's Lynn. Mother Gabley probably hanged. Excerpt
+         from parish register of Wells in Norfolk, in
+         the _Gentleman's Magazine_, LXII (1792), 904.
+
+ 1583. Kingston-upon-Hull, Yorkshire. Three women tried,
+         one sentenced to a year's imprisonment and the pillory.
+         J. J. Sheahan, _History of Kingston-upon-Hull_
+         (London, 1864), 86.
+
+ 1583. Colchester, Essex. Two women sentenced to a year
+         in prison and to four appearances in the pillory. E.
+         L. Cutts, Colchester (London, 1888), 151. Henry
+         Harrod, _Report on the Records of Colchester_ (Colchester,
+         1865), 17; App., 14.
+
+ 1583. St. Peter's, Kent. Ellen Bamfield suspected by the
+         church authorities. _Archaeol. Cant._, XXVI, 45.
+
+ 1584. Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Elizabeth Butcher (punished
+         before) and Joan Lingwood condemned to be
+         hanged. C. J. Palmer, _History of Great Yarmouth_,
+         I, 273.
+
+ 1584. Staffordshire. An indictment preferred against Jeffrey
+         Leach. _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1581-1590_, 206.
+
+ 1584. "The oulde witche of Ramsbury" and several other
+         "oulde witches and sorcerers" suspected. _Cal. St.
+         P., Dom., 1581-1590_, 220.
+
+ 1584. York. Woman, indicted for witchcraft and "high
+        treason touching the supremacy," condemned. _Cal.
+        St. P., Dom., Add. 1580-1625_, 120-121.
+
+ 1584. Middlesex. Elizabeth Bartell of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields
+         acquitted. _Middlesex County Records_, I, 145.
+
+ 1585. Middlesex. Margaret Hackett of Stanmore executed.
+         From titles of two pamphlets mentioned by Lowndes,
+         _The severall Facts of Witchcrafte approved on Margaret
+         Haskett ..._ 1585, and _An Account of Margaret
+         Hacket, a notorious Witch ..._ 1585.
+
+ 1585. Middlesex. Joan Barringer of "Harroweelde" (Harrow
+          Weald) acquitted. _Middlesex County Records_,
+          I, 157.
+
+ 1585. Dorset. John Meere examined. _Cal. St. P., Dom.,
+         1581-90_, 246-247.
+
+ 1585-86. Alnwick, Northumberland. Two men and two women
+         committed to prison on suspicion of killing a sheriff.
+         _Denham Tracts_, II, 332; _Cal. S. P., Dom., Add. 1580-1625_, 168.
+
+ 1586. Eckington, Derbyshire. Margaret Roper accused. Discharged.
+         Harsnett, _Discovery of the Fraudulent
+         Practises of John Darrel_, 310.
+
+ 1586. Faversham, Kent. Jone Cason [Carson] tried before
+         the mayor, executed. Holinshed, _Chronicles_ (1586-1587),
+         III, 1560.
+
+ 1587. Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Helena Gill indicted. C. J.
+         Palmer, _History of Great Yarmouth_, 273. H. Harrod
+         in _Norfolk Archaeology_, IV, 248, assigns this to
+         1597, but it is probably a mistake.
+
+ c. 1588. A woman at R. H. said to have been imprisoned and
+         to have died before the assizes. Gifford, _Dialogue_
+         (London, 1603), C.
+
+ 1589. Chelmsford, Essex. Three women hanged. _The apprehension
+         and confession of three notorious Witches._
+
+ 1589. Several persons to be examined about their dealings in
+         conjuration with an Italian friar. _Acts P. C._, n. s.,
+         XVII, 31-32.
+
+ 1589. Mrs. Deir brought into question for sorcery against
+         the queen. Charge dismissed. Strype, _Annals of
+         the Reformation_ (London, 1709-1731), IV, 7-8.
+
+ 1590. Mrs. Dewse suspected of attempting to make use of conjurors.
+         _Cal. St. P., Dom._, 1581-1590, 644.
+
+ 1590. John Bourne, a "sorcerer and seducer," arrested. _Acts
+         P. C._, n. s., XVIII, 373.
+
+ 1590. Berwick. A Scottish witch imprisoned. John Scott,
+         _History of Berwick_ (London, 1888), 180; _Archaeologia_,
+         XXX, 172.
+
+ 1590. Norfolk. Margaret Grame accused before justice of the
+         peace. Neighbors petition in her behalf. _Hist. MSS.
+         Comm. Reports, Various_, II, 243-244.
+
+ 1590. King's Lynn. Margaret Read burnt. Benjamin Mackerell,
+         _History and Antiquities ... of King's Lynn_,
+         (London, 1738), 231.
+
+ 1590. Edmonton, Middlesex. Certain men taken for witchcraft
+         and conjuring. Bloodhound used in pursuit
+         of them. _Cal. St. P., Dom._, 1581-1590, 689.
+
+ 1590-91. Hertfordshire. Indictment of Joan White for killing.
+         _Hertfordshire County Session Rolls_, I, 4.
+
+ 1591. John Prestall suspected. _Cal. St. P., Dom._, 1591-1594,
+         17-19.
+
+ 1591. Middlesex. Stephen Trefulback of Westminster given
+         penalty of statute, _i. e._, probably pillory. _Middlesex
+         County Records_, I, 197.
+
+ 1592. Colchester, Essex. Margaret Rand indicted by grand
+         jury. Brit. Mus., Stowe MSS., 840, fol. 42.
+
+ 1592. Yorkshire. "Sara B. de C." examined. West, _Symboleography_,
+         pt. II (London, 1594), ed. of 1611, fol.
+         134 verso (reprinted in _County Folk-Lore_, Folk-Lore
+         Soc., 135). Whether the "S. B. de C. in comit.
+         H." whose indictment in the same year is printed
+         also by West may possibly be the same woman can
+         not be determined.
+
+ 1592. Yorkshire. Margaret L. de A. examined. _Ibid._
+
+ 1593. Warboys, Huntingdonshire. Mother, daughter and
+         father Samuel executed. _The most strange and
+         admirable discoverie of the three Witches of Warboys._
+         1593. See also John Darrel, _A Detection of
+         that sinnful ... discours of Samuel Harshnet_, 20-21,
+         39-40, 110. Harsnett, _Discovery of the Fraudulent
+         Practises of John Darrel_, 93, 97.
+
+ 1594. Jane Shelley examined for using sorcerers to find the
+         time of the queen's death. _Hist. MSS. Comm., Cecil._, pt. V, 25.
+
+ 1595. St. Peter's Kent. Two women presented by the church
+         authorities. Still suspected in 1599. _Archaeol. Cant._, XXVI, 46.
+
+ 1595. Woodbridge, Suffolk. Witches put in the pillory.
+          _County Folk-Lore, Suffolk_ (Folk-Lore Soc., London, 1895), 193.
+
+ 1595. Jane Mortimer pardoned for witchcraft. Bodleian,
+         Tanner MSS., CLXVIII, fol. 29.
+
+ 1595. Near Bristol, Somerset. Severall committed for the
+         Earl of Derby's death. _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_,
+         IV, app., 366 b. See also E. Baines's _Lancaster_
+         (London, 1870), 273-274 and note.
+
+ 1595. Barnet and Braynford, Herts. Three witches executed.
+         From title of pamphlet mentioned by Lowndes,
+         _The Arraignment and Execution of 3 detestable
+         Witches, John Newell, Joane his wife, and Hellen
+         Calles: two executed at Barnett and one at Braynford_,
+         1 Dec. 1595.
+
+ 1596 (or before). Derbyshire. Elizabeth Wright (mother
+         of Alice Gooderidge) several times summoned before
+         the justice of the peace on suspicion. _The
+         most wonderfull and true Storie of ... Alse Gooderidge_
+         (1597).
+
+ 1596. Burton-upon-Trent, Derbyshire. Alice Gooderidge tried
+         at Derby, convicted. Died in prison. Harsnett, _Discovery
+         of the fraudulent Practises of John Darrel;
+         John Darrel, Detection of that sinnful ... discours
+         of Samuel Harshnet_, 38, 40; _The most wonderfull
+         and true Storie of ... Alse Gooderidge_ (1597).
+
+ 1596-1597. Leicester. Mother Cooke hanged. Mary Bateson,
+         _Records of the Borough of Leicester_ (Cambridge,
+         1899), III, 335.
+
+ 1596-1597. Lancaster. Hartley condemned and executed.
+         John Darrel, _True Narration_ (in the _Somers Tracts_,
+         III), 175, 176; George More, _A True Discourse
+         concerning the certaine possession ... of 7 persons
+         ... in Lancashire_, 18-22; John Darrel, _Detection
+         of that sinnful ... discours of Samuel Harshnet_, 40.
+
+ 1597. Nottingham. Thirteen or more accused by Somers, at
+         least eight of whom were put in gaol. All but two
+         discharged. Alice Freeman tried at the assizes and
+         finally acquitted. John Darrel, _Detection of that
+         sinnful ... discours of Samuel Harshnet_, 109-111;
+         _An Apologie or defence of the possession of William
+         Sommers_, L-L 3; Samuel Harsnett, _Discovery
+         of the Fraudulent Practises of John Darrel_, 5, 102,
+         140-141, 320-322.
+
+ 1597. St. Lawrence, Kent. Sibilla Ferris suspected by the
+         church authorities. _Archaeol. Cant._, XXVI, 12.
+
+ 1597. Nottingham. William Somers accused of witchcraft as
+         a ruse to get him into the house of correction.
+         Darrel, _A True Narration of the ... Vexation ...
+         of seven persons in Lancashire_, in _Somers Tracts_,
+         III, 184; also his _Brief Apologie_ (1599), 17.
+
+ 1597. Yorkshire. Elizabeth Melton of Collingham condemned,
+         pardoned. _Cal. St. P., Dom._, 1595-1597, 400.
+
+ 1597. Lancashire. Alice Brerely of Castleton condemned,
+         pardoned. _Ibid._, 406.
+
+ 1597. Middlesex. Agnes Godfrey of Enfield held by the justice
+         of the peace on L10 bail. _Middlesex County Records_, I, 237.
+
+ 1597. St. Andrew's in Holborne, Middlesex. Josia Ryley
+         arraigned. "Po se mortuus in facie curie," _i. e._
+         _Posuit se moriturum._ _Ibid._, 225.
+
+ 1597. Middlesex. Helen Spokes of St. Giles-in-the-Fields
+         acquitted. _Ibid._, 239.
+
+ 1598. Berwick. Richard Swynbourne's wife accused. John
+         Scott, _History of Berwick_ (London, 1888), 180.
+
+ 1598. St. Peter's, Kent. Two women suspected by the church
+         officials; one of them presented again the next year.
+         _Archaeol. Cant._, XXVI, 46.
+
+ 1598. King's Lynn. Elizabeth Housegoe executed. Mackerell,
+         _History and Antiquities of King's Lynn_, 232.
+
+ 1599. Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Jone Jordan of Shadbrook
+         tried. Darrel, _A Survey of Certaine Dialogical
+         Discourses_, 54.
+
+ 1599. Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Joane Nayler tried. _Ibid._
+
+ 1599. Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Oliffe Bartham of Shadbrook
+         executed. _The Triall of Maist. Dorrel_, 92-98.
+
+ 1599. London. Anne Kerke of Bokes-wharfe executed at
+         "Tiburn." _The Triall of Maist. Dorrel_, 99-103.
+
+ 1600. Hertford. A "notable witch" committed to the gaol
+         at Hertford. _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports, Cecil
+         MSS._, pt. X, 310.
+
+ 1600. Rosa Bexwell pardoned. Bodleian, Tanner MSS.,
+         CLXVIII, fol. 104.
+
+ 1600. Norfolk. Margaret Fraunces committed for a long
+         time. Probably released by justice of the peace on
+         new evidence. _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, X, pt.
+         II (Gawdy MSS.), 71. See also below, pp. 400, 401.
+
+ 1600. Ipswich, Suffolk. Several conjurers suspected. _Cal.
+         St. P., Dom._, 1598-1601, 523.
+
+ 1601. Bishop Burton, York. Two women apprehended for
+         bewitching a boy. Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 32,496,
+         fol. 42 b.
+
+ 1601. Middlesex. Richard Nelson of St. Katharine's arraigned.
+         _Middlesex County Records_, I, 260.
+
+ 1601. Nottingham. Ellen Bark presented at the sessions.
+         _Records of the Borough of Nottingham_, IV, 260-261.
+
+ 1602. Middlesex. Elizabeth Roberts of West Drayton indicted
+         on three charges, acquitted. _Middlesex
+         County Records_, I, 212.
+
+ 1602. Saffron Walden, Essex. Alice Bentley tried before the
+         quarter sessions. Case probably dismissed. Darrel,
+         _A Survey of Certaine Dialogical Discourses_, 54.
+
+ temp. Eliz. Northfleet, Kent. Pardon to Alice S. for bewitching
+         a cow and pigs. Bodleian, Rawlinson MSS., C 404, fol. 205 b.
+
+ temp. Eliz. Woman condemned to prison and pillory. Gifford,
+         _Dialogue concerning Witches_ (1603), L 4 verso.
+
+ temp. Eliz. Cambridge. Two women perhaps hanged at this
+         time. Henry More, _Antidote to Atheisme_, III. But
+         see 1605, Cambridge.
+
+ temp. Eliz. Mother W. of W. H. said to have been executed.
+         Gifford, _Dialogue concerning Witches_, D 4 verso--E.
+
+ temp. Eliz. Mother W. of Great T. said to have been hanged.
+         _Ibid._, C 4.
+
+ temp. Eliz. Woman said to have been hanged. _Ibid._, L 3-L 3 verso.
+
+ temp. Eliz. Two women said to have been hanged. _Ibid._, I 3 verso.
+
+ 1602-1603. London. Elizabeth Jackson sentenced, for bewitching
+         Mary Glover, to four appearances in the pillory
+         and a year in prison. John Swan, _A True and Breife
+         Report of Mary Glover's Vexation_; E. Jorden, _A
+         briefe discourse of ... the Suffocation of the
+         Mother_, 1603; also a MS., _Marie Glover's late woefull
+         case ... upon occasion of Doctor Jordens discourse
+         of the Mother, wherein hee covertly taxeth,
+         first the Phisitiones which judged her sicknes a vexation
+         of Sathan and consequently the sentence of
+         Lawe and proceeding against the Witche who was
+         discovered to be a meanes thereof, with A defence
+         of the truthe against D. J. his scandalous Impugnations_,
+         by Stephen Bradwell, 1603. Brit. Mus., Sloane
+         MSS., 831. An account by Lewis Hughes, appended
+         to his _Certaine Grievances_ (1641-2), is quoted
+         by Sinclar, _Satan's Invisible World Discovered_
+         (Edinburgh, 1685), 95-100; and hence Burton (_The
+         Kingdom of Darkness_) and Hutchinson (_Historical
+         Essay concerning Witchcraft_) assign a wrong date.
+
+ 1603. Yorkshire. Mary Pannel executed for killing in 1593.
+         Mayhall, _Annals of Yorkshire_ (London, 1878), I,
+         58. See also E. Fairfax, _A Discourse of Witchcraft_,
+         179-180.
+
+ 1603. Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Ales Moore in gaol on suspicion.
+         C. J. Palmer, _History of Great Yarmouth_, II, 70.
+
+ 1604. Wooler, Northumberland. Katherine Thompson and
+         Anne Nevelson proceeded against by the Vicar General
+         of the Bishop of Durham. Richardson, _Table
+         Book_, I, 245; J. Raine, _York Depositions_, 127, note.
+
+ 1605. Cambridge. A witch alarm. Letters of Sir Thomas
+         Lake to Viscount Cranbourne, January 18, 1604/5,
+         and of Sir Edward Coke to Viscount Craybourne,
+         Jan. 29, 1604/5, both in Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 6177,
+         fol. 403. This probably is the affair referred to in
+         _Cal. St. P., Dom._, 1603-1610, 218. Nor is it impossible
+         that Henry More had this affair in mind when
+         he told of two women who were executed in Cambridge
+         in the time of Elizabeth (see above, temp.
+         Eliz., Cambridge) and was two or three years astray
+         in his reckoning.
+
+ 1605. Doncaster, York. Jone Jurdie of Rossington examined.
+         Depositions in _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1857, pt. I, 593-595.
+
+ 1606. Louth, Lincolnshire. "An Indictment against a Witche."
+         R. W. Goulding, _Louth Old Corporation Records_
+         (Louth, 1891), 54.
+
+ 1606. Hertford. Johanna Harrison and her daughter said to
+         have been executed. This rests upon the pamphlet
+         _The Most Cruell and Bloody Murther_, ... See appendix
+         A, Sec. 3.
+
+ 1606. Richmond, Yorkshire. Ralph Milner ordered by quarter
+         sessions to make his submission at Mewkarr
+         Church. _North Riding Record Society_, I, 58.
+
+ 1607. Middlesex. Alice Bradley of Hampstead arraigned on
+         four bills, acquitted. _Middlesex County Records_,
+         II, 8.
+
+ 1607. Middlesex. Rose Mersam of Whitecrosse Street acquitted.
+         _Ibid._, II, 20.
+
+ 1607. Bakewell, Derby. Several women said to have been executed
+         here. See Robert Simpson, _A Collection of
+         Fragments illustrative of the History and Antiquities
+         of Derby_ (Derby, 1826), 90; Glover, _History of
+         Derby_ (ed. Thos. Noble, 1833), pt. I, vol. II, p. 613;
+         J. C. Cox, _Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals_,
+         II, 88. For what purports to be a detailed account
+         of the affair see W. Andrews, _Bygone Derbyshire_,
+         180-184.
+
+ 1607-11. Rye, Sussex. Two women condemned by local
+         authorities probably discharged upon interference
+         from London. _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, XIII,
+         pt. 4, 136-137, 139-140, 147-148.
+
+ 1608. Simon Read pardoned. _Cal. St. P., Dom._, 1603-1610, 406.
+
+ 1610. Norfolk. Christian[a] Weech, pardoned in 1604, now
+         again pardoned. _Ibid._, 96, 598. Was this the Christiana
+         Weekes of Cleves Pepper, Wilts, who in 1651
+         and 1654 was again and again accused of telling
+         where lost goods were? See _Hist. MSS. Comm.
+         Reports, Various_, I, 120.
+
+ 1610. Middlesex. Agnes Godfrey of Enfield, with four bills
+         against her, acquitted on three, found guilty of killing.
+         File containing sentence lost. _Middlesex County
+         Records_, II, 57-58. Acquitted again in 1621. _Ibid._,
+         79, 80.
+
+ 1610. Leicestershire. Depositions taken by the sheriff concerning
+         Randall and other witches. _Hist. MSS.
+         Comm. Reports_, XII, pt. 4 (_MSS. of the Duke of
+         Rutland_), I, 422.
+
+ 1611. Carnarvon. Story of witchcraft "committed on six
+         young maids." Privy Council orders the Bishop of
+         Bangor and the assize judges to look into it. _Cal.
+         St. P., Dom., 1611-1618_, 53.
+
+ 1611. Wm. Bate, indicted twenty years before for practising
+         invocation, etc., for finding treasure, pardoned. _Ibid._, 29.
+
+ 1611. Thirsk, Yorkshire. Elizabeth Cooke presented by quarter
+         sessions for slight crime related to witchcraft.
+         _North Riding Record Soc._, I, 213.
+
+ 1612. Lancaster. Margaret Pearson, who in 1612 was sentenced
+         to a year's imprisonment and the pillory, had
+         been twice tried before, once for killing, and once for
+         bewitching a neighbor. Potts, _Wonderfull Discoverie
+         of Witches in the countie of Lancaster_
+         (Chetham Soc., 1845).
+
+ 1612. Lancaster. Ten persons of Pendle sentenced to death,
+         one to a year's imprisonment; eight acquitted including
+         three women of Salmesbury. Potts, _Wonderfull
+         Discoverie of Witches_, Chetham Soc., 1845.
+         But _cf._ Cooper's words (_Mystery of Witchcraft,
+         1617_), 15.
+
+ 1612. York. Jennet Preston sentenced to death. Potts,
+         _Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches_.
+
+ 1612. Northampton. At least four women and one man
+         hanged. Many others accused, one of whom died in
+         gaol. _The Witches of Northamptonshire_, 1612; also
+         Brit Mus., Sloane MSS., 972, fol. 7.
+
+ 1613. Bedford. Mother Sutton and Mary Sutton, her daughter,
+         of Milton Miles hanged. _Witches Apprehended,
+         Examined and Executed_, 1613. See app. A, Sec. 3,
+         for mention of another pamphlet on the same subject,
+         _A Booke of the Wytches lately condemned and
+         executed_. See also _The Wonderful Discoverie of ...
+         Margaret and Phillip Flower_, preface, and Richard
+         Bernard, _Guide to Grand Jurymen_, III.
+
+ 1613. Wilts. Margaret Pilton of Warminster, accused at
+         quarter sessions, probably released. _Hist. MSS.
+         Comm. Reports, Various_, I, 86-87.
+
+ 1614. Middlesex. Dorothy Magick of St. Andrew's in Holborn
+         sentenced to a year's imprisonment and four
+         appearances in the pillory. _Middlesex County Records_,
+         II, 91, 218.
+
+ 1615. Middlesex. Joan Hunt of Hampstead, who had been,
+         along with her husband, twice tried and acquitted,
+         and whose accuser had been ordered to ask forgiveness,
+         sentenced to be hanged. _Middlesex County
+         Records_, II, lii, 95, 110, 217-218.
+
+ 1616. Leicester. Nine women hanged on the accusation of a
+         boy. Six others accused, one of whom died in prison,
+         five released after the king's examination of the
+         boy. Robert Heyrick's letters from Leicester, July
+         16 and October 15, 1616, reprinted in the _Annual
+         Register_, 1800, p. 405. See also _Cal. S. P., Dom.,
+         1611-1618_, 398, and William Kelly, _Royal Progresses
+         in Leicester_ (Leicester, 1855), pt. II, 15.
+
+ 1616. King's Lynn, Norfolk. Mary Smith hanged. Alexander
+         Roberts, _Treatise of Witchcraft_ (London, 1616);
+         Mackerell, _History and Antiquities of King's Lynn_, 233.
+
+ 1616. Middlesex. Elizabeth Rutter of Finchley, for laming
+         and killing three persons, sentenced to be hanged.
+         _Middlesex County Records_, II, 108, 218.
+
+ 1616. Middlesex. Margaret Wellan of London accused "upon
+         suspition to be a witch." Andrew Camfield held in
+         L40 bail to appear against her. _Middlesex County
+         Records_, II, 124-125.
+
+ 1617. Middlesex. Agnes Berrye of Enfield sentenced to be
+         hanged. _Ibid._, 116, 219.
+
+ 1617. Middlesex. Anne Branche of Tottenham arraigned on
+         four counts, acquitted. _Ibid._, 219.
+
+ 1618. Middlesex. Bridget Meakins acquitted. _Ibid._, 225.
+
+ 1619. Lincoln. Margaret and Philippa Flower hanged. Their
+         mother, Joan Flower, died on the way to prison.
+         _The Wonderful Discoverie of the Witchcrafts of
+         Margaret and Phillip Flower_; J. Nichols, _History
+         and Antiquities of the County of Leicester_ (1795-1815),
+         II, pt. I, 49; _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1619-1623_, 129;
+         _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports, Rutland MSS._, IV, 514.
+
+ 1619. Leicester. Three women, Anne Baker, Joan Willimot,
+         Ellen Green, accused and confessed. Doubtless executed.
+         _The Wonderful Discoverie of the Witchcrafts
+         of Margaret and Phillip Flower_.
+
+ 1619. Middlesex. Agnes Miller of Finchley acquitted. _Middlesex
+         County Records_, II, 143-144.
+
+ 1620. London. "One Peacock, sometime a schoolmaster and
+         minister," for bewitching the king, committed to the
+         Tower and tortured. Williams, _Court and Times
+         of James I_, II, 202; _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1619-1623_, 125.
+
+ 1620. Leicester. Gilbert Smith, rector of Swithland, accused of
+         witchcraft among other things. _Leicestershire and
+         Rutland Notes and Queries_, I, 247.
+
+ 1620. Padiham, Lancashire. Witches in prison. _House and
+         Farm Accounts of the Shuttleworths_, pt. II. (Chetham
+         Soc., 1856), 240.
+
+ 1620. Staffordshire. Woman accused on charges of the "boy
+         of Bilson" acquitted. _The Boy of Bilson_ (London,
+         1622); Arthur Wilson, _Life and Reign of James I_,
+         107-112; Webster, _Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft_,
+         274-275.
+
+ 1621. Edmonton, Middlesex. Elizabeth Sawyer hanged. _The
+         wonderfull discoverie of Elizabeth Sawyer_, by
+         Henry Goodcole (1621).
+
+ 1621. Middlesex. Anne Beaver, accused of murder on six
+         counts, acquitted. _Middlesex County Records_, II,
+         72-73. Acquitted again in 1625. _Ibid._, III, 2.
+
+ 1622. York. Six women indicted for bewitching Edward Fairfax's
+         children. At April assizes two were released
+         upon bond, two and probably four discharged. At
+         the August assizes they were again acquitted. Fairfax,
+         _A Discourse of Witchcraft_ (Philobiblon Soc.,
+         London, 1858-1859).
+
+ 1622. Middlesex. Margaret Russel, alias "Countess," committed
+         to Newgate by Sir Wm. Slingsby on a charge
+         by Lady Jennings of injuring her daughter. Dr. Napier
+         diagnosed the daughter's illness as epilepsy.
+         Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 36,674, fol. 134.
+
+ 1623. Yorkshire. Elizabeth Crearey of North Allerton sentenced
+         to be set in the pillory once a quarter. Thirsk
+         Quarter Sessions Records in _North Riding Record
+         Society_ (London, 1885), III, 177, 181.
+
+ 1624. Bristol. Two witches said to have been executed. John
+         Latimer, _The Annals of Bristol in the Seventeenth
+         Century_ (Bristol, 1900), 91. Latimer quotes from
+         another "annalist."
+
+ temp. Jac. I? Two women said to have been hanged. Story
+         doubtful. Edward Poeton, _Winnowing of White
+         Witchcraft_ (Brit. Mus., Sloane MSS., 1,954), 41-42.
+
+ temp. Jac. I. Norfolk. Joane Harvey accused for scratching
+         "an olde witche" there, "Mother Francis nowe
+         deade." Mother Francis had before been imprisoned
+         at Norwich. Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 28,223, fol. 15.
+
+ temp. Jac. I. Warwickshire. Coventry haunted by "hellish sorcerers."
+         "The pestilent brood" also in Cheshire.
+         Thomas Cooper, _The Mystery of Witchcraft_ (1617),13, 16.
+
+ temp. Jac. I. Norwich. Witches probably accused for illness
+         of a child. Possibly Mother Francis was one of
+         them. Cooper, _ibid._, "Epistle Dedicatorie."
+
+ 1626. Taunton, Somerset. Edmund Bull and Joan Greedie
+         accused. Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 36,674, fol. 189;
+         Wright, _Narratives of Sorcery and Magic_, II, 139-143.
+         See also Richard Bernard, _Guide to Grand
+         Jurymen_, "Epistle Dedicatorie."
+
+ 1627. Durham. Sara Hathericke and Jane Urwen accused
+         before the Consistory Court. _Folk-Lore Journal_
+         (London, 1887), V, 158. Quoted by Edward Peacock
+         from the records of the Consistory Court of Durham.
+
+ 1627. Linneston, Lancaster. Elizabeth Londesdale accused.
+         Certificate of neighbors in her favor. _Hist. MSS.
+         Comm. Reports_, XIV, pt. 4 (_Kenyon MSS._), 36.
+
+ 1628. Leepish, Northumberland. Jane Robson committed.
+         Mackenzie, _History of Northumberland_ (Newcastle,
+         1825), 36. Mackenzie copies from the Mickleton MS.
+
+ 1630. Lancaster. A certain Utley said to have been hanged
+         for bewitching Richard Assheton. E. Baines, _Lancaster_
+         (ed. of 1868-1870), II, 12.
+
+ 1630. Sandwich, Kent. Woman hanged. Wm. Boys, _Collections
+         for an History of Sandwich in Kent_ (Canterbury,
+         1792), 707.
+
+ c. 1630. Wilts. "John Barlowes wife" said to have been executed.
+         MS. letter of 1685-86 printed in the _Gentleman's
+         Magazine_, 1832, pt. I, 405-410.
+
+ 1633. Louth, Lincolnshire. Witch alarm; two searchers appointed.
+         One witch indicted. Goulding, _Louth
+         Old Corporation Records_, 54.
+
+ c. 1633. Lancaster. The father and mother of Mary Spencer
+         condemned. _Cal. S. P., Dom., 1634-1635_, 79.
+
+ 1633. Norfolk. Woman accused. No arrest made. _Hist.
+         MSS. Comm. Reports_, X, pt. 2 (_Gawdy MSS._), p. 144.
+
+ 1633-34. Lancaster. Several witches, probably seventeen,
+         tried and condemned. Reprieved by the king. For
+         the many references to this affair see above, chap.
+         VII, footnotes.
+
+ 1634. Yorkshire. Four women of West Ayton presented for
+         telling "per veneficationem vel incantationem"
+         where certain stolen clothes were to be found.
+         Thirsk Quarter Sessions Records in _North Riding
+         Record Society_, IV, 20.
+
+ 1635. Lancaster. Four witches condemned. Privy Council
+         orders Bishop Bridgeman to examine them. Two
+         died in gaol. The others probably reprieved. _Hist.
+         MSS. Comm. Reports_, XII, 2 (_Cowper MSS._, II),
+         77, 80.
+
+ 1635. Leicester. Agnes Tedsall acquitted. _Leicestershire and
+         Rutland Notes and Queries_, I, 247.
+
+ 1635. ----. Mary Prowting, who was a plaintiff before the
+         Star Chamber, accused of witchcraft. Accuser, who
+         was one of the defendants, exposed. _Cal. St. P.,
+         Dom., 1635_, 476-477.
+
+ c. 1637. Bedford. Goodwife Rose "ducked," probably by officials.
+         Wm. Drage, _Daimonomageia_ (London, 1665), 41.
+
+ 1637. Staffordshire. Joice Hunniman committed, almost certainly
+         released. _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, II, App., 48 b.
+
+ 1637-38. Lathom, Lancashire. Anne Spencer examined and
+         probably committed. _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_,
+         XIV, 4 (_Kenyon MSS._), 55.
+
+ 1638. Middlesex. Alice Bastard arraigned on two charges.
+         Acquitted. _Middlesex County Records_, III, 112-113.
+
+ 1641. Middlesex. One Hammond of Westminster tried and
+         perhaps hanged. John Aubrey, _Remaines of Gentilisme
+         and Judaisme_ (Folk-Lore Soc.), 61.
+
+ temp. Carol I. Oxford. Woman perhaps executed. This
+         story is given at third hand in _A Collection of Modern
+         Relations_ (London, 1693), 48-49.
+
+ temp. Carol, I. Somerset. One or more hanged. Later the
+         bewitched person, who may have been Edmund Bull
+         (see above, _s. v._ 1626, Taunton), hanged also as a
+         witch. Meric Casaubon, _Of Credulity and Incredulity_
+         (London, 1668), 170-171.
+
+ temp. Carol. I? Taunton Dean. Woman acquitted. North,
+         _Life of North_, 131.
+
+ 1642. Middlesex. Nicholas Culpepper of St. Leonard's, Shoreditch,
+         acquitted. _Middlesex County Records_, III, 85.
+
+ 1643. Newbury, Berks. A woman supposed to be a witch
+         probably shot here by the parliament forces. _A
+         Most certain, strange and true Discovery of a Witch_
+         ... 1643; _Mercurius Aulicus_, Oct. 1-8, 1643; _Mercurius
+         Civicus_, Sept. 21-28, 1643; _Certaine Informations_,
+         Sept. 25-Oct. 2, 1643; _Mercurius Britannicus_,
+         Oct. 10-17, 1643.
+
+ 1644. Sandwich, Kent. "The widow Drew hanged for a
+         witch." W. Boys, _Collections for an History of
+         Sandwich_, 714.
+
+ 1645 (July). Chelmsford, Essex. Sixteen certainly condemned,
+         probably two more. Possibly eleven or twelve more
+         at another assize. _A true and exact Relation ...
+         of ... the late Witches ... at Chelmesford_ (1645);
+         Arthur Wilson, in Peck, _Desiderata Curiosa_, II,
+         76; Hopkins, _Discovery of Witches_, 2-3; Stearne,
+         _Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft_, 14, 16,
+         36, 38, 58, etc.; _Signes and Wonders from Heaven_
+         (1645), 2; "R. B." _The Kingdom of Darkness_
+         (London, 1688). The fate of the several Essex
+         witches is recorded by the _True and Exact Relation_
+         in marginal notes printed opposite their depositions
+         (but omitted in the reprint of that pamphlet in Howell's
+         _State Trials_). "R. B.," in _The Kingdom of
+         Darkness_, though his knowledge of the Essex cases
+         is ascribed to the pamphlet, gives details as to the
+         time and place of the executions which are often in
+         strange conflict with its testimony.
+
+ 1645 (July). Norfolk. Twenty witches said to have been
+         executed. Whitelocke, _Memorials_, I, 487. _A Perfect
+         Diurnal_ (July 21-28, 1645) says that there has been
+         a "tryall of the Norfolke witches, about 40 of them
+         and 20 already executed." _Signes and Wonders from
+         Heaven_ says that "there were 40 witches arraigned
+         for their lives and 20 executed."
+
+ 1645. Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Sixteen women and two
+         men executed Aug. 27. Forty or fifty more probably
+         executed a few weeks later. A very large number
+         arraigned. A manuscript (Brit. Mus., Add.
+         MSS., 27,402, fol. 104 ff.) mentions over forty true
+         bills and fifteen or more bills not found. _A True
+         Relation of the Araignment of eighteene Witches at
+         St. Edmundsbury_ (1645); Clarke, _Lives of Sundry
+         Eminent Persons_, 172; _County Folk-Lore, Suffolk_
+         (Folk-Lore Soc.), 178; Ady, _A Candle in the Dark_,
+         104-105, 114; _Moderate Intelligencer_, Sept. 4-11,
+         1645; _Scottish Dove_, Aug. 29-Sept. 6, 1645.
+
+ Stearne mentions several names not mentioned in
+         the _True Relation_--names probably belonging to
+         those in the second group of the accused. Of
+         most of them he has quoted the confession without
+         stating the outcome of the cases. They are
+         Hempstead of Creeting, Ratcliffe of Shelley, Randall
+         of Lavenham, Bedford of Rattlesden, Wright
+         of Hitcham, Ruceulver of Powstead, Greenliefe of
+         Barton, Bush of Barton, Cricke of Hitcham, Richmond
+         of Bramford, Hammer of Needham, Boreham
+         of Sudbury, Scarfe of Rattlesden, King of
+         Acton, Bysack of Waldingfield, Binkes of Haverhill.
+         In addition to these Stearne speaks of Elizabeth
+         Hubbard of Stowmarket. Two others from
+         Stowmarket were tried, "Goody Mils" and "Goody
+         Low." Hollingsworth, _History of Stowmarket_
+         (Ipswich, 1844), 171.
+
+ 1645. Melford, Suffolk. Alexander Sussums made confession.
+         Stearne, 36.
+
+ 1645. Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. At least nine women indicted,
+         five of whom were condemned. Three women
+         acquitted and one man. Many others presented. C.
+         J. Palmer, _History of Great Yarmouth_, I, 273-274.
+         _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, IX, App., pt. I, 320 a;
+         Henry Harrod in _Norfolk Archaeol._, IV, 249-251.
+
+ 1645. Cornwall. Anne Jeffries confined in Bodmin gaol and
+         starved by order of a justice of the peace. She
+         was said to be intimate with the "airy people" and
+         to cause marvellous cures. We do not know the
+         charge against her. Finally discharged. William
+         Turner, _Remarkable Providences_ (London, 1697),
+         ch. 82.
+
+ 1645. Ipswich, Suffolk. Mother Lakeland burnt. _The Lawes
+         against Witches_ (1645).
+
+ 1645. King's Lynn, Norfolk. Dorothy Lee and Grace Wright
+         hanged. Mackerell, _History and Antiquities of
+         King's Lynn_, 236.
+
+ 1645. Aldeburgh, Norfolk. Seven witches hanged. Quotations
+         from the chamberlain's accounts in N. F.
+         Hele, _Notes or Jottings about Aldeburgh_, 43-44.
+
+ 1645. Faversham, Kent. Three women hanged, a fourth tried,
+         by the local authorities. _The Examination, Confession,
+         Triall and Execution of Joane Williford, Joan
+         Cariden and Jane Hott_ (1645).
+
+ 1645. Rye, Sussex. Martha Bruff and Anne Howsell ordered
+         by the "mayor of Rye and others" to be put to the
+         ordeal of water. _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, XIII,
+         pt. 4, 216.
+
+ 1645. Middlesex. Several witches of Stepney accused. _Signes
+         and Wonders from Heaven_, 2-3.
+
+ 1645-46. Cambridgeshire. Several accused, at least one or
+         two of whom were executed. Ady, _Candle in the
+         Dark_, 135; Stearne, 39, 45; H. More, _Antidote
+         against Atheisme_, 128-129. This may have been
+         what is referred to in Glanvill's _Sadducismus Triumphatus_,
+         pt. ii, 208-209.
+
+ 1646. Northamptonshire. Several witches hanged. One died
+         in prison. Stearne, 11, 23, 34-35.
+
+ 1646. Huntingdonshire. Many accused, of whom at least
+         ten were examined and several executed, among
+         them John Wynnick. One woman swam and was
+         released. John Davenport, _Witches of Huntingdon_
+         (London, 1646); H. More, _Antidote against Atheisme_,
+         125; Stearne, 11, 13, 17, 19, 20-21, 39, 42.
+
+ 1646. Bedfordshire. Elizabeth Gurrey of Risden made confession.
+         Stearne says a Huntingdonshire witch confessed
+         that "at Tilbrooke bushes in Bedfordshier
+         ... there met above twenty at one time." Huntingdonshire
+         witches seem meant, but perhaps not alone.
+         Stearne, 11, 31.
+
+ c. 1646. Yarmouth, Norfolk. Stearne mentions a woman
+         who suffered here. Stearne, 53.
+
+ 1646. Heptenstall, Yorkshire. Elizabeth Crossley, Mary
+         Midgley, and two other women examined before two
+         justices of the peace. _York Depositions_, 6-9.
+
+ 1647. Ely, Cambridgeshire. Stearne mentions "those executed
+         at Elie, a little before Michaelmas last, ...
+         also one at Chatterish there, one at March there,
+         and another at Wimblington there, now lately found,
+         still to be tryed"; and again "one Moores wife of
+         Sutton, in the Isle of Elie," who "confessed her
+         selfe guilty" and was executed; and yet again "one
+         at Heddenham in the Isle of Ely," who "made a
+         very large Confession" and must have paid the
+         penalty. Stearne, 17, 21, 37; Gibbons, _Ely Episcopal
+         Records_ (Lincoln, 1891), 112-113.
+
+ 1647. Middlesex. Helen Howson acquitted. _Middlesex County
+         Records_, III, 124.
+
+ 1648. Middlesex. Bill against Katharine Fisher of Stratford-at-Bow
+         ignored. _Middlesex County Records_, III, 102.
+
+ 1648. Norwich, Norfolk. Two women burnt. P. Browne,
+         _History of Norwich_ (Norwich, 1814), 38.
+
+ 1649. Worcester. A Lancashire witch said to have been tried;
+         perhaps remanded to Lancashire. _A Collection of
+         Modern Relations._ The writer says that he received
+         the account from a "Person of Quality" who
+         attended the trial.
+
+ 1649. Middlesex. Elizabeth Smythe of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields
+         acquitted. _Middlesex County Records_, III, 191.
+
+ 1649. Middlesex. Dorothy Brumley acquitted. _Ibid._
+
+ 1649. St. Albans. John Palmer and Elizabeth Knott said to
+         have been hanged for witches. _The Divels Delusion_ (1649).
+
+ 1649. Berwick. Thirty women, examined on the accusation
+         of a Scotch witch-finder, committed to prison.
+         Whitelocke, _Memorials_, III, 99; John Fuller, _History
+         of Berwick_ (Edinburgh, 1799), 155-156, giving extracts
+         from the Guild Hall Books; John Sykes,
+         _Local Records_ (Newcastle, 1833), I, 103-105.
+
+ 1649. Gloucester. Witch tried at the assizes. _A Collection of
+         Modern Relations_, 52.
+
+ 1649-50. Yorkshire. Mary Sykes and Susan Beaumont committed
+         and searched. The former acquitted, bill
+         against the latter ignored. _York Depositions_, 28.
+
+ 1649-50. Durham. Several witches at Gateshead examined,
+         and carried to Durham for trial; "a grave for a
+         witch." Sykes, _Local Records_, I, 105; or _Denham
+         Tracts_ (Folk-Lore Soc.), II, 338.
+
+ 1649-50. Newcastle. Thirty witches accused. Fourteen
+         women and one man hanged, together with a witch
+         from the county of Northumberland. Ralph Gardiner,
+         _England's Grievance_ (London, 1655), 108;
+         Sykes, _Local Records_, I, 103; John Brand, _History
+         and Antiquities of Newcastle_ (London, 1789), II,
+         477-478; Whitelocke, _Memorials_, III, 128; _Chronicon
+         Mirabile_ (London, 1841), 92.
+
+ 1650. Yorkshire. Ann Hudson of Skipsey charged. _York
+         Depositions_, 38, note.
+
+ 1650. Cumberland. A "discovery of witches." Sheriff perplexed.
+         _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1650_, 159.
+
+ 1650. Derbyshire. Ann Wagg of Ilkeston committed for
+         trial. J. C. Cox, _Three Centuries of Derbyshire
+         Annals_, II, 88.
+
+ 1650. Middlesex. Joan Roberts acquitted. _Middlesex County
+         Records_, III, 284.
+
+ 1650. Stratford-at-Bow, Middlesex. Witch said to have been
+         apprehended, but "escaped the law." Glanvill,
+         _Sadducismus Triumphatus_, pt. ii, Relation XX.
+
+ 1650. Middlesex. Joan Allen sentenced to be hanged. _Middlesex
+         County Records_, III, 284. _The Weekly Intelligencer_,
+         Oct. 7, 1650, refers to the hanging of a witch
+         at the Old Bailey, probably Joan.
+
+ 1650. Leicester. Anne Chettle searched and acquitted. Tried
+         again two years later. Result unknown. _Leicestershire
+         and Rutland Notes and Queries_, I, 247; James
+         Thompson, _Leicester_ (Leicester, 1849), 406.
+
+ 1650. Alnwick. Dorothy Swinow, wife of a colonel, indicted.
+         Nothing further came of it. _Wonderfull News from
+         the North_ (1650).
+
+ 1650. Middlesex. Elizabeth Smith acquitted. _Middlesex
+         County Records_, III, 284.
+
+ c. 1650-60. St. Alban's, Herts. Two witches suspected and
+         probably tried. Drage, _Daimonomageia_ (1665), 40-41.
+
+ 1651. Yorkshire. Margaret Morton acquitted. _York Depositions_, 38.
+
+ 1651. Middlesex. Elizabeth Lanam of Stepney acquitted.
+         _Middlesex County Records_, III, 202, 285.
+
+ 1651. Colchester, Essex. John Lock sentenced to one year's
+         imprisonment and four appearances in the pillory.
+         Brit. Mus., Stowe MSS., 840, fol. 43.
+
+ 1652. Yorkshire. Hester France of Huddersfield accused before
+         the justice of the peace. _York Depositions_, 51.
+
+ 1652. Maidstone, Kent. Six women hanged, others indicted.
+         _A Prodigious and Tragicall History of the Arraignment
+         ... of six Witches at Maidstone ..._ by
+         "H. F. Gent.," 1652; _The Faithful Scout_, July 30-Aug.
+         7, 1652; Ashmole's Diary in _Lives of Ashmole
+         and Lilly_ (London, 1774), 316.
+
+ 1652. Middlesex. Joan Peterson of Wapping acquitted on
+         one charge, found guilty on another, and hanged.
+         _Middlesex County Records_, III, 287; _The Witch of
+         Wapping_; _A Declaration in Answer to several lying
+         Pamphlets concerning the Witch of Wapping_; _The
+         Tryall and Examinations of Mrs. Joan Peterson_;
+         _French Intelligencer_, Apr. 6-13, 1652; _Mercurius
+         Democritus_, Apr. 7-14, 1652; _Weekly Intelligencer_,
+         April 6-13, 1652; _Faithful Scout_, Apr. 9-16, 1652.
+
+ 1652. London. Susan Simpson acquitted. _A True and Perfect
+         List of the Names of those Prisoners in Newgate_
+         (London, 1652).
+
+ 1652. Worcester. Catherine Huxley of Evesham, charged
+         with bewitching a nine-year-old girl, hanged. Baxter,
+         _Certainty of the World of Spirits_ (London, 1691),
+         44-45. Baxter's narrative was sent him by "the now
+         Minister of the place."
+
+ 1652. Middlesex. Temperance Fossett of Whitechapel acquitted.
+         _Middlesex County Records_, III, 208, 288.
+
+ 1652. Middlesex. Margery Scott of St Martin's-in-the-Fields
+         acquitted. _Ibid._, 209.
+
+ 1652. Scarborough, Yorkshire. Anne Marchant or Hunnam
+         accused and searched. J. B. Baker, _History of
+         Scarborough_ (London, 1882), 481, using local
+         records.
+
+ 1652. Durham. Francis Adamson and ---- Powle executed.
+         Richardson, _Table Book_, I, 286.
+
+ 1652. Exeter, Devonshire. Joan Baker committed. Cotton,
+         _Gleanings ... Relative to the History of ... Exeter_
+         (Exeter, 1877), 149.
+
+ 1652. Wilts. William Starr accused and searched. _Hist.
+         MSS. Comm. Reports_, _Various_, I, 127.
+
+ 1652-53. Cornwall. A witch near Land's End accused, and
+         accuses others. Eight sent to Launceston gaol. Some
+         probably executed (see above, p. 218 and footnotes
+         24, 25). _Mercurius Politicus_, Nov. 24-Dec. 2,
+         1653; R. and O. B. Peter, _The Histories of Launceston
+         and Dunheved_ (Plymouth, 1885), 285. See
+         also Burthogge, _Essay upon Reason and the Nature
+         of Spirits_ (London, 1694), 196.
+
+ 1653. Wilts. Joan Baker of the Devizes makes complaint
+         because two persons have reported her to be a witch.
+         _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, _Various_, I, 127. Is this
+         the Joan Baker of Exeter mentioned a few lines
+         above?
+
+ 1653. Wilts. Joan Price of Malmesbury and Elizabeth Beeman
+         of the Devizes indicted, the latter committed
+         to the assizes. _Ibid._
+
+ 1653. Yorkshire. Elizabeth Lambe accused. _York Depositions_, 58.
+
+ 1653. Middlesex. Elizabeth Newman of Whitechapel acquitted
+         on one charge, found guilty on another, and
+         sentenced to be hanged. _Middlesex County Records_,
+         III, 217, 218, 289.
+
+ 1653. Middlesex. Barbara Bartle of Stepney acquitted. _Ibid._, 216.
+
+ 1653. Leeds, Yorkshire. Isabel Emott indicted for witchcraft
+         upon cattle. _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, IX, pt. 1, 325 b.
+
+ 1653. Salisbury, Wilts. Anne Bodenham of Fisherton Anger
+         hanged. _Doctor Lamb Revived_; _Doctor Lamb's
+         Darling_; _Aubrey, Folk-Lore and Gentilisme_ (Folk-Lore
+         Soc.), 261; Henry More, _An Antidote against
+         Atheisme_, bk. III, chap. VII.
+
+ 1654. Yorkshire. Anne Greene of Gargrave examined. _York
+         Depositions_, 64-65.
+
+ 1654. Yorkshire. Elizabeth Roberts of Beverley examined.
+         _Ibid._, 67.
+
+ 1654. Wilts. Christiana Weekes of Cleves Pepper, who had
+         been twice before accused in recent sessions, charged
+         with telling where lost goods could be found.
+         "Other conjurers" charged at the same time.
+         _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, _Various_, I, 120. See
+         above, 1610, Norfolk.
+
+ 1654. Exeter. Diana Crosse committed. Cotton, _Gleanings
+         ... Relative to the History of ... Exeter_, 150.
+
+ 1654. Wilts. Elizabeth Loudon committed on suspicion.
+         _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, _Various_, I, 129.
+
+ 1654. Whitechapel, Middlesex. Grace Boxe, arraigned on three
+         charges, acquitted. Acquitted again in 1656. _Middlesex
+         County Records_, III, 223, 293.
+
+ 1655. Yorkshire. Katherine Earle committed and searched.
+         _York Depositions_, 69.
+
+ 1655. Salisbury. Margaret Gyngell convicted. Pardoned by
+         the Lord Protector. F. A. Inderwick, _The Interregnum_,
+         188-189.
+
+ 1655. Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Mother and daughter
+         Boram said to have been hanged. Hutchinson, _An
+         Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft_, 38.
+
+ 1656. Yorkshire. Jennet and George Benton of Wakefield
+         examined. _York Depositions_, 74.
+
+ 1656. Yorkshire. William and Mary Wade committed for
+         bewitching the daughter of Lady Mallory. _York
+         Depositions_, 75-78.
+
+ 1657. Middlesex. Katharine Evans of Fulham acquitted.
+         _Middlesex County Records_, III, 263.
+
+ 1657. Middlesex. Elizabeth Crowley of Stepney acquitted,
+         but detained in the house of correction. _Middlesex
+         County Records_, III, 266, 295.
+
+ 1657. Gisborough, Yorkshire. Robert Conyers, "gent.," accused.
+         _North Riding Record Society_, V, 259.
+
+ 1658. Exeter. Thomas Harvey of Oakham, Rutlandshire,
+         "apprehended by order of Council by a party of
+         soldiers," acquitted at Exeter assizes, but detained
+         in custody. _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1658-1659_, 169.
+
+ 1658. Chard, Somerset. Jane Brooks of Shepton Mallet
+         hanged. Glanvill, _Sadducismus Triumphatus_ (1681),
+         pt. ii, 120-122. (Glanvill used Hunt's book of
+         examinations). J. E. Farbrother, _Shepton Mallet;
+         notes on its history, ancient, descriptive and natural_
+         (1860), 141.
+
+ 1658. Exeter. Joan Furnace accused. Cotton, _Gleanings ...
+         Relative to the History of ... Exeter_, 152.
+
+ 1658. Yorkshire. Some women said to have been accused by
+         two maids. The woman "cast" by the jury. The
+         judges gave a "respite." Story not entirely trustworthy.
+         _The most true and wonderfull Narration
+         of two women bewitched in Yorkshire ..._ (1658).
+
+ 1658. Wapping, Middlesex. Lydia Rogers accused. _A More
+         Exact Relation of the most lamentable and horrid
+         Contract which Lydia Rogers ... made with the
+         Divel_ (1658). See app. A, Sec. 5, for another tract.
+
+ 1658. Northamptonshire. Some witches of Welton said to
+         have been examined. Glanvill, _Sadducismus Triumphatus_
+         (1681), pt. ii, 263-268.
+
+ 1658. Salisbury, Wilts. The widow Orchard said to have
+         been executed. From a MS. letter of 1685-86,
+         printed in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1832, pt. I,
+         405-410.
+
+ 1659. Norwich, Norfolk. Mary Oliver burnt. P. Brown,
+         _History of Norwich_, 39. Francis Blomefield, _An
+         Essay towards a Topographical History of the
+         County of Norfolk_ (London, 1805-1810), III, 401.
+
+ 1659. Middlesex. Elizabeth Kennett of Stepney accused. _Middlesex
+         County Records_, III, 278, 299.
+
+ 1659. Hertfordshire. "Goody Free" accused of killing by
+         witchcraft. _Hertfordshire County Sessions Rolls_,
+         I, 126, 129.
+
+ 1659-1660. Northumberland. Elizabeth Simpson of Tynemouth
+         accused. _York Depositions_, 82.
+
+ 1660. Worcester. Joan Bibb of Rushock received L20 damages
+         for being ducked. _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1856,
+         pt. I, 39, from a letter of J. Noake of Worcester,
+         who used the Townshend MSS.
+
+ 1660. Worcester. A widow and her two daughters, and a
+         man, from Kidderminster, tried. "Little proved."
+         Copied from the Townshend MSS. by Nash, in his
+         _Collections for the History of Worcestershire_ (1781-1799),
+         II, 38.
+
+ 1660. Newcastle. Two suspected women detained in prison.
+         Extracts from the Municipal Accounts of Newcastle-upon-Tyne
+         in M. A. Richardson, _Reprints of Rare
+         Tracts ... illustrative of the History of the Northern
+         Counties_ (Newcastle, 1843-1847), III, 57.
+
+ 1660. Canterbury, Kent. Several witches said to have been
+         executed. W. Welfitt ("Civis"), _Minutes of Canterbury_
+         (Canterbury, 1801-1802), no. X.
+
+ c. 1660. Sussex. A woman who had been formerly tried at
+         Maidstone watched and searched. MS. quoted in
+         _Sussex Archaeol. Collections_, XVIII, 111-113; see
+         also Samuel Clarke, _A Mirrour or Looking Glasse
+         both for Saints and Sinners_, II, 593-596.
+
+ 1661. Hertfordshire. Frances Bailey of Broxbourn complained
+         of abuse by those who believed her a witch.
+         _Hertfordshire County Sessions Rolls_, I, 137.
+
+ 1661. Newcastle. Jane Watson examined before the mayor.
+         _York Depositions_, 92-93.
+
+ 1661. Newcastle. Margaret Catherwood and two other
+         women examined before the mayor. _Ibid._, 88.
+
+ 1663. Somerset. Elizabeth Style died before execution. Glanvill,
+         _Sadducismus Triumphatus_, pt. ii, 127-146. For
+         copies of three depositions about Elizabeth Style,
+         see _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1837, pt. ii, 256-257.
+
+ 1663. Taunton, Somerset. Julian Cox hanged. Glanvill,
+         _Sadducismus Triumphatus_, pt. ii, 191-198.
+
+ 1663-64. Newcastle. Dorothy Stranger accused before the
+         mayor. _York Depositions_, 112-114.
+
+ 1664. Somerset. A "hellish knot" of witches (Hutchinson
+         says twelve) accused before justice of the peace
+         Robert Hunt. His discovery stopped by "some of
+         them in authority." Glanvill, _Sadducismus Triumphatus_,
+         pt. ii, 256-257. But see case of Elizabeth Style above.
+
+ 1664. Somerset. A witch condemned at the assizes. She may
+         have been one of those brought before Hunt. _Cal.
+         St. P., Dom., 1663-1664_, 552.
+
+ 1664. Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Rose Cullender and Amy
+         Duny condemned. _A Tryal of Witches at ... Bury
+         St. Edmunds_ (1682).
+
+ 1664. Newcastle. Jane Simpson, Isabell Atcheson and Katharine
+         Curry accused before the mayor. _York Depositions_, 124.
+
+ 1664. York. Alice Huson and Doll Dilby tried. Both made
+         confessions. Copied for _A Collection of Modern Relations_
+         (see p. 52) from a paper written by the justice
+         of the peace, Corbet.
+
+ 1665. Wilts. Jone Mereweather of Weeke in Bishop's Cannings
+         committed. _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, _Various_, I, 147.
+
+ 1665. Newcastle. Mrs. Pepper accused before the mayor.
+         _York Depositions_, 127.
+
+ 1665. Three persons convicted of murder and executed for
+         killing a supposed witch. Joseph Hunter, _Life of
+         Heywood_ (London, 1842), 167-168, note.
+
+ 1666. Lancashire. Four witches of Haigh examined, two
+         committed but probably acquitted. _Cal. St. P., Dom.,
+         1665-1666_, 225.
+
+ 1667. Newcastle, Northumberland. Emmy Gaskin of Landgate
+         accused before the mayor. _York Depositions_, 154.
+
+ 1667. Norfolk. A fortune-teller or conjuror condemned to
+         imprisonment. _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1667_, 30.
+
+ 1667. Ipswich, Suffolk. Two witches possibly imprisoned.
+         Story doubtful. _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1667-1668_, 4.
+
+ 1667. Devizes, Wilts. "An old woman" imprisoned, charged
+         with bewitching by making and pricking an image.
+         Blagrave, _Astrological Practice_ (London 1689),
+         90, 103.
+
+ 1667. Lancashire. Widow Bridge and her sister, Margaret
+         Loy, both of Liverpool, accused. _The Moore Rental_
+         (Chetham Soc., 1847), 59-60.
+
+ 1668. Durham. Alice Armstrong of Strotton tried, but almost
+         certainly acquitted. Tried twice again in the next
+         year with the same result. Sykes, _Local Records_, II, 369.
+
+ 1668. Warwick. Many witches "said to be in hold." _Cal. St.
+         P., Dom., 1668-1669_, 25.
+
+ 1669. Hertfordshire. John Allen of Stondon indicted for calling
+         Joan Mills a witch. _Hertfordshire County Sessions Rolls_, I, 217.
+
+ 1670. Yorkshire. Anne Wilkinson acquitted. _York Depositions_,
+         176 and note.
+
+ 1670. Latton Wilts. Jane Townshend accused. _Hist. MSS.
+         Comm. Reports, Various_. I, 150-151.
+
+ 1670. Wilts. Elizabeth Peacock acquitted. See Inderwick's
+         list of witch trials in the western circuit, in his
+         _Sidelights on the Stuarts_ (London, 1888), 190-194.
+         Hereafter the reference "Inderwick" will mean
+         this list. See also above, p. 269, note.
+
+ 1670. Devonshire. Elizabeth Eburye and Aliena Walter acquitted.
+         Inderwick.
+
+ 1670. Somerset. Anne Slade acquitted on two indictments.
+         Inderwick.
+
+ 1670. Bucks. Ann Clarke reprieved. _Cal. St. P., Dom., 1670_, 388.
+
+ 1671. Devonshire. Johanna Elford acquitted. Inderwick.
+
+ 1671. Devonshire. Margaret Heddon acquitted on two indictments.
+         Inderwick.
+
+ 1671. Falmouth. Several witches acquitted. _Cal. St. P., Dom.,
+         1671_, 105, 171. Perhaps identical with the three, two
+         men and a woman, mentioned by Inderwick as acquitted
+         in Cornwall.
+
+ 1672. Somerset. Margaret Stevens acquitted on two indictments.
+         Inderwick.
+
+ 1672. Devonshire. Phelippa Bruen acquitted on four indictments.
+         Inderwick.
+
+ 1672. Wilts. Elizabeth Mills acquitted on two indictments.
+         Inderwick.
+
+ 1672. Wilts. Elizabeth Peacock, who had been acquitted two
+         years before, acquitted on five indictments. Judith
+         Witchell acquitted on two, found guilty on a third.
+         She and Ann Tilling sentenced to execution. They
+         must have been reprieved. Inderwick; _Gentleman's
+         Magazine_, 1832, pt. II, p. 489-492.
+
+ 1673. Yorkshire, Northumberland, and Durham. At least
+         twenty-three women and six men accused to various
+         justices of the peace by Ann Armstrong, who confessed
+         to being present at witch meetings, and who
+         acted as a witch discoverer. Some of those whom
+         she accused were accused by others. Margaret Milburne,
+         whom she seems not to have mentioned, also
+         accused, _York Depositions_, 191-202.
+
+ 1674. Northampton. Ann Foster said to have been hanged
+         for destroying sheep and burning barns by witchcraft.
+         _A Full and True Relation of The Tryal, Condemnation,
+         and Execution of Ann Foster_ (1674).
+
+ 1674. Middlesex. Elizabeth Row of Hackney held in bail for
+         her appearance at Quarter Sessions. _Middlesex
+         County Records_, IV, 42-43.
+
+ 1674. Southton, Somerset. John and Agnes Knipp acquitted.
+         Inderwick.
+
+ 1674? (see above, p. 269, note). Salisbury. Woman acquitted,
+         but kept in gaol. North, _Life of North_, 130, 131.
+
+ 1674-75. Lancashire. Joseph Hinchcliffe and his wife bound
+         over to appear at the assizes. He committed suicide
+         and his wife died soon after. _York Depositions_,
+         208; Oliver Heywood's _Diary_ (1881-1885), I, 362.
+
+ 1675. Southton, Somerset. Martha Rylens acquitted on five
+         indictments. Inderwick.
+
+ 1676. Devonshire. Susannah Daye acquitted. Inderwick.
+
+ 1676. Cornwall. Mary Clarkson acquitted. Inderwick.
+
+ c. 1679. Ely, Cambridgeshire. Witch condemned, but reprieved.
+         Hutchinson, _Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft_, 41.
+
+ c. 1680. Somerset. Anna Rawlins acquitted. Inderwick.
+
+ c. 1680. Derbyshire. Elizabeth Hole of Wingerworth accused
+         and committed for charging a baronet with witchcraft.
+         J. C. Cox, _Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals_, II, 90.
+
+ 1680. Yorkshire, Elizabeth Fenwick of Longwitton acquitted.
+         _York Depositions_, 247.
+
+ 1682. London. Jane Kent acquitted. _A Full and True Account
+         ... but more especially the Tryall of Jane Kent for
+         Witchcraft_ (1682).
+
+ 1682. Surrey. Joan Butts acquitted. _Strange and Wonderfull
+         News from Yowell in Surry_ (1681); _An Account
+         of the Tryal and Examination of Joan Buts_ (1682).
+
+ 1682. Devonshire. Temperance Lloyd acquitted on one indictment,
+         found guilty on another. Susanna Edwards
+         and Mary Trembles found guilty. All three executed.
+         Inderwick; North, _Life of North_, 130; see
+         also app. A, Sec. 6, above.
+
+ 1682-88. Northumberland. Margaret Stothard of Edlingham
+         accused. E. Mackenzie, _History of Northumberland_,
+         II, 33-36.
+
+ 1683. London. Jane Dodson acquitted. _An Account of the
+         Whole Proceedings at the Sessions Holden at the
+         Sessions House in the Old Baily ..._ (1683).
+
+ 1683. Somerset. Elenora, Susannah, and Marie Harris, and
+         Anna Clarke acquitted. Inderwick.
+
+ 1684. Devonshire. Alicia Molland found guilty. Inderwick.
+
+ 1685. Devonshire. Jane Vallet acquitted on three indictments.
+         Inderwick.
+
+ temp. Carol. II. Devonshire. Agnes Ryder of Woodbury accused,
+         probably committed. A. H. A. Hamilton,
+         _Quarter Sessions chiefly in Devon_ (London, 1878), 220.
+
+ temp. Carol. II. Ipswich, Suffolk. A woman in prison. William
+         Drage, _Daimonomageia_, 11.
+
+ temp. Carol. II. Herts. Two suspected witches of Baldock
+         ducked. _Ibid._, 40.
+
+ temp. Carol. II. St. Albans, Herts. Man and woman imprisoned.
+         Woman ducked. _Ibid._
+
+ temp. Carol. II. Taunton Dean, Somerset. Man acquitted.
+         North, _Life of North_, 131.
+
+ 1685-86. Malmesbury, Wilts. Fourteen persons accused, among
+         whom were the three women, Peacock, Tilling and
+         Witchell, who had been tried in 1672. Eleven set at
+         liberty; Peacock, Tilling and Witchell kept in prison
+         awhile, probably released eventually. _Gentleman's
+         Magazine_, 1832, pt. I, 489-492.
+
+ 1686. Somerset. Honora Phippan acquitted on two indictments.
+         Inderwick.
+
+ 1686. Cornwall. Jane Noal, alias Nickless, alias Nicholas,
+         and Betty Seeze committed to Launceston gaol for
+         bewitching a fifteen-year-old boy. We know from
+         Inderwick that Jane Nicholas was acquitted. _A
+         True Account of ... John Tonken of Pensans in
+         Cornwall_ (1686).
+
+ 1687. York. Witch condemned, probably reprieved. _Memoirs
+         and Travels of Sir John Reresby_ (London, 1812), 329.
+
+ 1687. Dorset. Dewnes Knumerton and Elizabeth Hengler acquitted.
+         Inderwick. For examination of first see
+         Roberts, _Southern Counties_, 525-526.
+
+ 1687. Wilts. M. Parle acquitted. Inderwick.
+
+ 1687. Devonshire. Abigail Handford acquitted. Inderwick.
+
+ 1689. Wilts. Margareta Young condemned but reprieved.
+         Christiana Dunne acquitted. Inderwick.
+
+ 1690. Taunton, Somerset. Elizabeth Farrier (Carrier), Margaret
+         Coombes and Ann Moore committed. Coombes
+         died in prison at Brewton. The other two acquitted
+         at the assizes. Inderwick; Baxter, _Certainty
+         of the World of Spirits_, 74-75.
+
+ 1692. Wilts. Woman committed. _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_,
+         _Various_, I, 160.
+
+ 1693. Suffolk. Widow Chambers of Upaston committed, died
+         in gaol. Hutchinson, _Historical Essay concerning
+         Witchcraft_, 42.
+
+ 1693-94. Devonshire. Dorothy Case acquitted on three indictments.
+         Inderwick.
+
+ 1693-94. Devonshire. Katherine Williams acquitted. Inderwick.
+
+ 1694. Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Mother Munnings of Hartis
+         acquitted. Hutchinson, _op. cit._, 43.
+
+ 1694. Somerset. Action brought against three men for swimming
+         Margaret Waddam. _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, _Various_, I, 160.
+
+ 1694. Ipswich, Suffolk. Margaret Elnore acquitted. Hutchinson, 44.
+
+ 1694. Kent. Ann Hart of Sandwich convicted, but went free
+         under a general act of pardon. W. Boys, _Collections
+         for an History of Sandwich_, 718.
+
+ 1694-95. Devonshire. Clara Roach acquitted. Inderwick.
+
+ 1695. Launceston, Cornwall. Mary Guy or Daye acquitted.
+         Hutchinson, 44-45; Inderwick gives the name as
+         Maria Daye (or Guy) and puts the trial in Devonshire
+         in 1696.
+
+ 1696. Devonshire. Elizabeth Horner acquitted on three indictments,
+         Hutchinson, 45; Inderwick. See also
+         letter from sub-dean Blackburne to the Bishop of
+         Exeter in Brand, _Popular Antiquities_ (ed. of 1905),
+         II, 648-649.
+
+ 1698-99. Wilts. Ruth Young acquitted. Inderwick.
+
+ 1700. Dorset. Anne Grantly and Margaretta Way acquitted.
+         Inderwick.
+
+ 1700-10. Lancashire. A woman of Chowbent searched and
+         committed. Died before the assizes. MS. quoted by
+         Harland and Wilkinson, _Lancashire Folk-Lore_
+         (London, 1867), 207; also E. Baines, _Lancaster_,
+         II, 203.
+
+ 1701. Southwark. Sarah Morduck, who had been before acquitted
+         at Guildford, and who had unsuccessfully appealed
+         to a justice in London against her persecutor,
+         tried and acquitted. Hutchinson, 46. _The
+         Tryal of Richard Hathaway_ (1702); _A Full and
+         True Account of the Apprehending and Taking of
+         Mrs. Sarah Moordike_ (1701); _A short Account of
+         the Trial held at Surry Assizes, in the Borough of
+         Southwark_ (1702). See above, app. A, Sec. 7.
+
+ 1701. Kingston, Surrey. Woman acquitted. _Notes and
+         Queries_ (April 10, 1909), quoting from the _London
+         Post_ of Aug. 1-4, 1701.
+
+ 1701-02. Devonshire. Susanna Hanover acquitted. Inderwick.
+
+ 1702-03. Wilts. Joanna Tanner acquitted. Inderwick.
+
+ 1704. Middlesex. Sarah Griffiths committed to Bridewell.
+         _A Full and True Account ... of a Notorious Witch_
+         (London, 1704).
+
+ 1705. Northampton. Two women said to have been burned
+         here. Story improbable. See above, appendix A, Sec. 10.
+
+ 1707. Somerset. Maria Stevens acquitted. Inderwick.
+
+ 1712. Hertford. Jane Wenham condemned, but reprieved.
+         See footnotes to chapter XIII and app. A, Sec. 9.
+
+ 1716. Huntingdon. Two witches, a mother and daughter,
+         said to have been executed here. Story improbable.
+         See above, app. A, Sec. 10.
+
+ 1717. Leicester. Jane Clark and her daughter said to have
+         been tried. _Leicestershire and Rutland Notes and
+         Queries_, I, 247.
+
+ 1717. Leicester. Mother Norton and her daughter acquitted.
+         Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 35,838, fol. 404.
+
+
+I am unwilling to close this work without an expression of my gratitude
+to the libraries, on both sides of the sea, which have so generously
+welcomed me to the use of their books and pamphlets on English
+witchcraft--many of them excessively rare and precious. They have made
+possible this study. My debt is especially great to the libraries of the
+British Museum and of Lambeth Palace at London, to the Bodleian Library
+at Oxford, and in America to the Boston Athenaeum and to the university
+libraries of Yale and Harvard. To the unrivalled White collection at
+Cornell my obligation is deepest of all.
+
+
+[1] The references in this list, together with the account, in appendix
+A, of the pamphlet literature of witchcraft, are designed to take the
+place of a formal bibliography. That the list of cases here given is
+complete can hardly be hoped. Crude though its materials compel it to
+be, the author believes it may prove useful. He hopes in the course of
+time to make it more complete, and to that end will gladly welcome
+information respecting other trials.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+ Abbot, George, Archbishop of Canterbury, 141 n., 233-234
+
+ Abbott, Alice, 132 n.
+
+ Abingdon, 27, 347, 387
+
+ _Account of the ... Proceedings ... in the Old Baily_, cited, 416
+
+ Acton, 404
+
+ _Acts of the Privy Council_, cited, 26 n., 28 n., 30 n., 347, 384, 385,
+ 388, 390
+
+ Adams, W. H. Davenport, cited, 188 n., 376
+
+ Adamson, Francis, 409
+
+ Addison, Joseph, 340-341
+
+ Ady, Thomas, 238, 241-242, 310.
+   Cited, 180, 184 n., 225 n., 404
+
+ Agrippa, Cornelius, 62
+
+ Aikin, Lucy, cited, 143 n.
+
+ Aldeburgh, 182, 183, 191 n., 193, 200 n., 405
+
+ Alene, case of, 13
+
+ Alfred the Great, 2
+
+ Allen, Joan, 408, 414
+
+ Alnwick, 390, 408
+
+ Altham, Sir James, 112, 113, 125
+
+ Anderson, Sir Edmund, 51, 56 n., 78, 84, 102, 350, 354, 355
+
+ Andrews, William, cited, 137 n., 396
+
+ Anne, Princess of Denmark, her marriage to James I, 94
+
+ _Annual Register_, cited, 141 n., 398
+
+ _Archaeologia_, cited, 10 n., 391
+
+ _Archaeologia Cantiana_, cited, 21 n., 29 n., 385, 389, 392, 393
+
+ Archer, John, 273, 282;
+   conducts Cox trial, 260-261
+
+ Armstrong, Ann, 281-282, 415
+
+ Arnold, Mother, 386
+
+ Ashmole, Elias, cited, 216, 365, 408
+
+ Ashmolean Museum, at Oxford, 216
+
+ Ashton, John, cited, 188 n., 351, 366, 376
+
+ Ashwell, John, 7
+
+ Aspine, Martha, 107
+
+ Assembly, the witch. _See_ Sabbath
+
+ Assheton, R., 158 n., 401
+
+ Atcheson, Isabell, 413
+
+ Aubrey, John, his credulity, 306.
+   Cited, 162 n., 212 n., 365, 402, 410
+
+ Audley, vicar of, 326
+
+ _Autobiography of Edward Underhill_, cited, 13 n.
+
+ Avery, "Master," 110, 130-132, 357, 384
+
+
+ B., R. _See_ Burton, Richard.
+
+ Bacon, Francis, 246-247.
+   Cited, 246 n., 247 n.
+
+ Baddeley, Richard, 141 n., 142 n., 359
+
+ Bailey, Frances, 412
+
+ Bailey, the Old, 108 n.
+
+ Baines, Edward, cited, 147 n., 149 n., 150 n., 158 n., 392, 401, 419
+
+ Baker, Alexander, 154
+
+ Baker, Anne, 133 n., 399
+
+ Baker, J. B., cited, 409
+
+ Baker, Joan, of Devizes, 217, 409
+
+ Baker, Joan, of Exeter, 409
+
+ Baker, Mother, 59-60
+
+ Bakewell, affair of, 137, 384, 396
+
+ Baldock, 417
+
+ Bamfield, Ellen, 389
+
+ Bamford, James, 353
+
+ Bancroft, Richard, as Bishop of London, 84-89;
+   as Archbishop of Canterbury, 88 n., 89, 233, 346, 353
+
+ Bangor, Bishop of, 397
+
+ Barber, Mary, 383
+
+ Bark, Ellen, 394
+
+ Barking, 386
+
+ Barlowe, wife of John, 401
+
+ Barnet, 392
+
+ Barringer, Joan, 390
+
+ Barrow, Dr., of Cambridge, 47
+
+ Barrow, Isaac, 308 and n., 311
+
+ Barrow, James, 256-237
+
+ Barrow, John, 256
+
+ Bartell, Elizabeth, 389
+
+ Bartham, Doll, 350
+
+ Bartham, Oliffe, 394
+
+ Bartle, Barbara, 410
+
+ Barton, 404
+
+ Barton, Elizabeth, the "Holy Maid of Kent," 58
+
+ Basel, 15 n.
+
+ Bastard, Alice, 402
+
+ Batcombe, 34, 236
+
+ Bate, William, 397
+
+ Bates, Dr., cited, 337 n.
+
+ Bateson, Mary, cited, 392
+
+ Bath and Wells, Bishop of, 162 n.
+
+ Bath and Wells, chancellor of the Bishop of, 235
+
+ Batte, 38
+
+ Baxter, Richard, 196, 316, 336-339.
+   Cited, 216 n., 337 n., 409, 418
+
+ Beaumont, John, 336, 339.
+   Cited, 273 n., 275 n.
+
+ Beaumont, Susan, 407
+
+ Beaver, Anne, 400
+
+ Bedford, Duchess of, 4, 9, 49
+
+ Bedford, trials at, no, 117, 135-136, 383, 398, 402, 404
+
+ Bedfordshire, 107, 115, 118, 119, 179 n., 187, 200 n., 406
+
+ Bee, Jesse, 349
+
+ Beeman, Elizabeth, 409
+
+ Beigel, H., 346
+
+ Bekker, Balthazar, 339
+
+ Bel and the Dragon, book of, 97
+
+ Belcher, Elizabeth, 130-132, 230, 357, 384
+
+ Belvoir Castle, witchcraft at, 132-134
+
+ Bennett, Elizabeth, 42-43
+
+ Bennett, Gervase, 219
+
+ Bentham, Thomas, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, 15 n.
+
+ Bentley, Alice, 394
+
+ Benton, George, 411
+
+ Benton, Jennet, 411
+
+ Beriman, Helen, 387
+
+ Berkhampstead, 257
+
+ Berks, 387, 403
+
+ Bernard, Richard, 165, 234-236, 241, 293, 303 n., 361, 401.
+   Cited, 398
+
+ Berrye, Agnes, 384, 399
+
+ Berwick, 201, 206, 207, 209, 252 n., 253, 391, 393, 407
+
+ Beverley, 410
+
+ Bexwell, Rosa, 52 n., 394
+
+ Bibb, Joan, 412
+
+ Bill, Arthur, 106-107, 132 n., 383
+
+ Bilson, boy of. _See_ Bilston
+
+ Bilson, Thomas, Bishop of Winchester, 234
+
+ Bilston, boy of, 140, 141-142, 151, 152, 323, 400
+
+ Binkes, Anne, 192 n., 404
+
+ Bishop Burton, 394
+
+ Bishop's Cannings, 413
+
+ Blackburne, Launcelot, 321, 418
+
+ Blackmail, charge of, 149, 153
+
+ Blagrave, Joseph, cited, 414
+
+ Blomefield, Francis, cited, 412
+
+ Bodenham, Anne, trial of, 210-213, 363, 410
+
+ Bodine (Bodin), 69 n.
+
+ Bodmin, 405
+
+ Bohemia, Queen of, 158
+
+ Bokes-wharfe, 394
+
+ Bolingbroke, Roger, 8, 9
+
+ Boram, mother and daughter, 411
+
+ Boram, wife of, 385
+
+ Boreham of Sudbury, 404
+
+ Bottesford, 134 n.
+
+ Boulton, Richard, 336, 339-340, 348
+
+ Bourne, John, 390
+
+ Bovet, Richard, 303 and n.
+
+ Bower, Edmond, 212, 216, 364, 365
+
+ Bowes, Lady, 356
+
+ Bowes, Sir Thomas, 167 n.
+
+ Boxe, Grace, 410
+
+ Boyle, Sir Robert, 337 and n.;
+   opinions of, 305-306 and n.
+
+ Boys, the Rev. Mr., 331-332
+
+ Boys, William, cited 401, 403, 418
+
+ Bracton, cited, 128 n.
+
+ Bradley, Alice, 396
+
+ Bradwell, Stephen, cited, 395
+
+ Bragge, Francis, 325-336, 373-375
+
+ Bramford, 404
+
+ Branche, Anne, 399
+
+ Brand, John, cited, 208 n., 321 n., 407
+
+ Brandeston, 175, 179 n., 379
+
+ Braynford, 392
+
+ Brerely, Alice, 393
+
+ Brereton, Sir William, 158.
+   Cited, 158 n.
+
+ Brewton, 418
+
+ Bridewell, 419
+
+ Bridge, widow, 414
+
+ Bridgeman, Henry, Bishop of Chester, 152-157, 402
+
+ Bridges, Agnes, 30 n., 59, 88 n., 351
+
+ Brightling, 282
+
+ Brinley, John, 303
+
+ Bristol, 118, 392, 400
+
+ Britannicus, 252
+
+ Britton, 5, 6.
+   Cited, 128
+
+ Brome, Richard, 159, 244, 306
+
+ Bromley, Sir Edward, 113, 125, 134
+
+ Brooks, Jane, 221, 222, 411
+
+ Brown, Agnes, trial of, 35, 36, 110, 115, 357, 384
+
+ Brown, Joan, 130, 131, 132, 357
+
+ Browne, Margaret, 386
+
+ Browne, P., cited, 406
+
+ Browne, Richard, 183 n.
+
+ Browne, Sir Thomas, 266-267, 305, 311
+
+ Broxbourn, 412
+
+ Bruen, Philippa, 415
+
+ Bruff, Martha, 405
+
+ Brumley, Dorothy, 406
+
+ Bucer, Martin, 15 n., 88 n.
+
+ Buckingham, George Villiers, Duke of, 134 n.
+
+ Buckinghamshire, 74, 388, 415
+
+ Bulcock, Jane and John, 383
+
+ Bull, Edmund, 401, 402
+
+ Bullinger, 15 n.
+
+ Burghley, William Cecil, Lord, 19 n., 25 n., 27
+
+ Burman, Charles, cited, 216 n.
+
+ Burnet, Bishop Gilbert, 248 n.
+   Cited, 268 n.
+
+ Burnham-Ulpe, 356
+
+ Burntwood, 386
+
+ Burr, George L., cited, 3 n.
+
+ Burthogge, Richard, 340.
+   Cited, 218 n., 409
+
+ Burton, Richard ("R. B."), 339 n.
+   Cited, 395, 403
+
+ Burton, Robert, 245
+
+ Burton, boy of, named by Ben Jonson, 92.
+   _See also_ Darling, Thomas
+
+ Burton-upon-Trent, 76, 85, 392
+
+ Bury, Thomas, 380
+
+ Bury St. Edmunds, 177-181, 192, 194, 200, 204, 261-267, 305, 321, 361,
+ 378, 379, 393, 394, 404, 411, 413, 418
+
+ Bush, of Barton, 404
+
+ Buske, Mother, 385
+
+ Butcher, Elizabeth, 389
+
+ Butler's _Hudibras_ on Matthew Hopkins, 165, 194
+
+ Butts, Joan, trial of, 277, 416
+
+ Byett, William, 46 n.
+
+ Byles, Andrew, 35
+
+ Byrom, Margaret, 52
+
+ Bysack, of Waldingfield, 404
+
+
+ Calamy, Edmund, the elder, 178
+
+ _Calendar of Patent Rolls_, cited, 7 n.
+
+ _Calendar of the Proceedings of the Committee for the Advance of Money_,
+ cited, 164 n.
+
+ _Calendars of State Papers_, cited, 26 n. and _passim_
+
+ Calvin, 64, 65, 87 n.
+
+ Cambridge, 139, 179 n., 279, 396
+
+ Cambridge University, 48, 89, 228, 229, 235, 238, 276, 374;
+   Queen's College, 143, 348;
+   Christ's College, 227;
+   Emmanuel College, 228 n.;
+   Trinity College, 308
+
+ Cambridgeshire, 111, 184, 200 n., 331, 405, 406, 416
+
+ Camfield, Andrew, 399
+
+ Camfield, Benjamin, 303, 307
+
+ Canterbury, 201, 255, 385, 386, 412
+
+ Canterbury, Archbishop of.
+   _See_ Warham, William;
+   Cranmer, Thomas;
+   Parker, Matthew;
+   Grindall, Edmund;
+   Whitgift, John;
+   Bancroft, Richard;
+   Abbot, George
+
+ Carbury, John, Earl of, 339 n.
+
+ Cariden, Joan, 201 n., 405
+
+ Carnarvon, 118, 397
+
+ Carr, Robert, 232
+
+ Carrier, Elizabeth, 418
+
+ Carrington, John, 317, 319 n., 372
+
+ Carshoggil, laird of, 96
+
+ Carter, Richard, 170 n.
+
+ Casaubon, Meric, 238-240, 293-299, 307.
+   Cited, 240 n., 293 n., 294 n., 403
+
+ Cason, Joan, trial of, 54, 390
+
+ Castleton, 393
+
+ Cecil, William, Lord Burghley. _See_ Burghley
+
+ Celles, Cystley, 45
+
+ _Certaine Informations_, cited, 403
+
+ Chalmers, Alexander, cited, 328 n.
+
+ Chamberlain, letter of, 115 n.
+
+ Chambers, widow, 418
+
+ Chandler, Alice, case of, 38 n., 385
+
+ Chandler, Elizabeth, 187 n.
+
+ Chandler, Mary, 185
+
+ Chandler, R., 212
+
+ Chandos, daughter of Lady, 385
+
+ Chapbook, the witch, 33
+
+ Chard, 221, 411
+
+ Charles I, 146, 152, 154, 158, 161, 199, 234, 323;
+   growth of skepticism as to witches in his reign, 162-163
+
+ Charles II, 248, 254, 262, 276, 306;
+   witchcraft in his reign, 255
+
+ Charlewood, J., 350
+
+ Chatterish, 406
+
+ Chattox, Anne, 109, 121-122, 126 n., 127, 383
+
+ Chaucer, Geoffrey, 89
+
+ Chauncy, Arthur, 327
+
+ Chauncy, Sir Henry, 324, 326, 375
+
+ Chelmsford, 34-41, 43, 46, 166-174, 178, 188 n., 200, 204, 346, 363, 376,
+ 378, 385, 387, 390, 400, 403;
+   trials of 1566 at, 34-38, 385;
+   trials of 1579 at, 38-40, 387;
+   trials of 1589 at, 40, 390;
+   trials of 1645 at, 166-174, 403
+
+ Cherrie, of Thrapston, case of, 184-185
+
+ Cheshire, 118, 232 n.
+
+ Chester, Bishop of. _See_ Bridgeman, Henry
+
+ Chettell, "Mistress," 385
+
+ Chettle, Anne, 218, 408
+
+ Chichester, Bishop of, 12.
+   _See also_ Harsnett, Samuel
+
+ Chinting, 387
+
+ Chishull, the Rev. Mr., 328
+
+ Chittam, Henry, 387
+
+ Chowbent, 419
+
+ Christ's College, Cambridge, 227
+
+ _Chronicon Mirabile_, cited, 208 n., 407
+
+ Church, the trials for sorcery under, 6-8;
+   statute of Henry VIII not aimed to limit, 10;
+   state ready to reclaim jurisdiction from, 24;
+   penalties under, 28, 30;
+   gradual transfer to state of witchcraft cases, 30-31
+
+ Clarke, of Keiston, 185-186
+
+ Clarke, Ann, 415, 417
+
+ Clarke, Elizabeth, 166-175
+
+ Clarke, Helen, 169
+
+ Clarke, Jane, 141-142, 419
+
+ Clarke, Sir Robert, 54
+
+ Clarke, Samuel, cited, 177, 307, 361, 404, 412
+
+ Clarke, William, his letter to Speaker Lenthall, 225 n.
+
+ Clarkson, Mary, 416
+
+ Clerkenwell, 389
+
+ Cleves, Pepper, 397, 410
+
+ Cleworth, 52, 149 n.
+
+ Clinton, Lord, 12
+
+ Clouues, William, 24 n.
+
+ Clutterbuck, Robert, cited, 328 n.
+
+ Cobbett, William, cited, 102 n.
+
+ Cobham, Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester, 4, 8
+
+ Cobham, Lord, 12
+
+ Cock, Susan, 362, 376
+
+ Cocwra, Samuel, 387
+
+ Coke, Sir Edward, 102, 152, 228.
+   Cited, 128 n., 396
+
+ Colchester, 388, 389, 391, 408
+
+ Cole, Henry, Jewel's controversy with, 16 n.
+
+ Cole, Thomas, 34, 346
+
+ Coleman, John, 388
+
+ _Collection of Modern Relations_, 279, 339 n.
+   Cited, 146 n., 181 n., 402, 406, 407, 413
+
+ Collingham, 393
+
+ Coman, widow, case of, 331-332
+
+ Commission of Oyer and Terminer, 178, 192, 200
+
+ Committee of Both Kingdoms, 200
+
+ Commons' _Journal_, cited, 17 n., 103 n.
+
+ Conyers, Robert, 411
+
+ Cooke, Elizabeth, 397
+
+ Cooke, Mother, 392
+
+ Coombes, Margaret, 418
+
+ Cooper, C. H. and T., cited, 356
+
+ Cooper, John, 82 n.
+
+ Cooper, Thomas, 227, 231-232, 242.
+   Cited, 398, 401
+
+ Corbet, 413
+
+ Corbolt. _See_ Godbolt
+
+ Cornwall, 217, 218, 221, 224, 254, 276-277, 279, 320, 388, 405, 409, 415,
+ 416, 417, 418
+
+ Cornwall, Henry, 170 n.
+
+ Cosyn, Edmund, 25
+
+ Cotta, John, 227, 229-231, 235, 237, 243.
+   Cited, 130 n., 230 n., 231 n.
+
+ Cotton, William, cited, 217 n., 221 n., 224 n., 409, 410, 411
+
+ Council of State, 215, 219, 225, 226
+
+ _Council Register_, cited, 152 n., 154 n., 155 n.
+
+ "Countess" (Margaret Russel), 400
+
+ _County Folk Lore, Suffolk_, cited, 165 n., 176 n., 179 n., 194 n., 392,
+ 404
+
+ Court of High Commission, 84, 86-87
+
+ Coventry, 232 n., 400
+
+ Coventry and Lichfield, Bishop of. _See_ Bentham, Thomas
+
+ Coverdale, Miles, 15 n.
+
+ Coverley, Sir Roger de, 341
+
+ Cowper, Earl and Countess of, 328 n.
+
+ Cox, John Charles, cited, 137 n., 219 n., 324 n., 396
+
+ Cox, Julian, trial of, 260-261, 273, 282, 292, 310, 413
+
+ Cox, Richard, 15 n.
+
+ Coxe, Francis, trial of, 31 n., 351, 385
+
+ Cranbourne, Viscount, 115 n., 396
+
+ Cranmer, Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, 12, 58 n.
+
+ Crearey, Elizabeth, 400
+
+ Creeting, 404
+
+ Cricke, 404
+
+ _Criminal Chronology of York Castle_, cited, 224
+
+ Cromwell, Sir Henry, 48, 50
+
+ Cromwell, Lady, 48
+
+ Cromwell, Oliver, 48 n., 207, 212 n., 215, 219, 226, 237 n., 275
+
+ Cromwell, Richard, 220, 226
+
+ Cromwell, Thomas, 19
+
+ Crosse, Diana, 223-224, 410
+
+ Crossley, Elizabeth, 406, 411
+
+ Crossley, James, cited, 124 n., 147 n., 357, 380
+
+ Crouch, Nathaniel, 339 n.
+
+ Crump, Hannah, 257
+
+ Cruther, Joseph, 282
+
+ Cudworth, Ralph, 307
+
+ Cullender, Rose, 262, 310, 413
+
+ Culpepper, Nicholas, 403
+
+ Cumberland, 220, 224, 225, 407
+
+ Cunny, Joan, 347
+
+ Curry, Katharine, 413
+
+ Cushman, L. W., cited, 244 n.
+
+
+ Damages awarded accused, 324
+
+ Danvers, Sir John, 215
+
+ Darcy, Brian, 41, 42, 44 n., 45, 46 n., 348
+
+ Darling, Thomas, 76-78, 80, 85
+
+ Darrel, John, 74-87, 92, 138, 255, 315, 349, 352-356.
+   Cited, 391, 392, 393, 394
+
+ Davenport, John, 187 n., 362
+
+ Daventry, 251
+
+ Davies, J. S., cited, 8 n.
+
+ Davis, Ralph, 375, 382
+
+ Daye, Mary, 418
+
+ Daye, Susannah, 416
+
+ Deacon, John, 353, 354
+
+ Dee, John, 52-53, 79
+
+ Deir, Mrs., 390
+
+ Dekker, Thomas, 244.
+   Cited, 112 n., 359
+
+ Del Rio, 234
+
+ Demdike, Old (Elizabeth Southerns), 121-128
+
+ Denham, 74 n.
+
+ Denham, Sir John, 235
+
+ _Denham Tracts_, cited, 30 n., 219 n., 389, 390, 407
+
+ Denison, John, 78 n., 349
+
+ Denton, 360
+
+ Derby, 392
+
+ Derby, Archdeacon of, 83
+
+ Derby, Earl of, 392
+
+ Derbyshire, 52, 81, 118, 137, 219, 324, 390, 392, 396, 407
+
+ Descartes, 238
+
+ Devell, Mother, 28 n.
+
+ Device, Alizon, 111 n., 384
+
+ Device, Elizabeth, 108 n., 122-126, 383
+
+ Device, James, 126-127, 383
+
+ Device, Jennet, 113, 126-127
+
+ Devizes, 217, 409, 414
+
+ Devonshire, 254, 277, 409, 414-419
+
+ Dewse, Mrs., 390
+
+ _Diary, A, or an Exact Journall_, cited, 174 n.
+
+ Dickonson, Frances, 147, 152-160
+
+ Dilby, Doll, 413
+
+ Distribution of witchcraft, 118-119, 146, 224, 254-255
+
+ _Doctrine of Devils, The_, 296-297, 302 n.
+
+ Dodgson, Nathan, 256
+
+ Dodson, Jane, 416
+
+ Doncaster, 396
+
+ Dorrington, Doctor, 50 n.
+
+ Dorset, 385, 390, 417, 419
+
+ Dorset, Marquis of, 12
+
+ Drage, William, 367.
+   Cited, 256-258 n., 279 n., 402, 408, 417
+
+ Drew, widow, 403
+
+ Ducke, Elizabeth, 386
+
+ Dugdale, Richard, 315-320, 329, 373
+
+ Duncane, Geillis, torture of, 95
+
+ Dungeon, Mother, 386
+
+ Dunne, Christiana, 418
+
+ Duny, Amy, trial of, 262-267, 310, 413
+
+ Durham, 119, 146, 210, 218, 219 n., 388, 389, 395, 401, 407, 409, 414, 415
+
+ Durham, Bishop of, 12;
+   his _Injunctions,_ cited, 388
+
+ _Durham, Depositions ... from the Court of_, cited, 21 n., 29 n., 385
+
+ Durham, vicar-general of the Bishop of, 117
+
+ Dutten, Mother, 28 n.
+
+
+ E., T., "Maister of Art," 388
+
+ Earle, Katherine, 223, 410
+
+ East Anglia, 51, 119, 184, 197, 255
+
+ Eburye, Elizabeth, 414
+
+ Eckington, 390
+
+ Edlingham, 416
+
+ Edmonds, Mr., 235 n.
+
+ Edmonton, 108, 112, 136 n., 383, 391, 400
+
+ Edward I, 6
+
+ Edward IV, 4, 9
+
+ Edward VI, 12, 88
+
+ Edwards, Richard, 169-170
+
+ Edwards, Susanna, 271-272, 368-369, 416
+
+ Elford, Johanna, 415
+
+ Elizabeth, 35-92, 93;
+   number of executions in her reign compared with number under James,
+   105-106;
+   spectral evidence in her reign, 110;
+   distribution of witch cases, 118
+
+ Ellyse, Joan, 386
+
+ Elnore, Margaret, 418
+
+ Ely, 189, 279, 406, 416
+
+ Ely, Bishop of, 12, 15 n., 234
+
+ Emerson, a priest, 387
+
+ Emerson, Ann, 388
+
+ Emott, Isabel, 410
+
+ Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 228 n.
+
+ Endor, witch of, Scot's explanation of, 62;
+   Filmer's explanation of, 241;
+   Muggleton's explanation of, 295;
+   Webster's explanation of, 298
+
+ Enfield, 384, 393, 399
+
+ Enger, Master, 110-111, 117, 118 and n., 135-136
+
+ Essex, 26, 41, 70 n., 90 n., 119, 146, 158, 166-174, 192, 195, 228 n.,
+ 331-332, 337, 385, 387, 388, 389, 390, 391, 394, 403, 408
+
+ Essex, Countess of, 144 n., 232-234
+
+ Essex, Earl of, 234
+
+ Ettrick, Anthony, 365
+
+ Evans, Katharine, 411
+
+ Evesham, 409
+
+ Exeter, 31 n., 216, 221, 223, 270-272, 278, 320-321, 409, 410, 411
+
+ Exeter, Bishop of, 418
+
+ Exeter College, Oxford, 285
+
+ Eye, witch of, 4
+
+
+ F., H., 172, 361
+
+ Fairclough, Samuel, 166 n., 177, 178
+
+ Fairfax, Edward, 111, 144-145, 249-250, 358, 359.
+   Cited, 102 n., 142 n., 250 n., 395, 400
+
+ Fairfax, Sir Thomas, 360
+
+ _Faithful Scout, The_, cited, 213 n., 216, 365, 408
+
+ Falmouth, 415
+
+ Farbrother, J. E., cited, 411
+
+ _Farington Papers_, cited, 155 n.
+
+ Farnworth, Richard, 240 n.
+
+ Farrier, Elizabeth, 118
+
+ Faversham, 54, 201, 390, 405
+
+ Female juries, 108, 113, 171, 264, 271, 279, 330
+
+ Fenner, Edward, in Warboys trials, 49-50
+
+ Fenwick, Elizabeth, 279, 416
+
+ Ferris, Sibilla, 393
+
+ Fian, Dr., 94-96
+
+ Filmer, Sir Robert, 238, 241.
+   Cited, 241 n.
+
+ Finchingfield, 228 n.
+
+ Finchley, 399
+
+ Fisher, Katharine, 406
+
+ Fisherton-Anger, 211, 410
+
+ Fishwick, cited, 372
+
+ Fize, Henry, 388
+
+ _Flagellum Daemonum_, 79 n.
+
+ Fleta, 5
+
+ Flower, Joan and her daughters (Margaret and Philippa), case of, 115,
+ 119 n., 132-134, 383, 399
+
+ Fludd, Robert, 286
+
+ Foljambe, Mrs. _See_ Bowes, Lady
+
+ _Folk Lore Journal, The_, cited, 24 n., 401
+
+ Folkestone, 386
+
+ Ford, John, 359
+
+ Fortescue, Sir Anthony, case of, 25
+
+ Fortescue, Sir John, 34, 346
+
+ "Foscue, Master." _See_ Fortescue, Sir John
+
+ Fossett, Temperance, 409
+
+ Foster, Ann, trial of, 282, 415
+
+ Fowles, Susanna, case of, 323 n.
+
+ Foxcroft, H. C., cited, 341 n.
+
+ France, Hester, 408
+
+ Francis, Elizabeth, her two trials, 35-40, 385
+
+ Francis, Mother, 400, 401
+
+ Frankfort, 15 n.
+
+ Frankland, Richard, 316, 319
+
+ Fraunces, Margaret, 394
+
+ Free, Goody, 412
+
+ Freeman, Alice, 84, 393
+
+ Freeman, Mary, 83
+
+ _French Intelligencer_, cited, 213 n., 215 n., 408
+
+ Fulham, 411
+
+ Fuller, John, cited, 207 n., 407
+
+ Fuller, Thomas, cited, 90 n., 139 n., 140 n., 143, 144
+
+ _Fustis Daemonum_, cited, 79 n.
+
+
+ Gabley, Mother, 389
+
+ Gaddesden, Little, 256
+
+ Gairdner, James, cited, 9 n.
+
+ Gallis, Richard, 347
+
+ Gardiner, Mr. and Mrs., 324
+
+ Gardiner, the Rev. Mr., 375
+
+ Gardiner, Catherine, 132 n.
+
+ Gardiner, Ralph, cited, 208, 209 n., 407
+
+ Gargrave, 410
+
+ Garve, Mother, 387
+
+ Gaskin, Emmy, 414
+
+ Gateshead, 210, 219 n., 407
+
+ Gaule, John, 165, 174-175, 186-187, 192, 196, 236-237, 241, 242
+
+ Gee, John, cited, 139 n.
+
+ Geneva, 14, 15, 87 n., 233
+
+ _Gentleman's Magazine_, cited, 95 n., 143 n., 160 n., 269 n., 279 n., 359,
+ 367, 389, 396, 401, 412, 413, 415, 417
+
+ Gerard, Sir Gilbert, 34, 346
+
+ Gerish, W. B., cited, 375
+
+ Gibbons, A., cited, 189 n., 406
+
+ Gibson, "Coz.," 222
+
+ Gifford, George, 54, 57 n., 70-72, 242, 243.
+   Cited, 390, 394, 395
+
+ Gill, Helena, 390
+
+ Gilston, 328 n.
+
+ Gilston, Matthew, 335
+
+ Gisborough, 411
+
+ Glance of a witch, instances of, 111, 112, 135
+
+ Glanvill, Joseph, 101, 196 n., 238, 273-276, 285-293, 297, 299, 300, 303,
+ 306, 307, 309, 310, 314, 327, 336, 337.
+   Cited, 221 n., 222 n., 251 n., 260 n., 308 n., 405, 408, 411, 413
+
+ Globe theatre, The, 159
+
+ Gloucester, 208, 407
+
+ Gloucester, Duchess of, 4, 8
+
+ Gloucester, Richard of, 9
+
+ Glover, Mary, 138, 355, 395
+
+ Glover, Stephen, cited, 396
+
+ Godbolt, John, 178, 192
+
+ Godfrey, Agnes, 393, 397
+
+ Goldsmith, Mr., 332
+
+ "Good Witches," 21-27, 29, 220, 229, 259-260
+
+ Goodcole, Henry, 112, 359
+
+ Gooderidge, Alse, 76-78, 349, 392
+
+ Gooding, Elizabeth, 169-170
+
+ Gough, Richard, 375
+
+ Goulding, R. W., cited, 396, 401
+
+ Gordon, Rev. Alexander, cited, 317 n., 319 n.
+
+ Grainge, William, 360
+
+ Grame, Margaret, 391
+
+ "Grantam's curse," 88
+
+ Grantly, Anne, 419
+
+ Great Staughton, 186-187
+
+ "Great T.," "Mother W. of," 395
+
+ Great Yarmouth, 181, 386.
+   _See also_ Yarmouth
+
+ Greedie, Joan, 401
+
+ Green, Ellen, 399
+
+ Greene, Anne, 410
+
+ Greene, Ellen, 133 n.
+
+ Greenleife, Mary (of Alresford), 170-171
+
+ "Greenliefe of Barton," 404
+
+ Greenslet, Ferris, cited, 286 n.
+
+ Greenwel, Thomas, 371
+
+ Greenwich, 154
+
+ Grevell, Margaret, 44
+
+ Griffiths, Sarah, 419
+
+ Grimes, Mr., 332
+
+ Grimston, Sir Harbottle, 167 n.
+
+ Grindall, Edmund, Bp. of London, then Abp. of Canterbury, 15 n.
+
+ Guildford, 322
+
+ Guilford, Baron. _See_ Francis North
+
+ Gunpowder Plot, 123, 232
+
+ Gurney, Elizabeth, 406
+
+ Guy, Mary, 418
+
+ Gyngell, Margaret, 225, 410
+
+
+ Habakkuk, transportation of, 97
+
+ Hackett, Margaret, 390
+
+ Hackney, 415
+
+ Haigh, 414
+
+ Hale, Sir Matthew, 67, 261-268, 283, 304, 321, 334, 336, 337, 339 n., 367
+
+ Hale, William H., cited, 10 n., 21 n., 22 n., 29 n., 385
+
+ Halifax, Marquis of, opinion of, 341
+
+ Hall, John, 352
+
+ Hall, Joseph, Bishop, 180
+
+ Hall, Mary, 256, 257
+
+ Halliwell-Phillips, J. O., 142 n., 306 n.
+
+ Hallybread, Rose, 362, 376
+
+ Hallywell, Henry, 303 and n., 304, 307
+
+ Hamilton, A. H. A., cited, 417
+
+ Hammer, 404
+
+ Hammersmith, case at, 323 n.
+
+ Hammond, of Westminster, 402
+
+ Hampstead, 396, 398
+
+ Hampton Court, 13
+
+ Handford, Abigail, 418
+
+ Hanover, Susanna, 419
+
+ Hansen, J., cited, 3 n.
+
+ Harington, Sir John, 140 n.
+
+ Harland and Wilkinson, cited, 419
+
+ Harmondsworth, 386
+
+ Harris, Alice, 132 n.
+
+ Harris, Eleonora, 417
+
+ Harris, Elizabeth, 201 n.
+
+ Harris, Marie, 417
+
+ Harris, Susannah, 419
+
+ Harrison, Mr., 44
+
+ Harrison, Henry, 388
+
+ Harrison, Johanna, of Royston, 108-109, 111, 135, 383, 396
+
+ Harrison, Margaret, 356
+
+ Harrison, William, 367
+
+ Harrod, H., cited, 182 n., 386, 389, 390, 405
+
+ Harrogate, 360
+
+ Harrow, Weald, 390
+
+ Harsnett, Samuel, later Abp. of York, 12, 51, 85-92, 138, 227, 233, 349,
+ 353-356.
+   Cited, 390-393
+
+ Hart, 389
+
+ Hart, Anne, 418
+
+ Hart, Prudence, 170
+
+ Hart Hall, Oxford, 57
+
+ Hartis, 418
+
+ Hartley, Edmund, 52, 79-80, 392
+
+ Harvey, Gabriel, 69 n.
+
+ Harvey, Joane, 400
+
+ Harvey, Thomas, 411
+
+ Harvey, William, 154, 160-162
+
+ Harwood, Goodwife, 256
+
+ Hatfield Peverel, 41
+
+ Hathaway, Richard, 322-324, 371
+
+ Hathericke, Sara, 401
+
+ Hatsell, Sir Henry, 323
+
+ Haverhill, 404
+
+ Hazlitt, W. C., cited, 350-352, 368
+
+ Heddenham, 406
+
+ Heddon, Margaret, 415
+
+ Hele, N. F., cited, 183 n., 191 n., 200 n., 405
+
+ Hemloke, Sir Henry, 324
+
+ Hempstead, 404
+
+ Hengler, Elizabeth, 417
+
+ Henry IV, 4, 7
+
+ Henry VI, 4, 7
+
+ Henry VIII, 20, 30, 58 n.
+   _See also_ Statutes.
+
+ Heptenstall, 406
+
+ Herbert, Sir Edward, 311 n.
+
+ Herd, Annis, 44, 388
+
+ Hereford, Bishop of, 12, 15 n.
+
+ Hertford, trials at 134-135, 314, 324-330, 383, 394, 396, 419
+
+ Hertfordshire, 118, 367, 374, 391, 392, 408, 412, 414, 417
+
+ _Hertfordshire County Sessions, Rolls_, cited, 21 n., 221 n., 391, 412,
+ 414
+
+ Hewitt, Katherine, 383
+
+ Heylyn, Peter, cited, 143 n.
+
+ Heyrick, Robert, 141, 398
+
+ Heywood, Oliver, 256, 307, 316, 319.
+   Cited, 416
+
+ Heywood, Thomas, 306 n.;
+   play of, 158-159;
+   opinions expressed in play of, 244-245.
+   Cited, 244 n.
+
+ Hicke, Mr., 379
+
+ Hinchcliffe, Joseph, 416
+
+ _Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports_, cited, 114 n., and _passim_ thereafter
+
+ Hitcham, 404
+
+ Hitchin, 367
+
+ Hoarstones, 148, 156
+
+ Hobart, Sir Henry, 134
+
+ Hobbes, Thomas, 241, 246-249, 291, 307
+
+ Holborn, 393, 398
+
+ Hole, Elizabeth, case of, 324
+
+ Holinshed, cited, 54-55, 59 n., 350, 387, 388, 390
+
+ Holland, Henry, 72 n.
+
+ Hollingsworth, A. G., cited, 183 n., 404
+
+ Holt, Sir John, 267;
+   nullified statute of James I;
+   gave repeated acquittals, 320-323;
+   his ruling on the water ordeal, 332
+
+ Homes, Nathaniel, opinions of, 240.
+   Cited, 240 n.
+
+ Hooke, William, 45 n.
+
+ Hopkins, James, 164
+
+ Hopkins, Matthew, 164-205, 339, 376, 378
+
+ Hopwood, Mr., 79 n.
+
+ Horace, 89
+
+ Horner, Elizabeth, 321-322, 418
+
+ Hott, Jane, 201 n., 405
+
+ Houghton, Lord, 359
+
+ Housegoe, Elizabeth, 393
+
+ Howard, Henry, later Earl of Northampton, 352
+
+ Howell, James, 180, 195, 245
+
+ Howell, T. B. and T. J., cited, 116 n., 144 n., 233 n.
+
+ Howsell, Anne, 405
+
+ Howson, Helen, 406
+
+ Hubbard, Elizabeth, 404
+
+ Huddersfield, 408
+
+ Hudson, Ann, 407
+
+ Hughes, Lewis, 355, 395
+
+ Hulton, John, 209
+
+ Humphrey, of Gloucester, Duke, 8
+
+ Hunnam, Anne, 409
+
+ Hunniman, Joice, 162 n., 402
+
+ Hunt, widow, 45 n.
+
+ Hunt, Joan, 383, 398
+
+ Hunt, Robert, 260, 273, 411, 413
+
+ Hunter, Joseph, cited, 92 n., 256 n., 413
+
+ Huntingdon, 49-51, 185 n., 200 n., 237 n., 314 n., 348, 362, 375, 383, 419
+
+ Huntingdonshire, 47-51, 185-187, 192, 236, 348, 375-383, 405
+
+ Huson, Alice, 413
+
+ Hutchinson, Francis, 175, 195-198, 313, 321, 331, 340-343, 355, 375, 380,
+ 381.
+   Cited, 11 n., 179 n., 321-323 n., 328 n., 395, 411, 413, 416, 418
+
+ Huxley, Catherine, 216, 409
+
+
+ Ilkeston, 407
+
+ Images, alleged use of in witchcraft, 6, 59-60, 109-110, 125-127
+
+ Incendiarism ascribed to witchcraft, 282-283, 333
+
+ Inderwick, F. A., cited, 201 n., 225 n., 226 n., 268 n., 269 n., 270 n.,
+ 311 n., 333, 376, 410, 414-419
+
+ Ipswich, 164, 175, 182, 320, 394, 405, 414, 417, 418
+
+
+ Jackson, Elizabeth, 138, 355, 395
+
+ James I, 69, 90 n., 93-119, 130, 132, 134, 137-145, 146, 165, 189, 203,
+ 227, 228, 229 n., 232, 234, 241-242, 247, 250, 254, 255, 260, 267, 276,
+ 312, 314, 331.
+   His Scottish experience, 93-96;
+   his _Daemonologie_, 97-101;
+   his statute and its effect, 101-109;
+   distribution of witchcraft in his realm, 118-119;
+   his changing attitude, 138-145
+
+ James II, 308
+
+ James, G. P. R., cited, 340 n., 342 n.
+
+ Jeffreys, George, Baron, 311 n.
+
+ Jeffries, Anne, 405
+
+ Jenkinson, Helen, 383
+
+ Jennings, Lady, 400
+
+ Jeopardy, neglect of legal restriction on, 128 and n., 145 n.
+
+ Jewel, John, Bishop of Salisbury, 15-17
+
+ Joan of Arc, 230
+
+ Johnson, Margaret, 154, 156, 157, 159
+
+ Johnson, W. S., cited, 244 n.
+
+ Johnstone, James, 341
+
+ Jollie, Thomas, 316-319, 329, 372-373
+
+ Jones, J. O., cited, 164 n., 181 n., 182 n., 188 n.
+
+ Jonson, Ben, 91-92, 244, 387
+
+ Jordan, Jane, 393
+
+ Jorden, Dr. Edward, 138, 355, 395
+
+ Jourdemain, Margery, 7-9
+
+ Jurdie, Jone, 396
+
+
+ Keiston, 185
+
+ Kelly, William, cited, 141 n., 398
+
+ Kelyng, Sir John, 265, 267, 305
+
+ Kemp, Ursley, trial of, 41, 43
+
+ Kennet, Elizabeth, 412
+
+ Kent, 21 n., 54, 57, 60, 119, 201, 255, 350, 383, 385, 386, 388, 389, 390,
+ 392, 393, 394, 401, 403, 405, 408, 412, 416, 418
+
+ Kent, Holy Maid of. _See_ Barton, Elizabeth
+
+ Kerke, Anne, 394
+
+ Kerke, Joan, 51
+
+ Kidderminster, 412
+
+ Kimbolton, 186
+
+ King, of Acton, 404
+
+ King, Peter, 380
+
+ King's Lynn, 54, 116-117, 183, 231, 358, 384, 389, 391, 393, 399, 405
+
+ Kingston, 419
+
+ Kingston-upon-Hull, 389
+
+ Kittredge, G. L., cited, 298, 301, 383
+
+ Knipp, Agnes and John, 415
+
+ Knott, Elizabeth, 208 n., 407
+
+ Knowles, Sir William, 154
+
+ Knumerton, Dewnes, 417
+
+
+ Lake, Sir Thomas, 115 n., 396
+
+ Lakeland, Mother, 182, 200 n., 381, 405
+
+ Laleham, 387
+
+ Lambe, Dr., 211
+
+ Lambe, Elizabeth, 410
+
+ Lambeth, 354
+
+ Lanam, Elizabeth, 408
+
+ Lancashire, 52, 78-81, 92, 108-113, 115-116, 118, 120-130, 146-160,
+ 307, 314-319, 393, 399, 402, 406, 414, 416, 419;
+   Starchie affair, 78-81, 92;
+   trials of 1612, 120-130;
+   trials of 1634, 146-156;
+   Dugdale affair of 1689, 315-319
+
+ Lancaster, 120, 151, 156, 158, 171, 224, 229 n., 273, 383, 392, 397, 401, 402
+
+ Lancaster, chancellor of the Duchy of, 152 n.
+
+ Landgate, 414
+
+ Landis, Margaret, 362, 376
+
+ Land's End, 217-218, 409
+
+ Langton, Walter, 6
+
+ Lathom, 402
+
+ Latimer, John, cited, 400
+
+ Latton, 414
+
+ Launceston, 218 n., 409, 418
+
+ Lavenham, 404
+
+ Law, John, 111 n.
+
+ Law, T. G., cited, 74 n., 87 n., 353
+
+ Lawe, Alison, 389
+
+ Lea, H. C., his definition of a witch, 4.
+   Cited, 3 n., 99 n.
+
+ Leach, Jeffrey, 389
+
+ Lecky, W. E. H., 196
+
+ Lee, Dorothy, 405
+
+ Leech, Anne, 170, 174, 379
+
+ Leeds, 219, 410
+
+ Leepish, 401
+
+ Legge, cited, 138 n., 225 n.
+
+ Leicester, 54, 119 n., 120, 140-141, 218, 330-331, 384, 392, 398, 399,
+ 402, 408, 419
+
+ _Leicester, Records of the Borough of_, cited, 54 n.
+
+ Leicestershire, 51, 118, 133 n., 146, 359, 397
+
+ _Leicestershire and Rutland, Notes and Queries_, cited, 218 n., 399, 402,
+ 408, 419
+
+ Levingston, Anne, 214
+
+ Lewes, 387
+
+ Lichfield, Bishop of (Walter Langton), 6;
+   (Thomas Morton), 141-142, 152
+
+ Liebermann, F., cited, 2 n.
+
+ Lincoln, 118, 119 n., 120;
+   trials of 1618-1619, 132, 383, 399
+
+ Lincoln, Bishop of, 7, 8, 12, 49, 50
+
+ Lincolnshire, 396, 401
+
+ Lingwood, Joan, 389
+
+ Linneston, 401
+
+ Linton, Mrs. Lynn, cited, 29 n., 95 n., 386
+
+ Lister, Mr., 111 note, 112, 129
+
+ Little Gaddesden, 256
+
+ Liverpool, 414
+
+ Lloyd, Temperance, 271-272, 368-369, 416
+
+ Lloyd, William, Bishop of Worcester, 340
+
+ Lloynd's wife, 150
+
+ Lock, John, 408
+
+ Locke, John, 340
+
+ Lodge, Edmund, cited, 139 n.
+
+ Lodge, Sir Oliver, 238
+
+ Londesdale, Elizabeth, 401
+
+ London, 9, 25, 26, 30 n., 51, 59, 154, 159, 160, 173, 177, 210 n., 216,
+ 277-278, 309, 320, 322, 323, 329, 384, 385, 394, 395, 399, 409, 416
+
+ London, Bishop of, 8, 9 n., 12, 30 n., 84, 384, 387.
+   _See also_ Grindall, E.; Bancroft, R.
+
+ _London Post_, cited, 419
+
+ Long, Sir James, 268
+
+ Longwitton, 279, 416
+
+ Lords' _Journal_, cited, 102 n., 103 n.
+
+ Lord's Prayer, testing of witches by, 40, 80, 271, 282, 326
+
+ Lothbury, 30 n., 88 n.
+
+ Loudon, Elizabeth, 410
+
+ Louth, 396, 401
+
+ Low, Goody, 404
+
+ Lower, M. A., cited, 386
+
+ Lowes, John, case of, 165 n., 175-179, 197, 378, 379
+
+ Lowestoft, 262, 263
+
+ Lowndes, cited, 347, 350, 359, 364, 386, 390, 392
+
+ Loy, Margaret, 414
+
+ Lucas, Hugh, 112
+
+ Lucas, Jane, 110 n., 112
+
+ Luther, Martin, attitude of, towards exorcism, 87 n.
+
+ Lyme, 385
+
+ Lynn. _See_ King's Lynn
+
+
+ Mackenzie, E., cited, 259 n., 401, 416
+
+ Mackerell, Benjamin, cited, 391, 393, 399, 405
+
+ Mackie, S. J., cited, 386
+
+ _Magazine of Scandall_, cited, 176 n., 197 n.
+
+ Magick, Dorothy, 398
+
+ Maidstone, cases at, 215-216, 238, 241, 283, 408, 412
+
+ Maitland, S. R., cited, 353
+
+ Malborne, Sir John, book of, 63
+
+ Maldon, 41, 54, 70 n.
+
+ Malking Tower, meeting of witches at, 113, 123-129, 147, 148, 383
+
+ Mallory, Lady Elizabeth, 223, 411
+
+ Malmesbury, alarm at, 269-270, 409, 417
+
+ Malter, wife of, 385
+
+ Manchester, 79
+
+ Manners, Francis, Earl of Rutland, 132-134, 359
+
+ Manners, Lord Francis, 133, 134 n.
+
+ Manners, Lord Henry, 134 n.
+
+ Manners, Lady Katherine, 134 n.
+
+ Manningtree, 164, 165, 173, 193, 194
+
+ Mansfield, 75
+
+ Manship, cited, 182 n.
+
+ Manwood, Sir Roger, 56
+
+ Marchant, Anne, 409
+
+ Margaret, Mother, 28 n.
+
+ Marks, use of as a test of witchcraft, 36, 40, 45, 77, 99, 108, 151,
+ 154-155, 156-157, 167, 190, 218, 229, 230, 242, 243, 264, 284, 330
+
+ Martin, Dr., 323
+
+ Mary I, 14, 15 n., 52
+
+ Mary, Queen of Scots, 18, 25, 26, 53
+
+ Mascon, Demon of, 306, 337 n.
+
+ Mason, of Faversham, 54
+
+ Mason, James, and his opinions, 229 n.
+
+ Massachusetts, trials in, 50, 264, 316, 382
+
+ Mathers, the (Cotton and Increase), 316, 336
+
+ Matthews, Grace, 216-217
+
+ Mayhall, John, cited, 395
+
+ Meakins, Bridget, 399
+
+ Meere, John, 390
+
+ Melford, 404
+
+ Melton, Elizabeth, 393
+
+ _Mercurius Aulicus_, cited, 403
+
+ _Mercurius Civicus_, cited, 360, 403
+
+ _Mercurius Democritus_, cited, 213 n., 251 n., 408
+
+ _Mercurius Politicus_, cited, 218 n., 409
+
+ Mereweather, Jone, 413
+
+ Merlin, 230
+
+ Merril, Goodman, 171 n.
+
+ Merriman, R. B., cited, 74 n.
+
+ Mersam, Rose, 396
+
+ Mewkarr Church, 396
+
+ Middlesex, 51, 74, 118, 146, 174, 201, 208 n., 220, 224, 225, 278,
+ 383-387, 389-394, 396-400, 402, 403, 405-412, 415, 419
+
+ _Middlesex County Records_, cited, 21 n., 220 n., 386, and _passim_
+ thereafter
+
+ Middleton, Thomas, 244
+
+ Midgley, Mary, 406
+
+ Midwife as a witch, 21 and n., 41, 258-259
+
+ Milburne, Jane, 279
+
+ Milburne, Margaret, 415
+
+ Miller, Agnes, 399
+
+ Mills, Elizabeth, 415
+
+ Mills, Joan, 414
+
+ Milner, Ralph, 117, 396
+
+ Milnes, R. Monckton, 102 n., 359
+
+ Mils, Goody, 404
+
+ Milton, John, 241, 278
+
+ Milton, Miles, 398
+
+ Mistley-cum-Manningtree, 164 n.
+
+ Mob law, 117, 315
+
+ _Moderate Intelligencer_, its opinion of the Bury executions in 1645,
+ 179-180.
+   Cited, 177 n., 180 n., 404
+
+ Molland, Alicia, 417
+
+ Mompesson affair, 273, 276, 310
+
+ Mondaye, Agnes, 385
+
+ Montague, James, Bp. of Winchester, 97 n.
+
+ Montgomery, 387
+
+ Moone, Margaret, 170 n.
+
+ Moordike, Sarah, case of, 322-324, 419
+
+ Moore, wife of, 189 n., 406
+
+ Moore, Ales, 395
+
+ Moore, Ann, 418
+
+ Moore, Mary, 363
+
+ _Moore Rental, The_, cited, 414
+
+ Morduck, Sarah. _See_ Moordike
+
+ More, George, 81, 84-85, 353, 354.
+   Cited, 78 n., 79 n., 80 n., 392
+
+ More, Henry, 238-240, 243, 262, 286, 297, 303, 307, 309, 310.
+   Cited, 211 n., 239, 394, 396, 405, 410
+
+ More, Sir Thomas, 59 n.
+
+ Mortimer, Jane, 52 n., 392
+
+ Morton, Margaret, 408
+
+ Morton, Thomas, Bishop of Lichfield, 141 n., 142, 152
+
+ Much, Barfield, 387
+
+ Muggleton, Lodowick, and witchcraft, 295, 298, 307, 309.
+   Cited, 295 n.
+
+ Munnings, Mother, trial of, 321, 418
+
+ Muschamp, Mrs., 210, 218, 253, 363
+
+ Muschamp, George, 209, 210
+
+
+ N., N., 318 n., 372
+
+ Nall, J. G., cited, 181 n.
+
+ Napier, Dr., 400
+
+ Napier, Barbara, 96
+
+ Nash, J. R., cited, 412
+
+ Nash, Thomas, cited, 69 n.
+
+ Navestock, 385
+
+ Naylor, Joane, 394
+
+ Needham, 404
+
+ Nelson, Richard, 394
+
+ Nevelson, Anne, 395
+
+ New England. _See_ Massachusetts
+
+ New Romney, 59
+
+ Newbury, 403
+
+ Newcastle, 201, 207-208, 259, 279, 281, 407, 412, 413, 414
+
+ Newell, Sir Henry, 27, 28
+
+ Newgate, 183 n., 400
+
+ _Newgate, A True and Perfect List of the Prisoners in_, cited, 409
+
+ Newman, Ales, 45 n.
+
+ Newman, Elizabeth, 410
+
+ Newman, William, 45 n.
+
+ Newmarket, 134, 161
+
+ Newton, Isaac, 308
+
+ Nicholas (or Nickless), Jane, 417
+
+ Nichols, John, cited, 134 n., 141 n., 399
+
+ Nicholson, Brinsley, 58, 62, 70 n.
+
+ Nicolas, Sir Harris, cited, 8 n.
+
+ Noake, J., 412
+
+ Noal, Jane, 417
+
+ Norfolk, 193, 200 n., 231, 253, 337, 356, 386, 389-391, 394, 395, 397,
+ 399-401, 403-406, 410, 412, 414
+
+ _Norfolk Archaeology_, cited, 182, 386, 390, 405
+
+ Norrington, Alice, 59, 386
+
+ Norrington, Mildred, 59, 62
+
+ North, Francis, Baron Guilford, 269 n., 271, 272, 278, 305, 311
+
+ North, Roger, 267.
+   Cited, 261 n., 269 n., 271 n., 278 n., 403, 416, 417
+
+ North Allerton, 400
+
+ North Riding (of Yorkshire), 117
+
+ North Riding Record Society, 114 n., 117 n., 162 n.
+
+ Northampton, 106-112, 115, 118, 119 n., 120, 130-132, 184, 229, 230, 255,
+ 314 n., 357, 375-383, 415, 419
+
+ Northampton, Henry Howard, Earl of, 352
+
+ Northamptonshire, 184, 200 n., 282, 331, 405, 411
+
+ _Northamptonshire Handbook_, 381-382
+
+ _Northamptonshire Historical Collections_, 381
+
+ Northfield, Thomas, 7
+
+ Northfleet, 394
+
+ Northumberland, 52, 146, 208 n., 209, 210, 220, 224, 282, 390, 395, 401,
+ 407, 412, 414, 415, 416
+
+ Norton, mother and daughter, 330, 333, 419
+
+ Norwich, 7 n., 400, 401, 406, 412
+
+ Norwich, Bishop of, 7 n., 8, 15 n., 89
+
+ _Notes and Queries_, cited, 164 n., 321 n., 380, 418, 419
+
+ Nottingham, 75, 81-86, 118, 315, 389, 393, 394
+
+ _Nottingham, Records of the Borough of_, cited, 394
+
+ Nottinghamshire, 51, 234
+
+ Nowell, Roger, 123
+
+ Nutter, Alice, trial of, 113, 116, 126-127, 383
+
+ Nutter, Christopher, 127
+
+ Nutter, Robert, 128
+
+
+ Oakham, 411
+
+ Ogle, Henry, 208, 209, 259 n.
+
+ Old Bailey, 108 n., 213
+
+ Oliver, Mary, 412
+
+ Onslow, Speaker, 268
+
+ Orchard, widow, 412
+
+ Orchard, N., 296 n.
+
+ Oriel College, Oxford, 294
+
+ Orme, W., cited, 337 n.
+
+ Osborne, Francis, 143-144, 245-246, 291.
+   Cited, 141 n., 143, 246 n.
+
+ Owen, John, cited, 287 n.
+
+ Owen, and Blakeway, cited, 21 n., 387
+
+ Oxford, Samuel Parker, Bishop of, 308, 309
+
+ Oxford, 15, 63, 146 n., 216, 285, 402
+
+ Oxford University, 131, 216, 285;
+   Hart Hall, 57;
+   Oriel College, 294;
+   Trinity College, 131-132
+
+
+ Pacy, Mr., 265
+
+ Padiham, 150 n., 399
+
+ Padston, 388
+
+ Palmer, C. J., cited, 182 n., 389, 390
+
+ Palmer, John, 208 n.
+
+ Pannel, Mary, 383, 395
+
+ Paracelsus, 286
+
+ Paris, University of, formulated theory concerning pacts with Satan, 3
+
+ Parker, Matthew, Archbishop of Canterbury, 30, 88 n.
+
+ Parker, Samuel, Bishop of Oxford, 308, 309
+
+ Parker, Thomas, Earl of Macclesfield, 314, 320, 330-331, 332 n., 380
+
+ Parkhurst, John, Bishop of Norwich, 15 n.
+
+ Parle, M., 417
+
+ _Parliamentary History_, cited, 12 n., 102 n.
+
+ Peacock, a schoolmaster, tortured, 115 n., 399
+
+ Peacock, Edward, 401
+
+ Peacock, Elizabeth, 269, 270, 414, 415, 417
+
+ Pearson, Margaret, 397
+
+ Pechey, Joan, 45 n.
+
+ Peck, Francis, cited, 172 n., 403
+
+ Peckham, Sir George, 74 n.
+
+ Pelham, 151 n.
+
+ Pellican, cited, 15 n.
+
+ Pemberton, Sir Francis, 277
+
+ Pembroke, Simon, 387
+
+ Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, 89
+
+ Pendle Hill, or Forest, 121, 147, 315, 397
+
+ Pepper, Mrs., 259, 413
+
+ Pepys, Samuel, 309
+
+ Pereson, Jennet, 385
+
+ _Perfect Diurnal, A_, cited, 403
+
+ Perkins, William, 227-230, 240, 241, 242, 243
+
+ Perry, William, the "boy of Bilston," 140-142
+
+ Peter Martyr, 16 n.
+
+ Peter, R. and O. B., cited, 218 n., 409
+
+ Peterson, Joan, case of, 213-215, 408
+
+ Petty treason, its penalty not to be confused with that of witchcraft, 182
+
+ Phillips, Goody, 183
+
+ Phillips, John, 346, 351
+
+ Phillips, Mary, 382
+
+ Phippan, Honora, 417
+
+ Pickering, Gilbert, 47, 131 n.
+
+ Pickering, Sir Gilbert, 131 n.
+
+ Pickering, Henry, 48
+
+ Pickering, Thomas, 228 n.
+
+ Pickerings, the, 348
+
+ Pico della Mirandola, 286
+
+ Piers, Anne, 388
+
+ Pike, L. O., cited, 7
+
+ Pillory, punishment of, 30, 55, 104, 114
+
+ Pilton, Margaret, 398
+
+ Pinder, Rachel, 30 n., 59, 88, 351, 386
+
+ Pitcairn, Robert, cited, 95 n.
+
+ Plato, 238
+
+ _Pleasant Treatise of Witches, A_, 296
+
+ Plummer, Colonel, 328 n.
+
+ Poeton, Edward, cited, 400
+
+ Pole, Arthur, 25
+
+ Pole, Edmund, 25
+
+ Pollock and Maitland, cited, 6 and n., 7 n.
+
+ Popham, Sir John, 354
+
+ Potts, Thomas, 112, 113, 116, 125, 129, 130, 249, 357-358, 361.
+   Cited, 105-128 n., _passim_, 397, 398
+
+ Powell, Sir John, 272 n., 314, 320, 324, 327-328, 329, 330, 335, 374
+
+ Powell, Lady, 214-215
+
+ Powell, William, 346
+
+ Powle, ----, 409
+
+ Powstead, 404
+
+ Pregnancy, plea of, in delay of execution, 50, 96
+
+ Prentice, Joan, 348
+
+ Presbyterian party, its part in Hopkins crusade, 195-201
+
+ Prestall, John, 25, 387, 397
+
+ Preston, Jennet, 111 n., 112, 129, 249, 383, 398
+
+ Price, Joan, 409
+
+ Privy Council, its dealings with sorcerers, in the later Middle Ages,
+ 4-10;
+   its campaign against conjurers under Elizabeth, 26-27;
+   the Abingdon trials, 27-28, 30 n.;
+   the Chelmsford trials, 34;
+   Dee's case, 53-54;
+   Darrel's, 87;
+   its part in the statute of James I, 103;
+   in the Lancashire trials of 1633, 152, 155, 156;
+   in the Somerset cases of 1664, 273.
+   _See also Acts of the Privy Council_ and _Council Register_.
+
+ _Protestant Post Boy, The_, 374
+
+ Prowting, Mary, 402
+
+
+ Queen's College, Cambridge, 143, 348
+
+
+ R., G., 374
+
+ R., H., 390
+
+ Rainsford, Sir Richard, 260, 268-269, 269-270, 304
+
+ Rames, Nicholas, wife of, 279
+
+ Ramsay, Sir J. R., cited, 9 n.
+
+ Ramsbury, 389
+
+ Rand, Margaret, 391
+
+ Randall, 397
+
+ Randall, of Lavenham, 404
+
+ Randoll, 388
+
+ Ratcliffe, 404
+
+ Ratcliffe, Agnes, 136 n.
+
+ Rattlesden, 404
+
+ Rawlins, Anna, 416
+
+ Raymond, Sir Thomas, 260, 270-271, 271-272, 278, 283, 304, 321
+
+ Read, Joan, 217
+
+ Read, Margaret, 391
+
+ Read, Simon, 397
+
+ Redfearne, Anne, 126 n., 127-128, 383
+
+ Redman, 258
+
+ Repington, Philip, Bp. of Lincoln, 7
+
+ Reresby, Sir John, 272 n., 305, 311.
+   Cited, 417
+
+ Rhymes, Witch, 24, 76
+
+ Rich, Robert, Earl of Warwick, 172, 178, 200
+
+ Richard III, 9
+
+ Richardson, M. A., cited, 117 n., 219 n., 395, 409, 412
+
+ Richmond, of Bramford, 404
+
+ Richmond (Yorkshire), 396
+
+ Richmond and Lenox, Duke of, 287
+
+ Risden, 188 n., 406
+
+ Rivet, John, 166
+
+ Roach, Clara, 418
+
+ Roberts, Alexander, 227, 231, 235.
+   Cited, 117 n., 231 n., 399.
+
+ Roberts, Elizabeth, 394, 410
+
+ Roberts, George, cited, 279 n., 385, 417
+
+ Roberts, Joan, 407
+
+ Robey, Isabel, 384
+
+ Robinson, Edmund, 146-157, 298, 323
+
+ Robson, Jane, 401
+
+ Rochester, 63, 388
+
+ Rodes, Sara, 218
+
+ Rogers, Lydia, 366, 411
+
+ Roper, Margaret, 75, 390
+
+ Rose, Goodwife, 402
+
+ Rossington, 396
+
+ Rous, Francis, 240
+
+ Row, Elizabeth, 415
+
+ Roxburghe Club, cited, 95 n.
+
+ Royal Society, the, 275, 285, 286, 305, 306, 308-309
+
+ Royston, 109, 111
+
+ Ruceulver, 404
+
+ Rushock, 412
+
+ Russel, Margaret, 400
+
+ Rutland, Earl of. _See_ Manners
+
+ Rutlandshire, 411
+
+ Rutter, Elizabeth, 383, 399
+
+ Ryder, Agnes, 417
+
+ Rye, 116, 383, 397, 405
+
+ Rylens, Martha, 416
+
+ Ryley, Josia, 393
+
+ Rymer, cited, 7
+
+
+ S., Alice, 52 n., 394
+
+ Sabbath, the Witch, 3, 113, 123-124, 148, 166, 170, 186, 239, 273, 281-282
+
+ Saffron Walden, 394
+
+ Saint Alban's, 208 n., 252 n., 363, 407, 408, 417
+
+ Saint Andrew's in Holborne, 393, 398
+
+ Saint Giles's, Northampton, 382
+
+ Saint Giles-in-the-Fields, 393
+
+ Saint John's, Kent, 385, 389
+
+ Saint Katharine's, 394
+
+ Saint Lawrence, 393
+
+ Saint Leonard's, Shoreditch, 403
+
+ Saint Martin's-in-the-Fields, 389, 406, 409
+
+ Saint Mary's, Nottingham, 83
+
+ Saint Osyth's, 41-46, 58, 70, 125, 388
+
+ Saint Paul's, 13;
+   public penance in, 59
+
+ Saint Paul's, Dean of, 11 n.
+
+ Saint Peter's, Kent, 389, 392, 393
+
+ Saint Saviour's, Southwark, 387
+
+ Salem. _See_ Massachusetts
+
+ Salisbury, 212, 225, 268, 270-271, 410, 412
+
+ Salisbury, Bishop of. _See_ Jewel, John
+
+ Salmesbury, witches of, 128-129, 398
+
+ Salop (Shropshire), 387
+
+ Sammon, Margerie, 43, 44, 45 n.
+
+ Sampson, Agnes, torture of, 95
+
+ Samuel, Agnes, 49
+
+ Samuel, Alice, trial of, 47-51
+
+ Samuel, John, 49
+
+ Samuel, Mother. _See_ Alice Samuel
+
+ Samuels, the (of Warboys), 109, 391
+
+ Sandwich, 401, 403, 418
+
+ Sanford, 387
+
+ Sawyer, Elizabeth, trial of, 108 n., 112, 136 n., 383, 400
+
+ Scarborough, 219, 409
+
+ Scarfe, of Rattlesden, 404
+
+ Schwebel, Johann, 15 n.
+
+ Scory, John, Bishop of Hereford, 15 n.
+
+ Scot, Margery, 409
+
+ Scot, Reginald, 51, 55, 57-72, 89, 90, 97, 142, 160, 227, 228-231, 235,
+ 239, 241, 242, 243, 249, 291, 294 n., 296, 298, 301, 310, 312, 342.
+   Cited, 20 n., 28 n., 46 n., 296 n., 347, 348, 386, 387, 388
+
+ Scot, Sir Thomas, 56
+
+ _Scotland, Register of the Privy Council of_, cited 96 n.
+
+ _Scotland and the Commonwealth_, cited, 225
+
+ Scots-Hall, 57
+
+ Scott, John, cited, 391, 393
+
+ Scott, Sir Walter, 196, 275.
+   Cited, 199 n., 366
+
+ _Scottish Dove, The_, cited, 404
+
+ Seaford, 386
+
+ Seccombe, Thomas, cited, 164 n., 181 n.
+
+ Seeze, Betty, 417
+
+ Selden, John, 246-248, 262.
+   Cited, 247 n., 248 n.
+
+ Serjeantson, Rev. R. M., 382
+
+ Sewel, William, 296 n.
+
+ Shadbrook, 350, 393, 394
+
+ Shadwell, Thomas, 121, 309;
+   his opinions, 306-307
+
+ Shakespeare, William, used Harsnett, 91;
+   allusions in _Twelfth Night_ of, 92;
+   his witch-lore, 243
+
+ Shalock, Anthony, 171 n.
+
+ Shaw, Elinor, 382
+
+ Sheahan, J. J., cited, 389
+
+ Shelley, 404
+
+ Shelley, Jane, 391
+
+ Shepton, Mallet, 411
+
+ Sherlock, Thomas, 374
+
+ Ship Tavern, at Greenwich, 154
+
+ Shore, Jane, 9
+
+ Shoreditch, 403
+
+ Shrewsbury, Earl of, 12, 19 n., 26
+
+ Shrewsbury, Duke of, 341
+
+ Shropshire (Salop), 387
+
+ _Shuttleworths, House and Farm Accounts of the_, cited, 399
+
+ Simmons, Margaret, 388
+
+ Simpson, Elizabeth, 412
+
+ Simpson, Jane, 413
+
+ Simpson, Robert, cited, 396
+
+ Simpson, Susan, 409
+
+ Sinclar (or Sinclair), George, cited, 355, 366, 395
+
+ Skipsey, 407
+
+ Slade, Anne, 414
+
+ Slingsby, Sir William, 400
+
+ Smith, of Chinting, 387
+
+ Smith, Charlotte Fell, cited, 53 n.
+
+ Smith, Elizabeth, 408
+
+ Smith, Elleine, 39 n., 40
+
+ Smith, Gilbert, 399
+
+ Smith, Mary, 231, 358, 384, 399
+
+ Smith, Sir Thomas, 25 n., 385
+
+ Smithfield, 9
+
+ Smythe, Elizabeth, 406
+
+ Smythe, Katharine, 386
+
+ Somers, William, 51, 81-86, 92, 315, 353, 393
+
+ Somerset, 146, 220, 222, 224, 234, 254, 260, 273, 280, 285, 293, 320, 388,
+ 392, 393, 401, 402, 411, 413-419
+
+ Somerset, the protector, repeal of felonies during his protectorate, 12;
+   attitude of, 13
+
+ Sorcery, distinguished from witchcraft, 3-4
+
+ Southampton, 387
+
+ Southampton, Earl of, 12
+
+ Southcole, Justice, 346
+
+ Southcote, John, 34
+
+ Southerns, Elizabeth. _See_ Demdike
+
+ Southton, 415, 416
+
+ Southwark, 164, 256, 277, 321, 323, 387, 419
+
+ Southwell, Thomas, 8
+
+ Southworth. _See_ Master Thompson
+
+ Sowerbutts, Grace, part in Salmesbury cases, 128-129, 139, 140, 151
+
+ _Spectator, The_, 341 n.
+
+ Spectral evidence, 110-111, 131 n., 184, 218, 221-222, 235-236, 263-264,
+ 279, 279 n.
+
+ Speier, 15 n.
+
+ Spencer, Anne, 402
+
+ Spencer, Mary, 152, 157, 159, 160, 401
+
+ Spokes, Helen, 393
+
+ Staffordshire, 118, 141, 146, 386, 389, 400, 402
+
+ Stanford Rivers, 34
+
+ Stanhope, 388
+
+ Stanmore, 390
+
+ Star Chamber, Dee examined by the, 52
+
+ Starchie, Mrs., 79 n.
+
+ Starchie, John, 149 n.
+
+ Starchie, Nicholas, children of, 78-81, 158
+
+ Starr, William, 409
+
+ Stationers' _Registers_, cited, 347, 350, 352, 358
+
+ Statutes:
+   1 Edward VI, cap. xii (repeal of felonies), 12;
+   3 Henry VIII, cap. xi, 10 n.;
+   33 Henry VIII, cap. viii, 10-12;
+   5 Elizabeth, cap. xvi, 5, 14, 15, 17, 101-102;
+   1 James I, cap. xii, 102-104, 314
+
+ Staunton, Mother, 39 n., 387
+
+ Stearne, John, 164-205 _passim_ (in text and notes), 339, 361, 362, 404.
+   Cited, 403-406.
+
+ Stebbing, Henry, 335, 374, 375
+
+ Steele, Sir Richard, 342
+
+ Stephen, Sir J. F., cited, 10 n., 11 n.
+
+ Stephen, Leslie, cited, 287 n.
+
+ Stephens, Edward, 339 n.
+
+ Stepney, 405, 408, 410, 411, 412
+
+ Sterland, Mr., 83
+
+ Stevens, Margaret, 415
+
+ Stevens, Maria, 419
+
+ Stoll, Elmer, cited, 244 n.
+
+ Stonden, 414
+
+ Stothard, Margaret, 259, 416
+
+ Stow, John, cited, 59 n., 350
+
+ Stowmarket, 183, 404
+
+ Stranger, Dorothy, 279, 413
+
+ Strangridge, Old, 238
+
+ Strassburg, 15 n.
+
+ Stratford-at-Bow, 406, 407
+
+ Strotton, 414
+
+ Strutt, the Rev. Mr., 326, 327, 375
+
+ Strype, John, cited, 16 n., 17 n., 25 n., 26 n., 27 n., 385, 390
+
+ Stuart, Charles, Duke of Richmond and Lenox, 287
+
+ Studley Hall, 223
+
+ Style, Elizabeth, 280, 413
+
+ Sudbury, 404
+
+ Suffolk, 164, 165 n., 175, 176 n., 183, 194, 195, 197, 224, 337, 350, 379,
+ 392, 393, 394, 404, 405, 411, 413, 414, 417, 418
+
+ _Suffolk Institute of Archaeology, Proceedings of_, 176 n.
+
+ Surey, affair of. _See_ Dugdale
+
+ Surrey, 416, 419
+
+ Sussex, 282, 386, 387, 397, 405, 412
+
+ _Sussex Archaeological Collections_, 283 n., 386, 412
+
+ Sussums, Alexander, 404
+
+ Sutton, 406
+
+ Sutton, Mary, 110-111, 118 n., 136, 383, 398
+
+ Sutton, Mother, 107-108, 115, 117, 135-136, 358, 383, 398
+
+ Swan, John, 90 n., 355.
+   Cited, 395
+
+ Swan Inn, Maidstone, 215
+
+ Swane, Goodwife, 389
+
+ Swinow, Colonel, 209
+
+ Swinow, Dorothy, 209-210, 211, 408
+
+ Swithland, 399
+
+ Swynbourne, Richard, wife of, 393
+
+ Sykes, John, cited, 30 n., 407, 414
+
+ Sykes, Mary, 218, 407
+
+
+ T., R., 295
+
+ Talbot, Charles, Duke of Shrewsbury, 341-342
+
+ Talbot, George, Earl of Shrewsbury, 19 n., 26
+
+ Tanner, Joanna, 419
+
+ _Tatler, The_, 342 n.
+
+ Taunton, 234, 235, 260, 401, 403, 413, 417, 418
+
+ Taunton-Dean, 278, 417
+
+ Taylor, Robert, 170
+
+ Taylor, Zachary, 317-318, 329, 372, 373
+
+ Tedsall, Agnes, 402
+
+ Tedworth, affair of, 274-276, 303 n.
+
+ Tempest, Henry, 218
+
+ Temple, Sir William, 309
+
+ Tendering, John, 46 n.
+
+ Test of bleeding of dead body, 112, 301;
+   of repetition of certain words, 49, 109;
+   of thatch-burning, 112;
+   of swimming (see Water, ordeal of)
+
+ Theodore of Tarsus, 2
+
+ Therfield, 374
+
+ Theydon, Mount, 385
+
+ Thievery and Witchcraft, 122, 222, 326
+
+ Thirple, 374
+
+ Thirsk, 397
+
+ Thompson, James, cited, 201 n., 408
+
+ Thompson, Katherine, 395
+
+ Thompson, Master, 129
+
+ Thorne, Anne, accuser of Jane Wenham, 324-330, 334-336
+
+ Thorneton, Jane, 386
+
+ Thorpe, Benjamin, cited, 2 n.
+
+ Thrapston, 184-185
+
+ Throckmorton, Sir Robert, 47, 50
+
+ Throckmortons, the, 348
+
+ Throgmorton, George, 385
+
+ Throgmorton, Lady Frances, 384
+
+ Thurlow, Grace, 41, 42
+
+ Tichmarsh, 131 n.
+
+ Tilbrooke-bushes, 188 n.
+
+ Tilling, Ann, 269-270, 415, 417
+
+ Tolbooth, the, 96
+
+ Torture, of Alse Gooderidge, 77;
+   by the bootes, 96;
+   of Peacock, 115 n., 203;
+   perhaps used at Lincoln, 134;
+   unknown to English law, 167;
+   of Lowes, by walking, 176-177;
+   Hopkins's and Stearne's theory and practice as to, 202-204;
+   advocated by Perkins, 229;
+   by scratching, 330;
+   by swimming (see Water, ordeal of)
+
+ Tottenham, 399
+
+ Towns, independent jurisdiction of, 54-55, 116-117, 201
+
+ Townshend, Jane, 414
+
+ Tradescant, John, 216
+
+ Transportation of witches through the air, 3, 97, 239, 246
+
+ Treasure-seekers, 20
+
+ Tree, 387
+
+ Trefulback, Stephen, 391
+
+ Trelawny, Sir Jonathan, Bishop of Exeter, 321
+
+ Trembles, Mary, 271-272, 368-369, 416
+
+ Trinity College, Oxford, 131-132;
+   Master of. _See_ Isaac Barrow
+
+ Turner, William, cited, 405
+
+ _Twelfth Night_, allusions in, 92
+
+ _Two Terrible Sea-Fights_, cited, 225 n.
+
+ Tyburn, 51, 394
+
+ Tynemouth, 412
+
+
+ _Underhill, Edward, Autobiography of_, cited, 13
+
+ Upaston, 418
+
+ Upney, Joan, 347
+
+ Upsala, 94
+
+ Urwen, Jane, 401
+
+ Utley, hanged at Lancaster, 158, 401
+
+ Uxbridge, 74 n.
+
+
+ Vairus, Leonardus, 58 n.
+
+ Vallet, Jane, 417
+
+ Van Helmont, 286
+
+ Varden, J. T., cited, 194 n.
+
+ Vaughan, Joan, 384
+
+ Vaughans, the two (Henry and Thomas), 286
+
+ Vaux, Lord, 74 n.
+
+ Vernon, James, 341-342
+
+ Vetter, Theodor, cited, 15 n.
+
+ Vicars, Anne, 383
+
+ Vickers, K. H., cited, 9 n.
+
+ _Victoria History of Essex_, cited, 90 n.
+
+ Virley, John, 7
+
+
+ W., Mother, of Great T., 395
+
+ W., Mother, of W. H., 395
+
+ "W. W." and the St. Osyth's pamphlet, 46, 62 n.
+
+ Waddam, Margaret, 418
+
+ Wade, Mary, 223, 411
+
+ Wade, William, 221, 223, 411
+
+ Wadham, Thomas, 388
+
+ Wagg, Ann, 407
+
+ Wagstaffe, John, 294-295, 297
+
+ Wakefield, 220-221, 411
+
+ Waldingfield, 404
+
+ Walker, widow, 387
+
+ Walker, Ellen, 385
+
+ Walker, John, 353, 354
+
+ Walker, John (another), cited, 361
+
+ Walkerne, 325
+
+ Wallis, Joane, 185 n., 187 n.
+
+ Walsh, John, trial of, 31 n.
+
+ Walter, Aliena, 414
+
+ Walter, Sir John, 235
+
+ Walton, Colonel Valentine, 187, 237 n.
+
+ Wanley, Nathaniel, 307.
+   Cited, 308 n.
+
+ Wapping, 408, 411
+
+ Warboys, trials at, 47-51, 109 n., 131, 143, 160, 185, 221, 229 n., 391
+
+ Warburton, Sir Peter, 142
+
+ Warburton, Peter, 215
+
+ Warden of the Cinque Ports, 116
+
+ Warham, William, Abp. of Canterbury, 58 n.
+
+ Warminster, 398
+
+ Warwick, 257, 414
+
+ Warwick, Earl of. _See_ Rich
+
+ Washington, Sir John, 185
+
+ "Watching" of witches, practised by Hopkins and Stearne, 167;
+   Gaule's description, 175;
+   Stearne's explanation, 190;
+   Stearne's description, 202;
+   probably practised on Elizabeth Style, 280;
+   practised on a Sussex woman, 283
+
+ Water, ordeal of, James recommends it, 99;
+   its use on the Continent, 99 n.;
+   in reign of James, 106-108, 118 n., 132;
+   stopped in Suffolk, 178;
+   in Huntingdonshire, 187;
+   its use by Hopkins and Stearne, 191-192;
+   story that Hopkins was put to it, 194;
+   use at Faversham, 201 n.;
+   Perkins's opinion, 228;
+   Cotta's, 230;
+   Bernard's, 235;
+   Ady's, 242;
+   its decline, 243, 284;
+   increased use of it as an illegal process, 315, 331;
+   forbidden in Jane Wenham's case, 326;
+   at Leicester, 330;
+   in Essex, 331-332;
+   by Holt or Parker, 332;
+   by Addison's Sir Roger de Coverley and his chaplain, 341
+
+ Waterhouse, Mother Agnes, trial of, 35-38, 40 n., 45, 385
+
+ Waterhouse, Joan, 36
+
+ Watson, Jane, 413
+
+ Way, Margaretta, 419
+
+ Wayt, Mrs., 174
+
+ Webb, Mrs., 269
+
+ Webb, Goodwife, 39
+
+ Webster, John, 141, 147 n., 148-151, 151, 268, 297-303, 314.
+   Cited, 306 n., 359, 400
+
+ Weech, Christian, 397
+
+ Weeke, 413
+
+ Weekes, Christiana, 397, 410
+
+ _Weekly Intelligencer_, cited, 213 n., 408
+
+ Weight, Mrs., 174
+
+ Welfitt, William, cited, 412
+
+ Wellam, Margaret, 399
+
+ Wells, 389
+
+ Wells, Archdeacon of, 235
+
+ Welton, 251, 411
+
+ Wenham, 164
+
+ Wenham, Jane, trial of, 324-330, 380, 381, 419;
+   controversy over, 334-336;
+   her trial the occasion of Hutchinson's book, 342-343
+
+ Wentworth, Lord, 12
+
+ West, Andrew, 44
+
+ West, Anne, 169, and n., 171
+
+ West, Rebecca, 169, 170, 171, 362, 376
+
+ West, William, cited, 352, 391
+
+ West Ayton, 402
+
+ West Drayton, 394
+
+ West Riding, Yorkshire, 256
+
+ Westminster, disputation of, 16 n.;
+   cases at, 139, 384, 386, 391, 402
+
+ Weston, Father, 74 n., 87, 352
+
+ Westpenner, 388
+
+ Westwell, Old Alice of, 59, 386
+
+ Weyer (Wier, Wierus), Johann, 62, 79 n., 97, 229 n.
+
+ Whitaker, Thomas D., cited, 147 n.
+
+ White, Joan, 391
+
+ Whitechapel, 409-410
+
+ Whitecrosse Street, 396
+
+ Whitgift, John, Archbishop of Canterbury, 74, 84, 88 n.
+
+ Whitehall, 134
+
+ Whitelocke, Bulstrode, 226, 252 n.
+   Cited, 172 n., 179 n., 181 n., 201 n., 206 n., 207 n., 403, 407
+
+ Wickham, William, Bishop of Lincoln, 50
+
+ Widdowes, Thomas, cited, 366
+
+ Widdrington, Thomas, 207 n.
+
+ Wier, Wierus. _See_ Weyer
+
+ Wigan, 156
+
+ Wildridge, T. T., cited, 137 n.
+
+ Wilkins, David, cited, 10 n.
+
+ Wilkinson, Anne, 414
+
+ Williams, Katherine, 418
+
+ Williams, Robert, cited, 399
+
+ Williford, Joan, 201 n., 405
+
+ Willimot, Joan, 119 n., 133 n., 399
+
+ Wilson, Alice, 109 n.
+
+ Wilson, Arthur, 143 n., 172 n., 173.
+   Cited, 359, 400, 403
+
+ Wilts, 146, 211, 224, 268, 269 n., 274, 285, 397, 398, 401, 409, 410,
+ 412-414, 417-419
+
+ Wimblington, 406
+
+ Winch, Sir Humphrey, 142
+
+ Winchester, Bishop of. _See_ Thomas Bilson, and James Montague
+
+ Winchester Park, 257 n.
+
+ Windebank, Secretary, 152, 155
+
+ Windsor, 139, 347
+
+ Windsor, Dean of, and Abingdon trials, 28
+
+ Wingerworth, 416
+
+ Witchall, Judith, 269, 270, 415, 417
+
+ Witchfinder, Darrel as a, 75-83;
+   Hopkins as a, 165-205;
+   a Scotch pricker as a, 206-208;
+   Ann Armstrong as a, 281-282
+
+ Wolsey, Thomas, Abp. of York, 19, 59 n.
+
+ Women, proportion of to men in indictments for witchcraft, 114;
+   of wives to spinsters and to widows, 114-115
+
+ Wood, Anthony a, cited, 295 n., 366
+
+ Wood, Joan, 386
+
+ Woodbridge, 392
+
+ Woodbury, 417
+
+ Woodhouse, Doctor, 257
+
+ Woodstock, 275
+
+ Wooler, 395
+
+ Worcester, 7, 216, 376, 387, 406, 409, 412
+
+ Worcester, Bishop of, 12, 340
+
+ Worcestershire, 208 n.
+
+ Worthington, John, cited, 180 n.
+
+ Wright, Elizabeth, 76, 78 n., 392
+
+ Wright, Grace, 405
+
+ Wright, Katherine, 75, 85, 353
+
+ Wright, Thomas, 100, 188 n., 376.
+   Cited, 2 n., 6 n., 7 n., 9 n., 19 n., 25 n., 95 n., 100 n., 147 n., 401
+
+ Wrottesley, Lord, 162 n.
+
+ Wylde, John, 212
+
+ Wynnick, John, 185 n., 187 n., 405
+
+
+ Yarmouth, 54, 181, 183, 199, 201, 263, 406.
+   _See also_ Yarmouth, Great
+
+ Yarmouth, Great, 389, 390, 395, 404
+
+ York, 111, 112, 119, 129, 144, 218, 220, 229 n., 249, 383, 389, 394, 398,
+ 400, 413, 417
+
+ York, Archbishop of, 83
+
+ York Castle, 258
+
+ _York Depositions_, 218 n.
+   Cited, _passim_ thereafter
+
+ Yorkshire, 52, 118, 144, 146, 149-150, 210, 221, 222, 223, 254, 256, 278,
+ 352, 383, 389, 391, 393, 395-397, 400, 402, 406-411, 414-416
+
+ _Yorkshire Notes and Queries_, cited, 257 n.
+
+ Young, Margareta, 418
+
+ Young, Ruth, 418
+
+
+ Zurich, 14, 15 n., 87 n.
+
+ _Zurich Letters_, cited, 17 n.
+
+ Zweibruecken, 15 n.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A History of Witchcraft in England
+from 1558 to 1718, by Wallace Notestein
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITCHCRAFT ***
+
+***** This file should be named 31511.txt or 31511.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/5/1/31511/
+
+Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Brian Janes, Meredith Bach,
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net
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