stroyed the corn for four leagues round. The people accused one Anne Mindelin, and one Agnes, for being the cause of it. They confessed, and were burnt. Bodini Lib. de Dæmonomaniá, c. 8. About this time, H. Institor says, one of the inquisitors came to a certain town, that was almost desolate by plague and famine. The report went, that a certain woman, buried not long before, was eating up her winding sheet, and that the plague would not cease till she had made an end of it. This matter being taken into consideration, Scultetus, with the chief magistrate of the city, opened the grave, and found that she had indeed swallowed and devoured one half of her winding sheet! Scultetus, moved with horror at the thing, drew out his sword, and cut off her head, and threw it into a ditch, and immediately the plague ceased and, the inquisition sitting upon the case, it was found that she had long been a reputed witch. See Hen. Institor. Part 1. Quest. 15. A. D. 1524. About this time, a thousand were burnt in one year, in the diocese of Como, and a hundred per annum for several years together. Barthol. de Spina, cap. 12.* Hitherto we have seen that the practice of witchcraft was confined chiefly to foreign parts; the delusion, however, soon extended to our own country, and ran a similar career of absurdity and imposture. A. D. 1541. The Lord Hungerford beheaded for procuring certain persons to conjure, that they might know how long Henry the Eighth would live. Lord Ierbert's Life of Henry VIII. A. D. 1562. This year, being the Fifth of Queen Elizabeth, the Countess of Lenrox, and four others, were condemned for treason. They had consulted with some pretended cheating wizards, to know how long the Queen should live. Camden's Elizabeth. A. D. 1574. Agnes Bridges, and Rachel Pindar, of eleven or twelve years old, had counterfeited to be possessed by the devil, and vomited pins and clouts; but were detected, and stood before the preacher at Paul's cross, and acknowledged their hypocritical counterfeiting. Stowe's Survaie. A. D. 1575. The Windsor witches executed at Abingdon. The relation was printed by Richard Gallis. In that, he said, he came to the God speed, and with his sword and buckler, killed the devil, or at least wounded him so sore, that he made him stink of brimstone.† Ibid. B. 2, c. 3, &c. Thus was witchcraft, in all its squalid and disgusting vulgarity, firmly established in Great Britain, and the witch was speedily invested with attributes-not only above her comprehension, but such as she could never have imagined. Of "They tel us," says Gaule, "(and the vulgar second them with numberless traditions) of their reading in the moon all things that shall come to passe for a thousand generations. Of their reading by star-light what another has writte in his closet a thousand miles off. Of causing the voyces of two in conference to be mutually heard, although as distant one from another as the east is from the west. their being metamorphosed or turned into beasts, bears, dogs, wolves, goats, cats, hares, &c. Of their cutting one another's heads off, and setting them on again; suffering their limbs to be plucked asunder, and knitting them to again immediately. Of their flying in the aire, and walking invisible. Óf their riding long and tedious journeys upon broomes and distaffes; and their sayling over seas in egg-shells...... Of their eating up whole fieldes of corne or hay, and drinking up whole rivers in seives. Of presenting a curious banquet upon the table, and inviting thereto their guests from fairie land. Of making a garden of delicate flowers to spring up in your parlour in the dead of winter. Of raising stormes and showres out of tubs; turning streames backward, haling ships laden, against wind and water, with haires or twined threads. Of making a cock or a flye to draw the hugest beame. Of giving potions to make people love or hate as they please....... Of making bodies impenetrable or shot free; anoynting the weapon, and curing the wound, without the least virtuall contiguity; and turning all metalls into gold. Drinking off a glasse of clarret, and make it to spoute out of the forehead presently. Showing you such and such faces in glasses, &c....What should I tell you of their feates wrought by figures, characters, spells, ligatures, circles, numbers, barbarismes, images of wax, or clay, crystalls, looking glasses, basons of water, herbes, powders, unguents, sawes, knives, pins, needles, candles, rings, garters, gloves, &c. &c. I feare I have even cloyd, while I talked but of giving a taste. Some worke their bewitchinge only by way of invocation, or imprecation: they wish it, or will it, and so it falls out. Some by way of emissary, sending out their inpes, or familiars, to crosse the way, justle, affront, flash in the face, barke, * Hutchinson's Historical Essay, p. 22, 23, 24. + Ibid. p. 24, 25, 26. howle, bite, scratch, or otherwise infest. Some by inspecting, or looking on; but to glare, squint, or peep at one with an envious or evill eye, is sufficient to effascinate (especially infants, and women with child). Some by a demisse hollow muttering, or mumbling. Some by breathing and blowing on; the usuall way of the venefick. Some by cursing and banning. Some by blessing and praising. Some revengefully, by occasion of ill turnes. Some by leaving something of theirs in your house. Some by getting something of yours into their house. Some have a more speciall way of working by severall elements; earth, water, aire, or fire. But who can tell all the manner of wayes of a witch's working; that works not only darkly and closely, but variously and versatilly, as God will permit, the Devil can suggest, or the malicious hag devise and put in practice ? "* In process of time, the practice of witchcraft became almost exclusively confined to the oldest and ugliest of the female sex;t and the measures adopted for the destruction of this miserable race were in general sufficiently atrocious; but, in Scotland, even a greater refinement of cruelty than that which we have detailed, was practised. The innocent relations of a suspected criminal were tortured in her presence to wring from her, by the sight of their sufferings, what no corporeal pain inflicted on herself could extort. Thus, in 1596, a woman being accused of witchcraft; her husband, her son, and her daughter, a child of seven years old, were all tortured in her presence, to wrest from her the reluctant and condemning confession; and several other contrivances, equally unfeeling and atrocious, were resorted to for the purpose of ridding the world of witches. The mischievous tendency of such proceedings must appear evident, even to the most superficial ob- villainous and crafty set. They were particularly careful not to visit a town unless they were likely to experience a favourable reception. No "sticklers" must be there to thwart their designs, or to controul their actions; and if they could not secure beforehand an unanimous approval of their iniquitous proceedings, they would not venture upon their scrutiny. We have al ready related one ceremony which they practised, for the purpose of detecting witches; we add another equally painful and cruel. "Having taken the suspected witch," says Mr. Gaule, "she is placed in the middle of a room upon a stool or table, cross-legged, or in some other uneasy posture, to which, if she submits not, she is then bound with cords. There is she A watched and kept without meat or sleep Select Cases of Conscience, touching Witches and Witchcraft, p. 110, 111, 112, and 128, 129. + Two or three reasons have been assigned by the learned for the more extensive prevalence of witches, rather than wizards. "One writer," says Dr. Hutchinson, “giving the reason how it came to pass, that there were so many women that were witches, more than men that were wizards, fetches an argument from the derivation of the word Fœmina. For, he saith, it comes from Fe and minus. Fe, he saith, is the same as fi, and fi stands for fides; and thence comes the word Fæmina, quia minorem Fidem habent. Varius (Lib. de Fascinatione) attributes the cause to the stronger passions of the fair sex, and their more general fickleness of nature; while King James declares that, "The reason is easie: for as that sexe is frailer than man is, so is it easier to be entrapped in these grosse snares of the divell, as was over well found to be trew by the Spirit's deceiving of Eva at the beginning; which makes him homelier with that sexe sensine." Dmonologie, Book ii. Chap. 5. We beg our fair readers to observe, that these are not o notions of the cause. cannot kill them, then they may be sure they are her imps! From the view which we have thus taken of our subject, it may appear that we have leaned too much to the side of witches, and divested them of that rancorous malignity, which they are said to have extended towards those who were obnoxious to them. From this we cannot dissent, nor do we wish to do so. That there were individuals, who, from some interested motive, imposed upon the world by a pretension to many of the appalling attributes of witchcraft, we will not deny. Indeed, we have given more than one instance of the fact; but, then, we have seen that, in most cases, the poor persecuted wretches were compelled to a practice which their better reason taught them to abhor. A great deal depended upon the opinion which the vulgar entertained on the subject; and when it really did happen that a miserable old woman actually attempted to practise the mysteries of witchcraft, it was usually the effect of a deranged intellect; of the credulous dotage of old age; or of provoked malevolence and passion. There is one example on record, which proves that even a virtuous incitement urged a criminal to confession. An old woman, tried at Lancaster, during the early part of king James the First's reign, accused herself, from a vain hope of saving the life of her daughter, who was charged with participation in the crime. The judges, partly it may be suspected, with a view of flattering the prejudices of the king, exhibited the most disgraceful eagerness for the conviction of the prisoners; and one of them was guilty of the remark, "that such apparent proof was not to be expected against them as others, their's were deeds of darkness."+ But we are inclined to think that, in most instances, the witch was either an instrument in the hands of wicked and designing persons, or a victim of the infamous machinations of the wicked and the indigent. The condemnation of the Pendle-forest witches, which was occasioned by the artful contrivance of a boy and his father, and to which we alluded in our first paper, affords one instance of the effect of the malicious artifices of two individuals, whose object was evidently the obtainment of a reward for impeaching witches. A very remarkable case also of this kind is that of William Perry, or the "Boy of Bilson," as he was called, who practised his ingenious stratagems in the year 1620, to the manifest admiration and surprise of the beholders. "The boy returning homeward from school to Bilson, in Staffordshire, where he dwelt, an old woman unknown met him, and taxed him, in that he did not give her good time of day, saying, that he was a foul thing, and that it had been better for him if he had saluted her. At. which words the boy felt a thing to prick him to the very heart. In fine, the boy came home, languished some days, and at length grew into extream fits, that two or three (though he was a child of twelve years of age) could hardly hold him. The parents, seeing the extremity, sought help of Catholics; and with cap and knee did solicit a zealous gentleman, who, overcome by their suit, did rede some prayers, and exorcisms, allowed by the Catholic church, with whose prayers the force of the The gentleman spiritual enemy abated. insisting to know how many was in him; to his thinking, he said, three." This artful child, though not more than twelve years of age, had address and perseverance enough to counterfeit the most agonizing distortions. He accused an old woman, whose name was Joan Cock, and she was committed to Stafford Gaol. At the assizes, however, the penetration of the judges detected the imposture, and the boy was ultimately induced by Dr. Morton, Bishop of Coventry, to make full confession. Such were the delusive artifices which imposed upon the easy faith of our forefathers; and wretched, indeed, must have been the state of society, when such revolting practices were carried on to the destruction of all moral and intellectual excellence. There could not have been, even at a comparatively late period, any religious feeling among the peo * Cases of Conscience, p. 78. ple; any of that pure and holy principle, which leads the heart to admire with gratitude the benevolence of an omnipotent Deity, and to receive with thankfulness the blessings of an indulgent providence. All was dark and gloomy, and terrible. Confidence between man and man was destroyed, and people glared upon each other with eyes of suspicion and malevolence. The witches themselves were considered altogether as hags, That for a word, or look, Denial of a coal of fire, kill men, Children, and cattle; and the peevish malediction of an irritable old woman infused terror and dismay, even into the bravest bosoms. The disgraceful proceedings which we have thus endeavoured faithfully to narrate happened, for the most part, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; but a period was approaching, when all the detestable jugglery of witchcraft was to be overthrown, no less by the flourishing luxuriance of literature and science, than by the benevolent firmness of the English judges. In 1694, and the four succeeding years, only eleven persons were tried for witchcraft, and every one was acquitted by Chief Justice Holt. "So changed," observes a modern writer, "were the times, that even confession failed to produce conviction, and the absurdities of a disordered imagination sunk to their real worth." The decisions of my Lord Holt appear to have been the first effectual effort that was made to cut short the career of this prevailing delusion; and the witchfinders were consequently greatly discouraged. Their proceed ings received another check shortly afterwards, from the declaration of Lord Chief Justice Parker, whose humanity made them somewhat more sparing of their cruelties towards the suspected witches. "At the summer assizes, held at Brentwood, in Essex," says Dr. Hutchinson, “our excellent Lord Chief Justice of England, the Right Honourable the Lord Parker, by a just and righteous piece of judgment, hath given all men warning, that if any dare, for the future, make use of the experiment of swimming the witches, and the party lose her life thereby, all they that are the cause of it are guilty of wilful murder." But, notwithstanding these humane and judicious provisions, the popu lar belief in the existence and power of witches was not to be easily overthrown. The vulgar still continued to look upon the aged and the ugly with the eye of hatred and prejudice; and it was not till knowledge became more extensively disseminated, by the writings of the learned of the reign of Anne, that witchcraft became an object of but little importance to the people. The salutary effect which the diffusion of knowledge produced was followed by the abolition of the existing laws against witchcraft; and in the ninth year of the reign of George the Second, the mischievous statutes were repealed, in consequence of the following occurrence. In the year 1751, a publican, named Butterfield, residing at Tring, in Hertfordshire, giving out that he was bewitched by one Osborne and his wife (who were harmless people above seventy), had it cried at several market-towns in the county, that they were to be tried by ducking on such a day. A vast concourse of people being thus collected together, the poor wretches were seized, and stripped naked by the mob, their thumbs tied to their toes, and then dragged two miles, and thrown into a muddy stream. Osborne escaped with his life, though dangerously bruised, but his wife expired under the hands of her brutal perse When these statutes were repealed it was enacted, that no prosecution should for the future be carried on against any person for conjuration, witchcraft, sorcery or enchantment. But the misdemeanor of persons pretending to use witchcraft, to tell fortunes, or to discover stolen goods by skill in the occult sciences, is still deservedly punished with a year's imprisonment, and standing four times in the pillory. Blackstone's Comment, b. 4, c. 4, §6. It may be necessary to add, that there is still un repealed an Irish statute, inflicting capital punishment on witches. It was passed 28 Eliz. c. 2. and is as minute as the statute of James in its descriptions, &c. It provides also for a person charged with the crime. See Lord Mountnorris's Hist. of Irish Parliaments, vol. i. p. 420. cutors. One of the ringleaders of this atrocious outrage was convicted of the murder, and hung in chains near the spot where the crime was perpetrated. Since this horrible occurrence, little has been heard of the spells of witches, and the skill of mortals in the occult sciences has degenerated into the palmistry of the gipsey, or the vague prediction of the vagabond conjuror. The relicts of actual witchcraft, it is true, still lingered among the people, but in a condition too trivial and innocuous to be attended with any ill effect. It is probable, indeed, that even at this period some scattered particles of the delusion exist, more especially in the retired districts of the kingdom. We ourselves have a distant recollection of an aged individual, who resided, several years ago, amidst the green and secluded hills of North Wales. She was a very old and singular-looking woman, and was always to be seen in fine weather, sitting with her distaff and spindle amidst her bees in a little garden, which occupied the declivity of a 66 Sunny Knoll," behind her humble cottage. Here would she sit, basking in the sun, and holding converse with no living creature except her bees, to which she was particularly attached; and it was believed that these bees, which buzzed about her person with perfect liberty, were the unhallowed ministers of her will and pleasure. She was a harmless, and, we have heard, a goodnatured being; but had, by her singular habits and taciturnity, established a degree of fame among the peasantry, of which she seemed fectly conscious. The cause of this singularity was never known, but many conjectured that some evil doings in early life (for she was not a native of the village) had rendered her thus unsocial and secluded. Thus it often happens, that a slight deviation from the common course of life is sufficient, even in this enlightened age, to impress on the minds of the untutored and superstitious, an awful idea of supernatural power. per We have thus laid before our readers a brief, but, we believe, a sufficiently complete account, of a system of deception and persecution which claims no unimportant place in the history of the human mind. We have endeavoured to illustrate the effects of fear and delusion, by references to examples at once tragical and ridiculous; and we are not aware, that we can close this long detail of credulity and ferocity, more appropriately than with the following citation from Reginald Scot, containing a convenient Pharmacopoeia of approved antidotes. "But now it is necessary to show you how to prevent and cure all mischief wrought by charmes and witchcraft. One principal way is, to nail a horse-shoe at the inside of the outermost threshold of your house, and so you shall be sure no witch shall have power to enter thereinto. And if you mark it, you shall find that rule observed in many countrey houses. Otherwise, let this triumphant title be written crosswise in every corner of the house thus: Jesus Nasarenus Rex Judæorum Memorandum. You may join herewithall the name of the Virgine. Mary, or of the foure Evangelists; or Verbum caro factum est. Otherwise, in some countreys, they naile a wolve's head to the doore. Otherwise, they hang scilla (which is a root, or rather in this place garlic) in the roofe of the house, for to they do Alicium also. Otherwise a perkeepe away witches and spirits; and so fume made of the gall of a black dog, and his bloode besmeared on the postes and walles of the house, driveth out of the doores both devills and witches. Otherwise, the house where herba betonica is sown is free from all mischeefes. Otherwise, it is not unknown, that the Romish church allowed, and used the smoke of sulphur to drive spirits out of their houses, as they did frankincense and water hallowed. Otherwise, Apuleius saith, that Mercury gave to Ulysses, when he came neer to the Inchantress Circe, an herb called verbascum, which, in English is called mullein, or tapsus barbatus, or longwort, and that preserved him from the enchantments. Otherwise, Pliny and Homer both do say, that the herb called moly is an excellent herb against enchantments; and all say that thereby Ulysses escaped Circe's sorceries and inchantments. Otherwise, diverse waies they went to worke in this case, and some used this defensive, and others that preservative against incantations."+ B. 12. ch. 18. R. Gentleman's Magazine, 1751, Part I. and Lord Mountnorris, ubi supra. +From a passage in Kenilworth (p. 238, vol. i.) it appears, that a sprig of elm, sewn in the neck of a doublet, was also considered as a preservative against witchcraft. |