hurt Children Cattel c. with words and imaginations and of cosening Witches ONe sort of such as are said to be Witches are women which be commonly old lame blear-eyed pale fowl and full of wrinckles poor sullen superstitious and Papists or such as know no Religion in whose drousie minds the Devil hath gotten a fine seat so as what mischief mischance calamity or slaughter is brought to pass they are easily perswaded the same is done by themselves imprinting in their minds an earnest and constant imagination thereof They are lean and deformed shewing melancholy in their faces to the horrour of all that see them They are doting scolds mad devillish and not much differing from them that are thought to be possessed with spirits so firm and stedfast in their opinions as whosoever shall only have respect to the constancy of their words uttered would easily believe they were true indeed These miserable wretches are so odious unto all their neighbours and so feared as few dare offend them or deny them any thing they ask whereby they take upon them yea and sometimes think that they can do such things as are beyond the ability of humane nature These go from house to house and from door to door for a pot full of milk yest drink pottage or some such relief without the which they could hardly live neither obtaining for their service and pains nor yet by their art nor yet at the Devils hands with whom they are said to make a perfect and visible bargain either beauty money promotion wealth worship pleasure honour knowledg learning or any other benefit whatsoever It falleth out many times that neither their necessities nor their expectation is answered or served in those places where they beg or borrow but rather their lewdness is by their neighbors reproved And further in tract of time the Witch waxeth odious and tedious to her neighbours and they again are despised and despited of her so as sometimes she curseth one and sometimes another and that from the Master of the house his wife children cattel c. to the little Pig that lieth in the stie Thus in process of time they have all displeased her and she hath wished evil luck unto them all perhaps with curses and imprecations made in form Doubtless at length some of her neighbours die or fall sick or some of their children are visited with diseases that vex them strangely as Apoplexies Epilepsie Convulsions hot Fevers Worms c. Which by ignorant Parents are supposed to be the vengeance of Witches Yea and their opinions and conceits are confirmed and maintained by unskilful Physitians according to the common saying Inscitiae pallium malleficium incantatio Witchcraft and Inchantment is the cloke of Ignorance whereas indeed evil humors and not strange words Witches or Spirits are the causes of such diseases Also some of their Cattel perish either by disease or mischance Then they upon whom such adversities fall weighing the fame that goeth upon this woman her words displeasure and curses meeting so justly with their misfortune do not only conceive but also are resolved that all their mishaps are brought to pass by her only means The Witch on the other side expecting her neighbors mischances and seeing things sometimes come to pass according to her wishes curses and incantations for Bodin himself confesseth that not above two in a hundred of their witchings or wishings take effect being called before a Justice by due examination of the circumstances is driven to see her imprecations and desires and her neighbours harms and losses to concur and as it were to take effect and so confesseth that she as a goddess hath brought such things to pass Wherein not only she but the accuser and also the Justice are foully deceived and abused as being through her confession and other circumstances perswaded to the injury of Gods glory that she hath done or can do that which is proper only to God himself Another sort of Witches there are which be absolutely coseners These take upon them either for glory fame or gain to do any thing which God or the Devil can do either for fore-telling of things to come bewraying of secrets curing of maladies or working of miracles But of these I will talk more at large hereafter CHAP. IV. What miraculous actions are imputed to Witches by Witchmongers Papists and Poets ALthough it be quite against the hair and contrary to the Devils will to the Witches oath promise and homage and contrary to all reason that Witches should help any thing that is bewitched but rather set forward their Masters business yet we read in Malleo Maleficarum of three sorts of Witches and the same is affirmed by all the Writers hereupon new and old One sort they say can hurt and not help the second can help and not hurt the third can both help and hurt And among the hurtful Witches he saith there is one sort more beastly than any kind of Beasts saving Wolves for these usually devour and eat young Children and Infants of their own kind These be they saith he that raise hail tempests and hurtful weather as Lightning Thunder c. These be they that procure barrenness in Man Woman and Beast These can throw Children into waters as they walk with their Mothers and not be seen These can make Horses kick till they cast their Riders These can pass from place to place in the air invisible These can so alter the mind of Judges they can have no power to hurt them These can procure to themselves and to others taciturnity and insensibility in their torments These can bring trembling to the hands and strike terror into the minds of them that apprehend them These can manifest unto others things hidden and lost and foreshew things to come and see them as though they were present These can alter mens minds to inordinate love or hate These can kill whom they list with lightning and thunder These can take mans courage and the power of generation These can make a woman miscarry in child-birth and destroy the child in the Mothers womb without any sensible means either inwardly or outwardly applyed These can with their looks kill either man or beast All these things are avowed by James Sprenger and Henry Institor In Malleo Maleficarum to be true and confirmed by Nider and the inquisitor Cumanus and also by Danaeus Hyperius Hemingius and multiplyed by Bodin and Frier Bartholomaus Spineus But because I will in no wise abridge the authority of their power you shall have also the testimonies of many other grave Authors in this behalf as followeth And first Ovid affirmeth that they can raise and suppress Lightning and Thunder Rain and Hail Clouds and Winds Tempests and Earthquakes Others do write that they can pull down the Moon and Stars Some write that with wishing they can send Needles into the Livers of their Enemies Some that they can transfer Corn in the blade
daily through witchcrraft killed with his Bow and Arrows three of the Enemies as they stood peeping over the walls of a Castle besieged so as in the end he killed them all quite saving one The trial of the Archers sinister dealing and a proof thereof expressed is for that he never lightly failed when he shot and for that he killed them by three a day and had shot three arrows into a rod. This was he that shot at a peny on his sons head and made ready another Arrow to have slain the Duke of Remgrave that commanded it And doubtless because of his singular dexterity in shooting he was reputed a Witch as doing that which others could not do nor think to be in the power of man to do though indeed no miracle no witchcraft no impossibility nor difficulty consisted therein But this later story I can requite with a familiar example For at Town Malling in Kent one of Queen Maries Justices upon the complaint of many wise men and a few foolish boys laid an Archer by the heels because he shot so neer the white at Buts For he was informed and perswaded that the poor man played with a Fly otherwise called a Devil or familiar And because he was certified that the Archer aforesaid shot better than the common shooting which he before had heard of or seen he conceived it could not be in Gods Name but by Inchantment whereby this Archer as he supposed by abusing the Queens liege people gained some one day two or three shillings to the detriment of the Common-wealth and to his own inriching And therefore the Archer was severely punished to the great encouragement of Archers and to the wise example of Justices but specially to the overthrow of witchcraft And now again to our matter CHAP. XVI Authorities condemning the fantastical confessions of Witches and how a Popish Doctor taketh upon him to disprove the same CErtain general Councils by their Decrees have condemned the Confessions and erroneous credulity of Witches to be vain phantastical and fabulous And even those which are parcel of their league whereupon our Witchmongers do so build to wit their night-walkings and meetings with Herodias and the Pagan gods at which time they should pass so farr in so little aspace on cock-horse their transubstantiation their eating of children and their pulling of them from their mothers sides their entring into mens houses through chinks and little holes where a fly can scarcely wring out and the disquieting of the Inhabitants c. all which are not only said by a General Council to be meer phantastical and imaginations in dreams but so affirmed by the ancient writers The words of the Council are these It may not be omitted that certain wicked women following Satans provocations being seduced by the illusion of Devils believe and profess that in the night times they ride abroad with Diana the goddess of the Pagans or else with Herodiac with an innumerable multitude upon certain Beasts and pass over many Countries and Nations in the silence of the night and do whatsoever those fairies or Ladies command c. And it followeth even there Let all Ministers therefore in their several Cures preach to Gods people so as they may know all these things to be false c. It followeth in the same Council Therefore whosoever believeth that any creature may be either created by them or else changed into better or worse or be any way transformed into any other kind or likeness of any but of the Creator himself is assuredly an Infidel and worse than a Pagan And if this be credible then all these their bargains and assemblies c. are incredible which are only ratified by the certain foolish and extorted confessions and by a fable of S. Germane who watched the Faries or Witches being at a reer banquet and through his holiness stayed them till he sent to the houses of those neighbours which seemed to be there and found them all in bed and so cryed that these were Devils in the likeness of those women Which if it were as true as it is false it might serve well to confute this their meeting and night-walkings For if the Devils be only present in the likeness of Witches then is that false which is attributed to Witches in this behalf But because the old hammer of Sprenger and Institor in their old Malleo maleficarum was insufficient to knock down this Council a young Beetle-head called Frier Bartholomaeus Spinaeus hath made a new leaden beetle to beat down the counsel and kill these old women Wherein he counterfeiting Aesops Ass claweth the Pope with his heels affirming upon his credit that the Council is false and erroneus because the doctrin swerveth from the Popish Church and is not Authentical but Apocryphal saying though untruly that that Council was not called by the commandement and pleasure of the Pope nor ratified by his authority which saith he is sufficient to disanul all Councils For surely saith this Frier which at this instant is a chief Inquisitor if the words of this Council were to be admitted both I and all my predecessors have published notorious lies and committed many injurious executions whereby the Popes themselves also might justly be detected of error contrary to the Catholique belief in that behalf Marry he saith that although the words and direct sense of this counsel be quite contrary to truth and his opinion yet he will make an exposition thereof that shall somewhat mittigate the lewdness of the same and this he saith is not only allowable to do but also meritorious Mark the mans words and judge his meaning CHAP. XVII Witch-mongers Reasons to prove that Witches can work wonders Bodins tale of a Friseland Priest transported that imaginations proceeding of Melancholy do cause illusions OLd M. Malificarum also saith that the Counsels and Doctors were all deceived herein and alledging authority therefore confuteth that opinion by a notable reason called Petitio principii or rather Ignotum per ignotius in this manner They can put changlings in the place of other children Ergo they can transfer and transforme themselves and others c. according to their confession in that behalf Item he saith and Bodin justifieth it that a Priest in Frieseland was corporally transferred into a far Countrey as witnessed another Priest of Oberdorf his companion who saw him aloft in the air Ergo saith M. Mal. they have all been deceived hitherto to the great impunity of horrible Witches Wherein he opposeth his folly against God and his Church against the truth and against all possibility But surely it is almost incredible how imagination shall abuse such as are subject unto Melancholy so as they shall believe they see hear and do that which never was nor shall be as is partly declared if you read Galen de locis affectis and may more plainly appear also if you read Aristotle de Somnio And thereof
worse they are And till you have perused my Book ponder this in your mind to wit that Sagae Thessalae Striges Lamiae which words and none other being in use do properly signifie our Witches are not once found written in the old or new Testament and that Christ himself in his Gospel never mentioned the name of a Witch And that neither he nor Moses ever spake any one word of the Witches bargain with the Devil their hagging their riding in the Air their transferring of Corn or Grass from one field to another their hurting of Children or Cattel with words or charms their bewitching of Butter Cheese Ale c. nor yet their transubstantiation insomuch as the writers hereupon are not ashamed to say That it is not absurd to affirm that there were no Witches in Jobs time The reason is that if there had been such Witches then in being Job would have said he had been bewitched But indeed men took no heed in those dayes to this doctrine of Devils to wit to these fables of Witchcraft which Peter saith shall be much regarded and hearkned unto in the latter dayes Howbeit how ancient soever this barbarous conceit of Witches Omnipotency is Truth must not be measured by Time for every old Opinion is not sound Verity is not impaired how long soever it be suppressed but is to be searched out in how dark a corner soever it lye hidden for it is not like a cup of Ale that may be broached toe rathe Finally time bewrayeth old errors and discovereth new matters of truth Danaeus himself saith that this question hitherto hath never been handled nor the Scriptures concerning this matter have never been expounded To prove the antiquity of the cause to confirm the opinion of the ignorant to inforce mine Adversaries Arguments to aggravate the Punishment and to accomplish the Confusion of these old women is added the vanity and wickedness of them which are called Witches the arrogancy of those which take upon them to work Wonders the desire that people have to hearken to such miraculous matters unto whom most commonly an impossibility is more credible than a verity the ignorance of natural causes the ancient and universal hate conceived against the name of a Witch their ill-favoured faces their spiteful words their curses and imprecations their charmes made in rime and their beggery the fear of many foolish folk the opinion of some that are wise the want of Robin Good-fellow and the Fairies which were wont to maintain that and the common peoples talk in this behalf the authority of the Inquisitors the learning cunning consent and estimation of Writers herein the false translations and fond interpretations used specially by Papists and many other like causes All which toyes take such hold upon mens fancies as thereby they are led and enticed away from the consideration of true respects to the condemnation of that which they know not Howbeit I will by God's grace in this my Book so apparently decipher and confute these Cavils and all other their Objections as every Witchmonger shall be abashed and all good men thereby satisfied In the mean time I would wish them to know that if neither the estimation of God's Omnipotency nor the tenor of his Word nor the doubtfulness or rather the impossibility of the case nor the small proofs brought against them nor the rigor executed upon them nor the pitty that should be in a Christian heart nor yet their simplicity impotency or age may suffice to suppress the rage or rigor wherewith they are oppressed yet the consideration of their sex or kind ought to move some mitigation of their punishment For if nature as Pliny reporteth hath taught a Lyon not to deal so roughly with a Woman as with a Man because she is in body the weaker vessel and in heart more inclined to pitty which Jeremiah in his Lamentations seemeth to confirm what should a Man do in this case for whom a Woman was created as an help and comfort unto him In so much as even in the law of Nature it is a greater offence to stay a Woman than a Man not because the Man is not the more excellent creature but because a Woman is the weaker vessel And therefore among all modest and honest persons it is thought a shame to offer violence or injury to a Woman in which respect Virgil saith Nullum memorabile nomen Foeminea in poena est God that knoweth my heart is witness and you that read my Book shall see that my drift and purpose in this enterprise tendeth only to these respects First that the glory and power of God be not so abridged and abased as to be trust into the hand or lip of a lewd old Woman whereby the work of the Creator should be attributed to the power of ae Creature Secondly that the Religion of the Gospel may be seen to stand without such peevish trumpery Thirdly that lawful favour and Christian compassion be rather used towards these poor souls than rigor and extremity Because they which are commonly accused of Witchcraft are the least sufficient of all other persons to speak for themselves as having the most base and simple education of all others the extremity of their age giving them leave to dote their poverty to leg their wrongs to chide and threaten as being void of any other way of revenge their humor Melancholical to be full of imaginations from whence chiefly proceedeth the vanity of their confessions as that they can transform themselves and others into Apes Owls Asses Dogs Cats c. that they can flie in the Air kill Children with Charms hinder the coming of Butter c. And for so much as the Mighty help themselves together and the poor Widows cry though it reach to heaven is scarce heard upon earth I thought good according to my poor ability to make intercession that some part of common rigor and some points of hasty judgement may be advised upon For the world is now at that stay as Brentius in a most godly Sermon in these words affirmeth that even as when the Heathen persecuted the Christians if any were accused to believe in Christ the common people cryed Ad Leonem So now if any Woman be she never so honest be accused of Witchcraft they cry Ad Ignem What difference is between the rash dealing of unskilful people and the grave counsel of more discreet and learned persons may appear by a tale of Danaeus his own telling wherein he opposeth the rashness of a few Townsmen to the counsel of a whole Senate preferring the Folly of the one before the Wisdom of the other At Orleance on Loyre saith he there was a Man-witch not only taken and accused but also convicted and condemned for Witchcraft who appealed from thence to the high Court of Paris Which accusation the Senate saw insufficient and would not allow but laughed thereat lightly regarding it and in the end sent him
Hilarius Hippocrates Homerus Horatius Hostiensis Hovinus Hypertus Jacobus de Chusa Carthusianus Jamblichus Jaso Pratensis Innocentius 8. Papa Johannes Anglicus Johannes Baptista Neapolitanus Johannes Cassianus Johannes Montiregrus Johannes Rivius Josephus ben Gorion Josias Rimlerus Isidorus Isigonus Juba Julius Maternus Justinus Martyr Lactantius Lavaterus Laurentius Ananias Laurentius à Villavicentio Leo II. Pontifex Lex Salicarum Lex 12. Tabularum Legenda Aurea Legenda longa Coloniae Leonardus Vairus Livius Lucanus Lucretius Ludovicus Coelius Lutherus Macrobius Magna Charta Malleus Maleficarum Manlius Marbacchius Marbodeus Gallus Marsilius Ficinus Martinus de Arles Mattheolus Melancthonus Memphradorus Michael Andraeas Musculus Nauclerus Nicephorus Nicolaus 5. Papa Nider Olaus Gothus Origenes Ovidius Panormitanus Paulus Aegineta Paulus Marsus Persius Petrus de Appona Petrus Lombardus Petrur Martyr Peucer Philarohus Philastrius Brixiensis Philodorus Philo Judaeus Pirkmairus Platina Plato Plinius Plotinus Plutarchus Polydorus Virgilius Pomoerium sermonum Quadragesimalium Pompanatius Pontificale Ponzivibius Popphyrius Prochus Propertius Psellus Ptolomeus Pythagoras Quintilianus Rabbi Abraham Rabbi Ben Ezra Rabbi David Kimhi Rabbi Josuah Ben Levi. Rabbi Isaac Natar Rabbi Levi. Rabbi Moses Rabbi Sedajas Hajas Robertus Carocullus Rupertus Sabinus Sadoletus Savanorola Scotus Seneca Septuaginta interpretes Serapio Socrates Solinus Speculum exemplorum Strabo Sulpitius Severus Synesius Tatianus Tertullianus Thomas Aquinas Themistius Theodoretus Theodorus Bizantius Theophrastus Thucydides Tibullus Tremelius Valerius Maximus Varro Vegetius Vincentius Virgillius Vitellius Wierus Xantus Historiographus English Authors BArnaby Googe Beehive of the Romish Church Edward Deering Geoffrey Chaucer Giles Alley Gnimelf Maharba Henry Haward John Bale John Fox John Malborn John Record Primer after York use Richard Gallis Roger Bacon Testament Printed at Rhemes T. E. a nameless Authour 467. Thomas Hills Thomas Lupton Thomas Moore Knight Thomas Phaer T. R. a nameless Authour 393. William Lambard W. W. a nameless Authour 542. THE DISCOVERY OF Witchcraft BOOK I. CHHP. I. An impeachment of Witches power in Meteors and Elementary Bodies tending to the rebuke of such an attribute too much unto them THe Fables of Witchcraft have taken so fast hold and deep root in the heart of man that few or none can now adaies with patience indure the hand and correction of God For if any adversity grief sickness loss of children corn cattel or liberty happen unto them by and by they exclaim upon Witches As though there were no God in Israel that ordereth all things according to his will punishing both just and unjust with griefs plagues and afflictions in manner and form as he thinketh good but that certain old women here on earth called Witches must needs be the contrivers of all mens calamities and as though they themselves were innocents and had deserved no such punishments Insomuch as they stick not to ride and go to such as either are injuriously termed Witches or else are willing so to be accounted seeking at their hands comfort and remedy in time of their tribulation contrary to Gods Will and Commandement in that behalf who bids us resort to him in all our necessities Such faithless people I say are also perswaded that neither hail nor snow thunder nor lightning rain nor tempestuous winds come from the Heavens at the commandement of God but are raised by the cunning and power of Witches and Conjurers insomuch as a clap of thunder or a gale of wind is no sooner heard but either they run to ring bells or cry out to burn Witches or else burn consecrated things hoping by the smoak thereof to drive the Devil out of the air as though spirits could be fraid away with such external toies howbeit these are right inchantments as Brentius affirmeth But certainly it is neither a Witch nor Devil but a glorious God that maketh the thunder I have read in the Scriptures that God maketh the blustering tempests and whirl-winds and I find that it is the Lord that altogether dealeth with them and that they blow according to his will But let me see any of them all rebuke and still the sea in time of tempest as Christ did or raise the stormy wind as God did with his word and I will believe in them Hath any Witch or Conjurer or any creature entred into the treasures of the snow or seen the secret places of the hail which God hath prepared against the day of trouble battel and war I for my part also think with Jesus Sirach that at Gods only commandement the snow falleth and that the wind bloweth according to his will who only makeh all storms to cease and who if we keep his ordinances will send us rain in due season and make the land to bring forth her increase and the trees of the field to give their fruit But little think our Witch-mongers that the Lord commandeth the clouds above or openeth the doors of heaven as David affirmeth or that the Lord goeth forth in the tempests and storms as the Prophet Nahum reporteth but rather that Witches and Conjurers are then about their business The Marcionists acknowledged one God the Author of good things and another the ordainer of evil but these make the Devil a whole God to create things of nothing to know mens cogitations and to do that which God never did as to transubstantiate men into beasts c. Which thing if Devils could do yet followeth it not that Witches have such power But if all the Devils in Hell were dead and all the Witches in England were burned or hanged I warrant you we should not fail to have rain hail and tempests as now we have according to the appointment and will of God and according to the constitution of the Elements and the course of the Planets wherein God hath set a perfect and perpetual order I am also well assured that if all the old women in the world were Witches and all the Priests Conjurers we should not have a drop of rain nor a blast of wind the more or the less for them For the Lord hath bound the waters in the clouds and hath set bounds about the waters until the day and night come to an end yea it is God that raiseth the winds and stilleth them and he saith to the rain and snow Be upon the earth and it falleth The wind of the Lord and not the wind of Witches shall destroy the treasures of their pleasant vessels and dry up the fountains saith Oseas Let us also learn and confess with the Prophet David that we our selves are the causes of our afflictions and not exclaim upon Witches when we should call upon God for mercy The Imperial law saith Brentius condemneth them to death that trouble and infect the air but I affirm saith he that it is neither in the power of Witch nor Devil so to do but in God only Though besides Bodin and all the Popish Writers in general it please Danaeus Hyperius Hemingius Erastus
c. to conclude otherwise The clouds are called the pillars of Gods tents Gods chariots and his pavillions And if it be so what Witch or Devil can make masteries thereof S. Augustine saith Non est putandum istis transgressoribus angelis servire hanc rerum visibilium materiem sed soli Deo We must not think that these visible things are at the commandement of the Angels that fell but are obedient to the only God Finally If Witches could accomplish these things what needed it seem so strange to the people when Christ by miracle commanded both seas and winds c. For it is written Who is this for both wind and sea obey him CHAP. II. The inconvenience growing by mens Credulity herein with a reproof of some Church-men which are inclined to the common conceived opinion of Witches Omnipotencie and familiar example thereof BUt the world is now so bewitched and over-run with this fond error that even where a man should seek comfort and counsel there shall he be sent in case of necessity from God to the Devil and from the Physitian to the cosening Witch who will not stick to take upon her by words to heal the lame which was proper only to Christ and to them whom he assisted with his divine power yea with her familiar and charms she will take upon her to cure the blind though in the tenth of S. John's Gospel it be written that the Devil cannot open the eyes of the blind And they attain such credit as I have heard to my grief some of the ministery affirm that they have had in their Parish at one instant 17 or 18 Witches meaning such as could work Miracles supernaturally Whereby they manifested as well their infidelity and ignorance in conceiving Gods Word as their negligence and error in instructing their flocks For they themselves might understand and also teach their parishioners that God only worketh great wonders and that it is he which sendeth such punishments to the wicked and such trials to the Elect according to the saying of the Prophet Haggai I smote you with blasting and mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands and yet you turned not unto me saith the Lord. And therefore saith the same Prophet in another place You have sowen much and bring in little And both in Joel and Leviticus the like phrases and proofs are used and made But more shall be said of this hereafter S. Paul fore-saw the blindness and obstinancy both of these blind shepherds and also of their scabbed sheep when he said They will not suffer wholesome doctrine but having their ears itching shall get them a heap of Teachers after their own lusts and shall turn their ears from the Truth and shall be given to fables And in the latter time some shall depart from the Faith and shall give heed to Spirits of Errors and Doctrins of Devils which speak lies as Witches and Conjurers do but cast thou away such prophane and old wives fables In which sense Basil saith Who so giveth heed to Inchanters harkeneth to a fabulous and frivilous thing But I will rehearse an example whereof I my self am not only Oculatus testis but have examined the cause and am to justifie the truth of my report not because I would disgrace the Ministers that are godly but to confirm my former assertion that this absurd error is grown into the place which should be able to expel all such ridiculous folly and impiety At the Assizes holden at Rochester Anno 1581. one Margaret Simons the wife of John Simons of Brenchly in Kent was arraigned for witchcraft at the instigation and complaint of divers fond and malicious persons and specially by the means of one John Ferral Vicar of that Parish with whom I talked about that matter and found him both fondly assorted in the cause and enviously bent towards her and which is worse as unable to make a good account of his faith as she whom he accused That which he for his part laid to the poor womans charge was this His son being an ungracious boy and prentise to one Robert Scotchford clothier dwelling in that Parish of Brenchly passed on a day by her house at whom by chance her little Dog barked Which thing the boy taking in evil part drew his knife and pursued him therewith even to her door whom she rebuked with some such words as the boy disdained and yet nevertheless would not be perswaded to depart in a long time At the last he returned to his Masters house and within five or six days fell sick Then was called to mind the fray betwixt the Dog and the Boy insomuch as the Vicar who thought himself so priviledged as he little mistrusted that God would visit his children with sickness did so calculate as he found partly through his own judgement and partly as he himself told me by the relation of other Witches that his said son was by her bewitched Yea he also told me that this his son being as it were past all cure received perfect health at the hands of another Witch He proceeded yet further against her affirming that alwayes in his Parish-Church when he desired to read most plainly his voyce so failed him as he could scant be heard at all Which he could impute he said to nothing else but to her inchantment When I advertised the poor woman hereof as being desirous to hear what she could say for her self she told me that in very deed his voyce did much fail him specially when he trained himself to speak lowdest Howbeit she said that at all times his voyce was hoarse and low which thing I perceived to be true But Sir said she you shall understand that this our Vicar is diseased with such a kind of hoarseness as divers of our neighbours in this Parish not long since doubted that he had the French-Pox and in that respect utterly refused to communicate with him until such time as being thereunto injoyned by M.D. Lewen the ordinary he had brought from London a certificate under the hands of two Physitians that his hoarseness proceeded from a disease in the lungs Which certificate he published in the Church in the presence of the whole Congregation and by this means he was cured or rather excused of the shame of his disease And this I know to be true by the relation of divers honest men of that Parish And truly if one of the Jury had not been wiser than the other she had been condemned thereupon and upon other as ridiculous matters as this For the name of a Witch is so odious and her power so feared among the common people that if the honestest body living chance to be arraigned thereupon she shall hardly escape condemnation CHAP. III. Who they be that are called Witches with a manifest Declaration of the cause that moveth men so commonly to think and Witches themselves to believe that they can
from one place to another Some that they can cure Diseases supernaturally flie in the Air and dance with Devils Some write that they can play the part of Succubus and contract themselves to Incubus and so young Prophets are upon them begotten c. Some say they can transubstantiate themselves and others and take the forms and shapes of Asses Wolves Ferrets Cows Apes Horses Dogs c. Some say they can keep Devils and Spirits in the likeness of Todes and Cats They can raise spirits as others affirm dry up Springs turn the course of running waters inhibit the Sun and stay both day and night changing the one into the other They can go in and out at awger-holes and sail in an Egge-shel a Cockle or Muscel-shel through and under the tempestuous Seas They can go invisible and deprive men of their Privities and otherwise of the act and use of Venery They can bring souls out of graves They can tear Snakes in pieces with words and with looks kill Lambs But in this case a man may say that Miranda canunt sed non credenda Poetae They can also bring to pass that Chern as long as you list your Butter will not come especially if either the Maids have eaten up the Cream or the good-wife have sold the Butter before in the market Whereof I have had some trial although there may be true and natural causes to hinder the common course thereof as for example Put a little Sope or Sugar into your Chern of Cream and there will never come any Butter chern as long as you list But M. Mal. saith that there is not so little a Village where many women are not that bewitch infect and kill kine and dry up the Mik alledging for the strengthening of that assertion the saying of the Apostle Nunquid Deo cura est de Bobus doth God take any care of Oxen CHAP. V. A Confutation of the common conceiued Opinion of Witches and Witchcraft and how detestable a sin it is to repair to them for counsel or other help in time of affliction BUt whatsoever is reported or conceived of such manner of Witchcrafts I dare avow to be false and fabulous cosenage dotage and poysoning excepted neither is there any mention made of these kind of Witches in the Bible If Christ had known them he would not have pretermitted to inveigh against their presumption in taking upon them his Office as to heal and cure diseases and to work such miraculous and supernatural things as whereby he himself was specially known believed and published to be God his actions and cures consisting in order and effect according to the power by our Witchmongers imputed to Witches Howbeit if there be any in these dayes afflicted in such strange sort as Christs cures and patients are described in the New Testament to have been we fly from trusting in God to trusting in Witches who do not only in their cosening art take on them the office of Christ in this behalf but use his very phrase of speech to such Idolaters as come to seek divine assistance at their hands saying Go thy wayes thy son or thy daughter c. shall do well and be whole It will not suffice to disswade a Witchmonger from his credulity that he seeth the sequel and event to fall out many times contrary to their assertion but in such case to his greater condemnation he seeketh further to Witches of greater fame If all fail he will rather think he came in an hour too late than that he went a mile too far Truly I for my part cannot perceive what it is to goe a whoring after strange gods if this be not He that looketh upon his neighbours wife and lusteth after her hath committed adultery And truly he that in heart and by argument maintained the sacrifice of the Mass to be propitiatory for the quick and the dead is an Idolater as also he that alloweth and commendeth creeping to the cross and such like Idolatrous actions although he bend not his corporall knees In like manner I say he that attributeth to a witch such divine power as duly and only appertaineth unto GOD which all Witchmongers do is in heart a blasphemer an Idolater and full of gross impiety although he neither go nor send to her for assistance CHAP. VI. A further confutation of Witches miraculous and omnipotent power by invincible reasons and authorities with disswasions from such fond credulity IF Witches could do any such miraculous things as these and other which are imputed to them they might do them again and again at any time or place or at any mans desire for the devil is as strong at one time as at another as busie by day as by night and ready enough to do all mischief and careth not whom he abuseth And insomuch as it is confessed by the most part of Witchmongers themselves that he knoweth not the cogitation of mans heart he should me thinks sometimes appear unto honest and credible persons in such gross and corporal form as it is said he doth unto Witches which you shall never hear to be justified by one sufficient witness For the devil indeed entreth into the mind and that way seeketh mans confusion The art alwayes presupposeth the power so as if they say they can do this or that they must shew how and by what means they do it as neither the Witches nor the Witchmongers are able to do For to every action is required the faculty and ability of the agent or doer the aptness of the patient or subject and a convenient and possible application Now the Witches are mortal and their power dependeth upon the analogy and consonancy of their minds and bodies but with their minds they can but will and understand and with their bodies they can do no more but as the bounds and ends of terrene sense will suffer and therefore their power extended not to do such miracles as surmounteth their own sense and the understanding of others which are wiser than they so as here wanteth the vertue and power of the efficient And in reason there can be no more vertue in the thing caused than in the cause or that which proceedeth of or from the benefit of the cause And we see that ignorant and impotent women or Witches are the causes of incantations and charms wherein we shall perceive there is none effect if we will credit our own experience and sense unabused the rules of Philosophy or the Word of God For alas What an unapt instrument is a toothless old impotent and unwieldy woman to flie in the air Truely the Devil little needs such instruments to bring his purposes to pass It is strange that we should suppose that such persons can work such feats and it is more strange that we will imagine that to be possible to be done by a witch which to nature and sense is impossible specially when our neighbours life dependeth upon our
credulity therein and when we may see the defect of ability which alwayes is an impediment both to the act and also to the presumption thereof And because there is nothing possible in law that in nature is impossible therefore the judge doth not attend or regard what the accused man saith or yet would do but what is proved to have been committed and naturally falleth in mans power and will to do For the law saith that to will a thing impossible is a sign of a mad-man or of a fool upon whom no sentence or judgement taketh hold Furthermore what Jury will condemn or what Judge will give sentence or judgement against one for killing a man at Berwick when they themselves and many other saw that man at London that very day wherein the murther was committed yea though the party confess himself guilty therein and twenty witnesses depose the same But in this case also I say the Judge is not to weigh their testimony which is weakened by Law and the Judges authority is to supply the imperfection of the case and to maintain the right and equity of the same Seeing therefore that some other things might naturally be the occasion and cause of such calamities as witches are supposed to bring let not us that profess the Gospel and knowledge of Christ be bewitched to believe that they do such things as are in nature impossible and in sense and reason incredible If they say it is done through the Devils help who can work miracles why doe not theeves bring their business to pass miraculously with whom the Devil is as conversant as with the other Such mischiefs as are imputed to witches happen where no witches are yea and continue when witches are hanged and burnt why then should we attribute such effect to that cause which being taken away happeneth nevertheless CHAP. VII By what means the name of Witches becometh so famous and how diversly people be opinioned concerning them and their actions SUrely the natural power of man or woman cannot be so inlarged as to do any thing beyond the power and vertue given and ingraffed by God But it is the will and mind of man which is vitiated and depraved by the devil neither doth God permit any more than that which the natural order appointed by him doth require Which natural order is nothing else but the ordinary power of God powred into every creature according to his state and condition But hereof more shall be said in the title of witches confessions Howbeit you shall understand that few or none are throughly perswaded resolved or satisfied that witches can indeed accomplish all these impossibilities but some one is bewitched in one point and some are cosened in another untill in fine all these impossibilities and many more are by several persons affirmed to be true And this I have also noted that when any one is cosened with a cosening toye of witch-craft and maketh report thereof accordingly verifying a matter most impossible and false as it were upon his own knowledge as being overtaken with some kind of illusion or other which illusions are right inchantments even the self-same man will deride the like proceeding out of another mans mouth as a fabulous matter unworthy of credit It is also to be wondered how men that have seen some part of witches cosenages detected and see also therein the impossibility of their own presumptions and the folly and falshood of the witches confessions will not suspect but remain unsatisfied or rather obstinately defend the residue of witches supernatural actions like as when a jugler hath discovered the slight and illusion of his principal feats one would fondly continue to think that his other petty juggling knacks of legierdemain are done by the help of a familiar and according to the folly of some Papists who seeing and confessing the Popes absurd Religion in the erection and maintenance of Idolatry and Superstition specially in Images Pardons and Reliques of Saints will yet persevere to think that the rest of his doctrine and trumpery is holy and good Finally many maintain and cry out for the execution of witches that particularly believe never a whit of that which is imputed unto them if they be therein privately dealt withall and substantially opposed and tryed in argument CHAP. VIII Causes that move as well Witches themselves as others to think that they can work impossibilities with answers to certain objections where also their punishment by Law is touched CArdanus writeth that the cause of such credulity consisteth in three points to wit in the imagination of the melancholick in the constancy of them that are corrupt therewith and in the deceit of the Judges who being inquisitors themselves against hereticks and witches did both accuse and condemn them having for their labour the spoil of their goods So as these inquisitors added many fables hereunto lest they should seem to have done injury to the poor wretches in condemning and executing them for none offence But sithence saith he the springing up of Luthers sect these Priests have tended more diligently upon the execution of them because more wealth is to be caught from them insomuch as now they deal so loosly with witches through distrust of gains that all is seen to be malice folly or avarice that hath been practised against them And whosoever shall search into this cause or read the chief writers hereupon shall find his words true It will be objected that we here in England are not now directed by the Popes Laws and so by consequence our witches not troubled or convented by the Inquisitors Haereticae pravitatis I answer that in times past here in England as in other nations this order of discipline hath been in force and use although now some part of the old rigour be qualified by two several Statutes made in the first of Elizabeth and 33 of Henry the eight Nevertheless the estimation of the omnipotency of their words or charmes seemeth in those statutes to be somewhat maintained as a matter hitherto generally received and not yet so looked into as that it is refuted and decided But how wisely soever the Parliament-house hath dealt therein or how mercifully soever the Prince beholdeth the cause if a poor old woman supposed to be a Witch be by the Civil or Canon Law convented I doubt some Canon will be found in force not only to give scope to the tormentor but also to the hangman to exercise their offices upon her And most certain it is that in what point soever any of these extremities which I shall rehearse unto you be mitigated it is through the goodness of the Queens Majesty and her excellent Magistrates placed amongst us For as touching the opinion of our Writers therein in our age yea in our Countrey you shall see it doth not only agree with foreign cruelty but surmounteth it far If you read a foolish Pamphlet dedicated to the Lord Darcy by W.W.
upon the rack or torture their apparel must be changed and every hair in their body must be shaven off with a sharp razor Item If they have charms for taciturnity so as they feel not the common tortures and therefore confess nothing then some sharp instrument must be thrust betwixt every nail of their fingers and toes which as Bodin saith was King Childeberts devise and is to this day of all others the most effectual For by means of that extreme pain they will saith he confess any thing Item Paulus Grillandus being an old doer in these matters wisheth that when Witches sleep and feel no pain upon the torture Domine labia mea aperies should be said and so saith he both the torments will be felt and the truth will be uttered Et sic ars deluditur arte Item Bodin saith that at the time of examination there should be a semblance of great ado to the terrifying of the Witch and that a number of instruments ginns manacles ropes halters fetters c. be prepared brought forth and laid before the examinate and also that some be procured to make a most horrible and lamentable cry in the place of torture as though he or she were upon the rack or in the tormentors hands so as the examinate may hear it whiles she is examined before she her self be brought into the prison and perhaps saith he she will by this means confess the matter Item There must be subborned some crafty spy that may seem to be a prisoner with her in the like case who perhaps may in conference undermine her and so bewray and discover her Item If she will not yet confess she must be told that she is detected and accused by other of her companions and although in truth there be no such matter and so perhaps she will confess the rather to be revenged upon her adversaries and accusers CHAP. III. Matters of Evidence against Witches IF an old woman threaten or touch one being in health who dieth shortly after or else is infected with the Leprosie Apoplexie or any other strange disease it is saith Bodin a permanent fact and such an evidence as condemnation or death must insue without further proof if any body have mistrusted her or said before that she was a Witch Item If any come in or depart out of the chamber or house the doors being shut it is an apparent and sufficient evidence to a witches condemnation without further tryal which thing Bodin never saw If he can shew me that feat I will subscribe to his folly For Christ after his resurrection used the same not as a ridiculous toy that every Witch might accomplish but as a special miracle to strengthen the faith of the Elect. Item If a woman bewitch any bodies eyes she is to be executed without further proof Item If any inchant or bewitch mens Beasts or Corn or flie in the air or make a Dog speak or cut off any mans members and unite them again to men or childrens bodies it is sufficient proof to condemnation Item Presumptions and conjectures are sufficient proofs against Witches Item If three witnesses do but say Such a woman is a Witch then it is a clear case that she is to be executed with death Which matter Bodin saith is not only certain by the Canon and Civil Laws but by the opinion of Pope Innocent the wisest Pope as he saith that ever was Item The complaint of any one man of credit is sufficient to bring a poor woman to the rack or pully Item A condemned or infamous persons testimony is good and allowable in matters of Witch-craft Item A Witch is not to be delivered though she endure all the tortures and confess nothing as all other are in any criminal cases Item Though in other cases the depositions of many women at one instant are disabled as sufficient in law because of the imbecility and frailty of their nature or sex yet in this matter one woman though she be a party either accuser or accused and be also infamous and impudent for such are Bodins words yea and already condemned she may nevertheless serve to accuse and condemn a Witch Item A witness uncited and offering himself in this case is to be heard and in none other Item A captial Enemy if the enmity be pretended to grow by means of Witchcraft may object against a Witch and none exception is to be had or made against him Item Although the proof of perjury may put back a witness in all other causes yet in this a perjured person is a good and lawful witness Item The Proctors and Advocates in this case are compelled to be witnesses against their Clients in none other case they are to be constrained thereunto Item None can give evidence against Witches touching their assemblies but Witches only as Bodin saith none other can do it Howbeit Ri. Ga. writeth that he came to the God-speed and with his sword and Buckler killed the Devil or at the last he wounded him so sore that he made him stink of Brimstone Item Bodin saith that because this is an extraordinary matter there must herein be extraordinary dealing and all manner of wayes are to be used direct and indirect CHAP. IV. Confessions of Witches whereby the are condemned SOme Witches confess saith Bodin that are desirous to dye not for glory but for despair because they are tormented in their life time But these may not be spared saith he although the law doth excuse them The best and surest confession is at strife to her ghostly father Item If she confess many things that are false and one thing that may be true she is to be taken and executed upon that confession Item She is not so guilty that confesseth a falshood or a lye and denyeth a truth as she that answereth by circumstance Item An equivocal or doubtful answer is taken for a confession against a Witch Item Bodin reporteth that one confessed that he went out or rather up in the air and was transported many miles to the Fairies dance only because he would spy unto what place his wife went to hagging and how she behaved her self Whereupon was much ado among the Inquisitors and Lawyers to discuss whether he should be executed with his wife or no But it was concluded that he must die because he bewrayed not his wife the which he forbare to do Propter reverentiam honoris familiae Item If a woman confess freely herein before question be made and yet afterward deny it she is nevertheless to be burned Item They affirm that this extremity is herein used because not one among a thousand Witches is detected And yet it is affirmed by Sprenger in M. Mal. that there is not so little a Parish but there are many Witches known to be there CHAP. V. Presumptions whereby Witches are condemned IF any womans Child chance to dye at her hand so as no body knoweth how
it may not be thought or presumed that the Mother killed it except she be supposed a Witch and in that case it is otherwise for she must upon that presumption be executed except she can prove the negative or contrary Item If the child of a woman that is suspected to be a Witch be lacking or gone from her it is to be presumed that she hath sacrificed it to the Devil except she can prove the negative or contrary Item Though in other persons certain points of their Confessions may be thought erroneous and imputed to error yet in Witches causes all oversights imperfections and escapes must be adjudged impious and malicious and tend to her confusion and condemnation Item Though a Theif be not said in law to be infamous in any other matter than in theft yet a Witch defamed of witchcraft is said to be defiled with all manner of faults and infamies universally though she were not condemned but as I said defamed with the name of Witch For rumors and reaports are sufficient saith Bodin to condemn a Witch Item If any man woman or child do say that such a one is a Witch it is a most vehement suspicion saith Bodin and sufficient to bring her to rack though in all other cases it be directly against law Item In presumptions and suspicions against a Witch the common brute or voyce of the people cannot err Item If a woman when she is apprehended cry out or say I am undone Save my life I will tell you how the matter standeth c. she is thereupon most vehemently to be suspected and condemned to dy Item Though a Conjurer be not to be condemned for curing the diseased by vertue of his Art yet must a Witch die for the like case Item The behaviour looks becks and countenance of a woman are sufficient signes whereby to presume she is a Witch for always they look down to the ground and dare not look a man full in the face Item If their Parents were thought to be Witches then it is certainly to be presumed that they are so but it is not so to be thought of Whores Item It is a vehement presumption if she cannot weep at the time of her examination and yet Bodin saith that a Witch may shed three drops out of her right eye Item It is not only a vehement suspition and presumption but an evident proof of a Witch if any man or beast dye suddenly where she hath been seen lately although her witching-stuffe be not found or espyed Item If any body use familiarity or company with a Witch convicted it is a sufficient presumption against that person to be adjudged a Witch Item That evidence that may serve to bring in any other person to examination may serve to bring a Witch to her condemnation Item Herein judgment must be pronounced and executed as Bodin saith without order and not like to the orderly proceeding and form of judgment in other crimes Item A Witch may not be brought to the torture suddenly or before long examination least she go away scot-free for they feel no torments and therefore care not for the same as Bodin affirmeth Item Little children may be had to the torture at the first dash but so may it not be done with old women as is aforesaid Item If she have any privy mark under her arm-pits under her hair under her lip or in her buttock or in her privities it is a presumption sufficient for the Judge to proceed and give sentence of death upon her The only pity they shew to a poor woman in this case is that though she be accused to have slain any body with her Inchantments yet if she can bring forth the party alive she shall not be put to death Whereat I marvel in as much as they can bring the Devil in any bodies likeness and representation Item Their Law saith that an uncertain presumption is sufficient when a certain presumption faileth CHAP. VI. Particular Interrogatories used by the Inquisitors against Witches I Need not stay to confute such partial and horrible dealings being so apparently impious and full of tyranny which except I should have so manifestly detected even with their own writings and assertions few or none would have believed But for brevities sake I will pass over the same supposing that the citing of such absurdities may stand for a sufficient confutation thereof Now therefore I will proceed to a more particular order and manner of examinations c. used by the Inquisitors and allowed for the most part throughout all Nations First the Witch must be demanded why she touched such a child or such a cow c. and afterward the same child or cow fell sick or lame c. Item Why her two Kine give more milk than her neighbours And the note before mentioned is here again set down to be specially observed of all men to wit that though a Witch cannot weep yet she may speak with a crying voyce Which assertion of weeping is false and contrary to the saying of Seneca Cato and many others which affirm that a woman weepeth when she meaneth most deceipt and therefore saith M. Mal. she must be well looked unto otherwise she will put spittle privily upon her cheeks seem to weep which rule also Bodin saith is infallible But alas that tears should be thought sufficient to excuse or condemn in so great a cause and so weighty a tryal I am sure that the worst sort of the children of Israel wept bitterly yea if there were any Witches at all in Israel they wept For it is written That all the children of Israel wept Finally if there be any Witches in Hell I am sure they weep for there is weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth But God knoweth many an honest Matron cannot sometimes in the heaviness of her heart shed tears the which oftentimes are more ready and common with crafty queans and strumpets than with sober women For we read of two kinds of tears in a womans eye the one of true grief the other of deceipt And it is written that Dediscere flere foeminium est mendacium which argueth that they lye which say that wicked women cannot weep But let these Tormentors take heed that the tears in this case which run down the widows cheeks with their cry spoken by Jesus Syrach be not heard above But lo what learned godly and lawful means these Popish Inquisitors have invented for the trial of true or false tears CHAP. VII The Inquisitors tryal of Weeping by Conjuration I Conjure thee by the amorous tears which Jesus Christ our Saviour shed upon the Cross for the salvation of the world and by the most earnest and burning tears of his Mother the most glorious Virgin Mary sprinkled upon his wounds late in the evening and by all the tears which every Saint and elect Vessel of God hath poured out here in the world and
from those eyes he hath wiped away all tears that if thou be without fault thou mayst pour down tears abundantly and if thou be guilty that thou weep in no wise In the name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy-Ghost Amen And note saith he that the more you conjure the less she weepeth CHAP. VIII Certain Cautions against Witches and of their Tortures to procure Confession BUt to manifest their further follies I will recite some of their cautions which are published by the ancient Inquisitors for perpetual lessons of their successors as followeth The first caution is that which was last rehearsed concerning weeping the which say they is an infallible note Secondly the Judg must beware she touch no part of him specially of his bare skin and that he always wear about his neck conjured Salt Palm Hearbs and Wax hallowed which say they are not only approved to be good by the Witches confessions but also by the use of the Romish Church which halloweth them only for that purpose Item she must come to her arreignment backward to wit with her tail to the Judges face who must make many crosses at the time of her approaching to the Bar. And least we should condemn that for superstition they prevent us with a figure and tell us that the same superstition may not seem superstitious unto us But this resembleth the perswasion of a theif that disswadeth his son from stealing and nevertheless telleth him that he may pick or cut a purse and rob by the high way One other caution is that she must be shaven so as there remain not one hair about her for sometimes they keep secrets for taciturnity and for other purposes also in their hair in their privities and between their skin and their flesh For which cause I marvel they flea them not for one of their Witches would not burn being in the midst of the flame as M. Mal. reporteth until a charm written in a little scroll was espyed to be hidden between her skin and flesh and taken away And this so gravely and faithfully set down by the Inquisitors themselves that one may believe it if he list though indeed it be a very lye The like citeth Bodin of a Witch that could not be strangled by the Executioner do what he could But it is most true that the Inquisitor Cumanus in one year did shave one and fourty poor women and burnt them all when he had done Another caution is that at the time and place of torture the hallowed things aforesaid with the seven words spoken on the Cross be hanged about the Witches neck and the length of Christ in wax be knit about her bare naked body with Reliques of Saints c. All which stuffe say they will so work within and on them as when they are racked and tortured they can hardly stay or hold themselves from confession In which case I doubt not but that Pope which blasphemed Christ and cursed his Mother for a Peacock and cursed God with great despights for a piece of Pork with less compulsion would have renounced the Trinity and have worshipped the Devil upon his knees Another caution is that after she hath been racked and passed over all tortures devised for that purpose and after that she hath been compelled to drink holy water she be conveyed again to the place of torture and that in the midst of her torments her accusations be read unto her and that the witnesses if they will be brought face to face unto her and finally that she be asked whether for trial of her innocency she will have judgment Candentis ferri which is To carry a certain weight of burning Iron in her bare hand But that may not say they in any wise be granted For both M. Mal. and Bodin also affirm that many things may be promised but nothing need be performed for why they have authority to promise but no Commission to perform the same Another caution is that the Judge take heed that when she once beginneth to confess he cut not off her examination but continue it night and day For many times whiles they go to dinner she returneth to her vomit Another caution is that after the Witch hath confessed the annoying of men and beasts she be asked how long she hath had Incubus when she renounced the faith and made the real league and what that league is c. And this is indeed the chief cause of all their incredible and impossible confessions for upon the rack when they have once begun to lye they will say what the Tormentor list The last caution is that if she will not confess she be had to some strong Castle or Goal And after certain days the Jayler must make her believe he goeth into some far Countrey and then some of her friends must come in to her and promise her that if she will confess to them they will suffer her to escape out of Prison which they may well do the Keeper being from home And this way saith M. Mal. hath served when all other means have failed And in this place it may not be omitted that above all other times they confess upon frydayes Now saith James Sprenger and Henry Institor we must say all to wit If she confess nothing she should be dismissed by law and yet by order she may in no wise be bailed but must be put into close Prison and there be talked withal by some crafty person those are the words and in the mean while there must be some eves-droppers with pen and ink behind the wall to hearken and note what she confesseth or else some of her old companions and acquaintance may come in and talk with her of old matters and so by eves-droppers be also bewrayed so as there shall be no end of torture before she have confessed what they will CHAP. IX The fifteen crimes laid to the charge of Witches by Witchmongers specially by Bodin in Daemonomania THey deny God and all Religion Answ Then let them dye therefore or at the least be used like Infidels or Apostates They curse blaspheme and provoke God with all despite Answ Then let them have the Law expressed in Levit. 24. and Deut. 13. 17. They give their faith to the Devil and they worship and offer sacrifice unto him Answ Let such also be judged by the same law They do solemnly vow and promise all their progenie unto the Devil Answ This promise proceedeth from an unsound mind and is not to be regarded because they cannot perform it neither will it be proved true Howbeit if it be done by any that is sound of mind let the curse of Jeremy 32.36 light upon them to wit the Sword Famine and Pestilence They sacrifice their own children to the Devil before baptism holding them up in the air unto him and then thrust a needle into their brains Answ If this be true I maintain
weakness both of body and brain the aptest persons do meet with such melancholick imaginations with whom their imaginations remain even when their senses are gone Which Bodin laboureth to disprove therein shewing himself as good a Physician as elsewhere a Divine But if they may imagine that they can transform their own bodies which nevertheless remain in the former shape how much more credible is it that they may falsly suppose they can hurt and infeeble other mens bodies or which is less hinder the coming of butter c. But what is it that they will not imagine and consequently confess that they can do especially being so earnestly perswaded thereunto so sorely tormented so craftily examined with such promises of favour as whereby they imagine that they shall ever after live in great credit and wealth c. If you read the executions done upon Witches either in times past in other countreys or lately in this land you shall see such impossibilities confessed as none having his right wits will believe Among other like false confessions we read that there was a Witch confessed at the time of her death or execution that she had raised all the tempests and procured all the frosts and hard weather that hapned in the Winter 1565. and that many grave and wise men believed her CHAP. X. That voluntary confessions may be untruly made to the undoing of the confessors and of the strange operation of melancholy proved by a familiar and late example BUt that it may appear that even voluntary confession in this case may be untruly made though it tend to the destruction of the confessor and that melancholy may move imaginations to that effect I will cite a notable instance concerning this matter the parties themselves being yet alive and dwelling in the parish or Sellenge in Kent and the matter not long sithence in this sort performed One Ade Davie the wife of Simon Davie husband-man being reputed a right honest body and being of good parentage grew suddenly as her husband informed me and as it is well known in these parts to be somewhat pensive and more sad than in times past Which thing though it grieved him yet he was loth to make it so appear as either his wife might be troubled or discontented therewith or his neighbours informed thereof lest ill husbandry should be laid to his charge which in these quarters is much abhorred But when she grew from pensiveness to some perturbation of mind so as her accustomed rest began in the night season to be withdrawn from her through sighing and secret lamentation and that not without tears he could not but demand the cause of her conceit and extraordinary mourning But although at that time she covered the same acknowledging nothing to be amiss with her soon after notwithstanding she fell down before him on her knees desiring him to forgive her for she had grievously offended as she said both God and him Her poor husband being abashed at this her behaviour comforted her as he could asking her the cause of her trouble and grief who told him that she had contrary to Gods Law and to the offence of all good Christians to the injury of him and specially to the loss of her own soul bargained and given her soul to the Devil to be delivered unto him within short space Whereunto her husband answered saying Wife be of good cheer this thy bargain is void and of none effect for thou hast sold that which is none of thine to sell sith it belongeth to Christ who hath bought it and deerly paid for it even with his bloud which he shed upon the Cross so as the Devil hath no interest in thee After this with like submission tears and penitence she said unto him Oh husband I have yet committed another fault and done you more injury for I have bewitched you and your children Be content quoth he by the grace of God Jesus Christ shall unwitch us for none evil can happen to them that fear God And as truly as the Lord liveth this was the tenor of his words unto me which I know is true as proceeding from unfained lips and from one that feareth God Now when the time approached that the Devil should come and take possession of the woman according to his bargain he watched and prayed earnestly and caused his wife to read Psalms and Prayers for mercy at Gods hands and suddenly about mid-night there was a great rumbling below under his chamber-window which amazed them exceedingly For they conceived that the Devil was below though he had no power to come up because of their fervent Prayer He that noteth this womans first and second confession freely and voluntarily made how every thing concurred that might serve to add credit thereunto and yield matter for her condemnation would not think but that if Bodin were fore-man of her Inquest he would cry Guilty and would hasten execution upon her who would have said as much before any Judge in the World if she had been examined and have confessed no less if she had been arraigned thereupon But God knoweth she was innocent of any of these crimes howbeit she was brought low and pressed down with the weight of this humor so as both her rest and sleep were taken away from her and her fansies troubled and disquieted with despair and such other cogitations as grew by occasion thereof And yet I believe if any mishap had insued to her husband or his children few Witchmongers would have judged otherwise but that she had bewitched them And she for her part so constantly perswaded her self to be a Witch that she judged her self worthy of death insomuch as being retained in her chamber she saw not any one carrying a faggot to the fire but she would say it was to make a fire to burn her for Witchery But God knoweth she had bewitched none neither insued there any hurt unto any by her imagination but unto her self And as for the rumbling it was by occasion of a sheep which was flayed and hung by the wals so as a Dog came and devoured it whereby grew the noise which I before mentioned and she being now recovered remaineth a right honest woman far from such impiety and ashamed of her imaginations which she perceiveth to have grown through melancholy CHAP. XI The strange and divers effects of Melancholy and how the same humor abounding in Witches or rather old women filleth them full of marvellous imaginatians and that their confessions are not to be credited BUt in truth this Melancholick humor as the best Physitians affirm is the cause of all their strange impossible and incredible confessions which are so fond that I wonder how any men can be abused thereby Howbeit these affections though they appear in the mind of man yet are they bred in the body and proceed from this humor which is the very dregs of bloud nourishing and feeding those places from
whence proceed fears cogitations superons fastings labours and such like This maketh sufferance of torments and as some say fore sight of things to come and preserveth health as being cold and dry it maketh men subject to leanneses and to the Quartane Ague They that are vexed therewith are destroyers of themselves stout to suffer injuries fearful to offer violence except the humor be hot They learn strange tongues with small industry as Aristotle and others affirm If our Witches phantasies were not corrupted nor their wills confounded with this humor they would not so voluntarily and readily confess that which calleth their life in question whereof they could never otherwise be convicted J. Bodin with his Lawyers Physick reasoneth contrarily as though melancholy were furthest of all from those old women whom we call Witches deriding the most famous and noble Physitian John Wier for his opinion in that behalf But because I am no Physitian I will set a Physitian to him namely Erastus who hath these words that these Witches through their corrupt phantasie abounding with melancholick humors by reason of their old age do dream and imagine they hurt those things which they neither could nor do hurt and so think they know an Art which they neither have learned nor yet understand But why should there be more credit given to Witches when they say they have made a real bargain with the Devil killed a Cow bewitched Butter infeebled a Child fore-spoken her neighbour c. than when she confesseth that she transubstantiateth her self maketh it rain or hail flyeth in the air goeth invisible transferreth Corn in the Grass from one field to another c. If you think that in the one their confessions be sound why should you say that they are corrupt in the other the confession of all these things being made at one instant and affirmed with like constancy or rather audacity But you see the one to be impossible and therefore you think thereby that their confessions are vain and false The other you think may be done and see them confess it and therefore you conclude Aposse ad esse as being perswaded it is so because you think it may be so But I say both with the Divines and Philosophers that that which is imagined of Witchcraft hath no truth of action or being besides their imagination the Witch for the most part is occupied in false causes For whosoever desireth to bring to pass an impossible thing hath a vain and idle and childish perswasion bred by an unsound mind for Sanae mentis voluntas voluntas rei possibilis est The will of a sound mind is the desire of a possible thing CHAP. XII A Confutation of Witches Confessions especially concerning their League BUt it is objected that Witches confess they renounce the faith and as their confession must be true or else they would not make it so must their fault be worthy of death or else they should not be executed Whereunto I answer as before that their confessions are extorted or else proceed from an unsound mind Yea I say further that we our selves which are sound of mind and yet seek any other way of salvation than Christ Jesus or break his Commandements or walk not in his steps with a lively faith c. do not only renounce the faith but God himself and therefore they in confessing that they forsake God and imbrace Satan do that which we all should do As touching that horrible part of their confession in the league which tendeth to the killing of their own and others children the seething of them and the making of their potion or pottage and the effects thereof their good fridayes meeting being the day of their deliverance their incests their return at the end of nine moneths when commonly women be neither able to go that journey nor to return c. it is so horrible unnatural unlikely and unpossible that if I should behold such things with mine eyes I should rather think my self dreaming drunken or some way deprived of my senses than give credit to so horrible and filthy matters How hath the Oyl or Pottage of a sodden child such vertue as that a staffe anointed therewith can carry folk in the air Their potable liquor which they say maketh Masters of that faculty Is it not ridiculous And is it not by the opinion of all Philosophers Physitians and Divines void of such vertue as is imputed thereunto Their not fasting on fridayes and their fasting on sundays their spitting at the time of elevation their refusal of Holy-water their despising of superstitious Crosses c. which are all good steps to true Christianity help me to confute the residue of their confessions CHAP. XIII A Confutation of Witches Confessions concerning making of Tempests and Rain of the natural cause of Rain and that Witches or Devils have no power to do such things ANd to speak more generally of all the impossible actions referred unto them as also of their false Confessions I say that there is none which acknowledgeth God to be only Omnipotent and the only worker of all Miracles nor any other indued with mean sense but will deny that the Elements are obedient to Witches and at their Commandement or that they may at their pleasure send Rain Hail Tempests Thunder Lightning when she being but an old doting woman casteth a flint-stone over her left shoulder towards the West or hurleth a little Sea-sand up into the Element or wetteth a Broom-sprig in water and sprinkleth the same in the air or diggeth a pit in the earth and putting water therein stirreth it about with her finger or boileth Hogs bristles or layeth sticks across upon a bank where never a drop of water is or buryeth Sage till it be rotten all which things are confessed by Witches and affirmed by writers to be the means that Witches use to move extraordinary Tempests and Rain c. We read in M. Maleficarum that a little Girl walking abroad with her Father in his land heard him complain of drought wishing for rain c. Why Father quoth the child I can make it rain or hail when and where I list He asked where she learned it She said of her Mother who forbad her to tell any body thereof He asked her how her Mother taught her She answered that her Mother committed her to a Master who would at any time do any thing for her Why then said he make it rain but only in my field And so she went to the stream and threw up water in her Masters name and made it rain presently And proceeding further with her father she made it hail in another field at her fathers request Hereupon he accused his wife and caused her to be burned and then he new christened his child again which circumstance is common among Papists and Witch-mongers And howsoever the first part hereof was proved there is no doubt but the latter part
Anno Dom. 1542. when Sultan-Solimon reigned there was such force and multitude of these kind of Wolves in Constantinople that the Emperour drave together in one flock 150 of them which departed out of the City in the presence of all the people To perswade us the more throughly herein he saith That in Livonia yearly about the end of December a certain Knave or Devil warneth all the Witches in the Countrey to come to a certain place if they fail the Devil cometh and whippeth them with an Iron rod so as the print of the lashes remains upon their bodies for ever The captain Witch leadeth the way through a great pool of water many millions of Witches swim after They are no sooner passed through that water but they are all transformed into Wolves and fly upon and devour both Men Women Cattel c. After twelve dayes they return through the same water and so receive humane shape again Item that there was one Bajanus a Jew being the Son of Simeon which could when he list turn himself into a Wolf and by that means could escape the force and danger of a whole Army of men Which thing saith Bodin is wonderful but yet saith he it is much more marvellous that men will not believe it For many Poets affirm it yea and if you look well into the matter saith he you shall find it easie to do Item he saith that as natural Wolves persecute beasts so do these Magical Wolves devour men women and children And yet God saith to the People I trow and not to the Cattel of Israel If you observe not my commandements I will send among you the beasts of the field which shall devour both you and your cattel Item I will send the teeth of beasts upon you Where is Bodins distinction now become He never saith I will send Witches in the likeness of Wolves c. to devour you or your cattel Nevertheless Bodin saith it is a clear case for the matter was disputed upon before Pope Leo the seventh and by him all the matters were judged possible and at that time saith he were the transformations of Lucian and Apuleius made canonical Furthermore he saith that through this art they are so cunning that no man can apprehend them but when they are asleep Item he nameth another Witch that as M. Mal. saith could not be caught because he would transform himself into a mouse and run into every little hole till at length he was killed coming out of the hole of a jam in a window which indeed is as possible as a Camel to go through a needles eye Item he saith that divers Witches at Vernon turned themselves into Cats and both committed and received much hurt But at Argentine there was a wonderful matter done by three Witches of great wealth who transforming themselves into three Cats assaulted a Faggot-maker who having hurt them all with a faggot-stick was like to have been put to death But he was miraculously delivered and they worthily punished as the story saith from whence Bodin had it After a great many other such beastly fables he inveyeth against such Physitians as say that Lycanthropia is a disease and a transformation Item he maintaineth as sacred and true all Homers fables of Circe and Ulysses his companions inveying against Chrysostome who rightly interpreteth Homers meaning to be that Ulysses his people were by the harlot Circe made in their brutish manners to resemble Swine But least some Poets fables might be thought lyes whereby the Witchmongers arguments should quail he maintaineth for true the most part of Ovids Metamorphosis and the greatest absurdities and impossibilities in all that book marry he thinketh some one tale therein may be fained Finally he confirmeth all these toyes by the story of Nebuchadnezzar And because saith he Nebuchadnezzar continued seven years in the shape of a beast therefore may Witches remain so long in the form of a beast having in all the mean time the shape hair voice strength agility swiftness food and excrements of beasts and yet reserve the minds and souls of Women or Men. Howbeit St. Augustine whether to confute or confirm that opinion judge you saith Non est credendum humanum corpus daemonum arte vel potestate in bestialia lineamenta converti posse We may not believe that a mans body may be altered into the lineaments of a beast by the Devils art or power Item Bodin saith that the reason why Witches are most commonly turned into Wolves is because they usually eat children as Wolves eat cattle Item that the cause why other are truly turned into Asses is for that such have been desirous to understand the secrets of Witches Why Witches are turned into Cats he alledgeth no reason and therefore to help him forth with that paraphrase I say that Witches are curst queans and many times scratch one another or their neighbours by the faces and therefore perchance are turned into Cats But I have put twenty of these Witchmongers to silence with this one question to wit Whether a Witch that can turn a Woman into a Cat c. can also turn a Cat into a Woman CHAP. II. Absurd reasons brought by Bodin and such others for confirmation of Transformations THese examples and reasons might put us in doubt that every Asse Wolf or Cat that we see were a Man a Woman or a Child I marvel that no man useth this distinction in the definition of a man But to what end should one dispute against these creations and recreations when Bodin washeth away all our arguments with one word confessing that none can create any thing but God acknowledging also the force of the Canons and embracing the opinions of such Divines as write against him in this behalf Yea he doth now contrary to himself elsewhere affirm that the Devil cannot alter his form And lo this is his distinction Non essentialis forma id est ratio sed figura solum permutatur The essential form to wit reason is not changed but the shape or figure And thereby he proveth it easie enough to create men or beasts with life so as they remain without reason Howbeit I think it is an easier matter to turn Bodines reason into the reason of an Asse than his body into the shape of a Sheep which be saith is an easie matter because Lots wife was turned into a stone by the Devil Whereby he sheweth his gross ignorance As though God that commanded Lot upon pain of death not to look back who also destroyed the City of Sodome at that instant had not also turned her into a salt stone And as though all this while God had been the Devils drudge to go about this business all the night before and when a miracle should be wrought the Devil must be fain to do it himself Item he affirmeth that these kind of Tranfigurations are more common with them in the West
not his law The Day delay'd by length of Night Which made both Day and Night to yaw And all was through that charming gear Which caus'd the World to quake for fear Carmine Thessalidum dura in praecordia fluxit Non fatis adductus amor flammisque severi Illicitis arsere ignes With Thessal Charms and not by Fate Hot Love is forced for to flow Even where before hath been debate They cause Affection for to grow Gens invisa diis maculandi callida coeli Quos genuit fera terra mali qui sidera mundi Juráque fixarum possunt pervertere rerum Nam nunc stare polos flumina mittere norunt Aethera sub terras adigunt montésque revellunt These Witches hateful unto God And cunning to defile the Aire Which can disorder with a nod The course of Nature every where Do cause the wandering Starrs to stay And drive the Winds below the ground They send the Streams another way And throw down Hills where they abound linguis dixere valucrum Consultare fibras rumpere vocibus angues Sollicitare umbras ipsúmque Acheronta movere In noctémque dies in lucem vertere noctes Omnia conando docilis solertia vincit They talked with the tongues of Birds Consulting with the Salt-sea-coasts They burst the Snakes with witching words Solliciting the spiritual Ghosts They turn the Night into the Day And also drive the Light away And what is 't that cannot be made By them that do apply this Trade CHAP. VIII Poetry and Popery compared in Inchantments Popish Witchmongers have more advantage herein than Protestants YOu see in these verses the Poets whether in earnest or in jest I know not ascribe unto Witches and to their Charms more than is to be found in Humane or Diabolical Power I doubt not but the most part of the Readers hereof will admit them to be fabulous although the most learned of mine adversaries for lack of Scripture are fain to produce these Poetries for proofs and for lack of judgment I am sure do think that Actaeons transformation was true And why not as well as the Metamorphosis or Transubstantiation of Ulysses his companions into Swine which S. Augustine and so many great Clerks credit and report Nevertheless Popish Writers I confess have advantage herein of our Protestants for besides these Poetical proofs they have for advantage the word and authority of the Pope himself and others of that holy crew whose Charms Conjurations Blessings Cursings c. I mean in part for a taste to set down giving you to understand that Poets are not altogether so impudent as Papists herein neither seem they so ignorant prophane oe impious And therefore I will shew you how lowd also they lie and what they on the other side ascribe to their Charms and Conjurations and together will set down with them all manner of Witches Charms as conveniently as I may CHAP. IX Popish Periapts Amulets and Charms Agnus Dei a Wastecote of proof a Charm for the Falling-Evill a Writing brought to S. Leo from Heaven by an Angel the vertues of S. Saviours Epistle a Charm against Theeves a Writing found in Christs Wounds of the Cross c. THese Vertues under these Verses written by Pope Urbane the fifth to the Emperour of the Grecians are contained in a Periapt or Tablet be continually worn about one called Agnas Dei which is a little cake having the picture of a Lamb carrying of a flag on the one side and Christs head on the other side and is hollow so as the Gospel of S. John written in fine Paper is placed in the concavity thereof and it is thus compounded or made even as they themselves report Balsamus mundra cera cum Chrismatis unda Conficiunt agnum quod munus do tibi magnum Fonte velut natum per mystica sanctificatum Fulgura de sursum depellit omne malignum Peccatum frangit ut Christi sanguis angit Pregnans servatur simul partus liberatur Dona refert dignis virtutem destruit ignis Portatus munde de fluctibus eripit undae Englished by Abraham Fleming Balme Virgine Wax and Holy-Water An Agnus Dei make A gift than which none can be greater I send thee for to take From Fountain clear the same hath issue In secret sanctified ' Gainst Lightning it hath soveraign vertue And Thunder-cracks beside Each hainous sin it wears and wasteth Even as Christs precious blood And Women whiles their Travel lasteth It saves it is so good It doth bestow great gifts and graces On such as well deserve And born about in noisome places From peril doth preserve The force of fire whose heat destroyeth It breaks and bringeth down And he or she that this enjoyeth No water shall them drown A Charm against Shot or Wastecoat of Proof BEfore the coming up of these Dei's a holy Garment called a Wastecoat for necessity was much used of our fore-fathers as a holy relique c. as given by the Pope or some such Arch-Conjuror who promised thereby all manner of immunity to the wearer thereof insomuch as he could not be hurt with any shot or other violence And otherwise that woman that would wear it should have quick deliverance the composition thereof was in this order following On Christmas-day at at night a Thread must be spun of Flax by a little Virgin-girl in the name of the Devil and it must be by her woven and also wrought with the Needle In the brest or fore-part thereof must be made with Needle-work two heads on the head at the right side must be a Hat and along Beard the left head must have on a Crown and it must be so horrible that it may resemble Beelzebub and on each side of the Wastecoat must be made a Cross Against the Falling-Evill Moreover this ensuing is another counterfeit Charm of theirs whereby the Falling-evil is presently remedied Gaspar fert myrrham thus Melchior Balthasar aurum Haec tria qui secum portabit nomina regum Solvitur à morbo Christi pietate caduco Gasper with his myrrh began These presents to unfold Then Melchior brought in Frankincense And Balthasar brought in Gold Now he that of these holy Kings The Names about shall bear The falling ill by grace of Christ Shall never need to fear THis is a true copy of the Holy-writing that was brought down from Heaven by an Angel to S. Leo Pope of Rome and he did bid him take it to King Charles when he went to the battel at Ronceval And the Angel said that what man or woman beareth this writing about them with good devotion and saith every day three Pater-nosters three Aves and one Creed shall not that day be overcome or his Enemies either bodily or ghostly neither shall be robbed or slain of Theeves Pestilence Thunder or Lightning neither shall be hurt with fire or water nor cumbred with Spirits neither shall he have displeasure of
be buried Otherwise in the dominion of Mars two Images must be prepared one of wax the other of the earth of a dead man each Image must have in his hand a Sword wherewith a man hath been slain and he that must be slain may have his head thrust through with a Foin In both must be written certain peculiar Characters and then must they be hid in a certain place Otherwise to obtain a Womans Love an Image must be made in the hour of Venus of Virgin-wax in the name of the beloved whereupon a Character is written and is warmed at a fire and in doing thereof the name of some Angel must be mentioned To be utterly rid of the Witch and to hang her up by the hair you must prepare an Image of the earth of a dead man to be baptized in another mans name whereon the name with a Character must be written then must it be perfumed with a rotten bone and then these Psalms read backward Domine Dominus noster Dominus illuminatio mea Domine exaudi orationem meam Deus laudem meam ne tacueris and then bury it first in one place and afterwards in another Howbeit it is written in the one and twentieth Article of the Determination of Paris that to affirm that Images of Brass Lead Gold of white or red Wax or of any other Stuff conjured baptized consecrated or rather execrated through these Magical Arts at certain dayes have wonderful vertues or such as are avowed in their Books or Assertions is error in faith Natural Philosophy and true Astronomy yea it is concluded in the twenty second Article of that Council that it is as great an Error to believe those things as to do them But concerning these Images it is certain that they are much feared among the people and much used among cousening Witches as partly appeareth in this discourse of mine elsewhere and as partly you may see by the Contents of this Story following Not long sithence a young Maiden dwelling at New Romny here in Kent being the Daughter of one M. L. Stuppeny late Jurat of the same Town but dead before the Execution hereof and afterward the Wife of Thom. Eps who is at this instant Maior of Romny was visited with sickness whose Mother and Fatherinlaw being abused with credulity concerning Witches supernatural Power repaired to a famous Witch called Mother Baker dwelling not far from thence at a place called Stonestreet who according to Witches cousening Custom asked whether they mistrusted not some bad Neighbour to whom they answered that indeed they doubted a Woman near unto them and yet the same was of the honester and wiser sort of her Neighbours reputed a good Creature Nevertheless the Witch told them that there was great cause of their suspition for the same said she is the very party that wrought the Maidens destruction by making a heart of wax and pricking the same with pins and needles affirming also that the same Neighbour of hers had bestowed the same in some secret corner of the House This being believed the House was searched by credible Persons but nothing could be found The Witch or Wise woman being certified hereof continued her Assertion and would needs go to the House where she her self as she affirmed would certainly find it When she came thither she used her Cunning as it chanced to her own confusion or at leastwise to her detection for herein she did as some of the wiser sort mistrusted that she would do laying down privily such an Image as she had before described in a corner which by others had been most diligently searched and looked into and by that means her Cousenage was notably bewrayed And I would wish that all Witchmongers might pay for their lewd repair to Inchanters and consultation with Witches and such as have familiar Spirits as some of these did and that by the Order of the High Commissioners which partly for respect of Neigbourhood and partly for other Considerations I leave unspoken of CHAP. XVII Sundry sorts of Charms tending to divers Purposes and first certain Charms to make Taciturnity in Tortures IMparibus meritis tria Pendent Corpora ramis Dismas Gestas In medio est Divina Potestas Dismas damnatur Gestas ad astra levatur Englished by Abraham Fleming Three Bodies on a bough do hang For merits of Inequality Dismas and Gestas in the midst The Power of the Divinity Dismas is damnd But Gestas lifted up above the Stars on high Also this Eructavit cor meum verbum bonum veritatem nunquam dicam Regi Otherwise As the milk of our Lady was luscious to our Lord Jesus Christ so let this torture or rope be pleasant to mine arms and members Otherwise Jesus autem transiens per medium illorum ibat Otherwise You shall not break a bone of him Counter-charms against these and all other Witchcrafts in the saying also whereof Witches are vexed c. ERuctavit cor meum verbuus bonum dicam cuncta opera mea regi Otherwise Domine labia mea aperies os meum annuntiabit veritatem Otherwise Contere brachia inqui rei lingua maligna sulvertatur A Charm for the chin Cough TAke three sips of a Chalice when the Priest hath said Mass and swallow it down with good Devotion c. For corporal or spiritual Rest In nomine Patris up and down Et Filii Spiritus sancti upon my Crown Crux Christi upon my Breast Sweet Lady send me eternal Rest Charms to find out a Thief THe means how to find out a Thief is thus Turn your face to the East and make a Cross upon Chrystal with Oil Olive and under the Cross write these two words Saint Helen Then a Child that is innocent and a chaste Virgin born in true Wedlock and not base begotten of the age of ten years must take the Chrystal in his hand and behind his back kneeling on thy knees thou must devoutly and reverently say over this Prayer thrice I beseech thee my Lady S. Helen Mother of King Constantine which didst find the Cross whereupon Christ died by that holy devotion and invention of the Cross and by the same Cross and by the joy which thou conceivedst at the finding thereof and by the love which thou bearest to thy Son Constantine and by the great goodness which thou dost alwayes use that thou shew me in this Chrystal whatsoever I ask or desire to know Amen And when the Child seeth the Angel in the Chrystal demand what you will and the Angel will make answer thereunto Memorandum that this be done just at the Sun-rising when the weather is fair and clear Cardanus derideth these and such like Fables and setteth down his judgement therein accordingly in the sixteenth Book De rerum var. These Conjurers and Coseners forsooth will shew you in a Glass the Thief that hath stoln any thing from you and this is their order They take a
be poured into their mouths And yet he and also Nider say that it is lawful to bless and sanctifie beasts as well as men both by Charms written and also by holy words spoken For saith Nider if your Cow be bewitched three Crosses three Pater-nosters and three Aves will certainly cure her and likewise all other Ceremonies Ecclesiastical And this is a sure Maxime that they which are delivered from Witchcraft by shrift are ever after in the night much molested I believe by their ghostly Fathers Also they lose their Money out of their Purses and Caskets as M. Mal. saith he knoweth by experience Also one general Rule is given by M. Mal. to all Butter-wives and dairy Maids that they neither give nor lend any Butter Milk or Cheese to any Witches which always use to beg thereof when they mean to work mischief to their Kine or white-meats Whereas indeed there are in Milk three substances commixed to wit Butter Cheese and Whey if the same be kept too long or in an evil place or be sluttishly used so as it be stale and sower which happeneth sometimes in the Winter but oftner in the Summer when it is over the fire the Cheese and Butter runneth together and congealeth so as it will rope like Birdlime that you may wind it about a stick and in short space it will be so dry as you may beat it to powder Which alteration being strange is wondered at and imputed to Witches And herehence sometimes proceedeth the cause why Butter cometh not which when the countrey people see that it cometh not then get they out of the suspected Witches house a little Butter whereof must be made three Balls in the Name of the holy Trinity and so if they be put into the Chern the Butter will presently come and the Witchcraft will cease Sic ars deluditur arte But if you put a little Sugar or Sope into the Chern among the Cream the Butter will never come which is plain Witchcraft if it be closely cleanly and privily handled There be twenty several ways to make your Butter come which for brevity I omit as to bind your Chern with a Rope to thrust thereinto a red hot Spit c. but your best remedy and surest way is to look well to your Dairy-maid or Wife that she neither eat up the Cream nor sell away your Butter A Charm to find her that bewitched your Kine PUt a pair of Breeches upon the Cows head and beat her out of the pasture with a good Cudgel upon a fryday and she will run right to the Witches door and strike thereat with her horns Another for all that have bewitched any kind of Cattel WHen any of your Cattel are killed with Witchcraft haste you to the place where the carcase lieth and trail the bowels of the beast unto your house and draw them not in at the door but under the threshold of the house into the Kitchin and there make a fire and set over the same a grediron and thereupon lay the inwards or the bowels and as they wax hot so shall the Witches entrails be molested with extreme heat and pain But then must you make fast your doors left the Witch come and fetch away a cole of your fire for then ceaseth her torments And we have known saith M. Mal. when the Witch could not come in that the whole house hath been so darkned and the air round about the lame so troubled with such horrible noise and Earth-quakes that except the door had been opened we had thought the house would have fallen on our heads Thomas Aquinas a principal treater herein alloweth Conjurations against the changlings and in divers other cases whereof I will say more in the word Jidoni A special Charm to preserve all Cattel from Witchcraft AT Easter you must take certain drops that lie uppermost of the holy Paschal Candle and make a little Wax-candle thereof and upon some Sunday morning rathe light it and hold it so as it may drop upon and between the horns and ears of the Beast saying In Nomine Patris Filii duplex ss and burn the Beast a little between the horns on the ears with the same Wax and that which is left thereof stick it in cross-wise about the stable or stall or upon the threshold or over the door where the Cattel use to go in and out and for all that year your Cattel shall never be bewitched Otherwise Jacobus de Chusa Carthusiannus sheweth how bread water and salt is conjured and saith that if either man or beast receive holy bread and holy water nine days together with three Pater-nosters and three Aves in the honour of the Trinity and of S. Hubert it preserveth that man or beast from all diseases and defendeth them against all assaults of Witchcraft of Satan or of a mad Dog c. Lo this is their stuffe maintained to be at the least effectual if not wholesom by all Papists and Witchmongers and specially of the last and proudest writers But to prove these things to be effectual God knoweth their seasons are base and absurd For they write so as they take the matter in question as granted and by that means go away therewith For L. Vairus saith in the beginning of his Book that there is no doubt of this supernatural matter because a number of Writers agree herein and a number of stories confirm it and many Poets handle the same argument and in the twelve Tables there is a law against it and because the consent of the common people is fully with it and because immoderate praise is to be approved a kind of Witchcraft and because old women have such Charms and superstitious means as preserve themselves from it and because they are mocked that take away the credit of such miracles and because Solomon saith Fascinatio malignitatis obscurat bona and because the Apostle saith O insensati Galatae quis vos fascinavit And because it is written Qui timent te videbunt me And finally he saith lest you should seem to distrust and detract any thing from the credit of so many grave men from Histories and common opinion of all men he meaneth in no wise to prove that there is miraculous working by Witchcraft and fascination and proceedeth so according to his promise CHAP. XXII Lawful Charms or rather medicinable Cures for diseased Cattel The charm of Charms and the power thereof BUt if you desire to learn true and lawful Charms to cure diseased Cattel even such as seeme to have extraordinary sickness or to be bewitched or as they say strangely taken look in B. Googe his third Book treating of Cattel and happily you shall find some good medicine or cure for them or if you list to see more antient stuffe read Vegetius his four Books thereupon or if you be unlearned seek some cunning Bullock-leech If all this will not serve then set Jobs Patience before your eyes
2 King 23. Isai 19. To be short the opinion of them that are most skilful in the tongues is that it comprehendeth all them which take upon them to know all things part and to come and to give answers accordingly It alwayes followeth the word Ob and in the Scriptures is not named severally from it and differeth little from the same in sense and do both concern Oracles uttered by Sririts possessed people or Coseners What will not Coseners or Witches take upon them to do Wherein will they profess ignorance Ask them any question they will undertake to resolve you even of that which none but God knoweth And to bring their purposes the better to pass as also to win further credit unto the counterfeit Art which they profess they procure confederates whereby they work Wonders And when they have either learning eloquence or nimbleness of hands to accompany their confederacy or rather knavery then forsooth they pass the degree of Witches and intitle themselves to the name of Conjurors And these deal with no inferiour causes these fetch Devils out of Hell and Angels out of Heaven these raise up what bodies they list though they were dead buried and rotten long before and fetch souls out of Heaven or Hell with much more expedition than the Pope bringeth them out of Purgatory These I say among the simple and where they fear no law nor accusation take upon them also the raising of Tempests and Earthquakes and to do as much as God himself can do These are no small fools they go not to work with a baggage Toad or a Cat as witches do but with a kind of Majesty and with Authority they call up by name and have at their commandement Seventy and nine Principal and Princely Devils who have under them as their ministers a great multitude of Legions of petty Devils as for example CHAP. XI An Inventary of the Names Shapes Powers Govenment and effects of Devils and Spirits of their several segniories and degrees a strange discourse worth the reading THeir first and principal King which is of the power of the East is called Baell who when he is conjured up appeareth with three heads the first like a Toad the second like a Man the third like a Cat. He speaketh with a hoarse voice he maketh a man go invisible he hath under his obedience and rule Sixty and six Legions of Devils The first Duke under the power of the East is named Agares he cometh up mildly in the likeness of a fair old man riding upon a Crocodile and carrying a Hawk on his fist he teacheth presently all manner of tongues he fetcheth back all such as run away and maketh them run that stand still he overthroweth all Dignities supernatural and temporal he maketh Earthquakes and is of the order of Vertues having under his regiment Thirty one Legions Marbas aliàs Barbas is a great president and appeareth in the form of a mighty Lyon but at the commandement of a Conjuror cometh up in the likeness of a Man and answereth fully as touching any thing which is hidden or secret he bringeth diseases and cureth them he promoteth wisdom and the knowledge of Mechanical Arts or Handicrafts he changeth men into other shapes and under his presidency or Government are Thirty six Legions or Devils contained Amon or Aamon is a great and mighty Marquess and cometh abroad in the likeness of a Wolf having a Serpents tail spetting out and breathing flames of fire when he putteth on the shape of a man he sheweth out dogs teeth and a great head like to a mighty Raven he is the strongest Prince of all other and understandeth all things past and to come he procureth favour and reconcileth both friends and foes and ruleth Forty Legions of Devils Barbatos a great County or Earl and also a Duke he appeareth in Signo sagittarii Sylvestris with four Kings which bring companies and great troops He understandeth the singing of Birds the barking of Dogs the lowing of Bullocks and the voyce of all living creatures He detecteth treasures hidden by Magicians and Inchanters and is of the order of virtues which in part bear rule he knoweth all things past and to come and reconcileth friends and powers and governeth Thirty Legions of Devils by his authority Buer is a great president and is seen in this sign he absolutely teacheth Philosophy moral and natural and also Logick and the vertue of Herbs he giveth the best familiars he can heal all Diseases specially of men and reigneth over Fifty Legions Gusoin is a great Duke and a strong appearing in the form of a Xenophilus he answereth all things present past and to come expounding all questions he reconcileth friendship and distributeth honours and dignities and ruleth over Forty Legions of Devils Botis otherwise Otis a great President and an Earl he cometh forth in the shape of an ugly Viper and if he put on humane shape he sheweth great teeth and two horns carrying a sharpe sword in his hand he giveth answers of things present past and to come and reconcileth friends and foes ruling Sixty Legions Bathin sometimes called Mathim a great Duke and a strong he is seen in the shape of a very strong man with a Serpents tail sitting on a pale horse understanding the vertues of herbs and pretious stones transferring men suddenly from Countrey to Countrey and ruleth Thirty Legions of Devils Purson aliàs Curson a great King he cometh forth like a Man with a Lyons face carrying a most cruel Viper and riding on a Bear and before him go alwayes trumpets he knoweth things hidden and can tell all things present past and to come he bewrayeth treasure he can take a body either humane or aiery he answereth truly of all things earthly and secret of the divinity and creation of the World and bringeth forth the best familiars and there obey him Two and twenty Legions of Devils partly of the order of Vertues and partly of the order of Thrones Eligor aliàs Abigor is a great Duke and appeareth as a goodly Knight carrying a Lance an Ensign and a Scepter he answereth fully of things hidden and of Wars and how Souldiers should meet he knoweth things to come and procureth the favour of Lords and Knights governing Sixty Legions of Devils Leraje aliàs Oray a great Marquess shewing himself in the likeness of a gallant Archer carrying a Bow and a Quiver he is author of all battels he doth putrifie all such wounds as are made with Arrows by Archers Quos optimos objicit trilus dielus and he hath regiment over Thirty Legions Valefar aliàs Malephar is a strong Duke cometh forth in the shape of a Lyon and the head of a thief he is very familiar with them to whom he maketh himself acquainted till he hath brought them to the gallows and ruleth Teu Legions Morax aliàs Foraji a
a Glass and thou shalt not see thy self And when thou wilt go invisible put it on thy finger the same finger that they did put it on and every new ☽ renew it again For after the first time thou shalt ever have it and ever begin this work in the new of the ☽ and in the hour of ♃ and the ♋ ♠♓ CHAP. XX. An Experiment following of Citrael c. Angeli diei Dominici Michael ☉ Gabriel ☽ Samael ♂ Raphael ☿ Sachiel ♃ Anael ♀ Cassiel ♄ SAy first the Prayers of the Angels every day for the space of seaven dayes O ye glorious Angels written in this square be you my coadjutors and helpers in all questions and demands in all my business and other causes by him which shall come to judge both the quick and the dead and the world by fire O Angeli gloriosi in hac quadra scripti estote coadjutores auxiliatores in omnibus quaestionibus interrogationibus in omnibus negotiis caeterisque causis per eum qui venturus est judicare vivos mortuos mundum per ignem Say this Prayer fasting called Regina linguae ✚ Lemae ✚ Solmaac ✚ Elmay ✚ Gezagra ✚ Raamaasin ✚ Ezierego ✚ Mial ✚ Egziephiaz ✚ Iosamin ✚ Sahach ✚ ha ✚ aem ✚ re ✚ he ✚ esapha ✚ Sephar ✚ Ramar ✚ Semoit ✚ Lamajo ✚ Pheralon ✚ Amic ✚ Phin ✚ Gergain ✚ Letos ✚ Amin ✚ Amin ✚ In the Name of the most pitifulliest and mercifulliest God of Israel and of Paradise of Heaven and of Earth of the Seas and of the Infernals by thine Omnipotent help I may perform this work which livest and reignest ever one God world without end Amen O most strongest and mightiest God without beginning or ending by thy clemency and knowledge I desire that my questions work and labour may be fully and truly accomplished through thy worthyness good Lord which livest and reignest ever one God world without end Amen O holy patient and merciful great God and to be worshipped the Lord of all wisdom clear and just I most heartily desire thy holiness and clemency to fulfil perform and accomplish this my whole work through thy worthiness and blessed power which livest and reignest ever one God Per omnia saecula saeculorum Amen CHAP. XXI Howw to inclose a Spirit in a Crystal-stone THis operation following is to have a Spirit inclosed into a Crystal-stone or Beryl-glass or into any other like instrument c. First thou in the new of the ☽ being cloathed with all new and fresh and clean aray and shaven and that day to fast with bread and water and being clean confessed say the seven Psalms and the Letany for the space of two days with this Prayer following I desire thee O Lord God my merciful and most loving God the giver of all graces the giver of all Sciences grant that I thy wel-beloved N. although unworthy may know thy grace and power against all the deceits and craftiness of Devils And grant to me thy power good Lord to constrain them by this Art for thou art the true and lively and eternal God which livest and reignest ever one God through all Amen Thou must do this five dayes and the sixt day have in a readiness five bright Swords and in some secret place make one circle with one of the said Swords And then write this name Sitrael which done standing in the circle thrust in thy Sword into that name And write again Malanthon with another sword and Thamaor with another and Falaor with another and Sitrami with another and do as ye did with the first All this done turn thee to Sitrael and kneeling say thus having the Crystal-stone in thine hands O Sitrael Malantha Lhamaor Falaur and Sitrami Written in these circles appointed to this work I do conjure and I do exorcise you by the Father by the Son and by the Holy Ghost by him which cast you out of Paradise and by him which spake the word and it was done and by him which shall come to judge the quick and the dead and the world by fire that all you five infernal Masters and Princes do come unto me to accomplish and to fulfil all my desire and request which I shall command you Also I conjure you Devils and command you I bid you and appoint you by the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of the most highest God and by the blessed and glorious Virgin Mary and by all the Saints both of men and women of God and by all the Angels Archangels Patriarchs and Prophets Apostles Evangelists Martyrs and Confessors Virgins and Widows and all the elect of God Also I conjure you and every of you ye infernal Kings by the Heaven by the Starrs by the ☉ and by thee ☽ and all the Planets by the Earth Fire Air and Water and by the terrestrial Paradise and by all things in them contained and by your Hell and by all the Devils in it and dwelling about it and by your vertue and power and by all whatsoever and with whatsoever it be which may constrain and bind you Therefore by all the aforesaid vertues and powers I do bind you and constrain you into my will and power that you being thus bound may come unto me in great humility and to appear in your circles before me visibly in fair form and shape of mankind Kings and to obey unto me all things whatsoever I shall desire and that you may not depart from me without my licence And if you do against my precepts I will promise unto you that you shall descend into the profound deepness of the Sea except that you do obey unto me in the part of the living Son of God which liveth and reigneth in the unity of the Holy Ghost by all world of worlds Amen Say this true Conjuration five courses and then shalt thou see come out of the North-part five Kings with a marvellous company which when they are come to the circle they will alight down off from their Horses and will kneel down before thee saying Master command us what thou wilt and we will out of hand be obedient unto thee Unto whom thou shalt say See that ye depart not from me without my licence anll that which I will command you to do let it be done truly surely faithfully and essentially And then they all will swear unto thee to do all thy will and after they have sworn say the Conjuration immediately following I conjure charge and command you and every of you Sitrael Malanthan Lhamaar Falaur and Sitrami you Infernal Kings to put into this Crystal-stone one spirit learned and expert in all Arts and Sciences by the vertue of this Name of God Tetragrammaton and by the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the blood of the innocent Lamb which redeemed all the world and by all their vertues and power I charge you ye noble Kings that the said spirit may
stroke we stricken bee If hard at hand and near in place Then ruddy colour fils the face Thus much may seem sufficient touching this matter of Natural Magick whereunto though much more may be annexed yet for the avoiding of tediousness and for speedier passage to that which remaineth I will break off this present Treatise And now somewhat shall be said concerning Devils and Spirits in the discourse following The Contents of the Chapters in the Sixteen Fore-going BOOKS BOOK I. CHAP. I. AN Impeachment of Witches power in Meteors and Elementary Bodies tending to the rebuke of such as attribute too much unto them Page 1 CHAP. II. The inconvenience growing by mens credulity herein with a reproof of some Church-men which are inclined to the common conceived opinion of Witches omnipotency and a familiar example thereof Page 3 CHAP. III. Who they be that are called Witches with a manifest declaration of the cause that moveth men so commonly to think and Witches themselves to believe that they can hurt Children Cattel c. with words and imaginnations and of cosening Witches Page 4. CHAP. IV. What miraculous actions are imputed to Witches by Witchmongers Papists and Poets Page 5 CHAP. V. A Confutation of the common conceived opinion of Witches and Witchcraft and how detestable a sin it is to repair to them for counsel or help in time of affliction Page 7 CHAP. VI. A further confutation of Witches miraculous and omnipotent power by invincible Reasons and Authorities with disswasions from such fond credulity ibid. CHAP. VII By what means the name of Witches becometh so famous and how diverssly people be opinioned concerning them and their actions Page 8 CHAP. VIII Causes that move as well Witches themselves as others to think that they can work impossibilities with answers to certain objections where also their punishment by law is touched Page 9 CHAP. IX A conclusion of the first Book wherein is foreshewed the tyrannical cruelty of Witchmongers and Inquisitors with a request to the Reader to peruse the same Page 10 BOOK II. CHAP. I. WHat Testimonies and Witnesses are allowed to give evidence against reputed Witches by the report and allowance of the Inquisitors themselves and such as are special writers herein Page 11 CHAP. II. The order of Examination of Witches by the Inquisitors ibid. CHAP. III. Matters of evidence against Witches Page 13 CHAP. IV. Confessions of Witches whereby they are condemned Page 14 CHAP. V. Presumptions whereby Witches are condemned ibid. CHAP. VI. Particular Interrogatories used by the Inquisitors against Witches Page 15 CHAP. VII The Inquisitors tryal of Weeping by Conjuration Page 16 CHAP. VIII Certain cautions against Witches and of their tortures to procure Confession ibid. CHAP. IX The fifteen Crimes laid to the charge of Witches by Witchmongers specially by Bodin in Demonomania Page 18 CHAP. X. A Confutation of the former surmised Crimes patched together by Bodin and the only way to escape the Inquisitors hands Page 19 CHAP. XI The Opinion of Cornelius Agrippa concerning Witches of his pleading for a poor woman accused of Witchcraft and how he convinced the Inquisitors Page 20 CHAP. XII What the fear of death and feeling of torments may force one to do and that it is no marvel though Witches condemn themselves by their own Confessions so tyrannically extorted Page 21 BOOK III. CHAP. I. The Witches bargain with the Devil according to M. Mal. Bodin Nider Daneus Psellus Erastus Hemingius Cumanus Aquinas Bartholomeus spineus c. Page 22 CHAP. II. The order of the Witches homage done as it is written by lewd Inquisitors and peevish Witchmongers to the Devil in person of their Songs and Dances and namely of Lavolta and of other Ceremonies also of their Excourses Page 23 CHAP. III. How Witches are summoned to appear before the Devil of their riding in the air of their accompts of their conference with the Devil of his supplies and their conference of their farewell and sacrifices according to Daneus Psellus c. Page 24 CHAP. IV. That there can no real league be made with the Devil the first Author of the league and the weak proofs of the Adversaries for the same ibid. CHAP. V. Of the private league a notable table of Bodin concerning a French Lady with a confutation Page 25 CHAP. VI. A Disproof of their Assemblies and of their Bargain Page 26 CHAP. VII A Confutation of the Objection concerning Witches Confession Page 27 CHAP. VIII What folly it were for Witches to enter into such desperate peril and to endure such intolerable torments for no gain or commodity and how it comes to pass that Witches are overthrown by their Confessions Page 28 CHAP. IX How Melancholy abuseth old women and of the effects thereof by sundry examples Page 29 CHAP. X. That voluntary Confession may be untruly made to the undoing of the Confessors and of the strange operation of Melancholy proved by a familiar and late example Page 30 CHAP. XI The strange and divers effects of Melancholy and how the same humor abounding in Witches or rather old women filleth them full of marvellous imaginations and that their Confessions are not to be credited Page 31 CHAP. XII A Confutation of Witches Confessions especially concerning the League Page 32 CHAP. XIII A Confutation of Witches Confessions concerning making of Tempests and Rain of the natural cause of Rain and that Witches or Devils have no power to do such things Page 33 CHAP. XIV What would ensue if Witches Confessions or Witchmongers opinions were true concerning the effects of Witchcraft Inchantments c. Page 34 CHAP. XV. Examples of foreign Nations who in their Wars used the assistance of Witches of Eybiting Witches in Ireland of two Archers that shot with Familiars Page 35 CHAP. XVI Authors condemning the fantastical Confessions of Witches and how a Popish Doctor taketh upon him to disprove the same Page 36 CHAP. XVII Witchmongers Reasons to prove that Witches can work Wonders Bodin's tale of a Friseland Priest transported that imaginations proceeding of Melancholy do cause illusions Page 37 CHAP. XVIII That the Confession of Witches is insufficient in civil and common Law to take away life What the sounder Divines and Decrees of Councels determin in this case ibid. CHAP. XIX Of four capital crimes objected against Witches all fully an swered and confuted as frivolous Page 39 CHAP. XX. A request to such Readers as loath to hear or read filthy and bawdy matters which of necessity are here to be inserted to pass over eight Chapters Page 40 BOOK IV. CHAP. I. OF Witchmongers opinions concerning evil Spirits how they frame themselves in more excellent sort than God made us Page 41 CHAP. II. Of bawdy Incubus and Succubus and whether the action of Venery may be performed between Witches and Devils and when Witches first yielded to Incubus ibid. CHAP. III. Of the Devils visible and invisible dealing with Witches in the way of lechery Page 42 CHAP. IV. That the power of generation is both outwardly
For by that means men should have good occasion and opportunity to flie from him and to run to God for succour as the manner is of all them that are terrified though perchance they thought not upon God a long time before But in truth we never have so much cause to be afraid of the Devil as when he flatteringly insinuateth himself into our hearts to satisfie please and serve our humours enticing us to prosecute our own appetites and pleasures without any of these external terrours I would weet of these men where they do find in the Scriptures that some Devils be spiritual and some corporal or how these earthy or watery Devils enter into the mind of man Augustine saith and divers others affirm That Satan or the Devil while we feed allureth us with gluttony he thrusteth lust into our generation and sloth into our exercise into our conversation envie into our traffick avarice into our correction wrath into our government pride he putteth into our hearts evil cogitations into our mouthes lyes c. When we wake he moveth us to evils works when we sleep to evil and filthy dreams he provoketh the merry to loosness and the sad to despair CHAP. XII That the Devils assaults are Spiritual and not Temporal and how grossly some understand those parts of the Scripture UPon that which hitherto hath been said you see that the assaults of Satan are spiritual and not temporal in which respect St. Paul wisheth us not to provide a corselet of Steel to defend us from his claws but biddeth us Put on the whole armour of God that we may be able to stand against the invasions of the Devil For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities powers and spiritual wickedness And therefore St. Peter adviseth us To be sober and watch for the Devil goeth about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour He meaneth not with carnal teeth for it followeth thus Whom resist ye stedfast in the faith And again St. Peter saith That which is spiritual only discerneth spiritual things for no carnal man can discern the things of the spirit Why then should we think that a Devil which is a Spirit can be known or made tame and familiar unto a natural man or contrary to nature can be by a Witch made corporal being by God ordained to a spiritual proportion The cause of this gross conceipt is that we hearken more diligently to old Wives and rather give credit to their fables than to the Word of God imagining by the tales they tell us that the Devil is such a Bulbegger as I have before described For whatsoever is proposed in Scripture to us by Parable or spoken figuratively or significatively or framed to our gross capacities c. is by them so considered and expounded as though the bare letter or rather their gross imaginations thereupon were to be preferred before the true sense and meaning of the Word For I dare say that when these blockheads read Jothams Parable in the ninth of Judges to the men of Sichem to wit that The trees went out to anoint a King over them saying to the Olive-tree Reign thou over us who answered and said Should I leave my fatness c. they imagine that the wooden Trees walked and spake with a mans voyce or else that some spirit entred into the Trees and answered as is imagined they did in the Idols and Oracles of Apollo and such like who indeed have eyes and see not ears and hear not mouths and speak not c. CHAP. XIII The Equivocation of this word Spirit how diversly it is taken in the Scriptures where by the way is taught that the Scripture is not alwayes literally to be interpreted nor yet allegorically to be understood SUch as search with the the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding shall find that Spirits as well good as bad are in the Scriptures diversly taken yea they shall well perceive that the Devil is no horned beast For sometimes in the Scriptures Spirits and Devils are taken for infirmities of the body sometimes for the vices of the mind sometimes also for the gifts of tither of them Sometimes a man is called a Devil as Judas in the sixt of John and Peter in the 16. of Matthew Sometimes a Spirit is put for the Gospel sometimes for the mind or soul of man sometimes for the wil of man his mind and councel sometimes for Teachers and Prophets sometimes for zeal towards God sometimes for joy in the Holy Ghost c. And to interpret unto us the nature and signification of spirits we find these words written in the Scripture to wit The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him The Spirit of counsel and strength The Spirit of wisdom and understanding The spirit of knowledg and the fear of the Lord. Again I will pour out my Spirit upon the house of David c. The Spirit of grace and compassion Again Ye have not received the spirit of bondage but the Spirit of adoption And therefore St. Paul saith To one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit to another the gift of healing to another the gift of faith by the same Spirit to another the gift of prophesie to another the operation of great works to another the discerning of spirits to another the diversity of tongues to another the interpretation of tongues and all these things worketh one and the self-same Spirit Thus far the words of St. Paul And finally Isaiah saith that The Lord mingled among them the spirit of errour And in another place The Lord hath covered you with a spirit of slumber As for the spirits of divination spoken of in the Scripture they are such as was in the woman of Endor the Philippian woman the wench of Westwell and the holy maid of Kent who were indued with spirits or gifts of divination whereby they could make shift to gain money and abuse the people by sleights and crafty inventions But these are possessed of borrowed spirits as it written in the Book of Wisdom and spirits of meer cosenage and deceipt as I have sufficiently proved elsewhere I deny not therefore that there are Spirits and Devils of such substance as it hath pleased God to create them But in what place soever it be found or read in the Scriptures a Spirit or Devil is to be understood spiritually and is neither a corporal nor a visible thing Where it is written That God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Sichem we are to understand that he sent the spirit of hatred and not a Bulbegger Also where it is said If the Spirit of jealousie come upon him it is as much as to say If he he be moved with a jealous mind and not that a corporal Devil
that all the creatures of God are good and again when God in the creation of the world saw all that he had made was good the Devil is not comprehended within those words of commendation For it is written that he was a murtherer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him but when he speaketh a lye he speaketh of his own as being a lyer and the father of lyes and as John saith a sinner from the beginning Neither was his creation so far as I can find in that week that God made man and those other creatures mentioned in Genesis the first and yet God created him purposely to destroy I take his substance to be such as no man can by learning define nor by wisdom search out M. Deering saith Tha◠Paul himself reckoning up principalities powers c. addeth Every name that is named in this world or in the world to come A clear sentence saith he of Paul 's modesty in confessing a holy ignorance of the state of Angels which name is also given to Devils in other places of the Scripture His essence also and his form is also so proper and peculiar in mine opinion unto himself as he himself cannot alter it but must needs be content therewith as with that which God hath ordained him and assigned unto him as peculiarly as he hath given to us our substance without power to alter the same at our pleasures For we find not that a spirit can make a body more than a body can make a spirit the Spirit of God excepted which is Omnipotent Nevertheless I learn that their nature is prone to all mischeif for as the very signification of an Enemy and as an accuser is wrapped up in Satan and Diabolus so doth Christ himself declare him to be in the thirteenth of Matthew And therefore he brooketh well his name for he lyeth dayly in wait not only to corrupt but also to destroy mankind being I say the very tormentor appointed by God to afflict the wicked in this world with wicked temptations and in the world to come with Hell fire But I may not here forget how M. Mal. and the residue of that crew do expound that word Diabolus for Dia say they is Duo and Bolus is Morsellus whereby they gather that the Devil eateth up a man both body and soul at two morsels Whereas in truth the wicked may be said to eat up and swallow down the Devil rather than the Devil to eat up them though it may well be said by a figure that the Devil like a roaring Lion seeketh whom he may devour which is meant of the soul and spiritual devouring as very novices in Religion may judge CHAP. XXXIII Against fond Witchmongers and their opinions concerning corporal Devils NOw how Brian Darcies he-spirits and she-spirits Titty and Tiffin Suckin and Pidgin Liard and Robin c. his white-spirits and black-spirits gray-spirits and red-spirits Devil-toad and Devil-lambe Devils-cat and Devils-dam agree herewithal or can stand consonant with the Word of God or true Philosophy let Heaven and Earth judge In the mean time let any man with good consideration peruse that Book published by W.W. it shall suffice to satisfie him in all that may be required touching the vanities of the Witches Examinations Confessions and Executions where though the tale be told only of the accusers part without any other answer of theirs than their Adversary setteth down mine assertion will be sufficiently proved true And because it seemeth to be performed with some kind of authority I will say no more for the confutation thereof but referr you to the Book it self whereto if nothing be added that may make to their reproach I dare warrant nothing is left out that may serve to their condemnation See whether the witnesses be not single of what credit sexe and age they are namely lewd miserable and envious poor people most of them which speak to any purpose being old women and children of the age of 4 5 6 7 8 or 9. years And note how and what the Witches confess and see of what weight and importance the causes are whether their confessions be not won through hope of favour and extorted by flattery or threats without proof But in so much as there were not past seventeen or eighteen condemned at once at S. Osees in the County of Essex being a whole Parish though of no great quantity I will say the less trusting that by this time there remain not many in that Parish If any be yet behind I doubt not but Brian Darcie will find them out who if he lack aid Richard Gallis of Windsor were meet to be associated with him which Gallis hath set forth another Book to that effect of certain Witches of Windsor executed at Abington But with what impudency and dishonesty he hath finished it with what lyes and forgeries he hath furnished it what folly and frenzy he hath uttered in it I am ashamed to report and therefore being but a two-penny Book I had rather desire you to buy it and so to peruse it than to fill my Book with such beastly stuffe CHAP. XXXIV A Conclusion wherein the Spirit of spirits is described by the illumination of which Spirit all spirits are to be tryed with a Confutation of the Pneumatomachi flatly denying the divinity of this Spirit TOuching the manifold signification of this word Spirit I have elsewhere in this brief discourse told you my mind which is a word nothing different in Heb. from breath or wind For all these words following to wit Spiritus Ventus Platus Halitus are indifferently use by the Holy Ghost and called by this Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the sacred Scripture For further proof whereof I cite unto you the words of Isaiah For his Spirit or Breath is as a River that overfloweth up to the neck c. in which place the Prophet describeth the coming of God in heat and indignation unto judgement c. I cite also unto you the words of Zacharie These are the four Spirits of the Heaven c. Likewise in Genesis And the Spirit of God moved upon the waters Moreover I cite unto you the words of Christ The Spirit or Wind bloweth where it listeth Unto which said places infinite more might be added out of holy Writ tending all to this purpose namely to give us this for a note that all the sayings above cited with many more that I could alledge where mention is made of spirit the Hebrew Text useth no word but one to wit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth as I said Spiritum ventum flatum halitum which may be Englished Spirit wind blast breath But before I enter upon the very point of my purpose it shall not be amiss to make you acquainted with the collection of a certain School Divine who distinguisheth and divideth this word
believed by many to Germinate and procreate one another so likewise are the infernal Spirits capable of multiplication in their power and essence according to their Orders Ranks and Thrones by means of the strong imagination in a Witch or malevolous person earnestly desiring their assistance 4. Not that the Spirits or Devils so begotten do any whit add or contribute to the number in general for as they are capable of increasing into distinct and separated substances so are they likewise again contracted and as it were annihilated when the force of that Imagination is gone which was the cause of their production The nature of a spirit whither heavenly or hellish being to dilate or contract themselves into as narrow compass as they please so that in a moment they can be as big in circumference as an hundred worlds and on a sodain reduce themselves to the compass of an atome 5. Neither are they so much limited as Tradition would have them for they are not at all shut up in any separated place but can remove millions of miles in the twinkling of an eye yet are they still where they were at first for out of their own element or quality they can never come go whither they will they are in darkness and the cause is within them not without them as one whose mind is troubled here in England can remove his Carcase from the place where it was before but should he go to the utmost bounds of the Earth he cannot leave his perplexed and tormented minde behind him 6. As for the shapes and various likenesses of Devils It is generally believed that according to their various capacities in wickedness so their shapes are answerable after a Magical manner resembling spiritually some horrid and ugly monsters as their conspiracies against the power of God were high and monstrous when they fell from Heaven for the condition of some of them is nothing but continual horrour and despair others triumph in firie might and pomp attempting to pluck God from out of his Throne but the quality of Heaven is shut from them that they can never find it which doth greatly add to their torment and misery 7. But that they are materially vexed and scorched in flames of fire is inferiour to any to give credit to who is throughly verst in their nature and existence for their substance is spiritual yea their power is greater then to be detain'd or tormented with any thing without them doubtless their misery is sufficiently great but not through outward flames for their Bodies are able to pierce through Wood and Iron Stone and all Terrestrial things Neither is all the fire or fewel of this World able to torment them for in a moment they can pierce it through and through But the infinite source of their misery is in themselves and is continually before them so that they can never enjoy any rest being absent from the presence of God which torment is greater to them then all the tortures of this world combin'd together 8. The wicked souls that are departed this life are also capable of appearing again and answering the Conjurations of Witches and Magicians for a time according to Nagar the Indian and the Pythagoreans And it cannot be easily conceived that their torment is much different stom the rest of the Devils for the Scripture saith every one is rewarded according to their works And that which a man sows that he shall reap Now as the damned Spirits when they lived on earth did heap up vanity and load their souls with iniquity as a treasure to carry with them into that Kingdom which sin doth naturally lead into so when they are there the same abominations which here they committed do they ruminate and feed upon and the greater they have been the greater is the torment that ariseth before them every moment 9. And although these Infernal Spirits are open Enemies to the very means which God hath appointed for mans salvation yet such is the degenerate and corrupted mind of mankind that there is in the same an itching after them for converse and familiarity to procure their assistance in any thing that their vain imagination suggesteth them with to effect which they inform themselves in every Tradition of Conjuration and Exorcism as also in the names natures and powers of Devils in general and are ever restless till their souls be totally devoted to that accursed and detestable nature which is at enmity with God and goodness 10. Now to proceed in the description of these Infernal Spirits and separated Daemons or Astral Beings as also of those in the Angelical Kingdom they that pertain to the Kingdom of Heaven are either Angels which are divided into their degrees and orders or else the righteous souls departed who are entred into rest And it cannot be but that the life of Angels and Souls departed is the same in Heaven as also the food that nourisheth them and the fruits that spring before them Nor is it possible for any how expert so ever in Magical Arts to compel either of them of what degree soever they be to present themselves or appear before them Although many have written large Discourses and Forms of Convocation to compel the Angels unto communication with them by Magical Rites and Ceremonies 11. It may indeed be believed that seeing there are infinite numbers of Angels they are also imployed for the glory of God and protection of mankind but not subject to Conjurations And that they accompany many righteous men Invisibly and protect Cities and Countries from Plagues War and infestings of wicked Spirits against which Principalities and Powers of Darkness it is their place to contend and war to the confusion of the Kingdom of Darkness 12. But such Spirits as belong to this outward World and are of the Elemental quality subject to a beginning and ending and to degrees of continuance These may be solicited by Conjurations and can also inform Magicians in all the secrets of Nature yet so darkly because they want the outward organ that it is hardly possible for any that hath fellowship with them to learn any manual operation perfectly and distinctly from them 13. Many have insisted upon the Natures of these Astral Spirits some alledging That they are part of the faln Angels and consequently subject to the torments of Hell at the last Judgment Others That they are the departed souls of men and women confined to these outward Elements until the Consummation Lastly others As Del rio Nagar the Indian Magician and the Platonists affirm That their nature is middle between Heaven and Hell and that they reign in a third Kingdom from both having no other judgment or doom to expect for ever 14. But to speak more nearly unto their natures they are of the source of the Stars and have their degrees of continuance where of some live hundreds some thousands of years Their
rer lib. 15. c. 92. Pope Celestinus cosened of his Popedom by Pope Boniface Visions distinguished H. Card. lib. de subtilitat 18. Idem ibid. Of Winchester noise Appendents unto the supposed divine Art of Theurgie Mark the sum and scope of this Letter Sir John Malbornes Book detecting the devices of conjuration c. The Author his Conclusion Andreas Gartnerus Mariemontanus Mat. 10.26 Mark 4.22 Luk. 8.17 12.2 The compilers or markers of the Book called A Mallet to brain Witches No marvel that they were so opinionative herein for God gave them over unto strong delusions The definition or description of Witchcraft The formal cause The final cause The material cause A necessary sequel Probatum est by Mother Bungies confession that all Witches are coseners * J. Bodin in the Preface before his Book of Daemonomania reporteth this by a Conjuring Priest late curate of Islington he also sheweth to what end read the place you that understand Latine Note this device of the waxen images found of late neer London A strange miracle if it were true There the hypocrite was over match for all his dissembled gravity Heming in lib. de superst magicis The greatest Clarks are not the wisest men A natural reason of the former knack C. Agrip. in lib. de vanit sci-cut in epistola ante librum de occult Philosophia Plin. lib natural hist 30. c. 1. Pet. Mart. in locis communibus Note that during all Christs time upon earth which was 33. years Witches were put to silence c. But Christs argument was undoubted Ergo c. I marvel for what purpose that Magistrate went to that fellows house Albertus Crantzius in lib. 4. mertopolis cap. 4 Prov. 6.27 28. Mal malef par 2. quaest 1. cap. 9. He should rather have asked who gave him Orders and Licence to Preach Joan. Bodin Yet many that bear the shew of honest men are very credulous herein Witches are commonly very Beggers A general conclusion against them whom the subject of this Book concerneth 〈◊〉 adorus 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 â—â—â—dinus 〈◊〉 Malef. With the like porperty were the old Illyricâ— people indued if we will credit the words of Sabinus grounded upon the report of Aul. Gell. J. Bap. Neapol in lib. de naturali magia This is held of some for truth Non est in speculo res â—uae speculntur in illo Nescio quis oculús teneros mihi fascinat agnos saith Virgil and thus Englished by Abraaham Fleming I wote not I What witching eye Doth use to hint My tender Lamb Sucking their Damâ— And them incâ—â—nt H. Card. lib. de var. rer 16. cap. 93. The Platonists and Stoicks The Epicureans and Peripateticks Summum bonum cannot consist in the happiness of the body or mind Moral Temperance Moral Prudence Moral Justice Moral Fortitude Rom. 2. The question about Spirits doubtful and difficult Plotinus The Greeks Laur. Ananias The Manichees Plutarch Psellus Mal. malef Avicen and the Cabalists The Thalmudists Psellus c. The Platonists The Papists Apoc. 19.10 ibid. 21 8 9. The Sadduces Psellus de operatione daemonum cap. 8. Such are Spirits walking in white sheets c. Psellus ibid. cap. 9. Idem cap. 10. Idem ibid. c. 11. Oh Heathenish nay oh Papistical folly The opinions of all Papists A cosening knavery H. Card. lib. de var. rer 10. cap. 93. Devils of divers natures and their operations The former opinion confuted Psellus lib. de operat daem cap. 12. If this were spoken of the tentations c. of Satan it were tolerable 1 Cor. 12.17 Psellus ibid. cast 13. If a babe of two years old throw stones from Pauls-steeple they will do hurt c. Howbeit I think the spirit of tentation to be that Devil and therefore Christ biddeth us Wateh and pray lest we be tempted c. Psel in operat daem cap. 14 Idem cap. 17. Beaslike Devils But Psellus saw nothing himself Probable and likely stuffe Fas Card. operat de daemon The Plationsts Opinion What kind of sacrifices each Spirit liketh best Of Socrates his private divel or familiar Spirit Dionys in coelest hierarch cap. 9 10. Ephes 6. Dionys in coelest hierarch J. Calv. lib stit 1. c. 14. Edw. Deeri in lect upon the Hebrews reading 6. Mal. 3.1 Isa 14. The opinion of the Thalmudists Laur. Anan lib. de natur daem 1. Creavit coelum terram Laur. Anan lib. de natur Daem 1. Laur. Anan lib. de natur Dam. 1. Laur. Anan lib. de natur daem 1. Instans viz. punctum temp nempe individuum Nunc. Euseb in Eccles histor 10000000. Johannes Cassianus in confessione theolog tripart J. Cal. lib instit 1. cap. 14. sect 8. Mich. And. thes 107.101 Idem thes 103 108. Luk. 15.7 Luk. 16.22 J. Cal. lib. instit 1. cap. 14. 2 Reg. 16.17 Jud. vers 6. 2 Pet. 2.4 Mal Malef. part 2. quaest 1. cap. 2 3. Mal. Malef. part 2. cap. 1. quaest 1. Mich. And. Laur. Anan Mal. Malef. c. Author lib. Zeor Hammor in Gen. 2. The gross dulness of many at the Bearing of a spirit named Aug. in ser 4. Greg. 29. sup Joh. Leo pont ser 8. Nativit Eph. 6.11 12. 1 Pet. 5.8 Vers 9. 1 Cor. 2.14 Judg. 9.7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14. a Exod. 31.1 b Act. 8.19 Gal. 3. c Joh. 6.70 Matth. 16.23 d 1 Cor. 3. Gal. 3. 1 Cor. 2. 2 Cor. 7. e Luk. 9. 1 Cor. 5. Philip. 1. 1 Thes 5. f 1 John 4. g 1 Tim. 4. h Ephes 5. i Esai 11.2 k Zach. 12.10 l Rom. 8.15 m 1 Cor. 12.8 9 10 11. n Isai 19.14 o Isai 29.10 p 1 Sam. 28. Hest 16. q Sap. 15.13 29. r Judg. 9.23 Å¿ Numb 5.14 t Luk. 13.11 u Mark 16.9 x Lev. 26. Prov. 24. Luk. 17. y Mat. 8.16 Luk. 4.36 Luk. 7.21 z Joh. 8.11 Luk. 8.14 Levit. 14.7 8. Joh. 9.1 c. Mat. 4.23 c. Mat. 15.28 Mat. 12.22 Mal. malef quaest 5. pag. 1. * A maxime in Philosophy as the Sun in aridis siccis Joseph de antiquitat Jud. item de bello Iud. lib. 7. c. 35. Numb 27.16 2 Chron. 18.19 20 21. Mark 5.9 Luk. 8.27 28. J. Cal. lib instit lib. 1. cap. 14. sect 14. Numb 11.25 Acts 16. 2 King 2.9 a Judg. 3 10. b Chap. 6.34 c Chap. 11.29 d Ibid. 14.6 e Numb 24.2 f 1 Sam. 10.6 g 1 Sam. 16.13 h Ezâ—k 11.5 i 2 Chron. 24.20 k 1 Chron. 12.18 l Dan. 5.11 m Joh. 3.34 Eccles 8.8 For every natural motion is either circular or elementary Gen. 18. 19. J. Bod. lib. de dam. 3. cap. 4. Exod. 12.29 Psal 104.20 c. J. Bod. lib. de daem 3. cap. 5. Levit. 1. 2 King 1.2 Mat. 9.34 12.24 Mark 3.22 Luk. 11.15 a 2 King 19.37 b 2 King 17.31 c Hos 9.10 Numb 25.3 Deut. 4.3 d 2 King 19.37 e Numb 21.29 1 King 11.33 f Judg. 16.23 g 1 King 11.33 h 1 King 11.7 2 King 23.10 Jer. 32.35 Joseph