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death_n	work_n	write_v	wrought_v	33	3	7.1168	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62397	The discovery of witchcraft proving that the compacts and contracts of witches with devils and all infernal spirits or familiars are but erroneous novelties and imaginary conceptions : also discovering, how far their power extendeth in killing, tormenting, consuming, or curing the bodies of men, women, children, or animals by charms, philtres, periapts, pentacles, curses, and conjurations : wherein likewise the unchristian practices and inhumane dealings of searchers and witch-tryers upon aged, melancholly, and superstitious people, in extorting confessions by terrors and tortures, and in devising false marks and symptoms, are notably detected ... : in sixteen books / by Reginald Scot ... ; whereunto is added an excellent Discourse of the nature and substance of devils and spirits, in two books : the first by the aforesaid author, the second now added in this third edition ... conducing to the compleating of the whole work, with nine chapters at the beginning of the fifteenth [sic] book of The discovery.; Discoverie of witchcraft	Scot, Reginald, 1538?-1599.; Scot, Reginald, 1538?-1599. Discourse concerning the nature and substance of devils and spirits.	1665 (1665)	Wing S945A; ESTC R20054	529,066	395

made Yea the spirits themselves have their laws and limits prescribed beyond the which they cannot pass one hairs breadth otherwise God should be contrary to himself which is far from him Neither is Gods omnipotency hereby qualified but the Devils impotency manifested who hath none other power but that which God from the beginning hath appointed unto him consonant to his nature and substance He may well be restrained from his power and will but beyond the same he cannot pass as being Gods minister no further but in that which he hath from the beginning enabled him to do which is that he being a spirit may with Gods leave and ordinance viciate and corrupt the spirit and will of man werein he is very diligent What a beastly assertion is it that a man whom God hath made according to his own similitude and likeness should be by a Witch turned into a beast What an impiety is it to affirm that an Asses body is the temple of the holy Ghost Or an Asse to be the child of God and God to be his Father as it is said of man Which Paul to the Corinthians so divinely confuteth who saith That our bodies are the members of Christ in the which we are to glorifie God for the body is for the Lord and the Lord is for the body Surely he meaneth not for an Asses body as by this time I hope appeareth in such wife as Bodin may go hide him for shame especially when he shall understand that even into these our bodies which God hath framed after his own likeness he hath also breathed that spirit which Bodin saith is now remaining within an Asses body which God hath so subjected in such servility under the foot of man of whom God is so mindful that he hath made him little lower then Angels yea than himself and crowned him with glory and worship and made him to have dominion over the works of his hands as having put all things under his feet all Sheep and Oxen yea Wolves Asses and all other beasts of the field the fouls of the air the fishes of the sea c. Bodins Poet Ovid whose Metamorphosis makes so much for him saith to the overthrow of this phantastical imagination Os homini sublime dedit coelumque videre Jussit erectos ad sydera tollere vultus The effect of which verses is this The Lord did set mans fade so hie That he the heavens might behold And look up to the starry skie To see his wonders manifold Now if a Witch or a Devil can so alter the shape of a man as contrarily to make him look down to hell like a beast Gods works should not only be defaced and disgraced but his ordinance should be wonderfully altered and thereby confounded CHAP. VI. The Witchmongers Objections concerning Nebuchadnezzar answered and their error cerning Lycanthropia confuted MAlleus Maleficarum Bodin and many other of them that maintain Witchcraft triumph upon the story of Nebuchadnezzar as though Circes had transformed him with her sorceties into an Ox as she did others into Swine c. I answer that he was neither in body nor shape transformed at all according to their gross imagination as appeareth both by the plain words of the text and also by the opinions of the best Interpreters thereof but that he was for his beastly government and conditions thrown out of his Kingdom and banished for a time and driven to hide himself in the Wilderness there in exile to lead his life in a beastly sort among beasts of the field and fowles of the air for by the way I tell you it appeareth by the text that he was rather turned into the shape of a fowl than of a beast until he rejecting his beastly conditions was upon his repentance and amendment called home and restored unto his Kingdom Howbeit this by their confession was neither Devils nor Witches doing but a miracle wrought by God whom alone I acknowledge to bring to pass such works at his pleasure Wherein I would know what our Witch-mongers have gained I am not ignorant that some write that after the death of Nebuchadnezzar his son Evilmerodath gave his body to the ravens to be devoured least afterwards his father should arise from death who of a beast became a man again But this tale is meeter to have place in the Cabalistical art to wit among unwritten verities than here To concude I say that the transformations which these Witch-mongers do so rave and rage upon is as all the learned sort of Physitians affirm a disease proceeding partly from melancholy whereby many suppose themselves to be Wolves or such ravening beasts For Lycanthropia is of the ancient Physitians called Lupina melancholia or Lupina insania J. Wierus declareth very learnedly the cause the circumstance and the cure of this disease I have written the more herein because hereby great Princes and Potentates as well as poor Women and Innocents have been defamed and accounted among the number of Witches CHAP. VII A special Objection answered concerning Transportations with the consent of divers Writers thereupon FOr the maintenance of Witches Transportations they object the words of the Gospel where the Devil is said to take up Christ and to set him on a pinnacle of the Temple and on a mountain c. which if he had done in manner and form as they suppose it followeth not therefore that Witches could do the like nor yet that the Devil would do it for them at their pleasure for they know not their thoughts neither can otherwise communicate with them But I answer that if it were so grossely to be understood as they imagine it yet should it make nothing to their purpose For I hope they will not say that Christ had made any ointments or entred into any league with the Devil and by vertue thereof was transported from out of the Wilderness unto the top of the temple at Jerusalem or that the Devil could have masteries over his body whose soul he could never lay hold upon especially when he might with a beck of his finger have called unto him and have had the assistance of many legions of Angels Neither as I think will they presume to make Christ partaker of the Devils purpose and sin in that behalf If they say This was an action wrought by the special providence of God and by his appointment that the Scripture might be fulfilled then what gain our Witchmongers by this place First for that they may not produce a particular example to prove so general an argument And again if it were by Gods special providence and appointment then why should it not be done by the hand of God as it was in the story of Job Or if if it were Gods special purpose and pleasure that there should be so extraordinary a matter brought to pass by the hand of the Devil could not God have given to the wicked Angel

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

miserable and therefore it should be unto them Invita Minerva to banquet or dance with Minerva or yet with Herodias as the common opinion of all Writers herein is On the other side we see they are so malicious and spiteful that if they by themselves or by their Devils could trouble the Element we should never have fair weather If they could kill men children or cattel they would spare none but would destroy and kill whole Countries and Housholds If they could transfer Corn as is affirmed from their neighbours field into their own none of them would be poor none other should be rich If they could transform themselves and others as it is most constantly affirmed oh what a number of Apes and Owls should there be of us If Incubus could beget Merlins among us we should have a jolly many of cold Prophets CHAP. IV. Why God forbad the practice of Witchcraft the absurdity of the Law of the twelve Tables whereupon their estimation in miraculous actions is grounded of their wondrous works THough it be apparent that the Holy-Ghost forbiddeth this Art because of the abuse of the Name of God and the cosenage comprehended therein yet I confess the Customs and Laws almost of all Nations do declare that all these miraculous works before by me cited and many other things more wonderful were attributed to the power of Witches The which Laws with the executions and judicials thereupon and the Witches confessions have beguiled almost the whole world What absurdities concerning Witchcraft are written in The Laew of the Twelve Tables which was the highest and most ancient Law of the Romans Whereupon the strongest argument of Witches omnipotent power is framed as that the wisdom of such Law-givers could not be abused Whereof me thinks might be made a more strong argument on our side to wit if the chief and principal Laws of the world be in this case ridiculous vain false incredible yea and contrary to Gods Law the residue of the laws and arguments to that effect are to be suspected If that argument should hold it might prove all the Popish Laws against Protestants and the Heathenish Princes Laws against Christians to be good and in force for it is like they would not have made them except they had been good Were it not think you a strange Proclamation that no man upon pain of death should pull the Moon out of Heaven And yet very many or the most learned Witchmongers make their arguments upon weaker grounds as namely in this form and manner We find in Poets that Witches wrought such and such miracles Ergo they can accomplish and do this or that wonder The words of the law are these Qui fruges incantasset poenas dato Neve aelienam segetem pellexeris excantando neque incaentando Ne agrum defruganto the sense whereof in English is this Let him be executed that bewitcheth Corn Transferr not other mens Corn into thy ground by Inchantment Take heed thou inchant not at all neither make thy neighbours field barren he that doth these things shall dye c. CHAP. V. An instance of one arraigned upon the Law of the Twelve Tables where the said Law is proved ridiculous of two Witches that could do wonders ALthough among us we think them bewitched that wax suddenly poor and not them that grow hastily rich yet at Rome you shall understand that as Pliny reporteth upon these Articles one C. Furius Crassus was convented before Spurius Albinus for that he being but a little while free and delivered from bondage occupying only tillage grew rich on the sudden as having good crops so as it was suspected that he transferred his neighbours Corn into his Fields No intercession no delay no excuse no denial would serve neither in jest nor derision nor yet through sober or honest means but he was assigned a peremptory day to answer for life And therefore fearing the sentence of condemnation which was to be given there by the voyce and verdict of three men as we here are tryed by twelve made his appearance at the day assigned and brought with him his Ploughs and Harrows Spades and Shovels and other Instruments of husbandry his Oxen Horses and working Bullocks his Servants and also his Daughter which was a sturdy Wench and a good Houswife and also as Piso reporteth well trimmed up in Apparel and said to the whole Bench in this wise Lo here my Lords here I make my appearance according to promise and your pleasures presenting unto you my Charms and Witchcrafts which have so inriched me As for the labour sweat watching care and diligence which I have used in this behalf I cannot shew them at this time And by this means he was dismissed by the consent of the Court who otherwise as it was thought should hardly have escaped the sentence of condemnation and punishment of death It is constantly affirmed in M. Mal. that Stafus used alwayes to hide himself in a Monshoal and had a Disciple called Hoppo who made Stadlin a Master Witch and could all when they list invisibly transfer the third part of their neighbours Dung Hay Corn c. into their own ground make Hail Tempests and Floods with Thunder and Lightning and kill Children Cattel c. reveal things hidden and many other Tricks when and where they list But these two shifted not so well with the Inquisitors as the other with the Roman and Heathen Judges Howbeit Stafus was too hard for them all for none of all the Lawyers nor Inquisitors could bring him to appear before them if it be true that Witchmongers write in these matters CHAP. VI. Laws provided for the punishment of such Witches as work Miracles whereof some are mentioned and of certain Popish Laws published against them THere are other Laws of other Nations made to this incredible effect as Lex Salicarum provideth punishment for them that flie in the Air from place to place and meet at their nightly Assemblies and brave banquets carrying with them Plate and such stuffe c. even as we should make a law to hang him that should take a Church in his hand at Dover and throw it to Caellice And because in this case also Popish laws shall be seen be to as foolish and lewd as any other whatsoever and specially as tyrannous as that which is most cruel you shall hear what trim new laws the Church of Rome hath lately devised These are therefore the words of Pope Innocent the eight to the Inquisitors of Almaine and of Pope Julius the second sent to the Inquisitors of Bergomen It is come to our ears that many lewd persons of both kinds as well male as female using the company of the Devils Incubus and Succubus with Incantations Charms Conjurations c. do destroy c. the births of women with child the young of all Cattel the Corn of the Field the Grapes of the Vines the fruit of the Trees Ieem Men women