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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A19407	The triall of vvitch-craft shewing the true and right methode of the discouery: with a confutation of erroneous wayes. By Iohn Cotta, Doctor in Physicke.	Cotta, John, 1575?-1650?	1616 (1616)	STC 5836; ESTC S108830	92,097	138

wise-women so vulgarly termed for their reputed knowledge cōcerning such diseased persons as are supposed to be bewitched But it may be obiected that many of these two last mentioned forts are rather deceiuers and Impostors onely who by an opinion of this power and not by any reall power herein do deceiue seduce and beguile the people This cannot in some be denied notwithstanding least impious imposture be still tolerated to bee a couert to hide the manifest diuellish practice of Witches vnder pretense thereof wherby it shall euer continue in this shape neglected or vnspied I will both briefely giue satisfaction how the one may be distinguished from the other and also declare how men ceasing to enquire at Diuels and Witches or Impostors may learne to enquire of their God alone and by the light of nature and reason which he hath giuen vnto them in his feare with his allowance and approbation more truely and certainely informe themselues CHAP. IX Of Wisards and Impostors how they differ from Witches HOw Witch-craft in diuers kindes may according to euidence of reason be detected hath beene before made manifest How imposture may be discouered since there is so good vse and necessitie of the distinction thereof for the more perfect separating and setting apart of Witch-craft by it selfe wee will likewise briefely make manifest The Impostor is he who pretendeth truth but intendeth falshood For this cause sometimes vnder an holy pretense he maketh God the Author of his vnholy prestigiation and slandereth God vnto his face Sometimes to be reputed an Angell of light he maketh himselfe a license to counterfet the Diuell He proposeth it his trade to seduce and liueth by lying Sometimes in shew and pollicitation hee is a Witch but in the performance of the greater sinne hee is lesse iust and in the personate resemblance solely a Iuggler For as the Witch performeth that which in true and infallible reason is transcendent and aboue nature so the Impostor performeth that which in false and fallible reason and opinion onely seemeth parallel Hence as Witches doe strange and supernaturall workes and truely vnto reason worthy of wonder so the Impostor doth things voide of accomptable reason in shadow shew and seeming onely supernaturall wondred and admired And hence it commeth to passe that with vndiscerning mindes they are sometimes mistaken and confounded one for another From hence it is also necessarily concluded that as Witch craft is discouered by a supernaturall worke aboue reason whereto the Witches consent is accessary so an Impostor is detected by a worke voide of accomptable reason but in a deceiuing false Visar or shew wherewith the purpose and intention of the Deceiuer or Impostor doth concurre As therefore the suspected Witch is tyed to answere vnto any iust doubt which may bee directly vrged against his or her manifest voluntary action that is proued supernaturall so is a truely doubted Impostor bound to giue satisfaction for such his ambiguous actions as doe in likely reason appeare fraudulent vaine prestigious iuggling couzening or deceiuing And thus shall each appeare in his owne true shape apart Of diuers kindes of Witch-craft I haue here produced examples I may here likewise very pertinently for further illustration propose some examples of Imposture in generall that the odiousnesse of this foule sinne may appeare more foule and the ougly face thereof may be more fully discouered Among multitude of examples I will recite onely some few whereof some consist in lewd and guilefull contriuement of action other in the bewitching power of false prophecies reuelations predictions and prognostications Concerning the first who can be ignorant of the impious and infamous Impostures of Mahomet who by guileful counterfeit miracles and pretended angelicall illuminated works first magnified and set vp that heathenish Empire and Religion of the blasphemous Turkes The History of Sebastian the pretended Portugall King as it is set forth by Iohn de Serres according to Master Grimstones translation thereof if he were a true Impostor indeed and were not iniuriously traduced and blurred with vndeserued reproch is an incomparable example aboue and beyond many other I will referre my Reader to the Author himselfe If wee desire more neere or domesticall examples herein behold in the raigne of Henry the seuenth a boy of meane parentage through imposturous machinations opposed set vp and crowned King in Ireland against that famous and renowned Prince Henry the seuenth putting him in great danger of his life and crowne of England In the late raigne of Queene Mary there arose an Impostor stiling himselfe Edward the sixth The danger of the progresse of that Impostor if it had preuailed who knoweth not The manifest wrongs iniuries and impeachments also from counterfeit prophecies reuelations and predictions issuing not onely vnto priuate men and families but vnto kingdomes Empires and common-weales are infinite Iulian an Emperour of Rome though otherwise a mighty and learned Prince and valiant souldier by a prophecie of an Impostresse or seeming Pythonisse promising his conquest and triumph ouer the kingdome of Persia was thither hastened vnto his deserued death and the vengeance of God vpon his infamous Apostasie It is reported by Iohn de Serres the French Chronicler that the power and force of some pretended reuelations and visions of a yong Shepheard in the raigne of Charles the seuenth King of France was so preualent that it perswaded Pothon that great famous French Captaine with the Martiall of France to arme and incounter the then victorious English in the bowels of that kingdome by which vnaduised attempt the French were supprised and taken by the English It is recorded by the same Author that one Martha Brosier counterfeiting the fits and passions of such as were possessed in short time became so powerfull in illusion that she ministred much matter of wonder and amazement not onely vnto priuate men but vnto the Kings Counsell to Preachers in pulpits yea vnto the whole Parliament vntill the counterfet Diuell induring some punishment and restraint forsooke his pretended possession If we require examples in our own country behold in the raigne of Edward the fourth his brother George Duke of Clarence was hastened vnto his vntimely death euen by the allowance of his brother King vpon the feare of a vaine and flying prophecie that G. of King Edwards heyres should bee the murtherer In the time of Henry the eight the holy Maide of Kent by her seeming miraculous reuelations deceiuing not onely the common sort but euen-diuers learned and some men of the best ranke and prime note stirred vp in the King great iealousie and feare of his Crowne and safety as by the records of her attaindour doth appeare wherein doth stand proued and sentenced her treason-some imposture of most dangerous consequent if it had obtained equall issue In the same kings raigne the bewitching esteeme credit and hope of force and vertue in counterfeit predictions and pretended reuelations whet the

of Henry the 4. And M r. Fox in the life of Martin Luther doth make mention of a young man who deliuered a bond vnto the Diuell vpon certaine conditions which bond was written with the young mans owne bloud and vpon his repentance and the earnest zealous prayer of the people vnto God in his behalfe was redeliuered and cast into the Church in the view and sight of the whole assembly there and then being Some deriue an effectual vertue vnto their decreed Diuelish works by hanging caracters or papers about the neck as Pliny reporteth Some practise to bring their Diuelish ends vnto issue by coniured images and pictures of waxe golde earth or other matter as Thomas Aquinas in his booke de occultis Naturae witnesseth Holingshed page 534. doth chronicle the execution of certaine Traitours for conspiring the King of Englands death by Sorcerous and Magicall pictures of waxe The same author page 1271. doth report that in the twentith yeare of Queene ELIZABETH a figure-flinger as hee termeth him being suspected as a Coniurer or Witch sodainely dying there was found about him besides bookes of coniuration other Sorcerous papers or Caracters the picture of a man wrought out of Tynne Some late Writers haue obserued that diuers Witches by such pictures haue caused the persons thereby represented secretly to languish and consume as was lately proued against some late famous Witches of Yorke-shire and Lancaster by the testimonies beyond exception of witnesses not only present but Presidents in their tryall and arraignment Some execute their hellish intentions by infernall compositions drawne out of the bowels of dead and murthered Infants as Ioannes Baptist Porta in his booke de Magia naturali doth from his owne knowledge affirme and thereto the Malleus Maleficarum with others doe assent Some practise also Sorcery by tying knots as Saint Ierome testifieth in vita Hilarij concerning a Priest of Aesculapius at Memphis Some practise Witch-craft by touching with the hand or finger only as Biniuenius sayth Some in their Sorcerous acts or coniurations vse partchment made of the skinne of Infants or children borne before their time as Serres reporteth from the confession of Witches in the time and raigne of Henry the fourth detected Some for the promoting of their Diuelish deuices vse the ministery of liuing creatures or of Diuels and Spirits in their likenesse as histories report and Theocratus in his Pharmacentria seemeth to credit inducing there a Sorceresse who by the power of her bird did drawe and force her Louer to come vnto her This seemeth not impossible vnto a Witch by the multitude of liuing shapes which the Diuell in former ages hath vsually assumed termed Faunes Satyres Nymphes and the like familiarly conuersing with men Some bring their cursed Sorcery vnto their wished end by sacrificing vnto the Diuell some liuing creatures as Serres likewise witnesseth from the confession of Witches in Henry the fourth of France deprehended among whom one confessed to haue offered vnto his Diuell or Spirit a Beetle This seeemeth not improbable by the Diabolicall litations and bloudy sacrifices not onely of other creatures but euen of men wherewith in ancient time the heathen pleased their gods which were no other then Diuels And rather then the Diuell will altogether want worship hee is sometimes contented to accept the parings of nailes as Serres frō the confession of certain French Witches doth report Some Authors write that some sorts of Sorcerers are obserued to fasten vpō men their Magicall mischieuous effects works by conueying or deliuering vnto the persons whom they meane to assault meates or drinkes or other such like as is euident by the generally knowne power of the Magicke cups of the inchaunted Filtra or loue draughts and as seemeth iustified by S. Augustine in his 18. booke de Ciuitaete Dei making mention of a woman who bewitched others by deliuering onely a piece of cheese Some of our late Countrimen haue obserued some Witches to mischiefe or surprise such as they intend maliciously to destroy by obtaining some part or parcell of their garments or any excrements belonging vnto them as their hayre or the like It is not to be doubted that the Diuell that old Proteus is able to change and metamorphise his rites ceremonies and superstitions into what new shapes or formes are best sutable to his pleasure and his fellow-contractors most commodious vses and purposes Concerning all the former mentioned although it bee exceeding difficult nay an impossible thing for any man to auouch euery of them true in his owne knowledge or experience yet for that some kindes of them wee may assuredly know and beleeue from God himselfe who hath in his sacred word nominated both apparitions of the Diuel as also incantations charms spels familiarity with Spirits as also for that reason doth demonstrate that there may be many more kinds besides those named of the same likenesse nature abused and diuelish vse and for that vnto othersome the credit worth and merit of those Writers by whom they haue been obserued and published doth giue weight estimation it may be approued as an infallible conclusion that wheresoeuer any of them or the like being diligently enquired after are either really found or in apparence or shew resembling that there with the concurrence of circumstances and approued precedence of a manifest worke of Sorcery consenting that there I say it ought to be sufficient vncontroled matter or occasion of iust suspicion presumption against the particular in whom they are by iust witnesses free from exception detected and palpably known practised exercised As we haue now briefly recited and called to mind some sorts of such ceremonies rites superstitions manners instruments and gestures as are annexed vnto that kinde of Sorcerie or Witch-craft which consisteth in action So let vs also recite some other sorts of ceremonies rites and superstitions which belong vnto that kinde of Sorcery which is conuersant in diuinations reuelations of things hidden predictions and prophecies Diuinations according to nature or art as Cicero distinguisheth in his first booke de Diuinatione we doe not intend or purpose but that diuinatiō which the same Author in the same place doth refer into a power aboue man which hee there termeth the power of the gods between whom and diuination the Stoicks make this reciprocation Si sit Diuinatio Dij sunt si Dij sint est Diuinatio that is if there be right diuination or prediction of things to come not contained in Art or Nature certainly that diuination is of the Gods as reciprocally where there are Gods there is diuination Here wee see playnely not onely the antiquity but the direct originall of diuinations and that they do manifestly deriue themselues from Idol gods from Infidels from Idolaters This is further euident likewise by the generall current and report of all histories euen from the first beginning and foundation of Rome by Romulus as through all ancient writings and writers