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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42824	Saducismus triumphatus, or, Full and plain evidence concerning witches and apparitions in two parts : the first treating of their possibility, the second of their real existence / by Joseph Glanvil. With a letter of Dr. Henry More on the same subject and an authentick but wonderful story of certain Swedish witches done into English by Anth. Horneck.	Glanvill, Joseph, 1636-1680.; More, Henry, 1614-1687.; Horneck, Anthony, 1641-1697.	1681 (1681)	Wing G822; ESTC R25463	271,903	638

meer Trick or Imposture But the Story with your ingenious Considerations about Witchcraft being so often printed already he said it behoved him to take care how he ventured on a new Impression unless he had some new matter of that kind to adde which might make this new Edition the more certainly salable and therefore he expected the issue of that noised story of the Spectre at Exeter seen so oft for the discovering of a Murther committed some thirty years ago But the event of this business as to juridical process not answering expectation he was discouraged from making use of it many things being reported to him from thence in favour to the party most concerned But I told him a story of one Mrs. Britton her appearing to her Maid after her death very well attested though not of such a Tragical kind as that of Exeter which he thought considerable But of Discoveries of Murther I never met with any story more plain and unexceptionable than that in Mr. John Webster his Display of supposed Witchcraft The Book indeed it self I confess is but a weak and impertinent piece but that story weighty and convincing and such as himself though otherwise an affected Caviller against almost all stories of Witchcraft and Apparitions is constrained to assent to as you shall see from his own confession I shall for your better ease or because you haply may not have the Book transcribe it out of the Writer himself though it be something long Chap. 16. Page 298. About the year of our Lord 1632 as near as I can remember having lost my Notes and the Copy of the Letter to Serjeant Hutton but am sure that I do most perfectly remember the substance of the story near unto Chester in the Street there lived one Walker a Teoman-man of good estate and a Widower who had a young Woman to his Kinswoman that kept his House who was by the Neighbours suspected to be with Child and was towards the dark of the Evening one night sent away with one Mark Sharp who was a Collier or one that digged Coals under ground and one that had been born in Blakeburn Hundred in Lancashire and so she was not heard of a long time and no noise or little was made about it In the Winter-time after one James Graham or Grime for so in that Countrey they call them being a Miller and living about Two miles from the place where Walker lived was one night alone very late in the Mill grinding Corn and as about twelve or one a Clock at night he came down the Stairs from having been putting Corn in the H●…pper the Mill-doors being shut there stood a Woman upon the midst of the Floor with her Hair about her Head hanging down and all bloody with five large Wounds on her Head He being much affrighted and amazed began to bless him and at last asked her who she was and what she wanted To which she said I am the Spirit of such a Woman who lived with Walker and being got with Child by him he promised to send me to a private place where I should be well lookt to until I was brought in bed and well again and then I should come again and keep his House And accordingly said the Apparition I was one night late sent away with one Mark Sharp who upon a Moor naming a place that the Miller knew slew me with a Pick such as men dig Coals withal and gave me these five Wounds and after threw my Body into a Coal-pit hard by and hid the Pick under a Bank and his Shoes and Stockings being bloudy he endeavoured to wash but seeing the bloud would not wash sorth he hid them there And the Apparition further told the Miller that he must be the man to reveal it or else that she must still appear and haunt him The Miller returned home very sad and heavy but spoke not one word of what he had seen but eschewed as much as he could to slay in the Mill within night without company thinking thereby to escape the seeing again of that frightful Apparition But notwithstanding one night when it began to be dark the Apparition met him again and seemed very fierce and cruel and threatned him That if he did not reveal the Murder she would continually pursue and haunt him Tet for all this he still concealed it until St. Thomas Eve before Christmas when being soon after Sun set walking in his Garden she appeared again and then so threatned him and affrighted him that he faithfully promised to reveal it next morning In the morning he went to a Magistrate and made the whole matter known with all the circumstances and diligent search being made the Body was found in a Coal-pit with five Wounds in the Head and the Pick and Shoes and Stockings yet bloody in every circumstance as the Apparition had related unto the Miller Whereupon Walker and Mark Sharp were both apprehended but would confess nothing At the Assizes following I think it was at Durham they were arraigned found guilty condemned and executed but I could never hear that they confessed the Fact There were some that reported that the Apparition did appear to the Judge or the Foreman of the Jury who was alive in Chester in the Street about Ten years ago as I have been credibly informed but of that I know no certainty There are many persons yet alive that can remember this strange Murder and the Discovery of it for it was and sometimes yet is as much discoursed of in the North-Countrey as any thing that almost hath ever been heard of and the Relation Printed though now not to be gotten I relate this with the greater confidence though I may fail in some of the Circumstances because I saw and read the Letter that was sent to Serjeant Hutton who then lived at Goldsbrugh in Yorkshire from the Judge before whom Walker and Mark Sharp were tried and by whom they were condemned and had a Copy of it until about the year 1●…58 when I had it and 〈◊〉 other Books and Papers taken from me And this I confess to be one of the most convincing Stories being of undoubted verity that ever I read heard or knew of and carrieth with it the most evident force to make the most incredulous spirit to be satisfied that there are really sometimes such things as Apparitions Thus far He. This Story is so considerable that I make mention of it in my Scholia on my Immortality of the Soul in my Volumen Philosophicum Tom. 2. which I acquainting a Friend of mine with a prudent intelligent person Dr. J. D. he of his own accord offered me it being a thing of such consequence to send to a friend of his in the North for greater assurance of the truth of the Narration which motion I willingly embracing he did accordingly The Answer to his Letter from his friend Mr. Shepherdson is this I have done what I can to inform my self of the

And for asmuch assuch course-grain'd Philosophers as those Hobbians and Spinozians and the rest of that Rabble slight Religion and the Scriptures because there is such express mention of Spirits and Angels in them things that their dull Souls are so inclinable to conceit to be impossible I look upon it as a special piece of Providence that there are ever and anon such fresh examples of Apparitions and Witchcrafts as may rub up and awaken their benummed and lethargick Mindes into a suspicion at least if not assurance that there are other intelligent Beings besides those that are clad in heavy Earth or Clay In this I say methinks the Divine Providence does plainly outwit the Powers of the dark Kingdom in permiting wicked men and women and vagrant Spirits of that Kingdom to make Leagues or Covenants one with another the Confession of Witches against their own Lives being so palpable an evidence besides the miraculous feats they play that there are bad Spirits which will necessarily open a Door to the belief that there are good ones and lastly that there is a God Wherefore let the small Philosophick Sir Fopling of this present Age deride them as much as they will those that lay out their pains in committing to writing certain well-attested Stories of Witches and Apparitions do real service to true Religion and sound Philosophy and the most effectual and accommodate to the confounding of Infidelity and Atheism even in the Judgement of the Atheists themselves who are as much afraid of the truth of these stories as an Ape is of a Whip and therefore force themselves with might and main to disbelieve them by reason of the dreadful consequence of them as to themselves The wicked fear where no fear is but God is in the generation of the Righteous And he that fears God and has Faith in Jesus Christ need not fear how many Devils there be nor be afraid of himself or his own Immortality And therefore it is nothing but a foul dark Conscience within or a very gross and dull constitution of Blood that makes men so averse from these Truths But however be they as averse as they will being this is the most accommodate Medicine for this Disease their diligence and care of Mankind is much to be commended that make it their business to apply it and are resolved though the peevishness and perversness of the Patients makes them pull off their Plaister as they have this excellent one of the Story of the Daemon of Tedworth by decrying it as an Imposture so acknowledged by both your self and Mr. Mompesson are resolved I say with meekness and charity to binde it on again with the addition of new Filletting I mean other Stories sufficiently fresh and very well attested and certain This worthy design therefore of yours I must confess I cannot but highly commend and approve and therefore wish you all good success therein and so committing you to God I take leave and rest Your affectionate Friend to serve you H. M. C. C. C. May 25. 1678. THE Postscript THis Letter lying by me some time before I thought it opportune to conveigh it and in the mean while meeting more than once with those that seemed to have some opinion of Mr. Webster's Criticisms and Interpretations of Scripture as if he had quitted himself so well there that no proof thence can hereafter be expected of the Being of a Witch which is the scope that he earnestly aims at and I reflecting upon that passage in my Letter which does not stick to condemn Webster's whole Book for a weak and impertinent piece presently thought fit that you might not think that Censure over-rash or unjust it being an endless task to shew all the weaknesses and impertinencies of his Discourse briefly by way of Postscript to hint the weakness and impertinency of this part which is counted the Master-piece of the Work that thereby you may perceive that my judgement has not been at all rash touching the whole And in order to this we are first to take notice what is the real scope of his Book which if you peruse you shall certainly finde to be this That the parties ordinarily deemed Witches and Wizzards are onely Knaves and Queans to use his Phrase and arrant Cheats or deep Melancholists but have no more to do with any evil Spirit or Devil or the Devil with them than he has with other Sinners or wicked Men or they with the Devil And Secondly we are impartially to desine what is the true Notion of a Witch or Wizzard which is necessary for the detecting of Webster's Impertinencies As for the words Witch and Wizzard from the Notation of them they signifie no more than a wise Man or a wise Woman In the word Wizzard it is plain at the very first sight And I think the most plain and least op●…rose deduction of the name Witch is from Wit whose derived Adjective might be Wittigh or Wittich and by contraction afterwards Witch as the Noun wit is from the Verb to weet which is to know So that a Witch thus far is no more than a Knowing woman which answers exactly to the Latine word Saga according to that of Festus Sag●… dictae anus quae multa sciunt Thus in general But use questionless had appropriated the word to such a kind of skill and knowledge as was out of the common road or extraordinary Nor did this peculiarity imply in it any unlawfulness But there was after a further restriction and most proper of all and in which alone now adays the words Witch and Wizzard are used And that is for one that has the knowledge or skill of doing or telling things in an extraordinary way and that in vertue of either an express or implicite sociation or consederacy with some evil Spirit This is a true and adequate definition of a Witch or Wizzard which to whomsoever it belongs is such vice versâ But to prove or defend that there neither are nor ever were any such is as I said the main scope of Webster's Book In order to which he endeavours in his sixth and eighth Chapters to evacuate all the Testimonies of Scripture which how weakly and impertinently he has done I shall now shew with all possible brevity and perspicuity The words that he descants upon are Deut. ch 18. v. 10 11. There shall not be found among you any one that useth divination or an observer of times or an Enchanter or a Witch or a Charmer or a Consulter with familiar Spirits or a Wizzard or a Necromancer The first word or name in the Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kosem Kesamim a diviner Here because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kasam sometimes has an indifferent sen●…e and signifies to divine by natural Knowledge or humane Prudence and Sagacity therefore nothing of such a Witch as is imagined to mak●… a visible League with the Devil or to have her Body suckt by him or have carnal copulation

arrival there at the House and the civility of the People shewn them in their Entertainment they were seasonably conducted to their Lodging which they desired might be together in the same bed Where after they had lain a while the Captain knockt and bids the Servant bring him two of the largest and biggest Candles lighted that he could get Whereupon the Doctor enquires what he meant by this The Captain answers you know Cousin what disputes my Major and I have had touching the being of a God and the Immortality of the Soul In which points we could never yet be resolved though we so much sought for and desired it And therefore it was at length fully agreed between us That he of us that dyed first should the third night after his Funeral between the hours of Twelve and One come to the little house that is here in the Garden and there give a full account to the surviver touching these matters who should be sure to be present there at the set time and so receive a full satisfaction And this says the Captain is the very Night and I am come on purpose to fulfill my promise The Doctor disswaded him minding him of the danger of following those strange Counsels for which we could have no warrant and that the Devil might by some cunning device make such an advantage of this rash attempt as might work his utter ruine The Captain replies that he had solemnly engaged and that nothing should discourage him and adds That if the Doctor would wake a while with him he would thank him if not he might compose himself to his rest but for his own part he was resolved to watch that he might be sure to be present at the hour appointed To that purpose he sets his Watch by him and as soon as he perceived by it that it was half an hour past Eleven he rises and taking a Candle in each hand goes out by a back Door of which he had before gotten the Key and walks to the Garden-house where he continued two hours and an half and at his return declared that he neither saw nor heard any thing more than was usual But I know said he that my Major would surely have come had he been able About six weeks after the Captain rides to Eaton to place his Son a Scholar there when the Doctor went thither with him They Lodged there at an Inn the Sign was the Christopher and tarried two or three Nights not lying together now as before at Dulverton but in two several Chambers The Morning before they went thence the Captain stayed in his Chamber longer than he was wont to do before he called upon the Doctor At length he comes into the Doctors Chamber but in a visage and form much differing from himself●… with his Hair and Eyes staring and his whole body shaking and trembling Whereat the Doctor wondering presently demanded What is the matter Cousin Captain The Captain replies I have seen my Major At which the Doctor seeming to smile the Captain immediately confirms it saying If ever I saw him in my life I saw him but now And then he related to the Doctor what had passed Thus This Morning after it was light some one comes to my beds side and suddainly drawing back the Curtains calls Cap. Cap. which was the term of familiarity that the Major used to call the Captain by to whom I replied What my Major To which he returns I could not come at the time appinted but I am now come to tell you That there is a God and a very just and terrible one and if you do not turn over a new leaf the very expression as is by the Doctor punctually remembred you will find it so the Captain proceeded On the Table by there lay a Sword which the Major had formerly given me Now after the Apparition had walked a turn or two about the Chamber he took up the Sword drew it out and finding it not so clean and bright as it ought Cap. Cap. says he this Sword did not use to be kept after this manner when it was mine After which words he suddainly disappeared The Captain was not only throughly perswaded of what he had thus seen and heard but was from that time observed to be very much affected with it And the humour that before in him was brisk and jovial was then strangely altered Insomuch as very little meat would pass down with him at Dinner though at the taking leave of their Friends there was a very handsome Treat provided Yea it was observed that what the Captain had thus seen and heard had a more lasting influence upon him and it is judged by those who were well acquainted with his Conversation that the remembrance of this passage stuck close to him and that those words of his dead Friend were frequently sounding fresh in his Ears during the remainder of his Life which was about two years ADVERTISEMENT For a further assurance of the truth of the story it will not be amiss to take notice what Mr. Douch writes in his second Letter to Mr. Glanvil touching the Character of the Major and the Captain They were both saith he of my good acquaintance Men well bred and of a brisk humour and jolly conversation of very quick and keen parts having also been both of them University and Inns of Court Gentlemen The Major I conceive was about forty five years old when he dyed and I believe the Captain might then be fifty or somewhat more I cannot understand that the Doctor and the Captain had any discourse concerning the former engagement to meet after the disappointment at that time and place or whether the Captain had after that any expectation of the performance of the promise which the Major had made him Thus far Mr. Douch And truly one would naturally think that he failing the solemn appointed time the Captain would consequently let go all hopes and expectation of his appearing afterward Or if he did that it would be at such-time of the night as was first determined of and not at the morning light Which season yet is less obnoxious to the Impostures of Fancy and Melancholy and therefore adds some weight to the assurance of the truth of the Apparition I will only add one clause more out of that second Letter that makes to the point This story saith he has and doth still obtain credit from all that knew the Captain who it seems was not at all shie or scrupulous to relate it to any one that askt him concerning it though it was observed he never mentioned it but with great terrour and trepidation RELAT. XI Being a Postscript of the first Letter of Mr. Douch concerning the appearing of the Ghost of Sir George Villiers Father to the first Duke of Buckingham SIR SInce the writing of the premisses a passage concerning an Apparition of Sir George Villiers giving warning of his Son's the Duke of Buckingham's Murther is come

articulate palpableness of Flesh and Bone and Temperament that are in living men Till this appear by confest experience to be in the palpable consistency of Familiars or Spirits that transact with Witches the Allegation is infinitely weak upon that account also as weak as spightful and perverse But the Hag-Advocates will alledge any foolish thing rather than seem to be able to say nothing In the mean time I think it here seasonable to declare that though this intended Edition of Saducismus Triumphatus had not the happiness to be perfected by the ingenious Author 's own hand before his death yet such Materials he left behind him and the work in such a forwardness that things being put together in that order and distinctness which they are the Discourse may prove as useful for the reclaiming men from Saducism though perhaps not altogether so delightful as if his own hand had had the last polishing of it And the publishing of it will also do him that right in the eyes of the world that whereas he was suspected haply for some complaisance towards some persons that were over-inclinable to Hobbianism to have shrunk from the sense of such noble Theories with which his mind was enlightned in the morning of his days it from hence may appear that these things stuck close to him and that he entertained them with a sincere warmth all along as is evident from these Papers then private within his own Study-walls As the profession of them broke out from him most expresly when he lay on his Death-bed as his intimate friend Mr. Thomas Alcock largely sets down in a Letter written to Dr. H. More And I think that is the time if ever that men will speak their thoughts freely as the Poet hath observed in the like case Nam vere voces tum demum pectore ab imo Ejiciuntur eripitur persona manet res To this Sense Then 't is men from their Hearts their Mind declare Cast off their Vizards shew their faces bare AN ACCOUNT Of what happened in the KINGDOM OF SWEDEN In the Years 1669 and 1670. In Relation to the Persons that were accused For Witches AND TRIED and EXECUTED By the King's Command Printed at first in the Swedish Dialect by Authority and then Translated into divers other Languages and now upon the requost of some Friends done into English By Anthony Horneck Preacher at the Savoy LONDON Printed 1681. THE TRANSLATORS PREFACE TO THE READER Shewing what Credit may be given to the Matter of Fact related in the ensuing Narrative THat we are to believe nothing but what we have seen is a rule so false that we dare not call our selves rational Creatures and avouch it yet as irrational as the Maxime is is become modish with some men and those no ●…ery mean Wits neither to make use of it and though they will hardly own it in its full Latitude yet when it comes to Particulars let the Reasons to the contrary be never so pregnant or convincing they 'le hugg it as their sacred Anchor and laugh at all those credulous Wretches that without seeing are so easily chous'd into an imprudent Confidence And this pitiful Stratagem we find practised in no affair so much as that of Spirits and Witches and Apparitions which must all be Fancies and Hypocondriack Dreams and the effects of distempered Brains because their own are so dull as not to be able to pierce into those Mysteries I do not deny but the Imagination may be and is sometime deluded and melancholy People may fancy they hear Voices and see very strange things which have no other foundation but their own weakness and like Bubbles break into Air and nothing by their own vanity Yet as no man doth therefore take unpolisht Diamonds to be Pebbles because they do look like them so neither must all passages of this nature we hear or read of be traduced as self-conceit or derided as Old Wives Fables because some smell strong of Imposture and Sophistication We believe men of Reason and Experience and free from Fumes when a person of ordinary Intellectuals finds no great credit with us and if we think our selves wise for doing so why should any man so much forget himself as to be an Infidel in point of such Phaenomena's when even the most judicious men have had experience of such passages It seems 〈◊〉 me no less than madness to contradict what both wise and unwise men do unanimously agree in and how Jews Heathens Mahometans and Christians both learned and unlearned should come to conspire into this Cheat as yet seems to me un accountable If some few melancholy Monks or Old Women had seen such Ghosts and Apparitions we might then suspect that what they pretend to have seen might be nothing but the effect of a disordered Imagination but when the whole World as it were and men of all Religions men of all Ages too have been forced by strong evidences to acknowledge the truth of such occurrences I know not what strength there can be in the Argument drawn from the consent of Nations in things of a sublimer nature if here it be of no efficacy Men that have attempted to evade the places of Scripture which speak of Ghosts and Witches we see how they are forced to turn and wind the Texts and make in a manner Noses of Wax of them and rather squeeze than gather the sence as if the holy Writers had spoke like Sophisters and not like men who made it their business to condescend to the capacity of the Common people Let a man put no force at all on those passages of holy Writ and then see what sence they are like to yield It 's strange to see how some men have endeavoured to elude the story of the Witch of Endor and as far as I can judge they play more Hocus-Pocus tricks in the explication of that passage than the Witch herself did in raising the deceased Samuel To those Straits is Falshood driven while Truth loves Plains and undisguised Expressions and Errour will seek out Holes and Labyrinths to hide itself while Truth plays above board and scorns the subterfuges of the Sceptick Interpreter Men and Brethren Why should it seem a thing incredible with you that God should permit Spirits to appear and the Devil to exert his Power among men on Earth Hath God ever engaged his word to the contrary or is it against the nature of Spirits to assume airy Vehicles and Bodies of condensed Air or to animate grosser substances to shew themselves to mortals upon certain occasions I am so much a Prophet as to foresee what will be the fate of the ensuing story nor can I suppose that upon the reading of it mens verdicts will be much changed from what they were if they have set up this resolution to believe nothing that looks like the shadow of an Apparition though the things mentioned here cannot be unknown to any that have been conversant with forrain affairs