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
Assemblies and of their Bargain THat the joyning of hands with the Devil the kissing of his bare buttocks and his scratching and biting of them are absurd lies every one hauing the gift of reason may plainly perceive insomuch as it is manifest unto us by the word of God that a spirit hath no flesh bones nor sinews whereof hands buttocks claws teeth and lips do consist For admit that the constitution of a Devils body as Tatian and other affirm consisteth in spiritual congelations as of fire and air yet it cannot be perceived of mortal creatures What credible witness is there brought at any time of this their corporal visible and incredible bargain saving the confession of some person diseased both in body and mind wilfully made or injuriously constrained It is marvel that no penitent Witch that forsaketh her trade confesseth not these things without compulsion Me thinketh their covenant made at Baptism with God before good witnesses sanctified with the Word confirmed with his Promises and established with his Sacraments should be of more force then that which they make with the Devil which no body seeth or knoweth For God deceiveth none with whom he bargaineth neither doth he mock or disappoint them although he dance not among them The oath to procure into their league and fellowship as many as they can whereby every one Witch as Bodin affirmeth augmenteth the number of fifty bewrayeth greatly their indirect dealing Hereof I have made trial as also of the residue of their cousening devises and have been with the best or rather the worst of them to see what might be gathered out of their counsels and have cunningly treated with them thereabouts and further have sent certain old persons to indent with them to be admited into their society But as well by their excuses and delaies as by other circumstances I have tried and found all their trade to be meer cosening I pray you what bargain have they made with the Devil that with their angry looks bewitch lambs children c. Is it not confessed that it is natural though it be a lye What bargain maketh the Sooth-sayer which hath his several kinds of Witchcraft and Divination expressed in the Scripture Or is it not granted that they make none How chanceth it that we hear not of this bargain in the Scriptures CHAP. VII A Confutation of the Objection concerning Witches Confessions IT is confessed say some by the way of objection even of these women themselves that they do these and such other horrible things as deserveth death with all extremity c. Whereunto I answer that whosoever considerately beholdeth their confessions shall perceive all to be vain idle false inconstant and of no weight except their contempt and ignorance in religion which is rather the fault of the negligent Pastor than of the simple woman First if their confession be made by compulsion of force or authority or by peswasion and under colour of friendship it is not to be regarded because the extremity of threats and tortures provokes it or the quality of fair words and allurements constrains it If it be voluntary many circumstances must be considered to wit whether she appeach not her self to overthrow her neighbour which many times happeneth through their cankered and malicious melancholick humour then whether in that same melancholick mood and frantick humor she desire not the abridgement of her own daies Which thing Aristotle saith doth oftentimes happen unto persons subject to melancholick passions and as Bodin and Sprenger say to these old women called Witches which many times as they affirm refuse to live threatning the Judges that if they may not be burned they will lay hands upon themselves and so make them guilty of their damnation I my self have known that where such a one could not prevail to be accepted as a sufficient witness against himself he presently went and threw himself into a pond of water where he was drowned But the law saith Volenti mori non est habenda fides that is His word is not to be credited that is desirous to dye Also sometimes as elswhere I have proved they confess that whereof they were never guilty supposing that they did that which they did nor by means of certain circumstances And as they sometimes confess impossibilities as that they fly in the air transubstantiate themselves raise tempests transferr or remove corn c. so do they also I say confess voluntarily that which no man could prove and that which no man would guess nor yet believe except he were as mad as they so as they bring death wilfully upon themselves which argueth an unsound mind If they confess that which hath been indeed committed by them as poysoning or any other kind of murther which falleth into the power of such persons to accomplish I stand not to defend their cause Howbeit I would wish that even in that case there be not too rash credit given nor too hasty proceedings used against them but that the causes properties and circumstances of every thing be duly considered and diligently examined For you shall understand that as sometimes they confess they have murthered their neighbours with a wish sometimes with a word sometimes with a look c. so they confess that with the delivering of an apple or some such thing to a woman with child they have killed the child in the mothers womb when nothing was added thereunto which naturally could be noysome or hurtful In like manner they confess that with a touch of their bare hand they sometimes kill a man being in perfect health and strength of body when all his garments are betwixt their hand and his flesh But if this their confession be examined by Divinity Philosophy Physick Law or Conscience it will be found false and insufficient First for that the working of miracles is ceased Secondly no reason can be yielded for a thing so far beyond all reason Thirdly no receipt can be of such efficacy as when the same is touched with a bare hand from whence the veins have passage through the body unto the heart it should not annoy the person and yet retain vertue and force enough to pierce through so many garments and the very flesh incurable to the place of death in another person Cui argumento saith Bodin nescio quid responderi possit Fourthly no law will admit such a confession as yieldeth unto impossibities against the which there is never any law provided otherwise it would not serve a mans turn to plead and prove that he was at Berwick that day that he is accused to have done a murther in Canterbury for it might be said he was conveyed to Berwick and back again by inchantment Fifthly he is not by conscience to be executed which hath no sound mind nor perfect judgement And yet forsooth we read that one mother Stile did kill one Saddocke with a touch on the shoulder for not keeping promise
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
as trouble private houses and are set to oversee Cross-wayes and Cities Larvae are said to be spirits that walk only by night Genii are the two Angels which they supposed were appointed to wait upon each man Manes are the spirits which oppose themselves against men in the way Daemones were feigned gods by Poets as Jupiter Juno c. Virunculi terrei are such as was Robin Good-fellow that would supply the office of Servants specially of Maids as to make a fire in the morning sweep the house grind Mustard and Malt draw Water c. these also rumble in houses draw latches go up and down stairs c. Dii geniales are the gods that every man did sacrifice unto at the day of their birth Tetrici be they that make folk afraid and have such ugly shapes which many of our Divines do call Subterranei Cobali are they that follow men and delight to laugh with tumbling juggling and such like toyes Virunculi are Dwarfs about three handfuls longs and do no hurt but seem to dig in minerals and to be very busie and yet do nothing Guteli or Trulli are spirits they say in the likeness of women shewing great kindness to all men and hereof it is that we call light women trulls Daemones montani are such as work in the minerals and further the work of the labourers wonderfully who are nothing afraid of them Hudgin is a very familiar Devil which will do no body hurt except he receive injury but the cannot abide that nor yet be mocked he talketh with men friendly sometimes visibly and sometimes invisibly There go as many tales upon this Hudgin in some parts of Germany as there did in England of Robin Good-fellow But this Hudgin was so called because he alwayes wore a Cap or a Hood and therefore I think it was Robin Hood Fryer Rush was for all the world such another fellow as this Hudgin and brought up even in the same School to wit in a Kitchin in so much as the self same tale is written of the one as of the other concerning the Skullion which is said to have been slain c. for the reading whereof I referr you to Fryer Rush his story or else to John Wierus De praestigiis Daemonum There were also Familiares Daemones which we call Familiars such as Socrates and Caesar were said to have and such as Feats sold to Doctor Burcot Quintus Sertorius had Diana her self for his familiar and Numa Pompilius had Aegeria but neither the one nor the other of all these could be preserved by their familiars from being destroyed with untimely death Simon Samareus boasted that he had gotten by Conjuration the soul of a little child that was slain to be his familiar and that he told him all things that were to come c. I marvel what priviledge souls have which are departed from the body to know things to come more than the Souls within Mans Body There were spirits which they called Albae mulieres and Albae Sybillae which were very familiar and did much harm they say to women with child and to suckling children Denmus as a Devil is worshipped among the Indians in Calecute who as they think hath power given him of God to judge the Earth c. his Image is horribly pictured in a most ugly shape Thevet saith that a Devil in America called Agnan beareth sway in that Country In Ginnie one Grigrie is accounted the great Devil and keepeth the Woods these have Priests called Charoibes which prophesie after they have lien by the space of one hour prostrate upon a wench of twelve years old and all that while say they he calleth upon a Devil called Hovioulsira and then cometh fourth and uttereth his prophesie For the true success whereof the people pray all the while that he lieth groveling like a lecherous knave There are a thousand other names which they say are attributed unto Devils and such as they take to themselves are more ridiculous than the names that are given by others which have more leisure to devise them In little Books containing the cosening possessed at Maidstone where such a wonder was wrought as also in other places you may see a number of counterfeit Devils names and other trish trash CHAP. XXII Of the Romans chief gods called Dii selecti and of other Heathen gods their Names and Offices THere were among the Romans twenty idolatrous gods which were called Dii selecti sive electi chosen gods whereof twelve were male and eight female whose names do thus follow Janus Saturnus Jupiter Genius Mercurius Apollo Mars Vulcanus Neptunus Sol Orcus and Vibar which were all he-gods Tellus Ceres Juno Minerva Luna Diana Venus and Vesta were all she-gods No man might appropriate any of these unto himself but they were left common and indifferent to all men dwelling in one Realm Province or notable City These Heathen Gentiles had also their Gods which served for sundry purposes as to raise Thunder they had Statores Tonantes Feretrii and Jupiter Elicius They had Cantius to whom they prayed for wise children who was more apt for this purpose than Minerva that issued out of Jupiters own brain Lucina was to send them that were with childe safe delivery and in that respect was called the mother of Childwives Opis was called the mother of the Babe new born whose image women with child hanged upon their girdles before their bellies and bare it so by the space of nine moneths and the Midwife alwayes touched the child therewith before she or any other layed hand thereon If the child were well born they sacrificed thereunto although the mother miscarried but if the child were in any part unperfect or dead c. they used to beat the image into powder or to burn or drown it Vagianus was he that kept their children from crying and therefore they did alwayes hang his picture about Babes necks for they thought much crying in youth portended ill fortune in age Cuninus otherwise Cunius was he that preserved as they thought their children from misfortune in the Cradle Ruminus was to keep their dugs from corruption Volumnus and his wise Volumna were gods the one for young men the other for maids that desired marriage for such as prayed devoutly unto them should soon be marryed Agrestis was the god of the fields and to him they prayed for fertility Bellus was the god of War and warriers and so also was Victoria to whom the greatest Temple in Rome was built Honorius was he that had charge about Inkeepers that they should well intreat Pilgrimes Berecinthia was the mother of all the gods Aesculanus was to discover their mines of Gold and Silver and to him they prayed for good success in that behalf Aesculapius was to cure the sick whose Father was Apollo and served to keep weeds out of the Corn. Segacia was to make seeds to grow Flora preserved the Vines from frosts
Scourge and Terror to the Wicked Thus far I have been bold to use your Lordships patience being offended with my self that I could not in brevity utter such matter as I have delivered amply whereby I confess occasion of tediousness might be ministred were it not that your great gravity joyned with your singular constancy in reading and judging be means of the contrary And I wish even with all my heart that I could make people conceive the substance of my writing and not misconster any part of my meaning Then doubtless would I perswade my self that the company of Witchmongers c. being once decreased the number also of Witches c. would soon be diminished But true be the words of the Poet Haudquaquam poteris sortirier omnia solus Námque aliis divi bello pollere dederunt Huic saltandi artem voce huic cytharáque canendi Rursum alii inseruit sagax in pectore magnus Jupiter ingenium c. And therefore as doubtful to prevail by perswading though I have reason and common sense on my side I rest upon earnest wishing namely To all people an absolute trust in God the Creator and not in Creatures which is to make flesh our arme that God may have his due honour which by the undutifulness of many is turned into dishonour and less cause of offence and error given by common received evil example And to your Lordship I wish as increase of Honour so continuance of good health and happy dayes Your Lordships to be commanded Reginald Scot. To the Right Worshipful Sir THOMAS SCOT Knight c. SIR I See among other Malefactors many poor old Women convented before you for working of Miracles otherwise called Witchcraft and therefore I thought You also a meet person to whom I might commend my Book And here I have occasion to speak of your sincere administration of Justice and of your dexterity discretion charge and travel employed in that behalf whereof I am oculatus testis Howbeit I had rather refer the Reader to common fame and their own eyes and ears to be satisfied then to send them to a Stationers shop where many times lyes are vendible and truth contemptible For I being of your house of your name and of your blood my foot being under your table my hand in your dish or rather in your purse might be thought to flatter you in that wherein I know I should rather offend you than please you And what need I curry-favour with my most assured Friend And if I should only publish those virtues though they be many which give me special occasion to exhibit this my travel unto you I should do as a Painter that describeth the foot of a notable personage and leaveth all the best features in his body untouched I therefore at this time do only desire you to consider of my report concerning the evidence that is commonly brought before you against them See first whether the Evidence be not frivolous and whether the proofs brought against them be not incredible consisting of guesses presumptions and impossibilities contrary to Reason Scripture and Nature See also what persons cemplain upon them whether they be not of the basest the unwisest and most faithless kind of people Also may it please you to weigh what accusations and crimes they lay to their charge namely She was at my house of late She would have had a pot of Milk she departed in a chafe because she had it not she railed she cursed she mumbled and whispered and finally she said She would be even with me and soon after my Child my Cow my Sow or my Pullet dyed or was strangely taken Nay if it please your Worship I have further proof I was with a wise Woman and she told me I had an ill neighbour and that she would come to my house ere it were long and so did she and that she had a mark about her wast and so had she and God forgive me my stomach hath gone against her a great while Her Mother before her was counted a Witch she hath been beaten and scratched by the face till blood was drawn upon her because she hath been suspected and afterwards some of those persons were said to amend These are the certainties that I hear in their evidences Note also how easily they may be brought to confess that which they never did nor lyeth in the power of Man to do and then see whether I have cause to write as I do Further if you shall see that Infidelity Popery and many other manifest Heresies be backed and shouldered and their professors animated and heartened by yielding to creatures such infinite power as is wrested out of Gods hand and attributed to Witches Finally if you shall preceive that I have faithfully and truly delivered and set down the condition and state of the Witch and also of the Witchmonger and have confuted by Reason and Law and by the Word of God it self all mine abversaries Objections and Arguments then let me have your countenance against them that maliciously oppose themselves against me My greatest adversaries are young ignorance and old custom For what folly soever tract of time hath fostered it is so superstitiously pursued of some as though no Error could be acquainted with custom But if the Law of Nations would joyn with such custom to the maintenance of Ignorance and to the suppressing of Knowledge the civilest Countrey in the World would soon become barbarous c. For as knowledge and time discovereth Errors so do superstition and ignorance in time breed them And concerning the opinions of such as wish that Ignorance should rather be maintained than Knowledge busily searched for because thereby offence may grow I answer that we are commanded by Christ himself to search for Knowledge For it is the Kings honour as Solomon saith to search out a thing Aristotle said to Alexander That a mind well furnished was more beautiful than a body richly arrayed What can be more odious to Man or offensive to God than Ignorance for through ignorance the Jews did put Christ to death Which ignorance whosoever forsaketh is promised life everlasting and therefore among Christians it should be abhorred above all other things For even as when we wrestle in the dark we tumble in the mire c. so when we see not the Truth we wallow in Errors A blind man may seek long in the rushes ere he find a needle and as soon is a doubt discussed by Ignorance Finally truth is no sooner found out in ignorance then a sweet savor in a dunghill And if they will allow men knowledge and give them no leave to use it men were much better be without it than have it For it is as to have a talent and to hide it under the earth or to put a candle under a bushel or as to have a ship and to let her lie alwayes in the dock which thing how profitable it is I can say somewhat
1582. you shall see that he affirmeth that all those tortures are far too light and their rigour too mild and that in that respect he impudently exclameth against our Magistrates who suffer them to be but hanged when murtherers and such malefactors be so used which deserve not the hundreth part of their punishments But if you will see more folly and lewdness comprised in one lewd book I commend you to Ri. Ga. a Windsor-man who being a mad-man hath written according to his frantick humor the reading whereof may satisfie a wise man how mad all these Witch-mongers dealings be in this behalf CHAP. IX A conclusion of the first Book wherein is fore-shewed the tyrannical cruelty of Witchmongers and Inquisitors with a request to the reader to peruse the same ANd because it may appear unto the world what treacherous and faithless dealing what extreme and intolerable tyranny what gross and fond absurdities what unnatural and uncivil discourtesie what canker'd and spiteful malice what outragious and barbarous cruelty what lewd and false packing what cunning and crafty intercepting what bald and peevish interpretations what abominable and devilish inventions and what flat and plain knavery is practised against these old women I will set down the whole order of the inquisition to the everlasting inexcusable and apparent shame of all Witch-mongers Neither will I insert any private or doubtful dealings of theirs or such as they can either deny to be usual or justly cavil at but such as are published and renewed in all ages since the commencement of Popery established by Laws practised by Inquisitors priviledged by Princes commended by Doctors confirmed by Popes Councels Decrees and Canons and finally be left of all Witch-mongers to wit by such as do attribute to old women and such like creatures the power of the Creator I pray you therefore though it be tedious and intolerable as you would be heard in your miserable calamities so hear with compassion their accusations examinations matters given in evidence confessions presumptions interrogatories conjurations cautions crimes tortures and condemnations devised and practised usually against them 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 EXcommunicate persons partakers of the fault infants wicked servants and run-awaies are to be admitted to bear witness against their dames in this matter of Witch-craft because saith Bodin the champion of Witch-mongers none that be honest are able to detect them Hereticks also and Witches shall be received to accuse but not to excuse a Witch And finally the testimony of all infamous persons in this case is good and allowed Yea one lewd person saith Bodin may be received to accuse and condemn a thousand suspected Witches And although by law a capital enemy may be challenged yet James Sprenger and Henry Institor from whom Bodin and all the writers that ever I have read do receive their light authorities and arguments say upon this point of Law that the poor friendless old woman must prove that her capital enemy would have killed her and that he hath both assaulted and wounded her otherwise she pleadeth all in vain If the judge ask her whether she have any capital enemies and she rehearse other and forget her accuser or else answer that he was her capital enemy but now she hopeth he is not so such a one is nevertheless admitted for a witness And though by law single witnesses are not admittable yet if one depose she hath bewitched her Cow another her Sow and the third her Butter these saith M. Mal. and Bodin are not single witnesses because they agree that she is a Witch CHAP. II The order of examination of Witches by the Inquisitors WOmen suspected to be Witches after their apprehension may not be suffered to go home or to other places to seek sureties for then saith Bodin the people would be worse willing to accuse them for fear lest at their return home they work revenge upon them In which respect Bodin commendeth much the Scottish custome and order in this behalf where he saith a hollow piece of wood or a chest is placed in the Church into the which any body may freely cast a little scroll of paper wherein may be contained the name of the Witch the time place and fact c. And the same chest being locked with three several locks are opened every fifteenth day by three Inquisitors or officers appointed for that purpose which keep three several keys And thus the accuser need not be known nor shamed with the reproach of slander or malice to his poor neighbour Item There must be great perswasions used to all men women and children to accuse old women of witch-craft Item There may alwaies be promised impunity and favour to Witches that confess and detect others and on the contrary there may be threatnings and violence practised and used Item The little children of Witches which will not confess must be attached who if they be craftily handled saith Bodin will confess against their own mothers Item Witches must be examined as suddenly and as unawares as is possible the which will so amaze them that they will confess any thing supposing the devil hath forsaken them whereas if they should first be committed to prison the devil would tamper with them and inform them what to do Item The Inquisitor judge or examiner must begin with small matters first Item They must be examined whether their parents were Witches or no for Witches as these Doctors suppose come by propagation And Bodin setteth down this principle in Witchcraft to wit Si saga sit mater sic etiam est filia howbeit the law forbiddeth it Ob sanguinis reverentiam Item The examiner must look stedfastly upon their eyes for they cannot look directly upon a mans face as Bodin affirmeth in one place although in another he saith that they kill and destroy both men and beasts with their looks Item She must be examined of all accusations presumptions and faults at one instant left Satan should afterwards disswade her from confession Item A Witch may not be put in prison alone lest the Devil disswade her from confession through promises of her indemnity For saith Bodin some that have been in the goal have proved to fly away as they were wont to do when they met with Diana and Minerva c. and so brake their own necks against the stone-walls Item If any deny her own confession made without torture she is nevertheless by that confession to be condemned as in any other crime Item The Judges must seem to be in a pitiful countenance and to bemoan them saying that It was not they but the Devil that committed the murther and that he compelled them to do it and must make them believe that they think them to be innocents Item If they will confess nothing but
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
Divinity Dost thou use to draw poor guiltless women to the rack by these forged devises Dost thou with such sentences judge others to be Hereticks thou being more a Heretick than either Faustus or Donatus Be it as thou sayest Dost thou not frustrate the grace of Gods Ordinance namely Baptism Are the words in Baptism spoken in vain Or shall the Devil remain in the child or it in the power of the Devil being there and then consecrated to Christ Jesus in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy-Ghost And if thou defend their false opinions which affirm that Spirits accompanying with women can ingender yet dotest thou more than any of them which never believed that any of those Devils together with their stoln seed do put part of that their seed or nature into the creature But though indeed we be born the children of the Devil and damnation yet in baptism through grace in Christ Satan is cast out and we are made new creatures in the Lord from whom none can be separated by another mans deed The Inquisitor being hereat offended threatned the Advocate to proceed against him as a supporter of Hereticks or Witches yet nevertheless he ceased not to defend the silly woman and through the power of the Law he delivered her from tho claws of the bloudy Monk who with her accusers were condemned in a great sum of money to the Charter of the Church of Mentz and remained infamous after that time almost to all men But by the way you must understand that this was but a pety Inquisitor and had not so large a Commission as Cumanus Sprenger and such other had nor yet as the Spanish Inquisitors at this day have For these will admit no Advocates now unto the poor souls except the Tormentor or Hangman may be called an Advocate You may read the sum of this Inquisition in few words set out by M. John Fox in the Acts and Monuments For Witches and Hereticks are among the Inquisitors of like reputation saving that the extremity is greater against Witches because through their simplicity they may the more boldly tyrannize upon them and triumph over them 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 HE that readeth the Ecclesiastical histories or remembreth the persecutions in Queen Maries time shall find that many good men have fallen for fear of persecution and returned unto the Lord again What marvel then though a poor woman such a one as is described elsewhere and tormented as is declared in these latter leaves be made to confess such absurd and false impossibilities when flesh and bloud is unable to endure such trial Or how can she in the midst of such horrible tortures and torments promise unto her self constancy or forbear to confess any thing Or what availeth it her to persevere in the denial of such matters as are laid to her charge unjustly when on the one side there is never any end of her torments on the other side if she continue in her assertion they say she hath charms for taciturnity or silence Peter the Apostle renounced cursed and forsware his master and our Saviour Jesus Christ for fear of a wenches menaces or rather at a question demanded by her wherein he was not so circumvented as these poor Witches are which be not examined by girles but by cunning Inquisitors who having the spoil of their goods and bringing with them into the place of judgement minds to maintain their bloudy purpose spare no manner of allurements threatnings nor torments until they have wrung out of them all that which either maketh to their own desire or serveth to the others destruction Peter I say in the presence of his Lord and Master Christ who had instructed him in true knowledge many years being forewarned not passing four or five hours before and having made a real league and a faithful promise to the contrary without any other compulsion than as hath been said by a question proposed by a girl against his conscience forsook thrice denied and abandoned his said Master and yet he was a man illuminated and placed in dignity aloft and neerer to Christ by many degrees than the Witch whose fall could not be so great as Peters because she never ascended half so many steps A Pastors declination is much more abominable than the going astray of any of his sheep as an Ambassadours conspiracy is more odious than the falshood of a common person or as a Captains treason is more mischievous than a private souldiers mutiny If you say Peter repented I answer that the Witch doth so likewise sometimes and I see not in that case but mercy may be imployed upon her It were a mighty temptation to a silly old woman that a visible Devil being in shape so ugly as Danaeus and others say he is should assault her in manner and form as is supposed or rather avowed specially when there is promise made that none shall be tempted above their strength The poor old Witch is commonly unlearned unwarned and unprovided of counsel and friendship void of judgement and discretion to moderate her life and communication her kind and gender more weak and frail than the masculine and much more subject to melancholy her bringing up and company is so base that nothing is to be looked for in her specially of these extraordinary qualities her age also is commonly such as maketh her decrepite which is a disease that moveth them to these follies Finally Christ did clearly remit Peter though his offence was committed both against his divine and humane nature yea afterwards he did put him in trust to feed his sheep and shewed great countenance friendship and love unto him And therefore I see not but we may shew compassion upon these poor souls if they shew themselves sorrowful for their misconceipts and wicked imaginations BOOK III. CHAP. I. The Witches bargain with the Devil according to M. Mal. Bodin Nider Danaeus Psellus Erastus Hemingius Cumanus Aquinas Bartholomaeus Spineus c. THat which in this matter of Witchcraft hath abused so many and seemeth both so horrible and intolerable is a plain bargain that they say is made betwixt the devil and the Witch And many of great learning conceive it to be a matter of truth and in their writings publish it accordingly the which by Gods grace shall be proved as vain and false as the rest The order of their bargain or profession is double the one solemn and pulick the other secret and private That which is called solemn or publick is where Witches come together at certain assemblies at the times prefixed and do not only see the Devil in visible form but confer and talk familiarly with him In which conference the Devil exhorteth them to observe their fidelity unto him promising them long life and prosperity
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
and not in this sort to admonish warn and rebuke them from evil And the Popish writers confess That the Devil would have been gone at the first naming of God If it be said That it was at God's special commandement and will that Samuel or the Devil should be raised to propound this admonition to the profit of all posterity I answer that then he would rather have done it by some of his living Prophets and that Satan had not been so fit an instrument for that purpose After this falleth the Witch I would say Samuel into the vein of Prophecying and speaketh to Saul on this wise The Lord will rent thy Kingdom out of thine hand and give it to thy neighbour David because thou obeyedst not the voyce of the Lord nor executedst his fierce wrath upon the Amalekites therefore hath the Lord done this unto thee this day Moreover the Lord will deliver thee into the hands of the Philistines and to morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me and the Lord shall give the host of Israel into the hands of the Philistines What could Samuel have said more Me thinks the Devil would have used another order encouraging Saul rather than rebuking him for his evil The Devil is craftier than to leave such an admonition to all posterities as should be prejudicial unto his Kingdom and also be void of all impiety But so divine a sentence maketh much for the maintenance of the Witches credit and to the advancement of her gains Howbeit concerning the verity of this Prophesie there be many disputable questions First Whether the battel were fought the next day Secondly Whether all his sons were killed with him Item Whether they went to heaven or hell together as being with Samuel they must be in heaven and being with Satan they must be in hell But although every part of this Prophesie were false as that all his sons were not slain Ishbosheth living and reigning in Israel two years after Sauls death and that the battel was not on the morrow and that wicked Saul after that he had killed himself was not with good Samuel yet this Witch did give a shrewd guess to the sequel Which whether it were true or false pertains not to my purpose and therefore I will omit it But as touching the opinion of them that say it was the Devil because that such things came to pass I would fain know of them where they learn that Devils foreknow things to come If they say he guesseth only upon probabilities the Witch may also do the like But here I may not forget the Decrees which conclude That Samuel appeared not unto Saul but that the Historiographer set forth Sauls mind and Samuels estate and certain things that were said and seen omitting whether they were true or false and further that it were a great offence for a man to believe the bare words of the story And if this exposition like you not I can easily frame my self to the opinion of some of great learning expounding this place and that with great probability in this sort to wit that this Pythonist being Ventriloqua that is speaking as it were from the bottom of her belly did cast her self into a trance and so abused Saul answering to Saul in Samuels name in her counterfeit hollow voice as the Wench of Westwel spake whose history I have rehearsed before at large in pag. 71 72. and this is right Ventriloquie CHAP. XIV Opinions of some learned men that Samuel was indeed raised not by the Witches art or Power but by the special miracle of God that there are no such visions in these our dayes and that our Witches cannot do the like AJas and Sadajas write That when the Woman saw the miracle indeed and more then she looked for or was wont to do she began to cry out that this was a vision indeed and a true one not done by her art but by the power of God Which exposition is far more probable than our late writers judgements hereupon and agreeth with the exposition of divers good Divines Gelasius saith It was the very spirit of Samuel and where he suffered himself to be worshipped it was but in civil salutation and courtesie and that God did interpose Samuel as he did Elias to the messenger of Ochosias when he sent to Belzebub the God of Acharon And here is to be noted that the Witchmongers are set up in this point for the Papists say that it cannot be a Devil because Jehovah is thrice or five times named in the story Upon this piece of Scripture arguments are dayly devised to prove and maintain the miraculous actions of Witchcraft and the raising of the dead by Conjurations And yet if it were true that Samuel himself were raised or the Devil in his likeness and that the Witch of Endor by her art and cunning did it c. it maketh rather to the disproof than to the proof of our Witches which can neither do that kind of miracle or any other in any such place or company where their jugling and cosenage may be seen and laid open And I challenge them all even upon the adventure of my life to shew one piece of a Miracle such as Christ did truly or such as they suppose this Witch did diabolically be it not with art nor confederacy whereby some colour thereof may be made neither are there any such visions in these dayes shewed Heretofore God did send his visible Angels to men but now we hear not of such apparitions neither are they necessary Indeed it pleased God heretofore by the hand of Moses and his Prophets and specially by his Son Christ and his Apostles to work great Miracles for the establishing of the faith but now whatsoever is necessary for our salvation is contained in the Word of God our faith is already confirmed and our Church established by Miracles so as now to seek for them is a point of Infidelity Which the Papists if you note it are greatly touched withal as in their lying Legends appeareth But in truth their Miracles are knaveries most commonly and specially of Priests whereof I could cite a thousand If you read the story of Bell and the Dragon you shall finde a cosening Miracle of some antiquity If you will see newer devices read Wierus Cardanus Baleus and specially Lavaterus c. There have been some walking spirits in these parts so conjured not long since as afterwards they little delighted to make any more apparitions CHAP. XV. Of vain Apparitions how people have been brought to fear Bugs which is partly reformed by the Preaching of the Gospel the true effect of Christs Miracles BUt certainly some one knave in a white sheet hath cosened and abused many thousands that way specially when Robin Good-fellow kept such a coil in the Countrey But you shall understand that these Bugs specially are spyed and feared of sick folk children women and cowards which
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
bonum Thou shalt not do evil that good may come thereof Lombertus saith that Witchcraft may be taken away by that means whereby it was brought But Gofridus inveyeth sore against the oppugners thereof Pope Nicholas the fifth gave indulgence and leave to Bishop Miraties who was so bewitched in his privities that he could not use the gift of Venery to seek remedy at Witches hands And this was the clause of his dispensation Ut ex duolus malis fugiatur majus that of two evils the greater should be avoided And so a Witch by taking his doublet cured him and killed the other Witch as the story saith which is to be seen in M. Mal. and divers other Writers CHAP. XX. Who are Priviledged from Witches what bodies are aptest to be bewitched or to be Witches why women are rather Witches than men and what they are NOw if you will know who and what persons are priviledged from Witches you must understand that they be even such as cannot be bewitched In the number of whom first be the Inquisitors and such as exercise publick justice upon them Howbeit a Justice in Essex whom for divers respects I have left unnamed not long since thought he was bewitched in the very instant whiles he examined the Witch so as his leg was broken thereby c. which either was false or else this rule untrue or both rather injurious unto Gods Providence Secondly such as observe duly the Rites and Ceremonies of the holy Church and worship them with reverence through the sprinkling of holy Water and receiving consecrated Salt by the lawful use of Candles hallowed on Candlemas-day and green leaves consecrated on Palm-sunday which things they say the Church useth for the qualifying of the Devils power are preserved from Witchcraft Thirdly some are preserved by their good Angels which attend and wait upon them But I may not omit here the reasons which they bring to prove what bodies are the more apt and effectual to execute the art of fascination And that is first they say the force of celestial bodies which indifferently communicated their vertues unto Men Beasts Trees Stones c. But this gift and natural influence of fascination may be increased in man according to his affections and perturbations as through anger fear love hate c. For by hate saith Varius entereth a fiery inflammation into the eye of man which being violently sent out by beams and streams c. infect and bewitch those bodies against whom they are opposed And therefore he saith in the favour of women that is the cause that women are oftner found to be Witches than men For saith he they have an unbridled force of fury and concupiscence naturally that by no means it is possible for them to temper or moderate the same So as upon every trifling occasion they like brute beast fix their furious eyes upon the party whom they bewitch Hereby it cometh to pass that whereas women having a marvellous sickle nature what grief soever happeneth unto them immediately all peaceableness of mind departeth and they are so troubled with evill humours that outgo their venemous exhalation ingendered through their ill-favoured dyet and increased by means of their pernicious excrements which they expel Women are also saith he monethly filled full of superfluous humors and with them the melancholike blood boileth whereof spring vapours and are carried up and conveyed through the nostrils and mouth c. to the bewitching of whatsoever it meeteth For they belch up a certain breath wherewith they bewitch whomsoever they list And of all other women lean hollow-eyed old beetle-browed women saith he are the most infectious Marry he saith that hot subtil and thin bodies are most subject to be bewitched if they be moist and all they generally whose veins pipes and passages of their bodies are open And finally he saith that all beautiful things whatsoever are soon subject to be bewitched as namely goodly young men fair women such as are naturally born to be rich goodly Beasts fair Horses rank Corn beautiful Trees c. Yea a friend of his told him that he saw one with his eye break a precious stone in pieces And all this he telleth as soberly as though it were true And if it were true honest women may be Witches in despight of all Inquisitors neither can any avoid being a Witch except she lock herself up in a chamber CHAP. XXI What Miracles Witchmongers report to have been done by Witches words c. Contradictions of Witchmongers among themselves how Beasts are cured hereby of bewitched Butter a Charm against Witches and a counter-Charm the effect of Charms and words proved by L. Varius to be wonderful IF I should go about to recite all Charms I should take an infinite work in hand For the Witching Writers hold opinion that any thing almost may be thereby brought to pass and that whether the words of the Charm be understandable or not it skilleth not so the Charmer have a steddy intention to bring his desire about And then what is it that cannot be done by words For L. Varius saith that old women have infeebled and killed Children with words and have made women with child miscarry they have made men pine away to death they have killed Horses deprived Sheep of their Milk transformed Men into Beasts flown in the air tamed and stayed wild Beasts driven all noisome Cattel and Vermine from Corn Vines and Herbs stayed Serpents c. and all with words Insomuch as he saith that with certain words spoken in a Bulls ear by a Witch the Bull hath fallen down to the ground as dead Yea some by vertue of words have gone upon a sharp sword and walked upon hot glowing coals without hurt with words saith he very heavy weights and burthens have been lifted up and with words wild Horses and wild Bulls have been tamed and also mad Dogs with words they have killed Worms and other Vermin and stayed all manner of Bleeding and Fluxes with words all the diseases in mans body are healed and wounds cured Arrows are with wonderful strangeness and cunning plucked out of mens bones Yea saith he there be many that can heal all bitings of Dogs or stingings of Serpents or any other poyson and all with nothing but words spoken And that which is most strange he saith that they can remedy any stranger and him that is absent with that very Sword wherewith they are wounded Yea and that which is beyond all admiration if they stroke the Sword upwards with their fingers the party shall feel no pain whereas if they draw their finger downwards thereupon the party wounded shall feel intolerable pain with a number of other cures done altogether by the vertue and force of words uttered and spoken Where by the way I may not omit this special note given by M. Mal. to wit that holy Water may not be sprinkled upon bewitched Beasts but must
them not herein but there is a law to judg them by Howbeit it is so contrary to sense and nature that it were folly to believe it either upon Bodins bare word or else upon his presumptions especially when so small commodity and so great danger and inconvenience insueth to the Witches thereby They burn their Children when they have sacrificed them Answ Then let them have such punishment as they that offered their children unto Moloch Lev. 20. But these be meer devises of Witchmongers and Inquisitors that with extream tortures have wrung such Confessions from them or else with false reports have believed them or by flattery and fair words and promises have won it at their hands at the length They swear to the Devil to bring as many into that society as they can Answ This is false and so proved elsewhere They swear by the name of the Devil Answ I never heard any such Oath neither have we warrant to kill them that so do swear though indeed it be very lewd and impious They use incestuous adultery with spirits Answ This is a stale ridiculously as is proved apparently hereafter They boil Infants after they have murthered them unbaptized until their flesh be made potable Answ This is untrue incredible and impossible They eat the flesh and drink the bloud of men and children openly Answ Then are they akin to the Anthropophagi and Canibals But I believe never an honest man in England nor in France will affirm that he hath seen any of these persons that are said to be Witches do so if they should I believe it would poyson them They kill men with poyson Answ Let them be hanged for their labour They kill mens Cattel Answ Then let an action of trespass be brought against them for so doing They bewitch mens corn and bring hunger and barrenness into the country they ride and flie in the air bring storms make tempests c. Answ Then will I worship them as Gods for those be not the works of man nor yet of a Witch as I have elsewhere proved at large They use venery with a Devil called Incubus even when they lye in bed with their husbands and have children by them which become the best Witches Answ This is the last lye very ridiculous and confuted by me elsewhere CHAP. X. A refutation of the former surmised Crimes patched together by Bodin and the only way to escape the Inquisitors IF more ridiculous or abominable crimes could have beeen invented these poor women whose chief fault is that they are scolds should have been charged with them In this libel you do see is contained all that Witches are charged with and all that also which any Witchmonger surmiseth or in malice imputeth unto Witches power and practise Some of these crimes may not only be in the power and will of a Witch but may be accomplished by natural means and therefore by them the matter in question is not decided to wit whether a Witch can work wonders supernaturally For many a knave and whore doth more commonly put in execution those lewd actions than such as are called Witches and are hanged for their labour Some of these crimes also laid unto Witches charge are by me denyed and by them cannot be proved to be true or committed by any one Witch Othersome of these crimes likewise are so absurd supernatural and impossible that they are derided almost of all men and as false fond and fabulous reports condemned insomuch as the very Witchmongers themselves are ashamed to hear of them If part be untrue why may not the residue be thought false For all these things are laid to their charge at one instant even by the greatest Doctors and Patrons of the Sect of Witchmongers producing as many proofs for Witches supernatural and impossible actions as for the other So as if one part of their accusation be false the other part deserveth no credit If all be true that is alledged of their doings why should we believe in Christ because of his miracles when a Witch doth as great wonders as ever he did But it will be said by some As for those absurd and Popish writers they are not in all their allegations touching these matters to be credited But I assure you that even all sorts of writers herein for the most part the very Doctors of the Church to the School-men Protestants and Papists learned and unlearned Poets and Historiographers Jews Christians or Gentiles agree in these impossible and ridiculous matters Yea and these writers out of whom I gather most absurdities are of the best credit and authority of all writers in this matter The reason is because it was never throughly looked into but every fable credited and the word Witch named so often in Scripture They that have seen further of the Inquisitors orders and customs say also that there is no way in the world for these poor women to escape the Inquisitors hands and so consequently burning but to gild their hands with money whereby oftentimes they take pity upon them and deliver them as sufficiently purged For they have authority to exchange the punishment of the body with the punishment of the purse applying the same to the office of their Inquisition whereby they reap such profit as a number of these silly women pay them yearly pensions to the end they may not be punished again 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 COrnelius Agrippa saith that while he was in Italy many Inquisitors in the Dutchie of Millen troubled divers most honest and noble Matrons privily wringing much money from them until their knavery was detected Further he saith that being an Advocate or Counsellor in the Common-wealth of Maestright in Brabant he had sore contention with an Inquisitor who through unjust accusations drew a poor woman of the Country into his butchery and to an unfit place not so much to examine her as to torment her whom when C. Agrippa had undertaken to defend declaring that in the things done there was no proof no sign or token that could cause her to be tormented the Inquisitor stoutly denying it said One thing there is which is proof and matter sufficient for her mother was in times past burned for a Witch Now when Agrippa replyed affirming that this Article was impertinent and ought to be refused by the Judg as being the deed of another alledging to the Inquisitor reasons and law for the same he replyed again that this was true because they used to sacrifice their children to the Devil assoon as they were born and also because they usually conceived by spirits transformed into mans shape and that thereby witchcraft was naturally ingraffed into this child as a disease that cometh by inheritance C. Agrippa replying against the Inquisitors folly and superstitious blindness said O thou wicked Priest Is this thy