The Mysteries of All Nations / Rise and Progress of Superstition, Laws Against and Trials of Witches, Ancient and Modern Delusions Together with Strange Customs, Fables, and Tales

CHAPTER LVI.

Witchcraft treated with great Severity—Cutting out the Tongue—Laws of Æthelstane—Witchcraft in England—Royal Writers—Sir Edward Cole's Opinion—Statute of Elizabeth against Sorcerers—Law of Mary Queen of Scotland against Witches—Law against Witches abolished—Sir George Mackenzie on Witchcraft—William Forbes on the same—Extracts from Forbes's Institute of the Law of Scotland—Sir Matthew Hale a Believer in Witchcraft—Trial of Rose Cullender and Ann Duny—General Belief in the Existence of Witches—Punishment of Witches, by whom first countenanced—Pope John's Bull—Bishop Jewell—Lord Bacon and the Law against Witches—Fearful Slaughter of supposed Witches—Malleus Maleficarum, or Hammer for Witches—The last Persons executed in Scotland and England for Witchcraft—First German Printers condemned to be burned as Sorcerers—Reginald Scot on the Fables of Witchcraft—Mr. E. Chambers's Views on Witchcraft.

Witchcraft—the nature and theory of which will appear as we proceed—was treated with great severity in early times. In 840 a law was enacted in Scotland, making the punishment of witchcraft no less than the cutting out of the tongue; and, by the laws of Æthelstane in 928, witchcraft in England was made a capital crime. Witches were punished in the reign of Edward III.; and it suited the sanguinary temperament of Henry VIII., as well as the pedantry of other royal writers, to give written descriptions of this crime. Edicts were promulgated against prophets, sorcerers, feeders of evil spirits, charmers, and provokers of unlawful love. Sir Edward Cole thought it would have been "a great defect in government to have suffered such devilish abominations to pass with impunity."By a statute of Elizabeth, passed in 1562, against sorcerers, it was ordained that for a first offence the punishment was to be restricted to standing in the pillory; for second and subsequent offences, severer inflictions were to follow. Barrington estimates that in the two hundred years during which the greatest severity against supposed witches prevailed in England, thirty thousand judicial murders were committed, under the guise of legal punishments for such imaginary crimes.

A year later (1563) it was considered advisable by Queen Mary of Scotland and her Parliament to pass an Act, having for its object the punishment of persons guilty of any of the crimes under consideration. The Act sets forth:—

"For-sa-meikle as the Queenis Majestie and the three Estaites of this present parliament being informed of the heavie and abominable superstition used be divers of the lieges of this realm, be using of witchcraft, sorcerie, and necromancie, and credence given thereto in times by-gane, against the laws of God: And for avoyding and away putting of all sik vaine superstition in times to cum: It is statute and ordained by the Queen's Majestie, and the three Estaites foresaid, that na maner of person nor persons of quhat-sum-ever estaite, degree, or condition they be of, take upon hand in onie times hereafter to use onie maner of witch-craftes, sorcerie, or necromancie, nor give themselves furth to have onie sik craft or knawledge thereof, their-throw abusand the people: Nor that na persoun seik onie helpe, response, or consultation at onie sik users or abusers foresaidis of witch-craftes, sorceries, or necromancie, under the paine of death, alsweill to be execute against the user, abuser, as the seiker of the response or consultation. And this to be put to execution be the justice, schireffis, stewards, baillies, lords of regalities, and royalties, their deputes, and uthers or ordinar judges competent within this realme, with all rigour, having power to execute the samin."

James VI. of Scotland and I. of England decreed that any one who should use, practise, or exercise any invocation, or consult or covenant with, entertain or employ, feed, or reward any evil or wicked spirit, to or for any purpose, or take up any dead body, should, on being convicted thereof, suffer death.The laws against witchcraft remained in force, and were executed with severity, for a long time. During the continuance of the Long Parliament alone, three thousand unhappy persons were sacrificed because of their supposed connection with witchcraft. But by the Act 9 George II. cap. 5 it is ordained that no prosecution, suit, or proceeding shall be commenced or carried on against any person for witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment, or conjuration, nor shall any one charge another with any such offence, in any court whatever. But if any person shall pretend to exercise or use any kind of witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment, or conjuration, or undertake to tell fortunes; or pretend, from his skill or knowledge in any occult or crafty science, to discover where or in what manner any goods supposed to have been stolen or lost may be found: every person so offending, being convicted on indictment or information, shall suffer imprisonment for a year, and once in every quarter of the said year, in some market town of the county, upon the market day there, stand openly in the pillory for one hour, and also (if the court by which such judgment shall be given shall think fit) be obliged to give sureties for his good behaviour, in such sum, and for such time, as the said court shall judge proper, according to the circumstances of the offence, and in such case shall be further imprisoned until such sureties shall be given.

Sir George M'Kenzie, the distinguished Scotch lawyer, thought there was such a craft as witchcraft; and so did William Forbes, a member of the Faculty of Advocates, a professor of law in the University of Glasgow, and author of several works of considerable merit. The following extracts from Forbes's Institute of the Law of Scotland prove to some extent what was the legal creed in Scotland last century in regard to witches:—

"Witchcraft is that black art whereby strange and wonderful things are wrought by a power derived from the devil. It goes under several names, taken from particular effects and ways of its operation: As those of magic, because it is a knowledge of more than is lawful to be known; divination, from a revealing of things past, present, or to come; enchantment, from a working by charms or ceremonious rites; sorcery, from the casting of lots to bring hidden things to light; necromancy, from the calling up and consulting the devil, in form of some dead person; fascination, from the hurting creatures by envious looks, and eye-biting, or by words, etc. Those who practise this art are, in like manner, termed witches, magicians, diviners, enchanters, sorcerers, necromancers, fascinaters. Which names, given for different causes to the devil's disciples, are, for the most part, promiscuously used to signify any person who, by covenant with Satan, and his assistance, doth work strange things, because of the affinity of all their operations, which have the same general foundation and tendency.

"An express covenant is entered into betwixt a witch and the devil appearing in some visible shape, whereby the former renounces his God and baptism, engaging to serve the devil, and do all the mischief he can, as occasion offers, and leaves soul and body to his disposal after death. The devil, on his part, articles with such proselytes concerning the shape he is to appear to them in, and the services they are to expect from him, upon the performance of certain charms or ceremonious rites. To some he gives certain spirits or imps to correspond with, and serve them as their familiars, known by them by some odd names, to which they answer when called. These imps are said to be kept in pots or other vessels that stink detestably. This league is made verbally if the party cannot write; and such as can write sign a written covenant with their blood. On the meaner proselytes the devil fixes, in some secret part of their bodies, a mark, as his seal to know his own by, which is like a flea-bite or blue spot, and sometimes resembles a little teat; and the part so stamped doth ever after remain insensible, and doth not bleed, though never so much nipped, or pricked, by thrusting a pin, awl, or bodkin into it. But if the covenanter be one of the better rank, the devil only draws blood of the party, or touches him or her in some part of the body, without any visible mark remaining.

"A tacit covenant with Satan is understood to be entered into by those who knowingly use the superstitious rites or ceremonies observed by witches, or unlawful means to bring anything about which they know to be ineffectual in themselves without the devil's concurrence.

"Witches used to be distinguished into good and bad witches. The bad witch, commonly called the black witch, or binding witch, is one who, by a league with the devil, is assisted by him to work mischief. The good witch is he or she who useth diabolical means to do good—as to heal persons, loose or undo enchantments, and to discover who are bewitched, and by whom. But this term of a good witch is very improper, for all who have commerce with Satan are certainly bad."Some works of witches are really what they seem to be; others are mere diabolical juggling, or a delusion of the eyes of spectators with some strange sleight of Satan. (To which last I may refer their imaginary passing through shut doors, and transforming themselves and others into the shape of cats, dogs, hares, and other creatures.) Some of their actions respect themselves, and their behaviour towards their infernal master; such as their coming to appointed meetings called their Sabbaths, where they pay homage to him, and are taught to act all manner of wickedness, and give an account of their horrid past proceedings. Witches are chiefly employed in plain mischief, by hurting persons or their goods, or by bringing some actual evil or calamity upon them. But they sometimes work mischief under a pretence or colour of doing good—as when they cure diseases, loose enchantments, and discover other witches. All their designs are brought about by charms, or ceremonious rites instituted by the devil, which are in themselves of no efficacy, and serve only as signals and watchwords to admonish Satan, as it were, when, where, and upon whom to do mischief, or perform cures, according to his compact with the witches."

"Under necromancy," says Mr. Forbes, "are comprehended chiromancy, predictions, and responses by the sieve and the shear, and all other hellish arts of divination. It hath been sustained to bring in a woman guilty of witchcraft, that she threatened to do some mischief to a person who immediately or not long after suffered a grievous harm in his body or goods, by sorcery or witchcraft, without any apparent or natural cause, though the manner or enchantment used to work such mischief was not particularly expressed, and the threat was only general, and did not specify the ill turn to be done, in respect the means used by witches are best known to themselves. Some relevant articles of witchcraft are founded upon events having no necessary dependence on the means used by the person accused: as that a man on whom a woman had laid a grievous sickness by her sorcery was relieved thereof by her taking him by the hand, and the moving of her lips; or that a woman came several times into a house when the doors and windows were all fast locked and shut at night, combed her hair the last night, and laid her hand upon a nurse's breast, upon which a child then sucking her died within half-an-hour—because injuries done by witches are not occasioned by any inherent virtue or efficacy in the means used by them, but only by the devil's influence; and that there is no natural cause for the mischief done, is the reason of ascribing it to witchcraft. Where one is indicted for being in league with the devil, and exercising acts of witchcraft, it sufficeth to prove that the indictee was in confederacy with that evil spirit, and did such things; but in the trial of one indicted for bewitching any person, two things are to be proved, viz. that such a person is bewitched, and that the indictee is the witch."Mr. Forbes says that symptoms of witchcraft are: "When learned and skilful physicians find the patient's trouble doth not proceed from any bodily distemper or natural causes; when he is exceedingly tormented at the saying of prayers and graces, or reading of the Bible; when in his fits he tells truly many things past and future, which in an ordinary way he could not know; and when things are done with respect to him by some invisible hand working in a manner that cannot be understood. Other proofs are such as when one cannot shed tears, and cannot say the Lord's Prayer. And other presumptions," he proceeds, "are inferred from the drawing of blood of the suspected person, or the putting of something under a threshold where he or she goes in, or under a stool where the suspected person sits, or causes him or her to come into a room where those afflicted with witchcraft are, and touch them; or trying if the suspected person will sink or swim when put tied into the water; the burning of cakes wherein are the afflicted persons' urine, or the burning of clothes in which such persons lie."

The learned professor thought that witchcraft might be proved by witnesses who have heard the accused person invoking the devil for help, or seen the suspected party entertaining a familiar spirit and feeding it in any form or likeness, conjuring to raise storms, showing in a glass or show-stone the faces of absent persons. His opinion was that it was competent to receive as evidence the dying testimonies of penitent witches concerning others informed against by them, as proof of witchcraft was difficult to obtain; and the more secret acts—meeting of witches in the night-time to adore their infernal master, and hatch their mischievous projects when other people are asleep, or when they themselves are invisible—cannot be otherwise proved than by such as are privy thereto.

Sir Matthew Hale, the astute lawyer and judge, was a believer in witchcraft, and entertained views on this subject similar to those of Mr. Forbes, as will appear from the following particulars of the trial of Rose Cullender and Ann Duny in 1664. These women were accused before Sir Matthew Hale of various acts of witchcraft—such as tormenting children by means of devilish devices, upsetting carts, killing horses, breeding vermin, etc., through diabolical means. At the trial, evidence was given by Anne Durent, that William Durent, her son (one of the children bewitched) had strange and sad fits, caused by Duny giving the child suck. A wise man (Dr. Jacob) advised her to hang up the child's blanket in the chimney corner all day, and at night, when she went to put the child to bed, if she found anything in the blanket, to throw the thing, whether apparently animate or inanimate, into the fire. The blanket was hung up and shaken according to instructions, when, behold, a large toad fell on the hearth-stone. The creature was thrown into the fire, and exploded like a gun. Next day a friend of Duny's told deponent that a certain old woman was severely burned. On hearing this, deponent went to the old woman's house, and found her grievously scorched. Duny (for it was she who was in this sad condition) told the witness, that because of the evil she did to her, she (Duny) would see much evil befall the Durent family. Deponent further stated that her daughter, Elizabeth Durent, about ten years of age, was afflicted like her other child, and in her fits complained of Ann Duny tormenting her. Duny had (so said the witness) predicted that the child named would not live long, and within three days the child died. Deponent also testified that Duny had, while in a rage, said that she (the witness) would yet be going with crutches—a prophecy followed by deponent becoming so lame in both her legs, that she could not walk without being supported by sticks. "And, indeed," said she, exhibiting a pair of crutches in the witness-box, "I could not come into court without them."

After lengthened and curious evidence touching the charges against the prisoners for bewitching the children, named in the indictment, Dr. Brown, a gentleman of great learning, expressed his opinion that the children were bewitched. He said that in Denmark there had been a great discovery of witches, who used the very same way of afflicting people, viz. by conveying pins and nails into them in a mysterious way. His opinion was that the devil, in witchcraft, did work upon the bodies of men and women, and afflict them with such distempers as their bodies were most subject to.

John Sloan testified that, while bringing home three carts of hay, one of the carts accidentally damaged the window of Rose Cullender's house, and that she, in consequence of this mishap, uttered violent threats against him. The other two carts passed her house safely several times that day, but the cart which damaged the window was two or three times overturned. Once, when taking the unlucky vehicle through a gate, it stuck fast, though nothing could be seen that prevented it from being drawn along easily. After great trouble, the cart was brought home, but, there again, fresh difficulties had to be encountered: the vehicle could not be taken to the place where it was intended to be unloaded; and, what most frightened the witness and those aiding him was, that every one who approached the cart to render any assistance on that eventful day, came away with his nose bleeding.

Robert Sherringhame swore that Rose Cullender, taking offence at him, threatened him and his horses with injury, and in a short time many of his horses and cattle died. Following these misfortunes, he became lame, and was so tormented with lice that he could not get them removed until he burned two suits of clothes.

Richard Spencer testified that he had heard Ann Duny say that the devil would not let her rest until she took her revenge upon Cornelius Sandswell.

The judge told the jury that they were to inquire, first, whether the several acts of witchcraft mentioned in the indictment had been committed; and, secondly, if they had, it was for them to say whether the prisoners were the guilty persons. The jurors, he said, could not doubt that there were such creatures as witches; for history affirmed it, and the wisdom of all nations had provided laws against such persons. He prayed that the hearts of the jury might be directed in the mighty thing they had in hand; for to condemn the innocent and let the guilty go free were alike an abomination. The jury brought in a verdict of guilty. The judge then passed sentence of death against the culprits, and they were executed.

A general belief in the existence of witches prevailed in every country, and stringent measures were adopted for their extirpation. If the punishment of witchcraft was not at first countenanced by the Church, the clergy subsequently, and for centuries, played a prominent part in the detection and condemnation of the so-called witches. Pope John stated in a bull of 1317 that several of his courtiers and his physician had given themselves up to superstition, and that their rings and mirrors contained evil spirits. Pope Innocent VIII. issued a bull against witchcraft in 1484. Thousands of innocent persons were burned, and others killed by the tests applied to them. Twenty-seven articles were issued in France in the fourteenth century against sorcery, the use of images, and the invocation of evil spirits. Many Templars were burned in Paris for witchcraft in 1309.

Referring to witches and sorcerers, Bishop Jewell, when preaching before his sovereign in 1598, said: "Witches and sorcerers, within the last four years, are marvellously increased within your Grace's realm. Your Grace's subjects pine away, even unto the death; their colour fadeth—their flesh rotteth—their speech is benumbed—their senses are bereft. I pray they may never practise further than upon your Majesty's subjects." Mr. Glanvil, chaplain to Charles II., was of opinion that "the disbeliever in witchcraft must believe the devil gratis;" and Wesley said that "giving up witchcraft was, in fact, giving up the Bible." The learned Lord Bacon, Lord Coke, and twelve bishops had a voice in the legislation of the country when the act of James I. of England against witchcraft became law.

Five hundred witches were burned at Geneva during three months of 1515. In the diocese of Como, one thousand were burned within one year. Nine hundred were burned in Lorraine in a period of fifteen years. Hundreds perished at Wurzburg in a few years; and upwards of one hundred thousand were executed in Germany, for which country the malleus maleficarum, or hammer for witches (drawn out by a clergyman and two inquisitors appointed by Innocent VIII.), was principally intended. In Poland and America, witches, or supposed witches, were also put to death by fire and water. Persecutions against witches raged with great fury in America in 1648-49. In New England, in 1692, nine persons were hanged by the Puritans for witchcraft. Under pressure, fifty persons there confessed themselves to be witches. Italy, Spain, and Portugal had their victims too. At one period the execution of witches exceeded those in England, though the number put to death in the latter country was truly appalling. In 1646 two hundred persons were tried and executed for witchcraft at the Sussex and Essex assizes. The last persons put to death for witchcraft in England were, some say, in 1664, while others assert the last victims suffered in 1682. The latest instance of a witch being executed in Scotland was in 1722, when the supposed offender was burned at Loth, or Dornoch, Sutherlandshire, by order of the sheriff of that county. In more recent times than several of the dates to which we have referred, discoveries, which might have been easily understood, gave rise to the supposition that the actors were in compact with the devil. On the first occasion of the German printers carrying their books to France, the ingenious inventors of printing were condemned to be burned alive as sorcerers—a sentence that would have been executed had those discoverers of a useful art not saved themselves by flight.

Reginald Scot, taking an enlightened view of superstition, says, "The fables of witchcraft have taken so fast hold of and deep root in the heart of man, that few endure the hand of correction without attributing the chastisement to the influence of witches. Such superstitious people," he says, "are persuaded that neither hail nor snow, thunder nor lightning, rain nor tempestuous winds, come from the higher powers, but are raised by the power of witches and conjurors. If a clap of thunder or a gale of wind be heard, the timid people ring bells, cry out to burn the witches, or else they burn consecrated things, hoping thereby to drive the devil out of the air."

Mr. E. Chambers did not think the art of witchcraft was carried on by or through intercourse with the devil or spirits (though he did not dispute there were such beings), but by or through philosophical means, altogether different from the operations supposed necessary to enable witches and wizards to perform actions not easily comprehended by the uninitiated.

Clyx.com