Superstitions.—Witchcraft.—Heard’s Ghost.—Wise Men and Women.—Sayings by Mrs. Lubbock.—Prophecies.—Treasure Trove.—Confessions of Sir William Stapleton and Sir Edward Neville.—Cardinal Wolsey supposed to have been conversant with Magic.—Effect of Superstition on the Great and Noble in Early Times.

Forby, in his “Vocabulary of East Anglia,” has described the whole of this district of the country as barren of superstitions or legendary lore. Its characteristics are adverse to the growth of that natural poetry in the minds of the people which gives birth to nymphs, water-sprites, elves, or demons. It has neither woods, mountains, rocks, caverns, nor waterfalls, to be the nurseries of such genii; its plains are cultivated, its rivers navigable, its hills and valleys furrowed by the plough, even to the very basement of any lingering ruin of tower or steeple that may be scattered amongst them. How much more, therefore, may we expect to find a dearth of such literature in the heart of the great city, where the struggles of working-day life among looms and factories, leave little time or room for aught else than the stern realities of existence to be known or felt?

But every where there exist some fragments of superstition, poetical or uncouth; and we may not feel surprise that among such a people as the lower orders of society, in an East Anglian manufacturing city, they should bear little trace of the refinement which beautiful and romantic scenery and occupation are wont in other scenes to throw over them. Rarely do we hear of a haunted house, or a walking ghost; but not unseldom do we see the horse-shoe nailed over the door-way of the cottage, as an antidote to the power of witchcraft,—nor is it uncommon to hear among the poor, of charms to cure diseases, of divinations by wise men and wise women, who by mystic rites pretend to discover lost or stolen property,—nor even of animals bewitched, exercising direful influence over the lives and health of human beings. Within the limits of this age of enlightenment and civilization, many are the recorded facts of this nature, and many more of continual recurrence might be added, in illustration of the truth, that the lowest and grossest forms of vulgar superstition yet lurk about in the purlieus and by-ways of the old city.

Not long since, a woman, holding quite a respectable rank among the working classes, and in her way a perfect “character” avowed herself determined “to drown’d the cat,” as soon as ever her baby, which was lying ill, should die; for which determination the only explanation she could offer was, that the cat jumped upon the nurse’s lap, as the baby lay there, soon after it was born, from which time it ailed, and ever since that time, the cat had regularly gone under its bed once a day and coughed twice. These mysterious actions of poor “Tabby,” were assigned as the cause of the baby wasting, and its fate was to be sealed as soon as that of the poor infant was decided. That the baby happened to be the twenty-fourth child of his mother, who had succeeded in rearing four only of the two dozen, was a fact that seemed to possess no weight whatever in her estimation. The same strong-minded individual, for in many respects she is wonderfully strong-minded, scruples not to avow greater faith in the magical properties of red wool, tied round a finger or an arm, in curing certain ailments of the frame, than in many a remedy prescribed by “doctor’s” skill; nor has the theoretical belief been altogether unsupported by practice; on more than one occasion, she will aver, her own life has thus been saved.

As for divinations and charms, to doubt their faith in them would be to discredit the evidence of our senses. A poor washerwoman, but a few years since, who possessed more honesty than wisdom, happened to lose some linen belonging to one of her employers. Suspecting it to have been stolen, she repaired to a wise man, who, of course, succeeded in convincing her, upon the payment of half-a-crown, that her surmise was correct; but as it helped her no further towards its recovery, it only added to the expense her honesty prompted her to go to, to replace it, which she secretly contrived to do, and offered it to her employer, with a statement of the facts.

These are but faint specimens of the “vulgar errors” that are every day to be met with among the citizens, oftentimes attested more by deeds than words; for many will in secret consult the wise people, and pay them well, who would still shrink from openly acknowledging faith in their revelations or predictions.

Though haunted houses are rare, there still are some known to exist;—one respectable, elderly maiden, yet amongst us, has veritable tales of refractory spirits, that took twelve clergymen to read them down, and of one who haunted some particular closet, where at last he submitted to priestly authority, a cable and a hook being firmly fixed in the floor of the closet to bind him. We rather fancy some of the other legends that we have heard from the same authority, are but variations of the story of Heard’s spirit, that haunted the Alder Carr Fen Broad, which assumed the appearance of a Jack-o’-Lantern, and refused to be “laid!” the gentlemen who attempted it failing, because he always kept a verse ahead of them, until a boy brought a couple of pigeons, and laid down before the Will-o’-the-wisp, who, looking at them, lost his verse, and then they succeeded in binding his spirit.

This, and many other tales, have been collected by the rector of the parish of Irstead, from an old woman living there; and they contain so much that is amusing, that we cannot forbear repeating them for the benefit of those who have not had the opportunity of seeing the papers of the ArchÆological Society. Mrs. Lubbock is an old washerwoman, who, left a widow with several children, has maintained herself “independently” up to her eightieth year, without applying even for out-door parish relief, until the cold winter of 1846 made her, as she expresses it, sick for crumbs like the birds. Education she has had none, that is, of book learning, but she seems to have had a father, given to anecdote, from whom she professes to have heard most of the “saws” and tales of which she has such a profusion. She mentions the practice, among her acquaintance, of watching the church porch on St. Mark’s eve, when, at midnight, the watcher may see all his acquaintance enter the church: those who were to die remained, those who were to marry went in couples and came out again. This, one Staff had seen; but he would not tell the names of those who were to die or be married.

On Christmas-eve, she says, at midnight the cows and cattle rise and turn to the east; and the horses in the stable, as far as their halters permit. She says that a farmer once observing the reverent demeanour of the horse, who will leisurely stay some time upon his knees moving his head about and blowing over the manger, remarked, “Ah, they have more wit than we;” which brings to mind an anecdote, related by an ear witness, of a controversy that took place in this city among some cattle-drovers, when an Irishman and Roman Catholic supported the claims of his religion by commenting upon the invariable practice amongst those of his own class, of saying their prayers before retiring to rest; whereas, added he, “among you Protestants the horse is the only real Christian that I ever met with, who kneels before he goes to sleep and when he gets up.” That there is too much ground for the satire no one can doubt.

The Rosemary is said to flower on old Christmas-day, and Mrs. Lubbock says that she recollects, on one occasion, a great argument about which was the real Christmas-day, and to settle the point three men agreed to decide by watching that plant. They gathered a bunch at eleven o’clock at night of the old Christmas-day; it was then in bud. They threw it upon the table, and did not look at it until after midnight, when they went in, and found the bloom just dropping off.

Concerning the weather, she says, when a sundog (or two black spots to be seen by the naked eye) comes on the south side of the sun, there will be fair weather; when on the north, there will be foul. “The sun then fares to be right muddled and crammed down by the dog.”

Of the moon, she says—

“Saturdays new and Sundays full
Never was good, and never wull.

“If you see the old moon with the new, there will be stormy weather.

“If it rains on a Sunday before mass,
It rains all the week, more or less.

“If it rains on a Sunday before the church doors are open, it will rain all the week, more or less; or else we shall have three rainy Sundays.

“If it rains the first Thursday after the moon comes in, it will rain, more or less, all the while the moon lasts, especially on Thursdays.

“If there be bad weather, and the sun does not shine all the week, it will always show forth some time on the Saturday.

“It will not be a hard winter when acorns abound, and there are no hips nor haws:

“If Noah’s Ark shows many days together,
There will be foul weather.

“On three nights in the year it never lightens (i.e. clears up) anywhere; and if a man knew those nights, he would not turn a dog out.

“We shall have a severe winter when the swallows and martins take great pains to teach their young ones to fly; they are going a long journey, to get away from the cold that is coming. It is singular they should know this, but they do.

“The weather will be fine when the rooks play pitch-halfpenny—i.e. when, flying in flocks, some of them stoop down and pick up worms, imitating the action of a boy playing pitch-halfpenny.

“There will be severe winter and deep snow when snow-banks (i.e. white fleecy clouds) hang about the sky.”

In 1845, she knew there would be a failure of some crop, “because the evening star rode so low. The leading star (i.e. the last star in the Bear’s Tail) was above it all the summer the potato blight occurred.” She feared the failure would have been in the wheat, till she saw the man’s face in it, and then she was comfortable, and did not think of any other crop. Her opinion was, that the potato blight was caused by the lightning, because the turf burnt so sulphurously. “The lightning,” she says, “carries a burr round the moon, and makes the roke (fog) rise in the marshes, and smell strong.”

A failure in the “Ash Keys,” she pronounces a sign of a change in the government.

“If the hen moult before the cock,
We get a winter as hard as a rock;
If the cock moult before the hen,
We get a winter like a spring.

“She put plenty of salt in the water while washing clothes, to keep the thunder out, and to keep away foul spirits.”

Of Good Friday, she says,

“If work be done on that day, it will be so unlucky, that it will have to be done over again.”

The story of Heard’s Ghost she accompanies by an anecdote of one Finch, of Neatishead, who was walking along the road after dark, and saw a dog which he thought was Dick Allard’s, that had snapped and snarled at him at different times. Thinks he, “you have upset me two or three times; I will upset you now. You will not turn out of the road for me; and I will not turn out of the road for you.” Along came the dog, straight in the middle of the road, and Finch kicked at him, and his foot went through him, as through a sheet of paper—he could compare it to nothing else; he was quite astounded, and nearly fell backwards from the force of the kick.

She says that she has heard that the spirits of the dead haunt the places where treasures were hid by them when living, and that those of the Roman Catholics still frequent the spots where their remains were disturbed, and their graves and monuments destroyed. Alas! what a ghost-besieged city must poor Norwich be in such a case!

Of the cuckoo, she says, “When evil is coming, he sings low among the bushes, and can scarcely get his “cuckoo” out. In the last week before he leaves, he always tells all that will happen in the course of the year till he comes again—all the shipwrecks, storms, accidents, and everything. If any one is about to die suddenly, or to lose a relation, he will light upon touchwood, or a rotten bough, and “cuckoo.”

“He is always here three months to a day, and sings all the while. The first of April is the proper day for him to come, and when he does so, there is sure to be a good and early harvest. If he does not come till May, then the harvest is into October. If he sings long after midsummer, there will be a Michaelmas harvest. If any one hears the cuckoo first when in bed, there is sure to be illness or death to him or one of his family.”

Among her saws are—

“Them that ever mind the world to win,
Must have a black cat, a howling dog, and a crowing hen.

“If youth could know what age do crave,
Sights of pennies youth would save.

“They that wive
Between sickle and scythe,
Shall never thrive.”

With reference to howling dogs, she says, “Pull off your left shoe and turn it, and it will quiet him. I always used to do so when I was in service. I hated to hear the dogs howl. There was no tax then, and the farmers kept a heap of them. They won’t howl three times after the turning the shoe; if you are in bed, turn the shoe upside down by the bedside.”

Among the historical prophecies of Mother Shipton and Mother Bunch, her sister, as remembered by her, are—

That Mrs. Shipton foretold that the time should come when ships should go without sails, and carriages without horses, and the sun should shine upon hills that never see the sun before; all which are fulfilled, Mrs. Lubbock thinks, by steamers, railways, and cuttings through hills, which let in upon them the light of the sun.

Mrs. Shipton also foretold that we should know the summer from the winter only by the green leaves, it should be so cold. “That the Roman Catholics shall have this country again, and make England a nice place once more. But as for these folks, they scarce know how to build a church, nor yet a steeple.

“That England shall be won and lost three times in one day; and that, principally, through an embargo to be laid upon vessels.

“That there is to come a man who shall have three thumbs on one hand, who is to hold the king’s horse in battle; he is to be born in London, and be a miller by business. The battle is to be fought at Rackheath-stone Hill, on the Norwich road. Ravens shall carry the blood away, it will be so clotted.

“That the men are to be killed, so that one man shall be left to seven women; and the daughters shall come home, and say to their mothers, “Lawk, mother, I have seen a man!” The women shall have to finish the harvest.

“That the town of Yarmouth shall become a nettle-bush; that the bridges shall be pulled up, and small vessels sail to Irstead and Barton Broads.

“That blessed are they that live near Potter Heigham, and double-blessed them that live in it.” (That parish seems destined to be the scene of some great and glorious events.) May the blessing prove true!

We here close our extracts from Mrs. Lubbock’s Norfolk sayings, and now go back to superstitions of earlier date, that are so connected with Kett’s rebellion as to make them peculiarly interesting as matters of history. During the wars of the Roses, predictions of wars and rebellions, not unfrequently proclaiming hostility towards the privileged classes, were very common. Both persons and places were often designated by strange hieroglyphical symbols, frequently taken from heraldic badges and bearings, or analogies extremely puzzling to explain. They are alluded to in Shakespeare’s “Henry the Fourth,” among the incitements that urged Hotspur to anger, and Owen Glendower to rebellion, and recorded by Hall, who says in his Chrouicle, “that a certain writer writeth that the Earl of March, the Lord Percy, and Owen Glendower, were made believe, by a Welsh prophecier, that King Henry was the moldewarpe (mole) cursed of God’s own mouth, and that they three were the dragon, the lion, and the wolf which should divide the realm between them.” This prophecy was doubtless identical with that published in 1652, under the title of “Strange Prophecies of Merlin,” where it is said, “Then shall the proudest prince in all Christendom go through Shropham Dale to Lopham Ward, where the White Lion shall meet with him, and fight in a field under Ives Minster, at South Lopham, where the prince aforesaid shall be slain under the minster wall, to the great grief of the priests all; then there shall come out of Denmark a Duke, and he shall bring with him the King of Denmark and sixteen great lords in his company, by whose consent he shall be crowned king in a town of Northumberland, and he shall reign three months and odd days. They shall land at Waborne Stone; they shall be met by the Red Deere, the Heath Cock, the Hound, and the Harrow: between Waborne and Branksbrim, a forest and a church gate, there shall be fought so mortal a battle, that from Branksbrim to Cromer Bridge it shall run blood; then shall the King of Denmark be slain, and all the perilous fishes in his company. Then shall the duke come forth manfully to Clare Hall, where the bare and the headlesse men shall meet him and slay all his lords, and take him prisoner, and send him to Blanchflower, and chase his men to the sea, where twenty thousand of them shall be drowned without dint of the sword. Then shall come in the French king, and he shall land at Waborne Hope, eighteen miles from Norwich: there he shall be let in by a false mayor, and that shall he keep for his lodging for awhile; then at his return shall he be met at a place called Redbanke, thirty miles from Westchester, where at the first affray shall be slain nine thousand Welchmen and the double number of enemies.”

These sort of predictions, often accompanied by symbolical illustrations, continued to gain popularity, and were made use of at various periods to serve the purposes of the people. Sir Walter Scott’s “Essays on the Prophecies of Thomas the Rhymer,” shew the application made of them in the time of the Stuarts. In the reign of Henry VIII., they excited so much alarm, as to cause an act to be passed, which declared, “that if any person should print, write, speak, sing, or declare to any other person, of the king or any other person, any such false prophecies upon occasion of any arms, fields, beasts, fowls, or such like things, they shall be deemed guilty of felony, without benefit of the clergy.”

The confession of Richard Byshop, of Bungay, when arraigned before the Privy Council a few years prior to the date of the above act, shews upon what grounds the fear it expresses was founded.

The confession of Richard Byshop, of Bungay.

“Memorandum: that the said Richard Byshop saith, that he met with one Robert Seyman, at Tyndale Wood, the 11th day of May, about nine of the clock, in the twenty-ninth year of the reign of our sovereign lord King Henry the Eighth, and after such salutation as they had then, the said Richard Byshop said to the said Robert, ‘What tythings hear you? Have you any musters about you?’ And the said Robert said ‘No.’ Then the said Richard said, ‘This is a hard world for poor men.’ And the said Robert said, ‘Truly it is so.’ Then the said Richard said, ‘Ye seem to be an honest man, and such a one as a man may open his mind unto.’ And the said Robert said, ‘I am a plain man; ye may say to me what ye woll.’ And then the said Richard said, ‘We are so used now-a-days at Bungay as was never seen afore this; for if two or three good fellows be walking together, the constables come to them, and woll know what communication they have had, or else they shall be stocked. And as I have heard lately at Walsingham, the people had risen if one person had not been. And as I hear say, some of them now be in Norwich Castle, and others be sent to London.’ And further, the said Richard said, ‘If two men were gathered together, one might say to another what he would as long as the third man was not there; and if three men were together, if two of them were absent, the third might say what he would in surety enough.’ And he said he knew there was a certain prophecy, which if the said Robert would come to Bungay, he should hear it read; and that one man had taken pains to watch in the night to write the copy of the same. And if so be, as the prophecy saith, there shall be a rising of the people this year or never. And that the prophecy saith the king’s grace was signified by a mowle, and that the mowle should be subduyt and put down. And that the said Richard did hear that the Earl of Derby was up with many; and that he should be proclaimed traitor in those parts where he dwelleth. And also he heard, as he saith, that a great company was fled out of the land. And that the Duke of Norfolk’s grace was in the north parts, and was so to be set about, as he heard say, that he might not come away when he would. I pray God that it be not so. Also he said that the prophecy saith that three kings shall meet on Mousehold Heath, and the proudest prince in Christendom be their subject. And that the White Lion should stay all that business at length, and should obtain. And said, ‘Farewell, my friend, and know me another day if ye can, and God send us a quiet world.’”

The same prophecies here alluded to were revived and repeated, together with many doggrel rhymes, at the time of the famous Kett’s rebellion. The historian of the event says that they were rung in the ears of the people every hour, such as

“The county Gnoffes, Hob, Dick, and Hick,
With clubbs and clowted shoon,
Shall fill the vale
Of Duffin’s dale
With slaughtered bodies soon.”

And also

“The headless men within the dale,
Shall there be slain both great and small.”

So positively were these sort of prophecies applied to the circumstances of the time, that the rebels who had possession of a favourable position on the heights of the common, forsook it in expectation of realizing the prediction by coming into the valley, “believing themselves,” as the historian has it, “to be the upholsterers that were to make Duffin’s Dale a large soft pillow for death to rest on, whereas they proved only the stuffing to fill the same.”

The common phrase, “A cock and bull story,” took its origin from these symbolical prophecies, in which the figures of animals were so often introduced.

Among the records of other mediÆval superstitions, are many curious details of the “invocation of spirits” to aid the searchers after “Treasure Trove,” as it was called. In the days when “banking” was unknown, wealth oftentimes accumulated in the hands of its owners, to a degree that rendered its safe keeping a perilous task; and in very early ages it would seem to have been a common practice to commit it to the bosom of mother earth, until such time as its owner might have need of it. The changes wrought upon the land by the several conquests that succeeded the departure of the Romans, the reputed depositors of these hidden treasures, caused the ownership to be forgotten and obscure, and by degrees all such property became the right of the crown; and to conceal any discovery of it was made an act of felony, at first punishable by death, but afterwards subjecting the perpetrator only to a pecuniary fine.

It seems, however, that in the sixteenth century, it was customary to grant licenses to individuals, to engage in the search after these hidden stores of precious stones, metal, or coins; also permission to invoke the aid of spirits in their pursuit. Among many other quaint stories upon the subject, two especially connected with the localities in this neighbourhood claim attention here: the first is the confession of William Stapleton, a monk in the abbey of St. Bennet in the Holm, addressed to Cardinal Wolsey, and many very curious illustrations it gives of the superstitious feeling of the time; the other is that of Sir Edward Neville, who was arraigned, tried, and executed for high treason, as an accomplice of Cardinal Pole, in the thirtieth year of Henry the Eighth. The extracts are taken from the papers of the Norfolk ArchÆological Society.

Stapleton seems to have been an idle monk, often punished “for not rising to matins, and doing his duty in the church, which led to his desire to purchase a dispensation.” Being too poor to do so at once, he obtained six months’ license to obtain the means, and set about searching for “Treasure Trove,” by the help of some books on Necromancy, which had been previously lent to him. After some rambles about the county, he says, “I went to Norwich, and there remained by the space of a month, and thence to a town called Felmingham, and one Godfrey and his boy with me, which Godfrey had a “shower,” called Anthony Fular, and his said boy did “scry” unto him (which said spirit I had after myself); but notwithstanding as we could find nothing, we departed to Norwich again, where we met one unbeknown to us, and he brought us to a man’s house in Norwich, where he supposed we should have found treasure, whereupon we called the spirit of the treasure to appear—but he did not, for I suppose of a truth there was none there.”

Stapleton goes on to say that, failing in his efforts, he borrowed money to buy his dispensation of “his Grace” to be a hermit, and then went to the “diggings” again. He was then informed that one Leech had a book to which the parson of Lesingham had bound a spirit, called Andrew Malchus; “whereupon,” he says, “I went to Leech concerning the same, and upon our communication he let me have all his instruments to the said book, and shewed me that if I could get the book that the said instruments were made by, he would bring me to him that should speed my business shortly. And then he shewed me that the parson of Lesingham and Sir John of Leiston, with other to me unknown, had called up of late Andrew Malchus, Oberion, and Inchubus. And when they were all raised, Oberion would not speak. And the then parson of Lesingham did demand of Andrew Malchus why it was. And Andrew Malchus made answer, it was because he was bound to the Lord Cardinal. And they did entreat the parson of Lesingham to let them depart at that time, and whensoever it should please them to call them up again, they would gladly do them any service they could.

“And when I had all the said instruments, I went to Norwich, where I had remained but a season, when there came to me a glazier, which, as he said, came from the Lord Leonard Marquess, for to search for one that was expert in such business. And thereupon one Richard Tynny came and instanced me to go to Walsingham with him, where we met with the said Lord Leonard, the which Lord Leonard had communicated with me concerning the said art of digging, and thereupon promised me that if I would take pains in the exercising the same art, that he would sue out a dispensation for me that I should be a secular priest, and so would make me his chaplain. And, for a trial to know what I could do in the same art, he caused his servant to go hide a certain money in the garden, and I showed for the same. And one Jackson ‘scryed’ unto me, but we could not accomplish our purpose.

“Sir John Shepe, Sir Robert Porter, and I, departed to a place beside Creke Abbey, where we supposed treasure should be found. And the said Sir John Shepe called the spirit of the treasure, and I showed to him; but all came to no purpose.

“And then there came one Cook of Calkett Hall, and showed me that there was much money about his place, and in especial in the Bell Hill, and desired me to come thither; and then I went to Richard Tynny, and showed him what the said Cook had said, whereupon Tynny brought me to one William Rapkyn, took me the book that the Duke’s Grace of Norfolk of late took away from me; which Rapkyn said to me that forasmuch as I had all the instruments that were made for the said book, and if I could get Sir John of Leiston unto me, that then we should soon speed our purpose, for the said Sir John of Leiston was with the parson of Lesingham when the spirits appeared to the said book; and so I went to Colkett Hall, and took the said book and instruments with me; but he” (Sir John) “came not; wherefore, when I had tarried three or four days, I and the parish priest of Gorleston went about the said business, but of truth we could bring nothing to effect.”

His lengthened confession then goes into details of other expeditions aided by Lord Leonard, which ended in his imprisonment for deserting Lord Leonard, but he was afterwards pardoned and set at liberty. He then goes on to say in his letter, “and whereas your noble Grace here of late was informed of certain things by the Duke’s Grace of Norfolk, as touching to your Grace and him, I faithfully ascertain that the truth thereof is as herein followeth, that is to say, one Wright, servant to the said Duke, at a certain season showed me that the Duke’s Grace, his master, was sore vexed with a spirit by the enchantment of your Grace; to the which I made answer that his communication might be left, for it was too high a subject to meddle with. Whereupon Wright went into the Duke’s presence and showed things to me unknown, which caused the Duke’s Grace to send for me; and at such time as I was before his Grace I required his grace to show me what his pleasure was, and he said I knew well myself, and I answered ‘Nay.’ Then he demanded of Wright whether he had showed me anything or nay, and he answered he durst not, for because his Grace gave so strait commandment unto the contrary. And so then was I directed to the said Wright unto the next day, that he should show me the intention of the Duke’s Grace.”

Wright seems then to have suggested to Stapleton that he should pretend power to rid the Duke of the troublesome spirit; and being strongly tempted by hopes of reward, he consented, “and feigned to him,” when he sent for him again, that he had forged an image of wax of his similitude, and sanctified it—but whether it did any good for his sickness he could not tell.

“Whereupon the said Duke desired me that I should go about to know whether the Lord Cardinal’s Grace had a spirit, and I showed him that I could not skill thereof. And the Duke then said if I would take pains therein, he would appoint me to a cunning man, Dr. Wilson. And so the said Dr. Wilson was sent for, and they examined me, and the Duke’s Grace commanded me to write all these things, and so I did. Whereupon, considering the great folly which hath rested in me, I humbly beseech your Grace to be a good and gracious lord unto me, and to take me to your mercy.”

The case of Sir Edward Neville, quoted from the same authority, commences by a statement of the treasonable words laid to his charge, which were, “The King is a beast, and worse than a beast; and I trust knaves shall be put down, and lords reign one day, and that the world will amend one day.” He was found guilty, hanged, drawn and quartered.

He is suspected to have been connected with Stapleton the monk, who has already appeared as a necromancer. At all events, his confession shows again how much Wolsey was supposed to be conversant with magic; and indeed the ‘ring’ by which the Cardinal was thought to have won the fatal favour of the king, was noticed in the accusations against him when he fell.

In seeking for treasure, Sir Edward fully acknowledges being led to it by “foolish fellows of the country.”

In his account of his own dealings with spirits and magic, there is much curious mixture of half-doubting marvel and self deceit, probably not unconnected with influences baffling the human intellect, so apparent in the kindred delusions of Mesmerism, that strange development of the age of civilization, in no respect differing from the superstitions usually considered as the peculiar characteristics of the Middle ages. He was also a practitioner of alchemy. He would jeopard his life to make the philosopher’s stone if the king pleased, aye, and was willing to be kept in prison till he had: in a year he would make silver, and in a year and a half, gold, which would be better to the king than a thousand men. But Henry was too shrewd thus to be allured into mercy; and Neville perished in the prolonged agonies which his sentence involved. He appears, from other documents, to have been of a light-hearted and merry temper; not very wise, but wholly innocent of any crime, except a few idle words.

the confession of sir edward neville.

“Honourable Lords, I take God to record, that I did never commit nor reconcile treason sith I was born, nor imagined the destruction of no man or woman, as God shall save my soul; He knows my heart, for it is He that ‘scrutator cordium,’ and in Him is all trust. I will not danger my soul for fear of worldly punishment; the joy of Heaven is eternal, and incomparable to the joy of this wretched world: therefore, good lords, do by me as God shall put in your minds; for another day ye shall suffer the judgment of God, when ye cannot start from it, no more than I can start from yours at this time. Now to certify all that I can:—William Neville did send for me to Oxford, that I should come and speak with him at ‘Weke,’ and to him I went; it was the first time I ever saw him; I would I had been buried that day.

“When I came, he took me to a littell room, and went to his garden, and there demanded of me many questions, and among all others, asked if it were not possible to have a ring made that should bring a man in favour with his Prince; seeing my Lord Cardinal had such a ring, that whatsoever he asked of the King’s Grace, that he had; and Master Cromwell, when he and I were servants in my Lord Cardinal’s house, did haunt to the company of one that was seen in your faculty; and shortly after, no man so great with my Lord Cardinal as Master Cromwell was; and I have spoke with all them that has any name in this realm; and all they showed me that I should be great with my Prince; and this is the cause that I did send for you, to know whether your saying be agreeable to theirs, or no. And I, at the hearty desire of him, shewed him that I had read many books, and specially the works of Solomon, and how his ring should be made, and of what metal; and what virtues they have after the canon of Solomon. And then he desired me instantly to take the pains to make him one of them; and I told him that I could make them, but I made never none of them, nor I cannot tell that they have such virtues or no, but by hearing say. Also he asked what other works had I read. And I told him that I had read the magical works of Hermes, which many men doth prize; and thus departed at that time. And one fortnight after, William Neville came to Oxford, and said that he had one Wayd at home, at his house, that did shew him more than I did shew him; for the said Wayd did shew him that he should be a great lord, nigh to the partes that he dwelt in. And in that lordship should be a fair castle; and he could not imagine what it should be, except it were the castle of Warwick.”

“And I answered and said to him, that I dreamed that an angel took him and me by the hands, and led us to a high tower, and there delivered him a shield, with sundry arms, which I cannot rehearse, and this is all I ever shewed him, save at his desire, I went thither with him; and as concerning any other man, save at the desire of Sir Gr. Done, Knt. I made the moulds that ye have, to the intent he should have had Mistress Elizabeth’s gear. If any man or woman can say and prove by me, otherwise than I have writed, except that I have, at the desire of some of my friends, ‘cauled to stone,’ for things stolen, let me die for it. And touching Master William Neville, all the country knows more of his matters than I do, save that I wrote a foolish letter or two, according to his foolish desire, to make pastime to laugh at.”

“Also concerning treasure trove, I was oft-times desired unto it, by foolish fellows of the country, but I never meddled with it at all; but to make the philosopher’s stone, I will jeopard my life, so to do it, if it please the king’s good grace to command me to do it, or any other nobleman under the king’s good grace; and, of surety to do it, to be kept in prison till I have done it. And I desire no longer space, but twelve months upon silver, and twelve and a half upon gold, which is better to the king’s good grace than a thousand men; for it is better able to maintain a thousand men for evermore, putting the king’s good grace, nor the realm, to no cost nor charge.”

“Also, concerning our sovereign lord the king’s going over, this I said, ‘If I had been worthy to be his grace’s council, I would counsel his grace not to have gone over at that time of year.’”

One mode of consulting spirits was by the Beryl, by means of a speculator or seer. Having repeated the necessary charms and adjurations, with the invocation peculiar to the spirit or angel he wished to call (for each had his peculiar form of invocation), the seer looked into a crystal or beryl, to see his answer, represented generally by some type or figure; sometimes, though rarely, the angels were heard to speak articulately.

Different kinds of stone were also employed, and occasionally a piece of coal. In Stapleton’s confession, he mentions the plate he used being left in the possession of Sir Thomas Moore.

Other records of similar proceedings, that have been extracted from the archives of the Record-chamber, make frequent mention of the magic crystals or stones.

The great names mixed up with the curious transactions described in these two documents, give additional interest to them as matters of history, and specimens of the enlightenment prevalent among the very highest circles of society, in the period that so immediately preceded the Elizabethan age. A runaway monk, turning necromancer, was received into communion with some of the noblest of the land; and an educated gentleman, as Sir Edward Neville may be presumed to have been, hoped to win favour by promises to discover the philosopher’s stone.

Three centuries have passed, and the only traces that may be found of these high-born credulities, lurk in the darkest corners of the darkest alleys of poverty and ignorance.