Transcriber's notes

 The "oe" ligature is represented as [oe]. 

 The footnotes have been moved and renumbered for easier reading. 

 A list of corrections is included at the end of the book. 

SUPERSTITIONS OF WITCHCRAFT. 

LondonPrinted by Spottiswoode and Co. New-Street Square

THE SUPERSTITIONS OF WITCHCRAFT. 

by

HOWARD WILLIAMS, M. A. 

St. John's College, Cambridge. 

'Somnia, terrores magicos, miracula, sagas, Nocturnos lemures, portentaque Thessala rides?'

London:Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green. 1865. 

PREFACE. 

'THE SUPERSTITIONS OF WITCHCRAFT' is designed to exhibit aconsecutive review of the characteristic forms and facts of acreed which (if at present apparently dead, or at least harmless, in Christendom) in the seventeenth century was a living andlively faith, and caused thousands of victims to be sent to thetorture-chamber, to the stake, and to the scaffold. At this day, the remembrance of its superhuman art, in its differentmanifestations, is immortalised in the every-day language of thepeoples of Europe. 

 * * * * *

The belief in Witchcraft is, indeed, in its full development andmost fearful results, modern still more than mediæval, Christianstill more than Pagan, and Protestant not less than Catholic. 

CONTENTS. 

PART I. 

CHAPTER I. 

 The Origin, Prevalence, and Variety of Superstition--The Belief in Witchcraft the most horrid Form of Superstition--Most flourishing in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries--The Sentiments of Addison, Blackstone, and the Lawyers of the Eighteenth Century upon the Subject--Chaldean and Persian Magic--Jewish Witchcraft--Its important Influence on Christian and Modern Belief--Greek Pharmacy and Sorcery--Early Roman Laws against Conjuration and Magic Charms--Crimes perpetrated, under the Empire, in connection with Sorceric Practices--The general Persecution for Magic under Valentinian and Valens--German and Scandinavian Sagæ--Essential Difference between Eastern and Western Sorcery--The probable Origin of the general Belief in an Evil Principle PAGE 3

PART II. 

CHAPTER I. 

 Compromise between the New and the Old Faiths--Witchcraft under the Early Church--The Sentiments of the Fathers and the Decrees of Councils--Platonic Influences--Historical, Physiological, and Accidental Causes of the Attribution of Witchcraft to the Female Sex--Opinions of the Fathers and other Writers--The Witch-Compact 47

CHAPTER II. 

 Charlemagne's Severity--Anglo-Saxon Superstition--Norman and Arabic Magic--Influence of Arabic Science--Mohammedan Belief in Magic--Rabbinical Learning--Roger Bacon--The Persecution of the Templars--Alice Kyteler 63

CHAPTER III. 

 Witchcraft and Heresy purposely confounded by the Church--Mediæval Science closely connected with Magic and Sorcery--Ignorance of Physiology the Cause of many of the Popular Prejudices--Jeanne d'Arc--Duchess of Gloucester--Jane Shore--Persecution at Arras 84

PART III. 

CHAPTER I. 

 The Bull of Innocent VIII. --A new Incentive to the vigorous Prosecution of Witchcraft--The 'Malleus Maleficarum'--Its Criminal Code--Numerous Executions at the Commencement of the Sixteenth Century--Examination of Christian Demonology--Various Opinions of the Nature of Demons--General Belief in the Intercourse of Demons and other non-human Beings with Mankind 101

CHAPTER II. 

 Three Sorts of Witches--Various Modes of Witchcraft--Manner of Witch-Travelling--The Sabbaths--Anathemas of the Popes against the Crime--Bull of Adrian VI. --Cotemporary Testimony to the Severity of the Persecutions--Necessary Triumph of the Orthodox Party--Germany most subject to the Superstition--Acts of Parliament of Henry VIII. Against Witchcraft--Elizabeth Barton--The Act of 1562--Executions under Queen Elizabeth's Government--Case of Witchcraft narrated by Reginald Scot 126

CHAPTER III. 

 The 'Discoverie of Witchcraft, ' published 1584--Wier's 'De Præstigiis Dæmonum, ' &c. --Naudé--Jean Bodin--His 'De la Démonomanie des Sorciers, ' published at Paris, 1580--His Authority--Nider--Witch-case at Warboys--Evidence adduced at the Trial--Remarkable as being the Origin of the Institution of an Annual Sermon at Huntingdon 144

CHAPTER IV. 

 Astrology in Antiquity--Modern Astrology and Alchymy--Torralvo--Adventures of Dr. Dee and Edward Kelly--Prospero and Comus, Types respectively of the Theurgic and Goetic Arts--Magicians on the Stage in the Sixteenth Century--Occult Science in Southern Europe--Causes of the inevitable Mistakes of the pre-Scientific Ages 157

CHAPTER V. 

 Sorcery in Southern Europe--Cause of the Retention of the Demonological Creed among the Protestant Sects--Calvinists the most Fanatical of the Reformed Churches--Witch-Creed sanctioned in the Authorised Version of the Sacred Scriptures--The Witch-Act of 1604--James VI. 's 'Demonologie'--Lycanthropy and Executions in France--The French Provincial Parliaments active in passing Laws against the various Witch-practices--Witchcraft in the Pyrenees--Commission of Inquiry appointed--Its Results--Demonology in Spain 168

CHAPTER VI. 

 'Possession' in France in the Seventeenth Century--Urbain Grandier and the Convent of Loudun--Exorcism at Aix--Ecstatic Phenomena--Madeleine Bavent--Her cruel Persecution--Catholic and Protestant Witchcraft in Germany--Luther's Demonological Fears and Experiences--Originated in his exceptional Position and in the extraordinary Circumstances of his Life and Times--Witch-burning at Bamburg and at Würzburg 186

CHAPTER VII. 

 Scotland one of the most Superstitious Countries in Europe--Scott's Relation of the Barbarities perpetrated in the Witch-trials under the Auspices of James VI. --The Fate of Agnes Sampson, Euphane MacCalzean, &c. --Irrational Conduct of the Courts of Justice--Causes of Voluntary Witch-Confessions--Testimony of Sir G. Mackenzie, &c. --Trial and Execution of Margaret Barclay--Computation of the Number of Witches who suffered Death in England and Scotland in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries--Witches burned alive at Edinburgh in 1608--The Lancashire Witches--Sir Thomas Overbury and Dr. Forman--Margaret Flower and Lord Rosse 203

CHAPTER VIII. 

 The Literature of Europe in the Seventeenth Century proves the Universality and Horror of Witchcraft--The most acute and most liberal Men of Learning convinced of its Reality--Erasmus and Francis Bacon--Lawyers prejudiced by Legislation--Matthew Hale's judicial Assertion--Sir Thomas Browne's Testimony--John Selden--The English Church least Ferocious of the Protestant Sects--Jewell and Hooker--Independent Tolerance--Witchcraft under the Presbyterian Government--Matthew Hopkins--Gaule's 'Select Cases of Conscience'--Judicial and Popular Methods of Witch-discovery--Preventive Charms--Witchfinders a Legal and Numerous Class in England and Scotland--Remission in the Severity of the Persecution under the Protectorship 219

CHAPTER IX. 

 Glanvil's Sadducismus Triumphatus--His Sentiments on Witchcraft and Demonology--Baxter's 'Certainty of the World of Spirits, ' &c. --Witch Trial at Bury St. Edmund's by Sir Matthew Hale, 1664--The Evidence adduced in Court--Two Witches hanged--Three hanged at Exeter in 1682--The last Witches judicially executed in England--Uniformity of the Evidence adduced at the Trials--Webster's Attack upon the Witch-creed in 1677--Witch Trials in England at the end of the Seventeenth Century--French Parliaments vindicate the Diabolic Reality of the Crime--Witchcraft in Sweden 237

CHAPTER X. 

 Witchcraft in the English Colonies in North America--Puritan Intolerance and Superstition--Cotton Mather's 'Late Memorable Providences'--Demoniacal Possession--Evidence given before the Commission--Apologies issued by Authority--Sudden Termination of the Proceedings--Reactionary Feeling against the Agitators--The Salem Witchcraft the last Instance of Judicial Prosecution on a large Scale in Christendom--Philosophers begin to expose the Superstition--Meritorious Labours of Webster, Becker, and others--Their Arguments could reach only the Educated and Wealthy Classes of Society--These only partially enfranchised--The Superstition continues to prevail among the Vulgar--Repeal of the Witch Act in England in 1736--Judicial and Popular Persecutions in England in the Eighteenth Century--Trial of Jane Wenham in England in 1712--Maria Renata burned in Germany in 1749--La Cadière in France--Last Witch burned in Scotland in 1722--Recent Cases of Witchcraft--Protestant Superstition--Witchcraft in the Extra-Christian World 259

PART I. 

EARLIER FAITH. 

CHAPTER I. 

 The Origin, Prevalence, and Variety of Superstition--The Belief in Witchcraft the most horrid Form of Superstition--Most flourishing in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries--The Sentiments of Addison, Blackstone, and the Lawyers of the Eighteenth Century upon the Subject--Chaldean and Persian Magic--Jewish Witchcraft--Its important Influence on Christian and Modern Belief--Greek Pharmacy and Sorcery--Early Roman Laws against Conjuration and Magic Charms--Crimes perpetrated, under the Empire, in connection with Sorceric Practices--The general Persecution for Magic under Valentinian and Valens--German and Scandinavian Sagæ--The probable Origin of the general Belief in an Evil Principle. 

Superstition, the product of ignorance of causes, of theproneness to seek the solution of phenomena out of and beyondnature, and of the consequent natural but unreasoning dread ofthe Unknown and Invisible (ignorantly termed the supernatural), is at once universal in the extent, and various in the kinds, of its despotism. Experience and reason seem to prove that, inherent to and apparently coexistent with the human mind, itnaturally originates in the constitution of humanity: in ignoranceand uncertainty, in an instinctive doubt and fear of the_Unknown_. Accident may moderate its power among particular peoplesand persons; and there are always exceptional minds whosenatural temper and exercise of reason are able to free them fromthe servitude of a delusive imagination. For the mass of mankind, the germ of superstition, prepared to assume always a new shapeand sometimes fresh vigour, is indestructible. The severestassaults are ineffectual to eradicate it: hydra-like, far frombeing destroyed by a seeming mortal stroke, it often raises itsmany-headed form with redoubled force. 

It will appear more philosophic to deplore the imperfection, thanto deride the folly of human nature, when the fact that thesuperstitious sentiment is not only a result of mere barbarism orvulgar ignorance, to be expelled of course by civilisation andknowledge, but is indigenous in the life of every man, barbarousor civilised, pagan or Christian, is fully recognised. Theenlightening influence of science, as far as it extends, isirresistible; and its progress within certain limits seems sureand almost omnipotent. But it is unfortunately limited in theextent of its influence, as well as uncertain in duration; whilereason enjoys a feeble reign compared with ignorance andimagination. [1] If it is the great office of history to teach byexperience, it is never useless to examine the causes and thefacts of a mischievous creed that has its roots deep in theignorant fears of mankind; but against the recurrence of thefatal effects of fanaticism apparent in the earliest and latestrecords of the world, there can be no sufficient security. 

 [1] That 'speculation has on every subject of human enquiry three successive stages; in the first of which it tends to explain the phenomena by supernatural agencies, in the second by metaphysical abstractions, and in the third or final state, confines itself to ascertaining their laws of succession and similitude' (_System of Logic_, by J. S. Mill), is a generalisation of Positive Philosophy, and a theory of the Science of History, consistent probably with the progress of knowledge among philosophers, but is scarcely applicable to the mass of mankind. 

Dreams, magic terrors, miracles, witches, ghosts, portents, aresome of the various forms superstition has invented and magnifiedto disturb the peace of society as well as of individuals. Themost extravagant of these need not be sought in the remoter agesof the human race, or even in the 'dark ages' of Europeanhistory: they are sufficiently evident in the legislation andtheology, as well as in the popular prejudices of the seventeenthcentury. 

The belief in the _infernal_ art of witchcraft is perhaps themost horrid, as it certainly is the most absurd, phenomenon inthe religious history of the world. Of the millions of victimssacrificed on the altars of religion this particular delusion canclaim a considerable proportion. By a moderate computation, ninemillions have been burned or hanged since the establishment ofChristianity. [2] Prechristian antiquity experienced itstremendous power, and the primitive faith of Christianity easilyaccepted and soon developed it. It was reserved, however, for thetriumphant Church to display it in its greatest horrors: and ifwe deplore the too credulous or accommodative faith of the earlymilitant Church or the unilluminated ignorance of paganism, wemay still more indignantly denounce the cruel policy ofCatholicism and the barbarous folly of Protestant theology whichcould deliberately punish an impossible crime. It is the reproachof Protestantism that this persecution was most furiously ragingin the age that produced Newton and Locke. Compared with itsatrocities even the Marian burnings appear as nothing: and it maywell be doubted whether the fanatic zeal of the 'bloody Queen, 'is no less contemptible than the credulous barbarity of thejudges of the seventeenth century. The period 1484 (the year inwhich Innocent VIII. Published his famous 'Witch Hammer' signallyratified 120 years later by the Act of Parliament of James I. OfEngland) to 1680 might be characterised not improperly as the eraof devil-worship; and we are tempted almost to embrace the theoryof Zerdusht and the Magi and conceive that Ahriman was thensuperior in the eternal strife; to imagine the _Evil One_, as inthe days of the Man of Uz, 'going to and fro in the earth, andwalking up and down in it. ' It is come to that at the presentday, according to a more rational observer of the seventeenthcentury, that it is regarded as a part of religion to ascribegreat wonders to the devil; and those are taxed with infidelityand perverseness who hesitate to believe what thousands relateconcerning his power. Whoever does not do so is accounted anatheist because he cannot persuade himself that there are twoGods, the one good and the other evil[3]--an assertion which isno mere hyperbole or exaggeration of a truth: there is thecertain evidence of facts as well as the concurrent testimony ofvarious writers. 

 [2] According to Dr. Sprenger (_Life of Mohammed_). Cicero's observation that there was no people either so civilised or learned, or so savage and barbarous, that had not a belief that the future may be predicted by certain persons (De Divinatione, i. ), is justified by the faith of Christendom, as well as by that of paganism; and is as true of witchcraft as it is of prophecy or divination. 

 [3] Dr. Balthazar Becker, Amsterdam, 1691, quoted in Mosheim's _Institutes of Ecclesiastical History_, ed. Reid. 

Those (comparatively few) whose reason and humanity alikerevolted from a horrible dogma, loudly proclaim the prevailingprejudice. Such protests, however, were, for a long time atleast, feeble and useless--helplessly overwhelmed by theirresistible torrent of public opinion. All classes of societywere almost equally infected by a plague-spot that knew nodistinction of class or rank. If theologians (like Bishop Jewell, one of the most esteemed divines in the Anglican Church, publicly asserting on a well known occasion at once his faith andhis fears) or lawyers (like Sir Edward Coke and Judge Hale) arefound unmistakably recording their undoubting conviction, theywere bound, it is plain, the one class by theology, the other bylegislation. Credulity of so extraordinary a kind is sufficientlysurprising even in theologians; but what is to be thought of thedeliberate opinion of unbiassed writers of a recent agemaintaining the possibility, if not the actual occurrence, of thefacts of the belief?

The deliberate judgment of Addison, whose wit and preeminentgraces of style were especially devoted to the extirpation ofalmost every sort of popular folly of the day, could declare:'When I hear the relations that are made from all parts of theworld, not only from Norway and Lapland, from the East and WestIndies, but from every particular nation in Europe, I cannotforbear thinking that there is such an intercourse and commercewith evil spirits as that which we express by the name ofwitchcraft.... In short, when I consider the question whetherthere are such persons in the world as those we call witches, mymind is divided between two opposite opinions; or rather, tospeak my thoughts freely, I believe in general that there is andhas been such a thing as witchcraft, but at the same time cangive no credit to any particular modern instance of it. '[4]Evidence, if additional were wanted, how deference to authorityand universal custom may subdue the reason and understanding. Thelanguage and decision of Addison are adopted by Sir W. Blackstonein 'Commentaries on the Laws of England, ' who shelters himselfbehind that celebrated author's sentiment; and Gibbon informs usthat 'French and English lawyers of the present age [the latterhalf of the last century] allow the _theory_ but deny the_practice_ of witchcraft'--influenced doubtless by the spirit ofthe past legislation of their respective countries. In Englandthe famous enactment of the subservient parliament of James I. Against the crimes of sorcery, &c. , was repealed in the middle ofthe reign of George II. , our laws sanctioning not 130 years sincethe popular persecution, if not the legal punishment. 

 [4] _Spectator_, No. 117. The sentiments of Addison on a kindred subject are very similar. Writing about the vulgar ghost creed, he adds these remarkable words: 'At the same time I think a person who is thus terrified with the imagination of ghosts and spectres much more reasonable than one who, contrary to the reports of all historians, sacred and profane, ancient and modern, and to the traditions of all nations, thinks the appearance of spirits fabulous and groundless. Could not I give myself up to the general testimony of mankind, I should to the relations of particular persons who are now living, and whom I cannot distrust in other matters of fact. ' Samuel Johnson (whose prejudices were equalled only by his range of knowledge) proved his faith in a well-known case, if afterwards he advanced so far as to consider the question as to the reality of 'ghosts' as _undecided_. Sir W. Scott, who wrote when the profound metaphysical inquiries of Hume had gained ground (it is observable), is quite sceptical. 

The origin of witchcraft and the vulgar diabolism is to be foundin the rude beginnings of the religious or superstitious feelingwhich, known amongst the present savage nations as Fetishism, probably prevailed almost universally in the earliest ages; whilethat of the sublimer magic is discovered in the religious systemsof the ancient Chaldeans and Persians. Chaldea and Egypt were thefirst, as far as is known, to cultivate the science of magic: theformer people long gave the well-known name to the professionalpractisers of the art. Cicero (_de Divinatione_) celebrates, andthe Jewish prophets frequently deride, their skill in divinationand their modes of incantation. The story of Daniel evidences howhighly honoured and lucrative was the magical or diviningfaculty. The Chazdim, or Chaldeans, a priestly caste inhabiting awide and level country, must have soon applied themselves to thestudy, so useful to their interests, of their brilliant expanseof heavens. By a prolonged and 'daily observation, ' considerableknowledge must have been attained; but in the infancy of thescience astronomy necessarily took the form of an empirical artwhich, under the name of astrology, engaged the serious attentionand perplexed the brains of the mediæval students of science ormagic (nearly synonymous terms), and which still survives inEngland in the popular almanacks. The natural objects ofveneration to the inhabitants of Assyria were the gloriousluminaries of the sun and moon; and if their worship of the starsand planets degenerated into many absurd fancies, believing anintimate connection and subordination of human destiny tocelestial influences, it may be admitted that a religioussentiment of this kind in its primitive simplicity was morerational, or at least sublime, than most other religious systems. 

It is not necessary to trace the oriental creeds of magic furtherthan they affected modern beliefs; but in the divinities andgenii of Persia are more immediately traced the spiritualexistences of Jewish and Christian belief. From the Persianpriests are derived both the name and the practice of magic. TheEvil Principle of the Magian, of the later Jewish, and thence ofthe western world, originated in the system (claiming Zoroasteras its founder), which taught a duality of Gods. The philosophiclawgiver, unable to penetrate the mystery of the empire of eviland misery in the world, was convinced that there is an equal andantagonistic power to the representative of light and goodness. Hence the continued eternal contention between Ormuzd with thegood spirits or genii, Amchaspands, on one side, and Ahriman withthe Devs (who may represent the infernal crew of Christendom) onthe other. Egypt, in the Mosaic and Homeric ages, seems to haveattained considerable skill in magic, as well as in chymistry andastrology. As an abstruse and esoteric doctrine, it was strictlyconfined to the priests, or to the favoured few who were admittedto initiation. The magic excellence of the magicians, whosuccessfully emulated the miracles of Moses, was apparentlyassisted by a legerdemain similar to that of the Hindu jugglersof the present day. [5]

 [5] The names of two of these magicians, Jannes and Jambres, have been preserved by revelation or tradition. 

In Persian theology, the shadowy idea of the devil of westernAsia was wholly different from the grosser conception ofChristendom. Neither the evil principle of Magianism nor thewitch of Palestine has much in common with the Christian. 'Nocontract of subjection to a diabolic power, no infernal stamp orsign of such a fatal league, no revellings of Satan and hishags, '[6] no such materialistic notions could be conformable tothe spirit of Judaism or at least of Magianism. It is notdifficult to find the cause of this essential dissimilarity. Asimple unity was severely inculcated by the religion and laws ofMoses, which permitted little exercise of the imagination: whilethe Magi were equally severe against idolatrous forms. Amonstrous idea, like that of 'Satan and his hags, ' was impossibleto them. Christianity, the religion of the West, has receivedits _corporeal_ ideas of demonology from the divinities anddemons of heathenism. The Satyri and Fauni of Greece and Romehave suggested in part the form, and perhaps some of thecharacteristics, of the vulgar Christian devil. A knowledge ofthe arts of magic among the Jews was probably derived from theirEgyptian life, while the Bedouins of Arabia and Syria (kindredpeoples) may have instilled the less scientific rites ofFetishism. It is in the early accounts of that people thatsorcery, whatever its character and profession, with the alliedarts of divination, necromancy, incantations, &c. , appears mostflourishing. The Mosaic penalty, 'Thou shalt not suffer a witchto live, ' and the comprehensive injunction, 'There shall not befound among you that maketh his son or his daughter to passthrough the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer oftimes, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulterwith familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer, ' indicateat once the extent and the horror of the practice. Balaam (thatequivocal prophet), on the border-land of Arabia and Palestine, was courted and dreaded as a wizard who could perplex wholearmies by means of spells. His fame extended far and wide; he wassummoned from his home beyond the Euphrates in the mountains ofMesopotamia by the Syrian tribes to repel the invading enemy. This great magician was, it seems, universally regarded as 'therival and the possible conqueror of Moses. '[7]

 [6] Sir W. Scott, _Letters on Demonology_. 

 [7] Dean Stanley's _Lectures on the Jewish Church_. 

About the time when the priestly caste had to yield to a profanemonarchy, the forbidden practices were so notorious and the evilwas of such magnitude, that the newly-elected prince 'ejected'(as Josephus relates) 'the fortune-tellers, necromancers, and allsuch as exercised the like arts. ' His interview with the witchhas some resemblance to modern _diablerie_ in the circumstances. Reginald Scot's rationalistic interpretation of this scene may berecommended to the commentating critics who have been so much ata loss to explain it. He derides the received opinion of thewoman of Endor being an agent of the devil, and ignoring anymystery, believes, 'This Pythonist being a _ventriloqua_, thatis, speaking as it were from the bottom of her belly, did castherself into a trance and so abused Saul, answering to Saulin Samuel's name in her counterfeit hollow voice. [8] Aninstitution very popular with the Jews of the first temple, often commemorated in their scriptures--the schools of theprophets--was (it is not improbable) of the same kind as theschools of Salamanca and Salerno in the middle ages, where magicwas publicly taught as an abstruse and useful science; and whenJehu justifies his conduct towards the queen-mother by bringing acharge of witchcraft, he only anticipates an expedient common andsuccessful in Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. A Jewish prophet asserts of the Babylonian kings, that they werediligent cultivators of the arts, reproaching them withpractising against the holy city. 

 [8] _Discoverie of Witchcraft_, lib. Viii. Chap. 12. The contrivance of this illusion was possibly like that at Delphi, where in the centre of the temple was a chasm, from which arose an intoxicating smoke, when the priestess was to announce divine revelations. Seated over the chasm upon the tripod, the Pythia was inspired, it seems, by the soporific and maddening drugs. 

Yet if we may credit the national historian (not to mention thecommon traditions), the Chaldean monarch might have justlyenvied, if he could scarcely hope to emulate, the excellence of aformer prince of his now obscure province. Josephus says ofSolomon that, amongst other attainments, 'God enabled him tolearn that skill which expels demons, which is a science usefuland sanative to men. He composed such incantations also by whichdistempers are alleviated, and he left behind him the manner ofusing exorcisms by which they drive away demons so that theynever return. '[9] The story of Daniel is well known. In thecaptivity of the two tribes carried away into an honourableservitude he soon rose into the highest favour, because, as weare informed, he excelled in a divination that surpassed all theart of the Chaldeans, themselves so famous for it. The inspiredJew had divined a dream or vision which puzzled 'the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, 'and immediately was rewarded with the greatest gift at thedisposal of a capricious despot. Most of the apologetic writerson witchcraft, in particular the authors of the 'MalleusMaleficarum, ' accept the assertion of the author of the historyof Daniel that Nebuchadnezzar was 'driven from men, and did eatgrass as oxen, ' in its apparent sense, expounding it as plainlydeclaring that he was corporeally metamorphosed into an ox, justas the companions of Ulysses were transformed into swine by theCircean sorceries. 

 [9] _Antiquities_, book viii. 2. Whiston's transl. 

The Jewish ideas of good or at least evil spirits or angels wereacquired during their forced residence in Babylon, whether underAssyrian or Persian government. At least 'Satan' is firstdiscovered unmistakably in a personal form in the poem of Job, awork pronounced by critics to have been composed after therestoration. In the Mosaic cosmogony and legislation, the writerintroduces not, expressly or impliedly, the existence of an evilprinciple, unless the serpent of the Paradisaic account, whichhas been rather arbitrarily so metamorphosed, represents it;[10]while the expressions in books vulgarly reputed before theconquest are at least doubtful. From this time forward (from thefifth century B. C. ), says a German demonologist, as the Jewslived among the admirers of Zoroaster, and thus became acquaintedwith their doctrines, are found, partly in contradiction to theearlier views of their religion, many tenets prevailing amongstthem the origin of which it is impossible to explain except bythe operation of the doctrines of Zoroaster: to these belongs thegeneral acceptance of the theory of Satan, as well as of good andbad angels. [11] Under Roman government or vassalage, sorcericpractices, as they appear in the Christian scriptures, were muchin vogue. Devils or demons, and the 'prince of the devils, 'frequently appear; and the _demoniacs_ may represent the victimsof witchcraft. The Talmud, if there is any truth in theassertions of the apologists of witchcraft, commemorates many ofthe most virtuous Jews accused of the crime and executed by theprocurator of Judea. [12] Exorcism was a very popular andlucrative profession. [13] Simon Magus the magician (_parexcellence_), the impious pretender to miraculous powers, who'bewitched the people of Samaria by his sorceries, ' is celebratedby Eusebius and succeeding Christian writers as the fruitfulparent of heresy and sorcery. 

 [10] Some ingenious remarks on the subject of the serpent, &c. , may be found in _Eastern Life_, part ii. 5, by H. Martineau. 

 [11] Horst, quoted in Ennemoser's _History of Magic_. It has been often remarked as a singular phenomenon, that the 'chosen people, ' so prompt in earlier periods on every occasion to idolatry and its cruel rites, after its restoration under Persian auspices, has been ever since uniformly opposed, even fiercely, to any sign contrary to the unity of the Deity. But the Magian system was equally averse to idolatry. 

 [12] Bishop Jewell (_Apology for the Church of England_) states that Christ was accused by the malice of his countrymen of being a juggler and wizard--_præstigiator et maleficus_. In the apostolic narrative and epistles, sorcery, witchcraft, &c. , are crimes frequently described and denounced. The Sadducean sect alone denied the existence of demons. 

 [13] The common belief of the people of Palestine in the transcendent power of exorcism is illustrated by a miracle of this sort, gravely related by Josephus. It was exhibited before Vespasian and his army. 'He [Eleazar, one of the professional class] put a ring that had a root of one of those sorts mentioned by Solomon to the nostrils of the demoniac; after which he drew out the demon through his nostrils: and when the man fell down immediately he adjured him to return into him no more, making still mention of Solomon, and reciting the incantations which he composed. And when Eleazar would demonstrate to the spectators that he had such power, he set a little way off a cup or basin full of water, and commanded the demon as he went out of the man to overturn it, and thereby to let the spectators know he had left the man. ' This performance was received with contempt or credulity by the spectators according to their faith: but the credulity of the believers could hardly exceed that of a large number of educated people, who in our own generation detect in the miracles of animal magnetism, or the legerdemain of jugglers, an infernal or supernatural agency. 

That witchcraft, or whatever term expresses the criminalpractice, prevailed among the worshippers of Jehovah, is evidentfrom the repeated anathemas both in their own and the Christianscriptures, not to speak of traditional legends; but the Hebrewand Greek expressions seem both to include at least the use ofdrugs and perhaps of poison. [14] The Jewish creed, as exposed intheir scriptures, has deserved a fame it would not otherwisehave, because upon it have been founded by theologians, Catholicand Protestant, the arguments and apology for the reality ofwitchcraft, derived from the sacred writings, with an ingenuityonly too common and successful in supporting peculiar prejudicesand interests even of the most monstrous kind. [15]

 [14] _Chashaph_ and _Pharmakeia. _ Biblical critics are inclined, however, to accept in its strict sense the translation of the Jacobian divines. 'Since in the LXX. , ' says Parkhurst, the lexicographer of the N. T. , 'this noun [pharmakeia] and its relatives always answer to some Hebrew word that denotes some kind of their magical or conjuring tricks; and since it is too notorious to be insisted upon, that such infernal practices have always prevailed, and do still prevail in idolatrous countries, I prefer the other sense of incantation. '

 [15] A sort of ingenuity much exercised of late by 'sober brows approving with a text' the institution of slavery: _divine_, according to them; _the greatest evil that afflicts mankind_, according to Alexander von Humboldt. See _Personal Narrative_. 

In examining the phenomenon as it existed among the Greeks andRomans, it will be remarked that, while the Greeks seem to havemainly adopted the ideas of the East, the Roman superstition wasof Italian origin. Their respective expressions for thepredictive or presentient faculty (_manteia_ and _divinatio_), asCicero is careful to explain, appear to indicate its differentcharacter with those two peoples: the one being the product of asort of madness, the other an elaborate and divine skill. Greektraditions made them believe that the magic science was broughtfrom Egypt or Asia by their old philosophic and legislatingsages. Some of the most eminent of the founders of philosophicschools were popularly accused of encouraging it. Pythagoras (itis the complaint of Plato) is said to have introduced to hiscountrymen an art derived from his foreign travels; a chargewhich recalls the names of Roger Bacon, Albertus Magnus, Galileo, and others, who had to pay the penalty of a premature knowledgeby the suspicion of their cotemporaries. Xenophanes is saidto be the only one of the philosophers who admitted the existenceor providence of the gods, and at the same time entirelydiscredited divination. Of the Stoics, Panætius was the only onewho ventured even to doubt. Some gave credit to one or twoparticular modes only, as those of dreams and frenzy; but for themost part every form of this sort of divine revelation wasimplicitly received. [16]

 [16] Cicero, in his second book _De Divinatione_, undertakes to refute the arguments of the Stoics, 'the force of whose mind, being all turned to the side of morals, unbent itself in that of religion. ' The divining faculty is divisible generally into the artificial and the natural. 

The science of magic proper is developed in the later schools ofphilosophy, in which Oriental theology or demonology was largelymixed. Apollonius of Tyana, a modern Pythagorean, is the mostfamous magician of antiquity. This great miracle-worker ofpaganism was born at the commencement of the Christian era; andit has been observed that his miracles, though quite independentof them, curiously coincide both in time and kind with theChristian. [17] According to his biographer Philostratus, thisextraordinary man (whose travels and researches extended, we areassured, over the whole East even into India, through Greece, Italy, Spain, northern Africa, Ethiopia, &c. ) must have been inpossession of a scientific knowledge which, compared with that ofhis cotemporaries, might be deemed almost supernatural. Extraordinary attainments suggested to him in later life toexcite the awe of the vulgar by investing himself with magicalpowers. Apollonius is said to have assisted Vespasian in hisstruggle for the throne of the Cæsars; afterwards, when accusedof raising an insurrection against Domitian, and when he hadgiven himself up voluntarily to the imperial tribunal at Rome, heescaped impending destruction by the exertion of his superhumanart. 

 [17] The proclamation of the birth of Apollonius to his mother by Proteus, and the incarnation of Proteus himself, the chorus of swans which sang for joy on the occasion, the casting out of devils, raising the dead, and healing the sick, the sudden appearances and disappearances of Apollonius, his adventures in the cave of Trophonius, and the sacred voice which called him at his death, to which may be added his claim as a teacher having authority to reform the world, 'cannot fail to suggest, ' says a writer in the _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography_, &c. , ed. By Dr. W. Smith, 'the parallel passages in the Gospel history. '

Of the incantations, charms, and magic compounds in the practiceof Greek witchcraft, numerous examples occur in the tragic andcomic poetry of Greece; and the _philtres_, or love-charms, ofTheocritus are well known. The names of Colchis, Chaldea, Assyria, Iberia, Thrace, may indicate the origin of a great partof the Hellenic sorceries. Yet, if the more honourable sciencemay have been of foreign extraction, Hellas was not withoutsomething of the sorcery of modern Europe. The infernal goddessHecate, of Greek celebrity, is the omnipotent patroness of hermodern Christian slaves; and she presides at the witch meetingsof Christendom with as much solemnity but with far greatermalice. Originally of celestial rank, by a later metamorphosisconnected, if not personally identical with, Persephone, the Queen of Hades, Hecate was invested with many of thecharacteristic attributes of a modern devil, or rather perhaps ofa witch. The triple goddess, in her various shapes, wanderedabout at night with the souls of the dead, terrifying thetrembling country people by apparitions of herself and infernalsatellites, by the horrible whining and howls of her hellhoundswhich always announced her approach. She frequented cross-roads, tombs, and melancholy places, especially delighting in localitiesfamous for deeds of blood and murder. The hobgoblins, the variousmalicious demons and spirits, who provoked the lively terrors ofthe mediæval peoples, had some prototypes in the fairy-land ofGreece, in the Hecatean hobgoblins (like the Latin larvæ, &c. ), Empusa, Mormo, and other products of an affrighted imaginationfamiliar to the students of Greek literature in the comic pagesof Aristophanes. [18] From the earliest literary records down tothe latest times of paganism as the state religion, from thetimes of the Homeric Circe and Ulysses (the latter has beenrecognised by many as a genuine wizard) to the age of Apolloniusor Apuleius, magic and sorcery, as a philosophical science or asa vulgar superstition, had apparently more or less distinctly aplace in the popular mythology of old Greece. But in the paganhistory of neither Greece nor Rome do we read of holocausts ofvictims, as in Christian Europe, immolated on the altars of ahorrid superstition. [19] The occasion of the composition of thetreatise by Apuleius 'On Magic' is somewhat romantic. On his wayto Alexandria, the philosopher, being disabled from proceeding onthe journey, was hospitably received into the mansion of oneSicinius Pontianus. Here, during the interesting period of hisrecovery, he captivated, or was captivated by, the love of hishost's mother, a wealthy widow, and the lovers were soon unitedby marriage. Pudentilla's relatives, indignant at the loss of amuch-coveted, and perhaps long-expected fortune, brought anaction against Apuleius for having gained her affection by meansof spells or charms. The cause was heard before the proconsul ofAfrica, and the apology of the accused labours to convince hisjudges that a widow's love might be provoked without superhumanmeans. [20]

 [18] Particularly in the _Batrachoi_. The dread of the infernal apparition of the fierce Gorgo in Hades blanched the cheek of even much-daring Odysseus (Od. Xi. 633). The satellites of Hecate have been compared, not disadvantageously, with the monstrous guardians of hell; than whom

 'Nor uglier follow the night-hag when, called In secret, riding through the air she comes Lured with the smell of infant blood to dance With Lapland witches--. '

 [19] An exceptional case, on the authority of Demosthenes, is that of a woman condemned in the year, or within a year or two, of the execution of Socrates. 

 [20] St. Augustin, in denouncing the Platonic theories of Apuleius, of the mediation and intercession of demons between gods and men, and exposing his magic heresies, takes occasion to taunt him with having evaded his just fate by not professing, like the Christian martyrs, his real faith when delivering his 'very copious and eloquent' apology (_De Civitate Dei_, lib. Viii. 19). In the _Golden Ass_ of the Greek romancist of the second century, who, in common with his cotemporary the great rationalist Lucian, deserves the praise of having exposed (with more wit perhaps than success) some of the most absurd prejudices of the day, his readers are entertained with stories that might pretty nearly represent the sentiments of the seventeenth century. 

Gibbon observes of the Roman superstition on the authority ofPetronius, that it may be inferred that it was of Italian ratherthan barbaric extraction. Etruria furnished the people of Romuluswith the science of divination. Early in the history of theRepublic the law is very explicit on the subject of witchcraft. In the decemviral code the extreme penalty is attached to thecrime of witchcraft or conjuration: 'Let him be capitallypunished who shall have bewitched the fruits of the earth, or byeither kind of conjuration (_excantando neque incantando_) shallhave conjured away his neighbour's corn into his own field, ' &c. , an enactment sneered at in Justinian's _Institutes_ in Seneca'swords. A rude and ignorant antiquity, repeat the lawyers ofJustinian, had believed that rain and storms might be attractedor repelled by means of spells or charms, the impossibility ofwhich has no need to be explained by any school of philosophy. Ahundred and fifty years later than the legislation of thedecemvirs was passed the _Lex Cornelia_, usually cited asdirected against sorcery: but while involving possibly the moreshadowy crime, it seems to have been levelled against the more'substantial poison. ' The conviction and condemnation of 170Roman ladies for poisoning, under pretence of incantation, wasthe occasion and cause. Sulla, when dictator, revived this act_de veneficiis et malis sacrificiis_, for breach of which thepenalty was 'interdiction of fire and water. ' Senatorialanathemas, or even those of the prince, were ineffective to checkthe continually increasing abuses, which towards the end of thefirst century of the empire had reached an alarming height. [21]

 [21] It will be observed that _veneficus and maleficus_ are the significant terms among the Italians for the criminals. 

A general degradation of morals is often accompanied, it has beenjustly remarked, by a corresponding increase of the wildestcredulity, and by an abject subservience to external religiousrites in propitiation of an incensed deity. It was thus at Romewhen the eloquence of Cicero, and afterwards the indignant satireof Juvenal or the calm ridicule of the philosophic Lucian, [22]attempted to assert the 'proper authority of reason. ' To speakthe truth, says Cicero, superstition has spread like a torrentover the entire globe, oppressing the minds and intellects ofalmost all men and seizing upon the weakness of human nature. [23]The historian of 'The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'justifies and illustrates this lament of the philosopher of theRepublic in the particular case of witchcraft. 'The nations andthe sects of the Roman world admitted with equal credulity andsimilar abhorrence the reality of that infernal art which wasable to control the eternal order of the planets, and thevoluntary operations of the human mind. They dreaded themysterious power of spells and incantations, of potent herbs andexecrable rites, which could extinguish or recall life, influencethe passions of the soul, blast the works of creation, and extortfrom the reluctant demons the secrets of Futurity. They believedwith the wildest inconsistency that the preternatural dominion ofthe air, of earth, and of hell, was exercised from the vilestmotives of malice or gain by some wrinkled hags or itinerantsorcerers who passed their obscure lives in penury and contempt. Such vain terrors disturbed the peace of society and thehappiness of individuals; and the harmless flame which insensiblymelted a waxen image might derive a powerful and perniciousenergy from the affrighted fancy of the person whom it wasmaliciously designed to represent. From the infusion of thoseherbs which were supposed to possess a supernatural influence, itwas an easy step to the case of more substantial poison; and thefolly of mankind sometimes became the instrument and the mask ofthe most atrocious crimes. '[24]

 [22] If the philosophical arguments of Menippus (_Nekrikoi Dialogoi_) could have satisfied the interest of the priests or the ignorance of the people of after times, the _infernal_ fires of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries might not have burned. 

 [23] _De Divinatione_, lib. Ii. 

 [24] _The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, xxv. This description applies more to the Christian and later empires. 

Latin poetry of the Augustan and succeeding period abounds withillustrations, and the witches of Horace, Ovid, and Lucan are thefamous classical types. [25] Propertius has characterised theStriga as 'daring enough to impose laws upon the moon bewitchedby her spells;' while Petronius makes his witch, as potent asStrepsiades' Thessalian sorceress, exclaim that the very form ofthe moon herself is compelled to descend from her position in theuniverse at her command. For the various compositions andincantations in common use, it must be sufficient to refer to thepages of the Roman poets. The forms of incantation and horridrites of the Horatian Sagana Canidia (_Epod. _ v. And _Sat. _ i. 8), or the scenes described by the pompous verses of the poetof the civil war (_De Bello Civili_, vi. ), where all nature issubservient, are of a similar kind, but more familiar, inthe dramatic writings of the Elizabethan age. The darkercharacteristics of the practice, however, are presented in theburning declamations of Juvenal, only too faithfully exhibitingthe unnatural atrocities perpetrated in the form and under thedisguise of love-potions and charms. Roman ladies in factacquired considerable proficiency, worthy of a Borgia orBrinvilliers, in the art of poisoning and in the use of drugs. The reputed witch, both in ancient and modern times, very oftenbelonged, like the Ovidian Dipsas, to the real and detestableclass of panders: wrinkled hags were experienced in the arts ofseduction, as well as in the employment of poison and drugs morefamiliar to the wealthier class (_Sat. _ vi. ). The great Satiristwrote in the latter half of the first century of Christianity;but even in the Augustan period such crimes were prevalent enoughto make Ovid enumerate them among the universal evils introducedby the Iron age (_Metamorphoses_, i. ). The despotic will of theprinces themselves was exerted in vain; the mischief was toodeep-rooted to succumb even to the decrees of the masters of theworld. Nor did the _divi_ themselves disdain to be initiated inthe infernal or celestial science. Nigidius Figulus and the twoThrasylli are magical or mathematical names closely connectedwith the destinies of the two first imperial princes. Nigidiuspredicted, and perhaps promoted, the future elevation ofOctavianus; and the elder Thrasyllus, the famous Rhodianastrologer, skilfully identified his fate with the life of hiscredulous dupe but tyrannical pupil. Thrasyllus' art is stated tohave been of service in preventing the superstitious tyrant fromexecuting several intended victims of his hatred or caprice, bymaking _their_ safety the condition of _his_ existence. Thehistorian of the early empire tells of the incantations whichcould 'affect the mind and increase the disease' of Germanicus, Tiberius' nephew. 'There were discovered, ' says Tacitus, 'dug upfrom the ground and out of the walls of the house, the remains ofhuman corpses, charms and spells, and the name of Germanicusinscribed on leaden tablets, ashes half consumed covered withdecaying matter, and other practices by which it is believed thatsouls are devoted to the deities of hell. '[26]

 [25] 'The Canidia of Horace, ' Gibbon pronounces, 'is a vulgar witch. The Erichtho of Lucan is tedious, disgusting, but sometimes sublime. ' The love-charms of Canidia and Medea are chiefly indebted to the _Pharmakeutria_ of Theocritus. 

 [26] _Annales_, ii. 69. Writing of the mathematicians and astrologers in the time of Galba, who urged the governor of Lusitania on the perilous path to the supreme dignity, the historian characterises them truly, in his inimitable language and style, as 'a class of persons not to be trusted by those in power, deceptive to the expectant; a class which will always be proscribed and preserved in our state. '

In the fourth century, the first Christian emperor limited thelawful exercise of magic to the beneficial use of preserving orrestoring the fruits of the earth or the health of the humanbody, while the practice of the noxious charms is capitallypunished. The science of those, proclaims the imperial convert, who, immersed in the arts of magic, are detected either inattempts against the life and health of their fellow-men, or in_charming_ the minds of modest persons to the practice ofdebauchery, is to be avenged and punished deservedly by severestpenalties. But in no sorts of criminal charges are those remediesto be involved which are employed for the good of individuals, orare harmlessly employed in remote places to prevent prematurerains, in the case of vineyards, or the injurious effects ofwinds and hailstorms, by which the health and good name of no onecan be injured; but whose practices are of laudable use inpreventing both the gifts of the Deity and the labours of menfrom being scattered and destroyed. [27]

 [27] _Cod. Justinian_, lib. Ix. Tit. 18. 

Constantine, in distinguishing between good and bad magic, between the _theurgic_ and _goetic_, maintains a distinction madeby the pagans--a distinction ignored in the later ChristianChurch, in whose system 'all demons are infernal spirits, and allcommerce with them is idolatry and apostasy. ' Christian zeal hasaccused the imperial philosopher and apostate Julian of havinghad recourse--not to much purpose--to many magical or necromanticrites; of cutting up the dead bodies of boys and virgins in theprescribed method; and of raising the dead to ascertain the eventof his Eastern expedition against the Persians. 

Not many years after the death of Julian the Christian Empirewitnessed a persecution for witchcraft that for its ferocity, ifnot for its folly, can be paralleled only by similar scenes inthe fifteenth or seventeenth century. It began shortly after thefinal division of the East and West in the reigns of Valentinianand Valens, A. D. 373. The unfortunate accused were pursued withequal fury in the Eastern and Western Empires; and Rome andAntioch were the principal arenas on which the bloody tragedy wasconsummated. Gibbon informs us that it was occasioned by acriminal consultation, when the twenty-four letters of thealphabet were ranged round a magic tripod; a dancing ring placedin the centre pointed to the first four letters in the name ofthe future prince. 'The deadly and incoherent mixture of treasonand magic, of poison and adultery, afforded infinite gradationsof guilt and innocence, of excuse and aggravation, which in theseproceedings appear to have been confounded by the angry orcorrupt passions of the judges. They easily discovered that thedegree of their industry and discernment was estimated by theimperial court according to the number of executions that werefurnished from their respective tribunals. It was not withoutextreme reluctance that they pronounced a sentence of acquittal;but they eagerly admitted such evidence as was stained withperjury or procured by torture to prove the most improbablecharges against the most respectable characters. The progress ofthe inquiry continually opened new subjects of criminalprosecution; the audacious informers whose falsehood was detectedretired with impunity: but the wretched victim who discovered hisreal or pretended accomplices was seldom permitted to receive theprice of his infamy. From the extremity of Italy and Asia theyoung and the aged were dragged in chains to the tribunals ofRome and Antioch. Senators, matrons, and philosophers expired inignominious and cruel tortures. The soldiers who were appointedto guard the prisons declared, with a murmur of pity andindignation, that their numbers were insufficient to oppose theflight or resistance of the multitude of captives. The wealthiestfamilies were ruined by fines and confiscations; the mostinnocent citizens trembled for their safety: and we may form somenotion of the magnitude of the evil from the extravagantassertion of an ancient writer [Ammianus Marcellinus], that inthe obnoxious provinces the prisoners, the exiles, and thefugitives formed the greatest part of the inhabitants. Thephilosopher Maximus, ' it is added, 'with some justice wasinvolved in the charge of magic; and young Chrysostom, who hadaccidentally found one of the proscribed books, gave himself upfor lost. '[28]

 [28] _The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, xxv. 

The similarity of this to the horrible catastrophe of Arras, recorded by the chroniclers of the fifteenth century, exceptingthe grosser absurdities of the latter, is almost perfect. Valentinian and Valens, who seem to have emulated the atrociousfame of the Cæsarean family, with their ministers, concealed, itis probable, under the disguise of a simulated credulity the realmotives of revenge and cupidity. 

The Roman world, Christian and pagan, was subject to theprevailing fear. That portion of the globe, however, comprehendedbut a small part of the human race. The records of history areincomplete and imperfect; nor are they more confined in point oftime than of extent. History is little more at any period than animperfect account of the life of a few particular peoples. Necessarily limited almost entirely to an acquaintance with thehistory of that portion of the globe included in the 'RomanEmpire, ' we almost forget our profound ignorance of that vastlylarger proportion of the earth's surface, the extra-Roman world, embracing then, as now, civilised as well as barbarous nations. The Chinese empire (the most extraordinary, perhaps, and whoseantiquity far surpasses that of any known), comprehending withinits limits two-thirds of the population of the globe; the refinedand ingenious people of Hindustan, an immense population, in theEast: in the Western hemisphere nations in existence whoseremains excited the admiration of the Spanish invaders; thevarious savage tribes of the African continent; the nomadpopulations of Northern Asia and Europe; nearly all these more orless, on the testimony of past and present observation, experienced the tremendous fears of the vulgar demonism. [29]

 [29] It may be safely affirmed, according to a celebrated modern philosopher, that popular religions are really, in the conception of their more vulgar votaries, a species of demonism. 'Primus in orbe deos fecit timor, ' or, in the fuller expression of a modern, 'Fear made the devils, and weak Hope the gods. '

With the tribes who, in the time of Cæsar or Tacitus, inhabitedthe forests of Germany, and, perhaps, amongst the Scandinavians, some more elevated ideas obtained, the germ, however, of adegenerated popular prejudice. By all the German tribes, onthe testimony of cotemporary writers, women were held inhigh respect, and were believed to have something even divinein their mental or spiritual faculties. 'Very many of theirwomen they regard in the light of prophetesses, and whensuperstitious fear is in the ascendant, even of goddesses. 'History has preserved the names of some of these Teutonic_deities_. Veleda, by prophetic inspiration, or by superior genius, directed the councils of her nation, and for some yearssuccessfully resisted the progress of the imperial arms. [30]Momentous questions of state or religion were submitted to their_divine_ judgment, and it is not wonderful if, endowed withsupernatural attributes, they, like other prophets, helped tofulfil their own predictions. The Britons and Gauls, of the Kelticrace, seem to have resembled the Orientals, rather than the Teutonsor Italians, in their religious systems. Long before the Romans camein contact with them the magic science is said to have beendeveloped, and the priests, like those of India or Egypt, communicated the mysteries only to a privileged few, withcircumstances of profound secrecy. Such was the excellence of themagic science of the British Druids, that Pliny (_Hist. Nat. _xxx. ) was induced to suppose that the Magi of Persia must havederived their system from Britain. For the most part the Keltsthen, as in the present day, were peculiarly tenacious of a creedwhich it was the interest of a priestly caste to preserve. On theother hand, the looser religion of the Teuton nations, of theScandinavians and Germans, could not find much difficulty inaccepting the particular conceptions of the Southern conquerors;and the sorceric mythology of the Northern barbarians readilyrecognised the power of an Erichtho to control the operations ofnature, to prevent or confound the course of the elements, interrupt the influence of the sun, avert or induce tempests, toaffect the passions of the soul, to fascinate or charm a cruelmistress, &c. , with all the usual necromantic rites. But if theycould acknowledge the characteristics of the Italian Striga, those nations at the same time retained a proper respect for thevenerated Saga--the German Hexe. 

 [30] Aurinia was the Latin name of another of these venerable sagæ. Tacitus, _Histor. _ iv. 61, and _Germania_, viii. 

Of all the historic peoples of ancient Europe, the Scandinavianswere perhaps most imbued with a persuasion of the efficacy ofmagic; a fact which their home and their habits sufficientlyexplain. In the Eddas, Odin, the leader of the immigration in thefirst century, and the great national lawgiver, is represented aswell versed in the knowledge of that preternatural art; and theheroes of the Scandinavian legends of the tenth or twelfthcentury are especially ambitious of initiation. The Scalds, like the Brahmins or Druids, were possessed of tremendoussecrets; their _runic_ characters were all powerful charms, whether against enemies, the injurious effects of an evil eye, or to soften the resentment of a lover. [31] The Northmen, withthe exception of some nations of Central Europe, like theLithuanians, who were not christianised until the thirteenth orfourteenth century, from their roving habits as well perhaps asfrom their remoteness, were among the last peoples of Europe toabandon their old creed. Urged by poverty and the hopes ofplunder, the pirates of the Baltic long continued to be theterror of the European coasts; but, without a political status, they were the common outlaws of Christendom. They were the relicsof a savage life now giving way in Europe to the somewhat morecivilised forms of society, continuing their indiscriminatedepredations with impunity only because of the want of union andorganisation among their neighbours. But they were in atransitional state: the coasts and countries they had formerlybeen content to ravage, they were beginning to find it theirinterest to colonise and cultivate. In the new interests andpursuits of civilisation and commerce, a natural disgust mighthave been experienced for the savage traditions of a religionwhose gods and heroes were mostly personifications of war andrapine, under whose banners they had suffered the hardships, ifthey had enjoyed the plunder, of a piratic life. The nationaldeities from being disregarded, must have come soon to be treatedwith undisguised contempt at least by the leaders: while thecommon people, serfs, or slaves were still immersed (as much asin Christian Europe) in a stupid superstition. 

 [31] The following story exhibits the influence of witchcraft among the followers of Odin. Towards the end of the tenth century, the dreaded Jomsburg sea-rovers had set out on one of their periodical expeditions, and were devastating with fire and sword the coast of Norway. A celebrated Norwegian Jarl, Hakon, collected all his forces, and sailed with a fleet of 150 vessels to encounter the pirates. Hakon, after trying in vain to break through the hostile line, retired with his fleet to the coast, and proceeded to consult a well-known sorceress in whom he had implicit confidence for any emergency. With some pretended reluctance the sorceress at length informed him that the victory could be obtained only by the sacrifice of his son. Hakon hesitated not to offer up his only son as a propitiatory sacrifice; after which, returning to his fleet, and his accustomed post in the front ranks of the battle, he renewed the engagement. Towards evening the Jomsburg pirates were overtaken and overwhelmed by a violent storm, destroying or damaging their ships. They were convinced that they saw the witch herself seated on the prow of the Jarl's ships with clouds of missile weapons flying from the tips of her fingers, each arrow carrying a death-wound. With such of his followers as had escaped the sorceric encounter, the pirate-chief made the best of his way from the scene of destruction, declaring he had made a vow indeed to fight against men, but not against witches. A narrative not inconsistent with the reply of a warrior to an inquiry from the Saint-king Olaf, 'I am neither Christian nor pagan; my companions and I have no other religion than a just confidence in our strength, and in the good success which always attends us in war; and we are of opinion that it is all that is necessary. '--Mallet's _Northern Antiquities_. 

When men's minds are thus universally unsettled and in want--awant both universal and necessary in states--of some newdivine objects of worship more suited to advanced ideas andrequirements, a system of religion more civilising and rationalthan the antiquated one, will be adopted without much difficulty, especially if it is not too exclusive. Yet the Scandinavians wereunusually tenacious of the forms of their ancestral worship; forwhile the Icelanders are said to have received Christianity aboutthe beginning of the eleventh century, the people of Norway werenot wholly converted until somewhat later. The halls of Valhallamust have been relinquished with a sigh in exchange for the lessintelligible joys of a tranquil and insensuous paradise. Anancient Norsk law enjoins that the king and bishop, with allpossible care, make inquiry after those who exercise paganpractices, employ magic arts, adore the genii of particularplaces, of tombs or rivers, who transport themselves by adiabolical mode of travelling through the air from place toplace. In the extremity of the northern peninsula (amongstthe Laplanders), where the light of science, or indeed ofcivilisation, has scarcely yet penetrated, witchcraft remains asflourishing as in the days of Odin; and the Laplanders at presentare possibly as credulous in this respect as the old Northmen orthe present tribes of Africa and the South Pacific. Before theintroduction of the new religion (it is a curious fact), theGermans and Scandinavians, as well as the Jews, were acquaintedwith the efficacy of the rite of infant baptism. A Norskchronicle of the twelfth century, speaking of a Norwegiannobleman who lived in the reign of Harald Harfraga, relates thathe poured water on the head of his new-born son, and called himHakon, after the name of his father. Harald himself had beenbaptized in the same way; and it is noted of the infant pagan St. Olaf that his mother had him baptized as soon as he was born. TheLivonians observed the same ceremony; and a letter sent expresslyby Pope Gregory III. To St. Boniface, the great apostle of theGermans, directs him how to act in such cases. It is probable, Mallet conjectures, that all these people might intend by such arite to preserve their children from the sorceries and evilcharms which wicked spirits might employ against them at theinstant of their birth. Several nations of Asia and America haveattributed such a power to ablutions of this kind; nor were theRomans without the custom, though they did not wholly confine itto new-born infants. A curious magical use of an initiatory andsacramental rite, ignorantly anticipated, it seems, by theunilluminated faith of the pagan world. 

In reviewing the characteristics of sorcery which prevailed inthe ancient world, it is obvious to compare the superstition asit existed in the nations of the East and West, of antiquity andof modern times. These natural or accidental differences arededucible apparently from the following causes:--(1) Theessential distinction between the demonology of Orientalism--ofBrahminism, Buddhism, Magianism, Judaism, Mohammedanism--and thatof the West, of paganism and of Christianity, founded on theirrespective _idealistic_ and _realistic_ tendencies. (2) Thedivining or necromantic faculties have been generally regarded inthe East as honourable properties; whereas in the West they havebeen degraded into the criminal follies of an infernal compact. The magical art is a noble cultivated science--a prerogative ofthe priestly caste: witchcraft, in its strict sense, was mostlyabandoned to the lowest, and, as a rule, to the oldest andugliest of the female sex. In the one case the proficient was themaster, in the other the slave, of the demons. (3) The positionof the female sex in the Western world has been always veryopposite to their status in the East, where women are believed tobe an inferior order of beings, and therefore incapable of an artreserved for the superior endowments of the male sex. The modernwitchcraft may be traced to that perhaps oldest form of religiousconception, Fetishism, which still prevails in its utmosthorrors amongst the savage peoples in different parts of theworld. The early practice of magic was not dishonourable in itsorigin, closely connected as it was with the study of naturalscience--with astronomy and chymistry. 

The magic system--interesting to us as having influenced thelater Jewish creed and mediately the Christian--referred likemost developed creeds to a particular founder, Zerdusht(Zarathustra of the Zend), may have thus originated. Mankind, inseeking a solution for that most interesting but unsatisfactoryproblem, the cause of the predominance of evil on the earth, wereobliged by their ignorance and their fears to imagine, inaddition to the idea of a single supreme existence, the authorand source of good, antagonistic influence--the source andrepresentative of evil. Physical phenomena of every dayexperience; the alternations of light and darkness, of sunshineand clouds; the changes and oppositions in the outer world, wouldreadily supply an analogy to the moral world. Thus the dawn andthe sun, darkness and storms, in the wondering mind of theearlier inhabitants of the globe, may have soon assumed thesubstantial forms of personal and contending deities. [32] Suchseems to be the origin of the personifications in the Vedic hymnsof Indra and Vritra with their subordinate ministers (the Ormuzdand Ahriman, &c. , of the Zend-Avesta), and of the first religiousconceptions of other peoples. After this attempt to reconcile thecontradictions, the irregularities of nature, by establishing aduality of gods whose respective provinces are the happiness andunhappiness of the human race, the step was easy to theconviction of the superior activity of a malignant god. Thebenevolent but epicurean security of the first deity might seemto have little concern in defeating or preventing the maliciousschemes of the other. All the infernal apparatus of later ageswas easy to be supplied by a delusive and an unreasoningimagination. 

 [32] The despotism of language and its immense influence on the destiny, as well as on the various opinions, of mankind, is well shown by Professor Max Müller. 'From one point of view, ' he declares, 'the true history of religion would be neither more nor less than an account of the various attempts at expressing the Inexpressible' (_Lectures on the Science of Language_, Second Series). The witch-creed may be indirectly referred, like many other absurdities, to the perversion of language. 

PART II. 

MEDIÆVAL FAITH. 

CHAPTER I. 

 Compromise between the New and the Old Faiths--Witchcraft under the Early Church--The Sentiments of the Fathers and the Decrees of Councils--Platonic Influences--Historical, Physiological, and Accidental Causes of the Attribution of Witchcraft to the Female Sex--Opinions of the Fathers and other Writers--The Witch-Compact. 

It might appear, in a casual or careless observation, surprisingthat Christianity, whose original spirit, if not universalpractice, was to enlighten; whose professed mission was 'todestroy the works of the devil, ' failed to disprove as well as todispel some of the most pernicious beliefs of the pagan world:that its final triumph within the limits of the Roman empire, oras far as it extended without, was not attended by the extinctionof at least the most revolting practices of superstition. Experience, and a more extended view of the progress of humanideas, will teach that the growth of religious perception isfitful and gradual: that the education of collective mankindproceeds in the same way as that of the individual man. And thus, in the expression of the biographer of Charles V. , the barbarousnations when converted to Christianity changed the object, notthe spirit, of their religious worship. Many of the ideas of theold religion were consciously tolerated by the first propagatorsof Christianity, who justly deemed that the new dogmas would bemore readily insinuated into the rude and simple minds of theirneophytes, if not too strictly uncompromising. Both past andpresent facts testify to this compromise. It was a maxim withsome of the early promoters of the Christian cause, to do aslittle violence as possible to existing prejudices[33]--ajudicious method still pursued by the Catholic, though condemnedby the Protestant, missionaries of the present day. [34] It wasnot seldom that an entire nation was converted and christianisedby baptism almost in a single day: the mass of the peopleaccepting, or rather acquiescing in, the arguments of themissionaries in submission to the will or example of theirprince, whose conduct they followed as they would have followedhim into the field. Such was the case at the conversion of theFrankish chief Clovis, and of the Saxon Ethelbert. But if St. Augustin or St. Boniface, and the earlier missionaries, had moresuccess in persuading the simple faith of the Germans, without awritten revelation and miracles, than the modern emissaries havein inducing the Hindus to abandon their Vedas, it was easier toconvince them of the facts, than of the reason, of their faith. Nor was it to be expected that such raw recruits (if theexpression may be allowed) should lay aside altogether prejudiceswith which they were imbued from infancy. 

 [33] The remark of a late Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. 'The heathen temples, ' says Professor Blunt, 'became Christian churches; the altars of the gods altars of the saints; the curtains, incense, tapers, and votive-tablets remained the same; the _aquaminarium_ was still the vessel for holy water; St. Peter stood at the gate instead of Cardea; St. Rocque or St. Sebastian in the bedroom instead of the Phrygian Penates; St. Nicholas was the sign of the vessel instead of Castor and Pollux; the Mater Deûm became the Madonna; alms pro Matre Deûm became alms for the Madonna; the festival of the Mater Deûm the festival of the Madonna, or _Lady Day_; the Hostia or victim was now the Host; the "Lugentes Campi, " or dismal regions, Purgatory; the offerings to the Manes were masses for the dead. ' The parallel, he ventures to assert, might be drawn out to a far greater extent, &c. 

 [34] Conformably to this plan, the first proselytisers in Germany and the North were often reduced (we are told) to substituting the name of Christ and the saints for those of Odin and the gods in the toasts drunk at their bacchanalian festivals. 

The extent of the credit and practice of witchcraft under theChurch triumphant is evident from the numerous decrees andanathemas of the Church in council, which, while oftener treatingit as a dread reality, has sometimes ventured to contemn or toaffect to contemn it as imposture and delusion. Both the civiland ecclesiastical laws were exceptionally severe towards_goetic_ practices. 'In all those laws of the Christianemperors, ' says Bingham, 'which granted indulgences to criminalsat the Easter festival, the _venefici_ and the _malefici_, thatis, magical practices against the lives of men, are alwaysexcepted as guilty of too heinous a crime to be comprised withinthe general pardon granted to other offenders. '[35] In earlierecclesiastical history, successive councils or synods are muchconcerned in fulminating against them. The council of Ancyra(314) prohibits the art under the name of pharmacy: a few years'penance being appointed for anyone receiving a magician into hishouse. St. Basil's canons, more severe, appoint thirty years asthe necessary atonement. Divination by lots or by consultingtheir sacred scriptures, just as afterwards they consultedVirgil, seems to have been a very favourite mode of discoveringthe future. The clergy encouraged and traded upon this kind ofdivination: in the Gallican church it was notorious. 'Somereckon, ' the pious author of the 'Antiquities of the ChristianChurch' informs us, 'St. Augustin's conversion owing to such asort of consultation; but the thought is a great mistake, andvery injurious to him, for his conversion was owing to aprovidential call, like that of St. Paul, from heaven. ' And thateminent saint's confessions are quoted to prove that hisconversion from the depths of vice and licentiousness to theaustere sobriety of his new faith, was indebted to a legitimateuse of the scriptures. St. Chrysostom upbraids his cotemporariesfor exposing the faith, by their illegitimate inquiries, to thescorn of the heathen, many of whom where wiser than to hearken toany such fond impostures. 

 [35] Bingham's _Origines Ecclesiasticæ_, xvi. 

St. Augustin complains that Satan's instruments, professing theexercise of these arts, were used to 'set the name of Christbefore their ligatures, and enchantments, and other devices, toseduce Christians to take the venomous bait under the covert of asweet and honey potion, that the bitter might be hid under thesweet, and make men drink it without discerning to theirdestruction. ' The heretics of the primitive, as well as of themiddle, ages were accused of working miracles, and propagatingtheir accursed doctrines by magical or infernal art. Tertullian, and after him Eusebius, denounce the arch-heretic Simon Magus forperforming his spurious miracles in that way: and Irenæus haddeclared of the heretic Marcus, that when he would consecrate theeucharist in a cup of wine and water, by one of his jugglingtricks, he made it appear of a purple and red colour, as if by along prayer of invocation, that it might be thought the gracefrom above distilled the blood into the cup by his invocation. Acorrespondent of Cyprian, the celebrated African bishop, describes a woman who pretended 'to be inspired by the HolyGhost, but was really acted on by a diabolical spirit, by whichshe counterfeited ecstasies, and pretended to prophesy, andwrought many wonderful and strange things, and boasted she wouldcause the earth to move. Not that the devil [he is cautious toaffirm] has so great a power either to move the earth or shakethe elements by his command; but the wicked spirit, foreseeingand understanding that there will be an earthquake, pretends todo that which he foresees will shortly come to pass. And by theselies and boastings, the devil subdued the minds of many to obeyand follow him whithersoever he would lead them. And he made thatwoman walk barefoot through the snow in the depth of winter, andfeel no trouble nor harm by running about in that fashion. But atlast, after having played many such pranks, one of the exorcistsof the Church discovered her to be a cheat, and showed that to bea wicked spirit which before was thought to be the HolyGhost. '[36]

 [36] _Origines Ecclesiasticæ_, xvi. The exorcists were a recognised and respectable order in the Church. See id. Iii. For an account of the _Energumenoi_ or demoniacs. The lawyer Ulpian, in the time of Tertullian, mentions the Order of Exorcists as well known. St. Augustin (_De Civit. Dei_, xxii. 8) records some extraordinary cures on his own testimony within his diocess of Hippo. 

Christian witchcraft was of a more tremendous nature than eventhat of older times, both in its origin and practice. The devilsof Christianity were the metamorphosed deities of the oldreligions. The Christian convert was convinced, and the Fathersof the Church gravely insisted upon the fact, that the oracles ofDelphi or Dodona had been inspired in the times of ignorance andidolatry by the great Enemy, who used the priest or priestess asthe means of accomplishing his eternal schemes of malice andmischief. At the instant, however (so it was confidentlyaffirmed), of the divine incarnation the oracular temples wereclosed for ever; and the demons were no longer permitted todelude mankind by impersonating pagan deities. They must now findsome other means of effecting their fixed purpose. It was not farto seek. There were human beings who, by a preeminently wickeddisposition, or in hope of some temporary profit, were preparedto risk their future prospects, willing to devote both soul andbody to the service of hell. The 'Fathers' and great expoundersof Christianity, by their sentiments, their writings, andtheir claims to the miraculous powers of exorcising, greatlyassisted to advance the common opinions. Justin Martyr, Origen, Tertullian, Jerome, were convinced that they were in perpetualconflict with the disappointed demons of the old world, who hadinspired the oracles and usurped the worship of the true God. Norwas the contest always merely spiritual: they engaged personallyand corporeally. St. Jerome, like St. Dunstan in the tenth, orLuther in the sixteenth century, had to fight with an incarnatedemon. 

Exorcism--the magical or miraculous ejection of evil spirits by asolemn form of adjuration--was a universal mode of asserting thesuperior authority of the orthodox Church against the spuriouspretensions of heretics. [37]

 [37] The art of expelling demons, indeed, has been preserved in the Protestant section of the Christian Church until a recent age. The _exorcising_ power, it is remarkable, is the sole claim to miraculous privilege of the Protestants. The formula _de Strumosis Attrectandis_, or the form of touching for the king's evil (a similar claim), was one of the recognised offices of the English Established Church in the time of Queen Anne, or of George I. 

Christian theology in the first age even was considerably indebtedto the Platonic doctrines as taught in the Alexandrian school; anddemonology in the third century received considerable accessionsfrom the speculations of Neo-Platonism, the reconciling mediumbetween Greek and Oriental philosophy. Philo-Judæus (whosereconciling theories, displayed in his attempt to prove thederivation of Greek religious or philosophical ideas from thoseof Moses, have been ingeniously imitated by a crowd of modernfollowers) had been the first to undertake to adapt the Jewishtheology to Greek philosophy. Plotinus and Porphyrius, thefounders of the new school of Platonism, introduced a large numberof angels or demons to the acquaintance of their Christianfellow-subjects in the third century. [38] It has been remarked that'such was the mild spirit of antiquity that the nations were lessattentive to the difference than to the resemblance of theirreligious worship. The Greek, the Roman, and the barbarian, asthey met before their respective altars, easily persuaded themselvesthat, under various names and with various ceremonies, they adoredthe same deities. '[39] Magianism and Judaism, however, were littleimbued with the spirit of toleration; and the purer the form ofreligious worship, the fiercer, too often, seems to be thepersecution of differing creeds. Christianity, with something ofthe spirit of Judaism from which it sprung, was forced to believethat the older religions must have sprung from a diabolic origin. The whole pagan world was inspired and dominated by wickedspirits. 'The pagans _deified_, the Christians _diabolised_, Nature. '[40] It is in this fact that the entirely oppositespirit of antique and mediæval thought, evident in the life, literature, in the common ideas of ancient and mediæval Europe, is discoverable. 

 [38] 'The knowledge that is suited to our situation and powers, the whole compass of moral, natural, and mathematical science, was neglected by the new Platonists; whilst they exhausted their strength in the verbal disputes of metaphysics, they attempted to explore the secrets of the invisible world, and studied to reconcile Aristotle with Plato on subjects of which both these philosophers were as ignorant as the rest of mankind. Consuming their reason in those deep but unsubstantial meditations, their minds were exposed to illusions of fancy. They flattered themselves that they possessed the secret of disengaging the soul from its corporeal prison; claimed a familiar intercourse with demons and spirits; and by a very singular revolution, converted the study of philosophy into that of magic. '--_The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, chap. Xiii. 

 [39] The Egyptians, almost the only exception to polytheistic tolerance, seem to have been rendered intolerant by the number of antagonistic animal-gods worshipped in different parts of the country, enumerated by Juvenal, who describes the effects of religious animosity displayed in a faction fight between Ombi or Coptos and Tentyra. --_Sat. _ xv. 

 [40] _Life of Goethe_, by G. H. Lewes. 

The female sex has been always most concerned in the crime ofChristian witchcraft. What was the cause of this generaladdiction, in the popular belief, of that sex, it is interestingto inquire. In the East now, and in Greece of the age ofSimonides or Euripides, or at least in the Ionic States, womenare an inferior order of beings, not only on account of theirweaker natural faculties and social position, but also in respectof their natural inclination to every sort of wickedness. And ifthey did not act the part of a Christian witch, they were skilledin the practice of toxicology. With the Latin race and manyEuropean peoples, the female sex held a better position; andit may appear inconsistent that in Christendom, where theGoddess-Mother was almost the highest object of veneration, womanshould be degraded into a slave of Satan. By the northern nationsthey were supposed to be gifted with supernatural power; and theuniversal powers of the Italian hag have been already noticed. But the Church, which allowed no miracle to be legitimate out ofthe pale, and yet could not deny the fact of the miraculouswithout, was obliged to assert it to be of diabolic origin. Thusthe _priestess_ of antiquity became a _witch_. This is thehistorical account. Physically, the cause seems discoverable inthe fact that the natural constitution of women renders their_imaginative_ organs more excitable for the ecstatic conditionsof the prophetic or necromantic arts. On all occasions ofreligious or other cerebral excitement, women (it is a matter ofexperience) are generally most easily reduced to the requisitestate for the expected supernatural visitation. Their hysterical(_hystera_) natures are sufficiently indicative of the origin ofsuch hallucinations. Their magical or pharmaceutical attributesmight be derived from savage life, where the men are almostexclusively occupied either in war or in the chase: everythingunconnected with these active or necessary pursuits is despisedas unbecoming the superior nature of the male sex. To the femaleportion of the community are abandoned domestic employments, preparation of food, the selection and mixture of medicinalherbs, and all the mysteries of the medical art. How importantoccupations like these, by ignorance and interest, might beraised into something more than natural skill, is easy to beconjectured. That so extraordinary an attribute would often beabused is agreeable to experience. [41]

 [41] Quintilian declared, '_Latrocinium_ facilius in viro, _veneficium_ in feminâ credam. ' To the same effect is an observation of Pliny: 'Scientiam feminarum in _veneficiis_ prævalere. '

According to the earlier Christian writers, the frailer sex isaddicted to infernal practices by reason of their innatewickedness: and in the opinion of the 'old Fathers' they arefitted by a corrupt disposition to be the recipients and agentsof the devil's will upon earth. The authors of the _Witch-Hammer_have supported their assertions of the proneness of women to evilin general, and to sorcery in particular, by the respectablenames and authority of St. Chrysostom, Augustin, DionysiusAreopagiticus, Hilary, &c. &c. [42] The Golden-mouthed is adducedas especially hostile in his judgment of the sex; and his 'Homilyon Herodias' takes its proper place with the satires ofAristophanes and Juvenal, of Boccaccio and Boileau. [43]

 [42] 'They style a wife The dear-bought curse and lawful plague of life, A bosom-serpent and a domestic evil. '

 [43] The royal author of the _Demonologie_ finds no difficulty in accounting for the vastly larger proportion of the female sex devoted to the devil's service. 'The reason is easy, ' he declares; 'for as that sex is frailer than man is, so is it easier to be entrapped in the gross snares of the devil, as was over-well proved to be true by the serpent's deceiving of Eva at the beginning, which makes him the homelier with that sex sensine:' and it is profoundly observed that witches cannot even shed tears, though women in general are, like the crocodile, ready to weep on every light occasion. 

Reginald Scot gives the reasons alleged by the apologists ofwitchcraft. 'This gift and natural influence of fascinationmay be increased in man according to his affections andperturbations, as through anger, fear, love, hate, &c. For byhate, saith Varius, entereth a fiery inflammation into the eye ofman, which being violently sent out by beams and streams infectand bewitch those bodies against whom they are opposed. Andtherefore (he saith) that is the cause that women are oftenerfound to be witches than men. For they have such an unbridledforce of fury and concupiscence naturally, that by no means is itpossible for them to temper or moderate the same. So as uponevery trifling occasion they, like unto the beasts, fix theirfurious eyes upon the party whom they bewitch.... Women also(saith he) are oftenlie filled full of superfluous humours, andwith them the melancholike blood boileth, whereof spring vapours, and are carried up and conveyed through the nostrils and mouth, to the bewitching of whatsoever it meeteth. For they belch up acertain breath wherewith they bewitch whomsoever they list. Andof all other women lean, hollow-eyed, old, beetle-browed women(saith he) are the most infectious. '[44] Why _old_ women areselected as the most proper means of doing the devil's will maybe discovered in their peculiar characteristics. The repulsivefeatures, moroseness, avarice, malice, garrulity of his hags aresaid to be appropriate instruments. Scot informs us, 'One sort ofsuch as are said to be witches are women which be commonly old, lame, blear-eyed, pale, foul, and full of wrinkles, poor, sullen, superstitious, and _papists_, or such as know no religion, inwhose drowsy minds the devil hath got a fine seat. They are leanand deformed, showing melancholy in their faces, to the horror ofall that see them. They are doting, scolds, mad, devilish ... Neither obtaining for their service and pains, nor yet by theirart, nor yet at the devil's hands, with whom they are said tomake a perfect visible bargain, either beauty, money, promotion, wealth, worship, pleasure, honour, knowledge, or any otherbenefit whatsoever. ' As to the preternatural gifts of these hags, he sensibly argues: 'Alas! what an unapt instrument is atoothless, old, impotent, unwieldy woman to fly in the air;truly, the devil little needs such instruments to bring hispurposes to pass. '[45]

 [44] _Discoverie of Witchcraft_, book xii. 21. --We shall have occasion hereafter to notice this great opponent of the devil's regime in the sixteenth century. We may be inclined to consider a more probable reason--that spirits, being in the general belief (so Adam infers that God had 'peopled highest heaven with spirits masculine') of the masculine gender, the recipients of their inspiration are naturally of the other sex: evil spirits could propagate their human or half-human agents with least suspicion and in the most natural way. 

 [45] _Discoverie_, i. 3, 6. --Old women, however, may be negatively useful. One of the writers on the subject (John Nider) recommends them to young men since '_Vetularum aspectus et colloquia amorem excutiunt_. '

Dr. Glanvil, who wrote in the latter half of the seventeenthcentury, and is bitterly opposed to the 'Witch-Advocate' and hisfollowers, defends the capabilities of hags and the like forserving the demons. He conjectures, 'Peradventure 'tis one ofthe great designs, as 'tis certainly the interest, of thosewicked agents and machinators industriously to hide from us theirinfluences and ways of acting, and to work as near as 'tispossible _incognito_; upon which supposal it is easy to conceivea reason why they most commonly work by and upon the weak and theignorant, who can make no cunning observations or tell credibletales to detect their artifice. '[46] The act of bewitching isdefined to be 'a supernatural work contrived between a corporalold woman and a spiritual devil' ('Discoverie, ' vi. 2). Themethod of initiation is, according to a writer on the subject, asfollows: A decrepit, superannuated, old woman is tempted by a manin black to sign a contract to become his, both soul and body. Onthe conclusion of the agreement (about which there was muchcheating and haggling), he gives her a piece of money, and causesher to write her name and make her mark on a slip of parchmentwith her own blood. Sometimes on this occasion also the witchuses the ceremony of putting one hand to the sole of her foot andthe other to the crown of her head. On departing he delivers toher an imp or familiar. The familiar, in shape of a cat, a mole, miller-fly, or some other insect or animal, at stated times ofthe day sucks her blood through teats in different parts of herbody. [47] If, however, the proper vulgar witch is an old woman, the younger and fairer of the sex were not by any means exemptfrom the crime. Young and beautiful women, children of tenderyears, have been committed to the rack and to the stake on thesame accusation which condemned the old and the ugly. 

 [46] _Sadducismus Triumphatus_, part i. Sect. 8. 

 [47] _Grose's Antiquities_, in Brand's _Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_. 

CHAPTER II. 

 Charlemagne's Severity--Anglo-Saxon Superstition--Norman and Arabic Magic--Influence of Arabic Science--Mohammedan Belief in Magic--Rabbinical Learning--Roger Bacon--The Persecution of the Templars--Alice Kyteler. 

Tremendous as was the power of the witch in earlier Christendom, it was not yet degraded into the thoroughly diabolistic characterof her more recent successors. Diabolism advanced in the sameproportion with the authority of the Church and the ignorantsubmission of the people. In the civil law, the Emperor Leo, inthe sixth century, abrogated the Constantinian edict as tooindulgent or too credulous: from that time all sorts of charms, all use of them, beneficial or injurious, were declared worthy ofpunishment. The different states of Europe, founded on the ruinsof the Western Empire, more or less were engaged in providingagainst the evil consequences of sorcery. Charlemagne pursued thecriminals with great severity. He 'had several times given ordersthat all necromancers, astrologers, and witches should be drivenfrom his states; but as the number of criminals augmented daily, he found it necessary at last to resort to severer measures. Inconsequence, he published several edicts, which may be found atlength in the "Capitulaire de Baluse. " By these every sort ofmagic, enchantment, and witchcraft was forbidden, and thepunishment of death decreed against those who in any way evokedthe devil, compounded love-philters, afflicted either man orwoman with barrenness, troubled the atmosphere, excited tempests, destroyed the fruits of the earth, dried up the milk of cows, ortormented their fellow-creatures with sores and diseases. Allpersons found guilty of exercising these execrable arts were tobe executed immediately upon conviction, that the earth might berid of the curse and burden of their presence; and those whoconsulted them might also be punished with death. '[48]

 [48] M. Garinet's _Histoire de la Magic en France_, quoted in _Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions_. 

The Saxons, in the fifth century, imported into Britain the paganforms of the Fatherland; and the Anglo-Saxon (Christian) laws areusually directed against practices connected with heathenworship, of which many reminiscences were long preserved. TheirHexe, or witch, [49] appears to be half-divine, half-diabolic, awitch-priestess who derived her inspiration as much from heavenlyas from hellish sources; from some divinity or genius presidingat a sacred grove or fountain. King Athelstan is said to havemade a law against witchcraft and similar acts which inflictdeath; that if one by them be made away, and the thing cannot bedenied, such practicers shall be put to death; but if theyendeavour to purge themselves, and be cast by the threefoldordeal, they shall be in prison 120 days; which ended, theirkindred may redeem them by the payment [in the universal style ofthe English penalties] of 120 shillings to the king, and furtherpay to the kindred of the slain the full valuation of the party'shead; and then the criminals shall also procure sureties for goodbehaviour for the time to come; and the Danish prince Knutdenounces by an express doom the noxious acts of sorcery. [50]Some of the witches who appear under Saxon domination are almostas ferocious as those of the time of Bodin or of James; cuttingup the bodies of the dead, especially of children, devouringtheir heart and liver in midnight revels. Fearful are the deedsof Saxon sorcery as related by the old Norman or Anglo-Normanwriters. Roger of Wendover ('Flowers of History') records theterrible fate of a hag who lived in the village of Berkely, inthe ninth century. The devil at the appointed hour (as in thecase of Faust) punctually carries off the soul of his slave, inspite of the utmost watch and ward. These scenes are, perhaps, rather Norman than Saxon. It was a favourite belief of theancients and mediævalists that the inhospitable regions of theremoter North were the abode of demons who held in those suitablelocalities their infernal revels, exciting storms and tempests:and the monk-chronicler Bede relates the northern parts ofBritain were thus infested. [51]

 [49] The Saxon 'witch' is derived, apparently, from the verb 'to weet, ' to know, _be wise_. The Latin 'saga' is similarly derived--'Sagire, sentire acute est: ex quo _sagæ_ anus, quia malta _scire_ volunt. '--Cicero, _de Divinatione_. 

 [50] A curious collection of old English superstitions in these and their allied forms, as exhibited in various documents, appears in a recent work of authority, entitled 'Leechdoms, Wort-Cunning, and Starcraft of Early England. Published by the authority of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, under the direction of the Master of the Rolls. ' Diseases of all sorts are for the most part inflicted upon mankind by evil demons, through the agency of spells and incantations. 

 [51] Strutt derives the 'long-continued custom of swimming people suspected of witchcraft' from the Anglo-Saxon mode of judicial trial--the ordeal by water. Another 'method of proving a witch, ' by weighing against the Church Bible (a formidable balance), is traced to some of their ancient customs. James VI. (_Demonologie_) is convinced that 'God hath appointed, for a supernatural sign of the monstrous impiety of witches, that the water shall refuse to receive them in her bosom that have shaken off them the sacred water of baptism and wilfully refused the benefit thereof. '

From Scandinavia the Normans must have brought a conviction ofthe truths of magic; and although they had been long settled, before the conquest of England, in Northern France and inChristianity, the traditional glories of the land from which werederived their name and renown could not be easily forgotten. Notlong after the Conquest the Arabic learning of Spain made its wayinto this country, and it is possible that Christian magic, aswell as science, may have been influenced by it. Magic, scientifically treated, flourished in Arabic Spain, beingextensively cultivated, in connection with more real or practicallearning, by the polite and scientific Arabs. The schools ofSalamanca, Toledo, and other Saracenic cities were famousthroughout Europe for eminence in medicine, chymistry, astronomy, and mathematics. Thither resorted the learned of the North toperfect themselves in the then cultivated branches of knowledge. The vast amount of scientific literature of the Moslems of Spain, evidenced in their public libraries, relieves Southern Europe, in part at least, from the stigma of a universal barbaricilliteracy. [52] Several volumes of Arabian philosophy are said tohave been introduced to Northern Europe in the twelfth century;and it was in the school of Toledo that Gerbert--a conspicuousname in the annals of magic--acquired his preternaturalknowledge. 

 [52] The royal library of the Fatimites consisted of 100, 000 manuscripts, elegantly transcribed and splendidly bound, which were lent, without avarice or jealousy, to the students of Cairo. Yet this collection must appear moderate if we believe that the Ommiades of Spain had formed a library of 600, 000 volumes, 44 of which were employed in the mere catalogue. Their capital, Cordova, with the adjacent towns of Malaga, Almeira, and Murcia, had given birth to more than 300 writers; and above 70 public libraries were opened in the cities of the Andalusian kingdom. --_Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, lii. 

The few in any way acquainted with Greek literature were indebtedto the Latin translations of the Arabs; while the Jewishrabbinical learning, whose more useful lore was encumbered withmuch mystical nonsense, enjoyed considerable reputation at thisperiod. The most distinguished of the rabbis taught in theschools in London, York, Lincoln, Oxford, and Cambridge; andChristendom has to confess its obligations for its firstacquaintance with science to the enemies of the Cross. [53] Thelater Jewish authorities had largely developed the demonology ofthe subjects of Persia; and the spiritual or demoniacal creationsof the rabbinical works of the Middle Ages might be readilyacceptable, if not coincident, to Christian faith. But theWestern Europeans, before the philosophy of the Spanish Arabs wasknown, had come in contact with the Saracens and Turks of theEast during frequent pilgrimages to the tomb of Christ; and thefanatical crusades of the eleventh and twelfth centuriesfacilitated and secured the hazardous journey. Mohammedans of thepresent day preserve the implicit faith of their ancestors in theefficacy of the 113th chapter of the Koran against evil spirits, the spells of witches and sorcerers--a chapter said to have beenrevealed to the Prophet of Islam on the occasion of his havingbeen bewitched by the daughters of a Jew. The Genii or Ginn--aPreadamite race occupying an intermediate position between angelsand men, who assume at pleasure the form of men, of the loweranimals, or any monstrous shape, and propagate their specieslike, and sometimes with, human kind--appear in imposingproportions in 'The Thousand and One Nights'--that rich displayof the fancy of the Oriental imagination. [54] Credulous andconfused in critical perception, the crusading adventurers forreligion or rapine could scarcely fail to confound with their ownthe peculiar tenets of an ill-understood mode of thought; andthat the critical and discriminating faculties of the championsof the Cross were not of the highest order, is illustrated bytheir difficulty in distinguishing the eminently unitarianreligion of Mohammed from paganism. By a strange perversion theAnglo-Norman and French chroniclers term the Moslems _Pagans_, while the Saxon heathen are dignified by the title of _Saracens_;and the names of Mahmoud, Termagaunt, Apollo, could be confoundedwithout any sense of impropriety. However, or in whatever degree, Saracenic or rabbinical superstition tended to influenceChristian demonology, from about the end of the thirteenthcentury a considerable development in the mythology of witchcraftis perceptible. [55]

 [53] Chymistry and Algebra still attest our obligation by their Arabic etymology. 

 [54] A common tradition is that Soliman, king of the Jews, having finally subdued--a success which he owed chiefly to his vast magical resources--the rebellious spirits, punished their disobedience by incarcerating them in various kinds of prisons, for longer or shorter periods of time, in proportion to their demerits. For the belief of the followers of Mohammed in the magic excellence of Solomon, see Sale's _Koran_, xxi. And xxvii. According to the prophet, the devil taught men magic and sorcery. The magic of the Moslems, or, at least, of the Egyptians, is of two kinds--high and low--which are termed respectively _rahmanee_ (divine) and _sheytanee_ (Satanic). By a perfect knowledge of the former it is possible to the adept to 'raise the dead to life, kill the living, transport himself instantly wherever he pleases, and perform any other miracle. The _low_ magic (_sooflee_ or _sheytanee_) is believed to depend on the agency of the devil and evil spirits, and unbelieving genii, and to be used for bad purposes and by bad men. ' The _divine_ is 'founded on the agency of God and of His angels, &c. , and employed always for good purposes, and only to be practised by men of probity, who, by tradition or from books, learn the names of those superhuman agents, &c. '--Lane's _Modern Egyptians_, chap. Xii. 

 [55] Its effect was probably to enlarge more than to modify appreciably the current ideas. A large proportion of the importations from the East may have been indebted to the invention, as much as to the credulity, of the adventurers; and we might be disposed to believe with Hume, that 'men returning from so great a distance used the liberty [a too general one] of imposing every fiction upon their believing audience. '

Conspicuous in the vulgar prejudices is the suspicion attachingto the extraordinary discoveries of philosophy and science. Diabolic inspiration (as in our age infidelity and atheism arepopular outcries) was a ready and successful accusation againstideas or discoveries in advance of the time. Roger Bacon, RobertGrostête, Albert the Great, Thomas of Ercildoun, MichaelScot--eminent names--were all more or less objects of apersecuting suspicion. Bacon may justly be considered thegreatest name in the philosophy of the Middle Age. That anomalyof mediævalism was one of the few who could neglect a vain andsenseless theology and system of metaphysics to apply his geniusto the solid pursuits of truer philosophy; and if his influencehas not been so great as it might have been, it is the fault ofthe age rather than of the man. Condemned by the fear or jealousyof his Franciscan brethren and Dominican rivals, Bacon was throwninto prison, where he was excluded from propagating 'certainsuspected novelties' during fourteen years, a victim of his moreliberal opinions and of theological hatred. One of the traditionsof his diabolical compacts gives him credit at least foringenuity in avoiding at once a troublesome bargain and aterrible fate. The philosopher's compact stipulated that afterdeath his soul was to be the reward and possession of the devil, whether he died within the church's sacred walls or without them. Finding his end approaching, that sagacious magician caused acell to be constructed in the walls of the consecrated edifice, giving directions, which were properly carried out, for hisburial in a tomb that was thus neither within nor without thechurch--an evasion of a long-expected event, which lost thedisappointed devil his prize, and probably his temper. 'FriarBacon' became afterwards a well-known character in the vulgarfables: he was the type of the mediæval, as the poet Virgil wasof the ancient, magician. A popular drama was founded on hisreputed exploits and character in the sixteenth century, byRobert Greene, in 'Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay;' but the famousDr. Faustus, the most popular magic hero of that time on thestage, was a formidable rival. While his cotemporaries denouncedhis rational method, preferring their theological jargon andscholastic metaphysics; how much the Aristotle of mediævalism hasbeen neglected even latterly is a surprising fact. [56]

 [56] The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge have not exhibited the same impatience for a worthy edition of the works of Bacon with which Clement IV. Expected a copy of the _Opus Majus_. His principal writings remained in MS. And were not published to the world until the middle of last century. 

But in proof of the prevalence of the popular suspicion, not eventhe all-powerful spiritual Chief of Christendom was spared. Manyof the pontiffs were charged with being addicted to the 'BlackArt'--an odd imputation against the vicars of Christ and thesuccessors of St. Peter. A charge, however, which we may bedisposed to receive as evidence that in a long and disgustinglist of ambitious priests and licentious despots there have beensome popes who, by cultivating philosophy, may have in somesort partially redeemed the hateful character of Christiansacerdotalism. At a council held at Paris in the interest ofPhilip IV. , Boniface VIII. Was publicly accused of sorcery: itwas affirmed that 'he had a familiar demon [the SocraticGenius?]; for he has said that if all mankind were on one sideand he alone on the other, he could not be mistaken either inpoint of fact or of right, which presupposes a diabolical art'--adogma of sacerdotalism sufficiently confident, but scarcelyrequiring a miraculous solution. This pope's death, it is said, was hastened by these and similar reports of his dealings withfamiliar spirits, invented in the interest of the French king tojustify his hostility. Boniface VIII. 's esoteric opinions onCatholicism and Christianity, if correctly reported, did not showthe orthodoxy to be expected from the supreme pontiff: but hewould not be a singular example amongst the numerous occupants ofthe chair of St. Peter. [57]

 [57] Leo X. (whose tastes were rather profane than pious) instructed or amused himself by causing to be discussed the question of the nature of the soul--himself adopting the opinion 'redit in nihilum quod fuit ante nihil, ' and the decision of Aristotle and of Epicurus. 

John XXII. , one of his more immediate successors, is said to bethe pope who first formally condemned the crime of witchcraft, more systematically anathematised some hundred and fifty yearsafterwards by Innocent VIII. He complains of the universalinfection of Christendom: that his own court even, and immediateattendants, were attached to the devil's service, applying to himon all occasions for help. The earliest judicial trial for thecrime on record in England is said to have occurred in the reignof John. It is briefly stated in the 'Abbreviatio Placitorum'that 'Agnes, the wife of Odo the merchant, accused Gideon ofsorcery; and he was acquitted by the judgment of iron. ' The firstaccount of which much information is given occurs in Edward II. 'sreign, when the lives of the royal favourites, the De Spencers, and his own, were attempted by a supposed criminal, one John ofNottingham, with the assistance of his man, Robert Marshall, whobecame king's evidence, and charged his master with havingconspired the king's death by the arts of sorcery. [58] Cupidityor malice was the cause of this informer's accusation. One of thedistinguishing characteristics in its annals was the abuse of thecommon prejudice for political purposes, or for the gratificationof private passion. 

 [58] _Narratives of Sorcery and Magic_, by Thomas Wright. 

At the commencement of the fourteenth century the persecution andfinal destruction of the Order of the Knights Templars in thedifferent countries of Europe, but chiefly in France (an instanceof the former abuse), is one of the most atrocious facts inthe history of those times. The fate of the Knights of theTemple (whose original office it had been to protect theircoreligionists during pilgrimages in the Holy City, and whosequarters were near the site of the Temple--whence the title ofthe Order) in France was determined by the jealousy or avarice ofPhilip IV. Founded in the first half of the twelfth century as ahalf-religious, half-military institution, that celebrated Orderwas, in its earlier career, in high repute for valour and successin fighting the battles of the Cross. With wealth and fame, prideand presumption increased to the highest pitch; and at the end of150 years the champions of Christendom were equally hated andfeared. Their entire number was no more than 1, 500; but they wereall experienced warriors, in possession of a number of importantfortresses, besides landed property to the amount, throughouttheir whole extent, of nine thousand manorial estates. When theHoly Land was hopelessly lost to the profane ambition orreligious zeal of the West, its defenders returned to their homesloaded with riches and prestige if not with unstained honour, andwithout insinuations that they had betrayed the cause of Christand the Crusades. Such was the condition of the Temple whenPhilip, after exhausting the coffers of Jews and Christians, found his treasury still unfilled. The opportunity was not tobe neglected: it remained only to secure the consent of theChurch, and to provoke the ready credulity of the people. Churchand State united, supported by the popular superstition, were irresistible; and the destined victims expected theirimpending fate in silent terror. At length the signal was given. Prosecutions in 1307 were carried on simultaneously throughoutthe provinces; but in French territory they assumed the mostformidable shape. In many places they were acquitted of thegravest indictments: the English king, from a feeling of justiceor jealousy, expressed himself in their favour. As for Spain, 'itwas not in presence of the Moors, and on the classic ground ofCrusade, that the thought could be entertained of proscribing theold defenders of Christendom. ' Paris, where was their principaltemple, was the centre of the Order; their wealth and power wereconcentrated in France; and thus the spoils not of a singleprovince, but almost of the entire body, were within the grasp ofa single monarch. Hence he assumed the right of presiding asjudge and executioner. [59] On October 12, 1307, Jacques Molay, with the heads of the Temple, was invited to Paris, where, loadedwith favours, they were lulled into fatal security. The delusionwas soon abruptly dispelled. Molay, together with 140 of hisbrethren, was arrested--the signal for a more general procedurethroughout the kingdom. 

 [59] Dante seems to refer to this recent spoliation in the following verses:--

 'Lo! the new Pilate, of whose cruelty Such violence cannot fill the measure up, With no decree to sanction, pushes on Into the Temple his yet eager sails. '

 _Purgat. _ xx. Cary's Transl. 

The charges have been resolved under three heads: (1) The denialof Christ. (2) Treachery to the cause of Christianity. (3) Theworship of the devil, and the practice of sorcery. The principalarticles in the indictment were that the knights at initiationformally denied the divinity of Christ, pronouncing he was nottruly a God--even going so far as to assert he was a falseprophet, a man who had been punished for his crimes; that theyhad no hopes of salvation through him; that at the finalreception they always spat on the Cross, trampling it under foot;that they worshipped the devil in the form of a cat, or someother familiar animal; that they adored him in the figure of anidol consecrated by anointing it with the fat of a new-borninfant, the illegitimate offspring of a brother; that a demonappeared in the shape of a black or gray cat, &c. The idol is amysterious object. According to some it was a head with a beard, or a head with three faces: by others it was said to be a skull, a cat. One witness testified that in a chapter of the Order onebrother said to another, 'Worship this head; it is your God andyour Mahomet. ' Of this kind was the general evidence of thewitnesses examined. Less incredible, perhaps, is the statementthat they sometimes saw demons in the appearance of women; and amore credible allegation is that of a secret understanding withthe Turks. 

Notoriously suspicious communication had been maintained with theenemy; they even went so far as to adopt their style of dress andliving. Worse than all, by an amiable but unaccustomed tolerance, the followers of Mohammed had been allowed a free exercise oftheir religion, a sort of liberality little short of apostasyfrom the faith. Without recounting all the horrors of thepersecution, it must be sufficient to repeat that fifty-fourof the wretched condemned, having been degraded by the Bishopof Paris, were handed over to the flames. Four years afterwardsthe scene was consummated by the burning of Jacques Molay. Torture of the most dreadful sort had been applied to forcenecessary confessions; and the complaint of one of the criminalsis significant--'I, single, as I am, cannot undertake to arguewith the Pope and the King of France. '[60] In attempting todetect the mysterious facts of this dark transaction littleassistance is given by the contradictory statements of cotemporaryor later writers; some asserting the charges to be merefabrications throughout; others their positive reality; and recenthistorians have attempted to substantiate or destroy them. Hallamtruly remarks that the rapacious and unprincipled conduct ofPhilip, the submission of Clement V. To his will, the apparentincredibility of the charges from their monstrousness, the justprejudice against confessions obtained by torture and retractedafterwards; the other prejudice, not always so just, but in thecase of those not convicted on fair evidence deserving a bettername, in favour of assertions of innocence made on the scaffoldand at the stake, created, as they still preserve, a strongwillingness to disbelieve the accusations which come sosuspiciously before us. [61] An approximation to the truth maybe obtained if, rejecting as improbable the accusations ofdevil-worship and its concomitant rites which, invented toamuse the vulgar, characterise the proceedings, we admit the_probability_ of a secret understanding with the Turks, or the_possibility_ of infidelity to the religion of Christ. Theirdestruction had been predetermined; the slender element of truthmight soon be exaggerated and confounded with every kind offiction. Their pride, avarice, luxury, corrupt morals, would givecolour to the most absurd inventions. [62]

 [60] Michelet's _History of France_, book v. 4. M. Michelet suggests an ingenious explanation of some of their supposed secret practices. 'The principal charge, the denial of the Saviour, rested on an equivocation. The Templars might confess to the denial without being in reality apostates. Many averred that it was a symbolical denial, in imitation of St. Peter's--one of those pious comedies in which the antique Church enveloped the most serious acts of religion, but whose traditional meaning was beginning to be lost in the fourteenth century. ' The idol-head, believed to represent Mohammed or the devil, he supposes to have been 'a representation of the Paraclete, whose festival, that of Pentecost, was the highest solemnity of the Temple. ' Some have identified them, like those of the Albigenses or Waldenses, with the ceremonies of the Gnostics. 

 [61] _View of the Middle Ages_, chap. I. The judicial impartiality (eulogised by Macaulay) and patient investigation of truth (the first merits of a historian) of the author of the _Constitutional History of England_, might almost entitle him to rank with the first of historians, Gibbon. 

 [62] The alliance of the Church--of the Dominican Order in particular--with the secular power against its once foremost champions, is paralleled and explained by the causes that led to the dissolution of the Order of Jesus by Clement XIV. In the eighteenth century--fear and jealousy. 

If the history of the extermination of the Templars exemplifiesin an eminent manner the political uses made by the highest inoffice of a prevalent superstition, the story of Alice Kytelerillustrates equally the manner in which it was prostituted to theprivate purposes of designing impostors. The scene is in Ireland, the period the first half of the fourteenth century; Richard deLedrede, Bishop of Ossory, being the principal prosecutor, and alady, Alice Kyteler, the defendant. The details are too tediousto be repeated here;[63] but the articles upon which theconviction of Alice Kyteler and her accomplices was sought arenot dissimilar to those just narrated. To give effect to theirsorcery they were in the habit of denying the faith for a year, or shorter period, as the object to be attained was greater orless. Demons were propitiated with sacrifices of living animals, torn limb by limb and scattered (a Hecatean feast) aboutcross-roads. It was alleged that by sorceries they obtained helpfrom the devil; that they impiously used the ceremonies of theChurch in nightly conventicles, pronouncing with lighted candlesof wax excommunication against the persons of their own husbands, naming expressly every member from the sole of the foot to thetop of the head. Their compositions are of the Horatian andShakspearian sort. With the intestines of cocks were sacrificedvarious herbs, the nails of dead men, hair, brains, and clothesof children dying unbaptized, with other equally efficaciousingredients, boiled in the skull of a certain famous robberrecently beheaded: powders, ointments, and candles of fat boiledin the same skull were the intended instruments for exciting loveor hatred, and in affecting the bodies of the faithful. An unholyconnection existed between the Lady Alice and a demon in the formsometimes of a black dog, sometimes of a cat. She was possessedof a secret ointment for impregnating a piece of wood, uponwhich, with her companions, she was carried to any part of theworld without hurt or hindrance: in her house was found a waferof consecrated bread inscribed with the name of the devil. Theevent of this trial was the conviction and imprisonment of thecriminals, with the important exception of the chief object ofthe bishop's persecution, who contrived an escape to England. Petronilla de Meath was the first to suffer the extreme penalty. This lady, by order of the bishop, had been six times flogged, when, to escape a repetition of that barbarous infliction, shemade a public confession involving her fellow-prisoners. Afterwhich Petronilla was carried out into the city and burned beforeall the people--the first witch, it is said, ever burned inIreland. Of the other accused all were treated with more or lessseverity; two were subsequently burned, some were publiclyflogged in the market-place and through the city, othersbanished; a few, more fortunate, escaping altogether. 

 [63] They are given in full in _Narratives of Sorcery and Magic from the most Authentic Sources_, by Thomas Wright. In the _Annals of Ireland_, affixed to Camden's _Britannia_, ed. 1695, sub anno 1325 A. D. , the case of Dame Alice Ketyll is briefly chronicled. Being cited and examined by the Bishop of Ossory, it was discovered, among other things, 'That a certain spirit called Robin Artysson lay with her; and that she offered him nine red cocks on a stone bridge where the highway branches out into four several parts. _Item_: That she swept the streets of Kilkenny with besoms between Compline and Courefeu, and in sweeping the filth towards the house of William Utlaw, her son, by way of conjuring, wished that all the wealth of Kilkenny might flow thither. The accomplices of this Alice in these devilish practices were Pernil of Meth, and Basilia the daughter of this Pernil. Alice, being found guilty, was fined by the bishop, and forced to abjure her sorcery and witchcraft. But being again convicted of the same practice, she made her escape with Basilia, and was never found. But Pernil was burnt at Kilkenny, and before her death declared that William above-said deserved punishment as well as she--that for a year and a day he wore the devil's girdle about his bare body, ' &c. 

CHAPTER III. 

 Witchcraft and Heresy purposely confounded by the Church--Mediæval Science closely connected with Magic and Sorcery--Ignorance of Physiology the Cause of many of the Popular Prejudices--Jeanne d'Arc--Duchess of Gloucester--Jane Shore--Persecution at Arras. 

What can hardly fail to be discerned in these prosecutions is theconfusion of heresy and sorcery industriously created by theorthodox Church to secure the punishment of her offendingdissentients. There are few proceedings against the pretendedcriminals in which it is not discoverable; the one crime being, as a matter of course, the necessary consequence of the other. Inthe interest of the Church as much as in the credulity of thepeople must be sought the main cause of so violent an epidemic, of so fearful a phenomenon in its continuance and atrocities, afact demonstrated by the whole course of the superstition in theold times of Catholicism. Materials for exciting animosity andindignation against suspected heretics were near at hand. Inthe assurance of the pre-scientific world everything remotefrom ordinary knowledge or experience was inseparable fromsupernaturalism. What surpassed the limits of a very feebleunderstanding, what was beyond the commonest experience ofevery-day life, was with one accord relegated to the domain ofthe supernatural, or rather to that of the devil. For what wasnot done or taught by Holy Church must be of 'that wickedOne'--the cunning imitator. 

In the twelfth century the Church was alarmed by the simultaneousspringing up of various sects, which, if too hastily claimed byProtestantism as _Protestants_, in the modern sense, againstCatholic theology, were yet sufficiently hostile or dangerous toengage the attention and to provoke the enmity of the pontiffs. The fate of the Stedingers and others in Germany, of thePaulicians in Northern France; of the Albigenses and Waldenses inSouthern Europe, is in accordance with this successful sort oftheological tactics. Many of the articles of indictment againstthose outlaws of the Church and of society are extracted from theprimitive heresies, in particular from the doctrines of theanti-Judaic and _spiritualising_ Gnostics, and their more thanfifty subdivided sects--Marcionites, Manicheans, &c. Gregory IV. Issued a bull in 1232 against the Stedingers, revolted from therule of the Archbishop of Bremen, where they are declared to beaccustomed to scorn the sacraments, hold communion with devils, make representative images of wax, and consult with witches. [64]

 [64] A second bull enters into details. On the reception of a convert, a toad made its appearance, which was adored by the assembled crowd. On sitting down to the banquet a black cat comes upon the stage, double the size of an ordinary dog, advancing backwards with up-turned tail. The neophytes, one after another, kissed this feline demon, with due solemnity, on the back. Walter Mapes has given an account of the similar ceremonies of the _Publicans_ (Paulicians). Heretical worship was of a most licentious as well as disgusting kind. The religious meetings terminate always in indiscriminate debauchery. 

Alchymy, astrology, and kindred arts were closely allied to thepractice of witchcraft: the profession of medicine was littlebetter than the mixing of magical ointments, love-potions, elixirs, not always of an innocent sort; and Sangrados were notwanting in those days to trade upon the ignorance of theirpatients. [65] Nor, unfortunately, are the genuine seekers aftertruth who honestly applied to the study of nature exempt from thecharge of often an unconscious fraud. Monstrous notions mingledwith the more real results of their meritorious labours. Sciencewas in its infancy, or rather was still struggling to be freedfrom the oppressive weight of speculative and theologicalnonsense before emerging into existence. Many of the fanciedphenomena of witch-cases, like other physical or mentaleccentricities, have been explained by the progress of reason andknowledge. Lycanthropy (the transformation of human beings intowolves by sorcery), with the no less irrational belief indemoniacal possession, the product of a diseased imagination andbrain, was one of the many results of mere ignorance ofphysiology. In the seventeenth century lycanthropy was gravelydefended by doctors of medicine as well as of divinity, on theauthority of the story of Nebuchadnezzar, which proved undeniablythe possibility of such metamorphoses. 

 [65] Pliny (_Hist. Natur. _ xxx. ) 'observes, ' as Gibbon quotes him, 'that magic held mankind by the triple chain of religion, of physic, and of astronomy. '

Cotemporary annalists record the extraordinary frenzy aggravated, as it was, by the proceedings against the Templars, the signal ofwitch persecutions throughout France. The historian of Francedraws a frightful picture of the insecure condition of anignorantly prejudiced society. Accusations poured in; poisonings, adulteries, forgeries, and, above all, charges of witchcraft, which, indeed, entered as an ingredient into all causes, formingtheir attraction and their horror. The judge shuddered on thejudgment seat when the proofs were brought before him in theshape of philtres, amulets, frogs, black cats, and waxen imagesstuck full of needles. Violent curiosity was blended at thesetrials with the fierce joy of vengeance and a cast of fear. Thepublic mind could not be satiated with them: the more there wereburnt, the more there were brought to be burnt. [66] In 1398 theSorbonne, at the chancellor's suggestion, published 27 articlesagainst all sorts of sorcery, pictures of demons, and waxenfigures. Six years later a synod was specially convened atLangres, and the pressing evil was anxiously deliberated at theCouncil of Constance. 

 [66] Michelet, whose poetic-prose may appear hardly suitable to the philosophic dignity of history, relating the fate of two knights accused with a monk of having 'sinned' with the king's daughter-in-law 'even on the holiest days, ' and who were castrated and flayed alive, truly enough infers that 'the pious confidence of the middle age which did not mistrust the immuring of a great lady along with her knights in the precincts of a castle, of a narrow tower; the vassalage which imposed on young men as a feudal duty the sweetest cares, was a dangerous trial to human nature. '

Conspicuous about this period, by their importance and iniquity, are the cases of the Pucelle d'Orléans and the catastrophe ofArras. Incited (it is a modern conviction) by a noble enthusiasm, by her own ardent imagination, the Pucelle divested herself ofthe natural modesty of her sex for the dress and arms of awarrior; and 'her inexperienced mind, working day and night onthe favourite object, mistook the impulses of passion forheavenly inspiration. ' Reviewing the last scenes in the life ofthat patriotic shepherdess, we hesitate whether to stigmatisemore the unscrupulous policy of the English authorities or thebase subservience of the Parliament of Paris. The English Regentand the Cardinal of Winchester, unable to allege against theirprisoner (the saviour of her country, taken prisoner in a sallyfrom a besieged town, had been handed over by her countrymen tothe foreigner) any civil crime, were forced to disguise aviolation of justice and humanity in the pretence of religion;and the Bishop of Beauvais presented a petition against her, asan ecclesiastical subject, demanding to have her tried by anecclesiastical court for sorcery, impiety, idolatry, and magic. The University of Paris acquiesced. Before this tribunal theaccused was brought, loaded with chains, and clothed in hermilitary dress. It was alleged that she had carried about astandard consecrated by magical enchantments; that she had beenin the habit of attending at the witches' sabbath at a fountainnear the oak of Boulaincourt; that the demons had discovered toher a magical sword consecrated in the Church of St. Catherine, to which she owed her victories; that by means of sorcery she hadgained the confidence of Charles VIII. Jeanne d'Arc was convictedof all these crimes, aggravated by _heresy_: her revelations weredeclared to be inventions of the devil to delude the people. [67]

 [67] Shakspeare brings the fiends upon the stage: their work is done, and they now abandon the enchantress. In vain La Pucelle invokes in her extremity--

 'Ye familiar spirits, that are cull'd Out of the powerful regions under earth, Help me this once, that France may get the field. Oh, hold me not with silence over-long!

 'Where I was wont to feed you with my blood, I'll lop a member off, and give it you, In earnest of a further benefit; So you do condescend to help me now. 

 * * * * *

 Cannot my body, nor blood-sacrifice, Entreat you to your wonted furtherance? Then take my soul; my body, soul, and all, Before that England give the French the foil. See! they forsake me. 

 * * * * *

 My ancient incantations are too weak And hell too strong for me to buckle with. '

 But a worthier, if contradictory, origin is assigned for her enthusiasm when she replies to the foul aspersion of her taunting captors--

 'Virtuous, and holy; chosen from above, By inspiration of celestial grace, To work exceeding miracles on earth, I never had to do with wicked spirits. But you--that are polluted with your lusts, Stain'd with the guiltless blood of innocents, Corrupt and tainted with a thousand vices-- Because you want the grace that others have, You judge it straight a thing impossible To compass wonders, but by help of devils. '

Her ecclesiastical judges then consigned their prisoner to thecivil power; and, finally, in the words of Hume, 'this admirableheroine--to whom the more generous superstition of the ancientswould have erected altars--was, on pretence of heresy and magic, delivered over alive to the flames; and expiated by that dreadfulpunishment the signal services she had rendered to her prince andto her native country. '[68]

 [68] _History of England_, XX. Shakspeare (_Henry VI. _ part ii. Act i. ) has furnished us with the charms and incantations employed about the same time in the case of the Duchess of Gloucester. Mother Jourdain is the representative witch-hag. 

Without detracting from the real merit of the patriotic martyr, it might be suspected that, besides her inflamed imagination, apious and pardonable collusion was resorted to as a lastdesperate effort to rouse the energy of the troops or the hopesof the people--a collusion similar to that of the celebratedConstantinian Cross, or of the Holy Lance of Antioch. Everyreader is acquainted with the fate of the great personages who inEngland were accused, politically or popularly, of the crime; andthe histories of the Duchess of Gloucester and of Jane Shore areimmortalised by Shakspeare. In 1417, Joan, second wife of HenryIV. , had been sentenced to prison, suspected of seeking theking's death by sorcery; a certain Friar Randolf being heraccomplice and agent. The Duchess of Gloucester, wife of Humphryand daughter of Lord Cobham, was an accomplice in the witchcraftof a priest and an old woman. Her associates were Sir RogerBolingbroke, priest; Margery Jordan or Guidemar, of Eye, inSuffolk; Thomas Southwell, and Roger Only. It was asserted 'therewas found in their possession a waxen image of the king, whichthey melted in a magical manner before a slow fire, with theintention of making Henry's force and vigour waste away by likeinsensible degrees. ' The duchess was sentenced to do penance andto perpetual imprisonment; Margery was burnt for a witch inSmithfield; the priest was hanged, declaring his employers hadonly desired to know of him how long the king would live; ThomasSouthwell died the night before his execution; Roger Only washanged, having first written a book to prove his own innocence, and against the opinion of the vulgar. [69] Jane Shore (whosestory is familiar to all), the mistress of Edward IV. , wassacrificed to the policy of Richard Duke of Gloucester, more thanto any general suspicion of her guilt. Both the Archbishop ofYork and the Bishop of Ely were involved with the citizen's wifein demoniacal dealings, and imprisoned in the Tower. As for the'harlot, strumpet Shore, ' not being convicted, or at leastcondemned, for the worse crime, she was found guilty of adultery, and sentenced (a milder fate) to do penance in a white sheetbefore the assembled populace at St. Paul's. [70]

 [69] The historian of England justly reflects on this case that the nature of the crime, so opposite to all common sense, seems always to exempt the accusers from using the rules of common sense in their evidence. 

 [70] This unfortunate woman was celebrated for her beauty and, with one important exception, for her virtues; and, if her vanity could not resist the fascination of a royal lover, her power had been often, it is said, exerted in the cause of humanity. Notwithstanding the neglect and ill-treatment experienced from the ingratitude of former fawning courtiers and people, she reached an advanced age, for she was living in the time of Sir Thomas More, who relates that 'when the Protector had awhile laid unto her, for the manner sake, that she went about to bewitch him, and that she was of counsel with the lord chamberlain to destroy him; in conclusion, when no colour could fasten upon this matter, then he laid heinously to her charge the thing that herself could not deny, that all the world wist was true, and that natheless every man laughed at to hear it then so suddenly so highly taken--that she was naught of her body. '--_Reign of Richard III. _, quoted by Bishop Percy in _Reliques of Old English Romance Poetry_. The deformed prince fiercely attributes his proverbial misfortune to hostile witchcraft. He addresses his trembling council:

 'Look how I am bewitch'd; behold mine arm Is, like a blasted sapling, wither'd up: And this is Edward's wife, that monstrous witch, Consorted with that harlot, strumpet Shore, That by their witchcraft thus have marked me. '

 _Richard III. _ act iii. Sc. 4. 

More tremendous than any of the cases above narrated is that ofArras, where numbers of all classes suffered. So transparent werethe secret but real motives of the chief agitators, that even theunbounded credulity of the public could penetrate the thindisguise. The affair commenced with the accusation of a woman ofDouai, called Demiselle (une femme de folle vie). Put to thetorture repeatedly, this wretched woman was forced to confess shehad frequented a meeting of sorcerers where several persons wereseen and recognised; amongst others Jehan Levite, a painter atArras. The chronicler of the fifteenth century relates thediabolical catastrophe thus: 'A terrible and melancholytransaction took place this year (1459) in the town of Arras, thecapital of the county of Artois, which said transaction wascalled, I know not why, _Vaudoisie_: but it was said that certainmen and women transported themselves whither they pleased fromthe places where they were seen, by virtue of a compact with thedevil. Suddenly they were carried to forests and deserts, wherethey found assembled great numbers of both sexes, and with them adevil in the form of a man, whose face they never saw. This devilread to them, or repeated his laws and commandments in what waythey were to worship and serve him: then each person kissed hisback, and he gave to them after this ceremony some little money. He then regaled them with great plenty of meats and wines, whenthe lights were extinguished, and each man selected a female foramorous dalliance; and suddenly they were transported back to theplaces they had come from. For such criminal and mad acts many ofthe principal persons of the town were imprisoned; and others ofthe lower ranks, with women, and such as were known to be of thissect, were so terribly tormented, that some confessed matters tohave happened as has been related. They likewise confessed tohave seen and known many persons of rank, prelates, nobles, andgovernors of districts, as having been present at these meetings;such, indeed, as, upon the rumour of common fame, their judgesand examiners named, and, as it were, put into their mouths: sothat through the pains of the torments they accused many, anddeclared they had seen them at these meetings. Such as had beenthus accused were instantly arrested, and so long and grievouslytormented that they were forced to confess just whatever theirjudges pleased, when those of the lower rank were inhumanlyburnt. Some of the richer and more powerful ransomed themselvesfrom this disgrace by dint of money; while others of the highestorders were remonstrated with, and seduced by their examinersinto confession under a promise that if they would confess, theyshould not suffer either in person or property. Others, again, suffered the severest torments with the utmost patience andfortitude. The judges received very large sums of money from suchas were able to pay them: others fled the country, or completelyproved their innocence of the charges made against them, andremained unmolested. It must not be concealed (proceedsMonstrelet) that many persons of worth knew that these chargeshad been raked up by a set of wicked persons to harass anddisgrace some of the principal inhabitants of Arras, whom theyhated with the bitterest rancour, and from avarice were eager topossess themselves of their fortunes. They at first maliciouslyarrested some persons deserving of punishment for their crimes, whom they had so severely tormented, holding out promises ofpardon, that they forced them to accuse whomsoever they werepleased to name. This matter was considered [it must have been anexceedingly ill-devised plot to provoke suspicion and evenindignation in such a matter] by all men of sense and virtue asmost abominable: and it was thought that those who had thusdestroyed and disgraced so many persons of worth would put theirsouls in imminent danger at the last day. '[71]

 [71] Enguerrand de Monstrelet's _Chronicles_, lib. Iii. Cap. 93, Johnes' Translation. _Vaudoisie_, which puzzles the annalist, seems to disclose the pretence, if not the motive, of the proceedings. Yet it is not easy to conceive so large a number of all classes involved in the proscribed heresy of the Vaudois in a single city in the north of France. 

Meanwhile the inquisitor, Jacques Dubois, doctor in theology, dean of Nôtre Dame at Arras, ordered the arrest of Levite theartist, and made him confess he had attended the 'Vauldine;' thathe had seen there many people, men and women, burghers, ecclesiastics, whose names were specified. The bishops' vicars, overwhelmed by the number and quality of the involved, began todread the consequence, and wished to stop the proceedings. Butthis did not satisfy the projects of two of the most activepromoters, Jacques Dubois and the Bishop of Bayrut, who urged theComte d'Estampes to use his authority with the vicars to proceedenergetically against the prisoners. Soon afterwards the matterwas brought to a crisis; the fate of the tortured convicts wasdecided, and amidst thousands of spectators from all parts, theywere brought out, each with a mitre on his head, on which waspainted the devil in the form in which he appeared at the generalassemblies, and burned. 

They admitted (under the severest torture, promises, and threats)the truth of their meetings at the sabbaths. They used a sort ofointment well known in witch-pharmacy for rubbing a small woodenrod and the palms of their hands, and by a very common mode ofconveyance were borne away suddenly to the appointed rendezvous. Here their lord and master was expecting them in the shape of agoat with the face of a man and the tail of an ape. Homage wasfirst done by his new vassals offering up their soul or some partof the body; afterwards in adoration kissing him on the back--theaccustomed salutation. [72] Next followed the different signs andceremonies of the infernal vassalage, in particular treading andspitting upon the cross. Then to eating and drinking; after whichthe guests joined in acts of indescribable debauchery, when thedevil took the form alternately of either sex. Dismissal wasgiven by a mock sermon, forbidding to go to church, hear mass, ortouch holy water. All these acts indicate schismatic offenceswhich yet for the most part are the characteristics of thesabbaths in later Protestant witchcraft, excepting that thewicked apostates are there usually _papistical_ instead of_protestant_. During nearly two years Arras was subjected to thearbitrary examinations and tortures of the inquisitors; andan appeal to the Parliament of Paris could alone stop theproceedings, 1461. The chance of acquittal by the verdict of thepublic was little: it was still less by the sentence of judicialtribunals. 

 [72] The 'Osculum in tergo' seems to be an indispensable part of the Homagium or _Diabolagium_. 

PART III. 

MODERN FAITH. 

CHAPTER I. 

 The Bull of Innocent VIII. --A new Incentive to the vigorous Prosecution of Witchcraft--The 'Malleus Maleficarum'--Its Criminal Code--Numerous Executions at the Commencement of the Sixteenth Century--Examination of Christian Demonology--Various Opinions of the Nature of Demons--General Belief in the Intercourse of Demons and other non-human Beings with Mankind. 

Perhaps the most memorable epoch in the annals of witchcraft isthe date of the promulgation of the bull of Pope Innocent VIII. , when its prosecution was formally sanctioned, enforced, anddeveloped in the most explicit manner by the highest authority inthe Church. It was in the year 1484 that Innocent VIII. Issuedhis famous bull directed especially against the crime in Germany, whose inquisitors were empowered to seek out and burn themalefactors _pro strigiatûs hæresi_. The bull was as follows:'Innocent, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, in order tothe future memorial of the matter.... In truth it has come to ourears, not without immense trouble and grief to ourselves, thatin some parts of Higher Germany ... Very many persons of bothsexes, deviating from the Catholic faith, abuse themselves withthe demons, Incubus and Succubus; and by incantations, charms, conjurations, and other wicked _superstitions_, by criminal actsand offences have caused the offspring of women and of the loweranimals, the fruits of the earth, the grape, and the products ofvarious plants, men, women, and other animals of different kinds, vineyards, meadows, pasture land, corn, and other vegetables ofthe earth, to perish, be oppressed, and utterly destroyed; thatthey torture men and women with cruel pains and torments, internal as well as external; that they hinder the properintercourse of the sexes, and the propagation of the humanspecies. Moreover, they are in the habit of denying the veryfaith itself. We therefore, willing to provide by opportuneremedies according as it falls to us by our office, by ourapostolical authority, by the tenor of these presents do appointand decree that they be convicted, imprisoned, punished, andmulcted according to their offences.... By the apostolic rescriptgiven at Rome. '

This, in brief, is an outline of the proclamation of InnocentVIII. , the principles of which were developed in the morevoluminous work of the 'Malleus Maleficarum, '[73] or Hammer ofWitches, five years later. In the interval, the effect of soforcible an appeal from the Head of the Church was such as mightbe expected. Cumanus, one of the inquisitors in 1485, burnedforty-one witches, first shaving them to search for 'marks. 'Alciatus, a lawyer, tells us that another ecclesiastical officerburned one hundred witches in Piedmont, and was prevented in hisplan of daily _autos-da-fé_ only by a general uprising of thepeople, who at length drove him out of the country, when thearchbishop succeeded to the vacant office. In several provinces, even the servile credulity of the populace could not tolerate theexcesses of the judges; and the inhabitants rose _en masse_against their inquisitorial oppressors, dreading the entiredepopulation of their neighbourhood. As a sort of apology for thebull of 1484 was published the 'Malleus'--a significantlyexpressive title. [74] The authors appointed by the pope wereJacob Sprenger, of the Order of Preachers, and Professor ofTheology in Cologne; John Gremper, priest, Master in Arts; andHenry Institor. The work is divisible, according to the title, into three parts--Things that pertain to Witchcraft; The Effectsof Witchcraft; and The Remedies for Witchcraft. 

 [73] Ennemoser (_History of Magic_), a modern and milder Protestant, excepts to the general denunciations of Pope Innocent ('who assumed this name, undoubtedly, because he wished it to indicate what he really desired to be') by Protestant writers who have used such terms as 'a scandalous hypocrite, ' 'a cursed war-song of hell, ' 'hangmen's slaves, ' 'rabid jailers, ' 'bloodthirsty monsters, ' &c. ; and thinks that 'the accusation which was made against Innocent could only have been justly founded if the pope had not participated in the general belief, if he had been wiser than his time, and really seen that the heretics were no allies of the devil, and that the witches were no heretics. '

 [74] The complete title is 'MALLEUS MALEFICARUM in tres partes divisus, in quibus I. Concurrentia ad maleficia; II. Maleficiorum effectus; III. Remedia adversus maleficia. Et modus denique procedendi ac puniendi maleficas abunde continetur, præcipue autem omnibus inquisitoribus et divini verbi concionatoribus utilis et necessarius. ' The original edition of 1489 is the one quoted by Hauber, _Bibliotheca Mag. _, and referred to by Ennemoser, _History of Magic_. 

In this apology the editors are careful to affirm that they_collected_, rather than _furnished_, their materials originally, and give as their venerable authorities the names of Dionysiusthe Areopagite, Chrysostom, Hilary, Augustin, Gregory I. , Remigius, Thomas Aquinas, and others. The writers exult in theconsciousness of security, in spite of the attempts of thedemons, day and night, to deter them from completing theirmeritorious labours. Stratagems of every sort are employed invain. In their judgment the worst species of human wickednesssink into nothing, compared with apostasy from the Church and, byconsequence, alliance with hell. A genuine or pretended dread ofsorcery, and an affected contempt for the female sex, with anextremely low estimate of its virtues (adopting the language ofthe Fathers), characterises the opinions of the compilers. 

Ennemoser has made an abstract from the 'Demonomagie' of Horst(founded on Hauber's original work), of the 'Hexenhammer, ' underits three principal divisions. The third part, which contains theCriminal Code, and consists of thirty-five questions, is the mostimportant section. It is difficult to decide which is the moreastonishing, the perfect folly or the perfect iniquity of theCode: it is easier to understand how so many thousands of victimswere helplessly sacrificed. The arrest might take place on thesimple rumour of a witch being found somewhere, without anyprevious denunciation. The most abandoned and the most infamouspersons may be witnesses: no criminal is too bad. Even a witch orheretic (the _worst_ criminal in the eye of ecclesiastical law)is capable of giving evidence. Husbands and wives may witness oneagainst the other; and the testimony of children was received asgood evidence. 

The ninth and tenth chapters consider the question 'whether adefence was to be allowed; if an advocate defended his clientbeyond what was requisite, whether it was not reasonable that hetoo should be considered guilty; for he is a patron of witchesand heretics.... Thirteenth chapter: What the judge has to noticein the torture-chamber. Witches who have given themselves up foryears, body and soul, to the devil, are made by him so insensibleto pain on the rack, that they rather allow themselves to be tornto pieces than confess. Fourteenth chapter: Upon torture and themode of racking. In order to bring the accused to voluntaryconfession, you may promise her her life; which promise, however, may afterwards be withdrawn. If the witch does not confess thefirst day, the torture to be continued the second and third days. But here the difference between continuing and repeating isimportant. The torture may not be _continued_ without freshevidence, but it may be _repeated_ according to judgment. Fifteenth chapter: Continuance of the discovery of a witch by hermarks. Amongst other signs, weeping is one. It is a damning thingif the accused, on being brought up, cannot shed tears. Theclergy and judges lay their hands on the head of the accused, andadjure her by the hot tears of the Most Glorified Virgin that incase of her innocence, she shed abundant tears in the name of Godthe Father. '[75]

 [75] Ennemoser's _History of Magic_. Translated by W. Howitt. There are three kinds of men whom witchcraft cannot touch--magistrates; clergymen exercising the pious rites of the Church; and saints, who are under the immediate protection of the angels. 

The 'Bull' and 'Malleus' were the code and textbook of Witchcraftamongst the Catholics, as the Act and 'Demonologie' of James VI. Were of the Protestants. Perhaps the most important result of theformer was to withdraw entirely the authorised prosecution andpunishment of the criminals from the civil to the ecclesiasticaltribunals. Formerly they had a divided jurisdiction. At thesame time the fury of popular and judicial fanaticism wasgreatly inflamed by this new sanction. Immediately, and almostsimultaneously, in different parts of Europe, heretical witcheswere hunted up, tortured, burned, or hanged; and those parts ofthe Continent most infected with the widening heresy sufferedmost. The greater number in Germany seems to show that thedissentients from Catholic dogma there were rapidly increasing, some time before Luther thundered out his denunciations. Anunusual storm of thunder and lightning in the neighbourhood ofConstance was the occasion of burning two old women, Ann Mindelenand one 'Agnes. '[76] One contemporary writer asserts that 1, 000persons were put to death in one year in the district of Como;and Remigius, one of the authorised _inquisitores pravitatishæreticæ_, boasts of having burned 900 in the course of fifteenyears. Martin del Rio states 500 were executed in Geneva inthe short space of three months in 1515; and during the nextfive years 40 were burned at Ravensburgh. Great numbers sufferedin France at the same period. At Calahorra, in Spain, in 1507, a vast _auto-da-fé_ was exhibited, when 39 women, denouncedas sorceresses, were committed to the flames--religiouscarnage attested by the unsuspected evidence of the judges andexecutioners themselves. 

 [76] Hutchinson's _Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft_, chap ii. 

It is opportune here to examine the common beliefs of demonologyand sorcery as they existed in Europe. Christian demonology is aconfused mixture of pagan, Oriental, and Christian ideas. TheChristian Scriptures have seemed to suggest and sanction aconstant personal interference of the 'great adversary, ' who isalways traversing the earth 'seeking whom he may devour;' and hispopular figure is represented as a union of the great dragon, the satyrs, and fauns. Nor does he often appear without one orother of his recognised marks--the cloven foot, the goat'shorns, beard, and legs, or the dragon's tail. With young andgood-looking witches he is careful to assume the recommendationsof a young and handsome man, whilst it is not worth while todisguise so unprepossessing peculiarities in his incarnatemanifestations to _old_ women, the enjoyment of whose souls isthe great purpose of seduction. 

Sir Thomas Browne ('Vulgar Errors'), a man of much learning andstill more superstitious fancy, speciously explains thephenomenon of the cloven foot. He suggests that 'the ground ofthis opinion at first might be his frequent appearing in theshape of a goat, which answers this description. This was theopinion of the ancient Christians concerning the apparitions of_panites_, fauns, and satyrs: and of this form we read of onethat appeared to Anthony in the wilderness. The same is alsoconfirmed from exposition of Holy Scripture. For whereas it issaid "Thou shalt not offer unto devils, " the original word is_Seghuirim_, i. E. Rough and hairy goats; because in that shapethe devil most often appeared, as is expounded by the rabbins, asTremellius hath also explained; and as the word _Ascimah_, theGod of Emath, is by some explained. ' Dr. Joseph Mede, a pious andlearned divine, author of the esteemed 'Key to the Apocalypse, 'pronounces that 'the devil could not appear in human shape whileman was in his integrity, because he was a spirit fallen from hisfirst glorious perfection, and therefore must appear in suchshape which might argue his imperfection and abasement, which wasthe shape of a beast; otherwise [he plausibly contends] no reasoncan be given why he should not rather have appeared to Eve in theshape of a woman than of a serpent. But since the fall of man thecase is altered; now we know he can take upon him the shape of aman. He appears in the shape of man's imperfection rather for ageor deformity, as like an old man (for so the witches say); and, perhaps, it is not altogether false, which is vulgarly affirmed, that the devil appearing in human shape has always a deformityof some uncouth member or other, as though he could not yet takeupon him human shape entirely, for that man is not entirely andutterly fallen as he is. ' Whatever form he may assume, thecloven foot must always be visible under every disguise; andOthello looks first for that fabulous but certain sign when hescrutinises his treacherous friend. 

Reginald Scot's reminiscences of what was instilled into him inthe nursery may possibly occur to some even at this day. 'In ourchildhood, ' he complains, 'our mothers' maids have so terrifiedus with an ugly devil having horns on his head, fire in hismouth, a tail in his breech, eyes like a bison, fangs like a dog, a skin like a _niger_, a voice roaring like a lion, whereby westart and are afraid when we hear one cry Boh!' Chaucer hasexpressed the belief of his age on the subject. It seems to havebeen a proper duty of a parish priest to bring to the notice ofhis ecclesiastical superior, with other crimes, those of sorcery. The Friar describes his 'Erchedeken' as one--

 That boldely didde execucioun In punyschying of fornicacioun, Of wicchecraft.... 

This ecclesiastic employed in his service a subordinate'sompnour, ' who, in the course of his official duty, one daymeets a devil, whose 'dwellynge is in Helle, ' who condescends toenlighten the officer on the dark subject of demon-apparitions:--

 When us liketh we can take us on Or ellis make you seme that we ben schape Som tyme like a man or like an ape; Or like an aungel can I ryde or go: It is no wonder thing though it be so, A lowsy jogelour can deceyve the; And, parfay, yet can I more craft than he. 

To the question why they are not satisfied with _one_ shape forall occasions, the devil answers at length:--

 Som tyme we ben Goddis instrumentes And menes to don his commandementes, Whan that him liste, upon his creatures In divers act and in divers figures. Withouten him we have no might certayne If that him liste to stonden ther agayne. And som tyme at our prayer, have we leve Only the body and not the soule greve; Witnesse on Job, whom we didde ful wo. And som tyme have we might on bothe two, That is to say of body and soule eeke And som tyme be we suffred for to seeke Upon a man and don his soule unrest And not his body, and al is for the best. Whan he withstandeth our temptacioun It is a cause of his savacioun. Al be it so it was naught our entente He schuld be sauf, but that we wolde him hente. And som tyme we ben servaunt unto man As to the Erchebisschop Saynt Dunstan; And to the Apostolis servaunt was I. 

 * * * * *

 Som tyme we fegn, and som tyme we ryse With dede bodies, in ful wonder wyse, And speke renably, and as fayre and wel As to the Phitonissa dede Samuel: And yit wil som men say, it was not he. I do no fors of your divinitie. [77]

 [77] _Canterbury Tales. _ T. Wright's Text. Chaucer, the English Boccaccio in verse, attacks alike with his sarcasms the Church and the female sex. 

Jewish theology, expanded by their leading divines, includes aformidable array of various demons; and the whole of nature inChristian belief was peopled with every kind

 'Of those demons that are found In fire, air, flood, or under ground. '

Various opinions have been held concerning the nature of devilsand demons. Some have maintained, with Tertullian, that they are'the souls of baser men. ' It is a disputed question whether theyare mortal or immortal; subject to, or free from, pain. 'Psellus, a Christian, and sometime tutor to Michael Pompinatius, Emperorof Greece, a great observer of the nature of devils, holds theyare corporeal, and live and die: ... That they feel pain if theybe hurt (which Cardan confirms, and Scaliger justly laughs him toscorn for); and if their bodies be cut, with admirable celeritythey come together again. Austin approves as much; so dothHierome, Origen, Tertullian, Lactantius, and many eminent fathersof the Church; that in their fall their bodies were changed intoa more aerial and gross substance. ' The Platonists and somerabbis, Porphyrius, Plutarch, Zosimus, &c. , hold this opinion, which is scornfully denied by some others, who assert that theyonly deceive the eyes of men, effecting no real change. Cardanbelieves 'they feed on men's souls, and so [a worthy origin]belike that we have so many battles fought in all ages, countries, is to make them a feast and their sole delight: but ifdispleased they fret and chafe (for they feed belike on the soulsof beasts, as we do on their bodies) and send many plaguesamongst us. '

Their exact numbers and orders are differently estimated bydifferent authorities. It is certain that they fill the air, theearth, the water, as well as the subterranean globe. The air, according to Paracelsus, is not so full of flies in summer as itis at all times of invisible devils. Some writers, professing tofollow Socrates and Plato, determine nine sorts. Whatever orwherever the supralunary may be, our world is more interested inthe sublunary tribes. These are variously divided and subdivided. One authority computes six distinct kinds--Fiery, Aerial, Terrestrial, Watery, Subterranean and Central: these lastinhabiting the central regions of the interior of the earth. TheFiery are those that work 'by blazing stars, fire-drakes; theycounterfeit suns and moons, stars oftentimes. The Aerial live, for the most part, in the air, cause many tempests, thunder andlightning, tear oaks, fire steeples, houses; strike men andbeasts; make it rain stones, as in Livy's time, wool, frogs, &c. ;counterfeit armies in the air, strange noises ... All which Guil. Postellus useth as an argument (as, indeed, it is) to persuadethem that will not believe there be spirits or devils. Theycause whirlwinds on a sudden and tempestuous storms, which, though our meteorologists generally refer to natural causes, yetI am of Bodine's mind, they are more often caused by those aerialdevils in their several quarters; for they ride on the storms aswhen a desperate man makes away with himself, which, by hangingor drowning, they frequently do, as Kormannus observes, _tripudium agentes_, dancing and rejoicing at the death of asinner. These can corrupt the air, and cause sickness, plagues, storms, shipwrecks, fires, inundations.... Nothing so familiar(if we may believe those relations of Saxo Grammaticus, OlausMagnus, &c. ) as for witches and sorcerers in Lapland, Lithuania, and all over Scandia to sell winds to mariners and causetempests, which Marcus Paulus, the Venetian, relates likewise ofthe Tartars. [78]

 [78] It is still the custom of the Tartar or Thibetian Lamas, or at least of some of them, to scatter charms to the winds for the benefit of travellers. M. Huc's _Travels in Tartary, Thibet, &c. _

'These are they which Cardan thinks desire so much carnalcopulation with witches (Incubi and Succubi), transform bodies, and are so very cold if they be touched, and that servemagicians.... Water devils are those naiads or water nymphs whichhave been heretofore conversant about waters and rivers. Thewater (as Paracelsus thinks) is their chaos, wherein they live... Appearing most part (saith Trithemius) in women's shapes. Paracelsus hath several stories of them that have lived and beenmarried to mortal men, and so continued for certain years withthem, and after, upon some dislike, have forsaken them. Such anone was Egeria, with whom Numa was so familiar, Diana, Ceres, &c.... Terrestrial devils are Lares, Genii, Fauns, Satyrs, Wood-nymphs, Foliots, Fairies, Robin Goodfellows, Trulli; which, as they are most conversant with men, so they do them most harm. Some think it was they alone that kept the heathen people in aweof old.... Subterranean devils are as common as the rest, and doas much harm. Olaus Magnus makes six kinds of them, some bigger, some less, commonly seen about mines of metals, and are some ofthem noxious; some again do no harm (they are guardians oftreasure in the earth, and cause earthquakes). The last (sort)are conversant about the centre of the earth, to torture thesouls of damned men to the day of judgment; their egress andingress some suppose to be about Ætna, Lipari, Hecla, Vesuvius, Terra del Fuego, because many shrieks and fearful cries arecontinually heard thereabouts, and familiar apparitions of deadmen, ghosts, and goblins. '

As for the particular offices and operations of those varioustribes, 'Plato, in _Critias_, and after him his followers, gave out that they were men's governors and keepers, ourlords and masters, as we are of our cattle. They governprovinces and kingdoms by oracles, auguries, dreams, rewardsand punishments, prophecies, inspirations, sacrifices andreligious _superstitions_, varied in as many forms as there bediversity of spirits; they send wars, plagues, peace, sickness, health, dearth, plenty, as appears by those histories ofThucydides, Livius, Dionysius Halicarnassensis, with many others, that are full of their wonderful stratagems. ' They formerly devotedthemselves, each one, to the service of particular individuals asfamiliar demons, 'private spirits. ' Numa, Socrates, and manyothers were indebted to their _Genius_. The power of the devil isnot limited to the body. 'Many think he can work upon the body, but not upon the mind. But experience pronounceth otherwise, thathe can work both upon body and mind. Tertullian is of thisopinion. '

The causes and inducements of 'possession' are many. One writeraffirms that 'the devil being a slender, incomprehensible spiritcan easily insinuate and wind himself into human bodies, andcunningly couched in our bowels, vitiate our healths, terrify oursouls with fearful dreams, and shake our minds with furies. Theygo in and out of our bodies as bees do in a hive, and so provokeand tempt us as they perceive our temperature inclined of itselfand most apt to be deluded.... Agrippa and Lavater are persuadedthat this humour [the melancholy] invites the devil into it, wheresoever it is in extremity, and, of all other, melancholypersons are most subject to diabolical temptations and illusions, and most apt to entertain them, and the devil best able to workupon them. 'But whether, ' declares Burton, 'by obsession, orpossession, or otherwise, I will not determine; 'tis a difficultquestion. '[79]

 [79] _The Anatomy of Melancholy_, by Democritus junior; edited by Democritus minor. Part i. Sect. 2. An equally copious and curious display of learning. Few authors, probably, have been more plagiarised. 

The mediævalists believed themselves surrounded everywhere byspiritual beings; but unlike the ancients, they were convincednot so much that they were the peculiar care of heaven as thatthey were the miserable victims of hellish malice, ever seekingtheir temporal as well as eternal destruction; a fact apparent inthe whole mediæval literature and art. [80]

 [80] Sismondi (_Literature of the South of Europe_) has observed of the greatest epic of the Middle Age, that 'Dante, in common with many fathers of the Church, under the supposition that paganism, in the persons of the infernal gods, represented the fallen angels, has made no scruple to adopt its fables. ' Tasso, at a later period, introduces the deities of heathendom. In the _Gerusalemme Liberata_ they sit in council to frustrate the plans and destroy the forces of the Christian leaders before Jerusalem (iv). Ismeno, a powerful magician in the ranks of the Turks, brings up a host of diabolic allies to guard the wood which supplied the infidels with materials for carrying on the siege of the city (xiii. ). And the masterpieces of art of Guido or Raffaelle, which excite at once admiration and despair in their modern disciples, consecrated and immortalised the vulgar superstition. 

Glanvil's conjectures on the cause of the _comparative_ rarity ofdemoniac and other spiritual apparitions in general may interestthe credulous or curious reader. ''Tis very probable, ' reasonsthe Doctor, 'that the state wherein they are will not easilypermit palpable intercourses between the bad genii and mankind:since 'tis like enough their own laws and government do not allowtheir frequent excursions into the world. Or it may with greatprobability be supposed that 'tis a very hard and painful thingfor them to force their thin and _tenuious_ bodies into a visibleconsistence, and such shapes as are necessary for their designsin their correspondence with witches. For in this action theirbodies must needs be exceedingly compressed, which cannot well bewithout a painful sense. And this is, perhaps, a reason why thereare so few apparitions, and why appearing spirits are commonly insuch a hurry to be gone, viz. That they may be delivered of theunnatural pressure of their tender vehicles, [81] which I confessholds more in the apparition of good than evil spirits ... Thereason of which probably is the greater subtlety and tenuity ofthe former, which will require far greater degrees of compressionand consequently of pain to make them visible; whereas the latterare feculent and gross, and so nearer allied to palpableexistences, and more easily reducible to appearance andvisibility. '[82]

 [81] So specious a theory must have occurred to, and its propriety will easily be recognised by, the spirit and ghost advocates of the present day. 

 [82] _Sadducismus Triumphatus. _ Considerations about Witchcraft. Sect. Xi. 

'Palpable intercourses between the bad genii and mankind' aremore frequent than Dr. Glanvil was disposed to believe; and hemust have been conversant with the acts of Incubus and Succubus. In the first age (orbe novo c[oe]loque recenti) under theSaturnian regime, 'while yet there was no fear of Jove, '[83]innocence prevailed undisturbed; but soon as the silver age wasinaugurated by the usurpation of Jove, _liaisons_ between godsand mortals became frequent. Love affairs between good or bad'genii' and mankind are of common occurrence in the mythology ofmost peoples. In the romance-tales of the middle age lovers findthemselves unexpectedly connected with some mysterious being ofinhuman kind. The writers in defence of witchcraft quote Genesisvi. In proof of the reality of such intercourses; and JustinMartyr and Tertullian, the great apologists of Christianity, andothers of the Fathers, interpret _Filios Dei_ to be angels orevil spirits who, enamoured with the beauty of the women, begotthe primeval giants. [84]

 [83] 'Jove nondum Barbato. '

 [84] Milton indignantly exclaims, alluding to this common fancy of the leaders of the Primitive Church, 'Who would think him fit to write an apology for Christian faith to the Roman Senate that could tell them "how of the angels"--of which he must needs mean those in Genesis called the Sons of God--"mixing with women were begotten the devils, " as good Justin Martyr in his Apology told them. ' (_Reformation in England_, book i. ). And 'Clemens Alexandrinus, Sulpicius Severus, Eusebius, &c. , make a twofold fall of angels--one from the beginning of the world; another a little before the deluge, as Moses teacheth us, openly professing that these _genii_ can beget and have carnal copulation with woman' (_Anatomy of Melancholy_, part i. ). Robert Burton gives in his adhesion to the sentiments of Lactantius (xiv. 15). It seems that the later Jewish devils owe their origin (according to the Talmudists, as represented by Pererius in the _Anatomy_) to a former wife of Adam, called Lilis, the predecessor of Eve. 

Some tremendous results of diabolic connections appear in themetrical romances of the twelfth or thirteenth century, as wellas in those early Anglo-Norman chroniclers or fabulists, who havebeen at the pains to inform us of the pre-historic events oftheir country. The author of the romance-poem of the well-knownMerlin--so famous in British prophecy--in introducing his hero, enters upon a long dissertation on the origin of the infernalarts. He informs us on the authority of 'David the prophet, andof Moses, ' that the greater part of the angels who rebelled underthe leadership of Lucifer, lost their former power and beauty, and became 'fiendes black:' that instead of being precipitatedinto 'helle-pit, ' many remained in mid-air, where they stillretain the faculty of seducing mortals by assuming whatevershape they please. These had been much concerned at themiraculous birth of Christ; but it was hoped to counteract thesalutary effects of that event, by producing from some virgin asemi-demon, whose office it should be to disseminate sorcerersand wicked men. For this purpose the devil[85] prepares to seducethree young sisters; and proceeds at once in proper disguise toan old woman, with whose avarice and cunning he was wellacquainted. Her he engaged by liberal promises to be mediatrix inthe seduction of the elder sister, whom he was prevented fromattempting in person by the precautions of a holy hermit. Like'the first that fell of womankind, ' the young lady at lengthconsented; was betrayed by the _fictitious_ youth, and condemnedby the law to be burnt alive. 

 [85] Probably, 'Belial, the dissolutest spirit that fell, The sensualist; and after Asmodai The fleshliest Incubus. '--_Par. Reg. _

The same fate, excepting the fearful penalty, awaited the second. And now, too late, the holy hermit became aware of his disastrousnegligence. He strictly enjoined on the third and remainingsister a constant watch. Her security, however, was the cause ofher betrayal. On one occasion, in a moment of remissness, sheforgot her prayers and the sign of the cross, before retiring forthe night. No longer excluded, the fiend, assuming human shape, effected his purpose. In due time a son was born, whoseparentage was sufficiently evinced by an entire covering of blackhair, although his limbs were well-formed, and his features fine. Fortunately, the careless guardian had exactly calculated themoment of the demon's birth; and no sooner was he informed of theevent, than the new-born infant was borne off to the regeneratingwater, when he was christened by the name of Merlin; the fondhopes of the demons being for this time, at least, irretrievablydisappointed. How Merlin, by superhuman prowess and knowledge, defeated the Saracens (Saxons) in many bloody battles; hismagical achievements and favour at the court of King Vortigernand his successors, are fully exhibited by the author of thehistory. [86] Geoffrey of Monmouth recounts them as matters offact; and they are repeated by Vergil in the History of Britain, composed under the auspices of Henry VIII. 

 [86] See _Early English Metrical Romances_, ed. By Sir H. Ellis. 

By the ancients, whole peoples were sometimes said to be derivedfrom these unholy connections. Jornandes, the historian of theGoths, is glad to be able to relate their hated rivals, the Huns(of whom the Kalmuck Tartars are commonly said to be the modernrepresentatives), to have owed their origin to an intercourse ofthe Scythian witches with infernal spirits. The extraordinaryform and features of those dreaded emigrants from the steppes ofTartary, had suggested to the fear and hatred of their Europeansubjects, a fable which Gibbon supposes might have been derivedfrom a more pleasing one of the Greeks. [87]

 [87] A sufficiently large collection from ancient and modern writers of the facts of _inhuman_ connections may be seen in the _Anatomy of Melancholy_, part iii. Sect. 2. Having repeated the assertions of previous authors proving the fact of intercourses of human with inferior species of animals, Burton fortifies his own opinion of their reality by numerous authorities. If those stories be true, he reasons, that are written of Incubus and Succubus, of nymphs, lascivious fauns, satyrs, and those heathen gods which were devils, those lascivious Telchines of whom the Platonists tell so many fables; or those familiar meetings in our day [1624] and company of witches and devils, there is some probability for it. I know that Biarmannus, Wierus, and some others stoutly deny it ... But Austin (lib. Xv. _de Civit. Dei_) doth acknowledge it. And he refers to Plutarch, _Vita Numæ; Wierus, de Præstigiis Dæmon. , Giraldus Cambrensis, Malleus Malef. , Jacobus Reussus, Godelman, Erastus, John Nider, Delrio, Lipsius, Bodin, Pererius, King James, &c_. The learned and curious work of the melancholy Student of Christ Church and Oxford Rector has been deservedly commended by many eminent critics. That 'exact mathematician and curious calculator of nativities' calculated exactly, according to Anthony Wood (_Athenæ Oxon. _), the period of his own death--1639. 

The acts of Incubus assume an important part in witch-trials andconfessions. Incubus is the visitor of females, Succubus ofmales. Chaucer satirises the gallantries of the vicarious Incubusby the mouth of the wife of Bath (that practical admirer ofSolomon and the Samaritan woman), [88] who prefaces her tale withthe assurance:--

 That maketh that ther ben no fayeries, For ther as wont was to walken an elf Ther walketh noon but the _Lymitour_ himself. 

 * * * * *

 Women may now go safely up and downe; In every busch and under every tre Ther is noon other _Incubus_ but he. 

 [88] The wife of Bath, who had buried only her fifth husband, must appear modest by comparison. Not to mention Seneca's or Martial's assertions or insinuations, St. Jerome was acquainted with the case of a woman who had buried her _twenty-second_ husband, whose conjugal capacity, however, was exceeded by the Dutch wife who, on the testimony of honest John Evelyn, had buried her _twenty-fifth_ husband!

Reginald Scot has devoted several chapters of his work to arelation of the exploits of Incubus. [89] But he honestly warnshis readers 'whose chaste ears cannot well endure to hear of suchlecheries (gathered out of the books of divinity of greatauthority) to turn over a few leaves wherein I have, like agroom, thrust their stuff, even that which I myself loath, asinto a stinking corner: howbeit none otherwise, I hope, but thatthe other parts of my writing shall remain sweet. ' He repeats astory from the 'Vita Hieronymi, ' which seems to insinuate somesuspicion of the character of a certain Bishop Sylvanus. Itrelates that one night Incubus invaded a certain lady's bedroom. Indignant at so unusual, or at least disguised, an apparition, the lady cried out loudly until the guests of the house came andfound it under the bed in the likeness of the bishop; 'which holyman, ' adds Scot, 'was much defamed thereby. ' Another tradition orlegend seems to reflect upon the chastity of the greatest saintof the Middle Ages. [90] The superhuman oppression of Incubus isstill remembered in the proverbial language of the present day. The horrors of the infernal compacts and leagues, as exhibited inthe fates of wizards or magicians at the last hour, formed one ofthe most popular scenes on the theatrical stage. ChristopherMarlow, in 'The Life and Death of Dr. Faustus, ' and RobertGreene, in 'Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, ' in the Elizabethanage, dramatised the common, conception of the Compact. 

 [89] See the fourth book of the _Discoverie_. 

 [90] 'It is written in the legend of St. Bernard, ' we are told, 'that a pretty wench that had the use of Incubus his body by the space of six or seven years in Aquitania (being belike weary of him for that he waxed old), would needs go to St. Bernard another while. But Incubus told her if she would so forsake him, he would be revenged upon her. But befal what would, she went to St. Bernard, who took her his staff and bad her lay it in the bed beside her. And, indeed, the devil, fearing the staff or that St. Bernard lay there himself, durst not approach into her chamber that night. What he did afterwards I am uncertain. ' This story will not appear so evidential to the reader as Scot seems to infer it to be. If any credit is to be given to the strong insinuations of Protestant divines of the sixteenth century, the 'holy bishop Sylvanus' is not the only example among the earlier saints of the frailty of human nature. 

CHAPTER II. 

 Three Sorts of Witches--Various Modes of Witchcraft--Manner of Witch-Travelling--The Sabbaths--Anathemas of the Popes against the Crime--Bull of Adrian VI. --Cotemporary Testimony to the Severity of the Persecutions--Necessary Triumph of the Orthodox Party--Germany most subject to the Superstition--Acts of Parliament of Henry against Witchcraft--Elizabeth Barton--The Act of 1562--Executions under Queen Elizabeth's Government--Case of Witchcraft narrated by Reginald Scot. 

The ceremonies of the compact by which a woman became a witchhave been already referred to. It was almost an essentialcondition in the vulgar creed that she should be, as Gaule('Select Cases of Conscience touching Witches, ' &c. , 1646)represents, an old woman with a wrinkled face, a furred brow, ahairy lip, a gobber tooth, a squint eye, a squeaking voice, ascolding tongue, having a ragged coat on her back, a skull-cap onher head, a spindle in her hand, a dog or cat by her side. Thereare three sorts of the devil's agents on earth--the black, thegray, and the white witches. The first are omnipotent for evil, but powerless for good. The white have the power to help, but notto hurt. [91] As for the third species (a mixture of white andblack), they are equally effective for good or evil. 

 [91] A writer at the beginning of the seventeenth century (Cotta, _Tryall of Witchcraft_) says, 'This kind is not obscure at this day, swarming in this kingdom, whereof no man can be ignorant who lusteth to observe the uncontrouled liberty and licence of open and ordinary resort in all places unto _wise_ men and _wise_ women, so vulgarly termed for their reputed knowledge concerning such diseased persons as are supposed to be bewitched. ' And (_Short Discoverie of Unobserved Dangers, 1612_) 'the mention of witchecraft doth now occasion the remembrance in the next place of a sort of practitioners whom our custom and country doth call wise men and wise women, reputed a kind of good and honest harmless witches or wizards, who, by good words, by hallowed herbs and salves, and other superstitious ceremonies, promise to allay and calm devils, practices of other witches, and the forces of many diseases. ' Another writer of the same date considers 'it were a thousand times better for the land if all witches, but specially the _blessing witch_, might suffer death. Men do commonly hate and spit at the _damnifying_ sorcerer as unworthy to live among them, whereas they fly unto the other in necessity; they depend upon him as their God, and by this means thousands are carried away, to their final confusion. Death, therefore, is the just and deserved portion of the _good_ witch. '--_Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_, by Brand, ed. By Sir H. Ellis. 

Equally various and contradictory are the motives and actsassigned to witches. Nothing is too great or too mean for theirpractice: they engage with equal pleasure in the overthrow of akingdom or a religion, and in inflicting the most ordinary evilsand mischiefs in life. Their mode of bewitching is various: byfascination or casting an evil eye ('Nescio, ' says the Virgilianshepherd, 'quis teneros oculus mihi fascinat agnos'); by makingrepresentations of the person to be acted upon in wax or clay, roasting them before a fire; by mixing magical ointments orother compositions and ingredients revealed to us in thewitch-songs of Shakspeare, Jonson, Middleton, Shadwell, andothers; sometimes merely by muttering an imprecation. 

They ride in sieves on the sea, on brooms, spits magicallyprepared; and by these modes of conveyance are borne, withouttrouble or loss of time, to their destination. By these meansthey attend the periodical sabbaths, the great meetings of thewitch-tribe, where they assemble at stated times to do homage, torecount their services, and to receive the commands of theirlord. They are held on the night between Friday and Saturday; andevery year a grand sabbath is ordered for celebration on theBlocksberg mountains, for the night before the first day of May. In those famous mountains the obedient vassals congregate fromall parts of Christendom--from Italy, Spain, Germany, France, England, and Scotland. A place where four roads meet, a ruggedmountain range, or perhaps the neighbourhood of a secluded lakeor some dark forest, is usually the spot selected for themeeting. [92]

 [92] 'When orders had once been issued for the meeting of the sabbath, all the wizards and witches who failed to attend it were lashed by demons with a rod made of serpents or scorpions. In France and England the witches were supposed to ride uniformly upon broom-sticks; but in Italy and Spain, the devil himself, in the shape of a goat, used to transport them on his back, which lengthened or shortened according to the number of witches he was desirous of accommodating. No witch, when proceeding to the sabbath, could get out by a door or window were she to try ever so much. Their general mode of ingress was by the key-hole, and of egress by the chimney, up which they flew, broom and all, with the greatest ease. To prevent the absence of the witches being noticed by their neighbours, some inferior demon was commanded to assume their shapes, and lie in their beds, feigning illness, until the sabbath was over. When all the wizards and witches had arrived at the place of rendezvous, the infernal ceremonies began. Satan having assumed his favourite shape of a large he-goat, with a face in front and another in his haunches, took his seat upon a throne; and all present in succession paid their respects to him and kissed him in his face behind. This done, he appointed a master of the ceremonies, in company with whom he made a personal examination of all the witches, to see whether they had the secret mark about them by which they were stamped as the devil's own. This mark was always insensible to pain. Those who had not yet been marked received the mark from the master of the ceremonies, the devil at the same time bestowing nick-names upon them. This done, they all began to sing and dance in the most furious manner until some one arrived who was anxious to be admitted into their society. They were then silent for a while until the new comer had denied his salvation, kissed the devil, spat upon the Bible, and sworn obedience to him in all things. They then began dancing again with all their might and singing.... In the course of an hour or two they generally became wearied of this violent exercise, and then they all sat down and recounted their evil deeds since last meeting. Those who had not been malicious and mischievous enough towards their fellow-creatures received personal chastisement from Satan himself, who flogged them with thorns or scorpions until they were covered with blood and unable to sit or stand. When this ceremony was concluded, they were all amused by a dance of toads. Thousands of these creatures sprang out of the earth, and standing on their hind-legs, danced while the devil played the bagpipes or the trumpet. These toads were all endowed with the faculty of speech, and entreated the witches there to reward them with the flesh of unbaptized infants for their exertions to give them pleasure. The witches promised compliance. The devil bade them remember to keep their word; and then stamping his foot, caused all the toads to sink into the earth in an instant. The place being thus cleared, preparations were made for the banquet, where all manner of disgusting things were served up and greedily devoured by the demons and witches, although the latter were sometimes regaled with choice meats and expensive wines, from golden plates and crystal goblets; but they were never thus favoured unless they had done an extraordinary number of evil deeds since the last period of meeting. After the feast, they began dancing again; but such as had no relish for any more exercise in that way, amused themselves by mocking the holy sacrament of baptism. For this purpose the toads were again called up, and sprinkled with filthy water, the devil making the sign of the cross, and all the witches calling out--[some gibberish]. When the devil wished to be particularly amused, he made the witches strip off their clothes and dance before him, each with a cat tied round her neck, and another dangling from her body in form of a tail. When the cock crew they all disappeared, and the sabbath was ended. This is a summary of the belief that prevailed for many centuries nearly all over Europe, and which is far from eradicated even at this day. '--_Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions_, by C. Mackay. 

A mock sermon often concludes the night's proceedings, theordinary salutation of the _osculum in tergo_ being first given. But these circumstances are innocent compared with the obscenepractices when the lights are put out; indiscriminate debaucherybeing then the order of the night. A new rite of baptisminitiated the neophyte into his new service: the candidate beingsigned with the sign of the devil on that part of the body leastobservable, and submitting at the same time to the first act ofcriminal compliance, to be often repeated. On these occasions thedemon presents himself in the form of either sex, according tothat of his slaves. It was elicited from a witch examined at atrial that, from the period of her servitude, the devil had hadintercourse with her _ut viri cum f[oe]minis solent_, exceptingonly in one remarkable particular. 

During the pontificate of Julius II. --the first decade of thesixteenth century--a set of sorceresses was discovered in largenumbers: a dispute between the civil and ecclesiasticalauthorities averted their otherwise certain destruction. Thesuccessors of Innocent VIII. Repeated his anathemas. AlexanderVI. , Leo X. , and Adrian VI. Appointed special commissioners forhunting up sorcerers and heretics. In 1523, Adrian issued a bullagainst _Hæresis Strigiatûs_ with power to excommunicate all whoopposed those engaged in the inquisition. He characterises theobnoxious class as a sect deviating from the Catholic faith, denying their baptism, showing contempt for the sacraments, inparticular for that of the Eucharist, treading crosses underfoot, and taking the devil as their lord. [93] How many sufferedfor the crime during the thirty or forty years following upon thebull of 1484, it is difficult exactly to ascertain: that somethousands perished is certain, on the testimony of the judgesthemselves. The often-quoted words of Florimond, author of a work'On Antichrist, ' as given by Del Rio the Jesuit ('De Magiâ'), arenot hyperbolical. 'All those, ' says he, 'who have afforded ussome signs of the approach of antichrist agree that the increaseof sorcery and witchcraft is to distinguish the melancholy periodof his advent; and was ever age so afflicted with them as ours?The seats destined for criminals before our judicatories areblackened with persons accused of this guilt. There are notjudges enough to try enough. Our dungeons are gorged with them. No day passes that we do not render our tribunals bloody by thedooms we pronounce, or in which we do not return to our homesdiscountenanced and terrified at the horrible contents of theconfessions which it has been our duty to hear. And the devil isaccounted so good a master that we cannot commit so great anumber of his slaves to the flames but what there shall arisefrom their ashes a number sufficient to supply their place. '

 [93] Francis Hutchison's _Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft_, chap. Xiv. ; the author quotes Barthol. De Spina, _de Strigibus_. 

It is within neither the design nor the limits of these pages torepeat all the witch-cases, which might fill several volumes; itis sufficient for the purpose to sketch a few of the mostnotorious and prominent, and to notice the most remarkablecharacteristics of the creed. 

Maximilian I. , Emperor of Germany, protected the inquisitorialexecutioners from the indignant vengeance of the inhabitants ofthe districts of Southern Germany, which would have been soonalmost depopulated by an unsparing massacre and a ferocious zeal:while Sigismund, Prince of the Tyrol, is said to have beeninclined to soften the severity of a persecution he was totallyunable, if he had been disposed, to prevent. Ulric Molitor, under the auspices of this prince, however, published a treatisein Switzerland ('De Pythonicis Mulieribus') in the form of adialogue, in which Sigismund, Molitor, and a citizen of Constanceare the interlocutors. They argue as to the practice ofwitchcraft; and the argument is to establish that, although thepracticers of the crime are worthy of death, much of the vulgaropinion on the subject is false. Even in the middle of thefifteenth century, and in Spain, could be found an assertor, insome degree, of common sense, whose sentiments might scandalisesome Protestant divines. Alphonse de Spina was a native ofCastile, of the order of St. Francis: his book was writtenagainst heretics and unbelievers, but there is a chapter in whichsome acts attributed to sorcerers, as transportation through theair, transformations, &c. , are rejected as unreal. 

From that time two parties were in existence, one of whichadvocated the entire reality of all the acts commonly imputed towitches; while the other maintained that many of their supposedcrimes were mere delusions suggested by the Great Enemy. Theformer, as the orthodox party, were, from the nature of the case, most successful in the argument--a seeming paradox explained bythe nature and course of the controversy. Only the _received_method of demoniacal possession was questioned by the adverseside, accepting without doubt the possibility--and, indeed, theactual existence--of the phenomenon. Thus the liberals, orpseudo-liberals, in that important controversy were placed in anillogical position. For (as their opponents might triumphantlyargue) if the devil's power and possession could be manifested inone way, why not by any other method. Nor was it for them todetermine the appointed methods of his schemes, as permitted byProvidence, for the injury and ruin of mankind. The diaboliceconomy, as evidently set forth in the work of man's destruction, might require certain modes of acting quite above our reason andunderstanding. To the sceptics (or to the _atheists_, as theywere termed) the orthodox could allege, 'Will you not believein witches? The Scriptures aver their existence: to thejurisconsults will you dispute the existence of a crime againstwhich our statute-book and the code of almost all civilisedcountries have attested by laws upon which hundreds and thousandshave been convicted; many, or even most, of whom have, by theirjudicial confessions, acknowledged their guilt and the justice oftheir punishment? It is a strange scepticism, they might add, that rejects the evidence of Scripture, of human legislature, andof the accused persons themselves. '[94] Reason was hopelesslyoppressed by faith. In the presence of universal superstition, inthe absence of the modern philosophy, escape seemed all butimpossible. 

 [94] Sir W. Scott's _Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft_, chap. Vi. 

If preeminence in this particular prejudice can be assigned toany single region or people, perhaps Germany more than any otherland was subject to the demonological fever. A fact to beexplained as well by its being the great theatre for more than ahundred years of the grand religious struggle between theopposing Catholics and Protestants, as by its natural fitness. The gloomy mountain ranges--the Hartz mountains are especiallyfamous in the national legend--and forests with which it aboundsrendered the imaginative minds of its peoples peculiarlysusceptible to impressions of supernaturalism. [95] Francetakes the next place in the fury of the persecution. Danæus('Dialogue') speaks of an innumerable number of witches. England, Scotland, Spain, Italy perhaps come next in order. 

 [95] How greatly the imagination of the Germans was attracted by the supernatural and the marvellous is plainly seen both in the old national poems and in the great work of the national mythologist, Jacob Grimm (_Deutsche Mythologie_). 

Spain, the dominion of the Arabs for seven centuries, wasnaturally the land of magic. During the government of FerdinandI. , or of Isabella, the inquisition was firmly established. Thatnumbers were sent from the dungeons and torture-chambers to thestake, with the added stigma of dealing in the 'black art, ' iscertain; but in that priest-dominated, servilely orthodoxsouthern land, the Church was not perhaps so much interested inconfounding the crimes of heresy and sorcery. The first wassimply sufficient for provoking horror and hatred of thecondemned. The South of France is famous for being the very nestof sorcery: the witch-sabbaths were frequently held there. It wasthe country of the Albigenses, which had been devastated by DeMontfort, the executioner of Catholic vengeance, in the twelfthcentury, and was, with something of the same sort of savageness, ravaged by De Lanere in the seventeenth century. Scotland, beforethe religious revolution, exhibits a few remarkable cases ofwitch-persecution, as that of the Earl of Mar, brother of JamesIII. He had been suspected of calling in the aid of sorcery toascertain the term of the king's life: the earl was bled to deathwithout trial, and his death was followed by the burning oftwelve witches, and four wizards, at Edinburgh. Lady Glammis, sister of the Earl of Angus, of the family of Douglas, accused ofconspiring the king's death in a similar way, was put to death in1537. As in England, in the cases of the Duchess of Gloucesterand others, the crime appears to be rather an adjunct than theprincipal charge itself; more political than popular. ProtestantScotland it is that has earned the reputation of being one of themost superstitious countries in Europe. 

In 1541 two Acts of Parliament were passed in England--the firstinterference of Parliament in this kingdom--against falseprophecies, conjurations, witchcraft, sorcery, pulling downcrosses; crimes made felony without benefit of clergy. Both thelast article in the list and the period (a few years after theseparation from the Catholic world) appear to indicate the causesin operation. Lord Hungerford had recently been beheaded by thesuspicious tyranny of Henry VIII. , for consulting his death byconjuration. The preamble to the statute has these words: 'Thepersons that had done these things, had dug up and pulled down aninfinite number of crosses. '[96] The new head of the EnglishChurch, if he found his interest in assuming himself thespiritual supremacy, was, like a true despot, averse to anyfurther revolution than was necessary to his purposes. Somesuperstitious regrets too for the old establishment which, by afortunate caprice, he abandoned and afterwards plundered, mayhave urged the tyrant, who persecuted the Catholics forquestioning his supremacy, to burn the enemies oftransubstantiation. Shortly before this enactment, eight personshad been hanged at Tyburn, not so much for sorcery as for adisagreeable prophecy. Elizabeth Barton, the principal, had beeninstigated to pronounce as revelation, that if the king went onin the divorce and married another wife, he should not be king amonth longer, and in the estimation of Almighty God not one hourlonger, but should die a villain's death. The Maid of Kent, withher accomplices--Richard Martin, parson of the parish ofAldington; Dr. Bocking, canon of Christ Church, Canterbury;Deering; Henry Gold, a parson in London; Hugh Rich, a friar, andothers--was brought before the Star Chamber, and adjudged tostand in St. Paul's during sermon-time; the majority beingafterwards executed. In Cranmer's 'Articles of Visitation, ' 1549, an injunction is addressed to his clergy, that 'you shall inquirewhether you know of any that use charms, sorcery, enchantments, witchcrafts, soothsaying, or any like craft, invented by thedevil. '

 [96] Hutchison's _Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft_. The author, chaplain in ordinary to George I. , published his book in 1718. It is worth while to note the colder scepticism of the Hanoverian chaplain as compared with the undoubting faith of his predecessor, Dr. Glanvil. 

During the brief reigns of Edward VI. And Mary I. In England, noconspicuous trials occur. As for the latter monarch, the queenand her bishops were too absorbed in the pressing business ofburning for the real offence of heresy to be much concerned indiscovering the concomitant crimes of devil-worship. [97] Animpartial judgment may decide that superstition, whether engagedin vindicating the dogmas of Catholicism or those of witchcraft, is alike contemptible and pernicious. 

 [97] Agreeably to that common prejudice which selects certain historical personages for popular and peculiar esteem or execration, and attributes to them, as if they were eccentricities rather than examples of the age, every exceptional virtue or vice, the 'Bloody Queen' has been stigmatised, and is still regarded, as an _extraordinary_ monster, capable of every inhuman crime--a prejudice more popular than philosophical, since experience has taught that despots, unchecked by fear, by reason, or conscience, are but examples, in an eminent degree, of the character, and personifications of the worst vices (if not of the best virtues) of their time. Considered in this view, Mary I. Will but appear the example and personification of the religious intolerance of Catholicism and of the age, just as Cromwell was of the patriotic and Puritanic sentiment of the first half, or Charles II. Of the unblushing licentiousness of the last half, of the seventeenth century. 

In the year of Elizabeth's accession, 1558, Strype ('Annals ofthe Reformation, ' i. 8, and ii. 545) tells that Bishop Jewell, preaching before the queen, animadverted upon the dangerous anddireful results of witchcraft. 'It may please your Grace, 'proclaims publicly the courtly Anglican prelate, 'to understandthat witches and sorcerers, within these last few years, aremarvellously increased within your Grace's realm. Your Grace'ssubjects pine away even to the death, their colour fadeth, theirflesh rotteth, their speech is benumbed, their senses are bereft. I pray God they never practise further than upon the subject. 'For himself, the bishop declares, 'these eyes have seen mostevident and manifest marks of their wickedness. ' The annalistadds that this, no doubt, was the occasion of bringing in a billthe next Parliament, for making enchantments and witchcraftfelony; and, under year 1578, we are informed that, whether itwere the effect of magic, or proceeded from some natural cause, the queen was in some part of this year under excessive anguish_by pains of her teeth_, insomuch that she took no rest fordivers nights, and endured very great torment night and day. Thestatute of 1562 includes 'fond and fantastic prophecies' (a verycommon sort of political offences in that age) in the category offorbidden arts. With unaccustomed lenity it punished a firstconviction with the pillory only. 

Witch-persecutions (which needed not any legal enactment) sprungup in different parts of the country; but they were not carriedout with either the frequency or the ferocity of the next age, oras in Scotland, under the superintendence of James VI. A numberof pamphlets unnecessarily enforced the obligatory duty ofunwearied zeal in the work of discovery and extermination. [98]Among the executions under Elizabeth's Government are speciallynoticed that of a woman hanged at Barking in 1575; of four atAbingdon; three at Chelmsford; two at Cambridge, 1579; of anumber condemned at St. Osythes; of several in Derbyshire andStaffordshire. One of the best known is the case at Warboys, inHuntingdonshire, 1593. 

 [98] One of these productions, printed in London, bore the sensational title, 'A very Wonderful and Strange Miracle of God, shewed upon a Dutchman, of the age of 23 years, who was possessed of ten devils, and was, by God's Mighty Providence, dispossessed of them again the 27 January last past, 1572. ' Another, dedicated to Lord Darcy, by W. W. , 1582, sets forth that all those tortures in common use 'are far too light, and their rigour too mild; and in this respect he (the pamphleteer) impudently exclaimeth against our magistrates who suffer them to be but hanged, when _murtherers and such malefactors be so used, which deserve not the hundredth part of their punishment_. '

The author of the 'Discoverie' relates a fact that came under hispersonal observation: it is a fair example of the trivial originand of the facility of this sort of charges. 'At the assizesholden at Rochester, anno 1581, one Margaret Simons, wife of JohnSimons, of Brenchly in Kent, was arraigned for witchcraft, at theinstigation and complaint of divers fond and malicious persons, and especially by the means of one John Farral, vicar of thatparish, with whom I talked about the matter, and found him bothfondly assotted in the cause and enviously bent towards her: and, which is worse, as unable to make a good account of his faith asshe whom he accused. That which he laid to the poor woman'scharge was this. His son, being an ungracious boy, and 'prenticeto one Robert Scotchford, clothier, dwelling in that parish ofBrenchly, passed on a day by her house; at whom, by chance, herlittle dog barked, which thing the boy taking in evil part, drewhis knife and pursued him therewith even to her door, whomshe rebuked with such words as the boy disdained, and yetnevertheless would not be persuaded to depart in a long time. Atthe last he returned to his master's house, and within five orsix days fell sick. Then was called to mind the fray betwixt thedog and the boy: insomuch as the vicar (who thought himself soprivileged as he little mistrusted that God would visit hischildren with sickness) did so calculate as he found, partlythrough his own judgment and partly (as he himself told me) bythe relation of other witches, that his said son was by herbewitched. Yea, he told me that his son being, as it were, pastall cure, received perfect health at the hands of another witch. 'Not satisfied with this accusation, the vicar 'proceeded yetfurther against her, affirming that always in his parish church, when he desired to read most plainly his voice so failed him thathe could scant be heard at all: which he could impute, he said, to nothing else but to her enchantment. When I advertised thepoor woman thereof, as being desirous to hear what she could sayfor herself, she told me that in very deed his voice did failhim, specially when he strained himself to speak loudest. Howbeit, she said, that at all times his voice was hoarse andlow; which thing I perceived to be true. But sir, said she, youshall understand that this our vicar is diseased with such a kindof hoarseness as divers of our neighbours in this parish notlong ago doubted ... And in that respect utterly refused tocommunicate with him until such time as (being thereunto enjoinedby the ordinary) he had brought from London a certificate underthe hands of two physicians that his hoarseness proceeded from adisease of the lungs; which certificate he published in thechurch, in the presence of the whole congregation: and by thismeans he was cured, or rather excused of the shame of thedisease. And this, ' certifies the narrator, 'I know to be true, by the relation of divers honest men of that parish. And truly ifone of the jury had not been wiser than the others, she had beencondemned thereupon, and upon other as ridiculous matters asthis. For the name of witch is so odious, and her power so fearedamong the common people, that if the honestest body livingchanced to be arraigned thereupon, she shall hardly escapecondemnation. '

CHAPTER III. 

 The 'Discoverie of Witchcraft, ' published 1584--Wier's 'De Præstigiis Dæmonum, &c. '--Naudé--Jean Bodin--His 'De la Démonomanie des Sorciers, ' published at Paris, 1580--His authority--Nider--Witch-case at Warboys--Evidence adduced at the Trial--Remarkable as being the origin of the institution of an Annual Sermon at Huntingdon. 

Three years after this affair, Dr. Reginald Scot published his'Discoverie of Witchcraft, proving that common opinions ofwitches contracting with devils, spirits, or their familiars, andtheir power to kill, torment, and consume the bodies of men, women, and children, or other creatures, by disease, orotherwise, their flying in the air, &c. , to be but imaginary, erroneous conceptions and novelties: wherein also the lewd, unchristian, practices of witchmongers upon aged, melancholy, ignorant, and superstitious people, in extorting confessions byinhuman terrors and tortures, is notably detected. '[99]

 [99] The edition referred to is that of 1654. The author is commemorated by Hallam in terms of high praise--'A solid and learned person, beyond almost all the English of that age. '--_Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries. _

This work is divided into sixteen books, with a treatise affixedupon devils and spirits, in thirty-four chapters. It contains aninfinity of quotations from or references to the writings ofthose whom the author terms _witch-mongers_; and several chaptersare devoted to a descriptive catalogue of the charms in reputeand diabolical rites of the most extravagant sort. On theaccession of James I. , whose 'Demonologie' was in directopposition to the 'Discoverie, ' it was condemned as monstrouslyheretical; as many copies as could be collected being solemnlycommitted to the flames. This meritorious and curious productionis therefore now scarce. 

Prefixed is a dedicatory epistle, addressed to the RightWorshipful, his loving friend, Mr. Dr. Coldwell, Dean ofRochester, and Mr. Dr. Readman, Archdeacon of Canterbury, inwhich the author appealingly expostulates, 'O Master Archdeacon, is it not pity that that which is said to be done with thealmighty power of the Most High God, and by our Saviour his onlySon Jesus Christ our Lord, should be referred to a baggage oldwoman's nod or wish? Good sir, is it not one manifest kind ofidolatry for them that labour and are laden to come unto witchesto be refreshed? If witches could help whom they are said to havemade sick, I see no reason but remedy might as well be requiredat their hands as a purse demanded of him that hath stolen it. But truly it is manifest idolatry to ask that of a creaturewhich none can give but the Creator. The papist hath some colourof Scripture to maintain his idol of bread, but no Jesuiticaldistinction can cover the witchmongers' idolatry in this behalf. Alas! I am ashamed and sorry to see how many die that, being saidto be bewitched, only seek for magical cures whom wholesome dietand good medicine would have recovered. '[100] An utterance ofcourage and common sense equally rare and useless. Reginald Scot, perhaps the boldest of the early impugners of witchcraft, was yetconvinced apparently of the reality of ghostly apparitions. 

 [100] Writing in an age when the _magical_ powers of steam and electricity were yet undiscovered, it might be a forcible argument to put--'Good Mr. Dean, is it possible for a man to break his fast with you at Rochester, and to dine that day in Durham with Master Dr. Matthew?'

Johannes Wierus, physician to the Duke of Cleves, and a discipleof the well-known Cornelius Agrippa (himself accused of devotionto the black art), in 1563 created considerable sensation by anattack upon the common opinions, without questioning however theprinciples, of the superstition in his 'De Præstigiis DæmonumIncantationibus et Veneficiis. ' His common sense is not so clearas that of the Englishman. Another name, memorable among theadvocates of Reason and Humanity, is Gabriel Naudé. He wasborn at Paris in 1600; he practised as a physician of greatreputation, and was librarian successively to Cardinals Richelieuand Mazarin, and to Queen Christina of Sweden. His book 'Apologiepour les Grands Hommes accusés de Magie, ' published in Paris in1625, was received with great indignation by the Church. Someothers, both on the Continent and in England, at intervals bytheir protests served to prove that a few sparks of reason, hardto be discovered in the thick darkness of superstition, remainedunextinguished; but they availed not to stem the torrent ofincreasing violence and volume. 

A more copious list can be given of the champions of orthodoxyand demonolatry; of whom it is sufficient to enumerate the morenotorious names--Sprenger, Nider, Bodin, Del Rio, James VI. , Glanvil, who compiled or composed elaborate treatises on thesubject; besides whom a cloud of witnesses expressly orincidentally proclaimed the undoubted genuineness of all theacts, phenomena, and circumstances of the diabolic worship;loudly and fiercely denouncing the 'damnable infidelity' of thedissenters--a proof in itself of their own complicity. JeanBodin, a French lawyer, and author of the esteemed treatise 'Dela République, ' was one of the greatest authorities on theorthodox side. His publication 'De la Démonomanie des Sorciers'appeared in Paris in the year 1580: an undertaking prompted byhis having witnessed some of the daily occurring trials. Insteadof being convinced of their folly, he was or affected to be, certain of their truth, setting himself gravely to the task ofpublishing to the world his own observations and convictions. 

One of the most surprising facts in the whole history ofwitchcraft is the insensibility or indifference of even men ofscience, and therefore observation, to the obvious origin of thegreatest part of the confessions elicited; confession of such akind as could be the product only of torture, madness, or someother equally obvious cause. Bodin himself, however, sufficientlyexplains the fact and exposes the secret. 'The trial of thisoffence, ' he enunciates, 'must not be conducted like othercrimes. Whoever adheres to the ordinary course of justiceperverts the spirit of the law both divine and human. He who isaccused of sorcery should _never_ be acquitted unless the maliceof the prosecutor be clearer than the sun; for it is so difficultto bring full proof of this secret crime, that out of a millionof witches _not one would be convicted if the usual course werefollowed_. '[101] He speaks of an old woman sentenced to the stakeafter confessing to having been transported to the sabbath in astate of insensibility. Her judges, anxious to know how this waseffected, released her from her fetters, when she rubbed herselfon the different parts of her body with a prepared unguent andsoon became insensible, stiff, and apparently dead. Havingremained in that condition for five hours, the witch as suddenlyrevived, relating to the trembling inquisitors a number ofextraordinary things proving she must have been _spiritually_transported to distant places. [102] An earlier advocate of theorthodox cause was a Swiss friar, Nider, who wrote a workentitled 'Formicarium' (_Ant-Hill_) on the various sins againstreligion. One section is employed in the consideration ofsorcery. Nider was one of the inquisitors who distinguishedthemselves by their successful zeal in the beginning of thecentury. 

 [101] Yet the lawyer who enunciated such a maxim as this has been celebrated for an unusual liberality of sentiment in religious and political matters, as well as for his learning. Dugald Stewart commends 'the liberal and moderate views of this philosophical politician, ' as shown in the treatise _De la République_, and states that he knows of 'no political writer of the same date whose extensive, and various, and discriminating reading appears to me to have contributed more to facilitate and to guide the researches of his successors, or whose references to ancient learning have been more frequently transcribed without acknowledgment. '--Bayle considered him 'one of the ablest men that appeared in France during the sixteenth century. '--_Dissertation First_ in the _Encyclopædia Britannica_. Hallam (_Introduction to the Literature of Europe_) occupies several of his pages in the review of Bodin's writings. Jean Bodin, however, on the authority of his friend De Thou, did not escape suspicion himself of being heretical. 

 [102] In witchcraft (as in the sacramental mystery) it was a subject for much doubt and dispute whether there might not be simply a _spiritual_ (without a _real corporeal_) presence at the sabbath. Each one decided according to the degree of his orthodoxy. 

The Swiss witches, like the old Italian larvæ and most of thesisterhood, display extraordinary affection for the blood ofnew-born unbaptized infants; and it is a great desideratum tokill them before the preventive rite has been irrevocablyadministered; for the bodies of unbaptized children were almostindispensable in the witches' preparations. Soon as buried theircorpses are dug out of their graves and carried away to the placeof assembly, where they are boiled down for the fat for makingthe ointments. [103] The liquid in which they are boiled iscarefully preserved; and the person who tastes it is immediatelyinitiated into all the mysteries of sorcery. A witch, judiciallyexamined by the papal commission which compiled the 'Malleus, 'gives evidence of the prevalence of this practice: 'We lie inwait for children. These are often found dead by their parents;and the simple people believe that they have themselves overlainthem, or that they died from natural causes; but it is we whohave destroyed them. We steal them out of the grave, and boilthem with lime till all the flesh is loosed from the bones and isreduced to one mass. We make of the firm part an ointment, andfill a bottle with the fluid; and whoever drinks with dueceremonies of this belongs to our league, and is already capableof bewitching. ' 'Finger of birth-strangled babe' is one of theingredients of that widely-collected composition of the Macbethwitches. 

 [103] A practice not entirely out of repute at the present day if we may credit a statement in the _Courrier du Hâvre_ (as quoted in _The Times_ newspaper, Nov. 7, 1864), that recently the corpse of an old woman was dug up for the purpose of obtaining the fat, &c. , as a preventive charm against witchcraft, by a person living in the neighbourhood of Hâvre. 

The case at Warboys, which, connected with a family of somedistinction, occasioned unusual interest, was tried in the year1593. The village of Warboys, or Warbois, is situated in theneighbourhood of Huntingdon. One of the most influential ofthe inhabitants was a gentleman of respectability, RobertThrogmorton, who was on friendly terms with the Cromwells ofHitchinbrook, and the lord of the manor, Sir Henry Cromwell. Three criminals--old Samuel, his wife, and Agnes Samuel theirdaughter, were tried and condemned by Mr. Justice Fenner forbewitching Mr. Throgmorton's five children, seven servants, theLady Cromwell, and others. The father and daughter maintainedtheir innocence to the last; the old woman confessed. A factwhich makes this affair more remarkable is, that with the fortypounds escheated to him, as lord of the manor, out of theproperty of the convicts, Sir Samuel Cromwell founded an annualsermon or lecture upon the sin of witchcraft, to be preached attheir town every Lady-day, by a Doctor or Bachelor of Divinity ofQueen's College, Cambridge; the sum of forty pounds beingentrusted to the Mayor and Aldermen of Huntingdon, for arent-charge of forty shillings yearly to be paid to the selectpreacher. This lecture, says Dr. Francis Hutchison, is continuedto this day--1718. 

Four years previously to this important trial, Jane Throgmorton, a girl ten years of age, was first suddenly attacked with strangeconvulsive fits, which continued daily, and even several times inthe day, without intermission. One day, soon after the firstseizure, Mother Samuel coming into the Throgmortons' house, seated herself as customary in a chimney-corner near the child, who was just recovering from one of her fits. The girl no soonernoticed her than she began to cry out, pointing to the old woman, 'Did you ever see one more like a witch than she is? Take off herblack-thumbed cap, for I cannot abide to look at her. ' Theillness becoming worse, they sent to Cambridge to consult Dr. Barrow, an experienced physician in that town; but he coulddiscover no natural disease. A month later, the other childrenwere similarly seized, and persuaded of Mother Samuel's guilt. The parents' increasing suspicions, entertained by the doctors, were confirmed when the servants were also attacked. About themiddle of March, 1590, Lady Cromwell arrived on a visit to theThrogmortons; and being much affected at the sufferings of thepatients, sent for the suspected person, whom she charged withbeing the malicious cause. Finding all entreaty of no avail inextorting an admission of guilt, Lady Cromwell suddenly andunexpectedly cut off a lock of the witch's hair (a powerfulcounter-charm), at the same time secretly placing it in Mrs. Throgmorton's hands, desiring her to burn it. Indignant, theaccused addressed the lady, 'Madam, why do you use me thus? Inever did you any harm _as yet_'--words afterwards recollected. 'That night, ' says the narrative, 'my lady Cromwell was suddenlytroubled in her sleep by a cat which Mother S. Had sent her, which offered to pluck the skin and flesh off her bones and arms. The struggle betwixt the cat and the lady was so great in her bedthat night, and she made so terrible a noise, that she waked herbedfellow Mrs. C. ' Whether, 'as some sager' might think, it was anightmare (a sort of incubus which terrified the disorderedimagination of the ancients), or some more substantial objectthat disturbed the rest of the lady, it is not important todecide; but next day Lady Cromwell was laid up with an incurableillness. Holding out obstinately against all threats andpromises, the reputed witch was at length induced to pronounce anexorcism, when the afflicted were immediately for the timedispossessed. 'Next day being Christmas-eve and the Sabbath, Dr. Donington [vicar of the parish] chose his text of repentance outof the _Psalms_, and communicating her confession to theassembly, directed his discourse chiefly to that purposeto comfort a penitent heart that it might affect her. Allsermon-time Mother S. Wept and lamented, and was frequently soloud in her passions, that she drew the eyes of the congregationupon her. ' On the morrow, greatly to the disappointment of theneighbours, she contradicted her former confession, declaring itwas extracted by surprise at finding her exorcism had relievedthe child, unconscious of what she was saying. 

The case was afterwards carried before the Bishop of Lincoln. Nowgreatly alarmed, the old woman made a fresh announcement that shewas really a witch; that she owned several spirits (of the ninemay be enumerated the fantastic names of Pluck, Hardname, Catch, Smack, Blew), one of whom was used to appear in the shape of achicken, and suck her chin. The mother and daughters were, uponthis voluntary admission, committed to Huntingdon gaol. Of thepossessed Jane Throgmorton seems to have been most familiar withthe demons. [104]

 [104] The following ravings of epilepsy, or of whatever was the disorder of the girl, are part of the evidence of Dr. Donington, clergyman in the town, and were narrated and could be received as grave evidence in a court of justice. They will serve as a specimen of the rest. The girl and the spirit known as _Catch_ are engaged in the little by-play. 'After supper, as soon as her parents were risen, she fell into the same fit again as before, and then became senseless, and in a little time, opening her mouth, she said, "Will this hold for ever? I hope it will be better one day. From whence come you now, Catch, limping? I hope you have met with your match. " Catch answered that Smack and he had been fighting, and that Smack had broken his leg. Said she, "That Smack is a shrewd fellow; methinks I would I could see him. Pluck came last night with his head broke, and now you have broken your leg. I hope he will break both your necks before he hath done with you. " Catch answered that he would be even with him before he had done. Then, said she, "Put forth your other leg, and let me see if I can break that, " having a stick in her hand. The spirit told her she could not hit him. "Can I not hit you?" said she; "let me try. " Then the spirit put forth his leg, and she lifted up the stick easily, and suddenly struck the ground.... So she seemed divers times to strike at the spirit; but he leaped over the stick, as she said, like a Jackanapes. So after many such tricks the spirit went away, and she came out of her fit, continuing all that night and the next day very sick and full of pain in her legs. '

The sessions at Huntingdon began April 4, 1593, when the threeSamuels were arraigned; and the above charges, with much more ofthe same sort, were repeated: the indictments specifying theparticular offences against the children and servants of theThrogmortons, and the 'bewitching unto death' of the ladyCromwell. The grand jury found a true bill immediately, and theywere put upon their trial in court. After a mass of nonsense hadbeen gone through, 'the judge, justices, and jury said the casewas apparent, and their consciences were well satisfied that thesaid witches were guilty, and deserved death. ' When sentence ofdeath was pronounced, the old woman, sixty years of age, pleaded, in arrest of judgment, that she was with child--a pleading whichproduced only a derisive shout of laughter in court. Husband anddaughter asserted their innocence to the last. All three werehanged. From the moment of execution, we are assured, RobertThrogmorton's children were permanently freed from all theirsufferings. Such, briefly, are the circumstances of a witch casethat resulted in the sending to the gallows three harmlesswretches, and in the founding an annual sermon which perpetuatedthe memory of an iniquitous act and of an impossible crime. Thesermon, it may be presumed, like other similar survivinginstitutions, was preserved in the eighteenth century more forthe benefit of the select preacher than for that of the people. 

CHAPTER IV. 

 Astrology in Antiquity--Modern Astrology and Alchymy--Torralvo--Adventures of Dr. Dee and Edward Kelly--Prospero and Comus Types respectively of the Theurgic and Goetic Arts--Magicians on the Stage in the 16th century--Occult Science in Southern Europe--Causes of the inevitable mistakes of the pre-Scientific Ages. 

The nobler arts of magic, astrology, alchymy, necromancy, &c. , were equally in vogue in this age with that of the infernal artproper. But they were more respected. Professors of those artswere habitually sought for with great eagerness by the highestpersonages, and often munificently rewarded. In antiquityastrology had been peculiarly Oriental in its origin andpractice. The Egyptians, and especially the Chaldæans, introducedthe foreign art to the West among the Greeks and Italians; theArabs revived it in Western Europe in the Middle Age. Under theearly Roman Empire the Chaldaic art exercised and enjoyedconsiderable influence and reputation, if it was often subject tosudden persecutions. Augustus was assisted to the throne, andSeverus selected his wife, by its means. After it had oncefirmly established itself in the West, [105] the Orientalastrology was soon developed and reduced to a more regularsystem; and in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Dee andLilly enjoyed a greater reputation than even Figulus orThrasyllus had obtained in the first century. Queen Elizabeth andCatherine di Medici (two of the astutest persons of their age)patronised them. Dr. Dee in England, and Nostradamus in France, were of this class. Dr. Caius, third founder of a college stillbearing his name in the university of Cambridge, Kelly, Ashmole, and Lilly, are well-known names in the astrological history ofthis period. Torralvo, whose fame as an aerial voyager isimmortalised by Cervantes in 'Don Quixote, ' was as great amagician in Spain and Italy as Dee in England, although not sofamiliar to English readers as their countryman, the protégé ofElizabeth. Neither was his magical faculty so well rewarded. Dr. Torralvo, a physician, had studied medicine and philosophy withextraordinary success, and was high in the confidence of manyof the eminent personages of Spain and Italy, for whom hefortunately predicted future success. A confirmed infidel orfreethinker, he was denounced to the Inquisition by the treacheryof an associate as denying or disputing the immortality of thesoul, as well as the divinity of Christ. This was in 1529. Torralvo, put to the torture, admitted that his informing spirit, Zequiel, was a demon by whose assistance he performed his aerialjourneys and all his extraordinary feats, both of prophecy and ofactual power. Some part of the severity of the tortures wasremitted by the demon's opportune reply to the curiosity of thepresiding inquisitors, that Luther and the Reformers were bad andcunning men. Torralvo seems to have avoided the extreme penaltyof fire by recanting his heresies, submitting to the superiorjudgment of his gaolers, and still more by the interest of hispowerful employers; and he was liberated not long afterwards. 

 [105] The diffusion and progress of astrology in the last two centuries before the Empire, in Greece and Italy, was favoured chiefly by the four following causes: its resemblance to the meteorological astrology of the Greeks; the belief in the conversion of the souls of men into stars; the cessation of the oracles; the belief in a tutelary genius. --Sir G. C. Lewis's _Historical Survey of the Astronomy of the Ancients_, chap. V. 

The life of Dr. Dee, an eminent Cambridge mathematician, and ofhis associate Edward Kelly, forms a curious biography. Dee wasborn in 1527. He studied at the English and foreign universitieswith great success and applause; and while the Princess Elizabethwas quite young he acquired her friendship, maintained byfrequent correspondence, and on her succession to the throne thequeen showed her good will in a conspicuous manner. John Dee leftto posterity a diary in which he has inserted a regular accountof his conjurations, prophetic intimations, and magicalresources. Notwithstanding his mathematical acumen, he was thedupe of his cunning subordinate--more of a knave, probably, thanhis master. In 1583 a Polish prince, Albert Laski, visiting theEnglish court, frequented the society of the renowned astrologer, by whom he was initiated in the secrets of the art; and predictedto be the future means of an important revolution in Europe. Theastrologers wandered over all Germany, at one time favourablyreceived by the credulity, at another time ignominiously ejectedby the indignant disappointment, of a patron. [106] Dee returnedto England in 1589, and was finally appointed to the wardenshipof the college at Manchester. In James's reign he was wellreceived at Court, his reputation as a magician increasing; andin 1604 he is found presenting a petition to the king, imploringhis good offices in dispelling the injurious imputation of being'a conjuror, or caller, or invocator of devils. ' Lilly, the mostcelebrated magician of the seventeenth century in England, was inthe highest repute during the civil wars: his prophetic serviceswere sought with equal anxiety by royalists and patriots, by kingand parliament. [107] Sometimes the professor of the occultscience may have been his own dupe: oftener he imposed andspeculated upon the credulity of others. 

 [106] While traversing Bohemia, on a particular occasion, it was revealed to be God's pleasure that the two friends should have a community of wives; a little episode noted in Dee's journal. 'On Sunday, May 3, 1587, I, John Dee, Edward Kelly, and our two wives, covenanted with God, and subscribed the same for indissoluble unities, charity, and friendship keeping between us four, and all things between us to be common, as God by sundry means willed us to do. ' A sort of inspiration of frequent occurrence in religious revelations, from the times of the Arabian to those of the American prophet. 

 [107] William Lilly wrote a History of his own life and times. His adroitness in accommodating his prophecies to the alternating chances of the war does him considerable credit as a prophet. 

Prospero is the type of the Theurgic, as Comus is of the Goetic, magician. His spiritual minister belongs to the order of good, orat least middle spirits--

 'Too black for heav'n, and yet too white for hell. '[108]

 [108] Released by his new lord from the sorceric spell of that 'damn'd witch Sycorax, ' he comes gratefully, if somewhat weariedly, to answer his 'blest pleasure; be't to fly, to swim, to dive into the fire, to ride on the curl'd clouds, ' &c. 

Prospero, by an irresistible magic, subdued to his service thereluctant Caliban, a monster 'got by the devil himself upon hiswicked dam:' but that semi-demon is degraded into a mere beast ofburden, brutal and savage, with little of the spiritual essenceof his male parent. Comus, as represented in that most beautifuldrama by the genius of Milton, is of the classic rather thanChristian sort: he is the true son of Circe, using his mother'smethod of enchantment, transforming his unwary victims into thevarious forms or faces of the bestial herd. Like the islandmagician without his magical garment, the wicked enchanterwithout his wand loses his sorceric power; and--

 'Without his rod reversed, And backward mutters of dissevering power, '

it is not possible to disenchant his spell-bound prisoners. 

In the sixteenth century many wonderful stories obtained of thetremendous feats of the magic art. Those that related the livesof Bacon, and of Faust (of German origin), were best known inEngland; and, in the dramatic form, were represented on thestage. The comedy of 'Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, ' and thetragedy of 'The Life and Death of Dr. Faustus, ' are perhaps themost esteemed of the dramatic writings of the age which precededthe appearance of Shakspeare. In the latter Faustus makes acompact with the devil, by which a familiar spirit and apreternatural art are granted him for twenty-four years. Atthe end of this period his soul is to be the reward of thedemons. [109] From the 'Faustus' of Christopher Marlow, Goethe hasderived the name and idea of the most celebrated tragedy of ourday. 

 [109] Conscious of his approaching fate, the trembling magician replies to the anxious inquiries of his surrounding pupils--'"For the vain pleasure of four-and-twenty years hath Faustus lost eternal joy and felicity. I writ them a bill with my own blood; the date is expired; this is the time, and he will fetch me. " First Scholar--"Why did not Faustus tell us of this before, that divines might have prayed for thee?" Faust--"Oft have I thought to have done so; but the devil threatened to tear me in pieces if I named God; to fetch me body and soul if I once gave ear to divinity. And now it is too late. "' As the fearful moment fast approaches, Dr. Faustus, orthodox on the subject of the duration of future punishment, exclaims in agony--

 'Oh! if my soul must suffer for my sin, Impose some end to my incessant pain. Let Faustus live in hell a thousand years-- A hundred thousand, and at the last be saved: No end is limited to damned souls. Why wert thou not a creature wanting soul? Oh, why is this immortal that thou hast?' &c. 

 Mephistopheles, it need hardly be added, was on this occasion true to his reputation for punctuality. _Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay_ is remarked for being one of the last dramatic pieces in which the devil appears on the stage in his proper person--1591. It is also noticeable that he is the only Scripture character in the new form of the play retained from the _miracles_ which delighted the spectators in the fifteenth century, who were at once edified and gratified by the corporal chastisement inflicted upon his vicarious back. 

Magic and necromantic prowess was equally recognised in SouthernEurope. The Italian poets employed such imposing paraphernalia inthe construction of an epic; and Cervantes has ridiculed theprevailing belief of his countrymen. [110]

 [110] Benvenuto Cellini, the Florentine engraver, in his amusing _Autobiography_, astonishes his readers with some necromantic wonders of which he was an eyewitness. Cellini had become acquainted and enamoured with a beautiful Sicilian, from whom he was suddenly separated. He tells with his accustomed candour and confidence, 'I was then indulging myself in pleasures of all sorts, and engaged in another amour to cancel the memory of my Sicilian mistress. It happened, through a variety of odd accidents, that I made acquaintance with a Sicilian priest, who was a man of genius, and well versed in the Latin and Greek authors. Happening one day to have some conversation with him upon the art of necromancy, I, who had a great desire to know something of the matter, told him I had all my life felt a curiosity to be acquainted with the mysteries of this art. The priest made answer that the man must be of a resolute and steady temper who enters upon that study. ' And so it should seem from the event. One night, Cellini, with a companion familiar with the Black Art, attended the priest to the Colosseum, where the latter, 'according to the custom of necromancy, began to draw marks upon the ground, with the most impressive ceremonies imaginable; he likewise brought thither _asaf[oe]tida, several precious perfumes and fire, with some compositions which diffused noisome odours_. ' Although several legions of devils obeyed the summons of the conjurations or compositions, the sorceric rites were not attended with complete success. But on a succeeding night, 'the necromancer having begun to make his tremendous invocations, called by their names a multitude of demons who were the leaders of the several legions, and invoked them by the virtue and power of the eternal uncreated God, who lives for ever, insomuch that the amphitheatre was almost in an instant filled with demons a hundred times more numerous than at the former conjuration ... I, by the direction of the necromancer, again desired to be in the company of my Angelica. The former thereupon turning to me said, "Know that they have declared that in the space of a month you shall be in her company. " He then requested me to stand resolutely by him, because the legion were now above a thousand more in number than he had designed; and besides, these were the most dangerous, so that after they had answered my question it behoved him to be civil to them and dismiss them quietly. ' The infernal legions were more easily evoked than dismissed. He proceeds--'Though I was as much terrified as any of them, I did my utmost to conceal the terror I felt; so that I greatly contributed to inspire the rest with resolution. But the truth is, ' ingenuously confesses the amorous artist, 'I gave myself over for a dead man, seeing the horrid fright the necromancer was in. '--_Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini_, chap. Xiii. , Roscoe's transl. --The information was verified, and Benvenuto enjoyed the society of his mistress at the time foretold. 

Alchymy, the science of the transformation of baser metals intogold, a pursuit which engaged the anxious thought and wasted thehealth, time, and fortunes of numbers of fanatical empirics, wasone of the most prized of the abstruse _occult_ arts. Monarchs, princes, the great of all countries, eagerly vied amongthemselves in encouraging with promises and sometimes with moresubstantial incentives the zeal of their illusive search; andHenry IV. Of France could see no reason why, if the bread andwine were transubstantiated so miraculously, a metal could not betransformed as well. [111]

 [111] The class of horoscopists (the old Chaldaic _genethliacs_), or those who predicted the fortunes of individuals by an examination of the planet which presided at the natal hour, was as much in vogue as that of any other of the masters of the occult arts; and La Fontaine, towards the end of the seventeenth century, apostrophises the class:

 'Charlatans, faiseurs d'horoscope! Quittez les cours des princes de l'Europe; Emmenez avec vous les souffleurs tout d'un temps; Vous ne méritez pas plus de foi. '.... 

 _Fables_, ii. 13. 

 But it is only necessary to recollect the name of Cagliostro (Balsamo) and others who in the eighteenth century could successfully speculate upon the credulity of people of rank and education, to moderate our wonder at the success of earlier empirics. 

Among the eminent names of self-styled or reputed masters of thenobler or white magic, some, like the celebrated Paracelsus, weremen of extraordinary attainments and largely acquainted with thesecrets of natural science. A necessarily imperfect knowledge, anatural desire to impose upon the ignorant wonder of the vulgar, and the vanity of a learning which was ambitious of exhibiting, in the most imposing if less intelligible way, their superiorknowledge, were probably the mixed causes which led suchdistinguished scholars as Paracelsus, Cornelius Agrippa, Cardan, and Campanella to oppress themselves and their readers with amass of unintelligible rubbish and cabalistic mysticism. [112]Slow and gradual as are the successive advances in the knowledgeand improvement of mankind, it would not be reasonable to besurprised that preceding generations could not at once attain tothe knowledge of a maturer age; and the teachers of mankindgroped their dark and uncertain way in ages destitute of theillumination of modern times. '[113]

 [112]

 'Cardan believed great states depend Upon the tip o' th' Bear's tail's end, '

 correctly enough expresses both the persuasion of the public and that of many of the soi-disant philosophers of the intimate dependence of the fates of both states and individuals of this globe upon other globes in the universe. 

 [113] It was not so much a want of sufficient observation of known facts, as the want of a true method and of verification, which rendered the investigations of the earlier philosophers so vague and uncertain. And the same causes which necessarily prevented Aristotle, the greatest intellect perhaps that has ever illuminated the world, from attaining to the greater perfection of the modern philosophy, are applicable, in a greater degree, to the case of the mediæval and later discoverers. The causes of the failure of the pre-scientific world are well stated by a living writer. 'Men cannot, or at least they will not, await the tardy results of discovery; they will not sit down in avowed ignorance. Imagination supplies the deficiencies of observation. A theoretic arch is thrown across the chasm, because men are unwilling to wait till a solid bridge be constructed.... The early thinkers, by reason of the very splendour of their capacities, were not less incompetent to follow the slow processes of scientific investigation, than a tribe of martial savages to adopt the strategy and discipline of modern armies. No accumulated laws, no well-tried methods existed for their aid. The elementary laws in each department were mostly undetected. ' The guide of knowledge is verification. 'The complexity of phenomena is that of a labyrinth, the paths of which cross and recross each other; one wrong turn causes the wanderer infinite perplexity. Verification is the Ariadne-thread by which the real issues may be found. Unhappily, the process of verification is slow, tedious, often difficult and deceptive; and we are by nature lazy and impatient, hating labour, eager to obtain. Hence credulity. We accept facts without scrutiny, inductions without proof; and we yield to our disposition to believe that the order of phenomena must correspond with our conceptions. ' A profound truth is contained in the assertion of Comte (_Cours de Philosophie Positive_) that 'men have still more need of method than of doctrine, of education than of instruction. '--_Aristotle_, by G. H. Lewes. 

CHAPTER V. 

 Sorcery in Southern Europe--Cause of the Retention of the Demonological Creed among the Protestant Sects--Calvinists the most Fanatical of the Reformed Churches--Witch-Creed sanctioned in the Authorised Version of the Sacred Scriptures--The Witch-Act of 1604--James VI. 's 'Demonologie'--Lycanthropy and Executions in France--The French Provincial Parliaments active in passing Laws against the various Witch-practices--Witchcraft in the Pyrenees--Commission of Inquiry appointed--Its Results--Demonology in Spain. 

In the annals of black magic, the silent tribunals of theInquisition in Southern Europe which has consigned so manythousands of heretics to the torture room and to the flames, donot reveal so many trials for the simple crime of witchcraft asthe tribunals of the more northern peoples: there all dissentfrom Catholic and priestly dogma was believed to be inspired bythe powers of hell, deserving a common punishment, whether in theform of denial of transubstantiation, infallibility, of skill inmagic, or of the vulgar practice of sorcery. Throughout Europepenalties and prosecutions were being continually enacted. Thepopes in Italy fulminated abroad their decrees, and theparliaments of France were almost daily engaged in pronouncingsentence. 

Where the papal yoke had been thrown off in Northern Germany, inScotland, and in England, the belief and the persecution remainedin full force, indeed greatly increased; and it is obvious toinquire the cause of the retention, with many additions, of thedoctrine of witchcraft by those who had at last finally rejectedwith scorn most of the grosser religious dogmas of the oldChurch, who were so loud in their just denunciation of Catholictyranny and superstition. A general answer might be given thatthe Reformation of the sixteenth century, while it swept away inthose countries in which it was effected the most injuriousprinciples of ecclesiasticism, the principles of infallibilityand authority in matters of faith, for the destruction of whichgratitude is due to the independent minds of Luther, Zuinglius, and others, was yet far from complete in its negations. Theleaders of that great revolution, with all their genius andboldness, could only partially free themselves from theprejudices of education and of the age. To develope the importantprinciples they established, the rights of private judgment andreligious freedom, was the legacy and duty of their successors; aduty which they failed to perform, to the incalculable misfortuneof succeeding generations. The Sacred Scriptures, the commonand only authority on faith among the different sectionsof Protestantism, unfortunately seemed to inculcate the dreadpower of the devil and his malicious purposes, and both theJewish and Christian Scriptures apparently taught the realityof witchcraft. Theologians of all parties would have as easilydared to question the existence of God himself as to doubt theactual power of that other deity, and the unbelievers in hisuniversal interference were not illogically stigmatised asatheists. With the Protestants some adventitious circumstancesmight make a particular church more fanatical and furious thananother, and the Calvinists have deserved the palm for thebitterest persecution of witchcraft. But neither the Lutheran northe Anglican section is exempt from the odious imputation. [114]

 [114] Lord Peter, and his humbler brothers Martin and Jack, in different degrees, are all of them obnoxious to the accusation; and Bossuet (_Variations des Eglises Protestantes_, xi. 201), who is assured that St. Paul predicted the 'doctrines of devils' to be characteristic of Manichæan and Albigensian heresy, might have more safely interpreted the prophecy as applicable to the universal Christian Church (at least of Western Europe) of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 

The followers of Calvin were most deeply imbued with hatred andhorror of Catholic practices, and, adopting the old prejudice orpolicy of their antagonists, they were willing to confound thesuperstitious rites of Catholicism with those of demonolatry. TheAnglican Church party, whose principles were not so entirelyopposite to the old religion, had far less antipathy: until therevolution of 1688 it was for the most part engaged in contendingagainst liberty rather than against despotism of conscience;against Calvinism than against Catholicism. Yet the Church ofEngland is exposed to the reproach of having sanctioned thecommon opinions in the most authoritative manner. In theauthorised version of the Sacred Scriptures, in the translationof which into the English language forty-seven selected divines, eminent for position and learning, could concur in consecratinga vulgar superstition, the most imposing sanction was given. Had they possessed either common sense or courage, these Anglicandivines might have expressed their disbelief or doubt ofits truth by a more rational, and possibly more proper, interpretation of the Hebrew and Greek expressions; or if thatwas not possible, by an accompanying unequivocal protest. But thesubservience as well as superstition of the English Church underthe last of the Tudors and under the Stuarts is equally a matterof fact and of reprobation. 

It was in the first year of the first King of Great Britain thatthe English Parliament passed the Act which remained in force, orat least on the Statute Book, until towards the middle of lastcentury. [115] After due consideration the bill passed bothHouses; and by it, it was enacted that 'If any person shall useany invocation or conjuration of any evil or wicked spirit, orshall consult, covenant with, entertain, employ, feed, or rewardany evil or cursed spirit to or for any intent or purpose, ortake up any dead man, woman, or child out of the grave--or theskin, bone, or any part of the dead person, to be employed orused in any manner of witchcraft, sorcery, charm, or enchantment;or shall use, exercise, or practice any sort of witchcraft, &c. , whereby any person shall be destroyed, killed, wasted, consumed, pined or lamed in any part of the body; that every such personbeing convicted shall suffer death. ' Twelve bishops sat in theCommittee of the Upper House. [116]

 [115] The 'Witch Act' of James I. Was passed in the year 1604. The new translation, or the present authorised version, of the Bible, was executed in 1607. The inference seems plain. An ecclesiastical canon passed at the same period, which prohibits the inferior clergy from exorcising without episcopal licence, proves at the same time the prevalence of 'possession' and the prevalence of exorcism in the beginning of the seventeenth century. 

 [116] The parliament of James I. Would have done wisely to have embraced the philosophic sentiment of a Hungarian prince (1095-1114) who is said to have dismissed the absurd superstition with laconic brevity: 'De strigis vero, quæ non sunt, nulla quæstio fiat. '

The Scottish Parliament, during Queen Mary's reign, anathematisedthe _papistical_ practices; and from that time the annals ofScottish judicature are filled with records of trials andconvictions. James was educated among the stern adherents ofCalvin. In whatever matters of ecclesiastical faith and rule thecountryman of Knox may have deviated from the teaching of hispreceptors, he maintained with constant zeal his faith in thedevil's omnipotence; and we may be disposed to concede thetitle of 'Defender of the Faith' (so confidently prefixed tosuccessive editions of the Authorised Version) to his activity inthe extermination of witches, rather than to his hatred ofpriestcraft. While monarch only of the Northern kingdom, hepublished a denunciation of the damnable infidelity of the 'WitchAdvocates, ' and his own unhesitating belief. James VI. And hisclerical advisers were persuaded, or affected to be persuaded, that the devil, with all his hellish crew, was conspiring tofrustrate the beneficial intentions of a pious Protestant prince. Infernal despair and rage reached the climax when the marriagewith the Danish princess was to be effected. But, far from beingterrified by so formidable a conspiracy, he gloried in thepersuasion that he was the devil's greatest enemy; and the manwho shuddered at the sight of a drawn sword was not afraid toenter the lists against the _invisible_ spiritual enemy. 

The 'Demonologie' was published at Edinburgh in 1597. The authorintroduces his book with these words: 'The fearful abounding atthis time in this country of these detestable slaves of thedevil, the witches or enchanters, hath moved me (beloved reader)to despatch in post this following treatise of mine, not in anywise (as I protest) to serve for a show of my learning andingine, but only moved of conscience to press thereby so far as Ican to resolve the doubting hearts of many; both that suchassaults of Sathan are most certainly practised, and that theinstruments thereof merits most severely to be punished: againstthe damnable opinions of two principally in our age, whereof theone called Scot, an Englishman, is not ashamed in public print todeny that there can be such a thing as witchcraft, and somaintains the old error of the Sadducees in denying of spirits. The other, called Wierus, a German physician, sets out a publicapology for all these crafts-folks, whereby procuring for theirimpunity, he plainly bewrays himself to have been one of thatprofession. And for to make this treatise the more pleasant andfacile, I have put it in form of a dialogue, which I have dividedinto three books: the first speaking of magic in general, andnecromancy in special; the second, of sorcery and witchcraft; andthe third contains a discourse of all those kinds of spirits andspectres that appears and troubles persons, together with aconclusion of the whole work. My intention in this labour isonly to prove two things, as I have already said: the one, thatsuch devilish arts have been and are; the other, what exact trialand severe punishment they merit; and therefore reason I whatkind of things are possible to be performed in these arts, andby what natural causes they may be. Not that I touch everyparticular thing of the devil's power, for that were infinite;but only, to speak scholasticly (since this cannot be spoken inour language), I reason upon _genus_, leaving _species_ and_differentia_ to be comprehended therein. '[117]

 [117] Speculating on the manner of witches' aerial travels, he thinks, 'Another way is somewhat more strange, and yet it is possible to be true: which is, by being carried by the force of their spirit, which is their conductor, either above the earth or above the sea swiftly to the place where they are to meet: which I am persuaded to be likewise possible, in respect that as Habakkuk was carried by the angel in that form to the den where Daniel lay, so think I the devil will be ready to imitate God as well in that as in other things, which is much more possible to him to do, being a spirit, than to a mighty wind, being but a natural meteor to transport from one place to another a solid body, as is commonly and daily seen in practice. But in this violent form they cannot be carried but a short bounds, agreeing with the space that they may retain their breath; for if it were longer their breath could not remain unextinguished, their body being carried in such a violent and forcible manner.... And in this transporting they say themselves that they are invisible to any other, except amongst themselves. For if the devil may form what kind of impressions he pleases in the air, as I have said before, speaking of magic, why may he not far easier thicken and obscure so the air that is next about them, by contracting it straight together that the beams of any other man's eyes cannot pierce through the same to see them?' &c. --_Cyclopædia of English Literature_, edited by Robert Chambers. 

The following injunction is characteristic of all persecutingmaxims, and is worthy of the disciple of Bodin: 'Witches ought tobe put to death according to the law of God, the civil and theimperial law, and the municipal law of all Christian nations. Yea, to spare the life and not to strike whom God bids strike, and so severely in so odious a treason against God, is not onlyunlawful but doubtless as great a sin in the magistrate as wasSaul's sparing Agag. ' It is insisted upon by this _sagacious_author (echoing the rules laid down in the 'Malleus'), that anyand every evidence is good against an exceptional crime: that thetestimony of the youngest children, and of persons of the mostinfamous character, not only may, but ought to be, received. 

This mischievous production is a curious collection ofdemonological learning and experience, exhibiting the reputedpractices and ceremonies of witches, the mode of detecting them, &c. ; but is useless even for the purpose of showing the popularScottish or English notions, being chiefly a medley of classicalor foreign ideas, inserted apparently (spite of the royalauthor's assurance to the contrary) to parade an array ofabstruse and pedantic learning. That some of the excessive terrorsaid to have been exhibited was simulated to promote hispretensions to the especial hostility of Satan, is probable: butthat also he was impressed, in some degree, with a real andlively fear scarcely admits of doubt. The modern Solomon mightwell have blushed at the superior common sense of a barbaricchief; and the 'judges of the seventeenth century might have beeninstructed and confounded at the superior wisdom of Rotharis[a Lombardic prince], who derides the absurd superstition andprotects the wretched victims of popular or judicial cruelty. '[118]

 [118] _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, xlv. It would have been well for his subjects if he could have congratulated himself, like Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (the model of philosophic princes, and a more practically virtuous, if not wiser, philosopher than the proverbial Solomon, and of whom Niebuhr, _History of Rome_, v. , asserts, 'If there is any sublime human virtue, it is his'), that he had learnt from his instructors to laugh at the bugbears of witches and demons. --[Greek: Ta eis heauton. ]--_The Meditations of M. A. Antoninus. _

Previously to the 'Witch Act, ' the charge of sorcery was, in mostcases, a subordinate and subsidiary one, attached to variouspolitical or other indictments. Henceforward the practice of thepeculiar offence might be entirely independent of any moresubstantial accusation. In England, compared with the othercountries of Europe, folly more than ferocity, perhaps, generallycharacterises the proceedings of the tribunals. During thepre-Reformation ages, France, even more than her islandneighbour, suffered from the crime. The fates of the Templars, ofJeanne d'Arc, of Arras, of those suspected of causing the madking's, Charles VI. , derangement (when many of the _white_witches, or wizards, 'mischievously good, ' suffered for failing, by a pretended skill, to effect his promised cure) are some ofthe more conspicuous examples. But in France, as in the rest ofEurope, it was in the post-feudal period that prosecutions becameof almost daily occurrence. 

A prevalent kind of sorcery was that of lycanthropy, as it wascalled, a prejudice derived, it seems, in part from thePythagorean metempsychosis. A few cases will illustrate thenature of this stupendous transformation. That it is mostlyfound to take place in France and in the southern districts, thecountry of wolves, that still make their ravages there, is a facteasily intelligible; and if the devil can enter into swine, hecan also, in the opinion of the demonologists, as easily enterinto wolves. At Dôle, in 1573, a loup-garou, or wehr-wolf(man-wolf), was accused of devastating the country and devouringlittle children. The indictment was read by Henri Camus, doctorof laws and counsellor of the king, to the effect that theaccused, Gilles Garnier, had killed a girl twelve years of age, having torn her to pieces, partly with his teeth, and partly withhis wolf's paws; that having dragged the body into the forest, hethere devoured the larger portion, reserving the remainder forhis wife; also that, by reason of injuries inflicted in a similarway on another young girl, the loup-garou had occasioned herdeath; also that he had devoured a boy of thirteen, tearing himlimb by limb; that he displayed the same unnatural propensitieseven in his own proper shape. Fifty persons were found to bearwitness; and he was put to the rack, which elicited an unreservedconfession. He was then brought back into court, when Dr. Camus, in the name of the Parliament of Dôle, pronounced the followingsentence: 'Seeing that Gilles Garnier has, by the testimony ofcredible witnesses and by his own spontaneous confession, beenproved guilty of the abominable crimes of lycanthropy andwitchcraft, this court condemns him, the said Grilles, to bethis day taken in a cart from this spot to the place ofexecution, accompanied by the executioner, where he, by the saidexecutioner, shall be tied to a stake and burned alive, and thathis ashes be then scattered to the winds. The court furthercondemns him, the said Gilles, to the costs of this prosecution. Given at Dôle this 18th day of January, 1573. ' Five years later aman named Jacques Rollet was burned alive in the Place de Grêvefor the same crime, having been tried and condemned by theParliament of Paris. [119]

 [119] A still more sensational case happened at a village in the mountains of Auvergne. A gentleman while hunting was suddenly attacked by a savage wolf of monstrous size. Impenetrable by his shot, the beast made a spring upon the helpless huntsman, who in the struggle luckily, or unluckily for the unfortunate lady, contrived to cut off one of its fore-paws. This trophy he placed in his pocket, and made the best of his way homewards in safety. On the road he met a friend to whom he exhibited a bleeding paw, or rather a woman's hand (so it was produced from the hunter's pocket) upon which was a wedding ring. His wife's ring was at once recognised by the other. His suspicions aroused, he immediately went in search of his wife, who was found sitting by the fire in the kitchen, her arm hidden beneath her apron: when the husband seizing her by the arm found his terrible suspicions verified. The bleeding stump was there, evidently just fresh from the wound. She was given into custody, and in the event was burned at Riom in presence of thousands of spectators. Among some of the races of India, among the Khonds of the mountains of Orissa, a superstition obtains like that of the _loup-garou_ of France. In India the tiger takes the place of the wolf, and the metamorphosed witch is there known as the _Pulta-bag_. 

 A kindred prejudice, Vampirism, has still many adherents in Eastern Europe. The vampire is a human being who in his tomb maintains a posthumous existence by ascending in the night and sucking the bodies of the living. His punishment was necessarily less tremendous than that of the witch: the _dead_ body only being burned to ashes. An official document, quoted by Horst, narrates the particulars of the examination and burning of a disinterred vampire. 

Several witches were burned in successive years throughout thekingdom. In 1564, three witches and a wizard were executed atPoictiers: on the rack they declared that they had destroyednumbers of sheep by magical preparations, attended the Sabbaths, &c. Trois Echelles, a celebrated sorcerer, examined in thepresence of Charles IX. And his court, acknowledged hisobligation to the devil, to whom he had sold himself, recountingthe debaucheries of the Sabbath, the methods of bewitching, andthe compositions of the unguents for blighting cattle. Theastounding fact was also revealed that some twelve hundredaccomplices were at large in different parts of the land. Theprovincial parliaments in the end of this and the greater part ofthe next century are unremittingly engaged in passing decrees andmaking provisions against the increasing offences. [120] 'TheParliament of Rouen decreed that the possession of a _grimoire_or book of spells was sufficient evidence of witchcraft; and thatall persons on whom such books were found should be _burnedalive_. Three councils were held in different parts of France in1583, all in relation to the same subject. The Parliament ofBordeaux issued strict injunctions to all curates and clergywhatever to use redoubled efforts to root out the crime ofwitchcraft. The Parliament of Tours was equally peremptory, andfeared the judgments of an offended God if all these dealers withthe devil were not swept from the face of the land. TheParliament of Rheims was particularly severe against the _noueursd'aiguillettes_ or 'tiers of the knot'--people of both sexes whotook pleasure in preventing the consummation of marriage thatthey might counteract the command of God to our first parents toincrease and multiply. This parliament held it to be sinful towear amulets to preserve from witchcraft; and that this practicemight not be continued within its jurisdiction, drew up a form ofexorcism 'which could more effectually defeat the agents of thedevil and put them to flight. '[121]

 [120] Montaigne, one of the few Frenchmen at this time who seemed to discredit the universal creed, in one of his essays ventures to think 'it is very probable that the principal credit of visions, of enchantments, and of such extraordinary effects, proceeds from the power of the imagination acting principally upon the more impressible minds of the vulgar. ' He is inclined to assign the prevalent 'liaisons' (nouements d'aiguillettes) to the apprehensions of a fear with which in his age the French world was so perplexed (si entravé). _Essais_, liv. I. 20. 

 [121] _Extraordinary Popular Delusions_, by Mackay, whose authorities are Tablier, Boguet (_Discours sur les Sorciers_), and M. Jules Garinet (_Histoire de la Magie_). 

In France, and still more in Italy, there is reason for believingthat many of the convicts were not without the real guilt oftoxicological practices; and they might sometimes properlydeserve the opprobrium of the old _venefici_. The formal trialand sentence to death of La Maréchale de l'Ancre in 1617 wasperhaps more political than superstitious, but witchcraft wasintroduced as one of the gravest accusations. Her preponderancein the councils of Marie de Medici and of Louis XIII. Originatedin the natural _fascination_ of royal but inferior minds. Twoyears afterwards occurred a bonâ fide prosecution on a largescale. A commission was appointed by the Parliament of Bordeauxto inquire into the causes and circumstances of the prevalence ofwitchcraft in the Pyrenean districts. Espaignol, president of thelocal parliament, with the better known councillor, Pierre del'Ancre, who has left a record ('Tableau de l'Inconstance desMauvais Anges et Démons, où il est amplement traité des Sorcierset Démons: Paris'), was placed at the head of the commission. Howthe district of Labourt was so infested with the tribe, that ofthirty thousand inhabitants hardly a family existed but wasinfected with sorcery, is explained by the barren, sterile, mountainous aspect of the neighbourhood of that part of thePyrenees: the men were engaged in the business of fishermen, andthe women left alone were exposed to the tempter. The priests toowere as ignorant and wicked as the people; their relations withthe lonely wives and daughters being more intimate than proper. Young and handsome women, some mere girls, form the greaterproportion of the accused. As many as forty a day appeared at thebar of the commissioners, and at least two hundred were hanged orburned. 

Evidence of the appearance of the devil was various andcontradictory. Some at the _Domdaniel_, the place of assemblage, had a vision of a hideous wild he-goat upon a large gildedthrone; others of a man twisted and disfigured by Tartareantorture; of a gentleman in black with a sword, booted andspurred; to others he seemed as some shapeless indistinct object, as that of the trunk of a tree, or some huge rock or stone. Theyproceeded to their meetings riding on spits, pitchforks, broom-sticks: being entertained on their arrival in the approvedstyle, and indulging in the usual licence. Deputies from witchdomattended from all parts, even from Scotland. When reproached bysome of his slaves for failing to come to the rescue in thetorture-chamber or at the stake, their lord replied by causingillusory fires to be lit, bidding the doubters walk through theharmless flames, promising not more inconvenience in the bonfiresof their persecutors. Lycanthropic criminals were also brought upwho had prowled about and devastated the sheepfolds. Espaignoland De l'Ancre were provided with two professional MatthewHopkinses: one a surgeon for examining the 'marks' (generallyhere discovered in the left eye, like a frog's foot) in the menand older women; the other a girl of seventeen, for the youngerof her sex. Many of the priests were executed; several made theirescape from the country. Besides the work before mentioned, Del'Ancre published a treatise under the title of 'L'Incrédulité etMescréance du Sortilége pleinement convaincue, ' 1622. Theexpiration of the term of the Bordeaux commission brought theproceedings to a close, and fortunately saved a number of thecondemned. 

In Spain, the land of Torquemada and Ximenes, which had long agofanatically expelled the Jews and recently its old Moorishconquerors from its soil, the unceasing activity of theInquisition during 140 years must have extorted innumerableconfessions and proofs of diabolic conspiracies and heresy. Antonio Llorente, the historian of the Inquisition, to whose rareopportunities of obtaining information we are indebted for someinstructive revelations, has exposed a large number of thepreviously silent and dark transactions of the Holy Office. Butthe demonological ideas of the Southern Church and people areprofusely displayed in the copious dramatic literature of theSpaniards, whose theatre was at one time nearly as popular, ifnot as influential, as the Church. 

The dramas of the celebrated Lope de Vega and of Calderon inparticular, are filled with demons as well as angels[122]--asort of religious compensation to the Church for the moraldeficiencies of a licentious stage, or rather licentious public. 

 [122] In the _Nacimiento de Christo_ of Lope de Vega the devil appears in his popular figure of the dragon. Calderon's _Wonder-Working Magician_, relating the adventures of St. Cyprian and the various temptations and seductions of the Evil Spirit, like Goethe's Faust, introduces the devil in the disguise of a fashionable and gallant gentleman. --Ticknor's _History of Spanish Literature_. 

CHAPTER VI. 

 'Possession' in France in the Seventeenth Century--Urbain Grandier and the Convent of Loudun--Exorcism at Aix--Ecstatic Phenomena--Madeleine Bavent--Her cruel Persecution--Catholic and Protestant Witchcraft in Germany--Luther's Demonological Fears and Experiences--Originated in his exceptional Position and in the extraordinary Circumstances of his Life and Times--Witch-burning at Bamburg and at Würzburg. 

Demoniacal possession was a phase of witchcraft which obtainedextensively in France during the seventeenth century: the victimsof this hallucination were chiefly the female inmates ofreligious houses, whose inflamed imaginations were prostituted bytheir priestly advisers to the most atrocious purposes. UrbainGrandier's fate was connected with that of an entire convent. Thefacts of this celebrated sorcerer's history are instructive. Hewas educated in a college of the Jesuits at Bordeaux, andpresented by the fathers, with whom his abilities and address hadgained much applause, to a benefice in Loudun. He provoked by hishaughtiness the jealousy of his brother clergy, who regarded himas an intruder, and his pride and resentment increased in directproportion to the activity of his enemies, who had conspired toeffect his ruin. Mounier and Mignon, two priests whom he hadmortally offended, were most active. Urbain Grandier was rashenough to oppose himself alone to the united counsels ofunscrupulous and determined foes. Defeated singly in previousattempts to drive him from Loudun, the two priests combined withthe leading authorities of the place. Their haughty and carelessadversary had the advantage or disadvantage of a fine person andhandsome face, which, with his other recommendations, gained himuniversal popularity with the women; and his success andfamiliarities with the fair sex were not likely to escape thevigilance of spies anxious to collect damaging proofs. Whatinflamed to the utmost the animosities of the two parties was thesuccess of Canon Mignon in obtaining the coveted position ofconfessor to the convent of Ursulines in Loudun, to the exclusionof Grandier, himself an applicant. This convent was destined toassume a prominent part in the fate of the curé of the town. Theyounger nuns, it seems, to enliven the dull monotony of monasticlife, adopted a plan of amusing their leisure by frightening theolder ones in making the most of their knowledge of secretpassages in the building, playing off ghost-tricks, and raisingunearthly noises. When the newly appointed confessor was informedof the state of matters he at once perceived the possibility, and formed the design, of turning it to account. The offendingnuns were promised forgiveness if they would continue theirghostly amusement, and also affect demoniacal possession; a fraudin which they were more readily induced to participate by anassurance that it might be the humble means of converting theheretics--Protestants being unusually numerous in that part ofthe country. 

As soon as they were sufficiently prepared to assume their parts, the magistrates were summoned to witness the phenomena ofpossession and exorcism. On the first occasion the Superior ofthe convent was the selected patient; and it was extracted fromthe demon in possession that he had been sent by Urbain Grandier, priest of the church of St. Peter. This was well so far; but thecivil authorities generally, as it appears, were not disposed toaccept even the irrefragable testimony of a demoniac; and theecclesiastics, with the leading inhabitants, were in conflictwith the civil power. Opportunely, however, for the plan of theconspirators, who were almost in despair, an all-powerful allywas enlisted on their side. A severe satire upon some acts of theminister of France, Cardinal Richelieu, or of some of hissubordinates, had made its appearance. Urbain was suspected to bethe author; his enemies were careful to improve the occasion; andthe Cardinal-minister's cooperation was secured. A royalcommission was ordered to inquire into the now notoriouscircumstances of the Loudun diabolism. Laubardemont, the head ofthe commission, arrived in December 1633, and no time was lost inbringing the matter to a crisis. The house of the suspected wassearched for books of magic; he himself being thrown into adungeon, where the surgeons examined him for the 'marks. ' Fiveinsensible spots were found--a certain proof. Meanwhile the nunsbecome more hysterical than ever; strong suspicion not beingwanting that the priestly confessors to the convent availedthemselves of their situation to abuse the bodies as well as theminds of the reputed demoniacs. To such an extent went theaudacity of the exorcists, and the credulity of the people, thatthe _enceinte_ condition of one of the sisters, which at the endof five or six months disappeared, was explained by the maliciousslander of the devil, who had caused that scandalous illusion. Crowds of persons of all ranks flocked from Paris and from themost distant parts to see and hear the wild ravings of thesehysterical or drugged women, whose excitement was such that theyspared not their own reputations; and some scandalous exposureswere submitted to the amusement or curiosity of the surroundingspectators. Some few of them, aroused from the horrible delusion, or ashamed of their complicity, admitted that all their previousrevelations were simple fiction. Means were found to effectuallysilence such dangerous announcements. The accusers pressed on theprosecution; the influence of his friends was overborne, andGrandier was finally sentenced to the stake. Fearing the resultof a despair which might convincingly betray the facts of thecase to the assembled multitude, they seem to have prevailed uponthe condemned to keep silence up to the last moment, underpromise of an easier death. But already fastened to the stake, helearned too late the treachery of his executioners; instead ofbeing first strangled, he was committed alive to the flames. Norwere any 'last confessions' possible. The unfortunate victim ofthe malice of exasperated rivals, and of the animosity of theimplacable Richelieu, has been variously represented. [123] It isnoticeable that the scene of this affair was in the heart of theconquered Protestant region--Rochelle had fallen only six yearsbefore the execution; and the heretics, although politicallysubdued, were numerous and active. A fact which may account forthe seeming indifference and even the opposition of a largenumber of the people in this case of diabolism which obtainedcomparatively little credit. It had been urged to the nuns thatit would be for the good and glory of Catholicism that theheretics should be confounded by a few astounding miracles. Whether Grandier had any decided heretical inclinations isdoubtful; but he wrote against the celibacy of the priesthood, and was suspected of liberal opinions in religion. A Capuchinnamed Tranquille (a contemporary) has furnished the materials forthe 'History of the Devils of Loudun' by the Protestant Aubin, 1716. 

 [123] Michelet apparently accepts the charge of immorality; according to which the curé took advantage of his popularity among the ladies of Loudun, by his insinuating manners, to seduce the wives and daughters of the citizens. By another writer (Alexandre Dumas, _Celebrated Crimes_) he is supposed to have been of a proud and vindictive disposition, but innocent of the alleged irregularities. 

Twenty-four years previously a still more scandalous affair--thatof Louis Gauffridi and the Convent of Aix, in which Gauffridi, whohad debauched several girls both in and out of the establishment, was the principal actor--was transacted with similar circumstances. Madeleine, one of the novices, soon after entering upon hernoviciate, was seized with the ecstatic trances, which werespeedily communicated to her companions. [124] These fits, in thejudgment of the priests, were nothing but the effect of witchcraft. Exorcists elicited from the girls that Louis Gauffridi, a powerfulmagician having authority over demons throughout Europe, hadbewitched them. The questions and answers were taken down, byorder of the judges, by reporters, who, while the priests wereexorcising, committed the results to writing, published afterwardsby one of them, Michaelis, in 1613. Among the interesting factsacquired through these spirit-media, the inquisitors learned thatAntichrist was already come; that printing, and the invention ofit, were alike accursed, and similar information. Madeleine, tortured and imprisoned in the most loathsome dungeon, was reducedto such a condition of extreme horror and dread, that from thistime she was the mere instrument of her atrocious judges. Havingbeen intimate with the wizard, she could inform them of theposition of the 'secret marks' on his person: these wereascertained in the usual way by pricking with needles. Gauffridi, by various torture, was induced to make the required confession, and was burned alive at Aix, April 30, 1611. 

 [124] M. Maury, in a philosophical and learned work (_La Magie et l'Astrologie dans l'Antiquité et au Moyen Âge_), has scientifically explored and exposed the mysteries of these and the like ecstatic phenomena, of such frequent occurrence in Protestant as well as in Catholic countries; in the orphan-houses of Amsterdam and Horn, as well as in the convents of France and Italy in the 17th century. And the Protestant revivalists of the present age have in great measure reproduced these curious results of religious excitement. 

Demoniacal possession was a mania in France in the seventeenthcentury. The story of Madeleine Bavent, as reported, reveals theutmost licentiousness and fiendish cruelty. [125] Gibbon justlyobserves that ancient Rome supported with the greatest difficultythe institution of _six_ vestals, notwithstanding the certain fateof a living grave for those who could not preserve theirchastity; and Christian Rome was filled with many thousands ofboth sexes bound by vows to perpetual virginity. Madeleine wasseduced by her Franciscan confessor when only fourteen; and sheentered a convent lately founded at Louviers. In this building, surrounded by a wood, and situated in a suitable spot, somestrange practices were carried on. At the instigation of theirdirector, a priest called David, the nuns, it is reported, wereseized with an irresistible desire of imitating the primitiveAdamite simplicity: the novices were compelled to return to thesimple nudity of the days of innocence when taking exercise inthe conventual gardens, and even at their devotions in thechapel. The novice Madeleine, on one occasion, was reprimandedfor concealing her bosom with the altar-cloth at communion. Shewas originally of a pure and artless mind; and only gradually andstealthily she was corrupted by the pious arguments of herpriest. This man, Picart by name--one of that extensive class the'tristes obsc[oe]ni, ' of whom the Angelos and Tartuffes[126] arerepresentatives--succeeded to the vacant office of directingconfessor to the nuns of Louviers; and at once embraced theopportunities of the confessional. Without repeating all thedisgusting scenes that followed, as given by Michelet, it is onlynecessary to add that the miserable nun became the mistress andhelpless creature of her seducer. 'He employed her as a magicalcharm to gain over the rest of the nuns. A holy wafer steeped inMadeleine's blood and buried in the garden would be sure todisturb their senses and their minds. This was the very year inwhich Urban Grandier was burned. Throughout France men spoke ofnothing but the devils of Loudun.... Madeleine fancied herselfbewitched and knocked about by devils; followed about by a lewdcat with eyes of fire. By degrees other nuns caught the disorder, which showed itself in odd supernatural jerks and writhings. '

 [125] It is but one instance of innumerable amours within the secret penetralia of the privileged conventual establishments. In the dark recesses of these vestal institutions on a gigantic scale, where publicity, that sole security, was never known, what vices or even crimes could not be safely perpetrated? Luther, who proved in the most practical way his contempt for the sanctity of monastic vows by eloping with a nun, assures us, among other scandals attaching to convent life, of the fact that when a fish-pond adjoining one of these establishments in Rome was drained off, six thousand infant skulls were exposed to view. A story which may be fact or fiction. But while fully admitting the probability of invention and exaggeration in the relations of enemies, and the fact that undue prejudice is likely to somewhat exaggerate the probable evils of the mysterious and unknown, how could it be otherwise than that during fourteen centuries many crimes should have been committed in those silent and safe retreats? Nor, indeed, is experience opposed to the possibility of the highest fervour of an unnatural enthusiasm being compatible with more human passions. The virgin who, 'Ut flos in septis secretus nascitur hortis Ignotus pecori, '

 as eulogised by the virgin-chorus in the beautiful epithalamium of Catullus, might be recognised in the youthful 'religieuse' if only human passion could be excluded; but the story of Heloise and Abelard is not a solitary proof of the superiority of human nature over an impossible and artificial spirituality. 

 [126] As Tartuffe privately confesses, 'L'amour qui nous attache aux beautés éternelles N'étouffe pas en nous l'amour des temporelles. 

 * * * * *

 Pour être dévot, je n'en suis pas moins homme. '

The Superior was not averse to the publication of these events, having the example and reputation of Loudun before her. Little isnew in the possession and exorcism: for the most part they are arepetition of those of Aix and Loudun. During a brief intervalthe devils were less outrageous: for the Cardinal-minister wasmeditating a reform of the monastic establishments. Upon hisdeath they commenced again with equal violence. Picart was nowdead--but not so the persecution of his victim. The priestsrecommenced miracle-working with renewed vigour. [127] Saved fromimmediate death by a fortunate or, as it may be deemed, unfortunate sensitiveness to bodily pain, she was condemned forthe rest of her life to solitary confinement in a fearfuldungeon, in the language of her judges to an _in pace_. Therelying tortured, powerless in a loathsome cell, their prisoner wasalternately coaxed and threatened into admitting all sorts ofcrimes, and implicating whom they wished. [128] The furthercruelties to which the lust, and afterwards the malignancy, ofher gaolers submitted her were not brought to an end by theinterference of parliament in August 1647, when the destructionof the Louviers establishment was decreed. The guilty escaped bysecuring, by intimidation, the silence of their prisoner, whoremained a living corpse in the dungeons of the episcopal palaceof Rouen. The bones of Picart were exhumed, and publicly burned;the curé Boullé, an accomplice, was dragged on a hurdle to thefish-market, and there burned at the stake. So terminated thislast of the trilogical series. But the hysterical or demoniacaldisease was as furious as ever in Germany in the middle of theeighteenth century; and was attended with as tremendous effectsat Würzburg as at Louviers. 

 [127] To the diabolic visions of the other they opposed those of 'a certain Anne of the Nativity, a girl of sanguine hysterical temperament, frantic at need, and half mad--so far at least as to believe in her own lies. A kind of dog-fight was got up between the two. They besmeared each other with false charges. Anne saw the devil quite naked by Madeleine's side. Madeleine swore to seeing Anne at the Sabbath with the Lady Superior, the Mother Assistant, and the Mother of the novices.... Madeleine was condemned, without a hearing, to be disgraced, to have her body examined for the marks of the devil. They tore off her veil and gown, and made her the wretched sport of a vile curiosity that would have pierced till she bled again in order to win the right of sending her to the stake. Leaving to no one else the care of a scrutiny which was in itself a torture, these virgins, acting as matrons, ascertained if she were with child or no; shaved all her body, and dug their needles into her quivering flesh to find out the insensible spots. '--_La Sorcière. _

 [128] The horrified reader may see the fuller details of this case in Michelet's _La Sorcière_, who takes occasion to state that, than 'The History of Madeleine Bavent, a nun of Louviers, with her examination, &c. , 1652, Rouen, ' he knows of 'no book more important, more dreadful, or worthier of being reprinted. It is the most powerful narrative of its class. _Piety Afflicted_, by the Capuchin Esprit de Bosrager, is a work immortal in the annals of tomfoolery. The two excellent pamphlets by the doughty surgeon Yvelin, the _Inquiry_ and the _Apology_, are in the Library of Ste. Geneviève. '--_La Sorcière_, the Witch of the Middle Ages, chap. Viii. Whatever exaggeration there may possibly be in any of the details of these and similar histories, there is not any reasonable doubt of their general truth. It is much to be wished, indeed, that writers should, in these cases, always confine themselves to the simple facts, which need not any imaginary or fictitious additions. 

In Germany during the seventeenth century witches felt the furyof both Catholic and Protestant zeal; but in the previous ageprosecutions are directed against Protestant witches. Theyabounded in Upper Germany in the time of Innocent VIII. , andwhat numbers were executed has been already seen. When therevolutionary party had acquired greater strength and its powerwas established, they vied with the conservatives in theirvigorous attacks upon the empire of Satan. 

Luther had been sensible to the contagious fear that the greatspiritual enemy was actually fighting in the ranks of hisenemies. He had personal experience of his hostility. Immured forhis safety in a voluntary but gloomy prison, occupied intenselyin the plan of a mighty revolution against the most powerfulhierarchy that has ever existed, engaged continuously in thelaborious task of translating the Sacred Scriptures, onlypartially freed from the prejudices of education, it is littlesurprising that the antagonist of the Church should haveexperienced infernal hallucinations. This weakness of thechampion of Protestantism is at least more excusable than thepedantic folly of the head of the English Church. When Luther, however, could seriously affirm that witchcraft 'is the devil'sproper work wherewith, when God permits, he not only hurts peoplebut makes away with them; for in this world we are as guests andstrangers, body and soul, cast under the devil: that idiots, thelame, the blind, the dumb are men in whom ignorant devils haveestablished themselves, and all the physicians who attempt toheal these infirmities as though they proceeded from naturalcauses, are ignorant blockheads who know nothing about the powerof the demon, ' we cannot be indignant at the blind credulity ofthe masses of the people. It appears inconsistent that Luther, averse generally to supernaturalism, should yet find nodifficulty in entertaining these irrational diabolistic ideas. The circumstances of his life and times sufficiently explain theinconsistency. [129]

 [129] The following sentence in his recorded conversation, when the free thoughts of the Reformer were unrestrained in the presence of his most intimate friends, is suggestive. 'I know, ' says he, 'the devil thoroughly well; he has over and over pressed me so close that I scarcely knew whether I was alive or dead. Sometimes he has thrown me into such despair that I even knew not that there is a God, and had great doubts about our dear Lord Christ. But the Word of God has speedily restored me' (Luther's _Tischreden_ or _Table Talk_, as cited in Howitt's _History of the Supernatural_). The eloquent controversialist Bossuet and the Catholics have been careful to avail themselves of the impetuosity and incautiousness of the great German Reformer. 

 Of all the leaders of the religious revolution of the sixteenth century, the Reformer of Zurich was probably the most liberally inclined; and Zuinglius' unusual charity towards those ancient sages and others who were ignorant of Christianity, which induced him to place the names of Aristides, Socrates, the Gracchi, &c. , in the same list with those of Moses, Isaiah, and St. Paul, who should meet in the assembly of the virtuous and just in the future life, obliged Luther openly to profess of his friend that 'he despaired of his salvation, ' and has provoked the indignation of the bishop of Meaux. --_Variations des Eglises Protestantes_, ii. 19 and 20. 

On the eve of the prolonged and ferocious struggle on thecontinent between Catholicism and Protestantism a wholesaleslaughter of witches and wizards was effected, a fitting prologueto the religious barbarities of the Thirty Years' War. Fires werekindled almost simultaneously in two different places, at Bamburgand Würzburg; and seldom, even in the annals of witchcraft, havethey burned more tremendously. The prince-bishops of thoseterritories had long been anxious to extirpate Lutheranism fromtheir dioceses. Frederick Forner, Suffragan of Bamburg, avigorous supporter of the Jesuits, was the chief agent of JohnGeorge II. He waged war upon the heretical sorcerers in the'whole armour of God, ' _Panoplia armaturæ Dei_. According to thestatements of credible historians, nine hundred trials tookplace in the two courts of Bamburg and Zeil between 1625 and1630. Six hundred were burned by Bishop George II. No one wasspared. The chancellor, his son, Dr. Horn, with his wife anddaughters, many of the lords and councillors of the bishop'scourt, women and priests, suffered. After tortures of the mostextravagant kind it was extorted that some twelve hundred of themwere confederated to bewitch the entire land to the extent that'there would have been neither wine nor corn in the country, andthat thereby man and beast would have perished with hunger, andmen would be driven to eat one another. There were even someCatholic priests among them who had been led into practices toodreadful to be described, and they confessed among other thingsthat they had baptized many children in the devil's name. It mustbe stated that these confessions were made under tortures of themost fearful kind, far more so than anything that was practisedin France or other countries.... The number brought to trial inthese terrible proceedings were so great, and they were treatedwith so little consideration, that it was usual not even to takethe trouble of setting down their names; but they were cited asthe accused Nos. 1, 2, 3, &c. The Jesuits took their confessionsin private, and they made up the lists of those who wereunderstood to have been denounced by them. '

More destructive still were the burnings of Würzburg at the sameperiod under the superintendence of Philip Adolph, who ascendedthe episcopal throne in 1623. In spite of the energy of hispredecessors, a grand confederacy of sorcerers had beendiscovered, and were at once denounced. [130]

 [130] 'A catalogue of nine and twenty _brände_ or burnings during a very short period of time, previous to the February of 1629, will give the best notion of the horrible character of these proceedings; it is printed, ' adds Mr. Wright, 'from the original records in Hauber's _Bibliotheca Magica_. ' E. G. In the Fifth Brände are enumerated: (1) Latz, an eminent shopkeeper. (2) Rutscher, a shopkeeper. (3) The housekeeper of the Dean of the cathedral. (4) The old wife of the Court ropemaker. (5) Jos. Sternbach's housekeeper. (6) The wife of Baunach, a Senator. (7) A woman named Znickel Babel. (8) An old woman. In the Sixteenth Burning: (1) A noble page of Ratzenstein. (2) A boy of ten years of age. (3, 4, 5) The two daughters of the Steward of the Senate and his maid. (6) The fat ropemaker's wife. In the Twentieth Burning: (1) Gobel's child, the most beautiful girl in Würzburg. (2) A student on the fifth form, who knew many languages, and was an excellent musician. (3, 4) Two boys from the New Minster, each twelve years old. (5) Stepper's little daughter. (6) The woman who kept the bridge gate. In the Twenty-sixth Burning are specified: (1) David Hans, a Canon in the New Minster. (2) Weydenbusch, a Senator. (3) The innkeeper's wife of the Baumgarten. (4) An old woman. (5) The little daughter of Valkenberger was privately executed and burned on her bier. (6) The little son of the town council bailiff. (7) Herr Wagner, vicar in the cathedral, was burned alive. --_Narratives of Sorcery and Magic. _ The facts are taken from Dr. Soldan's _Geschichte der Hexenprocesse_, whose materials are to be found in Horst's _Zauber Bibliothek_ and Hauber's _Bibliotheca Magica_. 

Nine appears to have been the greatest number, and sometimes onlytwo were sent to execution at once. Five are specially recordedas having been burned alive. The victims are of all professionsand trades--vicars, canons, goldsmiths, butchers, &c. Besides thetwenty-nine conflagrations recorded, many others were lightedabout the same time: the names of whose prey are not written inthe Book of Death. Frederick Spee, a Jesuit, formerly a violentenemy of the witches, but who had himself been incriminated bytheir extorted confessions at these holocausts, was converted tothe opposite side, and wrote the 'Cautio Criminalis, ' in whichthe necessity of caution in receiving evidence is insistedupon--a caution, without doubt, 'very necessary at that time forthe magistracy throughout Germany. ' All over Germany executions, if not everywhere so indiscriminately destructive as those inFranconia and at Würzburg, were incessant: and it is hardly thelanguage of hyperbole to say that no province, no city, novillage was without its condemned. 

CHAPTER VII. 

 Scotland one of the most Superstitious Countries in Europe--Scott's Relation of the Barbarities perpetrated in the Witch-trials under the auspices of James VI. --The Fate of Agnes Sampson, Euphane MacCalzean, &c. --Irrational Conduct of the Courts of Justice--Causes of voluntary Witch-confessions--Testimony of Sir G. Mackenzie, &c. --Trial and Execution of Margaret Barclay--Computation of the number of Witches who suffered death in England and Scotland in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries--Witches burned alive at Edinburgh in 1608--The Lancashire Witches--Sir Thomas Overbury and Dr. Forman--Margaret Flower and Lord Rosse. 

Scotland, by the physical features of the country and by thecharacter and habits of the people, is eminently apt for thereception of the magical and supernatural of any kind;[131] andduring the century from 1563 it was almost entirely subject tothe dominion of Satan. Sir Walter Scott has narrated some of themost prominent cases and trials in the northern part of theisland. The series may be said to commence from the confederatedconspiracy of hell to prevent the union of James VI. With thePrincess Anne of Denmark. An overwhelming tempest at sea duringthe voyage of these anti-papal, anti-diabolic royal personageswas the appointed means of their destruction. 

 [131] A late philosophic writer has ventured to institute a comparison in point of superstition and religious intolerance between Spain and Scotland. The latter country, however, has denied to political what it conceded to priestly government: hence its superior material progress and prosperity. --Buckle's _History of Civilisation in England_. 

The human agents were Agnes Sampson, the wise wife of Keith (oneof the better sort, who cured diseases, &c. ); Dame EuphaneMacCalzean, widow of a senator of the College of Justice, and aCatholic; Dr. John Fian or Cunninghame, a man of some learning, and of much skill in poison as well as in magic; Barbara Napieror Douglas; Geillis Duncan; with about thirty other women of thelowest condition. 'When the monarch of Scotland sprung thisstrong covey of his favourite game, they afforded the PrivyCouncil and himself sport for the greatest part of the remainingwinter. He attended on the examinations himself.... AgnesSampson, after being an hour tortured by the twisting of a cordaround her head according to the custom of the buccaneers, confessed that she had consulted with one Richard Grahameconcerning the probable length of the king's life and the meansof shortening it. But Satan, to whom at length they resorted foradvice, told them in French respecting King James, _Il est unhomme de Dieu_. The poor woman also acknowledged that she hadheld a meeting with those of her sisterhood, who had charmed acat by certain spells, having four joints of men knit to itsfeet, which they threw into the sea to excite a tempest: theyembarked in sieves with much mirth and jollity, the fiend rollinghimself before them upon the waves dimly seen, and resembling ahuge haystack in size and appearance. They went on board of aforeign ship richly laden with wines, where, invisible to thecrew, they feasted till the sport grew tiresome; and then Satansunk the vessel and all on board. Fian or Cunninghame was alsovisited by the sharpest tortures, ordinary and extraordinary. Thenails were torn from his fingers with smiths' pincers; pins weredriven into the places which the nails usually defended; hisknees were crushed in the _boots_; his finger-bones weresplintered in the _pilniewincks_. At length his constancy, hitherto sustained, as the bystanders supposed, by the help ofthe devil, was fairly overcome; and he gave an account of a greatwitch-meeting at North Berwick, where they paced round the church_withershins_--i. E. In reverse of the motion of the sun. Fianthen blew into the lock of the church door, whereupon the boltsgave way: the unhallowed crew entered, and their master the devilappeared to his servants in the shape of a black man occupyingthe pulpit. He was saluted with a "Hail, Master!" but the companywere dissatisfied with his not having brought a picture of theking, repeatedly promised, which was to place his Majesty at themercy of this infernal crew.... The devil, on this memorableoccasion, forgot himself, and called Fian by his own name insteadof the demoniacal sobriquet of Rob the Rowan, which had beenassigned to him as Master of the Rows or Rolls. This wasconsidered as bad taste; and the rule is still observed at everyrendezvous of forgers, smugglers, or the like, where it isaccounted very indifferent manners to name an individual by hisown name in case of affording ground of evidence which may upona day of trial be brought against him. Satan, somethingdisconcerted, concluded the evening with a divertissement anda dance after his own manner. The former consisted in disinterringa new-buried corpse, and dividing it in fragments amongthe company; and the ball was maintained by well-nigh twohundred persons, who danced a ring dance.... Dr. Fian, muffled, led the ring, and was highly honoured, generally acting asclerk or recorder. King James was deeply interested in thosemysterious meetings, and took great delight to be present at theexaminations of the accused. He sent for Geillis Duncan, andcaused her to play before him the same tune to which Satan andhis companions led the brawl in North Berwick churchyard. Hisears were gratified in another way: for at this meeting it wassaid the witches demanded of the devil why he did bear suchenmity against the king, who returned the flattering answer, that the king was the greatest enemy whom he had in the world. Almost all these poor wretches were executed: nor did EuphaneMacCalzean's station in life save her from the common doom, whichwas strangling to death and burning to ashes thereafter. Themajority of the jury which tried Barbara Napier, having acquittedher of attendance at the North Berwick meeting, were themselvesthreatened with a trial for wilful error upon an assize, andcould only escape from severe censure and punishment by pleadingguilty, and submitting themselves to the king's pleasure. Thealterations and trenching, ' adds Scott, 'which lately took placeon the Castle-hill at Edinburgh for the purpose of forming thenew approach to the city from the west, displayed the ashes ofthe numbers who had perished in this manner, of whom a largeproportion must have been executed between 1590--when the greatdiscovery was made concerning Euphane MacCalzean and the wisewife of Keith and their accomplices--and the union of thecrowns. '[132]

 [132] Sir W. Scott's _Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft_, ix. 

Euphane's exceptional doom was 'to be bound to the stake, andburned in ashes _quick_ to the death. ' 'Burning quick' was not anuncommon sentence: if the less cruel one of hanging or stranglingfirst and afterwards burning was more usual. Thirty warlocks andwitches was the total number executed on June 25th, 1591. A few, like Dr. Cunninghame, may have been really experienced in the useof poison and poisonous drugs. The art of poisoning has beenpractised perhaps almost as extensively as (often coextensivelywith) that of sorcery; a tremendous and mostly inscrutable crimewhich science, in all ages, has been able more surely to concealthan to detect. 

Two facts eminently illustrate the barbarous iniquity of theCourts of Justice when dealing with their witch prisoners. Anexpressed malediction, or frequently an almost inaudible mutter, followed by the coincident fulfilment of the imprecation, wasaccepted eagerly by the judges as sufficient proof (an antecedentone, contrary to the boasted principle of English law at least, which assumes the innocence until the guilt has been proved, ofthe accused) of the crime of the person arraigned. And theycomplacently attributed to conscious guilt the ravings producedby an excruciating torture--that equally inhuman and irrationalinvention of judicial cruelty; confidently boasting that theywere careful to sentence no person without previous confessionduly made. 

But these confessions not seldom were partly extracted from anatural wish to be freed from the persecution of neighbours aswell as from present bodily torture. Sir George Mackenzie, LordAdvocate of Scotland during the period of the greatest fury, andhimself president at many of the trials, a believer, among othercases in his _Criminal Law_, 1678, relates that of a condemnedwitch who had confessed judicially to him and afterwards 'told meunder secrecy, that she had not confessed because she was guilty;but being a poor creature who wrought for her meat, and beingdefamed for a witch she knew she should starve, for no personthereafter would either give her meat or lodging, and that allmen would beat her and set dogs at her, and that therefore shedesired to be out of the world. Whereupon she wept most bitterly, and upon her knees called God to witness to what she said. Another told me that she was afraid the devil would challenge aright to her after she was said to be his servant, and wouldhaunt her, as the minister said when he was desiring her toconfess, and therefore she desired to die. And really, ' admitsthe learned judge, 'ministers are oft-times indiscreet in theirzeal to have poor creatures to confess in this; and I recommendto judges that the wisest ministers should be sent to them; andthat those who are sent should be cautious in this particular. 'Another confession at the supreme moment of the same sort, asrecorded by the Rev. G. Sinclair in 'Satan's Invisible WorldDiscovered' is equally significant and genuine. What impressionit left upon the pious clergyman will be seen in his concludinginference. The witch, 'being carried forth to the place ofexecution, remained silent during the first, second, and thirdprayer, and then, perceiving there remained no more but to riseup and go to the stake, she lifted up her body and with a loudvoice cried out, "Now all you that see me this day know that I amnow to die as a witch by my own confession, and I free all men, especially the ministers and magistrates, of the guilt of myblood. I take it wholly upon myself--my blood be upon my ownhead; and as I must make answer to the God of heaven presently, Ideclare I am as free of witchcraft as any child. But beingdelated by a malicious woman, and put in prison under the name ofa witch; disowned by my husband and friends, and seeing no groundof hope of my coming out of prison or ever coming in creditagain, through the temptation of the devil I made up thatconfession on purpose to destroy my own life, being weary of it, and choosing rather to die than live"--and so died; whichlamentable story as it did then astonish all the spectators, noneof which could restrain themselves from tears, so it may be toall a demonstration of Satan's subtlety, whose design is still todestroy all, partly by tempting many to presumption, and someothers to despair. '

The trial of Margaret Barclay took place in 1613. Her crimeconsisted in having caused by means of spells the loss of a shipat sea. She was said to have had a quarrel with the owner of theshipwrecked vessel, in the course of which she uttered a wishthat all on board might sink to the bottom of the sea. Herimprecation was accomplished, and upon the testimony of anitinerant juggler, John Stewart, she was arraigned before a Courtof Justice. With the help of the devil in the shape of a handsomeblack dog, she had moulded some figures of clay representing thedoomed sailors, which with the prescribed rites were thrown intothe deep. We are informed by the reporters of the proceedings atthis examination, that 'after using this kind of gentle torture[viz. Placing the legs in a pair of stocks and laying ongradually increasing weights of iron bars], the said Margaretbegan, according to the increase of the pain, to cry and cravefor God's cause to take off her shin the foresaid irons, and sheshould declare truly the whole matter. Which being removed, shebegan at her formal denial; and being of new assayed in tortureas before, she then uttered these words: "Take off, take off! andbefore God I shall show you the whole form. " And the said ironsbeing of new, upon her faithful promise, removed, she thendesired my Lord of Eglinton, the said four justices, and the saidMr. David Dickson, minister of the burgh; Mr. George Dunbar, minister of Ayr; Mr. Mitchell Wallace, minister of Kilmarnock;Mr. John Cunninghame, minister of Dalry; and Hugh Kennedy, provost of Ayr, to come by themselves and to remove all others, and she should declare truly, as she should answer to God, thewhole matter. Whose desire in that being fulfilled, she made herconfession in this manner without any kind of demand, freelywithout interrogation: God's name by earnest prayer being calledupon for opening of her lips and easing of her heart, that she byrendering of the truth might glorify and magnify His holy nameand disappoint the enemy of her salvation. '

One of those involved in the voluntary confession was IsabelCrawford, who was frightened into admitting the offences alleged. In court, when asked if she wished to be defended by counsel, Margaret Barclay, whose hopes and fears were revived at seeingher husband, answered, 'As you please; but all I have confessedwas in agony of torture; and, before God, all I have spoken isfalse and untrue. ' She was found guilty; sentenced to bestrangled at the stake; her body to be burned to ashes. IsabelCrawford, after a short interval, was subjected to the same sortof examination: a new commission having been granted for theprosecution, and 'after the assistant-minister of Irvine, Mr. David Dickson, had made earnest prayers to God for opening herobdurate and closed heart, she was subjected to the torture ofiron bars laid upon her bare shins, her feet being in the stocks. She endured this torture with incredible firmness, since she did"admirably, without any kind of din or exclamation, suffer abovethirty stone of iron to be laid on her legs, never shrinkingthereat in any sort, but remaining, as it were, steady. " But inshifting the situation of the iron bars, and removing them toanother part of her shins, her constancy gave way; she broke outinto horrible cries of "Take off! take off!" On being relievedfrom the torture she made the usual confession of all that shewas charged with, and of a connection with the devil which hadsubsisted for several years. Sentence was given against heraccordingly. After this had been denounced she openly denied allher former confessions, and died without any sign of repentance;offering repeated interruptions to the minister in his prayers, and absolutely refusing to pardon the executioner. '[133] It mightbe possible to form an imperfect estimate of how many thousandswere sacrificed in the Jacobian persecution in Scotland alonefrom existing historical records, which would express, however, but a small proportion of the actual number: and parish registersmay still attest the quantity of fuel provided at a considerableexpense, and the number of the fires. By a moderate computationan average number of two hundred annually, making a total ofeight thousand, are reckoned to have been burned in the lastforty years of the sixteenth century. [134]

 [133] _Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft_, ix. 

 The Scotch trials and tortures, of which the above cases are but one or two out of a hundred similar ones, are perhaps the more extraordinary as being the result of _mere_ superstition: religious or political heresy being seldom an excuse for the punishment and an aggravation of the offence. 

 [134] A larger proportion of victims than even those of the Holy Office during an equal space of time. According to Llorente (_Hist. De l'Inquisition_) from 1680 to 1781, the latter period of its despotism (which flourished especially under Charles II. , himself, as he was convinced, a victim of witch-malice), between 13, 000 and 14, 000 persons suffered by various punishments: of which number, however, 1, 578 were burned alive. 

In England, from 1603 to 1680, seventy thousand persons are saidto have been executed; and during the fifteen hundred yearselapsed since the triumph of the Christian religion, millions arereckoned to have been sacrificed on the bloody altars of theChristian Moloch. An entry in the minutes of the proceedings inthe Privy Council for 1608 reveals that even James's ministersbegan to experience some horror of the consequences of theirinstructions. And the following free testimony of one of them istruly 'an appalling record:'--'1608. --December 1. --The Earl ofMar declared to the council that some women were taken inBroughton [suburban Edinburgh] as witches, and being put to anassize and convicted, albeit they persevered constant in theirdenial to the end, yet they were burned _quick_ after such acruel manner that some of them died in despair, renouncing andblaspheming God; and others half-burned broke out of the fire, and were cast _quick_ in it again till they were burned to thedeath. '[135]

 [135] The terrestrial and _real_ Fiends seem to have striven to realise on earth and to emulate the 'Tartarus horrificos eructans faucibus æstus' described by the Epicurean philosophic poet (Lucretius, _De Rerum Naturâ_, iii. ). 

Equally monstrous and degrading were the disclosures in thetorture-chambers; and many admitted that they had had children bythe devil. The circumstances of the Sabbath, the various rites ofthe compact, the forms and method of bewitching, the manner ofsexual intercourse with the demons--these were the principalstaple of the judicial examinations. 

In the southern part of the island witch-hanging or burningproceeded with only less vehemence than in Scotland. One of themost celebrated cases in the earlier half of the seventeenthcentury (upon which Thomas Shadwell the poet laureate, who, underthe name of MacFlecknoe, is immortalised by the satire of Dryden, founded a play) is the story of the Lancashire Witches. Thispersecution raged at two separate periods; first in 1613, whennineteen prisoners were brought before Sir James Altham and SirEdward Bromley, Barons of Exchequer. Elizabeth Southern, known as'Mother Demdike' in the poet laureate's drama, is the leader ofthe criminals. In 1634 the proceedings were renewed wholly on theevidence of a boy who, it was afterwards ascertained, had beeninstructed in his part against an old woman named MotherDickenson. The evidence was of the feeblest sort; nor are itsmonotonous details worth repetition. Out of some forty personsimplicated on both occasions, fortunately the greater numberescaped. 'Lancashire Witches, ' a term so hateful in its origin, has been long transferred to celebrate the superior _charms_ (ofanother kind) of the ladies of Lancashire; and the witches'spells are those of natural youth and beauty. 

The social position of Sir Thomas Overbury has made his fatenotorious. An infamous plot had been invented by the Earl ofRochester (Robert Kerr) and the Countess of Essex to destroy atroublesome obstacle to their contemplated marriage. The practiceof 'hellish charms' is only incidental; an episode in the darkmystery. Overbury was too well acquainted with royal secrets(whose disgusting and unnatural kind has been probably correctlyconjectured), too important for the keeping of even a privatesecretary. His ruin was determined by the revenge of the noblelovers and sealed by the fear of the king. At the end of sixmonths he had been gradually destroyed by secret poison in hisprison in the Tower (to which for an alleged offence he had beencommitted) by the agency of Dr. Forman, a famous 'pharmaceutic, 'under the auspices of the Earl of Rochester. This Dr. Formanhad been previously employed by Lady Essex, a notorious_dame d'honneur_ at James's Court, to bewitch the Earl to anirresistible love for her, an enchantment which required, apparently, no superhuman inducement. A Mrs. Turner, thecountess's agent, was associated with this skilful conjuror. Theywere instructed also to bewitch Lord Essex, lately returned fromabroad, in the opposite way--to divert his love from hiswife. [136]

 [136] The husband was impracticable; he could not be _disenchanted_. Conjurations and charms failing, 'the countess was instructed to bring against the Earl of Essex a charge of conjugal incapacity: A commission of reverend prelates of the church was appointed to sit in judgment, over whom the king presided in person; and a jury of matrons was found to give their opinion that the Lady Essex was a maiden. ' Divorce was accordingly pronounced, and with all possible haste the king married his favourite to the appellant with great pomp at Court. After the conspirators had been arraigned by the public indignation, a curious incident of the trial, according to a cotemporary report, was, that there being 'showed in court certain pictures of a man and a woman made in lead, and also a mould of brass wherein they were cast; a black scarf also full of white crosses which Mrs. Turner had in her custody; enchanted paps and other pictures [as well as a list of some of the devil's particular names used in conjuration], suddenly was heard a crack from the scaffold, which carried a great fear, tumult, and commotion amongst the spectators and through the hall; every one fearing hurt as if the devil had been present and grown angry to have his workmanship known by such as were not his own scholars' (_Narratives of Sorcery and Magic_, by Thomas Wright). Whatever may have been the crime or crimes for the knowledge of which Sir Thomas Overbury was doomed, it is significant that for his own safety the king was compelled to break an oath (sworn upon his knees before the judges he had purposely summoned, with an imprecation that God's curse might light upon him and his posterity for ever if he failed to bring the guilty to deserved punishment), and to not only pardon but remunerate his former favourite after he had been solemnly convicted and condemned to a felon's death. The crime, the knowledge of which prevented the appearance of Somerset at the gibbet or the scaffold, has been supposed by some, with scarcely sufficient cause or at least proof, to be the murder by the king of his son Prince Henry. Doubt has been strongly expressed of the implication at all of the favourite in the death of Overbury: the evidence produced at the trial about the poisoning being, it seems, made up to conceal or to mystify the real facts. 

Two women were executed at Lincoln, in 1618, for bewitching LordRosse, eldest son of the Earl of Rutland, and others of thefamily--Lord Rosse being bewitched to death; also for preventingby diabolic arts the parents from having any more children. Before the Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and one of theBarons of the Exchequer, it was proved that the witches hadeffected the death of the noble lord by burying his glove in theground, and 'as that glove did rot and waste, so did the liver ofthe said lord rot and waste. ' Margaret Flower confessed she had'two familiar spirits sucking on her, the one white, the otherblack spotted. The white sucked under her left breast, ' &c. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

 The Literature of Europe in the Seventeenth Century proves the Universality and Horror of Witchcraft--The most acute and most liberal Men of Learning convinced of its Reality--Erasmus and Francis Bacon--Lawyers prejudiced by Legislation--Matthew Hale's judicial Assertion--Sir Thomas Browne's Testimony--John Selden--The English Church least Ferocious of the Protestant Sects--Jewell and Hooker--Independent Tolerance--Witchcraft under the Presbyterian Government--Matthew Hopkins--Gaule's 'Select Cases of Conscience'--Judicial and Popular Methods of Witch-discovery--Preventive Charms--Witchfinders a legal and numerous Class in England and Scotland--Remission in the Severity of the Persecution under the Protectorship. 

Had we not the practical proof of the prevalence of the credit ofthe black art in accomplished facts, the literature of the firsthalf of the seventeenth century would be sufficient testimony toits horrid dominion. The works of the great dramatists, thewritings of men of every class, continually suppose the universalpower and horror of witchcraft. Internal evidence is abundant. The witches of Macbeth are no fanciful creation, and Shakspeare'srepresentation of La Pucelle's fate is nothing more than a copyfrom life. What the vulgar superstition must have been may beeasily conceived when men of the greatest genius or learningcredited the possibility, and not only a theoretical but actualoccurrence, of these infernal phenomena. Gibbon is at a loss toaccount for the fact that the acute understanding of the learnedErasmus, who could see through much more plausible fables, believed firmly in witchcraft. [137] Francis Bacon, the advocateand second founder of the inductive method and first apostle ofthe Utilitarian philosophy, opposed though he might have been tothe vulgar persecution, was not able to get rid of the principlesupon which the creed was based. [138] Sir Edward Coke, hiscontemporary, the most acute lawyer of the age, or (as it issaid) of any time, ventured even to define the devil's agents inwitchcraft. Sir Thomas Browne (author of 'Pseudodoxia Epidemica'or 'Vulgar Errors!'), a physician and writer of considerablemerit, and Sir Matthew Hale, in 1664, proved their faith, the oneby his solemn testimony in open court, the other by his stillmore solemn sentence. 

 [137] See _Miscellaneous Works: Abstract of my Readings_. 

 [138] 'Consorting with them [the unclean spirits who have fallen from their first estate] and all use of their assistance is unlawful; much more any worship or veneration whatsoever. But a contemplation and knowledge of their nature, power, illusions, not only from passages of sacred scripture but _from reason or experience_, is not the least part of spiritual wisdom. So truly the Apostle, "We are not ignorant of his wiles. " And it is not less permissible in theology to investigate the nature of demons, than in physics to investigate the nature of drugs, or in ethics the nature of vice. '--_De Augmentis Scientiarum_, lib. Iii. 2. 

If theologians were armed by the authority or theirinterpretation of Scripture, lawyers were no less so by that ofthe Statute Book. Judge Hale, in an address to the jury at BurySt. Edmund's, carefully weighing evidence, and, summing up, assures them he did 'not in the least doubt there are witches:first, because _the Scriptures affirmed it_; secondly, becausethe _wisdom of all nations_, particularly of our own, _hadprovided laws_ against witchcraft which implied their belief ofsuch a crime. '[139] Sir Thomas Browne, who gave his professionalexperience at this trial, to the effect that the devil often actsupon human bodies by natural means, afflicting them in a moresurprising manner through the diseases to which they are usuallysubject; and that in the particular case, the fits (of vomitingnails, needles, deposed by other witnesses) might be natural, only raised to a great degree by the subtlety of the devilcooperating with the malice of the witches, employs a well-knownargument when he declares ('Religio Medici'), 'Those that toconfute their incredulity desire to see apparitions shallquestionless never behold any. The devil hath these already in aheresy as capital as witchcraft; and to appear to them were _but_to convert them. '

 [139] Unfortunately for the cause of truth and right, Sir Matthew Hale's reasons are not an exceptional illustration of the mischief according to Roger Bacon's experience of 'three very bad arguments we are always using--This has been shown to be so; This is customary; This is universal: Therefore it must be kept to. ' Sir Thomas Browne, unable, as a man of science, to accept in every particular alleged the actual bonâ fide reality of the devil's power, makes a compromise, and has 'recourse to a fraud of Satan, ' explaining that he is in reality but a clever juggler, a transcendent physician who knows how to accomplish what is in relation to us a prodigy, in knowing how to use natural forces which our knowledge has not yet discovered. Such an unworthy compromise was certainly not fitted to arouse men from their 'cauchemar démonologique. '--See _Révue des Deux Mondes_, Aug. 1, 1858. 

John Selden, a learned lawyer, but of a liberal mind, was giftedwith a large amount of common sense, and it might be juster toattribute the _dictum_ which has been supposed to betray 'alurking belief' to an excess of legal, rather than to a defect ofintellectual, perception. Selden, inferring that 'the law againstwitches does not prove there be any, but it punishes the maliceof those people that use such means to take away men's lives, 'proceeds to assert that 'if one should profess that by turninghis hat thrice and crying "Buz, " he could take away a man's life(though in truth he could do no such thing), yet this were a justlaw made by the state, that whosoever shall turn his hat ... Withan intention to take away a man's life, should be put todeath. '[140]

 [140] _Table Talk or Discourses_ of John Selden. Although it must be excepted to the lawyer's summary mode of dealing with an imaginary offence, we prefer to give that eminent patriot at least the benefit of the doubt, as to his belief in witchcraft. 

If men of more liberal sentiments were thus enslaved to oldprejudices, it is not surprising that the Church, not leading butfollowing, should firmly maintain them. Fortunately for thewitches, without the motives actuating in different waysCatholics and Calvinists, and placed midway between both parties, the reformed English Church was not so much interested inidentifying her crimes with sorcerers as in maintaining the lesstremendous formulæ of Divine right, Apostolical succession, andsimilar pretensions. Yet if they did not so furiously engagethemselves in actual witch-prosecutions, Anglican divines havenot been slow in expressly or impliedly affirming the reality ofdiabolical interposition. Nor can the most favourable criticismexonerate them from the reproach at least of having witnessedwithout protestation the barbarous cruelties practised in thename of heaven; and the eminent names of Bishop Jewell, the greatapologist of the English Church, and of the author of the'Ecclesiastical Polity, ' among others less eminent, may beclaimed by the advocates of witchcraft as respectable authoritiesin the Established Church. The 'judicious' Hooker affirms thatthe evil spirits are dispersed, some in the air, some on theearth, some in the waters, some among the minerals, in dens andcaves that are under the earth, labouring to obstruct and, ifpossible, to destroy the works of God. They were the _diiinferi_ [the old persuasion] of the heathen worshipped inoracles, in idols, &c. [141] The privilege of 'casting out devils'was much cherished and long retained in the Established Church. 

 [141] Quoted in Howitt's _History of the Supernatural_. The author has collected a mass of evidence 'demonstrating an universal faith, ' a curious collection of various superstition. He is indignant at the colder faith of the Anglican Church of later times. 

During the ascendency of the Presbyterian party from 1640 to theassumption of the Protectorship by Cromwell, witches andwitch-trials increased more than ever; and they sensiblydecreased only when the Independents obtained a superiority. The adherents of Cromwell, whatever may have been their ownfanatical excesses, were at least exempt from the intolerantspirit which characterised alike their Anglican enemies andtheir old Presbyterian allies. The astute and vigorous intellectof the great revolutionary leader, the champion of the peoplein its struggles for civil and religious liberty, howevermuch he might affect the forms of the prevailing religioussentiment, was too sagacious not to be able to penetrate, with the aid of the counsels of the author of the 'Treatiseof Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes, ' who so triumphantlyupheld the fundamental principle of Protestantism, [142]somewhat beneath the surface. In what manner the PresbyterianParliament issued commissions for inquiring into the crimesof sorcery, how zealously they were supported by the clergyand people, how Matthew Hopkins--immortal in the annals ofEnglish witchcraft--exercised his talents as witchfinder-general, are facts well known. [143]

 [142] 'Seeing therefore, ' infers Milton, the greatest of England's patriots as well as poets, 'that no man, no synod, no session of men, though called the Church, can judge definitively the sense of Scripture to another man's conscience, which is well known to be a maxim of the Protestant religion; it follows plainly, that he who holds in religion that belief or those opinions which to his conscience and utmost understanding appear with most evidence or probability in the Scripture, though to others he seem erroneous, can no more be justly censured for a heretic than his censurers, who do but the same thing themselves, while they censure him for so doing.... To Protestants therefore, whose common rule and touchstone is the Scripture, nothing can with more conscience, more equity, nothing more Protestantly can be permitted than a free and lawful debate at all times by writing, conference, or disputation of what opinion soever disputable by Scripture.... How many persecutions, then, imprisonments, banishments, penalties, and stripes; how much bloodshed, have the forcers of conscience to answer for--and Protestants rather than Papists!' (_A Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes. _) The reasons which induced Milton to exclude the Catholics of his day from the general toleration are more intelligible and more plausible, than those of fifty or sixty years since, when the Rev. Sidney Smith published the _Letters of Peter Plymley_. 

 [143] Displayed in the satire of _Hudibras_, particularly in Part II. Canto 3, Part III. 1, and the notes of Zachary Grey. The author of this amusing political satire has exposed the foibles of the great Puritan party with all the rancour of a partisan. 

That the strenuous antagonists of despotic dogmas, by whom theprinciples of English liberty were first inaugurated, that theyshould so fanatically abandon their reason to a monstrous idea, is additional proof of the universality of superstitiousprejudice. But the conviction, the result of a continualpolitical religious persecution of their tenets, that if heavenwas on their side Satan and the powers of darkness were stillmore inimical, cannot be fully understood unless by referring tothose scenes of murder and torture. Hunted with relentlessferocity like wild beasts, holding conventicles and prayermeetings with the sword suspended over their heads, it is notsurprising that at that period these English and ScotchCalvinists came to believe that they were the peculiar objects ofdiabolical as well as human malice. Their whole history duringthe first eighty years of the seventeenth century can aloneexplain this faith. Besides this genuine feeling, the clergy ofthe Presbyterian sect might be interested in maintaining a creedwhich must magnify their credit as miracle-workers. [144]

 [144] The author of _Hudibras_, in the interview of the Knight and Sidrophel (William Lilly), enumerates the various practices and uses of astrology and witchcraft in vogue at this time, and employed by Court and Parliament with equal eagerness and emulation. Dr. Zachary Grey, the sympathetic editor of _Hudibras_, supplies much curious information on the subject in extracts from various old writers. 'The Parliament, ' as he states, 'took a sure way to secure all prophecies, prodigies, and almanac-news from stars, &c. , in favour of their own side, by appointing a licenser thereof, and strictly forbidding and punishing all such as were not licensed. Their man for this purpose was the famous Booker, an astrologer, fortune-teller, almanac-maker, &c. The words of his license in Rushorth are very remarkable--for mathematics, almanacs, and prognostications. If we may believe Lilly, both he and Booker did conjure and prognosticate well for their friends the Parliament. He tells us, "When he applied for a license for his _Merlinus Anglicus Junior_ (in Ap. 1644), Booker wondered at the book, made many impertinent obliterations, framed many objections, and swore it was not possible to distinguish between a king and a parliament; and at last licensed it according to his own fancy. Lilly delivered it to the printer, who, being an arch-Presbyterian, had five of the ministers to inspect it, who could make nothing of it, but said it might be printed; for in that he meddled not with their Dagon. " (_Lilly's Life. _) Which opposition to Lilly's book arose from a jealousy that he was not then thoroughly in the Parliament's interest--which was true; for he frankly confesses, "that till the year 1645 he was more Cavalier than Roundhead, and so taken notice of; but after that he engaged body and soul in the cause of the Parliament. "' (_Life. _) Lilly was succeeded successively by his assistant Henry Coley, and John Partridge, the well-known object of Swift's satire. 

The years 1644 and 1645 are distinguished as especially aboundingin witches and witchfinders. In the former year, at Manningtree, a village in Essex, during an outbreak in which several womenwere tried and hanged, Matthew Hopkins first displayed hispeculiar talent. Associated with him in his recognised legalprofession was one John Sterne. They proceeded regularly on theircircuit, making a fixed charge for their services upon eachtown or village. Swimming and searching for secret marks werethe infallible methods of discovery. Hopkins, encouragedby an unexpected success, arrogantly assumed the title of'Witchfinder-General. ' His modest charges (as he has told us)were twenty shillings a town, which paid the expenses oftravelling and living, and an additional twenty shillings a headfor every criminal brought to trial, or at least to execution. 

The eastern counties of Huntingdon, Cambridge, Suffolk, Northampton, Bedford, were chiefly traversed; and some two orthree hundred persons appear to have been sent to the gibbet orthe stake by his active exertions. One of these speciallyremembered was the aged _parson_ of a village near Framlingham, Mr. Lowes, who was hanged at Bury St. Edmund's. The pious Baxter, an eyewitness, thus commemorates the event: 'The hanging of agreat number of witches in 1645 and 1646 is famously known. Mr. Calamy went along with the judges on the circuit to hear theirconfessions and see that there was no fraud or wrong done them. Ispoke with many understanding, pious, learned, and crediblepersons that lived in the counties, and some that went to them inthe prison and heard their sad confessions. Among the rest, anold _reading_ parson named Lowes, not far from Framlingham, wasone that was hanged, who confessed that he had two imps, and thatone of them was always putting him upon doing mischief; and hebeing near the sea as he saw a ship under sail, it moved him tosend it to sink the ship, and he consented and saw the ship sinkbefore them. ' Sterne, Hopkins's coadjutor, in an Apologypublished not long afterwards, asserts that Lowes had beenindicted thirty years before for witchcraft; that he had made acovenant with the devil, sealing it with his blood, and had thosefamiliars or spirits which sucked on the marks found on his body;that he had confessed that, besides the notable mischief ofsinking the aforesaid vessel and making fourteen widows in onequarter of an hour, he had effected many other calamities; thatfar from repenting of his wickedness, he rejoiced in the power ofhis imps. 

The excessive destruction and cruelty perpetrated by theindiscriminate procedure of the Witchfinder-General incited a Mr. Gaule, vicar of Great Staughton in Huntingdonshire, to urge someobjections to the inhuman character of his method. Gaule, likeJohn Cotta before him and others of that class, was provoked tochallenge the propriety of the ordinary prosecutions, not so muchfrom incredulity as from humanity, which revolted at theextravagance of the judges' cruelty. In 'Select Cases ofConscience touching Witches and Witchcraft, ' the minister ofGreat Staughton describes from personal knowledge one of theordinary ways of detecting the guilt of the accused. 'Havingtaken the suspected witch, she is placed in the middle of a roomupon a stool or table, cross-legged, or in some other uneasyposition, to which, if she submits not, she is then bound withcords: there is she watched and kept without meat or sleep forthe space of four-and-twenty hours (for they say within thattime they shall see her imps come and suck); a little hole islikewise made in the door for the imps to come in at, and, lestthey should come in some less discernible shape, they that watchare taught to be ever and anon sweeping the room, and if they seeany spiders or flies to kill them; and if they cannot kill them, then they may be sure they are her imps. '

'Swimming' and 'pricking' were the approved modes of discovery. By the former method the witch was stripped naked, securely bound(hands and feet being crossed), rolled up in a blanket or cloth, and carried to the nearest water, upon which she was laid on herback, with the alternative of floating or sinking. In case of theformer event (the water not seldom refusing to receive thewretch, because--declares James I. --they had impiously thrown offthe holy water of baptism) she was rescued for the fire or thegallows; while, in case of sinking to the bottom, she would beproperly and clearly acquitted of the suspected guilt. Hopkinsprided himself most on his ability for detecting special marks. Causing the suspected woman to be stripped naked, or as far asthe waist (as the case might be), sometimes in public, thisstigmatic professor began to search for the hidden signs withunsparing scrutiny. Upon finding a mole or wart or any similarmark, they tried the 'insensibleness thereof' by insertingneedles, pins, awls, or any sharp-pointed instrument; and in anold and withered crone it might not be difficult to findsomewhere a more insensitive spot. 

Such examinations were conducted with disregard equally forhumanity and decency. All the disgusting circumstances must besought for in the works of the writers upon the subject. ReginaldScot has collected many of the commonest. These marks wereconsidered to be teats at which the demons or imps were used tobe suckled. Many were the judicial and vulgar methods ofdetecting the guilty--by repeating the 'Lord's Prayer;' weighingagainst the church Bible; making them shed tears--for a witch canshed tears only with the left eye, and that only with difficultyand in limited quantity. The counteracting or preventive charmsare as numerous as curious, not a few being in repute in someparts at this day. 'Drawing blood' was most effective. Nailing upa horse-shoe is one of the best-known preventives. Thatefficacious counter-charm used to be suspended over theentrance of churches and houses, and no wizard or witch couldbrave it. [145] 'Scoring above the breath' is omnipotent inScotland, where the witch was cut or 'scotched' on the face andforehead. Cutting off secretly a lock of the hair of the accused, burning the thatch of her roof and the thing bewitched; theseare a few of the least offensive or obscene practices incounter-charming. [146] In what degree or kind the Fetish-charmsof the African savages are more ridiculous or disgusting thanthose popular in England 200 years ago, it would not be easy todetermine. 

 [145] Gay's witch complains:

 'Straws, laid across, my pace retard. The horse-shoe's nailed, each threshold's guard. The stunted broom the wenches hide For fear that I should up and ride. They stick with pins my bleeding seat, And bid me show my secret teat. '

 [146] The various love-charms, amulets, and spells in the pharmacy of witchcraft are (like the waxen image known, both to the ancient and modern art) equally monstrous and absurd. Of a more natural and pleasing sort was the [Greek: himas poikilos], the irresistible charm of Aphrodite. Here--

 [Greek: Thelktêria panta tetykto; Enth' eni men philotês, en d' himeros, en d' oaristys, Parphasis, hê t' eklepse noon pyka per phroneontôn. ]

Matthew Hopkins pursued a lucrative trade in witch-hunting forsome years with much applause and success. His indiscriminatingaccusations at last excited either the alarm or the indignationof his townspeople, if we may believe the tradition suggestedin the well-known verses of Butler, who has no authority, apparently, for his insinuation ('Hudibras, ' ii. 3), that thiseminent _Malleus_ did not die 'the common death of all men. 'However it happened, his death is placed in the year 1647. AnApology shortly before had been published by him in refutationof an injurious report gaining ground that he was himselfintimately allied with the devil, from whom he had obtained amemorandum book in which were entered the names of all thewitches in England. It is entitled 'The Discovery of Witches; inAnswer to several Queries lately delivered to the Judge of Assizefor the County of Norfolk; and now published by Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder, for the Benefit of the whole Kingdom. Printed for R. Royston, at the Angel in Inn Lane, 1647. '[147] It is, indeed, sufficiently probable that, confident of the increasing coolness, and perhaps of the wishes, of the magistrates, the mob, everready to wreak vengeance upon a disgraced favourite who has longabused the public patience, retaliated upon Hopkins a method oftorture he had frequently inflicted upon others. [148]

 [147] Quoted by Sir W. Scott from a copy of this 'very rare tract' in his possession. 

 [148] Dr. Francis Hutchinson (Historical Essay), referring to the verses of Samuel Butler, says that he had often heard that some persons, 'out of indignation at the barbarity [of the witchfinder], took him and tied his own thumbs and toes, as he used to tie others; and when he was put into the water, he himself swam as they did. ' But whether the usual fate upon that event awaited him does not appear. The verses in question are the following:--

 'has not he, within a year, Hang'd threescore of 'em in one shire, * * * * *

 Who after prov'd himself a witch, And made a rod for his own breech?'

 The Knight's Squire on the same occasion reminds his master of the more notorious of the devil's tricks of that and the last age:--

 'Did not the devil appear to Martin Luther in Germany for certain, And would have gull'd him with a trick But Mart was too, too politic? Did he not help the Dutch to purge At Antwerp their cathedral church? Sing catches to the saints at Mascon, And tell them all they came to ask him? Appear in divers shapes to Kelly, And speak i' th' nun of Loudun's belly? Meet with the Parliament's committee At Woodstock on a pers'nal treaty? ... &c. &c. '

 _Hudibras_, II. 3. 

Hopkins is the most famous of his class on account of hissuperior talent; but both in England and Scotland witchfinders, or _prickers_, as they were sometimes called, before and sincehis time abounded--of course most where the superstition ragedfiercest. In Scotland they infested all parts of the country, practising their detestable but legal trade with entire impunity. The Scottish prickers enjoyed a great reputation for skill andsuccess; and on a special occasion, about the time whenHopkins was practising in the South, the magistrates ofNewcastle-upon-Tyne summoned from Scotland one of greatprofessional experience to visit that town, then overrun withwitches. The magistrates agreed to pay him all travellingexpenses, and twenty shillings for every convicted criminal. Abellman was sent round the town to invite all complainants toprefer their charges. Some thirty women, having been brought tothe town-hall, were publicly subjected to an examination. By theordinary process, twenty-seven on this single occasion wereascertained to be guilty, of whom, at the ensuing assizes, fourteen women and one man were convicted by the jury andexecuted. 

Three thousand are said to have suffered for the crime in Englandunder the supremacy of the Long Parliament. A respite followed onthis bloody persecution when the Independents came into power, but it was renewed with almost as much violence upon the returnof the Stuarts. The Protectorship had been fitly inaugurated bythe rational protest of a gentleman, witness to the proceedingsat one of the trials, Sir Robert Filmore, in a tract, 'AnAdvertizement to the Jurymen of England touching Witches. ' Thiswas followed two years later by a similar protest by one ThomasAdy, called, 'A Candle in the Dark; or, a Treatise concerning theNature of Witches and Witchcraft: being Advice to Judges, Sheriffs, Justices of the Peace and Grand Jurymen, what to dobefore they pass Sentence on such as are arraigned for theirLives as Witches. ' Notwithstanding the general toleration of theCommonwealth, in 1652, the year before Cromwell assumed theDictatorship (1653-1658), there appeared to be a tendency toreturn to the old system, and several were executed in differentparts of the country. Six were hanged at Maidstone. 'Some therewere that wished rather they might be burned to ashes, allegingthat it was a received opinion amongst many that the body of awitch being burned, her blood is thereby prevented from becominghereafter hereditary to her progeny in the same evil, while byhanging it is not; but whether this opinion be erroneous or not, 'the reporter adds, 'I am not to dispute. '

CHAPTER IX. 

 Glanvil's Sadducismus Triumphatus--His Sentiments on Witchcraft and Demonology--Baxter's 'Certainty of the World of Spirits, ' &c. --Witch Trial at Bury St. Edmund's by Sir Matthew Hale, 1664--The Evidence adduced in Court--Two Witches hanged--Three hanged at Exeter in 1682--The last Witches judicially executed in England--Uniformity of the Evidence adduced at the Trials--Webster's Attack upon the Witch-Creed in 1677--Witch Trials in England at the end of the Seventeenth Century--French Parliaments vindicate the Diabolic Reality of the Crime--Witchcraft in Sweden. 

The bold licentiousness and ill-concealed scepticism of CharlesII. And his Court, whose despotic prejudices, however, supportedby the zeal of the Church, prosecuted dissenters from a form ofreligion which maintained 'the right divine of kings to governwrong, ' might be indifferent to the prejudice of witchcraft. Butthe princes and despots of former times have seldom been morecareful of the lives than they have been of the liberties, oftheir subjects. The formal apology for the reality of that crimepublished by Charles II. 's chaplain-in-ordinary, the Rev. Dr. Joseph Glanvil, against the modern Sadducees (a veryinconsiderable sect) who denied both ghosts and witches, theirwell-attested apparitions and acts, has been already noticed. His philosophic inquiry (so he terms it) into the nature andoperations of witchcraft (_Sadducismus Triumphatus_, SadduceeismVanquished, or 'Considerations about Witchcraft'), was occasionedby a case that came under the author's personal observation--the'knockings' of the demon of Tedworth in the house of a Mr. Mompesson. The Tedworth demon must have been of that sort ofactive spirits which has been so obliging of late in enlighteningthe spiritual _séances_ of our time. 

Glanvil traces the steps by which a well-meaning student mayunwarily be involved in _diablerie_. This philosophical inquirerobserves:--'Those mystical students may, in their first addressto the science [astrology], have no other design than thesatisfaction of their curiosity to know remote and hidden things;yet that in the progress, being not satisfied within the boundsof their art, doth many times tempt the curious inquirer to useworse means of information; and no doubt those mischievousspirits, that are as vigilant as the beasts of prey, and watchall occasions to get us within their envious reach, are moreconstant attenders and careful spies upon the actions andinclinations of such whose genius and designs prepare them fortheir temptations. So that I look on judicial astrology as a fairintroduction to sorcery and witchcraft; and who knows but it wasfirst set on foot by the infernal hunters as a lure to draw the_curiosos_ into those snares that lie hid beyond it. And yet Ibelieve it may be innocently enough studied.... I believe thereare very few among those who have been addicted to those strangearts of wonder and prediction, but have found themselves attackedby some unknown solicitors, and enticed by them to the moredangerous actions and correspondencies. For as there are a sortof base and sordid spirits that attend the envy and malice of theignorant and viler sort of persons, and betray them into compactsby promises of revenge; so, no doubt, there are a kind of moreairy and speculative fiends, of a higher rank and order thanthose wretched imps, who apply themselves to the curious.... Yea, and sometimes they are so cautious and wary in theirconversations with more refined persons, that they never offer tomake any _express_ covenant with them. And to this purpose, Ihave been informed by a very reverend and learned doctor that oneMr. Edwards, a Master of Arts of Trinity College, in Cambridge, being reclaimed from conjuration, declared in his repentance thatthe demon always appeared to him like a man of good fashion, andnever required any compact from him: and no doubt they sortthemselves agreeably to the rate, post, and genius of those withwhom they converse. '[149]

 [149] _Sadducismus Triumphatus_, section xvi. 

The sentiments of the royal chaplain on demonology are curious. 'Since good men, ' he argues, 'in their state of separation aresaid to be [Greek: isangeloi], why the wicked may not be supposedto be [Greek: isodaimones] (in the worst sense of the word), Iknow nothing to help me to imagine. And if it be supposed thatthe imps of witches are sometimes wicked spirits of our own kindand nature, and possibly the same that have been witches andsorcerers in this life: this supposal may give a fairer and moreprobable account of many of the actions of sorcery and witchcraftthan the other hypothesis, that they are always devils. And tothis conjecture I will venture to subjoin another, which hathalso its probability, viz. That it is not improbable but thefamiliars of witches are a vile kind of spirits of a veryinferior constitution and nature; and none of those thatwere once of the highest hierarchy now degenerated into thespirits we call devils.... And that all the superior--yea, andinferior--regions have their several kinds of spirits, differingin their natural perfections as well as in the kinds and degreesof their depravities; which being supposed, 'tis very probablethat those of the basest and meanest sorts are they who submit tothe servilities. '[150] It is a curious speculation how the oldapologists of witchcraft would regard the modern 'curiosos'--theadventurous _spirit-media_ of the present day, and whether theconsulted spirits are of 'base and sordid rank, ' or are 'a kindof airy and more speculative fiends. ' It is fair to infer, perhaps, that they are of the latter class. 

 [150] _Sadducismus Triumphatus_, Part I. Sect. 4. Affixed to this work is a _Collection of Relations_ of well-authenticated instances. Glanvil was one of the first Fellows of the recently established Royal Society. He is the author of a philosophical treatise of great merit--the _Scepsis Scientifica_--a review of which occupies several pages of _The Introduction to the Literature of Europe_, and which is favourably considered by Hallam. Not the least unaccountable fact in the history and literature of witchcraft is the absurd contradiction involved in the unbounded credulity of writers (who were sceptical on almost every other subject) on the one subject of demonology. 

The author of the 'Saints' Everlasting Rest, ' the moderate andconscientious Baxter, was a contemporary of the Anglican divine. In another and later work this voluminous theological writer morefully developed his spiritualistic ideas. 'The Certainty of theWorld of Spirits fully evinced by unquestionable Histories ofApparitions, Witchcrafts, Operations, Voices, &c. , proving theImmortality of Souls, the Malice and Misery of Devils and theDamned, and the Blessedness of the Justified. Written for theConviction of Sadducees and Infidels, ' was a formidableinscription which must have overawed, if it did not subdue, theinfidelity of the modern Sadducees. [151]

 [151] It would not be an uninteresting, but it would be a melancholy, task to investigate the reasoning, or rather unreasoning, process which involved such honest men as Richard Baxter in a maze of credulity. While they rejected the principle of the ever-recurring ecclesiastical miracles of Catholicism (so sympathetic as well as useful to ardent faith), their devout imagination yet required the aid of a present supernaturalism to support their faith amidst the perplexing doubts and difficulties of ordinary life, and they gladly embraced the consoling belief that the present evils are the work of the enmity of the devil, whose temporary sovereignty, however, should be overthrown in the world to come, when the faith and constancy of his victims shall be eternally rewarded. 

The sentence and execution of two old women at Bury St. Edmund's, in 1664, has been already noticed. This trial was carried on withcircumstances of great solemnity and with all the external formsof justice--Sir Matthew Hale presiding as Lord Chief Baron: andthe following is a portion of the evidence which was received twohundred years ago in an English Court of Justice and under thepresidency of one of the greatest ornaments of the English Bench. One of the witnesses, a woman named Dorothy Durent, deposed thatshe had quarrelled with one Amy Duny, immediately after which herinfant child was seized with fits. 'And the said examinantfurther stated that she being troubled at her child's distemperdid go to a certain person named Doctor Job Jacob, who lived atYarmouth, who had the reputation in the country to help childrenthat were bewitched; who advised her to hang up the child'sblanket in the chimney-corner all day, and at night when she putthe child to bed to put it into the said blanket; and if shefound anything in it she should not be afraid, but throw it intothe fire. And this deponent did according to his direction; andat night when she took down the blanket with an intent to put thechild therein, there fell out of the same a great toad which ranup and down the hearth; and she, having a young youth only withher in the house, desired him to catch the toad and throw it intothe fire, which the youth did accordingly, and held it there withthe tongs; and as soon as it was in the fire it made a great andterrible noise; and after a space there was a flashing in thefire like gunpowder, making a noise like the discharge of apistol, and thereupon the toad was no more seen nor heard. It wasasked by the Court if that, after the noise and flashing, therewas not the substance of the toad to be seen to consume in thefire; and it was answered by the said Dorothy Durent that afterthe flashing and noise there was no more seen than if there hadbeen none there. The next day there came a young woman, akinswoman of the said Amy, and a neighbour of this deponent, andtold this deponent that her aunt (meaning the said Amy) was in amost lamentable condition, having her face all scorched withfire, and that she was sitting alone in her house in her smockwithout any fire. And therefore this deponent went into the houseof the said Amy Duny to see her, and found her in the samecondition as was related to her; for her face, her legs, andthighs, which this deponent saw, seemed very much scorched andburnt with fire; at which this deponent seemed much to wonder, and asked how she came in that sad condition. And the said Amyreplied that she might thank her for it, for that she (deponent)was the cause thereof; but she should live to see some of herchildren dead, and she upon crutches. And this deponent furthersaith, that after the burning of the said toad her childrecovered and was well again, and was living at the time of theAssizes. ' The accused were next arraigned for having bewitchedthe family of Mr. Samuel Pacy, merchant, of Lowestoft. The witchturned away from their door had at once inflicted summaryvengeance by sending some fearful fits and pains in the stomach, apparently caused by an internal pricking of pins; the childrenshrieking out violently, vomiting nails, pins, and needles, andexclaiming against several women of ill-repute in the town;especially against two of them, Amy Duny and Rose Cullender. 

A friend of the family appeared in court, and deposed: 'At sometimes the children would see things run up and down the house inthe appearance of mice, and one of them suddenly snapt one withthe tongs and threw it into the fire, and it screeched out like abat. At another time the younger child, being out of her fits, went out of doors to take a little fresh air, and presently alittle thing like a bee flew upon her face and would have goneinto her mouth, whereupon the child ran in all haste to the doorto get into the house again, shrieking out in a most terriblemanner. Whereupon this deponent made haste to come to her; butbefore she could get to her the child fell into her swooning fit, and at last, with much pain and straining herself, she vomited upa twopenny nail with a broad head; and being demanded by thisdeponent how she came by this nail, she answered that the beebrought this nail and forced it into her mouth. And at othertimes the elder child declared unto this deponent that during thetime of her fits she saw flies come unto her and bring with themin their mouths crooked pins; and after the child had thusdeclared the same she fell again into violent fits, andafterwards raised several pins. At another time the said elderchild declared unto this deponent, and sitting by the firesuddenly started up and said she saw a mouse; and she crept underthe table, looking after it; and at length she put something inher apron, saying she had caught it. And immediately she ran tothe fire and threw it in; and there did appear upon it to thisdeponent like the flashing of gunpowder, though she confessed shesaw nothing in the child's hands. ' Another witness was the motherof a servant girl, Susanna Chandler, whose depositions are ofmuch the same kind, but with the addition that her daughter wassometimes stricken with blindness and dumbness by demoniacalcontrivance at the moment when her testimony was required incourt. 'Being brought into court at the trial, she suddenly fellinto her fits, and being carried out of the court again, withinthe space of half an hour she came to herself and recovered herspeech; and thereupon was immediately brought into the court, andasked by the Court whether she was in condition to take an oathand to give evidence. She said she could. But when she was swornand asked what she could say against either of the prisoners, before she could make any answer she fell into her fits, shrieking out in a miserable manner, crying "Burn her! burn her!"which was all the words she could speak. ' Doubts having beenhazarded by one or two of the less credulous of the origin of thefits and contortions, 'to avoid this scruple, it was privatelydesired by the judge that the Lord Cornwallis, Sir Edmund Bacon, and Mr. Serjeant Keeling and some other gentlemen there in court, would attend one of the distempered persons in the farthest partof the hall whilst she was in her fits, and then to send for oneof the witches to try what would then happen, which they didaccordingly. ' Some of the possessed, having been put to the proofby having their eyes covered, and being touched upon the hand byone of those present, fell into contortions as if they had beentouched by the witches. 

The suspicion of imposture thus raised was quickly silenced byfresh proof. Robert Sherringham, farmer, deposed that 'about twoyears since, passing along the street with his cart and horses, the axle-tree of his cart touched her house and broke down somepart of it; at which she was very much displeased, threateninghim that his horses should suffer for it. And so it happened; forall those horses, being four in number, died within a short timeafter. Since that time he hath had great losses by sudden dyingof his other cattle. So soon as his sows pigged, the pigs wouldleap and caper, and immediately fall down and die. Also, not longafter, he was taken with a lameness in his limbs that he couldneither go nor stand for some days. '[152]

 [152] This witness finished his evidence by informing the Court that 'after all this, he was very much vexed with a great number of lice, of extraordinary bigness; and although he many times shifted himself, yet he was not anything the better, but would swarm again with them. So that in the conclusion he was forced to burn all his clothes, being two suits of apparel, and then was clear from them. '--_Narratives of Sorcery_, &c. , from the most authentic sources, by Thomas Wright. 

The extreme ridiculousness, even more than the iniquity, of theaccusations may be deemed the principal characteristic of suchprocedures: these _childish_ indictments were received witheagerness by prosecutors, jury, and judge. After half an hour'sdeliberation the jury returned a unanimous verdict against theprisoners, who were hanged, protesting their innocence to theend. The year before, a woman named Julian Coxe was hanged atTaunton on the evidence of a hunter that a hare, which had takenrefuge from his pursuit in a bush, was found on the opposite sidein the likeness of a witch, who had assumed the form of theanimal, and taken the opportunity of her hiding-place to resumeher proper shape. In 1682 three women were executed at Exeter. Their witchcraft was of the same sort as that of the Burywitches. Little variety indeed appears in the English witchcraftas brought before the courts of law. They chiefly consist inhysterical, epileptic, or other fits, accompanied by vomiting ofvarious witch-instruments of torture. The Exeter witches arememorable as the last executed judicially in England. 

Attacks upon the superstition of varying degrees of merit werenot wanting during any period of the seventeenth century. Webster, who, differing in this respect from most of hispredecessors, declared his opinion that the whole of witchcraftwas founded on natural phenomena, credulity, torture, imposture, or delusion, has deserved to be especially commemorated among theadvocates of common sense. He had been well acquainted in hisyouth with the celebrated Lancashire Witches' case, and enjoyedgood opportunities of studying the absurd obscenities of thenumerous examinations. His meritorious work was given to theworld in 1677, under the title of 'The Displaying of SupposedWitchcraft. ' Towards the close of the century witch-trials stilloccur; but the courts of justice were at length freed from thereproach of legal murders. 

The great revolution of 1688, which set the principles ofProtestantism on a firmer basis, could not fail to effect anintellectual as well as a political change. A recognition of theclaims of common sense (at least on the subject of diabolism)seemed to begin from that time; and in 1691, when some of thecriminals were put upon their trial at Frome, in Somersetshire, they were acquitted, not without difficulty, by the exertion ofthe better reason of the presiding judge, Lord Chief JusticeHolt. Fortunately for the accused, Lord Chief Justice Holt was aperson of sense, as well as legal acuteness; for he sat as judgeat a great number of the trials in different parts of thekingdom. Both prosecutors and juries were found who wouldwillingly have sent the proscribed convicts to death. But the agewas arrived when at last it was to be discovered that fire andtorture can extinguish neither witchcraft nor any other heresy;and the princes and parliaments of Europe seemed to begin torecognise in part the philosophical maxim that, 'heresy andwitchcraft are two crimes which commonly increase by punishment, and are never so effectually suppressed as by being totallyneglected. '

In France, until about the year 1670, there was little abatementin the fury or number of the prosecutions. In that year severalwomen had been sentenced to death for frequenting the _Domdaniel_or Sabbath meeting by the provincial parliament of Normandy. Louis XIV. Was induced to commute the sentence into banishmentfor life. The parliament remonstrated at so astonishing aninterference with the due course of justice, and presented apetition to the king in which they insist upon the dread realityof a crime that 'tends to the destruction of religion and theruin of nations. '[153]

 [153] 'Your parliament, ' protest these legislators, 'have thought it their duty on occasion of these crimes, the greatest which men can commit, to make you acquainted with the general and uniform feelings of the people of this province with regard to them; it being moreover a question in which are concerned the glory of God and the relief of your suffering subjects, who groan under their fears from the threats and menaces of this sort of persons, and who feel the effects of them every day in the mortal and extraordinary maladies which attack them, and the surprising damage and loss of their possessions. ' They then review the various laws and decrees of Church and State from the earliest times in support of their convictions: they cite the authority of the Church in council and in its most famous individual teachers. Particularly do they insist upon the opinions of St. Augustin, in his _City of God_, as irrefragable. 'After so many authorities and punishments ordained by human and divine laws, we humbly supplicate your Majesty to reflect once more upon the extraordinary results which proceed from the malevolence of this sort of people; on the deaths from unknown diseases which are often the consequence of their menaces; on the loss of the goods and chattels of your subjects; on the proofs of guilt continually afforded by the insensibility of the marks upon the accused; on the sudden transportation of bodies from one place to another; on the sacrifices and nocturnal assemblies, and other facts, corroborated by the testimony of ancient and modern authors, and verified by so many eyewitnesses, composed partly of accomplices and partly of people who had no interest in the trials beyond the love of truth, and confirmed moreover by the confessions of the accused parties themselves, and that, Sire, with so much agreement and conformity between the different cases, that the most ignorant persons convicted of this crime have spoken to the same circumstances and in nearly the same words as the most celebrated authors who have written about it; all of which may be easily proved to your Majesty's satisfaction by the records of various trials before your parliaments. '--Given in _Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions_. Louis XIV. , with an unaccustomed care for human life, resisting these forcible arguments, remained firm, and the condemned were saved from the stake. 

While most of the Governments of Europe were now content to leavesorcerers and witches to the irregular persecutions of thepeople, tacitly abandoning to the mob the right of proceedingagainst them as they pleased, without the interference of thelaw, in a remote kingdom of Europe a witch-persecution commencedwith the ordinary fury, under express sanction of the Government. It is curious that at the last moments of its existence as alegal crime, one of the last fires of witchcraft should have beenlighted in Sweden, a country which, remote from continentalEurope, seems to have been up to that period exempt from thejudicial excesses of England, France, or Germany. The story ofthe Mohra witches is inserted in an appendix to Glanvil's'Collection of Relations, ' by Dr. Anthony Horneck. The epidemicbroke out in 1669, in the village of Mohra, in the mountainousdistricts of Central Sweden. A number of children becameaffected with an imaginative or mischievous disease, whichcarried them off to a place called Blockula, where they heldcommunion and festival with the devil. These, numbering a largeproportion of the youth of the neighbourhood, were incited, itseems, by the imposture or credulity of the ministers of Mohraand Elfdale, to report the various transactions at theirspiritual _séances_. To such a height increased the terrifiedexcitement of the people, that a commission was appointed by theking, consisting of both clergy and laity, to enquire into theorigin and circumstances of the matter. It commenced proceedingsin August 1670. Days for humiliation and prayer were ordered, anda solemn service inaugurated the judicial examinations. Agreeablyto the dogma of the most approved foreign authorities, whichallowed the evidence of the greatest criminals and of theyoungest age, the commission began by examining the children, three hundred in number, claiming to be bewitched, confrontingthem with the witches who had, according to the indictment, been the means of the devil's seduction. They were strictlyinterrogated whether they were certain of the fact of having beenactually carried away by the devil in his proper person. Beinganswered in the affirmative, the royal commissioners proceeded todemand of the accused themselves, 'Whether the confessions ofthose children were true, and admonished them to confess thetruth, that they might turn away from the devil unto the livingGod. At first most of them did very stiffly, and without sheddingthe least tear, deny it, though much against their will andinclination. After this the children were examined every one bythemselves, to see whether their confessions did agree or no; andthe commissioners found that all of them, except some very littleones, which could not tell all the circumstances, did punctuallyagree in their confessions of particulars. In the meanwhile, thecommissioners that were of the clergy examined the witches, butcould not bring them to any confession, all continuing steadfastin their denials, till at last some of them burst out into tears, and their confession agreed with what the children said; andthese expressed their abhorrence of the fact, and begged pardon, adding that the devil, whom they called _Locyta_, had stopped themouths of some of them, so loath was he to part with his prey, and had stopped the ears of others. And being now gone from them, they could no longer conceal it, for they had now perceived histreachery. ' The Elfdale witches were induced to announce--'We ofthe province of Elfdale do confess that we used to go to agravel-pit which lies hard by a cross-way, and there we put on avest over our heads, and then danced round; and after this ran tothe cross-way and called the devil thrice, first with a stillvoice, the second time somewhat louder, and the third time veryloud, with these words, "Antecessor, come and carry us toBlockula. " Whereupon immediately he used to appear, but indifferent habits; but for the most part we saw him in a greycoat and red and blue stockings. [154] He had a red beard, ahigh-crowned hat with linen of divers colours wrapt about it, andlong garters about upon his stockings. Then he asked us whetherwe would serve him with soul and body. If we were content to doso, he set us on a beast which he had there ready, and carried usover churches and high walls, and after all he came to a greenmeadow where Blockula lies [the Brockenberg in the Hartz forest, as Scott conjectures]. We procured some scrapings of altars andfilings of church clocks, and then he gave us a horn with a salvein it, wherewith we do anoint ourselves, and a saddle, with ahammer and a wooden nail thereby to fix the saddle. Whereupon wecall upon the devil, and away we go. '

 [154] Accommodating himself to modern refinement, the devil usually discards the antiquated horns, hoofs, and tail; and if, as Dr. Mede supposed, 'appearing in human shape, he has always a deformity of some uncouth member or other, ' such inconvenient appendages are disguised as much as possible. As Goethe's Mephistopheles explains to his witch:

 'Culture, which renders man less like an ape, Has also licked the devil into shape. '

Many interrogatories were put. Amongst others, how it wascontrived that they could pass up and down chimneys and throughunbroken panes of glass (to which it was replied that the devilremoves all obstacles); how they were enabled to transport somany children at one time? &c. They acknowledged that 'till oflate they had never power to carry away children; but only thisyear and the last: and the devil did at that time force them toit: that heretofore it was sufficient to carry but one of theirown children or a stranger's child with them, which happenedseldom: but now he did plague them and whip them if they did notprocure him many children, insomuch that they had no peace orquiet for him. And whereas that formerly one journey a week wouldserve their turn from their own town to the place aforesaid, nowthey were forced to run to other towns and places for children, and that they brought with them some fifteen, some sixteenchildren every night. ' As to their means of conveyance, they weresometimes men; at other times, beasts, spits, and posts: but apreferable mode was the riding upon goats, whose backs were mademore commodious by the use of a magical ointment whenever alarger freight than usual was to be transported. Arrived atBlockula, their diabolical initiation commenced. First they weremade to deny their baptism and take an oath of fealty to theirnew master, to whom they devoted soul and body to servefaithfully. Their new baptism was a baptism of blood: for theirlord cut their fingers and wrote their names in blood in hisbook. After other ceremonies they sit down to a table, and areregaled with not the choicest viands (for such an occasion andfrom such a host)--broth, bacon, cheese, oatmeal. Dancing andfighting (the latter a peculiarity of the Northern Sabbath) ensuealternately. They indulge, too, in the debauchery of the South:the witches having offspring from their intercourse with thedemons, who intermarry and produce a mongrel breed of toads andserpents. As interludes, it may be supposed, to the serious partof the entertainment the fiend would contrive various jokes, affecting to be dead; and, a graver joke, he would bid them toerect a huge building of stone, in which they were to be savedupon the approaching day of judgment. While engaged at this workhe threw down the unfinished house about their ears, to theconsternation, and sometimes injury, of his vassals. [155] Some ofthe witnesses spoke of a great dragon encircled with flames, andan iron chair; of a vision of a burning pit. The minister of thedistrict gave his evidence that, having been suffering from apainful headache, he could account for the unusual severity ofthe attack only by supposing that the witches had celebrated oneof their infernal dances upon his head while asleep in bed: andone of them, in accordance with this conjecture, acknowledgedthat the devil had sent her with a sledge-hammer to drive a nailinto the temples of the obnoxious clergyman. The solidity of hisskull saved him; and the only result was, as stated, a severepain in his head. 

 [155] Le Sage's _Diable Boiteux_, who so obligingly introduces the Spanish student to the secret realities of human life, is, it may be observed, of both a more rational and more instructive temperament than the ordinary demons who appear at the witches' revels to practise their senseless and fantastic rites. 

All the persuasive arguments of the examiners could not inducethe witches to repeat before them their well-known tricks:because, as they affirmed, 'since they had confessed all theyfound all their witchcraft was gone: and the devil at this timeappeared very terrible with claws on his hands and feet, withhorns on his head and a long tail behind, and showed them a pitburning with a hand out; but the devil did thrust the person downagain with an iron fork, and suggested to the witches that ifthey continued in their confession he would deal with them in thesame manner. ' These are some of the interesting particulars ofthis judicial commission as reported by contemporaries. Seventypersons were condemned to death. One woman pleaded (a frequentplea) in arrest of judgment that she was with child; the restperseveringly denying their guilt. Twenty-three were burned in asingle fire at the village of Mohra. Fifteen children were alsoexecuted; while fifty-six others, convicted of witchcraft in aminor degree, were sentenced to various punishments: to bescourged on every Sunday during a whole year being a sentence ofless severity. The proceedings were brought to an end, it seems, by the fear of the upper classes for their own safety. An edictof the king who had authorised the enquiry now ordered it to beterminated, and the history of the commission was attempted to beinvolved in silent obscurity. Prayers were ordered in all thechurches throughout Sweden for deliverance from the malice ofSatan, who was believed to be let loose for the punishment of theland. [156] It is remarkable that the incidents of the Swedishtrials are chiefly reproductions of the evidence extracted in thecourts of France and Germany. 

 [156] _Narratives of Sorcery, &c. _, by Thomas Wright, who quotes the authorised reports. Sir Walter Scott refers to 'An account of what happened in the kingdom of Sweden in the years 1669, 1670, and afterwards translated out of High Dutch into English by Dr. Anthony Horneck, attached to Glanvil's _Sadducismus Triumphatus_. The translation refers to the evidence of Baron Sparr, ambassador from the court of Sweden to the court of England in 1672, and that of Baron Lyonberg, envoy-extraordinary of the same power, both of whom attest the confessions and execution of the witches. The King of Sweden himself answered the express inquiries of the Duke of Holstein with marked reserve. "His judges and commissioners, " he said, "had caused divers men, women, and children to be burnt and executed on such pregnant evidence as was brought before them; but whether the actions confessed and proved against them were real, or only the effect of a strong imagination, he was not as yet able to determine. "'

CHAPTER X. 

 Witchcraft in the English Colonies in North America--Puritan Intolerance and Superstition--Cotton Mather's 'Late Memorable Providences'--Demoniacal Possession--Evidence given before the Commission--Apologies issued by Authority--Sudden Termination of the Proceedings--Reactionary Feeling against the Agitators--The Salem Witchcraft the last Instance of Judicial Prosecution on a large Scale in Christendom--Philosophers begin to expose the Superstition--Meritorious Labours of Webster, Becker, and others--Their Arguments could reach only the Educated and Wealthy Classes of Society--These only partially Enfranchised--The Superstition continues to prevail among the Vulgar--Repeal of the Witch Act in England in 1736--Judicial and Popular Persecutions in England in the Eighteenth Century--Trial of Jane Wenham in England in 1712--Maria Renata burned in Germany in 1749--La Cadière in France--Last Witch burned in Scotland in 1722--Recent Cases of Witchcraft--Protestant Superstition--Witchcraft in the Extra-Christian World. 

A review of the superstitions of witchcraft would be incompletewithout some notice of the Salem witches in New England. An equally melancholy and mischievous access of fanaticcredulity, during the years 1688-1692, overwhelmed the colony ofMassachusetts with a multitude of demons and their humanaccomplices; and the circumstances of the period were favourableto the vigour of the delusion. In the beginning of theircolonisation the New Englanders were generally a unitedcommunity; they were little disturbed by heresy; and if they hadbeen thus infected they were too busily engaged in contendingagainst the difficulties and dangers of a perilous position to beable to give much attention to differences in religious belief. But soon the _purity_ of their faith was in danger of beingcorrupted by heretical immigrants. The Puritans were the mostnumerous and powerful of the fugitives from political andreligious tyranny in England, and the dominant sect in NorthAmerica almost as severely oppressed Anabaptists and Quakersin the colonies as they themselves, religious exiles fromecclesiastical despotism, had suffered in the old world. Theyproved themselves worthy followers of the persecutors ofServetus. Other enemies from without also were active in seekingthe destruction of the true believers. Fierce wars and struggleswere continuously being waged with the surrounding savages, whoregarded the increasing prosperity and number of the intruderswith just fear and resentment. 

Imbued as the colonists were with demoniacal prepossessions, itis not so surprising that they deemed their rising State beset byspiritual enemies; and it is fortunate, perhaps, that the wildsof North America were not still more productive of fiends andwitches, and more destructive massacres than that of 1690-92 didnot disgrace their colonial history. From the pen of Dr. CottonMather, Fellow of Harvard College, and his father (who was thePrincipal), we have received the facts of the history. These twodivines and their opinions obtained great respect throughout thecolony. They devoutly received the orthodox creed as expounded inthe writings of the ancient authorities on demonology, firmlyconvinced of the reality of the present wanderings of Satan 'upand down' in the earth; and Dr. Cotton Mather was at the sametime the chief supporter and the historian of the demoniacal warnow commenced. It was significantly initiated by the execution ofa papist, an Irishman named Glover, who was accused of havingbewitched the daughters of a mason of Boston, by name Goodwin. These girls, of infantile age, suffered from convulsive fits, theordinary symptom of 'possession. ' Mather received one of theminto his house for the purpose of making experiments, and, ifpossible, to exorcise the evil spirits. She would suddenly, inpresence of a number of spectators, fall into a trance, rise up, place herself in a riding attitude as if setting out for theSabbath, and hold conversation with invisible beings. A peculiarphase of this patient's case was that when under the influence of'hellish charms' she took great pleasure in reading or hearing'bad' books, which she was permitted to do with perfect freedom. Those books included the Prayer Book of the English EpiscopalChurch, Quakers' writings, and popish productions. Whenever theBible was taken up, the devil threw her into the most fearfulconvulsions. 

As a result of this _diagnosis_ appeared the publication of 'LateMemorable Providences relating to Witchcraft and Possession, 'which, together with Baxter's 'Certainty of the World ofSpirits, ' a work Mather was careful to distribute and recommendto the people, increased the fever of fear and fanaticism to thehighest pitch. The above incidents were the prelude only to theproper drama of the Salem witches. In 1692, two girls, thedaughter and niece of Mr. Parvis, minister, suffering from adisease similar to that of the Goodwins, were pronounced to bepreternaturally afflicted. Two miserable Indians, man and wife, servants in the family, who indiscreetly attempted to cure thewitch-patients by means of some charm or drug, were suspectedthemselves as the guilty agents, and sent to execution. Thephysicians, who seem to have been entirely ignorant of the originof these attacks, and as credulous as the unprofessional world, added fresh testimony to the reality of 'possession. '[157] Atfirst, persons of the lower classes and those who, on account oftheir ill-repute, would be easily recognised to be diabolicagents, were alone incriminated. But as the excitement increasedothers of higher rank were pointed out. A _black_ man wasintroduced on the stage in the form of an Indian of terribleaspect and portentous dimensions, who had threatened thechristianising colonists with extermination for intruding theirfaith upon the reluctant heathen. In May 1692, a new governor, Sir William Phipps, arrived with a new charter (the old onehad been suspended) from England; this official, far fromdiscouraging the existing prejudices, urged the local authoritieson to greater extravagance. The examinations were conducted inthe ordinary and most approved manner, the Lord's Prayer and thesecret marks being the infallible tests. Towards the end of Maytwo women, Bridget Bishop and Susannah Martin, were hanged. 

 [157] A phenomenon of apparently the same sort as that which was of such frequent occurrence in the Middle Age and in the seventeenth century, is said to have been lately occupying considerable attention in the South of France. The _Courrier des Alpes_ narrates an extraordinary scene in one of the churches in the _Commune_ of Morzine, among the women, on occasion of the visitation of the bishop of the district. It seems that the malady in question attacks, for the most part, the female population, and the patients are confidently styled, and asserted to be, _possessed_. It 'produces all the effects of madness, without having its character, ' and is said to baffle all the resources of medical science, which is ignorant of its nature. There had been an intermission of the convulsions for some time, but they have now reappeared with greater violence than ever. --_The Times_ newspaper, June 6, 1864. 

On June 2, a formal commission sat, before which the mostridiculous evidence was gravely given and as gravely received. John Louder deposed against Bridget Bishop, 'that upon somelittle controversy with Bishop about her fowls going well to bed, he did awake in the night by moonlight, and did see clearly thelikeness of this woman grievously oppressing him, in whichmiserable condition she held him unable to help himself till nextday. He told Bishop of this, but she denied it, and threatenedhim very much. Quickly after this, being at home on a Lord's daywith the doors shut about him, he saw a black pig approach him, at which he going to kick, it vanished away. Immediately aftersitting down he saw a black thing jump in at the window and comeand stand before him. The body was like that of a monkey, thefeet like a cock's, but the face much like that of a man. [158] Hebeing so extremely affrighted that he could not speak, thismonster spoke to him and said, "I am a messenger sent unto you, for I understand that you are in some trouble of mind, and if youwill be ruled by me you shall want for nothing in this world. "Whereupon he endeavoured to clap his hands upon it, but he couldfeel no substance; and it jumped out of window again, butimmediately came in by the porch (though the doors were shut) andsaid, "You had better take my counsel. " He then struck at it witha stick, and struck only the ground and broke the stick. The armwith which he struck was presently disabled, and it vanishedaway. He presently went out at the back door, and spied thisBishop in her orchard going towards her house, but he had nopower to set one foot forward to her; whereupon, returning intothe house, he was immediately accosted by the monster he had seenbefore, which goblin was now going to fly at him; whereat hecried out, "The whole armour of God be between me and you!" so itsprung back and flew over the apple-tree, shaking many apples offthe tree in its flying over. At its leap, it flung dirt with itsfeet against the stomach of the man, whereupon he was then struckdumb, and so continued for three days together. ' Another witnessdeclared in court; that, 'being in bed on the Lord's day, atnight he heard a scrambling at the window; whereat he then sawSusanna Martin come in and jump down upon the floor. She tookhold of this deponent's foot, and, drawing his body into a heap, she lay upon him nearly two hours, in all which time he couldneither speak nor stir. At length, when he could begin to move, he laid hold on her hand, and, pulling it up to his mouth, he bitsome of her fingers, as he judged into the bone; whereupon shewent from the chamber down stairs out at the door, ' &c. 

 [158] 'Rara avis in terris. ' A mongrel and anomalous species like the German _Meerkatzen_--monkey-cats. 

On July 19 five women, and on August 19, six persons, were sentto the gallows, among whom was Mr. George Burroughs, minister, who had provoked his judges by questioning the very existence ofwitchcraft. At the last moments he so favourably impressed theassembled spectators by an eloquent address, that Dr. Mather, whowas present, found it necessary to prevent the progress of areactionary feeling by asserting that the criminal was noregularly ordained minister, and the devil has often beentransformed into an angel of light. So transparently iniquitousand absurd had their mode of procedure become, that one of thesubordinates in the service of the authorities, whose office itwas to arrest the accused, refused to perform any longer hishateful office, and being himself denounced as an accomplice, hesought safety in flight. He was captured and executed as arecusant and wizard. Eight sorcerers suffered the extreme penaltyof the law on September 22. Giles Gory, a few days before, indignantly refusing to plead, was 'pressed to death, ' anaccustomed mode of punishing obstinate prisoners; and in thecourse of this torture, it is said, when the tongue of the victimwas forced from his mouth in the agony of pain, the presidingsheriff forced it back with his cane with much _sang froid_. Atthis stage in the proceedings, the magistrates considered that ajustificatory memoir ought to be published for the destruction oftwenty persons of both sexes, and, at the express desire of thegovernor, Cotton Mather drew up an Apology in the form of atreatise, 'More Wonders of the Invisible World, ' in which theSalem, executions are justified by the precedent of similar andnotorious instances in the mother-country, as well as by theuniversally accepted doctrines of various eminent authors of allages and countries. Increase Mather, Principal of HarvardCollege, was also directed to solve the question whether thedevil could sometimes assume the shape of a saint to effect hisparticular design. The reverend author resolved it affirmativelyin a learned treatise, which he called (a seeming plagiarism)'Cases of Conscience concerning Witchcraft and Evil Spiritspersonating Men, ' an undertaking prompted by an unforeseen anddisagreeable circumstance. The wife of a minister, one of themost active promoters of the prosecution, was involved in theindiscriminate charges of the informers, who were beginning toaim at more exalted prey. The minister, alarmed at the unexpectedresult of his own agitation, was now convinced of the falsenessof the whole proceeding. It was a fortunate occurrence. From thattime the executions ceased. [159]

 [159] If, however, individuals of the human species were at length exempt from the penalty of death, those of the canine species were sacrificed, perhaps vicariously. Two dogs, convicted, as it is reported, of being accessories, were solemnly hanged!

The dangerously increasing class of informers who, like the'delatores' of the early Roman Empire, made a lucrativeprofession by their baseness, and spared not even reluctant orrecusant magistrates themselves, more than anything else, was thecause of the termination of the trials. If they would preservetheir own lives, or at least their reputations, the authoritiesand judges found it was necessary at once to check the progressof the infection. About one hundred and fifty witches or wizardswere still under arrest (two hundred more being about to bearrested), when Governor Phipps having been recalled by the HomeGovernment, was induced by a feeling of interest or justice torelease the prisoners, to the wonder and horror of the people. From this period a reaction commenced. Those who four yearsbefore originated the trials suddenly became objects of hatred orcontempt. Even the clergy, who had taken a leading part in them, became unpopular. In spite of the strenuous attempts of Dr. Cotton Mather and his disciples to revive the agitation, the tideof public opinion or feeling had set the other way, and peoplebegan to acknowledge the insufficiency of the evidence and thepossible innocence of the condemned. Public fasts and prayerswere decreed throughout the colony. Judges and juries emulatedone another in admitting a misgiving 'that we were sadly deludedand mistaken. ' Dr. Mather was less fickle and less repentant. Inone of his treatises on the subject, recounting some of thesigns and proofs of the actual crime, he declares: 'Nor are thesethe tenth part of the prodigies that fell out among theinhabitants of New England. _Fleshy_ people may burlesque thesethings: but when hundreds of the most solemn people, in a countrywhere they have as much mother-wit certainly as the rest ofmankind, know them to be true, nothing but the froward spirit ofSadduceeism can question them. I have not yet (he confidentlyasserts) mentioned so much as one thing that will not bejustified, if it be required, by the oaths of more consideratepersons than any that can ridicule these odd phenomena. '[160]

 [160] _Narratives of Sorcery and Magic_, chap. Xxxi. The faith of the Fellow of Harvard College, we may be inclined to suppose, was quickened in proportion to his doubts. To do him justice, he admitted that _some_ of the circumstances alleged might be exaggerated or even imaginary. 

So ended the last of public and judicial persecutions ofconsiderable extent for witchcraft in Christendom. As far as thesuperior intellects were concerned, philosophy could now dare toreaffirm that reason 'must be our last judge and guide ineverything. ' Yet Folly, like Dulness, 'born a goddess, neverdies;' and many of the higher classes must have experienced somesilent regrets for an exploded creed which held the reality ofthe constant personal interference of the demons in humanaffairs. The fact that the great body of the people of everycountry in Europe remained almost as firm believers as theirancestors down to the present age, hardly needs to be insistedon; that theirs was a _living_ faith is evidenced in theever-recurring popular outbreaks of superstitious ignorance, resulting both in this country and on the Continent often in thedeaths of the objects of their diabolic fear. 

Such arguments as those of Webster in England, of Becker andThomasius in Germany, on the special subject of witchcraft, andthe general arguments of Locke or of Bayle, could be addressedonly to the few. [161] Nor indeed would it be philosophical toexpect that the vulgar should be able to penetrate an inveteratesuperstition that recently had been universally credited by thelearned world. 

 [161] Dr. Balthazar Becker, theological professor at Amsterdam, published his heretical work in Dutch, under the title of 'The World Bewitched, or a Critical Investigation of the commonly-received Opinion respecting Spirits, their Nature, Power, and Acts, and all those extraordinary Feats which Men are said to perform through their Aid;' 1691. 'He founds his arguments on two grand principles--that from their very nature spirits cannot act upon material beings, and that the Scriptures represent the devil and his satellites as shut up in the prison of hell. To explain away the texts which militate against his system, evidently cost him much labour and perplexity. His interpretations, for the most part, are similar to those still relied on by the believers in his doctrine' (Note by Murdock in Mosheim's _Institutes of Ecclesiastical History_). The usually candid Mosheim notices, apparently with contempt, '"The World Bewitched, " a prolix and copious work, in which he perverts and explains away, with no little ingenuity indeed, but with no less audacity, whatever the sacred volume relates of persons possessed by evil spirits, and of the power of demons, and maintains that the miserable being whom the sacred writers call Satan and the devil, together with his ministers, is bound with everlasting chains in hell, so that he cannot thence go forth to terrify mortals and to plot against the righteous. ' Balthazar Becker, one of the most meritorious of the opponents of diabolism, was deposed from his ministerial office by an ecclesiastical synod, and denounced as an atheist. His position, and the boldness of his arguments, excited extraordinary attention and animosity, and 'vast numbers' of Lutheran divines arose to confute his atheistical heresy. The impunity which he enjoyed from the vengeance of the devil (he had boldly challenged the deity of hell to avenge his overturned altars) was explained by the orthodox divines to be owing to the superior cunning of Satan, who was certain that he would be in the end the greatest gainer by unbelief. Christ. Thomasius, professor of jurisprudence, was the author of several works against the popular prejudice between the years 1701 and 1720. He is considered by Ennemoser to have been able to effect more from his professional position than the humanely-minded Becker. But, after all, the overthrow of the diabolic altars was caused much more by the discoveries of science than by all the writings of literary philosophers. Even in Southern Europe and in Spain (as far as was possible in that intolerant land) reason began to exhibit some faint signs of existence; and Benito Feyjoó, whose Addisonian labours in the eighteenth century in the land of the Inquisition deserve the gratitude of his countrymen (in his _Téatro Critico_), dared to raise his voice, however feeble, in its behalf. 

The cessation of legal procedure against witches was negativerather than positive: the enactments in the statute-books wereleft unrepealed, and so seemed not to altogether discountenance astill somewhat doubtful prejudice. It was so late as in the ninthyear of the reign of George II. , 1736, that the Witch Act of 1604was formally and finally repealed. By a tardy exertion of senseand justice the Legislature then enacted that, for the future, noprosecutions should be instituted on account of witchcraft, sorcery, conjuration, enchantment, &c. , against any person orpersons. Unfortunately for the credit of civilisation, it wouldbe easy to enumerate a long list of _illegal_ murders both beforeand since 1736. One or two of the most remarkable cases plainlyevincing, as Scott thinks, that the witch-creed 'is only asleep, and might in remote corners be again awakened to deeds of blood, 'are too significant not to be briefly referred to. In 1712 JaneWenham, a poor woman belonging to the village of Walkern, in thecounty of Hertford, was solemnly found guilty by the jury on theevidence of sixteen witnesses, of whom three were clergymen;Judge Powell presiding. She was condemned to death as a witch inthe usual manner; but was reprieved on the representation of thejudge. She had been commonly known in the neighbourhood of herhome as a malicious witch, who took great pleasure in afflictingfarmers' cattle and in effecting similar mischief. The incumbentof Walkern, the Rev. Mr. Gardiner, fully shared the prejudice ofhis parishioners; and, far from attempting to dispel, he entirelyconcurred with, their suspicions. A warrant was obtained from themagistrate, Sir Henry Chauncy, for the arrest of the accused: andshe was brought before that local official; depositions weretaken, and she was searched for 'marks. ' The vicar of Ardley, aneighbouring village, tested her guilt or innocence with theLord's Prayer, which was repeated incorrectly: by threats andother means he forced the confession that she was indeed an agentof the devil, and had had intercourse with him. 

But, even in the middle of the eighteenth century, witches wereoccasionally tried and condemned by judicial tribunals. In theyear 1749, Maria or Emma Renata, a nun in the convent ofUnterzell, near Würzburg, was condemned by the spiritual, andexecuted by the civil, power. By the clemency of the prince, theproper death by burning alive was remitted to the milder sentenceof beheading, and afterwards burning the corpse to ashes: for novestige of such an accursed criminal should be permitted toremain after death. When a young girl Maria Renata had beenseduced to witchcraft by a military officer, and was accustomedto attend the witch-assemblies. In the convent she practised herinfernal arts in bewitching her sister-nuns. [162] About the sametime a nun in the south of France was subjected to the barbarousimputation and treatment of a witch: Father Girard, discoveringthat his mistress had some extraordinary scrofulous marks, conceived the idea of proclaiming to the world that she waspossessed of the _stigmata_--impressions of the marks of thenails and spear on the crucified Lord, believed to be reproducedon the persons of those who, like the celebrated St. Francis, most nearly assimilated their lives to His. The Jesuits eagerlyembraced an opportunity of producing a miracle which mightconfound their Jansenist rivals, whose sensational miracles werethreatening to eclipse their own. [163] Sir Walter Scott statesthat the last judicial sentence of death for witchcraft inScotland was executed in 1722, when Captain David Ross, sheriffof Sutherland, condemned a woman to the stake. As for illegalpersecution, M. Garinet ('Histoire de la Magie en France') givesa list of upwards of twenty instances occurring in France betweenthe years 1805 and 1818. In the latter year three tribunals wereoccupied with the trials of the murderers. 

 [162] Ennemoser relates the history of this witch from 'The Christian address at the burning of Maria Renata, of the convent of Unterzell, who was burnt on June 21, 1749, which address was delivered to a numerous multitude, and afterwards printed by command of the authorities. ' The preacher earnestly insisted upon the divine sanction and obligation of the Mosaic law, 'Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live, ' which was taken as the text; and upon the fact that, so far from being abolished by Christianity, it was made more imperative by the Christian Church. 

 [163] The victim of the pleasure, and afterwards of the ambition, of Father Girard, is known as La Cadière. She was a native of Toulon, and when young had witnessed the destructive effects of the plague which devastated that city in 1720. Amidst the confusion of society she was distinguished by her purity and benevolence. The story of La Cadière and Father Girard is eloquently narrated by M. Michelet in _La Sorcière_. The convulsions of the Flagellants of the thirteenth century, and of the Protestant Revivalists of the present day, exhibit on a large scale the paroxysms of the French convents and the Dutch orphan-houses of the seventeenth century. Nor is diabolical 'possession' yet extinct in Christendom, if the reports received from time to time from the Continent are to be credited. Recently, a convent of Augustinian nuns at Loretto, on the authority of the _Corriere delle Marche_ of Ancona, was attacked in a similar way to that of Loudun. A vomiting of needles and pins, the old diabolical torture, and a strict examination of the accused, followed. 

If a belief should be entertained that the now 'vulgar' ideas ofwitchcraft have been long obsolete in England, it would bedestroyed by a perusal of a few of the newspapers and periodicalsof the last hundred years; and a sufficiently voluminous workmight be occupied with the achievements of modern Sidrophels, andthe records of murders or mutilations perpetrated by an ignorantmob. [164]

 [164] Without noticing other equally notorious instances of recent years, it may be enough (to dispel any such possible illusion) to transcribe a paragraph from an account in _The Times_ newspaper of Sept. 24, 1863. 'It is a somewhat singular fact, ' says the writer, describing a late notorious witch-persecution in the county of Essex, 'that nearly all the sixty or seventy persons concerned in the outrage which resulted in the death of the deceased _were of the small tradesmen class_, and that none of the agricultural labourers were mixed up in the affair. It is also stated that none of those engaged were in any way under the influence of liquor. The whole disgraceful transaction arose out of a deep belief in witchcraft, which possesses to a lamentable extent the tradespeople and the lower orders of the district. ' Nor does it appear that the village of Hedingham (the scene of the witch-murder) claims a superiority in credulity over other villages in Essex or in England. The instigator and chief agent in the Hedingham case was the wife of an innkeeper, who was convinced that she had been bewitched by an old wizard of reputation in the neighbourhood: and the mode of punishment was the popular one of drowning or suffocating in the nearest pond. Scraps of written papers found in the hovel of the murdered wizard revealed the numerous applications by lovers, wives, and other anxious inquirers. Amongst other recent revivals of the 'Black Art' in Southern Europe already referred to, the inquisition at Rome upon a well-known English or American 'spiritualist, ' when, as we learn from himself, he was compelled to make a solemn abjuration that he had not surrendered his soul to the devil, is significant. 

Nor would it be safe to assume, with some writers, thatdiabolism, as a vulgar prejudice, is now entirely extirpated fromProtestant Christendom, and survives only in the most orthodoxcountries of Catholicism or in the remoter parts of northern oreastern Europe. Superstition, however mitigated, exists even inthe freer Protestant lands of Europe and America; and ifProtestants are able to smile at the religious creeds orobservances of other sects, they may have, it is probable, something less pernicious, but perhaps almost as absurd, in theirown creed. [165] But, after a despotism of fifteen centuries, Christendom has at length thrown off the hellish yoke, whosehorrid tyranny was satiated with innumerable holocausts. The oncetremendous power of the infernal arts is remembered by the higherclasses of society of the present age only in their proverbiallanguage, but it is indelibly graven in the common literature ofEurope. With the savage peoples of the African continent and ofthe barbarous regions of the globe, witchcraft or sorcery, underthe name of Fetishism, flourishes with as much vigour and with asdestructive effects as in Europe in the sixteenth century; andevery traveller returning from Eastern or Western Africa, or fromthe South Pacific, testifies to the prevalence of the practice ofhorrid and bloody rites of a religious observance consisting ofcharms and incantations. With those peoples that have no furtherconception of the religious sentiment there obtains for the mostpart, at least, the magical use of sorcery. [166] Superstition, ever varying, at some future date may assume, even in Europe, aform as pernicious or irrational as any of a past or of thepresent age; for in every age 'religion, which should mostdistinguish us from beasts, and ought most peculiarly to elevateus as rational creatures above brutes, is that wherein menoften appear most irrational and more senseless than beaststhemselves. '[167]

 [165] A modern philosopher has well illustrated this obvious truth (_Natural History of Religion_, sect. Xii. ). 'The age of superstition, ' says an essayist of some notoriety, with perfect truth, 'is not past; nor, ' he adds, a more questionable thesis, 'ought we to wish it past. ' Some of the most eminent writers (e. G. Plutarch, Francis Bacon, Bayle, Addison) have rightly or wrongly agreed to consider fanatical superstition more pernicious than atheism. When it is considered that the scientific philosophy of Aristotle, of more than 2, 000 years ago, was revived at a comparatively recent date, it may be difficult not to believe in a _cyclic_ rather than really progressive course of human ideas, at least in metaphysics. The fact, remarked by Macaulay, that the two principal sections of Christendom in Europe remain very nearly in the limits in which they were in the sixteenth, or in the middle of the seventeenth century, is incontestable. Nor, indeed, are present facts and symptoms so adverse, as is generally supposed, to the probability of an ultimate reaction in favour of Catholic doctrine and rule, even among the Teutonic peoples, in the revolutions to which human ideas are continually subject. 

 [166] Among the numerous evidences of recent travellers may be specially mentioned that of the well-known traveller R. F. Burton (_The Lake Regions of Central Africa_) for the practices of the Eastern Africans. On the African continent and elsewhere, as was the case amongst the ancient Jews, the demons are propitiated by human sacrifices. To what extent witch-superstition obtains among the Hindus, the historian of British India bears witness. 'The belief of witchcraft and sorcery, ' says Mr. Mill, 'continues universally prevalent, and is every day the cause of the greatest enormities. It not unfrequently happens that Brahmins tried for murder before the English judges assign as their motive to the crime that the murdered individual had enchanted them. No fewer than five unhappy persons in one district were tried and executed for witchcraft so late as the year 1792. The villagers themselves assume the right of sitting in judgment on this imaginary offence, and their sole instruments of proof are the most wretched of all incantations (_History of British India_, book ii. 7). A certain instinctive or traditional dread of evil spirits excites the terrors of those peoples who have no firm belief in the providence or existence of a benevolent Divinity. Even among the Chinese--the least religious nation in the world, and whose trite formula of scepticism, 'Religions are many: Reason is one, ' expresses their indifferentism to every form of religion--there exists a sort of demoniacal fear (Huc's _Chinese Empire_, xix. ). The diabolic and magic superstitions of the Moslem are displayed in Sale's _Korân_ and Lane's _Modern Egyptians_. 

 [167] _Essay concerning the Human Understanding_, book iv. 18. 

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