An Essay on Demonology 8

An Essay on Demonology 8

These animals

could not be killed but by a silver bullet, and should the animal

receive a wound the witch would have a wound in the same place. It was

imagined that the witch, by the aid of Satan, had power to inflict

death, and various diseases and evils, on families and individuals,

and also on cattle, by way of revenge for any offence, and could even

raise storms and tempests, and sink ships at sea.

 

Numerous legendary tales were formerly propagated of haunted houses,

where witches assembled and held their nightly orgies and diabolical

revels. These haunts were always objects of great terror to the

credulous vulgar, being considered as a pandemonium of all manner of

evils, miseries, and calamities. The idea was prevalent, also, that

witches could bridle men in the night, and ride them about at

pleasure. The woman who should exhibit the characteristics above

described, was at once stigmatized as being in league with the devil,

and was treated not only with ridicule and contempt, but subjected to

unmerciful persecution. Ranked among demons, instruments of the devil,

they were objects of no pity, but were viewed with scorn and horror.

Instances were not wanting of these wretched mortals, although

entirely innocent, becoming so hateful and terrible to all, and

befriended by none, that at length they abhorred themselves, and were

reconciled to be burnt or hung, that they might escape the rage of

cruel persecution.

 

The methods put in practice for the discovery of witches were various

and singular. One was, to weigh the suspected woman against the church

bible, which, if she was guilty, would preponderate. Another was to

require her to repeat the Lord's prayer; in attempting this, a witch

will always hesitate and blunder. If a witch should weep, she could

not shed more than three tears, and that out of the left eye. This

deficiency of tears was considered as a very substantial proof of

guilt. Excrescences on the body, from which the imps receive their

nourishment, were deemed infallible signs of a witch. She was bound

crosswise, the right thumb tied to the left toe, and the left thumb to

the right toe; in this condition she was cast into the water, if

guilty she could not sink, for having in her compact with the devil

renounced the water of baptism, the water in return refuses to receive

her. If she was found able to swim in that condition, she was taken

out and burnt or hung; but it is probable the bystanders were allowed

to save them from drowning or few could escape. The trial by the stool

was resorted to as another expedient; the suspected woman was placed

in the middle of the room on a stool cross-legged; if she refused, she

was bound with cords, and in this uneasy posture she was kept without

meat or sleep, for twentyfour hours, during which it was supposed that

her imps would return to her for nourishment. A small hole was left in

the door for the imps to enter, and persons were directed to be

constantly sweeping the floor, and to keep a strict watch for spiders,

flies, or other insects, and if they could not kill them, they

certainly were the witch's imps. Suspected witches were sometimes put

to cruel torture to force confession, and were afterwards executed.

From such kinds of proof, together with the most absurd and foolish

evidence of old women and children, thousands of innocent persons were

condemned for witchcraft, and burnt at the stake.

 

Bishop Jewel, in a sermon preached before Queen Elizabeth, in 1558,

tells her, 'It may please your Grace to understand that witches and

sorcerers, within these last four years, are marvellously increased

within your Grace's realm. Your subjects pine away even unto death;

their color fadeth, their speech is benumbed, their senses are

bereft; I pray God they never practise farther than upon the subject.'

John Bell, minister of the gospel at Glaidsmuir, says, 'Providentially

two tests appeared to discover the crime. If the witch cries out,

"Lord have mercy upon me!" when apprehended, and the inability of

shedding tears; because, as a witch could only shed three tears, and

those with her left eye, her stock was quickly exhausted; and that was

the more striking, as King James I. shrewdly observes, "since other

women in general are like the crocodile, ready to weep upon every

slight occasion."'

 

King James the First, indulged a ferocious antipathy against sorcery

and witchcraft, and in the first year of his reign, a new statute was

passed, embracing every possible mode and form in which imagination

could paint the mystical crime. James fully considered his own

personal safety greatly endangered, as attempts had been made to

poison him by some who practised the magic art. He composed a book on

demonology, in which he advised the water ordeal, by swimming, and

when a work was published in opposition to his opinion and desire, he

ordered it to be burnt by the common executioner.

 

That illustrious English lawyer, Sir William Blackstone, having, in

his commentaries on the laws of England, stated the evidence on both

sides of the question, concerning the reality of witchcraft, says, 'It

seems to be the most eligible way to conclude that, in general, there

has been such a thing as witchcraft, though one cannot give credit to

any particular modern instance of it.' According to our conceptions of

human actions, they are in general prompted and governed by reason,

and perhaps most frequently the dominant motives are those which

pertain to our own individual interest. Now it may be inquired in what

imaginable circumstances the interest of human beings can be linked

with the affairs of Satan, or their welfare promoted by his influence?

No one will pretend, that there can be honor attached to a seat in his

privy council, for it is well known that a witch is considered one of

the most odious and despicable wretches in existence. Nor will it be

contended that pecuniary advantages are derivable from that source;

wizards and witches are always poor, miserable, forlorn beings. They

are supposed to give themselves up to serve under the banners of a

cruel, tyrannical master, the implacable enemy and tempter of mankind,

whose very name excites horror and detestation in every virtuous mind.

It must, however, be confessed that a strong bias to scepticism

relative to things we cannot understand, is no less a mark of weakness

of intellect, than indiscriminate credulity. But I am aware, that the

real existence of the fraternity has received the credence of some of

the wisest and best of men. Divine providence has permitted the

delusion respecting this great scourge to prevail in the minds of

some, as he did the sin of idolatry among his chosen people while in

their pilgrimage to the land of promise.

 

Numerous instances of imposition and counterfeit have been detected in

times of alarm from supposed witchcraft. There are in all countries

those who cannot exist but in times of confusion and civil commotion.

They delight to be noticed as objects of great wonder and curiosity,

and when they cannot be distinguished for virtuous actions, resort to

deeds of the most infernal character, according to their own

interest, passion, or capricious humor. They learn to counterfeit

various kinds of fits; bark and snarl like a dog, goggle their eyes,

foam at the mouth, distort their bodies, and disjoint their limbs.

Such impostors have their confederates or partners who join with them,

and share in the profit, or in the humor.

 

Dr Francis Hutchinson, published a chronological detail of trials and

executions for supposed witchcraft, sorcerers, and conjurors, in

various countries in Europe. From this it will be seen, he observes,

that, in all ages of the world, superstitious credulity has produced

greater cruelties than are practised among Hottentots, or other

nations whose belief in a Deity is called in question. The number of

witches and their supposed dealings with Satan, he observes, will

increase or decrease according as such doings are accounted probable,

or impossible. Under the former supposition, charges and convictions

will be found augmented in a terrific degree. When the accusations are

disbelieved and dismissed as not worthy of attention, the crime

becomes unfrequent, ceases to occupy the public mind, and affords

little trouble to the judges. That where the times have not been so

violent and superstitious but that sensible men might venture to speak

freely, and the accused could have a fair trial, they have usually

discovered cheat and imposture. Fifteen famous detections of fraud

were made, many of them after judges and juries, and a multitude of

eye witnesses had been deceived. Had the rest undergone as strict

inquiry, most of them would probably have proved innocent.

 

In the year 1427, the famous heroine Joan of Arc, after her glorious

military exploit at the siege of Orleans, being taken prisoner by the

Earl of Bedford, was cruelly burnt as a witch. In 1488, a violent

tempest of thunder and lightning in Spain, having destroyed the corn

for some leagues around, the people accused two old women of being the

cause. They confessed and were burnt. Other instances, no less

preposterous, are recorded about that period. In 1515, five hundred

persons were executed at Geneva, in three months, as witches and

wizards, and at another place, fortyeight were burnt in five years.

Eighteen were condemned in England in 1596; an account of their trials

was published, with the names and colors of the spirits. A perusal of

that fantastic production must have excited wonder and amazement in

any age.

 

In France, in 1594, the crime of witchcraft had become so common, that

the jails were not sufficient to contain the prisoners, nor had they

judges enough to try them. In 1595, a woman was hanged in England, for

sending an evil spirit into Thomas Darling; and E. Hartley was

executed for bewitching seven persons. In the trial, spectral evidence

was made use of against him, and the experiment of saying the Lord's

prayer, which it was believed a witch is unable to repeat. But that

which touched his life, was a deposition that he had made the magic

circle for conjuration. In 1612, twelve women were executed at

Lancaster. Mary Smith believed herself to be a witch, and died very

pious. A learned and eminent clergyman in France, named Grandier, was,

in 1634, put to cruel torment on suspicion of an evil spirit, and was

adjured to clear himself by shedding tears if innocent. He was

tortured till he swooned on the rack, and then inhumanly burnt. From

1634 to 1661, history records accounts of several hundreds executed

in England, of both sexes, husband and wife, mother and daughter

together, some confessing, others declaring themselves innocent. In

Germany, whole counties were depopulated, that no witch might escape.

But it was in Scotland that Satan was set at liberty to execute his

vengeance. There the floodgates of malice, revenge, and bloodshed,

were thrown open, and multitudes were swept away by the dreadful

torrent. No less, it is said in history, than 4000 victims were

cruelly sacrificed within a short period, for the dubious crime which

never has and never can be proved. In 1664, two women were tried

before the celebrated Lord Chief Justice Sir Matthew Hale, and were

convicted. The evidence against the accused was so trivial, that his

Lordship was greatly embarrassed on the occasion, and his scruples

were such, that he declined the duty of summing up the evidence. Being

willing, however, that the law should have its course, he pronounced

sentence, and they were executed. The evidence against them was,

partly spells and partly spectral, and one evidence was that a cart

run against the cottage of one of the women, by which she was

offended, and shortly after the same cart stuck fast in a gate where

its wheels touched neither of the posts, and yet was moved easily

forward on one of the posts being cut down. A girl, supposed to be

bewitched, went into a fit on being touched by one of the accused. But

much weight was given to the evidence of Sir Thomas Browne, 'that the

fits were natural, but heightened by the power of the devil,

cooperating with the malice of witches.' (Sir Walter Scott, page 225.)

About this period, seventy persons were condemned in Sweden, and most of them executed.