An Essay on Demonology 9

An Essay on Demonology 9

Fifteen children were also executed, thirtysix ran

the gauntlet, and twenty were whipped for the same reputed crime. In

1678, six were executed in Scotland for bewitching Sir George Maxwell.

The principal evidence in these cases was a deaf and dumb girl, who

made signs that there was a picture of wax in one of their houses as

an instrument of enchantment, but it was proved afterwards that it was

placed there by herself, and she was whipped through the streets of

the city and banished. In 1682, three women were hung at Exeter,

confessing themselves witches, but died with pious prayers in their

mouths. These were the last executed in England for the crime of

witchcraft. Some of the accused persons were in their indictments

charged with keeping imps, one was said to be like a pole-cat. On one

trial several witnesses deposed that the grandmother and aunt of the

prisoner were hanged for witches, and that her grandmother had said

that she had eight or nine imps, and that she had given two or three

to each of her children. In 1697, about twentyeight were accused in

Scotland, by a girl eleven years old. Two boys and a girl, and two

other persons, saved themselves by confessing, and upon their

testimony seven were executed, all denying their guilt.

 

A notorious witch-finder, says Dr Increase Mather, undertook by a pin

to make an infallible discovery of suspected persons. If, when the pin

was pushed an inch or two into the flesh, no blood appeared, nor any

sense of pain, then he declared them to be witches. No less than three

hundred persons, says that respectable author, were thus condemned in

that kingdom. This miscreant was Matthew Hopkins, who styled himself

witch-finder general, and travelled from town to town with a train of

assistants, for the professed purpose of detecting witches, charging

twenty shillings for each town. He affected to have uncommon skill in

his profession, but treated his subjects with great cruelty, keeping

them from sleep, wearying them to distress by constant walking to

force confession. He also adopted the mode of swimming them while

cross-bound. But the cruel wretch finally met his just deserts; he was

treated as he had treated hundreds of others, being thrown into the

water cross-bound; but, although able to swim as a witch, he was

suffered to escape from the country. It is greatly to be lamented,

that a considerable number of Calvinistic divines should take zealous

concern in the prosecution of reputed witches. Among those pious

divines, we find the venerable names of Baxter and Calamy, in England,

and the two Mathers in America. That they were conscientious, and

influenced by the purest motives, no one will doubt; but that they

were imbued with a large share of the credulity of the times, will

appear most evident. The following are Mr Baxter's own words as quoted

by Sir Walter Scott. 'The hanging of a great number of witches in

1645 and 1646, is famously known. Mr Calamy went along with the judges

on the circuit, to hear their confessions, and see there was no fraud

or wrong done them. I spoke with many understanding, pious, learned,

and credible persons, that lived in the counties, and some that went

to them in the prisons, and heard their sad confessions. Among the

rest an old _reading parson_, named Lewis, was one that was hanged,

who confessed that he had two imps, and that one of them was always

putting him upon doing mischief; and he being near the sea, as he saw

a ship under sail, it moved him to send it to sink the ship; and he

consented, and saw the ship sink before them.' The Rev. Mr Lewis was

condemned on his own simple confession, that he sent his imp to sink a

ship, but it was not known that any ship was lost, and it was supposed

that the man was deranged in his intellect. Mr Baxter relates another

story of a mother, who gave her child an imp like a mole, and told her

to keep it in a can near the fire, and she would never be in want.

 

The Catholic priests were remarkable for their zealous pretensions to

peculiar powers in dispossessing demons, by fasting and prayer, and

they were detected in numerous frauds. It was probably from their

reports that the story originated which Dr Mather cites in his cases

of conscience, that at the time when Martin Luther died, all the

possessed people in the Netherlands became quiet and at ease. The

devils in them said the reason was, that Luther had been a great

friend of theirs, and they owed him so much respect as to go as far as

Germany to attend his funeral, and on the mention of some ministers of

the reformed religion, the devils in the possessed laughed and said,

that they and the Calvinists were very good friends. There were among

the Protestants some clergymen base enough to become rivals with

papists in their pretended exorcisms. The following is an instance of

unprecedented turpitude. In 1689, Richard Dugdale, of Lancaster, was

reported by a clergyman as having been dispossessed of devils, by

fasting and prayer. He had for several months exhibited, at intervals,

apparent sufferings, both surprising and unaccountable. He would

counterfeit the demoniac, epileptic, and a train of nervous fits, and

unnatural afflictions, which were attributed to demons. His singular

condition excited the curiosity and wonder which he and his vile

minister desired, and his supposed sufferings called forth the

sympathy, and his indigent circumstances the charity of his numerous

deluded visitors. By these means he was encouraged to persevere in his

deception, living at ease on the delusion which he and his minister

had artfully created about a year. When at length complaint was made

to the Bishop of London, who brought Dugdale to confess that he had

acted the part of an impostor, and that he had, from time to time,

received private lessons of instruction from the clergyman, to carry

on the imposition, that he might have the credit of dispossessing the

devil, by his fastings and prayers.

 

In the trials for witchcraft, says Dr Hutchinson, an unpardonable

partiality was manifested, owing to the vulgar prejudices among the

people. The English statute against witchcraft and sorcery interdicts

all acts of sorcery whatever, and all charms for employing spirits;

yet, for discovering a reputed witch, the accusers were allowed to

use charms which must have their force, if any at all, from the same

diabolical power. This is unprecedented partiality, and directly

contrary to the statute. Whether such compacts are real or imaginary,

they ought to be punished equally on both sides. The number of

witches, and the supposed dealings of spirits, have been found to

increase and decrease according to the laws and principles subsisting

at the time and place. Since philosophy and learning have prevailed,

we have had but little trouble about witches and sorcerers, except

that created by the superstitious imagination of men. We may have as

many devils in our day as they had in other ages, for we have as many

murders, robberies, false accusations, and lies, and other crimes

which are the devil's works. Some are of opinion that the devil cannot

really control the laws of nature, while others aver, that the laws of

nature are a mere jest with him. It has been denied that he possesses

power to transform a man or woman into a cat, but Dr Henry More

believed he could, and describes the manner in which he transforms

them. It is difficult to conceive how Dr More acquired such

knowledge; but we shall never believe that Satan is the ruler of our

world. We have no reason to imagine that God has endowed him with

miraculous powers; he cannot, therefore, impart such powers to others;

consequently, there can be no such creature as a witch. All illusive

fancies of witchcraft may be clearly explained on the principles of

mental philosophy and sound and enlightened reason. The confessions of

witches have so often been extorted, so often the effects of

distraction, and so often been found contrary to plain truth and sober

reason, that no dependence should be placed on them. Dr Hutchinson

asserts, that it may be plainly proved, from scripture and reason,

that there never was a witch, such as we mean, who can send devils,

diseases, and destruction, among the people. The spectral evidence

made use of in courts, is far from being legal proof, it is of no sort

of weight, nor should it be regarded as anything more than dreams. The

confessions of ignorant old women, ought to have been entirely

rejected; some were extorted, many were impossible, and all ridiculous

and incredible.

 

The Rev. Dr Holmes, in his American Annals, observes, that our

fathers, before the world was enlightened by learning and philosophy,

loved to astonish themselves with the apprehensions of witches and

prodigies, charms and enchantment. There was not a village in England,

he observes, that had not a ghost in it; the church-yards were all

haunted, every large common had a circle of fairies belonging to it,

and there was scarce a shepherd to be met with who had not seen a

spirit.

 

The dreadful contagion was at length permitted to afflict the puritans

of New England, and our revered ancestors were involved in a series of

tragical events, and overwhelmed with the most appalling

apprehensions. A retrospect to that sorrowful period creates painful

impressions; but however revolting the transactions in those days of

melancholy delusion, we are not without the consoling hope, that our

pious fathers were guided by a conscientious spirit in their

proceedings and condemnations. The people of New England were

naturally of a grave and serious cast, and remarkably prone to the

most rigid and sacred construction on all the events of Providence,

and too often their sentiments were biassed by enthusiasm and

superstition. The books containing narratives of trials of witches and

sorcerers in England, had been received here, and could not fail of

making a deep impression on the public mind. Hence it is not strange

that there should be a close coincidence between the English witches

and those reputed such in New England, and that they should suffer a

similar fate. So violent was the popular prejudice against every

appearance of witchcraft, that it was deemed meritorious to denounce

all that gave the least reason for suspicion. Every child and gossip

were prepared to recognise a witch, and no one could be certain of

personal safety. As the infatuation increased, many of the most

reputable females, and several males also, were apprehended and

committed to prison. There is good reason to believe, that, in some

instances, the vicious and abandoned, availed themselves of

opportunities of gratifying their corrupt passions of envy, malice,

and revenge. The English judge, Sir Matthew Hale, so eminently

distinguished for his knowledge in the law, and his exemplary piety,

was most highly estimated here, and knowing that he had condemned

some persons in England, his opinion had great influence with both

judges and juries.

 

In a publication in 1767, by the Rev. John Hale, of Beverly, it

appears that the first person who suffered in New England for

witchcraft was a woman in Charlestown; and in the collection of the

Massachusetts Historical Society, (Vol. V. second series) it is

recorded, that 'in June 1648, one Margaret Jones of Charlestown, was

executed for a witch. She was proved to have such a malignant touch,

that whomsoever she touched with any affection of displeasure, were

taken presently after with deafness, vomiting, or other violent

sickness. Soon after she was executed, a ship riding over against

Charlestown, of three hundred tons, having in her hold an hundred and

twenty tons of ballast, and eighty horses aboard her for the

Barbadoes, was on a sudden observed to roll as if she would have

turned over. The husband of that witch lately executed had desired

passage in that ship to Barbadoes, which not obtaining, that accident

was observed to follow. Notice being given of this to the

magistrates, then sitting in court at Boston, a warrant was sent to

apprehend him, and as the officer was passing therewith over the

ferry, one asked if he could not tame the vessel, seeing he could

sometimes tame men; he answered, I have that here, which, it may be,

will tame her and make her quiet, showing his warrant, and at the same

instant, the ship began to stop her motion, and swim upright, which

had continued rolling, after a strange manner about twelve hours, and

after Jones was in prison she never moved in that kind any more.'

 

Another, executed not long after, was a Dorchester woman; she also

positively denied being guilty. The next was a woman of Cambridge,

against whom a principal evidence was a nurse, who testified that the

accused did bewitch a child to death; for the woman made much of the

child, being perfectly well, but quickly changed its color, and it

died in a few hours after. The woman denied her guilt to the last

moment. In 1655, Mrs Hibbens, widow of an assistant, or counsellor,

was executed at Boston. This gave great dissatisfaction to several

principal persons, and it was believed that her death saved the lives

of many other inferior persons. About the same time, two or three at

Springfield, and one at Hartford, were executed, two of whom confessed

themselves guilty. The next that suffered was in 1662, a woman named

Greensmith, and her husband with her; who confessed, but he denied

guilt. Two other were put to the water ordeal, but being found to

float on the water like cork, were permitted to fly from New England.