Witch, Warlock, and Magician Part 26

Inst.i.tor and J. Sprenger, 'Malleus Maleficarum,' as well as to Basin, Molitor ('Dialogus de Lamiis'), and other authors, to be found in the 1582 edition of 'Mallei quorundam Maleficarum,' published at Frankfort.

On the same side we find the great philosophical lawyer and historian _John Bodin_ (1530-1596), the author of the 'Republicae,' and the 'Methodus ad facilem Historiarum Cognitionem.' In his 'Demonomanie des Sorcius' he recommends the burning of witches and wizards with an earnestness which should have gone far to compensate for his heterodoxy on other points of belief and practice. He informs us that from his thirty-seventh year he had been attended by a familiar spirit or demon, which touched his ear whenever he was about to do anything of which his conscience disapproved; and he quotes pa.s.sages from the Psalms, Job, and Isaiah, to prove that spirits indicate their presence to men by touching and even pulling their ears, and not only by vocal utterances.

Also, _Thomas Erastus_ (1524-1583), physician and controversialist, who took so busy a part in the theological dissensions of his time. In 1577 he published a tract ('De Lamiis') on the lawfulness of putting witches to death. It is strange that he should have been mastered by the gross imposture of witchcraft, when he could expose with trenchant force the pretensions of alchemists, astrologers, and Rosicrucians.

Happily, the cause of humanity, truth and tolerance was not without its eager and capable defenders. The earliest I take to have been the Dutch physician, _Wierus_, who, in his treatise 'De Praestigiis,'

published at Basel in 1564, vigorously attacked the cruel prejudice that had doomed so many unhappy creatures to the stake. He did not, however, deny the _existence_ of witchcraft, but demanded mercy for those who practised it on the ground that they were the devil's victims, not his servants. That he should have been wholly devoid of credulity would have been more than one could rightly have expected of a disciple of Cornelius Agrippa.

A stronger and much more successful a.s.sailant appeared in _Reginald Scot_ (died 1599), a younger son of Sir John Scot, of Scot's Hall, near Smeeth, who published his celebrated 'Discoverie of Witchcraft'

in 1584--a book which, in any age, would have been remarkable for its sweet humanity, breadth of view, and moderation of tone, as well as for its literary excellencies. One wonders where this quiet Kentish gentleman, whose chief occupations appear to have been gardening and planting, acc.u.mulated his erudition, and how, in the face of the superst.i.tions of his contemporaries, he arrived at such large and liberal conclusions. The scope of his great work is indicated in its lengthy t.i.tle: 'The Discoverie of Witchcraft, wherein the lewd dealing of Witches and Witchmongers is notablie detected, the knaverie of conjurers, the impietie of enchanters, the follie of soothsaiers, the impudent falsehood of couseners, the infidelitie of atheists, the pestilent practices of Pythonists, the curiositie of figure-casters [horoscope-makers], the vanitie of dreamers, the beggarlie art of Alc.u.mystrie, the abhomination of idolatrie, the horrible art of poisoning, the vertue and power of naturall magike, and all the conveyances of Legierdemain and juggling are deciphered: and many other things opened, which have long lain hidden, howbeit verie necessarie to be knowne. Heerevnto is added a treatise upon the Nature and Substance of Spirits and Devils, etc.: all latelie written by Reginald Scot, Esquire. 1 John iv. 1: "Believe not everie spirit, but trie the spirits, whether they are of G.o.d; for many false prophets are gone out into the world."'

From a book so well known--a new edition has recently appeared--it is needless to make extracts; but I transcribe a brief pa.s.sage in ill.u.s.tration of the vivacity and manliness of the writer:

'I, therefore (at this time), do only desire you to consider of my report concerning the evidence that is commonly brought before you against them. See first whether the evidence be not frivolous, and whether the proofs brought against them be not incredible, consisting of guesses, presumptions, and impossibilities contrary to reason, Scripture, and nature. See also what persons complain upon them, whether they be not of the basest, the unwisest, and the most faithless kind of people. Also, may it please you, to weigh what accusations and crimes they lay to their charge, namely: She was at my house of late, she would have had a pot of milk, she departed in a chafe because she had it not, she railed, she cursed, she mumbled and whispered; and, finally, she said she would be even with me: and soon after my child, my cow, my sow, or my pullet died, or was strangely taken. Nay (if it please your Wors.h.i.+p), I have further proof: I was with a wise woman, and she told me I had an ill neighbour, and that she would come to my house ere it was long, and so did she; and that she had a mark about her waist, and so had she: G.o.d forgive me, my stomach hath gone against her a great while. Her mother before her was counted a witch; she hath been beaten and scratched by the face till blood was drawn upon her, because she hath been suspected, and afterwards some of those persons were said to amend. These are the certainties that I hear in their evidences.

'Note, also, how easily they may be brought to confess that which they never did, nor lieth in the power of man to do; and then see whether I have cause to write as I do. Further, if you shall see that infidelity, popery, and many other manifest heresies be backed and shouldered, and their professors animated and heartened, by yielding to creatures such infinite power as is wrested out of G.o.d's hand, and attributed to witches: finally, if you shall perceive that I have faithfully and truly delivered and set down the condition and state of the witch, and also of the witchmonger, and have confuted by reason and law, and by the Word of G.o.d itself, all mine adversary's objections and arguments; then let me have your countenance against them that maliciously oppose themselves against me.

'My greatest adversaries are young ignorance and old custom. For what folly soever tract of time hath fostered, it is so superst.i.tiously pursued of some, as though no error could be acquainted with custom.

But if the law of nations would join with such custom, to the maintenance of ignorance and to the suppressing of knowledge, the civilest country in the world would soon become barbarous. For as knowledge and time discovereth errors, so doth superst.i.tion and ignorance in time breed them.'

In another fine pa.s.sage Scot says:

'G.o.d that knoweth my heart is witness, and you that read my book shall see, that my drift and purpose in this enterprise tendeth only to these respects. First, that the glory and power of G.o.d be not so abridged and abused, as to be thrust into the hand or lip of a lewd old woman, whereby the work of the Creator should be attributed to the power of a creature. Secondly, that the religion of the Gospel may be seen to stand without such peevish trumpery. Thirdly, that lawful favour and Christian compa.s.sion be rather used towards these poor souls than rigour and extremity. Because they which are commonly accused of witchcraft are the least sufficient of all other persons to speak for themselves, as having the most base and simple education of all others; the extremity of their age giving them leave to dote, their poverty to beg, their wrongs to chide and threaten (as being void of any other way of revenge), their humour melancholical to be full of imaginations, from whence chiefly proceedeth the vanity of their confessions, as that they can transform themselves and others into apes, owls, a.s.ses, dogs, cats, etc.; that they can fly in the air, kill children with charms, hinder the coming of b.u.t.ter, etc.

'And for so much as the mighty help themselves together, and the poor widow's cry, though it reach to heaven, is scarce heard here upon earth, I thought good (according to my poor ability) to make intercession, that some part of common rigour and some points of hasty judgment may be advised upon. For the world is now at that stay (as Brentius, in a most G.o.dly sermon, in these words affirmeth), that even, as when the heathen persecuted the Christians, if any were accused to believe in Christ, the common people cried _Ad leonem_; so now, of any woman, be she never so honest, be she accused of witchcraft, they cry _Ad ignem_.'

Scot's attack upon the credulity of his contemporaries, strenuous and capable as it was, did not bear much fruit at the time; while it exposed him to charges of Atheism and Sadduceeism from several small critics, who were supported by the authority of James I., and, at a later date, of Dr. Meric Casaubon. He found a fellow-labourer, however, in his work of humanity, in the _Rev. George Gifford_, of Maldon, Ess.e.x, who in 1593 published 'A Dialogue concerning Witches and Witchcraft,' in which 'is layed open how craftily the Divell deceiveth not only the Witches but Many other, and so leadeth them awaie into Manie Great Errours.' It will be seen from the t.i.tle that the writer does not adopt the uncompromising line of Reginald Scot, but inclines rather to the standpoint of Wierus. There is, however, a good deal of ability in his treatment of the question; and some account of the 'Dialogue' reprinted by the Percy Society in 1842, should be interesting, I think, to the reader.

The interlocutors are named Samuel, Daniel, Samuel's wife, M. B., a schoolmaster, and the goodwife R.

The dialogue opens with Samuel and Daniel, the former of whom is a fanatical believer in witches. 'These evil-favoured old witches,' he says, 'do trouble me.' He repeats the common rumour that there is scarcely a town or village in the s.h.i.+re but has one or two witches in it. 'In good sooth,' he adds, 'I may tell it to you as to my friend, when I go but into my closes, I am afraid, for I see now and then a hare, which my conscience giveth me is a witch, or some witch's spirit, she stareth so upon me. And sometime I see an ugly weasel run through my yard; and there is a foul, great cat sometimes in my barn, which I have no liking unto.' Having introduced his friend, who is less credulous than himself, to his wife and his home, he promotes an argument between him and another friend, M. B., a schoolmaster, on this _quaestio vexata_.

M. B. starts with a good deal of fervour:

'The word of G.o.d doth show plainly that there be witches, and commandeth they should be put to death. Experience hath taught too many what harms they do. And if any have the gift to minister help against them, shall we refuse it?'

But after some discussion he agrees, at Daniel's instance, to consider the subject in a spirit of sober argument; and the first question they take up is: 'Are there witches that work by the Devil?' The conversation then proceeds as follows:

DANIEL. It is so evident by the Scriptures, and in all experience, that there be witches which work by the devil, or rather, I may say, the devil worketh by them, that such as go about to prove the contrary, do show themselves but cavillers.

M. B. I am glad we agree on that point; I hope we shall in the rest. What say you to this? That the witches have their spirits. Some hath one; some hath more, as two, three, four, or five. Some in one likeness and some in another, as like cats, weasels, toads, or mice, whom they nourish with milk or with a chicken, or by letting them suck now and then a drop of blood, whom they call if they be offended with any, and send them to hurt them in their bodies, yea, to kill them, and to kill their cattle.

DANIEL. Here is great deceit, and great illusion; here the Devil leadeth the ignorant people into foul errors, by which he draweth them headlong into many grievous sins.

M. B. Nay, then, I see you are awry, if you deny these things, and say they be but illusions.... I did dwell in a village within these five years where there was a man of good wealth, and suddenly, within ten days' s.p.a.ce, he had three kine died, his gelding, worth ten pounds, fell lame, he was himself taken with a great pain in his back, and a child of seven years old died. He sent to the woman at R. H., and she said he was plagued by a witch, adding, moreover, that there were three women witches in that town, and one man witch, willing him to look whom he most suspected. He suspected an old woman, and caused her to be carried before a justice of peace and examined. With much ado at the last she confessed all, which was this in effect--that she had three spirits, one like a cat, which she called _Lightfoot_; another like a toad, which she called _Lunch_; the third like a weasel, which she called _Makes.h.i.+ft_. This Lightfoot, she said, one Mother Bailey, of W., sold her above sixteen years ago, for an oven-cake, and told her the cat would do her good service; if she would, she might send her of her errands. This cat was with her but a while, but the weasel and the toad came and offered their service. The cat would kill kine, the weasel would kill horses, the toad would plague men in their bodies.

She sent them all three (as she confessed) against this man.

She was committed to the prison, and there she died before the a.s.sizes.

Daniel then strikes into the conversation, enlarging on the Scriptural description of devils as 'mighty and terrible spirits, full of rage and power and cruelty'--princ.i.p.alities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world--and forcibly insisting that if spirits so awful and potential as these a.s.sumed the shapes of such paltry vermin as cats, mice, toads, and weasels, it must be out of subtilty to cover and hide the mighty tyranny and power which they exercise over the hearts of the wicked. And he argues that such spirits would never deign to be a witch's servant or to do her bidding. M. B. contends, however, that, although he be lord, yet is he content to serve her turn; and the witches confess, he says, that they call forth their demons, and send them on what errands they please, and hire them to hurt in their bodies and their cattle those against whom they cherish angry and revengeful feelings. 'I am sorry,' says Daniel mildly, 'you are so far awry; it is a pity any man should be in such error, especially a man that hath learning, and should teach others knowledge.'

After some further disputation, M. B. is brought to admit that G.o.d giveth the devils power to plague and seduce because of man's wickedness; but he asks whether a G.o.dly, faithful man or woman may not be bewitched. We see, he says, that the devil had power given him of old, as over Job. But Daniel will not admit that this is a case in point, because it is not said that the devil dealt with Job through the agency of witches. Thereupon Samuel, perceiving the drift of his argument to be that the devil has no need to act by instruments so mean and even degraded, and would a.s.suredly never be at their command; that, consequently, there can be no witchcraft, because there is no necessity for it, suddenly interposes:

'With your leave, M. B., I would ask two or three questions of my friend. There was but seven miles hence, at W. H., one M.; the man was of good wealth, and well accounted of among his neighbours. He pined away with sickness half a year, and at last died. After he was dead, his wife suspected ill-dealing. She went to a cunning man, who told her that her husband died of witchery, and asked her if she did not suspect any. Yes, there was one woman she did not like, one Mother W.; her husband and she fell out, and he fell sick within two days after, and never recovered. He showed her the woman as plain in a gla.s.s as we see one another, and taught her how she might bring her to confess. Well, she followed his counsel, went home, caused her to be apprehended and carried before a justice of peace. He examined her so wisely that in the end she confessed she killed the man. She was sent to prison, she was arraigned, condemned, and executed; and upon the ladder she seemed very penitent, desiring all the world to forgive her. She said she had a spirit in the likeness of a yellow dun cat. This cat came unto her, as she said, as she sat by the fire, when she was fallen out with a neighbour of hers, and wished that the vengeance of G.o.d might light upon him and his. The cat bade her not be afraid; she would do her no harm. She had served a dame five years in Kent that was now dead, and, if she would, she would be her servant. "And whereas," said the cat, "such a man hath misused thee, if thou wilt I will plague him in his cattle."

She sent the cat; she killed three hogs and one cow. The man, suspecting, _burnt a pig alive_, and, as she said, her cat would never go thither any more. Afterward she fell out with that M. She sent her cat, who told her that she had given him that which he should never recover; and, indeed, the man died. Now, do you not think the woman spoke the truth in all this? Would the woman accuse herself falsely at her death?

Did not the cat become her servant? Did not she send her? Did she not plague and kill both man and beast? What should a man think of this?

DANIEL. You propound a particular example, and let us examine everything in it touching the witch. You say the cat came to her when she was in a great rage with one of her neighbours, and did curse, wis.h.i.+ng the vengeance of G.o.d to fall upon him and his.

SAM. She said so, indeed. I heard her with my own ears, for I was at the execution.

DAN. Then tell me who set her in such a devilish rage, so to curse and ban, as to wish that the vengeance of G.o.d might light upon him and his? Did not the cat?

SAM. Truly I think that the devil wrought that in her.

DAN. Very well. Then, you see, the cat is the beginning of this play.

SAM. Call you it a play? It was no play to some.

DAN. Indeed, the witch at last had better have wrought hard than been at her play. But I mean Satan did play the juggler; for doth he not offer his service? Doth he not move her to send him to plague the man? Tell me, is she so forward to send, as he is to be sent? Or do you not take it that he ruleth in her heart, and even wholly directeth it to this matter?

SAM. I am fully persuaded he ruleth her heart.

DAN. _Then was she his drudge, and not he her servant._ He needeth not to be hired and entreated; for if her heart were to send him anywhere, unto such as he knoweth he cannot hurt, nor seeth how to make any show that he hurteth them, he can quickly turn her from that. Well, the cat goeth and killeth the man, certain hogs, and a cow. How could she tell that the cat did it?

SAM. How could she tell? Why, he told her, man, and she saw and heard that he lost his cattle.

DAN. The cat would lie--would she not? for they say such cats are liars.

SAM. I do not trust the cat's words, but because the thing fell out so.

DAN. Because the hogs and the cow died, are you sure the cat did kill them? Might they not die of some natural causes, as you see both men and beasts are well, and die suddenly?

In this way the dialogue proceeds, with a good deal of ingenuity and some degree of dramatic spirit; and though the reasoning is not without its fallacies, yet it is sufficiently clear and forcible, on the whole, as a protest on the side of liberality and tolerance.

The next branch of the subject taken up for consideration is 'the help and remedy' that is sought for against witches 'at the hands of cunning men;' Daniel contending that, if the cunning men can render any a.s.sistance, it must be through the devil's instrumentality, and, therefore, Christian men are not justified in availing themselves of it. The alleged cures performed by witches, Daniel refers to the influence of the imagination; and in this category he tells an amusing story. 'There was a person in London,' he say, 'acquainted with the magician Fento. Now, this Fento had a black dog, whom he called Bomelius. This party afterwards had a conceit that Bomelius was a devil, and that he felt him within him. He was in heaviness, and made his moan to one of his acquaintances, who had a merry head, and told him he had a friend could remove Bomelius. He bade him prepare a breakfast, and he would bring him. Then this was the cure: he (the friend) made him be stripped naked and stand by a good fire, and though he were fat enough of himself, basted him all over with b.u.t.ter against the fire, and made him wear a sleek-stone next his skin under his belly, and the man had immediate relief, and gave him afterwards great thanks.'

'The conceit, or imagination, does much,' continues Daniel, 'even when there is no apparent disease. A man feareth he is bewitched; it troubleth all the powers of his mind, and that distempereth his body, making great alterations in it, and bringeth sundry griefs. Now, when his mind is freed from such imaginations, his bodily griefs, which flew from the same, are eased. And a mult.i.tude of Satan's is of the same character.'

The conversation next turns upon the danger of shedding innocent blood, which is inseparable from the execution of alleged witches; while juries, says Daniel, must become guilty of shedding innocent blood by condemning as guilty, and that upon their solemn oath, such as be suspected upon vain surmises, and imaginations, and illusions, rising from blindness and infidelity, and fear of Satan which is in the ignorant sort.

M. B. If you take it that this is one craft of Satan to bring many to be guilty of innocent blood, and even upon their oaths, which is horrible, what would you have the judges and juries to do, when they are arraigned of suspicion to be witches?

DAN. What would I have them do? I would wish them to be most wary and circ.u.mspect that they be not guilty of innocent blood. And that is, to condemn none but upon sure ground, and infallible proof; because presumptions shall not warrant or excuse them before G.o.d, if guiltless blood be shed.

Replying to observations made by the schoolmaster, Daniel continues: