In all stages of religious history the witch and the wizard are familiar
figures. It is of no importance to our present enquiry whether magic
precedes religion or not. It is at all events certain that they are very
closely connected, and that conditions which foster the belief in magic
likewise serve to strengthen religious belief. Witchcraft, as Tylor
says, is part and parcel of savage life. Death is very frequently
attributed to the magical action of wizards, and the savage lives in
perpetual fear lest some of his belongings, or some part of his person,
should be bewitched by malevolent sorcerers. Sir Richard Burton says
that in East Africa his experience taught him that among the negroes,
what with slavery and what with black magic, no one, especially in old
age, is safe from being burnt at a day's notice. When from savage life
we mount to societies enjoying a higher culture, we still find the witch
and the wizard in evidence. Both in Greece and Rome the belief in
witchcraft existed. There were made direct laws against its practice,
although neither the Greeks nor the Romans stained their civilisation
with the judicial murder of thousands of victims such as occurred later
in Christian Europe.
But the belief in witchcraft is continuous. So also are the methods
practised, and the modes of detection. The proofs offered in support of
sorcery in the seventeenth century are precisely similar to those
credited by savages in the lowest stage of human culture. The power of
transformation possessed by the accused, the ability to bewitch through
the possession of hairs belonging to the afflicted person, the making of
little effigies and driving sharp instruments into them, and so
affecting the corresponding parts of people, transportation through the
air, etc., all belong to the belief in and practice of witchcraft
wherever found. Had a Fijian been transported to a seat on the judicial
bench by the side of Sir Matthew Hale, when that judge condemned two old
women to death for witchcraft, he would have found himself in a quite
congenial atmosphere. Allowing for difference in language, he would have
found the evidence similar to that with which he was familiar, and he
would have been able to endorse the judge's remarks with tales of his
own experience. On this point, the level of culture attained by savages,
and that of the inhabitants of the overwhelming majority of European
countries little more than two hundred years ago, were substantially the
same. Even to-day cases are continually occurring which prove that
advances in knowledge and civilisation have not left this ancient
superstition without supporters.
In subscribing to the belief in witchcraft, the Christian Church thus
fell into line with earlier forms of religious belief. The peculiar
feature it represents is that it came into existence when the belief in
witchcraft was losing its hold on the more cultured classes. Had it not
allied itself with this tendency, no such thing as the witch mania of
the medieval period could have existed. In sober truth, it brought about
a veritable renaissance of the cruder theories of demonism, while its
intolerance of opposition succeeded in stifling the voice of criticism
for centuries. The primitive theory which holds that man is surrounded
by hosts of spiritual agencies, mostly of a malevolent nature, was
revived and fully endorsed by all Christian teachers. In the commonest,
as well as in the rarest events of life, this supernatural activity was
manifest. In both the Old and New Testament the belief in demoniacal
agency was endorsed. Moreover, the fact that Christianity was not a
creed seeking to live as one of many others, but a religion struggling
for complete mastery, gave further impetus to the belief. An easy
explanation for the miracles and marvels that occurred in connection
with non-Christian beliefs was that they were the work of demons. The
Christian felt himself to be fighting not so much human antagonists as
so many embodiments of satanic power. And after the establishment of
Christianity it is probable that much that went on under cover of witch
assemblies, a more detailed knowledge than we possess would prove to be
really the clandestine exercise of prescribed forms of faith. The old
saying, "The sin of witchcraft is as the sin of rebellion," has more in
it than meets the eye. There is little real difference between the magic
that appears as piety and the magic that is denounced as sorcery, except
that one is permitted and the other is not. And it is almost a law of
religious development that the gods of one religion become the demons of
its successor.
But while witchcraft has existed in all ages, it existed in a much
milder form than that which we find in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. First of all, there is the fact to which attention has
already been directed, namely, the concentration of the public mind upon
various forms of supernaturalism. Every aspect of life was more or less
under the direct influence of the Church, and no teaching was tolerated
that conflicted with her doctrines. And it was to the interest of the
Church perpetually to emphasise the reality of either angelic or
diabolic activity. Even in the case of those who showed a tendency to
revolt against Church rule there was no exception to this. If anything,
the belief was more pronounced. Next, the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries saw a rising tide of heresy against which the Church was
compelled to battle; and to ascribe this alleged perversion of Christian
doctrines to the malevolence of Satan offered the line of least
resistance--just as the heretics attributed the power of the Church
itself to the same source. Whatever diminution ensued in the general
flood of superstition, as a consequence of the quarrel between
Protestant and Catholic, was, so far as the disputants were concerned,
incidental and even undesired. On the one point of demonism there
existed complete unanimity, and the sceptic fared equally hard with both
parties. In such an environment the wildest tales of sorcery became
credible; and nothing illustrates this more forcibly than the fact that
many of those tortured and condemned for sorcery actually believed
themselves capable of performing the marvels laid to their charge. Added
to these factors, we have to note that social conditions were also
extremely favourable. Moral ties were as loose as they could reasonably
be; and the attitude of the Church towards the sexual relation had
forced both the religious and the non-religious mind into wholly
unhealthy channels. This last aspect of the subject has been little
dealt with, but it is unquestionably a very real one. A German writer
says:--
"Whilst in the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries,
as those well acquainted with the state of morals during this period can
all confirm, a most unbounded freedom was dominant in sexual relations,
the State and the Church were desirous of compelling the people to keep
better order by the use of actual force, and by religious compulsion. So
forced a transformation in so vital a matter necessarily resulted in a
reaction of the worst kind, and forced into secret channels the impulse
which it had attempted to suppress. This reaction occurred, moreover,
with an elemental force. There resulted widespread sexual violence and
seduction, hesitating at nothing, often insanely daring, in which
everywhere the devil was supposed to help; everyone's head was turned in
this way; the uncontrolled lust of debauchees found vent in secret
bacchanalian associations and orgies, wherein many, with or without
masquerade, played the part of Satan; shameful deeds were perpetrated by
excited women and by procuresses and prostitutes ready for any kind of
immoral abomination; add to these sexual orgies the most widely diffused
web of a completely developed theory of witchcraft, and the systematic
strengthening of the widely prevalent belief in the devil--all these
things, woven in a labyrinthine connection, made it possible for
thousands upon thousands to be murdered by a disordered justice and to
be sacrificed to delusion."[187]
To those who look closely into the subject of medieval witchcraft the
presence of a strong sexual element is undeniable. When we examine
contemporary accounts of the 'Sabbath,' some of which are so gross as to
be unprintable, we find a portion of the proceedings to be of a marked
erotic character. The figure of Satan often enough reminds one of the
pagan Priapus, and the ceremonies bear a strong resemblance to the
ancient ones, with the mixture of Christian language and symbolism
inevitable under such circumstances. Promiscuous intercourse between the
sexes was said to occur at the witches' gatherings; and, indeed, unless
some sort of sexual extravagance occurred, it is hard to account for
both the persistency of the gatherings and of the reports concerning
them. The most probable theory is, as I have just said, that these
gatherings were covers for a continuance of the older sex worship. Many
customs connected therewith lingered on in the Church itself, and it is
not a wild assumption that they existed in a less adulterated and more
extravagant form outside.
Universal as the belief in witchcraft has been, it was not until the
close of the fifteenth century that it assumed what may be justly called
an epidemic form. The famous Bull of Pope Innocent VIII. was not
unconnected in its origin with the growth of heresy. This precious
document, issued in 1484, declares:--
"It has come to our ears that very many persons of both sexes, deviating
from the Catholic Faith, abuse themselves with demons, Incubus and
Succubus; and by incantations, charms, and conjurations, and other
wicked superstitions, by criminal acts and offences, have caused the
offspring of women and of the lower animals, the fruits of the earth,
the grape, and the products of various plants, men, women, and other
animals of different kinds, vineyards, meadows, pasture land, corn and
other vegetables of the earth, to perish, be oppressed, and utterly
destroyed; that they torture men and women with cruel pains and
torments, internal as well as external; that they hinder the proper
intercourse of the sexes, and the propagation of the human species.
Moreover, they are in the habit of denying the very faith itself. We,
therefore, willing to provide by opportune remedies, according as it
falls to our office, by our apostolical authority, by the tenor of these
presents, do appoint and decree that they be convicted, imprisoned,
punished, and mulcted according to their offences."
It was this Pope who commissioned the inquisitor, Sprenger, to root out
witches. Sprenger, with two others, acting on the authority of the
Popes, drew up the famous work, _The Witch Hammer_, which provided the
basis for all subsequent works on the detection and punishment of
witches.[188] The folly and iniquity of the book is almost unbelievable,
although it is quite matched by subsequent productions. It even provides
for the silence of people under torture. If they confess when tortured,
the case is complete. But if they do not confess, this diabolic
production lays it down that this is because witches who have given
themselves up to the devil are insensible to pain. Even the evidence of
children was admitted. And although in ordinary trials the evidence of
criminals was barred, it was to be freely allowed in trials for sorcery.
Everything that ingenuity could suggest or brutality execute was
provided for.
From the issue of _The Witch Hammer_ until the middle of the seventeenth
century, a period of about one hundred and fifty years, an epidemic of
witchcraft raged. People of all ages and of all classes of society
became implicated, and for some time, at least, accusation meant
conviction. An almost unbelievably large number were executed. Says
Lecky:--
"In almost every province of Germany, but especially in those where
clerical influence predominated, the persecution raged with a fearful
intensity. Seven thousand witches are said to have been burned at
Trèves, six hundred by a single bishop in Bamberg, and nine hundred in a
single year in the bishopric of Würzburg.... At Toulouse, the seat of
the Inquisition, four hundred persons perished for sorcery at a single
execution, and fifty at Douay in a single year. Remy, a judge of Nancy,
boasted that he put to death eight hundred witches in sixteen years....
In Italy, a thousand persons were executed in a single year in the
province of Como; and in other parts of the country the severity of the
inquisitors at last created an absolute rebellion.... In Geneva, which
was then ruled by a bishop, five hundred alleged witches were executed
in three months; forty-eight were burned at Constance or Ravensburg, and
eighty in the little town of Valery in Saxony. In 1670, seventy persons
were condemned in Sweden, and a large proportion of them burnt."[189]
In England, from 1603 to 1680, it is estimated that seventy thousand
persons were put to death for sorcery.[190] Grey, the editor of
_Hudibras_, says that he had himself seen a list of three thousand who
were put to death during the Long Parliament. The celebrated
witch-finder, Mathew Hopkins, hung sixty in one year in the county of
Suffolk. In Scotland, for thirty-nine years, the number killed annually
averaged about two hundred. This, of course, does not take into account
the number who were hounded to death by persecution of a popular kind,
or whose lives were made so wearisome that death must have come as a
release. But the most remarkable, and the most horrible, of witchcraft
executions occurred in Würzburg in February 1629. No less than one
hundred and sixty-two witches were burned in a succession of
_autos-da-fé_. Among these, the reports disclose that there were
actually thirty-four children. The following details give the actual
ages of some of them:--
+----------+---------+---------------------------------+
| Burning. | Number. | Children. |
+----------+---------+---------------------------------+
| 7th | 7 | 1 Girl, aged 12. |
| 13th | 4 | 1 Girl of 10 and another. |
| 15th | 2 | 1 Boy of 12. |
| 18th | 6 | 2 Boys of 10, girl of 14. |
| 19th | 6 | 2 Boys, 10 and 12. |
| 20th | 6 | 2 Boys. |
| 23rd | 9 | 3 Boys, 9, 10, and 14. |
| 24th | 7 | 2 Boys, brought from hospital. |
| 26th | 8 | Little boy and girl. |
| 27th | 7 | 2 Boys, 8 and 9. |
| 28th | 6 | Blind girl and infant.[191] |
+----------+---------+---------------------------------+
The vast majority of those executed for sorcery were women. At all times
witches have been more numerous than wizards, owing to their assumed
closer connection with the world of supernatural beings. It was said,
"For one sorcerer, ten thousand sorceresses," and Christian writers were
ready to explain why. Woman had a greater affinity with the devil from
the outset. It was through woman that Satan had seduced Adam, and it
was only to be expected that he would employ the same instrument on
subsequent occasions. _The Witch Hammer_ has a special chapter devoted
to the consideration of why women are more given to sorcery than men,
and quotes freely from the Fathers to prove that this follows from her
nature. James I. in his _Demonologia_ follows Sprenger in accounting for
the number of witches. "The reason is easy. For as that sex is frailer
than man is, so it is 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
Eve at the beginning, which makes him the homelier with the sex
sensine." To be old, or ugly, or unpopular, to have any peculiar
deformity or mark, was to invite persecution, and, in an overwhelming
majority of instances, conviction followed accusation.
It is a significant comment upon the popular belief that Protestantism,
as a form of religious belief, was the product of an enlightened
rational life, that it was only with the advance of Protestantism that
the belief in witchcraft assumed an epidemic form. This may be partly
due to the greater direct dependence upon the Bible, in which satanic
influence--particularly in the New Testament--plays so large a part. In
the Roman Church, exorcism remained a regular part of the functions of
the priest; the Church was filled with accounts of satanic conflicts,
but diabolic intercourse seems to have been mainly limited to saintly
characters and priests. Protestantism which, theoretically, made every
man his own priest, raised the belief in satanic agency to an obsession.
And wherever Protestantism established itself there was an immediate
and marked increase in the number of cases of witchcraft. In England, if
we omit a doubtful law of the tenth century, there existed no regular
law against witchcraft until 1541. It remained a purely ecclesiastical
offence. Seventeen years later, the year of Elizabeth's accession,
Bishop Jewell, preaching before the Queen, drew attention to the
increase of sorcery. "It may please Your Grace," he said, "to understand
that witches and sorcerers, within these last few years, are
marvellously increased within Your Grace's realm. Your Grace's subjects
pine away even to the death, their colour fadeth, their flesh rotteth,
their senses are bereft. I pray God they never practise further than
upon the subject." And he added, "These eyes have seen most evident and
manifest marks of their wickedness." A measure was passed through
Parliament the same year, making enchantments and witchcraft felony. The
first year of James I. saw the passing of the 'Witch Act,' under which
subsequent executions took place, and which remained in force until
nearly the middle of the eighteenth century.
With scarce an exception, the leaders of Protestantism encouraged the
belief in witches and urged their extermination as a religious and civil
duty. With Luther, in spite of the sturdy common sense he manifested in
some directions, belief in the activity of Satan amounted to an
obsession. He saw Satan everywhere in everything. The devil appeared to
him while writing, disturbed his rest by the rattling of pans, and
prevented his pursuing his studies by hammering on his skull. When a
storm arose, Luther declared, "'Tis the devil who has done this; the
winds are nothing else but good or bad spirits." Suicides, he said, were
often those strangled by the devil. Moreover, "The devil can so
completely assume the human form when he wants to deceive us, that we
may very well lie with what seems to be a woman of real flesh and blood,
and yet all the while 'tis only the devil in the shape of a woman." The
devil could also become the father of children. Luther says that he knew
of one such case, and added, "I would have that child thrown into the
Moldau at the risk of being held its murderer."[192]
In America, Protestantism manifested the same influence. Of course, the
settlers took the superstition of witchcraft with them, but it underwent
no diminution in a new land. Increase Mather and his celebrated son,
Cotton Mather, were the principal agents in stirring up the belief to
frenzy point, and a commission was appointed to rout out witches and
suppress their practices. There was soon a plentiful supply of victims.
One woman was charged with "giving a look towards the great
meeting-house of Salem, and immediately a demon entered the house and
tore down part of it." It seems that a bit of the wooden wainscotting
had fallen down. In the case of Giles Corey, who refused to plead
guilty, torture was used. He was pressed to death, and when his tongue
protruded from his mouth the sheriff thrust it back with his
walking-stick. Many people were executed, and the ministers of Boston
and Charlestown drew up an address warmly thanking the commission for
its zeal, and expressing the hope that it would never be relaxed.
Certainly the commission did what it could to earn the thanks given. A
shipmaster making for Maryland with emigrants encountered unusually
rough weather. An old woman, one Mary Lee, was accused of raising the
storm, and drowned as a witch. A woman walked a long distance over muddy
roads without soiling her dress. "I scorn to be drabbled," she said, and
was hanged as a reward. George Burroughs could lift a barrel by
inserting his finger in the bunghole. He was hanged for a wizard.
Bridget Bishop was charged with appearing before John Louder at midnight
and grievously oppressing him. Louder's evidence against the woman also
included the fact that he saw a black pig approach his door, and when he
went to kick it the pig vanished. He was also tempted by a black thing
with the body of a monkey, the feet of a cock, and the face of a man. On
going out of his back door he saw the said Bridget Bishop going towards
her house. The evidence was deemed quite conclusive. Another witness
said that being in bed on the Lord's Day, he saw a woman, Susanna
Martin, come in at the window and jump down on the floor. She took hold
of the witness's foot, and drawing his body into a heap, lay upon him
for nearly two hours, so that he could neither move nor hear. In most of
these cases torture was applied, and confessions were obtained. These
confessions often implicated others, but when the witches took to
accusing those in high places, and even ministers of religion, the need
for discrimination was realised. Once a critical judgment was aroused,
the mania began to subside--Cotton Mather fighting manfully for the
belief to the end.
The impetus given by Protestantism to witch-hunting in Scotland was most
marked. Scotch witchcraft, says Lecky, was the offspring of Scotch
Puritanism, and faithfully reflected the character of its parent. The
clergy nowhere possessed greater power, and nowhere used it more
assiduously to fan the flame against witchcraft. Buckle says:--
"Of all the means of intimidation employed by the Scotch clergy, none
was more efficacious than the doctrines they propounded respecting evil
spirits and future punishments. On these subjects they constantly
uttered the most appalling threats. The language which they used was
calculated to madden men with fear, and to drive them to the depths of
despair.... It was generally believed that the world was overrun by evil
spirits, who not only went up and down the earth, but also lived in the
air, and whose business it was to tempt mankind. Their number was
infinite, and they were to be found in all places, and in all seasons.
At their head was Satan himself, whose delight it was to appear in
person, ensnaring or terrifying everyone he met. With this object he
assumed various forms. One day he would visit the earth as a black dog;
another day, as a raven; on another, he would be heard in the distance
roaring like a bull. He appeared sometimes as a white man in black
clothes, and sometimes he appeared as a black man in black clothes, when
it was remarked that his voice was ghostly, and that one of his feet was
cloven. His stratagems were endless. For, in the opinion of divines, his
cunning increased with his age, and, having been studying for more than
5000 years, he had now attained to unexampled dexterity."[193]
Witchcraft was declared by the Scotch Parliament in 1563 to be
punishable by death. And, naturally, the more zealous and active the
search for witches, the more numerous they became. In the search the
clergy and the kirk-sessions led the way. In 1587 the General Assembly,
having before them a case of witchcraft in which the evidence was
insufficient, deputed James Melville to travel on the coast side and
collect evidence in favour of the prosecution. It also ordered that the
presbyteries should proceed in all severity against such magistrates as
liberated convicted witches. As in England so here, a body of men came
into existence whose business it was to travel the country and detect
witches. Anonymous accusations were invited, the clergy "placing an
empty box in church, to receive a billet with the sorcerer's name, and
the date and description of his deeds."[194] In 1603 "at the College of
Auld Abirdene" every minister was ordered to make "subtill and privie
inquisition," concerning the number of witches in his parish, and report
the same forthwith. Nothing that could whet the appetite for the hunt
was neglected. William Johnston, baron, bailie "of the regalitie and
barronie of Broughton," was awarded the goods of all who should be
"lawfullie convict be assyses of notorious and common witches, haunting
and resorting devilles and witches."[195] The lives of thousands of
people were rendered unbearable, and the complaint of one, Margaret
Miall, that "she desyres not to live, because nobody will converse with
her, seeing she is under the reputation of a witch," must have
represented the feelings of many.
It was not only for working ill that people were accused of witchcraft
and executed; ill or well made little difference. In Edinburgh in 1623
it was charged against Thomas Grieve that he had relieved many
sicknesses and grievous diseases by sorcery and witchcraft. "He took
sickness off a woman in Fife, and put it upon a cow, which thereafter
ran mad and died." He also cured a child of a disease "by straiking back
the hair of his head, and wrapping him in an anointed cloth, and by that
means putting him asleep," and thus through his devilry and witchcraft,
cured the child. Other charges of a similar kind were brought against
Grieve, who was found guilty and hanged on the Castle Hill.[196] At the
same place, a year previous, Margaret Wallace was also sentenced to be
hanged and burned, on the same kind of charge, and for "practising
devilry, incantation, and witchcraft, especially forbidden by the laws
of Almighty God, and the municipal laws of this realm."
The following bill of costs for burning two women, Jane Wischert and
Isabel Cocker, in Aberdeen, has a certain melancholy interest:--
£ _s._ _d._
Item for 20 loads of Peatts to burn them 2 0 0
" for ane boll of colles 1 4 0
" for four tar barrells 0 6 8
" for fir and win barrells 0 16 8
" for a staick and the dressing of it 0 16 0
" for four fathoms of towis 4 0 0
" to Jon Justice for their execution 0 13 4
In England, no less than in Scotland, America, and on the Continent,
much learned testimony might be cited in defence of witchcraft. The
great Sir Thomas Browne said in the most famous of his writings: "For my
part I have ever believed, and do now know, that there are witches. They
that doubt of these do not only deny them, but spirits; and are
obliquely and upon consequence, a sort, not of infidels, but
atheists."[197] Henry More, the great Platonist, asserted that they who
deny the agency of witches are "puffed up with nothing but ignorance,
vanity, and stupid infidelity." Ralph Cudworth, one of the greatest
scholars of the latter part of the seventeenth century, said that they
who denied the possibility of satanic intercourse "can hardly escape the
suspicion of some hankering towards atheism."[198] Writing nearly a
century later, when the English law merely prosecuted as rogues and
vagabonds those who pretended to witchcraft, Blackstone thought it
necessary to point out that this alteration did not deny the possibility
of the offence, and added:--
"To deny this would be to contradict the revealed word of God in various
passages both of the Old and New Testaments; and the thing itself is a
truth in which every nation in the world hath in its turn borne
testimony; either by examples seemingly well attested, or by prohibitory
laws which at least suppose the possibility of a commerce with evil
spirits."[199]
About the same time Wesley gave the world his famous declaration on the
subject:--
"It is true likewise that the English in general, and indeed most of the
men of learning in Europe, have given up all accounts of witches and
apparitions as mere old wives' fables. I am sorry for it, and I
willingly take this opportunity of entering my solemn protest against
this violent compliment which so many who believe the Bible pay to those
who do not believe it. I owe them no such service. I take knowledge
that these are at the bottom of the outcry which has been raised and
with such insolence spread through the land in direct opposition, not
only to the Bible, but to the suffrage of the wisest and best of men in
all ages and nations. They well know (whether Christians know it or not)
that the giving up of witchcraft is in effect giving up the Bible."[200]
The evidence upon which the convictions for witchcraft rested were
almost incredibly stupid, as the punishments were almost unbelievably
brutal. If the crops failed, or the milk turned sour; if the head of a
local magnate ached, or a minister of the gospel fell sick; if a woman
was childless, or a child taken with a fit; if a cow sickened, or sheep
died suddenly, some poor woman was pretty certain to be seized, and
tortured until she confessed her alleged crime. A mole or wart on any
part of the body was a sure sign of commerce with the devil. It was
believed that on the body of every witch was a spot insensible to pain.
To discover this she was stripped, pins were run into the body, and when
excess of pain had produced numbness, some such spot was pretty certain
to be found. Men regularly took up with this work in both England and
Scotland, and their fame as 'prickers' depended upon the number of
witches they unearthed. If a suspected witch kept a black cat, did not
shed tears, or could not repeat the Lord's Prayer correctly, these were
pretty sure signs of guilt. A more serious test was the ordeal by water.
This was a favourite and general test, and was highly recommended by
that learned fool, James the First. In this the right hand was tied to
the left foot, the left hand to the right foot. She was then thrown
into a pond. If she floated she was a witch, and was either hanged or
burned. If she sank, she was innocent--and was drowned. Another test was
to tie a woman's legs across, and she was so seated on them that they
bore the entire weight of her body. In this position she was kept for
hours, and on the first sign of pain condemned as a witch.
If none of these tests were adopted, torture was used. There was the
boot--a frame of iron or wood in which the leg was placed and wedges
driven in until the limb was smashed. A variation of this was to place
the leg in an iron boot and slowly heat it over a fire. There was the
thumbscrew, an instrument which smashed the thumb to pulp by the turning
of a screw. More barbarous still was the bridle. This was an iron hoop
passing over the head, with four prongs, two pointing to the tongue and
palate, and one to either cheek. The suspected witch was then chained to
the wall, and watchers appointed to prevent her sleeping. The slightest
movement caused the greatest torture, and in the vast majority of cases
a confession was secured. In obstinate cases pressing between heavy
stones was adopted.
One of the most famous of these witch-finders was the celebrated Mathew
Hopkins before referred to. He was appointed to the work by Parliament
during the time of the Commonwealth, and styled himself 'witch-finder
general.' Hopkins travelled round the country, much like an assize
judge, putting up at the principal inns, and at the expense of the local
authorities. His charge was twenty shillings a visit, whether he found
witches or not. If he discovered any, there was a further charge of
twenty shillings for every witch brought to execution. His favourite
method of detection was that of floating. But another of Hopkins's tests
was the following: The suspected witch was placed cross-legged on a
stool in the centre of the room. She was closely watched and kept
without food for four-and-twenty hours. Doors and windows remained open
to watch for the entrance of some of the devil's imps. These might come
in the form of a fly, a wasp, a moth, or some other insect. The work of
the watchers was to kill every insect that came into the room. But if
one escaped, it was clear proof that this was one of the witch's
familiars.
Wherever Hopkins travelled numerous convictions followed. These were so
numerous that suspicion was aroused, not of the genuineness of the
convictions, but of Hopkins's knowledge concerning the locality of the
witches. In defence he published in 1647 a tract entitled "The Discovery
of Witches; in answer to several Queries lately delivered to the Judge
of Assize for the County of Norfolk; and now published by Mathew
Hopkins, Witchfinder, for the benefit of the whole Kingdom." The charge
against Hopkins was that he had been supplied by the devil with a
memorandum of all the witches, and so was able to find them where others
failed. Absurd as the charge was, it found credence, and although his
end is wrapped in obscurity, it is said that he was finally seized
himself on a charge of sorcery, tried by his own favourite water
test--and floated. One cannot but hope that tradition is in this case
trustworthy.
It is difficult, nowadays, to realise the gravity with which these
trials were undertaken. An outline of a very famous witch trial, before
an eminent judge in the latter part of the seventeenth century, will
best serve as an illustration. Before me there lies a little tract of
some sixty pages, printed "for William Shrewsbury at the Bible in Duck
Lane," and bearing on the title page the following description:--
"At the Assizes and general gaol delivery, held at Bury St. Edmunds for
the County of Suffolk, the Tenth day of March, in the Sixteenth Year of
the Reign of our Sovereign, Lord King Charles II., before Mathew Hale,
Knight, Lord Chief Baron of His Majesties Court of Exchequer; Rose
Callender and Amy Duny, Widows, both of Leystoff, in the county
aforesaid, were severally indicted for bewitching Elizabeth and Anne
Durent, Jane Bocking, Susan Chandler, William Durent, Elizabeth and
Deborah Pacy and the said Callender and Duny, being arrainged upon the
same indictments, pleaded not guilty; and afterwards upon a long
evidence, were found guilty, and thereupon had judgment to dye for the
same."
Both the women charged were old. The charges were as follows: The mother
of the infant, William Durent, sworn and examined in open court, deposed
that about the 10th of March, having special occasion to go from home,
left her child in the care of Amy Duny, giving her special occasion not
to give her child the breast. Nevertheless, Amy Duny did acquaint her
mother on her return that she had given the child the breast, and on
being reprimanded "used many high expressions and threatening speeches
towards her; telling her that she had as good have done otherwise than
to have found fault with her ... and that very night her son fell into
strange fits of swounding ... and so continued for several weeks." Much
troubled, the mother consulted a Dr. Jacob, of Yarmouth, who advised
her to hang up the child's blanket, at night to wrap the child in it,
and if she found anything therein to throw it in the fire. A very large
toad was found, which on being put in the fire "made a great and
horrible noise, and after a space there was a flashing in the fire like
gunpowder ... and thereupon the toad was no more seen or heard." More
wonderful still, "the next day there came a young woman and told this
deponnent that her aunt (meaning the said Amy) was in a most lamentable
condition, having her face all scorched with fire." And on the mother
enquiring of Amy Duny how this had happened, Amy replied, "she might
thank her for it, for that she was the cause thereof, but that she
should live to see some of her children dead, or else upon crutches." It
was further alleged "that not long after this deponnent was taken with
lameness in both her legges, from the knees downwards, and that she was
fain to go upon crutches ... and so continued till the time of the
Assizes, that the witch came to be tried."
Concerning the bewitching of Elizabeth and Deborah Pacy, aged eleven and
nine, their father declared that Deborah was suddenly taken with
lameness. One day while the girl was resting outside the house, "Amy
Duny came to the deponnent's house to buy some herrings; but, being
denied, she went away discontented.... But at the very same instant of
time, the said child was taken with most violent fits, feeling extreme
pain in her stomach, like the pricking of pins, and shrieking out in a
dreadful manner like unto a whelp." As the result of this and other
ailments from which the child suffered, the father accused Amy Duny of
being a witch, and she was placed in the stocks. Being placed in the
stocks, further threats were uttered, and both children were afflicted
with fits. Upon recovery they "would cough extremely, and bring up much
phlegm and crooked pins, and one time a twopenny nail with a very broad
head; which pins (amounting to forty or more), together with the
twopenny nail, were produced in court, with the affirmation of the said
deponnent that he was present when the said nail was vomited up, and
also most of the pins.... In this manner the said children continued for
the space of two months, during which time, in their intervals, this
deponnent would cause them to read some chapters from the New Testament.
Whereupon he observed that they would read till they came to the name of
Lord or Jesus or Christ, and then, before they could pronounce either of
the said words, they would suddenly fall into their fits. But when they
came to the name of Satan or Devil, they would clap their fingers upon
the book, crying out, 'This bites, but makes me speak right well!'"
Much more evidence of a similar kind was offered during the course of
the trial, with details of a too indelicate character for reproduction
concerning the search made on the women's bodies for devil's marks.
During the whole of the trial there were present in court a number of
distinguished people, amongst them Sir Thomas Browne. The latter, being
"desired to give his opinion, what he did conceive of him; was clearly
of opinion that the persons were bewitched, and said that in Denmark
there had lately been a great discovery of witches, who used the very
same way of afflicting persons, by conveying pins into them, and crooked
as these pins were, with needles and nails. And his opinion was that
the devil in such cases did work upon the bodies of men and women as on
a natural foundation, to stir up and excite such humours superabounding
in their bodies to a great excess, whereby he did in an extraordinary
manner afflict them with such distempers as their bodies were most
subject to, as particularly appeared in these children."
Sir Mathew Hale, one of the greatest lawyers of his day, in directing
the jury, told them "he would not repeat the evidence unto them, lest by
so doing he should wrong the evidence one way or the other. Only this
acquainted them. First, whether or no these children were bewitched?
Secondly, whether the prisoners at the bar were guilty of it? That there
were such creatures he made no doubt at all. For, first, the Scriptures
had affirmed as much. Secondly, the wisdom of all nations had provided
laws against such persons, which is an argument of their confidence of
such a crime. And such had been the judgment of this kingdom, as appears
by that Act of Parliament which had provided punishments proportionable
to the quality of the offence. And desired them strictly to observe
their evidence, and desired the great God of Heaven to direct their
hearts in this weighty thing they had in hand; for to condemn the
innocent and let the guilty go free were both an abomination before the
Lord." The jury took no more than half an hour to consider their
verdict, and brought in both women guilty upon all counts. The judge
expressed his complete satisfaction with the verdict, and sentenced them
to be hanged--a sentence duly carried out a fortnight later.
This is the last notable trial in English history. A witch was burned
later than the date of this trial, and the last one actually condemned
was in 1712. But in this case, on the representation of the judge who
tried the issue, the verdict was formally set aside. By that time people
were beginning to realise the wisdom of Montaigne's counsel, written at
the commencement of the witch epidemic:--
"How much more natural and more likely do I find it that two men should
lie than one in twelve hours should pass with the winds from east to
west? How much more natural that our understanding may, by the
volubility of our loose, capering mind, be transported from its place
than one of us should, flesh and bones as we are, by a strange spirit be
carried upon a broom through a tunnel or a chimney."
In England the Witch Act of 1604 was not formally repealed until 1736.
In Scotland the last witch legally executed was in 1722. Captain Ross,
Sheriff of Sutherland, has the doubtful honour of having condemned her
to the stake. But fifty years later than this--1773--the Associated
Presbytery passed a resolution deploring the fact that witchcraft was
falling into disrepute. In Germany the last witch was executed in 1749,
by decapitation. The last trial for witchcraft in Massachusetts was as
late as 1793. These dates refer, of course, to legal proceedings.
Examples of the existence of this belief are continually being recorded
in newspapers, although they now only rank as solitary reminiscences of
one of the most degrading and brutalising beliefs that European history
records.
I have not aimed at giving a history of the witch mania--indeed, a
scientific history of witchcraft, one that will make plain the nature of
the various factors involved, has yet to be written. I have only dwelt
upon it for the purpose of enforcing the lesson of how materially such
an epidemic must have contributed to give permanence to religious belief
in general. It is certain that such an epidemic could not occur save in
a society saturated with supernaturalism. It is equally certain that
once such an epidemic occurs it must in turn strengthen the tendency
towards supernaturalistic beliefs. Thanks to the long reign of the
religious idea, and to the overwhelming influence of the Church, the
people of Europe were prepared for such an outbreak. And it should be
clear that the prevalence of such beliefs, even though they may be
afterwards discarded, favours the perpetuation of religious belief as a
whole. The particular form of a belief that is prevalent for a time may
disappear, but the temper of mind induced by its reign remains. And
absurd as the belief in witches capering through the air on broomsticks,
changing themselves into black cats, raising storms, and causing
sickness--absurd though all this may be, it yet serves to keep alive the
temper of mind on which supernaturalism lives.