The Legal Witch--James I. on Witches--Reginald Scot on
Witches--Addison on Witches.
The legal witch, as defined by our statute law (1 James I., cap. 12), is
as follows:
‘One that shall use, practise, or exercise any invocation, or conjuration
of any evill or wicked spirit; or consult, covenant with, entertaine, or
employ, feede, or reward any evill or wicked spirit, to or for any intent
or purpose; or take up any dead man, woman or child, out of his, her, or
their grave, or any other place, where the dead body resteth, or the skin,
bone, or other part of any dead person, to be employed or used in any
manner of Witchcraft, Sorcery, Charme, or Enchantment; or shall use,
practise, or exercise any Witchcraft, Enchantment, Charme or Sorcery,
whereby any person shall be killed, destroyed, wasted, consumed, pined, or
lamed in his or her body, or any part thereof. Such offenders, duly and
lawfully convicted and attainted, shall suffer death.
‘If any person shall take upon him by Witchcraft, Inchantment, Charme or
Sorcery, to tell or declare in what place any treasure of Gold or Silver,
should or might be found, or had in the Earth, or other secret places, or
where Goods, or things lost, or stolen, should be found, or become: Or to
the intent to provoke any person to unlawfull love, or whereby any Cattell
or Goods of any person shall be destroyed, wasted or impaired, or to
destroy or hurt any person in his, or her body, though the same be not
effected, &c, a yeares Imprisonment and Pillory, &c, and the second
conviction, Death.’
Here, then, we have a clear definition of what a witch is, and as it does
not state anything as to sex, we may imagine that it includes both male
and female, both wizards and witches. But the softer sex undoubtedly
predominated in the commission of this crime, wizards being very seldom
brought to justice. And King James I.[26] gives us the reason:
‘_Philomathes._ But before yee goe further, permit me, I pray you, to
interrupt you one worde, which yee haue put mee in memory of, by speaking
of Women. What can be the cause that there are twentie women giuen to that
craft, where there is one man?
‘_Epistemon._ The reason is easie, for, as that sexe is frailer than man
is, so is it easier to be intrapped in these grosse snares of the Diuell,
as was ouer well proued to be true, by the Serpent’s deceiving of _Eua_ at
the beginning, which makes him the homelier with that sex sensine.
Reginald Scot, than whom there can be no better English authority, tells
us[27] ‘who they be that are called witches.’
‘The sort of such as are said to bee witches, are women which be commonly
old, lame, bleare-eied, pale, fowle, and full of wrinkles; poore, sullen,
superstitious, and papists; or such as knowe no religion: in whose drousie
minds the diuell hath gotten a fine seat; so as, what mischeefe,
mischance, calamitie, or slaughter is brought to passe, they are easilie
persuaded the same is doone by themselues; imprinting in their minds an
earnest and constant imagination thereof. They are leane and deformed,
shewing melancholie in their faces, to the horror of all that see them.
They are doting, scolds, mad, diuelish; and not much differing from them
that are thought to be possessed with spirits: so firme and stedfast in
their opinions, as whosoeuer shall onelie haue respect to the constancie
of their words uttered, would easilie belieue they were true indeed.
‘These miserable wretches are so odious unto all their neighbours, and so
feared, as few dare offend them, or denie them anie thing they aske;
whereby they take upon them; yea, and sometimes thinke, that they can doo
such things as are beyond the abilitie of humane nature. These go from
house to house, and from doore to doore for a pot full of milke, yest,
drinke, pottage, or some such releefe; without the which they could
hardlie liue: neither obtaining for their seruice and paines, nor by their
art, nor yet at the diuel’s hands (with whome they are said to make a
perfect and visible bargaine) either beautie, monie, promotion, welth,
worship, pleasure, honor, knowledge, learning, or anie other benefit
whatsoeuer.
‘It falleth out many times, that neither their necessities, nor their
expectation is answered or serued, in those places where they beg or
borrowe; but rather their lewdnesse is by their neighbors reproued. And
further, in tract of time, the witch waxeth odious and tedious to her
neighbors; and they, againe, are despised and despited of hir; so as
sometimes she cursseth one, and sometimes another; and that from the
maister of the house, his wife, children, cattell &c to the little pig
that lieth in the stie. Thus, in processe of time they have all displeased
hir, and she hath wished euill lucke unto them all: perhaps with cursses
and imprecations made in forme. Doubtlesse (at length) some of hir
neighbors die or fall sicke; or some of their children are visited with
diseases that vex them strangelie; as apoplexies, epilepsies, conuulsions,
hot feuers, wormes &c. Which by ignorant parents are supposed to be the
vengeance of witches. Yea, and their opinions and conceits are confirmed
and maintained by unskilful physicians: according to the common saieing;
_Inscitiæ pallium maleficio et incantatio_. Witchcraft and inchantment is
the cloke of ignorance: whereas, indeed, euill humors, and not strange
words, witches or spirits are the Causes of such diseases. Also some of
their cattell perish, either by disease or mischance. Then they, upon whom
such aduersities fall, weighing the same that goeth upon this woman (hir
words, displeasure and cursses meeting so iustlie with their misfortune)
do not onelie conceiue, but, also, are resolued, that all their mishaps
are brought to passe by hir onelie meanes.
‘The witch, on the other side, expecting her neighbors’ mischances, and
seeing things sometimes come to passe according to her wishes, cursses and
incantations (for _Bodin_ himselfe confesseth that not aboue two in a
hundred of their witchings or wishings take effect) being called before a
Iustice, by due examination of the circumstances, is driuen to see hir
imprecations and desires, and hir neighbors’ harmes and losses, to
concurre, and, as it were, to take effect; and so confesseth that she (as
a goddes) hath brought such things to passe. Wherein, not onelie she, but
the accuser, and also the Iustice, are fowlie deceiued and abused; as
being, thorough hir confession and other circumstances, persuaded (to the
iniurie of God’s glory) that she hath done, or can doo that which is
proper onelie to God himselfe.’
This is a good definition of a witch, and was published in 1584 when the
witch mania was becoming a cult. Let us hear what Addison[28] writes of it
in 1711, when it was decidedly on the wane:
‘... It is with this Temper of Mind that I consider the Subject of
Witchcraft. When I hear the Relations that are made from all parts of the
World, not only from _Norway_ and _Lapland_, from the _East_ and _West
Indies_, but from every particular Nation in _Europe_, I cannot forbear
thinking that there is such an Intercourse and Commerce with Evil Spirits,
as that which we express by the name of Witchcraft. But, when I consider
that the ignorant and credulous Parts of the World abound most in these
Relations, and that the Persons among us who are supposed to engage in
such an Infernal Commerce, are People of a weak Understanding and crazed
Imagination, and, at the same time, reflect on the many Impostures and
Delusions of this Nature that have been detected in all Ages, I endeavour
to suspend my Belief, till I have more certain Accounts than any which
have yet come to my Knowledge. In short, when I consider the Question,
Whether there are such Persons in the World as those we call Witches? My
Mind is divided between the two opposite Opinions, or rather (to speak my
Thoughts freely) I believe, in general, that there is, and has been such a
thing as Witchcraft; but, at the same time, can give no Credit to any
Particular Instance of it.
‘I am engaged in this speculation, by some Occurrences that I met with
Yesterday, which I shall give my Reader an Account of at large. As I was
walking with my Friend Sir _Roger_, by the side of one of his Woods, an
old Woman applied herself to me for my Charity. Her Dress and Figure put
me in mind of a Description in Ottway, which I could not forbear repeating
on this Occasion.
‘“In a close Lane as I pursu’d my Journey,
I spy’d a wrinkled Hag, with Age grown double,
Picking dry Sticks, and mumbling to her self.
Her Eyes with Scalding Rheum were gall’d and red,
Cold Palsy shook her Head; her Hands seem’d wither’d;
And on her crooked Shoulders had she wrap’d
The tatter’d Remnants of an old Striped Hanging,
Which serv’d to keep her Carcass from the Cold:
So there was nothing of a-piece about her.
Her lower Weeds were all o’er coarsly patch’d
With diff’rent colour’d Rags, black, white, red, yellow,
And seem’d to speak Variety of Wretchedness.”
‘The Knight told me, upon hearing the Description, that this very old
Woman had the Reputation of a Witch all over the Country, that her Lips
were observed to be always in Motion, and that there was not a Switch
about her House, which her Neighbours did not believe had carried her
several hundreds of Miles. If she chanced to stumble, they always found
Sticks or Straws that lay in the Figure of a Cross before her. If she made
any Mistake at Church, and cryed _Amen_ in a wrong place, they never
failed to conclude that she was saying her Prayers backwards. There was
not a Maid in the Parish that would take a Pinn of her, though she should
offer a Bag of Mony with it. She goes by the Name of _Moll White_, and has
made the Country ring with several imaginary Exploits that are palmed upon
her. If the Dairy Maid does not make the Butter come so soon as she would
have it, _Moll White_ is at the bottom of the Churne. If a Horse sweats in
the Stable, _Moll White_ has been upon his Back. If a Hare makes an
unexpected Escape from the Hounds, the Huntsman curses _Moll White_. Nay,
(says Sir _Roger_) I have known the Master of the Pack, upon such an
Occasion, send one of his Servants to see if _Moll White_ had been out
that Morning.
‘This Account raised my Curiosity so far, that I beg’d my Friend, Sir
_Roger_, to go with me into her Hovel, that stood by it self under the
Side of the Wood. Upon our first entering, Sir _Roger_ winked to me, and
pointed to something that stood behind the Door, which, upon looking that
way, I found to be an old Broom-staff. At the same time he whispered me
in the Ear, to take notice of a Tabby-Cat that sate in the Chimney-Corner,
which, as the Knight told me, lay under as bad a Report as _Moll White_
herself; for, besides that _Moll_ is said often to accompany her in the
same Shape, the Cat is reported to have spoken twice or thrice in her
Life, and to have played several Pranks above the Capacity of an ordinary
Cat.
‘I was secretly concerned to see Human Nature in so much Wretchedness and
Disgrace, but, at the same time, could not forbear smiling, to hear Sir
_Roger_, who is a little puzzled about the old Woman, advising her, as a
Iustice of the Peace, to avoid all Communication with the Devil, and never
to hurt any of her Neighbours’ Cattle. We concluded our Visit with a
Bounty, which was very acceptable.
‘In our Return Home, he told me that old _Moll_ had, often, been brought
before him for making Children spit Pins, and giving Maids the Night-Mare;
and that the Country People would be tossing her into a Pond, and trying
Experiments with her every Day, if it was not for him and his Chaplain.
‘I have since found, upon Enquiry, that Sir _Roger_ was several times
staggered with the Reports that had been brought him concerning this old
Woman, and would, frequently, have bound her over to the County Sessions,
had not his Chaplain, with much ado, persuaded him to the contrary.
‘I have been the more particular in this Account, because I hear there is
scarce a Village in _England_ that has not a _Moll White_ in it. When an
old Woman begins to doat, and grow chargeable to a Parish, she is
generally turned into a Witch, and fills the whole Country with
extravagant Fancies, imaginary Distempers, and terrifying Dreams. In the
mean time, the poor Wretch that is the innocent Occasion of so many Evils,
begins to be frighted at herself, and, sometimes, confesses secret
Commerces and Familiarities that her Imagination forms in a delirious old
Age. This, frequently, cuts off Charity from the greatest Objects of
Compassion, and inspires People with a Malevolence towards those poor
decrepid Parts of our Species, in whom Human Nature is defaced by
Infirmity and Dotage.’