Legislation against Witches--Punishment--Last Executions for
Witchcraft--Inability to weep and sink--Modern Cases of Witchcraft.
There has not been much legislation against witches in England, the Acts
simply keeping in force. It is said that Athelstane in 928 made witchcraft
a capital crime, but our ‘statutes at large’ give 33 Henry VIII., cap. 8
(1541), as the first Act really touching witchcraft, as coming within the
ken of this book. Next comes 5 Elizabeth, cap. 16 (1562), and then 1 James
I., cap. 12 (1604), previously substantially quoted. This was the law of
the land until it was abolished in 1736, 9 George II., cap. 5, which did
away with capital punishment for witchcraft, and the present law on the
subject dates from 1822, 3 George IV., where the word ‘witchcraft’
certainly disappears, and only ‘All Persons pretending to be Gipsies: all
Persons pretending to tell Fortunes, or using any subtle Craft, Means, or
Device, by Palmistry, or other wise, to deceive or impose upon any of His
Majestys subjects,’ shall be adjudged ‘Common Rogues and Vagabonds,’ and
sentenced as such.
Formerly the poor wretches were burned, a fearful fate, as Scot says,
quoting Bodin. ‘Item, if a woman confesse freelie herein, before
question[37] be made; and yet afterward denie it; she is neuerthelesse to
be burned.’ Possibly the last case of burning for witchcraft is one I
shall record later on, at Bury St. Edmunds, in 1644; but the same year one
Alice Hudson was burned at York for receiving small sums of money from the
Devil.[38]
[Illustration]
The last case of burning in Scotland was in Sutherland, in 1722, and the
last in Ireland at Glarus, a servant being burnt as a witch in 1786.
Probably the last burning for witchcraft, in any so-called civilized
country, is the following, taken from the Steamer Edition of the _Panama
Star and Herald_ of June 5, 1871: ‘According to the _Porvenir_ of Callao
(Peru), 29th ult., a woman has been burnt in the public square of a town
in the province of Guavina, about thirty-four leagues from the port of
Iquique, for being a witch. This punishment, worthy of the flourishing
days of the Spanish Inquisition, was ordered by the Lieutenant-Governor
and Judge of the Province.’
Hutchinson, a very careful writer, whose ‘Historical Essay concerning
Witchcraft,’ etc., was first published in 1718, and the second edition in
1720, says, referring to a case we shall hear of anon: ‘_Susan Edwards_,
_Mary Trembles_, and _Temperance Lloyd_, hanged at _Exeter_, confess’d
themselves Witches, but died with good Prayers in their Mouths. I suppose
these are the last Three that have been hanged in _England_. 1682.’
James I. was ruthless against witches, _vide_ the following:
‘PHILOMATHES. Then to make an ende of our conference, since I see it
drawes late, what forme of punishment thinke yee merites these
_Magicians_ and _Witches_? For I see that yee account them to be al
alike guiltie.
EPISTEMON. They ought to be put to death according to the Law of God,
the civill and imperiall Law, and municipall Law of all Christian
nations.
PHI. But what kinde of death, I pray you?
EPI. It is commonly used by fire, but that is an indifferent thing to
be used in every countrey, according to the Law or custome thereof.
PHI. But ought no sexe, age, nor ranke to bee exempted?
EPI. None at al (being so used by the lawful magistrate) for it is the
highest point of Idolatry, wherein no exception is admitted by the Law
of God.
PHI. Then bairnes may not be spared?
EPI. Yea, not a haire the lesse of my conclusion. For they are not
that capable of reason as to practise such things.’
Before quitting the subject of witches for cases of witchcraft, it occurs
to me that I have omitted one or two peculiarities relating to them. First
of all, one personal peculiarity they had, according to the infallible
authority Bodin--an inability to weep, or, at all events, they could only
screw out three tears. And this was a great test, so much so that a form
of conjuration is given in the ‘Malleus Maleficarum,’ and translated by
Scot, which bears strongly upon this point: ‘I coniure thee by the amorous
teares, which Jesus Christ our Saviour shed upon the crosse for the
saluation of the world; and by the most earnest and burning teares of his
mother the most glorious virgine _Marie_, sprinkled upon his wounds late
in the euening; and by all the teares which euerie saint and elect vessell
of God hath poured out heere in the world, and from whose eies he hath
wiped away all teares; that, if thou be without fault, thou maist poure
downe teares abundantlie; and, if thou be guiltie, that thou weepe in no
wise: In the name of the father, of the sonne, and of the holie ghost:
Amen. And note (saith he) that the more you coniure, the lesse she
wepeth.’
But the same authority says: ‘She must be well looked unto, otherwise she
will put spettle priuilie upon hir cheeks, and seeme to weepe.’ King James
says, ‘Not so much as their eies are able to shead teares, (threaten and
torture them as yee please) ... albeit the women kinde especially, be able
otherwaies to shead teares at every light occasion when they will, yea,
although it were dissemblingly like the _Crocodiles_.’
He also says, with reference to their inability to sink in water: ‘It
appeares that God hath appointed (for a supernatural signe of the
monstrous impiety of Witches) that the water shall refuse to receive them
in her bosome, that have shaken off them the sacred Water of Baptisme, and
wilfully refused the benefite thereof.’
This ordeal by water has been practised to a very late date, and ‘swimming
her for a witch’ has been often heard in this century. The scientific and
proper method of preparing the witch is by tying her right thumb to her
left great toe, and _vice versâ_, and this ordeal had this simplicity: If
the putative witch sank well, she was innocent; and if she swam, she could
either be ducked and ill treated till she died, as too often was the case,
or she was _ipso facto_ a confessed witch.
Another ordeal was, to take a piece of the thatch from off the reputed
witch’s cottage, and set fire to it; if she came to the person so burning
the thatch, her witchcraft was incontestable.
Another was, to weigh the witch against the church Bible, and this test,
too, has come down to modern times. One instance will suffice. ‘One
_Susana Hannokes_, an elderly woman of _Wingrove_, near _Aylesbury_, was
accused by a neighbour for bewitching her spinning wheel, so that she
could not make it go round, and offered to make oath of it before a
magistrate; on which, the husband, in order to justify his wife, insisted
upon her being tried by the church Bible, and that the accuser should be
present: accordingly, she was conducted to the parish church, where she
was stript of all her cloathes to her shift and under-coat, and weighed
against the Bible; when, to the no small mortification of her accuser,
she out-weighed it, and was honourably acquitted of the charge.’[39]
But in this nineteenth century of ours, with all its boasted civilization,
witchcraft is still believed in in England, as the following two or three
instances will testify:
S. A. S., writing in _Notes and Queries_, June 25, 1853, says, ‘A
cottager, who does not live five minutes’ walk from my house, found his
pig seized with a strange and unaccountable disorder. He, being a sensible
man, instead of asking the advice of a veterinary surgeon, immediately
went to the white witch (a gentleman who drives a flourishing trade in
this neighbourhood). He received his directions, and went home, and
implicitly followed them. In perfect silence, he went to the pigsty; and,
lancing each foot and both ears of the pig, he allowed the blood to run
into a piece of common dowlas. Then, taking two large pins, he pierced the
dowlas in opposite directions; and, still keeping silence, entered his
cottage, locked the door, placed the bloody rag upon the fire, heaped up
some turf over it, and, reading a few verses of the Bible, waited till the
dowlas was burned. As soon as this was done, he returned to the pigsty;
found his pig perfectly restored to health, and, _mirabile dictu!_ as the
white witch had predicted, the old woman, who it was supposed had
bewitched the pig, came to inquire after the pig’s health. The animal
never suffered a day’s illness afterwards. My informant was the owner of
the pig himself.
‘Perhaps, when I heard this story, there may have been a lurking
expression of doubt upon my face, so that my friend thought it necessary
to give me farther proof. Some time ago, a lane in this town began to be
looked upon with a mysterious awe, for every evening a strange white
rabbit would appear in it, and, running up and down, would mysteriously
disappear. Dogs were frequently put on the scent, but all to no purpose,
the white rabbit could not be caught; and rumours began to assert pretty
confidently that the white rabbit was nothing more nor less than a witch.
The man whose pig had been bewitched was all the more confident, as, every
evening when the rabbit appeared, he had noticed the bedroom window of his
old enemy’s window open! At last, a large party of bold-hearted men, one
evening, were successful enough to find the white rabbit in a garden, the
only egress from which is through a narrow passage between two cottages,
all the rest of the garden being securely surrounded by brick walls.
‘They placed a strong guard in this entry, to let nothing pass, while the
remainder advanced as skirmishers among the cabbages: one of these was
successful, and caught the white rabbit by the ears, and, not without some
trepidation, carried it towards the reserve in the entry. But, as he came
nearer to his friends, his courage grew, and gradually, all the wrongs his
poor pig had suffered took form and vigour in a powerful kick at the poor
little rabbit. No sooner had he done this than, he cannot tell how, the
rabbit was out of his grasp; the people in the entry saw it come, but
could not stop it; through them all it went, and has never been seen
again.
‘But now to the proof of the witchcraft. The old woman, whom all
suspected, was laid up in her bed for three days afterwards, unable to
walk about, all the consequence of the kick she had received in the shape
of a white rabbit!’