[A] Lord Chief-Justice Hale was of this persuasion, and pronounced
sentence of death upon persons supposed to be in league with Satan.
A belief in witchcraft so prevailed in England as to hold in bondage
the best of men. Proof of this is found in the 72nd canon made by the
clerical convocation in 1603, and in the laws enacted against the
crime itself. Isaac Ambrose, in his Treatise on the New Birth, directs
persons seeking salvation to inquire, while searching out their sins,
whether they have not sometimes been guilty of witchcraft. The fact
of witchcraft was admitted by Lord Bacon and Mr. Addison. Dr. Johnson
more than inclined to the same side of the question; and Sir William
Blackstone quite frowns on opposers of this doctrine. These facts are
mentioned not to justify Mr. Sewall and his associates on the bench;
but to show the injustice of selecting them as peculiarly guilty. The
severe charges which have been brought against the people of Salem,
Gov. Winthrop, Dr. Cotton Mather, and others of this country, lie
equally against the most learned, pious, and eminent of mankind. This
belief was the _mania_ of the day.
LETTER OF THE FIRST CHIEF-JUSTICE SEWALL TO HIS SON, SAMUEL SEWALL,
ESQ., OF BROOKLINE, GIVING AN ACCOUNT OF HIS FAMILY.
_Boston, April 21, 1720._